Category Archives: South Asia

India: Cockroach Democracy: Unarmed and Dangerous

. HUMAN RIGHTS .

An article by Arundhati Roy in Transcend Media Service

The student-led protests that have convulsed the Indian capital this week are showing us a different future for India and spreading to other cities, as organisers call for nationwide demonstrations tomorrow, 24 July. The cautious hope stirred by this youth uprising – and the Modi government’s desperate struggle to contain it.

For the first time in years, it feels wonderful to be Indian. Just when hope seemed lost, they came. Young roaches riding in on the rain. The progeny of the unholy union between a judge  and a joke.


Photo by Gayatri N.

We all know the story, but here it is, for the record. In response to an arrogant, contemptuous comment  by the Chief Justice of India, Surya Kant, calling some unemployed young Indians cockroaches, Abhijeet Dipke, a student living in Boston, posted a comment on Instagram: “What if all cockroaches come together?” Millions responded. And thus was born the Cockroach Janta Party. Dipke became the Pied Piper of cockroaches. Its first demand was the resignation of Dharmendra Pradhan, the education minister who sits smugly atop a corrupt, rotten ministry under which public exam papers are regularly leaked. An estimated 152 since 2014, according to opposition parties. These leaks have devastated the lives of millions of young people who spent years preparing for these exams, some of whose parents have had to sell their land or homes to support their children’s studies and pay the fee for the right to appear for these exams. A novel form of legal extortion. After the recent leak of the exam paper for medical college admissions, 12 distressed students died by suicide.

As cockroach anger grew into an online tsunami, Dipke returned from Boston on 6 June and went straight from the airport to Delhi’s famous protest grounds at Jantar Mantar. Sonam Wangchuk, the well-known activist and education reformer from Ladakh joined him and declared an indefinite hunger strike. Six university students – Neha Bora, Manish Kumar, Aameen Amitosh, Danish Ali, Hrishikesh and Deepak, members of the All India Students Association (AISA), the student wing of the Communist Party of India (Liberation) – declared they would fast too, and took up position on an adjacent stage. Protests began in other cities. As the condition of those on fast grew critical, the young roaches who had swamped the internet began to show up at Jantar Mantar for real. The Cockroach Janta Party announced that on 20 July, the day parliament was to open for its monsoon session, they would march on Parliament. Two days before the planned march, Sonam Wangchuk was snatched off the stage by the police and held in detention, first in a government hospital, and later at his wife’s insistence, in a private hospital. He still remains on fast. On the morning of 20 July, the day of the march, the AISA students ended their fast.

The cockroaches took the capital city by storm. They came by train, by bus, by air, by metro, their numbers increasing by the hour. Hours before the first rays of sun lightened Delhi’s monsoon skies, they began to pour into Jantar Mantar in the tens of thousands. By sunrise it was clear that a generation of desperate and furious young people, who have seen their future snuffed out before their eyes, intended to reclaim what their parents and grandparents’ generations had conceded: our dignity as a people and as a country. Our rights as citizens of a democracy. The protesters exorcised the corrosive fear that has become second nature to us all with their sheer courage and grace. And humour. By the end of the day it was clear that the protest had become about something far bigger than what the protesters or their leaders were demanding. Dharmendra Pradhan is small change now. The stakes are far bigger. The rot in the whole system of governance, from top to bottom, is clearly visible and has begun to stink like a decomposing corpse. Even the tiniest of the cockroaches, some no more than seven or eight years old, were able to clearly articulate that.

Despite the quick and almost clandestine appointment of a new police chief days before the march, and despite worried whispers about the terrifying proficiency of our terrifying home minister, both the police and the home ministry completely miscalculated the scale of the tsunami that engulfed Delhi on 20 July.

They tried everything. They blocked buses and roads and metro stations. It didn’t help. They tried to jam the internet. But the young roaches – creatures of the internet – somehow subverted that effort with a deluge of memes and videos that made you laugh and cry at once. In Delhi, of all the places in the world, young women who were part of the protest said that they felt safe in the crowd – although some complained about being groped by the police. We saw Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, people belonging to every caste and class coming together, helping each other, protecting each other as they faced down the police. Instead of lecturing us, or giving us grand speeches, they showed us, demonstrated for us, the possible India, the beautiful India of our dreams.

To deal with this danger, the police welded together their yellow metal barricades, and brought their tried and tested props: trucks full of stones, and pre-damaged vehicles in the hope that they could make it look as though the young people had turned violent and the police were acting in self-defence. They brought in an army of plainclothes goons  armed with batons and clubs. To prepare for action, the Rapid Action Force (RAF) removed their name-tags  from their uniforms. The faithful mainstream TV channels were lined up, primed to report the lies. (Some jumped the gun and began to report things that hadn’t happened yet. News in India tends to be about the future, not the present.) Nothing worked. The police and RAF swung their lathis wildly, broke children’s heads and fractured limbs. They fired tear gas. But the young kept marching. Straight towards parliament. Straight to where they said they would go.

As they approached, security forces took position, their AK47s aimed at the unarmed students. Still, the cockroaches marched. And as they marched, they stripped away any remnants of the velvet glove that masks the government’s iron fist and exposed the current regime for what it is and always has been. A fascist iron fist. A confederacy of brutes with no capacity to understand the history and the diversity of the country which it governs. People who only know how to hate, but have no idea how to love. Or think.

As the marchers approached, our brave, boastful prime minister was whisked away to safety. Members of Parliament were prevented from leaving the gleaming new Samvidhan Sansad building whose whole purpose seems to be to undermine the constitution daily.

By evening the police had broken the main stage at the protest site. By night the people had reclaimed it once again. As the police withdrew for the night the cockroaches gave them a standing ovation. For beating children. Wah Modi ji! Wah!

It’s silly to expect major political change to come from this. But to dismiss it as just a heady moment would be obtuse. It’s no surprise that the wires and live-screaming TV channels are burning up with gossip and innuendo and conspiracy theories about foreign-funding and CIA plots. Speaking as a proud andolanjeevi  (Modi’s derisive name for people like me), I confess that when it all began, I was wary too. I worried that we were heading into another Anna Hazare moment – that so-called anti-corruption movement, which, regardless of its early intentions, eventually gifted us three terms of being ruled by a political party that has destroyed every institution in this country, one that sees no separation between itself as a political party and the government of India, one that respects neither the country nor its citizens, and one that has shamed us internationally and brought India to its knees.

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Questions related to this article:

How effective are mass protest marches?

Is there a renewed movement of solidarity by the new generation?

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But my suspicions about the Cockroach Janata Party were allayed when I saw the hostility of the mainstream media towards them. That, to me, was the first and most reassuring sign. I was thrilled that Abhijeet Dipke was from a Dalit community, and even more thrilled that that wasn’t what anybody was focused on. Everything changed for me when I heard him say, “If my name had been Khalid, or if I were a Muslim, I would have been in jail by now.” He had the courage to call out the vulgarity of how things actually work in India – the fact that in our country everything (including and especially the law) does not apply equally to everybody. Everything depends entirely on your religion, caste, class, ethnicity and gender. It was a profound observation, simply made. For him to say this publicly, when even opposition politicians will only say “minority community” instead of “Muslim” for fear of a “Hindu backlash” made me head for Jantar Mantar right away. I also knew that when Dipke picked the name “Khalid” he could well have been speaking of Umar Khalid, the JNU scholar who, along with Sharjeel Imam and many others, has been in prison without trial for close to six years now. Umar’s crime? Urging protesters to remain non-violent during the 2020 protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, even while Delhi was convulsed by a spate of arson, murder and mosque-burning instigated by Hindu vigilante goons watched over by the benign, and occasionally participating police. Appeal after appeal for bail was turned down by judges who seem to have lost the courage to do, or even understand, what is right.

As the cockroaches marched and their numbers burgeoned, I caught myself thinking: Thank goodness they aren’t mostly Muslim, or Sikh, or Christian or Adivasi. They would have been flattened, killed, shot, jailed. Thank heaven they aren’t Kashmiri. They might have been blinded (although some did receive their share of pellet-like injuries). Thank goodness they are mostly Hindu. That’s how sad this moment is in India. However, things could change in a minute. We are in what they call a “developing situation”. Reports are coming in of thousands of paramilitary troops  being flown in from other states. We don’t know what the coming days will bring.

