Sudhir Pattnaik | |
|---|---|
 Pattnaik in Bhubaneswar. | |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Known for | Samadrusti |
Sudhir Pattnaik (born 1962) is a journalist and a social activist from Orissa, India. He is the editor of Samadrusti, a fortnightly political and social news magazine in the Odia language published from Bhubaneswar. [1]
Sudhir Pattnaik was a member of a research team supported by the Planning Commission of the government of India that produced a March 2005 258-page report on "Development Policies and Rural Poverty in Orissa: Macro Analysis and Case Studies". [2] He was a member of an Indian People's Tribunal led by K.K. Usha, former chief justice of the Kerala High Court and convened by Angana P. Chatterji and Mihir Desai, which investigated communal violence in Orissa, publishing a report on the subject in September 2006. [1]
Pattnaik is the chairman of Independent Media, a group of filmmakers, writers and journalists in the state of Orissa. [3] He edits the Samadrusti news magazine, founded in 2005 as an alternative to mainstream newspapers, which first appeared in January 2006. [4] In 2009 Pattnaik initiated a project to make a video series called Madhyantara. The episodes document aspects of life in Orissa including forced moves, pollution and human rights abuses. They are mostly filmed by journalists, activists and amateurs. [5] His Samadrusti TV has produced 21 short films on various issues. These are circulated in remote villages where people are often illiterate and unable to read the magazine. [6]
Sudhir Patanaik has described development as a game "for the rich few at the cost of millions of poor and deprived". [6] He stresses the need to make the voices of marginalised people heard, to bring them into the mainstream discussions about development which are often dominated by academic or government documents that pay no attention to the realities faced by the people of the state. [7]
Pattnaik has said "Democracy in our country is weak, as we have never fought for democracy; it has evolved through a number of stages. Our model of democracy is growth oriented and the emphasis is on resource exploitation". [8] Pattnaik has described Orissa as a "DFID colony", referring to the British Department for International Development (DFID). He complains that DFID-initiated reforms have resulted in many multinational mining and industrial companies opening up operations in the state, but the result has been to displace people from the land without adequate compensation. [9] He has attacked the proposed Vedanta University project supported by the Naveen Patnaik Government. He claims that Anil Agarwal, chairman of Vedanta Resources, has proposed establishing the university as a ruse to gain land to be used for mining and industry. [10]
Vedanta University is a proposed, private, multi-disciplinary, co-educational university to be started by Anil Agarwal of Vedanta Resources corporation near Puri-Konark highway, Odisha, India. According to news reports and as of September 2010, there were no clear plans regarding the establishment of this proposed University. However, in late April 2015 a revival of the project was initiated; The ex-Chief Secretary of Odisha, Mr. Bijay Patnaik, was hired as the President of the Vedanta University Project to revive this project.
Vedanta Resources Limited is a diversified mining company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest mining and non-ferrous metals company in India and has mining operations in Australia and Zambia and oil and gas operations in three countries. Its main products are Zinc, Lead, Silver, Oil & Gas, Iron Ore, Steel, Aluminium and Power. It has also developed commercial power stations in India in Odisha and Punjab.
John Dayal is an Indian human rights and Christian political activist. He is a member of the National Integration Council (NIC) of India, Secretary-General of the All India Christian Council and a past president of the All India Catholic Union. He has been outspoken in opposition to communal polarisation, bigotry and the spread of hatred between religious communities.
The Coalition Against Genocide is a coalition of about 40 organisations mostly based in the United States and Canada, as well as individuals, who aim to respond to the 2002 Gujarat riots, which they refer to as the "Gujarat genocide", in order to "demand accountability and justice." The coalition of organisations protested against the visit of Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, to the United States in March 2005. Modi was denied a visa and did not visit the U.S. at that time.
Dara Singh is an Indian convicted murderer and a Bajrang Dal activist. He was previously a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He was convicted for leading a mob and setting fire to the station wagon in which the Australian Christian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons were asleep, burning them all alive, in Orissa.
Anti-Christian violence in India is religiously motivated violence against Christians in India. Human Rights Watch has classified violence against Christians in India as a tactic used by the right-wing Sangh Parivar organizations to encourage and exploit communal violence in furtherance of their political ends. The acts of violence include arson of churches, conversion of Christians by force, physical violence, sexual assaults, murders, rapes, and the destruction of Christian schools, colleges, and cemeteries.
