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Category: India

  • India and Israel’s fascists are in cahoots. Can Hindu and Jewish progressives form an alliance too?

    Warnings of rising fascism have emanated from India for years as the Hindutva, or Hindu nationalist, movement under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has unleashed escalating religious and caste-based violence in “the world’s largest democracy.” Throughout, India’s fascists have found a fellow traveler, a collaborative partner, and a state model to emulate in Israel’s ethno-nationalist apartheid regime. How deep does the India-Israel relationship go? And how can Hindu and Jewish progressives be part of the solution? Aparna Gopalan joins The Marc Steiner Show to discuss her explosive investigation for Jewish Currents, “The Hindu Nationalists Using the Pro-Israel Playbook.”

    Aparna Gopalan is the news editor at Jewish Currents.

    Studio Production: Cameron Granadino, David Hebden
    Post-Production: David Hebden

    Transcript

    Marc Steiner:  Welcome to another edition of The Marc Steiner Show here on The Real News. Good to have you all with us. And as many of you know, we have two series rolling. One is, Not In Our Name, which is conversations with mostly Jews from across the globe saying no to the occupation and the Farrah government in Israel, and The Rise of the Right, which looks at the rise of the right-wing and neo-fascism nationally and globally and what we can do about it. Well, today’s conversation is like an intertwining of those two themes. I’m sitting down with Aparna Gopalan, who was a news editor at Jewish Currents and wrote an article for them called “The Hindu Nationalists Using the Pro-Israel Playbook.”

    Now, this is a strange but not surprising synergy between Israel and India, the rise of neo-fascist movements in both countries, both of whom have far-right governments now, both having important diasporic communities in this country in the US, both countries with deep alliances with the US, and the ties between India and Israel are deepening as they become two of the most oppressive right-wing governments on the planet. So we’re going to look at all that. And so one of the questions I had reading this article and I’ve been thinking about a lot is how did two peoples who lived under oppression, who fought for liberation, be represented by such far-right governments and movements now?

    In her article, Aparna Gopalan tackles the complex issue with depth and clarity. She’s the news editor of Jewish Currents, she’s a social anthropologist with a degree from Harvard University, and editor at In These Times and Boston Review before and was the lead organizer of the Harvard Graduate Students Union. And Aparna, welcome. Good to have you with us.

    Aparna Gopalan:  Thank you. Thanks for having me.

    Marc Steiner:  So when you look at the rise and the power of the right-wing world on our planet at the moment, everywhere, you can’t look at any nation on the planet or anything in our own country here in the US where you don’t see the rise of the right. So I was thinking as I was reading your piece, what your analysis is about how in India and in Israel both, the rise of the right has taken over. And what that dynamic was that allowed both peoples rising out of oppression, throwing off yokes of colonialism, post-Holocaust but clearly there’s a lot of complexity there and led to this moment of Modi in India and the right-wing government in Israel. How do you explain that?

    Aparna Gopalan:  That’s an interesting question. Post-2016 in this country, there was a lot of interest in looking at all the right-wing regimes across the world and talking about how all of them are coming up at the same time. But I feel like this story, with regards to India at least, and also with regards to Israel and other places is much longer. So in India, the right-wing movement that I’m looking at started in the 1920s with European fascism. So there were these right-wing leaders who were visiting Italy under Mussolini and who were visiting Nazi Germany. And they were learning, they were reading Hitler and Mussolini’s writings and they were learning this ideology of racial pride and how to articulate it and what movement to build. And they were looking at the successes of European fascism and thinking we want to build something like that.

    And that is the movement that is in power today in India that has finally, after a hundred years, won political office, they have taken over the judiciary, they’ve taken over the executive branch and they’re making laws. And so in some sense, this is a fruition of a very long-standing effort that has been on pause at different moments. So during the independence struggle, for example, there was a very strong push to create a Hindu India that came out of British independence but it was foiled by secular forces which were stronger at that moment. And that kept happening throughout the history of modern India, that there was a Hindu right push and there was a balancing force. And what’s happened recently since the 1990s is that the balancing force has gone away or has weakened. And the Hindu right force has become so strong because they have systematically in a very grassroots fashion, something that we need to look at and learn from.

    They’ve built a ground game and so they have branches in every village, in every small town, and they are going and talking to people, they’re doing the things that we on the left say we want to be doing. It’s reaching everyday people, working people. They’ve done that and they’ve done that for decades. And so right now, what’s happening in India is the most complete success of fascism. It’s in some sense, unlike what was happening in the US because people would say Trump doesn’t represent the working man or whatever. And maybe to some extent that was true but in India, Modi does represent the working man. They truly have built it from the ground up. So that’s what’s very terrifying about it. And I feel like that long history is important to understand, to contend with what’s happening,

    Marc Steiner:  The movement, and if I mispronounce this, please correct my pronunciation, Hindutva, is that right? Hindutva, which is a larger right-wing sensibility and movement in India. But when you look at the history and you know that it was a Hindutva activist who assassinated Gandhi, right? And now they’re in power. And if thought about the parallels with the US that the right wing in this country has been organizing intensely since the early seventies and built the power that they have where they control 26 states in our country now, literally, growing power. It’s similar to what happened in India. What you were describing about how they amassed this power over the years with the fall of the Congress party and what was left in India, which seems to have dissipated.

    Aparna Gopalan:  Precisely. Yeah. To whatever extent there was a left in India, the Congress party, which is the secular party that opposes Modi’s BJP, the Congress party has done its share to crush the left in India for many decades since independence. So they have been arresting [communists] and they have been crushing unions and they’ve been taking over tribal land and doing development work on it. And they’ve been doing that for so long that they’ve erased any base that we would have for a working-class movement. And then the far-right, Hindutva, comes in and takes advantage of that. So it’s not unlike what’s happening in this country where the Democrats, they waffle and they don’t go far enough and they make it impossible for working people to organize. And of course, who takes advantage of that, but the far-right. So it’s a very similar dynamic.

    Marc Steiner:  As I was reading the pieces you wrote and some of the attachments that you linked to, the question is when you look at India now and look at the power India has and the growing relationship between the US government, Israel, and India in this weird triad that’s taking place, that’s taking on, a, the Muslim world, but also taking on the post-communist world as well. So let’s talk a bit about those roots and how you see that playing out in India in terms of the population and the people’s political attitudes.

    Aparna Gopalan:  Yeah, a lot of the geopolitical strategy that’s involved in this alliance is coming out of 9/11, like you mentioned, taking on the Muslim world, but some of it actually predates that. So this is an excellent book that I cite in my piece extensively by this journalist called Azad Essa, the book is called Hostile Homelands, and it’s about India and Israel’s relationship over the decades starting in the twenties and all the way down to now. And India actually used to be one of the most pro-Palestine forces in the world standing with the colonized people. And that changed in the ’70s and ’80s, and especially the ’90s when India realizes that, especially after the fall of the Soviet Union, we want to be closer to the US. To be closer to the US, we have to be closer to Israel, we cannot be anti-Israel or we won’t be allowed into the US’s orbit.

    And that’s when this switch happens of inviting Israeli leaders to India, going to Israel, having these trade deals, and there’s a weapons boom in India, basically, India’s buying weapons and frantically expanding their military. They’re doing nuclear tests and Israel is, of course, key to a lot of that. And so that’s the moment at which the partnership intensifies. And it comes to a head, I talk about in my piece, around 2005 when India wants to be exempted from nuclear non-proliferation across the world. They want to develop nukes and nobody else is doing that and they want the blessing of the US to do that. And who helps them achieve that goal is the Jewish lobby in Washington. So there are leaders from the American Jewish Committee, there are leaders from APAC who are writing op-eds, who are writing letters, who are giving informal advice to their Indian Hindu nationalist counterparts to help them secure this nuclear deal.

    There are actually certain members of the India caucus in the US Congress who are longstanding Jewish lobby members as well and they go and talked to President Bush at the time and they convince him that we need India to be strong to counter Pakistan and to shore up the whole area. And then India wins this nuclear deal which is a game-changing win for India. And it changes the dynamic in the subcontinent altogether and flexes the muscle. And who’s behind that is Jewish groups in the US. So the partnership has this geopolitical root and it’s only growing. India and Israel have arms deals worth billions of dollars now. And we saw Modi visiting Washington recently and the welcome he got here matches the welcome he’s getting when he goes to Israel. So that’s the answer to the question of why is this happening.

    In terms of the political attitudes of everyday people, I don’t know that everyday people are saying we need to buy arms from Israel or we need to develop nukes. That’s not how they’re being pulled in. They’re being pulled in with this question of national pride. Are you proud to be a Hindu and we’re going to do you proud on a global stage? The way that Modi marketed his US visit to India is incredible. If you were in India, if you were reading a newspaper there, you would think that no other political leader in the history of the world has ever been welcomed to the US the way that Modi has. No one else has ever had a state dinner, no one else has ever walked on a red carpet. So I feel like that marketing campaign is being done well and it’s a year ahead of India’s general election next year. So it’s all very strategically done but I don’t think everyday people are as invested in the actual defense goals as in being proud Hindus or something.

    Marc Steiner:  So after reading your piece, what I was thinking about is how you analyze the importance and depth of the Israeli-Indian relationship and what that means for the future, but also how it plays out here. Because Indians are the second largest diasporic group in the US, immigrant group in the country. The ties between the right-wing parts of the Indian community, and right-wing parts of the Jewish community are intense in this country. Much of it builds around anti-Muslim fervor. So I’m curious how you analyze that in terms of what all that portends both internationally and here in our country.

    Aparna Gopalan:  Yeah, this is one of the things working at Jewish Currents, we’ve as an outlet, Jewish Currents covers the dangers of the pro-Israel playbook in the US. And I feel like we’ve been saying for a long time that this is a very dangerous strategy they’ve developed in which you have this whole propaganda machine and any activist who speaks out against Israel’s human rights violations is on Canary Mission the next day and has trouble getting jobs and is struggling to enter Israel. And it’s this machine that’s working very effectively to stop people from talking. And we’ve been saying for a long time that this is dangerous. And I feel like now with this development with Hindu right groups, we have proof that it’s dangerous because it can be exported. It’s a strategy that you can copy and paste into a completely different context and it’s working as well.

    So after my article came out, my name was in the Hindu Canary Mission, and it’s like the army of internet trolls, they come after you. There are people who are making note of you to make sure that next time you want to enter India or next time you want to go speak about this issue or get a job or something that they’ve made note of it, that you are anti-India, you’re anti-national. And it’s very reminiscent of what’s been happening with Israeli critics. But it’s not reminiscent, they’re actually talking to each other. I talked to a lot of Hindu nationalists in reporting the piece, and I would ask them, do you see any parallels between what you’re doing and Israel advocacy?

    And I thought that they would shy away from it but they proudly would declare, we talk to Israel advocates, we talk to the ADL all the time. They actually taught us how to make this concept of Hinduphobia because we saw what they were doing with antisemitism and we were like, we want to be like that. And then we had meetings with them, and then we have this thing Hinduphobia. And look, it’s like antisemitism. They would show a point-by-point comparison of both definitions and explain how they’re mapping what they’re doing onto the Israel advocacy.

    So the ramifications are huge because if tomorrow there’s another ethnonationalism movement that has a diaspora in the US and that diaspora wants to make sure that what’s happening in the homeland is left alone, that the US supports it, the US doesn’t intervene, all they have to do is copy this playbook and they have to go talk to the Israel groups. They have to go talk to the Hindu groups and they will be in on the action as long as all the geopolitical incentives line up. So it’s very worrying that the Israel playbook has proved itself to be so versatile and that the Jewish groups have proved themselves to be so willing to help other far-right movements.

    Marc Steiner:  So it also makes me wonder about a couple of things. Let me take one at a time. How that plays out here in this country, in the U, inside the Indian community. It’s not unanimity. It’s not a monolith where everybody supports Modi, right? And clearly one of the things you linked to was the Carnegie Poll, which showed the divide inside the Indian community about supporting Modi or not supporting Modi. So how does that dynamic figure into this, do you think, and how does it play out?

    Aparna Gopalan:  So one thing that’s very interesting about what I’m calling the “Hinduphobia Strategy” is it’s drawing on a real experience that a lot of Indian Americans have, which is we all experience US racism in some way or the other, right? We’re called names. We are Brown people. As soon as you move to the US and you are on that rung of the totem pole. Even though Indian Americans are relatively wealthier and more highly educated and stuff like that, there are still everyday experiences of racism and feeling alienated from this country. What is remarkable about Hinduphobia is that it acts upon that fear. So the people who are worried about Hinduphobia will tell you, and they told me, my sources, my Hindu national sources tried to scare me when I was reporting the piece. And they would tell me, they’re coming for you. And they would talk about experiences of racism, they would draw some religious symbols on their doorstep and then the neighbors would complain that this shouldn’t be here, or something like that.

    Marc Steiner:  That actually happened?

    Aparna Gopalan:  Those are stories that they would tell me in reporting.

    Marc Steiner:  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

    Aparna Gopalan:  But yes, the interviews were a recruitment pitch for them because they were like, you’re a young Hindu, this is what’s going on in our community. You should be really, really afraid right now. And because everything is in danger, what we need to do is band together and support our movement. And our movement, of course, is Hindu. They wouldn’t say that but that’s the way in which they’re recruiting American Hindus because American Hindus, like you said, are very divided. American Indians are divided. They don’t all support Modi, but the more that you are able to connect to their everyday lived experience of racism and tell them that that’s going to keep getting worse until, and unless you join this Hindu movement globally that we are all creating to protect ourselves and protect our children, then you’re in danger. And so that’s a very effective recruitment pitch. It didn’t work on me but I could see it working on somebody else.

    And it’s remarkable because the they who’s coming for you is not like white nationalists, which is who you would think you’re in danger of, but it’s actually Muslims who are going to come for you or lower cast people, oppressed cast people who are going to come for you. And so that’s what I was told over and over again: I need to watch out for all those Indian minorities in the US and how they might become too powerful unless I join these groups that I’m interviewing and become an activist and become a Hindu nationalist. So that’s the way in which the Hindu nationalist groups are trying to bridge the divide within the Indian community by politics of fear. And again, very similar to antisemitism and how it’s being used to recruit Jews for the cause of Israel. So if there’s an attack in New York, the ADL will say, look, Jews are in danger, donate money to us so we can defend Israel. Yeah.

    Marc Steiner:  And it becomes complex and difficult because antisemitism is real and it runs deep. And anti-Hindu feelings can run deep as well on lots of racist levels in this country and across the globe. So if you play on that reality and use it to not unite people against their oppression and to fight for a better world, but if you use that to unite people out of the fear, which is what you’re seeing is happening, that builds a different movement and a dangerous movement.

    Aparna Gopalan:  Precisely. They’re not saying that, look, there’s a rise in anti-immigrant violence so we need to all unite against, again, against white nationalism, against Christian nationalism. That’s not what their goal is. They don’t want to unite with other working people. They don’t want to unite if there’s anti-Chinese violence. Hindu nationalist groups told me that anti-Hindu violence is completely different from any other anti-Asian violence.

    Marc Steiner:  You’re special.

    Aparna Gopalan:  Right, exactly. We are in unique danger. And so we have to act as Hindus. We don’t have to act as Asians, as people of color. Those are not the identities. You are a Hindu first and that’s the foundation of the Hindu nationalist movement.

    Marc Steiner:  So on the other side of that, you wrote about, if I have this, remember correctly, Hindus for Human Rights and the interaction that organization, that group of advocates has with things like JVP, Jewish Voices for Peace, and others. So what about that dynamic is, A, significant? And, B, is it growing and how do you think that fits into this?

    Aparna Gopalan:  It’s definitely significant. I, in the process of reporting, found out that not only is Hindus for Human Rights, which is a progressive Hindu group, talking to Jewish Voice for Peace, they’re literally modeled on Jewish Voice for Peace. One of the people who founded the group went to Jewish Voice for Peace and said, I want to found a group which is Hindus who are speaking out as Hindus against Hindu nationalism. Will you help me? And Jewish Voice of Peace said yes and so they helped. And so this group is modeled on the image of the Jewish Voice of Peace. And that’s important because like I said, the same playbook is being used against both of these progressive groups. And so they are, by uniting, they’re like bringing together, we as progressive Hindus now are able to draw on the expertise that a group like JVP has in dealing with this repressive and silencing playbook.

    And it’s interesting how the collaboration works because when Modi came to visit, the very same people who would speak up against Israel in Congress, for example, are the same people who spoke up against Modi. So Rashida Tlaib said, I’m not going to attend Modi’s congressional address. Ilhan Omer said, I’m not attending that address and I’m actually having a briefing on human rights right after the address so senators and Congress people can learn more about what’s happening in India. So it’s very clever in some ways by progressive Hindus because we’re able to draw on an existing political formation, and we don’t have to start from scratch. And we shouldn’t have to because it’s the same struggle on both fronts. So it’s very important.

    One thing I will say, which again, as Azad Essa, the journalist, pointed out to me and is exactly right, is that anti-Zionist groups like JVP, are coming from a long tradition of working-class activism, whereas groups like Hindus for Human Rights are very new still, and there actually isn’t a huge Indian diaspora working-class movement. Most of the people who are speaking up are still people who are relatively upper caste. They’re still upper class. And so we still are struggling to engage with working people within our community and that’s where the fight will be won. We need to engage the people who do everything in India, who are the farmers and the laborers. And so that ground game that is still absent both in the US and in India. And unless that is built, I don’t see how Modi gets taken down by a movement like this, for example.

    Marc Steiner:  So that leads me to where you think your analysis takes you and us when it comes to this far-right government in India that has literally attacked the Muslim population, burning down mosques, and the riots that have taken place over the last 30-odd years in India. And what’s happening in Israel with the rise of the far-right government and that powerful synergy with the alliance with the US? This is almost one of those hidden dangers that our future faces that we don’t put together in this puzzle that you were doing in this article.

    Aparna Gopalan:  Yeah, one thing that I was impressed by when my sources were telling me about the reason that there is this huge effort to call any criticism of Hindu nationalism as Hinduphobia, the reason that there’s that effort is that the risk is great. So India stands to lose a lot if the US actually acts against India and India’s human rights violations. For example, the US has this report that an independent government agency releases every year. And for the past four years, this religious freedom report has said India should be on a blacklist for violations of religious freedom. That’s been the recommendation being made to the State Department. The State Department hasn’t acted on it yet. They could though, tomorrow they could wake up and say, we are going to act on this because our own agencies are recommending this. And if that happens, India stands to lose a great deal.

