On Wednesday, millions of workers in India went on a national strike protesting against government plans to privatise state-owned firms. The one-day stoppage heavily affected sectors such as banking, insurance, oil, power, coal mining, telecommunications, engineering and textiles.

The sudden peace overtures sent out by Vajpayee on April 18 have stirred the political landscape of the Indo-Pak subcontinent. Most sections of the intellectual and political elites of both India and Pakistan, and even far beyond, are astonished. Yet, if we take a quick look at the post partition history of the subcontinent it is not surprising at all.

Lal Khan looks at the developing threat of war between India and Pakistan, and particularly at the question of Kashmir, which has caused three wars in the last 54 years since independence. He looks at the catastrophic effects of the nuclear bomb, and explains the necessity of a class struggle that cuts across national boundaries, to create a a socialist federation of the Indian subcontinent, as the only way of ending forever the threat of nuclear war.

In the last weeks India has seen some of the most horrific communal violence in the whole of its post-partition history. There are more people killed in India each year due to religious violence than in any other country in the world. At the time of partition in 1947, more than a million Hindus and Muslims were slaughtered in the communal frenzy ensuing from the act of partition. Having utterly failed to provide a decent standard of living for the working people of India, the Indian ruling class are resorting to crude chauvinism to maintain their support. But over the last 50 years capitalism has shown it is utterly incapable of providing the solutions to the problems of the masses. The

The arrogance of US imperialism is shown by its desire to dominate every area of the globe. Asia is of special importance to Washington's long-term economic and strategic interests. Alan Woods reviews the aims and results of Clinton's recent visit to Asia and its impact on India, Pakistan, Kashmir and Afghanistan.

During the month of January we saw some very important strikes in India. The dock workers paralysed Indian ports for 5 days, The UP electricity workers went on strike for 11 days, etc. The state used harsh repression (including sending the army to the ports) against these movements. Yet very little of this was reported in other countries. Sara Glynn reports from Calcutta.

While the streets of Seattle may have dragged some of the issues surrounding liberalisation into a wider public consciousness, the newly elected right wing Indian government, supported by the main Congress opposition, is driving full steam ahead with its programme of economic reform.

Even when the results of the exit polls of the 13th Lok Sabah (Lower house of the Parliament) were pouring in, the caretaker government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee announced a steep rise in prices of petroleum products. This was the first harsh blow showing what was in store for the impoverished masses of India under this reactionary NDA (National Democratic Alliance) regime.