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…
Joynal Abedin was a hunter and poacher. But two accidents changed his life: an unborn buffalo calf’s untimely death and a forest officer’s squashing by a rogue elephant. He has now dedicated his life to wildlife conservation in Assam’s Dibru Saikhowa forest. The gun has hypnotic powers. I realised this very early in life. I…
The University of Madras is interested in collaborating with a premier research centre and think tank of the North-eastern Region of India to enable better learning, exchanges and field research of an area which remains largely unfamiliar to many Indians, especially students and teachers, more than six decades after Independence. Dr. G. Thiruvasagam, Vice Chancellor…
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 power that nature can unleash without warning. I’m not talking about the ‘havoc’ that our natural…
The report of the Task Force on development processes for Himalayan Hill States set up by the Planning Commission, Government of India, and which was handed over to the Planning Commission in December 2010 talks of the importance of the Boat Clinics initiative (see below). The premier agency mandated to conduct the study was the…
Madras University's Political Science Department under Prof. Ramu Mannivannan, head of department, is hosting a three-day outreach programme on campus beginning on Sept 22 with the release of the Report 'Bearing Witness: The Impact of Conflict on Women in Nagaland and Assam'; this will be followed by the opening of the photo exhibition; a screening…
Swaminathan S Aiyar writes in his hugely popular column Swaminomics in The Times of India about the ‘Ships of Hope on the Mighty Brahmaputra’.
Former Home Secretary Gopal Pillai launched a three-day programme of the Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research (C-nes) in New Delhi on September 7, 2011, saying that it was crucial for governments and non-government groups to reach out to groups and communities in the North-east which felt distanced and alienated. Mr. Pillai, who…