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Articles by Mushfiq Mohamed
Climate harm in plain sight
Environmental decline is becoming a public health crisis. The Maldives likes to present itself as a climate victim. It is also becoming a public health casualty. Environmental decline is now shaping everyday life across the archipelago, with consequences that fall hardest on those least able to avoid them. Air pollution alone causes an estimated 160 premature deaths each year – a striking figure for a country of just over half a million people.
A disappeared Maldivian journalist’s family still waits for closure
“I still see him in my dreams,” a family member of Ahmed Rilwan told me, speaking in Dhivehi. “There, he’s happy and himself. Always with his wry smile and humour. I believe he died as a martyr, maybe that’s why I never have nightmares about him.” For eight years, the unresolved disappearance of the Maldivian investigative journalist and human rights defender Ahmed Rilwan has left his family unable to proceed with the administrative and legal processes that follow bereavement.
The islands of ideologies
Mob storms yoga day event organised by the Maldivian government and the Indian High Commission at the Maldives national stadium. 21 June 2022. Screengrab: Crannofonix / Youtube. On the very day an 18-year-old shot 19 students and two adults at Robb Elementary School, in Uvalde, Texas, on the other side of the world, a 37-year-old man forcefully entered Jamaluddin School, one of the oldest primary schools in the Maldives’ capital Malé, according to local media reports.
Reclaiming Addu - Himal Southasian
Addu City, Maldives. Photo: Afrah Ahmed / Unsplash. At Himal Southasian, we are aficionados of the long read, but we do understand that both attention (and time) are scarce. That’s the thinking behind Himal Briefs – a new initiative that will bring crisp, informed, contextual analysis from across Southasia. As the series title suggests, we aim to keep it short (if not sweet!) It is also a nod to the Briefs section from our print magazine days, which long time readers may recall.
Unpacking the Maldives’ Transitional Justice Act
In a surprise move on 17 December 2020, the Maldivian government ratified the Transitional Justice Act and instituted the Office of the Ombudsman for Transitional Justice (OOTJ). This is a historic step by the government to initiate long-overdue redress mechanisms for survivors of past abuses. Achieving this uphill task in the current political climate – not to mention as the global COVID-19 pandemic rages on – is strenuous even with a supermajority in Parliament.
Unpacking the Maldives’ Transitional Justice Act
In a surprise move on 17 December 2020, the Maldivian government ratified the Transitional Justice Act and instituted the Office of the Ombudsman for Transitional Justice (OOTJ). This is a historic step by the government to initiate long-overdue redress mechanisms for survivors of past abuses. Achieving this uphill task in the current political climate – not to mention as the global COVID-19 pandemic rages on – is strenuous even with a supermajority in Parliament.
COVID-19 travel bubbles, vaccine procurement, Churails, and more
Southasiasphere is our monthly roundup of news events and analysis of regional affairs. If you are a member, you will automatically receive links to the new episodes in your inbox. If you are not yet a member, you can still get it for free by signing up here. In this episode, we talk about travel bubbles after COVID-19 in the region.
Call for non-fiction writing on Bangladesh
As people of Bangladesh mark the 50th year of their Independence, Himal Southasian invites pitches and submissions of non-fiction writing on Bangladesh – including reportage, essays and reviews – as well as photo essays and illustrations. Accepted submissions will form part of a special series on contemporary Bangladesh that will be published later this year.
Remembering our own
Detail of Reproduction of the Blood Telegram from 1971 Genocide – Liberation War Museum – Dhaka – Bangladesh<br />Flickr/Adam Jones The bloody massacre in Bangladesh quickly covered over the memory of the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia, the assassination of Allende drowned out the groans of Bangladesh, the war in the Sinai Desert made people forget Allende, the Cambodian massacre made people forget Sinai, and so on and so forth until ultimately everyone lets everything be forgotten.
Maldives' rocky road to transitional justice
Civil unrest in the Maldives in 2005. Photo: Wikimedia Commons. On 23 October 2019, a government-endorsed transitional-justice bill was tabled in the Maldivian parliament, the People’s Majlis. The bill, which is currently at the committee stage, purports to redress systematic rights violations and torture in the Maldives. Yet the bill does not meet international standards.
The Dangers of Dog-Whistling to Extremists in the Maldives
The Debate | Opinion | South Asia How “liberal” political actors in the Maldives dog-whistle violent extremists and why it matters. Credit: Wikimedia Commons About six months ago, the human rights charity that I work for, the Maldivian Democracy Network (MDN), was unilaterally banned by the government of the Maldives, with its forced closure declared irremediable through concerted government action barring us from domestic legal recourse.
Sri Lankan Muslims: the new ‘others’?
A few days after Kandy District in central Sri Lanka experienced a spate of violent incidents targeting Muslims, resulting in deaths, injury and destruction of property, the country’s election commissioner made a startling observation.
Who counts as a refugee?
Pakistan is home to millions of migrants – either undocumented (‘illegal’) migrants or refugees – predominantly from Central and South Asia. The most well-known of these are Afghans who have been living in Pakistan (primarily Quetta and Peshawar, and, in smaller numbers, Karachi) since the onset of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 and, because of the continued conflicts in Afghanistan, have continued to live there.
Ricefields - Himal Southasian
The fields are bursting with grain. Mother Nature’s glowing yellow sari seems scarcely able to contain the bounty of Kalu Sheikh’s couple of acres. Kalu Sheikh has a couple, his brother Moni Sheikh has one, and beyond these lie fields belonging to other villagers. Sidhu Morol’s field adjoins Kalu’s. Kalu arrives and stands awhile by his fields. Then he slowly walks to his hut near the village center. The bolts of the doors are tied with tough rope, just as they had left them.
Diary of a disastrous campaign
The history of the British East India Company was mostly written by the Company itself. It emphasises military victories, such as the late-eighteenth-century campaigns against the Marathas or the Kingdom of Mysore; and it dwells on episodes of heroism and tragedy which serve to expose the perfidy of the natives (the ‘Black Hole of Calcutta’). Although they are now seen in a different light, such events still mark the way. There is little space in the story for Captain Kinloch’s invasion of Nepal.
Not remembering Plassey
Two hundred and fifty years ago, on 23 June 1757, the last sovereign nawab of Bengal (which included present-day Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and Bangladesh) was defeated on the banks of the Ganga by an army under the command of the British East India Company’s Colonel Robert Clive. The battle came to be known as the Battle of Plassey, after the mango orchard of Palashi, near Murshidabad, on which it was fought.
Eating with Our Fingers, Watching Hindi Cinema and Consuming Cricket
India is a billion-weak nation thirsting for truly international sporting glory. Every four years, the fact that Olympic success eludes India is lamented in public fora. Karnam Malleswari’s weightlifting bronze in the 2000 Olympics, PT Usha’s almost-bronze many Olympics ago and fading memories of the men’s hockey team’s successive golds offer little consolation. But the last two decades have seen a phenomenal hardsell of cricket.
What is Nepali Music?
While music lovers and musicians may find no difficulty in recognising Nepali music when they hear it, asking them to define it more often than not results in a confused reply. This is not surprising, since a satisfactory definition of Nepali music would have to consider the many sources of musical ideas that are, and have been, available to Nepali composers.
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