Friends of South Asia

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].

Contents 1 History 2 Positions and activities 3 Criticism 4 References 5 External links

History

FOSA was founded in December 2001 by a group of nine Pakistani Americans and Indian Americans, concerned that "the place we call home was full of war cries and that South Asia was on the brink of a war."^[2][4] Members organized candlelight vigils^[5] and letter-writing campaigns ^[6] for peace, initially in collaboration with groups like the Sikh Qaumantri Punjabi Bhaichara (Punjabi International Friendship) Group of California.^[5][7] The local vigils grew out of a series of vigils for peace in South Asia held simultaneously in 18 cities around the world.^[8]

Positions and activities

Friends of South Asia 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."^[9]

The group advocates against what they term "militarism in India, Pakistan, and the United States." According to a 2006 statement, "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."^[10]

Friends of South Asia has been involved with several other campaigns, including opposition to the Iraq War^[3], the 2002 Godhra riots^[11], Pakistani military actions in Balochistan, Pakistan^[12][13], and the 2006 bombings in Varanasi, India^[3], as well as support for victims of the Bhopal disaster^[14], advocacy for the civil rights of immigrants to the United States^[15], support for the Right to Information movement^[16], and the proposed expansion of reservations (quota-based affirmative action) in higher education for members of Indian castes defined as Other Backward Classes.^[17] 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^[18][19], opposition to censorship^[20] and ending religious intolerance against the Ahmadiyya Muslim minority who have been victims of pogroms in Pakistan ^[21][22].

The group holds an annual literary event in August, celebrating the Indian and Pakistani Independence days with readings in Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Kannada, Gujarati, and English. Topics have included "South Asian Writings on War and Terrorism,"^[23] "Revisiting Changing Homelands,"^[24] and "The Language of Food."^[25]

Friends of South Asia was a prominent participant in the Californian Hindu textbook controversy^[26][27], 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.

FOSA has an informal organizational structure, and a number of members have served as spokespeople. In 2006, during the textbook controversy, graduate student Anupama Mandavilli was a primary spokesperson.^[28][29][30] Group members have often collaborated with or co-sponsored events with other California South Asian American anti-communal organizations like EKTA^[31] and the Coalition against Communalism.^[32].

Criticism

• 2001: Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto spoke at Stanford University in October 2001.^[33] 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."^[34][35]

• 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).^[36] 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"^[37][38] at an October 2004 rally in New York City co-organized by the New York chapter of PAA.^[39] 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.^[40]

• 2006: In February 2006, Mihir Meghani, president of the Hindu American Foundation was quoted in Silicon Valley newspaper 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 [sic] 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."^[26]

• 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.^[41] 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."^[9] The anonymous correspondent also claimed that Mathew, a co-founder of the Forum of Indian Leftists^[42] (later renamed the Forum of Inquilabi [revolutionary] Leftists to be inclusive of non-Indian members^[43]), supported the Unabomber and other terrorist groups.^[44] The article received significant public criticism, ^[45][46][47] and the Stanford Daily swiftly retracted the story^[48] 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." ^[49]. This apology was due to pressure brought upon the student editors who were provided with all the evidence. Biju Mathew has since removed the link to the Unabomber Manifesto.

• According to a 2007 article by V Sundaram, the book NGOs, Subversive Activists and Foreign Funds- Anti-Nation Industry contains articles describing how FOSA and eight other groups are allegedly engaged in "anti-national activities" directed toward India, which are collectively labeled "Instruments of Hate and Fratricide."^[50]

References

External links

• Friends of South Asia

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