    They stand to face sanctions if the US wants to go that far. But before that, they stand to lose their arms deals with US companies, they stand to lose their trade and technology deals with US companies. And all of those threats are why there’s so much activity to stop that outcome. And I feel like, what I’m saying is the situation, like you said, is very grim in both Israel and India. In India, there are 10 stages of genocide, and India is at stage eight according to a report by Georgetown University. So we’re two stages away from a complete genocide of Muslims in India, and in Israel, we’re seeing a very similar situation where Palestinians are literally being expelled from the West Bank. So the situation’s grim but at the same time, the amount of activity that’s happening in the US to silence speech about the situation gives some degree of hope that there’s still a chance that the US could act. Both against India, much more easily actually against India, because India and the US don’t have a special relationship, but also the US could act against Israel.

    There are efforts to do that also. There are efforts to take out US government money from settlements and that’s a signal that this is not okay. So in both cases, there is real potential for change but it’s urgently needed because in both cases we’re almost at the end of the road in terms of how bad things could get. They almost couldn’t get any worse in both places.

    Marc Steiner:  And to conclude, I was thinking about a couple of things here. One is, and you touched on this a bit in the article, but I’m really, really interested in how you see it playing out domestically in the US within the Indian community. Because when you look at the Jewish community in America, you see this divide, and part of it’s generational or there’s a political divide. It’s built around Israel and the occupation and the right-wing government. How do you see that playing out here in this country with the Indian population in America and the battle around Modi and the right wing in India?

    Aparna Gopalan:  A big part of both of these fights is young people and college campuses. And in the Hindu diaspora and the Indian diaspora, really, there are groups on both sides. So there are Hindu nationalist groups who heavily recruit on college campuses and they recruit through holding cultural events. They’ll be like, this is a Diwali celebration. And then you’ll show up there and you end up on a mailing list, and then the mailing list invites you to progressively more Hindu right events. And pretty soon you’re a Hindu right activist. And then they’ll try to position you in a Capitol Hill internship. They’ll try to connect you to the RSS, which is the paramilitary group that’s at the heart of Hindu nationalism in India. And before you know it, you’re a Hindu nationalist leader. So that’s the effort on the Hindu nationalist side. But there are counter efforts by people who are opposing Hindu nationalism and that’s where all our hope lies.

    So there are student groups who have decided that at every Indian festival, we’re going to have some event of our own. We’re not going to be silent. We’re not going to give up on Hinduism, we’re going to enter the fray, and we’re going to say here is a progressive interpretation of Diwali. Or here is Holi, which is an Indian holiday, but on this Holi event we’re going to talk about political prisoners and we’re not going to let ourselves off the hook. And so again, not in our name is what these student groups are saying. And so it’s hard to predict where the balance of forces is. To be frank, right now, the Hindu right on campus game, in the US ground game, is much stronger. They’ve been doing it for decades. And these other groups are just forming. During the pandemic, they’ve started.

    Hindus for Human Rights was founded in 2019 and their most direct rivals were founded in 2002. And of course, the RSS was founded in the 1920s. So we’re catching up to hundreds of years. So yeah, if this trend continues where there are student groups and anti-cast groups which are forming, especially, again, among high school students and on campus, by the next generation we’re going to see a very different Hindu-American population. But there’s every effort being made to make sure those groups don’t succeed because they’re called Hinduphobic immediately as soon as they come into existence. So that’s the contour of the struggle right now.

    Marc Steiner:  That’s interesting. And as we wind out here that what you’ve described is two things. A, a hopeful look at where both Indian and Jewish populations in America could go in terms of fighting for progressive change, both in the Middle East and in India, and in this country. And the coming together of these groups is something we have not heard about, I’ve not heard about until I read your article. And then that’s also confronted by the immense power of the right-wing political movements in India and in Israel. Contradictions are coming to a head here.

    Aparna Gopalan:  And again, in both cases, again, also, this is the same with groups that are pro-Palestinian, right? They don’t have the money on their side. The group that has the money is APAC. APAC has money. The rest of us, what we have is we knock on doors or whatever. That’s all that there is. So the tool that’s in the hands of the progressives in both India and Israel is raising consciousness to the point that you have enough people knocking on doors that you can defeat the APAC candidate in every town race and state race and federal race. And that’s how you make the change that’s necessary. So it’s like an arduous fight against impossible odds. But again, that’s the fight against the right in any context.

    Marc Steiner:  This popped into my head as you were saying that. You describe what was happening in Teaneck, New Jersey, in places like that. It is possible. Movements are building and they’re growing to actually make these things happen, to build something different.

    Aparna Gopalan:  There was actually this recent study, I’m going to get the number wrong, but somebody did this report and they found out that maybe 40% or maybe 60%, which is different, but 40% or 60% of Americans have never heard of Modi. And that’s a golden opportunity because that means that 40% or 60%, let’s say 50% of Americans can still be educated about this by us. So we can start that conversation right now and we have to get there first. We have to get there before the Hindu right groups get there and say, this guy is the savior of the Hindus, and that’s what needs to happen. I’m sure the state visit that Biden did will have changed that number and will have made things worse. So that’s why we need to fight back against all these efforts to legitimize Modi because lots of people are still on the fence or have no idea who this is. So that’s where the fight is, is to make sure that we get there first and we get there with the full truth about what’s happening.

    Marc Steiner:  I want to say, Aparna, it has been great to meet you and to have this conversation, and I want folks to check out this article. It will be linked here, that the Hindu nationalists using the Pro-Israel Playbook in Jewish Currents. It came out June 28th by Aparna Gopalan, their news editor. A deeply thorough article that I’m not sure I did justice to but it was an amazing piece of work. And I appreciate you taking the time here on The Marc Steiner Show, on The Real News, and we should move forward to create this American-Jewish-Indian alliance for real change and make that happen. That’s got real potential for the future.

    Aparna Gopalan:  That’s the hope. If my article could have gotten us 1% closer to that alliance, that’s all that’s needed.

    Marc Steiner:  I think it did.

    Aparna Gopalan:  Thanks for having me though. This is great.

    Marc Steiner:  Thank you, Aparna. I hope you enjoyed our conversation today with Aparna Gopalan. Her article in the Jewish Currents is called “The Hindu Nationalist Using the Pro-Israel Playbook.” Now, we’ll be linking to the article so you can read it. It is well worth the read. And I want to thank you all for joining us today. Please let me know what you think about what you heard today, and what you’d like us to cover. Write to me at mss@therealnews.com and I’ll write right back to you. And while you’re there, go to therealnews.com/support, become a monthly donor, and become part of the future with us. For Cameron Grandino, David Hebdon, Kayla Rivara, and the crew here at The Real News, I’m Marc Steiner. Stay involved. Keep listening, stay in touch, and take care.

    Maximillian Alvarez:  Thank you so much for watching The Real News Network, where we lift up the voices, stories, and struggles that you care about most. And we need your help to keep doing this work, so please tap your screen now, subscribe, and donate to the Real News Network. Solidarity Forever.

    This post was originally published on The Real News Network.

  • Filling The Gaps: Challenges of Regulatory Framework and Institutional Support for Persons with Special Needs in Educational Institutions

    In the ongoing session [1] of the Rajya Sabha, the seat of the former Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh was shifted from first to last row, due to health issues inhibiting his ability to walk to the first row. This has led to a debate regarding the accessibility of public buildings for persons with disabilities. It leaves behind a pertinent question, when the parliament of the country is not accessible for persons with disabilities, how accessible are other buildings and offices of public importance?

    Out of all other institutions, the need to revamp the educational institutions, be it public or private is more than ever before, especially when we recently observed the 30 years of Unni Krishnan vs. The State of Andhra Pradesh [2], wherein the Right to Education was included within the ambit of Right to Life under Article 21 [3] of the Constitution of India. This right to education was later explicitly inserted under Article 21A [4] of the Constitution by way of the Constitution (Eighty-sixth Amendment) Act, [6] 2002. Reading Article 21 with Article 15 [5] of the Constitution construes that inaccessibility to educational institutions of the persons with disabilities amounts to violation of their fundamental rights.

    Under section 16 [7] of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘2016 act’), government funded or government affiliated educational institutions are mandated to provide inclusive education to children with disabilities. This includes both the public and private educational institutions. However, the UDISE+ [8] data reflects that for the year 2019-20, only 0.98 percent of the children with disabilities out of the total population were enrolled at the primary level schools. Not only this, the figures for the year 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 show that, excluding the trends of senior secondary level schools for the year 2016-17, the enrolment rates have been gradually decreasing across all levels each year. This clearly indicates that the legislation, in spite of being well-intentioned, has failed to uplift the level of integration of children with disabilities.

    Primarily, the failure of the legislative provisions in place to effectuate the benefits of these welfare legislations can be attributed to two reasons. Firstly, no concrete and earnest efforts have been taken to streamline the implementation of existing legislative provisions for persons with special needs and secondly, there is a lack of institutional support from the state. In Rajive Raturi v. Union of India [9], the Supreme court argues about the shift in the approach of dealing with persons with disabilities. The court opines that the objective should not be to view them as “abnormal, deserving of pity and care, and not as individuals who are entitled to enjoy the same opportunities to live a full and satisfying life as other members of society”. Rather, the state should endeavor to uphold their dignity and to cease their exclusion from mainstream society. This can be achieved through ensuring higher rates of enrolment of children with special needs in public and private schools and universities. The aim is to broaden the discourse from mere attainment of literacy to securing higher education and employment opportunities.

    Section 16 (ii) [10] of the 2016 act mentions that the campus, building and other facilities of the educational institutions should be accessible to children with disabilities. Now, most of the educational buildings evade the mandatory application of this provision as there is no mechanism to enforce them upon the institutions. Thus, in order to effectuate the mandates of the 2016 act, there is a need for an amendment to the act to include a provision for the establishment of a ‘Regulatory Authority.’ In such a case, every public funded institution or institution officially recognised by the government, whether school or university, would have to get a ‘green signal’ from the regulatory authority. In the case of private institutions, the union and the state governments can come up with concerted schemes to allocate funds for revamping and realigning low-budget institutions according to the needs of making it accessible for persons with disabilities. In the initial period, this scheme could incentivise and provide support to the schools and colleges to comply with the guidelines of the regulatory authority.

    The regulatory mechanism could contain provisions mandating procurement of special reading materials for students with visual impairment. Every university hostel must have specific rooms catering to the needs of students with disabilities. On February 14, 2023, the apex court in Rajneesh Kumar Pandey & Ors vs. Union of India [11] sought details from the state governments of different states regarding the total number of children with special needs in the state, total special teachers enrolled and total vacancies in the state. The court also ordered to give details pertaining to the ad hoc appointment of teachers and to provide a stipulated time frame to fill up these vacancies.

    Another aspect is the institutional support from the state’s end. One instance of this could be the Nyaya Bandhu scheme, which has been initiated under the Ministry of Law and Justice of the Government of India, wherein the ministry has collaborated with 69 law schools across India in order to expedite the dispensation of legal services amongst the target groups. Under the scheme, the legal aid clinics of the law schools also receive funds on a regular basis from the ministry. Similarly, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment could also collaborate with educational institutions across the country for the empowerment of students with special needs within the educational institution and beyond it. Under this scheme, a welfare committee catering to the needs and interests of the students with special needs can be established in universities and colleges.

    The 2016 act is progressive in terms of recognising the roadblocks for persons with special needs to have the ability to live a dignified and meaningful life. However, the act has achieved only a stunted outcome in terms of making the educational institutions accessible for persons with special needs. India’s present disability rights law is riddled with issues of inconsistency and non-compliance. It thus, needs to be shielded with regulatory and institutional mechanisms for its effective implementation, lest it will turn into merely a toothless tiger.

    Bibliography

    1. Disability activists flag Manmohan’s shift to Rajya Sabha last row for wheelchair. Indian Express, (March 30, 2023, 10:30 PM), https://indianexpress.com/article/india/disability-activists-flag-manmohans-shift-to-rajya-sabha-last-row-for-wheelchair-8433016/.
    2. Unni Krishnan vs. The State of Andhra Pradesh, 1993 AIR 217.
    3. The Constitution of India,1950, Article 21.
    4. The Constitution of India,1950, Article 21A.
    5. The Constitution of India,1950, Article 15.
    6. The Constitution of India, 1950, amended vide The Constitution (Eighty-Sixth Amendment) Act, 2002.
    7. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, Section 16.
    8. Disability-Inclusive Education Practices in India. UNICEF, (2021), https://www.unicef.org/rosa/media/16996/file/Country%20Profile%20-%20India.pdf.
    9. Rajive Raturi v. Union of India, (2018) 2 SCC 413.
    10. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, Section 16(ii).
    11. Rajneesh Kumar Pandey & Ors vs. Union of India, CWP No. 132/2016.

    This post was originally published on LSE Human Rights.

  • The BRICS Have Changed the Balance of Forces, but They Will Not by Themselves Change the World

    Mao Xuhui (China), ’92 Paternalism, 1992

    In 2003, high officials from Brazil, India, and South Africa met in Mexico to discuss their mutual interests in the trade of pharmaceutical drugs. India was and is one of the world’s largest producers of various drugs, including those used to treat HIV-AIDS; Brazil and South Africa were both in need of affordable drugs for patients infected with HIV as well as a host of other treatable ailments. But these three countries were barred from easily trading with each other because of strict intellectual property laws established by the World Trade Organisation. Just a few months prior to their meeting, the three countries formed a grouping, known as IBSA, to discuss and clarify intellectual property and trade issues, but also to confront countries of the Global North for their asymmetrical demand that the poorer nations end their agricultural subsidies. The notion of South-South cooperation framed these discussions.

    Interest in South-South cooperation dates back to the 1940s, when the United Nations Economic and Social Council established its first technical aid programme to assist trade between the new post-colonial states in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Six decades later, just as IBSA was formed, this spirit was commemorated by the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation on 19 December 2004. At this time, the UN also created the Special Unit for South-South Cooperation (ten years later, in 2013, this institution was renamed as the United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation), which built upon the 1988 agreement on the Global System of Trade Preferences Among Developing Countries. As of 2023, this pact includes 42 member states from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, that are collectively home to four billion people and have a combined market of $16 trillion (roughly 20% of global merchandise imports). It is important to register that this longstanding agenda to increase trade between Southern countries forms the pre-history of the BRICS, set up in 2009 and presently made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.

    Madhvi Parekh and Karishma Swali (India), Kali I, 2021–22

    The entire BRICS project is centred around the question of whether countries at the nether end of the neo-colonial system can break out of that system through mutual trade and cooperation, or whether the larger countries (including those in the BRICS) will inevitably enjoy asymmetries of power and scale against smaller countries and therefore reproduce inequalities rather than transcend them. Our latest dossier, on Marxist dependency theory, calls into question any capitalist project in the South that believes it can somehow break free from the neo-colonial system by importing debt and exporting cheap commodities. Despite the limitations of the BRICS project, it is clear that the increase in South-South trade and the development of Southern institutions (for development financing, for instance) challenges the neo-colonial system even if it does not immediately transcend it. At Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, we have been closely following the developments and contradictions of the BRICS project from its inception and continue to do so.

    Later this month, the fifteenth BRICS summit will take place in Johannesburg, South Africa, from 22–24 August. This meeting comes as two of the group’s members, Russia and China, are facing a New Cold War with the United States and its allies, while the other members face immense pressure to be drawn into this conflict. Below, you will find briefing no. 9, published in collaboration with No Cold War, which offers a brief but necessary primer of the upcoming BRICS summit. You can read the briefing below.

    The upcoming fifteenth BRICS Summit (22–24 August) in Johannesburg, South Africa, has the potential to make history. The heads of state of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa will gather for their first face-to-face meeting since the 2019 summit in Brasilia, Brazil. The meeting will take place eighteen months since the beginning of military conflict in Ukraine, which has not only raised tensions between the US-led Western powers and Russia to a level unseen since the Cold War but also sharpened differences between the Global North and South.

    There are growing cracks in the unipolar international order imposed by Washington and Brussels on the rest of the world through the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the international financial system, the control of information flows (in both traditional and social media networks), and the indiscriminate use of unilateral sanctions against an increasing number of countries. As United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres recently put it, ‘the post-Cold War period is over. A transition is under way to a new global order’.

    In this global context, three of the most important debates to monitor at the Johannesburg summit are: (1) the possible expansion of BRICS membership, (2) the expansion of the membership of its New Development Bank (NDB), and (3) the NDB’s role in creating alternatives to the use of the US dollar. According to Anil Sooklal, South Africa’s ambassador to BRICS, twenty-two countries have formally applied to join the group (including Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Algeria, Mexico, and Indonesia) and a further two dozen have expressed interest. Even with numerous challenges to overcome, the BRICS are now seen as a major driving force of the world economy and of economic developments across the Global South in particular.

    Lygia Clark (Brazil), O Violoncelista (‘The Violoncellist’), 1951

    The BRICS Today

    In the middle of the last decade, the BRICS experienced a number of problems. With the election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India (2014) and the coup against President Dilma Rousseff in Brazil (2016), two of the group’s member countries became headed by right-wing governments more favourable to Washington. Both India and Brazil retreated in their participation in the group. The de facto absence of Brazil, which from the outset had been one of the key driving forces behind the BRICS, represented a significant loss for the consolidation of the group. These developments undermined and hampered the progress of the NDB and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA), established in 2015 – which represented the greatest institutional achievement of the BRICS to date. Although the NDB has made some progress it has fallen short of its original objectives. To date, the bank has approved some $32.8 billion in financing (in fact, less than that has been issued), while the CRA – which has $100 billion in funds to assist countries that have a shortage of US dollars in their international reserves and are facing short-term balance of payments or liquidity pressures – has never been activated.

