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I’m in conversation with historian, journalist, political commentator and Marxist thinker #vijayprashad on NRI Affairs. Vijay is the director of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research and the author of forty books. Vijay is on a speaking tour across New Zealand and Australia.

p.s. I can’t say i agree with everything he said, and for sure, I don’t know enough. But this conversation will stay with me for a while. There were moments of connection over Palestine that i share with many people, strangers across the world. A shared helplessness and ache. After we stopped recording, I did read him a poem. In a world gone mad, perhaps it is the last refuge of the perplexed.

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Our guest on this episode is the extraordinary Sunita Viswanath, the co-founder and executive director of Hindus for Human Rights, that advocates for pluralism, civil and human rights in South Asia, Australia, the UK and North America.

From a childhood of transplantation from India as a migrant, to watching the ugly face of racism as a child in the UK, to a curious choice of study; mathematics and sociology, her journey is anything but typical.

Sunita says she doesn’t do well with boundaries.

Perhaps therein lies the seed of her empathy sans borders, the interconnectedness of the personal and political, and the relentless speaking of truth to power, unmoved by praise or censure.

In this episode, we trace early influences, her relationship to her faith, the passion and conviction that drives her advocacy, the honour and heartbreak of bearing witness to the horror unfolding in Palestine and explore what gives her the courage to pursue a path less trodden.

For all of us who often feel disempowered by the scale of violence in the world, the overwhelming hate and divisiveness, the unfairness of it all, the feeling of ‘what can one person do’, I present to you, the uncommon force of nature, Sunita Viswanath.

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My guest is the indefatigable Indu Balachandran, an independent candidate in the upcoming New South Wales Local Government election, standing for the Gordon Ward in Sydney's Ku Ring Gai Council.

With a track record in sustainability and over 20 years in leadership positions across housing, family services and first nation sectors, Indu brings the will and the skill to make a difference. She is also a passionate musician, actively engaged in community initiatives, received an Atlantic Fellowship (Oxford University), and was the recipient of the UTS Human Rights Award for Reconciliation.

We speak about her motivations and passions that led to her foray into politics, the hyphenated identity she carries, the challenges and opportunities for diasporic communities in Australia, and the work she would like to do for her constituency.

An enjoyable and insightful conversation with a change-maker who is indeed a force for good. Do watch, leave us your comments, and don't forget to subscribe!

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Bangladeshi-American academic, Dr. Farhana Sultana, professor at Syracuse University, and Indian political and social commentator who writes extensively for the Wire, Shuddhabrata Sengupta come together on Pause with Nandini to discuss Bangladesh, reimagined.

We cover the challenges and opportunities ahead for Bangladesh, its relationship with India, the protection of minorities, and the dangers and impact of misinformation and false narratives.

We also hear from Taposhi Dey Prapti, President of Jahangirnagar University Debating Club, Bangladesh, and Meghmallar Basu, President of the Student Union, Dhaka University, Bangladesh. They provide a riveting account of the student movement and the euphoric days that followed, marred by a coordinated disinformation campaign that threatened to destabilise the fledgling rebirth of a nation.

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A woman who asks too many questions offers a window into her world.
For Chinki Sinha, war is never elsewhere.

Armed with James Baldwin's politics of love, she finds hope in protests, reads from her grandfather's stolen diaries, finds herself locked up in a brothel, goes to Kashmir to cover silence, and eats kulfi for dinner, spent after a day chasing stories.

Of all the people who have come on Pause, Chinki is probably the most mercurial, enigmatic in the way she wears her role as Editor of the formidable Outlook magazine with equal parts creative fire, curiosity, and lightness.

Blurring the lines between journalism and poetry, fashion and politics, the mechanics of storytelling with the art of hanging out, at a time of claustrophobic conformity, Chinki's is a singular voice that is both breath and blade.

A special episode. I hope you enjoy it too.

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Gender, colourism, identity, code-shifting , all of this and more in an animated and unfettered discussion on the new book Growing up Indian in Australia.

Published by Black Inc, the book has been edited by Aarti Betigeri with contributions from a wide cross-section of Australian-Indians. Aarti joins us in this conversation along with Preeti Maharaj - 'Tangle of Tenses', Swagata Bapat - 'The Dance Performance' and Rakhee Gelani, the author of 'Navratri'.

In their stories, perhaps lie commonalities with stories of other migrants and people who straddle multiple cultures and identities. There are questions of assimilation and preserving culture, the intergenerational bonds and frictions between the world that was, and a world that will be. There are contemplations on women of colour finding our voices and the ways in which we find our place in the world.

A bit about our panelists from the book:

Aarti Betigeri is a journalist, writer, broadcaster, and former foreign correspondent, born in Melbourne to parents from Maharashtra and Karnataka. She has spent a decade in India and now lives in Australia, working as a journalist and advisor focussed on international relations.

Swagata Bapat is a second-generation Indian Australian who was raised in and lives in Melbourne. She works in her business Swagata Bapat Consulting as an executive coach, facilitator, and consultant.

Born in country Victoria, Rakhee Ghelani was shaped by her parents' stories of East Africa, delectable Gujarati delicacies and adventures to far flung countries that began before she could even walk. She lives and works in Melbourne and shares her love of travel, great food and cats with her cheeky young daughter.

