Browse Cases

Showing 1-13 of 13 results

Indian muzaras refuse to pay landlords and demand restoration of property, 1930-1953

Country
India
Time period
May, 1930 to 15 April, 1953
Classification
Change
Defense
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
7.5 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Molly Murphy 28/11/2015

In the 1870s, the Maharaja (prince) of Patiala, a small princely state in the Punjab region of northern India, implemented the Biswedari (big landlord) system, which appointed biswedaris as local authorities of agrarian villages. The biswedaris, mostly government officials and close kin of the Maharaja, gradually took full possession of lands and reduced the original owners to the status of muzaras (tenants). Muzaras had to pay batai (share rent) to their landlords, consisting of half of their crop, though landlords often overestimated the crop yield to justify taking a larger share.

Greenpeace pressures Dell to create less toxic products 2006-2012

Country
United States
India
Netherlands
Denmark
Time period
March 2006, 2006 to March 2012, 2012
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Human Rights
Total points
6 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Ryan Leitner 02/03/2014

Environmentalists and human rights activists have long been concerned about the use of toxic chemicals and compounds in electronic equipment. Companies often use compounds such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in their electronic equipment to make them safer for the user, but they are very toxic materials that cause human health and environmental issues in areas the electronics are disposed of. 

Indian villagers protest Tehri Dam construction, 2001-2002

Country
India
Time period
July, 2000 to March, 2002
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Human Rights
Total points
2 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Lydia Bailey, 21/04/2013

In 1990, the Indian government and Tehri Hydro Power Corporation began planning to dam the Bhagirati River at the Himalayan foothill town of Tehri in Uttar Pradesh. Plans indicated that it would be the fourth largest dam in the world. Damming the river at this particular location would lead to flooding of the town and the displacement of up to ten thousand of its residents. Scientists also protested the construction of the dam because of its proximity to the central Himalayan Seismic Gap.

Indian villagers hug trees (Appiko) to stop deforestation in Karnataka, 1983-1990

Country
India
Time period
September, 1983 to 1990
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Courtney Klassen, 06/03/2013

In the early 1970s logging companies increased in Northern India. Forests in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh quickly declined due to the expansion of the industry and private investment of entrepreneurs interested in the newly accessible resource. 

Subsistence farmers, whose livelihoods were dependent on the forests, faced the consequences: massive erosion and landslides, reduced fertility of the soil, reduced access to firewood, degradation of fresh water supply and increased flooding. 

Lucknow protesters win justice in Meher Bhargava murder case, India, 2006

Country
India
Time period
25 March, 2006 to 5 April, 2006
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Democracy
Human Rights
Total points
9 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Patricia Gutiérrez, 09/12/2012

On 28 February 2006 Meher Bhargava, a lawyer and wife of Indian National Congress leader Luv Bhargava, was shot.  She was defending her daughter-in-law against the lewd comments of a group of men on the street in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. 

Meher Bhargava was hospitalized, but died on 25 March. The day that she was shot, Sunny Rawat confessed to the murder but he retracted his statement the following day. It wasn’t until after her death that Congress began to mobilize to demand justice for Bhargava’s murder.

Ahmedabad textile laborers win strike for economic justice, 1918

Country
India
Time period
February, 1918 to 19 March, 1918
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Natalia Choi, 16/03/2012

A heavy monsoon season had destroyed agricultural crops and led to a plague epidemic claiming nearly 10 percent of the population of Ahmedabad in 1917. During the period of intense plague outbreak from August 1917 to January 1918, the workers of the textile mills in Ahmedabad were given ‘plague bonuses’ (some of which were as much as 80 percent of the workers’ wage) in an attempt to dissuade the workers from fleeing during an outbreak of a plague.

Indian farmers and fishermen stop coal plant in Sompeta, Andhra Pradesh, 2010-11

Country
India
Time period
14 July, 2010 to 23 June, 2011
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Economic Justice
Environment
Human Rights
Total points
8 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Elizabeth Reilly, 16/03/2012

Coal is the main commercial energy in India and the government launched an internal improvement program in the early 2000s to bring energy to the hundreds of millions of people in the country without technology and other modern conveniences. Andhra Pradesh was the most ambitious state in this endeavor, as it proposed for 7 major and 30 smaller coal-powered power stations.

Indians embrace trees (Chipko) to stop logging activity, 1971-1974

Country
India
Time period
October, 1971 to April, 1974
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Nathalie Schils, 05/08/2011

After the Indo-Chinese border conflict ended in 1963, access to the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, a region encompassing eight different districts in the Himalayas, was greatly expanded.  The money for this expansion, including highway building, generally came from logging companies that wanted access to the vast timber forests in this area of the country.  Poor forest management led to increased erosion, depleted water resources, lower agricultural yields and greater flooding.

Bishnoi villagers sacrifice lives to save trees, 1730

Country
India
Time period
(1730), 1700 to (1730), 1700
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
National/Ethnic Identity
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Blaine O'Neill, 12/12/2010

The Bishnoi faith is a religious offshoot of Hinduism founded on 29 principles, most of which promote environmental stewardship. Bishnois strictly forbid the harming of trees and animals. The religion was founded by Guru Maharaj Jambaji in 1485 AD in the Marwar (Jodhpur) desert region of western Rajasthan, India. Jambaji witnessed the incessant clear-cutting of trees during times of drought to feed animals, only to see them die eventually as the drought continued.

Kumaon villagers campaign against British forest regulations, 1916-1921

Country
India
Time period
1916 to 1921
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Democracy
Economic Justice
Environment
National/Ethnic Identity
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Anjali Cadambi, 25/10/2010

From 1916 to 1921, villagers in Kumaon in northern India set hundreds of forest fires to protest the colonial British state’s increasing regulations of the natural environment.

Bardoli peasants campaign against the Government of Bombay, 1928

Country
India
Time period
February 12, 1928 to August 4, 1928
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Economic Justice
Total points
10 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Adriana Popa, 07/11/2010

The Bombay Government (through its Revenue Department) had, in 1927, enhanced the land revenue assessment in the Bardoli taluka (county) by a nominal 22 percent, which, when applied, amounted in some cases to as much as 60 percent enhancement. This translated in increased land taxes. The Bardoli peasants had immediately made several claims regarding this modification, the most important of which were that the rate of enhancement was unjust and that it had been established without full and appropriate investigation.

Indian environmental scientist holds “fast-unto-death” against damming Ganges River, India, 2008-10

Country
India
Time period
April 14, 2008 to August, 2010
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
National/Ethnic Identity
Total points
6 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Max Rennebohm, 23/06/2011

The Ganges River is a sacred river in Hinduism and an important aspect of India’s cultural history and current society. Most of this river is already polluted or dammed for electricity. There is a 125-km stretch at the beginning of the river, part of the Baghirathi tributary, which was mostly untouched. In 2008 the Indian and regional Uttarakhand governments had plans for 6 hydroelectric dams in this stretch of the river, some of which were already in construction.

Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) forces end of World Bank funding of Sardar Sarovar dam, India, 1985-1993

Country
India
Time period
1985 to early, 1993
Classification
Defense
Cluster
Environment
Human Rights
Total points
6 out of 10 points
Name of researcher, and date dd/mm/yyyy
Zein Nakhoda, 09/03/2010

After the country won its independence, India's first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, began calling for the construction of dams to aid in India's development. Many of these dams were proposed on the Narmada River, which flows through the states of Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra. In 1978, the Narmada Water Disputes Tribunal approved the Narmada Valley Development Project, which included 30 large dams, 135 medium dams, and 3,000 small dams. The most controversial dam was the Sardar Sarovar Project in the state of Gujarat.