The current humanscape of the region is actually a result of multiply entangled histories. It has emerged out of thousands of years of migrations, commerce, and exchanges of myths, languages, and production technologies, as well as campaigns of military aggression and state power. … However, a contradictory fact is that the notion of South Asia is quite marginal to the popular imaginaries of its inhabitants.  It has been severely mauled and smothered by the history and practices of its nation states, which have divided its humans and geography in tight silos separated by militarised boundaries.

Almost every fourth human being lives in South Asia. Geographically contiguous from Hindukush and Himalaya in the North to islands in  the Indian Ocean, this region hosts one of the most diverse humanscapes. Like a fractal pattern, the diversity of cultures and languages of South Asians ranges from large regional identities to a mosaic of tiny sub-sub regional cultures. Besides Pashto and Dari, the two lingua franca of  Afghanistan,  the people there speak nearly 40 other languages. The 2011 census of Nepal counted more than 100 languages. Even linguistically most homogenous Bangladesh, with 98% citizens speaking Bangla, has 28 other languages. Underlying this spatial mosaic of the region are long historical timelines, aptly imagined as multiple writings on a palimpsest by Nehru in The Discovery of India.

The current humanscape of the region is actually a result of multiply entangled histories. It has emerged out of thousands of years of migrations, commerce, and exchanges of myths, languages, and production technologies, as well as campaigns of military aggression and state power. The process continues into our own times. However, a contradictory fact is that the notion of South Asia is quite marginal to the popular imaginaries of its inhabitants.  It has been severely mauled and smothered by the history and practices of its nation states, which have divided its humans and geography in tight silos separated by militarised boundaries. The largest  of these, the Republic of India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan were born in the bloody conflagration of the Partition of 1947, which tore asunder the second and the third largest linguistic and regional cultural communities of the sub-continent. The Indian nation state suffers from the ‘big brother’ syndrome and has strained relations with most of its neighbours. The liberation of Bangladesh was preceded by a systematic genocide of its people by West Pakistani generals. The island nation of Sri Lanka has gone through one of the longest and bloodiest of civil wars in human history. The twenty first century has ushered in new forms of majoritarian aggressions. Minorities and migrants live under suspicion everywhere, and nationalist prejudices prevent people from appreciating even basic facts about other countries of the region.

Despite these difficult times there are enough number of ordinary people and organisations in all countries of South Asia who are clear that the path to a better future for everyone in the region passes through an active appreciation of our current realities, common histories and entwined presents. At the minimum we need to see other South Asians as they are, without nationally prejudiced glasses. And then, there is indeed much that we can learn from each other. This issue of Critique is guided by these aims.

Aslam Khwaja’s article ’People’s Movements in Pakistan’ is a window to recent popular mobilisations in our western neighbour. The vibrant  women’s movement, and the movement for the protection of minorities’ rights are of special interest, as they counter the  increasingly Hindutva based perception of Pakistan in India. Sasanka Perera’s interview explores many dimensions of the internal social developments in Sri Lanka, and popular images of India there. Among many things we can learn from each other in the region, he points to  the role of publicly funded universal education in achieving the highest human development indicators in South Asia.  Ratan Kumar Roy’s article on recent youth protests in Bangladesh highlights their vibrant cultural forms and creative use of digitised social media. Anuj Goyal and Sanjay Kumar discuss the status of social development in different countries of South Asia. Their comparative analysis brings out some interesting facts. India and Pakistan, the two countries with the most pronounced right-ward shift in their polity in recent times have worse human development data on some indicators than much less prosperous Nepal and Bangladesh. Javed Anees’ article ‘VIbhajit upmahaadweep kaa saajhaapan’ (Commonalities in a Divided Subcontinent) discusses how many  people in Pakistan are trying to resurrect popular heroes like Bhagat Singh from the common history of South Asia, which challenges the state mandated re-writing of history along religious lines.  Pramita Mishra’s ‘Utsarito Alo’ explores the continuing significance of  Rabindranath Tagore to the culture of Bengal on both sides of nation-state border between India and Bangladesh.  Anuj Goyal’s article  ‘Coke Studio Pakistan: Rashtra aur Rashtra ke Pare’ (Coke Studio Pakistan: Nation and Beyond Nation) describes the popularity of Coke Studio Pakistan among the youth of Delhi, and how the love of music and digital social media trump national animosity. Sanjay Kumar’s article ‘Vibhajit Bengal aur Punjab mein Maanava Vikas kaa Itihas’ (The History of Human Development in Divided Bengal and Punjab) traces the trajectory of human development in two of the largest provinces of South Asia which were divided in 1947. ‘Rahul Sankrityayan kee Ghumakkadi: Dakshin Asia ke Sandarbh Mein’ (Rahul Sankrityayan’s Art of Travel: in the context of South Asia) by Saurabh Verma is a commentary on the art of travel evolved by Sankrityayan during his innumerable journeys. For Sankrityayan travel was not just an experience, but a source of cross-cultural knowledge, which was possible only with free exchange of ideas. Hence, his  ghumakkadee is a potent anti-dote to all cultural fundamentalisms.

