From dak at sarai.net Wed Dec 1 16:08:23 2004 From: dak at sarai.net (The Sarai Programme) Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 16:08:23 +0530 Subject: [Sarai Newsletter] Events This Week: Seminar & Screening Message-ID: <200412011608.23249.dak@sarai.net> TALK @ SARAI: URBAN CULTURES AND POLITICS SEMINAR SERIES: Urban Experiences This seminar series is an initiative to establish a critical dialogue with current academic research on urban experiences and media politics in South Asia. We begin the series this year with an exploration of regimes of urban sexuality. Scheduled between December 2004 and February 2005, six lectures will focus on the field of the urban in contemporary as well as historical settings. Thursday, December 2, 2004, 3.30 pm "Ticketless Travel, or, 'Doctor, Patient Go Missing Despite Delhi Police's All Night Vigil': Sexuality, Urban Print Culture, and its Publics." by Sanjay Srivastava, Deakin University, Melbourne. Sanjay Srivastava teaches anthropology, cultural studies and social theory at Deakin University, Melbourne. He is currently affiliated with the CSDS. His publications include 'Constructing Post-Colonial India: National Character and the Doon School', 'Asia: Cultural Politics in the Global Age' (co-authored), and 'Sexual Sites, Seminal Attitudes: Sexualities, Masculinities and Culture in South Asia' (contributing editor). His current research focuses on urban spaces and cultures. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ FILM @ SARAI: FOCUS ON THE DOCUMENTARY Friday, December 3, 2004, 4:30 pm Godhra Tak: The Terror Trail (2003), 60 minutes Directed by Shubhradeep Chakravorty 'Godhra Tak: The Terror Trail' investigates the Godhra train burning and the subsequent rioting that killed over 2000 Muslims in Gujarat, India. Chakravorty retraces the route of the first batch of karsevaks from Gujarat to Ayodhya and back, and documents the terror they unleashed en route, and the incident at Godhra railway station. Shubradeep Chakravorty is a journalist and independent documentary filmmaker based in New Delhi. The filmmaker will be available for discussion after the screening. All programmes are held in the Seminar Room, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, 29, Rajpur Road, Delhi - 54. Cheers, Ranita Chatterjee The Sarai Programme Centre for the Study of Developing Societies 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 Tel: (+91) 11 23960040 (+91) 11 23942199, ext 307 Fax: (+91) 11 23943450 www.sarai.net From dak at sarai.net Wed Dec 1 18:11:47 2004 From: dak at sarai.net (The Sarai Programme) Date: Wed, 1 Dec 2004 18:11:47 +0530 Subject: [Sarai Newsletter] DECEMBER 2004 Message-ID: <200412011811.47173.dak@sarai.net> CONTENTS: DECEMBER 2004 Talk @ Sarai: 2/12 Ticketless Travel, or, 'Doctor, Patient Go Missing Despite Delhi Police's All Night Vigil': Sexuality, Urban Print Culture, and its Publics, by Sanjay Srivastav 13/12 I Love My India: Stories For A City, by Avinash Veereraghavan Film @ Sarai: 3/12 Godhra Tak: The Terror Trail, dir. Shubhradeep Chakravorty 9/12 Kotla Walks:Performing Locality, dir. Sanjay Srivastav & Simon Wilmot 10/12 Way Back Home, dir. Supriyo Sen Announcements: Students Stipends for Research on the City, 2004-05 Workshop Report: Urban Environments Workshop -------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- TALK @ SARAI URBAN CULTURES AND POLITICS SEMINAR SERIES: Urban Experiences This seminar series is an initiative to establish a critical dialogue with current academic research on urban experiences and media politics in South Asia. We begin the series this year with an exploration of regimes of urban sexuality. Scheduled between December 2004 and February 2005, six lectures will focus on the field of the urban in contemporary as well as historical settings. Thursday, December 2, 2004, 3.30 pm "Ticketless Travel, or, 'Doctor, Patient Go Missing Despite Delhi Police's All Night Vigil': Sexuality, Urban Print Culture, and its Publics." by Sanjay Srivastava, Deakin University, Melbourne. Sanjay Srivastava teaches anthropology, cultural studies and social theory at Deakin University, Melbourne. He is currently affiliated with the CSDS. His publications include 'Constructing Post-Colonial India: National Character and the Doon School', 'Asia: Cultural Politics in the Global Age' (co-authored), and 'Sexual Sites, Seminal Attitudes: Sexualities, Masculinities and Culture in South Asia' (contributing editor). His current research focuses on urban spaces and cultures. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MEDIA PUBLICS AND PRACTICES SEMINAR SERIES Monday, December 13, 2004, 3:30 pm I Love My India: Stories For A City by Avinash Veereraghavan, Graphic Artist Avinash Veereraghavan is a graphic designer who runs Beetroot, a design studio in Bangalore. His work reflects his interest in popular culture and in exploring a mix of visual media as well as his intent of creating work that re-defines the global. His book, 'I Love My India', is an ironic and poetic visual journey through urban India. Combining the eye of an ironic insider to that of a curious traveller, it is a witty and original account of street life, kitsch and popular culture. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FILM @ SARAI: FOCUS ON THE DOCUMENTARY Friday, December 3, 2004, 4:30 pm GODHRA TAK: The Terror Trail (2003), 60 minutes Directed by Shubhradeep Chakravorty 'Godhra Tak: The Terror Trail' investigates the Godhra train burning and the subsequent rioting that killed over 2000 Muslims in Gujarat, India. Chakravorty retraces the route of the first batch of karsevaks from Gujarat to Ayodhya and back, and documents the terror they unleashed en route, and the incident at Godhra railway station. Shubradeep Chakravorty is a journalist and independent documentary filmmaker based in New Delhi. The filmmaker will be available for discussion after the screening. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thursday, December 9, 2004, 3:30 pm KOTLA WALKS: Performing Locality (2004) Directed by Sanjay Srivastav and Simon Wilmot What is the meaning of 'locality'? And, how is the 'local' produced at a time of intense circulation of ideas and peoples across different worlds? This film tells the story of the residents of Kotla Mubarakpur, an 'urban village' in South Delhi through focusing on a family, their friends and neighbours. Kotla, just across the road from the up-market Defence Colony, is perhaps a million miles away from the imaginative landscape of the residents of the latter. The film tracks the imagination of the unofficial city forever in the process of breaking the topographic skin of the 'official' city of the Master Plan. It explores the ways in which the texture of urban spaces is woven into ideas of belonging, intimacy, friendship, ambition, and the desire to be 'here' but also somewhere else. Sanjay Srivastava teaches anthropology, cultural studies and social theory, and Simon Wilmot is a filmmaker and teaches documentary film-making and media studies. Both teach at Deakin University, Melbourne. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Friday, December 10, 2004, 4:30 pm WAY BACK HOME (2003), 118 minutes Directed by Supriyo Sen In 1947 when India achieved freedom at the cost of partition, a million people were killed and 15 million more became refugees, amongst whom were the director's parents. After more than 50 years Supriyo Sen follows his parents as they visit their lost homeland in Bangladesh. The mother tries to trace out one of her sisters who was abandoned during the holocaust of partition. The film is about this journey, individual and collective memories, and the historical consciousness that arises from personal interactions and recollections. In the times of renewed religious hatred in the Indian subcontinent 'Way Back Home' transcends the war movie genre and examines the impact of conflict on the ordinary civilian across borders, politics and religions. Shot clandestinely in Bangladesh, the film is a courageous and militant reminder of defining events for the people of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Supriyo Sen is an independent documentary filmmaker based in Kolkata. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ANNOUNCEMENTS: SARAI-CSDS STUDENT STIPENDS FOR RESEARCH ON THE CITY, 2004-05 Every year Sarai, supports young research students for short term studentships to facilitate research on urban life in South Asia. Covering a wide frame of geo-cultural regions like Thiruvananthapuram and Goa to Darbhanga and Kolkata, these stipendiaries are located in a varied range of disciplines including literature, history, architecture, sociology, and media studies. In the course of the stipendship, apart from financial support, stipendiaries are invited to Sarai to discuss their ideas and problems. This year we received a hundred and sixteen proposals in English and Hindi from all over the country. A total of nineteen proposals were finally selected for support. They are: 1. Prasad