Friends of South Asia

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Friends of South Asia (FOSA, established 2001) is a volunteer^[1] South Asian American peace activism group^[2] based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The group's stated basic mission is to "achieve a peaceful, prosperous, and hate-free South Asia...work[ing] through people-to-people contacts, dialog, and other non-violent, non-exclusionary means." ^[3].According to their website, FOSA sponsors activities among groups and intellectuals belonging to the far-left end of the political spectrum that seek to “build Indian communism and fight the agenda of the global ruling class.”^[4]

Contents 1 History 2 Ideology and activities 3 Criticism of Friends of South Asia 4 References 5 Links

[edit] History

FOSA was founded in December 2001 by a group of nine Pakistani and Indian expatriates concerned about the threat of impending war between their two nations.^[2][5][6] Members organized candlelight vigils^[7] and letter-writing campaigns ^[8] for peace, initially in collaboration with groups like the Sikh Qaumantri Punjabi Bhaichara (Punjabi International Friendship) Group of California.^[7][9] The local vigils in 2001 and 2002, some attracting over 100 people^[7], grew out of a series of vigils for peace in South Asia held simultaneously in 18 cities around the world.^[10]

[edit] Ideology and activities

The group was described by Metro Santa Cruz in April 2006 as "a hodgepodge of mostly secular-leaning South Asian Hindus and Muslims—university students, Silicon Valley engineers moonlighting as activists, etc.—who regularly organize local vigils, poetry readings, films and speaker events relating to South Asian issues."^[11]

As of 2006, Friends of South Asia continues to advocate against what they term "militarism in India", Pakistan, and the United States.^[12] FOSA has been involved with several other campaigns, including opposition to the Iraq War^[3], the 2002 Godhra riots^[13], Pakistani military actions in Balochistan, Pakistan^[14][15], and the 2006 bombings in Varanasi, India^[3], as well as support for victims of the Bhopal disaster^[16], advocacy for the civil rights of immigrants to the United States^[17], and support for the Right to Information movement^[18], and the proposed expansion of reservations (quota-based affirmative action) in higher education for members of Indian castes defined as Other Backward Classes.^[19] FOSA has also specifically focused on highlighting art and activism linked to social change movements in Pakistan, including issues like peace with India, ending the Indo-Pak nuclear race^[20][21], opposition to censorship^[22] and ending religious intolerance against the Ahmadiyya Muslim minority who have been victims of pogroms in Pakistan ^[23][24].

FOSA has also expressed opposition to the recent Indo-US nuclear agreement. A March 2006 statement reads "We express our deepest disappointment with the recently concluded visit of George Bush to India and Pakistan, and unequivocally condemn the Indo-US nuke deal...The United States' imperial designs in its war on Afghanistan and Iraq and the submission of the Indian and Pakistani governments to go along, is not lost on their people who came out in thousands in both countries to protest against Bush and his agenda."^[12]. The Nuclear agreement was, contrary to these claims, well - received in by Indians, NRI advocacy groups in the United States, as well as several eminent scholars and diplomats in the United States and regarded as an important step in the future development of the country^{[25][26] [27][28]}.

FOSA was a prominent participant in the Californian Hindu textbook controversy^[29][30], in which it joined a number of other groups in petitioning California's Curriculum Commission to reject allegedly revisionist edits to California's textbook curriculum on Hinduism and India, as suggested by two American Hindu organizations. (See main article Californian Hindu textbook controversy for details.). The opposing groups sued the California State board of education. The court ruled against the Board of Education, judging that the SBE's actions violated California Administrative Procedures Act and contravened the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act. [5][6][7].

FOSA has an informal organizational structure, and a number of members have served as spokespeople; graduate student Anupama Mandavilli has been a primary spokesperson in 2006, during the textbook controversy.^[31][32][33] Group members have often collaborated with or co-sponsored events with other California South Asian American anti-communal organizations like EKTA^[34] and the Coalition against Communalism.^[35].

[edit] Criticism of Friends of South Asia

• 2001: Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto spoke at Stanford University in October 2001.^[36] According to the Stanford Report, "a handful of protesters who called themselves 'concerned Pakistani students' and 'friends of South Asia' held signs promoting peace and passed out fliers detailing corruption charges against Bhutto -- charges she disputed during her talk."^[37][38] She was re-elected in 1993, but deposed for the second time in 1996.

• 2005: On May 15, 2005, FOSA organized a San Francisco march for peace in support of the 2005 India-Pakistan peace march, with the help of seven local co-sponsors, including the Pakistan American Alliance (PAA).^[39] About a week after the event, an anonymous online critic of the Association for India's Development pointed out that the Pakistan American Alliance's website included an image of a man holding a placard reading "Allah will destroy the terrorist state of India"^[40][41] at an October 2004 rally in New York City co-organized by the New York chapter of PAA.^[42] FOSA responded by deleting references to the Pakistan American Alliance from their website, and issuing an update stating that they were disturbed by the photo and had been unaware of PAA's politics, which were contrary to their own. ^[43]

• 2006: Primarily in response to its stance on the Californian Hindu textbook controversy, Friends of South Asia has been criticized by Hindus and Indians alleging that the group is anti-Indian and anti-Hindu. Some critics also expressed suspicion that the group is secretly supported by or supportive of a wide array of groups considered hostile to Indian interests, including Pakistani intelligence, Indian Communist parties, Christian missionaries, Christian fundamentalist militants, Indian Naxalites, and Pakistani Islamists. In February 2006, Mihir Meghani, president of the Hindu American Foundation was quoted in Metroactive saying that "It's pretty well known that they're [FOSA] tied with the Communist Party in India...It's really a ploy to break down and dissemble Hinduism." Metroactive also reported on an anonymous email received by FOSA, in which the sender threatened to "slaughter" members, singling out those who "use Hindu names and backstab Hindus." Other moderate editors, such as Professor Bajpai, have said that such reactions, while "going too far", are understandable given the "vehemence" that FOSA has unleashed aganst Hindus ^[29].

• 2006: In April 2006, FOSA invited Professor Biju Mathew (Rider University) to speak at Stanford University about labor organizing among New York City taxi drivers, globalization, and the anti-war movement. ^[44] The Stanford Daily student newspaper ran an article critical of the planned event, based on an anonymous email claiming that there were simultaneous "Islamist and Communist sympathies within the organization."^[11] The anonymous correspondent also claimed that Mathew, a co-founder of the Forum of Indian Leftists^[45] (later renamed the Forum of Inquilabi [revolutionary] Leftists to be inclusive of non-Indian members^[46]), supported the Unabomber and other terrorist groups.^[47] The article received significant public criticism ^[48][49][50], and the Stanford Daily swiftly retracted the story^[51] and printed apologies in the two subsequent issues, concluding that "FOSA does not have any ties to Communist or terrorist groups...We also apologize to Prof. Biju Mathew for associating him in any way with the Unabomber and other extremist elements." ^[52]. Matthew, however, is associated with several radical Communist groups^[53], and has well-established links with radical communist elements in India and the United States^[54].

[edit] References

[edit] Links

• Friends of South Asia