Protest Held in New Delhi Against Killing of Anti - POSCO Activists and Forcible Land Grabbing in Odisha

New Socialist Initiative (NSI) along with few other organisations and students of Sociology (Delhi School of Economics) held a demonstration outside Odisha Bhawan to protest against the killing of Anti - POSCO activists and against the ongoing forcible land grabbing by Odisha Government for the proposed POSCO Steel Plant.

Photo: Mukul Dube

Asit Das of "POSCO Pratirodh Solidarity Delhi" appraised the demonstrators about the tensed situation that prevails in the Anti-POSCO movement area. Following Asit Das, Subhash Gatade (Convener, NSI), Om Prakash (AISA - JNU), Suraj Beri (New Materialists - JNU), P.K Sahi (AIFTU - NEW), Mritunjay (Students For Resistance), Shyambir (Inqalabi Mazdoor Kendra), Mrigank (NBS), Minati Dash (Research Scholar, Dept. of Sociology, DSE) and Thomas Mathew (ICTU) addressed the protesters.

After repeated demand by the protesters, the Resident Commissioner of Government of Odisha in New Delhi came out with full police security to receive the memorandum addressed to the Chief Minister of Odisha. 

Below is the text of the memorandum and the signatories:

To 

The Chief Minister, 

Government of Odisha 

Remembering Fukushima: Lessons for India

A citizens' convention on "Remembering Fukushima: Lessons for India” is being organised on March 11th 2013, marking the second year of the beginning of the Fukushima nuclear disaster. (We use 'beginning' advisedly, because the accident has not ended and is still very much continuing.)

The reactors are still emitting radiation, the site is still contaminated and will remain so for decades, people evacuated are afraid of returning back, news about contamination vegetables and animals are pouring in, and mutations detected in the area are being investigated. In a recent scientific investigation, butterflies, which are believed to be resistant to radioactivity, were found to have mutated due to radioactivity exposure in Fukushima. More cases are under observation.

The Fukushima catastrophe reveals the hazards of the nuclear energy industry. It also exposes the criminal nexus between the global nuclear industry, regulators and politicians. Fukushima holds many cautionary lessons for India, which has plans to raise its nuclear power generation several-fold in the near future.

The convention is being organised jointly by a number of citizens' groups, students' organisations, solidarity groups, human rights initiatives, trade unions, and women's organisations. The Women's Development Cell (WDC) of the Miranda House College in Delhi University is hosting and co-organising the event.

A panel discussion will be organised with following speakers:

- Prashant Bhushan, senior advocate in the Supreme Court of India.

- Dr. Vikas Bajpai, radiation oncologist and public health expert.

- Praful Bidwai, eminent journalist and peace activist.

- S P Udayakumar, leader of the Koodankulam movement, via skype

- Chie Matsumoto, an activist from Japan will speak about life in Japan after the nuclear accident, via skype.

The panel discussion will be followed by some cultural performances including a mime. A photo exhibition on Fukushima will also be put up on the venue. This photo exhibition will also be displayed at prominent places in Delhi like Dilli Haat, Central Park, JNU etc. between 8th-11th March 2013.

The Citizens' Convention will culminate into a candle light commemoration.

Date: 11th March, Venue: Miranda House Auditorium, Delhi University, Time: 3pm - 6pm

Coalition for Nuclear Disarmament and Peace (CNDP), Indian Doctors for Peace and Democracy (IDPD), New Socialist Initiative (NSI), New Trade Union Initiative (NTUI), People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (ANHAD), National Alliance of People's Movement (NAPM), All India Students' Association (AISA), Popular Education and Action Centre (PEACE), Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF), Delhi Forum, Delhi Platform, Focus on the Global South, Inter Cultural Resources, Jamia Teachers Solidarity Association (JTSA), Students Against Nuclear Energy (SANE), Toxics Watch Alliance, Greenpeace India

Protest Against Killing of Anti-POSCO Protesters and Forcible Acquisition of Land

Odisha Bhawan, 1 Niti Marg, Chanakyapuri, New Delhi, 12 noon, 9th March, 2013

People's Struggle Against Corporate - State Nexus Long Live!

In the continuum of brutal attacks on the struggle against forcible land acquisition for a POSCO steel plant in Odisha, the most recent case of blatant violence perpetrated by the corporate–police-goonda nexus in the region saw the murder of 4 people in Jagatsinghpur district.

On 2nd March, hired musclemen of POSCO with the full complicity of Odisha Police threw bombs at anti-POSCO activists in Patana village, in which 4 activists were killed and several others were seriously injured. Out of the 4, 3 were killed as a direct consequence of the police’s refusal to arrive at the spot for 15 hours after the bombing, or arrange for an ambulance to take the injured to a hospital.

The active connivance between the POSCO management and local contractors along with the Odisha Government to violently suppress the anti-POSCO struggle through every unconstitutional and illegal means, from hiring criminal elements to intimidation and murder of local activists spearheading the movement, has exposed the extent to which they are willing to bypass the law to bulldoze their way by means by brute force.

Matters have not stopped there, again on 5th March 2013, 12 platoons of armed police led by the District Collector and SP forcibly entered Gobindpur village and destroyed more than 25 betel vines – the major source of livelihood of the protesting villagers.

The Odisha government is going ahead with the forcible land acquisition for the steel plant despite the fact that POSCO does not have an environmental clearance for the project. The environmental clearance given by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) on January 31, 2011 was suspended by the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on 30 March 2012. POSCO does not even have a valid memorandum of understanding with the State government now. The one it had signed on July 22, 2005 lapsed on July 21, 2010 and no fresh MoU has been signed so far.