Where does all this leave us? Unlike the Anna Hazare movement which had weeks of frenzied, non-stop 24×7 coverage on hysterical, corporate owned TV channels, the Cockroach Janata Party has only itself and the internet to bank on. Unlike the Anna movement, which had been penetrated and taken over by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, with the Modi-led BJP massing at the gates, fully prepared to capitalise electorally on the TV-generated frenzy, the cockroaches have no organised opposition parties waiting in the wings, poised to take things further. The spontaneous rage we are witnessing will dissipate unless some real political work begins. Unless adults and opposition parties stop their jockeying and petty squabbling and show some solidarity. The government knows that this is unlikely. It remains unmoved because it feels that all it needs to do is wait. States have the power to wait. People don’t.

At this moment the cockroach uprising is one of several protests taking place across India. Adivasis in Madhya Pradesh are protesting the Ken-Betwa river-linking project. Villagers in Uttarakhand are protesting the mass felling of trees. People are protesting the environmental desecration of the Greater Nicobar Islands. Manipur is boiling. Jobs are disappearing. Prices are soaring. Fury is building. And the BJP-RSS’s ‘God’ game is getting exposed for what it always has been. A hoax. A gangster-driven gold-rush. The looting of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya  has given us a bad Bollywood script which is playing out before our eyes: sleek godmen and corrupt politicians building hotels, accumulating real-estate, driving around in SUVs, fattened on the faith of the poor and unsuspecting. The tentacles of corruption and daylight robbery snaking all the way up to the top.

Can cockroach energy pull us out of this pit? Not easy. A quick look at the outcome of people’s movements in India is not encouraging. It’s a potted history of shrinking ambitions and broken dreams. In the sixties and seventies various movements – including the armed rebellion by the Naxalites – demanded the redistribution of wealth and land to the tiller. They were crushed. In the eighties and nineties, social movements, most famously the Narmada Bachao Andolan and later the Maoists in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand fought against the displacement of farmers and indigenous tribespeople from their land. In other words, they were asking for what the poor still had to not be snatched away. They were crushed too. By the 2000s, they had been reduced to being grateful for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). The right to three months’ employment at minimum wages – an amount which works out to the price of a good meal at an expensive restaurant in a city. That too has been shelved by this regime, and replaced with survival level rations – bags of provisions with Modi’s face on them – thrown contemptuously at people, like alms to beggars from moving cars, in return for gratitude and votes. As the economy flounders, even this is in jeopardy.

Today, in 2026, we have been reduced to fighting for our right to vote and our citizenship. The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizenship (NRC) are a Hindu Rashtra version of the 1935 Nuremberg laws, under which German citizens were granted citizenship by the Third Reich depending on their “legacy papers”. (How many in India have these papers?) The anti-CAA-NRC moment faded away after the mass protests led to the murder of protesters and the incarceration of activists. But the protests caused the government to slow down the implementation of those new laws.

But now the CAA-NRC, which many correctly believed was aimed mostly at Muslims, has returned, disguised as the SIR (Special Intensive Revision) of electoral rolls. We have casually been informed that even our passports are not proof  of citizenship. Millions are being struck off electoral rolls. The whole country is desperately searching for “legacy papers”. We don’t know where we stand. Are we legitimate? Illegitimate? Do we have rights? Which of us belongs in those massive detention centres being constructed for “doubtful citizens”? Will we spend our days running from Tribunal to Tribunal? Fascists love chaos and confusion.

Our panic and anguish may lead us to pin too much hope on the cockroach uprising. Some have already compared it to the uprising of young people that led to regime change in Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. But India is too vast a country for that to happen. Others compare it to the movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan that toppled Indira Gandhi in 1977. These comparisons are not helpful. The Cockroach Janta Party is neither of those things. It is a thing of its own. A unique product of its times. It is vulnerable young people up against a vicious, vindictive government that has shown itself to be merciless to those who oppose it. Revenge is surely being planned and will be visited on those it sees as the main instigators.

How does a regime which is clearly becoming hugely unpopular have the confidence to not make any concessions to the people who voted for it? Probably because it feels it has successfully gamed the election business. It has captured the machinery. The Election Commission is flawed in its very composition and can no longer be counted upon to be neutral. The electronic voting machines have been managed, the electoral rolls now exclude millions of real people and include millions of phantom names, the bureaucracy that oversees elections have shown themselves to be utterly complicit, the courts can be depended upon to delay or turn a blind eye to egregious malpractice, the police have no idea what neutrality is, the press genuflects each time someone in power clicks their fingers. Constituencies are going to be re-mapped to make sure that it is always Advantage BJP. What does the ruling party have to fear? Why should it listen to anyone? It is the richest political party on earth, backed by the richest industrialists in the world. It can buy anything. And anyone. Or so it believes.

But can this game last forever? Can all the people be fooled all the time? Can a country with a population of a billion-and-a-half be dragged around like a corpse forever? It cannot. The cockroaches are out and about. The farmers have begun marching to Delhi  once more, this time to protest the India-US trade deal – the death warrant the government of India has slavishly agreed to sign  on their behalf. The borders of the city have been sealed but that is unlikely to stop them. Perhaps the rest of us can take lessons from our farmers and our cockroaches on how to become a little dangerous. The young have given us a gift. It is up to us all, every one of us to make what they have done matter.

Once a prime minister flees physically, it can’t be long before he has to flee politically.

But this regime will not go easily. It will not tolerate being humiliated on the streets of the capital. We are likely to see blood. Young tempers are fraying. How long will it be before someone in that youthful, fired-up crowd loses their cool and provides the police an excuse to open fire? They will do everything they can to break us. We must do everything we can to stop them.

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HUMAN RIGHTS, South Asia

India and Pakistan: A Conversation That Refused To End

DISARMAMENT AND SECURITY .

Special to CPN from Nawal Amjad

On Thursday, 2 July 2026, people from two countries with one of the greatest global flashpoints came together — India and Pakistan. These countries fought a war last year, but here is thing about the need to pursue peace: it is not a permanent end goal but a continuous process — and every worthwhile process has to be revived like it did not exist, but also like it never stopped.

The event was hosted in collaboration by civil society organizations like, Socialist Yuvjan Sabha (India), Socialist Students’ Union (India) with Centre for Peace and Secular Studies (Pakistan), including luminaries like Dr. Sandeep Pandey, Ms. Lalita Ramdas and Ms. Diep Saeeda, who enabled the space for a discussion between people of the two countries.

The event was moderated by Rumaan Mecci (India) and Ahmad Raza (Pakistan), who navigated the event with all their light whether there was no electricity or internet (quite literally), or there were other bleak moments from some trolls in the audience that the moderators’ fellow, Rishi Anand helped keep away seamlessly.

If I have to begin with introducing this event, so it was a virtual dialogue themed on, ‘How can young people lead a new chapter of peace-building, democratic engagement and people-to-people diplomacy between Pakistan and India and create a shared future?’ Young changemakers along with individuals that have dedicated a substantial part of their lives to a Culture of Peace were there. And what is particularly special about this event is how it had enthusiastic participation from citizens from both countries, even expats who have spent years nurturing their and their polities’ identities abroad.

I was also honored to have been invited there because of my background with helping nourish a Culture of Peace in the last few years, and more recently, through my affiliation with Peace Manifesto 2025 and the Culture of Peace Corporation since last year.

When I had attended this dialogue, I did not maintain notes (something that I seldom forget when attending every webinar till date, even if I am a passive part of it), but in hindsight, I realized that perhaps making notes would have been a good way to document every noteworthy sentence that I heard in the discussion, however, some things need to be experienced — and so having chosen to be my usual geeky self would not have been this helpful.

What I in turn realized was that this event was indeed a watershed moment. Not because in the most academically fancy terms, changemakers, particularly young changemakers from two ‘archrivals’ came together one evening, but because an originally envisioned two-hour-long event went on for about almost four hours. If that surprised you, I’m not surprised, because that was the exact reaction of my mentor-boss, Professor David Adams, who has been one of the pioneers at UNESCO to have conceived the idea of a Culture of Peace for the whole world, decades ago and since then, he has not looked back from working for it despite what his friend-colleague described to him to be an increasingly apocaloptimistic world.

