From beate at zurwehme.org Sat Apr 1 00:36:14 2006 From: beate at zurwehme.org (beate zurwehme) Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2006 21:06:14 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] ... stellYsee*podiobook ab sofort online Message-ID: <152f1a1f985a1a802ff3fca4c6fd38e2@zurwehme.org> STELLySEE*PODIOBOOK ab sofort online http://stellyseepodiobook.twoday.net Stella Eva Henrich http://www.stellYsee.de http://digitalstellysee.twoday.net http://stellYseemagazine.twoday.net ICQ 220-191-191 skype stellYsee mobil 0162-1815901 stella at stellYsee.de *~SPACETOWN~* | interlinking of media | practice with gender related issues http://zurwehme.org/ From abhinanditamathur at gmail.com Sat Apr 1 02:21:37 2006 From: abhinanditamathur at gmail.com (abhinandita mathur) Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2006 02:21:37 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] holi @ mathurs Message-ID: <19aa1b810603311251p5bf86a2cieea31fff99136142@mail.gmail.com> Hi, We have set up a blog for our project "My Building and the Shahar" and uploaded pictures and notes from the Holi celebrations at the Mathur building, amongst other things. Holi is a major affair in the cultural event's calendar at the Mathur Building. Not as glorious as it use to be till some years ago, nevertheless it was totally fabulous. Dinner and cultural programme were organised by the Society Managing Committee on the eve to revive the festivities. According to an organiser, Mr Mathur, (!) "Things have changed a lot and for the worse in the last few years. People are too busy with their jobs and families. Initially, everyone looked forward to participating and celebrating all festivals together utilizing the common space in the building premises, but now people tend to celebrate with their families and not participate in the society activities. The whole point and essence of community living is lost! It is for this reason that we decided to organise a free dinner on the eve of Holi. And to our surprise all enthusiasts from the past and other unexpected members turned up. We wish to restore the charm of such festivities and hope to rejuvenate the essence of community living" Here is the link: www.mathurbuilding.blogspot.com Our friend Nalin Mathur from the building has contributed another article titled "different kinds of Mathurs" that makes a fun read. We are now in the process of setting up a website to be able to upload audio and video format files. In the meantime here is a popular Holi time recipe! Kaleji and Gurde Kapure: INGREDIENTS: 1 kg kalegi/gurde kapoore 3 large onions (chopped finely & fried golden brown) 3 large tomato (either grinded in mixi/puree) 3 -4 large spoons of cooking oil 1 1/2 large garlic bulb [paste] 1 piece of ginger [ paste] ½ tsp turmeric powder ¾ tsp red chilli powdersalt to taste 2 tsp Kasturi Methi1½ tsp coriander powder 7 cloves 1 cinnamon stick 8-10 black pepper seeds 3-4 illachi large and small METHOD Wash Kalegi well and keep it in a deep pan for 1/2 hour after adding salt. Put oil in a Pressure cooker add fried onion, garlic and ginger paste, tomato paste/ puree, coriander powder, salt, chilli powder, kasturi methi,turmeric powder and fry well on slow fire till oil gets separated Meanwhile wash it again. Then add kalegi pieces in the gravy and add crushed cloves and black pepper, Cardamom.Cook on slow fire Cook on slow fire. Keep the utensil lid lightly covered. Cook on slow fire till the water dries. Then add little water and close the lid of the pressure cooker. Switch off the gas after three whistles. When it is cooked dry the water after opening the lid. Thanks, abhinandita and venu www.abhinandita.blogspot.com www.venumathur.blogspot.com From beate at zurwehme.org Sat Apr 1 02:40:57 2006 From: beate at zurwehme.org (beate zurwehme) Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2006 23:10:57 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] minus plus : t h e n e f f f i l e s Message-ID: <0daaa37d9fc735aa08aaea05c6bf22af@zurwehme.org> m i n u s p l u s : t h e n e f f f i l e s beate zurwehme & dr peter orban 1986 48 lost daguerrotypies inaugural exhibition at fine art fair frankfurt 2006 --> http://zurwehme.org/the_neff_files/ <-- listen to the words of beate z.! full text now available at http://zurwehme.org/press_kit/gender_paradigm.pdf thanks a lot, and nice greetings beate | interlinking of media | practice with gender related issues http://zurwehme.org/ From nangla at cm.sarai.net Sat Apr 1 09:41:56 2006 From: nangla at cm.sarai.net (CM@Nangla) Date: Sat, 01 Apr 2006 06:11:56 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] From Nangla... Message-ID: A bench lies at the edge of the lane, in the middle of the street, amidst locked houses and shut doors. It's a wooden bench. Broken from one leg, but otherwise complete. It is not painted or varnished. One of the three plain planks, which make its careful, decorated back, is cracked from the middle. A young girl in a pink salwaar kameez passes by it. Many minutes later, a young man with a moustache and ruffled hair walks past it. The bench is no longer calling anyone to it. There are no tea ceremonies around it now. No gatherings for light talk and making jokes. No one sits on it and gestures for another to join her, to share the bench with her. The bench is not a space of hospitality. The bench is no longer a bench. What lingers after the violating storming by the police, the slow, painful emptying out of Nangla, the repeated return of the bullodzers, the resounding echoes of the voice inside, this life may be yours, but the decisions?', the relentlessness of the sound of hammers, the falling of walls left standing alone when no one is around, the endlessly continuing walks of the surveyors in the slowly deserting lanes? A space built together, carefully, slowly, bit by little bit, has been ripped apart. Its inner coherence destroyed. Its ability to generate practices of being together extinguished. The fragments of Nangla, the fragments which constitute Nangla, will never again join. A long process of making meaning, again, will begin. A process of saying, "the bench is a bench" will begin. Slowly, over time, the process of teaching a young one that pillow on a bed in a house with orange walls is for resting ones tired head, will begin. Slowly, a cup will be put on a saucer, and not just along it. A knife will be put together with an onion to slice it. A screw driver will be put to a screw to tighten it into a wall. Slowly... but it will never be the same again. CM Lab, Nangla Maanchi We have been blogging continuously. Please read at: http://nangla.freeflux.net http://nangla-maachi.freeflux.net ----------------------------------------------- It quenches the thirst of the thirsty, Such is Nangla, It shelters those who come to the city of Delhi, Such is Nangla. ------------------------------------------------ From abhinanditamathur at gmail.com Sat Apr 1 12:27:12 2006 From: abhinanditamathur at gmail.com (abhinandita mathur) Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2006 12:27:12 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] NBA support meeting April 1st, 5.30 pm In-Reply-To: References: <200604011204109.SM00892@yuvaindia.org> Message-ID: <19aa1b810603312257p3da13245ie0de06c98961fe@mail.gmail.com> Dear All , some of you you must be getting all the mails and information regarding the Narmada struggle and Dharna which is going on since 17th of March 2006 against the Narmada Control Authority's clearance for the increase in the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam. The dam height has been proposed to be raised from 110.64m up to 121.92m without proper rehabilitation of those at 110.64 m. . This indeed is not only the human rights violation but also ignoring totally the Supreme Court Order. Though, The PM and his ministers have met the NBA representatives but so for there is no positive statement has come out from them. Please refer to the press release Therefore, from Yesterday a Hunger fast has been started by many people from the valley and Medha Patkar. In this context, many of us have decided to meet on Saturday 1st April at 5.30 P.M at NAPM Office , Haji Habib Building, Naigaon Cross Rd, Dadar ( East) Mumbai 400014. This is really imperative at this jucture and we need to update ourselves and to discuss what could we do as Mumbai Support group to strengthen the strggle and to support the people from the valley. We request all of you to join the meeting. Please do respond soon... Mukta, Pervin jehangir Contact: pervin at 22184779 NBA URGENT PRESS RELEASE 29th March, 2006 We will not accept the government?s silence Indefinite hunger strike begins at Jantar Mantar We will not accept the government?s silence! We will put our lives on the line to stop the destruction of the Valley! 3 people begin indefinite hunger fast! Since the 17th of March, the adivasis, farmers, of the Narmada Valley have been sitting on a peaceful dharna in Delhi. On 8th March, 06, the Narmada Control Authority gave clearance for the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam to be raised from 110.64m up to 121.92m. This clearance, given on the basis of untrue reports and false claims of the government, will cause the destruction of the homes, fields and lives of about 220 villages in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. This decision is not just a blatant violation of the orders of the Supreme Court, but most of all, it has made a mockery of the human rights of lakhs of people still living in the submergence villages. As per the law, the governments were required to ensure that every single affected family was resettled at least 6 months before submergence, offering cultivable land for land and resettling them in resettlement sites provided with all civic amenities. However, in clear and inhuman violence of this it has not resettled atleast 35,000 families. It is to challenge this injustice and illegality that we have, for the last 12 days, been on this dharna, speaking out against this continuing injustice and challenging the Centre to use its powers and not to give in to the dirty politics and pressure of the Gujarat BJP government. We have met all concerned, from the Union Minister of Water Resources and Union Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment to the Prime Minister and President. In all these meetings we have repeatedly exposed and proved the illegalities in the processes and the falsity of resettlement claims of the governments and the authorities. We also have proven that the authorities like the NCA and its sub ? groups are just not capable of ensuring just resettlement and are mere pawns before the politics that determine when the construction of the dam can progress. Rehabilitation has been reduced to a paper exercise in the process. This decision, made possible by the political nexus between Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh governments, will not only murder the lives and futures of affected people but will also submerge a culture, a heritage, a civilization that is centuries old. The cruelty with which the natural resources including land, water, minerals, of adivasis and farmers are being snatched away by governments, using brutal force in most instances, in violation of Constitutionally guaranteed rights needs to be stopped immediately. Those who will dare to measure these practices and policies, against human values are not to be found amongst the power wielders. This is the experience of the Narmada Valley, of every river valley, of all determined struggles of those displaced. Who does one explain to that the meaning of development is not social uprootment, destruction of nature and economic ruination. Or that true development the consent and participation of those to be displaced is paramount. Or even at the very least displacement must promise a just and better life through resettlement? Even one when ventures to say this, who is listening? In the last 20 years, we have seen a great game unfolding in the Narmada Valley, which involves a mockery of figures. With this project of 50,000 crore rupees, the generations-old villages are being taken away from us by using water as a weapon. We cannot bear this. With our struggle and reconstruction for 20 years, we take up the challenge yet again. This is the final frontier of every struggle and the voice of displacement everywhere, from the death of farmers in villages to large-scale uprootment of bastis. In our eyes, this development that is based on capital investments from large Multi National Corporations, is leading to the massacre of our workers. Even the public sector is going in the same perverted direction. The principles of the capital market and political contractors are pushing this process forward. Sardar Sarovar Project best epitomizes this. Those in power probably imagine that the resilient sathyagrahis of the Narmada valley, the adivasis and farmers, will be destroyed by mercilessly submerging. They also imagine that the throttling of the courage and resilience of those struggling in the Narmada Valley will open the path for an reckless and inhuman development. ... And this struggle is not just for the Narmada. It is for every valley, every village, every community under threat. And is the voice against the snatching away of sustenance and livelihood. - Our pledge is that, while stopping the Sardar Sarovar project, any form of forced displacement without consent and participation is unacceptable. - We are pained and ashamed by the use of force and arms to displace people - We want that the planning of development projects must be in the public interest and within the democratic framework and through scientific processes - we believe that where a dispute has been raised by people, it should be resolved through dialogue and consent, and not through monetary inducements and threats of violence - The development planning must start in the gram sabha at the village level, and the basti sabhas at the city level - The Government of India should change the colonial Land Acquisition Acts and changes in the National Resettlement Policy must be introduced - We announce that peoples movements from every corner of this Country, raising such questions to come here, join this struggle and seek answers to the fundamental questions we all pose together Therefore, from today, three representatives from the Narmada Valley, Jamsing Nargave from village Amlali in Badwani district (Madhya Pradesh), Bhagwatibai Jatpuria from village Nissarpur in Dhar district (Madhya Pradesh) and Medha Patkar begin an indefinite hunger strike at Jantar Mantar. Dipti Bhatnagar Clifton Medha Patkar -- abhinandita From iram at sarai.net Sat Apr 1 21:56:35 2006 From: iram at sarai.net (Iram Ghufran) Date: Sat, 01 Apr 2006 21:56:35 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Leaving Nangla Message-ID: <442EA9BB.1060301@sarai.net> 31^th March, 2006 Delhi A line of trucks, private carriers, autos, rickshaws and cycles are parked on the ring road, through the length of what still is called Nangla Machi. I stand beneath a blue and red board that reads – “THANKYOU FOR THE VISIT. NEW DELHI DISTT. POLICE”. A family of five climbs onto a truck and stand, amidst what looks like a hurriedly packed household. Possibly, there is still food and water in the blue Godrej refrigerator. The clothes in the red plastic tub look wet. Perhaps there was no time to let them dry in the sun. The red school bag is stuffed with books, pencil boxes and a ragged doll that stares blankly at the vista below. The women and children in the truck are waving a goodbye. The truck picks up speed and disappears with the traffic on the ring road. I think they knew that there will no returning. That the stay in Nangla Machi was over. The house broken down with hammers, pick axes and human hands. Nangla Machi is a landscape of ruin. A few standing homes, surrounded by half walls, roofless structures, empty doorframes and thresholds. Broken wooden boards indicating a general store, a PCO, a photocopy shop lying amidst the rubble. Its not an earthquake nor the tsunami that's hit Nangla Machi. Its not a communal nor an ethnic clash. Its not a bomb attack by terrorists, neither is it the after effects of a war on terror. Yet, this 30 year old settlement is devastated. A man standing next to me said, “ abhi ek mahine baad, jab sab chale jayenge, to, ye log mandir aur masjid bhi tor den ge.” (After one month, when everyone has gone, they will break the temples and mosques too) On the first look, after the demolitions began, it seems as if the population of this locality was preparing for a mass exodus. But where do roads from Nangla Machi lead? Nangla Machi. A railway platform. Luggage strewn about. Passengers waiting for a train to carry them to the right destination this time. Perhaps the journey will be over some day. As their houses are being pulled down, one after another, the destruction more systematic than the making, the question on most minds is 'to where?' Many have left, with no hope to return. Their homes destoyed. They will tell their children that we once lived in a place called Nangla Machi. It is no more. The map of the city doesn't mention it, but yes, it exhisted. Between the river and the ringroad, near the Pragiti Maidan, the Indraprastha Park, near Mahatma Gandhi's samadhi. There are those who wait. In hope perhaps or simply stalling the day of departure, trying to carry on some semblence of a routine. A woman asks me, “aap kahan se hain?” (where are you from?) I know what the 'kahan ' (where) imlplies. “Kahin se nahin.” (Nowhere, I said) My words drowned in the noise of the traffic. The city whizzes past Nangla Machi at the speed of 40km/ hr, 80 km/hr/, 100 km/hr... I remebered someone mentioning that 20 flyovers will be built on the ring road by 2010. It will be a no stop road by 2010. Ashram to ISBT in 10 min... She pulls out a carefully preserved voter ID card. “See even this did not help.” Najma Married to Pappu Aged 22 years on 01/01/1994 Resident of 303 T-huts, Nangla Machi, Minto Road, New Delhi Electricity bills, ration cards, voter Id cards, phone bills and birth certificates. What will ensure that the carrier was a legitimate citizen of this city? That the place of residence was home and cannot be pulled down to make way for anything or that a home has to be replaced with a home, somewhere in the city. “What will they make here? On our houses?” Pappu, her husband asked, to no one in particular. “It will be a restaurant, hotel”, someone answered. “No, no. They will make a big staduim here. Perhaps for football”, A young woman with a baby in her arms said. “No. It is going to be a park, till the Yamuna”, spoke a young man in a Che Guevara T- shirt. “I heard it say that they will make a power station here”, an old man in a white kurta pajama said. “ Arre, I am telling you, it is all because of that Metro”, said a man passing by, with a huge black bundle of black polyethene – remains of a roof – to be sold to the 'kabari'. How many will the city expell in order to recreate, refashion itself? How many walls will be broken to make Delhi a World City? What will happen to the families till land is allocated to the lucky ones? Will the population of Nangla Machi disappear into thin air? Will they bunk at relatives and friends homes? At the place of work? Will they go back? and Where does a Delhiite go back to? A man, working at Mandi House said, “ We'll come from Bawana now. They made the Metro for us!” A telephone rings interuppting our conversation. Its shrill sound out of place. I look around. There are the remains of a dwelling. The walls are now about a foot high and the roof is missing. I see a white panasonic instrument lying on a air cooler leaning against an electricity pole. A young boy answered on the fifth ring. “ Yes Bhaiya. We are packed. What is the truck number? A blue one. A private carrier? Wont it be small?” + + + From knsunandan at gmail.com Sat Apr 1 15:16:05 2006 From: knsunandan at gmail.com (Sunandan K.N.) Date: Sat, 1 Apr 2006 15:16:05 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Withering away of disciplines: Is 'interdisciplinary' a solution? Message-ID: <2a1c900c0604010146oafe69a5h44b37edfddac97d4@mail.gmail.com> Hello readers (and writers) As the third part of my posting I want t share some thoughts on disciplines and interdisciplinary tendencies in human sciences. The great confidence of the 19th century positivism had been loosing its omnipotence by the early 20th century. In the first half of the 20th century this was reflected as self reconstitutions within disciplines. For e.g. many philosophers argued that medicine or biology in general could not be considered as 'Science' (Karl Popper). By the 1970s withering away of disciplines become more prominent once the modernity itself became a problematic. The solution offered (by the self claimed modernists) was interdisciplinary programs. In universities and outside this became fashionable word. Just look in to the example of Economics. Starting from Adam Smith economics was and is not just a form of understanding human exchanges but a conscious and different way of organizing people and natural world (Foucault). In India from the colonialist started to make, understand re-constitute all human activities within the realm of economics. Of course there were fissures within colonial practices but this was the dominant discourse. Nationalist and Marxists historians followed the same episteme and started to explain all events based on economic rationality. Even communal riots, festivals, myths, caste, and say what not, were explained on the basis of economic rationality. No need to say how history and sociology of industry was constructed. If this was just a misunderstanding of 'actual' situations' then we could have solved it by more accurate knowledge, but it is not. This is a way of governing, disseminating power and controlling human beings. But human world is too complex and interwoven with multiples inseparable streams of thoughts, ideas, objects and relations among all these. So the human activities always wriggled away from the control and knowledge When I start to analyze the activities of boys working in various workshops at Coimbatore, I am not supposing an over-determination any factor: economy, caste or technology. Moreover, it is also not an interdisciplinary approach. My interest is the overlapping areas of all these which is 'more than inter-disciplinary' which might be explainable only through new categories. So the major task is in this project is that of developing a new 'language' to express these activities. Finally there is no claim that this language will be more perfect but there will be an attempt to make it more democratic. Sunandan From joy at sarai.net Sun Apr 2 08:38:53 2006 From: joy at sarai.net (Mrityunjay Chatterjee) Date: Sun, 02 Apr 2006 05:08:53 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Naglamachi and encroachment In-Reply-To: <20060325060428.91225.qmail@web54214.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20060325060428.91225.qmail@web54214.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <5ace7e5c37e3c6e2adb2b5dbc24b18da@sarai.net> On Saturday I went to Nagla Machi. As I was entering the place, it looked like as if an earthquake had happened. Then it stuck to my mind what is the difference between this and earthquake or tsunami. In all these cases houses are destroyed, dreams are shattered, possibility of rebuilding the life is dependent on a piece of paper provided by the state. How they are different? The difference is the totalitarian desire of encroachment. Because I think the city should be like this I encroach into others life, work, space and every thing. But this is very normal thing our every day life, we do encroach into others life because we think that we are more passionate than the other person. I love my India, I love my Delhi, I love my Sarai, I love my … In this passion we tend to forget other person also has a feeling, that person might love or not love the same thing in the same way. But my passion encroaches in to that persons’ way of living, way of working and way of thinking. Just wanted to say, freedom is all about self-control not encroachment. From eye at ranadasgupta.com Sun Apr 2 13:03:06 2006 From: eye at ranadasgupta.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Sun, 02 Apr 2006 13:03:06 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] the Kitab festival Message-ID: <442F7E32.2090105@ranadasgupta.com> if you're in delhi next weekend and interested in books, publishing, or goldie hawn, the following may be of interest. it will offer all three. R Rana Dasgupta www.ranadasgupta.com THE HT KITAB FESTIVAL http://www.kitabfest.org/programme.html Kitab Programme Venue: Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi Friday 7 April 10:00 William Dalrymple previews his new book, The Last Mughal. Followed by a Q&A session with Rahul Bose. 11:00 Globalisation, the writer and the nation Yasmin Alibhai-Brown chairs a discussion about whether globalisation limits the types of stories that writers can tell. Panel members include Amit Chaudhuri, Shashi Tharoor, Nadeem Aslam and Rana Dasgupta. 13.15 Muslims and the Media Allan Jenkins chairs a discussion on the media's coverage of Islam with Yasmin Alibhai Brown, MJ Akbar, Nadeem Aslam, Muneeza Shamsie and Clare Short. 14.30 Bridging the Gap: Literary Festivals, Writers and Readers Geordie Greig (chairing), Palash Dave, Alexandra Pringle, Catherine Lockerbie, Pablo Ganguli and Tarun Tejpal discuss the growth of literary festivals around the world and examine the potential for literary festivals in India to boost readership. 16.00 Women's writing: what is it and do women want it? Muneeza Shamsie chairs a discussion including Catherine Lockerbie, Deborah Moggach, Malavika Sangghvi, Manju Kapur and Urvashi Butalia. 18:00 Penguin Book Launch – Edna Fernandes's Holy Warriors Saturday 8 April 10.00 Bihar and India 's new modernity While talk of nuclear power and globalisation preoccupy the Indian capital, the Indian state of Bihar is wrought with poverty, corruption and violence. How do such regions figure into the narrative of contemporary India ? Somini Sengupta chairs a discussion with Sam Miller, Vir Sanghvi, Tabish Khair and Siddharth Chowdhury. 11.30 Small presses versus multinationals Alexandra Pringle chairs a discussion including Pete Ayrton, Richard Beswick, Pramod Kapoor, Renuka Chatterjee and Boyd Tonkin. 13:30 Media Culpa: Does the media fail literature in the UK and India ? Geordie Greig chairs a panel including Alexandra Pringle, Richard Beswick, Allan Jenkins, Tarun Tejpal, Jai Arjun Singh and Toby Lichtig. 15:00 Wasafiri Panel: Writing Across Worlds and Between the Lines A discussion of little magazines and their role in promoting South Asian writing with Susheila Nasta, Aamer Hussein, Tabish Khair, Maya Jaggi and others. 16:30 ‘A Lotus Grows in the Mud' Goldie Hawn will be discussing her recent spiritual memoir A Lotus Grows in The Mud and will then reflect on seminal life experiences with Geordie Greig. Followed by a Q&A session. 18:00 Penguin Book Launch – Sanjay Suri's Brideless in Wembley 19:00 Wasafiri-Routledge Literary Reception. Readings by Tabish Khair, Aamer Hussein and others. By Invitation Only Sunday 9 April 10.30 Readings : Rana Dasgupta and Amit Chaudhuri 11.30 Humanity, fallibility and truth in contemporary politics Vir Sanghvi chairs a discussion with Clare Short, Rory Stewart and Shashi Tharoor. 13.30 From snake charmers to call centres Rana Dasgupta chairing a discussion with William Dalrymple, Pavan K Varma, Randeep Ramesh, Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi and Amit Chaudhuri on new trends in literature, narrative non-fiction and reportage from South Asia. 15:00 Readings : Pavan K Varma and Rahul Bose 16.00 The Home and the World William Dalrymple chairs a panel on the role of the South Asian disapora in contemporary literature with CP Surendran, Tabish Khair, Aamer Hussein, Siddharth Dhanvant Shanghvi and Manju Kapur. 18:00 Roli Books Launch – C.P. Surendran's debut novel An Iron Harvest From nangla at cm.sarai.net Sun Apr 2 14:49:28 2006 From: nangla at cm.sarai.net (CM@Nangla) Date: Sun, 02 Apr 2006 11:19:28 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Nangla's Delhi - April 01, 2006 Message-ID: New postings at Nangla's Delhi blog (http://nangla.freeflux.net) *A slow fire spreads in a dense forest* by Rakesh As soon as the fear in the heart settled into eyes, the wind, the space, objects, everything turned into nothingness. That sight which makes the heart tremble and break, cuts like the edges of a letter cut through hands, as soon as it appears before the eyes. All kinds of thoughts make their home in the heart... (Read whole post) *Silences* by Rabiya People are filling their hearts with the consolation that some of them have a few more days to prepare themselves before their house will be broken. When they know they will not be allowed to live here anymore, then why not convince themselves of the fact that this will indeed happen. Struggling with what is happening to them, they are allowing some glimpses of the everyday to resurface. That is why stoves have begun to be ignited again. The dwelling is with us, among us for a few moments longer... (Read whole post) *The Morning* by Shamsher There is a lot that the morning today has lost. Like always, people are making their way to the public toilets, tins filled with water in hand. People reached there, like everyday. But the queue that is there otherwise is missing. Everyone recognises its disappearance.... (Read whole post) Yesterday's posts: *Not this kind of freedom* by Yashoda I had been running from this place. It shows us a deep shadow of our future. A future that will not let go of us. It follows us, gazing at us through different frames..... (read whole post) *There is no doubt now* by Neelofar Now most houses have been broken. People are breaking their houses with their own hands, and taking out that which may be of use later.... (read whole post) *Broken* by Suraj When a house was made, can only be known when it is being broken. That aunty, packing her household, getting ready to move, was saying, "My son got this made on his birthday. That wall, it is the residue and the result of the estrangement between my husband and his brother. This roof, it was made pucca when my son got his first salary."...... (read whole post) *Nangla Rising* by Priya The sky came into Nanglamachi today. Unless blue is the colour of holes in walls. Green walls, pink walls, white walls, dappled sunlight walls, "love is enough" poster walls, high walls, dispensary walls, Rakesh Cable walls. The sky made its way through falling tin roofs, carefully dismantled doorframes,over asbestos ground, broken bricks and intact ones. With each new hour there were new sky formations and new vertical maps of Nangla being created. One didn't have to stare for too long to see it happening.... (read whole post) CM Lab, Nangla Maanchi http://nangla.freeflux.net http://nangla-maachi.freeflux.net ----------------------------------------------- It quenches the thirst of the thirsty, Such is Nangla, It shelters those who come to the city of Delhi, Such is Nangla. ------------------------------------------------ From eye at ranadasgupta.com Mon Apr 3 09:20:45 2006 From: eye at ranadasgupta.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Mon, 03 Apr 2006 09:20:45 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] the architect's job Message-ID: <44309B95.3020402@ranadasgupta.com> "The architect's job is not to propose ideal models for society, but to devise spatial equipment that the citizens themselves can operate." --Kisho Kurokawa, et al, in "Metabolism 1960 -- A Proposal for a New Urbanism". From patrice at xs4all.nl Mon Apr 3 14:01:52 2006 From: patrice at xs4all.nl (Patrice Riemens) Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 10:31:52 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Let them eat cake - Egyptian version... Message-ID: <20060403083152.GA10722@xs4all.nl> >From a recent interview with Egypt's transport minister: Q:But don't you think buffet cars and running waters are necessities on a 15-hour journey, to Aswan for instance? A:Those passengers who are unhappy with the service can always board a first-class carriage, which will have buffet carts and excellent toilet facilities. full interview at: http://www.railserve.com/jump/jump.cgi?ID=16001 (gist: passengers burning to death in overcrowded 3rd class carriages? It's their fault!) From tcm1 at cornell.edu Mon Apr 3 07:37:15 2006 From: tcm1 at cornell.edu (timothy murray) Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2006 22:07:15 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] Ecopetics and Metamute Commission Message-ID: Dear Friends, I'm pleased to announce the launch of my two most recent curatorial projects. I'm happy to call your attention to the launch of my first commission as a curator for Metamute.org's online art series. Out-of-Sync's creative interaction with Georges Perec's Life: A User's Manual can be accessed at: http://www.metamute.org/out-of-sync. EcoPoetics is an on-line art exhibition, which I have co-curated with Patricia Zimmermann and Tom Shevory for the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (http://www.ithaca.edu/fleff/exhibitions.html). The exhibition will run during the Festival at Ithaca College and at Cinemapolis and Fall Creek Theaters, Ithaca, New York, from March 30-April 6. In addition to being accessible on-line, http://www.ithaca.edu/fleff/exhibitions.html, EcoPoetics will be screened in the Festival's Digital Salon in Park 220, Ithaca College. We plan to archive the exhibit in The Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art, Cornell Library, following the Festival. The exhibition includes works by Judy Malloy, Diane Ludin, Ryan Griffis, Ian M. Clothier, Andrew Bucksbarg, Thorsten Knaub, Sam Smiley, Olga Kisselva, Ollivier Dyens, Joseph Rabie, Lillian Ball, Katerie Gladys, Annette Weintraub, Tiffany Holmes, Maria Damon and mIEKAL aND, Agricola Cologne, and Regina Célia Pinto. Best wishes, Tim -- Timothy Murray Professor of Comparative Literature and English Acting Chair and Director of Graduate Studies in Comparative Literature Director of Graduate Studies in Film and Video Curator, The Rose Goldsen Archive of New Media Art, Cornell Library Co-Curator, CTHEORY Multimedia: http://ctheorymultimedia.cornell.edu 285 Goldwin Smith Hall Cornell University Ithaca, New York 14853 office: 607-255-4012 e-mail: tcm1 at cornell.edu -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060402/532938e1/attachment.html From tushar_bhor at yahoo.com Mon Apr 3 09:49:32 2006 From: tushar_bhor at yahoo.com (tushar bhor) Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2006 21:19:32 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] more on water Message-ID: <20060403041932.92220.qmail@web51908.mail.yahoo.com> 3rd Posting: Working Title: WATER LENSES Prelude for new imagination for urban water of Mumbai. Apology for delay! Infact I was waiting for 1st April since had to visit Gharapuri village and meet the sarpanch. I will elaborate about the findings in the story mentioned below, but in short the Gharapuri village is part of the world Heritage Site of Elepahanta Caves and the locals have recently voiced their grievances, in demand for basic facilities of water supply and electricity. Before lengthening this posting, I would like to clear the argument that I intends to make through this research paper. It tries to investigate the systems that community or individuals have developed to acquire, distribute and consume the water in the city of Mumbai. It does not try to highlight the illegal realm that the systems are exposed to, but would try and understand the related manifestations, which ranges from informal distribution network, an enterprise depended on water, a group developed against water problem to the individual perception and practices towards water. To generalize, I have used the term “Territory”, a reference from the synopsis of PhD. thesis titled, ‘The informal economy of water and sustainable development’ by Anastasia Anguelatou, 2005. I don’t claim that all the stories that I will be presenting are unique cases of Mumbai only, but in a way are placed in context of the economic development, representing scenrios of most of the third world cities. The third posting includes a narration on: A water shortage problem in villages where Elephanta Caves are situated, which claims to be world Heritage Site. Dhobighat which contributes about 4-5 crore rupees to villages per year and contrary depends upon 30 – 40% water supply thru illegal connections A story of World Heritage Site: Elephanta Caves For many years it has been weekend picnic spot for Mumbaikers and the influx of tourist suddenly increased after it getting recognition of World Heritage Site. In the advent of increasing awareness on the heritage conservation and as one of the requirement of UNESCO for a site to be qualified under World Heritage list, a renowned trust working in area of conservation along with Archeological Survey of India (ASI) have prepared a management plan for the site. The core area under consideration includes one of the 3 villages, which becomes entry point to the caves and also support tourist activities (hotels, shops, eateries, etc). On other hand, the villagers are screaming against the injustice by the authority. The basic demands include water supply, electricity, medical facilities and recognized school. The villages do not have any pipe water supply and the villagers fetch water from the nearby wells. (3 villages depend on 7 wells, which do not have perennial source). In this aspect recently villagers of Gharapuri under the leadership of their sarpanch had given ultimatum to the government to provide the minimum services, failing of which tourist will not be permitted to enter the site. About 10 lakh tourists visit the caves every year, of which 1.5 lakh are foreigners and they shell out $5 to ASI and about $50-60 when they are accompanied by tourist guide. The local economy and the livelihood of 1200 villagers depend only on the tourist activities. The water needed for hotels is taken from the nearby well and during the dry spell (April to June of every year) water is supplied from Mumbai. A boat carrying tank of 10 thousand liters of water daily, twice a day is supplied to the Shet Bandar (village at the entrance of the site). The required amount for the supply from Mumbai is subsidized by the zilla parishad. The allied activities include selling of water in plastic bottles, which is filled up from the spring water source at the caves. The water from this specific spring is allowed to be used by villagers only and livelihood of 40 - 50 families depend upon the selling of water, earning about Rs. 50 per day. The other income source of the villagers is through posing for foreigners with water pots on the head, some time up to two levels, which are normally empty without any water. A Story of Dhobighat: A 2- 3 minutes walk from the Mahalakshmi station and some meters below the road level one of the so called “Tourist destinations” which is assumed to be thriving. Dhobighat with the approximate area of 2,10,000 Sq.ft. was established during British regime and continue to functions after undergoing transformation, due to mechanized methods of washing. Definitely the technology (electric washing and driers) and has speedened the process and has caused substantial reduction in space that would be otherwise required for the same activity. The activity has also triggered for developing newer occupations within and outside the enclave such as ironing stalls, retail of washing powder, shops dealing in machine repair, chemicals etc. that are found adjoining the outer periphery of the enclave. The activity is performed under the aegis of Dhobi Kalyan Adhunik Vikas Co-Op society. The prospective clients include from the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) hospitals, Caterers, Laundries, Garment factories (which is termed as Bada kaam),Offices, Restaurants, Private firms, to the clothes from Residential Buildings (termed as Chotta kaam).There are approximately 1026 patthar (washing stone or washing units) and is either owned or rented within the dhobi community. The monthly rent to the MMC is Rs. 300 which includes the sheer rent of washing unit and the water charges. Each enterprise owns one patthar and depending upon his business other adjoining patthars are taken on rent. Increase in the patthar and subsequently the business, demands for more water resources, which can be easily availed illegally by paying 15-20 thousands to the concerned authority. As per the locals, this phenomenon is increasing and presently 30-40 % supply might be through illegal connections. In addition, the electric supply needed for operating machines is also illegally purchased from other agencies that have electrical meters at a fixed rate that ranges between Rs.200 to Rs. 400 per month. At the rate Rs. 2 per hour of cloth wash, each working Dhobi earns anywhere between approximate Rs. 200 to Rs.350 per day. Of the 1026 patthars or wash stones 100 are non functional and each patthar generates approximate Rs. 400 to Rs 600 per day and Rs. 12,000 to Rs.18, 000 per month. The annual turn over of Dhobighat is thus estimated at about 10 to 12 crores of rupees of which approximate Rs. 2,00,000 is paid as patthar/wash stone rent per year to the MMC. Other than the tax paid to the MMC, water and electric supply is illegally purchased from other agencies that have electrical meters at a fixed rate that ranges between Rs.200 to Rs. 400 per month. Out of the effort, a dhobi is able to send in Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 16,000 back home to his villages, for the family and through the Dhobhighat at Mahalaxmi alone, the city, contributes anywhere between 8 to 10 crores of rupees to the villages, each year. Over the years, the Dhobhighats have been hugely promoted as a potential tourist site in the city. The overview of this enclave from the nearby Mahalaxmi station bridge attracts not only tourists but also even pedestrians to view the ‘exhibition’ taking place in the commune below. TUSHAR BHOR ARCHITECT and INDEPENDENT RESEARCHER. Residence Address: 10/60, Madhu Sadan,Sion(w),Mumbai–400022,Maharashtra,India. Tel. No: +91 22 24083828. Mobile: +91 98190 35176. E mail: tushar_bhor at yahoo.com --------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. PC-to-Phone calls for ridiculously low rates. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060402/3fc5bbfa/attachment.html From janicepariat at gmail.com Mon Apr 3 16:12:11 2006 From: janicepariat at gmail.com (Janice Pariat) Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2006 16:12:11 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] An Aerial View (The Notion of Home) Message-ID: <72cca7600604030342x1fc26e8fjfb3554a2671ca957@mail.gmail.com> Hello! First of all...apologies for the late post. I'm very sorry but i was busy with my gre subject test that happened on sat (1st apr). I've put my second story up on my blog...do hope you all enjoy it. the link is http://thefirstsixstories.blogspot.com/ cheers! Janice From ravis at sarai.net Tue Apr 4 01:30:40 2006 From: ravis at sarai.net (Ravi Sundaram) Date: Tue, 04 Apr 2006 01:30:40 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] P. Sainath :Where India shining meets great depression (The Hindu) Message-ID: <6.2.3.4.2.20060404012949.02be8a98@mail.sarai.net> Where India shining meets great depression P. Sainath FARM SUICIDES in Vidharbha crossed 400 this week. The Sensex crossed the 11,000 mark. And Lakme Fashion Week issued over 500 media passes to journalists. All three are firsts. All happened the same week. And each captures in a brilliant if bizarre way a sense of where India's Brave New World is headed. A powerful measure of a massive disconnect. Of the gap between the haves and the have-mores on the one hand, and the dispossessed and desperate, on the other. Of the three events, the suicide toll in Vidharbha found no mention in many newspapers and television channels. Even though these have occurred since just June 2 last year. Even though the most conservative figure (of Sakaal newspaper) places the deaths at above 372. (The count since 2000-01 would run to thousands.) Sure, there were rare exceptions in the media. But they were just that ­ rare. It is hard to describe what those fighting this incredible human tragedy on the ground feel about it. More so when faced with the silence of a national media given to moralising on almost everything else. In the 13 days during which the suicide index hit 400, 40 farmers took their own lives. The Vidharbha Jan Andolan Samiti points out that the suicides are now more than three a day ­ and mounting. These deaths are not the result of natural disaster, but of policies rammed through with heartless cynicism. They are driven by several factors that include debt linked to a credit crunch, soaring input costs, crashing prices, and a complete loss of hope. That loss of faith and the rise in the numbers of deaths has been sharpest since last October. That's when a government that came to power promising a cotton price of Rs.2,700 a quintal ensured it fell to Rs.1,700. A thousand rupees less. When 322 of 413 suicides have occurred since just November 1, you'd think that is newsworthy. When the highest number, 77, take place in March alone, you'd believe the same. You'd be wrong, though. The Great Depression of the Indian countryside does not make news. But the Sensex and Fashion Week do. "There is nothing wrong," an irate reader wrote to me, "in covering the Sensex or the Fashion Week." True. But there is something horribly wrong with our sense of proportion while doing so. Every pulse beat and flutter on the Sensex merits front-page treatment. Even if less than two per cent of Indian households have any kind of investments in the stock exchange here. This week's rise does not just mark the highest ever. It makes the lead story on the front page. That's because the "Sensex beats Dow in numbers game." The strap below that headline in a leading daily reads: "Dalal Street's 11,183 eclipses Wall Street." It's moved to 11,300 since then. On television, even non-business channels carry that ticker at the right hand corner. Keeping viewers alert to the main chance even as they draw in the number of deaths in the latest bomb blasts. At one point, the mourning for President K.R. Narayanan was juxtaposed to the joys of the Nifty and the Sensex. The irony does get noticed but it persists. The great news for Fashion Week lovers is that this year will see two of them. There's a split in the ranks of the Beautiful People. Which means we will now have 500 or more journalists covering two such events separately. This in a nation where the industry's own study put the Indian designer market at 0.2 per cent of the total apparel market. Where journalists at such shows each year outnumber buyers ­ often by three to one. Contrast that with the negligible number of reporters sent out to cover Vidharbha in the depths of its great misery. At the LFW, journalists jostle for `exclusives' while TV crews shove one another around for the best `camera space.' In Vidharbha itself, the best reporters there push only the limits of their own sanity. Faced with dailies that kill most of their stories, or with channels that scorn such reports, they still persist. Trying desperately to draw the nation's attention to what is happening. To touch its collective conscience. So intense has been their tryst with misery, they drag themselves to cover the next household against the instinct to switch off. Every one of them knows the farm suicides are just the tip of the iceberg. A symptom of a much wider distress. The papers that dislike such stories do find space for the poor, though. As in this advertisement, which strikes a new low in contempt for them. Two very poor women, probably landless workers, are chatting: "That's one helluva designer tan," says the first to the other. "Yeah," replies the other. "My skin just takes to the Monte Carlo sun." The copy that follows then mocks them. "You'll agree," it says, "chances that the ladies above rub shoulders with the glitterati of the French Riviera are, well, a little remote." It throws in a disclaimer, of course. "We don't mean to be disrespectful ... " But "this is a mere reminder to marketers that a focus on customers with stronger potential does help." That is an ad for the `Brand Equity,' supplement of a leading newspaper group. Nearly 5,000 shanties were torn down in Mumbai in the same eventful week. But it drew little attention. Their dwellers won't make it to the French Riviera either. Those in media focus, though, might. Mumbai's planned Peddar Road flyover, seen by some of the metro's mega rich as hurting their interests, grabbed yards of newsprint and endless broadcast time. There was barely a word seen or heard from those whose homes were razed to the ground. Meanwhile, more and more people flee the countryside for urban India. Candidates for future demolitions. In the village, we demolish their lives, in the city their homes. The smug indifference of the elite is matched by the governments they do not vote in, but control. When the National Commission for Farmers went to Vidharbha last October, it brought out a serious report and vital recommendations. Many of these have become demands of the farmers and their organisations. At its Nashik meeting in January, the All-India Kisan Sabha (a body with 20 million members) called for immediate implementation of the NCF report. Instead, both the Centre and the State Government have sent more and more `commissions' to the region. To `study' what was well known and already documented. It's a kind of distress tourism now. It just adds the sins of `commissions' to those of omission. Favouring corporates The damage is not only in Vidharbha but across the land. Why is the Indian state doing this to its farmers? Isn't farming, after all, the biggest private sector in India? Because being private isn't enough. Ruthlessly, each policy, every budget moves us further towards a corporate takeover of agriculture. Large companies were amongst the top gainers from distress sales of cotton in Vidharbha this season. The small private owners called farmers must be sacrificed at the altar of big corporate profit. The clearest admission of this came in the McKinsey-authored Vision 2020 of Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh. It set out the removal of millions of people from the land as one of its objectives. Successive governments at the Centre and in many States seem to have latched on to that vision with much zeal. In some ways, the present United Progressive Alliance takes up where Mr. Naidu left off. Where are those being thrown off the land to go? To the cities and towns with their shutdown mills. With closed factories and very little employment. The great Indian miracle is based on near jobless growth. We are witnessing the biggest human displacement in our history and not even acknowledging it. The desperation for any work at all is clear in the rush for it at just the start of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme. Within a week of its launch, it saw 2.7 million applicants in just 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh. And close to a million in 12 districts of Maharashtra. Note that the Rs.60 wage is below the minimum of several States. Know, too, that many in the lines of applicants are landed farmers. Some of them with six acres or more. In the Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh, a farmer who owned eight acres of paddy fields was a person of some status 10 years ago. Today, he or she, with a family of five, would be below the poverty line. (If that's the case with landowners, imagine the state of landless labourers.) If the State Government's role in Vidharbha is sick, that of the Centre is appalling. Making sad noises is about as far as it will go. As the NCF report shows, much can be done to save hundreds of more lives that will surely otherwise be lost. But it avoids that path. Its vision of farming serves corporates, not communities. And the media elite? Why not a Vidharbha week? To report the lives and deaths of those whose cotton creates the textiles and fabrics that they do cover. If just a fourth of the journalists sent to the Fashion Week were assigned to cover Vidharbha, they'd all have many more stories to tell. From anjalijyoti at yahoo.com Tue Apr 4 16:50:29 2006 From: anjalijyoti at yahoo.com (anjali jyoti) Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 04:20:29 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Home Truths: The highs and lows of street life Message-ID: <20060404112029.7258.qmail@web34609.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Chap 2: Home Truths: The highs and lows of street life They see it being done in films; they see grown ups do it; they see their peers do it- they try it, and get hooked. Days pass by in a deluge of surrealistic dreams, lost souls wafting in psychedelic streams Little 6 years olds lying about with vacant eyes, white streaks across their faces, disinterested and dazed. “What is that ?” you ask. They smirk: “Solution,didi!” “Where do you get it from?”, “What do you do with it?”. All too eagerly they tell all- this 2 pack bottle of whitener fluid costs them Rs 20-22 and is available easily off the counter at many shops in the old city area. One bottle contains a white fluid, the other a transparent spirit like clear substance. First they take in the white fluid, by wetting shirt corners or pieces of cloth with the white substance. Then they soak the cloth with the spirit like substance and suck and drift off to other horizons. How it must be affecting their body is only one’s guess. They complain of stomach ache, one had almost lost his voice. You ask “ Ye kyon lete ho?”(‘Why do you take this’) ; a grin appears on those white streaked faces- “aadat ho gaye hai, didi”- ‘all our friends take it, it helps us forget our troubles’- they have ready answers at their finger tips.. Out of the money they earn daily, they spend half to 1/3rd on solution. The 10 year olds and 15 year olds have bidis, cigarettes and gutka as well in their kitty. The 21-24 year olds graduate to smack, charas, ganja- which they announce with pride in front of the awe- struck little ones. ‘So do you study’, ‘nahin didi’; ‘Have you thought about what you want to do when you’ve grown up, have you thought about your future’; ‘abhi kuch nahin socha didi’. Little frogs in the well- even if they think of coming out, they slip back into nonchalance every so easily. Once in a while a rarity comes along, a frog who has managed to come out of the well. Proud, thoughtful, with some degree of resolve in his eyes- Mangal, Archit to name a few such faces. All the kids shout about the hero-‘Didi, ye solution nahin leta!” You hope fervently he doesn’t fall back into the well again. The other little well froggies are losing not only their health but also precious years- too dazed or disinterested under the temporary high to attend classes half the time, or learn vocational courses, - the efforts of many NGOs to bring enthusiasm and hope back into their lives falls flat in front of this whitener fluid monster. Many of them don’t or won’t find work half the time because of the monster’s spell. And this is not just a localized source of addiction, restricted to Delhi or the northern belt. One of the kids who had gone with an NGO to Chennai for a workshop was so excited by the fact that the children at the Chennai railway station were also having solution, that he wrote about it in an article for the NGO newspaper. Substance abuse out of free choice is of course different from unwittingly getting caught and being pushed into the well. Many of the little ones who beg at red lights or at Sakets and Priyas and other such complexes are caught in such devious cycles. Local goons get them hooked onto solution or any other drug. They got out and beg, come back and give the money to the goon in exchange for some ______(I am finding it increasingly difficult to come up with names and ways of expressing addictive substances) If such are the highs of street life what of the lows, one might ask. Well- what is the worst possible thing that could happen to a child-any child? The dark fear of every parent, the silent secret in every other family- if it happens to children who have the protection of their homes and families what would be the plight of some little ones out on their own in a city. The answer--- it becomes a part of their life. I once asked a social worker how many street children manage to escape physical abuse while living on the streets and she replied- ‘None, in my opinion.” So yes, it happens- an older street boy catches an innocent wide eyed waif; a nasty doped out rickshaw puller offers shelter to a lost little drifter. Very few get rescued and as they grow older, some smirk about it, some do it to newer waifs, some out of loneliness and boredom do it for pleasure and some out of desperation and indifference do it for money. (Forgive me for substitution what the kids call ‘galat kaam’ with “it” but I don’t wish to unnecessarily sensationalize the write up with words which tend to catch the eye and hence the write up gets read- any how an oft repeated word loses its meaning) Many children end up staying with their abusers for a long time, (out of convenience, fear, dependence, habit or any other reason )which may have tremendous implications on their psychology. Some areas in Delhi are notorious for what happens to children there- Jama Masjid being one of them. The ground in front of Jama Masjid at night is packed with people involved in the physical trade- bedding is let out at a paltry sum of Rs 20 and the dark sky provides its own privacy. Hanuman Mandir (CP) is said to be inhabited by those children who are ‘attached’ to some adult for whatever reasons. The girls who run away from home and get adopted by families, (that being a common happening as mentioned in the last post), may sometimes get trapped in A social worker once narrated an incident of a bright young girl around 14 years old who stayed with a family near Jama Masjid, and the lady of the house would drug her every night and while she slept, solicit clients who would then satisfy themselves with her. Many others get married off to old men, many get sold when they reach a ripe young age- within the four walls of the house and in the name of established relationships a lot can happen which can leave social workers feeling helpless because they either never get to know or get to know too late. Another so called stigma attached with children is that of homosexuality. Many times I have come across statistics about how 80%-90% street children practice homosexuality. But before we take in the impact of such statistics have we ever wondered about the reasons why. Consider the situation-Young adolescent boys, living away from home, not in touch with their mother or sisters, with little female influence in their lives, facing hard and stressful times, some having suffered abuse, and being at an age when sexuality is a paramount mental concern; WILL tend to form strong bonds of companionship with each other. Without wanting to stir a hornet’s nest; I’d like to point out that this happens in other comparable circumstances- like among soldiers posted in field areas, among cowboys grazing sheep on high mountains .(that’s all I could get out of the film, anyway..,). The reason for both the last post and this one is to potray a sketch of what are the different aspects to ‘street life’. Now we will start focusing on individual pockets of Delhi. I have two bogs on which i shall begin posting pictures by next week. http://foggyfroggie.blogspot.com/ http://angelonhigh.wordpress.com/newblog/545170/ Coming up: Chap3 : Dargah se station tak: Nizamuddin ke bachche __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From mail at shivamvij.com Tue Apr 4 20:22:51 2006 From: mail at shivamvij.com (Shivam) Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 20:22:51 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] P. Sainath :Where India shining meets great depression (The Hindu) In-Reply-To: <6.2.3.4.2.20060404012949.02be8a98@mail.sarai.net> References: <6.2.3.4.2.20060404012949.02be8a98@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: <210498250604040752n1e1f8b83p7a979f9611a20b24@mail.gmail.com> > The papers that dislike such stories do find > space for the poor, though. As in this > advertisement, which strikes a new low in > contempt for them. Two very poor women, probably > landless workers, are chatting: "That's one > helluva designer tan," says the first to the > other. "Yeah," replies the other. "My skin just > takes to the Monte Carlo sun." The copy that > follows then mocks them. "You'll agree," it says, > "chances that the ladies above rub shoulders with > the glitterati of the French Riviera are, well, a > little remote." It throws in a disclaimer, of > course. "We don't mean to be disrespectful ... " > But "this is a mere reminder to marketers that a > focus on customers with stronger potential does > help." That is an ad for the `Brand Equity,' > supplement of a leading newspaper group. All of you on this list MUST see this incredibly atrocious advertisement: http://www.theotherindia.org/media/brand-equity.html S. From lawrence at altlawforum.org Tue Apr 4 23:07:38 2006 From: lawrence at altlawforum.org (Lawrence Liang) Date: Tue, 04 Apr 2006 23:07:38 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] P. Sainath :Where India shining meets great depression (The Hindu) In-Reply-To: <210498250604040752n1e1f8b83p7a979f9611a20b24@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Hi shivam A lot of people have been horrified with that ad... There is an equally pissing off series of ads brought out by SBI for their credit/debit cards which portrays various working class people (coolie/dhobi) with a caption Raghu, ex pickpocket.... So in a plastic cashless world, 'petty criminals will be rendered jobless and forced to work' In case any of you have missed it, you can see a badly scanned version here http://www.altlawforum.org/Resources/Pickpocket.jpg lawrence On 4/4/06 8:22 PM, "Shivam" wrote: >> The papers that dislike such stories do find > space for the poor, though. As >> in this > advertisement, which strikes a new low in > contempt for them. Two >> very poor women, probably > landless workers, are chatting: "That's one > >> helluva designer tan," says the first to the > other. "Yeah," replies the >> other. "My skin just > takes to the Monte Carlo sun." The copy that > follows >> then mocks them. "You'll agree," it says, > "chances that the ladies above >> rub shoulders with > the glitterati of the French Riviera are, well, a > >> little remote." It throws in a disclaimer, of > course. "We don't mean to be >> disrespectful ... " > But "this is a mere reminder to marketers that a > >> focus on customers with stronger potential does > help." That is an ad for >> the `Brand Equity,' > supplement of a leading newspaper group. All of you >> on this list MUST see this incredibly atrocious >> advertisement: http://www.theotherindia.org/media/brand-equity.html S. > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in > the subject header. > List archive: From jeebesh at sarai.net Tue Apr 4 10:56:37 2006 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh Bagchi) Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 10:56:37 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] P. Sainath :Where India shining meets great depression (The Hindu) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <6E785FC8-789E-4D23-ADE9-F4BBEF632FDB@sarai.net> dear Lawrence and Shivam, Thanks for the links to these new forms of ads. It will be pertinent to have a few response as to why we are troubled by these images?. What kind of social consensus do these images get us implicated in.? warmly jeebesh On 04-Apr-06, at 11:07 PM, Lawrence Liang wrote: > Hi shivam > > A lot of people have been horrified with that ad... > > There is an equally pissing off series of ads brought out by SBI > for their > credit/debit cards which portrays various working class people > (coolie/dhobi) with a caption Raghu, ex pickpocket.... > > So in a plastic cashless world, 'petty criminals will be rendered > jobless > and forced to work' > > In case any of you have missed it, you can see a badly scanned > version here > > http://www.altlawforum.org/Resources/Pickpocket.jpg > > > lawrence > > On 4/4/06 8:22 PM, "Shivam" wrote: > >>> The papers that dislike such stories do find >> space for the poor, though. As >>> in this >> advertisement, which strikes a new low in >> contempt for them. Two >>> very poor women, probably >> landless workers, are chatting: "That's one >> >>> helluva designer tan," says the first to the >> other. "Yeah," replies the >>> other. "My skin just >> takes to the Monte Carlo sun." The copy that >> follows >>> then mocks them. "You'll agree," it says, >> "chances that the ladies above >>> rub shoulders with >> the glitterati of the French Riviera are, well, a >> >>> little remote." It throws in a disclaimer, of >> course. "We don't mean to be >>> disrespectful ... " >> But "this is a mere reminder to marketers that a >> >>> focus on customers with stronger potential does >> help." That is an ad for >>> the `Brand Equity,' >> supplement of a leading newspaper group. > > > All of you >>> on this list MUST see this incredibly atrocious >>> advertisement: > http://www.theotherindia.org/media/brand-equity.html > > > S. > >> _________________________________________ >> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. >> Critiques & Collaborations >> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with >> subscribe in >> the subject header. >> List archive: > > > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: From lawrence at altlawforum.org Wed Apr 5 01:07:10 2006 From: lawrence at altlawforum.org (Lawrence Liang) Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2006 01:07:10 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] P. Sainath :Where India shining meets great depression (The Hindu) In-Reply-To: <6E785FC8-789E-4D23-ADE9-F4BBEF632FDB@sarai.net> Message-ID: Hi jeebesh A quick response, I was thinking about these ads and why they were particularly pissing off for me at this period, after all, these are not the first, and they will certainly not be the last ads which are offensive (recall the recent fair and lovely ad on TV)....But I guess it comes in a time when we are witnessing the state bending over to appease the US, while we see its simultaneous brutality and violence in all directions (NBA to demolitions to Bhopal)....and you wonder about the lines between brutalities of imagination and action lawrence On 4/4/06 10:56 AM, "Jeebesh Bagchi" wrote: > dear Lawrence and Shivam, > > Thanks for the links to these new forms of ads. > > It will be pertinent to have a few response as to why we are troubled > by these images?. > What kind of social consensus do these images get us implicated in.? > > warmly > > jeebesh > > > On 04-Apr-06, at 11:07 PM, Lawrence Liang wrote: > >> Hi shivam >> >> A lot of people have been horrified with that ad... >> >> There is an equally pissing off series of ads brought out by SBI >> for their >> credit/debit cards which portrays various working class people >> (coolie/dhobi) with a caption Raghu, ex pickpocket.... >> >> So in a plastic cashless world, 'petty criminals will be rendered >> jobless >> and forced to work' >> >> In case any of you have missed it, you can see a badly scanned >> version here >> >> http://www.altlawforum.org/Resources/Pickpocket.jpg >> >> >> lawrence >> >> On 4/4/06 8:22 PM, "Shivam" wrote: >> >>>> The papers that dislike such stories do find >>> space for the poor, though. As >>>> in this >>> advertisement, which strikes a new low in >>> contempt for them. Two >>>> very poor women, probably >>> landless workers, are chatting: "That's one >>> >>>> helluva designer tan," says the first to the >>> other. "Yeah," replies the >>>> other. "My skin just >>> takes to the Monte Carlo sun." The copy that >>> follows >>>> then mocks them. "You'll agree," it says, >>> "chances that the ladies above >>>> rub shoulders with >>> the glitterati of the French Riviera are, well, a >>> >>>> little remote." It throws in a disclaimer, of >>> course. "We don't mean to be >>>> disrespectful ... " >>> But "this is a mere reminder to marketers that a >>> >>>> focus on customers with stronger potential does >>> help." That is an ad for >>>> the `Brand Equity,' >>> supplement of a leading newspaper group. >> >> >> All of you >>>> on this list MUST see this incredibly atrocious >>>> advertisement: >> http://www.theotherindia.org/media/brand-equity.html >> >> >> S. >> >>> _________________________________________ >>> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. >>> Critiques & Collaborations >>> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with >>> subscribe in >>> the subject header. >>> List archive: >> >> >> _________________________________________ >> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. >> Critiques & Collaborations >> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with >> subscribe in the subject header. >> List archive: > From jeebesh at sarai.net Tue Apr 4 17:53:01 2006 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh Bagchi) Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 17:53:01 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] P. Sainath :Where India shining meets greatdepression (The Hindu) Message-ID: From: ravig64 at gmail.com Subject: Re: [Reader-list] P. Sainath :Where India shining meets greatdepression (The Hindu) dear Jeebesh, thank you for the question.... I feel that it is the growing acceptance of capitalism as the way forward, that everything else is subservient, and all the values that imputes, which we are all very uncomfortable with.... it is not ok to be economically poor any more, all else which is human is secondary.... or to be smirked at.... ravi ps. please post onto list, since I cannot acess it from home... On Apr 4, 2006, at 10:56 AM, Jeebesh Bagchi wrote: > dear Lawrence and Shivam, > > Thanks for the links to these new forms of ads. > > It will be pertinent to have a few response as to why we are > troubled by these images?. > What kind of social consensus do these images get us implicated in.? > > warmly > > jeebesh > > > On 04-Apr-06, at 11:07 PM, Lawrence Liang wrote: > > >> Hi shivam >> >> A lot of people have been horrified with that ad... >> >> There is an equally pissing off series of ads brought out by SBI >> for their >> credit/debit cards which portrays various working class people >> (coolie/dhobi) with a caption Raghu, ex pickpocket.... >> >> So in a plastic cashless world, 'petty criminals will be rendered >> jobless >> and forced to work' >> >> In case any of you have missed it, you can see a badly scanned >> version here >> >> http://www.altlawforum.org/Resources/Pickpocket.jpg >> >> >> lawrence >> >> On 4/4/06 8:22 PM, "Shivam" wrote: >> >> >>>> The papers that dislike such stories do find >>>> >>> space for the poor, though. As >>> >>>> in this >>>> >>> advertisement, which strikes a new low in >>> contempt for them. Two >>> >>>> very poor women, probably >>>> >>> landless workers, are chatting: "That's one >>> >>> >>>> helluva designer tan," says the first to the >>>> >>> other. "Yeah," replies the >>> >>>> other. "My skin just >>>> >>> takes to the Monte Carlo sun." The copy that >>> follows >>> >>>> then mocks them. "You'll agree," it says, >>>> >>> "chances that the ladies above >>> >>>> rub shoulders with >>>> >>> the glitterati of the French Riviera are, well, a >>> >>> >>>> little remote." It throws in a disclaimer, of >>>> >>> course. "We don't mean to be >>> >>>> disrespectful ... " >>>> >>> But "this is a mere reminder to marketers that a >>> >>> >>>> focus on customers with stronger potential does >>>> >>> help." That is an ad for >>> >>>> the `Brand Equity,' >>>> >>> supplement of a leading newspaper group. >>> >> >> >> All of you >> >>>> on this list MUST see this incredibly atrocious >>>> advertisement: >>>> >> http://www.theotherindia.org/media/brand-equity.html >> >> >> S. >> >> >>> _________________________________________ >>> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. >>> Critiques & Collaborations >>> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with >>> subscribe in >>> the subject header. >>> List archive: >>> >> >> >> _________________________________________ >> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. >> Critiques & Collaborations >> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with >> subscribe in the subject header. >> List archive: >> > > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: > From abhinanditamathur at gmail.com Wed Apr 5 10:10:26 2006 From: abhinanditamathur at gmail.com (abhinandita mathur) Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 10:10:26 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] P. Sainath :Where India shining meets greatdepression (The Hindu) In-Reply-To: <19aa1b810604042140m2103bf13m50113212985cb134@mail.gmail.com> References: <19aa1b810604042140m2103bf13m50113212985cb134@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <19aa1b810604042140w361daf6djaf2c096429dabb56@mail.gmail.com> On 4/5/06, abhinandita mathur wrote: > certainly there is a visual acceptance of capitalism. rather glossy > capitalism evident in the India Shinning campaign or a Karan Johar > film for instance which translates in to a glossed out visual dream. > where "You can almost imagine you are not in India". > And any representation of poor or rural must always look so needy and > desperate for a make over. But surely your global gone local bank, > toothpaste or biscuit can do it. > > > > On 4/4/06, Jeebesh Bagchi wrote: > > From: ravig64 at gmail.com > > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] P. Sainath :Where India shining meets > > greatdepression (The Hindu) > > > > > > dear Jeebesh, > > > > thank you for the question.... I feel that it is the growing > > acceptance of capitalism as the way forward, that everything else is > > subservient, and all the values that imputes, which we are all very > > uncomfortable with.... > > > > it is not ok to be economically poor any more, all else which is > > human is secondary.... or to be smirked at.... > > > > > > ravi > > > > ps. please post onto list, since I cannot acess it from home... > > > > > > On Apr 4, 2006, at 10:56 AM, Jeebesh Bagchi wrote: > > > > > > > dear Lawrence and Shivam, > > > > > > Thanks for the links to these new forms of ads. > > > > > > It will be pertinent to have a few response as to why we are > > > troubled by these images?. > > > What kind of social consensus do these images get us implicated in.? > > > > > > warmly > > > > > > jeebesh > > > > > > > > > On 04-Apr-06, at 11:07 PM, Lawrence Liang wrote: > > > > > > > > >> Hi shivam > > >> > > >> A lot of people have been horrified with that ad... > > >> > > >> There is an equally pissing off series of ads brought out by SBI > > >> for their > > >> credit/debit cards which portrays various working class people > > >> (coolie/dhobi) with a caption Raghu, ex pickpocket.... > > >> > > >> So in a plastic cashless world, 'petty criminals will be rendered > > >> jobless > > >> and forced to work' > > >> > > >> In case any of you have missed it, you can see a badly scanned > > >> version here > > >> > > >> http://www.altlawforum.org/Resources/Pickpocket.jpg > > >> > > >> > > >> lawrence > > >> > > >> On 4/4/06 8:22 PM, "Shivam" wrote: > > >> > > >> > > >>>> The papers that dislike such stories do find > > >>>> > > >>> space for the poor, though. As > > >>> > > >>>> in this > > >>>> > > >>> advertisement, which strikes a new low in > > >>> contempt for them. Two > > >>> > > >>>> very poor women, probably > > >>>> > > >>> landless workers, are chatting: "That's one > > >>> > > >>> > > >>>> helluva designer tan," says the first to the > > >>>> > > >>> other. "Yeah," replies the > > >>> > > >>>> other. "My skin just > > >>>> > > >>> takes to the Monte Carlo sun." The copy that > > >>> follows > > >>> > > >>>> then mocks them. "You'll agree," it says, > > >>>> > > >>> "chances that the ladies above > > >>> > > >>>> rub shoulders with > > >>>> > > >>> the glitterati of the French Riviera are, well, a > > >>> > > >>> > > >>>> little remote." It throws in a disclaimer, of > > >>>> > > >>> course. "We don't mean to be > > >>> > > >>>> disrespectful ... " > > >>>> > > >>> But "this is a mere reminder to marketers that a > > >>> > > >>> > > >>>> focus on customers with stronger potential does > > >>>> > > >>> help." That is an ad for > > >>> > > >>>> the `Brand Equity,' > > >>>> > > >>> supplement of a leading newspaper group. > > >>> > > >> > > >> > > >> All of you > > >> > > >>>> on this list MUST see this incredibly atrocious > > >>>> advertisement: > > >>>> > > >> http://www.theotherindia.org/media/brand-equity.html > > >> > > >> > > >> S. > > >> > > >> > > >>> _________________________________________ > > >>> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > > >>> Critiques & Collaborations > > >>> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > > >>> subscribe in > > >>> the subject header. > > >>> List archive: > > >>> > > >> > > >> > > >> _________________________________________ > > >> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > > >> Critiques & Collaborations > > >> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > > >> subscribe in the subject header. > > >> List archive: > > >> > > > > > > _________________________________________ > > > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > > > Critiques & Collaborations > > > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > > > subscribe in the subject header. > > > List archive: > > > > > > > > > _________________________________________ > > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > > Critiques & Collaborations > > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. > > List archive: > > > From ngovil at ucsd.edu Wed Apr 5 11:03:37 2006 From: ngovil at ucsd.edu (Nitin Govil) Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 22:33:37 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] A tale of two Indias - The Guardian April 5 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <6FD50827-66C8-403E-B7C2-5AE020738D1E@ucsd.edu> Monte Carlo tans, cash liquidity, rubbing shoulders (respectfully) with your neighbors in your gated utopia: http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,1746948,00.html _____________ A tale of two Indias A gated development for the subcontinent's super-rich ... and a funeral for a cotton farmer, forced into suicide because of spiralling poverty. India's economic growth is dazzling but, in the new, globalised era, its inequalities are becoming even more polarised, discovers Randeep Ramesh . Wednesday April 5, 2006 The Guardian A blue-suited Boris Becker strokes his chin, shakes his head and speaks into the lens. "No, no. I'm sorry, I can't think of any place I like to live in as much as this place." Flanked by wooden, Swiss-style chalets and manicured, verdant lawns the former Wimbledon champion then saunters off, presumably to find his place. The advert, which has been shown repeatedly on Indian television screens for the past month, promotes the impression that Becker wants to live the rest of his life in the shadow of the Sahyadri Hills, an oasis of greenery in the dust of the Indian state of Maharashtra. What is being advertised is a first in the country - a private enclave that will eventually separate 35,000 wealthy residents from the teeming poverty in India. In the process, 11,000 acres of prime forest are slowly being converted into a city, called Aamby Valley, which is sealed off by eight-foot-high brick walls topped by an electric fence. Inside, every home has a panic button and streets are lined with closed-circuit television cameras. Gated and guarded by a gun-toting police force, the township is out of bounds to non-residents - intentionally cut off from the rest of India. In many ways, Aamby Valley resembles a luxury holiday resort rather than an exclusive utopia. It boasts some of the best weather in the country, with the temperature rarely rising above 32C, and it is cooled by year-round breezes. There are water parks, hiking trails, rock- climbing walls, an 18-hole golf course, a tribal village, five-star restaurants, a 1,500-bed hospital and an airport for private jets. With just 250 of the 7,000 homes built, Aamby Valley has the creepy feel of an abandoned Hollywood set. But the township is more than just a flash housing development. Its construction marks a step change in India's evolution from dirt-poor country into a middle-income one, unembarrassed by the fact that the rich are getting richer - some of them very rich indeed. Previously, the wealthy have had to deal with the choking poverty of the country, edging their Mercedes past lolling cows and avoiding pavement pools of urine in their Manolo Blahniks. There was no way to shut out the crime, traffic and noise that pervade the country's city streets. Until India globalised in the 1990s, Indians tended to identify with the poor - a societal trait that drew inspiration from the example of the ascetic Mohandas Gandhi. Gandhi's India, or at least his influence on economics, has all but disappeared in the past decade. From 1947 until 1991, the economy grew at 3.5% a year, the so-called Hindu rate of growth which championed equality and social stability over wealth. After 1991, that all changed. Notions of speed and efficiency were stamped on to a civilisation that traditionally took a slower, more relaxed view of life. Economic growth rose to 6% a year. In the past three years, it has zoomed to 8% a year - meaning that the economy will double in size in a decade. The message now is similar to that of China during the 90s, in the phrase attributed to Deng Xiaoping: "To get rich is glorious." Not that the wealth has reached all of the country. India is one land, but the rich and poor exist on apparently different planets. Virtually unreported are some awful daily realities: the rate of malnutrition in children under five is a shamefully high 45%. Less than a third of India's homes have a toilet and most women have to wait until the dark of evening to venture out to answer the call of nature. The talk of making poverty history sounds hollow in India, a land which is home to a third of the world's poor and where some 300 million people live on less than $1 a day. Yet another world is growing up, fuelled by the immense wealth that is being amassed by India's new monied classes, who shop for brand-name luxury goods, ski in the Alps and send their kids to Harvard. Very soon the country will have 3.8m households with an annual income of 10m rupees (£130,000). Below them in any rich list is the middle class, estimated to number about 150 million. Their hunger for goods has seen a new money culture - how to make it and how to spend it. India's masses were, under the more equal state-run economy, denied shopping choices. The country is today undergoing a consumer boom. For some, this is proof enough that, in opening up, India has gained from globalisation - allowing Dior, Bulgari and Rolls-Royce into the country. Consumption in this India is nothing if not conspicuous. Aamby Valley offers Indians a way to buy their way out of the state: a couple of acres costs 70m rupees (£900,000). In British terms it may not sound like a fortune, but the price of the cheapest wooden two-bedroom chalet is 15m rupees (£190,000) - 90 times the average Indian family's annual income. This alone will ensure that flourishing India is kept well apart from the unwashed masses. Surveying her six-acre plot, Savitha Mansukhani, the wife of a multi- millionaire electronics tycoon, says that her home city of Mumbai is too crowded and "everybody knows somebody who has been robbed at home". "Here I will feel completely safe. It is a walled city and nobody can walk in. Only the right sort of people." Apart from feeling secure, Savitha gushes forth about Aamby Valley's benefits: its broadband connections, its poolside dining, its watersports centre. Her husband Vijay, who has a mild heart condition, loves their Spanish-style villa overlooking the lake. She lingers in describing her plans for a chintzy inside waterfall and the about-to-be-laid Italian marble floors. "For the first time I wish I was 10 years younger. Then I would have longer to enjoy it all." Another two sprawling private suburbs are planned just a few hours' drive away. At the heart of these ventures is the privatisation of India's urban spaces. Aamby Valley is run by a private company, Sahara, an Indian business conglomerate which launched a national airline, runs television stations and operates a rural banking network in north India. The townships' rules and regulations, currently being formulated, are reminiscent of a Singaporean zeal for law and order. Few will regret prohibiting the unsavoury Indian habit of spitting red streams of "paan", a chewy paste made from betel nut that stains most streets, or forbidding men from using the kerb as a public toilet. But within a decade Aamby Valley will be handed over to a contractor who will run the city's services. The township will be governed by a council that will be "selected not elected", and a new set of regulations will spring up to determine what colour each chalet can be painted and where denizens can park their limos. All this points to a deeper trend: a swelling class of people with a deep mistrust of government who dream of creating an Indian Shangri-la. The new wealthy in India are quietly abandoning the state: paying for their own private police force and playing golf at private clubs. There appears to be little concern about supporting public services or about the poor who are stuck with decrepit hospitals and schools. This kind of institutional inequality has its roots in the caste system, India's social hierarchy, but it will soon be criss-crossed by another set of divisions that will see older cities becoming dumped with an Indian underclass. One only has to turn on the television to see this new India being created. Characters in Indian car advertisements always seem to be driving along pristine highways in the forests of Austria or along the beaches of California, with never a rut or a holy cow in sight. Aamby Valley's promotional video sees Daley Thompson apparently rendered speechless as he relaxes in an outsized Mediterranean cottage. There is an exultant sense among the country's wealthy that a brash, bold India is claiming its appropriate place in the world. The thinking goes that in an age of outsourcing, high technology and nuclear weapons, India's image overseas can no longer be shrunk to one of elephants, maharajahs and rag-clad, swollen-bellied children. It often takes celebrity to lift the poor in India out of anonymity. On a sultry spring evening in Delhi last month, the novelist Arundhati Roy could be found in the middle of a troupe of chanting, sari-clad women, who were hoping to draw attention to a terrible blight on the rural landscape: farmers' suicides. Thousands of farmers have taken their own lives, having found themselves with a debt that, in dollar terms, would scarcely buy an iPod, but which is enough to impoverish a family. Roy likens the country's progress to two convoys of trucks: a small group that is on its way to a "glittering destination near the top of world", and a more massive pack that "melts into the darkness and disappears". "A section of India has seceded from the nation," she says. "This project of corporate globalisation has created a constituency of very rich people who are very thrilled about it. They do not care about the hawkers being cleared from the streets or the slums that are disappeared overnight." As she sees it, India is not coming together but coming apart because liberalisation has convulsed the country at an unprecedented, unacceptable velocity. In the cities, the hammer and bulldozer are, often, noisily demolishing slum block after slum block, making way for shiny new apartments. Nowhere is this shift more profoundly felt than in the country's villages where, Roy says, "India does not live. It dies". India is largely a mosaic of 500,000 villages, each with a population of about 1,000 people. This basic demographic unit has, for centuries, acquiesced to an unseen order, governed by caste rules, harvests and religious festivals. Yet the blooming of capitalism that, in India's cities, translates into rampant consumerism, extravagant architecture and looser sexual mores has had a more wrenching effect in the nation's villages. Just a few hundred kilometres from Aamby Valley, in Vidarbha, the farming belt in eastern Maharashtra, are fields of black soil that once reaped a rich harvest of "white gold", as cotton was known. But the crop has lost its lustre in recent years. The arrival of new pesticides, genetically modified seeds and swanky tractors that soak up increasingly expensive petrol has pushed up the cost of the production. At the same time, India dismantled the wall of duties that kept out foreign cotton as part of its liberalisation drive. Vidarbha's farmers, unprotected by market controls and tariffs, have to compete with growers from the European Union and US who are subsidised to the tune of billions of dollars a year. The last vestiges of Indian government support were withdrawn a few months ago. The result is that Indian cotton farmers have become impoverished in a few short years. Many have borrowed to stay alive - first from banks and then from usurious moneylenders. Chained in poverty by debts they cannot pay, farmers began to sell first their carts, then their cattle, followed by land and homes. Some offer their kidneys for 100,000 rupees (£1,300). Others have put up entire villages for sale. The 800 acres of Dorli village in Wardha district, complete with accommodation for 46 families, can be yours for 200m rupees (£2.5m), about the same as three plots in Aamby Valley. "I can negotiate," says Sujata Halule, the 27-year-old elected member of the village council who senses a sale in my questions. "We have no food, no clothes ... dogs live better here now." On the front page of the local newspaper there is a grisly running tally of farmers' suicides in the area: the six-month total on the day I arrive is 348. Kadu Petkar became one of them in February when he swallowed a bottle of insecticide, lay in the cool dawn shade of his string cot, vomited and died. Past parched, yellow fields and sun-bleached lanes is Petkar's house in Kurjhi Fort village. The home, which is low-slung and made of brick and mud, has space for three or four small rooms which, when I arrive, quickly fill with jostling mourners. Petkar's mother squats on the floor holding her arms and rocking slowly back and forth, often dissolving into tears. From beneath her brown chiffon scarf, Petkar's daughter Nanda speaks of finding her father's body in the early morning, his lips cold and caked with the contents of his stomach. The 45-year-old had borrowed 31,000 rupees (£390) a decade ago; despite occasional repayments, the debt had tripled by the time of his death. The bank had already come to collect its dues, forcing the sale of some of his land. Left to sink further into poverty are Petkar's wife, 75-year-old mother, 80-year-old father and four children. The older members of the family have taken to working in the fields as daily labourers for less than a pound a day. Sixteen-year-old Nanda will soon join them. Although she would like to continue her studies "in the big city and go shopping like the other girls", her father's death has all but extinguished such ambitions. "Now I do not have any dreams," she says. Last month, 77 farmers took their own lives, at a rate of almost three a day. Some Indian writers have called it a "great depression", but in the week that grisly death toll was published, there were more stories on Mumbai's fashion week in the newspapers than on rural desolation. Globalisation in India has been a broad and brutal process, creating a country in vital and vulgar flux. The bigger the gains in India from open markets, the bigger the disorientating changes. And the Indians who count themselves among the losers from this process easily outnumber the winners. More than 400 million farm workers each earn India just $375 (£230) a year in output. The comparable amount made by the million or so software engineers is $25,000 (£16,000). It is such inequalities, particularly in a culture that has come to promote assiduously the accumulation of wealth, that fuels predictions by the CIA and investment banks such as Goldman Sachs that India, along with China, will come to dominate the world economy in the next few decades. China is already the globe's second-largest economy; India is on the verge of overtaking Japan to become the third biggest. A future of even greater wealth seems assured. But so does today's reality that India remains a terrifying place to be poor. From ajoe at gmx.net Tue Apr 4 20:49:09 2006 From: ajoe at gmx.net (Joe Athialy) Date: Tue, 04 Apr 2006 20:49:09 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Open Challenge to Sardar Sarovar Message-ID: <7.0.1.0.2.20060404204855.02adf500@gmx.net> > > > > > > >AN OPEN CHALLENGE TO SARDAR SAROVAR DAM ENGINEERS > > > > > > > > > > >Withdraw statement that 3.42 crore units electricity will be >produced daily by SSP dam. >Or sign a legally enforceable bond to pay the shortfall below Rs. >2500 crore every year. > * Open Letter from Faculty, Scientists, Engineers and other professionals > * > Executive > Summary > * > Facts > and Fiction: Power Generation in Sardar Sarovar Project > > > > > >Open Letter from Faculty, Scientists, Engineers and other professionals > > > > > > > > > > >We the undersigned science and engineering faculty, working >professionals and graduates from universities across the world take >a strong exception to the misuse of science for promoting human >rights violation. The builders of the Sardar Sarovar dam in >Gujarat, India are advertising unrealizable benefits in terms of >power and irrigation and luring their nation to increase the dam's >height to 121.9 mts. despite the fact that 35,000 families are still >living in the submergence zone without rehabilitation. > >On April 2 2006 the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) engineers stated >emphatically in a major newspaper that 3.4 crore units of >electricity valued at Rs. 7 crore will be generated every day once >the SSP dam's height is increased to 121.9 mts [Indian Express >Article]. Annually this would amount to Rs. 2500 crores of electricity. > >It can be easily demonstrated that this claim is false and involves >gross misuse of data. It is not possible to generate electricity >daily worth anywhere close to 3.4 crore units or Rs. 7 crores from >the SSP. We have provided references from the Narmada Control >Authority web site that includes a table of the expected electricity >generation as projected by the "Central Electricity Authority" of >India as well as of independent energy experts all of whom project >substantially lesser power. The facts regarding the power >generation of SSP, and the basis for our stand are explained in the >attached note "Facts and Fiction". For example, in 2004, the Chief >Engineer (NVDA) claimed that M.P. state would get 370 MW of power, >but in the next 20 months, the state received only an average of 85 >MW. We are compelled to believe that the dam engineers know very >well too that their statements are false, and this amounts to >serious deception of the public. In a country like India that is >short on energy, holding such a patently false oasis of hope is as >cruel as saying that people are rehabilitated when they aren't. > >It is very important to understand the burning context for this >false propaganda. On March 15, 2005, India's Supreme Court took note >of the lagging rehabilitation and ordered halt to further >construction until each and every affected family was rehabilitated >as per the norms of Narmada Tribunal Award. However, in March 2006, >without meeting those norms, and despite objections from the Union >Minister for Water Resources, the dam construction has resumed. > >Hundreds of affected families are protesting in the national capital >New Delhi facing callous arrests. Renowned social activist Medha >Patkar and two affected people from the Narmada villages have >started an indefinite fast (satyagraha) to uphold the truth. Today >is Day Six of the fast, and the health of the activists including >Medha Patkar is in peril. > >While this Gandhian struggle for rights is on, we >scientists, engineers and working professionals are aghast that in >a national newspaper in India, the dam engineers are highlighting >false information to sway the public from supporting the struggle. >It is extremely important in the 21st century as we try and become a >developed nation, that we set high standards for both scientific >achievement and human rights. The issue is not only one of the >displaced people but also whether science can be misused without >being challenged by other scientists. We will not allow this to happen. > >Medha Patkar and others are on an indefinite fast, backing what they >are saying with actual personal commitment. What personal commitment >can we expect from the Sardar Sarovar engineers who have said that >the SSP will generate Rs. 7 crore a day or Rs. 2500 crore of >electricity a year?? > >We challenge them to sign a bond with the displaced families of the >Narmada valley and citizens of India, that they will personally make >up the loss of any amount that is short of Rs. 2500 crore of >electricity generated each year. This money should be divided into >three parts -- one part should go to the displaced families equally, >the other to every citizen of India whom the engineers have sought >to mislead and the final part should go to human rights movements of >the world. We estimate the loss to be about Rs. 1500-2000 crores a >year in the initial years before the canal network is completed and >rising to Rs. 2300 crores a year once all the waters are diverted >for irrigation purposes to the canals of the Narmada river valley projects. > >Can the Sardar Sarovar engineers sign the bond? We challenge them >to. Or they should take back the false promises, issue a public >apology and stop construction of the dam. We would be delighted if >they joined the fast of the affected people, whose purpose is to >uphold the truth. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060404/0d1b59be/attachment.html From mallroad at gmail.com Tue Apr 4 20:19:39 2006 From: mallroad at gmail.com (Shivam Vij) Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 20:19:39 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] P. Sainath :Where India shining meets great depression (The Hindu) In-Reply-To: <6.2.3.4.2.20060404012949.02be8a98@mail.sarai.net> References: <6.2.3.4.2.20060404012949.02be8a98@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: <210498250604040749wcd3b7dcn786928b89fdddb09@mail.gmail.com> > The papers that dislike such stories do find > space for the poor, though. As in this > advertisement, which strikes a new low in > contempt for them. Two very poor women, probably > landless workers, are chatting: "That's one > helluva designer tan," says the first to the > other. "Yeah," replies the other. "My skin just > takes to the Monte Carlo sun." The copy that > follows then mocks them. "You'll agree," it says, > "chances that the ladies above rub shoulders with > the glitterati of the French Riviera are, well, a > little remote." It throws in a disclaimer, of > course. "We don't mean to be disrespectful ... " > But "this is a mere reminder to marketers that a > focus on customers with stronger potential does > help." That is an ad for the `Brand Equity,' > supplement of a leading newspaper group. All of you on this list MUST see this incredibly atrocious advertisement: http://www.theotherindia.org/media/brand-equity.html S. From hguerreiro at nouveaucinema.ca Tue Apr 4 08:48:35 2006 From: hguerreiro at nouveaucinema.ca (Hugo Guerreiro) Date: Mon, 03 Apr 2006 23:18:35 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] =?iso-8859-1?q?Festival_Nouveau_Media_2006_-_Montr?= =?iso-8859-1?q?=E9al-_Call_for_Porposals?= Message-ID: > The submission forms for the 35th edition of the Festival Nouveau > Cinema in > Film and New Media are already available in .pdf format from the > Festival's website www.nouveaucinema.ca. > This year the Festival Nouveau Cinema celebrates it's 35th anniversary > and > therefore would like to open the range of submitted work in Film and > New Media to a broader spectrum of creators worldwide. > The deadline for submissions is June 15th 2006. > Online submissions will be available soon. > The Festival is also very grateful for all your interest and > availability > in sharing this information with other artists and/or institutions > that suport cultural production and diffusion. From ravig64 at gmail.com Wed Apr 5 02:01:39 2006 From: ravig64 at gmail.com (Ravi Agarwal) Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 02:01:39 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] P. Sainath :Where India shining meets greatdepression (The Hindu) In-Reply-To: <6E785FC8-789E-4D23-ADE9-F4BBEF632FDB@sarai.net> References: <6E785FC8-789E-4D23-ADE9-F4BBEF632FDB@sarai.net> Message-ID: <2E493069-F358-4A42-8ABE-867F7B91FE52@gmail.com> dear Jeebesh, thank you for the question.... I feel that it is the growing acceptance of capitalism as the way forward, that everything else is subservient, and all the values that imputes, which we are all very uncomfortable with.... it is not ok to be economically poor any more, all else which is human is secondary.... or to be smirked at.... ravi ps. please post onto list, since I cannot acess it from home... On Apr 4, 2006, at 10:56 AM, Jeebesh Bagchi wrote: > dear Lawrence and Shivam, > > Thanks for the links to these new forms of ads. > > It will be pertinent to have a few response as to why we are > troubled by these images?. > What kind of social consensus do these images get us implicated in.? > > warmly > > jeebesh > > > On 04-Apr-06, at 11:07 PM, Lawrence Liang wrote: > >> Hi shivam >> >> A lot of people have been horrified with that ad... >> >> There is an equally pissing off series of ads brought out by SBI >> for their >> credit/debit cards which portrays various working class people >> (coolie/dhobi) with a caption Raghu, ex pickpocket.... >> >> So in a plastic cashless world, 'petty criminals will be rendered >> jobless >> and forced to work' >> >> In case any of you have missed it, you can see a badly scanned >> version here >> >> http://www.altlawforum.org/Resources/Pickpocket.jpg >> >> >> lawrence >> >> On 4/4/06 8:22 PM, "Shivam" wrote: >> >>>> The papers that dislike such stories do find >>> space for the poor, though. As >>>> in this >>> advertisement, which strikes a new low in >>> contempt for them. Two >>>> very poor women, probably >>> landless workers, are chatting: "That's one >>> >>>> helluva designer tan," says the first to the >>> other. "Yeah," replies the >>>> other. "My skin just >>> takes to the Monte Carlo sun." The copy that >>> follows >>>> then mocks them. "You'll agree," it says, >>> "chances that the ladies above >>>> rub shoulders with >>> the glitterati of the French Riviera are, well, a >>> >>>> little remote." It throws in a disclaimer, of >>> course. "We don't mean to be >>>> disrespectful ... " >>> But "this is a mere reminder to marketers that a >>> >>>> focus on customers with stronger potential does >>> help." That is an ad for >>>> the `Brand Equity,' >>> supplement of a leading newspaper group. >> >> >> All of you >>>> on this list MUST see this incredibly atrocious >>>> advertisement: >> http://www.theotherindia.org/media/brand-equity.html >> >> >> S. >> >>> _________________________________________ >>> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. >>> Critiques & Collaborations >>> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with >>> subscribe in >>> the subject header. >>> List archive: >> >> >> _________________________________________ >> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. >> Critiques & Collaborations >> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with >> subscribe in the subject header. >> List archive: > > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: From tripta at gmail.com Tue Apr 4 07:44:23 2006 From: tripta at gmail.com (Tripta B Chandola) Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 10:14:23 +0800 Subject: [Reader-list] shops and slums - a city divided. Message-ID: The demolitions are all over; the brazen, almost barren, (till the time the football field or the power station or something equally imposing appears) space stares at you. An eerie silence marks this space, the intersections, the traffic flows. Everyone is pretending as if nothing was ever there. Everyone looks away. However, if you look closely around the corners, the RAF vans, the police vans, etc are all perched in an almost nonchalant manner as if their presence had (has) nothing to do with the 'site' itself. The site (and the sight) is being shifted. cheers, tripta http://www.hindu.com/2006/04/04/stories/2006040406180900.htm Shops and slums — a city divided A. Srivathsan The traders' protest and the slum-eviction drive in Delhi can be traced to the failure of city planning and urban governance. What is required is a radical reconstruction of the concept of a city. EVER SINCE the Supreme Court decided to get cracking on unauthorised commercial establishments in Delhi, traders have been crying hoarse. The court deadline for sealing commercial establishments is June 30. Traders are protesting against this court order and things are turning violent. For the Ministry of Urban Development, the only way to get around this mess and appease the traders was to notify amendment to the Delhi master plan. It has now been announced that commercial establishments can come up in residential areas even on roads as narrow as nine metres across. In another part of Delhi, at the same time, slums along the river Yamuna were removed by another court order. Slum dwellers were asked to vacate. Bulldozers and authorities moved in and the huts were demolished. No violence was reported. Powerful lobby The traders in Delhi make a powerful lobby. They significantly contribute to Delhi's Rs.5,000 core sales tax base. They demand that a distinction be made between greed and need based violation. And, want the spread of commerce in residential area accommodated as a necessity. The Ministry has acceded to their demands. The city master plan is now amended. The debates are focussed on mixed land use policy, the Ministry's ad hoc changes, and the judiciary's comprehension of civic planning. The question not many are asking is: why are traders more important than the poor in the slums. The focus on traders cannot distract us from the core issues of lack of social housing and failure of city planning. Legislators and councillors cutting across party lines have supported the Delhi traders. They have vociferously demanded that the traders not only be spared but that their violations be legitimised. They have succeeded. Barring a token protest, slum removal is accepted without a murmur. Middle class citizens of the city are not very different. The resident welfare associations have spoken against the traders; but the slums have not been their concern. Middle class life is connected to the slums in many ways. It is supported and made possible by the informal economy centred round the slums. In the eyes of the state, why does one thing appear a necessity and the other an encroachment? Town planning and city life are connected to property ownership. City governance is oriented to help property owners enjoy their rights. Rights here are not limited to the property alone. A property-owner can demand access roads and object to any obstacles to the enjoyment of his or her entitlement. On the other hand, when you are in a slum, you do not legally own a property. You are not entitled to anything a city offers. Slums are considered eyesores and slum-dwellers parasites. On the other hand, the land-owning citizens are considered producers of wealth. For example, in the case of Delhi, the penetration of shops in the residential area is considered a service to the city. The claim is that they make commerce accessible, provide employment, and create a vibrant city. Slums are service providers too, but this fact is ignored. Domestic help, drivers, watchmen come from the slums. They subsidise city life by charging less for their services. It is not just a matter of abundant supply of labour. By living in slums and walking many miles the labourers make their services cheap and affordable. Hawkers and their informal markets provide variety and cheap goods to the middle class. This too is connected to their existence in slums. Slums spring up by the side of riverbanks, railway tracks, and pavements. These are the places where ownership is not forcefully protected or clearly stated. This allows for inhabitation and makes low wages possible. It is a form of subsidy the property-owning citizens enjoy. The post-Independence city planning was full of a socialist agenda. Housing for the poor and slum improvement were important planning objectives then. Cities were acknowledged as an uneven mosaic. The poor and slums were accepted as part of the city. The 1980s were the turning point. Cities are now the new engines of growth. It is estimated that in a few years, the majority of the Indian population will be living in cities. The Planning Commission estimates that 22.44 million dwelling units are required in urban areas for the 10th Plan period (2002-2007). According to 1998 figures, Rs.1,51,000 crore was required to meet the then housing deficit. Government participation in this was estimated to be just 25 per cent. The remaining investment was to be provided by the private sector. This means private housing would alone be taken care of. The Planning Commission also estimates that 22.8 per cent of the urban population lives in slums. This means, by 2010, a minimum of 85 million would be slum-dwellers. What plans do we have for this burgeoning slum population? Can we continue to force slums out of the city? The Draft National Slum policy drawn in 1999 suggested in situ slum upgradation and recommended their integration with city plans. But it is yet to be ratified by the Government. The objectives of this policy have also not found their way into city plans. The ideal of making city planning equitable is no more an issue of concern. Cities are now perceived as sites of wealth production rather than places for people. They are getting increasingly exclusive and promoting islands of wealth. Pictures of futuristic cities have uncluttered streets. Hawkers and slums do not figure in them. The poor are needed to keep cities cheap and make them attractive destinations for investment. This is on a condition that they are not in the picture — literally and otherwise. The traders' protest and the slum-eviction drive in Delhi can be traced to the failure of city planning and urban governance. A city can no longer be planned as a single homogenous entity. Nor can a single centralised development authority govern it. In spite of recent amendments to the Constitution that empower local bodies, exclusion remains. What is required is not another new plan nor legislation, but a radical reconstruction of the concept of a city. May be the solution does not lie in planning, but in its politics. Cities within cities have to be acknowledged as separate entities. What would happen if a city is reconfigured and slums designated as separate electoral constituencies? Would it bring in more care and state support to the cities of the poor? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060404/f4e0fbd6/attachment.html From vibhaaurora at gmail.com Tue Apr 4 22:56:59 2006 From: vibhaaurora at gmail.com (Vibha Arora) Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 22:56:59 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Narmada - displacing Indians for an India shining ... Message-ID: <10d6c6990604041026n4913be19qb2cbe0b9339e849b@mail.gmail.com> NBA - an India shining forth by displacing other Indians! P l e a s e c i r c u l a t e w i d e l y ... here is a site where you may send a free fax to the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to save 35,000 families from submergence without rehabilitation in the coming monsoon by STOPPING the SSP dam from going up to 121 m as passed by the Narmada Control Authority in March. For full text of letter and to SIGN, please see http://petitions.aidindia.org/narmada/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060404/44107640/attachment.html From leoalmanac at gmail.com Tue Apr 4 06:37:49 2006 From: leoalmanac at gmail.com (Leonardo Electronic Almanac) Date: Tue, 4 Apr 2006 03:07:49 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Leonardo Electronic Almanac - Global Crossings Gallery Special In-Reply-To: <5d60ab0c0604031803y48957415pa0301a63d1efe316@mail.gmail.com> References: <5d60ab0c0604031803y48957415pa0301a63d1efe316@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <5d60ab0c0604031807h58997411j3e2a9b7e616329a9@mail.gmail.com> *sincere apologies for cross-posting* Leonardo Electronic Almanac: Global Crossings Special ISSN#1071-4391 art | science | technology - a definitive voice since 1993 http://lea.mit.edu Be prepared for a double dose of gastronomic global offerings in this issue of the Leonardo Electronic Almanac, featuring the Global Crossings Gallery Special. We first celebrate the inaugural winners of the 2005 Leonardo Global Crossings Award – the brother-sister team of Abdel Ghany Kenawy and Amal Kenawy from Cairo, Egypt, who have been collaborating on large-scale installations since 1997. Accolades also go to the three runners-up - *Regina Célia Pinto* (Brazil - web-based and CD-ROM art), *Kim Machan* (Australia - curator, arts producer and consultant) and *Shilpa Gupta* (India - Internet, video and installation works) and all other nominees: *Andres Burbano* (Colombia), Kibook (collaborative team of Visieu Lac [Vietnamese Australian], *Mark Wu*[British-born Chinese] and *Stefan Woelwer *[Germany], *Nalini Malani *(India) and *Hellen Sky*(Australia). This award recognizes the contribution of artists and scholars from culturally diverse communities worldwide who work within the emerging art-science-technology field, and was juried by an international panel of experts. The award is part of the Leonardo Global Crossings Special Project, supported by the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation. Visit the gallery: http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/LEA/GALLERY/gxawards Following that, the Global Crossings Gallery, as curated by *Dennis Summers *and *Choy Kok Kee*, showcases a veritable feast of concepts that explores what it means to be a global citizen. Indulge in this "quality cross-section of the technical and aesthetic range of globally-related artwork" – with themes that touch on the socio-political to technological/(pseudo)scientific to multi-cultural communications. The range of ideas bounced around is astounding: From creating a global community dedicated to raising issues of the sweatshop treatment of women throughout the world, particularly in relation to Nike (*Cat Mazza's* *Nike Blanket Petition*) to the darker side of global control (*Alison Chung-Yan*' *s* *Surveillance*) to *Mike Mike's *more positive approach to *The Face of Tomorrow*. Then there is *Samina Mishra's *take on the children of immigrants from India and other East Asian countries and *Tiffany Holmes's* serious and scientific approach to global water pollution, *Floating Point*. Add to that *Michael Hohl *and *Stephan Huber's **Radiomap*, which places participants on a physical representation of the globe projected onto the floor, and allow them to hear different radio stations based on their "global location", *Helene Doyon *and *Jean-Pierre Demers' **Capture Site*, which sees two artists suspended above ground surrounded with sensors that communicate local environmental information throughout the world, *Vanessa Gocksch's* *Intermundos*, a representation of Colombian youth culture and its connection to other youth cultures worldwide and the physically uplifting *World Hug Day* project by the *Gao Brothers *for a sizzling stew of wondrous global delights. Visit the gallery: http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/LEA/GALLERY/gx/ ************************************************************************ LEA Information and URLs ------------------------------------------- Receive your FREE subscription to the Leonardo Electronic Almanac e-mail digest at http://mitpress.mit.edu/lea/e-mail -- just provide your email address, name, and password, and check off that you'd like to be added to the Leonardo Electronic Almanac monthly e-mail list to keep on top of the latest news in the Leonardo community. How to advertise in LEA? http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/Leonardo/isast/placeads.html#LEAads For a paid subscription (to become an ISAST member and access archives dating back to 1993): http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=4&tid=27&mode=p The Leonardo Educators Initiative ------------------------------------------------------- The Leonardo Abstracts Service (LABS) is a comprehensive database of abstracts of PhD, Masters and MFA theses in the emerging intersection between art, science and technology. Thesis Abstract Submittal form at http://leonardolabs.pomona.edu LEA also maintains a discussion list open only to faculty in the field. Faculty wishing to join this list should submit their details @ http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/LEA/faculty.html What is LEA? ---------------------- For over a decade, the Leonardo Electronic Almanac (LEA) has thrived as an international peer-reviewed electronic journal and web archive, covering the interaction of the arts, sciences and technology. LEA emphasizes rapid publication of recent work and critical discussion on topics of current excitement. Many contributors are younger scholars and artists, and there is a slant towards shorter, less academic texts. Contents include Leonardo Reviews, edited by Michael Punt, Leonardo Research Abstracts of recent Ph.D. and Masters theses, curated Galleries of current new media artwork, and special issues on topics ranging from Artists and Scientists in Times of War, to Zero Gravity Art, to the History of New Media. Copyright(c) 1993 - 2006: The Leonardo Electronic Almanac is published by Leonardo / International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology (ISAST) in association with the MIT Press. All rights reserved. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060404/bd43cf72/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From nc-agricowi at netcologne.de Tue Apr 4 15:26:32 2006 From: nc-agricowi at netcologne.de (NetEx) Date: Tue, 04 Apr 2006 11:56:32 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] New VideoChannel selections launched Message-ID: <443242D0.4030605@netcologne.de> VideoChannel http://videochannel.newmediafest.org is happy to launch on 4 April 2006 a suite of new selections online curated by Agricola de Cologne 1. special selection including videos by Carlo Sansolo (Brazil), Erika Fraenkel (Brazil) Antoni Karwowski (Poland), Jamil Yamani (Australia) and Mireille Astore (Australia) see also http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=3&cat=57 info available also as free download as PDF http://downloads.nmartproject.net/VideoChannel2006_1.pdf 2. theme: "gender identity" list of 30 participating artists--> see further ahead or http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=3&cat=57 info available also as free download as PDF http://downloads.nmartproject.net/VideoChannel2006_gender_identity.pdf 3. theme: "on totalitarism" list of 12 participating artists--> see further ahead or http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=3&cat=57 info available also as free download as PDF http://downloads.nmartproject.net/VideoChannel2006_on_totalitarism.pdf 4. theme: " identity of colour" list of 8 participating artists--> see further ahead or http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=3&cat=57 info available also as free download as PDF http://downloads.nmartproject.net/VideoChannel2006_identity_of_colour.pdf VideoChannel http://videochannel.newmediafest.org **************************************** Lists of selections: "Gender Identity" Eleanor Gates Stuart (Australia)*, Andrew Johnson (USA) * Elisabeth Smolarz (Germany)*, Sonja Vuk (Croatia)* Beatrice Allegranti (UK)*, Nadja Solari (Switzerland)* Arzu Ozkal Telhan (Turkey)*, Catherine Renaud Baret (France)* Joao Paulo Simoes (Portugal)*, Elia Alba (Domincan Rep.)* Jaqueline Then (Singapur)*, Oksana Shatalova (Kazakhstan)* Ina Loitzl (Austria)*, Irène Tétaz (France) Unnur A. Einarsdottir (Iceland), Eileen Bonner (UK) * Risk Hazekamp (the Netherlands)*, Rahel Maher (Australia)* Dafne Boggeri (Italy)*, Steven Dixon (Sweden)* Ane Lan (Norway)*, Lorenzo Nencini (Italy)* Razvan Ion (Romania)*, Agricola de Cologne (Germany) * Joey Hateley (UK)*, Michael Brynntrup (Germany) * Sinasi Günes (Turkey)*, J.G. Periot (France)* Reuben Preston (UK), Fred Koenig (France) "On Totalitarism" Doron Golan (USA)**, Dana Levy (Israel) ** Silvio de Gracia (Argentina)**, Francois Baret (France) ** Anatol Kraczyna (Italy)*, *Fishtank (Italy)** Jens Salander (Sweden), **MOTIV - Mara Castilho (UK)** Yu-Chen Wang (Taiwan), **Suguru Goto (Japan/France)** Alexander Satim Timofeev (Russia)**, Agricola de Cologne (Germany)* * *Identity of Colour * Reuben James Preston (UK)**, Guido Braun (Germany)** Josephine LiPuma (USA), ****Bernhard Loibner (Austria)** Irene Coremberg (Argentina), **Caterina Davinio (Italy)** Enrico Tomaselli (Italy), **Agricola de Cologne (Germany)** ******************************************************* released by NetEX - networked experience http://netex.nmartproject.net powered by [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne www.nmartproject.net . info (at) nmartproject.net _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From hpp at vsnl.com Wed Apr 5 13:24:43 2006 From: hpp at vsnl.com (hpp at vsnl.com) Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2006 12:54:43 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Fairy Tale & reality Message-ID: Dear Friends Here is a Reuters report on Madrasas in West Bengal, and a response that. V Ramaswamy Calcutta hpp at vsnl.com ..... Lessons in harmony, the Bengal madrasa way Reuters Posted online: Tuesday, April 04, 2006 at 1127 hours IST Updated: Tuesday, April 04, 2006 at 1140 hours IST Kolkata, April 4: Schoolgirl Julita Oraon, a devout Christian, never misses Sunday mass, but the rest of her week is spent studying Arabic and Sufi literature among other subjects at an Islamic religious school, or madrasa. Oraon is one of tens of thousands of Hindu and Christian students in West Bengal now attending such schools, considered breeding grounds for religious intolerance and even terrorism in much of Asia. In this part of India, madrasas are emerging as beacons of tolerance. A quarter of West Bengal's population of 80 million are Muslims and one percent are Christians. In the wake of violence in the 1960s and 70s after the creation of Bangladesh, officials moved to reform West Bengal's schools and especially its madrasas. In 1977, they started reviewing the Islamic schools, introducing history and social science to the staple of Koranic study. And after 2002, on the recommendation of a specially appointed committee, students had to study science, geography and computing. There are plans for foreign languages soon. The changes have been credited with bringing about a change in the social outlook of the state's various faiths, and have attracted both teachers and students from other religions to the madrasas. School boards have recruited non-Muslims in a bid to find the best tutors for their students. Now about 25 per cent of the 400,000 students who attend madrasas, and 15 per cent of their 10,000 teachers, are non-Muslims, officials say. "In the 1970s, the mistrust grew and Muslims were thought to be friends of Pakistan and mostly spies," says Ahmed Hasan Imran, the general secretary of the Muslim Council of Bengal. "But that perception gradually changed with the reforms in the madrasas as well as other education institutes." Getting along Swapan Pramanik, a leading sociologist and vice-chancellor of Vidya Sagar University in Kolkata, agrees that the reforms have helped bridge the divide. "The conservative outlook of the Muslims as well as Hindus have changed," he says. "The changes have rubbed off on parents and whole communities, who have been able to spread the message of harmony." The reforms have saved lives, experts say. After the Ayodhya incident in 1992 much of India was wracked by deadly communal riots. But in Bengal students from madrasas, both Muslims and Hindus, led processions denouncing the demolition, Imran says. In the aftermath of the Gujarat riots a decade later, Bengal's Hindus, Christians and Muslims were quick to meet to ensure passions were cooled. The state government offered riot victims the chance to come and settle in West Bengal. "People find it difficult to believe, but our madrasas ... are reflecting modern aspirations and expectations of the community irrespective of religion," Kanti Biswas, the state's education minister, told Reuters. "We had carefully planned the madrasa reforms to make young minds understand the values of religious tolerance and it is finally paying off." Top of the class In Jalpaiguri district, about 500 km north of Kolkata, 14-year-old Julita is posting higher marks in Arabic tests than her Muslim classmates at the Badaitari Ujiria Madrasa. "I like the subject very much and that fact that I am a Christian has never been a problem with my Muslim friends." Tapas Layek, the Hindu headmaster of a madrasa in south Kolkata has several co-religionists as colleagues. "We are loved and respected by our Muslim students who are also friendly with their Hindu classmates," he said. Bengali Muslim scholars say that the view that madrasas are simply Islamic finishing schools is a corruption of their traditional role. "Our madrasas are the perfect examples of what such institutes should really be," said Dr. Mohammed Sahidullah at Calcutta University. Renowned Bengali filmmaker Mrinal Sen, a former jury member at the Cannes festival, said the state's experiment should be copied across the country. "I can't help but be amazed at the way some of these religious schools are working towards communal harmony," he said. Officials from other states -- including Maharashtra and Rajasthan -- have come to West Bengal to see the impact of the changes for themselves, said education minister Biswas. "The perception of the respective communities about different culture and religion has helped residents of West Bengal to bridge the gulf of mistrust and come together," said sociologist Pramanik. "This has been a significant development in madrasas for the entire world to see." ....... RESPONSE It was nice to read the piece about Bengal's madrasas - but I'm afraid this is a "planted" story, by a cynical publicist, not so coincidentally with the assembly elections around the corner. This is very much an "establishment" view, witness the people quoted. For someone living in West Bengal and aware of things, some of the quoted names are hardly regarded with any respect or seriousness - such as Swapan Pramanik, a well-known party stooge and bankrupter of academia; Kanti Biswas, the sacked education minister; and Ahmed Hasan Imran, who is hardly a person of any integrity. The scenario regarding primary education of the state's Muslims, including the Urdu medium schools, is very bleak indeed. A huge number of the Muslims in the urban areas like Calcutta and Howrah live in acute poverty, backwardness and illiteracy. Regarding reforms - there has been a Madrasa Board, for secondary and higher secondary education for quite some time. But the no. of madrasas receiving state support - is a miniscule proportion of the total no. of madrasas in the state. Madrasas - must therefore be seen in this context, of being the formal schooling option for a section that lacks any other means. And speaking of state-supported madrasas - the pitiable condition of the glorious institution of yesteryears, the Calcutta Madrasa, is testimony to the true attitude of the state towards Madrasas. West Bengal is one of the prime failure cases of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, with the project money being returned unspent. Speak to any madrasa teacher and they will say that they hear so much about funds and programmes to upgrade madrasas but they don't see any evidence of this. Notwithstanding the acceptance of the need to modernise madrasas and their education, curricula, resources etc - besides some sporadic efforts in some places, nothing has really happened. Basically there is no "owner" of such an initiative in govt / party, who can steer it through, diligently and sustainedly. This shows the crisis of leadership of the Muslim community, the govt's / party's alienation and distance from the common people, and its lack of much commitment to this issue. Regarding people from other states coming to West Bengal to study the madrasa reforms - the truth is that the human development status of Muslims in West Bengal is among the lowest in the country. The Muslim community - is simply an object of strategic deprivation, to provide a permanent pool of cheap labour. This is only a pathetic means to undo the damage caused by the chief minister's bigoted outburst some years back about madrasas being dens of terrorism or something like that. But nobody's fooled. In a situation of having nothing to show to Muslims before this election, a feebleattempt is made to drum up support by showing all these so-called achievements - through a foreign news agency, for the edification of the so-called secular, educated middle-class and the intelligentsia. No representative of the govt. would have the courage to say any of these things before the Muslims at the grassroots. West Bengal and the ruling party have a large no. of "intellectuals" - like Mrinal Sen - who pay glowing lip-service to communal harmony, participate in token rituals of "communal harmony" etc. But in reality they are completely divorced from any existential engagement with Muslims, within a society that is deeply stratified and polarised. People are socialised in this milieu. Nor is the intellecutals' commitment backed up by any real effort. They like to believe that West Bengal is a haven of peace. Yes, the state has been committed to preventing communal riots. But communal sentiments abound in step with the Hindutva wave, including among CPM members and supporters; and while Muslims' lives are somewhat secure, they are dying of poverty (witness the inordinate gap between Hindu and Muslim infant mortality). This is not the peace of well-being, but the peace of the graveyard. When establishment secular leftists like Mrinal Sen are told about this reality, about the crying n eed for drastic measures to uplift the Muslim community (the overwhelming majority of whom are in poverty) - they froth in the mouth and accuse the person of being communal and destructive. If we really want India to be a secular, democratic society - there is much to be done by the educated, privileged sections (who are predominantly "Hindu"). That would also be something transformative, most of all at a personal level, in terms of one's thoughts, attitudes, conduct, actions, lifestyle etc. Merely wishing well does not make it happen. Yes, on the ground, in the flesh and blood of the common people of West Bengal, there is tolerance and mutual affection. And that, rather than anything done by the state, keeps West Bengal intact despite the crushing failure of the state. But poverty, backwardness, acute disparities, corruption, mis-governance - undermine and erode this endowment. The plight of Muslims - is also the plight of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in the state, of the rural and urban poor. The Maoist extremism in some of the adivasi areas of the state, and the state's inability to confront this - illustrates the fact that all is hardly well in West Bengal. And that is only the tip of the iceberg. But then this looks like just another hilarious fairy tale from the likes of Reuters so one can simply ignore it, except for some much needed mirth and hilarity, since its a nice piece of black humour. V Ramaswamy Calcutta From aman.am at gmail.com Wed Apr 5 14:02:24 2006 From: aman.am at gmail.com (Aman Sethi) Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 14:02:24 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Sing if you want to go faster Message-ID: <995a19920604050132n24b1eecbhfb623dcb5e697d3b@mail.gmail.com> Dear all, Found this on the Worldbank Website - under the section on "promoting reform" Best A. Tanzanian Privatisation Song The lyrics were written by ASI's Steve Masty and Capt John Komba, then translated into Kiswahili by John Komba, who together with his band recorded the song. The translation provided here is pretty general. The world is getting smaller. Where different peoples were strangers now they are friends or partners. In our villages we only succeed through cooperation, and in the world we only succeed through cooperation. We need people with great ideas. We need people who work hard. We need people willing to invest in the future. No one can be left behind, we need everyone in order to succeed. Government people and business people, Tanzanians and foreigners, are like four legs of a table at which our children will one day feast. Young plants need rain, businesses need investment. Our old industries are like dry crops and privatisation brings the rain. When the harvest comes, there is plenty for everyone. Privatisation makes a team. The people are on the team, working in new jobs and buying shares in their own future. Investors are on the team, risking everything they own and betting that we can succeed. Government is on the team, the referee who keeps everything fair, the old man we can trust. Electricity to light our homes. Safe water for our families to drink. Telephones to call our loved ones far away. Ports and railways to bring us wonderful things, and to sell our goods to the world. We need these things. Our children need these things. Privatisation will provide them. When people come here with new ideas, God blesses Tanzania. When people invest in our nation's future, God blesses Tanzania. When we work hard, when we give our children a better life, God blesses Tanzania. God bless Tanzania. From aasim27 at yahoo.co.in Wed Apr 5 14:30:31 2006 From: aasim27 at yahoo.co.in (aasim khan) Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 10:00:31 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Work in MBA culture. Message-ID: <20060405090031.12522.qmail@web8714.mail.in.yahoo.com> Hi everyone... Here an interesting bit from the Indian School of Business placement report for 2006.For those interested in finding new definitions for skill ,what is work experience and what does it mean to be a Manager and in general concepts in understanding Work and society. cheers Aasim. Dramatic Career Shifts at ISB Several cases of students who came to the ISB looking for a change in their career after several years of work experience and successfully making career shifts were witnessed this year. Some of the dramatic career shifts include: A student who after several years of owning a detective agency has been offered a Vice President-International Marketing position of a leading healthcare company; an Indian Navy serviceman of several years has also now opted for a job in the healthcare services sector. Other interesting instances of career shift are: a doctor becoming a consultant; a shipping industry professional moving to real estate consulting and several others. It’s not all about money More than 30 students at the ISB have declined high salary packages in their quest for taking up jobs that find the ‘best fit’ for them. Many students declined lucrative offers and chose better job profiles. Differentials ranged from Rs. 3 lakhs and went up to about Rs. 26 lakhs depending upon whether the offer rejected was a domestic one or an international posting with a dollar salary. This is a demonstration of the economic confidence that Indians are beginning to feel. This year’s recruitments at the ISB are proof of the ISB edge and reflect how ISB graduates are being treated at-par with the world’s best by both Indian and global companies. __________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your partner now. Go to http://yahoo.shaadi.com From mail at shivamvij.com Wed Apr 5 18:35:34 2006 From: mail at shivamvij.com (Shivam) Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 18:35:34 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] P. Sainath :Where India shining meets greatdepression (The Hindu) In-Reply-To: <2E493069-F358-4A42-8ABE-867F7B91FE52@gmail.com> References: <6E785FC8-789E-4D23-ADE9-F4BBEF632FDB@sarai.net> <2E493069-F358-4A42-8ABE-867F7B91FE52@gmail.com> Message-ID: <210498250604050605o4ba9c284wd31402466b92e1a6@mail.gmail.com> There has been some debate on these images in the blogosphere and shockingly, some people said they are not objectionable at all, that to see them as objectionable is to make poverty 'holy'. Brand Equity, SBI and Fair and Lovely - I think I am not comfortable clubbing all three and putting them under one framework - like the acceptance of capitalism, for instance. (For many that would be a very legitimate framework anyway.) I think the Brand Equity ad amounts to making fun of poverty. That does not sound as gross as its Hindi equivalent: "Kisi ki garibi ka mazaak nahi udana chahiye." The ad does not use any words to tell you the social status of the 'models', and the copy writer seems to be aware that he is doing something politically incorrect: "Now, we don't mean to be disrespectful to anyone. This is a mere reminder to marketers that a focus on customers with stronger potential does help." The problem of poverty then becomes a problem merely of marketing: it is a problem insofar only as poor people can't afford designer tan or Monte Carlo. Poverty ceases to be a social, economic or political problem to be solved by state policy. I am not sure if I am able to answer Jeebesh's question fully. Why don't you tell us what you think? S. From beate at zurwehme.org Wed Apr 5 22:26:34 2006 From: beate at zurwehme.org (beate zurwehme) Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 18:56:34 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] "You larva ME A monster" of Beate Zurwehme in the ZKM in Stuttgart Message-ID: "You larva ME A monster" of Beate Zurwehme at the ZKM in Stuttgart Performative intervention by Beate Zurwehme April 15th 2006, 5pm and 8pm April 16th 2006, 5pm, 7pm and 8pm With "You larva ME A monster", *uraufgefuehrt* in May 2005 at the Biennale Venice, Beate Zurwehme moves again against installation, performance and art intervention / performative *aneignungen* langue. preview: http://subjektivation.de/zkm.mov DIE FORM develops new uses from technologies for current productions of the Zurwehme company to the art production and treatment, which make it for the author possible, in real time an interaction from movement, language, brain and electronic arts to to produce. With the différant presentation of "You and the ZKM will present actually A monster" for the first time results of this research project in their artistic application in the areas of DIE FORM. http://subjektivation.de/c klasse.mov A fictional film. A personal documentary film. Psychoanalyse. The boundary lines between truth and fiction. A 'talking cure' film over 'talking heads '. A film, in which the interventionist and the Interventionalisierte are respective object occupations of the other one. A make-up. A film over art. A film, in which artists present themselves. A film over restrictions. A film, which hates 'talking heads' films. A [empty] reference film. A film, in which two people endeavor itself to understand each other: Director/actor, interviewer/subject, analyzing and analyzing. A film also with or without 'film music'. Film in a film in a film film. A film, which constantly changes its sex, of new one begins, category conventions produced and parodiert, its goal thereby however never from the eyes loses – as there can ever be autonomy, so long there will be authority wives? "You larva ME A monster" tickets immediately for 35 euro/28 euro in the advance booking of the ZKM Stuttgart. Tel. 0711/20 20 90 Place of event: Center for art and medium intervention Stuttgart (ZKM) Kremlin, Ruststrasse 31 70176 Stuttgart ++++ also showing ++++ kittelmann zyklus gerhard richter 2005, ten paintings, mmk frankfurt http://designerziehung.de/kittelmann_zyklus/ excerpts of my new text on The Thing: http://thing-net.de/cms/artikel252.html nice greetings, beate z. | interlinking of media | practice with gender related issues http://zurwehme.org/ From jeebesh at sarai.net Wed Apr 5 11:54:04 2006 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh Bagchi) Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 11:54:04 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] P. Sainath :Where India shining meets greatdepression (The Hindu) In-Reply-To: <210498250604050605o4ba9c284wd31402466b92e1a6@mail.gmail.com> References: <6E785FC8-789E-4D23-ADE9-F4BBEF632FDB@sarai.net> <2E493069-F358-4A42-8ABE-867F7B91FE52@gmail.com> <210498250604050605o4ba9c284wd31402466b92e1a6@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <4964FE80-A3ED-438E-BFFB-1A83F2DB4596@sarai.net> dear Shivam, Ravi and Lawrence, My desire for responses beyond the initial repulsion was from a position of confusion. These images definitely gesture towards a shift in ways of perceiving the world. And i am not sure what this is shift about. On the one hand the realities of increasing brutalities. Rising counts of suicides, dislocations, and evictions. On the other, these images. I would think that slowly a new way of 'being' in highly in- equal social realities and arrangements is taking shape. A new psychological profile is emerging. Also, we are witnessing a dismantling of some earlier held assumptions. I am trying to think what is getting dismantled and being replaced by what. Dislocation and violence have always accompanied great dreams of wealth and domination. Europe in 18th and 19th Century is a good example of this. Thousands banished from within it's land to Americas and Australia. Thousands dislocated from other parts of the world to fulfill the search for labour, land and materials. The "Engine of Progress" record has been fairly bloody. In the 20th Century the record of this progress-travel has been more bizarre and bloody. I would think that we grew up with a psychological profile that somehow gave space to these `dislocations` and through various ways admitted it as a violence that cannot be wished away. We co-inhabited the spaces of violence in our cities. From the popular cinema to documentary filmmakers - all found ways of talking about it. That mode of talking i would think reached a aesthetic and conceptual dead- end by early nineties. Rarely could accounts move beyond the `heroic- resisting` subject or `victimised/traumatised` human objects. This binary did give rise to an image fatigue of the `poor` in the nineties. Also, the nineties saw the stress on what Partha Chaterjee calls the `the political society`. The modes by which people found a way to make claims using the forms of `electoral mobilisations` and `welfare administration`. The emergence of the courts as the central actor in today's `evictions/ dislocations` is in a very definitive way a dismantling of these negotiations. The forms that we have at present - the courts' discourse and the image making sensibility of a new triumphal elite - open up for us new questions about how to think this conjunction. What sensibility is being demanded of us to navigate the contemporary? I am trying to understand this from all your comments. What intrigues me is the `speech acts` given to the `poor`. These kind of images have existed in many ads by industry (and also in welfare ads). But, the speech act of this one is something new. And our poor Raghu too existed in similar way in many ads. However he was never branded a `pick pocket`. Well the ground was laid down about 5 years ago by an esteemed judge in the Supreme court. He uttered in his judgement - " Giving land to squatters is like giving money back to the pickpocket". That sensibility has taken deep roots and circulatory force. I wonder, what will this harsh time-travel of capital (progress/ development/ triumphal chest beating in nationalist competitions) do to millions who will not have Americas to go to. Both cities and countryside are becoming a huge ejection machines, as was always under the sign of progress. How will we be able to make sense of this world? Authoritarian solutions of many kind will gain ground, so will deep solipsism. Well in short, i am as confused as you guys are. warmly jeebesh On 05-Apr-06, at 6:35 PM, Shivam wrote: > > I am not sure if I am able to answer Jeebesh's question fully. Why > don't you tell us what you think? > > S. > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: From bawree at yahoo.com Thu Apr 6 00:49:36 2006 From: bawree at yahoo.com (mamta mantri) Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 12:19:36 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] of cinema and police,, mamta Message-ID: <20060405191936.75393.qmail@web33104.