We strongly condemn this complete disregard for any kind of democratic processes, and the blatant use of brute force through police as well as goons to brutally crush the movement that is going on in the region. We call on all democratic and progressive organizations and individuals to condemn the violence and protest against the Odisha Government’s naked support towards POSCO, where it is ready to murder its own citizens so that POSCO may set up its steel plant.

New Socialist Initiative

Endorsed by and joined as co-organisers :

All India Platform for Labour Rights, All India Students’ Association, Delhi Solidarity Group, INSAF, Hero Honda Theka Mazdoor Sangathan, New Materialists (JNU), POSCO Pratirodh Solidarity Delhi, People’s Union for Civil Liberties, People’s Union for Democratic Rights, Pragatisheel Yuva Sangathan, Women Against Sexual Violence & State Repression, Sanhati, Socialist Front, Stree Mukti Sangathan, Student for Resistance

*************************

Contact:

Bonojit Hussain: +91-8860304908

Praveen Verma: +91-9911078111

Vasundhara Jairath: +91-9953034105

Email: delhi.nsi@gmail.com

On Modi's Social Engineering

- subhash Gatade

The system of untouchability has been a goldmine for the Hindus. This system affords 60 millions of untouchables to do the dirty work of scavenging and sweeping to the 240 million Hindus who are debarred by their religion to do such dirty work. But the work must be done for the Hindus and who else than the untouchables?

- Dr. B. R. Ambedkar

Whether Shit Collection or cleaning of gutters - which has condemned lakhs of people to a life of indignity since ages - could be considered a 'Spiritual Experience.' Definitely not. Everybody would yell. Well, Mr Narendra Modi, chief minister of Gujarat, has a different take on this.which he mentions in the book 'Karmayog' (Publication year 2007).

The said book is basically a collection of his speeches to high profile IAS officials. Herein he discusses the age old castebased vocation of the Valmikis as "experince in spirituality'. He writes : "I do not believe that they have been doing this job just to sustain their livelihood. Had this been so, they would not have continued with this type of job generation after generation….At some point of time, somebody must have got the enlightenment that it is their (Valmikis') duty to work for the happiness of the entire society and the Gods; that they have to do this job bestowed upon them by Gods; and that this job of cleaning up should continue as an internal spiritual activity for centuries. This should have continued generation after generation. It is impossible believe that their ancestors did not have the choice of adopting any other work or business."

Looking at the fact that a section of the dalits themselves -especially its upwardly mobile and more articulate section - has joined with the Hindutva bandwagon, it was expected that there was no angry reaction to his utterances within the state. A section of the Ambedkarite Dalits and many human rights activists did protest but their voices got drowned in the cacophony of voices of Modi supporters. It is a different matter that when Modi's remark got published in the Times of India in mid-November 2007, which was later translated in few Tamil newspapers, it resulted in a massive reaction of Dalits in Tamilnadu. Not only they staged protests for calling their menial job "spiritual experience" but Modi's effigies were burnt in different parts of the state. Sensing trouble Modi immediately withdrew 5,000 copies of the book, but still sticked to his opinion.Two years later, addressing 9,000-odd safai karmacharis, (cleanliness workers) he likened the safai karmacharis’ job of cleaning up others dirt' to that of a temple priest. He told them, “A priest cleans a temple every day before prayers, you also clean the city like a temple. You and the temple priest work alike.”

Climate Change and Social Justice: Towards an Ecosocialist Perspective

- Asit Das

After the Kyoto protocol and the IPCC report, climate change has emerged as a serious issue facing mankind. Climate change and the issues of social justice should be seen in the context of the urgency of the global ecological crisis. 

Some writers think that the origins of today’s global ecological crises are to be found in the unusual response in Europe’s ruling states, to the great crisis in the 14th century 1290 -1450. There are indeed striking parallels between the world system today, and the situation prevailing in a broadly feudal Europe. At the dawn of the 14th century, the agriculture regime, once capable of remarkable productivity, experienced stagnation. A large population shifted to cities; western trading networks connected far-flung economic centers. Resource extraction like copper and silver, faced new technical challenges, fettering profitability. After some six centuries of sustained expansion, by the 14th country, it had become clear that feudal Europe had reached the limits of its development, for reasons related to its environment, its configuration of social power, and the relations between them. 

What followed was either immediately or eventually the rise of capitalism. Regardless of one’s specific interpretation, it is clear that the centuries after 1450 marked an era of fundamental environmental transformation. It was to be commodity-centered and exclusive, it was also an unstable and uneven, dynamic combination of seigniorial capitalist and peasant economics. 

This ecological regime of early capitalism was beset with contradiction. In the middle of the 18th century, England shifted from its position as a leading grain exporter to major grain importer. Yield in England’s agriculture stagnated. Inside the country, landlords compensated by agitating for enclosures, which accelerated beyond anything known in previous centuries. Outside the country, Ireland's subordination was intensified with an eye on agricultural exports. This was the era of crisis for capitalism's first ecological regime. For all the talk of early capitalism as mercantile, it was also extraordinarily productivist and dynamic, in ways that went far beyond buying cheap and selling dear. Early capitalism had created a vast agro-ecological system of unprecedented geographical breadth, stretching from the eastern Baltic to Portugal, from southern Norway to Brazil and the Caribbean. It had delivered an expansion of the agro-extractive surplus for centuries. It had been, in other words, an expression of capitalist advancement following Adam Smith and occasionally, combining market, class and ecological transformations in a new crystallization of ecological power and process. 

