Bangladesh: Mourning The Death Of Humayun Ahmed

A few hours ago the most famous Bangladeshi writer and film maker during the past three decades died from colon cancer leaving millions of fans mourning. Humayun Ahmed (64) was a popular author, dramatist and film director who captivated millions of people with his famous characters like Himu, Misir Ali, Baker Bhai etc in both [...]

Kalpana and the Jumma women’s movement today

Feminist researcher Bina D’Costa and I were recently discussing a range of obstacles faced by the Jumma [1] women’s movement as well as all indigenous women’s movement today. D’Costa observed that one of the challenges that confront women’s political activism and rights based movements is to forge meaningful alliances and re-build linkages with indigenous human [...]

The ‘Indigenous’ Experiment

“The nation as understood by the nationalist, is a substitute god, nationalism of this sort might be called ethnolatry.” – Hugh Seton-Watson (Nations and States, An Enquiry into the Origins of Nations and the Politics of Nationalism) Ever since I started working with indigenous peoples’ rights activists, I have come to expect a broad range [...]