From joy at sarai.net Mon Dec 1 07:33:30 2003 From: joy at sarai.net (joy at sarai.net) Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2003 03:03:30 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] Taslima Nasrin responds to her Book ban In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <1676.203.94.202.38.1070244210.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5922_477436,0015002000000085.htm Taslima to post banned book on Net Anjan Chakraborty Kolkata, November 29 TO BEAT West Bengal’s ban on her latest book, Dwikhandito, controversial Bangla-deshi author Taslima Nasreen has decided to put it on her website. The website www.taslimanasreen.com, will be launched in a day or two. Speaking exclusively to HT from her New York residence, Nasreen said: “A friend is developing the website. Everyone who wishes to read the book, but has failed to get a copy of it due to the ban, can visit my site and read the original manuscript.” Nasreen’s publisher in Kolkata has decided to move court against the ban. Nasreen said she was shocked to find the Kolkata intelligentsia covertly supporting the ban. "Many are scared that I might reveal my relationships with them in my coming book. But that is not true. My next book, Shei Shob Andhokar, deals only with my two months of hiding in Bangladesh.” Castigating the ‘progressive’ Bengal government, Nasreen said “the grounds on which the present book was banned are absurd because my earlier books contained stronger religious statements". Nasreen also plans to translate Dwikhandito into various languages to cater to the readers in Europe and the US. “This was part of my original plan and has nothing to do with the ban,” she said. Meanwhile, the BJP and the Trinamool Congress on Saturday criticised the state government’s decision to ban Dwikhandito. From geert at desk.nl Mon Dec 1 05:36:52 2003 From: geert at desk.nl (geert lovink) Date: Mon, 1 Dec 2003 10:06:52 +1000 Subject: [Reader-list] networks, art & collaboration (buffalo, april 2004) References: Message-ID: <022901c3b79f$0740b4b0$1cbc6682@geert> Call for Submissions The facilitators of the conference "networks, art & collaboration" currently accept submissions for in-person and web-based participation in this conference, April 24/25, 2004 at The State University of New York at Buffalo. In addition, we invite texts for publication in a magazine that will be made available at the conference. http://freecooperation.org This conference on collaboration will bring together artists, designers, (social) scientists, and engineers in formats such as workshops, lectures, open mic, parties, screenings, interviews, brain storming sessions, and artist presentations < all aiming at ongoing collaborations and exchange of knowledge. The aim of the conference is to get a deeper understanding of the dynamics of collaboration, models of critical web-based art, and the role media technologies play in the making of social networks. The event seeks ways to go beyond the outmoded top-down conference format and intends to experiment with alternative forms of interactive presentations and debate. Dance, discuss, eat, argue, laugh, learn, celebrate dissent, make new friends, and meet future collaborators. Proposal Deadline: January 20, 2004 You can propose an in-person contribution,or submit a proposal for inclusion in the virtual meet space augmented by web-based presentations. Who should participate We are seeking contributions from researchers and practitioners (academia, music, activism, art, technology, ...) focusing on collaboration. We encourage individuals and groups who are historically underrepresented in these fields to contribute. Submit either individually or team up in a collaboration. In-Person Formats Some possible forms of participation in person include: brainstorming sessions, interventions and presentations, demos, workshops, panels, dance party, *no lectures.* Virtual Participation Formats Some possible forms of mediated participation include weblog, wiki, mailinglist, webcast, video conference. Submissions (in person and virtual) are in the following suggested sessions: Track I: Tech skill exchange: peer 2 peer, open source/ free software movement, tools for collaboration/ tutorials, workshops Track II: Models of online cultural production models of critical web-based art/ distributed creativity multi-user games, collaborative novel writing/ e-poetry Track III: Network architectures (lists, blogs and the quest for meaning), e-learning, class room collaboration in new media education Track IV: Global social movements / participatory cultures Track V: The high art of collaboration (challenges of collaboration), metaphors of collaboration (family, friendship), scalability TO APPLY: Do you apply to participate in-person or as part of the Virtual Meetspace? Which track do you apply to? Would you like to contribute in-person or as part of the virtual meetspace? Which format would suit your contribution best? (ie. brainstorming sessions, artist presentation, interventions and round table presentations, demos, workshops, panels, dance party, *no lectures*) With your proposal submit a 250 word biography. Please also include relevant links. Deadline: January 20, 2004 Send proposal to: Geert Lovink geert at xs4all.nl Trebor Scholz treborscholz at earthlink.net From marnoldm at du.edu Mon Dec 1 23:16:44 2003 From: marnoldm at du.edu (Michael Arnold Mages) Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2003 10:46:44 -0700 (MST) Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] -empyre- ReShaping the Field - Judy Malloy, Sonya Rapoport and Anna Couey Message-ID: We are pleased to invite you to join us at -empyre- http://www.subtle.net/empyre in December and January for our SSNWSouthernSummer-NorthernWinter discussion series of recently published books. In December we are introducing "Women, Art, and Technology", edited by JudyMalloy which documents women's core contributions to art and technologycreation. The book includes overviews of the history and foundations of thefield by, among others, artists Sheila Pinkel and Kathy Brew; classic papersby women working in art and technology; papers written expressly for thisbook by women whose work is currently shaping and reshaping the field; and a series of critical essays that look to the future. Artist contributors include computer graphics artists Rebecca Allen and Donna Cox; video artists Dara Birnbaum, Joan Jonas, Valerie Soe, and Steina Vasulka; composers Cecile Le Prado, Pauline Oliveros, and Pamela Z;interactive artists Jennifer Hall and Blyth Hazen, Agnes Hegedus, Lynn Hershman, and Sonya Rapoport; virtual reality artists Char Davies and Brenda Laurel; net artists Anna Couey, Monika Fleischmann and Wolfgang Strauss,Nancy Paterson, and Sandy Stone; and choreographer Dawn Stoppiello. Critics include Margaret Morse, Jaishree Odin, Patric Prince, and Zoe Sofia. Judy will be joined through the month by Sonya Rapoport and Anna Couey, as well as other key contributors to the text. subscribe to -empyre- at http://www.subtle.net/empyre -- Michael Arnold Mages mailto:marnoldm at du.edu -- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From sadan at sarai.net Tue Dec 2 22:18:41 2003 From: sadan at sarai.net (sadan) Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2003 11:48:41 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Death of Bernard S. Cohn (1928-2003) Message-ID: <200312021148.41175.sadan@sarai.net> Dear all, sending you this forward from H-Asia. Sadan. The New York Times November 29, 2003 B. S. Cohn, Expert on Culture of Modern India, Dies at 75 By JO NAPOLITANO CHICAGO, Nov. 28 - Bernard S. Cohn, who spent his life studying and writing about British influence on modern Indian culture and society, died here on Tuesday after a long illness. He was 75. Mr. Cohn, a professor of anthropology and history at the University of Chicago until he retired in 1995, was known for challenging his students' work with simple questions that could take their research in new directions. His offhand comments, which seemed to home in on specific points but actually questioned the fundamentals of research, could spark years of study, former students said. Though Mr. Cohn would openly challenge professionals in his field, he had a gentler touch with students, and some went on to become professors themselves. In his later years, when Mr. Cohn's eyes began to fail, they would read to him or record noteworthy books and passages. He wrote several highly regarded works, including the books "India: The Social Anthropology of a Civilization," "An Anthropologist Among the Historians and Other Essays" and "Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge: The British in India." Mr. Cohn's works helped solidify his position as an authority on modern Indian culture. His interest in the subject grew from his discovery of a preponderance of litigation in small Indian villages, a clear example, he thought, of the influence of the British legal system on Indian society. "He brought new understanding to the colonial entanglements in Indian society and the relationship with the British empire," said Alan L. Kolata, the chairman of the department of anthropology at the University of Chicago since 1987. "He is an innovator in historical anthropology." Born in Brooklyn in 1928, Bernard Samuel Cohn graduated from the University of Wisconsin. He did his graduate work at Cornell University and his postdoctorate at Chicago. During his career, he was the chairman of the anthropology departments at the University of Rochester and Chicago. He also was a visiting professor at New York University, the University of Michigan and the California Institute of Technology. Friends and colleagues said Mr. Cohn's sharp sense of humor and repertoire of jokes could bring levity to the most somber of occasions. When a group of former students held a meeting in his honor three years ago to talk about his dedication as a professor and his influence on their work, he could not resist breaking their seriousness. "What shall I say?" Mr. Cohn said after their speeches. "I've had a hell of a good time." He is survived by his wife, Rella Israly; three daughters, Jenny, Abigail and Naomi; a son, Jacob; a brother, David H. Cohn; and two grandchildren. Richard Jensen Professor Emeritus University of Illinois Chicago From sadan at sarai.net Tue Dec 2 22:21:49 2003 From: sadan at sarai.net (sadan) Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2003 11:51:49 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Remembering Bernard S. Cohn 1928-2003 Message-ID: <200312021151.49305.sadan@sarai.net> This is another forward from H-Asia Sadan. H-ASIA November 26, 2003 Remembering Bernard Cohn (1928-2003) ************************************************************************ From: Qin Shao at TCNJ.EDU Dear Frank, I'm probably the last person you expect to have anything to say about Prof. Cohn. But here I'm. His work has had profound impact on me and I'm saddened by the news. Please let me know if it is ok to share my thoughts with the members. Qin Shao The College of New Jersey ------------------------------- I feel compelled to write something about Prof. Bernard Cohn, though I neither know him nor work in his trained discipline. I'm a historian of modern China. A few years ago, a colleague of mine introduced me to Prof. Cohn's _Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge: The British in India_. I still remember the first time I read the introduction of the book. I couldn't finish the thirteen pages at once because I was so overwhelmed by his insights and the clarity with which he expressed those insights that I forgot to breathe, and I had to put down the book ever so often to just catch my own breath. It was like in a magnificant setting of nature that overtakes us. I thoroughly enjoyed the aesthetics and power of both Prof. Cohn's thoughts and his writing, and also made extensive use of his insights in my own work on Chinese museums, on surveying and mapping in Chinese society, and on other various seemingly invisible forms of knowledge that define the power structure in society. His work, unlike any others, sensitized my understanding of what constitutes power. I liked his work so much that I used what he said about the power to define the past as a most significant instrumentality of rulership as an epigram for the chapter in my book on the printing media. Prof. Cohn's _Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge_ and Michael North's _Reading 1922: A Return to the Scene of Modern_ are among the non-Chinese history books that have influenced my thinking the most (Michael North is in literature). To remember Prof. Cohn is to remember all those before me from whom I've learned. I wish I had a chance to tell Prof. Cohn the impact of his work on his unknown readers, but I think he must know, and I think his students must have told/shown him that many, many times over. Qin Shao The College of New Jersey ================================================================= To post to H-ASIA simply send your message to: For holidays or short absences send post to: with message: SET H-ASIA NOMAIL Upon return, send post with message SET H-ASIA MAIL H-ASIA WEB HOMEPAGE URL: http://h-net.msu.edu/~asia/ ------------------------------------------------------- From sadan at sarai.net Tue Dec 2 22:26:02 2003 From: sadan at sarai.net (sadan) Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2003 11:56:02 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Remembering Prof. Bernard S. Cohn, 1928-2003 Message-ID: <200312021156.02436.sadan@sarai.net> This is another forward from H-Asia on Prof.Bernard Cohn. sadan. H-ASIA November 26, 2003 Professor Bernard S. Cohn, 1928-1975 --------- Ed. note: The least happy aspect of editing H-ASIA arises when we must post the news of the passing of a colleague. In the present case, I think we should say the passing of a giant. Barney Cohn was one of the most imaginative and innovative scholars of South Asian studies in the past century, and, as a member of the faculty at Chicago, the mentor of two generations of scholars. I never studied with Barney, but visited him often from my early days as a graduate student at Minnesota. He was always prepared to look at the world from a fresh perspective. His academic years were cut short by illness, but the body of his scholarship represent a significant intellectual journey which interrogated the practices of at least two disciplines. Today's readers might overlook how much these essays challenged and stimulated South Asia scholars at the time, for Barney's new ideas have graduated, becoming today's conventional wisdom. I do not want to forget one other aspect of Barney Cohn's approach to life and work -- he had a wonderful sense of ironic humor. I recall that in his dedication to his 1971 book _India: The Social Anthropology of a Civilization_ his dedication concluded 'maybe it wasn't all for the birds.' I am very grateful to H-ASIA member Professor David Lelyveld for preparation of the following obituary. We would welcome further memories and reflections on Barney Cohn's life and work. FFC *********************************************************************** From: David Lelyveld Bernard S. Cohn, one of the leading scholars of modern Indian society and culture, died after a long illness in Chicago yesterday, November 25th. "An anthropologist among the historians," as in the title of one of his early essays and a later collection of his scholarly papers, Cohn called upon anthropological insight to examine the history of India under British colonial rule and the culture and society of British colonizers. He led the way in identifying and analyzing "colonial knowledge," British ideas about the nature of Indian law and society, such as the concept of "caste," as a cornerstone for the justification and exercise of state power. In a series of highly influential papers, Cohn examined