From lmadhura77 at gmail.com Mon Oct 1 00:09:47 2007 From: lmadhura77 at gmail.com (madhura l) Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2007 14:39:47 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] Urban Spaces and Identity Creation: Post # 5 Message-ID: <4dea04310709301139mb0ca65dr8dab27f5d7bc8001@mail.gmail.com> Hi all, Sincere apologies for missing on the last two postings, but I was busy organizing my visual data into a photoessay and it was a most interesting exercise to say the least. It is not comprehensive, the images serve as a lead to several areas which need to be explored in detail. But my aim in constructing this photoessay is to flag off certain larger themes that emerge from this study. I've also categorically made this into a format which is devoid of any jargon or a theoretical exposition on public spaces. For me, reaching to the maximum number of people with this theme is as important as elaborating upon the theme itself. I call my photoessay as 'Articulate Spaces' for self-evident reasons. It has been divided into 5 themes in all and I'm really sorry for the extremely unwieldy format that it has materialized onto my blog. If there is an easier way to organize all these images and the accompanying text I havent been able to figure it out. So any help in this regards is most welcome. The five themes are as follows: Locating the Vartaphalak Articulate Spaces What they say For Men Only... People behind the Words. I really look forward to your comments on the photoessay. Here is the link: http://vartaphalak-photos.blogspot.com/ Cheers, Madhura From peekayblr at dataone.in Mon Oct 1 07:44:01 2007 From: peekayblr at dataone.in (Tara Kashyap) Date: Mon, 01 Oct 2007 07:44:01 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] CFP M/C - Media and Culture Journal 2007 References: <20061120104614.c4re7n1c4qo000@mail.mbar.fi> Message-ID: <004401c803d0$bc22b050$0201a8c0@tara> Dear All Kindly note that we have changed over to Boradband, as such our new e-mail ID is peekayblr at dataone.in With Regards Tara Kashyap ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tapio Makela" To: Sent: Monday, November 20, 2006 2:16 PM Subject: [Reader-list] CFP M/C - Media and Culture Journal 2007 > M/C - Media and Culture > http://www.media-culture.org.au/ > is calling for contributors to the 2007 issues of > > M/C Journal > http://journal.media-culture.org.au/ > > M/C Journal is looking for new contributors. M/C is a crossover journal > between the popular and the academic, and a blind- and peer-reviewed > journal. In 2007, M/C Journal celebrates its tenth year in publication. > > To see what M/C Journal is all about, check out our Website, which > contains > all the issues released so far, at . > To find out how and in what format to contribute your work, visit > . > > Call for Papers > > M/C Journal is now calling for contributions to its six issues scheduled > for 2007. Articles should be up to 3000 words in length. > > > 'mobile': article deadline 17 January 2007, release date 14 March 2007 > edited by Larissa Hjorth and Olivia Khoo > contact mobile at journal.media-culture.org.au > > 'adapt': article deadline 9 March 2007, release date 2 May 2007 > edited by Patrick West and Jeanette Delamoir > contact adapt at journal.media-culture.org.au > > 'complex': article deadline 4 May 2007, release date 27 June 2007 > edited by Jayde Cahir and Sarah James > contact complex at journal.media-culture.org.au > > 'home': article deadline 29 June 2007, release date 22 August 2007 > edited by Andrew Gorman-Murray and Robyn Dowling > contact home at journal.media-culture.org.au > > 'error': article deadline 24 August 2007, release date 17 October 2007 > edited by Mark Nunes > contact error at journal.media-culture.org.au > > 'vote': article deadline 19 October 2007, release date 12 December 2007 > edited by Graham Meikle > contact vote at journal.media-culture.org.au > > For more information on these issues, please contact the editors, and see > . > > --------------------------------------------------------------------------- > M/C - Media and Culture is located at . > > > Tapio Makela > Researcher, media artist > tapio at translocal.net > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> From theunderscoredhood at gmail.com Mon Oct 1 12:56:47 2007 From: theunderscoredhood at gmail.com (Raheema Begum) Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2007 12:56:47 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [reader-list]Naomi Klein's 'The Shock Doctrine!' Message-ID: 'One of the world's most famous antiglobalization activists and the author of the best seller "No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies," Klein provides a rich description of the political machinations required to force unsavory economic policies on resisting countries, and of the human toll.' - Joseph Stiglitz Watch The Shock Doctrine : http://www.naomiklein.org/shock-doctrine/short-film From theunderscoredhood at gmail.com Mon Oct 1 13:21:51 2007 From: theunderscoredhood at gmail.com (Raheema Begum) Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2007 13:21:51 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [reader-list]Support the Burmese Uprisng Message-ID: Dear All, This is an avaaz.org petition to support the Burmese Resistance. http://www.avaaz.org/en/stand_with_burma In solidarity, Raheema. http://raahi.wordpress.com From sudeep.ks at gmail.com Mon Oct 1 14:51:28 2007 From: sudeep.ks at gmail.com (Sudeep K S) Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2007 14:51:28 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Campaign against death penalty Message-ID: See mail below. I have signed the online campaign at http://www.amnesty.org.in/dp/default.aspx -sudeep ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Joe Athialy Date: Sep 29, 2007 4:10 PM Subject: Campaign against death penalty : Online petition - An Appeal Dear friends, We are reaching out to you with an appeal to support our campaign against Death Penalty. Amnesty International (AI) along with many other organisation all over the world has been campaigning for the abolition of death penalty worldwide since the early Seventies. We oppose the death penalty in all cases and without exception believing it to be a violation of the right to life and the right not to be subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. The death penalty legitimizes an irreversible act of violence by the state and will inevitably claim innocent victims, as has been persistently demonstrated. The worldwide trend against death penalty has been gaining momentum, with the European Union moving a resolution in the upcoming 62nd UN General Assembly asking for a moratorium on death penalty. The campaign against death penalty is led by AI and World Campaign Against Death Penalty in mobilising support in favour of the resolution. For more details, please visit http://www.amnesty.org.in/dp/deathPenalty.aspx Among the few things that we are doing, one is an online petition. Please sign the petition at http://www.amnesty.org.in/dp/petition.aspx If you have any queries, please do not hesitate to revert back to us. Your help means a lot to us. Best, Joe Athialy Did you sign the petition? Take a minute to sign a petition on death penalty | http://www.amnesty.org.in/dp/default.aspx Joe Athialy Campaigns and Communication Coordinator Amnesty International India Program office: C 1/22, First Floor Safdarjung Development Area Hauz Khas, New Delhi - 110016 Tel:011-41642501, 26854763 Extn 22 Fax: 011-26510202 Email: joe at amnesty.org.in Web: www.amnesty.org.in From justjunaid at rediffmail.com Mon Oct 1 21:04:12 2007 From: justjunaid at rediffmail.com (junaid) Date: 1 Oct 2007 15:34:12 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to Pawan Message-ID: <20071001153412.14355.qmail@webmail6.rediffmail.com>   Mr. Pawan Durrani, Possibly you should have read Mridu Rai's book to understand why Dogra rule was 'Hindu' and why other rulers Mughals and Afghans could not be described as essentially 'Islamic', though it was surely Muslims who ruled. (By the way, there were no separate Turks and Mughals who came to rule Kashmir). An Islamic rule would be one where laws are made on the bases of Koran and Hadith, and would be called as Sharia. Both temporal and spiritual realms would be regulated by it. Both civil and criminal law would be quintessentially Sharia. And they are made by religious scholars. This was not the case for Mughals or Afghans: It was either laws made by the sovereign or the tribal laws. And even though both may have invoked Koran and Hadith, yet most of their content was inspired by local needs than religious zeal or inspiration. (I should not be understood as saying Islamic law is anyway superior to other laws, like tribal laws etc. Or that Afghans or Mughal rule was any benign.) For Dogras, who drew a fake Rajput lineage, with an opportunistic support from state-sponsored historians, both Dogra and British, the way they invoked Hinduism in ruling Kashmir was stupendous. It is no secret that poor Kashmiri Muslim peasants were stripped bare by Dogra rulers to fund temple constructions in not only Kashmir and Jammu, but in Punjab too. The Dogras restarted the hated practice of Begar (forced labour), originally invented by ancient Hindu rulers of Kashmir. Begar resulted in wide spread death and destruction of Kashmir Muslims. Thousands of Muslim youth perished carrying load, like mules, barefooted, to Maharaja's Gilgit frontier. And while this was going on, Kashmir's Hindu population, laying exclusive claim to literacy, and through their landed influence, sustained this terrible rule loyally. (And they were powerful even during Mughal and Afghan times, when they occupied much of the bureaucratic positions). Dogras depended on the so-called Pandits to extract revenue from Kashmir's poor Muslim peasants as well as artisans. At times, despite verbal protests from even the East India Company officials who were so brutal in their own way, Gulab Singh took away half of the produce of the Muslim peasants. In his greed to collect more booty he even taxed marriages among Muslims. The Hindu Kashmiris were exempt. The Dogras took away the lands of some leftover Muslim elite and reduced them to penury, but during this time, the Hindu landlords expanded their estates. Thus a miniscule Hindu population, not more than 5 percent, came to rule 95 percent Muslims of Kashmir. That too brutally. Pawan Durrani should be given compensation for the grand estates his forefathers had to give up. But who will compensate all those millions of rickety, malnourished, barely clothed Kashmiri Muslim peasants who were not only materially degraded but dehumanized too? In 1947, by a sleight of hand, and without bothering to ask Kashmiri Muslims, who constitute an overwhelming majority of its people, Kashmir was handed by a Hindu ruler to India. In this, some Muslim political leaders were coaxed too; they realized but only too late. During this time, many Kashmiri Muslim leaders were forced into exile. During the same time, hundreds of thousands of Muslims from Jammu were either forced to flee or massacred. A bearded Kashmir Muslim militant provokes a frenzied response from Pawan, and he begins to shout: "Hatay Mauji, Islamic Fundamentalism hay aau!" For him an Indian soldier with a tilak on his forehead, a saffron ribbon around his waist, a poster of Shivji hanging inside his bunker is Bharat Mata's secular poot. In 1990, Kashmir's Hindus made a choice: They wanted India. That is why they left. No doubt there was a threat perception. Some Hindus were killed. According to Sumantra Bose out of 273 killings by 20th January 1990, almost 73 were Hindus. No doubt, disproportionate. Most of these were highly influential Hindus, including a Jan Sangh leader. No other minority left. Even though, many Sikhs were killed in Chattisinghpura, (by who, we should know by now) they remained in Kashmir. In a state-sponsored exodus one and a half lakh Hindus were transported overnight to Jammu and other Indian cities. And remember it was a day after Jagmohan took over as governor, and promised to punish Kashmiri Muslims. True to his word, after many Hindus left, he imposed a protracted curfew strangulating Kashmir's Muslims. Dozens of Kashmir's Muslims were massacred at a number of places. Gaw Kadal, just being one example. In Jashne Azadi, nowhere is it said that 60000 Muslims have been killed in 15 years. Although even by conservative estimates 80000 Kashmiri Muslims have been killed over these years (some believe that even the 10000 odd disappeared have been eliminated too), but the film leaves it open. It states how the actual number is widely conflicted. It is not Kashmiri Muslims who Arabicized Kashmiri names. (Give examples if you can). It is in fact Dogras who Sanskritised it, and India which sustained it. Consider, for example, changing the popular name Islamabad to an official Anantnag. And it is not Kashmiri Muslims who deny Kashmir's ancient Hindu rulers, but Kashmir's Hindus who deny the existence of Kashmir's Muslims. It is as if all Kashmir is about is its miniscule Hindus. It is as if the only tragedy in Kashmir is that of its Hindus. As if death, destruction, plunder and rapine of its Muslims is not an issue that merits world's attention. It is time world speaks about Kashmir's Muslims. Much has been spoken about Hindus. Many lethargic comparisons have been made with Holocaust. Many chick pea-brained 'film makers' have lamented that world remained silent, while Kashmir's Hindus got free salaries, reservations in education and tremendous material support and publicity. It is time for appropriated voices to speak up. For stories buried in fake encounters to be exhumed. For alternative histories and memories to unsettle the state-sponsored, miniscule-made-mainstream, litanies. Pawan you really should run after Jashne-Azadi. Follow it wherever it goes. It might tire you out of your ignorance, prejudice, and hatred. Mohamad Junaid Pawan Durrani wrote: Dear All: On Thursday September 20th Mr. Sanjay Kak's movie Jashn-e-Azadi (yajynya has become Jashn-e)was screened in the Louis McMillan Auditorium of the Yale University. Rajni Ji and I attended the screening. The screening was sponsored by Ms Mridhu Rai, Associate Professor mridu.rai at yale.edu. She has recently published a book Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam Rights & the history of Kashmir. (Apparently this book was part of the motivation for Mr. Sanjay Kak to make the movie. Given below in parenthesis is her back ground. (Mridu Rai joined the department in July 2001 as an assistant professor. She was educated at Delhi University; the Centre for Historical Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; and Columbia University, where she received a PhD in modern south Asian history. Her doctoral research focused on the problem of religion and politics in the making of protest in modern Kashmir between the 1840s and the 1940s. In 2004 it culminated in her book, Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir < http://www.yale.edu/history/faculty/materials/rai-hindu.html> . Professor Rai's new research turns to the region of Bihar, to explore the relationships between caste, territory, region and nation as they evolved from the period of British colonial rule into the postcolonial) There were 23 people in all present in the screening hall. That included Mr. Sanjay Kak and us two. Most of the attendants were from the South Asian stud department of Indian origin. There was one or two students of Pakistani origin and may be two or three of American and European descent. The documentary is about two and a half hour long monologue. The thrust of the documentary is to manipulated to portray the burning desire for the freedom among 'Kashmiris' (read Kashmiri Muslims). The movie touches upon the 500 years of colonization of Kashmir. It was interesting to note the wordings of narration and the imagery of this narration. Mr Kak introduced the Kalhanna's Rajatarangani as the Hindu rule of Kashmir. He also stated the "Hindu" rule of Kashmir before 1948. But then he chooses to describe the 500 years of pre-Dogra rule as the colonial rule of Turks, Afghans, Mughals, and other nationalities as if it was not an Islamic rule. In that one sentence he tries to pass the suffering under these colonizers as the sufferings of Muslims and not of Hindus. That during this period 100% Kashmiri Hindu population was reduced to at most 25% of the population was presented as Muslim suffering. He quotes Kalhanna "that Kashmir can not be conquered by colonization but by spiritual merit", as the ethos of Kashmiri Muslims. That the Muslims (both foreign and the converted) were the rulers under whose reign Kashmiri Hindu were massacred, humiliated and forced out of Kashmir (as evidenced by the Saaraswats and Vaadama Ayers and Kashmiri of Gujarat) and converted to Islam is completely presented as the sufferings of the Muslims. That since the 1948 till 1990 the successive J&K Governments were formed by the National conference (previously "Muslim Conference") and the people at the helm were Kashmiri Muslims is also presented as the colonization by the Indians. That this Government systematically marginalized the Hindus of Kashmir by putting reservations for the majority, snatching any landed property with out compensation (there by violating the property rights of a minority) is portrayed as the land reform act of the Government. The sole livelihood of the Kashmiri Hindus through education was denied and they were forced out of state (to achieve Islamization) is also supposed to have happened because of the colonization by India. That 1947 incursions of Pakistan and the development of Islamic Fundamentalism with support from Pakistan and the outsiders is completely glossed over. Even though the mention is made of the foreign Islamic mercenaries in Kashmir but it is portrayed as acceptable and not such an important issue, where as presence of Indian troops and the Indian tourists is presented as the yoke on the local Muslims. (Who shown as pulling the tourists snowy upslope of the Gulmarg.) The presentation of Shaheed (A Islamic category used for the Shahaadat ) and the Mujahideen (An Islamic religious category used for the fighters of the faith) is presented as freedom fighters. The time and again portrayal of the "Muslim Cemeteries" and dead Muslim Mujahideen is lamentable but their killing and raping of the innocent victims both hindu (and Muslims) is accepted as the justifiable for the Azadi. Mr. Kak mentiones 200 dead and 160,000 migrated in bold numbers with the small print of "in one year". One wonders why did he choose only one year numbers to show about the Hindu sufferings but boldly says 60,000 total dead or lost in the last 15 years. This choice is made show the balance in his approach like a chameleon Indian leftist/secularist. Finally when the documentary was screened we were the first one to raise hand for questions. We turned toward the audience and challenged the very notion this being a struggle for the Azadi. We put forth that this is movement for the Islamization of Kashmir. We also pointed out the 500 years of colonization Mr. Kak mentions is 500 years of Islamic rule in which our population was reduced from 1055 to 20% . It was Kashmiri Hindu tragedies which Mr. Kak is portraying as the Muslim tragedies. We pointed out that the first act of this movement in 1990 was to throw out 400 hundred thousand Hindus from the valley and became refuge in their own country. If it was a Azadi movement why would valley be cleansed of the non-Muslim minorities. That scenario fits the Islamization movement better. We asked, why would all the imagery and the language of this movement be couched in the Islamic categorization? Why would Arabic be used instead of Kashmiri language? Why would the names of the Kashmiri place names be changed to Arabacized and Islamic names? Why would the past Hindu history be denied? Why would non-Kashmiri foreign Muslim mercenaries be allowed in and create havoc in Kashmir? Why would Pakistan be so heavily involved? Mr. Kak had no answers for any of these; he tried to pass the Islamic language as the normal use of religion in freedom movements. But I asked why was not inclusive religious symbolism used for the independence? Kak admitted to the audience that there was Jihad like situation created for Kashmiri Hindus who had to leave valley. Eventually I was asked to allow others to ask questions. But there were only two other people who asked one question each, one on the lines of secularism and the other, a Pakistani, gave some comments on state of JKLF in Pakistan. We attended the dinner after the movie and we continued to occupy Mr. Kak's and several others attention on the dishonest portrayal of the Kashmir issue. During dinner we distributed the copies of Ashokji Pandits Documentary ....And world remained silent.... to some of the attendees and requested them to watch it and pass it on to other students. That is the story from Yale... Thanks From vishal.rawlley at gmail.com Tue Oct 2 03:21:19 2007 From: vishal.rawlley at gmail.com (Vishal Rawlley) Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 03:21:19 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Hygiene and the City- Pages from the book 2 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <31d5ea920710011451o62379ad8g6d7ed0b25a3c9b3f@mail.gmail.com> Chitra, I discovered your project quite by chance, going on to find that you are a Sarai fellow and have been posting to the reader list - posts that I had never bothered to open. I never could guess that 'Hygiene and the City' is a graphic book project. This is to congratulate you. Your project is just brilliant!!! You capture the unquantifiable essence of the city that shrouds it yet escapes description. There is the macro and the micro view of things, but here is an electron-microscopic view of the urban condition - the Mumbai protoplasm stands exposed. Your illustrations are really evocative and the narrative strategies very fresh. The combination of the scientific approach dissolving into fantasy, testimonials blurring into myth and faithful documentation turning into surreal imagery left me quite stunned! It has been a bit tedious going through the low rez images with barely readable text but well worth it. I hope that you can compile your book into a pdf form - whenever you are ready. One can see the tenuous narrative coming together, do keep at it. Best, Vishal p.s. [Download my comic strip book here.] - from http://cvenkataramani.googlepages.com/ does not work correctly. The pdf file for download is corrupted. Can you fix this please! Thx. On 7/30/07, Chitra Venkataramani wrote: > > Hi, > > The book continues to be posted on > > http://www.hygienebook.blogspot.com > > Regards, > > Chitra Venkataramani > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> From nutan_du at yahoo.co.in Tue Oct 2 09:04:54 2007 From: nutan_du at yahoo.co.in (nutan maurya) Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 04:34:54 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Help me to find out the Dhobi (washermen) Katara in old Delhi Message-ID: <884402.8424.qm@web8712.mail.in.yahoo.com> Dear Friends, I am writing here to request you all if any one can help me to locate the washermen Katara in old delhi.I have heard that they have changed their place and now this Katara is somewhere else. If any one of you know anything about it, please do inform me it would be a great help to me. thanks and best rgds, Nutan --------------------------------- Flying to Bangalore or Bhopal? Search for tickets here. From kj.impulse at gmail.com Tue Oct 2 10:19:57 2007 From: kj.impulse at gmail.com (Kavita Joshi [Impulse]) Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 10:19:57 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] THE FACE - URGENT - PLEASE FORWARD TODAY - THANKS In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <821019d70710012149s5bf8266bk145cbed2baf8314d@mail.gmail.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: amar kanwar amarkanwar at gmail.com Dear Friends, We can recognise George Bush or Saddam Hussein or Pinochet and some may even recall what Idi Amin looked like but do we know what the head of the Burmese military Supreme Dictator Senior General Than Shwe looks like ? *Tune into NDTV 24X7 * *at 10 p.m. * *on the 2nd of October * ** *to see my film - THE FACE * ( The Face will be telecast within a program entitled 'A Force more Powerful' ) *THE FACE* ( 9 minutes ) is a tribute to the democracy movement in Burma . Here you see a unique image of most brutal dictator in the world -General Than Shwe of the Burmese Military. *The FACE* also remembers Win Ma Oo and Thet Win Aung and the sacrifices of the students of Burma in their movement for freedom. THE FACE is also available as dvds for screenings at cost price . If required write to thetornfirstpages at gmail.com Please forward to those who may be interested regards amar AMAR KANWAR - -- AMAR KANWAR New Delhi India Email : amarkanwar at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From pawan.durani at gmail.com Tue Oct 2 12:05:37 2007 From: pawan.durani at gmail.com (Pawan Durani) Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 12:05:37 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to Pawan In-Reply-To: <20071001153412.14355.qmail@webmail6.rediffmail.com> References: <20071001153412.14355.qmail@webmail6.rediffmail.com> Message-ID: <6b79f1a70710012335p5256e0c6t7c176e69c4366d01@mail.gmail.com> Junaid, A long mail from you , and I would like to few of your points only for time being . As I have cant write that long for my life is not dedicated to "Jihad" & "Libeartion" in the name of relegion. I have learnt to live and behave in a multi religious & cultural society. It may take "some" many ages and at the cost of millions of more innocent lives to understand that. During the land reform act in Kashmir The names of Hindu landlords who were only two in number were frequently projected as the exploiters and blood-suckers to solidify the ranks of Muslims on religious grounds for nefarious political objectives. Ahmad Mir and Musmat Ashraf Begum possessing 4,202 kanals of land and 3,915 kanals of land respectively were never projected on the public mindscape because of the religion they espoused. Two Muslim shrines of Baba Reshi and Dastagir Sahib had a land grant of ten thousand kanals which are said to have been partially snatched away perhaps again on religious considerations. Despite the Hindu ruler, there was no Hindu shrine which had in its possession the same measure of land to augment and supplement its resources. Talking about current Islamisation of Kashmir , by changing the names of places I would quote you few examples. You have call AnantNag as Islamabad though even the official name is AnantNag . I wish you would accept the fact that this place AnantNag finds mention even in Bhagwad Gita , and I am sure you knoe Bhagwad Gita existed much before even Islam came to India. Again you have started calling the world famous Shankracharya Hill as Takht-E-Suleiman , though the temple was built on Gopadari hill in BC age. The hill whereShraika Temple is situated is aclled "hari Parbat" which again you have started to call "Koh-i-maran" . Junaid If you draw inspiration from Talibans....and still defend the wrong .......there is hardly i can do anything to help you. May God Bless you with Wisdom. Pawan Durani On 1 Oct 2007 15:34:12 -0000, junaid wrote: > > > Mr. Pawan Durrani, > > Possibly you should have read Mridu Rai's book to understand why Dogra > rule was 'Hindu' and why other rulers Mughals and Afghans could not be > described as essentially 'Islamic', though it was surely Muslims who ruled. > (By the way, there were no separate Turks and Mughals who came to rule > Kashmir). An Islamic rule would be one where laws are made on the bases of > Koran and Hadith, and would be called as Sharia. Both temporal and spiritual > realms would be regulated by it. Both civil and criminal law would be > quintessentially Sharia. And they are made by religious scholars. This was > not the case for Mughals or Afghans: It was either laws made by the > sovereign or the tribal laws. And even though both may have invoked Koran > and Hadith, yet most of their content was inspired by local needs than > religious zeal or inspiration. (I should not be understood as saying Islamic > law is anyway superior to other laws, like tribal laws etc. Or that Afghans > or Mughal rule was any benign.) > > For Dogras, who drew a fake Rajput lineage, with an opportunistic support > from state-sponsored historians, both Dogra and British, the way they > invoked Hinduism in ruling Kashmir was stupendous. It is no secret that poor > Kashmiri Muslim peasants were stripped bare by Dogra rulers to fund temple > constructions in not only Kashmir and Jammu, but in Punjab too. The Dogras > restarted the hated practice of Begar (forced labour), originally invented > by ancient Hindu rulers of Kashmir. Begar resulted in wide spread death and > destruction of Kashmir Muslims. Thousands of Muslim youth perished carrying > load, like mules, barefooted, to Maharaja's Gilgit frontier. And while this > was going on, Kashmir's Hindu population, laying exclusive claim to > literacy, and through their landed influence, sustained this terrible rule > loyally. (And they were powerful even during Mughal and Afghan times, when > they occupied much of the bureaucratic positions). > > Dogras depended on the so-called Pandits to extract revenue from Kashmir's > poor Muslim peasants as well as artisans. At times, despite verbal protests > from even the East India Company officials who were so brutal in their own > way, Gulab Singh took away half of the produce of the Muslim peasants. In > his greed to collect more booty he even taxed marriages among Muslims. The > Hindu Kashmiris were exempt. The Dogras took away the lands of some leftover > Muslim elite and reduced them to penury, but during this time, the Hindu > landlords expanded their estates. Thus a miniscule Hindu population, not > more than 5 percent, came to rule 95 percent Muslims of Kashmir. That too > brutally. > > Pawan Durrani should be given compensation for the grand estates his > forefathers had to give up. But who will compensate all those millions of > rickety, malnourished, barely clothed Kashmiri Muslim peasants who were not > only materially degraded but dehumanized too? In 1947, by a sleight of hand, > and without bothering to ask Kashmiri Muslims, who constitute an > overwhelming majority of its people, Kashmir was handed by a Hindu ruler to > India. In this, some Muslim political leaders were coaxed too; they realized > but only too late. During this time, many Kashmiri Muslim leaders were > forced into exile. During the same time, hundreds of thousands of Muslims > from Jammu were either forced to flee or massacred. > > A bearded Kashmir Muslim militant provokes a frenzied response from Pawan, > and he begins to shout: "Hatay Mauji, Islamic Fundamentalism hay aau!" For > him an Indian soldier with a tilak on his forehead, a saffron ribbon around > his waist, a poster of Shivji hanging inside his bunker is Bharat Mata's > secular poot. > > In 1990, Kashmir's Hindus made a choice: They wanted India. That is why > they left. No doubt there was a threat perception. Some Hindus were killed. > According to Sumantra Bose out of 273 killings by 20th January 1990, almost > 73 were Hindus. No doubt, disproportionate. Most of these were highly > influential Hindus, including a Jan Sangh leader. No other minority left. > Even though, many Sikhs were killed in Chattisinghpura, (by who, we should > know by now) they remained in Kashmir. In a state-sponsored exodus one and a > half lakh Hindus were transported overnight to Jammu and other Indian > cities. And remember it was a day after Jagmohan took over as governor, and > promised to punish Kashmiri Muslims. True to his word, after many Hindus > left, he imposed a protracted curfew strangulating Kashmir's Muslims. Dozens > of Kashmir's Muslims were massacred at a number of places. Gaw Kadal, just > being one example. > > In Jashne Azadi, nowhere is it said that 60000 Muslims have been killed in > 15 years. Although even by conservative estimates 80000 Kashmiri Muslims > have been killed over these years (some believe that even the 10000 odd > disappeared have been eliminated too), but the film leaves it open. It > states how the actual number is widely conflicted. > > It is not Kashmiri Muslims who Arabicized Kashmiri names. (Give examples > if you can). It is in fact Dogras who Sanskritised it, and India which > sustained it. Consider, for example, changing the popular name Islamabad to > an official Anantnag. And it is not Kashmiri Muslims who deny Kashmir's > ancient Hindu rulers, but Kashmir's Hindus who deny the existence of > Kashmir's Muslims. It is as if all Kashmir is about is its miniscule Hindus. > It is as if the only tragedy in Kashmir is that of its Hindus. As if death, > destruction, plunder and rapine of its Muslims is not an issue that merits > world's attention. It is time world speaks about Kashmir's Muslims. > > Much has been spoken about Hindus. Many lethargic comparisons have been > made with Holocaust. Many chick pea-brained 'film makers' have lamented that > world remained silent, while Kashmir's Hindus got free salaries, > reservations in education and tremendous material support and publicity. It > is time for appropriated voices to speak up. For stories buried in fake > encounters to be exhumed. For alternative histories and memories to unsettle > the state-sponsored, miniscule-made-mainstream, litanies. > > Pawan you really should run after Jashne-Azadi. Follow it wherever it > goes. It might tire you out of your ignorance, prejudice, and hatred. > > Mohamad Junaid > > > > Pawan Durrani wrote: > > Dear All: > On Thursday September 20th Mr. Sanjay Kak's movie Jashn-e-Azadi (yajynya > has > become Jashn-e)was screened in the Louis McMillan Auditorium of the Yale > University. Rajni Ji and I attended the screening. > > The screening was sponsored by Ms Mridhu Rai, Associate Professor > mridu.rai at yale.edu. She has recently published a book Hindu Rulers, Muslim > > Subjects: Islam Rights & the history of Kashmir. (Apparently this book was > > part of the motivation for Mr. Sanjay Kak to make the movie. Given below > in > parenthesis is her back ground. > > (Mridu Rai joined the department in July 2001 as an assistant professor. > She > was educated at Delhi University; the Centre for Historical Studies at > Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; and Columbia University, where she > received a PhD in modern south Asian history. Her doctoral research > focused > on the problem of religion and politics in the making of protest in modern > > Kashmir between the 1840s and the 1940s. In 2004 it culminated in her > book, > Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir > < http://www.yale.edu/history/faculty/materials/rai-hindu.html> . > Professor > Rai's new research turns to the region of Bihar, to explore the > relationships between caste, territory, region and nation as they evolved > from the period of British colonial rule into the postcolonial) > > There were 23 people in all present in the screening hall. That included > Mr. > Sanjay Kak and us two. Most of the attendants were from the South Asian > stud > department of Indian origin. There was one or two students of Pakistani > origin and may be two or three of American and European descent. > > The documentary is about two and a half hour long monologue. The thrust of > > the documentary is to manipulated to portray the burning desire for the > freedom among 'Kashmiris' (read Kashmiri Muslims). The movie touches upon > the 500 years of colonization of Kashmir. It was interesting to note the > wordings of narration and the imagery of this narration. Mr Kak introduced > > the Kalhanna's Rajatarangani as the Hindu rule of Kashmir. He also stated > the "Hindu" rule of Kashmir before 1948. But then he chooses to describe > the > 500 years of pre-Dogra rule as the colonial rule of Turks, Afghans, > Mughals, > and other nationalities as if it was not an Islamic rule. In that one > sentence he tries to pass the suffering under these colonizers as the > sufferings of Muslims and not of Hindus. That during this period 100% > Kashmiri Hindu population was reduced to at most 25% of the population was > presented as Muslim suffering. He quotes Kalhanna "that Kashmir can not be > > conquered by colonization but by spiritual merit", as the ethos of > Kashmiri > Muslims. That the Muslims (both foreign and the converted) were the rulers > under whose reign Kashmiri Hindu were massacred, humiliated and forced out > > of Kashmir (as evidenced by the Saaraswats and Vaadama Ayers and Kashmiri > of > Gujarat) and converted to Islam is completely presented as the sufferings > of the Muslims. > > That since the 1948 till 1990 the successive J&K Governments were formed > by > the National conference (previously "Muslim Conference") and the people > at > the helm were Kashmiri Muslims is also presented as the colonization by > the > Indians. That this Government systematically marginalized the Hindus of > Kashmir by putting reservations for the majority, snatching any landed > property with out compensation (there by violating the property rights of > a > minority) is portrayed as the land reform act of the Government. The sole > > livelihood of the Kashmiri Hindus through education was denied and they > were > forced out of state (to achieve Islamization) is also supposed to have > happened because of the colonization by India. That 1947 incursions of > Pakistan and the development of Islamic Fundamentalism with support from > Pakistan and the outsiders is completely glossed over. Even though the > mention is made of the foreign Islamic mercenaries in Kashmir but it is > portrayed as acceptable and not such an important issue, where as presence > > of Indian troops and the Indian tourists is presented as the yoke on the > local Muslims. (Who shown as pulling the tourists snowy upslope of the > Gulmarg.) > > The presentation of Shaheed (A Islamic category used for the Shahaadat ) > and > the Mujahideen (An Islamic religious category used for the fighters of the > faith) is presented as freedom fighters. The time and again portrayal of > the > "Muslim Cemeteries" and dead Muslim Mujahideen is lamentable but their > killing and raping of the innocent victims both hindu (and Muslims) is > accepted as the justifiable for the Azadi. > Mr. Kak mentiones 200 dead and 160,000 migrated in bold numbers with the > small print of "in one year". One wonders why did he choose only one year > numbers to show about the Hindu sufferings but boldly says 60,000 total > dead > or lost in the last 15 years. This choice is made show the balance in his > approach like a chameleon Indian leftist/secularist. > > Finally when the documentary was screened we were the first one to raise > hand for questions. We turned toward the audience and challenged the very > notion this being a struggle for the Azadi. We put forth that this is > movement for the Islamization of Kashmir. We also pointed out the 500 > years > of colonization Mr. Kak mentions is 500 years of Islamic rule in which our > population was reduced from 1055 to 20% . It was Kashmiri Hindu tragedies > which Mr. Kak is portraying as the Muslim tragedies. We pointed out that > the > first act of this movement in 1990 was to throw out 400 hundred thousand > Hindus from the valley and became refuge in their own country. If it was a > > Azadi movement why would valley be cleansed of the non-Muslim minorities. > That scenario fits the Islamization movement better. We asked, why would > all the imagery and the language of this movement be couched in the > Islamic > categorization? Why would Arabic be used instead of Kashmiri language? Why > would the names of the Kashmiri place names be changed to Arabacized and > Islamic names? Why would the past Hindu history be denied? Why would > non-Kashmiri foreign Muslim mercenaries be allowed in and create havoc in > Kashmir? Why would Pakistan be so heavily involved? > > Mr. Kak had no answers for any of these; he tried to pass the Islamic > language as the normal use of religion in freedom movements. But I asked > why > was not inclusive religious symbolism used for the independence? > Kak admitted to the audience that there was Jihad like situation created > for > Kashmiri Hindus who had to leave valley. Eventually I was asked to > allow > others to ask questions. But there were only two other people who asked > one > question each, one on the lines of secularism and the other, a Pakistani, > gave some comments on state of JKLF in Pakistan. > > We attended the dinner after the movie and we continued to occupy Mr. > Kak's > and several others attention on the dishonest portrayal of the Kashmir > issue. During dinner we distributed the copies of Ashokji Pandits > Documentary ....And world remained silent.... to some of the attendees and > > requested them to watch it and pass it on to other students. > > That is the story from Yale... > > Thanks > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> From nutan_du at yahoo.co.in Tue Oct 2 09:05:26 2007 From: nutan_du at yahoo.co.in (nutan maurya) Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 04:35:26 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Help me to find out the Dhobi (washermen) Katara in old Delhi Message-ID: <672542.56735.qm@web8715.mail.in.yahoo.com> Dear Friends, I am writing here to request you all if any one can help me to locate the washermen Katara in old delhi.I have heard that they have changed their place and now this Katara is somewhere else. If any one of you know anything about it, please do inform me it would be a great help to me. thanks and best rgds, Nutan --------------------------------- Meet people who discuss and share your passions. Join them now. From nutan_du at yahoo.co.in Tue Oct 2 09:05:18 2007 From: nutan_du at yahoo.co.in (nutan maurya) Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 04:35:18 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Help me to find out the Dhobi (washermen) Katara in old Delhi Message-ID: <227507.1741.qm@web8705.mail.in.yahoo.com> Dear Friends, I am writing here to request you all if any one can help me to locate the washermen Katara in old delhi.I have heard that they have changed their place and now this Katara is somewhere else. If any one of you know anything about it, please do inform me it would be a great help to me. thanks and best rgds, Nutan --------------------------------- Now you can chat without downloading messenger. Click here to know how. From nutan_du at yahoo.co.in Tue Oct 2 09:05:05 2007 From: nutan_du at yahoo.co.in (nutan maurya) Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 04:35:05 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Help me to find out the Dhobi (washermen) Katara in old Delhi Message-ID: <953525.36780.qm@web8707.mail.in.yahoo.com> Dear Friends, I am writing here to request you all if any one can help me to locate the washermen Katara in old delhi.I have heard that they have changed their place and now this Katara is somewhere else. If any one of you know anything about it, please do inform me it would be a great help to me. thanks and best rgds, Nutan --------------------------------- Unlimited freedom, unlimited storage. Get it now From zeenath.hasan at gmail.com Tue Oct 2 16:29:37 2007 From: zeenath.hasan at gmail.com (Zeenath Hasan) Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 12:59:37 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] the space interlude/corridor spaces/6th posting In-Reply-To: <158254.83713.qm@web7708.mail.in.yahoo.com> References: <158254.83713.qm@web7708.mail.in.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <34F9BA38-9EC0-4E7E-826D-92784BF0AB45@gmail.com> dear sayandeb thank you for your post here are two practitioners/ researchers theorising the phenomenological aspect of sound in lived spaces, Brandon LaBelle, http://www.errantbodies.org/labelle.html Jacob Kreutzefeldt, http://www.errantbodies.org/sound_house.html bests, zeenath .. Zeenath Hasan CULTURAL PRODUCER / MEDIA ARTIST Copenhagen +45 3191 5499 Helsinki +358 45 652 3833 w w w . z e e n i a c . n e t On Sep 27, 2007, at 8:54 PM, sayandeb mukherjee wrote: > i regret for the delay for it took time to prepare > scientific and theoretical explanations on > acoustics/acoustic responses of different kinds of > corridor spaces > > > 6TH POSTING > > > BEFORE dealing with the psychoacoustics of these > spaces it is important to give an account on the > acoustic behavior or acoustic responses of these > spaces. > Corridors are generally interspersed with doors which > are once again the interfaces of individual > flats/rooms/enclosures. The sounds that are emanated > from the indoors (i.e. the rooms or flats) are > transmitted to some extent through the walls and > closed doors to reach this common passage. If the > doors are open, like it remains in colleges, hospitals > or mostly public spaces/unprivatized spaces, the sound > from the source directly reaches the passage. But a > person who’s passing through the passage and is away > from the door also hears a portion of the incidental > sound. That is due to reasons – a. a portion is > transmitted through the walls and b. a major portion > is diffracted at the ends of the opening of the door. > Unlike optical shadow, sound shadow is not so defined > because of the diffractive properties of sound. Refer > to the figures drawn (will be posted later). It shows > how a listener, in spite being away from the room, is > able to hear sound sourced from inside the > rooms/enclosures. > The diffractive properties differ throughout the > entire audio-frequency spectrum. A low-frequency / low > mid-frequency content in the sound is diffracted more > than the high / high mid-frequencies. Also, the high > frequency sounds are more directional than the low > frequency sounds. Hence the high frequency sounds > generally don’t reach the ears of the listener who is > off / oblique from the direction of the source. The > low frequency-content of the source gets more > scattered and diffracted while reaching the ears of > the listener distant from the direct opening of the > room. As the high-frequency content is depleted a > person perceives a booming or wooly sound of a speech > when he traverses in the corridor-like-spaces. > We construct four cases: > > CASE A: Where the corridor is having one side open > > This scattered diffracted and transmitted sound passes > away to the opposite opening unreflected or > unobstructed. In these kinds of spaces, not much dense > sound-field is generated. The sound generated from > the space doesn’t confront much > reflections/refractions (for there is no substantial > reflective surface) and the listener hears it almost > dry, or without being reverberated. This substantially > detriments the depth of the sound-field and hence the > space appears acoustically colorless. In this single > loaded corridor the property that is distinguishable > from the double-one is the mammoth interference of the > extraneous sounds – the environmental sound elements > that give a characteristic spatial definition to the > corridor space. In the single loaded corridors, that > can be called a verandah, the visual attributes along > with ambient audible qualities provides a positional > reference to the space. So the listener is not thrown > into an abstract field with no clues of time and > space, whereas he is well posited for the re-assurance > of the environmental associativity. Even if there are > reflections, reverberations of the sounds generated > from verandah that would immensely get masked by the > ambience coming from the open side and the audio > qualities doesn’t become audible until and unless gets > diminished to a considerable extent. So when this > ambience gets diminished, the sonic-scape of this > veranda takes a different look/shape. The depth of the > audio field increases and there happens a resurgence > of the sounds and its reflections generated from the > verandah. This happens in the late hours of the night, > for example in the case of a college which is located > beside a road with heavy traffic plying during the > daytime, the acoustic details of the traffic gets > prominence with the redemption of the traffic during > night and attains more clarity with the fall of the > night and as silence prevails in the surrounding. The > incidental sounds like footsteps with its length > stretched throughout the verandah, door banging, some > people talking standing in the verandah acoustically > establishes that it is a single loaded corridor. > > CASE B: Where the corridor space is having walls on > both the sides > > As discussed earlier, that the sounds generated from > inside the rooms/enclosures/flats connected to this > common interface – the corridor undergo 1.transmission > through the walls of the corridor, 2.diffraction from > the openings of the rooms (like doors, windows) > thereby penetrating this double loaded corridor space. > A major portion of the generated sound remains inside > the room as they are reflected/bounced back to the > other walls of the room getting absorbed therein. The > sounds leaking out from the room, after losing most of > its high frequency content (as stated earlier) and a > portion of it being transmitted and diffracted reaches > the opposite wall of the corridor which acts as a > reflective surface. The intensity of reflection > depends on three factors primarily – (i) the intensity > of the source, (ii) the dimension of the corridor and > (iii) the reflective properties of the walls. > The intensity of reflection is directly proportional > to the intensity of the source and the reflective > qualities of the wall and is inversely proportional to > the distance between the walls. The louder the source, > the more it will undergo reflections from the walls. > Generally, the sounds are not so impulsive or loud > (like an explosion) to sufficiently generate higher > order images. > Since the sound is being generated at a considerable > distance from the passage, inside the room and also > because sound is inversely proportional to the > distance, its energy content gets appreciably > diminished by the time it reaches the common space. > Hence, the reflected image of this leaked out sounds > is too weak to reach the opposite wall of the > corridor. > The possibility of second order images, (i.e. > reflected images from reflected sounds) further > reduces as the distance between the corridor walls is > increased. With the increase in the dimension of these > spaces, for the sounds arriving from these openings, > its early reflections from the surfaces will take some > time to get depleted and a considerable time elapses > before the sound content decays to an imperceptible > level. > The corridor spaces are mostly comprised of masonry > walls with cemented surfaces sometimes coated with > plaster of paris. When it is uncoated with plaster of > paris then the texture is not so regular to produce > specular reflections like that of light and the > surface is porous enough to render diffusion for > certain range of the audio spectrum. > [About Specular reflection – specular reflection is a > mirror-type reflection, similar to the reflection of > light from a mirror. In specular reflection, the > incidental sound beam is reflected off the reflecting > surface as per Snell’s law. For specular reflection to > occur, the surface irregularities in the texture > should be smaller than wavelength of sound. And higher > the frequency of the sound wave, the smaller will be > its wavelength. So, with surface irregularities of > smaller dimension specular reflection of high > frequencies with small wavelength will be affected > more than low frequencies. > About Diffuse reflection – in diffuse reflection, the > incidental sound is reflected equally in all > directions causing a uniform scattering of sound. For > diffuse reflections, the reflecting surface must be > irregular and heavily textured. The dimensions of the > irregularities should be not less than or > approximately equal to the wavelength of sound. Thus, > for a wall to provide diffuse reflection at 1 kHz > (?=wavelength approximately equal to 0.3m or 1ft), its > surface irregularities should be of the order of 0.3m > (1ft). Surface irregularities of a few cm will provide > specular reflection at 10 kHz frequency. Now a sound > with a frequency of 100 Hz will have wavelength > approximately 3m or 10ft. With this wavelength, the > sound will be specularly reflected from a wall with > surface irregularity of dimension 0.3m or 1ft. In > other words, a 100 Hz sound will not see these > irregularities and the wall will behave as a smooth > wall. On the other hand, a 1 kHz sound will be > diffusedly reflected from this surface. At a frequency > of 10 kHz, with a wavelength of approximately 30mm > (nearly 1 inch), each individual irregularity will be > large enough to function as an independent reflector. > Therefore, sound will be specularly reflected from > each surface irregularity thereby providing some > scattering of sound (since the surface irregularities > are oriented in different directions). ] > For small little surface irregularities like it > remains in corridor walls in most cases, the high and > somewhat high-mid frequencies of the sound spectrum > are more diffused than the lower end. This attenuates > the harsh reflections of the higher end (or mutilates > the acoustic glare caused by the reflectivity of the > walls). Because of this diffusive property of sound, a > portion of it is evenly scattered thereby reducing its > energy so that it doesn’t reach the opposite wall of > the corridor after being reflected. And as mentioned, > the high frequencies contained in the sound will be > more diffused than the lower thereby making the sound > more muffled giving space to the boomy lower > frequencies to get partially or fully specularly > reflected and travel in the walls of the corridor. The > residual portion of this leakage from individual > openings gets absorbed in the wall. Now the quantity > of absorption depends on the absorption coefficient of > the walls > contd. > [Absorption coefficient determines the strength of > absorption of the walls; this provides a value needed > for the qualitative analysis of the acoustic materials > used for acoustic treatment of studios, theatres, > auditoriums.] > Mostly for corridor walls, unless it is a special > case, the walls are made of concrete with a required > number of coatings and sometimes for affluent/well off > places it would probably be finally coated with > plaster of paris. The concrete surface with coarse > texture and no plaster will have an average absorption > coefficient 0.34 (0.36 at 125Hz, 0.31 at 500Hz, 0.29 > at 1 kHz, 0.25 at 4 kHz) partially absorbing the > incidental sound thereby evading unusual reflections > to happen. The absorption by these kind of walls are > better than marble or glazed tiles or metallic > surfaces which will have acoustic glare thereby > rendering unusual fluttering of the sound and > sometimes discrete early reflections to happen which > would be very annoying for the listener. > When the sound source or the sound-activity is > happening ‘in’ the corridor then, 1.the intensity of > the sound would be more in comparison to the sounds > generated from inside the room and meeting this space. > When the observer himself is the acoustic centre and > if he makes an appreciably loud sound, then the sound > wave instantaneously reaches the opposite walls of the > corridor. Here the two parallel walls act as two > parallel reflectors. As we know, when there are two > parallel reflectors, we will obtain an infinite number > of images of the source since each image works as a > source for the other reflector. This may be confirmed > by standing between two parallel mirrors; an infinite > number of the self will be seen. > This is simply another way of stating that the sound > will be reflected back and forth between two parallel > reflecting walls infinite number of times before > exhausting to inaudibility. > Now imagine a sound source(s) located between two > reflective parallel walls 15m apart, as shown in > FIGURE (to be posted later). Obviously, this situation > produces an infinite number of images of the source. > The first-order images, image I1 and I2, are behind > wall 1 and wall 2 respectively. The second order > image, I12, is the image of I1 and is formed behind > wall 2. I21 is the image of image I2 behind wall 1. > Similarly, I121 and I212 represent third order images > and so on. > If we determine the distance between images, we find > that the distance between successive order images > increases by 30m – twice the distance between walls. > Thus, the first order images are 30m apart, second > order images are 60m apart, and third order images are > 90m apart and so on. > Since the speed of sound is 344m/s, the time gap > between each successive reflected sound will be > 87milliseconds. This, according to the Haas effect, > will produce echoes. Since these echoes recur after a > regular interval of 87 milliseconds, they produce a > flutter effect; hence this phenomenon is called > flutter echoes. > If the distance between walls were 5m, successive > order images would be 10m apart. Therefore the time > gap successive reflections would be 10/344, i.e. 29 > milliseconds, which (according to the Haas effect) > should not be perceived as echoes. However, the > flutter is heard all the same. The reason lies on our > ears being extremely sensitive to periodic repetition > of sounds > ..contd. > > > thanking you > > sayandeb mukherjee > > > > > > > > SAYANDEB MUKHERJEE > FT#308, SUBBARAJU TOWERS, > ROAD NO.4, VIJAYAPURI COLONY, > KOTHAPET, HYDERABAD > PIN: 500 035 > PH#9849383863 > > > > Forgot the famous last words? Access your message archive > online at http://in.messenger.yahoo.com/webmessengerpromo.php > > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> From ayushdelhi at yahoo.co.uk Tue Oct 2 22:47:22 2007 From: ayushdelhi at yahoo.co.uk (ayush) Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 17:17:22 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to Pawan Message-ID: <484439.31268.qm@web25402.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Why miss the point in this war of words which has such relegious overtones that it is people of Kashmir who are bleeding and being bled by all sundry including people like us . Ayush ----- Original Message ---- From: Pawan Durani To: junaid Cc: reader-list at sarai.net Sent: Tuesday, 2 October, 2007 12:05:37 PM Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Reply to Pawan Junaid, A long mail from you , and I would like to few of your points only for time being . As I have cant write that long for my life is not dedicated to "Jihad" & "Libeartion" in the name of relegion. I have learnt to live and behave in a multi religious & cultural society. It may take "some" many ages and at the cost of millions of more innocent lives to understand that. During the land reform act in Kashmir The names of Hindu landlords who were only two in number were frequently projected as the exploiters and blood-suckers to solidify the ranks of Muslims on religious grounds for nefarious political objectives. Ahmad Mir and Musmat Ashraf Begum possessing 4,202 kanals of land and 3,915 kanals of land respectively were never projected on the public mindscape because of the religion they espoused. Two Muslim shrines of Baba Reshi and Dastagir Sahib had a land grant of ten thousand kanals which are said to have been partially snatched away perhaps again on religious considerations. Despite the Hindu ruler, there was no Hindu shrine which had in its possession the same measure of land to augment and supplement its resources. Talking about current Islamisation of Kashmir , by changing the names of places I would quote you few examples. You have call AnantNag as Islamabad though even the official name is AnantNag . I wish you would accept the fact that this place AnantNag finds mention even in Bhagwad Gita , and I am sure you knoe Bhagwad Gita existed much before even Islam came to India. Again you have started calling the world famous Shankracharya Hill as Takht-E-Suleiman , though the temple was built on Gopadari hill in BC age. The hill whereShraika Temple is situated is aclled "hari Parbat" which again you have started to call "Koh-i-maran" . Junaid If you draw inspiration from Talibans....and still defend the wrong .......there is hardly i can do anything to help you. May God Bless you with Wisdom. Pawan Durani On 1 Oct 2007 15:34:12 -0000, junaid wrote: > > > Mr. Pawan Durrani, > > Possibly you should have read Mridu Rai's book to understand why Dogra > rule was 'Hindu' and why other rulers Mughals and Afghans could not be > described as essentially 'Islamic', though it was surely Muslims who ruled. > (By the way, there were no separate Turks and Mughals who came to rule > Kashmir). An Islamic rule would be one where laws are made on the bases of > Koran and Hadith, and would be called as Sharia. Both temporal and spiritual > realms would be regulated by it. Both civil and criminal law would be > quintessentially Sharia. And they are made by religious scholars. This was > not the case for Mughals or Afghans: It was either laws made by the > sovereign or the tribal laws. And even though both may have invoked Koran > and Hadith, yet most of their content was inspired by local needs than > religious zeal or inspiration. (I should not be understood as saying Islamic > law is anyway superior to other laws, like tribal laws etc. Or that Afghans > or Mughal rule was any benign.) > > For Dogras, who drew a fake Rajput lineage, with an opportunistic support > from state-sponsored historians, both Dogra and British, the way they > invoked Hinduism in ruling Kashmir was stupendous. It is no secret that poor > Kashmiri Muslim peasants were stripped bare by Dogra rulers to fund temple > constructions in not only Kashmir and Jammu, but in Punjab too. The Dogras > restarted the hated practice of Begar (forced labour), originally invented > by ancient Hindu rulers of Kashmir. Begar resulted in wide spread death and > destruction of Kashmir Muslims. Thousands of Muslim youth perished carrying > load, like mules, barefooted, to Maharaja's Gilgit frontier. And while this > was going on, Kashmir's Hindu population, laying exclusive claim to > literacy, and through their landed influence, sustained this terrible rule > loyally. (And they were powerful even during Mughal and Afghan times, when > they occupied much of the bureaucratic positions). > > Dogras depended on the so-called Pandits to extract revenue from Kashmir's > poor Muslim peasants as well as artisans. At times, despite verbal protests > from even the East India Company officials who were so brutal in their own > way, Gulab Singh took away half of the produce of the Muslim peasants. In > his greed to collect more booty he even taxed marriages among Muslims. The > Hindu Kashmiris were exempt. The Dogras took away the lands of some leftover > Muslim elite and reduced them to penury, but during this time, the Hindu > landlords expanded their estates. Thus a miniscule Hindu population, not > more than 5 percent, came to rule 95 percent Muslims of Kashmir. That too > brutally. > > Pawan Durrani should be given compensation for the grand estates his > forefathers had to give up. But who will compensate all those millions of > rickety, malnourished, barely clothed Kashmiri Muslim peasants who were not > only materially degraded but dehumanized too? In 1947, by a sleight of hand, > and without bothering to ask Kashmiri Muslims, who constitute an > overwhelming majority of its people, Kashmir was handed by a Hindu ruler to > India. In this, some Muslim political leaders were coaxed too; they realized > but only too late. During this time, many Kashmiri Muslim leaders were > forced into exile. During the same time, hundreds of thousands of Muslims > from Jammu were either forced to flee or massacred. > > A bearded Kashmir Muslim militant provokes a frenzied response from Pawan, > and he begins to shout: "Hatay Mauji, Islamic Fundamentalism hay aau!" For > him an Indian soldier with a tilak on his forehead, a saffron ribbon around > his waist, a poster of Shivji hanging inside his bunker is Bharat Mata's > secular poot. > > In 1990, Kashmir's Hindus made a choice: They wanted India. That is why > they left. No doubt there was a threat perception. Some Hindus were killed. > According to Sumantra Bose out of 273 killings by 20th January 1990, almost > 73 were Hindus. No doubt, disproportionate. Most of these were highly > influential Hindus, including a Jan Sangh leader. No other minority left. > Even though, many Sikhs were killed in Chattisinghpura, (by who, we should > know by now) they remained in Kashmir. In a state-sponsored exodus one and a > half lakh Hindus were transported overnight to Jammu and other Indian > cities. And remember it was a day after Jagmohan took over as governor, and > promised to punish Kashmiri Muslims. True to his word, after many Hindus > left, he imposed a protracted curfew strangulating Kashmir's Muslims. Dozens > of Kashmir's Muslims were massacred at a number of places. Gaw Kadal, just > being one example. > > In Jashne Azadi, nowhere is it said that 60000 Muslims have been killed in > 15 years. Although even by conservative estimates 80000 Kashmiri Muslims > have been killed over these years (some believe that even the 10000 odd > disappeared have been eliminated too), but the film leaves it open. It > states how the actual number is widely conflicted. > > It is not Kashmiri Muslims who Arabicized Kashmiri names. (Give examples > if you can). It is in fact Dogras who Sanskritised it, and India which > sustained it. Consider, for example, changing the popular name Islamabad to > an official Anantnag. And it is not Kashmiri Muslims who deny Kashmir's > ancient Hindu rulers, but Kashmir's Hindus who deny the existence of > Kashmir's Muslims. It is as if all Kashmir is about is its miniscule Hindus. > It is as if the only tragedy in Kashmir is that of its Hindus. As if death, > destruction, plunder and rapine of its Muslims is not an issue that merits > world's attention. It is time world speaks about Kashmir's Muslims. > > Much has been spoken about Hindus. Many lethargic comparisons have been > made with Holocaust. Many chick pea-brained 'film makers' have lamented that > world remained silent, while Kashmir's Hindus got free salaries, > reservations in education and tremendous material support and publicity. It > is time for appropriated voices to speak up. For stories buried in fake > encounters to be exhumed. For alternative histories and memories to unsettle > the state-sponsored, miniscule-made-mainstream, litanies. > > Pawan you really should run after Jashne-Azadi. Follow it wherever it > goes. It might tire you out of your ignorance, prejudice, and hatred. > > Mohamad Junaid > > > > Pawan Durrani wrote: > > Dear All: > On Thursday September 20th Mr. Sanjay Kak's movie Jashn-e-Azadi (yajynya > has > become Jashn-e)was screened in the Louis McMillan Auditorium of the Yale > University. Rajni Ji and I attended the screening. > > The screening was sponsored by Ms Mridhu Rai, Associate Professor > mridu.rai at yale.edu. She has recently published a book Hindu Rulers, Muslim > > Subjects: Islam Rights & the history of Kashmir. (Apparently this book was > > part of the motivation for Mr. Sanjay Kak to make the movie. Given below > in > parenthesis is her back ground. > > (Mridu Rai joined the department in July 2001 as an assistant professor. > She > was educated at Delhi University; the Centre for Historical Studies at > Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; and Columbia University, where she > received a PhD in modern south Asian history. Her doctoral research > focused > on the problem of religion and politics in the making of protest in modern > > Kashmir between the 1840s and the 1940s. In 2004 it culminated in her > book, > Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir > < http://www.yale.edu/history/faculty/materials/rai-hindu.html> . > Professor > Rai's new research turns to the region of Bihar, to explore the > relationships between caste, territory, region and nation as they evolved > from the period of British colonial rule into the postcolonial) > > There were 23 people in all present in the screening hall. That included > Mr. > Sanjay Kak and us two. Most of the attendants were from the South Asian > stud > department of Indian origin. There was one or two students of Pakistani > origin and may be two or three of American and European descent. > > The documentary is about two and a half hour long monologue. The thrust of > > the documentary is to manipulated to portray the burning desire for the > freedom among 'Kashmiris' (read Kashmiri Muslims). The movie touches upon > the 500 years of colonization of Kashmir. It was interesting to note the > wordings of narration and the imagery of this narration. Mr Kak introduced > > the Kalhanna's Rajatarangani as the Hindu rule of Kashmir. He also stated > the "Hindu" rule of Kashmir before 1948. But then he chooses to describe > the > 500 years of pre-Dogra rule as the colonial rule of Turks, Afghans, > Mughals, > and other nationalities as if it was not an Islamic rule. In that one > sentence he tries to pass the suffering under these colonizers as the > sufferings of Muslims and not of Hindus. That during this period 100% > Kashmiri Hindu population was reduced to at most 25% of the population was > presented as Muslim suffering. He quotes Kalhanna "that Kashmir can not be > > conquered by colonization but by spiritual merit", as the ethos of > Kashmiri > Muslims. That the Muslims (both foreign and the converted) were the rulers > under whose reign Kashmiri Hindu were massacred, humiliated and forced out > > of Kashmir (as evidenced by the Saaraswats and Vaadama Ayers and Kashmiri > of > Gujarat) and converted to Islam is completely presented as the sufferings > of the Muslims. > > That since the 1948 till 1990 the successive J&K Governments were formed > by > the National conference (previously "Muslim Conference") and the people > at > the helm were Kashmiri Muslims is also presented as the colonization by > the > Indians. That this Government systematically marginalized the Hindus of > Kashmir by putting reservations for the majority, snatching any landed > property with out compensation (there by violating the property rights of > a > minority) is portrayed as the land reform act of the Government. The sole > > livelihood of the Kashmiri Hindus through education was denied and they > were > forced out of state (to achieve Islamization) is also supposed to have > happened because of the colonization by India. That 1947 incursions of > Pakistan and the development of Islamic Fundamentalism with support from > Pakistan and the outsiders is completely glossed over. Even though the > mention is made of the foreign Islamic mercenaries in Kashmir but it is > portrayed as acceptable and not such an important issue, where as presence > > of Indian troops and the Indian tourists is presented as the yoke on the > local Muslims. (Who shown as pulling the tourists snowy upslope of the > Gulmarg.) > > The presentation of Shaheed (A Islamic category used for the Shahaadat ) > and > the Mujahideen (An Islamic religious category used for the fighters of the > faith) is presented as freedom fighters. The time and again portrayal of > the > "Muslim Cemeteries" and dead Muslim Mujahideen is lamentable but their > killing and raping of the innocent victims both hindu (and Muslims) is > accepted as the justifiable for the Azadi. > Mr. Kak mentiones 200 dead and 160,000 migrated in bold numbers with the > small print of "in one year". One wonders why did he choose only one year > numbers to show about the Hindu sufferings but boldly says 60,000 total > dead > or lost in the last 15 years. This choice is made show the balance in his > approach like a chameleon Indian leftist/secularist. > > Finally when the documentary was screened we were the first one to raise > hand for questions. We turned toward the audience and challenged the very > notion this being a struggle for the Azadi. We put forth that this is > movement for the Islamization of Kashmir. We also pointed out the 500 > years > of colonization Mr. Kak mentions is 500 years of Islamic rule in which our > population was reduced from 1055 to 20% . It was Kashmiri Hindu tragedies > which Mr. Kak is portraying as the Muslim tragedies. We pointed out that > the > first act of this movement in 1990 was to throw out 400 hundred thousand > Hindus from the valley and became refuge in their own country. If it was a > > Azadi movement why would valley be cleansed of the non-Muslim minorities. > That scenario fits the Islamization movement better. We asked, why would > all the imagery and the language of this movement be couched in the > Islamic > categorization? Why would Arabic be used instead of Kashmiri language? Why > would the names of the Kashmiri place names be changed to Arabacized and > Islamic names? Why would the past Hindu history be denied? Why would > non-Kashmiri foreign Muslim mercenaries be allowed in and create havoc in > Kashmir? Why would Pakistan be so heavily involved? > > Mr. Kak had no answers for any of these; he tried to pass the Islamic > language as the normal use of religion in freedom movements. But I asked > why > was not inclusive religious symbolism used for the independence? > Kak admitted to the audience that there was Jihad like situation created > for > Kashmiri Hindus who had to leave valley. Eventually I was asked to > allow > others to ask questions. But there were only two other people who asked > one > question each, one on the lines of secularism and the other, a Pakistani, > gave some comments on state of JKLF in Pakistan. > > We attended the dinner after the movie and we continued to occupy Mr. > Kak's > and several others attention on the dishonest portrayal of the Kashmir > issue. During dinner we distributed the copies of Ashokji Pandits > Documentary ....And world remained silent.... to some of the attendees and > > requested them to watch it and pass it on to other students. > > That is the story from Yale... > > Thanks > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > 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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> ___________________________________________________________ For email that puts you in control, choose Yahoo! Mail. http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/mail/addressguard2.html From anivar.aravind at gmail.com Wed Oct 3 08:51:32 2007 From: anivar.aravind at gmail.com (Anivar Aravind) Date: Wed, 03 Oct 2007 08:51:32 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] =?utf-8?q?India=E2=80=99s_Myanmar_Policy=3A_Is_ther?= =?utf-8?q?e_a_credible_China_factor=3F?= Message-ID: <47030ABC.6040005@gmail.com> India’s Myanmar Policy: Is there a credible China factor? Dr.TT Sreekumar http://lankaguardian.blogspot.com/2007/10/indias-myanmar-policy-is-there-credible_02.html Nevertheless, the situation is problematic in a crucial way. Visiting Myanmar meant lending economic support to the junta. But campaigning for boycotting Burma leading to decreased visitations meant adding to the miseries of vulnerable communities, particularly marginalized women who probably have no other economic avenue to depend on. Tourism is a major source of income for rural communities and millions depended on it for their everyday survival. This is the micro political economy of Burmese freedom struggle. (October, 02, Singapore, Lanka Guardian) India’s lukewarm response to the current crackdown on the democracy movement in Myanmar is explained by diplomatic circles as conditioned by a compelling need to protect India’s interests in the changing regional politics characterized by growing Chinese hegemony. The explanation begs two interrelated questions: What do we normally mean by India's interest and how do we understand/situate the China factor in India's foreign policy? If the logic of India's reluctance to support the democracy movement is guided by the motivation of protecting its own interest as a reaction to Chinese policy, then it looks quite contradictory and beckons to unpack the whole 'China factor' in India's contemporary foreign policy practices. 'China factor' has also been highlighted as playing a role in India's attempts to move away from the non alignment politics of the post colonial period as much as the fall of USSR, and of cold war and emergence of uni-polar US hegemony. Most recently, in the discourses on the Indo-US nuclear deal's implications, coalition of the left parties have been put to task for their failure to explain the stand taken by China on the nuclear issue. India's position, it is argued, should be analyzed in the context of China's nuclear ambitions and military strategies. However, the way in which Indian regime negotiates the China factor, whether imaginary or real, has been contradictory. This has become evident in its diverging positions on the democracy movements in two neighboring countries Nepal and Burma. In Nepal, when Beijing in an intriguing maneuvering of regional politics, supported the Gyanedra Dictatorship, invited him to Beijing and extended military support to the monarchy, covert and overt support from India was given to the democracy movement. US support to the movement was then viewed as a positive development, disregarding its long run consequences for the political and economic integrity of the countries in South Asia. If we depend on an adhoc and post facto framework to justify India's foreign policy, the incoherence and contradictions can probably be wished away. Otherwise there are important inconsistencies and ironies that require further explanation. It is both in the interest of India and the people of Burma, that India should support the democracy movement as it did in the case of Nepal. What does one mean by India's interest? The ethical question is ultimately more important if by 'India's interest' one means furthering democracy in the region as well in India. This has both a macro and micro dimension. Systematically building up deep economic ties with a country that has a questionable political record and later using this newfangled relationship as a justification for the silences against its increasingly unbearable atrocities, is a tactics that can at best be seen as a pale imitation of the US super power policy everywhere in the world. The 'micro' dimension is also ethically significant. I have myself felt this while finally deciding to visit Myanmar sometime back. Civil society organizations challenging inequitable tourism practices had been debating the whole issue of the implications of 'visiting Myanmar. The junta was carefully opening its doors for tourists to show the world that everything is normal in the country. Moreover, the dilemma was accentuated by the fact the income from tourism is emerging as a crucial source of foreign exchange when sanctions were straggling its threateningly fragile economic base. Indigenous communities are paraded- literally-it is called indigenous fashion parade-for the gaze of the tourist. Myanmar's dependence on tourism is further exacerbated by the relative retardation of other productive sectors. Kachin, Kayyan, Palong, Wa, Bao, Rawang, Moon, Lahoo, Lushan. Lisoo and even the Shan from China are paraded in a blatant commoditization of culture and space in contemporary Myanmar. Nevertheless, the situation is problematic in a crucial way. Visiting Myanmar meant lending economic support to the junta. But campaigning for boycotting Burma leading to decreased visitations meant adding to the miseries of vulnerable communities, particularly marginalized women who probably have no other economic avenue to depend on. Tourism is a major source of income for rural communities and millions depended on it for their everyday survival. This is the micro political economy of Burmese freedom struggle. This is precisely the context where India's silence becomes objectionable from the point of view of global civil society. India has to recognize the right of the Burmese people to oppose the military junta and help them regain 'Burma' from 'Myanmar'. This is a responsibility that cannot be compromised either in the name of ties with the junta or the Chinese factor. This is not only in the interest of India, but also in the best interest of building stable democracies in the region. Interestingly, China and ASEAN have also now come down heavily on the crackdown. How long can India remain silent? (The writer is an Assistant Professor, Communication & New Media Programme ,Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences ,National University of Singapore. Email-sreekumartt at gmail.com .) PS:The new column "Asian Mirror” will be written by Dr.T.T. Sreekumar. Our editorial team chose the name of the column in consultation with Dr. T.T. Sreekumar, who sent his good wishes to the Lanka Guardian. From rashneek at gmail.com Wed Oct 3 09:52:19 2007 From: rashneek at gmail.com (rashneek kher) Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 09:52:19 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to Pawan In-Reply-To: <20071001153412.14355.qmail@webmail6.rediffmail.com> References: <20071001153412.14355.qmail@webmail6.rediffmail.com> Message-ID: <13df7c120710022122u35213c5o245d097d5239a322@mail.gmail.com> Dear Junaid and Pawan, For every Mridu Rai we have so many historians who have written exactly opposite of what she has written.So I suggest every piece of writing should only be viewed as the writers' understanding/perspective/ideology of a certain period or event.On a friend's suggestion I did read Mridu Rai.Kashmir is to be looked in grey and not black and white as we may tend to,sometimes.Mridu Rai's book is a similar attempt. It is time we dont get swayed by one book,maybe historians(who have worked on Kashmir) like Stein,Gierson,Buhler or Younghusband or even Lawrence would be more appropriately balanced despite their biases. Best Regards Rashneek On 1 Oct 2007 15:34:12 -0000, junaid wrote: > > > Mr. Pawan Durrani, > > Possibly you should have read Mridu Rai's book to understand why Dogra > rule was 'Hindu' and why other rulers Mughals and Afghans could not be > described as essentially 'Islamic', though it was surely Muslims who ruled. > (By the way, there were no separate Turks and Mughals who came to rule > Kashmir). An Islamic rule would be one where laws are made on the bases of > Koran and Hadith, and would be called as Sharia. Both temporal and spiritual > realms would be regulated by it. Both civil and criminal law would be > quintessentially Sharia. And they are made by religious scholars. This was > not the case for Mughals or Afghans: It was either laws made by the > sovereign or the tribal laws. And even though both may have invoked Koran > and Hadith, yet most of their content was inspired by local needs than > religious zeal or inspiration. (I should not be understood as saying Islamic > law is anyway superior to other laws, like tribal laws etc. Or that Afghans > or Mughal rule was any benign.) > > For Dogras, who drew a fake Rajput lineage, with an opportunistic support > from state-sponsored historians, both Dogra and British, the way they > invoked Hinduism in ruling Kashmir was stupendous. It is no secret that poor > Kashmiri Muslim peasants were stripped bare by Dogra rulers to fund temple > constructions in not only Kashmir and Jammu, but in Punjab too. The Dogras > restarted the hated practice of Begar (forced labour), originally invented > by ancient Hindu rulers of Kashmir. Begar resulted in wide spread death and > destruction of Kashmir Muslims. Thousands of Muslim youth perished carrying > load, like mules, barefooted, to Maharaja's Gilgit frontier. And while this > was going on, Kashmir's Hindu population, laying exclusive claim to > literacy, and through their landed influence, sustained this terrible rule > loyally. (And they were powerful even during Mughal and Afghan times, when > they occupied much of the bureaucratic positions). > > Dogras depended on the so-called Pandits to extract revenue from Kashmir's > poor Muslim peasants as well as artisans. At times, despite verbal protests > from even the East India Company officials who were so brutal in their own > way, Gulab Singh took away half of the produce of the Muslim peasants. In > his greed to collect more booty he even taxed marriages among Muslims. The > Hindu Kashmiris were exempt. The Dogras took away the lands of some leftover > Muslim elite and reduced them to penury, but during this time, the Hindu > landlords expanded their estates. Thus a miniscule Hindu population, not > more than 5 percent, came to rule 95 percent Muslims of Kashmir. That too > brutally. > > Pawan Durrani should be given compensation for the grand estates his > forefathers had to give up. But who will compensate all those millions of > rickety, malnourished, barely clothed Kashmiri Muslim peasants who were not > only materially degraded but dehumanized too? In 1947, by a sleight of hand, > and without bothering to ask Kashmiri Muslims, who constitute an > overwhelming majority of its people, Kashmir was handed by a Hindu ruler to > India. In this, some Muslim political leaders were coaxed too; they realized > but only too late. During this time, many Kashmiri Muslim leaders were > forced into exile. During the same time, hundreds of thousands of Muslims > from Jammu were either forced to flee or massacred. > > A bearded Kashmir Muslim militant provokes a frenzied response from Pawan, > and he begins to shout: "Hatay Mauji, Islamic Fundamentalism hay aau!" For > him an Indian soldier with a tilak on his forehead, a saffron ribbon around > his waist, a poster of Shivji hanging inside his bunker is Bharat Mata's > secular poot. > > In 1990, Kashmir's Hindus made a choice: They wanted India. That is why > they left. No doubt there was a threat perception. Some Hindus were killed. > According to Sumantra Bose out of 273 killings by 20th January 1990, almost > 73 were Hindus. No doubt, disproportionate. Most of these were highly > influential Hindus, including a Jan Sangh leader. No other minority left. > Even though, many Sikhs were killed in Chattisinghpura, (by who, we should > know by now) they remained in Kashmir. In a state-sponsored exodus one and a > half lakh Hindus were transported overnight to Jammu and other Indian > cities. And remember it was a day after Jagmohan took over as governor, and > promised to punish Kashmiri Muslims. True to his word, after many Hindus > left, he imposed a protracted curfew strangulating Kashmir's Muslims. Dozens > of Kashmir's Muslims were massacred at a number of places. Gaw Kadal, just > being one example. > > In Jashne Azadi, nowhere is it said that 60000 Muslims have been killed in > 15 years. Although even by conservative estimates 80000 Kashmiri Muslims > have been killed over these years (some believe that even the 10000 odd > disappeared have been eliminated too), but the film leaves it open. It > states how the actual number is widely conflicted. > > It is not Kashmiri Muslims who Arabicized Kashmiri names. (Give examples > if you can). It is in fact Dogras who Sanskritised it, and India which > sustained it. Consider, for example, changing the popular name Islamabad to > an official Anantnag. And it is not Kashmiri Muslims who deny Kashmir's > ancient Hindu rulers, but Kashmir's Hindus who deny the existence of > Kashmir's Muslims. It is as if all Kashmir is about is its miniscule Hindus. > It is as if the only tragedy in Kashmir is that of its Hindus. As if death, > destruction, plunder and rapine of its Muslims is not an issue that merits > world's attention. It is time world speaks about Kashmir's Muslims. > > Much has been spoken about Hindus. Many lethargic comparisons have been > made with Holocaust. Many chick pea-brained 'film makers' have lamented that > world remained silent, while Kashmir's Hindus got free salaries, > reservations in education and tremendous material support and publicity. It > is time for appropriated voices to speak up. For stories buried in fake > encounters to be exhumed. For alternative histories and memories to unsettle > the state-sponsored, miniscule-made-mainstream, litanies. > > Pawan you really should run after Jashne-Azadi. Follow it wherever it > goes. It might tire you out of your ignorance, prejudice, and hatred. > > Mohamad Junaid > > > > Pawan Durrani wrote: > > Dear All: > On Thursday September 20th Mr. Sanjay Kak's movie Jashn-e-Azadi (yajynya > has > become Jashn-e)was screened in the Louis McMillan Auditorium of the Yale > University. Rajni Ji and I attended the screening. > > The screening was sponsored by Ms Mridhu Rai, Associate Professor > mridu.rai at yale.edu. She has recently published a book Hindu Rulers, Muslim > Subjects: Islam Rights & the history of Kashmir. (Apparently this book was > part of the motivation for Mr. Sanjay Kak to make the movie. Given below > in > parenthesis is her back ground. > > (Mridu Rai joined the department in July 2001 as an assistant professor. > She > was educated at Delhi University; the Centre for Historical Studies at > Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; and Columbia University, where she > received a PhD in modern south Asian history. Her doctoral research > focused > on the problem of religion and politics in the making of protest in modern > Kashmir between the 1840s and the 1940s. In 2004 it culminated in her > book, > Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir > < http://www.yale.edu/history/faculty/materials/rai-hindu.html> . > Professor > Rai's new research turns to the region of Bihar, to explore the > relationships between caste, territory, region and nation as they evolved > from the period of British colonial rule into the postcolonial) > > There were 23 people in all present in the screening hall. That included > Mr. > Sanjay Kak and us two. Most of the attendants were from the South Asian > stud > department of Indian origin. There was one or two students of Pakistani > origin and may be two or three of American and European descent. > > The documentary is about two and a half hour long monologue. The thrust of > the documentary is to manipulated to portray the burning desire for the > freedom among 'Kashmiris' (read Kashmiri Muslims). The movie touches upon > the 500 years of colonization of Kashmir. It was interesting to note the > wordings of narration and the imagery of this narration. Mr Kak introduced > the Kalhanna's Rajatarangani as the Hindu rule of Kashmir. He also stated > the "Hindu" rule of Kashmir before 1948. But then he chooses to describe > the > 500 years of pre-Dogra rule as the colonial rule of Turks, Afghans, > Mughals, > and other nationalities as if it was not an Islamic rule. In that one > sentence he tries to pass the suffering under these colonizers as the > sufferings of Muslims and not of Hindus. That during this period 100% > Kashmiri Hindu population was reduced to at most 25% of the population was > presented as Muslim suffering. He quotes Kalhanna "that Kashmir can not be > conquered by colonization but by spiritual merit", as the ethos of > Kashmiri > Muslims. That the Muslims (both foreign and the converted) were the rulers > under whose reign Kashmiri Hindu were massacred, humiliated and forced out > of Kashmir (as evidenced by the Saaraswats and Vaadama Ayers and Kashmiri > of > Gujarat) and converted to Islam is completely presented as the sufferings > of the Muslims. > > That since the 1948 till 1990 the successive J&K Governments were formed > by > the National conference (previously "Muslim Conference") and the people > at > the helm were Kashmiri Muslims is also presented as the colonization by > the > Indians. That this Government systematically marginalized the Hindus of > Kashmir by putting reservations for the majority, snatching any landed > property with out compensation (there by violating the property rights of > a > minority) is portrayed as the land reform act of the Government. The sole > livelihood of the Kashmiri Hindus through education was denied and they > were > forced out of state (to achieve Islamization) is also supposed to have > happened because of the colonization by India. That 1947 incursions of > Pakistan and the development of Islamic Fundamentalism with support from > Pakistan and the outsiders is completely glossed over. Even though the > mention is made of the foreign Islamic mercenaries in Kashmir but it is > portrayed as acceptable and not such an important issue, where as presence > of Indian troops and the Indian tourists is presented as the yoke on the > local Muslims. (Who shown as pulling the tourists snowy upslope of the > Gulmarg.) > > The presentation of Shaheed (A Islamic category used for the Shahaadat ) > and > the Mujahideen (An Islamic religious category used for the fighters of the > faith) is presented as freedom fighters. The time and again portrayal of > the > "Muslim Cemeteries" and dead Muslim Mujahideen is lamentable but their > killing and raping of the innocent victims both hindu (and Muslims) is > accepted as the justifiable for the Azadi. > Mr. Kak mentiones 200 dead and 160,000 migrated in bold numbers with the > small print of "in one year". One wonders why did he choose only one year > numbers to show about the Hindu sufferings but boldly says 60,000 total > dead > or lost in the last 15 years. This choice is made show the balance in his > approach like a chameleon Indian leftist/secularist. > > Finally when the documentary was screened we were the first one to raise > hand for questions. We turned toward the audience and challenged the very > notion this being a struggle for the Azadi. We put forth that this is > movement for the Islamization of Kashmir. We also pointed out the 500 > years > of colonization Mr. Kak mentions is 500 years of Islamic rule in which our > population was reduced from 1055 to 20% . It was Kashmiri Hindu tragedies > which Mr. Kak is portraying as the Muslim tragedies. We pointed out that > the > first act of this movement in 1990 was to throw out 400 hundred thousand > Hindus from the valley and became refuge in their own country. If it was a > Azadi movement why would valley be cleansed of the non-Muslim minorities. > That scenario fits the Islamization movement better. We asked, why would > all the imagery and the language of this movement be couched in the > Islamic > categorization? Why would Arabic be used instead of Kashmiri language? Why > would the names of the Kashmiri place names be changed to Arabacized and > Islamic names? Why would the past Hindu history be denied? Why would > non-Kashmiri foreign Muslim mercenaries be allowed in and create havoc in > Kashmir? Why would Pakistan be so heavily involved? > > Mr. Kak had no answers for any of these; he tried to pass the Islamic > language as the normal use of religion in freedom movements. But I asked > why > was not inclusive religious symbolism used for the independence? > Kak admitted to the audience that there was Jihad like situation created > for > Kashmiri Hindus who had to leave valley. Eventually I was asked to > allow > others to ask questions. But there were only two other people who asked > one > question each, one on the lines of secularism and the other, a Pakistani, > gave some comments on state of JKLF in Pakistan. > > We attended the dinner after the movie and we continued to occupy Mr. > Kak's > and several others attention on the dishonest portrayal of the Kashmir > issue. During dinner we distributed the copies of Ashokji Pandits > Documentary ....And world remained silent.... to some of the attendees and > requested them to watch it and pass it on to other students. > > That is the story from Yale... > > Thanks > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> -- Rashneek Kher http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com From vivek at sarai.net Wed Oct 3 10:26:57 2007 From: vivek at sarai.net (Vivek Narayanan) Date: Wed, 03 Oct 2007 10:26:57 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Reading by Sampurna Chattarji and Sridala Swami Message-ID: <47032119.40502@sarai.net> For those interested in poetry in Delhi-- passing this on on behalf of Sampurna Chattarji, who has a piece in Reader 06 here: http://www.sarai.net/publications/readers/06-turbulence/04_sampurna.pdf Sampurna Chattarji and Sridala Swami (Sampurna based in Mumbai and Sridala in Hyderabad) both had their first collections of poetry with Sahitya Akademi this year, and they have also worked on poetry collaborations together. If you're in town tomorrow, do attend! Vivek Sahitya Akademi cordially invites you to an evening of poetry with Sampurna Chattarji & Sridala Swami Poets in English Rukmini Bhaya Nayar Poet and critic in English will chair the programme Thursday, 4 October 2007 at 6 p.m. Venue: Sahitya Akademi Auditorium 35, Ferozeshah Road New Delhi Tea : 5.30 p.m. R.S.V.P : 23386626-28 Visit our Website : http:/www.sahitya-akademi.gov.in -- www.sarai.net Vivek Narayanan The Sarai Programme Centre for the Study of Developing Societies 29,Rajpur Road, Civil Lines Delhi 110 054. From christina112 at earthlink.net Wed Oct 3 10:55:52 2007 From: christina112 at earthlink.net (Christina McPhee) Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 22:25:52 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] October 2007 on -empyre-: "DNA Poetics" Message-ID: October 2007 on -empyre-: "DNA Poetics" Two words well placed, no? After Judith Roof's "The Poetics of DNA". That DNA (hereafter Code) is perhaps, but a metaphor for a substance (and/or protocol?) is what concerns us here, this month of October, on -empyre-. The Code is meaningful, we can agree. But of what meaning is it full? Meaningful of biology? Meaningful of poetry? Should we speak of the people's (public) Code? A corporatized (private) Code? Who is charged with its derivation? With the responsibility of Code's proof? Is there no Code, and only 'codes'? please join us: subscribe at http://www.subtle.net/empyre ============================================================== Moderated by Nicholas Ruiz III (US) Editor, Kritikos with special guests Judith Roof (US) is professor of English and Film Studies at Michigan State University. Her books include All about Thelma and Eve: Sidekicks and Third Wheels, and The Poetics of DNA. Eugene Thacker (US) is associate professor of New Media in the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture at the Georgia Institute of Technology. His books include Biomedia, The Global Genome, and The Exploit. Nicholas Ruiz III CoModerator, -empyre- Dr. Nicholas Ruiz III Editor, Kritikos http://intertheory.org From ghosh.ranu at gmail.com Wed Oct 3 11:16:24 2007 From: ghosh.ranu at gmail.com (ranu ghosh) Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 22:46:24 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] changing Industrial landscape in kolkata Message-ID: <80ea5720710022246g24f2b69amfd1aa9c68ff55727@mail.gmail.com> *The changing industrial landscape of Kolkata: documenting the transformation of a half century old factory, Joy Engineering Works, into Kolkata's South City Project, "Eastern India's largest mixed use real estate development"* * * *Posting 4:* I am sorry for the delay in posting. *THE LONESOME SOLDIER FIGHTS ON* * *In my earlier posting I had mentioned about my dramatic first encounter with Shambhu Prasad Singh and my resolve to follow and document the twists and turns in his future along with the 'development' of the South City Project. Till date Shambhu continues to hold on to his ground 'zero'amidst the rapidly rising towers of eastern India's most ambitious real estate project. Shambhu does not know how much longer he will be able to put up with his fight. He takes each day as it comes. *A sudden turn of events:* On Friday, the 7th of September, Shambhu Prasad Singh was told that Bimal Chatterjee, the erstwhile President of the Union of Joy Engineering Works, would like to meet him. Shambhu went to Bimal Chatterjee's office just outside the premises of the South City Complex. This used to be the Trade Union Office. Now the signboard outside announces it to be the office of some philanthropic organization. Here, Bimal Chatterjee and Sanjoy Chowdhury, the CEO of the South City project, were waiting for Shambhu. They informed him, " A cheque worth 3.5 lakhs has been sanctioned for you. You will be handed over the cheque as soon as you vacate the South Citypremises." Shambhu thought for a moment and replied, "No Sir. I must have the cheque first. I shall give you in writing that as soon as the cheque is honoured, I shall vacate my quarter and move out of the walled city." Shambhu told himself, "I cannot trust you and your team after what you have done to my colleagues." *Shambhu's dilemma:* His mind was ticking!!! Bimal Chatterjee and his team (read hoodlums) had been the mediators between Joy Engineering Works and the factory workers right from year 2004 – or even earlier. They had forced most of the workers to accept the voluntary retirement scheme. They were instrumental in persuading the other 14 workers who had refused to accept the VRS, to vacate the quarters. Shambhu was the only bone of resistance sticking out of the otherwise smooth pie of 'development'. South city had not made their full payment to Joy Engineering Works because of Shambhu. JEW would get Rs. 45 Lakhs from SCP as soon as Shambhu vacated the premise. Bimal Chatterjee must be feeling the pressure from both sides. Was this talk of 3.5 lakhs true after all? Bimal Chatterjee had said, " Take the deal while Sanjoy Chowdhury is there. He will quit his South Cityjob next month and then there will be nobody to protect your interest." Shambhu had heard that there were charges of corruption against Sanjoy Chowdhury. Apartments in South City would be handed over to the owners in a few months' time. Shambhu's two room quarter, without electricity and water supply since the past two years, needed to be razed to ground and made over very quickly. They could not afford to have Shambhu hanging around when the residents moved in. But how would Shambhu verify the truth of Bimal Chatterjee's offer? It was difficult to figure out who was hand in glove with whom. Under Bimal Chatterjee's leadership the 14 workers who refused to take VRS, eventually vacated their quarters and filed a case against South City Project. That case is still pending in the court. Shambhu escaped this eviction because he had independently filed a case against Joy Engineering Works and South City. His contention was that since he did not accept the VRS scheme, officially he was still holding on to his job and was thus eligible to live in his quarter.Thus had begun Shambhu's lonesome battle against the mighty Goliath. *Shambhu and me:* I had stepped into the picture around 2006 beginning and have since got indirectly involved with Shambhu's fate. He is the subject of my latest film and he finds in me a friend and a confidante. Since I am not allowed inside the South City premises, I have given a handy cam to Shambhu to document the rapid change in his life and his environment. I have also given a mobile phone to him and one more to his family – to make sure that we are always in touch with each other. Given the precocity of their existence, they needed this support system. Shambhu often called me from his mobile and kept me updated of the new twists and turns in his life. He proved to be a 'natural' with the camera and captured his crumbling environment with great love and a sense of loss. Now Shambhu was faced with a new dilemma – whether or not to believe Bimal Chatterjee's offer. How would he resolve this dilemma? How would he verify the truth of his offer? *Shambhu connects to the big man:* Why not verify the latest situation from the highest quarter? Shambhu found himself wandering towards the residential quarters of Mr. S.K. Todi, the Director of the South City Complex. "Mr. Todi is in Mumbai", informed his security guard, Peter. Shambhu had a good rapport with Peter - and most other guards and workers who lived inside the walled city. Peter gave Todi's mobile phone number to Shambhu. The past year of struggle had emboldened Shambhu. He punched the number on his mobile and asked, "Sir, has the Board taken any decision about me?" Todi's voice responded from the other side, "Yes. The Board has sanctioned 7 lakhs in your name." 7 lakhs? But didn't Bimal Chatterjee say 3.5 lakhs? Shambhu decided to inform the CEO of his conversation with Bimal Chatterjee. The Director assured him, "I am coming back to town on 5th October. I'll look into the matter as soon as I am there." Would Shambhu really start dreaming of the life outside the walled city? He had everything lined up for the eventuality. He would take up a place in Maniktala. He would buy an auto rickshaw and ply it in the Maniktala route. He would survive in this city where he was born and his father and grandfather earned their living. He could not relate to his hometown in Bihar any more. Kolkata was his real home town. But he must get his compensation. That is what he has been fighting for more than two years now. * Shambhu's cases:* Shambhu's case against Joy Engineering Works and South City was dismissed by S.K Gupta of the Kolkata High Court. He wrote, *"The dispute between the parties is clearly civil in nature, and as such, I find no illegality in the order, as passed by the learned Executive Magistrate in dropping the proceeding. If the petitioner's civil rights is in jeopardy, then he has to approach the appropriate court for getting the remedy."