Time magazine has named five persons of South Asian origin and an Afghan in its list of 20 Asian heroes who, according to the publication, “have done something brave, bold or remarkable — before they’ve reached the age of 40.” They are Bollywood actor Shahrukh Khan (India), sitar player and actress Anoushka Shankar (India), bureaucrat Gautam Goswami (India), cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan (Sri Lanka), rape victim Mukhtar Mai (Pakistan), and human rig-hts activist Ahmad Nader Nadery (Afghanistan). The six have, at a relatively young age, scaled the pinnacles of their respective fields to be counted among the best not just in their countries, or just in Asia, but also across the globe, the magazine said in its latest Asian edition.

* ShahRukh Khan: Describing him as “Bollywood’s brightest star,” Time says: “At 38, Khan has reached a level of hero worship attained by few actors in history. Every film he graces –– no matter how bad –– is a surefire smash, every product he endorses is a best seller, and there are so many shrines to him across India that he could launch a new religion.”

“A run of hits since 1995 has raked in about a quarter of a billion dollars, mostly from 20 cent tickets. And he’s almost as popular overseas: the 2002 historical romance Devdas took in twice as much abroad as in India, while his world tour is a sellout at up to $300 a seat,” Time says. “In fact, with Bollywood’s global audience running to 3.6 billion against Hollywood’s 2.6 billion, Khan is –– in terms of recognition — the world’s biggest movie star.”

* Anoushka Shankar: “The notes pla-yed on the silver-fretted sitar are vintage Ravi Shankar, but the 23-year-old daughter of India’s most famous musical export is doing what her father never would have thought necessary –– bringing Indian classical music back home ,” says Time. “Since the age of 13 she has made her sitar an instrument not just of a silky melody but of a cultural revival. Besieged by the pop pap of Bollywood, traditional Indian music has found it hard to win a wider audience beyond old-school aficionados. Shankar, who was taught the fundamentals of the sitar by her father, who’s now 84, is changing that by injecting freshness and energy into a somewhat stuffy art form, and broadening its appeal for a younger generation.”

* Gautam Goswami: This young bureaucrat has come to the limelight by dint of his administrative acumen as well as firm resolve and action to uphold the law. Time highlighted how Goswami helped avert a catastrophe in Bihar state, when flash floods lashed the state in July, displacing millions of people from their homes and leaving them without access to food or drinking water. “As the district magistrate in Patna, Goswami coordinated a massive relief effort that involved the Indian government, army and international aid agencies. Goswami, 38, and his team toiled for a month, until the floods receded and the displaced returned home.” Serving in one of the most violent states of the country, Goswami played a crucial role in conducting fair elections in 1999 and earlier this year. Acknowledging his achievement, Time said he had achieved this by having “barricaded Patna, so that gunmen in cars couldn’t enter the city, and set up telephone lines for citizens to call in with

* Muttiah Muralitharan: Time says that the 32-year-old Sri Lankan spin bowler has the ability to “to inspire and appall, in equal measure. In March former Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh compared him to Don Bradman — the Babe Ruth of the game. In May Australian Prime Minister John Howard suggested he was a cheat. In 2002 Wisden, the cricketing bible, named him the greatest bowler in over a hundred years of cricket. Last month the International Cricket Council (ICC), the sport’s governing body, could not find a place for him in its Team of the Year.”

Critics claim he bowls with a bent arm, illegal in cricket. Murali says his contortions are the product of a birth defect, a claim backed by doctors. The ICC has ruled his action legal for the majority of his 12-year career in which he has taken more wickets, 532, than any other international player in Test cricket.

* Mukhtar Mai: Every year, hundreds of women become victims of a medieval tribal code of “honor” in various parts of Pakistan.

Mai, a 30-year-old woman who lives in the remote hamlet of Meerwala, was one such victim who was brutally and publicly gang-raped in June 2002 by four volunteers on the orders of a village court, or jirga. Mai’s then 12-year-old brother Abdul Shakoor had been seen walking with a girl from the more influential Mastoi tribe; they demanded Mai’s rape to avenge their “honor.” Refusing to remain silent, Mai decided she would rather “die at the hands of such animals” than “give up her right to justice” and pursued her case despite the threat of further violence. Against the odds, she won. Six men involved in her rape have been punished, with two of them sentenced to death and the government awarded her compensation.

“As long as the state refuses to fully challenge the brutality of tribal law, the plight of Pakistani women will continue. Mukhtar Mai is a symbol of their victimhood, but in her resilience she is also a symbol of their strength,” Time said.

* Ahmad Nader Nadery: Nadery, 30, one of Afghanistan’s most prominent human-rights activists, is head of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. Over the previous decade, Nadery had waged a kind of guerrilla war for human rights that got him arrested several times, exiled in Pakistan and, in 1996, flogged in front of a crowd for not wearing a turban.

Nadery’s group is trying to expose a range of crimes committed over the years by the country’s regional warlords, including executions, forced marriages and war crimes. But the warlords are still powerful figures: they occupy provincial governorships and sit in the Cabinet of President Hamid Karzai. “The fight for a civilized Afghanistan is still raging, and Nadery is one of its stoutest warriors,” says Time.

(Compiled from news dispatches by Charles Isaac)