Indian subcontinent
India: Mass protests against Modi’s anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act continue
By Deepal Jayasekera, 24 January 2020
Rattled by the eruption of mass opposition, the BJP government has responded with state repression and fascistic rants, as exemplified by the boast of a senior BJP leader, “Our governments … shot these people like dogs.”
Sri Lankan president announces major tax concessions for foreign investors
By W.A. Sunil, 24 January 2020
Colombo has reactivated its Strategic Development Projects Act in a desperate attempt to boost foreign direct investment.
Massive all-India general strike protests Modi’s pro-investor, communalist policies
By Deepal Jayasekera and Keith Jones, 9 January 2020
The strike’s size and scope did vary across the country, but there is no doubt that it had a massive impact, and attested to the growing militancy and immense social power of the working class.
Indian workers need a revolutionary socialist program to fight Modi, capitalist austerity, and communal reaction
By Deepal Jayasekera and Keith Jones, 8 January 2020
While tens of millions of workers and youth will join today’s general strike to fight the BJP’s “pro-investor” and communalist policies, the unions and Stalinist parties are seeking to tie the mass opposition to Modi to the big-business Congress Party and the Indian state.
Indian army chief denounces mass protests against BJP government’s anti-Muslim citizenship law
By Wasantha Rupasinghe and Keith Jones, 30 December 2019
More than two dozen people have died in the protests, most at the hands of police in Uttar Pradesh.
Telangana Road Transport workers face harassment, contract-rollbacks after union surrender
By Kranti Kumara, 27 December 2019
Acting at the behest of the state government, TSRTC management is trying to force the workers to join bogus, state-sponsored “Workers’ Welfare Committees.”
Indian state intensifies repression of mass protests against anti-Muslim citizenship law
By Deepal Jayasekera, 23 December 2019
At least 25 people have been killed during the protests, which have touched all parts of the country, against the Hindu supremacist BJP government.
Mass protests erupt against Modi-led Indian government’s Hindu supremacist agenda
By Keith Jones, 17 December 2019
Demonstrations against the BJP government’s Hindu supremacist “Citizenship Amendment Act” continued yesterday, spreading to cities across India.
Indian government uses police, paramilitaries to repress protests at Jawaharlal Nehru University
By Kranti Kumara, 25 November 2019
The Modi government has vilified JNU students as “anti-national” and “urban Naxals” for opposing its relentless promotion of Hindu supremacism and imposition of pro-investor measures.
Over 5,000 arrests, police violence against transport strikers in India’s Telangana state
By Kranti Kumara, 11 November 2019
Despite the transport workers' courage and resiliency, the strike is in great danger, due to the treacherous union leadership's appeal to the right-wing, Hindu chauvinist BJP national government to intervene.
With ruling on razed mosque
India’s Supreme Court validates Hindu supremacist violence
By Keith Jones, 11 November 2019
The Supreme Court’s ruling attests to the extent to which India’s state institutions have become infused with Hindu communalism and India’s ruling elite is breaking with the most elementary democratic principles.
India: Growing support for 48,000 Telangana workers fired for striking
By Arun Kumar and Kranti Kumara, 2 November 2019
The Telangana transport workers courageously defied the state Chief Minister’s ultimatum that they immediately end their strike or be deemed “self-dismissed.”
India: Motherson autoworkers strike at cross roads
By Arun Kumar, 9 October 2019
Motherson workers should break the isolation imposed upon them by All India Central Council of Trade Unions and fight for the broadest mobilization of workers in India and internationally behind their struggle.
Hundreds of thousands of Indian auto workers face sackings and wage cuts
By Saman Gunadasa, 18 September 2019
The assault on Indian workers is part of the escalating global attack on the jobs, wages and working conditions of auto workers in the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Asia.
India’s Hindu supremacist government abrogates Kashmir’s autonomy
By Keith Jones, 6 August 2019
Yesterday’s actions will enflame tensions with Pakistan, and constitute a further stage in the Indian ruling elite’s turn toward authoritarian forms of rule and promotion of Hindu communal reaction.
