South Asia
“Google is censoring websites to block dissident views critical of the US establishment”
India: Students and workers in Kolkata oppose Google censorship
By Ritwik Mitter and Arun Kumar, 19 October 2017
ICFI/WSWS supporters spoke to students about Google censorship, the Indian government’s attacks on democratic rights and the US war drive against China.
Sri Lankan government enforces UN sanctions against North Korea
By Nanda Wickremasinghe, 14 October 2017
Colombo has increasingly integrated Sri Lanka behind Washington’s war preparations against China and North Korea.
Indian economy in a downward spiral
By Kranti Kumara, 11 October 2017
The Indian economy, touted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a high-growth haven, is increasingly mired in crisis.
Students oppose Indian government’s new university entrance exam
By Yuvan Darwin and Arun Kumar, 11 October 2017
The suicide of a Tamil Nadu student over the NEET entrance test has triggered demonstrations throughout the southern Indian state.
Sri Lankan academics oppose Google censorship
By our correspondent, 7 October 2017
Google’s actions are “a gross abuse of monopolistic power” and related to its close links to the US state apparatus and the Pentagon.
US pushes for closer Sri Lankan involvement into war drive against China
By Nanda Wickremasinghe, 3 October 2017
The US is planning to slash foreign aid to Sri Lanka this year apparently to underscore its displeasure about the Colombo government’s recent investment deals with China.
Indian workers and students in Chennai support campaign against Google censorship
By our correspondents, 3 October 2017
“Blocking information is a dictatorial measure; governments and big companies are trying to prevent us from finding critical information,” said one worker.
Modi government blocks Rohingya refugees entering India
By K. Ratnayake, 30 September 2017
Modi’s backing for the Burmese repression of the Rohingya is driven by anti-Muslim communalism and his strategic aim of undermining China throughout the region.
Sri Lankan president presents rosy picture at UN General Assembly
By Saman Gunadasa, 29 September 2017
Behind hypocritical statements on democracy, reconciliation and poverty-alleviation, Sirisena’s government is preparing a dictatorial regime.
Sri Lankan unions betray power workers’ strike
By W.A Sunil, 28 September 2017
The JTUA leadership surrendered to the government’s threats, pledging not to take future industrial action over outstanding demands.
Sri Lanka: JVP leader assures business that it defends capitalism
By K. Ratnayake, 25 September 2017
The JVP played a key role in the regime-change campaign to remove Rajapakse as president and promote Sirisena’s so-called “good governance movement.”
Sri Lankan plantation workers protest job cuts and new productivity demands
By M. Thevarajah, 23 September 2017
The protests are another indication of growing working-class opposition to government and company attacks on jobs, wages and conditions.
Legal appeals of framed-up Maruti Suzuki workers expose travesty of justice
By Saman Gunadasa, 23 September 2017
“The (legal) doubt,” declares one of the appeals, “is not only overwhelming, but in fact, there is hardly any aspect on which the prosecution’s case is at all believable.”
Sri Lankan government passes IMF-backed tax bill
By Kapila Fernando, 22 September 2017
The tax act is part of a series of social assaults by the government on the directives of the International Monetary Fund.
Sri Lankan free trade zone and harbour workers denounce Google censorship
By our correspondents, 21 September 2017
“We oppose exploitation and inequality. We oppose world war and Google censorship of the WSWS.”
Sri Lankan power workers on strike
By W.A. Sunil, 19 September 2017
The ongoing stoppage is against the government’s austerity measures being imposed at the behest of the International Monetary Fund.
India: Unions suspend Tamil Nadu government workers’ strike
By our correspondents, 16 September 2017
The walkout indicates workers’ determination to push back the escalating social assaults by India’s Modi government and the state governments.
South Asian floods: Death toll climbs to 1,300
By Arun Kumar, 13 September 2017
Despite countless warnings, India’s government and state administrations were totally unprepared for the floods.
India, China attempt to reset relations after border crisis
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 12 September 2017
India and China sought to use last week’s BRICS heads of government summit to “reset” their relations after almost coming to blows during a 73-day border standoff.
Sri Lankan president desperately tries to rally support
By W.A. Sunil, 12 September 2017
Factional conflicts deepen within the ruling class amid an explosion of popular opposition to government attacks on living conditions and democratic rights.
Sri Lankan SEP Jaffna meeting discusses political bankruptcy of Tamil parties
By our reporters, 11 September 2017
The speakers explained the necessity for Tamil and Sinhalese workers to build a revolutionary party based on an internationalist socialist perspective.