By the middle of the 18th century, however, this world ecological regime had become a victim of its own success. Agricultural yields, not just in England but also across Europe, extended even into the Andes and Spain. It was a contributor to the world crisis. It was a world ecological crisis, i.e., not a crisis of the earth in an idealist sense, but a crisis of early modern capitalism's organization of the world nature of capitalism and not just a world economy, but also a world ecology. For even many on the left have long regarded capitalism as something that acts upon nature treating it as a commodity. This world ecological crisis can be characterized as capitalism's first developmental environmental crisis, quite distinct from the epochal ecological crisis that characterized the transition from feudalism to capitalism. It was a crisis resolved through two major successive waves of global conquest - the creation of North America, and increasingly India as a vast supplier of food and resources; and then, by the later 19th century, the great colonial invasion and occupation of Southeast Asia, Africa and China. 

The Industrial Revolution retains its hold on the popular imagination as the historical and geographical locus of today’s environmental crisis. It was a view that co-existed with the profound faith in technological progress. It can be viewed that the industrial revolution as the resolution of an earlier moment of modern ecological crisis and a more expansive, more intensive reconstruction of global nature. The industrial revolution offered not merely a technical fix to the developmental crisis that marked capitalisms ecological regimes, but within this revolution, was inscribed a vast geographical fix, which at that time was as limiting as it had once been liberating. Such a perspective of world ecological crisis offers a more historical name and a more hopeful way of looking for a pro-people approach for thinking and acting about the problems of ecological crisis in the modern world. While the technological marvels of the past two centuries are routinely celebrated, it had become clear in the 1860s that all advances in resource efficiency promised more aggregate resource consumption. This is how the modern world market functions, towards profligacy and not conservation. The technological marvels have rested on geographical expansion neither more nor less than they did in the formative centuries of capitalist development. The pressure to enclose vast new areas of the planet and to penetrate even deeper into the niches of social and ecological life has continued unabated. Now we are witnessing the imperial process of new enclosures, with a partnership with the ruling elites, and the corporate sector of the Third World countries. All this has been reinforced in the same manner by a radical plunge into the depths of the earth to extract oil, coal, water and different types of strategic resources. It is an ecological regime that has reached, or will soon reach, its limits. Whatever the geological veracity of the peak oil argument, it is clear that the American led ecological regime that promised, and for half a century delivered cheap oil, is now done for - this is a bigger issue than present limits of oil reserves. 

NSI – A Political-Ideological Platform – launched in its founding conference in New Delhi

"Ours is not an effort to create a new revolutionary party. The advent of such a party lies yet in the future. Ours is not an effort to replace the existing parties and organizations. Nor is our intention to work at counter purposes to any of the existing revolutionary organizations and processes. Ours is an effort to contribute towards meeting the historic challenge that confronts the entireRevolutionary Left. Ours is an effort to begin the process of forging a new language that will be the language of the entire Left, of designing a strategy that will be the strategy of the entire class of working people,of envisioning afresh a socialism that will be adopted as the future of humanity.It will be an epochal process and ours is an endeavour to be a worthy participant in it." - Pamphlet of the founding Conference 

NSI cultural team performing 'Messages from Revolutionaries"

The inaugural session of the founding conference of New Socialist Initiative, a political-ideological platform, took off today with a resounding rendition of the Communist anthem, The International. The session that was held at Hindi Bhavan in New Delhi began with a 'Welcome Address' by Amrapali Basumatary, followed by a performance by the cultural team of NSI. B. Manohar and Rajiv Prasanna, students of Delhi University, started the cultural programme with a melodious Classical Hindustani instrumental performance of the Mridanga and Flute. Following this was a performance, ‘Inquilabiyon ka Paigham’ (Message from Revolutionaries), a reading of letters and speeches of revolutionaries including Marx, Engels, Lenin, Paash, Che Guevara, Bhagat Singh, Mao, Rosa Luxemburg, Faiz, Safdar Hashmi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Salvador Allende and more. Subhash Gatade opened the inaugural Panel Discussion, ‘A Future for the Left’ remarking on the new conditions we are faced with today and the need to build a critical and reflexive renewed understanding of these new conditions. The floor was then opened for the panelists, Jairus Banaji, Marxist political theorist and historian, Saroop Dhruv, prominent Gujarati poet, playwright and cultural activist, and Ravi Sinha, Marxist political theorist, physicist and activist. 

Celebrating 165th Year of Communist Manifesto: Eric Hobsbawm's Introduction to the 2012 Edition of 'The Communist Manifesto'

[ Editors' Note: Widely recognized as world's one of the most influential political manuscript, The Communist Manifesto was published today on 21st February 1848, exactly 165 years ago! 165 years down the line, the manifesto continues to inspire scores of people across the world! To commemorate the event we are reproducing here an Introduction to the Manifesto written by the historian Eric Hobsbawm in 2012. We take this opportunity to also pay homage to this great Marxist radical. While New Socialist Initiative (NSI) may not agree with everything that Hobsbawm says about the Manifesto, we can only be in total agreement with him when he proclaims "what might in 1848 have struck an uncommitted reader as revolutionary rhetoric – or, at best, as plausible prediction – can now be read as a concise characterization of capitalism at the end of the twentieth century. Of what other document of the 1840s can this be said?"]

