Town Hall Seattle Civics Series - 248. Industrialized Agriculture: A Fight for Human Rights in India with Arjun Singh Sethi, Navyug Gill, and Manpreet Kaur Kalra

248. Industrialized Agriculture: A Fight for Human Rights in India with Arjun Singh Sethi, Navyug Gill, and Manpreet Kaur Kalra

08/12/21 • 61 min

India is in a crisis. In September 2020, the Indian government passed three new agricultural bills that deregulate and privatize India’s agricultural industry. Since then, farmers and farmworkers across India have taken to the country’s capital, staging the largest protest in human history. By prioritizing corporations over people and the planet, many believe these laws further environmental degradation and economic oppression, deepening an already stark wealth disparity. These protests are as much about land rights as they are about human rights, as dissent continues to be silenced.

In this urgent conversation, moderated by social impact advisor Manpreet Kaur Kalra, panelists Arjun Singh Sethi, a human rights lawyer, and Navyug Gill, scholar of modern South Asia and global history, unpack the history of industrialized agriculture in India and the geo-political factors influencing the protest that is unfolding today.

Arjun Singh Sethi is a human rights lawyer, professor, author, and community activist based in Washington, DC. He works closely with Muslim, Arab, South Asian and Sikh communities, and holds faculty appointments at Georgetown University Law Center and Vanderbilt University Law School. In the wake of the 2016 election, Sethi traveled the country and met with a diversity of people to document the hate they experienced during the campaign and after inauguration. American Hate: Survivors Speak Out was released in August 2018r. Sethi also serves as Co-Chair of the Committee on Homeland Security, Terrorism & Treatment of Enemy Combatants at the American Bar Assocation and has served as a legal observer across the world, including military commissions at Guantanamo Bay.

Navyug Gill is a scholar of modern South Asia and global history. He is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at William Paterson University. His research explores questions of agrarian change, labor politics, caste hierarchy, postcolonial critique, and global capitalism. Currently he is completing a book on the emergence of the peasant and the rule of capital in colonial Panjab. His academic and popular writings have appeared in venues such as the Journal of Asian Studies, Economic and Political Weekly, Al Jazeera, Law and Political Economy Project, Borderlines, and Trolley Times.

Manpreet Kaur Kalra (she/her) is a social impact advisor, anti-racism educator, and Seattle-based activist working to decolonize storytelling. She navigates the intersection of impact communication and sustainable global development. She founded Art of Citizenry to support impact-driven businesses and organizations to address inclusion in all aspects, from business development to marketing strategy. Her activism focuses on the interconnectivity of economic, social, and climate justice. She educates using a variety of mediums, including the Art of Citizenry Podcast, where she shares her nuanced and unfiltered insights on building a more just and equitable future. Her work unpacks history and addresses systemic power structures. She serves on the board of the NYC Fair Trade Coalition and co-established the Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion Committee of the Fair Trade Federation.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here.

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247. Virtual Civic Cocktail: One Guilty Verdict – What’s Next?

The guilty verdict against Derek Chauvin, the police officer who murdered George Floyd, was celebrated as a victory for racial equity progress in our country. As our nation continues to wrestle with racial equity, what local progress has been made? What have our leaders learned from the protests and calls for reform over the past several years? Are there steps we can take as a community to create a more equitable community for all?

Join us for a virtual Civic Cocktail program with our host Joni Balter and guests Jasmyne Keimig, staff writer at the Stranger, Naomi Ishisaka, assistant managing editor at The Seattle Times, and Kurt Streeter, Sports of The Times columnist at The New York Times.

As a 40-year-old nonpartisan, civics-focused nonprofit, Seattle CityClub provides a platform for insightful and educational conversations that include a diverse range of perspectives. This program wouldn’t be possible without Comcast as our premiere partner, our media partner Seattle Channel and our production partner Town Hall Seattle.

Presented by Town Hall Seattle and Seattle City Club.

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249. Charles R. Wolfe with Steve Scher: Strategies for Creating and Enhancing Distinctive City Culture

Somewhere, between character and caricature, there exists an authentic and unique urban place, believes urbanism consultant and author Charles R. Wolfe. One that blends global and local, old and new. Yet, in a dramatically changing world dominated by crises of climate change, maintaining public health, and social justice, finding such places—and explaining their relevance—may be easier said than done.

In conversation with interviewer Steve Scher, Wolfe joined us to introduce a comprehensive method for assessing how and why successful places come to be, with an explicit emphasis on context, as captured in his book Sustaining a City’s Culture and Character: Principles and Best Practices. They discussed how to enact urban change, using the past and the status quo as inspiration rather than a hindrance or obstacle. Wolfe shared his strategies for how we as a society can understand and unlock a public place, neighborhood, or city, using a new tool called LEARN: Look, Engage, Assess, Review, and Negotiate. With real-life examples, Wolfe provided a catalogue of techniques that emphasize “bottom up,” resident-based input about local history, building forms, cultural assets and tradition, and more. For those who seek an urbanism of distinctiveness rather than a bland, generic uniformity, join Wolfe for this singular presentation on how to make that happen.

Charles R. Wolfe is a London-based, multinational urbanism consultant, author, visiting scholar in Sweden, recent Fulbright specialist in Australia for an award-winning project, and long-time American environmental/land use lawyer. He has served as a long-time affiliate associate professor in the College of the Built Environments at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is also the author of Seeing the Better City and Urbanism Without Effort.

Steve Scher is a podcaster, interviewer, and teacher. He worked in Seattle public radio for almost 30 years. He has taught at the University of Washington since 2009. He is Senior Correspondent for Town Hall Seattle’s In The Moment podcast.

Buy the Book: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538133248/Sustaining-a-Citys-Culture-and-Character-Principles-and-Best-Practices

Presented by Town Hall Seattle. To become a member or make a donation click here.