The need for a shared future

Monica Wahi, a prominent child film specialist from India opened the discussion by her reflections emphasizing upon the need for a ‘shared future’ — to this, I both responded and opened my address by saying that we would only need to have a shared future, if we had been divided — we were never really divided. I began by speaking about our ‘shared challenges’ as two struggling domestic polities: India, whom we clearly looked up to before the world’s greatest democracy increasingly began to deconsolidate, and our own democracy in Pakistan, having struggled to consolidate since forever.

Take the recent student protests in India for example. The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET)’s leak in India is the same as the Medical and Dental College Test (MDCAT)’s leaks in Pakistan; besides, the unfair grading replete with discrepancies that led to reconduct of the former in Pakistan only speaks volumes of how ‘we are always in this together’ is an apt phrase to describe most of what we both suffer. In fact, when I saw the police dragging protesters and even India’s seasoned politician Rahul Gandhi upon the country’s streets, I asked my own audience on my private Instagram the other day that, ‘Can I also say that our democracies are Sanjhi? Sanjhi is a Punjabi language word used commonly by people of both sides of the border which translates to as, ‘shared’.

Now back to the dialogue. I spoke of our many commonalities using very distinct set of things, but each weaving into why or how we are not that divided, if only we admit to realize. For instance, I spoke of my childhood familiarization with the word, ‘actor’ through watching Shah Rukh Khan, Indian superstar whom I referred to as, ‘Sharo Khan’ for the longest time — my first vivid TV memory of childhood.

Similarly, when women in India and Pakistan, both have to constantly register their existence through apparently needing to ‘break a glass ceiling’ rather than realizing that the latter only concretizes it, and when the news of women’s abuse of any nature circulates in the media or otherwise, the reasons and ramifications on both sides of the border are not different. In fact, even when a 150-year-old tree in Lahore is cut and so is a 100-year-old tree in Nashik, India — the hue of cry in the civilized people of both sides of the border is the same — and the vested interests of the powers that be responsible and or complicit in these cases are also the same.

During the dialogue, I also drew attention to my belief in the power of SDG 4.7: the seventh target of the fourth Sustainable Development Goal, Education, which is about working for and embodying values and practices of Global Citizenship Education and Sustainability; the non-exceptionalist nature of climate change sparing no one; my love for what all India has done and continues to do for entrepreneurship — thanks to me marveling at (Shark Tank India) as one of the many emblems of what we got to learn from them; a need for a Joint Pakistan-India Parliament where the youth could discuss the day-to-day issues of ‘shared interest’; a Public Diplomacy Centre to deepen people-to-people connectivity between both nations and some form of a Public Interest Promotion Centre/ Declaration, that enables us to teach each other best practices on governance, foreign policy, education, public health-care, technology, entrepreneurship, media and of course, art, culture and entertainment — no matter our piercing differences continue to stare into our faces.

If I begin to describe everything said by everyone, the article would never end, but I still deem it necessary to share brief takeaways from my fellow youth panelists from within my country and across the border.

Opportunities for dialogue

Tiya Mhatre, a student based in AliBaugh near Mumbai, who is about to join UWC Pearson University and is passionate about UN simulation conferences (just like I used to be) said something really helpful, Tiya pointed out that while student diasporas are one of those key scarce spaces remaining for youth of both countries to connect to each other, there are more opportunities through universities and student communities that ought to be explored; may it be collaborating through dialogues like these; joint projects; cultural exchanges on areas like, climate change, public health-care, sustainability and innovation — because in Tiya’s eyes, lasting peace begins with trust and trust begins with conversation, and while the former cannot resolve complex regional issues, it can indeed preserve something essential, the willingness to ‘keep talking’.

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Questions for this article:

Can peace be established between India and Pakistan?

Solidarity across national borders, What are some good examples?

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Another fellow panelist, Kabir Rao, who is a student of philosophy and Arabic at the University of St Andrews from India, and besides his interests in politics and military affairs for the Middle East, he is also attempting to learn Urdu and Farsi — yes, you heard that right. A Hindu in India studying philosophy and Arabic. Learning Urdu and Farsi. Kabir emphasized on his turn about the organic link between our shared struggles for a non-militaristic, non-violent and democratic outlook and better relations with neighbors at home. He also highlighted the similarities between India and Pakistan’s ‘connected histories’ and our present-day struggles. He further argued that the working class in both countries, especially the young people within it ought to understand these similarities and base their struggles on them.

A poem than transcends national boundaries

Kabir ended his points by reciting a verse from a poem, ‘Black Out’ by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, a poet with ‘Pakistani origins’ and whose services for the country were oxygen for the progressive and democratic lungs of the country. The verse reads as,

ایک پل ٹھہرو کہ دریا کا کہیں پاٹ لگے
اور نیا دل میرا
زہر میں دھل کے، فنا ہو کے
کسی گھاٹ لگے
پھر پئے نذر نئے دیدہ و دل لے کے چلوں
حسن کی مدح کروں شوق کا مضمون لکھوں

Which translates to English as, ‘Wait a moment, so the river may somewhere find its shore, and my tender heart, washed in poison and dissolved, may reach a landing place.
Then I shall walk on, offering the lit lamps of my heart’s anguish, singing praises to beauty, and penning the treatise of longing.’

Such is our ‘shared’, or dare I say, inseparable history and legacy of our people, that is only telling of how profoundly we need a deliberate and a very consistent cultivation of a Culture of Peace.

Science and health transcend national boundaries

Another panelist, Iqra Preet, who is a PhD Biochemistry scholar and a researcher in nanotechnology-based treatment for multiple diseases based in Lahore, Pakistan said something that every other participant from (even within the audience) kept echoing till the end: how shared scientific research and investment in public health-care does not need to see who belongs to which nation. In my understanding, how a sample on a microscope, a DNA or a virus should override our very fragile fixation with our yet-to-understand fantasies of our so-called perfected nation-states.

Culture transcends national boundaries

Then it was Ritu Das, who is a queer feminist activist from Uttar Pradesh, based in Lucknow, India and is also a poet and has been active in the movement spaces for almost a decade. She utilized her turn by recalling her stay experience in a hotel in London. Among her hotel staff were two individuals — one, a Hindu Indian from Rajasthan — the other who was a Muslim from Bangladesh. To Ritu’s surprise, the connection felt and built more deeply and meaningfully with the Muslim from Bangladesh than her own fellow citizen.

According to Ritu, it was because of the cultural and linguistic boundaries that transcended the political border separating the region. It helped Ritu reinforce an important sociological insight: it is often our shared cultural and historical inheritances that sustain solidarities. In fact, Ritu’s grandmother’s narration of the violence events during partition taught Ritu something very poignant: she recounted violence with extreme ethical sensitivity and the latter was quoted by Ritu to have told them, ‘People of every community were killed and people of every community were forced to leave their homes, foregrounding human suffering rather than communal identity.’ As a member of a marginalized community, Ritu has witnessed Bangladeshi transgender communities drawing parallels between India’s Transgender Card Framework and Bangladesh’s Hijra Identity recognition, despite different political and legal systems — proving in the words of Ritu that, ‘struggles for dignity, recognition and justice frequently transcend national borders, producing what may be understood as transnational communities of care and resistance.’

The webinar was also attended by celebrated practitioners like, Sachendra Pratap Yadav, President of the Socialist Students’ Union and a PhD scholar at the BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, India; Sanjay Gadhalay, an engineer, entrepreneur and Climate activist from Hyderabad India; Mazher Hussain, who runs Confederation of Voluntary Agencies (COVA) from Hyderabad, India and is a long-time peace activist; Shivi Upadhyay, recent PhD scholar in social work from Delhi University and a development activist who works in Goa at present; Razi Raziuddin, who can be uniquely distinguished because he studied at both Aligarh University and Banaras Hindu University and now works as a scientist in the United States of America and runs a diaspora forum; Cedric Prakash, a Catholic priest and a prominent human rights activist from Ahmedabad, India; Father Anand, Catholic activist, priest and playwright from Varanasi, India; Sheema Kermani, prominent classical dancer, actor and social activist from Pakistan among others.