    However, developments in recent years have reinvigorated the BRICS project. The decisions of Moscow and Beijing to respond to escalations of aggression in the New Cold War by Washington and Brussels; the return of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to the presidency of Brazil in 2022 and the consequent appointment of Dilma Rousseff to the presidency of the NDB; and the relative estrangement, to varying degrees, of India and South Africa from the Western powers have resulted in a ‘perfect storm’ that seems to have rebuilt a sense of political unity in the BRICS (despite unresolved tensions between India and China). Added to this is the growing weight of the BRICS in the global economy and strengthened economic interaction between its members. In 2020, the global share of the BRICS’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in purchasing power parity terms – 31.5 percent – overtook that of the Group of Seven (G7) – 30.7 percent – and this gap is expected to grow. Bilateral trade among BRICS countries has also grown robustly: Brazil and China are breaking records every year, reaching $150 billion in 2022; Russian exports to India tripled from April to December 2022, year-on-year, expanding to $32.8 billion; while trade between China and Russia jumped from $147 billion in 2021 to $190 billion in 2022, an increase of nearly 30 percent.

    Ayanda Mabulu (South Africa), Power, 2020

    What’s at Stake in Johannesburg?

    Faced with this dynamic international situation and growing requests for expansion, the BRICS face a number of important questions:

    In addition to providing concrete responses to interested applicants, expansion has the potential to increase the political and economic weight of the BRICS and, eventually, strengthen other regional platforms that its members belong to. But expansion also requires having to decide on the specific form that membership should take and may increase the complexity of consensus building, with a risk of slowing the progress of decision making and initiatives. How should these matters be dealt with?

    How can the NDB’s financing capacity be increased, as well as its coordination with other development banks of the Global South and other multilateral banks? And, above all, how can the NDB, in partnership with the BRICS’ network of think tanks, promote the formulation of a new development policy for the Global South?

    Since the BRICS member countries have solid international reserves (with South Africa having a little less), it’s unlikely that they will need to use the CRA. Instead, this fund could provide countries in need with an alternative to the political blackmail of the International Monetary Fund, which requires developing countries to enact devastating austerity measures in exchange for loans.

    BRICS is reported to be discussing the creation of a reserve currency that would enable trade and investment without the use of the US dollar. If this were established, it could be one more step in efforts to create alternatives to the dollar, but questions remain. How could the stability of such a reserve currency be ensured? How could it be articulated with newly created trade mechanisms which do not use the dollar, such as bilateral China-Russia, China-Brazil, Russia-India, and other arrangements?

    How can cooperation and technology transfer support the re-industrialisation of countries like Brazil and South Africa, especially in strategic sectors such as biotech, information technology, artificial intelligence, and renewable energies, while also fighting poverty and inequality, and achieving other basic demands of the peoples of the South?

    Leaders representing 71 countries of the Global South have been invited to attend the meeting in Johannesburg. Xi, Putin, Lula, Modi, Ramaphosa, and Dilma have a lot of work to do, to answer these questions and make progress on the urgent matters in global development.

    Peter Gorban (USSR), Field Camp. The Izvestiya., 1960

    Our institute continues to track these developments, neither with the belief that the BRICS project offers global salvation, nor with the cynicism that dismisses it as nothing new. History is moved, not by purity, but by the world’s contradictions.

    As these major countries of the South meet in Johannesburg, they will confront the vast inequities in South Africa. These fissures are the grist for the poems of Vonani Bila, whose voice rises out of Shirley Village (Limpopo) and reminds us of the long walk ahead, through the BRICS project and beyond:

    When the sun recedes
    into the Soutpansberg,
    Giyani Block puts on a
    black adder coat;
    a mirror of death and despair.

    Doctors and nurses stand on their feet.
    They shall not rest when the workers’ strike
    ignites its furious flame.
    They’re on tiptoe, looking up,
    wrestling the faceless, tailless monster.

  • thyssenkrupp Marine Systems and Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited sign contract for overhaul and modernization of Indian submarine INS SHANKUSH

    After thyssenkrupp Marine Systems and Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Ltd. concluded a Memorandum of Understanding in June this year for the local construction of submarines for the Indian Navy, the partners have now teamed up again for the overhaul and modernization of the Indian submarine INS SHANKUSH. INS SHANKUSH is the second submarine in a series […]

    The post thyssenkrupp Marine Systems and Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited sign contract for overhaul and modernization of Indian submarine INS SHANKUSH appeared first on Asian Military Review.

    This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.

  • Gurkha Warrior: the Untold Story of Jungle Survival during the Malaya Emergency

    A new war film following the untold story of Gurkha soldiers cut off from their platoon behind enemy lines is set to have its international premiere in Leicester Square, London, this September. Gurkha Warrior, directed by award–winning Milan Chams, is set during the Malaya Emergency, when British troops were deployed to combat a Communist insurgency […]

    The post Gurkha Warrior: the Untold Story of Jungle Survival during the Malaya Emergency appeared first on Asian Military Review.

    This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.

  • Marx, Gandhi and Primitive Accumulation: A Response to Akeel Bilgrami

    Akeel Bilgrami’s article “Gandhi and Liberal Modernity: The Vexed Question of Caste” undertakes a materialist interpretation of Gandhi’s thought against the background of capitalism and the agrarian question. Gandhi’s idealization of precapitalist communities is given “descriptive” dignity as an implicit grasp of the inapplicability of the Marxist notion of “primitive accumulation” to India. While those dispossessed by primitive accumulation in England could move to other parts of the world as a result of settler colonialism, the impoverished Indian peasantry finds itself without such avenues for migration. This historical difference creates a divergence in the process of class formation. In the metropole, the decline in the capitalist reserve army owing to massive out-migration of surplus labor improved the bargaining strength of those left behind, allowing the metropolitan working class to struggle for better living standards and improve political representation. In the periphery, on the other hand, capitalism is unable to absorb the huge reserve army of labor that has been produced due to colonial pauperization. This gives rise to a fragmented, intermittently employed working class whose ability to wage class struggle is undercut by its vast size. Through these historical facts, Bilgrami attempts to show that there is no necessary linkage between capitalist development and the establishment of a socially and politically unified space – the expansion of welfarist statism and liberal democracy in the North is a historically unique trajectory founded upon widespread destruction in the South.

    The Contingency of the Encounter

    The refutation of the supposedly linear temporality of primitive accumulation enables Bilgrami to posit Gandhi as a “social philosopher” whose normative valorization of pre-capitalist structures serves as a method of exploring alternatives to the ultimately futile dynamics of capitalist modernity. More particularly, the conception of caste as non-hierarchical heterogeneity constructs a conjectural past from which to articulate an internal moral response to monetary homogeneity. This stands in contrast to primitive accumulation, whose teleological faith in the external destruction of precapitalist structures and the subsequent dynamics of class formation (the working class acting as the “gravediggers” of capitalism) is undermined by the specificities of colonized society. Gandhi’s stance is encapsulated in the economic notion of trust, which, Bilgrami says, is aimed at maintaining responsibility within social relations. The objective is to pit the internal vitality of society against the extraneous dominance of the economy. Here, we encounter an ontological dualism in the form of the difference between society and economy. The relation between the two terms is one of hierarchical externality: it is either the harmonic stability of society subsuming the economy or the self-standing independence of economy dislocating society.

    Gandhi’s particular conception of totality transforms a particular instance of the mode of production into the fundamental essence of other instances, which are then perceived as phenomenal manifestations of a more profound content. Insofar as totality continues to be thought of in terms of a deeper structure, the mode of production becomes an invariant structure wherein there is no concrete possibility of transformation. Change can only be thought of in terms of a complete systemic collapse of the totality, evident in Gandhi’s sharp juxtaposition of precapitalist heterogeneity and capitalist homogeneity. Such a dichotomy is averted by the very concept of primitive accumulation that Bilgrami repudiates. The assumption that primitive accumulation is irreparably connected to teleological prognostication about the future cohesiveness of the working class is an illegitimate extrapolation of Marx’s writings. Instead of positing a latent structure as the essence of a totality, primitive accumulation allows us to decompose it into the complexity of a mode of production, “understood in terms of difference rather than continuity, as one social formation appropriates and abruptly reconfigures an older institution or revives various features of extant social organization by selectively recombining them to suit its own purposes.” Whereas Gandhi pictures a self-sufficient totality with an internal unfolding and resolution of all contradictions, primitive accumulation disrupts those boundaries: it can either be situated within the precapitalist mode of production, whose destruction it represents, or within the capitalist mode of production, whose emergence it brings forth. Thus, primitive accumulation is both internal and external to a specific social formation: “[i]t is…a point of passage and transition.”

    Capitalism is not equivalent with the structural regularity of an all-powerful economy. On the contrary, it is an unstable product of a contingent encounter between elements that have their own divergent histories. While Gandhi conceives of capitalism as the imposition of a series of “distorting abstractions” upon the qualitative richness of precapitalist society, Marxism understands the economic cause to exist only through the relationality of class struggle. The cause is not a stable structure underlying the effects, but is nothing other than the encounter, or relation of those effects. Instead of the eternity of a mode of production as a deeper structure, “we have the durability of social relations as reproduced social practices, always open to transformation…Structure is a relation that exists because it lasts, and lasts because it is reproduced through the material effectivity of a system of material apparatuses that guarantees this reproduction, a system that is itself conditioned by social practices and antagonistic social relations and strategies”. There is no teleology or fundamental causality that is responsible for the maintenance of structures; their persistence depends upon the balances of forces found in the antagonistic relations of the encounter, which provide the constitutive elements for the mode of production.

    With regards to India, primitive accumulation belongs to the global history of colonization, which involves the articulation of power relations in the historically plural space of concrete social formations. As the becoming-necessary of contingent encounters, capital has to confront the “counter-forces rooted in non-capitalist practices and values that resists or subvert the attempts to subordinate life, ecology, and work to the imperatives of profit and accumulation. Primitive accumulation and resistance to it form a force field, an indeterminate though not arbitrary space of antagonism and struggle, within which capitalist transformation takes on an open-ended, relational, variegated, and reversible character.” The coexistence of the abstract, structural laws of capital with the concrete density of multiform conjunctures underscores the spuriousness of the Gandhian distinction between the internality of precapitalist society and the externality of capitalist economy. Such a topological distinction as part of the “theoretical deployment of mythos” à la political philosophy is always-already effaced by the global reach of capital, which, as Bilgrami showed, externalizes its internal contradictions in the form of settler-colonialism. The error consists in regarding this externalization as a mere intrusion in the stable totality of precapitalist society, instead of seeing it as an encounter of an ensemble of relations that do not have as their final cause some abstract essence but “other relations: relations which coexist with and precede this particular ensemble of relations”. This is a relational conception of cause, in which it “is always at work on the other scene – that is, it intervenes through the mediation of its opposite. Such is the general form of the ‘ruse of reason’ (which is every bit as much the ruse of unreason): economic effects never themselves have economic causes, no more than symbolic effects have symbolic or ideological causes.”

    The worldwide operations of capitalist subsumption delineate an international valorization space that incorporates labor and land into the networks of abstract social labor and abstract social nature. The universality of this process is paralleled by the discrete historical configurations of violence and heterogeneous social forms through which primitive accumulation operates. While talking about the “local, diverse, and disconnected articulations of land and labor” that comprise the commodity and capital networks of colonial empires, Onur Ulas Ince notes: “Slave labor commanded by Atlantic plantocracies, peasant family labor commandeered by the militarized trading companies in South and Southeast Asia, industrial wage labor in Europe, and white colonial emigrant labor in Australasia coalesce into a global archipelago of accumulation. We can grasp these forms as properly belonging to the internal variegation of global capitalism, which no longer remains confined to metropolitan industrial and agrarian capitalism, but encompasses slave-plantation capitalism, company capitalism, and settler capitalism.”

    The Materiality of State Power

    By enacting policies of primitive accumulation throughout the globe, colonial empires force the subjugated people to deal with the materiality of state power. According to William Clare Roberts, Marx’s narrative of primitive accumulation is primarily concerned with explaining the unviability of the working-class separatism practiced by cooperative and mutualist movements. These movements are driven by the ideals of small-scale production, self-subsistence and familial independence, which makes it seem that “virtue, conviction, and hard work are sufficient to establish the colonies, associations, and communities out of which the new world will grow.” Marx subverts this faith by showing how primitive accumulation is based on the concentration of force in the hands of the state, which consistently combats any small-scale or decentralized petty production project. By thinking under the pressure of the capitalist conjuncture, Marx is able to extract a strategic orientation for the communist movement. The Left, instead of trying to escape from the reality of state power, has to sap it through a concrete movement of contradictions that identifies the vulnerabilities of the state. In the words of Roberts: “The magnitude of the state’s power, and the reliability with which that power is utilized to foster the conditions of capital accumulation, indicate to Marx that the workers must unite in large numbers and carry out a political struggle to dismantle the state and expropriate the capitalist class.”

    The Marxist perspective envisions a “republic without independence,” where the capitalist dissolution of the fragmented reciprocity inherent in pre-capitalist relationships is acknowledged. This acknowledgment aims to foster what Marx referred to as “world-historical, empirically universal individuals,” whose material interdependencies preempt any possibility of reverting to local autonomy. Crucially, the interdependencies being talked about here don’t refer to the progressivist linearity of the production process, whose socializing and unifying tendencies are supposed to give rise to a homogenous proletariat. Rather, interdependency refers to the contradictory and complex manner in which capitalism intertwines the world through circuits of valorization. Lenin mentioned this perverse universality of capital through his conception of imperialism, which denotes the “highest stage of capitalism” in the precise sense “that it extends the contradictions of capitalism to the furthest reaches of the world and pushes them, in the form of imperialist war, to their highest intensity”. The focus on the material interlinkages of the capital world allows us to avoid anti-modernist fantasies that pursue a precapitalist agenda of proletarian separatism. Large-scale modern economic activities – collectivization, massification, industrialization, planning etc. – are valued not because they are the automatic culmination of the capitalist dynamic but because they are superior to petty production and communitarianism. This superiority is manifest in their coordinated national and international strategies, which respond to the materiality of state power contained in primitive accumulation.

    While expanding on Ambedkar’s critique of Gandhism, Soumyabrata Choudhury remarks that Gandhi merely labels caste as an “anachronism,” as “a ‘part’ of the totality that has fallen into obsolescence and degenerated into a kind of temporal appendage of another consistent time of society”. This totality, as we have seen, is what Bilgrami christens as a “normative model” that ostensibly gives a method of mustering the internal moral resources of society against capitalist modernity. For Ambedkar, however, this precapitalist conjectural past is an “anathema”; i.e., a “wound of inconsistency at the heart of the logical object that is caste (anti)society”. The movement from “anachronism” to “anathema” indicates the annihilation of the immemorial spiritual totality that Gandhi presupposes. Why is this necessary? If Dalit suffering relates only to an “anachronistic” but deeply dehumanizing part of the totality, “then that part can be purified, or the totality can be purified of that part. This is precisely the logic which is built on the silent assumption—axiom—of the immemorial ‘true reality’ of the totality, and any change of heart must already be coded by the demands of this axiom.” This a-historical outlook is also evident in Gandhi’s idea of trust, which embeds corporations in an unchanging spiritual whole, thus replacing the militant rhythm of class struggle with the coherence of a generalized religious economy. In the caustic words of Ambedkar:

    The idea of trusteeship which Gandhism proposes as a panacea by which the moneyed classes will hold their properties in trust for the poor is the most ridiculous part of it. All that one can say about it is that if anybody else had propounded it the author would have been laughed at as a silly fool who had not known the hard realities of life and was deceiving the servile classes by telling them that a little dose of moral rearmament to the propertied classes—those who by their insatiable cupidity and indomitable arrogance have made and will always make this world a vale of tears for the toiling millions—will recondition them to such an extent that they will be able to withstand the temptation to misuse the tremendous powers which the class structure gives them over servile classes.

    To conclude, Bilgrami’s assessment of Gandhi as a philosopher-activist endowed with a perceptive “descriptive instinct” falls short in comprehending the efficacy of the concept of primitive accumulation. This concept supplants the speculative idealizations of Gandhism with the immanent tendencies of the constitutive encounter of the capitalist mode of production. While the former’s inability to comprehend the becoming-necessary of social formations leads it into the arbitrary construction of transcendental causes and abstract utopias, the latter’s appreciation of the contingent constitution of modes of production generates a revolutionary politics of the conjuncture.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • War on Food:  Science and Public Interest Halt the Push for GM Crops in India

    Between 1991 and 2016, the population of Delhi and its suburbs increased from 9.4 million to 25 million. In 2023, the World Population Review website estimates Delhi’s population to be 32.9 million. 

    In the December 2016 paper Future urban land expansion and implications for global croplands, it was projected that by 2030, globally, urban areas will have tripled in size, expanding into cropland and undermining the productivity of agricultural systems.

    Around 60% of the world’s cropland lies on the outskirts of cities. The paper states that this land is, on average, twice as productive as land elsewhere on the globe. 

    Africa and Asia will together bear 80% of the projected cropland loss due to rising urbanisation. The disappearance of this productive land will impact staple crops such as maize, rice, soya beans and wheat, which are cornerstones of global food security.   

    In South Asia, farmland can’t simply spread elsewhere because fertile land is already running out.  

    One of the paper’s authors, Felix Creutzig (currently, Professor of Sustainability Economics at the Technical University of Berlin), said at the time that, as cities expand, millions of small-scale farmers will be displaced. These farmers produce the majority of food in developing countries and are key to global food security.  

    However, what Creutzig says is not inevitable. Far from it. Urbanisation is being encouraged and facilitated by design. 

    According to the World Bank’s lending report, based on data compiled up to 2015, India was easily the largest recipient of its loans in the history of the institution. On the back of India’s foreign exchange crisis in the early 1990s, the IMF and World Bank wanted India to shift hundreds of millions out of agriculture: India was to embark on a massive rural depopulation/urbanisation project.  

    In addition, in return for up to more than $120 billion (accounting for inflation, this would be $269 billion in 2023) in loans, India was directed to dismantle its state-owned seed supply system, reduce subsidies, run down public agriculture institutions, facilitate the entry of global players and offer incentives for the growing of cash crops to earn foreign exchange. 

    The details of this plan appear in a January 2021 article by the Mumbai-based Research Unit for Political Economy (RUPE). In effect, it constitutes a massive urbanisation project and the opening of India’s agriculture sector to foreign agribusiness corporations.  

    Unsurprisingly, therefore, Felix Creutzig predicted the following:  

    As peri-urban land is converted, smallholders will lose their land. The emerging mega-cities will rely increasingly on industrial-scale agricultural and supermarket chains, crowding out local food chains.

    The RUPE says that the opening of India’s agriculture and food economy to foreign investors and global agribusinesses has been a longstanding project of the imperialist countries. 

