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AIPSG CONFERENCE
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Saturday July 19, 1997
1:30pm - 5:30pm
UCLA, Los Angeles
Session I:50 Years After Independence
Fifty years after the transfer of power by the British, the majority of
the people of South Asia continue to be subject to grinding poverty and
live under the shadow of imminent violence. In the past month, a study
has indicated that South Asia is the poorest regions of the world in
terms of poverty, illiteracy and human development. Today, the people of
the region continue to be prey to new and old divisions, while South Asia
ranks as one of the most heavily militarised regions in the world. The
papers and discussions in this session will be a contribution to the
overall assessment and summation being made at this time of the
experience of the last fifty years.
Session II: 30th Anniversary of Naxalbari
In the last fifty years of formal independence, all the struggles that
the Indian people have waged, be it on Narmada, GATT, communal massacres
or human rights - point to the centrality of the question of political
power. In this entire period, the Naxalbari movement stands out as the
singular event in Indian history that sought to actually change the
character of political power in India in a fundamental way from the hands
of the well-to-do and into the hands of the deprived. Papers in this
session will discuss the experience of Naxalbari and the developments
since then in the context of the overall struggle for the empowerment of
the Indian people.
For further information, please contact IPSG - Los Angeles at :
(310) 391-0692 (phone/fax) or by email: ipsg@ucla.edu
Organized by the Association of Indian Progressive Study Groups
Earl Hall, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027