Eric Hobsbawn

I 

In the spring of 1847 Karl Marx and Frederick Engels agreed to join the so-called League of the Just [Bund der Gerechten], an offshoot of the earlier League of the Outlaws [Bund der Geächteten], a revolutionary secret society formed in Paris in the 1830s under French Revolutionary influence by German journeymen – mostly tailors and woodworkers – and still mainly composed of such expatriate artisan radicals. The League, convinced by their ‘critical communism’, offered to publish a Manifesto drafted by Marx and Engels as its policy document, and also to modernize its organization along their lines. Indeed, it was so reorganized in the summer of 1847, renamed League of the Communists [Bund der Kommunisten], and committed to the object of ‘the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, the rule of the proletariat, the ending of the old society which rests on class contradiction [Klassengegensätzen] and the establishment of a new society without classes or private property’. A second congress of the League, also held in London in November–December 1847, formally accepted the objects and new statutes, and invited Marx and Engels to draft the new Manifesto expounding the League’s aims and policies. 

Although both Marx and Engels prepared drafts, and the document clearly represents the joint views of both, the final text was almost certainly written by Marx – after a stiff reminder by the Executive, for Marx, then as later, found it hard to complete his texts except under the pressure of a firm deadline. The virtual absence of early drafts might suggest that it was written rapidly.[i] The resulting document of twenty-three pages, entitled Manifesto of the Communist Party (more generally known since 1872 as The Communist Manifesto), was ‘published in February 1848’, printed in the office of the Workers’ Educational Association (better known as the Communistischer Arbeiterbildungsverein, which survived until 1914), at 46 Liverpool Street in the City of London. 

NSI Founding Conference 22nd -24th February 2013: A World for the Workers! A Future for the World!

Towards the Founding Conference of a New Ideological-Political Platform

(22nd-24th February, 2013, Delhi)

Revolutionary Left has been at the frontier of history during a good part of the previous century. It led glorious revolutions of the twentieth century and embarked on the most ambitious and most transformative project humanity had ever undertaken. Socialism presented a monumental challenge to capitalism and dominated the course of history for much of the century. The ‘wretched of the earth’ stormed the heavens and liberated themselves from a variety of feudal lords and colonial masters, from kings and compradors, from indigenous oppressors and foreign rulers. Under extremely difficult conditions of poverty, backwardness, war and encirclement, and beleaguered by their own lack of preparedness, they still managed to rescue their societies from the crises of the old order. And they managed to get on to the socialist road and travel a fair distance on it.

Rape, Race and Misogynist Nationalism(s)

- Leki Thungon

One of the biggest problems with the prevalent notion of rape is how the social response to it coincides with the rigidity of its legal definition. A complaint of rape necessitates the legally cumbersome process of demonstration how and why the act would constitute the act of rape. While there is a difference between sexual harassment and rape, it is the different reactions they generate which is highly problematic and dangerous. One frequently comes across statements like ‘Oh, it was “only” harassment not rape’, this kind of understanding not only blankets the severe misogynist vocabulary found in our language itself but also stigmatizes rape as an ultimate end of a woman’s already marginalized identity; anything lesser than the insertion of the penis into the vagina is not rape, therefore not that bad..! In the same light, my constant fear of being a source of someone’s perverse racial reassurance which in this case is the superior “Indian”, national gene Northeast is believed to be devoid of and the awareness of my face and body becomes a secondary problem. This question challenges a framework which goes beyond the purview of criminality and pathology. It cuts across issues of nationalism, identity and patriarchy. 

The question of racism and misogyny has been discussed at length in various levels, however, there is a general trend which is followed in both how it is conceived and received. Whenever there is a discussion on the racial discrimination faced by people from the Northeast the blissful idea of ignorance by “these” mainland Indians or the problem of their (Northeasterners) acceptance as Indians or both are frequently raised; thereby creating a political dilemma which sways between reductive identity politics or nationalism/ national appropriation. However, when the question of women is inserted it muddles up the two strongly separate ideologies and showcases the former following the same models of the latter in order to legitimize its foundation which is by appropriating the bodies and behavior of “their” women. In fact a geographical line can be connected between the Rajasthan government’s discussion on the length of a school girl’s skirt and the compulsion of donning a phanek on a woman in Manipur. To many people’s surprise and dismay, I would have to declare that the women in Northeast are not free from/of patriarchy as her counterpart in any part of North India. Rape is considered the ultimate dishonor of a woman and her community regardless of mainstream notion of an egalitarian society. 

Living as the ultimate other in a place like Delhi, one can think of innumerable incidents of racist and misogynist episodes with anger, frustration and helplessness. There were times when you could think of an equally ridiculous retort, sometimes you would threaten or even use the new Act which promises to “protect” you but most of the time you are left with the now familiar feelings of disbelief and disgust. This racial othering of the already gendered body is a process of curious interplay of racism, misogyny, exoticism, curiosity and nationalism where there is a conspicuous invisibility of Northeast. This results in a constant insecurity, alienation and tremendous vulnerability. One can only imagine the effect of this on a woman of an already marginalized community. One of the most common and dangerous reaction is the demonizing of the other by both the parties. 