Pompeo touts Indo-US alliance, bullies New Delhi
By Keith Jones, 28 June 2019
India’s ruling elite is determined to double-down on its reckless gamble that it can realize its great-power ambitions by serving as US imperialism’s junior partner.
Severe water shortage afflicts Chennai, India’s fourth-largest metro area
By Arun Kumar, 25 June 2019
While the authorities have sought to blame the crisis on the failure of the monsoon, the real cause of the acute water shortage is the criminal indifference of successive central and state governments to people’s basic needs.
“Water has been made a commodity for profit”—Chennai residents speak out on city’s water crisis
By a WSWS Reporting Team, 25 June 2019
WSWS reporters spoke with workers and other impoverished residents of Chennai about the severe water crisis afflicting India’s fourth largest metropolitan area.
Stalinist CPM and CPI suffer meltdown in India’s national election
By Deepal Jayasekera, 27 May 2019
The Stalinists’ electoral debacle is the outcome of their decades-long political suppression of the working class and key role in implementing a “pro-market,” “pro-investor” agenda.
The ICFI’s program intersects with a new wave of working-class struggle
By Wije Dias, 11 May 2019
We are publishing here the text of the speech to the 2019 Online International May Day Rally delivered by Wije Dias, General Secretary of the SEP in Sri Lanka.
India’s election and the revolutionary program to oppose austerity, war and communal reaction
By Keith Jones, 8 May 2019
The BJP’s turn to militarism and unabashed communal reaction is animated, above all, by its fear of growing social opposition.
SEP (Sri Lanka) holds successful May Day meeting in Colombo, despite government efforts to bar celebrations
By our reporters, 3 May 2019
Some 200 workers, students, youth, professionals and housewives from areas throughout the island attended the meeting.
Arbitrary wage cuts imposed on Sri Lankan estate workers
By W.A. Sunil, 12 April 2019
The Thomson Reuters Foundation research report shows that illegal pay deductions and high workloads are widespread in the plantations.
Sri Lankans driven to suicide by exorbitant debt repayments
By Saman Gunadasa, 28 March 2019
Most of those who committed suicide were from the war-ravaged Vavuniya and Jaffna districts in the island’s north and Batticalao in the east.
Amidst mounting social opposition
Indian elite nervously prepares for national elections
By Wasantha Rupasinghe and Keith Jones, 27 March 2019
Among India’s workers and toilers there is deep-rooted anger against not only the ruling BJP, but against the ruinous outcome of three decades of “pro-investor” reform.
Reports underscore how close India and Pakistan came to all-out war in late February
By Keith Jones, 20 March 2019
Just three weeks ago, India and Pakistan became the first nuclear-armed powers to ever attack each other with warplanes.
Days after coming to the brink of all-out war
India and Pakistan stoke chauvinism, exchange threats
By Deepal Jayasekera, 6 March 2019
Although cross-border shelling has reportedly declined since Sunday, continuing tensions between South Asia’s rival nuclear-armed states have left the region on the brink of a catastrophic war.
India and Pakistan tobogganing toward a catastrophic war
By Keith Jones, 2 March 2019
India and Pakistan are teetering on the brink of what would be the first-ever war between nuclear-armed states.
India and Pakistan issue fresh war threats
By K. Ratnayake, 1 March 2019
Even as Islamabad agreed to release a captured Indian pilot as a “peace gesture,” India and Pakistan continued their war preparations.
Nuclear-armed India, Pakistan on brink of all-out war
By K. Ratnayake, 28 February 2019
Pakistan announced Wednesday that it had struck targets in India after India carried out a large-scale bombing raid deep in Pakistan on Tuesday morning.
Indian government intensifies retaliatory threats against Pakistan
By Deepal Jayasekera, 19 February 2019
Any Indian military strike could easily lead to a tit-for-tat escalation and rapidly cascade into an all-out war between South Asia’s rival nuclear-armed states.