The conversation refuses to end

This convergence was not easy owing to trolls constantly trying to keep the moderators on their toes, and even us attendees wondering if it would go on smoothly? There was, of course, a shared anxiousness around letting the audiences also participate by risking giving them a mic. Some of them were trolls, but most of them were also equally or even more elated than us to have been there, and it is these same people, the common people, with whom the discussion went on for almost four hours. Some of these people contributed by narrating tales of being constantly anxiety-ridden because of growing up in a military background — and the very solid and legitimate fear of losing their loved ones. But there were also those that wanted to call a spade a spade, and hence demanded us to not pretend like everything was hunky dory, but to both acknowledge and embrace the discomfort — talk out loud about the elephant in the room, issues like cross-border terrorism and Kashmir to name a few. Others simply encouraged and looked forward to more honest and uncomfortable conversations regularly in the future.

Before the article’s title starts to influence me (and it literally never ends), I am thinking of concluding this piece just when I have heard about the education minister in India resigning — if this is true victory for people of India is premature to say because systemic changes have a long way to go before they bear fruits. Notwithstanding that the ‘cockroaches’ in India were heard, and a seed has to be planted somewhere for it to appear to be bearing fruits later — and that gives me: a cockroach in Pakistan — a glimmer of relief for the justice of the dozens of those innocent students, who lost their lives just because their system failed them. But whether it is the cockroaches in India or in Pakistan, the conversation hopefully refuses to end.

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DISARMAMENT & SECURITY, South Asia, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY

Nepal Peace Walk: A Journey towards Loving Kindness through Mindful Moments

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION .

An article by Biswo Ulak

In 2015, the Global Peace Index highlighted a decline in global peace, marked by rising terrorism, growing refugee crises, and increasing inequality. At the same time, Nepal was recovering from a decade-long armed conflict while continuing to face political instability, economic challenges, and social uncertainty despite the adoption of the 2015 Constitution. In response to these challenges, the Nepal Peace Walk emerged as a cultural journey that welcomes people of all religions, races, nationalities, and backgrounds to celebrate diversity, heritage, and human connection. Through mindful walking, cultural exchange, and community engagement, the initiative promotes healing, dialogue, tolerance, reconciliation, and unity by connecting participants with heritage sites, local communities, and shared human values.

Origin of Peace Walk

An informal group of cultural activists and peace advocates, including Biswo Ulak, spiritual leader Naresh Prasad Manandhar, and campaigners such as Deva Sainju, Palden Lama, Anil Raj Bajracharya, Subarna Shrestha, Chandra Badan Bijukchhe, Rajaram Karmacharya, Sunita Shahi, and Hem Kumar Shrestha, along with many like-minded individuals, came together to launch a symbolic Peace Walk promoting peace and coexistence. The journey begins at Swayambhunath, which has a history spanning over 3,000 years and continues to Namo Buddha Temple, a site with more than 6,000 years of history associated with compassion and selfless sacrifice through the story of Prince Mahasattva.

Inspired by Nepal’s cultural heritage, the route passes through historic settlements and sacred sites including Pashupatinath Temple, Boudhanath Stupa, Bhaktapur, and Panauti, symbolizing cultural continuity, dialogue, reconciliation, and peace.

Focus of the Journey

The Nepal Peace Walk and Peace Festival aims to celebrate cultural diversity, promote social engagement, and strengthen the tourism industry, contributing peace and harmony in society through:

Sharing the inspiring, often untold history of Avayadan—the spirit of selfless compassion—with the world, to help promote the value of saving lives, supporting ecological balance in nature, and raising awareness about organ donation as a modern reflection of this noble tradition.

Promoting the value of peace, unity, harmony and healing to help ease internal conflicts and foster awareness of the vital need to preserve our shared human civilization.

This walk is not a search for peace, but a gentle reminder that peace has always been with us. Through times of challenge, loss, and solitude, it has remained present, patiently awaiting our awareness. As we walk together in shared purpose, our steps offer an invitation to pause, reflect, and reconnect with the peace that lives within each person. May this collective journey unfold like the sunrise after a long night, bringing renewed understanding, quiet strength, and hope for a more harmonious and compassionate world.

Commencing the Movement

The movement began on Nepal New Year, 16 April 2017, with a bicycle rally organized in collaboration with World Cycle Tour. The journey connected the historic Swayambhunath Stupa and Namo Buddha Temple, promoting peace, compassion, and cultural harmony. What started with an expectation of 80 participants grew into a powerful gathering of more than 160 cyclists from diverse backgrounds, united through shared movement and human connection. This experience inspired a deeper vision — transforming fast-paced rallies into mindful cultural journeys focused on reflection, community bonding, cultural exchange, and the spread of peace through meaningful shared experiences.

Nepal Peace Walk

The first Walk with the Cultural Peace Lamp was held from 21–23 September 2017 to celebrate the International Day of Peace. The three-day journey connected Swayambhu Stupa and Namo Buddha Temple, promoting peace, compassion, and cultural harmony. Along the route, participants stayed at the historic Muni Vihar in Bhaktapur and Dhyanakuti Vihar in Banepa, experiencing local traditions, spiritual reflection, and meaningful cultural exchange that strengthened unity among communities.

The event was successfully organized by the GCPW team, inspired by the momentum of the April 2017 Bicycle Rally. In 2018, Tergar Monastery helped expand the peace movement with support from Education Foundation on Buddhism (EFoB), Namo Buddha International Cities of Peace (NBCP), and World Forum for Buddhists (WFfB). Together, these organizations strengthened the initiative into an ongoing platform promoting peace, compassion, cultural preservation, and global solidarity, which continued in the following years.

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Resilience in the Time of Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, large public peace talks were paused due to health restrictions. Despite these challenges, local communities, heritage sites, and peace organizations continued organizing small-scale and symbolic programs under the message “Peace Energy to Fight Aagainst COVID-19.” Through community support, reflection, and peace activities at sacred and cultural sites, these initiatives spread hope, compassion, healing, and solidarity, proving that human connection and the spirit of peace can endure even in difficult times.

Restoration of the Campaign

In 2022, after two years of pandemic restrictions, Education Foundation on Buddhism (EFoB) successfully revived the Walk with the Cultural Peace Lamp, reconnecting communities through peace, culture, and compassion. The return of the journey was warmly welcomed by local communities and symbolized resilience, healing, and renewed social harmony.

In 2023, the campaign reached a major milestone under the leadership of Kavre Sewa Samaj, in collaboration with World Forum for Buddhists (WFfB) and Namo Buddha International Cities of Peace (NBICP). What began with only five walkers from Boudhanath gradually grew into a powerful movement, with more than 1,500 participants joining the final walk from Panauti to Namo Buddha Temple, reflecting growing public support for peace, cultural unity, and community connection.

For more about Nepal’s cultural peace initiatives and destinations, visit https://peacetourist.com/nepal/. The community participation and highlights of the 2023 walk can also be viewed through Facebook Reel @GCPW Nepal.

International Recognition and Expansion

Nepal, a beautiful Himalayan nation between India and China, is renowned for its rich biodiversity, ancient cultural heritage, and breathtaking landscapes. In 2024, the Nepal Peace Walk programme, led by World Forum for Buddhists with support from partner organizations, was officially launched through an international webinar, generating strong global engagement among peace advocates, cultural communities, and international participants. The programme was officially launched on June 2024 through an international webinar, which created significant momentum and engagement among peace advocates, cultural organizations, and global participants.

The 2024 Nepal Peace Walk brought together 120 participants from 8 countries across Asia, Europe, and the United States, making it one of the most internationally diverse gatherings in the programme’s history. Beyond a physical journey, the walk became a platform for intercultural dialogue, friendship, peacebuilding, and community connection, while digital outreach and documentary coverage expanded its global visibility and impact.

In 2025, the Nepal Peace Walk programme was organized in two phases due to the Dashain festival in Nepal. The first phase, the Peace Festival, was held on 21 September 2025 at Patan Durbar Square, bringing together cultural performers and peace advocates for the International Day of Peace. The second phase, held from 3–5 November 2025, covered nearly 70 kilometers from Swayambhu Mahachaitya to Namo Buddha Temple and attracted over 100 participants, reflecting growing support for peacebuilding, cultural exchange, and community connection.