Against Profit Mongering over Knowledge: Students Protest at World Book Fair

By - Association of Students for Equitable Access to Knowledge (ASEAK)

A protest organised by ASSOCIATION OF STUDENTS FOR EQUITABLE ACCESS TO KNOWLEDGE (ASEAK), was held at World Book Fair in Pragati Maidan last Saturday (9th February) at the stalls of Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Taylor and Francis Group. This protest was part of a series of campaigns undertaken by ASEAK on the issue of ‘copyright infringement’ provoked by the clamping down on photocopying by the three publishers beginning last year. The Association distributed more than 1000 pamphlets which discussed myths and facts around the issue of photocopying, copyright. A similar protest was held during the Delhi Book Fair at the same venue in September 2012 by the "Campaign to Save D School Photocopy Shop" (out of which ASEAK emerged). The protest saw members of the Association distributing the pamphlet and spreading information on the unfair practices of the publishers especially the ones that are University Presses and therefore claims to work for a non-profit and purportedly an educational intent. 

The members of the Association first protested at Hall no.1 where the Cambridge University Press Publishers and Oxford University Press Publishers and Hall no. 6 where Taylor and Francis were located. As in the similar protest held at the Delhi Book Fair, the protest garnered support from the visitors who also voiced the concern of the students and shared their fears of more and more inaccessibility to knowledge. 

Members of the Association also move around and engaged with students who had thronged the book fair. The protest also saw the spontaneous attendance of several people/ visitors of the World Book Fair who were aware of the plight of the students and the long term repercussion of such a clamp down on the state of education in this country. 

Delhi Book Fair Sept. 2012: CUP called Delhi Police to chase out protesters 

Delhi Book Fair Sept. 2012: A member of the campaign engaging with visitors

The Myths Propagated by Profit Mongering Corporate Publishers:

Notes from South Korea: Where is Our Anger Going?

[Editors' Note: This article by Jiyoung LeeAn is the second article of the "Asian Series on Gender Justice" an initiative - by Delhi University team of New Socialist Initiative (NSI) - to bring together significant moments from the recent histories of struggle for gender equality and justice in various Asian countries.]

Jiyoung LeeAn 

We live in a globalized world where horrific news has become a part of our every day. In a deluge of routinely repeated terrible images, we easily become senseless and insensitive to many tragedies happening outside our own society. The heartbreaking death of a 23-year-old woman who was gang-raped and beaten to death in the capital city of India last December might be a part of the same deluge to many people outside of India. Some might treat this particular tragedy as if it was happening in a distant ‘less developed country’. Some might feel relieved that they are living in a 'safer developed' world. Mainstream media in South Korea contributes in perpetuating these attitudes. In the Korean media, India is depicted as a backward society stained with patriarchal traditions and Caste system, therefore, 'different' from Korean society. This tragedy is regarded as an inevitable corollary to the backwardness of a society; and women in India are described as victims of that backwardness. Colonial gaze bares its teeth with these overly sensationalized representations of India by creating an illusion that we Koreans, unlike people in India, are living in a much safer and developed society. 

However, are we really 'safe'? Perhaps no women in Korea would answer in a definitive yes. That is one of the reasons why this horrific tragedy in Delhi haunts me. Her pain, anguish and struggles remind me of my own pain, anguish, and struggles in South Korea. Her death is not far from my daily life. It is not say that the pain we are experiencing is of the same intensity. There may exist different scales of violence. But, through her and her journey of life I see myself, I see a trajectory of my life. And this feeling gives me courage to write this small piece not only for her, but also for myself as a woman who lives in this contemporary world. 

People outside of India have seen, on televisions, thousands of thousands of young people in India come out to the street and raise their voices for gender equality. More than a month has passed since she died, but she lives in people’s memories. And enthusiastic and vehement protests have been continuously spreading not only across India but also in other parts of the world. These protest actions demonstrates hope in the midst of deep sorrow. However, when our anger and protests reaches its highest tenor, it is also the right moment for us to catch our breath and reflect where our anger is headed, and towards whom our anger is directed. 

Demonstration Outside Indian Embassy, Seoul, Against Forcible Acquisition of Land for POSCO

Reacting to the brutal crackdown by Orissa Police at the crack of the dawn on February 3rd, comrades from different organizations in South Korea took the initiative of organizing a demonstration outside Indian Embassy in Seoul this morning (7th February). During the demonstration a Joint Press Statement was also released and circulated. The press statement was prepared under the aegis of "Advocates for Public Interests Law", "Energy & Climate Policy Institute", "GongGam, Human Rights Law Foundation", "Korean Confederation of Trade Unions",  "Korean Federation for Environmental Movement", "Korean House for International Solidarity",  "Korean Lawyers for Public Interest and Human Rights", "National Association of Professors for Democratic Society", "People’s Solidarity for Social Progress".

Below is an English translation of the original Press Statement in Korean released and circulated during the demonstration and few images from the demonstration:

Protest against communal-fascist Nadendra Modi's visit to Delhi University

Joint Protest by various left organizations against communal-fascist Narendra Modi's visit to Delhi University. Join us in large numbers! 3 pm, 6th February, 2013, Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) gate. Spread the word around.

Does Modi have any answer for this

Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat and the person responsible for the Gujarat Carnage, is visiting Shri Ram College of Commerce on an invitation extended by Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC) Students Union to deliver the Shri Ram Keynote Oration at Business Conclave 2013, the National Management Festival of SRCC. Several left university based organizations have given a call for a protest outside SRCC on the 6th February at 3 pm. 

[Asian Series on Gender Justice] Notes from Taiwan: Beyond the Sorrow, There is Hope for Change

[Editors' Note: This article by Hana Hsin-Wei Cheng is the first article of the "Asian Series on Gender Justice" an initiative - by Delhi University team of New Socialist Initiative (NSI) - to bring together significant moments from the recent histories of struggle for gender equality and justice in various Asian countries.]