the ways British rule in India constructed and transformed Indian institutions and practices with respect to law, land ownership, language, administrative routines, political ritual, art and even clothing. In an essay on the Indian census, he argued that the categories that British social analysis imposed on Indian society became institutionalized as "objectified" facts that took on a life of their own. A detailed study of the so-called Delhi Darbar or Imperial Assemblage of 1877, cast an ethnographic eye on the rituals of power that British colonialism developed as a strategy to reach what they took to be Indian cultural sensibilities. These papers were characterized not only by scholarly thoroughness and a powerful command of anthropological theory, but by a keen eye for irony and a sharp sense of humor. Like many anthropologists of his generation, Cohn started off in the early 1950s with a village study, focusing on members of a so-called untouchable community and their efforts to raise their social status. From this field work in the vicinity of Benares, the basis of his Ph.D. thesis at Cornell University, Cohn moved on to the history of that region, contrasting the historical memory of people in the present with documentary research about the ways institutions were transformed since the establishment of British power in the late 18th century. As he moved further into historical studies, he developed a significant influence on the field of history itself, with many historians moving away from the study of the political narrative and famous leaders to a broader study of how cultural categories are bound up with power. Cohn's joint appointment to the departments of anthropology and history at the University of Chicago in 1964, helped create a new relationship between these two fields and to train numerous scholars in what came to be known as anthropological history, many of whom have in turn taught further generations at universities throughout the United States. His combination of sharp criticism, generosity and wit reached beyond his own students and set scholarly agendas beyond the study of modern India. Well before Foucault and Said, Cohn developed an independent critique of the ways in which ethnographic and other forms of sociological investigation and knowledge are intertwined with power and exploitation. Bernard Cohn was born in Brooklyn in 1928 and attended New York City public schools. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin, then did his graduate work at Cornell. He started his teaching career at the University of Rochester, where he was chair of the Anthropology Department, and has been a visiting professor at the University of Michigan, New York University, and the California Institute of Technology. He has held numerous fellowships, including a Guggenheim, a Rockefeller and NEH, and has served on the editorial board of numerous scholarly journals and academic organizations. He is survived by his wife of 53 years, the former Rella Israly, three daughters, Jennifer, Abigail, and Naomi, and a son, Jacob. _India: the social anthropology of a civilization_ (Prentice-Hall, 1971) _An anthropologist among the historians and other essays_ (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1987). _Colonialism and its forms of knowledge: the British in India_ (Princeton Unversity Press, 1996). David Lelyveld Professor of History Associate Dean College of Humanities and Social Sciences William Paterson University Wayne, NJ 07470 lelyveldd at wpunj.edu (973)720-3316 From ab2303 at columbia.edu Thu Dec 4 04:04:15 2003 From: ab2303 at columbia.edu (ab2303 at columbia.edu) Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2003 17:34:15 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Paul Brass's Response to Ashutosh Varshney] Message-ID: <1070490855.3fce64e7118dc@cubmail.cc.columbia.edu> Response to Ashutosh Varshney By Paul R. Brass Ashutosh Varshney has written a hostile and unprofessional review of my new book on The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India, originally published by University of Washington Press in February 2003 and issued by Oxford University Press-India in September-October of this year. The review, published in the10 November issue of India Today, is so inaccurate and dishonest that it is difficult for me to know where to begin to rebut it. Varshney does not even take the trouble to summarize the book, but merely picks out and misrepresents at random aspects of my arguments. Varshney begins by insinuating that I have spent 40 years of my life studying one city, Aligarh, and suggests that I have produced nothing of value from my labors. While it would be unseemly of me to write about my own professional accomplishments in my work on India, I believe it is well enough known among scholars, journalists, and politically knowledgeable people in India that I have written widely on many aspects of the politics of India over these years, and some may know that I have published some 14 books on those subjects as well as rather numerous articles. My works have ranged from detailed studies at the local level to works that cover politics in all India, including my text on The Politics of India Since Independence, the second edition of which is still available. I have personally carried out field work, during approximately 25 visits to India, in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Assam. I have also interviewed many politicians from all other parts of India during my visits to Delhi. It is true, however, that I have labored hard and long, including for a good part of the six years between 1997 and 2003 in Seattle, poring over my interviews, documents, and other data collected over four decades in Aligarh, to ensure that I minimize the possibility of mistake on so serious a matter as Hindu-Muslim violence. Nor, indeed, despite Varshney's sneering remarks, has he been able to point to a single error. Having found no inaccuracies, Varshney seeks to undermine my arguments in a personally insulting way. He claims that I have simply "recycled" my "old arguments" from two books of mine that are well-known in India and elsewhere, Theft of an Idol and Riots and Pogroms. Varshney himself wrote an extremely laudatory review of the latter book (for the Journal of Asian Studies, published in February, 1999), in which he expressed his "admiration for the superb contribution by Brass" and praised "the great merit and compelling brilliance of his reasoning" (p. 133). In the same review, he made laudatory comments on Theft of an Idol. Evidently, something has changed in Varshney's attitudes, on which I will comment below, but it has nothing to do with the quality of my work or its arguments. It cannot be so since Varshney has also made considerable (mis)use in his own writings of my central argument that the best explanation for the persistence of riots in sites where they appear to be endemic-such as Aligarh, many other cities and towns in India, and many other places around the world at different times, including the twentieth century U.S. and nineteenth century Russia-is the existence of what I have labelled Institutionalized Riot Systems. Varshney has completely misread my description of such systems in his own work, as well as in the India Today review, imagining that all that is meant by the concept is that politicians and criminals protected by them, "especially the Hindu nationalists," are involved in riots and "keep the communal pot boiling." He again strikes a derisory note by calling his misunderstanding of my construct "a boiling-pot theory." This is quite a travesty of my conception, which is that Institutionalized Riot Systems are composed of networks of specialists who play varied and multifarious roles in the instigation and perpetuation of communal animosities, in the enactment of riots, and in the interpretation of riots after they occur. The metaphor I have used is, as far as I know, quite different from anything anyone else has used in the study of collective violence, namely, the conceptualization of riot production as comparable to that of a grisly theatrical drama, in which there are three phases: preparation/rehearsal, performance/enactment, and interpretation/explanation. This is not a trivial one-off comment on riots, a "boiling-pot theory," but an elaborate analogy of a type that should be familiar to anthropologists and others who know the work of the great anthropologist, Victor Turner, particularly his Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors. In his own work on peaceful cities and towns in India, Varshney copies my argument by inversion as it were, claiming that they have "institutionalized peace systems." However, his use of both terms, mine and his inversion of it, lacks logic, precision, and a basis in worthwhile empirical data. But, not content to invert my argument, he has been reported in the India International Center Diary (Janauary-February 1999) to have presented, at a talk at the Centre, my original argument (incorrectly as usual) as if it were his own invention. Perhaps the Centre journal has misunderstood him, but no contradiction of his use of my concept as his own has yet appeared. At one point in the review, he makes a tortuous move from his misreading of my argument to a statement that it is "historically inaccurate" because "Hindu nationalists were not prominent in Aligarh before 1967." Here he is trying to insinuate that I am misleadingly emphasizing the important role played by what he calls "Hindu nationalists" in producing riots in Aligarh. He then cites various electoral statistics to say that this cannot be accurate because "the Hindu nationalists were not prominent in Aligarh before 1967." These electoral statistics are quite beside the point here. The plain facts are that, though many communal riots in Aligarh and elsewhere in India have involved persons and parties not part of the Sangh parivar, militant Hindus have played a central role in every single large-scale riot in Aligarh at least since 1961, however electorally strong or weak they were, and my book demonstrates it very clearly. Varshney here is acting out his own role in the communal discourse in India, namely, that of the BJP/RSS apologist who, though he is not himself a member of the Sangh parivar, chooses to ignore their undeniably central role in rehearsing, enacting, and interpreting communal riots after the fact. His statement that he agrees with me-in his words not mine- "that Hindu nationalism is a dangerous project and if it succeeds it will destroy India" is nothing but a pious, throw-away line for a person whose work virtually frees the BJP and the RSS from responsibility for the production of riots. For example, in his own book, Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life, the index contains only three references to the RSS and the VHP, of which only one includes a very brief description of these organizations, from which one learns that their "activities . include running ideological camps for the youth, schools and dispensaries for the tribals and scheduled castes, and organizations for women." We learn that their activists also do "relief work"at times of heavy floods. The Bajrang Dal, the principal organization for violence in the Sangh parivar, receives no mention at all. Varshney's review also mixes together incomprehensibly some questions and answers that are unrelated to each other, as if they undermined my arguments when they have nothing to do with them. He asks, "Why was the Congress government, in its days of nearly uncontested hegemony, unable to prevent riots?" He then answers sarcastically: "Presumably, the DMs and the SPs who, according to Brass, had been instrumental in Aligarh's intermittent stretches of peace, were not so compromised at that time." This is all totally misleading. Most governments in India, including those of the Congress and the BJP, for that matter, have been able to prevent, contain, and control riots when they chose to do so. Nor have I said that Aligarh has had "intermittent stretches of peace." Rather, there have been intermittent periods when large-scale riots did not occur, during which the riot network was only partially inactivated, but kept in readiness. But then, somehow, Varshney has a different answer to his questions, totally irrelevant to them, but important to understanding the malicious character of his review. He says: "Commenting on the Aligarh of the 1950s, Nehru was forced to call attention to the rebirth of Muslim communalism at the AMU. .Brass neglects the role of Muslim communalism in the city." This is dishonest, mendacious, and motivated. In fact, I have not neglected the role of Muslim communalism in the city. I have also drawn attention to the contribution of elements in the Muslim community, including politicians, University personnel, and AMU students in maintaining communal attitudes and in participation in riots as well. However, there is simply no doubt in my mind, amply demonstrated in my work, that the BJP/RSS has been far more deeply implicated-perhaps because it is far better organized than the Muslim network-most especially during the decade of the 1980s up to, and including especially, the great Aligarh riots of 1990-91. Varshney is here simply avoiding my main conceptual arguments concerning the process of riot production, throwing up a false statement against me and pitting me against Nehru himself in the process. Moreover, Varshney is here doing what the BJP/RSS people do: blaming the AMU, which has rarely been at the physical center of Hindu-Muslim violence, though it has often been targeted by militant Hindus and has been generally used as a justification for violence against Muslims. Varshney is here also showing his ignorance of the political geography of Aligarh, though he has a chapter on Aligarh in his own book. I have emphasized, in my book, the very sharp separation between Muslims and Muslim politics at the AMU and Muslims and Muslim politics in the old city. There have been some forms of border-crossing, as it were, but, historically, riots have been produced in the old city where there is a juxtaposition of Hindu and Muslim mohallas, not at the AMU. In contrast, in 1990-91, the militant Hindu riot system extended its range dramatically across the boundary of the Grand Trunk road and the railway line and all around the outskirts of the city in a pattern that has been revealed by me and others elsewhere, in Kanpur (by me), in Bombay by many other scholars, in Gujarat by most commentators, and so forth. The second argument Varshey criticizes, headlined in the India Today review as "Aligarh is not India," concerns the generalizability of my arguments. He quotes me correctly as follows: "The findings herein can be generalized to other parts of India and other times and places in the world." (This quotation comes from the Preface, however, not from the heart of the book where the arguments are presented in full.) He then asserts falsely that I have ignored places in India where riots have not occurred. My book indeed centers on Aligarh, though my work on riots has extended throughout north India and the Punjab in interviews, and throughout the rest of the country in my reading of both primary and secondary sources. My argument here is not that Aligarh stands for or represents all of India, which is nonsense, but that the pattern that I have described for Aligarh applies to other cities and towns in India that I know well from my own personal research. Moreover, I have presented my argument as a social science hypothesis for other scholars to test in other places in other parts of the world. Far from being an old argument recycled, my argument needs testing elsewhere. Such testing would not prove or disprove what I have described and discovered in Aligarh. But, insofar as its generalizability is concerned, this is an important question that begs for further research. For, if