Journalist who exposed Hindu right assassinated in Bangalore
By Kranti Kumara, 9 September 2017
Gauri Lankesh is the fourth prominent critic of Hindu supremacism and fundamentalism to be assassinated in as many years.
US and India use Indian Ocean Conference to reinforce their strategic interests
By Pradeep Ramanayake and K. Ratnayake, 8 September 2017
The geo-strategic conference gave another indication of US and Indian preparations for war against China.
Sri Lankan university workers defeat union attempts to victimise SEP member
By Pani Wijesiriwardena, 5 September 2017
SEP member Dehin Wasantha has a three-decade record of fighting for the rights of Sri Lankan workers, students and the poor on the basis of socialist internationalism.
Government indifference leads to vast death toll in South Asian floods
By Arun Kumar, 1 September 2017
Despite regular floods and monsoons, governments in India, Bangladesh and Nepal have not implemented any serious measures to protect ordinary people.
Indian ICFI supporters hold meeting against US-led war drive
By our correspondents, 31 August 2017
Despite police efforts to block the meeting, participants discussed how Washington’s war plans and India’s partnership with the US are intensifying geopolitical tensions in the region.
Sri Lanka’s port deal with China increases concerns in US and India
By Vijith Samarasinghe, 30 August 2017
The US has been pursuing a military and strategic buildup against China and wants Sri Lanka kept in its orbit.
India, China pull back from clash over Himalayan ridge
By Keith Jones, 29 August 2017
The principal factor in the deterioration of Indo-Chinese relations is India’s integration into Washington’s military-strategic offensive against China.
Growing concerns in Bangladesh over India-China tensions
By Rohantha De Silva, 28 August 2017
The rivalry between these two nuclear armed countries could develop into a war has far-reaching implications for South Asia and internationally.
Sri Lankan president sacks justice minister
By K.Ratnayake, 25 August 2017
Wijedasa Rajapakse’s dismissal is a calculated move by the government to posture as opponents of corruption and undermine political opponents.
Sri Lankan government establishes phony Office on Missing Persons
By Vijith Samarasinghe, 21 August 2017
None of the UNHRC’s resolutions on war crimes in Sri Lanka have had anything to do with concern for the human rights of the victims.
At least 21 children die in an Indian hospital as oxygen supplies run out
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 17 August 2017
In a desperate attempt to save the lives of their dying children, parents used pumps to force air into their lungs.
Sri Lankan foreign minister resigns amid intensifying government crisis
By W.A. Sunil, 16 August 2017
The resignation was a desperate political manoeuvre to avoid a political rift in the government under conditions of growing social unrest.
Tamil nationalists back stepped-up police-state repression in Sri Lanka
By K. Nesan, 16 August 2017
Over the last three weeks, police and Special Task Force units have arrested about 100 people in Sri Lanka’s Tamil-majority Jaffna peninsula.
Seventy years since the communal Partition of South Asia
By Keith Jones, 16 August 2017
The Partition was one of the great crimes of the 20th century—a crime that has shaped, or more precisely deformed, the entire subsequent history of South Asia.
Sri Lankan free trade workers express solidarity with framed-up Maruti Suzuki workers in India
By our reporters, 1 August 2017
Workers responded enthusiastically to the international defense campaign and related their own experiences of sweatshop conditions and fighting state repression.
Pakistan plunges deeper into crisis as prime minister ousted on corruption charges
By Sampath Perera, 31 July 2017
The immediate beneficiary of Sharif’s ouster and the weakening of the PML (N) government is Pakistan’s politically powerful military.
Maldives president mobilises military and police against opposition MPs
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 31 July 2017
Intense political infighting in Maldives is driven by US-India geo-political manoeuvres against China.
Indian Stalinists support Modi government in military standoff with China
By Wasantha Rupasinghe and Keith Jones, 29 July 2017
India’s Stalinists have pledged their support for the BJP government in the India-China border crisis, even as they concede that the crisis has been provoked by India’s emergence as a “subordinate ally of US imperialism.”
Aisin Automotive workers in India’s Haryana state face a new company-government witchhunt
By Jai Sharma, 28 July 2017
The workers are being subjected to a joint company-government vendetta for fighting slave labor conditions in an attack similar to that faced by Maruti Suzuki workers.
Sri Lankan government deploys army to break oil workers’ strike
By Shree Haran and W. A. Sunil, 27 July 2017
The government’s turn to military repression is aimed at intimidating the entire working class.
