[act-ma] Zoom Lecture by Sainath on Rural Distress in India

[Charlie Welch]

Ahba Sur writes


Solidarity across Distances
Lectures in the Times of COVID-19

The current pandemic around the world has created a public health 
crisis, gravely exacerbating a pre-existing economic crisis. Governments 
around the world have also used this as an opportunity to amass more 
authoritarian power, aggravating a crisis of democracy. While we 
maintain physical distances, resistance to these triple crises cannot 
wait for the pandemic to end. Solidarity across Distances is a new 
lecture series in which we plan to bring critical voices of information 
and analysis. And bring people together in solidarity and resistance.

Rural Distress in India & the Rise of Authoritarianism
in the Times of COVID-19
Inaugural Lecture by and Conversation with
*P. Sainath*
Saturday, April 4, 11am EDT/8am PDT/8:30PM IST
Join us on Zoom - https://mit.zoom.us/j/685411542


Artwork by Labani Jangi / PARI.

We are delighted to announce that
P. Sainath, the renowned journalist and founder editor of "People's 
Archive of Rural India <https://ruralindiaonline.org/>," will deliver 
our inaugural lecture. His recent critical article, "*What we should do 
about COVID-19* 
<https://ruralindiaonline.org/articles/what-we-should-do-about-covid-19/>" 
on the Indian government’s relief package for the poor is a must read. 
As he wrote in it, "The government’s ‘package’ is a curious blend of 
callousness and cluelessness. It’s not just one virus we’re fighting – 
pandemics are also a ‘package.’  Of which economic distress can be a 
self-inflicted or self-aggravated part – driving us from calamity to 
catastrophe.”


*Palagummi Sainath* has written on social & economic inequality, rural 
affairs, poverty and the impact of globalization in India. His path 
breaking series on rural poverty brought to the forefront the alarming 
numbers of farmers suicides in the wake of neoliberal policies in India. 
He is a senior fellow for Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. 
Since late 2011 he has been working on People's Archive of Rural India 
<https://ruralindiaonline.org>  PARI. In June 2011, Sainath was 
conferred an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree (DLitt) by the University 
of Alberta, the university's highest honor. He received the Ramon 
Magsaysay Award in 2007 in the category of Journalism, Literature and 
Creative Communication Arts.


*Write to SolidarityAcrossDistances at gmail.com 
<mailto:SolidarityAcrossDistances at gmail.com> *
*to join our mailing list and find out about our future events.

*

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