I am right, then most research on, and explanations for, riots, pogroms, massacres, and some genocides as well, have been not only wrong, not only false, but misleading and contributory to the perpetuation of systems of violence. Now, let me answer specificallyVarshney's question. Anyone, however, who cares to read my book can find the argument laid out carefully there in 476 pages. "Given . variations [from place to place in India in riot incidence], how can Aligarh's experience be generalised to Uttar Pradesh, let alone the rest of India?" The answer is simple: By testing my hypotheses. First, by the method of confirmation/disconfirmation, that is, by examining sites of endemic rioting to see if institutionalized riot systems can or cannot be discovered. Second, by examining the relationship between party/electoral competition and the incidence of riots in those sites. Third, by examining the consequences of different state policies toward communal riots, my argument being that where the policy of a state government is decisively opposed to communal riots and makes its opposition clear, and where interparty and/or intraparty divisions do not compromise its clarity, riots will be either prevented or contained rapidly. The recent work of my young colleague, Steven Wilkinson, confirms several of my arguments. Wilkinson has also previously questioned parts of my argument, but in an honest, forthright manner, concentrating on the issues at stake. Our discussions have, I think, influenced each other's work. Moreover, in discussions with him, I believe our mutual work is coming close to a coherent explanation of riot production, though we may still disagree on some aspects of the process. Such, however, is not the case with Varshney's work on civic engagement, which is a derivative argument from the American social science literature that has very little to do with India. It is a false and artificial transplant, which I have criticized in my book and need not repeat here. As for the alleged contradictions in my criticism of newspaper reporting on riots in India while also making use of such reports, his disparagement is also totally misleading. My accounts of riots are based heavily upon my own interviews and other primary sources. Where that has been lacking or inadequate, I have used newspaper reports in a careful and critical manner, pointing out where they appear reliable, where not, where biased. I have also criticized sharply Varshney's uncritical use of newspaper accounts of the precipitants and alleged causes of riots. Moreover, I have noted that his highly touted dataset, based solely on Times of India reporting, is inherently flawed. Furthermore, errors were introduced in coding this flawed data. An huge error was introduced, for example, into the Aligarh data, to which I alerted him through Wilkinson, which Varshney then corrected in his World Politics article with no acknowledgment to me. In short, his own data on Aligarh, on which he claims to have done research, was false. Then there is the charge concerning my so-called "intellectual schizophrenia." I suffer from no such ailment. I laid bare my own reasoning concerning riot production in India in this book and in my other recent works on India, and expressed my profound doubts about the enterprise of causal reasoning and analysis as it is conducted in contemporary social science. In his comments on my previous book, Theft of an Idol, Varshney wrote as follows: "Whether or not one can agree with Brass about causality, the great merit and compelling brilliance of his reasoning lies in showing so effectively why the battle over meanings matters, why such battles are as much about knowledge as about power and resources. In doing so, Brass, in this essay [in Riots and Pogroms] as well as in his recent book Theft of an Idol, forces us to re- evaluate the easy certitudes of mainstream social science, if not abandon social science altogether." Evidently, Varshney has changed his mind about my reasoning. As for my use of "correlation coefficients," which he says implicates my work in "mainstream social science," this is hardly an advanced social science method of causal analysis. It is one of the simplest numerical methods available for establishing associations between variables, from which causal analyses may or may not legitimately be inferred. I have always tended to use such elementary statistical techniques mainly to demonstrate such relationships and suggest the direction of a causal chain where it seems reasonable to say so, but I have mostly used such techniques as supplements to my own type of processual analysis. I have been described by friendlier colleagues as a "closet positivist." I accept such a friendly statement. But intellectual doubts about the relative merits and utilities of positivist/empiricist vs. other types of social science, historical, and anthropological research hardly constitute "intellectual schizophrenia." The most degrading half-sentence in Varshney's review is his reference to my dedication of the book to Myron Weiner, implying that my work is not consistent with Weiner's and that the dedication, therefore, is misplaced. I have noted there and elsewhere my debts to Myron, my respect and affection for him, as well as my divergence from his approach. I worked with Varshney on a festschrift for Myron, held at Notre Dame in 1999. It is from that failed collaboration with Varshney that a personal hostility has embittered and has terminated our relationship. I had ultimately to withdraw from editorial collaboration with Varshney on the publication of the conference papers because of his ugly misuse of the occasion to aggrandize himself, advance his own career, prevent other worthy former students of Myron from attending or presenting papers at the conference while ingratiating himself with senior colleagues whom he had previously antagonized, badgering Myron during the last days of his life into allowing him to invite to the conference a person whom Myron strongly disliked, and ultimately disregarding scholarly standards in his attempt to publish the papers from that conference. The volume has not yet been produced. November 30, 2003 Paul R. Brass Professor Emeritus of Political Science and South Asian Studies University of Washington, Seattle E-mail: brass at u.washington.edu ----- End forwarded message ----- From dfontaine at fondation-langlois.org Wed Dec 3 03:21:21 2003 From: dfontaine at fondation-langlois.org (Dominique Fontaine) Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2003 16:51:21 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] RECENT NEWS FROM THE DANIEL LANGLOIS FOUNDATION - DECEMBER 2003 Message-ID: Pour la version française : http://www.fondation-langlois.org/courriel/nouvelles.html [Apologies for cross-posting / veuillez excuser les envois multiples] ******************************************************************* RECENT NEWS FROM THE DANIEL LANGLOIS FOUNDATION - DECEMBER 2003 ******************************************************************* CONTENTS: ***Three Researchers in Residence at the Research and Documentation Centre (CR+D) in 2004 ***REMINDER - Moratorium on two of the Foundation's programs ***New Acquisitions by the CR+D and Monthly Selection ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ***Three Researchers in Residence at the Research and Documentation Centre (CR+D) in 2004*** Following the call for research submissions in the context of its Grant Program for Researchers in Residence, the Foundation will receive three researchers: two are from Montreal, Mrs Jennifer Gabrys, a doctoral candidate in Communication Studies at McGill University, and Mrs Viva Paci, a doctoral candidate in Literary and Film Studies at the Université de Montréal; the third researcher is Dr Frances Dyson, an associate professor of Technocultural Studies, in the division of Humanities, Arts and Cultural Studies of the University of California at Davis. Let us recall that this program is open to historians, curators, critics, independent researchers, artists and scientists in various fields, including computer science and related areas of social science. The research must be conducted at the Foundation and focus on one of the Foundation's documentation collections or archives. However, a research project may include activities beyond the CR+D, such as studio, laboratory or field work, and draw on resources outside the Foundation. One of the goals of the Program for Researchers in Residence is to promote the advancement of knowledge regarding the impact of new digital technologies on humans and society. To achieve this the grant holders will be invited to publish the results of their research on our website, or to make certain documents available on-line after having interpreted and placed them in context. To find out more about the three researchers and their projects: http://www.fondation-langlois.org/flash/e/index.php?NumPage=148 ***REMINDER - Moratorium on two of the Foundation's programs*** A reminder that the Foundation is placing a moratorium in 2004 on its two main programs: the Research Grants for Individual Artists or Scientists and the Strategic Grants for Organizations. This moratorium will allow the Foundation to undertake an in depth study of the impact of its support and its activities in the field on an international scale, so as to develop a plan of action that will better respond to the needs of its diverse clientele in the years to come. Please take note that this measure will not affect the Grant Program for Researchers in Residence. More: http://www.fondation-langlois.org/flash/e/index.php?NumPage=331 ***New Acquisitions by the CR+D and Monthly Selection*** As we do every month, we're publishing a bibliography of the latest current acquisitions made by the Foundation's Centre for Research and Documentation. Our monthly selection is a catalogue published on the occasion of the exhibition Future Cinema: The Cinematic Imaginary After Film, ZKM/Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany, November 16, 2002 - March 30, 2003. Curators: Jeffrey Shaw and Peter Weibel. More: http://www.fondation-langlois.org/flash/e/index.php?NumPage=336 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ About the Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science, and Technology The Daniel Langlois Foundation's purpose is to further artistic and scientific knowledge by fostering the meeting of art and science in the field of technologies. The Foundation seeks to nurture a critical awareness of technology's implications for human beings and their natural and cultural environments, and to promote the exploration of aesthetics suited to evolving human environments. The Centre for Research and Documentation (CR+D) seeks to document history, artworks and practices associated with electronic and digital media arts and to make this information available to researchers in an innovative manner through data communications. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20031202/cbce43a7/attachment.html From shaiheredia at hotmail.com Wed Dec 3 20:14:45 2003 From: shaiheredia at hotmail.com (shai heredia) Date: Wed, 3 Dec 2003 20:14:45 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] EXPERIMENTA Call for Entries - pls fwd Message-ID: CALL FOR ENTRIES EXPERIMENTA 2004 The 2nd International festival for experimental film in India EXPERIMENTA The 2nd International festival for experimental film in India, is seeking short experimental films made in any year in India, for exhibition at EXPERIMENTA March 2004 to be held in Bombay & New Delhi. Home movies, found footage, experimental/fine art films, documentary, non-fiction, diary, and animation genres are welcome. Innovative, cutting edge & non-traditional work is encouraged. EXPERIMENTA is a collaborative effort of Filter India, British Council India UK, Light Reading UK and the LUX UK. FOR MORE ABOUT EXPERIMENTA: www.filterindia.com DOWNLOAD ENTRY FORM Entry Guidelines: 1) Final exhibition formats are 16mm & 35mm only; hence digital/video works are NOT admissible. 2) For preview purposes, film submissions may be made on Mini-DV, VHS (NTSC/PAL) or DVD only. Please do NOT send film prints. The master film print will be requested for exhibition only after final selection. 3) Label preview copy with your name, address, phone number, email address, title of work, date of completion, projection speed, whether sound or silent, cueing instructions, and duration. 4) All submissions in languages other than English must be subtitled in English - only if language is central to the film's content. 5) Final deadline for receipt of all submissions is 31 January 2004. No Extensions will be considered. 6) Films completed in any year up to the above deadline are admissible. 7) The festival reserves the right to excerpt programmed works for television and other promotional purposes. 8) All preview tapes will be added to the festival’s archives unless accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope and a request for return. 9) To submit more than one tape, please make a copy of the entry form for each submission. 10) Please send a legibly completed entry form and the following enclosures to the festival: - Preview Copy - Completed Entry Form - Note on Filmmaker 11) Final selections will be made in February 2004. Send films to: EXPERIMENTA 2004 FILTER, #13, 5th floor, ‘Esperanca’, S.B.S. Marg, Colaba, Bombay 400005 Email: filter at filterindia.com/filter_india at yahoo.co.in Contact brides & grooms FREE! Only on www.shaadi.com. Register now! _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From rafael at csi.com Thu Dec 4 10:45:39 2003 From: rafael at csi.com (Rafael Lozano-Hemmer) Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2003 06:15:39 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Vectorial Elevation Message-ID: Dear Sarai, The interactive installation "Vectorial Elevation" is up and running again, this time at the Place Bellecour in Lyon, France, for the Fête des Lumières. Until the 10th of December, people may design huge light sculptures using a web 3D interface. The designs are rendered by 18 robotic searchlights and captured by four cameras placed around the city. To participate, please log on to http://www.alzado.net Saludos, Rafael From aiindex at mnet.fr Sat Dec 6 11:51:18 2003 From: aiindex at mnet.fr (Harsh Kapoor) Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2003 07:21:18 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Hamza Alavi dies : Call for obituaries, letters, for a web-memorial Message-ID: Professor Hamza Alavi the widely known Marxist sociologist died on December 1, 2003 in Pakistan A small independent web memorial web page has been set up in his memory. It contains reports some from the Pakistan press . . . Scholars and non scholars, people on the left (also those left out by the left) citizens from the subcontinent or where ever are invited to send obituaries, letters, memories etc. for addition on this page. Please send your messages to the south asia citizens web -> IN MEMORY OF HAMZA ALAVI Reports, Tributes and obituaries http://www.sacw.net/hamza_alavi/index.html o o o see report from DAWN http://www.dawn.com/2003/12/02/local20.htm Dawn December 2, 2003 KARACHI: Hamza Alavi - a social scientist-cum-political activist By Bhagwandas KARACHI, Dec 1: Hamza Alavi, who died on Monday, aged 82, led a very active intellectual life. He became famous in the academia when he wrote an article in the newly-founded The Socialist Register in which he propounded the thesis that middle peasants were initially most militant elements of the peasantry and could therefore be a powerful ally of the proletariat movement in the countryside. Through this hypothesis he reversed the sequence suggested in the Marxist text. His thesis labelled as Alavi-Wolf thesis (since it was reiterated by Eric Wolf four years later) is still alive and refuses to die, as