Indian government seizes on Kashmir attack to ratchet up tensions with Pakistan
By Deepal Jayasekera, 16 February 2019
New Delhi’s denunciations and blood-curdling threats are all but an announcement of an impending Indian military strike on Pakistan.
“It is necessary to base our struggle not on one company or on one nation, but by mobilizing the workers of the world”
Maruti Suzuki workers in India send greetings to February 9 protest
12 February 2019
Jitender Dhankar, a member of the provisional committee of the Maruti Suzuki Workers Union (MSWU) in India, sent a message of solidarity to the workers and young people who participated in the February 9 demonstration against the factory closures and mass layoffs by General Motors.
Sri Lankan president’s Independence Day speech exposes deep crisis of rule
By Vijith Samarasinghe, 9 February 2019
Sirisena bemoaned the failure of successive governments but offered no solution, amid ongoing infighting in ruling circles and mounting opposition by working people to the worsening social crisis.
Over 7,000 Bangladesh garment workers sacked after wage protests
By Wimal Perera, 8 February 2019
While the garment trade unions publicly bewail the mass sackings and arrests, these organisations have created the political conditions for the crackdown.
Indian state government fires hundreds of teachers as Tamil Nadu strike faces a crossroads
By Arun Kumar, 30 January 2019
By isolating striking teachers and government workers, the JACTTO-GEO, which has hundreds of thousands of members, has allowed the state government to intensify its anti-democratic attacks.
India: Striking Tamil Nadu teachers and government employees defy state repression
By Arun Kumar, 28 January 2019
In an attempt to break the strike, the state government has arrested hundreds of teachers who face charges of unlawful assembly and other bogus allegations.
Indian Trotskyists campaign for Kolkata meeting to mark the 80th anniversary of the Fourth International
By Arun Kumar and Ritwik Mitter, 26 January 2019
Indian university students discuss the rising danger of war and the betrayal by the Stalinist parties of the working class.
Indian transit workers in Mumbai defy authorities, continue strike
By Kranti Kumara, 16 January 2019
As soon as the strike began, Maharashtra’s BJP state government invoked essential services legislation, threatening the strikers with mass incarceration, fines and dismissals.
The political significance of India’s two-day general strike
By Keith Jones, 12 January 2019
This week’s general strike in India, one of the largest strikes in history, is part of a growing upsurge of the world working class.
Mounting social anger seen in two-day strike against Indian government
By our correspondents, 10 January 2019
While the capitalist media tried to black out the strike, it was supported by broad sections of the working class.
India’s “rise” and the savage exploitation of the working class
By Kranti Kumara, 10 January 2019
India’s rapidly expanding working class is condemned to poverty wages, Dickensian working conditions and precarious employment, and this in a country in which public services, if they exist at all, are dilapidated.
Indian Trotskyists in Kolkata to celebrate 80 years of the Fourth International
7 January 2019
The Kolkata meeting will review the essential political lessons of the protracted struggle of the Fourth International and their relevance to the fight for socialist internationalism today.
New postings in Urdu on capitalist breakdown and war, France’s Yellow Vest protests
27 December 2018
Four recent WSWS Perspectives are now available in Urdu, Pakistan’s national language.
Factional acrimony continues as Sri Lankan president appoints new cabinet
By Pani Wijesiriwardena, 22 December 2018
Sirisena’s delay in appointing the new cabinet makes clear that bitter factional infighting is continuing within Colombo’s political elite.
Political turmoil in Sri Lanka intensifies as opposition takes control of parliament
By Pani Wijesiriwardena, 24 November 2018
The UNP-led opposition has submitted a motion to suspend funds to Rajapakse’s office of prime minister.
Sri Lankan parliament adjourned amid ongoing political crisis
By K. Ratnayake, 20 November 2018
While claiming to be champions of “democracy,” the rival factions of the ruling class are both committed to implementing the IMF’s austerity demands and suppressing any opposition from working people.
Sri Lanka: Second no-confidence motion passed as violent clashes erupt in parliament
By W.A. Sunil, 17 November 2018
While the UNP and Sri Lanka’s parliamentary speaker claim victory for another no confidence vote, nothing is resolved.
