South Asia Citizens Web

Early data emerging from the ongoing survey of trade unions in India have revealed they are growing by leaps and bounds from what they were five years ago, contrary to popular belief they are losing their sheen and diminishing by size with the rapid contractualisation of labour.

When you ask an already powerful state to expand their powers further, so as to pummel those you oppose, don’t be surprised if the state also decides to use that power against you.

Bangladesh today is in the throes of an internal churning. What started in February as a movement to press for justice for war crimes committed during Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971 has now metamorphosed into a greater battle over the founding principles of the Bangladeshi state. This has led to the crystallization of two forces – the secular-minded Bangladeshi intelligentsia, activists and the progressive Bangladeshi youth on the one hand, and the Islamist socio-political formations on the other.

The Shahbag protests in Dhaka, which were held recently to condemn Bengali Islamists’ collaboration with the Pakistani Army in 1971, have found both allies and critics in India’s West Bengal region. Ironically, the Indian state is exploiting the anti-Shahbag narrative - led by Islamist forces within India - to earn brownie points with what it sees as a valuable minority. But at what cost? By Garga Chatterjee

Posters and badges released at a protest on 23 April 2013 by Delhi university teachers against the undemocratic ways of Delhi university . . . .