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Malini Ranganathan

@maliniranga

Associate Prof, American U. Critical geographer writing on caste, race, and planetary ecologies.

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14.11.2024
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Latest posts by Malini Ranganathan @maliniranga

The majority of organizing happening in Minnesota isn’t just peaceful, it’s INVISIBLE. Moms showing up who won’t be interviewed on TV, people whose ICE patrols don’t turn into viral video. The grocery runs, the donations, the people filming bc they happen to be there. Please remember this.

25.01.2026 17:00 👍 17462 🔁 4325 💬 143 📌 119
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Episode 23: Caste, Labor, and Climate Politics with Malini Ranganathan Podcast Episode · The Rift · 12/07/2025 · 47m

the recording of today's episode of THE RIFT, a conversation with @maliniranga.bsky.social about caste-labor-climate politics in india and beyond, is now online: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...

07.12.2025 22:45 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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In this episode, you will hear:
Natalie Koch, @maliniranga.bsky.social and Leonardo Fontes, as well as the host @gfearn.bsky.social.

12.12.2025 11:02 👍 3 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 1
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I had a run in with ICE snatching a man out of his car while walking my children to school this morning in NW DC

I asked a neighbor to continue walking my kids to school and I turned back to document and confront the ICE agents.

I am in contact with @dcmigrantmutualaid.org with the full video.

06.11.2025 20:33 👍 18173 🔁 5991 💬 1126 📌 370
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Gaza: UK and 27 other nations condemn Israel over civilian suffering Israel rejects a joint statement which says the suffering of civilians has "reached new depths".

We need action and sanctions, not just statements 'condemning' Israel. Israel has denied food, water & fuel to 2 Million people & bombed them incessantly for nearly two years. People are on the brink of starvation & the health system is destroyed. Truly shameful

bbc.com/news/article...

22.07.2025 09:57 👍 8 🔁 7 💬 0 📌 0
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The Hague Group On 31 January 2025, nine nations — Belize, Bolivia, Colombia, Cuba, Honduras, Malaysia, Namibia, Senegal and South Africa, convened by the Progressive International, met in The Hague, the Netherlands…

In the most ambitious multilateral action since the start of Gaza genocide, a coalition of cross-regional states gathered in Bogotá has agreed to six coordinated measures to restrain Israel’s assault.

Read their full statement online.

22.07.2025 10:25 👍 27 🔁 15 💬 0 📌 1

Million percent this

28.06.2025 04:07 👍 324 🔁 49 💬 4 📌 1
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Christophe Jaffrelot on the Emergency and India 50 years later On 25 June this year, India marks 50 years since former prime minister Indira Gandhi imposed Emergency in India. This was the third time that the emergency had

🎙️Lessons from the #Emergency: "The main lesson should have been that rule of law must be strengthened... In Southasia, the rule of law is somewhat contained because leaders certainly do illegal things, but retain some legitimacy," says Christophe Jaffrelot

28.06.2025 05:51 👍 2 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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As the granddaughter of farmers who were forcibly removed from their land, Sha'Von Terrell believes agricultural work and organizing is her calling.

Visit www.FarmBillFairness.org to watch the interview as part of our partnership around racial equity and climate justice in US agricultural policy.

09.06.2025 20:48 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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#India for sale in #Delhi at Bahrisons. I so wish I could be in India for the launch.

16.06.2025 15:07 👍 24 🔁 2 💬 1 📌 0
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I'm grateful to tell the story of my great-grandfather, a lascar who drowned on the job, and my family migration to Mumbai, Sydney & NYC, alongside stories of today's migrant workers in those cities struggling to stay afloat amid precarity & climate disasters.