* On 15.12.05, he wrote a letter to 19 persons – from the Chief Justice of Kolkata High Court to the Governor to the Mayor to the editors of all the major newspapers in town. It was a letter written in Bengali, informing everybody that he was being pressurized and harassed in many ways to leave his quarter. The letter mentions that he was even given a threat of life by some outsiders and ex-leader. Nobody responded to his letter He filed another case against South City for the life threat and harassment they were causing him. *Inside the walled city:* He continued with his precarious life in the South City premises and remained a witness to the rapid pace of construction flouting all norms of basic protection to the construction labourers. The labourers worked at high altitude without any safety belt. No. of labourers lost their lives by slipping and falling from a height. He witnessed the death of seven workers caused by the sudden collapse of a water tank The authorities vanishd some bodies and showed the death toll as four. Shambhu played an active role in protecting the other dead bodies from disappearing. Through his activism he won the sympathy of the construction labourers. He was also a mute witness to the work at breakneck pace going on at night – even after 10.30pm, to the illegal filling up of the water body with rubble – and to so many other irregularities. He has managed to document some of these 'developments' in the handy cam I have given him. The handy cam has also helped him to befriend many people. He shot a video footage of the guards. I made a DVD and he handed over that DVD to the guards. They were deeply grateful to him. Shambhu is a survivor. He has been pressurized not only by Bimal Chatterjee, but also by the lawyers fighting for him - to withdraw the case and opt for an amicable settlement. In many ways he is at the mercy of his lawyer and the lawyer exploits him in many ways. Many a times I have made payments to the lawyer to help Shambhu come out of a tight spot. *Latest update:* The case filed against South City has been dismissed. Shambhu was not informed about the date of court hearing. One more case has been filed by Shambhu against South City. Shambhu will soon meet Mr. S.K. Todi to hear from the horse's mouth what compensation the Board has decided to give Shambhu. *End of posting 4* * * From rashneek at gmail.com Wed Oct 3 12:23:05 2007 From: rashneek at gmail.com (rashneek kher) Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 12:23:05 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] =?windows-1252?q?=91Hum_chaahte_hain_ke_log_hum_par?= =?windows-1252?q?_naaz_karein=92_by_Hassan_Zaidi?= Message-ID: <13df7c120710022353m7cb2c1b7g6fa96b0c0909e088@mail.gmail.com> Twenty-five underprivileged teenage girls—many from the Dharavi and Kandivali slums and some rescued from brothels—have made five short films, on issues ranging from dowry to the problems of the girl child, that were screened on Tuesday. *Mumbai, October 2:* When fifth standard dropout 17-year-old Shabnam Khan discusses camera angles, she is not just talking close-ups and zoom-ins, she is actually telling you that she sees her future in the frames. Similarly, 17-year-old Neha Belkar from the slums in Dharavi knows how to weave the narrative in a way that will wrench your heart. Shabnam and Neha are part of a group of 25 underprivileged girls—many from the Dharavi and Kandivali slums and some who were rescued from brothels—whose nascent efforts at filmmaking will see fruition on Tuesday at the Manek Sabhagriha auditorium in Bandra when their five films, four of 10-minute duration and one seven minutes long, will be screened. An initiative of a clutch of NGOs and others, who include Laadli, MAM movies, Uncle free coaching classes, Apne Aap, LEARN and Bombay Cambridge School, the 25 girls learnt the ropes from filmmakers Sudhir Mishra, Madhur Bhandarkar and Ashok Pandit in 45 days. The girls have made films on issues ranging from dowry to the problems of the girl child. Sixteen-year-old Pranati (name changed), who has made a 10-minute film on the rescue of a girl from a brothel, has herself undergone the trauma of being kidnapped and serving in bondage in such a place. Pranati's story travels to a distant village where a little girl lives her little dreams until the bulwark of the family, the mother, dies leaving the children rudderless. The father is disinterested; in this situation, two men walk in and promise the stars. They con the girl into taking a train to the big city, Mumbai, and then she wakes up in a bordello. Another group of girls from Dharavi led by Neha Belkar, Shaikh Ayesha, Shabnam Khan and Renuka Gajakosh have made a movie about a dialogue between an infant boy and a girl and the story of the little girl who fears what is in store for her: perhaps, she will end up washing dishes, cleaning the house and doing menial work instead of studying and making her parents proud. The 10-minute movie is named Naaz. "Hum sab chaahte ke log hum par naaz karein (We want people to be proud of us)," says Neha, an HSC student of KMS night college at Dharavi. Then there is a story about a girl in a womb and her first person account as she watches her family go into a spin after they hear the news of the pregnancy and how the girl is suddenly not sure in the next few weeks if the dissenting grandmother will prevail. Eventually, she is aborted. The girl child and the troubled times she lives in is the central theme of most of the movies, all of which have a common theme song sung by a 13-year-old budding musician, Raj Pandit, son of Ashok Pandit. The song talks about hope for the girl child. "The artistes who performed in these movies are all neighbours and relatives of the girls. These girls now say we are filmmakers," says Madhusudan Agarwal of MAM movies who learnt his trade in San Francisco, US. So enthused are the veteran filmmakers by the girls' efforts that they have already decided who the next batch of 25 girls will be for their next session of filmmaking. "Daughters of police constables and BMC scavengers and sweepers will form our next batch," says Ashok Pandit who along with other filmmakers and NGOs conceived the idea of teaching filmmaking to the girls. "We are also planning to recruit some of the girls into the mainstream team for big movies as assistants in handling cameras, scripting and other aspects of filmmaking," says Pandit. ** -- Rashneek Kher http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com From rana at ranadasgupta.com Wed Oct 3 12:29:29 2007 From: rana at ranadasgupta.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Wed, 03 Oct 2007 12:29:29 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Myanmar Message-ID: <47033DD1.6040201@ranadasgupta.com> good articles in this week's Economist about the geopolitics of the intractable Myanmar situation if you get a chance to see it. The EU and especially the US have placed severe sanctions but India, China and particularly - as the article below from the NYT describes - Thailand are providing good revenues to the generals because resource shortages in the region are just far more pressing than anything else. R The New York Times - Myanmar's Resources Provide Leverage By THOMAS FULLER Published: October 2, 2007 BANGKOK, Oct. 1 — For two decades, Myanmar's neighbors have grappled with the question of how to respond to the unrelenting repression by the country's ruling generals of its people. In Thailand, the answer comes each time Thais pay their electricity bill. Natural gas from Myanmar, which generates 20 percent of all electricity in Thailand, keeps the lights on in Bangkok. The gas, which this year will cost about $2.8 billion, is the largest single export for Myanmar's otherwise impoverished and cash-strapped economy. Thailand's gas imports highlight the dilemma facing China, India, Singapore and Malaysia, among other countries, as they vie for Myanmar's hardwoods, minerals, gems — and access to its market of 47 million people. At a time of spiraling world energy prices, the prospect of extracting resources appears to override the embarrassment and shame of dealing with a junta that has attracted world notoriety. For this reason, the countries that have the most leverage over Myanmar seem to be the most reluctant to use it, analysts say. >From the perspective of Myanmar's generals, the gas purchases by Thailand are only the beginning of what promises to be a significant infusion of cash. Myanmar will soon announce the winner of a concession in the even larger Shwe gas fields off the coast of western Myanmar. Companies from India, China and South Korea have put in bids for those contracts. In eastern Myanmar, Thai companies are building hydropower plants and have contracts to pay the government billions of dollars for the electricity generated there. "For a country that's used to a hand-to-mouth existence there is suddenly a bonanza of foreign exchange," said Sean Turnell, a specialist on the Myanmar economy at Macquarie University in Australia. "Burma is now getting the wherewithal to tell the world to bug off. It strengthens their position immeasurably." The cash has allowed the generals who run Myanmar to buy weapons from China and helicopters from India, order a nuclear test reactor from Russia and construct their new capital north of Myanmar's main city, Yangon. "The natural gas drastically changed the military government's fiscal position," said Toshihiro Kudo, director of the Southeast Asian Studies Group at the Institute of Developing Economies, a research organization run by the Japanese government. Myanmar's gas reserves are small by global standards. BP, the oil company, estimates that Myanmar's total reserves are 538 billion cubic meters, or 19 trillion cubic feet, far less than the reserves of nearby Malaysia or Indonesia. But the billions of dollars these gas fields will produce is valuable to the ruling generals, whose sources of financing are extremely limited due to American sanctions. Last year, Myanmar sold $2 billion worth of gas to Thailand, which amounted to more than 40 percent of the country's total exports for that year. Largely because of the gas deal, Thailand is Myanmar's biggest trade partner, not China, as is widely reported. "Thailand and Myanmar are increasingly integrated, increasingly dependent on each other," Mr. Kudo said. As a result, he said, "I don't think that Thailand is applying any very serious pressure on the military government." There is a stark contrast in Thailand between public anger over the beatings and the business-as-usual attitude that underlies Thai policy toward Myanmar. At the United Nations last week, the Thai prime minister, Surayud Chulanont called the Myanmar crackdown "unacceptable." Newspapers have run scathing editorials about Myanmar's generals. And Thailand remains a refuge for dissidents from Myanmar. But the bottom line, Thai officials say, is that Thailand is competing for the world's energy resources, and if it doesn't buy the gas, someone else will. "We need power," said Suthep Chimklai, director of the system planning division at the electricity authority. "We need to balance our sources by importing more power from our neighboring countries." Thailand also buys small amounts of electricity from Laos and Malaysia. To keep up with its demand for electricity, Thailand is building four power plants, all of which are designed to run on natural gas. If the supply of gas from Myanmar were disrupted, Mr. Suthep said, "it would be a serious problem." The natural gas reaches two power stations on the outskirts of Bangkok by way of a pipeline laid a decade ago by Total, the French oil company; Unocal, the American oil company which has since been absorbed by Chevron; and PTT Exploration and Production, Thailand's leading company in the field. According to Thailand's Power Development Plan, the government plans to increase energy imports from Myanmar, thus further bolstering the financial position of the junta. Thailand's policy calls for buying an additional 8,200 megawatts from Myanmar over the next 14 years. Most of this is likely to come from hydroelectric power plants on the Salween River. The Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand has completed feasibility studies on a dam at Hat Gyi in Myanmar's Karen state. A private Thai company, MDX, has been given a contract to complete a larger dam at Tasang in the Shan state. Thailand's PTT Exploration and Production has won the rights to explore three potential off-shore sites in the Gulf of Martaban, south of Yangon. Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin, the army chief who led Thailand's military coup last year, said last week that Thailand should stay engaged with Myanmar. "There are many friendly nations who help Myanmar like China and Korea because Myanmar is a country with plenty of natural resources that the powerful nations want to obtain," General Sonthi said. For China, the attraction of Myanmar is both economic — Myanmar imported $1.3 billion worth of Chinese goods in 2006 — and geostrategic. As part of its bid for the gas fields in western Myanmar, China has proposed building a pipeline running from the Indian Ocean to Yunnan Province. An additional pipeline could carry crude oil, allowing ships coming from the Middle East to pump oil directly into China without making the long journey through the Straits of Malacca. For Myanmar, the gas fields would mean more cash. Mr. Turnell estimates that gas pumped from Shwe platforms would have a value of $2 billion a year. From aman.am at gmail.com Wed Oct 3 14:47:20 2007 From: aman.am at gmail.com (Aman Sethi) Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 14:47:20 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Chitra Venkataramani's Hygiene and the City: resolving language Message-ID: <995a19920710030217i51d09e86qd41545d76ee7340f@mail.gmail.com> Dear Chitra, I realise that this is a rather late response to a post you almost six months ago - but i read your latest post (on your blog) and decided to go through your previous postings. Needless to say, the project is brilliant. What i wanted to ask you was whether you had resolved the "language problem" you faced in sxn two of your book. I too have been struggling with the notion of language of late- particularly in the translation from hindi (or marathi or any other language) into english. I have been working and writing about construction labour for a while now - but am yet to figure out how to render their richly textured dialects into english. I did try reading a number of travel books to see how travel writers deal with non-english language speakers in their books. What i realised was that very few travel writers (who write in english) speak the language of the places they visit - and so the only people they speak to are "natives" who speak some sort of broken english. This broken english is then faithfully reproduced by the travel writer and provides comic relief. However, in my interactions with labourers, we do not converse in english at all! Translating edgy yet poetic hindi into edgy yet poetic english (in the off chance where this is possible) makes the labourers sound rather strange and alien, and my narrative seems fails the essential "Who talks like this in real world" test. Would be interested in learning about your experiences with the same. Best a. On 4/29/07, Chitra Venkataramani wrote: > Hygiene and the City. > Second post. > > I have spent the past month figuring out the stories that constitute > the book and collecting data. > > The book has three parts. The first part is a compilation of parts of > interviews that looks at individual notions of cleanliness and order, > mostly in domestic set up. It also goes through Advertisements for > cleaning products, objects catalogued as being harmful (taken from old > newspaper articles). > > The second and the third parts of the books both chronicle traveling > through the city in trains. But while the second part looks at the > journey as a series of maps, the third is the journey of a medical > student in a crowded compartment, looking at the idea of paranoia and > contagious diseases. > > The second part of the book is narrated by a woman who imagines clean > and unclean as ideas that exist simultaneously. Her story maps objects > in a busy market place, the difference between private and public > gardens, and lastly the naala that run along the Central Railway line- > where is it the deepest, where is it murky and where is it clear; what > vegetation grows around it (strips along the railway lines are given > away for farming vegetables like spinach and coriander) and where do > these vegetables go? > > > The third part narrated by a medical student looks at the idea of > proximity and disease. If we go in a crowded train, what diseases do > we catch? How clean are crowds? Of course, it moves from the > surroundings in the train itself to how he imagines the disease will > enter our bodies. It also looks at ads put inside trains for curing > infections like ringworm to ads for faith healers and the ergonomic > data based on which spaces are designed. > > > Another part that had to be resolved was the language of each of the > three stories. The fist was pretty clear as each image could change > with the excerpt from the interview. The third borrows its language > from medical posters and from the ads, where figure are drawn out as > stenciled lines or as figures in screen printed pamphlets. I am still > working on a language for the second story. > > I will be posting a few images from the book by next week and upload > them onto a blog. Will post that link later next week. > > My primary sources of data have been newspaper ads (articles taken > from CED), Books documenting ads from the 40's (especially post war > advertising), books on anatomy, ads posted around the city on > telephone boxes and inside trains, and product design projects like > domestic scrubbers, road cleaning devices and a few medical posters > (hard to get- hospitals do not encourage people taking pictures or > even borrowing the posters) > -- > Chitra Venkataramani > 7B, Orchard Avenue, > Powai Mumbai 400076 > 9819 474375 > www.flipsearch.blogspot.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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> From priyababu_sudar at yahoo.co.in Wed Oct 3 15:24:58 2007 From: priyababu_sudar at yahoo.co.in (priya babu) Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 10:54:58 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] aravanis in Madurai - Priya Babu 6th posting Message-ID: <950295.42077.qm@web94401.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Aravanis in Madurai – Priyababu 6th posting There is a Panchayat system for aravanis within Madurai and adjacent districts. The system addresses the issues of the aravani community in the areas where it is followed. In Madurai, all aravanis come under this system. This system is stronger in the south of Tamil Nadu than in the North. The leader of the system in a given area is the Nayak of that area. One bade haveli Nayak and one chhote haveli Nayak will lead the system. The selection criteria of the Nayak include one or more of the following: 1) The old Nayak’s first chela (first adopted daughter), 2) A long follower of the community traditions and laws, 3) The verdict of the old Nayak when she is about to die, 4) The old Nayak’s sister (must have been close to the Nayak in the community), To convene a gathering of the community to discuss a particular issue or to fin a solution/judgment for a problem, one can approach the Nayak. The Nayak will then arrange to convene the gathering. The Nayak will communicate the date, time and venue of a particular gathering to the members of the community. Everyone who comes to the gathering will bend down to offer her obeisance to the mat on which she will sit. One sitting, each member will cover her head with the loose portion of her saree or dress. The practices seem very similar to a Muslim gathering. Such Muslim practices point to the fact that these systems must have started in the Muslim period. After the gathering is fully ready, the Nayaks will enquire both the opponent(s) and the respondent(s) of the issue in question. In the event that any party is believed to lie, the Nayak will ask the party to promise on the Quran that they are saying the truth. If anyone wants to leave the gathering early, she can offer her respect by saying ‘chhataiku paampaduthi’ and ‘Naayakku pampaduthi’ and then leave the gathering. The following are considered wrong and requiring judgement according to the system: 1) Eating beaf, 2) Beating an older aravani by grabbing hold of the hair on the head, 3) Verbally abusing another aravani by referring to the aravani’s caste, 4) Disrespecting ones guru, 5) Stealing and lieing, etc As punishments, one or more of the following may be handed down: 1) Alienating from the community, 2) Punching a hot 25 paise coin into the forehead, 3) Fine, 4) Force to request for pardon from the opposite side etc, From the offences and their consequent punishments, it comes to light that the system must be based on Islamic beliefs and practices. Regardless of the religion from which an aravani hails, it is mandatory to cover the head with the loose portion of her dress. Prohibition of beaf as an edible substance has clearly come from Islamic beliefs. --------------------------------- Chat on a cool, new interface. No download required. Click here. From mayur.suresh at gmail.com Wed Oct 3 15:14:14 2007 From: mayur.suresh at gmail.com (Mayur) Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 15:14:14 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Screening of "Road To Guantanamo" this Friday. In-Reply-To: <98bea7e00710030222h7dbf7d3j2c4953626ead7d6d@mail.gmail.com> References: <98bea7e00710030222h7dbf7d3j2c4953626ead7d6d@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <4def3c470710030244n11b80213i272f8e37835eebfc@mail.gmail.com> Dear All, Please joins us for a screening of "Road to Guantanamo" this Friday, October 5, at 6 pm, at the (Old) ALF office at 122/4, Opposite Infantry Wedding House, Infantry Road, Bangalore - 1. A short synopsis of the film is below. Hope to see you this friday Mayur *The Road to Guantanamo* is a 2006 award winning docudrama directed by Michael Winterbottom about the incarceration of three British detainees at Guantánamo Bay. The film tells the disputed story of Ruhel Ahmed, Asif Iqbal and Shafiq Rasul, three young British men, (the Tipton Three) from Tipton in the West Midlands who were captured by the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan in 2001 and detained as "enemy combatants" at Guantánamo Bay, without charge or legal representation, for nearly three years. As well as interviews with the three men themselves and archive news footage from the period, the film contains an account of the three men's experiences following their capture by the Northern Alliance, the subsequent handover to the United States military and their detention in Cuba. It contains several scenes depicting their alleged beatings during interrogation, the use of alleged torture techniques such as 'stress positions' and attempts to extract forced confessions of involvement with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The Tipton Three were all released without charge and without any compensation for their imprisonment in 2004. The torture depicted in the film, had to be softened from the detainees' claims for the benefit of the actors; according to Rizwan Ahmed, they were unable to bear the pain caused by the shackles pressing on their legs, and had to have them cushioned. They were also unable to remain in the stress positions depicted for more than an hour; the Tipton Three claim they were left in them for up to eight hours. -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From turbulence at turbulence.org Wed Oct 3 01:43:03 2007 From: turbulence at turbulence.org (Turbulence) Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2007 16:13:03 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Visionary Landscapes: Call for Papers and Media Art Message-ID: <00cf01c80530$b63e3b80$22bab280$@org> Visionary Landscapes: Electronic Literature Organization 2008 Conference http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/programs/dtc/elo08/ May 29 - June 1, 2008 Vancouver, Washington CALL FOR PAPERS http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/programs/dtc/elo08/proposal.html Deadline: November 30, 2007 CALL FOR MEDIA ART http://www.vancouver.wsu.edu/programs/dtc/elo08/media.html Deadline: November 30, 2007 Sponsored by Washington State University Vancouver and The Electronic Literature Organization. Drs. Dene Grigar and John Barber, Co-Chairs. Contact: Dene Grigar - grigar at vancouver.wsu.edu. 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 Networked_Performance Blog: http://turbulence.org/blog Networked_Music_Review: http://turbulence.org/networked_music_review Upgrade! Boston: http://turbulence.org/upgrade New American Radio: http://somewhere.org _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From rana at ranadasgupta.com Thu Oct 4 07:06:46 2007 From: rana at ranadasgupta.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2007 07:06:46 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Myanmar Junta Unplugs Internet Message-ID: <470443AE.5000501@ranadasgupta.com> from today's NYT. R Myanmar Junta Unplugs Internet By SETH MYDANS BANGKOK, Oct. 3 — It was about as simple and uncomplicated as shooting demonstrators in the streets. Embarrassed by smuggled video and photographs that showed their people rising up against them, the generals who run Myanmar simply switched off the Internet. Until Friday television screens and newspapers abroad were flooded with scenes of tens of thousands of red-robed monks in the streets and of chaos and violence as the junta stamped out the biggest popular uprising there in two decades. But then the images, text messages and postings stopped, shut down by generals who belatedly grasped the power of the Internet to jeopardize their crackdown. “Finally they realized that this was their biggest enemy, and they took it down,” said Aung Zaw, editor of an exile magazine based in Thailand called The Irrawaddy, whose Web site has been a leading source of information in recent weeks. The site has been attacked by a virus whose timing raises the possibility that the military government has a few skilled hackers in its ranks. The efficiency of this latest, technological, crackdown raises the question whether the vaunted role of the Internet in undermining repression can stand up to a determined and ruthless government — or whether Myanmar, already isolated from the world, can ride out a prolonged shutdown more easily than most countries. OpenNet Initiative, which tracks Internet censorship, has documented signs that in recent years several governments — including those of Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan — have closed off Internet access, or at least opposition Web sites, during periods preceding elections or times of intense protests. The brief disruptions are known as “just in time” filtering, said Ronald J. Deibert of OpenNet. They are designed to quiet opponents while maintaining an appearance of technical difficulties, thus avoiding criticism from abroad. In 2005, King Gyanendra of Nepal ousted the government and imposed a weeklong communications blackout. Facing massive protests, he ceded control in 2006. Myanmar has just two Internet service providers, and shutting them down was not complicated, said David Mathieson, an expert on Myanmar with Human Rights Watch. Along with the Internet, the junta cut off most telephone access to the outside world. Soldiers on the streets confiscated cameras and video-recording cellphones. “The crackdown on the media and on information flow is parallel to the physical crackdown,” he said. “It seems they’ve done it quite effectively. Since Friday we’ve seen no new images come out.” In keeping with the country’s self-imposed isolation over the past half-century, Myanmar’s military seemed prepared to cut the country off from the virtual world just as it had from the world at large. Web access has not been restored, and there is no way to know if or when it might be. At the same time, the junta turned to the oldest tactic of all to silence opposition: fear. Local journalists and people caught transmitting information or using cameras are being threatened and arrested, according to Burmese exile groups. In a final, hurried telephone call, Mr. Aung Zaw said, one of his longtime sources said goodbye. “We have done enough,” he said the source told him. “We can no longer move around. It is over to you — we cannot do anything anymore. We are down. We are hunted by soldiers — we are down.” There are still images to come, Mr. Aung Zaw said, and as soon as he receives them and his Web site is back up, the world will see them. But Mr. Mathieson said the country’s dissidents were reverting to tactics of the past, smuggling images out through cellphones, breaking the files down for reassembly later. It is not clear how much longer the generals can hold back the future. Technology is making it harder for dictators and juntas to draw a curtain of secrecy. “There are always ways people find of getting information out, and authorities always have to struggle with them,” said Mitchell Stephens, a professor of journalism at New York University and the author of “A History of News.” “There are fewer and fewer events that we don’t have film images of: the world is filled with Zapruders,” he said, referring to Abraham Zapruder, the onlooker who recorded the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963. Before Friday’s blackout, Myanmar’s hit-and-run journalists were staging a virtuoso demonstration of the power of the Internet to outmaneuver a repressive government. A guerrilla army of citizen reporters was smuggling out pictures even as events were unfolding, and the world was watching. “For those of us who study the history of communication technology, this is of equal importance to the telegraph, which was the first medium that separated communications and transportation,” said Frank A. Moretti, executive director of the Center for New Media Teaching and Learning at Columbia University. Since the protests began in mid-August, people have sent images and words through SMS text messages and e-mail and on daily blogs, according to some exile groups that received the messages. They have posted notices on Facebook, the social networking Web site. They have sent tiny messages on e-cards. They have updated the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. They also used Internet versions of “pigeons” — the couriers that reporters used in the past to carry out film and reports — handing their material to embassies or nongovernment organizations with satellite connections. Within hours, the images and reports were broadcast back into Myanmar by foreign radio and television stations, informing and connecting a public that hears only propaganda from its government. These technological tricks may offer a model to people elsewhere who are trying to outwit repressive governments. But the generals’ heavy-handed response is probably a less useful model. Nations with larger economies and more ties to the outside world have more at stake. China, for one, could not consider cutting itself off as Myanmar has done, and so control of the Internet is an industry in itself. “In China, it’s massive,” said Xiao Qiang, director of the China Internet Project and an adjunct professor at the graduate school of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. “There’s surveillance and intimidation, there’s legal regulation and there is commercial leverage to force private Internet companies to self-censor,” he said. “And there is what we call the Great Firewall, which blocks hundreds of thousands of Web sites outside of China.” Yet for all its efforts, even China cannot entirely control the Internet, an easier task in a smaller country like Myanmar. As technology makes everyone a potential reporter, the challenge in risky places like Myanmar will be accuracy, said Vincent Brossel, head of the Asian section of the press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders. “Rumors are the worst enemy of independent journalism,” he said. “Already we are hearing so many strange things. So if you have no flow of information and the spread of rumors in a country that is using propaganda — that’s it. You are destroying the story, and day by day it goes down.” The technological advances on the streets of Myanmar are the latest in a long history of revolutions in the transmission of news — from the sailing ship to the telegraph to international telephone lines and the telex machine to computers and satellite telephones. “Today every citizen is a war correspondent,” said Phillip Knightley, author of “The First Casualty,” a classic history of war reporting that starts with letters home from soldiers in Crimea in the 1850s and ends with the “living room war” in Vietnam in the 1970s, the first war that people could watch on television. “Mobile phones with video of broadcast quality have made it possible for anyone to report a war,” he said in an e-mail interview. “You just have to be there. No trouble getting a start: the broadcasters have been begging viewers to send their stuff.” From yasir.media at gmail.com Thu Oct 4 10:31:36 2007 From: yasir.media at gmail.com (yasir ~) Date: Wed, 3 Oct 2007 22:01:36 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] =?windows-1252?q?=91Hum_chaahte_hain_ke_log_hum_par?= =?windows-1252?q?_naaz_karein=92_by_Hassan_Zaidi?= In-Reply-To: <13df7c120710022353m7cb2c1b7g6fa96b0c0909e088@mail.gmail.com> References: <13df7c120710022353m7cb2c1b7g6fa96b0c0909e088@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <5af37bb0710032201y34a7f18ai33b197eda80da33e@mail.gmail.com> i was wondering what the subject heading (quote from where?) has to do with the article. best On 10/2/07, rashneek kher wrote: > Twenty-five underprivileged teenage girls—many from the Dharavi and > Kandivali slums .... From vivek at sarai.net Thu Oct 4 15:44:40 2007 From: vivek at sarai.net (Vivek Narayanan) Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2007 15:44:40 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Almost Island: A New Literary Magazine Message-ID: <4704BD10.7070104@sarai.net> Dear friends, Please find the first issue of ALMOST ISLAND now online at: http://www.almostisland.com/ Almost Island is a new literary magazine, edited by Sharmistha Mohanty, with Vivek Narayanan as consulting editor. Based in India, we are resolutely international in scope and conception. We are dedicated to distinctive, essential, innovative, exploratory writing, with special emphasis on the internal and the philosophical. Each new issue will endeavour to publish a substantial selection of work as an introduction to a small number of writers. There will also be shorter updates to the issue each month. All texts are available both on screen and as pdf downloads. IN THE FIRST ISSUE: The inaugural issue of Almost Island is all PROSE, but this includes poems in prose, and a wide variety of styles, forms and approaches. Find here a range of alternatives to what your average mass-marketed prose machines are serving up: [Contributors listed in alphabetical order] Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum, from Madeleine Is Sleeping : Excerpts from one of the most unusual novels to be shortlisted for the National Book Award: a darkly sexual and even perverse fable written in rich, distinctive and ringing language. Cybermohalla, What Is It that Flows Between Us : Three texts by members of Ankur / Sarai-CSDS's Cybermohalla labs. True views of Delhi from the inside, intense, navigating steadily and intently away from categories and easy narratives of heroism and victimhood, and from the cliched seductions of traditional narratives altogether--explorations without "the weight of presentation within". Mikhail Epstein , from Cries in the New Wilderness Excerpts from the "cult classic" by one of Russia's quirkiest and most original contemporary philosophers: an ethnographic catalogue of shadowy religious cults that may or may not have existed, hidden in the folds of the former Soviet Union--purportedly taken from the files of Moscow's erstwhile "Institute of Atheism". David Herd, from Mandelson! Mandelson! and The Hut Is it actually possible to keep it real in the age of manipulative images, compulsive consumption and panacea-peddlers? What is the price we pay for our cynicism? In the most contemporary language, with a light touch but one completely free of easy sentimentalism, these poems and fictions ask the ancientest of questions, and make a strong case, despite despair, for the return of enthusiasm. David Herd's writings somehow make you feel happier: a rare effect in literature. Kent Johnson, I Once Met and 33 Rules for Poets Under 23 Two works from one of the most subversive and, in fact, serious writers: a warm, various and often naughty encyclopaedic embrace of poets famous and obscure; and unflinching advice for young poets, after the Chilean poet Nicanor Parra. James Alan McPherson, Going Up to Atlanta A relentlessly honest and searching improvisatory memoir, that explores uncertain recollections of racial discrimination and the rise and fall and rise of a family, that seeks to answer the question, "Can the offspring ennoble the ancestor?" From one of America's most important writers of short stories and literary non-fiction, and a past winner of the Putlitzer Prize. Tosa Motokiyu, The Strange Account of 'A True Account of Talking to the Sun at Fire Island' A fascinating and ambiguous "critical fiction", curiously fusing together elements of literary criticism, memoir and detective parody, proposing, with disturbing, factual and convincing circumstantial evidence, that Frank O'Hara was not quite the author you thought he was. It does make you wonder. Srikanth Reddy, Voyager In this long excerpt from his current project, a book length poem composed of sentences, Srikanth Reddy continues to consider our world and its total history as if through some kind of new, intensified lens, both passionate and estranged, both lyrical and aphoristic by turns, working from first principles, asking, it would seem to us, what is world, what is looking, what is representation, what is time, what is sequence? Rodrigo Rey Rosa, The Proof and The Truth Simple, violent, ruthless, and deeply disturbing philosophical tales, inevitable and irrefutable, by one of Guatemala's most respected writers. Translated by Paul Bowles. George Szirtes, 6 Prose Poems New work from the major Hungarian-British poet and translator, winner of the TS Eliot prize for his luminous Reel-- varied, typically understated, and patient but insistently, methodically, weird. Suddenly things are not so solid, or so clear. Suddenly you no longer know where you are. Eliot Weinberger, The Rhinoceros A rare and carefully modulated elegy for the rhinoceros, collaging images, hearsay, myth and history, starting with the arrival of the first rhinoceros in Europe 1300 years after the fall of Rome. Weinberger is, among many other things, well known as the translator of Octavio Paz and Borges; his innovative essays read like hidden, empirical poems. The Rhinoceros is from his new book of "serial essays", An Elemental Thing. For questions, suggestions, comments and errata, and to join this, our occasional newsletter, please write to: editor [at-sign] almostisland [dot] com If you are receiving this email, you have already been added to the newsletter, which will appear sporadically, never more than once a month. If you would not like to receive this newsletter at this email address, please do write to us at the address above, and we will promptly take you off the list. Happy Reading! The Almost Island Team -- www.sarai.net Vivek Narayanan The Sarai Programme Centre for the Study of Developing Societies 29,Rajpur Road, Civil Lines Delhi 110 054. From mail at shivamvij.com Thu Oct 4 18:31:33 2007 From: mail at shivamvij.com (Shivam Vij) Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2007 18:31:33 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] I&B now sets sights on online news Message-ID: <9c06aab30710040601j4e7f462fhdc2751b490e9c14a@mail.gmail.com> These loonies... I&B now sets sights on online news Pankaj Doval Posted online: Thursday , October 04, 2007 at 0119 hrs IST http://www.financialexpress.com/news/IB-now-sets-sights-on-online-news/224253/ New Delhi, Oct 3 After lording it over television broadcasts and radio channels, the information & broadcasting ministry now seeks to control the Internet. In a move that has been widely criticised as "impractical", "regressive" and even "undemocratic" by experts and online operators, the I&B ministry wants to bring under its jurisdiction all online news and current affairs, including international websites. This effectively means that online editions of foreign papers like The Washington Post, The Guardian or The Times would first need to register in India, like domestic newspapers do with RNI, before being legally available, or else face a blackout. According to official sources, the exercise is being taken up by the I&B ministry as part of efforts to overhaul the archaic Press & Registration of Books Act of 1867 "to make it contemporary and attune it to present day realities and situation". Sources told FE that the ministry has already prepared a draft proposal, though a Bill on the subject may not be out any time soon. Nasscom president Kiran Karnik termed any such move a "regressive step" and added that the government should stay out such areas. "The Internet worldwide is a free medium. On possible violations, I believe we broadly have laws to take care of any such deviations," he said. Cyber law expert Pavan Duggal said it was "neither practical, feasible nor prudent" to mandate registration for online newspapers. "You are not living in a country like China. We are a democracy and should go by its spirit," he said. Duggal said unlike newspapers, which had a physical form, the Internet was an altogether different paradigm. "You can't compare the two." He, however, said there was need for formation of "self regulation codes" by the online industry itself. From indersalim at gmail.com Thu Oct 4 23:22:50 2007 From: indersalim at gmail.com (inder salim) Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2007 23:22:50 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] forward from Sajad Hamdani Message-ID: <47e122a70710041052n438cf9e6kc1b1ebb9f22f77c2@mail.gmail.com> hi this forward from Sajad Hamadni ( kashmir ) ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: sajad Date: Oct 3, 2007 1:40 AM Subject: Fwd: Hi To: indersalim at gmail.com Subject: Assicons We all know those cute little computer symbols called "emoticons," where: :) means a smile and :( is a frown. Sometimes these are represented by :-) :-( Well, how about some "ASSICONS?" Here goes: (_!_) a regular ass (__!__) a fat ass (!) a tight ass (_*_) a sore ass {_!_} a swishy ass (_o_) an ass that's been around (_x_) kiss my ass (_X_) leave my ass alone (_zzz_) a tired ass (_E=mc2_) a smart ass (_$_) Money coming out of his ass (_?_) Dumb Ass You have just been e-mooned! Send this to 5 people within the next hour and you will be blessed with people laughing at your e-mail. This is NOT a chain letter, so if you don't mail it out, you won't have bad luck. (But who wouldn't want to e-Moon a friend?) Sajad H Hamdani Artist Website: http://www.sajadhamdani.com Email Me At sajadhamdani at yahoo.com Mobile:+91-9469041912 Res: 01942501125 ________________________________ Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha! Play Monopoly Here and Now (it's updated for today's economy) at Yahoo! Games. - -- http://indersalim.livejournal.com From taraprakash at gmail.com Fri Oct 5 04:59:20 2007 From: taraprakash at gmail.com (Taraprakash) Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2007 19:29:20 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] Kashmir leftist feminist iconography References: <5eb29f180709301052u78830ccy9411b15151ad5572@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <01ce01c806de$6723b980$6400a8c0@Shabori> I am wondering how to respond myself, and how should someone with left credentials react to chief minister's remarks about Gandhi and the furor he generated. I am sure there is a need of lots of such so-called anti islam comments. People should get used to such remarks; it might be a flawed logic, but I feel more such remarks are made, more accustomed the Muslim world will be to such remarks. Isn't it so? From sarah.turner at manchesterurbanscreens.org.uk Thu Oct 4 16:24:11 2007 From: sarah.turner at manchesterurbanscreens.org.uk (Sarah Turner) Date: Thu, 4 Oct 2007 12:54:11 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Urban Screens Manchester Newsletter 6 Message-ID: <010101c80674$e63316e0$0ab2a8c0@sarahj6y7loy0> Urban Screens Manchester Art + Events Programme 11 - 14 October Take a new look at your city! A dynamic, groundbreaking four-day programme of free outdoor screen and art events; a showcase for the creative future of our cities, featuring the work of over 90 international artists. Three giant LED screens in city centre Manchester will show a wide range of individual programmes 24-hours a day. The screens will be sited at All Saints' Gardens on Oxford Road, Exchange Square, and Cathedral Gardens outside Urbis. We're looking forward to exclusive live events, interactive works, streaming media, film shorts and animation, late-night video events and live internet broadcasts. A detailed schedule for the three screens can be found on www.manchesterurbanscreens.org.uk. Special event at Manchester Town Hall, Great Hall, Albert Square The Light Surgeons present True Fictions: New Adventures in Folklore European premiere / One performance only The Light Surgeons, a UK-based collective of designers, film makers and musicians, set out to explore the stories and myths surrounding Uncle Sam Wilson, bearded idol and personification of the United States of America. A sizzling multi-screen fusion of documentary filmmaking, genre hopping soundtracks, animation/motion graphics and digital video performance fuses with the stunning, neo-gothic splendour of the Great Hall. The Light Surgeons are best known for their pioneering design of visual displays at clubs, commercial events, music tours & exhibitions. They have been at the cutting edge of multimedia sound and light installations, working across a range of media such as video, 16mm film, photography, print based design, music & spoken narrative. Thursday 11, 9pm Limited tickets available at £5 (£4 concession) from Cornerhouse Box Office on 0161 200 1500 A Wall is a Screen UK Premiere / Promenade event / One night only Part guided tour, part roaming film night, A Wall is a Screen leads its audience through the streets of the city, stopping at previously unnoticed locations where films of different genres are projected. After each film, the equipment is loaded up onto a handcart and the group moves on to the next wall. Working with the North West Film archive at Manchester Metropolitan University, this event includes localised footage that peels back the layers of inner-city history. Members of A Wall is a Screen will also be presenting their work on Day 1 of the conference, during the poster session on creating screen art for an urban & architectural context. Friday 12, 9-10.30pm FREE. Start location: Outside Kro Picadilly, Picadilly Gardens Please feed back your comments on the artworks to info at manchesterurbanscreens.org.uk. We will publish them on the Urban Screens weblog at www.manchesterurbanscreens.org.uk. Curated by Susanne Jaschko ................................................. Sarah Turner International PR Urban Screens Manchester 07 www.manchesterurbanscreens.org.uk +49 (0)162 526 5624 -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From mayur.suresh at gmail.com Fri Oct 5 09:09:57 2007 From: mayur.suresh at gmail.com (Mayur) Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2007 09:09:57 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] free burma, free freedom In-Reply-To: <98bea7e00710042036p186916d4u9b8fce7e33dd7baa@mail.gmail.com> References: <563451.23836.qm@web50802.mail.re2.yahoo.com> <98bea7e00710042036p186916d4u9b8fce7e33dd7baa@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <4def3c470710042039w12a5ac2dy9bc314c64c65145e@mail.gmail.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: golan naulak Date: 4 Oct 2007 22:50 Subject: free burma, free freedom To: mayur at altlawforum.org Greetings Sir/ Madam, Over the past few weeks we've been flooded with a lot of disturbing news from Burma in the wake of the crackdown on the monks' protest by the military junta. More than 1000 monks have been arrested and hundreds others detained and imprisoned. People all over the world have been up in protest against the present military regime.Our deepest solidarity and sincere support goes to the Burmese people at this important juncture. October 6th (Saturday) is the Internatiuonal Day for A Free Burma- the Global day of Action. There will be mass rallies and processions in all major cities of the world where people will be showing their support and solidarity to the Burmese people telling them that they are not alone in their struggle for freedom, that the world is with them! Also there will be programmes to put pressure on their respective governments to help solve the present crisis. As a part of this global campaign, we the STUDENTS FOR FREEDOM are organising a peace protest and gathering on the said date on M G Road ( Mahatma Gandhi statue) at 3pm. There will be a signature campaign and a memorandum ehich will be forwarded to the Prime Minister of India. We ,therefore, kindly request your/ your organisation's/ your institution's participation and support in this cause for freedom. "we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends" "we cannot be indifferent to what happens in the world, for a victory by any country is our victory just as any country's defeat is a defeat for all of us" "how can we sit back at home,idle, unmoved and untouched while our brothers are risking their lives for the cause of freedom,something which we've taken for granted..." for more details: write to studentsforfreedom at gmail.com or call 9845011510, 9886345819,9448484797 Thanking you, for a free Burma, STUDENTS FOR FREEDOM *golan naulak* - ------------------------------ Moody friends. Drama queens. Your life? Nope! - their life, your story. Play Sims Stories at Yahoo! Games. -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From cahen.x at levels9.com Thu Oct 4 21:25:57 2007 From: cahen.x at levels9.com (xavier cahen) Date: Thu, 04 Oct 2007 17:55:57 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] pourinfos Newsletter / 04-10 to 19-10-2007 Message-ID: <47050D0D.5070001@levels9.com> pourinfos.org l'actualité du monde de l'art / daily Art news ----------------------------------------------------------------------- >From Thurday October 04, 2007 to Friday october 19 2007 (included) ------------------------------------------------------------------- (mostly in french) Dear readers of pourinfos, Pourinfos.org come back (in a minimum service - the service of information on the exhibitions is suspended, the letter pourinfos will be less frequent) until the end of this year 2007. We are looking for a viable solution in order to develop and to continue this experiment media concerning visual arts for artists, mediators, professionals of art, students and students of schools of art. To be more precise, we are in the search of financing in order to develop us and some qualified goodwills in the fields of the mediation concerning arts and management (English wished) in order to answer our development durably. If we remain without solutions at the end of this year, Pourinfos.org would regret to suspend its activities. Yours, Xavier Cahen For the team of pourinfos @ 001 (04/10/2007) Call: Residencia Corazón, The Heart Residency, La Plata, Argentina. http://pourinfos.org/art-35084-tit--Residencia-Corazon-The-Heart-Residency- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 002 (04/10/2007) Call: Center for Visual Arts Byzant, Prilep, Macedonia. http://pourinfos.org/art-35085-tit--Center-for-Visual-Arts-Byzant-Prilep- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 003 (04/10/2007) Call: Art & Artificial Life International Competition - VIDA 10.0, Fundación Telefónica, Madrid, spain. http://pourinfos.org/art-35086-tit--Art-Artificial-Life-International -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 004 (04/10/2007) Call: 3 D competition, 2007 Pixelcreation, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35087-tit--Concours-3-D-2007-Pixelcreation-Paris- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 005 (04/10/2007) Call: rebellious anti-contests of sounds, the Workshop of l’Atelier de création sonore radiophonique of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium. http://pourinfos.org/art-35088-tit--anti-concours-de-sons-rebelles-l-Atelier -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 006 (04/10/2007) Call: for artists, Cooperative Espace Noir, Saint Imier, Switzerland. http://pourinfos.org/art-35089-tit--recherche-artistes-Cooperative-Espace -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 007 (04/10/2007) Call: Netmage 08, International Live-media Festival - 8th edition Bologna, Italy. http://pourinfos.org/art-35090-tit--Netmage-08-International-Live-media -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 008 (04/10/2007) Call: Space, Landscape, Architecture, Bourse du Talent #33,Photographie.com, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35091-tit--Espace-Paysage-Architecture-Bourse-du -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 009 (04/10/2007) Call: AV FESTIVAL 08, Newcastle, Gateshead, Middlesbrough, Sunderland, United Kingdom. http://pourinfos.org/art-35092-tit--AV-FESTIVAL-08-Newcastle-Gateshead- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 010 (04/10/2007) Call: Arts in the Poles 2007 - 2009, the French polar Institute - Paul Emile Victor (IPEV) and of the Ministry for education and research, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35093-tit--Arts-aux-Poles-2007-2009-l-Institut -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 011 (04/10/2007) Various: Share studio, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35094-tit-Divers-Recherche-colocataire-Atelier- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 012 (04/10/2007) Call: Call For Proposals, Tou Works, Stavanger, Norway. http://pourinfos.org/art-35095-tit--Call-For-Proposals-Tou-Works-Stavanger- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 013 (04/10/2007) Call: Digital Fringe, Melbourne, Australia. http://pourinfos.org/art-35096-tit--Digital-Fringe-Melbourne- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 014 (04/10/2007) Call : Call for sound work, Music of today Festival, Carré d’Art, Nimes, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35097-tit--Call-for-sound-work-Music-of-today -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 015 (04/10/2007) Various: Agence TOPO is looking for multimedia titles to expand its Electronic Showcase, Montreal, Canada. http://pourinfos.org/art-35098-tit-Divers-L-Agence-TOPO-cherche-de-nouveaux -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 016 (04/10/2007) Call: Call for projet, Degre Zero, expeditions on natural and industrial site, Label Friche, Pervenchères, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35099-tit--appel-a-projet-Degre-Zero-expeditions -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 017 (04/10/2007) Call: Editions marguerite Waknine, Angouleme, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35100-tit--Editions-marguerite-Waknine-Angouleme- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 018 (04/10/2007) Call: RAW: VIDEO ART, Brooklyn, New York, Usa. http://pourinfos.org/art-35101-tit--RAW-VIDEO-ART-Brooklyn-New-York- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 019 (04/10/2007) Call: « in the bed with my Artist », association Dernier Avertissement, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35102-tit--Au-lit-avec-mon-Artiste-association -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 020 (04/10/2007) Call: 7th edition of "Arts au Vert ", Association Arts-au-Vert, Stosswihr, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35103-tit-Appel-a-candiature-7eme-edition-des-Arts -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 021 (04/10/2007) Formation: GIOVANNI AGNELLI RESEARCH SCHOLARSHIP IN THE ECONOMICS OF CONTEMPORARY ART, Giovanni Agnelli Foundation, Turin, Italy. http://pourinfos.org/art-35104-tit-Formation-GIOVANNI-AGNELLI-RESEARCH -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 022 (04/10/2007) Formation: CIPAC / formation SEASON 2007-2008, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35105-tit-Formation-CIPAC-formation-SAISON -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 023 (04/10/2007) Job: art Teachers, Empreinte Directe association, Saint-Denis, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35106-tit--Recherche-Professeurs-Empreinte-Directe -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 024 (04/10/2007) Job: 1 Mediator in charged of communication, Vol de Nuits, Marseille, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35107-tit--1-Mediateur-trice-charge-e-de -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 025 (04/10/2007) Formation: Workshop: Tools to Search & Core Sample Scanning, Barcelona, Spain. http://pourinfos.org/art-35108-tit-Formation-Workshop-Tools-to-Search-Core -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 026 (04/10/2007) Formation: Pure Data, Capteurs & Actionneurs, Max/MSP/Jitter, ArsLonga, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35109-tit-Formation-Pure-Data-Capteurs- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 027 (04/10/2007) Residency: Studio Astérides, Friche Belle de Mai, Marseille, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35110-tit--Ateliers-Asterides-Friche-Belle-de-Mai- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 028 (04/10/2007) Variouss: openinf of ArtCatalyse site, Saint-Denis, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35111-tit-Divers-Ouverture-du-site-ArtCatalyse- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 029 (04/10/2007) Publication: breve news N°13, Association Entre-deux, Nantes, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35113-tit--breve-news-N-13-Association-Entre-deux- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 030 (04/10/2007) Publication: “Digital Contagions: A Media Archaeology of Computer Viruses”, Jussi Parikka, Joseph Nechvatal, Peter Lang Books, 2007, 327 pages, Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York, Usa. http://pourinfos.org/art-35116-tit--Digital-Contagions-A-Media-Archaeology -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 031 (05/10/2007) Publication: Play again, N°1, CHECKPOINT, review of art and the contemporary thoughts, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35117-tit--Rejouer-N-1-CHECKPOINT-revue-d-art-et -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 032 (06/10/2007) Various: RadioList.org ((((( visual art noise platform))))) 12 http://pourinfos.org/art-35081-tit-Divers-RadioList-org-Plate-forme -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 033 (06/10/2007) Publication: Zone of Research, Perspective Antartique, Vincent+ Feria, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35118-tit--Zone-de-Recherche-Perspective -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 034 (08/10/2007) Call: historians of art, critics or writers, Association Plastica, galerie Itinerrance, Bagneux, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35067-tit--historiens-d-art-critiques-ou-ecrivains- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 035 (12/10/2007) Publication : Sociology of arts, sociology of sciences (Sociologie des arts, sociologie des sciences), Coordinated by Florent Gaudez, Editions l'Harmattan, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35115-tit--Sociologie-des-arts-sociologie-des -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 036 (15/10/2007) Publication : in Sociétés 2007 / 2, n° 96, Media: interactivity in art work (Médias praticables : l'interactivité à l'œuvre), Samuel Bianchini et Jean-Paul Fourmentraux, Editions De Boeck Université, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35114-tit--in-Societes-2007-2-n-96-Medias -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 037 (18/10/2007) Publication : The Editions Leo Scheer invite you to one evening LAURELI, October 18, 2007, Galerie Leo Scheer, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35112-tit--Les-Editions-Leo-Scheer-vous-invitent-a -------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From indersalim at gmail.com Fri Oct 5 11:12:38 2007 From: indersalim at gmail.com (inder salim) Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2007 11:12:38 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] film on Kashmir 1930 Message-ID: <47e122a70710042242r68c16abdv1de4ea1d9f963588@mail.gmail.com> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnIIMWmlmK8 click the above to see Vale of Kashmir made in 1930 -- From hpp at vsnl.com Fri Oct 5 12:57:50 2007 From: hpp at vsnl.com (V Ramaswamy) Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2007 12:57:50 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Rizwanur episode Message-ID: <006d01c80721$ade106a0$c701a8c0@Ramaswamy> Rizwanur's Death: A Long Tradition Of Police Atrocities And The Views Of A Citizen Cause of action '.mysterious death of 30-year-old graphics designer Rizwanur Rahman on September 21, just over a month after he married Priyanka Todi, the daughter of prominent city businessman Ashok Todi, chairman and managing director of Lux Hosiery.' [Indian Express, 30.9.2007]. A number of issues have come up after Rizwanur's death at Kolkata - the Government's role, activities of the police and the limitations of civil society initiatives. 1. It does not matter much as to who is in the government, or who the Minister is, or how he values culture or for that matter how honest he is. During Congress rule Ms Ashima Poddar, a CPI (M) activist from Beleghata, was tortured in police lockup. Later during the victory celebrations at the Brigade Parade Ground, after the formation of the first Left Front Government in 1977, her plight was mentioned as an instance of atrocities on the woman of Bengal. That such selfless sacrifices from people like her had contributed towards Left Front's success was acknowledged. However none of the police personnel guilty of atrocities on Ashima have been punished during the last 31 years of Left rule in West Bengal. 2. Runu Guha Neogi who tortured and tyrannised Ms Archana Guha and Ms Latika Guha during early '70s remained scot-free till his death. Even after being convicted by the Court, this police officer was not even suspended. Conversely the Jyoti Basu-led Left Front Government promoted him for his reported efficiency in nabbing dacoits. 3. Ms Brinda Karat, Polit Bureau member of CPI (M), has stated that Judicial Enquiries are held in West Bengal, but in other States even such probes are not ordered. Maybe she is right. However in our State reports of such enquiries are not published and even when published the police personnel found guilty are not punished as per recommendations. During the Left Front rule 26 Judicial Enquiry Commissions have been set up. Till 2000, twenty such reports have been submitted. The West Bengal Government has not taken any action, as per recommendations, even in one case. Justice Samarendra Chandra Deb Commission was set-up to probe into the death of Idris Mian in the Central Lockup of the Calcutta Police Head Quarters at Lalbazar. Almost after five years, seven police personnel were found guilty. No legal action was initiated against them. Only the Officer-in-Charge of the Central Lockup Mr Dipak Roy had been suspended. Justice Ambika Prasad Bhattacharya Commission was set-up to probe into student's death caused by police firing at Darjeeling in 1981. The report was submitted to the Government after four years but till date neither has any action been taken nor has the report been published. Even after 19 years the Justice Haripada Das Commission is yet to submit its report regarding incidents at Katra, Murshidabad. Ordering Judicial probes, delay in submission / publication of reports, apathy to take action as per Commissions recommendations have reduced this entire exercise into a farce - a tactics to delay and/or deny justice. 4. The police are held to be guilty or accused or convicted for the death or missing cases related to Kamal Thakur, Bhikari Paswan, Babai Biswas, Raj Chakraborty, Muhammad Alam, Khagen Majhi, Sanjib Pal, Harish Biswas, Suresh Barui, Partha Majumdar and so on. Fake encounters, abduction, cases of forced disappearance from police custody tantamount to kidnapping with motives of murder - and the list goes on. a) In 1987 Subhankar Sarangi was murdered at Jhargram, Midnapore. In this case four police personnel were sentenced to five years of imprisonment in 2001. The convicted police personnel were not even suspended leave alone terminated or jailed. b) Muhammad Alam was arrested for a petty crime from Garden Reach in 1995. Police personnel demanded four thousand rupees as 'ransom' for his release. When denied he was beaten up viciously and produced in Court. Without inspecting his injuries the Hon'ble Judge remanded him to judicial custody. Alam succumbed to his injuries in jail. 28 injuries were detected on Alam's body during post mortem. A case was initiated against police personnel. Six of them were convicted and arrest warrants were issued. However the convicted police personnel have not been 'found'! Fresh arrest warrants have been issued but they have not been served though it is known that at such points of time they have been posted at various police stations and even at Lalbazar. The State Administration has not taken any departmental action against them. c) In 1997, Officer-in-Charge, Kalyani PS and some other police personnel picked up Khagen Majhi from his home. Later he was reported to be killed in an 'encounter'. The Human Rights Commission report disagreed with the encounter-story and held the above police personnel guilty. The mother of Khagen filed a case against the accused police personnel. The family was offered money. Denial was met with threats of dire consequences. The Court directed the police to provide security to the family. The Superintendent of Police did nothing. Threats continued unabated. The Court issued arrest warrants against the convicted police personnel. Here too none of them could be found! On 23 January 2004, the police abducted Nagen Majhi the brother of Khagen. He has not been traced till date. All the guilty, accused and convicted police personnel are in service. d) On the day West Bengal Assembly elections were held in 2001, the police chased Topi Das and he fell into the Subhash Sarobar at Beleghata. Police jumped into the lake and beat him up. Topi died. The Court issued arrest warrant against an Assistant Commissioner, an Officer-in-Charge and a Constable. Their anticipatory bail petitions have been rejected in the lower Court, High Court and the Supreme Court. The State Administration have not arrested them, have not suspended them and all of them are in service 5. On 5 September 1997 the police, in another 'fake' encounter, killed Suresh Barui. The police of Habra PS, North 24 Parganas, took away Partha Majumdar, from the place of occurrence. He had a bullet wound too. All this in front of many villagers. The State Human Rights Commission refuted the plea of encounter and recommended CID investigation. The CID on 12 January 2004 and 19 February 2004 charge-sheeted eleven accused police personnel u/s 364/201/34 of IPC, the charge levelled being kidnapping or abducting in order to murder. However two other police personnel named in the WBHRC report have not been charge-sheeted. It is notable that the State government has not given any cognisance to the demands of arresting, suspending or taking the accused police personnel into judicial custody during the trial. Conversely some of the police personnel have been promoted during the last 10 years. Some of the accused come to the Court in official cars with red lights flashing. 6. Despite the Chief Minister's speeches at the annual meetings of the Police Associations urging the police personnel to become friends to the general public, citizens face a different story. Even for petty problems like diarising loss of mobile or cheque books the citizens need to pay bribes. At least a pack of cigarette is required for lodging a general diary. Hence it is needless to mention that the hyper activity of the Kolkata police on the face of a complaint about the 'abduction' of a businessman's daughter has been powered by money. 7. Using the threat of police action political parties and leaders involve themselves in various nefarious activities. Many are implicated in false cases, are threatened with dire consequences and terrorised to gain favour from the moneyed and powerful section of the society. Only because of this Justice Molla had called the Police, a State backed force of organised hooligans. 8. In many instances of marriage in accordance with Special Marriage Act there have been undue and illegal involvement of well-to-do relatives, police and political leaders in such personal matters. So much so that even in cases of members of Leftist political parties the power of the police have been used. 9. Police personnel were responsible for the death of Kamal Thakur. For demanding punishment for the accused police personnel, his father and then his brother have been murdered under the guise of accidents. There are many more such incidents. The Police Administration is doing its utmost to use their power to try to influence the witnesses and tamper with evidences. In many cases there have been no trials, in others the convicted have not been punished. The conscious and well-meaning citizens have remained silent in order not to invite trouble. Rizwanur was apprehensive. That is why he informed Kareya PS, Kolkata Police Commissioner, human rights organisations and many others. Maybe most of them initiated timely and effective actions. Yet the life threat from the police continued. Threats to be implicated in false cases and consequent arrest continued. It is sad that the news media did not come to know about the 'news' before Rizwanur died. Or even if they did come to know maybe they could not find the appropriate 'focus' or 'story line'. Those who are champions in combating police atrocities and torture, both experienced and inexperienced, perhaps became active but Rizwanur died. Now there will be many walks, meetings and other forms of protest. There will be promises to stand by the victim's family. It will happen. It has happened. A great number of families have lost a great number of their dear ones in West Bengal. They have lost them to police atrocities and foul play. There are only a few families who are still really fighting an unequal battle - demanding justice. Demanding that the accused or the convicted police personnel be punished. Come let us all now stand by their sides. Naba Dutta nagarikmancha at gmail.com Phone: +9133 2344 9328 Email: nprajna2005 at yahoo.com duttaraychaudhuri at gmail.com From hpp at vsnl.com Fri Oct 5 12:59:15 2007 From: hpp at vsnl.com (V Ramaswamy) Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2007 12:59:15 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Sanat Paul's story Message-ID: <006e01c80721$b00a4f40$c701a8c0@Ramaswamy> Sanat Paul: A Patient 'Victim' And A Fighter Who is he? Sanat Kumar Paul was an unorganised sector worker in 1992. He worked at the ECCO Battery Ltd. of 73 Belgachhia Road Kolkata 700037. He was one of the five workers employed in this lead battery-manufacturing unit. He received Rs. 876 (gross) per month. There was no ESI coverage for workers. There were several lead battery-manufacturing units under the same roof. What did he do at his workplace? Sanat had to handle various chemicals in powder form. He had to knead them with his bare hands and then spread it out in the form of a plate. These plates were then dried and charged to make the structural units of large lead batteries. There was lead in the powder and paste he had to handle. This is a hazardous process as per Factories Act, 1948. Workers at ECCO Battery Ltd were neither given any personal protective equipment nor told about any hazards while at work. Sanat gets affected and seeks treatment After working for 3 years, he started facing problems. Lonely and hapless he thought he needed medical attention. There was no state run Occupational Disease Detection Centre in West Bengal. He started by consulting general practitioners. Then somebody told him about Peerless Hospital. It was very costly for him. Yet, he was on the right track. Then he met experts at Bangur Institute of Neurology, School of Physical Medicine, and ESI Hospital Manicktala. It was then confirmed around June 1995 that Sanat had contracted an occupational disease. What was his problem? He found his hands and fingers loosing strength. He could not hold a glass of water when the problem started. Progressively he lost control of his fingers and palms, which were as if paralysed. The hands dropped absolutely limp from wrist downward. The disease he had contracted was 'lead neuropathy'. What is Lead Neuropathy? Lead neuropathy is a neurological disorder caused by lead poisoning. This is caused when exposed to dangerously high levels of lead. The symptoms are blue lines on the gums and 'bi-lateral wrist drop'. Lead Neuropathy is included in Schedule III of Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923 and Factories Act, 1948. It is a notifiable disease for which compensation is payable to the victim. What is Wrist Drop? 'Wrist drop, also known as radial nerve palsy, is a condition where affected persons cannot extend their wrist and it hangs flaccidly. To demonstrate wrist drop, hold your arm out in front of you with your forearm parallel to the floor. With the back of your hand facing the ceiling (i.e. pronated), let your hand hang limply so that your fingers point downward. A person with wrist drop would be unable to move from this position to one in which the fingers are pointing up towards the ceiling. Wrist drop is . associated with lead poisoning because of the effect of lead on the radial nerve. ' [Source: Wikipedia]. How did his employers react? When informed, Sanat's employer immediately terminated his job on 1 July 1995. There was not even a show cause letter. He had never been given an appointment letter in the past. His real fault was his inability to continue with his job because he had no strength in his hand. The employer thought that he had no responsibility though Sanat had picked up this disability from his workplace. So Sanat was fired and someone else probably got hired. Negotiations, disputes and appeals He requested his employer for the actual medical expenses and its was refused. Repeated verbal requests for redeployment in a lighter job were refused too. Even his registered letters were refused. He informed his union in writing. In September 1995, he raised a dispute with the Assistant Labour Commissioners. Three tri-partite meetings over almost a year yielded no results. Sanat wrote to the Labour Minister too, but that too in vain. Sanat Paul's case in Supreme Court Matter In the meantime his case was cited in the report on occupational disease in eleven industries submitted to the Supreme Court by Nagarik Mancha in July 1995. The Supreme Court directed the Government of West Bengal to look into the incidence if lead poisoning among workers of ECCO Battery. The concerned Medical Inspector under the Chief Inspector of Factories, West Bengal visited the factory premise on 27 May 1996 and found a lockout notice of the same date displayed. The main door was locked but there were clear signs of industrial activity going on inside. Sanat was examined by the said Medical Inspector at the latter's office and distinct symptoms of Lead Neuropathy was detected. The said report was duly sent to the Supreme Court. Sanat's plight was reported in many dailies but nothing seemed to happen. Sanat at the Workmen's Compensation Court As a last resort, Sanat lodged a case at the Court of the Commissioner of the Workmen's Compensation, West Bengal in August 1997. For more than two years, the case was not heard for one reason or the other. At times the Courts had no judges. In the second phase, the employer refused to accept the summons of the court. Next, the errant proprietor failed repeatedly to appear in Court. During mid-2000 the hearing finally started. Witnesses including doctors in Government organisations appeared on behalf of Sanat on 29 November 2000. Sanat awarded compensation Finally on 20 September 2001 Hon'ble Justice H M Ghatak, Commissioner for Workmen's Compensation, West Bengal, observed that "The evidence. taken together with the documents.proves that the petitioner was suffering from occupational disease due to lead neuropathy and the petitioner had contracted such occupational disease while working at the manufacturing unit of the opposite parties. According to Item No. 3 of Part II of Schedule III of Workmen's Compensation Act, the petitioner is entitled to get compensation at the rate of 100% loss of earning capacity for his occupational disease." Based on the above Sanat Paul was awarded compensation amounting to Rs. 95,690 to be deposited in the Court by the Proprietor of M/s ECCO Battery Ltd. Legal 'battle' during the last six years On 1 December 2004 the order of the Commissioner for Workmen's Compensation, West Bengal regarding payment of compensation was finally served to the proprietor of M/s ECCO Battery Ltd. In January 2005 the proprietor of M/s ECCO Battery Ltd. filed an application to the Court of Commissioner for Workmen's Compensation, West Bengal challenging the compensation order of 20 September 2001. The said appeal for recalling the award of compensation to Sanat Paul was dismissed at the Court of Commissioner for Workmen's Compensation, West Bengal on 6 June 2006. Proprietor of M/s ECCO Battery Ltd. submitted a writ petition in the High Court at Calcutta on 6 June 2006 for setting aside the compensation order of the Court of Commissioner for Workmen's Compensation, West Bengal. On 6 September 2007 the above writ petition was disposed of by the High Court at Calcutta, the allegations challenging the compensation award were not admitted and the High Court saw 'no reason to interfere with' the award of compensation made on 20 September 2001. Sanat has to be patient Ten years back his appeal was submitted in a Court of law. Six years back he was 'formally' awarded compensation as per law. The appeal against the award of compensation has been rejected by the High Court recently. That doesn't necessarily mean that he gets the compensation. Sanat can hope for the best but he has to be prepared for the worst! Twelve years of joblessness owing to occupational disease means nothing to the system. He is a 'victim' and hence he has to be patient! Nagarik Mancha and Sanat Paul We met Sanat twelve years back. He was moving from pillar to post and some doctors put him in touch with us. Since then he has been with us and we have tried to stay by his side. In 1996 Sanat was not alone. There were scores of occupational disease patients we had 'found'. The Supreme Court had directed Nagarik Mancha to submit a report on the status of occupational disease in West Bengal. We did our bit. Today most of those and hundreds of other occupational disease patients are being compensated by ESI as per law. An infrastructure has developed from scratch and we did a little pushing and shoving as and when needed. However Sanat is still languishing since he was not covered by the ESI. Sanat was from the unorganised sector and was hence unprotected! Unprotected workers were supposed to move the Court of Commissioner for Workmen's Compensation, West Bengal. Strangely for the last 84 years of the existence of the Workmen's Compensation Act (1923) not a single workmen had been compensated for occupational disease. Sanat was and is hence the first case of its kind. Nagarik Mancha wrote letters to his employer, trade union leaders, Office of the Labour Commissioner, West Bengal, other relevant authority and negotiated on his behalf when necessary; pursued the case at Supreme Court, Court of Commissioner for Workmen's Compensation, West Bengal, High Court at Kolkata, discussed the matter with doctors, lawyers and officials. All expenses both legal and incidental had been taken care of by us during the last eleven years. We hasten to add that Sanat to us was not a victim but an activist who shared the load and responsibility with us. He did a lot in this case and we ably supported him. The case is not yet closed since Sanat is yet to receive his legal dues. His employer can still spend a couple of years in some form of a 'legal battle' or the other. We need to remain alert! Concluding remarks: What this case reveals 1. It should be iterated that Sanat Paul is not just an occupational disease 'case'. It is a rare fight. It could be an exemplary addition to the history of workers movement. It is the first case registered in this part of the country and one in which compensation has been granted as per the Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923. 2. In the home ground of the so-called labour movement in India (INTUC, AITUC followed by CITU etc.) a seemingly pro-labour Workmen's Compensation Act, 1923, promulgated by the British, remains virtually unimplemented in parts for 84 long years. This should be a revelation of sorts. 3. The termination of a worker affected by occupational disease is not only illegal but inhuman too. This however is the order of the day. Employers in most cases sack such employees suffering from temporary or permanent disability. Whereas a section of the workers suffering physical 'employment injury' are compensated those affected by occupational disease like Sanat are unceremoniously thrown out. 4. Even judges are not assigned to some of the Courts of Commissioner for Workmen's Compensation, West Bengal causing delay in justice. Summons from such Courts can be ignored for years in spite of the fact that address is correct. 5. The procedures followed at most of the Labour Courts cause lengthy hearings and delayed justice. This acts as a deterrent for workers to go to Court. Moreover the system allows the powerful, connected and moneyed employers to hire heavy weight legal professionals in order to give them an upper hand. 6. The errant employers of small units take recourse to a common falsehood, which is an 'open secret'. When they apprehend that the order may go against them they do the 'needful' so that their factories become non-existent on paper. Names change on paper, new signboards appear, while business goes on as usual. This is a known method of shrugging off responsibility. Court orders cannot be served since the employer becomes 'untraced' officially. The Court administration knows about it but is 'helpless'; a section of the postal department is a part of the nexus; the workers suffer; but the errant employers pay appropriately to remain 'untraced' but factually remain very much in business. Everybody knows but somehow nobody cares. 7. Also notable is the attitude of the proprietor who would rather spend lakhs while contesting Court orders in higher Courts rather than pay up the awarded compensation or take adequate safety measures at their factories. 8. The plight of unorganised sector workers who are genuinely unprotected is appalling. No wonder lakhs are suffering silently and thousands are dying of occupational diseases. The onus of proving an occupational disease lies virtually with the ill-paid worker. And then they would need to prove it in the Court of Law. Nobody bothers. 9. The most important aspect of this whole exercise is to prove first that occupational disease exists. Then comes the need to legally prove it. Only after that will come a series of activities for which the support of the civil society could be really handy for these silent sufferers in the unorganised sector. The juggernaut called globalisation is aggressively prescribing the transformation of the 'organised' sector to a chaotic unorganised sector without a social security network in place. Hence a lot needs to be done. 10. We have written time and again to the Chief Minister, Labour Minister and Health Minister of West Bengal communicating the need to set up Occupational Disease Centres in all the State Hospitals and District General Hospitals for workers from the non-ESI unorganised sector. There is no sign of any such infrastructure and no sign of any political will either. We request all of you to urge the Chief Minister, Labour Minister and Health Minister of West Bengal to take necessary steps in this regard. Please write for clarification to: Naba Dutta General Secretary Nagarik Mancha nagarikmancha at gmail.com 134 Raja Rajendra Lal Mitra Road Room 7; Block B; First Floor Kolkata 700085 India Phone: + 91-33-23731921 From patrice at xs4all.nl Fri Oct 5 13:15:59 2007 From: patrice at xs4all.nl (Patrice Riemens) Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2007 09:45:59 +0200 (CEST) Subject: [Reader-list] Satya Sagar : Global Government Hypocrisy on Burma Message-ID: <19943.87.212.5.158.1191570359.squirrel@webmail.xs4all.nl> Original to: The Irrawaddy News service: http://www.irrawaddy.org/ Global Government Hypocrisy on Burma [Commentary] By Satya Sagar October 2, 2007 (http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=8848) As the Burmese military brutally cracks down on a popular citizen uprising demanding democracy the question on many minds is—so what is the world going to do about it? >From the trend visible so far the answer is simple—nothing at all. Nothing, that is, beyond the usual condemnations and pious appeals for "peaceful dialogue" and the posturing at international forums in support of the Burmese people. Nothing more, that is, than dispatching a lame duck UN envoy to negotiate with the paranoid Burmese generals. Negotiate what? Funeral services for the innocent victims mowed down like rabbits on the streets of Rangoon? It is not that nothing can be done at all—to begin with, how about kicking the illegitimate military regime out of the UN seat it continues to occupy and replace it with the country's elected government-in-exile? Why should Burma continue to be a member of Asean or for that matter, by default, also of the Asia-Europe Meeting or ASEM? What about international sanctions on foreign companies doing business in Burma— including dozens and dozens of Western companies apart from those from Asia? Why should large oil companies like US-based Chevron, the Malaysian Petronas, South Korea's Daewoo International Corp or French Total continue to be involved in Burma without facing penalties for their support of one of the world's most heinous dictatorships? The answers to these elementary questions are quite elementary too—it is Burma's abundant natural resources and investment opportunities that really matter. Which government really gives a damn for corralled Burmese citizens desperately battling a quasi-fascist regime that is open to foreign enterprises and shut to its own people? Following the bloodshed in Burma the new French President Nicholas "Napoleon'" Sarkozy, for instance, grandly called on French companies to freeze all their operations in Burma. Close on his heels Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner clarified, however, that the French oil giant Total, the largest European company operating in Burma, will not pull out for fear they will be "replaced by the Chinese." Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, also expressed "outrage" at the Burmese government's despicable behavior but was mum about UK companies merrily investing away in Burma. Between 1988 and 2004, companies based out of British territories invested more than £1.2bn in Burma, making Britain the second largest investor in this supposedly ostracised country. The sun it seems has not only set on the British Empire but—on its way out—also deep fried the conscience of its politicians. The most predictable rhetoric of course came from US President George Bush who while announcing a slew of sanctions on Burma's military leaders incredibly said, "I urge the Burmese soldiers and police not to use force on their fellow citizens." Wait a minute, that is what the Burmese soldiers and police are trained and paid to do- shoot fellow citizens—so what was the point Bush was trying to make? As usual only he and his Maker—from whom he claims to take instructions directly—knows. Bush could have maybe uttered better chosen words but none of it would have been credible coming from a man with a record of war mongering and mass killings in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Bush regime's systematic destruction of international human rights norms have robbed it of the right to lecture even something as low as the Burmese junta about anything. A sad situation indeed. What about Burma's old friends like Thailand, Singapore and MAlaysia who in a surprise indictment of their fellow Asean member expressed "revulsion" at the use of deadly force against innocent civilians? Their statement was welcome no doubt but comes at least two decades too late to be of any real meaning. Burma's military rulers have already milked the dubious Asean policy of "constructive engagement" for what it was worth to shore up both their regime at home and claw their way back to recognition abroad. In the early 90s when the Burmese generals were really down and out, it was Asean that offered them succour and friendship while chastising those who called for democracy in Burma as being ignorant of "Asian values." All this leaves China and India, two of Burma's giant neighbors, who have showered the Burmese junta with investments, aid and the sale of armaments, and the world now expects them to use their "influence" over the generals. China's active support for the Burmese regime is not surprising at all for a country with its own sordid record of suppressing democratic movements at home and shooting civilian dissenters. I don't, however, think the Chinese are really worried about Burmese democracy triggering off another Tiananmen-like event in their own country—not immediately at least and not as long as China's consumerist boom keeps its population hypnotised. In fact, the Chinese, pragmatic as they are and conscious of protecting their many investments in Burma, may also be among the first to actively topple the Burmese junta if they feel that the tide of protests for democracy is about to win. Their future position on Burma will surely seesaw like a yo-yo depending which cat, black or white, is catching the mice. Of all the countries around the world, the most shameful position is held by India, once the land of the likes of Mahatma Gandhi but now run by politicians with morals that would make a snake-oil salesman squirm. India likes to claim at every opportunity that it is "the world's largest democracy" but what it tells no one, but everyone can see, is that its understanding of democracy is also of the "lowest quality." Why else would the Indian government for instance send its Minister for Petroleum, Murali Deora, to sign a gas exploration deal with the military junta in late September just as it was plotting the wanton murder of its own citizens. In recent years, India, among other sweet deals, has also been helping the Burmese military with arms and training—as if their bullets were not hitting their people accurately enough. It was not always like this though. The "idealist" phase of India's foreign policy approach to Burma dates from when Indian Prime Minister Nehru and his Burmese counterpart U Nu were close friends and decided policies based on trust and cooperation. After U Nu's ouster in a military coup in 1962, successive Indian governments opposed the dictatorship on principle. At the height of the pro-democracy movement in 1988, the All India Radio's Burmese service for instance had even called General Newin and his men "dogs" (very insulting to dogs of course). With the coming of the P.V.Narasimha Rao government in 1992, it is India that has been wagging its tail all along. The "pragmatic" phase of Indian foreign policy toward Burma since the early 90s meant throwing principles out the window and doing anything required to further Indian strategic and economic interests. An additional excuse to cozy up to the military junta was the perceived need to counter "Chinese influence" over the country. In all these years, however, there is little evidence that India's long-term interests were better met by "amoral pragmatism" than the "muddled idealism" that had prevailed in the past. In fact, what emerges on a close examination of current Indian policy is that, for all its real politik gloss, the only beneficiary is the Burmese regime itself. Take the myth of India countering China which, according to Indian defense analysts, has in the last two decades gained a significant foothold in Burma, setting up military installations targeting India and wielding considerable influence on the regime and its strategic thinking. They say that India's strong pro-democracy stand in the wake of the 1988 Burmese uprising provided a window for countries like China and Pakistan to get closer to the Burmese generals. Indian and other defense analysts, with their blinkered view of the world as a geo-political chess game, forget that the then Indian government's decision to back the pro-democracy movement was not a "mistake" born out of ignorance, but an official reflection of the genuine support for the Burmese people among Indian citizens. The second myth that propels the Indian foreign ministry to woo the Burmese generals is that by doing so India can get Burma's support in curbing the arms and drugs trafficking that fuel the insurgencies in the Indian Northeast. This argument assumes that the Burmese junta is both willing and able to control the activities of Indian ethnic militants and Burmese drug traffickers along the border. In the case of drug trafficking from Burma, there is reason to be worried—groups close to the regime benefit directly from the trade. Through its current policy the Indian government has achieved none of its strategic aims in Burma and instead alienated Burma's pro-democracy movement and its millions of supporters worldwide. While sections of the Indian population are apathetic or ignorant about their government's policies towards Burma, their silence does not imply approval. India is not a democracy because of the benevolence of its elitist politicians, bureaucrats and "defence analysts," but despite them and because of the strong abhorrence of dictatorship of any kind among the Indian people. It is high time that the Indian government respected the sentiments of its voters and stopped misusing the term "national interests" to support Burma's military dictators. As for the Burmese people themselves, what the world's willful impotence in dealing with their brutal rulers indicates is that ultimately they will have to achieve democratic rule in Burma entirely on their own strength. The people of the world will of course support them in whatever way they can, but to expect governments around the globe to help topple the Burmese military regime is as unrealistic as asking the regime to step down on its own. There is no option but to keep the struggle going. Satya Sagar is a writer, journalist and video maker based in New Delhi. He can be reached at sagarnama at gmail.com From lieneman at umn.edu Fri Oct 5 21:50:04 2007 From: lieneman at umn.edu (Stacy Lienemann) Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2007 11:20:04 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Sarai Reader List / WHERE THE BALL DROPS: Days and Nights in Times Square Message-ID: Dear ListServ Administrator: Please post this to Sarai Reader List. Also, please let me know if you'd like to review the book for your listserv. Thanks! Best wishes, Stacy Lienemann Direct Response and Scholarly Promotions Manager University of Minnesota Press 111 Third Avenue South, Suite 290 Minneapolis, MN 55401-2520 612-627-1934 http://www.upress.umn.edu A compelling look at the people and action of America¹s most famous street scene WHERE THE BALL DROPS: Days and Nights in Times Square Daniel Makagon University of Minnesota Press | 296 pages | 2007 ISBN 978-0-8166-4275-5 | paperback | $20.00 National Communication Association¹s Critical/Cultural Studies Division Book Award winner During the 1990s, Times Square changed its colors, from a notoriously seedy urban center to a family-friendly, corporate-sponsored entertainment district. Daniel Makagon captures the competing social and cultural fantasies, the everyday events and historical visions that have given shape and meaning to Times Square. Where the Ball Drops reveals the changes wrought by the contemporary urban revitalization. "Daniel Makagon presents a skillful ethnographic interpretation of how Œcompeting fantasies about the meaning and material reality of Times Square, which are advanced through various rhetoric visions, are affirmed, challenged, and, at times, undermined by the practices of everyday life¹." ‹Cultural Studies For more information, including an excerpt and the table of contents, visit the book¹s webpage: http://www.upress.umn.edu/Books/M/makagon_where.html Sign up to receive news on the latest releases from University of Minnesota Press: http://www.upress.umn.edu/eform.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From hpp at vsnl.com Sat Oct 6 10:41:36 2007 From: hpp at vsnl.com (hpp at vsnl.com) Date: Sat, 06 Oct 2007 05:11:36 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] A new role for anthropologists Message-ID: >From The New York Times October 5, 2007 Army Enlists Anthropology in War Zones By DAVID ROHDE SHABAK VALLEY, Afghanistan — In this isolated Taliban stronghold in eastern Afghanistan, American paratroopers are fielding what they consider a crucial new weapon in counterinsurgency operations here: a soft-spoken civilian anthropologist named Tracy. Tracy, who asked that her surname not be used for security reasons, is a member of the first Human Terrain Team, an experimental Pentagon program that assigns anthropologists and other social scientists to American combat units in Afghanistan and Iraq. Her team’s ability to understand subtle points of tribal relations — in one case spotting a land dispute that allowed the Taliban to bully parts of a major tribe — has won the praise of officers who say they are seeing concrete results. Col. Martin Schweitzer, commander of the 82nd Airborne Division unit working with the anthropologists here, said that the unit’s combat operations had been reduced by 60 percent since the scientists arrived in February, and that the soldiers were now able to focus more on improving security, health care and education for the population. “We’re looking at this from a human perspective, from a social scientist’s perspective,” he said. “We’re not focused on the enemy. We’re focused on bringing governance down to the people.” In September, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates authorized a $40 million expansion of the program, which will assign teams of anthropologists and social scientists to each of the 26 American combat brigades in Iraq and Afghanistan. Since early September, five new teams have been deployed in the Baghdad area, bringing the total to six. Yet criticism is emerging in academia. Citing the past misuse of social sciences in counterinsurgency campaigns, including in Vietnam and Latin America, some denounce the program as “mercenary anthropology” that exploits social science for political gain. Opponents fear that, whatever their intention, the scholars who work with the military could inadvertently cause all anthropologists to be viewed as intelligence gatherers for the American military. Hugh Gusterson, an anthropology professor at George Mason University, and 10 other anthropologists are circulating an online pledge calling for anthropologists to boycott the teams, particularly in Iraq. “While often presented by its proponents as work that builds a more secure world,” the pledge says, “at base, it contributes instead to a brutal war of occupation which has entailed massive casualties.” In Afghanistan, the anthropologists arrived along with 6,000 troops, which doubled the American military’s strength in the area it patrols, the country’s east. A smaller version of the Bush administration’s troop increase in Iraq, the buildup in Afghanistan has allowed American units to carry out the counterinsurgency strategy here, where American forces generally face less resistance and are better able to take risks. A New Mantra Since Gen. David H. Petraeus, now the overall American commander in Iraq, oversaw the drafting of the Army’s new counterinsurgency manual last year, the strategy has become the new mantra of the military. A recent American military operation here offered a window into how efforts to apply the new approach are playing out on the ground in counterintuitive ways. In interviews, American officers lavishly praised the anthropology program, saying that the scientists’ advice has proved to be “brilliant,” helping them see the situation from an Afghan perspective and allowing them to cut back on combat operations. The aim, they say, is to improve the performance of local government officials, persuade tribesmen to join the police, ease poverty and protect villagers from the Taliban and criminals. Afghans and Western civilian officials, too, praised the anthropologists and the new American military approach but were cautious about predicting long-term success. Many of the economic and political problems fueling instability can be solved only by large numbers of Afghan and American civilian experts. “My feeling is that the military are going through an enormous change right now where they recognize they won’t succeed militarily,” said Tom Gregg, the chief United Nations official in southeastern Afghanistan. “But they don’t yet have the skill sets to implement” a coherent nonmilitary strategy, he added. Deploying small groups of soldiers into remote areas, Colonel Schweitzer’s paratroopers organized jirgas, or local councils, to resolve tribal disputes that have simmered for decades. Officers shrugged off questions about whether the military was comfortable with what David Kilcullen, an Australian anthropologist and an architect of the new strategy, calls “armed social work.” “Who else is going to do it?