    Industrial-scale agriculture is key to the plan. And integral to this model of farming is genetically engineered food crops – whether first generation genetically modified (GM) crops based on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) or newer techniques involving the likes of gene editing.   

    Glyphosate/GM crop approval  

    According to a recent report in the Chennai-based New Indian Express (NIE), the Indian government is likely to allow the cultivation of herbicide-tolerant (HT) GM crops. These crops have not been legalised but have been growing in India for some years. 

    The government is creating a pool of more than 4,000 ‘progressive farmers’ and ‘rural educated youths’ who can help farmers spray glyphosate on GM crops that have been genetically engineered to withstand the herbicide. These pest control officers are to spray glyphosate on behalf of farmers. 

    Glyphosate is carcinogenic and, in India, its use is officially restricted to tea crops and non-cropping areas like barren land and roadsides. The International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans” in 2015.   

    The NIE quotes a source who implies that the drive to spray glyphosate on agricultural land seems like a precursor of legalising HT GM cotton (I would add – and HT GM food crops eventually).  

    At this time, only one GM crop – Bt (insecticidal) cotton – is legalised in India.  

    The legalisation of HT GM cotton would be a key step towards opening a multi-billion-dollar market for global agritech-agrochemicals firms which have a range of HT GM food crops waiting in the pipeline.   

    Much has been written on the devastating effects that glyphosate has on health and the environment. Glyphosate-based herbicides (GBH)s formulas affect the gut microbiome and are associated with a global metabolic health crisis. They also cause epigenetic changes in humans and animals – diseases skip a generation then appear. 

    These toxic chemicals have entered the food chain and human bodies at harmful levels and are even in a range of popular children’s cereals. 

    An April 2023 study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute measured glyphosate levels in the urine of farmers and other study participants and determined that high levels of the pesticide were associated with signs of a reaction in the body called oxidative stress, a condition that causes damage to DNA and a cancer biomarker.  

    The study findings appeared after the US Centers for Disease Control reported in 2022 that more than 80% of urine samples drawn from children and adults contained glyphosate. Similar figures are found in the EU. GBHs are the world’s most widely used agricultural weedkiller. 

    There are dozens of academic studies that indicate the deleterious and disturbing effects of GBHs on human health. Rather than presenting them here, for the sake of brevity, many are listed in the online article Bathed In Pesticides: The Narrative Of Deception (2022). 

    Attorney Robert F Kennedy Jr and current presidential candidate has been involved with some of the ongoing court cases in the US that have been brought against Bayer regarding the human health damage of Monsanto’s Roundup GBH (Bayer bought Monsanto in 2018).  

    Kennedy concludes that there is cascading scientific evidence linking glyphosate to a constellation of injuries that have become prevalent since its introduction, including obesity, depression, Alzheimer’s, ADHD, autism, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, kidney and inflammatory bowel disease, brain, breast and prostate cancer, miscarriage, birth defects and declining sperm counts. 

    He adds that strong science suggests glyphosate is the culprit in the exploding epidemics of celiac disease, colitis, gluten sensitivities, diabetes and non-alcoholic liver cancer which, for the first time, is attacking children as young as 10. 

    Researchers peg glyphosate as a potent endocrine disruptor, which interferes with sexual development in children. It is also a chelator that removes important minerals from the body and disrupts the microbiome, destroying beneficial bacteria in the human gut and triggering brain inflammation and other ill effects. 

    So, why do GBHs remain on the market? It’s because of the power of the agritech/agrochemical sector and the don’t look, don’t see approach of compromised regulatory bodies: see Glyphosate: EU assessment report excludes most of the scientific literature from its analysis (2021) by GMWatch and Glyphosate in the EU: product promoters masquerading as regulators in a ‘cesspool of corruption’? (2016) in The Ecologist. 

    Consider what veteran journalist Carey Gillam says: 

    US Roundup litigation began in 2015 after the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified glyphosate as a probable human carcinogen. Internal Monsanto documents dating back decades show that the company was aware of scientific research linking its weed killer to cancer but instead of warning consumers, the company worked to suppress the information and manipulate scientific literature.

    Over the years, Monsanto mounted a deceitful defence of its health- and environment-damaging Roundup and its GM crops and orchestrated toxic smear campaigns against anyone – scientist or campaigner – who threatened its interests. 

    In 2016, campaigner Rosemary Mason wrote an open letter to European Chemicals Agency Executive Director Geert Dancet. It can be accessed on the academia.edu site.

    In it, she sets out how current EU legislation was originally set up to protect the pesticides industry and how Monsanto and other agrochemical corporations helped the EU design the regulatory systems for their own products.

    There is much at stake for the industry. According to Phillips McDougall’s Annual Agriservice Reports, herbicides made up 43% of the global pesticide market in 2019 by value. Much of the increase in glyphosate use is due to the introduction of glyphosate-tolerant soybean, maize and cotton seeds in the US, Brazil and Argentina.

    GBHs are a multi-billion-dollar money-spinning venture for the manufacturers. But this latest development in India is as much about the legalisation of a wide range of proprietary HT GM seeds and crops as it is about glyphosate because both are joined at the hip.

    Regulatory delinquency

    In India, five high-level reports have advised against the adoption of GM crops: the Jairam Ramesh Report (2010); the Sopory Committee Report (2012); the Parliamentary Standing Committee Report (2012); the Technical Expert Committee Final Report (2013); and the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science & Technology, Environment and Forests (2017).

    Given the health and environmental issues surrounding GM crops, as well as the now well-documented failure of Bt cotton in the country, it comes as little surprise that these reports advise against their adoption.

    This high-level advice also derives, in part, from GM ‘regulation’ in India being dogged by blatant violations of biosafety norms, hasty approvals, a lack of monitoring abilities, general apathy towards the hazards of contamination and a lack of institutional oversight. 

    The ‘Technical Expert Committee Final Report’ was scathing about India’s prevailing regulatory system and highlighted its inadequacies and serious inherent conflicts of interest. As we have seen with the push to get GM mustard commercialised, the problems described by the TEC persist.  

    The drive to get GM crops commercialised has been relentless, not least GM mustard. The Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC), the country’s apex regulatory body for GMOs, has pushed ahead by giving this crop the nod. However, the case of GM mustard remains stuck in the Supreme Court due to a public interest litigation lodged by environmentalist Aruna Rodrigues. 

    Rodrigues argues that GM mustard is being undemocratically forced through with flawed tests (or no testing) and a lack of public scrutiny: in other words, unremitting scientific fraud and outright regulatory delinquency. 

    This crop is also HT, which is wholly inappropriate for a country like India with its small biodiverse farms that could be affected by its application on nearby fields. 

    However, despite the ban on GM crops, in 2005, biologist Pushpa Bhargava noted that unapproved varieties of several GM crops were being sold to farmers. In 2008, Arun Shrivasatava wrote that illegal GM okra had been planted in India and poor farmers had been offered lucrative deals to plant “special seed” of all sorts of vegetables. 

    In 2013, a group of scientists and NGOs protested in India against the introduction of transgenic brinjal in Bangladesh – a centre for origin and diversity of the vegetable – as it would give rise to contamination of the crop in India. In 2014, the West Bengal government said it had received information regarding “infiltration” of commercial seeds of GM Bt brinjal from Bangladesh. 

    In 2017, the illegal cultivation of an HT GM soybean was reported in Gujarat. Bhartiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), a national farmers organisation, claimed that Gujarat farmers had been cultivating the HT crop. 

    As mentioned above, HT cotton is illegally growing in India.  

    In the 2017 paper – The ox fall down: path-breaking and technology treadmills in Indian cotton agriculture – Glenn Stone and Andrew Flachs note the tactic of encouraging farmers to abandon traditional on-farm practices, which coincides with the appearance of an increasing supply of HT GM cotton seeds.

    This is a cynical attempt to place farmers on corporate seed and chemical (glyphosate) treadmills. 

    The authors write: 

    Although India’s cotton sector has been penetrated by various input- and capital-intensive methods, penetration by herbicide has been largely stymied. In Telangana State, the main obstacle has been the practice of ‘double-lining’, in which cotton plants are spaced widely to allow weeding by ox-plow… double-lining is an example of an advantageous path for cash-poor farmers. However, it is being actively undermined by parties intent on expanding herbicide markets and opening a niche for next-generation genetically modified cotton.

    Stone and Flachs note the potential market for herbicide growth alone in India is huge. Writing in 2017, the authors note that sales could soon reach USD 800 million with scope for even greater expansion. Indeed, enormous expansion if HT GM crops become legal. 

    Friends in high places 

    Global agritech firms are salivating at the prospect of India being prised open for the introduction of GM crops. The industry has always had high-level supporters in India and abroad. And this leads back to what was stated earlier in the article – the plan to industrialise Indian agriculture at the behest of the World Bank and foreign agribusiness and the manoeuvring into position of compliant officials. 

    PM Modi proclaimed in 2014 that GM represents a good business-investment opportunity. Renowned environmentalist Vandana Shiva has highlighted the arm twisting that has gone on in an attempt to force through GMOs into India, with various politicians having been pushed aside until the dotted line for GMO open field-testing approval was signed on.  

    Back in late 2015, I co-authored a piece with then editor of The Ecologist Oliver Tickell – Rice, wheat, mustard… India drives forward first GMO crops under veil of secrecy.  

    Seventeen or more secret applications had been made to India’s GMO regulators for trials and release of GM crops, including rice, wheat, chickpeas, brinjal and mustard. In a violation of the law, regulators had released no information about the applications, raising fears that India’s first GMOs will be released with no health, safety or environmental testing. 

    It is not surprising then that calls have been made for probes into the workings of the GEAC and other official bodies, who seem to have been asleep at the wheel or deliberately looking the other way as illegal GM crop cultivation has taken place.  

    India’s first GM crop cultivation – Bt cotton – was discovered in 2001 growing on thousands of hectares in Gujarat, spread surreptitiously and illegally. Campaigner Kavitha Kuruganti said the GEAC was caught off-guard when news about large-scale illegal cultivation of Bt cotton emerged, even as field trials that were to decide whether India would opt for this GM crop were still underway. 

    In March 2002, the GEAC ended up approving Bt cotton for commercial cultivation in India. To this day, no liability has been fixed for the illegal spread. We could well be witnessing a rerun of this scenario for HT cotton and HT food crops.  

    The tactic of contaminate first then legalise has benefited industry players before. Aside from Bt cotton in India, in 2016, the US Department of Agriculture granted marketing approval of GM Liberty Link 601 (Bayer CropScience) rice variety following its illegal contamination of the food supply and rice exports. The USDA effectively sanctioned an ‘approval-by-contamination’ policy. 

    The writing could be on the wall for India. 

    Does India need GM?  

    A common claim is that GMOs are essential to agriculture if we are to feed an ever-growing global population. Supporters of GM crops argue that by increasing productivity and yields, this technology will also help boost farmers’ incomes and lift many out of poverty.  

    In a 2018 paper in the journal Current Science, eminent scientists P C Kesavan and M S Swaminathan (regarded as the ‘father of the Green Revolution’ in India) questioned the efficacy of and the need for GMOs in agriculture.

    The performance of GM crops has been a hotly contested issue and, as highlighted in Kesavan and Swaminathan’s piece and by many others, there is sufficient evidence to question their efficacy, especially that of HT crops and their shocking, devastating impact in places like Argentina.

    Kesavan and Swaminathan argue that GM is supplementary and must be need based. In more than 99% of cases, they say that time-honoured conventional breeding is sufficient. Too often, however, conventional options and innovations that outperform GM are sidelined in a rush by powerful interests to facilitate the introduction of GM crops. 

    Although India fares poorly in world hunger assessments, the country has achieved self-sufficiency in food grains and has ensured there is enough food available to feed its entire population. It is the world’s largest producer of milk, pulses and millets and the second-largest producer of rice, wheat, sugarcane, groundnuts, vegetables and fruit. 

    People are not hungry in India because its farmers do not produce enough food. Hunger and malnutrition result from various factors, including inadequate food distribution, (gender) inequality and poverty; in fact, the country continues to export food while millions remain hungry. It’s a case of ‘scarcity’ amid abundance. 

    Where farmers’ livelihoods are concerned, the pro-GMO lobby says that GM will boost productivity and help secure cultivators a better income. Again, this is misleading: it ignores crucial political and economic contexts. Even with bumper harvests, Indian farmers still find themselves in financial distress. 

    India’s farmers are not experiencing financial hardship due to low productivity. They are reeling from the effects of neoliberal policies, years of neglect and a deliberate strategy to displace most of them at the behest of the World Bank and predatory global agri-food corporations. 

    But pro-GMO supporters, both outside of India and within, along with the neoliberal think tanks many of them are associated with, have wasted no time in wrenching the issues of hunger and poverty from their political contexts to use notions of ‘helping farmers’ and ‘feeding the world’ as lynchpins of their promotional strategy.  

    The knowledge and many of the traditional practices of India’s small farmers are now recognised as sophisticated and appropriate for high-productive, sustainable agriculture. It is no surprise therefore that a 2019 FAO high-level report has called for agroecology and smallholder farmers to be prioritised and invested in to achieve global sustainable food security. It argues that scaling up agroecology offers potential solutions to many of the world’s most pressing problems, whether, for instance, climate resilience, carbon storage, soil degradation, water shortages, unemployment or food security. 

    Available evidence suggests that (non-GMO) smallholder farming using low-input methods is more productive in total output than large-scale industrial farms and can be more profitable.  

    It is for good reason that the FAO high-level report referred to earlier along with the former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food Professor Hilal Elver and numerous other papers and reports advocate agroecology call for investment in this type of agriculture. Despite the pressures, including the fact that globally industrial agriculture grabs 80% of subsidies and 90% of research funds, smallholder agriculture plays a major role in feeding the world. 

    In the introduction to a recent article, I wrote that the prevailing globalised agrifood model is responsible for increasing rates of illness, nutrient-deficient diets, a narrowing of the range of food crops, water shortages, chemical runoffs, increasing levels of farmer indebtedness, the undermining and destruction of local communities and the eradication of biodiversity.   

    Do Indian citizens want a GM/glyphosate-drenched, industrial food system that brings with it all of the above?   

    I also wrote that the model relies on a policy paradigm that privileges urbanisation, global markets, long supply chains, external proprietary inputs, highly processed food and market (corporate) dependency.   

    The solution lies in a paradigm shift that abandons the notion that urbanisation equates with ‘progress’. A shift that prioritises rural communities, small independent retail enterprises (instead of global giants like Walmart-Flipkart and Amazon) and smallholder farms, local markets, short supply chains, on-farm resources, diverse agroecological cropping, nutrient-dense diets and food sovereignty. 

    A shift that rejects the ecomodernist techno-dystopia of hyper-urbanisation, genetically engineered crops, biosynthetic food and farmerless farms and a ‘food transition’ all under the control of a big data-agritech cartel that wraps all of the above in a veneer of fake green.   

    There are alternative visions, potential outcomes and resistance that can challenge the ecomodernist agenda.   

    Instead of their eradication, creating land markets to amalgamate their land for industrial-scale mono-cropping or using vital cropland to build on, smallholder farmers and rural communities should be placed at the centre of development policies. Moreover, inspiration can be taken from the worldviews of indigenous peoples and, as anthropology professor Arturo Escobar says, the concept of Buen Viver: promoting ways of living that stress the collective well being of humans and nature and recognising the inseparability and interdependence of both. 

    For instance, India’s indigenous peoples’ low-energy, low-consumption tribal cultures are the antithesis of capitalism and industrialisation, and their knowledge and value systems promote genuine sustainability through restraint in what is taken from nature.  

    This entails a fundamental transformation in values, priorities and outlooks and a shift away from predation, imperialism, domination, anthropocentrism and plunder.  

    That’s what a genuine ‘food transition’ and Buen Viver would really mean.

    • Many of the issues mentioned in the article above are discussed in the author’s free-to-read e-book. 

    This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Colin Todhunter.

  • Moce Sri Krishnamurthi . . . sports journalist, democracy activist, storyteller and advocate

    By David Robie

    New Zealand-adopted Fiji journalist, sports writer, national news agency reporter, anti-coup activist, media freedom advocate, storyteller and mentor Sri Krishnamurthi has died. He was just two weeks shy of his 60th birthday.

    Fiji-born on 15 August 1963, just after his elder twin brother Murali, Sri grew up in the port city of Lautoka, Fiji’s second largest in the west of Viti Levu island. His family were originally Girmitya, indentured Indian plantation workers shipped out to Fiji under under harsh conditions by the British colonial rulers.

    “My grandmother, Bonamma, came from India with my grandfather and came to work in the sugar cane fields under the indentured system,” Sri recalled in a recent RNZ interview with Blessen Tom.

    Pacific Media Centre journalist Sri Krishmamurthi
    Pacific Media Centre journalist Sri Krishmamurthi . . . accredited for the 2018 Fiji elections coverage with the Wansolwara team at the University of the South Pacific. Image: David Robie/PMC

    “They lived in ‘lines’ — a row of one-room houses. They worked the cane fields from 6am to 6pm largely without a break. It was basically slavery in all but name.”

    However, the Krishnamurthi family became one of the driving forces in building up Fiji’s largest NGO, TISI Sangam.

    He made his initial mark as a journalist with The Fiji Times, Fiji’s most influential daily newspaper. However, along with many of his peers, he became disillusioned and affected with the trauma and displacement as a result of Sitiveni Rabuka’s two military coups in 1987 at the start of what became known as the country’s devastating “coup culture”.

    Sri migrated to New Zealand to make a new life, as did most of his family members, and he was active for the Coalition for Democracy (CDF) in the post-coup years. He worked as a journalist for many organisations, including the NZ Press Association, the civil service, Parliament and more recently with RNZ Pacific.

    Tana’s ‘sleepless nights’
    His last story for RNZ Pacific was about Tana Umaga ”expecting sleepless nights” as the new coach of Moana Pasifika.

    “A friend to many, he is best known in the journalism industry for his long-time stint at NZPA covering sport, and more recently for his work with the Pacific Media Centre,” said New Zealand Herald editor-at-large Shayne Currie in his Media Insider column.

    “During his NZPA career, he covered various international rugby tours of New Zealand, America’s Cups, cricket tours, the Warriors in the NRL and was also among a handful of reporters who travelled to Mexico in 1999 for the All Whites’ first-ever appearance at Fifa’s Confederations Cup.”

    Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie and Pacific Media Watch contributing editor Sri Krishnamurthi
    The Pacific Media Centre’s team working in collaboration with Internews’ Earth Journalism Network on climate change and the pandemic . . . then centre director Professor David Robie and Pacific Media Watch contributing editor Sri Krishnamurthi. Image” Del Abcede/PMC

    His mates remember him as a generous friend and dedicated journalist.

    “He enjoyed being a New Zealander, a true Kiwi if we can call someone that,” recalled Nik Naidu, an activist businessman, former journalist and trustee of the Whanau Community Centre and Hub, when speaking about his lifelong family friend at the funeral on Friday.

    “Sri was one of the few Fijians and migrants over 30 years ago who embraced Māoridom and the first nation people of our land. It is only now in New Zealand that the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi is becoming better understood by the mainstream.

    “Sri lived Te Tiriti all those years ago, and advocated for Māori and indigenous rights for so long.”

    Postgraduate studies
    I first got to know Sri in 2017 when he rolled up at AUT University and said he wanted to study journalism. I was floored by this idea. Although I hadn’t really known him personally before this, I knew him by reputation as being a talented sports journalist from Fiji who had made his mark at NZPA.

    I remember asking Sri why did he want to do journalism — albeit at postgraduate level — when he could easily teach the course standing on his head. And then as we chatted I realised that he was rebuilding his life after a stroke that he had suffered travelling from Chennai to Bangalore, India, back in 2016.

    Sri Krishnamurthi with longstanding Fiji friends
    Sri Krishnamurthi (from left) with longstanding Fiji friends media and constitutional lawyer Richard Naidu, Whānau Community Centre and Hub trustee Nik Naidu and Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre coordinator Shamima Ali sharing a joke about Coalition for Democracy in Fiji (CDF) days in Auckland in 2018.

    Well, I persuaded him to branch out in his planned Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies and tackle a range of challenging new skills and knowledge, such as digital media. And I was honoured too that he wanted to take my Asia Pacific Journalism studies postgraduate course.

    He wanted to build on his Fiji origins and expand his Pacific reporting skills, and he mentored many of his fellow postgraduates, people with life experience and qualifications but often new to journalism, especially Pacific journalism.

    I realised he was somebody rather special who had a remarkable range of skills and an extraordinary range of contacts, even for a journalist. He seemed to know everybody under the sun. And he had a friendly manner and an insatiable curiosity.

    From then he gravitated around Asia Pacific Journalism and the Pacific Media Centre. Next thing he was recruited as editor/writer of Pacific Media Watch, a media freedom project that we had been running in the centre since 2007 in collaboration with the Paris-based global watchdog Reporters Without Borders.

    In spite of his post-stroke blues, he was one of the best project editors that we ever had. He had a tremendous zeal and enthusiasm no matter what handicap was in his way. He was willing to try anything — so keen to give it a go.

    95bFM radio presenter
    Sri became the presenter of our weekly Pacific radio programme Southern Cross on 95bFM, not an easy task with his voice issues, but he gained a popular following. He interviewed people from all around the Pacific.

    Sri Krishnamurthi on 95bFM
    The Pacific Media Centre’s weekly Southern Cross radio programme on 95bFM presented by Sri Krishnamurthi. Image: David Robie/PMC

    Next challenge was when we sent him to the University of the South Pacific to join the journalism school team over there covering the 2018 Fiji General Election. We had hoped 2006 coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama would be ousted then, but he wasn’t – that came four years later last December.

    However, Sri scored an exclusive interview with the original coup leader, Sitiveni Rabuka, the man responsible for Sri fleeing Fiji and who is now Prime Minister of Fiji. Sri got the repentent former Fiji strongman to admit that he was “coerced” by the defeated Alliance party into carrying out the first coup.

    He graduated from AUT with a Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies (Digital Media) in 2019 to add to his earlier MBA at Massey University. Several times he expressed to me that his ambition was to gain a PhD and join the USP journalism programme to mentor future Fiji journalists.

    At AUT, he won the 2018 RNZ Pacific Prize for his Fiji coup coverage and in 2019 he was awarded the Storyboard Award for his outstanding contribution to diversity journalism. RNZ Pacific manager Moera Tuilaepa-Taylor tells a story about how he had declared to her at the time:  “I’m going to work for RNZ Pacific.” And he did.

    However, the following year, our world changed forever with the COVID-19 pandemic and many plans crashed. Sri and I teamed up again, this time on a Pacific Covid and Climate crisis project, writing for Asia Pacific Report.  He recalled about this venture: “The fact that we kept the Pacific Media Watch project going when other news media around us — such as Bauer — were failing showed a tenacity that was unique and a true commitment to the Pacific.”

    ‘Virtual kava bar’
    It was a privilege to work with Sri and to share his enthusiasm and friendship. He was an extraordinarily generous person, especially to fellow journalists. I was really touched when he and Blessen Tom, now also with RNZ, made a video dedicated to the Pacific Media Watch and my work.

    Sri Krishnamurthi with West Papuan communications student and journalist Laurens Ikinia
    Sri Krishnamurthi with West Papuan communications student and journalist Laurens Ikinia in Newmarket in 2022. Image: Nik Naidu/APR

    Nik Naidu shares a tale of Sri’s generosity with a group of West Papuan students last year when their Indonesian government suddenly pulled their scholarships and left them in dire straits. AUT postgraduate communications Laurens Ikinia was their advocate, trying to get their visas extended and fundraising for them to complete their studies.

    “Many people don’t know this, but Lauren’s rent was late by a year — more than $3000 — and Sri organised money and paid for this. That was Sri, deep down the kindest of souls.”

    During his Pacific Media Watch stint, Sri wrote several generous profiles of regional colleagues, including The Pacific Newsroom, the “virtual kava bar” news success founded by Pacific media veterans Sue Ahearn and Michael Field, and also of the expanding RNZ Pacific newsroom team with Koroi Hawkins appointed as the first Melanesian news editor.

    "Man in a black hat" - Sri Krishnamurthi
    “Man in a black hat” . . . a self image published by Sri Krishnamurthi with his 2020 dealing with a stroke article. Image: Sri Krishnamurthi

    But he struggled at times with depression and his journalism piece that really stands out for me is an article that he wrote about living with a stroke for three years. It was scary but inspirational and it took huge courage to write. As he wrote at the time:

    “You learn new tricks when you have a stroke – words associated with images, or words through the process of elimination worked for me. And then there was the trusted old Google when you couldn’t be bothered.

    “You learn to use bungee shoelaces or Velcro shoes because tying shoelaces just won’t happen. The right arm is bung and you are back to typing with two fingers – as I’m doing now. At the same time, technology is your biggest ally.”

    Sri Krishnamurthi died last week on August 2 — way too early. He was a great survivor against the odds. Moce, Sri, your friends and colleagues will fondly remember your generous spirit and legacy.

    Dr David Robie is a retired journalism professor and founding director of the AUT Pacific Media Centre. He worked with Sri Krishnamurthi for six years as an academic mentor, friend and journalism colleague. This was article is published under a community partnership with RNZ.

    RNZ Pacific manager Moera Tuilaepa-Taylor (from left) with Sri Krishnamurthi
    RNZ Pacific manager Moera Tuilaepa-Taylor (from left), Sri Krishnamurthi, TVNZ Fair Go’s Star Kata and Blessen Tom, now working with RNZ, at the 2019 AUT School of Communication Studies awards. Photo: Del Abcede/APR

  • Disability Rights and Gender Inclusivity: Why the Indian Government Should Revisit Their Disability Policies

    In India, recognition of the role of gender identities in preservation of human rights, both in the context of judicial interpretation and cultural acceptance, began to gain significance since the verdict of NALSA v. Union of India came out in 2014. However, India falls short in addressing the emerging intersectional tangents in the arena of human rights. Even though disability rights began to gain recognition internationally as early as in 1975, The Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights And Full Participation) Act was passed in India in 1995. Several critiques cropped up against the Act, regarding the insufficient legal protection associated with, inter alia, public employment and the non-inclusion of specific rights to women with disabilities. However, the amended version of the same Act came into effect, after a delayed period of about 21 years, in the year 2016, with the title Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act.  

    Gender and disability were not considered as interconnected to each other until the culmination of the Mexico Report in the first World Conference of the International Women’s Year, 1975 (Bantekas, Stein and Anastasiou, 2018). Eventually, this conceptualization influenced the formulation of the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) which, in turn, formed the foundational basis for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act of 2016 in India. However, what we need to understand here is that gender is not limited to a binary connotation (Bantekas, Stein and Anastasiou, 2018).

    World Health Organisation emphasizes that gender is shaped through cultural intervention and sex is a biological phenomenon limited to the natural laws (WHO).  This has led to recognising gender as isolated from the confined parameters of sex. Some individuals who do not feel that their gender is aligned with their sex often experience distress and trauma while coming to terms with this reality (Buckwalter, 2017). There has been much debate on identifying gender dysphoria as a disability under the American Disabilities Act of 1990 but this move is still under contention (Levy and Barry, 2021). There have been similar discussions and contemplations in other places such as in Australia​ (Bell, 2015)​, Japan and China ​(Blom, 2016)​  with regards to the intersection of disability rights and gender inclusion. India has a long way to go.

    Where Are The Indian Policies Ignorant?

    The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016 (RPWD) rightfully highlights ‘women and children with disabilities’ as a special class of disabled individuals requiring additional protection, but there is absence of any special provision signifying the need for addressing disability rights of persons who identify as genderqueer, transgender or intersex. They are regularly subjected to aggravated discrimination and violence (UCLA, 2021). Moreover, only the two prevalent sexes – male and female – have been identified by the Government of India for disability census (NSO, 2021). With the intersection of disability, gender non-conforming disabled people become one of the most vulnerable groups in Indian society.  RPWD has followed the United Nations Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which also address the intersection of gender and disability rights in the context of the two conventionally recognised genders: Men and Women. Therefore, the exclusion of a gender inclusive provision or terminology in RPWD seems to have a basis. .

    However, as has been emphasised in the Act and the Convention, the responsibility to come out with effective legislation for preventing discrimination against all kinds of persons with disabilities vests with the State. The State has the duty to ensure a holistic implementation of the objective of the rules and regulations laid down in CRPD. Supreme Court cases of Rajive Raturi v. Union of India (2017) and Disabled Rights Group v. Union of India (2017) have rightfully highlighted the above-mentioned observation. This is where the Indian Government’s legislative conundrums come to the forefront.

    One of the most problematic and flawed legislation of India finds its recognition in the provisions of the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act, 2019. The Act provides erroneous definitions of the term, ‘transgender’, forming the very basis of the legislation. The definition of the term ‘transgender’ under section 2(k) of the Act defines transgender persons as not only those individuals who do not identify with the biological sex assigned at birth but also individuals with ‘intersex variations’. Individuals who identify as transgender are those who do not feel their sex is aligned with their gender but individuals with intersex variations are born with “a reproductive or sexual anatomy which doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male”. (Koopman, 2017). As discussed earlier, WHO’s premise of treating sex as the biological phenomenon and gender as the cultural one can be seen to have a distorted implementation in this legislation as it treats sex and gender under the same umbrella. Transgender people cannot be defined to have intersex variations as a matter of fact, but they may also have such variations. Furthermore, Section 15 of the Act, which specifically highlights the government’s responsibilities in provision of adequate health services to transgender individuals, does not cover provisions to transgender people with disabilities.

    Apart from this, even though the Indian Domestic Violence Act of 2005 recognizes intimate partner violence against women, it categorically excludes similar instances of family and partner violence in cases of other individuals belonging to the LGBTQ+ community. Such individuals are, quite frequently, subjected to acts of violence by their partners and other family members. Furthermore, there are no provisions specifically addressing disability rights in the context of intimate partner violence even though that has been considered as an integral arena of concern in the field of disability rights (Smith, 2008).

    Conclusion

    The existing laws and policies surrounding disability rights in India are not equipped to deal with instances of violation of such rights in cases of individuals belonging to the LGBTQ+ communities. As highlighted earlier, the very legislative definition of the term ‘transgender’ in India is flawed. None of the above-mentioned legislation includes any provision holistically addressing the intersection of gender inclusivity and disability rights. The current legal scenario of this intersectional parameter seems to be lacking substantially in India. In a very recent and landmark judgment of Patan Jamal Vali v. State of Andhra Pradesh (2021), Justice D.Y Chandrachud, even though he emphasized the need for addressing intersectional parameters,  in the context of women with disabilities, his observations apply to all. Every individual of any gender, with any kind of recognised disability, are entitled to special protection by the State for reasons stated above. 

    Bibliography

    Bantekas, I., Stein, M. and Anastasiou, D., 2018. The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 1st ed. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, pp.172-173.

    Bell, F., 2015. Children with Gender Dysphoria and the Jurisdiction of the Family Court. University of Wallongong Law Journal, 32(2), pp. 426-454.

    Blom, R. M., 2016. Body integrity identity disorder crosses culture:. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, p. 1419 to 1423.

    Levi, J. and Barry, K., 2022. Embracing the ADA: Transgender People and Disability Rights. [online] Blog.harvardlawreview.org. Available at: <https://blog.harvardlawreview.org/embracing-the-ada-transgender-people-and-disability-rights/> [Accessed 24 July 2022].

    Koopman, S., 2022. Intersex vs Transgender: Here’s What You Need To Know. [online] HuffPost UK. Available at: <https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2017/02/08/intersex-vs-transgender-heres-what-you-need-to-know_a_21709480/> [Accessed 24 July 2022].

    Liang, T. 2017. An Analysis of Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble. London: Macat International Ltd.

    Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation, Government of India, National Statistics Office. (2021) Persons with Disabilities (Divyangjan) in India – A Statistical Profile: 2021.

    Pacific Standard. 2022. When Disability Rights Are Trans Rights. [online] Available at: <https://psmag.com/social-justice/next-frontier-fight-for-trans-rights> [Accessed 24 July 2022].

    Smith, D., 2007. Disability, Gender, and Intimate Partner Violence: Relationships from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Sexuality and Disability, 26(1), pp.15-28.

    WHO, n.d. Gender and Health. [Online]
    Available at: https://www.who.int/health-topics/gender#tab=tab_1

    Williams Institute. 2022. Transgender people over four times more likely than cisgender people to be victims of violent crime. [online] Available at: <https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/press/ncvs-trans-press-release/> [Accessed 24 July 2022].

    This post was originally published on LSE Human Rights.

  • Muharram processions, Majlis being held across the world including the US with religious reverence

    New York: Mournful processions and Majalis of Muharram-ul-Haram are being held across the world including the United States,with Muslim devotees paying homage to Imam Hussain (AS) and his loyal companions who rendered their lives in the soil of Karbala for the noble cause of humanity, justice and restoration of the glory of Islam.

    The Muharram-ul-Haram gatherings and mourning processions are also being held with devotion and respect in Africa, Middle East, Iran, South Asia including Pakistan and India.

    The main Muharram procession in Dallas and Houston will be held downtown on the 10th of Muharram, July 28, while the series of congregations will continue in various imambargahs and private residences.

    A large number of Muslim devotees of Imam Hussain (AS), the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad PBUH, (the last messenger of Allah Almighty) participated in the Muharram gatherings at Houston’s Al-Ghadeer Imambargah, Dalles’ Imambargah Momin Center and Dar-e-Hussain.

    While series of Majalis also being organized wherein Zakirs and religious scholars are describing the incident of Karbala.

    Azadar echoed like Labbaik Ya Hussain everywhere, participating in these gatherings organized in memory of the great sacrifice of the grandson of Prophet Muhammad.

    Mourning events are ongoing in many other cities of Texas, the largest state of America, including Houston and Dallas.

    Men, women and children are actively participating in these meetings.

    The post Muharram processions, Majlis being held across the world including the US with religious reverence first appeared on VOSA.

    This post was originally published on VOSA.

  • Safran and HAL to form joint venture company to co-design and produce new generation helicopter engines in India

    Safran Helicopter Engines and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) have decided  to set up their new joint venture company in Bangalore, India. It will be dedicated to the design, development, production, sales and support of helicopter engines, with first objective to build the most adequate propulsion solution for the Indian Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) future 13-ton […]

    The post Safran and HAL to form joint venture company to co-design and produce new generation helicopter engines in India appeared first on Asian Military Review.

    This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.

  • Journalist Ravish Kumar’s fight for truth in Modi’s India


    This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Electricity consumption to surge in India, China amid heat wave, drought

    Growth in global demand for electricity is expected to slow down in 2023 due to falling electricity consumption in advanced economies, while strong growth is observed in developing and emerging economies like China and India, a report released by a Paris-based energy watchdog said Wednesday.

    The increasing global electricity demand is being driven by the electrification of energy systems gaining momentum as part of the ongoing efforts to decrease global emissions, the International Energy Agency said in its latest Electricity Market report.

    Additionally, with rising temperatures, there is a notable surge in the adoption of air conditioning, further straining world power systems, especially since summers with extreme temperatures are becoming more frequent in many regions.

    “The world’s need for electricity is set to grow strongly in the years to come,” Keisuke Sadamori, the IEA’s director for energy markets and security, said in a statement.

    “And we’re encouraged to see renewables accounting for a rising share of electricity generation, resulting in declines in the use of fossil fuels for power generation.”

    Electricity demand is set to drop to the lowest level in 20 years in the European Union, while it will slow down in the United States and Japan, largely due to the ongoing effects of the global energy crisis and an economic slowdown, the report said.

    The IEA said renewable energy’s contribution to global electricity generation will surpass one-third by next year. Moreover, if favorable weather conditions persist, 2024 might be the first year when renewables outpace coal in worldwide electricity generation.

    Growth and drought pressures Chinese grid

    Following a modest 3.7% yearly rise in electricity demand in 2022, China is projected to experience a 5.3% surge in 2023, according to the IEA.

    Despite the economic recovery not matching some initial expectations after the relaxation of strict pandemic measures, electricity demand is expected to receive an additional boost due to rising cooling requirements during the summer of 2023.

    In 2024, China’s electricity demand will grow at 5.1%, the IEA said.

    As of 2022, 30% of the world’s hydropower generation was in China but the country suffered from droughts in 2022 and 2023, which decreased hydropower output by 23% in the first half of 2023. 

    That means more coal-fired generation to fill the gap, estimated to have increased by almost 8% in the first half of 2023 amid significant growth in demand. 

