South Asia Solidarity Initiative

09/14/2020

Many people may know that Korail is the largest informal settlement in Bangladesh. But you may not be aware of an impressive women-led urban farmer community in Korail who uses their backyard for vegetable production to feed and sustain themselves in the face of food insecurity. This community and other daily wage earners are suffering badly due to COVID-19 and its onslaught in Bangladesh. This fundraiser is co-organized with Community Town Federation (CTF), a women-led community organization of city-wide informal settlement (‘slum’) dwellers to support women urban farmers and community members in Korail. Please donate today to support their cause:

Situated in the capital city of Dhaka, Korail is the largest informal se… Efadul Huq needs your support for Support Urban Farmers & Residents in Korail, Dhaka

08/11/2020

https://m.thewire.in/article/south-asia/sri-lanka-podujana-peramuna-elections-rajapaksa-sinhalas-tamils

History reveals that a two-third majority for Sri Lanka’s Sinhala-centric parties have led to the introduction of new constitutions that centralised state power and created divisions amongst communities.

08/09/2020

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=9cpRakl9Gto

Kiran, a transgender man from Karnataka has been helping daily wage labourers with food and ration kits ever since the lockdown started. Being differently-ab...

08/08/2020

https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/news/still-left-behind-covid-19-and-indigenous-peoples-bangladesh-1941817

As we witnessed the global crisis of the coronavirus pandemic hit Bangladesh at the end of March 2020, we became anxious about the impact it would have on the indigenous peoples of the country, who were already struggling with longstanding issues related to their socioeconomic, political and cultura...

08/05/2020

"On August 5, the American India Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is planning a display of the deity Ram and portraits of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya across billboards in New York’s Times Square. This event is meant to broadcast the groundbreaking of the Ram temple in the Indian town of Ayodhya. It also marks the one-year anniversary since India abrogated Article 370 of its constitution, and annexed Kashmir. The BJP victory in the legal contestation over the Babri Masjid site is being celebrated on the day of the Kashmiri annexation to create a spectacle of Indian nationalism, rooted in a genocide against Muslims.
[...]
Activists also raise other concerns about the government’s timing and emphasis on spectacle. India currently has the third highest number of COVID cases in the world. The state has intensified the suffering of its most vulnerable people through a cruel lockdown — another occasion of a spectacle rather than a serious response to a deadly pandemic. Lockdowns were not only extremely ill-planned and anti-poor, but were used to arrest anti-CAA activists and intensify military operations in Kashmir. The pandemic has also triggered a horrific acceleration of caste atrocities across India, with a nearly daily occurrence of terrifying violence against Dalitbahujan people. During pivotal crisis points like this, it has been a BJP strategy in recent years to abandon key state functions to further Hindutva expansionist and genocidal fantasies.
[...]
“The Times Square event is a perverse celebration of India’s colonial occupation of Kashmir,” said Nufail A. “The ceremony is intended to mark a decades-old pogrom and destruction of Muslims in the public sphere. No one with a conscience should accept New York City’s public space being used in this way.”

August 4, 2020

08/03/2020

TIMING UPDATED: Please note the new timing for this Wednesday’s Times Square protest. Their program will begin at 7:30 PM so that’s when we will gather. Our statement coming soon...

08/01/2020

The Alliance goes to the polls amid a growing disenchantment among Tamil voters who, 11 years after the war, are still demanding justice and greater powers

07/31/2020

Hey folks! Come join us for this protest!
Due to emerging details, we have to re-assess our timings! Stay tuned as exact timings is TO BE ANNOUNCED!

If you need background info, our Instagram post has slides providing the context ~ https://www.instagram.com/p/CDSdPixD9pg/?igshid=6958dtgnlu6i

07/30/2020

The hindu rashtra is relentless. It is backed by monied right-wing sanghis in the diaspora. And it is coming to Times Square to whitewash genocide and the demolition of Babri Masjid.

We’ll be there to say f*ck this vile spectacle of fascism. STAY TUNED for details.

This is to celebrate the ‘bhoomi poojan’ or ground-breaking ceremony of the proposed Ram temple in Uttar Pradesh.

07/28/2020

In the latest episode of the Sandip Roy Show, Dalit activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan talks about how the Cisco case highlights the problem of caste discrimination in the US.