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Alternative Radio for September 12, 2011
1:00 PM - 1:58 PM
[Program Website]
Today's Highlight: Himanshu Kumar - Gandhian Activism
The legacy of Mahatma Gandhi continues in various ways in India. Gandhi had his flaws but as George Orwell wrote: "compared with the other leading political figures of our time, how clean a smell he has managed to leave behind." There are multiple struggles for justice and dignity going on all over India. A particularly important one is in Chhattisgarh. Chhattisgarh, which means 36 forts in Hindi, is a relatively new state. It was carved out of Madhya Pradesh in 2000. It is rich in resources. Corporations have, with government collusion, been coming in, taking land, and displacing the mostly Adivasi, indigenous people. An armed resistance, alternately called Maoist and Naxalite, to rapacious state and corporate power has arisen. Is there a role for Gandhian activism?
Himanshu Kumar is a staunch proponent and practitioner of Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy and techniques of non-violence and civil disobedience. He worked for almost two decades serving the poor in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh until he was driven out in 2009. He continues to publicize the situation in Chhattisgarh.
Alternative Radio is a weekly one-hour public affairs program offered free to all public radio stations in the U.S., Canada, Europe, South Africa, Australia, and on short-wave on Radio for Peace International.
Established in 1986, AR is dedicated to the founding principles of public broadcasting, which urge that programming serve as "a forum for controversy and debate," be diverse and "provide a voice for groups that may otherwise be unheard." The project is entirely independent, sustained solely by individuals who buy transcripts and tapes of programs.
Its "headquarters" is situated to correspond with its position in the mainstream mass media: down an alley, behind a house, on top of a garage in Boulder, Colorado. From this rarefied location, AR's programs manage to reach over 125 radio stations and millions of listeners. AR is part of the non-profit Institute for Social and Cultural Change.
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