South Asia Citizens Web

The pompous inauguration of the 2,500 crore rupees worth Sardar Vallabh bhai Patel Statue at Kevadia, Gujarat in the garb of ‘Unity and Progress’, is nothing but a Tourism Project of the Gujarat Government. which is being falsely claimed by the Chief Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi as a ‘Statue of Unity’, without explaining to the nation as for what and of whom is thus ‘Unity’ for, as also against whom !! While the Project conceives of tourists reaching out to the hillock and the statue, to have a glimpse of the Dam, the statue itself will be staring at the plight of thousands of adivasis and other families displaced, but not yet rehabilitated by the Sardar Sarovar Dam fully and fairly.

Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s 235 day long detention inside his own house has finally ended with the lifting of heavy contingent of police and it would do well for the government to introspect dispassionately what this prolonged detention actually served ultimately rather than simply brushing aside the allegations of excessive and undeserving curbs on the movement of separatist leaders. The Director General Police on Tuesday remarked that Geelani was never under any siege and called it an exaggeration while using the rider that he had been free to carry on any political activity as long as “it is within the bounds of law.” The ambiguity of this “bound of law” has been excessively used in a conflict region like Kashmir to justify the unjustifiable including wrongful confinements, detentions, arrests and tortures, even murders and custodial deaths.

I am struck by how swiftly they are expanding their freedoms. Conservative village elders may be searching for a way to slow that process — hence sporadic attempts, in some places, to keep blue jeans and mobile phones, those telltale signs of modernity, away from young women. The influence of village elders is diluted, however, when young people move into cities, and that is what much of India is doing. The whole country is changing at once.

The cycle of struggle 1973 to 1979 in India -
Relevance for the discussion on the relation between crisis, class struggle, ‘popular movements’ and state form today
India, 1974
The crisis blow of the 1973 ‘oil-crisis’ fuelled inflation and pushed up the unemployment rate in India. A year later students in Gujarat protested against the rise in canteen prices. The police attacked them, sparking violent protests throughout the state. Main target of the anger was the ‘corrupted government’ (…)

Guneeta Singh Bhalla’s grandfather refused to believe Partition was going to be a reality. He stayed put in Lahore till he was caught in the communal frenzy that left him with no option but to leave. The father of three had several narrow escapes en route to Amritsar. His car was fired at as he drove down roads strewn with the bodies of riot victims.