Khanolkar, Architecture, Duplicacy - Robin Hood of the Global City, KRIVIA, Mumbai 2. Sebastian Rodrigues, Latin American Studies, The Rise of Critical City Fortnightly Newspaper: It's Origin, Relations With the Local Political and Corporate Actors and Its Impact on the City Dwellers: A Case Study of "Vasco Watch" in Goa's Port Town of Vasco da Gama. Goa University, Goa 3. Abeer Gupta, Design, The Transformation of the Nation of National Identity Within Changing Urban Scenario and its Representation in Govind Nihalani's Films: An Exploration of Dev, NID, Ahmedabad 4. Prashanti Ajgaonkar, History, Combating Malaria - The Experience of Panaji City, Goa University, Goa 5. Sushmita Sridhar, Cultural Studies, Visualizing Space and Spatialzing Vision: A Study of Public Space in Bangalore, CSCS, Bangalore 6. Habiba Marya Shakil and Fathima N, Mass Communications, Being Single and a Woman in the City: Falling in 'Line' to Obtain a Living Space, Jamia Milia Islamia, Delhi 7. Vinita Verma, History, Urban Development in Delhi 1900-1950, Delhi University, Delhi 8. Aaquib Shehbaaz Usmani, English Literature, Sunday Ka Sunday: From Books to Everything, Jamia Milia Islamia, Delhi 9. Ninad Pandit, Architecture, Recoveries, Renewals, and Appropriations: A Study / Story of Public Space Creation in Mumbai, KRIVIA, Mumbai 10. Gaurav Dikshit, History, Migration into Dr Mukherjee Nagar: Community, Identity, and Space in a Peculiar Urban Phenomenon, JNU, Delhi 11. Dhananjay Singh, Hindi Literature, Bhikhari Thakur Aur Calcutta, Delhi University, Delhi 12. Sanjeev Ranjan Mishra, MBA, Gyan Vinimay ki Nai Taknikain aur Mail Banate Dalit, LNMU, Darbhanga 13. Nishant, Art History, Mitti Ke Log, National Museum Institute, Delhi 14. Susmita Ghosh, Women's Studies, Reshaping Masculinity, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 15. Sajan Thomas, Political Science, Information Economy And Labour Rights: A Case of Software Technopark in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram 16. Manasi Kumar, Psychology, Mapping The Agape: Following the Footprints of the Rubble of Riot and Violence of Earthquake, Delhi University, Delhi 17. Priyasha Kaul, Sociology, Communal Violence and Exclusionary Urbanism, Delhi University, Delhi 18.Ashim Khan and Shweta Pandit, Mass Communication and Sociology, A Study of Shani Bazaar (The Saturday Market) at Shahpur Jat, Hauz Khas, Jamia Milia Islamia and JNU, Delhi 19. Justin Mathew, History, Labour in a Colonial Port City: Mistries of Bombay Port 1870-1914, JNU, Delhi ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WORKSHOP REPORT: URBAN ENVIRONMENTS WORKSHOP November 3 - 4, 2004, Sarai-CSDS, Delhi The workshop addressed various aspects of urban environment, historically as well as with a contemporary focus: they included analyses of cityscapes, property/land use, the politics of water, waste/recycling, industrial pollution, building and settlement patterns, environmental standards, the slaughterhouse, controversies with regard to state mandates such as CNG fuel, the city as an entity in scientific and legal discourse, etc. The speakers were from Delhi, Bombay, Surat, Bangalore and Ahmedabad. The aim of the workshop was to initiate an exploration of urban environment in India, and all the complex phenomena that arise from, and are associated with, the city. Very little academic work has been done in this area. Participants stressed the urgent need to build a sustained tradition of research, through support to students, public lectures, the creation of a comprehensive bibliography and e-links, the continual updating of published handbooks on the environment, the archiving of media reportage on urban ecologies, and workshops with environmental initiatives across India. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All programmes are held in the Seminar Room, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, 29, Rajpur Road, Delhi - 54. Cheers, Ranita Chatterjee The Sarai Programme Centre for the Study of Developing Societies 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 Tel: (+91) 11 23960040 (+91) 11 23942199, ext 307 Fax: (+91) 11 23943450 www.sarai.net From dak at sarai.net Wed Dec 22 05:34:52 2004 From: dak at sarai.net (The Sarai Programme) Date: Wed, 22 Dec 2004 05:34:52 +0530 Subject: [Sarai Newsletter] Sarai-CSDS Independent Fellowships 2004-5 Message-ID: <41C8BA24.9000404@sarai.net> FINAL LIST OF SARAI INDEPENDENT FELLOWSHIPS 2004-2005 (Alphabetical) This year, the independent fellowship program received over four hundred proposals in English and Hindi from all over the country in response to our advertisements in print- and web-based venues. We were very impressed by the range and number of innovative, precise and well-informed proposals that came from all over the country, including several from smaller metropolitan regions. After an exciting process of close reading, short-listing and vigorous discussion, a total of fifty-eight proposals were finally selected for support. Fuller abstracts for these projects will soon be available on our website, but we provide below the names and projects of successful applicants. 