    The IEA said coal-fired output will likely increase by 4.5% over the rest of the year and then stay roughly flat in 2024, as strong growth in renewables and nuclear power help  tackle reliance on coal. 

    Wind generation grew by about 20% in the first half of this year, supported by installed capacities and favorable weather growth. 

    ENG_ENV_ElectricityConsumption_07192023.2.jpg
    Migrant workers carrying shovels walk to have lunch near a construction site in Beijing, China, April 18, 2011. Credit: AP

    According to the China Electricity Council, peak electricity demand is projected to reach 1,370 Gigawatts in 2023, an 80 GW increase compared to 2022, with the maximum power load expected to rise by an additional 20 GW in the event of extreme weather.

    To prepare for potential large-scale power outages, China conducted its first emergency drill in collaboration with the National Energy Administration and regional governments from East China in June 2023, with various stakeholders participating, including energy regulators, power grid and generation companies, the Shanghai subway network, hospitals and the chemical industry.

    India sees rising demand due to cooling requirements

    In 2022, India experienced a remarkable 8.4% surge in electricity demand due to a robust post-pandemic recovery and intense heat waves. 

    The strong growth trend is projected to continue in 2023, at 6.8% and 6.1% in 2024, when India’s electricity consumption is expected to surpass that of Japan and South Korea combined. 

    According to the IEA, the rising usage of household appliances, a growing reliance on electrical machinery, increasing adoption of electric vehicles, and the expansion of cooling systems all contribute to the sustained growth in India’s electricity needs.

    In March, India’s Central Electricity Authority said that certain sub-regions might face power supply deficits ranging from 4% to 11.3% of their respective peak demand, which could be balanced to some extent since the regions are expected to experience this at different times. 

    India is anticipated to possess a slim 0.7% surplus to fulfill peak electricity demand, which is estimated to be around 230 GW. This indicates a precarious supply situation. Notably, in June 2023, there was already a peak demand of 223 GW, driven by escalating temperatures.

    ENG_ENV_ElectricityConsumption_07192023.1.jpg
    A worker quenches his thirst next to power lines as a heatwave continues to lash the Indian capital, New Delhi on May 2, 2022. Credit; AP


    Though India installed robust solar generation capacity, it is not enough for evening peaks when the sun is not shining, but temperatures remain high. 

    The IEA said India recorded a 3.8% increase in coal-fired generation in the first half of 2023 due to strong demand growth and reduced hydropower output, which decreased by 8%. It is likely to continue increasing until 2024.

    With heat waves expected to cause surges in peak demand due to increased cooling, the government ordered coal plants to run at full capacity from mid-March until the end of September to increase the security of supply. 

    Edited by Mike Firn.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Subel Rai Bhandari for RFA.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • RNZ launches new initiative to tell stories of Asian communities in NZ

    RNZ News

    From today readers of rnz.co.nz will see a change to the home page, and a new initiative to tell the stories of Aotearoa New Zealand’s Asian community.

    RNZ.co.nz has added a lineup of four sections which focus on the growing communities of Aotearoa and are placed right at the top of the home page.

    Elevated links have been added to RNZ’s existing Te Ao Māori and Pacific sections.

    RNZ has also launched two new sections for Chinese and Indian New Zealanders and added them at the top of the home page as well.

    Public Interest Journalism Fund
    PUBLIC INTEREST JOURNALISM FUND

    The sections are part of a new initiative to speak to and report on issues in the growing Asian communities of New Zealand.

    The new Indian section features original stories in English by specialist reporters.

    The Chinese section has stories in the simplified Chinese script. Original stories are there as well as translations of RNZ news stories of interest to the Chinese community.

    NZ On Air survey
    RNZ is starting with the simplified script and will then scope whether it is feasible and useful to translate using the traditional script as well.

    The different approaches are a response to a NZ On Air survey which found the Indian and Chinese communities had different language needs and approaches to seeking out news.

    This is one of RNZ’s first steps into daily translated news. Before the launch, RNZ put systems in place to make sure it is getting translations right. The stories are double, and triple checked.

    RNZ is also asking for feedback to make sure it is getting it right on each story and will conduct regular independent audits to make sure our translations are on track. RNZ is keen for feedback.

    The new Indian and Chinese sections are a result of a two-year collaboration with NZ On Air. The unit of reporters and translators is being funded for the first year through the Public Interest Journalism Fund; the second year will be funded by RNZ, with a right of renewal after that.

    Stories from the Asian unit will also be made available to more than 40 media organisations across the country and the Pacific.

    RNZ believes that it is vital that RNZ supplies news to many different communities within Aotearoa New Zealand.

    The Asian population in New Zealand is growing fast, particularly in Auckland.

    In 2018, Asian New Zealanders made up 15 percent of the New Zealand population. The two largest groups are the Chinese and Indian New Zealanders, with about 250,000 people each.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hindutva Goes to Washington: Narendra Modi’s US Visit

    Again, he was at it, that charming show on two legs, playful and coy.  Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been burning the charismatic fuel of late, making the necessary emissions in visiting friendly countries.  Each time, he seems to be getting away with more and more, currying (pun intended) favour with his hosts and landing the necessary deals.

    For all the excitement of going to a fellow cricket loving state such as Australia, no one was under any illusion about the prize.  Easy gains there on matters of commerce, education and security: a pliant PM, a pliant Cabinet, a political and business class hungering for access to a country which recently passed China as the most populous on the planet.  In all of this, Modi had the audacity to urge Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to do something about reported acts of vandalism against Hindu temples in Melbourne.

    In scale, nothing was going to compare to courting the superpower that, for all its might, teeters.  On his June visit to the United States, Modi was building on earlier efforts to show India as a viable partner in a number of areas.

    The Modi visit exemplified the calculations of the moment.  The US has been rather clumsy of late, engaging in a foreign policy described by former US Secretary of the Treasury, Lawrence Summers, as “a bit lonely”.  US foreign policy makers have tended to miss a bit or two, not least understanding the value Indian officials place on their military relationship with Moscow.  The Indian political establishment is also mindful about how useful New Delhi is seen in Washington, the traditional counter to Beijing. That counter, however, is seen as subordinate to maintaining US supremacy under the lecturing guise of the “rules-based order”.

    Such poses are simply not acceptable in either the Modi worldview or those of Indian policy makers.  As India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has opined with a tart frankness, Washington’s power can be described as “a transient moment of American unipolarity”.  To assume, arrogantly, that history was at its end at the conclusion of the Cold War was a “Eurocentric analysis” jettisoned by nationalism. It is exactly such nationalism that Modi brims with.

    The joint statement from the two countries made familiar, and predictable assumptions.  Much of it was frothy.  Both Biden and Modi “affirmed a vision of the United States and India as among the closest partners in the world – a partnership of democracies looking into the 21st century with hope, ambition, and confidence.”  Naturally, there is no mention of Modi’s nationalistic sectarianism, the Hindutva brand of policy that tolerates, or at least gives a rather generous nod, to communal violence, the repression of Muslim protesters, and an overall atmosphere of terror that has seen journalists murdered for rebuking the BJP government.

    Cutthroat business remains business, and the parties see technology as the aphrodisiac to their newly bloomed relationship, manifested by the Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) announced in January 2023.  “The leaders recommitted the United States and India to fostering an open, accessible, and secure technology ecosystem, based on mutual confidence and trust that reinforces our shared values and democratic institutions.”

    In his second address to Congress, Modi spruiked the notion that New Delhi and Washington had forged “a defining partnership of this century”, glorifying in the advances made by the Indian economy and technology, including strivings in healthcare.  “A lot has changed since I came here seven summers ago but a lot has remained the same – like our commitment to deepen the friendship between India and the United States.”

    Various remarks followed, many sitting uncomfortably with the truth.  “India’s democratic values (are such that) there’s absolutely no discrimination neither on the basis of caste, creed, age or any kind of geographic location.”  The same theme is repeated regarding women.  “India’s vision is not just the development which benefits women – it is of women-led development where women lead the journey of progress.”

    In all this foamy self-celebration, it was hard to forget that Modi was banned from travelling to the United States in 2005 while he was still Gujarat Chief Minister.  The decision was based on Modi’s failure to prevent particularly vicious riots in his state in 2002, leading to over a thousand deaths.  The US State Department’s reasoning for denying a visa lay in the International Religious Freedom Act, a 1998 law passed by Congress designed, in principle, to combat religious persecution.

    On getting wind that the then Chief Minister was going to be visiting the US, a number of Indian-American groups, including the Indian American Muslim Council, began a lobbying campaign with some zeal and ultimate success.  Katrina Lantos Swett, Vice Chairwoman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, a body created by the 1998 statute, explained at the time that Modi would not be “granted the privilege of a US visa because of the very serious doubts that remain and hang over Modi relative to his role in the horrific events of 2002 in Gujarat.”

    On this occasion, the opposition was present, though less effective. Democratic House Representatives Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Cori Bush and Kweisi Mfume chose to boycott Modi’s address to Congress.  A statement by Tlaib, Bush, Omar and Jamaal Bowman, in noting the Indian PM’s role in the bloody Gujarat riots, mentioned his government’s appetite for targeting “Muslims and other religious minorities”, enabling “Hindu nationalist violence”, undermining democracy, targeting journalists and dissidents, and suppressing criticism through using internet shutdowns and censorship.

    In 2023, Modi had little reason to fear either rebuke from the Biden administration, or censure from Congress.  India is now seen as more useful than ever, and its canny leader does not need lecturing about his own band of dangerous religious authoritarianism.  Best, then, to drop the democratic values act, a show that is becoming increasingly absurd.


    This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Binoy Kampmark.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Navantia eyes Indian SSK requirements

    Spanish shipbuilder Navantia will team up with India’s Larsen & Toubro (L&T) to offer the Isaac Peral (S-80)-class diesel-electric submarine (SSK) design for India’s Project-75 (India) or P-75(I) programme, it was announced on 10 July. Under this arrangement, Navantia would carry out the design of the Indian Navy’s P-75(I) submarines based on S-80 SSK design […]

    The post Navantia eyes Indian SSK requirements appeared first on Asian Military Review.

    This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.

  • Beyond the Raj: How British Colonialism Continues to Impact Human Rights in India

    Introduction: Are Human Rights Universal?

    The concept of human rights predates the current system, which was established in 1945 with the creation of the United Nations (Mende, 2019). “Universal human rights theory holds that human rights apply to everyone simply by virtue of their being human” (Nasr, 2016), but cultural relativism maintains that these rights are neo-imperialistic. “They originated in the West, reflect Western interests and are, therefore…a new form of imperialism” (Shaheed & Richter, 2018). For the sake of this essay, I will answer ‘Are human rights universal?’ through a simple yes/no dichotomy. If one takes the perspective that, whilst human rights principles cannot be applicable to all state behaviour, the general idea of justice transcends cultural boundaries and is not solely confined to Western society (Sundaramoorthy, 2016), then we can take human rights as “standards that recognise and protect the dignity of all human beings” (UNICEF, 2015). Any culturally relativistic narrative, one could argue, thus rejects how injustices are familiar to all cultures, and it is this collective experience which constitutes an authoritative foundation on which to define ‘human rights’ (Shaheed & Richter, 2018).

    But post-colonialist readings transcend the mere definition of human rights. As Barbra Heron (2007) indicates, post-colonialism is an appropriate framework for this study because it traces the ‘colonial continuities’ of contemporary movements, namely ‘human rights’. If we believe that human rights are more than a Western abstraction, they should have a universal application, that is indivisible and inclusive. Critical accounts, however, point to a propensity to overemphasise human rights abuses in the Global South and construct a non-Western ‘other’ that requires saving by Western states (Mende, 2019). I will examine British colonialism’s contemporary consequences on the human rights of marginalised communities (including women and LGBTQ+ people), arguing that a tendency to impose imperial laws, cultures and norms on colonised nations has created generations with oppressed rights (Conklin, 1998).

    Women’s Rights and Decolonising Western Feminism

    After the British Monarchy colonised India in 1858, an ambition to ‘civilise the barbaric natives’ motivated many legal and social reforms. Post-colonial feminists have insisted that an emphasis on the interests of colonial rulers, native elite males and British women only frustrated the interests of Indian women, who are still arguably oppressed two-fold, first by imperialist legacies and second by patriarchal norms. Many scholars have deemed this ‘civilising’ mission as a way of emasculating Indian men by claiming that they were incapable of caring for their own women, and this struggle for political dominance was being waged on the backs of Indian women (Wright & Chitnis, 2007). With Victorian notions of womanhood (including chastity, innocence and passiveness) came patriarchal and protectionist policies, persisting in modern society. While possible to make the compelling case that Western enlightenment contributed to the abolishment of child marriages, sati, purdah and other patriarchal customs including prohibition of the remarriage of widows, this colonial saviourism still permeates contemporary ‘human rights’ thinking, stifling the rights of previously colonised people. “The British had set themselves the noble task of reforming the barbaric Indian male, a fictional character that they had, in large part, created” (Wash & Lee, 2007). But British imperialists were not all men. According to Antoinette Burton, middle-class British feminists referred to Indian women as “a helpless, degraded victim of religious custom and uncivilised cultural practises” (2000) who were in need of imperial saviours’ intervention.

    The feminist movement needs to be decolonised in order for women in the Global South to achieve the ‘human rights’ that Western women enjoy. During colonial times, “it was the ‘White Man’s Burden‘ to protect Indian women from ‘uncivilised and barbaric practices‘, and Indian men wanted to protect their women from foreigners” (Bhattar, 2022). Women have been seen as “unresisting, inert and passive objects” (Bhattar, 2022) for generations as a result of these historical struggles, and this thinking has modern consequences, with the first waves of feminism monopolised by white women in the West, excluding the ‘submissive, uneducated’ women of colour from the East. Saris were traditionally worn bare beneath due to India’s hot humid climate. However, the British (viewing Indians through an oriental lens) considered this indecent and introduced blouses. While the blouse liberated white women from corsets in Europe, it also forced its standard of public decorum on and institutionally sexualised Indian women. When considered alongside neo-liberal ‘white feminism’, with liberation attitudes leading numerous hijab and burqa bans across Europe, we can see that colonialism has contributed to an inherently oppressive structure of ‘saving’ women of colour by imposing Western attitudes on them (Ezaydi & Chalabi, 2021). As Cole (2012) finds, “the white saviour complex is not about justice” but “validat[ing] privilege.” In order for women in formerly colonised nations to protect their human rights, we must promote the intersectional feminism of Crenshaw that rejects saviourism, respects cultural difference, and moves towards true solidarity. The White Saviour Complex is a “colonial continuity” which has survived the demise of colonialism and is restated in human rights activism, particularly women’s rights.

    LGBTQ+ Rights and the Legacy of Homophobic Legislation 

    According to Human Rights Watch, “more than half of the world’s remaining ‘sodomy’ laws criminalising consensual homosexual conduct are relics of British colonial rule” (Whitehead, 2017). Before British colonisation, homosexuality was not illegal in India – up until September 2018, it was illegal under Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code. This was part of the British reform mission, superimposing Victorian ideas of sexual morality on India. Section 377 served as a political tool to reassert colonial authority after the Indian Rebellion of 1857, especially over ‘deviant’ groups within society (Reddy, 2010). “While the hijras have been part of South Asia for thousands of years, their identity stood at odds with Western morality and conception of gender” (Hunter, 2019), and the intolerance of the state and society towards transgender people has persisted to this day. Transgender discrimination ranges from impediments in accessing education, employment and healthcare, to harassment, arbitrary arrests and sexual violence (Banerjie, 2018). Evidence of a culture accepting of sexual fluidity dates back to the ancient Sanskrit texts of 8th BCE and the Mughal erotic canon in 17th CE (Benton, 2002). According to Foucault, “bodies are controlled through discipline over centuries, by repressing…sexuality” (Young, 1995), seen in the body policing imposed by colonial rule, which pathologized non-heteronormative behaviours. We must also recognise that colonial legacies are not simply undone by reversing these laws. Despite Hindus embracing diverse gender and sexual identities as far back as the Vedic period (around 4000 BC), sexual and gender minorities in India face constant discrimination. In ‘Orientalism’, Said examines how the West constructed ideas about the East as inferior to create these power relations which still disempower previously colonised populations today. Just as they created societal conventions of Indian women as meek and unassuming, to justify imperial interventions, they imposed Western, Judeo-Christian sexual norms on India’s fluid gender and sexual conventions. Most ironic, perhaps, is that twenty years after granting India independence, Section 377 was overturned in Britain, a move that was applauded by human rights activists despite its criminalising of homosexuality in 42 former colonies.

    Enze Han, author of “British Colonialism and the Criminalization of Homosexuality,” said that the British “had this conception that the ‘Orient’, the non-Western subjects, were overly erotic” (2018), the same Victorian morality that contributed to the subjugation of Indian women. The conservative attitudes of former colonies are illustrative of the long-term effects of British prohibitions on local opinions, including opinions on gay sex which have contributed to a rise in hate crime in the Global South. Indian LGBT activist, Jyoti, argued that same-sex communities loathed the law because it was “alien” and had not “organically developed in [Indian] society” (Westcott, 2018) but was imposed by colonial powers, inviting discrimination, harassment and assault that harmed the human rights of gay Indians. But others argue that homophobia predates the British empire, with Robert Meyers saying “Saudi Arabia, Iran and Ethiopia were never colonised, and are virulently homophobic countries” (Hinton, 2022). More striking is how political leaders (including India’s ‘Hindutva’ government) have, in recent decades, “defended those laws as citadels of cultural authenticity, with homosexuality coming from the colonizing West” (Human Rights Watch, 2008), despite the fact that the West brought in the first laws enabling governments to forbid and repress it. A stronger perspective, therefore, is that homophobia and sexism are primitive systems that were not created by colonialism but rather exacerbated by it. This has wide-reaching consequences on the ability of these groups to fight for their human rights, manipulating societal norms, laws, and conventions.

    Rising Economic Inequality and India’s Rural Poor

    Unemployment, famine, poor sanitary conditions, lack of access to education and healthcare, caste-based oppression, religious violence and gender-based violence are all a part of the legacy of colonialism. In 40 years, between 1880 and 1920, British colonialism killed 100 million Indians and, according to research by economic historian, Robert Allen, extreme poverty in India increased under British rule, from 23% in 1810 to more than 50% in the mid-20th century. Allen and other scholars argue that prior to colonialism, Indian living standards may have been “on a par with the developing parts of Western Europe” (Sullivan, 2022). British colonial policies facilitated the exploitation of India’s wealth and resources, which resulted in widening socioeconomic disparities. The economic inequality in India today can be traced back to the colonial period, “affecting access to basic services, education, and healthcare, and impeding the realization of economic and social rights” (Oxfam, 2022). Gaps have widened between the propertied and the property-less, with British India’s institutional and commercial policy making the rich Indians richer and the poor poorer, something that has persisted to this day.