“ asked Lt. Col. David Woods, commander of the Fourth Squadron, 73rd Cavalry. “You have to evolve. Otherwise you’re useless.” The anthropology team here also played a major role in what the military called Operation Khyber. That was a 15-day drive late this summer in which 500 Afghan and 500 American soldiers tried to clear an estimated 200 to 250 Taliban insurgents out of much of Paktia Province, secure southeastern Afghanistan’s most important road and halt a string of suicide attacks on American troops and local governors. In one of the first districts the team entered, Tracy identified an unusually high concentration of widows in one village, Colonel Woods said. Their lack of income created financial pressure on their sons to provide for their families, she determined, a burden that could drive the young men to join well-paid insurgents. Citing Tracy’s advice, American officers developed a job training program for the widows. In another district, the anthropologist interpreted the beheading of a local tribal elder as more than a random act of intimidation: the Taliban’s goal, she said, was to divide and weaken the Zadran, one of southeastern Afghanistan’s most powerful tribes. If Afghan and American officials could unite the Zadran, she said, the tribe could block the Taliban from operating in the area. “Call it what you want, it works,” said Colonel Woods, a native of Denbo, Pa. “It works in helping you define the problems, not just the symptoms.” Embedding Scholars The process that led to the creation of the teams began in late 2003, when American officers in Iraq complained that they had little to no informationabout the local population. Pentagon officials contacted Montgomery McFate, a Yale-educated cultural anthropologist working for the Navy who advocated using social science to improve military operations and strategy. Ms. McFate helped develop a database in 2005 that provided officers with detailed information on the local population. The next year, Steve Fondacaro, a retired Special Operations colonel, joined the program and advocated embedding social scientists with American combat units. Ms. McFate, the program’s senior social science adviser and an author of the new counterinsurgency manual, dismissed criticism of scholars working with the military. “I’m frequently accused of militarizing anthropology,” she said. “But we’re really anthropologizing the military.” Roberto J. González, an anthropology professor at San Jose State University, called participants in the program naïve and unethical. He said that the military and the Central Intelligence Agency had consistently misused anthropology in counterinsurgency and propaganda campaigns and that military contractors were now hiring anthropologists for their local expertise as well. “Those serving the short-term interests of military and intelligence agencies and contractors,” he wrote in the June issue of Anthropology Today, an academic journal, “will end up harming the entire discipline in the long run.” Arguing that her critics misunderstand the program and the military, Ms. McFate said other anthropologists were joining the teams. She said their goal was to help the military decrease conflict instead of provoking it, and she vehemently denied that the anthropologists collected intelligence for the military. In eastern Afghanistan, Tracy said wanted to reduce the use of heavy-handed military operations focused solely on killing insurgents, which she said alienated the population and created more insurgents. “I can go back and enhance the military’s understanding,” she said, “so that we don’t make the same mistakes we did in Iraq.” Along with offering advice to commanders, she said, the five-member team creates a database of local leaders and tribes, as well as social problems, economic issues and political disputes. Clinics and Mediation During the recent operation, as soldiers watched for suicide bombers, Tracy and Army medics held a free medical clinic. They said they hoped that providing medical care would show villagers that the Afghan government was improving their lives. Civil affairs soldiers then tried to mediate between factions of the Zadran tribe about where to build a school. The Americans said they hoped that the school, which would serve children from both groups, might end a 70-year dispute between the groups over control of a mountain covered with lucrative timber. Though they praised the new program, Afghan and Western officials said it remained to be seen whether the weak Afghan government could maintain the gains. “That’s going to be the challenge, to fill the vacuum,” said Mr. Gregg, the United Nations official. “There’s a question mark over whether the government has the ability to take advantage of the gains.” Others also question whether the overstretched American military and its NATO allies can keep up the pace of operations. American officers expressed optimism. Many of those who had served in both Afghanistan and Iraq said they had more hope for Afghanistan. One officer said that the Iraqis had the tools to stabilize their country, like a potentially strong economy, but that they lacked the will. He said Afghans had the will, but lacked the tools. After six years of American promises, Afghans, too, appear to be waiting to see whether the Americans or the Taliban will win a protracted test of wills here. They said this summer was just one chapter in a potentially lengthy struggle. At a “super jirga” set up by Afghan and American commanders here, a member of the Afghan Parliament, Nader Khan Katawazai, laid out the challenge ahead to dozens of tribal elders. “Operation Khyber was just for a few days,” he said. “The Taliban will emerge again.” From tasveerghar at gmail.com Sat Oct 6 15:55:47 2007 From: tasveerghar at gmail.com (Tasveer Ghar) Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2007 15:55:47 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] =?windows-1252?q?=93This_is_What_They_Look_Like=94?= Message-ID: <484c1050710060325o1968a719l6e44b0cc43f99f61@mail.gmail.com> "This Is What They Look Like" Stereotypes of Muslim Piety in Calendar Art and Hindi Cinema An online multimedia Work-in-Progress at Tasveer Ghar http://tasveerghar.net/mstereo Tasveer Ghar (the House of Pictures) invites you to visit its latest Virtual Gallery Visual Essay about the stereotypes of the Indian Muslim community as depicted in popular media such as calendar art, print advertisements and Hindi cinema. Featured in the essay is an extensive selection of popular posters and video clips from numerous Hindi movies. This web-feature is still developing and you are invited to see it, comment on it, and even contribute to it if you have any unique images which can add value to it. http://tasveerghar.net/mstereo Tasveer Ghar, a digital network of South Asian popular visual culture, is a trans-national virtual "home" for collecting, digitizing, and documenting various materials produced by South Asia's exciting popular visual sphere including posters, calendar art, pilgrimage maps and paraphernalia, cinema hoardings, advertisements, and other forms of street and bazaar art. We invite you to contribute to our growing archive of such art and essays. Some of our earlier Virtual Galleries include the following: Welcome - Swagatam - Good Morning: Welcome posters of India: by Patricia Uberoi http://tasveerghar.net/welcome/ New Year Greeting Cards with a Hindu Nationalist perspective: by Christiane Brosius http://tasveerghar.net/hgreet/ Looking forwarding to your presence, comments and contributions on our website. Best of regards Christiane Brosius Manishita Dass Sumathi Ramaswamy Yousuf Saeed www.tasveerghar.net From vivek at sarai.net Sat Oct 6 20:20:52 2007 From: vivek at sarai.net (Vivek Narayanan) Date: Sat, 06 Oct 2007 20:20:52 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] The Freedom of Others: A Sentimental Education: Three Blocks Message-ID: <4707A0CC.4020306@sarai.net> Below, an excerpt from Ananya Vajpeyi's review of Sanjay Kak's Jashn-e-Azadi in Outlook Magazine ( http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20071004&fname=ananya&sid=1 ): "What allows someone like me – born, raised and educated in India, secular, committed to the longevity and flourishing of the Indian nation in every sense – to get, as it were, the meaning, the reality, and the validity, of Kashmir’s agonized search for azadi? Why do I not want my army to take or keep Kashmir by force, or my fellow-citizens to enjoy their annual vacations as unthinking, insensitive tourists, winter or summer? Why do abandoned Pandit homesteads affect me as much as charred Muslim houses, and why do I think that neither will be rebuilt and re-inhabited, nor will they be full of life as they once were, unless first and foremost, the military bunkers are taken down?" [full text of review below] Azadi: Theirs and Ours Ananya Vajpeyi Sanjay Kak’s new documentary “Jashn-e-Azadi” (“How we celebrate freedom”) is aimed primarily at an Indian audience. This two-part film, 138 min long, explores what Kak calls the “sentiment”, namely “azadi” (literally “freedom”) driving the conflict in the India-controlled part of Kashmir for the past 18 years. This sentiment is inchoate: it does not have a unified movement, a symbol, a flag, a map, a slogan, a leader or any one party associated with it. Sometimes it means full territorial independence, and sometimes it means other things. Yet it is real, with a reality that neither outright repression nor fitful persuasion from India has managed to dissipate for almost two decades. Howsoever unclear its political shape, Kashmiris know the emotional charge of azadi, its ability to keep alive in every Kashmiri heart a sense of struggle, of dissent, of hope. It is for Indians who do not know about this sentiment, or do not know how to react to it, that Kak has made his difficult, powerful film. And it is with Indian audiences that Kak has already had, and is likely to continue having, the most heated debate. Between 1989 and 2007, nearly 100,000 people – soldiers and civilians, armed militants and unarmed citizens, Kashmiris and non-Kashmiris – lost their lives to the violence in Kashmir. 700,000 Indian military and paramilitary troops are stationed there, the largest such armed presence in what is supposedly peace time, anywhere in the world. Both residents of and visitors to Kashmir in recent years already know what Kak’s film brings home to the viewer: how thoroughly militarized the Valley is, criss-crossed by barbed wire, littered with bunkers and sand-bags, dotted with men in uniform carrying guns, its roads bearing an unending stream of armoured vehicles up and down a landscape that used to be called, echoing the words of the Mughal Emperor Jehangir, Paradise on earth. Other places so mangled by a security apparatus as to make it impossible for life to proceed normally immediately come to mind: occupied Palestine, occupied Iraq. Locals, especially young men, must produce identification at all the check-posts that punctuate the land, or during sudden and frequent operations described by the dreaded words “crackdown” and “cordon and search”. Kak’s camera shows us that even the most ordinary attempt to cross the city of Srinagar, or travel from one village to another is fraught with these security checks, as though the entire Valley were a gigantic airport terminal and every man were a threat to every other. As soldiers insultingly frisk folks for walking about in their own places, the expressions in their eyes – anger, fear, resignation, frustration, irritation, or just plain embarrassment – say it all. In one scene men are lined up, and some of them get their clothes pulled and their faces slapped while they are being searched. Somewhere beneath all these daily humiliations burns the unnamed sentiment: azadi. One reason that there is no Indian tolerance for this word in the context of Kashmir is that the desire for “freedom” immediately implies that its opposite is the case: Kashmir is not free. By the logic of the Indian state, India is free and Kashmir is a part of India, ergo, Kashmir too, must be free. But Kak’s images provide visual attestation for something diametrically opposed to this logic: the reality of occupation. Kashmir is occupied by Indian troops, somewhat like Palestine is by Israeli troops, and Iraq is by American and coalition troops. But wait, objects the Indian viewer. Palestinians are Muslims and Israelis are Jews; Iraqis are Iraqis and Americans are Americans – how are their dynamics comparable to the situation in Kashmir? Indians and Kashmiris are all Indian; Muslims and non-Muslims in Kashmir (or anywhere in India) are all Indian. Neither the criterion of nationality nor the criterion of religion is applicable to explain what it is that puts Indian troops and Kashmiri citizens on either side of a line of hostility. How can we speak of an “occupation” when there are no enemies, no foreigners and no outsiders in the picture at all? And if occupation makes no sense, then how can azadi make any sense? Kak explained to an audience at a recent screening of his film in Boston (23/09) that he could only begin to approach the subject of his film, azadi, after he had made it past three barriers to understanding that stand in the way of an Indian mind trying to grasp what is going on in Kashmir. The first of these is secularism. Since India is a secular country, most Indians do not even begin to see how unrest in any part of the country could be explained using religion – that too what is, in the larger picture, a minority religion – as a valid ground for the political self-definition and self-determination of a community. The Valley of Kashmir is 95% Muslim. Does this mean that Kashmiris get to have their own nation? For most Indians, the answer is simply: No. Kashmiri Muslims are no more entitled to a separate nation than were the Sikhs who supported the idea of Khalistan in the 1980s. Such claims replay, for Indians, the worst memories of Partition in 1947, and bring back the ghost of Jinnah’s two-nation theory to haunt India’s secular polity and to threaten it from within. The second barrier to understanding, related to the struggle over secularism, is the flight of the Pandits, Kashmir’s erstwhile 4% Hindu minority community, following violent incidents in 1990. 160,000 Pandits fled the Valley in that year’s exodus, leaving behind homes, lands and jobs they have yet to recover. Today the Pandits live, if not in Indian and foreign cities, then in refugee settlements that have become semi-permanent, most notably in Jammu and Delhi. For Indians, even if they do little or nothing to rehabilitate Pandits into the Indian mainstream, the persecution of the Pandits at the hands of their fellow-Kashmiris, following the fault-lines of religious difference and the minority-majority divide, is a deeply alienating feature of Kashmir’s conflict. Kashmir’s Muslim leadership has consistently expressed regret for what happened to the Pandits in the first phase of the struggle for azadi, but it has not, on the other hand, made any serious effort to bring back the exiled Hindus either. In failing to ensure the safety of the Pandits, Kashmir has lost a vital connection with the Indian state – and, potentially, a source of legitimacy for its claim to an exceptional status as a sovereign entity. The third major obstruction to India taking a sympathetic view of Kashmir is the problem of trans-national jihad. Throughout the 1990s, Kashmir’s indigenous movements for azadi have received varying degrees of support, in the form of funds, arms, fighting men, and ideological solidarity, not only from the government of Pakistan, but also from Islamist forces all across Central Asia and the Middle East. The reality of Pakistani support, and the presence of foreign fighters, from an Indian perspective, damages the claim for azadi beyond repair. Kashmiri exceptionalism in fact has an old history. Yet even if we do not want to go as far back as pre-modern and colonial times, then at the very least right from 1947, Kashmir has never really broken away completely like the parts of British India that became Pakistan, nor has it assimilated properly, like the other elements that formed the Indian republic. The status of Kashmir has always been uncertain, in free India. But with the involvement of pan-Asian or global Islamist players, starting with Pakistan but by no means limited to it, the past gives way to the present. India no longer deals with Kashmir as though it were still the place that was ruled by a Hindu king until 1947 and never fully came on board the Indian nation in the subsequent 50 years. It now looks upon Kashmir as the Indian end of the burning swath of Islamist insurgency that engulfs most of the region. In quelling azadi the Indian state sees itself as engaged in putting out the much larger fires of jihad that have breached the walls of the nation and entered into its most inflammable – because Muslim-majority – section. Secularism, the Pandits and jihad are all very real impediments to India actually being able to see what is equally real, namely, the Kashmiri longing for azadi. Kak explained to his viewers that to be able to portray azadi from the inside, he had to get through and past these barriers, to the place where Kashmiris inhabit their peculiar and tragic combination of resistance and vulnerability, their dream of a separate identity and their confrontation with an overwhelmingly powerful adversary. Their misery is palpable but they have yet to find a politics adequate to transform dissatisfaction into independence. Kashmiris do not agree on a singular meaning of the word “azadi”. Meanwhile, in the face of brute oppression, they do not fully fight back, but they do not submit either. Kak subtly captures their strangeness as a people: they recount how they lost sons and husbands to a random, ubiquitous and unforgiving violence, and, in the midst of gruesome narrations, offer the questioner tea. They walk among the dead, through lots covered with marked and unmarked graves, speaking of the departed in a weird idiom that mixes the language of martyrdom with the everydayness of life that must continue. Their poets, whether Muslim or Pandit, compose verses that in Kashmiri, Urdu or English carry the same unmistakable note of pain, even as they mirror a landscape of mountain lakes, blooming flowers and delicately-hued skies. (A few years ago Amar Kanwar’s documentary “Night of Prophecy” also brought to Indian audiences the same poignancy of poetry written by Kashmiris that confronts torture, disappearance and death in a place of unearthly natural beauty). Their traditional entertainers, village bards and clowns, called “Pather Bhand”, remember their patron, the medieval pir (Sufi saint) Zain ul Abidin, or Zain Shah, and tell tales of war and destitution with a mischievous light-heartedness that makes you cry instead of making you laugh. Women cover their heads but look at the camera with unnerving directness, insouciant, beleaguered but never submissive. These are a wry people, part defeated, part unconquerable. Their breathtakingly beautiful land stands at the crossroads of East Asian, Central Asian and South Asian cultures. For centuries, different races, religions and ethnicities have trampled through Kashmir, subduing its people on their way. But the Kashmiri language bears little relationship to any other languages of Persia, India, Afghanistan, Tibet or China, its nearest neighbours. Kashmir has always kept its head down as the winds of history have blown over and across the mountains, turned inward in an isolation that feeds the desire for azadi but does not provide the political wherewithal, the canniness, to carve out a separate nation in a world where might makes right. Here the Indian Army arrives, 1 Indian soldier to every 10 Kashmiris. Here the Indian tourists arrive, as Kak shows us, sledding in snowy Gulmarg, dressing up in “native” costume to have photographs taken in the Mughal Gardens of Srinagar, calling blood-spattered Kashmir a veritable Paradise. Here the sadhus in saffron robes arrive, on their way to the holy shrine at Amarnath, on their annual pilgrimage, invoking, in the same breath, the Hindu god Shiva and the Indian flag, the “tiranga” (“tri-colour”). You cannot take away what is ours, say these people. Ah, but you cannot keep what was never yours, either. India for Indians; Kashmir for Kashmiris: this is the fugitive logic that the filmmaker is seeking to make explicit. Kak has set himself a nearly impossible task. He must take Indians with him, on his difficult journey, past their prejudices, past their suspicions, past their very real fears, into the nightmarish world of Kashmiri citizens, torn apart between the militants and the military, stuck with the after-effects of bombings, mine-blasts, crackdowns, arrests, encounter killings and disappearances that have gone on for nearly two decades without pause. I became interested in Kashmir at the same time, for the same reason, that Kak began his investigations: the trial of S.A.R. Geelani, accused and later acquitted in the December 13, 2001 Parliament Attack case. In 2005 I wrote a couple of articles about Geelani, a Kashmiri professor of Arabic and Persian Literature at Delhi University, for this and other Indian publications. These earned me denouncements as anti-national, self-hating, anti-Hindu, pro-Pakistani, crypto-Muslim, etc. One letter to the editor even called me a terrorist! Kak has already had a taste of this reaction since the release of “Jashn-e-Azadi” in March, and must expect more of it to be coming his way in the next few months, as his film is shown widely in India and abroad. In fact, he is sure to get more flak that I ever got, given he is a Kashmiri Pandit. Aggressively Hindu nationalist, right-wing Pandit groups find Kak’s empathy for Kashmiri Muslim positions infuriating, a “betrayal” that enrages them much more than that of a merely (apparently) Hindu – non-Pandit – sympathizer like myself. But like Israeli refuseniks, there is reason to believe that now India too has its own nay-sayers, who cannot condone the presence of the Indian armed forces in Kashmir or the continued refusal of the Indian state to engage with Kashmiris on the question of azadi. Kak himself makes the comparison to Palestine by calling the azadi movement of the early 90s “Kashmir’s Intifada”. What allows someone like me – born, raised and educated in India, secular, committed to the longevity and flourishing of the Indian nation in every sense – to get, as it were, the meaning, the reality, and the validity, of Kashmir’s agonized search for azadi? Why do I not want my army to take or keep Kashmir by force, or my fellow-citizens to enjoy their annual vacations as unthinking, insensitive tourists, winter or summer? Why do abandoned Pandit homesteads affect me as much as charred Muslim houses, and why do I think that neither will be rebuilt and re-inhabited, nor will they be full of life as they once were, unless first and foremost, the military bunkers are taken down? The answer comes from my own history, the history of India. If ever there was a people who ought to know what azadi is, and to value it, it is Indians. 60 years ago India attained its own azadi, long sought, hard fought, and bought at the price of a terrible, irreparable Partition. My parents were born in pre-Independence India, and to them and those of their generation, it is possible to recall a time before azadi. Kak’s film incorporates video footage from the early 1990s, taken from sources he either cannot or will not reveal. In those images of Kashmiris protesting en masse on the streets of Srinagar, funeral processions of popular leaders, women lamenting the dead as martyrs in the path of azadi, terrorist training camps, the statements of torture victims about to breathe their last and BSF operations ending in the surrender of militants, the seething passions of nationalism come right at you from the screen, leaping from their context in Kashmir and connecting back to the mass movements of India’s long struggle against British colonialism, from 1857 to 1947. No Indian viewer, in those moments of collective and euphoric protest against oppression, could fail to be moved, or to be reminded of how it was that we came to have something close to every Indian heart: our political freedom, our status as an independent nation, in charge of our own destiny. The irony is that azadi is not something we do not and cannot ever understand, but that it is something we know all about, intimately, from our own history. What frightens us is not the alien nature of the sentiment in every Kashmiri breast: what frightens is its familiarity, its echo of our own desire for nationhood that found its voice, albeit after great bloodshed, six decades ago. The British and French invented modern democracy at home, but colonized the rest of the world. The Jews suffered the Holocaust, but Israel brutalizes Palestine. India blazed the way for the decolonization of dozens of Asian and African countries, and established itself as the world’s largest democracy, yet it turns away from Kashmir and its quest for freedom, and worse, goes all out to crush the will of the Kashmiri people. Indians with a conscience – and perhaps Kak’s film will help sensitize and educate many more, especially the young – ought not stand for this desecration of the very ground upon which our nationality rests. After all, we learnt two words together – “azadi” and “swaraj”, freedom and self-rule – and on these foundations was our nation built. We are a people who barely two generations ago not only fought for our own freedom – our leaders, Gandhi, Nehru, Ambedkar, and so many others, taught the whole of the colonized world how to speak the language of self-respect and sovereignty. We of all people should strive for a time when it will become possible for a Kashmiri to offer a visitor a cup of tea without rancour or irony, as a simple uncomplicated expression of the hospitality that comes naturally to those who belong to this culture. We should join the Kashmiris in their search for a city animated by commerce and conversation, not haunted by the ghosts of the dead and the fled. We should support them, whether they be Muslims or Hindus, in turning their grief, so visible in Kak’s courageous work of witnessing, into a genuine “jashn”, a celebration, of a freedom that has been too long in the coming. Anything less would make us lesser Indians. -- www.sarai.net Vivek Narayanan The Sarai Programme Centre for the Study of Developing Societies 29,Rajpur Road, Civil Lines Delhi 110 054. From ramganeshk at gmail.com Sat Oct 6 22:34:25 2007 From: ramganeshk at gmail.com (Ram Ganesh Kamatham) Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2007 22:34:25 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] (IFS - 7) Vikram and Betal text complete - performance on 13th and 14th Oct in B'lore Message-ID: Hi all! I'm happy to announce the completion of the play and would like to invite everyone for the show. I do hope to see you there! Warm regards Ram My monthly posting is available at: http://addledbraindump.blogspot.com/ Play details at: http://addledbraindump.blogspot.com/2007/09/its-alive.html Creeper written and directed by Ram Ganesh Kamatham Saturday 13th October 2007 (7:30pm) and Sunday 14th October 2007 (3:30pm and 7:30pm) at Ranga Shankara, 8th Cross, 2nd Phase, JP Nagar, Bangalore - 78 Tickets: Rs 100/- available at the venue Contains explicit language - Not suitable for persons below the age of 18 - Late entry not permitted Call or sms: 9845602265 for tele-bookings From indersalim at gmail.com Sun Oct 7 23:43:49 2007 From: indersalim at gmail.com (inder salim) Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2007 23:43:49 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] KASHMIR'S NAND BAB Message-ID: <47e122a70710071113v2a5ff1dbm344709c632c589bd@mail.gmail.com> please click for the image and then read http://indersalim.livejournal.com Kashmir, or 'the rishi vaar ' the valley of Saints. I just returned from Kashmir, and I saw none, but there must be still some left in the hidden corners of the troubled valley. Strangely, just after my return, I happened to see a photograph of such a rishi (mot/darvesh ) who was knows as Nand Bab. This particular photograph of Nand Bab reminds me of Salvador Dali, the noted Artist-surrealist if you just paste those famous pointed moustaches on the image. I don't know if Dali had any premonition to predict a particular event, but Nand Bab had, if one believes what people talk about him. Who are Maet ( these mad, saint, darvesh, poets) ? They are eccentric, spiritually elevated and sometimes capable of uttering verses. For reasons unknown, they are always in a hysterical mode, and therefore, unaware about the form societies are obliged to adhere with. They have hardly anything to do with politics, religion or other logical forms of thought. In short they are a different species and yet they give a lot to the people they come in contact with. So if Nand Bab had to say something to A, he turns to B and says something in a twisted way. And if he has something to say to B he turns to C and delivers a volley of words to the audience, which is free to be interpreted. People would never dare to offend him even if he slaps or spits a person. People still talk about miracles of Nand Bab. He was unpredictable like other such saints. They were always in the world, I believe they still pass effortlessly through societies irrespective of the times. The blind prophet, Tiresias, predicts the fall of King Oedipus. That is indeed literature, but this indicates that such people have indeed lived upon this earth in this form or that form. They are in fact products of the very complexities of our social behaviour. I believe, a cool scratching of our respective minds can guarantee us the presence of such a trace in each one of us. EVERY ONE IS AN ARTIST, said Joseph Beuys, the great German performance artist who includes in his SOCIAL SCLUPTURE this kind of a possibility also, besides his profound discourses on the understanding of anthropology. Therefore, SOCIAL ORGANISM AS WORK OF ART. Prof. Ghulam Mohd. Shaad in his monogram ( published by Sahitya Academy ) on Abdul Ahad Zargar, the last Sufi Saint Poet of Kashmir, writes a little about some miracles of the said poet besides his great poetry. Both Nand Bab and Abdul Ahad Zargar died 1970 A.D, approximately. The eyes in the image found, of Nand Bab, encompasses such a mystery and complexity. He was offering talismans ( Rach/taveez ) to his followers/lovers. A strange triangular kite like form near his shoulder suggests about the possibility of a talisman he himself was sporting. In the image he looks somewhere, but he also look at you. These eyes are full of compassion, but the nose is so unpredictable, with mouth open to utter: the mystery of Kasheer (Kashmir). So, mapping Kashmir, this way too. Sculpture From rashneek at gmail.com Mon Oct 8 13:26:26 2007 From: rashneek at gmail.com (rashneek kher) Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2007 13:26:26 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Saffron and Black-by Irfan Hussain(in Dawn) Message-ID: <13df7c120710080056n523c90b7kfa331ec8bbd391aa@mail.gmail.com> *Saffron and black * *By Irfan Husain* THAT sound you can't hear as you read this is the sound of one hand clapping. And that hand belongs to those parties supporting Musharraf's re-election, and those benefiting financially from his presidency. The other hand, stuck firmly in a pocket, belongs to the opposition parties, and much of civil society. By the time you read this, Musharraf's re-election will be a certainty, barring a major legal or geological earthquake. But while Musharraf will be the winner in this one-horse race, his victory will be challenged in the courts, the streets and the media for the rest of his term. Last week, televised images from two Asian cities shocked the world. From Yangon came the scenes of monks in saffron being beaten up by Burmese soldiers. And the sight of black-coated lawyers being the targets of rocks, batons and tear-gas shells in Islamabad disgusted Pakistanis and foreigners alike. It is no coincidence that both these backward countries are ruled by generals. Indeed, until the recent coups in Thailand and Bangladesh, Pakistan and Myanmar were the only two countries run by their armies. Needless to say, Pakistan is near the bottom of tables designed to measure human development and happiness. The recent Transparency International index to measure corruption places us at 138th in the list of clean states. If Musharraf is the winner, who are the losers? Beyond political circles, it is the people of Pakistan who will bear the brunt of the ongoing legal and political shenanigans to keep Musharraf in power. And apart from Musharraf and his cronies, it is the Taliban, Al Qaeda and their supporters in Pakistan who are the winners. For over six months, this government has been paralysed into inaction as Musharraf's ambitions have become the focus of the whole country. Since March 12, when the president and his henchmen tried to sack the Chief Justice, everybody has been glued to their TVs, following the gripping drama that is still unfolding. Meanwhile, extremists have tightened their grip over the tribal areas, and are now extending their operations into settled areas. They have been blowing up girls' schools, killing schoolteachers, and forcing shopkeepers not to sell anything un-Islamic. And their definition of what is 'un-Islamic' is very wide indeed. But their attacks have been largely ignored as the nation and the government remain fixated on political and legal matters. Even the capture of hundreds of soldiers, and their continued captivity, has been relegated to page 5. GHQ, totally focused on making sure their 'chief' remains in the presidency, seems unconcerned that so many of its troops have laid down their weapons without firing a shot. It used to be said of our army that while it could not win wars against external foes, it was very good at defeating its own citizens. Now even this seems beyond its capabilities. However, these recent setbacks in Fata should not detract from the courage of the Pakistani soldier. He has been badly let down by a leadership that has become heavily involved in politics and in business enterprises. If professionalism in the army has declined, it is largely because no top-level leadership can engage successfully in three different fields simultaneously. Of late, there has been much talk of 'national reconciliation'. An ordinance has even been named after this alien concept. But if you listen to the background chatter emanating from ruling circles, you realise that they are only interested in hanging on to power. Reconciliation is very low on their list of priorities. The relationship between Musharraf and his political allies is a symbiotic one: they will elect him, and he in turn will make sure they get elected in the general elections. And if it takes a little judicious rigging — as it did in 2002 — so be it. Pakistani politics is not for the squeamish and the faint of heart. Thus, while Musharraf and his cohorts have been trying to convince anybody who will listen that Musharraf's candidature is constitutional, as is the right of this lame-duck parliament to elect him again, nobody is buying this self-serving fiction. Even foreigners unfamiliar with our much-abused Constitution can see that it is a travesty for a serving general to run for president, even in a banana republic like ours. And for a parliament on the verge of dissolution to elect a president for the next five years is to commit a smash-and-grab robbery in broad daylight. So how will all this skulduggery end? In the short-term, in a Pyrrhic victory for Musharraf and his allies. But their remaining time in office will be dogged with constant political bickering as Musharraf's authority is constantly challenged. And now, he won't have the shield of his uniform to protect him. An increasingly disenchanted army might like to cut its losses and disentangle itself from the mess their current chief has created. Although Benazir Bhutto and Musharraf seem to have signed their long-expected deal, a power-sharing arrangement will be a rocky affair. Imagine the PPP, PML-Q and the MQM in a coalition. True, their infighting will give the president much leverage, but the business of running a government will be a very distant second priority to hanging on in power. We can certainly forget about fighting the extremist threat. Or, indeed, about solving the many other pressing problems the country faces. And all this just so one man can hang on to power. The entire system is being subjected to intolerable strains and stresses for Musharraf's re-election. The seeds being sown now will yield a bitter harvest. The journalists and lawyers who were subjected to such brutal treatment by the state on Sept 29 in the country's capital are unlikely to forgive and forget. And neither, for that matter, are we. Governments have a certain 'tipping point' when they lose their moral authority to rule. Future historians might pinpoint Sept 29 as the date for Musharraf's fall from grace. Although he has been heavily criticised over the years, his real decline began on March 9 when he tried to sack the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. But this slide reached its nadir when plain-clothed thugs went berserk on Islamabad's Constitution Avenue last week. Things can only get worse. -- Rashneek Kher http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com From rashneek at gmail.com Mon Oct 8 15:39:01 2007 From: rashneek at gmail.com (rashneek kher) Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2007 15:39:01 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] The Endangered Species-by Rahul Pandita(The Sunday Indian) Message-ID: <13df7c120710080309j1615ae1fl888a58fd4caf49c0@mail.gmail.com> The simmers of the communal riots had just died away in Kashmir in 1986, when the then Union Minister of Human Resources SB Chavan came visiting the valley in connection with a wildlife conservation project. It was a project involving the Kashmiri Hangul (a species of deer), which had been declared as endangered species. As Chavan met people, a man appeared from behind and shot a question at him: "So Mr. Minister, you are very interested in saving the animal?" Chavan looked at the man and replied in affirmative. "But what about the other endangered species of this land?" the man said. "Which endangered species?" asked Chavan. "Kashmiri Pandits", replied the man, before disappearing in the crowd. read the entire column here http://kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com Regards -- Rashneek Kher http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com From delhi.yunus at gmail.com Mon Oct 8 23:40:52 2007 From: delhi.yunus at gmail.com (Syed Yunus) Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2007 14:10:52 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] Washington postings Message-ID: Hi, These days i am at washington Dc as part of a year long fellowship program. and would love to share my encounters with a new city. you can see my postings at http://syed-mohd-yunus.blogspot.com/ -- Syed Mohd Yunus India Fellow Atlas Service Corps, Washington DC Change is the only constant in life ! From burtoncleetus at yahoo.co.uk Tue Oct 9 16:30:28 2007 From: burtoncleetus at yahoo.co.uk (burton cleetus) Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2007 12:00:28 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] rockefeller foundation fifth post Message-ID: <515790.80438.qm@web27112.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> While the activities of the Rockefeller foundation in Travancore had been variously highlighted, A working paper by Kabir at CDS seeks to figure out the larger politics that underlay the philanthropy of the foundation. He argues that Travancore provided the ideal situation for the Foundation to carry forward their experiment and to find solutions on the various diseases with which the foundation were already familiar with. He argues that Travancore provided the ideal place, for the foundation, to ‘stimulate progress, bring about experimentation, demonstrate new methods and increase efficiency’. The argument hitherto raised in this context is that the socio-political and scientific interests of the foundation therefore centered on the persistence of communicable and preventive diseases in many parts of the less developed regions across the globe as a cover to pursue their larger objectives. The Annual Report of the Foundation in 1926, notes, “The unswerving spirit of the foundation was to stimulate progress, bring about experimentation, demonstrate new methods and increase efficiency”. The foundation received applications from three states namely Travancore, Burma, and Punjab for assistance in the implementation of Public health institutions in their states, while the applications of the two former states were accepted, the application of Punjab was turned down. Though no reason was sited for turning down the application, it seems that the low literacy rate of Punjab might have worked against its favour in the consideration of the application. While Travancore had a literacy rate of 28.9% and Burma had a literacy rate of 36.8% Punjab’s literacy rate was as low as 6.3%. One of the major activity of the foundation was the public health education teams constituted for the creation of the awareness among the people on health issues, the teams surveyed the areas and gave lectures, distributed pamphlets and distributed lanterns etc, they distributed pamphlets which gave detail descriptions on the origin and the causes of the diseases and their spread. In Thiruvananthapuram the public health personal under the guidance of the foundation representative showed that Filariasis was transmitted by Culex fatigans, which multiplied in the masonry drains and their fallouts and contrary to the popular belief, ponds rice fields and swamps were not responsible for the output of the species. Similarly the water plant named Pistia found in Ambalapuzha, cherthala and other parts of the Alapuzha district were considered as the cause of the spread of the disease. The foundation decided to continue with sanitary and health care systems that were prevalent in Travancore prior to their arrival and therefore an extension of the then existing sanitary and health care measures that the Travancore state was ‘successfully’ pursuing before the arrival of the foundation. The foundation was of the opinion that the ill effects of Hookworm disease, and the nature of its causes and spread could be easily explained to the people. Propaganda measures for the creation of awareness among the people included charts, which demonstrated, 1.a) Male and female hookworms very much enlarged b) Male and female hookworms natural size c) Hookworm egg greatly enlarged. Note that the hookworm egg, like a hen’s egg,has a shell, a white and a yolk 2.a) two hookworm eggs greatly enlarged. In one, segmentation is well underway; in the other, the completely formed embryo is ready to hatch; b)Young hookworm in infecting stage; c) a late stage of ground itch. 3) Outline he course of Hookworm through the body from the time they penetrate the skin until they are lodged in the intestines. 5)a) Male and female hookworms attached to a piece of the bowel. Note sores and ulcerations in the lining of the bowel where hookworms were once attached; b) Parts of greatly enlarged body and head of adult hookworm attached to human intestine; the mouth encloses a large mass of mucosa; c) enlargement of head of the same Hookworm showing limits of mouth cavity and both pairs of teeth. 6.Hookworm larvae penetrating the skin greatly enlarged. The drawings show the relative size of the larvae and the delicate fissures in the skin; b) number of Hookworms in subcutaneous tissue. While it was realised that the ill effects of hookworm could be easily explained to the people, the same was not the case with Malaria, it was noted that before malaria control measures can be undertaken on an economic basis, it would seem advisable to obtain the services of a competent entomologist, otherwise the expenditure might include the control of mosquitoes, which are not malaria carriers. Malaria was understood as a highly specialized public health problem and methods of control vary in different localities in the same country and even in the same district. ___________________________________________________________ Want ideas for reducing your carbon footprint? Visit Yahoo! For Good http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/environment.html From surojit369 at yahoo.co.in Tue Oct 9 19:41:57 2007 From: surojit369 at yahoo.co.in (SUROJIT SEN) Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2007 15:11:57 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] IFS'07 - Displacement of prostitutes - 7th posting Sep'07 Message-ID: <423446.31442.qm@web8604.mail.in.yahoo.com> Hi All, This is my 7th posting of my project Displacement of prostitutes. Bodmaes Jobdo : The 21st century Version – With the objective of safeguarding social morality and providing legal protection to sex workers, the Govt. of India has recently decided to bring about some changes in the existing Immoral traffic Prevention Act (ITPA) 1987.(source: ABP-10.03.06) The proposed amendment bill has suggested deletion of certain clauses in the existing Act and introduction of new clauses with a specific objective. But questions have been raised from certain quarters as to whether the proposed amendment will be able to fulfill the objective as claimed by the bill. Durbar mahila samannya committee (DMSC), an organization of sex workers in West Bengal, has also opposed the bill. The bill seeking to amend the ITPA Act is based on the following observations: 1. Sex workers are forced to engage in sex trade or prostitution because of socio – economic reasons. Hence they should not be viewed as offenders. The real offenders are the customers who go to brothels. The Act therefore should include a legal provision for arresting the customers and bringing them to book. 2. Pimps and agents partake of earnings of a sex worker. The bill treats this as a crime and prohibits anyone aged above 18years from taking share of a sex worker’s income. 3. In order to control sex trade and prevent young girls from entering into this trade, the bill has suggested punitive measures for the houseowners in the red-light area. Like the customers, houseoweners letting out rooms for sex trade will be treated as criminals. He/ she may be sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment for this crime. The proposed amendment change in two clauses in the existing ITPA: a) According to ITPA, as public soliciting is a legal offence, the police can arrest a sex worker for indulging in soliciting in order to attract customers. The amendment enjoins that the customer is equally an offender and he may therefore be arrested by the police. b) Under ITPA, the right to evict sex workers from an area was reserved exclusively for a magistrate of the upper rank. The suggested amendment has extend this right to the local police station. In Independent India the first legislation to control prostitution was the Suppression of Immoral Traffic Act (SITA), 1956. It was later amended to Prevention of Immoral Traffic Act (PITA) in 1986 and further to Immoral Traffic Prevention Act ( ITPA) in 1987. PITA defined prostitution as ‘ Sexual exploitation or abuse of persons for commercial purposes’. This Act obviously ruled out the probability of a woman taking to prostitution on her own and viewed the Act in terms of exploitation or outrage only. SITA was, in fact, amended to PITA in order to empower the state to save a woman from being sexually exploited for commercial purposes. Alongside PITA also prohibited a woman from joining sex trade voluntarily. It is important to note that neither SITA nor PITA declared prostitution illegal but treated some activities associated with prostitution as a legal offence. The Act therefore has an inherent contradiction which the recent amendment has’nt also sought to resolve. The amendment bill enjoins that a houseowner renting out his/her place for carrying on sex trade is liable to be jailed for seven years. What would this lead to? Certainly sex workers from Sonagachi, Kalighat, harkata and other red light areas would not be driven out overnight and sex trade would continue to go on. Sex workers would rent rooms but the houseoweners would not give them receipts to avoid the legal hazard of the new act. It means that the Act would deprive the sex workers of their right over the rooms they have let in and they would also have no local address. Hence they would not be entitled to apply for ration cards. Given their economic condition, a ration card, i.e. the opportunity to get cereals at a subsidized rate is not at all negligible for an ordinary sex worker. The new Act, which the central Government is going to enforce, would therefore add to the economic vulnerability of sex workers throughout the country. The new Act has no provision for an alternative livelihood for sex workers. It has rather sharpened the contradiction underlying the existing Act. To put plainly, one is allowed to open a shop but the customer who has come to buy goods is likely to be arrested according to law. Is this not a hypocrisy raised to the point of absurdity? Will it not actually affect the daily earnings of a prostitute and throw her in a more vulnerable condition? With the earlier legislations having failed to check or control prostitution, the new Act, in ther name of protecting social morality, is in fact going to bring back the Act introduced by the colonial rulers as early as 1868. It seems to script the same drama of Wicked Punished( Bodmaes Jobdo ). 6 --------------------------------- Chat on a cool, new interface. No download required. Click here. From indersalim at gmail.com Wed Oct 10 00:01:12 2007 From: indersalim at gmail.com (inder salim) Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:01:12 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] these four images from Kashmir Message-ID: <47e122a70710091131w5ccc01e6j1a1e6afb2d4d1f38@mail.gmail.com> these four images from Kashmir please click http://indersalim.livejournal.com From indersalim at gmail.com Wed Oct 10 00:01:54 2007 From: indersalim at gmail.com (inder salim) Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:01:54 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] these four images from Kashmir Message-ID: <47e122a70710091131h6d8e5d3bl98fdc2dbe8cad3b1@mail.gmail.com> THESE FOUR IMAGES FROM KASHMIR PLEASE CLICK http://indersalim.livejournal.com From veryseriousmail at yahoo.ca Wed Oct 10 00:39:24 2007 From: veryseriousmail at yahoo.ca (Sophie Le-Phat Ho) Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2007 15:09:24 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Reader-list] [ UN.OCCUPIED SPACES ] 25 to 27 October 2007 Message-ID: <99059.11082.qm@web52908.mail.re2.yahoo.com> ARTIVISTIC 2007 [ UN.OCCUPIED SPACES ] 25 to 27 October 2007 :: Montreal http://www.artivistic.org Artivistic is an international transdisciplinary three-day gathering on the interPlay between art, information and activism. Artivistic emerges out of the proposition that not only artists talk about art, academics about theory, and activists about activism. Founded in 2004, the event aims to promote transdisciplinary and intercultural dialogue on activist art beyond critique, to create and facilitate a human network of diverse peoples, and to inspire, proliferate, activate. For the third edition of Artivistic, the expression [ un.occupied spaces ] was chosen to stimulate new ideas in response to the hidden confusions caused by the infinite networks of 21C globalization and neo-liberalism. [ un.occupied spaces ] dares to link the charged issues of environmentalism, indigenous and migrant struggles, and urban practices together through the angle of occupation. In an interconnected world, critical thought and action cannot but become flexible and uncompromising at once. To think with occupation consequently becomes a strategy for approaching these issues in a way that will reveal their interdependence, and fuel creative and tactical collaborative actions between “co-artists” (artists and non-artists). Built around three interrelated questions, the event consists of roundtables, workshops, interventions, exhibitions, performances, and screenings at our temporary headquarters at 5455 av. de Gaspé, #701, and in different venues and spaces of Montreal. < what is indigenous? > The very use of the term “indigenous” presupposes a claim to the existence of certain rights. The right to traditional uses of territory. The right to live on the land from which one has been displaced. The right to status. The right to self-determination. The right to a life with dignity. In what context does indigenous mean something and how is it represented today? What is the relationship between identity based on place, the land and/or territories and the right to resources? What is indigenous in the context of globalisation, migrations and mobility? < what is natural (space) ? > The environment is in a pretty bad shape. Yet, does not typical environmentalism often propose “solutions” which alienate the very people that could make a difference by using a false dichotomy (natural/artificial, nature/culture) and by perpetuating the myth of a pristine nature? Current strategies often make use of fear and guilt to provoke action, yet will we not be helping our environment in a more efficient way once we let go of our arrogance as humans and start living with and in the world rather than of, and alienated from, the world? < what is (there) to occupy? > The term “occupation” often inspires images of invasion, enclosure and rape. How are spaces and bodies ruled over? What is public space, ultimately? Why do reserves exist? To ask what is occupation is in fact to ask what is left to occupy for occupation is more pervasive than it first appears. At the same time, occupation echoes resistance when it comes to certain forms of appropriation. How does one occupy appropriation or how can one appropriate occupation? The Autonomous Conference >> Artivistic also includes an open-source component. Participants will be able to sign up on the day-of to hold an ad-hoc session that is not in the official program but is fully part of the event. You can prepare in advance, but you don’t need to submit anything. Our events are free admission, with a suggested donation of $10 for waged participants. Please register to secure a place: participation.artivistic at gmail.com For updates / more information: http://www.artivistic.org / info.artivistic at gmail.com +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Faites des appels de PC à PC dans le monde entier ! Essayez le nouveau Yahoo! Québec Messenger avec Voix. http://cf.messenger.yahoo.com/ From iram at sarai.net Wed Oct 10 02:01:28 2007 From: iram at sarai.net (Iram Ghufran) Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 02:01:28 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [announcements] Book Launch- Bombay Cinema: An Archive of the City Message-ID: <470BE520.2090606@sarai.net> An Illustrated Talk By Ranjani Mazumdar (School of Arts & Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University) To Celebrate the Publication of her Book Bombay Cinema: An Archive of the City (Published by Permanent Black, 2007) Discussants: Ravi Vasudevan (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Sarai) Shohini Ghosh (MCRC, Jamia Milia Islamia) Friday, October 12th at 6.30 pm at Gulmohar, India Habitat Centre New Delhi From vishal.rawlley at gmail.com Wed Oct 10 02:36:00 2007 From: vishal.rawlley at gmail.com (Vishal Rawlley) Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 02:36:00 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] semantical deconstruction of South Asian Cinema Message-ID: <31d5ea920710091406l6408e325kf7401ad6242ca7d0@mail.gmail.com> an intellectual injection for you all http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nof_ZUsczXA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtJRNyPK-lc From burtoncleetus at yahoo.co.uk Wed Oct 10 09:37:52 2007 From: burtoncleetus at yahoo.co.uk (burton cleetus) Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 05:07:52 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Rockefeller Foundation Fifth Post Message-ID: <331657.53858.qm@web27111.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> While the activities of the Rockefeller foundation in Travancore had been variously highlighted, A working paper by Kabir at CDS seeks to figure out the larger politics that underlay the philanthropy of the foundation. He argues that Travancore provided the ideal situation for the Foundation to carry forward their experiment and to find solutions on the various diseases with which the foundation were already familiar with. He argues that Travancore provided the ideal place, for the foundation, to ‘stimulate progress, bring about experimentation, demonstrate new methods and increase efficiency’. The argument hitherto raised in this context is that the socio-political and scientific interests of the foundation therefore centered on the persistence of communicable and preventive diseases in many parts of the less developed regions across the globe as a cover to pursue their larger objectives. The Annual Report of the Foundation in 1926, notes, “The unswerving spirit of the foundation was to stimulate progress, bring about experimentation, demonstrate new methods and increase efficiency”. The foundation received applications from three states namely Travancore, Burma, and Punjab for assistance in the implementation of Public health institutions in their states, while the applications of the two former states were accepted, the application of Punjab was turned down. Though no reason was sited for turning down the application, it seems that the low literacy rate of Punjab might have worked against its favour in the consideration of the application. While Travancore had a literacy rate of 28.9% and Burma had a literacy rate of 36.8% Punjab’s literacy rate was as low as 6.3%. One of the major activity of the foundation was the public health education teams constituted for the creation of the awareness among the people on health issues, the teams surveyed the areas and gave lectures, distributed pamphlets and distributed lanterns etc, they distributed pamphlets which gave detail descriptions on the origin and the causes of the diseases and their spread. In Thiruvananthapuram the public health personal under the guidance of the foundation representative showed that Filariasis was transmitted by Culex fatigans, which multiplied in the masonry drains and their fallouts and contrary to the popular belief, ponds rice fields and swamps were not responsible for the output of the species. Similarly the water plant named Pistia found in Ambalapuzha, cherthala and other parts of the Alapuzha district were considered as the cause of the spread of the disease. The foundation decided to continue with sanitary and health care systems that were prevalent in Travancore prior to their arrival and therefore an extension of the then existing sanitary and health care measures that the Travancore state was ‘successfully’ pursuing before the arrival of the foundation. The foundation was of the opinion that the ill effects of Hookworm disease, and the nature of its causes and spread could be easily explained to the people. Propaganda measures for the creation of awareness among the people included charts, which demonstrated, 1.a) Male and female hookworms very much enlarged b) Male and female hookworms natural size c) Hookworm egg greatly enlarged. Note that the hookworm egg, like a hen’s egg,has a shell, a white and a yolk 2.a) two hookworm eggs greatly enlarged. In one, segmentation is well underway; in the other, the completely formed embryo is ready to hatch; b)Young hookworm in infecting stage; c) a late stage of ground itch. 3) Outline he course of Hookworm through the body from the time they penetrate the skin until they are lodged in the intestines. 5)a) Male and female hookworms attached to a piece of the bowel. Note sores and ulcerations in the lining of the bowel where hookworms were once attached; b) Parts of greatly enlarged body and head of adult hookworm attached to human intestine; the mouth encloses a large mass of mucosa; c) enlargement of head of the same Hookworm showing limits of mouth cavity and both pairs of teeth. 6.Hookworm larvae penetrating the skin greatly enlarged. The drawings show the relative size of the larvae and the delicate fissures in the skin; b) number of Hookworms in subcutaneous tissue. While it was realised that the ill effects of hookworm could be easily explained to the people, the same was not the case with Malaria, it was noted that before malaria control measures can be undertaken on an economic basis, it would seem advisable to obtain the services of a competent entomologist, otherwise the expenditure might include the control of mosquitoes, which are not malaria carriers. Malaria was understood as a highly specialized public health problem and methods of control vary in different localities in the same country and even in the same district. ___________________________________________________________ Want ideas for reducing your carbon footprint? Visit Yahoo! For Good http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/environment.html From amitabh at sarai.net Wed Oct 10 11:33:46 2007 From: amitabh at sarai.net (Amitabh Kumar) Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 11:33:46 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Schulz and Peanuts Message-ID: <2BACEF81-0C00-47DA-BD07-60FDDF761A98@sarai.net> October 8, 2007 Biography of ‘Peanuts’ Creator Stirs Family By PATRICIA COHEN David Michaelis first contacted the family of Charles M. Schulz seven years ago about writing a biography of Schulz, the creator of the “Peanuts” comic strip. It turned out that Schulz had read Mr. Michaelis’s biography of N. C. Wyeth, and that Schulz’s son Monte also liked the writer’s work. He ended up helping persuade the rest of the Schulz clan to cooperate with Mr. Michaelis, granted full access to his father’s papers and put aside his own novel writing to help him. But Monte Schulz said that when he read Mr. Michaelis’s manuscript in December, members of the family were shocked by the portrayal of a depressed, cold and bitter man who was constantly going after different women. “It’s not true,” Monte said. “It’s preposterous.” His sister Amy Schulz Johnson felt the same. “The whole thing is completely wrong,” she said from her home in Utah. “I think he wanted to write a book a certain way, and so he used our family.” “We were all really excited thinking we were going to get to say things about our Dad,” she said, complaining that the children play a very small role in the book. Mr. Michaelis said that he was surprised to hear how upset some members of the family were, but that “to their children fathers are always heroes, and very few families can see beyond that paterfamilias.” After interviewing hundreds of people, going through every one of the 17,897 comic strips Schulz drew and doing extensive research, Mr. Michaelis said, “this was the man I found.” “Did I get the story right?” he asked. “Absolutely. No question.” Mr. Michaelis referred to numerous interviews throughout Charles Schulz’s life in which he talked about his own “melancholy” and anxieties. “I have this awful feeling of impending doom,” he said on “60 Minutes” in 1999. “I wake up to a funeral-like atmosphere.” Many portraits of Schulz pick up the same theme. Rheta Grimsley Johnson’s 1989 biography, “Good Grief: The Story of Charles M. Schulz,” similarly describes him as depressed and plagued by panic attacks, despite a large family and mammoth financial and critical success. Nor does it seem that Mr. Michaelis made a secret of his perspective. He wrote an appreciation of Schulz in Time magazine in December 2000 after his death at 77 in which he clearly laid out the thesis he expands on in his 655-page book, sometimes word for word. Mr. Michaelis’s biography, “Schulz and Peanuts,” which HarperCollins is releasing next week, is one of the most anticipated books of the fall publishing season. Schulz’s cartoon panels are interspersed with the text, and Mr. Michaelis uses them as revelations of the artist’s emotions. “He was a complicated artist who had an inner life and embedded that inner life on the page,” Mr. Michaelis said in an interview. “His anxieties and fears brought him Lucy and the characters in ‘Peanuts.’” “A normal person couldn’t have done it,” he said. Biographers often find themselves at odds with the friends and families of their subjects. Clearly a loved one is not necessarily objective, a family may want to protect a reputation or may be unaware of hidden events or aspects of someone’s character. Janet Malcolm, in a well-known provocative essay, offered another analysis, describing the relationship between a journalist and a subject as innately deceptive and the journalist as “kind of a confidence man.” Elements of all these explanations have been invoked. Jean Schulz, Charles’ second wife, said she read about three-quarters of Mr. Michaelis’s third draft. She didn’t disagree that her husband, whom friends called Sparky, was “melancholy,” but she said that was only part of the story: “It’s not a full portrait. Sparky was so much more. Most of the time he loved to laugh. “Part of what puzzles people about Sparky was that he talked about the actual physical sensation that he had from being anxious, the ‘sense of dread’ when he got up in the morning. But he had a Buddhist acceptance of life and its ups and downs. He functioned perfectly well. “David couldn’t put everything in,” she said, but added, “I think Sparky’s melancholy and his dysfunctional first marriage are more interesting to talk about than 25 years of happiness.” She quoted her husband’s frequent response to why Charlie Brown never got to kick the football: “Happiness is not funny.” What particularly disturbed her, she said, were Mr. Michaelis’s judgments. “Every artist has to take a point of view,” she said, “but if David is going to say that Sparky is a consistently mean man, then you need to back it up.” “The attribution is very vague,” she said, mentioning anonymous quotations. Mr. Michaelis’s source notes for each chapter are organized by subject, so it can be difficult to attach a particular quote to a particular source. Jean Schulz said that she had found factual errors, many of them trivial, like whether a Redwood tree was dug up, but that “it just makes me wonder about other things in the book.” Mr. Michaelis “obviously took notes,” she said, but some things were clearly “mistranscribed or misinterpreted.” Monte Schulz cited a number of small inaccuracies, including a mention of a housekeeper serving dinner after she no longer worked for the family; an incorrect reference to his father hearing him lecture at a writer’s workshop; and what Monte said was a ridiculously low estimate for building an ice-skating rink, which made it seem as if there were a more than a 1,000 percent cost overrun. He said his mother, Joyce Doty, was very upset at being portrayed as an overbearing and shrewish. Reached at her home in Hawaii, she said, “I am not talking to anybody about anything.” Meredith Hodges, who grew up as one of Schulz’s five children, only discovered as an adult that he was not her biological father. She describes him in the book as “cold,” “distant” and “afraid to love,” and she wrote in an e-mail message, “No comment.” Mr. Michaelis in his biography describes Schulz as extremely generous, devoted to his children, modest and funny, and Joyce as energetic, capable and vibrant, but those traits do not get nearly as much space. Amy Schulz Johnson, who described Schulz as “the most amazing Christ-like father,” complained that Mr. Michaelis played up the negative and left out the positive. “We all got deceived,” she said. Still, Jean Schulz is sympathetic to the notion of a writer’s or artist’s creative vision, pointing to her own husband. “David is writing this for himself,” she said. “He’s got to be satisfied.” From pkray11 at gmail.com Wed Oct 10 12:25:59 2007 From: pkray11 at gmail.com (prakash ray) Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 12:25:59 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] A letter from an activist of the Narmada Andolan Message-ID: <98f331e00710092355h7effd40ye3afb9495fd49529@mail.gmail.com> Dear friends, I am posting a letter from a well-known activist of the Narmada Andolan. A verson of the text has also been published in *Pratham Prawakta, a Hindi *journal published from Delhi (1-15 Oct,2007). I urge all of you to ponder over the questions raised. Thanks, Prakash* * *LETTER from JAGADEESH B N *Dear All Many things are unquestioned or ignored just because it is a "Non-violent, Non-funded people movement" working for peoples' right, and also since people like me who have left the movement without much protest ('an easy escape'), has ended in the boycotting of people in their villages and the banning them form their own movement. During mt trip this time to Narmada Valley I have witnessed many things - from the most important people of the Maheshwar Dam struggle people bein accused of being "Dalals" with the call by the outside middle class activists of NBA for removing Valley people form the Narmada Andolan"and also attempt to ban some of the activists from the caste/community which has resulted in the banning of other long term and big activist and not allowing him to visit to his own village. On the other hand the entire facilities for Kahar-Kewat (the community solely dependent on the fish and the sand in the river Narmada) is being denied by the upper cast people in the village Patrad, Thanks to the influence of the urban upper middle class and English speaking people this is a supposedly a democratic act in the Narmada valley. I went to Narmada valley this time when I am facing my difficult time in my life and was not sure if I am going with right direction in my life. It was good and thanks to Arun that I made this travel to Valley. For me, in Narmada Valley, Nimad is the region I really do not like (keeping in mind that people are really good) it's just because I was not willing to associate with the people who are landlords. I was most attracted towards the fisher community and the tribal community, which led me to work in the Maan dam area where the question was also simple 'just rehabilitation'. Serous disagreement with other activistswith whom I was associated led me to live the Narmada movement in the year 2003, also my days as an under trial in Sardarpur Prison led me to want to become an advocate was another reasonfor leaving the Narmada valley. This time when I went again to visit those villages, I realized that I have made a big mistake by leaving the people and the issue in the middle as they say, and I wished I could have spent another year there. I have walked too far from there and now I feel, having again visited the Valley, that it will be good if I do not repeat the same mistake yet again. Why this letter? I am addressing or want to address specifically to Alok Agarwal and Chittaroopa Palit, the 'leaders of Narmada Bachao Andolan' basically raising few questions: 1. Is Mangath really dalal? Has he really taken money form S.Kumar? 2. How do you justify dismissing Mangath form the N.B.A.? 3. Was there any necessity to go to press with these issues? 4. Was there any necessary to send your people to the press conference held by Mangath to create a tamasha on the street? 5. Was there any necessity for you to conduct another press conference on the same day? 6. How do you justify banning Suresh Patidar form visiting his own village? Is it possible in a democratic setup, if I assume you still believe in Democracy. 7. How do you justify banning facility for Kahar-Kewat family in Village Patrad? 8. Is it ok for members of your organisation to openly and in full view of the press threaten Mangath that they will break his legs and kill him? Do you still want to call NBA as non-violent struggle? 9. Is asking for rehabilitation when you know that the dam will not be stopped wrong? 10. How can people forming their own organization to fight for their rights, in this case Mangath and his community people forming their own organization asking for fishing rights and the proper rehabilitation in the democratic country be termed as wrong? 11. Has NBA taken the contract to run the people movement for the entire Narmada Valley? 12. Has forming any organization or joining any organization in Narmada Valley itself become wrong? 13. How democratic are you when taking decisions on these and other issues? (I had previously raised this question along with others in a detailed letter which i wrote to you when I was living NBA. what i heard form people form Maan is that you have told them, that I had run away because of fear of police. ) 14. I also noticed now in Maheshwar the straggle is against the Mangath not any more against S.Kumar. (Suggesting Suresh that if he want he can join S.Kumar not the Mangath will makes it clear) I am not asking any justification from you but just want to say that your acts, to me, appears like "your gundagiri on the people of narmada valley".It would be great if you have time to think about these things and not repeat the same mistake any more. Neither you or me will be affected but the people of the Narmada Valley will have to pay a heavy price (I guess by your decision in 1998, today people in the Sardar Sarovar and Maan are paying the price, and Maheshwar people will have to pay in the coming days. The slogan 'we are all one' now is now an illusion from the Narmada valley point of view. May be it is high time to think about this slogan and get back to it really, or, at least stop doing these petty stuff and allow people to become united against the larger political war. Try to become some kind of platform where all of us join hands and get ready for the larger war against injustice. lastly I really dont want to mention about the fact you have wrote a letter to people about me,ALF, And Bangalore solidarity group. For all reason you had ALF number and you had Clifton Number and if you noticed that if i am not calling you you should have called me and ask me whats going on with out sending out a mail to people. Infact the mail will not insult me its shows how cheap you are, one really expect greater things from you not these things. (as soon as i got the message i have called you but the conversation was half finished since you got busy and told me that you will call me still i have not received your call, dont worry i will not assume any thing about you) Jagadeesh.BN From image.science at donau-uni.ac.at Wed Oct 10 13:02:38 2007 From: image.science at donau-uni.ac.at (Image Science) Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 09:32:38 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] DANUBE TELELECTURE : Remixing Cinema : Lev Manovich / Sean Cubitt Message-ID: <470C9C35.4147.007D.0@donau-uni.ac.at> The DEPARTMENT FOR IMAGE SCIENCE presents: => REMIXING CINEMA: FUTURE AND PAST OF MOVING IMAGES <= Danube TeleLecture #4: Thursday, Nov 8, 2007 - 7pm CET Live debate at the MUMOK in Vienna Lev MANOVICH, internationally renowned media and art theorist (Russia/USA) Sean CUBITT, expert in film and media theory (Great Britain/Australia) Cinema as a visual phenomenon has accelerated increasingly over the last decades. Technical achievements at the material level like new participatory models driven by the melting of Internet, Databases, TV and Cinema are setting new standards and bringing a new dynamic to the black-box of the movie theater. Remixing, Coding, Remapping, and Recombination of visual manifestations are revolutionizing the narrative form of film - new societal phenomena, like the VJ scene, generate immersive viewing spaces and new forms of moving image distribution. The domain of video, film, computer and net-based installations stands on the threshold of a material revolution: do they bring a new aesthetic? Revolutionary possibilities in camera and projection techniques offer increasingly faster development cycles that also allow for innovative image languages. New historical perspectives of the cinematic revue coalesce with innovative interpretations of our visual consumer culture and foretell future developments. What can be expected ... what are the consequences? * Introduction: Oliver GRAU, Director Department for Image Science, Danube University * Danube TeleLecture # 4 from the MUMOK, MuseumsQuartier, Vienna Time: Thursday, Nov 8, 2007, 7:00pm CET (Start of Streaming) + You can attend the event in MUMOK or in realtime over the www + http://www.donau-uni.ac.at/dis After the lectures the audience will have the possibility to ask the speakers questions. Internet users may join the discussion via e-mail. => Sean CUBITT Current Publications: Projection: Vanishing and Becoming, in: MediaArtHistories (2007); The Cinema Effect (2005); Aliens R Us: The Other in Science Fiction Cinema (2002); Digital Aesthetics (1998); Videography: Video Media as Art and Culture (1993). => Lev MANOVICH Publications: Abstraction and Complexity in: MediaArtHistories (2007); Black Box : White Cube (2005; Soft Cinema - Navigating the Database (2003/5); The Language of New Media (2001) The Department for Image Science at Danube University Krems created a new format of international lecture and debates on key questions of Image Science and Media Art with high-caliber experts - the DANUBE TELELECTURES. The discussion will be recorded by several cameras and transmitted live over the www. Online viewers can participate in the discussion via email. So far the debates have included: Machiko KUSAHARA, Sarat MAHARAJ, Gunalan NADARAJAN, Christiane PAUL, Paul SERMON, Jens HAUSER... contact: Wendy Coones, M.Ed. Tel: +43 (0)2732 893-2543 Wendy.Coones at donau-uni.ac.at http://www.donau-uni.ac.at/dis PARTNERS: MINISTRY FOR EDUCATION AND RESEARCH, DATABASE OF VIRTUAL ART, AUSTRIAN BROADCASTING SERVICE LOWER AUSTRIA (ORF NOE) ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: DEPARTMENT FUER BILDWISSENSCHAFTEN präsentiert: => REMIXING CINEMA: ZUKÜNFTE UND VERGANGENHEIT DES KINOS <= Danube TeleLecture #4: am Do, 8. Nov. 2007, 19 Uhr CET Debatte live aus dem MUMOK in Wien mit Lev MANOVICH, international renommierter Medien- und Kunsttheoretiker, (R/US) & Sean CUBITT, internationaler Experte Film- und Medientheorie (GB/AUS) => REMIXING CINEMA: ZUKUENFTE UND VERGANGENHEIT DES KINOS <= (TELELECTURE # 4) Das Kino ist in den letzten Jahren unuebersehbar in Bewegung geraten. Technische Errungenschaften auf materieller Ebene, sowie neue partizipatorische Modelle angetrieben von der Verschmelzung von Internet, Datenbank, TV und Kino setzen neue Maßstaebe und bringen neue Dynamik in die Black-Box des Kinos. Remixing, Codierungen, Remapping und Rekombination visueller Erscheinungsformen revolutionieren auch die narrative Form des Films - neue gesellschaftliche Phaenomene, wie die VJ-Szene entstehen und mit ihnen immersive Zuschauerraeume und neue Formen der Distribution von Bewegtbildern. Video-, film-, computer- und netz-basierte Installationen stehen unter Einwirkung einer Materialrevolution. Bringt diese auch eine neue Aesthetik? Rasche Entwicklungszyklen ermoeglichen neue Kamera- und Projektionstechnik, die auch innovative Bildsprachen erlauben. Neue historische Perspektiven auf die Revue des Kinos verbinden sich mit innovativen Interpretationen unserer visuellen Konsumgesellschaft und nehmen kuenftige Entwicklungen vorweg, welche Auswirkungen sind zu erwarten? Einführung: Oliver GRAU, Leitung Department für Bildwissenschaften, Donau-Universitaet Danube TeleLecture # 4 aus dem MUMOK, MuseumsQuartier, Wien Zeit: Do, 8. Nov. 2007, 17.00h CET (Start Streaming) => Sean CUBITT Aktuelle Veroeffentlichungen: Projection: Vanishing and Becoming, in: MediaArtHistories (2007); The Cinema Effect (2005); Aliens R Us: The Other in Science Fiction Cinema (2002); Digital Aesthetics (1998); Videography: Video Media as Art and Culture (1993). => Lev MANOVICH Veroeffentlichungen: Abstraction and Complexity in: MediaArtHistories (2007); Black Box : White Cube (2005; Soft Cinema - Navigating the Database (2003/5); The Language of New Media (2001) + Die Veranstaltung kann LIVE im WWW verfolgt werden + http://www.donau-uni.ac.at/dbw Nach den Vortraegen besteht Gelegenheit, per mail live in die Debatte einzugreifen. Das Department für Bildwissenschaften der Donau-Universität entwickelt mit den DANUBE TELELECTURES ein neuartiges internationales und interaktives Format von Vorträgen und Debatten herausragender Experten zu zentralen Themen der Bildwissenschaft und Medienkunst. Mit mehreren Kameras wird das Event in Echtzeit ins www übertragen. Die Zuschauer können per Mail in die Diskussion eingreifen. Bislang debattierten Machiko KUSAHARA, Sarat MAHARAJ, Gunalan NADARAJAN, Christiane PAUL, Paul SERMON, Jens HAUSER... Kontakt: Wendy Coones, M.Ed. Tel: +43 (0)2732 893-2543 Wendy.Coones at donau-uni.ac.at http://www.donau-uni.ac.at/dbw PARTNER: BUNDESMINISTERIUM FUER WISSENSCHAFT UND FORSCHUNG, DATENBANK FUER VIRTUELLE KUNST, ORF NOE From rashneek at gmail.com Wed Oct 10 14:59:06 2007 From: rashneek at gmail.com (rashneek kher) Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 14:59:06 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Lest we forget they laid their lives for us...Pay tributes to Maj.Raghuraman and Maj Vinay Message-ID: <13df7c120710100229l7754fb0dw251e0231908c4bd@mail.gmail.com> Don't let them go... These were the last words of critically wounded Major.Raghuraman fighting terrorists in Tangmarg sector of Jammu and Kashmir. True to their word Major KP Vinay and Major Raghuraman ensured none of the nine infiltrators could reach the valley. Two young soldiers of the Indian Army, one who was about to be a father and another to be a bride-groom were martyred on 3rd of October, while fighting forces of evil. They gave up their lives in the hope that this nation can sleep in peace. As a nation we have so far remained mute in our admiration of these brave soldiers. Barring one TV Channel who paid tributes to these martyrs the rest have stood their ground of "Unbiased Reportage". It is thus up to us the Citizens of India that we stand by the families in their grief and Pride. It is up to us to show that we care for those who guard our frontiers. Let us all assemble at India Gate on Friday,12th Oct, 07 at 6PM to pay tribute to these brave sons of the soil. "Roots in Kashmir" For Further Information plz visit our blog http://kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com -- Rashneek Kher http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com From naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com Wed Oct 10 19:15:49 2007 From: naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com (Naeem Mohaiemen) Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 09:45:49 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] Milk Price Crisis During Eid+Puja Message-ID: An interesting email doing the rounds in Dhaka. Price of chilli, eggplant, etc at all time high. Crisis on people's lips. Now milk joins the list... Bangladesh and its Abnormal Price Hike in Milk Prices Follies abound in Bangladesh and none can tell where the next round of absurdity will hit the ground in Bangladesh. This Eid and Puja season the center stage has been stolen by grandiose escalation of milk prices. The unfolding story of skyrocketed milk prices gives me the temptation to become granivorous (feeding on grains only). Milk prices have gone up 17% over the last 10 days in a bizarre twist of turns. I am joining the Consumer Association of Bangladesh for real this time and going to seriously work to right-size this uncalled for situation and work as a pressure group so that accidental price swings do not surprise Bangladesh. Let us all join the consumer movement in Bangladesh and work to keep the corporation in line here in Bangladesh. This is simply tasteless where to my mind all the multinationals and locals ( NESTLE, NEW ZEALAND, DANO, Daily, Aarong, Milk vita) have colluded. It is senseless greed that has gripped them in this Eid and Puja season. I am requesting all to put up your voices against this onslaught of corporate greed. I am inclined to request all to venture into seriously boycotting drinking milk for a week (which may sound impossible but no harm in trying). This is oligopoly has to stop. I also want to see the Government doing the right job by penalizing these greedy organizations and levy serious sanctions against them. Additionally, I would request the SEC to force them to sell their shares in the public or else cease and desist. These corporations have had their jolly ride in skimming too much profit that they had never ventured to share with the local public. In other words, they are seriously deficient in their stakeholder management and all of this is going on under the nose of the government. I would request the Government wake from slumber and start their drives to bring these corporations to open up to the markets of Bangladeshi citizens. Coming back to the issue of outrageous commodity price movements, the people of Bangladesh cannot be robbed just because we are dependant on Milk or other products for that matter. We shall not drink milk for the next few weeks and make you the cheating corporates understand the will of the public and humble you to reduce your prices to levels lower than before or else force you to pack bags and leave the corporate world. We need sensitive, law abiding corporations with positive social responsibility. We do not need cheating and conniving corporates that eat on people's innocence. Just imagine how many poor children's nutrition you are robbing by skimming above normal profits and you can yourselves civilized corporate citizens. Shame on you. Enough damage has been made and we need to fight back otherwise we will be devoured in the long run - our existence threatened. The only practical reason for raising the prices would be if the world market prices had indeed shot up. I think that is a distant possibility and, therefore, I would also volunteer the ACC to dig into this syndicate of milk supply chain. The dealers of these corporations may also be involved in this heinous spiraling of milk prices. If you feel that I have raised valid points then please pass on this email to others and request others to do the same. It is our humble attempt at showing our discontentment and frustrations at controlling the markets for greed at sensitive national festivities ( Eid and Puja). The Government should take note that its popularity also depends to a great extent on keeping prices within tolerable limits, especially on staple products like Milk, Rice, Wheat, Oil, etc. I would also request my friends in the press to carry on their investigations and bring out into the public the real reasons for this violent price surge and, if indeed some vested quarters are involved, then let the public and the government take them to task. A small punishment cannot be justified in this case; we, as the public, need to see exemplary punishment for these wrongdoers so that Bangladesh do not experience such a specter in the comings days and years or at least send the signal that this price fixing will be dealt with severely if found guilty. Finally, please let us all work together to come out of the grips of a few for the welfare of all and, in this journey, we need every decent citizen's moral commitment. Ziaur Rahman Chief Executive Officer International Institute of Technology & Management 56/2 Lake Circus, West Panthopoth Dhaka 1205, Bangladesh From info at basementartproject.com Sun Oct 7 05:45:49 2007 From: info at basementartproject.com (BasementArtProject.com) Date: Sun, 7 Oct 2007 01:15:49 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] =?windows-1252?q?=5BAnnouncements=5D_Two_Hopes=3A_1?= =?windows-1252?q?6_=96_25_October_2007_Tbilisi_Opera_and_Ballet_Theatre?= =?windows-1252?q?=2C_Georgia?= Message-ID: <68E57E51-6D7C-4586-AE18-8B0D3DB20A65@basementartproject.com>   Andro Semeiko Yu-Chen Wang Mamuka Japaridze Cyril Lepetit Mathijs Lieshout Nick Goulis Mauricio Lupini Charlie Tweed Toine Klaassen Clare Gasson 16 – 25 October 2007 Curated by BasementArtProject.com British Council Georgia in cooperation with Art Caucasus is pleased to announce the exhibition ‘Two Hopes’ in the frames of the annual International Contemporary Art Forum - Art Caucasus 2007. ‘Two Hopes’ is curated by BasementArtProject.com. It reflects on a multi–layered picture of a post–ideal society from the artist’s perspective. It intends to shift the standpoint from the objective to the subjective, investigating the artist’ experience in the contemporary world in opposition to the magnificent utopian dream. The exhibition begins with a search for the ideal society and moves to a reflection on migration and relocation to the new territories. More questions are raised than answered paralleling the interplay between conceptual and formal structures. Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre. Rustaveli Avenue, Tbilisi, Georgia www.opera.ge Opening event: Tuesday 16 October 18:00 Exhibition opening hours: 16 – 26 October 15:00 to 19:00 For further information, please contact Nutsa Kuridze Tel+ 995 99 28 38 18 or e-mail nutsa.kuridze at ge.britishcouncil.org www.britishcouncil.org/ge-arts-events.htm Andro Semeiko Holy Encounter 26x36cm acrylic and oil on canvas 2007 Press release pdf The exhibition catalogue is published by the British Council Georgia. more  -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From ml49 at duke.edu Wed Oct 10 20:25:52 2007 From: ml49 at duke.edu (Madhumita Lahiri) Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 10:55:52 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] Milk Price Crisis During Eid+Puja In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <21d61a110710100755n369d4eccj132c261f5a31d174@mail.gmail.com> My sense-- from an NPR story a while back, plus the general economics news--is that global food prices have in fact shot up. There are no milk specific prices but check out the commodity futures chart--the trajectory is quite dramatic: http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/commodities/cfutures.html NPR traced this to a shift in global demand (growing middle classes in the developing world have shifted towards more animal products consumption, pushing up demand for those products, and consequently pushing up demand and hence prices for grains etc. since animal husbandry is much more intensive than eating vegetarian). The supply side factors are the drought which has hit agricultural production (generally) in the US and parts of Europe, as well as the global escalation in fuel prices and certain specific things, like US agricultural policy (the ethanol subsidy has made the corn market crazy, for instance). And foodgrain, after all, is an essential input even in non-grain food products --and it makes keeping milk cows more expensive. The consumer food prices in the US have gone up quite dramatically since the last year. Back to the email, however, the fact that this is linked to global food prices does NOT mean that the govt should not do something about it. Price stability in essential commodities is a basic goal for most political-economic situations; most of the developed world does try to maintain price stability in the basics, in order to keep general inflation down. If Bangladesh is in fact allowing for a high rate of commodity fluctuation (whether for internal reasons or because of external 'free trade' arguments) that's probably socially bad *and* economically bad. Conspiracy or not, world commodity price induced or not, one can always reasonably argue that the government should intervene to keep basic commodities stable and reasonable. Hope this is useful. Regards, Madhumita On 10/10/07, Naeem Mohaiemen wrote: > > An interesting email doing the rounds in Dhaka. Price of chilli, > eggplant, etc at all time high. Crisis on people's lips. Now milk > joins the list... > > Bangladesh and its Abnormal Price Hike in Milk Prices > > Follies abound in Bangladesh and none can tell where the next round of > absurdity will hit the ground in Bangladesh. This Eid and Puja season > the center stage has been stolen by grandiose escalation of milk > prices. The unfolding story of skyrocketed milk prices gives me the > temptation to become granivorous (feeding on grains only). > > Milk prices have gone up 17% over the last 10 days in a bizarre twist > of turns. I am joining the Consumer Association of Bangladesh for real > this time and going to seriously work to right-size this uncalled for > situation and work as a pressure group so that accidental price swings > do not surprise Bangladesh. Let us all join the consumer movement in > Bangladesh and work to keep the corporation in line here in > Bangladesh. > > This is simply tasteless where to my mind all the multinationals and > locals ( NESTLE, NEW ZEALAND, DANO, Daily, Aarong, Milk vita) have > colluded. It is senseless greed that has gripped them in this Eid and > Puja season. I am requesting all to put up your voices against this > onslaught of corporate greed. I am inclined to request all to venture > into seriously boycotting drinking milk for a week (which may sound > impossible but no harm in trying). > > This is oligopoly has to stop. I also want to see the Government doing > the right job by penalizing these greedy organizations and levy > serious sanctions against them. Additionally, I would request the SEC > to force them to sell their shares in the public or else cease and > desist. These corporations have had their jolly ride in skimming too > much profit that they had never ventured to share with the local > public. In other words, they are seriously deficient in their > stakeholder management and all of this is going on under the nose of > the government. I would request the Government wake from slumber and > start their drives to bring these corporations to open up to the > markets of Bangladeshi citizens. > > Coming back to the issue of outrageous commodity price movements, the > people of Bangladesh cannot be robbed just because we are dependant on > Milk or other products for that matter. We shall not drink milk for > the next few weeks and make you the cheating corporates understand the > will of the public and humble you to reduce your prices to levels > lower than before or else force you to pack bags and leave the > corporate world. We need sensitive, law abiding corporations with > positive social responsibility. We do not need cheating and conniving > corporates that eat on people's innocence. Just imagine how many poor > children's nutrition you are robbing by skimming above normal profits > and you can yourselves civilized corporate citizens. Shame on you. > > Enough damage has been made and we need to fight back otherwise we > will be devoured in the long run - our existence threatened. > > The only practical reason for raising the prices would be if the world > market prices had indeed shot up. I think that is a distant > possibility and, therefore, I would also volunteer the ACC to dig into > this syndicate of milk supply chain. The dealers of these corporations > may also be involved in this heinous spiraling of milk prices. > > If you feel that I have raised valid points then please pass on this > email to others and request others to do the same. It is our humble > attempt at showing our discontentment and frustrations at controlling > the markets for greed at sensitive national festivities ( Eid and > Puja). The Government should take note that its popularity also > depends to a great extent on keeping prices within tolerable limits, > especially on staple products like Milk, Rice, Wheat, Oil, etc. I > would also request my friends in the press to carry on their > investigations and bring out into the public the real reasons for this > violent price surge and, if indeed some vested quarters are involved, > then let the public and the government take them to task. A small > punishment cannot be justified in this case; we, as the public, need > to see exemplary punishment for these wrongdoers so that Bangladesh do > not experience such a specter in the comings days and years or at > least send the signal that this price fixing will be dealt with > severely if found guilty. Finally, please let us all work together to > come out of the grips of a few for the welfare of all and, in this > journey, we need every decent citizen's moral commitment. > > > Ziaur Rahman > Chief Executive Officer > International Institute of Technology & Management > 56/2 Lake Circus, West Panthopoth > Dhaka 1205, Bangladesh > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> From ml49 at duke.edu Wed Oct 10 20:29:48 2007 From: ml49 at duke.edu (Madhumita Lahiri) Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 10:59:48 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] Milk Price Crisis During Eid+Puja In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <21d61a110710100759qf542e0fy22d6827d83a8d09f@mail.gmail.com> My sense-- from an NPR story a while back, plus the general economics news--is that global food prices have in fact shot up. There are no milk specific prices but check out the commodity futures chart--the trajectory is quite dramatic: http://www.bloomberg.com/markets/commodities/cfutures.html NPR traced this to a shift in global demand (growing middle classes in the developing world have shifted towards more animal products consumption, pushing up demand for those products, and consequently pushing up demand and hence prices for grains etc. since animal husbandry is much more intensive than eating vegetarian). The supply side factors are the drought which has hit agricultural production (generally) in the US and parts of Europe, as well as the global escalation in fuel prices and certain specific things, like US agricultural policy (the ethanol subsidy has made the corn market crazy, for instance). And foodgrain, after all, is an essential input even in non-grain food products --and it makes keeping milk cows more expensive. The consumer food prices in the US have gone up quite dramatically since the last year. Back to the email, however, the fact that this is linked to global food prices does NOT mean that the govt should not do something about it. Price stability in essential commodities is a basic goal for most political-economic situations; most of the developed world does try to maintain price stability in the basics, in order to keep general inflation down. If Bangladesh is in fact allowing for a high rate of commodity fluctuation (whether for internal reasons or because of external 'free trade' arguments) that's probably socially bad *and* economically bad. Conspiracy or not, world commodity price induced or not, one can always reasonably argue that the government should intervene to keep basic commodities stable and reasonable. Hope this is useful. Regards, Madhumita On 10/10/07, Naeem Mohaiemen wrote: > > An interesting email doing the rounds in Dhaka. Price of chilli, > eggplant, etc at all time high. Crisis on people's lips. Now milk > joins the list... > > Bangladesh and its Abnormal Price Hike in Milk Prices > > Follies abound in Bangladesh and none can tell where the next round of > absurdity will hit the ground in Bangladesh. This Eid and Puja season > the center stage has been stolen by grandiose escalation of milk > prices. The unfolding story of skyrocketed milk prices gives me the > temptation to become granivorous (feeding on grains only). > > Milk prices have gone up 17% over the last 10 days in a bizarre twist > of turns. I am joining the Consumer Association of Bangladesh for real > this time and going to seriously work to right-size this uncalled for > situation and work as a pressure group so that accidental price swings > do not surprise Bangladesh. Let us all join the consumer movement in > Bangladesh and work to keep the corporation in line here in > Bangladesh. > > This is simply tasteless where to my mind all the multinationals and > locals ( NESTLE, NEW ZEALAND, DANO, Daily, Aarong, Milk vita) have > colluded. It is senseless greed that has gripped them in this Eid and > Puja season. I am requesting all to put up your voices against this > onslaught of corporate greed. I am inclined to request all to venture > into seriously boycotting drinking milk for a week (which may sound > impossible but no harm in trying). > > This is oligopoly has to stop. I also want to see the Government doing > the right job by penalizing these greedy organizations and levy > serious sanctions against them. Additionally, I would request the SEC > to force them to sell their shares in the public or else cease and > desist. These corporations have had their jolly ride in skimming too > much profit that they had never ventured to share with the local > public. In other words, they are seriously deficient in their > stakeholder management and all of this is going on under the nose of > the government. I would request the Government wake from slumber and > start their drives to bring these corporations to open up to the > markets of Bangladeshi citizens. > > Coming back to the issue of outrageous commodity price movements, the > people of Bangladesh cannot be robbed just because we are dependant on > Milk or other products for that matter. We shall not drink milk for > the next few weeks and make you the cheating corporates understand the > will of the public and humble you to reduce your prices to levels > lower than before or else force you to pack bags and leave the > corporate world. We need sensitive, law abiding corporations with > positive social responsibility. We do not need cheating and conniving > corporates that eat on people's innocence. Just imagine how many poor > children's nutrition you are robbing by skimming above normal profits > and you can yourselves civilized corporate citizens. Shame on you. > > Enough damage has been made and we need to fight back otherwise we > will be devoured in the long run - our existence threatened. > > The only practical reason for raising the prices would be if the world > market prices had indeed shot up. I think that is a distant > possibility and, therefore, I would also volunteer the ACC to dig into > this syndicate of milk supply chain. The dealers of these corporations > may also be involved in this heinous spiraling of milk prices. > > If you feel that I have raised valid points then please pass on this > email to others and request others to do the same. It is our humble > attempt at showing our discontentment and frustrations at controlling > the markets for greed at sensitive national festivities ( Eid and > Puja). The Government should take note that its popularity also > depends to a great extent on keeping prices within tolerable limits, > especially on staple products like Milk, Rice, Wheat, Oil, etc. I > would also request my friends in the press to carry on their > investigations and bring out into the public the real reasons for this > violent price surge and, if indeed some vested quarters are involved, > then let the public and the government take them to task. A small > punishment cannot be justified in this case; we, as the public, need > to see exemplary punishment for these wrongdoers so that Bangladesh do > not experience such a specter in the comings days and years or at > least send the signal that this price fixing will be dealt with > severely if found guilty. Finally, please let us all work together to > come out of the grips of a few for the welfare of all and, in this > journey, we need every decent citizen's moral commitment. > > > Ziaur Rahman > Chief Executive Officer > International Institute of Technology & Management > 56/2 Lake Circus, West Panthopoth > Dhaka 1205, Bangladesh > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> From chiarapassa at gmail.com Wed Oct 10 17:43:05 2007 From: chiarapassa at gmail.com (Chiara Passa) Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 14:13:05 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] =?windows-1252?q?=22NetSpace=3A_viaggio_nell=92arte?= =?windows-1252?q?_della_Rete-Paesaggi_elettronici=27?= In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: COMUNICATO STAMPA La DARC - Direzione generale per l'architettura e l'arte contemporanee Il MAXXI - Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo presentano "NetSpace: viaggio nell'arte della Rete" Paesaggi elettronici 16 ottobre 2007, ore 12 MAXXI, Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo via Guido Reni 2f, Roma inaugurazione 16 ottobre 2007, ore 18 apertura al pubblico 17 ottobre al 18 novembre Martedì 16 ottobre 2007, alle ore 12, Francesco Rutelli, Ministro per i Beni e le Attività Culturali, Pio Baldi, Direttore generale della DARC e Anna Mattirolo, direttore di MAXXI Arte, presentano Paesaggi elettronici, nuovo ciclo nell'ambito di NetSpace: viaggio nell'arte della Rete, a cura di Elena Giulia Rossi. Il progetto, nato per iniziativa e con il supporto del Servizio Educativo, intende offrire gli strumenti necessari per avvicinarsi alla net art, tendenza artistica di ultima generazione che utilizza internet come unico strumento di creazione. Le opere selezionate per il nuovo ciclo di NetSpace esplorano paesaggi costruiti con e per la Rete analizzando il paesaggio sotto alcune delle sue molteplici sfaccettature: da una formulazione di paesaggio dove tradizione pittorica e nuove tecnologie coesistono, alla costruzione di vere e proprie utopie architettoniche, all'esplorazione del paesaggio urbano attraverso l'occhio elettronico. Opere selezionate: Watercouleur Park (2007) del collettivo francese Qubo Gas (ultima commissione della Tate di Londra) propone paesaggi astratti interattivi che evocano la calligrafia giapponese; Stereoscopy Space (2005) dell'artista brasiliana Vera Bighetti è uno spazio creato dall'utente, invitato a posizionare gli oggetti che lo abitano per poi immergervisi attraverso appositi occhiali tridimensionali; Internet Landscape (2003 – in corso) dell'italiano Marco Cadioli è un'interpretazione del paesaggio di Internet formulata attraverso una serie di reportage fotografici che fermano alcuni scatti del suo territorio e dei suoi abitanti; Metapond (2005) della artista francese Isabel Saij è la formulazione astratta di uno stagno costruito attraverso l'interazione dell'utente, invitato ad assemblare sullo schermo un collage di tasselli visivi e sonori, frammenti di fotografie e registrazioni del paesaggio reale; Cumbernauld Town for Tomorrow (2003), una collaborazione tra Gair Dunlop e Dan Norton, parte dalle megastrutture architettoniche della città di Cumbernauld, costruita vicino a Glasgow nel secondo dopoguerra, per esplorare utopie architettoniche e confonderle nello spazio della Rete; D.F. Maze (2006) del messicano Ernesto Rios esplora, in tre percorsi interattivi, il paesaggio urbano di Mexico City rievocando il metodo della psicogeografia (metodo di indagine dell'impatto dell'ambiente sulla psicologia dell'individuo utilizzato dai letteristi e poi dai situazionisti negli anni '50). Link alle opere: 1. Qubo Gas Watercouleur Park, 2007 http://www.tate.org.uk/netart/watercouleurpark/ Il progetto è una commissione della Tate (Londra 2006) 2. Vera Bighetti Stereoscopy Space, 2005 http://www.artzero.net/virtualspace/e9.htm 3. Marco Cadioli, Internet Landscape, 2003 in corso http://www.internetlandscape.it/ 4. Isabel Saij Metapond, 2005 http://www.saij-netart.de/30-1-metapond.html 5. Gair Dunlop e Dan Norton Cumbernauld Town for Tomorrow, 2003 http://www.ablab.org/cumbernauld/ 6. Ernesto Rios D.F. Maze, 2006 http://www.ernestorios.com/dfmaze/ MAXXI - MUSEO NAZIONALE DELLE ARTI DEL XXI SECOLO Via Guido Reni 2f, 00196 Roma tel. 06.32.10.181 - fax 06.32.10.18.29 www.darc.beniculturali.it SERVIZIO EDUCATIVO MAXXI Arte Stefania Vannini tel. 06.32.10.18.28 edumaxxi at darc.beniculturali.it BIBLIOTECA Stefania Vannini tel. 06. 