Independent Inquiry Committee holds meeting on Sri Lankan garbage dump collapse
By our correspondent, 26 July 2017
The Independent Workers’ Inquiry called by the SEP will expose the class roots of the Meethotamulla disaster and the culpability of successive governments.
India: Stalinist-backed “common opposition” candidate crashes out in presidential election
By Deepal Jayasekera, 25 July 2017
The Stalinists parties have responded to the Indian ruling elite’s embrace of social reaction by redoubling their efforts to subordinate workers to the political establishment.
Rampant dengue epidemic in Sri Lanka
By Pani Wijesiriwardena, 25 July 2017
Public health service cuts have resulted in poor sanitation and preventive measures, creating breeding grounds for dengue fever and other diseases.
NSSP leader denounces Sri Lankan doctors’ strikes as “medical terrorism”
By K. Ratnayake, 22 July 2017
NSSP leader Wickremabahu Karunaratne is backing the police repression of protests and strikes by Sri Lankan workers and youth.
Three months after the Meethotamulla disaster in Sri Lanka
By Vijith Samarasinghe, 19 July 2017
The government’s callous disregard for the plight of thousands of victims of the Meethotamulla garbage dump collapse is a sharp warning to the working class as a whole.
Indian-US-Japanese naval exercises in Indian Ocean target China
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 18 July 2017
India’s hosting of the Malabar exercises is part of its integration into the US military-strategic offensive against China.
Police kill young worker in northern Sri Lanka
By our correspondents, 14 July 2017
The shooting is not an accident but another manifestation of the ongoing police and military repression of Tamil residents in the war-torn northern region.
Modi visit consolidates Indo-Israeli military-strategic partnership
By Deepal Jayasekera, 13 July 2017
Modi’s visit, the first by an Indian prime minister to Israel, was capped by an agreement to expand military-security cooperation.
Sri Lankan government appeases Buddhist hierarchy
By K. Ratnayake, 11 July 2017
The government is resorting to Sinhala Buddhist supremacism amid a deepening political crisis stemming from widespread opposition to its austerity measures.
Socialist Equality Party holds public meeting on Sri Lankan floods disaster
By our correspondents, 5 July 2017
The meeting discussed the recent catastrophe, which killed at least 300 people, and the other social disasters created by the capitalist class.
India and China trade war threats amid border stand-off
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 4 July 2017
India and China have rushed troops to a remote border region, in what is widely being described as the worst stand-off between the two countries since they fought a war in 1962.
Photo Essay—Sri Lanka: The housing crisis and Colombo’s poor
By Shantan Kumarasamy and Panini Wijesiriwardane, 3 July 2017
A photo essay on the conditions of life for the many thousands living in makeshift housing around Colombo.
Trump and Modi trumpet Indo-US “strategic convergence”
By Deepal Jayasekera, 28 June 2017
India is increasingly serving as a frontline state in US imperialism’s strategic confrontation with China.
Over 150 people die in oil tanker explosion in Pakistan
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 27 June 2017
In an exercise in political damage control, the prime minister expressed his “sympathy” for the victims and announced compensation for the families of the dead and injured.
Lawyer for framed up Maruti Suzuki workers: The court “committed violence” to the “principles” of law
By our correspondents, 27 June 2017
Rebecca John, who represented the Maruti Suzuki workers in the final stages of their four-and-a-half-year-long court case, spoke with the WSWS last month as she completed work on an appeal.
Floods devastate Bangladesh and parts of India, killing more than 185
By Rohantha De Silva, 26 June 2017
Those most affected are the rural poor, low-wage workers and rickshaw pullers living in flood- and landslide-prone areas, where living costs are relatively low.
Sri Lankan police attack protesting students
By Kapila Fernando, 24 June 2017
On the orders of the government, police severely beat and baton-charged demonstrators inside the health ministry building.
Sri Lankan free trade zone workers call for release of Maruti Suzuki workers
By our correspondents, 23 June 2017
Workers at Sri Lanka’s oldest and largest free trade zone condemn the frameup and jailing of Indian autoworkers and call for a united international campaign.
Infighting in Tamil party signifies deep political crisis in Sri Lanka
By K. Ratnayake, 21 June 2017
Factional clashes within the Tamil elite have nothing to do with defending democratic rights but are tactical differences over how best to advance their own interests.
On-the-Spot from New Delhi
Lawyer for Maruti Suzuki workers denounces frame-up
By our correspondents, 21 June 2017
“The police were not looking for suspects,” senior advocate Rebecca John told the WSWS. “They were only interested in rounding up as many workers as possible.”