- Hana Hsin-Wei Cheng

The brutal Delhi gang-rape case of a 23-year-old paramedical student has evoked pervasive anger, criticism and condemnation across India. Massive public protests have taken place not only in Delhi but all over the country, demanding justice for the victim as well as better security for women. Like in any other country, violence against women – rape, sexual assault/harassment, molestation, etc. – is not a new thing in India. Yet this is perhaps the very first time that India has witnessed such large-scale protests in wake of a rape case. It is also the first time that apart from activists and organizations that have been working on gender issues, such staggering numbers of people – most of them students and youths – have chosen to stand up and raise their voices over sexual violence against women. 

Strong public pressure has also forced the Government of India to respond, although the responses are not enough. Fast track courts have been inaugurated to try cases of sexual offence meted out against women. A special task force has been set up under the Ministry of Home Affairs to monitor women’s safety in the national capital, while two other committees have been appointed to look into the incidents of rape and suggest adequate amendments to existing laws on violence against women. Now there is a widely shared hope that this particular Delhi incident could be a turning point for women’s rights in India, leading to legal/institutional reform on related issues and ultimately contributing towards comprehensive social change. 

Taiwan had gone through similar experience about 15 years ago. In 1996, the rape and murder of a prominent feminist activist sparked widespread public outrage in Taiwan, and later brought about significant changes contributing towards the progress in women’s rights. 

The Murder of Peng Wan-Ru: From A Heartbreaking Loss to An Inspiration for Change 

Towards the end of 1996, Mrs. Peng Wan-Ru, a long-time activist, then the Director of the Women’s affair of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who spent her whole live fighting for better future for women in Taiwan, was reported missing in Kaohsiung. She was last seen getting on a taxi the night before DPP’s national convention which she was supposed to attend, in the convention her proposal of 25% reservation for women was scheduled to be discussed. Three days later, she was found barbarically raped and murdered outside an abandoned warehouse, with more than 30 stab wounds on her body. 

15 years have passed, and her murderer still remains at large.

In Corporal Punishment We Are All Complicit

- Yogender Dutt

In the context of the cruel thrashing and consequent death of a small boy, Aslam Ansari, in a Betul school in Madhya Pradesh at the hands of his teachers, Prof. Krishna Kumar’s analysis (The Hindu, editorial page, “The death of a small boy,” December 18, 2012), of the unsettled social location and poor hierarchical status of primary school teachers, is impeccable and succinct. But, I fail to understand the precise and immediate link between the merciless beating and consequent death of the hapless boy on the one hand and the poor training and salaries of the teachers who allegedly killed him on the other. The kind of cause-and-effect relationship that he has tried to establish in this incident certainly does not exist.

Photo Source: The Hindu

It is unequivocally clear to every citizen of the country that under the legal framework in place, no individual can cause bodily harm to any other individual. If we still persist with such an argument, we run the risk of shifting the culpability of the individuals involved in the crimes, often of a very serious nature, off their heads simply because the accused are primary school teachers who have not been given proper training and are ill-paid.

Schools of Discrimination

- Subhash Gatade

The village of Majure, in Chitradurga district, Karnataka, is once again in the news. It made the national headlines in 1998 when dalits in the village lodged a police complaint against members of the dominant Vokkaliga and Lingayat castes for an attack on their hamlet. As a consequence, several people were put behind bars.

This time round, however, no formal complaint was lodged. Not that things have improved (rather, one could say the situation is deteriorating) but, as the dalits put it, they want to live in “harmony” in the village. For around two months, they’ve been facing a social boycott. The immediate provocation would appear to be the appointment of Lakshmamma, a member of the Madiga community, as cook in the anganwadi. Upper-caste politicians from the village did not want a dalit woman to cook food and feed their children and they succeeded in getting her to resign from the post. Despite a dalit in the Shettar cabinet contacting them, there has been no response. Interestingly, there are three dalit officers -- a deputy commissioner, a superintendent of police and a tehsildar -- in the district.

Dalit children continue to be discriminated against during the midday meal at school

A recent report published in a section of the media highlighted rampant caste and gender discrimination in schools across India. The report, carried out by 41 independent monitoring institutes, which was submitted to the Union Human Resources Development Ministry, covered 186 schools serving midday meals across five states, namely Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. It was conducted between October 2010 and September 2012, and underlines how children from the scheduled castes face routine segregation from other children and are made to sit and eat separately. Children belonging to upper-caste Hindu families often refused food cooked by SC/ST cooks. The researchers also came across cases where dalit students were getting food but from a distance; in some instances, high-caste children brought their own plates for fear of school plates having been touched by dalit classmates.

Delhi Outrage Inspires Protest in Indonesia

(Photograph courtesy: Pipit Apriani who is a Jakarta based activist and a blogger)

Protests against sexual violence are spreading across Asia. Last week demonstrations against rape and sexual violence were held in Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Inspired by the protests held in Delhi for last three weeks, hundreds of university students and activists march on the streets of Jakarta few hundred meters away from the Presidential Palace for a world free of sexual violence. The call for the protest march was given by a coalition of University Students' Unions and civil society organizations in response to the death of RI, a 11-year-old girl, who died last week after suffering severe vaginal and rectal injuries due to repeated sexual assaults.

