Indian subcontinent
Three months since the cruise industry shutdown
Mauritian government and cruise companies hold stranded crew for ransom
By Tom Casey, 13 June 2020
The government’s repatriation plan has incurred bitter opposition from crew members of all nationalities, as well as from the families of Mauritian crew who anxiously await their relatives’ returns.
South Asian countries ease COVID-19 lockdowns despite sharp rise in infections
By our correspondents, 25 May 2020
The absence of health care infrastructure across the region means that huge numbers of cases are going undetected, and many are dying due to a lack of basic medical care.
Cyclone Amphan kills over 90 and devastates wide areas of eastern India and Bangladesh
By Arun Kumar, 22 May 2020
Millions of people have been evacuated from cyclone-hit areas in South Asia, but their relocation into overcrowded temporary shelters place them in real danger of contracting COVID-19.
India: Toxic gas leak in Visakhapatnam kills 11 people and puts thousands in danger
By Pradeep Ramanayake, 9 May 2020
The deadly leak began as employees were about to resume work at the LG Polymers plant, following the Modi government’s easing of COVID-19 restrictions.
Indian migrant workers in Chennai speak to WSWS about coronavirus pandemic
By Sasi Kumar and Moses Rajkumar, 8 May 2020
“We’ve received no help whatsoever from any political parties or the government. None of us living here have been given a coronavirus medical test or provided with face masks for safety.”
Sri Lankan president says military to impose “discipline” when lockdown ends
By K. Ratnayake, 25 April 2020
Rajapakse’s threats have nothing to do with enforcing “social distancing” and the spread of COVID-19 but are in preparation to suppress mass unrest in the working class.
South Indian film directors discuss coronavirus impact on local movie industry
By Yuvan Darwin, 22 April 2020
The Modi government’s sudden three-week lockdown abruptly brought the film industry to a halt and rendered thousands of daily wage workers jobless overnight.
Millions of internal migrant workers suffering under India’s lockdown
By Rohantha De Silva, 20 April 2020
A police attack on a Mumbai protest has highlighted the fate of workers under the Modi government’s measures.
Sri Lanka: Oppose return to work in unsafe pandemic conditions! No to job destruction!
By the Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka), 18 April 2020
The criminal actions of the Rajapakse government and big business will accelerate the spread of the deadly virus and lead to a further loss of workers’ lives.
Modi extends India’s coronavirus lockdown till May 3
By Wasantha Rupasinghe and Keith Jones, 15 April 2020
Modi offered no plan to deal either with the health emergency or the socio-economic calamity triggered by the sudden, unplanned lockdown.
India: Maoist-led union alliance betrays Sanmina workers
By Yuan Darwin, 3 April 2020
The Sanmina workers walked out on strike on March 3 to demand a pay rise and reinstatement of victimised militant workers.
Sri Lankan medical experts demand mass coronavirus testing
By Naveen Dewage, 2 April 2020
The dangerous conditions facing millions of Sri Lankan workers, farmers and the poor are the result of decades of government cuts to the health system and other vital services.
Modi government represses desperate migrant workers amid calamitous coronavirus lockdown
By Wasantha Rupasinghe and Keith Jones, 2 April 2020
People across India and around the world have been shocked and outraged by the pictures of poor migrant workers caught up in the Indian government's ill-conceived and socially reckless 21-day nationwide coronavirus lockdown.
19,000 ambulance workers strike in Northern India to demand protective gear
By Pradeep Ramanayake, 2 April 2020
The strike by Indian ambulance workers is part of the militant class response by the working class against the capitalist governments that have endangered the lives of workers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Modi government shields instigators of Delhi anti-Muslim violence
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 12 March 2020
The Delhi police, in line with their actions during last month's riot and the ruling BJP’s communalist policies, are targeting Muslims, the riot’s victims, rather than the true perpetrators.
India restricts drug exports due to coronavirus impacts, threatening global drug supply
By Kranti Kumara, 9 March 2020
As India is a major global supplier of generic drugs, there are widespread fears that the export restrictions will lead to pharmaceutical price-hikes and shortages in countries around the world.
Modi government leaves millions of Indians vulnerable to coronavirus
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 9 March 2020
Given India’s high population density and dysfunctional public health system, its population is threatened by any rapid spread of the coronavirus.
India: Death toll in BJP-instigated violence in Delhi rises to 38
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 28 February 2020
After three days during which Delhi was convulsed by horrific communal violence, authorities claimed yesterday that “order” had been restored to India’s national capital.
Sri Lankan prime minister’s India visit underscores deepening geostrategic rivalry
By K. Ratnayake, 14 February 2020
The US and India are making clear to the new Sri Lankan president that his government must not re-establish close relations with China.
“Shoot them down”—India’s government incites violence against opponents of its anti-Muslim citizenship law
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 13 February 2020
The BJP government has been shaken by the mass opposition to the CAA, which it rushed through parliament and into law last December.
Indian budget inflicts more austerity amid job crisis, deepening economic slowdown
By Kranti Kumara, 12 February 2020
The budget was unveiled five months after the Modi government announced a slew of impromptu pro-big business measures, including a massive corporate tax cut and accelerated privatization drive.
BJP to table Indian budget amid mounting economic crisis, popular anger
By Kranti Kumara, 1 February 2020
The rapid unravelling of India’s economy has shocked Indian big business and such representatives of global capital as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.
Sri Lanka: Pseudo-left blames working people for Rajapakse’s election victory
By Wasantha Rupasinghe and K. Ratnayake, 31 January 2020
The responsibility for Rajapakse coming to power squarely rests with the pseudo-left groups, such as the NSSP, as well as the trade unions, the JVP and the Tamil bourgeois parties which promoted the UNP as the lesser evil.
Brazilian President Bolsonaro guest of honor at India’s Republic Day
By Tomas Castanheira, 30 January 2020
Modi advocated a “strategic partnership” based on “similar ideology and similar values.”
Sri Lankan president’s bogus wage increase for plantation workers
By M. Thevarajah, 30 January 2020
Rajapakse’s fraudulent proposal is bound up with preparations for a major restructuring of the tea industry in Sri Lanka and a massive social assault on the low-paid plantation workers.
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.
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