32.10.18.33 bibliomaxxi at darc.beniculturali.it -- Chiara Passa chiarapassa at gmail.com http://www.chiarapassa.it http://www.ideasonair.net http://twitter.com/jogador From sarah.turner at manchesterurbanscreens.org.uk Tue Oct 9 03:16:02 2007 From: sarah.turner at manchesterurbanscreens.org.uk (Sarah Turner) Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2007 23:46:02 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Urban Screens Manchester Newsletter 7 Message-ID: <012c01c809f4$9fad15d0$0ab2a8c0@sarahj6y7loy0> . Urban Screens Manchester It's about content! Conference 11-12 Oct Art & Events 11-14 Oct Focus Session 3 on day 1 of the conference will examine the profitability of urban screens and the production of non-commercial content and asks: What is the real ratio of production costs of artistic content and payment? Which economy models sustain a non-commercial use of the screens? Focus Session 3: Towards a New Economy of Urban Screens, Cornerhouse The session will be moderated by Glenn Harding (AUS), managing director of Circus, an urban media consultancy and production company managing the multimedia, online and broadcast systems and developing and commissioning original screen content for Melbourne's Federation Square which houses numerous non-commercial LED screens. Melbourne will be hosting the next Urban Screens conference in October 2008. www.fedsquare.com Jason DaPonte (UK) is Executive Producer for bbc.co.uk and is leading a change programme across the BBC's online producers called "Ensuring Excellence," focussing on how editorial standards and guidelines need to be adapted to the rapidly changing environment that is digital media. Mark Bennett (USA) is senior manager for In-Store Digital Marketing and Media at Target's Corporate Media Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mark leads strategy and creative execution for Target's production teams. Target's work has been at the forefront of ways to explore unique commercial branding opportunities. www.target.com Kristin Gray (USA) is the Director of Victory Media Network® at Victory Park in Dallas, Texas. Kristin seeks out a mix of relevant and engaging content underwritten by exclusive corporate partners who have the opportunity to advertise and market in a unique and captivating manner. A track system engineered specifically for the project allows screens to move horizontally along the entire length of a major public plaza creating complex and sophisticated spatial interactions and providing an immersive public art environment. www.victorymedianetwork.com Mike Gibbons (UK) has spent the last five years building the Big Screens in the UK for the BBC as part of the partnerships with towns & cities. He recently became Head of Live Sites and UK Coordination for London 2012 and will lead the development of the Live Sites network to make the London Olympics part of everyone's life. He asks what are the social messages about the use of public spaces for major events and what can we learn from public reaction? www.london2012.com As part of the Urban Screens Art & Events Programme, Jenny Holzer's Televised Texts will randomly intersperse the programmes on all three screens in Manchester city centre. Holzer adopts the form and language of commercial messages to disrupt communication, presenting kamikaze texts that are designed to stimulate thought and inspire a critical attitude in an often passive audience. Televised Texts are designed to appear anonymously and spontaneously. Register your interest at www.manchesterurbanscreens.org.uk Urban Screens Manchester has been curated by Dr Susanne Jaschko. Urban Screens Manchester has been supported by Cornerhouse and BBC. It has been funded by Arts Council England, Manchester City Council, Marketing Manchester. With support from MDDA and Manchester Knowledge Capital. -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From iram at sarai.net Tue Oct 9 23:20:45 2007 From: iram at sarai.net (Iram Ghufran) Date: Tue, 09 Oct 2007 23:20:45 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Book Launch- Bombay Cinema: An Archive of the City Message-ID: <470BBF75.80005@sarai.net> An Illustrated Talk By Ranjani Mazumdar (School of Arts & Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University) To Celebrate the Publication of her Book Bombay Cinema: An Archive of the City (Published by Permanent Black, 2007) Discussants: Ravi Vasudevan (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Sarai) Shohini Ghosh (MCRC, Jamia Milia Islamia) Friday, October 12th at 6.30 pm at Gulmohar, India Habitat Centre New Delhi _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From indersalim at gmail.com Thu Oct 11 00:22:21 2007 From: indersalim at gmail.com (inder salim) Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:22:21 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] In Kashmir, Surya Namaskar, Black Sun.... Message-ID: <47e122a70710101152q63eae849m9a653e7adb52dfb6@mail.gmail.com> 723 AD.Sun Temple, Martand Ruins ( south of Kashmir )...I did a Surya Namaskar. A little higher from the ground, almost in the middle of ruins; all the garments were with Noor Mohd. ( my close friend ) who clicked the camera, the only shot. quickly, the sun was on the foliage and on the little water... After a while it was just children and water, at verinag ( the source of River Jehlum ) After a while, it was Black Sun on the River Jehulm Please click to see.... http://indersalim.livejournal.com From ghosh.ranu at gmail.com Thu Oct 11 11:25:36 2007 From: ghosh.ranu at gmail.com (ranu ghosh) Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 22:55:36 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] change of Industrial land scape in Kolkata-5th posting Message-ID: <80ea5720710102255k5c69e6ecg2f2fab66ddc30f3b@mail.gmail.com> Hi readers sorry for the delay in 5th posting. *The changing industrial landscape of Kolkata: documenting the transformation of a half century old factory, Joy Engineering Works, into Kolkata's South City Project, "Eastern India's largest mixed use real estate development"* * * *Posting 5:* * * *DEATH OF A LAKE* * * *South** City** flouts Supreme Court ruling:* In 1995, in the context of shifting of factory premises from the city of Delhi, The Supreme Court had given a ruling to protect the city from random urban development on the vacated land. According to this ruling, if the plot of land measures more than 5 hectares, 65% of the land has to be given to the Municipal Corporation for planting trees and developing gardens. Only 35% of the land may be used for construction. Joy Engineering Works has flouted this ruling and sold off the entire land to the South City project. The people living in the neigbourhood of the complex have been deprived of open spaces, playgrounds and gardens. Instead, they have got a concrete jungle, pollution and traffic jam. *Bikramgarh Jheel: a biosphere supporting rare species:* Perhaps the biggest loser in the whole game is the Bikramgarh Jheel – a huge water body, that partly fell inside the premises of the South City Project. The Bikramgarh Jheel, in its size, is next only to the two other huge water bodies that do our city proud – Dhakuria Lake and Subhash Sarovar. But this water body has never acquired the status or prestige conferred upon its other two cousins In appearance, it has never matched the idyllic image that the idea of a 'jheel' conjures up in our mind. Located in the densely populated Bikramgarh area, on its west side is the cluster of garages, on one side the tall towers of South City and all around it settlements of encroachers. The jheel itself is used as a dumping ground for wastes generated by these varied settlements. Yet, Kaustav Basu, a student of environment, has spotted 22 species of birds and 32 species of flora around this jheel – and several species of butterflies and grasshoppers. Among the species of birds, at least one, according to him, is an endangered species and among the plants, he has spotted a cluster of shrubs that are rapidly vanishing from the Kolkata landscape. In the good old Usha Factory days, when Joy Engineering Works had not sold off the property to South City, young boys used to spend their time catching fish in this jheel. They even remember seeing turtles in this biosphere. People's crass negligence and now the advancing grip of South City is slowly suffocating the Jheel and snuffing out the biodiversity it supports. I have interacted with the people in the dense settlement around the jheel and among them I have found active members of the major political parties of West Bengal. Their hutments on the edge of the jheel stand on firm ground, which in a way proves that the slow process of illegitimate filling of the water body has been going on for a long time and it serves the vested interest of so many people to get the jheel filled. Most of these encroachers have the tacit support of some political party or the other. *Flashback:* Years back, when the South City project had just been mooted, Saugata Roy, an MP from that locality, had said that perhaps a plan to save and rejuvenate the Bikramgarh Jheel would emerge from the South Citydevelopment. Today, in the face of recent 'developments', his comments sound like a harsh irony. As it so happened, 1.31 acres of the Jheel fell within the premises of the Usha Factory,which has been handed over to the South City builders. Towards the end of December 2005, Vasundhara, an environmental activist group, spotted that the 1.31 acres of the water body has been filled by the builders and towers III and IV are being constructed over this filled space. Vasundhara got their facts together and wrote to the Governor, the Chief Minister, to the Fishery Deptt. And the Pollution Control Board. On January 24, 2006, Pollution Control Board summoned Vasundhara and South City for a hearing. South City declared at the hearing that they had got permission from the State Board to fill 1.31 acres of the water body on the condition that they would recreate 1.41 acres of a new water body. The PCB constituted a committee headed by Shri P.N Roy. The other members of the committee were Ex Prof. All India Institute of Hygiene & Public Health, Prof. Manav Sengupta, Secretary, Faculty of Science & Technology, Univ. Of Calcutta and Shri Bishwajeet Mukherjee, Sr. Law Officer. This committee surveyed the premises of the South City project and conducted the necessary enquiries. In May 2006 they submitted their report to the PCB. *Excerpts from the report:* *"After detailed scrutiny of the different information made available before theCcommittee, it is observed that before issue of Consent to Establish to Ms. South City project, no inspection was conducted by the State Board…… The committee surprisingly observed that before issuing permission for relocation of the water body in M/s South City project, no proper area was identified by the State Board officials, nor has taken any precautionary measure. …. Even the Deptt. Of Environment issued a direction upon the3 State Board on 18.7.2005 under memo No: EN/10393/T-II-2/010/2004 to allow the project proponent to fill up the water body."* * * Having made these observations, the Committee has recommended: *"The entire work of the M/S South City Project should be closed for the following reasons:* *i) **Construction work of Tower III & IV have encroached the water body and also have developed by filling up the water body.* ii) *Presently, M/S South City Project has failed to show any water body area of 1.31 acres for which M/s SCP obtained permission from the State Board to fill up.* iii) *M/S SCP failed to show any area where 1.41 acres of land will be developed as water body as per their commitment against the filling up of the water body of 1.31 acres.* * * *2. Tower III & IV should be demolished and the water body of Bikramgarh Jheel should be restored and Kolkata Municipal Corporation should demarcate the area – not only the side of M/S SCP, but also other parts should be restored," * as has been done in the case of other water bodies in Kolkata.* * * * *Present status:* Construction work of South City project is going on in full swing in blatant disregard to the recommendations of the Commission. The question is, with whose blessings are they breaking the law of the land? According to the eyewitness account of Shambhu Prasad Singh, all the rubble generated by the day's construction is collected at the edge of the Jheel. At the dead of night, when the whole city is asleep, the rubble is pushed into the Jheel by bull dozers. The Jheel is gradually getting filled by the rubble from the South City Project. To demarcate its territory, South Cityhas put up a bamboo fencing across the water of the Jheel. Shambhu asserts that every time the rubble is dumped into the water, the fencing shifts by a couple of feet. I have been recording the progress of South City with my camera from outside. My visual documentation shows that the land behind the towers III and IV is now more than what it used to be. The trees that lined this part of the jheel are now gone. Instead the parking space extends to this spot and cars can pass smoothly. Very soon, all traces of the water body will be obliterated by encroachers from all classes – those who live in slums and those who live in towers. end of 5th posting From anivar.aravind at gmail.com Fri Oct 12 00:08:47 2007 From: anivar.aravind at gmail.com (Anivar Aravind) Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 00:08:47 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Final Solution revisited: An appeal from Rakesh Sharma Message-ID: <470E6DB7.1090700@gmail.com> -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Final Solution revisited: An appeal from Rakesh Sharma Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 18:50:35 +0530 From: Rakesh Sharma *Many people responded to the first mail with queries. This new, revised mailer incorporates the answers. Please forward this appeal to other like-minded institutions, organisations and individuals as well. * Over the last couple of years, some of you have spoken to me about revisiting Final Solution and making a new film – /*Gujarat*//*: 5 years after the carnage*/. You'd be happy to know that I have been filming in Gujarat for the last several months for the follow-up film. The filming has been done in Modasa, Idar, Kalol, Halol, Godhra, Lunawada, Baroda, Chhota Udepur, Himmatnagar, Ahmedabad, Limdi, Bhavnagar, Amreli, Rajkot etc. We've already done a bulk of our filming, though we plan to continue filming till the election results are announced and the new Assembly is sworn in. We hope to offer a comprehensive film sometime next year. However, all of us in the team also feel that we must release at least a short version of the film /pre-elections/ to enable activists, NGOs and others to intervene during the electoral process by holding screenings and discussions. We aim to finish these in mid October and make them available on VCD. These early versions would be available only in Gujarati as they are most likely to be used in Gujarat during November 2007. I write to you to seek your assistance. While I have so far managed all the filming and editing related expenses personally (thanks to a grant from the Singh Foundation and damages received from NYPD!), I'm now seeking completion funds to be able to release the version in October. Broadly speaking, we propose the following: a. To approach a broad network of individuals and like-minded organisations and individuals for funding assistance. b. To invite contributions not exceeding Rs 10,000 from a single organization and Rs 5,000 from an individual. c. Against the contribution, the individual/ organisation will get a credit in the film. The title would normally read - " */Funding support from/*" followed by the full list. d. The individual/ organisation will also get VCD copies of the film against this contribution. The proposal is to offer * Contribution (individuals only): Rs 2000; VCDs offered: 21 * Contribution (organizations/ individuals): Rs 5000; VCDs offered:51 * Contribution (organizations only): Rs 10000; VCDs offered: 120 Cheques (Indian and non-Indian) should be made payable at Mumbai to Rakesh Sharma. Send us an email to get the exact mailing address for sending your cheques. We hope that these multiple copies would be distributed by the concerned organisation/ individual free to their activists, friends and colleagues so they can be circulated and screened widely, especially in Gujarat before the forthcoming elections. The VCDs offered are total number of discs - the first film is on 2 VCDs while the farmer film is on a single VCD (ie, each set is 3 VCDs). As the offer is to distribute/ circulate the copies only in Gujarat, do let me know where in Gujarat to send the VCDs of the new film once it is ready. For those who do not have any direct connections in Gujarat, the option is to donate the copies to an activist organisation like Anhad for their ongoing campaigns or one of the grassroots groups helping me film in Gujarat. We will send the VCDs directly to one of the groups on your behalf. We propose to have these VCDs become a part of the Pirate-and-Circulate campaign in Gujarat (Get-a-copy-free-if-you-promise-to-pirate-and-distribute-5-free-copies!). We tried this strategy successfully in 2004 with Final Solution - I urge you to support this piracy! I request you to lend your support to the films under production. Details about the proposed films are enclosed below. Please write to me personally at the earliest ( rakeshfilm at gmail.com or PO Box 12023, Azad Nagar, Mumbai 400053). Please forward the mailer to your mailing list. I am hoping you'd persuade many others to support the film! With Gratitude Rakesh Sharma website: www.rakeshfilm.com blog: rakeshindia.blogspot.com ps: Please do not circulate to the Press - we'd like no speculation or publicity till the films are formally released. We are aiming to finish only a version in end October – the Gujarati version (no English subtitles). Please note that this offer is for the circulation/ screening of VCDs of this version in Gujarat only – we wouldn't be mailing any VCDs to anyone outside Gujarat. Post-elections, when we actually do a final version of Final Solution revisited, we will make it available on DVD with English subtitles etc sometime in mid 2008. The films currently being edited for an October release deal broadly with the following: * * *After the Storm: * Five years after the carnage, what is the state of Relief and Rehabilitation? The Supreme Court's intervention in carnage-related cases has dominated media headlines, but what really is the true story behind the victims' quest for Justice? Away from major cases like the Naroda Patiya massacre or Gulberg or Best Bakery and Pandarwada, what is the fate of other FIRs and court cases filed by the victims? The film goes beyond highlighting the plight of the Muslim community in Gujarat. It probes other dimensions of the issue by specifically looking at the patterns of arrests and litigation. A majority of those charged with rioting, arson, murder etc are either tribals or Dalits and OBCs. An analysis of those arrested from 32 police stations in Ahmedabad suggests that of the 1577 detainees, only 30-odd were upper caste! Are these footsoldiers victims too? Cynically recruited, then discarded, left to rot in jails, what do the 'perpetrators of the violence feel today about the VHP and the BJP? The film is likely to be in two parts of approximately an hour each, both complete in themselves (to enable a separate showing of just one part, if necessary) and may possibly be split into two films. *Seeds of Sorrow:* Though the BJP romped home with a brute majority in the 2002 assembly elections, it suffered an electoral reverse during the 2004 Lok Sabha elections. The BJP managed to get 14 seats while the Congress won the other 12. The result is attributed in part to agitations by the Sangh's own Bharatiya Kisan Sabha, which was then agitating against the power tariff hike. In many pockets, it even asked its members to abstain from voting, which perhaps also explains the far lower turnout for the Lok Sabha elections. Over the last several months, we have been tracking what can only be termed as an unreported story - Farmer suicides in Gujarat . We have primarily been filming in the Saurashtra region, though suicides are not confined to this belt. A few months ago, we got queries filed under the RTI Act to dig up details of all suicides. Though the government denied us the data initially, after appeals and hearings, some details have now been formally handed to us. While Modi recently told the Gujarat Assembly that only 148 farmers have committed suicide in Gujarat, the data handed to us is for 366 suicides! We have also managed to dig up the data for all claims paid and denied under the Kisan Bima Yojana that cover farmers' accidental deaths. Of the 1200-odd claims, several have been denied – we are now probing the grounds of denial (eg, was it actually a suicide reported as an accident to help fudge the figures?) This film would also deal with the issue of farmer debts, BT cotton cultivation, power tariff, irrigation (where is the promised Narmada water?) and the opposition to SEZs in Rajula and Jasapara. (Apologies for any cross-posting) From justjunaid at rediffmail.com Fri Oct 12 10:55:03 2007 From: justjunaid at rediffmail.com (junaid) Date: 12 Oct 2007 05:25:03 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to Pawan Message-ID: <20071012052503.3807.qmail@webmail62.rediffmail.com> Pawan, Ranbir Singh wanted to make Jammu the second Benaras. At Purmandel Dogras and their minions fell over each other to construct new lavish temples. Money from which came from Kashmiri Muslim peasantry, who in a few years after the Dogra rule was foisted on them, began to totally give up cultivation. Obviously because it was no longer valuable to pursue it, since most of their produce was appropriated by the landlords. One of the bigger ones was called Sut Ram Razdan. His tales of cruelty are legendary in the place I come from. You only have to listen to some Bhand Pather to understand how the technologies of expropriation were employed by Dogras and their supporters, on peasants. It is a fact that most of the shrines that you have mentioned complained to the spineless British that their funds were drying up, while Hindu places of worship like Umanagri in Islamabad was given huge land grants. The drain of hard-produced wealth by Kashmiri Muslim peasants and artisans went to Jammmu and into the hands of Kashmiri Pandits, most of whom did nothing productive. I can't go on spoon feeding you like this without you getting up from your armchair, and deciding to read some more serious literature than Organiser and Panchjanya. On "Takht-e-Sulaimani" and "Koh-i-Maran". You need to know the difference between Persian and Arabic. These words are not Arabic. That is why I am telling you, you need some self control. Think before you stink. In any case, it was the Kashmiri Hindus who were first to learn Persian to land jobs in Mughal and Afghan adminstration. Well in any case Persion influence on Kashmiri language had only little to do with religion. It had more to do with the trajectory of cultural influence. But Hindus in Kashmir brought in Sanskrit without any apparent reason, but purely religious and opportunistic. This was not only an attempt to assert dominance, over the majority community, as a religious community which shared their religion with the ruler, but also to liguistically lay sole claim to adminstrative employment. Islamabad was established as a town by Mughal governor Islam Khan. It had nothing to do with Islam, the religion. From a flourishing town it saw much depredation. Dogras renamed it Anantnag--the land of innumerable springs. The name was sanskritised, on advice of Kashmiri Hindus for whom most of these springs had acquired a religious value. Small little temples came up on the sides of these springs over time. One such example is in Verinag--the fount of river Jhelum--where a temple was placed within an enclosure constructed by the Mughals. Despite much oppresion Islamabad's residents continue to call it Islamabad. In early 1990's when popular struggle for freedom started in Kashmir, Indian forces would beat up and arrest shopkeepers who had Islamabad written on their billboards. In a matter of few months thousands of them put distinct colour patches on them to erase Islamabad and wrote Anantnag over it. Some stubborn people, however, kept the original. Jihad. Taliban. Say something substantial! It is all wind. Like your name, Pawan. In Sanskrit. Junaid   Junaid, A long mail from you , and I would like to few of your points only for time being . As I have cant write that long for my life is not dedicated to "Jihad" & "Libeartion" in the name of relegion. I have learnt to live and behave in a multi religious & cultural society. It may take "some" many ages and at the cost of millions of more innocent lives to understand that. During the land reform act in Kashmir The names of Hindu landlords who were only two in number were frequently projected as the exploiters and blood-suckers to solidify the ranks of Muslims on religious grounds for nefarious political objectives. Ahmad Mir and Musmat Ashraf Begum possessing 4,202 kanals of land and 3,915 kanals of land respectively were never projected on the public mindscape because of the religion they espoused. Two Muslim shrines of Baba Reshi and Dastagir Sahib had a land grant of ten thousand kanals which are said to have been partially snatched away perhaps again on religious considerations. Despite the Hindu ruler, there was no Hindu shrine which had in its possession the same measure of land to augment and supplement its resources. Talking about current Islamisation of Kashmir , by changing the names of places I would quote you few examples. You have call AnantNag as Islamabad though even the official name is AnantNag . I wish you would accept the fact that this place AnantNag finds mention even in Bhagwad Gita , and I am sure you knoe Bhagwad Gita existed much before even Islam came to India. Again you have started calling the world famous Shankracharya Hill as Takht-E-Suleiman , though the temple was built on Gopadari hill in BC age. The hill whereShraika Temple is situated is aclled "hari Parbat" which again you have started to call "Koh-i-maran" . Junaid If you draw inspiration from Talibans....and still defend the wrong .......there is hardly i can do anything to help you. May God Bless you with Wisdom. Pawan Durani On 1 Oct 2007 15:34:12 -0000, junaid wrote: > > > Mr. Pawan Durrani, > > Possibly you should have read Mridu Rai's book to understand why Dogra > rule was 'Hindu' and why other rulers Mughals and Afghans could not be > described as essentially 'Islamic', though it was surely Muslims who ruled. > (By the way, there were no separate Turks and Mughals who came to rule > Kashmir). An Islamic rule would be one where laws are made on the bases of > Koran and Hadith, and would be called as Sharia. Both temporal and spiritual > realms would be regulated by it. Both civil and criminal law would be > quintessentially Sharia. And they are made by religious scholars. This was > not the case for Mughals or Afghans: It was either laws made by the > sovereign or the tribal laws. And even though both may have invoked Koran > and Hadith, yet most of their content was inspired by local needs than > religious zeal or inspiration. (I should not be understood as saying Islamic > law is anyway superior to other laws, like tribal laws etc. Or that Afghans > or Mughal rule was any benign.) > > For Dogras, who drew a fake Rajput lineage, with an opportunistic support > from state-sponsored historians, both Dogra and British, the way they > invoked Hinduism in ruling Kashmir was stupendous. It is no secret that poor > Kashmiri Muslim peasants were stripped bare by Dogra rulers to fund temple > constructions in not only Kashmir and Jammu, but in Punjab too. The Dogras > restarted the hated practice of Begar (forced labour), originally invented > by ancient Hindu rulers of Kashmir. Begar resulted in wide spread death and > destruction of Kashmir Muslims. Thousands of Muslim youth perished carrying > load, like mules, barefooted, to Maharaja's Gilgit frontier. And while this > was going on, Kashmir's Hindu population, laying exclusive claim to > literacy, and through their landed influence, sustained this terrible rule > loyally. (And they were powerful even during Mughal and Afghan times, when > they occupied much of the bureaucratic positions). > > Dogras depended on the so-called Pandits to extract revenue from Kashmir's > poor Muslim peasants as well as artisans. At times, despite verbal protests > from even the East India Company officials who were so brutal in their own > way, Gulab Singh took away half of the produce of the Muslim peasants. In > his greed to collect more booty he even taxed marriages among Muslims. The > Hindu Kashmiris were exempt. The Dogras took away the lands of some leftover > Muslim elite and reduced them to penury, but during this time, the Hindu > landlords expanded their estates. Thus a miniscule Hindu population, not > more than 5 percent, came to rule 95 percent Muslims of Kashmir. That too > brutally. > > Pawan Durrani should be given compensation for the grand estates his > forefathers had to give up. But who will compensate all those millions of > rickety, malnourished, barely clothed Kashmiri Muslim peasants who were not > only materially degraded but dehumanized too? In 1947, by a sleight of hand, > and without bothering to ask Kashmiri Muslims, who constitute an > overwhelming majority of its people, Kashmir was handed by a Hindu ruler to > India. In this, some Muslim political leaders were coaxed too; they realized > but only too late. During this time, many Kashmiri Muslim leaders were > forced into exile. During the same time, hundreds of thousands of Muslims > from Jammu were either forced to flee or massacred. > > A bearded Kashmir Muslim militant provokes a frenzied response from Pawan, > and he begins to shout: "Hatay Mauji, Islamic Fundamentalism hay aau!" For > him an Indian soldier with a tilak on his forehead, a saffron ribbon around > his waist, a poster of Shivji hanging inside his bunker is Bharat Mata's > secular poot. > > In 1990, Kashmir's Hindus made a choice: They wanted India. That is why > they left. No doubt there was a threat perception. Some Hindus were killed. > According to Sumantra Bose out of 273 killings by 20th January 1990, almost > 73 were Hindus. No doubt, disproportionate. Most of these were highly > influential Hindus, including a Jan Sangh leader. No other minority left. > Even though, many Sikhs were killed in Chattisinghpura, (by who, we should > know by now) they remained in Kashmir. In a state-sponsored exodus one and a > half lakh Hindus were transported overnight to Jammu and other Indian > cities. And remember it was a day after Jagmohan took over as governor, and > promised to punish Kashmiri Muslims. True to his word, after many Hindus > left, he imposed a protracted curfew strangulating Kashmir's Muslims. Dozens > of Kashmir's Muslims were massacred at a number of places. Gaw Kadal, just > being one example. > > In Jashne Azadi, nowhere is it said that 60000 Muslims have been killed in > 15 years. Although even by conservative estimates 80000 Kashmiri Muslims > have been killed over these years (some believe that even the 10000 odd > disappeared have been eliminated too), but the film leaves it open. It > states how the actual number is widely conflicted. > > It is not Kashmiri Muslims who Arabicized Kashmiri names. (Give examples > if you can). It is in fact Dogras who Sanskritised it, and India which > sustained it. Consider, for example, changing the popular name Islamabad to > an official Anantnag. And it is not Kashmiri Muslims who deny Kashmir's > ancient Hindu rulers, but Kashmir's Hindus who deny the existence of > Kashmir's Muslims. It is as if all Kashmir is about is its miniscule Hindus. > It is as if the only tragedy in Kashmir is that of its Hindus. As if death, > destruction, plunder and rapine of its Muslims is not an issue that merits > world's attention. It is time world speaks about Kashmir's Muslims. > > Much has been spoken about Hindus. Many lethargic comparisons have been > made with Holocaust. Many chick pea-brained 'film makers' have lamented that > world remained silent, while Kashmir's Hindus got free salaries, > reservations in education and tremendous material support and publicity. It > is time for appropriated voices to speak up. For stories buried in fake > encounters to be exhumed. For alternative histories and memories to unsettle > the state-sponsored, miniscule-made-mainstream, litanies. > > Pawan you really should run after Jashne-Azadi. Follow it wherever it > goes. It might tire you out of your ignorance, prejudice, and hatred. > > Mohamad Junaid > > > > Pawan Durrani wrote: > > Dear All: > On Thursday September 20th Mr. Sanjay Kak's movie Jashn-e-Azadi (yajynya > has > become Jashn-e)was screened in the Louis McMillan Auditorium of the Yale > University. Rajni Ji and I attended the screening. > > The screening was sponsored by Ms Mridhu Rai, Associate Professor > mridu.rai at yale.edu. She has recently published a book Hindu Rulers, Muslim > > Subjects: Islam Rights & the history of Kashmir. (Apparently this book was > > part of the motivation for Mr. Sanjay Kak to make the movie. Given below > in > parenthesis is her back ground. > > (Mridu Rai joined the department in July 2001 as an assistant professor. > She > was educated at Delhi University; the Centre for Historical Studies at > Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; and Columbia University, where she > received a PhD in modern south Asian history. Her doctoral research > focused > on the problem of religion and politics in the making of protest in modern > > Kashmir between the 1840s and the 1940s. In 2004 it culminated in her > book, > Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir > < http://www.yale.edu/history/faculty/materials/rai-hindu.html> . > Professor > Rai's new research turns to the region of Bihar, to explore the > relationships between caste, territory, region and nation as they evolved > from the period of British colonial rule into the postcolonial) > > There were 23 people in all present in the screening hall. That included > Mr. > Sanjay Kak and us two. Most of the attendants were from the South Asian > stud > department of Indian origin. There was one or two students of Pakistani > origin and may be two or three of American and European descent. > > The documentary is about two and a half hour long monologue. The thrust of > > the documentary is to manipulated to portray the burning desire for the > freedom among 'Kashmiris' (read Kashmiri Muslims). The movie touches upon > the 500 years of colonization of Kashmir. It was interesting to note the > wordings of narration and the imagery of this narration. Mr Kak introduced > > the Kalhanna's Rajatarangani as the Hindu rule of Kashmir. He also stated > the "Hindu" rule of Kashmir before 1948. But then he chooses to describe > the > 500 years of pre-Dogra rule as the colonial rule of Turks, Afghans, > Mughals, > and other nationalities as if it was not an Islamic rule. In that one > sentence he tries to pass the suffering under these colonizers as the > sufferings of Muslims and not of Hindus. That during this period 100% > Kashmiri Hindu population was reduced to at most 25% of the population was > presented as Muslim suffering. He quotes Kalhanna "that Kashmir can not be > > conquered by colonization but by spiritual merit", as the ethos of > Kashmiri > Muslims. That the Muslims (both foreign and the converted) were the rulers > under whose reign Kashmiri Hindu were massacred, humiliated and forced out > > of Kashmir (as evidenced by the Saaraswats and Vaadama Ayers and Kashmiri > of > Gujarat) and converted to Islam is completely presented as the sufferings > of the Muslims. > > That since the 1948 till 1990 the successive J&K Governments were formed > by > the National conference (previously "Muslim Conference") and the people > at > the helm were Kashmiri Muslims is also presented as the colonization by > the > Indians. That this Government systematically marginalized the Hindus of > Kashmir by putting reservations for the majority, snatching any landed > property with out compensation (there by violating the property rights of > a > minority) is portrayed as the land reform act of the Government. The sole > > livelihood of the Kashmiri Hindus through education was denied and they > were > forced out of state (to achieve Islamization) is also supposed to have > happened because of the colonization by India. That 1947 incursions of > Pakistan and the development of Islamic Fundamentalism with support from > Pakistan and the outsiders is completely glossed over. Even though the > mention is made of the foreign Islamic mercenaries in Kashmir but it is > portrayed as acceptable and not such an important issue, where as presence > > of Indian troops and the Indian tourists is presented as the yoke on the > local Muslims. (Who shown as pulling the tourists snowy upslope of the > Gulmarg.) > > The presentation of Shaheed (A Islamic category used for the Shahaadat ) > and > the Mujahideen (An Islamic religious category used for the fighters of the > faith) is presented as freedom fighters. The time and again portrayal of > the > "Muslim Cemeteries" and dead Muslim Mujahideen is lamentable but their > killing and raping of the innocent victims both hindu (and Muslims) is > accepted as the justifiable for the Azadi. > Mr. Kak mentiones 200 dead and 160,000 migrated in bold numbers with the > small print of "in one year". One wonders why did he choose only one year > numbers to show about the Hindu sufferings but boldly says 60,000 total > dead > or lost in the last 15 years. This choice is made show the balance in his > approach like a chameleon Indian leftist/secularist. > > Finally when the documentary was screened we were the first one to raise > hand for questions. We turned toward the audience and challenged the very > notion this being a struggle for the Azadi. We put forth that this is > movement for the Islamization of Kashmir. We also pointed out the 500 > years > of colonization Mr. Kak mentions is 500 years of Islamic rule in which our > population was reduced from 1055 to 20% . It was Kashmiri Hindu tragedies > which Mr. Kak is portraying as the Muslim tragedies. We pointed out that > the > first act of this movement in 1990 was to throw out 400 hundred thousand > Hindus from the valley and became refuge in their own country. If it was a > > Azadi movement why would valley be cleansed of the non-Muslim minorities. > That scenario fits the Islamization movement better. We asked, why would > all the imagery and the language of this movement be couched in the > Islamic > categorization? Why would Arabic be used instead of Kashmiri language? Why > would the names of the Kashmiri place names be changed to Arabacized and > Islamic names? Why would the past Hindu history be denied? Why would > non-Kashmiri foreign Muslim mercenaries be allowed in and create havoc in > Kashmir? Why would Pakistan be so heavily involved? > > Mr. Kak had no answers for any of these; he tried to pass the Islamic > language as the normal use of religion in freedom movements. But I asked > why > was not inclusive religious symbolism used for the independence? > Kak admitted to the audience that there was Jihad like situation created > for > Kashmiri Hindus who had to leave valley. Eventually I was asked to > allow > others to ask questions. But there were only two other people who asked > one > question each, one on the lines of secularism and the other, a Pakistani, > gave some comments on state of JKLF in Pakistan. > > We attended the dinner after the movie and we continued to occupy Mr. > Kak's > and several others attention on the dishonest portrayal of the Kashmir > issue. During dinner we distributed the copies of Ashokji Pandits > Documentary ....And world remained silent.... to some of the attendees and > > requested them to watch it and pass it on to other students. > > That is the story from Yale... > > Thanks From ayushdelhi at yahoo.co.uk Fri Oct 12 11:31:04 2007 From: ayushdelhi at yahoo.co.uk (ayush) Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 06:01:04 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to Pawan Message-ID: <990681.98989.qm@web25404.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Thanks Junaid and Pawan for sharing about Kashmir. Without any offence to either of you , i would be grateful if both of you could please avoid getting personal with each other in a public space. Please continue to share but please try to avoid persoanl remarks about each other many thanks Ayush ----- Original Message ---- From: junaid To: reader-list at sarai.net Sent: Friday, 12 October, 2007 10:55:03 AM Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Reply to Pawan Pawan, Ranbir Singh wanted to make Jammu the second Benaras. At Purmandel Dogras and their minions fell over each other to construct new lavish temples. Money from which came from Kashmiri Muslim peasantry, who in a few years after the Dogra rule was foisted on them, began to totally give up cultivation. Obviously because it was no longer valuable to pursue it, since most of their produce was appropriated by the landlords. One of the bigger ones was called Sut Ram Razdan. His tales of cruelty are legendary in the place I come from. You only have to listen to some Bhand Pather to understand how the technologies of expropriation were employed by Dogras and their supporters, on peasants. It is a fact that most of the shrines that you have mentioned complained to the spineless British that their funds were drying up, while Hindu places of worship like Umanagri in Islamabad was given huge land grants. The drain of hard-produced wealth by Kashmiri Muslim peasants and artisans went to Jammmu and into the hands of Kashmiri Pandits, most of whom did nothing productive. I can't go on spoon feeding you like this without you getting up from your armchair, and deciding to read some more serious literature than Organiser and Panchjanya. On "Takht-e-Sulaimani" and "Koh-i-Maran". You need to know the difference between Persian and Arabic. These words are not Arabic. That is why I am telling you, you need some self control. Think before you stink. In any case, it was the Kashmiri Hindus who were first to learn Persian to land jobs in Mughal and Afghan adminstration. Well in any case Persion influence on Kashmiri language had only little to do with religion. It had more to do with the trajectory of cultural influence. But Hindus in Kashmir brought in Sanskrit without any apparent reason, but purely religious and opportunistic. This was not only an attempt to assert dominance, over the majority community, as a religious community which shared their religion with the ruler, but also to liguistically lay sole claim to adminstrative employment. Islamabad was established as a town by Mughal governor Islam Khan. It had nothing to do with Islam, the religion. From a flourishing town it saw much depredation. Dogras renamed it Anantnag--the land of innumerable springs. The name was sanskritised, on advice of Kashmiri Hindus for whom most of these springs had acquired a religious value. Small little temples came up on the sides of these springs over time. One such example is in Verinag--the fount of river Jhelum--where a temple was placed within an enclosure constructed by the Mughals. Despite much oppresion Islamabad's residents continue to call it Islamabad. In early 1990's when popular struggle for freedom started in Kashmir, Indian forces would beat up and arrest shopkeepers who had Islamabad written on their billboards. In a matter of few months thousands of them put distinct colour patches on them to erase Islamabad and wrote Anantnag over it. Some stubborn people, however, kept the original. Jihad. Taliban. Say something substantial! It is all wind. Like your name, Pawan. In Sanskrit. Junaid Junaid, A long mail from you , and I would like to few of your points only for time being . As I have cant write that long for my life is not dedicated to "Jihad" & "Libeartion" in the name of relegion. I have learnt to live and behave in a multi religious & cultural society. It may take "some" many ages and at the cost of millions of more innocent lives to understand that. During the land reform act in Kashmir The names of Hindu landlords who were only two in number were frequently projected as the exploiters and blood-suckers to solidify the ranks of Muslims on religious grounds for nefarious political objectives. Ahmad Mir and Musmat Ashraf Begum possessing 4,202 kanals of land and 3,915 kanals of land respectively were never projected on the public mindscape because of the religion they espoused. Two Muslim shrines of Baba Reshi and Dastagir Sahib had a land grant of ten thousand kanals which are said to have been partially snatched away perhaps again on religious considerations. Despite the Hindu ruler, there was no Hindu shrine which had in its possession the same measure of land to augment and supplement its resources. Talking about current Islamisation of Kashmir , by changing the names of places I would quote you few examples. You have call AnantNag as Islamabad though even the official name is AnantNag . I wish you would accept the fact that this place AnantNag finds mention even in Bhagwad Gita , and I am sure you knoe Bhagwad Gita existed much before even Islam came to India. Again you have started calling the world famous Shankracharya Hill as Takht-E-Suleiman , though the temple was built on Gopadari hill in BC age. The hill whereShraika Temple is situated is aclled "hari Parbat" which again you have started to call "Koh-i-maran" . Junaid If you draw inspiration from Talibans....and still defend the wrong .......there is hardly i can do anything to help you. May God Bless you with Wisdom. Pawan Durani On 1 Oct 2007 15:34:12 -0000, junaid wrote: > > > Mr. Pawan Durrani, > > Possibly you should have read Mridu Rai's book to understand why Dogra > rule was 'Hindu' and why other rulers Mughals and Afghans could not be > described as essentially 'Islamic', though it was surely Muslims who ruled. > (By the way, there were no separate Turks and Mughals who came to rule > Kashmir). An Islamic rule would be one where laws are made on the bases of > Koran and Hadith, and would be called as Sharia. Both temporal and spiritual > realms would be regulated by it. Both civil and criminal law would be > quintessentially Sharia. And they are made by religious scholars. This was > not the case for Mughals or Afghans: It was either laws made by the > sovereign or the tribal laws. And even though both may have invoked Koran > and Hadith, yet most of their content was inspired by local needs than > religious zeal or inspiration. (I should not be understood as saying Islamic > law is anyway superior to other laws, like tribal laws etc. Or that Afghans > or Mughal rule was any benign.) > > For Dogras, who drew a fake Rajput lineage, with an opportunistic support > from state-sponsored historians, both Dogra and British, the way they > invoked Hinduism in ruling Kashmir was stupendous. It is no secret that poor > Kashmiri Muslim peasants were stripped bare by Dogra rulers to fund temple > constructions in not only Kashmir and Jammu, but in Punjab too. The Dogras > restarted the hated practice of Begar (forced labour), originally invented > by ancient Hindu rulers of Kashmir. Begar resulted in wide spread death and > destruction of Kashmir Muslims. Thousands of Muslim youth perished carrying > load, like mules, barefooted, to Maharaja's Gilgit frontier. And while this > was going on, Kashmir's Hindu population, laying exclusive claim to > literacy, and through their landed influence, sustained this terrible rule > loyally. (And they were powerful even during Mughal and Afghan times, when > they occupied much of the bureaucratic positions). > > Dogras depended on the so-called Pandits to extract revenue from Kashmir's > poor Muslim peasants as well as artisans. At times, despite verbal protests > from even the East India Company officials who were so brutal in their own > way, Gulab Singh took away half of the produce of the Muslim peasants. In > his greed to collect more booty he even taxed marriages among Muslims. The > Hindu Kashmiris were exempt. The Dogras took away the lands of some leftover > Muslim elite and reduced them to penury, but during this time, the Hindu > landlords expanded their estates. Thus a miniscule Hindu population, not > more than 5 percent, came to rule 95 percent Muslims of Kashmir. That too > brutally. > > Pawan Durrani should be given compensation for the grand estates his > forefathers had to give up. But who will compensate all those millions of > rickety, malnourished, barely clothed Kashmiri Muslim peasants who were not > only materially degraded but dehumanized too? In 1947, by a sleight of hand, > and without bothering to ask Kashmiri Muslims, who constitute an > overwhelming majority of its people, Kashmir was handed by a Hindu ruler to > India. In this, some Muslim political leaders were coaxed too; they realized > but only too late. During this time, many Kashmiri Muslim leaders were > forced into exile. During the same time, hundreds of thousands of Muslims > from Jammu were either forced to flee or massacred. > > A bearded Kashmir Muslim militant provokes a frenzied response from Pawan, > and he begins to shout: "Hatay Mauji, Islamic Fundamentalism hay aau!" For > him an Indian soldier with a tilak on his forehead, a saffron ribbon around > his waist, a poster of Shivji hanging inside his bunker is Bharat Mata's > secular poot. > > In 1990, Kashmir's Hindus made a choice: They wanted India. That is why > they left. No doubt there was a threat perception. Some Hindus were killed. > According to Sumantra Bose out of 273 killings by 20th January 1990, almost > 73 were Hindus. No doubt, disproportionate. Most of these were highly > influential Hindus, including a Jan Sangh leader. No other minority left. > Even though, many Sikhs were killed in Chattisinghpura, (by who, we should > know by now) they remained in Kashmir. In a state-sponsored exodus one and a > half lakh Hindus were transported overnight to Jammu and other Indian > cities. And remember it was a day after Jagmohan took over as governor, and > promised to punish Kashmiri Muslims. True to his word, after many Hindus > left, he imposed a protracted curfew strangulating Kashmir's Muslims. Dozens > of Kashmir's Muslims were massacred at a number of places. Gaw Kadal, just > being one example. > > In Jashne Azadi, nowhere is it said that 60000 Muslims have been killed in > 15 years. Although even by conservative estimates 80000 Kashmiri Muslims > have been killed over these years (some believe that even the 10000 odd > disappeared have been eliminated too), but the film leaves it open. It > states how the actual number is widely conflicted. > > It is not Kashmiri Muslims who Arabicized Kashmiri names. (Give examples > if you can). It is in fact Dogras who Sanskritised it, and India which > sustained it. Consider, for example, changing the popular name Islamabad to > an official Anantnag. And it is not Kashmiri Muslims who deny Kashmir's > ancient Hindu rulers, but Kashmir's Hindus who deny the existence of > Kashmir's Muslims. It is as if all Kashmir is about is its miniscule Hindus. > It is as if the only tragedy in Kashmir is that of its Hindus. As if death, > destruction, plunder and rapine of its Muslims is not an issue that merits > world's attention. It is time world speaks about Kashmir's Muslims. > > Much has been spoken about Hindus. Many lethargic comparisons have been > made with Holocaust. Many chick pea-brained 'film makers' have lamented that > world remained silent, while Kashmir's Hindus got free salaries, > reservations in education and tremendous material support and publicity. It > is time for appropriated voices to speak up. For stories buried in fake > encounters to be exhumed. For alternative histories and memories to unsettle > the state-sponsored, miniscule-made-mainstream, litanies. > > Pawan you really should run after Jashne-Azadi. Follow it wherever it > goes. It might tire you out of your ignorance, prejudice, and hatred. > > Mohamad Junaid > > > > Pawan Durrani wrote: > > Dear All: > On Thursday September 20th Mr. Sanjay Kak's movie Jashn-e-Azadi (yajynya > has > become Jashn-e)was screened in the Louis McMillan Auditorium of the Yale > University. Rajni Ji and I attended the screening. > > The screening was sponsored by Ms Mridhu Rai, Associate Professor > mridu.rai at yale.edu. She has recently published a book Hindu Rulers, Muslim > > Subjects: Islam Rights & the history of Kashmir. (Apparently this book was > > part of the motivation for Mr. Sanjay Kak to make the movie. Given below > in > parenthesis is her back ground. > > (Mridu Rai joined the department in July 2001 as an assistant professor. > She > was educated at Delhi University; the Centre for Historical Studies at > Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; and Columbia University, where she > received a PhD in modern south Asian history. Her doctoral research > focused > on the problem of religion and politics in the making of protest in modern > > Kashmir between the 1840s and the 1940s. In 2004 it culminated in her > book, > Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir > < http://www.yale.edu/history/faculty/materials/rai-hindu.html> . > Professor > Rai's new research turns to the region of Bihar, to explore the > relationships between caste, territory, region and nation as they evolved > from the period of British colonial rule into the postcolonial) > > There were 23 people in all present in the screening hall. That included > Mr. > Sanjay Kak and us two. Most of the attendants were from the South Asian > stud > department of Indian origin. There was one or two students of Pakistani > origin and may be two or three of American and European descent. > > The documentary is about two and a half hour long monologue. The thrust of > > the documentary is to manipulated to portray the burning desire for the > freedom among 'Kashmiris' (read Kashmiri Muslims). The movie touches upon > the 500 years of colonization of Kashmir. It was interesting to note the > wordings of narration and the imagery of this narration. Mr Kak introduced > > the Kalhanna's Rajatarangani as the Hindu rule of Kashmir. He also stated > the "Hindu" rule of Kashmir before 1948. But then he chooses to describe > the > 500 years of pre-Dogra rule as the colonial rule of Turks, Afghans, > Mughals, > and other nationalities as if it was not an Islamic rule. In that one > sentence he tries to pass the suffering under these colonizers as the > sufferings of Muslims and not of Hindus. That during this period 100% > Kashmiri Hindu population was reduced to at most 25% of the population was > presented as Muslim suffering. He quotes Kalhanna "that Kashmir can not be > > conquered by colonization but by spiritual merit", as the ethos of > Kashmiri > Muslims. That the Muslims (both foreign and the converted) were the rulers > under whose reign Kashmiri Hindu were massacred, humiliated and forced out > > of Kashmir (as evidenced by the Saaraswats and Vaadama Ayers and Kashmiri > of > Gujarat) and converted to Islam is completely presented as the sufferings > of the Muslims. > > That since the 1948 till 1990 the successive J&K Governments were formed > by > the National conference (previously "Muslim Conference") and the people > at > the helm were Kashmiri Muslims is also presented as the colonization by > the > Indians. That this Government systematically marginalized the Hindus of > Kashmir by putting reservations for the majority, snatching any landed > property with out compensation (there by violating the property rights of > a > minority) is portrayed as the land reform act of the Government. The sole > > livelihood of the Kashmiri Hindus through education was denied and they > were > forced out of state (to achieve Islamization) is also supposed to have > happened because of the colonization by India. That 1947 incursions of > Pakistan and the development of Islamic Fundamentalism with support from > Pakistan and the outsiders is completely glossed over. Even though the > mention is made of the foreign Islamic mercenaries in Kashmir but it is > portrayed as acceptable and not such an important issue, where as presence > > of Indian troops and the Indian tourists is presented as the yoke on the > local Muslims. (Who shown as pulling the tourists snowy upslope of the > Gulmarg.) > > The presentation of Shaheed (A Islamic category used for the Shahaadat ) > and > the Mujahideen (An Islamic religious category used for the fighters of the > faith) is presented as freedom fighters. The time and again portrayal of > the > "Muslim Cemeteries" and dead Muslim Mujahideen is lamentable but their > killing and raping of the innocent victims both hindu (and Muslims) is > accepted as the justifiable for the Azadi. > Mr. Kak mentiones 200 dead and 160,000 migrated in bold numbers with the > small print of "in one year". One wonders why did he choose only one year > numbers to show about the Hindu sufferings but boldly says 60,000 total > dead > or lost in the last 15 years. This choice is made show the balance in his > approach like a chameleon Indian leftist/secularist. > > Finally when the documentary was screened we were the first one to raise > hand for questions. We turned toward the audience and challenged the very > notion this being a struggle for the Azadi. We put forth that this is > movement for the Islamization of Kashmir. We also pointed out the 500 > years > of colonization Mr. Kak mentions is 500 years of Islamic rule in which our > population was reduced from 1055 to 20% . It was Kashmiri Hindu tragedies > which Mr. Kak is portraying as the Muslim tragedies. We pointed out that > the > first act of this movement in 1990 was to throw out 400 hundred thousand > Hindus from the valley and became refuge in their own country. If it was a > > Azadi movement why would valley be cleansed of the non-Muslim minorities. > That scenario fits the Islamization movement better. We asked, why would > all the imagery and the language of this movement be couched in the > Islamic > categorization? Why would Arabic be used instead of Kashmiri language? Why > would the names of the Kashmiri place names be changed to Arabacized and > Islamic names? Why would the past Hindu history be denied? Why would > non-Kashmiri foreign Muslim mercenaries be allowed in and create havoc in > Kashmir? Why would Pakistan be so heavily involved? > > Mr. Kak had no answers for any of these; he tried to pass the Islamic > language as the normal use of religion in freedom movements. But I asked > why > was not inclusive religious symbolism used for the independence? > Kak admitted to the audience that there was Jihad like situation created > for > Kashmiri Hindus who had to leave valley. Eventually I was asked to > allow > others to ask questions. But there were only two other people who asked > one > question each, one on the lines of secularism and the other, a Pakistani, > gave some comments on state of JKLF in Pakistan. > > We attended the dinner after the movie and we continued to occupy Mr. > Kak's > and several others attention on the dishonest portrayal of the Kashmir > issue. During dinner we distributed the copies of Ashokji Pandits > Documentary ....And world remained silent.... to some of the attendees and > > requested them to watch it and pass it on to other students. > > That is the story from Yale... > > Thanks _________________________________________ 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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> ___________________________________________________________ Want ideas for reducing your carbon footprint? Visit Yahoo! For Good http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/environment.html From jbnaudy at gmail.com Fri Oct 12 13:03:18 2007 From: jbnaudy at gmail.com (Jean-Baptiste Naudy) Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 09:33:18 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Societe Realiste presents Transitioners: Bastille Days collection, galerie Martine Aboucaya, Paris Message-ID: TRANSITIONERS Bastille Days Collection An exhibition by Societe Realiste, October 27 - December 1st, 2007, at galerie Martine Aboucaya, 5 rue Sainte-Anastase 75003 Paris www.martineaboucaya.com Opening Saturday, October 27, 2007, 6:00 to 9:00 pm. Transitioners is a trend design bureau specialized in political transitions. Transposing the principles of prospective design, generally used by "fashion trend agencies", to the field of politics, Societe Realiste questions the revolution (transition) as a central category for the contemporary western society. Transitioners surveys the mutations of the revolution as a form. How a "democratic transition" can be produced? What is the role of design in the permanent conversion of politics into mythology? How the effect of an event on people can be transformed into a controlled affect? Fashion trend agencies provide some basic feelings that remain crucial for the good nervous health of the creation industry, like the dynamic variation of the same or the anticipation of the unpredictable. The work of the Transitioners bureau consists in conceiving collections of political transitions: following the season's geopolitical zeitgeist, the agency defines the assets to be highlighten in a revolutionary movement in order to maximize its political efficiency and its impact on the media. At galerie Martine Aboucaya, the Transitioners bureau exhibits for the last time its 2007 collection, entitled Bastille Days, inspired by the French Revolution, just before launching its new collection. Information: info at martineaboucaya.com +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ In October, the Societe Realiste cooperative will also present its work: - in the AtL(e)As(T.) CoMpleX exhibition, a experimental cartography show realized as a counterpoint to the work of the artist Tamas St. Auby, at the Studio Gallery, Budapest (October 9th - 20th, 2007 - http://studio.c3.hu); - within the frame of the collective exhibition, The Other City, curated by Hajnalka Somogyi and Samu Szemerey at the Hungarian Cultural Centre in New York (opening: October 18th, 2007 - http://www.culturehungary.org). +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ SOCIETE REALISTE ---------------- Ferenc Gróf / Jean-Baptiste Naudy intelligence at societerealiste.net http://www.societerealiste.net From radhikarajen at vsnl.net Fri Oct 12 13:35:15 2007 From: radhikarajen at vsnl.net (radhikarajen at vsnl.net) Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 13:05:15 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] reply to Rakesh Sharma., reader-list Digest, Vol 51, Issue 15 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Dear Sir, is the film sponsored by any political party directly or indirectly with hatred and garnering votes as the motive. ? For , the other film Parzania was good one, depiction of saffron shawls on rioters was condemnable, as rioters do not come with coloured shawls, be it muslims with green shawls or sikh riots sponsored by killers of tri-color shawls. ?It is indeed sad that goons in nandigram and singur also did not wear red shawls. ? For India we need leaders with vision for good governance sans religion and discriminations based on caste, if that is the motive, we shall be too glad to associate with your work, otherwise the NGOs like that of Teesta who sheltor, defend a section of the society for their fanatic crimes is not a welcome step for good democratic society, nor is the hindu fanatism. Regards. radhikarajen at vsnl.com ----- Original Message ----- From: reader-list-request at sarai.net Date: Friday, October 12, 2007 10:58 am Subject: reader-list Digest, Vol 51, Issue 15 To: reader-list at sarai.net > Send reader-list mailing list submissions to > reader-list at sarai.net > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > reader-list-request at sarai.net > > You can reach the person managing the list at > reader-list-owner at sarai.net > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of reader-list digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Fwd: Final Solution revisited: An appeal from Rakesh Sharma > (Anivar Aravind) > 2. Re: Reply to Pawan (junaid) > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > --- > > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 00:08:47 +0530 > From: Anivar Aravind > Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Final Solution revisited: An appeal from > Rakesh Sharma > To: reader-list at sarai.net, commons-law at sarai.net, Greenyouth > > Message-ID: <470E6DB7.1090700 at gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="WINDOWS-1252"; format=flowed > > > > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: Final Solution revisited: An appeal from Rakesh Sharma > Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 18:50:35 +0530 > From: Rakesh Sharma > > > > > *Many people responded to the first mail with queries. This new, > revisedmailer incorporates the answers. Please forward this appeal > to other > like-minded institutions, organisations and individuals as well. * > > > > Over the last couple of years, some of you have spoken to me about > revisiting Final Solution and making a new film – /*Gujarat*//*: 5 > yearsafter the carnage*/. You'd be happy to know that I have been > filming in > Gujarat for the last several months for the follow-up film. The > filminghas been done in Modasa, Idar, Kalol, Halol, Godhra, > Lunawada, Baroda, > Chhota Udepur, Himmatnagar, Ahmedabad, Limdi, Bhavnagar, Amreli, > Rajkotetc. We've already done a bulk of our filming, though we > plan to > continue filming till the election results are announced and the new > Assembly is sworn in. > > > > We hope to offer a comprehensive film sometime next year. However, all > of us in the team also feel that we must release at least a short > version of the film /pre-elections/ to enable activists, NGOs and > othersto intervene during the electoral process by holding > screenings and > discussions. > > > > We aim to finish these in mid October and make them available on VCD. > These early versions would be available only in Gujarati as they are > most likely to be used in Gujarat during November 2007. > > > > I write to you to seek your assistance. While I have so far > managed all > the filming and editing related expenses personally (thanks to a grant > from the Singh Foundation and damages received from NYPD!), I'm now > seeking completion funds to be able to release the version in October. > Broadly speaking, we propose the following: > > > > a. To approach a broad network of individuals and like-minded > organisations and individuals for funding assistance. > > b. To invite contributions not exceeding Rs 10,000 from a single > organization and Rs 5,000 from an individual. > > c. Against the contribution, the individual/ organisation will > get a > credit in the film. The title would normally read - " */Funding > supportfrom/*" followed by the full list. > > d. The individual/ organisation will also get VCD copies of the film > against this contribution. The proposal is to offer > > * Contribution (individuals only): Rs 2000; VCDs offered: 21 > > * Contribution (organizations/ individuals): Rs 5000; VCDs offered:51 > > * Contribution (organizations only): Rs 10000; VCDs offered: 120 > > > > Cheques (Indian and non-Indian) should be made payable at Mumbai to > Rakesh Sharma. Send us an email to get the exact mailing address for > sending your cheques. > > > > We hope that these multiple copies would be distributed by the > concernedorganisation/ individual free to their activists, friends > and colleagues > so they can be circulated and screened widely, especially in Gujarat > before the forthcoming elections. The VCDs offered are total > number of > discs - the first film is on 2 VCDs while the farmer film is on a > singleVCD (ie, each set is 3 VCDs). > > > > As the offer is to distribute/ circulate the copies only in > Gujarat, do > let me know where in Gujarat to send the VCDs of the new film once > it is > ready. For those who do not have any direct connections in > Gujarat, the > option is to donate the copies to an activist organisation like Anhad > for their ongoing campaigns or one of the grassroots groups > helping me > film in Gujarat. We will send the VCDs directly to one of the > groups on > your behalf. We propose to have these VCDs become a part of the > Pirate-and-Circulate campaign in Gujarat > (Get-a-copy-free-if-you-promise-to-pirate-and-distribute-5-free- > copies!).We tried this strategy successfully in 2004 with Final > Solution - I urge > you to support this piracy! > > > > I request you to lend your support to the films under production. > Details about the proposed films are enclosed below. Please write > to me > personally at the earliest ( rakeshfilm at gmail.com > or PO Box 12023, Azad Nagar, Mumbai > 400053). Please forward the mailer to your mailing list. I am hoping > you'd persuade many others to support the film! > > > > With Gratitude > > > Rakesh Sharma > > > website: www.rakeshfilm.com > blog: rakeshindia.blogspot.com > > > > ps: Please do not circulate to the Press - we'd like no > speculation or > publicity till the films are formally released. > > > > We are aiming to finish only a version in end October – the Gujarati > version (no English subtitles). Please note that this offer is for the > circulation/ screening of VCDs of this version in Gujarat only – we > wouldn't be mailing any VCDs to anyone outside Gujarat. Post- > elections,when we actually do a final version of Final Solution > revisited, we will > make it available on DVD with English subtitles etc sometime in > mid 2008. > > > > The films currently being edited for an October release deal broadly > with the following: > > * * > > *After the Storm: * > > > > Five years after the carnage, what is the state of Relief and > Rehabilitation? The Supreme Court's intervention in carnage-related > cases has dominated media headlines, but what really is the true story > behind the victims' quest for Justice? Away from major cases like the > Naroda Patiya massacre or Gulberg or Best Bakery and Pandarwada, > what is > the fate of other FIRs and court cases filed by the victims? > > > > The film goes beyond highlighting the plight of the Muslim > community in > Gujarat. It probes other dimensions of the issue by specifically > lookingat the patterns of arrests and litigation. A majority of > those charged > with rioting, arson, murder etc are either tribals or Dalits and OBCs. > An analysis of those arrested from 32 police stations in Ahmedabad > suggests that of the 1577 detainees, only 30-odd were upper caste! Are > these footsoldiers victims too? Cynically recruited, then discarded, > left to rot in jails, what do the 'perpetrators of the violence feel > today about the VHP and the BJP? > > > > The film is likely to be in two parts of approximately an hour each, > both complete in themselves (to enable a separate showing of just one > part, if necessary) and may possibly be split into two films. > > > > *Seeds of Sorrow:* > > > > Though the BJP romped home with a brute majority in the 2002 assembly > elections, it suffered an electoral reverse during the 2004 Lok Sabha > elections. The BJP managed to get 14 seats while the Congress won the > other 12. The result is attributed in part to agitations by the > Sangh'sown Bharatiya Kisan Sabha, which was then agitating against > the power > tariff hike. In many pockets, it even asked its members to abstain > fromvoting, which perhaps also explains the far lower turnout for > the Lok > Sabha elections. > > > > Over the last several months, we have been tracking what can only be > termed as an unreported story - Farmer suicides in Gujarat . We have > primarily been filming in the Saurashtra region, though suicides > are not > confined to this belt. A few months ago, we got queries filed > under the > RTI Act to dig up details of all suicides. Though the government > denied us the data initially, after appeals and hearings, some details > have now been formally handed to us. While Modi recently told the > Gujarat Assembly that only 148 farmers have committed suicide in > Gujarat, the data handed to us is for 366 suicides! We have also > managedto dig up the data for all claims paid and denied under the > Kisan Bima > Yojana that cover farmers' accidental deaths. Of the 1200-odd claims, > several have been denied – we are now probing the grounds of > denial (eg, > was it actually a suicide reported as an accident to help fudge the > figures?) > > > > This film would also deal with the issue of farmer debts, BT cotton > cultivation, power tariff, irrigation (where is the promised Narmada > water?) and the opposition to SEZs in Rajula and Jasapara. > > > > (Apologies for any cross-posting) > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: 12 Oct 2007 05:25:03 -0000 > From: "junaid" > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Reply to Pawan > To: reader-list at sarai.net > Message-ID: <20071012052503.3807.qmail at webmail62.rediffmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > > Pawan, > > Ranbir Singh wanted to make Jammu the second Benaras. At Purmandel > Dogras and their minions fell over each other to construct new > lavish temples. Money from which came from Kashmiri Muslim > peasantry, who in a few years after the Dogra rule was foisted on > them, began to totally give up cultivation. Obviously because it > was no longer valuable to pursue it, since most of their produce > was appropriated by the landlords. One of the bigger ones was > called Sut Ram Razdan. His tales of cruelty are legendary in the > place I come from. You only have to listen to some Bhand Pather to > understand how the technologies of expropriation were employed by > Dogras and their supporters, on peasants. > > It is a fact that most of the shrines that you have mentioned > complained to the spineless British that their funds were drying > up, while Hindu places of worship like Umanagri in Islamabad was > given huge land grants. The drain of hard-produced wealth by > Kashmiri Muslim peasants and artisans went to Jammmu and into the > hands of Kashmiri Pandits, most of whom did nothing productive. > > I can't go on spoon feeding you like this without you getting up > from your armchair, and deciding to read some more serious > literature than Organiser and Panchjanya. > > On "Takht-e-Sulaimani" and "Koh-i-Maran". You need to know the > difference between Persian and Arabic. These words are not Arabic. > That is why I am telling you, you need some self control. Think > before you stink. In any case, it was the Kashmiri Hindus who were > first to learn Persian to land jobs in Mughal and Afghan > adminstration. Well in any case Persion influence on Kashmiri > language had only little to do with religion. It had more to do > with the trajectory of cultural influence. But Hindus in Kashmir > brought in Sanskrit without any apparent reason, but purely > religious and opportunistic. This was not only an attempt to > assert dominance, over the majority community, as a religious > community which shared their religion with the ruler, but also to > liguistically lay sole claim to adminstrative employment. > > > Islamabad was established as a town by Mughal governor Islam Khan. > It had nothing to do with Islam, the religion. From a flourishing > town it saw much depredation. Dogras renamed it Anantnag--the land > of innumerable springs. The name was sanskritised, on advice of > Kashmiri Hindus for whom most of these springs had acquired a > religious value. Small little temples came up on the sides of > these springs over time. One such example is in Verinag--the fount > of river Jhelum--where a temple was placed within an enclosure > constructed by the Mughals. Despite much oppresion Islamabad's > residents continue to call it Islamabad. In early 1990's when > popular struggle for freedom started in Kashmir, Indian forces > would beat up and arrest shopkeepers who had Islamabad written on > their billboards. In a matter of few months thousands of them put > distinct colour patches on them to erase Islamabad and wrote > Anantnag over it. Some stubborn people, however, kept the original. > > Jihad. Taliban. Say something substantial! It is all wind. Like > your name, Pawan. In Sanskrit. > > Junaid > >   > Junaid, > > A long mail from you , and I would like to few of your points only > for time > being . As I have cant write that long for my life is not > dedicated to > "Jihad" & "Libeartion" in the name of relegion. > > I have learnt to live and behave in a multi religious & cultural > society. It > may take "some" many ages and at the cost of millions of more > innocent lives > to understand that. > > During the land reform act in Kashmir The names of Hindu landlords > who were > only two in number were frequently projected as the exploiters and > blood-suckers to solidify the ranks of Muslims on religious > grounds for > nefarious political objectives. Ahmad Mir and Musmat Ashraf Begum > possessing4,202 kanals of land and 3,915 kanals of land > respectively were never > projected on the public mindscape because of the religion they > espoused. Two > Muslim shrines of Baba Reshi and Dastagir Sahib had a land grant > of ten > thousand kanals which are said to have been partially snatched > away perhaps > again on religious considerations. Despite the Hindu ruler, there > was no > Hindu shrine which had in its possession the same measure of land > to augment > and supplement its resources. > > Talking about current Islamisation of Kashmir , by changing the > names of > places I would quote you few examples. You have call AnantNag as > Islamabadthough even the official name is AnantNag . I wish you > would accept the fact > that this place AnantNag finds mention even in Bhagwad Gita , and > I am sure > you knoe Bhagwad Gita existed much before even Islam came to India. > > Again you have started calling the world famous Shankracharya Hill as > Takht-E-Suleiman , though the temple was built on Gopadari hill in > BC age. > > The hill whereShraika Temple is situated is aclled "hari Parbat" > which again > you have started to call "Koh-i-maran" . > > Junaid If you draw inspiration from Talibans....and still defend > the wrong > .......there is hardly i can do anything to help you. > > May God Bless you with Wisdom. > > Pawan Durani > > > > On 1 Oct 2007 15:34:12 -0000, junaid > wrote:> > > > > Mr. Pawan Durrani, > > > > Possibly you should have read Mridu Rai's book to understand why > Dogra> rule was 'Hindu' and why other rulers Mughals and Afghans > could not be > > described as essentially 'Islamic', though it was surely Muslims > who ruled. > > (By the way, there were no separate Turks and Mughals who came > to rule > > Kashmir). An Islamic rule would be one where laws are made on > the bases of > > Koran and Hadith, and would be called as Sharia. Both temporal > and spiritual > > realms would be regulated by it. Both civil and criminal law > would be > > quintessentially Sharia. And they are made by religious > scholars. This was > > not the case for Mughals or Afghans: It was either laws made by the > > sovereign or the tribal laws. And even though both may have > invoked Koran > > and Hadith, yet most of their content was inspired by local > needs than > > religious zeal or inspiration. (I should not be understood as > saying Islamic > > law is anyway superior to other laws, like tribal laws etc. Or > that Afghans > > or Mughal rule was any benign.) > > > > For Dogras, who drew a fake Rajput lineage, with an > opportunistic support > > from state-sponsored historians, both Dogra and British, the way > they> invoked Hinduism in ruling Kashmir was stupendous. It is no > secret that poor > > Kashmiri Muslim peasants were stripped bare by Dogra rulers to > fund temple > > constructions in not only Kashmir and Jammu, but in Punjab too. > The Dogras > > restarted the hated practice of Begar (forced labour), > originally invented > > by ancient Hindu rulers of Kashmir. Begar resulted in wide > spread death and > > destruction of Kashmir Muslims. Thousands of Muslim youth > perished carrying > > load, like mules, barefooted, to Maharaja's Gilgit frontier. And > while this > > was going on, Kashmir's Hindu population, laying exclusive claim to > > literacy, and through their landed influence, sustained this > terrible rule > > loyally. (And they were powerful even during Mughal and Afghan > times, when > > they occupied much of the bureaucratic positions). > > > > Dogras depended on the so-called Pandits to extract revenue from > Kashmir's> poor Muslim peasants as well as artisans. At times, > despite verbal protests > > from even the East India Company officials who were so brutal in > their own > > way, Gulab Singh took away half of the produce of the Muslim > peasants. In > > his greed to collect more booty he even taxed marriages among > Muslims. The > > Hindu Kashmiris were exempt. The Dogras took away the lands of > some leftover > > Muslim elite and reduced them to penury, but during this time, > the Hindu > > landlords expanded their estates. Thus a miniscule Hindu > population, not > > more than 5 percent, came to rule 95 percent Muslims of Kashmir. > That too > > brutally. > > > > Pawan Durrani should be given compensation for the grand estates his > > forefathers had to give up. But who will compensate all those > millions of > > rickety, malnourished, barely clothed Kashmiri Muslim peasants > who were not > > only materially degraded but dehumanized too? In 1947, by a > sleight of hand, > > and without bothering to ask Kashmiri Muslims, who constitute an > > overwhelming majority of its people, Kashmir was handed by a > Hindu ruler to > > India. In this, some Muslim political leaders were coaxed too; > they realized > > but only too late. During this time, many Kashmiri Muslim > leaders were > > forced into exile. During the same time, hundreds of thousands > of Muslims > > from Jammu were either forced to flee or massacred. > > > > A bearded Kashmir Muslim militant provokes a frenzied response > from Pawan, > > and he begins to shout: "Hatay Mauji, Islamic Fundamentalism hay > aau!" For > > him an Indian soldier with a tilak on his forehead, a saffron > ribbon around > > his waist, a poster of Shivji hanging inside his bunker is > Bharat Mata's > > secular poot. > > > > In 1990, Kashmir's Hindus made a choice: They wanted India. That > is why > > they left. No doubt there was a threat perception. Some Hindus > were killed. > > According to Sumantra Bose out of 273 killings by 20th January > 1990, almost > > 73 were Hindus. No doubt, disproportionate. Most of these were > highly> influential Hindus, including a Jan Sangh leader. No other > minority left. > > Even though, many Sikhs were killed in Chattisinghpura, (by who, > we should > > know by now) they remained in Kashmir. In a state-sponsored > exodus one and a > > half lakh Hindus were transported overnight to Jammu and other > Indian> cities. And remember it was a day after Jagmohan took over > as governor, and > > promised to punish Kashmiri Muslims. True to his word, after > many Hindus > > left, he imposed a protracted curfew strangulating Kashmir's > Muslims. Dozens > > of Kashmir's Muslims were massacred at a number of places. Gaw > Kadal, just > > being one example. > > > > In Jashne Azadi, nowhere is it said that 60000 Muslims have been > killed in > > 15 years. Although even by conservative estimates 80000 Kashmiri > Muslims> have been killed over these years (some believe that even > the 10000 odd > > disappeared have been eliminated too), but the film leaves it > open. It > > states how the actual number is widely conflicted. > > > > It is not Kashmiri Muslims who Arabicized Kashmiri names. (Give > examples> if you can). It is in fact Dogras who Sanskritised it, > and India which > > sustained it. Consider, for example, changing the popular name > Islamabad to > > an official Anantnag. And it is not Kashmiri Muslims who deny > Kashmir's> ancient Hindu rulers, but Kashmir's Hindus who deny the > existence of > > Kashmir's Muslims. It is as if all Kashmir is about is its > miniscule Hindus. > > It is as if the only tragedy in Kashmir is that of its Hindus. > As if death, > > destruction, plunder and rapine of its Muslims is not an issue > that merits > > world's attention. It is time world speaks about Kashmir's Muslims. > > > > Much has been spoken about Hindus. Many lethargic comparisons > have been > > made with Holocaust. Many chick pea-brained 'film makers' have > lamented that > > world remained silent, while Kashmir's Hindus got free salaries, > > reservations in education and tremendous material support and > publicity. It > > is time for appropriated voices to speak up. For stories buried > in fake > > encounters to be exhumed. For alternative histories and memories > to unsettle > > the state-sponsored, miniscule-made-mainstream, litanies. > > > > Pawan you really should run after Jashne-Azadi. Follow it > wherever it > > goes. It might tire you out of your ignorance, prejudice, and > hatred.> > > Mohamad Junaid > > > > > > > > Pawan Durrani wrote: > > > > Dear All: > > On Thursday September 20th Mr. Sanjay Kak's movie Jashn-e-Azadi > (yajynya> has > > become Jashn-e)was screened in the Louis McMillan Auditorium of > the Yale > > University. Rajni Ji and I attended the screening. > > > > The screening was sponsored by Ms Mridhu Rai, Associate Professor > > mridu.rai at yale.edu. She has recently published a book Hindu > Rulers, Muslim > > > > Subjects: Islam Rights & the history of Kashmir. (Apparently > this book was > > > > part of the motivation for Mr. Sanjay Kak to make the movie. > Given below > > in > > parenthesis is her back ground. > > > > (Mridu Rai joined the department in July 2001 as an assistant > professor.> She > > was educated at Delhi University; the Centre for Historical > Studies at > > Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; and Columbia University, > where she > > received a PhD in modern south Asian history. Her doctoral research > > focused > > on the problem of religion and politics in the making of protest > in modern > > > > Kashmir between the 1840s and the 1940s. In 2004 it culminated > in her > > book, > > Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of > Kashmir> < http://www.yale.edu/history/faculty/materials/rai- > hindu.html> . > > Professor > > Rai's new research turns to the region of Bihar, to explore the > > relationships between caste, territory, region and nation as > they evolved > > from the period of British colonial rule into the postcolonial) > > > > There were 23 people in all present in the screening hall. That > included> Mr. > > Sanjay Kak and us two. Most of the attendants were from the > South Asian > > stud > > department of Indian origin. There was one or two students of > Pakistani> origin and may be two or three of American and European > descent.> > > The documentary is about two and a half hour long monologue. The > thrust of > > > > the documentary is to manipulated to portray the burning desire > for the > > freedom among 'Kashmiris' (read Kashmiri Muslims). The movie > touches upon > > the 500 years of colonization of Kashmir. It was interesting to > note the > > wordings of narration and the imagery of this narration. Mr Kak > introduced> > > the Kalhanna's Rajatarangani as the Hindu rule of Kashmir. He > also stated > > the "Hindu" rule of Kashmir before 1948. But then he chooses to > describe> the > > 500 years of pre-Dogra rule as the colonial rule of Turks, Afghans, > > Mughals, > > and other nationalities as if it was not an Islamic rule. In > that one > > sentence he tries to pass the suffering under these colonizers > as the > > sufferings of Muslims and not of Hindus. That during this period > 100%> Kashmiri Hindu population was reduced to at most 25% of the > population was > > presented as Muslim suffering. He quotes Kalhanna "that Kashmir > can not be > > > > conquered by colonization but by spiritual merit", as the ethos of > > Kashmiri > > Muslims. That the Muslims (both foreign and the converted) were > the rulers > > under whose reign Kashmiri Hindu were massacred, humiliated and > forced out > > > > of Kashmir (as evidenced by the Saaraswats and Vaadama Ayers and > Kashmiri> of > > Gujarat) and converted to Islam is completely presented as the > sufferings> of the Muslims. > > > > That since the 1948 till 1990 the successive J&K Governments > were formed > > by > > the National conference (previously "Muslim Conference") and > the people > > at > > the helm were Kashmiri Muslims is also presented as the > colonization by > > the > > Indians. That this Government systematically marginalized the > Hindus of > > Kashmir by putting reservations for the majority, snatching any > landed> property with out compensation (there by violating the > property rights of > > a > > minority) is portrayed as the land reform act of the Government. > The sole > > > > livelihood of the Kashmiri Hindus through education was denied =3E and they > > were > > forced out of state (to achieve Islamization) is also supposed > to have > > happened because of the colonization by India. That 1947 > incursions of > > Pakistan and the development of Islamic Fundamentalism with > support from > > Pakistan and the outsiders is completely glossed over. Even > though the > > mention is made of the foreign Islamic mercenaries in Kashmir > but it is > > portrayed as acceptable and not such an important issue, where > as presence > > > > of Indian troops and the Indian tourists is presented as the > yoke on the > > local Muslims. (Who shown as pulling the tourists snowy upslope > of the > > Gulmarg.) > > > > The presentation of Shaheed (A Islamic category used for the > Shahaadat ) > > and > > the Mujahideen (An Islamic religious category used for the > fighters of the > > faith) is presented as freedom fighters. The time and again > portrayal of > > the > > "Muslim Cemeteries" and dead Muslim Mujahideen is lamentable > but their > > killing and raping of the innocent victims both hindu (and > Muslims) is > > accepted as the justifiable for the Azadi. > > Mr. Kak mentiones 200 dead and 160,000 migrated in bold numbers > with the > > small print of "in one year". One wonders why did he choose only > one year > > numbers to show about the Hindu sufferings but boldly says > 60,000 total > > dead > > or lost in the last 15 years. This choice is made show the > balance in his > > approach like a chameleon Indian leftist/secularist. > > > > Finally when the documentary was screened we were the first one > to raise > > hand for questions. We turned toward the audience and > challenged the very > > notion this being a struggle for the Azadi. We put forth that > this is > > movement for the Islamization of Kashmir. We also pointed out > the 500 > > years > > of colonization Mr. Kak mentions is 500 years of Islamic rule in > which our > > population was reduced from 1055 to 20% . It was Kashmiri Hindu > tragedies> which Mr. Kak is portraying as the Muslim tragedies. We > pointed out that > > the > > first act of this movement in 1990 was to throw out 400 hundred > thousand> Hindus from the valley and became refuge in their own > country. If it was a > > > > Azadi movement why would valley be cleansed of the non-Muslim > minorities.> That scenario fits the Islamization movement better. > We asked, why would > > all the imagery and the language of this movement be couched in the > > Islamic > > categorization? Why would Arabic be used instead of Kashmiri > language? Why > > would the names of the Kashmiri place names be changed to > Arabacized and > > Islamic names? Why would the past Hindu history be denied? Why would > > non-Kashmiri foreign Muslim mercenaries be allowed in and create > havoc in > > Kashmir? Why would Pakistan be so heavily involved? > > > > Mr. Kak had no answers for any of these; he tried to pass the > Islamic> language as the normal use of religion in freedom > movements. But I asked > > why > > was not inclusive religious symbolism used for the independence? > > Kak admitted to the audience that there was Jihad like situation > created> for > > Kashmiri Hindus who had to leave valley. Eventually I was > asked to > > allow > > others to ask questions. But there were only two other people > who asked > > one > > question each, one on the lines of secularism and the other, a > Pakistani,> gave some comments on state of JKLF in Pakistan. > > > > We attended the dinner after the movie and we continued to > occupy Mr. > > Kak's > > and several others attention on the dishonest portrayal of the > Kashmir> issue. During dinner we distributed the copies of > Ashokji Pandits > > Documentary ....And world remained silent.... to some of the > attendees and > > > > requested them to watch it and pass it on to other students. > > > > That is the story from Yale... > > > > Thanks > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > reader-list mailing list > reader-list at sarai.net > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > > > End of reader-list Digest, Vol 51, Issue 15 > ******************************************* > From radhikarajen at vsnl.net Fri Oct 12 13:47:34 2007 From: radhikarajen at vsnl.net (radhikarajen at vsnl.net) Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 13:17:34 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to Rakesh Sharma and his films. reader-list Digest, Vol 51, Issue 15 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Dear Rakesh, your concern for farmers , dalits and downtrodeen is commendable, that too particularly at the time of elections in the state of Gujarath. At the outset let me assure you I have no political axe to grind, as I am only exercising power of one to bring to your notice that you may mistake me as hindu sympathiser, I am not, as I belong to truely secular society, not psuedo secular. i respect all the faiths, as different paths in society to spiritual and intellectual wellbeing. Now, regarding your concerns for farmers death in Gujarath, may i ask you about the Vidarbha farmers also ? Is it that you are shying away from these vistims because the state is ruled by some other political party. ? Or are you having enough honesty and integrity to know what happened to 3470 crores of farmers funds as the vidharba package. ? For your kind information, these entire funds are siphoned off by hangers on and sycophants by spurious supplies of agro equipments which are unusable by farmers, pumps which cost just 4500/- are there for farmers at 14500/- so can I give you a flash back of vidarbha visit of manmohan Singh, the PM and his lady luck, Margaret Alva with big bindi, who made all the widows to wait for hours on empty stomachs as these bigwigs had sumptous lunch in the guest house. ? Would you like to know who are the real beneficiaries of vidarbha package. ?Are you man enough with creative intelligence to make a film about real Vidarbha and the farmers w ho are victimised by the real villains of the episode, ? Regards, radhikarajen at vsnl.net ----- Original Message ----- From: reader-list-request at sarai.net Date: Friday, October 12, 2007 10:58 am Subject: reader-list Digest, Vol 51, Issue 15 To: reader-list at sarai.net > Send reader-list mailing list submissions to > reader-list at sarai.net > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > reader-list-request at sarai.net > > You can reach the person managing the list at > reader-list-owner at sarai.net > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of reader-list digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Fwd: Final Solution revisited: An appeal from Rakesh Sharma > (Anivar Aravind) > 2. Re: Reply to Pawan (junaid) > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > --- > > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 00:08:47 +0530 > From: Anivar Aravind > Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Final Solution revisited: An appeal from > Rakesh Sharma > To: reader-list at sarai.net, commons-law at sarai.net, Greenyouth > > Message-ID: <470E6DB7.1090700 at gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="WINDOWS-1252"; format=flowed > > > > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: Final Solution revisited: An appeal from Rakesh Sharma > Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 18:50:35 +0530 > From: Rakesh Sharma > > > > > *Many people responded to the first mail with queries. This new, > revisedmailer incorporates the answers. Please forward this appeal > to other > like-minded institutions, organisations and individuals as well. * > > > > Over the last couple of years, some of you have spoken to me about > revisiting Final Solution and making a new film – /*Gujarat*//*: 5 > yearsafter the carnage*/. You'd be happy to know that I have been > filming in > Gujarat for the last several months for the follow-up film. The > filminghas been done in Modasa, Idar, Kalol, Halol, Godhra, > Lunawada, Baroda, > Chhota Udepur, Himmatnagar, Ahmedabad, Limdi, Bhavnagar, Amreli, > Rajkotetc. We've already done a bulk of our filming, though we > plan to > continue filming till the election results are announced and the new > Assembly is sworn in. > > > > We hope to offer a comprehensive film sometime next year. However, all > of us in the team also feel that we must release at least a short > version of the film /pre-elections/ to enable activists, NGOs and > othersto intervene during the electoral process by holding > screenings and > discussions. > > > > We aim to finish these in mid October and make them available on VCD. > These early versions would be available only in Gujarati as they are > most likely to be used in Gujarat during November 2007. > > > > I write to you to seek your assistance. While I have so far > managed all > the filming and editing related expenses personally (thanks to a grant > from the Singh Foundation and damages received from NYPD!), I'm now > seeking completion funds to be able to release the version in October. > Broadly speaking, we propose the following: > > > > a. To approach a broad network of individuals and like-minded > organisations and individuals for funding assistance. > > b. To invite contributions not exceeding Rs 10,000 from a single > organization and Rs 5,000 from an individual. > > c. Against the contribution, the individual/ organisation will > get a > credit in the film. The title would normally read - " */Funding > supportfrom/*" followed by the full list. > > d. The individual/ organisation will also get VCD copies of the film > against this contribution. The proposal is to offer > > * Contribution (individuals only): Rs 2000; VCDs offered: 21 > > * Contribution (organizations/ individuals): Rs 5000; VCDs offered:51 > > * Contribution (organizations only): Rs 10000; VCDs offered: 120 > > > > Cheques (Indian and non-Indian) should be made payable at Mumbai to > Rakesh Sharma. Send us an email to get the exact mailing address for > sending your cheques. > > > > We hope that these multiple copies would be distributed by the > concernedorganisation/ individual free to their activists, friends > and colleagues > so they can be circulated and screened widely, especially in Gujarat =3E before the forthcoming elections. The VCDs offered are total > number of > discs - the first film is on 2 VCDs while the farmer film is on a > singleVCD (ie, each set is 3 VCDs). > > > > As the offer is to distribute/ circulate the copies only in > Gujarat, do > let me know where in Gujarat to send the VCDs of the new film once > it is > ready. For those who do not have any direct connections in > Gujarat, the > option is to donate the copies to an activist organisation like Anhad > for their ongoing campaigns or one of the grassroots groups > helping me > film in Gujarat. We will send the VCDs directly to one of the > groups on > your behalf. We propose to have these VCDs become a part of the > Pirate-and-Circulate campaign in Gujarat > (Get-a-copy-free-if-you-promise-to-pirate-and-distribute-5-free- > copies!).We tried this strategy successfully in 2004 with Final > Solution - I urge > you to support this piracy! > > > > I request you to lend your support to the films under production. > Details about the proposed films are enclosed below. Please write > to me > personally at the earliest ( rakeshfilm at gmail.com > or PO Box 12023, Azad Nagar, Mumbai > 400053). Please forward the mailer to your mailing list. I am hoping > you'd persuade many others to support the film! > > > > With Gratitude > > > Rakesh Sharma > > > website: www.rakeshfilm.com > blog: rakeshindia.blogspot.com > > > > ps: Please do not circulate to the Press - we'd like no > speculation or > publicity till the films are formally released. > > > > We are aiming to finish only a version in end October – the Gujarati > version (no English subtitles). Please note that this offer is for the > circulation/ screening of VCDs of this version in Gujarat only – we > wouldn't be mailing any VCDs to anyone outside Gujarat. Post- > elections,when we actually do a final version of Final Solution > revisited, we will > make it available on DVD with English subtitles etc sometime in > mid 2008. > > > > The films currently being edited for an October release deal broadly > with the following: > > * * > > *After the Storm: * > > > > Five years after the carnage, what is the state of Relief and > Rehabilitation? The Supreme Court's intervention in carnage-related > cases has dominated media headlines, but what really is the true story > behind the victims' quest for Justice? Away from major cases like the > Naroda Patiya massacre or Gulberg or Best Bakery and Pandarwada, > what is > the fate of other FIRs and court cases filed by the victims? > > > > The film goes beyond highlighting the plight of the Muslim > community in > Gujarat. It probes other dimensions of the issue by specifically > lookingat the patterns of arrests and litigation. A majority of > those charged > with rioting, arson, murder etc are either tribals or Dalits and OBCs. > An analysis of those arrested from 32 police stations in Ahmedabad > suggests that of the 1577 detainees, only 30-odd were upper caste! Are > these footsoldiers victims too? Cynically recruited, then discarded, > left to rot in jails, what do the 'perpetrators of the violence feel > today about the VHP and the BJP? > > > > The film is likely to be in two parts of approximately an hour each, > both complete in themselves (to enable a separate showing of just one > part, if necessary) and may possibly be split into two films. > > > > *Seeds of Sorrow:* > > > > Though the BJP romped home with a brute majority in the 2002 assembly > elections, it suffered an electoral reverse during the 2004 Lok Sabha > elections. The BJP managed to get 14 seats while the Congress won the > other 12. The result is attributed in part to agitations by the > Sangh'sown Bharatiya Kisan Sabha, which was then agitating against > the power > tariff hike. In many pockets, it even asked its members to abstain > fromvoting, which perhaps also explains the far lower turnout for > the Lok > Sabha elections. > > > > Over the last several months, we have been tracking what can only be > termed as an unreported story - Farmer suicides in Gujarat . We have > primarily been filming in the Saurashtra region, though suicides > are not > confined to this belt. A few months ago, we got queries filed > under the > RTI Act to dig up details of all suicides. Though the government > denied us the data initially, after appeals and hearings, some details > have now been formally handed to us. While Modi recently told the > Gujarat Assembly that only 148 farmers have committed suicide in > Gujarat, the data handed to us is for 366 suicides! We have also > managedto dig up the data for all claims paid and denied under the > Kisan Bima > Yojana that cover farmers' accidental deaths. Of the 1200-odd claims, > several have been denied – we are now probing the grounds of > denial (eg, > was it actually a suicide reported as an accident to help fudge the > figures?) > > > > This film would also deal with the issue of farmer debts, BT cotton > cultivation, power tariff, irrigation (where is the promised Narmada > water?) and the opposition to SEZs in Rajula and Jasapara. > > > > (Apologies for any cross-posting) > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: 12 Oct 2007 05:25:03 -0000 > From: "junaid" > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Reply to Pawan > To: reader-list at sarai.net > Message-ID: <20071012052503.3807.qmail at webmail62.rediffmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > > Pawan, > > Ranbir Singh wanted to make Jammu the second Benaras. At Purmandel > Dogras and their minions fell over each other to construct new > lavish temples. Money from which came from Kashmiri Muslim > peasantry, who in a few years after the Dogra rule was foisted on > them, began to totally give up cultivation. Obviously because it > was no longer valuable to pursue it, since most of their produce > was appropriated by the landlords. One of the bigger ones was > called Sut Ram Razdan. His tales of cruelty are legendary in the > place I come from. You only have to listen to some Bhand Pather to > understand how the technologies of expropriation were employed by > Dogras and their supporters, on peasants. > > It is a fact that most of the shrines that you have mentioned > complained to the spineless British that their funds were drying > up, while Hindu places of worship like Umanagri in Islamabad was > given huge land grants. The drain of hard-produced wealth by > Kashmiri Muslim peasants and artisans went to Jammmu and into the > hands of Kashmiri Pandits, most of whom did nothing productive. > > I can't go on spoon feeding you like this without you getting up > from your armchair, and deciding to read some more serious > literature than Organiser and Panchjanya. > > On "Takht-e-Sulaimani" and "Koh-i-Maran". You need to know the > difference between Persian and Arabic. These words are not Arabic. > That is why I am telling you, you need some self control. Think > before you stink. In anycase, it was the Kashmiri Hindus who were > first to learn Persian to land jobs in Mughal and Afghan > adminstration. Well in any case Persion influence on Kashmiri > language had only little to do with religion. It had more to do > with the trajectory of cultural influence. But Hindus in Kashmir > brought in Sanskrit without any apparent reason, but purely > religious and opportunistic. This was not only an attempt to > assert dominance, over the majority community, as a religious > community which shared their religion with the ruler, but also to > liguistically lay sole claim to adminstrative employment. > > > Islamabad was established as a town by Mughal governor Islam Khan. > It had nothing to do with Islam, the religion. From a flourishing > town it saw much depredation. Dogras renamed it Anantnag--the land > of innumerable springs. The name was sanskritised, on advice of > Kashmiri Hindus for whom most of these springs had acquired a > religious value. Small little temples came up on the sides of > these springs over time. One such example is in Verinag--the fount > of river Jhelum--where a temple was placed within an enclosure > constructed by the Mughals. Despite much oppresion Islamabad's > residents continue to call it Islamabad. In early 1990's when > popular struggle for freedom started in Kashmir, Indian forces > would beat up and arrest shopkeepers who had Islamabad written on > their billboards. In a matter of few months thousands of them put > distinct colour patches on them to erase Islamabad and wrote > Anantnag over it. Some stubborn people, however, kept the original. > > Jihad. Taliban. Say something substantial! It is all wind. Like > your name, Pawan. In Sanskrit. > > Junaid > >   > Junaid, > > A long mail from you , and I would like to few of your points only > for time > being . As I have cant write that long for my life is not > dedicated to > "Jihad" & "Libeartion" in the name of relegion. > > I have learnt to live and behave in a multi religious & cultural > society. It > may take "some" many ages and at the cost of millions of more > innocent lives > to understand that. > > During the land reform act in Kashmir The names of Hindu landlords > who were > only two in number were frequently projected as the exploiters and > blood-suckers to solidify the ranks of Muslims on religious > grounds for > nefarious political objectives. Ahmad Mir and Musmat Ashraf Begum > possessing4,202 kanals of land and 3,915 kanals of land > respectively were never > projected on the public mindscape because of the religion they > espoused. Two > Muslim shrines of Baba Reshi and Dastagir Sahib had a land grant > of ten > thousand kanals which are said to have been partially snatched > away perhaps > again on religious considerations. Despite the Hindu ruler, there > was no > Hindu shrine which had in its possession the same measure of land > to augment > and supplement its resources. > > Talking about current Islamisation of Kashmir , by changing the > names of > places I would quote you few examples. You have call AnantNag as > Islamabadthough even the official name is AnantNag . I wish you > would accept the fact > that this place AnantNag finds mention even in Bhagwad Gita , and > I am sure > you knoe Bhagwad Gita existed much before even Islam came to India. > > Again you have started calling the world famous Shankracharya Hill as > Takht-E-Suleiman , though the temple was built on Gopadari hill in > BC age. > > The hill whereShraika Temple is situated is aclled "hari Parbat" > which again > you have started to call "Koh-i-maran" . > > Junaid If you draw inspiration from Talibans....and still defend > the wrong > .......there is hardly i can do anything to help you. > > May God Bless you with Wisdom. > > Pawan Durani > > > > On 1 Oct 2007 15:34:12 -0000, junaid > wrote:> > > > > Mr. Pawan Durrani, > > > > Possibly you should have read Mridu Rai's book to understand why > Dogra> rule was 'Hindu' and why other rulers Mughals and Afghans > could not be > > described as essentially 'Islamic', though it was surely Muslims > who ruled. > > (By the way, there were no separate Turks and Mughals who came > to rule > > Kashmir). An Islamic rule would be one where laws are made on > the bases of > > Koran and Hadith, and would be called as Sharia. Both temporal > and spiritual > > realms would be regulated by it. Both civil and criminal law > would be > > quintessentially Sharia. And they are made by religious > scholars. This was > > not the case for Mughals or Afghans: It was either laws made by the > > sovereign or the tribal laws. And even though both may have > invoked Koran > > and Hadith, yet most of their content was inspired by local > needs than > > religious zeal or inspiration. (I should not be understood as > saying Islamic > > law is anyway superior to other laws, like tribal laws etc. Or > that Afghans > > or Mughal rule was any benign.) > > > > For Dogras, who drew a fake Rajput lineage, with an > opportunistic support > > from state-sponsored historians, both Dogra and British, the way > they> invoked Hinduism in ruling Kashmir was stupendous. It is no > secret that poor > > Kashmiri Muslim peasants were stripped bare by Dogra rulers to > fund temple > > constructions in not only Kashmir and Jammu, but in Punjab too. > The Dogras > > restarted the hated practice of Begar (forced labour), > originally invented > > by ancient Hindu rulers of Kashmir. Begar resulted in wide > spread death and > > destruction of Kashmir Muslims. Thousands of Muslim youth > perished carrying > > load, like mules, barefooted, to Maharaja's Gilgit frontier. And > while this > > was going on, Kashmir's Hindu population, laying exclusive claim to > > literacy, and through their landed influence, sustained this > terrible rule > > loyally. (And they were powerful even during Mughal and Afghan > times, when > > they occupied much of the bureaucratic positions). > > > > Dogras depended on the so-called Pandits to extract revenue from > Kashmir's> poor Muslim peasants as well as artisans. At times, > despite verbal protests > > from even the East India Company officials who were so brutal in > their own > > way, Gulab Singh took away half of the produce of the Muslim > peasants. In > > his greed to collect more booty he even taxed marriages among > Muslims. The > > Hindu Kashmiris were exempt. The Dogras took away the lands of > some leftover > > Muslim elite and reduced them to penury, but during this time, > the Hindu > > landlords expanded their estates. Thus a miniscule Hindu > population, not > > more than 5 percent, came to rule 95 percent Muslims of Kashmir. > That too > > brutally. > > > > Pawan Durrani should be given compensation for the grand estates his > > forefathers had to give up. But who will compensate all those > millions of > > rickety, malnourished, barely clothed Kashmiri Muslim peasants > who were not > > only materially degraded but dehumanized too? In 1947, by a > sleight of hand, > > and without bothering to ask Kashmiri Muslims, who constitute an > > overwhelming majority of its people, Kashmir was handed by a > Hindu ruler to > > India. In this, some Muslim political leaders were coaxed too; > they realized > > but only too late. During this time, many Kashmiri Muslim > leaders were > > forced into exile. During the same time, hundreds of thousands > of Muslims > > from Jammu were either forced to flee or massacred. > > > > A bearded Kashmir Muslim militant provokes a frenzied response > from Pawan, > > and he begins to shout: "Hatay Mauji, Islamic Fundamentalism hay > aau!" For > > him an Indian soldier with a tilak on his forehead, a saffron > ribbon around > > his waist, a poster of Shivji hanging inside his bunker is > Bharat Mata's > > secular poot. > > > > In 1990, Kashmir's Hindus made a choice: They wanted India. That > is why > > they left. No doubt there was a threat perception. Some Hindus > were killed. > > According to Sumantra Bose out of 273 killings by 20th January > 1990, almost > > 73 were Hindus. No doubt, disproportionate. Most of these were > highly> influential Hindus, including a Jan Sangh leader. No other > minority left. > > Even though, many Sikhs were killed in Chattisinghpura, (by who, > we should > > know by now) they remained in Kashmir. In a state-sponsored > exodus one and a > > half lakh Hindus were transported overnight to Jammu and other > Indian> cities. And remember it was a day after Jagmohan took over > as governor, and > > promised to punish Kashmiri Muslims. True to his word, after > many Hindus > > left, he imposed a protracted curfew strangulating Kashmir's > Muslims. Dozens > > of Kashmir's Muslims were massacred at a number of places. Gaw > Kadal, just > > being one example. > > > > In Jashne Azadi, nowhere is it said that 60000 Muslims have been > killed in > > 15 years. Although even by conservative estimates 80000 Kashmiri > Muslims> have been killed over these years (some believe that even > the 10000 odd > > disappeared have been eliminated too), but the film leaves it > open. It > > states how the actual number is widely conflicted. > > > > It is not Kashmiri Muslims who Arabicized Kashmiri names. (Give > examples> if you can). It is in fact Dogras who Sanskritised it, > and India which > > sustained it. Consider, for example, changing the popular name > Islamabad to > > an official Anantnag. And it is not Kashmiri Muslims who deny > Kashmir's> ancient Hindu rulers, but Kashmir's Hindus who deny the > existence of > > Kashmir's Muslims. It is as if all Kashmir is about is its > miniscule Hindus. > > It is as if the only tragedy in Kashmir is that of its Hindus. > As if death, > > destruction, plunder and rapine of its Muslims is not an issue > that merits > > world's attention. It is time world speaks about Kashmir's Muslims. > > > > Much has been spoken about Hindus. Many lethargic comparisons > have been > > made with Holocaust. Many chick pea-brained 'film makers' have > lamented that > > world remained silent, while Kashmir's Hindus got free salaries, > > reservations in education and tremendous material support and > publicity. It > > is time for appropriated voices to speak up. For stories buried > in fake > > encounters to be exhumed. For alternative histories and memories > to unsettle > > the state-sponsored, miniscule-made-mainstream, litanies. > > > > Pawan you really should run after Jashne-Azadi. Follow it > wherever it > > goes. It might tire you out of your ignorance, prejudice, and > hatred.