Looking Ahead: 2026 and Beyond

The success of the 2024 and 2025 Nepal Peace Walk programmes highlighted the growing importance of deeper connections between international participants and local communities through cultural exchange, shared learning, and meaningful human interaction. In a world facing conflict, division, and uncertainty, the Nepal Peace Walk promotes peacebuilding through mindful walking, cultural understanding, and compassionate community engagement.

Building on this momentum, the 2026 programme will feature a Peace Festival at Patan Durbar Square on 21 September, followed by a five-day Cultural Peace Walk from 21–25 November, connecting sacred and cultural heritage sites including Swayambhu Mahachaitya and Namo Buddha Temple. Open to people from all backgrounds, the initiative encourages peace, dialogue, compassion, and global solidarity through shared cultural experiences and mindful journeys.

Together, We Walk for Peace

The Nepal Peace Walk is a living expression of peace, compassion, and cultural harmony that brings together people from different cultures, communities, and nations in a shared journey toward understanding and unity. Inspired by the timeless values of empathy, selflessness, and mutual respect, the walk promotes dialogue, cultural preservation, and humanitarian awareness. The spirit of modern organ transplantation in health science reflects the ancient compassion demonstrated by Avayadan Prince Mahasattva over 6000 years ago, symbolizing the profound act of giving life to others. In a world increasingly affected by conflict, division, and social challenges, the Nepal Peace Walk serves as a powerful reminder that lasting peace begins with mindful steps, compassionate hearts, and the willingness of humanity to walk together toward a shared and harmonious future.

For more information about the Nepal Peace Walk, participation opportunities, partnerships, or event details, please contact GCPW.Nepal@gmail.com

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FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION, South Asia

International Women’s Day: Asia and Pacific

. WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

A press survey by CPNN

Here are the results from Asia and the Pacific

AUSTRALIA


Children participate in an International Women’s Day demonstration, in Melbourne, Australia, March 8, 2023. REUTERS/Sandra Sanders

BANGLADESH


International Women’s Day was celebrated on Saturday with enthusiasm and diverse programmes across the districts including Gopalganj, Laxmipur, Joypurhat, Khulna, Pirojpur, and Rajbari. The events highlighted women’s empowerment, rights, and social contributions, bringing together government officials, civil society leaders, and local communities.

BANGLADESH, SARIAKANDI


Various programmes were organized in Sariakandi of Bogura to celebrate International Women’s Day. On Sunday afternoon (March 8), a colorful rally started from the Upazila Parishad premises and marched through key roads of the town. A discussion meeting was later held at the auditorium of the Sariakandi Upazila Parishad.

CAMBODIA


Phnom Penh, Cambodia, March 9, 2026: The National Olympic Committee of Cambodia reports that around 4,000 people took part in a Women’s Day Run to celebrate International Women’s Day on Sunday, March 8.

CHINA


In celebration of International Women’s Day, falling on Sunday this year, the All-China Women’s Federation hosted a reception in Beijing on Friday, highlighting China’s commitment to advancing global women’s causes. The reception was attended by about 1,000 women from various sectors in China, as well as female representatives from international organizations and foreign embassies.

INDIA


Women practice yoga in a local train on the occasion of International Women’s Day in Mumbai, India, March 8, 2023. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

INDONESIA


Protesters from the Puan Knot Alliance marched during a demonstration commemorating International Women’s Day on Jalan Asia Afrika, Bandung, West Java, Sunday (March 8, 2026). They demanded the government end the militarization of the public sphere and military interference in civilian policies, including food and social programs, and revoke policies and practices that criminalize the people, activists, workers, and women through the Criminal Code and Criminal Procedure Code. (Photo Antara Photo/Raisan Al Farisi)

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International Women’s Day

JAPAN


“Women’s March Tokyo,” a protest march against sexual violence and discrimination toward women, was held in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward on International Women’s Day on Sunday.

KAZAKHSTAN


Activists hold a rally to support women’s rights on International Women’s Day in Almaty, Kazakhstan, March 8, 2023. REUTERS/Pavel Mikheyev

NORTH KOREA


North Korean women dance on the occasion of the International Women’s Day in Moranbong District, Pyongyang, North Korea Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Chol Jin)

PHILIPPINES


Filipino women and activists raise their fist during a protest on Women’s Day, in Manila, Philippines, March 8, 2023. REUTERS/Lisa Marie David

SOUTH KOREA


South Korean activists gather a day ahead of International Women’s Day in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, March 7, 2026. The banners read “Complete the revolution of light.” (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

SRI LANKA


President Anura Kumara Dissanayake on Sunday said Sri Lanka will be branded before the world as a nation that has taken up the banner of humanity in any conflict that arises in the world. The President was speaking at the International Women’s Day celebration held at the P. D. Sirisena Stadium in Colombo on Sunday. The event was organised by the National People’s Power under the theme “When She Rises – the Nation Rises” .

VIETNAM


In response to the “Ao Dai Week” 2026, celebrating the 116th anniversary of International Women’s Day (March 8, 1910 – March 8, 2026), on the morning of March 8, Women’s Union branches in many communes and wards throughout the province simultaneously organized Ao Dai fashion shows, with the participation of thousands of members.

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East Asia, South Asia, WOMEN'S EQUALITY,

Spirit of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam leads Interfaith Harmony Week

. TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY .

An article from AWAZ The Voice

World Interfaith Harmony Week will be observed globally from February 1 to 7, 2026, continuing a tradition that inspires unity across faiths and nations. First proposed by King Abdullah II of Jordan at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2010, it was adopted through a UN Resolution on October 20.

The resolution affirmed that mutual understanding and interfaith dialogue are essential for a culture of peace and invited all people, regardless of belief, to celebrate through the inclusive principle of “Love of God and Love of the Neighbour,” or “Love of the Good and Love of the Neighbour.” Since the first observance in 2011, the movement has become a worldwide call for coexistence and compassion.

The 2025 observance in Delhi was a luminous reflection of India’s pluralistic spirit. Organised by the Global Peace Foundation (GPF) India, the three-day Interfaith Conclave 2025 combined India’s ancient wisdom of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam—the world is one family—with contemporary peacebuilding frameworks. Leaders from Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, Jain, Sikh, and Parsi traditions gathered to reaffirm faith’s unifying role in a divided world.

The conclave opened with Dr Markandey Rai, Chairman of GPF India, invoking India’s civilizational ethos of unity beyond boundaries. Goswami Sushil Ji Maharaj, convener of the Bhartiya Sarv Dharm Sansad, recalled Swami Vivekananda’s 1893 address at the Chicago Parliament of Religions as a timeless message of harmony. Speakers such as Bhikkhu Sanghasena, Fr. Rajakumar Joseph, Imam Faizan Muneer, and Swami Sarvalokananda highlighted shared moral values—truth, service, and compassion—that transcend religious identity.

What distinguished the Delhi observance was the participation of youth and creative engagement. A pre-event poster competition, Art for Harmony, invited young artists to visualise peace, while workshops on “Skills for Interfaith Dialogue” trained students in empathy and respectful communication. Youth-led roundtables on peacebuilding showed how dialogue, when combined with action, can transform communities. These initiatives align with global best practices that link interfaith learning to arts, service, and civic participation.

Across the world, interfaith dialogue has evolved into a vital tool for peace. The United Nations promotes it through the Alliance of Civilisations and UNESCO’s intercultural programs. Regional examples abound: Indonesia’s grassroots Forum Kerukunan Umat Beragama promotes local religious cooperation;

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How can different faiths work together for understanding and harmony?

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Europe’s institutional frameworks like the UK Inter Faith Network support structured engagement; and Nigeria’s Interfaith Mediation Centre unites pastors and imams to rebuild communities torn by conflict.

 Such models demonstrate that spiritual traditions can strengthen reconciliation and social trust.

India’s role in this global movement remains distinctive. Its history is shaped by inclusion—Ashoka’s tolerance, Akbar’s Din-i-Ilahi, Guru Nanak’s universalism, and Gandhi’s interfaith prayers. In an era of polarisation, India’s constitutional promise of fraternity remains its guiding light. The 2025 conclave reaffirmed that harmony means not passive tolerance but active collaboration—religious leaders and citizens working together for education, the environment, and women’s empowerment.

