In every household in Assam, a lamp has burned these past few days to honour the greatest figure that most people of this beautiful but blighted state, locked away in India's eastern borderland by distance, lack of growth and conflicts, have known in perhaps hundreds of years. Why just in Assam? Across India, South Asia…
The Bard of the Brahmaputra may be silent but the river flows on. It may be centuries before it finds another. But till then, it will flow and so will his music. Bhupen Hazarika’s ballads will sustain the river, which was his true muse. There is few of his great songs – and he wrote…
Spanning the centuries, Dr. Bhupen Hazarika has taken his place among the handful of visionaries and revolutionaries who have sustained Assam even in the worst of times, brought joy in times of sadness and pain, bolstered our spirits and shared their creative genius with millions, not only at home but across the world. He joins…
A meeting of India's top seismologists and earthquake specialists, which discussed issues arising from the Sikkim earthquake, has strongly recommended that northeastern states set up their own state disaster response units instead of being dependent on centralised forces like the National Disaster Response Force. In addition, the national workshop on 'Housing, Resilience and Rehabilitation' on…
As she guided the young children to the bus, Juri Gogoi was apprehensive. Could she handle this boisterous lot for a whole day and hand them safely back to their homes? She started a head count, all 25 in, so far so good….. The bus took off with a jolt, splashing slush from the wobbly,…
An attentive and large audience listened in pin-drop silence to powerful testimony and presentations from a leading Assamese novelist as well as a top scholar of the region at today's North-east launch of the C-NES report on the impact of conflict on women in the region. "We all have suffered, we have faced trauma and…
The temperatures in the premier North Eastern cities of Guwahati and Shillong have increased by several degrees Celsius in the past years while air pollution caused largely by vehicular emissions and dust has harmed the health of a large section of the population, especially young scholl chidlren, daily labourers and traffic policement. A detailed report…
Noted film maker and activist Anant Patwardhan has called for the repeal of the Armed Forcers Special Powers Act and said that the widespread attitude of ‘my country, right or wrong’ needed to change. Mr. Patwardhan, who is well-known for his espousal of human rights and critique of communal forces, was launching the C-NES report…
C-NES Newsletter (For the quarter July – September 2011) Editorial Sikkim Quake is Wake Up call The earthquake in Sikkim and the sheer terror and sense of helplessness that it inspired among the victims as well as those who have been trying to rescue them and document/report on event is a grim reminder of the…
The former Governor of Nagaland, Mr. Shyamal Datta, launched the Report ‘Bearing Witness’ on the impact of conflict on women in Nagaland and Assam in Kolkata at the Seagull Centre for Arts, describing it as a document that had ‘opened his eyes’ to the nature of the crisis. “The report and the exhibition are a…