1.Publicity Promises in the Public Space in Ahmedabad Prayas Abhinav, Ahmedabad 2. The Culture of Buisiness: The Informal Sector and Finance Buisness in Vijaywada S.Ananth, Vijaywada 3. Laghu Patrika Andolan: Abhivyakti ke Naye Aayam: Ek Padtal/Little Magazine Movement: New Dimensions of Expression Anurag 4. Shrines as an Anodyne in Strife Torn Kashmir Hilal Bhat, Srinagar 5. The Relationship Between the Production and Consumption of Thumri and Allied Forms: The Female Impersonator - Bal Gandharva Urmila Bhirdikar, Pune 6. Of Riots and Ruins: Space and Violence in Vatva, Gujarat Moyukh Chatterjee and Swara Bhaskar, Delhi 7. Children's Friendship with Place: A Framework for Evaluating the Environmental Child friendliness in Indian Cities Sudeshna Chatterjee, Delhi 8. Beeti Vibhavari Jaag ri: Dilli ke City-scape mein Dik wa Kaal / Time and Space in the Cityscape of Delhi Vijender Singh Chauhan 9. Tapping In: Urban Water Conflicts as Citizenship Claims in Chennai Karen Coelho, Chennai 10. Protest Through Music: A Documentation and Analysis of the Structure, Content and Context of the Musical Tradition of the IPTA Sumangala Damodaran, Delhi 11. Hypertextual Poetry: the Poetry of MSN Poetry Communities Nitoo Das, Delhi 12. The Growth of Print Nationalism and Assamese Identity in the Early Colonial Period Reading Through Two Early Assamese Magazines Uddipan Datta, Tezpur 13. Women and their Spatial Narratives in the City of Ahmedabad Madhavi Desai, Ahmedabad 14. Tale Tellers: Dastangoyee - The Culture of Story Telling in Urdu Mahmood U R Farooqui, Delhi 15. The Culture and Sociological Significance of the Genre of Crime Pulp Fiction in Bengal Dev Kamal Ganguly, Hyderabad 16. The Kashmiri Encounter in Delhi Syed Bismillah Geelani, Delhi 17. Indian Experimental Film: Excavating A Lost Indian Film Form Shai Heredia, Mumbai 18. Awazein FM Radio kee/Voices of FM Radio S.M. Irfan 19. Work Culture in Fast Food Chains Syed Khalid Jamal and Amit Ghosh, Delhi 20. Nautunki Shahar mein: Audyogik nagri Kanpur mein lok manch kala ke vikas wa patan ka anveshan / Nautanki in the Industrial City of Kanpur: A Historical Study Archana Jha 21. An Investigation of how Form Affects Discussion and Community in Online Discussion Spaces Kiran Jonnalagadda, Bangalore 22. History and Storytelling about Kolkata and Howrah: Integrating Narratives and Database Vasudha Joshi, Kolkata 23. Messing with the Bhadraloks : Towards a Social History of the Mess Houses in Calcutta 1890s-1990s Boddhisattva Kar and Subhalakshmi Roy, Delhi 24. The Hospital Labour Room as a Space for Unheard Voices Kuldeep Kaur, Chandigarh 25. Spoke/d Vision: Cyclists in Delhi Maninder Jit Kaur, Delhi 26. Aa Mata Tujhe Dil ne Pukara: Khani Dilli ki Jagaran Partiyon ki / Jagaran Tales in Delhi Sunil Kumar 27. Ponytails-Rings-Punches : Female Boxers in India Pankaj Rishi Kumar, Mumbai 28. High Rise Hygiene : Narrativising Mumbai's New Urban Culture Lakshmi Kutty, Mumbai 29. A Study of Changing Banking Practices in Udaipur Faraaz Mahmood, Udaipur 30. The Viewership of Non Commercial and Independent Film in Delhi Anannya Mehta, Delhi 31. Reading Histories - Migration and Culture : The Politics of Mapping and Representation of Urban Communities Kaiwan Mehta, Mumbai 32. Factory Closures, Plight of Workers and Urban Space (Purba Kolkata) Nagarik Mancha, Kolkata 33. Informal Economies and Distribution Practices : Studying Bollywood Veena Naregal, Delhi 34. Developments of the Eastern Yamuna River in Delhi and the Displacement of Peasants Leela Rani Narzary, Nidhi Bal Singh, Sabir Haque, Delhi 35. Documenting the Contemporary History of the Making of the Hindi Film Song Prashant Pandey, Delhi 36. Blank Noise: Building Testimonies in Public Space Jasmeen Patheja, Bangalore 37. Foodcourts and Footbridges: Conceptualizing Space in Vijaywada Railway Station Meera Pillai, Bangalore 38. Manuel in the City: A Semi Fictionalized Illustrated Book on the Arrival and Absorption