[act-ma] Fwd: coming to boston

[Paul Malachi Penchalapadu]

*
Alliance for a Secular and Democratic South Asia *
p r e s e n t s

*INDIA: AN URBAN BATTLEGROUND*
*
*
*a talk by Dr. Parthosarathy Ray*

*FRI. JUL 26. | 6:30 pm*

*MIT Building 4, Room 237*
77 Mass Ave, Cambridge

*Facebook*:
https://www.facebook.com/events/353266528135923/

*About*
Over the last decade or so, the focus of most activists and organizations
in India has been mostly on the countryside, where large scale displacement
and land grab has been going on in the interests of national and
multinational capital. However, in the meantime, the urban conflict over
land, over the right to the city, and over proper working and living
conditions has also become more and more intense.

Actually, the conflicts in the rural areas and urban areas are interlinked
by economics and commonality of class interests. At the fundamental level,
this battle, beyond the rhetoric on urban development and beautification,
on rights and rehabilitation, on investment and industrialization, is class
conflict. It is a conflict between the urban working class and the
bourgeoisie, and the basic question in contention is the “right to the
city”. In some places the conflict is taking the shape of slum eviction and
resistance to it, in others it is reflected in the militant action of
unorganized labour.

The contours of this conflict are going to shape the future nature and the
character of the cities in India, where most of the economic activity in
the country is already concentrated, and understanding and developing a
proper response to it is therefore of immense importance to all of us.

*Bio*
Partho Sarothi Ray is a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences
at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata. He has
been active in the anti-displacement movements around India and has been
part of struggles of the urban poor in Kolkata and Bengaluru. He is a
founder member of the solidarity forum Sanhati <http://sanhati.com/>. He
was the first activist to do a thorough ground-level reporting of the movement
in Lalgarh, West Bengal <http://sanhati.com/excerpted/1083/>, and has
written extensively on political economy of contemporary India, especially
the political economy of urban struggles<http://sanhati.com/excerpted/6074/>
.

www.southasiaalliance.org<http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.southasiaalliance.org&h=HAQHa4HAN&s=1>
 | www.sanhati.org<http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sanhati.org&h=iAQFI_W55&s=1>
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