South Asia Citizens Wire - 16 May 2011 - No. 2712 ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Contents: 1. A skewed secularism? 2. Strange Love 3. Reports on Workers rights in Gurgaon and Gorakhpur: Precarious situation of migrants and police repression 4. Hate poisons the Narmada 5. Call for a permanent ban of Endosulfan in India - Peoples’ Solidarity Concerns 6. In northeast India coal towns, many miners are children 7. Without invoking religion 8. Video: Land-grab, Law and Capitalism in India discussed by Medha Patkar and David Harvey 9. The cash mantra 10. India - Pakistan: Talk from here 11. Sarmila Bose: Myth-busting the Bangladesh war of 1971 12. India: Call for Nationwide Protest Repeal AFSPA, Free Sharmila 13. Video: Tehelka interview with Dr Binayak Sen 14. Who is a civil society member? ___________________ A skewed secularism? [T]oday, secularism is in jeopardy in India. The main threat comes from the rise of Hindu militancy and its consequences not only for electoral politics, but also for the judiciary and society at large. The core belief of the Hindu nationalist movement, whose key organisation, the Rashtriya (...) http://www.sacw.net/article2081.html Strange Love The accident in Fukushima showed that no reactor is immune to devastating accidents and that the highest price for a mishap is paid by local inhabitants. Does the Indian Government, which has worked so hard to protect the interests of the international and domestic nuclear industries, even care (...) http://www.sacw.net/article2080.html Reports on Workers rights in Gurgaon and Gorakhpur: Precarious situation of migrants and police repression Reports on Workers rights in Gurgaon and Gorakhpur: For most of the 8 lakh migrant workers that live in Gurgaon, discrimination on the basis of place of birth is common; Workers in Gurgaon (Haryana) attacked by Police; stuggle of the workers after the 3 May firing and brutal police repression (...) http://www.sacw.net/article2079.html Hate poisons the Narmada Alarmed at the fears expressed by the Christian community in Mandla and indeed the rest of Jabalpur division, and the report of a fact-finding team which toured the Narmada valley areas in the district on the eve of the so-called Kumbh, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Madhya Pradesh (...) http://www.sacw.net/article2078.html Call for a permanent ban of Endosulfan in India - Peoples’ Solidarity Concerns Perhaps you are aware that more than 9000 victims of Endosulfan have been identified in Kasargod district of Kerala alone, out of which over 4800 patients are bedridden.. Over thousand victims ofEndosulfanhave already died in Kasargod District. Similar effects are also being witnessed today in (...) http://www.sacw.net/article2077.html In northeast India coal towns, many miners are children Thousands of children, some as young as 8, are believed to toil alongside adults in the northeast mines; their small bodies are well suited to the narrow coal seams. Many migrated legally from from Nepal or illegally from neighboring (...) http://www.sacw.net/article2076.html Without invoking religion So, what was the Islamists’ take on the World Cup semi-final? Apparently, the radical religious elements either retreated into the shadows or were themselves affected by the frenzy generated by the media. Perhaps, the prospect of defeating India, considered an infidel, momentarily tickled their (...) http://www.sacw.net/article2075.html Video: Land-grab, Law and Capitalism in India discussed by Medha Patkar and David Harvey Land has become a key issue for both neoliberal capitalism and for people’s movements. Land Acquisition Act of 1894 is used to take over land of indigenous and rural peoples today in the name (...) http://www.sacw.net/article2074.html The cash mantra Conditional cash transfers” (CCTs) are a new buzzword in policy circles. The idea is simple: give poor people cash conditional on good behaviour such as sending children to school. This helps to score two goals in one shot: poor people get some income support, and at the same time, they take (...) http://www.sacw.net/article2072.html India - Pakistan: Talk from here Isolating Pakistan would simply harden the border and heighten the tension that complicates these two men’s lives. And the lives of all of us who live here. Yes, we must uncover the terror links, the facilitation, but no, we must not sharpen the paranoia or confuse the state with the people, the (...) http://www.sacw.net/article2071.html Sarmila Bose: Myth-busting the Bangladesh war of 1971 Sarmila Bose discusses her new book about the historical narratives of the 1971 civil war that broke up East Pakistan (Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War is published by C. Hurst and Co. and Columbia University (...) http://www.sacw.net/article2070.html India: Call for Nationwide Protest Repeal AFSPA, Free Sharmila Perhaps you are aware that the hunger fast of Irom Sharmila Chanu has crossed 10 years, with a demand for repeal of AFSPA (Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958. She has been force fed through her nose by the Government, arrested with charges for attempt to commit suicide, criminalised as a (...) http://www.sacw.net/article2069.html video: Tehelka interview with Dr Binayak Sen In a two part interview, Dr Binayak Sen speaks to Tehelka on Human rights, Inequity and Sedition http://www.sacw.net/article2068.html Who is a civil society member? The term ‘civil society’ is so vague and ambiguous as to allow virtually any group with any kind of political agenda to appropriate it and to tell the public that it is speaking on its behalf. http://www.sacw.net/article2067.html _/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/ South Asia Citizens Wire Buzz for secularism, on the dangers of fundamentalism(s), on matters of peace and democratisation in South Asia. 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