DHARAMSALA, India — This year marks the first election in which Indian-born Tibetan refugees have the right to vote, but as the state of Himachal Pradesh, including the residents of this shady hill station, went to the polls on Wednesday, there were few Tibetans among them. “It is magnanimous on the part of the Indian…
Read more Indian-Born Tibetans Allowed to Vote, but Few Take Up Offer
KOLKATA, India — After his 16-year-old daughter was gang-raped twice in their Madhyamgram neighborhood in north Kolkata in October, then set on fire, allegedly by associates of her rapists, Rama Shankar Jha was distraught. His daughter died of her burns in a Kolkata hospital in December, and he petitioned the Calcutta High Court to bring…
Read more Kolkata Rape Victims Find a Police Officer Who’s on Their Side
KOLKATA – Despite his reputation as a tough, no-nonsense police officer who has stood up to the government on several occasions, Nazrul Islam is soft-spoken and gentle, even when refusing to discuss the controversy surrounding his latest book, “Musalmander Koroniyo” (What Muslims Should Do). “My intention is not to create, or fuel, any kind of controversy,” he…
Read more A Conversation With: Author and Police Officer Nazrul Islam
CHUNAKHALI, West Bengal — May 25 was Ayantika Mandal’s third birthday. At her home on May 23 in Chunakhali, on the Indian side of the Sundarbans Delta, she changed into her dotted white dress for a picture, but refused to smile to the camera. “She is shy with strangers,” said her mother, Rina. “Otherwise, she…
Read more Three Years After Cyclone, Changed Lives in Sundarbans
Aamra ekhon-o boli ni kon kagoj porte hobe, kintu agami dine kintu setao bole debo. (Till now, we haven’t told which newspapers must be read, but in the future, we will do that as well.) — West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, speaking on March 29 in defense of her government’s decision to bar all…
Anuradha Sharma 