of Goan Migrants to Mumbai Rochelle Pinto, Mumbai 39. Tracing Spatial Technology in the Rural Development Landscape of South India Muthatha Ramanathan, Bangalore 40. Hindi-Urdu kshetra ke ek sanskritik kendra ke roop mein Ilahabad ka Vikas aur Hastakshep / The Rise and Fall of Allahabad as the Intellectual-cultural capital of the Hindi-Urdu belt Himanshu Ranjan 41. The Political Sociology of Golf in South Asia Mario Rodrigues, Mumbai 42. Media Coverage of the Execution of Dhananjay Chatterjee, and its impact on Children in West Bengal Biswajit Roy and Nilanjan Datta, Kolkata 43. Early Womens Magazines in Kerala and the Construction of Femininity T P Sabitha, Delhi 44. Strangers in the City: the Lives and Longings of Bangladeshi Immigrants in Guwahati Abdus Salam, Delhi 45. The Colorization of Mughal E Azam Abhishek Sharma, Mumbai 46. Contesting Techno Paradigms of Contested Public Space (The Politics of CNG) B . Mahesh Sarma, Delhi 47. Mapping the Urban: GIS and Master Plans in Delhi and Bangalore Nitin Sethi, Delhi 48. Stories of New Entrepreneurship Prasad Shetty, Mumbai 49. Ek Shahar ke Roop mein Gorakhpur ki Pehchan mein Gita Press aur Kalyan ki Bhoomika / Role of Gita Press and Kalyan in the making of Gorakhpur's identity Jitendra Shrivastav 50. Samaj par Langar ka Arthik wa Samajik Prabhav: ek adhyayan / A Study of the Langar and its Social and Economic Impact Gurminder Singh 51. Madurai : Mythical City - Representations Old and New Soudhamini, Chennai 52. An Allegorical, Historical Journey into the Archives of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway Vandana Swami 53. Sagar Cinema : An Illegal 'Poor Man's Multiplex' in a Malad Slum Madhavi Tangella, Mumbai 54. A Brief History of New Urban Leisure in Kolkata Sovan Tarafdar, Kolkata 55. Deaths and the Bazaar: A Look at the Death Care Industry Tasneem, Fatima and Marya, Delhi 56. Dilli ka ek Pravasi Gaon: Sahipur, Shalimarbagh / Sahipur: A Migrant Village in Delhi Prem Kumar Tiwari 57. The Impact of Mythologicals in Telugu Cinema T Vishnu Vardan, Bangalore 58. The Nature of Ragging in Hostels Shivam Vij, Delhi From dak at sarai.net Wed Dec 29 17:49:43 2004 From: dak at sarai.net (The Sarai Programme) Date: Wed, 29 Dec 2004 17:49:43 +0530 Subject: [Sarai Newsletter] INVITATION: CONTESTED COMMONS PUBLIC LECTURES Message-ID: <200412291749.43319.dak@sarai.net> "The Contested Commons Public Lecture Series" 6th, 7th & 8th January 2005, 7 pm Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Center, Lodi Road, Delhi - ALL ARE INVITED - The Public Service Broadcasting Trust, the Sarai Programme of the CSDS, Delhi and Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore present a series of three public lectures by world renowned scholars, examining the fate of the commons in the context of sharpening conflicts around intellectual property. 6th January, 2005 Thursday "Between Anarchy and Oligarchy: The Prospects for Sovereignty and Democracy in a Connected World " Siva Vaidhyanathan, New York University 7th January, 2005 Friday "U.S Path to Wealth and Power: Intellectual Piracy and the making of America" Doron Ben-Atar, Fordham University 8th January, 2005 Saturday "Magna Carta and the Commons" Peter Linebaugh, University of Toledo ABSTRACTS I 6th January, 2005 Thursday "Between Anarchy and Oligarchy: The Prospects for Sovereignty and Democracy in a Connected World " Siva Vaidhyanathan, New York University Information communication technologies have collapsed distances and lowered the price of connections and transactions around the world. We have only just begun making sense of the changes wrought by the new methods and habits fostered by these technologies. But we have no shortage of grand, totalizing visions that aim to capture the changes we are experiencing. In the 1990s we went through a phase dominated by naive visions of globalized monoculture and consensus, with the "end of history" considered to be the apex of "cultural evolution." Since 2001 the world has been viewed by some (Bush and Bin Laden, chiefly) as torn among "Civilizations." Now we hear explicit calls for a new Western imperialism, based on assumptions of universal benevolence. In opposition to such panicked or triumphal calls for a New World Order, Antonio Negri and Michael Hardt have issued a description of a new global anarchistic state of mind ("Empire" and "Multitude") based on the emerging forms of opposition to the mainstream forms of globalized corporate centralization. This paper finds fault with both Bush and Negri. It argues