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Hello all, Was talking with Mr Soli Arya, the owner of Royal theatre. Of other things, he talked of a certain meeting with an important police official. The official said, “the film industry works in the darkness of the hall and in the process, is sparing the society from other kinds of darkness-theft, robbery etc. Your cinema hall engages not only ‘good’ people in the society, but ‘bad’ people as well. Thanks to you, the crime rate has gone down”. As opposed to this, I met a certain Mr Mehmood, the local godfather-prototype-Dawood-look-alike. He said, “You are researching on the cinema halls, why don’t you write about the pickpockets around these cinema halls? Local gangs thrive around these theatres and rob poor people of their money (an incident where a poor man was robbed of the money meant for medicines, but what is gone is gone). The police apparently are aware of all the gangs in the area, and the evident process of sharing the loot happens. Looks like another film on roll. The At-all-times-closed- police- chowki is symbolic of the hopeless situation in the area. He said, “This is the eight wonder of the world. It is this hyacinth which looks very organized, but is dirty and stagnant. This is one place where you can get anything and everything that you want at any point of time, food, sex, dope, lottery and other types of gamble, ask anything and you can have it. HAR CHEEZ KA BHOJAN AAP 100 RUPEES MEIN KAR SAKTE HAIN!!!!! But the common man is over. Once on this road, the pick-pockets won’t leave you, if you are spared, the prostitutes wont, go ahead, there are eunuchs waiting for you!!! Ho ho ho , hope my point is clear. mamta __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From hpp at vsnl.com Thu Apr 6 11:31:02 2006 From: hpp at vsnl.com (hpp at vsnl.com) Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2006 11:01:02 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] P. Sainath :Where India shining Message-ID: Dear Friends I read Jeebesh's post - shortly after wincing with distaste over the fact that the top news story in today's Telegraph (Calcutta) was about some MBA student who had got a job paying Rs 1 crore (pa). I also heard this on some TV news channel last night. I'm glad Jeebesh talked about the "psychological profile". However much the super affluent might give vent, with abandon, to unrestrained self-expression and indulgence - as this case of the images shows, they are still battling the ghost of "the poor". It shows the hatred of "the poor", rooted ultimately in fear and a sense of impotence, vulnerability I guess. The "liberated" individuals, have not yet liberated themselves from their own mean-ness and fears. All their superior endowments have not given then a proper perspective, of the whole pecking order in the power matrix in society. And thus lead them to make choices, and make common cause with others, to alter the status-quo. I can also see that things like sadistic sexual perversions are only a side-step from here. We have seen the Jessica Lal case, and more recently the one involving the S Kumar's grandson. Its all a question of "taste" I guess. So much of refinement of the gross is needed. And in our context, aesthetics and enlightenment cannot but be defined in terms of social inclusion and dignity of the downtrodden. We have yet to awaken as truly liberated souls, and express our power in creative, imaginative, aesthetic, wise and humane ways. And of course, start thinking about and act constructively on public matters, and thus build a more inclusive future. Perhaps with growing globalisation and prosperity, we will start seeing such positive things also, with the present expressions being only an initial flushing out of the negative elements, to be followed by a wholesome vigour. In that direction - I read about some MBA's from a leading business school turning down lucrative and overseas job offers to start something of their own, which they considered more challenging and self-fulfilling. There's also of course the relentless narcissism of the mainstream media. This has an insidious, menacing effect. Jeebesh wrote: "Authoritarian solutions of many kind will gain ground, so will deep solipsism." Yes, that is all that looms over the horizon. Perhaps only some traumatic crisis situations will shake and awaken us from our stupor. And until then, some people will cry hoarse, be disregarded, be ridiculed, be labelled "mad", sick" etc for disturbing the gleeful orgies of others. (Some others will also do well in the business of conscience-keeping.) ramaswamy calcutta P.S.: I am reminded of a short story (written in 1969) by the Bengali writer Subimal Misra, which I recently translated. “Parkstreet-er traffic post-ey holud rong” (Amber light at Park Street crossing) is about a beggar dying on the street. The people of the city are blind to this, because they are obsessed with the dishonour to the nation committed by a crow which shat on the national flag; and because they are watching, agog, a money-doubling performance. A mad man tries his level best to communicate to the people around that a beggar is dying - but no one hears him. They pay no heed to his words, they instead discuss how that scheming crow could be found, why’s it not yet been found, the dishonour to the national flag etc. From carol at nias.iisc.ernet.in Wed Apr 5 15:04:42 2006 From: carol at nias.iisc.ernet.in (Carol Upadhya) Date: Wed, 5 Apr 2006 15:04:42 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Coding Culture film series on Indian IT workers now available Message-ID: <00a101c65894$2be8a9b0$1d0a220a@carol> _____________ CODING CULTURE A series of three films on Bangalore's Software Industry July Boys 30 min The 'M' Way 30 min Fun @ Sun 32 min _______________ The Indian software industry has emerged as a key node of the global capitalist economy, and Indian software engineers are now a significant category of global 'knowledge workers'. This series of films takes a close look at the software industry in Bangalore and its work culture. Produced as part of the NIAS-IDPAD project on Indian IT workers, the films are packaged with a booklet outlining the sociological significance of their themes. For more information, click on: http://www.iisc.ernet.in/nias/codingculture.htm Price for all three films, with the booklet: Individuals - Rs 250/- Institutions - Rs 500/- Prices are for sale within India. Please add Rs 30/- for postage. Payment should be made by demand draft in favour of National Institute of Advanced Studies. Orders may be placed with: Dean - Administration National Institute of Advanced Studies Indian Institute of Science Campus Bangalore 560012 Tel: 080-23604351 ; Fax: 080-23606634 Email: niaslib at nias.iisc.ernet.in Please copy your orders to carol at nias.iisc.ernet.in. With best regards, Carol Upadhya Visiting Associate Fellow, Sociology and Social Anthropology National Institute of Advanced Studies Indian Institute of Science Campus Bangalore 560012 India office: +91-80-23604351 ext 267 cell: +91-93413-11453 cupadhya at vsnl.com carol at nias.iisc.ernet.in ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________ About the films: Coding Culture - Bangalore's Software Industry A series of three films by Gautam Sonti in collaboration with Carol Upadhya produced by National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India supported by Indo-Dutch Programme for Alternatives in Development, The Netherlands The Indian software outsourcing industry has emerged as a key node of the global economy. The series of ethnographic films, Coding Culture: Bangalore's Software Industry, explores the cultures of outsourced work and the moulding of a new workforce to cater to this global high-tech services industry. Each of the three films focuses on a single company, representing one of the major types of software company found in Bangalore: a medium-sized Indian-owned company software services company (Mphasis: The 'M' Way); the offshore software development centre of a U.S.-based IT company (Sun Microsystems: Fun at Sun); and a small 'cross-border' startup company that produces its own software products and markets them to global customers (July Systems: July Boys). All three companies are engaged in the production of software products or services for markets outside of India, but the nature of their work and their position in the global economy differ, producing significant variations in their cultures of work. Each film revolves around a distinct theme that is central to the outsourcing industry as a whole, but that also has wider sociological significance: the systems of time and people management that are typical of these new global workplaces; the functioning of multicultural 'virtual teams' and the absorption of Indian software engineers into a global corporate culture; and the new identities that are emerging in this highly transnational sector of the Indian economy. The 'M' Way: Time + People = Money The 'M' Way was shot inside MphasiS Limited, a medium-sized Indian IT software services company that typifies this highly competitive business, in which the provision of high quality and low-cost service is the key to attracting and retaining customers. The film focuses on two teams (one for software development and one for testing, or quality control) that work on a single project for a U.S.-based customer, depicting the high-pressure work atmosphere that prevails in this industry. Activities must be tightly coordinated within and between the project teams, and also with the customer site, with which the Indian engineers are in constant communication. Fun @ Sun: Making of a Global Workplace Fun at Sun is an inside look at work and work culture in the software development centre of a large American multinational company, Sun Microsystems, located in Bangalore (Indian Engineering Centre, or IEC). The film highlights the multiple ways in which 'culture' operates as a management tool in the new global economy. In offshore centres such as IEC, work is organised through 'virtual teams' comprised of software engineers and managers located in Bangalore and Santa Clara, U.S.A. To integrate their employees and sites across cultural and geographical space, Sun attempts to initiate the Indian software engineers into Sun's corporate culture. The film depicts the techniques through which this American-style work culture is transplanted into the Indian subsidiary, such as induction programmes and 'soft skills' training programmes. The film also points to the contradictory ways in which 'culture' is invoked in the global corporate workplace: while cultural sensitivity training programmes validate cultural difference, Indian software engineers are expected to conform to the dominant model of global corporate culture by learning appropriate communication and behavioural styles. July Boys: New Global Players July Boys focuses on a small 'startup' company in Bangalore that designs and produces software products for cellular service providers in Europe and the U.S. Turning the tables on the usual outsourcing story, July Systems has leveraged U.S.-based venture capital and Indian technical expertise to break into the latest high-tech markets. The film explores the creation of a Silicon Valley-style work culture within this 'cross-border' company that has one leg in Bangalore and the other in Santa Clara, California. It also highlights the emergence of new kinds of identities (global, transnational, cosmopolitan) that incorporate and transcend pre-existing identities such as the national (Indian) and the regional (Tamil). But the narratives of the film's characters reveal a tension between their assumed global subjectivity and their nationalist pride in July's achievements as a company founded and run by Indians that makes 'cutting edge products' for the global market. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060405/b48ed652/attachment.html From madhumita.puri at gmail.com Thu Apr 6 07:18:50 2006 From: madhumita.puri at gmail.com (Madhumita Puri) Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 07:18:50 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] An art show with a difference... In-Reply-To: <57e273f50604051842w51fd417t951b2d2ee73c306a@mail.gmail.com> References: <57e273f50604051842w51fd417t951b2d2ee73c306a@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <57e273f50604051848x3d418edar1a53ab3c93cd8978@mail.gmail.com> *Society for Child Development* invites you to an art show with a difference *Art for Prabhat 2006 * where eminent artists paint on paper hand made by young adults with mental retardation Jogen Choudhury, Anjolie Ela Menon, Suhas Roy , Yusuf Arakkal, Jatin Das, Neeraj Goswami among 45 other artists from Delhi, Kolkata, Shantiniketan, Bangalore and Chennai The exhibition is in aid of the programmes of the Society * * * Visual Arts Gallery* * India Habitat Centre* * Opens 8th April at 6:30 pm* *on til 10th April, 2006* * 11:00 am to 8:00 pm* ** ** *RSVP* Dr Madhumita Puri 9810003512 Manmeet Kaur 9891551530 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060406/a9c7be79/attachment.html From nc-agricowi at netcologne.de Wed Apr 5 14:38:18 2006 From: nc-agricowi at netcologne.de (NetEx) Date: Wed, 05 Apr 2006 11:08:18 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] NetEX --->new calls, new deadlines Message-ID: <44338902.1070407@netcologne.de> NetEX- networked experience http://netex.nmartproject.net added recently some new calls in the external announcements section which might be of interest: ---> New!! 1. The4thScreen (New York) CALL FOR WORK deadline: 4 June 2006 The4thScreen: a global fest of art & innovation for mobile phones will focus on the mobile phone as an emerging social, cultural and technological phenomenon. ---> New! 2. INTRO-OUT Digital Art Festival Thessaloniki/Greece Deadline: 12 May'06 "We invite modern artists to stand up to this change and propose new expression strategies by the use of new media." ---> New! 3. 18th ONION CITY EXPERIMENTAL FILM AND VIDEO FESTIVAL CALL FOR ENTRIES Deadline: April 28, 2006!! NOTE: INTERNATIONAL ENTRIES - NO ENTRY FEE ---> More deadlines in April/May 4. Digital Film Festival St. Petersburg/Russia Deadline: 20 April 2006 ---> 5. Call: Streaming Festival {The Hague/Netherlands} Deadline: 15 April 2006 ---> 6. Call: Perform.Media Festival (Indiana/USA) DEADLINE FOR ART WORK AND CREATIVE PRACTICES Deadline: May 15th, 2006 Acceptance Notification: June 15th, 2006 ---> 7. Euganea Movie Movement (Padova/Italy) Shortfilm festival with national and international section Deadline: 30 April 2006 All details on these and more calls and the entry forms can be found on http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=8&cat=25 ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// The "internal announcements" section released following calls ---> 1. Call-->Women:Memory of Repression in Argentina deadline 1 September 2006 on occasion of 30th return of the military coup in Argentina - 24 March 1976 ---> 2. SoundLAB is looking for soundart for Edition IV - "memoryscapes" deadline 30 June 2006 ---> 3. VideoChannel is looking for videos/films on the theme "image vs. music" to be included in 2nd edition of Cologne Online Film Festival '06 to be launched in October 2006 online and offline Deadline: 1 July 2006 ---> All details on these and more calls and the entry forms can be found on http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=8&cat=54 ******************************************************** released by NetEX - networked experience http://netex.nmartproject.net powered by [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne www.nmartproject.net . info (at) nmartproject.net _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From abshi at vsnl.com Thu Apr 6 20:26:19 2006 From: abshi at vsnl.com (Shilpa Phadke) Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2006 20:26:19 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [narmada_andolan] Medha and Jamsingh Arrested - Dharna andIndefiniteFast Continue References: <20060406100008.E1AAE28DF11@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: <011501c65999$68974410$8119fea9@abshi> ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2006 1:47 PM Subject: [narmada_andolan] Medha and Jamsingh Arrested - Dharna andIndefiniteFast Continue > Press Release > > . MEDHA PATKAR AND JAMSINGH NARGAVE FORCIBLY REMOVED TO MEDICAL INSTITUE AFTER 12AM LAST NIGHT > . DHARNA CONTINUES ON 21ST DAY > . SEVEN PEOPLE FROM DELHI JOIN INDEFINITE FAST > > Last night, at around 11:30pm, a force of more than 400 police swamped Jantar Mantar, forcefully and roughly attacking the satyagrahis who were peacefully sitting on their 20th day of dharna. Medha Patkar and Jamsingh Nargave, on their 8th day of indefinite fast, were arrested, forcefully lifted and taken in an ambulance to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences. They have both maintained their fast, Medha refusing IV and taking only lime juice. Meanwhile, over fifty Narmada Bachao activists were arrested, dragged, beaten up and taken to the Parliament Street Police Station where they were harassed and detained until 4:40am this morning. The manner in which they were treated was in complete violation of democratic norms and human rights. > > The unexpectedly copious breadth of police presence and brutality at the site was met with determined resistance. Many people were beaten including Kailash Awasya, Arun from Bombay and women from the Mandala slum in Bombay. The high-handedness of police was well reported on several mainstream media channels as it occurred, and coverage continued until well past 2am. The movement is strong and continues to pressure those accountable into forcing the justice of rehabilitation to be carried out. Only in response to such pressure would police be mobilised in such great force. The government's move was clearly out of panic rather than concern for Medha's health, as they have still not stopped the construction of the Sardar Sarovar Dam and have isolated her within AIIMS, not allowing anyone to meet her. > > Today the dharna continues strong at Jantar Mantar. Bhagwati Patidam is in her 9th day of her fast, as she is remaining at the dharna site. Bhama Bhai and Raja Kalla, also from the valley, are in their fourth day of fasting, while today seven more people from Delhi have joined them. This group includes: Mona Das, President JNUSU; Dananjaoi Tripathi, Vice President JNUSU; Avadhesh from All India Students' Association; and, JNU Prof Kamal Mitra Chenoy. The Bhopal victims, who are sitting across the road in a dharna of their demands for human rights, are performing a symbolic solidarity day-long fast in support as well. Still hundreds of people are at Jantar Mantar, putting pressure on the government to heed the calls of Medha and the dharna, and hundreds more are arriving today. > > With pressure mounting from vast media coverage and exposure of the concerns of the people, three ministers are leaving today to visit the valley where they will review the status of rehabilitation first hand and the rationality of construction. The delegation includes Minister for Water Resources, Professor Saifuddin Soz, the Minister for Social Justice & Empowerment, Ms Meira Kumar, and State Minister from the PMO, Shri Prithyiraj Chauhal. This is a symbolic step as the claims of the villagers and adivasis can't be denied when they are seen visually manifest in the live communities. > > Tonight there is a candlelight procession being held in Bangalore, with a solidarity fast being held there on Saturday. There have been various vigils and rallies across India, including four in the valley to which 200 tribal people gathered for each, and throughout many cities including Pune, Bombay and Trivandrum. There has been a huge outpouring of support worldwide. Tomorrow, more than 70 scientists and engineers associated with IITs and universities across India and the US will undertake a one-day solidarity fast, following the release of a Scientists and Engineers' Open Challenge to SSP claims in which more than 250 prominent scientists and engineers slammed the Sardar Sarovar engineers for projecting unrealistic power benefits and luring state governments into ignoring the rehabilitation of 35,000 families in the submergence zone of the dam. > > We strongly condemn the brutal and illegal action of the Indian State and its attempts to suppress the non-violent struggle for justice. We urgently demand: > > . The immediate release of Medha Patkar and Jamsingh Nargave > . Criminal case registered against the Police Officials who brutally beatup the activists > . Immediate halting of the construction of the dam > . Removal of all false charges, if any, against Medha Patkar > . Just and proper resettlement and rehabilitation of all affected people as per Supreme Court judgement of 2000 and 2005 and the Narmada Water Dispute Tribunal Award. > > We caution the government that all these demands be taken with utmost seriousness lest we lose complete faith in the state institutions. > > > > > Dipti Bhatnagar Shivani Chaudhry Yogini Khanolkar > > > > > > > The open challenge of SSP engineers by concerned scientists and engineers across the world is hosted at the site - http://petitions.aidindia.org/narmada_petition/ From nangla at cm.sarai.net Fri Apr 7 09:13:54 2006 From: nangla at cm.sarai.net (CM@Nangla) Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2006 05:43:54 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] P. Sainath :Where India shining In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <892820b4ca58ccadaca5eefd779d905b@sarai.net> Dear All, These are "Some Conversations in Nangla". We are sending it here as material for discussion for this Reader-List thread. Looking forward http://nangla.freeflux.net/blog/archive/2006/04/05/what-is-the-city-but-a-passage-from-in-front-of-us-by-lakhmi.html [I] "What is the city, but a passage from in front of us? "When people passed from the road they would say, “It is so smelly here. People sit naked on the road, and shit on the footpath. They would file complaints... there has been so much investigation into how we live, so much said about how we ought to live. They have broken this place down, the first chance they got..." [II] "Just last night, there was a meeting in which our pradhan (elected head of the locality) told us, 'There will be a decision soon [about what is to become of the remaining houses, built before 1998]'. But let me tell you this – there is no decision to be taken as far as the courts are concerned. In the court's papers, this place is not written down as Nangla Maanchi, but as a place where people are living on poisonous fly ash deposits, as people who need to be saved." [III] "What is to be done in the face of such power? Just think about it – I am the only income earning member of the family. I have had the floor of the house relaid twice, got a new door put, and was even going to get beams put to hold up a stronger, heavier roof. Now I am happy I didn't. Because then I would have had no money to hire a tempo to transfer my things. "My children, who are studying in the sixth and the eighth standard have just cleared their exams. I had been hearing for so long that Nangla was going to be broken, so I kept postponing getting them admitted into the next class. But when I did, finally, this has come upon us... "Arre bhaisaab, just ask me, let me tell you – My basic cost of living is at Rs. 2000 now. I have taken a place on rent in Kale Khan at a monthly rent of Rs. 1200. I have to come here every day. And I now spend in daily commuting an amount which will come to Rs. 800 per month. Afterall, I can't just simply leave this place empty, can I? Who knows when they will come and demolish everything, or maybe they give us some slip of paper as rehabilitation. Who knows..." [IV] "How can we fight back? Who should we fight with? The force to fight comes from being able to see the face of the power we have to combat. But that face has never made an appearance before us. "On the 27th of March, we had walked all the way to Jantar Mantar. Some politicians had also come. They came by car, said something, and left. But a doubt remained in my mind, and the next day as I took my bicycle and head out to where I work, I saw police personnel in the thousands outside Pragati Maidan. My doubt turned to reality, and I came back home. And I saw they had spread over the entire basti. On seeing so much police where I live, I couldn't decide what to do first – go get my children back from school, go pack my things first, inform others who were not there...? It is the first time I have seen such a thing. "If they wanted to remove everyone, why didn't they do it all together? What can the few of us left behind do now?” [V] "Who knows on what hope everything is resting? There is no stillness in anyone anywhere. As if everyone is roaming around continuously. Eyes and feet don't rest anywhere. "Somewhere everyone is hoping, whatever it is that gets made here, they can atleast give us some work in it." [VI] "I have lived here so many years. My heart broke each time I saw someone passing from in front of my door, their things packed. I wanted to call out to them and ask them to stay. Earlier, when someone used to be leaving, we could atleast ask them to come stay in our house for some time. But now circumstances have made the relationship such that it is not in our power to even ask anyone to stay behind with us..." [VII] "That no one will get any place to stay from the Government after this is broken is something everyone knows. But still, everyone is holding on here. Earlier we were all fighting for a subway or a foot over bridge to be constructed over the Ring Road, so we could cross it in peace. But when there are no people to cross the road, where is the question of asking for a subway! Today we cannot fight the one who bears the responsibility of breaking our homes..." [VIII] "Nothing is about to happen. Look at me today. I am sitting in a lane filled with the rubble of houses. So many bricks that it would be impossible to count them. "We have been left to be here with what hope? There is no electricity for the last twelve days. There are so many mosquitoes that people will soon die of malaria. "I can't sleep at night because there is no electricity, and by day I sit looking at the rubble of houses. Now tell me, how can we understand this? "When the park across the road was getting made, and the road was being remade, we were all so happy. Now today this basti is being broken and something new will be made in its place. Tell me, how should I understand this, make sense of it?" [IX] When doors begin to be bolted in a place in the city, where they would always be open, then how can we think about the city? It is as if time has disintegrated and collapsed. Eyes look without blinking at heaps of rubble in the lanes, numbers inscribed on walls. But still there is something in this place which will never become quiet. What is that? My being, my self – a self surrounded by a place from where my eyes can neither travel into the city, nor make a map of a world. [by Lakhmi] CM Lab, Nangla Maanchi http://nangla.freeflux.net http://nangla-maachi.freeflux.net ----------------------------------------------- It quenches the thirst of the thirsty, Such is Nangla, It shelters those who come to the city of Delhi, Such is Nangla. ------------------------------------------------ From nangla at cm.sarai.net Fri Apr 7 09:25:40 2006 From: nangla at cm.sarai.net (CM@Nangla) Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2006 05:55:40 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Nangla's Delhi - 06 April 2006 Message-ID: New postings at Nangla's Delhi blog (http://nangla.freeflux.net) When One Map Breaks, by Love Anand A big weighing scale hangs in the middle of the basti. A man stands by it, two sacks hanging from his bicycle. He is holding another medium sized weighing balance in his hands. He is weighing some iron pipes on it. Some men and young children are standing around him. The weight on one side of the balance reads, “5 kg”. Then he pulls out some ten rupee notes from his pocket, and counting them, he hands them to one of the men. This done, he moves through the lane towards the outside. (Read whole post) "What is the city, but a passage from in front of us?" by Lakhmi [I] "What is the city, but a passage from in front of us? "When people passed from the road they would say, 'It is so smelly here. People sit naked on the road, and shit on the footpath'. They would file complaints... there has been so much investigation into how we live, so much said about how we ought to live. They have broken this place down, the first chance they got..." (Read whole post) CM Lab, Nangla Maanchi http://nangla.freeflux.net http://nangla-maachi.freeflux.net ----------------------------------------------- It quenches the thirst of the thirsty, Such is Nangla, It shelters those who come to the city of Delhi, Such is Nangla. ------------------------------------------------ From sastry at cs.wisc.edu Fri Apr 7 09:34:29 2006 From: sastry at cs.wisc.edu (Subramanya Sastry) Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 23:04:29 -0500 (CDT) Subject: [Reader-list] NewsRack multilingualized Message-ID: Hello everyone, After fixing a number of encoding-related problems within NewsRack and navigating the encoding complexities of web documents, NewsRack can now handle multiple languages simultaneously. As an example, check: http://floss.sarai.net/newsrack/Browse.do?owner=demo&issue=Multilingual-Demo This profile monitors news from 3 feeds: -> Hindu National (English) -> BBC Hindi (Hindi) -> Le Monde International (French) For specifying Hindi keywords/concepts, I used the Indic IME extension for Firefox. For specifying French keywords/concepts, I cut-paste words from the newspaper's website, since I dont know how to input French from my English-text keyboard. The primary requirement for monitoring newspapers from multiple languages is that the newspaper encode its text using Unicode fonts (or some other standard encoding). At this time, for Indian languages, I only know of BBC Hindi that uses Unicode fonts. Most newspapers use their own custom encodings corresponding to their fonts. I have also been told that there is a Firefox plugin (Padma) which automatically translates non-Unicode fonts for several Indian-language sites (Hindi, Tamil, Telugu?) into Unicode fonts. Using the code from this plugin, it should be possible to cover all these other Indian langauge newspapers. There are still a couple minor problems which will be fixed with time. Anyway, this is work in progress, but the first step in multi-lingualizing NewsRack has been accomplished. Subbu. From nc-agricowi at netcologne.de Fri Apr 7 01:01:17 2006 From: nc-agricowi at netcologne.de (NetEx) Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2006 21:31:17 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Shankar Barua interview on JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project Message-ID: <44356C85.3010900@netcologne.de> [week 3-9 April] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=11 ---> is featuring this week the following 5 interviews with Sharkar Barua (India), Päivi Hintsanen (Finland), Enrico Tomaselli (Italy), Carlos Katastrofsky (Austria), Humberto Ramirez (Chile/USA) further the first answers on 10 questions by Jeremy Hight & Ian Page-Echols ---> Shankar Barua has for many years been networking e-Creative Practitioners globally with The IDEA [Indian Documentary of Electronic Arts], The AeA [Academy of Electronic Arts] and CeC & CaC [Carnival of e-Creativity & Change-agents Conclave]. He is Managing Trustee of The Academy of Electronic Arts, Special Advisor to Public Affairs Management, The Electronic Music Foundation and EMF-Institute, Co-Curator and also Archives & Documentation Associate of the Thailand Media Art Festival, and Honorary Committee Member of the Digital Art Guild and Museum of the Living Artist International Digital Exhibition, 2006. Paivi Hintsanen** Päivi Hintsanen (Jyväskylä, Finland, born in 1970) has worked as freelancer in net projects for different art and culture related organizations since 1996. She also has made several independent/own net projects of which the most important are the online art gallery Spirited Herring / Henkevä Silakka - started in 1997; with one month theme exhibitions, open and free for all) and Coloria project. Independent works include f.ex. large hyper narratives (like The Book of Days and Silence/1940) and also small image based miniprojects. Carlos Katastrofsky (aka. Michael Kargl), born on 08/13/1975 in Hall/ Tyrol/ Austria. Lives and works in Vienna, Salzburg and Tyrol. He studied sculpture at the University 'Mozarteum' of Salzburg since 1998, graduation in 2004 with a work on virtual architecture and cyberspace. Since 2004 teacher at the University Mozarteum, and JavaMuseum participant. Humberto Ramirez is an artist originally from Chile. In addition to painting, since the mid nineties, Humberto has been involved with electronic explorations in sound, video and streaming media. Humberto's work presently is concerned with social issues and the power of language in shaping our values and perceptions. This new body of work is being shown electronically on line as well as at traditional screening venues such as art galleries, museums and film/video festivals across the country. Enrico Tomaselli is originating from a Sicilian family of artists, his great grandfather Onofrio was a famous portrait and landscape painter of 19th century. Enrico followed the Art Academy of Palermo and later the European Institute of Design in Rome. Currently he is living and working as both, webdesigner and Internet based working artist, who participated in numerous national and international exhibitions, also in JavaMuseum. ---> About JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project JavaMuseum - Forum for Internet Technology in Contemporary Art www.javamuseum.org/start1.htm is currently preparing a new project, entitled: JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project http://jip.javamuseum.org to be launched in September 2006 online. Agricola de Cologne, director of JavaMuseum invites for an interview a number professionals & artists active in the field of Internet based art who participated in the "1st phase", the 18 JavaMuseum showcases 2001-2004, in order to spotlight their professional background, activities and visions. JIP further issued an open call including 10 questions on Internet based art addressed to professionals and "amateurs", in order to enable a broader discussion about the still undervaluated genre of Internet based art through a variety of different approaches, definitions and opinions. The entry rules and the questions (cut & paste) are available on http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=11&cat=80 Once completed - JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project will release the collected interviews and the selection of the most interesting answers a) online on the new project site - http://jip.javamuseum.org , but b) immediately also in form of one interview per week on the new weblog - JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=11 and c) to be published as a printed book, later as well.. ************************************************ Released by NetEX - networked experience http://netex.nmartproject.net powered by [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne www.nmartproject.net - the experimental platform for art and New Media operating from Cologne/Germany. . info& contact info (at) nmartproject.net From sayantoni at gmail.com Thu Apr 6 13:46:45 2006 From: sayantoni at gmail.com (sayantoni datta) Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 13:46:45 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] P. Sainath :Where India shining meets greatdepression (The Hindu) In-Reply-To: <4964FE80-A3ED-438E-BFFB-1A83F2DB4596@sarai.net> References: <6E785FC8-789E-4D23-ADE9-F4BBEF632FDB@sarai.net> <2E493069-F358-4A42-8ABE-867F7B91FE52@gmail.com> <210498250604050605o4ba9c284wd31402466b92e1a6@mail.gmail.com> <4964FE80-A3ED-438E-BFFB-1A83F2DB4596@sarai.net> Message-ID: I remember a relative of mine visiting us from the States commenting that in India there is a sense of "pride" with the "poor". "People here", he said "are proud to be poor" or "there is nothing really wrong with being poor." Is this sense of self confidence changing? These advertisements seem as if "you are not allowed to be poor or revel in it, poverty(in comparison) is not a celebration it's a joke, we need to "CLIMB", and look different, if we have to, and change our lifestyles!!! But wait a minute the world's winning solutions are not for you, in a market driven world some "consume"/"access" others "don't have access" forget "consumption", it might just "trickle down to you" if you are lucky or else just "move aside", you don't fit our agenda. What struck me most in the ad, was the word "tan". Is it an artificial tan we are manufacturing with "*creams*", a natural tan because of days of "work/hard labour" in the sun(not all suns...a branded sun) without * sunscreens,* or JUST "my complexion"!!!! The ad juxtaposes two polarised images ....I think it taps on the "initial discomfort" of breaking stereotypes with the women dialoguing on "designer tans" and "monte carlo".Its confusing because in the picture "the image of the poor" stands contested with the "concerns of the poor"(the bubbles)!!!! The text below highlights a "misplaced sense of pride"..... Thanks for the article and the debate.... Sayantoni On 05/04/06, Jeebesh Bagchi wrote: > > dear Shivam, Ravi and Lawrence, > > My desire for responses beyond the initial repulsion was from a > position of confusion. These images definitely gesture towards a > shift in ways of perceiving the world. And i am not sure what this is > shift about. > > On the one hand the realities of increasing brutalities. Rising > counts of suicides, dislocations, and evictions. On the other, these > images. I would think that slowly a new way of 'being' in highly in- > equal social realities and arrangements is taking shape. A new > psychological profile is emerging. Also, we are witnessing a > dismantling of some earlier held assumptions. > > I am trying to think what is getting dismantled and being replaced by > what. > > Dislocation and violence have always accompanied great dreams of > wealth and domination. Europe in 18th and 19th Century is a good > example of this. Thousands banished from within it's land to Americas > and Australia. Thousands dislocated from other parts of the world to > fulfill the search for labour, land and materials. The "Engine of > Progress" record has been fairly bloody. In the 20th Century the > record of this progress-travel has been more bizarre and bloody. > > I would think that we grew up with a psychological profile that > somehow gave space to these `dislocations` and through various ways > admitted it as a violence that cannot be wished away. We co-inhabited > the spaces of violence in our cities. From the popular cinema to > documentary filmmakers - all found ways of talking about it. That > mode of talking i would think reached a aesthetic and conceptual dead- > end by early nineties. Rarely could accounts move beyond the `heroic- > resisting` subject or `victimised/traumatised` human objects. This > binary did give rise to an image fatigue of the `poor` in the nineties. > > Also, the nineties saw the stress on what Partha Chaterjee calls the > `the political society`. The modes by which people found a way to > make claims using the forms of `electoral mobilisations` and `welfare > administration`. The emergence of the courts as the central actor in > today's `evictions/ dislocations` is in a very definitive way a > dismantling of these negotiations. > > The forms that we have at present - the courts' discourse and the > image making sensibility of a new triumphal elite - open up for us > new questions about how to think this conjunction. What sensibility > is being demanded of us to navigate the contemporary? I am trying to > understand this from all your comments. What intrigues me is the > `speech acts` given to the `poor`. These kind of images have existed > in many ads by industry (and also in welfare ads). But, the speech > act of this one is something new. > > And our poor Raghu too existed in similar way in many ads. However he > was never branded a `pick pocket`. Well the ground was laid down > about 5 years ago by an esteemed judge in the Supreme court. He > uttered in his judgement - " Giving land to squatters is like giving > money back to the pickpocket". That sensibility has taken deep roots > and circulatory force. > > I wonder, what will this harsh time-travel of capital (progress/ > development/ triumphal chest beating in nationalist competitions) do > to millions who will not have Americas to go to. Both cities and > countryside are becoming a huge ejection machines, as was always > under the sign of progress. > > How will we be able to make sense of this world? Authoritarian > solutions of many kind will gain ground, so will deep solipsism. > > Well in short, i am as confused as you guys are. > > warmly > jeebesh > > On 05-Apr-06, at 6:35 PM, Shivam wrote: > > > > I am not sure if I am able to answer Jeebesh's question fully. Why > > don't you tell us what you think? > > > > S. > > _________________________________________ > > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > > Critiques & Collaborations > > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > > subscribe in the subject header. > > List archive: > > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060406/008228f3/attachment.html From pukar at pukar.org.in Thu Apr 6 18:51:57 2006 From: pukar at pukar.org.in (PUKAR) Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 18:51:57 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [announcements] PUKAR Monsoon 2006: Youth and Urban Identity Message-ID: <000c01c6597d$1811ed90$23d0c0cb@freeda> Youth and Urban Identity PUKAR Monsoon 2006 For the past four years PUKAR Monsoon has provided a platform for youth to express their ideas on Mumbai in multiple ways. They have re-edited archival footage, composed photo-essays, produced audio and video documentaries, written essays, created graphic narratives and translated literary works. These acts of creative expression and documentation have generated serious statements on Mumbai, made by youth from the vantage point of their special location in the city. This year Monsoon puts the spotlight on the youth themselves under the theme: Youth and Urban Identity. It acknowledges - with greater emphasis - that the youth produce knowledge about the city that is unique. They occupy its neighbourhoods, localities, streets, alleys and boundary walls in special ways, in ways that only they can access. It asks two questions: "Whose city is it?"; "Whose city will it be?" This acts as a starting point for participants to consider the complex identities of youth as producers, consumers, activists, artists and shapers of the city's future. Are you scared, excited, optimistic- how do you feel about Mumbai's future? If you could design a Mumbai of the future, what would it look like, smell like, feel like? Program Details: Monsoon 2006 will take place between May 15th and June 5th, with a series of workshops, lectures and film screenings. Workshop topics include hands-on exercises using photography, theatre, urban design and mapping, music and writing. Lectures cover a vast range of topics pertinent to today's youth, including urban health, communalism, student movements and media, to name a few. Events will take place throughout the city and suburbs. They will be conducted in various languages including English, Hindi and Marathi. *Confirmed speakers are listed below. Possible venues include: Max Mueller Bhavan, Kitab Mahal, Bombay University, St. Xavier's College, Wilson College, Juhu S.N.D.T., Podar College, National College, Ruia College and Somaiya College. An updated schedule with venues, timings and additional speakers will be sent as information becomes available. Please contact us for details or questions. PUKAR Mnsoon is open to youth, ages 16-25, who live in Mumbai. To register, send the following information by May 10, 2006 to monsoon at pukar.org.in or mail it to the PUKAR office address given below. Please write 'Monsoon Registration' in the subject heading. Name: Address: Phone: Email: School, College or Affiliation (if applicable): Workshop Interest: Pukar Monsoon 2006 Schedule Orientation Session Introduction of Theme and Overview of Schedule WORKSHOPS: Monsoon Workshop 1: Mapping our Lives Conducted by Shilpa Ranade, architect Activity: Creating personal maps Participants will construct maps reflecting their daily activities- college, work, sports, shopping, meeting friends, commuting, and the communities whom they encounter. Participants will design maps of their "ideal" neighbourhood and city- its value systems, use of public space and commercial space, and its constituency. Monsoon Workshop 2: Gender and Public Space Conducted by Shilpa Phadke, sociologist; Sameera Khan, journalist Activity: Imagining gender-friendly spaces Participants will discuss how gender functions in the ordering of public space in Mumbai and particularly among its youth population. Do gendered spaces ensure safety- e.g. the Ladies' compartment on the train? This workshop will ask participants to critically examine the design of public places they frequent, from streets, public toilets and market places to places they socialize and their modes of public transport. Monsoon Workshop 3 & 4: Identity at the Crossroads Workshop 3: Conducted by Ratnakar Matkari, playwright, theatre director Workshop 4: Conducted by Prakash Khandage, folk art practitioner Activity: Using theatre to explore identity and conflict Participants will engage in various theatre techniques to identify tensions which arise in urban life, in addition to how they negotiate multiple identities, those inherited and those acquired. Drawing on comedy, drama, suspense and other forms, participants will witness the power of creative methodologies to explore various possibilities and outcomes. Monsoon Workshop 5: Capturing Mumbai's Changing Face Conducted by: Speaker TBA Activity: Photographing Mumbai's development Participants will learn how photography can be used to document changes in public and commercial space which affect the city at large and the youth in particular. This workshop will urge youth to consider how photography can be used to understand infrastructure, inform urban planning and tell stories about Mumbai's changing landscape. Please bring your own camera. A mobile phone with photo capacity is sufficient. Monsoon Workshop 6: Making Music in Mumbai Conducted by: Neela Bhagwat Activity: Song-writing From car horns to religious chants to protests to vendors to the latest hits blasting from record stores to chatter in one of many languages, the streets of Mumbai are filled with the sounds of music. In this workshop, participants will be asked to draw from the sounds of Mumbai to inspire new songs about their hopes, dreams, and visions for the future. LECTURES: Lecture 1 Muslim Women in the City Sameera Khan, Journalist Lecture 2 Youth and our Airwaves Malishka Mendonsa, Radio Jockey Lecture 3 Youth and Urban Health Anita Patil Deshmukh, Physician and Director of Pukar Lecture 4 Mobilizing Youth: The Case for a Cohesive Identity Ram Puniyani (TBC) Lecture 5 Youth and Educational Institutions Rahul Srivastava, Writer and Sociologist Lecture 6 Mumbai's Changing Face- Economy and Infrastructure Vidyadhar Phatak, Former Chief Planner, MMRDA Lecture 7 Youth and Issues of Good Governance Surendra Srivastava, Representative of Lok Satta FILM SCREENINGS Aur Irani Chai A Short Film on Migration, Memory and Mumbai City (20 Minutes) Portraits of a Lane A Short Film on Homes, Heritage and Mumbai City (20 minutes) Freedom Before 11 A Short Film on Women and Hostel Life (25 minutes) Additional films may be included later. PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research) Address:: 1-4, 2nd Floor, Kamanwala Chambers, Sir P. M. Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001 Telephone:: +91 (22) 5574 8152 Fax:: +91 (22) 5664 0561 Email:: pukar at pukar.org.in Website:: www.pukar.org.in -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060406/13b93597/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From karim at sarai.net Fri Apr 7 14:18:51 2006 From: karim at sarai.net (Aniruddha Shankar) Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2006 14:18:51 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Nangla in the High Court Message-ID: <44362773.5070609@sarai.net> The honourable justice Vijender Jain passed certain orders specifically concerning Nangla on the 5th of April, in the High Court. Some houses have identity cards and other documents predating 1998 and in some cases 1994. The details were not dwelt upon, but it seemed that the MCD had made some intimation or report to the effect that these people would be relocated. Justice Jain said that in the absence of any official relocation to Nangla or any title deeds or similar documentaton, "these people are illegal encroachers", and ALL houses standing in NanglaMachi were to be razed completely. He said that this "removal" was to happen regardless of whether relocation of the affected families that had documentation took place. This was a clear and deliberate delinking: When "illegal encroachers" encroach upon land, their removal would NOT be delayed until they were relocated. So Jain, J. has not taken up the matter of whether some people are deserving of relocation and whether they should be allotted plots. He is concerned with removing the encroachments and fixing responsibility on those officials who allowed the encroachment to take place, be they from any body. According to the MCD, in any case, they do not have any land for relocation. This removal will probably happen in the next few days. The next date for the matter is the 17th of this month and Jain is asking for an action taken report to be placed before him in this regard on that date. =============================================================================== The above piece of writing was sent on the 6th to some people, along with my thoughts and commentary on the judgement, the atmosphere and the comments passed in court. Were I to reproduce those here, on a public list, it would "lead to complete chaos and anarchy, as the majesty of law would come to disrepute and be seriously damaged with dangerous consequences."[1] and I would be in criminal contempt of court[2] under Indian law. In craven fear therefore, I am writing them as white colour text on a white background. Look closely. Please don't tell the police! Damn, I think I peed in my pants. Wetly, Aniruddha Shankar [1] http://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20040519/ldh1.htm [2] http://www.indialawinfo.com/bareacts/contct.html#_Toc500070095 From cahen.x at levels9.com Fri Apr 7 14:23:29 2006 From: cahen.x at levels9.com (xavier cahen) Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2006 10:53:29 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] pourinfos Newsletter / 04-01 to 04-06-2006 Message-ID: <44362889.2070108@levels9.com> pourinfos.org l'actualité du monde de l'art / daily Art news ----------------------------------------------------------------------- infos from April 01, 2006 to April 06, 2006 (included) ------------------------------------------------------------------- (mostly in french) ------------------------------------------------------------------- 01 Call : Rencontres internationales Paris/Berlin, Paris, Berlin, France, Germany. http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2892 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 02 Call : Bourse du Talent, report, Kodak, Photographie.com, Picto et Prophot, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2891 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 03 Call : art & innovation for mobile phones,The4thScreen Festival'06, New York, Usa. http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2890 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 04 Call : video evening and Web arts, Le collectif Ideo, Fort de Mutzig, France. http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2889 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 05 Call : International video-art festival in public spaces, "OUT VIDEO festival 06", Moscow and +, Russia. http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2888 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 06 Call : 2007 Paris Underground Film Festival #3, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2887 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 07 Meetingss : first Meeting ECM of the year 2006, will proceed on the topic of the "new-media artists' residences " on April 21, 2006, Mains d'oeuvres à Saint Ouen, France. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=2886 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 08 Meetings : From one course to another - April 10 and 11, 2006 - Ecoles supérieures d'art de Tourcoing et Dunkerque / AREA, Tourcoing, France. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=2885 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 09 Meetings :Conference "the instrumentalisation of the body in the contemporary art: scenography of a setting in abyss ", Thursday April 13, Musée d'Art Contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=2884 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 10 Meetings : "a hyper-pop mode of art?, lundi c'est théorie Monday April 10, 2006, Espace Paul Ricard, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=2883 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 11 Publications : editions Mu, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/publications/item.php?id=2882 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 12 Publications : editions Mix, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/publications/item.php?id=2881 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 13 Publications : "framed self-portraits", Jean-Luc Giraud, Iconofolio, édition d'art, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/publications/item.php?id=2880 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 14 Job : The Town hall of Toulouses looking for six teachers for its School of the fine arts, Toulouse, France. http://pourinfos.org/emploi/item.php?id=2879 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 Exhibition : One Moment Please N°3, Morello Elisa, Space Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jeune Théâtre International, Valenciennes, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2878 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 Exhibition : PHANTOM TERRITORIES, COLLECTIVE M.U & invited artists, Maison du geste et de l'image, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2877 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 17 Exhibition : Policy of alive, Bureau d'études, S.E.P.A. et Room Service, Rennes, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2876 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 18 Exhibition : point of VU’ , Château de Tours, Tours, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2875 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 19 Exhibition : Once Upon a Time, Ji Lei , SHiNE Art Space, Shanghai, China. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2874 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 20 Exhibition : The external gallery, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2873 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 21 Exhibition : Kaléidoscope, Graduates 2005 of the higher national School of the fine arts of Paris, Ensba, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2872 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 22 Exhibition : Helene Book and Veronique Verstraete, Open studio of artists, Paris 14 ième, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2871 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 23 Screening : videos of Ant Farm, Friday April 7, attitudes - espace d'arts contemporains, Geneva, Switzerland. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2870 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 24 Exhibition : Daniel Finan, centre d'art contemporain Le grand café, Saint-Nazaire, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2869 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 25 Exhibition : final residence of Cédric Lehnasch, La Briqueterie, Amiens, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2868 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 26 Exhibition : With arts citizens, the revolution by the image, espace d'animation des Blancs-Manteaux, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2867 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 27 Call : Program of research the Seine, session 2006-2007 , École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2866 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 28 Call : SESSION 16 2006-2007, Ecole du Magasin - Centre National d'Art Contemporain de Grenoble, Grenoble, France. http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2865 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 29 Call : original demonstration around the Advent calendar in Biot, France. http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2864 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 30 Call :FINE ARTS INTERNATIONAL CONTEST 2006 "ANTONIO GUALDA – Composer” 2006, Association Valentin Ruiz Aznar, Granada. Spain. http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2863 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 31 Call : CALL To PROJECT WEB FLASH FESTIVAL/EXPERIMENTS, Pompidou Center, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2862 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 32 Call : 5 artsits, ART NATURE, Association LA FILATURE DU PONT DE FER, Lasalle, France. http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2861 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 33 Call : CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS: BOOK ON GAMES, ARCHITECTURE, URBANISM, Basel, Allemagne. http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2860 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 34 Meetings : Couleurs et lumières du Nord , international Conference in literature, cinema, visual arts and visual, University of Stockholm, Sweden. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=2859 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 35 Meetings : Martin Le Chevallier, Wednesday April 5, 2006, Observatoire des nouveaux médias, Ensad, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=2858 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 36 Meetings : International conference and exhibition, the imaginary one of the ruins, Thursday 6 at Saturday April 8, 2006, Appeared, Université from Quebec in Montreal, Canada. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=2857 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 37 Publications : I'm Starting to Feel Okay, Stefan Marx, éditions Nieves, Zürich, Switzerland. http://pourinfos.org/publications/item.php?id=2855 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 38 Formation : The new program of Cipac, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/emploi/item.php?id=2854 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 39 Screening : "Festival Côté Court en Seine-Saint-Denis", April the 6, and 7 2006 , les Laboratoires d'Aubervilliers, Aubervilliers, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2853 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 40 Screening : Visio-concert, April 13, 2006 6.30 PM, le LAAC, Lieu d'Art et d'Action Contemporaine, Dunkerque, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2852 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 41 Screening : philosophical Screens, Wednesday April 5, 2006, the man who killed Liberty Valance, movie theater Georges Méliès, Montreuil, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2850 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 42 Screening : After projection: in margin of Festival du court métrage de Nice, Diligence, Nice, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2849 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 43 Program : Take part in a work of Guy Limone! Espace Paul ricard, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2848 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 44 Exhibition : Markus Schinwald, Centre d'art contemporain de Brétigny, Brétigny-sur-Orge, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2847 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 45 Exhibition : They passed by there... Ecole des beaux arts de Rennes, Rennes, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2846 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 46 Exposition : Draw the hope and UNESCO, Exhibition Artists for life, Hôtel Salomon de Rothschild, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2845 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 47 Variouss : Birth of a new partner, bureau Superflux, Avignon, France. http://pourinfos.org/divers/item.php?id=2844 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 48 Various : Ecoute que coûte, Atelier de Création Radiophonique, Radiofrance, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/divers/item.php?id=2843 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 49 Variouss : Mobile Studios, Belgrade, Serbia. http://pourinfos.org/divers/item.php?id=2842 From beate at zurwehme.org Fri Apr 7 18:07:07 2006 From: beate at zurwehme.org (beate zurwehme) Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2006 14:37:07 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] martin kippenberger has left the building Message-ID: martin kippenberger has left the building From beate at zurwehme.org Fri Apr 7 18:37:49 2006 From: beate at zurwehme.org (beate zurwehme) Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2006 15:07:49 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] martin kippenberger has left the building, 2nd posting Message-ID: sorry, there was some left, have a better view now ;-) b.z. From jace at pobox.com Fri Apr 7 22:19:04 2006 From: jace at pobox.com (Kiran Jonnalagadda) Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2006 22:19:04 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] martin kippenberger has left the building In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On 07-Apr-06, at 6:07 PM, beate zurwehme wrote: > martin kippenberger has left the building jaggumurthy shivanasundaram was never in the building kiran jonnalagadda wishes there was no building From faizullah at NDTV.COM Fri Apr 7 18:12:40 2006 From: faizullah at NDTV.COM (Faiz Ullah) Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2006 18:12:40 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] P. Sainath :Where India shining meetsgreatdepression (The Hindu) References: DEFANGED[82952]:<6E785FC8-789E-4D23-ADE9-F4BBEF632FDB@sarai.net><2E493069-F358-4A42-8ABE-867F7B91FE52@gmail.com><210498250604050605o4ba9c284wd31402466b92e1a6@mail.gmail.com " " ><4964FE80-A3ED-438E-BFFB-1A83F2DB4596@sarai.net> Message-ID: india shines at the dalal street and india shines at the campuses of the IIMs and the ISBs. As two of the students there opined at two very different instances..the murder of Manjunath and today's announcement by Arjun Singh to increase the the quota for people from the backward classes in central universities and other premier institutions.."that it'll adversely affect the palcements at the campus". Maybe the parameters have changed..success, competition, and the what education means to us. I couldn't help but notice the way the divide between classes/castes has increased to the extent that we have even started to recognise the "otherness" of some of us, and refer to ourselves/the other very casually as "they".."they should compete on the the same ground..they should pull up their boots now..they should not have it so easily without any trace of merit". Reservation has its own problems but the schism is widening and visible now. I'm also trying to figure out what is being dismantled and what is taking its place. The stock exchange is climbing up a 100-200 points everyday, and what do these points represent? The health and the robustness of the indian economy and the fact that its fundamentals are sound? or they just go on to show the extent of risk people are willing to take on the belief/speculation that india is ready to deliver. Anchors toss back and forth between reporters present at jantar mantar and the "second-fashion-week". I overheard a conversation between three airport employees on best route no.35 in bombay and they were wondering how much frenzy advani's rath yatra is going generate amidst slum demolitions and the rocketing numbers at the stock exchange.basic material needs like housing and livelihood and the appeals of "people with capital" to the state to relax labour laws, bring certain sectors out of regulation - in short demanding an unrestricted, unhindered run on the ramp-stand face to face. And while talking about the ramp, we'll have the report of the second enquiry commision set on the "wardrobe malfunction"at the "first-fashion-week", while 9 children have died of malnutrition in hathipada in Rural Thane. when news channels take upon themselves to become the voice of the poor there's only precious little left for them to speak for themselves. criminalising poverty and the poor is a good way to preempt and crush the discontent and anger as and when it unfolds. Faiz ________________________________ From: reader-list-bounces at sarai.net on behalf of sayantoni datta Sent: Thu 4/6/2006 1:46 PM To: Reader List Subject: Re: [Reader-list] P. Sainath :Where India shining meetsgreatdepression (The Hindu) I remember a relative of mine visiting us from the States commenting that in India there is a sense of "pride" with the "poor". "People here", he said "are proud to be poor" or "there is nothing really wrong with being poor." Is this sense of self confidence changing? These advertisements seem as if "you are not allowed to be poor or revel in it, poverty(in comparison) is not a celebration it's a joke, we need to "CLIMB", and look different, if we have to, and change our lifestyles!!! But wait a minute the world's winning solutions are not for you, in a market driven world some "consume"/"access" others "don't have access" forget "consumption", it might just "trickle down to you" if you are lucky or else just "move aside", you don't fit our agenda. What struck me most in the ad, was the word "tan". Is it an artificial tan we are manufacturing with "creams ", a natural tan because of days of "work/hard labour" in the sun(not all suns...a branded sun) without sunscreens, or JUST "my complexion"!!!! The ad juxtaposes two polarised images ....I think it taps on the "initial discomfort" of breaking stereotypes with the women dialoguing on "designer tans" and "monte carlo".Its confusing because in the picture "the image of the poor" stands contested with the "concerns of the poor"(the bubbles)!!!! The text below highlights a "misplaced sense of pride"..... Thanks for the article and the debate.... Sayantoni On 05/04/06, Jeebesh Bagchi wrote: dear Shivam, Ravi and Lawrence, My desire for responses beyond the initial repulsion was from a position of confusion. These images definitely gesture towards a shift in ways of perceiving the world. And i am not sure what this is shift about. On the one hand the realities of increasing brutalities. Rising counts of suicides, dislocations, and evictions. On the other, these images. I would think that slowly a new way of 'being' in highly in- equal social realities and arrangements is taking shape. A new psychological profile is emerging. Also, we are witnessing a dismantling of some earlier held assumptions. I am trying to think what is getting dismantled and being replaced by what. Dislocation and violence have always accompanied great dreams of wealth and domination. Europe in 18th and 19th Century is a good example of this. Thousands banished from within it's land to Americas and Australia. Thousands dislocated from other parts of the world to fulfill the search for labour, land and materials. The "Engine of Progress" record has been fairly bloody. In the 20th Century the record of this progress-travel has been more bizarre and bloody. I would think that we grew up with a psychological profile that somehow gave space to these `dislocations` and through various ways admitted it as a violence that cannot be wished away. We co-inhabited the spaces of violence in our cities. From the popular cinema to documentary filmmakers - all found ways of talking about it. That mode of talking i would think reached a aesthetic and conceptual dead- end by early nineties. Rarely could accounts move beyond the `heroic- resisting` subject or `victimised/traumatised` human objects. This binary did give rise to an image fatigue of the `poor` in the nineties. Also, the nineties saw the stress on what Partha Chaterjee calls the `the political society`. The modes by which people found a way to make claims using the forms of `electoral mobilisations` and `welfare administration`. The emergence of the courts as the central actor in today's `evictions/ dislocations` is in a very definitive way a dismantling of these negotiations. The forms that we have at present - the courts' discourse and the image making sensibility of a new triumphal elite - open up for us new questions about how to think this conjunction. What sensibility is being demanded of us to navigate the contemporary? I am trying to understand this from all your comments. What intrigues me is the `speech acts` given to the `poor`. These kind of images have existed in many ads by industry (and also in welfare ads). But, the speech act of this one is something new. And our poor Raghu too existed in similar way in many ads. However he was never branded a `pick pocket`. Well the ground was laid down about 5 years ago by an esteemed judge in the Supreme court. He uttered in his judgement - " Giving land to squatters is like giving money back to the pickpocket". That sensibility has taken deep roots and circulatory force. I wonder, what will this harsh time-travel of capital (progress/ development/ triumphal chest beating in nationalist competitions) do to millions who will not have Americas to go to. Both cities and countryside are becoming a huge ejection machines, as was always under the sign of progress. How will we be able to make sense of this world? Authoritarian solutions of many kind will gain ground, so will deep solipsism. Well in short, i am as confused as you guys are. warmly jeebesh On 05-Apr-06, at 6:35 PM, Shivam wrote: > > I am not sure if I am able to answer Jeebesh's question fully. Why > don't you tell us what you think? > > S. > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: _________________________________________ reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. Critiques & Collaborations To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. List archive: -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060407/040bf974/attachment.html From anivar.aravind at gmail.com Sat Apr 8 12:10:01 2006 From: anivar.aravind at gmail.com (Anivar Aravind) Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2006 12:10:01 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Training Programme on 'Peace and Conflict Resolution" In-Reply-To: <35f96d470604072338ydf87992n8358cd99ba443e70@mail.gmail.com> References: <35f96d470604042328y178b9583raaa9da3d3976db2d@mail.gmail.com> <35f96d470604042330s577318e1jedabdd61e3f6fc8a@mail.gmail.com> <35f96d470604050912k6b817b5rab22cd5f3efec5c7@mail.gmail.com> <35f96d470604050913l19b4db18ye2d7b8d0fd0a094b@mail.gmail.com> <651c81b0604070622h3680f4c9idc54ace734d54934@mail.gmail.com> <35f96d470604072338h19e16528x5818e02cd50ade86@mail.gmail.com> <35f96d470604072338ydf87992n8358cd99ba443e70@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <35f96d470604072340s7a53011br208e56df80462d4@mail.gmail.com> Training Programme on 'Peace and Conflict Resolution" Date: 9th-14th May 2006 Venue: Majlis Park, THrissur Last Date of Application: April 25th Participation : From South India Dear Friends, Global Alternate Information Application (GAIA), Vikas Adhyayan Kendra and Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS) is jointly organising a South India level Training Programme on 'Peace and Conflict Resolution" from 9th to 14th May 2006 at Majlis Park,Thrissur. ==Rationale== In the recent decades, States and Civil Society in India has increasingly come under severe attack by the Hindutva forces signifying a vicious political turn. It also signifies that communalism as a socio-political project has come to stay in our society as an ideology and as a political practice explicitly challenging civilisational heritage, polity and India's composite culture. A serious consequence of the communalisation of society was the undermining of the democratic process and institutions of the modern secular state by the communal forces leading to greater polarisation within civil society as well as social and community consolidation on communal lines. A worrisome social trend, emerging from the various communal conflicts and riots, is the increasing use of violence as an instrument in the polarisation of civil society and polity. The objectives of the training programme is to provide a deeper theoretical understanding of the communal politics and the different facets of communal problems and its implications for social and communal harmony; build a "Secular Democratic Platform" for promoting communal harmony by building local level institutions mainly of youth and women, of diverse faith, caste and gender, at village and district levels to strengthen mutual bonds of tolerance, fraternity, respect and peace between people of different religious groups, caste; and to promote equal citizenship, justice, communal harmony and peace. The Training Programme will cover a wide range of issues from communalism to communal violence, abuse of history in the consolidation of communalism, the genesis and development of communal politics, the history & politics of cultural nationalism, gender roles, and patriarchy in communalism, communal articulation of Dalits & Tribes etc Due to lack of funds, we would appreciate if you could find travel assistance from your institution/organisation. In case you need travel expenses, please do write to us so that we can make arrangements to reimburse your train/bus fare, as the case may be. We will be glad to take care of the hospitality in Thrissur. Please send us your confirmation within April 25th to help us to make the necessary logistical arrangements to the following address: Contact: --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~--~--~---------~--~----~ Anivar Aravind Global Alternate Information Applications(GAIA) Peringavu.P.O Thrissur-18, Kerala Contact Nos: 09895803545, 09945579464 Email: anivar at gaia.org.in Mustafa Desamangalam SRUTI P.O.Pookayil Tirur 676 107 Kerala Contact No: 09447924656 mustafdesam at gmail.com ==Venue==: MAJLIS PARK, Mundur, Thrissur. (Majlis Park is located about 10 kilometre from Trichur Town. Take a bus from Trichur along Kunnamkulam/Guruvayoor N.H.Road to reach Mundur. Get down at Krishna petrol pump. There is a small road just behind the petrol pump through which you can reach Majlis park which around 1.5 kilometre far.) OR make a call #09447924656, 0487-2212845. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~--~--~---------~--~----~ From mallroad at gmail.com Fri Apr 7 21:49:01 2006 From: mallroad at gmail.com (Shivam Vij) Date: Fri, 7 Apr 2006 21:49:01 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] P. Sainath :Where India shining meets greatdepression (The Hindu) In-Reply-To: References: <6E785FC8-789E-4D23-ADE9-F4BBEF632FDB@sarai.net> <2E493069-F358-4A42-8ABE-867F7B91FE52@gmail.com> <210498250604050605o4ba9c284wd31402466b92e1a6@mail.gmail.com> <4964FE80-A3ED-438E-BFFB-1A83F2DB4596@sarai.net> Message-ID: <210498250604070919q5d979251mf2b7cabb107a3c69@mail.gmail.com> >What struck me most in the ad, was the word "tan". The ads, I think, are not only about being subjects of the market economy but there is also a strong element of class in them, and it is played out in the images rather than the text. The women in the Brand Equity ad are not described by words - Sainath says they are probably landless labourers. But I think they are more likely to be urban household helps - the sort we all hire for a few hundred ruppees, who do work that costs so much (in per hour terms) in the US that Indian immigrants are aghast they have to clean their bathrooms on their own! The appearance of the 'models' (and I wonder how much they were paid for the assignment) without description plays on the English newspaper reader's middle class 'gaze' of the urban poor. S. From jyotirmoy.chaudhuri at gmail.com Fri Apr 7 15:20:54 2006 From: jyotirmoy.chaudhuri at gmail.com (Jyotirmoy Chaudhuri) Date: Fri, 07 Apr 2006 15:20:54 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] OWTV/online documentary platform Message-ID: <443635FE.4030805@gmail.com> Dear Monica, This came to me via a friend in OWTV. Could you please pass it onto Announcements/Sarai? Regards, Jyoti ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi! Greetings from OneWorldTV - an online documentary platform showcasing films from around the world on human rights, sustainable development and environmental issues. I am writing to invite your organisation to contribute to our online video platform. It is an open platform where filmmakers, activists and community groups are encouraged to showcase their films as a means of gaining greater exposure to the issues addressed and the films produced. We have a very global membership of over 4,000 people and organisations comprised of filmmakers, ngos, activists and interested individuals. There are currently nearly 500 different films being showcased on the platform and that number is constantly growing, making OneWorldTV the primary resource for video materials on social issues. We are particularly interested in works done by South Asian documentary-makers. If you are interested in showcasing your films on our open platform (or know of people who will be), please have a look at our website (http://tv.oneworld.net/) or send me an email, details below, and I'll be able to offer you any support or guidance you might require, or answer any questions you may have. I look forward to hearing from you soon. Yours faithfully, Muna Muna Baig OneWorldTV muna.owtv at googlemail.com http://tv.oneworld.net/ TEL - 00 44 (0) 20 7239 1400 OneWorld International River House 2nd Floor 143-145 Farringdon Road London EC1R 3AB UK _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From anivar at gaia.org.in Sat Apr 8 12:46:17 2006 From: anivar at gaia.org.in (Anivar Aravind) Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2006 12:46:17 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Training Programme on 'Peace and Conflict Resolution" In-Reply-To: <35f96d470604072340s7a53011br208e56df80462d4@mail.gmail.com> References: <35f96d470604042328y178b9583raaa9da3d3976db2d@mail.gmail.com> <35f96d470604042330s577318e1jedabdd61e3f6fc8a@mail.gmail.com> <35f96d470604050912k6b817b5rab22cd5f3efec5c7@mail.gmail.com> <35f96d470604050913l19b4db18ye2d7b8d0fd0a094b@mail.gmail.com> <651c81b0604070622h3680f4c9idc54ace734d54934@mail.gmail.com> <35f96d470604072338h19e16528x5818e02cd50ade86@mail.gmail.com> <35f96d470604072338ydf87992n8358cd99ba443e70@mail.gmail.com> <35f96d470604072340s7a53011br208e56df80462d4@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <35f96d470604080016x11d318aex4c49049e01f1f525@mail.gmail.com> Training Programme on 'Peace and Conflict Resolution" Date: 9th-14th May 2006 Venue: Majlis Park, THrissur Last Date of Application: April 25th Participation : From South India Dear Friends, Global Alternate Information Application (GAIA), Vikas Adhyayan Kendra and Centre for Study of Society and Secularism (CSSS) is jointly organising a South India level Training Programme on 'Peace and Conflict Resolution" from 9th to 14th May 2006 at Majlis Park,Thrissur. ==Rationale== In the recent decades, States and Civil Society in India has increasingly come under severe attack by the Hindutva forces signifying a vicious political turn. It also signifies that communalism as a socio-political project has come to stay in our society as an ideology and as a political practice explicitly challenging civilisational heritage, polity and India's composite culture. A serious consequence of the communalisation of society was the undermining of the democratic process and institutions of the modern secular state by the communal forces leading to greater polarisation within civil society as well as social and community consolidation on communal lines. A worrisome social trend, emerging from the various communal conflicts and riots, is the increasing use of violence as an instrument in the polarisation of civil society and polity. The objectives of the training programme is to provide a deeper theoretical understanding of the communal politics and the different facets of communal problems and its implications for social and communal harmony; build a "Secular Democratic Platform" for promoting communal harmony by building local level institutions mainly of youth and women, of diverse faith, caste and gender, at village and district levels to strengthen mutual bonds of tolerance, fraternity, respect and peace between people of different religious groups, caste; and to promote equal citizenship, justice, communal harmony and peace. The Training Programme will cover a wide range of issues from communalism to communal violence, abuse of history in the consolidation of communalism, the genesis and development of communal politics, the history & politics of cultural nationalism, gender roles, and patriarchy in communalism, communal articulation of Dalits & Tribes etc Due to lack of funds, we would appreciate if you could find travel assistance from your institution/organisation. In case you need travel expenses, please do write to us so that we can make arrangements to reimburse your train/bus fare, as the case may be. We will be glad to take care of the hospitality in Thrissur. Please send us your confirmation within April 25th to help us to make the necessary logistical arrangements to the following address: Contact: --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~--~--~---------~--~----~ Anivar Aravind Global Alternate Information Applications(GAIA) Peringavu.P.O Thrissur-18, Kerala Contact Nos: 09895803545, 09945579464 Email: anivar at gaia.org.in Mustafa Desamangalam SRUTI P.O.Pookayil Tirur 676 107 Kerala Contact No: 09447924656 mustafdesam at gmail.com ==Venue==: MAJLIS PARK, Mundur, Thrissur. (Majlis Park is located about 10 kilometre from Trichur Town. Take a bus from Trichur along Kunnamkulam/Guruvayoor N.H.Road to reach Mundur. Get down at Krishna petrol pump. There is a small road just behind the petrol pump through which you can reach Majlis park which around 1.5 kilometre far.) OR make a call #09447924656, 0487-2212845. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~--~--~---------~--~----~ From plea at theyesmen.org Sun Apr 9 09:57:01 2006 From: plea at theyesmen.org (The Yes Men) Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2006 14:27:01 +1000 Subject: [Reader-list] Giant corporation, Bhopal survivors need cash now Message-ID: April 11, 2006 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: mailto:help at theyesmen.org Help: http://www.theyesmen.org/contactus/#donate http://www.bhopal.net/delhi-march.html#actions GIANT CORPORATION, GIANT CORPORATION'S VICTIMS BOTH NEED CASH NOW Here's an update on some recent Yes Men activities. But first, two appeals: * In a few weeks, the Yes Men will speak at a major conference as one of the world's biggest, nastiest companies. We're planning something every bit as bizarre as the WTO's meter-long golden phallus - but we're a bit short on funds to pull it off. If you can help, please visit http://www.theyesmen.org/contactus/#donate or write to us. * On a whole other level, survivors of the Bhopal catastrophe have just completed a march from Bhopal to Delhi to protest the Indian government's refusal to help force Dow to the table; now they're beginning a hunger strike. Please support them at http://www.bhopal.net/delhi-march.html#actions or by donating to the Bhopal Medical Appeal (http://www.bhopal.org/donations/). Now for the updates. DOW PROMOTES "POST-CAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE" Last November at a San Francisco nanotechnology conference, a "Dow representative" urged the scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs in the audience to hurry potentially dangerous nanotech products to market before they could be tested. Citing Dow's record profits despite a history of releasing dangerous and often lethal products, the representative asserted that caution is best deferred until after a product is released, and that testing ought to be performed not by the corporation but by the population at large, to give them the opportunity to participate in corporate progress. The audience, to their credit, found these ideas disturbing, but many admitted that they had no control over how the products they were developing would be released. Meanwhile, in the exhibits hall, the Yes Men discovered that nanotech products known to be dangerous are available for sale to anyone with the money.... INDIAN HIJINKS The pesticide Dursban was banned in the US in 2001; that very year, Dow opened a Dursban plant in Chiplun, India, and now manufactures and sells it in India. Last December, the Yes Men, posing as Dow managers, dropped in on the factory for an inspection. They had been told of the plant by Bhopal survivors, who are angry that Dow is able to launch new, harmful ventures in India even as they continue to get away with murder in Bhopal. Also in December, the Yes Men visited the largest agricultural fair in India and learned how companies like Monsanto sell their expensive seeds to farmers, who are often ruined when the crop doesn't perform as well as expected; thousands of farmers have lately committed suicide by drinking the pesticide that comes with the seeds, and millions more have ended up in big-city slums. After speaking to Monsanto and other company representatives to learn their sales tricks, the Yes Men successfully sold seeds armed against "amoebas and houseflies" and demonstrated a pesticide that doesn't kill but simply lobotomizes the drinker, making him or her happier with whatever happens. From hight at 34n118w.net Sun Apr 9 11:24:40 2006 From: hight at 34n118w.net (hight at 34n118w.net) Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2006 22:54:40 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] java museum interview project Message-ID: <51163.70.34.212.67.1144562080.squirrel@webmail.34n118w.net> javaMuseum Interview Project http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=11 ---> is featuring this week the following 5 interviews with Sharkar Barua (India), Päivi Hintsanen (Finland), Enrico Tomaselli (Italy), Carlos Katastrofsky (Austria), Humberto Ramirez (Chile/USA) further the first answers on 10 questions by Jeremy Hight & Ian Page-Echols From anya at bgl.vsnl.net.in Sat Apr 8 13:42:07 2006 From: anya at bgl.vsnl.net.in (Ananya Vajpeyi) Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2006 13:42:07 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] The fight that's left Message-ID: <5EDCE778-C6D7-11DA-A1FB-000A95B44366@bgl.vsnl.net.in> On Wednesday April 5, my colleagues at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML) and I went to join the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) protest going on at Jantar Mantar, New Delhi. Five of us decided to fast for one day, to express our support for Medha Patkar's hunger strike, now in its eleventh day. About a month ago the same group of us fellows at the NMML had joined a march at more or less the same venue, protesting George Bush's visit to India and the agreements signed between India and the US. Both occasions proved most instructive. I have already written at length about the anti-Bush demonstration in an open letter ("Ambushed": www.esocialsciences.com), and am noting, below, my impressions of and difficulties with the NBA's dharna. As this is not meant to be a detailed description of the dharna or a blow-by-blow account of the goings-on there, I will confine myself to what has been troubling not just me, but also my colleagues who were there and fasting on April 5. The NBA has very few people sitting at the protest site in Delhi -- perhaps no more than 150 men and women (some of them quite old, I gathered in conversation). This tiny attendance is a reflection of several factors: the NBA'S diminished credibility and popularity in the Narmada Valley at the present time, the fact that this struggle is twenty years old and has suffered many losses, set-backs and fragmentations since its inception, Delhi's physical distance from the locations of displacement and rehabilitation in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, Medha 's dwindled stature as the one leader of a truly broad-based mass movement, and of course the reality that big and small dams already exist on the river Narmada: the only thing at issue now is whether the height of the Sardar Sarovar Dam can or should be increased, and if it is, then what happens to the large numbers of people who will lose their villages and fields to the rising waters. These people -- tens of thousands of them -- ought to be moved and resettled prior to their properties being submerged, according to the Supreme Court; however, while such anticipatory and incremental resettlement has not happened, construction is nevertheless all set to proceed apace. One of my senior colleagues, Shekhar Pathak, has long been involved in several movements to do with rivers, forests, land and livelihood in the Himalayas. He edits the Hindi journal "Pahaad" that reflects on every aspect of Himalayan cultures and histories. He was the one among us with the greatest personal experience of as well as the long-term perspective on the temporality of environmental movements. Needless to say, he was the one who could remain the most calm through that day during which we did not eat and instead sat near Medha observing, undisturbed, the comings and goings of political leaders, media persons and sundry activists, writers, scholars and students from the city at large. There was probably nothing happening there that Shekhar has not seen elsewhere, say in the Chipko Andolan. For me, however, as a novice to such situations, many unanswered questions caused upset. Why were there so few of the citizens of Delhi present? Why had this movement failed to prevent, over two decades, some of the most wrong-headed development strategies since independence from becoming actualized in the Narmada Valley? Why does a hunger strike by no less a personage than Medha Patkar fail to oblige the government of India to come to the negotiating table? What are we seeing -- the end, in Indian political life, of the possibility of Gandhian methods of protest? Or is it the end, in defeat, only of this particular movement, on account of its own peculiar problems and constraints? No one in this country seriously wants to put Medha's life at risk, but then how will we will live the fact that thousands of other lives, of all the Narmada displaced, have been or will be irrevocably hurt by the construction of the dams? The conduct of both the state and the media was, as usual, strange. Everyone has seen how the police descended on the protesters and took Medha away by force; everyone has seen how these developments were reported by mainstream newspapers and television channels. I am beginning to come to the conclusion that there usually three players in the game of dissent: the state, the media and the organized and unorganized left. Each one deserves the others. On occasion the courts will play a role as well, but the three principal players invariably wreak such comprehensive damage on any given issue, that even judicial intervention cannot save the day. As P. Sainath and Randeep Ramesh have written in their recent pieces in the Hindu and the Guardian, respectively (both circulated and discussed on this very list), in a country giddy with growth, no one has time for the poor. Supposing we were to rule out, momentarily, sheer greed, corruption and venality as adequate explanations for the gross mistakes committed in our national life -- the case in point being the "development", which is in fact the ruination, of the Narmada Valley. In this instance, we find many different sorts of small mistakes, which can be attributed to different constituencies. Together these lead to the current pass: a figure like Medha -- the closest we have come to Gandhi in fifty years -- on her death-bed, a once-influential people's movement in disarray, and large-scale ecological and economic changes that do more harm than good. Let's try to set out, in a rough and ready fashion, this mosaic of mistakes, together with their authors. As I see it, we have a state that is insincere about the rehabilitation and resettlement of dam oustees; a press that is more interested in the drama of conflict rather than in the resolution of the crisis at hand; left parties that have made too many compromises for the sake of power to have a moral basis from which to criticize or question state action; and an intellectual class -- broadly left, let us say -- that is more wedded to rhetoric, emotion and ideology than a respect for the facts or the ability to analyze, describe or critique dispassionately what is unfolding on the ground. Each sector is failing its duties, and the poor of the Narmada Valley are paying the price. Ideally, reporters would travel to the Narmada Valley to see whether people have in fact been rehabilitated or not, politicians would open a dialogue with the NBA, the NBA leadership would multiply, diversify, and be at its fighting best, and the police would be present in this picture only to protect citizens in the event of a law and order problem. Besides, writers would write fiction and non-fiction about social realities, professors would teach classes about the pros and cons of development, and no one would go on indefinite hunger strike to end up on a stretcher or a soap box -- both politically rather useless vantages -- when there is real work to be done. Social scientists -- like Jean Dreze, Ramachandra Guha and Amita Baviskar, to name just three of many -- have done empirically grounded and logically sound research on major environmental problems and the social movements around them in post-independence India. Now is the time for the public to turn to these sorts of (admittedly scholarly) resources to educate themselves and disseminate knowledge about the dams, the NBA, and the human costs of big development projects like this one. Once the immediate danger to Medha's life is over -- and it remains to be seen how she will be brought out of purgatory by a government that has pushed her to the brink -- the debate on the Narmada issue needs to move up several notches. From its current state -- I dare say its nadir in the last twenty years -- the discussion has to shed the dross of exaggerated gestures, shrill discourse that is neither factual nor persuasive, political expediency, and ideological naivete. Medha's fast unto death has nothing to do with Advani's latest Rath Yatra. The forced association of these two symbolic actions in many quarters of the media, simply because they happen to be occurring simultaneously, misunderstands their utterly divorced intentions, meanings, and histories. It smacks of poor comprehension, to read these two political campaigns as being of a piece. Let journalists and commentators go back and do their homework before ignorantly and inexcusably lumping Medha with Advani or the NBA with the BJP, and misleading the public with false analyses and analogies. "Narmada ki ghaati mein / Ab ladaai baaki hai", chanted the NBA activists on the evening of April 5th. "There's still a fight left, in the Narmada Valley". Indeed. The NBA has some fight left in it yet. The fight has to be fought where it genuinely affects the life of people: in the Narmada Valley, not necessarily on the pavements of Delhi. And there's still the real fight left to fight -- the fight to keep the rudder of this nation in our own hands, the hands of the people, and make of our future what we will. Ananya Vajpeyi, Ph.D. Fellow Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Teen Murti House New Delhi 110011 INDIA -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 9180 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060408/df1cc323/attachment.bin From aadityadar at gmail.com Sun Apr 9 17:03:08 2006 From: aadityadar at gmail.com (Aaditya Dar) Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2006 17:03:08 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Mandal Exposed: Part I Message-ID: There has been a lot of hullabaloo over the proposal of the HRD Ministry to increase the quota in Central Universities and colleges from the existing 22.5% to 49.5%. The current system allows a 22.5% quota for Schedule Casts (SCs) and Schedule Tribes (STs). The government now wants to reserve another 27% for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) increasing the overall reservation to 49.5%. Since a lot of people, were not clear on what exactly the recommendations are, its consequences, the whos and the whats… I did some research on the internet and have come up with the following facts. I attempt to present only the facts in this post; part two of this post would carry a critique of the committee. In my so called 'research' I've tried my utmost best to look into trustworthy, inconvertible and authoritative data. For any questions relating to the accuracy of the material, you could post your comments and I would be glad to elaborate on the links from where I have obtained it. *What was the Mandal Commission?* On 27 December 1978 the Second Backward Classes Commission (2nd BCC) was constituted with B.P. Mandal as Chairman. The Commission reported to the President of India on 12 December 1980. The objectives of the report were to look into the problems which plague the socially and educationally backward classes. In addition to that it was to: To recommend steps to be taken for the advancement of the socially and educationally backward classes of citizens so identified To examine the desirability or otherwise of making provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of such backward classes of citizens which are not adequately represented in public services. The Mandal Commission was *not *based on any arbitrary criteria. It was a parliamentary commission and conducted a very systematic and scientific survey on the following 11 points: *Social* ** 1. Castes/classes considered as socially backward by others. 2. Castes/classes which mainly depend on manual labour for their livelihood. 3. Castes/classes where the percentage of married women below 17 is 25% above the state average in rural areas and 10% in urban areas; and that of married men is 10% and 5% above the state average in rural and urban areas respectively. 4. Castes/classes where participation of females in work is at least 25% above the state average. *Educational* ** 5. Castes/classes where the number of children in the age group of 5 to 15 years who never attended school is at least 25% above the state average. 6. Castes/classes where the rate of student drop-out in the age group of 5-15 years is at least 25% above the state average. 7. Castes/classes amongst whom the proportion of matriculates is at least 25% below the state average *Economic* 8. Castes/classes where the average value of family assets is at least 25% below the state average. 9. Castes/classes where the number of families living in kachcha houses is at least 25 % above the state average. 10. Castes/classes where the source of drinking water is beyond half a kilometer for more than 50% of the households. 11. Castes/classes where the number of the house-holds having taken a consumption loan is at least 25% above the state average. Most arguments that the reservations are not based on economic criteria are thus wrong. This is not to say that I am for reservations. I felt it was important to present 'the truth and nothing but the truth.' *Observations of the Committee:* In its Report, the Mandal Commission observed that whereas in the Class I category of Central Government jobs the share of the SCs and STs was 5.68 % it was only 4.69% in the case of OBCs. For all categories of jobs the shares were 18.79 % and 12.44 % respectively. The implication was that owing to the constitutionally sanctioned reservations for SCs/STs the OBCs were in an inferior position. The Mandal Commission prepared a list of 37435 socially and educationally backward castes (SEBCs). It estimated the figure of OBCs at 52 % of the population. This excludes the SCs/STs, the forward Hindu Communities and non-Hindu Communities. *Recommendations of the Committee:* Since I do not have the exact document in hand, I have relied on an article published by S. S. Gill in the Hindu. The authenticity of neither the writer nor the publisher can be questioned. Mr. S.S. Gill was the Secretary of the Mandal Commission. The article can be seen by clicking here . 1. A 27% reservation for OBCs 2. Structural changes in the land-tenurial system 3. Institutional Reforms for educational and economic uplift of the OBCs *Some unanswered questions * What can a OBC who doesn't have accesses to primary education do with reservations in higher educations? If yes, can we ensure that the 'creamy layer' amongst the OBCS (as pointed by the SC, 1992) will not be the beneficiaries and the real benefits will accrue to the ones who need it the most? Will starving farmers stop committing suicide if their son's and daughetr's are granted reservations in IITs/IIMs? Why is a Yadav in Bihar is an OBC, but a Yadav elsewhere is not? Is India a country where we tend to appreciate mediocrity? At a point where were are competing in global markets, where liberalization, globalization are the words which even a five year old child must have heard of, are we ready to sacrifice quality education? To conclude, it's vital to understand that the Mandal Commission's Report was not incorrect per se. It identified that OBCs had miserable standards of living, and something had to be done to improve that. It exposed the levels of inequality, in a society that claims to be an egalitarian one. But it's the only half hearted implementation of the recommendations to suit political needs, which have created the stir. -- AY+IbAA aadityadar at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060409/37fdad09/attachment.html From aadityadar at gmail.com Sun Apr 9 17:03:47 2006 From: aadityadar at gmail.com (Aaditya Dar) Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2006 17:03:47 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Mandal Exposed: Part II Message-ID: 'Mandal Revisited' is what a news channel had to say after the HRD Ministry's proposal to hike the quota in all central universities to 49.5%; I would, on the other hand, like to refer the Mandal Commission as MC (no! the pun isn't intended, but must say some uncanny resemblance) In this second part of my 'assembled' post I would like to bring some other particulars to light, which should bring a new dimension on how one should view the Committee's Reccommendations. *Who was B.P. Mandal?* B. P. Mandal was an Indian Parliamentarian, who was the chairperson of the Mandal Commission, which was commissioned in 1978 and would change Indian polity for the times to come. Mandal was born in Murho, Madhepura district, Bihar (I think its Bihar, correct me if I'm wrong) He was even a chief minister of Bihar but for only 48 days! It also crucial to point out that Mandals belong to the Yadav caste, which falls into- yes you guessed it right- the OBC category. So is it surprising that an OBC would recommend reservations for his 'fellow brothers' and that too for someone hailing from Bihar, which ever since time immemorial has been a prey to caste politics? The answer is a simple No. Anyhow, moving on- a sneak peek into Mr. Mandal's family background:B.P. Mandal, son of Rash Beharilal Mandal, an extremely wealthy zamindar, who owned acres of land. Villagers said he probably had no idea of how much land he owned! So, this is familiar to us, a wealthy zamindar's son manages to make it to the parliament of India (I'm sure we all know how!) and then comes up with 27% reservations for his kinfolks. At this point let me make it clear, that I am not at all against reservations- 22.5% was sufficient enough- but 49.5%is insanity. But, this post is not a form to express my opinion, let me carry on with revealing certain other interesting facts. And just for the record, when Rash Beharilal Mandal died, B.P. Mandal amongst his other siblings got possession of the countless 'bigas' of land, which he held. *India- Castesim, Politics and everything else* In my earlier post I have made it clear that the Mandal Committee wasn't based on casteism, as argued by many. It worked on 11 indicators to define social backwardness and then group various casts to from the OBC category. It is also argued by many that, in India, land is concentrated in the few hands (10% of rural households control almost 55% of cultivable land while 35.23% own hardly 2.07% of land). Industry too is highly concentrated in the hands of the top business house. The case system still operates. Social and economic power is monopolised by a small proportion of the population. Here I must specify that the analysis made by the commission was based "on the 1931 census which had sought information on the caste status. Secondly, it made a number of questionable assumptions while extrapolating the data available for 1931." Cleary, more than seven decades down the line... if you expect me to believe the above argument, its laughable! The reality is known to all. The elections are around the corner and the UPA cannot do without Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Its vote bank politics all the way. Whats actually being happening is the following: "look at the latest Government ploy of adding new casts to the central OBC lists of eight states. As per the percentage of people living below the poverty line has halved since the implementation of the Mandal report, it should have led to progressive *exclusion* of the beneficiary castes from the OBC list. But defying all logic, the Government has repeatedly enlarged this list, mostly on the eve of elections." *The Law behind reservations* Reservations for the SCs, the STs and the OBCs has been made under article 15 (4) of the Constitution which empowers the state to make any "special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes to citizens of for the SSs and the STs" Also, worthwhile noting is that the Supreme Court judgement (Balaji Vs. State of Mysore and Devadasan Vs. India) had stipulated that reservation of more than 50 per cent would be violative of Article 15 of the Constitution. The 93rd Amendment introduced a *new *clause to the Article 15 of the Constitution "in so far as such special provisions relate to their admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions- whether aided or unaided by the state- other than minority educational institution" This is the biggest concern, as this would mean that any appeal or PIL filed would now be subject to the new law. (I'm not quite sure of this, i treid to use some simple logic. Corrections welcome!) The Supreme Court is the only the defender of the law; while the laws are made in the Parliament. So, while you have been reading this rather long article very patiently you must be wondering, what the hell happened to the Mandal when they were first submitted.As S.S. Gill recalls: it was in December 1980 that members of the Mandal Commsiion, and I as its Secretary trooped into the office of Zail Singh, then Home Minister and presented our report to him. As we come out of the secretariat, B.P. Mandal, our chairman told me, "I know how much labour has gone into the writing of this report. But let me tell you that today we have performed its immersion (visarjan) ceremony." And truly for the next ten years, the report lay in the home ministry's dusty vaults. *Mandal Commission- a summary* So let's get a few things in perspective here- 1970s- A wealthy zamindar's son rises to be a MP, heads a commission and comes up with a couple of recommendations. 1980- The government under the leadership of Indira Gandhi rubbishes the report. 1990- Enter: Mr. V.P. Singh; he open's the Pandora's Box. Picks and chooses the recommendation that would suit him the most. The goal is clear: to gain political mileage, and capture votes. What follows next are a series of protests and self immolations acts.Despitea nation wide protest the quota system is put in place. The result: The government falls in the next elections Move to 2006: The Centre announces to increases reservations to almost 50%. The timing of the announcement perfectly synchronised when the students at IITs, DU and others are busy giving exams; and when five states are going to elections With the constitution amended, law on their side and political parties on one side- the battle lines are drawn. The repercussions? Only time will tell… -- AY+IbAA aadityadar at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060409/910c45b6/attachment.html From aadityadar at gmail.com Sun Apr 9 17:04:20 2006 From: aadityadar at gmail.com (Aaditya Dar) Date: Sun, 9 Apr 2006 17:04:20 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] a min for the future Message-ID: Please sign the petition at: http://www.PetitionOnline.com/re225495/petition.html and forward this mail to your friends, and relatives Thank you for your cooperation! for more: http://ecosockmc.blogspot.com --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Government plans to increase the quota of reservations from the already existing 22.5% to 49.5%, in all central universities and colleges. This means HALF of the seats would be reserved in the Indian Institute of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi University (DU), Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), national Institute of Fashion Design (NIFT), National School of Drama (NSD) and other prestigious institutes. The move is based on a Mandal Commission Report, which was commissioned in 1980, which used pre-independence data (1930s) to pen down the recommendations! Decades have passed since then. While the 'real' recommendations were not implemented, only the 27% quota was, to gain political mileage. The announcement has also been timed just before the eve of elections, when 5 states are going to polls. If this isn't vote bank politics, then what is this? Will starving farmers stop committing suicide if their son's and daughter's are granted reservations in IITs/IIMs? Why is a Yadav in Bihar is an OBC, but a Yadav elsewhere is not? Is India a country where we tend to appreciate mediocrity? Who should sign the petition? If you are a school student or a student at the university: It cuts down your chances to get into the above mentioned institutes by 50% Or even if you are a concerned citizen. At a time when India is eyeing a position is the global markets, where we can be proud of the alumni of the IITs, IIMs... etc to having put India on the world map, do we want to sacrifice this, and compromise on quality education. Do meritious students deserve this?? The law in the constitution on this has already been amended, but still all hope is not lost. Its time we raised our voices and stop as my friend termed it 'the rape of the silent electorate' Sign the petition for your future, for the future of the country. -- AY+IbAA aadityadar at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060409/44718974/attachment.html From rinchin at gmail.com Sat Apr 8 15:56:05 2006 From: rinchin at gmail.com (rinchin etc) Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2006 15:56:05 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] delayed second post! Message-ID: <261872920604080326v19ec887di1a023af7f225b937@mail.gmail.com> I probably need to start by apologising for missing my second posting and being late on the third . While my study is progressing well, I feel a certain sense of diffidence in putting up a posting when my own understanding of the study and what will come out of it is slowly evolving and things seem too "in parts" to put up. I keep wondering what will anyone make out of one odd transcribed interview. Since narratives don't always flow from beginning to end, 'Somewhere in the middle' seems to be a strange point to introduce an issue. My study involves looking at girl's education in Haat Pipaliya town though a biographic narrative of Soni Bua or James madam as she is known. This to be placed in the context of the town and the changes that it has gone through. This process of interaction has taught me many things. One, that the past is not always easy to get out neutrally. Its always coloured by the present and the present always overwhelms. One has to keep nudging oneself and the people one is talking to, to look back. There is always so much in the present to talk about. While I transcribe my interviews this becomes very apparent. The only persons who are comfortable with the past are Soni bua, (the 90 year old protagonist of the study), and her husband. Second, how difficult it is to reach women. With Soni James and her family its been easy. Her family has a strong army of women who work. One of her daughters is the principal of the govt. girls school and the other is the principal of the mission school and its easy to trace their educational and work lives. But even through them the next sources of information about the town and its educational institutions are always men. (through them we try to trace girls education!). My tape recording of conversations with people around town are full of male voices… gate keepers! Another question that keeps coming up - when one is trying to trace something that is common to a whole town, one is never quite sure when the information is completely verified. Different groups have different versions. There are things about the school that I had learnt in my earlier interactions in the town that had attracted me, made me take up the study. But apart from my earlier sources I find very little public memory to bring out those facts. That is a finding but it also breaks my easy preconceived charting of a narrative. I guess thats the difference between documentation and research. To understand, what the school and its values, meant to the town in the past; the kind of impact it had and what it means to the town now, is a very non linear and multifaceted narrative. This post attempts a sketchy bit about the schools in the town, and their inter-linkage with community and caste politics. In the next post that will follow, I am putting an extract of an interview with a dalit family. Besides touching on caste inter-linkages themselves, the discussion also reflects the change in the way people perceive education and how issues of access have changed. The town now has over 25 schools - five government and the rest private. Three schools are exclusively for girls and the others are co-educational. Many of the earlier schools were based on community affiliations like the Jain school, the Patidaar school etc. A new one called Sraswati Sishu Mandir, run by the local RSS branch has recently been added to the list. The mission school, which is the oldest private school and had a special focus on girls and dalit children is called the "massih logon ka school". But over the years the profile of students in all the schools has changed and become a heterogonous mix of communities primarily guided by 'quality' (read economics). The names of the institutions come from the trusts that run them rather than the student profile. "They are like all other private schools. If they are good and people can afford the fees then they will send their children there. When Saraswati sishu mandir started, we were told that they took only hindu students, no dalits, muslim or christians. But now they can't even afford to have an all hindu staff. 80% of their teachers are dalit. With the kind of remuneration that private schools give, they cannot afford to be choosy in staff, so now its open for all children." Schools are about education and about economics of running it. Ideology doesn't have much of a role to play in it. You have to get good results, so that parents are willing to pay the high fees that the school charges and one also has to pay teachers so that they stay. Where is the role of politics here? It doesn't work" (as said by two government school teachers who also run their own private schools.) There are two junior colleges in the town, which have allowed for more girls to be able to enroll. Even though the present ratio of girls in college is just about 1/4th, Hemalata James, the principal of the girls middle school tells us, "From all the girls that pass out from my school only 50% go to high school, and from them only about 25% will go to college. Amongst them too, if they get a job after 12th, they drop out. But still its an improvement. In '69 when I went to this college we were only four girls." "A lot has changed", she says. "But many things have remained the same. Even today the most common job option for girls is teaching. Or may be some may try for nursing. Its so because the courses are not so expensive and one can do them after 12th." "The change", she says "has come about in the number of girls getting into such work and the boys are aspiring for higher levels. While the girls are going to college here, families try to send their boys to Indore." It is apparent that ideology, social position, access and financial considerations have a role to play in the process of acquiring education though the priority given to each is different in different capsules of time and are determined by the common social aspirations for boys and girls. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060408/f95aa134/attachment.html From sdipta_paul at yahoo.com Mon Apr 10 12:39:57 2006 From: sdipta_paul at yahoo.com (Sudipta Paul) Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 00:09:57 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Is it actually industrialization ? Message-ID: <20060410070958.85484.qmail@web52010.mail.yahoo.com> The wheel of industrialization of West Bengal is running very first with frequent closure of many industries. It does not allow any resistance through out the path of industrialization. The movement against the closure of industries, the scarcity of land, militant movement of the land losers, demand of job of land losers , demand of minimum wages and other facilities etc - whatever happens it is running smoothly at any cost. It's true that with industrialization a number of people will get jobs. One new industrialist of Asansol, Paban Ghugutia said in an interview with a correspondent of "Ananda Bazar Ptrika" : "Suppose an industry is built up. Unemployed youths will get the jobs. They will earn money. Economic status of the workers will be changed. They will go to market to buy the necessary commodities. Then there will be some sort of economic transactions. So with increase of industry, the life of human beings will also develop." In the course of the economic development, a number of new industrial estates are developing in last fifteen to sixteen years in Asansol area. Mangalpur and Kannyapur are two of them in the Asansol Subdivision. There is also a plan to develop industrial estates adjacent to 55 KM area of G. T. Road from Durgapur to Barakar. Let's see how much industrialization has taken place and how much employment has been generated at the two industrial estates in the field of closed industrial areas of Asansol. Before 80's, renowned Hindusthan Pilkinton Glass Factory was closed. After that Bengal Paper Mill was closed. From 90's the closing of the industries took an accelaration and within last fifteen years a number of industries have been closed very rapidly. We give a list of closed industries with manpower. Hindusthan Pilkinton Glass factory -1600 Bengal Paper Mill -1500 Bharat Aluminium Co. Ltd. -3000 Burn & Co. 1&2 -1400 Cycle Corporation -3000 Indian Iron and Steel Company (Kulty)-3000 Nearly 15000 workers have lost job due to closure of industry. This is only reported and available data of closed industry. There are a number of unreported and unregistered industries which have been closed. The residential area of those industries are becoming abandoned almost. Most of the workers left their companies' quarters to their homeland or went to other places like Kolkata and also Asansol proper in search of their lively hood. A vast area of Kulty Works of IISCO has become a ghost area. The fifth largest Golf Ground of Kulty is remaining in unused condition. However, within the short distance of 250-300 meters a new township is developing surrounding Kulty College which was mostly a forest area. The residential area of the workers of the glass factory is in the same condition. The officers quarters became abundant. But the families of the workers, who have no other alternative are remaining in the damaged quarters of the company. Near about 200 families are spending their life in a very miserable condition. Most of the next generation of glass factory workers are day labours or unemployed. Third generation of these families are mostly illiterate due to poverty. One jute mill owner bought the 150 bigha of land of glass factory including the area of quarters at a paltry sum of 4.05 crores. He wants to evict the workers families. But the people unitedly made resistance against the displacement without the banner of any political party one and half years back. This glass factory colony is also a subsidence prone area due to the unscientific coal mining according to the official record of coal company. Next we take a look at the development of new industries in place of huge number of closed industry. One new characteristic is to form a cluster with a group of different industries within the same place. Mangalpur and Kannyapur industrial estates are two such clusters of industries. Total area of these two estates is approximately 300 acres. Now the question is from where land is made available for these types of cluster of industries which form an industrial estate? Asansol town has been developed in a very unplanned way with coal industry, railways, and other industries. For planned development and in the name of industrialization, West Bengal Government accrued land according to the Land Accusation Act 1884 from land owners. Most of the lands were one crop agriculture land. Compensation has been paid in terms of land ceiling rate. Land less people were the 'bargadars' who cultivated land by taking lease from land owners. A number of people were agricultural labour. The bargadars and agricultural labours did not get any compensation due to the acqisition of land. These people were assured of job in the future industry. In this land, housing board made residential area and remaining area was handed over to the ADDA in 1981. Creating infrastructures like water, electricity, road for industry, ADDA leased out land to the owners of industries with a contract of 60 years. Adjacent Kannyapur industrial estate township is developing gradually. Most of the new industries are small and medium. One completely new type of industry is Sponge Iron. Within the last 8-9 years, the demand of steel is increasing in national and international market. But the supply of scrap has been decreased gradually. So the demand of sponge iron as a raw material of steel industry has increased. Not only sponge iron, we see that in place of integrated steel and cement plants there are small separate modules of plant for production of the material of different stages. These small modules are called mini plants. In a number of cases the separate modules of steel industry are established by one single owner. Except steel there are a number of food industries like biscuit, flour mills etc. There also some other industries like aluminum, plastic, repairing job etc. At adjacent subdivision , Durgapur, there are a number of sponge iron industries and rolling mills. The main reason to develop iron and cement industry in this region is the availability of one of the main raw materials - coal and slag for cement from IISCO. We mentioned in the first posting that there exists a circle of "illegal" coal mines (which is not run by Government body and license holders) . Most of the coal supplied to mini steel industries are from these illegal mines and from the illegal theft of coal from ECL of Coal India. Slag is a waste material of steel industry, IISCO. Total number of new industries are 19 and 11 at Mangalpur and Kannyapur respectively. Within these 7 are sponge iron, 2 rolling mill, 7 cement companies and 9 food industries and one Jute industry. Who are the workers of these new industries? The Chief minister of West Bengal is very much egger to claim that he is the driver of the huge industrialization. This will create lots of jobs for the people of west Bengal. But I want to highlight the problems of the claim of huge industrialization. Does this type of industrialization really make any remarkable changes in employment? There are lots of confusion about the exact figure of the labour force of the new industrial estates. Roughly 5000 employment has been created at new industrial estates. Within the 5000 new employments, 3000 are in jute industry of Mangalpur. From our survey we see that nearly 50 % workers of new industries are from outside states and other districts of West Bengal. In steel industry nearly 60% , in food 99% and in cement and other nearly 30-40 % workers are from outside of Asansol. In the language of the local workers of new industry "Why do the owners prefer to recruit local people. There is a possibility to make disturbance by making demand for better wage and facilities. They will do the unionism. The owners do not prefer it." "Is it possible to do the jobs of iron company. Who will agree to consume the huge dust inside the shop. In the rolling mills workers are bound to do the job in high temperature. Heat, dust, - all come from company. So they need new workers". We see that some of the local and outside workers work under the company directly. A section of workers are contract labour. Migrant workers are mostly contractor's workers. They reside in the quarters of the respective company within the campus of the company. The surrounded campus have security at every possible entrance. All sorts of entry and exits are monitored by the security. In the next section we see that invariably no contractor wants to pay salary in time. So there are one sorts of bindings to stay at the company. Otherwise you return without money. There is a new feature like the recruitment procedure of private initiatives of coal that local people has been recruited through the local political power. They are also compelled to be a member of the respective union affiliated to the respective political power. Only for one case there is a union of TMC. And for the rest 29 cases they are under the grip of CITU. Interestingly there is no unit wise Tread Union of the particular unit. Basically political power, mostly CPI(M), controls the activity of the workers inside the factory and outside the factory. Apparently there is an organized effort to control the apparently unorganized labour force or informal ways of survival. In the language of the workers- "They (CPI(M)) have started the new factory. So the CITU union does not want to make much pressure to meet the demand of the workers." "If anybody join other union except the union of CPI(M) then it faces complete resistance by police. Also the CITU does not do anything." "There is the 'raj' of CPI(M). So they control all union activities." Status of the workers in the documents of the Government: There are lots of confusion about the actual figure of the workers. At the time of factory registration according to the factories Act, 1948 it is necessary to declare at the office of Directorate of factories the maximum number of workers, including contractor labours, likely to be employed in the factory on any day during the next 12 months. They must give further declaration of the updated manpower of every year. After that all workers should be registered for the Employees State Insurance Scheme at ESI corporation office. According to that scheme, every registered worker gets the benefit of ESI scheme. One major benefit is the 50 % payment for the sick leave and compensation for disablement due to accident in the factory. We have collected the data of the manpower from both office. Here we see that there is a gap between the number of workers from Directorate of Factories office and ESI. The number of ESI card holders is less than the total workers of the factory for most of the cases. For 10 cases none of the declared workers have been registered in the ESI scheme. Even we found more workers than government documents at the time of survey and conversations with the workers. We also found that there are contractor's labours for most of the company. But contractor's labours have no registration in the company. "Only the contractor have notes about the workers." Even they do not make any payment document for the contract labour. Here we like to mention that there are only two inspectors to inspect the registered factories and also unauthorized running factories. Grossly, the Factories Act, 1948, the Payment of Wages Act, Maternity Act are under the purview of Directorate of Factories. Payment of Wages Act regulates the payment of wages to certain classes of persons employed in any factory or in industrial or other establishments. The Act envisages maintenance of register of wages, displaying notice and data of payment, timely payment of wages at the end of the wage period and prevention of illegal and unauthorized deduction of wages etc. So it is preferable to the management to declare less number of workers than actual. Wages It is necessary to mention actual payment to every individual worker for last one year at the time of submission of the contribution of the workers and also owners for ESI scheme. From there we got the wage range of each factory. There are gross violations of minimum wages. There are no minimum wage for sponge iron, cement etc. For sponge iron minimum wage inspector of labour commissioner's office compare the wage of worker with the declared wage of Iron Foundry. Here we mention the minimum and maximum gap of wages per month between declared minimum wages for 2005 and actual wages for some industry. Generally the actual wages are less than the declared minimum wages by the West Bengal government. Steel industry - Rs. 117 to 1027 Flour mill - Rs. 1211 to 1656 Bakery - Rs. 525 to 1513 We came to know from the Deputy Labour Commissioner's office that in most of the cases, owners and the union make a understanding with the workers for low wages in the name of present crisis of industry and market. But workers are compelled to agree to work at any wage in the age of huge unemployment. Most of the workers are under the condition no work and no pay. Here we also see the same characteristic of the private initiative of coal. For giving job opportunities to the maximum number of persons, one group of workers do the job for the 15 days of a month and other group of workers do the job for another 15 days. Some of the contractors make this type of arrangement taking consent of both workers and factory owners. Here we can not make any simple straight line between workers and contractors or workers and factory owners. Let's listen the story of the cooperation between workers, contractors and factory owners in the form of oral history. A worker of a mini cement factory: "I am doing work for 10 years in this factory from the very beginning. In 1996 I got the job. We twelve had started work. Six are at the one side of the rolling machine and rest are at the other side. There are three women. We were recruited directly under the company. But there are 15 to 20 contractors workers. Number of contractors workers are varying seasonally. At the lean period (from July to January) we have made adjustment by sitting with the owners and contractors and have settled job rotationally because all get the opportunity to do the job. We always cooperate with the owner. The CITU union of CPI(M) has made several calls to join with them. I went to the office of CITU and said that when we will fail to settle our demand by discussion then you come. Otherwise there is no requirement of you. If you agree then we will join CITU in the above terms. We do not allow any unionism in every small events with your flag (jhanda). But owner said he will close the factory because of market crisis. There are many new cement companies. So he can not compete. We need to make some compromise for our own existence." There is also dissatisfaction, anger against contractors and owners. But in the era of huge number of unused labour they do not have the courage (better to say they are compelled not) to make any voice against exploitation in the name of industrialization. Now we listen the story of one roaming contractor's worker of the Rolling Mill. "I am a resident of Nagra District of Rajasthan. First I worked at Rama Machinary of Maddrass. They have not given regular salary. Than I went to the factory of Sodepur which manufacture span pipe. There I worked for five months. After that contractor did not give any work. Then I went to work at PMT steel of Bombay and Sun steel of Ulubaria. After completion of work under contractors I was ditched by contractors for wages at Raypur. Now I am in the Baba Ispat Company of Mangalpur. After melting of sponge iron at furnace, melted iron is poured into the casting for preparing 60 to 80 ton carton (iron rod). At the cutting edge of the iron I remove carton one by one continuously. This type of work requires massive manual labour. For five hours a day I get Rs. 2100 a month. I have no identity card, no ESI card( for getting facility Employment insurance Scheme) and also no PF. According to my ability, I do the work, then I will earn. But I got better wages at Sodepur." Environment of work: This section can be started with the words of the previous worker of Rajasthan. He said within six month he was an eyewitness of three accidents. One worker injured by melting iron on his leg. He was a local worker. When the medical cost of recovery was increasing upto a certain limit then the owner sacked him from the job without any compensation. The finger of two workers injured at the time of running. Upper portion of finger was cut off. Total number of reported accident at ESI for accident benefit is 143 at the factories of Asansol. According to the Factory Act, owners are bound to provide the personal safety equipments like helmet, shoes, gloves, mask etc. for protection from accident and pollution. Most of the companies are not keen to give these equipments. According to the workers, proper safety measures have not been followed. For every case we find that safety rules and regulation of Factories act have been violated. Not only the new factories are accident prone, these new mini plants create pollution inside the factory and outside the factory. The factory environment is full of black dust and fumes. There is no single case of periodical medical check up of the workers of dangerous production process. According to the ESI, number of patients of occupational diseases is increasing. The outside of the factories are polluted by the extract ?gases and fumes which are full of the components of sulpher. The cultivated lands become non-fertile due to the accumulation of black dust on the surface. Villagers have shown the black paddy with black rice. Water bodies become polluted. Villagers are affected by the pollution. This is the situation where new industrialization only creates nearly 5000 employments where only reported 15000 workers have lost their jobs due to the closure of main industries. There are also unreported huge number of loss of ways of earning from the ancillary and the urban market which developed with the big industries. Not only is it comparable in quantity but also in quality of the status of workers. The new industrial policy of West Bengal government gives some facility to the industrialist for investment like state capital investment subsidy, interest subsidy, waiver of electricity duty, remission of stamp duty etc. Parallely the new or modified labour laws are going to be passed by which the existing pro workers' restrictions have to be removed to facilitate the investment. Also we see that the threat of huge unused labour prepare the ground for change in labour law with 12 working hours and no restriction of retrenchment. But the workers are not ready to participate in the market with very low wages. Also there is no guaranty of job. From the interview with the workers we got the impression that owners of the new industries are used to retrench any worker at any time as they wish. Till today no organised resistance has built up against such exploitation. So the new employment at Mangalpur and Kannyapur industrial estates are not qualitatively comparable with the employment at integrated plants. There is a good example within the Asansol subdivision that average per day earning of the workers of the big integrated plants of privately run Damodar cement is more than 400. In contrast the average per day earnings of the workers of new industries is less than Rs. 80. The loss of agricultural land or the loss due to industrial pollution has not been addressed here. If the loss of man-days can be calculated for the above loss then we will come nearer to the picture of actual development due to industrialization. --------------------------------- Love cheap thrills? Enjoy PC-to-Phone calls to 30+ countries for just 2¢/min with Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060410/a4348ca8/attachment.html From shalini_cancer at yahoo.com Sat Apr 8 13:26:56 2006 From: shalini_cancer at yahoo.com (shalini venugopal) Date: Sat, 8 Apr 2006 00:56:56 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] cultural preference for fair skin Message-ID: <20060408075656.73717.qmail@web54409.mail.yahoo.com> Hi all, I'm doing some research for a documentary on the preference for fair skin among many cultures(esp South Asian) and how the cosmetic industry has been working to maintain that preference. Just wanted to know if anyone has done any indepth research on this subject in India...anthropologists, sociologists, activists...anyone? I know of atleast one book that has been published on the subject by an American but I'm hoping to find a subcontinental perspective. Regards, Shalini --------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. PC-to-Phone calls for ridiculously low rates. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060408/8da0dc2a/attachment.html From mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com Mon Apr 10 15:12:27 2006 From: mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com (mahmood farooqui) Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 15:12:27 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] a min for the future In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: It seems to me as if the government is stealing half the seats from the rest of the normative population that is addressed in this mail. Is it not the case that the government is reserving fifty percent seats for roughly fifty percent of the population too? So it is stealing seats from the normative public, the readers of this list, people in good schools and colleges, people whose fathers and mothers and families are generally pretty well ensconced in the upper echelons and who are by and large NOT from OBC communities. The aggrieved party, axiomatically, is non-OBC. Before signing the petition let us clearly state that we are non-OBCs and therefore we oppose it. In the name of India (which obviously is US only), in the name of merit, efficiency and globalisation etc. Nevertheless, we the non-OBCs condemn the government's move to give further benefits to the OBCs. Of course the OBC's dominate the political parties which rule us, in several states. But they are not yet the ruling class. The ruling class, the bureaucrats, the media, the professionals still overwhelmingly hail from the non-OBC classes. Name me one business concern of any value controlled by an OBC. IITs and IIMs are the greatest arenas for the ruling class to reproduce itself. If the government had any gumption in fact it would go ahead and reserve seats for Muslims too. After all IITs and IIMs is where the real perks today lie, and therefore it makes perfect sense to share the cream of our educational achievment with those who are touted to be backward. This does not make it a perfect solution but until we arrive at one we can tinker with the existing hegemonies. And tinkering, unfortunately, is all that we are capable of achieving. I have heard frequent lamentations about the wastefulness of reservations, about the fact that fifty years on we still do not have any single study about the effectiveness or achievments of reservations. But I have never heard any disquiet on the absence of any study detailing how much our society, our civil society, is still dominated by forward castes. Is there an explanation for the fact that nearly ninety percent of Hindi newspaper editors in this country are Brahmins? That nearly eighty percent of the top journalists in every newspaper, tv channel and radio station are either Brahmins or forward castes? I raised a question about the business class earlier, let us study now how many Professors in our universities belong to the backward castes and the few that are there, would they have been there without reservations. Until a utopian Indian state comes before us which is going to give us perfect affirmative action at the primary and grass roots levels and make competition open at the top, we must tinker with the top competition only. It is not just, it is barely affirmative but that is all we have. Thank God for the political class, it is the only class that sometimes seems to speak up for the slum dwellers, the only class that still sometimes seems to favor the peasants and farmers, the only class that still recognises the reality of upper caste hegemony in the country at large. Viva la politicians, down with the upper caste dissenters. Mahmood On 09/04/06, Aaditya Dar wrote: > Please sign the petition at: > http://www.PetitionOnline.com/re225495/petition.html and > forward this mail to your friends, and relatives Thank you for your > cooperation! for more: http://ecosockmc.blogspot.com > --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > The Government plans to increase the quota of reservations from the > already existing 22.5% to 49.5%, in all central universities and colleges. > > This means HALF of the seats would be reserved in the Indian Institute > of Technology (IITs), Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs), All India > Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi University (DU), > Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), national Institute of Fashion Design > (NIFT), > National School of Drama (NSD) and other prestigious institutes. > > The move is based on a Mandal Commission Report, which was commissioned > in 1980, which used pre-independence data (1930s) to pen down the > recommendations! Decades have passed since then. While the 'real' > recommendations were not implemented, only the 27% quota was, to gain > political mileage. The announcement has also been timed just before the > eve of elections, when 5 states are going to polls. > > If this isn't vote bank politics, then what is this? > Will starving farmers stop committing suicide if their son's and > daughter's are granted reservations in IITs/IIMs? > > Why is a Yadav in Bihar is an OBC, but a Yadav elsewhere is not? > > Is India a country where we tend to appreciate mediocrity? > > Who should sign the petition? > > If you are a school student or a student at the university: It cuts > down your chances to get into the above mentioned institutes by 50% > > Or even if you are a concerned citizen. At a time when India is eyeing > a position is the global markets, where we can be proud of the alumni of > the IITs, IIMs... etc to having put India on the world map, do we want to > sacrifice this, and compromise on quality education. Do meritious > students deserve this?? > The law in the constitution on this has already been amended, but still > all hope is not lost. > Its time we raised our voices and stop as my friend termed it 'the rape of > the silent > electorate' > > Sign the petition for your future, for the future of the country. > > -- > AY+IbAA > aadityadar at gmail.com > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe > in the subject header. > List archive: > > > From mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com Mon Apr 10 16:43:55 2006 From: mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com (mahmood farooqui) Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 16:43:55 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Dastangoi in Bombay Message-ID: Dear All, A small, informal show of DASTANGOI-in Bombay...16th April, 7 pm. At Prithvi House. opp Prithvi. With a new partner and new tales And new twists to old tales. best, Mahmood From nangla at cm.sarai.net Mon Apr 10 17:35:22 2006 From: nangla at cm.sarai.net (CM@Nangla) Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 14:05:22 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] A Welcome to Those Who Come Message-ID: <3ff1b7f257246c62bc324708428a8159@sarai.net> A Welcome to Those Who Come by Jaanu http://nangla.freeflux.net/blog/archive/2006/04/07/a-welcome-to-those-who-come-by-jaanu.html Dear All, One always waits for the one who comes. Different people relate differently with those who come - as guests, as friends. And after a few days, the one who comes changes to one who has the capacity to be a host, to welcome others. I think of those who come, as friends. But some friends throw colour on our faces in a way that there is no option but to be smeared by it. When they first come, these "friends" are really our friends, who participate in everything we do. And in this way they become adept at everything we do. They come and roam with us, make their acquaintance with people we know, have known for years. They mingle not only in our lanes, but also in our families. They come for our wedding, show up during small everyday things that need to be done. At this time, we do not know how they are about to do a volte face soon, change their colours like a chameleon. It is difficult to figure out what it is they want. When the lane becomes familiar to them, they slowly start rejecting us. We understand what is going on, but it is difficult to recognise it as it is happening - because they are our friends. They waft into our lives like a dream, a dream that then halts somewhere to fulfill its own dream. One such dream came into our lives. He spread into everyone's hearts and minds, making his place there. The dream would appear during the day as well - he was a day dream as well as a dream that would sleep with us at night as well. It is easy to sleep, but waking up is difficult. But one has to wake up some time... This dream would sit among us while we talked and did our own things, his eyes closed, but ears listening intently. Off and on, some word we said would sting him like a mosquito bite, and he would say, "Where did you bring that word from?" The mosquitoes would buzz for a while, and then become quiet. Then the dream would open a notebook and scribble something in it. This much is easy to take. But then come moments when these dreams desert us while we sleep restfully, assured of its existence. We can then only dream of them. But when we turn over on our cots, the side on which he rested and slept seems empty, and we lie there, fully awake now. One feels lonely, and as if one is alone, but the voice of the dream who had appeared keeps making a wound in the mind. Its a wound that cannot be treated by a doctor or a cream with medicinal properties. One walks the lanes, remembering the days when the dream had accompanied us around. As I walked down a lane one day, a voice stopped me. I looked hard and saw it was the same lane in which I used to take my friend around, introducing him to people. I stopped in the lane and said to it, "He? He has left us now and has gone very far away." The lane replied, "No, that's not true! He was here, just yesterday." I asked, "And when will he come back?" "That is what I have stopped you to ask you...," said the lane. "Listen, when he comes next, do tell me." I knew something was amiss here, but who could I talk to about it? Then a few days later some people who were my own told me, "Your friend has written a letter, that he saw your house from very close." And I realised, that letter was written as if from the bridge that passes from far from my home, high up in the sky from the ground on which my home is. And this is when I realised my "friend", who I had considered close, with whom I dreamed into the lane while roaming in the lanes, had now turned into a stranger. One day I roamed the lanes alone. The lane called out to me again, "There, look! Your friend. There he is, wearing a pair of sun glasses, a green pair of trousers, white checkered shirt, a green bag on his shoulders." As soon as I heard this, I forgot all my complaints and walked up to him and hugged him. That day he again roamed in the lanes with me - with what in his heart, who is to know. But he disappeared again at the bend of a lane, and I went home. After a few hours, he reappeared at our door, and spoke with a loud voice, as if this was his own place, and said, "So friends, what is going on here today?" "Nothing," we replied and gave him a chair to sit on. He took the chair carefully. Maybe it recalled some days past. And then an environment of question-answers formed. "Why do friends desert us?" "Maybe they don't care for you," came the reply. "Then why did he show so much love?" "Maybe he wanted something out of you," came the reply. "Why did he have to show his rejection in a letter to the world?" "Maybe he wanted to leave his mark," came the reply. "Does he want to climb up high without a staircase?" "No, maybe he wants to show his splendour to the world," came the reply. "But how are we to recognise his splendour?" "That is for you to think. You have to judge if he is a diamond or a stone," came the reply. This is a letter, delivered to you by a pigeon. You cannot ask questions of it and demand a response from it. But what you can do, on reading it, is to guage and understand what it is about. warmly, Jaanu Written: March 3rd, 2006 Translated: April 8th, 2006 Translation by shveta at sarai.net CM Lab, Nangla Maanchi http://nangla.freeflux.net http://nangla-maachi.freeflux.net ----------------------------------------------- It quenches the thirst of the thirsty, Such is Nangla, It shelters those who come to the city of Delhi, Such is Nangla. ------------------------------------------------ From nangla at cm.sarai.net Mon Apr 10 21:19:06 2006 From: nangla at cm.sarai.net (CM@Nangla) Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 17:49:06 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Nangla's Delhi, April 09, 2006 Message-ID: <073311a68ac5428d1f23404a825fce3f@sarai.net> Latest on the blog, Nangla's Delhi http://nangla.freeflux.net Also see: http://nangla.freeflux.net/gallery/ ----------------------------------- A Welcome to Those Who Come, by Jaanu 08.04.2006 One always waits for the one who comes. Different people relate differently with those who come - as guests, as friends. And after a few days, the one who comes changes to one who has the capacity to be a host, to welcome others. I think of those who come, as friends. But some friends throw colour on our faces in a way that there is no option but to be smeared by it. (Read whole post) No Sound Allows Itself to Breathe Fully, by Shamsher 07.04.2006 The heat from the sun is melting everything it reaches. Everyone has covered their bodies with light clothes, and are hiding their heads under a parapet, inside a frameless window. The sun has forbidden anyone from venturing out of doors. The streets look empty. One can see faces, but a vacancy is making its place in the lanes. Each breath is muffled. No sound allows itself to breathe fully. (Read whole post) "Documents Mean Nothing", by Suraj 07.04.2006 He was wearing an orange colour shirt – his uniform. He was removing the rubble left over after houses were broken. He has been doing this work for the last seven years. I only had to ask him, “What is it that you do here?” and he started to talk. (Read whole post) Objects, by Jaanu 06.04.2006 [I] A basket woven from bamboo hangs from a nail, on a wall. It is covered by a black plastic, tied to it with a thin rope. The oil stains on the rope recalled what the basket was used for – maybe to contain and carry oily chaat or condensed milk. But today it stands upright because of the support of the wall, it's pride and calmness hanging on the nail. (Read whole post) CM Lab, Nangla Maanchi http://nangla.freeflux.net http://nangla-maachi.freeflux.net ----------------------------------------------- It quenches the thirst of the thirsty, Such is Nangla, It shelters those who come to the city of Delhi, Such is Nangla. ------------------------------------------------ From nithyavraman at yahoo.com Mon Apr 10 23:04:29 2006 From: nithyavraman at yahoo.com (Nithya V. Raman) Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 10:34:29 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] a new leaf is turning Message-ID: <20060410173429.50197.qmail@web38802.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Dear friends, Please check out my blog: theviewfromchennai.blogspot.com posts are intimidating, so i'm hoping to circumvent that here. i'll be updating frequently so check back again soon. warmly, nithya __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From aadityadar at gmail.com Mon Apr 10 17:03:51 2006 From: aadityadar at gmail.com (Aaditya Dar) Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 17:03:51 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Mandal Exposed: Part II In-Reply-To: <20060410080840.523982FD49@p15122045.pureserver.info> References: <20060410080840.523982FD49@p15122045.pureserver.info> Message-ID: name: aaditya dar occupation: student, delhi university city: noida zip: 201303 'Mandal Revisited' is what a news channel had to say after the HRD Ministry's proposal to hike the quota in all central universities to 49.5%; I would, on the other hand, like to refer the Mandal Commission as MC (no! the pun isn't intended, but must say some uncanny resemblance) In this second part of my 'assembled' post I would like to bring some other particulars to light, which should bring a new dimension on how one should view the Committee's Reccommendations. *Who was B.P. Mandal?* B. P. Mandal was an Indian Parliamentarian, who was the chairperson of the Mandal Commission, which was commissioned in 1978 and would change Indian polity for the times to come. Mandal was born in Murho, Madhepura district, Bihar (I think its Bihar, correct me if I'm wrong) He was even a chief minister of Bihar but for only 48 days! It also crucial to point out that Mandals belong to the Yadav caste, which falls into- yes you guessed it right- the OBC category. So is it surprising that an OBC would recommend reservations for his 'fellow brothers' and that too for someone hailing from Bihar, which ever since time immemorial has been a prey to caste politics? The answer is a simple No. Anyhow, moving on- a sneak peek into Mr. Mandal's family background:B.P. Mandal, son of Rash Beharilal Mandal, an extremely wealthy zamindar, who owned acres of land. Villagers said he probably had no idea of how much land he owned! So, this is familiar to us, a wealthy zamindar's son manages to make it to the parliament of India (I'm sure we all know how!) and then comes up with 27% reservations for his kinfolks. At this point let me make it clear, that I am not at all against reservations- 22.5% was sufficient enough- but 49.5%is insanity. But, this post is not a form to express my opinion, let me carry on with revealing certain other interesting facts. And just for the record, when Rash Beharilal Mandal died, B.P. Mandal amongst his other siblings got possession of the countless 'bigas' of land, which he held. *India- Castesim, Politics and everything else* In my earlier post I have made it clear that the Mandal Committee wasn't based on casteism, as argued by many. It worked on 11 indicators to define social backwardness and then group various casts to from the OBC category. It is also argued by many that, in India, land is concentrated in the few hands (10% of rural households control almost 55% of cultivable land while 35.23% own hardly 2.07% of land). Industry too is highly concentrated in the hands of the top business house. The case system still operates. Social and economic power is monopolised by a small proportion of the population. Here I must specify that the analysis made by the commission was based "on the 1931 census which had sought information on the caste status. Secondly, it made a number of questionable assumptions while extrapolating the data available for 1931." Cleary, more than seven decades down the line... if you expect me to believe the above argument, its laughable! The reality is known to all. The elections are around the corner and the UPA cannot do without Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Its vote bank politics all the way. Whats actually being happening is the following: "look at the latest Government ploy of adding new casts to the central OBC lists of eight states. As per the percentage of people living below the poverty line has halved since the implementation of the Mandal report, it should have led to progressive *exclusion* of the beneficiary castes from the OBC list. But defying all logic, the Government has repeatedly enlarged this list, mostly on the eve of elections." *The Law behind reservations* Reservations for the SCs, the STs and the OBCs has been made under article 15 (4) of the Constitution which empowers the state to make any "special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes to citizens of for the SSs and the STs" Also, worthwhile noting is that the Supreme Court judgement (Balaji Vs. State of Mysore and Devadasan Vs. India) had stipulated that reservation of more than 50 per cent would be violative of Article 15 of the Constitution. The 93rd Amendment introduced a *new *clause to the Article 15 of the Constitution "in so far as such special provisions relate to their admission to educational institutions including private educational institutions- whether aided or unaided by the state- other than minority educational institution" This is the biggest concern, as this would mean that any appeal or PIL filed would now be subject to the new law. (I'm not quite sure of this, i treid to use some simple logic. Corrections welcome!) The Supreme Court is the only the defender of the law; while the laws are made in the Parliament. So, while you have been reading this rather long article very patiently you must be wondering, what the hell happened to the Mandal when they were first submitted.As S.S. Gill recalls: it was in December 1980 that members of the Mandal Commsiion, and I as its Secretary trooped into the office of Zail Singh, then Home Minister and presented our report to him. As we come out of the secretariat, B.P. Mandal, our chairman told me, "I know how much labour has gone into the writing of this report. But let me tell you that today we have performed its immersion (visarjan) ceremony." And truly for the next ten years, the report lay in the home ministry's dusty vaults. *Mandal Commission- a summary* So let's get a few things in perspective here- 1970s- A wealthy zamindar's son rises to be a MP, heads a commission and comes up with a couple of recommendations. 1980- The government under the leadership of Indira Gandhi rubbishes the report. 1990- Enter: Mr. V.P. Singh; he open's the Pandora's Box. Picks and chooses the recommendation that would suit him the most. The goal is clear: to gain political mileage, and capture votes. What follows next are a series of protests and self immolations acts.Despitea nation wide protest the quota system is put in place. The result: The government falls in the next elections Move to 2006: The Centre announces to increases reservations to almost 50%. The timing of the announcement perfectly synchronised when the students at IITs, DU and others are busy giving exams; and when five states are going to elections With the constitution amended, law on their side and political parties on one side- the battle lines are drawn. The repercussions? Only time will tell… On 10/04/06, reader-list at sarai.net wrote: > > City: _________________________________________ Zip Code: ________ ... > Complete related essay questions and send this form, together with > supporting ... > City: _________________________________________ Zip Code: ________ ... > Complete related essay questions and send this form, together with > supporting ... > > mailia > > "Aaditya Dar" < aadityadar at gmail.com> wrote: > > MIME-Version: 1.0 > > > >_________________________________________ > >reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > >Critiques & Collaborations > >To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > subscribe in the subject header. > >List archive: < https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> > -- AY+IbAA aadityadar at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060410/46329079/attachment.html From aadityadar at gmail.com Mon Apr 10 17:04:30 2006 From: aadityadar at gmail.com (Aaditya Dar) Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 17:04:30 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Mandal Exposed: Part I In-Reply-To: <20060410080223.D10D62FD49@p15122045.pureserver.info> References: <20060410080223.D10D62FD49@p15122045.pureserver.info> Message-ID: name: aaditya dar occupation: student, delhi university city: noida zip: 201303 There has been a lot of hullabaloo over the proposal of the HRD Ministry to increase the quota in Central Universities and colleges from the existing 22.5% to 49.5%. The current system allows a 22.5% quota for Schedule Casts (SCs) and Schedule Tribes (STs). The government now wants to reserve another 27% for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) increasing the overall reservation to 49.5%. Since a lot of people, were not clear on what exactly the recommendations are, its consequences, the whos and the whats… I did some research on the internet and have come up with the following facts. I attempt to present only the facts in this post; part two of this post would carry a critique of the committee. In my so called 'research' I've tried my utmost best to look into trustworthy, inconvertible and authoritative data. For any questions relating to the accuracy of the material, you could post your comments and I would be glad to elaborate on the links from where I have obtained it. *What was the Mandal Commission?* On 27 December 1978 the Second Backward Classes Commission (2nd BCC) was constituted with B.P. Mandal as Chairman. The Commission reported to the President of India on 12 December 1980. The objectives of the report were to look into the problems which plague the socially and educationally backward classes. In addition to that it was to: To recommend steps to be taken for the advancement of the socially and educationally backward classes of citizens so identified To examine the desirability or otherwise of making provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of such backward classes of citizens which are not adequately represented in public services. The Mandal Commission was *not *based on any arbitrary criteria. It was a parliamentary commission and conducted a very systematic and scientific survey on the following 11 points: *Social* ** 1. Castes/classes considered as socially backward by others. 2. Castes/classes which mainly depend on manual labour for their livelihood. 3. Castes/classes where the percentage of married women below 17 is 25% above the state average in rural areas and 10% in urban areas; and that of married men is 10% and 5% above the state average in rural and urban areas respectively. 4. Castes/classes where participation of females in work is at least 25% above the state average. *Educational* ** 5. Castes/classes where the number of children in the age group of 5 to 15 years who never attended school is at least 25% above the state average. 6. Castes/classes where the rate of student drop-out in the age group of 5-15 years is at least 25% above the state average. 7. Castes/classes amongst whom the proportion of matriculates is at least 25% below the state average *Economic* 8. Castes/classes where the average value of family assets is at least 25% below the state average. 9. Castes/classes where the number of families living in kachcha houses is at least 25 % above the state average. 10. Castes/classes where the source of drinking water is beyond half a kilometer for more than 50% of the households. 11. Castes/classes where the number of the house-holds having taken a consumption loan is at least 25% above the state average. Most arguments that the reservations are not based on economic criteria are thus wrong. This is not to say that I am for reservations. I felt it was important to present 'the truth and nothing but the truth.' *Observations of the Committee:* In its Report, the Mandal Commission observed that whereas in the Class I category of Central Government jobs the share of the SCs and STs was 5.68 % it was only 4.69% in the case of OBCs. For all categories of jobs the shares were 18.79 % and 12.44 % respectively. The implication was that owing to the constitutionally sanctioned reservations for SCs/STs the OBCs were in an inferior position. The Mandal Commission prepared a list of 37435 socially and educationally backward castes (SEBCs). It estimated the figure of OBCs at 52 % of the population. This excludes the SCs/STs, the forward Hindu Communities and non-Hindu Communities. *Recommendations of the Committee:* Since I do not have the exact document in hand, I have relied on an article published by S. S. Gill in the Hindu. The authenticity of neither the writer nor the publisher can be questioned. Mr. S.S. Gill was the Secretary of the Mandal Commission. The article can be seen by clicking here . 1. A 27% reservation for OBCs 2. Structural changes in the land-tenurial system 3. Institutional Reforms for educational and economic uplift of the OBCs *Some unanswered questions * What can a OBC who doesn't have accesses to primary education do with reservations in higher educations? If yes, can we ensure that the 'creamy layer' amongst the OBCS (as pointed by the SC, 1992) will not be the beneficiaries and the real benefits will accrue to the ones who need it the most? Will starving farmers stop committing suicide if their son's and daughetr's are granted reservations in IITs/IIMs? Why is a Yadav in Bihar is an OBC, but a Yadav elsewhere is not? Is India a country where we tend to appreciate mediocrity? At a point where were are competing in global markets, where liberalization, globalization are the words which even a five year old child must have heard of, are we ready to sacrifice quality education? To conclude, it's vital to understand that the Mandal Commission's Report was not incorrect per se. It identified that OBCs had miserable standards of living, and something had to be done to improve that. It exposed the levels of inequality, in a society that claims to be an egalitarian one. But it's the only half hearted implementation of the recommendations to suit political needs, which have created the stir. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060410/bbc5db69/attachment.html From arshad.mcrc at gmail.com Mon Apr 10 20:20:28 2006 From: arshad.mcrc at gmail.com (mohd arshad) Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 06:50:28 -0800 Subject: [Reader-list] Madrasa journals as an important part of the muslim publishing in india Message-ID: <2076f31d0604100750g67d3b7b0xbaf8c3d421f1c474@mail.gmail.com> Madaris Se Nikalnewaley Magazine : Hindustan me Muslim Nashr-o-Isha'at Ka Ik Aham Hissa Hi, (Due to my illness it got delayed to inform you that Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies,Jamia Millia Islamia had organised a workshop on the theme of MUSLIM PUBLISHING IN INDIA on March 31,2006.As the madrasa journals which i'm working on as a Sarai ifellow,constitute an important part of the muslim publishing,the centre had extended me an invitation to speak on the thematic concerns of these journals.A dynamic discussion followed my presentation.Though its Urdu typed in Roman,i'm posting it on the readerlist sothat interested fellows may go through it.Its English translation will soon appear on the list.) Hindustan duniya ki sabse bari jamhuraiyat hai aur musalman yahan ki sabse bari aqalliyat.Mulk ke tool-o-arz me faili hui inki aabadi samaji, iqtisadi, maslaki, siyasi aur ealqaiyat ke etbaar se mokhtalif khano aur khemo me bati hui hain.Jahan tak nashr-o-isha'at ke kaam ka sawal hai, to musalman naashrieen ki bari tadad Urdu literature hi shai karti hai.Urdu matbu'aat ko motey taur par do khanon me banta ja sakta hai: 1. Secular literature 2. Mazhabi literature Secular literature se meri murad aisi matbu'aat se hai jo ilm ki nai shaakhon , science aur samaji uloom se motalliq ho.Urdu me aisa literature napaid nahi to kabyab zaroor hai.Rahi baat mazhabi literature ki to garche aise mauzu'aat par urdu me achha khaasa zakhira mojud hai,lekin ye bhi sirf islam tak mahdood hai. Urdu me jo mazhabi literature shai hota hai uska ik mo'tad bih hissa madaris ki koshishon ka samra hota hai.Madrason ki matboo'at ka qabil-e-zikr hissa wahan se nikalne wale jaridon aur majallon se tashkil paata hai.Mainguzashta do mahine se Sarai nami ik idare ki madad se madrason me bartijane wali is sahafat ke khadd-o-khal neez uske asaraat ke mauzu par tahqiq kar raha hoon.Ab tak ke motale aur daryaft ki raushni me main is madrasa journalism ke hawaley se kutch baaaten aap ke samne rakhna chahunga. Ye yaqin ke saath kahna behad mushkil hai ki Hindustan me fil waqt deeni parchon ki tadad kitni hai, taham agar unki tadad 100 ke aas paas mani jaye to ye koi mobalgha nahi hoga.Chunki deeni madaris ziyada tar shumaali Hindustan me waqe hain,isliye beshtar prache hindusatan ke isi khittey se nikalte hain.Taqriban har qabil-e-zikr madrasa ik parcha khwah wo se-mahi hi kyon na ho,zaroor shaai karta hai. Chunki Hindustan me islam masalik aur makatib-e-fikr me munqasim hai.Isliyemadaris jo ki islam ke in mokhtalif editions ki talimm dete hain,unse nikalne wale parchon ke mashmulaat bhi motalliqa maslak ke ruj'hanaat aur fikri mailanat ke akkas hote hain.Agar har maslak ke imtiyazi masail se sarf-e-nazar kar liya jaye to taqriban tamam deeni parchon ke mawad me kutch khas farq nahi hota hai.Misaal ke taur par agar ham mahnaama Mohaddis ko len jo Jamia Salafia,Vranasi se nikalta hai to is ke san 2002 ke shumaaron par nazar dalne se pata chalta hia ki mazameen ki tarteeb me darj zel pattern ka khyal rakha jata hai: 1. Dars-e-Qur'an 2. Dars-e-Hadees 3. Edariya 4. Halat-e-Hazira par tabsara 5. Jama't ke imtiyazi masail par do-teen mazameen 6. Teen Chaar khalis deeni mazmoon 7. Akabirin ki sawanih 8. Akhbar-e-Jamia 9. Tibb wo sihhat se motalliq Column 10. Babul Fatawa Mohaddis ke ik shumaare me chhapnewale mazamin ki tadad umuman 13 se18 ke darmayan hoti hai.Phla mazmun Dars-e-Qur'an hota hai aur dusra Dars-e-Hadees..Ye dono Mohaddis ke mustaqil column hain.In me columnnigar hazrat bazat-e-khud aayat –o-ahaadees ki tashrih karne aur use ruh-e-asr se marboot karne ki bajae apne maslak ki mo'tabar tafsir aur tashrih ka kutchch hissa naqal karne par iktifa karte hai.Chunki ye tafsiren sadyon pahle likhi gayi hain, isliye apne zamane ke mizaj-o-masail ki aainadar hain. Lihaza ye dono column intihai khushk aur rewayati andaz-e-tahreer ka namuna hote hain Jahan tak edariya ka talluq hai to ise kafi deedarazi aur jigarkavi ke sath tahreer kiya jaata hai.Lekin in me se beshtar edariyon me mulki ya bainulaqwami masail ke bajai deeni mauzuaat ko zere bahas laaya jaata hai.Misal ke taur par san 2002 me Mohaddis ke kutch edariyon ke anaaween yun hain:Hadees ka adabi maqam,sidq-o-amaanat se droghbaf san'at tak,Allah ke ghazab ke asbab,Allah ke madad ke asbab,Islam ka daaimi aalami aalame amn-o-sa'adat,Islam ko kamzor karne ki saazishen,Qaumi ittihad-o-taraqqi ke liye sadr-e-jamhuriya ka misali khitab,Mazaraat aur unko iijaad karne ka fan,Roza mere hi liye hai aur main hi roza ka badla hoon,Inqilab-e-zaman ki ek khushgawar misaal Is fehrist se ayan hai ki editor ne shaz-o-naadir hi musalmnon ke siyasi,samaji ya ma'aashi masail par qalam uthane ki zarurat mahsus ki hai.Wazeh rahe ki san 2002 maujuda sadi ka wo saal hai jisme gujrat fasadat aur iraq par America ki lashkar kashi jaise aham lekin siyah waqiaat runuma huey.Iske bawjud Mahoddis me gujrat ke dangon par koi idariya nahi chhapa Albatta As'ad Azmi ka ik mazmoon July ke shumare me zaroor sha'I hua tha aur bus. Is ke baad ke ek do mazameen haalat-e-hazira ke bare me hote hain aur in me se aksar Dr.Muqtada Hasan Azhari ki qalami kawish ka natija hote hain.Lekinumuman in mazamin me filisteen ya iraq ya kisi aur muslim mulk ke hawale sa amriki policyon ko tanqid ka nishana banaya jaata hai.Istanqid-o-tajziya ka maakhaz 90 fisad keson me arabi akhbar aur risaley hote hain.Amriki nausamrajiyat ke muzmarrat se apne qariyeen ko bakhabar rakhna yaqinan ik qabil-e-tahseen qadam hai lekin agar aisa karte waqt first hand information ki buniyaad par nataij akhaz kiye jain, neez issue ko arab sahafat ke chashme se dekhne ki bajaye ik Hindustani musalman ke noqta-e-nazar se pesh karne ki koshish ki jai to aisa karma Hindustani qariyeen ke liye ziyaada karaamad hoga.Dosri baat ye ki filisteen wagairah ke masail ko barahe rast sirf islam se jorna kis had tak durust hai ,ye bhi bahas talab hai.Meri nazar me,gair mazhabi siyasi jama'aton ke wajud aur unki khidmaat ka sire se zikr hi na karma,ik nihayat pechida aur kasir-pahalavi haqeeqat ko intihai saada aur satahi bana kar pesh karne ke mutradif hai,jo amr-e-waqiya ke khilaf hai.Amrika ke samraji azaimm ke shhikar dosre mamalik maslan Lattini amrika ke mamalik ke zikr se umuman guraiz kiya jjaata hai.Halanki samrajwad harhal me qabil-e-mozammat hai,khwah uska nishana mashriq-e-wusta ke muslim aksariyat wale mamalik ho ya latini amrika ke isai aur socialism ke pairukaron ki aksariyat wale desh. In parchon me mulki siyasat par tabsara karne se umuman gurez kiya jaata hai jab tak ki koi aisa waqia na pesh aa jaye ya koi aisa siyasi faislana ho jaae jiska asar barah-e-rast musalmaanon par raha ho.Basa awqaat aisi surat me bhi ye deeni parchey khamoshi hi ki rah ikhtiyar karte hain jaisa ki gujrat fasadat ke hawale se main ne abhi abhi Mohaddis ke mauqif ka zikr kiya.Lekin kabhi kabhi behad barwaqt aur maalumatafza mazamin ko bhi in parchon me jagah di jaati hai.Misaal ke taur par Mohaddis ke may2002 ke shumarey me ik mazmun POTA ke motalliq shaa'i hua tha.As'ad Azmi ka ye mazmun isnsidad-e-dahshatgardi ke liye banaye gaye is qanun ke taqriban tamam goshon ka ehata karta hai aru is par siyasi jama'aton ke radde amal ki raushni me iske ma-lahu wa ma-alaih par sair hasilbahas karta hai. Lekin is tarah ke mazamin in deeni parchon me shaz-o-nadir hi chhapte hain jo nation-states me bati is duniya ki sab se bari jamhuriyat me basne wali sab se bari aqalliyat ke afraad ki khatir khah rahnumai kar sake. Deeni parchon me samaji rasm-o-riwaj aur jadid rujhanat ko bhi mauzu-e-bahas banaya jaata hai.Jahez, khushi ki taqribaat me fizul kharchi, auraton par gharelu tashaddud waghira aham samaji masail par gahe ba gahe kutch na kutch in parchon me parne ko milta rahta hai.Lekin in mazamin ke usloob-e-istidlal aur tarz-peshkash ke hawale se agar ik do baten malhuz rakhi jaain to in ki efadiyat aur tasir me bepanah izafa ho sakta hai.In mazamin me umuman khalis mazhabi lab-o-lahje me guftagu ki jaati hai. Mazhabi istilah ka istimal apni jagah par bilkul zaruri aur barmahal hai.Albatta in masail ke samaji,iqtisadi aur insani pahlu bhi hain jin ki ahmiyat se inkar namummkin hai.Misal ke taur par ham khushi ke mawaqi par aatishbazi ke barhte huye rujhaan hi ko lete hain.Is mozu par likhte waqt agar iske iqtisadi,tibbi,mahauliyati aur qanuni (supreme court ke ahkammat) pahluwon ko bhi zere bahas laya jai to is se mazmun na sirf comprehensive ho jayega balki iski mauzuniyat aur efadiyat bhi barh jayegi.Mazid ye ki agar qalamkar hazraat sirf library me baith kar tarikh ki kitabon se aslaf ke waqi'aat pesh karne ki bajaye zara samaj me jaaen aur motalliqa mozu se jure hue niz motassir afrad ki rai jaane aur use apne mazmun me jjagah de,fir uski buniyad par nataij akhz karen to zere tahrir mazmun na sirf ruh-e-asr se ham ahang ho jayega bulki uski authenticity bhi doguni ho jayegi. Apni ilmai nash-o-numa ko baqarar rakhne ke liye pabandi se literature review karte rahne ki ahmiyat se inkar namumkin hai.Samaji masail par deeni parchon me sha'e honewale mazamin ke motala se ye tassur milta hai ki qalamkar hazrat nai bahason,ilm ke naye goshon aur tahqiq ke naye manhaj se anjan hain.Misal ke taur par agar ham Mohaddis ke July 2002 ke shumare me chhape article "Islam me aurat ka tahaffuz aur us ki zimmedariyan" ko lete hain.Sab se pahle to main ye arz kar doon ki ye ik aisa mozu hai jis par deeni magazine me likhne wale har qalamkar ne kam se kam ik baar to zarur is par qalam uthaya hoga.Aur taqriban tamam mazamin ke mawad me taqriban 90 fisad yaksaniyat aur takrar hoti hai.Zahir hai ki iski wajah empirical approach ka foqdaan hai kyunki nusus to bahrehal tabdil hone se rahe. Qlamkar Maulana Mohd No'man Salafi ne bhi pahli hi fursat me auraton ko naqisatul aql qarar diya hai aur apne da'we ke sabut me Qur'an ki aayaten aur hadees pesh ki hain.Fir unhen laga ki chunki maghrib hi huquq-e-niswan ka hami wa a'lambardaar hai to unhon ne maghribi danishwaro ke aqwal bhi apni taayeed me pesh kiye.Agar mazmun nigar jins aur feminism ke issue par muslim khawateen maslan Fatima Mernissi,Zoya Hasan wagaira ki tahriron se baakhabar hote to shayad aisa na kahte.Hazrat Aisha ke ilm,Hazrat Khadija ki tajirana salahiyat wagaira ki taujih ke liye shayad mawaqi ki farahmi aur exposure jaise alfaz hi ziyada mauzu honge.Yahan par main jamiatus Salihat,Rampur ki taleemyafta Farzaana Shafaq ka zikr karna chahunga jo filhaal Jamia Hamdard me BUMS ki taliba hain.Jab maine un se Naqisatul Aql ki tashrih pucchi to us ne barjasta kaha:Jitni shariyat aur jo shariyat mard parte hain ham ne bhi wahi aur utni hi parhi hai.To is mamle me hamara ilm barabar hai.Yahan tibbiya ki parai me bhi ham kisi se kam nahi hain aur hamare ache marks aate hain.Pahle jab auraton ko mawaqe nahi milte the tab baat aur thi,lekin ab to surat-e-haal badal gayi hai.Haan jin auraton ko is tarah ke mawaqi nahi mile hain wo albatta naqisatul aql ho sakti hain.". Muslim samaj ke kutcch aise bhi masail hain jin par madrason se nikalne wale parchon mein awwalan to likha nahi jaata hai aur agar likha bhi jaata hai to is se motalliq sirf Qur'an –o-sunnat ki taalimaat ko pesh karne par iktifa kiya jaata hai.,samaji pase manzar me maujuda surat-e-haal ka tajziya kar ke puri tasweer ko manzar-e-aam par nahi laya jaata hai.Caste Hindustani mo'aashrey ka ik aham unsure hai aur jama'aton ki shirazabandi neez qiyadat ke liye hone wali morchabandi me kalidi role ada karta hai.Deeni parchon ke safhaat me ye sawal kabhi nahi uthaya gaya ki agar islam ukhuwwat –o-masawat ka alambardaar hai to ashraf aur azlaaf me bata muslim samaj ke aksar deeni wa siyasi sarbarahon ka talluq unchi zat, jo Hindustani tanazur me khushqismati se upper class bhi hain,se kyon hai.Aakhir arzal musalmanon ke hisse me qiyadat ki baag kabhi kyon nahi aati?Aur ab jab pasmanda musalmaan siyasi,iqtisadi aur saqafati mahaz par apni pakar mazboot bana rahe hain to unki is peshqadmi ko ummat-e-islamiya ke ittihad aur ittifaq ke liye khatra qarar diya jaa raha niz caste ki buniyaad par samaj ki taqsim ko ,jo ki ik zamini haqiqat hai, ghairislami bataya jata hai.Aisa kyon?Ye kutch aise sawal hain jo madraso se nkalne wale parchon me nahin uthaye jaate hain. Har deeni parcha kisi na kisi maslak ka bhi Tarjuman hota hai.Isliye isme sha'e honewale mawad ka ik bara hissa us maslak ke faroi masail ke bare me hota hai .Wazeh rahe ki in masail ka talluq umuman ibadaat ya aqaid se hota hai.Zere bahas mahnama Mohaddis bhi is se achhuta nahi hai.Chunki ye Jama'at- Ahle hadess ke markzi talimi edara se shai hota hai.Isliye is me ahle hadeeson ke faroi masail jaise raf'ul yadain,aamin bil jahr wagaira par hamesha kutch na kutch zarur hota hai.Hindustan ke ahle hadison aur Saudi ulema me bari had tak fikri ham aahangi payi jaati hai.Lihaza Mohaddis me Saudi ulema ki tahreeron ke trajim bhi pabandi se shaa'I hote hain.Misal ke taur par Syed Yusuf Hashim Al Refai, Jo Kuwait ki ik aham siyasi shakhsiyat hain,ne ulama-e-najd par kutch etrazaat kiye the.To Allama Abdul Mohsin Al Abbad ,jo ki Jamia Islamia madina monawwara ke sabiq wais chancellor rah chuke hain ,ne iska tul tawil jawab likha.Is jawab ka tarjuma Mohaddis me 16 qiston me chhapa..Isi tarah tasawwuf ke talluq se ahle hadison ka apna ik khas mauqif hai.Apne is mauqif se ham ahang ik Saudi qalamkar Dr.MohdIbrahim Al Barikaan ke mazmoon ke tarjuma "Tasawwuf Naql wo Aql ki Raushni Me" san 2001 aur 2002 ke 12 shumaro me qistwar chhapne mein Mohaddis ke modir ko koi burai nahi hazar aai.Is se ik baat aur saamne aati hai ki madaris se nikalne wale parchon me qistwaar mazamin sha'I karne ka chalan hai.Aur to aur baz dafa to edariye bhi qiston me chhapte hain halanki Mainstream journalism me qistwar mazameen shaa'e karne se umooman parhez karte hain. Ik aur mustaqil column sawanih ka hota hai jis me jama'at ke sarkarda ulama ka sawanehi khaka pesh kiya jaata hai.Khakanigari ka andaz intihai rewayati hota hai.Mamdooh paidaishi zaheen aur deendar hote hain.Unki tasneefi khidmaat,maslaki hamiyyat aur maslak ki tarvij—o- isha'at me unki khidmaat par khususi roshni daali jaati hai.Mohaddis me ek aur mustaqil column tibb-osihhat se motalliq bhi hai.Is column mein mausam ke taqaze ke motabiq kisi ik mozu par sihhat ki hifazat ke bare me ik mazmun hota hai.Ye mazmun kisi dosre parche se le kar courtesy ke sath chhapa jaata hai.Ye ik accha aur mufid column hota hai. Ek mahine me Jamia Salafia,Varanasi me jo bhi sargarmiya hoti hain uska khulasa qariyeen ke saamne ik mustaqil column me Akhbar-e-jamia ke naam se pesh kiya jaata hai.Lekin madaris ki chahardiwari me kutch aisi sargarmiyan bhi hoti hain,jinka zikr na to is column me aa paata hai aur na hi kisi aur unwaan se unhe madaris se nikalne wale parchon me jagah mil paati hai.Merimurad talaba ke masail,asataza aur digar molazimin ki tankhwah se jure sawal niz asataza,talaba aur intizamiya ke maabain bahami tabqati khashmokash se hai.Aisa nahi hai ki chahardiwari ki andar sirf allah aur rasul ki hi baaten hoti hain kyonki andar ik pura mo'aashra aabad hota hai,tabqat,zaat paat aur ilaqaiyat ke khemon me bata hua mo'aashra.Qiyadat aur sarbarahi ke masle par hone wale ikhtilafat aur uske nataij kisi se dhake chhupe nahi hain.Asataza ko hamesha shikayat hoti hai ki unki tankhwah kam hai.Isi tarah deegar molazimin ki moshahrah bhi kuchch yun hi si hoti hai.Is andaruni siyasat me mohra hamesha talaba hi bante hain.Mazid ye ki system ki saari kharabiyon aur campus me waqe hone wala har nakhushgawar waqia ke liye talaba hi sau fisad zimmedar hote hain.Ye kutch aise chubhte hue sawal hai jin par dini parchon me bahas ki zarurat nahi samjhi jati.Wajah saaf hai ki ulama andruni baton ko awam ke sath share nahi karma chahte hain.Is tarah ghair elaniya taur par wo khud ko awam se alag ik class samajhte hain jiska hissa ik aam musalmaan nahi hai,Ye aur baat hai ki ye madarase awami chandey se hi chalet hain.Goya ki ultimate sovereign se hi haqiqat chhipane ki koshish ki jaati hai.Yahan par mashhoor deeni wa siyasi shikhsiyat Maulana Anzar Shah Kashmiri ke mahnama Mohaddis-e-Asr,Deoband ko main mustasna karne ki ijaazat chahunga. Kyonki mausuf ne apne kutch idariyon me madrase ke" andruni masail " me awam ko bhi sharik karne ki koshish ki hai.( Molahiz ho mahnama Mohaddis-e-Asr,February,2006 me Maulana ka edariya "Madaris ke Masail"). Madaris se nikalne wale jaraid me nai matbu'aat par tabsara bhi chhapta rahta hai lekin ziyadatar zere tabsara kitaben aqaid-o-ebadaat ke mauzu'aat par hoti hain.Neez in kitabon ka ik bara hissa Saudi ulama ki kitabon ke tarjama par mushtamil hota hai.Lihaza yahan par Hindustani ulama ki fikri asalat aur danishwarana contribution ke bare me sawal uthne lagte hain.Yesawal us waqt aur bhi baja aur monasib maalum hote hain jab ik hi shumaare me kisi ik mozu par 7-8mazamin sha'e hote hain.Misal ke taur par Mohaddis November 2002 ke shumare me zakaat se motalliq teen mazamin aur roza ke baare me 7 article maujud hain..Mazid ye ki ik aur bharpur mazmun "Khajoor ke Fawaid" bhi isi shumare ki zinat hai.Yun to roze aur ramzan ke mozu par zakhim zakhim kitaaben mojud hain lekin mudir ke zehn me wazeh hona chahiye ki ik aam rozedaar ko aam haalat me kitni aur kaisi maalumat ki zarurat ho sakti hai.Bahut sare aise mozu'aat hain jo tishana-e-tahqiq hain lekin unpar ab tak kaam shuru nahi hua hai.Ahle hadison ke markazi talimi edarey se sha'e hone wali ik magazine ki haisiyat se Mohaddis me aise features to zarur chhapne chahiye jis se Hindustan me is firqa ke maanne walon ki sahih taadad,unki taalimi surate haal,fi kas maahana wa saalan aamdani ka pata chal sakey. Aam taur se har deeni parche me fatwa ka bhi ik mustaqil column hota hai.Mohaddis me bhi aisa ik colum hai Babul Fatawa jo is ka sab se aakhri column hota hai .Ye column 2-6 safhat par mushtamil hota hai.San2002 me Mohaddis me jo fatwe chhape the unme se sirf ik fatwa sigrate noshi ke bare me tha jab ke baqiya fatawe ebaadat se motalliq the.Ajeeb baat ye hai ki is column se fatwa puchchnewale ke bare me kutch bhi pata nahi chalta.Ye bhi wasuq ke sath kahna mushkil hoga ki ye fatwa waqei kisi puchchey gaye sawal ke jawab me sadir kiye gaye ya ifta committee ne apni sawabdeed ke motabiq awam ki rahnumaai ke liye sawal waza'a kiye aur fir uske jawab diye.Yahanpar Maulana Anzar Shah Kashmiri ka ye qaul pesh karma bemauqa na hoga ki jab sawal nahi aate hain to hum khud sawal garhte hain aur fir uska jawab dete hain taki awam ki rahnumaai ka silsila jari rahe aur unhe sawal karne ka saliqa aa jaye.".(Mausuf ne ye baat mujjh se ik interview me batai thi jis me wo mahnama Mohaddis-e-Asr,Deoband ke editor chief ki haisiyat se bol rahe the).Mujhe ulama ki nek niyati par koi shak nahi hai lekin is se ye baat motanaza fih zarur ho jaati hai ki deeni parchon me chhapnewale tamaam fatwe awam ke deeni ruj'hanat aur tajassus ke akkas hain..Tarze istidlal ke talluq se kutch kahna shayad meri bisaat se bahar ki baat hogi.Albatta yahan par main Jamia Millia se jure ek barguzida islami scholar Proff.Mushirul Haq ke ik mazmun "Fatawa Aur Asri Masail" (Islam aur Asr-e-Jadeed,April1970) se ik iqtibas zarur pesh karma chahunga: "Fatwa literature ka baghaur motala karne par ek aur haqiqat jo ham par munkashif hoti hai wo ye hai ki jun jun ham apne zamaane ke qareeb aate jaate hain,aam taur se Hindustan ke ulema usul-e-Istihsaan ko ghair zaruri samajh kar asri masail ki taraf se sarf-e-nazar karte hue nazar aate dikhayee dete hain.19 wi sadi ke barkhilaf 20 wi sadi ke fatawa me Istihsaan ke bajai fiqhi riwayaat ko ziyada ahmiyat di gayi hai…Bahr-e-haal ifta ki riwayat me ye ikhtilaf ik haqiqat hai jis se inkar nahi kiya ja sakta.Maslanjab awail ….." [Islam aur Asr-e-Jadid,khususi shumara bayaade prof Mushirul haq.vol36.No.2.April2004]. arshad amanullah 35,masihgarh, jamia nagar new delhi-25. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060410/d11f4a48/attachment.html From crd at fondation-langlois.org Tue Apr 11 01:59:03 2006 From: crd at fondation-langlois.org (CRD) Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 16:29:03 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] News from the Daniel Langlois Foundation Message-ID: <641A525B0A2A2540B1DD0A3DE660241C028294F2@exchange.terra-incognita.net> Morning Conference: Saturday, May 27, 2006, 10:30 a.m. at Ex-Centris The Daniel Langlois Foundation for Art, Science, and Technology is pleased to invite you to Voyageurs étonnés, chercheurs et créateurs au seuil de l'inconnu, a conference presented in French by Hubert Reeves, astrophysicist, and his son Nicolas Reeves, an artist and designer who was supported by the Foundation in 1998. The conference also marks the 5th anniversary of the Daniel Langlois Foundation's Centre for Research and Documentation (CR+D): http://www.fondation-langlois.org/matinees/index-en.html Open House: Friday, May 26, 2006, 3:30 p.m., 5:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. To celebrate the 5th anniversary of the Daniel Langlois Foundation's Centre for Research and Documentation (CR+D), we invite you to join us at our Open House. The Centre is open to the public and is dedicated to promoting research and providing information on the arts, sciences, new technology and the environment: http://www.fondation-langlois.org/matinees/index-en.html Survey on the Langlois Foundation Web site and electronic newsletter We are currently conducting an online survey to gather your opinions and comments on our principal communication tools - our Web site and monthly electronic newsletter. The survey results are intended for internal use only. In appreciation, the Foundation will hold a draw for 12 DVD-ROMs of Michael Snow's anarchive 2: Digital Snow. The draw will take place once the survey results have been compiled. The winners will be contacted by e-mail: http://www.fondation-langlois.org/e/survey/ From foryou2005 at gmail.com Mon Apr 10 15:28:53 2006 From: foryou2005 at gmail.com (BHAVYA SRIVASTAVA) Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 02:58:53 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] Roaring of nepali mass in New delhi? Message-ID: It was a dark hot day in Delhi.The ramleela maidan of the rajdhani is brimming with mass, the people are gathering there for a loud cry.TheMonarchy will be ousted.The near 20 thousand crowd in Ramleela maidan was gathered to show red signal to the monarchy.Actually the suppression of common man, journalist, politician is on the high.The people of Nepali Kingdom are always as cool as the Himalayas.But when democracy gave him right to live and work, they communicate the meaning of freedom.Since the king imposed emergency and carry the administration power in his hand the mass and class is become united to relinquish him.King Gyanendra and Paras are always has a image of perpetrator of democracy.When the twenty thousand some crowd attend the Anti monarchical rally, which is organised by seven unions of Nepal movements, the sentiments are clear.They want to retain their democracy. The rally was proposed from Jantar mantar to Ramleela maidan,but evening before the rally the administration didn't allow this broad mass to cry at jantar mantar.So the organisers manage in Ramleela maidan, actually from last few days there was also a spiritual and religious programme was running.So the organisers has pay some charges to the programme organisers for the available tent. Well the seven parties and the main organiser Laxman ant manage all tits bits for a well popular mass appealing rally.Actually the whole exercise can be a good dictum.From last three days (6-9 march) in Nepal there were strike and suppression going on.The rally was a face to oppose the monarchy and cautions the King that India is with only democratically rights. CPI M leader Sitaram yechury was there, he spell some fire and crowd get the message that the Indian government has with them. But very sadly to state the Indian media is not there.I search and got only BBC(from the morning),CNN-IBN(around 1 pm )India TV(12 noon)ETV(12:30 pm)Hindu(from the starting) are there.The popular media was not there to cover democracy resistance. The rally was a lesson and have a faith call too.Nepali brothers and sisters are inevitable part of India.They see India as a big brother.And this rally shows that they believe in Indian Democracy.That is the message I got Bhavya Srivastava Journalist 09811150743 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060410/518b011d/attachment.html From nc-agricowi at netcologne.de Mon Apr 10 13:47:42 2006 From: nc-agricowi at netcologne.de (NetEx) Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 10:17:42 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] SoundLAB: call for soundart Message-ID: <443A14A6.6050604@netcologne.de> SoundLab: call for soundart http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=8&cat=54 *deadline 30 June 2006 ******************************* **Soundlab* http://soundlab.newmediafest.org is invited to launch its 4th edition in the framework of the Cologne based soundart event KlangDrang Festival www.klangdrang.org 6-7 October 2006 and be part of the interactive media exhibition by [R][R][F]2006--->XP - http://rrf2006.newmediafest.org on the same occasion. . --->Call for submissions . SoundLab is looking for soundart works of a) experimental character b) electronic music c) Voice -sound/music integration d) and other forms . Theme : "Memoryscapes" based on the subjects: ---> "memory" and "identity" . The submission has to be posted on a webpage for download, please do not send it as an email attachement. Submission format: .mp3 Size: Max 5MB, exceptions possible, but on request. . The authors/artists keep all rights on their submitted works. . Deadline 30 June 2006 Please use this form for submitting: ************* 1.name of artist, email address, URL 2. short biography/CV (not more than 300 words) 3. works (maximum 3), year of production, running time a) URL for download 4. short statement for each work (not more than 300 words each) . Confirmation/authorization: The submitter declares and confirms that he/she is holding all author's rights and gives permission to include the submitted work in "Soundlab" online environment until revoke. Signed by (submitter) . Please send the complete submission to soundlab at newmediafest.org subject: Soundlab edition IV . *Deadline 30 June 2006 Alternatively the call & entry form can be also found on http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=8&cat=54 ************************** editions I - III of SoundLab - can be found on SoundLab Channel/Memory Channel 7-->at [R][R][F]2006--->XP http://rrf2006.newmediafest.org via the artistic body or separately also via http://rrf2006.newmediafest.org/schannel.htm or http://soundlab.newmediafest.org ******************************** Released by NetEX - networked experience http://netex.nmartproject.net powered by [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne www.nmartproject.net - the experimental platform for art and New Media operating from Cologne/Germany. . info& contact info (at) nmartproject.net _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From pukar at pukar.org.in Tue Apr 11 09:50:05 2006 From: pukar at pukar.org.in (PUKAR) Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 09:50:05 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [announcements] PUKAR Youth Fellowship Programme: Call for proposals Message-ID: <001e01c65d1f$37c00be0$0fd0c0cb@freeda> PUKAR Youth Fellowship Programme Are you a resident of Mumbai? Are you interested in research on Mumbai? Are you a young person or like to work with young people in a participatory manner? If your answer to the above questions is YES, then PUKAR HAS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU! Whether you plan to be a researcher or a teacher, go into a business or join the stock market, open your own shop or find a job, we believe this programme would add skills that are important for YOU at any workplace. It would cultivate methodical thinking and critical analysis and encourage the spirit of questioning established norms. It would add value to your already existing capabilities by developing your capacity to assert and negotiate. As author of the research you would have the right to publish your work with acknowledgement to PUKAR. Please scroll down for details. PUKAR Invites Proposals for the Youth Fellowship Programme PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action and Research) is an independent research-action organization that hopes to contribute to the global debate on urbanization and globalization. Founded in 2001 by Professor Arjun Appadurai, PUKAR makes constant efforts to create a common forum for debate over issues that impact the lives of the citizens. In these debates, PUKAR makes every effort to seek active participation of Mumbai's citizens in imagining and planning the future of this vibrant mega-city. PUKAR develops collaborative projects that initiate new knowledge production and aims to contribute to the city's dynamism and sustainability. With support from the Youth & Civil Society Initiative of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT), PUKAR launched the Youth Fellowship Programme in 2005. This program seeks to · Encourage youth in Mumbai Metropolitan Region to explore social, cultural, economic and political aspects of their neighbourhood · Develop innovative research techniques with PUKAR's assistance · Generate research-action projects that in turn, will generate new methods of inquiry · Help the youth develop critical analysis and new perspective regarding their locality and community · Inculcate values of community participation and generate new ideas for practice /intervention · Build confidence in the participating youth to negotiate the city in more self-assured manner · Help the youth become actively contributing citizens for the city The Youth Fellowship Programme will essentially consist of groups of eight to ten youth with one person acting as a "Senior Fellow" in each group. Each group will work on a research theme over a period of one year. Specific Responsibilities of the Group: 1 Develop a research question, in a participatory manner: July - August 2006. 2 Study various methodologies and choose the appropriate one for the data collection/field work: September 2006 3 Create individual biographies as well as group biography: September 2006 4 Data collection by various methodologies: To be completed from October 06-January 07 5 Analysis and synthesis of the data collection: February - March 07 6 Preparation of second set of biographies and end product: April - May 07 7 Presentation of the final analysis: June 07 Accountability for the Senior Fellow as well as the Group: 1 Meet once a week for the first three months and later every other week for every month. 2 Organize meeting of the group with PUKAR Coordinators once every two months. 3 Submission of regular narrative and financial reports. 4 Attending the workshops organized for the groups, those for the senior fellows and those for the youth fellows. 5 Organize six community events during the period of the fellowship. Research Grant: Each group will receive a research grant of Rs 5000 p.m. payable at trimester intervals. The Research Grant can be used for: · Transportation / visits · Printing and copying costs · Purchasing materials / equipment for presentations · Other activities We would appreciate receiving your proposal by April 30, 2006. It can be sent via email to: youthfellowship at pukar.org.in Or post it to: PUKAR Youth Fellowship Programme C/O PUKAR 1-4 Kamanwala Chambers PM Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001 Telephone: 56053599 You are welcome to get in touch with us to develop your ideas before sending in your proposal. Thank you for your time. We look forward to hearing from you. Best Regards, Anita Patil-Deshmukh Director, PUKAR Translations of this letter will shortly be available in Marathi. Should you need one, please write to us with your request. Frequently Asked Questions What is a Research Question? We define Research as search for new information and understanding by the youth group on any question about their own life, employment, locality, social traditions, cultural traditions, livelihood securities or anything else that they would like. PUKAR's broad area of concern is Mumbai. Any proposal that engages with the city is eligible for consideration. You are welcome to get in touch with us to develop your ideas before sending in your proposal. Some of the themes that we supported in the first year of the programme are listed below. 1 Portrayal of handicapped in the media 2 Violence on the screen and in real life 3 Home industries and their impact on lives of families 4 Microfinance and women 5 Alcohol Addiction in the community and role of AA Who is a Senior Fellow? 1 The Senior fellow is any individual taking on responsibility for the project and the youth group 2 She/he should have an interest in research. We encourage people from non-academic as well as academic backgrounds to apply 3 There is no age qualification for the Senior Fellow. She/He can be a member of the Youth group as well. Who can apply as a Senior Fellow? 1 Is resident of Mumbai 2 Is connected with youth in some capacity 3 Any youth group with a creative idea is welcome to approach us in order to develop a research project. Anyone from the group can be identified as a Senior Fellow for the project 4 Individuals with an aptitude for participatory research and project idea but without a youth group may apply as long as they are able to form a youth group by the end of June, 2006 Who Could Be a Youth Group? 1 Students from colleges 2 Members of sports groups 3 Self employed or unemployed youth in the neighbourhood 4 Members of various "mandals" 5 Group of friends who may be interested in a particular theme or a subject 6 Workers from the unorganized sector, from unlettered world. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060411/b92e7d49/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From mail at shivamvij.com Tue Apr 11 17:31:52 2006 From: mail at shivamvij.com (Shivam) Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 17:31:52 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Mandal Exposed: Part I In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <210498250604110501t3c35d88rc9a1bc27caaa87bc@mail.gmail.com> There are more than enough seats for all higher education students in the country. Be it engineering or medicine or management or plain old BA courses, there are more than enough seats in this country. Why then are the anti-reservation alarmists painting a picture that some general category people will go without an education? If you read this: http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web2196523711Hoot122711%20AM1229&pn=1 and this: http://www.countercurrents.org/dalit-vij061204.htm you will know more or less why I support reservations in principle: I've seen how caste prejudice works and I have seen how reservations help. There is this whole one-point facetious argument of merit. In my college 22 or so per sent seats are reserved for Christian students. Fair enough: the college was established by Christian missionaries and wishes to preserve its Christian character. As a result I have Christian classmates who got much less marks in their Class 12 exams than I did. But many of them are performing much better in their academics than I am. Quotas and the issue of merit is much more complicated than what it is being made out to be. Quota doesn't mean that an absolute nutcase is going to sit in an engineering class. It means that a student with 65% marks could be studying in a class with a student who got 95%. To say that the two can't co-exist is absurd. The media has coined a corny title for this one - Mandal II. In the last post Dilip has already mentioned media bias in the coverage of the issue. I've been getting all kinds of sms-es from friends in Delhi University: gather here for protest, gather there for protest. NDTV has promised support. Sahara has promised support. And then an sms said that Aditya Sarma (a III Maths student of Hans Raj College) is on a hunger strike and may immolate himself soon. I wonder if Mr Sarma is planning to contest Delhi University Students' Union elections next year. That's what Rajiv Goswami had done after attempting to immolate himself in 1990. Goswami finally succumbed to health problems in 2004. Do you see the irony here: by the time his immolation killed him, Shining India had arrived. The picture they had painted in Mandal I - that 'we' will be left unemployed, uneducated - is the last thing you see today. If Aditya Sarma does immolate himself, all those of you igniting this false frenzy - all the bloggers and editors and the chai-shop gossipers - you will be responsible for it. Lastly, all those opposing "Mandal II" should tell us whether they are non-OBC. Upper castes are no doubt meritocratic (which is why sons inherit fathers' businesses), and they are no doubt oblivious to caste (just see the matrimonial pages), but there is the hint of vested interest here. And if you are opposing reservations because admissions will become tougher for you, you won't get the point of affirmative action anyway. Lastly, as an aside, will you believe me that I have met Mandal? No, not Justice BP Mandal but Ashok Mandal. He is a rickshaw puller in Delhi University and hails from Murho in Madhepura. Just where Justice Mandal came from. From hight at 34n118w.net Wed Apr 12 02:36:22 2006 From: hight at 34n118w.net (hight at 34n118w.net) Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 14:06:22 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] ensight......artworks from raw scientific data Message-ID: <50833.70.34.212.67.1144789582.squirrel@webmail.34n118w.net> +++ enSight - transforming raw data into art +++ An innovative multimedia art exhibition, charting the evolution from raw science data into works of art in collabotations between researchers and artists from around the world. On display is a series of "triptychs" made up of a raw science image, an artist's initial reaction, and the final work arising from their dialogue. enSight blurs the boundaries of science and art, of observation and interpretation... Be part of the experiment! Opens: this Thursday 13th April 2006 until 18th April Hours: 15:00-20:00 Venue: enSight gallery, 51 Home St, Tollcross, Edinburgh (opposite the Cameo Cinema) Included in the exhibit are works by: Sarah Afzal Patrick Blaeser Francesca Bray Claire Dufresne Andy James Farnell Saskia Gavin Jeremy Hight David Hutchison Aimee Lax Jessica McClelland Cathy Stobo From abhinanditamathur at gmail.com Wed Apr 12 14:36:31 2006 From: abhinanditamathur at gmail.com (abhinandita mathur) Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 14:36:31 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Narmada Action Alert Message-ID: <19aa1b810604120206o23a4a4d8me34326be79b8acf5@mail.gmail.com> Dear all Your support and solidarity means a lot in this time of struggle. Please distribute this mail to friends and the networks you know to get more supportive action. Thanks, Maju Varghese NARMADA ACTION ALERT April 12, 2006 Current Status: · The indefinite hunger strike by Medha Patkar and 4 other colleagues continues for the 14th day, in spite of arrest and hospitalization of Medha Patkar and Jamsingh bhai. Their health is deteriorating quickly, and our urgent action is critical. · Team of 3 Union Ministers visited the Narmada valley on April 7th to assess the rehabilitation situation. Independent observers have reported that the Ministerial team was faced with numerous complaints about rehabilitation, and many families who got uncultivable land or only cash compensation. Even at the sites recommended by the officials, they found there were no water, no electricityno sanitation, incomplete houses and no land for cultivation. · However, after nearly 4 days, they haven?t made a public report yet! We need to pressure the ministers and the Prime Minister to make a true report of what they observed, and take action based on that! Immediate Action Required: · A Flood of Phone calls and faxes to the Prime Minister, Sonia Gandhi, and the 3 ministers, Saifuddin Soz (Water Resources), Meira Kumar (Social Justice!) & Prithviraj Chauhan (PM Office) · Letters to Editors of major newspapers · Those of you in Delhi could go to the respective Ministries and urge immediate action! Phone Numbers, fax numbers and email addresses given at the end. Talking Points: · Ministers should immediately issue public report, and the report should reflect the exact truth of what the rehabilitation situation they saw. - Why are they delaying? What was the purpose of their visit if they are not ready to share their report?- They had promised to get back with some action by April 9th, and only then Medhaji will consider withdrawing the hunger strike. This was Medhaji?s public stance. · Dam construction should be immediately halted.- Until rehabilitation is ensured meeting the full norms as prescribed by the Supreme Court, how can the construction happen? That is a violation. - Water Resources Minister Mr. Soz is the chairman of Narmada Control Authority, and he has the authority to not permit the increase in height. Certainly the Prime Minister has the authority! - On the day after the go-ahead was given by NCA on March 11th, Mr. Soz told the press, ?"I am not at all satisfied with the resettlement and rehabilitation of the project-affected families... The clearance given by the resettlement and rehabilitation sub-group of the Narmada Control Authority to raise the dam height was premature.? How can he not take action? · Medha Patkar and Jamsinghbhai should be released from the confinement, so that they can interact with the public and media. - Even the British did not arrest and whisk away Gandhiji when he was on fast! - Is the government afraid that if the public and media witness Medha?s fast, they will have to face the anger of the public? Contact Information >From India: Use STD code 011 From abroad: Use (international dialing code)91-11- · Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh Office: 23012312, 23013149, 23019545, 23016857 (Fax) Home: 23018939, 23018668, 23015470, 23015603 (Fax) Parliament: 23017660, 23019817, 23014255 (Fax) · Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, leader of UPA, governing coalition Office: 23014481, 23012656, 23018651 (FAX) · Prof. Saifuddin Soz, Minister of Water Resources Office: 23714663, 23714200, 23710804 (Fax) Home: 23782032, 23782034 · Mrs. Meira Kumar, Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Office: 23381390, 23381001, 23381902 (Fax) Home: 26910618, 26910639 · Mr. Prithviraj Chauhan Office: 23010191, 23013719, 23017931 (Fax) Home: 23013132, 23017839 (Fax) Parliament: 23034963 Email Addresses of PM & Ministers manmohan at sansad.nic.in; ssaif at sansad.nic.in; secywel at sb.nic.in chavanprithviraj at sansad.nic.in Letters to the Editor editbombay at hindustantimes.com; editbombay at hindustantimes.com editor at expressindia.com; editor at expressindia.com toieditorial at timesgroup.com; toieditorial at timesgroup.com asianage at vsnl.com; asianage at vsnl.com decnet at blr.vsnl.net.in; decnet at blr.vsnl.net.in editor at the-week.com; editor at the-week.com editor at gujaratsamachar.com; editor at gujaratsamachar.com letters-bombay at express2.indexp.co.in; letters-bombay at express2.indexp.co.in outlook at outlookindia.com; outlook at outlookindia.com observer at bom3.vsnl.net.in; observer at bom3.vsnl.net.in thestatesman at vsnl.com; thestatesman at vsnl.com starmail at vsnl.com; starmail at vsnl.com editor at tribuneindia.com; editor at tribuneindia.com htedo at giasdl01.vsnl.net.in; htedo at giasdl01.vsnl.net.in pioneer at del2.vsnl.net.in; pioneer at del2.vsnl.net.in uni_editorial at hotmail.com; uni_editorial at hotmail.com expressindiaweek at aol.com; expressindiaweek at aol.com ttedit at abpmail.com ;ttedit at abpmail.com editor at deccanherald.co.in; editor at deccanherald.co.in letters at thehindu.co.in; letters at thehindu.co.in frontline at thehindu.co.in; frontline at thehindu.co.in From s0454533 at sms.ed.ac.uk Wed Apr 12 16:00:39 2006 From: s0454533 at sms.ed.ac.uk (A Khanna) Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 11:30:39 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] suck my nation - spatialisation in queer identity (with apologies to ascencio, form whom i steal the title) Message-ID: <20060412113039.36ynl2ctssg0gwo0@www.sms.ed.ac.uk> Hi all, this is my third posting on my project 'zara hut ke', on queer space and queering spaces. Apologies again for the long silence. I am writing immediately after three significant moments, perhaps three highlights, of my year of fieldwork. One of these was a large meeting of queer activists from around the country. Another was the beginning of a dialogue between the queer movement and health activists. The third was an interesting tunr in the dialogue on sexuality in Lucknow. And although there has not been much development in terms of the queer space i want to set up in Delhi, much that has happened in these three events relates to my concern with the relationship between space, sexuality, the constitution of 'community', and the negotiation of identity. Thus far, for the large part, my postings have explored ways in which spaces are sexualised. In this posting i shall look at things a little differently. Here i am concerned with the how the queer movement imagines itself spatially. the posting may come across as a ramble at times, but that's the confused way in which things stand in my mind... For the purpose of clarity i shall peg this posting around three ideas - the 'local', the 'national' and the 'global'. My intention is to explore the ways in which these ideas come to be used politically, and thus to open up ways in which to examine how their parameters, or boundaries come to be re-defined in the process. As such, the question is as much what these ideas 'do' as it is about what they are. The 'local' and the 'national' in earlier postings i have referred to the recent case in Lucknow where four men were arrested in a false case under section 377. even while 'local' groups got into action, the news reached the queer activist communities across the country through the internet. Within days a team consisting of queer activists from bangalore, bombay and baroda got together to carry out a fact-finding, the report of which was then circulated widely and used as a document for protests and press conferences in at least delhi, bombay, calcutta, bangalore, mysore. At the same time, protest was registered by 'international' queer and human rights groups, and by 'local' groups in Nepal, within days. As such, almost immediately, the case emerged as a significant rallying point for sexuality rights activism 'locally', at 'national' and 'international' levels. In each of these contexts, the case evoked different concerns and brought about distinct modes of political action. Around this time i found myself in Lucknow, following up the case. One of the objectives of the visit was to check out the scope for bringing this case to have implications for queer activism at the 'national' level. This was seen important as the case provided an opportunity to clearly negate the government of india's claim in the public interest litigation in the delhi high court, that Section 377 is not used against consenting adults. In other words, here was a case that would be invaluable to the 'larger' fight against Section 377. it was important, thus, for the 'national', and even the 'international' to make claims to the case. What i found was, of course, that things were much more complicated. First, was the question of whether the men who had been arrested would be willing to lend their experience to activism, the the 'larger cause'... Having faced a concerted attack by the media, and having been 'outed', lost jobs and having faced resistance from their communities and families, they were understandably hesitant to bring the gaze of the media back on themselves. Second, one of the Lucknow based NGOs, that has faced persecution at the hands of the Lucknow police in the past had good reason to believe that the police were attempting to use this case to entrap them yet again. And significantly, the only way in which the men who had been arrested were contactable, was through this NGO – it being the only recognisable queer group that was offering them services and support in this moment of crisis. Other 'local' groups looked at the case as a reflection of a failure to carry out activism around sexuality 'locally'. A longer process of dialogue on sexuality, marginalisation and rights was seen as the next point of action. As such it was clear that in order for the case to become a point of 'national' level activism, there needed to be a series of difficult and complex negotiations with the local political materiality. The response of the queer movement to a homophobic murder is Shillong further articulated the complexity of the disjuncture between the 'local' political materiality and the 'national' struggle against marginalisation on the basis of sexuality/gender non-conformity. Soon after the news of the murder was posted on an e-group (interestingly, by an australian HIV/AIDS activist who has done some work in the north-east of india) the question was whether another fact-finding team should be brought together. The immediate response of a large number of people, especially those who have worked in meghalaya in the past, was that this was that we do not know enough about the reality of being queer in the area. Discussions with civil society activists from Shillong further brought about a sense of hesitation. The area where the murder took place, it was suggested, is a hotbed of a particular 'chauvanism' where the requirement of the gender performance is the basis for much harassment of those who do not fit the (locally constituted) idea of 'masculinity'. At the same time it became clear that there is a substantial queer community in the area that is engaged in some amount of activism and community building. It was also suggested that there is a class disjuncture between this community of activists and the queer folk in the particular neighbourhood where the murder took place. In short, there was a recognition of a series of complex negotiations of queerness in the area that the 'national' movement was yet to understand. The political viability of a fact-finding was thus brought into question. There was something very interesting about the discussions around possible actions in the Shillong case. Activists from Shillong had suggested that the most significant problem in attempting a fact-finding would be that a 'national' team would visibly by a group of 'outsiders' – this fact again needed to be seen in the context of 'local' politics of self-determination and identity. First, 'we' outsiders would have difficulty in getting information, in collecting 'facts'. Second, a group of 'outsiders' coming 'in' could raise problems for local queer folk. This issue came to be articulated as a question of the politics of location – an 'insider-outsider' dichotomy. This raised a significant question. even if we are 'outsiders' in terms of 'ethnicity', we are 'insiders' in terms of being queer. And those facing threats, while being 'insiders' in terms of ethnicity, are marginalised on the basis of their sexuality/gender non-conformity. The politics of location was thus partially 'dislocated' from its grounding in geography and ethnicity, bringing an articulation of the multiplicity of processes of identification and of marginalisation. What is most interesting to me in these two situations is that the relationship between the spatial categories of the 'local' and the 'national', and of the questions of identity, came to be framed in ethical terms – is it ethically sound for 'us' to attempt to articulate these cases as examples of the complex 'social life' of Section 377, and of violence against queer folk, when so clearly, the local political dynamic did not allow for such action? And from a different perspective, was it right for us to hesitate in intervening in situations of violence against people like us, on the basis that we stood outside the 'local' dynamic? the sense of frustration in these cases was tangible and significant. Consider the fact that the high court of delhi rejected the petition on the grounds that no one was 'affected' by the provision, that it was an 'academic question' – basically that the ways in which the impact of the provision was articulated in the petition did not fit the boundaries of the the idea of 'victimhood', or perhaps, the idea of the 'worthy victim'. We are thus constantly pressed to prove that we are 'victims' of the law – this in terms of arrests and 'human rights violations' as they are articulated in Supreme Court judgments. The case in Lucknow articulates the problem of Section 377 in a manner that the courts cannot ignore, where we do not need to put the effort into proving that the socio-cultural affects of the provision do in fact amount to human rights violations, and we can't do activism around the case or bring it to bear on the legal contestations because the 'local' is not ready. Similarly, the case in Shillong is one that places beyond doubt that 'homophobia' is a reality that queer folk have to constantly negotiate. And perhaps more significantly, the sense of frustration in not being able to provide an effective response, or at least tangible support to queer folk facing violence. A significant outcome of these cases has been that they have given rise to a series of discussions on the creation of 'national networks' that could more effectively respond to cases of violence, displacement and marginalisation on the basis of sexuality and gender non-conformity. The question, perhaps, is as much about creating mechanisms of representation – whereby, a 'national network' could speak of, for and to 'local' realities, as it is about creating mechanisms of effective response. In other words, these cases have given rise to reflexive practices where identity and sense of self and community are mediated, in part, by spatial imaginaries. The 'global' and the 'national' a similar, yet significantly distinct situation comes to be in the context of the idea of the 'global'. Let me explain. the most commonly voiced objection to social movements concerned with sexuality, and with same-sex desire in particular is that they talk of something 'western', something apparently alien to 'Indian culture'. This has in the past been the basis for violent attacks carried out by the hindu right-wing, (for example, when the Shiv Sena attacked theatres screening the film Fire). It has also been the basis on which, earlier the NDA government, and more recently, the UPA government have refused to accept that Section 377 violates basic fundamental rights granted to all citizens by the Constitution. The argument is that 'Indian society does not approve of homosexuality', and therefore, that 'these people' cannot be given basic rights of equality, life and freedom of expression. That is to say, our claims to rights, to 'citizenship' have had to engage and contest a nationalist imaginary of the 'indian self'. And this contestation is not limited to the upper-caste hindu-nationalist network. For the longest time, this has been a significant aspect of the discursive context within which we have engaged left-leaning groups and the women's movement. This is perhaps the reason why we tread carefully in moments of self-representation – be it with the media, or at events we organise. An interesting discussion took place, for instance, when we were exploring possible events around the visit of a European law professor. The question was whether he could be called upon to be a part of a panel at a jan sunwai. The question was this – given that this would be public event where we were calling upon a group of 'experts' to comment on the validity of Section 377, would it prudent for us to have a non-Indian, western face on the panel. One of the arguments that i found most compelling at this juncture was exactly that even if this person was not 'Indian', he was gay – why were we prioritising one identity over another and were we not playing into exactly that obsession with the 'nation'? And should we not be instead pointing out the hypocrisy of surrendering control over the economy to the US government and the WTO while arguing against 'homosexuality as a western evil'? This opens up a series of questions - To what extent does an identification with histories of the gay rights movement in Europe and America – critical events such as the Stonewall riots, for example, i.e., a claim to a global form, enable certain imaginaries of individual and collective ‘selves’ in urban India? In other words, how do aspects of ‘globalness’ enable/regulate articulation of forms, and conversely, how is ‘globalness’ itself articulated in the emergence of forms? And how does 'globalness' engage and contest other aspects of the 'form' – the regional, the ethnic, the linguistic, gender, caste, religion...? this speaks to a range of concerns in the study of post-coloniality. And this is one direction that my future research shall focus on. Hope this has been interesting and will raise questions. until next time, then akshay From geert at desk.nl Wed Apr 12 18:00:47 2006 From: geert at desk.nl (geert lovink) Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 14:30:47 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Asian Cyberfundamentalism (Amsterdam, April 18) Message-ID: INVITATION ASiA, IIAS, Leiden University and Waag Society organize Cyberasia Part 2: Asian Cyberfundamentalism Tuesday April 18, 20.00 – 22.00 hrs Waag Society, Nieuwmarkt 4, Amsterdam Entrance: free Language: English Livestream: http://connect.waag.org The Dutch National Bureau for Intelligence and Security (AIVD) has recently declared the Internet to be a major force behind the emergence of religious fundamentalism in society, and indeed, radical religious groups around the globe eagerly employ new technologies to recruit new members, advocate their views and attack perceived enemies. Is this caused by, or at odds with, the perceived open and liberating character of the Internet? Is the AIVD’s anxiety towards the Internet perhaps rooted in an official dystopian view of new technologies as media that proliferate messages in an uncontrollable fashion? Of course, counterforces emerge as well, so is the medium itself of particular importance? Does the Internet change religion, and religion change the Internet? Starting from case studies of the fervent use that Hindu and Muslim fundamentalists make of the Internet, Asian Cyberfundamentalism focuses on these developments. Indian Internet activist Harsh Kapoor, Malyasian political scientist, academic and human rights activist Farish Noor and Dutch anthropologist of religion Peter van der Veer will discuss the fundamentalist uses of cyberspace and search for possible counterforces. This evening is moderated by Patricia Spyer from Leiden University and will present a unique view on the religious uses of the Internet, and provides a platform to discuss possible tactics of resistance, either online or offline. Cyberasia is a series of three seminars that brings together Asian activists, academics and industry pioneers to reflect on contemporary political, religious and playful uses of new technologies. Together, they showcase the current state of Internet affairs in Asia, opening up a unique meeting ground beyond the “Western” world. The previous seminar of March 29 focused on the political uses of the Internet, while the third and last session on May 10 deals with Asian Cybergames. The Speakers: Dr. Farish (Badrol Hisham) Ahmad has been researching and writing on the phenomenon of political Islam and transnational religio-political and educational networks for several years. His research looks at the transnational networks and linkages between modern Islamic universities in Southeast and South Asia, raising questions about the concept of Islamic modernity as well as its global-political implications. Dr. Noor’s activist-related work and writings have focused on the issues of human rights, press freedom, the debate on secularism and democracy, as well as gender issues. Dr. Harsh Kapoor is a renowned Indian Internet activist, engaged in the defence of democracy and tolerance in South Asia. Initially trained as a sociologist, he has been interested in social implications of new technologies and their democratic use. He has helped set up the South Asia Citizens Web; a Web site that provides visibility to dissenting opinions from within South Asian civil society. He has also helped set up South Asians Against Nukes, a citizen's platform on the Net. Prof. Dr. Peter van de Veer is university professor at the University of Utrecht and has published widely in the field of religion and nationalism in India, his current research focuses on the societal role of spirituality in India and China. Prof. Dr. Patricia Spyer is professor of sociology and anthropology of contemporary Indonesia at Leiden University and specializes in the study of the role of old and new media in the processes of reformation in Indonesian society. For reservation: reserveren at waag.org For more information: Dr. Jeroen de Kloet (moderator, IIAS) b.j.dekloet at uva.nl Livestream: http://connect.waag.org IIAS: www.iias.nl Asian Cyberfundamentalism is part of the project 'Towards a culture of open networks' this lecture is being produced with the support of the European Union's EU-India Economic Cross Cultural Programme. From arshad.mcrc at gmail.com Thu Apr 13 19:26:46 2006 From: arshad.mcrc at gmail.com (mohd arshad) Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 05:56:46 -0800 Subject: [Reader-list] What is useful knowledge?/madrasa journalism Message-ID: <2076f31d0604130656u5662d47fu1325b56a731e1c29@mail.gmail.com> While interviewing Maulana Ejaz Arshad Qasmi, editor of the website of the Darul Uloom Deoband madrasa, I asked whether you find it difficult to understand what goes in the construction and the packaging of news in national dailies as disciplines like Political Science are not the part of the madrasa curriculum. His answer was: "There is no need to attach so much importance to the disciplines like Political Science As the madrasa students are habitual of studying the bulky and tough syllabus, they really don't need ,like the students of universities, to devote years to develop an understanding of the Political Science. Suffice it will for them to spare some time for the discipline." Likewise, Maulana Yaseen Akhter Misbahi, a Delhi-based veteran alim of the Barelwi school of thought and editor of the Urdu monthly Kanzul Imaan, Delhi, is of the opinion that Dars-e-Nizami (the curriculum presently taught in the madrasas) consolidates the academic foundation of a student in a way that one can excel in any field one opts for. That's why instead of the fact that he neither studied in a university nor received any training in journalism, he continues; his editorials are admired among the readers. A bunch of disciplines are considered useful in the mainstream education system and, also, they are considered necessary for the madrasas education system. At the same time, madrasa people don't see any utility of these disciplines useful for themselves. Moreover, they are of the opinion that there are subjects in the madrasa syllabus which are useful and should be taught to the university students. The question which arises in my mind is: what is the useful knowledge? Which knowledge is useful for whom and who is going to decide it? What is the history of the useful knowledge? arshad amanullah 35,masihgarh, jamia nagar new delhi-25. From anujbhuwania at gmail.com Thu Apr 13 09:33:10 2006 From: anujbhuwania at gmail.com (Anuj Bhuwania) Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 00:03:10 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] More on "mandal II" Message-ID: Dear Shivam, I found your postings very informative and insightful especially the bit where you talk about "gather here for protest, gather there for protest. NDTV has promised support. Sahara has promised support".I think this is a very important process to document. Just wanted to continue the conversation further. Have been lurking in this list for ages but couldnt resist contributing with an inevitably simplistic and too long rant on this issue. Am substantially in agreement with your views in your articles and this post, and have watched myself get irritatingly indignant on coming across the blatantly propagandist campaign in the English language media.(Incidentally would be interesting to compare the current campaign in HT/TOI etc with that of Gujarat samachar/sandesh in Ahmedabad around 28 Feb, 2002. and also of course the supposed 'finest hour' of the english-language media then with their nakedly elitist campaign now- which is in a way my point. The divergence between the vernacular and the english media then is nicely contrasted with the convergence now on this issue. more about this later below) However some questions came up for me in reading some of the more interesting of the reservation-critical stuff published recently. Maybe these need to be taken somewhat seriously after all. 1. What about OBC reservation being seen as fundamentally different from and even in opposition to SC/ST reservation. Not just uppercaste bloggers but Barkha Dutt talking of Chandrabhan Prasad in "we the People" in her HT article, argue on these lines. This is a crucial question I think. 2.The well-known problem of reservation seats lying vacant. Now this is of course because of blatant refusal to implement it etc. But why is it there is so much less public and political discourse on proper implementation and on demands for filling vacant seats than on creating new quotas. 3. A common refrain recently has been that college-level is already too late for reservation and it should be done in schools to get them ready. But four months back, when the 93rd amendment was just about to be passed, we heard the elite public schools in delhi screaming murder when reservation there was theoretically made possible. I personally think this is the most radical and necessary step- reservation in private schools- towards destroying elitism right at its roots.We know how the very basis of the education system from Nehruvian times has been casteist by underinvesting in primary education. And again of course they'll do "whatever it takes" (sorry couldnt resist it) to subvert and minimise the effect of any reservations in schools as well. and notice- this is the only time these guys get concerned about government schools- "you destroyed them and you want to destroy us now." Maybe thats what will bring more attention to public education more generally. maybe reservation on schools need to be emphasised a lot more after all. 4. One of my specific interests, which I was very happy to know that you strongly shared, is in the upper caste nature of the indian news media. Your analysis is of course rare and acute and the only other person I have read on these lines is S Anand from Outlook. However my question is why only concentrate on Lucknow, a great place to start this of course, why not Delhi as well. How many SC/ST/OBCs are there in IBN, NDTV, TOI, Indian Express etc. Pioneer of course has given a token space to 1 columnist. Like the 'zenana dabba' as madhu kishwar inimitably calls such measures. What I am trying to say is that the we continue to see the English language press as afflicted by elitism, but only that of class and not of caste or communalism. So dainik jagaran/ Gujarat Samachar are seen as the great communal upper-caste newspapers and TOI etc as neo-liberal but not communal. Maybe on the lines of the difference between BJP and congress. But I think there is a problem here. Maybe its high time we stopped seeing the English media as the great saviour from the local vernacular primordialism in Traditional India,but just as implicated as dramatis personae in whatever these practices are. We supposedly casteless secularised english-speaking folks should maybe no longer see ourselves as liberators documenting the brutal traditions of the hinterland. The babu view from Delhi continues to see like the state, inevitably leading to interventions like Supreme Court PILs, an inherently authoritarian move though sometimes a benevolent one. mahmood farooqui had written in response to aaditya dar that OBCs at least are 27% of the population. Well apparently they actually are 52%. So we are talking about 74.5%(SC/STs + OBCs) of the population getting 49.5 % reservation. Or in other words, the 25.5% mostly uppercaste population have access to 50.5% of seats. And still they are the ones protesting. (why the Mandal commission relied on 1931 Census is because no caste census has been allowed since then. It was proposed again in 2001 but it didnt happen, provoking an interesting debate) Oh finally, can you please tell me how one can get a flat in gaurav aprtments, patparganj. I think somebody I know might be interested. Best, anuj On 4/11/06, Shivam wrote: > There are more than enough seats for all higher education students in the country. Be it engineering or medicine or management or plain old BA courses, there are more than enough seats in this country. Why then are the anti-reservation alarmists painting a picture that some general category people will go without an education? If you read this: http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web2196523711Hoot122711%20AM1229&pn=1 and this: http://www.countercurrents.org/dalit-vij061204.htm you will know more or less why I support reservations in principle: I've seen how caste prejudice works and I have seen how reservations help. There is this whole one-point facetious argument of merit. In my college 22 or so per sent seats are reserved for Christian students. Fair enough: the college was established by Christian missionaries and wishes to preserve its Christian character. As a result I have Christian classmates who got much less marks in their Class 12 exams than I did. But many of them are performing much better in their academics than I am. Quotas and the issue of merit is much more complicated than what it is being made out to be. Quota doesn't mean that an absolute nutcase is going to sit in an engineering class. It means that a student with 65% marks could be studying in a class with a student who got 95%. To say that the two can't co-exist is absurd. The media has coined a corny title for this one - Mandal II. In the last post Dilip has already mentioned media bias in the coverage of the issue. I've been getting all kinds of sms-es from friends in Delhi University: gather here for protest, gather there for protest. NDTV has promised support. Sahara has promised support. And then an sms said that Aditya Sarma (a III Maths student of Hans Raj College) is on a hunger strike and may immolate himself soon. I wonder if Mr Sarma is planning to contest Delhi University Students' Union elections next year. That's what Rajiv Goswami had done after attempting to immolate himself in 1990. Goswami finally succumbed to health problems in 2004. Do you see the irony here: by the time his immolation killed him, Shining India had arrived. The picture they had painted in Mandal I - that 'we' will be left unemployed, uneducated - is the last thing you see today. If Aditya Sarma does immolate himself, all those of you igniting this false frenzy - all the bloggers and editors and the chai-shop gossipers - you will be responsible for it. Lastly, all those opposing "Mandal II" should tell us whether they are non-OBC. Upper castes are no doubt meritocratic (which is why sons inherit fathers' businesses), and they are no doubt oblivious to caste (just see the matrimonial pages), but there is the hint of vested interest here. And if you are opposing reservations because admissions will become tougher for you, you won't get the point of affirmative action anyway. Lastly, as an aside, will you believe me that I have met Mandal? No, not Justice BP Mandal but Ashok Mandal. He is a rickshaw puller in Delhi University and hails from Murho in Madhepura. Just where Justice Mandal came from. _________________________________________ reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. Critiques & Collaborations To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. List archive: < https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060413/2c36ca2e/attachment.html From pukar at pukar.org.in Thu Apr 13 12:01:34 2006 From: pukar at pukar.org.in (PUKAR) Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 12:01:34 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [announcements] Talk on Friday, April 21, 2006 by Parimala Inamdar Message-ID: <000a01c65ec3$eabb1280$0fd0c0cb@freeda> cordially invites you to a talk by Parimala Inamdar on Children, Collaboration and Learning in Technology Enhanced Environments Date: Friday, April 21, 2006 Time: 6:30 PM Venue: First Floor, Max Mueller Bhavan, Kala Ghoda, Mumbai - 01 In 1999, the 'hole-in-the wall' experiment in New Delhi, India, moved the personal computer (PC) into playgrounds. A PC was connected to the Internet and embedded into a brick wall around an informal playground next to a residential slum. Groups of slum children aged 8-14 were able to use the computer within a few days, without instruction. Experiments across the country showed that given adequate resources, groups of children were able to acquire computing skills without adult intervention. This raised a question - What else could children learn on their own with appropriate technology? This presentation describes results of studies of technology enabled learning in groups, in art, mathematics and computer science in rural and urban contexts. a.. Rural children were able to pass a curricular examination in computer science from their exploratory group learning at a 'hole-in-the-wall' kiosk, with no classroom instruction for it. b.. Rural children rapidly entered the world of digital imaging by observing experts and collaboratively exploring high-end imaging software at 'hole-in-the-wall' computers. The digital output of these children was later exhibited by the Pompidou Center, Paris. c.. In Mumbai, children from a large SSC medium school who worked in groups with an algebra software at their school computer lab showed marked improvements in scores, in a short time. Interestingly, they commented that they had never had so much fun with Math. These studies of group learning in exploratory technology enhanced environments show possibilities for a new pedagogical approach to some aspects of education attainment. Parimala Inamdar has worked in communication design and interactive technologies in learning for over 17 years. She has designed learning solutions across media - video/television, interactive videodisc, cd-rom and the Internet. Her work has moved over the years from design towards research in use of technology in learning. She is currently the Assistant Professor at the Center for Research In Cognitive Systems, The NIIT Institute of Information Technology (TNI). She has engaged in research collaborations with internationally reputed academics. Her work was also recently showcased at the Pompidou Center in Paris. PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research) Address:: 1-4, 2nd Floor, Kamanwala Chambers, Sir P. M. Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001 Telephone:: +91 (22) 5574 8152 Fax:: +91 (22) 5664 0561 Email:: pukar at pukar.org.in Website:: www.pukar.org.in -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060413/5e024ad9/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: image/gif Size: 1545 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060413/5e024ad9/attachment.gif -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From rakesh at sarai.net Tue Apr 11 15:14:48 2006 From: rakesh at sarai.net (rakesh at sarai.net) Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 15:14:48 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] invitation Message-ID: <443B7A90.6030709@sarai.net> Dear Friends You are cordially invited in "Abhivyakti", a two-day cultural festival (14-15 April 2006) orgainsed by Srijan-Safar on the occasion of Dr. Baba Sahab Bhim Rao Ambedkar's Birth Anniversary (14 April), Baisakhi (13 April) and the Shahadat of Bhagat Singh. *Venue : Jhanda park Delhi Administration Flats Timarpur, Delhi 110054* Program: *_Friday, 14/04/06_* 5.30 am, Prabhat Pheri 10.00 am, workshop with children on 'newspaper in our lives' 12.00 am , Drawing, essay, painting, workshop 5.30 pm, Songs by Children 6.30 pm, Qawwali by Nizami Khusro, sufi bandhu Ustad Md. Hayat Khan nd Hamsar Hayat Khan of Delhi and Secandrabad Gharana 8.30 pm exhibition of film 'Baba Sahab Bhim Rao Ambedkar' _*Saturday, 15/04/06* _10.00 am Pottery workshop 12.00 am children workshop on family and neighbourhood 5.30 pm Children's song and dance 6.30 Skits/plays by children 7.30 'Court Martial' by Asmita, Director : Arvind Gaud 9.00 pm Folk progams (music and dance) 11.00 pm closing ceremony NB: There will be a book exhibition and career counselling center for children both day from 10 am to 9 pm. Looking forward to your participation warm regards rakesh -- Rakesh Kumar Singh Sarai-CSDS 29, Rajpur Road Delhi-110054 Ph: 91 11 23960040 Fax: 91 11 2394 3450 web site: www.sarai.net web blog: http://blog.sarai.net/users/rakesh/ _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From foryou2005 at gmail.com Tue Apr 11 14:40:38 2006 From: foryou2005 at gmail.com (BHAVYA SRIVASTAVA) Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 14:40:38 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Global World:Local Media Message-ID: Global world, global people, global environment and local media.IndianElectronic media is dripping out.On the front of covering International reports it needs prior attention.The whole Indian media is narrow sighted in view and vision.Thespecial time granted to international coverage and airtime is less in quality and quantity.This is considered a media deviation.Media running on incidents and events show a filthy picture.The International chapter of Indian media is grooming, in case of broadcast and relay.Many Indian news and entertainment channels are enlarging their footprints.So the content they show must be global in sense of usability of information.But here the providers of local information lacks.So the image become weak.BBC,CNN,CHANNEL NEWS ASIA, SOUTH ASIA WORLD are currently considered an international channel.They portray news in global sense.And the agenda is clear.Grab the attention as it happen. Indian foreign policy today considered an alignment of west.The East look policy seen on a hook.The American influence of foreign policy drives many issue.Media too.From the world view the monopolistic headway policy of Americans is critical.The embedded imperialism today convert into a hedonistic globalised face.People and places are tend to open and become global in living sense.Countries and culture want to revamp identities.Thesociological and economical resistance of a wrapping society today become a maze. In this all the media try to sense the nerve.Confusion, dilemma, assumptions,illusion rule the screen.Media Channels think that people want to see this.So play.Media channel think that this dilemma is reality.So play.They assume that this is the crux.So play.And a illusionary world is filled by the presentation and advertisement.So the hoop hoollah ends here.You got some murkier picture of idiot box, not an idea. Societies feel changes,culture indulge in flow,but the thought process of a time depends on the ideology its reveal.Media represent the changing time, not the ideology of time. Indian Electronic media portray the happened reality.The common contours it show is limited in issues.Iraq-US,Palestine and Israel,Iran-US,India-Pakistan,EU-US,and some air filled by China-India.Mostcompleting end stories of these countries are become a tail to follow.Always same confrontation haunts same country.Like Iraq means bomb and suicide attack.US means monopolistic tendencies and practices.So the international media pan the issues to a global connect.And this connect the global audience. But for a common viewer of Indian Electronic media, the question that "What is International politics"? is a barometer.A reader knows that countries do treaties,summit, deal,pact, but what benefits him or his country in practical sense is quite a mystery. The need of time is to pan the camera internationally, and reveal and unleash the Indian reality in International context.So you become tomorrow a better global Indian. Bhavya Srivastava Journalist 09811150743 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060411/ec464841/attachment.html From nangla at cm.sarai.net Fri Apr 14 07:57:09 2006 From: nangla at cm.sarai.net (CM@Nangla) Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 04:27:09 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Talking About Nangla - Henna Message-ID: http://nangla.freeflux.net/blog/archive/2006/04/13/was-nangla-is-01-by-henna.html The last one week we have been roaming the lanes of LNJP colony with the broadsheet from Nangla [see gallery on the blog]. We have done this with the previous issues of the Cybermohalla broadsheets – distributing them, standing at different points and reading them out, etc – but the experience of this time was, to say the least, different. We set out in the morning, thinking, we will share our own relationship with Nangla Maanchi as we share the broadsheet. And along with that, we thought, we would also share our own understanding of what is going on in Nangla Maanchi right now. Three of us – Babli, Saifuddin and I – head out towards Bismillah's lane, which is a very famous lane of LNJP. It is a broad lane, with two vegetable shops, two tea stalls, a doctor's clinic and a workshop amidst all the houses on either side of the lane. The lane is always crowded. So we went there, and began by first giving copies to everyone who lives there, in their homes. Someone said, “I can't read Hindi”. So Babli volunteered to read it out. She said, “It's about Nangla Maanchi. Nangla is a big dwelling. The settlement has now been broken down, just like that. We have been going there, and along with our friends at the NM Lab, have brought out this publication” “Oh, then go ahead and read it out to me.” “Then listen.” And with that she began to read the first page out. The hurried passing of people stopped. People became quiet, listening intently. A big circle of people gathered around us. Whoever would hear the name, 'Nangla', would halt to listen. Everyone wanted to know what was happening there, how the houses were broken down. If someone would stand up and start saying something, others would stop him by saying, “First listen to what she is reading. You will understand its value when yours will break...” An old man standing behind Babli was looking at Babli as if he were reading the broadsheet himself. As the texts continued to be read out, a lot of women gathered around. It seemed a strong thread tied everyone to Nangla Maanchi, as if everyone searched for themselves in the texts. As soon as Babli finished reading, someone said, “That is how it would have happened. It has been written well here. It must have been so difficult to figure out what to do at a moment like that.” Then he said to Babli, “Beta, you have shared with us a good thing. At least now we know how things stand there, what everyone's position there is. This is how it will be here soon as well. But tell me, where exactly is this place?” I said, “Uncle it is near the Yamuna. It is much bigger than LNJP and a lot of people lived there... Uncle, do you know, so many houses have been broken, but people are still living there. It is difficult to know what hope they are living there with. They sit there with all their things outside in the lanes, hoping someone will come and either say, 'Here, you can go to this place now' or 'This is your home, live in it'.” The elderly man said, “What will this publication do? Will it help us understand something? Will it take us to some kind of answers for what is going on here?” I said, “No uncle, perhaps it will not give us any answers. But we are all trying now to understand what is going on in the city right now... None of us are too far away from Nangla Maanchi, and where it is at right now. Even in the situation they are all in, people are trying to understand themselves, their lives, this city, and the State which is doing all this.” The elderly man said, “Maybe our government will also read this and think a little... This publication will also travel outside Delhi, and to other countries as well, won't it... I think something like this will happen here also. This place is also quite big. A lot of police will come. None of us will leave peacefully. We had fought a case once for 437 houses here, and had even won the case. We have been given a time of 5 years, and a promise of a plot of 600 sq, meters. So I guess we will be alright, and there is nothing too much to worry about... Do you know, all of Delhi will be emptied out in this way by 2010...” I said, “Uncle, all of us will be made to leave from here, this place will be broken..” He said, “We will leave, but only say that we should be given the same amount of space as we have here right now...” “But uncle, who owns this land?” (I asked him this question because he was very old, and has been running a vegetable shop here for a very long time now, and so I thought he will have a specific sense in this regard.) He said, “Beta, this land was a burial ground, and it is us who have made it inhabitable. Now the State is becoming greedy. This city is like the city from the old story – dark is the city, and foolish its ruler. This government won't last. It has taken other countries' methods as its own policy. It is a way of turning us into slaves once again. But what can we do, this is the way of the world...” A woman said, “When the settement at Shakur Ki Dandi had been broken, it was winters, and I had gone that side to buy some oil. People had to sit outside their houses in the cold then. They were sitting with their children at the bus stop. They were not given any compensation. No thought was spared to where they would go. I only hope this is not what becomes of us as well. It is not for no reason that this is called the age of qayamat, the age when everything will be destroyed.” “For us the calamity will be when our houses will be broken. And think about Nangla, where calamity has already struck and people are facing it.” The elderly uncle said, “Yes it will be terrible then. And think about everyone who lives here on rent. Where will they all go? And where will we go? We also have nothing else, nowhere else to go.” Aslam uncle said, “Yes, but Kauser's brother in law came from Mumbai yesterday and said their house was broken, but they were given good compensation – of seven lakh.” I said, “He can't be telling the truth.” Aslam uncle: “But what will he gain by lying to us? Maybe there is some other reason why any compensation, let alone so much, would be given to him. Maybe it was his own land? I only pray to Allah that we get a roof over our heads.” When we left from there, people were still talking among themselves. And even as we walked, many asked us for copies of the broadsheet. There was a feeling of closeness in how the broadsheet was being asked for. People would stop, ask for it, and walk ahead, reading it quietly to themselves. CM Lab, Nangla Maanchi http://nangla.freeflux.net http://nangla-maachi.freeflux.net ----------------------------------------------- It quenches the thirst of the thirsty, Such is Nangla, It shelters those who come to the city of Delhi, Such is Nangla. ------------------------------------------------ From db at dannybutt.net Fri Apr 14 12:28:13 2006 From: db at dannybutt.net (Danny Butt) Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 18:58:13 +1200 Subject: [Reader-list] Re: A Welcome to Those Who Come In-Reply-To: <3ff1b7f257246c62bc324708428a8159@sarai.net> References: <3ff1b7f257246c62bc324708428a8159@sarai.net> Message-ID: <198B9C1F-7D0F-4E0F-AF3E-D7196F2150B3@dannybutt.net> Dear all I've been living with Jaanu's letter over the last few days which resonates deeply with my own sense of the different stakes in the power relations embedded in the encounter between the host and visitor. What does it mean to talk from a place, unavoidably/ reluctantly feeling the approval or disapproval of those who come? As Fanon tells us, even if recognising that the priorities of the visitor are not one's own, the visitor represents the possibility of transformation for the host even when the visitor does not know it. How does the visitor/friend feel? Possibly not at all, or not what might be expected. How can the visitor/friend be made to understand? The visitor/friend cannot lose their cognitive (and pragmatic) accountabilities to other places, no more than the host can lose their at home-ness. This is not to fix the identity of host/visitor in a person but to recognise a dynamic, a process. Anthropology is predicated on the learning of the visitor as they explore new lands and people, which is then trafficked back to the home of the visitor (or perhaps not - but simply deployed in other spaces to gain support for other visits). It is clear to me that those who have been visited by anthropologists (professional or not) have learnt much about this dynamic, whether or not they have been to the anthopologist's home. It is only recently that this literature is making an appearance among "native anthropologists" (esp. e.g. in Hawaii - see Haunani-Kay Trask), whose knowledge of the visitor is a tremendous source of power that cannot be acknowledged by the visitor. It lays bare the way the visitor has been blinded by their material ability to leave and move to a new situation when the hosts begin to seem less friendly. I greatly value Jannu's acceptance of those who come as friends. However, as someone who visits many places, and is less-often visited, I sometimes find myself resisting generous offers of friendship, and wishing my hosts would be more suspicious of me. This is not because I do not want to be friends, but because the material and subjective divides that constrain and enable friendship must be made visible if the friendship is to be for real. What does it mean to be friends, really? Across the bridge between a here and a somewhere-else that others come from? I do not wish to resist openness, as it is the way we must behave if we can ever do things together. But I also think we can instead hold the space of friendship as an ideal, which we move toward, and which is tested, as one tests one's footing on a rocky path, over time learning which rocks will hold one's weight and which will deposit one on one's back with a sore ankle. Thanks to Jaanu and Shveta for this valuable text. Danny -- http://www.dannybutt.net On 11/04/2006, at 12:05 AM, CM at Nangla wrote: > A Welcome to Those Who Come > by Jaanu > http://nangla.freeflux.net/blog/archive/2006/04/07/a-welcome-to- > those-who-come-by-jaanu.html > > > Dear All, > > One always waits for the one who comes. Different people relate > differently > with those who come - as guests, as friends. And after a few days, > the one > who comes changes to one who has the capacity to be a host, to welcome > others. I think of those who come, as friends. But some friends throw > colour on our faces in a way that there is no option but to be > smeared by > it. > > When they first come, these "friends" are really our friends, who > participate in everything we do. And in this way they become adept at > everything we do. They come and roam with us, make their > acquaintance with > people we know, have known for years. They mingle not only in our > lanes, > but also in our families. They come for our wedding, show up during > small > everyday things that need to be done. > > At this time, we do not know how they are about to do a volte face > soon, > change their colours like a chameleon. It is difficult to figure > out what > it is they want. > > When the lane becomes familiar to them, they slowly start rejecting > us. We > understand what is going on, but it is difficult to recognise it as > it is > happening - because they are our friends. > > They waft into our lives like a dream, a dream that then halts > somewhere to > fulfill its own dream. > > One such dream came into our lives. He spread into everyone's > hearts and > minds, making his place there. The dream would appear during the > day as > well - he was a day dream as well as a dream that would sleep with > us at > night as well. It is easy to sleep, but waking up is difficult. But > one has > to wake up some time... > > This dream would sit among us while we talked and did our own > things, his > eyes closed, but ears listening intently. Off and on, some word we > said > would sting him like a mosquito bite, and he would say, "Where did you > bring that word from?" The mosquitoes would buzz for a while, and then > become quiet. Then the dream would open a notebook and scribble > something > in it. > > This much is easy to take. But then come moments when these dreams > desert > us while we sleep restfully, assured of its existence. We can then > only > dream of them. But when we turn over on our cots, the side on > which he > rested and slept seems empty, and we lie there, fully awake now. > One feels > lonely, and as if one is alone, but the voice of the dream who had > appeared > keeps making a wound in the mind. Its a wound that cannot be > treated by a > doctor or a cream with medicinal properties. > > One walks the lanes, remembering the days when the dream had > accompanied us > around. > > As I walked down a lane one day, a voice stopped me. I looked hard > and saw > it was the same lane in which I used to take my friend around, > introducing > him to people. I stopped in the lane and said to it, "He? He has > left us > now and has gone very far away." > The lane replied, "No, that's not true! He was here, just yesterday." > I asked, "And when will he come back?" > "That is what I have stopped you to ask you...," said the lane. > "Listen, when he comes next, do tell me." > > I knew something was amiss here, but who could I talk to about it? > Then a > few days later some people who were my own told me, "Your friend has > written a letter, that he saw your house from very close." And I > realised, > that letter was written as if from the bridge that passes from far > from my > home, high up in the sky from the ground on which my home is. And > this is > when I realised my "friend", who I had considered close, with whom I > dreamed into the lane while roaming in the lanes, had now turned > into a > stranger. > > One day I roamed the lanes alone. The lane called out to me again, > "There, > look! Your friend. There he is, wearing a pair of sun glasses, a > green pair > of trousers, white checkered shirt, a green bag on his shoulders." > As soon > as I heard this, I forgot all my complaints and walked up to him > and hugged > him. That day he again roamed in the lanes with me - with what in his > heart, who is to know. But he disappeared again at the bend of a > lane, and > I went home. > > After a few hours, he reappeared at our door, and spoke with a loud > voice, > as if this was his own place, and said, "So friends, what is going > on here > today?" > "Nothing," we replied and gave him a chair to sit on. He took the > chair > carefully. Maybe it recalled some days past. > And then an environment of question-answers formed. > "Why do friends desert us?" > "Maybe they don't care for you," came the reply. > "Then why did he show so much love?" > "Maybe he wanted something out of you," came the reply. > "Why did he have to show his rejection in a letter to the world?" > "Maybe he wanted to leave his mark," came the reply. > "Does he want to climb up high without a staircase?" > "No, maybe he wants to show his splendour to the world," came the > reply. > "But how are we to recognise his splendour?" > "That is for you to think. You have to judge if he is a diamond or a > stone," came the reply. > > This is a letter, delivered to you by a pigeon. You cannot ask > questions of > it and demand a response from it. But what you can do, on reading > it, is to > guage and understand what it is about. > > warmly, > Jaanu > > Written: March 3rd, 2006 > Translated: April 8th, 2006 > Translation by shveta at sarai.net > > CM Lab, Nangla Maanchi > > http://nangla.freeflux.net > http://nangla-maachi.freeflux.net > > ----------------------------------------------- > It quenches the thirst of the thirsty, > Such is Nangla, > It shelters those who come to the city of Delhi, > Such is Nangla. > ------------------------------------------------ > > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: From gabyvargasc at prodigy.net.mx Thu Apr 13 21:41:55 2006 From: gabyvargasc at prodigy.net.mx (Gabriela Vargas-Cetina) Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 11:11:55 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] More on "mandal II" In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Dear all, As a true outsider to this debate, I just want to say this: I think quotas are a cheap way to show a democratic face in any country. I am a university professor and, sure enough, some of my most brilliant students have come from the upper echelons of different European and Latin American countries; but every now and again I get a student from a poor family in a rural village, and I can recognize her or his brilliance. It is my job and that of my colleagues to make that brilliance come out and bring the student up to par with the best of the best from among young scholars (some of whom I have been fortunate to teach to). However, the unfair distribution of elementary and secondary education affecting my and all countries I know, ensure that only exceptionally will one of these students make it into my university classroom. Real democracy would be providing the best education for everyone, without differences between rich and poor, urban and rural and so forth. Since this is not happening, quotas are a cheap but at this point necessary policy to ensure that I will get at least one of those future great minds every five years or so, because quotas notwithstanding, bright but underprivileged students will remain so and will not get to the universities, no matter what. Gabriela Vargas-Cetina Professor of Anthropology Merida, Mexico On 4/12/06 11:03 PM, "Anuj Bhuwania" wrote: > Dear Shivam, > I found your postings very informative and insightful especially the bit > where you talk about "gather here for protest, gather there for protest. NDTV > has promised support. Sahara has promised support".I think this is a very > important process to document. > Just wanted to continue the conversation further. Have been lurking in this > list for ages but couldnt resist contributing with an inevitably simplistic > and too long rant on this issue. > Am substantially in agreement with your views in your articles and this > post, and have watched myself get irritatingly indignant on coming across the > blatantly propagandist campaign in the English language media.