10.11.2024 18:51 👍 9 🔁 1 💬 2 📌 0
"Violence" in Social Movements • 111
They Will Call You Violent
If your tactics disrupt the order of things under capitalism, you may well be accused of violence, because "violence" is an elastic term often deployed to vilify people who threaten the status quo. Conditions that the state characterizes as "peaceful" are, in reality, quite violent.
Even as people experience the violence of poverty, the torture of im-prisonment, the brutality of policing, the denial of health care, and many other violent functions of this system, we are told we are experiencing peace, so long as everyone is cooperating. When state actors refer to "peace," they are really talking about order. And when they refer to "peaceful protest," they are talking about cooperative protest that obediently stays within the lines drawn by the state. The more uncooperative you are, the more you will be accused of aggression and violence. It is therefore imperative that the state not be the arbiter of what violence means among people seeking justice.

"Violence" in Social Movements • 111 They Will Call You Violent If your tactics disrupt the order of things under capitalism, you may well be accused of violence, because "violence" is an elastic term often deployed to vilify people who threaten the status quo. Conditions that the state characterizes as "peaceful" are, in reality, quite violent. Even as people experience the violence of poverty, the torture of im-prisonment, the brutality of policing, the denial of health care, and many other violent functions of this system, we are told we are experiencing peace, so long as everyone is cooperating. When state actors refer to "peace," they are really talking about order. And when they refer to "peaceful protest," they are talking about cooperative protest that obediently stays within the lines drawn by the state. The more uncooperative you are, the more you will be accused of aggression and violence. It is therefore imperative that the state not be the arbiter of what violence means among people seeking justice.

for no reason, an excerpt from "let this radicalize you"…

09.06.2025 18:11 👍 1124 🔁 524 💬 5 📌 6
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Please god, let no one pry the fingers off the phones of these man-childs.

05.06.2025 22:36 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
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Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans

The Trump administration is working with private companies like Palantir to create detailed reports on every American, which could help them weaponize our personal information in their quest to deport immigrants and punish critics.

This is a huge threat to our constitutional rights.

31.05.2025 17:45 👍 4449 🔁 2427 💬 299 📌 318
An aerial view of a George Floyd billboard; text: Minneapolis site where Floyd was killed by Derek Chauvin in 2020 faces tense debate over how best to honor his legacy; by Melissa Hellmann; Sun 25 May 2025 07.00 EDT

An aerial view of a George Floyd billboard; text: Minneapolis site where Floyd was killed by Derek Chauvin in 2020 faces tense debate over how best to honor his legacy; by Melissa Hellmann; Sun 25 May 2025 07.00 EDT

5 years.

Since Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd, US cops have killed 6,000 - 12,000+ people — “setting new records for deadly police violence nationwide”

Police violence surged most *in Trump states* and states that refused to enact ‘reforms’

policedata.org

www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

25.05.2025 15:10 👍 1118 🔁 617 💬 48 📌 33
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The heatwave brought about an unexpected red-green solidarity this May Day in Delhi Climate and labour injustice in urban India are the product of the same framework of capitalist exploitation. Yet India’s law and policy approaches to the entangled issue of environmental and labour r...

Climate and labour injustice in urban India are the product of the same framework of capitalist exploitation. This is a superb piece on emergent red-green alliances in Delhi this past May Day 2025: theleaflet.in/environment/...

23.05.2025 17:26 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Haaretz's editorial "We Cannot Look Away From the Images of Children Killed in Gaza" - Cue 1, 2, 3, American and Israeli Zionists calling Israel's major newspaper "antisemitic".

08.05.2025 17:05 👍 8 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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The Global Journey of Racism In The Global Journey of Racism , Michelle Christian provides a unified narrative of how the world's racial hierarchies came to be. Christian's story begins before the Ku Klux Klan, Nazi Germany, and ...

I'm looking forward to reading this from @michellec1979.bsky.social

www.degruyterbrill.com/document/isb...