    This is especially true for India’s rural poor, whose human rights are increasingly vulnerable. The introduction of the Zamindari system, where “peasants were often forced to pay exorbitant rents and taxes to zamindars” (Balaji, 2023), often led to oppressive practises and increased poverty among peasants, with an emphasis on cash crops and commercial agriculture causing populations today to be susceptible to rural shocks as well as exacerbating contemporary cycles of poverty and debt. Deindustrialisation and an emphasis on British manufactured goods contributed to this unemployment and poverty. India’s rural poor “are vulnerable…marginalized, voiceless, and victim of multiple social circumstances” (Bhadra, 2021). Today, the top 10% of the Indian population holds 77% of the total national wealth, making it one of the most unequal countries in the world, with economic inequality adding to a society that is “already fractured along the lines of caste, religion, region and gender” (Himanshu, 2018). This increases laborers’ risk of falling victims to poverty traps, stifling their basic human right to liveable wages, safe working conditions, and basic services. However, research by economic historian, Roy, found inconclusive evidence for this claim, stating that the fortunes of the propertied class actually fell (Kwatra, 2018). Nevertheless, one cannot deny that colonial societies entailed huge inequalities in political agency, as well as in social and economic opportunities, if only along the racial divide between European and autochthonous populations.

    The Right to Self-Determination in Jammu and Kashmir 

    Arguably one of the gravest forms of human rights violation is the deprivation of a people’s right to self-determination (to freely choose their sovereignty), as it affects a whole nation. In 1960, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, which proclaimed that all people had a right to self-determination. This specifically emphasised the connection between the right to self-determination and peoples of colonised territories, as both self-determination and the existence of colonial continuities cannot be mutually inclusive. Jammu and Kashmir, the land between India and Pakistan, has been subject to dispute since the partition of 1947, where British viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, stated that a referendum would take place to decide where Kashmir should accede to; this referendum never took place. A UN plebiscite in 1948 left out the right of Kashmiris to become an autonomous state and numerous human rights violations have taken place in the region, including over 100,000 people dead, 3,400 people missing, sexual violence and armed insurgency. Third World advocates, like Georges Abi-Saab, tend to see the right to self-determination as the most fundamental right and “a prerequisite for individual minority rights” (Abdullah, 2006). According to the uti possidetis principle, colonial borders ‘freeze’ at the time of independence, in the absence of a treaty. While convenient for colonising powers to acquit themselves and grant independence quickly, this has created political instability and bloody conflict in previously colonised nations. In Kashmir, it has also given rise to a new type of colonialism – settler-colonialism – with the new Domicile Order granting half a million non-Kashmiris residency status, with the aim of fostering a new Kashmiri identity through displacement and exploitation. Colonialism has thus given rise to new human rights violations, sparking new rivalries for power and upholding oppressive social structures.

    Conclusion: Everything is Connected to Colonial Heritage

    It is obvious that colonialism – specifically, the British Empire – has had severe consequences for contemporary human rights. Given the fact that there are, with a few exceptions, no colonies left in the world, one might question why a colonial context is even relevant. However, “the laws, economic structures and cultural basis for European colonialism didn’t disappear when nations gained independence in the mid-20th century” (Ross, 2019). Decolonisation is the complete rejection of the outdated idea that “civilized Europeans” were entitled to dominate the “uncivilized”. The effects of colonialism not only still exist but are as grave as ever, not only in the case of self-determination and territorial integrity, but looking at a nation’s wealth and resources, and the economic, social and cultural human rights of its people. Everything (poverty, human rights violations, ethnic conflicts and minority issues) is connected to colonial heritage and, thus, a postcolonial resistance is taking place. Great injustices happen when people grow accustomed to them; decolonisation is changing this.

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  • Pressure on India continues to clear father Stan Swamy’s name

    On 6 July 2023 UCA News reporter reported on efforts at the second death anniversary of the Jesuit priest Father Stan Swamy, who was falsely charged with terror-related laws, See also: https://humanrightsdefenders.blog/2020/10/11/the-indomitable-father-stan-swamy-defending-the-adivasis-and-the-dalits-a-cause-of-arrest/

    A group of rights activists in India have urged President Droupadi Murmu to withdraw terror-related cases against late Jesuit Father Stan Swamy and 15 other accused in the 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence case.

    “It is a false case registered against Father Swamy and others and it should be withdrawn,” said Father Antony P.M, a social activist at a gathering to mark the second death anniversary of the priest, on July 5 in the eastern Jharkhand state. Tributes were paid to the Swamy across the country.

    He said a group of activists is appealing to the president, who hails from an indigenous community in eastern India, to use her good office to withdraw “the totally false case registered against right defenders,” Antony told UCA News on July 6.

    The activists had gathered in front of the Raj Bhavan, the official residence of the Jharkhand governor, in the state capital Ranchi. It was organized by the Shahid Father Stan Swamy Nyaya Morcha (Martyer Stan Swamy Justice Forum). 

    “Father Swamy, who fought for the rights of indigenous people in Jharkhand finally had to die for want of medical care as a prisoner,” said Antony, the director of Bagaicha, a Jesuit social center in Jharkhand, where Swamy lived and worked.

    Murmu served as the governor of Jharkhand when Swamy’s residence in Ranchi was raided twice and the federal terror investigative agency arrested him in 2020.

    He was accused of having links with outlawed Maoists along with 15 well-known human rights activists accused in a case linking them to a violent clash in Bhima-Koregaon village in western Maharashtra state in 2018. 

    The late priest and others including rights activists, lawyers, academicians, and writers, were also charged under the provisions of a draconian anti-terror law, the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), alleging they had conspired to unleash violence in Bhima-Koregaon.

    The priest was also accused of sedition and conspiring with Maoist rebels to overthrow the federal government. 

    The 85-year-old activist priest died as an under trial prisoner in a private hospital in Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra.

    “We hereby request Your Excellency to take cognizance of the entire Bhima-Koregaon case wherein the intention of the state and the investigation agencies is highly suspicious and does not inspire any confidence in common citizens,” they said in a memorandum.

    “Several independent investigations, including by US-based Arsenal Consultancy, have exposed how the case, based on fabricated evidence, is just a witch-hunt by the state,” it said.

    “We request that all the human rights activists be immediately released on bail, the case and prosecution be withdrawn and criminal proceedings be initiated against those responsible for fabricating and planting evidence,” the memorandum added.

    It also briefly provided details of the findings from Arsenal Consultancy, a digital forensic lab, that said digital evidence was planted on the computer of Father Swamy and others, leading to their arrest and incarceration.

    Antony further demanded the scrapping of the draconian UAPA, under which Swamy was arrested.

    “Once a person is charged under the UAPA, he/she is not treated well in jail even if there is no connection with the case remotely,” the priest said, citing the example of Swamy.

    Despite suffering from Parkinson’s and other age-related diseases, Swamy was denied bail by both the trial court and the high court before his death.

    “If the jail authorities cared for him well or the courts had granted bail in time, I think he would have been with us,” Antony, also a Jesuit, observed.

    “The investigating agency has still not filed the charge sheet and activists are languishing in jail. This is a gross violation of human rights,” the priest said. 

    Indian Jesuits have approached the Mumbai High Court seeking “to clear his name from the false cases” that led to his arrest, imprisonment and death in custody.

    https://www.ucanews.com/news/activists-urge-indian-president-to-clear-stan-swamys-name/101875

    Challenge to live Father Stan’s legacy today

  • Israel Aerospace Industries has acquired India’s HELA Systems Private Limited

    Israel Aerospace Industries has signed a deal to acquire HELA Systems Private Limited, an ‘Indian subsidiary’ of ELTA Systems Ltd. IAI’s investment in Aerospace Services India is a strong demonstration of IAI’s support for the Indian government’s Atmanirbhar Bharat (Make in India) vision. The current deal also shows IAI’s commitment to its strong partnership with […]

    The post Israel Aerospace Industries has acquired India’s HELA Systems Private Limited appeared first on Asian Military Review.

    This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.

  • NZ universities eye new tie-ups with Indian institutions to attract international students

    By Blessen Tom, RNZ News journalist

    A third New Zealand university is close to signing with Mumbai’s Bombay Stock Exchange Institute, opening up opportunities for Indian students to study in Aotearoa.

    The Bombay Stock Exchange Institute is a subsidiary of Bombay Stock Exchange, which at 148 years old, is the oldest stock exchange in Asia.

    Managing director and CEO of the Bombay Stock Exchange Institute Ambarish Datta said it was a privilege to partner with universities in New Zealand.

    “New Zealand education is recognised worldwide, and students are offered a fantastic opportunity to learn in a great country,” he said.

    The University of Canterbury signed a memorandum of understanding in late 2018, allowing students to study in New Zealand for two of its master’s programmes.

    It allows students to start their course in India and then travel to New Zealand to graduate while still qualifying for a Post Study Work Visa.

    University of Canterbury Business Taught Masters programme director Stephen Hickinson said the agreement was beneficial to universities because they get students in different levels of study.

    Cheaper for students
    “It is also cheaper for students because they spend the first half of their study in India.”

    The University of Otago reached agreements with five Indian institutions in 2017.

    International director Jason Cushen said staff were also looking to develop further partnerships across India, particularly in the southern region and in the state of Maharashtra.

    He said these programmes offer more opportunities for international students that may not be accessible in their home country

    RNZ understands that another New Zealand university is in the final stages of signing an agreement with the Bombay Stock Exchange Institute.

    A spokesperson for the institute said they are currently finalising the curriculum and planning to start the programme by February next year.

    Covid-19 impact
    According to a recent Education New Zealand study, international students contributed $3.7 billion to New Zealand’s economy in 2019, with a sizeable portion going to universities.

    But the pandemic changed everything.

    “We started the course in 2019 and then covid hit, so we have only had a few students so far,” Hickinson said.

    “At the moment, it’s a little unknown how things will turn out.”

    Education Minister Jan Tinetti and Finance Minister Grant Robertson recently announced extra funding for struggling universities and tertiary institutions.

    An additional $128 million will be invested to increase tuition subsidies at degree-level and above by a further 4 percent in 2024 and 2025. This is in addition to the 5 percent funding increase that was included in the 2023 Budget, which the government described as the most significant funding increase in 20 years.

    “The government has heard the concerns of the sector,” Tinetti said.

    “When we began our Budget process, universities and other degree providers were forecasting enrolment increases. The opposite has occurred, and it is clear that there is a need for additional support.”

    A new approach
    However, Quality NZ Education chief executive Sandeep Sharma believed the pandemic offered a fresh perspective.

    The organisation was formed during covid-19 and played a major role in creating the pathway programmes that connect Indian students with New Zealand universities.

    “The pandemic was a good time for us because all our shareholders were in New Zealand, and they found that the pandemic [changed] a lot of things in the education industry, especially the traditional way of recruiting students,” he said.

    Quality NZ Education's CEO Sandeep Sharma
    Quality NZ Education head Sandeep Sharma . . . “the pandemic [changed] a lot of things in the education industry, especially the traditional way of recruiting students.” Image: RNZ News

    He mentioned that there was considerable interest among Kiwis to go to India to learn about “wellbeing, Ayurveda and yoga”.

    Sharma believed that it was time for universities to introduce programmes that were not dependent on border control.

    He also highlighted the importance of Indian contributions to New Zealand’s education sector in the coming years.

    “India is going to be the largest pool of international students, overtaking China by 2027,” Sharma said.

    “It’s vital to have these pathway programmes and I think New Zealand should capitalise on these opportunities.”

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

  • Education is at the centre of India-Australia relationship

    It is a truly exciting time in Australia and India’s relationship, a golden era in which ties are only getting bigger and stronger. Our governments are promoting and supporting this. As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in Sydney last month, we are taking it to the next level. And education is at the centre,…

    The post Education is at the centre of India-Australia relationship appeared first on InnovationAus.com.

    This post was originally published on InnovationAus.com.

  • “G. N.” Saibaba in India continues from his cell

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    A wheel-chair using, human rights activist and former university lecturer of English, G. N. Saibaba has endured years of cruel, inhumane solitary confinement ©DR

    I still stubbornly refuse to die
    The sad thing is that
    They don’t know how to kill me
    because I love so much
    The sound of growing grass

    OMCT published this impressive story in calling for the immediate release of G. N. Saibaba:

    These are the defiant words of Gokarakonda Naga “G. N.” Saibaba, written from his cell in Nagpur Central Jail in the Indian state of Maharashtra. A wheel-chair using, human rights activist and former university lecturer of English, Sai has endured years of cruel, inhumane solitary confinement. Still, his irrepressible resilience shines through. And Sai’s poetry fills a recently published anthology. But he did not write it in verse. In order to evade the prison’s punishing censors, and to disguise his messages of equality, positivity and love, Sai penned letters to friends and his partner of 30 years. These were transcribed, and became his book entitled, Why Do You Fear My Way So Much?

    Prison conditions

    Now, G. N. Saibaba is much less able to write. Since his erroneous conviction for terrorism-related crimes in 2017, and a sentence of life imprisonment, Sai’s health has progressively deteriorated. Suffering from a heart condition, a brain cyst, a lump in the abdomen and breathing difficulties, his multiple medical conditions require specialised treatment only available in New Delhi. And his disability as a result of childhood polio has been compounded by untreated nerve damage in his left arm, that has spread to his right, leaving him with no strength in his upper limbs. Sai needs support to perform any simple human function like sitting up, eating, drinking or using the toilet, a task which has been assigned to two fellow detainees. His dependency has been underlined by the constant monitoring of his cell. It was only recently – after Sai went on another hunger strike – that the prison authorities agreed to change the direction of CCTV cameras, giving him some semblance of privacy. Before that, his bed and toilet were recorded 24/7. This was a small victory. Despite repeated advocacy by the UN and human rights groups on G. N. Saibaba’s behalf, he is forced to inhabit a small, egg-shaped cell exposed to extreme weather conditions and with little space to move, particularly for someone in a wheelchair as Sai. Given his disability, some commentators believe the conditions of his detention may amount to torture.

    Arrest in Delhi

    It was 9th May 2014, and G. N. Saibaba was returning home for lunch from his lecturing duties at Delhi University. Without warning, a van jack-knifed in front of the car he was travelling in, forcing it to stop. Sai’s driver was pulled roughly from the vehicle, and replaced by a man in civilian clothing. Two others flanked their captive in the back. G N Saibaba was driven directly to the airport. He was never shown an arrest warrant, and nobody informed Sai’s relatives about his arrest. He was put on a plane to Nagpur, Maharashtra. On arrival, he was transported in an anti-landmine vehicle, in a convoy of commandos armed with automatic weapons. The military clearly wanted to send a message they had detained a hard-core terrorist – not a committed campaigner who has fought most of his life against discrimination and caste-based oppression, and for the rights of women and indigenous Indians.

    Activism

    G. N. Saibaba grew up in a small, rural community in southern India. Disabled by polio as a young child, he understood early on how unfairness and prejudice are perpetrated. Excelling in school, Sai went on to university where he became involved in student politics. His appointment as a professor of English did not dilute his outspoken criticisms of injustice.

    In particular, he became a leading detractor of what became known as ‘Operation Green Hunt’ – a military campaign in central India, home to a large population of several indigenous communities (known as Adivasis), to eliminate Maoists, also called Naxals. Central India has witnessed numerous people’s movements opposing forceful occupation of indigenous land, and the exploitation of ancient forests and rich mineral resources. This military campaign against Naxals was used to quash such movements, leading to numerous human rights violations against civilians.

    Conflict in this region dates back to the 1960s. ‘Operation Green Hunt’ began in 2009 – an all-out, on-going offensive by the Indian armed forces to rid the area of Naxals. G. N. Saibaba led the Forum Against War on the People – a solidarity organisation, and an attempt to shine a light on human rights abuses in the region. These atrocities – committed for the most part by the military and paramilitaries – have been well documented. They include extrajudicial killings, multiple rapes, and the deeply disturbing desecration of civilian corpses. It has been estimated more than 2,000 people have lost their lives since 2009.

    Conviction

    G. N. Saibaba’s advocacy certainly gave pause for thought to national and transnational mining corporations thinking about investing in the region. So, it was inevitable perhaps he would become a target. His persecution began under the Congress government – his Delhi home was raided more than once – and then continued under the BJP, and the prime ministership of Narendra Modi.

    At G. N. Saibaba’s trial in 2017, with the courthouse fortified by hundreds of police officers to reinforce the impression of a dangerous extremist, he was tried under India’s anti-terror legislation – the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. With five others, Sai was convicted of alleged links to the banned Maoist organisation.

    Judicial rollercoaster

    In October this year, the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court ruled G. N. Saibaba’s initial trial had been flawed. The case against him was discharged. The elation he, his family and supporters felt quickly turned to disbelief. The government – infuriated, no doubt by the court’s decision to release an ‘urban Naxal’, a term regularly used to stigmatise human rights defenders – applied for a special sitting of the Supreme Court. The very next day, on a non-working day the special bench of the Supreme Court suspended the decision of the Bombay High Court. This leaves G N Saibaba still in that heavily monitored isolation cell, struggling to negotiate its curved walls in his wheelchair.

    Above all, love

    G. N. Saibaba’s hope of liberty has once more been dashed. Even so, his spirit is strong. The untreated infections in his hands, and the pain he experiences, means Sai cannot write more than two or three pages a month. But letters from home, especially from his partner, help sustain him.

    I defeat the purpose
    of the solitary confinement
    by drowning myself
    in your letters of love.

    https://www.omct.org/en/resources/news/an-academic-is-caged-his-thoughts-are-still-free-resilient-and-undefeated

    This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.

  • Dalai Lama celebrates 88th birthday at residence in northern India

    The Dalai Lama celebrated his 88th birthday at his residence in Dharamsala, India, on Thursday, feted by song-and-dance performances and declaring he was in good health and expected to live to be 100.