Religious violence in Odisha consists of civil unrest and riots in the remote forest region surrounding the Kandhamal district in the western parts of the Indian state of Odisha.
The Odia cinema, colloquially known as Ollywood, is the Odia language Indian film industry, based in Bhubaneshwar and Cuttack in Odisha, India. The name Ollywood is a portmanteau of the words Odia and Hollywood.
Ram Puniyani is a former professor of biomedical engineering and former senior medical officer affiliated with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. He began his medical career in 1973 and served IIT in various capacities for 27 years, beginning in 1977. He has been involved with human rights activities and initiatives to oppose Hindu fundamentalism in India and is currently the President of the Executive Council of the Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS).
Angana P. Chatterji is an Indian anthropologist, activist, and feminist historian, whose research is closely related to her advocacy work and focuses mainly on India. She co-founded the International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir and was a co-convener from April 2008 to December 2012.
Sudarsan Pattnaik is an Indian sand artist from Puri, Odisha. In 2014, the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian award, for his seashore sand arts.
ANHAD is an Indian socio-cultural organization established in March 2003, as a response to 2002 Gujarat riots. Social activist Shabnam Hashmi, sister of the slain activist Safdar Hashmi and founder of SAHMAT, Marxian historian Prof. K N Panikkar and social activist Harsh Mander are the founding members of ANHAD. Based in Delhi, ANHAD works in the field of secularism, human rights and communal harmony. ANHAD's activities include secular mobilization, sensitizing people about their democratic rights as enshrined in Indian Constitution, research and publication of books and reports, welfare programs for marginalised sections of society, launching creative mass mobilization campaigns. People's tribunals. It also work as a pressure group among political circle to take action against communalism. ANHAD plays a major role in Gujarat to fight against human right violations, as well as in the Kashmir Valley.
Bhakta Charan Das is an Indian politician. He was a member of the Indian Parliament and represented the Kalahandi constituency in the 15th Lok Sabha.
The Indian People's Tribunal (IPT), also called the Indian People's Tribunal on Environmental and Human Rights or Independent People's Tribunal, was a People's Tribunal set up by the Human Rights Law Network (HRLN) on 5 June 1993. The IPT is an unofficial body led by retired judges who form a panel that conducts public enquiries into human rights and environmental abuses. It provides an alternative outlet for the victims faced with official obstruction and delays. Since being founded the IPT has conducted numerous investigations into cases of relocation of rural people to make way for dams or parks, eviction of slum dwellers, industrial pollution and communal or state-sponsored violence.
K. K. Usha was an Indian judge who served as Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court. She was the first female judge on the High Court. She advocated for women's rights and for the elimination of all forms of discrimination. Usha served as president of the Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal.
Subash Chouhan was the national President of the Bajrang Dal, a Hindutva organization in India that is the youth wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP).
Mihir Desai is a human rights lawyer in cases of mass murders & riots, fake encounter & custodial deaths by the police, police brutality, freedom of speech & journalists, political activists & prisoners of conscience, excesses by the state, mass disappearances & deaths and genocide probes. A senior counsel, he has been practicing criminal matters in Bombay High Court, Mumbai and the Supreme Court of India.
Kashmir: The Case for Freedom is a collection of essays by Tariq Ali, Hilal Bhat, Angana P. Chatterji, Habbah Khatun, Pankaj Mishra and Arundhati Roy, published by Verso.
International People's Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir (IPTK) is a People's Tribunal formed by Indian human rights activists for the purpose of probing human right violations in the Indian-administered territory of Jammu and Kashmir, and bridging the gap between people living in Kashmir and rest of India. It was first convened in 2008 by Parvez Imroz, Angana P. Chatterji, Gautam Navlakha and Zaheer-Ud-Din. Chatterji served as convener until December 2012.
Biswanath Pattnaik was a well-known veteran Gandhian, Sarvodaya and Bhoodan leader. He won the Jamnalal Bajaj Award in 2008 for his social, medical, and education work in the tribe-dominated areas of Kujendri and Baliguda, Odisha state, India.