The protesters demanded from the Government and the House of Representatives to guarantee legal protection of children and women from sexual violence through enhancing the minimum punishment of perpetrators of sexual violence to 20 years. Under current Indonesian law cases of sexual assault against women are categorized as "social misconduct" and in case of children it is classified as "abuse", both of which attracts imprisonment between a minimum of 2 years and 8 months and a maximum of 12 years. Moreover, a statement issued by the coalition said that other than suitable legal protection, the government must also create a comprehensive system of support for the victims of sexual violence.

The protesters also demanded from the Chief of Police of Indonesia to put his house in order to end the apathy of the police force towards cases of sexual violence.

Condolence was also offered to the victim of the Delhi gangrape case who died in a Singapore hospital.

The coalition has declared 2013 as a year of national emergency regarding sexual crimes and urged all sections of the country to join the fight against sexual violence on women and children. 

Remembering Laxmi Orang: The Predicament of the Gender Question in Assam

- Mayur Chetia and Bonojit Hussain 

The Delhi gangrape case has led to country-wide outrage, with young women and men still pouring out on to the streets to protest against the widespread culture of sexual violence. The outrage has not just stopped at Jantar Mantar, India Gate or university campuses; it has also led to a wave of intellectual reflection on the issue. For most protesters the demand for justice has not stopped with the Delhi gang rape victim, but has led to a demand for justice for all victims of sexual violence. These protesters have forced us to remember a litany of names that get buried by the TRP driven media and a public with a notoriously short attention span of memory. It is time to remember names that we are losing to public amnesia, names like Soni Sori, Manorama, Asiya and Neelofar. It is time we remember another forgotten name – Laxmi Orang. 

A local businessman in action 

In the Interest of Remembering: Who is Laxmi Orang? 

On 24th November 2007, Laxmi Orang, a young adivasi woman, was forcibly stripped naked, thrashed and paraded by a violent mob of “mainstream” Assamese [1] men. This took place just 100 meters away from State Legislative assembly, in the very heart of Guwahati, in the full glare of the media and police forces. As with her fellow protesters, it was her first trip to the city, the mythical land where the modern day Swargodeo’s [2] listen to their subjects, where appeals are heard, where miracles happen, where riches and wonders thrive. She had come to the city as participant of a protest organized by the All Adivasi Students’ Association Assam (AASAA) to demand Schedule Tribes status for the Adivasi community of Assam. 

[CNN-IBN report on the horrific incident]

ताकि अलख जलती रहे !

- अंजलि सिन्हा

I

नए साल के इन्तज़ार में बीते साल की रात इस बार अलग ढंग से बीती। राजधानी में कई जगहों पर लोग एकत्रित होकर नए साल का स्वागत मानो इस संकल्प के साथ कर रहे थे कि अब और अत्याचार नहीं। यह अच्छी बात है कि एक आम लड़की ने सभी को सोचने के लिए और अपनी प्रतिबद्धता जताने के लिए प्रेरित किया है। वह लड़की जिसे लोगों ने ‘निर्भया’, ‘दामिनी’, ‘अमानत’, ‘ज्योति’ ऐसे कई नामों से पुकारा - उसकी जीने की जीजीविषा सुस्त पड़ी तरूणाई को अन्दर तक झकझोर गयी।

किसी राजनेता ने ठीक ही कहा है कि यह आज़ाद भारत के इतिहास में पहली दफा था कि महिलाओं के साथ अत्याचार के मसले पर इतनी बड़ी तादाद में युवा उतरे। इतनाही नहीं सरकार को भी इस मामले में कदम उठाने के लिए मजबूर होना पड़ा और न केवल कानून में जरूरी सुधार लाने की बात करनी पड़ी बल्कि न्यायप्रणाली को अधिक चुस्त करने, फास्ट ट्रैक अदालतें स्थापित करने जैसे पहले किए गए निर्णयों को अमली जामा पहनाने की बात करनी पड़ी। निश्चित ही यह अभी परखा जाना है कि इस जनाक्रोश के दबाव में सरकार ने जो वादे महिलाओं की सुरक्षा को लेकर किए हैं, वह कितने लागू होंगे। 

अभी तक की सरकारी लापरवाही और गैरजिम्मेदारी का उन्हें एहसास कराना तथा त्वरित कार्रवाई के लिए बाध्य किया जाना जनता की जिम्मेदारी है तो दूसरी तरफ हर इन्सान, हर परिवार और पूरे समाज को यह जवाब देना है कि ऐसे पुरूषों की ऐसी मानसिकता बनी क्यों है ? वे अपने पूरे होशो हवास में जानबूझकर वहशी व्यवहार करते हैं, उनके लिए तो जो कुछ बोला जाए वह कम है। लेकिन हम यहभी पाते हैं कि अपराधी सिर्फ वही नहीं है। जिन्होंने इस हद तक उतर कर घृणित अपराध नहीं किया उनमें भी औरत के प्रति सम्मानजनक नज़रिया विकसित नहीं हुआ है और वे सभी मिल कर भी स्त्रीद्रोही वातावरण तैयार करते हैं जिसमें बड़े अपराधों को अंजाम देने की हिम्मत अपराधी जुटा लेते हैं। हमारे समाज में छींटाकशीं, भद्दे मज़ाक, अश्लील व्यवहार आदि की गिनती नहीं की जा सकती है। यहां तक कि हमारी दैनंदिन संस्कृति में या त्यौहारों-उत्सवों में प्रगट या प्रच्छन्न रूप में नारीविरोध, नारीअपमान इतने गहरे में रचा बसा होता है कि वह सामान्यबोध का हिस्सा बन जाता है। 