> > > Mohamad Junaid > > > > > > > > Pawan Durrani wrote: > > > > Dear All: > > On Thursday September 20th Mr. Sanjay Kak's movie Jashn-e-Azadi > (yajynya> has > > become Jashn-e)was screened in the Louis McMillan Auditorium of > the Yale > > University. Rajni Ji and I attended the screening. > > > > The screening was sponsored by Ms Mridhu Rai, Associate Professor > > mridu.rai at yale.edu. She has recently published a book Hindu > Rulers, Muslim > > > > Subjects: Islam Rights & the history of Kashmir. (Apparently > this book was > > > > part of the motivation for Mr. Sanjay Kak to make the movie. > Given below > > in > > parenthesis is her back ground. > > > > (Mridu Rai joined the department in July 2001 as an assistant > professor.> She > > was educated at Delhi University; the Centre for Historical > Studies at > > Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; and Columbia University, > where she > > received a PhD in modern south Asian history. Her doctoral research > > focused > > on the problem of religion and politics in the making of protest > in modern > > > > Kashmir between the 1840s and the 1940s. In 2004 it culminated > in her > > book, > > Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of > Kashmir> < http://www.yale.edu/history/faculty/materials/rai- > hindu.html> . > > Professor > > Rai's new research turns to the region of Bihar, to explore the > > relationships between caste, territory, region and nation as > they evolved > > from the period of British colonial rule into the postcolonial) > > > > There were 23 people in all present in the screening hall. That > included> Mr. > > Sanjay Kak and us two. Most of the attendants were from the > South Asian > > stud > > department of Indian origin. There was one or two students of > Pakistani> origin and may be two or three of American and European > descent.> > > The documentary is about two and a half hour long monologue. The > thrust of > > > > the documentary is to manipulated to portray the burning desire > for the > > freedom among 'Kashmiris' (read Kashmiri Muslims). The movie > touches upon > > the 500 years of colonization of Kashmir. It was interesting to > note the > > wordings of narration and the imagery of this narration. Mr Kak > introduced> > > the Kalhanna's Rajatarangani as the Hindu rule of Kashmir. He > also stated > > the "Hindu" rule of Kashmir before 1948. But then he chooses to > describe> the > > 500 years of pre-Dogra rule as the colonial rule of Turks, Afghans, > > Mughals, > > and other nationalities as if it was not an Islamic rule. In > that one > > sentence he tries to pass the suffering under these colonizers > as the > > sufferings of Muslims and not of Hindus. That during this period > 100%> Kashmiri Hindu population was reduced to at most 25% of the > population was > > presented as Muslim suffering. He quotes Kalhanna "that Kashmir > can not be > > > > conquered by colonization but by spiritual merit", as the ethos of > > Kashmiri > > Muslims. That the Muslims (both foreign and the converted) were > the rulers > > under whose reign Kashmiri Hindu were massacred, humiliated and > forced out > > > > of Kashmir (as evidenced by the Saaraswats and Vaadama Ayers and > Kashmiri> of > > Gujarat) and converted to Islam is completely presented as the > sufferings> of the Muslims. > > > > That since the 1948 till 1990 the successive J&K Governments > were formed > > by > > the National conference (previously "Muslim Conference") and > the people > > at > > the helm were Kashmiri Muslims is also presented as the > colonization by > > the > > Indians. That this Government systematically marginalized the > Hindus of > > Kashmir by putting reservations for the majority, snatching any > landed> property with out compensation (there by violating the > property rights of > > a > > minority) is portrayed as the land reform act of the Government. > The sole > > > > livelihood of the Kashmiri Hindus through education was denied > and they > > were > > forced out of state (to achieve Islamization) is also supposed > to have > > happened because of the colonization by India. That 1947 > incursions of > > Pakistan and the development of Islamic Fundamentalism with > support from > > Pakistan and the outsiders is completely glossed over. Even > though the > > mention is made of the foreign Islamic mercenaries in Kashmir > but it is > > portrayed as acceptable and not such an important issue, where > as presence > > > > of Indian troops and the Indian tourists is presented as the > yoke on the > > local Muslims. (Who shown as pulling the tourists snowy upslope > of the > > Gulmarg.) > > > > The presentation of Shaheed (A Islamic category used for the > Shahaadat ) > > and > > the Mujahideen (An Islamic religious category used for the > fighters of the > > faith) is presented as freedom fighters. The time and again > portrayal of > > the > > "Muslim Cemeteries" and dead Muslim Mujahideen is lamentable > but their > > killing and raping of the innocent victims both hindu (and > Muslims) is > > accepted as the justifiable for the Azadi. > > Mr. Kak mentiones 200 dead and 160,000 migrated in bold numbers > with the > > small print of "in one year". One wonders why did he choose only > one year > > numbers to show about the Hindu sufferings but boldly says > 60,000 total > > dead > > or lost in the last 15 years. This choice is made show the > balance in his > > approach like a chameleon Indian leftist/secularist. > > > > Finally when the documentary was screened we were the first one > to raise > > hand for questions. We turned toward the audience and > challenged the very > > notion this being a struggle for the Azadi. We put forth that > this is > > movement for the Islamization of Kashmir. We also pointed out > the 500 > > years > > of colonization Mr. Kak mentions is 500 years of Islamic rule in > which our > > population was reduced from 1055 to 20% . It was Kashmiri Hindu > tragedies> which Mr. Kak is portraying as the Muslim tragedies. We > pointed out that > > the > > first act of this movement in 1990 was to throw out 400 hundred > thousand> Hindus from the valley and became refuge in their own > country. If it was a > > > > Azadi movement why would valley be cleansed of the non-Muslim > minorities.> That scenario fits the Islamization movement better. > We asked, why would > > all the imagery and the language of this movement be couched in the > > Islamic > > categorization? Why would Arabic be used instead of Kashmiri > language? Why > > would the names of the Kashmiri place names be changed to > Arabacized and > > Islamic names? Why would the past Hindu history be denied? Why would > > non-Kashmiri foreign Muslim mercenaries be allowed in and create > havoc in > > Kashmir? Why would Pakistan be so heavily involved? > > > > Mr. Kak had no answers for any of these; he tried to pass the > Islamic> language as the normal use of religion in freedom > movements. But I asked > > why > > was not inclusive religious symbolism used for the independence? > > Kak admitted to the audience that there was Jihad like situation > created> for > > Kashmiri Hindus who had to leave valley. Eventually I was > asked to > > allow > > others to ask questions. But there were only two other people > who asked > > one > > question each, one on the lines of secularism and the other, a > Pakistani,> gave some comments on state of JKLF in Pakistan. > > > > We attended the dinner after the movie and we continued to > occupy Mr. > > Kak's > > and several others attention on the dishonest portrayal of the > Kashmir> issue. During dinner we distributed the copies of > Ashokji Pandits > > Documentary ....And world remained silent.... to some of the > attendees and > > > > requested them to watch it and pass it on to other students. > > > > That is the story from Yale... > > > > Thanks > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > reader-list mailing list > reader-list at sarai.net > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > > > End of reader-list Digest, Vol 51, Issue 15 > ******************************************* > From radhikarajen at vsnl.net Fri Oct 12 13:56:03 2007 From: radhikarajen at vsnl.net (radhikarajen at vsnl.net) Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 13:26:03 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to junaid and pawan. reader-list Digest, Vol 51, Issue 15 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Dear Junaid and Pawan, in slavery the nation with british was fed with history that muslims and hindus fought with each other for their faith, but in mahatmas words, there is no proof that they fought each other for faith , may be for the kingdoms. In the present context, when these sections of a secular society fight with each other, who is the beneficiary ? neither of them, but evangelists like Bush and Sonia who want strife for the vote garnering, and to be in power being in minority, the christians. The faith, christian by itself is not bad, is another path to realise the almighty as percieved by that section of the society, But in secular India where all faiths are respected and co-exist with each other, by these fights over faiths with hindu and muslim, it is Bush and Sonia who are raping the benefits by looting the wealth of the society. So wake up, each of the individuals in the nation, respect your faith, follow it, but there is no point in degrading each other and fighting with each other to amke some dummies of another faith push the society into economic slavery. Regards, radhikarajen at vsnl.net ----- Original Message ----- From: reader-list-request at sarai.net Date: Friday, October 12, 2007 10:58 am Subject: reader-list Digest, Vol 51, Issue 15 To: reader-list at sarai.net > Send reader-list mailing list submissions to > reader-list at sarai.net > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > reader-list-request at sarai.net > > You can reach the person managing the list at > reader-list-owner at sarai.net > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of reader-list digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Fwd: Final Solution revisited: An appeal from Rakesh Sharma > (Anivar Aravind) > 2. Re: Reply to Pawan (junaid) > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > --- > > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 00:08:47 +0530 > From: Anivar Aravind > Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Final Solution revisited: An appeal from > Rakesh Sharma > To: reader-list at sarai.net, commons-law at sarai.net, Greenyouth > > Message-ID: <470E6DB7.1090700 at gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="WINDOWS-1252"; format=flowed > > > > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: Final Solution revisited: An appeal from Rakesh Sharma > Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 18:50:35 +0530 > From: Rakesh Sharma > > > > > *Many people responded to the first mail with queries. This new, > revisedmailer incorporates the answers. Please forward this appeal > to other > like-minded institutions, organisations and individuals as well. * > > > > Over the last couple of years, some of you have spoken to me about > revisiting Final Solution and making a new film – /*Gujarat*//*: 5 > yearsafter the carnage*/. You'd be happy to know that I have been > filming in > Gujarat for the last several months for the follow-up film. The > filminghas been done in Modasa, Idar, Kalol, Halol, Godhra, > Lunawada, Baroda, > Chhota Udepur, Himmatnagar, Ahmedabad, Limdi, Bhavnagar, Amreli, > Rajkotetc. We've already done a bulk of our filming, though we > plan to > continue filming till the election results are announced and the new > Assembly is sworn in. > > > > We hope to offer a comprehensive film sometime next year. However, all > of us in the team also feel that we must release at least a short > version of the film /pre-elections/ to enable activists, NGOs and > othersto intervene during the electoral process by holding > screenings and > discussions. > > > > We aim to finish these in mid October and make them available on VCD. > These early versions would be available only in Gujarati as they are > most likely to be used in Gujarat during November 2007. > > > > I write to you to seek your assistance. While I have so far > managed all > the filming and editing related expenses personally (thanks to a grant > from the Singh Foundation and damages received from NYPD!), I'm now > seeking completion funds to be able to release the version in October. > Broadly speaking, we propose the following: > > > > a. To approach a broad network of individuals and like-minded > organisations and individuals for funding assistance. > > b. To invite contributions not exceeding Rs 10,000 from a single > organization and Rs 5,000 from an individual. > > c. Against the contribution, the individual/ organisation will > get a > credit in the film. The title would normally read - " */Funding > supportfrom/*" followed by the full list. > > d. The individual/ organisation will also get VCD copies of the film > against this contribution. The proposal is to offer > > * Contribution (individuals only): Rs 2000; VCDs offered: 21 > > * Contribution (organizations/ individuals): Rs 5000; VCDs offered:51 > > * Contribution (organizations only): Rs 10000; VCDs offered: 120 > > > > Cheques (Indian and non-Indian) should be made payable at Mumbai to > Rakesh Sharma. Send us an email to get the exact mailing address for > sending your cheques. > > > > We hope that these multiple copies would be distributed by the > concernedorganisation/ individual free to their activists, friends > and colleagues > so they can be circulated and screened widely, especially in Gujarat > before the forthcoming elections. The VCDs offered are total > number of > discs - the first film is on 2 VCDs while the farmer film is on a > singleVCD (ie, each set is 3 VCDs). > > > > As the offer is to distribute/ circulate the copies only in > Gujarat, do > let me know where in Gujarat to send the VCDs of the new film once > it is > ready. For those who do not have any direct connections in > Gujarat, the =3E option is to donate the copies to an activist organisation like Anhad > for their ongoing campaigns or one of the grassroots groups > helping me > film in Gujarat. We will send the VCDs directly to one of the > groups on > your behalf. We propose to have these VCDs become a part of the > Pirate-and-Circulate campaign in Gujarat > (Get-a-copy-free-if-you-promise-to-pirate-and-distribute-5-free- > copies!).We tried this strategy successfully in 2004 with Final > Solution - I urge > you to support this piracy! > > > > I request you to lend your support to the films under production. > Details about the proposed films are enclosed below. Please write > to me > personally at the earliest ( rakeshfilm at gmail.com > or PO Box 12023, Azad Nagar, Mumbai > 400053). Please forward the mailer to your mailing list. I am hoping > you'd persuade many others to support the film! > > > > With Gratitude > > > Rakesh Sharma > > > website: www.rakeshfilm.com > blog: rakeshindia.blogspot.com > > > > ps: Please do not circulate to the Press - we'd like no > speculation or > publicity till the films are formally released. > > > > We are aiming to finish only a version in end October – the Gujarati > version (no English subtitles). Please note that this offer is for the > circulation/ screening of VCDs of this version in Gujarat only – we > wouldn't be mailing any VCDs to anyone outside Gujarat. Post- > elections,when we actually do a final version of Final Solution > revisited, we will > make it available on DVD with English subtitles etc sometime in > mid 2008. > > > > The films currently being edited for an October release deal broadly > with the following: > > * * > > *After the Storm: * > > > > Five years after the carnage, what is the state of Relief and > Rehabilitation? The Supreme Court's intervention in carnage-related > cases has dominated media headlines, but what really is the true story > behind the victims' quest for Justice? Away from major cases like the > Naroda Patiya massacre or Gulberg or Best Bakery and Pandarwada, > what is > the fate of other FIRs and court cases filed by the victims? > > > > The film goes beyond highlighting the plight of the Muslim > community in > Gujarat. It probes other dimensions of the issue by specifically > lookingat the patterns of arrests and litigation. A majority of > those charged > with rioting, arson, murder etc are either tribals or Dalits and OBCs. > An analysis of those arrested from 32 police stations in Ahmedabad > suggests that of the 1577 detainees, only 30-odd were upper caste! Are > these footsoldiers victims too? Cynically recruited, then discarded, > left to rot in jails, what do the 'perpetrators of the violence feel > today about the VHP and the BJP? > > > > The film is likely to be in two parts of approximately an hour each, > both complete in themselves (to enable a separate showing of just one > part, if necessary) and may possibly be split into two films. > > > > *Seeds of Sorrow:* > > > > Though the BJP romped home with a brute majority in the 2002 assembly > elections, it suffered an electoral reverse during the 2004 Lok Sabha > elections. The BJP managed to get 14 seats while the Congress won the > other 12. The result is attributed in part to agitations by the > Sangh'sown Bharatiya Kisan Sabha, which was then agitating against > the power > tariff hike. In many pockets, it even asked its members to abstain > fromvoting, which perhaps also explains the far lower turnout for > the Lok > Sabha elections. > > > > Over the last several months, we have been tracking what can only be > termed as an unreported story - Farmer suicides in Gujarat . We have > primarily been filming in the Saurashtra region, though suicides > are not > confined to this belt. A few months ago, we got queries filed > under the > RTI Act to dig up details of all suicides. Though the government > denied us the data initially, after appeals and hearings, some details > have now been formally handed to us. While Modi recently told the > Gujarat Assembly that only 148 farmers have committed suicide in > Gujarat, the data handed to us is for 366 suicides! We have also > managedto dig up the data for all claims paid and denied under the > Kisan Bima > Yojana that cover farmers' accidental deaths. Of the 1200-odd claims, > several have been denied – we are now probing the grounds of > denial (eg, > was it actually a suicide reported as an accident to help fudge the > figures?) > > > > This film would also deal with the issue of farmer debts, BT cotton > cultivation, power tariff, irrigation (where is the promised Narmada > water?) and the opposition to SEZs in Rajula and Jasapara. > > > > (Apologies for any cross-posting) > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: 12 Oct 2007 05:25:03 -0000 > From: "junaid" > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Reply to Pawan > To: reader-list at sarai.net > Message-ID: <20071012052503.3807.qmail at webmail62.rediffmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > > Pawan, > > Ranbir Singh wanted to make Jammu the second Benaras. At Purmandel > Dogras and their minions fell over each other to construct new > lavish temples. Money from which came from Kashmiri Muslim > peasantry, who in a few years after the Dogra rule was foisted on > them, began to totally give up cultivation. Obviously because it > was no longer valuable to pursue it, since most of their produce > was appropriated by the landlords. One of the bigger ones was > called Sut Ram Razdan. His tales of cruelty are legendary in the > place I come from. You only have to listen to some Bhand Pather to > understand how the technologies of expropriation were employed by > Dogras and their supporters, on peasants. > > It is a fact that most of the shrines that you have mentioned > complained to the spineless British that their funds were drying > up, while Hindu places of worship like Umanagri in Islamabad was > given huge land grants. The drain of hard-produced wealth by > Kashmiri Muslim peasants and artisans went to Jammmu and into the > hands of Kashmiri Pandits, most of whom did nothing productive. > > I can't go on spoon feeding you like this without you getting up > from your armchair, and deciding to read some more serious > literature than Organiser and Panchjanya. > > On "Takht-e-Sulaimani" and "Koh-i-Maran". You need to know the > difference between Persian and Arabic. These words are not Arabic. > That is why I am telling you, you need some self control. Think > before you stink. In any case, it was the Kashmiri Hindus who were > first to learn Persian to land jobs in Mughal and Afghan > adminstration. Well in any case Persion influence on Kashmiri > language had only little to do with religion. It had more to do > with the trajectory of cultural influence. But Hindus in Kashmir > brought in Sanskrit without any apparent reason, but purely > religious and opportunistic. This was not only an attempt to > assert dominance, over the majority community, as a religious > community which shared their religion with the ruler, but also to > liguistically lay sole claim to adminstrative employment. > > > Islamabad was established as a town by Mughal governor Islam Khan. > It had nothing to do with Islam, the religion. From a flourishing > town it saw much depredation. Dogras renamed it Anantnag--the land > of innumerable springs. The name was sanskritised, on advice of > Kashmiri Hindus for whom most of these springs had acquired a > religious value. Small little temples came up on the sides of > these springs over time. One such example is in Verinag--the fount > of river Jhelum--where a temple was placed within an enclosure > constructed by the Mughals. Despite much oppresion Islamabad's > residents continue to call it Islamabad. In early 1990's when > popular struggle for freedom started in Kashmir, Indian forces > would beat up and arrest shopkeepers who had Islamabad written on > their billboards. In a matter of few months thousands of them put > distinct colour patches on them to erase Islamabad and wrote > Anantnag over it. Some stubborn people, however, kept the original. > > Jihad. Taliban. Say something substantial! It is all wind. Like > your name, Pawan. In Sanskrit. > > Junaid > >   > Junaid, > > A long mail from you , and I would like to few of your points only > for time > being . As I have cant write that long for my life is not > dedicated to > "Jihad" & "Libeartion" in the name of relegion. > > I have learnt to live and behave in a multi religious & cultural > society. It > may take "some" many ages and at the cost of millions of more > innocent lives > to understand that. > > During the land reform act in Kashmir The names of Hindu landlords > who were > only two in number were frequently projected as the exploiters and > blood-suckers to solidify the ranks of Muslims on religious > grounds for > nefarious political objectives. Ahmad Mir and Musmat Ashraf Begum > possessing4,202 kanals of land and 3,915 kanals of land > respectively were never > projected on the public mindscape because of the religion they > espoused. Two > Muslim shrines of Baba Reshi and Dastagir Sahib had a land grant > of ten > thousand kanals which are said to have been partially snatched > away perhaps > again on religious considerations. Despite the Hindu ruler, there > was no > Hindu shrine which had in its possession the same measure of land > to augment > and supplement its resources. > > Talking about current Islamisation of Kashmir , by changing the > names of > places I would quote you few examples. You have call AnantNag as > Islamabadthough even the official name is AnantNag . I wish you > would accept the fact > that this place AnantNag finds mention even in Bhagwad Gita , and > I am sure > you knoe Bhagwad Gita existed much before even Islam came to India. > > Again you have started calling the world famous Shankracharya Hill as > Takht-E-Suleiman , though the temple was built on Gopadari hill in > BC age. > > The hill whereShraika Temple is situated is aclled "hari Parbat" > which again > you have started to call "Koh-i-maran" . > > Junaid If you draw inspiration from Talibans....and still defend > the wrong > .......there is hardly i can do anything to help you. > > May God Bless you with Wisdom. > > Pawan Durani > > > > On 1 Oct 2007 15:34:12 -0000, junaid > wrote:> > > > > Mr. Pawan Durrani, > > > > Possibly you should have read Mridu Rai's book to understand why > Dogra> rule was 'Hindu' and why other rulers Mughals and Afghans > could not be > > described as essentially 'Islamic', though it was surely Muslims > who ruled. > > (By the way, there were no separate Turks and Mughals who came > to rule > > Kashmir). An Islamic rule would be one where laws are made on > the bases of > > Koran and Hadith, and would be called as Sharia. Both temporal > and spiritual > > realms would be regulated by it. Both civil and criminal law > would be > > quintessentially Sharia. And they are made by religious > scholars. This was > > not the case for Mughals or Afghans: It was either laws made by the > > sovereign or the tribal laws. And even though both may have > invoked Koran > > and Hadith, yet most of their content was inspired by local > needs than > > religious zeal or inspiration. (I should not be understood as > saying Islamic > > law is anyway superior to other laws, like tribal laws etc. Or > that Afghans > > or Mughal rule was any benign.) > > > > For Dogras, who drew a fake Rajput lineage, with an > opportunistic support > > from state-sponsored historians, both Dogra and British, the way > they> invoked Hinduism in ruling Kashmir was stupendous. It is no > secret that poor > > Kashmiri Muslim peasants were stripped bare by Dogra rulers to > fund temple > > constructions in not only Kashmir and Jammu, but in Punjab too. > The Dogras > > restarted the hated practice of Begar (forced labour), > originally invented > > by ancient Hindu rulers of Kashmir. Begar resulted in wide > spread death and > > destruction of Kashmir Muslims. Thousands of Muslim youth > perished carrying > > load, like mules, barefooted, to Maharaja's Gilgit frontier. And > while this > > was going on, Kashmir's Hindu population, laying exclusive claim to > > literacy, and through their landed influence, sustained this > terrible rule > > loyally. (And they were powerful even during Mughal and Afghan > times, when > > they occupied much of the bureaucratic positions). > > > > Dogras depended on the so-called Pandits to extract revenue from > Kashmir's> poor Muslim peasants as well as artisans. At times, > despite verbal protests > > from even the East India Company officials who were so brutal in > their own > > way, Gulab Singh took away half of the produce of the Muslim > peasants. In > > his greed to collect more booty he even taxed marriages among > Muslims. The > > Hindu Kashmiris were exempt. The Dogras took away the lands of > some leftover > > Muslim elite and reduced them to penury, but during this time, > the Hindu > > landlords expanded their estates. Thus a miniscule Hindu > population, not > > more than 5 percent, came to rule 95 percent Muslims of Kashmir. > That too > > brutally. > > > > Pawan Durrani should be given compensation for the grand estates his > > forefathers had to give up. But who will compensate all those > millions of > > rickety, malnourished, barely clothed Kashmiri Muslim peasants > who were not > > only materially degraded but dehumanized too? In 1947, by a > sleight of hand, > > and without bothering to ask Kashmiri Muslims, who constitute an > > overwhelming majority of its people, Kashmir was handed by a > Hindu ruler to > > India. In this, some Muslim political leaders were coaxed too; > they realized > > but only too late. During this time, many Kashmiri Muslim > leaders were > > forced into exile. During the same time, hundreds of thousands > of Muslims > > from Jammu were either forced to flee or massacred. > > > > A bearded Kashmir Muslim militant provokes a frenzied response > from Pawan, > > and he begins to shout: "Hatay Mauji, Islamic Fundamentalism hay > aau!" For > > him an Indian soldier with a tilak on his forehead, a saffron > ribbon around > > his waist, a poster of Shivji hanging inside his bunker is > Bharat Mata's > > secular poot. > > > > In 1990, Kashmir's Hindus made a choice: They wanted India. That > is why > > they left. No doubt there was a threat perception. Some Hindus > were killed. > > According to Sumantra Bose out of 273 killings by 20th January > 1990, almost > > 73 were Hindus. No doubt, disproportionate. Most of these were > highly> influential Hindus, including a Jan Sangh leader. No other > minority left. > > Even though, many Sikhs were killed in Chattisinghpura, (by who, > we should > > know by now) they remained in Kashmir. In a state-sponsored > exodus one and a > > half lakh Hindus were transported overnight to Jammu and other > Indian> cities. And remember it was a day after Jagmohan took over > as governor, and > > promised to punish Kashmiri Muslims. True to his word, after > many Hindus > > left, he imposed a protracted curfew strangulating Kashmir's > Muslims. Dozens > > of Kashmir's Muslims were massacred at a number of places. Gaw > Kadal, just > > being one example. > > > > In Jashne Azadi, nowhere is it said that 60000 Muslims have been > killed in > > 15 years. Although even by conservative estimates 80000 Kashmiri > Muslims> have been killed over these years (some believe that even > the 10000 odd > > disappeared have been eliminated too), but the film leaves it > open. It > > states how the actual number is widely conflicted. > > > > It is not Kashmiri Muslims who Arabicized Kashmiri names. (Give > examples> if you can). It is in fact Dogras who Sanskritised it, > and India which > > sustained it. Consider, for example, changing the popular name > Islamabad to > > an official Anantnag. And it is not Kashmiri Muslims who deny > Kashmir's> ancient Hindu rulers, but Kashmir's Hindus who deny the > existence of > > Kashmir's Muslims. It is as if all Kashmir is about is its > miniscule Hindus. > > It is as if the only tragedy in Kashmir is that of its Hindus. > As if death, > > destruction, plunder and rapine of its Muslims is not an issue > that merits > > world's attention. It is time world speaks about Kashmir's Muslims. > > > > Much has been spoken about Hindus. Many lethargic comparisons > have been > > made with Holocaust. Many chick pea-brained 'film makers' have > lamented that > > world remained silent, while Kashmir's Hindus got free salaries, > > reservations in education and tremendous material support and > publicity. It > > is time for appropriated voices to speak up. For stories buried > in fake > > encounters to be exhumed. For alternative histories and memories > to unsettle > > the state-sponsored, miniscule-made-mainstream, litanies. > > > > Pawan you really should run after Jashne-Azadi. Follow it > wherever it > > goes. It might tire you out of your ignorance, prejudice, and > hatred.> > > Mohamad Junaid > > > > > > > > Pawan Durrani wrote: > > > > Dear All: > > On Thursday September 20th Mr. Sanjay Kak's movie Jashn-e-Azadi > (yajynya> has > > become Jashn-e)was screened in the Louis McMillan Auditorium of > the Yale > > University. Rajni Ji and I attended the screening. > > > > The screening was sponsored by Ms Mridhu Rai, Associate Professor > > mridu.rai at yale.edu. She has recently published a book Hindu > Rulers, Muslim > > > > Subjects: Islam Rights & the history of Kashmir. (Apparently > this book was > > > > part of the motivation for Mr. Sanjay Kak to make the movie. > Given below > > in > > parenthesis is her back ground. > > > > (Mridu Rai joined the department in July 2001 as an assistant > professor.> She > > was educated at Delhi University; the Centre for Historical > Studies at > > Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi; and Columbia University, > where she > > received a PhD in modern south Asian history. Her doctoral research > > focused > > on the problem of religion and politics in the making of protest > in modern > > > > Kashmir between the 1840s and the 1940s. In 2004 it culminated > in her > > book, > > Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of > Kashmir> < http://www.yale.edu/history/faculty/materials/rai- > hindu.html> . > > Professor > > Rai's new research turns to the region of Bihar, to explore the > > relationships between caste, territory, region and nation as > they evolved > > from the period of British colonial rule into the postcolonial) > > > > There were 23 people in all present in the screening hall. That > included> Mr. > > Sanjay Kak and us two. Most of the attendants were from the > South Asian > > stud > > department of Indian origin. There was one or two students of > Pakistani> origin and may be two or three of American and European > descent.> > > The documentary is about two and a half hour long monologue. The > thrust of > > > > the documentary is to manipulated to portray the burning desire > for the > > freedom among 'Kashmiris' (read Kashmiri Muslims). The movie > touches upon > > the 500 years of colonization of Kashmir. It was interesting to > note the > > wordings of narration and the imagery of this narration. Mr Kak > introduced> > > the Kalhanna's Rajatarangani as the Hindu rule of Kashmir. He > also stated > > the "Hindu" rule of Kashmir before 1948. But then he chooses to > describe> the > > 500 years of pre-Dogra rule as the colonial rule of Turks, Afghans, > > Mughals, > > and other nationalities as if it was not an Islamic rule. In > that one > > sentence he tries to pass the suffering under these colonizers > as the > > sufferings of Muslims and not of Hindus. That during this period > 100%> Kashmiri Hindu population was reduced to at most 25% of the > population was > > presented as Muslim suffering. He quotes Kalhanna "that Kashmir > can not be > > > > conquered by colonization but by spiritual merit", as the ethos of > > Kashmiri > > Muslims. That the Muslims (both foreign and the converted) were > the rulers > > under whose reign Kashmiri Hindu were massacred, humiliated and > forced out > > > > of Kashmir (as evidenced by the Saaraswats and Vaadama Ayers and > Kashmiri> of > > Gujarat) and converted to Islam is completely presented as the > sufferings> of the Muslims. > > > > That since the 1948 till 1990 the successive J&K Governments > were formed > > by > > the National conference (previously "Muslim Conference") and > the people > > at > > the helm were Kashmiri Muslims is also presented as the > colonization by > > the > > Indians. That this Government systematically marginalized the > Hindus of > > Kashmir by putting reservations for the majority, snatching any > landed> property with out compensation (there by violating the > property rights of > > a > > minority) is portrayed as the land reform act of the Government. > The sole > > > > livelihood of the Kashmiri Hindus through education was denied > and they > > were > > forced out of state (to achieve Islamization) is also supposed > to have > > happened because of the colonization by India. That 1947 > incursions of > > Pakistan and the development of Islamic Fundamentalism with > support from > > Pakistan and the outsiders is completely glossed over. Even > though the > > mention is made of the foreign Islamic mercenaries in Kashmir > but it is > > portrayed as acceptable and not such an important issue, where > as presence > > > > of Indian troops and the Indian tourists is presented as the > yoke on the > > local Muslims. (Who shown as pulling the tourists snowy upslope > of the > > Gulmarg.) > > > > The presentation of Shaheed (A Islamic category used for the > Shahaadat ) > > and > > the Mujahideen (An Islamic religious category used for the > fighters of the > > faith) is presented as freedom fighters. The time and again > portrayal of > > the > > "Muslim Cemeteries" and dead Muslim Mujahideen is lamentable > but their > > killing and raping of the innocent victims both hindu (and > Muslims) is > > accepted as the justifiable for the Azadi. > > Mr. Kak mentiones 200 dead and 160,000 migrated in bold numbers > with the > > small print of "in one year". One wonders why did he choose only > one year > > numbers to show about the Hindu sufferings but boldly says > 60,000 total > > dead > > or lost in the last 15 years. This choice is made show the > balance in his > > approach like a chameleon Indian leftist/secularist. > > > > Finally when the documentary was screened we were the first one > to raise > > hand for questions. We turned toward the audience and > challenged the very > > notion this being a struggle for the Azadi. We put forth that > this is > > movement for the Islamization of Kashmir. We also pointed out > the 500 > > years > > of colonization Mr. Kak mentions is 500 years of Islamic rule in > which our > > population was reduced from 1055 to 20% . It was Kashmiri Hindu > tragedies> which Mr. Kak is portraying as the Muslim tragedies. We > pointed out that > > the > > first act of this movement in 1990 was to throw out 400 hundred > thousand> Hindus from the valley and became refuge in their own > country. If it was a > > > > Azadi movement why would valley be cleansed of the non-Muslim > minorities.> That scenario fits the Islamization movement better. > We asked, why would > > all the imagery and the language of this movement be couched in the > > Islamic > > categorization? Why would Arabic be used instead of Kashmiri > language? Why > > would the names of the Kashmiri place names be changed to > Arabacized and > > Islamic names? Why would the past Hindu history be denied? Why would > > non-Kashmiri foreign Muslim mercenaries be allowed in and create > havoc in > > Kashmir? Why would Pakistan be so heavily involved? > > > > Mr. Kak had no answers for any of these; he tried to pass the > Islamic> language as the normal use of religion in freedom > movements. But I asked > > why > > was not inclusive religious symbolism used for the independence? > > Kak admitted to the audience that there was Jihad like situation > created> for > > Kashmiri Hindus who had to leave valley. Eventually I was > asked to > > allow > > others to ask questions. But there were only two other people > who asked > > one > > question each, one on the lines of secularism and the other, a > Pakistani,> gave some comments on state of JKLF in Pakistan. > > > > We attended the dinner after the movie and we continued to > occupy Mr. > > Kak's > > and several others attention on the dishonest portrayal of the > Kashmir> issue. During dinner we distributed the copies of > Ashokji Pandits > > Documentary ....And world remained silent.... to some of the > attendees and > > > > requested them to watch it and pass it on to other students. > > > > That is the story from Yale... > > > > Thanks > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > reader-list mailing list > reader-list at sarai.net > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > > > End of reader-list Digest, Vol 51, Issue 15 > ******************************************* > From dhatr1i at yahoo.com Thu Oct 11 11:03:06 2007 From: dhatr1i at yahoo.com (we wi) Date: Wed, 10 Oct 2007 22:33:06 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Appeal - Pay Tribute to your soldiers - Join March at INDIA GATE In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <54752.57736.qm@web45512.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Dear All, JAIHIND. Regards, Dhatri. radhikarajen at vsnl.net wrote: Excellent action to show solidarity with the indian soldiers who are doing the thankless job for a nation which rewards them with abuses and media which has policy of partisan reportage of the sex angles only.Electronic media of private tv channels had no time to show the bravery of these young guns of nation, wasted their time on speculation of early snap polls and possibility of another drama of sacrifice of a fake gandhi at united nations, who talks of gandhian principles of truth and non-violence and indulges in all sorts of untruthful means to gain material wealth with least concerns for citizens of India. Unless and untill the nation awakens to the reality of these fake gandhis who use the surname of gandhi for their selfish vote garnering gimmicks, nation divided on caste, faith and regional forces will be easy prey for slavery of economic losses. Even though I will not be able in body, my mind and soul is with you all, Regards, Vinutha. ----- Original Message ----- From: we wi Date: Tuesday, October 9, 2007 7:50 pm Subject: Fwd: Appeal - Pay Tribute to your soldiers - Join March at INDIA GATE To: dhatr1i at yahoo.com > > > Note: forwarded message attached. > > --------------------------------- > Fussy? Opinionated? Impossible to please? Perfect. Join Yahoo!'s > user panel and lay it on us. --------------------------------- Looking for a deal? Find great prices on flights and hotels with Yahoo! FareChase. From dhatr1i at yahoo.com Fri Oct 12 12:19:34 2007 From: dhatr1i at yahoo.com (we wi) Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 23:49:34 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to junaid mails on Invasion of Indian culture Message-ID: <200888.67949.qm@web45507.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Junaid, Though people are busy in false accusations,interpretations and assaults on INDIA, Its culture and to support this there is no need to argue endlessly, but to enlighten people like you who are doing intentionally, I am writing this again. I used enlighten because either 1) You don't know about Indian history and culture-- to support this is I prefer to use your earlier comments on PEACOCK THROWN. I request you to go through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh-i-Noor, 2) If you spread rumors purposefully, then I remind you that you will not succeed like Pakistan and China. Indian heritage is rich and culture is widespread across the globe. Every HINDU home contain, atleast few ancestral,cultural,spiritual,traditional wealths/residue whatever you say. From the beginning of its origin to the present, ISLAM produced violence that is the fact though its unfortunate and so as people. So violent in thoughts leave 1/2 exceptional cases for whatever reasons . You can say whatever but ISLAM IS MIGRATION TO INDIA. Please just keep it in mind. Regards, Dhatri. --------------------------------- Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. From pawan.durani at gmail.com Fri Oct 12 11:29:19 2007 From: pawan.durani at gmail.com (Pawan Durani) Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 11:29:19 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to Pawan In-Reply-To: <20071012052503.3807.qmail@webmail62.rediffmail.com> References: <20071012052503.3807.qmail@webmail62.rediffmail.com> Message-ID: <6b79f1a70710112259y68b6d0d9wbc9c0dfb70e42325@mail.gmail.com> Junaid , Look what you write in your mail , I can see a fanatic in you . If you would have been a NORMAL person ....i would have cared to reply you in detail . Junaid writes :The drain of hard-produced wealth by Kashmiri Muslim peasants and artisans went to Jammmu and into the hands of Kashmiri Pandits, most of whom did nothing productive. [ *Junaid means to say that except for Kashmiri Muslims ,rest all people in whole of Jammu & Kashmir were unproductive . It were the Kashmiri Muslims who used to work hard and rest of the people enjoyed. ............Junaid .....please search for some buyers of this story and re write the history* ] Junaid Writes :I can't go on spoon feeding you like this without you getting up from your armchair, and deciding to read some more serious literature than Organiser and Panchjanya. [ *Does Organiser have a non serios stuff ? I would be glad to read a Deobandi literature . Or would you prefer supplying Osama and Zawheri tapes to me ?* ] Junaid Writes :Well in any case Persion influence on Kashmiri language had only little to do with religion. It had more to do with the trajectory of cultural influence. But Hindus in Kashmir brought in Sanskrit without any apparent reason, but purely religious and opportunistic. This was not only an attempt to assert dominance, over the majority community, as a religious community which shared their religion with the ruler, but also to liguistically lay sole claim to adminstrative employment. [ *Junaid , have you heard of Sharda ? I am sure you would not have . How can you remeber the original script of Kashmiris ....after all if you remember it would make you realise that your fore fathers used to pray to Lord Shiva using that Text until they got converted by force* ] From choicetobe at gmail.com Thu Oct 11 22:23:04 2007 From: choicetobe at gmail.com (shruti) Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2007 22:23:04 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] A letter from an activist of the Narmada Andolan In-Reply-To: <98f331e00710092355h7effd40ye3afb9495fd49529@mail.gmail.com> References: <98f331e00710092355h7effd40ye3afb9495fd49529@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <4d7620500710110953w2fa97c17re0fb5ff2f8bdd07a@mail.gmail.com> Dear Prakash, I am living and working in the Narmada valley. All the facts are completely false and untrue. Jagadeesh is not even an activist of the Narmada Bachao Andolan.Please do check you facts before you post stuff. Best Shruti On 10/10/07, prakash ray wrote: > > Dear friends, > I am posting a letter from a well-known activist of the Narmada Andolan. A > verson of the text has also been published in *Pratham Prawakta, a > Hindi *journal > published from Delhi (1-15 Oct,2007). I urge all of you to ponder over the > questions raised. > Thanks, > Prakash* * > *LETTER from JAGADEESH B N > *Dear All > > Many things are unquestioned or ignored just because it is a > "Non-violent, Non-funded people movement" working for peoples' right, > and also since people like me who have left the movement without much > protest ('an easy escape'), has ended in the boycotting of people in > their villages and the banning them form their own movement. > > > During mt trip this time to Narmada Valley I have witnessed many things > - from the most important people of the Maheshwar Dam struggle people > bein accused of being "Dalals" with the call by the outside middle class > activists of NBA for removing Valley people form the Narmada Andolan"and > also attempt to ban some of the activists from the caste/community which > has resulted in the banning of other long term and big activist and not > allowing him to visit to his own village. On the other hand the entire > facilities for Kahar-Kewat (the community solely dependent on the fish > and the sand in the river Narmada) is being denied by the upper cast > people in the village Patrad, Thanks to the influence of the urban upper > middle class and English speaking people this is a supposedly a > democratic act in the Narmada valley. > > > I went to Narmada valley this time when I am facing my difficult time in > my life and was not sure if I am going with right direction in my life. > It was good and thanks to Arun that I made this travel to Valley. > > > For me, in Narmada Valley, Nimad is the region I really do not like > (keeping in mind that people are really good) it's just because I was > not willing to associate with the people who are landlords. I was most > attracted towards the fisher community and the tribal community, which > led me to work in the Maan dam area where the question was also simple > 'just rehabilitation'. Serous disagreement with other activistswith whom > I was associated led me to live the Narmada movement in the year 2003, > also my days as an under trial in Sardarpur Prison led me to want to > become an advocate was another reasonfor leaving the Narmada valley. > This time when I went again to visit those villages, I realized that I > have made a big mistake by leaving the people and the issue in the > middle as they say, and I wished I could have spent another year there. > I have walked too far from there and now I feel, having again visited > the Valley, that it will be good if I do not repeat the same mistake yet > again. > > > Why this letter? > > I am addressing or want to address specifically to Alok Agarwal and > Chittaroopa Palit, the 'leaders of Narmada Bachao Andolan' basically > raising few questions: > > 1. Is Mangath really dalal? Has he really taken money form S.Kumar? > > 2. How do you justify dismissing Mangath form the N.B.A.? > > 3. Was there any necessity to go to press with these issues? > > 4. Was there any necessary to send your people to the press > conference held by Mangath to create a tamasha on the street? > > 5. Was there any necessity for you to conduct another press > conference on the same day? > > 6. How do you justify banning Suresh Patidar form visiting his own > village? Is it possible in a democratic setup, if I assume you > still believe in Democracy. > > 7. How do you justify banning facility for Kahar-Kewat family in > Village Patrad? > > 8. Is it ok for members of your organisation to openly and in full > view of the press threaten Mangath that they will break his legs > and kill him? Do you still want to call NBA as non-violent > struggle? > > 9. Is asking for rehabilitation when you know that the dam will not > be stopped wrong? > > 10. How can people forming their own organization to fight for their > rights, in this case Mangath and his community people forming > their own organization asking for fishing rights and the proper > rehabilitation in the democratic country be termed as wrong? > > 11. Has NBA taken the contract to run the people movement for the > entire Narmada Valley? > > 12. Has forming any organization or joining any organization in > Narmada Valley itself become wrong? > > 13. How democratic are you when taking decisions on these and other > issues? (I had previously raised this question along with others > in a detailed letter which i wrote to you when I was living NBA. > what i heard form people form Maan is that you have told them, > that I had run away because of fear of police. ) > > 14. I also noticed now in Maheshwar the straggle is against the > Mangath not any more against S.Kumar. (Suggesting Suresh that if > he want he can join S.Kumar not the Mangath will makes it > clear) > > > I am not asking any justification from you but just want to say that > your acts, to me, appears like "your gundagiri on the people of narmada > valley".It would be great if you have time to think about these things > and not repeat the same mistake any more. Neither you or me will be > affected but the people of the Narmada Valley will have to pay a heavy > price (I guess by your decision in 1998, today people in the Sardar > Sarovar and Maan are paying the price, and Maheshwar people will have to > pay in the coming days. > > > The slogan 'we are all one' now is now an illusion from the Narmada > valley point of view. May be it is high time to think about this slogan > and get back to it really, or, at least stop doing these petty stuff and > allow people to become united against the larger political war. Try to > become some kind of platform where all of us join hands and get ready > for the larger war against injustice. > > lastly I really dont want to mention about the fact you have wrote a > letter to people about me,ALF, And Bangalore solidarity group. For all > reason you had ALF number and you had Clifton Number and if you noticed > that if i am not calling you you should have called me and ask me whats > going on with out sending out a mail to people. Infact the mail will not > insult me its shows how cheap you are, one really expect greater things > from you not these things. (as soon as i got the message i have called > you but the conversation was half finished since you got busy and told > me that you will call me still i have not received your call, dont worry > i will not assume any thing about you) > > Jagadeesh.BN > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> From atreyee.m at gmail.com Fri Oct 12 17:06:08 2007 From: atreyee.m at gmail.com (atreyee majumder) Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 17:06:08 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Masooda Parveen Review Petition dismissed by Supreme Court of India In-Reply-To: <1d52d25c0710120422s144300e8v5c11edb68066d183@mail.gmail.com> References: <1d52d25c0710120422s144300e8v5c11edb68066d183@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <1944bc230710120436w6301b52dsae4efec269534fa8@mail.gmail.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Shrimoyee Nandini Ghosh Date: Oct 12, 2007 4:52 PM Subject: Fwd: Masooda Parveen Review Petition dismissed by Supreme Court of India To: atreyee majumder , bugu - ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Shomona Khanna Date: Oct 11, 2007 10:33 PM Subject: Masooda Parveen Review Petition dismissed by Supreme Court of India To: amarvg at del3.vsnl.net.in, abha at vsnl.com, anuvindav at gmail.com, saurabhbhattacharjee at gmail.com, bjbatra at gmail.com, writetobela at gmail.com, ruksh at hotmail.com, dreamz4imm at yahoo.com, shankargopal at myfastmail.com, gangulm at hrw.org, hrdc_online at hotmail.com, hrnews at isidelhi.org.in, humanrightsfeatures2 at gmail.com, ahrchk at ahrchk.org, jawz9 at hotmail.com, rjn at vsnl.com, jmazamo at yahoo.com, khurramparvez at yahoo.com, saqibmurtaza2003 at yahoo.com, mur1ali at vsnl.com, neeruvaid at vsnl.com, shrutipandey2004 at yahoo.co.in, vibodhp at yahoo.com, uramanathan at ielrc.org, tvsr.shreyas at gmail.com, qadeeroy at vsnl.com, tom at theothermedia.org, VVandova at interights.org, vijay at tiss.edu, m_s_ganesh at yahoo.com, aparna_bhat at vsnl.com, bishakha at hotmail.com, cpimlnd at hotmail.com, tomwomenconference at theothermedia.org, enatoli at hotmail.com, shrimoyee at gmail.com, gnavlakha at gmail.com, gasomra at yahoo.com, halfstop at gmail.com, moruoak00 at gmail.com, mailpragya at gmail.com, pudrdelhi at yahoo.com, ashokagrwaal at gmail.com, article21now at googlegroups.com, rameshmenon at hotmail.com, mahfooznazki at gmail.com, janhastakshep at yahoo.co.in, mukul1961 at yahoo.co.in, rebeccamammen at gmail.com, kbalagopal1952 at gmail.com, seshachary at gmail.com, new_delhi.del at icrc.org, rajpushkar at rediffmail.com, rajpushkar at lokniti.org, alforum at vsnl.net, lawrence at altlawforum.org, iccindiacampaign at gmail.com, dhananjay.mahapatra at gmail.com, mahesh at janmat.tv, anoop at hindustantimes.com, surjansinghnegi at yahoo.com, trans at pti.in Dear Friends, It is with regret that I inform you that the review petition which was filed by Masooda Parveen against the judgment dated 2.5.2007 passed by the Supreme Court came up before Justices Dalaveer Bhandari and H.S. Bedi today (11/10/07), and has been dismissed. I may remind you that Masooda Parveen had filed a writ petition under Article 32 and 21 for compensation for the death of her husband, an advocate, in the custody of 17 Jat Regiment in Pulwama, Kashmir, as far back as February 1998. While initially the petition was for compensation and for compassionate employment to the wife, later its scope had been expanded to get the court to lay down some safeguards from the army that enjoys "special powers" in J&K under the J&K Armed Forces Special Powers Act. It was hoped by us that the Supreme Court would use this opportunity to apply the safeguards in the Naga People's Movement for Human Rights case to J&K. In the judgment dated 2.5.2007 handed down after nearly 9 years of its filing (reported in 2007(6) SCALE 447; copy enclosed) the Supreme Court has inexplicably overlooked crucial facts which pointed to glaring inconsistencies and contradictions in the version of 'accidental death' put forward by the state. It also ignored the fact that despite the closure report in an investigation under s. 174 CrPC being rejected by the District Magistrate, Pulwama, and Rule Nisi being issued by the Supreme Court, the local administration "lost" the inquest file and all the critical documentation contained in it. In the judgment, the Supreme Court has unquestioningly accepted the army's bald version that the deceased had been a 'militant', when not a scrap of evidence exists for such a serious allegation. It has further observed that the petitioner has not been able to show her version of events was true. Placing the burden of proof squarely on the petitioner, the judgment contradicts the body of existing law where the burden lies on the state to show how the death occurred in incidents of custodial death. Such burden must for obvious reasons be even higher where death occurs in Army custody in a disturbed area where the Armed forces are, theoretically, operating under the supervision of the 'civil authorities'. A further disturbing aspect of the judgment is that it proceeds to carve out an exception to directions made by a 5 judge Constitution Bench in the NPMHR judgment ((1998) 2 SCC 109). According to that judgment, the Army is bound by the Constitution of India as well as by the provisions of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act to produce any person arrested by it before the nearest police station with "least possible delay". In that judgment the Supreme Court had also observed that "least possible delay" could not exceed 2-3 hours, since after being handed over at the nearest police station, the arrestee has to be produced before the Magistrate within 24 hours of arrest in accordance with Article 22 of the Constitution. However, the judgment in Masooda Parveen's case chose to ignore evidence before it that the deceased was in illegal Army custody for at least 30 hours before his death, and instead observes: " We are also not un-mindful of the fact that prompt action by the army in such matters is the key to success and any delay can result in the leakage of information which would frustrate the very purpose of the army action." The Government of India had attempted to get just such an exemption in the petition seeking clarification of the NPMHR judgment, and this had been negatived by a 5 judge bench of the Supreme Court by order dated 7.8.2001. The petitioner widow who has in the intervening years raised her children single-handedly and also been under surveillance by the state, is heartbroken to get this verdict that labels her husband a militant, and therefore by extension herself and her children as well. But the implications of the judgment go far beyond the private heartbreak of one family. This is probably the first judgment of the Supreme Court interpreting the provisions of the Jammu and Kashmir Armed Forces Special Powers Act. Not only has the Supreme Court lost an opportunity to hold the Armed forces accountable for increasingly heinous excesses against the Kashmiri people, the Supreme Court has also sent out a message virtually endorsing the impunity of the Armed Forces for such acts. All this, and more, had been placed before the Supreme Court in the Review Petition filed by the petitioner-widow in July 2007 (copy attached), in the hope that the Court would recognise the impact of the judgment dated 2.5.2007 on the petitioner, as well as its larger implications for the people of Kashmir, and therefore reverse it. The Supreme Court has, however, chosen today to dismiss the review petition filed by the petitioner. With regards, Shomona Khanna Advocate - -- Shomona Khanna Res:180-D Pocket C Sidharth Extn. New Delhi-14 Off: 164-A Pocket C Sidharth Extn. New Delhi-14 Ph: 91-11-26903709, 26346058, 9873665288 email: < shomona at gmail.com> From tapasrayx at gmail.com Fri Oct 12 17:19:38 2007 From: tapasrayx at gmail.com (Tapas Ray) Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 07:49:38 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] A letter from an activist of the Narmada Andolan In-Reply-To: <4d7620500710110953w2fa97c17re0fb5ff2f8bdd07a@mail.gmail.com> References: <98f331e00710092355h7effd40ye3afb9495fd49529@mail.gmail.com> <4d7620500710110953w2fa97c17re0fb5ff2f8bdd07a@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <470F5F52.3040909@googlemail.com> I have no first-hand knowledge of the Narmada movement, but would like to put in perspective this exchange between Shruti and Prakash for the understanding of those members who, I know, are not closely acquainted with Indian politics. The message Sruti has responded to, was posted by a member ("Prakash Ray") who has been propagating the official line of the CPI-M (India's largest communist party, ruling the state of West Bengal as head of a left coalition since 1977) on issues of its interest for some time, just as certain other members have taken it upon themselves to propagate the "Hindu nationalist" line on issues of their concern. Movements like the NBA (Narmada Bachao Andolan or Save Narmada Movement) are inconvenient for the Left, especially the CPI-M, for at least two reasons. One, they have taken a stand against the CPI-M's line on, and the West Bengal Government's handling of, large industrial projects that deprive tens of thousands of farmers and other villagers of their land, livelihood, and traditional way of life. The two most prominent instances of this phenomenon in West Bengal are Singur and Nandigram, where a number of people have died (14 in a single incident of police firing at Nandigram in March) as a result of a sustained resistance to the government's plans. The second reason, I feel, is that the CPI(M) sees itself as the only legitimate organization of the poor. Others like the NBA pose a direct challenge to this thesis, as they have been mobolizing the poor, sometimes (as in Nandigram and Singur) in direct conflict with the CPI(M). The NBA has built up considerable credibility internationally - largely because of its intervention, the World Bank pulled out of the Sardar Sarovar dam project on the Narmada. Hence, it is in the CPI(M)'s interest to discredit organizations such as the NBA, and one way of doing so - in keeping with its own self-image as the only legitimate organization of the poor - is to paint them as (petty) bourgeois in character. It is another matter that the CPI(M) itself is almost entirely led by members of this very social group. One interesting point to note here is the convergence of interests between the CPI(M) and the BJP (the major Hindu nationalist party) on issues like the Narmada movement. The Sardar Sarovar project on the Narmada, of which the NBA is the bane, is in direct conflict with the BJP, which rules the state of Gujarat. Tapas shruti wrote: > Dear Prakash, > I am living and working in the Narmada valley. All the facts are completely > false and untrue. Jagadeesh is not even an activist of the Narmada Bachao > Andolan.Please do check you facts before you post stuff. > Best > Shruti > > > On 10/10/07, prakash ray wrote: >> Dear friends, >> I am posting a letter from a well-known activist of the Narmada Andolan. A >> verson of the text has also been published in *Pratham Prawakta, a >> Hindi *journal >> published from Delhi (1-15 Oct,2007). I urge all of you to ponder over the >> questions raised. >> Thanks, >> Prakash* * >> *LETTER from JAGADEESH B N >> *Dear All >> >> Many things are unquestioned or ignored just because it is a >> "Non-violent, Non-funded people movement" working for peoples' right, >> and also since people like me who have left the movement without much >> protest ('an easy escape'), has ended in the boycotting of people in >> their villages and the banning them form their own movement. From indersalim at gmail.com Sat Oct 13 00:04:57 2007 From: indersalim at gmail.com (inder salim) Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 00:04:57 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to junaid mails on Invasion of Indian culture In-Reply-To: <200888.67949.qm@web45507.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> References: <200888.67949.qm@web45507.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <47e122a70710121134x7af31c8cy95344169a133aed1@mail.gmail.com> Please allow me to reflect your ( and other such ) conversation a little differently : I quote Aga Shahid Ali " If only somehow you could have been mine, what would not have been possible in the world " Momin Khan Momin says the same thing like this: Tum Maray Kisi Tarah Na Huya, Varna Dunia Mein Kay Nahi Hota. I am writing this to myself as well. I am not bitter, but I am wondering how to arrive at a point when I ( we ) can break the maze of mirrors ( enabling the Bruce Lee to break the IMAGE ) and restore the real. Perhaps, things have not become so critical as yet. Still it looks a game played by words alone. Now see, Aga Shahid again… but he is vigorously churning the few chosen words in order to get something out this churning, not the meaning, but to realize that the being is moving along with words… to somewhere, perhaps in a single direction, which is so rare, which the poet knows deep down….but to realize…self/other : Iqbal in Sara Jahan say accha : AYE ABI ROODAY GANGA….WOH DIN HAI YAAD TUJ KO…. This is again from Aga Shahid's famous poem ' farewell ' " My memory is again in the way of your history " " Your history gets in the way of my memory " " Your memory gets in the way of my memory " " My memory keeps getting in the way of your history" Now what is this hysterical dance of the same set of words, if not the inner pain to locate the troubled 'self' in our collective history that presently tends to negate the existence of the very being, located in the other… Now who is the oppressor, it must be within us, too, embedded within, deeply, who worships the false gods. So do we have an axe to grind ? Yes, but see how a great poet like Ghalib profoundly confesses, perhaps at the end of his life when he saw everything crumbling during the ruthless rule of British after 1857. Kaay woh Nimrod ki Khudayee thee, Bandgee mein mara bhala na huva. ( worshiping false gods was a mistake, it naturally robed me from my spirituality) Meanwhile, please continue talking about the past history in Kashmir…but please listen the Co-winner of this year's Noble Peace Dr. Rajinder K. Pachuria " India is doing very little towards environment " If we give very little attention to such uttering, then what kind of India is there which are proud of ? And if we are still obsessed with that old romantic form of Nation State, ( governed by thousand of Nimrods ) then what is the meaning of other, history of other, memory of the other. Is Islam still an outsider to the real of India ? If so then I must quote Aga Shahid Ali once again : AT A CERTAIN POINT I LOST TRACK OF YOU. indersalim On 10/12/07, we wi wrote: > Junaid, > > Though people are busy in false accusations,interpretations and assaults on INDIA, Its culture and to support this there is no need to argue endlessly, but to enlighten people like you who are doing intentionally, I am writing this again. > > I used enlighten because either > > 1) You don't know about Indian history and culture-- to support this is I prefer to use your earlier comments on PEACOCK THROWN. I request you to go through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh-i-Noor, > 2) If you spread rumors purposefully, then I remind you that you will not succeed like Pakistan and China. Indian heritage is rich and culture is widespread across the globe. Every HINDU home contain, atleast few ancestral,cultural,spiritual,traditional wealths/residue whatever you say. > > From the beginning of its origin to the present, ISLAM produced violence that is the fact though its unfortunate and so as people. So violent in thoughts leave 1/2 exceptional cases for whatever reasons . You can say whatever but ISLAM IS MIGRATION TO INDIA. Please just keep it in mind. > > Regards, > Dhatri. > > > --------------------------------- > Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. > Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: -- From berkeleysanjay at planet-save.com Sat Oct 13 05:44:32 2007 From: berkeleysanjay at planet-save.com (berkeleysanjay) Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 00:14:32 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] Civil Society Team Opposes POSCO Project In-Reply-To: <1944bc230710120436w6301b52dsae4efec269534fa8@mail.gmail.com> References: <1944bc230710120436w6301b52dsae4efec269534fa8@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <8744c9ae858e5839c278f142a5d91e48@planet-save.com> Dear friends: There was a Press Conference held at Indian Women Press Corps, Windsor Place, New Delhi, from 4-6 pm today (10th October 2007). This press note was circulated and discussed with the media friends. Press-Note Civil Society Team Opposes POSCO Project New Delhi 10th October 2007 A team of academicians, journalists, human rights activists and leaders of peoples’ movement representatives, express their categorical opposition to the proposed POSCO Steel project as anti-people, ecologically degrading and destructive of livelihood of farmers and fisher-folks and expresses its solidarity to the heroic struggle of the people of Gadkujang, Dinkia and Nuwagaon for protection of their land and livelihood. The team comprised of Prof. Manoranjan Mohanty, (formerly of Delhi University), Sumit Chakraborty, (Editor, Mainstream), Tom Kochchery (Permanent Invitee, World Forum of Fisher People), Harekrishna Debnath (General Secretary, National Fishworkers Forum), Tapan Bose (General Secretary, South Asia Forum for Human Rights), among others who visited Kujanga near Paradeep Port, Orissa. The team interacted with the members of the resistance movement against the proposed steel project by multinational company, POSCO. The group spoke to representatives of POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti and Nav Nirman Samiti and later participated in a dharna organized by the protesting villagers in Nuwagaon. Attack on People’s Livelihood The team found that land is the major source of livelihood, with betel vines and cashew cultivation being the main source of income in Dinkia, Nuwagaon, and Gadkujang, the villages to be affected by the project. Betel vine being a perennial crop, it provides substantial income to the cultivators. Acquisition of land for the project will destroy betel cultivation, as any alternative site cannot support such cultivation, as the fertile soil in these villages with abundant supply of water is particularly suited for betel cultivation. The Solidarity Group expresses its concerns against such wanton destruction of prosperous and self-sustaining agricultural economy of these villages in the name of development. It is a clear attack on people’s subsistent economy and livelihood. Land Acquisition & Land Alienation A large chunk (approximately 3500 out of a total 4000 acres) of the land to be acquired is shown in revenue records as governmental land. But the reality of the area is that most of such land has been under continuous cultivation by peasants. Therefore, the impact of the project is going to be much more destructive than the official estimates. This is a means of land alienation too. Any land acquisition leads to land alienation, and finally turns to be principal source of de-peasantization process. Since POSCO is an SEZ, with a demand of more than 6000 acres, the extents of land acquisition would be rampant. The Team condemns the State Government’s decision to cede such ‘government land’ to a foreign company when it refuses to hand it over to its tillers even when mandated by land legislations of Orissa. Special Economic or Special Exploitation Zones! Generally SEZ is a closed enclave where no taxes are collected, there are no labour laws and there is no local government - on land taken for a pittance. Apart from unbridled land acquisition, the SEZ decimates all democratic rights like the right to self-determination, the sovereignty of the people living these zones, etc. – which constitutes the very core of democracy. These zones would be alien lands with the Indian nation. Legal experts say that, twenty-one different Indian laws are inapplicable within the zone, one of the most important being the Panchayat law. Even otherwise it won’t have any space for the local people. The SEZ will employ only highly educated and hi-tech people. Besides, it is a duty-free zone considered foreign territory for trade and financial purposes. Under the newly formed SEZ Act, companies in the zone are granted huge concessions in customs duties, sales tax and even income tax. Flouting Environmental Norms The team also calls upon the attention of government and environmentalists to protect the area, since the eco-system is too fragile. The proposed mining site is very close to pristine forest and natural water sources. A port is being proposed at the mouth of Jatadhar river, only 7 kms away from existing port at Paradip. Jatadhar river is the major channel of water drainage for the two districts of Jagatsinghpur and Kendrpara. It is feared that construction of the port will lead to waterlogging in the area and excessive siltation, as happened after the establishment of the Paradeep Port. The team also questions the need of having a separate private Port. When there is already a port at seven kilometers from Paradip, why should there be another one? Thus it deprives thousands of fisherfolks of their source of livelihood. Drama of Public Hearing On 15th April 2007 Orissa Pollution Control Board conducted a public hearing in Kunjang village. Despite repeated calls for postponement or fixing a location nearer to the affected villages, the hearing – legal requirement under Environmental Impact Assessment guidelines – was conducted some 25 kms. away from the affected villages. Despite all apprehensions on land acquisition, mass displacement, loss of livelihood, property, eco-system, destruction of eco-friendly economy, the central government went ahead to give the environmental clearance. The resistance movement also mentioned that out of the total number of people who attended in the Public Hearing, hardly 20 percent of them were from the affected villages. It seems that the drama of Public Hearing was well set Repression to meet Democratic Dissent! The Group condemns the repression unleashed by the State Government on the protesting villagers. Several battalions of Orissa Military Police have been deployed at Kujanga, the Tehsil headquarters. Many rounds of flag-marches have already been staged to intimidate people’s dissent. Local people are panic stuck with the appearance of police and paramilitary forces, into their hitherto peaceful land. Today these villages are the best market place to the full-of paid henchman. Several false cases have been foisted on the activists of POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti and Nava Nirman Samiti. In light of these facts, the team demands – a) To the State Government of Orissa Annul the MoU signed with Pohang Steel Co. (POSCO). Put an end to repression of the villagers in Dhinkia, Gadkujang and Nuwagaon and withdraw all false cases against them. Stop the process of land acquisition in these villages. Immediately act to give ownership rights to the cultivators of ‘government land’. Declare a moratorium on all MoUs signed by the Government for ‘development’ projects. Cease displacement of people in the name of ‘development’ projects; and b) To the Central Government Cancel the SEZ Approval for the POSCO project. Repeal the SEZ Act and start an open and democratic dialogue on the SEZ policy, and Withdraw all environmental clearances and permission given to the project S/d S/d Prof. Manoranjan Mohanty Sumit Chakraborty S/d S/d Thomas Kocherry Tapan Bose For information or clarification please email campaigns at theothermedia.org or call on 9871415186 (Ravi Hemadri), 9810411178 (Saurabh Bhattacharjee), 9958313838 (Goldy M. George). Press Conference Organized by The Other Media B5/136 (F.F.), Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi 110029 Tel: +91-11-26195534/26195535/26105472 Fax: 26195536 E-mail: campaigns at theothermedia.org; tom at theothermedia.org Goldy M. George Campaigns & Advocacy The Other Media B-5/136 (F.F.) Safdarjung Enclave New Delhi - 110 029 Tel: 91-11-26195534/35/ 26105472 Fax: 91-11-26195536 Cell: 91-99583-13838 From sudeshna.kca at gmail.com Sat Oct 13 12:58:03 2007 From: sudeshna.kca at gmail.com (Sudeshna Chatterjee) Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 12:58:03 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Call for Abstracts (CYE) Children in Technological Environments In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <3ef603b70710130028w7b749ef6md89379888b9f1614@mail.gmail.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: nathanfreier Date: Oct 12, 2007 11:10 PM Subject: [cyef] Call for Abstracts (CYE) Children in Technological Environments To: cyef at yahoogroups.com Call for Abstracts for a Special Issue of Children, Youth and Environments http://www.colorado.edu/journals/cye/ Children in Technological Environments: Interaction, Development, and Design Guest Editors Nathan G. Freier Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Peter H. Kahn, Jr. University of Washington Children are coming of age in increasingly sophisticated and pervasive technological environments. They're immersed, for example, in video gaming, web browsing, and instant messaging. Many have cell phones and laptop computers. Their avatars represent them in virtual spaces. They care for digital pets in a virtual world, and play with embodied robot pets, which move autonomously through the physical world. These technological environments have come a long way, fast. It's not just TV anymore. On the immediate horizon are responsive computational devices that mimic a social other, such as navigational devices in cars that speak with a human voice. "Smart homes" of the future will have interfaces that speak to us and respond to our actions and conversation. Humanoid robots may well become nannies for our children, and their tutors and playmates, and â€" if we're not careful â€" their slaves. It seems likely, too, that inequities will persist in children's access to technology. There are promises and perils ahead for children in technological environments. This issue of Children, Youth and Environments takes up this theme. Expressions of interest in the form of one-page abstracts should be sent no later than December 7, 2007 to Nathan Freier > and Peter Kahn > and copied to CYE at Colorado.edu . A selection of abstract authors will be invited to submit full papers for peer review. Full papers will be due by June 15, 2008. Abstracts should mention how the ideas in the full paper will apply directly to research or practice. Possible paper topics include, but aren't limited, to the following: Knowledge and Education How can technological environments (e.g., collaborative learning environments) support the development of children's learning, creativity, and imagination? Has instant messaging, text messaging, spell correction, and access to the WWW changed how children read and write, and attend to information? Do video games support or hinder children's learning and communication skills? Do children's interactions with technological environments lead them to construct new forms of knowledge (e.g., for entities, such as personified robots, that have properties that appear both animate and inanimate)? Social and Moral Development How do communication technologies impact the development of children's social and moral reasoning about and relationships with other people? Do children engage personified technologies in fully reciprocal social and moral interaction, or treat the technologies as a subservient "other"? How should we design personified technological systems to support children's social and moral development? Culture and Community What role does family, community, and culture play in the impact of technology on children? Are there cultural differences in children's technological environments, and if so, do those differences lead to the development of differing world views? How can technological environments be designed to increase children's engagement in political discourse and democratic processes? Have online communities and digital pen pal projects been successful at breaking down stereotypes and engendering positive perspectives on diversity? Access and Equity How should one think about the expansion of technological environments to low-income countries? For example, on the one hand, the digital divide seems important to narrow. On the other hand, if certain technological environments are harmful, what's so good about making them globally pervasive? Do some technologies skirt the question? Do technologies promote inequity through reliance on racial and gender stereotypes? What principles should be used to guide interaction design and access for children? Relationships to Nature Can robotic pets provide children with an adequate substitute for interaction with live animals? Can technological nature substitute for actual nature in children's lives? Can technological environments facilitate children's awareness of and action toward protecting natural environments? Therapy and Health Are there therapeutic applications of robots or other technologies in children's lives (e.g., with autistic children)? Do violent video games undermine children's physical and psychological wellbeing? How can ubiquitous technologies be designed to promote children's health (e.g., reduce obesity, protect against STDs)? Art and Expression How can technological environments be designed such that children can generate new forms of personal and communal artistic expression? How does access to a networked world change children's perceptions of art, especially as it relates to their understanding of their own culture's traditional forms? Future Scenarios What does the future hold (over perhaps the next twenty years) in terms of children's technological environments? As technologies change in the future, how will children and the subsequent society led by those children change in kind? __._,_.___ Messages in this topic ( 1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages| Links| Database| Polls| Calendar [image: Yahoo! Groups] Change settings via the Web(Yahoo! ID required) Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest| Switch format to Traditional Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe Recent Activity - 5 New Members Visit Your Group Yahoo! Groups Real Food Group Share recipes and favorite meals. Fashion Groups on Yahoo! Groups A great place to connect and share. HDTV Support The official Samsung Y! Group for HDTVs and devices. . __,_._,___ - -- Sudeshna Chatterjee, PhD New Delhi, India From debjanisgupta at yahoo.com Sat Oct 13 13:00:00 2007 From: debjanisgupta at yahoo.com (debjani sengupta) Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 00:30:00 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] The Tiktiki or ruminations on the lonesome detective Message-ID: <650672.73565.qm@web54404.mail.yahoo.com> The Tiktiki: or ruminations on the lonesome detective The title may be a little misleading because it may cause some readers to think this is a piece on Bangla Detective Fiction. Let me quickly assure them it 'is' on detective fiction. The word Tiktiki, in common Bengali parlance is a lizard, a soubriquet given to detectives in Bengali because the lizard by nature is lonesome. It is a creature that hunts alone, is anti social yet has perseverance and a kind of doggedness that makes it an ideal icon for a detective, specially a lonesome one. In the popular genre of the detective fiction, the figure of the lonesome detective is a familiar one but its genesis is very recent, if we go by historical time. In Erskine Childers’ ‘The Riddle of the Sand’ (1903), that may be considered the first detective/spy novel in English, the detectives are two amateurs who stumble upon a devious German plan to invade the British Isles while on a yatching holiday in the North Sea. From there, the forking out of the detective fiction into spy thrillers and police procedurals are a subject familiar to most enthusiasts of the popular and I am not going to dwell on it. I would rather talk of a very interesting characteristic of detective fictions: the lonesome detective especially of the European branch (the French and Swedish) of this family simply because it is a prominent branch with illustrious family members. To begin at the beginning, the ever-popular Arthur Conan Doyle began this trend of the lonesome detective in the heart of the big city. Sherlock Holmes and his character is too familiar to all of us to merit any detailed discussion here but the English detective writers have all used this figure to a lesser or greater degree of felicitation for example Agatha Christie’s Poirot, P.D. James’ Adam Dalgleish, Ruth Rendell’s Inspector Wexford, Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse. Georges Simenon’s (1903-1989) Inspector Maigret novels turned the police procedural into an art because its detective dealt with human psychology as much as he dealt with crime. Born in Belgium, Simenon wrote over two hundred novels, some of them available in English. Maigret is a heavy thick-set man who wears a worn out overcoat and who is affected by the Paris heat. In the short fiction ‘Death of A Nobody’ Maigret hopes to spend a hot day in the shade of his office but is called out to investigate a murder. ‘It was hot by nine o’ clock that August morning. Paris was on holiday. Headquarters was almost empty, all its windows wide open over the river, and Maigret had already taken off his jacket when he got the call from Judge Com`eliau. ‘You ought to go round to the Rue des Dames. There was a crime there last night ’ That’s how things are always sprung upon one. You’re expecting to spend a peaceful day in the shade, and then, before you know where you are ‘Coming Lucas?’ As usual, the Crime Squad’s little car was not available and the two men had taken the metro, which smelt of disinfectant and where Maigret had to put out his pipe.’ Inspector Maigret solves the crime, the murder of a ‘man so neutral, so ordinary that one could have met him a hundred times without noticing him’, but his special qualities of head and heart also make him see the poignant human situation. The overworked wife who looks tired from housework and bearing children, the dingy rooms, the crowded landings. Maigret wonders ‘What kind of crime could have been committed in a house like this, inhabited by nobodies, who are usually decent people? A drama of love and jealousy? Even for that the setting was not right.’ Maigret is a policeman and he works with other policemen, but he is a loner. He has no children, he has no spectacular hobbies, he travels by public transport and his face is wooden. Yet his ordinariness and effacing presence belies his imagination and sharp intelligence. Maigret is the precursor of another lonesome detective, Martin Beck. Both are city cops, both have a deep sense of the violence endemic to city life and both blend well with the teeming anonymity of their cities. Beck is the creation of the Swedish writers Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo (all the o’s have umlauts but I don’t know how to do that in my computer). Maj Sjowall was born in 1935 in Stockholm and was a journalist and art director. She met her husband Per Wahloo (1926-1975) in 1961 and together they wrote ten Martin Beck novels that are considered some of the best in crime fiction. Their first two novel ‘Roseanna’ and ‘The Man Who went up in Smoke’ are set, like the others, in Sweden, a country they depict as collapsing, a victim of its own moral corruption. All the ten novels are set in the years 1965 to 1975, the years of high hippie culture that had wafted over Europe and Sweden, except that ‘it has transmogrified en route into a hideous nightmare, with its rose coloured cloud of incense now a gloomy miasma of drug addiction, petty crime and prostitution.’ (Richard Shepard) Martin Beck, to say the least, has an ambivalent attitude to the society he is paid to protect. In the novel ‘The Man on the Balcony’ he is accosted by a young girl selling pornographic pictures as he waits for his train perhaps because with his suitcase in hand and glum face many would probably take him ‘for a bewildered provincial who suddenly found himself in the rush and bustle of the big city.’ He goes to talk to two policeman on the beat and one of them recognizes him and salutes and the other does not. Beck is human enough to be annoyed and thinks, ‘twenty four years ago policemen saluted anyone who came up to them even if he were not a superintendent. Or had they? In those days girls of fourteen or fifteen had not photographed themselves and tried to sell the pictures to detective superintendents in order to get money for a fix.’ As a detective, Beck stumbles to solutions of crimes through sheer luck and hard work rather than brilliance. He is fallible and human, moved by the sad detritus of humanity that he encounters every day in the course of his work, the muggers, paedophiles, prostitutes, alcoholics and burglars. And in every case he solves, he is assailed by the sense that the crime, investigation and punishment are part of the society of which he too is a part. Martin Beck is a good detective not simply because he is a loner, but because he understands, in a unique way, how the individual and society are inextricably linked. In curious ways, both Maigret and Beck have a sense of how in the large cities, in its grim and dark crevices, ‘everyone in a sense is a victim.’ --------------------------------- Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. From naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com Sat Oct 13 17:35:47 2007 From: naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com (Naeem Mohaiemen) Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 18:05:47 +0600 Subject: [Reader-list] Poetic Terrorism in Madrid Message-ID: Poetic Terrorism http://www.fundaciontemasdearte.com Madrid October 07 Curator: Elga Wimmer >From the 18th to the 21st of October, 2007 the 7th edition of FEM 7, Festival Edición Madrid de Nuevos Creadores or Feria de las Tentaciones is held in Madrid.. The exhibition shows videos and films in containers (one per two artists) distributed in and around the center of Madrid (organized by Victor del Campo, director of Temas de Arte and Armando Unsain, director of FEM)) Juan Manuel Echavarria ( Columbia), Robert Boyd (USA) , Peter Aerschmann (Germany), Madeleine Hatz (Sweden/USA), Minnette Vari (South Africa), Oscar Seco and Manuel Mingo (Spain), Naeem Mohaiemen (Bangladesh) & Sehban Zaidi (Pakistan), Carolee Schneemann (USA/Canada), Michael Najjar & Dieter Jaufmann (Germany), Liselot van der Heijden (Holland), Teresa Serrano (Mexico), Jeremy Blake (USA) Jenny Marketou (Greece/USA), Martha Colburn (USA), Federico Solmi (Italy), Alterazioni Video (Italy), Damien Aspe (France), Makoto Aida (Japan), Alfred Porres (Spain), Christoph Draeger (Switzerland), Perry Bard (USA), Olga Kisseleva(France/Russia), Martin Sexton (Ireland/Great Britain).. The concept of the show straddles the territory between poetic terrorism proper (disruptive interventionist acts) and works that deal with terror by consciously commenting on it as a very serious subject. Still addressing terrorism in all its forms directly, the videos and films are made from a point of view of the symbolic, in its spiritual, human, reflective, and sensitive manifestations; the poetics and even humorous character of the art is dramatized rather than the pure document. The works of the artists in "Poetic Terrorism" assert that the political is not only painful, personal, and visual, it is also deeply, affectingly comical and at times nearly abstract. Peter Lamborn Wilson, also known as Hakim Bey, an American-born, self-described anarchist, poet, public intellectual, psychedelic explorer, artist, social critic, and Sufi mystic who coined the term Poetic Terrorism, spells out the following imperatives in his manifesto: "Poetic Terrorism is not terrorism. Rather it is an act of a very particular nature. It is a disruptive act, one that insinuates itself into the public space, like the uncontrollable growth of weeds on the sidewalk. It has the anarchistic goal of taking over of the streets. It is art without the hype and commercialism. The audience's reaction or aesthetic shock produced by 'Poetic Terrorism' ought to be at least as strong as the emotion of terror, resulting in powerful disgust, sexual arousal, superstitious awe, sudden intuitive breakthroughs, dadaesque angst--no matter whether the poetic terrorism is aimed at one person or many, no matter whether it is signed or anonymous, if it does not change someone's life (aside from the artist), it fails. The PTerrorist behaves like a confidence-trickster whose aim is not money but CHANGE. Don't do poetic terrorism for other artists, do it for people who will not realize (at least for a few moments) that what you have done is art. Avoid recognizable art-categories, avoid politics, don't stick around to argue, don't be sentimental; be ruthless, take risks, vandalize only what must be defaced, do something children will remember all their lives--but don't be spontaneous unless the muse of "Poetic Terrorism" has possessed you. Dress up. Leave a false name. Be legendary. The best poetic terrorism is against the law, but don't get caught. Art as crime; crime as art." (from Hakim Bey's "Poetic Terrorism," 1985) The great 18th century master Goya proved himself to be a radical artist in his time by the series of "Los Caprichos" -- probably the first cartoons in art history expressing discontent and criticism of the government through socio/political satire. As with the artists in "Poetic Terrorism" they provide viewers with images of deceit, corruption, war, violence, political upheaval, terror, betrayal, death, with an underlying hope for love, peace, trust, beauty, and harmony. From taraprakash at gmail.com Sat Oct 13 20:42:54 2007 From: taraprakash at gmail.com (TaraPrakash) Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 11:12:54 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] Invitation for an exhibition of photographs by the visually challenged References: Message-ID: <003e01c80dab$8b390e00$6400a8c0@taraprakash> Hi all. Hope some of you are interested. I am pasting from an invite I received. Regards You are cordially invited along with your family and friends to”Beyond Sight” an exhibition of photographs by the Visually challenged Venue Open Palm Court Gallery, India Habitat Center, Lodhi Road New Delhi Timings 6 pm - 8 pm October 17, 2007 10am –8pm18-21st October “Beyond Sight” is an exhibition of photographs taken by photographers with varying degrees of visual impairment, ranging from partial to total blindness. Various tactile, audio clues, visual memories of sight, the warmth of light, cognitive skills and intuitive abilities are used by the visually impaired to create “mental image” before they take judgment to take a picture. “Beyond Sight” illuminates a new line of thought distinct from the way we approach photography. It celebrates human spirit of self-expression and aims to empower the visually impaired through the art of photography. It is an inclusive exhibition that provides touchable images, Braille foot notes, visual aids and audio description for the visually impaired visitors. Proceeds from sale of prints would go for the cause of the Blind. The exhibition is on view till Oct 21, 2007,10 am - 8 pm on all days www.blindwithcamera.org The exhibition is the culmination of “Blind With Camera” project initiated by Partho Bhowmick after independent research on Art by the Blind. The project is first of its kind in India and the exhibition would travel across the country, to raise awareness and funds. For detail contact Partho Bhowmick +91 - 9821474731, parthobhowmick at gmail.com Supported by Kodak India Spenta Multimedia Better Photography Radio Mirchi Go Air Presented by Partho Bhowmick in collaboration with India Habitat Centre “I followed the direction of the water and clapping sound of my friends to take this picture” - Sujit Chaurasia "What we take away with us? On the most profound level, is the memory of the artist's way of looking at the world. The truth of this is confirmed by the fact that we can often recall the experience of a work, having forgotten both its precise subject and its precise formal arrangement.” John Berger Writer and Art Critic From parthaekka at gmail.com Fri Oct 12 16:06:00 2007 From: parthaekka at gmail.com (Partha Dasgupta) Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 16:06:00 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to junaid mails on Invasion of Indian culture In-Reply-To: <200888.67949.qm@web45507.