Arundhati Under Attack for Kashmir Statements (via ScarletGuju)

The fascist goons of the Hindutva brigade are going after Arundhati Roy for speaking out in favor of Kashmiri rights and justice. This is an incredibly disturbing and frightening development. ScarletGuju, blogging from Delhi, writes: “it’s pretty troubling to hear how far people say they are willing to go to shut her up.”

For a snapshot of the recent developments that have brought things to this point, see ScarletGuju’s useful compilation of news articles in his post.

To see just how violent opposition to the Kashmiri cause has become, how volatile, watch these videos of Arundhati’s recent speech at a conference in Delhi.

The videos testify not only to the intimidating atmosphere that supporters of azadi in India are facing these days, but also to the integrity, not to mention courage, of a celebrated author and human rights campaigner who refuses to conform to the prescribed rules of celebrity.

Arundhati’s integrity is eminently her own.

So too is her courage, which I think has its moorings not only in her ideas and her convictions (you hear it in the quiet confidence of her opening one-liner: ”Anybody have any shoes to throw, please throw them now!”) but in her close interaction with people in struggle. In the courage of Kashmiri youth, rising up with stones against armed soldiers and tanks, many of whom have grown up knowing no other reality than that of a violent, unjust, and unjustified military occupation of their lands. In the courage of adivasis standing up against the brutal crackdown known as Operation Green Hunt.

The Kashmiri intifada, which began with the uprising against the “Amarnath Yatra” of 2008, has clearly moved into a new phase of international visibility and recognition, thanks in large measure to the fact that this is an intifada in the strictest sense–a mass uprising–and cannot be written off or branded as just so much “jihadi terror.”

The international left has an important responsibility today. The escalating crisis in the subcontinent, or rather, the intersection of various crisis faultlines, has exposed the reality of the occupation of Kashmir to the world.

The international left must amplify the demands for azadi that are echoing across Kashmir today, and express our solidarity with Arundhati and her fellow activists.

ScarletGuju’s post:

My title might seem to give too much prominence to Arundhati Roy here, given the Kashmir crisis itself.  But my subject in this post is in fact Roy, reflecting on the way in which the media and politicians have specifically gone after her (yet again).  So I thought I’d given a series of links from The Hindu on what’s gone down, and you can see how the focus shifts from the issue itself to Roy and the free speech question. Incidentally, the rhetor … Read More

Related Articles

• What I said is a call for justice, says Arundhati (topinews.com)
• Arundhati Roy threatened with sedition charges over Kashmir comments (mhpbooks.com)
• In praise of Arundhati Roy (newstatesman.com)
• Arundhati Roy and Kashmir’s struggle for justice | Murtaza Shibli (guardian.co.uk)
• Foreign Policy: Arundhati Roy Should Not Be Silenced (npr.org)

Operation Green Hunt and the Crackdown in Kashmir: NYC protesters link the two

Protest against Green Hunt, NYC, August 2010

On August 13, two days before Indian Independence Day, some 30-40 protestors gathered outside the Indian Consulate in New York City to protest against the Indian government’s ongoing Operation Green Hunt, which is aimed at beating back any and all resistance to their neoliberal policies.

The protesters also expressed solidarity with the struggle for self-determination in Kashmir, linking the struggles of the adivasis in central and eastern India to that of the Kashmiris to the north.

The protest, organized by Sanhati, was endorsed by several South Asian groups as well as organizations of the U.S. left. It is a welcome sign that desis in the U.S. are beginning to break from the ideological commitment to the establishment Left (read: CPI, CPM), which has been complicit in the silence, not only over the neoliberal land-grabs, but on the issue of Kashmiri self-determination as well. Nevertheless, the low turnout is an indication of just how large the gap is between what needs to be done, on the one hand, and the ability/willingness of the organized left to build such solidarity actions on the other.

Sanhati’s official report about the protest can be found here.

FULL TEXT OF SANHATI’S PETITION
AGAINST OPERATION GREEN HUNT

To,
Consul General
Consulate General of India
3 East 64th Street
New York, NY 10065

(Subject: Petition against Operation Green Hunt in India)

Dear Sir/Madam,

We, the undersigned, would like to register our strong protest against the Operation Green Hunt, the Government of India’s (GOI) deliberate move to escalate military intervention against the indigenous people in the forested regions of East-Central India. Such a military campaign already will endanger the lives and livelihoods of millions of the poorest people living in those areas, resulting in massive displacement, destitution and human rights violation of ordinary citizens, especially the indigenous people.

We are acutely aware of the fact that the geographical terrain where the GOI’s military offensive is taking place, is very rich in natural resources like minerals, forest wealth and water, and has been the target of large scale appropriation by several Indian and foreign corporations. The desperate resistance of the local indigenous people against their displacement and dispossession has in many cases prevented the government-backed corporations from making inroads into these areas and has thankfully impeded the setting-up of ecologically disastrous industries. We fear that the government’s on-going military offensive is an attempt to crush such popular resistances in order to facilitate the entry and operation of these corporations and to pave the way for unbridled exploitation of the natural resources and the people of these regions.

We feel that it would deliver a crippling blow to Indian democracy if the government tries to subjugate its own people militarily without addressing their grievances. As has been witnessed in the case of numerous peoples’ struggle around the world, such military campaigns end up in enormous misery for the common people.

Therefore, we demand -

1) An immediate end to the Operation Green Hunt and withdrawal of all armed forces from these regions

2) The GOI should engage with the civil society mediated initiatives for negotiations with representatives of peoples’ movements in order to address the grievances of the common people.

3) All Memoranda of Understanding (MoU-s) signed with different corporations, for the extraction of natural resources from the vast areas of East-Central India, must be revealed and immediately cancelled.

4) All draconian laws like Unlawful Activity (Prevention) Act, Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, Armed Forces Special Powers Act should be immediately repealed. Ban on political organizations should be withdrawn and all political prisoners should be released.

5) All state-assisted vigilante groups like the Salwa Judum in Chhattisgarh and Harmad Bahini in West Bengal should be immediately disbanded and the concerned criminals associated with these organizations, including government officials, should be brought to book.

India’s War on the Poor

“The state has unleashed a virtual war on people.”

Gautam Navlakha and Arundhati Roy spoke at a public forum in Mumbai earlier this year about Operation Green Hunt, the Indian government’s brutal military action against adivasi and peasant resistance to neoliberal land-grabs. “This is war we’re talking about; not a police action,” says Navlakha, in a passionate speech outlining the real consequences of Operation Green Hunt. Both Navlakha and Roy spent several days with the tribals and Maoists; Roy wrote about her experiences eloquently in “Walking with the comrades.” Roy’s essays have sparked a vigorous debate on the Indian left, with prominent left intellectuals taking Roy to task for what they saw as her support for Maoism per se.

More on these and other “critiques” of Roy in a future post. For now, watch these videos if you want to learn more about Operation Green Hunt and the context in which this civil war is being waged.

The Introduction is powerful enough:

To watch the rest of the forum, click here.

Protest against Operation Green Hunt (via New Red Indian)

Please help spread the word!

It’s happening in New York on August 13, just in time for Independence Day.  Here are the details.

NEW YORK CITY – Sanhati, and other organizations and individuals, are organizing a protest against the Indian government’s insidious war, named “Operation Green Hunt,” which has been unleashed on the inhabitants of the forested regions of East-Central India. The protest will approximately coincide with Indian Independence Day (August 15) to emphasiz … Read More

via New Red Indian