06.05.2025 11:41 👍 11 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0

Look at this video: a *huge* crowd of Vermonters swaying alongside Mohsen right after he was freed, singing "We Shall Overcome"

Signs reading "Hands off our students" & "free speech" are peppered in between large Palestine flags

30.04.2025 16:14 👍 3527 🔁 1050 💬 37 📌 90
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In this incredibly dark time, it's been breath-giving to teach Environmental Justice to graduate and PhD students. Here's a reunion of students past and present at Rock Creek park this past weekend!

29.04.2025 13:47 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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National Science Foundation Terminates Hundreds of Active Research Awards (Gift Article) The agency targeted grants focused on diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as research on misinformation.

@katrinamillerphd.bsky.social & I took a look at over 400 active National Science Foundation grants that got killed in the past few days. Here's our story (gift link) nyti.ms/4jp4aOx

22.04.2025 21:43 👍 976 🔁 573 💬 30 📌 42
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If you want to grasp the true moral rot endemic liberal Zionism, this Chotiner interview with Deborah Lipstadt makes everything all too clear. www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a...

22.04.2025 22:47 👍 367 🔁 85 💬 13 📌 13

This is literally a direct quote from over the top villain Jafar in Disney's Aladdin lmfao

20.04.2025 20:36 👍 2480 🔁 437 💬 69 📌 21
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Heba Gowayed | Carnegie Corporation of New York

Honored to win the Carnegie Fellowship for my project that centers the costs of borders here, in Palestine, & elsewhere & argues that their violence not only dehumanizes those who move against them but erodes the rights of all within the nation that built them 1/
www.carnegie.org/awards/honor...

16.04.2025 12:31 👍 653 🔁 91 💬 64 📌 11
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Super fun to be the "Alumna Spotlight" of UC Berkeley's Energy and Resources Group - just in time for the 50th anniversary celebrations early next month
erg.berkeley.edu/malini-ranga...

16.04.2025 13:23 👍 5 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
In addition to violating Mr. Mahdawi’s First Amendment rights, the Rubio
Determination and Mr. Mahdawi’s unlawful detention also violates Mr. Mahdawi’s statutory rights
and due process rights.
PARTIES
8. Petitioner Mohsen Mahdawi is a Palestinian who was born and raised in a refugee
camp in the West Bank. He is a lawful permanent resident of the United States and has been for
the last ten years. He is a recent student of Columbia University, with an expected graduation date
of May 2025. He has been admitted to a Master’s program at Columbia University’s School of
International and Public Affairs (“SIPA”), to begin in the fall of 2025.

In addition to violating Mr. Mahdawi’s First Amendment rights, the Rubio Determination and Mr. Mahdawi’s unlawful detention also violates Mr. Mahdawi’s statutory rights and due process rights. PARTIES 8. Petitioner Mohsen Mahdawi is a Palestinian who was born and raised in a refugee camp in the West Bank. He is a lawful permanent resident of the United States and has been for the last ten years. He is a recent student of Columbia University, with an expected graduation date of May 2025. He has been admitted to a Master’s program at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (“SIPA”), to begin in the fall of 2025.

After growing up in a refugee camp, Mr. Mahdawi felt compelled to advocate for
Palestinian human rights upon moving to the United States.
22. Mr. Mahdawi is also a committed Buddhist and believes in non-violence and
empathy as a central tenet of his religion. In fall of 2021, he became the president of the Columbia
University Buddhist Association and led it for two years.
23. In fall of 2023, Mr. Mahdawi co-founded the Palestinian Student Union (“Dar”) at
Columbia University which “serves to engage with and celebrate Palestinian culture, history, and
identity.” Mr. Mahdawi co-founded this organization with Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian lawful
permanent resident who was also recently detained by ICE for his expressive conduct related to
Palestine.