that efforts to create a world polarized on models of oligarchy and anarchy do not enrich most lives in meaningful ways. Instead, this paper argues for a careful consideration of the democratic potential of the new information ecosystems, and points out specific points of hope and models of optimism that can guide our global future toward a more just state, opening possibilities without sacrificing the granularity of the local, the specific, and the experimental. Siva Vaidyanathan is a well-known cultural historian, media scholar and public intellectual. . He is the author of the classic Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity (New York University Press, 2001) II. 7th January, 2005 Friday "U.S Path to Wealth and Power: Intellectual Piracy and the making of America" Doron Ben-Atar, Fordham University During the first decades of America's existence as a nation, private citizens, voluntary associations, and government officials encouraged the smuggling of European inventions and artisans to the New World. These actions openly violated the intellectual property regimes of European nations. At the same time, the young republic was developing policies that set new standards for protecting industrial innovations. The American patent law of 1790 restricted patents exclusively to original inventors and established the principle that prior use anywhere in the world was grounds for invalidating a patent. But the story behind the story is a little more complicated - and leaders of the developing world would be wise to look more closely at how the American system operated in its first 50 years. In theory the United States pioneered a new standard of intellectual property that set the highest possible requirements for patent protection-worldwide originality and novelty. In practice, the country encouraged widespread intellectual piracy and industrial espionage. Piracy took place with the full knowledge and sometimes even aggressive encouragement of government officials. Congress never protected the intellectual property of European authors and inventors, and Americans did not pay for the reprinting of literary works and unlicensed use of patented inventions. What fueled 19th century American boom was a dual system of principled commitment to an intellectual property regime combined with absence of commitment to enforce these laws. This ambiguous order generated innovation by promising patent monopolies. At the same time, by declining to crack down on technology pirates, it allowed for rapid dissemination of innovation that made American products better and cheaper. Doron Ben-Atar is professor of history at Fordham University and co-director of Crossroads of Revolution to Cradle of Reform: Litchfield Connecticut 1751-1833. He has won numerous grants and awards, including most recently from the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York public library. He is the author of numerous articles and a guest speaker on radio and television stations in the New York area. Ben-Atar's books include The Origins of Jeffersonian Commercial Policy and Diplomacy (Macmillan 1993), Federalists Reconsidered (University Press of Virginia, 1998) and Trade Secrets: Intellectual Piracy and the Origins of American Industrial Power (Yale University Press, 2004). III. 8th January, 2005 Saturday "Magna Carta and the Commons" Peter Linebaugh, University of Toledo Magna Carta has been ignored as a medieval document of little relevance to the modern world at best, or at worst it has been derided as a false facade of liberal intention by Anglo imperialism. Partly as a result of this neglect, fundamental protections against tyranny and aggression have been eroded, such as habeas corpus, trial by jury, prohibition of torture, and due process of law. These cannot be restored without the root and branch recovery of the entire Charter of Liberty which includes the Charter of the Forest. This lost but extraordinary document holds a constitutional key to the future of humanity insofar as it provides protections for the whole earth's commons, particularly its hydrocarbon energy resources, whether these take the form of wood, coal, or petroleum. The key is turned by the women of the planet in Chiapas, Nigeria, India (to name a few places) who have taken the lead in the process of re-commoning what has been privatized and profiteered. Hence, the significance of "widow's estovers" in the Magna Carta as revised after 9/11! Peter Linebaugh is Professor of History at the University of Toledo in