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> References: <200888.67949.qm@web45507.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <32144e990710120336i227b45ccr8f60a3a3d1fac5cf@mail.gmail.com> Dear Dhatri, One of the reasons we were asked off the list for two weeks was that you keep going off on unrelated tangents. Please, please stick to replying to points raised in the current post, and if you wish to respond to another post, then do it on that post and not any one that you happen to click on. Rgds, Partha On 10/12/07, we wi wrote: > > Junaid, > > Though people are busy in false accusations,interpretations and > assaults on INDIA, Its culture and to support this there is no need to argue > endlessly, but to enlighten people like you who are doing intentionally, > I am writing this again. > > I used enlighten because either > > 1) You don't know about Indian history and culture-- > to support this is I prefer to use your earlier comments on PEACOCK > THROWN. I request you to go through > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh-i-Noor, > 2) If you spread rumors purposefully, then I remind > you that you will not succeed like Pakistan and China. Indian heritage is > rich and culture is widespread across the globe. Every HINDU home contain, > atleast few ancestral,cultural,spiritual,traditional wealths/residue > whatever you say. > > From the beginning of its origin to the present, > ISLAM produced violence that is the fact though its unfortunate and so as > people. So violent in thoughts leave 1/2 exceptional cases for whatever > reasons . You can say whatever but ISLAM IS MIGRATION TO INDIA. Please just > keep it in mind. > > Regards, > Dhatri. > > > --------------------------------- > Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who > knows. > Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: -- Partha Dasgupta +919811047132 From parthaekka at gmail.com Sat Oct 13 13:49:07 2007 From: parthaekka at gmail.com (Partha Dasgupta) Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 13:49:07 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to junaid mails on Invasion of Indian culture In-Reply-To: <70126.37172.qm@web45503.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> References: <32144e990710120336i227b45ccr8f60a3a3d1fac5cf@mail.gmail.com> <70126.37172.qm@web45503.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <32144e990710130119l20d8fdc0pf45e4e2a1caaba8d@mail.gmail.com> Dear Dhatri, Once again you jump around the debate on a tangent which has no relevance to what Junaid had mentioned. Also, since Sarai is a public forum for debate, we all raise issues here - like the one you had raised about Zero being discovered by India. In any case, to go back to the points you raised. 1. Jammu & Kashmir being a "Hindu" kingdom. If you are referring to the rulers being 'Hindu', then Junaid has shown you the fallacy. If you refer to the majority being 'Hindu' then that to is a fallacy. Firstly because J&K has a large Muslim population as well as Tribals. I presume you are aware that a 'Hindu' is one who believes in the trinity of Bramha, Vishnu and Shiva - and that tribals follow Yakshas and Yakhsis - which means that they are not 'Hindu'. Further, India is not a 'Hindu' country. The only Hindu nation I'm aware of is Nepal. And as you must be aware, the Hindu king there has caused much pain and death till there was a public revolt. The 'India' you are referring to pre-independence was actually a non-federation of independents rulers (who would more often than not be warring and looting other kingdoms). And if you really want to go that far back, shouldn't 'India' reject all tribes but the Dravid's who are the original inhabitants of this geographical place. By your logic of everyone being 'migrants', then all races in India other than Dravid's are migrants. So, are you going to give up your claim to India? More importantly, you seem to continuously get confused between religion and the region of people. If for example a Bengali converts to Buddhism, would you insist on sending him to Japan (even though Buddhism's roots are in India) or if he converted to being a Muslim does that change the fact that he's still a Bengali? I do hope you have read up on Indian history and discovered that many INDIAN people converted to Islam because of oppression by caste. They are still residents of India with an equal right to vote or express their opinion. 2. You use Wikepedia as a reference (and so do I). However, as an IT professional am aware that Wikepedia is a collective effort where anyone can make a post. And that the veracity of information there is not complete - which is why it gives references to places it has used information from as 'probable' history. 3. The article you've mentioned about the Kohinoor makes it very clear that most of it's sources are rumours and hearsay - which is why the mention conflicting sources and claims so that the reader is open to make his / her interpretation. It also makes it clear that ownership claims have been made by India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran as the actual origin is a matter of historical dispute. 4. From what I understood of Junaid's mail, he talked about the existence and oppression of Muslims in the princely state of J&K (which didn't have much to do with the Kohinoor or the Peacock Throne) which is why there was a revolt - much like there is one in the Hindu nation of Nepal. 5. From what little I've read and understood, Indian history and tradition is a mix of Mughal, Mongol, Portugese, Dravid, Roman, Grecian, Aryan and a host of other influences. The thought of India I have always loved as a secular nation (even before independence, actually) that assimilated concepts and people - inclusive and not exclusive. If you really are a follower of Indian tradition then look at how we inculcated all these influences (including English as an official language!) and used it to grow and move forward instead of closing our minds. Finally, are we looking at a resolution, are are we insistent upon staying enveloped in blind hate that shouts down everything except our angst irrespective of the logic. Maybe Juniad's angst is not as recent as yours, but it does exist, as does yours. So, what do we do? Keep fighting on small irrelevant issues like the Kohinoor or look at a way to resolve the larger issue that is causing so much pain, death and misery? What's more important? If you still think that your mail was not off on a tangent from the issues raised by Junaid, please fell free to correct me. However, I could not find any link between the points raised by Junaid and your response, or any facts behind your claims (with even Wikepedia making it abundantly clear that it can not verify sources). Rgds, Partha ............................. On 10/13/07, we wi wrote: > > Dear Partha, > > Why SARAI was being chosen as an avenue to gossip and rumour about JAMMU > and KASHMIR? > > Junaid writings are clearly objectionable because of many reasons. Among > them let me pinpoint > > 1) Hindu kings did this, that against whatever so called Muslim > population? > > Clearly Jammu and Kashmir is a HINDU KINGDOM like wise many kingdoms and > kings and so as then population and culture. > > Let me ask you in a country/kingdom where there exists only HINDUS(by any > time), if anybody else exists aren't they migrants? What do they be called? > Instead of living peacefully why would they continue attacking heritage and > culture? > If they started doing things in wrong way how will authorities > react? Going further If they continue ransacking by misusing the liberty > What to do? > > > > 2) PEACOCK THROWN was built with *Koh-i-Noor.* The history of kohinoor > is! > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh-i-Noor. > > Junaid clearly do not know this. With lack of knowledge like this he > is writing on SARAI. > > Forget the manners but the schools they studied taught wrong lectures, the > atmosphere they grew taught -ve and violence. Did they question themselves > before doing any such -ve,violent acts? for just 1000 years of history and > existence they are shouting like this then for being own the history and > existence of unmeasurable age how Hinduism/India/Indians/Hindu followers > should feel about and react??? > > I can produce sin,cos and cotangents also if you QUOTE my replies are > unrelated tangent. But if you look at mails on SARAI list, they are in such > a provoking way that atleast I could not show lenience. By writing like > this I just invest 5 minutes of my writing and 30 minutes of surfing time. > > > So junaid comments on > 1) JAMMU & KASHMIR with its culture and population then and KASHMIR > PUNDITS (now)is totally wrong. > 2) ISLAM is a myth just. > Not only junaid but many are doing the same. > > I am just an ordinary person and with the above justification hope you > will not use the word unrelated tangent again. > > Regards, > Dhatri. > > > *Partha Dasgupta * wrote: > > Dear Dhatri, > > One of the reasons we were asked off the list for two weeks was that you > keep going off on unrelated tangents. > > Please, please stick to replying to points raised in the current post, and > if you wish to respond to another post, then do it on that post and not any > one that you happen to click on. > > Rgds, Partha > > On 10/12/07, we wi wrote: > > > > Junaid, > > > > Though people are busy in false accusations,interpretations > > and assaults on INDIA, Its culture and to support this there is no need to > > argue endlessly, but to enlighten people like you who are doing > > intentionally, I am writing this again. > > > > I used enlighten because either > > > > 1) You don't know about Indian history and > > culture-- to support this is I prefer to use your earlier comments on > > PEACOCK THROWN. I request you to go through > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh-i-Noor, > > 2) If you spread rumors purposefully, then I remind > > you that you will not succeed like Pakistan and China. Indian heritage is > > rich and culture is widespread across the globe. Every HINDU home contain, > > atleast few ancestral,cultural,spiritual,traditional wealths/residue > > whatever you say. > > > > From the beginning of its origin to the present, > > ISLAM produced violence that is the fact though its unfortunate and so as > > people. So violent in thoughts leave 1/2 exceptional cases for whatever > > reasons . You can say whatever but ISLAM IS MIGRATION TO INDIA. Please just > > keep it in mind. > > > > Regards, > > Dhatri. > > > > > > --------------------------------- > > Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who > > knows. > > Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. > > _________________________________________ > > 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. > > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > > List archive: > > > > > -- > Partha Dasgupta > +919811047132 > > > ------------------------------ > Tonight's top picks. What will you watch tonight? Preview the hottest > showson Yahoo! TV. > > -- Partha Dasgupta +919811047132 From dhatr1i at yahoo.com Sat Oct 13 12:13:00 2007 From: dhatr1i at yahoo.com (we wi) Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2007 23:43:00 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to junaid mails on Invasion of Indian culture In-Reply-To: <32144e990710120336i227b45ccr8f60a3a3d1fac5cf@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <70126.37172.qm@web45503.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Dear Partha, Why SARAI was being chosen as an avenue to gossip and rumour about JAMMU and KASHMIR? Junaid writings are clearly objectionable because of many reasons. Among them let me pinpoint 1) Hindu kings did this, that against whatever so called Muslim population? Clearly Jammu and Kashmir is a HINDU KINGDOM like wise many kingdoms and kings and so as then population and culture. Let me ask you in a country/kingdom where there exists only HINDUS(by any time), if anybody else exists aren't they migrants? What do they be called? Instead of living peacefully why would they continue attacking heritage and culture? If they started doing things in wrong way how will authorities react? Going further If they continue ransacking by misusing the liberty What to do? 2) PEACOCK THROWN was built with Koh-i-Noor. The history of kohinoor is! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh-i-Noor. Junaid clearly do not know this. With lack of knowledge like this he is writing on SARAI. Forget the manners but the schools they studied taught wrong lectures, the atmosphere they grew taught -ve and violence. Did they question themselves before doing any such -ve,violent acts? for just 1000 years of history and existence they are shouting like this then for being own the history and existence of unmeasurable age how Hinduism/India/Indians/Hindu followers should feel about and react??? I can produce sin,cos and cotangents also if you QUOTE my replies are unrelated tangent. But if you look at mails on SARAI list, they are in such a provoking way that atleast I could not show lenience. By writing like this I just invest 5 minutes of my writing and 30 minutes of surfing time. So junaid comments on 1) JAMMU & KASHMIR with its culture and population then and KASHMIR PUNDITS (now)is totally wrong. 2) ISLAM is a myth just. Not only junaid but many are doing the same. I am just an ordinary person and with the above justification hope you will not use the word unrelated tangent again. Regards, Dhatri. Partha Dasgupta wrote: Dear Dhatri, One of the reasons we were asked off the list for two weeks was that you keep going off on unrelated tangents. Please, please stick to replying to points raised in the current post, and if you wish to respond to another post, then do it on that post and not any one that you happen to click on. Rgds, Partha On 10/12/07, we wi wrote: Junaid, Though people are busy in false accusations,interpretations and assaults on INDIA, Its culture and to support this there is no need to argue endlessly, but to enlighten people like you who are doing intentionally, I am writing this again. I used enlighten because either 1) You don't know about Indian history and culture-- to support this is I prefer to use your earlier comments on PEACOCK THROWN. I request you to go through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh-i-Noor, 2) If you spread rumors purposefully, then I remind you that you will not succeed like Pakistan and China. Indian heritage is rich and culture is widespread across the globe. Every HINDU home contain, atleast few ancestral,cultural,spiritual,traditional wealths/residue whatever you say. From the beginning of its origin to the present, ISLAM produced violence that is the fact though its unfortunate and so as people. So violent in thoughts leave 1/2 exceptional cases for whatever reasons . You can say whatever but ISLAM IS MIGRATION TO INDIA. Please just keep it in mind. Regards, Dhatri. --------------------------------- Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. _________________________________________ 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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: -- Partha Dasgupta +919811047132 --------------------------------- Tonight's top picks. What will you watch tonight? Preview the hottest shows on Yahoo! TV. From dhatr1i at yahoo.com Sat Oct 13 15:51:38 2007 From: dhatr1i at yahoo.com (we wi) Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 03:21:38 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to junaid mails on Invasion of Indian culture In-Reply-To: <32144e990710130119l20d8fdc0pf45e4e2a1caaba8d@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <143477.23328.qm@web45506.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Partha, Really? EVEN I AM INTO IT, I am a POST GRADUATE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE. Whats your greatness of somebody else greatness of being into 21st century/IT etc., But I am traditional(not orthodox and not modern). GANDHARV,YAKSH,KINNER,KIMPURUSH are all fall into divine category. (Holiness/--sainthood in your terms :P) Himalayas are divine and demons occupied them now. MERU is at MANAS SAROVAR -- occupied by CHINA, kashmire SHARADA DEVI .... LANKAYAM SHANKARI. Sharda temple is in J&K at POK(PAKISTAN OCCUPIED KASHMIR). >>I do hope you have read up on Indian history and discovered that many INDIAN >>people converted to Islam because of oppression by caste. They are still residents >>of India with an equal right to vote or express their opinion. While there are so many other religions are available and More freedom is there in them, Why do anybody choose Islam? They do have their own reasons and how does ones anger reflect except causing the disintegration((self or community)) due to force/confusion created due to exploitation of the system by somebody or self for whatever interests? Every religion is copy cat of HINDUISM, and do have dual categories why ??? Why reservations in India in the name of caste??? Why religion and caste is there in Indian life then from birth,schooling,jobs,death??? Have you ever heard about SRI CHAKRA? Could you please tell me the impact on foreign astrological calculations(websites and astologers foreign) and their truthfulness due to expulsion of PLUTO as a PLANET from the Solar system? Does that mean Whatever they predicted is wrong? Doesn't it clearly show they looted money through credit cards??? How will they adjust this expulsion and calculate the time now??? Should anybody in the world believe it or not??? I understood that you write something whatever I post. Leave Wikepedia,scriptures what about this. In Every part of India, some birth,marriage,death used to happen on seconds(least measurable time frame) basis apart from that people are there living and practicing the below line into their daily prayers(Officially at temples and personally at home). THIS IS REAL thing happening along with TIME. Even the same is the official calender for GOI(Government of India). Pl try to listen any Indian Radio channel(Irrespective of language) at morning 5:56(IST) minutes "PRAVARTA MANASYA, ADYA BRAHMANA,DWITEEYA PARAADHE,SWEETAVARAH KALPE, VAIVASWATA MANVANTARE, KALI YUGE,PRDHAMA PAADE, JAMBU DWEEPE, BHARATA VARSHE, BHARATA KHADE, MERU... ASMIN VARTHAMAANA VYAVAHARIK CHANDRAMAANEENA ,PRABHAVAADI SHASTI SAMVATSARAANAM MADHYE,SRI SARVAJITH NAAM VATSARE,DAKSHINAAYANE,VARSHA RUTAU,AASWAYUJA MAASE,SUKLA PAKSHE,VIDIYA MYAYAM,STHIRA VASARA Translation: _________ Adya Brahmanaha : Beginning from Brahma’s life. Dvitheeya Parardhe : we are now in 2nd Parardha. Sweta Varaha Kalpe : In Swetha Varaha Kalpa. Vyvaswata manvantare : Manu’s name is Vyvaswatha Kaliyuge : We are now in Kali Yug Pratham paade : Ist Pada—just in 52nd century Of Brahma. Christian Year 2007 ---- SARVAJITH NAAM vathsare (yeaar) Ayan: ---- DAKSHINAYAN RUTU ---- VARSH RUTU Month: ---- ASHVAYUJ MAase Paksh: ---- Sukla Pakshe Thithi: ---- VIDIYA Day ( SATURDAY) ---- STHIRA vasara Too deep explanation: ___________________ KRITA YUG = 17,28,000 YEARS TRETA YUG = 12,96,000 YEARS DWAPARA YUG = 8,64,000 YEARS KALI YUG = 4,32,000 YEARS --------------------------------- TOTAL= 43,20,000 YEARS --------------------------------- 1000 CHATUR YUGAS = 1 day of Brahma ( kalpa) 1000 CHATUR YUGAS = 1 night of Brahma. 2000 CHATUR YUGAS = 1 day & night of Brahma 360 DAYS OF BRAHMA = 1 year of Brahma. 100 YEARS OF BRAHMA = Brahma’s full age and that is the duration of the great Deluge too. 50 YEARS OF BRAHMA = PARARDHA. TWO PARARDHAS = Life span of Brahma i.e., 100 Years which is equal to: 31104,000,00,00,000 or 311040 billion human years. After that, pralaya equal to the duration of two Parardhas take place, and at its end, a new cycle of creation starts with a new Brahma at its head. 1) laya, at the end of a mahayuga, when the physical world is destroyed; 2) pralaya, at the end of a kalpa, when both the physical and subtle worlds are destroyed; and 3) mahapralaya at the end of a mahakalpa, when all three worlds (physical, subtle and causal) are absorbed into Shiv. Brahma has now completed one Parardha. He is now in His 51st year. He has thus passed 50 X 360 = 18,000 Kalpas. The first Kalpa is called Brahma and the last Padma. The current Kalpa is SWETA VARAHA KALPA. Within each Kalpa 14 Manus reign; a Manvantara, or period of a Manu, therefore is consequently one-fourteenth part of a Kalpa, or day of Brahma. "In the present Kalpa, six Manus, of whom Swayambhu was the first, have already passed away; the present being Vaivaswata. Brahma creates and his own life time is 2 Parardhas i.e; 100 years of Brahma and His date of death is certain. Historians/foreigners measure time scale(this age,that age,cabbage and cauliflower or whatever flower into your ears or some body else hair). But the above one(SANKALP) has been coming as a part of Indian way of life and will continue to go. BRAHMA(out of 100) COMPLETED 52 YEARS AND 48 REMAINING, I could not foresee the KALI ERA and the life ahead at Brahma's 100th year(at pralaya time). If I say because you got married to a christian(though its a conceptual one, I doubt on you), one Hindu girl lost a good husband and got unmarried and living whats your reaction??? Even after my spoon feeding mail, explaining the relevance(depicting the false facts like PEACOCK THROWN WAS BUILT BY MUGHAL KINGS thats true but the material used is the stolen/robbed one,KASHMIRI PUNDITS made muslims as slaves) I doubt your understanding skills and your employer/business capabilities. Regards, Dhatri. Partha Dasgupta wrote: Dear Dhatri, Once again you jump around the debate on a tangent which has no relevance to what Junaid had mentioned. Also, since Sarai is a public forum for debate, we all raise issues here - like the one you had raised about Zero being discovered by India. In any case, to go back to the points you raised. 1. Jammu & Kashmir being a "Hindu" kingdom. If you are referring to the rulers being 'Hindu', then Junaid has shown you the fallacy. If you refer to the majority being 'Hindu' then that to is a fallacy. Firstly because J&K has a large Muslim population as well as Tribals. I presume you are aware that a 'Hindu' is one who believes in the trinity of Bramha, Vishnu and Shiva - and that tribals follow Yakshas and Yakhsis - which means that they are not 'Hindu'. Further, India is not a 'Hindu' country. The only Hindu nation I'm aware of is Nepal. And as you must be aware, the Hindu king there has caused much pain and death till there was a public revolt. The 'India' you are referring to pre-independence was actually a non-federation of independents rulers (who would more often than not be warring and looting other kingdoms). And if you really want to go that far back, shouldn't 'India' reject all tribes but the Dravid's who are the original inhabitants of this geographical place. By your logic of everyone being 'migrants', then all races in India other than Dravid's are migrants. So, are you going to give up your claim to India? More importantly, you seem to continuously get confused between religion and the region of people. If for example a Bengali converts to Buddhism, would you insist on sending him to Japan (even though Buddhism's roots are in India) or if he converted to being a Muslim does that change the fact that he's still a Bengali? I do hope you have read up on Indian history and discovered that many INDIAN people converted to Islam because of oppression by caste. They are still residents of India with an equal right to vote or express their opinion. 2. You use Wikepedia as a reference (and so do I). However, as an IT professional am aware that Wikepedia is a collective effort where anyone can make a post. And that the veracity of information there is not complete - which is why it gives references to places it has used information from as 'probable' history. 3. The article you've mentioned about the Kohinoor makes it very clear that most of it's sources are rumours and hearsay - which is why the mention conflicting sources and claims so that the reader is open to make his / her interpretation. It also makes it clear that ownership claims have been made by India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran as the actual origin is a matter of historical dispute. 4. From what I understood of Junaid's mail, he talked about the existence and oppression of Muslims in the princely state of J&K (which didn't have much to do with the Kohinoor or the Peacock Throne) which is why there was a revolt - much like there is one in the Hindu nation of Nepal. 5. From what little I've read and understood, Indian history and tradition is a mix of Mughal, Mongol, Portugese, Dravid, Roman, Grecian, Aryan and a host of other influences. The thought of India I have always loved as a secular nation (even before independence, actually) that assimilated concepts and people - inclusive and not exclusive. If you really are a follower of Indian tradition then look at how we inculcated all these influences (including English as an official language!) and used it to grow and move forward instead of closing our minds. Finally, are we looking at a resolution, are are we insistent upon staying enveloped in blind hate that shouts down everything except our angst irrespective of the logic. Maybe Juniad's angst is not as recent as yours, but it does exist, as does yours. So, what do we do? Keep fighting on small irrelevant issues like the Kohinoor or look at a way to resolve the larger issue that is causing so much pain, death and misery? What's more important? If you still think that your mail was not off on a tangent from the issues raised by Junaid, please fell free to correct me. However, I could not find any link between the points raised by Junaid and your response, or any facts behind your claims (with even Wikepedia making it abundantly clear that it can not verify sources). Rgds, Partha .............................. On 10/13/07, we wi wrote: Dear Partha, Why SARAI was being chosen as an avenue to gossip and rumour about JAMMU and KASHMIR? Junaid writings are clearly objectionable because of many reasons. Among them let me pinpoint 1) Hindu kings did this, that against whatever so called Muslim population? Clearly Jammu and Kashmir is a HINDU KINGDOM like wise many kingdoms and kings and so as then population and culture. Let me ask you in a country/kingdom where there exists only HINDUS(by any time), if anybody else exists aren't they migrants? What do they be called? Instead of living peacefully why would they continue attacking heritage and culture? If they started doing things in wrong way how will authorities react? Going further If they continue ransacking by misusing the liberty What to do? 2) PEACOCK THROWN was built with Koh-i-Noor. The history of kohinoor is! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh-i-Noor . Junaid clearly do not know this. With lack of knowledge like this he is writing on SARAI. Forget the manners but the schools they studied taught wrong lectures, the atmosphere they grew taught -ve and violence. Did they question themselves before doing any such -ve,violent acts? for just 1000 years of history and existence they are shouting like this then for being own the history and existence of unmeasurable age how Hinduism/India/Indians/Hindu followers should feel about and react??? I can produce sin,cos and cotangents also if you QUOTE my replies are unrelated tangent. But if you look at mails on SARAI list, they are in such a provoking way that atleast I could not show lenience. By writing like this I just invest 5 minutes of my writing and 30 minutes of surfing time. So junaid comments on 1) JAMMU & KASHMIR with its culture and population then and KASHMIR PUNDITS (now)is totally wrong. 2) ISLAM is a myth just. Not only junaid but many are doing the same. I am just an ordinary person and with the above justification hope you will not use the word unrelated tangent again. Regards, Dhatri. Partha Dasgupta wrote: Dear Dhatri, One of the reasons we were asked off the list for two weeks was that you keep going off on unrelated tangents. Please, please stick to replying to points raised in the current post, and if you wish to respond to another post, then do it on that post and not any one that you happen to click on. Rgds, Partha On 10/12/07, we wi < dhatr1i at yahoo.com> wrote: Junaid, Though people are busy in false accusations,interpretations and assaults on INDIA, Its culture and to support this there is no need to argue endlessly, but to enlighten people like you who are doing intentionally, I am writing this again. I used enlighten because either 1) You don't know about Indian history and culture-- to support this is I prefer to use your earlier comments on PEACOCK THROWN. I request you to go through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh-i-Noor, 2) If you spread rumors purposefully, then I remind you that you will not succeed like Pakistan and China. Indian heritage is rich and culture is widespread across the globe. Every HINDU home contain, atleast few ancestral,cultural,spiritual,traditional wealths/residue whatever you say. From the beginning of its origin to the present, ISLAM produced violence that is the fact though its unfortunate and so as people. So violent in thoughts leave 1/2 exceptional cases for whatever reasons . You can say whatever but ISLAM IS MIGRATION TO INDIA. Please just keep it in mind. Regards, Dhatri. --------------------------------- Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. _________________________________________ 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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: -- Partha Dasgupta +919811047132 --------------------------------- Tonight's top picks. What will you watch tonight? Preview the hottest shows on Yahoo! TV. -- Partha Dasgupta +919811047132 --------------------------------- Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha! Play Monopoly Here and Now (it's updated for today's economy) at Yahoo! Games. From dhatr1i at yahoo.com Sat Oct 13 16:21:07 2007 From: dhatr1i at yahoo.com (we wi) Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 03:51:07 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to junaid mails on Invasion of Indian culture Message-ID: <219493.22358.qm@web45505.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Forget to write on one more observation from your mail --Oppression of Caste and Muslims, Let me tell you , The Village Assistant at my ancestral village is a Muslim. He never be truth full to my family as he has been enjoying the ancestral VA benefits because of our family. But he want the TAMARIND PICKLE(apart from other spicy dishes and all other help) on daily basis. He never accept Thirupathi Prasad(I think You know about thirupathi) from me. Likewise many do the same??? How does I understand and perceive this? What should my forefathers do and What about me??? Who Oppressed whom? we wi wrote: Partha, Really? EVEN I AM INTO IT, I am a POST GRADUATE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE. Whats your greatness of somebody else greatness of being into 21st century/IT etc., But I am traditional(not orthodox and not modern). GANDHARV,YAKSH,KINNER,KIMPURUSH are all fall into divine category. (Holiness/--sainthood in your terms :P) Himalayas are divine and demons occupied them now. MERU is at MANAS SAROVAR -- occupied by CHINA, kashmire SHARADA DEVI .... LANKAYAM SHANKARI. Sharda temple is in J&K at POK(PAKISTAN OCCUPIED KASHMIR). >>I do hope you have read up on Indian history and discovered that many INDIAN >>people converted to Islam because of oppression by caste. They are still residents >>of India with an equal right to vote or express their opinion. While there are so many other religions are available and More freedom is there in them, Why do anybody choose Islam? They do have their own reasons and how does ones anger reflect except causing the disintegration((self or community)) due to force/confusion created due to exploitation of the system by somebody or self for whatever interests? Every religion is copy cat of HINDUISM, and do have dual categories why ??? Why reservations in India in the name of caste??? Why religion and caste is there in Indian life then from birth,schooling,jobs,death??? Have you ever heard about SRI CHAKRA? Could you please tell me the impact on foreign astrological calculations(websites and astologers foreign) and their truthfulness due to expulsion of PLUTO as a PLANET from the Solar system? Does that mean Whatever they predicted is wrong? Doesn't it clearly show they looted money through credit cards??? How will they adjust this expulsion and calculate the time now??? Should anybody in the world believe it or not??? I understood that you write something whatever I post. Leave Wikepedia,scriptures what about this. In Every part of India, some birth,marriage,death used to happen on seconds(least measurable time frame) basis apart from that people are there living and practicing the below line into their daily prayers(Officially at temples and personally at home). THIS IS REAL thing happening along with TIME. Even the same is the official calender for GOI(Government of India). Pl try to listen any Indian Radio channel(Irrespective of language) at morning 5:56(IST) minutes "PRAVARTA MANASYA, ADYA BRAHMANA,DWITEEYA PARAADHE,SWEETAVARAH KALPE, VAIVASWATA MANVANTARE, KALI YUGE,PRDHAMA PAADE, JAMBU DWEEPE, BHARATA VARSHE, BHARATA KHADE, MERU... ASMIN VARTHAMAANA VYAVAHARIK CHANDRAMAANEENA ,PRABHAVAADI SHASTI SAMVATSARAANAM MADHYE,SRI SARVAJITH NAAM VATSARE,DAKSHINAAYANE,VARSHA RUTAU,AASWAYUJA MAASE,SUKLA PAKSHE,VIDIYA MYAYAM,STHIRA VASARA Translation: _________ Adya Brahmanaha : Beginning from Brahma’s life. Dvitheeya Parardhe : we are now in 2nd Parardha. Sweta Varaha Kalpe : In Swetha Varaha Kalpa. Vyvaswata manvantare : Manu’s name is Vyvaswatha Kaliyuge : We are now in Kali Yug Pratham paade : Ist Pada—just in 52nd century Of Brahma. Christian Year 2007 ---- SARVAJITH NAAM vathsare (yeaar) Ayan: ---- DAKSHINAYAN RUTU ---- VARSH RUTU Month: ---- ASHVAYUJ MAase Paksh: ---- Sukla Pakshe Thithi: ---- VIDIYA Day ( SATURDAY) ---- STHIRA vasara Too deep explanation: ___________________ KRITA YUG = 17,28,000 YEARS TRETA YUG = 12,96,000 YEARS DWAPARA YUG = 8,64,000 YEARS KALI YUG = 4,32,000 YEARS --------------------------------- TOTAL= 43,20,000 YEARS --------------------------------- 1000 CHATUR YUGAS = 1 day of Brahma ( kalpa) 1000 CHATUR YUGAS = 1 night of Brahma. 2000 CHATUR YUGAS = 1 day & night of Brahma 360 DAYS OF BRAHMA = 1 year of Brahma. 100 YEARS OF BRAHMA = Brahma’s full age and that is the duration of the great Deluge too. 50 YEARS OF BRAHMA = PARARDHA. TWO PARARDHAS = Life span of Brahma i.e., 100 Years which is equal to: 31104,000,00,00,000 or 311040 billion human years. After that, pralaya equal to the duration of two Parardhas take place, and at its end, a new cycle of creation starts with a new Brahma at its head. 1) laya, at the end of a mahayuga, when the physical world is destroyed; 2) pralaya, at the end of a kalpa, when both the physical and subtle worlds are destroyed; and 3) mahapralaya at the end of a mahakalpa, when all three worlds (physical, subtle and causal) are absorbed into Shiv. Brahma has now completed one Parardha. He is now in His 51st year. He has thus passed 50 X 360 = 18,000 Kalpas. The first Kalpa is called Brahma and the last Padma. The current Kalpa is SWETA VARAHA KALPA. Within each Kalpa 14 Manus reign; a Manvantara, or period of a Manu, therefore is consequently one-fourteenth part of a Kalpa, or day of Brahma. "In the present Kalpa, six Manus, of whom Swayambhu was the first, have already passed away; the present being Vaivaswata. Brahma creates and his own life time is 2 Parardhas i.e; 100 years of Brahma and His date of death is certain. Historians/foreigners measure time scale(this age,that age,cabbage and cauliflower or whatever flower into your ears or some body else hair). But the above one(SANKALP) has been coming as a part of Indian way of life and will continue to go. BRAHMA(out of 100) COMPLETED 52 YEARS AND 48 REMAINING, I could not foresee the KALI ERA and the life ahead at Brahma's 100th year(at pralaya time). If I say because you got married to a christian(though its a conceptual one, I doubt on you), one Hindu girl lost a good husband and got unmarried and living whats your reaction??? Even after my spoon feeding mail, explaining the relevance(depicting the false facts like PEACOCK THROWN WAS BUILT BY MUGHAL KINGS thats true but the material used is the stolen/robbed one,KASHMIRI PUNDITS made muslims as slaves) I doubt your understanding skills and your employer/business capabilities. Regards, Dhatri. Partha Dasgupta wrote: Dear Dhatri, Once again you jump around the debate on a tangent which has no relevance to what Junaid had mentioned. Also, since Sarai is a public forum for debate, we all raise issues here - like the one you had raised about Zero being discovered by India. In any case, to go back to the points you raised. 1. Jammu & Kashmir being a "Hindu" kingdom. If you are referring to the rulers being 'Hindu', then Junaid has shown you the fallacy. If you refer to the majority being 'Hindu' then that to is a fallacy. Firstly because J&K has a large Muslim population as well as Tribals. I presume you are aware that a 'Hindu' is one who believes in the trinity of Bramha, Vishnu and Shiva - and that tribals follow Yakshas and Yakhsis - which means that they are not 'Hindu'. Further, India is not a 'Hindu' country. The only Hindu nation I'm aware of is Nepal. And as you must be aware, the Hindu king there has caused much pain and death till there was a public revolt. The 'India' you are referring to pre-independence was actually a non-federation of independents rulers (who would more often than not be warring and looting other kingdoms). And if you really want to go that far back, shouldn't 'India' reject all tribes but the Dravid's who are the original inhabitants of this geographical place. By your logic of everyone being 'migrants', then all races in India other than Dravid's are migrants. So, are you going to give up your claim to India? More importantly, you seem to continuously get confused between religion and the region of people. If for example a Bengali converts to Buddhism, would you insist on sending him to Japan (even though Buddhism's roots are in India) or if he converted to being a Muslim does that change the fact that he's still a Bengali? I do hope you have read up on Indian history and discovered that many INDIAN people converted to Islam because of oppression by caste. They are still residents of India with an equal right to vote or express their opinion. 2. You use Wikepedia as a reference (and so do I). However, as an IT professional am aware that Wikepedia is a collective effort where anyone can make a post. And that the veracity of information there is not complete - which is why it gives references to places it has used information from as 'probable' history. 3. The article you've mentioned about the Kohinoor makes it very clear that most of it's sources are rumours and hearsay - which is why the mention conflicting sources and claims so that the reader is open to make his / her interpretation. It also makes it clear that ownership claims have been made by India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran as the actual origin is a matter of historical dispute. 4. From what I understood of Junaid's mail, he talked about the existence and oppression of Muslims in the princely state of J&K (which didn't have much to do with the Kohinoor or the Peacock Throne) which is why there was a revolt - much like there is one in the Hindu nation of Nepal. 5. From what little I've read and understood, Indian history and tradition is a mix of Mughal, Mongol, Portugese, Dravid, Roman, Grecian, Aryan and a host of other influences. The thought of India I have always loved as a secular nation (even before independence, actually) that assimilated concepts and people - inclusive and not exclusive. If you really are a follower of Indian tradition then look at how we inculcated all these influences (including English as an official language!) and used it to grow and move forward instead of closing our minds. Finally, are we looking at a resolution, are are we insistent upon staying enveloped in blind hate that shouts down everything except our angst irrespective of the logic. Maybe Juniad's angst is not as recent as yours, but it does exist, as does yours. So, what do we do? Keep fighting on small irrelevant issues like the Kohinoor or look at a way to resolve the larger issue that is causing so much pain, death and misery? What's more important? If you still think that your mail was not off on a tangent from the issues raised by Junaid, please fell free to correct me. However, I could not find any link between the points raised by Junaid and your response, or any facts behind your claims (with even Wikepedia making it abundantly clear that it can not verify sources). Rgds, Partha .............................. On 10/13/07, we wi wrote: Dear Partha, Why SARAI was being chosen as an avenue to gossip and rumour about JAMMU and KASHMIR? Junaid writings are clearly objectionable because of many reasons. Among them let me pinpoint 1) Hindu kings did this, that against whatever so called Muslim population? Clearly Jammu and Kashmir is a HINDU KINGDOM like wise many kingdoms and kings and so as then population and culture. Let me ask you in a country/kingdom where there exists only HINDUS(by any time), if anybody else exists aren't they migrants? What do they be called? Instead of living peacefully why would they continue attacking heritage and culture? If they started doing things in wrong way how will authorities react? Going further If they continue ransacking by misusing the liberty What to do? 2) PEACOCK THROWN was built with Koh-i-Noor. The history of kohinoor is! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh-i-Noor . Junaid clearly do not know this. With lack of knowledge like this he is writing on SARAI. Forget the manners but the schools they studied taught wrong lectures, the atmosphere they grew taught -ve and violence. Did they question themselves before doing any such -ve,violent acts? for just 1000 years of history and existence they are shouting like this then for being own the history and existence of unmeasurable age how Hinduism/India/Indians/Hindu followers should feel about and react??? I can produce sin,cos and cotangents also if you QUOTE my replies are unrelated tangent. But if you look at mails on SARAI list, they are in such a provoking way that atleast I could not show lenience. By writing like this I just invest 5 minutes of my writing and 30 minutes of surfing time. So junaid comments on 1) JAMMU & KASHMIR with its culture and population then and KASHMIR PUNDITS (now)is totally wrong. 2) ISLAM is a myth just. Not only junaid but many are doing the same. I am just an ordinary person and with the above justification hope you will not use the word unrelated tangent again. Regards, Dhatri. Partha Dasgupta wrote: Dear Dhatri, One of the reasons we were asked off the list for two weeks was that you keep going off on unrelated tangents. Please, please stick to replying to points raised in the current post, and if you wish to respond to another post, then do it on that post and not any one that you happen to click on. Rgds, Partha On 10/12/07, we wi < dhatr1i at yahoo.com> wrote: Junaid, Though people are busy in false accusations,interpretations and assaults on INDIA, Its culture and to support this there is no need to argue endlessly, but to enlighten people like you who are doing intentionally, I am writing this again. I used enlighten because either 1) You don't know about Indian history and culture-- to support this is I prefer to use your earlier comments on PEACOCK THROWN. I request you to go through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh-i-Noor, 2) If you spread rumors purposefully, then I remind you that you will not succeed like Pakistan and China. Indian heritage is rich and culture is widespread across the globe. Every HINDU home contain, atleast few ancestral,cultural,spiritual,traditional wealths/residue whatever you say. From the beginning of its origin to the present, ISLAM produced violence that is the fact though its unfortunate and so as people. So violent in thoughts leave 1/2 exceptional cases for whatever reasons . You can say whatever but ISLAM IS MIGRATION TO INDIA. Please just keep it in mind. Regards, Dhatri. --------------------------------- Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. _________________________________________ 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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: -- Partha Dasgupta +919811047132 --------------------------------- Tonight's top picks. What will you watch tonight? Preview the hottest shows on Yahoo! TV. -- Partha Dasgupta +919811047132 --------------------------------- Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha! Play Monopoly Here and Now (it's updated for today's economy) at Yahoo! Games. --------------------------------- Need a vacation? Get great deals to amazing places on Yahoo! Travel. From dhatr1i at yahoo.com Sat Oct 13 22:17:49 2007 From: dhatr1i at yahoo.com (we wi) Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 09:47:49 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to junaid mails on Invasion of Indian culture In-Reply-To: <47e122a70710121134x7af31c8cy95344169a133aed1@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <797976.73271.qm@web45509.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Dear Indersalim, No comments except >>Now who is the oppressor, it must be within us, too, embedded within, >>deeply, who worships the false gods. So do we have an axe to grind ? Gods will never be false but our feelings are mallacious and false, our belief is dubious and our concentration is false so as the practice. Regards, Dhatri. inder salim wrote: Please allow me to reflect your ( and other such ) conversation a little differently : I quote Aga Shahid Ali " If only somehow you could have been mine, what would not have been possible in the world " Momin Khan Momin says the same thing like this: Tum Maray Kisi Tarah Na Huya, Varna Dunia Mein Kay Nahi Hota. I am writing this to myself as well. I am not bitter, but I am wondering how to arrive at a point when I ( we ) can break the maze of mirrors ( enabling the Bruce Lee to break the IMAGE ) and restore the real. Perhaps, things have not become so critical as yet. Still it looks a game played by words alone. Now see, Aga Shahid again… but he is vigorously churning the few chosen words in order to get something out this churning, not the meaning, but to realize that the being is moving along with words… to somewhere, perhaps in a single direction, which is so rare, which the poet knows deep down….but to realize…self/other : Iqbal in Sara Jahan say accha : AYE ABI ROODAY GANGA….WOH DIN HAI YAAD TUJ KO…. This is again from Aga Shahid's famous poem ' farewell ' " My memory is again in the way of your history " " Your history gets in the way of my memory " " Your memory gets in the way of my memory " " My memory keeps getting in the way of your history" Now what is this hysterical dance of the same set of words, if not the inner pain to locate the troubled 'self' in our collective history that presently tends to negate the existence of the very being, located in the other… Now who is the oppressor, it must be within us, too, embedded within, deeply, who worships the false gods. So do we have an axe to grind ? Yes, but see how a great poet like Ghalib profoundly confesses, perhaps at the end of his life when he saw everything crumbling during the ruthless rule of British after 1857. Kaay woh Nimrod ki Khudayee thee, Bandgee mein mara bhala na huva. ( worshiping false gods was a mistake, it naturally robed me from my spirituality) Meanwhile, please continue talking about the past history in Kashmir…but please listen the Co-winner of this year's Noble Peace Dr. Rajinder K. Pachuria " India is doing very little towards environment " If we give very little attention to such uttering, then what kind of India is there which are proud of ? And if we are still obsessed with that old romantic form of Nation State, ( governed by thousand of Nimrods ) then what is the meaning of other, history of other, memory of the other. Is Islam still an outsider to the real of India ? If so then I must quote Aga Shahid Ali once again : AT A CERTAIN POINT I LOST TRACK OF YOU. indersalim On 10/12/07, we wi wrote: > Junaid, > > Though people are busy in false accusations,interpretations and assaults on INDIA, Its culture and to support this there is no need to argue endlessly, but to enlighten people like you who are doing intentionally, I am writing this again. > > I used enlighten because either > > 1) You don't know about Indian history and culture-- to support this is I prefer to use your earlier comments on PEACOCK THROWN. I request you to go through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh-i-Noor, > 2) If you spread rumors purposefully, then I remind you that you will not succeed like Pakistan and China. Indian heritage is rich and culture is widespread across the globe. Every HINDU home contain, atleast few ancestral,cultural,spiritual,traditional wealths/residue whatever you say. > > From the beginning of its origin to the present, ISLAM produced violence that is the fact though its unfortunate and so as people. So violent in thoughts leave 1/2 exceptional cases for whatever reasons . You can say whatever but ISLAM IS MIGRATION TO INDIA. Please just keep it in mind. > > Regards, > Dhatri. > > > --------------------------------- > Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. > Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > 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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: --------------------------------- Take the Internet to Go: Yahoo!Go puts the Internet in your pocket: mail, news, photos & more. From shuddha at sarai.net Sat Oct 13 14:01:01 2007 From: shuddha at sarai.net (Shuddhabrata Sengupta) Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 14:01:01 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Comment on Bengal Women's Commission in Rizwanur Case Message-ID: <47108245.3020705@sarai.net> Dear All, This note came my way this morning from Aditya Nigam and Nivedita Menon. There has been some discussion of the Rizwanur Rahman case in West Bengal on this list. So, I thought this would be of interest to some. regards Shuddha ------------------------------------------------------------------------- PROTEST THE UNETHICAL MOVE BY THE BENGAL STATE WOMEN’S COMMISSION We are distressed to read the statement of the West Bengal State women’s Commission after its visit to Priyanka Todi whose husband Rizwanur Rahman was found dead on the railway track after he had fixed an appointment with the APDR friends regarding his harassment at the hands of the Kolkata Police who were acting in blatant violation of all legal and civil norms at the behest of Priyanka’s father Ashok Todi . Todi wanted her daughter to walk out of the marriage and had mobilized Kolkata police to terrorize Rizwan and his friend Sadiq who was witness to their marriage. The married couple were called t the Thana thrice and told by the police that Priyanka should go to her parents and they would ensure that she returned after a week. This was not to happen. She was forced to go her father but all efforts of Rizwan to talk to her after this period failed. Desperate, he contacted the APDR (Association for the Protection of Democratic Rights) . One must remember that Sadiq, who was witness to their marriage was threatened by police with dire consequences. He had to go into hiding. Priyanka had gone to her parents on 8 September. Rizwan wrote a detailed account of his harassments at the hands of the Kolkata Police and gave it to the APDR. On 21 September, he talked to the APDR people and it was decided that they would meet in the afternoon. This meting was also not to take place. He was to be found dead on the Railway tracks just ater his telephonic talk. Prasun Mukherji, the Kolkata police Chief declared immediately without waiting for the customary autopsy report that it was a transparent case of suicide. He blatantly justified the illegal intervention of the police in a perfectly legal marriage between tow adults Pryanka and Rizwan, claiming that it was natural for the father of the girl to get upset over such marriage as it was a marriage between unequals. After all, Ashok Todi is a man worth more the 200 crores and Rizwan was only a Muslim of modest earnings! We know that a powerful people’s campaign is on demanding the removal of the cops involved in the whole affair and a fair investigation which has repeatedly been rejected by the CM, West Bengal. It is now a matter of public discussion that Todi is close to Prasun . The West Bengal government is putting shameless arguments in the high court opposing a CBI investigation as demanded by the mother of Rizwan. It is widely believed that the CID report has been manipulated to make it a case of suicide. The state government has violated also all norms in constituting a Judicial Inquiry. In these circumstances, the visit of the State Women’s Commission to Ashok Todi’s place to ‘know’ about Priyanka’s well being and the statements made by the members of the commission afterwards that Priyanka had come on her own to Todi and the Police were not harsh to her and she wanted to be left alone and move beyond this tragedy without media glare and to top it all, the appeal by the members of the commission to Priyanka that she should not let herself get harassed by the media make it very clear that the commission is being used to give legitimacy to the police and the government and also to Ashok Todi. Should one be surprised that the Commission did not think it fit to visit Rizwan’s family and instead went to Todi’s house which, as has rightly been said cannot be a neutral site ? It is indeed painful that eminent personalities like Jasodhara Bagchi are allowing themselves to be used as agents of a government led by a party which has repeatedly shown that it has scant regard for the rights of the people and especially women. The move by the West Bengal state Women’s Commission needs to be condemned strongly by all democratic people. They need to remember that these institutions were created after a long and difficult struggle and any move to make them subservient to the state would be resisted with the might of the people. The members of the Commission have lost their right to continue on this commission as they have, on this occasion and on many occasions like Singur and Nandigram failed to act in an autonomous manner. We appeal to all democrats and feminist groups to protest against this violation of the autonomy of the West Bengal State Women's Commission. Aditya Nigam, CSDS, Delhi Apoorvanand, Delhi University Nivedita menon, Delhi University From anivar at movingrepublic.org Sat Oct 13 17:32:00 2007 From: anivar at movingrepublic.org (Anivar Aravind) Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 17:32:00 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Interview with eben Moglen on Frontline Message-ID: <4710B3B8.8090906@movingrepublic.org> V. Sasikumar interviews Eben Moglen The spectre of free information "Free software that helps us reward artists is therefore a crucial part of the business of freeing art. And this is why I say in my writing that there is an inherent relationship between free software and free culture. Free software enables free culture. Without free software you can’t have free culture just as without free software you can’t have Google. They are interdependent properties, free culture and free software. And we have to have a common banner and we have to march under the same banner together. Because if we don’t tell people that we are inherently part of the same thing, if we can’t get that message across, they won’t figure it out for themselves." http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/stories/20071019507610000.htm From indersalim at gmail.com Sun Oct 14 16:08:01 2007 From: indersalim at gmail.com (inder salim) Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 16:08:01 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] EID MUBARAK TO ALL Message-ID: <47e122a70710140338j2e9040ebt21923e18ea91e9d7@mail.gmail.com> EID MUBARAK to all can be a little healing touch in Kashmir if Govt of India on this occasion officiallydeclares: Islamabad (Anantnag) instead of Ananatnag ( Islamabad ) which is quite a popular demand in Kashmir. Kashmiri Pandits ought to understand that even now, no body in Islamabad ( Anantnag ) eats fish from the springs in Kashmir. I guess, we all need to celebrate the popular culture ? love and eid mubarak once again is -- http://indersalim.livejournal.com From yasir.media at gmail.com Sun Oct 14 16:48:07 2007 From: yasir.media at gmail.com (yasir ~) Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 04:18:07 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to junaid mails on Invasion of Indian culture In-Reply-To: <200888.67949.qm@web45507.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> References: <200888.67949.qm@web45507.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <5af37bb0710140418m5d81ba4bma8971d0bf6fe7dab@mail.gmail.com> If you are serious about this, i'm afraid you'll have to be converted. If it doesn't go well, you may be recycled several times, depending on current environmental-eschatological conditions. Check your horoscope. You will be billed. In case of recycling you may pay in installments at the end of every cycle. There is 0% interest on the installments. To counter any sense the protestant ethic may be making all future correspondence will not be English. You have two weeks to think this over. A Coffee Day cup of Arabicaah! border-crossing violence from the ' 'sky-kissing' estates on the mountain slopes of Chikmagalur and Kodagu', Eid mubarak. On 10/11/07, we wi wrote: > Junaid From ravikant at sarai.net Sun Oct 14 17:55:56 2007 From: ravikant at sarai.net (ravikant at sarai.net) Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 17:55:56 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Pamuk and Rushdie on Homeland Message-ID: <656b7f50b94ed6c0d251a8a01ccf3bed@sarai.net> Fine Eid gift from Prof. CM Naim. Enjoy! Ravikant ------ Original Message ------ Subject: Pamuk / Rushdie. Sorry about that. To: undisclosed-recipients:; From: C.M. Naim Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 14:29:08 -0500 Here is something that may interest you. Orham Pamuk and Salman Rushdie on the same stage, talking about 'Homeland.' <> From indersalim at gmail.com Sun Oct 14 18:06:35 2007 From: indersalim at gmail.com (inder salim) Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 18:06:35 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] EID MUBARAK TO ALL In-Reply-To: <6b79f1a70710140435r4df01b9fo3053b3dc969910b7@mail.gmail.com> References: <47e122a70710140338j2e9040ebt21923e18ea91e9d7@mail.gmail.com> <6b79f1a70710140435r4df01b9fo3053b3dc969910b7@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <47e122a70710140536r6becde3fjfebbb235138649af@mail.gmail.com> cool down, my friend what would u call it : M.H. Zafar ( the noted poet intellectual of Kashmir ) has named his son Abhinav ( after the great poet saint Abhinav Gupt ) my friend Shafi from Islamabad ( Anantnag ) has two children one Viru and other Nishu. my other friend has named his son Jibran ( after the rebel poet Khalil jibran ) and so on.... so please look into this fact that why muslims dont eat fish from Anant-Nag ( springs ) in Kashmir. something is still there, let us restore that.... naming Islamabad can not make it pakistan, but it will certainly resotre the popular. why to ignore what is so loudly breating out there. love is On 10/14/07, Pawan Durani wrote: > And what do you wish to call New Delhi ? Perhaps Kabul !!! > Strange fanatic demands which your intellectual SARAI friends would term as > something right ..... > > A cancer which is being hidden and projected as a medicine ....till it > strikes Kolkotta , Bangalore ,Chennai and other Indian cities..... > > > > > On 10/14/07, inder salim wrote: > > > > EID MUBARAK to all > > > > can be a little healing touch in Kashmir if Govt of India on this > occasion > > officiallydeclares: > > > > Islamabad (Anantnag) > > instead of Ananatnag ( Islamabad ) > > > > which is quite a popular demand in Kashmir. > > > > Kashmiri Pandits ought to understand > > that even now, no body in Islamabad ( Anantnag ) eats fish from the > > springs in Kashmir. > > > > I guess, we all need to celebrate the popular culture ? > > > > love and eid mubarak once again > > > > is > > > > > > > > -- > > > > http://indersalim.livejournal.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. > > To unsubscribe: > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > > List archive: > <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> > > -- http://indersalim.livejournal.com From naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com Sun Oct 14 19:42:01 2007 From: naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com (Naeem Mohaiemen) Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 20:12:01 +0600 Subject: [Reader-list] Tiktiki & Kiriti Roy & Feluda Message-ID: > From: debjani sengupta > The Tiktiki: or ruminations on the lonesome detective >The word Tiktiki, in common Bengali parlance is a lizard, a soubriquet given to detectives The first sentence I ever read in Bangla was "tiktiki piche legeche bodhoy" (I think the lizard is after me), in the opening page of a mustry Kiriti Roy novel. I recall being handed the entire KR collection by my father and being told "eta thomar oitijjo" (this is your tradition). But beyond the amusement at the tiktiki term, I found the books rough going at that tender age. Dense, circuitous, humorless, and written in ye olde Bangla. Korecchen, Kheyecchen, good grief who talked like this (in Bangladesh at least, where we had corrupted it to korsi, khaisi)? Satyajit Ray's Feluda series came along to rescue those of us who found KR too stiff. I think I never read the word tiktiki in Ray, but maybe it was there. The most memorable line from Ray was "Simla jawa foshke gelo, foshke gelo!" (The chance to go Simla slipped away, slipped away). I had to ask my mother what Simla was. She looked at me, partition's bastard child, and said "oi pare, oi khane, mane bharat'e" (over there, across the border in India). She herself was born in Assam. Post partition, she visited India once in the last four decades. Simla jawa foshke gelo, foshke gelo... From tapasrayx at gmail.com Sun Oct 14 19:50:29 2007 From: tapasrayx at gmail.com (Tapas Ray) Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 10:20:29 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] Tiktiki & Kiriti Roy & Feluda In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <471225AD.4010807@googlemail.com> > Simla jawa foshke gelo, foshke gelo... Naeem, I don't want to sound maudlin, but maybe the day will come when we will not have to lament these things ... there will be no borders. Tapas From mrsg at vsnl.com Sun Oct 14 21:35:35 2007 From: mrsg at vsnl.com (mrsg at vsnl.com) Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 16:05:35 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Bikramgarh Jheel - Additional Information on Posting of Ms Ranu Ghosh Message-ID: Thanks to Ms Ranu Ghosh for introducing Bikramgarh Jheel and South City Project to this Readers’ list. The issue of Bikramgrarh Jheel has been brought to the notice of Kolkata citizens by sustained work of Vasundhara Foundation, a non-funded environmental activists’ and researchers’ group working for the last 5 years. It has organized community movement with local clubs like Udayan Sangha and other Clubs to save the Jheel and due to its initiative the Jheel has been taken over by Kolkata Municipal Corporation. The comparison of two lakes of Kolkata – Dhakuria Lake and Bikramgarh Jheel as described in Ms Ghosh’s posting is based on the article “ A tale of two lakes” by Mohit Ray in the “Statesman”, published in its Sunday Supplement on 19 December 2002. The information about South City, Jay Engineering works and Supreme Court judgments on these issues have been prepared from Mohit Ray’s article “Once there was a Jheel” in another the Statesman Sunday Supplement article on 20 A ugust 2006. These two articles were later reprinted in edited form in Annual Survey of Environment Kolkata 2003 and Annual Survey of Environment Kolkata 2006 published by Vasundhara Foundation. Vasundhara scientist Kaustuv Basu carried out a detailed ecological study of the waterbody. Two scientific papers have been published on these studies. (A Preliminary Account of the Biodiversity of Bikramgarh Jheel, Bionotes, Vol.6(3), Dec 2004; Restoration of a Dying Waterbody in Densely Populated Region: A Case Study of Bikramgarh Jheel, Proc of 4th National Seminar on Wetland Resources, Dept. of Zoology, S.U.College, Chalakudy, Kerala, February 2005). As for the latest development on this issue: Vasundhara’ s letter (01-01-2006) to the Governor, West Bengal with copies to different government organizations and West Bengal Pollution Control Board reopened the issue of encroachment of Bikramgarh Jheel. Vasundhara’s members have spent hours organizing mass protests at Bimkramgarh area several times with the help of local organizations. Due to this WBPCB was forced to reopen the issue, sent new investigation team, formed independent committees and all other activities started. When all the government committees submitted report in support of Vasundhara’s claims but nothing happened, Vasundhara went to the 3-member bench of Appellate Authority of WBPCB on 29 August 2006. However again spending many hours at the court of Appellate Authority, nothing came out. Ms Ranu Ghosh and her associate have met Dr. Mohit Ray twice where the copies of all these information and documents were handed over. You can also find more information in the Annual Survey of Environment Kolkata 2003 and Annual Survey of Environment Kolkata 2006 published by Vasundhara Foundation. (This annual survey of Kolkata is being published by Vasundhara from the year 2001) and also from its website www.vasundhara.cjb.net and you may write to Dr. Ray at mrsg at vsnl.com. Again thanks to Ms Ranu Ghosh for presenting the issue to new audience. Mohit Ray Vasundhara Foundation Hi readers sorry for the delay in 5th posting. *The changing industrial landscape of Kolkata: documenting the transformation of a half century old factory, Joy Engineering Works, into Kolkata's South City Project, "Eastern India's largest mixed use real estate development"* * * *Posting 5:* * * *DEATH OF A LAKE* * * *South** City** flouts Supreme Court ruling:* In 1995, in the context of shifting of factory premises from the city of Delhi, The Supreme Court had given a ruling to protect the city from random urban development on the vacated land. According to this ruling, if the plot of land measures more than 5 hectares, 65% of the land has to be given to the Municipal Corporation for planting trees and developing gardens. Only 35% of the land may be used for construction. Joy Engineering Works has flouted this ruling and sold off the entire land to the South City project. The people living in the neigbourhood of the complex have been deprived of open spaces, playgrounds and gardens. Instead, they have got a concrete jungle, pollution and traffic jam. *Bikramgarh Jheel: a biosphere supporting rare species:* Perhaps the biggest loser in the whole game is the Bikramgarh Jheel – a huge water body, that partly fell inside the premises of the South City Project. The Bikramgarh Jheel, in its size, is next only to the two other huge water bodies that do our city proud – Dhakuria Lake and Subhash Sarovar. But this water body has never acquired the status or prestige conferred upon its other two cousins In appearance, it has never matched the idyllic image that the idea of a 'jheel' conjures up in our mind. Located in the densely populated Bikramgarh area, on its west side is the cluster of garages, on one side the tall towers of South City and all around it settlements of encroachers. The jheel itself is used as a dumping ground for wastes generated by these varied settlements. Yet, Kaustav Basu, a student of environment, has spotted 22 species of birds and 32 species of flora around this jheel – and several species of butterflies and grasshoppers. Among the species of birds, at least one, according to him, is an endangered species and among the plants, he has spotted a cluster of shrubs that are rapidly vanishing from the Kolkata landscape. In the good old Usha Factory days, when Joy Engineering Works had not sold off the property to South City, young boys used to spend their time catching fish in this jheel. They even remember seeing turtles in this biosphere. People's crass negligence and now the advancing grip of South City is slowly suffocating the Jheel and snuffing out the biodiversity it supports. I have interacted with the people in the dense settlement around the jheel and among them I have found active members of the major political parties of West Bengal. Their hutments on the edge of the jheel stand on firm ground, which in a way proves that the slow process of illegitimate filling of the water body has been going on for a long time and it serves the vested interest of so many people to get the jheel filled. Most of these encroachers have the tacit support of some political party or the other. *Flashback:* Years back, when the South City project had just been mooted, Saugata Roy, an MP from that locality, had said that perhaps a plan to save and rejuvenate the Bikramgarh Jheel would emerge from the South Citydevelopment. Today, in the face of recent 'developments', his comments sound like a harsh irony. As it so happened, 1.31 acres of the Jheel fell within the premises of the Usha Factory,which has been handed over to the South City builders. Towards the end of December 2005, Vasundhara, an environmental activist group, spotted that the 1.31 acres of the water body has been filled by the builders and towers III and IV are being constructed over this filled space. Vasundhara got their facts together and wrote to the Governor, the Chief Minister, to the Fishery Deptt. And the Pollution Control Board. On January 24, 2006, Pollution Control Board summoned Vasundhara and South City for a hearing. South City declared at the hearing that they had got permission from the State Board to fill 1.31 acres of the water body on the condition that they would recreate 1.41 acres of a new water body. The PCB constituted a committee headed by Shri P.N Roy. The other members of the committee were Ex Prof. All India Institute of Hygiene & Public Health, Prof. Manav Sengupta, Secretary, Faculty of Science & Technology, Univ. Of Calcutta and Shri Bishwajeet Mukherjee, Sr. Law Officer. This committee surveyed the premises of the South City project and conducted the necessary enquiries. In May 2006 they submitted their report to the PCB. *Excerpts from the report:* *"After detailed scrutiny of the different information made available before theCcommittee, it is observed that before issue of Consent to Establish to Ms. South City project, no inspection was conducted by the State Board…… The committee surprisingly observed that before issuing permission for relocation of the water body in M/s South City project, no proper area was identified by the State Board officials, nor has taken any precautionary measure. …. Even the Deptt. Of Environment issued a direction upon the3 State Board on 18.7.2005 under memo No: EN/10393/T-II-2/010/2004 to allow the project proponent to fill up the water body."* * * Having made these observations, the Committee has recommended: *"The entire work of the M/S South City Project should be closed for the following reasons:* *i) **Construction work of Tower III & IV have encroached the water body and also have developed by filling up the water body.* ii) *Presently, M/S South City Project has failed to show any water body area of 1.31 acres for which M/s SCP obtained permission from the State Board to fill up.* iii) *M/S SCP failed to show any area where 1.41 acres of land will be developed as water body as per their commitment against the filling up of the water body of 1.31 acres.* * * *2. Tower III & IV should be demolished and the water body of Bikramgarh Jheel should be restored and Kolkata Municipal Corporation should demarcate the area – not only the side of M/S SCP, but also other parts should be restored," * as has been done in the case of other water bodies in Kolkata.* * * * *Present status:* Construction work of South City project is going on in full swing in blatant disregard to the recommendations of the Commission. The question is, with whose blessings are they breaking the law of the land? According to the eyewitness account of Shambhu Prasad Singh, all the rubble generated by the day's construction is collected at the edge of the Jheel. At the dead of night, when the whole city is asleep, the rubble is pushed into the Jheel by bull dozers. The Jheel is gradually getting filled by the rubble from the South City Project. To demarcate its territory, South Cityhas put up a bamboo fencing across the water of the Jheel. Shambhu asserts that every time the rubble is dumped into the water, the fencing shifts by a couple of feet. I have been recording the progress of South City with my camera from outside. My visual documentation shows that the land behind the towers III and IV is now more than what it used to be. The trees that lined this part of the jheel are now gone. Instead the parking space extends to this spot and cars can pass smoothly. Very soon, all traces of the water body will be obliterated by encroachers from all classes – those who live in slums and those who live in towers. end of 5th posting _________________________________________ 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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> From yasir.media at gmail.com Mon Oct 15 01:41:04 2007 From: yasir.media at gmail.com (yasir ~) Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 13:11:04 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to junaid mails on Invasion of Indian culture In-Reply-To: <80745.98463.qm@web45503.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> References: <5af37bb0710140418m5d81ba4bma8971d0bf6fe7dab@mail.gmail.com> <80745.98463.qm@web45503.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <5af37bb0710141311mf2c59by58403cf297e9958@mail.gmail.com> On 10/14/07, we wi wrote: > By the way what is that Kodagu is all about??? the Arabicaah! blend pack (from India) describes its contents being from Karnataka (Chickmaglur & Kodagu) btw, http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/oct/09cafe.htm seems out of date, the karachi one has been there for some time, for better or worse. From dhatr1i at yahoo.com Sun Oct 14 19:45:28 2007 From: dhatr1i at yahoo.com (we wi) Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 07:15:28 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to junaid mails on Invasion of Indian culture In-Reply-To: <5af37bb0710140418m5d81ba4bma8971d0bf6fe7dab@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <80745.98463.qm@web45503.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Dear Yasir.media, Well! Interesting! Sab se pahle main aap ko aur baki sab sadasyom ko dussehra ka vishesh avasar par vinamrata poorvak subhakanksh dilwa deti hoon! But I am serious about what??? My horoscope was written MANUALLY(with LITPTA,GHADIY,VIGHADIY etc.,), so no question of thinking about bills you know. By the way what is that Kodagu is all about??? Dhanyawaad and Pranaam!, Dhatri(EARTH). "For a well mannered letter towards all correspondences, proper addressing(like good starting and good ending) improves the communication(communication have a wide meaning used at different levels)". yasir ~ wrote: If you are serious about this, i'm afraid you'll have to be converted. If it doesn't go well, you may be recycled several times, depending on current environmental-eschatological conditions. Check your horoscope. You will be billed. In case of recycling you may pay in installments at the end of every cycle. There is 0% interest on the installments. To counter any sense the protestant ethic may be making all future correspondence will not be English. You have two weeks to think this over. A Coffee Day cup of Arabicaah! border-crossing violence from the ' 'sky-kissing' estates on the mountain slopes of Chikmagalur and Kodagu', Eid mubarak. On 10/11/07, we wi wrote: > Junaid _________________________________________ 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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: --------------------------------- Catch up on fall's hot new shows on Yahoo! TV. Watch previews, get listings, and more! From pawan.durani at gmail.com Sun Oct 14 17:05:41 2007 From: pawan.durani at gmail.com (Pawan Durani) Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 17:05:41 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] EID MUBARAK TO ALL In-Reply-To: <47e122a70710140338j2e9040ebt21923e18ea91e9d7@mail.gmail.com> References: <47e122a70710140338j2e9040ebt21923e18ea91e9d7@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <6b79f1a70710140435r4df01b9fo3053b3dc969910b7@mail.gmail.com> And what do you wish to call New Delhi ? Perhaps Kabul !!! Strange fanatic demands which your intellectual SARAI friends would term as something right ..... A cancer which is being hidden and projected as a medicine ....till it strikes Kolkotta , Bangalore ,Chennai and other Indian cities..... On 10/14/07, inder salim wrote: > > EID MUBARAK to all > > can be a little healing touch in Kashmir if Govt of India on this > occasion > officiallydeclares: > > Islamabad (Anantnag) > instead of Ananatnag ( Islamabad ) > > which is quite a popular demand in Kashmir. > > Kashmiri Pandits ought to understand > that even now, no body in Islamabad ( Anantnag ) eats fish from the > springs in Kashmir. > > I guess, we all need to celebrate the popular culture ? > > love and eid mubarak once again > > is > > > > -- > > http://indersalim.livejournal.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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> From mrsg at vsnl.com Mon Oct 15 07:14:42 2007 From: mrsg at vsnl.com (mrsg at vsnl.com) Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 06:44:42 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Bikramgarh Jheel - Additional Information on Posting of Ms Ranu Ghosh Message-ID: Thanks to Ms Ranu Ghosh for introducing Bikramgarh Jheel and South City Project to this Readers’ list. The issue of Bikramgrarh Jheel has been brought to the notice of Kolkata citizens by sustained work of Vasundhara Foundation, a non-funded environmental activists’ and researchers’ group working for the last 5 years. It has organized community movement with local clubs like Udayan Sangha and other Clubs to save the Jheel and due to its initiative the Jheel has been taken over by Kolkata Municipal Corporation. The comparison of two lakes of Kolkata – Dhakuria Lake and Bikramgarh Jheel as described in Ms Ghosh’s posting is based on the article “ A tale of two lakes” by Mohit Ray in the “Statesman”, published in its Sunday Supplement on 19 December 2002. The information about South City, Jay Engineering works and Supreme Court judgments on these issues have been prepared from Mohit Ray’s article “Once there was a Jheel” in another the Statesman Sunday Supplement article on 20 A ugust 2006. These two articles were later reprinted in edited form in Annual Survey of Environment Kolkata 2003 and Annual Survey of Environment Kolkata 2006 published by Vasundhara Foundation. Vasundhara scientist Kaustuv Basu carried out a detailed ecological study of the waterbody. Two scientific papers have been published on these studies. (A Preliminary Account of the Biodiversity of Bikramgarh Jheel, Bionotes, Vol.6(3), Dec 2004; Restoration of a Dying Waterbody in Densely Populated Region: A Case Study of Bikramgarh Jheel, Proc of 4th National Seminar on Wetland Resources, Dept. of Zoology, S.U.College, Chalakudy, Kerala, February 2005). As for the latest development on this issue: Vasundhara’ s letter (01-01-2006) to the Governor, West Bengal with copies to different government organizations and West Bengal Pollution Control Board reopened the issue of encroachment of Bikramgarh Jheel. Vasundhara’s members have spent hours organizing mass protests at Bimkramgarh area several times with the help of local organizations. Due to this WBPCB was forced to reopen the issue, sent new investigation team, formed independent committees and all other activities started. When all the government committees submitted report in support of Vasundhara’s claims but nothing happened, Vasundhara went to the 3-member bench of Appellate Authority of WBPCB on 29 August 2006. However again spending many hours at the court of Appellate Authority, nothing came out. Ms Ranu Ghosh and her associate have met Dr. Mohit Ray twice where the copies of all these information and documents were handed over. You can also find more information in the Annual Survey of Environment Kolkata 2003 and Annual Survey of Environment Kolkata 2006 published by Vasundhara Foundation. (This annual survey of Kolkata is being published by Vasundhara from the year 2001) and also from its website www.vasundhara.cjb.net and you may write to Dr. Ray at mrsg at vsnl.com. Again thanks to Ms Ranu Ghosh for presenting the issue to new audience. Mohit Ray Vasundhara Foundation Hi readers sorry for the delay in 5th posting. *The changing industrial landscape of Kolkata: documenting the transformation of a half century old factory, Joy Engineering Works, into Kolkata's South City Project, "Eastern India's largest mixed use real estate development"* * * *Posting 5:* * * *DEATH OF A LAKE* * * *South** City** flouts Supreme Court ruling:* In 1995, in the context of shifting of factory premises from the city of Delhi, The Supreme Court had given a ruling to protect the city from random urban development on the vacated land. According to this ruling, if the plot of land measures more than 5 hectares, 65% of the land has to be given to the Municipal Corporation for planting trees and developing gardens. Only 35% of the land may be used for construction. Joy Engineering Works has flouted this ruling and sold off the entire land to the South City project. The people living in the neigbourhood of the complex have been deprived of open spaces, playgrounds and gardens. Instead, they have got a concrete jungle, pollution and traffic jam. *Bikramgarh Jheel: a biosphere supporting rare species:* Perhaps the biggest loser in the whole game is the Bikramgarh Jheel – a huge water body, that partly fell inside the premises of the South City Project. The Bikramgarh Jheel, in its size, is next only to the two other huge water bodies that do our city proud – Dhakuria Lake and Subhash Sarovar. But this water body has never acquired the status or prestige conferred upon its other two cousins In appearance, it has never matched the idyllic image that the idea of a 'jheel' conjures up in our mind. Located in the densely populated Bikramgarh area, on its west side is the cluster of garages, on one side the tall towers of South City and all around it settlements of encroachers. The jheel itself is used as a dumping ground for wastes generated by these varied settlements. Yet, Kaustav Basu, a student of environment, has spotted 22 species of birds and 32 species of flora around this jheel – and several species of butterflies and grasshoppers. Among the species of birds, at least one, according to him, is an endangered species and among the plants, he has spotted a cluster of shrubs that are rapidly vanishing from the Kolkata landscape. In the good old Usha Factory days, when Joy Engineering Works had not sold off the property to South City, young boys used to spend their time catching fish in this jheel. They even remember seeing turtles in this biosphere. People's crass negligence and now the advancing grip of South City is slowly suffocating the Jheel and snuffing out the biodiversity it supports. I have interacted with the people in the dense settlement around the jheel and among them I have found active members of the major political parties of West Bengal. Their hutments on the edge of the jheel stand on firm ground, which in a way proves that the slow process of illegitimate filling of the water body has been going on for a long time and it serves the vested interest of so many people to get the jheel filled. Most of these encroachers have the tacit support of some political party or the other. *Flashback:* Years back, when the South City project had just been mooted, Saugata Roy, an MP from that locality, had said that perhaps a plan to save and rejuvenate the Bikramgarh Jheel would emerge from the South Citydevelopment. Today, in the face of recent 'developments', his comments sound like a harsh irony. As it so happened, 1.31 acres of the Jheel fell within the premises of the Usha Factory,which has been handed over to the South City builders. Towards the end of December 2005, Vasundhara, an environmental activist group, spotted that the 1.31 acres of the water body has been filled by the builders and towers III and IV are being constructed over this filled space. Vasundhara got their facts together and wrote to the Governor, the Chief Minister, to the Fishery Deptt. And the Pollution Control Board. On January 24, 2006, Pollution Control Board summoned Vasundhara and South City for a hearing. South City declared at the hearing that they had got permission from the State Board to fill 1.31 acres of the water body on the condition that they would recreate 1.41 acres of a new water body. The PCB constituted a committee headed by Shri P.N Roy. The other members of the committee were Ex Prof. All India Institute of Hygiene & Public Health, Prof. Manav Sengupta, Secretary, Faculty of Science & Technology, Univ. Of Calcutta and Shri Bishwajeet Mukherjee, Sr. Law Officer. This committee surveyed the premises of the South City project and conducted the necessary enquiries. In May 2006 they submitted their report to the PCB. *Excerpts from the report:* *"After detailed scrutiny of the different information made available before theCcommittee, it is observed that before issue of Consent to Establish to Ms. South City project, no inspection was conducted by the State Board…… The committee surprisingly observed that before issuing permission for relocation of the water body in M/s South City project, no proper area was identified by the State Board officials, nor has taken any precautionary measure. …. Even the Deptt. Of Environment issued a direction upon the3 State Board on 18.7.2005 under memo No: EN/10393/T-II-2/010/2004 to allow the project proponent to fill up the water body."* * * Having made these observations, the Committee has recommended: *"The entire work of the M/S South City Project should be closed for the following reasons:* *i) **Construction work of Tower III & IV have encroached the water body and also have developed by filling up the water body.* ii) *Presently, M/S South City Project has failed to show any water body area of 1.31 acres for which M/s SCP obtained permission from the State Board to fill up.* iii) *M/S SCP failed to show any area where 1.41 acres of land will be developed as water body as per their commitment against the filling up of the water body of 1.31 acres.* * * *2. Tower III & IV should be demolished and the water body of Bikramgarh Jheel should be restored and Kolkata Municipal Corporation should demarcate the area – not only the side of M/S SCP, but also other parts should be restored," * as has been done in the case of other water bodies in Kolkata.* * * * *Present status:* Construction work of South City project is going on in full swing in blatant disregard to the recommendations of the Commission. The question is, with whose blessings are they breaking the law of the land? According to the eyewitness account of Shambhu Prasad Singh, all the rubble generated by the day's construction is collected at the edge of the Jheel. At the dead of night, when the whole city is asleep, the rubble is pushed into the Jheel by bull dozers. The Jheel is gradually getting filled by the rubble from the South City Project. To demarcate its territory, South Cityhas put up a bamboo fencing across the water of the Jheel. Shambhu asserts that every time the rubble is dumped into the water, the fencing shifts by a couple of feet. I have been recording the progress of South City with my camera from outside. My visual documentation shows that the land behind the towers III and IV is now more than what it used to be. The trees that lined this part of the jheel are now gone. Instead the parking space extends to this spot and cars can pass smoothly. Very soon, all traces of the water body will be obliterated by encroachers from all classes – those who live in slums and those who live in towers. end of 5th posting _________________________________________ 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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: From rashneek at gmail.com Mon Oct 15 08:56:36 2007 From: rashneek at gmail.com (rashneek kher) Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 08:56:36 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] EID MUBARAK TO ALL In-Reply-To: <47e122a70710140338j2e9040ebt21923e18ea91e9d7@mail.gmail.com> References: <47e122a70710140338j2e9040ebt21923e18ea91e9d7@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <13df7c120710142026k2a8fc565l67ca435586c8827d@mail.gmail.com> Everyone please can we keep contentious issues out for some other time.EIdis a time for us to rejoice,so let us celebrate.EID MUBARAK On 10/14/07, inder salim wrote: > > EID MUBARAK to all > > can be a little healing touch in Kashmir if Govt of India on this > occasion > officiallydeclares: > > Islamabad (Anantnag) > instead of Ananatnag ( Islamabad ) > > which is quite a popular demand in Kashmir. > > Kashmiri Pandits ought to understand > that even now, no body in Islamabad ( Anantnag ) eats fish from the > springs in Kashmir. > > I guess, we all need to celebrate the popular culture ? > > love and eid mubarak once again > > is > > > > -- > > http://indersalim.livejournal.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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> -- Rashneek Kher http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com From gowharfazili at yahoo.com Mon Oct 15 10:45:44 2007 From: gowharfazili at yahoo.com (gowhar fazli) Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 22:15:44 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] EID MUBARAK TO ALL In-Reply-To: <47e122a70710140536r6becde3fjfebbb235138649af@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <675860.99201.qm@web60622.mail.yahoo.com> The two names 'Anathnag' and 'Islambaad' were/are used interchangeably in daily conversation. Some fools politicize the names and insist on using one or the other. But the larger population keeps insisting on the mistake/s. Who is this naming aunty Indian State? What right does the Indian state have to confer names to places? People use whatever they like and there is no need for bans or conferment or to get worked up about this. How can you prevent people from calling a place whatever they want to call it? You can't use military or militant diktats to impose names. It wont work. The name controversy is a big joke. I buy all the myths about kohimaran, Kari parbat, killah, shankracharya, takhte suleiman and so do most people. As a child, it made Srinagar an interesting place to live in. Imagine all the deamons, rishis and prophets flying around! One knew then to relish a story.... There is this other insistence on making Baramulla, Varmul to make it sound more Kashmiri and in the same vein, Kupwara-Kopwor Pulwama-Pulwom and so on... This is the hight of self-righteousness. As though by doing this one would undo the history of colonialism! Why does a place have to have an official name... All name-variants in different languages/traditions carry their own stories and significance, that tell us of the different versions of our past. Reflection on these stories is more interesting than the tongue twisters and political correctness of names. I think we can afford to have a hundred names for each place... the ones that make it harder to roll the tongue will drop out eventually! --- inder salim wrote: > cool down, my friend > > what would u call it : M.H. Zafar ( the noted poet > intellectual of > Kashmir ) has named his son Abhinav ( after the > great poet saint > Abhinav Gupt ) > > my friend Shafi from Islamabad ( Anantnag ) has two > children one Viru > and other Nishu. > > my other friend has named his son Jibran ( after the > rebel poet Khalil > jibran ) and so on.... > > so please look into this fact that why muslims dont > eat fish from > Anant-Nag ( springs ) in Kashmir. > > something is still there, let us restore that.... > naming Islamabad can > not make it pakistan, but it will certainly resotre > the popular. why > to ignore what is so loudly breating out there. > > love > is > > > > On 10/14/07, Pawan Durani > wrote: > > And what do you wish to call New Delhi ? Perhaps > Kabul !!! > > Strange fanatic demands which your intellectual > SARAI friends would term as > > something right ..... > > > > A cancer which is being hidden and projected as a > medicine ....till it > > strikes Kolkotta , Bangalore ,Chennai and other > Indian cities..... > > > > > > > > > > On 10/14/07, inder salim > wrote: > > > > > > EID MUBARAK to all > > > > > > can be a little healing touch in Kashmir if > Govt of India on this > > occasion > > > officiallydeclares: > > > > > > Islamabad (Anantnag) > > > instead of Ananatnag ( Islamabad ) > > > > > > which is quite a popular demand in Kashmir. > > > > > > Kashmiri Pandits ought to understand > > > that even now, no body in Islamabad ( Anantnag ) > eats fish from the > > > springs in Kashmir. > > > > > > I guess, we all need to celebrate the popular > culture ? > > > > > > love and eid mubarak once again > > > > > > is > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > > > http://indersalim.livejournal.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. > > > To unsubscribe: > > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > > > List archive: > > <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> > > > > > > > -- > > http://indersalim.livejournal.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. > To unsubscribe: > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> Unfortunately, the balance of nature decrees that a super-abundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares. Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit. Peter Ustinov ____________________________________________________________________________________ Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha! Play Monopoly Here and Now (it's updated for today's economy) at Yahoo! Games. http://get.games.yahoo.com/proddesc?gamekey=monopolyherenow From labor at buchsenhausen.at Mon Oct 15 12:51:58 2007 From: labor at buchsenhausen.at (buchsenhausen.labor) Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 09:21:58 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Reminder: buchsenhausen.air 2008/09 Message-ID: <47131516.4030803@buchsenhausen.at> ************************************************************ buchsenhausen.air 2008/2009 International Fellowship Programme For Visual And Media Arts ************************************************************ Kunstlerhaus Buchsenhausen invites visual and media artists, art critics and theorists to apply for a fellowship in the winter semester 2008/2009 or the summer semester 2009. Details regarding the programme and the application procedure are available here: http://buchsenhausen.at. ********************************************************** Closing date for submissions: October 19, 2007 (postmark). ********************************************************** -- Kunstlerhaus Buchsenhausen Weiherburggasse 13/12 6020 Innsbruck, Austria phone +43 512 278627 fax +43 512 278627-11 office at buchsenhausen.at http://buchsenhausen.at From pkray11 at gmail.com Mon Oct 15 15:44:24 2007 From: pkray11 at gmail.com (prakash ray) Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 15:44:24 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] A letter from an activist of the Narmada Andolan Message-ID: <98f331e00710150314u4c48bc4as761ba80c765c0345@mail.gmail.com> Dear Mr Tapas Ray, I have nothing much to say regarding your reply. I would like to tell you that the mail posted by me is POSTED BY ME and CPI(M) HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE POST. Being a sympathiser to the movement and a participant, I have every right to question the leadership of the movement. The letter posted by me on the NBA is in public domain and I have circulated it on the list. It is upto the NBA to respond to it. Please do not act as self-proclaimed spokesperson. And as far as pro-CPI(M) postings are concerned, again I assert my right to do so. I request you to respond to the points raised in the postings. Even if I accept your point that CPI(M) is wrong on all accounts, it does not mean that every thing else is right and correct. I also request you and your friends to watch my film on Nandigram. It is on Google video. Regards, Prakash K Ray From tapasrayx at gmail.com Mon Oct 15 17:10:46 2007 From: tapasrayx at gmail.com (Tapas Ray) Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 07:40:46 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] A letter from an activist of the Narmada Andolan In-Reply-To: <98f331e00710150314u4c48bc4as761ba80c765c0345@mail.gmail.com> References: <98f331e00710150314u4c48bc4as761ba80c765c0345@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <471351BE.3000308@googlemail.com> Dear Mr Prakash Ray, Since you posted your message on the mailing list, which is a public forum, everyone on the list - including myself - has a right to respond to it. I have asserted my right by posting the message I did, and will continue to do so whenever I find it necessary. Regards, Tapas Ray prakash ray wrote: > Dear Mr Tapas Ray, > > I have nothing much to say regarding your reply. I would like to tell you > that the mail posted by me is POSTED BY ME and CPI(M) HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH > THE POST. Being a sympathiser to the movement and a participant, I have > every right to question the leadership of the movement. The letter posted by > me on the NBA is in public domain and I have circulated it on the list. It > is upto the NBA to respond to it. Please do not act as self-proclaimed > spokesperson. And as far as pro-CPI(M) postings are concerned, again I > assert my right to do so. I request you to respond to the points raised in > the postings. Even if I accept your point that CPI(M) is wrong on all > accounts, it does not mean that every thing else is right and correct. I > also request you and your friends to watch my film on Nandigram. It is on > Google video. > > Regards, > Prakash K Ray > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> From gowharfazili at yahoo.com Mon Oct 15 18:38:49 2007 From: gowharfazili at yahoo.com (gowhar fazli) Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 06:08:49 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] The importance of names??? In-Reply-To: <982147.50832.qm@web8901.mail.in.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <133623.22790.qm@web60613.mail.yahoo.com> I am bamboozled by your response gowhar2... or 1 for that matter let me take a deep breath... recover n then respond! --- gowhar yaqoob wrote: > When Shakespeare wrote: "What's in the name", > perhaps his sensibility was gliding through a truly > liberated psyche of populace, yet, when Oscar Wilde > wrote: The Importance of being an Earnest, there was > along with Wilde's well-known wit an unmistakble > insistence to capture within the matrix an > Imposition fulfilled through the jargons! (names). > > Ofcourse to many just a semantic quibble, is > 'baptizing' (naming) not an issue replete with the > diktats (pro-government or otherwise) with > linguistic politics getting under way and hasn't the > historical deceit(s) taught us how names were made > accessible for indexing - writing (deforming) the > past(s); henceforth imposing many unknown > potrait(s): of people(s), citie(s), culture(s) > through juxtapositions untimely to manifest the > hegemony. > > Yes, the two names 'Anathnag' and 'Islambaad' > would continue to remain interchangeable as long as > certain provocations would not allign again towards > some form of deceit (political correctness). ''Some > fools politicize the names and insist on using one > or the other." If it were so naive? A well worked > out conviction that decide to priviledge one of the > binaries is not at all just a fool's politics.... It > harps at deeper levels beyond people's recognition; > with redoing and undoing of the past(s) with which > the present (whatever) is legitimized, and hegemony > ("pro-government" or "otherwise") imposed further ! > > > gowhar fazli wrote: > The two names 'Anathnag' and 'Islambaad' were/are > used > interchangeably in daily conversation. Some fools > politicize the names and insist on using one or the > other. But the larger population keeps insisting on > the mistake/s. > > Who is this naming aunty Indian State? What right > does > the Indian state have to confer names to places? > People use whatever they like and there is no need > for > bans or conferment or to get worked up about this. > How > can you prevent people from calling a place whatever > they want to call it? You can't use military or > militant diktats to impose names. It wont work. The > name controversy is a big joke. > > I buy all the myths about kohimaran, Kari parbat, > killah, shankracharya, takhte suleiman and so do > most > people. As a child, it made Srinagar an interesting > place to live in. Imagine all the deamons, rishis > and > prophets flying around! One knew then to relish a > story.... > > > There is this other insistence on making Baramulla, > Varmul to make it sound more Kashmiri and in the > same > vein, Kupwara-Kopwor Pulwama-Pulwom and so on... > This > is the hight of self-righteousness. As though by > doing > this one would undo the history of colonialism! Why > does a place have to have an official name... All > name-variants in different languages/traditions > carry > their own stories and significance, that tell us of > the different versions of our past. Reflection on > these stories is more interesting than the tongue > twisters and political correctness of names. I think > we can afford to have a hundred names for each > place... the ones that make it harder to roll the > tongue will drop out eventually! > > > > > --- inder salim wrote: > > > cool down, my friend > > > > what would u call it : M.H. Zafar ( the noted poet > > intellectual of > > Kashmir ) has named his son Abhinav ( after the > > great poet saint > > Abhinav Gupt ) > > > > my friend Shafi from Islamabad ( Anantnag ) has > two > > children one Viru > > and other Nishu. > > > > my other friend has named his son Jibran ( after > the > > rebel poet Khalil > > jibran ) and so on.... > > > > so please look into this fact that why muslims > dont > > eat fish from > > Anant-Nag ( springs ) in Kashmir. > > > > something is still there, let us restore that.... > > naming Islamabad can > > not make it pakistan, but it will certainly > resotre > > the popular. why > > to ignore what is so loudly breating out there. > > > > love > > is > > > > > > > > On 10/14/07, Pawan Durani > > > wrote: > > > And what do you wish to call New Delhi ? Perhaps > > Kabul !!! > > > Strange fanatic demands which your intellectual > > SARAI friends would term as > > > something right ..... > > > > > > A cancer which is being hidden and projected as > a > > medicine ....till it > > > strikes Kolkotta , Bangalore ,Chennai and other > > Indian cities..... > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On 10/14/07, inder salim > > wrote: > > > > > > > > EID MUBARAK to all > > > > > > > > can be a little healing touch in Kashmir if > > Govt of India on this > > > occasion > > > > officiallydeclares: > > > > > > > > Islamabad (Anantnag) > > > > instead of Ananatnag ( Islamabad ) > > > > > > > > which is quite a popular demand in Kashmir. > > > > > > > > Kashmiri Pandits ought to understand > > > > that even now, no body in Islamabad ( Anantnag > ) > > eats fish from the > > > > springs in Kashmir. > > > > > > > > I guess, we all need to celebrate the popular > > culture ? > > > > > > > > love and eid mubarak once again > > > > > > > > is > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > > > > > http://indersalim.livejournal.