Globally, youth have become key agents of peace. Studies show that interfaith exposure in early years nurtures empathy and reduces prejudice. GPF India’s initiatives—Youth Peace Clubs and Indo-Pacific Peace Forums—reflect this belief that harmony must grow from communities, not be imposed from above.

As the world prepares for Interfaith Harmony Week 2026, the Delhi conclave stands as a reminder that dialogue rooted in shared values can heal divisions. It also showed that interfaith cooperation is not an idealistic aspiration but a practical necessity in a world confronting identity conflicts, environmental degradation, and social fragmentation. The Indian vision of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, echoed in the G20 theme “One Earth, One Family, One Future,” gives fresh meaning to this universal movement for peace.

When Interfaith Harmony Week 2026 unfolds from February 1 to 7, temples, mosques, churches, gurdwaras, and monasteries around the world will again open their doors in friendship. In classrooms and communities, art, music, and service will reaffirm that peace begins with the heart that listens.

The lamps of faith that light Delhi and distant cities alike will remind humanity that beyond every difference lies the same yearning for goodness.

In a time when the world struggles to rediscover empathy, India’s example offers a moral compass—showing that harmony is not a dream but a daily practice. As people of every faith join hands to celebrate this week, they affirm the simple truth that when love of the good guides our actions, humanity indeed becomes one family—a message of hope for a world learning again to live as one.

The author, Pallab Bhattacharyya, is the former Police Chief of Assam.

(Editor’s note: Interfaith Harmony Week is formally supported by the Arab League.)

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global, Mideast, South Asia, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY, ,

Report of the 2025 Nyéléni Global Forum on Food Sovereignty and Global Solidarity

. . SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT . .

An article by Ecehan Balta in Internationalist Standpoint

From 6–14 September 2025, the 3rd 

Historical Continuity: From 2007 to 2015 and 2025

The 2007 Nyéléni Forum in Mali marked the global proclamation of food sovereignty. The declaration adopted there emphasized the right of peoples to define their own food and agricultural systems, the collective control over seeds, land, and water, the recognition of women’s roles, and resistance to market-based food aid (Nyéléni Declaration, 2007/2008).

The 2015 forum in Derio, Basque Country, expanded food sovereignty beyond rural production, integrating the experiences of urban consumers, migrant workers, and climate movements. Agroecology was broadened by the practices of cooperatives, short food chains, and climate justice. Strong feminist perspectives also came to the fore.

The 2025 forum in Kandy, Sri Lanka, inherited these foundations but introduced new dimensions: the global debt crisis, debates on energy democracy, the centrality of care work and social reproduction, and the Palestinian question. Food sovereignty was thus redefined not as a sectoral issue limited to agriculture, but as an anticapitalist program for social transformation.

Regional Assemblies: Building a Shared Agenda

The political horizon of Kandy was shaped by two years of preparatory regional meetings.

° Asia and Pacific: The statement “Asia at a Turning Point” highlighted how debt crises and climate disasters were destroying people’s food systems across the region. The choice of Sri Lanka as host was deeply symbolic.

* Africa: Land grabbing, drought, and hunger were framed as a combined crisis. Food sovereignty was articulated as the continuation of postcolonial struggles for independence.

°,Latin America and the Caribbean: Land occupations by the MST, indigenous rights, and agroecological practices were highlighted, while the “rights of Pachamama” entered constitutional debates.

° Europe and Central Asia: Farmers’ uprisings, the exploitation of migrant labor, and climate justice were central themes, alongside debates on cooperatives and solidarity economies.

° Near East and North Africa (NENA): Palestine was placed at the center. The use of food as a weapon of war, the blockade, and the destruction of agriculture under occupation were foregrounded.

° North America: Indigenous struggles for land, the exploitation of migrant workers, and food justice movements became the focus.

These different emphases converged in Kandy, laying the groundwork for a common front of systemic transformation.

Food Sovereignty: Agroecology, Commons and Social Reproduction

Food sovereignty is not merely a policy to eradicate hunger or ensure access to food. It must be distinguished from food security, which focuses on the availability and affordability of food in the market. Food sovereignty, by contrast, places at its center the right of peoples to define their own food systems, safeguard their cultural practices, and sustain their ways of life. Thus, it is not only about combating hunger but also about sovereignty, self-management, and collective control over the means of life.

Within this framework, agroecology emerges as the concrete foundation of food sovereignty. Agroecology preserves biodiversity, sustains local knowledge systems, avoids chemical dependency, and prioritizes solidarity. Small-scale farmers, coastal fishers, nomadic pastoralists, and especially women producers stand at its core. In the forum, agroecology was defined not as a mere technical practice but as a way for peoples to reproduce life against capitalism—a form of ecological, social, and cultural resistance.

One of the strongest conceptual contributions of Nyéléni 2025 was the Food as a Commons perspective. This approach redefines food not as a commodity but as a shared resource managed by collective will. Seed banks, community-supported agriculture, producer and consumer cooperatives, and solidarity finance mechanisms embody this approach. Commoning practices articulate collective control over the production, distribution, and reproduction of food.

Food sovereignty finds its true meaning when combined with the solidarity economy. As debated in the forum, solidarity economy initiatives—cooperatives, short supply chains, local markets, and community-based finance models—enable people to build their own food systems independently of market and state impositions. Food sovereignty is therefore not merely an agricultural model but also the assertion of people’s right to reconstruct their economic relations.

With the strong input of feminist movements, food sovereignty was also framed as a question of social reproduction. The invisible labor of women in kitchens, fields, and markets was recognized as the backbone of food systems. Without women’s unpaid labor, neither production, distribution, nor nutrition could be sustained in its current form. Food sovereignty thus became inseparable from the struggle to dismantle the patriarchal division of labor and achieve women’s emancipation. The forum redefined food sovereignty by integrating agroecology, commons, solidarity economy, and the feminist perspective of social reproduction.

Energy Sovereignty or Energy Democracy?

Another central debate concerned how to name struggles over energy.

The notion of “energy sovereignty” evokes the rhetoric of national sovereignty. While it is sometimes used to strengthen the hand of states against corporations, it also risks justifying authoritarian energy policies and fossil fuel dependency. Today, many governments promote mega-dams, nuclear plants, and fossil projects in the name of “sovereignty.”

“Energy democracy,” by contrast, centers on people’s control over energy production and distribution, direct participation in decision-making, and democratic planning. Energy cooperatives, municipal renewable investments, and community-based models are its concrete tools.

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Question for this article:

What is the relation between movements for food sovereignty and the global movement for a culture of peace?

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From the perspective of Nyéléni, the concept worth defending is energy democracy. It is based on participation and equality, respects ecological limits, centers the interests of workers, women, and local communities, and resists recolonization by breaking away from interstate power rivalries. For food, “sovereignty” is the right concept because it refers directly to the source of life; for energy, “democracy and planning” are more accurate, as energy is the infrastructure of life and only democratic planning can ensure a just transition.

For all this to be achievable, of course, energy production, distribution and all relevant sectors must be brought into public ownership.

Sri Lanka: The Debt Crisis and the Paradox of a “Socialist” Government

Sri Lanka was a symbolic host for the forum, as its recent history reflected the stakes of food sovereignty in stark terms. In 2022, the country suffered a massive economic collapse: foreign reserves dried up, food and fuel imports stalled, and millions took to the streets in unprecedented uprisings, forcing the government to resign. In the 2024 elections, the National People’s Power (NPP) coalition came to power. Led by Anura Kumara Dissanayake, the NPP was widely described in the international press as a “socialist government.”

Yet the new administration refused  to cancel the agreements with the IMF. The restructuring program imposed by the IMF brought severe austerity measures that deeply affected daily life. Public spending was cut, agricultural and food subsidies were drastically reduced, and support for fertilizer and seeds was curtailed, pushing many small farmers out of production. Rising import prices further weakened local production, while the liberalization of energy prices increased production costs and limited poor households’ access to electricity and fuel.

As a result, dependence on imports grew. But with scarce foreign reserves, imported food prices fluctuated sharply, rendering basic staples inaccessible to many families. In the forum, Sri Lankan peasant movements emphasized that the IMF program was not only economically destructive but also devastating for food sovereignty, stripping communities of the capacity to sustain their own food systems and locking the country into external dependency.