through it he had made a distinction between the Marxist theory and the practical Mao. His strength lay in going to the practicalities of things, and when he got interested in peasantry as a youngman, he left a coveted State Bank job to take up farming in Tanzania where he lived among peasants. Later, a serious illness took him to London where he had time for reflection and changed his career. That is how a social scientist-cum-political activist was born. For 10 years he remained involved in political activism in London: writing, lecturing and holding seminars in universities. For five years he edited Pakistan Today in which various issues were analyzed from the Left's perspective and obviously it was anathema to the Pakistani establishment. The journal was circulated secretively in the country. His curriculum vitae makes an impressive reading: from the post of research officer in the Reserve Bank of India in 1945 to readership in the University of Manchester and the post-retirement life in Karachi since 1997. What is most significant about Mr Alavi is that his research is not the kind that is conducted in the air-conditioned seminar rooms and libraries. Accompanied by his wife, he went and lived for 15 months in a Sahiwal (Punjab) village in 1968-69 to do an anthropological field study. In 1981, he returned to the same village to do a follow-up on the changes that had taken place over the years. His field-oriented research, to which he applied his theoretical knowledge of anthropology and sociology, made his papers full of insightful knowledge and information on Pakistani society. It seems intriguing that while abroad he was acknowledged as a distinguished anthropologist whose ideas had influenced a large number of social scientists, and he was acclaimed as a foremost theoretical thinker in South Asia; back home, his views were anathema to the establishment which found it difficult to swallow ideas that criticized foreign aid, spoke of the emergence of military-bureaucratic oligarchy which tries to mediate between the imperial powers and landlords and the native bourgeoisie. He had been studying the Holy Quran to understand the rise of fundamentalism which concerned him deeply. He thought rational intervention was necessary as there was a pluralist view of Islam as had been advocated by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan who had said that religion should remain a private matter. He had founded a number of organizations in his early life like the Pakistan Youth League, which was a broad liberal social forum, the Pakistan Socialist Society and after Ayub Khan's coup, he set up a committee for the Restoration of Democracy in Pakistan. He also formed The Forum, Pakistan Welfare Association, etc. Mr Alavi wrote a large number of research papers. His writings are so diverse that it is difficult to identify his area of specialization. Some of the subjects of his papers were the class structure; nature of colonial and post-colonial economies; relations between colonial, post-colonial and metropolitan elites; role of military and bureaucracy; changing production relations and mode of production and kinship in the political economy, etc. From abirbazaz at rediffmail.com Fri Dec 5 15:18:47 2003 From: abirbazaz at rediffmail.com (abir bazaz) Date: 5 Dec 2003 09:48:47 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Response to Ashutosh Varshney: Paul R. Brass Message-ID: <20031205094847.4859.qmail@webmail7.rediffmail.com> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20031205/198a984f/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- H-Asia December 4, 2003 From: Paul R. Brass Seattle, December 4, 2003 Response to Ashutosh Varshney By Paul R. Brass Ashutosh Varshney has written a hostile and unprofessional review of my new book on The Production of Hindu-Muslim Violence in Contemporary India, originally published by University of Washington Press in February 2003 and issued by Oxford University Press-India in September-October of this year. The review, published in the 10 November issue of _India Today_, is so inaccurate and dishonest that it is difficult for me to know where to begin to rebut it. Varshney does not even take the trouble to summarize the book, but merely picks out and misrepresents at random aspects of my arguments. Varshney begins by insinuating that I have spent 40 years of my life studying one city, Aligarh, and suggests that I have produced nothing of value from my labors. While it would be unseemly of me to write about my own professional accomplishments in my work on India, I believe it is well enough known among scholars, journalists, and politically knowledgeable people in India that I have written widely on many aspects of the politics of India over these years, and some may know that I have published some 14 books on those subjects as well as rather numerous articles. My works have ranged from detailed studies at the local level to works that cover politics in all India, including my text on The Politics of India Since Independence, the second edition of which is still available. I have personally carried out field work, during approximately 25 visits to India, in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, and Assam. I have also interviewed many politicians from all other parts of India during my visits to Delhi. It is true, however, that I have labored hard and long, including for a good part of the six years between 1997 and 2003 in Seattle, poring over my interviews, documents, and other data collected over four decades in Aligarh, to ensure that I minimize the possibility of mistake on so serious a matter as Hindu-Muslim violence. Nor, indeed, despite Varshney's sneering remarks, has he been able to point to a single error. Having found no inaccuracies, Varshney seeks to undermine my arguments in a personally insulting way. He claims that I have simply "recycled" my "old arguments" from two books of mine that are well-known in India and elsewhere, Theft of an Idol and Riots and Pogroms. Varshney himself wrote an extremely laudatory review of the latter book (for the Journal of Asian Studies, published in February, 1999), in which he expressed his "admiration for the superb contribution by Brass" and praised "the great merit and compelling brilliance of his reasoning" (p. 133). In the same review, he made laudatory comments on Theft of an Idol. Evidently, something has changed in Varshney's attitudes, on which I will comment below, but it has nothing to do with the quality of my work or its arguments. It cannot be so since Varshney has also made considerable (mis)use in his own writings of my central argument that the best explanation for the persistence of riots in sites where they appear to be endemic-such as Aligarh, many other cities and towns in India, and many other places around the world at different times, including the twentieth century U.S. and nineteenth century Russia-is the existence of what I have labelled Institutionalized Riot Systems. Varshney has completely misread my description of such systems in his own work, as well as in the India Today review, imagining that all that is meant by the concept is that politicians and criminals protected by them, "especially the Hindu nationalists," are involved in riots and "keep the communal pot boiling." He again strikes a derisory note by calling his misunderstanding of my construct "a boiling-pot theory." This is quite a travesty of my conception, which is that Institutionalized Riot Systems are composed of networks of specialists who play varied and multifarious roles in the instigation and perpetuation of communal animosities, in the enactment of riots, and in the interpretation of riots after they occur. The metaphor I have used is, as far as I know, quite different from anything anyone else has used in the study of collective violence, namely, the conceptualization of riot production as comparable to that of a grisly theatrical drama, in which there are three phases: preparation/rehearsal, performance/enactment, and interpretation/explanation. This is not a trivial one-off comment on riots, a "boiling-pot theory," but an elaborate analogy of a type that should be familiar to anthropologists and others who know the work of the great anthropologist, Victor Turner, particularly his Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors. In his own work on peaceful cities and towns in India, Varshney copies my argument by inversion as it were, claiming that they have "institutionalized peace systems." However, his use of both terms, mine and his inversion of it, lacks logic, precision, and a basis in worthwhile empirical data. But, not content to invert my argument, he has been reported in the India International Center Diary (Janauary-February 1999) to have presented, at a talk at the Centre, my original argument (incorrectly as usual) as if it were his own invention. Perhaps the Centre journal has misunderstood him, but no contradiction of his use of my concept as his own has yet appeared. At one point in the review, he makes a tortuous move from his misreading of my argument to a statement that it is "historically inaccurate" because "Hindu nationalists were not prominent in Aligarh before 1967." Here he is trying to insinuate that I am misleadingly emphasizing the important role played by what he calls "Hindu nationalists" in producing riots in Aligarh. He then cites various electoral statistics to say that this cannot be accurate because "the Hindu nationalists were not prominent in Aligarh before 1967." These electoral statistics are quite beside the point here.The plain facts are that, though many communal riots in Aligarh and elsewhere in India have involved persons and parties not part of the Sangh parivar, militant Hindus have played a central role in every single large-scale riot in Aligarh at least since 1961, however electorally strong or weak they were, and my book demonstrates it very clearly. Varshney here is acting out his own role in the communal discourse in India, namely, that of the BJP/RSS apologist who, though he is not himself a member of the Sangh parivar, chooses to ignore their undeniably central role in rehearsing, enacting, and interpreting communal riots after the fact. His statement that he agrees with me-in his words not mine-"that Hindu nationalism is a dangerous project and if it succeeds it will destroy India" is nothing but a pious, throw-away line for a person whose work virtually frees the BJP and the RSS from responsibility for the production of riots. For example, in his own book, Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life, the index contains only three references to the RSS and the VHP, of which only one includes a very brief description of these organizations, from which one learns that their "activities . include running ideological camps for the youth, schools and dispensaries for the tribals and scheduled castes, and organizations for women." We learn that their activists also do "relief work"at times of heavy floods. The Bajrang Dal, the principal organization for violence in the Sangh parivar, receives no mention at all. Varshney's review also mixes together incomprehensibly some questions and answers that are unrelated to each other, as if they undermined my arguments when they have nothing to do with them. He asks, "Why was the Congress government, in its days of nearly uncontested hegemony, unable to prevent riots?" He then answers sarcastically: "Presumably, the DMs and the SPs who, according to Brass, had been instrumental in Aligarh's intermittent stretches of peace, were not so compromised at that time." This is all totally misleading. Most governments in India, including those of the Congress and the BJP, for that matter, have been able to prevent, contain, and control riots when they chose to do so. Nor have I said that Aligarh has had "intermittent stretches of peace." Rather, there have been intermittent periods when large-scale riots did not occur, during which the riot network was only partially inactivated, but kept in readiness. Here again, Varshney completely misrepresents what I have to say, which is the opposite of what he claims I have said. At page 132, I write explicitly, concerning this period of absence of large-scale riots between 1978-80 and 1988-90, as follows: "I did not feel that there was peace, only a kind of hiatus enforced by heightened police vigilance." I also explained the absence of large-scale rioting in this period as follows: inactivation of the riot system in the absence of a political context for such rioting, and presence of political and administrative coordination. But then, somehow, Varshney has a different answer to his questions, totally irrelevant to them, but important to understanding the malicious character of his review. He says: "Commenting on the Aligarh of the 1950s, Nehru was forced to call attention to the rebirth of Muslim communalism at the AMU. Brass neglects the role of Muslim communalism in the city." This is dishonest, mendacious, and motivated. In fact, I have not neglected the role of Muslim communalism in the city. I have also drawn attention to the contribution of elements in the Muslim community, including politicians, University personnel, and AMU students in maintaining communal attitudes and in participation in riots as well. However, there is simply no doubt in my mind, amply demonstrated in my work, that the BJP/RSS has been far more deeply implicated-perhaps because it is far better organized than the Muslim network-most especially during the decade of the 1980s up to, and including especially, the great Aligarh riots of 1990-91. Varshney is here simply avoiding my main conceptual arguments concerning the process of riot production, throwing up a false statement against me and pitting me against Nehru himself in the process. Moreover, Varshney is here doing what the BJP/RSS people do: blaming the AMU, which has rarely been at the physical center of Hindu-Muslim violence, though it has often been targeted by militant Hindus and has been generally used as a justification for violence against Muslims. Varshney is here also showing his ignorance of the political geography of Aligarh, though he has a chapter on Aligarh in his own book. I have emphasized, in my book, the very sharp separation between Muslims and Muslim politics at the AMU and Muslims and Muslim politics in the old city. There have been some forms of border-crossing, as it were, but, historically, riots have been produced in the old city where there is a juxtaposition of Hindu and Muslim mohallas, not at the AMU. In contrast, in 1990-91, the militant Hindu riot system extended its range dramatically across the boundary of the Grand Trunk road and the railway line and all around the outskirts of the city in a pattern that has been revealed by me and others elsewhere, in Kanpur (by me), in Bombay by many other scholars, in Gujarat by most commentators, and so forth. The second argument Varshey criticizes, headlined in the India Today review as "Aligarh is not India," concerns the generalizability of my arguments. He quotes me correctly as follows: "The findings herein can be generalized to other parts of India and other times and places in the world." (This quotation comes from the Preface, however, not from the heart of the book where the arguments are presented in full.) He then asserts falsely that I have ignored places in India where riots have not occurred. My book indeed centers on Aligarh, though my work on riots has extended throughout north India and the Punjab in interviews, and throughout the rest of the country in my reading of both primary and secondary sources. My argument here is not that Aligarh stands for or represents all of India, which is nonsense, but that the pattern that I have described for Aligarh applies to other cities and towns in India that I know well from my own personal research. Moreover, I have presented my