Interim Observations of the Jury of Independent People’s Tribunal on Land Acquisition, Resource Grab and Operation Green Hunt The Independent People’s Tribunal on Land Acquisition, Resource Grab and Operation Green Hunt (organised by a collective of civil society groups, social movements, activists, academics and concerned citizens) was held in New Delhi from April 9 to 11, 2010. Its jury comprised retired Supreme Court judge Justice P.B. Sawant, retired Bombay High Court...

How did your trip to Niyamgiri and Vedanta’s mining project there come about? I’ve been a human rights, social justice and environment protection advocate for the last 30 years. I am the founder and chair of the Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation. I also love India and have a long relationship with this country. Many people know this. This is why Action Aid approached me to meet Sitaram Kulisika, a tribal...

By the end of the third day (i.e. 11th April, 2010) of the The Independent People’s Tribunal that took place at Constitutional Club between 9 and 11 April, 2010, Retired Supreme Court judge Justice Sawant, while concluding, said that participatory democracy has been lacking in India. Democracy can never be equated with elections only. The jury during the 3-day long People’s Tribunal heard the testimonies of a large number of...

It is popular in periods of Hindu religious fasting like Navratri. It is also commonly found on the shelves of health food stores. But for the tribals in the Sahyadri hills in Maharashtra, buckwheat is a way of life. Unlike in the hilly regions of northern India where kuttu, as the millet-like crop is called in Hindi, is found in plenty, spotting buckwheat fields can be difficult on the Sahyadri hills....

Kancha Ilaiah’s Post-Hindu India should be essential reading for all who get panicky about Mayawati’s brand of Dalit politics. Unlike the bsp supremo’s bid to empower marginalised groups through the levers of electoral democracy by wooing a wider ‘sarvajan samaj’, Ilaiah wants to launch an all-out civil war between Dalit Bahujans and Hindu society. This is an angry, provocative book written by a leading Dalit thinker, who is convinced that...