Today, across India there are countless people’s struggles for justice and peace. These non-violent struggles represent a resistance to and a critique of today’s development paradigms. The urban middle and upper classes, who benefit from this development paradigm, are blind to these people’s struggles. An analysis of the struggles reveals a shrinking democratic space to articulate dissent. The dom
inant mainstream media is silent about the violence wreaked by this development model. This Freedom Struggles Podcast service resists that culture of silence. It is a series of podcasts highlighting various issues of justice, peace and development in India. Using the Internet, we bypass the stranglehold of the dominant media and bring to our readers and listeners voices that are lesser heard – voices of resistance, voices of hope. The displaced and marginalized, experiencing the severest form of alienation and disempowerment are also the most articulate in their vision for an alternate governance, economics and life in community. Launched in April 2012, the site will broadcast voices from freedom struggles across India: peaceful struggles against nuclear energy, against destructive mining, against industrial pollution, against Gender Based Violence, against Caste Discrimination, against Violence against minorities, etc. The site also enables lesser-heard prophectic voices of hope to be heard. The Freedom Struggles podcast takes inspiration from Article 38 of the Indian Constitution:
The State shall strive to promote the welfare of the people by securing and protecting as effectively as it may a social order in which justice, social, economic and political, shall inform all the institutions of the national life. The State shall, in particular, strive to minimise the inequalities in income, and endeavour to eliminate inequalities in status, facilities and opportunities, not only amongst individuals but also amongst groups of people residing in different areas or engaged in different vocations. The Freedom Struggles Podcast is an initiative of the Visthar Academy of Justice and Peace Studies. Subscribe to us on itunes! http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/freedom-struggles/id537523281?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4/