Preeti Maharaj was born in Fiji. She is the descendent of Girmitiyas, who were indentured labourers taken from India to work in the sugarcane fields of Fiji by the British. She immigrated to Australia with her family when she was twelve after two military coups. She lives, works and write with gratitude on the lands of the Kulin Nation in Naarm/Melbourne.

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Kashmiris, Tibetans, islanders, ancient feuds between Hindus and Buddhists, and the politics of war. Abhishek Majumdar in his new book, Abhishek Majumdar, Collected Plays, goes into spaces that are often unvisited, and within those spaces, he arrives with and offers more questions than easy answers.

With acute humanity, and unmitigated curiosity, Abhishek explores themes both diverse and interconnected; the environment, violence and non violence, the passage of time, morality and oppression, the individual and the collective.
He is a playwright, essayist, scenographer, and director who works in India and internationally. His work has been produced and commissioned in leading theaters of the world including Royal Court Theatre London, Prithvi Theatre Mumbai, Ranga Shankara Bangalore, Deutsch Shauspielhaus Hamburg, Ruhrfest Recklinghausen, Théâtre du Soleil Paris, National Theatre London, San Francisco Opera, PEN World Voices, Internacionale Dramaturgie Festival Buenos Aires, San Francisco Opera, and PlayCo New York amongst others.

He is a recipient of multiple awards including the META Award for Best Play and Best Script, International Theatremakers Award New York, The Shankar Nag Rangakarmi Award Bangalore, the Toto Funds the Arts Award, Segal Center Award for Civic Engagement in the Arts, B.V.Karanth Fellowship of Ninasam, Best Director in London Movie Awards, Best Director 8 and Half Film Festival (Rome) Awards, Best Scenographer Sofia International Film Festival amongst others. He works in Theater, Film, and Opera in different languages and cultures.

His book of essays, Theater Across Borders was published by Bloomsbury International as part of the Theatermakers series and he has been published, performed, and translated in Hindi, English, French, German, Czech, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi, Kashmiri, and Spanish.

He is the Artistic Director of Nalanda Arts Studio Bangalore and creative producer at New Voices Arts Project based in Bangalore. His plays are published by Bloomsbury International.

Apart from theater, he has published in the areas of mathematics, environmental economics, and chemistry.

Currently he is directing an Ambedkarite Opera with Yalgaar Sanskrutik Manch Mumbai and Nalanda Arts Studio Bangalore, co-commissioned by NYUAD arts center. He is also directing Solo Vazio, a physical theater piece with Julieta Dobbin in Brazil. He is writing a new play for on the trade of war debris , for the Collaborative, Dublin, Working on a new novel " Radiodurans" and working on the next part of the Tibet Trilogy for Tibet Theatre , Dharmashala and Germany.

Abhishek Majumdar Collected Plays is available here:

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/abhishek-majumdar-collected-plays-9781350423688/

Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/Majumdar-Collected-Plays/dp/178682258X

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On the heels of Dalit History Month, we at NRI Affairs, wanted to begin a conversation on caste that looks at this social evil from the lens of the caste and generationally privileged, one that accepts that caste discrimination exists, that we continue to benefit from it, and explores ways to take greater collective and individual accountability.

We share our own journeys of learning about caste with the hope that it opens dialogue on the need for a clear-eyed acknowledgement of our legacies of discrimination, uncomfortable as it may be, with the hope that we can then choose positive change.

The premise of this conversation is that there is now enough literature and material available for the caste privileged to educate ourselves on the systemic discrimination and cruelty of the caste system, and it is incumbent upon each of us to work towards the annihilation of caste, in whichever way we can.

We acknowledge the mental labour and the often uncompensated heavy lifting that Dalit and Bahujan voices are often called upon to do, in the guise of platforming, which by and large requires very little introspection or personal accountability on the part of the savarna spaces that invite them in.

Finally, our hope is that through a series of such conversations and engagement, both within privileged spaces, and with the empowered inclusion of the deliberately marginalised, we arrive at a collective framework - more a living document- that gives us the language, the actionable insights, and the centering of intrinsic human dignity of all, towards a caste free and equitable society.

Joining us on the panel are:
Author and activist, Rheea Mukherjee, student and anti-caste activist, Avyaya Singh, and scholar on diversity and cultural economics, Mudit Vyas.

Select reading recommendations:
Annihilation of Caste, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar
Kavya Phule and Bavan Kashi Subodh Ratnakar, Savitribai Phule
I could not be Hindu, The story of a Dalit in the RSS, Bhanwar Meghwanshi
Dalits and the Democratic Revolution, Gail Omvedt
Brahmins and Non Brahmins, MSS Pandian
Buffalo Nationalism: A Critique of Spiritual Fascism, Kancha IIaiah
The Mahatma and the ism, E.M.S. Namboodiripad
Joothan, Om Prakash Valmiki
Murdahiya, Dr. Tulsi Ram
(Some recommendations from the Itihas Project)

Other resources:
Ambedkarite Buddhist Publishers https://navayan.com/publications.php
Round Table India, For an informed Ambedkar Age https://www.roundtableindia.co.in/

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