The crisis extended beyond production into social reproduction. Cuts in public services—healthcare, education, social support—intensified the burden on women, who bore the brunt both through unpaid care work at home and as cheap labor in the market. Feminist delegates stressed how IMF-imposed policies reinforced patriarchal divisions of labor and exacerbated the invisible weight carried by women.

Sri Lanka thus became a powerful lesson at Nyéléni 2025. A government described as “socialist” aligning itself with the IMF underscored that food sovereignty cannot be achieved through agroecology and local practices alone, but requires direct confrontation with the global financial system and its local lackeys. Debt traps restrict governments from implementing pro-people policies, undermine local production, and deny people the possibility of building self-managed food systems. The Sri Lankan experience revealed food sovereignty to be, at its core, also an anti-debt and anti-neoliberal struggle.

Palestinian Solidarity: Food as a Weapon of War

Palestine was the strongest unifying theme of the forum. In Gaza, Israel’s systematic destruction of farmland, restrictions on fishing, control of water resources, and blockades on basic foods revealed how food itself had been turned into a weapon of war.

In Kandy, a march in solidarity with Palestine had been planned. Yet foreign delegates were barred from participating after, in the words of a member of the Sri Lankan organizing committee, “a call from the very top.” Despite this restriction and the tensions it created within the forum, Sri Lankans themselves carried out a strong and meaningful march, making solidarity visible in the streets.

This sharpened the political spirit of the forum. Palestinian solidarity demonstrated that food sovereignty is not merely an agricultural or policy question but part of a global, anti-colonial struggle.

Conclusion: A Shared?? Political Agenda for Systemic Transformation

Nyéléni 2025 powerfully asserted that reclaiming collective control over food and energy systems is essential not only to end hunger but also to build a new social order against the multiple crises of capitalism. One of the forum’s most significant contributions was to articulate food and energy as distinct yet interlinked spheres of struggle, each demanding the self-determination of peoples.

Yet despite this radical discourse, frequent references to United Nations frameworks—on sustainability, human rights, and climate—sparked a major debate. On the one hand, the UN, reduced almost to the level of an international NGO, was seen as incapable of producing genuine transformation. On the other, relying even at the level of advocacy on UN documents raised questions about the coherence of the forum’s political determination.

This tension had historical roots. The first Nyéléni forum and subsequent struggles paved the way for the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants (UNDROP, 2018). Similarly, the long struggle of Indigenous peoples contributed to the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP, 2007). These achievements fostered a sense of confidence—that popular forums could indeed influence global instruments. Yet Nyéléni 2025 also made visible the risk that such confidence may be misleading. For, while UNDROP and UNDRIP were products of people’s struggles, in practice states often ignored them, or they became tools for boosting the legitimacy of discredited capitalist fora without effecting real change.

Hence one of the critical questions raised was: Can a forum that claims an anticapitalist path legitimately reference institutions that are themselves pillars of capitalism and imperialism? For us, the answer lay in building alternatives from below with a prospect of systemic (socialist) change, rooted in mass self-organisation of the workers and the poor. Otherwise, this carries the risk of dulling the radical edge of food sovereignty and embedding it within the very system it seeks to overcome.

Nyéléni 2025 did not resolve all these contradictions but made them explicit. And perhaps this was its most important contribution: rather than concealing internal tensions, the forum laid them bare. The challenge moving forward is to determine whether the “global legitimacy” produced by the UN serves people’s struggles, or whether it ultimately undermines their independence.

As the main slogan of the forum declared:

Systemic Transformation: Now or Never.

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global, South Asia, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT,

India: The call for peace resonated at the Baha’i House Indore as the International Peace Day was celebrated with enthusiasm

FREE FLOW OF INFORMATION .

An article from Sanjeevni Today (translated from Hindi by Google translator)

21 September 2025. An inspiring and heart-touching program was organized at the Baha’i House in Indore on the occasion of International Day of Peace, in which the Baha’i community brought people of all religions and faiths on one platform and spread the message of peace. Music, meditation, and a collective peace pledge made the event unforgettable.


(Click on image to enlarge)

Keynote speaker and Peace Ambassador Dr. Gurmeet Singh Narang inspired the audience with his address, “Inner Peace, Outer Peace,” saying, “Peace begins in our hearts. It flows outward in the form of love, compassion, and activism toward nature and all living things.” His words installed a deep sense of peace in the audience.

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Question related to this article:

What is happening for the International Day of Peace?

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The captivating performance by Sangeet Gurukul filled the atmosphere with a sense of harmony and peace. Mrs. Tahira Jadhav, representative of the Baha’i community, shared her thoughts, saying “True peace is the inner strength that keeps us steady and calm even amidst the storms of life.”

A special hightlight of the program was an inspiring quote from ‘Abdu’l Baha: “When the thought of war comes, oppose it with a powerful thought of peace; a thought of hatred must be destroyed by a powerful thought of love.” This quote inspired everyone to follow the path of peace and love.

The highlight of the event was the collective Peace Pledge, in which all the participants pledged to cultivate inner peace, promote dialogue, and protect nature and all living creatures. This was followed by a 30-second collective silence and a prayer for world peace, which filled everyone’s mind with a deep sense of peace.

The presence of Padma Shri Janak Palta ad Ujjwal Swami, renowned for his laughter yoga, added to the grandeur of the event. The event played a vital role in instilling in the people of Indore the importance of peace, unity, and love.

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Urgent Call for Peace Launched by Indian and Pakistani Feminists

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

An article from Presse Gauche (translation by CPNN)

We, feminists of India and Pakistan, unequivocally welcome the ceasefire declared by our two nations today. The tension and escalation of the past two weeks remind us how fragile peace is. The ceasefire also vindicates the calls for de-escalation and peace made by thousands of ordinary people on both sides of the border. While we hope for an absolute cessation of hostilities, we are mindful of recent events.

From Between the lines and the words

The ceasefire is only the first step in the long march towards justice and peace.

We condemn the Pahalgam terrorist attack that killed 25 tourists from different parts of India and one from Nepal who came to visit Kashmir. A local person also lost their life in the Pahalgam attack. These targeted attacks have widened the communal divide between Muslims and Hindus in India and have been exploited to incite hatred, fear, and collective punishment.

In the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack, it is women—including mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives—who bear the unbearable burden of grief. Instead of respecting and sharing it, it has been weaponized and subjected to police surveillance—especially when people refuse to follow the script of hate.

Himanshi Narwal, the young widow of one of the slain victims, is among the survivors who, despite unimaginable pain, found the strength to call for peace. She asked people not to direct their rage at Kashmiris and Muslims who, like her, are trapped in a cycle of violence they did not create. For this simple act of humanity, she was trolled, vilified, and attacked by lurking nationalists more devoted to bloodlust than truth.

Linking the terrorist attack to Pakistan, India immediately suspended the Indus Waters Treaty and resumed hydroelectric projects and dam construction previously restricted by the treaty. Both sides canceled short-term visas for visitors. We witnessed heartbreaking scenes at the Attari-Wagah border, where Indian and Pakistani women with the “wrong” passports were forced to hand over their children to their husbands before crossing into “their countries,” causing unfathomable distress for the women themselves, their children, and their families. Fourteen days later, India carried out airstrikes and Pakistan retaliated, followed by drone strikes from both sides.

Disinformation campaigns on both sides made the truth difficult to ascertain. One thing is certain: the loss of life, widespread fear, and escalating violence add to the potential terror of the grave and irreversible consequences that tensions between the two nuclear powers could have for populations throughout South Asia.

As feminists, we are fundamentally against war and militarism. We denounce the war economy that thrives on violence and destruction, as well as the deeply patriarchal structures that fuel and sustain it. The fact that the Indian operation was dubbed Sindoor, a deeply patriarchal gesture, is a stark reminder of the misogynistic propaganda employed by both sides. Between loved ones, there are also many other private and specific symbols, of which Sindoor, for some women, could be one. But when Sindoor becomes a battle cry, it erases and weaponizes pain, and reduces women to bodies upon which masculinist nationalist fantasies of conquest, violence, and rape are constructed.

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(Click here for the original article in French).

Questions related to this article:

Do women have a special role to play in the peace movement?

