On January 1st of this year, the government of India took a major step toward respecting Indigenous Rights. They enacted the Tribal Forest Rights Act, a law which has been often said to correct the “historical injustice” where India’s forest dwelling indigenous population has been systematically excluded from having rights, and forced to abandon their lands, cultures, and livelihoods under the guise of forest preservation and the protection of wildlife.

The Forest Rights Act brings an end to this, it is said, through giving India’s forest-dwelling Peoples authority …

On January 31, the government of India gave South Korean multinational Pohong Steel Corporation (POSCO) permission to go ahead with a huge iron mining, manufacturing and export project in Orissa state. As a result, villagers in the region along with anyone opposed to the project are now at high risk of being violently suppressed.

Friends of the Earth International explains that, “already, on 29 November, 2007, fifty villagers were injured as 100 armed men bombed, beat and sexually molested protesters (mostly women). The police watched the attack, then proceeded to occupy …

The Andaman Trunk Road, a 200 mile-stretch of concrete that breaks through one of India’s most pristine landscapes, is being used now more than ever. According to recent figures, there has been a threefold increase in traffic since 2001 - “from 17,315 to 37,505 in 2006. A total of 27,674 vehicles travelled the road in the first seven months of 2007 alone.”

I suppose this increase should be expected - the road is obviously quite useful - but it’s a bit strange seeing as how the Indian Supreme Court …

The situation has quited now, but for the past week violence has gripped the Nandigram region of West Bengal, India. Under the guise of “cleansing” the area of political rivalry, cadres said to be hired by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) began entering village after village; burning houses, forcibly occupying land, and destroying crops. Dozens if not hundreds of people were attacked, killed and even raped.

It all started on November 6, after several gunshots were fired at local farmers belonging to the Bhumi Uchched Pratirodh Committee (BUPC, Anti …

Cartoon by Khalil Bendib

More than 5,000 people converged last month in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu to protest a deal made by the state government to appropriate nearly 10,000 acres of land and hand it over to the India-based Tata Steel Corporation.

Upon doing so, the giant transnational company would then gain the right to mine ilmenite (which yields titanium metal and titanium dioxide when processed–both extremely valuable materials.) in Sathankulam, an agrarian pocket of …

Created with no budget or film crew, Drowned Out tells the story of the Jalsindhi villagers in central India, and their struggle to prevent the destruction of their land as well as their own displacement. The Jalsindhi are Adivasis - the original inhabitants of India - who have farmed their land by the Narmada River for at least 12 generations.

The Narmada Valley Development Project, the single largest river development scheme in India and one of the largest hydroelectric projects in the world, aims to build more than 3,000 large and small dams on the Narmada river, displacing hundreds …

For the past two weeks, more than 30 tribal people effected by the Sardar Sarovar dam, the largest of 3000 dams planned for the Narmada River in India, have been staging an ongoing protest because the government has yet to compensate them for the lands they’ve lost to flooding.

In response to the protest, yesterday the government sent out a warning against them, citing “the Moral Code of Conduct” which forbids rallies and strikes unless permitted by the government.

It’s not clear whether or not they’ll actually forcibly …

The following video is part one of ‘the Dying fields,’ a documentary that focuses on the ongoing agrarian crisis in Vidarbha, India.

Located in the middle of India, Vidarbha is historically referred to as ‘India’s Cotton Belt;’ but in recent years it’s taken on a very different name. Home to 3.2 million farmers, Vidarbha’s now commonly referred to as ‘India’s Suicide Belt.’

There’s been a long history of struggle for farmers in India, but over the past 15 years the Government has removed all its support structures for farmers while …

The Kadar, a people living in the Southern of region of India, found out a month ago that the government of Kerala has decided to go ahead with a controversial dam that will force the removal of Two Kadar communities–permanently disjointing them from their cultural life.

The dam, which has been found to be ecologically unsound and anti-development, will also destroy the habitat of numerous endangered species and substantially reduce the water flow of the Chalakkudy river, which tens of thousands of families depend on.

The government …

The Katkari are a people based in the Raigad and Thane Districts of Maharashtra, India. Never formally recognized by the state, the Katkari have for years found themselves in abject poverty, living as bonded laborers on their own land.

With no rights or freedoms, they are exploited and forced to work under sub-human conditions on the brick kilns. Sexual exploitation of Katkari women is common while men are often beaten up, and even killed.

Any sort of resistance is met with violence from the police—a fact common to many tribal Peoples in India—thanks no less to the foundation brought on by …