In another anti-democratic act, Sri Lankan president dissolves parliament
By K. Ratnayake, 10 November 2018
Sirisena’s dissolution of parliament exposes the degenerated state of parliamentary democracy and the Sri Lanka ruling elite’s moves towards dictatorial forms of rule.
Tamil nationalists support US-backed factions in Sri Lankan political crisis
By K. Nesan, 10 November 2018
The TNA is pursuing the same pro-imperialist course that led it to back the US-led regime change operation, that brought President Sirisena to power in 2015.
The kiss of death: Stalinists seek to tie Tamil Nadu auto strikes to right-wing parties
By Arun Kumar, 10 November 2018
Opposing all attempts to broaden the struggle, the Stalinists convened an “all party” meeting, where they touted the leaders of opposition parties and their affiliated unions as the strikers’ allies.
Indian Trotskyists to hold meeting on 80 years of the Fourth International
6 November 2018
The meeting in Chennai, which will also mark 50 years of Sri Lanka’s SEP, will outline the lessons of the protracted struggle for Trotskyism in South Asia and internationally.
Sri Lankan crisis: Washington intervenes to maintain its political influence
By Deepal Jayasekera, 3 November 2018
The Trump administration, which is preparing for war against China, does not want to lose political domination in strategically-located Sri Lanka.
Infighting deepens between rival factions of Sri Lankan elite
By Deepal Jayasekera, 30 October 2018
The government’s ultimatum for Wickremesinghe to vacate the prime minister’s residence has set the stage for bloody clashes and political violence.
Sri Lankan President Sirisena sacks prime minister
By K. Ratnayake, 28 October 2018
The coup is an expression of the huge political crisis confronting the Sri Lankan ruling class amid a profound economic crisis, rising geo-political tensions and a resurgence of the class struggle.
Thousands of youth demonstrate in Sri Lanka to support plantation workers’ wage struggle
By our correspondents, 27 October 2018
The protest in Colombo was the first time that Sri Lankan workers have conducted such a campaign via social media.
Pakistan caught up in intensifying US-China rivalry
By Pradeep Ramayake, 27 October 2018
Amid a worsening balance-of-payments crisis, Pakistan desperately needs an estimated $12 billion, but is under pressure from the US to distance itself from China.
Indian police detain thousands of striking Tamil Nadu auto workers
By Arun Kumar, 25 October 2018
Stalinist union leaders have sought to isolate the strikers, fearing that their struggle could become the focal point for a broader movement of the working class.
Indian court dismisses Maruti Suzuki workers’ bail application
By Keith Jones, 23 October 2018
There is incontrovertible evidence the Maruti Suzuki workers have been jailed for life as the result of a crude frame-up, but the judge callously refused to hear any of it.
India seizes “shadow bank” to avert potential “catastrophic” impact on financial system
By Kranti Kumara, 20 October 2018
Financial observers have said the collapse of IL&FS could have been India’s “Lehman Brothers moment”—a reference to the September 2008 bankruptcy that triggered the global financial meltdown.
Nineteen sentenced to death over 2004 grenade attack in Bangladesh
By Rohantha De Silva, 20 October 2018
The harsh sentences dovetail with a broader crackdown on political opposition by the Awami League-led government.
Divisions erupt within Sri Lankan government
By K. Ratnayake, 20 October 2018
Allegations that President Maithripala Sirisena told a cabinet meeting that “Indian intelligence” was planning to assassinate him, have brought deep rifts within the government to the surface.
Striking Tamil Nadu auto workers face dismissal
By Moses Rajkumar and Nanda Kumar, 17 October 2018
The unions have refused to mobilise workers to defend strikers at Yamaha, Enfield and MSA, and instead are making futile appeals to the courts and state government.
As Pakistan seeks IMF bailout, US intensifies pressure on Islamabad
By Sampath Perera, 16 October 2018
Washington has served notice that it intends to leverage Pakistan’s current account crisis to disrupt Islamabad’s economic and strategic partnership with China
Sri Lankan tea estate workers step up demands for higher pay
By M. Thevarajah, 13 October 2018
Demonstrations by estate workers underscore growing working-class opposition to the attacks of the government and employers.