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The past year has been marked by a surge in violence around the world, with devastating images from Gaza and other conflict zones becoming a daily occurrence, tragically desensitizing many to the true horrors of armed conflict. The Indian and Pakistani governments and opinion makers appear oblivious to the catastrophic consequences of war and the immense devastation it would cause. Only those who manufacture and sell weapons systems to our governments will profit from war. War reinforces, exacerbates, and perpetuates existing inequalities, disproportionately affecting women, sexual and religious minorities, and children. These hostilities distract from what people really need: education, health, employment, social protection, security, and well-being.

We, feminists from India and Pakistan, firmly believe that war is never a solution. We call for the dismantling of power structures that fuel violence. The logic of war—rooted in nationalism, toxic masculinity, and colonial-era borders—must be rejected. In both countries, women activists, journalists, and peacebuilders have long advocated for dialogue, de-escalation, and diplomacy. Yet our voices are consistently sidelined and overwhelmed by the inflammatory rhetoric and assertive militarism that dominate the public sphere.

We call on the governments of India and Pakistan to:

* Consolidate the May 10 ceasefire, renounce cross-border violations, and defuse rising tensions by keeping channels of communication open;

* Jointly launch an investigation, with international representatives, into the Pahalgam attack to bring the perpetrators to justice.

* Refrain from unilateral actions such as the termination of the Indus Waters Treaty;

* Prioritize and engage in dialogue and diplomacy to resolve differences;

* Work towards resolving the central political issue of Kashmir, which is at the heart of the conflict.

We urge feminists around the world to raise their voices in solidarity and join us in resisting war and building peace. There is no time or space for complacency.

Saheli Women’s Resource Centre, New Delhi, India; Women’s Action Forum (WAF), All Chapters, Pakistan; Aurat March, Lahore, Pakistan; All India Democratic Women’s Association, India.

Individual endorsements (in alphabetical order): Abha Bhaiyya, Aisha Gazdar, Amar Sindhu, Amrita Chhachi, Anita Pinjani, Anuradha Banerji, Arfana Mallah, Avantika Tewari, Ayesha Kidwai, Beena Sarwar, Chayanika Shah, Devangana Kalita, Elaine Alam, Farrah Taufiq, Farida Shaheed, Gulbadan Javed, Haseen Musarat, Huma Ahmed-Ghosh, Humaira Rahman, Iram Hashmi, Kalyani Menon Sen, Kavita Krishnan, Kausar Khan, Khawar Mumtaz, Lalita Ramdas, Madhu Bhushan, Maimoona Mollah, Malka Khan, Maria Rasheed, Mariam Dhawale, Meera Sanghamitra, Nageen Hyat, Naheed Aziz, Najam Panhwar, Natasha Narwal, Naseem Jalbani, Nasim Jalbani, Nasreen Azhar, Neelam Hussain, Nighat Said Khan, Nivedita Menon, Nuscie Jamil, Nuzhat Shirin, Pamela Philipose, Pratiksha Baxi, Raheema Panhwar, Rashida Dohad, Riffat Aziz, Rita Manchanda, Ritu Menon, Roshmi Goswami, Rozina Junejo, Rukhsana Rashid, Saba Gul Khattak, Safia Noor, Salima Hashmi, Samina Jabbar, Samina Omar Asghar Khan, Shabnam Hashmi, Shad Begum, Sheeba Chhachi, Shahnaz Rouse, Simi Kamal, Smita Gupta, Soonha Abro, Sumaira Ishfaq, Syeda Hamid, Tahira Abdullah, Tasneem Ahmar, Uma Chakravarti, Urvashi Butalia, Uzma Noorani, Vani Subramanian, Vanita Mukherjee.
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South Asia, WOMEN'S EQUALITY

International Women’s Day: Africa and Asia

. WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

A press survey by CPNN

Here are the photos from Africa and Asia.

BANGLADESH, SYLHET

Ethnic Community Development Organization (ECDO) observed International Women’s Day 2025 at the Hiluachhara Tea Garden.

CHINA

China Celebrates International Women’s Day with Cultural & Career Events | AG15 (YouTube)

INDONESIA, BANDUNG
“We can be killed just because we are women. Indonesia must eliminate femicide” (Antarafoto)

INDONESIA, JAKARTA
“Provide fair maternity and menstrual leave rights without discrimination” (Antarafoto)

JAPAN, TOKYO

Happy International Women’s Day from Tokyo! (TikTok)

NIGERIA, ABUJA

On 7 March 2025, the WHO Nigeria offices buzzed with energy as staff joined the global celebration of International Women’s Day: “commitment to gender equality and empowerment as essential drivers of health for all.”

NIGERIA, LAGOS

In the Nigerian capital of Lagos, thousands of women gathered at the Mobolaji Johnson stadium, dancing and signing and celebrating their womanhood. Many were dressed in purple, the traditional color of the women’s liberation movement. Photograph: Sunday Alamba/AP. (The Guardian)

Question related to this article:
 
International Women’s Day

Prospects for progress in women’s equality, what are the short and long term prospects?

PAKISTAN, ISLAMABAD

Women participate in an Aurat March held to mark International Women’s Day in Islamabad, Pakistan, Mar. 8, 2025. EFE/EPA/SOHAIL SHAHZAD 78595. (EFE)

PAKISTAN, LAHORE

Supporters of a religious party ‘Jamaat-e-Islami’ gather in support of women of Gaza, marking International Women’s Day, in Lahore, Pakistan, Saturday, March 8, 2025. (AP Photo/K.M Chaudary) (Associated Press News)

PHILIPPINES, MANILA

Members of women’s rights group, ‘Gabriela’, perform to mark International Women’s Day in Manila, Philippines, Mar. 8, 2025. EFE/EPA/FRANCIS R. MALASIG. (EFE)

SRI LANKA

he 84-year-old Sri Lanka Federation of University Women, under its President Colonel Dr Udula Krishnaratne, ably supported by her team – celebrated International Women’s Day. The programme was intended to promote education for girls from the primary to the tertiary levels, provide better sustenance to needy families and ease economic hardship, and help improve the overall health of women and girls. (Sunday Times)

THAILAND, BANGKOK

Under the theme “For ALL Women and Girls: Rights, Equality, Empowerment,” the spotlight was on youth at the International Women’s Day 2025 celebration in Bangkok. (UN Women)

VIETNAM, HANOI

International Women’s Day parade in Hanoi, Vietnam. (YouTube)

Africa, East Asia, South Asia, WOMEN'S EQUALITY, , ,

Search for Common Ground supports midwife care in Afghanistan

. . WOMEN’S EQUALITY . .

Received at CPNN by email from Search for Common Ground

The Taliban recently decreed that women and girls are no longer permitted to receive technical medical education (previously an exception to the standing ban on girls’ schooling), which includes midwifery, nursing, dentistry, and other medical professions. This shift will have significant impacts on women’s access to healthcare and means that there is now zero access to higher education for Afghan women.

In light of these changes, women trained as midwives are now more essential than ever. To address a growing need, our team in Afghanistan worked with experienced midwives to establish 10 midwife-led units in November 2024.


Frame from Search for Common Ground video

These brave and talented women are carrying the responsibility to protect maternal and reproductive health in a country where women often have few options.

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Question related to this article:

Protecting women and girls against violence, Is progress being made?

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Key highlights of the units include:

° Fully equipped facilities providing all medical tools and resources for comprehensive midwifery services
° Educational materials to guide women on family planning and maternal health
° Knowledgeable, professional staff of midwives offering expert advice and quality care
° Community outreach to engage local leaders and residents, raising awareness of services.

Afghan women often carry invisible burdens—fear, isolation, and uncertainty about the future. Yet, even in the face of these challenges, they are finding ways to bring hope to each other.

But the journey is far from over. Afghanistan has the highest rate of infant mortality in the world, and the eighth-highest rate of maternal mortality. Women’s access to healthcare remains dire, and with escalating challenges, the need for support is greater than ever.

Every donation carries the potential to save lives and offer a future where Afghan women and their families are not left behind.

In Afghanistan, our team is courageously carrying hope for a healthier tomorrow. Will you carry that hope with us?

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South Asia, TOLERANCE & SOLIDARITY