argument as a social science hypothesis for other scholars to test in other places in other parts of the world. Far from being an old argument recycled, my argument needs testing elsewhere. Such testing would not prove or disprove what I have described and discovered in Aligarh. But, insofar as its generalizability is concerned, this is an important question that begs for further research. For, if I am right, then most research on, and explanations for, riots, pogroms, massacres, and some genocides as well, have been not only wrong, not only false, but misleading and contributory to the perpetuation of systems of violence. Now, let me answer specificallyVarshney's question. Anyone, however, who cares to read my book can find the argument laid out carefully there in 476 pages. "Given . variations [from place to place in India in riot incidence], how can Aligarh's experience be generalised to Uttar Pradesh, let alone the rest of India?" The answer is simple: By testing my hypotheses. First, by the method of confirmation/disconfirmation, that is, by examining sites of endemic rioting to see if institutionalized riot systems can or cannot be discovered. Second, by examining the relationship between party/electoral competition and the incidence of riots in those sites. Third, by examining the consequences of different state policies toward communal riots, my argument being that where the policy of a state government is decisively opposed to communal riots and makes its opposition clear, and where interparty and/or intraparty divisions do not compromise its clarity, riots will be either prevented or contained rapidly. The recent work of my young colleague, Steven Wilkinson, confirms several of my arguments. Wilkinson has also previously questioned parts of my argument, but in an honest, forthright manner, concentrating on the issues at stake. Our discussions have, I think, influenced each other's work. Moreover, in discussions with him, I believe our mutual work is coming close to a coherent explanation of riot production, though we may still disagree on some aspects of the process. Such, however, is not the case with Varshney's work on civic engagement, which is a derivative argument from the American social science literature that has very little to do with India. It is a false and artificial transplant, which I have criticized in my book and need not repeat here. As for the alleged contradictions in my criticism of newspaper reporting on riots in India while also making use of such reports, his disparagement is also totally misleading. My accounts of riots are based heavily upon my own interviews and other primary sources. Where that has been lacking or inadequate, I have used newspaper reports in a careful and critical manner, pointing out where they appear reliable, where not, where biased. I have also criticized sharply Varshney's uncritical use of newspaper accounts of the precipitants and alleged causes of riots. Moreover, I have noted that his highly touted dataset, based solely on Times of India reporting, is inherently flawed. Furthermore, errors were introduced in coding this flawed data. An huge error was introduced, for example, into the Aligarh data, to which I alerted him through Wilkinson, which Varshney then corrected in his World Politics article with no acknowledgment to me. In short, his own data on Aligarh, on which he claims to have done research, was false. Then there is the charge concerning my so-called "intellectual schizophrenia." I suffer from no such ailment. I laid bare my own reasoning concerning riot production in India in this book and in my otherrecent works on India, and expressed my profound doubts about the enterprise of causal reasoning and analysis as it is conducted in contemporary social science. In his comments on my previous book, Theft of an Idol, Varshney wrote as follows: "Whether or not one can agree with Brass about causality, the great merit and compelling brilliance of his reasoning lies in showing so effectively why the battle over meanings matters, why such battles are as much about knowledge as about power and resources. In doing so, Brass, in this essay [in Riots and Pogroms] as well as in his recent book Theft of an Idol, forces us to re-evaluate the easy certitudes of mainstream social science, if not abandon social science altogether." Evidently, Varshney has changed his mind about my reasoning. As for my use of "correlation coefficients," which he says implicates my work in "mainstream social science," this is hardly an advanced social science method of causal analysis. It is one of the simplest numerical methods available for establishing associations between variables, from which causal analyses may or may not legitimately be inferred. I have always tended to use such elementary statistical techniques mainly to demonstrate such relationships and suggest the direction of a causal chain where it seems reasonable to say so, but I have mostly used such techniques as supplements to my own type of processual analysis. In any case,intellectual doubts about the relative merits and utilities of positivist/empiricist vs. other types of social science, historical, and anthropological research hardly constitute "intellectual schizophrenia." The most degrading half-sentence in Varshney's review is his reference to my dedication of the book to Myron Weiner, implying that my work is not consistent with Weiner's and that the dedication, therefore, is misplaced.I have noted there and elsewhere my debts to Myron, my respect and affection for him, as well as my divergence from his approach. I worked with Varshney on a festschrift for Myron, held at Notre Dame in 1999. It is from that failed collaboration with Varshney that a personal hostility has embittered and has terminated our relationship. I had ultimately to withdraw from editorial collaboration with Varshney on the publication of the conference papers because of numerous disagreements with him concerning many matters, including professional standards. The volume has not yet been produced. December 4, 2003 Paul R. Brass Professor Emeritus of Political Science and South Asian Studies University of Washington, Seattle From anisha at gmx.net Fri Dec 5 20:25:13 2003 From: anisha at gmx.net (anisha imhasly) Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2003 15:55:13 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] THE HELLOWORLD PROJECT/media release Message-ID: <07FBDF04-2733-11D8-9015-000A95914838@gmx.net> Media Release December 5, 2003 THE HELLOWORLD PROJECT / JOHANNES GEES Global media art project in Mumbai, Geneva, Rio de Janeiro and New York during the UN World Summit on the information society, by Johannes Gees. The "Helloworld Project" gives people all over the world an opportunity to project their own message onto well-known buildings and landmarks in the four cities of Mumbai, Geneva, Rio de Janeiro and New York from December 9th to 12th, 2003. All they need is Internet or SMS access. The project grew out of a cooperation between Swiss media artist Johannes Gees and the Swiss Federal Office of Cultural Affairs /Federal Department of Home Affairs. The Helloworld Project is a gift of Switzerland as the host country to the UN World Summit on the Information Society, being held in Geneva from December 10th – 12th, 2003. The "digital divide", which has opened up between industrial, emerging and third world countries and the right to freedom of expression are two of the most important issues to be discussed at this summit. The Helloworld Project goes to the heart of these issues in an attempt to combine technology and communication, language and urban landscapes in a global interactive installation. Poetry on the Jet d’Eau, dreams on the UN headquarters In India’s commercial capital Mumbai (formerly Bombay), the messages will be projected on the Air India Building on the bustling "Marine Drive" at the heart of the business district. In Geneva, the laser will be projecting on the city’s famous landmark, the 140m high water fountain Jet d’Eau. In Rio de Janeiro people will be able to read the messages on a mountainside above Ipanema Beach, on the boundary between Leblon, one of Rio’s wealthiest districts, and Vidigal, the oldest favela, or slum, of the city. In New York the messages will be beamed onto one of the most famous buildings in the world, the UN headquarters on Manhattan’s East River. At the UN summit in Geneva, the Helloworld Project will have a live webcam video-installation right next to the plenary hall. Information technology links up for a simple message In order to give as many people as possible access to the project, Gees and his team of more than 25 people – who include the Swiss SMS pioneers Minick AG as well as SWITCH – have linked up a network of internet, SMS gateways und laser projectors. Within seconds, the messages will reach one of the projectors, wherever they come from in the world. Message jockeys (editors based at swissinfo) will view the incoming messages in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Hindi, Portuguese, and Spanish and pass them on within seconds to the projectors. Commercial, sexist or racist messages, or those containing personal insults will not be projected. A message archive () on the website will store all the sent messages. Partners: The project is organised by the Federal Office for Culture (Department of Home Affairs), and supported by SRG SSR idée suisse, Migros Kulturprozent, Minick AG and Switch – the Swiss Education and Research Network. About the artist: Johannes Gees is an artist and media producer based in Zurich, Switzerland. The Helloworld Project is the second in a series of interactive installations in public space (see www.hellomrpresident.com). Facts & Figures Project Title: The Helloworld Project Concept: Johannes Gees, www.johannesgees.com Duration Tuesday, 9.12.03, to Friday, 12.12.03 Cities Mumbai, Geneva, Rio de Janeiro, New York Surface area of Projections: From 25x60 m up to 70x400 m Website: www.helloworldproject.com SMS-numbers: Mumbai: +44 7781 48 40 40 Geneva: +44 7781 48 40 10 Rio de Janeiro: +55 2188 91 55 90 New York: +44 7781 48 40 48 Cost: as for a normal SMS. Laser online: Mumbai: 18:00 – 00:00 (13:30 – 19:30 CET) Geneva: 17:00 – 23:00 CET Rio: 19:30 – 01:30 (22:30 – 04:30 CET) New York: to be announced Dec 9 on the website NB: Messages via internet or SMS can only be sent while laser is online! Languages: Arabic Chinese English French Hindi Portuguese Spanish Images will be available from the Keystone photo agency and its international partners Associated Press or European Pressphoto Agency or from the website www.helloworldproject.com For up-to-date film material please contact Anisha Imhasly, Tel +41 79 663 84 60, anisha at johannesgees.com Contact: The Helloworld Project, Johannes Gees, contact at johannesgees.com, +41 79 237 52 93 Media contact: Anisha Imhasly, anisha at johannesgees.com, +41 79 663 84 60 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 4766 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20031205/b28adaef/attachment.bin -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: helloworld_press_E.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 254738 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20031205/b28adaef/attachment.pdf -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: ext_FAQ.doc Type: application/applefile Size: 369 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20031205/b28adaef/attachment-0001.bin -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: ext_FAQ.doc Type: application/msword Size: 43520 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20031205/b28adaef/attachment.doc -------------- next part -------------- + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + THE HELLOWORLD PROJECT Anisha Imhasly Communication + PR Johannes Gees Ankerstrasse 3 8003 Zürich / Switzerland anisha at johannesgees.com phone_ +41 1 240 33 35 mobile_+41 79 663 84 60 WWW.HELLOWORLDPROJECT.COM + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 362 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20031205/b28adaef/attachment-0002.bin From kanti.kumar at oneworld.net Thu Dec 4 16:24:36 2003 From: kanti.kumar at oneworld.net (Kanti Kumar) Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2003 16:24:36 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Digital Opportunity Channel needs an Editor/Manager Message-ID: Dear Friends, OneWorld South Asia is inviting applications from South Asian nationals for the post of Digital Opportunity Channel Editor/Manager. The DOC Editor/Manager will play the lead role in relaunching the channel to make it more broad based, with greater involvement from stakeholders – both participating partners in the channel and its audience. He or she will edit the channel to begin with and subsequently hand over the editorial function to participating partners. He or she will also provide the strategic lead for all the centre's ICT-related activities, which are aimed at alleviating poverty. The post reports to the Centre Director, OneWorld South Asia. Start date: 1 January 2004 Broad responsibilities: 1. Edit, relaunch and manage the channel 2. Develop a governance structure for the channel 3. Develop funding and editorial strategies for the channel Specific responsibilities: 1. Responsible for the overall content of the channel, ensuring that it meets One World editorial standards 2. Secure the participation of partner organisations in the channel and plan their roles for the channel with the objective of handing over editorial responsibility to them 3. Plan and implement the new structure of the channel, including the positioning of the Learning Channel, in consultation with the participating partner organizations 4. Develop the governance structure of the channel by setting up the editorial and management boards 5. Act as the secretariat function for these Boards – convene regular meetings, prepare the agenda, and write the minutes. 6. Recruit, coordinate and supervise the roles of voluntary and part-time editors in the channel 7. Participate in the centre's ICT advocacy programmes and training activities 8. Conceptualise, plan and implement offline activities aimed at broadening the audience for the channel 9. Manage the project budget, develop ideas and proposals for sustaining the channel 10. Be responsible for the project report, carry out evaluation and impact assessment of the channel 11. Be responsible for the development and management of an online and offline technical support centre for partners and civil society organisations. 12. Report to OneWorld International on channel activities following the format approved by DGIS, as per the agreement between OWI and OWSA covering implementation of the DOC component of the programme. OneWorld is an equal opportunity employer. Qualifications: Essential Should be a post-graduate in a relevant stream. Experience of work in ICT-related areas in the development context is essential. Negotiating skills/experience. Experience in relationship management. Excellent writing skills. Desirable: 1. In-depth knowledge of ICT policy and advocacy 2. Qualification or experience in journalism 3. Ability to pull a team together and make them achieve desired results 4. Experience in managing budgets and financial planning 5. Marketing/fund-raising 6. Experience of NGO sector How to Apply: The post is open only to South Asian nationals. If you are interested, please forward your application before December 12, 2003 with a detailed CV to: Basheerhamad Shadrach Director OneWorld South Asia C1/22, Safdarjung Development Area New Delhi 110016 India Email: basheerhamad.shadrach at oneworld.net Kanti Kumar -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20031204/9251ca99/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From sadan at sarai.net Sat Dec 6 23:05:18 2003 From: sadan at sarai.net (sadan) Date: Sat, 6 Dec 2003 12:35:18 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Sarai Film and History workshop Message-ID: <200312061235.18411.sadan@sarai.net> Dear all, Sarai is organising a three day workshop to explore the field of 'film and history. We have a limited number of seats available for those who wish to attend the workshop. Kindly get registered by sending a mail and a brief on why you are interested to attend the workshop latest by monday,08 December 2003. send your request to sadan at sarai.net or ranita at sarai.net Thanking You, Sadan Jha. The programme schedule of the workshop is given below: Film and history workshop @ Sarai, 11-13 December 2003 Thursday, 11 December 03.30 P.M. Introduction to the workshop (Ravi Vasudevan) followed by Lecture: "The Woman who Refused to Die", Leni Reifenstahl and Historical Myth by Sabina Gadihoke 04.15 P.M. Tea 04.30 P.M.: Film: The wonderful, horrible Life of Leni Reifenstahl Friday, 12 December 10.00 A.M.-11.00A.M: Lecture: Film and history by Ravi Vasudevan 11.00 A.M. Tea Friday, 12 December Film as historical source 11.20 A.M. Shweta Sachdeva Jha, Umrao Jaan 12.00 A.M. Saswata Bhattacharya, Colonizing the clinical space: Arogyaniketan reconsidered 12.40 A.M. Nandini Chandra, History, time and innocence in the child-centric films of Bollywood (1950-1980) 01.20 P.M.-200 P.M. Lunch Break Film, postmodernism and history 02.00 P.M. Anurag Tyagi, Heritage cinema and The Hours 02.40 P.M. Debasmita Mazumdar, `Any resemblance to a person dead or alive is not coincidental’ (On Shakespeare in Love) 03.20 P.M. Anand Taneja, `The past flashes up at a moment of danger’: Walter Benjamin and Wolverine 04.00 P. M. Tea 04.30 P.M.Film Screening: Dharamputra ( Dir.Yash Chopra, 1961) OR Chhalia (Dir.Manmohan Desai, 1960). Saturday, 13 December 10.00 A.M.-11.00 A.M. Lecture: Partition in history, literature and film by Ravikant 11.00 A.M. Tea Traumatic histories: Partition and its afterlife in the cinema 11.20 A.M. Sadan Jha, Representations of mass violence: the transformation of character and landscape in Partition films 12.00 P.M. Nadim Asrar, Pakistan, Partition and Politics in Indian Cinema 12.40 P.M. Ambarien Alqadar, Reinventing the nation and denial of history: Muslims as agents of violence in Hindi Popular Cinema, 1992-2002 01.20 P.M.-02. 00 P.M. Lunch break Film and the histories of nationalism 02.00 P.M. Manoj Sharma, National movement and themes and trends of Hindi cinema of 1930s and 1940s 02.40 P.M. Irfan Ahmed, Bhagat Singh in film 03.20 P.M. Smita Banerjee, Mapping the nation via the `New Indian Woman’: Popular Hindi Cinema of the 90s and David Dhawan’s Biwi No. 1 04.00P.M. Tea 04.30 P.M. Lecture: Images of terrorism and the simulated documentary by Shuddhabrata Sengupta 05.30 P.M. Film screening: The Crying Game (Dir. Neil Jordan, 1992) OR Ceremony (Nagisa Oshima). _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From sandipan at molbio.unizh.ch Fri Dec 5 19:16:55 2003 From: sandipan at molbio.unizh.ch (Sandipan Chatterjee) Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2003 14:46:55 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] On a lighter note... Message-ID: These are from a book called Disorder in the American Courts, and are things people actually said in court taken down and published by court reporters... Q: Are you sexually active? A: No, I just lie there. __________________________________ Q: What is your date of birth? A: July 15th. Q: What year? A: Every year. ______________________________________ Q: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact? A: Gucci sweats and Reeboks. ______________________________________ Q: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all? A: Yes. Q: And in what ways does it affect your memory? A: I forget. Q: You forget? Can you give us an example of something that you've forgotten? _____________________________________ Q: How old is your son, the one living with you? A: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can't remember which. Q: How long has he lived with you? A: Forty-five years. _____________________________________ Q: What was the first thing your husband said to you when he woke up that morning? A: He said, "Where am I, Cathy?" Q: And why did that upset you? A: My name is Susan. ______________________________________ Q: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning? A: Did you actually pass the bar exam? ___________________________________ Q: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he? _____________________________________ Q: Were you present when your picture was taken? ______________________________________ Q: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th? A: Yes. Q: And what were you doing at that time? ______________________________________ Q: She had three children, right? A: Yes. Q: How many were boys? A: None. Q: Were there any girls? ______________________________________ Q: How was your first marriage terminated? A: By death. Q: And by whose death was it terminated? ______________________________________ Q: Can you describe the individual? A: He was about medium height and had a beard. Q: Was this a male, or a female? ______________________________________ Q: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney? A: No, this is how I dress when I go to work. ______________________________________ Q: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people? A: All my autopsies are performed on dead people. ______________________________________ Q: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to? A: Oral. ______________________________________ Q: Do you recall the time that you examined the body? A: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m. Q: And Mr. Dennington was dead at the time? A: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy. ______________________________________ Q: Are you qualified to give a urine sample? ______________________________________ Q: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse? A: No. Q: Did you check for blood pressure? A: No. Q: Did you check for breathing? A: No. Q: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy? A: No. Q: How can you be so sure, Doctor? A: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar. Q: But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless? A: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law somewhere. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20031205/3f0555a6/attachment.html From aiindex at mnet.fr Sun Dec 7 23:55:40 2003 From: aiindex at mnet.fr (Harsh Kapoor) Date: Sun, 7 Dec 2003 19:25:40 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Islam, the Mediterranean and the Rise of Capitalism (Banaji) Message-ID: Islam, the Mediterranean and the Rise of Capitalism by Jairus Banaji [November 2003] http://www.sacw.net/left/AmsterdamJB.pdf [Paper presented to the Conference on 'Theory as history: Ernest Mandel's Historical Analysis of World Capitalism', Amsterdam, 10-11th November, 2003} From joy at sarai.net Thu Dec 11 03:14:21 2003 From: joy at sarai.net (Mrityunjoy Chatterjee) Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 03:14:21 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Taslima & book Message-ID: <5.1.0.14.0.20031211030637.00a97160@mail.sarai.net> Dear all, I was reading an interview [Aajkaal, 9th December, 2003, Calcutta] with a famous Bengali author Sunil Ganguli regarding the Taslima Nasrin's book. Though I am not convinced by his arguments but I am curious to know few things. He talks of an event in Bangalor few years back, where 11 people were killed in a riot on a story called "Mohammed, the stupid". Thus he justifies the ban as a way to prevent the violence. And he claims that there were information about growing anger within Muslim community in Calcutta, specially Taslima's book came during Ramzan. So by banning the book state prevented the possible violence. I am trying to unpack this illustration in parts. Here is an author who uses objectionable words about some one or a group of people. And there is a possibility of violence due to the words and there are examples in past of such cases. There are possible instigating agencies that can benefit from violence, inside or outside state. There is no public domain or space for commons to take collective decisions. Decisions are structurally taken by representatives. I am just curious to know, what can be other possible methods to restrain the author or the consequences? Even after banning the book riot might happen or it might rather instigate. So I am not convinced by Sunil's argument. One more question, when we talk about freedom of expression against any form of physical violence don't we forget to think about violence of gestures, language, attitude etc. which comes broadly under forms of expression? Best Joy From monica at sarai.net Thu Dec 11 22:16:39 2003 From: monica at sarai.net (Monica Narula) Date: Thu, 11 Dec 2003 22:16:39 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Distributed creativity on prc@sarai.net Message-ID: "This week Sarai.net will be co-hosting an online forum, Distributed Creativity, with Eyebeam, New York's non-profit center for digital arts and new media. The topic, "Mod the Market: Innovations in Commerce," will be on the (prc, and hopefully commons-law) list and address issues in the context of network technologies, opensource movements and how innovations in these fields affect ideas and realities of the market. This nomadic forum has been traveling from California to New York to Ireland to Australia via co-hosts Creative Commons, DATA, Rhizome, Fibreculture and has now arrived in Delhi at Sarai.net. Please feel free to join in the conversation, by joining prc at sarai.net (https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/prc). For more information on Eyebeam or forum participants, go to: http://www.eyebeam.org/distributedcreativity. " -- Monica Narula Sarai, CSDS 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 www.sarai.net From adriaan at a3aan.org Wed Dec 10 17:29:46 2003 From: adriaan at a3aan.org (adriaan) Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 22:59:46 +1100 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] taste-E.org: electronic arts portal Message-ID: <006701c3bf15$22e7c960$969c17cb@mei> Get the flavor of electronic arts at taste-E.org! Whether you're a new media arts researcher, a curator, artist, or just want to know more about the electronic arts, you're bound to find what you're looking for at taste-E.org. Taste-E.org is a frequently updated and ever-growing portal to websites related to the electronic arts. Focused on the intersection of arts, technology, and science (interactive art, robotic art, ARTificial life, etc.) taste-E.org features websites of leading artists, artist collectives, institutions, and festivals, (online) communities, ezines and books from around the world. Brief and to the point, taste-E.org is an ideal resource for everyone involved or interested in the electronic arts. Please contact us if you have any suggestions for websites or books to be listed on taste-E.org. http://www.taste-e.org Adriaan Stellingwerff Editor taste-E.org http://www.taste-e.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20031210/b331a489/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From abirbazaz at rediffmail.com Fri Dec 12 23:20:06 2003 From: abirbazaz at rediffmail.com (abir bazaz) Date: 12 Dec 2003 17:50:06 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Opening A New Discourse in Kashmir Message-ID: <20031212175006.27367.qmail@webmail9.rediffmail.com> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20031212/8e961786/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- Note: Forwarded message attached -- Orignal Message -- From: Urahmad at aol.com To: abirbazaz at rediffmail.com Subject: please forward: Opening A New Discourse in Kashmir -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: Urahmad at aol.com Subject: please forward: Opening A New Discourse in Kashmir Date: no date Size: 23320 Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20031212/8e961786/attachment.mht -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: Urahmad at aol.com Subject: please forward: Opening A New Discourse in Kashmir Date: no date Size: 23320 Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20031212/8e961786/attachment-0001.mht From ambarien at yahoo.co.uk Wed Dec 17 10:16:04 2003 From: ambarien at yahoo.co.uk (=?iso-8859-1?q?ambarien=20qadar?=) Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2003 04:46:04 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Film screening: The City Beautiful Message-ID: <20031217044604.21201.qmail@web25010.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> You are cordially invited to the screening of ‘The City Beautiful’, a documentary by Rahul Roy Venue: Main Auditorium, India International Centre, New Delhi Date: 18 Dec 2003 Time: 6:30 PM Synopsis: The City Beautiful, 2003, 78 minutes: Sunder Nagri (Beautiful City) is a small working class colony on the margins of India’s capital city, Delhi. Most families residing here come from a community of weavers. The last ten years have seen a gradual disintegration of the handloom tradition of this community under the globalisation regime. The families have to cope with change as well as reinvent themselves to eke out a living. The City Beautiful is the story of two families struggling to make sense of a world, which keeps pushing them to the margins. Radha and Bal Krishan are at a critical point in their relationship. Bal Krishan is underemployed and constantly cheated. They are in disagreement about Radha going out to work. However, through all their ups and downs they retain the ability to laugh. Shakuntla and Hira Lal hardly communicate. They live under one roof with their children but are locked in their own sense of personal tragedies. The film has been supported by UNIFEM. Festivals: The Leipzig International Documentary Festival, 2003, Germany Original Title: Sunder Nagri English Title: The City Beautiful Duration: 78 Minutes Format: Betacam SP/DVCAM Director/Camera: Rahul Roy Editor: Reena Mohan Script: Rahul Roy/Saba Dewan/Reena Mohan Sound: Asheesh Pandya Contact: Rahul Roy, A-19, Gulmohar Park, New Delhi 110049. India Tel: 91-11-26515161. Fax: 91-11-26960947. Email: khel at vsnl.com --------------------------------- BT Yahoo! Broadband - Save £80 when you order online today. Hurry! Offer ends 21st December 2003. The way the internet was meant to be. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20031217/39edd9cc/attachment.html From saygulnemer at superonline.com Tue Dec 16 21:12:06 2003 From: saygulnemer at superonline.com (saygulnemer) Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 17:42:06 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Unocal Oil Company adviser named US envoy to Afghanistan Message-ID: <000601c3c3eb$2e140260$e20c83d9@saygul> Dear Sirs, We as the SAYGUL NEMER INTERNATIONAL FORWARDING & TRADE CO., LTD. have been providing international forwarding , customs clearance and storage services to import and export companies since 1986. Our company was located in Turkey. Our company offers continuous transport services by road , rail and sea , as well as project forwarding, container shipping services and transhipments via IRAN , especially to Turkish republics , Middle East. Russia, Europe and, the Far East, America and the rest of the World. Our primary goal is comprised of complete forwarding services free from delays and damages. In order to pursue our aims, we have established a liaison office in Asgabat/Turkmenistan in 1992. Similarly , our agencies in Iran and Ukraine assist us in the follow up and completion of all forwarding and shipping procedures in order to eliminate any possible delays. We are capable of fulfilling all services of importing and would like to offer forwarding , customs clearance and storage services to import and export companies. Please find below all of our references for our above activities. REFERENCES 1)TEXTILE COTTON COMPANY ITALY 2)COLGATE & PALMOLIVE TURKEY 3)PROCTER & GAMBLE TURKEY 4)MARSA KJS TURKEY 5)BOUYGUES FRANCE 6)DALAN KIMYA ENDUSTRI A.S. TURKEY 7)NURGUN GROUP AZERBAICAN 8)LAFARGE GROUP TURKEY 9)KEFAYET CO.LTD. AFGHANISTAN 10)ÜLKER A.Ş. TURKEY We would like to have mutual beneficial business opportunity with your respectful company. So, we propose you to take place in your transportation with our quality service and competitive prices if you need transportation on the following routes. The details of routes: Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Jordan, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Afganisthan. Furthermore, we are able to provide transportation service to the European Countries and Balcan Countries. Please take into consideration that our mission is to provide our customer first class service with competitive prices and prompt delivery. We are looking forward to hearing from you soon. Best Regards Ersin YELİMGİL PC. The details of our company is as mentioned below. Name: Saygul Nemer International Forwarding Company Address: Abidinpaşa Caddesi, Abdül Kadir Azınç İşhanı Kat:1 N:1 Adana/Turkey Tel: 00-90-322-352 28 34 Fax: 00-90-322-352 56 23 e-mail:saygulnemer at superonline.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20031216/81c8607c/attachment.html From coolzanny at hotmail.com Tue Dec 16 19:29:17 2003 From: coolzanny at hotmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 19:29:17 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Addicted to War Message-ID: Dear All, I am forwarding this mail regarding a wonderful book called Addicted to War. Please browse through the website www.addictedtowar.com Earthcare Books is coming out with the Indian Edition of this book which will soon be available. Organizations and Individuals who wish to buy this book in bulk please contact earthcarebooks at vsnl.com Best wishes, Zainab Bawa >From: "Bharat Mansata" >To: coolzanny at hotmail.com >Subject: Condensed ATW offer >Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2003 18:55:21 +0000 > _________________________________________________________________ He's the fastest Indian! Will he make it to F1? http://server1.msn.co.in/sp03/tataracing/index.asp Keep up with NK! -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: "Bharat Mansata" Subject: Condensed ATW offer Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2003 18:55:21 +0000 Size: 6841 Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20031216/34347e19/attachment.mht From zest_india at yahoo.co.in Tue Dec 16 22:20:23 2003 From: zest_india at yahoo.co.in (=?iso-8859-1?q?Shivam=20Vij?=) Date: Tue, 16 Dec 2003 16:50:23 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] The media's role in the electoral process Message-ID: <20031216165023.52828.qmail@web8207.mail.in.yahoo.com> The media plays a very important role in the electoral process. We developed a symbiotic relationship with the media in Gujarat and J&K elections: AN Jha, Deputy Election Commissioner of India, in Interview with Shivam Vij See http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web21021416617Hoot70711%20PM996&pn=1 Yahoo! India Mobile: Ringtones, Wallpapers, Picture Messages and more.Download now. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20031216/d989d173/attachment.html From zest_india at yahoo.co.in Fri Dec 19 16:34:06 2003 From: zest_india at yahoo.co.in (=?iso-8859-1?q?Shivam=20Vij?=) Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2003 11:04:06 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Zest for Life Message-ID: <20031219110406.96881.qmail@web8203.mail.in.yahoo.com> Hi! On 25 December, the Zest Reading Group will celebrate its first anniversary. The Group: embers of the Zest Reading Group exchange good reading material from the Web. One mail is circulated daily. Did you come across a terrific article on sports or economy, art or technology, literature or politics, media or society, defence or offence? Just copy and paste it to zest-india at yahoogroups.com! A random sample of the titles of our messages will give you an idea of the quality reading exchanged via ZEST: Five Days with V.S. Naipaul; Nuke Age II; The New York Times on Ms. Mayawati; Vikram Seth in Doon School; Sexy Man from Moradabad; Evangelism in Kashmir; Matrix Reanalysed; Maths and Me; Science and Me; Amartya Sen: A Brief Autobiography; For the last generation that grew up with Doordarshan; The jobs Britain stole from the Asian subcontinent 200 years ago are being returned; On Anita Desai; Amitav Ghosh on Agha Shahid Ali; Abba jaan! Main dekh sakta hoon!; The ABC of OBC angst; Women in Ancient India; The Baghdad Blogger; Return Train to Pakistan; For Lucknow scribes happy days are here again; The Food Of Love; Gujarat learns English; Paul R. Brass’ response to Ashutosh Varshney’s scathing review of his book; Why Mizoram is Lyngdoh’s favourite state; Thoughts On Coffee The Members: We have over 200 members, mostly Indians, from all parts of the world. They include students, journalists, engineers, academics and software professionals. The Membership: Zest does not believe in flooding your mailbox. We circulate "a mail a day," which means you will receive one mail every day under both the 'daily digest' and 'individual emails' options. We strongly recommend the latter. Archives: Our archives have so far been available to non-members as well, but shall cease to do so from December 25, when we turn one. If you want to be a member without receiving any mails, you can choose the 'no email' option. In this case you can visit the group homepage off and on and read our articles there: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/zest-india The Moderator: The Zest Reading Group is moderated by Shivam Vij, an undergraduate student at St. Stephen's College, Delhi University. Click here to join: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/zest-india/join Give it a try, you can always unsubscribe if you don't like it. See you there! Yahoo! India Mobile: Ringtones, Wallpapers, Picture Messages and more.Download now. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20031219/1011d7d4/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From shai at filterindia.com Fri Dec 19 15:18:44 2003 From: shai at filterindia.com (shai at filterindia.com) Date: Fri, 19 Dec 2003 15:18:44 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] EXPERIMENTA Call for Entries - pls fwd Message-ID: CALL FOR ENTRIES EXPERIMENTA 2004 The 2nd International festival for experimental film in India EXPERIMENTA The 2nd International festival for experimental film in India, is seeking short experimental films made in any year in India, for exhibition at EXPERIMENTA March 2004 to be held in Bombay & New Delhi. Home movies, found footage, experimental/fine art films, documentary, non-fiction, diary, and animation genres are welcome. Innovative, cutting edge & non traditional work is encouraged. EXPERIMENTA is a collaborative effort of Filter India, British Council India UK, Max Mueller Bhavan India, Light Reading UK and the LUX UK. FOR MORE ABOUT EXPERIMENTA: www.filterindia.com DOWNLOAD ENTRY FORM Entry Guidelines: 1) Final exhibition formats are 16mm & 35mm only; hence digital/video works are NOT admissible. 2) For preview purposes, film submissions may be made on Mini-DV, VHS (NTSC/PAL) or DVD only. Please do NOT send film prints. The master film print will be requested for exhibition only after final selection. 3) Label preview copy with your name, address, phone number, email address, title of work, date of completion, projection speed, whether sound or silent, cueing instructions, and duration. 4) All submissions in languages other than English must be subtitled in English - only if language is central to the film's content. 5) Final deadline for receipt of all submissions is 31 January 2004. No Extensions will be considered. 6) Films completed in any year up to the above deadline are admissible. 7) The festival reserves the right to excerpt programmed works for television and other promotional purposes. 8) All preview tapes will be added to the festival’s archives unless accompanied by a self-addressed stamped envelope and a request for return. 9) To submit more than one tape, please make a copy of the entry form for each submission. 10) Please send a legibly completed entry form and the following enclosures to the festival: - Preview Copy - Completed Entry Form - Note on Filmmaker 11) Final selections will be made in February 2004. Send films to: EXPERIMENTA 2004 FILTER, #13, 5th floor, ‘Esperanca’, S.B.S. Marg, Colaba, Bombay 400005 Email: filter at filterindia.com/filter_india at yahoo.co.in _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From khadeejaarif1 at rediffmail.com Sun Dec 21 11:44:31 2003 From: khadeejaarif1 at rediffmail.com (khadeeja arif) Date: 21 Dec 2003 06:14:31 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Zakir Nagar Message-ID: <20031221061431.32236.qmail@mailweb33.rediffmail.com> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20031221/d94bcacb/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- India Toady Beauty Contast 18thJULY “My brother took me to India Today Beauty Contest. ,,,,, I was little nervous but then every thing was O.K. end up winning second prize”. Shameem tells as she also brings out her sash from an old trunk. Modelling is her fist choice. But she could not get the right offer. Maher Jessie is her role model. Shameem keeps her sash very carefully. “I also got an offer in acting for the serial Boom Boom Shakalaka .but couldn’t go to Bombay” laments Shameem. Shameem’s parents never have had any problem with Shameem’s choice of being a model. They could not encourage her because of neighbors and relatives. I get tea once again. Tea was never a miss during our conversations. Shameem’s mother is little too found of sugar. “Baipaasha Basu jaise role to mujeh kabhi bhi mil sakte hain .lakin mujeh to hamesha achche roles hi karne hai” .Kusum and Pererna remains her top favorites. First Salary 19th July Shameem still remembers her joy when she got her first salary. Her first job was in a cyber café where she got one thousand rupees as her monthly salary. She took her mother to shop, got a pair of jeans for her brother and a hair dye for Nasreen,her elder sister. The excitement of being financially independent and helping her family is clearly visible on her face as she tells me about her first salary. “I left that job because I was the only woman there.” Doing a course in computer really helped Shameem. Shameem is really angry with her tailor. He has already spoiled two Salwaar Kameez of hers. The wall in the room is breaking up but Aishwarya’s poster keeps smiling .. Naheed, Shameem’s friend is getting married. Shameem’s office is nearby. She prefers not to carry a cell phone with her: “cell phone is a jhanjhat”. From l_murthy at yahoo.com Sun Dec 21 11:56:06 2003 From: l_murthy at yahoo.com (Laxmi Murthy) Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2003 22:26:06 -0800 (PST) Subject: [Reader-list] Invitation:Release of Final Report--International Initiative for Justice in Gujarat (IIJG) Message-ID: <20031221062606.30634.qmail@web40605.mail.yahoo.com> Invitation to the Release of the Final Report of the International Initiative for Justice in Gujarat (IIJG) THREATENED EXISTENCE: A Feminist Analysis of the Genocide In Gujarat Wednesday, 24 December, 2003. 3.30 pm. Indian Women�s Press Corps, 5 Windsor Place, Near Hotel Meridien, New Delhi. The IIJG came into being to develop a feminist critique of justice and democratic governance in the context of the genocide of Muslims in Gujarat last year. The final report of the Initiative, Threatened Existence will be released in New Delhi by an eminent panel comprising : Leila Seth, first woman judge of the Delhi High Court, and the first woman Chief Justice of a state High Court (Himachal Pradesh) � who will speak on the urgent need for the equal and just application of the rule of law on all citizens of the country. Shabana Azmi, well known actor and former MP, who will speak on increased communalism in our times. Urvashi Butalia, feminist activist and publisher, who will focus on the specific impact of increased communalism on women. The gathering will also be addressed by two panellists of the IIJG, Farah Naqvi and Uma Chakravarti. � Threatened Existence is a comprehensive document based on hundreds of testimonies, eyewitness accounts and other relevant information. It makes the following major points: � Twenty two months after the massacres of February/March 2002, the violence continues �in different and frightening forms with long-term consequences on the lives of all members of the Muslim community particularly women�� � Sexual violence is central to the Hindutva project in Gujarat, and the use of rape and sexual assault, occurred with the knowledge of highly placed State actors. � The ongoing persecution of the Muslim community constitutes Crimes against Humanity under International Law. PLEASE DO JOIN US FOR THE RELEASE EVENT. For as the report states in the conclusion, "This report can operate as a reflection on the inadequacy of existing processes - both legal and otherwise - to provide justice and redress to victims� we need to understand the genocidal nature of the Hindutva project so as to emphasize the critical responsibility of intervention that lies with both, civil society and the State." The panelists of the IIJG were feminist jurists, activists, lawyers, writers and academics from all over the world: Anissa Helie (Algeria/France), Gabriela Mischkowski (Germany), Nira Yuval-Davis (UK), Rhonda Copelon (USA), Sunila Abeysekara (Sri Lanka), Farah Naqvi (India), Meera Velayudan (India), Uma Chakravarti (India) and Vahida Nainar (India). The International Initiative for Justice in Gujarat and was set up by: Citizen�s Initiative (Ahmedabad), People�s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL)-Shanti Abhiyan (Baroda), Communalism Combat, Aawaaz-e-Niswaan, Forum Against Oppression of Women (FAOW) and Stree Sangam (Bombay), Saheli, Jagori, Sama, and Nirantar (Delhi), and Organised Lesbian Alliance for Visibility and Action (OLAVA, Pune). --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20031220/5eca6af1/attachment.html From ravikant at sarai.net Tue Dec 23 11:33:56 2003 From: ravikant at sarai.net (ravikant) Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2003 11:33:56 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] convergence, civic style Message-ID: <200312231133.56281.ravikant@sarai.net> The columnist's tone is curious, but somebody in the mainstream media finally takes note of the complex mesh of mass media and mass politics in our times. Enjoy! Ravikant/Jeebesh From: http://www.hindu.com/mag/2003/12/21/stories/2003122100020300.htm The Hindu/Media Matters Expression of protests SEVANTI NINAN THE Indian Express campaign on an IIT-educated engineer who wrote to the Prime Minister to complain of corruption on the Golden Quadrilateral highway project and was murdered roughly a year later, has been a masterly piece of media engineering. It judiciously combined tabloid techniques with online petitioning, marrying an outpouring of public sentiment online with generous media space in print. It tapped the growing middle class anger with corruption, and civil society's urge to tackle the warts that blot India's emergence as a progressive, modern nation. It used the IIT angle to the hilt, interviewing the stars in the alumni community, it also drew out and played upon a range of other angles which lent poignancy to the story, notably the poor-village-boy-from-Bihar angle and the pending whistleblower legislation. It hammered away till public pressure built up and the system felt compelled to respond, bit by bit. When the spread of computer culture combines with the growth of online activism to broad-base both altruism and protest, what you get is the mainstreaming of activism, making it something no longer confined to a radial fringe. The gizmo, which may have been bought primarily as an educational tool and to e-mail non-resident relatives, including children studying abroad, also allows the educated, impatient Indian to find an outlet for his frustration at the inadequacies of the system. It is becoming a personal medium, which creates its own media. Conversely, it allows the non-resident Indian, who never quite sheds his homesickness, to have a sense of political participation back in his home country. The Satyendra Dubey petition on petitiononline.com was started by an Indian in Tokyo. This mainstreaming of activism has a parallel in the gathering of anti-war sentiment before the invasion of Iraq. The scale of anti-war protest across nations, put by some at 10 million, and mobilised to a great extent over the Internet, showed that the peace movement was no longer confined to those who used to be derisively called peaceniks. Protesters are no longer just the proverbial long-haired. Nor were protests only localised. This one became an international peace movement, and a co-ordinated one at that. More than one commentary on the Net at that time noted that the peace movement had become mainstream, middle-class and middle-of-the-road. Keith Suter wrote on onlineopinion.com.au, "It is now respectable and its values permeate all sections of society. There has been a quiet social transformation." Among the reasons he lists for why this has happened is combat fatigue in the U.S., the knowledge that previous wars against Iraq and in Afghanistan have solved nothing. There is also an increased interest in the roots of war and more imaginative ways of settling disputes. In much the same way, the civil society mobilisation that is today abundantly in evidence in India has grown out of the realisation that people need to take problem-solving in governance into their own hands, mobilising the courts if necessary, as well as the Internet as a medium. A Hyderabad-based organisation Loksatta, which is trying to catalyse electoral reform, is able to mobilise support from all over the country through the Net. A keen bunch of Right to Information activists based in Pune has created the Mahadhikar mailing list, which keeps the movement active and inclusive. The Right to Food activism of Jean Dreze, Aruna Roy and others uses the Internet to nurture a support group drawn from a large catchment area. There are many more examples. The Net also provides an outlet at a time when financial self-sufficiency is allowing the middle classes to look outward and consider altruism. The consuming Indian would also like to be a caring Indian. The Internet caters to that, it helps to complete the feel-good sentiment that we've been hearing so much of these days. The corollary to that is that the buying Indian is increasingly becoming an angry Indian, more demanding in his quality of civic life, less tolerant of corruption and shoddy government services. Page Three's party-going Nafisa Ali is also an activist. The constituencies of the Indian Express and the Times of India are converging. Apart from the Internet the other fillip to the expression of civil society mobilisation and protest comes from certain kinds of television talk shows. NDTV is becoming the TV twin of the Indian Express; they increasingly complement each other. Satyendra's brother Dhananjay is presented on "We the People", being asked what he thinks would be the best tribute to his brother. Just justice, he replies. Barkha Dutt's "will you make a commitment right now on this show" type haranguing of politicians and public servants is of a piece with the Express's approach: they are the gung-ho, accountability-demanding media brigade. They too help to catalyse the mainstreaming of activism. The citizen sits in that studio, gets to express herself, gets applauded, and goes home feeling chuffed. Ditto same, as they would say, for the instant messagers whose anguish filled page-fulls over a fortnight of the Express's Satyendra Dubey campaign. Given how much newspaper readers always complain that their letters never get published, the Express's current editorial policy of making over a page or half page for reader's views on emotive issues must go down well with its constituency. Thus the new answer to the question, who is the media, is that increasingly it is the public, the readers and viewers and online petitioners themselves. They are getting increasing media space, and the opportunity to queer the pitch in a public debate. You have a gradual broad basing of the media itself. This kind of activism is a marketable proposition. The Indian Express and NDTV certainly realise that, as does Petitions Online, which hosted the petition for justice for Satyendra Dubey. It is a sponsored site. You have to admire their selling line: "We give you the ancient methods of grassroots democracy, combined with the latest digital networked communications, running live and free 24 hours a day." Internet-enabled populism then is forging a new public-created media, which is distinct from private media and public service broadcasting. --------------- From ravikant at sarai.net Tue Dec 23 22:59:47 2003 From: ravikant at sarai.net (ravikant at sarai.net) Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2003 18:29:47 +0100 (CET) Subject: [Reader-list] convergence, civic style In-Reply-To: <200312231133.56281.ravikant@sarai.net> References: <200312231133.56281.ravikant@sarai.net> Message-ID: <60632.210.7.79.44.1072200587.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> This is a follow up on Sevanti Ninan's piece, especially for those who wish to dig deeper on the relationship between newspaper and internet. The following chapter is part of a larger study, available online at: http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/~keckem/research.html Enjoy and circulate ravikant An excerpt: Impact of Internet on Journalism: the Newspaper Metaphor By Erin Keck In 1998, Web usability expert Jakob Nielsen predicted that legacy media such as newspapers and magazines would be replaced by integrated Internet packages of text, video, and reference materials between 2003 and 2008. Microsoft CEO Bill Gates predicted in 1999 that newspapers would stop making print editions by 2018. These are only two of many forecasts of the death of newspapers, a form of "mediacide," in the wake of the popularization of the Internet in the past decade. Some of these estimates must be reined in significantly since the jubilant optimism of the Internet was crushed by the failure of many dot-com companies in 2000. Now it appears that online news will not be an agent of mediacide replacing print news as many have predicted. More likely, it is going through a period of "mediamorphosis" to become a complementary medium to traditional newspapers. However, online journalism cannot rely on traditional models of news production, and must find its own style based on the newspaper metaphor. This paper will examine the mediamorphosis phenomenon and how it has created a newspaper metaphor for online journalism that can be beneficial for traditional newspapers and new media.... From isast at well.com Wed Dec 24 05:55:23 2003 From: isast at well.com (LEONARDO (mk)) Date: Tue, 23 Dec 2003 16:25:23 -0800 Subject: [Reader-list] Leonardo/ISAST involved in ISEA 2006 in San Jose, CA Message-ID: To: Leonardo Network From: Roger Malina, Chair, Leonardo/ISAST Re: Leonardo/ISAST collaboration with ISEA 2006 San Jose, California, USA We are pleased to inform the Leonardo network of our involvement in the ISEA 2006 conference. As explained in the attached press release, the city of San Jose has been selected by ISEA to host the 2006 conference. Steve Dietz will serve as the Symposium Director. Leonardo/ISAST, under the leadership of ISAST Advisory Board chair Beverly Reiser, will collaborate with the 2006 ISEA Symposium in a number of areas including: a) Facilitating of the Pacific Rim New Media Centers summit in connection with the Leonardo Global Crossings (Cultural Roots of Globalization) project. b) Publications dedicated to documenting the work of emerging artists and of new media programs internationally. The publications will be produced as part of the Leonardo Experimental Publishing Project under the direction of Pamela Grant Ryan. Leonardo/ISAST welcomes involvement and suggestions from the members of the Leonardo network. Leonardo/The International Society for the Arts, Sciences, and Technology (ISAST) serves the international arts community by promoting and documenting work at the intersection of the arts, sciences, and technology, and by encouraging and stimulating collaboration between artists, scientists, and technologists. For further information, go to . From kanti.kumar at oneworld.net Wed Dec 24 16:51:03 2003 From: kanti.kumar at oneworld.net (Kanti Kumar) Date: Wed, 24 Dec 2003 16:21:03 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] What's new at Digital Opportunity Channel Message-ID: <146550-220031232410513876@oneworld.net> What's New at Digital Opportunity Channel http://www.digitalopportunity.org ********************************* Latest News http://www.digitalopportunity.org/article/archive/1138 ********************************* HOW MAURITIUS GOT A COMPUTER REVOLUTION --------------------------------------- With an initial input of just $2,500 - the price of a second-hand Toyota car - Mauritius has set up a computer network aimed at transforming the tiny Indian Ocean country into a cyber island. http://www.digitalopportunity.org/link/gotoarticle/addhit/75820/1138/909 ONLINE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION UNDER THREAT IN VIETNAM ---------------------------------------------------- A report indicates that recent actions by the Vietnamese government have left online "freedom of expression under threat." The Amnesty International survey cited a number of reasons to be "increasingly concerned about human rights in cyberspace for people in Vietnam, especially the fundamental rights to freedom of expression, information, peaceful assembly and the right to privacy." http://www.digitalopportunity.org/link/gotoarticle/addhit/75749/1138/909 RADIO SERIES MAKES THE LINKS ---------------------------- This week, Making The Links Radio and the Canadian International Development Agency released Common Voices, a 10-part series exploring development issues that connect Canadians to people and struggles across the globe. All available online. http://www.digitalopportunity.org/link/gotoarticle/addhit/75748/1138/909 CHINESE CYBERDISSIDENT ARRESTED ------------------------------- Computer firm employee Zhang Shengqi has been arrested for publishing articles on the Internet in support of the banned Christian church. Robert M�rd, secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders, said, "He has been accused of divulging state secrets, when in fact he only published articles on the government crackdown on his religious community." http://www.digitalopportunity.org/link/gotoarticle/addhit/75657/1138/909 UK WANTS INTERNET ACCESS FOR ALL BY 2008 ---------------------------------------- UK Trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt has announced a plan pledging that every home in Britain will have access to online services within the next five years. Currently about 50 percent of UK households have access to the Internet, mainly through dial-up connections. The government is planning to form a digital Inclusion Panel consisting of members of the private and public sectors to advise the government on ways to meet the target. http://www.digitalopportunity.org/link/gotoarticle/addhit/75654/1138/909 ARMED WITH FACTS, NIGERIA VILLAGERS WORK TO HALT SPREAD OF HIV/AIDS -------------------------------------------------------------------- No one is sure just how many people have died due to HIV/AIDS in the Nigerian town of Mgbala Agwa, but to the 15,000 people who live here, the deaths are adding up. The rising death rate here, as well as across sub-Saharan Africa, convinced a Lagos-based businessman and coordinator of the community's Youth Forum, that people needed to get the facts about the disease. http://www.digitalopportunity.org/link/gotoarticle/addhit/75563/1138/909 ********************************* Special Coverage: Information Society & WSIS http://www.digitalopportunity.org/section/dochannel/wsis ********************************* POSTCARD FROM WSIS - EVERYBODY KNOWS THIS IS NOWHERE ---------------------------------------------------- The WSIS process was born in 1998 at an ITU plenipotentiary meeting where it was nodded through as the last item on the agenda. Few can have imagined that it would result in a meeting of the kind that has just taken place, writes Russell Southwood from http://www.balancingact-africa.com/. http://www.digitalopportunity.org/link/gotoarticle/addhit/75656/4732/909 SHAPING INFORMATION SOCIEITES FOR HUMAN NEEDS --------------------------------------------- This is the 'alternative' declaration adopted by civil society representatives on the sidelines of the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva. The declaration was needed because the official process had constantly been disillusioning and frustrating, said civil society representatives at a conference. http://www.digitalopportunity.org/link/gotoarticle/addhit/75577/4732/909 ********************************* Get Involved http://www.digitalopportunity.org/article/archive/1112 ********************************* DONATE TO HELP PAMBAZUKA NEWS CHANGE AFRICA ------------------------------------------- Pambazuka News, a weekly electronic newsletter for social justice in Africa, is seeking donations from its patrons. Five US dollars pay for an organisation in Africa to receive free the newsletter, which is published by Fahamu in association with SANGONeT. http://www.digitalopportunity.org/link/gotoarticle/addhit/75571/1112/909 ********************************* Partner News http://www.digitalopportunity.org/article/archive/4678 ********************************* REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS LAUNCHES WEBSITE TO ENSURE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Damocles Network, the legal arm of Reporters Without Borders, is launching a new site in French and English entitled Toolbox. Designed for professionals but also for the use of anyone interested in freedom of expression, www.damocles.org carries basic texts that guarantee press freedom, along with extracts from codes of ethics. http://www.digitalopportunity.org/link/gotoarticle/addhit/75655/4678/909 Digital Opportunity Channel http://www.digitalopportunity.org Promoting Digital Opportunities for All Editor: Kanti Kumar Email: kanti.kumar at oneworld.net You can manage your email digest subscriptions with Digital Opportunity Channel and OneWorld by visiting: http://www.digitalopportunity.org/bulkmail/subscriptionlist/ You will need to log in with your nickname and password, or register for (free) OneWorld/Digital Opportunity Channel membership. _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From monica at sarai.net Sat Dec 27 12:51:33 2003 From: monica at sarai.net (Monica Narula) Date: Sat, 27 Dec 2003 12:51:33 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Digital Imprimatur Message-ID: A detailed and fascinating analysis of the future of the internet when many of the emerging technologies of identification and control already being used become standard platforms. The essay is written by John Walker, described in a newsweek article as "The hackerish founder of the software firm Autodesk, now retired to Switzerland to work on personal projects of his choosing". http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/digital-imprimatur/ -- Monica Narula Sarai, CSDS 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110 054 www.sarai.net