TO THE EDITOR:
I am writing to let the campus at large know about the many South Asia-related events that are taking place on UNC's campus as war rages in Afghanistan, tensions between India and Pakistan rise, 500 Muslims were massacred this past week in Gujarat after a train carrying Vishwa Hindu Parishad activists was attacked. With the war in Afghanistan, and since India and Pakistan are nuclear powers, South Asia has become a "problem area" in the eyes of the world, a tense region where countries could go to war at any moment. To enhance understanding of the the complex culture, politics of South Asia and its connection to current affairs, several events on South Asia are being organized on campus. One is an ongoing South Asian film series (7 p.m. in Greenlaw Hall each Monday). The films that we have selected represent different actors within the South Asian community and the larger South Asian Diaspora -- they tell varied stories -- those of the partition of India and Hindu-Muslim riots, Asian-American college students, women in joint families in Delhi and inter-racial romance in Mississippi. We hope these films will help to counter any notions of South Asia as one monolithic area and will counter popularly held stereotypes of South Asians.
For later in the semester, the Progressive South Asia forum will be showing a film by acclaimed documentary film-maker Anand Patwardhan on Hindi-Muslim violence and organizing a panel on India and Pakistan. In the aftermath of Sept. 11, a Sikh gas station attendant was murdered in Arizona. Many other acts of racist violence against South Asians and other "minorities" have been reported. Keeping these acts in mind, it is critical that intellectual spaces such as our university take up and support programs that educate and spread awareness of places that are inextricably linked up with the tragic and devastating events of Sept. 11, such as South Asia and the Middle East. If you are interested in any of the events described above please contact durba@email.unc.edu.
Durba Chattaraj
Senior
Cultural Studies and Economics