(Incidentally > would be interesting to compare the current campaign in HT/TOI etc with that > of Gujarat samachar/sandesh in Ahmedabad around 28 Feb, 2002. and also of > course the supposed 'finest hour' of the english-language media then with > their nakedly elitist campaign now- which is in a way my point. The divergence > between the vernacular and the english media then is nicely contrasted with > the convergence now on this issue. more about this later below) > > However some questions came up for me in reading some of the more interesting > of the reservation-critical stuff published recently. Maybe these need to be > taken somewhat seriously after all. > > 1. What about OBC reservation being seen as fundamentally different from and > even in opposition to SC/ST reservation. Not just uppercaste bloggers but > Barkha Dutt talking of Chandrabhan Prasad in "we the People" in her HT > article, argue on these lines. This is a crucial question I think. > > 2.The well-known problem of reservation seats lying vacant. Now this is of > course because of blatant refusal to implement it etc. But why is it there is > so much less public and political discourse on proper implementation and on > demands for filling vacant seats than on creating new quotas. > > 3. A common refrain recently has been that college-level is already too late > for reservation and it should be done in schools to get them ready. But four > months back, when the 93rd amendment was just about to be passed, we heard the > elite public schools in delhi screaming murder when reservation there was > theoretically made possible. I personally think this is the most radical and > necessary step- reservation in private schools- towards destroying elitism > right at its roots.We know how the very basis of the education system from > Nehruvian times has been casteist by underinvesting in primary education. > And again of course they'll do "whatever it takes" (sorry couldnt resist it) > to subvert and minimise the effect of any reservations in schools as well. and > notice- this is the only time these guys get concerned about government > schools- "you destroyed them and you want to destroy us now." Maybe thats > what will bring more attention to public education more generally. maybe > reservation on schools need to be emphasised a lot more after all. > 4. One of my specific interests, which I was very happy to know that you > strongly shared, is in the upper caste nature of the indian news media. Your > analysis is of course rare and acute and the only other person I have read on > these lines is S Anand from Outlook. > However my question is why only concentrate on Lucknow, a great place to start > this of course, why not Delhi as well. How many SC/ST/OBCs are there in IBN, > NDTV, TOI, Indian Express etc. Pioneer of course has given a token space to 1 > columnist. Like the 'zenana dabba' as madhu kishwar inimitably calls such > measures. > What I am trying to say is that the we continue to see the English language > press as afflicted by elitism, but only that of class and not of caste or > communalism. So dainik jagaran/ Gujarat Samachar are seen as the great > communal upper-caste newspapers and TOI etc as neo-liberal but not communal. > Maybe on the lines of the difference between BJP and congress. But I think > there is a problem here. Maybe its high time we stopped seeing the English > media as the great saviour from the local vernacular primordialism in > Traditional India,but just as implicated as dramatis personae in whatever > these practices are. We supposedly casteless secularised english-speaking > folks should maybe no longer see ourselves as liberators documenting the > brutal traditions of the hinterland. The babu view from Delhi continues to see > like the state, inevitably leading to interventions like Supreme Court PILs, > an inherently authoritarian move though sometimes a benevolent one. > > mahmood farooqui had written in response to aaditya dar that OBCs at least are > 27% of the population. Well apparently they actually are 52%. So we are > talking about 74.5%(SC/STs + OBCs) of the population getting 49.5 % > reservation. Or in other words, the 25.5% mostly uppercaste population have > access to 50.5% of seats. And still they are the ones protesting. > (why the Mandal commission relied on 1931 Census is because no caste census > has been allowed since then. It was proposed again in 2001 but it didnt > happen, provoking an interesting debate) > > Oh finally, can you please tell me how one can get a flat in gaurav aprtments, > patparganj. I think somebody I know might be interested. > > Best, > anuj > > > > On 4/11/06, Shivam wrote: > There are more than enough seats for all higher education students in > the country. Be it engineering or medicine or management or plain old > BA courses, there are more than enough seats in this country. Why then > are the anti-reservation alarmists painting a picture that some > general category people will go without an education? > > If you read this: > http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web2196523711Hoot122711%20AM1229&pn=1 > ;pn=1> > > and this: > http://www.countercurrents.org/dalit-vij061204.htm > > you will know more or less why I support reservations in principle: > I've seen how caste prejudice works and I have seen how reservations > help. > > There is this whole one-point facetious argument of merit. In my > college 22 or so per sent seats are reserved for Christian students. > Fair enough: the college was established by Christian missionaries and > wishes to preserve its Christian character. As a result I have > Christian classmates who got much less marks in their Class 12 exams > than I did. But many of them are performing much better in their > academics than I am. Quotas and the issue of merit is much more > complicated than what it is being made out to be. Quota doesn't mean > that an absolute nutcase is going to sit in an engineering class. It > means that a student with 65% marks could be studying in a class with > a student who got 95%. To say that the two can't co-exist is absurd. > > The media has coined a corny title for this one - Mandal II. In the > last post Dilip has already mentioned media bias in the coverage of > the issue. I've been getting all kinds of sms-es from friends in Delhi > University: gather here for protest, gather there for protest. NDTV > has promised support. Sahara has promised support. And then an sms > said that Aditya Sarma (a III Maths student of Hans Raj College) is on > a hunger strike and may immolate himself soon. > > I wonder if Mr Sarma is planning to contest Delhi University Students' > Union elections next year. That's what Rajiv Goswami had done after > attempting to immolate himself in 1990. Goswami finally succumbed to > health problems in 2004. Do you see the irony here: by the time his > immolation killed him, Shining India had arrived. The picture they had > painted in Mandal I - that 'we' will be left unemployed, uneducated - > is the last thing you see today. > > If Aditya Sarma does immolate himself, all those of you igniting this > false frenzy - all the bloggers and editors and the chai-shop > gossipers - you will be responsible for it. > > Lastly, all those opposing "Mandal II" should tell us whether they are > non-OBC. Upper castes are no doubt meritocratic (which is why sons > inherit fathers' businesses), and they are no doubt oblivious to caste > (just see the matrimonial pages), but there is the hint of vested > interest here. And if you are opposing reservations because admissions > will become tougher for you, you won't get the point of affirmative > action anyway. > > Lastly, as an aside, will you believe me that I have met Mandal? No, > not Justice BP Mandal but Ashok Mandal. He is a rickshaw puller in > Delhi University and hails from Murho in Madhepura. Just where Justice > Mandal came from. > > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in > the subject header. > List archive: < https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/ > > > > > > > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in > the subject header. > List archive: -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060413/47991faf/attachment.html From lovableyunus at yahoo.co.in Fri Apr 14 04:34:25 2006 From: lovableyunus at yahoo.co.in (mohd syed) Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 00:04:25 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] The helpless city Message-ID: <20060413230425.85194.qmail@web42202.mail.yahoo.com> Each helpline gets different types of calls representing diverse requirments of ‘help’ in a city .They usually operate in different shifts i.e morning evening and night. Recently I happen to be in the child helpline during the morning shift and came across a few cases . These cases are common but interesting to me because they present certain pictures of Delhi ,Picures that reflects the helplessness of the city and representing those parts of the city which are usually ignored or not seen. A man brought a seventeen year old girl, he found him on the road roaming helplessly ,when enquired she told that she belongs to jharkhand and was sent to Delhi by her parents to work through a palacement agency . she was working some where but was not treated humanly so she left the place to return home but lost in the way. And then she came in contact with childline.. There was a emergency call from an adoption center about a four year old boys in Kalawati Saran hospital to provide medical care and nursing. Three Street children came to childline for shelter one of them was a repeater and he brought the other two. Repeater also mentioned that he has earlier escaped from a shelter home in Kingswaycamp. There was a rescue call from Zor bagh about a nine year old kid who works in a house and was thrashed by the owner ,the caller wanted helpline worker to come immediately and save the child. The worker replied that he is referring the case to the concerned organization in the zone. Another lost child was refered by a concerned citizen from chandnichowk ,he was roaming aimlessly, he was brought to delhi by some elder friend for the sake of ‘ghommne ke liye’. Parents of a runaway child came to take him back but he was not willing to return, he ran away from his home as was beaten by his parents as he sold out his school bag to kabadi wala. A fifteen year old girl was sitting near one of the the ladies staff she was pregnant and was thrown out by her step sister when it was found that she is pregnant. There was a complaint from Police station tilak marg thana that they called for help during night as they found a girlchild on the road but the worker did not replied Such calls and cases are very common in childline now let us see the key words in these cases once again. Placements agencies Placement agencies are very common in delhi , they provide domestic maid servants to the Delhites who need them. Since domestic work like cleaning and washing does not need skilled labor it is a low paid job . mostly girls of 12 to 18 years of age are hired for such purpose . Usually girls from jharkhand ,west bengal and bihar are brought to delhi for this purpose.There are many reasons and causes for such a movement, first of all these poverty ridden areas do not have much employment and livelihood opportunities ,the families are large ,hence girls are pushed to Delhi to work..But then a question arises that how can somebody send his/her daughter just like that? Answer lies in the existence of placement agencies and agents. These agents and agencies are run by people who first came to delhi in search of work and then later on established their own service. Agents bring girls from different villages to delhi promising their parents that they will regularly send money earned by their daughters ,usually they are In-Laws of the village and some time different villages ,many a times their better half is also the copartner in the business. the suspician is minimised when almost each family has sent its daughter to work. These domestic help placement agencies keep a record of these girls but they usually show less number of girls , that too of above eighteen years to save them from Law enforcing agencies.they say that they are registered bodies ,but as per my knowledge no such act for registeration of placment agensies exist. When these girls are brought to Delhi ,it is usually their first encounter, they are not able to commincate easily because of language problem ,they don’t know complicated routes and roads of Delhi , they are placed in different familes of different parts of the city, their remuneration is collected by the agencies , and hence they don’t have money to go back home . if they are lucky enough to get a nice employer then there is no problem otherwise there are all kinds of horrible stories, of being beaten up badly ,of being sexually abused ,of being sold to people for flesh trade or being pregnant after promises of marriage. If any such girl in distress come in contact with helpline ,they try to help her , unfortunately if the girl has ran away after being abused she is not able to identify the place where she was kept , so then they try to trace her address and contact her family ,either with the help of Police , other network organisations or self . in few cases report is also launched against placement agencies but they are left free with out any charges when the girl say that she was brought by her own will, send by her family or that the agent is her some uncle, chacha, Mama or brother. And hence the helpline is left with the responsibility of searching her home or any other shelter where she can be rehabilitated. Adoption center Adoption center is another part of the city to which helpline workers interact with, these are the centers where small children uptill 0 to 7 years of age are kept as helpline workers don’t have a shelter and facility for them.. many a times small children are lost or abondaned because of various reasons . if any such child came in touch with childline or police or any organization or hospital they are referred to Adoption centers/agencies. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment , GOI . set up the Central Adoption Resource Agency in 1990 popularly known as CARA. It is a Central Authority in the matter of adoptions,it regulates ,monitors and inspect adoption agencires and it only works for adoption of destitute and orphan children in Institutions. As per a document published by CARA there are approximately 69 indian Adoption placement agencies spread over the length and breadth of the country,to carry out inter country adoptions of children. There are 248 foreign agencies through which inter-country adoptions are done. In 2001 total 1899 in country adoptions were done , and 1298 inter- countery adoptions were done. People who dont have children some time want to adopt other children ,City needs Adoption agencies to take care of orphan ,abondaned and destitutes kids and adoptions agencies needs helplines, voluntary organizations , donations and ‘kids’ to run their service . yes both kids and donations are back bone of any adoption agencies.Adoption is covered in the Hindu Adoption and Maintenace Act , which is very strict means it is not easy to adopt a child in india ,it does not allow people other than Hindu to adopt children in India, also the Donations given by Indian families are not much , this is probably the reason why inter country adoptions are increasing day by day. The system in the city seems ok but there are instances where adoption agencies has deliberately not tried to restore lost children , so that he/she can be adopted by some one in need. Though there are few mechanisms to regulate adoptions yet it does not work all the time. Street children/ Escaped News about children running from government homes is not new for delhites but the reasons of why do they run from such homes? Usually don’t get space in any newspaper expect whenever it is a sensational story. Government shelter homes come under the department of Social Welfare and Juvenile Justice care and protection Act 2000 (JJ Act). JJ act is the social legislation for children from zero to eighteen years of age. This act imposes the state with the primary responsibility of ensuring that all the needs of children are met and that their basic human rights are fully protected . It define children in two categories,children in need of care and protecion and children in conflict with law. the former are kept in shelter homes and competent authority for them is Child welfare Committee , where as later are kept in observation homes and the competent authority for them is Juvenile Justice Board.( I will provide detail about these seperately) Unfortunately both the places are literally ‘jail’ for children, here they are usually kept half fed ,with no recreation accept TV, they do a lot of work for the staff , are abused by elder and stronger boys. And all limits of corruption are crossed by the staff so running away seems the best option for them Recently Mr Raj mangal Prasad Director of an NGO Association for Development brought out some facts about the ill practices of the Department of social welfare Delhi through Right to Information Act. Currently there are 10 shelter homes run by govt in which 1873 children are staying , govt spend approximately3500 rupees perchild / month, department was not able to provide clear breakup of expenditure, how ever these figure given by department themselves give us some idea: Under wear were purchased @67/piece as compare tomarket rate of 35 PT shoes @210 market rate 120 ladies shoes @280 market rate150 sweater @365 market rate 250 More than 70 % of Ambulances donated by CATS to be used as medical van are used by the staff for commuting. Most of the children staying in these shelter homes know their complete or partial address but , they have no one to take care of them as a result they are stucked in as if they are jailed. Zone Zone division is a constantly is a major concern for helplines in Delhi, basically delhi has been divided in to various zones by different systems , for instance childline works in Five zones, Delhi police works in Nine Zones . each zones has a set of issues and problems , but each one has a common problem of Zone overlapping . many atimes helpline worker try to avoid overlapping cases, by saying that it does not lie in there zone Particulary Police , in Delhi there are many places where areas of two police stations are divided by a Road, or railway line or just a park so if some one go there to lodge an FIR about a crime may be as serious as rape. The first question that is asked is ‘ ye ghatna road ke kis taraf hui’ at this if one manages to give a fairly precise anwer then the next question is ‘aap ko ye ladka/ladki kahan mile’.. and hence the ‘zone’ excuse is presented before you. --------------------------------- Jiyo cricket on Yahoo! India cricket Yahoo! Messenger Mobile Stay in touch with your buddies all the time. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060414/86455db6/attachment.html From monika_pahwa at rediffmail.com Wed Apr 12 14:38:50 2006 From: monika_pahwa at rediffmail.com (monika pahwa) Date: 12 Apr 2006 09:08:50 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] MCD Demolitions Vs Development Message-ID: <20060412090850.23682.qmail@webmail52.rediffmail.com>       Dear Readers I would like to congratulate every one in the group for all the replies that i have received earlier.Now its a call to Provide feedback on Development Vs Demolitions.As we all are very well awared of the fact and fear for MCD coming in your premisies and may make you aware that the structure you are in safe,illegal and so on.. Please provide your honest opinion as a end user of the Planned Development. Regards Monika Pahwa Architect-Urban PLanner Monika Bahl 9818316369 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060412/d42d7360/attachment.html From mallroad at gmail.com Thu Apr 13 16:53:51 2006 From: mallroad at gmail.com (Shivam Vij) Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 16:53:51 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Counter-petition! Message-ID: <210498250604130423m32f89227rafb80c5b06ca3e37@mail.gmail.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From nc-agricowi at netcologne.de Tue Apr 11 13:29:37 2006 From: nc-agricowi at netcologne.de (NetEx) Date: Tue, 11 Apr 2006 09:59:37 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Cologne Online Film Festival - opens - "identityscapes" Message-ID: <443B61E9.3040401@netcologne.de> On Tuesday, 11 April 2006 CologneOFF - Cologne Online Film Festival (COFF) http://coff.newmediafest.org http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=7 is opening its 1st edition - Easter 2006 under the theme "Identityscapes" "In times of the globalization, the migration of people cross the world due to political, religious, ethnic and economical reasons, when the emancipation of the genders is advanced in certain countries & cultures, in others however, suppressed and persecuted, the questions of one's identity, defining oneself opposed to others becomes necessary in order to survive. "Identityscapes" has its starting point in the identity of the genders as the roots of each society. Through the variety of different approaches and definitions a rich, colourful landscape of human identities becomes visible via the artistic reflections manifested in the moving pictures." The festival, however, is no local phenomenon, but due to its online status it has got global relevance and can be accessed for free at any place under the conditions of a broad bandwidth Internet connection. Screenings in physical space will follow at a later stage at Cologne and many other places. Cologne OFF is organised by VideoChannel http://videochannel.newmediafest.org and powered by [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]||:cologne www.nmartproject.net . The film festival is featuring 40 shortfilms and videos of a duration between 1 and 15 minutes, selected and curated by Agricola de Cologne, It released a PDF catalogue for free download http://downloads.nmartproject.net/CologneOFF_1st_edition_2006.pdf These are the selected film/videos - also published on http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=7 Arzu Ozkal Telhan - Entitled as... Andrew Johnson - Black & White Elia Alba - La Jaba A. Girik & O. Shatalova - Warning: Woman! Eleanor Gates Stuart - KNIT Ina Loitzl - Snow White and Red ..... Joao Paulo Simoes - Take.This.Turn Elisabeth Smolarz - You & Me Beatrice Allegranti - In my Body Unnur A. Einarsdottir - Toilet Sonja Vuk - Cosmo Club Irene Tetaz - il nue Risk Hazekamp - Gay King Rahel Maher - Misstar Eileen Bonner - I Thou Steven Dixon - Invisible Girl Sinasi Günes - Androgen Michael Brynntrup - TV-X_PERM Fred Koenig - Voodoo Diva's International.. Lorenzo Nencini - Traviata Joey Hateley - A:Gender Ane Lan - Ane Lan Carlo Sansolo - Panoptica Erika Frenkel - Cascadura Baby Yamil Jamani - All Quite on the Western ColognFront Reuben James Preston -Remembering Welmo E. Joseph - 1/2 de porcillo (1/2 chicken) Calin Dan - Sample City Jens Salander - The Colossus by the Sea Dana Levy - Time with Franz Antonia Valero - S/T Lital Dotan & Eyal Perry - Embracement Gudrun Bittner - A dark glimps on a white gloved mouse Petra Lindholm - Reported Missing Yi Hyung Kim - Wo-men, Wo-rld Andrea Ferrara - Spazio dell'Assenza Tan Chui Mui - Hometown Nita Mocanu - Waiting Room Rafael Alcala - Smoked Nancy Atatkan - The Wall # COFF - Cologne Online Film Festival http://coff.newmediafest.org http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=7 (please disable pop-up blockers) *********************************** Released by NetEX - networked experience http://netex.nmartproject.net powered by [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne www.nmartproject.net - the experimental platform for art and New Media operating from Cologne/Germany. . info& contact info (at) nmartproject.net From nc-agricowi at netcologne.de Wed Apr 12 15:15:38 2006 From: nc-agricowi at netcologne.de (NetEx) Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 11:45:38 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Easter interviews on JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project Message-ID: <443CCC42.9000108@netcologne.de> [week 10-16 April] - EASTER edition interviews on Internet based art ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=11 http://downloads.nmartproject.net/JIP_10_questions_on_Internet_based_art.pdf ---> is featuring this week following 6 interviews with Letitia Jacchieri (Norway), Avi Rosen (Israel), Yvonne Martinsson (Sweden), Nadja Kutz (Germany), FilH (France), Luke Duncalfe (New Zealand) ---> Letizia Jaccheri is a professor in Software Engineering at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Department of Computer and Information Science. She has been working in the software engineering field since her master thesis work in late 80ties. Her interest include software process modelling, object orientation, software engineering education, empirical software engineering, and software engineering in a multi-disciplinary perspective with special attention to art and software. She has written more than sixty refereed papers. Avi Rosen is a New Media artist from Haifa/Israel. Since 1997 he is lecturer of "New Media Art" at Art Department of Haifa University, Art Institute of 'Oranim' the 'Kibutzim' seminary, Tivon. Many national and international exhibitions. Yvonne Martinsson is a PhD in English lit and the author of Eroticism, Ethics and Reading. She works in netbased new media as a writer / artist, is trained in post-structuralism and has in-depth knowledge of semiotics, psychoanalysis and deconstruction, as well as insights into feminism, cultural studies and the 'postmodern condition' and, she is an editor / translator with long experience of linguistic and exicographical work. Nadja Kutz Together with Tim Nikolai Hoffmann, Nadja Kutz forms the daytar group presently and run the daytar site. They live and work in Berlin/Germany. Their activities and site include experiments in the intersection of art, math and physics. FilH Filh [aka Frédéric Goudal] is an autidact artist, working on the web since 1995. Luke Duncalfe studied at the Intermedia Department of Time-Based Arts, Elam, Auckland. He works between the mediums of the Internet and video, and is the net.art curator for Window. He has contributed to art events in Auckland and shown work in the ICECA New Media Festivals in Chiang Mai and Bangkok, Rencontres Internationales in Paris and Berlin, and Prix Ars Electronica in Linz. He works as a part-time tutor at Auckland University of Technology in Visual Arts and as a developer, programming in Ruby and PHP. ---> About JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project JavaMuseum - Forum for Internet Technology in Contemporary Art www.javamuseum.org/start1.htm is currently preparing a new project, entitled: JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project http://jip.javamuseum.org to be launched in September 2006 Agricola de Cologne, director of JavaMuseum invited for an interview a number professionals & artists active in the field of Internet based art who participated in the "1st phase", the 18 JavaMuseum showcases 2001-2004, in order to spotlight their professional background, activities and visions. JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project issued further an open call including 10 questions on Internet based art addressed to professionals and "amateurs", in order to enable a broader discussion about the still undervaluated genre of Internet based art through a variety of different approaches, definitions and opinions. The entry rules and the questions (cut & paste) are available on http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=11&cat=80 or for free download as PDF http://downloads.nmartproject.net/JIP_10_questions_on_Internet_based_art.pdf Once completed - JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project will release the collected interviews and the selection of the most interesting answers a) online on the new project site - http://jip.javamuseum.org , but b) immediately also in form of one interview per week on the new weblog - JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project http://netex.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=11 and c) to be published as a printed book, later eventually. ************************************************ Released by NetEX - networked experience http://netex.nmartproject.net powered by [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne www.nmartproject.net - the experimental platform for art and New Media operating from Cologne/Germany. . info& contact info (at) nmartproject.net From ojpatrick at yahoo.com Wed Apr 12 16:27:46 2006 From: ojpatrick at yahoo.com (Ojwando JP) Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 03:57:46 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Breathing a New Freshness in the Outskirts Message-ID: <20060412105746.79521.qmail@web50107.mail.yahoo.com> Walking through the narrow by lanes of Kengeri Satellite Town, one of Bangalore’s burgeoning extensions recently, I came to the realization that certain things have changed. Obviously for the better I must emphasis. And the source of the glowing tribute? I could go on a walk with remarkable ease and not a single person in sight to accost me. This was not the case earlier when I moved to the sleepy locality off the Bangalore-Mysore highway. Even then, as an alien in one of India’s cosmopolitan cities, I had become constant source of fascination or indignation for the locals depending on which side of the fence they reveled in. Their reasons? I could not comprehend no matter how hard I tried. Or was it my descent, being of the Afro race? Banking on my previous experiences in the south Asian sub continent, I resolved that the safest way out was to be on the move and never to look back no matter the ‘provocation’. Indeed this tactic seemed to work as a deterrent but not for long. The locals soon came up with novel ways to get around the self imposed barrier. The young and old alike would come tagging along, some with loads of questions stemming from genuine interest or curiosity. Yet for others, it was an open and shut case of ignorance or sheer hostility. For the former, they had a friendly smile and would quickly engage in banter. Sometimes it went along these lines. “Hello West Indies?” “Do you like cricket? Olonga your brother?” ."Do you like my India?” And at times bordering on the absurd: “Where are you from?” “Oh! Africa? Is Mandela your president?” or “Don’t feel bad tell me, you don’t get education in your country?” The intensity and the pace of questioning did not leave one with many options. Which of these would you answer or ignore? Lack of response would elicit rude taunts. 'Kaalu' (Black man) or ‘Negro’ became a far too familiar call or 'Kothi' (Monkey) when they took it to the extremes some times at the behest of elderly people. With passage of time, slowly the taunts began to recede. Some of them had come to the sad reality that I could not be touched their intense prodding notwithstanding. Intriguingly, it was not so different with Rade Moshi, a management student from distant Tanzania. But hers was a struggle with a different dimension. Perhaps the first African to reside in Kengeri Satellite Town, she had met with an instant boycott when she decided to trade her city residence for the outskirts. “Forget it, we will not come to visit you,” her friends had protested so terrified of the distance from the city. Bangalore then had not seen much of its latest expansions and Kengeri Satellite Town was just another ‘halli’ as the locals would say. To Rade’s friends, Bull Temple Road and Chamarjpet were the furthest they could think of traversing. Beyond that, you were heading out of town. What if she fell sick? A joke in the students’ circles had it that if you were to make a call to a resident of Kengeri Satellite Town, you had to prefix an STD code, the implications not so hard to grasp. Though they had their own misgivings, Rade was unfazed. The serene and tranquil outskirts of Bangalore were too inspiring to ignore. And surely, nothing untoward took place. Come Sunday, I wanted to unwind after a tiring week and what better way than to take a walk reveling in the cool evening breeze? It proved an eye opener. The place has since opened its doors to embrace African students in their hordes, some of them with their families. Kenyans, Ugandans, Ethiopians, Tanzanians, Sudanese, and many more from the Middle East, now share the locality with the locals and ‘guests’ from other cities of the south Asian sub continent. The transformation is not hard to see as locals continue to warm up to their ‘guests’. Cyber cafes telephone booths, multi-cuisine eats outs, amongst other utility services have sprung up. Surprisingly, even the barbers and stylist have mastered the art of trimming kinky afro hair. Previously, an elderly man, seeing me struggle with my bits and pieces of the local language at a grocery store rebuked me. “Learn the local language,” was his unsolicited advice. Perhaps he was right. Unfortunately, what he and others of his ilk fail to grasp is the dilemma of those living in a multi cultural society. Which of the Indian languages would you opt for? To make a purchase of bread or related items, a mastery of Malyalam at the bakery would be called for. The general stores abound with Merwaris while the numerous youth in the vicinity are students from the north who revel in Hindi. For transaction at utility service offices, Kannada gave you a head start. Amazing, is it not? So on this day as I engaged in my evening walk, one thing was outrightly clear, the relative calm and acceptance. For those wary of Kengeri, it’s now a safe place to tread without fear of intimidation by casual callers or mischief makers. The best part of it now is that as Africans, we are well understood and the fear of being mistaken or clubbed together as natives of Dakshina Africa is all in the past. Just as Mandela a.k.a. Madiba ceased to be the president of Africa. It has been a long walk to ‘freedom’ though. John Patrick Ojwando, Research Scholar, Dept. of Studies in Communication & Journalism, University of Mysore, Manasagangothri Campus, Mysore -570 006 Mobile: 98456 28131 --------------------------------- Blab-away for as little as 1¢/min. Make PC-to-Phone Calls using Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060412/5cad7a96/attachment.html From nicheant at yahoo.co.uk Thu Apr 13 23:10:48 2006 From: nicheant at yahoo.co.uk (Nishant) Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 17:40:48 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] More on "mandal II" Message-ID: <20060413174048.39015.qmail@web25103.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Very well said, Anuj. I hope that the reporter of The Times of India who quoted Anuj Dar's pertition on 13 April 2006 (Delhi edition) is reading this debate as well and can also see how another set of the English-speaking public is supporting the affirmative action 'offered' (I will explain the quotation marks later) in educational institutions. While you have rightly pointed out the elitist games the English media plays it should be pointed out how Barkha Dutt sheepishly mumbled the reason for giving only 'ten per cent' (her figures) representation to the OBC students in We, the People audience. It happened after the OBC students had stormed out of the studio pointing out the shamelessly obvious elitist bias of NDTV and the audience in the show. She said, 'We couldn't get enough OBC students.' If Dutt subscribes to this post or if somebody can pass it on to her, let her know that the next time round she needs backward caste representation in her studio and can't find she should get in touch with me: I can get her around 50 crore of them at one day's notice. We can see the great upsurge of castist emotions in the English media as a reaction to its inability to control and mould the public opinion according to its agenda. The present upsurge agaisnt the OBCs is a part of the series that began when India refused to shine despite the best efforts of this media. During the NDA regime the English media was led to believe by Pramod Mahajan, Arun Jaitly, Arun Shourie, etc. how it could benefit from beign elitist. In this period The Times of India completed the process of throwing out senior journalists who had honed their skills in the socialist India. India Today turned Rightist under Prabhu Chawla and Vir Sanghvi convinced the Birlas that there was merit in being friendly with Jaitley. Then came the great socialist jolt to them in May 2004, and for another year or so the media could not pull itself out of BJPphilia. Every time the Left asserted itself on social and economic issues there would the loyal soldier of the Sangh Shekhar Gupta, the editor-in-chief of and stakeholder in The Indian Express, walking the sarsanghchalak K S Sudarshan to the talk on NDTV, a supposedly pro-Congress media house, and trying to bring the BJP back on the agenda of the mainstream media, even when it meant stripping L K Advani ideologically naked. Earlier the same media had blamed the stock market crash of May 2004 on the Left performance in the the general elections. When, a year later, the SEBI found an Australian firm guilty of rigging stock market all the media could do was to question the timing of announcing the decision of the probe. It said that the findings were deliberately released on the completion of UPA government's first year in office. More India turned socialist since May 2004 more the English media became aggresively elitist. When Jessica Lall was shot dead in April 1999, all she got was a Sansani kind of treatment in the media. There were even suggestions in the media how the Tamarind Court was emerging as a centre of fin-de-siècle values in Delhi and how women models like Lall were beneficiaries of such a set up. By the time the lower court acquitted Manu Sharma, a small-town thug who desired upper-class mannerisms and women, and Vikas Yadav, whose surname is enough to invoke hatred among the elite, much had changed in India. The Employment Guarantee Act had been passed; the Ministry of Disinvestment had been wound up; Narayan Murthy was asked to be accountable on the Bangalore airport issue by the humble farmer; Infosys had been refused freebies to make townships; Pramod Mahajan had been forced to return thousands of shares of Reliance Infocomm that he was almost gifted; Sitaram Yechury and Brinda Karat had become household names. The bruised English media latched on to the Jessica Lall judgement and started an SMS and the Internet campaigns to supposedly fight for justice. It very conveniently forgot to make an issue of the alleged rape by an industrialist's son of a 50-something woman in Bombay, a crime committed almost at the time when the Jessica Lall battle was being fought in the media. The media freely associted motives with the Bombay victim's decision to agree to take lift in the accused's car. NDTV performed the best when it got the father of the accused to almost cry on camera. All this happened when the Bombay police had confirmed rape. Ealier the media had managed to ridicule Preeti Jain, who had accused the Bollywood filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar of raping her. A Bollywood that is so closely aligned to the elite in India and has a mutually beneficial relationship with the media never comes under scrutiny for violating the most basic work ethics. If the media rejects thugs operating from the fringes of Page 3 in India, but choses to keep quiet when the centre of Page 3 can't ensure the most basic work conditions for women, the reason is clear: we are not dealing here with a feminist media; we have a hopelessly classist media at hand. In this time spare a thought for Arjun Singh as well. The shrewd politician is no messiah of backward classes. Neither is he a Nehruvian. He is a faithful minion of the Congress coterie, who has been given the task of securing legitimacy for the prince Rahul Gandhi. It doesn't need a great brain to know that a big decision like reservation if announced when the poll process is on will be struck down by the Election Commission. And, that is how this whole move was coneptualised. For the last one year now the Congress has been trying to wrest initiative in Uttar Pradesh (UP). Rahul Gandhi seems to have told his advisors that he won't consider himself a legitimate leader of the Congress, and therfore of India, if he can't revive the fortunes of the Congress in UP. So, we have Amar Singh tapes; we have Jaya Bachan being disqualified; we have the Great Renunciation, Part II; we have blasts and riots in communally sensitive cities; we have a needless re-election in Rai Bareilly; and, we have an 'announcement' of reservations for the OBCs, which can whip up passion but can never be implemented. Singh could very well have annoounced the decision two months back or two months hence. But, in both these cases it would have become a liability for the bourgeiois Congress. Don't forget that it was the same shrewd Singh who quietly reversed the Central decision to make higher education in institutions like IIMs, IITs, etc. less expensive. And, it also introduced a paradox in the Indian polity. A supposedly socialist and secular politician decides to make higher education expensive and therefore out of the reach of lower classes and minorities, after a brazenly communal Murli Manohar Joshi had decided to make education more affordable. ----- Original Message ---- From: Anuj Bhuwania To: reader-list at sarai.net; mallroad at gmail.com Sent: Thursday, 13 April, 2006 9:33:10 AM Subject: [Reader-list] More on "mandal II" Dear Shivam, I found your postings very informative and insightful especially the bit where you talk about "gather here for protest, gather there for protest. NDTV has promised support. Sahara has promised support".I think this is a very important process to document. Just wanted to continue the conversation further. Have been lurking in this list for ages but couldnt resist contributing with an inevitably simplistic and too long rant on this issue. Am substantially in agreement with your views in your articles and this post, and have watched myself get irritatingly indignant on coming across the blatantly propagandist campaign in the English language media.(Incidentally would be interesting to compare the current campaign in HT/TOI etc with that of Gujarat samachar/sandesh in Ahmedabad around 28 Feb, 2002. and also of course the supposed 'finest hour' of the english-language media then with their nakedly elitist campaign now- which is in a way my point. The divergence between the vernacular and the english media then is nicely contrasted with the convergence now on this issue. more about this later below) However some questions came up for me in reading some of the more interesting of the reservation-critical stuff published recently. Maybe these need to be taken somewhat seriously after all. 1. What about OBC reservation being seen as fundamentally different from and even in opposition to SC/ST reservation. Not just uppercaste bloggers but Barkha Dutt talking of Chandrabhan Prasad in "we the People" in her HT article, argue on these lines. This is a crucial question I think. 2.The well-known problem of reservation seats lying vacant. Now this is of course because of blatant refusal to implement it etc. But why is it there is so much less public and political discourse on proper implementation and on demands for filling vacant seats than on creating new quotas. 3. A common refrain recently has been that college-level is already too late for reservation and it should be done in schools to get them ready. But four months back, when the 93rd amendment was just about to be passed, we heard the elite public schools in delhi screaming murder when reservation there was theoretically made possible. I personally think this is the most radical and necessary step- reservation in private schools- towards destroying elitism right at its roots.We know how the very basis of the education system from Nehruvian times has been casteist by underinvesting in primary education. And again of course they'll do "whatever it takes" (sorry couldnt resist it) to subvert and minimise the effect of any reservations in schools as well. and notice- this is the only time these guys get concerned about government schools- "you destroyed them and you want to destroy us now." Maybe thats what will bring more attention to public education more generally. maybe reservation on schools need to be emphasised a lot more after all. 4. One of my specific interests, which I was very happy to know that you strongly shared, is in the upper caste nature of the indian news media. Your analysis is of course rare and acute and the only other person I have read on these lines is S Anand from Outlook. However my question is why only concentrate on Lucknow, a great place to start this of course, why not Delhi as well. How many SC/ST/OBCs are there in IBN, NDTV, TOI, Indian Express etc. Pioneer of course has given a token space to 1 columnist. Like the 'zenana dabba' as madhu kishwar inimitably calls such measures. What I am trying to say is that the we continue to see the English language press as afflicted by elitism, but only that of class and not of caste or communalism. So dainik jagaran/ Gujarat Samachar are seen as the great communal upper-caste newspapers and TOI etc as neo-liberal but not communal. Maybe on the lines of the difference between BJP and congress. But I think there is a problem here. Maybe its high time we stopped seeing the English media as the great saviour from the local vernacular primordialism in Traditional India,but just as implicated as dramatis personae in whatever these practices are. We supposedly casteless secularised english-speaking folks should maybe no longer see ourselves as liberators documenting the brutal traditions of the hinterland. The babu view from Delhi continues to see like the state, inevitably leading to interventions like Supreme Court PILs, an inherently authoritarian move though sometimes a benevolent one. mahmood farooqui had written in response to aaditya dar that OBCs at least are 27% of the population. Well apparently they actually are 52%. So we are talking about 74.5%(SC/STs + OBCs) of the population getting 49.5 % reservation. Or in other words, the 25.5% mostly uppercaste population have access to 50.5% of seats. And still they are the ones protesting. (why the Mandal commission relied on 1931 Census is because no caste census has been allowed since then. It was proposed again in 2001 but it didnt happen, provoking an interesting debate) Oh finally, can you please tell me how one can get a flat in gaurav aprtments, patparganj. I think somebody I know might be interested. Best, anuj On 4/11/06, Shivam wrote: There are more than enough seats for all higher education students in the country. Be it engineering or medicine or management or plain old BA courses, there are more than enough seats in this country. Why then are the anti-reservation alarmists painting a picture that some general category people will go without an education? If you read this: http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web2196523711Hoot122711%20AM1229&pn=1 and this: http://www.countercurrents.org/dalit-vij061204.htm you will know more or less why I support reservations in principle: I've seen how caste prejudice works and I have seen how reservations help. There is this whole one-point facetious argument of merit. In my college 22 or so per sent seats are reserved for Christian students. Fair enough: the college was established by Christian missionaries and wishes to preserve its Christian character. As a result I have Christian classmates who got much less marks in their Class 12 exams than I did. But many of them are performing much better in their academics than I am. Quotas and the issue of merit is much more complicated than what it is being made out to be. Quota doesn't mean that an absolute nutcase is going to sit in an engineering class. It means that a student with 65% marks could be studying in a class with a student who got 95%. To say that the two can't co-exist is absurd. The media has coined a corny title for this one - Mandal II. In the last post Dilip has already mentioned media bias in the coverage of the issue. I've been getting all kinds of sms-es from friends in Delhi University: gather here for protest, gather there for protest. NDTV has promised support. Sahara has promised support. And then an sms said that Aditya Sarma (a III Maths student of Hans Raj College) is on a hunger strike and may immolate himself soon. I wonder if Mr Sarma is planning to contest Delhi University Students' Union elections next year. That's what Rajiv Goswami had done after attempting to immolate himself in 1990. Goswami finally succumbed to health problems in 2004. Do you see the irony here: by the time his immolation killed him, Shining India had arrived. The picture they had painted in Mandal I - that 'we' will be left unemployed, uneducated - is the last thing you see today. If Aditya Sarma does immolate himself, all those of you igniting this false frenzy - all the bloggers and editors and the chai-shop gossipers - you will be responsible for it. Lastly, all those opposing "Mandal II" should tell us whether they are non-OBC. Upper castes are no doubt meritocratic (which is why sons inherit fathers' businesses), and they are no doubt oblivious to caste (just see the matrimonial pages), but there is the hint of vested interest here. And if you are opposing reservations because admissions will become tougher for you, you won't get the point of affirmative action anyway. Lastly, as an aside, will you believe me that I have met Mandal? No, not Justice BP Mandal but Ashok Mandal. He is a rickshaw puller in Delhi University and hails from Murho in Madhepura. Just where Justice Mandal came from. _________________________________________ reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. Critiques & Collaborations To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. List archive: < https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> _________________________________________ reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. Critiques & Collaborations To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. List archive: -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060413/8c927b3b/attachment.html From nangla at cm.sarai.net Fri Apr 14 19:08:41 2006 From: nangla at cm.sarai.net (CM@Nangla) Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 15:38:41 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Nangla's Delhi, April 14th Message-ID: New Posts on Nangla's Delhi http://nangla.freeflux.net The City and Its Landscapes, Rakesh 14.04.2006 There is a restlessness in the city. Everyday, people roam the streets, with their inner landscapes, tussling with it amidst others, on roads which are like the lines on our finger tips - which cannot be removed, erased. >From where one stands, one can sense the present time, look back and see time that has passed, but no corner of the time to come can be seen. Ahead, there is a sky. The sky flows into time that is to come, it is the intimation of things to come. Time watches everyone through the frames it makes with its different weights and scales. Nothing is hidden from the eyes of time. (Read whole post) Was-Nangla-Is 01, by Henna 13.04.2006 The last one week we have been roaming the lanes of LNJP colony with the broadsheet from Nangla [see gallery on the blog]. We have done this with the previous issues of the Cybermohalla broadsheets – distributing them, standing at different points and reading them out, etc – but the experience of this time was, to say the least, different. (Read whole post) No Thoroughfare, by Nasreen 12.04.2006 When I went to Nangla Maanchi for the first time, walking through the lanes looking for the Compughar, I realised the lane was just like the lanes of LNJP. Each lane branches into several others, or many lanes join it. (Read whole post) Eight Postcards from JP [01] 12.04.2006 Once the lanes were cleaned twice a day along with the houses. Today everyone's memories hang in the air with the dust from the broken houses. (Read whole post) CM Lab, Nangla Maanchi http://nangla.freeflux.net http://nangla-maachi.freeflux.net ----------------------------------------------- It quenches the thirst of the thirsty, Such is Nangla, It shelters those who come to the city of Delhi, Such is Nangla. ------------------------------------------------ From uk_ps at yahoo.co.uk Fri Apr 14 22:52:29 2006 From: uk_ps at yahoo.co.uk (udayan kumar) Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 18:22:29 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] The Public of the Private Message-ID: <20060414172229.61678.qmail@web26508.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> The Public of the Private In this posting I would like to share with you some of my reservations on the notion of ‘public sphere’. A precise collection of laws drawn up around 450 BC by Roman jurisprudents seems to reflect the dormant potential; it carried throughout millennia, of being able to become very much instrumental to the need of a mercantile society in facilitating a reasonably protected commercial activity. Centuries later in 1362 a money lender in Europe enters into a contract abiding by the formula prescribed in the same Roman source; which reads: “In the presence of not less than five roman citizens of full age, and also a sixth person having the same qualifications, known as libripens, to hold a bronze scale, the party who is talking by the mancipation, holding a bronze ingot says: ‘I declare this slave is mine ex jure Quiritum, and he be purchased to me with this bronze ingot and scale’. He then strikes the scale with the ingot and gives it as a symbolic price to him from whom he is receiving by the mancipation”. (I have not consulted the original material; however, in order to draw upon a different inference I have relied on the reference to the material in Michel E. Tiger’s Law and the Rise of Capitalism p.26) Against the background of this reference several questions can be asked. Who are the ‘five Roman citizens of full age’? Are they the ‘witness’ of the contract? Do those witnesses represent the ‘public’? Can we then think of a situation where the ‘witnesses’ turn out to be spectators? The background of these questions parallels my take on the topic I am working on in which the duel role of witness/spectator transmutation is discussed at length in one of the sections. Udayakumar.M ___________________________________________________________ To help you stay safe and secure online, we've developed the all new Yahoo! Security Centre. http://uk.security.yahoo.com From info at art-action.org Sat Apr 15 02:32:42 2006 From: info at art-action.org (Rencontres internationales Paris/Berlin) Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 23:02:42 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Festival 2006 :: Call for Entries :: Appel a' proposition :: Teilnahmeaufruf References: <44400D38.C4CB2B9C@art-action.org> Message-ID: <44400DF2.BC6C4195@art-action.org> dear all please read below our call for entries we are currently distributing. all the best Charlene Dinhut EN FRANÇAIS PLUS BAS DANS LE MESSAGE AUF DEUTSCH UNTEN ========================================= CALL FOR ENTRIES: UNTIL THE APRIL 30th, 2006 ||||| FESTIVAL #11 #12 ||||| RENCONTRES INTERNATIONALES PARIS/BERLIN ||||| FILM / VIDEO / MULTIMEDIA ||||| http://art-action.org/en_info.htm *** Please forward this information as widely as possible *** The Call for entries 2006 is open until April 30th. In Autumn 2006, the festival 'Rencontres internationales Paris/Berlin' will present in Paris and Berlin an international programming focusing on film, video and multimedia, gathering works of artists and directors acknowledged on the international scene along with young artists and not much distributed directors. The festival aims at presenting those works to a broad audience, at creating circulations between different art practices and between different audiences, as well as creating new exchanges between artists, directors and professionals. This event is supported by French, German and international cultural institutions. http://art-action.org/en_soutien.htm + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + ALL INDIVIDUALS OR ORGANIZATIONS CAN SUBMIT ONE OR SEVERAL PROPOSALS. THE CALL FOR ENTRIES IS OPEN TO FILM, VIDEO AND MULTIMEDIA CYCLES, without any restriction of length or genre. All submissions are free, without any limitation of geographic origin. CINEMA AND VIDEO CYCLES : * Video art / Experimental video * Experimental Film * Fiction * Documentary * Animation movie MULTIMEDIA CYCLES : * Installation * Net art, CDrom, DVDrom * Performance art, concert, sound work Video and film submissions are received on DVD or VHS. ALL submissions are sent by mail, enclosed with a filled-in ONLINE ENTRY FORM, UNTIL APRIL 30th, 2006. Entry forms and information regarding the 'Rencontres internationales Paris/Berlin' are available on our website http://art-action.org/en_info.htm + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + The 'Rencontres internationales' offer more than a simple presentation of the works. They introduce an intercultural forum gathering various guests from all over the world – artists and directors recognized on the international scene along with young artists and directors who still cannot enjoy a substantial distribution, directors from organizations and emerging structures – testifying of the vivacity of creation and its diffusion, but also of the artistic and cultural contexts that often are in transition or sometimes experiencing deep changes. The festival reflects specificities and crossings of contemporary art practices, and work out this necessary time when points of view meet and are exchanged. ========================================= EN FRANÇAIS ========================================= APPEL A PROPOSITION: JUSQU'AU 30 AVRIL 2006 ||||| FESTIVAL #11 #12 ||||| RENCONTRES INTERNATIONALES PARIS/BERLIN ||||| FILM / VIDEO / MULTIMEDIA ||||| http://art-action.org/fr_info.htm *** Merci de faire circuler cette information le plus largement possible *** L'appel à proposition 2006 est ouvert jusqu'au 30 avril. Les Rencontres internationales Paris/Berlin présenteront à Paris et Berlin à l'automne 2006 une programmation internationale inédite consacrée aux nouveaux cinémas, à la création vidéo et au multimédia, réunissant des œuvres d'artistes et de réalisateurs reconnus sur la scène internationale aux côtés de jeunes artistes et de réalisateurs peu diffusés. Les Rencontres internationales ont pour vocation de faire découvrir ces œuvres à un large public, de créer des circulations entre différentes pratiques artistiques et entre différents publics, de susciter des échanges entre artistes, réalisateurs et acteurs de la vie artistique et culturelle. Cet événement est soutenu par des institutions culturelles françaises, allemandes et internationales. http://art-action.org/fr_soutien.htm + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + TOUT INDIVIDU OU ORGANISME PEUT EFFECTUER UNE OU PLUSIEURS PROPOSITIONS D'OEUVRE. L'APPEL A PROPOSITION EST OUVERT POUR LES CYCLES FILM, VIDEO ET MULTIMEDIA, sans restriction de genre et de durée. Les propositions sont gratuites, sans limitation de provenance géographique. CYCLES FILMS ET VIDEOS : * Cinéma expérimental * Art vidéo / Vidéo expérimentale * Fiction * Documentaire * Film d'animation CYCLES MULTIMEDIAS : * Installation * Net art, CD-rom, DVDrom * Performance, concert, création sonore Les propositions film et vidéo sont reçues sur DVD ou VHS. TOUTES les propositions sont reçues, par courrier, accompagnées d'une FICHE DE PROPOSITION remplie, JUSQU'AU 30 AVRIL 2006. La fiche de proposition, ainsi que toutes les informations relatives aux Rencontres internationales Paris/Berlin sont disponibles sur notre site web http://art-action.org/fr_info.htm + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Plus qu'une simple présentation des œuvres, les Rencontres internationales proposent un véritable forum interculturel, en présence de nombreux invités venus du monde entier, artistes et réalisateurs reconnus sur la scène internationale aux côtés de jeunes artistes et de réalisateurs peu diffusés, de responsables d'institutions et de structures émergentes témoignant d'une vivacité de la création et de sa diffusion, de contextes artistiques et culturels souvent en transformation ou parfois connaissant de profondes mutations. Les Rencontres internationales rendent compte des spécificités et des convergences des pratiques artistiques, et permettent ce temps nécessaire où les points de vue se croisent et s'échangent. ========================================= AUF DEUTSCH ========================================= TEILNAHMEAUFRUF - EINSENDESCHLUSS 30. APRIL 2006 ||||| FESTIVAL #11 #12 ||||| RENCONTRES INTERNATIONALES PARIS/BERLIN ||||| FILM / VIDEO / MULTIMEDIA ||||| http://art-action.org/de_info.htm *** Bitte diese Informationen weiterleiten *** Der Teilnahmeaufruf läuft noch bis zum 30. April 2006. Das Festival 'Rencontres internationales Paris/Berlin' stellt im Herbst 2006 in Paris und Berlin ein internationales Programm vor, das sich vor allem den Bereichen Film, Video und Multimedia widmet, und sich aus Werken von international anerkannten Künstlern und Filmschaffenden, sowie aus Beiträgen weniger bekannter Künstler zusammensetzt. Das Anliegen der 'Rencontres internationales' ist es, diese Werke einem breiten Publikum zugänglich zu machen, die verschiedenen Schaffensbereiche einander näherzubringen und den Austausch zwischen Künstlern, Regisseuren und Persönlichkeiten aus der kulturellen und künstlerischen Szene zu fördern. Als Veranstaltung ohne Wettbewerb werden die 'Rencontres internationeles Paris/ Berlin' von deutschen, französischen und internationalen Institutionen unterstützt. http://art-action.org/de_soutien.htm + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + JEDE PERSON, EINRICHTUNG ODER GESELLSCHAFT KANN SICH MIT EINEM ODER MEHREREN WERK(EN) BEWERBEN. DER TEILNAHMEAUFRUF BETRIFFT DIE KATEGORIEN FILM, VIDEO UND MULTIMEDIA, ohne Einschränkungen in Hinblick auf Genre oder Dauer. Die Bewerbung ist kostenlos und es gibt keine Beschränkungen hinsichtlich des Entstehungslandes. SPARTE FILM UND VIDEO (Alle Film- und Videoformate) : * Videokunst/ experimentelles Video * Experimentalfilm * Fiktion * Dokumentarfilm * Animationsfilm SPARTE MULTIMEDIA : * Installationen * Net Art, CD-Rom, DVD-Rom * Performances, Konzert, Klangkunstwerke Film- und Videoeinsendungen werden auf DVD oder VHS angenommen. Bis ZUM 30. APRIL 2006 nehmen wir ALLE Bewerbungen zusammen mit einem ausgefüllten BEWERBUNGSFORMULAR auf dem Postweg entgegen. Das Bewerbungsformular, sowie sämtliche Informationen zu den 'Rencontres internationales Paris/Berlin' finden Sie auf unserer Website : http://art-action.org/de_info.htm + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + Die Rencontres internationales sind mehr als nur eine einfache Ausstellung. Jede Ausgabe ist gleichzeitig ein interkulturelles Forum mit zahlreichen Gästen aus der ganzen Welt. International anerkannte Künstler und Filmemacher neben jungen, aufstrebenden Kollegen, Leiter bedeutender Kunsteinrichtungen neben Betreibern alternativer Strukturen zeugen von der Lebendigkeit des Schaffens und seiner Verbreitung, von der Situation der künstlerischen Praxis in den jeweiligen Ländern, von denen sich manche in einer Übergangsphase befinden oder tiefgreifende Veränderungen erleben. Die Rencontres internationales zeigen die Besonderheiten und Konvergenzen der verschiedenen künstlerischen Praktiken auf und schaffen den notwendigen Zeit-Raum, in dem Sichtweisen aufeinandertreffen und ausgetauscht werden können. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060414/d1c525a3/attachment.html From cometmedia at vsnl.net Fri Apr 14 15:11:59 2006 From: cometmedia at vsnl.net (Comet Media Foundation) Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 15:11:59 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Storytelling and Screenplay Writing workshop in Mumbai Message-ID: <443F6E67.8080008@vsnl.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060414/f471a3e1/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From cometmedia at vsnl.net Fri Apr 14 15:13:41 2006 From: cometmedia at vsnl.net (Comet Media Foundation) Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 15:13:41 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Film Appreciation Workshop in Mumbai Message-ID: <443F6ECD.8070800@vsnl.net> Understanding Worlds of Cinemas This workshop will consist of 24 sessions, (6:30 to 8:30 pm) three days a week (Mon-Wed-Fri), spread over eight weeks (two months) 17^th April to 9^th June 2006, at Comet Media Foundation, Topiwala Lane School, Lamington Road, Mumbai 400 007. These sessions will be conducted by filmmaker Chandita Mukherjee with other resource persons coming in for specific topics. There will be screenings of selected films from each period and genre being explored. *Session no* *Subject and description* *Dates* *No of units* 1 An introduction to the course with a focus on the origins of cinema: its pre-history in the impulse to art and technological history 17^th April 1 2 The advent of cinema: the making of a language of film 1913–1919 till the coming of the talkies, 1929 19^th April 1 3 & 4 Developments in the Soviet Union: Eisenstein and his contemporaries, experimentation with form, concepts of montage, mise-en-scene etc. 21^st & 24^th April 2 5 Understanding the development of a popular ‘Indian’ film language starting with Phalke, through the decades till the present. 26^th April 1 6 The evolution and rise of the studio system in Hollywood 28^th April 1 7 & 8 Introduction to theories of cinemas and critical methodologies 1^st & 3^rd May 2 9 & 10 Neo-realism after WW II and the French New Wave 5^th & 8^th May 2 11 & 12 Indian cinema: Ray and Ghatak 10^th & 12^th May 2 13 & 14 Modernism and the European ‘art cinema’ 15^th & 17^th May 2 15 ‘Parallel cinema’ of India, the 1970s to the 90s 19^th May 1 16 & 17 Latin American cinema 22^nd & 24^th May 2 18 The US ‘indie’ film 26^th May 1 19 & 20 Japanese cinema 29^th & 31^st May 2 21 & 22 Documentary cinema: history, contemporary developments 2^nd & 5^th June 2 23 Contemporary world cinemas: Iranian cinema, Greek, New narratives, African cinema 7^th June 1 24 Review and conclusion 9^th June 1 For more details, contact: Jacob at cometmedia at vsnl.net or speak to him at 23869052 or23826674 on any working day. _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From bawree at yahoo.com Sat Apr 15 12:23:09 2006 From: bawree at yahoo.com (mamta mantri) Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 23:53:09 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Photo studios near Royal Cinema,,, mamta Message-ID: <20060415065309.28468.qmail@web33105.mail.mud.yahoo.com> On either sides of Royal are two photo studios, Tamanna and Pakeeza. I met Bobby, 24 year old, stays at Dockyard Yard and hails from Gujarat. He manages the shop and its customers. He has a good height and a good physique and he is proud of it. His cousin has joined him and is working with him for the past 2 years. By the way, Bobby’s real name is Amit, but this is his chosen name. He does not know the past of the shop, but definitely wants to be famous and make it big. He aspired to be a model and tried hard at it; but didn’t have the money (to bribe the concerned people) and language (he has studied till 10th STD and does not know English). He talked with me seriously, but only after a few flirtatious moments. So he took this job and has become famous because of this work in the photo studio and his body. Yes, his body. He can easily fix someone else’s face on his body and make a picture out of it. I found them to be pretty decent ones. But how and why should he do that? Well, the concerned people know about how these photographs are done and they like it too, to show them off in their native places. For him, he is already famous locally, from Grant Road to Bombay Central to CST, as Bobby the photographer-model. Whatever happened to the whole debate on morphing in the world of internet and other wise? The reason is pretty simple: everyone has an alter ego, and morphing allows a recluse for the alter ego from the real self towards a parallel process which superimposes reality; and people pay him for it. Even though he is famous because of this profession, the money goes to his boss. That’s what he had aimed at, originally, right!!!!! What about the posters of the Bollywood stars? They buy the cut outs from Grant Road and then paste them according to their specifications, on card board. Each one costs about 250 Rs. They make new poster every Eid, not before that. Why not before that? In Diwali, you burst crackers, in Holi, you play with colors, where is the time for photographs? The trend began with Sanjay Dutt and now Salman is officially on the top. So the hierarchy goes like this: Salman Khan, Bobby, and full stop. What about Kareena, Rani and others. They are way beyond the ladder. These posters definitely are a major source of income, now that the passport office opposite has closed down. Pretty interesting, huh!!!! mamta __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From bawree at yahoo.com Sat Apr 15 12:25:49 2006 From: bawree at yahoo.com (mamta mantri) Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 23:55:49 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] film distributors,, mamta Message-ID: <20060415065549.90252.qmail@web33106.mail.mud.yahoo.com> hello all,,, As an effort to understand the phenomenon of hit and flop films, I thought it wiser to meet the distributors who showcase their films here. So I met Mr Kishor, an intelligent-Mallu-not-part of this gimmick, who supplies Bhojpuri films to Super and Shalimar. He also distributes Malayalam films (his latest film was ‘Tanmatra’- Mohanlal). He urged me to watch that film, something on a different plane altogether. He shared the same opinion about the audience and the place and theatre like any other interviewee would have talked. However, he talked of new words like ‘poor maintenance of the theatres’ and ‘limited thinking of the audience’. So where does the war between the exhibitor and distributor go? He says the exhibitor decided what kind of film should be shown (more explanation later, it became clear, where I met Sheru). So, Mithun is the favorite hero. He is the Amotabh of the poor. The main factor in a hit film is the hero. Audience here likes physical fights, involving the body, but not interested in guns or other technological-Matrix forms of fights. There is a strong craze for music here. There are 8-10 songs in any Bhojpuri film (he personally does not like it). Rural setting is very important for a Bhojpuri film to work. Any film shot outside the village is a flop. But when it comes to Hindi films, Indian culture should be the highlight. A film appeals then. SARFARAZ-SHERU-DAWOOD The conversation with Kishor found full manifestation in my brief talk with Sheru. He has been into this for the past 12 years; he has inherited this from his dad. He is the exhibitor for Royal and Nishat theatres. The owners (he calls them ‘landlords’) rent the theatre to him, and he displays the films that he buys from the distributors from NAAZ building, the bastion of Indian film distribution. So, technically, Sheru is the ‘exhibitor’ and he rents the films from distributors like Kishor to show it at these theatres. The first comment that he made was that it was because of Bhojpuri films that they have got saved, otherwise no means of earnings, because how many times can you show a particular film (a film, on an average, gets screened in 6 months in any of the theatres on Play House). He calls a film a sugarcane, and said, “Kitna ras nikalenge?” Another word that I came across was “KHURAK”, which means food, in the above context. Apart from the routine stuff, he said that the last show is the best, usually house full, because the audience has finished their daily routine. He talked about Manoj Tiwari, who was in Mumbai to perform for an awards show. He asked for the Air Conditioner to be shut down, because he could not bear that. Such is the star cast and the audience. Comedy films like “Judwaa”, “Saajan Chale Sasural”, sad films like “Tere Naam”, Kyon Ki” are also hits. Romances like “Saajan”, “MPK”, “HAHK”, etc are hits. “Kranti” and “Coolie” were major hits in their time and ran fro more than 25 weeks in the second run. Jeetendra doesn’t work here because he has worked in social and family films for a large part of his career. Sunil Shetty has flopped in this circle after DHADKAN, because he has stopped working in action films after that, so he is no longer is a part of popular consciousness. If you are not positively visible on the ‘a grade’ film circuit, you lose touch here as well. An experience about K3G. One of the men got upset with the film and left mid way, and said, “SRK got thrown out of the family by his dad, and he could settle so very easily in London. How did he get the money? My father also threw me out of home. It is so very difficult to come to Mumbai and survive. We have to think so many times to go to UP, and he can settle so very easily in London, what crap!!!” What else hampers their business? Cable for sure has affected them. The location is also a hindrance. The proximity of 5-8 cinema halls in an area divides the audience, and therefore harmful for the exhibitor. But it proves to be a boon for the distributor. He then has a complaint to voice, which he hopes that I would forward to the right authorities. None of the big stars want to do action films and/or meant for single screens. Heroes are interested in overseas, family oriented and multiplex oriented films. Our voices, the single screen people, need to be heard. mamta __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From ysaeed7 at yahoo.com Sun Apr 16 09:46:50 2006 From: ysaeed7 at yahoo.com (Yousuf) Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2006 21:16:50 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] it'd be great if Modi dies of hunger strike than Medha Message-ID: <20060416041650.2572.qmail@web51414.mail.yahoo.com> --- Sherwani Mustafa wrote: > To: peace initiative > > > Modi to go on 51-hour fast against Govt move > > Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday > decided to go on a 51-hour fast at Sabarmati Ashram > in Ahmedabad from Sunday to protest against > Government's move to temporarily suspend further construction of the Narmada Dam. > ----------------------------------------------------- > > Dear Mr. Narendra Modi! > You have taken a right step in the right > direction.But please ensure that you donot survive > this fast, because that will be a commendable > sacrifice for the life of Medha Patkar.The Centre > has > suspended the construction of Narmada dam because > her > life is in danger, and so it is your moral duty to > end > your existence for the safety of a woman who is > reigning the hearts of millions of people, not only > in > India, but round the world. > Dear Mr. Modi! I think after having committed > most > heinous crimes and sins, you have made a fair choice > - > between you and Medha Patkar.If she dies, the > country > will be losing a great warrior and social activist > who > has been making tremendous sacrifices for the > downtrodden. On the contrary, if you willingly bring > your existence to an end, it will be considered as > some sort of atonement for your sins.She is the boon > and you are the bane for society. In her death the > countless poor will be losing their saviour and will > be wailing, while in your death thousands of the > relations of those who were massacred under under > your > command will be getting an occasion to rejoice, and > the secular majority of the country will be heaving > a > sigh of relief. > > Dr. Mustafa Kamal Sherwani > > > > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From gabyvargasc at prodigy.net.mx Sun Apr 16 22:05:58 2006 From: gabyvargasc at prodigy.net.mx (Gabriela Vargas-Cetina) Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2006 11:35:58 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] More on "mandal II" In-Reply-To: <008f01c65f9f$7215ade0$30ee41db@ReyhanChaudhuri> Message-ID: Well, thank you but it is not like that: it is my and others¹ job (every university professor¹s job, from my point of view) to try to get them there, when they come into our classrooms, but it does not mean we can actually do it each time, often because they do not have the resources (knowledge base, mainly) needed to take advantage of the opportunities we try to open for them. And it is not that I get students from my continent: I get mainly European students through different exchange programmes, and students from urban Yucatan. Rarely, the come from rural Yucatan, and those are the ones I feel I have to pay the most attention to, especially if they come from underprivileged social strata. In the case of India I now see your point, and it is well taken. Gabriela On 4/14/06 3:43 AM, "reyhan chaudhuri" wrote: > Dear Gabriela, > It is wonderful that you spot the students from the neglected reginos of your > continent and push them to brilliance. > The young people in our country are however worried about these reservations > because they are based on caste or community not economic strata. Within a > caste or community there are often some who already have a very aristrocatic > style of living or are apriveleged echelon-and they keep benefitting at the > cost of those who really need it.... > That is why the young people are disgruntled,concerned and even at places > -agitated. > -R.Chaudhuri >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> >> From: Gabriela Vargas-Cetina >> >> To: Anuj Bhuwania ; sarai list >> >> >> Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2006 9:41 PM >> >> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] More on "mandal II" >> >> >> Dear all, >> >> As a true outsider to this debate, I just want to say this: I think quotas >> are a cheap way to show a democratic face in any country. I am a university >> professor and, sure enough, some of my most brilliant students have come >> from the upper echelons of different European and Latin American countries; >> but every now and again I get a student from a poor family in a rural >> village, and I can recognize her or his brilliance. It is my job and that >> of my colleagues to make that brilliance come out and bring the student up >> to par with the best of the best from among young scholars (some of whom I >> have been fortunate to teach to). However, the unfair distribution of >> elementary and secondary education affecting my and all countries I know, >> ensure that only exceptionally will one of these students make it into my >> university classroom. >> >> Real democracy would be providing the best education for everyone, without >> differences between rich and poor, urban and rural and so forth. Since this >> is not happening, quotas are a cheap but at this point necessary policy to >> ensure that I will get at least one of those future great minds every five >> years or so, because quotas notwithstanding, bright but underprivileged >> students will remain so and will not get to the universities, no matter >> what. >> >> Gabriela Vargas-Cetina >> Professor of Anthropology >> Merida, Mexico >> >> >> On 4/12/06 11:03 PM, "Anuj Bhuwania" wrote: >> >> >>> Dear Shivam, >>> I found your postings very informative and insightful especially the bit >>> where you talk about "gather here for protest, gather there for protest. >>> NDTV has promised support. Sahara has promised support".I think this is a >>> very important process to document. >>> Just wanted to continue the conversation further. Have been lurking in this >>> list for ages but couldnt resist contributing with an inevitably >>> simplistic and too long rant on this issue. >>> Am substantially in agreement with your views in your articles and this >>> post, and have watched myself get irritatingly indignant on coming across >>> the blatantly propagandist campaign in the English language >>> media.(Incidentally would be interesting to compare the current campaign in >>> HT/TOI etc with that of Gujarat samachar/sandesh in Ahmedabad around 28 >>> Feb, 2002. and also of course the supposed 'finest hour' of the >>> english-language media then with their nakedly elitist campaign now- which >>> is in a way my point. The divergence between the vernacular and the english >>> media then is nicely contrasted with the convergence now on this issue. >>> more about this later below) >>> >>> However some questions came up for me in reading some of the more >>> interesting of the reservation-critical stuff published recently. Maybe >>> these need to be taken somewhat seriously after all. >>> >>> 1. What about OBC reservation being seen as fundamentally different from >>> and even in opposition to SC/ST reservation. Not just uppercaste bloggers >>> but Barkha Dutt talking of Chandrabhan Prasad in "we the People" in her HT >>> article, argue on these lines. This is a crucial question I think. >>> >>> 2.The well-known problem of reservation seats lying vacant. Now this is of >>> course because of blatant refusal to implement it etc. But why is it there >>> is so much less public and political discourse on proper implementation and >>> on demands for filling vacant seats than on creating new quotas. >>> >>> 3. A common refrain recently has been that college-level is already too >>> late for reservation and it should be done in schools to get them ready. >>> But four months back, when the 93rd amendment was just about to be passed, >>> we heard the elite public schools in delhi screaming murder when >>> reservation there was theoretically made possible. I personally think this >>> is the most radical and necessary step- reservation in private schools- >>> towards destroying elitism right at its roots.We know how the very basis of >>> the education system from Nehruvian times has been casteist by >>> underinvesting in primary education. >>> And again of course they'll do "whatever it takes" (sorry couldnt resist >>> it) to subvert and minimise the effect of any reservations in schools as >>> well. and notice- this is the only time these guys get concerned about >>> government schools- "you destroyed them and you want to destroy us now." >>> Maybe thats what will bring more attention to public education more >>> generally. maybe reservation on schools need to be emphasised a lot more >>> after all. >>> 4. One of my specific interests, which I was very happy to know that you >>> strongly shared, is in the upper caste nature of the indian news media. >>> Your analysis is of course rare and acute and the only other person I have >>> read on these lines is S Anand from Outlook. >>> However my question is why only concentrate on Lucknow, a great place to >>> start this of course, why not Delhi as well. How many SC/ST/OBCs are there >>> in IBN, NDTV, TOI, Indian Express etc. Pioneer of course has given a token >>> space to 1 columnist. Like the 'zenana dabba' as madhu kishwar inimitably >>> calls such measures. >>> What I am trying to say is that the we continue to see the English language >>> press as afflicted by elitism, but only that of class and not of caste or >>> communalism. So dainik jagaran/ Gujarat Samachar are seen as the great >>> communal upper-caste newspapers and TOI etc as neo-liberal but not >>> communal. Maybe on the lines of the difference between BJP and congress. >>> But I think there is a problem here. Maybe its high time we stopped seeing >>> the English media as the great saviour from the local vernacular >>> primordialism in Traditional India,but just as implicated as dramatis >>> personae in whatever these practices are. We supposedly casteless >>> secularised english-speaking folks should maybe no longer see ourselves as >>> liberators documenting the brutal traditions of the hinterland. The babu >>> view from Delhi continues to see like the state, inevitably leading to >>> interventions like Supreme Court PILs, an inherently authoritarian move >>> though sometimes a benevolent one. >>> >>> mahmood farooqui had written in response to aaditya dar that OBCs at least >>> are 27% of the population. Well apparently they actually are 52%. So we are >>> talking about 74.5%(SC/STs + OBCs) of the population getting 49.5 % >>> reservation. Or in other words, the 25.5% mostly uppercaste population >>> have access to 50.5% of seats. And still they are the ones protesting. >>> (why the Mandal commission relied on 1931 Census is because no caste census >>> has been allowed since then. It was proposed again in 2001 but it didnt >>> happen, provoking an interesting debate) >>> >>> Oh finally, can you please tell me how one can get a flat in gaurav >>> aprtments, patparganj. I think somebody I know might be interested. >>> >>> Best, >>> anuj >>> >>> >>> >>> On 4/11/06, Shivam wrote: >>> There are more than enough seats for all higher education students in >>> the country. Be it engineering or medicine or management or plain old >>> BA courses, there are more than enough seats in this country. Why then >>> are the anti-reservation alarmists painting a picture that some >>> general category people will go without an education? >>> >>> If you read this: >>> http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web2196523711Hoot122711%20AM1229&pn >>> =1 >>> >> mp;pn=1> >>> >> mp;pn=1> >>> >>> and this: >>> http://www.countercurrents.org/dalit-vij061204.htm >>> >>> you will know more or less why I support reservations in principle: >>> I've seen how caste prejudice works and I have seen how reservations >>> help. >>> >>> There is this whole one-point facetious argument of merit. In my >>> college 22 or so per sent seats are reserved for Christian students. >>> Fair enough: the college was established by Christian missionaries and >>> wishes to preserve its Christian character. As a result I have >>> Christian classmates who got much less marks in their Class 12 exams >>> than I did. But many of them are performing much better in their >>> academics than I am. Quotas and the issue of merit is much more >>> complicated than what it is being made out to be. Quota doesn't mean >>> that an absolute nutcase is going to sit in an engineering class. It >>> means that a student with 65% marks could be studying in a class with >>> a student who got 95%. To say that the two can't co-exist is absurd. >>> >>> The media has coined a corny title for this one - Mandal II. In the >>> last post Dilip has already mentioned media bias in the coverage of >>> the issue. I've been getting all kinds of sms-es from friends in Delhi >>> University: gather here for protest, gather there for protest. NDTV >>> has promised support. Sahara has promised support. And then an sms >>> said that Aditya Sarma (a III Maths student of Hans Raj College) is on >>> a hunger strike and may immolate himself soon. >>> >>> I wonder if Mr Sarma is planning to contest Delhi University Students' >>> Union elections next year. That's what Rajiv Goswami had done after >>> attempting to immolate himself in 1990. Goswami finally succumbed to >>> health problems in 2004. Do you see the irony here: by the time his >>> immolation killed him, Shining India had arrived. The picture they had >>> painted in Mandal I - that 'we' will be left unemployed, uneducated - >>> is the last thing you see today. >>> >>> If Aditya Sarma does immolate himself, all those of you igniting this >>> false frenzy - all the bloggers and editors and the chai-shop >>> gossipers - you will be responsible for it. >>> >>> Lastly, all those opposing "Mandal II" should tell us whether they are >>> non-OBC. Upper castes are no doubt meritocratic (which is why sons >>> inherit fathers' businesses), and they are no doubt oblivious to caste >>> (just see the matrimonial pages), but there is the hint of vested >>> interest here. And if you are opposing reservations because admissions >>> will become tougher for you, you won't get the point of affirmative >>> action anyway. >>> >>> Lastly, as an aside, will you believe me that I have met Mandal? No, >>> not Justice BP Mandal but Ashok Mandal. He is a rickshaw puller in >>> Delhi University and hails from Murho in Madhepura. Just where Justice >>> Mandal came from. >>> >>> _________________________________________ >>> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. >>> Critiques & Collaborations >>> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe >>> in the subject header. >>> List archive: < https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/ >>> > >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> _________________________________________ >>> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. >>> Critiques & Collaborations >>> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe >>> in the subject header. >>> List archive: >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> _________________________________________ >> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. >> Critiques & Collaborations >> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe >> in the subject header. >> List archive: > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060416/e8c3b049/attachment.html From sunil at mahiti.org Mon Apr 17 11:15:51 2006 From: sunil at mahiti.org (Sunil Abraham) Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 06:45:51 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Regional Conference on Open Standards: The Key to an Open ICT Ecosystem, 2-4 May 2006 - Bangkok, Thailand Message-ID: <1145252751.9176.68.camel@localhost.localdomain> Forwarded announcement: ----------------------- Dear all, Over the past decade, Information and Communications Technology (ICT) has evolved rapidly in many aspects. However, to develop further and move towards a broader consideration of open standards and open architectures that facilitate interoperability and enhance system value. An open environment is believed to enable increased competition, access, and control, which will enhance national economic growth and development in the long run. We would like to invite you to register for the "Regional Conference on Open Standards: The Key to an Open ICT Ecosystem", 2-4 May 2006 - Bangkok, Thailand. The purposes of the conference are: * To raise awareness and create understanding about the importance of open standards. * To exchange ideas and information on open ICT ecosystems among key players. * To explore possibility of collaboration on promotion and implementation of open standards. Key areas that will be addressed in the Conference are: * Open standards for e-government and e-learning * Open standards for information exchange * Open standards for e-commerce * Internet: the best practice for open standards development * We expect participation from technology and policy leaders from the public, private, and academic sectors, as well as other key relevant stakeholders, and practitioners. The conference is organized by Thailand's National Electronics and Computer Technology Center (NECTEC), in partnership with the Software Industry Promotion Agency (SIPA) of Thailand, IBM, Oracle, Intel, Cisco Systems, and UNDP-APDIP. NOTE: Please note that registered participants are expected to cover all own their expense (flights, accommodation, etc.). Conference URLs: http://open.giti.nectec.or.th/conference2006 http://open.giti.nectec.or.th/registration/loginregister.php Regards Phet Sayo UNDP-APDIP -- Sunil Abraham, sunil at mahiti.org http://www.mahiti.org "Vijay Kiran" IInd Floor, 314/1, 7th Cross, Domlur Bangalore - 560 071 Karnataka, INDIA Ph/Fax: +91 80 51150580. Mob: (91) 9342201521 UK: (44) 02000000259 From rinchin at gmail.com Sat Apr 15 18:44:35 2006 From: rinchin at gmail.com (rinchin etc) Date: Sat, 15 Apr 2006 18:44:35 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Of politics, economics, ideology and education: third post Message-ID: <261872920604150614t3df1cfbdu703ee7f98a3cdc5e@mail.gmail.com> in continuation with the second posting Here is one extract of an interview with a family . The discussion reflects on issues over generations and seems like a small complete narrative on its own. this is an interview of a family, in which the grand father was the first dalit man in the town to get an education . We were sent to him by Soni bua who had taught him and his sons in the mission school. The interview gives a context of the change in peoples access and perception of education in the town. from the times of the father to the time where options are bieng dicussed for the oldest and youngest grandaughter. You can read the complete interview at: www.imly-tree.blogspot.com , the newly created blog for the project!. Some of the issues this converstaion brought out were, that the forms of discrimination in education may have changed in relation to gender and caste, but they continue to exist in forms more subtle. There is a certain blindness to the marginalisation of these groups that seems to have developed over time. Since discrimination was defined in more severe and visible forms (as untouchability or restricted access to spaces) in memory, its subtler but equally restrictive forms are missed. The reality, which encompassed these forms of discrimination, is seen as a historical occurrence, which may have carried over as muted anger, which needs to be dealt with in political expression rather than in everyday living. The sons, who have not faced extreme discrimination, still feel strongly about the oppression of the father and look to more vocal and radical ideas and expression against it, while the father himself talks of softer methods of fighting discrimination. Separate organizing also points towards the growth of dalit mobilising in haat pippaliya. There has also been a co-option of ideology – political and social in the stands that are taken by the institutions we have begun to explore in these discussion. Saraswati Shishu Mandir, provides a good example. Looking at he profile of their students and teachers, one finds that they include Dalits and people of different religions, though they may have started out with a more exclusive agenda. However, though these seem contradictory to its ideology, they exist as parallels imparting to it a complex character that allows them to blend into their environments and gain from it but also retaining the potential to revert back to its original form when required. As Rajendra rightly pointed out, they (the RSS) would actively call for the banning of schools with other religious affiliation when the need arose. The school infrastructure is used for RSS meetings and activities. But if it is done with out interfering with the school timings and teaching, the parents have no complaints. For the parents, education and the institution to which they send the children is largely governed by two factors- affordibilty and the quality of education ( "results" was often used interchangeably). This is brought out well by Rajendra " i will do what is best for my children, our aim is to see that they get a base from which to reach as far as they can." I don't agree with the RSS ideology but if their school gives good education, then i will send my children there. As long as the school doesn't discriminate against them actively." This kind of compromise or split in ideology brings out clearly how education is mainly looked as a profession with clear parameters for quality and purpose, namely results and the opportunities that it gives to children. This works both ways for parents as well as institutions. But institutions will always as mentioned above, will always have the choice of reverting back to a stand when the choose, or soften their stand. None of the private schools, focused specifically on education for dalit or girl children, not even the mission school. Though it had started out with that vision six decades ago. While it was mentioned in the above interview as well as several times in other conversations that we had with various people, that a special focus is not needed in these times, the fact that Malti is the first girl of the neighborhood to have studied till 11th, hints otherwise. It is only in government schools, that there are schemes that encourage girls and dalit children to come to school. Where teachers have a target in getting children to school. And it is here that one has to see their importance of policy. The only two exclusively girls schools are government schools. All the private schools are co-educational, and for them the need would be to have more children enrolled in their school, dalit or girls. As long as they bring in their fees. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060415/3f846778/attachment.html From beate at zurwehme.org Mon Apr 17 03:00:08 2006 From: beate at zurwehme.org (beate zurwehme) Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2006 23:30:08 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] beate zurwehme : urbi et orbi 2006 Message-ID: <22785f4b53ea7a383122ece4cd1e3f56@zurwehme.org> hello world, listen to the voice of beate z.: ---> http://zurwehme.org/urbi-et-orbi.html <--- nice easter greetings! beate | interlinking of media | practice with gender related issues http://zurwehme.org/ From mail at shivamvij.com Mon Apr 17 11:57:56 2006 From: mail at shivamvij.com (Shivam) Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 11:57:56 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] More on "mandal II" In-Reply-To: References: <008f01c65f9f$7215ade0$30ee41db@ReyhanChaudhuri> Message-ID: <210498250604162327w27522624ja7d1da4e0d1a0318@mail.gmail.com> Dear Gabriela: Qutoas have been helping some people: http://outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20060424&fname=Cover+Story+%28F%29&sid=1 Excerpt: "I sensed I was different when the government started giving free clothes for scheduled caste students. I was ridiculed by other students and humiliated in the class. I was told being a Dalit we were supposed to skin animals and work in the farms of landlords," says Tanmay. Today, thirtysomething Tanmay is a software design engineer at Microsoft Corporation in the US. A graduate from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, reservation, he says, actually transformed his life. In the heated din surrounding the government's decision to reserve 27 per cent seats for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in centrally-aided institutes of higher learning, Tanmay's voice may never be heard. In fact, with the media spearheading a virtual campaign against reservations, there is a sizeable section of Dalits and OBCs who fear that empowerment through reservation will not happen if the government does a rethink on what has become a contentious issue among the elite. o o o o Reyhan: It is not true that OBC 'aristocrats' are taking away reservation seats - this is particularly not true of OBCs because there is a quasi legal term, "creamy layer", which has been defined in detail by the National Commission of Backward Classes. So families that file tax (annual income of over Rs. 1 lakh or about US $2200) are for instance not eligible for reservation certificates even if they are members of OBC communities. For a detailed exclusion list of the "creamy layer", see http://ncbc.nic.in/html/creamylayer.htm Do let me know if this is a satisfactory response? Thanks, Shivam On 4/16/06, Gabriela Vargas-Cetina wrote: > > > Well, thank you but it is not like that: it is my and others' job (every university professor's job, from my point of view) to try to get them there, when they come into our classrooms, but it does not mean we can actually do it each time, often because they do not have the resources (knowledge base, mainly) needed to take advantage of the opportunities we try to open for them. And it is not that I get students from my continent: I get mainly European students through different exchange programmes, and students from urban Yucatan. Rarely, the come from rural Yucatan, and those are the ones I feel I have to pay the most attention to, especially if they come from underprivileged social strata. In the case of India I now see your point, and it is well taken. > > Gabriela > > On 4/14/06 3:43 AM, "reyhan chaudhuri" wrote: > > > Dear Gabriela, > It is wonderful that you spot the students from the neglected reginos of your continent and push them to brilliance. > The young people in our country are however worried about these reservations because they are based on caste or community not economic strata. Within a caste or community there are often some who already have a very aristrocatic style of living or are apriveleged echelon-and they keep benefitting at the cost of those who really need it.... > That is why the young people are disgruntled,concerned and even at places -agitated. > -R.Chaudhuri > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: Gabriela Vargas-Cetina > > To: Anuj Bhuwania ; sarai list > > Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2006 9:41 PM > > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] More on "mandal II" > > > Dear all, > > As a true outsider to this debate, I just want to say this: I think quotas are a cheap way to show a democratic face in any country. I am a university professor and, sure enough, some of my most brilliant students have come from the upper echelons of different European and Latin American countries; but every now and again I get a student from a poor family in a rural village, and I can recognize her or his brilliance. It is my job and that of my colleagues to make that brilliance come out and bring the student up to par with the best of the best from among young scholars (some of whom I have been fortunate to teach to). However, the unfair distribution of elementary and secondary education affecting my and all countries I know, ensure that only exceptionally will one of these students make it into my university classroom. > > Real democracy would be providing the best education for everyone, without differences between rich and poor, urban and rural and so forth. Since this is not happening, quotas are a cheap but at this point necessary policy to ensure that I will get at least one of those future great minds every five years or so, because quotas notwithstanding, bright but underprivileged students will remain so and will not get to the universities, no matter what. > > Gabriela Vargas-Cetina > Professor of Anthropology > Merida, Mexico > > > > On 4/12/06 11:03 PM, "Anuj Bhuwania" wrote: > > > > > > Dear Shivam, > I found your postings very informative and insightful especially the bit where you talk about "gather here for protest, gather there for protest. NDTV has promised support. Sahara has promised support".I think this is a very important process to document. > Just wanted to continue the conversation further. Have been lurking in this list for ages but couldnt resist contributing with an inevitably simplistic and too long rant on this issue. > Am substantially in agreement with your views in your articles and this post, and have watched myself get irritatingly indignant on coming across the blatantly propagandist campaign in the English language media.(Incidentally would be interesting to compare the current campaign in HT/TOI etc with that of Gujarat samachar/sandesh in Ahmedabad around 28 Feb, 2002. and also of course the supposed 'finest hour' of the english-language media then with their nakedly elitist campaign now- which is in a way my point. The divergence between the vernacular and the english media then is nicely contrasted with the convergence now on this issue. more about this later below) > > However some questions came up for me in reading some of the more interesting of the reservation-critical stuff published recently. Maybe these need to be taken somewhat seriously after all. > > 1. What about OBC reservation being seen as fundamentally different from and even in opposition to SC/ST reservation. Not just uppercaste bloggers but Barkha Dutt talking of Chandrabhan Prasad in "we the People" in her HT article, argue on these lines. This is a crucial question I think. > > 2.The well-known problem of reservation seats lying vacant. Now this is of course because of blatant refusal to implement it etc. But why is it there is so much less public and political discourse on proper implementation and on demands for filling vacant seats than on creating new quotas. > > 3. A common refrain recently has been that college-level is already too late for reservation and it should be done in schools to get them ready. But four months back, when the 93rd amendment was just about to be passed, we heard the elite public schools in delhi screaming murder when reservation there was theoretically made possible. I personally think this is the most radical and necessary step- reservation in private schools- towards destroying elitism right at its roots.We know how the very basis of the education system from Nehruvian times has been casteist by underinvesting in primary education. > And again of course they'll do "whatever it takes" (sorry couldnt resist it) to subvert and minimise the effect of any reservations in schools as well. and notice- this is the only time these guys get concerned about government schools- "you destroyed them and you want to destroy us now." Maybe thats what will bring more attention to public education more generally. maybe reservation on schools need to be emphasised a lot more after all. > 4. One of my specific interests, which I was very happy to know that you strongly shared, is in the upper caste nature of the indian news media. Your analysis is of course rare and acute and the only other person I have read on these lines is S Anand from Outlook. > However my question is why only concentrate on Lucknow, a great place to start this of course, why not Delhi as well. How many SC/ST/OBCs are there in IBN, NDTV, TOI, Indian Express etc. Pioneer of course has given a token space to 1 columnist. Like the 'zenana dabba' as madhu kishwar inimitably calls such measures. > What I am trying to say is that the we continue to see the English language press as afflicted by elitism, but only that of class and not of caste or communalism. So dainik jagaran/ Gujarat Samachar are seen as the great communal upper-caste newspapers and TOI etc as neo-liberal but not communal. Maybe on the lines of the difference between BJP and congress. But I think there is a problem here. Maybe its high time we stopped seeing the English media as the great saviour from the local vernacular primordialism in Traditional India,but just as implicated as dramatis personae in whatever these practices are. We supposedly casteless secularised english-speaking folks should maybe no longer see ourselves as liberators documenting the brutal traditions of the hinterland. The babu view from Delhi continues to see like the state, inevitably leading to interventions like Supreme Court PILs, an inherently authoritarian move though sometimes a benevolent one. > > mahmood farooqui had written in response to aaditya dar that OBCs at least are 27% of the population. Well apparently they actually are 52%. So we are talking about 74.5%(SC/STs + OBCs) of the population getting 49.5 % reservation. Or in other words, the 25.5% mostly uppercaste population have access to 50.5% of seats. And still they are the ones protesting. > (why the Mandal commission relied on 1931 Census is because no caste census has been allowed since then. It was proposed again in 2001 but it didnt happen, provoking an interesting debate) > > Oh finally, can you please tell me how one can get a flat in gaurav aprtments, patparganj. I think somebody I know might be interested. > > Best, > anuj > > > > On 4/11/06, Shivam wrote: > There are more than enough seats for all higher education students in > the country. Be it engineering or medicine or management or plain old > BA courses, there are more than enough seats in this country. Why then > are the anti-reservation alarmists painting a picture that some > general category people will go without an education? > > If you read this: > > http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web2196523711Hoot122711%20AM1229&pn=1 > > > and this: > http://www.countercurrents.org/dalit-vij061204.htm > > you will know more or less why I support reservations in principle: > I've seen how caste prejudice works and I have seen how reservations > help. > > There is this whole one-point facetious argument of merit. In my > college 22 or so per sent seats are reserved for Christian students. > Fair enough: the college was established by Christian missionaries and > wishes to preserve its Christian character. As a result I have > Christian classmates who got much less marks in their Class 12 exams > than I did. But many of them are performing much better in their > academics than I am. Quotas and the issue of merit is much more > complicated than what it is being made out to be. Quota doesn't mean > that an absolute nutcase is going to sit in an engineering class. It > means that a student with 65% marks could be studying in a class with > a student who got 95%. To say that the two can't co-exist is absurd. > > The media has coined a corny title for this one - Mandal II. In the > last post Dilip has already mentioned media bias in the coverage of > the issue. I've been getting all kinds of sms-es from friends in Delhi > University: gather here for protest, gather there for protest. NDTV > has promised support. Sahara has promised support. And then an sms > said that Aditya Sarma (a III Maths student of Hans Raj College) is on > a hunger strike and may immolate himself soon. > > I wonder if Mr Sarma is planning to contest Delhi University Students' > Union elections next year. That's what Rajiv Goswami had done after > attempting to immolate himself in 1990. Goswami finally succumbed to > health problems in 2004. Do you see the irony here: by the time his > immolation killed him, Shining India had arrived. The picture they had > painted in Mandal I - that 'we' will be left unemployed, uneducated - > is the last thing you see today. > > If Aditya Sarma does immolate himself, all those of you igniting this > false frenzy - all the bloggers and editors and the chai-shop > gossipers - you will be responsible for it. > > Lastly, all those opposing "Mandal II" should tell us whether they are > non-OBC. Upper castes are no doubt meritocratic (which is why sons > inherit fathers' businesses), and they are no doubt oblivious to caste > (just see the matrimonial pages), but there is the hint of vested > interest here. And if you are opposing reservations because admissions > will become tougher for you, you won't get the point of affirmative > action anyway. > > Lastly, as an aside, will you believe me that I have met Mandal? No, > not Justice BP Mandal but Ashok Mandal. He is a rickshaw puller in > Delhi University and hails from Murho in Madhepura. Just where Justice > Mandal came from. > > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. > > List archive: < https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/ > > > > > > ________________________________ > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: Gabriela Vargas-Cetina > > To: Anuj Bhuwania ; sarai list > > Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2006 9:41 PM > > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] More on "mandal II" > > > Dear all, > > As a true outsider to this debate, I just want to say this: I think quotas are a cheap way to show a democratic face in any country. I am a university professor and, sure enough, some of my most brilliant students have come from the upper echelons of different European and Latin American countries; but every now and again I get a student from a poor family in a rural village, and I can recognize her or his brilliance. It is my job and that of my colleagues to make that brilliance come out and bring the student up to par with the best of the best from among young scholars (some of whom I have been fortunate to teach to). However, the unfair distribution of elementary and secondary education affecting my and all countries I know, ensure that only exceptionally will one of these students make it into my university classroom. > > Real democracy would be providing the best education for everyone, without differences between rich and poor, urban and rural and so forth. Since this is not happening, quotas are a cheap but at this point necessary policy to ensure that I will get at least one of those future great minds every five years or so, because quotas notwithstanding, bright but underprivileged students will remain so and will not get to the universities, no matter what. > > Gabriela Vargas-Cetina > Professor of Anthropology > Merida, Mexico > > > > On 4/12/06 11:03 PM, "Anuj Bhuwania" wrote: > > > > > > Dear Shivam, > I found your postings very informative and insightful especially the bit where you talk about "gather here for protest, gather there for protest. NDTV has promised support. Sahara has promised support".I think this is a very important process to document. > Just wanted to continue the conversation further. Have been lurking in this list for ages but couldnt resist contributing with an inevitably simplistic and too long rant on this issue. > Am substantially in agreement with your views in your articles and this post, and have watched myself get irritatingly indignant on coming across the blatantly propagandist campaign in the English language media.(Incidentally would be interesting to compare the current campaign in HT/TOI etc with that of Gujarat samachar/sandesh in Ahmedabad around 28 Feb, 2002. and also of course the supposed 'finest hour' of the english-language media then with their nakedly elitist campaign now- which is in a way my point. The divergence between the vernacular and the english media then is nicely contrasted with the convergence now on this issue. more about this later below) > > However some questions came up for me in reading some of the more interesting of the reservation-critical stuff published recently. Maybe these need to be taken somewhat seriously after all. > > 1. What about OBC reservation being seen as fundamentally different from and even in opposition to SC/ST reservation. Not just uppercaste bloggers but Barkha Dutt talking of Chandrabhan Prasad in "we the People" in her HT article, argue on these lines. This is a crucial question I think. > > 2.The well-known problem of reservation seats lying vacant. Now this is of course because of blatant refusal to implement it etc. But why is it there is so much less public and political discourse on proper implementation and on demands for filling vacant seats than on creating new quotas. > > 3. A common refrain recently has been that college-level is already too late for reservation and it should be done in schools to get them ready. But four months back, when the 93rd amendment was just about to be passed, we heard the elite public schools in delhi screaming murder when reservation there was theoretically made possible. I personally think this is the most radical and necessary step- reservation in private schools- towards destroying elitism right at its roots.We know how the very basis of the education system from Nehruvian times has been casteist by underinvesting in primary education. > And again of course they'll do "whatever it takes" (sorry couldnt resist it) to subvert and minimise the effect of any reservations in schools as well. and notice- this is the only time these guys get concerned about government schools- "you destroyed them and you want to destroy us now." Maybe thats what will bring more attention to public education more generally. maybe reservation on schools need to be emphasised a lot more after all. > 4. One of my specific interests, which I was very happy to know that you strongly shared, is in the upper caste nature of the indian news media. Your analysis is of course rare and acute and the only other person I have read on these lines is S Anand from Outlook. > However my question is why only concentrate on Lucknow, a great place to start this of course, why not Delhi as well. How many SC/ST/OBCs are there in IBN, NDTV, TOI, Indian Express etc. Pioneer of course has given a token space to 1 columnist. Like the 'zenana dabba' as madhu kishwar inimitably calls such measures. > What I am trying to say is that the we continue to see the English language press as afflicted by elitism, but only that of class and not of caste or communalism. So dainik jagaran/ Gujarat Samachar are seen as the great communal upper-caste newspapers and TOI etc as neo-liberal but not communal. Maybe on the lines of the difference between BJP and congress. But I think there is a problem here. Maybe its high time we stopped seeing the English media as the great saviour from the local vernacular primordialism in Traditional India,but just as implicated as dramatis personae in whatever these practices are. We supposedly casteless secularised english-speaking folks should maybe no longer see ourselves as liberators documenting the brutal traditions of the hinterland. The babu view from Delhi continues to see like the state, inevitably leading to interventions like Supreme Court PILs, an inherently authoritarian move though sometimes a benevolent one. > > mahmood farooqui had written in response to aaditya dar that OBCs at least are 27% of the population. Well apparently they actually are 52%. So we are talking about 74.5%(SC/STs + OBCs) of the population getting 49.5 % reservation. Or in other words, the 25.5% mostly uppercaste population have access to 50.5% of seats. And still they are the ones protesting. > (why the Mandal commission relied on 1931 Census is because no caste census has been allowed since then. It was proposed again in 2001 but it didnt happen, provoking an interesting debate) > > Oh finally, can you please tell me how one can get a flat in gaurav aprtments, patparganj. I think somebody I know might be interested. > > Best, > anuj > > > > On 4/11/06, Shivam wrote: > There are more than enough seats for all higher education students in > the country. Be it engineering or medicine or management or plain old > BA courses, there are more than enough seats in this country. Why then > are the anti-reservation alarmists painting a picture that some > general category people will go without an education? > > If you read this: > > http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web2196523711Hoot122711%20AM1229&pn=1 > > > and this: > http://www.countercurrents.org/dalit-vij061204.htm > > you will know more or less why I support reservations in principle: > I've seen how caste prejudice works and I have seen how reservations > help. > > There is this whole one-point facetious argument of merit. In my > college 22 or so per sent seats are reserved for Christian students. > Fair enough: the college was established by Christian missionaries and > wishes to preserve its Christian character. As a result I have > Christian classmates who got much less marks in their Class 12 exams > than I did. But many of them are performing much better in their > academics than I am. Quotas and the issue of merit is much more > complicated than what it is being made out to be. Quota doesn't mean > that an absolute nutcase is going to sit in an engineering class. It > means that a student with 65% marks could be studying in a class with > a student who got 95%. To say that the two can't co-exist is absurd. > > The media has coined a corny title for this one - Mandal II. In the > last post Dilip has already mentioned media bias in the coverage of > the issue. I've been getting all kinds of sms-es from friends in Delhi > University: gather here for protest, gather there for protest. NDTV > has promised support. Sahara has promised support. And then an sms > said that Aditya Sarma (a III Maths student of Hans Raj College) is on > a hunger strike and may immolate himself soon. > > I wonder if Mr Sarma is planning to contest Delhi University Students' > Union elections next year. That's what Rajiv Goswami had done after > attempting to immolate himself in 1990. Goswami finally succumbed to > health problems in 2004. Do you see the irony here: by the time his > immolation killed him, Shining India had arrived. The picture they had > painted in Mandal I - that 'we' will be left unemployed, uneducated - > is the last thing you see today. > > If Aditya Sarma does immolate himself, all those of you igniting this > false frenzy - all the bloggers and editors and the chai-shop > gossipers - you will be responsible for it. > > Lastly, all those opposing "Mandal II" should tell us whether they are > non-OBC. Upper castes are no doubt meritocratic (which is why sons > inherit fathers' businesses), and they are no doubt oblivious to caste > (just see the matrimonial pages), but there is the hint of vested > interest here. And if you are opposing reservations because admissions > will become tougher for you, you won't get the point of affirmative > action anyway. > > Lastly, as an aside, will you believe me that I have met Mandal? No, > not Justice BP Mandal but Ashok Mandal. He is a rickshaw puller in > Delhi University and hails from Murho in Madhepura. Just where Justice > Mandal came from. > > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. > > List archive: < https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/ > > > > > > ________________________________ > Dear Shivam, > I found your postings very informative and insightful especially the bit where you talk about "gather here for protest, gather there for protest. NDTV has promised support. Sahara has promised support".I think this is a very important process to document. > Just wanted to continue the conversation further. Have been lurking in this list for ages but couldnt resist contributing with an inevitably simplistic and too long rant on this issue. > Am substantially in agreement with your views in your articles and this post, and have watched myself get irritatingly indignant on coming across the blatantly propagandist campaign in the English language media.(Incidentally would be interesting to compare the current campaign in HT/TOI etc with that of Gujarat samachar/sandesh in Ahmedabad around 28 Feb, 2002. and also of course the supposed 'finest hour' of the english-language media then with their nakedly elitist campaign now- which is in a way my point. The divergence between the vernacular and the english media then is nicely contrasted with the convergence now on this issue. more about this later below) > > However some questions came up for me in reading some of the more interesting of the reservation-critical stuff published recently. Maybe these need to be taken somewhat seriously after all. > > 1. What about OBC reservation being seen as fundamentally different from and even in opposition to SC/ST reservation. Not just uppercaste bloggers but Barkha Dutt talking of Chandrabhan Prasad in "we the People" in her HT article, argue on these lines. This is a crucial question I think. > > 2.The well-known problem of reservation seats lying vacant. Now this is of course because of blatant refusal to implement it etc. But why is it there is so much less public and political discourse on proper implementation and on demands for filling vacant seats than on creating new quotas. > > 3. A common refrain recently has been that college-level is already too late for reservation and it should be done in schools to get them ready. But four months back, when the 93rd amendment was just about to be passed, we heard the elite public schools in delhi screaming murder when reservation there was theoretically made possible. I personally think this is the most radical and necessary step- reservation in private schools- towards destroying elitism right at its roots.We know how the very basis of the education system from Nehruvian times has been casteist by underinvesting in primary education. > And again of course they'll do "whatever it takes" (sorry couldnt resist it) to subvert and minimise the effect of any reservations in schools as well. and notice- this is the only time these guys get concerned about government schools- "you destroyed them and you want to destroy us now." Maybe thats what will bring more attention to public education more generally. maybe reservation on schools need to be emphasised a lot more after all. > 4. One of my specific interests, which I was very happy to know that you strongly shared, is in the upper caste nature of the indian news media. Your analysis is of course rare and acute and the only other person I have read on these lines is S Anand from Outlook. > However my question is why only concentrate on Lucknow, a great place to start this of course, why not Delhi as well. How many SC/ST/OBCs are there in IBN, NDTV, TOI, Indian Express etc. Pioneer of course has given a token space to 1 columnist. Like the 'zenana dabba' as madhu kishwar inimitably calls such measures. > What I am trying to say is that the we continue to see the English language press as afflicted by elitism, but only that of class and not of caste or communalism. So dainik jagaran/ Gujarat Samachar are seen as the great communal upper-caste newspapers and TOI etc as neo-liberal but not communal. Maybe on the lines of the difference between BJP and congress. But I think there is a problem here. Maybe its high time we stopped seeing the English media as the great saviour from the local vernacular primordialism in Traditional India,but just as implicated as dramatis personae in whatever these practices are. We supposedly casteless secularised english-speaking folks should maybe no longer see ourselves as liberators documenting the brutal traditions of the hinterland. The babu view from Delhi continues to see like the state, inevitably leading to interventions like Supreme Court PILs, an inherently authoritarian move though sometimes a benevolent one. > > mahmood farooqui had written in response to aaditya dar that OBCs at least are 27% of the population. Well apparently they actually are 52%. So we are talking about 74.5%(SC/STs + OBCs) of the population getting 49.5 % reservation. Or in other words, the 25.5% mostly uppercaste population have access to 50.5% of seats. And still they are the ones protesting. > (why the Mandal commission relied on 1931 Census is because no caste census has been allowed since then. It was proposed again in 2001 but it didnt happen, provoking an interesting debate) > > Oh finally, can you please tell me how one can get a flat in gaurav aprtments, patparganj. I think somebody I know might be interested. > > Best, > anuj > > > > On 4/11/06, Shivam wrote: > There are more than enough seats for all higher education students in > the country. Be it engineering or medicine or management or plain old > BA courses, there are more than enough seats in this country. Why then > are the anti-reservation alarmists painting a picture that some > general category people will go without an education? > > If you read this: > > http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web2196523711Hoot122711%20AM1229&pn=1 > > > and this: > http://www.countercurrents.org/dalit-vij061204.htm > > you will know more or less why I support reservations in principle: > I've seen how caste prejudice works and I have seen how reservations > help. > > There is this whole one-point facetious argument of merit. In my > college 22 or so per sent seats are reserved for Christian students. > Fair enough: the college was established by Christian missionaries and > wishes to preserve its Christian character. As a result I have > Christian classmates who got much less marks in their Class 12 exams > than I did. But many of them are performing much better in their > academics than I am. Quotas and the issue of merit is much more > complicated than what it is being made out to be. Quota doesn't mean > that an absolute nutcase is going to sit in an engineering class. It > means that a student with 65% marks could be studying in a class with > a student who got 95%. To say that the two can't co-exist is absurd. > > The media has coined a corny title for this one - Mandal II. In the > last post Dilip has already mentioned media bias in the coverage of > the issue. I've been getting all kinds of sms-es from friends in Delhi > University: gather here for protest, gather there for protest. NDTV > has promised support. Sahara has promised support. And then an sms > said that Aditya Sarma (a III Maths student of Hans Raj College) is on > a hunger strike and may immolate himself soon. > > I wonder if Mr Sarma is planning to contest Delhi University Students' > Union elections next year. That's what Rajiv Goswami had done after > attempting to immolate himself in 1990. Goswami finally succumbed to > health problems in 2004. Do you see the irony here: by the time his > immolation killed him, Shining India had arrived. The picture they had > painted in Mandal I - that 'we' will be left unemployed, uneducated - > is the last thing you see today. > > If Aditya Sarma does immolate himself, all those of you igniting this > false frenzy - all the bloggers and editors and the chai-shop > gossipers - you will be responsible for it. > > Lastly, all those opposing "Mandal II" should tell us whether they are > non-OBC. Upper castes are no doubt meritocratic (which is why sons > inherit fathers' businesses), and they are no doubt oblivious to caste > (just see the matrimonial pages), but there is the hint of vested > interest here. And if you are opposing reservations because admissions > will become tougher for you, you won't get the point of affirmative > action anyway. > > Lastly, as an aside, will you believe me that I have met Mandal? No, > not Justice BP Mandal but Ashok Mandal. He is a rickshaw puller in > Delhi University and hails from Murho in Madhepura. Just where Justice > Mandal came from. > > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. > > List archive: < https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/ > > > > > > ________________________________ > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: > > > > > > > ________________________________ > > > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: > > > > > > > > > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: > > > > > > > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: > > From mail at shivamvij.com Mon Apr 17 13:31:03 2006 From: mail at shivamvij.com (Shivam) Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 13:31:03 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Re: More on "mandal II" In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <210498250604170101o7b1e524ep4464b2463613f80f@mail.gmail.com> Dear Anuj, My reply: > Am substantially in agreement with your views in your articles and this > post, and have watched myself get irritatingly indignant on coming across > the blatantly propagandist campaign in the English language > media. Yes, but after the initial hysteria they seem to have regained some sense of objectivity and are at least paying lip service to the other side of the 'debate'. > 1. What about OBC reservation being seen as fundamentally different from > and even in opposition to SC/ST reservation. Not just uppercaste bloggers > but Barkha Dutt talking of Chandrabhan Prasad in "we the People" in her HT > article, argue on these lines. This is a crucial question I think. It is no doubt true that OBCs don't face the amount and kind of discrimination and atrocities that SC/STs do. It is also true that in much of north India, Dalits and OBCs are in direct conflict with each other - even in violent conflict at the grassroots level. However, that does not mean that OBCs are not victims of caste stratification. My story on caste discrimination in Lucknow's newsrooms includes OBCs: http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web2196523711Hoot122711%20AM1229&pn=1 Chandrabhan Prasad has chiefly three objections: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1486250,curpg-2.cms 1) That landed jatis like Yadavs and Kurmis are too rich to need reservation, just that they need a social revolution for modernity to arrive at their doorsteps: ""OBCs invest least in education of their children and block their money in immovable assets. They need a social movement, not reservations." This is not true if you see the National Commission of backward Classes' website where they list the long criteria for a community to be counted as OBC. A community should not hold this amount of land or should not be this close to access drinking water, and so on: http://ncbc.nic.in/html/guideline.htm 2) 40% of OBCs can be classified as MBCs or Most Backward Castes and they are the ones who really need reservations but the abovementioned land-owning OBCs take it all. This point has a lot of merit, and he is right that MBCs don't have a political voice. The second-level classification of MBCs, however, has already been happening in many states including Prasad's native Uttar Pradesh as the compulsions of state-level coalition politics move constituency by constituency. 