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SAMAR: South Asian Magazine for Action and Reflection
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Progressive analysis pertaining to the South Asian diaspora
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Aftershocks of International Interventions
South Asia and the Caribbean islands share a complex colonial past which tells us that the power of natural disasters to collapse buildings and shatter lives is insignificant when compared to the power of large scale international interventions to erase histories, permanently alter political dynamics, and establish racial hierarchies.
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Dear Fahad
Together with THAW (Theaters Against War) we solicited letters of support for Syed Fahad Hashmi, a US citizen who has been held in severe solitary confinement since May 2007, and is denied access to much of the evidence the government claims to have against him. These letters offer a simple and necessary challenge to the inhuman conditions of Fahad's detention and the further erosion of civil liberties. We present a selection of these letters and information on how to join the campaign.
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The Audacity of Empire
If there is one unmistakable difference between Bush's wars and Obama's wars it boils down to this: we now have a president who can almost perfectly pronounce the names of the cities and villages US troops will occupy and bomb.
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Sonic Transportations
There is music that cannot be contained inside four walls, and can only exist in the streets. Every culture has it, and when put together well, the sound can be infectious. Robin Sukhadia reviews Red Baraat's recent release, Chaal, Baby, a tribute to street music, from New Orleans marching bands to Punjabi wedding processions, that has emerged with celebratory aplomb.
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Breaking Through Unnatural Borders
Theatre spoken word artist, YaliniDream, explores truth, spirituality, activism, gender, sexuality, love and Sri Lanka. Her stage presence is at once a resounding cry for action and a soulful prayer for all things lost. Rarely without politicized intentions, her work, nevertheless finds room for reverie. She sat with art critic Natasha Bissonauth to discuss her views on inter-disciplinary art and collaboration as they relate to her political dreams for a different Sri Lanka.
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Bollywood Imagines the Good (and Bad) Muslim
"My Name is Khan...and I am not a terrorist" is the already ubiquitous chorus from the most recent Bollywood blockbuster to cross over to western audiences. The film seeks to engage American anxieties around nationalism and race and at the same time reveals similar commentaries about India. Omer Shah reviews the film and asks: are we ever able to construct Muslim identities without the notion of terrorist?
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The Myth of the Burdensome Immigrants
Xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiments situate South Asian and other immigrant communities as burdens on the health care system, missing the barriers, racism and classism they experience. To meet the needs of immigrant workers, these structural inequalities need to be addressed and considered in proposals for US health care reform.
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From Barely Relevant to Key Voting Bloc
In a matter of months, what was considered a politically inactive community unable to leverage its political power was now being wooed by the rival parties for its attention. The South Asian and West Indian enclaves of Richmond Hill and Ozone Park became integral in deciding which party would control the New York State Senate.
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Three Muslim Families, Three Cities: A Review of Muslims of Metropolis
Through the stories of a Bangladeshi family in New York, a Palestinian family in London, and a Kurdish family in Germany, Kavitha Rajagopalan's Muslims of Metropolis is a necessary intervention into the popular discourse that informs our ideas about Muslims.
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Web 2.0-conomic Warfare and Israel-Palestine
Zachary Wales explores the role of "Web 2.0" in promoting social justice in the Middle East and effectively responding to crises, such as the one we are witnessing in Gaza. Despite its enormous potential, he warns that as long as we stand by passive or powerless, Gaza will burn, and all we can do is watch.
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SAMAR South Asian Magazine