Labor
Uncovering Multiracial South Asian America: A Review of Vivek Bald's Bengali Harlem
Seema Sohi reviews Vivek Bald's new book, Bengali Harlem and the Lost Hostories of South Asian America. She notes, "Bengali Harlem is more than an excavation of histories that have yet to receive their full due. By tracing the South Asian American presence in neighborhoods like Treme in New Orleans, Harlem in New York, and Black Bottom in Detroit, Bald focuses on the forging of multiracial communities in early South Asian America."
The Berkeley South Asian Radical History Walking Tour: Building Our Movement, One Story At A Time
Anirvan Chatterjee takes us on a tour of Berkeley’s radical South Asian American history, and argues that historical memory is one of the key inspirations for contemporary political movements
Circles of Gender Justice
Dear Readers,
Gendered violence plays a pervasive and significant role in the lives of modern women around the globe. In that vein, we present a special issue on women’s responses and activism against gender-based violence in South Asian and South Asian diasporic communities.
The Power of Complicated Stories
Nahar Alam and Chitra Aiyar discuss the varied, subtle, and often unknown narratives that arise both in the not-for-profit economy and the lives of the members of Andolan-a among the members of Andolan – Organizing South Asian Workers, a Queens-based workers’ center that seeks to empower low-wage immigrant workers (primarily female domestic workers) through popular education, collective organizing, and litigation.
The Arab World’s Forgotten Rebellions: Foreign Workers and Biopolitics in the Gulf
Both the Arab Spring and Gulf worker actions are, broadly, about dignity and justice; both challenge the status quo of unaccountable family/security-states; and both are met with ferocious responses by those states. Yet, the Gulf worker actions are ignored. Why?
Fare Labor: A Review of <i>Taxi!</i>
Bearing the economic risks without reaping the benefits, taxi drivers in NYC are least protected by labor laws. Biju Mathew's book illustrates the organizing work and collective action happening among NYC's yellow cab drivers and their numerous victories.
Sketches of Bombay: At the Call Centers
An inside glimpse of call center working conditions—surveillance, abusive callers, few breaks, high work quotas, and the repetitive nature of the job.
Indentured in Singapore's Little India
Singapore's guest worker program brings in restaurant, domestic and construction workers from South Asia. Workers share stories of long hours, unsafe work conditions and abusive employers. Is this the future of the US if it adopts a similar program?
Diversity and Struggle in the Arabian Gulf
"A history of South Asian migration to the Arabian Gulf, from the imperial days when it was linked to the British Raj to the post oil-boom frenzy of today. By carefully exploring the extended histories of South Asian migrants to the Gulf, Kanna debunks the idea of South Asians as "alien" and looks at the impact of oil in changing perceptions of South Asian migration to the region."
Mississippi Mutiny Challenges Anti-Trafficking Law
South Asian migrant shipyard workers who were promised Green Cards protest against miserable working and living conditions in Mississippi. The case challenges policies towards and perceptions of victims of human trafficking.