3) "The anti-Mandal lobby gained in legitimacy simply because Mandal went the wrong way. It is in that sense that Mandal hurts even Dalits." Now, this is not clear at all. Dalits already have reservation proportionate to their population, though no doubt a lot more needs to be done than just reservations. But how do 27% reservations for OBCs (who form 52% of India) 'hurt' Dalits? I don't know. > 2.The well-known problem of reservation seats lying vacant. Now this is of > course because of blatant refusal to implement it etc. But why is it there > is so much less public and political discourse on proper implementation and > on demands for filling vacant seats than on creating new quotas. This is complicated. Firstly, OBC reservation seats in states do not lie vacant, as far as I know, because there are enough OBCs coming out of school and college. For SCs (that is, Dalits) there is a large amount of alleged discrimination. Upper caste individuals responsible for filling seats say 'candidate not suitable' and write him off - how much of this is true and how much is caste discrimination needs investigation. This does show the need for affirmative action to back 'positive discrimination': you need training programmes, etc, and there indeed are some such training programmes: (1) http://www.theotherindia.org/caste/catchin-up.html (2) http://outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20060424&fname=Cover+Story+%28F%29&sid=3 In any case, if seats are lying vacant that cannot be reason enough to end Dalit reservations: fill those seats with general category ad-hocs till you can find a Dalit / reduce the percentage of reservation, etc. But all this needs to be done without any malafide intentions. Reservations should be handled sensitively. Not filling seats may just be a loophole. Here is one example of how loopholes are found to circumvent reservations: http://riversblueelephants.blogspot.com/2006/04/bosom-friend.html (An example of how not to handle reservations: In IIT Kharagpur, for instance, I am told that quota students are given library cards that are of a different colour than the general category. Once there is identification the room for discrimination is open.) > 3. A common refrain recently has been that college-level is already too late > for reservation and it should be done in schools to get them ready. Right: so SCs/STs/OBCs already coming out of school: what about them? I don't see why the two should be mutually exclusive. Do both! > But four > months back, when the 93rd amendment was just about to be passed, There's way too much confusion if it is the 93rd or the 104th amendment. Any clarifications, anyone? > we heard > the elite public schools in delhi screaming murder > when reservation there was theoretically made possible. I personally think this > is the most radical and necessary step- reservation in private schools- > towards destroying > elitism right at its roots.We know how the very basis of the education > system from Nehruvian times has been casteist by underinvesting in primary > education. (See http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1482181.cms ) Although no such decision has been taken, I am all for it. I completely agree with you about the revolution of a cultural change it can bring about. Our colonisers started their anti-class movement even when they were colonising us. And we are still colonised in our public schools. Our "public" schools need a lot more reform in a lot of things, far more than government schools, but that's another story. These public schools, incidentally, are "aided" in the sense that the land on which they are built was given out to them on very low rates *because* they were going to build schools on them. They did this - even back then, when they were building these schools - on the promise that they would reserve 25% seats for the poor. So your housemaid's son could study in that school with your son. For years these schools didn't keep their promise until the Delhi govt went to court. Thereafter, when urban poor started flocking these schools, principals asked them in the interview questions like, "Will you be able to afford the fees?" When you ask for caste-based reservations, people say make it income based. When you make it income based, they are not happy with that either. Incidentally, why should reservations be caste/community based rather than income based? The answer to that is that the policy of reservations is not a poverty alleviation programme. Its sole purpose is to increase the representation and presence of deprived castes in Shining India. The idea of reservations has more to do with social diversity and integration than economic upliftement, which merely becomes a corollary. > maybe > reservation on schools need to be emphasised a lot more after all. Again, I don't see the two as mutually exclusive. > 4. One of my specific interests, which I was very happy to know that you > strongly shared, is in the upper caste nature of the indian news media. Your > analysis is of course rare and acute and the only other person I have read > on these lines is S Anand from Outlook. I am humbled to be compared with S. Anand (who is a member of this list, by the way) and have a long way to go before I reach there! > However my question is why only concentrate on Lucknow, a great place to > start this of course, why not Delhi as well. How many SC/ST/OBCs are there > in IBN, NDTV, TOI, Indian Express etc. Well, in Lucknow I was only asking the question that Chandrabhan Prasad and others have already done for years in Delhi. If there is any semblance of debate on these subjects, we all owe a great debt to Chandrabhan Prasad: http://www.ambedkar.org/chandrabhan/Blacksin.htm I strongly recommend "Dalit Diary" if you haven't already read it: http://www.navayana.org/content/catalog.htm At least a few essays talk about the Delhi media. > Pioneer of course has given a token > space to 1 columnist. Like the 'zenana dabba' as madhu kishwar inimitably > calls such measures. And we owe that to The Pioneer as well! :) > What I am trying to say is that the we continue to see the English language > press as afflicted by elitism, but only that of class and not of caste or > communalism. So dainik jagaran/ Gujarat Samachar are seen as the great > communal upper-caste newspapers and TOI etc as neo-liberal but not communal. > Maybe on the lines of the difference between BJP and congress. That's a very interesting analysis. > But I think > there is a problem here. Maybe its high time we stopped seeing the English > media as the great saviour from the local vernacular primordialism in > Traditional India, but just as implicated as dramatis personae in whatever > these practices are. Yes, but it is early days yet, I think, to come to a final conclusion about either because the media is in a great churning - I mean, we've just just had our first copy-cat show of the Pulitzers: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/2326.html > (why the Mandal commission relied on 1931 Census is because no caste census > has been allowed since then. It was proposed again in 2001 but it didnt > happen, provoking an interesting debate) Yes, this is one thorn of contention: can we rely on 1931 data? And if policy as important as reservations across institutions - public and private schools and colleges, private and public sector - is really to be implemented we need fresh data. > Oh finally, can you please tell me how one can get a flat in gaurav > aprtments, patparganj. I think somebody I know might be interested. Just go there and ask for the property dealer. My source for this info was an IANS report, and somebody on this list had contested the claim. One of these days I am planning to go there and find this out myself. But I wonder if we will ever know the truth about the line that separates prejudice and self-isloation... Thanks Anuj! From nangla at cm.sarai.net Mon Apr 17 18:32:43 2006 From: nangla at cm.sarai.net (CM@Nangla) Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 15:02:43 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Nangla's Delhi - 17 April Message-ID: <21e791a16ae4f0e9c228937f16673cbc@sarai.net> New posts on Nangla's Delhi http://nangla.freeflux.net The Journey After, by Rakesh 17.04.2006 14:57 CEST His face bears a thousand lines, like a map through which Ataabul traces the path to return to his yesterday. His eyes are moist. Many questions seem alive in them, rising as if from deep inside his turbulent heart. The walls of the new house have not been plastered yet. The threshold is without a door. Ataabul sits beside it, his back to it, his legs folded under him. He is wearing a white kurta pyjama. Light is flooding in from the door-less threshold, hiding his face in darkness, loosing itself in the grey walls of the house. (Read whole post) Measure 02, Cybermohalla Ensemble 17.04.2006 A short video using a still (digital) camera, at Nangla Maachi. To us, it is intriguing in the blurring of lines between measuring for "Building" and measuring for "Demolition". For Measure 01, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03LmdaxVlrY Video created: March 30, 2006. At the Crossroads, by Babli and Rabiya 17.04.2006 Today Nangla Maanchi stands at the crossroads of life where the lane, the house, the space, the street corners which had been considered to be ones own for twenty years are today being snatched away. Who is it who is snatching away the small space that one called ones courtyard and why? What is it that lies ahead? Everyone has an answer to this, but everyone crosschecks with each other, trying to get a stamp of consensus from those they are surrounded by. (Read whole post) CM Lab, Nangla Maanchi http://nangla.freeflux.net http://nangla-maachi.freeflux.net ----------------------------------------------- It quenches the thirst of the thirsty, Such is Nangla, It shelters those who come to the city of Delhi, Such is Nangla. ------------------------------------------------ From gabyvargasc at prodigy.net.mx Mon Apr 17 18:51:31 2006 From: gabyvargasc at prodigy.net.mx (Gabriela Vargas-Cetina) Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 08:21:31 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Re: More on "mandal II" In-Reply-To: <210498250604170101o7b1e524ep4464b2463613f80f@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Dear Shivam, Thank you for your careful analysis and explanation of both mine and Anuj's postings. You have obviously put a lot of research into this and yes, you bring a much needed informed perspective on these issues. We can only hope that whatever works gets implemented, and that what gets implemented works - not that education is a sure way out of poverty or drudgery, but it sure increases one's chances to have a better life, or at least to have more choice of life options. Thanks again, Gabriela On 4/17/06 3:01 AM, "Shivam" wrote: > Dear Anuj, My reply: > Am substantially in agreement with your views in > your articles and this > post, and have watched myself get irritatingly > indignant on coming across > the blatantly propagandist campaign in the > English language > media. Yes, but after the initial hysteria they seem to > have regained some sense of objectivity and are at least paying lip service to > the other side of the 'debate'. > 1. What about OBC reservation being seen > as fundamentally different from > and even in opposition to SC/ST > reservation. Not just uppercaste bloggers > but Barkha Dutt talking of > Chandrabhan Prasad in "we the People" in her HT > article, argue on these > lines. This is a crucial question I think. It is no doubt true that OBCs > don't face the amount and kind of discrimination and atrocities that SC/STs > do. It is also true that in much of north India, Dalits and OBCs are in direct > conflict with each other - even in violent conflict at the grassroots level. > However, that does not mean that OBCs are not victims of caste > stratification. My story on caste discrimination in Lucknow's newsrooms > includes > OBCs: http://www.thehoot.org/story.asp?storyid=Web2196523711Hoot122711%20AM122 > 9&pn=1 Chandrabhan Prasad has chiefly three > objections: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1486250,curpg- > 2.cms 1) That landed jatis like Yadavs and Kurmis are too rich to > need reservation, just that they need a social revolution for modernity > to arrive at their doorsteps: ""OBCs invest least in education of > their children and block their money in immovable assets. They need a > social movement, not reservations." This is not true if you see the National > Commission of backward Classes' website where they list the long criteria for > a community to be counted as OBC. A community should not hold this amount of > land or should not be this close to access drinking water, and so > on: http://ncbc.nic.in/html/guideline.htm 2) 40% of OBCs can be classified > as MBCs or Most Backward Castes and they are the ones who really need > reservations but the abovementioned land-owning OBCs take it all. This point > has a lot of merit, and he is right that MBCs don't have a political voice. > The second-level classification of MBCs, however, has already been happening > in many states including Prasad's native Uttar Pradesh as the compulsions of > state-level coalition politics move constituency by constituency. 3) "The > anti-Mandal lobby gained in legitimacy simply because Mandal went the wrong > way. It is in that sense that Mandal hurts even Dalits." Now, this is not > clear at all. Dalits already have reservation proportionate to their > population, though no doubt a lot more needs to be done than just > reservations. But how do 27% reservations for OBCs (who form 52% of India) > 'hurt' Dalits? I don't know. > 2.The well-known problem of reservation > seats lying vacant. Now this is of > course because of blatant refusal to > implement it etc. But why is it there > is so much less public and political > discourse on proper implementation and > on demands for filling vacant seats > than on creating new quotas. This is complicated. Firstly, OBC reservation > seats in states do not lie vacant, as far as I know, because there are enough > OBCs coming out of school and college. For SCs (that is, Dalits) there is a > large amount of alleged discrimination. Upper caste individuals > responsible for filling seats say 'candidate not suitable' and write him off - > how much of this is true and how much is caste discrimination > needs investigation. This does show the need for affirmative action to > back 'positive discrimination': you need training programmes, etc, and there > indeed are some such training programmes: (1) > http://www.theotherindia.org/caste/catchin-up.html (2) > http://outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20060424&fname=Cover+Story+%28F%29&si > d=3 In any case, if seats are lying vacant that cannot be reason enough > to end Dalit reservations: fill those seats with general category ad-hocs till > you can find a Dalit / reduce the percentage of reservation, etc. But all this > needs to be done without any malafide intentions. Reservations should be > handled sensitively. Not filling seats may just be a loophole. Here is one > example of how loopholes are found to circumvent > reservations: http://riversblueelephants.blogspot.com/2006/04/bosom-friend.htm > l (An example of how not to handle reservations: In IIT Kharagpur, > for instance, I am told that quota students are given library cards that are > of a different colour than the general category. Once there is identification > the room for discrimination is open.) > 3. A common refrain recently has > been that college-level is already too late > for reservation and it should be > done in schools to get them ready. Right: so SCs/STs/OBCs already coming out > of school: what about them? I don't see why the two should be mutually > exclusive. Do both! > But four > months back, when the 93rd amendment was > just about to be passed, There's way too much confusion if it is the 93rd or > the 104th amendment. Any clarifications, anyone? > we heard > the elite > public schools in delhi screaming murder > when reservation there was > theoretically made possible. I personally think this > is the most radical and > necessary step- reservation in private schools- > towards destroying > elitism > right at its roots.We know how the very basis of the education > system from > Nehruvian times has been casteist by underinvesting in primary > > education. (See http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1482181.cms > ) Although no such decision has been taken, I am all for it. I completely > agree with you about the revolution of a cultural change it can bring about. > Our colonisers started their anti-class movement even when they were > colonising us. And we are still colonised in our public schools. Our "public" > schools need a lot more reform in a lot of things, far more than government > schools, but that's another story. These public schools, incidentally, are > "aided" in the sense that the land on which they are built was given out to > them on very low rates *because* they were going to build schools on them. > They did this - even back then, when they were building these schools - on the > promise that they would reserve 25% seats for the poor. So your > housemaid's son could study in that school with your son. For years these > schools didn't keep their promise until the Delhi govt went to > court. Thereafter, when urban poor started flocking these schools, > principals asked them in the interview questions like, "Will you be able > to afford the fees?" When you ask for caste-based reservations, people say > make it income based. When you make it income based, they are not happy with > that either. Incidentally, why should reservations be caste/community > based rather than income based? The answer to that is that the policy > of reservations is not a poverty alleviation programme. Its sole purpose is to > increase the representation and presence of deprived castes in Shining India. > The idea of reservations has more to do with social diversity and integration > than economic upliftement, which merely becomes a corollary. > maybe > > reservation on schools need to be emphasised a lot more after all. Again, I > don't see the two as mutually exclusive. > 4. One of my specific interests, > which I was very happy to know that you > strongly shared, is in the upper > caste nature of the indian news media. Your > analysis is of course rare and > acute and the only other person I have read > on these lines is S Anand from > Outlook. I am humbled to be compared with S. Anand (who is a member of > this list, by the way) and have a long way to go before I reach there! > > However my question is why only concentrate on Lucknow, a great place to > > start this of course, why not Delhi as well. How many SC/ST/OBCs are there > > in IBN, NDTV, TOI, Indian Express etc. Well, in Lucknow I was only asking the > question that Chandrabhan Prasad and others have already done for years in > Delhi. If there is any semblance of debate on these subjects, we all owe a > great debt to Chandrabhan Prasad: > http://www.ambedkar.org/chandrabhan/Blacksin.htm I strongly recommend "Dalit > Diary" if you haven't already read > it: http://www.navayana.org/content/catalog.htm At least a few essays talk > about the Delhi media. > Pioneer of course has given a token > space to 1 > columnist. Like the 'zenana dabba' as madhu kishwar inimitably > calls such > measures. And we owe that to The Pioneer as well! :) > What I am trying to > say is that the we continue to see the English language > press as afflicted > by elitism, but only that of class and not of caste or > communalism. So > dainik jagaran/ Gujarat Samachar are seen as the great > communal upper-caste > newspapers and TOI etc as neo-liberal but not communal. > Maybe on the lines > of the difference between BJP and congress. That's a very interesting > analysis. > But I think > there is a problem here. Maybe its high time we > stopped seeing the English > media as the great saviour from the local > vernacular primordialism in > Traditional India, but just as implicated as > dramatis personae in whatever > these practices are. Yes, but it is early > days yet, I think, to come to a final conclusion about either because the > media is in a great churning - I mean, we've just just had our first copy-cat > show of the Pulitzers: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/2326.html > (why > the Mandal commission relied on 1931 Census is because no caste census > has > been allowed since then. It was proposed again in 2001 but it didnt > happen, > provoking an interesting debate) Yes, this is one thorn of contention: can we > rely on 1931 data? And if policy as important as reservations across > institutions - public and private schools and colleges, private and public > sector - is really to be implemented we need fresh data. > Oh finally, can > you please tell me how one can get a flat in gaurav > aprtments, patparganj. I > think somebody I know might be interested. Just go there and ask for the > property dealer. My source for this info was an IANS report, and somebody on > this list had contested the claim. One of these days I am planning to go there > and find this out myself. But I wonder if we will ever know the truth about > the line that separates prejudice and self-isloation... Thanks Anuj! > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in > the subject header. > List archive: From budhaditya_chattopadhyay at rediffmail.com Mon Apr 17 14:58:50 2006 From: budhaditya_chattopadhyay at rediffmail.com (budhaditya chattopadhyay) Date: 17 Apr 2006 09:28:50 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] of goatkeepers, kirtana singers and Bishnupuri dhrupad Message-ID: <20060417092850.27778.qmail@webmail29.rediffmail.com> Hi All, Good wishes for a Bengali new year. Here is my belated posting. Third Posting : Budhaditya Chattopadhyay   I took a local bus from Burdwan junction heading towards Bishnupur. It started late with passengers overflowing the capacity of the bus. There was one goat keeper and a kirtana singer as I came to know later. Bus was running slowly over a narrow and uneven road and it was cloudy outside. I was seating behind the driver, so all the dialogues around me was mixed with the continuous sound of engine. Once I overheard something about a local music concert somebody was talking about. He was telling about a performance he heard long ago and comparing with a recent one. I looked at him; he was a man around 55 with clean shaven, lean and crude face line. I saw with what intense involvement he was describing how the singer he heard in that concert was performing kirtana, the religious love songs for Krishna. He was talking to a younger man opposite to him about the quality of singing nowadays that’s inferior to the past exponents. I felt like to barge into their conversation. And I asked the man about the kind of kirtana he is talking about, whether it is Goudiyo or something different. He looked at me intently and asked where I am coming from and where I am going to. He and the others around him looked at me. I was feeling like an alien in front of so many curious eyes. I described that I am going to Bishnupur to search for resources for the forgotten gharana which will help me out in my research project on the sound restoration of the dying Bishnupur style of classical music. He took a long repose and then asked why I am going their. I repeated my answer and realized he didn’t understand my words. I asked him if he knows anything about the gharana. He made a gesture of respect, looked outside the window and slowly said with a sigh ‘those were the days’. I asked him how the days were. He didn’t answer but looked at the younger man opposite to him and said that music survives for the listeners. There are no listeners nowadays, only consumers. Another man beside him asked about his own performance of kirtana, whether he still finds pleasure and get money. He readily answered that nowadays people want to hear only the film songs. So he performs the film songs in kirtana style. Or kirtana in film song style! – I thought. The younger man now spoke up. He seemed to have a deep insecurity in what he is saying. But he could anyway put his point that Bishnupur style flourished under the shadow of kirtana as Bishnupur is the land of ancient kirtana music of thousand years. The Bishnupuri Dhrupad developed into a particular style of classical music, but it couldn’t survive with all its past glories, though kirtana is still alive. It’s because kirtana is closer to the people, but the gharana was for the kings, not for the masses. The kirtana singer opposed and said that kirtana is alive but in a distorted form. There is little connection to the earlier with what is performed nowadays. The younger man was looking outside; he brought back his shy and somewhat melancholic face to me. He asked me what kind of resources I am searching for. He meant whether it is new singers still performing the style or the old surviving exponents; if I am searching for the new performances then there is a Dhrupad festival in proper Bishnupur tonight. I told him that I know it and that’s where I’m going to. I descibed that I’m searching for the sound recordings made in the heydays of the gharana. He looked at me blankly. It seemed that he doesn’t have any idea what sound recording is. I tried to explain the legacy of recording art to him. It was quite clear that he was completely unaware about recording sound for memory and posterity, and the possibilities of archiving audio. I asked him what he does for a living. He told very politely that he looks after goats and lambs. In a stopover we had tea together and the goat keeper paid for it. He got down one stop before me along with the kirtana singer. I reached Bishnupur Jadubhatta Stage in the evening to attend Gopeswar Dhrupad Sangeet Sammelan. It was a tribute to Gopeswar Bandyopadhyay, the maestro from Bishnupur Gharana. Gopeswar Bandyopadhyay was the son of Anantalal Bandyopadhyay, court singer of the king of Bishnupur. He was a prolific performer of Bishnupuri Dhrupad and a well known recording artist in the early days of cylinder, 10 inches and 7 inches disc recording, three of them from the Gramophone’s Far East expedition of 1904-1905. 2722h 2-12861 Babu Gopeswar Banerjee [Hindustani] Adana Kawali 2723h 2-12766 Gopeswar Benerjee [Hindustani] Behag Kawali 2724h 2-12833 Gopeswar Banerjee [Hindustani] Yaman There was a small gathering, hardly 10 people as audience and a few numbers of performers, mostly from non Bishnupur origin. The organizer and close student of Acharya Gopeswar was Sri Debabrata Singha Thakur, performing a small Bishnupuri Dhrupad. I recorded the performance and saw with amazement how the style is being performed with this ageing exponent of the gharana. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060417/98fefea1/attachment.html From pukar at pukar.org.in Mon Apr 17 11:30:35 2006 From: pukar at pukar.org.in (PUKAR) Date: Mon, 17 Apr 2006 11:30:35 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [announcements] Friday, 21st April: Talk by Parimala Inamdar Message-ID: <001401c661e4$44d4c3b0$18d0c0cb@freeda> PUKAR cordially invites you to a talk by Parimala Inamdar on Children, Collaboration and Learning in Technology Enhanced Environments Date: Friday, April 21, 2006 Time: 6:30 PM Venue: First Floor, Max Mueller Bhavan, Kala Ghoda, Mumbai - 01 In 1999, the 'hole-in-the wall' experiment in New Delhi, India, moved the personal computer (PC) into playgrounds. A PC was connected to the Internet and embedded into a brick wall around an informal playground next to a residential slum. Groups of slum children aged 8-14 were able to use the computer within a few days, without instruction. Experiments across the country showed that given adequate resources, groups of children were able to acquire computing skills without adult intervention. This raised a question - What else could children learn on their own with appropriate technology? This presentation describes results of studies of technology enabled learning in groups, in art, mathematics and computer science in rural and urban contexts. a.. Rural children were able to pass a curricular examination in computer science from their exploratory group learning at a 'hole-in-the-wall' kiosk, with no classroom instruction for it. b.. Rural children rapidly entered the world of digital imaging by observing experts and collaboratively exploring high-end imaging software at 'hole-in-the-wall' computers. The digital output of these children was later exhibited by the Pompidou Center, Paris. c.. In Mumbai, children from a large SSC medium school who worked in groups with an algebra software at their school computer lab showed marked improvements in scores, in a short time. Interestingly, they commented that they had never had so much fun with Math. These studies of group learning in exploratory technology enhanced environments show possibilities for a new pedagogical approach to some aspects of education attainment. Parimala Inamdar has worked in communication design and interactive technologies in learning for over 17 years. She has designed learning solutions across media - video/television, interactive videodisc, cd-rom and the Internet. Her work has moved over the years from design towards research in use of technology in learning. She is currently the Assistant Professor at the Center for Research In Cognitive Systems, The NIIT Institute of Information Technology (TNI). She has engaged in research collaborations with internationally reputed academics. Her work was also recently showcased at the Pompidou Center in Paris. PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research) Address:: 1-4, 2nd Floor, Kamanwala Chambers, Sir P. M. Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001 Telephone:: +91 (22) 5574 8152 Fax:: +91 (22) 5664 0561 Email:: pukar at pukar.org.in Website:: www.pukar.org.in -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060417/64d8a42e/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From chintichinti at yahoo.com Tue Apr 18 14:33:51 2006 From: chintichinti at yahoo.com (chintan gohil) Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 02:03:51 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] strategy / tactics / cities Message-ID: <20060418090352.71918.qmail@web32814.mail.mud.yahoo.com> dear all, please have a look at my recent posting on my very first brand new blog... http://urbanexistence.blogspot.com/2006/04/tactical-machines-city.html its a work in progress on the ideas of tactics . strategies / bottom-up . top-down / power . powerS and their manifestation in the (built) environment...it is influenced by michel de certeau's ideas on tactics vs. strategy (esp in practice of everyday life)...the case here is indian city (specifically ahmedabad with its urban villages) it seems almost random / collection of lots of theoretical bits / quotations / questions...but i thought it was a good idea to put it on web at this stage... views / comments / much appreciated regards c __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From cahen.x at levels9.com Tue Apr 18 16:28:14 2006 From: cahen.x at levels9.com (xavier cahen) Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 12:58:14 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] pourinfos Newsletter / 04-07 to 04-13-2006 Message-ID: <4444C646.8030704@levels9.com> pourinfos.org l'actualité du monde de l'art / daily Art news ----------------------------------------------------------------------- infos from April 07, 2006 to April 13, 2006 (included) ------------------------------------------------------------------- (mostly in french) ------------------------------------------------------------------- 01 Call : CONCOURS INTERNATIONAL des BEAUX ARTS,"Compositeur ANTONIO GUALDA" 2006, Granada, Spain. http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2946 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 02 Call : International festival Montreal in Arts (FIMA), Montreal, Canada. http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2944 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 03 Call : enter. explorations in new technology art, Cambridge, United Kindom. http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2943 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 04 Call : International Festival Expo Art - Montreal 2006, Montreal, Canada. http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2942 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 05 Call: Exhibition ARTATOU 2006, Avallon, France. http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2941 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 06 Publication : « Chantiers / Building sites (1) », ETC n° 73, review of contemporary art, Montreal, Canada. http://pourinfos.org/publications/item.php?id=2940 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 07 Publication : N°1, Cheap review, spring / summer 2006, editions cheap, Nantes, France. http://pourinfos.org/publications/item.php?id=2939 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 08 Publication : Circulate it there does not have nothing to see, catalogue, rurart editions, Rouille, France. http://pourinfos.org/publications/item.php?id=2938 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 09 Publication : #36, new number of 02, and Bruno Peinado, Zoo galerie, Nantes, France. http://pourinfos.org/publications/item.php?id=2937 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 10 Residencies : call, Nordic and International residencies in 2007, Dale , Norvège. http://pourinfos.org/residences/item.php?id=2945 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 11 Formation : "listening/machine", RAAC, Experimental Workshop, Clans, France http://pourinfos.org/emploi/item.php?id=2935 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 12 Screening : Marcos & de Montigny, Lee Bae, Galerie RX, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2932 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 13 Program : May 2006, Espace Culture Multimédia de la Maison populaire, Montreuil, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2931 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 14 Screening : film of Clemens v. Wedemeyer et Maya Schweizer "Nothing whole", Thursday April 13, 2006, Club de l'Etoile , Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2930 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 Screening : Pompidou Center, rendez vous of short and medium-length film, Thursday April 13 and Monday April 17, 2006, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2929 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 Screening : « IMAGES/DISCOURS », Tuesday April 18, 2006, Scratch Projection at Voûtes, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2928 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 17 Exhibition : CONNECTIONS, Caroline Coppey, La Galerie de l’Ecole, Fontenay-sous-Bois, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2934 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 18 Performance :TECHNE 06 (Platforme Internationale de "Digital Performance" d'Istanbul), Istanbul, Turkey. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2927 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 19 Exhibition : The force of art, Grand Palais, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2926 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 20 Exhibition : Judith Josso et Rémy Yadan, Galerie ipso facto, Nantes, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2925 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 21 Exhibition : « Site&Cité Without Borders », Artists Without Borders, Bourges, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2924 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 22 Call : “INTERVENCIONES TV.7”, Montehermoso Cultural Centre in Vitoria,Vitoria-Gasteiz. Spain. http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2923 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 23 Call : artists, writers, scientists, transartcafé, Antibes, France. http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2922 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 24 Call : FILE FESTIVAL 2006, Sao Paulo, Brasil. http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2921 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 25 Call : MEDIAWAVE International Visual Art Foundation, Gyõr , Hungary. http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2920 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 26 Residencies : UNIDEE in Residence - International Program 2006, Biella – Italy. http://pourinfos.org/residences/item.php?id=2919 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 27 Job : documentalist for the contemporary art Museum of Lyon, France. http://pourinfos.org/emploi/item.php?id=2918 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 28 Publication : "To open the support", volume 20, Editions La Part de l'Oeil, Belgium. http://pourinfos.org/publications/item.php?id=2917 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 29 Various : Traits plastiques n°8, commission nationale d'aide à la première exposition, CNAP, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/divers/item.php?id=2916 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 30 Various : Appels à participation, radiophonic Festival: 20 Years of Epsilonia - May 2006 Epsilonia / radio Libertaire, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/divers/item.php?id=2915 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 31 Various : letter OLATS new, April, Boulogne, Leonardo Association, France. http://pourinfos.org/divers/item.php?id=2914 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 32 Exhibition :MindXplosion 8 evening, Kablevision : Performance électro vidéo poétique, April 12, 2006, Dune 18, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2913 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 33 Exhibition : Viva City, a festival not like the others, the Festival of Arts of the Street of Sotteville-lès-Rouen, Sotteville-lès-Rouen, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2912 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 34 Exhibition : Vincent Epplay, Le Transpalette, Emmetrop Association, Bourges, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2911 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 35 Exhibition : Michel Castaignet, Galerie Reg'Art-Confrontation, Rouen, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2910 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 36 Program : Le Magasin, Centers National Contemporary art of Grenoble, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2909 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 37 Exhibition : Open studio, artists in residence, April 13, 2006, Strasbourg, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2908 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 38 Exhibition : Les formes du délai, Shell Shelf, Thorsten Streichardt, la box _bourges, Bourges, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2907 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 39 Exhibition : Habitacion, Jeune Création association, galerie Jeune Création, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2906 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 40 Exhibition : Public domain, Immanence, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2905 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 41 Exhibition : " "does That open? That does not open?", Friday April 14, open studio of the Town of Marseilles. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2904 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 42 Exposition : Fernand Fernandez, Bureau d'art et de recherche, Roubaix, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2903 From cahen.x at levels9.com Tue Apr 18 18:23:44 2006 From: cahen.x at levels9.com (xavier cahen) Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 14:53:44 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] pourinfos Newsletter / 04-07 to 04-13-2006 In-Reply-To: <20060418105911.DD3462EC71@p15122045.pureserver.info> References: <20060418105911.DD3462EC71@p15122045.pureserver.info> Message-ID: <4444E158.7050203@levels9.com> Liste Sarai.Net a écrit : > Email: scca at fcca.cz · www.fcca.cz Three residency programmes offered: International Artist in Residency Program at Cimelice castle is designed for artists ... > > mailia > ????? Residencies ...Jeleni studio / Artists-in-residence http://www.fcca.cz/en/main.php?x=1&y=3 "From 2005 on, the reception of foreign artist was stopped due to lack of funding." FCCA-Prague Jeleni 9 118 00 Prague 1 Czech Republic phone: (420) 224 373 178, (420) 233 351 359 fax: (420) 257 320 640 E-mail: scca at fcca.cz web: http://www.fcca.cz ???? Xavier > xavier cahen wrote: > >> pourinfos.org >> l'actualité du monde de l'art / daily Art news >> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> infos from April 07, 2006 to April 13, 2006 (included) >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> (mostly in french) >> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 01 Call : CONCOURS INTERNATIONAL des BEAUX >> ARTS,"Compositeur ANTONIO GUALDA" 2006, Granada, Spain. >> http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2946 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 02 Call : International festival Montreal in Arts (FIMA), Montreal, Canada. >> http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2944 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 03 Call : enter. explorations in new technology art, >> Cambridge, United Kindom. >> http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2943 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 04 Call : International Festival Expo Art - Montreal 2006, Montreal, Canada. >> http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2942 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 05 Call: Exhibition ARTATOU 2006, Avallon, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2941 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 06 Publication : « Chantiers / Building sites (1) », ETC n° 73, review >> of contemporary art, Montreal, Canada. >> http://pourinfos.org/publications/item.php?id=2940 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 07 Publication : N°1, Cheap review, spring / summer 2006, editions >> cheap, Nantes, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/publications/item.php?id=2939 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 08 Publication : Circulate it there does not have nothing to see, >> catalogue, rurart >> editions, Rouille, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/publications/item.php?id=2938 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 09 Publication : #36, new number of 02, and Bruno Peinado, Zoo >> galerie, Nantes, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/publications/item.php?id=2937 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 10 Residencies : call, Nordic and International >> residencies in 2007, Dale , Norvège. >> http://pourinfos.org/residences/item.php?id=2945 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 11 Formation : "listening/machine", RAAC, Experimental Workshop, Clans, >> France >> http://pourinfos.org/emploi/item.php?id=2935 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 12 Screening : Marcos & de Montigny, Lee Bae, Galerie RX, Paris, >> France. >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2932 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 13 Program : May 2006, Espace Culture Multimédia de la Maison >> populaire, Montreuil, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2931 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 14 Screening : film of Clemens v. Wedemeyer et Maya Schweizer "Nothing >> whole", Thursday April 13, 2006, Club de l'Etoile , Paris, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2930 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 15 Screening : Pompidou Center, rendez vous of short and medium-length >> film, Thursday April 13 and Monday April 17, 2006, Paris, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2929 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 16 Screening : « IMAGES/DISCOURS », Tuesday April 18, 2006, Scratch >> Projection at Voûtes, Paris, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2928 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 17 Exhibition : CONNECTIONS, Caroline Coppey, La Galerie de l’Ecole, >> Fontenay-sous-Bois, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2934 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 18 Performance :TECHNE 06 (Platforme Internationale de "Digital >> Performance" d'Istanbul), Istanbul, Turkey. >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2927 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 19 Exhibition : The force of art, Grand Palais, Paris, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2926 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 20 Exhibition : Judith Josso et Rémy Yadan, Galerie ipso facto, Nantes, >> France. >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2925 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 21 Exhibition : « Site&Cité Without Borders », Artists Without Borders, >> Bourges, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2924 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 22 Call : “INTERVENCIONES TV.7”, Montehermoso Cultural >> Centre in Vitoria,Vitoria-Gasteiz. Spain. >> http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2923 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 23 Call : artists, writers, scientists, transartcafé, Antibes, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2922 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 24 Call : FILE FESTIVAL 2006, Sao Paulo, Brasil. >> http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2921 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 25 Call : MEDIAWAVE International Visual Art >> Foundation, Gyõr , Hungary. >> http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2920 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 26 Residencies : UNIDEE in Residence - International Program 2006, >> Biella – Italy. >> http://pourinfos.org/residences/item.php?id=2919 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 27 Job : documentalist for the contemporary art Museum of Lyon, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/emploi/item.php?id=2918 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 28 Publication : "To open the support", volume 20, Editions >> La Part de l'Oeil, Belgium. >> http://pourinfos.org/publications/item.php?id=2917 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 29 Various : Traits plastiques n°8, commission nationale d'aide à la >> première exposition, CNAP, Paris, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/divers/item.php?id=2916 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 30 Various : Appels à participation, radiophonic Festival: 20 Years of >> Epsilonia - May 2006 Epsilonia / radio Libertaire, Paris, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/divers/item.php?id=2915 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 31 Various : letter OLATS new, April, Boulogne, Leonardo Association, >> France. >> http://pourinfos.org/divers/item.php?id=2914 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 32 Exhibition :MindXplosion 8 evening, Kablevision : Performance >> électro vidéo poétique, April 12, 2006, Dune 18, Paris, >> France. >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2913 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 33 Exhibition : Viva City, a festival not like the others, the Festival >> of Arts of the Street of Sotteville-lès-Rouen, >> Sotteville-lès-Rouen, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2912 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 34 Exhibition : Vincent Epplay, Le Transpalette, Emmetrop Association, >> Bourges, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2911 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 35 Exhibition : Michel Castaignet, Galerie Reg'Art-Confrontation, >> Rouen, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2910 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 36 Program : Le Magasin, Centers National Contemporary art of Grenoble, >> France. >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2909 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 37 Exhibition : Open studio, artists in residence, April 13, 2006, >> Strasbourg, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2908 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 38 Exhibition : Les formes du délai, Shell Shelf, Thorsten Streichardt, >> la box _bourges, Bourges, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2907 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 39 Exhibition : Habitacion, Jeune Création association, galerie Jeune >> Création, Paris, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2906 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 40 Exhibition : Public domain, Immanence, Paris, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2905 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 41 Exhibition : " "does That open? That does not open?", Friday April >> 14, open studio of the Town of Marseilles. >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2904 >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- >> 42 Exposition : Fernand Fernandez, Bureau d'art et de recherche, >> Roubaix, France. >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2903 >> >> _________________________________________ >> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. >> Critiques & Collaborations >> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. >> List archive: >> >> >> > > > -- XAVIER CAHEN -------------- cahen.x at levels9.com Paris France http://www.levels9.com From artist.exhibit at gmail.com Wed Apr 19 06:56:33 2006 From: artist.exhibit at gmail.com (artist art exhibit) Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 18:26:33 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] pourinfos Newsletter / 04-07 to 04-13-2006 In-Reply-To: <4444E158.7050203@levels9.com> References: <20060418105911.DD3462EC71@p15122045.pureserver.info> <4444E158.7050203@levels9.com> Message-ID: <927d4f630604181826s3188b0f0r27165f4f554f521c@mail.gmail.com> Great List! thanks. On 4/18/06, xavier cahen wrote: > > Liste Sarai.Net a écrit : > > Email: scca at fcca.cz · www.fcca.cz Three residency programmes > offered: International Artist in Residency Program at Cimelice castle is > designed for artists ... > > > > mailia > > > ????? > > > Residencies > ...Jeleni studio / Artists-in-residence > http://www.fcca.cz/en/main.php?x=1&y=3 > > "From 2005 on, the reception of foreign artist was stopped due to lack > of funding." > > FCCA-Prague > Jeleni 9 > 118 00 Prague 1 > Czech Republic > phone: (420) 224 373 178, (420) 233 351 359 > fax: (420) 257 320 640 > E-mail: scca at fcca.cz > web: http://www.fcca.cz > > > ???? > Xavier > > > xavier cahen wrote: > > > >> pourinfos.org > >> l'actualité du monde de l'art / daily Art news > >> ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> > >> infos from April 07, 2006 to April 13, 2006 (included) > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> (mostly in french) > >> > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 01 Call : CONCOURS INTERNATIONAL des BEAUX > >> ARTS,"Compositeur ANTONIO GUALDA" 2006, Granada, Spain. > >> http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2946 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 02 Call : International festival Montreal in Arts (FIMA), Montreal, > Canada. > >> http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2944 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 03 Call : enter. explorations in new technology art, > >> Cambridge, United Kindom. > >> http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2943 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 04 Call : International Festival Expo Art - Montreal 2006, Montreal, > Canada. > >> http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2942 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 05 Call: Exhibition ARTATOU 2006, Avallon, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2941 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 06 Publication : « Chantiers / Building sites (1) », ETC n° 73, review > >> of contemporary art, Montreal, Canada. > >> http://pourinfos.org/publications/item.php?id=2940 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 07 Publication : N°1, Cheap review, spring / summer 2006, editions > >> cheap, Nantes, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/publications/item.php?id=2939 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 08 Publication : Circulate it there does not have nothing to see, > >> catalogue, rurart > >> editions, Rouille, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/publications/item.php?id=2938 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 09 Publication : #36, new number of 02, and Bruno Peinado, Zoo > >> galerie, Nantes, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/publications/item.php?id=2937 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 10 Residencies : call, Nordic and International > >> residencies in 2007, Dale , Norvège. > >> http://pourinfos.org/residences/item.php?id=2945 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 11 Formation : "listening/machine", RAAC, Experimental Workshop, Clans, > >> France > >> http://pourinfos.org/emploi/item.php?id=2935 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 12 Screening : Marcos & de Montigny, Lee Bae, Galerie RX, Paris, > >> France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2932 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 13 Program : May 2006, Espace Culture Multimédia de la Maison > >> populaire, Montreuil, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2931 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 14 Screening : film of Clemens v. Wedemeyer et Maya Schweizer "Nothing > >> whole", Thursday April 13, 2006, Club de l'Etoile , Paris, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2930 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 15 Screening : Pompidou Center, rendez vous of short and medium-length > >> film, Thursday April 13 and Monday April 17, 2006, Paris, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2929 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 16 Screening : « IMAGES/DISCOURS », Tuesday April 18, 2006, Scratch > >> Projection at Voûtes, Paris, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2928 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 17 Exhibition : CONNECTIONS, Caroline Coppey, La Galerie de l'Ecole, > >> Fontenay-sous-Bois, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2934 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 18 Performance :TECHNE 06 (Platforme Internationale de "Digital > >> Performance" d'Istanbul), Istanbul, Turkey. > >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2927 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 19 Exhibition : The force of art, Grand Palais, Paris, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2926 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 20 Exhibition : Judith Josso et Rémy Yadan, Galerie ipso facto, Nantes, > >> France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2925 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 21 Exhibition : « Site&Cité Without Borders », Artists Without Borders, > >> Bourges, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2924 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 22 Call : "INTERVENCIONES TV.7", Montehermoso Cultural > >> Centre in Vitoria,Vitoria-Gasteiz. Spain. > >> http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2923 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 23 Call : artists, writers, scientists, transartcafé, Antibes, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2922 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 24 Call : FILE FESTIVAL 2006, Sao Paulo, Brasil. > >> http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2921 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 25 Call : MEDIAWAVE International Visual Art > >> Foundation, Gyõr , Hungary. > >> http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2920 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 26 Residencies : UNIDEE in Residence - International Program 2006, > >> Biella – Italy. > >> http://pourinfos.org/residences/item.php?id=2919 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 27 Job : documentalist for the contemporary art Museum of Lyon, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/emploi/item.php?id=2918 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 28 Publication : "To open the support", volume 20, Editions > >> La Part de l'Oeil, Belgium. > >> http://pourinfos.org/publications/item.php?id=2917 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 29 Various : Traits plastiques n°8, commission nationale d'aide à la > >> première exposition, CNAP, Paris, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/divers/item.php?id=2916 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 30 Various : Appels à participation, radiophonic Festival: 20 Years of > >> Epsilonia - May 2006 Epsilonia / radio Libertaire, Paris, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/divers/item.php?id=2915 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 31 Various : letter OLATS new, April, Boulogne, Leonardo Association, > >> France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/divers/item.php?id=2914 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 32 Exhibition :MindXplosion 8 evening, Kablevision : Performance > >> électro vidéo poétique, April 12, 2006, Dune 18, Paris, > >> France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2913 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 33 Exhibition : Viva City, a festival not like the others, the Festival > >> of Arts of the Street of Sotteville-lès-Rouen, > >> Sotteville-lès-Rouen, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2912 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 34 Exhibition : Vincent Epplay, Le Transpalette, Emmetrop Association, > >> Bourges, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2911 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 35 Exhibition : Michel Castaignet, Galerie Reg'Art-Confrontation, > >> Rouen, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2910 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 36 Program : Le Magasin, Centers National Contemporary art of Grenoble, > >> France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2909 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 37 Exhibition : Open studio, artists in residence, April 13, 2006, > >> Strasbourg, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2908 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 38 Exhibition : Les formes du délai, Shell Shelf, Thorsten Streichardt, > >> la box _bourges, Bourges, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2907 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 39 Exhibition : Habitacion, Jeune Création association, galerie Jeune > >> Création, Paris, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2906 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 40 Exhibition : Public domain, Immanence, Paris, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2905 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 41 Exhibition : " "does That open? That does not open?", Friday April > >> 14, open studio of the Town of Marseilles. > >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2904 > >> ------------------------------------------------------------------- > >> 42 Exposition : Fernand Fernandez, Bureau d'art et de recherche, > >> Roubaix, France. > >> http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2903 > >> > >> _________________________________________ > >> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > >> Critiques & Collaborations > >> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > subscribe in the subject header. > >> List archive: > >> > >> > >> > > > > > > > > > -- > XAVIER CAHEN > -------------- > cahen.x at levels9.com > Paris France > http://www.levels9.com > > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: > -- Eliah Art Levacil Art Exhibit Director, Scout http://www.art-exhibit.org http://art-exhibit.blogspot.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060418/d2af9325/attachment.html From avinash at csdsdelhi.org Wed Apr 19 10:50:09 2006 From: avinash at csdsdelhi.org (Avinash Jha) Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 10:50:09 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fw: Global history translation ready Message-ID: <006e01c66371$3707a520$1301a8c0@avinashjha> Global history translation ready ----- Original Message ----- From: Tord Björk Subject: Global history translation ready Dear all Jan Wiklunds global history of peoples' movements has now been translated in a first version into english - The Carriers of Democracy. The material is available in full text at Popular Movement Study Group homepage www.folkrorelser.nu/demokratins/carriers.html It is the result of ten years work and a unique book covering all major peoples' movements the last 2 500 years written from a global perspective. We now would like your help in spreading the material. First all comments are welcome. To our knowledge there is nothing similar in scope and time span. If you think this attempt at writing a global history is of interest and have critique, please write to us. The translation is provisional made by the author from the original text in Swedish. It needs to be looked over before publishing. Finally we are looking for a publisher. Have you any ideas in this regard, please also contacts us yours Tord Björk tord.bjork at mjv.se Content: Preface 1. The actors: states, capital and peoples' movements 2. The stage: the world 3. Peoples' movements before the world market system 4. Local communities' defence against the world market system 5. Wage labourers' defence against capital owners 6. System peripheries' defence against the center 7. Agriculturalists' defence against the food markets 8. Marginalized peoples' aspiration for equality 9. The self-defence of civil society 10. The peoples' movement system -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060419/5d48ac1b/attachment.html From turbulence at turbulence.org Wed Apr 19 03:07:25 2006 From: turbulence at turbulence.org (Turbulence) Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 17:37:25 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] UPGRADE! BOSTON: MICHAEL MITTELMAN Message-ID: <000001c66330$4d034dc0$6601a8c0@t5x1c0> < UPGRADE! BOSTON: MICHAEL MITTELMAN > http://www.turbulence.org/upgrade/archives/04_27MM.html Michael Mittelman is an artist, educator and publisher. His work, ranging from net art to interactive installation, has been exhibited throughout New England and abroad. As publisher of ASPECT Magazine, Michael has created a channel for contemporary new media artists to deliver their work to a wider audience, while simultaneously enabling educators to show video directly from artists. Michael's current body of work, "Alternative Domestic" explores psychological, cultural and social issues in the framework of a domestic apartment. When: April 27, 7:00-9:00 p.m. Where: Art Interactive, 130 Bishop Allen Drive, at the corner of Prospect Street, Cambridge << NEXT: AN EVENING OF SOUND ART WITH JEFF TALMAN AND HELEN THORINGTON >> http://www.turbulence.org/upgrade/archives/05_06JT.html http://www.turbulence.org/upgrade/archives/05_06HT.html When: May 2, 7:00-9:00 p.m. Where: Art Interactive, 130 Bishop Allen Drive, at the corner of Prospect Street, Cambridge The Upgrade! Boston schedule is available here: http://www.turbulence.org/upgrade/archive.html Jo-Anne Green, Co-Director New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc.: http://new-radio.org New York: 917.548.7780 . Boston: 617.522.3856 Turbulence: http://turbulence.org New American Radio: http://somewhere.org Networked_Performance Blog: http://turbulence.org/blog Upgrade! Boston: http://turbulence.org/upgrade _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From uddipana at gmail.com Wed Apr 19 15:51:35 2006 From: uddipana at gmail.com (Uddipana Goswami) Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 15:51:35 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] fourth posting - a soulless bihu in guwahati Message-ID: this is bihu season in assam. hence this post. http://my-guwahati.blogspot.com/ From jeebesh at sarai.net Wed Apr 19 13:16:19 2006 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh Bagchi) Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 13:16:19 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] =?windows-1252?q?What_is_=91global=92_about_global?= =?windows-1252?q?_finance=3F_?= Message-ID: <8C958957-654F-4A07-85D8-6EEBF024B415@sarai.net> What is ‘global’ about global finance? SATYA PEMMARAJU Seminar No 503, July 2001 http://www.india-seminar.com/2001/503/503%20satya%20pemmaraju.htm ‘Interest bearing capital always being the mother of every insane form...’ Marx, Capital (Volume 3) FROM the earliest systematic attempts to study finance capital and its effects, there has been much debate regarding the convoluted relationship between finance capital and states. David Harvey succinctly articulates the issue: ‘While the state apparatus forms the core of the strategic control centre for the circulation of interest-bearing capital, the latter is simultaneously free to circulate in such a way as to discipline the separate nation states to its purpose. The state is both controlled and controlling in its relation to the circulation of capital.’ Finance capital can be thought of as both process and structure – as the flow of interest bearing capital and as the unity of banking capital and industrial, commercial capital. There is a long history of interest bearing capital circulating over distinct geo-political entities, from the credit arrangements of Marwari traders to the powerful international bankers of the 19th century, the Rothschilds, Barings and their ilk. What is it that distinguishes contemporary international flows of capital from these prior arrangements? While it is almost taken for granted that global finance is a primary engine of the complex processes of globalization, what is it about ‘global’ finance that makes it ‘global’? I would like to examine this question through a set of vignettes sketching some crucial moments in the recent history of finance capital, which are connected to a fundamental notion: financial innovation. Finance capital, in its self imagining, is abstract and fully realises itself only in a space that is devoid of politics, governed only by the inexorable abstract rules of supply and demand. The political institution of the nation state and its regulations are not flexible enough to meet the demands for such spaces; finance capital responds to the limits through innovation. Innovation is the mechanism through which financial institutions create new instruments that subvert current spheres of regulated activity and shift to (or create) new spaces that are not yet the focus of regulatory control. Innovation is a primary means through which finance capital attempts to evade politics and regulation. Before any excursions into modern finance, one must mention the key event in its history: Bretton Woods. The Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944 was an attempt to build a international economic order through the regulatory power of money and credit. It created a system in which national currencies were linked to the dollar through fixed exchange rates and the dollar itself was linked directly to gold. It also created the two supra-national ‘public’ institutions of international finance: the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank and solidified the post-war hegemony of the United States. The creation of ‘global’ finance is inextricably linked with this event. Refugee credit: ‘National borders are no longer defensible against the invasion of knowledge, ideas or financial data... The Eurocurrency markets are a perfect example. No one designed them, no one authorised them, and no one controlled them. They were fathered by controls, raised by technology and today they are refugees, if you will, from national attempts to allocate credit and capital for reasons which have little or nothing to do with finance and economics...’ (Walter Wriston, Speech at International Monetary Conference 1979). The Eurocurrency markets that Wriston (then Chairman of Citibank and a major player in Cold War economic intrigues) gloats about are among the major innovations that emerged in a bizarre dialogue between nation state and finance capital during the Cold War. For being such a central part of contemporary flows of finance capital, they have a rather ironic origin. According to a predominant version, the first such currency, the Eurodollar, was born in 1949, out of the desire of the communist government of China to protect its dollar earnings from the long reach of the American state. The dollars were deposited in a Parisian bank, the Banque Commerciale pour l’Europe du Nord, which just happened to be owned by the Soviet Union and had the cable address ‘Eurobank’. The Soviets caught on quickly. They too began depositing their dollar earnings in banks outside America, using either the Paris bank or the Moscow Narodny Bank in London. Since interest bearing capital must circulate sooner or later, these external dollar deposits were soon being traded by European banks. They came to be called Eurodollars from the cable address of the Paris bank. Now the term Eurocurrency (not to be confused with the new common European currency, the Euro) has come to mean any currency that is outside the purview of the national laws and diktats of the central banks of the nation state of its origin; for example, yen deposits outside of Japan are called Euro Yen (maybe soon we shall see the EuroEuro!). The presence of other governments and multinational corporate entities who were reluctant to repatriate their dollars to United States led to the institutionalisation of a set of money and credit markets that were effectively beyond the authority of any national or international regulatory authority. Even though these markets were mostly based in London they remained outside the ambit of the British regulatory framework. These markets were secretive and remained hidden from even professional economists and financial writers for a number of years. Only in 1960 came the first published reference in The Times, to ‘the so-called Euro-dollar.’ One cannot emphasise enough the significance of these markets: there had been a few instances earlier of currencies being present outside the control of nations but that was just coins and paper money, this was abundant credit! Once credit creation goes beyond the boundaries of the nation state, the ability of nations to control financial institutions becomes more and more limited. The creation of the Euromarkets marks a major point in the struggle of finance capital against the Bretton Woods framework: for the first time there emerged a set of geographically deterritorialised economic institutions outside (and actively opposed to) the logic of national or international regulation. One of the major consequences of the lack of regulation was that banks active in the Euromarkets were free to invent new financial instruments away from censorious central bank regimes. The primary innovation of most of these new instruments was that they revolved around banks directly lending to one another, something that was anathema to most national central banks. So today, apart from the interest rates set for dollar deposits by the Federal Reserve of the United States, there are a differing set of rates for dollar deposits that are offered in the London inter- bank market, the LIBOR (London Inter-Bank Offered Rate) rates for dollars. This applies to a whole range of national currencies. The growth of the Euromarkets is probably the major reason for the revival of the fortunes of the City of London as the centre of the banking world and there have been numerous (less successful) attempts to replicate them in other locations, like Singapore. As the Eurodollar markets expanded rapidly, the United States noticed and then became apprehensive about the increasing flow of dollars abroad. In an effort to strengthen the dollar and make foreign borrowing in America more expensive, an Interest Equalisation Tax was introduced in the States in 1963. It was too late in the game. All it did was to turn hungry borrowers to the Eurodollar market in Europe instead for cheaper loans. While this growing flood of ‘refugee credit’ was the stuff of nightmares for conscientious central bankers, free marketers like Walter Wriston were triumphant in their unqualified enthusiasm. The Eurodollar markets grew even more in the late 1960s fuelled by global military expansion and rising trade and budget deficits in the States. Since the dollar was backed by gold, i.e. the U.S. Treasury would cash dollars for a fixed amount of gold, the gold reserves of the U.S. were under threat from this hoard of offshore dollars. With rising inflation in the U.S., the dollar was rapidly losing value and cashing in dollars for gold became quite a bargain. So much so that the outflow of gold from the U.S. to London became so great during the week of the Tet offensive in Vietnam (March 1968) that the floor of the weighing room in the Bank of England collapsed under the strain.1 The French and British governments started cashing in dollars for gold; finally in August 1971 Nixon closed the gold window in the U.S. Treasury, unilaterally revoking the right of dollar holders to convert their notes to gold. This marked the beginning of the end of the Bretton Woods agreements on fixed exchange rates centred on the dollar being backed by gold; the conventions finally collapsed two years later and a brave new world of freely floating exchange rates began. The formation and institutionalisation of the Euromarkets mark a new turn in the ongoing conversation between finance capital and the political institution of the nation state, a turn that begins to reveal what it means for finance capital to be ‘global’. Crises and contagion: ‘...the major concern is to avoid another financial crises, of which there have been too many in the past five years. From Mexico in 1995, through the Asian crisis in 1997 and Brazil in 1999, and more recently in Argentina and Turkey, sudden reversals of short term capital flows have created financial crises. In many cases, these crises have proved devastating to the citizens of the countries affected. The existence of deep and liquid international capital markets offers opportunities for greater risk diversification by both borrowers and lenders. But it also increases the risk of contagion from one country to another affected by an outflow of short-term debt finance.’ (Mervyn King, Deputy Governor, Bank of England, Institute of Petroleum, 21 February 2001.) ‘A striking feature of private sector capital flows in recent years has been the pace at which they surged into countries with significant structural or macroeconomic vulnerabilities – almost up to the eve of a financial crisis – and their sudden abrupt reversal.’ (Bank for International Settlements, 69th Annual Report.) For the past few years the trope of contagion has been ubiquitous in the discourse of central bankers, hedge fund managers, IMF and World Bank flunkeys, finance ministers, credit rating agencies and other unsavoury bit players in the wonderful world of finance. Though the transmission of market crises from one nation to the financial markets of other states has taken place with great regularity, the ‘Asian Crisis’ of 1997 caught the imagination of a whole generation of regulators and speculators, linking these events inextricably with the term ‘contagion’. Without delving deeply into the details of the crisis (there is now a cottage industry devoted to publishing analyses of the crisis), I would like to examine two aspects of the story. The first relates the activities of two kinds of international finance capital: short-term debt capital emanating from major banks in the G10 countries and predatory, speculative, ‘fictitious’ finance capital emanating from currency, equity and interest rate trading desks (sometimes parts of the very same G10 banks). The nine major East Asian nations (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore) had a sustained period of growth till 1997; they were benefiting from rapid export growth and opening up their economies to foreign participants, warming the hearts of many a IMF economist. On top of this, they had fairly strong macroeconomic fundamentals: low inflation, low external debt. The five countries that were worst affected by the crisis were Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines: these shall be the focus of the rest of this section. Their growth attracted finance capital from the G10 in search of higher returns; most major banks from the G10 participated in a credit expansion that (along with the liberalisation of local financial markets) fuelled domestic asset price bubbles throughout East Asia. The G10 banks pursued a wide range of business and offered their clients a full array of ‘sophisticated’ products. They also participated in a whole variety of illiquid local markets. More crucially, they held significant short term debt claims on East Asian debtors that were denominated in European currencies or U.S. dollars. This exposed the debtors to huge risk in the event of the devaluation/ depreciation of the local currency, increasing substantially the cost of their foreign currency debts. In the past ‘emerging market crises’ the major G10 banks had exposure only to sovereign or public debt, i.e. the debtor was either a sovereign nation or a public institution within the nation. The Asian crisis was significantly different. The debtors, this time around, were mostly either local banks or private sector corporations. The G10 banks had bypassed the state, yet assumed that there were implicit state guarantees on these debts. Another crucial difference was that by dabbling in local capital markets the G10 banks had made themselves far more susceptible to local market fluctuations. This was the stage in early 1997 when several huge Korean conglomerates declared bankruptcy. Massive speculative attacks were launched by currency traders on the Korean won, the Thai baht, the Indonesian and Malaysian rupiah over the next few months. The central banks struggled vainly to support their currencies. But soon, lacking both sufficient reserves and independence from the IMF to sustain fixed exchange rates for their currencies, Thailand, Indonesia and Korea floated their currencies. Under pressure from traders, the currencies underwent severe depreciation causing severe economic distress and political turmoil within these nations. While the speculators were in a feeding frenzy, the G10 banks were having nightmares: most of their debtors could no longer make loan payments, primarily because the depreciation of the local currencies made the loan payments in foreign currencies simply impossible for them to meet. With their debtors defaulting on loans, the G10 banks were faced with major losses throughout East Asia, with no sovereign guarantees on the debt to ease the pain. It was a rather bizarre moment: one form of transnational finance capital profiting by wreaking havoc with state institutions that provided a stable environment for the operations of another related form of finance capital. The most visible consequence of these events was the fact that in late 1997 and 1998 the net capital outflow from the five worst affected economies was about $80 billion.2 In the final analysis, this rapid outflow of capital was contagious. The conditions necessary for this rapid outflow of capital is what distinguishes contemporary ‘crises’ from those of the late 1970s or early 1980s. The transition is marked by a shift in the focus of the primary object of risk for transnational finance capital: from the sovereign state to a private, individual, foreign counterparty linked through channels of trade and finance to a variety of international financial institutions, private and public. The risks around which the old paradigm revolved were those of the willingness or ability of the sovereign state to honour its international debts and to provide foreign exchange to its viable, local credit-hungry debtors to meet international foreign currency denominated claims. Both the state and finance capital went to great lengths to avoid defaults, participating in an intricate dance in which neither party could afford to be hasty. With changes in the regulatory frameworks of many nations that now allow local, private counterparties to access transnational finance capital with much freedom, the threat of default and the subsequent withdrawal of credit is far more common, since the relationship between a creditor and an individual debtor is far more volatile than between a creditor and the state. Credit expansion and credit flight are more rapid once the state is pushed to the sidelines. It is no coincidence that the two most populous Asian countries, China and India, were less affected by the crisis: both had tight controls on cross-border capital movements and controls on foreign borrowings of local debtors. The national ‘borders’ that finance capital had to cross were not merely geographic, they consisted of the mundane yet crucial and intricate national and international laws that governed portfolio investments, commercial banking, trade finance, corporate taxation, special purpose vehicles, sovereign guarantees, bankruptcy etc., that provide the plumbing for the flows of capital. Finance becomes ‘global’ only through negotiating and transforming this infrastructure. Quid pro quo (or what’s a nice nobel laureate like you doing in a place like this): ‘Strategic Relationships – LTCM intends to form strategic relationships with organizations with strong presences [sic] in targeted geographical locations throughout the world. These organizations will be selected by LTCM on the basis of the value to the Portfolio Company to be derived from such relationships and may assist LTCM with respect to the Investment of the Portfolio Company’s assets by, among other things, providing informed insights from a local perspective on macro-economic policies and financial issues that may affect regional markets and geographic areas. LTCM believes that as a result of these relationships the operation of the Portfolio Company should be considerably more efficient and flexible than they would be if it relied solely on its internally integrated infrastructure to support all of its operations.’ (Confidential Private Placement Memorandum. Long Term Capital, L.P., 1 October 1993. Merril Lynch & Co., Placement Agent.) Long Term Capital Management (LTCM) was a hedge fund (i.e. a private investment fund specialising in formerly unorthodox, ‘sophisticated’ investment strategies using all kinds of ‘innovative’ instruments), that spectacularly went belly-up in September 1998 and very nearly took a large chunk of the financial sector of the OECD nations along with it. Apart from the usual morals about greed, hubris, controls, risk and capitalism the episode is worth examining for what it may reveal about the globality of finance. LTCM had a star-studded cast of partners, including Robert Merton and Myron Scholes (joint winners of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Economics), led by John Meriwether, an immensely successful bond trader well known in the right financial circles. The firm specialised in highly leveraged, relative value arbitrage and convergence trades, taking advantage of small ‘mis- pricings’ between securities that are virtually identical or between securities whose values are highly correlated. An extremely simple convergence trade would be to buy the 30 year United States Treasury bond that was issued last week and sell the 30 year United States Treasury bond that was issued last month if there was any significant price difference between them. Since, apart from maturing a month apart, the instruments are identical, any significant price differential between them would vanish over time, i.e. their prices would converge. Leverage simply means multiplying the purchasing power of capital by sophisticated means of borrowing. Leverage was essential to the functioning of LTCM: the profit from each individual transaction was small if fairly predictable, so to make the game worthwhile the partners sought to maximise leverage and size. LTCM could function only by assiduously seeking the cheapest sources of credit, with the least restrictive terms. In September 1998, LTCM’s total assets on balance sheet were about $125 billion, nearly all borrowed; compared to equity of about $5 billion, the figure reveals a breathtaking leverage ratio of 25 to 1. The offbalance sheet position, derivatives, swaps, options etc, was the almost meaningless figure of $1.25 trillion in notional principal. The event that triggered the collapse was the de facto default on debt announced by the Russian government on 17 August 1998; the new capitalists in Russia causing more damage to the capitalist system than the 70 years of communist rule! The Russian default caused severe credit contraction and severe volatility across world financial markets. In various ways, LTCM managed to lose about 90% of its equity in about a month! No single creditor may have had a complete picture of LTCM’s operations but that does not satisfactorily explain why LTCM was able to obtain unusually good financing conditions, almost universally. In the wake of LTCM’s collapse, the Financial Times (10/11 October 1998) published a leaked credit memorandum from a major bank detailing reasons for building a relationship with LTCM, an institution whose leverage exceeded normal limits. LTCM represented a good credit risk since ‘eight strategic investors’ including ‘generally government-owned banks in major markets’ owned 30.9% of LTCM’s capital. The memo infers that this gave LTCM ‘a window to see the structural changes occurring in those markets to which the strategic investors belong.’ In other words, LTCM had access to inside information. The meaning of the ‘Strategic Relationships’ section of LTCM’s prospectus starts to become clearer when we realise that among the major known ‘strategic partners’ and investors were prominent government institutions including the Italian Central Bank, the Bank of Taiwan, the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, the Hong Kong Land Authority and the Kuwait Pension Fund. Not to mention the private financial institutions that were ‘partners’. It is suspected that a few other major central banks were also partners. The Bank of Italy invested $100 million in LTCM and gave loans amounting to $150 million. This throws an entirely different light on the fact that in 1994-1995 LTCM made 38% of its $1.6 billion earnings from the now well known Italian convergence trade. The convergence of the Italian bond market with the other European Monetary Union bond markets had to be accelerated, so that Italy could satisfy the terms of the Maastricht Agreement and finally adopt the Euro as its currency. ‘According to some observers... the Bank of Italy provided LTCM with market access and privileged information denied to Italian banks – which yield a massive profit. In return, LTCM – and a handful of others – would engineer the convergence of Italian debt...’3 The Italians were not alone; by the end of 1997, ‘Governments treated it (LTCM) as a valued partner, to be used whenever markets weren’t efficient enough to achieve macro-economic goals.’4 An intriguing idea: if central banks (standing for states) cannot effectively control macro-economic policies which are now heavily dependent on the ‘market’, then they have to turn to the ‘market’ itself for help (or at least to key players, like LTCM, big enough to move markets). There is, articulated in the LTCM strategy, a new dŽtente between states and finance capital. While the modern nation state has provided the conditions for the efficient reproduction of capital, capital constantly tries to innovate itself beyond the politics and regulations of the state. Unable to find the one abstract, apolitical, unregulated space in which it imagines it would operate most efficiently, finance capital enters into global alliances with state and non-state institutions that provide unregulated access to opportunities of mutual benefit without actually challenging or subverting state authority – a new crony capitalism with the state as accomplice and stakeholder. Contra Walter Wriston, this version of finance capital does actively collaborate in ‘...national attempts to allocate credit and capital for reasons which have little or nothing to do with finance and economics...’ The structures of ‘global’ finance develop only in dialogue with the political institutions of the nation state. I have tried to illustrate three ways in which this dialogue has taken shape: subversion of state regulations, bypassing of state institutions, and collusion with state institutions. While this is far from a catalogue of the forms this dialogue takes, I hope that a sense of the issues involved has been conveyed. Footnotes: 1. Gary O’Callahan (1993). The Structure and Operation of the World Gold Market. Occasional Paper No. 105, Washington: IMF, September. 2. Eric van Wincoop and Kei-Mu Yi, Asian crisis post-mortem: where did the money go and did the United States benefit? 3. Nicholas Dunbar (2000). Inventing Money: The Story of Long Term Capital Management and the Legends Behind it. 4. Ibid. From dilip.sarai at gmail.com Fri Apr 21 12:47:02 2006 From: dilip.sarai at gmail.com (Dilip D'Souza -- Sarai) Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 12:47:02 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Watch that bun-maska! Message-ID: <1a57bfd0604210017v81c87e0g121dca62f22e98c@mail.gmail.com> Dear all, In case anyone noticed, I missed my March (2nd) posting. Various reasons that I won't get into here. But I intend to make up in good measure (I hope). Here's something I just finished for this list (that I'm also trying to get published) as part of my project. Comments welcome. And more soon. cheers, dilip d'souza --- Watch that bun-maska! Strolling through the crowded streets of this city one morning last week, a man tapped me on the shoulder. "Are you from the Municipality?" he asked, perhaps because I had my little pad out and was writing down the words on an odd sign I had just seen. (A minor hobby). No, I said, I'm not from the Municipality. It's just that I've always wanted to walk around in this city's neighbourhoods, and this is one such walk. He smiled, then chatted for several minutes about the sign I had noticed ("Chicken Shop: Be Carefull With Wrong Weight"), the empty plot behind us where clearly some structure had once stood and been demolished, the heat of the April sun ... Then he smiled some more still, said "Good luck!", shook my hand, and walked off. Why do I mention this fairly routine encounter? Only because it got me thinking about an article I read a couple of years ago, published by a very impressive-sounding think tank. Its introductory blurb described the article as an "analysis" of the threat that Islamic fundamentalism posed to India. Its US-based author had written to me, urging me to read it and "educate" myself about this threat. Introducing himself, he claimed he was an "accomplished nuclear physicist", and also an "expert on Islamic fundamentalism." Now guys that refer to themselves as "accomplished" and "expert" invariably set alarm bells ringing in my mind. As in this case. Sure enough, this man's article was -- how do I put this nicely? -- an almost comical mish-mash of paranoia, twisted figures and lies that any self-respecting think tank editor should have flung in the trash. No wonder the man had to apply those laudatory words to himself. If this bit of writing was any indication of his capabilities, nobody else in their right mind would. But it was one sentence in this concoction, in particular, that came to mind during my stroll. "Non-Muslims," wrote the accomplished nuclear physicist, "rarely venture into areas of India where Muslims are in large numbers, fearing unpredictable, irrational behaviour or violence directed at them." There are quarters, you see, where bald assertions like this one qualify as "analysis". Anyway: here I was with a couple of friends, certainly in an area "where Muslims are in large numbers." This was the heart of Dongri, east of JJ Hospital. In three hours walking about, here's some of what we found. Bustling shops. Phone booths. Three men ironing clothes who asked us to take a photo of them. Young men zipping about on loud motorbikes, weaving dangerously close to pedestrians. Street vendors hawking trinkets. Owner of a massage place who told us, grumpily and to our great disappointment, that he had stopped offering massages only days previously; though if we wanted, we could pay him ten rupees and have a bath. (We declined). Shop-owner who chuckled when we asked for "Pepsi", not the multinational drink, but the common kiddie word for a frozen popsicle. And a man who chatted genially and shook my hand. Which of all this qualified as "unpredictable, irrational behaviour or violence" directed at us? Yes, I'm a non-Muslim, as is my wife and everyone in my family and the two friends I was walking with that day. For work, for a meal, for a special meal on a Ramzan night, for weddings, and even for no particular reason, all of us and many other non-Muslims I know have walked plenty of times through Muslim areas of India -- so much that "rarely venture" doesn't apply. Not once have we feared "unpredictable, irrational behaviour or violence" directed at us; not once has such behaviour or violence ever broken out. What we experienced in Dongri was just the normal, pretty much what we would experience in any densely packed urban neighbourhood in India. So normal, it didn't even really matter to us that this was a Muslim area. Much like Thakurdwar or Matharpacady, where we had been strolling two previous mornings, it was just another pocket of a great city. That's all. What explains the paranoia of the accomplished nuclear physicist? It matters to me, because a journalist friend's recent efforts to buy a flat were stymied because of his Muslim name. He has ended up buying in a Muslim area. (Not Dongri, but one like that). Yet now the same paranoia that turned him away, that left him with no choice but to live "where Muslims are in large numbers", will also tell the world to be wary of violence if they enter his neighbourhood. Now Islamic fundamentalism may or may not be a huge threat to India, I have no idea. I'm no expert. But when its critics use their own paranoid prejudice to paint it as such, and dress that up as an "expert" analysis, there's no reason in the world to take them seriously, even if they are accomplished nuclear physicists. And if you look at them and their writing like that, you'll know that the only irrational behaviour is theirs. And if you walk around the Dongris of this world, you'll know that they are no different from the Thakurdwars or Matharpacadys. That they are populated by men and women and kids, much like you. Then again, something I ate in Dongri gave me a mild stomach upset. I can see the words in a future "expert" analysis: "Non-Muslims rarely venture into areas of India where Muslims are in large numbers, fearing tummy upsets from their bun-maska." From mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com Fri Apr 21 12:53:38 2006 From: mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com (mahmood farooqui) Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 12:53:38 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] The helpless city In-Reply-To: <20060413230425.85194.qmail@web42202.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20060413230425.85194.qmail@web42202.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Dear Yunus, The breakdown of monthly expenses at the child shelter was most instructive...as was the fact that zoning plays such an important role in division of work... Sarak ke kis taraf hui? that's kafkaesque... A lawyer in Bombay called Yug Chaudhry, who mostly does legal aid work specially for juveniles, has been helping to put together a new draft for the Juvenile Justice Act....he is available at yugchaudhry at hotmail.com Write to him if you feel the need. Best, Mahmood On 14/04/06, mohd syed wrote: > Each helpline gets different types of calls representing diverse > requirments of 'help' in a city .They usually operate in different shifts > i.e morning evening and night. Recently I happen to be in the child helpline > during the morning shift and came across a few cases . These cases are > common but interesting to me because they present certain pictures of Delhi > ,Picures that reflects the helplessness of the city and representing those > parts of the city which are usually ignored or not seen. > > A man brought a seventeen year old girl, he found him on the road roaming > helplessly ,when enquired she told that she belongs to jharkhand and was > sent to Delhi by her parents to work through a palacement agency . she > was working some where but was not treated humanly so she left the place > to return home but lost in the way. And then she came in contact with > childline.. > There was a emergency call from an adoption center about a four year old > boys in Kalawati Saran hospital to provide medical care and nursing. > Three Street children came to childline for shelter one of them was a > repeater and he brought the other two. Repeater also mentioned that he has > earlier escaped from a shelter home in Kingswaycamp. > There was a rescue call from Zor bagh about a nine year old kid who > works in a house and was thrashed by the owner ,the caller wanted helpline > worker to come immediately and save the child. The worker replied that he is > referring the case to the concerned organization in the zone. > Another lost child was refered by a concerned citizen from chandnichowk ,he > was roaming aimlessly, he was brought to delhi by some elder friend for the > sake of 'ghommne ke liye'. > Parents of a runaway child came to take him back but he was not willing to > return, he ran away from his home as was beaten by his parents as he sold > out his school bag to kabadi wala. > A fifteen year old girl was sitting near one of the the ladies staff she > was pregnant and was thrown out by her step sister when it was found that > she is pregnant. > There was a complaint from Police station tilak marg thana that they called > for help during night as they found a girlchild on the road but the worker > did not replied Such calls and cases are very common in childline now let us > see the key words in these cases once again. > Placements agencies Placement agencies are very common in delhi , they > provide domestic maid servants to the Delhites who need them. Since domestic > work like cleaning and washing does not need skilled labor it is a low paid > job . mostly girls of 12 to 18 years of age are hired for such purpose . > Usually girls from jharkhand ,west bengal and bihar are brought to delhi for > this purpose.There are many reasons and causes for such a movement, first of > all these poverty ridden areas do not have much employment and livelihood > opportunities ,the families are large ,hence girls are pushed to Delhi to > work..But then a question arises that how can somebody send his/her daughter > just like that? Answer lies in the existence of placement agencies and > agents. These agents and agencies are run by people who first came to delhi > in search of work and then later on established their own service. Agents > bring girls from different villages to delhi promising their parents that > they will regularly send money earned by their daughters ,usually they > are In-Laws of the village and some time different villages ,many a times > their better half is also the copartner in the business. the suspician is > minimised when almost each family has sent its daughter to work. These > domestic help placement agencies keep a record of these girls but they > usually show less number of girls , that too of above eighteen years to save > them from Law enforcing agencies.they say that they are registered bodies > ,but as per my knowledge no such act for registeration of placment > agensies exist. When these girls are brought to Delhi ,it is usually their > first encounter, they are not able to commincate easily because of language > problem ,they don't know complicated routes and roads of Delhi , they are > placed in different familes of different parts of the city, their > remuneration is collected by the agencies , and hence they don't have money > to go back home . if they are lucky enough to get a nice employer then > there is no problem otherwise there are all kinds of horrible stories, of > being beaten up badly ,of being sexually abused ,of being sold to people for > flesh trade or being pregnant after promises of marriage. If any such girl > in distress come in contact with helpline ,they try to help her , > unfortunately if the girl has ran away after being abused she is not able > to identify the place where she was kept , so then they try to trace her > address and contact her family ,either with the help of Police , other > network organisations or self . in few cases report is also launched > against placement agencies but they are left free with out any charges > when the girl say that she was brought by her own will, send by her family > or that the agent is her some uncle, chacha, Mama or brother. And hence the > helpline is left with the responsibility of searching her home or any other > shelter where she can be rehabilitated. > Adoption center Adoption center is another part of the city to which > helpline workers interact with, these are the centers where small children > uptill 0 to 7 years of age are kept as helpline workers don't have a > shelter and facility for them.. many a times small children are lost or > abondaned because of various reasons . if any such child came in touch with > childline or police or any organization or hospital they are referred to > Adoption centers/agencies. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment , > GOI . set up the Central Adoption Resource Agency in 1990 popularly known as > CARA. It is a Central Authority in the matter of adoptions,it regulates > ,monitors and inspect adoption agencires and it only works for adoption of > destitute and orphan children in Institutions. As per a document published > by CARA there are approximately 69 indian Adoption placement agencies > spread over the length and breadth of the country,to carry out inter country > adoptions of children. There are 248 foreign agencies through which > inter-country adoptions are done. In 2001 total 1899 in country adoptions > were done , and 1298 inter- countery adoptions were done. People who dont > have children some time want to adopt other children ,City needs Adoption > agencies to take care of orphan ,abondaned and destitutes kids and adoptions > agencies needs helplines, voluntary organizations , donations and 'kids' to > run their service . yes both kids and donations are back bone of any > adoption agencies.Adoption is covered in the Hindu Adoption and Maintenace > Act , which is very strict means it is not easy to adopt a child in india > ,it does not allow people other than Hindu to adopt children in India, also > the Donations given by Indian families are not much , this is probably the > reason why inter country adoptions are increasing day by day. The system in > the city seems ok but there are instances where adoption agencies has > deliberately not tried to restore lost children , so that he/she can be > adopted by some one in need. Though there are few mechanisms to regulate > adoptions yet it does not work all the time. > Street children/ Escaped News about children running from government homes > is not new for delhites but the reasons of why do they run from such homes? > Usually don't get space in any newspaper expect whenever it is a sensational > story. Government shelter homes come under the department of Social Welfare > and Juvenile Justice care and protection Act 2000 (JJ Act). JJ act is the > social legislation for children from zero to eighteen years of age. This act > imposes the state with the primary responsibility of ensuring that all the > needs of children are met and that their basic human rights are fully > protected . It define children in two categories,children in need of care > and protecion and children in conflict with law. the former are kept in > shelter homes and competent authority for them is Child welfare Committee , > where as later are kept in observation homes and the competent authority for > them is Juvenile Justice Board.( I will provide detail about these > seperately) Unfortunately both the places are literally 'jail' for children, > here they are usually kept half fed ,with no recreation accept TV, they do a > lot of work for the staff , are abused by elder and stronger boys. And all > limits of corruption are crossed by the staff so running away seems the > best option for them Recently Mr Raj mangal Prasad Director of an NGO > Association for Development brought out some facts about the ill practices > of the Department of social welfare Delhi through Right to Information Act. > Currently there are 10 shelter homes run by govt in which 1873 children are > staying , govt spend approximately3500 rupees perchild / month, department > was not able to provide clear breakup of expenditure, how ever these figure > given by department themselves give us some idea: Under wear were purchased > @67/piece as compare tomarket rate of 35 PT shoes @210 market rate 120 > ladies shoes @280 market rate150 sweater @365 market rate 250 More than 70 % > of Ambulances donated by CATS to be used as medical van are used by the > staff for commuting. Most of the children staying in these shelter homes > know their complete or partial address but , they have no one to take care > of them as a result they are stucked in as if they are jailed. > Zone Zone division is a constantly is a major concern for helplines in > Delhi, basically delhi has been divided in to various zones by different > systems , for instance childline works in Five zones, Delhi police works in > Nine Zones . each zones has a set of issues and problems , but each one has > a common problem of Zone overlapping . many atimes helpline worker try to > avoid overlapping cases, by saying that it does not lie in there zone > Particulary Police , in Delhi there are many places where areas of two > police stations are divided by a Road, or railway line or just a park so if > some one go there to lodge an FIR about a crime may be as serious as > rape. The first question that is asked is ' ye ghatna road ke kis taraf > hui' at this if one manages to give a fairly precise anwer then the next > question is 'aap ko ye ladka/ladki kahan mile'.. and hence the 'zone' > excuse is presented before you. > > ________________________________ > Jiyo cricket on Yahoo! India cricket > Yahoo! Messenger Mobile Stay in touch with your buddies all the time. > > > > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe > in the subject header. > List archive: > > > From mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com Fri Apr 21 12:59:31 2006 From: mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com (mahmood farooqui) Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 12:59:31 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Watch that bun-maska! In-Reply-To: <1a57bfd0604210017v81c87e0g121dca62f22e98c@mail.gmail.com> References: <1a57bfd0604210017v81c87e0g121dca62f22e98c@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Dilip, Is it possible that you or people you know might be an exception in their sense of ease regardless of demographics. Would you say it is wholly untrue to say that a large majority of non-Muslims would be quite uncomfortable, not necessarily because they are communalists but for a variety of reasons, at finding themselves in a predominantly Muslim area, ghetto or not. Particularly in the bigger cities where the size of these conurbations may be very huge indeed. Best, Mahmood On 21/04/06, Dilip D'Souza -- Sarai wrote: > Dear all, > > In case anyone noticed, I missed my March (2nd) posting. Various > reasons that I won't get into here. But I intend to make up in good > measure (I hope). Here's something I just finished for this list (that > I'm also trying to get published) as part of my project. Comments > welcome. And more soon. > > cheers, > dilip d'souza > > --- > > > Watch that bun-maska! > > > Strolling through the crowded streets of this city one morning last > week, a man tapped me on the shoulder. "Are you from the > Municipality?" he asked, perhaps because I had my little pad out and > was writing down the words on an odd sign I had just seen. (A minor > hobby). No, I said, I'm not from the Municipality. It's just that I've > always wanted to walk around in this city's neighbourhoods, and this > is one such walk. > > He smiled, then chatted for several minutes about the sign I had > noticed ("Chicken Shop: Be Carefull With Wrong Weight"), the empty > plot behind us where clearly some structure had once stood and been > demolished, the heat of the April sun ... Then he smiled some more > still, said "Good luck!", shook my hand, and walked off. > > Why do I mention this fairly routine encounter? Only because it got me > thinking about an article I read a couple of years ago, published by a > very impressive-sounding think tank. Its introductory blurb described > the article as an "analysis" of the threat that Islamic fundamentalism > posed to India. Its US-based author had written to me, urging me to > read it and "educate" myself about this threat. Introducing himself, > he claimed he was an "accomplished nuclear physicist", and also an > "expert on Islamic fundamentalism." > > Now guys that refer to themselves as "accomplished" and "expert" > invariably set alarm bells ringing in my mind. As in this case. Sure > enough, this man's article was -- how do I put this nicely? -- an > almost comical mish-mash of paranoia, twisted figures and lies that > any self-respecting think tank editor should have flung in the trash. > > No wonder the man had to apply those laudatory words to himself. If > this bit of writing was any indication of his capabilities, nobody > else in their right mind would. > > But it was one sentence in this concoction, in particular, that came > to mind during my stroll. "Non-Muslims," wrote the accomplished > nuclear physicist, "rarely venture into areas of India where Muslims > are in large numbers, fearing unpredictable, irrational behaviour or > violence directed at them." > > There are quarters, you see, where bald assertions like this one > qualify as "analysis". > > Anyway: here I was with a couple of friends, certainly in an area > "where Muslims are in large numbers." This was the heart of Dongri, > east of JJ Hospital. In three hours walking about, here's some of what > we found. Bustling shops. Phone booths. Three men ironing clothes who > asked us to take a photo of them. Young men zipping about on loud > motorbikes, weaving dangerously close to pedestrians. Street vendors > hawking trinkets. Owner of a massage place who told us, grumpily and > to our great disappointment, that he had stopped offering massages > only days previously; though if we wanted, we could pay him ten rupees > and have a bath. (We declined). Shop-owner who chuckled when we asked > for "Pepsi", not the multinational drink, but the common kiddie word > for a frozen popsicle. > > And a man who chatted genially and shook my hand. > > Which of all this qualified as "unpredictable, irrational behaviour or > violence" directed at us? > > Yes, I'm a non-Muslim, as is my wife and everyone in my family and the > two friends I was walking with that day. For work, for a meal, for a > special meal on a Ramzan night, for weddings, and even for no > particular reason, all of us and many other non-Muslims I know have > walked plenty of times through Muslim areas of India -- so much that > "rarely venture" doesn't apply. Not once have we feared > "unpredictable, irrational behaviour or violence" directed at us; not > once has such behaviour or violence ever broken out. What we > experienced in Dongri was just the normal, pretty much what we would > experience in any densely packed urban neighbourhood in India. So > normal, it didn't even really matter to us that this was a Muslim > area. Much like Thakurdwar or Matharpacady, where we had been > strolling two previous mornings, it was just another pocket of a great > city. That's all. > > What explains the paranoia of the accomplished nuclear physicist? > > It matters to me, because a journalist friend's recent efforts to buy > a flat were stymied because of his Muslim name. He has ended up buying > in a Muslim area. (Not Dongri, but one like that). Yet now the same > paranoia that turned him away, that left him with no choice but to > live "where Muslims are in large numbers", will also tell the world to > be wary of violence if they enter his neighbourhood. > > Now Islamic fundamentalism may or may not be a huge threat to India, I > have no idea. I'm no expert. But when its critics use their own > paranoid prejudice to paint it as such, and dress that up as an > "expert" analysis, there's no reason in the world to take them > seriously, even if they are accomplished nuclear physicists. And if > you look at them and their writing like that, you'll know that the > only irrational behaviour is theirs. > > And if you walk around the Dongris of this world, you'll know that > they are no different from the Thakurdwars or Matharpacadys. That they > are populated by men and women and kids, much like you. > > Then again, something I ate in Dongri gave me a mild stomach upset. I > can see the words in a future "expert" analysis: "Non-Muslims rarely > venture into areas of India where Muslims are in large numbers, > fearing tummy upsets from their bun-maska." > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: > From prem.cnt at gmail.com Thu Apr 20 10:40:34 2006 From: prem.cnt at gmail.com (Prem Chandavarkar) Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 10:40:34 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Re: [Urbanstudy] strategy / tactics / cities In-Reply-To: <20060418090352.71918.qmail@web32814.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <20060418090352.71918.qmail@web32814.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <7e230b560604192210x7ad15a0by9f75bd2bcf1da1df@mail.gmail.com> Dear Chintan, I am also an architect interested in cities who has been reading de Certeau. I have a work in progress (with no forecast as to by when I will complete it) titled "Is Urban Planning Meant for Cities?". The notion of planning or designing a city requires that a coherent model be imposed on what is a highly complex entity that eludes description. Some suggested readings I found very useful (if you have not read them already) Richard Sennet (ed): Classic Essays on the Culture of Cities - a collection of the first theoretical writings on cities - Weber, Simmel, Spengler, Park, Wirth, Redfield. Many of them (particulary Simmel and Park) focus on the fact that the essential characteristic of the city is its complexity and the potential that arises from the fact that conformism cannot be enforced. I particulary love Park's statement that the role of cities is "to foreground the moral range of deviant behavior". Christopher Alexander: A New Theory of Urban Design - the only study I know that seeks to arrive at a bottom up methodology for designing cities. Jane Jacobs: The Life and Death of Great American Cities - while the book focuses on American cities, her perceptions on what make a city alive are most useful. I also give some references below to a couple of essays I wrote, in case you find them useful: Urban Space and the Urban Activist http://www.architexturez.net/+/subject-listing/000100.shtml Crafting the Public Realm: Speculations on the Role of Open Source Methodologies in Development by Design http://www.thinkcycle.org/tc-filesystem/?folder_id=37457 All the best, Prem Chandavarkar On 18/04/06, chintan gohil wrote: > > dear all, > > please have a look at my recent posting on my very > first brand new blog... > > http://urbanexistence.blogspot.com/2006/04/tactical-machines-city.html > > its a work in progress on the ideas of tactics . > strategies / bottom-up . top-down / power . powerS and > their manifestation in the (built) environment...it is > influenced by michel de certeau's ideas on tactics vs. > strategy (esp in practice of everyday life)...the case > here is indian city (specifically ahmedabad with its > urban villages) > > it seems almost random / collection of lots of > theoretical bits / quotations / questions...but i > thought it was a good idea to put it on web at this > stage... > > views / comments / much appreciated > > regards > c > > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.com > _______________________________________________ > Urbanstudygroup mailing list > Urban Study Group: Reading the South Asian City > > To subscribe or browse the Urban Study Group archives, please visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/urbanstudygroup > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060420/3cd36088/attachment.html From dilip.sarai at gmail.com Fri Apr 21 15:11:35 2006 From: dilip.sarai at gmail.com (Dilip D'Souza -- Sarai) Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 15:11:35 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Watch that bun-maska! In-Reply-To: References: <1a57bfd0604210017v81c87e0g121dca62f22e98c@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <1a57bfd0604210241j3a14d412l28ef8897256036f8@mail.gmail.com> Mahmood, I thought of that. But I have two responses. 1) I cannot believe "large majority", for this simple reason: that would mean that I, and most people around me, are from a tiny minority. (I realize you suggest perhaps we are exceptions, I'm just saying I find that unlikely). I've gone into some such areas with people I've met for the first time that day -- meaning people I don't know beforehand -- and I cannot believe that it's just my luck to keep finding people from that tiny minority who don't feel uneasy. 2) Even if some people do feel uncomfortable, I think the answer is to go into those areas and see for yourself. (I don't have any problem with people bearing prejudices. What gets to me is the guys who are unwilling to question those prejudices). I mean, look at the other such situations we might find ourselves in, and tell me whether the "unpredictable, irrational violence" line applies: * you're a man alone in an auditorium full of women, and vice versa. * you're a left-handed person in a school full of right-handed people. * you're a non-Catholic in the Vatican, or in Matharpacady. * you're an Indian in a largely white town in northern Scotland. * you're a Tamil speaker surrounded by Hindi speakers. * etc. Which of these situations are analogous to going into a Muslim area? Why? Which should induce some fear, and why? cheers, dilip d'souza. From cahen.x at levels9.com Fri Apr 21 15:36:44 2006 From: cahen.x at levels9.com (xavier cahen) Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 12:06:44 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] pourinfos Newsletter / 04-14 to 04-20-2006 Message-ID: <4448AEB4.9000104@levels9.com> pourinfos.org l'actualité du monde de l'art / daily Art news ----------------------------------------------------------------------- infos from April 14, 2006 to April 20, 2006 (included) ------------------------------------------------------------------- (mostly in french) Hello, Today is Shanghai Time ! #1 This is a new "column" on the artistic life in Shangai, selected by Jérémie Thircuir. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2986 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 01 Call : CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS: The Escape Artists Society (T.E.A.S.) ViPod Gallery works, Vancouver, Canada. http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2995 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 02 Call : ELECTROFRINGE 2006 ? CALL FOR PROPOSALS, Newcastle, Austalia. http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2994 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 03 Call : Festival lavage multiplexage à la Machinante Factory , Montreuil, France. http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2993 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 04 Meetings : Télégum / une muqueuse à image par Thibault Depré & Vincent Rioux, Friday April 21, 2006, Confluences, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=2992 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 05 Meetings : The contemporary forms of engaged art, International Conference, be April 21, and 22 2006, ISELP, Brussels, Belgium. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=2991 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 06 Meetings : "the sound phenomenon in the contemporary art", Thursday May 4, 2006, Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon, Lyon, France. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=2990 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 07 Meetings : Biennal as school at the Cooper Union, New York, Usa. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=2982 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 08 Publication : Art And Its Institutions: Current Conflicts, Critique And Collaborations, Nina Möntmann edition, Hamburg, Germany. http://pourinfos.org/publications/item.php?id=2989 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 09 Formation : CuratorLab, konstfack University College of arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm, Sweden. http://pourinfos.org/emploi/item.php?id=2988 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 10 Various : atelier à Louer, Montpellier, France. http://pourinfos.org/divers/item.php?id=2987 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 11 Various : cycle Guy Debord, international center of Marseilles poetry, Marseille, France. http://pourinfos.org/divers/item.php?id=2977 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 12 Exhibition : Nouveau / New : Today is Shanghai Time ! #1, Shanghai, Chine. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2986 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 13 Exhibition : The Embassy of Possible, 40mcube / Le Château, Rennes, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2985 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 14 Exhibition : HOMESICK – Act I, Akureyri Art Museum, Reykjavík, Iceland. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2984 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 Program : Videoformes, Clermont-Ferrand, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2983 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 Exhibition : Olivier Nottellet, galerie martinethibaultdelachâtre, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2981 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 17 Exhibition : Mario Nigro. Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, Venise, Italy. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2980 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 18 Program: the upgrade!istanbul #5, Istanbul, Turkey. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2979 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 19 Exhibition : : Guy Limone, Espace Paul Ricard, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2978 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 20 Exposition : The Wells of desire OOO Mohamed Rachdi & Co, Église Notre-Dame de Montataire, Montataire Centre , France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2976 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 21 Appel à candidature : Simultan02 - 100seconds application deadline 20april '06,Timisoara, Roumanie. http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=2974 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 22 Call : Call for Articles and Net Art, On-line journal Hz, Stockholm, Sweden. http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2973 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 23 Call : Call for Submissions from Displaced People,Independent Museum of Contemporary Art, Nicosia, Cyprus. http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2972 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 24 Call : The flag of May 1 - participative performance - London biennial in Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2971 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 25 Call : SUGIA 2, on Art, Culture and Society - CALL FOR PROPOSALS, Sergey Courtyard, Jerusalem, Israel. http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=2970 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 26 Residences : European Media Artists in Residence Exchange (EMARE 2006), Halle, Germany. http://pourinfos.org/residences/item.php?id=2969 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 27 Meetings : philosophy and Electronic musics, , Les Rencontres Place Publique, Casa Encendida à Madrid, Spain. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=2968 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 28 Meetings : Art at the school: causes local or national? Wednesday May 3, 2006, University Paris 1, La Sorbonne - Amphi Lefebvre, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=2967 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 29 Meetings : The creation of the order: : la petite histoire d'un concours prive, mercredi 19 avril 2006, the small history of a private concours, Wednesday April 19, 2006,Maison de l'architecture en Île-de-France, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=2966 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 30 Meetings : extensions #6 "to take position", Programming of vidéos artists on April 26, 2006 at l'Ensci/les Ateliers, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=2965 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 31 Publication : number 4, the Online review of "art is public", Lyon, France. http://pourinfos.org/publications/item.php?id=2964 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 32 Formation : Call for applications for Postgraduate Program in Curating (NDK / MAS), Institute Cultural Studies at the HGK Zürich, Switzerland. http://pourinfos.org/emploi/item.php?id=2963 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 33 Various : Award-Winning Artists Selected for Artscape’s, Gibraltar Point International Artist Residency Program, Canada. http://pourinfos.org/divers/item.php?id=2962 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 34 Exhibition : Carte blanche à Dominique Grain, La Briqueterie, Amiens, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2961 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 35 Screening : instants vidéo Valérie Pavia, Instants Vidéo Numériques et Poétiques, Scam, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2960 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 36 Screening : Atom Egoyan et Yervant Gianikian, Vendredi 28 avril, Cinéastes arméniens à Visions du Réel, UTOPIANA, Geneva, Switzerland. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2959 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 37 Program : the World in images, Un Regard Moderne, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2958 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 38 Program : letter de visu n° 62, pour de visu, i-galerie photographique, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2957 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 39 Performances : Plasticiens du web : Performances et nouvelles technologies, Thursday April 20, 2006, Centre Pompidou, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2956 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 40 Performance : plan de situation #2: Sélestat, Till Roeskens, pLaStoL, DISTRIBUTEUR OFFICIEL, Marseille, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2955 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 41 Performance : Mal au Pixel: international festival of the electronic cultures, April 19 with 20h30, Confluences, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2954 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 42 Exhibition : Unexpected arthome, Galerie Jocelyn Wolff, Brussels, Belgium. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2953 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 43 Exhibition : To reconsider the methods, procedures of the exposure and the meeting of the public, Collectif of artist YOU ARE HERE, Château Bastor-Lamontagne, Preignac , France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2952 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 44 Exhibition : Open Studios "Trans-Belleville-Express" Association des Ateliers d'Artistes de Belleville, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2951 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 45 Exhibiton : Le spectre des armatures, Glassbox, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2950 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 46 Exhibition : Kinetic, PARIS PHOTOGRAPHIQUE, Espace Beaurepaire, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2949 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 47 Exhibition : IN VITRO, Claudie Dadu, Le 51, Sète, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2948 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 48 Exhibition : "Faux-semblants", Synesthesie , Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2947 From aman.am at gmail.com Fri Apr 21 16:39:39 2006 From: aman.am at gmail.com (Aman Sethi) Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 16:39:39 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Watch that bun-maska! In-Reply-To: <1a57bfd0604210241j3a14d412l28ef8897256036f8@mail.gmail.com> References: <1a57bfd0604210017v81c87e0g121dca62f22e98c@mail.gmail.com> <1a57bfd0604210241j3a14d412l28ef8897256036f8@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <995a19920604210409i6f27f7e8v3b2264ccdcc1de25@mail.gmail.com> Dilip and Mahmood, Based on my experience in aligarh last week - i had gone for a followup story on the communal clashes on the 5th and 6th of april this year- these are just a few semi-connected dots. As dilip has suggested - the idea of "discomfort" or un-comfort must be examined further. A space can be unfamiliar in many different ways - geographic unfamiliarity is only one such. A space could also be unsettling when it is divorced from your routine class-experience - for example the first time u enter a slum , or the first time u enter a five star hotel or luxury resort. While you might find the space unfamiliar, the space finds u unfamiliar as well - U may think that u fit in - you may take precautions like dressing conservatively or not (depending on the nature of the space) , but the space sees you and percieves u as alien, and so it evovles strategies to deal with your presence. Thus, the man who asks u if u are from the municipal corporation is trying to figure out why you - as an unfamiliar entity- are approaching his space. Once u establish ure credentials as a journalist, or corporation officer - or in ure case - a tourist - the space accomodates u more easily - and people decide how best to deal with you. Another thing is that the english speaking elite often does not warrant categorisation beyond a certain point. When u enter a space you walk in with the might of the state behind you. You have "connections", policemen listen to you, the courts rule in ure favour, the media shouts blue murder when u are assualted. So you are a "bada-admi" wether u like it or not. Aligarh is a communally sensitive town - and coming in after the riots my presence caused a great degree of suspicion .. after establishing my credentials as a journalist - i was party to the following exchange. "aman" i replied. the man stood and thought and said "par voh toh kisi ka bhi naam ho sakta hai, what is ure second name?" , "Sethi", "ok, so ure hindu, how can i help you?" The man was muslim, and proceeded to be extremely kind, candid and helpful - he introduced me to a number of people, and through every introduction explained that i was "OK" .. and they could talk to me ...once he had figured me out, he was more at ease - but i needed to establsh my reason for inhabiting his space. had i not been a "presswallah", i would probably have a qualitatively different interaction ... i am not trying to credit the nuclear physicist's assertion .. i am merely saying that as middleclass elite - our means of accessing a space is very different... aommunally sensitive places also have their own means of dealing with "outsiders" ... a hindu in a muslm space is an intersting specimen, and creates his or her own particular niche - a well dressed woman in a bus creates her own ... i realise this is a rahter incoherent post .. but i would like to return to this soon ... best A. On 4/21/06, Dilip D'Souza -- Sarai wrote: > Mahmood, I thought of that. But I have two responses. > > 1) I cannot believe "large majority", for this simple reason: that > would mean that I, and most people around me, are from a tiny > minority. (I realize you suggest perhaps we are exceptions, I'm just > saying I find that unlikely). I've gone into some such areas with > people I've met for the first time that day -- meaning people I don't > know beforehand -- and I cannot believe that it's just my luck to keep > finding people from that tiny minority who don't feel uneasy. > > 2) Even if some people do feel uncomfortable, I think the answer is to > go into those areas and see for yourself. (I don't have any problem > with people bearing prejudices. What gets to me is the guys who are > unwilling to question those prejudices). I mean, look at the other > such situations we might find ourselves in, and tell me whether the > "unpredictable, irrational violence" line applies: > > * you're a man alone in an auditorium full of women, and vice versa. > * you're a left-handed person in a school full of right-handed people. > * you're a non-Catholic in the Vatican, or in Matharpacady. > * you're an Indian in a largely white town in northern Scotland. > * you're a Tamil speaker surrounded by Hindi speakers. > * etc. > > Which of these situations are analogous to going into a Muslim area? > Why? Which should induce some fear, and why? > > cheers, > dilip d'souza. > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: > From aasim27 at yahoo.co.in Fri Apr 21 19:31:57 2006 From: aasim27 at yahoo.co.in (aasim khan) Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 15:01:57 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] if you thought paranoia had limits... Message-ID: <20060421140157.35664.qmail@web8703.mail.in.yahoo.com> Hi folks, The following text is a rage in infosys and other IT company (young) emloyee brigade:It goes as a letter written by a guy fifty years down the line...stinker i would say.also huge in terms of span...but are we all feeding on our own paranoias on the anti-anti-mandal??? Twice negative...does that make anything positive. read on.... ----------------------------------------------------- Ahmedabad, 30 April 2056: I attended the bash at the IIM-OBC Alumni Association to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the reservation of seats for OBCs (Other Backward Castes) in IIMs. Since I’m not an OBC, I was not supposed to attend, but at present, we MBFCs (Moderately Backward Forward Castes) together with the Non-Scheduled Tribes have a political alliance with the OBCs. We sipped champagne and talked about how so many of us had progressed from reserved seats in the IIMs to reserved jobs to reserved promotions. Unfortunately, the party broke up when a Non-scheduled Tribes faculty member objected to the OBCs dancing with all the pretty girls — he wanted equal opportunities for every caste at each dance. I pointed out that the Non-scheduled Tribes had exceeded the quota of champagne reserved for them. The party ended in a pitched caste battle. 1) May 2056: Today, I became president of the IIM Board of Directors. Under the present rotating presidency system, a member of each caste is made the president by turn. When it was the turn of the MBFCs for president, they had to choose me because I’m the only MBFC on the campus. True, I’m only the campus dhobi, but then every caste must be given an equal opportunity. All those centuries of oppression by the OSBFCs (Only Slightly Backward Forward Castes) and the OFCs (Other Forward Castes) must be rectified. I hope to restore the high standards at IIM — I overheard some foreigners calling it the Indian Institute of Morons, the other day. 2) May 2056: They’ve announced the cricket team for the series against Australia. I was overjoyed when they chose an MBFC man as captain. But my hopes were dashed when I realised he was a Most Backward Forward Caste and not a Moderately Backward Forward Caste. The selection committee lamented that it was gross discrimination that no member from the Jarowa tribe (the Stone Age tribe in the Andamans) had ever found a place in the Indian cricket team. A squad has since been dispatched to the Andamans to capture a Jarowa tribal to play in the national team. I hope he will improve their performance — they had an innings defeat against the Maldives recently. I would have played myself except for the fact that I lost a leg some years ago when I was in hospital with a toothache and a doctor recruited through the Unscheduled Caste quota extracted my leg instead of my tooth. 3) May 2056: There are too many NFCs (Neo-Forward castes) in the IT business. Under the terms of the Business Reservation Act, their firms will now be taken over by the other castes. I hope they will be able to restore the Indian IT industry back to its former glory. For some unfathomable reason, it has gone down the drain after job reservations were implemented. I went for a movie featuring star actor Mungeri Ram. He may lack teeth, be four-feet-three and have hair growing out of his nose, but this year it’s the turn of the EBC-RYs (Extremely Backward Caste-Rural Yokels) to be stars and Mungeri Ram is the best of the lot. I wonder why foreign movies have become so popular. 4) May 2056: A truly great day. We now have an OFBMBC (Other Forward But Moderately Backward Caste) general as the Head of the Armed Forces. I hope he’ll be able to win back the territory we lost ever since reservations were implemented in the Army. Since then, the north has been taken by Pakistan, the North-east by China, the east by Bangladesh and the south by Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Only last winter, we lost the war against Bhutan and free India is now limited to the western coastal states. But I’m sure the OFBMBC general will turn the tide. 5) May 2056: My wife and I have been blessed with a bonny daughter. Since my wife’s an SBBNSBC (Slightly Backward But Not So Backward Caste), my daughter will be an MBFC-SBBNSBC. I must lobby for reservation for her caste. She’s the only member and I’m sure she has a great future. __________________________________________________________ Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your partner now. Go to http://yahoo.shaadi.com From rahulpandita at yahoo.com Fri Apr 21 22:21:28 2006 From: rahulpandita at yahoo.com (rahul pandita) Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 17:51:28 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Film on Girl Child Rights Campaign in Rajasthan (India) Message-ID: <20060421165128.25658.qmail@web31708.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Dariya ki Kasam (Swear by the River) is a 20-minute film, based on a campaign in Rajasthan for the rights of Girl Child. For almost one year, World Comics India has been spearheading a campaign in the Barmer district of Western Rajasthan to create awareness on girl child issues. This particular belt has one of the lowest girl child sex ratios in the country. Since the pre-natal sex determination technique is not widely available here, girls are often killed immediately after they are born. Various techniques are used to kill them. They are fed with milk laced with opium or simply strangulated to death. Then there is prevalance of child marriage and unmatched marriages are also very common. Infact there are villages in this region, where a groom has arived after 200 years, simply because there were no girls around. Dariya ki Kasam traces the life of a young girl Kabbu, who lives in one of the villages in Barmer. She is in eighth class and does not know whether she would be allowed to study further. Then comics enter in her life and her life is changed for ever. During the campaign, children and adults prepare around 300 comics posters, which are used as campaign material. So in a way, this becomes the first campaign where all the campaign material is generated locally. Together with this material, WCI along with a local organisation organises a bike rally towards the end of January 2006. Led by International bike racer Bittoo Sondhi, this rally travels from Barmer to Jodhpur, making stopovers at around 100 villages. During such stopvers, the campaign material in the form of comics is distributed and discussions are initiated. The film traces a journey from hushed tones to loud discussions. It sows a spark of change. This whole campaign was self-funded. It all became possible through efforts by various individuals and communities. Regards Rahul Pandita Rahul Pandita www.sanitysucks.blogspot.com Mobile: 9818088664 Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com From debjanisgupta at yahoo.com Sat Apr 22 09:40:49 2006 From: debjanisgupta at yahoo.com (debjani sengupta) Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 21:10:49 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] fourth posting:poems of the city Message-ID: <20060422041049.65320.qmail@web54203.mail.yahoo.com> Friends, Some translations of poems on the city by me; hope you enjoy them. Debjani Roadside shelter On Kolkata's breast Wide as wings Tin sheds and Iron railings The bus-stand shelter Jute bags flapping Night shelter In the december cold Has moved To another road another pavement address. Debobrata Bhattacharya, 'Ghumparani Golpo ebong' You came to the City ....leaving aside homes, hearths, the path between fields, the river's pull, trudging mile after mile, you came to the city. Ballygunj to Sealdah, Sealdah to Khidirpur, Khidirpur to Howrah you keep walking. Beneath your cracked soles boiling tar. Over your head, a sky dripping fire... Ranajit Sinha, 'Shohore Gramer Chashi'' The Refugee March Through tram windows office babus look In the crowded maidan a meeting; >From second floors, women watch, plaits in hand Refugee mothers seething, milling . Manindra Roy, 'Ekhoni Ekhane' __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From monica.mody at gmail.com Fri Apr 21 09:50:12 2006 From: monica.mody at gmail.com (Monica Mody) Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 09:50:12 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Delhi: Open Mic at Nigah - 27 Apr 2006 Message-ID: <4badad3b0604202120k72ecb686r714a6e4d8de72ac6@mail.gmail.com> ***QUEER CAFÉ*** Come join us for an evening of poetry, spoken word, music, singing, stories and performances about our bodies, selves and lives. Share, read, or just sit back and listen at the Queer Café – featuring readings and performances on gender, sexuality and the weather. To sign up to read/perform, email queercafe at nigahmedia.com. Ditto if you have questions. 