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. > > > > To unsubscribe: > > > > > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > > > > List archive: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > http://indersalim.livejournal.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. > === message truncated === Unfortunately, the balance of nature decrees that a super-abundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares. Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit. Peter Ustinov ____________________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! oneSearch: Finally, mobile search that gives answers, not web links. http://mobile.yahoo.com/mobileweb/onesearch?refer=1ONXIC From raimay at hotmail.com Mon Oct 15 21:34:37 2007 From: raimay at hotmail.com (raimundas m) Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 16:04:37 -0000 Subject: [Reader-list] PRINCE Message-ID: <249A71F3-4F7C-420D-B9C1-B7E4D192C4B7@hotmail.com> A time-warp took place between June 2007 and July 2007: Prince distributes his new CD for free through an issue of "Daily Mail" in UK after readers of 51.01 issue of "ArtLies" magazine in Texas are offered a remix of his "1999" track from the year 1983. The remix of "1999" is audio-space-time labyrinth: listeners from the year 1982 as well as 3121 are contributing their sounds to the weekly podcast of the collectively produced remix of sounds and concepts. You are invited to subcribe to it here: http://www.opensourcesound.org/princecast/mainindex.html But before subscribing don't forget that original (or sampled) sounds of yours can become a part of the remix of "1999" too - you just need to send them to the machines and characters looking forward to activate your files in the redeconstructed stream (click on the same link above.) What is behind this unleashed robotic becoming of Prince? - Prince Cast Generator conceived by Morten Norbye Halvorsen who claims that "Prince Cast Generator is a configuration of various music gear from key years related to Prince's ouvre “1999”. Acting as the master clock is Prince's new album “Planet Earth” referred to here as “3121”. "3121" has a running time of 45 min divided between 10 tracks, which controls via, tape sync the master bpm and playback of the midi track 1999 stored on the MSQ 700. The midi track runs on a loop throughout the 45min, subtle changes in tempo and pitch occur accordingly to the "3121" sound/frequency spectrum, thus producing 10 “acts” with changes relating to the song structure. The sounds are being produced through the midi signals received from the MSQ 700 in the various machines configured by the Prince Maker. The Prince Maker is invited to add their particular interpretations of the 1999 track to the Prince Cast Generator in whatever format suitable t i.e. sound files, midi files, midi/din sync /tape sync gear, software presets/files, web links any other suggestions to this list are much appreciated. [...] " More info about its history as well as other projects in 51.01 issue of ArtLies is here: http://www.artlies.org/article.php?id=1498&issue=55&s=0 Enjoy in full volume and forward to those who will make it sound longer. easy, rai From indersalim at gmail.com Mon Oct 15 23:08:08 2007 From: indersalim at gmail.com (inder salim) Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 23:08:08 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] The importance of names??? In-Reply-To: <133623.22790.qm@web60613.mail.yahoo.com> References: <982147.50832.qm@web8901.mail.in.yahoo.com> <133623.22790.qm@web60613.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <47e122a70710151038w18e23165ld72b98b58092260a@mail.gmail.com> PLEASE CLICK http://indersalim.livejournal.com for image (parodied, an illustration from Derrida for beginners ) 1. First a little joke : there was Pandit in south of Kashmir who named his four sons as Ram, Vishun, Krishan, and Shanker. One good neighbour asked him why he named his sons like this. Aptly he answered, that at the moment of his death when he will utter the name of any of his sons, it will be also about Parmatma (Gods). Time passed, and it just happened that all his sons abandoned him. So, at the time of death he simply managed to utter MUHAMMADA'. ( please feel free to hear the sound Muhammada merely as shell for the disappeared sounds of his dear sons. Or the sound Muhammada had nothing to do with the earlier calculations, but functioned as a simple material available at the time of need) 2. When Aga Shahid Ali recollected 'Kashmir' as many other arrangements of different alphabets, he perhaps underlined the fact that Kashmir is truly politicized and it has a written history.…. Sounds are part of visuals as we know in Cinema even, and therefore, any sound which is uttered in Kashmir makes a difference. Or may be I only feel it so strongly ? So, I believe, in Kashmir, every blade of grass is politicized. Every window looks different. I am not talking about the abandoned houses, but I felt this difference in the most recent constructions even. One can observe in Kashmir 'Anantnag' as the written word and 'Islambaad' as the oral tradition. So if I apply a little Derrida here like a good mathematician, then the written word is 'degenerate' in comparison to 'speech' which is natural. Of course, with Kashmiri Pandit population in Kashmir 'Anthnag' was the oral and 'Anantnag' was the written. The sound Islambaad was always something Pakistani. But first of all, do we agree that 1990 changed things dramatically in Kashmir and surprised many a political pandits here and abroad. Here, again if we see kashmiri armed uprising as mere terrorism then we cannot understand the relationship between Anantnag ( the written ) and the Islambaad ( the oral ). We need to see why political is paramount in every sound. The word ' Azadi ' too is written in many sense, but the sound oral 'Aazadee' is interesting and is uttered by invariable by Kashmiris in Kashmir. Yasin Malik's Safray Azadi is again a written version of the same political struggle and is likely to under-represent the core ' aazadee' of the masses. Things will change, and it would be interesting to see how the oral word devours the written in the end, and how finally meaning is like that serpent devouring its own tail. But till then it is political, and the hidden demand for Islambaad is not out of place. 3. Oscar Wilde once said , 'the world does not exist beyond appearances'. That is quite profound, I guess. Because when we are dealing with language which is behaving truly as a vast surface then we have something at hand, even to subvert, to arrive at new sounds, new life. Here, even silence becomes part of those liberated sounds that float… " What is in the name " is liberating but how to throw the sound ' rose' into the sea. It will return back as a slave monster who yearns for ' aazadee', so it might be a better idea to open the petals of the rose without letting the petals know what is opening. Quite a difficult job, as deconstruction itself is, or may be it is as simple as breathing. How lucidly Lall Ded said ' Mov zaan Haindu tai musalmaan….( please don't discriminate between Hindu and Musalmaan, if ur are truly thoughtful, be one with God) That was 600-700 years ago when oral tradition was strongly in practice as we see in other cultures as well. We celebrate the sound.That is culture as well. 4. Gowhar Fazili has rightly pointed out " How can you prevent people from calling a place whatever they want to call it? You can't use military or militant diktats to impose names " That is precisely what is happening in Kashmir. For example, there is a CRPF sign board in Srinage Lal Chowk which reads ' Hum aap ki azadi ki nigahbani kartay hein. " (We guard your freedom ). Though ironical, but, here again the Azadi is as written word, and that is why there is J&K Government in place. But the issue of ' aazadee' remains unresolved, precisely because it is more and more a question of oral tradition versus the written one now. Of course when this too will behave as a written word then this too needs a deconstruction, but till then…it is political, or I only see it this way? 5. Meem Hai Zafar ( Kashmiri poet, intellectual of Kashmir ) during his discussion at Burzhama ( place near Dal Lake inhibited by people during 2500 B.C ) with Gulshan Majeed, reader at Central Asian Studies Kashmir University, talked about the need to inherit that past without prejudice. Zafar regretted that Kashmiris hesitate to inherit the past but feel proud to inherit the properties of their deceased elders. There was a past which existed in the material form as researched scientifically by various scholars, and there should be a debate on its real significance in the valley. Indian policy to balance the power politics in the recent past has damaged that possibility immensely. They should restore whatever is left in the valley. Though it is another debate, but I remember, how G.R. Santosh, M.L. Saqi regretted that India has never bothered to name a road after some great Kashmiri sufi saint here in New Delhi . It is about dignity as well. It is politics, now quite in the arrogant form in Kashmnir, therefore, difficult to negotiate. Now for an outsider, like India, to deny the right to function as 'naming aunty' in Kashmir is quite about that politics as well. There is something which is breathing out there, we can feel it, or I am alone feeling that way? indersalim On 10/15/07, gowhar fazli wrote: > I am bamboozled by your response gowhar2... or 1 for > that matter let me take a deep breath... recover n > then respond! > > > --- gowhar yaqoob wrote: > > > When Shakespeare wrote: "What's in the name", > > perhaps his sensibility was gliding through a truly > > liberated psyche of populace, yet, when Oscar Wilde > > wrote: The Importance of being an Earnest, there was > > along with Wilde's well-known wit an unmistakble > > insistence to capture within the matrix an > > Imposition fulfilled through the jargons! (names). > > > > Ofcourse to many just a semantic quibble, is > > 'baptizing' (naming) not an issue replete with the > > diktats (pro-government or otherwise) with > > linguistic politics getting under way and hasn't the > > historical deceit(s) taught us how names were made > > accessible for indexing - writing (deforming) the > > past(s); henceforth imposing many unknown > > potrait(s): of people(s), citie(s), culture(s) > > through juxtapositions untimely to manifest the > > hegemony. > > > > Yes, the two names 'Anathnag' and 'Islambaad' > > would continue to remain interchangeable as long as > > certain provocations would not allign again towards > > some form of deceit (political correctness). ''Some > > fools politicize the names and insist on using one > > or the other." If it were so naive? A well worked > > out conviction that decide to priviledge one of the > > binaries is not at all just a fool's politics.... It > > harps at deeper levels beyond people's recognition; > > with redoing and undoing of the past(s) with which > > the present (whatever) is legitimized, and hegemony > > ("pro-government" or "otherwise") imposed further ! > > > > > > gowhar fazli wrote: > > The two names 'Anathnag' and 'Islambaad' were/are > > used > > interchangeably in daily conversation. Some fools > > politicize the names and insist on using one or the > > other. But the larger population keeps insisting on > > the mistake/s. > > > > Who is this naming aunty Indian State? What right > > does > > the Indian state have to confer names to places? > > People use whatever they like and there is no need > > for > > bans or conferment or to get worked up about this. > > How > > can you prevent people from calling a place whatever > > they want to call it? You can't use military or > > militant diktats to impose names. It wont work. The > > name controversy is a big joke. > > > > I buy all the myths about kohimaran, Kari parbat, > > killah, shankracharya, takhte suleiman and so do > > most > > people. As a child, it made Srinagar an interesting > > place to live in. Imagine all the deamons, rishis > > and > > prophets flying around! One knew then to relish a > > story.... > > > > > > There is this other insistence on making Baramulla, > > Varmul to make it sound more Kashmiri and in the > > same > > vein, Kupwara-Kopwor Pulwama-Pulwom and so on... > > This > > is the hight of self-righteousness. As though by > > doing > > this one would undo the history of colonialism! Why > > does a place have to have an official name... All > > name-variants in different languages/traditions > > carry > > their own stories and significance, that tell us of > > the different versions of our past. Reflection on > > these stories is more interesting than the tongue > > twisters and political correctness of names. I think > > we can afford to have a hundred names for each > > place... the ones that make it harder to roll the > > tongue will drop out eventually! > > > > > > > > > > --- From pawan.durani at gmail.com Tue Oct 16 11:23:48 2007 From: pawan.durani at gmail.com (Pawan Durani) Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 11:23:48 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Converted Kashmir - Memorials Of Mistakes Message-ID: <6b79f1a70710152253s3efe25bbsc80f5b1235eb30fd@mail.gmail.com> http://www.kashmir-information.com/ConvertedKashmir/index.html From turbulence at turbulence.org Mon Oct 15 22:31:40 2007 From: turbulence at turbulence.org (Turbulence) Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2007 13:01:40 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Turbulence Commission: "Bonding Energy" by Douglas Repetto and LoVid Message-ID: <004b01c80f4d$21472bf0$63d583d0$@org> October 15, 2007 Turbulence Commission: "Bonding Energy" by Douglas Repetto and LoVid http://turbulence.org/works/BondingEnergy/ Requirement: Enable Java in your browser "Bonding Energy" consists of a set of "Sunsmile" devices that collect and measure solar energy from seven geographically distributed sites around New York State: Columbia University, NYC; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy; University of Buffalo; Colgate University, Hamilton; free103point9's Wave Farm, Acra; Experimental Television Center, Owego; and The Redhouse Arts Center, Syracuse. The light energy reaching the Sunsmiles' solar panels fuels a collaborative real-time data visualization on Turbulence.org. Part of the larger "Cross Current Resonance Transducer (CCRT)" project in which the artists are developing systems for monitoring, manipulating, and interpreting natural signals such as tidal patterns and wind, "Bonding Energy" is focused on solar energy. "Bonding Energy" is a model for distributed microenergy generation, inspired by "SETI at home" -- which harnesses the collective power of personal computers distributed worldwide -- and "microcredit", a loan system that supports poor or unemployed people in underdeveloped countries. Small contributions from many individuals can produce significant results. "Bonding Energy" is a 2007 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc., (aka Ether-Ore) for its Turbulence web site. It was made possible with funding from the Murray G. and Beatrice H. Sherman Charitable Trust. BIOGRAPHIES Douglas Irving Repetto is an artist and teacher. His work, including sculpture, installation, performance, recordings, and software is presented internationally. He is the founder of a number of art/community-oriented groups including "dorkbot: people doing strange things with electricity, " "ArtBots: The Robot Talent Show, " "organism: making art with living systems, " and the "music-dsp" mailing list and website. Douglas is Director of Research at the Columbia University Computer Music Center and lives in New York City. LoVid (Tali Hinkis and Kyle Lapidus) overwhelms the senses with new media in their performances, videos, objects, and installations. LoVid has toured the US and Europe extensively performing, exhibiting, and lecturing at PS1, The Neuberger Museum, The Butler Institute of American Art , The Center for Contemporary Art Tel Aviv, Exit Art, Evolution Festival (UK), The Kitchen, RISD, Massachusetts College of Art, FACT, Kansas City Art Institute, Chicago Art Institute, University of Wisconsin, Futuresonic Festival (UK), The New Museum of Contemporary Art, Ocularis, and Institute of Contemporary Art London, among many others. LoVid has been artist in residence at Eyebeam, Harvestworks, iEAR, Alfred University, and Stevens Institute of Technology; and has received grants and awards from Experimental TV Center, NYSCA, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, and The Greenwall Foundation. LoVid is also a free103Point9 transmission artist. 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 Networked_Performance Blog: http://turbulence.org/blog Networked_Music_Review: http://turbulence.org/networked_music_review Upgrade! Boston: http://turbulence.org/upgrade New American Radio: http://somewhere.org _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From asenchoudhury at gmail.com Tue Oct 16 12:27:50 2007 From: asenchoudhury at gmail.com (Ayesha Sen Choudhury) Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 12:27:50 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Lecture by Judge Navi Pillay on "State Accountability for Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide" Message-ID: The *Lawyers Collective, New Delhi* in collaboration with *Nelson Mandela Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia* is hosting a *Lecture* on *"State Accountability for Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide" * * * by *JUDGE NAVANETHEM PILLAY* International Criminal Court (Appeals Division) *Introduction by **:* *Ms. Indira Jaising *, Project Director, Lawyers Collective Women's Rights Initiative *Chaired by: **Prof. Mushirul Hasan*, Vice Chancellor, Jamia Millia Islamia * * *Date:* *Monday, 29th October, 2007 * *Time: 5.00 p.m. * *Venue:* *Conference Hall, FTK Centre for Information Technology, Jamia Millia Islamia* * * *FOR INVITATIONS PLEASE CONTACT: * Lawyers Collective Tel. No.: 2437 2923, 2437 3904 ** Born in South Africa in 1941, *Judge Navi Pillay *has been both a symbol and a standard-bearer for human rights in her country, the region, and throughout the world. On receiving her Bachelor of Law degree from Natal University in South Africa and later a Master of Law and Doctor of Juridical Science at Harvard University, U.S.A, she became the first woman in Natal Province to open her law practice in 1967 representing various opponents of apartheid. In 1995 she was the first black woman attorney appointed acting judge of the High Court of South Africa by the Mandela Government. Subsequently she was elected by the United Nations General Assembly to be a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where she served for eight consecutive years, including four years as President, and was credited with turning the Tribunal towards a positive approach through judgments such as the conviction of *Akayesu* for using rape as a form of genocide and the *"Media Trial"* setting standards on freedom of the Press and its responsibility. In February 2003, Judge Pillay was elected by the Assembly of State Parties to the Rome Statute, as one of the 18 Judges of the International Criminal Court (ICC), based in The Hague and currently continues to serve her six year term on the bench in the Appeals Division. Beyond her legal interventions, Judge Pillay has also contributed to the women's rights and human rights movement through her active involvement with various national and international organizations, such as Equality Now, Lawyers for Human Rights and Women's National Coalition to name a few. She has been the recipient of several awards from the international legal fraternity and been felicitated with honorary doctorate degrees in Law from several universities around the world. -- Ayesha Sen Choudhury Lawyers Collective New Delhi -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From ysaeed7 at yahoo.com Tue Oct 16 18:33:22 2007 From: ysaeed7 at yahoo.com (Yousuf) Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 06:03:22 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] "Khayal Darpan" at Lyon, Vienna, NCPA, NY... Message-ID: <502188.63843.qm@web51410.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Dear friends Documentary film "Khayal Darpan" about classical music in Pakistan is being screened at the following locations in the near future. You may kindly attend as well as forward this message to those who maybe interested in the film: 18th October 2007: Lyon, France Lyon Asian Film Festival, Sixieme continent, Lyon, France http://www.asiexpo.com/festival/Festival/ShowFilm?showfilm=560&lang=fr 22nd October 2007: Vienna, Austria Völkerkundemuseum, Neue Burg, Heldenplatz 1010 Vienna (4 pm) http://www.proloka.org/typo3/index.php?id=408 24th October 2007: Mumbai, India SCM Sophia College, Mumbai (11 am) http://www.sophiacampus.com/default.htm 25th October 2007: Mumbai, India Little Theatre, NCPA, Mumbai http://ncpamumbai.com/whatson/event_desc.asp?id=2137 10th November 2007: New York, US Mahindra Indo-American Arts Council Film Festival Loews AMC Empire on 19th Street and Broadway - Theatre #2 - Nov 10 - 8:30 PM http://iaac.us/seventh_film_festival2007/film_details.htm 2-11 Nov. 2007: Glasgow, UK Check exact date/location later: www.pakistanifilmfest.com For more information on the past/future screenings of the film, kindly visit: http://www.ektaramusic.com/khayaldarpan/filmshows.html or http://khayaldarpan.info Yousuf ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396545433 From monica at sarai.net Wed Oct 17 10:07:02 2007 From: monica at sarai.net (Monica Narula) Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2007 10:07:02 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Row Over Bangladesh Loan To Musee Guimet References: Message-ID: <83D55A37-6141-4588-88CF-94F03CD6C4E8@sarai.net> Monica Narula Raqs Sarai-CSDS 29 Rajpur Road Delhi 110 054 www.raqsmediacollective.net www.sarai.net Begin forwarded message: > > From > Dancing the DGFI's Tune? > > The past few weeks have seen tempers run high in some part of the > artistic and heritage community over the supposed 'theft' of our > artefacts by a foreign government, their 'threatened destruction' > and the 'anti-state' activity constituted by their exhibition abroad. > Quieter voices within both communities have talked about the > importance of culture being part of a universal heritage, which cannot > be confined within geographical borders and boundaries but must be > shared across communities and countries. But our press has done little > to give space to these voices, reporting only the shrill and frankly > ignorant ('the Mona Lisa has not been shown outside France' says one > eminent former DG Archaeology – now involved in litigation to stop the > artefacts being taken abroad). > > All this is about the exhibition on 'Masterpieces of Bangladesh Art' > to be shown at the Musee Guimet in Paris from October 2007 to March > 2008. Or rather the exhibition that should have been shown. Right now > it is again a moot point whether the artefacts will ever reach Paris > at all, let alone be displayed. > > The first time the exhibition was delayed due to a so called 'public > interest litigation' raising questions about whether the agreements > entered into between the Government of France and the Government of > Bangladesh and various Bangladeshi national museums had been in > accordance with law. This petition included documents from files of > the National Security Intelligence. It would be interesting to know > how those involved in the case obtained these documents. As it > happened, these documents concerned inquiries pending against a > government official who it was claimed was involved in accompanying > the artefacts to France. In documents presented by the Government > before the Supreme Court (and given to the petitioners) it was clear > that this claim had no basis at all. The person named is not > accompanying the exhibits, nor was he doing so. When the petitioners > were asked by the Supreme Court to explain what evidence they had on > this point, their lawyer was unable to respond. > > The second attempt was a case filed before the District Court, again > by 'art lovers' including former DGs of Archaeology etc. > Interestingly, the case was filed (according to newspaper report) > against the French Ambassador and others. The Court issued a show > cause order, but did not stop the artefacts from going. > > At this point, with no more puppets to join the dance, the DGFI's fist > finally came out from beneath the glove. It directly intervened at > the airport to stop the artefacts from going on the ground that an > 'inquiry' is to be held. An inquiry into what? An inquiry which > effectively amounts to non-compliance with an order of the apex Court? > > The artists and other genuine arts lovers who raised questions > regarding this exhibition surely did so from the cleanest of motives. > They were not informed by the Government of many details of the > exhibition and being active members of civil society rightly felt that > there should have been greater public information and consultation on > the issue. Since Bangladesh has never had a major international > exhibition of ancient art, it was understandable also that few people > were familiar with the procedures and protocols, and were anxious > about the risks involved. Perhaps more information and clarification > would have resolved their doubts. But for the true believers, perhaps > even that would not have helped. > > But what deserves attention now is whether these artists know that > they are dancing to someone else's tune? Perhaps alarm bells should > have rung when a security consultant, the petitioner in the High Court > case, claimed publicly that sending 'our artefacts abroad is an > anti-State activity'? And when NSI documents appeared in the Writ > Petition? Or when at least two of the people involved with the writ > held frequent meetings with top DGFI Officers? > > You would think that those who are most disturbed by the current > situation, anxious to see a 'return to the rule of law and democracy' > where the 'powers that be' do not determine all results and outcomes, > would find this particular outcome chilling. But do they? Or have some > of them at least helped to bring this about? > > For now the DGFI action has interfered with the Supreme Court's order, > preventing the artefacts from going to France and the exhibition from > opening. Why are our intelligence so opposed to this exhibition and > why are they greater guardians of our cultural heritage than even the > apex Court? More importantly, why does this exhibition bother them so? > Is it because it will show a face of Bangladesh which is different > from that they wish to project – one that exemplifies a multiple, > plural diverse identity, constituted of different religions? From shahzulf at yahoo.com Thu Oct 18 01:06:41 2007 From: shahzulf at yahoo.com (Zulfiqar Shah) Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2007 12:36:41 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Sindh Observes a Day for Land Reforms & Peasants Rights Message-ID: <662841.82017.qm@web38815.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Sindh Observes a Day for Land Reforms & Peasants Rights Hyderabad: Rallies, marches and protest demonstration were organized in about 15 district headquarter of Sindh on the call given to by South Asia Partnership-Pakistan - Sindh Office to observe ‘Peasants Demand Day’ on October 16, 2007 to demand land reforms and peasant rights. In this regard, a rally and protest demo was observed in Hyderabad by Joint Action Committee [JAC]. The rally, led by Zain Daudpota, Zulfiqar Shah, Punhal Saryo, Fateh Marri incepted from old campus area marched and culminated into a protest demonstration at Hyderabad Press Club. A large rally was organized in Mirpurkhas by Naujawan Sangat. Mr. Ghulam Qadir of Pakistan Labor Party, Human right activists Rano Kanjimal and Wajid Leghari led the rally. In Matiari, Village Improvement and Social welfare Association held a protest demonstration out side Matryari press club. In Dadu, Young Samaji Tanzeem organized a rally which started from Harri Markaz and culminated into a procession in front of the press club. A rally and procession was organized by POWA in Khairpur Mir’s. The rally was led by women activists Zarena Jalbani and Sughra Majeed. In Panu Aqil, Shah Latif Educational and Development Organization held a rally and protest demonstration that incepted from Eidgah Chowk and culminated at press club into a procession. In Larkana, a rally was organized by Ghazi Social Welfare Association attended by social and political activists, peasants and media persons. Hari leaders affiliated with different political parties led the march. Jago Development Society organized a rally in Badin. Mohammed Raza of Sindh Abadgar Forum and Ali Mohammed Rahoojo of Hari Tahreek were leading the rally. The rally was attended by lawyers, media persons and civil society activists. In Thatta, Village Development Organization organized a rally that marched various roads of the city and culminated into a procession at the press club. In Jacobabad Community Development Network Organization arranged a rally was participated by a large number of peasants, media person, NGO activists and Hari leaders. In Umarakot, a rally was organized by Sami Samaj Sujag Sangat. Mr. Ghulam Mustafa Khoso and Mir Hasin Areesar led the rally. In Shikarpur a rally was organized by Human Development Society. The rally started from Jahaz Chowk and culminated into a procession at Lakhidar. In Ghotki Village Development Organization hosted a rally which started from Dipel Chowk and culminated into the procession at Press Club. The protest demos were also organized in Sukkur and Nawabshah in front of the local Press Clubs. In the rallies, speakers demanded the legislation of a new peasants and agriculture workers law and carrying land reforms in Sindh. They also demanded political parties to include the agenda of land reforms and peasants rights into their election manifestoes. [This report is generated by synthesizing and précising the news published in daily Dawn, The Nation, Kawish, Ibrat, Koshis, Express, Khabren, Jurant and Awami Awaz of October 17, 2007] __________________________­­­­ Zulfiqar Shah Provincial Coordinator South Asia Partnership Pakistan Sindh Office 50, Muslim Housing Society, Qasimabad, Hyderabad 71000 Ph # +92 22 2650243 – 4 Fax# +92 22 2650241 Email: zulf at cyber.net.pk pcsindh at sappk.org URL: www.sappk.org ____________________________ Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com From mrsg at vsnl.com Thu Oct 18 08:22:53 2007 From: mrsg at vsnl.com (mrsg at vsnl.com) Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 07:52:53 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Bikramgarh Jheel - Additional Information on Posting of Ms Ranu Ghosh Message-ID: Thanks to Ms Ranu Ghosh for introducing Bikramgarh Jheel and South City Project to this Readers’ list. The issue of Bikramgrarh Jheel has been brought to the notice of Kolkata citizens by sustained work of Vasundhara Foundation, a non-funded environmental activists’ and researchers’ group working for the last 5 years. It has organized community movement with local clubs like Udayan Sangha and other Clubs to save the Jheel and due to its initiative the Jheel has been taken over by Kolkata Municipal Corporation. The comparison of two lakes of Kolkata – Dhakuria Lake and Bikramgarh Jheel as described in Ms Ghosh’s posting is based on the article “ A tale of two lakes” by Mohit Ray in the “Statesman”, published in its Sunday Supplement on 19 December 2002. The information about South City, Jay Engineering works and Supreme Court judgments on these issues have been prepared from Mohit Ray’s article “Once there was a Jheel” in another the Statesman Sunday Supplement article on 20 A ugust 2006. These two articles were later reprinted in edited form in Annual Survey of Environment Kolkata 2003 and Annual Survey of Environment Kolkata 2006 published by Vasundhara Foundation. Vasundhara scientist Kaustuv Basu carried out a detailed ecological study of the waterbody. Two scientific papers have been published on these studies. (A Preliminary Account of the Biodiversity of Bikramgarh Jheel, Bionotes, Vol.6(3), Dec 2004; Restoration of a Dying Waterbody in Densely Populated Region: A Case Study of Bikramgarh Jheel, Proc of 4th National Seminar on Wetland Resources, Dept. of Zoology, S.U.College, Chalakudy, Kerala, February 2005). As for the latest development on this issue: Vasundhara’ s letter (01-01-2006) to the Governor, West Bengal with copies to different government organizations and West Bengal Pollution Control Board reopened the issue of encroachment of Bikramgarh Jheel. Vasundhara’s members have spent hours organizing mass protests at Bimkramgarh area several times with the help of local organizations. Due to this WBPCB was forced to reopen the issue, sent new investigation team, formed independent committees and all other activities started. When all the government committees submitted report in support of Vasundhara’s claims but nothing happened, Vasundhara went to the 3-member bench of Appellate Authority of WBPCB on 29 August 2006. However again spending many hours at the court of Appellate Authority, nothing came out. Ms Ranu Ghosh and her associate have met Dr. Mohit Ray twice where the copies of all these information and documents were handed over. You can also find more information in the Annual Survey of Environment Kolkata 2003 and Annual Survey of Environment Kolkata 2006 published by Vasundhara Foundation. (This annual survey of Kolkata is being published by Vasundhara from the year 2001) and also from its website www.vasundhara.cjb.net and you may write to Dr. Ray at mrsg at vsnl.com. Again thanks to Ms Ranu Ghosh for presenting the issue to new audience. Mohit Ray Vasundhara Foundation Hi readers sorry for the delay in 5th posting. *The changing industrial landscape of Kolkata: documenting the transformation of a half century old factory, Joy Engineering Works, into Kolkata's South City Project, "Eastern India's largest mixed use real estate development"* * * *Posting 5:* * * *DEATH OF A LAKE* * * *South** City** flouts Supreme Court ruling:* In 1995, in the context of shifting of factory premises from the city of Delhi, The Supreme Court had given a ruling to protect the city from random urban development on the vacated land. According to this ruling, if the plot of land measures more than 5 hectares, 65% of the land has to be given to the Municipal Corporation for planting trees and developing gardens. Only 35% of the land may be used for construction. Joy Engineering Works has flouted this ruling and sold off the entire land to the South City project. The people living in the neigbourhood of the complex have been deprived of open spaces, playgrounds and gardens. Instead, they have got a concrete jungle, pollution and traffic jam. *Bikramgarh Jheel: a biosphere supporting rare species:* Perhaps the biggest loser in the whole game is the Bikramgarh Jheel – a huge water body, that partly fell inside the premises of the South City Project. The Bikramgarh Jheel, in its size, is next only to the two other huge water bodies that do our city proud – Dhakuria Lake and Subhash Sarovar. But this water body has never acquired the status or prestige conferred upon its other two cousins In appearance, it has never matched the idyllic image that the idea of a 'jheel' conjures up in our mind. Located in the densely populated Bikramgarh area, on its west side is the cluster of garages, on one side the tall towers of South City and all around it settlements of encroachers. The jheel itself is used as a dumping ground for wastes generated by these varied settlements. Yet, Kaustav Basu, a student of environment, has spotted 22 species of birds and 32 species of flora around this jheel – and several species of butterflies and grasshoppers. Among the species of birds, at least one, according to him, is an endangered species and among the plants, he has spotted a cluster of shrubs that are rapidly vanishing from the Kolkata landscape. In the good old Usha Factory days, when Joy Engineering Works had not sold off the property to South City, young boys used to spend their time catching fish in this jheel. They even remember seeing turtles in this biosphere. People's crass negligence and now the advancing grip of South City is slowly suffocating the Jheel and snuffing out the biodiversity it supports. I have interacted with the people in the dense settlement around the jheel and among them I have found active members of the major political parties of West Bengal. Their hutments on the edge of the jheel stand on firm ground, which in a way proves that the slow process of illegitimate filling of the water body has been going on for a long time and it serves the vested interest of so many people to get the jheel filled. Most of these encroachers have the tacit support of some political party or the other. *Flashback:* Years back, when the South City project had just been mooted, Saugata Roy, an MP from that locality, had said that perhaps a plan to save and rejuvenate the Bikramgarh Jheel would emerge from the South Citydevelopment. Today, in the face of recent 'developments=27, his comments sound like a harsh irony. As it so happened, 1.31 acres of the Jheel fell within the premises of the Usha Factory,which has been handed over to the South City builders. Towards the end of December 2005, Vasundhara, an environmental activist group, spotted that the 1.31 acres of the water body has been filled by the builders and towers III and IV are being constructed over this filled space. Vasundhara got their facts together and wrote to the Governor, the Chief Minister, to the Fishery Deptt. And the Pollution Control Board. On January 24, 2006, Pollution Control Board summoned Vasundhara and South City for a hearing. South City declared at the hearing that they had got permission from the State Board to fill 1.31 acres of the water body on the condition that they would recreate 1.41 acres of a new water body. The PCB constituted a committee headed by Shri P.N Roy. The other members of the committee were Ex Prof. All India Institute of Hygiene & Public Health, Prof. Manav Sengupta, Secretary, Faculty of Science & Technology, Univ. Of Calcutta and Shri Bishwajeet Mukherjee, Sr. Law Officer. This committee surveyed the premises of the South City project and conducted the necessary enquiries. In May 2006 they submitted their report to the PCB. *Excerpts from the report:* *"After detailed scrutiny of the different information made available before theCcommittee, it is observed that before issue of Consent to Establish to Ms. South City project, no inspection was conducted by the State Board…… The committee surprisingly observed that before issuing permission for relocation of the water body in M/s South City project, no proper area was identified by the State Board officials, nor has taken any precautionary measure. …. Even the Deptt. Of Environment issued a direction upon the3 State Board on 18.7.2005 under memo No: EN/10393/T-II-2/010/2004 to allow the project proponent to fill up the water body."* * * Having made these observations, the Committee has recommended: *"The entire work of the M/S South City Project should be closed for the following reasons:* *i) **Construction work of Tower III & IV have encroached the water body and also have developed by filling up the water body.* ii) *Presently, M/S South City Project has failed to show any water body area of 1.31 acres for which M/s SCP obtained permission from the State Board to fill up.* iii) *M/S SCP failed to show any area where 1.41 acres of land will be developed as water body as per their commitment against the filling up of the water body of 1.31 acres.* * * *2. Tower III & IV should be demolished and the water body of Bikramgarh Jheel should be restored and Kolkata Municipal Corporation should demarcate the area – not only the side of M/S SCP, but also other parts should be restored," * as has been done in the case of other water bodies in Kolkata.* * * * *Present status:* Construction work of South City project is going on in full swing in blatant disregard to the recommendations of the Commission. The question is, with whose blessings are they breaking the law of the land? According to the eyewitness account of Shambhu Prasad Singh, all the rubble generated by the day's construction is collected at the edge of the Jheel. At the dead of night, when the whole city is asleep, the rubble is pushed into the Jheel by bull dozers. The Jheel is gradually getting filled by the rubble from the South City Project. To demarcate its territory, South Cityhas put up a bamboo fencing across the water of the Jheel. Shambhu asserts that every time the rubble is dumped into the water, the fencing shifts by a couple of feet. I have been recording the progress of South City with my camera from outside. My visual documentation shows that the land behind the towers III and IV is now more than what it used to be. The trees that lined this part of the jheel are now gone. Instead the parking space extends to this spot and cars can pass smoothly. Very soon, all traces of the water body will be obliterated by encroachers from all classes – those who live in slums and those who live in towers. end of 5th posting _________________________________________ 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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: From mrsg at vsnl.com Thu Oct 18 08:26:46 2007 From: mrsg at vsnl.com (mrsg at vsnl.com) Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 07:56:46 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Bikramgarh Jheel - Additional Information on Posting of Ms Ranu Ghosh Message-ID: Thanks to Ms Ranu Ghosh for introducing Bikramgarh Jheel and South City Project to this Readers’ list. The issue of Bikramgrarh Jheel has been brought to the notice of Kolkata citizens by sustained work of Vasundhara Foundation, a non-funded environmental activists’ and researchers’ group working for the last 5 years. It has organized community movement with local clubs like Udayan Sangha and other Clubs to save the Jheel and due to its initiative the Jheel has been taken over by Kolkata Municipal Corporation. The comparison of two lakes of Kolkata – Dhakuria Lake and Bikramgarh Jheel as described in Ms Ghosh’s posting is based on the article “ A tale of two lakes” by Mohit Ray in the “Statesman”, published in its Sunday Supplement on 19 December 2002. The information about South City, Jay Engineering works and Supreme Court judgments on these issues have been prepared from Mohit Ray’s article “Once there was a Jheel” in another the Statesman Sunday Supplement article on 20 A ugust 2006. These two articles were later reprinted in edited form in Annual Survey of Environment Kolkata 2003 and Annual Survey of Environment Kolkata 2006 published by Vasundhara Foundation. Vasundhara scientist Kaustuv Basu carried out a detailed ecological study of the waterbody. Two scientific papers have been published on these studies. (A Preliminary Account of the Biodiversity of Bikramgarh Jheel, Bionotes, Vol.6(3), Dec 2004; Restoration of a Dying Waterbody in Densely Populated Region: A Case Study of Bikramgarh Jheel, Proc of 4th National Seminar on Wetland Resources, Dept. of Zoology, S.U.College, Chalakudy, Kerala, February 2005). As for the latest development on this issue: Vasundhara’ s letter (01-01-2006) to the Governor, West Bengal with copies to different government organizations and West Bengal Pollution Control Board reopened the issue of encroachment of Bikramgarh Jheel. Vasundhara’s members have spent hours organizing mass protests at Bimkramgarh area several times with the help of local organizations. Due to this WBPCB was forced to reopen the issue, sent new investigation team, formed independent committees and all other activities started. When all the government committees submitted report in support of Vasundhara’s claims but nothing happened, Vasundhara went to the 3-member bench of Appellate Authority of WBPCB on 29 August 2006. However again spending many hours at the court of Appellate Authority, nothing came out. Ms Ranu Ghosh and her associate have met Dr. Mohit Ray twice where the copies of all these information and documents were handed over. You can also find more information in the Annual Survey of Environment Kolkata 2003 and Annual Survey of Environment Kolkata 2006 published by Vasundhara Foundation. (This annual survey of Kolkata is being published by Vasundhara from the year 2001) and also from its website www.vasundhara.cjb.net and you may write to Dr. Ray at mrsg at vsnl.com. Again thanks to Ms Ranu Ghosh for presenting the issue to new audience. Mohit Ray Vasundhara Foundation Hi readers sorry for the delay in 5th posting. *The changing industrial landscape of Kolkata: documenting the transformation of a half century old factory, Joy Engineering Works, into Kolkata's South City Project, "Eastern India's largest mixed use real estate development"* * * *Posting 5:* * * *DEATH OF A LAKE* * * *South** City** flouts Supreme Court ruling:* In 1995, in the context of shifting of factory premises from the city of Delhi, The Supreme Court had given a ruling to protect the city from random urban development on the vacated land. According to this ruling, if the plot of land measures more than 5 hectares, 65% of the land has to be given to the Municipal Corporation for planting trees and developing gardens. Only 35% of the land may be used for construction. Joy Engineering Works has flouted this ruling and sold off the entire land to the South City project. The people living in the neigbourhood of the complex have been deprived of open spaces, playgrounds and gardens. Instead, they have got a concrete jungle, pollution and traffic jam. *Bikramgarh Jheel: a biosphere supporting rare species:* Perhaps the biggest loser in the whole game is the Bikramgarh Jheel – a huge water body, that partly fell inside the premises of the South City Project. The Bikramgarh Jheel, in its size, is next only to the two other huge water bodies that do our city proud – Dhakuria Lake and Subhash Sarovar. But this water body has never acquired the status or prestige conferred upon its other two cousins In appearance, it has never matched the idyllic image that the idea of a 'jheel' conjures up in our mind. Located in the densely populated Bikramgarh area, on its west side is the cluster of garages, on one side the tall towers of South City and all around it settlements of encroachers. The jheel itself is used as a dumping ground for wastes generated by these varied settlements. Yet, Kaustav Basu, a student of environment, has spotted 22 species of birds and 32 species of flora around this jheel – and several species of butterflies and grasshoppers. Among the species of birds, at least one, according to him, is an endangered species and among the plants, he has spotted a cluster of shrubs that are rapidly vanishing from the Kolkata landscape. In the good old Usha Factory days, when Joy Engineering Works had not sold off the property to South City, young boys used to spend their time catching fish in this jheel. They even remember seeing turtles in this biosphere. People's crass negligence and now the advancing grip of South City is slowly suffocating the Jheel and snuffing out the biodiversity it supports. I have interacted with the people in the dense settlement around the jheel and among them I have found active members of the major political parties of West Bengal. Their hutments on the edge of the jheel stand on firm ground, which in a way proves that the slow process of illegitimate filling of the water body has been going on for a long time and it serves the vested interest of so many people to get the jheel filled. Most of these encroachers have the tacit support of some political party or the other. *Flashback:* Years back, when the South City project had just been mooted, Saugata Roy, an MP from that locality, had said that perhaps a plan to save and rejuvenate the Bikramgarh Jheel would emerge from the South Citydevelopment. Today, in the face of recent 'developments', his comments sound like a harsh irony. As it so happened, 1.31 acres of the Jheel fell within the premises of the Usha Factory,which has been handed over to the South City builders. Towards the end of December 2005, Vasundhara, an environmental activist group, spotted that the 1.31 acres of the water body has been filled by the builders and towers III and IV are being constructed over this filled space. Vasundhara got their facts together and wrote to the Governor, the Chief Minister, to the Fishery Deptt. And the Pollution Control Board. On January 24, 2006, Pollution Control Board summoned Vasundhara and South City for a hearing. South City declared at the hearing that they had got permission from the State Board to fill 1.31 acres of the water body on the condition that they would recreate 1.41 acres of a new water body. The PCB constituted a committee headed by Shri P.N Roy. The other members of the committee were Ex Prof. All India Institute of Hygiene & Public Health, Prof. Manav Sengupta, Secretary, Faculty of Science & Technology, Univ. Of Calcutta and Shri Bishwajeet Mukherjee, Sr. Law Officer. This committee surveyed the premises of the South City project and conducted the necessary enquiries. In May 2006 they submitted their report to the PCB. *Excerpts from the report:* *"After detailed scrutiny of the different information made available before theCcommittee, it is observed that before issue of Consent to Establish to Ms. South City project, no inspection was conducted by the State Board…… The committee surprisingly observed that before issuing permission for relocation of the water body in M/s South City project, no proper area was identified by the State Board officials, nor has taken any precautionary measure. …. Even the Deptt. Of Environment issued a direction upon the3 State Board on 18.7.2005 under memo No: EN/10393/T-II-2/010/2004 to allow the project proponent to fill up the water body."* * * Having made these observations, the Committee has recommended: *"The entire work of the M/S South City Project should be closed for the following reasons:* *i) **Construction work of Tower III & IV have encroached the water body and also have developed by filling up the water body.* ii) *Presently, M/S South City Project has failed to show any water body area of 1.31 acres for which M/s SCP obtained permission from the State Board to fill up.* iii) *M/S SCP failed to show any area where 1.41 acres of land will be developed as water body as per their commitment against the filling up of the water body of 1.31 acres.* * * *2. Tower III & IV should be demolished and the water body of Bikramgarh Jheel should be restored and Kolkata Municipal Corporation should demarcate the area – not only the side of M/S SCP, but also other parts should be restored," * as has been done in the case of other water bodies in Kolkata.* * * * *Present status:* Construction work of South City project is going on in full swing in blatant disregard to the recommendations of the Commission. The question is, with whose blessings are they breaking the law of the land? According to the eyewitness account of Shambhu Prasad Singh, all the rubble generated by the day's construction is collected at the edge of the Jheel. At the dead of night, when the whole city is asleep, the rubble is pushed into the Jheel by bull dozers. The Jheel is gradually getting filled by the rubble from the South City Project. To demarcate its territory, South Cityhas put up a bamboo fencing across the water of the Jheel. Shambhu asserts that every time the rubble is dumped into the water, the fencing shifts by a couple of feet. I have been recording the progress of South City with my camera from outside. My visual documentation shows that the land behind the towers III and IV is now more than what it used to be. The trees that lined this part of the jheel are now gone. Instead the parking space extends to this spot and cars can pass smoothly. Very soon, all traces of the water body will be obliterated by encroachers from all classes – those who live in slums and those who live in towers. end of 5th posting _________________________________________ 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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: From smitamitr at gmail.com Thu Oct 18 09:59:10 2007 From: smitamitr at gmail.com (smita mitra) Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 09:59:10 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] IFS-07 7TH Posting.Cinematic City:Kolkata, Modernity, Middle Class and the Urban Woman - A study of 1950sand 60s Popular Bangla Cinema. Message-ID: Dear All, Sorry for the late posting. Was in Kolkata for collecting material. Managed to do some work. This time I concentrated on working in the Little Magazine Library located in Temar Lane off College street. I have some photocopies from e few magazines on cinema. For those of you who have access to Bangla this place is a treasure trove for material on Literature, Arts, Poetry, Cinema etc. Do try and visit this place if you can. Most of the material that I collected is on Uttam and Suchitra-- I managed to find an old copy of 'Television'(a popular magazine that is no longer being published now) that had a special focus on Suchitra Sen and carried one the very few interviews that she gave. Iam really grateful to Jyoti Babu of the North Calcutta Film Society who waited patiently in pouring rain at Esplanade to give me this issue from his personal collection.I also accquired a copy of their journal 'Chitrabhas' that they had brought out on Uttam sometime back. In conversation with him, he reffered to the sharp polarity in perceptions of popular cinema-- he recollected that when they decided to bring this issue many of their members and readers had reservation about a special issue on a 'popular star', but according to him, this issue has done quite well in terms of selling!!! They are also planning to bring out their next issue on cinematographers. Really looking forward to that as well. Will keep you all posted on these activities. I also met Amal Sur, asst dir to Asit Sen for *Uttar Phalguni*,remade as * Mamta* in hindi and *Kamallata* ,all big hits of Suchitra. Had a brief conversation with him on the genesis of *Kamallata's* screenplay and the songs that were used in the film. This film is interesting as the original novel , the 4th part of *Srikanto* by Saratchandra ,where Kamallata appears is not the narrative that we see in the film.Narayan Ganguly recreated the screenplay ,and of course the two songs sung by Sandhya. They had a third song, which was edited out after a week of release as the dir felt that the song was impeding the narrative flow.Will have to track him later for more reminiscences of his association with Suchitra. According to him he is the only person who still has access to her home and visits her occassionally with a packet of incense that she loves. My visit to CSSS was great. Managed to finalise the list of pamphlets of the films on my list from Gautam Bhadra's collection. Got to know of the latest issue of 'Ababhas' from Bodhisatva who told me about Manas da's fascinating article on 'Uttam's Saloon'.Just finished reading that and will try and discuss it . In the process of collating the material. Looking forward to the presentations in December. Regards, Smita. From radhikarajen at vsnl.net Thu Oct 18 15:17:56 2007 From: radhikarajen at vsnl.net (radhikarajen at vsnl.net) Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 14:47:56 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to post of Ms. Monica Narula, issue 27 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Ms. Narula your post about display of art and artefacts was quite intersting reading for me. No doubt the boundaries on planet are man made, barriers that divide the humanity into nations and the faiths which divide humanity as followers of different faiths etc, are artificial if followed with greed to dominate the humans of any nation or if faith is imposed on non-followers it becomes fanatism of worst kind. Arts and artcrafts of the humanity over the ages represent the culture and traditions of the human race over the years.Sharing the perspectives of this aspect is need of the hour, so that narrow trends of the artist, art and artefact are also seen by the humanity. At the same time, it also represents good facts of humanity, art is sublime when it does so. Now regarding the exhibition of arts and artefacts at different places on planet earth, the issue has many other things to consider, for one safe passage and maintainance of these invaluable art and artefacts in the transits at different locations is one of them. Contracts doled out, inefficient packing and handling, destruction, malicious or otherwise deprives the future generations of this sublime factor of human life and existence. Also there few artists who have their perspective of human life, divided by faith, some artists are not immune to prejudices which are latent human trends, to cite just one example, artist, M F HUssain is known for his hatred to hindu culture, even as poster painter he had fascination for female figures, but prejudiced view can be be detrimental to his art when he depicts a person in loin cloth and mughal emperor in fully clad royal apparels. So also his liberty is annoying to many others sentiments when he sees deities of another faith only in nude grandeur, but not his own parents whom he revers as in the similar nude position to bring him on this earth.But freedom of expression in art is not absolute, as the artist has to be aware of his responsibilty to humanity and he has no license to hurt others with his perspective of his art objects. ? Such crass cravings for notoreity brings in the baser instincts of animals in humanity, not divine, sublime feelings of being humans belonging to the society with good culture and civic sense. ?Request is to ponder over these thoughts. Any person if uses his creative intellect to demean another section of humanity for reasons such as caste, faith, creed it is not admirable in society, condemnable.. Regards, Radhikarajen ----- Original Message ----- From: reader-list-request at sarai.net Date: Thursday, October 18, 2007 9:02 am Subject: reader-list Digest, Vol 51, Issue 27 To: reader-list at sarai.net > Send reader-list mailing list submissions to > reader-list at sarai.net > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > reader-list-request at sarai.net > > You can reach the person managing the list at > reader-list-owner at sarai.net > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of reader-list digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Fwd: Row Over Bangladesh Loan To Musee Guimet (Monica Narula) > 2. Sindh Observes a Day for Land Reforms & Peasants Rights > (Zulfiqar Shah) > 3. Bikramgarh Jheel - Additional Information on Posting of Ms > Ranu Ghosh (mrsg at vsnl.com) > 4. Bikramgarh Jheel - Additional Information on Posting of Ms > Ranu Ghosh (mrsg at vsnl.com) > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- > --- > > Message: 1 > Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2007 10:07:02 +0530 > From: Monica Narula > Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Row Over Bangladesh Loan To Musee Guimet > To: reader-list at sarai.net > Message-ID: <83D55A37-6141-4588-88CF-94F03CD6C4E8 at sarai.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="WINDOWS-1252"; format=flowed > > > Monica Narula > Raqs > Sarai-CSDS > 29 Rajpur Road > Delhi 110 054 > www.raqsmediacollective.net > www.sarai.net > > > Begin forwarded message: > > > > > > From > > Dancing the DGFI's Tune? > > > > The past few weeks have seen tempers run high in some part of the > > artistic and heritage community over the supposed 'theft' of our > > artefacts by a foreign government, their 'threatened destruction' > > and the 'anti-state' activity constituted by their exhibition > abroad.> Quieter voices within both communities have talked about the > > importance of culture being part of a universal heritage, which > cannot> be confined within geographical borders and boundaries but > must be > > shared across communities and countries. But our press has done > little> to give space to these voices, reporting only the shrill > and frankly > > ignorant ('the Mona Lisa has not been shown outside France' says one > > eminent former DG Archaeology – now involved in litigation to > stop the > > artefacts being taken abroad). > > > > All this is about the exhibition on 'Masterpieces of Bangladesh Art' > > to be shown at the Musee Guimet in Paris from October 2007 to March > > 2008. Or rather the exhibition that should have been shown. > Right now > > it is again a moot point whether the artefacts will ever reach Paris > > at all, let alone be displayed. > > > > The first time the exhibition was delayed due to a so called 'public > > interest litigation' raising questions about whether the agreements > > entered into between the Government of France and the Government of > > Bangladesh and various Bangladeshi national museums had been in > > accordance with law. This petition included documents from files of > > the National Security Intelligence. It would be interesting to know > > how those involved in the case obtained these documents. As it > > happened, these documents concerned inquiries pending against a > > government official who it was claimed was involved in accompanying > > the artefacts to France. In documents presented by the Government > > before the Supreme Court (andgiven to the petitioners) it was clear > > that this claim had no basis at all. The person named is not > > accompanying the exhibits, nor was he doing so. When the petitioners > > were asked by the Supreme Court to explain what evidence they > had on > > this point, their lawyer was unable to respond. > > > > The second attempt was a case filed before the District Court, again > > by 'art lovers' including former DGs of Archaeology etc. > > Interestingly, the case was filed (according to newspaper report) > > against the French Ambassador and others. The Court issued a show > > cause order, but did not stop the artefacts from going. > > > > At this point, with no more puppets to join the dance, the > DGFI's fist > > finally came out from beneath the glove. It directly > intervened at > > the airport to stop the artefacts from going on the ground that an > > 'inquiry' is to be held. An inquiry into what? An inquiry which > > effectively amounts to non-compliance with an order of the apex > Court?> > > The artists and other genuine arts lovers who raised questions > > regarding this exhibition surely did so from the cleanest of > motives.> They were not informed by the Government of many details > of the > > exhibition and being active members of civil society rightly > felt that > > there should have been greater public information and > consultation on > > the issue. Since Bangladesh has never had a major international > > exhibition of ancient art, it was understandable also that few > people> were familiar with the procedures and protocols, and were > anxious> about the risks involved. Perhaps more information and > clarification> would have resolved their doubts. But for the true > believers, perhaps > > even that would not have helped. > > > > But what deserves attention now is whether these artists know that > > they are dancing to someone else's tune? Perhaps alarm bells should > > have rung when a security consultant, the petitioner in the High > Court> case, claimed publicly that sending 'our artefacts abroad > is an > > anti-State activity'? And when NSI documents appeared in the Writ > > Petition? Or when at least two of the people involved with the writ > > held frequent meetings with top DGFI Officers? > > > > You would think that those who are most disturbed by the current > > situation, anxious to see a 'return to the rule of law and > democracy'> where the 'powers that be' do not determine all > results and outcomes, > > would find this particular outcome chilling. But do they? Or > have some > > of them at least helped to bring this about? > > > > For now the DGFI action has interfered with the Supreme Court's > order,> preventing the artefacts from going to France and the > exhibition from > > opening. Why are our intelligence so opposed to this exhibition and > > why are they greater guardians of our cultural heritage than > even the > > apex Court? More importantly, why does this exhibition bother > them so? > > Is it because it will show a face of Bangladesh which is different > > from that they wish to project – one that exemplifies a multiple, > > plural diverse identity, constituted of different religions? > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 2 > Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2007 12:36:41 -0700 (PDT) > From: Zulfiqar Shah > Subject: [Reader-list] Sindh Observes a Day for Land Reforms & > Peasants Rights > To: Help Asia , Reader-List > , Sindh Media , > Sindh org > Message-ID: <662841.82017.qm at web38815.mail.mud.yahoo.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Sindh Observes a Day for Land Reforms & Peasants Rights > > Hyderabad: Rallies, marches and protest demonstration were > organized in about 15 district headquarter of Sindh on the call > given to by South Asia Partnership-Pakistan - Sindh Office to > observe ‘Peasants Demand Day’ on October 16, 2007 to demand land > reforms and peasant rights. > > In this regard, a rally and protest demo was observed in Hyderabad > by Joint Action Committee [JAC]. The rally, led by Zain Daudpota, > Zulfiqar Shah, Punhal Saryo, Fateh Marri incepted from old campus > area marched and culminated into a protest demonstration at > Hyderabad Press Club. > > A large rally was organized in Mirpurkhas by Naujawan Sangat. Mr. > Ghulam Qadir of Pakistan Labor Party, Human right activists Rano > Kanjimal and Wajid Leghari led the rally. In Matiari, Village > Improvement and Social welfare Association held a protest > demonstration out side Matryari press club. In Dadu, Young Samaji > Tanzeem organized a rally which started from Harri Markaz and > culminated into a procession in front of the press club. A rally > and procession was organized by POWA in Khairpur Mir’s. The rally > was led by women activists Zarena Jalbani and Sughra Majeed. In > Panu Aqil, Shah Latif Educational and Development Organization > held a rally and protest demonstration that incepted from Eidgah > Chowk and culminated at press club into a procession. In Larkana, > a rally was organized by Ghazi Social Welfare Association attended > by social and political activists, peasants and media persons. > Hari leaders affiliated with different political parties led the > march. > > Jago Development Society organized a rally in Badin. Mohammed Raza > of Sindh Abadgar Forum and Ali Mohammed Rahoojo of Hari Tahreek > were leading the rally. The rally was attended by lawyers, media > persons and civil society activists. In Thatta, Village > Development Organization organized a rally that marched various > roads of the city and culminated into a procession at the press > club. In Jacobabad Community Development Network Organization > arranged a rally was participated by a large number of peasants, > media person, NGO activists and Hari leaders. In Umarakot, a rally > was organized by Sami Samaj Sujag Sangat. Mr. Ghulam Mustafa Khoso > and Mir Hasin Areesar led the rally. In Shikarpur a rally was > organized by Human Development Society. The rally started from > Jahaz Chowk and culminated into a procession at Lakhidar. In > Ghotki Village Development Organization hosted a rally which > started from Dipel Chowk and culminated into the procession at > Press Club. The > protest demos were also organized in Sukkur and Nawabshah in > front of the local Press Clubs. > > In the rallies, speakers demanded the legislation of a new > peasants and agriculture workers law and carrying land reforms in > Sindh. They also demanded political parties to include the agenda > of land reforms and peasants rights into their election > manifestoes. > > [This report is generated by synthesizing and précising the news > published in daily Dawn, The Nation, Kawish, Ibrat, Koshis, > Express, Khabren, Jurant and Awami Awaz of October 17, 2007] > __________________________­­­­ > Zulfiqar Shah > Provincial Coordinator > South Asia Partnership Pakistan > Sindh Office > 50, Muslim Housing Society, > Qasimabad, Hyderabad 71000 > Ph # +92 22 2650243 – 4 > Fax# +92 22 2650241 > Email: zulf at cyber.net.pk > pcsindh at sappk.org > URL: www.sappk.org > ____________________________ > > Send instant messages to your online friends > http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com > ------------------------------ > > Message: 3 > Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 07:52:53 +0500 > From: mrsg at vsnl.com > Subject: [Reader-list] Bikramgarh Jheel - Additional Information on > Posting of Ms Ranu Ghosh > To: reader-list at sarai.net > Message-ID: > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" > > Thanks to Ms Ranu Ghosh for introducing Bikramgarh Jheel and South > City Project to this Readers’ list. The issue of Bikramgrarh Jheel > has been brought to the notice of Kolkata citizens by sustained > work of Vasundhara Foundation, a non-funded environmental > activists’ and researchers’ group working for the last 5 years. It > has organized community movement with local clubs like Udayan > Sangha and other Clubs to save the Jheel and due to its initiative > the Jheel has been taken over by Kolkata Municipal Corporation. > The comparison of two lakes of Kolkata – Dhakuria Lake and > Bikramgarh Jheel as described in Ms Ghosh’s posting is based on > the article “ A tale of two lakes” by Mohit Ray in the > “Statesman”, published in its Sunday Supplement on 19 December > 2002. The information about South City, Jay Engineering works and > Supreme Court judgments on these issues have been prepared from > Mohit Ray’s article “Once there was a Jheel” in another the > Statesman Sunday Supplement article on 20 A > ugust 2006. These two articles were later reprinted in edited form > in Annual Survey of Environment Kolkata 2003 and Annual Survey of > Environment Kolkata 2006 published by Vasundhara Foundation. > Vasundhara scientist Kaustuv Basu carried out a detailed > ecological study of the waterbody. Two scientific papers have been > published on these studies. (A Preliminary Account of the > Biodiversity of Bikramgarh Jheel, Bionotes, Vol.6(3), Dec 2004; > Restoration of a Dying Waterbody in Densely Populated Region: A > Case Study of Bikramgarh Jheel, Proc of 4th National Seminar on > Wetland Resources, Dept. of Zoology, S.U.College, Chalakudy, > Kerala, February 2005). > > As for the latest development on this issue: Vasundhara’ s letter > (01-01-2006) to the Governor, West Bengal with copies to different > government organizations and West Bengal Pollution Control Board > reopened the issue of encroachment of Bikramgarh Jheel. > Vasundhara’s members have spent hours organizing mass protests at > Bimkramgarh area several times with the help of local > organizations. Due to this WBPCB was forced to reopen the issue, > sent new investigation team, formed independent committees and all > other activities started. When all the government committees > submitted report in support of Vasundhara’s claims but nothing > happened, Vasundhara went to the 3-member bench of Appellate > Authority of WBPCB on 29 August 2006. However again spending many > hours at the court of Appellate Authority, nothing came out. > > Ms Ranu Ghosh and her associate have met Dr. Mohit Ray twice where > the copies of all these information and documents were handed > over. You can also find more information in the Annual Survey of > Environment Kolkata 2003 and Annual Survey of Environment Kolkata > 2006 published by Vasundhara Foundation. (This annual survey of > Kolkata is being published by Vasundhara from the year 2001) and > also from its website www.vasundhara.cjb.net and you may write to > Dr. Ray at mrsg at vsnl.com. > > Again thanks to Ms Ranu Ghosh for presenting the issue to new > audience. > Mohit Ray > Vasundhara Foundation > > > > > Hi readers > sorry for the delay in 5th posting. > > *The changing industrial landscape of Kolkata: documenting the > transformation of a half century old factory, Joy Engineering > Works, into > Kolkata's South City Project, "Eastern India's largest mixed use > real estate > development"* > > * * > > *Posting 5:* > > * * > > *DEATH OF A LAKE* > > * * > > *South** City** flouts Supreme Court ruling:* > > In 1995, in the context of shifting of factory premises from the > city of > Delhi, The Supreme Court had given a ruling to protect the city > from random > urban development on the vacated land. According to this ruling, > if the plot > of land measures more than 5 hectares, 65% of the land has to be > given to > the Municipal Corporation for planting trees and developing > gardens. Only > 35% of the land may be used for construction. Joy Engineering > Works has > flouted this ruling and sold off the entire land to the South City > project.The people living in the neigbourhood of the complex have been > deprived of open > spaces, playgrounds and gardens. Instead, they have got a concrete > jungle,pollution and traffic jam. > > > > *Bikramgarh Jheel: a biosphere supporting rare species:* > > Perhaps the biggest loser in the whole game is the Bikramgarh > Jheel – a huge > water body, that partly fell inside the premises of the South City > Project. The Bikramgarh Jheel, in its size, is next only to the > two other huge water > bodies that do our city proud – Dhakuria Lake and Subhash Sarovar. > But this > water body has never acquired the status or prestige conferred > upon its > other two cousins In appearance, it has never matched the idyllic > image that > the idea of a 'jheel' conjures up in our mind. Located in the densely > populated Bikramgarh area, on its west side is the cluster of > garages, on > one side the tall towers of South City and all around it > settlements of > encroachers. The jheel itself is used as a dumping ground for wastes > generated by these varied settlements. Yet, Kaustav Basu, a > student of > environment, has spotted 22 species of birds and 32 species of > flora around > this jheel – and several species of butterflies and grasshoppers. > Among the > species of birds, at least one, according to him, is an endangered > speciesand among the plants, he has spotted a cluster of shrubs > that are rapidly > vanishing from the Kolkata landscape. In the good old Usha > Factory days, > when Joy Engineering Works had not sold off the property to South > City,young boys used to spend their time catching fish in this > jheel. They even > remember seeing turtles in this biosphere. People's crass > negligence and now > the advancing grip of South City is slowly suffocating the Jheel and > snuffing out the biodiversity it supports. > > > > I have interacted with the people in the dense settlement around > the jheel > and among them I have found active members of the major political > parties of > West Bengal. Their hutments on the edge of the jheel stand on firm > ground,which in a way proves that the slow process of illegitimate > filling of the > water body has been going on for a long time and it serves the vested > interest of so many people to get the jheel filled. Most of these > encroachers have the tacit support of some political party or the > other. > > > *Flashback:* > > Years back, when the South City project had just been mooted, > Saugata Roy, > an MP from that locality, had said that perhaps a plan to save and > rejuvenate the Bikramgarh Jheel would emerge from the South > Citydevelopment. Today, in the face of recent 'developments=27, his > comments sound > like a harsh irony. As it so happened, 1.31 acres of the Jheel > fell within > the premises of the Usha Factory,which has been handed over to the > SouthCity builders. Towards the end of December 2005, Vasundhara, an > environmental activist group, spotted that the 1.31 acres of the > water body > has been filled by the builders and towers III and IV are being > constructedover this filled space. Vasundhara got their facts > together and wrote to the > Governor, the Chief Minister, to the Fishery Deptt. And the Pollution > Control Board. On January 24, 2006, Pollution Control Board summoned > Vasundhara and South City for a hearing. South City declared at > the hearing > that they had got permission from the State Board to fill 1.31 > acres of the > water body on the condition that they would recreate 1.41 acres of > a new > water body. > > > > The PCB constituted a committee headed by Shri P.N Roy. The other > members of > the committee were Ex Prof. All India Institute of Hygiene & > Public Health, > Prof. Manav Sengupta, Secretary, Faculty of Science & Technology, > Univ. Of > Calcutta and Shri Bishwajeet Mukherjee, Sr. Law Officer. This > committeesurveyed the premises of the South City project and > conducted the necessary > enquiries. In May 2006 they submitted their report to the PCB. > > > > *Excerpts from the report:* > > *"After detailed scrutiny of the different information made > available before > theCcommittee, it is observed that before issue of Consent to > Establish to > Ms. South City project, no inspection was conducted by the State > Board…… The > committee surprisingly observed that before issuing permission for > relocation of the water body in M/s South City project, no proper > area was > identified by the State Board officials, nor has taken any > precautionarymeasure. …. Even the Deptt. Of Environment issued a > direction upon the3 > State Board on 18.7.2005 under memo No: EN/10393/T-II-2/010/2004 > to allow > the project proponent to fill up the water body."* > > * * > > Having made these observations, the Committee has recommended: > > *"The entire work of the M/S South City Project should be closed > for the > following reasons:* > > *i) **Construction work of Tower III & IV have > encroachedthe water body and also have developed by filling up the > water body.* > > ii) *Presently, M/S South City Project has > failed to show > any water body area of 1.31 acres for which M/s SCP obtained > permission from > the State Board to fill up.* > > iii) *M/S SCP failed to show any area where 1.41 > acres of > land will be developed as water body as per their commitment > against the > filling up of the water body of 1.31 acres.* > > * * > > *2. Tower III & IV should be demolished and the water body of > BikramgarhJheel should be restored and Kolkata Municipal > Corporation should demarcate > the area – not only the side of M/S SCP, but also other parts > should be > restored," * as has been done in the case of other water bodies in > Kolkata.** > > * * > > *Present status:* > > Construction work of South City project is going on in full swing > in blatant > disregard to the recommendations of the Commission. The question > is, with > whose blessings are they breaking the law of the land? > > > > According to the eyewitness account of Shambhu Prasad Singh, all > the rubble > generated by the day's construction is collected at the edge of > the Jheel. > At the dead of night, when the whole city is asleep, the rubble is > pushedinto the Jheel by bull dozers. The Jheel is gradually > getting filled by the > rubble from the South City Project. To demarcate its territory, South > Cityhas put up a bamboo fencing across the water of the Jheel. Shambhu > asserts > that every time the rubble is dumped into the water, the fencing > shifts by a > couple of feet. > > > > I have been recording the progress of South City with my camera from > outside. My visual documentation shows that the land behind the > towers III > and IV is now more than what it used to be. The trees that lined > this part > of the jheel are now gone. Instead the parking space extends to > this spot > and cars can pass smoothly. Very soon, all traces of the water > body will be > obliterated by encroachers from all classes – those who live in > slums and > those who live in towers. > end of 5th posting > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader- > list > List archive: > > > > ------------------------------ > > Message: 4 > Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 07:56:46 +0500 > From: mrsg at vsnl.com > Subject: [Reader-list] Bikramgarh Jheel - Additional Information on > Posting of Ms Ranu Ghosh > To: reader-list at sarai.net > Message-ID: > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="windows-1252" > > Thanks to Ms Ranu Ghosh for introducing Bikramgarh Jheel and South > City Project to this Readers’ list. The issue of Bikramgrarh Jheel > has been brought to the notice of Kolkata citizens by sustained > work of Vasundhara Foundation, a non-funded environmental > activists’ and researchers’ group working for the last 5 years. It > has organized community movement with local clubs like Udayan > Sangha and other Clubs to save the Jheel and due to its initiative > the Jheel has been taken over by Kolkata Municipal Corporation. > The comparison of two lakes of Kolkata – Dhakuria Lake and > Bikramgarh Jheel as described in Ms Ghosh’s posting is based on > the article “ A tale of two lakes” by Mohit Ray in the > “Statesman”, published in its Sunday Supplement on 19 December > 2002. The information about South City, Jay Engineering works and > Supreme Court judgments on these issues have been prepared from > Mohit Ray’s article “Once there was a Jheel” in another the > Statesman Sunday Supplement article on 20 A > > ugust 2006. These two articles were later reprinted in edited form > in Annual Survey of Environment Kolkata 2003 and Annual Survey of > Environment Kolkata 2006 published by Vasundhara Foundation. > Vasundhara scientist Kaustuv Basu carried out a detailed = > ecological study of the waterbody. Two scientific papers have been > published on these studies. (A Preliminary Account of the > Biodiversity of Bikramgarh Jheel, Bionotes, Vol.6(3), Dec 2004; > Restoration of a Dying Waterbody in Densely Populated Region: A > Case Study of Bikramgarh Jheel, Proc of 4th National Seminar on > Wetland Resources, Dept. of Zoology, S.U.College, Chalakudy, > Kerala, February 2005). > > As for the latest development on this issue: Vasundhara’ s letter > (01-01-2006) to the Governor, West Bengal with copies to different > government organizations and West Bengal Pollution Control Board > reopened the issue of encroachment of Bikramgarh Jheel. > Vasundhara’s members have spent hours organizing mass protests at > Bimkramgarh area several times with the help of local > organizations. Due to this WBPCB was forced to reopen the issue, > sent new investigation team, formed independent committees and all > other activities started. When all the government committees > submitted report in support of Vasundhara’s claims but nothing > happened, Vasundhara went to the 3-member bench of Appellate > Authority of WBPCB on 29 August 2006. However again spending many > hours at the court of Appellate Authority, nothing came out. > > Ms Ranu Ghosh and her associate have met Dr. Mohit Ray twice where > the copies of all these information and documents were handed > over. You can also find more information in the Annual Survey of > Environment Kolkata 2003 and Annual Survey of Environment Kolkata > 2006 published by Vasundhara Foundation. (This annual survey of > Kolkata is being published by Vasundhara from the year 2001) and > also from its website www.vasundhara.cjb.net and you may write to > Dr. Ray at mrsg at vsnl.com. > > Again thanks to Ms Ranu Ghosh for presenting the issue to new > audience. > Mohit Ray > Vasundhara Foundation > > > > > Hi readers > sorry for the delay in 5th posting. > > *The changing industrial landscape of Kolkata: documenting the > transformation of a half century old factory, Joy Engineering > Works, into > Kolkata's South City Project, "Eastern India's largest mixed use > real estate > development"* > > * * > > *Posting 5:* > > * * > > *DEATH OF A LAKE* > > * * > > *South** City** flouts Supreme Court ruling:* > > In 1995, in the context of shifting of factory premises from the > city of > Delhi, The Supreme Court had given a ruling to protect the city > from random > urban development on the vacated land. According to this ruling, > if the plot > of land measures more than 5 hectares, 65% of the land has to be > given to > the Municipal Corporation for planting trees and developing > gardens. Only > 35% of the land may be used for construction. Joy Engineering > Works has > flouted this ruling and sold off the entire land to the South City > project.The people living in the neigbourhood of the complex have been > deprived of open > spaces, playgrounds and gardens. Instead, they have got a concrete > jungle,pollution and traffic jam. > > > > *Bikramgarh Jheel: a biosphere supporting rare species:* > > Perhaps the biggest loser in the whole game is the Bikramgarh > Jheel – a huge > water body, that partly fell inside the premises of the South City > Project. The Bikramgarh Jheel, in its size, is next only to the > two other huge water > bodies that do our city proud – Dhakuria Lake and Subhash Sarovar. > But this > water body has never acquired the status or prestige conferred > upon its > other two cousins In appearance, it has never matched the idyllic > image that > the idea of a 'jheel' conjures up in our mind. Located in the densely > populated Bikramgarh area, on its west side is the cluster of > garages, on > one side the tall towers of South City and all around it > settlements of > encroachers. The jheel itself is used as a dumping ground for wastes > generated by these varied settlements. Yet, Kaustav Basu, a > student of > environment, has spotted 22 species of birds and 32 species of > flora around > this jheel – and several species of butterflies and grasshoppers. > Among the > species of birds, at least one, according to him, is an endangered > speciesand among the plants, he has spotted a cluster of shrubs > that are rapidly > vanishing from the Kolkata landscape. In the good old Usha > Factory days, > when Joy Engineering Works had not sold off the property to South > City,young boys used to spend their time catching fish in this > jheel. They even > remember seeing turtles in this biosphere. People's crass > negligence and now > the advancing grip of South City is slowly suffocating the Jheel and > snuffing out the biodiversity it supports. > > > > I have interacted with the people in the dense settlement around > the jheel > and among them I have found active members of the major political > parties of > West Bengal. Their hutments on the edge of the jheel stand on firm > ground,which in a way proves that the slow process of illegitimate > filling of the > water body has been going on for a long time and it serves the vested > interest of so many people to get the jheel filled. Most of these > encroachers have the tacit support of some political party or the > other. > > > *Flashback:* > > Years back, when the South City project had just been mooted, > Saugata Roy, > an MP from that locality, had said that perhaps a plan to save and > rejuvenate the Bikramgarh Jheel would emerge from the South > Citydevelopment. Today, in the face of recent 'developments', his > comments sound > like a harsh irony. As it so happened, 1.31 acres of the Jheel > fell within > the premises of the Usha Factory,which has been handed over to the > SouthCity builders. Towards the end of December 2005, Vasundhara, an > environmental activist group, spotted that the 1.31 acres of the > water body > has been filled by the builders and towers III and IV are being > constructedover this filled space. Vasundhara got their facts > together and wrote to the > Governor, the Chief Minister, to the Fishery Deptt. And the Pollution > Control Board. On January 24, 2006, Pollution Control Board summoned > Vasundhara and South City for a hearing. South City declared at > the hearing > that they had got permission from the State Board to fill 1.31 > acres of the > water body on the condition that they would recreate 1.41 acres of > a new > water body. > > > > The PCB constituted a committee headed by Shri P.N Roy. The other > members of > the committee were Ex Prof. All India Institute of Hygiene & > Public Health, > Prof. Manav Sengupta, Secretary, Faculty of Science & Technology, > Univ. Of > Calcutta and Shri Bishwajeet Mukherjee, Sr. Law Officer. This > committeesurveyed the premises of the South City project and > conducted the necessary > enquiries. In May 2006 they submitted their report to the PCB. > > > > *Excerpts from the report:* > > *"After detailed scrutiny of the different information made > available before > theCcommittee, it is observed that before issue of Consent to > Establish to > Ms. South Cityproject, no inspection was conducted by the State > Board…… The > committee surprisingly observed that before issuing permission for > relocation of the water body in M/s South City project, no proper > area was > identified by the State Board officials, nor has taken any > precautionarymeasure. …. Even the Deptt. Of Environment issued a > direction upon the3 > State Board on 18.7.2005 under memo No: EN/10393/T-II-2/010/2004 > to allow > the project proponent to fill up the water body."* > > * * > > Having made these observations, the Committee has recommended: > > *"The entire work of the M/S South City Project should be closed > for the > following reasons:* > > *i) **Construction work of Tower III & IV have > encroachedthe water body and also have developed by filling up the > water body.* > > ii) *Presently, M/S South City Project has > failed to show > any water body area of 1.31 acres for which M/s SCP obtained > permission from > the State Board to fill up.* > > iii) *M/S SCP failed to show any area where 1.41 > acres of > land will be developed as water body as per their commitment > against the > filling up of the water body of 1.31 acres.* > > * * > > *2. Tower III & IV should be demolished and the water body of > BikramgarhJheel should be restored and Kolkata Municipal > Corporation should demarcate > the area – not only the side of M/S SCP, but also other parts > should be > restored," * as has been done in the case of other water bodies in > Kolkata.** > > * * > > *Present status:* > > Construction work of South City project is going on in full swing > in blatant > disregard to the recommendations of the Commission. The question > is, with > whose blessings are they breaking the law of the land? > > > > According to the eyewitness account of Shambhu Prasad Singh, all > the rubble > generated by the day's construction is collected at the edge of > the Jheel. > At the dead of night, when the whole city is asleep, the rubble is > pushedinto the Jheel by bull dozers. The Jheel is gradually > getting filled by the > rubble from the South City Project. To demarcate its territory, South > Cityhas put up a bamboo fencing across the water of the Jheel. Shambhu > asserts > that every time the rubble is dumped into the water, the fencing > shifts by a > couple of feet. > > > > I have been recording the progress of South City with my camera from > outside. My visual documentation shows that the land behind the > towers III > and IV is now more than what it used to be. The trees that lined > this part > of the jheel are now gone. Instead the parking space extends to > this spot > and cars can pass smoothly. Very soon, all traces of the water > body will be > obliterated by encroachers from all classes – those who live in > slums and > those who live in towers. > end of 5th posting > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader- > list > List archive: > > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > reader-list mailing list > reader-list at sarai.net > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > > > End of reader-list Digest, Vol 51, Issue 27 > ******************************************* > From naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com Thu Oct 18 16:52:31 2007 From: naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com (Naeem Mohaiemen) Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 17:22:31 +0600 Subject: [Reader-list] FAQ on Bangladesh/Musee Guimet Controversy Message-ID: FAQ on Musee Guimet Controversy http://rumiahmed.wordpress.com/2007/10/18/musee-guimet/ Musee Guimet: Masterpieces of Ganges Delta http://www.museeguimet.fr/Masterpieces-of-Gange-delta From jagadeesh at altlawforum.org Fri Oct 19 09:22:01 2007 From: jagadeesh at altlawforum.org (Byatha N Jagadeesha) Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 09:22:01 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] A letter from an activist of the Narmada Andolan Message-ID: <1006b0c60710182052v4624667fh2674bec337e557b7@mail.gmail.com> Dear Friends I have read the my on reader-list (friend of mine shown me) mail which I wrote with respect to NBA an about 6 months ego and the same has been written keeping in mind many aspect and the same has meet to specific people and defiantly not meant for posting the same on these list. at this point i would certainly condemn the Prakash's act in sending the same with out my consent. I would also like to state that i was shocked to see Shruti's response to the mail ( I really do not know who you are), In fact the mail says "Do check you facts before you post stuff", Strangely I do not know if she herself checked the facts before posting her comment, I request her to do the same hear-after. may i request you to introduce yourself in bit detail as i requested in my mail to you please by that i know which part of Narmada valley you are living and working. Commonly known as Jagga -- Each and Every argument made today is null and void after the expire of six month's Byatha N Jagadeesha Advocate Bangalore From taraprakash at gmail.com Fri Oct 19 10:08:01 2007 From: taraprakash at gmail.com (TaraPrakash) Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:38:01 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] A letter from an activist of the Narmada Andolan References: <1006b0c60710182052v4624667fh2674bec337e557b7@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <002201c81209$d82b4860$6400a8c0@taraprakash> The beauty of the internet age is that faking identity is possible. I can produce millions of Jaggas on the net, all writing to the list saying that they did not write any letter and that they are ready to die for the cause of Narmada. There is no reason for us to believe you rather than Shruti on this issue, even if you are true Jagga. Cheers ----- Original Message ----- From: "Byatha N Jagadeesha" To: Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2007 11:52 PM Subject: Re: [Reader-list] A letter from an activist of the Narmada Andolan > Dear Friends > > I have read the my on reader-list (friend of mine shown me) mail which I > wrote with respect to NBA an about 6 months ego and the same has been > written keeping in mind many aspect and the same has meet to specific > people > and defiantly not meant for posting the same on these list. at this point > i > would certainly condemn the Prakash's act in sending the same with out my > consent. I would also like to state that i was shocked to see Shruti's > response to the mail ( I really do not know who you are), In fact the mail > says "Do check you facts before you post stuff", Strangely I do not know > if > she herself checked the facts before posting her comment, I request her to > do the same hear-after. may i request you to introduce yourself in bit > detail as i requested in my mail to you please by that i know which part > of > Narmada valley you are living and working. > > Commonly known as > > Jagga > > -- > Each and Every argument made today is null and void after the expire of > six > month's > Byatha N Jagadeesha > Advocate > Bangalore > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> From manzilechar at yahoo.com Fri Oct 19 10:40:45 2007 From: manzilechar at yahoo.com (tangella Madhavi) Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:10:45 -0700 (PDT) Subject: docedge08, Asian Documentary Forum Message-ID: <706090.23173.qm@web43138.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> docedge’08 Asian Documentary Forum Deadline: November 30th, 2007 Organized by Satyajit Ray Film Television Institute In association with European Documentary Network Friends, The 5th edition of docedge International Documentary Workshop will take place from January 8th to 13th, 2008 at Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata, India. This edition of docedge aims to create a platform for intense dialogue on Asian socio-political reality as seen and interpreted by filmmakers through its first ever Asian Documentary Forum. The authors will present their new documentary ideas for feedback, sharing, and guidance and for possible fund/co-pro support. The workshop includes three days of tutoring and two days of pitching session with a panel of international commissioning editors. Maximum of 24 projects will be critically discussed, tutored and finally pitched to the distinguished panel. A team of internationally acknowledged professionals will train filmmakers through project development clinics and pitch labs in warm and caring environment where you further improve your ideas and visual pitch. The workshop also includes master classes, budget session, open forums on documentary issues and channel presentations with regular screening of international documentaries. docedge’08 is expected to appear as a great place of networking, finding co-production partners and improving authors’ ideas with quality professional input and a provocative place of sharing documentary thoughts. What to submit: Short synopsis – within 60 words only Synopsis – I page Treatment -2 pages Budget - One page formatted budget Co-production details – 1 page Production Company profile – 1 page CVs (director/producer) – 1 page Visual clip (DVD) – maximum of 4 minutes (the applicant can submit previous work in case visual material of the film in progress is not available at the time of submission. Fees: Applicants with Project – INR 6000 (Euro 120) Applicants as Observer – INR – 1000 (Euro 30) [limited slots – preferably students] The deadline for project submissions is November 30th, 2007 We would like to invite you to submit your application at your earliest. The online application/entry form is available at www.docedge.org from 25th of October 2007. Warm Wishes Nilotpal Majumdar email: nilotpalmajumdar at yahoo.com for docedge Team __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From gitika.talwar at gmail.com Fri Oct 19 15:28:42 2007 From: gitika.talwar at gmail.com (Gitika Talwar) Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 04:58:42 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] A letter from an activist of the Narmada Andolan In-Reply-To: <002201c81209$d82b4860$6400a8c0@taraprakash> References: <1006b0c60710182052v4624667fh2674bec337e557b7@mail.gmail.com> <002201c81209$d82b4860$6400a8c0@taraprakash> Message-ID: <9949efb0710190258k4de902cbnb16bd927b0ca1808@mail.gmail.com> Atheists forgive me, but I have to exclaim 'Jesus! Do you not read?' Jagga (Jagadeesha) did not say he did not write the letter and neither did he say he will die for Narmada. And if you are concerned about fake identities - let me be that witness who vouches for the fact that THIS Jagga is a real person and not a lurker out for all the 'goodies' one gets from writing to a readerlist. And amazingly, this suspicion makes me wonder - are all online testimonials to be taken with a pinch of salt since faking identities online is an option that you think people exercise? The main tragedy here is that Jagadeesha's letter was taken out of its private space and hurled into a public one where it now has to withstand far more scrutiny than it was originally meant to. There were too many experiences and contexts that were personal and far removed from the information we have about NBA, so the shock and disbelief from the list is understandable. I have deep respect for the movement, but my email right now is not about that. It is about protesting someone's taking someone else's testimony into the public eye without consent and then exposing them to the disbelief and criticism of people who do not know the 'story before the beginning'. Wasn't there a rule against this on Sarai, just a while ago? ~ Gitika From sahbittu at cacim.net Fri Oct 19 15:49:01 2007 From: sahbittu at cacim.net (sah bittu) Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 15:49:01 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] CACIM's Publication Coordinator Message-ID: *CACIM* (India Institute for Critical Action - Centre in Movement), an initiative based in Delhi towards cultivating and nurturing a culture of critical reflexivity and action in individual and public work, is searching for candidates for the following position :** *Publication Coordinator (1)* *CACIM* (Critical Action - Centre in Movement) is an initiative towards cultivating and nurturing a culture of critical reflexivity and action in individual and public work. In principle, we expect to work in many fields, but our focus at the moment is on activism, research, and publication in relation to social and political movement. We primarily work by building and maintaining real and virtual spaces for fundamental research and critical reflection, exploration, action, and creation in the field of movement : Books, seminars, workshops, websites, listserves, and newsbulletins and action alerts. Initiated in India in 2005, CACIM is transnational, intercultural, and interdisciplinary in vision and culture. Visit www.cacim.net for details, including what we have done so far, and for some of our work also another more specific site, OpenSpaceForum, that we maintain and administer on behalf of a wider collective, the EIOS (Explorations in Open Space) Collective, @ www.openspaceforum.com. *Job Profile *: CACIM needs one Publications Coordinator for its print and web publishing in English. The job will involve : 1. Assistance in conceptualising the content and presentation of CACIM's publications. 2. Coordination with the authors, editors, printers, designers, publishers, and distributors. 3. Conceptualisation, coordination, and organisation of book launches, book reviews, workshops, and discussions around the books and publications. 4. Conceptualising the promotion and publication of books on the internet, and also contributing towards the content management of the websites run by CACIM. 5. Coordinating the building of OpenWord, a publications initiative being undertaken by CACIM. The appointment would be initially for a year, and could be extended after that. *Qualifications *: The candidate must have excellent editing skills in English. Similar skills in other languages, especially Hindi, will be of advantage. S/he must possess good social, business, and coordination skills. S/he should preferably have good understanding of contemporary themes and ideas in the social sciences, new media, philosophy, people's movements, literary and art trends, etc. No formal degree is required. Inter-disciplinary skills, curiosity, and a critical approach to looking at the world around us, and an interest in contributing to organisation building, is what we are looking for. *Technical Skills* : First class computer skills, ability to work with programmes like Page Maker and Quark Express, and also with publishing-related FOSS (Free and Open-Source Software). Knowledge of drafting contracts, copyright laws, and copyleft licences will be a definite added advantage. *Experience*: Around 3-5 years in similar or related capacities. *Location*: The work will be based in New Delhi, India. However, it will also involve some travel within India, and maybe abroad; and candidates living in other parts of India and the world are encouraged to apply. *Salary*: Negotiable. Depends on the qualification and experience of the candidate. *Contact*: Send a detailed CV and some references for your earlier work by *October 25 2007* by e-mail to Madhuresh @ cacim at cacim.net. *CACIM is an equal opportunity place, but women candidates are especially encouraged to apply.