India
Indian contract workers continue strike at state-owned energy company
By Arun Kumar and Kranti Kumara, 3 October 2014
Striking Neyveli Lignite Corporation contract workers in the southern India state of Tamil Nadu are defying a high court back-to-work order.
Modi promotes India as world’s sweatshop
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 1 October 2014
Modi’s new BJP government is seeking to convince world capital that India is the go-to destination for cheap labour.
US elite rolls out red carpet for Indian PM Modi
By Keith Jones, 30 September 2014
Washington has made no secret it wants to “reset” Indo-US relations, so as to harness New Delhi to its anti-China “pivot.”
India strengthens strategic ties with Vietnam
By John Roberts, 26 September 2014
The Indian and Vietnamese presidents issued a joint statement on the need for security in the South China Sea that was clearly aimed against China.
China’s president visits India in bid to counter US “pivot”
By Deepal Jayasekera, 24 September 2014
Xi’s visit to India was an attempt to counter the US-Japanese drive to strategically isolate and encircle China.
Australia-India uranium deal strengthens economic and strategic ties
By Peter Symonds, 6 September 2014
The uranium pact removes an obstacle to closer military relations between Australia and India as part of broader US efforts to forge an anti-China bloc.
India: NLC contract workers launch indefinite strike
By Arun Kumar, 6 September 2014
Workers are demanding permanency of jobs, wage hikes and higher bonuses.
India and Japan proclaim “special strategic, global partnership”
By Deepal Jayasekera and Keith Jones, 4 September 2014
Modi’s Japan trip launched a month of hectic diplomacy in which India’s prime minister will meet the heads of government of all the key powers in the military-strategic confrontation between US imperialism and China.
India: Four workers killed in Tamil Nadu plastic depot blaze
By our correspondents, 28 August 2014
Rajakani Traders has been operating for about eight years despite repeated local complaints about the depot’s location.
India and US to further expand military-strategic ties
By Deepal Jayasekera, 14 August 2014
US Defense Secretary Hagel claimed that Washington is offering India military co-development and co-production deals unlike those the US has “with any other country.”
Frictions over trade at US-India Strategic Dialogue
By Deepal Jayasekera, 6 August 2014
Despite disagreements on economic issues, US and Indian leaders consolidated their strategic and military partnership directed against China.
US officials push for closer military-strategic ties with India
By Deepal Jayasekera, 31 July 2014
The Secretary of State and Defense Secretary are visiting India to strengthen the partnership between the two countries as Washington intensifies its war preparations against China and Russia.
India covers up Israeli war crimes in Gaza
By Deepal Jayasekera, 26 July 2014
In the guise of neutrality, the Indian government supported Israel’s justification for its criminal actions.
India: BJP tables right-wing, pro-investor budget
By Keith Jones, 11 July 2014
The budget announced a flurry of measures to strengthen big business control over economic life and make India’s workers and toilers pay for the capitalist crisis.
Jailed Maruti Suzuki workers in India continue to be denied bail
By Arun Kumar and Kranti Kumara, 1 July 2014
The bail application hearing for the framed-up Maruti Suzuki India workers continues to drag on in the Supreme Court.
China seeks to woo India’s new right-wing government
By Deepal Jayasekera, 14 June 2014
Beijing is trying to counter US and Japanese attempts to draw India more tightly into their campaign to isolate and militarily encircle China.
Sri Lankan president seeks improved relations with India
By S. Jayanth, 4 June 2014
Despite Rajapakse’s efforts to ease tensions, the new Indian government is pressing Colombo to make a power-sharing deal with the island’s Tamil elites.
Modi takes the reins of India’s government
By Keith Jones, 28 May 2014
Big business has strongly supported the coming to power of the BJP with the expectation that a Modi-led government will ram through pro-market “reforms.”
Stalinists suffer debacle in Indian elections
By K. Ratnayake and Keith Jones, 24 May 2014
In the second national election in succession, the Stalinist-led Left Front lost more than half of its seats and saw its vote share fall sharply.
India’s parliamentary landscape transformed
By Keith Jones, 21 May 2014
The Hindu communalist BJP was the utterly unwarranted beneficiary of mass popular anger with the ten year-old Congress Party-led government.
India’s watershed election
By Keith Jones, 19 May 2014
The BJP’s victory and the collapse of the Congress and Stalinist parties reflect a realignment of Indian politics presaging a vast intensification of the class struggle.
Hindu chauvinist BJP sweeps to power in India
By Keith Jones, 17 May 2014
India’s BJP regime will be a government of extreme crisis, tasked with implementing socially incendiary “pro-market” reforms in the face of popular opposition.
Toyota in India intensifies repression against workers
By Arun Kumar and W.A. Sunil, 17 May 2014
The management of Toyota in India has taken new steps to intimidate the auto maker’s unionized workforce at its two plants.
After Indian elections, US to press for greater support for “pivot to Asia”
By Keith Jones, 16 May 2014
Washington intends to use the coming to power of a new Indian prime minister to harness India more tightly to its anti-China “pivot to Asia.”
India signals support for Vietnam in South China Sea dispute
By Deepal Jayasekera, 13 May 2014
India’s support may be cautiously-worded, but it is inflammatory under conditions where Washington has been encouraging the states of East Asia to press their territorial claims against Beijing.
Tamil Nadu workers speak to WSWS about Indian elections
By our correspondents, 12 May 2014
Workers voiced their anger with all the parties of the establishment, including the ostensible left parties.
India: Modi reiterates pledge to expel “Bangladeshi” Muslims in wake of communal massacre
By Deepal Jayasekera, 8 May 2014
In the wake of the communal massacre of more than three dozen Muslims in Assam, BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has amplified his communally-charged denunciations of Bangladeshi Muslim migrants.
Indian elections: Rival right-wing parties in Tamil Nadu make populist promises
By Sasi Kumar, 3 May 2014
All the parties and fronts that are contesting the elections in Tamil Nadu are committed to continuing the socially incendiary economic “reforms” demanded by foreign investors and Indian big business.
India: Congress Party trumpets “inclusive growth” in hopes of averting poll debacle
By Nanda Wickremasinghe and Deepal Jayasekera, 1 May 2014
While the Congress Party claims to be the party of “inclusive growth”, its UPA government has presided over a huge increase in social inequality.
Indian workers speak in solidarity with International May Day
By our correspondents, 26 April 2014
The WSWS spoke with workers in southern India, including from the Neyveli Lignite Corporation and in Chennai’s Sriperumbudur special economic zone.
India: Modi tries to distance himself from incendiary communalist remarks
By Deepal Jayasekera, 25 April 2014
BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi tried to distance himself from inflammatory remarks made by several prominent BJP leaders.
India: New evidence of BJP role, Congress complicity in razing of Babri Masjid
By Deepal Jayasekera, 18 April 2014
Cobrapost has provided new evidence demonstrating that the 1992 razing of the Babri Masjid was a carefully planned provocation organized by Hindu communalist organizations with the knowledge and approval of top BJP leaders.
India stages national election amid mounting social crisis
By Keith Jones, 11 April 2014
Whatever combination of parties forms India’s government after the tallying of votes on May 16, India will soon be beset by political crisis and convulsed by intensifying class struggle.
Nokia India workers protest to defend jobs
By Arun Kumar and Kranti Kumara, 9 April 2014
Over 4,000 Nokia India workers staged a mass protest on March 31 in Chennai, the capital of the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
Nokia India workers speak on job threats and low wages
By Sasi Kumar, Nanda Kumar and Moses Rajkumar, 9 April 2014
A WSWS reporting team spoke to Nokia workers at a March 31 demonstration in Chennai, against the Finnish company’s threats to close their plant.
Indian Stalinists promote fraud of “secular,” “pro-people” Third Front
By Deepal Jayasekera and Keith Jones, 5 April 2014
The Indian Stalinists have responded to the intensification of the class struggle by redoubling their efforts to patch together an alliance with right-wing regional and caste-based parties—once and future allies of the Congress and/or BJP.
Indian government abets repression of workers in Saudi Arabia
By Kranti Kumara, 2 April 2014
The Indian government has joined the Saudi monarchy in threatening striking overseas Indian workers with imprisonment and deportation.
India: Books withdrawn from circulation after threat from Hindu right
By Deepal Jayasekera, 1 April 2014
Hindu supremacist organisations and parties are waging a censorship campaign against books, films or anything else that “offend” Hinduism.
India attempts precarious balancing act in Ukraine crisis
By Deepal Jayasekera and Keith Jones, 28 March 2014
With Russia and the US now pitted against each other in the most serious crisis in Europe since the end of the Second World War, New Delhi is groping for a stance that will enable it to avoid seriously damaging its relations with either Moscow or Washington.
Family of murdered Indian mine worker speak out
By Sasi Kumar and Moses Rajkumar, 21 March 2014
WSWS reporters visited the town of Neyveli in the southern state of Tamil Nadu to interview the family of 31-year-old worker Rajkumar who was murdered by a paramilitary security guard on Monday, March 17.
Indian security forces gun down coal mine worker
By Arun Kumar and Kranti Kumara, 20 March 2014
A 31-year-old contract worker was shot and killed in cold blood in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
India: Demanding pay rise, 200,000 power-loom operators continue strike
By Sasi Kumar and Moses Rajkumar, 19 March 2014
Over 200,000 power-loom operators have been on strike for the past month in two districts of Tamil Nadu, Coimbatore and Tirupur.
India’s election campaign goes into high gear
By Keith Jones, 12 March 2014
India’s elections are taking place under conditions of deepening economic crisis and mounting opposition among workers and toilers.
India’s government lies about 2012 military coup fears
By Kranti Kumara, 5 March 2014
India’s Congress Party-led government continues to lie about its fears that an unauthorized January 2012 army exercise was in fact an attempted military coup.
India: BJP PM candidate Modi makes provocative anti-China speech
By Deepal Jayasekera, 27 February 2014
Just days after the US signaled its readiness to do business with the BJP prime ministerial candidate, he travelled to one of the remotest corners of India to denounce Chinese “expansionism.”
Indian parliament votes to create new Telangana state
By Deepal Jayasekera, 22 February 2014
India’s Congress Party-led government has rammed a bitterly contested law through parliament that creates a new state—Telangana—by bifurcating Andhra Pradesh.
Delhi’s AAP government resigns
By Kranti Kumara, 19 February 2014
Seeking to become a player in Indian national politics, the now ex-AAP Chief Minister of Delhi is urging big business “to tell us what to do.”
US ready to do business with Hindu supremacist candidate for Indian PM
By Keith Jones, 15 February 2014
The US ambassador to India met Thursday with Narendra Modi, ending a nine-year diplomatic boycott that was imposed because of Modi’s role in the 2002 Gujarat anti-Muslim pogrom.
Delhi’s AAP government teeters after month in office
By Kranti Kumara, 7 February 2014
Barely a month after taking office, Delhi’s Aam Admi Party government is mired in a spate of political controversies.
British role in 1984 Amritsar massacre
By Harvey Thompson, 4 February 2014
Recently released documents reveal Britain’s special forces, acting on orders from Margaret Thatcher, assisted the Indian government’s 1984 assault on the Golden Temple.
Japanese PM strengthens economic-strategic ties with India
By Deepal Jayasekera, 30 January 2014
Both Japan and India are concerned to counter the growth of China’s economic and strategic influence in Asia.
Khobragade affair exposes deep-rooted Indo-US tensions
By Kranti Kumara, 22 January 2014
India remains deeply dissatisfied with American treatment of diplomat Devyani Khobragade and, in both New Delhi and Washington, there is concern that the row could put new strains on Indo-US ties.
“The government, courts and police are all stacked against us”—spokesman for victimized Maruti Suzuki India workers
By Deepal Jayasekera and Arun Kumar, 21 January 2014
Vicitimized Maruti Suzuki India worker Mahabir Dhimm spoke with the WSWS about the government-company frame-up of 148 of his co-workers and the speed-up and repressive regime at the Manesar assembly plant .
Japanese defence minister’s Indian visit strengthens military ties
By Deepal Jayasekera, 10 January 2014
Tokyo is seeking to integrate New Delhi into a US-led strategic alliance against China.
India’s “judiciary acts on the agenda of the capitalists”
—says lawyer for Maruti Suzuki workers facing frame-up murder charges
By Deepal Jayasekera and Arun Kumar, 8 January 2014
The lawyer leading the legal defence of the 148 Maruti Suzuki India workers facing frame-up charges of murder and other grave crimes recently spoke with the WSWS.
India’s prime minister announces resignation
By Keith Jones, 6 January 2014
Manmohan Singh’s resignation announcement is a sign of mounting panic in the Congress leadership over the party’s election prospects.
India: Protest denounces frame-up of Maruti Suzuki auto workers
An on-the-spot report
By Jai Sharma and Arun Kumar, 31 December 2013
Victimized workers from Maruti Suzuki’s Manesar car assembly plant staged a two-day protest in Gurgaon, Haryana earlier this month to denounce the witch hunt that the company, police and Congress Party state government have jointly mounted against them.
Deadly train fire highlights poor safety conditions on Indian Railways
By Deepal Jayasekera, 30 December 2013
At least 26 people were killed Saturday morning when two coaches on a train traveling through Andhra Pradesh caught fire.
India’s Supreme Court re-criminalizes homosexuality
By Kranti Kumara, 28 December 2013
India’s Supreme Court has struck down a lower court ruling that declared unconstitutional a section of the penal code, dating back to the 1860s, that criminalizes consensual sex among gay men and women.
US arrest and strip-search of diplomat provokes India’s retaliation
By Keith Jones, 19 December 2013
US authorities’ arrest and intrusive strip-searching of a female Indian diplomat have provoked a major spat between Washington and New Delhi.
India: Frame-up trial of Maruti Suzuki auto workers continues
By Kranti Kumara, 19 December 2013
One hundred forty-seven Maruti Suzuki workers who face a long list of frame-up charges, including murder, are to appear for their next court hearing Friday, December 20.
Top Indian official declares relationship with China “adversarial”
By K. Ratnayake, 18 December 2013
National Security Board chairman Shyam Saran’s remarks point to a growing discussion in Indian ruling circles about closer defence ties with Japan and the US.
Uttar Pradesh government sanctions mass expulsion of Muslim villagers
By Kranti Kumara, 14 December 2013
Tens of thousands of Muslims who were driven from their villages by Hindu communalists are being illegally blocked from returning to their homes.
India walks fine line over China’s air defence zone
By K. Ratnayake, 11 December 2013
Significant sections of the Indian establishment are pushing for New Delhi to take a harder line toward Beijing.
Congress Party humiliated in Indian state elections
By Kranti Kumara and Keith Jones, 10 December 2013
The Congress Party has suffered a stunning defeat in a series of state elections.
Indian workers and students defend Edward Snowden
By our reporters, 29 November 2013
WSWS supporters in India campaigned over the past month in support of Snowden in Chennai, Neyveli and Bangalore.
New Delhi downplays evidence of extensive NSA spying targeting India
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 14 November 2013
The Indian government’s failure to lodge any official protest against US National Security Agency operations targeting Indian officials and diplomatic missions has drawn critical comment even from sections of India’s right-wing press.
Indian Stalinists invoke Hindu-communalist threat
By Kranti Kumara and Keith Jones, 9 November 2013
India’s two major Stalinist parties organized a national “Secular Convention” in India’s capital last week. It was a political fraud.
Indo-Pakistani relations fraught after months of border skirmishes
By Deepal Jayasekera, 8 November 2013
The past three months have seen a surge in cross-border firing between Indian and Pakistan military forces along the Line of Control in Kashmir.
India: Multiple bomb blasts at rally for BJP’s Modi kill five
By Kranti Kumara, 28 October 2013
Five people were killed Sunday when a series of bombs exploded at an election rally called to showcase the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate—the arch communalist and self-styled “strongman” Narendra Modi.
Indian government covers up military’s anti-constitutional activities
By Kranti Kumara, 18 October 2013
India’s Congress Party-led government wants to keep the Indian people entirely in the dark as to the anti-democratic conspiracies that are developing within the country’s national-security apparatus.
Indian foreign minister’s unproductive visit to Sri Lanka
By Nandana Nanneththi and Deepal Jayasekera, 16 October 2013
New Delhi’s push for a “political solution” with the Tamil elite received a cold response from Colombo.
Indian cabinet decision to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh sparks mass protests
By Deepal Jayasekera, 9 October 2013
The Indian cabinet’s decision to proceed with the bifurcation of the southern state of Andhra Pradesh and create a new state of Telangana has provoked huge protests in Andhra Pradesh’s other regions.
Obama and Singh pledge major increase in US-Indian military-strategic ties
By Deepal Jayasekera and Keith Jones, 30 September 2013
At their meeting last Friday, US President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed to greatly enhance the Indo-US “global strategic partnership,” especially geopolitical, security, and military cooperation.
Secret Indian Army unit implicated in anti-constitutional acts
By Kranti Kumara, 27 September 2013
A secret military intelligence unit set up by the previous head of the Indian Army engaged in illegal activities, including attempting to engineer the defeat of the elected state government of Jammu and Kashmir.
India: Official Opposition names arch-communalist as its prime ministerial candidate
By Kranti Kumara, 19 September 2013
The Bharatiya Janata Party has named Narendra Modi—the Chief Minister of the western state of Gujarat and a notorious communalist—as its candidate for prime minister in the coming general election.
US war drive rattles Indian elite
By Deepal Jayasekera, 11 September 2013
The US drive to attack Syria is intensifying the crisis of India’s government and elite.
As rupee slides, India’s PM vows to accelerate pro-investor reform
By Keith Jones, 31 August 2013
The value of the Indian rupee continued to slide this week, forcing India’s central bank to take emergency measures.
Tense standoff between India and Pakistan along their disputed Kashmir border continues
By Deepal Jayasekera, 31 August 2013
For more than three weeks, India and Pakistan exchanged artillery fire dails across the Line of Control in the disputed Kashmir region.
India: Plummeting rupee fuels fears of banking crisis
By Keith Jones, 24 August 2013
The rupee has depreciated by more than 15 percent since May, despite increasingly desperate efforts by the Congress Party-led government and the Reserve Bank of India to arrest the slide.
Indian rupee and economy in free fall
By Kranti Kumara and Keith Jones, 21 August 2013
India’s corporate media is increasingly voicing fears that the country could soon confront a current account crisis akin to that in 1991, when India was forced to seek an emergency bailout from the IMF.
Renewed clashes between India and Pakistan in disputed Kashmir
By Sampath Perera, 16 August 2013
The killing of five Indian soldiers in the disputed Kashmir region has resulted in a further escalation of tensions between India and Pakistan.
India: NLC contract worker and WSWS supporter Sivakumar dies at 42
By Arun Kumar, 14 August 2013
Sivakumar belonged to the most abused and exploited section of the working class in India.
Indian government to create Telangana state in southern India
By Deepal Jayasekera and Keith Jones, 3 August 2013
The Indian government is presenting the creation of Telangana as a means of overcoming socio-economic backwardness.
Defying police repression, Maruti Suzuki workers in India continue fight
By Arun Kumar, 1 August 2013
Last month, the Congress-led government in the northern Indian state of Haryana dispatched thousands of heavily armed riot police against a peaceful protest of Maruti Suzuki workers.
US vice president visits India to strengthen ties against China
By K. Ratnayake, 29 July 2013
US Vice President Joe Biden declared India “an indispensable part of our rebalance toward the Asia-Pacific”.
To avert current accounts crisis, India announces new measures to woo foreign investment
By Deepal Jayasekera, 27 July 2013
India’s Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance government has announced further “pro-investor” reforms in a desperate bid to increase foreign capital inflows.
India’s intelligence bureau and Gujarat police indicted for extrajudicial murders
By Kranti Kumara, 25 July 2013
India’s Central Bureau of Investigation has accused Gujarat police officers and at least one senior official of the central government Intelligence Bureau of having jointly organized the killing of four young Muslims.
Sri Lankan constitutional changes raise tensions with India
By Wasantha Rupasinghe, 24 July 2013
Having defeated the LTTE in 2009, the Sri Lankan government is attempting to wind back powers previously granted to provincial councils.
India: Contaminated school-meal kills 22 children
By Kranti Kumara, 18 July 2013
At least 22 school children, ranging in age from 5 to 12, have died as the result of eating a severely contaminated mid-day meal Tuesday in a government-run primary school in Bihar.
India: NLC strike against privatisation continues
By Arun Kumar, 12 July 2013
The Tamil Nadu government’s offer to buy a stake in the company will only lead to further restructuring as the prelude to further “disinvestment.”
Indian Stalinist party refuses to defend Snowden
By Deepal Jayasekera, 8 July 2013
The CPM’s criticisms of US spying operations are based on defending the interests of the Indian bourgeoisie, not the democratic rights of working people.
India: Plummeting rupee sparks fears of current account crisis
By Kranti Kumara, 5 July 2013
There are increasing fears within the Indian elite that the rupee’s plummet—it has lost more than 10 percent of its value since April—could cascade into a current account crisis.
NLC workers in south India strike against privatisation
By Arun Kumar and Deepal Jayasekera, 5 July 2013
The privatisation of the state-owned coal and power company can only be defeated as part of a broader challenge to the big business policies of India’s entire ruling elite.
Indian government rejects Snowden’s asylum request
By K. Ratnayake, 4 July 2013
No explanation has been provided to justify the decision, which underscores New Delhi’s contempt for democratic rights.
Thousands remain missing in India’s Himalayan flood disaster
By Sampath Perera, 2 July 2013
Despite official attempts to downplay the toll, leading figures in the state government say the number of deaths may reach 10,000.
At least 1,000 killed in Indian floods and landslides
By Sampath Perera, 24 June 2013
Thousands of people are still missing and tens of thousands are stranded in mountainous areas, in what has been called a “Himalayan tsunami.”
New flare-up of Indo-Pakistani tensions in disputed Kashmir
By Deepal Jayasekera, 12 June 2013
India alleges a junior Indian army officer was killed late last week when Pakistan’s military shelled Indian positions across the Line of Control.
India’s Supreme Court approves nuclear plant, saying “destiny” to decide if it is safe
By Kranti Kumara, 1 June 2013
In a ruling marked by indifference to the safety of ordinary Indians, India’s Supreme Court approved operationalizing the Kundankulam nuclear plant.
Indian state to intensify counter-insurgency war after Maoist ambush
By Deepal Jayasekera, 29 May 2013
Maoist guerrillas ambushed a Congress Party convoy in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh last Saturday evening.
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