27th April, Thursday @ 7 pm THE ATTIC, 36 Regal Building, CP (Above The People Tree) Tel : 2374 6050, 5150 3436 No photography, video or audio taping is permitted without prior permission. Email info at nigahmedia.com for more information. www.nigahmedia.com _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From pukar at pukar.org.in Wed Apr 19 17:36:01 2006 From: pukar at pukar.org.in (PUKAR) Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 17:36:01 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [announcements] PUKAR Monsoon 2006: Youth and Urban Identity Message-ID: <001201c663a9$a3891250$18d0c0cb@freeda> Youth and Urban Identity PUKAR Monsoon 2006 For the past four years PUKAR Monsoon has provided a platform for youth to express their ideas on Mumbai in multiple ways. They have re-edited archival footage, composed photo-essays, produced audio and video documentaries, written essays, created graphic narratives and translated literary works. These acts of creative expression and documentation have generated serious statements on Mumbai, made by youth from the vantage point of their special location in the city. This year Monsoon puts the spotlight on the youth themselves under the theme: Youth and Urban Identity. Are you scared, excited, optimistic- how do you feel about Mumbai's future? If you could design a Mumbai of the future, what would it look like, smell like, feel like? Program Details (revised): Monsoon 2006 will take place between May 15th and June 5th, with a series of workshops, lectures and film screenings. Workshops include hands-on exercises using photography, theatre, urban design and mapping, music and writing. Lectures cover a vast range of topics pertinent to today's youth, including urban health, communalism, student movements and media, to name a few. Events will take place throughout the city and suburbs. They will be conducted in various languages including English, Hindi and Marathi. *Confirmed speakers are listed below. Possible venues include: Kitab Mahal, Bombay University, St. Xavier's College, Wilson College, Juhu S.N.D.T., Ruia College, Podar College, National College and Somaiya College. An updated schedule with venues, timings and additional speakers will be sent as information becomes available. Please contact us for details or questions. PUKAR Monsoon is open to all youth. To register, send the following information by May 10, 2006 to monsoon at pukar.org.in or mail it to the PUKAR office address given below. Please write 'Monsoon Registration' in the subject heading. (For fee details please contact the PUKAR office) Name: Address: Phone: Email: School, College or Affiliation (if applicable): Workshop Interest: Pukar Monsoon 2006 Schedule Orientation Session Introduction and Overview of Schedule WORKSHOPS: Monsoon Workshop 1: Mapping our Lives Conducted by Shilpa Ranade, architect Activity: Creating personal maps Participants will construct maps reflecting their daily activities- work, college, sports, shopping, meeting friends, commuting, and the communities whom they encounter. Participants will design maps of their "ideal" neighborhood and city- its value systems, use of public space and commercial space, and its constituency. Monsoon Workshop 2: Gender and Public Space Conducted by Shilpa Phadke, sociologist; Sameera Khan, journalist Activity: Imagining gender-friendly spaces Participants will discuss how gender functions in the ordering of public space in Mumbai and particularly among its youth population. Do gendered spaces ensure safety- e.g. the Ladies' compartment on the train? This workshop will ask participants to critically examine the design of public places they frequent, from streets, public toilets and market places to places they socialize and their modes of public transport. Monsoon Workshop 3 & 4: Identity at the Crossroads Workshop 3: Conducted by Ratnakar Matkari, playwright, theatre director Workshop 4: Conducted by Prakash Khandage, folk art practitioner Activity: Using theatre to explore identity and conflict Participants will engage in various theatre techniques to identify tensions which arise in urban life, in addition to how they negotiate multiple identities, those inherited and those acquired. Drawing on comedy, drama, suspense and other forms, participants will witness the power of creative methodologies to explore various possibilities and outcomes. Monsoon Workshop 5: Capturing Mumbai's Changing Face Conducted by: Speaker TBA Activity: Photographing Mumbai's development Participants will learn how photography can be used to document changes in public and commercial space which affect the city at large and the youth in particular. This workshop will urge youth to consider how photography can be used to understand infrastructure, inform urban planning and tell stories about Mumbai's changing landscape. Please bring your own camera. A mobile phone with photo capacity is sufficient. Monsoon Workshop 6: Making Music in Mumbai Conducted by: Neela Bhagwat Activity: Song-writing >From car horns to religious chants to protests to vendors to the latest hits blasting from record stores to chatter in one of many languages, the streets of Mumbai are filled with the sounds of music. In this workshop, participants will be asked to draw from the sounds of Mumbai to inspire new songs about their hopes, dreams, and visions for the future. LECTURES: Lecture 1 Youth and our Airwaves Malishka Mendonsa, Radio Jockey Lecture 2 Youth and Urban Health Anita Patil Deshmukh, Physician and Director of Pukar Lecture 3 Youth and Educational Institutions Rahul Srivastava, Writer and Sociologist Lecture 4 Mumbai's Changing Face - Economy and Infrastructure Vidyadhar Phatak, Former Chief Planner, MMRDA Lecture 5 Youth and Issues of Good Governance Surendra Srivastava, Representative of Lok Satta Lecture 6 Youth, Urban Communities and Revolutions - Premiji to Rang de... Kaiwan Mehta, Faculty (KRVIA), Architect Lecture 7 Mumbai's Urban Biodiversity and its conservation (Your role)! Anand Pendharkar, Environmentalist, SPROUTS FILM SCREENINGS Aur Irani Chai A Short Film on Migration, Memory and Mumbai City (20 Minutes) Portraits of a Lane A Short Film on Homes, Heritage and Mumbai City (20 minutes) Freedom Before 11 A Short Film on Women and Hostel Life (25 minutes) Additional films may be included later. PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research) Address:: 1-4, 2nd Floor, Kamanwala Chambers, Sir P. M. Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001 Telephone:: +91 (22) 5574 8152 Fax:: +91 (22) 5664 0561 Email:: pukar at pukar.org.in Website:: www.pukar.org.in -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060419/80348673/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From radiofreealtair at gmail.com Fri Apr 21 17:16:56 2006 From: radiofreealtair at gmail.com (Anand Vivek Taneja) Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 17:16:56 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Watch that bun-maska! In-Reply-To: <1a57bfd0604210017v81c87e0g121dca62f22e98c@mail.gmail.com> References: <1a57bfd0604210017v81c87e0g121dca62f22e98c@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <8178da990604210446m7198405en6f8d6c963fb25807@mail.gmail.com> Dear Dilip, to quote from your mail - Non-Muslims," wrote the accomplished nuclear physicist, "rarely venture into areas of India where Muslims are in large numbers, fearing unpredictable, irrational behaviour or violence directed at them." Maybe this does not qualify as analysis, but it certainly confirms to a stereotype of the "Muslim ghetto" widely perpetrated in Hindi films. Like "Dhoom" - to quote from the beginning of the paper I wrote - Dhoom was one of the biggest hits of Hindi Cinema last year (the paper was written in 2005). The villains were a gang of very hep thieves who rode turbocharged super-bikes as their getaway vehicles. The two 'heroes' are Abhishek Bachchan, playing a really rather too stylish to be true cop wearing designer clothes; and Uday Chopra, who plays Ali, a motorbike mechanic and champion bike racer, who leads an excitingly performative life on the racetrack, and a faintly illegal garage and superbike shop off it. He's also a 'dil-fenk' throwing his heart at every pretty girl he meets, and a bit of a buffoon, who gets slapped and bullied a lot in the course of the film by Abhishek Bachchan, as a globalised representative of the Indian state, and a Hindu. Bachchan suspects him of involvement with the superbike powered heists, and accompanies him to the 'Muslim ghetto' on the pretext of buying an illegally procured bike. How do we know it is a 'Muslim ghetto'? The camera moves down on a crane so that Bachchan and Chopra's entry into the space is framed through rows of flags, bearing crescent and stars, strung across the narrow street. The space itself is constructed as 'different' from the globalized Bombay we see in the rest of the film – a Bombay of lakeside garages, of high rise steel and glass office towers, and expressways where the high speed getaways of the superbikes are possible. This is a claustrophobic space, dominated by external markers of 'Muslimness', skull caps, burqas, qawwali music and the ubiquitous crescent and star. This Muslim space is also shown as inhabited by a bunch of rather too touchy, and wild eyed individuals, who pick a fight with Abhishek Bachchan, which leads to Bachchan and Chopra being chased out of the locality by a bunch of long haired, wild eyed (and skull capped) individuals wielding rather wicked looking swords. All of which is a mere aside with nothing much to contribute to the film, but somehow fits comfortably into the narrative logic of this very slick, very 'globalised' film, in which the theme song has been sung by the Thai pop sensation Tata Young.... There is undeniably a media fuelled image of the 'Muslim' urban space as being a space of danger. I have heard many conversations from outsiders to such spaces speaking of being terrified of the preponderance of beards; and others who refer to spaces like Jamia in Delhi as Mini -Pakistan. There is an undeniable construction of suspicion and hostiltiy around these places, which is of course, as you say, dispelled by going in - But how do you get those people who otherwise won't to go into Dongri to begin with? On 4/21/06, Dilip D'Souza -- Sarai wrote: > > Dear all, > > In case anyone noticed, I missed my March (2nd) posting. Various > reasons that I won't get into here. But I intend to make up in good > measure (I hope). Here's something I just finished for this list (that > I'm also trying to get published) as part of my project. Comments > welcome. And more soon. > > cheers, > dilip d'souza > > --- > > > Watch that bun-maska! > > > Strolling through the crowded streets of this city one morning last > week, a man tapped me on the shoulder. "Are you from the > Municipality?" he asked, perhaps because I had my little pad out and > was writing down the words on an odd sign I had just seen. (A minor > hobby). No, I said, I'm not from the Municipality. It's just that I've > always wanted to walk around in this city's neighbourhoods, and this > is one such walk. > > He smiled, then chatted for several minutes about the sign I had > noticed ("Chicken Shop: Be Carefull With Wrong Weight"), the empty > plot behind us where clearly some structure had once stood and been > demolished, the heat of the April sun ... Then he smiled some more > still, said "Good luck!", shook my hand, and walked off. > > Why do I mention this fairly routine encounter? Only because it got me > thinking about an article I read a couple of years ago, published by a > very impressive-sounding think tank. Its introductory blurb described > the article as an "analysis" of the threat that Islamic fundamentalism > posed to India. Its US-based author had written to me, urging me to > read it and "educate" myself about this threat. Introducing himself, > he claimed he was an "accomplished nuclear physicist", and also an > "expert on Islamic fundamentalism." > > Now guys that refer to themselves as "accomplished" and "expert" > invariably set alarm bells ringing in my mind. As in this case. Sure > enough, this man's article was -- how do I put this nicely? -- an > almost comical mish-mash of paranoia, twisted figures and lies that > any self-respecting think tank editor should have flung in the trash. > > No wonder the man had to apply those laudatory words to himself. If > this bit of writing was any indication of his capabilities, nobody > else in their right mind would. > > But it was one sentence in this concoction, in particular, that came > to mind during my stroll. "Non-Muslims," wrote the accomplished > nuclear physicist, "rarely venture into areas of India where Muslims > are in large numbers, fearing unpredictable, irrational behaviour or > violence directed at them." > > There are quarters, you see, where bald assertions like this one > qualify as "analysis". > > Anyway: here I was with a couple of friends, certainly in an area > "where Muslims are in large numbers." This was the heart of Dongri, > east of JJ Hospital. In three hours walking about, here's some of what > we found. Bustling shops. Phone booths. Three men ironing clothes who > asked us to take a photo of them. Young men zipping about on loud > motorbikes, weaving dangerously close to pedestrians. Street vendors > hawking trinkets. Owner of a massage place who told us, grumpily and > to our great disappointment, that he had stopped offering massages > only days previously; though if we wanted, we could pay him ten rupees > and have a bath. (We declined). Shop-owner who chuckled when we asked > for "Pepsi", not the multinational drink, but the common kiddie word > for a frozen popsicle. > > And a man who chatted genially and shook my hand. > > Which of all this qualified as "unpredictable, irrational behaviour or > violence" directed at us? > > Yes, I'm a non-Muslim, as is my wife and everyone in my family and the > two friends I was walking with that day. For work, for a meal, for a > special meal on a Ramzan night, for weddings, and even for no > particular reason, all of us and many other non-Muslims I know have > walked plenty of times through Muslim areas of India -- so much that > "rarely venture" doesn't apply. Not once have we feared > "unpredictable, irrational behaviour or violence" directed at us; not > once has such behaviour or violence ever broken out. What we > experienced in Dongri was just the normal, pretty much what we would > experience in any densely packed urban neighbourhood in India. So > normal, it didn't even really matter to us that this was a Muslim > area. Much like Thakurdwar or Matharpacady, where we had been > strolling two previous mornings, it was just another pocket of a great > city. That's all. > > What explains the paranoia of the accomplished nuclear physicist? > > It matters to me, because a journalist friend's recent efforts to buy > a flat were stymied because of his Muslim name. He has ended up buying > in a Muslim area. (Not Dongri, but one like that). Yet now the same > paranoia that turned him away, that left him with no choice but to > live "where Muslims are in large numbers", will also tell the world to > be wary of violence if they enter his neighbourhood. > > Now Islamic fundamentalism may or may not be a huge threat to India, I > have no idea. I'm no expert. But when its critics use their own > paranoid prejudice to paint it as such, and dress that up as an > "expert" analysis, there's no reason in the world to take them > seriously, even if they are accomplished nuclear physicists. And if > you look at them and their writing like that, you'll know that the > only irrational behaviour is theirs. > > And if you walk around the Dongris of this world, you'll know that > they are no different from the Thakurdwars or Matharpacadys. That they > are populated by men and women and kids, much like you. > > Then again, something I ate in Dongri gave me a mild stomach upset. I > can see the words in a future "expert" analysis: "Non-Muslims rarely > venture into areas of India where Muslims are in large numbers, > fearing tummy upsets from their bun-maska." > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: > -- Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, because you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup. (with apologies to Dilbert) http://www.synchroni-cities.blogspot.com/ Only that historian will have the gift of fanning the spark of hope in the past who is firmly convinced that without a sense of humour you're basically pretty f***ed anyway. (with apologies to Walter Benjamin) http://www.chapatimystery.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060421/4b54ef6b/attachment.html From abhinanditamathur at gmail.com Sat Apr 22 13:35:15 2006 From: abhinanditamathur at gmail.com (abhinandita mathur) Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2006 01:05:15 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] Pol Khol Yatra Message-ID: <19aa1b810604220105l6f793972ib0da03cb4f14a9d@mail.gmail.com> We would like to invite you for the Pol Khol Yatra being organized by the Narmada Bachao Andolan from April 25th – 27th in the submergence villages of the Sardar Sarovar Project. The aim of the yatra is to reveal the truth of 'rehabilitation' of the dam displaced in the narmada valley and will involve travel to the villages, river, participating in the displaced peoples meetings and struggles. Kindly see appended more information about this program and we wish that you participate in solidarity with this program. You can reach on 25th morning at Indore and can plan to leave back on 27th night or 28th morning. Pls give a confirmation about your arrival Regards, Maju Varghese Mumbai Support Group NARMADA BACHAO ANDOLAN · C/o B-13 Shivam Flats, Ellora Park, Vadodara - 390023, Gujarat Telefax: 0265-2282232, baroda at narmada.org · 62, M.G Marg, Badwani, Madhya Pradesh 451551. Telefax: 07290-222464 · Maitri Niwas, Tembewadi, Dhadgaon, Dist. Nandurbar, Maharashtra. Ph: 02595-220620 21 April,2006. Pol-Khol yatra in the Narmada Valley: 25 to 27 April: From Indore to 'tribal and farmers' villages in Narmada Valley. After the 30 days sit-in and fast by the Narmada Bachao Andolan activists in the capital, a new chapter has been opened in respect of Sardar Sarovar Dam. The movement has raised the issue of the displacement and the environmental damage due to the dam. For the last 20 years, it has questioned all the illegal decisions by the Government through a strong mass movement. It has brought to light, the true story of the Narmada Valley. The decision to increase the height of the dam from 110.64 meters to 122 meters has proved to be the death sentence for the tribals, the farmers and people residing in the valley. This called for a strong protest which was joined by all from various people's movements all over the country, students, teachers, the sensitive among the artist community to the lay person on the street, they who have offered their help, participation and backing. This makes it clear that the darker side of development has come to the light in front of right thinking, sensitive and selfless elements of the community. That is why they are now bent upon not only saving the Narmada Valley but also question the anti-democratic, non-scientific process going on in the country in the name of development and based on grossly misleading facts. People are now reacting strongly to the situation. It is now necessary to take some solid steps. The Narmada struggle is a symbol of the same reaction. Its a question of debate as to what is the truth and what is only a mirage. This can be asked in respect of all the issues in connection with Sardar Sarovar. During the protest in Delhi, various reports by the state as well as Central Governments, figures and affidavits, the experiences of the displaced and the agitators have come to the light in front of the country as well as the whole world. All the three Governments concerned have to submit their affidavits regarding applications submitted by 48 displaced families, to the Supreme Court within a week's time. The reactions of the displaced on the affidavits will be a heard in the court on the first of May. The court has already said that the Prime Minister is free to take any decision or intervene in the matter wherever he feels necessary. At the same time, the court has made it clear that if the rehabilitation of all the oustees upto the 122 meters is not done in letter and spirit of the Narmada Tribunal award, then the work of the dam can be stopped. The Narmada Movement has now declared a Pol-Khol Abhiyan (reveal the truth campaign). We will go on bringing to the fore, each and every aspect of the Sardar Sarovar story. The social as well as environmental losses, compensation as also the real side of the exaggerated and beautifully painted picture about the profits also has to be revealed. Those of our brothers and sisters who have been termed as outsiders while they are actually displaced in thousands have to be met in person. It has become necessary to reveal the real faces of all those who make baseless accusations on us of accepting foreign funds. We have to move in this direction on different fronts taking with us, the like-minded. One of the main programs in this direction will be the Pol-Khol Yatra: 25 to 27th April. You are cordially invited for this Yatra. All the friends, co-workers, youth, students, members of various people's movements, those displaced due to various projects, labourers, tribals, dalits, sensitive citizens, artists, journalists and media persons are welcome. We invite you to the valley. Verify the truth, find out and see for yourselves, the Government corruption and the atrocities, contempt of court as also the game in the name of democracy. You may reach Indore in the morning of 25th April. Please let us know the route and the time of your arrival. There will be a meeting at Indore between 10 a.m. and 12 noon and the 'Yatra' will proceed to the valley straight from there. During the three days, the Yatra will visit villages, settlements and see first hand, the Government's working style and also listen to the profit and loss story. There will be answers to each and every question raised on each aspect of the Narmada Movement, its working, its resources. Your presence is necessary for raising the issue in front of the Government. Come and see the region which is either already submerged or about to be submerged; the generations old culture and the picturesque surroundings. You may return on 27th night or 28th morning from Baroda, Indore or Khandwa. Your participation is utmost necessary now after your important participation and contribution on this occasion. There will be welcome in villages, overnight stay in the farmers' houses, visits to tribal villages on the banks of the river, tribal dances and travel through the boats in the river followed by a long march in Badwani and a torch rally. On one side are those administrators who are bent upon destruction in the valley and going ahead with the dam while on the other side are the lively villages and communities and the rich valley. This picture is incomplete without your presence. Your strong intervention is necessary this time to stop the destruction without resettlement. Please come and bring others along. Waiting for you, Mohanbhai Patidar, Swapna Kanera, Kamala Yadav, Medha Patkar, Ashish Mandloi, Omprakash Yadav, Hirdaram Bharud, Chandubhai, Kailash Awasthi Contact: Indore: Visarjan Ashram, Navlakha Chouraha, Indore. Ph.:Pramod Bagadi - 9827021000, Rakesh Diwan - 9826066153 S.P.S. - 0731-2401083 Badwani office: 07290-222464, Umesh, Ashish:9425480131/9425479854 Mohan Patidar: 9425087536 Delhi: 011-26680883/9818205234 Dhulia: Shyam Patil. 02562-246419 Pune: Suniti : 020- 24251404. Mumbai : Initiative; 022-24931241/ From nangla at cm.sarai.net Sun Apr 23 09:57:14 2006 From: nangla at cm.sarai.net (CM@Nangla) Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2006 06:27:14 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Tiy Fragments/Nangla Message-ID: Tiny Fragments by Lakhmi The grey cement ground that is used for morning prayers was scratched with various shapes for playing games, using red chalk. All class rooms were shut and locked with identical locks. Some doors were not locked, though, and one could peep through them to catch a glimpse of what they may have looked like when they were still in use. The dust infused air had settled in the class rooms. Piles of dust lay accumulated in the corners. One could only try and imagine what the environment in the class room would have been like before. Maybe all the desks from all the class rooms were collected here, in this room, when they were first purchased. Because today, apart from the neat rows of desks here, several had been piled up for storage. Crumpled sheets lay in drawers without doors. It was a soundless room and so it was difficult to imagine what conversations would have sounded like during free periods. Is this a school about to break for vacations? A man is sitting on a bent chair in front of an empty class room, his eyes running from spot to spot over the corridors and the locked doors. Behind him, in the empty room, a thin carpet (the kind spread to seat many people) lies in one corner. In another corner are a pile of new school books, tied together with a plastic rope. Maybe this class room is not used for children to study. Maybe that is why there are a few big desks in it, and no chairs to sit. I could hear the man's voice, “Desks : 200, broken : 50, in proper condition : 150; fans : 25, broken : 3, in proper condition : 22; cupboards : 2; locks : 17, broken : 5, in proper condition : 12...” And so he continued, jotting things in his file. He would write something, and then look around, wondering about what it was that he hadn't counted. I wondered what all that could be, He had already counted the windows, window frames, stationery, etc. It was breezy where he was sitting. He was sitting right at the edge of the corridor, in the shade. I looked again at the desks in the class room I was next to. Each desk had an imprint of his hand, made on the dust, as he would have touched each desk, walking along as he counted them. He would have counted a row of desks, and brushed the dust off his hands by rubbing them on his trousers. His trousers would be marked by thousand fingers of dust. I walked towards him. I wanted to know what gaze he cast on the school when looking at it through its objects alone. He sensed me approaching, looked up at me and smiled. This was his permission for me to begin talking to him. I asked, “Sir, do you know where you will be shifting to? Where the school will shift to?” He stretched his body as if to relax his muscles and said, “Yes, we do know that now. But we can't shift till the basti is broken, and till all the students have been issued their transfer certificates. They will be issued till the 29th of this month. And in any case, all things will be shifted before we shift.” “Where is the school shifting?” “Nearby, to another school.” “Do you have to make an inventory of all the things?” “What can I say! The government doesn't spare anything. If it were upto the government, I would also have to count all the bricks. How does it matter to the government whose difficulty this becomes!” (He said all this in one breath, without thinking twice about saying anything He just kept looking at his papers and speaking.) Just then a teacher called out to him from inside a class room, “Listen! The Transfer Certificates Register has run out here. Bring another one, and bring the stamp as well.” He replied, “Of course” and started muttering under his breath. “Now I will have to count the registers again, and make a new list. If there are any scratch marks on any list that has to be submitted, the teacher in charge won't sign it.” He walked away, muttering. He was gone three minutes, and the silence around me seemed to deepen. There are other people in the school. They appear from, and disapear into doors. The man returned. Perhaps the conversation amused him. “Yes, so what were you saying?” he sat down as he said this. “How many students are there in the school?” “I'm not so sure. There are 60 students to a class. The school is till the fifth standard. There are three sections to each class. So there must be roughly 1000 students in all.” His arms were crossed in front of him, and he nodded his head as if to affirm to himself the correctness of his calculation. I said, “It would have been a bigger problem if you had been required to count all the children in this school like you have had to count things.” Hitting his foot on the floor he replied, directing his eyes at the teacher issuing transfer certificates, he said, “Arre, we have records of that. But if we were asked to count, we would have been in trouble. When we go out for a picnic or something, it becomes difficult to keep count of forty students. And to count them all!” “Is everyone being sent to the same school?” “That's what we've heard, as of now.” “And all these things also have to be shifted to that same school?” “No, by the grace of god that school has everything it needs. All these things will be sent to the office, to be issued out to that school if they need something, or to be passed on to a new school.” There was a brief pause, and then he said, “Isn't it weird! If they had to break this place down, why did they have to give all the facilities of school, dispensary, water, electricity? It is so unsettling to have students come to get their transfer certificates issued and not be able to answer their question about where to gain admission now.” His eyes shied away from mine as he said this, as if he was answerable to me in some way. “Did you have a favourite student?” I asked him. He laughed and said, “They are all dear to me.” “But there must have been someone who you liked so much that you wanted her or him to sit on the first desk of the classroom?” “Yes. Basheer. He had come two days ago. He has just finished his third standard, and moved into the fourth. He stood first in class. When he came to collect his Transfer Certificate, he was wearing his school uniform. He had a notebook in his hand and his hair were oiled and neatly combed. He came and stood at the door. Looking at him, one would think the school is only going on a break, and will resume after a while. Everyone kept looking at him, all the teachers I mean. To ask him if he had come to get his transfer certificate would have been like a blow to the image he presented before us. And the school did not have the courage to look into his eyes to ask him, "Have you come to study today?" There was silence. And then he spoke after a few minutes, asking for his certificate. I gave him his certificate, and patting him on his back, said, 'Study hard'. He left, and all of us kept talking about him for a long while after that. Time seemed heavy then.” Our conversation came to an end here. I left, thinking, “How does someone console himself, in the breaking, dissolving moulds of life? Who is to know in what form something will make an appearance before us, and where we will fit into it? So that he doesn't break, each person has made himself up in tiny fragments, so he can push himself from one place to the other, piece by piece, and not shatter because of a jolt.” CM Lab, Nangla Maanchi http://nangla.freeflux.net http://nangla-maachi.freeflux.net ----------------------------------------------- It quenches the thirst of the thirsty, Such is Nangla, It shelters those who come to the city of Delhi, Such is Nangla. ------------------------------------------------ From nangla at cm.sarai.net Sun Apr 23 10:05:14 2006 From: nangla at cm.sarai.net (CM@Nangla) Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2006 06:35:14 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Tiny Fragments/Nangla Message-ID: <9901c75b6a6c61074bb7ce178c6716ba@sarai.net> Tiny Fragments by Lakhmi The grey cement ground that is used for morning prayers was scratched with various shapes for playing games, using red chalk. All class rooms were shut and locked with identical locks. Some doors were not locked, though, and one could peep through them to catch a glimpse of what they may have looked like when they were still in use. The dust infused air had settled in the class rooms. Piles of dust lay accumulated in the corners. One could only try and imagine what the environment in the class room would have been like before. Maybe all the desks from all the class rooms were collected here, in this room, when they were first purchased. Because today, apart from the neat rows of desks here, several had been piled up for storage. Crumpled sheets lay in drawers without doors. It was a soundless room and so it was difficult to imagine what conversations would have sounded like during free periods. Is this a school about to break for vacations? A man is sitting on a bent chair in front of an empty class room, his eyes running from spot to spot over the corridors and the locked doors. Behind him, in the empty room, a thin carpet (the kind spread to seat many people) lies in one corner. In another corner are a pile of new school books, tied together with a plastic rope. Maybe this class room is not used for children to study. Maybe that is why there are a few big desks in it, and no chairs to sit. I could hear the man's voice, “Desks : 200, broken : 50, in proper condition : 150; fans : 25, broken : 3, in proper condition : 22; cupboards : 2; locks : 17, broken : 5, in proper condition : 12...” And so he continued, jotting things in his file. He would write something, and then look around, wondering about what it was that he hadn't counted. I wondered what all that could be, He had already counted the windows, window frames, stationery, etc. It was breezy where he was sitting. He was sitting right at the edge of the corridor, in the shade. I looked again at the desks in the class room I was next to. Each desk had an imprint of his hand, made on the dust, as he would have touched each desk, walking along as he counted them. He would have counted a row of desks, and brushed the dust off his hands by rubbing them on his trousers. His trousers would be marked by thousand fingers of dust. I walked towards him. I wanted to know what gaze he cast on the school when looking at it through its objects alone. He sensed me approaching, looked up at me and smiled. This was his permission for me to begin talking to him. I asked, “Sir, do you know where you will be shifting to? Where the school will shift to?” He stretched his body as if to relax his muscles and said, “Yes, we do know that now. But we can't shift till the basti is broken, and till all the students have been issued their transfer certificates. They will be issued till the 29th of this month. And in any case, all things will be shifted before we shift.” “Where is the school shifting?” “Nearby, to another school.” “Do you have to make an inventory of all the things?” “What can I say! The government doesn't spare anything. If it were upto the government, I would also have to count all the bricks. How does it matter to the government whose difficulty this becomes!” (He said all this in one breath, without thinking twice about saying anything He just kept looking at his papers and speaking.) Just then a teacher called out to him from inside a class room, “Listen! The Transfer Certificates Register has run out here. Bring another one, and bring the stamp as well.” He replied, “Of course” and started muttering under his breath. “Now I will have to count the registers again, and make a new list. If there are any scratch marks on any list that has to be submitted, the teacher in charge won't sign it.” He walked away, muttering. He was gone three minutes, and the silence around me seemed to deepen. There are other people in the school. They appear from, and disapear into doors. The man returned. Perhaps the conversation amused him. “Yes, so what were you saying?” he sat down as he said this. “How many students are there in the school?” “I'm not so sure. There are 60 students to a class. The school is till the fifth standard. There are three sections to each class. So there must be roughly 1000 students in all.” His arms were crossed in front of him, and he nodded his head as if to affirm to himself the correctness of his calculation. I said, “It would have been a bigger problem if you had been required to count all the children in this school like you have had to count things.” Hitting his foot on the floor he replied, directing his eyes at the teacher issuing transfer certificates, he said, “Arre, we have records of that. But if we were asked to count, we would have been in trouble. When we go out for a picnic or something, it becomes difficult to keep count of forty students. And to count them all!” “Is everyone being sent to the same school?” “That's what we've heard, as of now.” “And all these things also have to be shifted to that same school?” “No, by the grace of god that school has everything it needs. All these things will be sent to the office, to be issued out to that school if they need something, or to be passed on to a new school.” There was a brief pause, and then he said, “Isn't it weird! If they had to break this place down, why did they have to give all the facilities of school, dispensary, water, electricity? It is so unsettling to have students come to get their transfer certificates issued and not be able to answer their question about where to gain admission now.” His eyes shied away from mine as he said this, as if he was answerable to me in some way. “Did you have a favourite student?” I asked him. He laughed and said, “They are all dear to me.” “But there must have been someone who you liked so much that you wanted her or him to sit on the first desk of the classroom?” “Yes. Basheer. He had come two days ago. He has just finished his third standard, and moved into the fourth. He stood first in class. When he came to collect his Transfer Certificate, he was wearing his school uniform. He had a notebook in his hand and his hair were oiled and neatly combed. He came and stood at the door. Looking at him, one would think the school is only going on a break, and will resume after a while. Everyone kept looking at him, all the teachers I mean. To ask him if he had come to get his transfer certificate would have been like a blow to the image he presented before us. And the school did not have the courage to look into his eyes to ask him, "Have you come to study today?" There was silence. And then he spoke after a few minutes, asking for his certificate. I gave him his certificate, and patting him on his back, said, 'Study hard'. He left, and all of us kept talking about him for a long while after that. Time seemed heavy then.” Our conversation came to an end here. I left, thinking, “How does someone console himself, in the breaking, dissolving moulds of life? Who is to know in what form something will make an appearance before us, and where we will fit into it? So that he doesn't break, each person has made himself up in tiny fragments, so he can push himself from one place to the other, piece by piece, and not shatter because of a jolt.” CM Lab, Nangla Maanchi http://nangla.freeflux.net http://nangla-maachi.freeflux.net ----------------------------------------------- It quenches the thirst of the thirsty, Such is Nangla, It shelters those who come to the city of Delhi, Such is Nangla. ------------------------------------------------ From mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com Sun Apr 23 10:56:19 2006 From: mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com (mahmood farooqui) Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2006 10:56:19 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Watch that bun-maska! In-Reply-To: <8178da990604210446m7198405en6f8d6c963fb25807@mail.gmail.com> References: <1a57bfd0604210017v81c87e0g121dca62f22e98c@mail.gmail.com> <8178da990604210446m7198405en6f8d6c963fb25807@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Dear Anand, Thank you very much for that close reading of Dhoom. Cinematic Representation in general, plays up the alien, intimidating character of Muslim spaces to the hilt. Even in Rang De Basanti, Aamir and his white girlfriend wait outside in a car, marking the gate and the exact spot from which the no-go areas begin. Inside of course, it is pretty much Dhoom territory, complete with moustache-less, lungi and banian clad Muslims who would no discredit to the partition-era Muslims shown in Tamas, twenty years ago. Mahmood On 21/04/06, Anand Vivek Taneja wrote: > Dear Dilip, > to quote from your mail - > > Non-Muslims," wrote the accomplished > nuclear physicist, "rarely venture into areas of India where Muslims > are in large numbers, fearing unpredictable, irrational behaviour or > violence directed at them." > > Maybe this does not qualify as analysis, but it certainly confirms to a > stereotype of the "Muslim ghetto" widely perpetrated in Hindi films. Like > "Dhoom" - > > to quote from the beginning of the paper I wrote - > > > > Dhoom was one of the biggest hits of Hindi Cinema last year (the paper was > written in 2005). The villains were a gang of very hep thieves who rode > turbocharged super-bikes as their getaway vehicles. The two 'heroes' are > Abhishek Bachchan, playing a really rather too stylish to be true cop > wearing designer clothes; and Uday Chopra, who plays Ali, a motorbike > mechanic and champion bike racer, who leads an excitingly performative life > on the racetrack, and a faintly illegal garage and superbike shop off it. > He's also a 'dil-fenk' throwing his heart at every pretty girl he meets, and > a bit of a buffoon, who gets slapped and bullied a lot in the course of the > film by Abhishek Bachchan, as a globalised representative of the Indian > state, and a Hindu. Bachchan suspects him of involvement with the superbike > powered heists, and accompanies him to the 'Muslim ghetto' on the pretext of > buying an illegally procured bike. > > > > How do we know it is a 'Muslim ghetto'? The camera moves down on a crane so > that Bachchan and Chopra's entry into the space is framed through rows of > flags, bearing crescent and stars, strung across the narrow street. The > space itself is constructed as 'different' from the globalized Bombay we see > in the rest of the film – a Bombay of lakeside garages, of high rise steel > and glass office towers, and expressways where the high speed getaways of > the superbikes are possible. This is a claustrophobic space, dominated by > external markers of 'Muslimness', skull caps, burqas, qawwali music and the > ubiquitous crescent and star. This Muslim space is also shown as inhabited > by a bunch of rather too touchy, and wild eyed individuals, who pick a fight > with Abhishek Bachchan, which leads to Bachchan and Chopra being chased out > of the locality by a bunch of long haired, wild eyed (and skull capped) > individuals wielding rather wicked looking swords. All of which is a mere > aside with nothing much to contribute to the film, but somehow fits > comfortably into the narrative logic of this very slick, very 'globalised' > film, in which the theme song has been sung by the Thai pop sensation Tata > Young.... > > > There is undeniably a media fuelled image of the 'Muslim' urban space as > being a space of danger. I have heard many conversations from outsiders to > such spaces speaking of being terrified of the preponderance of beards; and > others who refer to spaces like Jamia in Delhi as Mini -Pakistan. There is > an undeniable construction of suspicion and hostiltiy around these places, > which is of course, as you say, dispelled by going in - > > > But how do you get those people who otherwise won't to go into Dongri to > begin with? > > > > > On 4/21/06, Dilip D'Souza -- Sarai wrote: > > Dear all, > > > > In case anyone noticed, I missed my March (2nd) posting. Various > > reasons that I won't get into here. But I intend to make up in good > > measure (I hope). Here's something I just finished for this list (that > > I'm also trying to get published) as part of my project. Comments > > welcome. And more soon. > > > > cheers, > > dilip d'souza > > > > --- > > > > > > Watch that bun-maska! > > > > > > Strolling through the crowded streets of this city one morning last > > week, a man tapped me on the shoulder. "Are you from the > > Municipality?" he asked, perhaps because I had my little pad out and > > was writing down the words on an odd sign I had just seen. (A minor > > hobby). No, I said, I'm not from the Municipality. It's just that I've > > always wanted to walk around in this city's neighbourhoods, and this > > is one such walk. > > > > He smiled, then chatted for several minutes about the sign I had > > noticed ("Chicken Shop: Be Carefull With Wrong Weight"), the empty > > plot behind us where clearly some structure had once stood and been > > demolished, the heat of the April sun ... Then he smiled some more > > still, said "Good luck!", shook my hand, and walked off. > > > > Why do I mention this fairly routine encounter? Only because it got me > > thinking about an article I read a couple of years ago, published by a > > very impressive-sounding think tank. Its introductory blurb described > > the article as an "analysis" of the threat that Islamic fundamentalism > > posed to India. Its US-based author had written to me, urging me to > > read it and "educate" myself about this threat. Introducing himself, > > he claimed he was an "accomplished nuclear physicist", and also an > > "expert on Islamic fundamentalism." > > > > Now guys that refer to themselves as "accomplished" and "expert" > > invariably set alarm bells ringing in my mind. As in this case. Sure > > enough, this man's article was -- how do I put this nicely? -- an > > almost comical mish-mash of paranoia, twisted figures and lies that > > any self-respecting think tank editor should have flung in the trash. > > > > No wonder the man had to apply those laudatory words to himself. If > > this bit of writing was any indication of his capabilities, nobody > > else in their right mind would. > > > > But it was one sentence in this concoction, in particular, that came > > to mind during my stroll. "Non-Muslims," wrote the accomplished > > nuclear physicist, "rarely venture into areas of India where Muslims > > are in large numbers, fearing unpredictable, irrational behaviour or > > violence directed at them." > > > > There are quarters, you see, where bald assertions like this one > > qualify as "analysis". > > > > Anyway: here I was with a couple of friends, certainly in an area > > "where Muslims are in large numbers." This was the heart of Dongri, > > east of JJ Hospital. In three hours walking about, here's some of what > > we found. Bustling shops. Phone booths. Three men ironing clothes who > > asked us to take a photo of them. Young men zipping about on loud > > motorbikes, weaving dangerously close to pedestrians. Street vendors > > hawking trinkets. Owner of a massage place who told us, grumpily and > > to our great disappointment, that he had stopped offering massages > > only days previously; though if we wanted, we could pay him ten rupees > > and have a bath. (We declined). Shop-owner who chuckled when we asked > > for "Pepsi", not the multinational drink, but the common kiddie word > > for a frozen popsicle. > > > > And a man who chatted genially and shook my hand. > > > > Which of all this qualified as "unpredictable, irrational behaviour or > > violence" directed at us? > > > > Yes, I'm a non-Muslim, as is my wife and everyone in my family and the > > two friends I was walking with that day. For work, for a meal, for a > > special meal on a Ramzan night, for weddings, and even for no > > particular reason, all of us and many other non-Muslims I know have > > walked plenty of times through Muslim areas of India -- so much that > > "rarely venture" doesn't apply. Not once have we feared > > "unpredictable, irrational behaviour or violence" directed at us; not > > once has such behaviour or violence ever broken out. What we > > experienced in Dongri was just the normal, pretty much what we would > > experience in any densely packed urban neighbourhood in India. So > > normal, it didn't even really matter to us that this was a Muslim > > area. Much like Thakurdwar or Matharpacady, where we had been > > strolling two previous mornings, it was just another pocket of a great > > city. That's all. > > > > What explains the paranoia of the accomplished nuclear physicist? > > > > It matters to me, because a journalist friend's recent efforts to buy > > a flat were stymied because of his Muslim name. He has ended up buying > > in a Muslim area. (Not Dongri, but one like that). Yet now the same > > paranoia that turned him away, that left him with no choice but to > > live "where Muslims are in large numbers", will also tell the world to > > be wary of violence if they enter his neighbourhood. > > > > Now Islamic fundamentalism may or may not be a huge threat to India, I > > have no idea. I'm no expert. But when its critics use their own > > paranoid prejudice to paint it as such, and dress that up as an > > "expert" analysis, there's no reason in the world to take them > > seriously, even if they are accomplished nuclear physicists. And if > > you look at them and their writing like that, you'll know that the > > only irrational behaviour is theirs. > > > > And if you walk around the Dongris of this world, you'll know that > > they are no different from the Thakurdwars or Matharpacadys. That they > > are populated by men and women and kids, much like you. > > > > Then again, something I ate in Dongri gave me a mild stomach upset. I > > can see the words in a future "expert" analysis: "Non-Muslims rarely > > venture into areas of India where Muslims are in large numbers, > > fearing tummy upsets from their bun-maska." > > _________________________________________ > > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > > Critiques & Collaborations > > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > subscribe in the subject header. > > List archive: < > https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> > > > > > > -- > Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, because you are crunchy and taste > good with ketchup. > (with apologies to Dilbert) > http://www.synchroni-cities.blogspot.com/ > > Only that historian will have the gift of fanning the spark of hope in the > past who is firmly convinced that without a sense of humour you're basically > pretty f***ed anyway. > (with apologies to Walter Benjamin) > http://www.chapatimystery.com/ > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe > in the subject header. > List archive: > > > From pradeepdas4 at yahoo.com Fri Apr 21 21:32:14 2006 From: pradeepdas4 at yahoo.com (Pradeep Das) Date: Fri, 21 Apr 2006 09:02:14 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] An Evening of Meaningful Cinema by Weekend Films on 29 April 2006 Message-ID: <20060421160214.20996.qmail@web52002.mail.yahoo.com> WEEKEND FILMS CORDIALLY INVITES YOU TO AN EVENING OF MEANINGFUL CINEMA AT CONFERENCE ROOM, 2ND FLOOR, RAJENDRA BHAVAN 210, DEEN DAYAL UPADHYAY MARG NEW DELHI – 110002 ON 29TH APRIL, 2006 AT 6.00 PM Programme Inaugural Talk 6.00 PM Screening of Gadi Lohardaga Mail 6.15 PM (A documentary by Meghnath and Biju Toppo) Tea Break 7.45 PM Screening of Two Half Times in Hell 7.00 PM (Hungarian feature film Directed by Zoltan Fabri) Viewers’ reactions and 9.00 PM Announcement of forthcoming Ventures We . Weekend Films We offer a platform for innovative and meaningful expression We nurture the assemblage of offbeat thoughts We invent nothing, we discover We create from the heart Want to be a part of it? e-mail: weekendfilms at gmail.com --------------------------------- Celebrate Earth Day everyday! Discover 10 things you can do to help slow climate change. Yahoo! Earth Day -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060421/97e24ba6/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From dilip.sarai at gmail.com Sun Apr 23 13:47:53 2006 From: dilip.sarai at gmail.com (Dilip D'Souza -- Sarai) Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2006 13:47:53 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Watch that bun-maska! In-Reply-To: <8178da990604210446m7198405en6f8d6c963fb25807@mail.gmail.com> References: <1a57bfd0604210017v81c87e0g121dca62f22e98c@mail.gmail.com> <8178da990604210446m7198405en6f8d6c963fb25807@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <1a57bfd0604230117h65f54c6ak632248dd66c59162@mail.gmail.com> Thanks Anand. I haven't seen Dhoom, but as Mahmood also says, that kind of portrayal is common, not least in Basanti. I've run itno that "Mini-Pakistan" epithet too often for it to be funny (if it ever was). So you ask the pertinent question: how do you get those people who won't go into Dongri to go nevertheless? In my case, my hope is that I can show them by what I write that there's no reason for fear, or no more reason than in going anywhere else. I mean, nobody paid us any more attention that we'd get anywhere else, truly. I hope that example gets people to think. Aman, stuff to think about in your mail too. I think you raise a good point: it's not just you who might feel comfortable or not in the place, but the people there who have to feel some level of comfort with you. And sometimes that takes more than one visit. I remember a shopkeeper near where I was staying in Jammu a couple of years ago, every time I stopped to have a drink (it was VERY hot), he would chat about all kinds of things, including the situation in J&K. Some interesting opinions, so one day I asked him if I could take some notes while we chatted. He nodded, but then clammed up. Wouldn't say anything but monosyllables, and I got nowhere. How do you overcome that? cheers, dilip d'souza. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060423/1411300e/attachment.html From lovableyunus at yahoo.co.in Sun Apr 23 02:45:51 2006 From: lovableyunus at yahoo.co.in (mohd syed) Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2006 22:15:51 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Aasahaye Mahanagar V Message-ID: <20060422211551.86639.qmail@web42202.mail.yahoo.com> In continuing my work on reading Delhi from the perspective of helpline workers, recently I went to attend a symposium organized by a foundation on rights and needs of elderly, it was held at Indian Habitat Center and more than 60 people came to attend it . Majority of the participants were 'senior citizen', (may be because younger generation do not put this agenda on their priority). The reason behind my presence was the fact that foundation also runs a helpline for old age people in Delhi . After being there I got to know few concerns of the old age people , I met few people working with elderly, and volunteers of old age helpline. Then later on I went to the helpline and interacted with volunteers to saw and capture some glimpse of the aging city. The Aging city With the sensex touching the highest point and youngster loosing control on music, ‘here and now’ seems the appropriate philosophy of life. if seen through the eyes of Mr Mathur a volunteer in the helpline for senior citizen, The picture is a little gloomy . he shared with me that one faces alot of many challenges as he crosses 60 ( some times a little earlier or later), with memory getting weak, body fragile and prone to ailments & infections and decrease in most of capabilities even the simplest task become hard to accomplish. With the increase in longevity and the fear of remaining 'alone' and of 'dying', as near and dear ones starts going away, the old age people are left with loneliness, despair and alienation. According to him older people want respect ,companionship and opportunities to live with their beliefs and dignity, on their little bit of pension and savings or on children, but the ever-increasing 'cost of living in a city' is creating barriers in doing so. Their dignity and self-respect is shattered in the harsh encounter with the younger generation. with rapid urbanization their joint family ‘dream’ is only left in drama, even if the youngsters are concerned about the senior citizens they don’t get enough time from jobs to know their needs as they are busy in fulfilling requirments of the family in this cut throat competition , as a result all that comes in the share of older people is weakness, arthritis, all type of ailments, body ache, sleeplessness and feeling of uselessness . Mr Mathur said that Being 66 himself he is able to empathize with the clients who contact them through phone or personally, when they ventilate their feelings, when they abuse their son, or in-laws or the helpline worker himself, he know how it feels when one has to travel in buses, and walk in bright sun to save money for other priorities when there are less chances of extra income. He also knows the pain of not being taken seriously and not able to comprehend the situation quickly. After being attached to organization he once again found himself part of mainstream. He also stated that no young person can do counselling at old age helpline as old person do because they can not understand 'our' situation ,but he clarified that the helpline also need young people to run around and do all the leg work to assist old people in distress and to respond to their call. The 'call' for help by senior citizen can be understood through the number of cases recieved by the helpline ,as it is one form of 'their voices'. since 1999 the helpline has so far received over 124326 calls and visits seeking help. An overwhelming 17368 were predominantly of legal/medical and financial nature as on March31st þ 2006, other social problems (16099) followed by loneliness (15971) pension fund/insurance issues accounted for 14913, regarding relationship with family members were 12718 and rest were about general inquires.In general following are some of the ‘help’ provided to senior citizens: Guidance in getting medical/shelter aid from govt as well as Non-govt agencies Submission of claim forms with concerned authorities Counseling for psychological, emotional problems. Interaction with family members, relatives, friends etc. Restoration of basic facilities like water phone &electricity Questions that arise in my mind: Our needs wants and desire require fulfillment of some sort or another ,but when should we name them as services ,facilities or help? What is 'help' ? How many classification of citizenship can we do in a city, senior , responsible ,antisocial ,differently abled,secondary,indegenious, migrant,refugee, marginalised? feedback and suggestions are invited yunus --------------------------------- Jiyo cricket on Yahoo! India cricket Yahoo! Messenger Mobile Stay in touch with your buddies all the time. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060422/9d8eb5f7/attachment.html From iram at sarai.net Sun Apr 23 22:17:04 2006 From: iram at sarai.net (Iram Ghufran) Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2006 22:17:04 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: The Invisible Schools of NCERT Survey by Ravi Kumar Message-ID: <444BAF88.4040302@sarai.net> Subject: Fwd: The Invisible Schools of NCERT Survey From: "Ravi Kumar" Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2006 13:29:15 +0530 To: reader-list at sarai.net ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: *VAPI Bihar* > Date: Apr 21, 2006 12:46 AM Subject: The Invisible Schools of NCERT Survey To: Anil Sadgopal >, MM Jha >, anitaghai at vsnl.com , Sarwat Ali >, madhu prasad >, Ambarish Rai < amb1857 at yahoo.com >, csdnd at del2.vsnl.net.in , Ravi >, Director NCERT < directorncert at vsnl.com >, Director NCERT > Dear friends, It is generally said that facts do not lie. The significance of data collected through surveys and especially through large surveys, which swear by rigour and quality, hold their own specific relevance. They not only depict 'reality' but also construct reality simultaneously. In current state of things they tell us about the status of particular aspects they cover during surveys. In front of us is a very reputed and rigorous set of data collected through an all India survey in form of the All India Educational Survey (conducted by the NCERT). Researchers to show as to where does the Indian education system stands in terms of infrastructure etc extensively use these data sets. However, we are confronted with a dilemma. Being activists engaged in day-to-day confrontations with the state, which has been consistently chipping off resources from formal schooling system, which constitute the educational lifeline of crores of Indian masses, we have come across blatant misrepresentation of facts. These misrepresentations were also intimated to the NCERT, Secretary HRD, GOI among others through a letter dated 29th March 2006 but we are yet to get a response (may be because it is being raised by not-so-prominent and media savy-intellectuals-activists or may be because it is not such as an important issue as we are taking it to be) to it. We think it is important for other people to know these misrepresentations as well because it will caution the researchers about the nature of data as well as about the current state of education system in a certain pocket of the country. We have been engaging with the educational issues in the Jehanabad district of central Bihar for around two decades. In course of our work we came across two schools data, namely Badrigarh (photo attached) and Kochahasa secondary schools, which are in complete contrast to the reality. Even though they are unrecognized schools such a portrayal poses serious questions on data collection and its consequences. In the NCERT Seventh Survey they are shown as 'pucca' schools - Badrigarh as having seven full time male teachers and zero enrollment whereas the Kochahasa school building is non-existent but the data shows it as 'pucca' and as having six full time male and one female teacher and 47 boys and 27 students enrolled in it. Given the situation we understand that such representation of data, due to whatever reason, poses certain extremely important questions for us: 1. It misrepresents the reality (non-existent and dilapidated schools are shown as having 'pucca' building) 2. It hides the current state of things in the education sector 3. It fails to tell us that the schools are non-functional even if the data shows them to be so 4. It does not convey the intentional design to neglect the formal schools because there exist such schools but instead of improving their lot money is being spent elsewhere 5. Money is being pumped into the education system through programmes such as SSA (during 2005-06 in SSA 90002.00 crore rupees were spent) but existing infrastructure and quality of education in formal schools have hardly found any attention. [Maximum expenditure (because expenditure is the measuring rod of the amount of work done) is on certain superficial aspects only]. Contrary to our demands we find cosmetic changes to the school system wherein the ultimate gainers have been private players and losers the vast majority of poor and marginalized people. 6. This misrepresentation further expands possibilities of corruption within the education system wherein we have been witness to practices such as bribes being paid and taken to put names of unrecognized schools and their teachers in any survey so that their existence is established. We believe that 1. The NCERT should make their data collection more rigorous and must accept the flaws that exist in their data because it has serious implications for activists like us. It may seem as one or two school from the power center at Delhi but it is the school for us in the area. 2. This may be only tip of the iceberg because if examined more closely not only can one come across other kinds of flaws but also more such instances across the country. 3. Such a misrepresentation has more repercussions than what simply appears as misrepresented or fudged data set. 4. The resource crunch advocates should not see it as wastage of resource but as mismanagement on part of the state and should feel the need to change the situation so that the local villagers could make use of it. It represents the apathy of the state towards educational needs of the vast mass. In case of doubt visit the NCERT website for details: Badrigarh details: http://www.7thsurvey.ncert.nic.in/1568910/schlevel.asp?schcode=0118&blkcode= 0003&distcode=33&vilcode=03702100&flag=3&distname=Jehanabad&blkname= %20Karpi&schflag=1&id=2&schname=H/s%20Badri%20Garh http://www.7thsurvey.ncert.nic.in/1568910/schlevel.asp?schcode=0118&blkcode= 0003&distcode=33&vilcode=03702100&flag=3&distname=Jehanabad&blkname= %20Karpi&schflag=1&id=2&schname=H/s%20Badri%20Garh> Kochahasa http://www.7thsurvey.ncert.nic.in/1568910/schlevel.asp?schcode=0117&blkcode= 0003&distcode=33&vilcode=03700400&flag=3&distname=Jehanabad&blkname= %20Karpi&schflag=1&id=2&schname=H/s%20Kochahasa http://www.7thsurvey.ncert.nic.in/1568910/schlevel.asp?schcode=0117&blkcode= 0003&distcode=33&vilcode=03700400&flag=3&distname=Jehanabad&blkname= %20Karpi&schflag=1&id=2&schname=H/s%20Kochahasa> With regards and greetings Akshay Convenor, VAPI - -- Ravi Kumar Associate Fellow Council for Social Development 53, Lodi Estate, New Delhi - 110003 Tel: 91-11-2461 1700/ 2461 5383 Fax:91-11-2461 6061 Blog: http://ravi06.blogspot.com/ LA LUCHA CONTINUA From kamal_bhu at rediffmail.com Mon Apr 24 05:52:54 2006 From: kamal_bhu at rediffmail.com (Kamal Kumar Mishra) Date: 24 Apr 2006 00:22:54 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] 3rd posting:circlation of ... Message-ID: <20060424002254.8668.qmail@webmail43.rediffmail.com>   circulation of the "literary-texts" in the Hindi-heartland; The instrumental role of A. H. Wheeler & co. Mr. Emili Edward Moreau, a Frenchman by origin, actually spent a large part of his life in England,came to Allahabad as a representative of,an English firm, Bird & Co.,Calcutta,in the post 1957 decades.Moreau,an adroit Bridge player,Socialized with the elite, but the one great passion which ruled his life was his love Of reading. This love for reading led him towards establishing varied contacts with the printing / publishing world in England. His long standing, influential relationship with Arthur Henry Wheeler of England began thus. Then for some reason Mr. Moreau decided to leave Allahabad. His one main hindrance to do so was his unwieldy personal collection of books, journals and magazines. This anthology, being of inestimable value to him,he had to decide to dispense with utmost care. One fine day, when Moreau reached Allahabad Railway station and observed the attitude of the long distance travelers, especially the English, he noticed how these passengers, enthusiastically approached the book-laden almirahs placed at one side of the platform. His eyes did not fail to notice, how they eagerly swarmed to buy these books. After observing the extreme popularity of magazines and journals with the numerous passengers at the Allahabad Railway Station ,Moreau single- mindedly,decided to stay back and establish a bookstall business . Realizing the suitability and impact of using an English name for his firm, he approached Arthur Henry Wheeler to lend his name and goodwill as he was already a well –established figure in the realm of the English book trade. To this proposal, however his friend readily agreed. Thus was introduced the name ARTHUR HENERY WHEELER in the Indian network. When the bookstall business of Allahabad began in 1877, the work on the expansion of the Railway tracks had just commenced. Within a short period of time, WheelerProved to be a profitable venture not only in the major stations of Northern &Eastern provinces, but its business flourished till the farthest towns of the then undivided India. The head office of A. H. W. was established in Allahabad. For more then twenty years the stalls of Wheeler exhibited an over-whelming collection of foreign books and periodicals. The buyers were mostly English and English-speaking nationals at that time. Here one have to keep in mind the slow start of publishing industry in the Hindi-heartland which had been confined to the publication of the Text-Books for quite a long time and the publication of popular material like religious literature and Kissas started later only. By 1890’s the very essence of the wheeler bookstalls had begun changing as now the company had taken responsibilities for the advertisements of different companies of Indian Railways, besides selling books and journals in the various Indian vernaculars. By 1890’s four more companies namely, Merchants Advertising Agent, Bookstall properties and contractors East India Colonial Agencies and Symonds had begun collaborating with A.H.W. On 31st January 1937, Moreau transferred his goodwill partnership in the name of Late Mr.Tinkari Kumar Banerjee, who has been serving the Wheeler Co. since 1899, and left for England .Two Englishmen Mr. Brand and Mr. Keeler remained as minor partners till 1944 when T.K.B. abandoned the partnership system. Today out of more than 7000 Railway stations all over India Wheeler have their stalls on 267 stations. In the early years Wheelers had bookstalls over 600 railway stations with the option of opening a bookstall on any one of the stations they wished to, over the entire railway system! They also had a “ perpetual Renewal Clause” in their agreement with the railways. In other words, their agreement was to be renewed automatically at the end of one agreement period, if Wheelers wished to continue. Wheeler had its counterparts in south and northwest India as well: Higginbotham’s and Rai Sahib Gulab Singh & Sons. Famous film personality Khwaja Ahmad Abbas once said -“ wheelers provided the books, too. And I recall that wheelers offered a wide choice –ranging from Sexton Blake (the forerunner of Perry Mason and James Bond; as well as many of our jasoos of Hindi detective fictions) to works of Gandhi ji and Jawaharlal Nehru .” Wheeler Co. use to charge publishers 36-40% on the total sell. Unsold material use to be send back first to the head-office and then to the publishers. For the production and circulation of the jasoosi fictions in the Hindi-heartland these very stalls proved to be instrumental. Not only the success or failure of a writer/publisher depended on his association with the Wheelers but most of the Hindi jasoosi fiction writers have taken the clues from the books of western writers of this genre, which they might have bought from these stalls only. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060424/13d612e3/attachment.html From lovableyunus at yahoo.co.in Sun Apr 23 21:26:56 2006 From: lovableyunus at yahoo.co.in (mohd syed) Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2006 16:56:56 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Aasahaye Mahanagar VI Message-ID: <20060423155656.86533.qmail@web42207.mail.yahoo.com> While interacting with helpline workers I have found a common thread in the helplines i have visited ,each of them has one or more volunteer or worker who was himself or herself beneficiary of Helpline at some point or another ,and the help they got from it was the motivating factor for them to be associated with it. following is a life history of a worker. Child helpline worker PK belongs to bihar , (generally people will call him a runaway child) according to him he left his home at the age of 16 after having disagreement in his family, he was tenth passed at that time full of confidence and energy that he can do any thing . After leaving his home he spent some time on streets of India , first he travelled many places then he went to punjab and started working in a Dhaba , he worked there for few months but sooner came to know that nothing good will come out of it so he left that and went to Faridabad and started working in a thread factory. He liked that job and was very hard working & sincere ,so very soon he got promoted to the post of supervisor. Pk was doing well in the factory until one day, when the tragic accident took place, there was fire all over the factory many people were burnt including him , he was unconscious for more than one month , his employeer was a nice man and he took care of him , but when he became conscious, he found his life miserable as 40 % of his body was burnt , he was not able to do any work by his hands, his confidence was shattered and out going personality was transformed , he did not wanted to interact with other people so he went back his home. when he returned he home did not wanted to show his face to anybody but people kept asking questions about his burnt body ,which made him very depressed , so he again left his home came to Delhi and contacted childline . childline workers treated him diferently from rest of the world and helped him to come over trauma. with the help of counsellors and medical treatment he once again gained his self respect and courage to move on. He was so impresed by the service that he volunteered himself in childline after the recovery. Since than he has been working in childline as a team member and helpling children in distress specially children who live on street . PK said that he enjoy his work as its gives him satisfaction . he is also pursuing higher studies through correspondence .he likes do challenging jobs as it boosts his confidence. At times there are difficulties and problems in helpline to when the get difficult cases ,but the worst part of his job is the 'shift' changing rituals which no body likes,as it disturbs the whole routine. Interestingly PK said that he is a change person 'outside' helpline otherwise we wont be able to survive, for example 'helpline worker' are suppose to be soft spoken with controlled emotional involvement , but as he leaves his office he become a differently person , he is a tough guy when he travel in a local train, where there are lots of people ready to mess and over power the weak , so he is ready all the time to give equal and opposite reaction, this is the reason why some times he feels very restricted and frustrated in handling 'difficult calls' . At last they have to be in a boundry , have to bear all 'abuses' on phone . Responding to the job timings he said that that 9 to 5 job is good because it does not disturb the routine ,one can have a personal life too, can enjoy to avoid all sort of stress and frustration. on being asked that what do he do in his free time at home to relax he said that at home he loves music especially old songs of lata and Pankaj Udhas. Even today he dont like making many friends ,he has only one friend with whom he go out for movies and walk. following are the different services childhelpline provides to children in distress: Medical Shelter Repatriation Rescue from abuse Death related Sponsorship Child lost Emotional support and guidance Information about referral /Childline. --------------------------------- Jiyo cricket on Yahoo! India cricket Yahoo! Messenger Mobile Stay in touch with your buddies all the time. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060423/c9e9cfb6/attachment.html From vikharjnu at gmail.com Mon Apr 24 00:34:39 2006 From: vikharjnu at gmail.com (Vikhar Ahmed) Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 00:34:39 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Research Update Message-ID: <3dd9e6810604231204n3b037d2bt1ddb893b475378d8@mail.gmail.com> In this section I want to look at the ideas of objectivity in journalism and the rationale behind the production of news. "The mass media serve as a system for communicating messages and symbols to the general populace[1] <#_ftn1>," write Herman and Chomsky in their book *Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy and the Mass Media. *It is a valid point that the authors make and it is important to see the media as a dominant element of popular culture. The view point of structuralism can be bought in here as they have a significant amount to contribute to the idea of communicating by language and the medium of journalism is dominated by language. The structuralists, led primarily by Saussure's ideas, contend that language consists of 'signs', which in turn can be divided into two component parts, 'signifier' and 'signified'. 'Signifier' for Saussure means the 'inscription or the acoustic sound' while 'signified' means the 'concept or mental image' [2] <#_ftn2>. The meaning of this initial idea of Saussure was restricted to linguistics but was taken forward by Roland Barthes who in his book *Mythologies*represents the most significant attempts to bring the method of semiology to bear on popular culture[3] <#_ftn3>. The guiding principle of this book is to always interrogate what is not obvious. He takes Saussure's principle of 'signifier' and 'signified' and adds one more level to it. The first level of 'signification', he calls 'primary signification' or 'denotation' and the second level he calls 'secondary signification' or 'connotation'. He then argues that it is at the second level of signification that what he calls 'myth' is produced and consumed. By myth Barthes means ideology understood as ideas and practices which defend the status quo – the 'bourgeois norm' – and actively promotes the interests and values of the dominant classes in society. Myth is the turning of the cultural and historical into the natural, the taken-for-granted. As we can see Barthes is taking a slightly 'political framework of analysis' to borrow a phrase that Stuart Allen uses in his book *News Culture*. The 'political framework of analysis' draws heavily from the writings of Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels in *The German Ideology *as will become obvious from this excerpt: The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e., the class which is the ruling *material* force of society, is at the same time its ruling *intellectual *force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it…In so far, therefore, as they rule as a class and determine the extent and compass of an epoch, it is self-evident that they…among other things…regulate the production and distribution of the ideas of their age: thus their ideas are the ruling ideas of the epoch[4] <#_ftn4>. As is obvious Barthes' understanding of popular culture is partly based on Karl Marx' ideas of the dominant ideas being nothing but a means to maintain the status quo. While Marx was a journalist for ten years himself, he has not written directly about journalism thus his comments that he made about popular culture like the one above taken from *The German Ideology* need to be understood for journalistic institutions. Before moving one I must make clear that many theorists of culture do not generally take the media into consideration in their understanding of popular culture. Most of the academicians involved in cultural studies tend to neglect this crucial aspect of popular culture. If we look at the studies of culture we will see that the early culturalists like Arnold and Leavis tended to see culture as restricted to art, literature and classical music. For them there was a difference between 'high culture' and 'low-brow culture'[5] <#_ftn5>. The anthropologists offer a more complete definition of culture as 'forms of life and social expression'. This is relevant in studies of the media as media is an important part of culture[6] <#_ftn6>. Thedor Adorno and Max Horkenheimer write that mass culture is a way of offering temporary ephemeral gratification to people condemnded to lives of work. In their idea of mass culture they bring in the idea of television[7] <#_ftn7>. Though they do not specifically comment on the media here we have to see that how media forms an important part of 'popular culture' and if we interpret Adorno and Horkenheimer's thesis that they offered for 'popular culture' in journalism we will realise that the media serves as a temporary ephemeral gratification for the consumers of media who tend to absorb everything that is offered unquestioningly and as the 'truth'. This brings us to another interesting point in journalism. Journalists operate on the premise that they provide the truth to their consumers but what is 'truth'. Is there an objective basis for truth? The answer to that question goes to the heart of ongoing debates over whether or not the news media 'reflect' social reality truthfully, or the extent to which journalists can produce a truthful news account. How do you separate facts from values? The assumption that the truth resides entirely in the former raises the question whether it is actually possible to separate the two. For Noam Chomsky and Herman there is nothing like 'objective truth'. They have come with the propaganda model where they argue that there exists within that country's (their analysis is for the media as it operates in the United States of America) commercial news media an institutional news bias which guarantees mobilisation of certain 'propaganda campaigns' on behalf of an elite consensus (propaganda is deemed to be broadly equivalent with dominant ideology in this analysis. There is a collaboration of the state and the mass media. They use the idea of 'filters' where they demonstrate the extent to which journalists reiterate uncritically official positions of the state while simultaneously, adhering to its political agenda. The five filters are: 1. *Size, Ownership, and Profit Orientation of the Mass Media[8]<#_ftn8> *: This is the first filter and concerns the commercial basis of the dominant news organisations. Close ties between the media elite and their political and corporate counterparts ensure that an 'establishment orientation' is ordinarily maintained at the level of news coverage. It is this top tier of major news companies which, together with the government and wire services, 'defines the news agenda and supplies much of the national and international news to the lower tiers of the media'. 2. *The Advertising License to do Business[9] <#_ftn9>:* "With advertising the free market does not yield a neutral system in which final buyer choice decides. The advertisers' choices influence media prosperity and survival". They also point out that advertisers are primarily interested in affluent audiences due to their 'purchasing power', and thus are less inclined to support forms of news and public affairs content which attract people of more modest means. Moreover, there is a strong preference for content which does not call into question their own politically conservative principles or interferes with the 'buying mood' of the audience. ** 3. *Sourcing Mass-Media News[10] <#_ftn10>:* "The mass media are drawn into a symbiotic relationship with powerful sources of information by economic necessity and reciprocity of interest. The media need a steady, reliable flow of the raw material of news. They have daily news demands and imperative news schedules that they must meet," write Chomsky and Herman. The relative authority and prestige of these sources also helps to enhance the credibility of the journalist's account leading to the news media's over reliance on government and corporate 'expert sources'.** 4. *Flak and the Enforcers[11] <#_ftn11>*: Flak refers to negative responses to a media statement or program. This disciplines the news organisations. Chomsky and Herman are referring to a variety of flak including complaints from individuals or organised groups like state officials. The authors suggest that these makers of 'flak' receive respectful attention by the media, only rarely having their impact on news management activities explicitly acknowledged. 5. *Anti-communism as a Control Mechanism[12] <#_ftn12>*: This final filter is the role of the 'ideology of anti-communism' as a 'political control mechanism'. This ideology in Herman's and Chomsky's words helps mobilse the populace against an enemy. The concept is so fuzzy it can be used against anybody advocating policies that threaten property interests or support accommodation with Communist states and radicalism. ** Overall only the residue that passes through these five filters is pronounced fit to call news. This basically sums up the arguments of the propaganda model used by Herman and Chomsky. Chomsky and Herman write, "In sum, a propaganda approach to media coverage suggests a systematic and highly political dichotmisation in news coverage based on serviceability to important domestic power interests[13] <#_ftn13>." A main criticism of this approach according to Allen is that their approach "…risks reducing the news media to tired ideological machines confined to performing endlessly, and unfailingly, the overarching function of reproducing the prerogatives of an economic and political elite through processes of mystification. Journalists in this process become well-intentioned puppets whose strings are being pulled by forces they cannot fully understand. Meanwhile the news audience would appear to be composed of passive dupes consistently fooling fooled into believing such propaganda is true[14] <#_ftn14>." But it cannot be denied that they make important points and this framework of analysis has provided the basis for many other observers of the media to carry ahead their research. Edward Said's book *Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts Determine how we see the World* looks at also follows a similar method of looking at the media. Said critically questions the role of the media and accuses it of creating certain shibboleths about Muslims without recognising the diversity in the faith of over one billion. He writes that the generalisations that can be made about Muslims in the media cannot be made about any other community and continues, ""My concern, though, is that the mere label 'Islam', either to explain or indiscriminately condemn 'Islam', actually ends up becoming a form of attack, which in turn provokes more hostility between self-appointed Muslim and Western spokespersons[15] <#_ftn15>." Islam is variegated and the homogenous way in which it is looked at is wrong. "Instead of scholarship, we often find only journalists making extravagant statements, which are instantly picked up and further dramatised by the media[16] <#_ftn16>." He argues that there is a slippery concept of fundamentalism that they attribute only to Islam without ever defining any thing properly. "Much in current representations of Islam is designed to show the religion's inferiority with reference to the West, which Islam is supposed to be hell-bent on opposing, competing with, resenting, and being enraged at[17] <#_ftn17>". Apart from hostility and reductionism offered by all these misrepresentations they also exaggerate and inflate Muslim extremism within the Muslim world[18] <#_ftn18>". Said's point is that cooperation must be admitted. There has been a gross simplification of Islam. "The academic experts whose specialty is Islam have generally treated the religion and its various cultures within an invented or culturally determined ideological framework filled with passion, defensive prejudice, sometimes even revulsion; because of this framework, understanding of Islam has been a very difficult thing to achieve[19] <#_ftn19>," Said writes and criticises Naipual for furthering this viewpoint and writes that he has an intense antipathy to Islam. "For Naipaul and his readers, 'Islam' somehow is made to cover everything that one disapproves of from the standpoint of civlised, and Western, rationality. Labels are vague and unavoidable. Labels function in atleast two different ways and produce two different meanings[20] <#_ftn20>. First, they perform a simple identifying function. The second function is much more complex and when Islam and the West are pitted against one another the assumption is that the West is greater and has surpasses the age of Christianity. On the other hand Islam is still mired in religion, primitivity and backwardness. "The experts whose field was modern Islam worked within an agreed-upon framework for research formed according to notions decidedly not set in the Islamic world. Modern Islamic studies in the academy belong to 'area programs' generally and are affiliated to the mechanism by which national policy is set[21] <#_ftn21>". He questions the source of funding for scholarly studies and links it up with questions of why scholars get it wrong. Apart from this the Western scholars do not command relevant linguistic expertise and have had to rely on press and other Western writers for information[22] <#_ftn22>. Media coverage is superficial, friendly regimes produced official information that they wanted and US had made no efforts to get to know the country well or to make contact with the opposition. These sum up US and European attitude towards Islamic World. Said writes that he has not been able to discover any period in European or American history since the Middle Ages in which Islam was generally discussed or thought about outside a framework created by passion, prejudice and political interests[23]<#_ftn23> . Said questions the aims of the press like objectivity, factuality, realistic coverage and calls them highly relative terms. "News, in other words, is less an inert given than the result of a complex process of usually deliberate selection and expression[24] <#_ftn24>." The American media differ from the French and the British media because the societies differ so much. Said writes that every reporter is subliminally aware of his setting and is subjective in that way[25] <#_ftn25>. The medium itself exercises great pressure. Said writes that all media is somewhere a corporation that has a corporate identity – they all have the same central consensus in mind. It is the result of the culture. About this creation of consensus Said makes two points[26]<#_ftn26>. First, because the US is a complex society, the need to impart a more or less standardised common culture through the media is felt with particular strength. The second point shows that this consensus sets limits and maintains pressures. Said next comments on the quantitative aspects of news. The consequence of this is that Islam is viewed reductively, coercively and oppositionally. He gives an example by saying that Islam for the west is nothing but 'news' of a particularly unpleasant sort. Said criticises the whole institution of Islamic studies as geared towards providing what the media and the governments need. Apart from the adherents of the 'political economy' position that includes those media theorists influenced by the ideas of Marx the other group believes in a 'liberal pluralist position' where they are convinced that the market-bases mass media system protects the citizen's right to freedom of speech. It is the news media, to the extent that they facilitate the formation of public opinion, which are said to make democratic control over governing relations possible. For the adherents of this position the news media represents the fourth estate (as distinguished, in historical terms, from the church, the judiciary and the commons). Journalism, as a result, is charged with the crucial mission of ensuring that members of the public are able to draw upon a diverse 'market place of ideas' to both sustain and challenge their sense of the world around them. Thus, for this group of ideologues media is seen as empowering rather than propaganda. 'News' helps people in making decisions and forming opinions. The inherent notion on which the liberal pluralists operate is that 'News' provided through the media offers the 'truth'[27] <#_ftn27>. *In this section I want to look at the world of fatwas. I try to understand what a fatwa is and look at it historically in India and the manner in which it operated. Some of this research is based on a research paper I wrote earlier but I have incorporated some work I read in a recent book (Masud, Muhammad Khalid, Brinkley Messick and David. S. Powers. Islamic Legal Interpretation: Muftis and their Fatwas. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2005) This book is very useful for anybody interested in the world of fatwas. * A fatwa is a legal opinion of a Mufti[28] <#_ftn28> (a jurisconsult). It derives from a verb meaning 'to inform'[29] <#_ftn29>. The mufti is a person educated in Islamic jurisprudence and the mechanism of the working of the fatwa is like this; a person who is doubtful or ignorant of what the shariat says in particular circumstances turns towards the mufti to answer his question. The person writes an istifa (question) addressed to a particular mufti or to an institution and the mufti pronounces a fatwa based on his understanding of sources. These sources include the Quran, the Sunna (the traditions of the prophet), hadith reports (the activities of the prophet as seen by his companions), the fiqh literature (this means the Islamic schools of jurisprudence) and ijma (meaning consensus among a majority of the ulema) [30] <#_ftn30>. A fatwa need not be necessarily written and can be orally pronounced. The fatwas that are printed do not include the real names of the individuals involved in a dispute but allot them fictitious names, the most common ones being Umar and Zayd[31] <#_ftn31>. In India, the fatwa is not legally binding, neither was it in colonial times. In colonial India the ulema functioning as the mufti registered some important changes, fatwas were given on the authority of a particular madrasa (most madrsas had a dar-ul-ifta, were issued in larger numbers and the technology of print enabled the madrasas to disseminate their fatwas more widely and to begin publishing influential compilations of them[32] <#_ftn32>. The collections of these fatwas by the ulema of this period are of immense importance for understanding the preoccupations of Indian Muslims outside the charmed circle of those whom the British met socially[33] <#_ftn33>. Masud, Messick and Powers distinguish between the domain of legal procedure (the job of the qazi) and nonbinding advisory opinions (fatawa) and write that the muftis have received lesser attention than that qazi because the job of the mufti is unfamiliar and it was not institutionalised as much as qazis. Also many muftis operate privately and unobtrusively unlike the qazis. Fatwas, throughout history have been more concerned with practical aspects of the state of Islamic law[34] <#_ftn34>. In the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia, the Hanafi school of Sunni Islam predominated. Although several contemporary scholars treat muftis as an integral part of the pre-modern judicial system, suggesting that they were attached to the qadi courts at all levels, this conclusion is not borne out by the primary sources. In this region the term fatwa often denoted an authoritative and accepted opinion of the Hanafi school, not necessarily an opinion issued in response to a question. Pre-modern Indian fatwa collections bear the names of rulers, indicating the status of these texts as authoritative opinions potentially enforceable in state courts[35]<#_ftn35> . Whereas a judgement of a qazi entails direct action, a fatwa provides access to sharia knowledge in the form of a considered opinion. Whereas a judgement carries the presumption of finality, a fatwa enters the world of competing opinions. Despite their non-binding and informational qualities fatwas often had a significant impact on law[36] <#_ftn36>. Behind the encounter of mustafti and mufti, the posing of a query and the giving of a fatwa lies a complex social and interpretive relation[37]<#_ftn37>. The mufti is not an investigator of facts so the manner in which a question is phrased becomes important. The issues involved ought to be ones that have actually arisen and should not be purely hypothetical or imaginary. The fatwas also have a disclaimer, such as allahu a'lam "God knows best". As muftis commonly are affiliated with particular schools of law, in some historical settings, they cite authors of authoritative works in their fatwas 25[38] <#_ftn38>. Fatwas had been in common use in colonial India. Fatwas were used quite liberally during the 1857 Mutiny and Jalal writes that "The fatwas issued during 1857 are a colourful medley of quite different points of view.[39]<#_ftn39>" Fatwas were also issued against cow slaughter, only to be rejected by another Muslim divine or propagandist[40] <#_ftn40>. In Kashmir, Shiekh Abdullah used the instrument of the fatwa as he sought to establish an alternative religious authority through his own appointed muftis[41]<#_ftn41> . All the various groups contesting for domination of the narrow sphere used the fatwa during this period as a potent instrument[42] <#_ftn42>. Several fatwa wars took place between the various groups with one fatwa being answered by another fatwa[43] <#_ftn43>. One of these fatwa wars related to the whether the *azaan *(call for the prayer) should be given from inside or outside the mosque. The special significance of this issue is that it was one of the few times when a non-Muslim was bought in as the arbitrator. The issue went up to the Hindu magistrate who held Ahmed Riza Khan (founder of the Barelvi school of Islam in South Asia to which most of the subcontinents Muslims claim allegiance to) guilty of libel against the recently deceased Maulana Abdul Muqtadir[44] <#_ftn44>. Ahmad Riza Khan, in the very few fatwas that he deals with the British, is rather emphatic in severing all ties with them[45] <#_ftn45>. So it is rather unfortunate that of all the alims, it was he who was forced to appear before the magistrate. This is also significant because it points to the power of the state. The ulema might choose to ignore the British and continue their religious debates with their fellow Muslims but the state would not let them go if its direct interference was solicitied. The Deobandis also urged their followers to completely avoid the courts of British India[46] <#_ftn46>. They set up a separate court to circumvent Anglo-Muhammedan Law[47] <#_ftn47>. The ulema of this period, writes Hardy, shared the political attitudes towards British rule of the mass of educated Muslims outside the circle – antipathy, sometimes hatred, but not active underground resistance[48] <#_ftn48>. Then these fatwas were also circulated among the general populace by either reproducing them in the newspapers run by these organisations or by printing tracts and distributing them all over South Asia and beyond. Bookshops were also publishing houses and began to be identified with particular groups of ulema[49] <#_ftn49>. The Barelwis had two printing presses in Bareilly that exclusively published Riza Khan's work. His books had generally something on the cover that poked fun at other sects and the newspaper that furthered the cause of the Barelwis was the Dabdaba-e Sikandari and had a section that reproduced the fatwas of Riza Khan[50] <#_ftn50>. Most madrasahs had a dar-al-ifta (an office that was responsible for answering fatwas) and Sanyal writes, "Even the addition of a Dar al-ifta to a madrasas of the time was competitive, for it was through the fatwa produced by the ulema of different movements that they made known their stand on controversial issues and rebutted those of their rivals. Ahmad Riza expressed his views for the most part in a daily stream of fatwa going out to people through British India and beyond"[51] <#_ftn51>. The main groups involved in these contestations and these contestations continue even in the present day were the Ahl-e-Hadis (the adherents of this group recognise only the Quran and the hadith and legitimate sources of Islamic law), the Deobandis (The Deobandis are Hanafis, meaning the followers of the Islamic jurisprudential system as established by the 8thcentury cleric Imam Abu Hanifa), the Barelwis (The Barelwis legitmise the uniquely sub-continental version of Islam which includes sacerdotalism) and the Nadwaites (followers of the Nadwat Ul Uloom in Lucknow). Most of the Sunni Muslims barely tolerated the Shiahs and considered them apostates from the true faith. The issues dealt with by the Barelwis, the Ahl-e-Hadis and the Deobandis seem to have been similar, as can be understood from the analysis of their fatwas, and the concerns were also the same[52] <#_ftn52>. Fatwa writing for Riza Khan was a hierarchical institution and it was divided among his disciples based on their areas of specialisation but complex fatwas were answered by himself. Sanyal writes, "Matters relating to ritual and the so-called 'pillars' – purification *(taharat)*, prayer (* salat*), alms-giving (*zakat*), fasting (*sawm*) and the pilgrimage (*hajj*) – appear first and in that order, in the first 4 volumes. The remaining volumes deal with marriage (*nikah*), regulations concerning infidels, apostates, and rebels (*sair*), economic issues such as partnership (* shirkat*) and sale (*bai'*) and bequests (*rahn*) among other things." "Then there are fatwas on janaza, fatwas relating to the Khilafat movement of the 1920's, on learning the English language. These fatwas on political issues are enmeshed in the section on funerals and apostates.[53] <#_ftn53>" I agree with Metcalf when she writes that the concern of these fatawa has mainly been with "…correct individual ritual practice and behaviour in everyday life, not, in these years of high colonial rule, issues of larger political or societal concerns."[54] <#_ftn54> Metcalf has translated and paraphrased a few Deobandi fatwas of which I will reproduce one here for the reader to understand the general way in which a Deobandi fatwa was composed *Query*: What of a person who goes to Noble Mecca on hajj and does not go to Medina the Radiant, thinking, 'To go to Noble Medina is not a required duty (*farz-i-wajib*) but rather a worthy act (*kar-i-khayr)*. Moreover, why should I needlessly take such a dangerous route where there are marauding tribes from place to place and risk to property and life. A great deal of money would be spent as well- so what is the point?' Is such a person sinful or not? *Answer*: Not to go to Medina because of such apprehension is a mark of lack of love for the Pride of the World, on whom be peace. No one abandons the worldly task out of such apprehension, so why abandon this pilgrimage? The road is not plundered every day; (safety) is a matter of chance- so that is no argument. Certainly, to go is not obligatory. Some people, at any rate, think this is pilgrimage is a greater source of reward and blessing than *lifting the hands in prayer and saying amin out loud*. Do not give up going out of fear of controversy or concern for your reputation. Should you abandon this pilgrimage from such apprehension and supposition, or put it off, consider, then, which portion is that of full faith. It is a joy to spend money on good acts. To go from Mecca to Medina, travelling first class, costs only fifty rupees. Whoever takes account of fifty rupees and does not take account of the blessed speulchre of the lord is a person of undoubtedly defective faith and love. Even if not a sinner, this person lacks faith in is basic nature. The end. Almightly Allah knows better[55] <#_ftn55>. Rashid Ahmad, may he be forgiven[56] <#_ftn56>. * * This is the general reply to a fatwa. Instead of answering the question in a simple manner the answer is long and drawn out and as the portion in italics shows is specifically targeted at other groups. In this particular fatwa of Rashi Ahmed Gangohi the target is the Ahl-e-Hadis. The Ahl-e-Hadis do not encourage pilgrims on the Hajj to visit the grave of Mohammed and thus we see how Gangohi is directly making them the targets of his fury when he writes that making this pilgrimage is a greater source of reward than lifting the hands in prayer and saying amin out loud. This practice called rafayidin is peculiar to the Ahl-e-Hadis' salat and there are many fatwas legitimising this practice in Amritsari's collection. This is one example to show how the fatwa was used as a chance to very visibly demonstrate the contempt that one group held for the other. Metcalf has examined the Deobandi fatwas and writes that they were largely concerned with dealings with other Muslim groups rather than having to anything to do with the Hindu and the British. The Deoband fatwas were quite prolific and the number of fatwas produced by the dar-al-ifta at Deoband were 147, 851 between 1911 and 1951[57] <#_ftn57>. The influence of the ulema was primarily limited to matters of belief, ritual and relations to other religious groups. She writes, "Many of the fatawa dealt with the basic required rituals of the faith. A full one-fifth of the whole were devoted to the correct performance of the canonical prayer, the most important and frequent of the Islamic religious duties. These fatawa dealt with such problems such as the correct time of prayer, the manner of ablution and the procedure of both requisite *namaz* and special prayers. They, too, reflected reformist concerns. For example, they forbade the funeral prayer to be read in either mosque or graveyard and prohibited ceremonies on fixed days after a death. Many of the fatawa on *namaz*treated differences in details of performance with the Ahl-i Hadis. A handful of fatawa deal covered other ritual obligations such as fasting and hajj. About an equal number were concerned with the proper care and techniques of reading the Quran. The bulk of the remaining fatawa dealt with relations to other groups, including the Ahl-i Hadis, the so called bid'ati Muslims, the Shiah, the Hindus, and the British rulers. The existence of such fatawa suggest the active religious debate characterisation of this period.[58] <#_ftn58>" This long quote from Metcalf shows a remarkable similarity on the issues dealt with by Amritsari and thus, the Ahl-e-hadis with even the ratio of fatwas on certain issues being the same. The only lack in Amritsari's fatwas is on those related to the British. Even the fatwas of Ahmed Riza Khan ignores British presence[59] <#_ftn59>. But unlike the fatwas of Sanaullah Amritsari (a prominent early twentieth century cleric of the Ahl-e-hadis) and Ahmed Riza Khan Barelwi the Deobandi fatwas did not have extensive citations from the Quran and the hadis[60]<#_ftn60>. The fatwas are in simple Urdu and are actual exchanges of letters. At the risk of digressing, a point must be made here about how the ulema tended to popularise Urdu and Metcalf writes that Deoband was instrumental in establishing Urdu as a language of communication among the Muslims of India [61] <#_ftn61>. Robinson also mentions this point as he traces the history of the Firangi Mahal family. He writes that the Perso-Islamic culture declined in India from the 1820's and 1830's and the reformist ulema were partly responsible for this decline because they started using local languages to transmit their messages[62] <#_ftn62>. The fatwas of Abdul Hay, a prominent Firangi Mahali were also important during this period but these were rather more academic compendium of legal rulings than the collections of the Deobandi ulema[63] <#_ftn63>. Many a time there was a bombardment of fatwas on either side. One instance was when Ahmed Riza Khan went on his second Hajj in 1905 and secured fatwas against the Deobandis who responded with their own fatwas[64] <#_ftn64>. Riza Khan institutionalised the traditional version of Islam that had come down through the centuries and was widely prevalent all over the subcontinent. He wanted to maintain Islam as it existed and he did not see any mistake in the way Islam was followed. Riza Khan gave a legitimacy to the rituals and ceremonies that were being practised among South Asian Muslims but which did not have scriptural sanction. Riza Khan's argument was that any practice that hundred's of ulema have considered to be good over hundred's of years cannot be bad[65] <#_ftn65>. These practices increasingly came under attack of reformist groups like the Ahl-e-Hadis and the Deobandis. To the extent that the sharia remains relevant or authoritative, it is usually in the domain of family law. Many nation states have muftis nowadays. Formal instructional programmes and apprenticeships for the training of muftis have been established in institutions such as Azhar University in Egypt and Dar-al-Ulum in Karachi, which has a specialised two year program of courses in ifta[66] <#_ftn66>. Dar-al-ifta's have become common in many countries. Other notable fatwa committees include that established by the World Muslim League in Mecca etc. *In my further research I will be looking at the way the media reports about fatwas.* ------------------------------ [1] <#_ftnref1> Herman…p. 1 [2] <#_ftnref2> Storey…p. 93 [3] <#_ftnref3> Ibid. p. 94 [4] <#_ftnref4> Allen…p. 50 [5] <#_ftnref5> Storey…p. 3 [6] <#_ftnref6> Rivkin…p. [7] <#_ftnref7> Ibid., [8] <#_ftnref8> Herman…p. 3 [9] <#_ftnref9> Ibid., p. 14 [10] <#_ftnref10> Ibid., p. 18 [11] <#_ftnref11> Ibid., p. 26 [12] <#_ftnref12> Ibid., p. 29 [13] <#_ftnref13> Ibid., p. 35 [14] <#_ftnref14> Allen…p. 60 [15] <#_ftnref15> Said…p. xv-xvi [16] <#_ftnref16> Ibid., p. xviii [17] <#_ftnref17> Ibid., p. xxv [18] <#_ftnref18> Ibid., p. xxvi [19] <#_ftnref19> Ibid., ps. 6 & 7 [20] <#_ftnref20> Ibid., ps. 9 & 10 [21] <#_ftnref21> Ibid., p. 19 [22] <#_ftnref22> Ibid., ps. 22 & 23 [23] <#_ftnref23> Ibid., p. 50 [24] <#_ftnref24> Ibid. [25] <#_ftnref25> Ibid., p. 51 [26] <#_ftnref26> Ibid., pgs. 54 &55 [27] <#_ftnref27> Allen…p. 49 [28] <#_ftnref28> The education of a Mufti involves several years of education. The education to become an alim requires 14 years at the Nadwat-ul-Uloom. I am not sure about the number of years it requires at other institutions. Kozlowski writes that only 7 students become Maulawi Kamil every year which gives them the right to issue a fatwa. A person who wants to be a Maulawi Kamil has to first be a Maulawi and then graduate to be a Maulawi alim and only then finally he can be a Maulawi kamil that is equivalent to an M.A. p. 909. [29] <#_ftnref29> Kozlowski…p. 896. [30] <#_ftnref30> Masud…p. 16 [31] <#_ftnref31> We see this phenomenon occurring in several of Sanaullah Amritsari's fatwas also. [32] <#_ftnref32> Zaman…p. 25 [33] <#_ftnref33> Hardy…p. 171 [34] <#_ftnref34> Masud…p. 4 [35] <#_ftnref35> Masud…ps. 14 & 15 [36] <#_ftnref36> Ibid., p. 19 [37] <#_ftnref37> Ibid., p. 20 [38] <#_ftnref38> Ibid., ps. 22-25 [39] <#_ftnref39> Jalal…p. 33 [40] <#_ftnref40> Jalal…p. 85 [41] <#_ftnref41> Rai…p. 269 [42] <#_ftnref42> See Sanyal…pp. 203-207 for a brief idea about the manner in which Riza Khan used the fatwa to target other groups. [43] <#_ftnref43> Sanyal…p. 196 [44] <#_ftnref44> Sanyal…p. 197 and p. 200. [45] <#_ftnref45> Sanyal…p. 283. Ahmad Riza Khan's response as far as relations with the British went showed a reluctance to deal with them at all: - - Muslims must refrain from taking disputes to the court - Muslims should keep commercial transactions within the community - Wealthy Muslims should open interest-free banks for fellow Muslims - Muslims should go back to follwing the *din* (religion) correctly [46] <#_ftnref46> Kozlowski…p. 922 [47] <#_ftnref47> Metcalf…pp. 146-147. [48] <#_ftnref48> Hardy…p. 173 [49] <#_ftnref49> Metcalf…pp. 214-215. [50] <#_ftnref50> Sanyal…p. 84-87 [51] <#_ftnref51> Sanyal…p. 81 [52] <#_ftnref52> The issues dealt by the ulema even today remain the same as the article by Gregory Kozlowki shows. Kozlowski studies the fatwas of the Mufti of the Jami'ah Nizamiyyah in 1989 and writes that, "In published collection of fatawa, an outside portion of the queries and replies deal with ritual matters such as the etiquette of prayer or the pilgrimage and ritual pollution. Many of the problems addressed seem to be purely hypothetical, designed as much to display a scholars forensic skill and learning as to resolve some genuine dilemma. The most common queries to this mufti (of the Jami'ah Nizamiyya) were those that related to marital relations and inheritance. [53] <#_ftnref53> Sanyal…p. 183-184. [54] <#_ftnref54> Metcalf…Intro…p. 17 [55] <#_ftnref55> Kozlowski writes that the fatwas of Jamiyah Nizamiyah also carry the caveat, 'God alone knows the truth!' p. 917. Thus, we see how the ulema try to solve the issue to the best of their knowledge but try to signify their modesty by including this statement at the end of every fatwa. [56] <#_ftnref56> Metcalf…Two Fatwas…p. 56 [57] <#_ftnref57> Hardy…p. 171 [58] <#_ftnref58> Metcalf…Islamic Revival…p. 149 [59] <#_ftnref59> Sanyal…p. 50 [60] <#_ftnref60> Metcalf…Two Fatwas…p. 62 [61] <#_ftnref61> Metcalf…Islamic Revival…pp. 102-103. Also see pp. 206-210. Metcalf writes that from modest beginnings early in the century, Urdu had become the language of almost all religious works with a shift in the social and political implications of using Urdu slowly shifting. Urdu was identified as a Muslim language and threatened. The ulema were reacting to a threat to their culture and political position by fostering the use of Urdu. The ulema played a fundamental role in establishing Urdu as a pre-eminent symbol of Muslim identity in India. [62] <#_ftnref62> Robinson…Ulama…p. 33 [63] <#_ftnref63> Hardy…p. 173 [64] <#_ftnref64> Sanyal…p. 65 [65] <#_ftnref65> Sanyal…p. 162-163. [66] <#_ftnref66> Masud…p. 27 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060424/b1d9b6de/attachment.html From maria at experimenta.org Mon Apr 24 06:15:35 2006 From: maria at experimenta.org (Maria Rizzo) Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 10:45:35 +1000 Subject: [Reader-list] Experimenta - Global/ Regional Perspectives (Modified by geert lovink) Message-ID: CALL FOR ABSTRACTS Mesh #19 Global/ Regional Perspectives Experimenta’s annual media arts journal (online)   MESH #19 will be an online issue providing a global overview of contemporary media arts practice and the creative application of new technological developments through articles that focus on local practice in specific regions. This issue will focus on the critical, aesthetic and technological aspects related to screen culture and media arts practice, balancing the conceptual issues facing media arts culture with the social/cultural, economic and political contexts in which the practices exist.   Articles are sought from curators, artists, academics, media commentators and theorists about practices in the following regions: * West & East Europe * Africa * Middle East * Asia Pacific * The Americas   MESH #19 will be launched on the Experimenta website in September 2006.   Criteria * maximum word length: 2000 words; * the article should use plain language as it is for a general readership; * the article must cite at least 3 recent media artworks; * images with copyright clearance are to be sourced by the author.   Deadline: Friday 5 May 2006 for the submission of 100 word abstracts   Payment An honorarium is available. Academics are eligible to have their paper refereed.   For examples of previous online and printed issues of MESH, please visit: www.experimenta.org __________________________________________________________ Maria Rizzo  |  Administration & Communications Coordinator  |  EXPERIMENTA PO Box 1102 St Kilda South Vic 3182 P + 61 3 9525 5025 F + 61 3 9525 5105 E maria at experimenta.org W www.experimenta.org Experimenta - where creativity and technology meet. Visit www.experimenta.org and subscribe to our free fortnightly e-bulletin for the latest give-aways, opportunities for new media artists and Experimenta news. Experimenta gratefully acknowledges the support of the Australian Film Commission, Film Victoria, the Australia Council, the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy and Arts Victoria. From rahulpandita at yahoo.com Mon Apr 24 12:34:25 2006 From: rahulpandita at yahoo.com (rahul pandita) Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 08:04:25 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] News channel, orange juice and Naxalbari Message-ID: <20060424070425.15915.qmail@web31704.mail.mud.yahoo.com> The world of channels was so lucrative that even Prime Ministers began to break their fast 'live' on TV channels. After he had taken a sip of orange juice, a TV reporter asked the Prime Minister: Sir, kaisa mehsoos ho raha hai? The Prime Minister closed his eyes and just when the reporters were about to remove their gun mikes, thinking that the PM was not willing to speak, the Prime Minister opened his eyes and recited a line from one of his poems: kaal ke kapaal pur likh likh ke mitaa ta hun, geet naya gaata hun. It was such a dynamic sound byte, it had made the reporters' day. Politicians had fallen prey to the habit of appearing on News channels. When gun mikes of various TV channels struck each other, it made the politician forget the jingle of his beloved's bangles. These were strange times, when politicians turned into actors and actors vied for occupying a seat in the Parliament - donning their khadi kurta-pyjamas. He also appeared daily on the channel, holding a mike in his hands. That evening, his uncle called. He said: Son, you are becoming very popular on television. I send all my blessings to you through TV only. In his channel, two things could be found in abundance: Interns and Editors. After Rajat Verma's sudden exit, 'Lala Ji' could not trust any editor. That is why he began playing 'musical chairs' with editors. As it is, the Interns were doing all the work. And also, the rice mill was making profit. In the month of March, just before the expected increments, the symbolic gesture of sacking employees would begin. One day you reached office and found that Ashok Mehta had been sacked. Next day, Seema Chaudhary. There was a lump in Tiwari Ji's throat. What if he is given a pink slip (he was a business journalist)? His friends, corrupting a slogan of a famous political party would tease him often: Baari baari sabki baari, ab ki baari Rohit Tiwari. The sentiment behind running a 'sack campaign' in March was that it instilled a fear among the employees. Leave alone the increment, they would heave a sigh of relief once they discovered that their job was safe. But silently, they would take a vow that by next spring, they would gain employment in a 'professional' channel. In the midst of all this, a 'Comrade' reporter came back from an assignment from Naxalbari. Upon his arrival, he called up a meeting of reporters. The meeting began in an empty plot, opposite the channel office, amidst 'Royal Stag' and 'ande ki burji'. Comrade's face was red because of his anger for the 'Bourgeoisie' forces. In the faint light of a candle, he addressed the reporters: Friends, I have had a meeting with Charu Majumdar's son in Naxalbari. He has promised me that if five of us within the organisation get together, he would personally come and help us in establishing our Union. What do you say? Are you raising your hands in unison? He raised his hands. 'Wonderful', the comrade said, looking at him. The mobile of a reporter rang. Another had dozed off, after four pegs. Another went to irrigate trees in one corner. Two quickly sneaked out, uttering a feeble 'goodnight'. The 'Worker class' was yet not ready for the revolution. Spending yet another spring here and next and next after that was their destiny. Rahul Pandita www.sanitysucks.blogspot.com Mobile: 9818088664 ___________________________________________________________ NEW - Yahoo! 360 – Your one place to blog, create, publish and share! http://uk.360.yahoo.com From nangla at cm.sarai.net Mon Apr 24 18:19:14 2006 From: nangla at cm.sarai.net (CM@Nangla) Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 14:49:14 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Nangla's Delhi - 24 April Message-ID: New Postings on Nangla's Delhi, http://nangla.freeflux.net 24th April, 2006 Objects of Desire, by Neelofar 20.04.2006 ::Nangla Elsewhere:: People decorate their houses according to their needs. Every person has her corner/space/objects in her home, which she decorates with love. For instance when my father used to do his sewing work at home, he used to decorate the corner where his machine used to be kept, with posters of heroes, heroins and models. It wasn't important for him to know their names. He used to see in the clothes worn in those photographs a publicity of his own work. [Read whole post] Tiny Fragments, by Lakhmi 20.04.2006 ::The Journey After:: The grey cement ground that is used for morning prayers was scratched with various shapes for playing games, using red chalk. All class rooms were shut and locked with identical locks. Some doors were not locked, though, and one could peep through them to catch a glimpse of what they may have looked like when they were still in use. The dust infused air had settled in the class rooms. Piles of dust lay accumulated in the corners. [Read whole post] Maqbool, by Yashoda 19.04.2006 ::Nangla Elsewhere:: A twenty-twenty five year old man is sitting by the road, his legs folded under him. Next to him is a hillock-like pile of things, covered by a sheet. Whenever a car passes by, the sheet blows a little, tearing off a bit, and the steel utensils, cans for storing flour and children's clothes become visible. The basti is in its everyday rhythm. People know that a settlement has been broken somewhere, but the reverberations of that are deep inside hearts, not on the surface. But those tremors have taken a concrete form and lie before everyone's eyes today, as this young man by the road. People passing by him ask him, "What happened brother? Why are you sitting here?" [Read whole post] CM Lab, Nangla Maanchi http://nangla.freeflux.net http://nangla-maachi.freeflux.net ----------------------------------------------- It quenches the thirst of the thirsty, Such is Nangla, It shelters those who come to the city of Delhi, Such is Nangla. ------------------------------------------------ From shebatejani at gmail.com Tue Apr 25 10:16:28 2006 From: shebatejani at gmail.com (sheba tejani) Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 10:16:28 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Queer conversations about the city Message-ID: <5f6114430604242146rd46fe4dk8dc04541e578ff25@mail.gmail.com> Hi everyone, For all of you who have been waiting eagerly for further postings from me, here it is! Hope you will forgive this touch of humour on my part- it is meant to act as a foil for my tardiness. This posting would only count as my second, though I hope to be sending other updates soon. My project is a visual essay of the city of Bombay structured around the conversations of two queer women. I've been trying to work on different parts of my project simultaneously. Since I am writing a (fictional) script of conversations between two queer women about living in the city, I am also conducting interviews with queer women who live in Bombay. The idea is not only to document those experiences but to inform the creative process itself. I will recount here one of the interviews I conducted. Suraiya (name changed) is in her early twenties and works in the media. She has been living in Bombay for the past three years, first in a college hostel where she studied for two years and now independently, as a working person. The contexts in which she lived have been definitive in terms of her own consciousness of being queer and slowly coming overground, as well as in leading her life in the way she chooses. Though she obviously loves her college and the friends she made there, it was not really a queer friendly campus. She told me of the time when some student groups protested about a lecture that a gay activist was to give on campus. How could they have a talk on a topic like this, the students averred? Now living on her own, she feels a sense of freedom, she can go out with whoever she wants, bring her girlfriends home and there is no problem as she is earning her own bread and butter. Suraiya's interview was full of the mixed and ambivalent experiences of living in Bombay, as a queer person, invisible for most part to the public eye, but yet with access to spaces where one could be out. There are some things that might be easier, for instance, her landlord told her specifically that no boyfriends should come over to her place- of course, she instantly agreed (!) but the irony of the situation is not lost on her. It is not possible to be out at work either, where it is assumed that everyone is heterosexual. When she was having some difficulty finding an apartment, one of her colleagues suggested that she should get married and take care of her housing problems permanently. But, for her, probably the most attractive thing about being in Bombay was that she was away from family. It was like starting life all over again, she could even invent her past. Though Suraiya has a close and warm relationship with her family being at some distance gives her the opportunity to "just be". Finding queer groups was a major thing for her, which she did in Bombay. In Delhi it was different- though there were some groups they seemed to have a niche crowd and were quite exclusive. I asked her if there was something about the city of Bombay itself that lent itself to these different possibilities. She had an interesting reply: she felt that in Bombay you are thrown together with so many people- travelling on the train, for instance, forces you to get close to people in the literal sense- that there tends to be more tolerance. In Delhi, many people travel in their own private vehicles and seem to lead more private lives, where they interact mostly with people that they know. Even when universities have lectures or events around homosexuality people are afraid to attend and be identified as such. When she took part at a demonstration against Section 377 in Bombay she was surprised at how willing people were to stop and talk, discuss or even read the fliers. Maybe it has to do with the fact that people in this city are mostly migrants. Of course that comes with its own dangers- Bombay, in a sense, is also a city that forces you to be more "out". For instance, if a woman dresses in a more "masculine" fashion or looks obviously queer in some other way, the interaction with people and thus the possibilities for harassment increase. At the same time, the chances of making connections with people are also greater- she noticed a fellow commuter looking at her rainbow badge once and then they ended up meeting at a party some time later. The other aspect of Bombay that she finds liberating is that it is relatively more safe for women. Travelling alone or with other women late at night was unthinkable in Delhi whereas Bombay affords that space. Suraiya felt that the invisibility that allows her so much freedom is also the most debilitating thing about living in the city as a queer person. Being queer is still such a remote possibility in people's minds that one has to perforce conceal one's difference. But still she ended by saying that her experience has been positive and that Bombay, in her opinion, is the queer capital of India! Cheers Sheba From mail at shivamvij.com Tue Apr 25 11:02:57 2006 From: mail at shivamvij.com (Shivam) Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 11:02:57 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] if you thought paranoia had limits... In-Reply-To: <210498250604242232x2f12d960p810981991fa25e47@mail.gmail.com> References: <20060421140157.35664.qmail@web8703.mail.in.yahoo.com> <210498250604242232x2f12d960p810981991fa25e47@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <210498250604242232h4335cfc5w9caa1a17a0e68dab@mail.gmail.com> To ridicule an argument is the easiest thing to do; to understand it the most difficult. S Costs and benefits of quotas T T RAM MOHAN ET CONTRIBUTORS[ MONDAY, APRIL 24, 2006 02:21:04 AM] The Economic Times Online Printed from economictimes.indiatimes.com > Columnists> T T Ram Mohan http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1500848.cms Making transparent the costs and benefits of quotas should help evolve a policy that is acceptable as much to disadvantaged groups as to those who see themselves as losers. The shrill denunciation in certain quarters of the HRD ministry's proposal to extend OBC reservation to central universities, including elite institutions, is notable for its disregard for fact. Prejudices are aired and assertions made without any reference to the body of theory and evidence that has accumulated on the subject of affirmative action (AA). AA can take many forms. Prescribing quotas is one of them. Like any social intervention, AA carries costs and benefits. AA policy must be based on an estimate of the costs and benefits of AA in a given context. Thomas Weisskopf, a professor of economics at the University of Michigan, provides a framework for cost-benefit analysis in his definitive work on the subject (Affirmative action in the United and States and India, Routledge). The central objective underlying AA, Weisskopf points out, is better integration of society's leadership. This is, of course, essential for democracy and for greater harmony in society. But — and this is often overlooked — there are significant efficiency gains as well. Leaders from under-represented groups serve as role models for their groups and help spur performance among peers. In jobs that require dealing with disadvantaged groups, leaders from those groups could contribute better than those from outside. Social capital is created in under-represented groups. There are gains from diversity. It is vital to grasp that efficiency in society does not result from selecting the best academic performers alone. It can result from a variety of other sources of the sort mentioned above. It is this recognition that has driven AA in the US, where AA is neither mandated nor authorised by the Constitution. There is a disarming line that those opposed to quotas are apt to take. They say they are all for reaching benefits to the disadvantaged. But this is better done through ways other than caste-based quotas. Weisskopf addresses some of the propositions commonly heard. 1. Use socio-economic, rather than caste, criteria: why should a poor Brahmin lose his seat in an educational institution to an affluent OBC? This argument misconstrues the objective of AA. AA is not about reducing socio-economic inequalities. It is about reducing inequalities between various groups in society. Using AA to reduce inter-group disparities does not in any way preclude efforts aimed at reducing socio-economic inequalities. 2. Quotas mainly benefit the privileged in the target groups. This is true but, again, AA is not intended to reduce inequalities within the target groups either. It is intended to produce adequate representation for the target groups as a whole. 3. Intervention is best done, not in higher education or in jobs, but at the primary level and through superior economic assistance. The difficulty is that resources required for the latter approach are much larger. AA in higher education and jobs is less costly and the results are better monitored. Opponents of AA are on surer ground when they point to the costs it imposes. A big cost is dilution of quality in academic institutions. There is evidence that those selected through AA continue to under-perform in their academic careers. This forms the basis for vehement opposition to AA — "merit is sacrificed" — but several caveats are in order. First, cut-offs for entry may be lower for AA candidates but these could still be high in absolute terms where the applicant pool is as large as in India. Secondly, the majority of AA candidates do graduate, which means that they meet the quality requirements of the concerned institutions. Thirdly, the gap between AA candidates and others narrows over time as AA candidates selected tend to be from the second or subsequent generations and have had the advantages of a superior environment (the 'creamy layer'). Fourthly, the gap between AA candidates and others is considerably less in post-university career achievements than in the university. For all these reasons, the dilution in quality is far less than is commonly supposed. AA imposes several other costs: the exacerbation of group identities and complacency among target groups, for example. But the fact that AA imposes costs does not negate the case for it. It only implies that AA policies should always be pursued with a fine sense as to the costs and benefits they generate. In other words, the design of AA policy and monitoring of its effects are crucial to its success. Weisskopf spells out key parameters in AA design. The target groups must be defined correctly — the groups must clearly be those whose have suffered from past discrimination or lack of opportunity. Secondly, the magnitude of preference must be carefully chosen. If quotas are large, entry standards would be lower than with smaller quotas and a higher proportion of those selected will fail to perform. This has an adverse impact on the institutions concerned and it also tends to discredit AA policy. Choosing the quota level correctly is especially critical because, once introduced, it is not easily abandoned. The preceding discussion provides pointers to how the HRD ministry's proposal might be carried forward. First, it would be desirable to phase in quotas for OBCs, starting with a quota of, say, 10% — remember, the higher the quotas, the bigger the costs. Secondly, any subsequent increase in quotas could be linked to an increase in overall seats. This will incentivise institutions to increase seat availability and help calm passions. Thirdly, future increases in quotas must be based on a meticulous analysis of the costs and benefits of quotas. A research committee must be constituted for the purpose that will periodically review the effects of quotas. It will judge, among other things, whether any groups have advanced sufficiently to qualify for exclusion. Making transparent the costs and benefits of quotas should help evolve a policy that is acceptable as much to disadvantaged groups as to those who see themselves as losers. It also sends out the reassuring message that AA policy in India is grounded in rigorous analysis, not in vote-bank politics. (The author is professor, IIM Ahmedabad ) (c)Bennett, Coleman and Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On 4/21/06, aasim khan wrote: > Hi folks, > > The following text is a rage in infosys and other IT > company (young) emloyee brigade:It goes as a letter > written by a guy fifty years down the line...stinker i > would say.also huge in terms of span...but are we all > feeding on our own paranoias on the > anti-anti-mandal??? > Twice negative...does that make anything positive. > > read on.... > ----------------------------------------------------- > Ahmedabad, 30 April 2056: I attended the bash at the > IIM-OBC Alumni Association to celebrate the fiftieth > anniversary of the reservation of seats for OBCs > (Other Backward Castes) in IIMs. Since I'm not an OBC, > I was not supposed to attend, but at present, we MBFCs > (Moderately Backward Forward Castes) together with the > Non-Scheduled Tribes have a political > alliance with the OBCs. We sipped champagne and talked > about how so many of us had progressed from reserved > seats in the IIMs to reserved jobs to reserved > promotions. Unfortunately, the party broke up when a > Non-scheduled Tribes faculty member objected to the > OBCs dancing with all the pretty girls — he wanted > equal opportunities for every caste at each dance. I > pointed out that the Non-scheduled Tribes had exceeded > the quota of champagne reserved for them. The party > ended in a pitched caste battle. > > 1) May 2056: Today, I became president of the IIM > Board of Directors. Under the present rotating > presidency system, a member of each caste is made the > president by turn. When it was the turn of the MBFCs > for president, they had to choose me because I'm the > only MBFC on the campus. True, I'm only the campus > dhobi, but then every caste must be given an equal > opportunity. All those centuries of oppression by the > OSBFCs (Only Slightly Backward Forward Castes) and the > OFCs (Other Forward Castes) must be rectified. I hope > to restore the high standards at IIM — I overheard > some foreigners calling it the Indian Institute of > Morons, the other day. > > 2) May 2056: They've announced the cricket team for > the series against Australia. I was overjoyed when > they chose an MBFC man as captain. But my hopes were > dashed when I realised he was a Most Backward Forward > Caste and not a Moderately Backward Forward Caste. The > selection committee lamented that it was gross > discrimination that no member from the Jarowa tribe > (the Stone Age tribe in the > > Andamans) had ever found a place in the Indian cricket > team. A squad has since been dispatched to the > Andamans to capture a Jarowa tribal to play in the > national team. I hope he will improve their > performance — they had an innings defeat against the > Maldives recently. I would have played myself except > for the fact that I lost a leg some years ago when I > was in hospital with a toothache and a doctor > recruited through the Unscheduled Caste quota > extracted my leg instead of my tooth. > > 3) May 2056: There are too many NFCs (Neo-Forward > castes) in the IT business. Under the terms of the > Business Reservation Act, their firms will now be > taken over by the other castes. I hope they will be > able to restore the Indian IT industry back to its > former glory. For some unfathomable reason, it has > gone down the drain after job reservations were > implemented. I went for a movie featuring star actor > Mungeri Ram. He may lack teeth, be four-feet-three and > have hair growing out of his nose, but this year it's > the turn of the EBC-RYs (Extremely Backward > Caste-Rural Yokels) to be stars and Mungeri Ram is the > best of the lot. I wonder why foreign movies have > become so popular. > > 4) May 2056: A truly great day. We now have an OFBMBC > (Other Forward But Moderately Backward Caste) general > as the Head of the Armed Forces. I hope he'll be able > to win back the territory we lost ever since > reservations were implemented in the Army. Since then, > the north has been taken by Pakistan, the North-east > by China, the east by Bangladesh and the south by Sri > Lanka and the Maldives. Only last winter, we lost the > war against Bhutan and free India is now limited to > the western coastal states. But I'm sure the OFBMBC > general will turn the tide. > > 5) May 2056: My wife and I have been blessed with a > bonny daughter. Since my wife's an SBBNSBC (Slightly > Backward But Not So Backward Caste), my daughter will > be an MBFC-SBBNSBC. I must lobby for reservation for > her caste. She's the only member and I'm sure she has > a great future. From aditi.thorat at gmail.com Mon Apr 24 12:46:41 2006 From: aditi.thorat at gmail.com (Aditi thorat) Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 12:46:41 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Research Update In-Reply-To: <3dd9e6810604231204n3b037d2bt1ddb893b475378d8@mail.gmail.com> References: <3dd9e6810604231204n3b037d2bt1ddb893b475378d8@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <2d42d32e0604240016kf3ece88vd7d78005aee021c3@mail.gmail.com> This is absolutely fantastic, Vikhar. I am very impressed and slighty envious, I must admit, of your lucidity and attention to detail (providing theoretical/historical links etc). I can also now understand the fatwa against the length of Sania Mirza's skirt (something that received a fair amount of media attention) as "considered opinion", which to me basically means that I / women's groups (which will multiple perspecitives/positions etc) / Sania herself has the "right" (not sure if this is the appropriate word) to have my/their or our/her "considered opinions". Phew, that was one complicated construction! Is there some theoretical middle ground between the Marxist groups and liberal pluralist positions. Can you recommend some reading, please. Best, Aditi On 4/24/06, Vikhar Ahmed wrote: > > > > In this section I want to look at the ideas of objectivity in journalism > and the rationale behind the production of news. > > "The mass media serve as a system for communicating messages and symbols > to the general populace[1]," > write Herman and Chomsky in their book *Manufacturing Consent: The > Political Economy and the Mass Media. *It is a valid point that the > authors make and it is important to see the media as a dominant element of > popular culture. The view point of structuralism can be bought in here as > they have a significant amount to contribute to the idea of communicating by > language and the medium of journalism is dominated by language. The > structuralists, led primarily by Saussure's ideas, contend that language > consists of 'signs', which in turn can be divided into two component parts, > 'signifier' and 'signified'. 