जिन्दगी और मौत के बीच 13 दिन जूझती रही उस निर्दोष लड़की ने - जो हममें से एक थी, और अपने कैरिअर को लेकर भी उसके अपने विचार थे - इस बीच हमें और भी बहुत कुछ एहसास कराया है। एक दूसरे से अनजान अपरिचित लोग इस अन्याय के खिलाफ एकजुट हुए हैं। बड़े बड़े प्रदर्शनों के साथ ही जिसमें हर उम्र के लोग शामिल हुए, महिलाओं के साथ साथ पुरूषों की भी बड़ी संख्या सड़कों पर उतरी वही गली मुहल्लों में भी यह आवाज़ पहुंची, वहां पर भी जुलूस निकले। यहां तक कि पांच-दस छात्र- छात्राओं के समूह भी जुलूस की शक्ल में न्याय की मांग करते हुए सड़कों पर देखे गए।

निश्चित ही बढ़ता असुरक्षित वातावरण अब सभी के सरोकार का मुद्दा बन गया है। लगातार विरोध प्रदर्शनों में भागते भागते थक कर चूर हो चुके युवाओं का हौंसला देख कर यही लगा कि अब बहुत कुछ अच्छा भी होनेवाला है, वे अपने हकों के प्रति जागरूक हैं और अमन तथा इन्साफ की दुनिया बनाने में उनकी अच्छी भूमिका बनेगी। यह पूरा जनप्रतिरोध अपने परिवेश को लेकर एक तार्किक और जवाबदेह नज़रिया विकसित करने में मदद करेगा।

सड़क से लेकर सत्ता के गलियारों तक पहुंची इस सरगर्मी के दौरान कुछ लोग यह कहते भी पाए गए कि धीरे-धीरे यह आन्दोलन और जनाक्रोश भी थम जाएगा। दरअसल थमता तो हर आन्दोलन है लेकिन उनमें से सभी रूकता नहीं है वह दूसरे रूप में जारी रहता है। दूसरी बात हर उभार समाज पर अपना असर भी छोड़ता है। 70 के दशक के उत्तरार्द्ध में जब मथुरा बलात्कार काण्ड के खिलाफ महिलाओं का व्यापक आन्दोलन खड़ा हुआ, यौन अत्याचार के लिए स्त्रियों के ‘चऱित्र’ पर ही लांछन लगाने के सिलसिले पर प्रश्न उठे, तो उसने महिलाओं के लिए जगह भी बनायी। याद रहे कि आदिवासी युवती मथुरा के साथ पुलिस कस्टडी में हुए अत्याचार को लेकर सर्वोच्च न्यायालय ने विवादास्पद टिप्पणी की थी और अत्याचारी पुलिसकर्मियों को इस आधार पर छोड़ दिया था कि मथुरा ‘संदिग्ध चरित्र’ की युवती थी। इसी फैसले का विरोध करते हुए कुछ न्यायविदों एवं महिला अधिकार कार्यकर्ताओं ने सुप्रीम कोर्ट के नाम खुला खत लिखा था। यहीं से एक तरह से आन्दोलन की नींव पड़ी थी।

ऐसा नहीं कह सकते कि बलात्कार कानूनों में जरूरी संशोधन के लिए प्रेरित करनेवाले इस आन्दोलन के तीन दशक बाद आज भी पुलिसिया व्यवहार या न्यायपालिका की बहसों में स्त्रियों के चरित्र को प्रश्नांकित करने की कोशिश नहीं होती, मगर अब ऐसा होने पर विरोध भी उतना ही होता है। अब कोई राजनेता या अधिकारी स्त्री के विरोध में बयानबाजी करने के पहले दस बार सोचता है और अगर अपने पुरूष प्रधान चिन्तन के अन्तर्गत बयान देता भी है तो अच्छी भली भद्द पिटती है उसकी। अभी हमारे सामने ही राष्ट्रपति के बेटे अपने नारी विरोधी बयान को लेकर तीखी आलोचना का शिकार हुए तथा उन्हें माफी मांगनी पड़ी और लड़कियों को स्कर्ट पहनने से मना करनेवाले भाजपा विधायक को लड़कियों के घेराव का सामना करना पड़ा।

यह भी विचारणीय है कि जब कोई किसी अन्याय के खिलाफ उठ खड़ा होता है तो बाद में उसे अन्य दूसरे अन्याय भी दिखने लगते हैं और इस रूप में समाज को आगे ले जानेवाली ताकतें आपस में नयी मजबूती ग्रहण करती जाती हैं। समाज की अग्रगति उन निराशावादियों से तय नहीं होती जिन्हें हर प्रयास में खोट नज़र आती है।

Photo: Tara Basumatary

Spectre of Left Haunting Raisina Hills

- Apoorva Gautam

Adding a few decibels to the cacophony of bizarre public statements in this country, officials from the Intelligence Bureau have alleged that ‘ultra-Left’ organisations, from Delhi University and Jawaharlal Nehru University are fueling violence in the protests in Delhi against the gang-rape and murder of the 23-years old paramedical student. They are “exploiting the existing fault-lines". This, the officials believe, is the strategy on part of the 'ultra-left' groups to tap into the urban unrest in order to expand their base outside of university campuses. A few days back, the Home Minister revealed his anxieties about having to meet Maoists if he went out to listen to the protesters in India Gate. 

Interestingly, in the same breath, these officials put these Left organisations in the same category as right-wing groups with intriguing names like Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena and Hindu Sena. 

India Today report, 6th January, 2013