Ohio. He is the author of The London Hanged, co-author of The Many Headed Hydra, an editor of Albion's Fatal Tree, and forthcoming studies of the Irish insurrectionist, Edward Despard, as well as Magna Carta. He was raised and educated between two empires, British and American. Schooled in London in the 1940s, tested in Cattaraugus (New York) and Muskogee (Oklahoma) during the 1950s, he finished secondary school at the Karachi Grammar School, before matriculating at Swarthmore College, the liberal, Quaker, college in Pennsylvania. Active there in the civil rights struggle, he then removed to Columbia Univesity in New York until anti-war upheavals of May 1968 when, shaking the dust from his feet, he joined E.P. Thompson at the Centre for the Study of Social History at the University of Warwick. An educator who respects the organizer and the agitator, he has published in the Nation, Viet-Report, New Left Review, Times Literary Supplement, Midnight Notes, and his occasional essays may be read on www.CounterPunch. org. -- The Sarai Programme Centre for the Study of Developing Societies 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 Tel: (+91) 11 23960040 (+91) 11 23942199, ext 307 Fax: (+91) 11 23943450 www.sarai.net From dak at sarai.net Fri Dec 31 18:36:42 2004 From: dak at sarai.net (The Sarai Programme) Date: Fri, 31 Dec 2004 18:36:42 +0530 Subject: [Sarai Newsletter] JANUARY 2005 Message-ID: <200412311836.42984.dak@sarai.net> CONTENTS: JANUARY 2005 6th Contested Commons Public Lecture - Siva Vaidhyanathan 7th Contested Commons Public Lecture - Doron Ben-Atar 8th Contested Commons Public Lecture - Peter Linebaugh 14th-16th History, Memory, Identity Seminar 20th Urban Cultures & Politics Seminar - Ravi Kalia FILM @ SARAI 21st Lost in La Mancha, Dir. Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe 28th Capturing the Friedmans, Dir. Andrew Jarecki -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Friends, Greetings for the New Year from everyone at Sarai! We begin the year with a series of lectures and seminars by world renowned scholars. Please note the venue for the first of these - the Contested Commons Lecture Series - is the India Habitat Centre. All other programmes will be held in the Seminar Room, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi - 54. January 6, 7 & 8, 2005, 7 pm "THE CONTESTED COMMONS PUBLIC LECTURE SERIES" Stein Auditorium India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, Delhi The Public Service Broadcasting Trust, the Sarai Programme of the CSDS, Delhi, and Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore, present a series of three public lectures by world renowned scholars, examining the fate of the commons in the context of sharpening conflicts around intellectual property. Thursday January 6, 2005 "Between Anarchy and Oligarchy: The Prospects for Sovereignty and Democracy in a Connected World " Siva Vaidhyanathan, New York University Friday January 7, 2005 "U.S Path to Wealth and Power: Intellectual Piracy and the making of America" Doron Ben-Atar, Fordham University Saturday January 8, 2005 "Magna Carta and the Commons" Peter Linebaugh, University of Toledo ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ January 14-16, 2005 HISTORY, MEMORY, IDENTITY Seminar Room Centre for The Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi Seminar organized by The Sarai Programme, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in collaboration with The Millenium Lecture Series, Institute for Humanities, and Department of History, University of Delhi This inter-disciplinary seminar brings together practitioners in the field of history, film and cultural studies to reflect on the methods and materials that can be used to understand the nature of memory, formations of identity and the way these concerns shape our analysis of the historical process. The seminar includes presentations by Shahid Amin, Ira Bhaskar, Partha Chatterjee, Natalie Zemon Davis, Ranjani Mazumdar, MSS Pandian and Ravi Vasudevan. The seminar will conclude with a presentation on theoretical issues and and research methods in oral history and the construction of memory by Luisa Passerini. There will be screenings of Duvidha (Mani Kaul, 1972) and Memento (Chris Nolan, 2002) Participants also include Jeebesh Bagchi, Neeladri Bhattacharya, Urvashi Butalia, Satish Deshpande, Chitra Joshi, Shail Mayaram, Prabhu Mohapatra, Ashis Nandy, Aditya Nigam, Ravikant, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Sumit Sarkar, Awadhendra Sharan, Ravi Sundaram For registration enquiries write to ranita at sarai.