Other articles in this issue discuss the crisis of higher education under neo-liberalism. Ad-hoc teachers of University of Delhi went on strike for nearly two months in the beginning of this year. More than forty percent of teaching faculty in colleges of DU are ad-hoc, i.e. they are employed on contract only for four months at a time. These teachers carry much greater burden of teaching and managing colleges’ affairs than warranted by their numbers and service conditions. However, when the university decided to squeeze them further by taking away even their ad-hoc status and employ then as guest lecturers on a lecture-to-lecture basis, most of them said ‘enough is enough’ and went on strike. Kamalakanta Roul’s ‘Protest at a Colonial Site’ is an account of the first few days of the strike when young teachers broke through police barricades and occupied university Vice Chancellor’s office for two days.  Devika Mittal’s ‘We Ad-hoc Teachers’ is an insider’s account of the reality of the system of temporary teaching. Yatendra’s ‘Stuck between Trishanku and Sisyphus’ brings out absurdities of engineering education in private colleges of India. This too is an insider’s account written from students’ perspective. If these articles look at relatively recent developments in higher education in India, Archishman Raju’s article is a critical appraisal of the history of higher education in the US. Building upon radical insights of African-American author and artist James Baldwin, Archishman shows how the academia in the US was designed from a white supremacist perspective, and how in the twenty first century it has become a breeding ground for social alienation. Raju’s observations about white supremacism in the US gain increased significance in the aftermath of murder of George Floyd and widespread popular protests against it.  

As right-wing politics is consolidating in many countries, so are popular protests against it. Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia and Lebanon saw prolonged demonstrations before the lockdown due to corona virus. One manifestation of imperialism is that the people of developing countries become aware of political developments in other developing countries only through the information gathered and filtered by news channels of richer capitalist countries. Hence, even the news about other countries of the world become a vehicle for ideological obfuscation and domination.  For example, a 13 Oct 2019 report on  protests in Ecuador in the well-respected Indian web portal The Wire alleges that indigenous leaders of the country had ‘instigated the protest over fuel price increases’ that led to violence (emphasis added). The report was sourced from the German state news channel DW, and its this claim could not be farther away from truth.  Critique is fortunate in having friends in many developing countries of the world who have been very generous in writing insightful commentaries for it on developments in their countries. Pilar Troya Fernández’s ‘Indigenous and People’s Revolt in Ecuador’ situates the recent protests of Ecuadoreans in the context of IMF sponsored shift in economic policy, and an increasingly central role of indigenous people’s movement in popular politics. ’Mere jaise mool-nivaasion ke liya Evo Morales ke takhta palat ke kyaa matlab hai’(The Meaning of Coup Against Evo Morales for Indigenous People Like Me)  is translation of an article by Nick Este, who himself is an American indigenous of Sioux tribe. As the title says, Evo Morales’ rise in Bolivia, and now the coup against him by entrenched racist and capitalist elites of the country has special meaning for the political assertion of indigenous people of the Americas.  

This issue of Critique is coming out in digital format. The transformation to this form has been on cards for some time for us, but corona lockdown forced our hand in quick time. We hope our readers will accept the change. We also especially hope that they will help us realise the potential of the digital form of the magazine in terms of reach, and the two way interaction it permits between readers and publications.