Tamil Nadu police arrest hundreds of striking Indian autoworkers
By Arun Kumar and Moses Rajkumar, 11 October 2018
Strikes and protests have broken out in Tamil Nadu companies that employ the majority of India’s 7.6 million auto manufacturing workers.
Sri Lankan plantation workers demonstrate for higher wages
By M. Thevarajah, 29 September 2018
The union-controlled protest was organised to promote illusions that the companies and the government will grant a “reasonable” pay rise for estate workers.
India cancels talks with Pakistan, threatens military action
By Keith Jones, 24 September 2018
India’s army chief said “pain” should be inflicted on Pakistan, while applauding New Delhi’s scuttling of foreign ministerial talks with Pakistan.
India: Police charge pro-Dalit activists under anti-terrorism laws
By Kranti Kumara, 6 September 2018
With the aim of muzzling opposition to the BJP government and its noxious Hindu supremacist ideology, police arrested five left-wing activists after conducting warrantless searches of their homes.
India: Kerala floods death toll climbs to 445
By Sathish Simon and Deepal Jayasekera, 27 August 2018
Although water levels are receding, flood survivors have been virtually abandoned by government authorities.
Bangladesh jute mill workers demonstrate; Paradip port workers strike in Orissa
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and the Pacific
25 August 2018
The World Socialist Web Site invites workers and other readers to contribute to this regular feature.
Unprecedented monsoonal floods kill over 370 in southwest India
By Sathish Simon, 20 August 2018
While heavy monsoonal rain is normal at this time of the year, the disastrous levels of flooding in Kerala are unprecedented and not a “natural” event.
Amidst Turkish crisis Indian rupee falls to all-time low
By Deepal Jayasekera, 18 August 2018
The decline of Indian rupee is a part of a global rush by investors away from so-called emerging markets.
Indian government threatens to end citizenship for millions of Assam residents
By Rohantha De Silva, 9 August 2018
The Bharatiya Janata Party is whipping up Hindu chauvinism, not just in Assam state, but throughout India.
Bangladesh: Police and government thugs attack protesting students and teachers
By Rohantha De Silva, 3 August 2018
The Awami League-led government has encouraged the ruling party’s notoriously violent youth movement to assault demonstrators.
Indian government backs mob lynchings targeting Muslims and minorities
By Pradeep Ramayake, 26 July 2018
These attacks are the result of provocations by Hindu extremist groups, supported by the BJP government.
Sri Lankan SEP member Mohamdiramlage Chandrasiri (1955–2018)
By Wimal Fernando, 19 July 2018
Retired bank worker Chandrasiri will always be remembered for his selfless dedication to Trotskyism, the rights of the working class and the building of the SEP.
Former Pakistan PM Sharif arrested in run-up to election
By Sampath Perera, 17 July 2018
Pakistani state authorities banned all public gatherings in Sharif’s home town prior to his arrival, suspended mobile services, and deployed thousands of police and paramilitary Rangers.
India: Victims of police attack on Tuticorin protests speak out
By Sasi Kumar and Moses Rajkumar, 5 July 2018
WSWS reporters interviewed survivors of the police assault on demonstrators demanding the closure of the Sterlite copper smelter.
Sri Lankan unions betray national postal strike
By W.A. Sunil, 28 June 2018
The unions called off the indefinite walkout after accepting vague promises from government authorities.
SEP anniversary meeting in Sri Lanka denounces anti-immigrant attacks
By the Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka), 27 June 2018
The following resolution was unanimously endorsed at the Sri Lankan Socialist Equality Party’s 50th anniversary meeting, held in Colombo this month.
Sri Lanka: Striking postal workers criticise the trade unions
By our correspondents, 26 June 2018
While postal workers are determine to continue their fight, the trade unions are seeking ways to sabotage the campaign.
