South Asia Citizens Web

The current Sri Lankan government came to power in January 2015 with a mandate to abolish the executive presidency and reform the electoral system. It does not have a mandate to introduce a new constitution and change the governance structure from a unitary to a federal state or tinker with the “foremost place” given to Buddhism in the constitution.

In conversation with Neeladri Bhattacharya on his monograph The Great Agrarian Conquest (published by Permanent Black in 2018). This event was held on 14 January 2019 and organised in collaboration with Jadunath Bhavan Museum and Resource Centre, a unit of at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta.

Scanned version of 1983 Leaflet from the Forward Seamen’s Union of India (FSUI) based ib Calculla affiliated to CITU

PUCL Maharashtra expresses shock and dismay at reports that the BMC and BEST administration have chosen to invoke draconian provisions of the Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act (MESMA) against striking BEST employees, instead of taking steps to respond to their demands and alleviate their grievances at the earliest.

In India, they tell us that women can be anything we wish. We can be fighter-jet pilots, corporate CEOs, paratroopers, athletes — and, of course, prime minister. (We never get tired of reminding Americans of this, since the United States is still waiting for its first female head of state.) But God forbid we dare to argue that, in 2019, menstruation should not bar us from praying at a temple. What sort of global power can the world’s largest democracy aspire to be when our monthly period is still used to make women feel like polluted pariahs who must be kept at a distance? Is this not repugnant modern-day untouchability?