Agriculture in the Age of Inequality
The corporate hijack of agriculture, achieved by predatory commercialisation of the countryside, is India’s actual agrarian crisis.
India’s Media at 75: Shackled by Profit, Politically Imprisoned
“For three of my four decades as a journalist, I argued that the Indian media are politically free but imprisoned by profit. Today I’d say they are still shackled by profit, but are increasingly politically imprisoned as well.”
When Bhabani Mahato Fed the Revolution
Bhabani, like so many other women, never received the honours and recognition she truly deserved. In the struggle for India’s freedom, all of them fought and acquitted themselves as honourably as anyone else. But they were women. In societies awash in prejudices and stereotypes against women, their role was seldom valued.
To the CJI, on His Lament that Investigative Journalism Is Vanishing from Indian Media
Alas, the consequences these days for journalists doing such stories can be serious. Even for those doing straight reporting. Siddique Kappan, arrested en route to Hathras to meet the family of the gang-rape victim, has languished in jail for over a year now, unable to get bail.
Farmers Win on Many Fronts, Media Fails on All
The repeal of the three farm laws came about not because the PM failed to ‘persuade’ some farmers, but because many farmers stood resolute, even as a craven media devalued their struggle and strength.
‘Forbes’, India and Pandora’s Pandemic Box
In a year the GDP contracted 7.7%, as we brace for another round of ‘reverse’ migrations and as farmers wait unheeded at the gates of Delhi, Indian billionaires reached record levels of wealth.
Drought Is Not Simply a Natural Calamity, it Is Also Driven by Commercial Greed
In his foreword to Kavitha Iyer’s book ‘Landscapes of Loss’, P. Sainath writes about the commodification of water and the thriving ‘thirst economy’ in the Marathwada region.
Did You Think the New Laws Were Only About the Farmers?
“No suit, prosecution or other legal proceedings shall lie against the Central Government or the State Government, or any officer of the Central Government or the State Government or any other person in respect of anything which is in good faith done or intended to be done under this Act or of any rules or…
The Migrant and the Moral Economy of the Elite
The lockdown has revealed the brutality of India’s chronic disregard for the rights of migrant labourers.
What We Should Do About COVID-19
P. Sainath, April 2, 2020 With his first speech on the coronavirus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi got us to scare evil spirits away by having people bang the hell out of their pots and pans. With his second, he scared the hell out of all of us. With not a word on how the public,…