'We survive cold winters every year, but this winter, our hearts are burning embers' #FarmersProtests 2/10
'When farmers water their fields in the chill of winter, these corporates, these politicians, sleep snug in their beds' #FarmersProtests 3/10
'We are making our own food and distributing it to others as well. We are kisans, we know how to stay strong.' #FarmersProtests 4/10
'We don’t trust the corporates. They have betrayed us earlier, and we are not fools. We know our rights.' #FarmersProtests#FarmersProtest2020 5/10
You see these? The tractors are also our weapons. We care for them as we care for our children. #FarmersProtests 6/10
'This is a caravan which feels like home.' #FarmersProtests
Some farmers are staying in their trucks, some sleeping at petrol pumps, some pass the night in group singing sessions. Warmth, camaraderie, and a spirit of resolve & resistance comes through in all these clusters. 7/10
'Our farmer brothers came all this way to the Delhi border, away from the comfort of their homes. We are providing them everything we can' #FarmersProtests 8/10
'We give this country food and we get tear gas and water cannons in return. If this is not treachery, then what is?' #FarmersProtests 9/10
'I am not sleepy, the government has stolen my sleep' #FarmersProtests n/10 📷Shadab Farooq
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He’s had 14 operations. But Virambhai’s ordeal is not over yet. Virambhai and Manishaben were tenant farmers before his kidneys began failing; they are now deep in debt and their day-long trips to the hospital have left their young children home alone. 1/3 pari.education/articles/we-be…
The doctors here at B.T. Savani Kidney Hospital in Rajkot have informed Virambhai Adhariya that he needs a kidney transplant. Just the operation will cost Rs. 4.5 lakh. The kidney will come from his wife, Manishaben, 28. However, this solution is not without its problems. 2/3
As the only able-bodied adult in the family, Manishaben has to provide for their children. She says, “If I am operated on for a kidney, I will have to rest for 6 months. Who will look after us then? It is like the sky is too high and the land is too far below; we belong nowhere.”
Left with few livelihood options, Adivasis and Dalits from villages on the border of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh take the train to various towns to sell firewood and earn a few hundred rupees after a hard day.
Cutting wood, which will later be taken to the Manikpur railway junction and other stations, and then to markets in various towns along the train route. 2/n
Women crossing the sluice gate of a dam, carrying their daily load of firewood. 3/n
This September 2018 report focuses on the atrocities in India against independent and critical journalists, writers, and academics since 2014. India is languishing at #142 in the #WorldPressFreedomIndex 2020.
The report has essays by journalists Raksha Kumar and Nilanjana Roy, advocate Gautam Bhatia, and cultural critic Apoorvanand – discuss legal threats, pressures on editors, threats of violence, challenges to academic freedom, and the chilling effect all of this has had on writing.
"#Ram is written all over us. So, you see, we are the Ramayana."
The Ramnami sect, originally Dalits, have rejected the #caste system to adopt a bhakti path open to all with Ram at its center.
[Thread]
The Ramnami of Chhattisgarh were originally Dalits who rejected their caste and adopted a devotional path. They have distinctive tattoos and cultural norms, but the younger generation is giving up these practices.
Pandit Ram Das, 90, of Kodava village, never went to school, but he can write in four languages, he says. He rewrote parts of Tulsidas' Ramcharitmanas, the holy book of the Ramnami, wherever it indicates class and gender inequality.
Inequality & the pandemic 1/ Mukesh Ambani could personally pay each of RIL’s 2 Lakh employees a Rs 1.47 crore bonus today & still be as wealthy as he was at the beginning of the pandemic
Meanwhile, nearly 40 crore Indian workers are projected to sink into poverty due to COVID-19
2/ ‘Pandemic-profiting’ is a global phenomenon. The top 25 billionaires increased their wealth by $255 billion btwn mid-March & May.
32 of the world’s most profitable companies are together expected to make $109 billion more than the avg of their profits in the last four years.
3/ The paper states that the ‘pandemic profits’ of these 32 companies could be redeployed in funding global Covid-19 testing needs (estimated at $6 billion), and delivering vaccines to everyone on the planet (estimated cost $71 billion)
Since 1992, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has been keeping a record of atrocities committed against journalists in India. During this time CPJ has recorded 27 cases of journalists murdered in direct retaliation for their work.
More than half of those killed reported regularly on corruption, crime and politics – three beats often closely intertwined. This has created a challenging environment for small-town journalists and those reporting on corruption, who are often more vulnerable to attacks.