Shabnam Hashmi’s Farewell to Anhad
After 22 years of building one of India’s most persistent voices for justice, Shabnam Hashmi is stepping away from Anhad. Her farewell letter is not just a goodbye — it’s a chronicle of battles fought, friendships forged, and the resilience it takes to keep going in the face of smear campaigns, state hostility, and quiet exclusions. It’s also an appeal: to give Anhad’s next generation the resources to dream, fight, and organise without fear. Read her full letter and help seed that future
A New Chapter for Anhad: My GoodbyeMy Letter to Friends and Supporters
Dear friends, fellow activists, and supporters,It has taken me quite a few days to write this letter. My heart is filled with a mix of emotions. After 22 very difficult and yet incredible years, I have decided to move on from Anhad by mid August. It has been a very difficult decision emotionally but logically the most important.Anhad was born in 2003, with founding trustees Prof KN Panikkar, Harsh Mander, and myself. Over the years, we were joined by illustrious trustees like Saeed Akhtar Mirza, Shubha Mudgal, Ram Puniyani, Kamla Bhasin among others equally wonderful trustees including Mansi Sharma , Dhruv Sangari, Aban Raza, Anjali Hegde, Shubha Menon, Amrita Nandy , Mukhtar Sheikh & others.
After about a decade, we decided it was time to pass the baton to younger leaders, and *I was the last of the senior trustees to move out in 2016. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, I was urged to return to the trust within a year, and the past 7-8 years have flown by quickly.* I will be turning 68 years soon.Anhad was never confined to the trust only - the Anhad collective was huge and continues to be. It is impossible to pen down the list of all the people young, not so young & old -who have worked with Anhad full time or who have given their time - artists, intellectuals, professionals , activists , volunteers, interns -they are thousands in numbers and extremely diverse economically, intellectually, regionally from big Urban cities to the remotest villages. As my former colleague, fellow activist and close friend Mansi suggested - I need to write about the whole journey, which was full of challenges, a lot of hard work and fun. Anhad has been at the forefront of various social and political movements,experimenting with crazy, creative ideas, advocating for the rights of marginalized communities and challenging oppressive systems.
I'm proud to have been a part of this journey, and I'm grateful to each one of you for your unwavering commitment to our shared vision.Anhad needs fresh perspectives, new ideas to continue its mission. It's essential that we create space for the next generation of activists to take the reins and steer Anhad towards new heights.My journey of 44 years as an activist and 22 years at Anhad has been full of challenges. I will continue contributing to the struggle for social justice in different ways as an individual activist but no longer taking the responsibility of running any organisation.I also want to acknowledge that Anhad faced not only overt attacks and systematic smear campaigns from state and non-state actors but also subtle yet damaging campaigns of exclusion and distancing from those who were not on the other side of the fence.
Despite these challenges, Anhad has consistently demonstrated remarkable resilience. Though we may have been wounded, we have refused to become bitter, emerging stronger and more committed to our mission.As I prepare to leave, I want to thank each one of you for your love, support, and camaraderie.Before I go, I want to make an appeal to you. Anhad has survived on personal donations for over 10 years, and I want to ensure that the new team has enough resources to carry forward the organization's critical work. I urge you to contribute generously to Anhad's fund, so that the new team can focus on the tasks at hand, without worrying about finances for the initial period.Our goal is to raise enough funds to support Anhad's operations for at least 6 bmonths. This will give the new team the time and space to learn, grow, and develop their own resource mobilization strategies. Every contribution, big or small, counts.
Please consider donating to Anhad through: www.anhadindia.com/donation
WhatsApp 9811807558 for bank details ( Anhad takes only Indian donations)In solidarity,
Shabnam Hashmi
Man's dearest possession is life. It is given to him but once, and he must live it so as to feel no torturing regrets for wasted years, never know the burning shame of a mean and petty past; so live that, dying he might say: all my life, all my strength were given to the finest cause in all the world- the fight for the Liberation of Mankind.
Nikolai Ostrovsky