About us
Sanhati has been created to resist neoliberal forces in West Bengal and to spread the spirit of dissent that has been sparked by Singur. The forced acquisition of agricultural land and the consequent dispossession of thousands of farmers made many of us rally in Calcutta, elsewhere in India and abroad. Democratic forces, leftist forces, people who stand for human rights and civil liberties all came together to form the Chhatra Chhatri Sanhati Mancha in Calcutta. Sanhati is inspired by this solidarity of resistance.
Singur marks a watershed event in the moribund political landscape of West Bengal. A loud and resounding NO has been heard all over Bengal – a strong negation of a linear anti-people development model. With their livelihoods threatened, thousands of peasants have united in resistance. The State has responded with terror.
We are voices of dissent. We oppose the murderous politics of the state government of West Bengal as well as the cheap populism of otherwise pro-liberalism parties. We stand in solidarity, in sanhati, with all forces that oppose police terror in Bengal and the inhuman urban-industrial vision. We staunchly defend the rights of tillers over their lives and their lands.
We have a vision that Sanhati will develop both as a clearing house for ideas and as a platform for people looking for a new way - from old third-streamers to new activists. We may be the last generation to be able to realistically organize. We may be the first generation to drive back the “development” beast.