Skip to content

India

Israel And Its Neighborhood, An Interview With Ambassador Chas Freeman

A German newspaper recently published an interview with the Egyptian foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, who expressed his profound frustration with the Americans as Israel continues its assault in Gaza—and now the West Bank and Lebanon. You can’t work with the Americans, he complained in so many words. They say one thing, they rarely mean it, and typically do something else altogether. It prompts my first question in the context of the enlarging crisis in West Asia, please comment on the diplomatic positions of America’s allies in the region. What, generally, is going through their minds? Why haven’t they reacted more vigorously to the Israeli assault? Are they simply “bought,” in one or another way? Or is there more to it?

BRICS Adds 13 New ‘Partner Countries’ At Historic Summit In Kazan, Russia

The Global South-led organization BRICS is growing. More and more countries support the group’s mission: to build a multipolar world, with alternative economic institutions that are more representative and democratic, not dominated by the Western powers. BRICS held a summit in Kazan, Russia in October 2024, where 13 new “partner nations” were accepted. At this historic meeting, China’s President Xi Jinping referred to BRICS as “a vanguard for advancing global governance reform” and “reform of the international financial architecture”. Bolivia’s left-wing President Luis Arce argued that “the shield of BRICS and multipolarity” can protect formerly colonized nations, helping them resist “Western unipolarity and the tyranny of the dollar”.

Samsung Chennai Strike Completes A Month

Hundreds of striking workers of the Samsung India’s Chennai plant, including their leaders were arrested, and the venue of strike dismantled by the Tamil Nadu state police on Wednesday, October 9.  The arrested leaders include A Soundararajan, president of the Tamil Nadu state Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and E Muthu Kumar, president of Samsung India Workers Union (SIWU). The worker leaders were released on bail after a few hours of detention, as the government termed the strike illegal. Over 1,300 Samsung workers at its Sriperumbudur plant near Chennai have been on strike since September 9, demanding recognition of SIWU, better wages, and working conditions.

One Year After The Attack On NewsClick, Journalists Call For United Fight

Journalists unions and civil society groups came together to commemorate the first anniversary of the Indian government’s crackdown on independent media outlet NewsClick and arrest of its founding editor Prabir Purkayastha, on Thursday, October 3 at the Press Club of India (PCI) in New Delhi. The press conference and public meeting was organized by Delhi Union of Journalists (DUJ), Press Association (PA), Indian Women’s Press Corps (AWPC), and Kerala Union of Working Journalists, in collaboration with PCI. Along with Prabir, several other senior journalists including P Sainath, founding editor of People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) and N Ram, former editor of India’s leading English daily The Hindu along with the office bearers of the unions addressed the gathering.

People Of South Asia Reaffirm Solidarity With Palestine

Thousands of people participated in rallies and protest gatherings all across the South Asia region as part of international calls for mobilization to commemorate a year of Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, express solidarity with the Palestinian people, and to raise the demand for an immediate ceasefire. Protesters carried Palestinian flags, banners condemning the genocide, and chanted slogans in support of the Palestinian resistance. A large number of young university students joined the protests as well, defying various restrictions imposed by their respective governments on the display of such solidarity with Palestinians.

A Message To The Western Left

Starting to write this, the first question that I ask myself is, who am I addressing? While the divisions among the left in general are notorious anywhere in the world, they are at another level when it comes to the so-called West, which is ironic given the almost non-existent success of the left in that part of the world. Nevertheless, taking into consideration the current dominant iterations, I suppose that the left in the West includes anything from liberalism to anarchism to Trotskyism to what is called Maoism – everything except solidarity – real solidarity without footnotes or parenthesis – with the anti-imperialist struggles in the “uncivilised” and “politically incorrect” rest of the world, whatever form such struggle may assume.

She Was Brutally Killed Before She Could Write Her Story

On 8 August 2024, a 31-year-old doctor at the RG Kar Medical College in Kolkata (West Bengal, India) finished her 36-hour shift at the hospital, ate dinner with her colleagues, and went to the college’s seminar hall to rest before her next shift. The next day, shortly after being reported missing, she was found in a seminar room, her lifeless body displaying all the signs of terrible violence. Since Indian law forbids revealing the names of victims of sexual crimes, her name will not appear in this newsletter. This young doctor’s story is by no means an isolated incident: every fifteen minutes, a woman in India reports a rape. In 2022, at least 31,000 rapes were reported, a 12% increase from 2020.