    “Today, you are celebrating my 88th birthday, but when I look in the mirror, I feel I look as if I’m still in my 50s,” the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism said to those gathered for the celebration. “My face doesn’t look old, it isn’t wrinkled with age. What’s more I still have all my teeth so there’s nothing I can’t eat or chew.”

    “According to indications in my own dreams and other predictions, I expect to live to be more than 100 years old,” said the Dalai Lama, whose real name is Lhamo Thondup and is also known as Tenzin Gyatso. “I’ve served others until now, and I’m determined to continue to do so. Please pray for my long life on that basis.”

    Attending the celebration in the temple courtyard adjacent to the Dalai Lama’s residence were his relatives, members of the Tibetan government-in-exile, and later Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, chief minister of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, where Dharamsala is located. 

    His birthday comes amid ongoing controversy about who should determine his successor. 

    Tibetans say they have the right to do so according to their Buddhist belief in the principle of rebirth. They believe the Dalai Lama chooses the body into which he is reincarnated, a process that has occurred 13 times since 1391, when the first Dalai Lama was born. 

    But China, which annexed Tibet in 1951 and maintains a tight rein on the western autonomous region, says only Beijing can select the next spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists, as stated in Chinese law. 

    The Chinese government intends to appoint a pro-Beijing puppet leader in place of the Dalai Lama after he dies, giving it an opportunity to firm up its control of the region, according to a report issued in 2022 by the International Tibet Network, a global coalition of Tibet-related groups.

    Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama of supporting terrorism and trying to split Tibet from China, though the spiritual leader is pursuing a policy approach called the Middle Way, which accepts Tibet’s status as a part of China but urges greater cultural and religious freedoms, including strengthened language rights, guaranteed for ethnic minorities under the provisions of China’s own constitution.

    The Dalai Lama cuts a birthday cake presented to him during the celebration of his 88th birthday at his residence in Dharamsala, India, on Thursday, July 6, 2023. Credit: Tenzin Choejor
    The Dalai Lama cuts a birthday cake presented to him during the celebration of his 88th birthday at his residence in Dharamsala, India, on Thursday, July 6, 2023. Credit: Tenzin Choejor

    “I was born in Tibet and I bear this name Dalai Lama, but in addition to working for the cause of Tibet, I’ve been working for the welfare of all sentient beings,” he also said in remarks to the crowd in Dharamsala. 

    “I’ve done whatever I could without losing hope or allowing my determination to flag. I’m angry with no one, not even those Chinese leaders who have adopted a harsh attitude towards Tibet. Indeed, China has historically been a Buddhist country as witnessed by the many temples and monasteries I saw when I visited that land.”

    Subtle celebrations

    China has sought to erase the Dalai Lama and his likeness from the Tibet Autonomous Region, so Tibetans there celebrated his birthday in subtle ways.

    They shared poems and odes to the Dalai Lama online and circulated in various online messaging groups an image of a hat he wore as a child in a popular photograph, with the number “88” appearing below it. 

    “Tibetans are engaging in creative ways as well as performing religious activities to celebrate his holiness’s birthday,” said a Tibetan who lives in the region, referring to reciting prayers and hoisting prayer flags. 

    The exiled Tibetan Buddhist spiritual leader, who is a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, also expressed gratitude for the support he has received from his friends. 

    In a four-minute recorded video message marking his birthday, the Dalai Lama said, “On the occasion of my birthday, if you, my friends, can guard your minds and lead good-natured lives, you will be joyful at heart, and as a result be able, directly and indirectly, to help everyone around you.”

    High-level government officials, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, issued birthday greetings to the Dalai Lama on what Blinken said was an auspicious day for the Tibetan community. 

    “His Holiness’s kindness and humility serve as an inspiration to many around the world, and I have deep admiration for his ongoing commitment to peace and nonviolence,” Blinken said. “Today, may we reflect on his messages of compassion and tolerance as we reaffirm our commitment to upholding the human rights of all people, including those of the Tibetan community.”

    “The United States is unwavering in our commitment to support the linguistic, cultural, and religious identity of Tibetans, including the ability to freely choose and venerate their religious leaders without interference,” he said.

    India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “Spoke to His Holiness @DalaiLama and conveyed heartfelt greetings to him on his 88th birthday. Wishing him a long and healthy life.”

    Translated by Tenzin Dickyi for RFA Tibetan. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Tibetan.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Opinion: Universal basic income is a good idea for India’s workforce

    By The Editorial Board

    See original post here.

    India’s single most vexatious economic problem is the lack of adequate employment and earning opportunities for its large and growing labour force. The nation is one of the youngest countries of the world in terms of its demographic profile. This ‘demographic dividend’ is considered to be a blessing. It could, it is argued, help India become the world’s labour force. However, for the dividend to yield returns, it would require, firstly, a well-educated and well-trained workfor­ce. The demographic dividend’s fruition is also predicated upon the availability of enough job opportunities across the world. Neither possibility seems obvious today. Although India has a large constituency of graduates, an overwhelming num­ber of them are considered unemployable. There is also a very large number that is unskilled and functionally literate. Employment opportunities abroad are limited to a few low-skilled jobs, openings in the technology sector, and some in academia. Moreover, low-skilled labour migrating to other parts of the world is subject to scrutiny since few countries look at migration favourably. Moreover, the scale and the speed of emerging Artificial Intelligence-based technologies do not augur well for the traditional job market, save for workers who are highly educated and skilled in cutting-edge technologies. On joining the dots, the future of jobs across all levels of skill is not bright.

    Given this context, the remark made by the chief economic advisor, that India does not need a universal basic income because economic growth would suffice to meet aspirations, must be taken with the proverbial pinch of salt. India’s economic structure hides unemployment behind part-time, informal, job-sharing livelihoods. These ‘workers’ are surplus in the sense that total production would not decline even if they were to be removed from their activity. Therefore, the wisdom of depending solely on economic growth to guarantee basic amenities for all is unwarranted. Some alternative strategy has to be thought of to ensure a decent living for all. The concept of a universal basic income, or some variant of it, cannot thus be ruled out. The idea is to be able to provide for collective survival and sustenance. A template of UBI has two principal challenges: the identification of beneficiaries and the avoidance of fiscal stress. The digital enumeration of personal information can solve the first problem. Additional taxes on the super-rich can resolve the latter. Reality demands that the possibility of UBI be debated and kept alive notwithstanding its political unpalatability.

    The post Opinion: Universal basic income is a good idea for India’s workforce appeared first on Basic Income Today.

    This post was originally published on Basic Income Today.

  • Eqbal Ahmad’s Internationalist Vision

    For peace advocates in South Asia, Ahmad’s grammar of cooperation provides a much-needed alternative to hypernationalist politics.

  • JFD launches its Fourth Generation Submarine Rescue System ‘Agile’

    The first system fully transportable in commercial aircraft. System design enables the fastest possible response within the 72 hours’ Time to First Rescue (TTFR) window. Built on 40 years’ proven submarine rescue expertise working with navies across the world. JFD is proud to unveil its ‘Agile’ Submarine Rescue System (SRS), based on 40 years’ experience, […]

    The post JFD launches its Fourth Generation Submarine Rescue System ‘Agile’ appeared first on Asian Military Review.

  • India sells arms to junta while claiming concern over crisis in Myanmar

    Companies in India are supplying weapons to Myanmar’s junta while Prime Minister Narendra Modi expresses concern about the political crisis in Myanmar on the international stage, observers said Monday, highlighting the two-faced nature of the strategy.

    Indian arms manufacturer Bharat Electronics Limited, or BEL, transferred military equipment worth more than US$5.1 million to Myanmar’s army or known Myanmar arms brokers Alliance Engineering Consultancy and Mega Hill General Trading over a period of six months from November 2022 to April 2023, the rights group Justice for Myanmar reported in June.

    The military equipment included metallic sonar domes; transducers and gaskets for the domes to be used on frigates, warships or submarines; directing gear systems; technical documents; various items for radio transmission or radar equipment; and manpack radios for battlefield communication.

    Justice for Myanmar called the shipments “part of a pattern of Indian support for the Myanmar military and its domestic arms industry” and called on India’s allies to use their leverage to “pressure India to stop the supply of arms and dual use goods and technology” to the regime, including during Modi’s state visits to the U.S. and France this year.

    The weapons sales come even as Modi and U.S. President Joe Biden issued a joint statement following their meeting at the White House on June 22 expressing concern about the worsening rights situation in Myanmar and calling for the release of the country’s political prisoners.

    A Hexacopter drone used in unmanned aerial surveillance manufactured by Bharat Electronics is displayed during a defense exhibition in Bangalore, Dec. 2021. Indian arms manufacturer Bharat Electronics Limited transferred military equipment worth more than US$5.1 million to Myanmar’s army over a period of six months from November 2022 to April 2023, the rights group Justice for Myanmar reported in June. Credit: Manjunath Kiran/AFP
    A Hexacopter drone used in unmanned aerial surveillance manufactured by Bharat Electronics is displayed during a defense exhibition in Bangalore, Dec. 2021. Indian arms manufacturer Bharat Electronics Limited transferred military equipment worth more than US$5.1 million to Myanmar’s army over a period of six months from November 2022 to April 2023, the rights group Justice for Myanmar reported in June. Credit: Manjunath Kiran/AFP

    Than Soe Naing, a political analyst, pointed out the hypocrisy of India selling weapons to the junta with one hand while saying it is concerned with the situation in Myanmar on the other.

    He noted that India has stayed neutral amid the ongoing conflict in Myanmar and neglected or even arrested refugees who have fled fighting across its border.

    “But on the international arena, when making a statement as a democratic country, it uses the terms ‘democracy and human rights,’” he told RFA. “It doesn’t make any sense. It is a government that is indirectly supporting the crimes committed by the Myanmar military by willfully ignoring them.”

    Justice for Myanmar’s report came on the heels of one released in May by U.N. Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar Tom Andrews, who said the junta had imported at least US$1 billion in arms and raw materials to manufacture weapons between the Feb. 1, 2021, military coup d’etat and December 2022.

    Rights groups say the junta is using such weapons against the people of Myanmar, including to attack the armed resistance and civilians who oppose its rule.

    While Russia, China and Singapore were the major sources by far, the U.N. report found that Indian entities, including state-owned entities, had transferred US$51 million in arms and related materials to the junta over the same period. That followed Russia’s US$406 million, China’s US$267 million, and Singapore’s US$254 million.

    Selling weapons for war crimes

    Ko Mike, a spokesman for the Blood Money Campaign, a collective of Myanmar activists campaigning to stop revenues reaching the junta, said that Indian companies selling weapons to Myanmar are abetting war crimes.

    “They are supporting killings by a terrorist group [the junta] that is committing the worst crimes in the world,” he said. “Sometime in the future, it will be necessary to do something internationally about accountability [for such entities].”

    Ye Tun, a political analyst, said that Modi appears to believe the junta is responsible for maintaining stability in Myanmar.

    “So if you [maintain stability] by using weapons, India will sell weapons to Myanmar’s military [to support such alleged efforts].”  

    Prior to the sales detailed in Justice for Myanmar’s latest report, the group noted that Indian state-owned arms producer Yantra India Limited shipped multiple 122mm howitzer barrels to the junta in October 2022 in an apparent breach of international law.

    A model of 'Akash' surface to air missile developed by Bharat Electronics is displayed during a defense exhibition in Bangalore, Dec. 2021. Credit: Manjunath Kiran/AFP
    A model of ‘Akash’ surface to air missile developed by Bharat Electronics is displayed during a defense exhibition in Bangalore, Dec. 2021. Credit: Manjunath Kiran/AFP

    The Indian government has so far ignored calls by civil society organizations and the people of Myanmar, including the shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, and failed to comply with U.N. resolutions and its responsibilities under international law, said Justice For Myanmar spokesperson Yadana Maung.

    Radio Free Asia attempted to contact the Indian Embassy in Myanmar by email for comment but received no response. Calls to junta Deputy Information Minister Major Gen. Zaw Min Tun, seeking comment on the claims, went unanswered Monday.

    Regional stability at risk

    Thein Tun Oo, the executive director of the Thayninga Institute for Strategic Studies, which is made up of former military officers, called it “normal” for India to assist its neighbor.

    “India can stand on its own two feet and cooperate with anyone it wants to,” he said. “India has taken Myanmar as a partner … [because] Myanmar is the best country for India to cooperate with on the security of the Indian Ocean. So, it is normal for India to cooperate with Myanmar.”

    Myanmar junta’s soldiers participate in a parade to mark Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw in 2021.Indian arms sales to Myanmar are supporting the military regime’s war crimes and the international community must act to stop them, rights activists and analysts said Monday, in response to a new report detailing weapons shipments to the junta in recent months. Credit: Reuters
    Myanmar junta’s soldiers participate in a parade to mark Armed Forces Day in Naypyitaw in 2021.Indian arms sales to Myanmar are supporting the military regime’s war crimes and the international community must act to stop them, rights activists and analysts said Monday, in response to a new report detailing weapons shipments to the junta in recent months. Credit: Reuters

    But NUG spokesman Kyaw Zaw said that as the world’s largest democracy, India is expected to embrace democratic values and not prop up regimes that oppress their own people.

    “We hope that India will try to understand the will of the people of Myanmar and help them to fulfill that will,” he said.

    If India instead continues to support the junta, he said, there will be no resolution to the conflict in Myanmar and the stability of the region will be at risk.

    Translated by Htin Aung Kyaw. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • First-ever recipients of ‘outstanding’ Asian music funding unveiled

    By Blessen Tom, RNZ News journalist

    Fifteen artists have been selected as the inaugural beneficiaries of NZ On Air’s New Music Pan-Asian funding.

    The initiative, the first of its kind, aims to support the Asian music community in New Zealand.

    The fund was established due to a lack of equitable representation of Asian musicians in the country’s music sector, says Teresa Patterson, head of music at NZ On Air.

    “Our Music Diversity Report clearly showed the under-representation of Pan-Asian New Zealand musicians in the Aotearoa music sector,” she said.

    “This is reflected in the number of funding applications we received for this focus round.”

    The funding provides musicians with up to $10,000 for recording, mixing and mastering a single, some of which can be set aside for the promotion and creation of visual content to accompany the song’s release.

    “We received 107 applications for 15 grants, which is outstanding,” Patterson said.

    ‘Wonderful range’
    “The range of genre, gender and ethnicity among the applicants was wonderful. We received applications from artists who identify as Chinese, Indian, Filipino, South Korean, Japanese, Indonesian, Sri Lankan, Malaysian, Thai and Iraqi.

    “The genres varied from alternative/indie and pop to hip-hop/RnB, dance/electro and folk/country.”

    Phoebe Rings members Crystal Choi, Simeon Kavanagh-Vincent, Benjamin Locke and Alex Freer.
    Phoebe Rings members Crystal Choi, Simeon Kavanagh-Vincent, Benjamin Locke and Alex Freer. Image: Phoebe Rings/RNZ News

    Six of the 15 songs that secured funding are bilingual, featuring Asian languages such as Cantonese, Korean, Japanese, Malay and Punjabi.

    Patterson believed this variety would “really help to reflect the many voices of Aotearoa New Zealand” and add to the vibrant cultural music mix experienced by local audiences.

    Swap Gomez, a drummer, visual director and academic lecturer, was one of the panel members responsible for selecting the musicians for the funding. He emphasised the challenges faced by Asian musicians in New Zealand.

    “What was awesome to see was so many Pan-Asian artists applying; artists we had never heard of coming out of the woodwork now that a space has been created to celebrate their work,” Gomez said.

    “This is the time we can celebrate those Pan-Asian artists who have previously felt overlooked by the wider industry.

    “Now there is an environment and sector where they can feel appreciated for their success in music. As a multicultural industry, developing initiatives such as this one is more crucial than ever.”

    NZ On Air has announced that funding opportunities for Asian musicians will continue in the next financial year.

    “The response we have had to this inaugural NZ On Air New Music Pan-Asian focus funding round has been phenomenal,” Patterson said.

    “It tells us that there is a real need, so NZ On Air is excited to confirm that it will return in the new financial year.”

    The full NZ On Air’s Pan-Asian New Music recipient list:

    • Amol; cool asf
    • Charlotte Avery; just before you go
    • Crystal Chen; love letter
    • hanbee; deeper
    • Hans.; Porcelain
    • Hugo Chan; bite
    • Julius Black; After You
    • LA FELIX; Waiting
    • Lauren Gin; Don’t Stop
    • Memory Foam; Moon Power
    • Phoebe Rings; 아스라이
    • RESHMA; Kuih Lapis (Layer Cake)
    • tei.; sabre
    • Terrible Sons; Thank You, Thank You
    • Valere; Lily’s March

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

  • ‘Resistance is possible’: Ravish Kumar, the broadcaster risking his life to tell the truth about India​ today​

    The eminent journalist’s fearless reporting on India under Narendra Modi cost him his job and freedom. Now broadcasting to millions on YouTube, he is the subject of a new documentary

    Ravish Kumar was born near the same Indian city – Motihari in Bihar – as George Orwell. In his early years as a TV journalist and nightly news anchor, Kumar did not imagine that he would live to be part of a modern-day Nineteen Eighty-Four nightmare. But that changed almost a decade ago with the election of Narendra Modi’s government in India. In the years since then, Kumar has become an increasingly lone voice of truth-telling in an Indian media landscape in thrall to the Hindu nationalist politics of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party (BJP). Kumar’s one-man campaign to maintain journalistic integrity, as mainstream news organisations became promoters of politicised fake news, earned him the “Nobel prize of Asia,” the Ramon Magsaysay award, in 2019. It also led to an unending campaign of harassment and death threats from government supporters.

    Kumar, the Indian equivalent of, say, Jeremy Paxman in his prime, finally resigned from his post at NDTV in New Delhi last November, after the station was taken over by Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, a close friend of Modi. He now lives in virtual hiding with his family and broadcasts through a personal YouTube channel. His story, one of repression in modern India and of the existential crisis in truth-telling worldwide, is the subject of an urgently compelling documentary, While We Watched.

    Continue reading…

  • GE Aerospace partners with HAL for Indian LCA engines

    US company GE Aerospace has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) to jointly produce its F414 turbofan engine in India, the company announced on 22 June. The agreement was signed on the occasion of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official state visit to the United States and is seen as […]

    The post GE Aerospace partners with HAL for Indian LCA engines appeared first on Asian Military Review.

    This post was originally published on Asian Military Review.