The blog Brown Pundits has published notes from the closing talks of our day Divergent Voices of South Asia: Rethinking Partition, Reimagining Peace, held on 4 July 2026 at Filmcentrum Riks in Stockholm. The piece, by the writer and editor X.T.M, is the first of two parts.
What the article describes
- The writer notes that the programme lived up to its name: from Sarah Gilley on how “normalcy” is manufactured in Kashmir, to Farooq Sulehria on India as media subimperialism, Amrita Ghosh’s book launch and Shaukat Ali Kashmiri of the United Kashmir Peoples National Party – voices that did not all agree, by design.
- The focus is the talk by Anuradha Bhasin, executive editor of the Kashmir Times, who joined by video link. Her main point: the melting of the Himalayan glaciers is one shared South Asian story, not four separate national ones – hence the title, The Meltwater Carries No Passport.
- Bhasin proposed independent cross-border journalism on shared rivers, climate, health and education; a shared digital archive of the region’s history and culture; patient, humanising reporting that challenges the image of the neighbour as the enemy; and support for theatre, film, literature and translation across borders.
- The writer compares her proposals with earlier efforts such as Aman ki Asha and Himal Southasian, and argues that cross-border media usually fails through funding and paperwork rather than open bans – so how such projects survive matters as much as what they do.
- Part II covers the talk by Beena Sarwar, co-founder of the Southasia Peace Action Network (Sapan).
Courtesy: Brown Pundits – “The Meltwater Carries No Passport” by X.T.M, 5 July 2026. Read the full article on Brown Pundits →
Photos from the day