India and Pakistan admitted to Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 14 June 2017
Despite India and Pakistan becoming full SCO members, there has been no de-escalation of war tensions between the two nuclear-armed South Asian rivals.
Indian authorities seek to imprison more Maruti Suzuki workers on frame-up charges
By Shannon Jones, 13 June 2017
The Haryana state government is appealing the acquittal of 117 Maruti Suzuki workers on bogus charges and demanding harsher sentences for 18 other workers.
Four years since the Rana Plaza disaster
Bangladesh apparel workers still confront appalling conditions
By Sarath Kumara, 13 June 2017
Four years after the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh, garment workers continue to labour in unsafe conditions for very low wages.
Sri Lankan government to tighten police-state laws
By Pradeep Ramanayake, 12 June 2017
Colombo’s planned “anti-terror” laws are even more repressive than the country’s notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act.
India: Madhya Pradesh police shoot protesting farmers
By Deepal Jayasekera, 9 June 2017
Mass demonstrations by farmers are intensifying the crisis of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
Sri Lankan flood victims denounce government response to disaster
By our correspondents, 8 June 2017
Flood and landslide survivors say they have not received adequate emergency food supplies and fear destitution.
Sri Lankan students demand release of framed-up Maruti Suzuki workers
By our correspondents, 7 June 2017
Kelaniya University students denounced the jailing of the Indian autoworkers and supported the international campaign to free them.
Floods in Sri Lanka: Government responsible for another social disaster
By the Socialist Equality Party (Sri Lanka), 5 June 2017
The deaths and human suffering are results of the callous disregard for the lives of ordinary people by successive governments dedicated to defending the profit system.
Silence in the Courts—a film about judicial corruption in Sri Lanka
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 3 June 2017
Prasanna Vithanage’s documentary deals with the sexual assault of two village women by a magistrate and the subsequent cover-up.
Sri Lankan government claims EU tariff facility will solve economic ills
By Saman Gunadasa, 1 June 2017
The GSP+ will not resolve the problems facing the economy, but will result in further attacks on workers’ wages, conditions and basic rights.
Over 150 dead and half a million displaced in Sri Lankan floods
By our correspondents, 29 May 2017
While flooding and landslides are annual events, successive governments have failed to develop any serious mitigation measures or emergency responses.
Sri Lanka: SEP holds meeting and picket in Hatton for release of Maruti Suzuki workers
By our correspondents, 27 May 2017
Plantation workers, youth and housewives from Hatton and plantation estates participated in the SEP campaign.
Indian establishment lauds military’s use of Kashmiri youth as “human shield”
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 24 May 2017
Predictably the military’s announcement that it would convene a court of inquiry to investigate the incident has proven to be a cruel joke.
Sri Lankan plantation unions embrace Indian prime minister
By R. Shreeharan, 23 May 2017
The Sri Lankan government spent about 20 million rupees on buses and other expenses to transport workers from the central hills plantations to a meeting with Modi.
Indian prime minister visits Sri Lanka to strengthen ties
By Pradeep Ramanayake, 19 May 2017
Modi arrived after India and the US expressed concerns about the Colombo government’s economic ties with Beijing.
The frame-up of the Maruti Suzuki workers—Part 5: Judge Goyal mangles the law to sustain the legal vendetta
By Eric London and Keith Jones, 18 May 2017
Far from constituting a blow for justice, the court’s exoneration of 117 of the accused workers was a maneuver aimed at sustaining the legal vendetta against the principal accused—the leaders of the Maruti Suzuki Workers Union.
Sri Lanka: IMF orders government to speed up austerity measures
By Saman Gunadasa, 17 May 2017
The IMF has delayed a scheduled loan payment until the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government fully implements the bank’s austerity demands.
India intensifies repression in Kashmir
By Kranti Kumara and Wasantha Rupasinghe, 16 May 2017
India’s former National Security Advisor has warned that the ruling elite has lost control of the situation in Kashmir, with unarmed youth repeatedly risking their lives to impede security operations.
India: ICFI supporters hold May Day meeting in Bangalore
By our correspondents, 12 May 2017
The event was part of the Trotskyist movement’s commemoration of the centenary of the October 1917 Revolution.
Sri Lankan prime minister strengthens ties with US allies
By Vijith Samarasinghe, 11 May 2017
Despite seeking Chinese investment, the government remains committed to the provocative US-led military build-up in the region.
