Issue 6
Editorial
We have now had an online presence for over a year. Along with this one year anniversary, Shuddhashar also celebrates twenty seven years since our inception and thirteen years since we started publishing books. With new challenges and circumstances on the horizon, we remain committed to our responsibility of supporting cultural and social movements.
We have observed that writers who survive a state of warfare or other persecutions suffer from a deep grief and depression. They enter a state of lifeless sorrow far removed from their previous vibrant existence. The consequences are indeed very painful. There is a possibility of implementing a plan with an effective psychological programme of social care that would reinvigorate their creative joy. Our concerns also go out to writers who are currently stuck between many uncertain circumstances. We are overwhelmed at the very thought of the pain they are living through. The actions and decisions of a minority of people lacking compassion and duty are causing so many to stop living as even survival is becoming unbearable! This world is becoming deprived of so much poetry, so much art!
In Bangladesh, the issues of freedom of speech and freedom of press have come back to the forefront. On the occasion of the month-long Ekushey Book Fair, the police announced in a press conference that the Bangla Academy would select books only after thorough checks before submission. This type of censorship is certainly against free speech and free expression.
The solidarity and commitment to art and to life remains the journey and the promise of Shuddashar.
We have entered into eighth year of resistance against government sponsored disastrous projects those are threatening survival of the Sundarban, the huge natural protector and the last of natural big forests in Bangladesh. Along with National Committee, thousands of people at home and abroad spontaneously have engaged themselves in organising protests that has made signs …
Anu Muhammad । Sundarbans, Rampal Coal-power Plant and Peoples Movement Read More »
2017 has ended. It has been a year that often felt a little unreal seen from peaceful northern Europe. The news was filled with war, suffering, refugees, terror, increased political polarization and an endless stream of aggressive twittering. 2017 did not feel like a good year. When choosing which countries and areas to present as …
Marianne Hovdan । Human Rights today Read More »
Lawrence Salander is a poet and artist. He was born in 1949. He was the owner of the famous New York City art gallery Salander-O`Reilly Galleries. But he was imprisoned for grand larceny which he confessed to for reasons that have nothing to do with his guilt or innocence. In reality, he was imprisoned for …
Lawrence Salander´s poems: Hard Time Read More »
You don’t like highbrows do you? No? I Guessed so. Most of the people, where I come from, don’t like highbrows either. There’s a lot that’s nice to say about the working class. I come from the working class in Norway. l know they don’t like academics and intellectuals. I’m quite sure that it has …
Ole-Asbjørn Friesl । The Working Class and the Highbrows Read More »
Ekushey February is one of the many dates in the Bangladeshi calendar that supposedly unites the nation in a bout of nationalist fervour. Despite very few commemorations dealing with the complex history behind the Language Movement – its seeds sowed during the colonial era’s Divide and Conquer policies around linguistic division – and its extended …
Ibtisam Ahmed । The Perils of Bengali Supremacy when Celebrating Ekushey Read More »
যুক্তরাষ্ট্রে আমার মেয়ে বন্ধুরা যখন কারো সাথে ডেট এ যায়, আমাদের কাউকে জানিয়ে যায়। আমরা জানি কোথায় তাদের দেখা হবে। রাতে ঘুমাতে যাওয়ার আগে বন্ধুর কাছ থেকে একটা মেসেজ পাই, বাড়ি ফিরেছি, অলগুড। এটা কেন করতে হয়, সেটা নিশ্চয় খুলে বলার প্রয়োজন নাই। কিন্তু তাও বলি। আমরা যে হাইপার সেক্সুয়াল অতি যৌনায়িত সংস্কৃতিতে বসবাস করি, …
নাদিন শান্তা মুরশিদ । বিষয়ঃ নারী-পুরুষের সম্পর্ক Read More »