Sri Lankan artists, translators and workers endorse international campaign to defend Julian Assange
By our correspondents, 25 June 2018
More Sri Lankan academics, writers and workers have spoken out in support of the International Committee of the Fourth International’s campaign in defence of the WikiLeaks editor.
Bangladesh government intensifies “anti-drug” crackdown
By Wimal Perera, 25 June 2018
The crackdown is being used to target political opponents and suppress the mounting popular opposition to Hasina’s big business policies.
Pickets in Sri Lanka and India demand freedom for Julian Assange
By our correspondents, 20 June 2018
The campaign to free Assange “is inseparably bound with the struggle for the defence of democratic rights and against the repression of the basic rights of the working class.”
Nine million truck drivers across India strike over increasing fuel prices
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 19 June 2018
Although fuel price hikes are affecting working people as a whole, the union bureaucrats are blocking any united struggle against this and other government austerity measures.
Indian workers and students demand freedom for Julian Assange
By our reporters, 15 June 2018
Indian Trotskyists campaigned last week in Kolkata and Sriperumbudur as part of the international struggle to defend the WikiLeaks editor.
Free Julian Assange rallies called in Sri Lanka and India
7 June 2018
The SEP and supporters of the ICFI will demonstrate in Colombo, the Sri Lankan capital, and Sriperumbudur, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
Sri Lankan workers and students defend Julian Assange
By our correspondents, 7 June 2018
Many of those who spoke to the WSWS compared the attacks on WikiLeaks to the Sri Lankan government’s measures against journalists.
Sri Lanka SEP files fundamental rights case against Colombo Municipal Council
By our correspondent, 6 June 2018
The legal action against the May Day meeting ban seeks to further expose the government’s anti-democratic attacks on working people.
Fearful of widening mass anger over police shootings
Indian authorities shut down polluting copper plant in Tuticorin
By Deepal Jayasekera, 25 May 2018
Sections of the ruling elite fear the police attacks in Tuticorin will fuel already volatile social tensions across India.
India: Varanasi flyover bridge collapse kills 18
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 18 May 2018
The tragedy is a further indication that government authorities and construction companies are endangering the safety of workers and the public as a whole.
India’s BJP government creates new category of workers who can be fired at will
By Kranti Kumara, 16 May 2018
Even the appellation “fixed-term employment” is a misnomer, since an employer can terminate a worker’s contract at any time and without providing a rupee in severance pay.
Machines: An unflinching look at an Indian textile mill
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 15 May 2018
Rahul Jain’s austere but effective documentary focuses on one of the hundreds of textile plants in Gujarat state on India’s west coast.
India: Tamil Nadu government arrests hundreds of protesting teachers and public sector workers
By Sasi Kumar and Moses Rajkumar, 10 May 2018
The demonstrators’ main demand is for the scrapping of a regressive new pension system.
The Maruti Suzuki workers and the re-emergence of class struggle across South Asia
By Wije Dias, 7 May 2018
Wije Dias, general secretary of the Sri Lankan section of the ICFI, and a veteran Trotskyist of more than 50 years standing, spoke from Colombo to the ICFI’s International Online May Day Rally.
Despite government ban, Sri Lankan SEP and IYSSE hold successful May Day meeting
By our correspondents, 3 May 2018
Workers, youths, professionals and housewives, as well as Tamil-speaking residents from Jaffna and plantation workers from the central hills, attended the meeting.
International Monetary Fund demands Sri Lankan government cut fuel subsidies
By Saman Gunadasa, 2 May 2018
Despite rising discontent, the IMF has threatened to stop a scheduled loan payment.
Income inequality worsening in Bangladesh
By Sujeewa Amaranath, 1 May 2018
Official statistics contradict World Bank and the Bangladeshi government claims of “remarkable progress in poverty reduction.”
Indian Stalinist congress opts for alliance with big business Congress Party
By Deepal Jayasekera and Keith Jones, 30 April 2018
The corporate media has almost universally welcomed the CPM’s overture to the Congress, calculating that it will strengthen the ruling elite against the working class.
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