India

Gender bias in Indian courts

In India millions of women’s lives are impacted by sexual violence. Gender inequality, poverty, and the criminal justice system all contribute to this issue. Gender and caste discrimination combine to make marginalized women most likely to be affected by sexual violence. The criminal justice system struggles to both try and convict perpetrators and odds are worse when crimes were reported by women. A study published in the American Political Science Review found that in India’s northern state of Haryana male complainants who register cases on behalf of their woman friends or relatives are less...

India Labour Solidarity ups activity

The India Labour Solidarity campaign (ILS), established late 2022, has been active on several fronts. On 15 November ILS held an event at Parliament, organised with socialist MP Nadia Whittome and NGO Trade Justice Movement, to discuss a potential UK-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA). The event briefed MPs, parliamentary staff, trade unionists and others on the issues and made the case for negotiations to be suspended, a position supported by the TUC but not campaigned for in the labour movement. Another organisation participating in the 15 November event was Unau Welfare, representing members...

Caste, class and rape

In May this year, two women were stripped naked and dragged through the streets of Imphal, the capital of Manipur state, before being gang raped by a mob of men. The backdrop to this incident is the ongoing ethnic violence between the Meitei people, who are the majority in Manipur, and the Kuki-Zo tribe, a minority. So far, over 130 people have died in the conflict and more than 35,000 have been displaced from their homes. It was Meitei men who raped two Kuki women. Rape is the fourth most common crime against women in India, the weapon of choice for some men. Women and girls from Adivasi...

Protest to stop the atrocities in Manipur!

In mid-July the viral spread of a video showing two women being paraded naked and sexually assaulted, prior to being gang-raped, in the eastern Indian state of Manipur caused a surge in awareness of the horrific situation there. We should work to increase it further, and try to engage the British labour movement and left. • For a very informative interview with an Indian human rights activist who has just visited Manipur, see here • For a detailed background briefing, see here • For short video interviews on the situation in Manipur see here and here • For how you can protest, see here The...

Sport official charged after protests

Vinesh Phogat, an Indian Olympian who has accused Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) president Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh of sexually abusing her, says protests will stop now Singh has been charged. Indian wrestlers, including Olympic medallists Sakshi Malik and Bajrang Punia, have been protesting for months seeking the arrest of Singh — a member of parliament from the ruling far right Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Olympic medallists and other Indian wrestling champions participated in a weeks-long sit-in in the capital New Delhi, accusing Singh of groping women athletes and demanding sexual...

Biden fêtes Modi

In 2005 the government of George W Bush banned Narendra Modi from the US for his role in the 2002 Gujarat massacres , in which thousands of Muslims were killed. Now, after nine years transforming India as a whole into an authoritarian ethno-nationalist regime, Modi is being welcomed by a supposedly progressive US government. Despite warnings from South Asian American and human rights organisations about the "fast autocratising" Indian government's "escalating attacks on human rights and democracy", on 22 June the Indian prime minister will meet Joe Biden and address a joint session of the two...

Hundreds killed in India train crash

The official death toll from the rail crash in the eastern Indian state of Odisha on 2 June is 288, with 803 injured. We send condolences and solidarity to the victims and their loved ones. We send our solidarity to India’s rail workers and their unions, engaged in a long struggle against the understaffing, cuts and privatisation that form the background to this disaster. India has a long history of devastating rail collisions; this is far from the first one that has seen hundreds killed. Its infrastructure is crumbling. Two days after the Odisha crash a four-lane suspension bridge in the...

Satjajit Ray’s Apu trilogy

I must confess to not watching very much cinema from India. I’ve never been a big fan of Bollywood; however I hope to make some small amends by highlighting Bengali director Satjajit Ray’s brilliant Apu Trilogy: Panther Panchali (1955), Aparjito (1956) and Apu Sarvar ( The World of Apu ) (1959). With original music by a then almost unknown Ravi Shankar, these films are a story of the childhood, education, youth and early manhood of Apu in the early twentieth century. Apu is born into rural poverty. His family moves to the city of Benares/Varanasi, but their life does not improve. His father...

Why the Tories just surged in Leicester

Background: • Behind Labour's purge of Leicester councillors • Hindu nationalism, communalism and the left • How the Tories won huge swing in Leicester amidst Truss debacle Over most of the country the recent local elections saw big net gains for Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens, and disastrous losses for the Tories. The picture in Leicester was very different, however. In 2019 Peter Soulsby, Labour’s candidate for City Mayor, won with just over 60% of the vote and Labour took 53 out of 54 seats on the council, with the sole remaining seat going to the Lib Dems. This time Peter Soulsby was...

Solidarity, not saviour complex (part 2)

Part two of a guest article by Hein Htet Kyaw. Part one here It’s important to note that condemnation against India alone for the occupied Kashmir regions is reactionary to its core. Both Pakistan and India should be equally blamed for the occupation since they both are the main obstacles on the way to an independent, sovereign, autonomous Kashmir region. The western left’s condemnation of India alone over Kashmir has two political reasons. One of them is a guilty conscience about their imperialist government and the “war on terror” colonial invasions against the countries that are majority...

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