SEP (Sri Lanka) calls for workers’ inquiry into Meethotamulla garbage dump disaster
By the Socialist Equality Party, 9 May 2017
The Socialist Equality Party will initiate an independent working class investigation into the April 14 catastrophe that killed 32 people and displaced over 150 families.
“There is an air of worker rebellion in India and China”
A conversation with Professor Immanuel Ness on the Maruti Suzuki workers
By Jerry White, 4 May 2017
Brooklyn College Professor Immanuel Ness, who has written extensively on the class struggle in India, was part of a team that investigated the persecution of the Maruti Suzuki workers.
SEP Sri Lankan May Day meeting discusses threat of world war and lessons of Russian Revolution
By our correspondents, 4 May 2017
The central theme of the Colombo meeting was the struggle to mobilise the working class on the basis of socialist internationalism against the drive to war.
May Day 2017
Defend the 13 framed-up Indian Maruti Suzuki workers
By Keith Jones, 3 May 2017
The Maruti Suzuki workers have been framed-up and sentenced to life imprisonment through a conspiracy between the company, the police, the courts and India’s main parties.
May Day 2017
The fight for international socialism in South Asia
By Wije Dias, 2 May 2017
The region is caught up in the whirlpool of geo-political tensions produced by the drive towards another imperialist war, amid rising class struggle.
Sri Lanka: Jaffna picket demands release of framed-up Maruti Suzuki workers
By our correspondents, 1 May 2017
Jaffna workers, youth, fishermen and housewives joined an SEP/IYSSE picket and public meeting to protest the witch-hunt and jailing of Indian autoworkers.
Sri Lanka SEP holds picket in Jaffna to free Maruti Suzuki workers
By our correspondents, 28 April 2017
Despite the anti-democratic intervention of student union leaders, most Jaffna University students supported the campaign.
Tamil workers in northern Sri Lanka support Maruti Suzuki workers
By our correspondents, 27 April 2017
Residents in the small town of Chavakachcheri, near Jaffna, said social conditions for Tamil workers were like those confronting the persecuted autoworkers in India.
The frame-up of the Maruti Suzuki workers—Part 4: The police and company conspire against the workers
By Eric London and Keith Jones, 26 April 2017
Police colluded with Maruti Suzuki, fabricated evidence, and systematically failed to carry out basic forensic tests as part of a bogus investigation aimed at framing up militant workers who challenged sweatshop conditions.
Sri Lankan government seeks to suppress garbage disaster protests
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 25 April 2017
The move to outlaw protests against garbage dumps has broader implications for all basic democratic rights.
Modi’s “Make in India” campaign and the battle of the Maruti Suzuki workers
By Pradeep Ramanayake, 25 April 2017
In arguing for the hanging of the framed-up Maruti Suzuki workers, the prosecution denounced the workers for imperiling the Modi government’s efforts to woo profit-hungry investors.
Sri Lanka: Jaffna residents demand release of Maruti Suzuki workers
By our correspondents, 22 April 2017
A picket and meeting in Jaffna next week will demand the release of the imprisoned Indian autoworkers.
ICFI supporters in India call meeting on “World War and the Russian Revolution”
22 April 2017
Speakers will explain that the only way to prevent another world war is the mobilisation of Indian workers as a part of an international anti-war movement.
Indian elite hails US bombings in Syria and Afghanistan
By Deepal Jayasekera, 21 April 2017
Leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janatha Party and the opposition Congress Party support the US military attacks.
Indian bus workers strike against privatisation
By Arun Kumar, 19 April 2017
The Haryana bus stoppage underscored the intensifying class tensions across the state and India as a whole.
India strengthens defence ties with Bangladesh
By Sarath Kumara, 18 April 2017
The Indian government, in line with US geo-strategic manoeuvres, is attempting to reduce Bangladesh’s military and economic reliance on China.
Sri Lankan government sponsors a sham celebration of the Russian Revolution
By Vijith Samarasinghe, 15 April 2017
The event was a congregation of right-wing politicians, pseudo-lefts and anti-Marxist representatives of academia who are deeply hostile to the heritage of the Russian Revolution.
Sri Lankan artists express solidarity with the framed-up Maruti Suzuki workers
By our reporters, 13 April 2017
A number of Sri Lankan artists have sent statements to the World Socialist Web Site calling for the release of jailed Maruti Suzuki workers in India.
“It is a frame-up and war on the working class”
Support grows for Maruti Suzuki workers
By our reporters, 13 April 2017
It has been nearly a month since an Indian judge condemned 13 autoworkers to life imprisonment.
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