Within a very short period of years, several South Asian and South Asian diasporan minority groups have found new voice through the use of web sites on the Internet and e-mail discussion lists. Institutions and individuals have also created South Asian history and culture sites that interpret the history and current issues of minority groups. This is a sample list which was used as a springboard for an interactive panel at an ASIANetwork Conference, "Technology and Democracy: Asian Perspectives." Our questions:

• What kind of information is being delivered by partisan web sites?
• Is internal as well as external group communication aided by these fora?
• How is authenticity substantiated in the new electronic environment?
• How is decision-making effected by the public nature of this format?
• As the global society moves towards a more "information rich" environment, what choices do minorities need to make? And what are the resource issues groups have to face to either present themselves or be presented fairly?

Sites for primary documents and global organizations that deal with minority and ethnic issues:

"Minorities at Risk is an independent, university-based research project that monitors and analyzes the status and conflicts of politically-active communal groups in the larger countries of the world." From Prof. Ted Gurr, University of Maryland's Center for International Development and Conflict Management.
http://www.bsos.umd.edu/cidcm/mar

Perhaps the most complete demographic table on minorities in Asia is also found at their site: http://www.bsos.umd.edu/cidcm/mar/tableas.htm

"Cultural Survival is a non-profit organization founded in 1972 to defend the human rights and cultural autonomy of indigenous peoples and oppressed ethnic minorities."
http://www.cs.org

"The Center for World Indigenous Studies (CWIS) is an independent, non-profit [U.S. 501(c)(3)] research and education organization dedicated to wider understanding and appreciation of the ideas and knowledge of indigenous peoples..."A very good listing of resource links is found on their homepage. Center for World Indigenous Studies links to Asia http://www.halcyon.com/FWDP/wwwvl/indig-vl.html#asia

Center for World Indigenous Studies Fourth World Documentation Project http://www.halcyon.com/FWDP/fwdp.html

"The Ethnologue is a catalogue of more than 6,700 languages spoken in 228 countries"
http://www.sil.org/ethnologue/

As language and identity are so closely associated in South Asia, this grouping of various links to Indian language sites is illustrative:
http://webhead.com/WWWVL/India/india210.html

Primary source documents of the University of Minnesota Library on Human Rights http://www.umn.edu/humanrts/index.html

International court of justice
http://www.un.org/Overview/Organs/icj.html

Specific South Asia country sites and partisan lists:

Bangladesh: Chittagong hill tracts
A collection of primary source documents
http://www.halcyon.com/FWDP/eurasia.html#cht

India: Dalit
Dalit Liberation Education Trust
http://www.pcsadvt.com/dlet/index.htm

"Promoting rights and freedom for the Dalit Christians of India."
http://www.dalitchristians.com/

India: North East Indigenous
People from The Center For World Indigenous Studies and The Fourth World Documentation Project. No links.
ftp://ftp.halcyon.com/pub/FWDP/Eurasia/tribals.txt

Free Nagaland's homepage. An independent partisan site. Read guest book for critical comments on representation of Nagas. http://www.angelfire.com/mo/Nagaland/

"Refugees Within, Refugees Without" An example of a document written to attempt an improvement for the status of an indigenous group, the Chakma. http://www.south-asia.com/himal/April/chakma.htm

India: Sikhs
"This site is dedicated to the Khalsa Panth, and to the men and women who have laid down their lives to uphold the principles of freedom, justice, and righteousness, and for the liberation of Khalistan."
http://www.khalistan.net

Sri Lanka: Tamils
"As a nation, Tamils have the inalienable right to self-determination, a universal principle enshrined in the U.N. Charter that guarantees the right of a people to political independence". Tamil Eelam homepage
http://www.eelam.com/

A gateway site for Tamil Eelam homepages. Flashy graphics! http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/liberation/

"For over twenty years Tamil Tiger Terrorists (LTTE) have been killing thousands of innocent civilians in Sri Lanka calling it a liberation struggle to gain a separate state". Anti-LTTE site http://dspace.dial.pipex.com/town/parade/nm58/tamil.htm

Tamil Centre for Human Rights, an international organization based in France. http://www.tamilrights.org/

A human rights organization in Bremen put up this site: http://www.humanrights.de/k/kmslte/k_work.html

Tibet
"This site is maintained and updated by The Office of Tibet, the official agency of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in London." An effective and informative partisan site. http://www.tibet.com/

"Student's for a Free Tibet's mission is to educate young people to the realities of Tibet and translate awareness into action through non-violent political, economic and social campaigns."
http://www.tibet.org/SFT/

"Join the Save Tibet email alert network!" From the International Campaign for Tibet centered in Washington, D.C. USA
http://www.savetibet.org/forms/email_alert.html

"Tibetan Women's Association is a non-governmental organization based in Dharamsala, India and has over 37 branches in India and abroad."
http://www.grannyg.bc.ca/tibet/tibet.html

Back to Diane's Homepage