Geography Archives: Asia

The strike by 10 central trade unions is against a proposal to limit the formation and powers of trade unions, as well as for a minimum wage of Rs. 18,000 and the protection of the public sector.

Ahead of the 2019 elections in India—the largest exercise of electoral democracy in the world–Brinda Karat of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) discusses the current political context in the country and the left-led resistance to the deepening assault on basic human rights led by India’s right-wing.

Marx correlates the decrease of Indian textile exports with the monopoly exerted by British muslins to India and the decimation of the population of Dhaka.

In a Delhi bookshop this October, I came across Karl Marx on India. Edited by Iqbal Husain, former Professor of History at Aligarh Muslim University, and published under the aegis of Aligarh Historians Society by Tulika Books in 2006, the book attracted me too because it contained a long Introduction by the eminent Aligarh historian, Professor Irfan Habib.

The 150th birth anniversary year of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi and the 200th birth anniversary of Karl Marx went by this year. Such anniversaries can become occasions of tokenism—for instance, the Indian government has set up a committee with more than 100 members to coordinate celebrations of Gandhi’s anniversary, crammed with political bigwigs from various parties, a few academics and Gandhian workers.

The year of 2018 marked 200 years of Karl Marx’s birth anniversary. On this occasion, teachers and students of the department of English and Humanities at University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh organised a two-day international conference showcasing the ways young scholars have engaged with Marx’s body of work. Nasir Uz Zaman reports from the event.

A five-year-old revolutionary movement in Nepal brings together program and commitment in a way that powerfully prefigures communist society.

John Pilger, investigative journalist and documentary film-maker, talks about the U.S.’ aggression in the Asia-Pacific region and the decline of its global dominance and says that a “new Cold War beckons isolation for the U.S. and danger for the rest of us”.

NARENDRA Modi said the other day, rather disparagingly, that the “Urban Naxals” live in air-conditioned comfort. Since all who speak or write in public upholding the right to dissent from the Hindutva positions, including even known critics of the Left, which means virtually all members of the intelligentsia who display any integrity, have been dubbed “Urban Naxals” by his government, his remark in effect amounts to targeting the entire intelligentsia.

Earlier this month, in Savar (Bangladesh), over 1400 delegates came to the fourth People’s Health Assembly–first held in 2000 by popular health organisations to drive a global dynamic to champion public health measures. At the centre of the discussions were increased health inequalities–between the rich and the poor certainly, but also sharply between affluent states and states that have found their wealth robbed by colonialism and the adverse order produced over the past fifty years.

WhatsApp and fake news go hand-in-hand in both Brazil and India. And judging by the Facebook-owned messaging app’s effect on Brazil’s recent presidential election, India may be slated for some serious trouble next spring.

A few days from now–on 29-30 November–a very large number of people will gather in New Delhi, the capital of India, to say that they stand with India’s farmers (kisans).

It stinks, it is the most polluted city on earth, but that is not the most terrible thing about it.

How can politics be a way of pursuing the same goals once pursued in war? And through what form of politics? The career of Pasang, from revolutionary military commander to Vice President of Nepal, raises a host of questions about the transition from war to politics and the conditions of victory in each sphere.

Within a timeframe of hardly four years, Stokely Carmichael’s organizational efforts evolved from the mobilization of black voters in Alabama and Mississippi to building a large movement resisting the military draft at the height of the Vietnam war, culminating in the SNCC’s “Hell No! We Won’t Go!” campaign.

In the summer of 2018, the Indian State of Kerala was hit by severe rains and flood–the heaviest in nearly a century. The deluge affected 5.4 million people in this southern Indian state with a population of 35 million.

In the aftermath of Nepal’s near revolution, diverse Maoist leaders are attempting to regroup and move forward again.

We must demand immediate, scientifically rational, and enforceable emissions-reduction targets for each country that take into account historical CO2 emissions, and, relatedly, provision of the necessary technological and financial support to less-developed (and less culpable) countries.

On March 16th and 17th last year the Philippine armed forces dropped bombs containing illegal and toxic white phosphorus on towns in Abra province. The pasturelands and communal forests of farmers and indigenous peoples were burnt, and daily activities ground to a halt as widespread fear set in among the population.

China’s growth rate remains impressive, even if on the decline. The country’s continuing economic gains owe much to the Chinese state’s (1) still considerable ability to direct the activity of critical economic enterprises and sectors such as finance, (2) commitment to policies of economic expansion, and (3) flexibility in economic strategy.