India
Gill discusses the Indian farmers' protests in the context of the shift towards neo-liberal global capitalism and the power of Indian agribusiness, aided by new internet platforms and data analytics.
Building on 40 years of activism and scholarship, contributors assess recent feminist issues and campaigns in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Includes Roy’s 2008 essay ‘Azadi: the only thing Kashmiris want’, previously published in the Guardian (London), Outlook (New Delhi), and her 2009 book Arundhati Roy, Listening to Grasshoppers: Field Notes on Democracy, London, Hamish Hamilton, 2009 , pp. 304 .
Focused particularly on the controversy over the major Narmada River dam projects, but also provides comparative perspective by considering dam projects in Brazil, China, Indonesia, South Africa and Lesotho, where the World Bank and other lenders were persuaded to withdraw funding.
The book discusses what factors encourage or undermine nonviolent discipline, including the reactions of the government and the way the movement is itself organised.
Primarily discusses the US civil rights and the British nuclear disarmament movements.
Useful summary analysis including brief case studies of corporate misuse of water and resistance to them (and further references): Nestle in US, Vivendi and Suez in Mexico, Bechtel in Bolivia and Coca Cola in India.
Revisionary analysis of Gandhi’s 608 day campaign to secure right of untouchables to use road by a Brahmin temple, challenging claims in earlier accounts that a solution was reached because the Brahmins were ‘converted’. The author criticises both Gandhi’s belief that self-imposed suffering can convert the opponent and his leadership of this campaign.
Brings together historical and contemporary approaches to nonviolent struggle and theoretical contributions as well as analyses of particular movements. Section 1 on theory includes writings by Thoreau, Tolstoy, Gandhi and Martin Luther King. Section 2 covers 'Nonviolence as a Political Strategy' and Section 3 'Nonviolence in Contemporary Movements' including a number of contributions on important recent movements in India: environmental campaigns against the Narmada dams and to preserve forests, Gandhian campaigns after Independence and the role of Jayaprakash Narayan, and the Anna Hazare Movement against corruption. A number of eminent contemporary Indian scholars have contributed.
Covers women’s political rights across all major regions of the world, focusing both on women’s right to vote and women’s right to run for political office. The countries explored are Afghanistan, Armenia, Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Cameroon, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, New Zealand, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, Poland, Russia, Rwanda, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, South Korea, Slovenia, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tunisia, Turkey, the United States, Uganda, Uruguay, and Zimbabwe.
Focuses on conflicts over urban space, resources and housing in Cambodia, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and includes accounts of resistance in squatter settlements, e.g. in Kathmandu.
This book was published soon after December 1997, when over 120 states (excluding the USA, Russia, China, India and Pakistan) signed the Ottawa Convention to ban production, stockpiling and use of anti-personnel mines. It provides a wide ranging survey of both the global campaign and the diplomatic moves culminating in the 'Ottawa process', which, under Canadian government leadership, resulted in the treaty. There are contributions from leading campaigners, diplomats and academics.
Merton explains his theoretical approach, which draws on exponents of nonviolence such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr, and in this context discusses the Danish people's resistance against the Nazis, the perils of the nuclear age and racism.
Foreword by Elise Boulding. Examines how the Gandhian movement in India developed Gandhi’s idea that nonviolent volunteers should act in place of armed police (for example to quell riots) and provide a nonviolent alternative to the army. Includes substantial bibliography pp. 267-84.
The author argues that Indian agricultural policy, devised in response to food shortages in the 1960s, relied on a mix of technological solutions to increase yields and a range of pricing measures to support farmers. These policies are out of date, but changing the overall policy is difficult as farmers believe their livelihoods are at stake. This paper considers the issues behind the protests and suggests ways forward.
Discusses early resistance in 19th and 20th centuries and contemporary campaigns against destruction of forests, dams, pollution and over-fishing of seas, and mining. Akula also describes Jharkand separatist ‘tribal’ struggle to own their historic land and promote sustainable use of resources.
A chapter from Overy’s unpublished PhD thesis.
The interview examines the role of Asian garment workers in a ruthlessly competitive garment industry influenced by 'fast fashion', which intensifies pressure on workers through forced overtime and 'inhuman productivity targets'. The Asia Floor Wage Alliance was created to unite unions across the borders of countries such as India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka competing for market share, to create a regional bloc able to negotiate with the global brands in the industry. The aim was to ensure there is a cross-border minimum wage which cannot be breached, though the aim is also to raise wages, which would only entail a small rise to consumers. There is now recognition of the principle of an Asia Floor Wage across the industry, supported by the International Labour Organization (ILO), but pressure on the brands is needed. AFWA works with other labour rights bodies and NGOs, and also has partners in Europe and the US, where the global brands have their headquarters.
See also:
http://awajfoundation.org/, https://ngwfbd.com/ and https://www.ilo.org/dhaka/Areasofwork/workers-and-employers-organizations/lang--en/index.htm (ILO-Bangladesh).
Examination of the grass roots work of the MKSS in developing campaign for right to information as part of their wider campaigning and their use of jan sunwals (public hearings) in communities where official documents regarding public works, anti-poverty programmes etc. are read out and people are encouraged to add their own testimony about diversion of funds and fraud. The article also covers the MKSS use of public protest, such as a 52 day sit-in in the capital of Rajasthan, Jaipur, in 1997. See also: 2005 Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, Right to Information. State Level: Rajasthan, 2005 2005 . Brief elaboration and update on work of MKSS and Right to Information Acts up to 2005.
Lively sympathetic biography used as basis for Richard Attenborough’s 1982 film.
Analyzes the current feminist actors, organizations and debates around gender equality and feminist perspectives in order to provide an overview of feminist ideas and actors in India. It shows that feminism today is the constant questioning of the world we perceive and the boundaries we encounter.
Pays special attention to Ekta Parishad (an Indian land rights organization), the Assembly of the Poor in Thailand and MST in Brazil.