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- URBAN CULTURES AND POLITICS SEMINAR SERIES: Urban Experiences Thursday, January 20, 2005, 3.30 P.M. MODERNISM IN INDIA: FROM LE CORBUSIER TO LOUIS KAHN & BEYOND by Ravi Kalia, The City College, New York The lecture will explore and evaluate the works of Le Corbusier (Chandigarh), Otto Koenigsberger (Bhubaneshwar), and Louis Kahn (Ahmedabad) in South Asia and their legacy. Ravi Kalia specializes in South Asian studies, particularly urban architectural history in colonial, post-colonial India. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- FILM @ SARAI MIRROR WORLDS - REALITY/?/REPRESENTATION Curated by Anand V Taneja and Khadeeja Arif This month's series looks at 'documentaries' which blur the lines between documentary and fiction, interrogate the difference between illusion and reality, lay bare the fragility of the creative process and yet celebrate the redemptive and transformative potential of cinema - lying precisely in its power to question, and transmute, the 'Real'. Friday January 21, 2005, 4:30 pm Lost in La Mancha (2002), 93 minutes Directed by Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe 'Lost In La Mancha' may be the first 'un-making of' documentary. In a genre that exists to hype films before their release, 'Lost In La Mancha' presents an unexpected twist: it gives a 'behind the scenes' view of a move that never was - Terry Gilliam's (Twelve Monkeys, The Fisher King) 'The Man Who Killed Don Quixote', a decade long dream which had to be abandoned after only six days of shooting because of freak floods, scheduling disasters and the constant howls of the jet engines from the NATO airbase next door, among other mishaps. The quixotic catastrophes that beset Gilliam's production fit his directorial image, that of a maverick tilting at the windmills of Hollywood conventions. Instead of a sanitised glimpse behind the scenes, 'Lost In La Mancha' offers a unique, in-depth look at the harsher realities of filmmaking. With drama that ranges from personal conflicts to epic storms, this is a record of a film disintegrating. It is less a process piece about filmmakers at work and more a powerful drama about the inherent fragility of the creative process - a compelling study of how, even with an abundance of the best will and passion, the artistic endeavour can remain an impossible, nay Quixotic, dream. Friday January 28, 2005, 4:30 pm Capturing the Friedmans (2003), 107 minutes Directed by Andrew Jarecki The truth is not only stranger than fiction but frequently indistinguishable from it in Andrew Jarecki's 'Capturing the Friedmans', a startling documentary that takes the widely publicized child molestation case of the 1980s and works it into a stirring examination of truth at odds with perception. Jarecki unravels the story of the seemingly happy, upper middle class Friedman family disintegrating, as father Arnold, and youngest son Jesse are arrested and convicted on ninety one counts of child sexual abuse. 'Capturing the Friedmans' is possible because of the existence of hundreds of hours of home movies made by David Friedman, right through the scandal - obsessively documenting the breakdown of his family, long before reality TV became popular. The footage is deployed throughout the film. Jarecki's unraveling of the complex story never takes a clear stand, (though footage not used in the film shows that the father and son were almost certainly innocent; and victims of a media whipped mass hysteria, in the Reagan years) but had viewers stuck to their seats long after the film was over, debating the innocence of the Friedmans, eliciting complaints from theatre managements to the film's distributors. Its studied ambiguity makes this Oscar nominated film a compelling story of the complexity of characters and behaviors that we would prefer to explain simply, the slippery nature of memory, and the elusiveness of objective truth. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All programmes are subject to last minute changes. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- That's all for the moment. We look forward to a sustained and stimulating interaction with you in the year ahead, at Sarai and online. Warm wishes, Ranita Chatterjee The Sarai Programme Centre for the Study of Developing Societies 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 Tel: (+91) 11 23960040 (+91) 11 23942199, ext 307 Fax: (+91) 11 23943450 www.sarai.net