'Signifier' for Saussure means the 'inscription > or the acoustic sound' while 'signified' means the 'concept or mental image' > [2]. > > > The meaning of this initial idea of Saussure was restricted to linguistics > but was taken forward by Roland Barthes who in his book *Mythologies*represents the most significant attempts to bring the method of semiology to > bear on popular culture[3]. > The guiding principle of this book is to always interrogate what is not > obvious. He takes Saussure's principle of 'signifier' and 'signified' and > adds one more level to it. The first level of 'signification', he calls > 'primary signification' or 'denotation' and the second level he calls > 'secondary signification' or 'connotation'. He then argues that it is at the > second level of signification that what he calls 'myth' is produced and > consumed. By myth Barthes means ideology understood as ideas and practices > which defend the status quo – the 'bourgeois norm' – and actively promotes > the interests and values of the dominant classes in society. Myth is the > turning of the cultural and historical into the natural, the > taken-for-granted. As we can see Barthes is taking a slightly 'political > framework of analysis' to borrow a phrase that Stuart Allen uses in his book > *News Culture*. The 'political framework of analysis' draws heavily from > the writings of Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels in *The German Ideology *as > will become obvious from this excerpt: > > The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e., > the class which is the ruling *material* force of society, is at the same > time its ruling *intellectual *force. The class which has the means of > material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the > means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas > of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it…In so > far, therefore, as they rule as a class and determine the extent and compass > of an epoch, it is self-evident that they…among other things…regulate the > production and distribution of the ideas of their age: thus their ideas are > the ruling ideas of the epoch[4]. > > > > > As is obvious Barthes' understanding of popular culture is > partly based on Karl Marx' ideas of the dominant ideas being nothing but a > means to maintain the status quo. While Marx was a journalist for ten years > himself, he has not written directly about journalism thus his comments that > he made about popular culture like the one above taken from *The German > Ideology* need to be understood for journalistic institutions. > > Before moving one I must make clear that many theorists of > culture do not generally take the media into consideration in their > understanding of popular culture. Most of the academicians involved in > cultural studies tend to neglect this crucial aspect of popular culture. If > we look at the studies of culture we will see that the early culturalists > like Arnold and Leavis tended to see culture as restricted to art, > literature and classical music. For them there was a difference between > 'high culture' and 'low-brow culture'[5]. > The anthropologists offer a more complete definition of culture as 'forms of > life and social expression'. This is relevant in studies of the media as > media is an important part of culture[6]. > > > Thedor Adorno and Max Horkenheimer write that mass culture is > a way of offering temporary ephemeral gratification to people condemnded to > lives of work. In their idea of mass culture they bring in the idea of > television[7]. > Though they do not specifically comment on the media here we have to see > that how media forms an important part of 'popular culture' and if we > interpret Adorno and Horkenheimer's thesis that they offered for 'popular > culture' in journalism we will realise that the media serves as a temporary > ephemeral gratification for the consumers of media who tend to absorb > everything that is offered unquestioningly and as the 'truth'. > > This brings us to another interesting point in journalism. > Journalists operate on the premise that they provide the truth to their > consumers but what is 'truth'. Is there an objective basis for truth? The > answer to that question goes to the heart of ongoing debates over whether or > not the news media 'reflect' social reality truthfully, or the extent to > which journalists can produce a truthful news account. How do you separate > facts from values? The assumption that the truth resides entirely in the > former raises the question whether it is actually possible to separate the > two. > > For Noam Chomsky and Herman there is nothing like 'objective > truth'. They have come with the propaganda model where they argue that there > exists within that country's (their analysis is for the media as it operates > in the United States of America) commercial news media an institutional news > bias which guarantees mobilisation of certain 'propaganda campaigns' on > behalf of an elite consensus (propaganda is deemed to be broadly equivalent > with dominant ideology in this analysis. There is a collaboration of the > state and the mass media. They use the idea of 'filters' where they > demonstrate the extent to which journalists reiterate uncritically official > positions of the state while simultaneously, adhering to its political > agenda. The five filters are: > > 1. *Size, Ownership, and Profit Orientation of the Mass Media[8] > *: This is the first filter and concerns the commercial basis of the > dominant news organisations. Close ties between the media elite and their > political and corporate counterparts ensure that an 'establishment > orientation' is ordinarily maintained at the level of news coverage. It is > this top tier of major news companies which, together with the government > and wire services, 'defines the news agenda and supplies much of the > national and international news to the lower tiers of the media'. > > 2. *The Advertising License to do Business[9] > :* "With advertising the free market does not yield a neutral system in > which final buyer choice decides. The advertisers' choices influence media > prosperity and survival". They also point out that advertisers are primarily > interested in affluent audiences due to their 'purchasing power', and thus > are less inclined to support forms of news and public affairs content which > attract people of more modest means. Moreover, there is a strong preference > for content which does not call into question their own politically > conservative principles or interferes with the 'buying mood' of the > audience. ** > > 3. *Sourcing Mass-Media News[10] > :* "The mass media are drawn into a symbiotic relationship with powerful > sources of information by economic necessity and reciprocity of interest. > The media need a steady, reliable flow of the raw material of news. They > have daily news demands and imperative news schedules that they must meet," > write Chomsky and Herman. The relative authority and prestige of these > sources also helps to enhance the credibility of the journalist's account > leading to the news media's over reliance on government and corporate > 'expert sources'.** > > 4. *Flak and the Enforcers[11] > *: Flak refers to negative responses to a media statement or program. This > disciplines the news organisations. Chomsky and Herman are referring to a > variety of flak including complaints from individuals or organised groups > like state officials. The authors suggest that these makers of 'flak' > receive respectful attention by the media, only rarely having their impact > on news management activities explicitly acknowledged. > > 5. *Anti-communism as a Control Mechanism[12] > *: This final filter is the role of the 'ideology of anti-communism' as a > 'political control mechanism'. This ideology in Herman's and Chomsky's words > helps mobilse the populace against an enemy. The concept is so fuzzy it can > be used against anybody advocating policies that threaten property interests > or support accommodation with Communist states and radicalism. ** > > Overall only the residue that passes through these five filters is > pronounced fit to call news. This basically sums up the arguments of the > propaganda model used by Herman and Chomsky. Chomsky and Herman write, "In > sum, a propaganda approach to media coverage suggests a systematic and > highly political dichotmisation in news coverage based on serviceability to > important domestic power interests[13]." > A main criticism of this approach according to Allen is that their approach > "…risks reducing the news media to tired ideological machines confined to > performing endlessly, and unfailingly, the overarching function of > reproducing the prerogatives of an economic and political elite through > processes of mystification. Journalists in this process become > well-intentioned puppets whose strings are being pulled by forces they > cannot fully understand. Meanwhile the news audience would appear to be > composed of passive dupes consistently fooling fooled into believing such > propaganda is true[14]." > But it cannot be denied that they make important points and this framework > of analysis has provided the basis for many other observers of the media to > carry ahead their research. > > Edward Said's book *Covering Islam: How the Media and the Experts > Determine how we see the World* looks at also follows a similar method of > looking at the media. Said critically questions the role of the media and > accuses it of creating certain shibboleths about Muslims without recognising > the diversity in the faith of over one billion. He writes that the > generalisations that can be made about Muslims in the media cannot be made > about any other community and continues, ""My concern, though, is that the > mere label 'Islam', either to explain or indiscriminately condemn 'Islam', > actually ends up becoming a form of attack, which in turn provokes more > hostility between self-appointed Muslim and Western spokespersons[15]." > > > Islam is variegated and the homogenous way in which it is looked at > is wrong. "Instead of scholarship, we often find only journalists making > extravagant statements, which are instantly picked up and further dramatised > by the media[16]." > He argues that there is a slippery concept of fundamentalism that they > attribute only to Islam without ever defining any thing properly. "Much in > current representations of Islam is designed to show the religion's > inferiority with reference to the West, which Islam is supposed to be > hell-bent on opposing, competing with, resenting, and being enraged at[17]". > Apart from hostility and reductionism offered by all these > misrepresentations they also exaggerate and inflate Muslim extremism within > the Muslim world[18]". > Said's point is that cooperation must be admitted. There has been a gross > simplification of Islam. > > "The academic experts whose specialty is Islam have generally treated the > religion and its various cultures within an invented or culturally > determined ideological framework filled with passion, defensive prejudice, > sometimes even revulsion; because of this framework, understanding of Islam > has been a very difficult thing to achieve[19]," > Said writes and criticises Naipual for furthering this viewpoint and writes > that he has an intense antipathy to Islam. "For Naipaul and his readers, > 'Islam' somehow is made to cover everything that one disapproves of from the > standpoint of civlised, and Western, rationality. > > Labels are vague and unavoidable. Labels function in atleast two different > ways and produce two different meanings[20]. > First, they perform a simple identifying function. The second function is > much more complex and when Islam and the West are pitted against one another > the assumption is that the West is greater and has surpasses the age of > Christianity. On the other hand Islam is still mired in religion, > primitivity and backwardness. > > "The experts whose field was modern Islam worked within an agreed-upon > framework for research formed according to notions decidedly not set in the > Islamic world. Modern Islamic studies in the academy belong to 'area > programs' generally and are affiliated to the mechanism by which national > policy is set[21]". > He questions the source of funding for scholarly studies and links it up > with questions of why scholars get it wrong. Apart from this the Western > scholars do not command relevant linguistic expertise and have had to rely > on press and other Western writers for information[22]. > > > Media coverage is superficial, friendly regimes produced official > information that they wanted and US had made no efforts to get to know the > country well or to make contact with the opposition. These sum up US and > European attitude towards Islamic World. Said writes that he has not been > able to discover any period in European or American history since the Middle > Ages in which Islam was generally discussed or thought about outside a > framework created by passion, prejudice and political interests[23] > . > > Said questions the aims of the press like objectivity, factuality, > realistic coverage and calls them highly relative terms. "News, in other > words, is less an inert given than the result of a complex process of > usually deliberate selection and expression[24]." > The American media differ from the French and the British media because the > societies differ so much. Said writes that every reporter is subliminally > aware of his setting and is subjective in that way[25]. > The medium itself exercises great pressure. Said writes that all media is > somewhere a corporation that has a corporate identity – they all have the > same central consensus in mind. It is the result of the culture. > > About this creation of consensus Said makes two points[26]. > First, because the US is a complex society, the need to impart a more or > less standardised common culture through the media is felt with particular > strength. The second point shows that this consensus sets limits and > maintains pressures. Said next comments on the quantitative aspects of news. > The consequence of this is that Islam is viewed reductively, coercively and > oppositionally. He gives an example by saying that Islam for the west is > nothing but 'news' of a particularly unpleasant sort. Said criticises the > whole institution of Islamic studies as geared towards providing what the > media and the governments need. > > Apart from the adherents of the 'political economy' position that includes > those media theorists influenced by the ideas of Marx the other group > believes in a 'liberal pluralist position' where they are convinced that the > market-bases mass media system protects the citizen's right to freedom of > speech. It is the news media, to the extent that they facilitate the > formation of public opinion, which are said to make democratic control over > governing relations possible. For the adherents of this position the news > media represents the fourth estate (as distinguished, in historical terms, > from the church, the judiciary and the commons). Journalism, as a result, is > charged with the crucial mission of ensuring that members of the public are > able to draw upon a diverse 'market place of ideas' to both sustain and > challenge their sense of the world around them. Thus, for this group of > ideologues media is seen as empowering rather than propaganda. 'News' helps > people in making decisions and forming opinions. The inherent notion on > which the liberal pluralists operate is that 'News' provided through the > media offers the 'truth'[27] > . > > > > > *In this section I want to look at the world of fatwas. I try to > understand what a fatwa is and look at it historically in India and the > manner in which it operated. Some of this research is based on a research > paper I wrote earlier but I have incorporated some work I read in a recent > book (Masud, Muhammad Khalid, Brinkley Messick and David. S. Powers. Islamic > Legal Interpretation: Muftis and their Fatwas. Karachi: Oxford University > Press, 2005) This book is very useful for anybody interested in the world of > fatwas. * > > A fatwa is a legal opinion of a Mufti [28](a jurisconsult). It derives from a verb meaning 'to inform' > [29]. > The mufti is a person educated in Islamic jurisprudence and the mechanism of > the working of the fatwa is like this; a person who is doubtful or ignorant > of what the shariat says in particular circumstances turns towards the mufti > to answer his question. The person writes an istifa (question) addressed to > a particular mufti or to an institution and the mufti pronounces a fatwa > based on his understanding of sources. These sources include the Quran, the > Sunna (the traditions of the prophet), hadith reports (the activities of the > prophet as seen by his companions), the fiqh literature (this means the > Islamic schools of jurisprudence) and ijma (meaning consensus among a > majority of the ulema)[30] > . > > A fatwa need not be necessarily written and can be orally pronounced. The > fatwas that are printed do not include the real names of the individuals > involved in a dispute but allot them fictitious names, the most common ones > being Umar and Zayd[31]. > In India, the fatwa is not legally binding, neither was it in colonial > times. In colonial India the ulema functioning as the mufti registered some > important changes, fatwas were given on the authority of a particular > madrasa (most madrsas had a dar-ul-ifta, were issued in larger numbers and > the technology of print enabled the madrasas to disseminate their fatwas > more widely and to begin publishing influential compilations of them[32]. > The collections of these fatwas by the ulema of this period are of immense > importance for understanding the preoccupations of Indian Muslims outside > the charmed circle of those whom the British met socially[33] > . > > Masud, Messick and Powers distinguish between the domain of legal > procedure (the job of the qazi) and nonbinding advisory opinions (fatawa) > and write that the muftis have received lesser attention than that qazi > because the job of the mufti is unfamiliar and it was not institutionalised > as much as qazis. Also many muftis operate privately and unobtrusively > unlike the qazis. Fatwas, throughout history have been more concerned with > practical aspects of the state of Islamic law[34]. > > > In the Indian subcontinent and Central Asia, the Hanafi school of Sunni > Islam predominated. Although several contemporary scholars treat muftis as > an integral part of the pre-modern judicial system, suggesting that they > were attached to the qadi courts at all levels, this conclusion is not borne > out by the primary sources. In this region the term fatwa often denoted an > authoritative and accepted opinion of the Hanafi school, not necessarily an > opinion issued in response to a question. Pre-modern Indian fatwa > collections bear the names of rulers, indicating the status of these texts > as authoritative opinions potentially enforceable in state courts[35] > . > > Whereas a judgement of a qazi entails direct action, a fatwa provides > access to sharia knowledge in the form of a considered opinion. Whereas a > judgement carries the presumption of finality, a fatwa enters the world of > competing opinions. Despite their non-binding and informational qualities > fatwas often had a significant impact on law[36] > . > > Behind the encounter of mustafti and mufti, the posing of a query and the > giving of a fatwa lies a complex social and interpretive relation[37]. > The mufti is not an investigator of facts so the manner in which a question > is phrased becomes important. The issues involved ought to be ones that have > actually arisen and should not be purely hypothetical or imaginary. The > fatwas also have a disclaimer, such as allahu a'lam "God knows best". As > muftis commonly are affiliated with particular schools of law, in some > historical settings, they cite authors of authoritative works in their > fatwas 25[38]. > > > Fatwas had been in common use in colonial India. Fatwas were used quite > liberally during the 1857 Mutiny and Jalal writes that "The fatwas issued > during 1857 are a colourful medley of quite different points of view.[39]" > Fatwas were also issued against cow slaughter, only to be rejected by > another Muslim divine or propagandist[40]. > In Kashmir, Shiekh Abdullah used the instrument of the fatwa as he sought to > establish an alternative religious authority through his own appointed > muftis[41] > . > > All the various groups contesting for domination of the narrow sphere used > the fatwa during this period as a potent instrument[42]. > Several fatwa wars took place between the various groups with one fatwa > being answered by another fatwa[43]. > One of these fatwa wars related to the whether the *azaan *(call for the > prayer) should be given from inside or outside the mosque. The special > significance of this issue is that it was one of the few times when a > non-Muslim was bought in as the arbitrator. The issue went up to the Hindu > magistrate who held Ahmed Riza Khan (founder of the Barelvi school of Islam > in South Asia to which most of the subcontinents Muslims claim allegiance > to) guilty of libel against the recently deceased Maulana Abdul Muqtadir > [44]. > Ahmad Riza Khan, in the very few fatwas that he deals with the British, is > rather emphatic in severing all ties with them[45]. > So it is rather unfortunate that of all the alims, it was he who was forced > to appear before the magistrate. This is also significant because it points > to the power of the state. The ulema might choose to ignore the British and > continue their religious debates with their fellow Muslims but the state > would not let them go if its direct interference was solicitied. > > The Deobandis also urged their followers to completely avoid the courts of > British India[46]. > They set up a separate court to circumvent Anglo-Muhammedan Law[47]. > The ulema of this period, writes Hardy, shared the political attitudes > towards British rule of the mass of educated Muslims outside the circle – > antipathy, sometimes hatred, but not active underground resistance[48] > . > > Then these fatwas were also circulated among the general populace by > either reproducing them in the newspapers run by these organisations or by > printing tracts and distributing them all over South Asia and beyond. > Bookshops were also publishing houses and began to be identified with > particular groups of ulema[49]. > The Barelwis had two printing presses in Bareilly that exclusively published > Riza Khan's work. His books had generally something on the cover that poked > fun at other sects and the newspaper that furthered the cause of the > Barelwis was the Dabdaba-e Sikandari and had a section that reproduced the > fatwas of Riza Khan[50] > . > > Most madrasahs had a dar-al-ifta (an office that was responsible for > answering fatwas) and Sanyal writes, "Even the addition of a Dar al-ifta to > a madrasas of the time was competitive, for it was through the fatwa > produced by the ulema of different movements that they made known their > stand on controversial issues and rebutted those of their rivals. Ahmad Riza > expressed his views for the most part in a daily stream of fatwa going out > to people through British India and beyond"[51]. > > > The main groups involved in these contestations and these contestations > continue even in the present day were the Ahl-e-Hadis (the adherents of this > group recognise only the Quran and the hadith and legitimate sources of > Islamic law), the Deobandis (The Deobandis are Hanafis, meaning the > followers of the Islamic jurisprudential system as established by the 8thcentury cleric Imam Abu Hanifa), the Barelwis (The Barelwis legitmise the > uniquely sub-continental version of Islam which includes sacerdotalism) and > the Nadwaites (followers of the Nadwat Ul Uloom in Lucknow). Most of the > Sunni Muslims barely tolerated the Shiahs and considered them apostates from > the true faith. The issues dealt with by the Barelwis, the Ahl-e-Hadis and > the Deobandis seem to have been similar, as can be understood from the > analysis of their fatwas, and the concerns were also the same[52] > . > > Fatwa writing for Riza Khan was a hierarchical institution and it was > divided among his disciples based on their areas of specialisation but > complex fatwas were answered by himself. Sanyal writes, "Matters relating to > ritual and the so-called 'pillars' – purification *(taharat)*, prayer (* > salat*), alms-giving (*zakat*), fasting (*sawm*) and the pilgrimage (*hajj > *) – appear first and in that order, in the first 4 volumes. The remaining > volumes deal with marriage (*nikah*), regulations concerning infidels, > apostates, and rebels (*sair*), economic issues such as partnership (* > shirkat*) and sale (*bai'*) and bequests (*rahn*) among other things." > > "Then there are fatwas on janaza, fatwas relating to the Khilafat movement > of the 1920's, on learning the English language. These fatwas on political > issues are enmeshed in the section on funerals and apostates.[53]" > I agree with Metcalf when she writes that the concern of these fatawa has > mainly been with "…correct individual ritual practice and behaviour in > everyday life, not, in these years of high colonial rule, issues of larger > political or societal concerns."[54]Metcalf has translated and paraphrased a few Deobandi fatwas of which I will > reproduce one here for the reader to understand the general way in which a > Deobandi fatwa was composed > > *Query*: What of a person who goes to Noble Mecca on hajj and does not go > to Medina the Radiant, thinking, 'To go to Noble Medina is not a required > duty (*farz-i-wajib*) but rather a worthy act (*kar-i-khayr)*. Moreover, > why should I needlessly take such a dangerous route where there are > marauding tribes from place to place and risk to property and life. A great > deal of money would be spent as well- so what is the point?' Is such a > person sinful or not? > > > > *Answer*: Not to go to Medina because of such apprehension is a mark of > lack of love for the Pride of the World, on whom be peace. No one abandons > the worldly task out of such apprehension, so why abandon this pilgrimage? > The road is not plundered every day; (safety) is a matter of chance- so that > is no argument. Certainly, to go is not obligatory. Some people, at any > rate, think this is pilgrimage is a greater source of reward and blessing > than *lifting the hands in prayer and saying amin out loud*. Do not give > up going out of fear of controversy or concern for your reputation. Should > you abandon this pilgrimage from such apprehension and supposition, or put > it off, consider, then, which portion is that of full faith. It is a joy to > spend money on good acts. To go from Mecca to Medina, travelling first > class, costs only fifty rupees. Whoever takes account of fifty rupees and > does not take account of the blessed speulchre of the lord is a person of > undoubtedly defective faith and love. Even if not a sinner, this person > lacks faith in is basic nature. The end. Almightly Allah knows better[55]. > Rashid Ahmad, may he be forgiven[56] > . > > * * > > This is the general reply to a fatwa. Instead of answering the > question in a simple manner the answer is long and drawn out and as the > portion in italics shows is specifically targeted at other groups. In this > particular fatwa of Rashi Ahmed Gangohi the target is the Ahl-e-Hadis. The > Ahl-e-Hadis do not encourage pilgrims on the Hajj to visit the grave of > Mohammed and thus we see how Gangohi is directly making them the targets of > his fury when he writes that making this pilgrimage is a greater source of > reward than lifting the hands in prayer and saying amin out loud. This > practice called rafayidin is peculiar to the Ahl-e-Hadis' salat and there > are many fatwas legitimising this practice in Amritsari's collection. This > is one example to show how the fatwa was used as a chance to very visibly > demonstrate the contempt that one group held for the other. > > Metcalf has examined the Deobandi fatwas and writes that they > were largely concerned with dealings with other Muslim groups rather than > having to anything to do with the Hindu and the British. The Deoband fatwas > were quite prolific and the number of fatwas produced by the dar-al-ifta at > Deoband were 147, 851 between 1911 and 1951[57]. > The influence of the ulema was primarily limited to matters of belief, > ritual and relations to other religious groups. She writes, "Many of the > fatawa dealt with the basic required rituals of the faith. A full one-fifth > of the whole were devoted to the correct performance of the canonical > prayer, the most important and frequent of the Islamic religious duties. > These fatawa dealt with such problems such as the correct time of prayer, > the manner of ablution and the procedure of both requisite *namaz* and > special prayers. They, too, reflected reformist concerns. For example, they > forbade the funeral prayer to be read in either mosque or graveyard and > prohibited ceremonies on fixed days after a death. Many of the fatawa on * > namaz* treated differences in details of performance with the Ahl-i Hadis. > A handful of fatawa deal covered other ritual obligations such as fasting > and hajj. About an equal number were concerned with the proper care and > techniques of reading the Quran. The bulk of the remaining fatawa dealt with > relations to other groups, including the Ahl-i Hadis, the so called bid'ati > Muslims, the Shiah, the Hindus, and the British rulers. The existence of > such fatawa suggest the active religious debate characterisation of this > period.[58]" > This long quote from Metcalf shows a remarkable similarity on the issues > dealt with by Amritsari and thus, the Ahl-e-hadis with even the ratio of > fatwas on certain issues being the same. The only lack in Amritsari's fatwas > is on those related to the British. > > Even the fatwas of Ahmed Riza Khan ignores British presence[59]. > But unlike the fatwas of Sanaullah Amritsari (a prominent early twentieth > century cleric of the Ahl-e-hadis) and Ahmed Riza Khan Barelwi the Deobandi > fatwas did not have extensive citations from the Quran and the hadis[60]. > The fatwas are in simple Urdu and are actual exchanges of letters. At the > risk of digressing, a point must be made here about how the ulema tended to > popularise Urdu and Metcalf writes that Deoband was instrumental in > establishing Urdu as a language of communication among the Muslims of India > [61]. > Robinson also mentions this point as he traces the history of the Firangi > Mahal family. He writes that the Perso-Islamic culture declined in India > from the 1820's and 1830's and the reformist ulema were partly responsible > for this decline because they started using local languages to transmit > their messages[62]. > The fatwas of Abdul Hay, a prominent Firangi Mahali were also important > during this period but these were rather more academic compendium of legal > rulings than the collections of the Deobandi ulema[63] > . > > Many a time there was a bombardment of fatwas on either side. One instance > was when Ahmed Riza Khan went on his second Hajj in 1905 and secured fatwas > against the Deobandis who responded with their own fatwas[64]. > Riza Khan institutionalised the traditional version of Islam that had come > down through the centuries and was widely prevalent all over the > subcontinent. He wanted to maintain Islam as it existed and he did not see > any mistake in the way Islam was followed. Riza Khan gave a legitimacy to > the rituals and ceremonies that were being practised among South Asian > Muslims but which did not have scriptural sanction. Riza Khan's argument was > that any practice that hundred's of ulema have considered to be good over > hundred's of years cannot be bad[65]. > These practices increasingly came under attack of reformist groups like the > Ahl-e-Hadis and the Deobandis. > > To the extent that the sharia remains relevant or authoritative, it is > usually in the domain of family law. Many nation states have muftis > nowadays. Formal instructional programmes and apprenticeships for the > training of muftis have been established in institutions such as Azhar > University in Egypt and Dar-al-Ulum in Karachi, which has a specialised two > year program of courses in ifta[66]. > Dar-al-ifta's have become common in many countries. Other notable fatwa > committees include that established by the World Muslim League in Mecca etc. > > > > > *In my further research I will be looking at the way the media reports > about fatwas.* > > > > ------------------------------ > > [1]Herman…p. 1 > > [2]Storey…p. 93 > > [3]Ibid. p. 94 > > [4]Allen…p. 50 > > [5]Storey…p. 3 > > [6]Rivkin…p. > > [7]Ibid., > > [8]Herman…p. 3 > > [9]Ibid., p. 14 > > [10]Ibid., p. 18 > > [11]Ibid., p. 26 > > [12]Ibid., p. 29 > > [13]Ibid., p. 35 > > [14]Allen…p. 60 > > [15]Said…p. xv-xvi > > [16]Ibid., p. xviii > > [17]Ibid., p. xxv > > [18]Ibid., p. xxvi > > [19]Ibid., ps. 6 & 7 > > [20]Ibid., ps. 9 & 10 > > [21]Ibid., p. 19 > > [22]Ibid., ps. 22 & 23 > > [23]Ibid., p. 50 > > [24]Ibid. > > [25]Ibid., p. 51 > > [26]Ibid., pgs. 54 &55 > > [27]Allen…p. 49 > > [28]The education of a Mufti involves several years of education. The education > to become an alim requires 14 years at the Nadwat-ul-Uloom. I am not sure > about the number of years it requires at other institutions. Kozlowski > writes that only 7 students become Maulawi Kamil every year which gives them > the right to issue a fatwa. A person who wants to be a Maulawi Kamil has to > first be a Maulawi and then graduate to be a Maulawi alim and only then > finally he can be a Maulawi kamil that is equivalent to an M.A. p. 909. > > [29]Kozlowski…p. 896. > > [30]Masud…p. 16 > > [31]We see this phenomenon occurring in several of Sanaullah Amritsari's fatwas > also. > > [32]Zaman…p. 25 > > [33]Hardy…p. 171 > > [34]Masud…p. 4 > > [35]Masud…ps. 14 & 15 > > [36]Ibid., p. 19 > > [37]Ibid., p. 20 > > [38]Ibid., ps. 22-25 > > [39]Jalal…p. 33 > > [40]Jalal…p. 85 > > [41]Rai…p. 269 > > [42]See Sanyal…pp. 203-207 for a brief idea about the manner in which Riza Khan > used the fatwa to target other groups. > > [43]Sanyal…p. 196 > > [44]Sanyal…p. 197 and p. 200. > > [45]Sanyal…p. 283. > > Ahmad Riza Khan's response as far as relations with the British went > showed a reluctance to deal with them at all: - > > - Muslims must refrain from taking disputes to the court > > - Muslims should keep commercial transactions within the > community > > - Wealthy Muslims should open interest-free banks for fellow > Muslims > > - Muslims should go back to follwing the *din* (religion) > correctly > > [46]Kozlowski…p. 922 > > [47]Metcalf…pp. 146-147. > > [48]Hardy…p. 173 > > [49]Metcalf…pp. 214-215. > > [50]Sanyal…p. 84-87 > > [51]Sanyal…p. 81 > > [52]The issues dealt by the ulema even today remain the same as the article by > Gregory Kozlowki shows. Kozlowski studies the fatwas of the Mufti of the > Jami'ah Nizamiyyah in 1989 and writes that, "In published collection of > fatawa, an outside portion of the queries and replies deal with ritual > matters such as the etiquette of prayer or the pilgrimage and ritual > pollution. Many of the problems addressed seem to be purely hypothetical, > designed as much to display a scholars forensic skill and learning as to > resolve some genuine dilemma. The most common queries to this mufti (of the > Jami'ah Nizamiyya) were those that related to marital relations and > inheritance. > > [53]Sanyal…p. 183-184. > > [54]Metcalf…Intro…p. 17 > > [55]Kozlowski writes that the fatwas of Jamiyah Nizamiyah also carry the caveat, > 'God alone knows the truth!' p. 917. Thus, we see how the ulema try to solve > the issue to the best of their knowledge but try to signify their modesty by > including this statement at the end of every fatwa. > > [56]Metcalf…Two Fatwas…p. 56 > > [57]Hardy…p. 171 > > [58]Metcalf…Islamic Revival…p. 149 > > [59]Sanyal…p. 50 > > [60]Metcalf…Two Fatwas…p. 62 > > [61]Metcalf…Islamic Revival…pp. 102-103. Also see pp. 206-210. Metcalf writes > that from modest beginnings early in the century, Urdu had become the > language of almost all religious works with a shift in the social and > political implications of using Urdu slowly shifting. Urdu was identified as > a Muslim language and threatened. The ulema were reacting to a threat to > their culture and political position by fostering the use of Urdu. The ulema > played a fundamental role in establishing Urdu as a pre-eminent symbol of > Muslim identity in India. > > [62]Robinson…Ulama…p. 33 > > [63]Hardy…p. 173 > > [64]Sanyal…p. 65 > > [65]Sanyal…p. 162-163. > > [66]Masud…p. 27 > > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with > subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: > > -- Aditi Thorat Officer on Special Duty to Chief Minister Government of Rajasthan 0141-5116629 (Tele/Fax) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060424/33fb1a3f/attachment.html From joel at well.com Mon Apr 24 21:28:26 2006 From: joel at well.com (Joel Slayton) Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 08:58:26 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] ISEA2006_PapersForum/Announcement Message-ID: <787B7074-DF2B-44AF-BC7E-0FC19B47331B@well.com> ISEA2006 Symposium Papers Online Forum. April 24th – May 29th. ISEA2006 is taking place in San Jose, California, August 7-13. See http://01sj.org for more information about the Symposium and related ZeroOne San Jose Festival. Beginning Monday, April 24th, ISEA2006 will host a month long series of discussions on the accepted paper abstracts for each of the Symposium themes: Interactive City, Community Domain, Pacific Rim and Transvergence. See http://01sj.org/content/blogcategory/138/147/ for an overview. An important objective to ISEA2006 is enabling conversation and discourse between audience(s) and presenters. Toward that objective this years ISEA incorporates a single main track of presentations + artists presentations combined with a pre-publishing model. The reading of papers is not permitted. Instead authors will present their abstracts in the on-line Forum and then pre-publish full manuscripts weeks prior to the Symposium. The goal is to inform and influence both authors and audiences as well as create conversational relationships and provide for advanced consideration of topics to be presented at the Symposium. At ISEA2006 each theme will have two extended ‘conversational’ sessions in which several authors present summaries of their papers followed by a moderated conversation and audience interaction. An important role in the Symposium and Forum is that of the Moderator. We have invited a group of prestigious Moderators who will facilitation of individual sessions of the Online Forum and Symposium. Interactive City: Anthony Burke Community Domain: Sara Diamond Transvergence: TBA Community Domain: Alice Ming Wai Jim Transvergence: Wendy Chun Pacific Rim: Amanda McDonald Crowley The ISEA2006 Papers Forum, April 24nd to May 22nd begins with Interactive City. Beginning with Interactive City, abstracts for each of the Symposium themes will be presented in a series of open public discussions. Interactive City paper titles and authors: Mirjam Struppek, Urban Screens Tapio Mäkelä, Ars Memorativa in the Interactive City Alison Sant, Redefining the Basemap From Scenography to Planetary Network for Shanghai 2010 Each week introduces a new theme and abstracts for consideration. Forum Schedule and Moderators: Transvergence 1: May 1-May 7 Moderator: TBA Gheorghe Dan and Alisa Andrasek: Phylotic BodayScapes / Entheogenic Gardens Poly-Scalar Heterotopic Botany Oron Catts and Ionat Zurr, Towards a New Class of Being-The Extended Body Josephine Bosma, Voice and Code: From spoken word and song to writing music to code Community Domain 1: May 8-14 Moderator: Sara Diamond Trebor Scholz, The Participatory Challenge: Incentives for Online Collaboration Valentina Nisa, Mads Haahr and Ian Oakley, Community Networked Tales: Stories and Place of a Dublin Neighborhood: The Media Portrait of Liberties Kevin Hamilton, Absence in Common: An Operator for the inoperative Community Community Domain 2: May 8-14 Moderator: Alice Ming Wai Jim Joline Blais, Indigenous Domain: Beyond the Commons and Other Colonial Paradigms Sharon Daniel, Public Secrets: Information and Social Knowledge Mara Traumane, Media Referentiality: “Productive “ Knowledge Networks in Experimental Arts Transvergence 2: May 15-21 Moderator: Wendy Chun Steve Anderson, Coming to Terms with the Digital Avant Garde Jon Ippolito and Joline Blais, Art as Antibody: A redefinition of art for the Internet Age Ned Rossiter, Organized Networks as New Institutional Forms Pacific Rim : May 22-29 Moderator: Amanda McDonald Crowley Timothy Murray, Chinese Archival Futures *additional Pacific Rim participants to be announced. Please join us for a lively and informative discussion. For more information on Paper Authors and the Symposium: http:// 01sj.org/content/blogcategory/135/144/ . Joel Slayton, Chair ISEA2006/ZeroOne San Jose Steve Dietz, Director ISEA2006/ZeroOne San Jose ------------- ISEA2006 Symposium The 2006 edition of the internationally renowned ISEA Symposium will be held August 7-13, 2006, in San Jose, California in conjunction with the inauguration of ZeroOne San Jose: A Global Festival of Art on the Edge, a milestone festival to be held biennially. The 13th International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA2006) focuses on the critical, theoretical and pragmatic exploration of four important themes : Transvergence , Interactive City , Community Domain and Pacific Rim What tactics, issues and conceptual practices expose or inform the distinctions of these subject terrains relating to contemporary art practice? What analyses illuminate art practice engaged with new technical and conceptual forms, functions and disciplines; provide for innovative tactical implementations of cultural production involving urbanity, mobility, community and locality; examine the roles and responsibilities of corporations, civic and cultural organizations, discuss strategic and economic planning as it relates to creative community; serve to expose new portals of production and experience; provide for interpretive bridges between cultures and identities; and provide for provocative examination of contemporary political and economic conditions? How is new media art practice re- shaping the world? The ISEA2006 Symposium is an international platform for artists, cultural producers, media theorists, curators and the general public to share the latest ideas and practices involving new media. Enabling discourse across disciplines, ideologies and philosophical frameworks is an important objective as is the facilitation of discussion and conversation. Audience participation is facilitated through expanded moderated sessions, an afternoon Poster Session/Reception and through an on-line forum featuring the pre-published abstracts and papers. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060424/18efc5be/attachment.html From curator at lacda.com Tue Apr 25 06:16:07 2006 From: curator at lacda.com (curator at lacda.com) Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 17:46:07 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] "New Math" at L.A. Center for Digital Art Message-ID: <5514594.1145925967093.JavaMail.SYSTEM@ACTEA-C112-2> ***FOR IMMEADIATE RELEASE*** Los Angeles Center For Digital Art 107 West Fifth Street Los Angeles, CA 90013 Director: Rex Bruce 323 646 9427 rexbruce at lacda.com Website: http://www.lacda.com Los Angeles Center for Digital Art announces: "New Math" Recent Algorithmic Art May 11-June 3, 2006 Opening Reception May 11, 7-9pm Andy Lomas Charles Fairbanks Tim Quinn Hollis Cooper Nathan Selikoff Milos Rankovic Thomas Briggs Los Angeles Center for Digital Art presents an international group exhibit of artists using computer algorithms, math based image generators and custom software for the production of abstract works. The show includes videos of animated algorithmic renderings, architecturally based works, internet generated images, 3D stereoscopes, art based on organic growth, as well as interactive pieces where visitors can create their own images. Andy Lomas is a mathematician, digital artist and Emmy award winning digital effects supervisor. His Aggregation series explores the complexity of organic form with intricate sculptural shapes generated by computer simulated growth systems. Using his own software to create the forms, biases and changes to environmental rules are used to create an incredible variety of structural shape. Nathan Selikoff has abandoned the predefined processes of production to more fully explore the computational landscape of mathematics and beauty. He uses custom software to investigate strange attractors - visual representations of chaotic dynamical systems. Fascinated by the diversity and complexity of the raw images that come from simple sets of iterated functions, he enjoys the interplay of technical problem solving and artistic spontaneous interactivity. Charles Fairbanks calls upon friends for an introduction: their laconic descriptions of the artist-ranging from "meaty" to "abstract dynamo"-lend linguistic thrust to his Googled Self-Portraits. The descriptions become keywords for a program to average the RGB data of the top fifty Google-Images. Determined by linguistic, personal, and virtual connections, the appropriated pictures become glowing color-fields of information while details linger at the threshold of perception. Hollis Cooper believes virtual environments have opened a new era in the experience of architectural space. Digital representation has produced perspectives that are no longer based on physical space but instead on multiple-user organization and efficiency - a limitless number of vanishing points. She regards these developments optimistically, as a means of expanding our ability to suspend disbelief and project ourselves into the world around us, interacting more actively with and within it. Tim Quinn is a nationally known Los Angeles sculptor and algorist. He has a long-standing love of recursion, which over the years he has applied to various visual material to produce a visually and conceptually stunning effect. His recent work explores a randomized kaleidoscope effect that defies easy understanding. Applying his own AppleScript Photoshop code to scanned images of his "Sculpey" objects, he achieves a global flattening of 3D space that doesn't flatten locally. Thomas Briggs is a veteran of the art world with a 20 year history in computer animation production and teaching. As an animator/programmer he was often concerned with the mathematical representation of fluid, lifelike gesture. He realized that this notion could be inverted, that the gesture could be realized from mathematics directly, and used to create drawings which retain some connection to the scratch of pen on paper. He eschews algorithmic, or procedural processes, instead using simple periodic functions evolving over time. Milos Rankovic received an AHRB Award for Doctoral Study in the Creative and Performing Arts to pursue his study of drawing: Theory and Practice of Handmade Distributed Representation. He offers "Volatile Public Static" a series of automated composites created from images culled from the web through his specialized software. In his doctoral winning words: "a networked component of a computationally collaborative working space. As such, it (metonymically) relates to an ongoing study concerned with the notion of commitment - chronically taken to be incompatible with deferral - and so, a study of the phantoms that still lurk within difference. In fact, as it applies to difference (rather than analysis), deferral is always already resolved in the nervous commitment, as stoppage, as presence, as difference. The computational investment in the art object is, therefore, found to be the most primitive and least oppressive form of investment, for commitment (in this sense, as selectivity, as semipermeability, or semiconductivity; i.e., as nonlinearity) is the essence of computation. While, locally, commitment is indeed resistance to flow?, globally, it facilitates the play?." ==================================================================== Do *not* reply to this email. Send inquiries to lacda at lacda.com. Thanks! ==================================================================== ========================================================================== ** If you *do not* wish to receive these emails, please forward or send a message to ** ** removeme at acteva.com, and we'll remove you from the previte list. ** ========================================================================== From mallroad at gmail.com Tue Apr 25 11:02:07 2006 From: mallroad at gmail.com (Shivam Vij) Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 11:02:07 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] if you thought paranoia had limits... In-Reply-To: <20060421140157.35664.qmail@web8703.mail.in.yahoo.com> References: <20060421140157.35664.qmail@web8703.mail.in.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <210498250604242232x2f12d960p810981991fa25e47@mail.gmail.com> To ridicule an argument is the easiest thing to do; to understand it the most difficult. S Costs and benefits of quotas T T RAM MOHAN ET CONTRIBUTORS[ MONDAY, APRIL 24, 2006 02:21:04 AM] The Economic Times Online Printed from economictimes.indiatimes.com > Columnists> T T Ram Mohan http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1500848.cms Making transparent the costs and benefits of quotas should help evolve a policy that is acceptable as much to disadvantaged groups as to those who see themselves as losers. The shrill denunciation in certain quarters of the HRD ministry's proposal to extend OBC reservation to central universities, including elite institutions, is notable for its disregard for fact. Prejudices are aired and assertions made without any reference to the body of theory and evidence that has accumulated on the subject of affirmative action (AA). AA can take many forms. Prescribing quotas is one of them. Like any social intervention, AA carries costs and benefits. AA policy must be based on an estimate of the costs and benefits of AA in a given context. Thomas Weisskopf, a professor of economics at the University of Michigan, provides a framework for cost-benefit analysis in his definitive work on the subject (Affirmative action in the United and States and India, Routledge). The central objective underlying AA, Weisskopf points out, is better integration of society's leadership. This is, of course, essential for democracy and for greater harmony in society. But — and this is often overlooked — there are significant efficiency gains as well. Leaders from under-represented groups serve as role models for their groups and help spur performance among peers. In jobs that require dealing with disadvantaged groups, leaders from those groups could contribute better than those from outside. Social capital is created in under-represented groups. There are gains from diversity. It is vital to grasp that efficiency in society does not result from selecting the best academic performers alone. It can result from a variety of other sources of the sort mentioned above. It is this recognition that has driven AA in the US, where AA is neither mandated nor authorised by the Constitution. There is a disarming line that those opposed to quotas are apt to take. They say they are all for reaching benefits to the disadvantaged. But this is better done through ways other than caste-based quotas. Weisskopf addresses some of the propositions commonly heard. 1. Use socio-economic, rather than caste, criteria: why should a poor Brahmin lose his seat in an educational institution to an affluent OBC? This argument misconstrues the objective of AA. AA is not about reducing socio-economic inequalities. It is about reducing inequalities between various groups in society. Using AA to reduce inter-group disparities does not in any way preclude efforts aimed at reducing socio-economic inequalities. 2. Quotas mainly benefit the privileged in the target groups. This is true but, again, AA is not intended to reduce inequalities within the target groups either. It is intended to produce adequate representation for the target groups as a whole. 3. Intervention is best done, not in higher education or in jobs, but at the primary level and through superior economic assistance. The difficulty is that resources required for the latter approach are much larger. AA in higher education and jobs is less costly and the results are better monitored. Opponents of AA are on surer ground when they point to the costs it imposes. A big cost is dilution of quality in academic institutions. There is evidence that those selected through AA continue to under-perform in their academic careers. This forms the basis for vehement opposition to AA — "merit is sacrificed" — but several caveats are in order. First, cut-offs for entry may be lower for AA candidates but these could still be high in absolute terms where the applicant pool is as large as in India. Secondly, the majority of AA candidates do graduate, which means that they meet the quality requirements of the concerned institutions. Thirdly, the gap between AA candidates and others narrows over time as AA candidates selected tend to be from the second or subsequent generations and have had the advantages of a superior environment (the 'creamy layer'). Fourthly, the gap between AA candidates and others is considerably less in post-university career achievements than in the university. For all these reasons, the dilution in quality is far less than is commonly supposed. AA imposes several other costs: the exacerbation of group identities and complacency among target groups, for example. But the fact that AA imposes costs does not negate the case for it. It only implies that AA policies should always be pursued with a fine sense as to the costs and benefits they generate. In other words, the design of AA policy and monitoring of its effects are crucial to its success. Weisskopf spells out key parameters in AA design. The target groups must be defined correctly — the groups must clearly be those whose have suffered from past discrimination or lack of opportunity. Secondly, the magnitude of preference must be carefully chosen. If quotas are large, entry standards would be lower than with smaller quotas and a higher proportion of those selected will fail to perform. This has an adverse impact on the institutions concerned and it also tends to discredit AA policy. Choosing the quota level correctly is especially critical because, once introduced, it is not easily abandoned. The preceding discussion provides pointers to how the HRD ministry's proposal might be carried forward. First, it would be desirable to phase in quotas for OBCs, starting with a quota of, say, 10% — remember, the higher the quotas, the bigger the costs. Secondly, any subsequent increase in quotas could be linked to an increase in overall seats. This will incentivise institutions to increase seat availability and help calm passions. Thirdly, future increases in quotas must be based on a meticulous analysis of the costs and benefits of quotas. A research committee must be constituted for the purpose that will periodically review the effects of quotas. It will judge, among other things, whether any groups have advanced sufficiently to qualify for exclusion. Making transparent the costs and benefits of quotas should help evolve a policy that is acceptable as much to disadvantaged groups as to those who see themselves as losers. It also sends out the reassuring message that AA policy in India is grounded in rigorous analysis, not in vote-bank politics. (The author is professor, IIM Ahmedabad ) (c)Bennett, Coleman and Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On 4/21/06, aasim khan wrote: > Hi folks, > > The following text is a rage in infosys and other IT > company (young) emloyee brigade:It goes as a letter > written by a guy fifty years down the line...stinker i > would say.also huge in terms of span...but are we all > feeding on our own paranoias on the > anti-anti-mandal??? > Twice negative...does that make anything positive. > > read on.... > ----------------------------------------------------- > Ahmedabad, 30 April 2056: I attended the bash at the > IIM-OBC Alumni Association to celebrate the fiftieth > anniversary of the reservation of seats for OBCs > (Other Backward Castes) in IIMs. Since I'm not an OBC, > I was not supposed to attend, but at present, we MBFCs > (Moderately Backward Forward Castes) together with the > Non-Scheduled Tribes have a political > alliance with the OBCs. We sipped champagne and talked > about how so many of us had progressed from reserved > seats in the IIMs to reserved jobs to reserved > promotions. Unfortunately, the party broke up when a > Non-scheduled Tribes faculty member objected to the > OBCs dancing with all the pretty girls — he wanted > equal opportunities for every caste at each dance. I > pointed out that the Non-scheduled Tribes had exceeded > the quota of champagne reserved for them. The party > ended in a pitched caste battle. > > 1) May 2056: Today, I became president of the IIM > Board of Directors. Under the present rotating > presidency system, a member of each caste is made the > president by turn. When it was the turn of the MBFCs > for president, they had to choose me because I'm the > only MBFC on the campus. True, I'm only the campus > dhobi, but then every caste must be given an equal > opportunity. All those centuries of oppression by the > OSBFCs (Only Slightly Backward Forward Castes) and the > OFCs (Other Forward Castes) must be rectified. I hope > to restore the high standards at IIM — I overheard > some foreigners calling it the Indian Institute of > Morons, the other day. > > 2) May 2056: They've announced the cricket team for > the series against Australia. I was overjoyed when > they chose an MBFC man as captain. But my hopes were > dashed when I realised he was a Most Backward Forward > Caste and not a Moderately Backward Forward Caste. The > selection committee lamented that it was gross > discrimination that no member from the Jarowa tribe > (the Stone Age tribe in the > > Andamans) had ever found a place in the Indian cricket > team. A squad has since been dispatched to the > Andamans to capture a Jarowa tribal to play in the > national team. I hope he will improve their > performance — they had an innings defeat against the > Maldives recently. I would have played myself except > for the fact that I lost a leg some years ago when I > was in hospital with a toothache and a doctor > recruited through the Unscheduled Caste quota > extracted my leg instead of my tooth. > > 3) May 2056: There are too many NFCs (Neo-Forward > castes) in the IT business. Under the terms of the > Business Reservation Act, their firms will now be > taken over by the other castes. I hope they will be > able to restore the Indian IT industry back to its > former glory. For some unfathomable reason, it has > gone down the drain after job reservations were > implemented. I went for a movie featuring star actor > Mungeri Ram. He may lack teeth, be four-feet-three and > have hair growing out of his nose, but this year it's > the turn of the EBC-RYs (Extremely Backward > Caste-Rural Yokels) to be stars and Mungeri Ram is the > best of the lot. I wonder why foreign movies have > become so popular. > > 4) May 2056: A truly great day. We now have an OFBMBC > (Other Forward But Moderately Backward Caste) general > as the Head of the Armed Forces. I hope he'll be able > to win back the territory we lost ever since > reservations were implemented in the Army. Since then, > the north has been taken by Pakistan, the North-east > by China, the east by Bangladesh and the south by Sri > Lanka and the Maldives. Only last winter, we lost the > war against Bhutan and free India is now limited to > the western coastal states. But I'm sure the OFBMBC > general will turn the tide. > > 5) May 2056: My wife and I have been blessed with a > bonny daughter. Since my wife's an SBBNSBC (Slightly > Backward But Not So Backward Caste), my daughter will > be an MBFC-SBBNSBC. I must lobby for reservation for > her caste. She's the only member and I'm sure she has > a great future. > > > > > > > > > > __________________________________________________________ > Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your partner now. Go to http://yahoo.shaadi.com > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe in the subject header. > List archive: > From pukar at pukar.org.in Mon Apr 24 15:13:26 2006 From: pukar at pukar.org.in (PUKAR) Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 15:13:26 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [announcements] Reminder: PUKAR Youth Fellowship Programme invites proposals Message-ID: <002201c66783$8b1eb520$1ed0c0cb@freeda> PUKAR Youth Fellowship Programme Are you a resident of Mumbai? Are you interested in research on Mumbai? Are you a young person or like to work with young people in a participatory manner? If your answer to the above questions is YES, then PUKAR HAS AN OPPORTUNITY FOR YOU! Whether you plan to be a researcher or a teacher, go into a business or join the stock market, open your own shop or find a job, we believe this programme would add skills that are important for YOU at any workplace. It would cultivate methodical thinking and critical analysis and encourage the spirit of questioning established norms. It would add value to your already existing capabilities by developing your capacity to assert and negotiate. As author of the research you would have the right to publish your work with acknowledgement to PUKAR. Please scroll down for details. PUKAR Invites Proposals for the Youth Fellowship Programme PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action and Research) is an independent research-action organization that hopes to contribute to the global debate on urbanization and globalization. Founded in 2001 by Professor Arjun Appadurai, PUKAR makes constant efforts to create a common forum for debate over issues that impact the lives of the citizens. In these debates, PUKAR makes every effort to seek active participation of Mumbai's citizens in imagining and planning the future of this vibrant mega-city. PUKAR develops collaborative projects that initiate new knowledge production and aims to contribute to the city's dynamism and sustainability. With support from the Youth & Civil Society Initiative of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT), PUKAR launched the Youth Fellowship Programme in 2005. This program seeks to · Encourage youth in Mumbai Metropolitan Region to explore social, cultural, economic and political aspects of their neighbourhood · Develop innovative research techniques with PUKAR's assistance · Generate research-action projects that in turn, will generate new methods of inquiry · Help the youth develop critical analysis and new perspective regarding their locality and community · Inculcate values of community participation and generate new ideas for practice /intervention · Build confidence in the participating youth to negotiate the city in more self-assured manner · Help the youth become actively contributing citizens for the city The Youth Fellowship Programme will essentially consist of groups of eight to ten youth with one person acting as a "Senior Fellow" in each group. Each group will work on a research theme over a period of one year. Specific Responsibilities of the Group: 1 Develop a research question, in a participatory manner: July - August 2006. 2 Study various methodologies and choose the appropriate one for the data collection/field work: September 2006 3 Create individual biographies as well as group biography: September 2006 4 Data collection by various methodologies: To be completed from October 06-January 07 5 Analysis and synthesis of the data collection: February - March 07 6 Preparation of second set of biographies and end product: April - May 07 7 Presentation of the final analysis: June 07 Accountability for the Senior Fellow as well as the Group: 1 Meet once a week for the first three months and later every other week for every month. 2 Organize meeting of the group with PUKAR Coordinators once every two months. 3 Submission of regular narrative and financial reports. 4 Attending the workshops organized for the groups, those for the senior fellows and those for the youth fellows. 5 Organize six community events during the period of the fellowship. Research Grant: Each group will receive a research grant of Rs 5000 p.m. payable at trimester intervals. The Research Grant can be used for: · Transportation / visits · Printing and copying costs · Purchasing materials / equipment for presentations · Other activities We would appreciate receiving your proposal by April 30, 2006. It can be sent via email to: youthfellowship at pukar.org.in Or post it to: PUKAR Youth Fellowship Programme C/O PUKAR 1-4 Kamanwala Chambers PM Road, Fort, Mumbai 400 001 Telephone: 56053599 You are welcome to get in touch with us to develop your ideas before sending in your proposal. Thank you for your time. We look forward to hearing from you. Best Regards, Anita Patil-Deshmukh Director, PUKAR Translations of this letter will shortly be available in Marathi. Should you need one, please write to us with your request. Frequently Asked Questions What is a Research Question? We define Research as search for new information and understanding by the youth group on any question about their own life, employment, locality, social traditions, cultural traditions, livelihood securities or anything else that they would like. PUKAR's broad area of concern is Mumbai. Any proposal that engages with the city is eligible for consideration. You are welcome to get in touch with us to develop your ideas before sending in your proposal. Some of the themes that we supported in the first year of the programme are listed below. 1 Portrayal of handicapped in the media 2 Violence on the screen and in real life 3 Home industries and their impact on lives of families 4 Microfinance and women 5 Alcohol Addiction in the community and role of AA Who is a Senior Fellow? 1 The Senior fellow is any individual taking on responsibility for the project and the youth group 2 She/he should have an interest in research. We encourage people from non-academic as well as academic backgrounds to apply 3 There is no age qualification for the Senior Fellow. She/He can be a member of the Youth group as well. Who can apply as a Senior Fellow? 1 Is resident of Mumbai 2 Is connected with youth in some capacity 3 Any youth group with a creative idea is welcome to approach us in order to develop a research project. Anyone from the group can be identified as a Senior Fellow for the project 4 Individuals with an aptitude for participatory research and project idea but without a youth group may apply as long as they are able to form a youth group by the end of June, 2006 Who Could Be a Youth Group? 1 Students from colleges 2 Members of sports groups 3 Self employed or unemployed youth in the neighbourhood 4 Members of various "mandals" 5 Group of friends who may be interested in a particular theme or a subject 6 Workers from the unorganized sector, from unlettered world. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060424/94bc332b/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From turbulence at turbulence.org Tue Apr 25 00:59:54 2006 From: turbulence at turbulence.org (Turbulence) Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2006 15:29:54 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] UPGRADE! BOSTON: JEFF TALMAN AND HELEN THORINGTON Message-ID: <000001c667d5$845955e0$6601a8c0@t5x1c0> < UPGRADE! BOSTON: JEFF TALMAN AND HELEN THORINGTON > http://www.turbulence.org/upgrade/archives/05_06JT.html http://www.turbulence.org/upgrade/archives/05_06HT.html Join us for an evening of listening and dialogue with award winning sound artists Jeff Talman and Helen Thorington. JEFF TALMAN'S precedent-setting installations are featured in museums, galleries, universities, religious buildings and other large, dramatic and/or historic spaces. Often noted for their conceptual and visceral impact, the installations offer an electrifying, sensual range of sound, light, gesture, object, image and physical force. While urging the observer to a reevaluation of the tactile, they introduce metaphor and underscore the physicality of space through which sound emanates and soars. Talman has created installations for the MIT Media Lab, The Kitchen, the City of Cologne, Germany, bitforms, Eyebeam, Art Interactive, Art Omi and others. Recent major awards include a 2006 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Sound Art and a 2003 New York Foundation for the Arts Award in Computer Arts. HELEN THORINGTON is a writer, sound composer, and media artist. Her radio documentary, dramatic, and sound works have been aired nationally and internationally for the past twenty-six years. Thorington has also created compositions for dance (Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane Dance Company), film (Barbara Hammer), and installation that premiered at The Kitchen, the Berlin Film Festival, the Whitney Biennial, and the Whitney Museum of American Art's annual Performance series. She has also taken part as a composer in a number of national and transatlantic distributed musical performances. Thorington has won numerous awards and commissions, most recently for 9.11.01 Scapes and Calling to Mind, which is currently in a traveling exhibition in Europe. She founded and produced the national weekly radio series, New American Radio (1987-98) and has published many essays, articles and reviews, most recently in two issues of Contemporary Music Review. When: May 2, 7:00-9:00 p.m. Where: Art Interactive, 130 Bishop Allen Drive, at the corner of Prospect Street, Cambridge REMINDER: MIKE MITTELMAN, April 27, 7:00-9:00 p.m. http://www.turbulence.org/upgrade/archives/04_27MM.html COMING UP ON JUNE 1: ERYK SALVAGGIO http://www.turbulence.org/upgrade/archives/06_01ES.html PLAN AHEAD: Upgrade! Boston schedule available here: http://www.turbulence.org/upgrade/archive.html If you no longer wish to receive these notices, please reply to this email with "UNSUBSCRIBE" in the subject line. Jo-Anne Green, Co-Director New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc.: http://new-radio.org New York: 917.548.7780 . Boston: 617.522.3856 Turbulence: http://turbulence.org New American Radio: http://somewhere.org Networked_Performance Blog: http://turbulence.org/blog Upgrade! Boston: http://turbulence.org/upgrade _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From eye at ranadasgupta.com Tue Apr 25 13:34:27 2006 From: eye at ranadasgupta.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 13:34:27 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] languages, and their death Message-ID: <444DD80B.7060804@ranadasgupta.com> April 21, 2006 Two Literary Festivals Will Highlight Endangered Languages By DINITIA SMITH http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/21/books/21worl.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin SOME 6,500 languages spoken in the world today. And, according to the 2000 census, you can hear at least 92 of them on the streets of New York. You can probably hear more; the census lumps some of them together simply as "other." But by the end of the century, linguists predict, half of the world's languages will be dead, victims of globalization. English is the major culprit, slowly extinguishing the other tongues that lie in its path. Esther Allen, a professor of modern languages at Seton Hall University, calls English "the most invasive linguistic species in the world." Spanish and Hindi are also spreading, subsuming the dialects of South American Indians, and of the Indian subcontinent. In the next two weeks, however, some of these endangered idioms can be heard at two international literary festivals that celebrate languages big and small, as well as the power and resilience of words themselves. The festivals are taking place all over town, in places as diverse as the Studio Museum in Harlem, the New York Public Library, the Bowery Poetry Club and the United Nations. The PEN American Center is holding its second World Voices Festival of International Literature, beginning Tuesday and running through April 30. Ms. Allen is the curator of the gathering, and the novelist Salman Rushdie is its chairman as well as a participant in a discussion at Town Hall on Wednesday night called "Faith and Reason" — the festival theme — with 134 writers from 41 countries around the world. Among the 58 events is a panel, "Writers on Their Languages," with the novelist and poet Bernardo Atxaga, who writes in the endangered language of Euskera, or Basque, and Dubravka Ugresic, whose most recent novel is "The Ministry of Pain," and who writes in Croatian. Other writers scheduled to participate include Orhan Pamuk, from Turkey, E. L. Doctorow and Martin Amis. Then there is the People's Poetry Gathering, from May 3 through May 7, sponsored by City Lore and the Bowery Poetry Club. There will be some 60 poets reading their work in English and in their native tongues. Among the highlights is a performance of poetry and music by Kewulay Kamara, whom City Lore commissioned to return to his boyhood home in Dankawali, Sierra Leone, in 2004 to recreate an epic poem destroyed during the recent civil war. The story goes back to before the birth of the Prophet Muhammad and incorporates slavery and colonialism in West Africa. There will also be a reading by Robert Bly of some of his translations and his own poetry, and a program on endangered languages at the United Nations, co-sponsored by the United Nations SRC Society of Writers, the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and the World Intellectual Property Organization. American publishers have one of the lowest translation rates in the Western world, according to Andrew Grabois, a consultant for Bowker, which tracks the publishing business. Only 3 percent of books published in the United States are translations (4,114 in 2005), Mr. Grabois said, compared with, for example, 27 percent in Italy. As a result, linguists contend, much of the English-speaking world knows little of other countries and cultures. English may be eating up other languages, but paradoxically translation into English is vital for their survival, Mr. Rushdie said. "People are not going to learn Serbian," he said. "If Serbian writers are going to survive in the world, they will have to be translated into English." Ms. Allen said, "The whole point of this festival is inviting these people from outside English into the conversation, and making a place for them in English." Among those invited to the Poetry Gathering is Mr. Kamara, of Sierra Leone. Mr. Kamara's native language is Kuranko, part of the Manden language group in West Africa. Mr. Kamara's father, Assan Fina Kamara, was a farmer and teacher of Koranic studies. The Kamaras are members of the Fina caste: orators, or M.C.'s, who recite at ceremonies like weddings and funerals. The younger Mr. Kamara came to the United States when he was 18. Now 52, he teaches in the African-American Studies department at John Jay College. His epic poem "Voices of Kings" tells of the origins of the Fina caste. One part relates the story of how the Prophet Muhammad rewarded an old couple for feeding him when he was hungry: The old man returned to manhood The old woman returned to womanhood The child they bore They called Fisana Muhammad names Fisana and his Fina descendants, "the voices of faith." The epic has many parts, and recitation can continue for hours, even days, Mr. Kamara said. He has also interwoven it with his own story. "It's not linear, you can start anywhere," he said. So far he has written down about 100 pages. Mr. Kamara and Abdoulaye Diabate will sing and recite "Voices of Kings" at the Poetry Gathering accompanied by African instruments, the bala (a precursor to the xylophone), tama (talking drum), flute and horn. Another endangered language being highlighted in both the Poetry Gathering and the PEN festival is Euskera, or Basque. Mr. Atxaga, the Basque writer, wrote in an e-mail message from Spain that he is fighting to preserve Euskera because it is "a language we know well, it helps us to live." And, he said, there are the layers of subtleties and precisions that are lost when a language dies. In the Basque language, for instance, gender exists only in the second person. "If you're speaking to a woman to ask her, for example, whether she has a book, you say 'Ba dun libururik,' " Mr. Atxaga said. "Whereas, to a man you'd say 'Ba duk libururik.' That nuance of 'n' or 'k' can be important in telling a story. Details are always important in literature." Yet Mr. Atxaga said he disagrees with the idea that language gives insights into a people's consciousness and culture. "Presumably, a national epic can be translated," he said. "All you need to do is read the thinking of the Nazis," he said. To them, "the German language was unique and carried with it a singular concept of the world and life, revealing the essence of the German people," he said. "This quickly reached absurd extremes." Ms. Ugresic noted that the same thing has occurred in the former Yugoslavia, where language has become intensely politicized. Serbo-Croatian has broken up into Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin, all of them very similar but with speakers of each language claiming — sometimes violently — the supremacy of their own. Beatings and book burnings have occurred when one group objected to the language of the author. "Crazy linguists are ready to project many things into languages," she said by phone from Amsterdam, where she lives. She added that languages are always in a continuous state of transformation, and that to try and get in the way is useless. "Some languages are dying and some are appearing," she said. "That is a much deeper and more interesting dynamic." Maybe, Ms. Ugresic said, the new language of globalization will be "Smurfentaal," a kind of slang with bits of Dutch and other languages, among them Moroccan, Turkish, Serbo-Croatian and Spanish, spoken by young people on the streets of Amsterdam. "Every honest linguist will tell you the preservation of language is a lost battle," Ms. Ugresic said, "because you can't deal with language dogmatically. Language is a living thing. "So let it go." From ravikant at sarai.net Tue Apr 25 14:18:23 2006 From: ravikant at sarai.net (Ravikant) Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 14:18:23 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Prof. Raj Chandavarkar Message-ID: <200604251418.23467.ravikant@sarai.net> FYI. Dear Colleague, We have received the unfortunate news of sudden and untimely passing away of Prof. Raj Chandavarkar, a well known Labour Historian,* *Professor, Dept. of History, Trinity College, Cambridge University , U.K and Director, Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge University , U.K. A memorial meeting will be held at Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Teen Murti House New Delhi at 4.00 P. M, Friday, 28th APRIL 2006. Rana Behal Prabhu Mohapatra. ------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- From ravikant at sarai.net Tue Apr 25 15:22:03 2006 From: ravikant at sarai.net (Ravikant) Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 15:22:03 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] languages, and their death In-Reply-To: <444DD80B.7060804@ranadasgupta.com> References: <444DD80B.7060804@ranadasgupta.com> Message-ID: <200604251522.03572.ravikant@sarai.net> Dear Rana and all, Thanks for posting an ineteresting article on the fate of languages in global times. One more thing that we need to take into account is technology and how it has enabled and disabled languages ever since modernity. The languages that are disappearing are those that could not make it to the print technolgy bus and remained dialects. Politically also, most of the smaller languages in colonial societies like India made cultural sacrifices for the sake of larger unity against colonialism and the case of dialects in the Hindi region is illustrative of this process. Hindi is having a good market time now, as it is free of paranoid control by purist guardians, who can't go on controlling the impossible number of prolific channels, newspapers and magazines. But the market perhaps can't help a language with no visible critical mass of users. So the smaller language practitioners have the non-market option, to enable tools and content in their own languages. Typically, the endangered languages are also the ones that would not have a script, that is to say they exist in the niche oral public domains. With computers once again you have the option of creating an oral to oral mode of creation, storage and distribution. But for this, the language practioners will have to take up the cause themeselves - the national establishments are too busy catering to the needs of recognised languages, that is languages that have made a successful pitch for a share in the national pie. A language like Santhali for example will have to take the Free software route for localising desktops, etc. from English or Bengali, as was done by the Ankur Bangla Indlinux Group. That the nation would still come in between language practioners is obvious from the lack of communication between West Bengal and erstwhile East Bengal(Bangladesh). The desktop is all ready for download from the net, as much for use in Bangladesh, but people do not know about it. Same is the case for Urdu in India and Pakistan. This is something we discovered when we met recently in Dhaka under APC platform. Fouad from Pakistan Linux told us that there are at least 60 known languages in Pakistan alone that can take advantage of of localization and they are not doomed to simply die! People are also making tools of transliteration from say Hindi to Urdu. Somebody called Abhishek Choudhary, sitting in Godforsaken Bihar, and now a Sarai Free Software Fellow, recently made a programming tool in Hindi which could also be transliterated into engllish with one command. Another success story is the beautifully produced ready to run CD in Nepali called Nepalinux, made by Madan Pursakar Pustakalay in Nepal. These examples complicate the inevitability logic of nonchalant, 'honest' natural history argument with which the article ends. I have deleted some excerpts from the original post. Those who wish to see the whole article can follow the link in Rana's post. cheers ravikant On Tuesday 25 Apr 2006 1:34 pm, Rana Dasgupta wrote: > April 21, 2006 > Two Literary Festivals Will Highlight Endangered Languages > By DINITIA SMITH > > http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/21/books/21worl.html?_r=3&oref=slogin&pagewa >nted=print&oref=slogin > > SOME 6,500 languages spoken in the world today. And, according to the > 2000 census, you can hear at least 92 of them on the streets of New > York. You can probably hear more; the census lumps some of them together > simply as "other." > > But by the end of the century, linguists predict, half of the world's > languages will be dead, victims of globalization. English is the major > culprit, slowly extinguishing the other tongues that lie in its path. > Esther Allen, a professor of modern languages at Seton Hall University, > calls English "the most invasive linguistic species in the world." > Spanish and Hindi are also spreading, subsuming the dialects of South > American Indians, and of the Indian subcontinent. > English may be eating up other languages, but paradoxically translation > into English is vital for their survival, Mr. Rushdie said. "People are > not going to learn Serbian," he said. "If Serbian writers are going to > survive in the world, they will have to be translated into English." > > Ms. Allen said, "The whole point of this festival is inviting these > people from outside English into the conversation, and making a place > for them in English." > > Another endangered language being highlighted in both the Poetry > Gathering and the PEN festival is Euskera, or Basque. Mr. Atxaga, the > Basque writer, wrote in an e-mail message from Spain that he is fighting > to preserve Euskera because it is "a language we know well, it helps us > to live." In the Basque language, for instance, gender exists only in the second > person. "If you're speaking to a woman to ask her, for example, whether > she has a book, you say 'Ba dun libururik,' " Mr. Atxaga said. "Whereas, > to a man you'd say 'Ba duk libururik.' That nuance of 'n' or 'k' can be > important in telling a story. Details are always important in literature." > > "All you need to do is read the thinking of the Nazis," he said. To > them, "the German language was unique and carried with it a singular > concept of the world and life, revealing the essence of the German > people," he said. "This quickly reached absurd extremes." > > Ms. Ugresic noted that the same thing has occurred in the former > Yugoslavia, where language has become intensely politicized. > Serbo-Croatian has broken up into Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and > Montenegrin, all of them very similar but with speakers of each language > claiming — sometimes violently — the supremacy of their own. Beatings > and book burnings have occurred when one group objected to the language > of the author. "Crazy linguists are ready to project many things into > languages," she said by phone from Amsterdam, where she lives. She added > that languages are always in a continuous state of transformation, and > that to try and get in the way is useless. > > "Some languages are dying and some are appearing," she said. "That is a > much deeper and more interesting dynamic." > > Maybe, Ms. Ugresic said, the new language of globalization will be > "Smurfentaal," a kind of slang with bits of Dutch and other languages, > among them Moroccan, Turkish, Serbo-Croatian and Spanish, spoken by > young people on the streets of Amsterdam. > > "Every honest linguist will tell you the preservation of language is a > lost battle," Ms. Ugresic said, "because you can't deal with language > dogmatically. Language is a living thing. > > "So let it go." > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city. > Critiques & Collaborations > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with subscribe > in the subject header. List archive: > From prayas.abhinav at gmail.com Tue Apr 25 16:09:57 2006 From: prayas.abhinav at gmail.com (Prayas Abhinav) Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 16:09:57 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] where do the homeless live? Message-ID: <825bb7b00604250339l1985b26es7f59a0a8008de4d@mail.gmail.com> Hi all! Need some help for my current project. All responses welcome.... Am posting a snippet from my blog post here. << ------------- >> Are you from Mumbai? Do you know things about the city that most people don't? I am working on a short-film for which I need your help. The film, tentatively titled, "A place to stay" revolves around the possibility that all the homeless do not live on the streets/pavements. Some of these people have been able to imaginatively figure out off-beat/alternative spaces in the city where they can sleep at night, with no one making it difficult for them. * Do you know of spaces in Mumbai, where homeless/nomadic people sleep at night? * Do you know (or know of) individuals in the city who for work (they could be working night shifts and be prefering to sleep near where they work) or any other reason, know where they can sleep safely in different localities? * Do you know kids who live on the street (do you teach them, work with them?) who seem to have found such places to stay? * Can you think of such spaces, have a strong hunch but would still like to share it? Go ahead, I'll follow it up and see if there is something there. << If you don't know, but can imagine... >>-------------<< >> I am also looking at how different people imagine living spaces in the city, where can we imagine people staying? In this imagining might be lying a lot of answers... If you'd land up in a city like Mumbai, all alone, with no money, where would you sleep on the first night? * So, you can imagine places where people might be sleeping at night - BEST buses, parking lots, terraces of apartment buildings, something more plausible? << More info: >>-------------<< >> Blog-post: http://peacefarm.prayas.in/?p=140 The post has more details about the project, instructions for submitting your ideas / clues and details about the Rs.2000 PRIZE to the individual/group who submits the MOST USEFUL INFORMATION. << >>-------------<< >> Thanks to everyone in advance! Prayas web: http://www.prayas.in From rajeshmehar at yahoo.com Tue Apr 25 18:14:10 2006 From: rajeshmehar at yahoo.com (rajesh mehar) Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 05:44:10 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Before Rock Machine? (I-fellow Rajesh Mehar's 4th posting) Message-ID: <20060425124410.86304.qmail@web30408.mail.mud.yahoo.com> You mean there was a rock music scene in India before Rock Machine? 1) A post about the Junior Statesman, a youth magazine belonging to The Statesman, Calcutta. http://community.livejournal.com/whosemusic/1710.html 2) A post about the Savages, one of the first bands in India to record and release their material on vinyl. http://community.livejournal.com/whosemusic/1866.html More histories and stories as the days go by. Gonna make a lot o'money, gonna quit this crazy scene. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From chintichinti at yahoo.com Wed Apr 26 03:59:05 2006 From: chintichinti at yahoo.com (chintan gohil) Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 15:29:05 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] jane jacobs' sad demise Message-ID: <20060425222905.43153.qmail@web32801.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Jane Jacobs... an urban writer, an eclectic economist and a brilliant nonconformist died at the age of 89 this morning in Toronto... __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From shai at filterindia.com Tue Apr 25 21:44:28 2006 From: shai at filterindia.com (shai at filterindia.com) Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 12:14:28 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] International Film Artist Residency / india / uk (Nowhere London) Message-ID: <20060425160148.EF3D828DA9F@mail.sarai.net> An international Artist residency for Indian based artists to come to the UK This is a new opportunity for an Indian-based artist to apply for a three-month, project-based film residency at no.w.here in London [www.nowhere-lab.org] from July to end of Sept 2006. The no.w.here residency will give one artist the chance to develop film projects on film and is designed for artists with a strong interest in the exploration of art through time-based thinking. The artists will receive bespoke training and support, provided by film art specialists, including: Free training on the unique film technologies available at no.w.here Free access to no.w.here film equipment Accommodation in London for 3 months Flights to the UK #3,000 stipend towards making new work An introduction into the heart of the artist community in London We welcome applications from artists who have never used film before as well as artists who have a film background. Applicants will be expected to submit a proposal for what work they would like to make, why the residency would benefit their practice and to indicate that they will be available for travel for the 3 months of the residency. For further information on no.w.here and to download an application form visit www.nowhere-lab.org, for any questions not answered on the application form please contact courses at nowhere-lab.org. Submission deadline: [May 12th 2006], decisions will be made by 26th May. For more information please visit www.nowhere-lab.org This residency is funded by Arts Council England no.w.here is funded by Arts Council England and a grant from Esmee Fairbairn From hpp at vsnl.com Wed Apr 26 11:44:48 2006 From: hpp at vsnl.com (hpp at vsnl.com) Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 06:14:48 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] West Bengal Elections 2006 & Minorities Message-ID: Dear Friends I am copying below the document "West Bengal Elections 2006 & Minorities" released by the Association of Indian Minorities. V Ramaswamy Calcutta hpp at vsnl.com .............. 2006 WEST BENGAL ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS & MINORITIES “I see clear as daylight that there is one Brahma in all; one Shakti dwells in all; the only difference is of manifestation. Unless the blood circulates over the whole body: has any country risen at any time? If one limb is paralyzed then even with the other limbs whole not much can be done with that body: know this for certain.” Swami Vivekanand “There can be no stable equilibrium in any country without fair treatment of minorities”. Jawaharlal Nehru In the context of the forthcoming legislative assembly elections in West Bengal, it is important to place before the people and the political parties the situation and aspirations of the minorities in the state. It is hoped that all the political parties would have framed their election manifestos taking such issues into account. It is important to emphasise that minorities in West Bengal, namely, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Jains, are not separate from the larger human community of the state. The problems and aspirations of the common people of Bengal – are the problems and aspirations of the minorities. The struggle for a truly secular, democratic, poverty-alleviating, human development advancing society and government – is the struggle of all the people of West Bengal and India, including the minorities. And at the conclusion of any detailed investigation on the specific problems and crises of particular communities, e.g. Muslims or Christians, the analysis emerging would only be that poverty must be overcome, quality education must be delivered, mass awareness and empowerment, participation, enfranchisement must all be furthered. These are the key issues for all Indians. The specific need for a focus on minorities is because true equality and fairness does not yet characterise public life in India and West Bengal today. The solution is for true democracy and development to reach down to the last person of the minority community, in step with reaching the last person of any community. Minorities and most particularly Muslims are today facing acute socio-economic and educational deprivation, institutionalised denial of equal opportunities, and are mired in poverty, illiteracy and all-round backwardness. They live in a situation lacking in any hope, with disillusionment about political parties and governance. There is a crisis of leadership, in the sense of articulation of and action on the key issues, with transparency, integrity and persistence. For every poor Muslim, there is also a poor Dalit, or a poor Adivasi. In as much as the whole governance and development system exludes the poor Dalit and Adivasi, and is unable even after close to 60 years of freedom to reach them, so does it exclude minorities and Muslims in particular. The vision of an India that gives equal and fair treatment to its minorities is a vision for a secular democratic India. Socio-economic and human development The WBHDR states: “… SC, ST and Minorities together account for more than half the population, and these are also the three poorest groups in West Bengal.” Nevertheless the WBHDR fails to make any meaningful observation about the real condition of minorities and Muslims in the state. The foremost and immediate need is for a detailed research study to be undertaken on the socio-economic and human development status of minorities in West Bengal, and in particular Muslims who form the overwhelming majority of West Bengal’s minorities. The expertise of the United Nations agencies should be taken in this task. Based on such a survey, a special task force must be constituted to prepare a comprehensive socio-economic and educational development plan that can break the poverty, isolation and backwardness of Muslims. Such a plan must seek to integrate the development opportunities for Muslims with those for all communities in the state, and provide rapid equal means for advancement to all sections. Common Civil Code Though the Left Front govt has been in power in West Bengal for almost 30 years now, and the state has a large population belonging to minorities and especially Muslims, nevertheless, there has been no attempt to advance the ideal of a uniform civil code through a concrete formulation or proposal. There has been only inaction, though occasional lip-service to the subject. In the absence of a concrete formulation, the forces of communalism are only strengthened, who use the issue of uniform civil code, or purdah, as a weapon to demonise Indian Muslims. It is vital that the government elected must follow-up is avowed commitment to a uniform civil code in the form of a concrete draft proposal for a uniform civil code in India. The challenge of formulating a common civil code, which is non-communal, but is an expression of the constitutional provisions for equality, secularism and democracy, is a challenge that must be met and fulfilled. Enfranchisement and Adequate Representation It is vital for minorities to effectively participate in the electoral and governance process and be adequately represented in panchayats, urban local bodies, state legislatures and parliament. In this context, the constituency delimitation exercise has only been a means for depriving minorities and especially Muslims of fair representation among elected representatives. When constituencies are defined, this often has the result of breaking up a large location-concentrated Muslim voter population and dispersing them among a number of electoral constituencies. This then makes it further impossible for the problems and aspirations of Muslims to reach the corridors of power and find effective redress. Just as constituencies are reserved, and rightly so, for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, so must there be a reservation of constituencies for Muslims. In several parts of India and West Bengal also, the socio-economic status of Muslims is in fact even lower than that of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. In localities where there is a large concentration of Muslims, and where the constituencies have been come to be reserved for SC/ ST, there needs to be a thorough study undertaken for ensuring that fair representation is not thwarted. Rural development In March 2004, the Department for International Development DFID published its Country Plan CP for India. Building upon the Country Plans (CPs) State Assistance Plans (SAPs) prepared in consultation with the State Governments, Civil Society and other development partners reflected state level priorities. DFID’s State Assistance Plan for West Bengal for 2004-2007 outlines an “alternative economic vision” for the state with emphasis on ensuring basic minimum needs are met for everyone. State Assistance Plan for West Bengal 2004-2007 observes that every third person in rural Bengal continues to live in poverty and four districts Murshidabad, Birbhum, Bankura and Purulia have poverty rates above 40 percent. There are pockets of high poverty rates in Uttar Dinajpur and West Medinipur. The state-level figures mask significant intra-state variations. According to the West Bengal Human Development Report (HDR) 2004, the four most deprived districts on various income, gender and human development indicators are Maldah, Purulia, Murshidabad and Birbhum. These districts account for about one-fifth of the state’s population (half of it being Muslims who can rightly be called the deprived social groups), and addressing their needs would push the state up the ladder among the 15 major states in the country. In terms of economic groupings, agricultural labourers (constituting about 38 percent of total households) remain the poorest section of the population, and have also experienced the lowest decline in poverty rates in the last decade. The challenge will be to use renewed political, administrative and financial measures to focus on various dimensions of inequality. The large scale acquisition of agricultural land in rural areas inhabited by Muslims primarily around Kolkata and Howrah for private real estate development is an injustice to the poor peasants. A comprehensive formulation to include the dispossessed in the development processes in the acquired area is needed to check the demographic imbalance around the urban areas. Employment, livelihood & Reservations Given the acute under-representation of West Bengal minorities and especially Muslims in all levels of public employment and in institutions of higher and professional education, the time has come for reservations for poor Muslims, in line with reservations for SC, ST and OBC. Minorities Development Finance Corporation provides loans for self-employment to the minorities and during the years (1997-1998-1999) on an average, annually about 1500 Muslims benefited from this scheme. This was supposedly to compensate for the low absorption of Minorities in Government jobs. The ratio for beneficiaries among Muslims then came to about 1:10,717. Even the figures released for the year 2003-2004 shows that the beneficiary ratio is around one person/unit in about every seven thousand (1:7033). There are 2995 number of beneficiaries out of the total 2.10 crore Minority population and the average amount per head comes to around 4000 Rupees. Alternate opportunities in the small scale and cottage industries should also be made available to people belonging to minorities. The example of Karnataka needs to be replicated, where reservation in govt jobs and educational institutions followed an exhaustive study on socio-economic status of Muslims by a high-powered committee. This example also proved that it is not necessary to amend the constitution to effect reservations for poor Muslims. Education It is estimated that close to 30 lakhs children of school-going age in West Bengal are not enrolled in schools. A sizeable number of such children would belong to the Muslim minority. Only about 3% of Muslim school-going children, and especially those belonging to the most socio-economically vulnerable section, go to madrasahs. It was observed in the State Assistance Plan for West Bengal, 2004-2007 that the recent trends show that the state will not be able to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) or the Universal Primary Education by the year 2015. According to UNDP press release the first WBHDR states that “never enrolled children tend to be more concentrated among the lower income groups and the Scheduled Tribe and Minority populations”. The West Bengal Primary Education Act, 1973 must be amended, as recommended by the West Bengal Minorities Commission. The West Bengal School Service Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2006 passed on 20.02.2006 withdrawing the exemptions provided to the Christian Missionary Schools from the purview of School Service Commission Act 1997 vide Section 15 of School Service Commission Act, 97 for administration of their schools in keeping with their Minority Rights should be amended so that the linguistic and religious minority schools may be allowed to appoint their staff and teachers and run their institutions in conformity with the rights guaranteed to them under Article 30 of the constitution of India. The Muslim community considers education to be very important for girls and boys. However, given the experience of poor Muslims of a bias in the labour market there has been a tendency for boys to become disinterested in further education after primary education. Hence initiation of appropriate vocational training which enable self-employment would significantly counter-act the disincentive to seeking education. This is an important issue for immediate action. The current minimum age of marriage of Muslim girls is 14 years. In most cases, Muslim girls are married off by the age of 16. This often results in withdrawal of the girls from schooling. Besides concern for the sound health of mothers and their children, the incidence of desertion of such young married girls is not insignificant. Left alone to fend for themselves and their infants, and lacking in adequate education or marketable skills, these girls must face a harsh existence. Increasing the age of marriage of girls through legislation based on dialogue with community elders and leaders is essential. Similarly, creating opportunities for Muslim women’s employment and self-employment would have an immense transformative effect on the current situation. The need of the hour is the opening of primary schools in the localities where there are large numbers of Muslims living and working. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, whose implementation continues to be a travesty in this state, must be thoroughly overhauled and used as a powerful means to reach out basic education to all. The educational scenario of the Urdu speaking community in West Bengal, particularly in Kolkata and Howrah, is extremely depressing. This is a revealing instance of institutionalised neglect. If this linguistic minority in this great metropolis is to be saved from total disaster it will demand formulation of an action programme in the field of education. Establishing schools of high standard is the need of the hour. Facility for teaching in Urdu at the primary stage, and using Urdu as second language at the higher stage will be quite rational. Waqf land The Muslim community in West Bengal is endowed with a sizeable amount of land in different parts of the state. In particular, in urban areas, where the community is languishing in regards to education and housing, it is only logical that this land resource be utilised for advancing the all-round development of this backward and poverty-ridden community. In fact, WAKF land is the only remaining resource available to the community offering some hope of a better future. However, the situation on the ground is that owing to prolonged institutionalised neglect, WAKF land has been encroached upon, taken possession of by individuals and private promoters / real-estate developers. The conversion of mosques into private dwellings and commercial premises is symbolic of the glaring violation of the rule of law. The state cannot be a mute witness to such alienation and illegal possession of WAKF land. A detailed survey of all WAKF land in the state must be completed immediately. The results of this survey must also be made available through the internet to all. When the state has an explicit department for WAKF affairs, it must take the initiative in recovering alienated and illegally occupied WAKF lands. It must also take the active initiative in organising the use of such land for setting up much-needed educational institutions and low-income housing estates. Through the wholesome use of WAKF land lying inside localities with non-Muslim people, it would be possible to break the isolation and ghettoisation that exists in urban areas. Hindus and Muslims can live together in the same neighbourhood, their children can study together in the same good schools. And together strive for a better India. Women’s question The issue of Muslim women suffers from purposeful distortion. On the one hand is the continuing illiteracy, poverty and lack livelihood of poor women in a male-dominated society; and on the other hand is the practice of “purdah” which is apparently frowned upon by so-called progressive leadership. When large-scale opportunities are available to all women for education, employment and all-round empowerment, practices such as “purdah” would altogether cease to be of much significance. Healthcare While there is an acute dearth of reliable disaggregated data, existing studies suggest that there is a significant differential between the infant and maternal mortality rates of Muslims and Hindus in urban areas. The principal reason for this is that the overwhelming majority of the Muslim community live in poverty-ridden, mal-nourished, environmentally degraded, overcrowded slums, lacking in adequate water and sanitation, where incidence of water-borne and gastrointestinal diseases is high. The DFID’s State Assistance Plan for West Bengal admits that the state is unlikely to meet the targets of net primary education or child malnourishment. According to the Census of India, less than half of urban households have a drinking water tap within their residential premises, even less have a water closet, and just over a third have closed drainage. This has come to be simply accepted as the inevitable and immutable quality of living for millions of our fellow-citizens. And this is the reality for most Muslims. More than one in five people do not have access to safe drinking water, only about 30 percent of people in rural areas have access to sanitation facilities. Women bear the responsibility of fetching water for their household needs. Poor women in rural areas, without easy access to water sources spend hours every day collecting water, affecting their productive potential and their health. In urban areas, women and children often need to wait in long lines to get water from municipal standpipes or hand pumps. Women play a central role in water management. Reducing the amount of time women spend collecting water allows for increased opportunities for schooling, taking care of children, employment and self-development. The environmental conditions in towns and cities are continuing to deteriorate because the middle-class with the assistance of the state is actively participating in the exclusion of large sections of the population from access to basic services. The consequence of such monopolisation of state resources and benefits is the complete disregard of risks of epidemics and endemic diseases. Govt policies are oriented to crisis intervention rather than institutionalising through new approaches, methods and attitudes a system of maintaining infrastructure and implementing progressive policies. Until the poor are able to satisfy their daily needs for food and shelter, their own active participation in demanding that the state provide them equitable access to water, sanitation and other basic services will be severely limited. 7 of the 8 Millennium Development Goals to which the Govt of India is committed are: Eradicate extreme poverty & hunger: • Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day • Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger Achieve universal primary education: • Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling Promote gender equality and empower women: • Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferaably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015 Reduce child mortality: • Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five Improve maternal health: • Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio Combat HIV / AIDS, malaria and other diseases: • Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS • Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases Ensure environmental sustainability: • Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources • Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water • Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020 All of the above are directly and acutely relevant to the minorities in West Bengal and especially the Muslim. Improvement in the quality of life of the Muslims would mean in specific terms the attainment of the above goals. The next elected govt. of West Bengal must commit itself to the realisation of these Millennium Development Goals in the state, and prepare and present a concrete action plan for this. Housing The large majority of the Muslim population of Kolkata and Howrah live in bastis. The Thika Tenancy Act which governs land tenure in bastis is a severe impediment to housing development for the low-income sections. At the same time, illegal construction is rampant in the basti areas. An appropriate new legislation must be enacted in place of the existing Thika Tenancy Act, with the objective of facilitating large-scale housing construction. The state would be the enabling agency for such a process. The goal must be the granting of legal title to improved new dwellings to the erstwhile basti households. Just as “land to the tiller” was the slogan in villages, “house to the dweller” must become the slogan for a programme of pro-poor urban land reform. It is incumbent upon the state to ameliorate the plight of the poor, illiterate and the under-privileged in the bastis or slums who are currently sheltered in the upper stories of the illegally constructed buildings that have come up when the state turned a blind eye to them. Large scale acquisition of thousands of acres of land belonging to minorities particularly Muslims in Kolkata and Howrah suburbs and its allotment to foreign multinational companies will not only affect the demographic profile but also create landlessness, poverty and chronic unemployment among them. The need is therefore to stop any further acquisition at once and prepare a scheme wherein the displaced persons are included in the development processes in the area acquired. ASSOCIATION OF INDIAN MINORITIES 55 PILKHANA 1ST LANE HOWRAH-711101, WEST BENGAL PH-033 26657797 FAX-033 25563396 Email: reads at rediffmail.com From iram at sarai.net Wed Apr 26 19:13:22 2006 From: iram at sarai.net (Iram Ghufran) Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 19:13:22 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Thailand New Media Arts Festival (MAF) 2006 : Press Release Message-ID: <444F78FA.2060901@sarai.net> Subject: Press Release for the Thailand New Media Arts Festival (MAF) 2006 From: MAF PRESS Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 17:21:51 +0700 To: MAF PRESS April 24 2006, Bangkok Press Release for the Thailand New Media Arts Festival (MAF) 2006 To whom it may concern, MAF works internationally and locally to showcase artworks that demonstrate the evolution of new media technology and its creative applications (new media art) in a local and international context. The dates of the festival are May 2-4 and events will occur across three venues in Bangkok. A second MAF event will be held in November 2006 at BED Supperclub. Both English and Thai versions of the press release are attached. High resolution images for press can be obtained from our FTP server, Please contact somjai at culturebase.org for further information. SUBJECT "PRESS IMAGES MAF06" RSVP for the opening list please email : mintra at culturebase.org SUBJECT "RSVP MAF" please include name publication/agency name For more information please visit our website: http://www.thailand-maf.org/MAF06 Best regards, Somjai Sae-teaw -- Somjai Sae-teaw Executive Producer Thailand New Media Arts Festival M: (+66 9) 695 5880 E: somjai at culturebase.org I: http://www.thailand-maf.org ------------------------------------ MAF06 - "Live and Retrospective" 2-4 May 2006, Bangkok ------------------------------------ From iram at sarai.net Wed Apr 26 19:22:49 2006 From: iram at sarai.net (Iram Ghufran) Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 19:22:49 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] FWD:Talent Campus India 3 ay Osian's-Cinefan Message-ID: <444F7B31.5050700@sarai.net> Subject: Talent Campus India 3 ay Osian's-Cinefan, Festival of Asian Cinema 2006 From: "Talent Campus" Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 09:51:18 +0530 To: TALENT CAMPUS INDIA 3 Osian’s Cinefan is proud to announce the 3rd edition of Talent Campus organised in collaboration with Max Mueller Bhawan, the Berlin International Film Festival and the Berlinale Talent Campus. Talent Campus is a 5-day workshop where 50-60 young aspiring filmmakers will be invited to New Delhi to interact with renowned filmmakers and film professionals from India and abroad. The aim of the workshop is to provide Indian and South Asian youth a forum for learning and sharing the process of filmmaking. This year we are also accepting applicants from Iran . Participants will benefit not only from the calibre and experience of the professionals involved, but also from the exchange of ideas among themselves. Topics of discussion will range from screenplay writing, to direction and understanding key issues such as audience and genre. The 3^rd Talent Campus India will take place at the *Siri Fort Auditoria Complex * from *17 to * * 21 July * , 2006 . It will run alongside *Osian’s* *Cinefan, 8^th ** Festival of Asian Cinema (14-23 July) * , within the framework of the programme ‘ Infrastructure Building for Minds and Markets – IBM2 ). In addition to attending workshop session, the selected talents will have the opportunity to see the very best of Asian cinema being showcased during Osian’s Cinefan 8. We would be grateful if you could circulate this information among those who you feel will benefit from this initiative. *Attached here is the flyer for the workshop that can be used for display*. The application can be downloaded from our website www.cinemaya.net . Applicants will be required to submit either a mini-film or excerpt from a film they have made or a 3500 to 4500 word script by the 25^th May 2006 , along with the Application. The duration of this film or excerpt should not exceed 60 seconds. The formats acceptable for preview include the VHS, VCD or DVD. An independently constituted Committee will select 50-60 Talents to attend the final workshop. We look forward to meeting the participants from around the country as well as neighbouring countries. Monica Bhasin Coordinator, Talent Campus India Osian’s-Cinefan, Festival of Asian Cinema Tel: 91-11-4174315 talentcampus at osians.com _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From hpp at vsnl.com Wed Apr 26 13:57:02 2006 From: hpp at vsnl.com (hpp at vsnl.com) Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 08:27:02 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] West Bengal Elections 2006 & Minorities Message-ID: Dear Friends I am copying below the document "West Bengal Elections 2006 & Minorities" released by the Association of Indian Minorities. V Ramaswamy Calcutta hpp at vsnl.com ........... 2006 WEST BENGAL ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS & MINORITIES “I see clear as daylight that there is one Brahma in all; one Shakti dwells in all; the only difference is of manifestation. Unless the blood circulates over the whole body: has any country risen at any time? If one limb is paralyzed then even with the other limbs whole not much can be done with that body: know this for certain.” Swami Vivekanand “There can be no stable equilibrium in any country without fair treatment of minorities”. Jawaharlal Nehru In the context of the forthcoming legislative assembly elections in West Bengal, it is important to place before the people and the political parties the situation and aspirations of the minorities in the state. It is hoped that all the political parties would have framed their election manifestos taking such issues into account. It is important to emphasise that minorities in West Bengal, namely, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Jains, are not separate from the larger human community of the state. The problems and aspirations of the common people of Bengal – are the problems and aspirations of the minorities. The struggle for a truly secular, democratic, poverty-alleviating, human development advancing society and government – is the struggle of all the people of West Bengal and India, including the minorities. And at the conclusion of any detailed investigation on the specific problems and crises of particular communities, e.g. Muslims or Christians, the analysis emerging would only be that poverty must be overcome, quality education must be delivered, mass awareness and empowerment, participation, enfranchisement must all be furthered. These are the key issues for all Indians. The specific need for a focus on minorities is because true equality and fairness does not yet characterise public life in India and West Bengal today. The solution is for true democracy and development to reach down to the last person of the minority community, in step with reaching the last person of any community. Minorities and most particularly Muslims are today facing acute socio-economic and educational deprivation, institutionalised denial of equal opportunities, and are mired in poverty, illiteracy and all-round backwardness. They live in a situation lacking in any hope, with disillusionment about political parties and governance. There is a crisis of leadership, in the sense of articulation of and action on the key issues, with transparency, integrity and persistence. For every poor Muslim, there is also a poor Dalit, or a poor Adivasi. In as much as the whole governance and development system exludes the poor Dalit and Adivasi, and is unable even after close to 60 years of freedom to reach them, so does it exclude minorities and Muslims in particular. The vision of an India that gives equal and fair treatment to its minorities is a vision for a secular democratic India. Socio-economic and human development The WBHDR states: “… SC, ST and Minorities together account for more than half the population, and these are also the three poorest groups in West Bengal.” Nevertheless the WBHDR fails to make any meaningful observation about the real condition of minorities and Muslims in the state. The foremost and immediate need is for a detailed research study to be undertaken on the socio-economic and human development status of minorities in West Bengal, and in particular Muslims who form the overwhelming majority of West Bengal’s minorities. The expertise of the United Nations agencies should be taken in this task. Based on such a survey, a special task force must be constituted to prepare a comprehensive socio-economic and educational development plan that can break the poverty, isolation and backwardness of Muslims. Such a plan must seek to integrate the development opportunities for Muslims with those for all communities in the state, and provide rapid equal means for advancement to all sections. Common Civil Code Though the Left Front govt has been in power in West Bengal for almost 30 years now, and the state has a large population belonging to minorities and especially Muslims, nevertheless, there has been no attempt to advance the ideal of a uniform civil code through a concrete formulation or proposal. There has been only inaction, though occasional lip-service to the subject. In the absence of a concrete formulation, the forces of communalism are only strengthened, who use the issue of uniform civil code, or purdah, as a weapon to demonise Indian Muslims. It is vital that the government elected must follow-up is avowed commitment to a uniform civil code in the form of a concrete draft proposal for a uniform civil code in India. The challenge of formulating a common civil code, which is non-communal, but is an expression of the constitutional provisions for equality, secularism and democracy, is a challenge that must be met and fulfilled. Enfranchisement and Adequate Representation It is vital for minorities to effectively participate in the electoral and governance process and be adequately represented in panchayats, urban local bodies, state legislatures and parliament. In this context, the constituency delimitation exercise has only been a means for depriving minorities and especially Muslims of fair representation among elected representatives. When constituencies are defined, this often has the result of breaking up a large location-concentrated Muslim voter population and dispersing them among a number of electoral constituencies. This then makes it further impossible for the problems and aspirations of Muslims to reach the corridors of power and find effective redress. Just as constituencies are reserved, and rightly so, for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, so must there be a reservation of constituencies for Muslims. In several parts of India and West Bengal also, the socio-economic status of Muslims is in fact even lower than that of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. In localities where there is a large concentration of Muslims, and where the constituencies have been come to be reserved for SC/ ST, there needs to be a thorough study undertaken for ensuring that fair representation is not thwarted. Rural development In March 2004, the Department for International Development DFID published its Country Plan CP for India. Building upon the Country Plans (CPs) State Assistance Plans (SAPs) prepared in consultation with the State Governments, Civil Society and other development partners reflected state level priorities. DFID’s State Assistance Plan for West Bengal for 2004-2007 outlines an “alternative economic vision” for the state with emphasis on ensuring basic minimum needs are met for everyone. State Assistance Plan for West Bengal 2004-2007 observes that every third person in rural Bengal continues to live in poverty and four districts Murshidabad, Birbhum, Bankura and Purulia have poverty rates above 40 percent. There are pockets of high poverty rates in Uttar Dinajpur and West Medinipur. The state-level figures mask significant intra-state variations. According to the West Bengal Human Development Report (HDR) 2004, the four most deprived districts on various income, gender and human development indicators are Maldah, Purulia, Murshidabad and Birbhum. These districts account for about one-fifth of the state’s population (half of it being Muslims who can rightly be called the deprived social groups), and addressing their needs would push the state up the ladder among the 15 major states in the country. In terms of economic groupings, agricultural labourers (constituting about 38 percent of total households) remain the poorest section of the population, and have also experienced the lowest decline in poverty rates in the last decade. The challenge will be to use renewed political, administrative and financial measures to focus on various dimensions of inequality. The large scale acquisition of agricultural land in rural areas inhabited by Muslims primarily around Kolkata and Howrah for private real estate development is an injustice to the poor peasants. A comprehensive formulation to include the dispossessed in the development processes in the acquired area is needed to check the demographic imbalance around the urban areas. Employment, livelihood & Reservations Given the acute under-representation of West Bengal minorities and especially Muslims in all levels of public employment and in institutions of higher and professional education, the time has come for reservations for poor Muslims, in line with reservations for SC, ST and OBC. Minorities Development Finance Corporation provides loans for self-employment to the minorities and during the years (1997-1998-1999) on an average, annually about 1500 Muslims benefited from this scheme. This was supposedly to compensate for the low absorption of Minorities in Government jobs. The ratio for beneficiaries among Muslims then came to about 1:10,717. Even the figures released for the year 2003-2004 shows that the beneficiary ratio is around one person/unit in about every seven thousand (1:7033). There are 2995 number of beneficiaries out of the total 2.10 crore Minority population and the average amount per head comes to around 4000 Rupees. Alternate opportunities in the small scale and cottage industries should also be made available to people belonging to minorities. The example of Karnataka needs to be replicated, where reservation in govt jobs and educational institutions followed an exhaustive study on socio-economic status of Muslims by a high-powered committee. This example also proved that it is not necessary to amend the constitution to effect reservations for poor Muslims. Education It is estimated that close to 30 lakhs children of school-going age in West Bengal are not enrolled in schools. A sizeable number of such children would belong to the Muslim minority. Only about 3% of Muslim school-going children, and especially those belonging to the most socio-economically vulnerable section, go to madrasahs. It was observed in the State Assistance Plan for West Bengal, 2004-2007 that the recent trends show that the state will not be able to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) or the Universal Primary Education by the year 2015. According to UNDP press release the first WBHDR states that “never enrolled children tend to be more concentrated among the lower income groups and the Scheduled Tribe and Minority populations”. The West Bengal Primary Education Act, 1973 must be amended, as recommended by the West Bengal Minorities Commission. The West Bengal School Service Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2006 passed on 20.02.2006 withdrawing the exemptions provided to the Christian Missionary Schools from the purview of School Service Commission Act 1997 vide Section 15 of School Service Commission Act, 97 for administration of their schools in keeping with their Minority Rights should be amended so that the linguistic and religious minority schools may be allowed to appoint their staff and teachers and run their institutions in conformity with the rights guaranteed to them under Article 30 of the constitution of India. The Muslim community considers education to be very important for girls and boys. However, given the experience of poor Muslims of a bias in the labour market there has been a tendency for boys to become disinterested in further education after primary education. Hence initiation of appropriate vocational training which enable self-employment would significantly counter-act the disincentive to seeking education. This is an important issue for immediate action. The current minimum age of marriage of Muslim girls is 14 years. In most cases, Muslim girls are married off by the age of 16. This often results in withdrawal of the girls from schooling. Besides concern for the sound health of mothers and their children, the incidence of desertion of such young married girls is not insignificant. Left alone to fend for themselves and their infants, and lacking in adequate education or marketable skills, these girls must face a harsh existence. Increasing the age of marriage of girls through legislation based on dialogue with community elders and leaders is essential. Similarly, creating opportunities for Muslim women’s employment and self-employment would have an immense transformative effect on the current situation. The need of the hour is the opening of primary schools in the localities where there are large numbers of Muslims living and working. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan, whose implementation continues to be a travesty in this state, must be thoroughly overhauled and used as a powerful means to reach out basic education to all. The educational scenario of the Urdu speaking community in West Bengal, particularly in Kolkata and Howrah, is extremely depressing. This is a revealing instance of institutionalised neglect. If this linguistic minority in this great metropolis is to be saved from total disaster it will demand formulation of an action programme in the field of education. Establishing schools of high standard is the need of the hour. Facility for teaching in Urdu at the primary stage, and using Urdu as second language at the higher stage will be quite rational. Waqf land The Muslim community in West Bengal is endowed with a sizeable amount of land in different parts of the state. In particular, in urban areas, where the community is languishing in regards to education and housing, it is only logical that this land resource be utilised for advancing the all-round development of this backward and poverty-ridden community. In fact, WAKF land is the only remaining resource available to the community offering some hope of a better future. However, the situation on the ground is that owing to prolonged institutionalised neglect, WAKF land has been encroached upon, taken possession of by individuals and private promoters / real-estate developers. The conversion of mosques into private dwellings and commercial premises is symbolic of the glaring violation of the rule of law. The state cannot be a mute witness to such alienation and illegal possession of WAKF land. A detailed survey of all WAKF land in the state must be completed immediately. The results of this survey must also be made available through the internet to all. When the state has an explicit department for WAKF affairs, it must take the initiative in recovering alienated and illegally occupied WAKF lands. It must also take the active initiative in organising the use of such land for setting up much-needed educational institutions and low-income housing estates. Through the wholesome use of WAKF land lying inside localities with non-Muslim people, it would be possible to break the isolation and ghettoisation that exists in urban areas. Hindus and Muslims can live together in the same neighbourhood, their children can study together in the same good schools. And together strive for a better India. Women’s question The issue of Muslim women suffers from purposeful distortion. On the one hand is the continuing illiteracy, poverty and lack livelihood of poor women in a male-dominated society; and on the other hand is the practice of “purdah” which is apparently frowned upon by so-called progressive leadership. When large-scale opportunities are available to all women for education, employment and all-round empowerment, practices such as “purdah” would altogether cease to be of much significance. Healthcare While there is an acute dearth of reliable disaggregated data, existing studies suggest that there is a significant differential between the infant and maternal mortality rates of Muslims and Hindus in urban areas. The principal reason for this is that the overwhelming majority of the Muslim community live in poverty-ridden, mal-nourished, environmentally degraded, overcrowded slums, lacking in adequate water and sanitation, where incidence of water-borne and gastrointestinal diseases is high. The DFID’s State Assistance Plan for West Bengal admits that the state is unlikely to meet the targets of net primary education or child malnourishment. According to the Census of India, less than half of urban households have a drinking water tap within their residential premises, even less have a water closet, and just over a third have closed drainage. This has come to be simply accepted as the inevitable and immutable quality of living for millions of our fellow-citizens. And this is the reality for most Muslims. More than one in five people do not have access to safe drinking water, only about 30 percent of people in rural areas have access to sanitation facilities. Women bear the responsibility of fetching water for their household needs. Poor women in rural areas, without easy access to water sources spend hours every day collecting water, affecting their productive potential and their health. In urban areas, women and children often need to wait in long lines to get water from municipal standpipes or hand pumps. Women play a central role in water management. Reducing the amount of time women spend collecting water allows for increased opportunities for schooling, taking care of children, employment and self-development. The environmental conditions in towns and cities are continuing to deteriorate because the middle-class with the assistance of the state is actively participating in the exclusion of large sections of the population from access to basic services. The consequence of such monopolisation of state resources and benefits is the complete disregard of risks of epidemics and endemic diseases. Govt policies are oriented to crisis intervention rather than institutionalising through new approaches, methods and attitudes a system of maintaining infrastructure and implementing progressive policies. Until the poor are able to satisfy their daily needs for food and shelter, their own active participation in demanding that the state provide them equitable access to water, sanitation and other basic services will be severely limited. 