WhatsApp Mutual Aid

Motherhood has quite the build up. A combination of intense care and doting during the pregnancy, leading to a baby and a wealth of responsibilities tangled with body dysmorphia and relationship issues all culminating to the realization that “the village” does not exist. You know “the village” we all hear so much about, the one that's supposed to help raise the child. In my experience there was an odd voyeuristic effect where I felt the eyes of people watching my struggle to raise my child but unwilling or unable to actually lend a hand. It’s understandable with inflation on the rise, housing becoming increasingly unaffordable, and groceries even more so - we are all doing our best to keep our heads above water.

A Student Movement Sets Out To Conquer Bangladesh

The university campuses of Dhaka are usually peaceful spaces, far from the din of the traffic of the city outside. The buildings of Jahangirnagar University are immersed in the jungle forests of the Bay of Bengal where the youth can enjoy exchanging ideas in the tea rooms and train for their future. Dhaka University also boasts of large parks that seek to generate the same tranquility and seclusion. Until a few days ago, few would have guessed that the youth of these campuses would flood the streets of the capital and start a major rebellion that would soon spread across the country, sparking an unprecedented crisis that would put the current Awami League government on the ropes.

High In The Himalayas, Resistance To Modi Is On The Rise

The return of Narendra Modi as prime minister of India for a third consecutive term has come as a wakeup call for the right-wing Bharatiya Janta Party, or BJP. Unlike 2014 and 2019, Modi’s party this time fell short of the numbers needed to win an outright majority in parliament, despite his pre-election boasts to the contrary. Analysts attribute concerns over unemployment, inflation and growing conflict with China for Modi’s modest mandate. Apart from losing support from strongholds like Uttar Pradesh, Modi also lost ground in the mountainous region of Ladakh, which shares borders with China and Pakistan.

India: 2024 Election Was A ‘Revolt Of The Farmers’

The election results from India made the whole world sit up and take notice. Headlines used words like “stunning” and “shocked” to describe the result. No Indian election has elicited such worldwide attention. Modi and his BJP have thundered into the electoral arena with the slogan “Ab Ki Baar, Char So Paar”, which means “this time will go over 400”. The National Democratic Alliance, the coalition that the BJP leads, was to win more than 400 seats in a Lok Sabha that has 545 seats. And the BJP itself was supposed to win 370 seats, which would have itself constituted the super majority of over two-thirds.

Democracy Will Not Come Through Compromise And Fear

Half of the world’s population will have the opportunity to vote by the end of this year as 64 countries and the European Union are scheduled to open their ballot boxes. No previous year has been so flush with elections. Among these countries is India, where a remarkable 969 million voting papers had to be printed ahead of the elections that culminated on 1 June. In the end, 642 million people (roughly two-thirds of those eligible) voted, half of them women. This is the highest-ever participation by women voters in a single election in the world. Meanwhile, the European Union’s 27 member states held elections for the European Parliament, which meant that 373 million eligible voters had the opportunity to cast their ballot for the 720 members who make up the legislative body.

Is India’s Economy Truly Thriving? Or Is It Exaggerating Its Growth?

As many of you will know, general elections are currently underway in India, elections which the ruling BJP and the Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi, are expected to win easily. Victory would give Modi a third term in government, a feat previously accomplished only by the country’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Sections of the Western media and most of the Indian media are poised to attribute any such victory to Modi’s economic management, which has allegedly made the Indian economy boom as never before. However, as the elections proceed, this near-certain victory is receding into the distance, and a very different reality is coming into view. With us to discuss this is a most distinguished guest, Professor C.P. Chandrasekhar.

India’s BJP Faces Ire Of Farmers In Final Phase Of Elections

Only two phases remain in India’s seven-phase national elections. The voting for the next two phases are scheduled on May 25 and June 1. The ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is facing a united challenge from the center-left alliance led by the Congress Party across the country. The BJP’s battles in these last two phases of the elections are proving to be even more fierce due to the organized popular resentment against its farm policies in the region. Significant parts of the states polling in these two final phases, the state of Haryana with 10 seats in the Lok Sabha and Punjab with 13 seats, have been the epicenter of the ongoing farmers’ agitation.

Weaving A Feminist Movement

Artist Indu Antony was enjoying conversation over chai at a women’s center in Bengaluru, India, when an angry man walked in. He tore a piece of art off the wall, took a lighter from his pocket, and set it on fire. Antony’s companions recognized the man as a local official in a right-wing political party; they scampered away. “This is a center that is attacking men,” the official fumed. It was three in the afternoon, and Antony smelled a day’s worth of drink on his breath. ​“You cannot burn our stories,” Antony shot back. The man’s eyes flared; he was not used to being challenged.  The two went back and forth, debating the community center she had founded: Is something created for women inherently against men?
Sign Up To Our Daily Digest

Independent media outlets are being suppressed and dropped by corporations like Google, Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our daily email digest before it’s too late so you don’t miss the latest movement news.