After growing up in a refugee camp, Mr. Mahdawi felt compelled to advocate for Palestinian human rights upon moving to the United States. 22. Mr. Mahdawi is also a committed Buddhist and believes in non-violence and empathy as a central tenet of his religion. In fall of 2021, he became the president of the Columbia University Buddhist Association and led it for two years. 23. In fall of 2023, Mr. Mahdawi co-founded the Palestinian Student Union (“Dar”) at Columbia University which “serves to engage with and celebrate Palestinian culture, history, and identity.” Mr. Mahdawi co-founded this organization with Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian lawful permanent resident who was also recently detained by ICE for his expressive conduct related to Palestine.

Mr. Mahdawi appeared in numerous televised interviews and print news articles
regarding the military campaign in Gaza and related protests. In December of 2023, Mr. Mahdawi
appeared on 60 Minutes where he shared that, as a child, he watched an Israeli soldier shoot and
kill his best friend in the West Bank.
27. Throughout his time as a student and a leader of Dar and the Columbia University
Buddhist Association, Mr. Mahdawi was always willing to engage in dialogue with people whose
views and beliefs differed from his own. Mr. Mahdawi believed, and continues to believe, that
more speech is the solution to disagreement, rather than less, and that empathy and understanding
through communication are a way to resolve conflicts peacefully.

Mr. Mahdawi appeared in numerous televised interviews and print news articles regarding the military campaign in Gaza and related protests. In December of 2023, Mr. Mahdawi appeared on 60 Minutes where he shared that, as a child, he watched an Israeli soldier shoot and kill his best friend in the West Bank. 27. Throughout his time as a student and a leader of Dar and the Columbia University Buddhist Association, Mr. Mahdawi was always willing to engage in dialogue with people whose views and beliefs differed from his own. Mr. Mahdawi believed, and continues to believe, that more speech is the solution to disagreement, rather than less, and that empathy and understanding through communication are a way to resolve conflicts peacefully.

…and a peaceful political solution. Mr. Mahdawi gave speeches at several of these protests. In his
speeches, Mr. Mahdawi advocated for Palestinian human rights, a permanent ceasefire, and a
peaceful resolution that affirmed the human dignity of all.
25. During one protest, Mr. Mahdawi vocally denounced an unaffiliated passerby who
made an antisemitic comment, chanting “shame on him”. Mr. Mahdawi stated that “we are against
2:25-cv-00389 Document 1 Filed 04/14/25 Page 6 of 19
7
antisemitism because antisemitism is a form of injustice, and injustice anywhere is a threat to
justice everywhere.” The confrontation was documented by the Columbia Spectator

…and a peaceful political solution. Mr. Mahdawi gave speeches at several of these protests. In his speeches, Mr. Mahdawi advocated for Palestinian human rights, a permanent ceasefire, and a peaceful resolution that affirmed the human dignity of all. 25. During one protest, Mr. Mahdawi vocally denounced an unaffiliated passerby who made an antisemitic comment, chanting “shame on him”. Mr. Mahdawi stated that “we are against 2:25-cv-00389 Document 1 Filed 04/14/25 Page 6 of 19 7 antisemitism because antisemitism is a form of injustice, and injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” The confrontation was documented by the Columbia Spectator

The Trump admin has just detained Mohsen Mahdawi, who:
–has green card
–was Columbia Buddhist club president
–saw his best friend shot & killed by Israeli soldier
–said "we are against antisemitism because antisemitism is a form of injustice, and injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"

14.04.2025 18:08 👍 7490 🔁 2968 💬 103 📌 136
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Now more than ever, we need to connect dots between far-right regimes, their supremacist and fascistic agendas, and their fueling of grossly unequal racial ecologies. Honored to be delivering a keynote explaining what "climate scapegoating" is to a dedicated group of graduate student writers at SIS.

14.04.2025 18:14 👍 4 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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The rise of end times fascism | Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor The governing ideology of the far right has become a monstrous, supremacist survivalism. Our task is to build a movement strong enough to stop them

Read this / must read

www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

14.04.2025 13:19 👍 401 🔁 144 💬 33 📌 12

And this is why you never capitulate to fascists.

11.04.2025 01:30 👍 8 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0