7 of the 8 Millennium Development Goals to which the Govt of India is committed are: Eradicate extreme poverty & hunger: • Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day • Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger Achieve universal primary education: • Ensure that all boys and girls complete a full course of primary schooling Promote gender equality and empower women: • Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferaably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015 Reduce child mortality: • Reduce by two thirds the mortality rate among children under five Improve maternal health: • Reduce by three quarters the maternal mortality ratio Combat HIV / AIDS, malaria and other diseases: • Halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS • Halt and begin to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases Ensure environmental sustainability: • Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources • Reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water • Achieve significant improvement in lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers, by 2020 All of the above are directly and acutely relevant to the minorities in West Bengal and especially the Muslim. Improvement in the quality of life of the Muslims would mean in specific terms the attainment of the above goals. The next elected govt. of West Bengal must commit itself to the realisation of these Millennium Development Goals in the state, and prepare and present a concrete action plan for this. Housing The large majority of the Muslim population of Kolkata and Howrah live in bastis. The Thika Tenancy Act which governs land tenure in bastis is a severe impediment to housing development for the low-income sections. At the same time, illegal construction is rampant in the basti areas. An appropriate new legislation must be enacted in place of the existing Thika Tenancy Act, with the objective of facilitating large-scale housing construction. The state would be the enabling agency for such a process. The goal must be the granting of legal title to improved new dwellings to the erstwhile basti households. Just as “land to the tiller” was the slogan in villages, “house to the dweller” must become the slogan for a programme of pro-poor urban land reform. It is incumbent upon the state to ameliorate the plight of the poor, illiterate and the under-privileged in the bastis or slums who are currently sheltered in the upper stories of the illegally constructed buildings that have come up when the state turned a blind eye to them. Large scale acquisition of thousands of acres of land belonging to minorities particularly Muslims in Kolkata and Howrah suburbs and its allotment to foreign multinational companies will not only affect the demographic profile but also create landlessness, poverty and chronic unemployment among them. The need is therefore to stop any further acquisition at once and prepare a scheme wherein the displaced persons are included in the development processes in the area acquired. ASSOCIATION OF INDIAN MINORITIES 55 PILKHANA 1ST LANE HOWRAH-711101, WEST BENGAL PH-033 26657797 FAX-033 25563396 Email: reads at rediffmail.com From hpp at vsnl.com Wed Apr 26 13:57:55 2006 From: hpp at vsnl.com (hpp at vsnl.com) Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 13:27:55 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] News from West Bengal elections 2006 Message-ID: Dear Friends Owing to demanding preoccupations I was unable to convey earlier the remarkable news from the current assembly elections in West Bengal. It has completely transformed the life of democracy in the state. Here is some quick feedback. Because of the very, very elaborate, stringent and punctilious / painstaking measures and arrangements enforced by the Election Commission, for the first time we are witnessing what could be called "free and fair" elections. At the very least this is the case in urban areas. Hence the "machinery" with which the CPM was able to win elections has been completely stymied. State police is completely absent, replaced by central police forces. They deal firmly and summarily with anyone in their sight. Voters' lists and actual voters have been scrutinised and checked. People are being able to go out to vote. Voting centres are clear of any wrongdoers. Potential anti-CPM voters have been able to freely vote. One can even sms the Election Commission, giving one's ID card no. and find out one's voter serial no. and the centre. One can call them and inform them in case of any difficulty. All this has come as a great shock to local grassroots party workers. No one could imagine that this can actually happen. CPM activists are saying that if these arrangements had been made in 2001, the CPM / Left Front would have lost that election. The significance of this is profound. Party's and governments are ultimately about winning elections. With election victories being delivered through money and muscle power, politics was necessarily criminalised. The party was hostage to its criminal-lumpen section and their overlords. Now the party is realising that this section has become redundant. They cannot do anything on election day. It is the people who will vote you in or out, so one better work for and with the people. As the criminal-lumpen section is redundant and thus unnecessary, they can also be dispensed with, and the deep toll taken by this nexus can be cast out. Meanwhile of course, Mamata Bannerjee's front has itself lost people's credibility because of all their twists and turns and infighting and idiosyncrasies. The Congress is also seen as not really serious about this election, what with their pact with the Left at the centre. Something else has also emerged quite strongly. The real struggle is within the CPM, between the old guard and the new generation, the latter led by Buddhadev Bhattacharya. The old guard and the CPM led by Jyoti Basu till 2000 (and with continuing but waning influence) - is basically an enemy of the people and of pro-poor development, an utter bankrupt, incompetent, corrupt. And Buddhadev is an enemy of this. Even if one is totally against all his current policies - e.g. land of poor farmers for foreign real estate developers, out and out embrace of "capitalism", he has to be seen as someone doing something, anything, rather than nothing. The tone was set when the whole set of education-related minsters were dropped from the candidates list. That was tantamount to admitting the complete failure of the govt, and making a humble pitch to the people that there is a commitment to change and a chance be given to perform. The CPM headquarters has no option but to support him. They cannot afford to lose their bastion of West Bengal. They have realized that the state and its people cannot be taken for granted any longer. They may vote for them, in the absence of any credible and organized opposition, but the party can sense the dismay and anger against their failure to deliver in real and tangible terms. The danger is not so much from any political opposition, but from itself, in terms of its utter incapability to deliver, anything to anybody. West Bengal has also seen a surge of new Maoist violence against the state, in some of the most backward tribal areas. West Bengal was / is in danger of becoming a completely redundant backwater of the Indian and global economy. That would be disastrous for pro-poor concerns too. Through Buddhadev, the state is being brought back to the global capitalist economic fold. Such things are also rather easier to do, compared to addressing fundamental and long term issues of poverty and social justice. And someone or the other must be there, in power, to do all that. There has been almost a conspiracy of media / big bourgeoisie to ensure that the Buddhadev-led CPM is brought back to power, rather than Congress or Trinamul-BJP front. There being no organised credible, reliable political opposition in WB, that would be disastrous, chaotic and anarchic, and especially so for the promoter lobby that has been the first to benefit hugely from Buddhadev. This has been one of the most placid, insepid, silent, dead, unexciting elections. That is because of all the strictures laid down by the EC - no writing on walls being the most telling example. On the whole, there has been no opportunity for any public discussion and debate on the policies of the CPM. So the CPM has actually tacitly accepted this in its own interest. In Howrah, there has been a dramatic turnaround in the Urdu-speaking labouring Muslim pockets. The CPM has failed this poor section completely, even while getting re-elected by them. But this time the Samajwadi Party entered this niche (anti-CPM, anti-BJP) and worked hard and steadily. Opposition party workers and even some CPM supporters joined the Samajwadi band. Voter turnout was immense, in some pockets 100%, and without any false represntation. As if there was a mass movement within the Muslim section to vote for Samajwadi, i.e. against the CPM. As a result of this swing, the standing CPM legislator, is expected to lose badly. This was a CPM stronghold area, earlier represented by a powerful member, who was also a criminal don; he passed away a few years ago. Party activists have been surprised by the the difference between their ground-level observations, of failure of the CPM's election machinery, and the media's exit poll reports. The EC should have taken note of these exit polls, whose reports - real or cooked up - can have a huge impact on subsequent stages. People have to awaken to the new situation and evolve appropriate means to ensure public debate, which is the essence of democracy and elections. The focus has shifted to media, and the media has been dominated by the big bourgeoisie's shrill support for Buddhadev. Buddhadev and CPM will win these elections. Maybe with a reduced majority, or even a greater majority. In either case, that will strengthen Buddhadev's hand in his fight against the enemy CPM. With the civil society and intelligentsia of the state completely compromised, co-opted and bankrupt, progressive anti-establishment and pro-poor forces in the state - have now to engage with Buddhadev, and explore the scope for strong pro-poor policies and ongoing steady, diligent work for long-term ends, in livelihood, education, healthcare, housing and infrastructure. The forceful exit of Muslim support would also be an assertion of the acute poverty and hardship Muslims in West Bengal are facing (which is only in line with the situation faced by SCs and STs) and a rude warning to deliver. If that space is there, if he is open to such engagement to integrate equity and social justice concerns into his reform and economic drive, so as to build a wide popular support base for himself and his team, then it brings a positive new opportunity for progressive civil society. If that space is not there - then Buddhadev can be seen for what he in fact is, a capitalist lackey. And people will have to ponder over how and through whom the real issues can be taken up. Maybe its time for a new political party in WB, a progressive, democratic, secular, development-oriented front. But whatever the case, it must be conceded that Buddhadev has come into his own now, and I for one have been surprised that he had it in him to take on the corrupt party. He may not know how to or have the wherewithal to improve the quality of life of the poor in West Bengal; but being an old party hack, he would know how to fight and manoeuvre and manipulate. In an institutional and systemic sense, change was needed, and he is bringing change. I feel like a dark cloud has lifted from the horizon. There is hope! Meanwhile Buddhadev has his hands full. After the elections, when he forms his cabinet, people will be waiting to see if Subhas Chakravarty is included. This person is the patron of the criminal-lumpen section of the party. V Ramaswamy Calcutta From nangla at cm.sarai.net Wed Apr 26 17:39:13 2006 From: nangla at cm.sarai.net (CM@Nangla) Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 14:09:13 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Nangla's Delhi - 26 April Message-ID: New Posts on Nangla's Blog http://nangla.freeflux.net 26th April, 2006 One Evening, by Shamsher [ Nangla Elsewhere ] 26.04.2006 As the evening spreads, street lamps that line the roads begin to cast their light, and cars begin to race on the roads with their twinkling headlights. The evening at JP is radiant. People have wrapped up their work, and with time on their hands, have come out onto the main road, searching their friends, and respite from the April heat. Those who work in workshops have dried their brows and have come out to lighten the lines forming on their foreheads. People passing by on the road continue to halt at and move on from the shops according to their needs. Everyone holds their everyday tightly in their fists, careful that they don't lose their grip, lest it slip out. [Read whole post] >From the Rubble, by Jaanu [ Eviction ] 26.04.2006 [I] A woman sits, a hammer with a wooden handle in hand, amidst the rubble of her broken house. She picks up one brick at a time, knocks the cement off it, cleaning it, and making a separate pile of cleaned bricks. The heat of the sun makes her sweat, and the sweat halts like small beads of sweat on her face. She stops from time to time, to wipe the sweat away, with the hem of her saree. Some beads trickle down to her lips, and her tongue drinks them. She turns her body and drinks water from a small vessel she has kept in the shade. Her lips are moistened. [Read whole post] In the Morning, by Suraj [ The Journey After ] 26.04.2006 Nangla looks different in the morning. There is no electricity, and sounds echo softer than they do otherwise. The echoes of demolition and eviction are also softer. It looks like Nangla is finding its way into a new life, in the morning. [Read whole post] CM Lab, Nangla Maanchi http://nangla.freeflux.net http://nangla-maachi.freeflux.net ----------------------------------------------- It quenches the thirst of the thirsty, Such is Nangla, It shelters those who come to the city of Delhi, Such is Nangla. ------------------------------------------------ From sidharth.srinivasan at gmail.com Thu Apr 27 10:46:47 2006 From: sidharth.srinivasan at gmail.com (sidharth srinivasan) Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 22:16:47 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] secret history of delhi Message-ID: <83e991100604262216q6db35d8fibc22af51488005ad@mail.gmail.com> Dear Fellows, I seem to finally be getting my bearings in understanding a "secret" history of Delhi. At times I even feel like a paparazzi voyeuristically peeping into the past. Somewhere, the filmmaker in me has to make a distinction between fact and fiction – the fiction that is to inform my photo roman as well as the fiction that is intended to be the photo roman itself and the fact of history that weighs down on the monuments I am exploring. I have tentatively titled my film "Beeti Bahaar" – hopefully it evokes the past and suggests a sense of nostalgia… I recently met someone who gave me a lot of idle gossip regarding the Delhi of yore and also advised me very politely against making a tragic love story as it may unduly influence the youth of today – which got me thinking that maybe I have a Rang de Basanti on hand!!! The Delhi of yore is a Mughal Delhi, a Muslim Delhi, by all accounts. Aside from the emperors, it is the poets and the pirs who created this beautiful city and the historicity of the capital stems from the folklore and myth surrounding these very people. Some of the gossip I gleaned from my encounter was rather colorful. I was informed by the gentleman that anything and everything imaginable actually happened and, despite never being documented, had been passed down from generation to generation through idle banter and gossip. Of course Hindi cinema immortalized Jahan Ara's love for her childhood friend Mirza Yusuf Changezi in the 1964 film JAHAN ARA by Vinod Kumar starring Mala Sinha, Bharat Bhushan and the great Prithviraj Kapur as Shah Jahan. In the film Jahan Ara's mother, Mumtaz Mahal's death disrupts the romance between the two lovers. Before dying Mumtaz Mahal makes Jahan Ara promise that she will take care of her father in her absence. As a result of this the princess is unable to commit herself to Yusuf and he wanders the earth waiting for Jahan Ara to return to him. According to other sources Jahan Ara and her admirer, who was a poet, only glanced at one another once, and it was love at first sight. Pigeons flew back and forth from the princess to the poet carrying messages of love and poems brimming with romantic yearning. Though the classic film suggested that they consummated their affair, in all probability they never actually met. Jahan Ara's lover apparently died of a broken heart. Rumor also has it that Jahan Ara had an illicit affair with her father Shah Jahan because she resembled his dead wife (Mumtaz Mahal). This story would be in keeping with the film, as Jahan Ara was being true to her word and in effect "looking after" her father. The Mughals were very wary of marrying off their daughters for obvious reasons of property and dispute. As a result many princesses remained spinsters till their dying day. The Persian couplet, Bar mazare ma gariban ne chirage ne gule/Ne pare parwana sozad ne sadai bulbule is by Zaib-un-Nissa, Aurangzeb's eldest daughter, who was a poet and wrote under the pen name Mukhfi. She earned the wrath of Aurangzeb because of her emotional attachment to Aqilmand Khan, also a poet, and her suspected involvement in the revolt by his younger son against him. She was jailed for nearly a decade and remained unmarried until her death at the age of 63. Behind the Red Fort is an area called the Suhagpura where many young women who had been with the emperor only once but were nonetheless married to him, resided. Needless to say, often their biological and emotional instincts got the better of them and they embarked on illicit affairs with commoners and outsiders as a result of which they were impregnated. Yunani medicine, it is believed, could re-join a severed arm to the shoulder, and was used in aborting these discarded wives lest the emperor discover their indiscretion. The fetuses of the countless illegitimate heirs to the throne were all clandestinely buried behind the Suhagpura and the burial ground is still in existence today. I also learnt of the story of Sarhad Shaheed, a story that you know of perhaps, but one that really fascinated me. Sarhad was an Armenian merchant from Sindh who used to come to Delhi to trade. In Delhi he fell in love with a Baniya boy. However the young boy was married off and Sarhad was heartbroken. He renounced the world and became a mystic wandering the streets of the capital. He even removed all signs of clothing from his body and took to walking around naked, singing sufi hymns. Word got round to Aurangzeb who ordered him to offer prayers clothed at Jama Masjid. But Sarhad refused to comply. Finally he was taken captive, forcibly clothed and made to stand in front of the head maulvi at Jama Masjid. While prayers were being offered Sarhad could divine that the maulvi's mind was on other matters – namely, the lunch waiting for him at home and he loudly proclaimed in front of the congregation – "Mulla ki neeyat mere pair ke neeche!!". Aurangzeb ordered him to be beheaded in public in front of the jama masjid. But miraculously, after being beheaded his headless body started to dance holding its own decapitated head in its hands. Aurangzeb was disturbed and the public thought that calamity had struck. The king begged forgiveness and requested sarhad to stop dancing, which he did. To this date his grave, painted bright red (to symbolize his blood), lies at the foot of the Jama Masjid and is called Sarhad Shaheed. All for now, am following up on a few more leads and studying a bit more closely the poetry of the time…till the next posting… Warm Regards, SIDHARTH -- MR. SIDHARTH SRINIVASAN Reel Illusion Films New Delhi/Mumbai India From geert at desk.nl Thu Apr 27 11:38:43 2006 From: geert at desk.nl (geert lovink) Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 08:08:43 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Homeland Security proposes global ID system Message-ID: <06d37aff94063bddeb4d9f5509348c57@desk.nl> > From: Declan McCullagh > Date: 26 April 2006 5:41:44 PM > To: Politech > Subject: [Politech] Forget a national ID: Homeland Security proposes > global ID system [priv] > > Background on Real ID: > http://news.com.com/The+Real+ID+rebellion/2010-1028_3-6061578.html > > --- > > http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=33925&dcn=e_gvet > > Head of visitor tracking program wants global ID system > By Jonathan Marino > April 25, 2006 > > The head of the Homeland Security Department's visitor tracking > program on Tuesday called for the creation of a "global ID management > system" to make travel easier while enhancing security... > > [Jim] Williams said he wants to join forces with several DHS agencies > to develop a global identification system that would cut wait times, > reduce government fees for travelers, fight illegal immigration and, > perhaps paramount, better defend nations from terrorists. > > The US VISIT chief, who already oversees identity inquiries for nearly > every visitor who enters the United States, said a worldwide > identification system will better link nations in the fight against > terrorism. In his speech, he likened al Qaeda operatives and sleeper > cells - including the ones that attacked on 9/11 - to "submarines" > that must surface to kill. > > [...remainder snipped...] > _______________________________________________ > Politech mailing list > Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ > Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/) > From hpp at vsnl.com Wed Apr 26 13:39:11 2006 From: hpp at vsnl.com (V Ramaswamy) Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 13:39:11 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] News from West Bengal elections 2006 Message-ID: <002b01c66908$f7fa7900$d9ba41db@Ramaswamy> Dear Friends Owing to demanding preoccupations I was unable to convey earlier the remarkable news from the current assembly elections in West Bengal. It has completely transformed the life of democracy in the state. Here is some quick feedback. Because of the very, very elaborate, stringent and punctilious / painstaking measures and arrangements enforced by the Election Commission, for the first time we are witnessing what could be called "free and fair" elections. At the very least this is the case in urban areas. Hence the "machinery" with which the CPM was able to win elections has been completely stymied. State police is completely absent, replaced by central police forces. They deal firmly and summarily with anyone in their sight. Voters' lists and actual voters have been scrutinised and checked. People are being able to go out to vote. Voting centres are clear of any wrongdoers. Potential anti-CPM voters have been able to freely vote. One can even sms the Election Commission, giving one's ID card no. and find out one's voter serial no. and the centre. One can call them and inform them in case of any difficulty. All this has come as a great shock to local grassroots party workers. No one could imagine that this can actually happen. CPM activists are saying that if these arrangements had been made in 2001, the CPM / Left Front would have lost that election. The significance of this is profound. Party's and governments are ultimately about winning elections. With election victories being delivered through money and muscle power, politics was necessarily criminalised. The party was hostage to its criminal-lumpen section and their overlords. Now the party is realising that this section has become redundant. They cannot do anything on election day. It is the people who will vote you in or out, so one better work for and with the people. As the criminal-lumpen section is redundant and thus unnecessary, they can also be dispensed with, and the deep toll taken by this nexus can be cast out. Meanwhile of course, Mamata Bannerjee's front has itself lost people's credibility because of all their twists and turns and infighting and idiosyncrasies. The Congress is also seen as not really serious about this election, what with their pact with the Left at the centre. Something else has also emerged quite strongly. The real struggle is within the CPM, between the old guard and the new generation, the latter led by Buddhadev Bhattacharya. The old guard and the CPM led by Jyoti Basu till 2000 (and with continuing but waning influence) - is basically an enemy of the people and of pro-poor development, an utter bankrupt, incompetent, corrupt. And Buddhadev is an enemy of this. Even if one is totally against all his current policies - e.g. land of poor farmers for foreign real estate developers, out and out embrace of "capitalism", he has to be seen as someone doing something, anything, rather than nothing. The tone was set when the whole set of education-related minsters were dropped from the candidates list. That was tantamount to admitting the complete failure of the govt, and making a humble pitch to the people that there is a commitment to change and a chance be given to perform. The CPM headquarters has no option but to support him. They cannot afford to lose their bastion of West Bengal. They have realized that the state and its people cannot be taken for granted any longer. They may vote for them, in the absence of any credible and organized opposition, but the party can sense the dismay and anger against their failure to deliver in real and tangible terms. The danger is not so much from any political opposition, but from itself, in terms of its utter incapability to deliver, anything to anybody. West Bengal has also seen a surge of new Maoist violence against the state, in some of the most backward tribal areas. West Bengal was / is in danger of becoming a completely redundant backwater of the Indian and global economy. That would be disastrous for pro-poor concerns too. Through Buddhadev, the state is being brought back to the global capitalist economic fold. Such things are also rather easier to do, compared to addressing fundamental and long term issues of poverty and social justice. And someone or the other must be there, in power, to do all that. There has been almost a conspiracy of media / big bourgeoisie to ensure that the Buddhadev-led CPM is brought back to power, rather than Congress or Trinamul-BJP front. There being no organised credible, reliable political opposition in WB, that would be disastrous, chaotic and anarchic, and especially so for the promoter lobby that has been the first to benefit hugely from Buddhadev. This has been one of the most placid, insepid, silent, dead, unexciting elections. That is because of all the strictures laid down by the EC - no writing on walls being the most telling example. On the whole, there has been no opportunity for any public discussion and debate on the policies of the CPM. So the CPM has actually tacitly accepted this in its own interest. In Howrah, there has been a dramatic turnaround in the Urdu-speaking labouring Muslim pockets. The CPM has failed this poor section completely, even while getting re-elected by them. But this time the Samajwadi Party entered this niche (anti-CPM, anti-BJP) and worked hard and steadily. Opposition party workers and even some CPM supporters joined the Samajwadi band. Voter turnout was immense, in some pockets 100%, and without any false represntation. As if there was a mass movement within the Muslim section to vote for Samajwadi, i.e. against the CPM. As a result of this swing, the standing CPM legislator, is expected to lose badly. This was a CPM stronghold area, earlier represented by a powerful member, who was also a criminal don; he passed away a few years ago. Party activists have been surprised by the the difference between their ground-level observations, of failure of the CPM's election machinery, and the media's exit poll reports. The EC should have taken note of these exit polls, whose reports - real or cooked up - can have a huge impact on subsequent stages. People have to awaken to the new situation and evolve appropriate means to ensure public debate, which is the essence of democracy and elections. The focus has shifted to media, and the media has been dominated by the big bourgeoisie's shrill support for Buddhadev. Buddhadev and CPM will win these elections. Maybe with a reduced majority, or even a greater majority. In either case, that will strengthen Buddhadev's hand in his fight against the enemy CPM. With the civil society and intelligentsia of the state completely compromised, co-opted and bankrupt, progressive anti-establishment and pro-poor forces in the state - have now to engage with Buddhadev, and explore the scope for strong pro-poor policies and ongoing steady, diligent work for long-term ends, in livelihood, education, healthcare, housing and infrastructure. The forceful exit of Muslim support would also be an assertion of the acute poverty and hardship Muslims in West Bengal are facing (which is only in line with the situation faced by SCs and STs) and a rude warning to deliver. If that space is there, if he is open to such engagement to integrate equity and social justice concerns into his reform and economic drive, so as to build a wide popular support base for himself and his team, then it brings a positive new opportunity for progressive civil society. If that space is not there - then Buddhadev can be seen for what he in fact is, a capitalist lackey. And people will have to ponder over how and through whom the real issues can be taken up. Maybe its time for a new political party in WB, a progressive, democratic, secular, development-oriented front. But whatever the case, it must be conceded that Buddhadev has come into his own now, and I for one have been surprised that he had it in him to take on the corrupt party. He may not know how to or have the wherewithal to improve the quality of life of the poor in West Bengal; but being an old party hack, he would know how to fight and manoeuvre and manipulate. In an institutional and systemic sense, change was needed, and he is bringing change. I feel like a dark cloud has lifted from the horizon. There is hope! Meanwhile Buddhadev has his hands full. After the elections, when he forms his cabinet, people will be waiting to see if Subhas Chakravarty is included. This person is the patron of the criminal-lumpen section of the party. V Ramaswamy Calcutta -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060426/9b7916b1/attachment.html From foryou2005 at gmail.com Wed Apr 26 14:09:55 2006 From: foryou2005 at gmail.com (BHAVYA SRIVASTAVA) Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 14:09:55 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Is this my media? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Provocation or prejudice. Attack or insanity. Hype is all over the world that media in democracy faces the rootlessness. So it is on the verge of violence. Everyday we got reports about clashes between the mass and media. This is the portrayal of truth. Faith diminishes. In monarchy the media is considered a tool to rule. And in 'Rule of Law', it is a tool to force law, abide by all. Democratically, countries prosper a free thought society, that gives space free media. The media with a history of alignment. The romantic episode of a media era was always written by some movement, upsurge and right fight. People make the passage of time, a history. History that needs media to told the society. In all ways the media become the fourth estate of democracy. As we develop as a democracy the emancipation, awareness, maturity, right demand and playing an active role in society become reality. People and organisations become actively involved in the makeup process. As you see in Indian society, the make-over of fields today portray fine prints. Society is sensing, politics changing, economy brimming and people become aware of demand and rights. Be it a shallow revolution or a walking process, it happened. In this all, the media concurrently habitat with the beat of the society. Technology sweeps temper, creativity hamper reality and showiness halts the naturality. The content become a plain paper to colour it in your way. Is the media running on screen depicting the mores and ethics of society? Some eyes behind specs say affimatively. But the windfacer is not optimistic.Reactions shock you.Media culture is consider as popular culture.The state is like, the glamour and camera are synonymous. When a piece to camera is the namesake of identity! The story has some pros and cons to heat. Every hyped story has some clues. Coverage of some sensitive stories show you the cautions to take. Like the minor bomb blast at jama masjid, the repercussions are end up in a clash between media and religious authority. What's in the deep? The caricature different media channels make is going beyond the TRP rating, one of the channel teach the religious authority that he pardons the media. Forget it! And one said that the political arrogance has a hand in it.It is the 'religion based viewing technique' that first time seen in Indian media.Sense it may become a tool to play the game in future.Crisis hovering up for some news channels. Well this clash is a state of nation. Journalist has to reveal the insight angle of a question. Religion person has to be ask the state of interference.Both has no limitation currently.Popular media culture assign the traveller with a media batch a arrogance to peel.And the victim has some prejudices and provocation.Things happen at last in the fist. Coping from crass is not so easy.Vision of media is centered and our life too, so they match.The content we see, is our illusionary world, really maya . Well change is the nature, but only forcible demand of right to see, can change the gross nature.Ask the media in letter,that is this my media?Can I follow you for the sake of usable information?How could you be beneficial to me, to the society. Answers are waiting! Bhavya Srivastava Journalist 09811150743 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060426/ddeb9cd5/attachment.html From ysaeed7 at yahoo.com Thu Apr 27 12:38:31 2006 From: ysaeed7 at yahoo.com (Yousuf) Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 00:08:31 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] secret history of delhi In-Reply-To: <83e991100604262216q6db35d8fibc22af51488005ad@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <20060427070831.66402.qmail@web51412.mail.yahoo.com> Dear Sidharth I read your posting with interest. Are you relying only on the so-called "gossip" and "rumour", or are you also looking at the documented texts. Because what you call "secret" history is no secret for the historians. Most of these events have been documented in one text or another (Persian as well as Urdu). In fact, even the oral histories that maybe common among the present generation elderly people of old Delhi may have originated from the documented texts. It would be however interesting to look at what the texts say and what versions are avaiable in the oral domain today. You could also identify your sources. Yousuf --- sidharth srinivasan wrote: > Dear Fellows, > I seem to finally be getting > my bearings in > understanding a "secret" history of Delhi. At times > I even feel like a > paparazzi voyeuristically peeping into the past. > Somewhere, the > filmmaker in me has to make a distinction between > fact and fiction – > the fiction that is to inform my photo roman as well > as the fiction > that is intended to be the photo roman itself and > the fact of history > that weighs down on the monuments I am exploring. I > have tentatively > titled my film "Beeti Bahaar" – hopefully it evokes > the past and > suggests a sense of nostalgia > > I recently met someone who gave me a lot of idle > gossip regarding the > Delhi of yore and also advised me very politely > against making a > tragic love story as it may unduly influence the > youth of today – > which got me thinking that maybe I have a Rang de > Basanti on hand!!! > The Delhi of yore is a Mughal Delhi, a Muslim Delhi, > by all accounts. > Aside from the emperors, it is the poets and the > pirs who created this > beautiful city and the historicity of the capital > stems from the > folklore and myth surrounding these very people. > > Some of the gossip I gleaned from my encounter was > rather colorful. I > was informed by the gentleman that anything and > everything imaginable > actually happened and, despite never being > documented, had been passed > down from generation to generation through idle > banter and gossip. > > Of course Hindi cinema immortalized Jahan Ara's love > for her childhood > friend Mirza Yusuf Changezi in the 1964 film JAHAN > ARA by Vinod Kumar > starring Mala Sinha, Bharat Bhushan and the great > Prithviraj Kapur as > Shah Jahan. In the film Jahan Ara's mother, Mumtaz > Mahal's death > disrupts the romance between the two lovers. Before > dying Mumtaz Mahal > makes Jahan Ara promise that she will take care of > her father in her > absence. As a result of this the princess is unable > to commit herself > to Yusuf and he wanders the earth waiting for Jahan > Ara to return to > him. > > According to other sources Jahan Ara and her > admirer, who was a poet, > only glanced at one another once, and it was love at > first sight. > Pigeons flew back and forth from the princess to the > poet carrying > messages of love and poems brimming with romantic > yearning. Though the > classic film suggested that they consummated their > affair, in all > probability they never actually met. Jahan Ara's > lover apparently died > of a broken heart. > > Rumor also has it that Jahan Ara had an illicit > affair with her father > Shah Jahan because she resembled his dead wife > (Mumtaz Mahal). This > story would be in keeping with the film, as Jahan > Ara was being true > to her word and in effect "looking after" her > father. > > The Mughals were very wary of marrying off their > daughters for obvious > reasons of property and dispute. As a result many > princesses remained > spinsters till their dying day. The Persian couplet, > Bar mazare ma > gariban ne chirage ne gule/Ne pare parwana sozad ne > sadai bulbule is > by Zaib-un-Nissa, Aurangzeb's eldest daughter, who > was a poet and > wrote under the pen name Mukhfi. > > She earned the wrath of Aurangzeb because of her > emotional attachment > to Aqilmand Khan, also a poet, and her suspected > involvement in the > revolt by his younger son against him. She was > jailed for nearly a > decade and remained unmarried until her death at the > age of 63. > > Behind the Red Fort is an area called the Suhagpura > where many young > women who had been with the emperor only once but > were nonetheless > married to him, resided. Needless to say, often > their biological and > emotional instincts got the better of them and they > embarked on > illicit affairs with commoners and outsiders as a > result of which they > were impregnated. > Yunani medicine, it is believed, could re-join a > severed arm to the > shoulder, and was used in aborting these discarded > wives lest the > emperor discover their indiscretion. The fetuses of > the countless > illegitimate heirs to the throne were all > clandestinely buried behind > the Suhagpura and the burial ground is still in > existence today. > > I also learnt of the story of Sarhad Shaheed, a > story that you know of > perhaps, but one that really fascinated me. Sarhad > was an Armenian > merchant from Sindh who used to come to Delhi to > trade. In Delhi he > fell in love with a Baniya boy. However the young > boy was married off > and Sarhad was heartbroken. He renounced the world > and became a mystic > wandering the streets of the capital. He even > removed all signs of > clothing from his body and took to walking around > naked, singing sufi > hymns. > > Word got round to Aurangzeb who ordered him to offer > prayers clothed > at Jama Masjid. But Sarhad refused to comply. > Finally he was taken > captive, forcibly clothed and made to stand in front > of the head > maulvi at Jama Masjid. While prayers were being > offered Sarhad could > divine that the maulvi's mind was on other matters – > namely, the lunch > waiting for him at home and he loudly proclaimed in > front of the > congregation – "Mulla ki neeyat mere pair ke > neeche!!". > > Aurangzeb ordered him to be beheaded in public in > front of the jama > masjid. But miraculously, after being beheaded his > headless body > started to dance holding its own decapitated head in > its hands. > Aurangzeb was disturbed and the public thought that > calamity had > struck. The king begged forgiveness and requested > sarhad to stop > dancing, which he did. To this date his grave, > painted bright red (to > symbolize his blood), lies at the foot of the Jama > Masjid and is > called Sarhad Shaheed. > > All for now, am following up on a few more leads and > studying a bit > more closely the poetry of the time till the next > posting > > Warm Regards, > SIDHARTH > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > MR. SIDHARTH SRINIVASAN > Reel Illusion Films > New Delhi/Mumbai > India > _________________________________________ > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and > the === message truncated === __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From t.ray at vsnl.com Thu Apr 27 14:38:45 2006 From: t.ray at vsnl.com (Tapas Ray) Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 14:38:45 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] News from West Bengal elections 2006 References: Message-ID: <003001c669da$337524e0$0a01a8c0@tapas> Dear all, Calcutta is voting today in the five-phase West Bengal Assembly elections, and I cast my vote first thing in the morning. This election has been billed in the media as unprecedented on account of the Election Commission's tough approach and parallels have been drawn with the last Bihar election which unseated Lallu Prasad Yadav, so some of you living outside West Bengal may be interested in getting a glimpse of it. Since Ramaswamy has already given you some information, I thought I might jump in with my two-bit. It was a pleasure today to see that the streets around the booth were not full of noisy, exuberant "party boys" as before and the situation inside seemed orderly as well. Less than a year ago, while casting my vote in the municipal elections, I had seen an agent inside the booth openly order polling officials not to check the identities of voters too closely, so as to "save time". The other agents, who were presumably representing rival candidates, said nothing. The officials complied. After coming out of the booth, I had complained about this to two leading figures in the CPI-M unit of my locality, making it clear that I did not know which party/candidate the agent concerned was representing. However, these gentlemen had sprung to his defence, saying that indeed if identities were to be checked meticulously, voting would go on for far too long. It was good to see one of these gentlemen stand in queue with the rest of us today. I want to make it clear that I have nothing personal against him - in fact, I am grateful to him for having saved me from being beaten up by some goons one day many years ago, when he and I happened to be travelling in the same bus (by coincidence) and a nasty situation developed. Having said that, I would like to make a few points regarding Ramaswamy's post. > Now the party is realising that this section has become redundant. They > cannot do anything on > election day. It is the people who will vote you in or out, so one better > work for and with the > people. > > As the criminal-lumpen section is redundant and thus unnecessary, they can > also be dispensed with, > and the deep toll taken by this nexus can be cast out. I think it is too early to say the above. For one thing, there is no guarantee that elections will be held in the same manner as today in future, hence these criminal-lumpen elements may be needed later. Moreover, they are needed not only on voting day but throughout the year, to maintain the party's "hold" on people. This hold is not always ovious in relatively affluent neighbourhoods like mine, but comes out of the closet at times. An example may be appropriate here. A little over two years ago, I was put in charge of a branch campus of a college that is being set up in my neighbourhood. The building was being constructed by a contractor, and we (the college authorities) had nothing to do with the procurement of building material. However, at one stage, a local CPI-M "boy" who supplies building material to builders, started visiting the site and pestering us to force the contractor to buy sand, stone chips and timber from him. (We were to learn, later, that he had also started using the construction site for pleasure at night.) He said "the party" (CPI-M) had asked him to "look after" our campus. I called the local municipal councillor (of the CPI-M) to report the matter. She said he was misusing her party's name, promised to tell him to stay away from us and advised me to report the matter to the Chairman of the municipality (also of the CPI-M), which I did. For good measure, I called a senior functionary of the CPI-M local committee (commonly known as LC in West Bengal), who also said that his party's name was being misused but added, somewhat surprisingly, that I should tell the "boy" that we would help him get the supply contract if he could get a writen recommendation to that effect from him (this functionary). When I flatly rejected this suggestion, he backed down. The "boy" came one day, touched my feet to my great embarrassment, and apologised. While he did not come again, at least in my presence, he kept sending his associates, some of whom have made trouble now and then and we have had to lodge complaints with the police more than once. > Something else has also emerged quite strongly. The real struggle is > within the CPM, between the old > guard and the new generation, the latter > led by Buddhadev Bhattacharya. The old guard and the CPM > led by Jyoti Basu till 2000 (and with continuing but waning influence) - > is basically an enemy of > the people and of pro-poor development, an utter bankrupt, incompetent, > corrupt. And Buddhadev is > an enemy of this. Even if one is totally against all his current > policies - e.g. land of poor > farmers for foreign real estate developers, out and out embrace of > "capitalism", he has to be seen > as someone doing something, anything, rather than nothing. There may or may not be a real struggle in the party. It is probably too early to tell. However, if there is, it is not new and the old guard cannot be lumped together as corrupt. The late Benoy Chowdhuri, who was Minister for Land and Land Reforms, was a shining example of honesty and integrity, and had openly castigated his own government (then led by Jyoti Basu) for corruption. I would like to make the point that by giving too much importance to these so-called "inner-party struggles", we may be falling into a trap which the CPI-M wants us to fall into - to reduce politics to "inner-party struggle" rather than a multi-party struggle, with the rationale that the people's aspirations can and will be met through struggles *within* the CPI-M as the party of the working people rather than through multiparty democracy. This has been the line in countries where "socialism" has won for some time. There is a parallel with China here in West Bengal - economic liberalisation. I think the present Left Front Government's capital and foreign investment friendly policies need to be seen together with the image of internal reforms being projected by the CPI-M to ralise that the intention may be to have total one-party political control (in a limited sense, of course, given that West bengal is within the Indian multiparty system) with economic liberalisation and unfettered capitalist development. A poor man's China, if you will. > With the civil society and intelligentsia of the state completely > > compromised, co-opted and > bankrupt, This reminds me of a conversation I had with a (then) Soviet diplomat in Calcutta when the USSR was about to collapse. I forget the exact topic of our discussion, but do remember his response to something I had said, wondering why the people of the USSR did not behave in a way that seemed logical to me. He had said that being in India, it would be difficult for me to understand the psychology of people in the USSR, because they had acquired a different mentality altogether due to Soviet rule, and political behaviour that was natural in democratic societies, did not come naturally to them. I think the same thing has happened in West Bengal, though naturally to a much smaller degree. Therefore, one of the main tasks for Mr Buddhadev Bhttacharya - assuming that he will be Chief Minister again - will be to change the political atmosphere by bringing back a democratic environment, and thus initiate a reversal of the psychological degeneration that has set in among large sections of the people, the intelligentsia included. This reversal will take time, but it's important to start it. It remains to be seen whether he has a taste for such thoroughgoing change. From cahen.x at levels9.com Thu Apr 27 15:26:38 2006 From: cahen.x at levels9.com (xavier cahen) Date: Thu, 27 Apr 2006 11:56:38 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] =?windows-1252?q?pourinfos=2Eorg_=5Bapostils=5D_?= =?windows-1252?q?=3A_The_artist_and_his_=93models=94=2E_=7CJean-Claude_Mo?= =?windows-1252?q?ineau=7C?= Message-ID: <44509556.6010303@levels9.com> pourinfos.org ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [apostils] [apostils] [apostils] [apostils] [apostils] [apostils] [apostils] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- The artist and his “models” By Jean-Claude Moineau html version http://pourinfos.org/encours/item.php?id=3019 Facing the crisis that not only political art or critical art, (two totally different concepts), but contemporary art itself are experiencing, (knowing that “the state” of crisis has always been the “normal” state of art, that art has always been in a permanent state of crisis, a crisis that has recently increased, even accelerated), some people intend to go back to the old polemic (relevant to the various avant-gardes) between documentary-art, or rather, documentary form that inspired Kassel’s last Documenta. What art couldn’t do, documentary, or rather, documentary art, could. As if the so-called “objectivity” or the so-called “transparency” of the document were not suspect, as much as the good old notion of aesthetic experience, here and now, non-mediatized, that most detractors of the document form such as Nicolas Bourriaud in the catalogue of the last Biennale de Lyon [1], cling to. That context created at the time of Documents, Georges Bataille’s review, the extra artistic reference to science, and especially to anthropology, the search for extra artistic models through art, especially for the anthropological model, or rather the “anthropological paradigm”, even though the notion of paradigm has something too exclusive to be used without care (which, according to S. Kuhn [2]himself, would be abusive). The two following articles also aim in that direction. The first article, Artist as anthroplogist [3], was written in 1974 by the neo avant-garde conceptual artist Joseph Kosuth,. The piece is really not clear, like most artists writings, especially conceptual artists. It intends to establish a break (in a quasi-Althusser sense) between an “anthropologized art” and the “forms” preceding it what he calls “naive”, relating to artistic activity including the forms of earlier conceptual art. According to Kosuth, earlier art was based on what he called a “scientific paradigm”, and was related to scientism, when, on the contrary, anthropologized art would break from this paradigm. Kosuth believes that the anthropologist is a man of science, and therefore positioned himself outside of the culture he’s studying; he calls this attitude “un-committed”. But the artist as an anthropologist operates inside his own socio-cultural context and finds himself totally submerged (Kosuth doesn’t see the de-contextualizing character which is that of the museum within which, as an neo avant-garde artist, he continues to mingle), the artist as an anthropologist is an artist that Kosuth would consider “committed” (with the intentional character this implies), but will not use political discourses or bring any aesthetics in the political action as the “protest artist” will. Kosuth believes that while the anthropologist tries to understand other cultures, the artist, on the contrary, “interiorizes” his own socio-cultural activity. Therefore, the artist as an anthropologist is able to accomplish what the anthropologist has always failed to do. For Kosuth, this paradoxically implies the superiority of the artist as an anthropologist over the anthropologist, his “model”. The second article is written by the American critic, Hal Foster. The author is both the theoretician of what he calls the neo avant-garde second generation (Daniel Buren, Michael Asher…) who tries to carry on the criticism of artistic institution from the inside, and the road companion of what he calls, at the time, radical Post Modernism - represented by Pictures Artists around Douglas Crimp and Rosalind Krauss - by opposition to the trans-avant-garde and other artists representing what Raymonde Moulin called art for the 80’s Market. The article is called The artist as an ethnographer or does the “end of history” mean the return to anthropology?[4]. One will notice that the title of the article refers to the Post-Modernist crisis of history - ancient continuity history as well as dis-continuity, “structuralism” history, or even still history - to the temptation of what was then a post-history. History is opposed, not like in Michel Foucault’s, whatever his dues to “new-history” are, but to archeology - even though an archeological paradigm appeared in recent art (or rather, a candidate to the title of paradigm), but to anthropology, in reproducing entirely the opposition prevailing in the 60’s between history and structure, as Foster intends in his demonstrations to show an anthropology that would no longer be only Claude Lévi-Strauss’s structural anthropology. In his text, Foster does not praise anthropology or even less so, the artist as an anthropologist or as an ethnographer, but intends to have a truly critical view, both on anthropology (with the internal debates inside the anthropology field, that he calls an auto-criticism practice from anthropology, in a somehow modernist fashion; auto-criticism that, according to him, could have contributed to make it appealing to the artists’ eyes that have adopted the artist as anthropologist paradigm), and on the artist as an anthropologist. I will not only use Foster’s article as my own - as inescapable as could it be - but I will attempt to make a critical reading of it. The title of the article is, of course, modeled over Walter Benjamin’s L’Artiste comme producteur [5]. In this text, Benjamin sustains that the artist who “shows solidarity with the proletariat” - according to the terms used then - wouldn’t only spread “a politically-right content” – when possible - but must be “artistically right”. “Before asking myself: what is the position of a work of art in relation with the means production at that time, I would like to ask: what is its place within these same means? This question directly aims at the function of the “oeuvre” within the literary production means (or broadly artistic means) of the works of art. In other words, it directly aims at the literary (or artistic) technique of a work of art”. No Economism in this, since, according to Benjamin, art is not only super-structural unlike orthodox Marxism, but includes what Benjamin calls literary or artistic production links (even though Benjamin avoids technical determinism, whatever dialectical links are being maintained by “the technical production forces” - non specifically artistic - and “the artistic production means”). What Hal Foster interprets in a totally contestable manner from the Productivist conception as it was defended by USSR right after the revolution launched by the Constructivists, who became later the Productivists, is a conception based on the idea that the avant-garde artist (both in an artistic and in a political sense, that are inseparable anyway) cannot limit himself “to back up the proletariat”, but must become himself a proletarian, must assimilate into a producer in the strong sense of the word and must resolve the artist/producer contradiction. Productivism generally brought back this conception to the engineer/artist conception; the Dadaist Raoul Hausmann and his then companion, Hannah Höch would make a point in reproaching the Productivist conception to carry on praising “expertise” - here again, in all senses of the word – and would oppose to it the conception of the artist as an assembler who only puts pieces recuperated in the industrial production together, without trying to reconcile them in anyway, therefore without being concerned with how they are joined together (that conception was generalized later on by Ernst Bloch [6], without the proletarian reference). At the same time, Foster allows himself to rediscover – totally out of context, in my opinion – some remains of “Productivism paradigm” in the sculptural action as re-understood – enlarged – in the 60’s by a Richard Serra, and of the notion of “textual production” championed by Tel Quel during the same period. Foster starts then to relate criticisms held against the productivism paradigm happening at the same time, mainly, he says, from Jean Baudrillard, even if Beaudrillard’s criticism was not aimed at Productivism, but rather at Fonctionalism, which is totally different. According to Foster, these criticisms would have lead the way from a Productivist paradigm to a “Situationist paradigm”, still badly defined even when Baudrillard’s criticisms do not spare the Situationists themselves. In any case, according to Foster, would we be witnessing the coming of a third paradigm since the second half of the 80’s, the artist as anthropologist, or as ethnographer, since we’re dealing here with a field investigator rather than a office anthropologist (even though Foster seems to hesitate with an other paradigm which would be the artist as a cartographer, or rather as a geographer). An ethnographer paradigm, which oddly enough, would be launched at a time when a crisis would start, not only between ethnography criticized by structural anthropology and structural anthropology itself, just as relates Foster, but anthropology as such, mainly due to - no matter what the anthropologists are saying about it - the fall of the colonial era and the ambiguities of the post-colonial era, if it’s true that there ever was a post-colonial era. At the same time, the anthropology in-crisis could claim itself, unlike the anthropologist as an artist paradigm, as Clifford Geertz [7] and James Clifford [8] did, who are dealing - without falling into obvious aesthetics - with anthropologists writings as literary or artistic texts, of the fictional texture of anthropology, Clifford going as far as talking about “ethnographic Surrealism” (Foster, being ironical about that, also starts to talk about the anthropologist as a collage artist, multi-cultural collage artist, that is). Deconstruction - if not abolition - of the opposition between art (and literature) and anthropology. At the same time, as Foster relates, that anthropology - in this case, cultural anthropology – can present its subject of study, culture, as the result of some collective artists creativity, could assimilate nations to artists. Geertz [9] has been able to handle cultures themselves as texts similar to written texts, to “textualize” non written cultures themselves, with a (questionable) goal to de-contextualize them from their discursive enunciation situation (as well as from the agents’ intentions) to finally consider anthropology as a meta-text, a hermeneutic, when, according to Geertz, the meaning of studied facts is generally not concealed, native people are not cultural idiots, but are spontaneous anthropologists (without any derogatory intention), they are the first interpreters of their own culture, so that anthropology appears - far from the “simple description”, the “return to the real things”, far from Harold Garfinkel’s [10] ethno-methodology - as a second class interpretation, “an interpretation of an interpretation” which aims to remain next to the populations under study. This allows Geertz to build a disparity in the anthropologist and in the “informant” status, a hierarchy between first class and second-class interpretations. The anthropologist’s information is not meant to be read by the concerned populations, but only by “the anthropologists world”. The hermeneutic exchange between the anthropologist and the “anthropologized” resembles the exchange between settlers and colonized peoples, a deeply unequal exchange. This leads Clifford [11] to question the authority of the ethnographer, “his authority and his author-ity” to demand, following Roland Barthes [12] path, the author’s death, at least the individual author if not the collective author, and the reader’s accession to talk, here again, the collective reader, plural, rather than the anthropologist as the author, and ask for the “anthropologist account” as a literary piece. At the same time that appears a new paradigm - not as much for the anthropologist as for anthropology - the paradigm of negotiation (based on the negotiated portrait in photography), of dialogue, of conversation, of inter-subjectivity, of sharing (and not only “exotic sharing”), between anthropologist and “anthropologi-zed”, of even an effective reciprocity, every one ethnography-ing and starting to interpret “the other”. Nevertheless, one also has to take into consideration that the arrival of the paradigm of the artist as an anthropologist is to be connected with the coming -that we can deplore, alongside with Adorno, without being trapped in a heavy reactive modernism - of art in the broader field of culture - as Krauss is talking about the “broader field” of sculpture when referring to Serra and others - that anthropology is traditionally meant to “control”, although its monopoly is nowadays being threatened by the competition of cultural studies. Yet, at the same time, what seems to give the art base on anthropology, a more ethical than political character, when political reflux is allowing an ethics come-back, that is not at all the same thing, (let’s not mistake ethics and morality), and even though, as mentioned by Gilles Lipovetsky [13], it would only be “light” soft ethics, without any deep commitment. Deconstruction, as the old sublime category already was, of the aesthetic-ethics distinction. We do not have here the consensual neo-humanistic, egalitarian, “Family of Man” style of ethics, but rather the ethics of the Other, of the Other with a capital O, ethics of the difference and anthropology defining itself now by opposition to sociology, not as the investigation of man, but as the quest of the Other. Not so much the social Other, but the cultural Other. A passage from a subject defined in terms of economical relationships - perhaps political relationships already - of political exploitation (producer and worker) to a subject defined in terms of cultural identity, representing an “oppressed”, “subjugated” sub-culture. This goes together with the growing interest in the problem of identities in the age of globalization (what Foster rightly links to a definite recent come-back of the subject- and even to a substantial subject-following the Structuralism and post-Structuralism period with the death of the subject and the death of the man, primarily, the death of the author – including also the liberal subject, non substantial, even if the on-going rise of the identities does not reject globalization as much, since it does not belong there. Yet, this would be a pre-defined subject rather than a subject in progress). And with the idea – as it was the case for the paradigm of the artist as a producer - that the artist generally only has a limited access to this otherness. Because of the anthropology crisis itself, which for its part, necessitates a re-conversion, otherness non only of the old “primitive” (although this otherness was reduced by its re-conduction to a previous state of “the evolution” of the Same) -otherness that modernist primitivism had already sought in the past -, otherness of the faraway (with a part of exotism), that otherness of the close-by, with, according to Foster, the risk of being self indulgent like Michel Leiris in his search of the Other within himself, in the interiorization of the Other, in the “auto-ethnography” (just like psychoanalysis had rejected the practice of auto-analysis), to project in the other one’s own ideal – or should we say in one’s ideal of the self?-, and to negate the Other as such. Where ethnography used to be in competition with psychoanalysis (the Lacanian Other). Foster sustains that anthropology has now replaced psychoanalysis as the science of the otherness. Anthropology of the close-by can be multi-facetted, from the anthropology practiced by the artist as the anthropologist of his daily routine, of his family, of his friends, to the anthropology practiced by the outlaws, the homeless, and other nomads, migrants or illegal aliens, rejected by the “system”… those who are now taking the status of the proletariat in the past. This is still true when the ethics of the Other seems to always copy this Other, absolutely Other as close as could it be, on the absolutely Other without any expectation of the divine, the transcendence, the Other being always caught in a “double bind” between subordination to the Same which denies him (consensual ethics) and absolutisation (ethics of the Other). In particular, a field investigation, on what Marc Augé [14] calls the non-sites, (wastelands, fallow lands… which, more than surrounding our cities (with all the threat intended), distinctions center/suburbs established to reproduce colonialism and post-colonialism, being less and less pertinent appear and pierce the urban space. Art meant to rehabilitate more than to denounce these non-sites, rehabilitation not in the usual urbanism sense, but tending to transform these non-sites into a true anthropologist place according Augé’s definition (that he borrowed from Certeau [15] ). Nevertheless, this represents a risk to (eco) museum-ize them, to show them off, to turn them into new reservations or new attraction fairs, even into new human zoos, and to make a show, mythical-ize or hero-ize the outcasts themselves, to make a show of the other’s distress just like the so-called humanitarian photography does. This is the reason why Anthony Hernandez, a Los Angeles photographer, photographed for Landscapes for the Homeless the “homes”[16] of LA “homeless people”, choosing, thus avoiding any voyeurism, by not ever showing homeless people themselves, but only showing the traces they left behind. Camp traces, basic and temporary set-ups, with the goal of not forging a better utopia world (utopia is now taking refuge in the micro-utopia found in the trendy openings at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris ), but with the idea of resisting as much as possible and going as far as to elaborate, in other countries, a sort of infra-architecture, similar to the traces left behind on the land by nomads and similarly to the favelas (they were the inspiration for Japanese artist Tadashi Kawamata’s Field Works - “field works” being the term used in anthropology to designate work in the field - and his own “favelas” that he built himself particularly in Houston at the bottom of high tech modern sky scrapers designed for wealthy individuals as a type of architectonic montage. Transient traces themselves of transient developments that photographic traces are trying to perpetuate in documenting them. Those who left the traces are never seen and have disappeared “for those remaining”. That is the reason why Régis Durand [17] said that, in fact, Hernandez didn’t pretend to be an anthropologist since he never directly dealt with the concerned populations, unlike traditional anthropologist field investigations which looked for subjects, or rather, some of them, “the informers”, like in the Chicago School, see the anthropologist as an active-observer who mingle with the populations he is studying. In fact, Hernandez’s photos always tend to magnify the non-sites that they are reproducing in putting them back, as the title of the series indicates, in the great tradition – genre – of the American West landscape photography, which is filled with spiritualism. During the winter of 97-98, Jacqueline Salmon in Chambres précaires [18] searched for rooms in the shelters provided by good will organizations for the homeless people during the wintertime. Rooms that, unlike what Virginia Woolf [19] claimed as “a room of her own”, have to be entirely vacated at dawn, by body and personal effects, in order to get people to “work” at looking for jobs, or at least, for food. The spaces shown by Jacqueline Salmon are emptied of their transient occupants, unlike the fallow lands photographed by Hernandez that are free of all marks of appropriation, with the added inconvenience that the outcast finds himself excluded twice; he’s excluded both from the non-sites that precarious rooms are themselves (even if Marc Augé’s notion of non-site can be too open, too vague, since it includes waste grounds, 3 stars hotel rooms and precarious rooms, supermarkets, as well as highways and their surroundings) and he is excluded from the image, he is off-site. He is not so much put at a distance, “distanciation”, than kept in exclusion. “Rooms without a soul” but paradoxally, the photos bring back the presence of the passing occupants, those who went by and disappeared in the urban material, as a transcendance. There is a sacralization of the homeless, in the excessively religious side of Jacqueline Salmon’s usual architecture photos (that are, in fact, the content of Chambres précaires, as in Hernandez’s pictures are landscape photos). There is no longer an aesthetic representation, but an aesthetic presentation, where the homeless replace divinity. Sublimation of the excluded where a religious character, that too often the characterizes humanitarian photography, Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother, (which appears to be humanitarian photography before the term was coined in the United States by the FSA during the Depression but, since it was de-territory-ized could also, later be used as a symbol for other causes, for instance for the Spanish Civil War), Georges Mérillon’s Piéta de Kosovo, and Hocine’s Algerian Madona (sic), despite some differences. Aesthetics – or ethics – of the presence-presentation (rather than, as sustains Thierry de Duve [20], presence-absence) can, in some cases, come down to a simple pull back (rather than a total absence) like in Jacqueline Salmon’s other series of photographs called Le Hangar [21] taken in 2001 in the now dismantled Sangatte Center (that can rather be assimilated to Michel Foucault’s [22] heterotopia than a non-site or a counter-utopia). If here again, homeless bodies are mostly absent, photographers show only makeshift beds, like here, folding beds, but also, in order to prove that the place has been occupied, some drying laundry, some strewn items of clothing and shoes. A few sleeping men are appearing furtively in the shot. They are mostly hidden under their covers, they have no faces, they are not identifiable - that was probably necessary for security purposes – and they tend to lose all human characteristics and therefore they become a thing. De-speculation, de-dramatization (like in Edouard Manet’s L’Exécution de l’empereur Maximilien where “the main event”, the historical event, the subject of historical painting, becomes de-dramatized, unlike Goya’s Trois mai 1808), indeed, against “shock aesthetic” – if only there is a “shock aesthetic” – as found in humanitarian photography, risking to bring back the scene from an historical event to a less important event, to bring back the scene in total indifference. Wouldn’t it be just then, to give back the illegal alien or the outcast his right to the image, rather than keeping him in the absence of image, in the exclusion of image? Andres Serrano tried to do that in his series entitled Nomades where he photographed homeless people in an improvised studio set in the New York subway; but, in using too much Caravagio’s chiaroscuro (Caravagio also picked street guys as models), he monument-ized (here, opposition monument-document) those he was photographing. Jens Haaning, the Danish photographer, attempted also to capture first generation immigrants in Copenhagen, in a trendy fashion photo style, as if they were famous top models, with detailed list of their clothing, showing labels and prices, just like in Bret Easton Ellis’ novel, American Psycho. At the same time, he was preparing The refuge Calendar, in 2002 where he used asylum seekers in Finland instead of the usual pin-ups. This takes us away from the anthropological model, and leads us to many more models coming from high culture or low culture. Gabriela de Gusmao Pereira is precisely the artist who comes closest to the anthropologist model. In Invention Streets [23], she photographed in the streets of Rio de Janeiro, and everywhere else in the world, including in France, not the condition of the destitute, but their resourcefulness, their inventiveness, “the art without art” of the homeless - often effectively visible in her photos – in founding shelters, building themselves rest areas, carrying their burden or selling various small items, non only in order “to survive” - survival being the last resort, a sub-life – but to actually live their lives. Similar gimmicks found in Michel de Certeau [24] show, in their own way, how the homeless resist to being crushed by the so-called consumer society. This is different from “la pratique de la perruque” studied by Michel de Cerneau, where working people are using their work tools for a personal use; we are dealing here with unemployed people who are diverting various consumer society reminders, such as supermarket trolleys. We are far from Krystof Wodiczko’s homeless vehicles or “aliens staff” which, if they were ever available to the outcasts, with the pretense of introducing them to the passers-by, not only would keep them in their otherness, but would also isolate them in their otherness even more. In this case, the fact that homeless people are often visible in the photos is not a problem, since they are neither presented in a victimized way, which would tend crushing them more, nor in a militant mode, but as a source of great creativity. We can regret at the most that Gabriela de Gusmao Pereira is never seen herself on her photos, that whatever room “allocated” to the creativity of those that she photographs, her work still stays in a “one way” direction. The group Stalker (who took over Andrei Tarkovski’s film title) also got interested in the creativity of the oppressed – the architectural creativity — and is based in Rome. It presents itself as an “urban art lab” with swing-wing geometry, whose composition varies according to the types of projects the group is involved with, and was founded by a group of architects in association with various other architects, artists, photographers, video artists, and anthropologists (except that in this case, the anthropologist is only a model for the artists). They are very fond of walking and therefore, they become walker-architects who are nomads themselves, instead of the usual sedentary characteristics of architecture, and unlike any spectacular-isation, they experiment from the inside the urban phenomenon through their walking, just like the walker-sculptors (Richard Long, Hamish Fulton…), widely using photography, with the difference that Stalker’s walks are on urban territory and not on rural territory. These walks are also to be “situated” in the Situationist drift scene, with the difference that they are not taking place in residential areas, but in what Stalker calls “current territories” – current in a sense of temporary – a more limited notion than the non-site notion referring to waste grounds, fallow lands, and other urban zones, not so much peripheral or marginal, but in-between zones generated by urban metropolis while waiting for redistribution and constitute the dregs of urban civilization. Stalker draws maps of the current territories after the walks, that is a model, this time effectively a cartographic or geographic models, even if those maps are meant to help losing usual geographic and tourist landmarks. Cartography –maps and not carbon copies - to take the term of Deleuze and Guattari [25] – of other sites – heterotopia or Temporary Atonomous Zones (TAZ) [26] types, temporary themselves – and of other forms of life trying to escape predetermined rules enacted by architects, town planners, research departments, politicians and planners of all sorts, to escape control, and invent all types of new possibilities: squats, illegal constructions, “wild vegetables gardens”… An architecture without architects being models for other architects themselves. As it happened in Pessac [27], the inhabitant would be accused of “denaturalizing” architecture –in this case, Le Corbusier’s architecture – by doing some changes in order to take it over – it has been said that modernist architecture was not, in fact, a housing machine since it was not habitable, a piece of furniture brought in a house built, for example by Mies van der Rohe was perceived as an intrusion-, the inhabitant is here responsible if not for the architecture, for the habitat, such as, according to Duchamp, the observer is drawing the portrait, or in the portraits “executed” by some portraitists, the portrait-ized is painting the portrait, not the portraitist. Thus, Stalkers’practices become de facto a modernist functionalism criticism. Even though Stalker since returned to the conception of artist as an ethnographer but rather as a social re-mediator, and that is very questionable, since social re-mediation is almost always an illusion, because it only soothes the pains without being able to resolve pending problems. As the cartographic paradigm was also adopted by the architect Stefano Boeri and his Agency Multiplicity based in Milan, and associated with various artists (including the photographer Gabriele Basilico), - they have undertaken researches about “eclectic atlas”, in using heterogeneous supports without any pseudo-unity stitching up of contradictions - trying to explore the relationship between land transformations, vertical regulation systems and the proliferating forms of local auto-organization. The artist, rather than talking on the behalf of the proletariat or the outcasts, could try, if not “to free the speech”, or at least, to give voice to those who cannot speak out, who does only in a “fixed” way, like on television during reality shows. It could be another paradigm, the artist as spokesperson, opposed here again, to Wodiczko’s spokesperson, who is seen more as a gagging instrument than a true spokesperson… Jean-Claude Moineau Paris, November 10 th, 2005 Notes: [1] Nicolas BOURRIAUD, « Time Specific Art contemporain, exploration et développement durable », Expérience de la durée, Biennale de Lyon, Paris musées, 2OO3. http://www.cfwb.be/lartmeme/no029/pages/page4.htm [2] Thomas KUHN, Thomas KUHN, « Comment on the Relations of Science and Art », 1969, The Essential Tension, Selected Studies in Scientific Tradition and Change, Chicago, University of Chicago, 1977. http://www.gallimard.fr/auteurs/Thomas_S._Kuhn.htm http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/Kuhnsnap.html [3] Joseph KOSUTH, «The Artist as Anthropologist», 1975, Art after Philosophy and After, collected Writings,1966-1990, Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press, 1991. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0262111578/002-1919957-9836809?v=glance&n=283155 [4] Hal FOSTER, « L’Artiste comme ethnographe, ou la “fin de l’Histoire“ signifie-t-elle le retour à l’anthropologie ? », tr. fr. Jean-Paul AMELINE, ed. Face à l’histoire, L’artiste moderne devant l’événement historique, Paris, Flammarion- Centre Georges Pompidou, 1996. http://www.cfwb.be/lartmeme/no026/pages/page7.htm http://www.lettrevolee.com/halfoster.htm [5] Walter BENJAMIN, « L’Auteur comme producteur », 1934, tr. fr. Paris, Maspero, 1969. [6] Ernst BLOCH, Erbschaft dieser Zeit, 1935, Frankfurt, Suhrkamp. http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/author/default.asp?aid=2188 [7] Clifford GEERTZ, Works and Lives : The Anthropologist as Author, Board of trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior university, 1988 http://www.sociotoile.net/article1.html http://www.melissa.ens-cachan.fr/article.php3?id_article=254 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0804717478/002-1919957-9836809?v=glance&n=283155 [8] James CLIFFORD, Malaise dans la culture, L’ethnographie, la littérature et l’art au XXe siècle, tr. fr. Paris, ENSBA, 1996. http://livre.archinform.net/author/James_Clifford.htm [9] Clifford GEERTZ, “Thick Description : Toward an Interpretative Theory of Culture”, in The Interpretations of Culture, New York, Basic Books, 1973. fr. Daniel CÉFAÏ, ed. L’Enquête de terrain, Paris, La découverte, 2003. http://lhomme.revues.org/document2042.html GEERTZ Clifford, “Thick Description : Toward an Interpretative Theory of Culture”, in The Interpretations of Culture, New York, Basic Books, 1973, http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/046503425X/002-1919957-9836809?v=glance&n=283155 http://www.amst.umd.edu/Research/cultland/annotations/Geertz1.html [10] Harold GARFINKEL, « Le programme de l’ethnométhodologie », 1996, tr. fr. L’Etnométhodologie, Une sociologie radicale, Paris, La découverte, 2001. http://www.unige.ch/fapse/SSE/groups/life/livres/alpha/F/Fornel_2001_A.html [11] James CLIFFORD, « De l’autorité en ethnographie, Le récit anthropologique comme texte littéraire », 1981, tr. fr. Daniel CÉFAÏ, op. cit. [12] Roland BARTHES, « La Mort de l’auteur », 1968, Œuvres complètes, tome II, Paris, Seuil, 1994. http://cernet.unige.ch/biblio/barth68.html [13] Gilles LIPOVETSKY, Le Crépuscule du devoir, L’éthique indolore des nouveaux temps démocratiques, Paris, Gallimard, 1992. http://www.gallimard.fr/ [14] Marc AUGÉ, Non-lieux, Introduction à une anthropologie de la surmodernité, Paris, Seuil, 1992. http://www.urbanisme.fr/numero/337/Ide/invite.html [15] Michel de CERTEAU, L’Invention du quotidien, tome 1, Arts de faire, Paris, Union générale d’éditions, 1980. http://www.bibliopoche.com/livre/L-invention-du-quotidien-Tome-I--Arts-de-faire/21374.html [16] Anthony HERNANDEZ, Landscapes for the Homeless, Hanovre, Sprengel Museum, 1995 et Landscapes for the Homeless II, Sons of Adam, Paris, Centre national de la photographie- Lausanne, Musée de l’Elysée, 1997. http://www.photographie.com/?evtid=105269&secid=2%20&PHPSESSID=7971868c65ae815830b11badf4b65e4c [17] Régis DURAND, « Fils d’Adam », Anthony HERNANDEZ, Landscapes for the Homeless II, op. cit. http://www.fetchbook.info/fwd_description/search_2867541085.html http://www.etudes.photographie.com/noteslect/ndl0309.html [18] Jacqueline SALMON et Paul VIRILIO, Chambres précaires, Heidelberg Kehrer, 2000. http://www.campusi.com/isbn_3933257352.htm [19] Virginia WOOLF, A room of Her own, tr. fr. Paris, Denoël- Gonthier, 1951. http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/woolf.htm [20] Thierry de DUVE, « Performance ici et maintenant : l’art minimal, un plaidoyer pour un nouveau théâtre », Essais datés tome 1, 1974-1986, Paris, La différence, 1987. http://home.netvigator.com/~jasperl/r%60tdd.htm#Brief%20Introduction [21] Jacqueline SALMON, Le Hangar, Paris, Trans photographic press, 2001. http://www.transphotographic.com/upload/fichier1141840590.pdf [22] Michel FOUCAULT, « Des espaces autres », 1967, Dits et écrits 1954-1988, tome IV, 1980-1988, Paris, Gallimard, 1994. http://foucault.info/documents/heteroTopia/foucault.heteroTopia.fr.html http://books.google.fr/books http://foucault.info/documents/foucault.entretienDangereux.fr.html http://www.word-power.co.uk/platform/Michel-Foucault-Books [23] Gabriela de Gusmao PEREIRA, Rua dos inventos – Invention Street, Rio de Janeiro, Ouro sobre Azul, 2004. [24] Michel de CERTEAU, op. cit. http://www.jesuites.com/histoire/certeau.htm [25] Gilles DELEUZE et Félix GUATTARI, Capitalisme et schizophrénie, tome 2 Mille plateaux, Paris, Minuit, 1980. http://www.uta.edu/english/apt/d&g/d&gweb.html http://www.webdeleuze.com/ http://www.revue-chimeres.org/guattari/guattari.html http://1libertaire.free.fr/Guattari16.html [26] Cf. Hakim BEY, T.A.Z. The Temporary Autonomous Zone. Ontological Anarchy, Poetic Terrorism, Brooklyn, Automedia, 1991. http://www.lyber-eclat.net/lyber/taz.html [27] Cf. Philippe BOUDON, Pessac de Le Corbusier, étude socio-architecturale, Paris, Dunod, 1969. http://www.archinform.net/quellen/57906.htm Jean-Claude Moineau’s biography: After studying linguistic, philosophy, math and music, Jean-Claude Moineau got involved during the 60’s, in numerous artistic and “meta-artistic” activities, mostly directed toward conceptual art, virtual poetry, events, performing pieces, mail art and “art beyond art”. He participates in various solo and group exhibitions and performances in Paris, in France and all over the world, and he collaborates with many French and international magazines. He is the co-founder of many groups and reviews, and he organizes the first Festival Permanent in Orléans, France. As did most 68’s artists, he then stoppes all artistic activity. Unlike many who started to get involved again, he refuses to resume his action, as if nothing ever happened before. He continues to be interested in art and in its apories, but in spite of it all, his thought processes remain “meta-artitic”, in the sense of “what relates" to (in a critical way) art. Since 1969 he teaches art theory at Paris VIII University where he launched and for a long time directed a First Cycle in Art Formation, while being aware of the on-going art world. He also participates in many talks and lectures and is curating many exhibitions. Main recent publications: - L’Art dans l’indifférence de l’art, Paris, PPT, 2001. http://www.e-ppt.net/pages/achats.html - « La Musique s’écoute-t-elle encore ? », Musiques d’aujourd’hui, Actualité en 26 propos, Conseil général de la Creuse, 1993. http://www.synesthesie.com/heterophonies/theories/moineaulamusiquetxt.html - « Who’s Afraid of Video ? », Giallu, Revue d’art et de sciences humaines n° 5, Ajaccio, 1995. - « Trop Much », Deuxième mois « off » de la photographie à Paris, Paris, 1996. http://www.myope.com/mois-off/off.html - « After Art After Philosophy », (Easy) Viewing, St. Denis, Musée d’art et d’histoire, 1997. - « Paragraphs on Contextual Art », Présenten° 1, Paris, 1997. - « Le Récit de l’art », Le Récit et les arts, Paris, L’Harmattan, 1998. http://www.harmattan.fr/index.asp?navig=catalogue&obj=livre&no=13666 - « Habiter le cyberspace ? », Episodic n° 4-5, Paris, 1998. http://www.e-ppt.net/pdf/catal_2006.pdf - « ça va faire mal », Output n 2, Séoul, 1999. - « Le Réseau de l’art », Output n°3, Séoul, 1999. - « Au-delà de la valeur d’exposition », Avis de passage, St. Brieux, ODDC Côtes d’Armor, 2001. - « ça va ça vient », BERNARDINI, Alain, 1995/2002, Brétigny-sur-Orge, Espace Jules Verne, 2002. http://www.sdnf.net/panoramic/panoramic.html - « A compte d’auteur » Allotopie n°B, Copyleft, Rennes, Incertain sens, 2003. http://www.uhb.fr/alc/grac/incertain-sens/commande.htm - « Fluxus : une critique artiste de l’art », Luvah hors série n°29, Besançon, Luvah- Dijon, Presses du réel, 2004. http://www.4t.fluxus.net/colloque01.htm http://www.4t.fluxus.net/40p-a-lo.htm - « Une théâtralité post-théâtrale », CORVIN, Michel et ANCEL, Franck, ed. Autour de Jacques Polieri, Scénographie et technologie, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, 2004. http://bibliographienationale.bnf.fr/Livres/M6_05.H/cadre792-1.html - « De la photographie comme opérateur critique à la photographie comme opérateur d’art », Ligeia, Dossiers sur l’art n°49-50-51-52, Paris, 2004. http://revue-ligeia.com/contenu.php?id=19 - « Qu’est-ce que l’art a à faire des images ? », Art grandeur nature 2004, Saint-Ouen, Synesthésie 2004. http://www.seine-saint-denis.fr/agn/ - « Le Concert des nations à l’ère de la globalisation », La Toison d’or, Laboratoire artistique flottant, Girold, Apollonia, 2004. - « Pour une nouvelle économie de l’art »,Guy CHEVALIER, Économies silencieuses et audaces approximatives, Paris, PPT, 2005. http://www.e-ppt.net/ -« Polyrythmie », Urban Rhythms Human Rythms, Pékin, Beijing Film Academy / Saint-Denis, Université de Paris 8, 2005. -« Fluxus, un en-jeu géopolitique », 20/21 siècles, Cahiers du Centre Pierre Francastel n°2, Fluxus en France, 2005. -« Étant donnés », Checkpoint n°1, 2006. Translation : Kristine Barut Dreuilhe Original version: L'artiste et ses "modèles" http://pourinfos.org/encours/item.php?id=3020 --------------- All text is available under the French license Creative Commons : non-commercial attribution – no derived work. 2.0. In order to encourage a free pedagogic or associative usage. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/fr/ ---------- [apostils] ---------- “Small annotations designed to remember things we have seen”. The word apostil comes from the Latin “post illa”, “after those things” and is generally written in the left margin, whether it is a legal document or the note that we added today at the bottom of a page. The purpose of this column is to publish an original text on a bi-monthly basis. pourinfos.org wishes to share periodically contemporary thoughts in a non-synchronized time/news (headlines) relationship with no further intention to become a magazine or a review. The articles that you will read in this column will not only debate matters about visual arts, but also about topics related to society, politics, techniques, etc… ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [apostils] [apostils] [apostils] [apostils] [apostils] [apostils] [apostils] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- http://pourinfos.org/indexclassic.php?rubrique=apostilles -- pourinfos.org -------------- XAVIER CAHEN Direction de la publication xavier.cahen at pourinfos.org http://www.pourinfos.org From shuddha at sarai.net Wed Apr 26 16:35:43 2006 From: shuddha at sarai.net (Shuddhabrata Sengupta) Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 16:35:43 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] secret history of delhi In-Reply-To: <83e991100604262216q6db35d8fibc22af51488005ad@mail.gmail.com> References: <83e991100604262216q6db35d8fibc22af51488005ad@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <444F5407.9040405@sarai.net> Dear Siddharth, I read with great interest your post on the secret history of Delhi, especially the description of Suhagpura. May I point out that the person you call Sarhad is actually a sufi poet of Armenian Jewish extraction who went by the name of Sarmad. And yes, it is indeed his grave (together with that of his preceptor, Hare-Bhare Shah) that rests at the foot of the Jame Masjid. Incidentally, the apocryphal story of the reasons for Sarmad's trial and execution goes beyond the question of Sarmad's nakedness and open homosexuality. It also includes his somewhat heterodox theological views. It is said that Sarmad (although he claimed he was a devout Muslim, following his conversion to Islam) would only recite one half of the first segment of the shahada or the Islamic confession of faith. Meaning instead of saying 'La Illaha il-lallah...', (there is no god but god) he would stop after the La Illaha, implying the statement, 'there is no god'. When asked how he reconciled his claim that he was a devout Muslim with the incomplete recitation, Sarmad was reported to have said - "the incompleteness of my recitation is a mark of my devotion. As of now, I have gotten as far as being able to understand the 'La-Illaha' or 'There is no god' part of the statement. When I am able to comprehend and understand the rest of the statement, I will definitely say it." It is said that the decaptitated head of Sarmad did make the complete recitation after the execution as Sarmad walked up the steps of the Jamae Masjid with his head in his hands. I have always found this figure very fascinating, because for me he represents the possibility of a spirituality of robust unbelief. And though I have never been blessed with faith, I have always considered myself to be a distant (in time) shagird of Sarmad. Which means, that whenever I go to Jame Masjid, I try and find the time to spend some time in the small red cube at the foot of the stairs that looks towards the Red Fort. Hope to read more secret histories from you, regards Shuddha Here below are two links that I found on Sarmad on the net. http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=257&letter=S http://www.crda-france.org/fr/6histoire/par_pays/inde_sarmad1.htm From sadan at sarai.net Fri Apr 28 11:29:31 2006 From: sadan at sarai.net (sadan at sarai.net) Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2006 11:29:31 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] [Fwd: Memorial meeting for Raj Chandavarkar] Message-ID: <4451AF43.4080004@sarai.net> -------------- next part -------------- An embedded message was scrubbed... From: History Department Events Subject: Memorial meeting for Raj Chandavarkar Date: Tue, 25 Apr 2006 07:07:47 -0700 (PDT) Size: 3984 Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060428/af007f33/attachment.mht -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From cahen.x at levels9.com Fri Apr 28 19:11:14 2006 From: cahen.x at levels9.com (xavier cahen) Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2006 15:41:14 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] pourinfos Newsletter / 04-21 to 04-27-2006 Message-ID: <44521B7A.9060701@levels9.com> pourinfos.org l'actualité du monde de l'art / daily Art news ----------------------------------------------------------------------- infos from April 21, 2006 to April 27, 2006 (included) ------------------------------------------------------------------- (mostly in french) New ! Apostils : The artist and his “models” by Jean-Claude Moineau http://pourinfos.org/encours/item.php?id=3019 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 01 Call : designFlux STARSHOOTER, x-shorts a contest of creation of moving graphic, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=3055 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 02 Call : bbb, center regional of initiatives for the contemporary art, Toulouse, France. http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=3054 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 03 Call : gaming realities, medi at terra 2006, Athène, Greece. http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=3053 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 04 Call : Marges n° 7 – Call for contribution: "Life of artist", Review Marges, Saint-Denis University, France. http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=3052 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 05 Call : seventh edition of Montreal's MUTEK festival, The Gathering, Montreal, Canada. http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=3051 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 06 Call : TROPIC FEVER, Barcelona, Spain. http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=3050 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 07 Residences : Residences of artist 2006-2007, Maison de la Culture de Nevers et de la Nièvre, Nevers, France. http://pourinfos.org/residences/item.php?id=3049 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 08 Various : ZERO ONE: ISEA2006 Online Forum, April 24 - May 29, San Jose, Usa. http://pourinfos.org/divers/item.php?id=3048 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 09 Variouss : Concert/Lecture, Steles for the emperor, Jean-Loup Philippe, Alain Kremski, Espace multimédia Gantner, Bourogne, France. http://pourinfos.org/divers/item.php?id=3047 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 10 Meetings : everithing can be explained, Les entretiens sur l'art avec Laurent Grasso, Espace Paul Ricard , Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=3046 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 11 Meetings : screenig followed by a philosophical discussion, Work, strategic user-friendliness and philosophical constraint, Éric Hamraoui, Écrans philosophiques, Wenesday May 3, 2006, Maison populaire, movie theater Georges Méliès, Montreuil, France. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=3045 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 12 Meetings : Sound landscapes and phonography of animals, Yannick Dauby, Tuesday May 16, Espace multimédia Gantner , Bourogne, France. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=3044 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 13 Meetings : AREAS OF the CONTEMPORARY ART, May 26 and 27 2006, MIX ART MYRYS, Toulouse, France. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=3043 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 14 Meetings : Lectures of the contemporary art, fictions and narrations, Friday April 28, 2006, École doctorale Langue, University Paris 7, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=3042 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 15 Meetings : The "duplicity" of the female pleasure, by Geneviève Morel, Ce qui force à penser, Tuesday May 2, 2006, Maison populaire, Montreuil, France. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=3041 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 16 Meetings : Christian Barani, Monday May 22, 2006, École d'art Gérard Jacot, Belfort, France. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=3040 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 17 Meetings : "I have appointment with an artist", Rencontres with 11 artists in Seine-Saint-Denis, France. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=3039 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 18 Formation : Workshop Amy Franceschini Futurefarmers April 27, 2006, Mains d’œuvres, Saint-Ouen, France. http://pourinfos.org/emploi/item.php?id=3038 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 19 Program : activities of Frac Nord - Pas de Calais for May, Dunkerque, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=3037 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 20 Exhibition : Salla Tykkä et Daniel Schibli au Centre pour l'image contemporaine, Geneva, Switzerland. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=3036 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 21 Exhibition : UrbaNet – Tango City, Kër Thiossane, Villa for art and new media, Dakar, Sénégal. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=3035 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 22 Exhibition : Savoir Pouvoir, Jakob Gautel, LA MARECHALERIE, centre d’art contemporain, Versailles, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=3034 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 23 Exhibition : EMERGENCY BIENNALE in CHECHNYA, Center for Contemporary Arts,Tallinn, Estonia. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=3033 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 24 Exhibition : ORCAILLE, HAPTIC, vestibule de La Maison Rouge, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=3032 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 25 Exhibition : MAF6 Thailand New Media Arts Festival, Bangkok, Thailand. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=3031 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 26 Exhibition : ground zero, Olga, Limoges, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=3030 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 27 Screening : Belzec, Guillaume Moscovitz, evening Brouillon d'un rêve Thurday April 27, 206, Scam, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=3029 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 28 Performance: Observable transitory numerical poetry, Saturday May 13, 2006, Espace multimédia Gantner, Bourogne, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=3028 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 29 Performance : "the miracle of the ballot boxes", Alexandra Fau, Saturday April 29, 2006, Maison des Arts de Malakoff, Malakoff, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=3027 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 30 Exhibition : DEMONTAGES - art video, Cave des celestines, Lille, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=3026 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 31 Exhibition : Zwy Milshtein, nd new opening of de l'Oeil écoute, Lyon, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=3025 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 32 Call : « Areas of Conflu(x)ence » Project, Luxembourg and Sibiu, Luxembourg, Romania. http://pourinfos.org/candidature/item.php?id=3017 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 33 Call : 00130Gallery Helsinki video work library, Helsinki, Finland. http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=3016 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 34 Call : " l'Ultime Etat ", Association ADADA, Nîmes, France. http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=3015 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 35 Call : International NoBudget VideoFilmfestival Weima, Germany. http://pourinfos.org/participation/item.php?id=3014 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 36 Residences : Shanghai Duolun MoMA Residency Program Autumn 2006, Shanghai, China. Today is Shanghai Time ! #1 http://pourinfos.org/residences/item.php?id=3013 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 37 Meetings : Saturday April 29, 2006, Association HB, Mairie du 19ème arrondissement, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=3012 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 38 Meetings : Dominique Fourcade, Friday May 12, 2006, centre international de poésie Marseille, Marseille, France. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=3011 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 39 Meetings : Conference on the work of Erik SAMAKH, May 4 and May 17, 2006, à Argenteuil et Cergy, France. http://pourinfos.org/rencontres/item.php?id=3010 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 40 Publication : Robert Barry : Details (DVD), Import n°5, Les presses du réel, Dijon, France. http://pourinfos.org/publications/item.php?id=3009 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 41 Various : ECOUTE_QUE_COÛTE 04 /06, L'Atelier de création radiophonique, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/divers/item.php?id=3008 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 42 Exhibition : PROJECTION VII, Patrick Rimond, Galerie KH15, Berlin, Germany. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=3007 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 43 Ehibition : Miss Van, Lagrimas de Mariposas, Galerie Magda Danysz, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=3006 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 44 Exhibition : installation multimédia "Tsagaan Yavaraï", Le collectif d'artistes Gigacircus, Sers, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=3005 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 45 Exhibition : seventy four and a day, Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Saint-Denis, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=3004 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 46 Exhibition : Madam the baronne was rather maniérée, enough rococo, and completely baroque, Centre d’Art Mira Phalaina, Maison Populaire, Montreuil, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=3003 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 47 Screening : Video Festival on April 23-27, 2006 in Germany, Poland, Austria and Slovakia. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=3002 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 48 Screening : I do not know what to make next Friday...., Friday 28 Avril 2006, studio PetaHertz, Montreuil. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=3001 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 49 Screening : "Disassemblings", festival Paysages Electroniques, Lille, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=3000 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 50 Performance : WJ-s / Web Performances, Monday April 24, 2006, Ars Longa, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2999 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 51 Exhibition : Emmanuel Régent, Pavillon Suisse, International University City, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2998 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 52 Exhibition : Heat, Marcel!, Fonds régional d’art contemporain de Languedoc-Roussillon, Montpellier, Nîmes, Alès, Milhaud, Villeneuve Lez Avignon, Sigean, Cases de Penne, Bélesta, Bagnols-les-Bains, France. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2997 ------------------------------------------------------------------- 53 Exhibition : ARTISTS FROM LATIN AMERICA, CACT centro d'arte contemporanea ticino, bellinzona, Switzerland. http://pourinfos.org/expositions/item.php?id=2996 From s0454533 at sms.ed.ac.uk Sat Apr 29 15:23:58 2006 From: s0454533 at sms.ed.ac.uk (A Khanna) Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2006 10:53:58 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] candle light vigil tomorrow Message-ID: <20060429105358.wu9imme3gggks44o@www.sms.ed.ac.uk> CANDLE LIGHT VIGIL Sunday, 30th April 2006 6:30 PM onwards Jantar Mantar The violent and forced eviction of people from their natural habitat and homes, be it in the Narmada Valley, the slums of Mumbai or Delhi, or the adivasi areas of Orissa, is a matter of increasing alarm and worry. It seems to be happening in a more and more systematic, calculated and sinister way. The government is clearly promoting this violent neoliberal paradigm of development at the cost of its people. We cannot remain silent any more. We will NOT tolerate this violation of democracy and human rights any more. Peoples' movements and struggles from across the country must come together and unite forces to fight this battle against injustice. NO MORE FORCED EVICTIONS!!!! NO MORE SLUM DEMOLITIONS!!! NO MORE DISPOSSESSION OF PEOPLE FROM THEIR HOMES, LANDS AND LIVELIHOODS!!! Come light a candle on 30th April at Jantar Mantar to express your solidarity with people's struggles for their rights. Please bring candles along with you to add to the lights of hope. From Narmada to Mumbai, from Delhi to Orissa... our struggle is ONE. This is a critical issue that concerns each one of us. Democracy is at stake. We must unite to speak truth to power!! The time is NOW!! PLEASE BE THERE!!! PLEASE PASS THIS MESSAGE ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW IN DELHI! In solidarity, Delhi Solidarity Group for the NBA and other movements against displacement for further details and route of march contact any of the following: Chandralekha Roy 29232515 insafdelhi at gmail.com 9818030423 Pramod Kumar 'Anand' 9213140945 kritian at krititeam.org 9810191719 sama_womenshealth at vsnl.net indianajonesiyer at vsnl.net delforum at vsnl.net rajendra_ravi at idsindia.net varshabelais at yahoo.com rawat_lhlrn at yahoo.com jagori at jagori.org From curator at lacda.com Sun Apr 30 23:03:53 2006 From: curator at lacda.com (curator at lacda.com) Date: Sun, 30 Apr 2006 10:33:53 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Call for Entries from L.A. Center for Digital Art Message-ID: <22082260.1146418433312.JavaMail.SYSTEM@ACTEA-C112-1> Open Call For Digital Art And Photography Los Angeles Center for Digital Art 107 West Fifth Street Los Angeles, CA 90013 Director: Rex Bruce Contact: lacda at lacda.com (do not reply to this email) Formatted version and complete prospectus: http://lacda.com/juried/juriedshow.html LACDA announces our juried competion for digital art and photography. Entrants submit three JPEG files of original work. All styles of 2D artwork and photography where digital processes of any kind were integral to the creation of the images are acceptable. The selected winner recieves 10 prints up to 44x60 inches on canvas or museum quality paper (approximately a $1500-$2000 value) to be shown in a solo exhibition in our main gallery from June 8-July 1, 2006. The show will be widely promoted and will include a reception for the artist. Second place prizes: Five second place winners will receive one print of their work up to 24x36 inches ($150-$200 in value) to be included in upcoming group shows. Second place winners will be scheduled into group shows within twelve months of announcement of winners. Consideration is given to placing these works in shows appropriate to their style, genre and/or content. These shows will be widely promoted and will include a reception for the artists. Special consideration will be given to all entrants for inclusion in future shows at LACDA. Many entrants from past competitions have already been included in our exhibits. Deadline for entries: May 21, 2006 Winners will be announced May 25, 2006. Registration fee is $30US. Direct link to for registration: http://www.acteva.com/booking.cfm?bevaid=110175 Online registration only. Complete prospectus: http://lacda.com/juried/juriedshow.html For questions email us at lacda at lacda.com. No phone calls please. Gallery Information: Los Angeles Center For Digital Art is dedicated to the propagation of all forms of digital art, supporting local, international, emerging and established artists. We have an ongoing schedule of exhibits and competitions, and produce editions of wide format archival prints. ==================================================================== Do *not* reply to this email. Send inquiries to lacda at lacda.com. Thanks! ==================================================================== ========================================================================== ** If you *do not* wish to receive these emails, please forward or send a message to ** ** removeme at acteva.com, and we'll remove you from the previte list. ** ========================================================================== From mallica_jnu at yahoo.co.in Sat Apr 29 21:44:50 2006 From: mallica_jnu at yahoo.co.in (mallica mishra) Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2006 17:14:50 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Building of Identity in a Hostel:The Case of the Tibetan Youth Hostel Message-ID: <20060429161450.30224.qmail@web8911.mail.in.yahoo.com> Dear All, Hi! This posting is way behind schedule (a little less than a fortnight) and am very apologetic about the same. Nonetheless, it seeks to explore links between the identities of Tibetan youth in Delhi and the place of their residence (in this case the Tibetan Youth in Rohini, Delhi). I have summed it up in the following paragraphs: Building Identity in a Hostel: The case of the Tibetan Youth Hostel in Delhi Refugeeism & identity For all groups of refugees the world over, the necessity to preserve; to hang onto segments of their original, native identity (which is seen as evolving from their native place of birth or origin) in the country of migration, is seen as essential. The older generations of people are specially loathe to give up their native identity and try to socialize their children through patterns of upbringing and social control to enable them to have within their personalities, elements of their original culture, tradition, language and identity, to the extent possible. Specific strategies are also incorporated and institutionalized by refugee communities for preservation of their cultures; languages and identities in exile through the mechanism of education (schools); religion (church/monasteries etc); political and economic organizations and other committees. Refugees, in this respect, need to be looked as active agents who strategize and negotiate in their place of migration to retain their essential and core identities. Identity is to be seen here as more than the basic idea(s) about the definition of the self and others categorization of the self or ‘I; Me and Myself’; it is to be seen as encompassing social; cultural; economic; religious; regional and political identity. Rather than taking identity as something given; it is to be seen as a process, which is socially and politically constructed. Identity, especially in the context of the Tibetan youth in Delhi seems to me to be an ongoing construction of a process taking place within the environs of a building, the Tibetan youth hostel in Rohini, Delhi which houses a substantial number of outstation Tibetan students pursuing graduation in Delhi University. Many of the youth I spoke with agreed that it is because of the stay of three years within its environs that many Tibetans are able to ‘retain’ their ‘Tibetanness’ that is seen as in danger of being washed away by the tide of external (Indian and global) cultures and influences of the city of Delhi. It is this essential connection between the identities of Tibetan youth and the place of their residence (in this context the Tibetan Youth Hostel) that I seek to explore in this posting. Setting up of the Tibetan Youth Hostel: Preserving of roots in the city The Tibetan Youth Hostel was set up in the late 1990’s (probably 1997) because, alongwith other reasons like expensive stay in rented accommodation etc, it was believed that the Tibetan youth was ‘losing touch with Tibetan related studies’. The project proposal (for the setting up of the hostel) states in unequivocal terms that the Tibetan education that children receive in Tibetan schools was getting eroded with the children receiving higher education in Delhi University and other Indian universities after school. The project proposal clearly states this saying that ‘In order to preserve the Tibetan identity, the Tibetan children are diligently taught Tibetan language, religion, history and culture as part of their school curriculum. However in Indian colleges, Tibetan related education is not available. Hence during their 3 to 7 years in college, the Tibetan students are totally out of touch with Tibetan related studies. This puts a stop (to the former) and many forget what they had diligently learnt in school. Since preservation and promotion of Tibetan culture amongst the new generation of Tibetans is crucial for the survival of the Tibetan community as a whole, we need to address this problem’. It was believed (by the Department of Education of the Tibetan government in exile, the implementing agency of the project) that the setting up of the hostel in Delhi would solve the above problem and it would be a major step towards preserving and promoting Tibetan language and culture in the city of Delhi, a place with the largest concentration of Tibetan students alongwith Chandigarh and Bangalore. The project proposal envisages the provision of ‘Tibetan related education’ in the hostel, with classes in Tibetan language and history ; organizing of Tibetan dance and music competition; discussions on latest political developments on Tibetan issues in the hostel etc. In this way, it was believed that the Tibetan students ‘can keep in touch with their language, religion, culture and Tibetan way of life while receiving a modern education in the colleges’. The Tibetan Youth Hostel in Rohini(East) It is located in a quiet neighbourhood (even though the main road and metro station is located a little distance from hostel and the local fire station also emits noises of sirens and occasional drills ). The rickshaw-wallas know the hostel as a place where the ‘Nepalese’ stay. There is a small market nearby which the students have named as ‘chota Prashant Vihar’ (the ‘bada’ or the normal Prashant Vihar is a proper shopping complex at a larger distance from the hostel). This is the place where they hang around sometimes in the evenings (girls always in groups) to have tea and snacks or to buy knick-knacks etc. Just outside the hostel, there is a small shop of a chai-wallah who also gets the students as customers in the evenings. Religion & Identity in the hostel The building is huge and impressive to look at and very aesthetically done. The architecture of the building is very ‘Tibetan’ and one is struck by the sheer visual appeal of it as soon as one steps inside the hostel gates .It is brightly painted with the traditional colors of things denoting ‘Tibetanness’: red; yellow; blue and green. The religion of Tibetan Buddhism and particularly the institution and persona of His Holiness The Dalai Lama seems to emerge as the most important element, which constitutes the core of Tibetan identity in exile in India. This is also visible in the structure and ambience of the building that seeks to preserve Tibetan identity and to ‘protect’ the students from outside influences, as a cocoon would do to larvae of a butterfly. In the lawn there is a huge pole with prayer-flags attached to it fluttering in the breeze. These prayer-flags called ‘therchock or tarchok’ come in various colors and with prayers embossed upon them, are hoisted aloft to drive away evil spirits and to bring plenty and prosperity’. They also “symbolize the undying continuity of the hoary Tibetan tradition”(Saklani,1984:441). The building is spruced up during festivities like losar (Tibetan New Year).There are also huge urns made of concrete in the premises used for burning traditional Tibetan incense during festivities like Losar During my visit to the hostel during Losar ,I saw ceremonial Tibetan scarves called Khartak or Khadar tied around these urns. The Food There is a mess for students that, does not serve lunch (except on weekends). This is because during lunchtime students are expected to be in college and usually eat out in their college canteens. The mess hall has framed pictures of His Holiness The Dalai Lama as well as huge boards with quotations of His Holiness painted on the same displayed for the students benefit. These largely talk about the importance of preserving Tibettanness in exile; of being good human beings; of being good and compassionate towards everyone, especially to Indians. The food is prepared by mostly Indian workers who prepare a combination of Tibetan and Indian food, for instance rice with vegetables cooked with meat. In the evenings tea is served (sometimes with biscuits and post –Losar with a traditional Tibetan snack called Khapse). There is a canteen also inside the premises, with traditional Tibetan food on its menu, like Tibetan momos; Thukpa; Tingmo alongwith fried rice ; fruit juice and also Indian food like rajma-chawal etc. This is the place where students can get their grub at any time of the day (specially the ones who bunk college!) till 9pm in the night. There are also those who cook instant noodles in their rooms if they feel like it. Activities in the hostel Alongwith the physical layout and character of the building which is very Tibetan the activities taking place within its environs also contribute towards keeping the youth informed of political and other events taking place in Tibet and in exile and consciously strive to preserve their identity as Tibetans. There are notice-boards outside the hostel office; in the girls and the boys wing (both are separate) which display circulars issued by the Regional Tibetan Youth Congress (RTYC) about upcoming socio-cultural and political events encouraging students to participate in the same; posters of movies (on the Tibet issue) being shown inside the campus; of upcoming workshops by placement agencies such as YOTA etc. There are also posters of organizations working for the cause of Tibet such as Students for Free Tibet etc on the board exhorting the youth to work for the cause of Tibet. There is a prayer-room also inside the building where every Wednesday prayers are held by the students union of the hostel for the health and well being of His Holiness The Dalai Lama. The students union also organizes other religious activities like releasing into the water live fish caught in fishermen’s net with the prayer that these acts of compassion will enhance the health and well being of His Holiness. Alongwith the celebration of important days in the Tibetan calender , the hostel informs and encourages the students to participate in activities organized by the TibetanYouth Congress. Such activities have, however, dwindled off late, with the offices of RTYC being shifted from the hostel to some other area of Delhi (Budh Vihar,ISBT). On occasions such as March 10th (Tibetan Uprising Day), buses organized by the RTYC take students for protest demonstrations at Jantar-Mantar; outside the Chinese Embassy etc and bring them back. RTYC also encourages the students to volunteer and contribute to collection of funds for the former’s activities by participating in cultural programmes and traditional Tibetan dance and song held in Tibetan settlements all over the country. Most of the students, it seems participate enthusiastically in these programmes and demonstrations as they see it as ‘doing their bit for the cause of Tibet’s freedom’. The Hostel Magazine The hostel also has an editorial board that brings out a monthly magazine called ‘The Month’. This journal has articles and poems written by Tibetan students and ex-students and is an important forum that enables the students to voice their opinions and voices on issues of importance and concern to them. A cursory glance at the January 2006 issue of the journal reveals a picture of the Potala palace in Lhasa as the magazine cover with the words “The Month pays its deepest respect and prayers on the glorious 70th birth anniversary of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama and also for the success of the 2006 Kalachakra in Amravati. May his lotus feet continue to remain for the generations to come leading us from darkness towards freedom’. A look at the cover-page as also some of the articles of the journal give an idea about what constitutes the identity of Tibetan youth, in the city of Delhi. Religion seems to be very important (the issue paying respect and prayers to the persona of His Holiness as well as for the success of the Kalachakra discourse held in Amravati). The pride in being Tibetan and of belonging to a Tibetan nation in exile (borne out of and strongly influenced by the leadership of His Holiness The Dalai Lama and by the re-creation of traditional institutions in exile) is also evident. There is the picture of the Potala Palace on the cover-page as also tid-bits of information, for instance, ‘Tibet has a recorded history of 2000 years as an independent nation’ (pg:4) There are articles and poems, which speak about the angst of being a refugee while at the same time expressing a sense of pride in the same. One such poem is titled ‘I was born in Tibet’ by a student called C.D. A few of its lines shed light on the above, “I was born in Tibet. But I don’t feel I was. I have been deprived of my union with my country But, I still call myself a Tibetan. For I am a citizen of The Dalai Lama.” Many of the articles and poems(for instance, poems titled, ‘Mysterious Gal’ by Dikyi Wangmu and ‘What is love’? by Tsedor), however, also reveal that closely tied to this identity of Tibettanness are also parts of their identity that are similar to youth all over the world, which is brought about by what sociologists’ term ‘youth culture’ which is influenced by forces of globalization and Macdonaldization of the world. Hall(1992) , for instance, suggests three possible consequences of globalization on cultural identities: erosion, strengthening and the emergence of new identities or ‘new ethnicities’. Hall has coined the term ‘global post-modern’ to refer to ‘a perceived breakdown of all established cultural identities, the fragmentation of cultural codes, pluralisation of styles, and emphasis on the ephemeral, fleeting, aspects of contemporary culture, coupled with the global ubiquity of such features of youth culture as the jeans and trainers uniform’: “the more social life becomes mediated by the global marketing of styles, images and places by globally networked media, the more identities becomes detached-disembedded-from specific times, places, histories and traditions and appear free-floating” (Hall cited in Gillespie,1995:17). In the context of the identities of Tibetan youth in the city of Delhi also, what seems to emerge are lives colored by the ‘global post-modern’ life (as evident, for instance, in the plurality of music they seem to like: songs from blockbuster Hindi films; western rock and roll; hip-hop and also a new genre of modern Tibetan music) coupled with features of youth culture like the jeans and trainers ‘uniform’. There seem to be however, limits to the above and to the extent to which their identities have become ‘free-floating’ or ‘homogenized’. There is also a powerful connection to their ethnicity and to their identity as Tibetan and as refugee that institutions in exile, with the persona of His Holiness The Dalai Lama seek to constantly recreate and forge. A case in point is an article, ‘Refugees in a Globalised World’ by Tenzin Dechen, a student of Political Science in Hindu College who writes, “Let us be refugees who can hijack a site, rock the dance floor, analyze political systems, speak the American tongue and above all be a true Tibetan with heart which has its virtues and priorities intact. So lets face and accept what globalization has to offer and in return spread our ethics and thus teach the world the Art of Peace preventing a Third World War, after all a well mixed salad is worth tucking in” (Tenzin Dechen,2006:9). The hostel magazine is yet another aspect of life in the hostel and shed light on how different notions of Tibetan-ness are being defined; given meanings to; negotiated and lived out in everyday lives of the students of the hostel. Place as a marker of identity What seems important to me is that these notions of Tibettanness and Tibetan identity are being imagined, forged and lived during these years of pursuing graduation from Delhi University as residents of the Tibetan Youth Hostel. The building, its environs and ambience are important as they were created with the prime purpose of preserving Tibetan identity of the youth in the city and this is largely what life within its walls seems to have brought about for the students who reside in it. This does not, however, mean that the students here are not exposed to and influenced by the sights, smells and sounds of the city and its global culture. The same influences them and also reflects upon their sense of their multiple and plural identity (as visible from their tastes in music and clothes, as stated before; in food; in choice of friends; movies etc). Life within the building, however, also seems to preserve their essential identity as Tibetan by keeping them informed and engaged in activities ‘for Tibet’ and ‘for His Holiness The Dalai Lama’. A ‘we-feeling’ and a sense of belonging to the same community is also a natural result of staying together and so is preservation of language, with all the students and staff conversing in Tibetan with each other. Space as Massey (1994) argues, ‘is not ‘empty’ but is produced culturally by social relations.That is, the spaces of home, nation, classroom,front room and so on, are constructed in and through social relations and are invested with emotional commitment in order that space becomes place, according to Silverstone(1994) marked by feeling. That is, places are spaces invested with human experiences, memories, intentions and desires which act as important markers of individual and collective identity’(cited in Baker, Chris,1999:116). As Tenzin Tamdin , a resident of the hostel says, “I believe that staying in the Tibetan Youth Hostel has really enabled me to be more aware of my identity as Tibetan and has strengthened my desire to preserve this identity. I had stayed out for a year during this time I had no information about issues regarding Tibet , what was happening there and activities ; festivals etc being celebrated. “Tibettanness is there only if you are in like group”. Yet another student states, “I stayed for a year in the college hostel but shifted here because the food we used to get in the former was too spicy and I had stomach problems due to the same. I like staying here as it gives us exposure to events in Tibet and in exile.We also get proper Tibetan food here and the environment is Tibetan. Living outside in rented accommodations has its fair share of problems, like having to cook food. We don’t have to do that and it saves lots of time. Definitely the freedom is more outside, but we have a fair share of freedom here. Staying in the hostel has been very good, specially for girls who have studied in convents and have no idea about Tibetan culture. Some of them have improved Tibetan speaking skills and more knowledge about our culture; religion and also have had the opportunity to participate in processions of the TYC”. This is of particular help to Tibetan students who have studied in Indian English medium schools and are weak in their knowledge of Tibetan language, history and culture. The three-year stay in the hostel provides them with the necessary exposure to Tibetan language; culture and identity that had been previously lacking with their education in English-medium convent and missionary-run schools in the country. For instance, for Dawa Dolkar, a student of Political Science in Hindu College, Tibet , ‘became real’ only in the hostel. Before that, as a student of a convent missionary school in Nainital , she had no idea about Tibet. “Tibet was never in my dictionary earlier. Yahan aane par I found out that I am more Tibetan than maybe students from Tibetan schools”. What seems to be a common thread running across different stories is a deeply –felt need to preserve their “Tibetan-ness” alongwith a practical need to accommodate and adapt to their host and global cultures. These brightly hued tapestries of identities are woven in–side the hostel and its environs and to that extent the former becomes important as a marker of individual and collective identity. That’s all for now! I will be further exploring linkages between identities of Tibetan youth in the city of Delhi and several other aspects of life in the city that influence and shape the former in varied ways Regards! Mallica --------------------------------- Jiyo cricket on Yahoo! India cricket Yahoo! Messenger Mobile Stay in touch with your buddies all the time. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060429/87f34ad0/attachment.html From turbulence at turbulence.org Fri Apr 28 20:37:34 2006 From: turbulence at turbulence.org (Turbulence) Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2006 11:07:34 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Turbulence Commission: "HRRAAGHP-TING!" by Olen Hsu, Dana Karwas and Steven Lam Message-ID: <002801c66ad5$7e943be0$6601a8c0@t5x1c0> April 28, 2006 Turbulence Commission: "HRRAAGHP-TING!" by Olen Hsu, Dana Karwas and Steven Lam http://turbulence.org/works/utter/index.html "HRRAAGHP-TING!" is an Internet/video collaboration that connects image and sound filenames available on the web to create an infinite chain of associations. Extruded in real time, and in a linear format, they collapse the Internet's spatial organization into a single screen to create a cinematic experience. Each time "HRRAAGHP-TING!" is used, it generates an entirely different set of visual, aural and linguistic relationships. This Cagean play with chance destabilizes the intent and authorship implicit in the communication of information; perverts intellectual property through rampant decontextualization; and defies the expectations of the viewer through live reorganization. "HRRAAGHP-TING!" is a 2006 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funding from The Greenwall Foundation. BIOGRAPHIES OLEN HSU constructs installations in porcelain, paper and algorithmically composed sound, converging new media, tactile forms and works for acoustic instruments. He received his BA in Art History and Music from Yale University, a BFA in Ceramics from the Kansas City Art Institute, and an MFA in Sculpture from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. A fellowship from the Dedalus Foundation brought him to New York where he participated in the Artist in the Marketplace Program at The Bronx Museum of the Arts, the Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center Artist-in-Residence Program for New Music, and the BCAT/Rotunda Gallery New Media Artist Residency. Hsu is the recipient of grants from the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Joan Mitchell Foundation and the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. His recent work has been shown at The Bronx Museum of the Arts, the InterSpace New Media Arts Center in Sofia, Bulgaria, and James Nicholson Gallery in New York. The artist currently lives and works in New York City. DANA KARWAS received a baccalaureate degree in Architecture from the University of Kansas and holds a Masters in Interactive Telecommunications from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. She is the co-founder of Gorilla Kingdom, a multimedia production company based in NYC. Her main interest lies in transforming and redefining social spaces through the medium of technology. Her work is rooted in architecture and extends to the edges of social and cultural dimensions. She has taught workshops on interactive mobile technology and the connections between architecture and the visual and sonic arts at the Harvestworks Digital Media Arts Center, NYC. STEVEN LAM is interested in revealing how information becomes distributed, internalized, and performed. His practice is of glitches and reversals, re-enunciation, redubbing, recasting, and appropriation. He employs humor and a DIY sensibility to investigate contemporary issues dealing with institutional and media critique and the relationship of aesthetics with politics. Lam has exhibited at the Bronx Museum of Art, NY; Eyebeam, NY; LEF Embodied Technologies show at Art Interactive, Boston, MA; Silverlake Film Festival, Los Angeles, CA; Diverseworks, TX; The Windtunnel at Art Center College of Art and Design, CA.; Aljira: Center for Contemporary Art, NJ as well premiering video/choreographic work for various performance venues. He received his BA in Art History and Art from Trinity University, and a MFA from the University of California, Irvine. For more information about Turbulence, please visit http://turbulence.org Jo-Anne Green, Co-Director New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc.: http://new-radio.org New York: 917.548.7780 . Boston: 617.522.3856 Turbulence: http://turbulence.org New American Radio: http://somewhere.org Networked_Performance Blog: http://turbulence.org/blog Upgrade! Boston: http://turbulence.org/upgrade _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements