Resistance & Protests
A new book studies and documents instances of resistance and how people are battling to save their democracy. https://thewire.in/books/how-the-caa-protests-ignited-hope-and-prompted-indians-to-reimagine-citizenship
Perhaps the most iconic and well-documented protest against the CAA was the one mounted by women on the south-eastern edge of Delhi, in a neighbourhood called Shaheen Bagh. Braving the bitter Delhi winter, hundreds of Muslim women undertook a continuous sit-in for over a hundred days. They blockaded a portion of Kalindi Kunj Road, a six-lane highway that connects the city to the south-eastern suburb of Noida and onwards to south-west Uttar Pradesh, in a bid to foreground their discontent against the divisive legislation. Over three iridescent months, the home-makers who assembled in this corner of Delhi taught their fellow citizens invaluable lessons about belongingness and membership in the political community.
by Indrajit Roy
29/04/2024
The three-day protest, which will conclude on November 28, will see protesters marching to Raj Bhavans to submit a charter of demands to the governors.
For the second day, farmers and workers’ unions staged protests in the state capitals across the country, barring the five poll-bound states, on Monday, November 27, to highlight the issues faced by their communities under the Narendra Modi government.
The three-day protest, which began on Sunday, sought to underline the “lingering acute agrarian crisis and the resultant rural to urban migration of the pauperised peasantry and rural worker masses”. A call was issued for “worker-farmer unity to challenge corporate- communal nexus”.
28/11/2023
He transcended the political through aesthetics and politicised the symbolic. For a generation, he symbolised the spirit and politics of revolutionary change, primarily in Telangana, but his songs travelled well beyond.
Revolutionary balladeer Gaddar passed away on Sunday, August 6. He leaves behind a legacy that will last for a very long time and with it a number of questions that hold the promise of rethinking the processes of social transformation.
Gaddar rose to unprecedented fame in the 1990s, when he walked into the open from a life in the ‘underground’. He was part of the revolutionary movement that later came to be known as the Maoists. For a generation, he symbolised the spirit and politics of revolutionary change, primarily in Telangana, but his songs travelled well beyond. He was neither a trained singer nor a writer. He spontaneously reflected the rebellious spirit of Telangana. He symbolised the energy of the time of revolutionary politics and was its greatest makings. His songs were not just an art but a phenomenon. His songs were listened to and appreciated cutting across classes. He had a unique reach into the drawing rooms and playing recorders of the rich and dominant castes.
09/08/2023
Gaddar, dedicated his life to the cause of awakening the rural poor through his powerful folk songs – telling them that they can be independent one day, away from the feudal oppression that is aided and abetted by the state and its police machinery. https://thewire.in/rights/667217
His songs are electrifying. They would force one to think about their role in the society – whether they can do anything for uplifting the lives of the rural poor and tribals.
To say that these songs, composed and sung by Gaddar, had enormous capacity to force you to think about the rural oppression of peasants and the tribal communities is an understatement.
Meeting Gaddar is something that one cannot easily forget. He was the ultimate expression of humility, tenacity, determination, perseverance and courage. We owe our special debt to this radical folk singer and balladeer who was also responsible for organising several cultural movements.
09/08/2023
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiJDvgPusco बदनामी और हमले कर सरकार जन-आंदोलनों को रोकना चाहती है" मेधा पाटकर से बातचीत
Sep 4, 2022 This tirade against social movements is to cement vote bank. part of elections..
Medha Patkar was wrong on Narmada project https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/blogs/Swaminomics/medha-patkar-was-wrong-on-narmada-project/ September 4, 2022, Patkar said all micro-level struggles are key to building a macro-level agitation that questions the very paradigm of development at all levels. “Chunikaka said gaon ki zamin, gaon ki hai — but is it happening now? Do the villagers have control over the jal, jungle, zameen being given away to the corporate sector, the mining mafia? Where is the three-tier Panchayati Raj system?” Patkar said, and added there “is no alternative to people’s movements.”
When Narendra Modi Exhorted 'Andolanjivis' to Rise Up Against the Government in 1974 https://thewire.in/politics/narendra-modi-andolanjivis-protest-1974-message A message written by the prime minister in his 20s provides valuable advice to the protesters of today but also represents the drastic swing in his opinion of protests. The Modi government’s second term has faced pan-India protests opposing controversial policy decisions such as the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the three farm laws.
‘Yes, We Are Andolanjeevi, You Have Forced Us’: Medha Patkar https://thewire.in/rights/andolanjeevi-medha-patkar-sardar-sarovar-narmada-project-dam-water-crisis
'Today’s centralised policies are pushing the marginalised communities further to the margins, squeezing all options for the poor but to take to the streets.'
“No Alternative to People’s Movements,” Says Internationally Acclaimed Human Rights Activist Medha Patkar
https://indiatomorrow.net/2021/12/22/no-alternative-to-peoples-movements-says-internationally-acclaimed-human-rights-activist-medha-patkar/ December 22, 2021 - In a sharp snub to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘andolanjeevi’ taunt at those leading people’s movements in the country, the firebrand activist declared in her true inimitable style, “Yes, we are andolanjeevi because today’s centralized policies are pushing the marginalized communities further to the margins, squeezing all options for the poor but to take to the streets.”
In another pointed rebuff on the charges levelled by the present government about NGOs receiving foreign funds, Patkar retorted, “They allege we receive foreign funding for our agitations while I had returned even my award money, but there is huge money coming into the country to implement the so-called PPP (Private-Public-Partnership) model policies.”
Launching a frontal attack, she questioned, “How much foreign funds came into the PM Cares Fund and for disaster management? Where is it?”
According to Patkar, the government, on the one hand, claimed had no money for the tribals, the landless, the poor, and the farmers. “But this very government has money for Central Vista, for Sardar Patel statue and waiving of corporate NPAs to the tune of Rs68,000cr.”