India Divided: Diversity and Democracy under Attack - Softcover

Shiva, Vandana

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9781583225400: India Divided: Diversity and Democracy under Attack

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1583225404 ISBN 13: 9781583225400

Publisher: Seven Stories Press, 2005

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In India Divided, environmental, human rights, and antiglobalization activist Vandana Shiva chronicles the internal battles of a nation that is both the world's largest democracy and a leading nuclear power. Shiva describes a society where traditional cultures collide with the new economy of globalization, and charts the course of India's war of fundamentalisms in the age of terror. From the IT centers of Bangalore to the villages of Uttar Pradesh, from the massacre at Gujarat and the popular emergence of Hindutva's narrow communalism to the decades-old battle for Kashmir, India Divided reveals a convergence of globalization and terrorism. Looking to the plights of India's Dalit communities and millions of poor subsistence farmers impoverished or displaced by biotechnology, seed patents, and the spate of mega-dam projects, Shiva argues that these silent killers form a local terror unmatched in devastation. In India Divided Shiva addresses India’s most urgent threats with gravity and hope.

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About the Author:

World-renowned environmental leader and thinker VANDANA SHIVA is director of the Research Foundation on Science, Technology, and Ecology, and the author of many books, including Water Wars: Privatization, Pollution, and Profit and Monocultures of the Mind. In 1993, Shiva won the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the Alternative Nobel Peace Prize. Shiva is a leader in the International Forum on Globalization, along with Ralph Nader and Jeremy Rifkin.

Review:

"Praise for Vandana Shiva: "Shiva has devoted her life to fighting for the rights of the ordinary people of India....Her fierce intellect and her disarmingly friendly, accessible manner have made her a valuble advocate for people all over the developing world."

"A leading thinker who has eloquently blended her views on the environment, agriculture, spirituality, and women's right into a powerful philosophy."

"Vandana Shiva is a burst of Creative Energy and Intellectual power."

"One of the world's most prominent radical scientists."

Beginning with an analysis of the history of the birth agonies of India as a sovereign state, Shiva lays the blame for the clash of Islamic and Hindu fundamentalism squarely at the feet of colonial powers--from the British strategy of "divide and rule" that partitioned Pakistan from India and created the artificial conflict between Islam and Hinduism that is wracking the subcontinent today. Shiva explains that there was never a conflict between Hinduism and Islam in India before British rule. In fact, the very work Hindu is a geographical indentifier and includes all of the variety of religions practiced in India.. The conflict between India and Pakistan was engineered by the British to divert the non-partisan peaceful sovereignty movement that threatened the British financial stake in India. This same artificial division is being exploited today by the U.S. global war on terror and the multinationals behind the World Bank and the WTO. In the second section of India on Fire Shiva offers a critical analysis of the effects of globalization on India's food supply, water and ancient cultural traditions. Shiva asserts that the potential market for multinationals in India is huge, but to establish a foothold they must manipulate local politics and thousand year old agricultural models. The same methods of conflict and commoditization used by the British are being employed again to undermine national sovereignty and is placing the population at the risk of starvation. The third section offers Shiva's proposal for a solution to these threats to the ancient and diverse cultures of India and Pakistan. She advocates a political ideology called Earth Democracy, one that incorporates a reverence forthe rights of every citizen to unfettered access to natural resources. Shiva insists that a return to geographical politics will help to re-establish the organic harmony of the religions and ethnicities of the Asian sub-continent.

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