Identifying the pressing need of Uttarakhand’s many social and environmental movements to better coordinate their outreach activities, the Uttarakhand Solidarity Network (USN) has established its central web site @ uttarakhand.net. The site will be regularly updated with news dispatches, calls to actions, commentaries, letters, and petitions and invites constructive comments that add actionable items to the various posts.

As an internet clearinghouse for various movements, the USN builds on the work of the Uttarakhand Home Page which was originally established in 1997 to lend support to the Uttarakhand Andolan. As the first site covering the Uttarakhand region, that five-year project branched into many other areas, providing an exhaustive array of info pages describing various facets of Uttarakhand and its peoples, while endeavouring to chronicle the movement as it moved into its decisive phase. In addition to the web site, the Prayaga Electronic Newsletter (1998-2000) and the Uttarakhand e-Group (1999-) were likewise launched to facilitate the activities of the Uttarakhand Support Committee and associated activists.

In 1999, with statehood looming, the first iteration of the uttarakhand.net was established, to give some theoretical grounding to the various social movements and link them thematically to those operating in India and beyond. However, due to other commitments, this effort languished, particularly as the creation of Uttaranchal state in November 2000 provided some respite from the six long years of agitation for Uttarakhand. Also following statehood, attention turned to global political activism and community affairs in the US, and now in Canada.

Since 2000, it became abundantly clear that this new construct called “Uttaranchal” had fallen far short of the dreams and aspirations of the movement activists. In many ways, the new state of affairs has created new forces and empowered old foes. Hence, as the Uttarakhand movement passes into a new phase and new troubles and afflictions come to the fore, uttarakhand.net has assumed its current avatar to serve in a responsible watchdog capacity and support the progressive and democratic forces in the state.

Thus uttarakhand.org will remain as an archival site, and the e-group will also continue, but the USN site will specifically serve on an ongoing basis those interested in advancing Uttarakhand’s cause as the struggle continues.

Jai Uttarakhand!