* CACIM www.cacim.net A3 Defence Colony, New Delhi, India Ph +91-11-4155 1521 or 2433 2451 From ranjit_hcu at yahoo.co.in Fri Oct 19 16:11:11 2007 From: ranjit_hcu at yahoo.co.in (Ranjith Thankappan) Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 11:41:11 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] Taslima Nasreen Message-ID: <364407.15296.qm@web8709.mail.in.yahoo.com> --------------------------------- Unlimited freedom, unlimited storage. Get it now From peter.ksmtf at gmail.com Fri Oct 19 17:47:44 2007 From: peter.ksmtf at gmail.com (T Peter) Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 17:47:44 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] 'DIVERSION OF TSUNAMI FUNDS FOR TOURISM Message-ID: <3457ce860710190517m66366056w755c370889c5d658@mail.gmail.com> KERALA SWATANTRA MATSYA THOZHILALI FEDERATION (KERALA INDEPENDENT FISHWORKERS FEDERATION) www.keralafishworkers.org =============================================== PRESS RELEASE 18 October 2007, 'DIVERSION OF TSUNAMI FUNDS FOR TOURISM LOBBY IN KOVALAM QUESTIONED' Thiruvanathapuram: Plans by Kerala Tourism and the Harbour Engineering Department to construct an artificial reef in Kovalam, by using funds from the Central Government assisted Tsunami Rehabilitation Project, have come under fire from the fishing community. Reports indicate that a New Zealand based marine consultancy firm ASR 'Amalgamates Solutions and Research' Ltd will be paid 4 crore rupees to construct a 500 metre long artificial reef adjacent to Kovalam beach. The city based Centre for Earth Science Studies (CESS) is reported to be in support of the project. Tourism department officials claim that the primary purpose of the artificial reef will be to break waves, thereby mitigating the potential impacts of another Tsunami. Therefore the Tsunami Rehabilitation money being tapped into. Tourism Department officials also claim that the reef will help promote tourism activities such as water skiing, surfing and swimming. Another plus is that the area encircled by the reef can be used as a fish breeding ground. The reef is to be constructed with geo-textile bags which will have a length of 50 metres and 5 metres in width. 'This is a clear cut case of Tsunami funds being diverted for the benefit of the tourism lobby in the state', said T Peter president of the Kerala Swatantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation (KSMTF). 'We are raising fundamental questions here; Who wants the reef and why? And are there any benefits to the fishing community', he questioned. On the contrary KSMTF argues that fishing communities in Kovalam are likely to lose their livelihoods as a result. Community based shore–seine fishing in the area will be curtailed and at least 500 people will lose their livelihood options. 'The fish breeding ground will be used for 'sport fishing' by tourists and will be of little use to the local fishworkers', clarified Peter. Peter also said the role of institutions such as CESS supporting the project need to be examined. The ASR website has a CESS senior scientist and ASR Managing Director Dr. Kerry Black as co-authors in a paper. 'This is a potential case of conflict of interest and CESS' scientists support for the project needs to be taken with a pinch of salt', he added. KSMTF in a statement said that 'there is a need for a careful, evidence based risk assessment of the potential social, economic and environmental benefits of artificial reefs'. The Federation also stated that even if the artificial reef is able to break waves, the potential impacts on neighbouring villages such as Vizhigam and Panathura need to be assessed. There are cases of such artificial barriers diverting waves to nearby areas. Steps constructed at Shangumugham beach resulted in the diversion of waves and a nearby road being washed away. 'We oppose the mis-utilisation of Tsunami rehabilitation funds for the tourism industry. Public money should be used for public purposes and we demand that the Kerala Government withdraw the proposed reef project and instead consult with local communities to ascertain what their development needs are', concluded Peter. ======================================================================== For more information contact T Peter: + 91-9447429243. Email: ksmtf at keralafishworkers.org http://www.keralafishworkers.org http://www.alakal.net From taraprakash at gmail.com Fri Oct 19 19:32:43 2007 From: taraprakash at gmail.com (TaraPrakash) Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 10:02:43 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] A letter from an activist of the Narmada Andolan References: <1006b0c60710182052v4624667fh2674bec337e557b7@mail.gmail.com> <002201c81209$d82b4860$6400a8c0@taraprakash> <9949efb0710190258k4de902cbnb16bd927b0ca1808@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <008701c81258$baa90440$6400a8c0@taraprakash> You said: And amazingly, this suspicion makes me wonder - are all online testimonials to be taken with a pinch of salt since faking identities online is an option I would say, yes. It seems to be an existential? truth? You are right that I don't know the "real story" but the claim I made does not require one to know any "real story". I had no intention of hurting anybody, but I reserve my right to doubt the text as well as the author. Regards ----- Original Message ----- From: Gitika Talwar To: TaraPrakash Cc: Byatha N Jagadeesha ; reader-list at sarai.net Sent: Friday, October 19, 2007 5:58 AM Subject: Re: [Reader-list] A letter from an activist of the Narmada Andolan Atheists forgive me, but I have to exclaim 'Jesus! Do you not read?' Jagga (Jagadeesha) did not say he did not write the letter and neither did he say he will die for Narmada. And if you are concerned about fake identities - let me be that witness who vouches for the fact that THIS Jagga is a real person and not a lurker out for all the 'goodies' one gets from writing to a readerlist. And amazingly, this suspicion makes me wonder - are all online testimonials to be taken with a pinch of salt since faking identities online is an option that you think people exercise? The main tragedy here is that Jagadeesha's letter was taken out of its private space and hurled into a public one where it now has to withstand far more scrutiny than it was originally meant to. There were too many experiences and contexts that were personal and far removed from the information we have about NBA, so the shock and disbelief from the list is understandable. I have deep respect for the movement, but my email right now is not about that. It is about protesting someone's taking someone else's testimony into the public eye without consent and then exposing them to the disbelief and criticism of people who do not know the 'story before the beginning'. Wasn't there a rule against this on Sarai, just a while ago? ~ Gitika ----- Original Message ----- From: Gitika Talwar To: TaraPrakash Cc: Byatha N Jagadeesha ; reader-list at sarai.net Sent: Friday, October 19, 2007 5:58 AM Subject: Re: [Reader-list] A letter from an activist of the Narmada Andolan Atheists forgive me, but I have to exclaim 'Jesus! Do you not read?' Jagga (Jagadeesha) did not say he did not write the letter and neither did he say he will die for Narmada. And if you are concerned about fake identities - let me be that witness who vouches for the fact that THIS Jagga is a real person and not a lurker out for all the 'goodies' one gets from writing to a readerlist. And amazingly, this suspicion makes me wonder - are all online testimonials to be taken with a pinch of salt since faking identities online is an option that you think people exercise? The main tragedy here is that Jagadeesha's letter was taken out of its private space and hurled into a public one where it now has to withstand far more scrutiny than it was originally meant to. There were too many experiences and contexts that were personal and far removed from the information we have about NBA, so the shock and disbelief from the list is understandable. I have deep respect for the movement, but my email right now is not about that. It is about protesting someone's taking someone else's testimony into the public eye without consent and then exposing them to the disbelief and criticism of people who do not know the 'story before the beginning'. Wasn't there a rule against this on Sarai, just a while ago? ~ Gitika From indersalim at gmail.com Sat Oct 20 20:39:24 2007 From: indersalim at gmail.com (inder salim) Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2007 20:39:24 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] images from Kashmir Message-ID: <47e122a70710200809p7016eaa0x1fd0d9dddce47e50@mail.gmail.com> 1. Idd Gah, Srinagar, text: Mustaq Ahmad PANDIT s/o Abdul Gaffar Pandit 2. Idd Gah, Srinagar, Text: Saheed-e-Azam, Mohd. Maqbool Bhat, Date of Martydom, 11th of Feb. 1982. The People of Kashmir are still waiting for his mortal remains to be buried here which are still with Govt of India. ( practically the grave is empty or.. ) 3. Self Portrait in Al-e-Hachi ( dried vegetable bottle gourd, Gia ) used by Kashmiris during winter 4. Amirakadal Srinagar, a view 5. Security man upon the shiva temple roof in Verinag. 6. Routine checking in down town srinagar 7. Abandoned hosue opposite CRPF post. please click http://indersalim.livejournal.com From bdasgupta at gmail.com Sun Oct 21 13:04:11 2007 From: bdasgupta at gmail.com (Bhaskar Dasgupta) Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 08:34:11 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] FW: Welcome to the "reader-list" mailing list Message-ID: <6B6B305A3C954ABEAD88CBE5ED434A69@bdPC> Hello there to everybody, Just joined on the recommendation of Anant M (thanks, mate!). I live and work in London and am interested in various aspects of economics and technologies, banking and mathematics, politics and history, etc. Cheers bd -------------------------- Bhaskar Dasgupta http://dailysalty.blogspot.com/ (for shorter daily comments) http://piquancy.blogspot.com/ (for longer weekly essays) --------------------------- -----Original Message----- From: reader-list-bounces at sarai.net [mailto:reader-list-bounces at sarai.net] On Behalf Of reader-list-request at sarai.net Sent: 21 October 2007 08:26 To: bdasgupta at gmail.com Subject: Welcome to the "reader-list" mailing list Welcome to the reader-list at sarai.net mailing list! Welcome to the Sarai Reader List. The Reader List partly serves as a platform for online discussion on the themes that emerged in the Sarai Reader 01, and partly to create a lively community that discusses and debates key issues in new & old media practice and theory and reflects on the experience of the everyday, as well as technology, culture and politics in city spaces. The Sarai Reader's concern with the theme of the Public Domain means that the list is especially open to reflections on what is the nature of a free public space in our cities, and in our various practices, and what it might come to mean. The people who often post on the list include social theorists, activists, filmmakers, telecommunications engineers, artists and software programmers. LOCATING THE LIST The list is administered out of Sarai in Delhi, on a server located in Amsterdam, and our members are spread over many parts of the world, with strong concentrations in Delhi, Mumbai, Amsterdam, Bangalore, Lahore, Kathmandu, Berlin, Chicago, the eastern Atlantic seaboard (including New York), Brisbane, Sydney and London. You could say that the List is beginning to be truly reflective of the dispersed nature of internet culture, although we do need more people from places that are nearer (in geographic terms) and perhaps more distant (in virtual terms). It would be great to get postings from Calcutta, Dacca or Ahmedabad... So, if you want to spread word of the list, to people and places both far and near, please do so! I would even request you to forward this email to others whom you think might be interested in some (or all) of the things that the Sarai Reader List sets out to discuss. LURKERS AND POSTERS As in all lists, (and especially new lists) the majority of subscribers are also lurkers, (everyone who has ever been on an online discussion has lurked for some time - there is nothing wrong with lurking as long as it does not last for ever). I am sure you would agree with me that over time one can even recognize personalities and quirks of regular posters, and that we look forward to our personal favourite correspondent who has been silent for some time. So do lurk, but only for a while, and we look forward to reading what you have to say. DIRECTION(S)? We at Sarai who have been involved with the list on a day to day basis feel that future directions for and on the list should emerge from the community of subscribers. To this end, we propose that we spend some time discussing the list itself and how best to make it as lively and convivial as possible, how best to maintain a provocative edge so that there is always room for fresh and new perspectives, and how to ensure the broadest possible participation, so that the list does not become subject to anyone's private agenda, but a true digital commons, very much in the 'public domain', where everything that is relevant to cities, media and the flows of information, culture, knowledge and power can be discussed and talked about. WHAT SHOULD THE LIST DISCUSS So far, there has been a tendency on the list to have a great deal of discussion on computer technology, (especially free software) the internet, online surveillance, privacy, even water. Even though these strands may look quite disparate, interestingly enough, a common binding principle has been reflecting on public access to resources. Some of these may have seemed to speak to and from specialists, but we are sure that most people got the gist/essence of the discussion, although we urge all posters that they try and make their postings sufficiently accessible to non-technical people. The habit of using metaphors and experiences from outside one's immediate discipline and experience is a good one, it connects people with 'idea bridges' and the more 'idea bridges' there are the more walking across can be done. Anyway, what we do realize is that it is not necessary for these issues to dominate the list to the exclusion of all other issues. So please go ahead and post on things that seem relevant and important to you. CONVERSATIONS Please be willing to enter into an argument, post something that is interesting, and take issue with each other, in a frank and civilised manner - we can then have a reasonable yet an interesting online culture of debate. INTER DISCIPLINARY CONVERSATIONS This list is a platform for inter-disciplinary conversation, and that can happen if techies, artists, activists and the theorists who are on the list realize that they are not talking to people of their own kind alone. This list is as much about the last film that you saw that made you sit up and think, as much as it is about the last piece of code that challenged your humanity. It is also as much about the delight and the rage of living in a city, and it is especially looking for resonances between urban experiences located in different places. The list needs to have a sustained take on other issues of significance, like the presence of media in urban spaces, the politics of information, spaces of autonomy and freedom in contemporary culture - the aesthetics, ethics and politics of representation - all of these are equally important to us, and we need to talk about all these as well. GLOBAL/LOCAL What is also important is the ability of the list to have a sustained reflection on what goes on around us in the immediate vicinity of our lives. For example, there has been a reasonably active discussion thread on online surveillance and the politics of information which at times wove in the realities of many places, (esp. Delhi and Amsterdam) onto a complex map of what happens when information and power coalesce, but such discussions have tended to be limited to thoughts on the 'Digital Domain' alone. This skews the list into a mirror of the activity that happens 'in other places' and a silent, mute bystander to what goes on close to our own offline realities. We all know how easily our sense of what constitutes our reality is defined by the mainstream media. How the filters that are locked into place by the big media also ensure that many things that concern us remain unexpressed, unknown and unarticulated. This is particularly true of the happenings and realities in South Asian cities. This list can then be seen as a space for the free encounters for the ideas, reports and reflections that either slipped out of, or were suppressed by the 'big' (old & new) media. Over time, we can see a whole cluster of lists emerging around the Reader List, with sub-themes, and perhaps with invited moderations, or proposals for discussions on specific topics. All this can happen, and will depend on how much initiative and energy we all put into the list. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE For starters, we have a few suggestions. These are not mandatory, but we would like you to give them due consideration, as a sketchy roadmap of where the list can go. 1. That people on the list write a paragraph about themselves and their interests and and send this to me (the list administrator). This will help us all get a sense of who we are, and allow many lurkers to have their say. I will prepare digests of these postings and put them back into the list. 2. That topics and threads for discussion be proposed for discussion, within the broad ambit of the interconnections between old and new media practices, city spaces, info-politics and net criticism. 3. That the list spends some time discussing itself, and what direction(s) it wants to take. 3, That we try and ensure that as much material that reflects South Asian realities gets into the list as do news and views from elsewhere. 4. That Original postings constantly keep coming into the list, and that the list does not turn into a cooking pot of 'forwards' and 'announcements' alone. Furthermore, when you wish to post an announcement, please send the mail to announcements at sarai.net, and it will reach everyone on the reader-list as well. 5. That no one uses the list for spamming, private agendas, propaganda, personal aggrandizement, pet hates and advertising. This is a long and perhaps unusual welcome note, but I hope that it provides something to chew (and then post) on. I would welcome any responses, and urge that they be made on the list itself, and I hope we can spark a thread of discussions on discussion itself. Warm regards, and welcome again. For old threads, do check the archives. The reader is also available online at www.sarai.net/journal/reader1.html Monica Narula List Administrator. To post to this list, send your email to: reader-list at sarai.net General information about the mailing list is at: http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list If you ever want to unsubscribe or change your options (eg, switch to or from digest mode, change your password, etc.), visit your subscription page at: http://mail.sarai.net/mailman/options/reader-list/ You can also make such adjustments via email by sending a message to: Reader-list-request at sarai.net with the word �help� in the subject or body (don't include the quotes), and you will get back a message with instructions. You must know your password to change your options (including changing the password, itself) or to unsubscribe. If you forget your password, don't worry, you will receive a monthly reminder telling you what all your sarai.net mailing list passwords are, and how to unsubscribe or change your options. There is also a button on your options page that will email your current password to you. You may also have your password mailed to you automatically from the Web page noted above. To post to this list, send your email to: reader-list at sarai.net General information about the mailing list is at: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list If you ever want to unsubscribe or change your options (eg, switch to or from digest mode, change your password, etc.), visit your subscription page at: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/options/reader-list/bdasgupta%40gmail.com You can also make such adjustments via email by sending a message to: reader-list-request at sarai.net with the word `help' in the subject or body (don't include the quotes), and you will get back a message with instructions. You must know your password to change your options (including changing the password, itself) or to unsubscribe. It is: hogemiew Normally, Mailman will remind you of your sarai.net mailing list passwords once every month, although you can disable this if you prefer. This reminder will also include instructions on how to unsubscribe or change your account options. There is also a button on your options page that will email your current password to you. From peter.ksmtf at gmail.com Sun Oct 21 15:56:20 2007 From: peter.ksmtf at gmail.com (T Peter) Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 15:56:20 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] CZM: THE RESULT OF STRUGGLE IN KERALA. Message-ID: <3457ce860710210326q3f507e55uca9f5a066cc9dde8@mail.gmail.com> CRZ Notification- Withdrawal to Benifit Whom? visit: http://www.alakal.net To Shri. Namo Narain Meena, The Minister of State in the Ministry of Environment and forests, Government of India, New Delhi. Dear Shri. Namo Narain Meena, I came to know that Prof. M.S. Swaminathan Committee appointed to review the CRZ Notification 1991 has already submitted its report. Based on the recommendations of Swaminathan Committee the Ministry of Environment and Forest has issued draft notification on the Coastal Zone Management (CZM) inviting suggestions and objections from State Governments and general public. The objective of the notification is protection and sustainable development of coastal structures and marine environment through sustainable coastal management, based on sound, scientific principles taking into account the vulnerability of coast to natural hazards, sustainable livelihood of local community and conservation of ecologically and culturally significant coastal area. Unfortunately the CZM Notification 2007 has become a contentious issue. A lot of hue and cry have been raised from different sections of coastal community on the contents of the notification. The apprehensions of coastal community and their trade unions are based mainly on the following: ƒæ The customary rights of fishermen are not seen protected. As a result the fishermen community will be marginalised or even thrown out of coastal area. ƒæ Fishing has not been identified as a key activity requiring sea frontage and hence their access rights to sea and beach is under threat. ƒæ The sea ward line prescribed is 12 nautical miles as against 500 m prescribed by CRZ Act 1991. ƒæ In the absence of well defined regulations and No Development Zone (NDZ) in the draft notification strong tourism lobbies with money power may infiltrate in to the coastal area. ƒæ The rights of fishermen to build houses and settlements keep fishing implements in the open beach and free access to beach and sea will be affected. ƒæ In the CRZ Act 1991 certain restrictions were imposed in CRZ I for protection of environment. In the draft CZM notification no such restrictions appear to be prescribed. As you are aware fishing is a State subject to be dealt by the State Government. A focus on social dimensions addressing the concerns of the poor and marginalised fishery dependent coastal community must be reflected in the CZM Notification. Under the pretext of permissible activities commercial interests and tourism lobbies should not be allowed to plunder the coastal environment. The customary rights of fishermen community is to be ensured and their basic occupational needs such as housing, schooling, health care are to be satisfied , facilities to keep the valloms and nets are to be provided and access rights to sea and beach have to be ensured. There should be ample provisions in the notification empowering the State Government to deal with such vital issues of social importance. In the context of apprehensions raised by fishermen organizations a meeting of the trade unions has been convened to discuss the issue on 22.08.2007 at Trivandrum. Accordingly we have planned a state level workshop on 08th September 2007 at Kochi to discuss in detail the implications of CZM Notification 2007 in the fishery sector of Kerala ensuring participation of experts and fishermen organisations in the filed. I hope meaningful recommendations will emerge from the deliberations of the workshop helpful for formulating the views of State Government on draft notification. In this context I request your good self to desist from taking a hasty decision on the CZM Notification 2007 before hearing the views of Kerala Government. A detailed memorandum containing the views of State Government will be submitted to Government of India shortly. Yours sincerely, (S. SHARMA) Fisheries minister, Kerala Govt. CRZ Notification- Withdrawal to Benifit Whom? visit: http://www.alakal.net From amitabh at sarai.net Sun Oct 21 18:19:01 2007 From: amitabh at sarai.net (Amitabh Kumar) Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 18:19:01 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Comic Book Readings Message-ID: <89E233DF-D9D7-46DE-88DF-A04DBBF64971@sarai.net> t would be an understatement to say that comics in India have not had as flourishing a practice as cinema, literature and art. Public knowledge about comic book practice and culture has sadly been limited to a few major publications and epic productions. Now, however, we seem to be standing on the threshold of what is being touted as the graphic novel/comic boom in India. A few questions, therefore, stare at us: How do we talk about the hidden narratives that have contributed to the growth and evolution of the form in India? How do we know and share the knowledge pool that contributes to comic book practice and readership in India? In one such attempt to address these questions, Sarai-CSDS and the French Information and Resource Center (FIRC) have collaborated to produce a series of events focusing on a deeper and richer conversation about the comic book culture in India. The first such event of this collaboration makes its debut this October. We are happy to announce that the First Comic Book Reading will be taking place in the French Information and Resource Center (FIRC), 2 Aurengzeb Road, New Delhi at 5:oo p.m on Friday the 26th of October. The underlying idea behind these comic book readings is to popularize discourse about comics by inviting comic book practitioners/readers/ aficionados to talk about a work that has been instrumental in molding their understanding of the form. The readings provide the space for a much needed critical look at comic books, and a common meeting ground for people who have a strong attachment with it. Orijit Sen (The River of Stories, 1994) will be the first speaker/ reader and will be talking about the evolution of his own practice, what it was influenced by, and what it has culminated in. The Comic Book Readings are a bi-monthly affair with the venue alternating between Sarai and the French Cultural Center. Sarai will host the next comic book reading, at 5:00 p.m on the 14th of November. The time envisioned for the readings is approximately an hour, followed by discussion. From amitabh at sarai.net Sun Oct 21 18:19:01 2007 From: amitabh at sarai.net (Amitabh Kumar) Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 18:19:01 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Comic Book Readings Message-ID: <89E233DF-D9D7-46DE-88DF-A04DBBF64971@sarai.net> t would be an understatement to say that comics in India have not had as flourishing a practice as cinema, literature and art. Public knowledge about comic book practice and culture has sadly been limited to a few major publications and epic productions. Now, however, we seem to be standing on the threshold of what is being touted as the graphic novel/comic boom in India. A few questions, therefore, stare at us: How do we talk about the hidden narratives that have contributed to the growth and evolution of the form in India? How do we know and share the knowledge pool that contributes to comic book practice and readership in India? In one such attempt to address these questions, Sarai-CSDS and the French Information and Resource Center (FIRC) have collaborated to produce a series of events focusing on a deeper and richer conversation about the comic book culture in India. The first such event of this collaboration makes its debut this October. We are happy to announce that the First Comic Book Reading will be taking place in the French Information and Resource Center (FIRC), 2 Aurengzeb Road, New Delhi at 5:oo p.m on Friday the 26th of October. The underlying idea behind these comic book readings is to popularize discourse about comics by inviting comic book practitioners/readers/ aficionados to talk about a work that has been instrumental in molding their understanding of the form. The readings provide the space for a much needed critical look at comic books, and a common meeting ground for people who have a strong attachment with it. Orijit Sen (The River of Stories, 1994) will be the first speaker/ reader and will be talking about the evolution of his own practice, what it was influenced by, and what it has culminated in. The Comic Book Readings are a bi-monthly affair with the venue alternating between Sarai and the French Cultural Center. Sarai will host the next comic book reading, at 5:00 p.m on the 14th of November. The time envisioned for the readings is approximately an hour, followed by discussion. -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From sayandebmukherjee at yahoo.co.in Mon Oct 22 01:38:09 2007 From: sayandebmukherjee at yahoo.co.in (sayandeb mukherjee) Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 21:08:09 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] 7th posting Message-ID: <76862.94027.qm@web7708.mail.in.yahoo.com> here i lay the 7th posting. although it needs a proper proofing for a verification of certain formulae mentioned here... 7TH POSTING In the previous posting we stated that the sound generated ‘in’ a corridor which has two moderately reflecting walls and relatively less an absorbent floor and ceiling will produce flutter echoes. So for a person (who himself is the acoustic centre) walking with sharp and heavy boots or a lady walking down the corridor with high heels will project deterministic flutter echoes that can be perceivable if the ambient noise level is relatively low. Flutter echoes is generally considered as an acoustic defect as it affects speech intelligibility and tonal coloration of music when acoustic treatment of theatres, orchestra halls or recording studios are taken into task. For example, if the time gap between periodic reflections is 20 milliseconds, the space will add a sound of 50Hz frequency [one reflection every 20 ms means that 50 reflections will be received in 1 s – a frequency of 50Hz.] to any sound produced in this space thereby rendering a tonal aberration to the direct sound or the source which could be a acoustic musical instrument or voice. But here in a space like corridor where the functional attributes or the operational structure is completely different from recording or performance spaces, it will not be considered as an acoustic anomaly of the space. The subjective perception of this phenomenon could result in a liking or a disliking of the space. The appreciations could be circumstantial as well and will immensely depend on the temporality of the space. For the late hours of the night, when the ambient noise level has relatively diminished to a considerable extent, other associative sounds of the corridor have ceased to exist and the walker is alone with his footsteps in the corridor, the fluttering sounds more magnified than the normally perceived level. The enhancement could be psychoacoustical for in the sound field, the listener has no other audible object of attraction/attention and the space appears to be completely desolated for the time being. For this lifelessness in the space created by a partial acoustic vacuum and for the flutter echoes that sound like sound shadows (the flutter echoes appear to the listener as unseen shadows following his footsteps or walking along with him), the walls appear to respond to the user through this fluttering sound. It’s as if the walls achieve to be a solitary living entity thereby interacting with their master by mirroring his activities. If the acoustic behavior of the walls is uniform throughout the length of the passage then the fluttering continues to exist unless the user changes his volume or pattern of activity. Depending on the psychic condition and habituation of the user, the listener finds the phenomenon to be very annoying or pleasant or unresponsive. Now when the acoustic origin depletes from the observer, that is when somebody else is generating the sound and he/she is departing from him there occurs a continuous redemption of the direct sound level reaching the ears of the observer. After certain distance, the source will fade faster than its flutter echoes thereby giving an unintelligible sound of those footsteps. As the source (the detached acoustic origin) reaches at a considerable distance, there introduces an initial time delay gap – ITDG (see figure) after which all the early reflections (the foremost/first few reflected images from the walls and other surfaces of the corridor discretely reaching the ears of the observer) are audible. Then, immediately after that, certain late reflections which are weaker in volume/level and comparatively less discrete occur in the space. After this, there commences exponentially growing and smoothly decaying homogenous sound field of uniform density. The phenomenon is called reverberation. [Sound intensity is inversely proportional to square the distance between the source and the listener. When the distance is doubled the sound pressure level falls by 6dB approximately which can be considered as a substantial decline] [Acoustic centre is the point in space from which the spherical wavefront appeared to originate] [Reverberation time: the reverberation time of a room is the time, in seconds, that would be required from the mean squared sound pressure level therein, originally in a steady state to decrease 60dB after the source is stopped. This time is symbolized as RT60 gives a qualitative measurement during acoustic treatment of recording spaces, auditoriums or theatres] [Reverberation: the phenomenon During this time phase, no reflection can be discernible in a discrete fashion thereby resulting in a smooth decay of the sound field to an inaudible level. When the source reaches a distance called critical distance, the direct sound level and the reverberant sound level becomes equal resulting in a total sound level LT that is 3dB higher than the direct or reverberant sound level. If it is translated in terms of perception, one hears an enhancement of the sound mixed with the wet sound contributed by the reverberant sound at some point in the space. As the source reaches the far end of the corridor, the listener gets engulfed in a reverberant field wherefrom the fluttering (as stated earlier) is almost inaudible for: >1.It is masked by the dominant long tail of the reverberation. >2.The reflected images causing the fluttering are not far reaching and die nearby to the source. The reflections get absorbed by surfaces and by air before it reaches our ears with sufficient energy. >3. Certain frequencies inherent in the sound source get enhanced because of the normal modes of vibration (discussed below) travel throughout the length of the corridor. The pre-dominance of the long dense reverberation gives a groovy impression of the space. And longer the length of the corridor will dispense with a corresponding long decay time of the reverberation. [Corridor space will have a long R.T. because of the huge length like a columnar structure] In musical performances, reverberations added to certain instruments (that have less staccato in its playing style) provide a fullness of tone. It enriches the tonal quality as the reverberation with an optimum decay rate sustains the notes and fills the space between them, causing a blending of successive notes. Also for longer reverberation time in the lower frequencies relative to the midband gives a pleasant feeling of the source which is called warmth. Interestingly, in a double loaded corridor space, when two persons in proximity are interacting to each other, and they reach distances from the distant listener then a. the nuances of the discrete syllables of their speech get muddled (like successive notes in a musical instrument), b. the discernible harsh reflections get absorbed by air or the walls before reaching the listener, c. the high and hi-mid frequencies are more absorbed than the low and low-mids, d. at such distance, a homogenous reverberant field is generated. So what he/she hears is a muffled, acoustically added warmth, reinforced, smooth (as no reflection could be discretely discernible), fullness of the voices (due to long reverberation) that simulates a feeling that somebody is murmuring with a mellowed voice. In this case or for these sounds (e.g. Crowd, some people chatting) it may, psychoacoustically, be very soothing for the listener. Unlike, if it is an impulsive sound – closing of a collapsible elevator gate or some heavy thing falling on the floor, closing or banging of a heavy door, shouting of a person generates a dense long term reverberation engulfing the listener for a certain period of time. This acoustically establishes the depth of the corridor. If the listener is not habituated, the phenomenon could be very annoying for the listener and sometimes to such an extent that he would make a retort as soon as possible. The audio-attribute that projects the huge length of the corridor is the terminal reverberance that emerges after running reverberance terminates, i.e, some moments after late reflections from surfaces (see figure) die. It is this terminal reverberance along with the imprint of TIME (the traveler or the stalker will have his own subjective perception of time) that the space appears as an instigator of exploration or a repulsive, haunting sojourn. Along with all these phenomenon as discussed above, there would be another acoustic phenomenon that inevitably superposes with the direct sound thereby further altering its tonal structure – the resonant frequencies of the particular space. For being a rectangular enclosure with an almost pipe-like structure the space will have its corresponding multiple resonant frequencies. Since, there are six surfaces we should consider oblique modes of vibration. But for having a tubular look, we presume that axial modes will be predominant. The physical significance of the phenomenon is that the room gives preferential treatment to a resonant frequency or modal frequency (popularly called) by amplifying the sound at that frequency. So for a sound with more or less appreciable spectral content and width, when produced in a corridor space, as an effect of the preferential treatment to certain modal frequencies (contained in the source, of course) by virtue of resonances, there occurs tonal coloration/aberration of the source. The coloration is, once again, variable with the distance of the listener from the source. So the listener standing at different points in the space perceives different colorations of the same source. Along with the length of the corridor, there also happens a variation in sound pressure level because of this phenomenon. So the listener hears a. tonal coloration of the source, b. different loudness at different points in the space. For the existence of modal frequencies, the reverberation of the sound also changes its pitch, in some cases. The reason is that after the source is cut off, the room will have no memory of the frequencies in the source that was being generated. The sound energy, therefore, resolves into the closest modal frequencies resulting in a frequency shift and hence a tonal coloration. Stating these entire phenomenons (acoustic) that a acoustic wave confronts in a narrow passage like corridor could be very convenient, yet the behavior of sound while making a long journey from one end to the distant other is complicated, overlapping and undeterminable for many reasons like – 1.variations in absorption coefficients of different surfaces, interfaces (like doors, windows), 2.different dimensions of the corridors or differences in its spatial configuration, e.g., it can have many side-links, to many other outlets, or it could end in a T or L or a dead end, 3.number of windows, doors giving openings to rooms of indefinite dimensions. So, it would be an unjust to resolve all these acoustic qualities that particularize a corridor space, to a conclusive, authoritative treatise that would state - these will occur and others not for any corridor space on earth. Also it is impractical to consider all case which will be enumerable where a corridor space will have certain discriminating, peculiar, individualistic soundscape that differentiates one from the other immensely. Here, the attempts have been made to envelop the most general, common and striking acoustic phenomenons in the space. As an extension of the case of double loaded corridors we find that TUNNELS are also worth mentioning in this regard. We can say that unless the waveform is very complex, a tunnel behaves like a narrow pipe: the similitude could also be drawn with a flute .contd. It is inconclusive in this regard, yet is surely mentionable here that the unusual exaggeration of acoustic elements and their different processes of enhancement and termination in the spatio- temporal domain may impart with certain psychedelic manifestations. We now try to portray what is happening in the psychological domain of an individual as he makes his journey through this kind of space by studying the following cases and sub-cases...contd sayandeb SAYANDEB MUKHERJEE FT#308, SUBBARAJU TOWERS, ROAD NO.4, VIJAYAPURI COLONY, KOTHAPET, HYDERABAD PIN: 500 035 PH#9849383863 Chat on a cool, new interface. No download required. Go to http://in.messenger.yahoo.com/webmessengerpromo.php From naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com Mon Oct 22 07:06:43 2007 From: naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com (Naeem Mohaiemen) Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 07:36:43 +0600 Subject: [Reader-list] Sultan, Sotheby's, Ganja, Primordial Man, Bengal Message-ID: Last week was 13th anniversay of the death of S M Sultan. Sultan's paintings may be sold at Sotheby's in London today but for the people of rural Norail, the guru entered folk legend more than half a century ago. They tell us that animals were drawn to him, that he could converse with them, that hundreds of his works are scattered all over the world in all manner of places, given away as gifts, that he cared not for fame or material wealth, choosing to travel from village to village, country to country, returning at last to his source. Read full text here: http://golmal.pickledpolitics.com/2007/10/09/sultan/ From elkamath at yahoo.com Mon Oct 22 08:57:03 2007 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 20:27:03 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] interview of sheila dikshit in McKinsey Quuarterly Message-ID: <203104.60346.qm@web53605.mail.re2.yahoo.com> >From the Mckinsey Quarterly: Interview Creating a modern Indian city: An interview with Delhi’s chief minister Sheila Dikshit discusses the challenge of urban development in India. Shirish Sankhe Web exclusive, October 2007 Delhi is a rarity on the Indian landscape: a symbol of urban progress rather than urban decay. And for almost a decade, Sheila Dikshit has presided over the nation’s capital as its chief minister. Dikshit, nearing the end of an unprecedented second term, has helped guide an array of economic and political changes. Under her watch, the first phase of the Delhi Metro was completed on budget and on time—a feat heralded as belying the stereotype of the Indian government’s inefficiency. The second phase is on track to be completed in time for the Commonwealth Games, scheduled to take place in the city in 2010. Also during her tenure, power distribution has been privatized, pollution reduced, and green areas throughout the city increased. Students at government schools are performing better. In addition, Dikshit has attempted to lessen the tensions between the bureaucracy and citizens through an initiative that brings both sides together for regular discussions. Bhagidari, as it is called, has been held up as an international model of good governance. Yet Dikshit would be among the first to acknowledge that progress has not come fast enough or without snags. Delhi is straining under the weight of a vast and growing population. More than 13 million1 people live there, and half a million more move in every year. Decision making can be excruciatingly slow, especially since her administration shares authority in the city with elected municipal leaders and a lieutenant governor appointed by India’s president. Recently, Shirish Sankhe, a director in McKinsey’s Delhi office, met with Dikshit in her residence and discussed the challenges of urban development in India, as well as some of her successes. The Quarterly: Have India’s recent economic gains surprised you? Sheila Dikshit: I think we stopped being surprised a while back. There is a lot of confidence throughout India regarding Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s economic capabilities, his understanding of the Indian economy, and how you integrate the Indian economy into the world economy. It also helps that the government is growth oriented and is moving toward a more open economy. Many current policy makers understand economics and have tried to take the economy out of the shackles where everything had to be cleared by the government before anything could take place. People are feeling very comfortable with the growth. It’s amazing how the buoyancy comes in. You see it in art, you see it in culture, in our theater, in our films. And among the youth there is the recognition: I am proud of my country. They no longer feel they have to go abroad for better opportunities. They’re getting very good salaries here. SHIELA DIKSHIT Vital statistics Born March 31, 1938, in Kapurthala, Punjab Wife of the late Mr. Vinod Dikshit, a widely respected member of Indian Administrative Service, she has two children Education Received her MA in history from Miranda House, University of Delhi, after schooling at Convent of Jesus and Mary Career highlights Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Chief minister (1998–present) Government of India Union minister of state for parliamentary affairs (1986–89)Minister of state in prime minister’s office (1986–89)Member of Lower House of Parliament, representing Kannauj (1984–89) Fast facts Serves as secretary of Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust, which awards Indira Gandhi Prize for efforts in international peace Launched Stree Shakti in Delhi, a program which aims to empower women by providing employment training, financial aid, and access to health care and medicine Represented India on UN Commission on Status of Women (1984–89) The Quarterly: What can slow down India’s growth? Sheila Dikshit: We have people with outstanding and very innovative minds. This country is not short of wealth. This country is not short of skills. This country is not short of brains. What we lack, and I think what we always have lacked in this country, is effective management in the government. I can give you a very interesting example. Government schools in Delhi were performing very badly. The pass percentage on standardized tests was 35 to 37 percent. We looked into it and found that the government spent 900 rupees per child per month, while nongovernment schools, which were performing better, were spending a maximum of 700 to 800 rupees per child. We brought the teachers together and asked, “Obviously, you are the best paid, so why are you not delivering? What do we need to do to motivate you?” And when the teachers got motivated, children performed better. Today the pass percentage has risen to 82 percent, half a percentage point more than nongovernment schools. I can give you another example concerning the problem of exporting. There were 17 different forms that had to be filled out to export something. So we had a talk with the relevant authorities and said, “Please, let’s reduce this.” Other countries have 2 or 3 forms, and it’s done with. So they set up this committee, and when they came back with a solution, instead of 17 forms, 25 forms had to be filled out. So you see it’s the mind-set, especially in administration, that needs to be changed. We are addressing it, but I don’t think we are addressing it seriously enough. There is also a feeling of mistrust between government and nongovernment sectors. The bureaucrat always presumes that the person coming to him for help must be a crook, that he wants me to do something against the rules. But that poor person doesn’t know the rules. That fellow sitting across the table has come in for help or information, and he’s just wished away or told 100 reasons why he cannot be given what he wants. The Right to Information Act2 is helping by making things more transparent. When we started it in Delhi, we found a lot of skepticism about it. But now the people are starting to get used to that power. Also, I started an unusual program in Delhi called Bhagidari, which focuses on governance through partnership and received a best-practice award from the United Nations. Citizens’ groups and the government interact with each other every week or every month in little groups. We train the citizens in what governance is about, since not all of them understand governing institutions. And the bureaucrats come to understand citizens better, that a citizen comes to you only because he is in some distress or needs something. This coming together has helped us a lot. The Quarterly: Is social disparity becoming a bigger problem? Sheila Dikshit: Yes, social disparity is there, perhaps not as much in the cities, which attract migration, as in the divide felt between the agrarian areas and the cities. Growth seems to have ignited in services and industry, but in the beginning that growth was not paying much attention to agriculture. That aberration has now been corrected, and it will come naturally. I was in Himachal3 just about four weeks ago. One panchayat,4 which is the lowest level of government, told me that several years ago they were poverty stricken. They couldn’t get even two square meals a day. In the past three years they made nine crores5 exporting flowers. So they’re beginning to learn. Where the income of 60 to 80 families was virtually zero it came up to nine crores. They’ve tasted it. And there’s going to be no stopping them from becoming role models for the rest of the panchayat—year round. The Quarterly: How has Delhi changed during your two terms in office? Sheila Dikshit: If you look at the physical achievements, the infrastructure is much better, the power is much better, water is much better, and transport is better because of the Metro, although not terribly so. I would say it needs another two to three years to put it right. When I look at human development, I think Delhi has changed from a cynical city to a city of hope. And it attracts not just people who seek jobs but also culture now. Almost the entire television industry, for instance, is located in Delhi, whereas Bombay6 used to be the top city. That infrastructure—the dozens and dozens and dozens of flyovers that have come up, the underpasses that have come up—has attracted a lot of labor from outside. Meanwhile, those who were living here were not terribly interested in doing manual labor. So the labor came in, and those who are local have become better educated and are looking for jobs in the service sector. A bit more economic growth has meant more migration, and more migration has meant that we almost keep standing where we are. The Quarterly: Has infrastructure been able to keep pace with growth in the city? Sheila Dikshit: It is keeping pace now, but we should be ahead. The fact that we have been able to cater to the half million people coming into the city each year in everything except housing is the good point. The bad point is that it’s slow. For me, it’s not fast enough. With the technologies we have today, we should be able to build infrastructure much faster. Archaic systems and a great multiplicity of authorities in Delhi are slowing us down. You have the federal government. You have my government. You have the municipality. We are a state government without, for instance, the power of owning land. It’s a great problem. We have a lieutenant governor here representing the government of India, which no other state has. We work with our hands tied. It’s very unique. The Quarterly: Yet Delhi was able to complete the first phase of its subway on time and on budget. How do you explain that? Sheila Dikshit: First, there’s Sreedharan.7 He’s a good manager, a good conceptualizer, and a good implementer. You can have and you will probably have lots and lots of Sreedharans in India, but they are unable to get the kind of freedom he was given to operate. We gave him that space. For example, nothing that concerned the Metro was negotiable in a court of law, so it could not get stuck. Take land, for instance. Subways need land for stations, and you have to shift a lot of buildings, a lot of shops, and a lot of people. And when the Metro said, “We need land,” and we said, “All right, this land you will get.” And whatever else was reasonably asked for by them—for instance, not to pay excise, not to pay VAT,8 et cetera—we gave them that because it was important to complete this project. Also, to this day we have not taken a single person to the Metro and said, “Please employ him.” There was no pressure at all, and they were totally on their own. Now I can say to my other departments, if Mr. Sreedharan can do it, and if I promise I won’t interfere, you do it. It was important to make the Metro project a role model, so that others would feel that they could get projects done too. The Quarterly: Housing, especially low-income housing, has been less successful. Why? Sheila Dikshit: Part of the problem with housing stems from the strict land laws that we have, and the very strict, archaic usage of land. Go to any European country, and you’ll find a road and buildings right against the pavement. We say, if you have a plotted piece of land, set your building back 30 feet or 20 feet or whatever. These are luxuries which we cannot afford anymore—the FSI law, the FAR law, and all that.9 But what we are doing now, and what I hope to be able to complete before we go into the next election, is to bring in more housing for the poor. This means building 200,000-plus units for the poorer people. This could be a two-room tenement with a washroom for 2 lakh10 that would be subsidized. We will divide these tenements into communities that have their own little shopping area, a school, and little gardens in between. We’ll have to change some laws, and we are working on that. But that is not stopping me at least from starting to build the houses. I’m also very keen on what they call holding areas, which are kind of like dormitories, for migrant workers. The labor that comes in here could stay in those holding areas and go back to their villages if they want to. They do not own the place, but they do have the right to live there for a certain rent that can get transferred from mother to child and child to child. Unfortunately, the Indian political mind-set is still not able to accept this. It’s still not sinking in, but I want it to sink in and will keep on singing until my voice is heard. The Quarterly: How did public transportation in Delhi move to compressed natural gas (CNG) as an alternative-fuel source? Sheila Dikshit: In 2001 we were facing a very peculiar situation where the courts said to start using CNG, but there was no CNG available and no vehicles were prepared to use CNG. We spoke to all the bus producers in Delhi, all the scooter producers, car producers. All public transport would be on CNG. So the changes that had to be made in the vehicles’ mechanics were made. Then they would test it: could they go over flyovers? Would they be able to take the extreme weather we have—too much rain, too little rain, too hot, too cold, all that? We also had a massive publicity campaign. I personally went to each and every person I could reach out to, as many as I could, to tell them it was good for the common health. We also gave them an economic packet because a CNG bus costs more than a normal bus, even though the recurring expenses are less. Then for about eight months we had queues as long as five kilometers of people waiting for a cylinder of CNG. But there were no riots, and the people were patient. I am eternally grateful to the people of Delhi for having understood, and now they are reaping the benefits. But it wasn’t just the courts. I am a citizen before I am chief minister, and I’m going to remain a citizen. I grew up here, and I’ve seen this city suffer on account of a poor environmental record. In the past five years we’ve increased the green cover from 36 square kilometers to 350 square kilometers. Now we are growing 19 city forests of 10,000 to 20,000 trees. We also passed a law that says if you cut 1 tree, for whatever purpose, you plant 10 others somewhere else. It doesn’t matter where you do it, but you do it. The Quarterly: Is funding a critical constraint? Sheila Dikshit: No, funding is not a constraint. We have very good tax collection and have urged the people not to avoid taxes. We gave concessions where we thought we should, but we were also one of the first states to impose the VAT. Since things are happening here, the central government has been very kind to give us funds. So we are never short of funds. The Quarterly: How can other Indian cities follow Delhi’s example? Sheila Dikshit: They should be made into city-states,11 and we should start with five cities: Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, and so on. I am sure politically no one would agree with this, but I think administratively it would be good for the country’s development. Create city-states and give them the power to undertake development. They should not be under the state governments but rather under their own chief minister or chief administrator or whatever you want to call the position. They would collect their own revenues, maybe sharing a percentage with the other states. You have to develop your cities, especially if you’re envisaging that in the next 20 years 55 to 60 percent of India’s population will be urban. You just can’t do it with the same old administration where you’re dependent on various constituents for every penny. The Quarterly: Do you think Delhi can become a world-class city or, for instance, play host to the Olympics? Sheila Dikshit: That’s my dream. But one of the real problems we have is the density of the population. It’s one of the highest in the world. And there is a paucity of land. Every other city the size that we are has a hinterland to spread into. We don’t. We can only go higher. And that is not always easy, because we want to see the blue sky. But I am confident in the next eight or ten years that if we change people’s attitudes—make everybody proud of the fact it’s our city and we have to keep it clean and make it pollution free—we will do it. It will still take five or six years to put the city on a course on which it can’t go back. Today it can go back, but once it crosses the hump it can’t slide back. That hump has yet to be reached. We’re close, but we haven’t reached it. As for the Olympics, let us wait for the Commonwealth Games first. Then there would be not just the temptation to bid for the Olympics from our side but also a feeling in the world that Delhi could do it, that India could do it, and therefore deserves it. About the Author Shirish Sankhe is a director in McKinsey’s Mumbai office. Notes 1 Census of India 2001. 2 An act that allows citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities, with the goal of promoting transparency and accountability. 3 Himachal Pradesh is a state in northern India. 4 Village council. 5 Ninety million rupees, or about $2.2 million. 6 Mumbai. 7 E. Sreedharan, the managing director of Delhi Metro. 8 Value-added tax. 9 The Floor Space Index (FSI) and Floor Area Ratio (FAR) are among regulations that restrict land use on a given plot. 10 Two hundred thousand rupees, or about $5,000. 11 Delhi, as the national capital territory, is not part of a larger state, a unique position in India. The country’s other big cities are part of larger states that often use taxes raised in these cities for projects outside the urban areas. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From sananth99 at gmail.com Sat Oct 13 09:33:57 2007 From: sananth99 at gmail.com (Ananth S) Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2007 09:33:57 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Mexico City and Battle With Vendors Message-ID: Mexico City Wins Battle in War Against Street Vendors By Patrick Harrington http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news? pid=20601109&sid=ap9hEJP22nMU&refer=home Oct. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Mexico City reached a temporary accord to remove as many as 20,000 street vendors from a tourist-filled downtown square, avoiding a showdown with police today even though the peddlers vow to return. Mayor Marcelo Ebrard and local retailers say the vendors, who sell everything from chocolate to baby socks, often clog the streets, scare tourists and discourage tax-paying merchants from opening shops in the Zocalo, a central square near the national palace. Ebrard had set a deadline of today for them to move. He sent in 1,200 police officers this morning to ensure the vendors' orderly departure and prevent them from returning, police spokesman Ricardo Olayo said in a telephone interview. The vendors, who spread their wares on sidewalk blankets and makeshift stalls near buildings adorned with Diego Rivera murals, said they agreed to leave but will return unless the city allows them to set up in the square during festivals and unless they are able to survive at a new location. The crackdown marks the latest attempt to remove or control the sellers, whose roots predate the fall of Mexico City to Spanish conquerors in 1521. The clash is also emblematic of Mexico's challenge to transform informal merchants, who may represent as much as 50 percent of total retail activity, into tax-paying businesspeople. ``It won't work,'' said Juana Parada Flores earlier this week as she set out on the sidewalk an assortment of chocolate, peanuts and candy made from tamarind fruit. ``They can move us temporarily, but they will never stop us from selling or from coming back.'' Aztec Markets The main Aztec markets, which were just blocks from where vendors now sell pirated software and music, drew as many as 60,000 people a day, said Michael E. Smith, a professor of anthropology at Arizona State University. The Spanish encouraged the markets at first, because they ensured the flow of food and goods into the city, he said. But soon they began to try to remove the wandering, unorganized vendors. The vendors left the center last night and early this morning after a meeting with Mexico City officials yesterday that was accompanied by street protests. As many as 10,000 vendors blocked parts of the city's main avenue yesterday. Sellers riding on tractor-trailer trucks held signs reading ``I'm a street vendor because I have to be'' and ``The street doesn't belong to us but it does belong to hunger and necessity.'' `For Today' The leader who represents the sellers near the national palace said today their deal with the city may prove temporary. ``We are in agreement with the authorities to leave the streets clean for today,'' Maria del Carmen Lopez said by telephone. ``We are never going to disappear.'' Messages left for Ebrard at his office weren't returned. The vendors had vowed to stand firm if the police moved in with force. On a side street clogged with stalls brimming with undergarments and t-shirts earlier in the week, Hugo Cesar Aguilar, 22, pulled a metal pipe out from near his feet. ``We'll see what happens,'' he said. ``If there is an agreement we will go quietly, if not there could be blows.'' Business leaders in Mexico are skeptical that Ebrard's crackdown will last. Mayors before him have removed street vendors from tourist areas temporarily but have lacked the police manpower to keep them from coming back. `Recurring Theme' ``We are aware that this is a recurring theme in the Mexican economy and that it will continue to be a recurring theme,'' said Arturo Mendicuti, vice president of the National Chamber of Commerce, Services and Tourism for Mexico City. The government must continue to fight the vendors, he said, because they foster a culture of stolen and pirated goods. ``We have two economies that exist in the same country without any coordination,'' he said. ``We are living a double reality.'' Eduardo Solorzano, chief executive officer of Wal-Mart de Mexico SAB, said in an Oct. 2 interview that his company is taking market share from the informal sellers. ``This helps us, as long as it's consistent,'' he said of the crackdown. When police trucks approached a stoplight earlier this week on Pino Suarez street, young men began to whistle. In seconds, Parada, the candy seller, packed up her inventory, stacked it in an alley and covered it with a sheet. She repeated the process every 10 minutes as the police passed by. It's a dance the vendors describe with the Spanish word for bullfighting, ``torear,'' a reference to the constant taunting and dodging of police. Parada said she once worked in a garment factory for six months. She makes more, and can watch her six children, by selling snacks on the sidewalk, she said. ``If they relocate us to a place where we can't sell, we will just return to play hide and seek.'' From aman.am at gmail.com Mon Oct 22 14:37:05 2007 From: aman.am at gmail.com (Aman Sethi) Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 14:37:05 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Sultan, Sotheby's, Ganja, Primordial Man, Bengal In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <995a19920710220207n438082f1r375f777d10a413c8@mail.gmail.com> Dear Naeem, Thank you for posting this - was a great read. I write this post having never seen any of Sultan (or Gauguin's) work. Instead i would like to write about what i think their work would be like based on the pictures in my head - painted not by the painter - but by the writer describing the painting. Scanning through your post i found myself thinking of The Moon and Sixpence - a short novel by somerset maugham based on the life of the french painter Gauguin. While the i read the book many years ago, your post reminded of a bit where Maugham conveys an the idea of the immensity of scale - of trying to capture something that can't even be thought through. It also reminded of a short piece by polish journalist ryzcard kapucinsky where he talks of the experience of stepping to africa for the first time. Kapucinsky is a controversial figure in africa - as many feel (perhaps rightly) that he has contributed to the exoticising of Africa ; but in one of his writings he talks about the immensity of the landscape - of an almost stifling fertility or fecundity of the landscape where things even seem to be growing in the air. SPOILER WARNING: For those who plan on reading The Moon and Sixpence In the final section of the moon and six pence, Maugham's fictional painter goes off to work in Tahiti - where he sketches these massive canvases teeming with an almost surreal energy, and eventually dies (of leprosy i think) And Maugham talks about how these are the character's best works; at which point the painter's companion says that these were painting in the his final hours - soon after he went blind! best a. On 10/22/07, Naeem Mohaiemen wrote: > Last week was 13th anniversay of the death of S M Sultan. Sultan's > paintings may be sold at Sotheby's in London today but for the people > of rural Norail, the guru entered folk legend more than half a century > ago. They tell us that animals were drawn to him, that he could > converse with them, that hundreds of his works are scattered all over > the world in all manner of places, given away as gifts, that he cared > not for fame or material wealth, choosing to travel from village to > village, country to country, returning at last to his source. > > Read full text here: > http://golmal.pickledpolitics.com/2007/10/09/sultan/ > _________________________________________ > 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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> From indersalim at gmail.com Mon Oct 22 20:01:42 2007 From: indersalim at gmail.com (inder salim) Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 20:01:42 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] images from Kashmir In-Reply-To: <6b79f1a70710211935v3867397cu371bbfb0f54574e4@mail.gmail.com> References: <47e122a70710200809p7016eaa0x1fd0d9dddce47e50@mail.gmail.com> <6b79f1a70710211935v3867397cu371bbfb0f54574e4@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <47e122a70710220731t28534f4dmc3e05a6c7c32bd01@mail.gmail.com> Dear Pawan without mincing words, please feel free to call me an idiot. I am. This is what i feel as a human being in this animal world. In parts i feel that this animal thing is within too, and that is what i want to confront. Of course, there are given norms ( usually aesthetic ) for a an artist to follow and realize her/his true being, but as on date i doubt everything, may be it is my problem, but this gives me strength to sabatoge everything, everything. I believe, I am dancing with the sacred and the profane simultaneously As Ghalib suggests that ' let us merge Heaven and Hell for a new space for a morning walk or so'. You are free to dance with what you want to but i create a space for myself and for those who want to do things differently. We are obsessed to read political in everything, if the image cleverly suggests so. But i guess every blade of grass in Kashmir is not bereft of politics. Please read the foliage around the emtpy grave stone of Maqbool Bhat. or not even, how does it matter, he is not there even. But this empty grave has created a content within the form of Kashmir conflict. You will agree there, i guess. If there is some ' artist' inside me then i must have also played the role of an observer in the valley. I remember, the role of Barbareek in Mahabharata. He was beheaded, not only because he hurt the foot of dear Lord Krishna with his sharp dancing magical arrow, but he believed that his skills are always at the service of the weak, the opressed. In short he was unable to celebrate a war winner. Now for the real players of the war this is most unusal. So he agreed to play the role of a witness to the war. Imagine the pain of a head which is living withiout the body. Imagine such a set of eyes which can not move to action and decide. It is a quite paradoxical, that is what charms me, spiritually also. Was Barbareek an artist? Just before the legendary Virath Sarup, I guess, Arjuna also wanted to be an artist , but the Lord denied him a chance to be. In this sense there is nothing celebratory to be an artist as conventionally we know, but to be an artist, means to outwit the Lord even. Barbareek indeed outwitted the Lord. Artists as on date are trying to play some role in the on going issues of the world, but deep down we all know that art is a very small force in the world now. It is run by big things, the market, the religion, the war, and the politics which emerges from the dynamics of all this. I am really surprised when i hear that the cartoons, or a book, or a demonstration is taking a centre stage in the politics or media, But believe me, the real players of the game are hardly worried abuot these things. Again what is really intersting that the people in general react to the such things, and that is what works as opium for artists. I am happy that u reacted to the images, May be that would give me some more inspiration to do more. i am usually so lonely. My audience is my 'muse' lot of love is On 10/22/07, Pawan Durani wrote: > Inder , > > Isnt this Maqbool Butt the one who had looted a bank and later killed the > Bank Manager. Does he deserve to e called a Saheed - E-Azam ? > > Disappointed with your ideas and thoughts !!! > > > > > On 10/20/07, inder salim wrote: > > > > 1. Idd Gah, Srinagar, text: Mustaq Ahmad PANDIT s/o Abdul Gaffar Pandit > > > > 2. Idd Gah, Srinagar, Text: Saheed-e-Azam, Mohd. Maqbool Bhat, Date of > > Martydom, 11th of Feb. 1982. The People of Kashmir are still > > waiting for his mortal remains to be buried here which are still with > > Govt of India. ( practically the grave is empty or.. ) > > > > 3. Self Portrait in Al-e-Hachi ( dried vegetable bottle gourd, Gia ) > > used by Kashmiris during winter > > > > 4. Amirakadal Srinagar, a view > > 5. Security man upon the shiva temple roof in Verinag. > > 6. Routine checking in down town srinagar > > 7. Abandoned hosue opposite CRPF post. > > > > please click > > > > > > http://indersalim.livejournal.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. > > To unsubscribe: > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > > List archive: > <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> > > -- http://indersalim.livejournal.com From surojit369 at yahoo.co.in Mon Oct 22 20:46:25 2007 From: surojit369 at yahoo.co.in (SUROJIT SEN) Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 16:16:25 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] IFS'07 Displacement of Prostitutes- 8th posting -Oct '07 Message-ID: <429660.47031.qm@web8612.mail.in.yahoo.com> Hi all, This is my 8th posting of my project Displscement of prostitutes - a tale of two cities. Durbar Mahila Samanwaya committee is a major organization of sex workers in West Bengal. I attended a meeting convened by Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, where they discussed the proposed Immoral Traffic Prevention Act. There they put an appeal to the conscious people to raise their voice for sex workers’ cause. Here is the appeal: Dear Friends, We believe you are already acquainted with our objections against the proposed ITPA, which is going to be a self-defeating on all counts. With great relief we come to know the Bill is deferred for the time being. A 29 member Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) on Human Resource Development reviewed the Bill and made much insightful comments and suggestions, which for some unknown reasons the Ministry of Women and Child Development simply ignored or made some banal comments on the suggestions. India is already the second largest country of HIV positive people in the world, presently it’s around 5.2million. In this epidemiological context, we would like to reiterate how the Bill in its present form is going to jeopardize the strength, scale and effectiveness of HIV interventions in sex work settings and thus would spell disastrous effects on nation’s health. We are certain you would reconsider the Bill before you vote it, since, form the public health perspective, it is the call of the time. Moreover there is another important aspect – the Bill does not comply with the international legal standards specially with the UN Convention on trafficking in persons, Where ironically enough India is one of the signatories. In its present form the Bill is full of legal infirmities and is open to constitutional challenge for being vague and ambiguous. The Bill itself does not criminalize sex work or prostitution per se, but the way it has been implemented as if all acts of sex work are seen as sexual exploitation. Thus make the profession virtually impossible. This approach would single handedly drive the profession to underground and consequently from HIV intervention to anti-trafficking programme in sex work would be either futile or impossible. Let us probe the amendments in detail: · The new definition under section 2 (f ) brings within its ambit all contracts for sex that are neither organized for profit nor exploitative in nature. It is unclear whether the ITPA targets situations of exploitation within the sex work or sex work itself, which may not be exploitative, rather consensual in nature. The resultant ambiguity will expose the statute to judicial scrutiny and potential constitutional challenges. · Section 5C is to punish persons visiting brothels or found in brothels. First for the police the act of visiting a brothel or found in brothel is sufficient grounds for arrest, as the Section does not require the offender to have sex with the trafficked victim. How will the police determine that the person who visits or is found in a brothel is there for sexual exploitation of any victim of trafficking in persons? Simply based on its own interpretation. Is not it going to violate human rights? Second the term ‘sexual exploitation’ is not defined anywhere in the Bill. It goes against the cardinal principle of criminal law, which requires clarification of what constitute an offence. Thirdly, undefined terms and vague language under section 5C will pose serious problems in its implementation. The very Section will pose threat to the project stuff across the country; since they will not feel confident to move in and around the brothels – for fear of police harassment. It is unclear how the prosecution will prove that an offence was committed under section 5C. The only country that punishes clients of sex workers is Sweden. It is evident from the Swedish experience sex workers rarely testify against the customers. We are certain it will be the same in India. Without the sex worker’s testimony how the Section could be enforced? In practice, Police would certainly use it to interrupt, harass and extort money from the persons seen in and around brothels. The outcome of the Swedish act is that the profession completely went underground and is now run and control by criminal gangs, sex workers are fully stripped off rights and control over their profession and profession and body. Sweden with its mere 2500 sex workers fails to eliminate the profession by punishing clients and now in the perspective of HIV, is thinking other way. Observing the outcome of the Swedish act, other Scandinavian countries like Netherlands and Finland rejected such approach in their countries. How come that our Ministry of Women and Child Development copies the same act in such a vast country with such great diversity, in spite of the act’s utter failure in Sweden itself? In the perspective of this particular section, Parliamentary Standing Committee’s comment is prophetic, which is sincerely ignored by the Ministry. The PSC notes ‘ it would be difficult for a person visiting a brothel to distinguish between “ trafficked” and “ non-trafficked” persons. This ambiguity is further confounded, as the term “sexual exploitation” has not been defined in the Bill. The words “for the purpose of sexual exploitation of any victim of trafficking” would allow the enforcement agencies to determine “victims of trafficking” and the intention of the visitor to “sexually exploit” at the time of arresting.” You can easily understand how easy it would be for the police to harass and extort money from the sex workers, general people, who would be found in and around the brothel just by using the ambiguities of the Section. Moreover, the Ministry does not clarify how the Section would contribute anti-trafficking in sex work, since no sex worker – we know it for certain – would testify against any customer. With our utter surprise we observed the Ministry does not even bother to clarify why, in addition to the existing section 5(1), which deals with the trafficking of women and children in sex work, Section 5C is required. The committee also notes the Section itself goes against the cardinal principles of criminal law, since it does not spell out what constitute the office. It is ‘vague’ and ‘full of ambiguities’. We know today more and more women are entering the profession for economic reasons – due to the lack of sufficient livelihood options before them. For all the ambiguities of the Bill, now they would be treated as trafficked. · Moreover deletion of Section 8 which deals with soliciting customer is clearly in conflicting with this amendment. Selling is not illegal, but buying - it is hypo critic and self-defeating, that too is not a first rated one, since it is copied from an absolutely different context. · The PSC notes how poorly the Section 13A and 13B are drafted, which deals with the setting up of Central and State Authorities for the purpose of ‘preventing and combating trafficking in person’. The PSC also provides valuable guidelines on its formation, staffing, functioning and significantly recommends that sex workers should have formal place in these bodies at Central as well as State levels. All these again are either ignored or by passed by making some banal comments. · There are number of recent studies, including one by National Human Rights Commission, which clearly point out that increasing punishment can not stop trafficking in sex work; it calls for innovative measures and mechanism. In this regard our Self- Regulatory Board is the most effective way so far. · Have a courser look at the General Comments of the PSC and you can understand how ineffective and incomplete the law is going to be! In its general comments, the PSC notes ‘The Committee strongly fells that there is an urgent need for having complete re-look at the ITPA, touching upon all conceivable aspects’. The Committee calls it ‘a half hearted attempt’. It notes, ‘Under the Act, a victim of commercial sexual exploitation can also be prosecuted because the law does not state whether children forced into prostitution are victims or offenders’. If it is not enough of the merits of the Bill, here is another observation - ‘ the Committee, therefore, recommends that the law needs to be reviewed to make a distinction between living ‘on’ and the ‘off’ the earnings of a prostitute. While legal safeguards need to be provided to prevent extortion of money from a prostitute, her right to incur expenditure voluntarily has to be safeguarded’. The PSC questioned without adequate resource for rescue and rehabilitation, how the Bill could solve the problem of trafficking of women and girls in sex work? The Ministry has no answers, other than some vague and indefinite comments. Does the Ministry believe empowering Police more is enough? Clearly the members of PSC rejected such naïve attempt. Our Sonagachi project, one of the two WHO models in the world for HIV prevention, conclusively established that in the sex worker community effective HIV prevention requires rights based strategies, which would successfully enable sex workers to address structural barriers for safe sex, and it also calls for legal reforms that could influence risk reduction and behavior change among the sex workers and their clients for safe sex to prevent HIV. The same principle has been adapted by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USA for their HIV intervention programme in six high prevalence states of TamilNadu, Maharastra, Karnataka, AndhraPradesh, Nagaland and Manipur NACO adapted the same policy in its NACPIII. Institutes like WHO and UNAIDS are also persuading the same rights based approach for fighting HIV/AIDS. Emulating the successful self help group model, like in any other sector for the empowerment of women, sex workers can be collectivized into community based organizations to manage their own health including HIV risk. While all the stalwart institutes are reorienting themselves on a rights based approach, and in spite of the insights of the Parliamentarians and lessons of empirical studies and exemplifying projects our Ministry is determined to move backward. It seems either the Ministry of Women and Child Development knows India better than the Parliamentarian and any other groups, or they have a single agenda – that is to conflate adult consensual sex with trafficking, whatever tolls it may take. Now it is up to you! We believe you must not opt for endangering nation’s health. Come, repeal the ITPA, it is the call of our time. In expectation, Gouri Ray Secretary Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee Kolkata, West Bengal India. --------------------------------- 5, 50, 500, 5000 - Store N number of mails in your inbox. Click here. From ohm at zedat.fu-berlin.de Tue Oct 23 14:34:23 2007 From: ohm at zedat.fu-berlin.de (Britta Ohm) Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:04:23 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] CFP 'Medialised Realities in South Asia' Message-ID: Dear all, please consider our CFP for the upcoming 20th European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies to be held in Manchester on 8-11 July 2008. Proposals - to be sent to one of the e-mail addresses at the bottom - are welcome until 31 December 2007. Name 1: Dr. Britta Ohm Name 2: Dr. Nadja-Christina Schneider Affiliation 1: Europa Universität Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder), Germany Affiliation 2: Humboldt University Berlin, Institute for Asian and African Studies, Germany Panel Title: Medialised Realities in South Asia Abstract: Media have in debates on globalisation often been looked at in terms of enabling new forms and expressions of cultural identities that supersede and even replace political, cultural and legal organisations of belonging and citizenship. More recently, however, it is becoming increasingly obvious that globalising media play a vital role in reframing notions and manifestations of nation, state, community and history. Moreover, it has itself global implications that media cannot be looked at any more in terms of an 'additional' factor that 'represents' an outer 'reality', but that they have also in South Asia since the early 1980s started to become integral agents in generating "medialised realities". They are today key-carriers of performative politics as much as of its critique, of enabling new forms of expression and witnessing as well as of their restrictions, and of opening new possibilities of representation as much as of their limits. Simultaneously, processes of digitalisation, transnationalisation, commercialisation and their legal ramifications as well as the growing convergence between different media (print, radio, cinema, television, internet and other new media) are rapidly changing South Asian societies. Against this background, we invite papers that draw upon these developments, taking into account the staging of media events, dynamics of inclusion and exclusion, the interaction between media and law, the de- and reterritorialisation of national and cultural belonging, the contestation of history and the role media play in elections, in the generation of 'truths' and 'facts', in the creation and perception of crises as well as in the resolution or deepening of conflict. Email 1: ohm at zedat.fu-berlin.de Email 2: schneidernc at web.de Please circulate widely! Hope to see you there! Best -- Britta ___________________ Britta Ohm Solmsstr. 36 10961 Berlin Germany +49/30/69507155 From jeebesh at sarai.net Tue Oct 23 16:43:12 2007 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh Bagchi) Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:13:12 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] From speech to body..... Message-ID: dear all, just came across this report. once voice meant the ability to enunciate and make claims. now it obviously means something totally different. best jeebesh ----------------- "Giving voice to the voiceless - an experiment in remote parts of rural India" Author: Kris Dev Time: 22.10.2007 17:40 Comment: Creating a unique identity for every citizen by registering their Biometric (all 10 finger prints or palm vein) and issuing a Multi Purpose Biometric Smart Card Cum Post Office / Bank Debit Card, and Tracking all transactions using the Biometric Smart Card is one sure way to eliminate corruption in all welfare schemes such as free health care, free education, free noon meal, PDS, employment guarantee, old age pension, flood and famine relief, tsunami relief, etc. A Proof of Concept was successfully demonstrated in A.P. and Bihar to eliminate corruption in NREGA implementation. The Biometric Tracking of beneficiaries of NREGP was recognized as the Best initiative for e-Inclusion and Livelihood Creation in India by Digital Empowerment Foundation with the Manthan Award 2006. "E- Administration, an e-Platform for e-Governance" was nominated to the World Summit Award 2007 from India. More details can be seen at: http://www.manthanaward.org/Bio-metric% 20tracking%20of%20payments%20under%20NREGA.asp, http:// www.indianexpress.com/story/21904.html, http:// www.thehindubusinessline.com/ew/2007/03/19/stories/ 2007031900110300.htm, http://www.indianexpress.com/story/33365.html, http://indiainvents.blogspot.com/2007/10/life-line-to-business- ll2b.html. It is now up to the Government of India and various State Governments to accept the challenge, to reduce the leakages in various welfare schemes and usher in true democracy in India, alleviate urban and rural poverty, stop suicidal death of farmers and farm laborers, achieve UN MDGs and give voice to the voiceless, particularly the women. From naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com Tue Oct 23 17:50:24 2007 From: naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com (Naeem Mohaiemen) Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 18:20:24 +0600 Subject: [Reader-list] BURMA: How The Govt Shut The Internet Message-ID: BURMA: Two reports - Internet Shutdown & Human Rights http://www.sajaforum.org/2007/10/burma-two-repor.html One of the most stunning aspects of the recent Burma crisis has been the way the government there so effectively shutdown access to the Internet going in and out of the country. As a result, information just withered and so did international attention. To help understand how the government did it and the implications of its tactics, you should read the OpenNet Initiative's new report, "Pulling the Plug: A Technical Review of the Internet Shutdown in Burma." It begins: >>> This bulletin examines the role of information technology, citizen journalists, and bloggers in Burma and presents a technical analysis of the abrupt shutdown of Internet connectivity by the Burmese government on September 29, 2007, following its violent crackdown on protesters there. Completely cutting international Internet links is rare. Nepal, which severed all international Internet connections when the King declared martial law in February 2005, is the only other state to take such drastic action. Although extreme, the measures taken by the Burmese government to limit citizens' use of the Internet during this crisis are consistent with previous OpenNet Initiative (ONI) findings in Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, and Tajikistan, where authorities controlled access to communication technologies as a way to limit social mobilization around key political events. What makes the Burmese junta stand out, however, is its apparent goal of also preventing information from reaching a wider international audience..." <<< A report on other aspects of the Burma crisis is available in a new joint report from the International Trade Unions Confederation and the International Federation of Human Rights about a Mission to Burma. It begins: >>> After the September crackdown on peaceful protests in Burma, the International Trade Unions Confederation (ITUC) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) decided to send a joint international fact-finding mission on the Thai border with Burma to collect first-hand information on the wave of repression. The objective was also to discuss with Burmese pro-democracy and human rights groups about possible international strategies to contribute to the democratization of the country. <<< See links to both reports and post your comments and analysis at http://www.sajaforum.org/2007/10/burma-two-repor.html From yasir.media at gmail.com Tue Oct 23 19:43:30 2007 From: yasir.media at gmail.com (yasir ~) Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 07:13:30 -0700 Subject: [Reader-list] From speech to body..... In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <5af37bb0710230713k3ac72a39q9d0ae071eea59883@mail.gmail.com> I dont know what could inspire more terror than not owning ones 'voice' which may be concretized in this case to mean one's organs, arms and legs, and one's life. what else can be given away to business and the motherly patriarchal state - one's soul and spirit. some will find this blissful. best, y On 10/23/07, Jeebesh Bagchi wrote: > dear all, > > just came across this report. once voice meant the ability to > enunciate and make claims. now it obviously means something totally > different. > > best > > jeebesh > > ----------------- > > "Giving voice to the voiceless - an experiment in remote parts of > rural India" > > Author: Kris Dev > > Time: 22.10.2007 17:40 > > > > Comment: Creating a unique identity for every citizen by registering > their Biometric (all 10 finger prints or palm vein) and issuing a > Multi Purpose Biometric Smart Card Cum Post Office / Bank Debit Card, > and Tracking all transactions using the Biometric Smart Card is one > sure way to eliminate corruption in all welfare schemes such as free > health care, free education, free noon meal, PDS, employment > guarantee, old age pension, flood and famine relief, tsunami relief, > etc. > > A Proof of Concept was successfully demonstrated in A.P. and Bihar to > eliminate corruption in NREGA implementation. > > The Biometric Tracking of beneficiaries of NREGP was recognized as > the Best initiative for e-Inclusion and Livelihood Creation in India > by Digital Empowerment Foundation with the Manthan Award 2006. "E- > Administration, an e-Platform for e-Governance" was nominated to the > World Summit Award 2007 from India. > > More details can be seen at: http://www.manthanaward.org/Bio-metric% > 20tracking%20of%20payments%20under%20NREGA.asp, http:// > www.indianexpress.com/story/21904.html, http:// > www.thehindubusinessline.com/ew/2007/03/19/stories/ > 2007031900110300.htm, http://www.indianexpress.com/story/33365.html, > http://indiainvents.blogspot.com/2007/10/life-line-to-business- > ll2b.html. > > It is now up to the Government of India and various State Governments > to accept the challenge, to reduce the leakages in various welfare > schemes and usher in true democracy in India, alleviate urban and > rural poverty, stop suicidal death of farmers and farm laborers, > achieve UN MDGs and give voice to the voiceless, particularly the women. > > > From gowharfazili at yahoo.com Tue Oct 23 22:28:31 2007 From: gowharfazili at yahoo.com (gowhar fazli) Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 09:58:31 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Greek Workshop: 'The Sprit of Hellas' landmarks in history, language, literature & culture of the Greeks Message-ID: <667867.12478.qm@web60612.mail.yahoo.com> Please circulate widely... “The sprit of Hellas: landmarks in history, language, literature & culture of the Greeks” Workshop A workshop on the theme “The sprit of Hellas: landmarks in history, language, literature & culture of the Greeks” shall be organized in the School of languages literature and cultural studies, Jawaharlal Nehru university, New Delhi from 13th to 17th November 2007. The workshop has been planned to provide an insight to young scholars into the various elements of Greek culture and thought and also the comparative aspects of Indian and Greek civilization. Experts and specialists have been invited to present lectures and conduct the course as resource persons. Special screening of short films and slide shows that relate to Greek history and culture with be done. A food festival is also on the planned for. Certificates will be awarded to successful participants. There are limited seats for which applications are invited from young scholars. The last date for submitting application to join the workshop is 31st October 2007. Interested young scholars should contact the undersigned. U. P ARORA Room no. 394 SLL&CS, JNU Mobile no: 9873673300 Tel: 26704736, 26704875 email:uparora12 at yahoo.com Jawaharlal Nehru University School of Language, Literature & Culture Studies New Delhi-110067 Workshop On “The Spirit of Hellas: Landmarks in History, Language, Literature and Culture of the Greeks” (13th – 17th November 2007) Hellas or Greece is considered to be the Cradle of Western Civilization. It was the discovery of ancient Greek Wisdom after the fall the Constantinople which has been recognized as the main causative factor responsible for the end of medievalism and the beginning of Renaissance in Europe. The Greek ways of exploring the problem of cosmos, the creation of language in which such problems are explored, understanding the physical world and human society, describing the past, still underlie the Western Cultural tradition. It is, therefore, very much essential for the young scholars to understand the Greek mind in order to appreciate the Greek contribution to human civilization. The cultural contacts between India representing the Asiatic consciousness and the Greek World representing the Western consciousness occur since remote antiquity. There may be noted connections and parallels between India and Greek mythology, literature, art and aesthetics, political ideas and institutions, philosophical and scientific understanding. The striking analogies between the Vedic and Greek deities in their names and functions had led early European scholars coming to India to propound the theory of their common Indo-European origin. They also discovered the equivalents of the Greek inflections in Sanskrit and ancient Iranian language. It resulted in the birth of the comparative philology and the efforts were made for the reconstruction of the Indo-European lexicon. Objective The object of the proposed Workshop is to create an awareness among young researchers and scholars about the civilization which is often remarked as “Greek Miracle”. The focus will be on explaining the development of Greek civilization in its various aspects, its strengths and weaknesses, materially, socially, politically, culturally. Many scholars may thereby be tempted and initiated to serious research into Classical Greek Culture; which is a great desideratum in face of the fact that a Centre of Greek Studies, which is pride of any European academic institution, is completely absent in South Asia. India has too long been the object of historical research by western scholars; it is now time for the Indians to turn their attention to the Greek World, to be the authors of researches on the so-called classical civilizations. The present Workshop is directed towards this goal. The Theme and Sub-themes The proposed theme for the Workshop is divided into two parts; the first shall cover the aspects of history, language, literature and culture of the Greeks, while the second part shall deal with the comparative analysis of Indian and Greek civilization. Part One: (i) Land and the People (ii) The World of Homer (iii) Social division and gender relations (iv) Greeks and the barbarians (v) Athenian democracy (vi) Rise and decline of the Polis (vii) Language and Literature (viii) Philosophical and Scientific Concepts (ix) Myth, religion and rituals (x) Art and aesthetics (xi) Economy (xii) Byzantium (xiii) Heritage of the Greeks (xiv) Greece: Past and Present Part Two (i) Perception of India in Greek Writings (ii) Yavanas in ancient Indian literature and inscriptions (iii) Comparative philology: Greek and Sanskrit (iv) Comparative mythology (v) Greek and Indian epic literature (vi) Dramatic concepts: Indian and Greek (vii) Interaction between Art and Architecture (viii) Greek and Indian philosophical and scientific understanding (ix) Political institutions: Indian and Greek (x) Greece in Modern European Literature and Thought Participation The eligibility to join the Workshop is restricted to University and College teachers and registered research scholars, from Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences. There shall be an intake of a maximum of 30 participants. The eligibility conditions may be relaxed by the Organizers in case of seats falling vacant. Each participant shall be provided local hospitality/daily allowance and travel allowance as per the rules of the University. Programme The Workshop shall comprise of 24 Lectures for five consecutive days from 13th to 17th November 2007. The participants will be required to present or submit a paper at the conclusion of the Workshop. Certificates will be awarded on successful completion of the Course. List of Speakers Name Topic 1. Prof. Jean Marie Lafont The Greek presentation in Afghanistan and Northern India 2. Prof. D.N. Tripathi India and Greece : Pre and proto historic connection 3. Prof. R.N. Misra Greek and Indian Art : Mathura and Gandhar 4. Dr. Naman P. Ahuja Dionysus in Indian Art 5. Prof. G.C. Tripathi India and Greece : Early Philosophical understanding 6. Dr. Ishrat Alam Influence of Greek Science on India 7. Dr. A.J. Khan Greek Medical Science and India 8. Prof. Om Prakash Political Institution : India and Greece 9. Prof. S.C. Bhattacharya Greek and Indian Historiography 10. Prof. A.K. Sinha Idea of History in India and Greece 11. Prof. Abhay Kumar Singh Indo-Greeks : A Reappraisal 12. Dr. Prashant Srivastava Greek Coins 13. Prof. R.P. Singh Dialogue Dialectic and Reconstruction: Socrates, Kant, Hegel, and Derrida 14. Ranvir Chakrabarti India and Graeco Roman Word : Trade Connections 15. Prof. Bharat Gupt Dramatic Parallels in India and Greece 16. Prof. Prem Singh Indo-European Background of Greek and Sanskrit Lanuage 17. Prof. Kapil Kapoor Language and Literature in Greek Thought 18. Prof. Anil Bhatti Greek Fascination in Modern European Literature 19. Prof. U.P. Arora Greek Civilization : A Critique Ancient India and Greece : On Overview 20. Prof. Varyam Singh Names of Greek Professors have not yet been received. The names of Professor of Cyprus will be received on Friday 26th October 2007. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From subjekt at subjektivation.de Tue Oct 23 22:41:53 2007 From: subjekt at subjektivation.de (artist series) Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 19:11:53 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] t h e b i g p i c t u r e - artist series Message-ID: <337cbcb77c2cec2b34d55c76da764317@subjektivation.de> Thomas Draschan leaves his home town Linz after graduation for studying theater and journalism at the University of Vienna http://subjektivation.de/the-big-picture/to_the_happy_few.mov Daniel Nicholas Flavin, born in Jamaica, died in New York http://subjektivation.de/the-big-picture/dan_flavin.mov Martin Heidegger, born in Messkirch, died in Freiburg, was a German philosopher and the subject is still on controversial debates http://subjektivation.de/the-big-picture/holzwege.mov Joseph Michael Helmut Kohl, born in Ludwigshafen on the Rhine, is a German CDU politician http://subjektivation.de/the-big-picture/diane_rollt.mov Werner Mauss is indicated born in Essen, and lives with his family in Germany on a fortress-like property http://subjektivation.de/the-big-picture/altstrimmig.mov Manfred Peckl, born in 1968 in Wels in Austria, lives and works in Frankfurt am Main http://subjektivation.de/the-big-picture/haekelkreuz.mov Tobias Rehberger is undoubtedly one of the artists from the Stuttgart region performing international breakthrough http://subjektivation.de/the-big-picture/hecheln.mov Lasse-Marc Riek, born in Bad Segeberg, served in his creation of different forms of expression lives and works in Frankfurt am Main http://subjektivation.de/the-big-picture/lasse-marc-riek.mov The Situationist International (S.I.) a leftist-oriented group of european artists and intellectuals http://subjektivation.de/the-big-picture/monochrom.mov Susanne Kessler is an artist and director, born in Friedberg, lives now in Frankfurt http://subjektivation.de/the-big-picture/phallogression.mov Adelheid Schulz, born in Loerrach, former member of the Red Army Fraction lives in Frankfurt am Main http://subjektivation.de/the-big-picture/big-raushole.mov Erika Steinbach, daughter of a Luftwaffenfeldwebel from Silesia was born in Hanau http://subjektivation.de/the-big-picture/vergessen.mov t h e b i g p i c t u r e - artist series A current program for political education Funded by the Hessische Filmförderung e.V. Kunstverein Lola Montez http://lola-montez.org Eintracht Frankfurt Cultural Foundation GmbH From shambhu.rahmat at gmail.com Wed Oct 24 12:34:06 2007 From: shambhu.rahmat at gmail.com (Shambhu Rahmat) Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:04:06 +0600 Subject: [Reader-list] The Case Of The Blasphemous Cat Message-ID: <2726c5b80710240004o6fa6609akf210ce9311561fb0@mail.gmail.com> Cartoonist Arrested Over Cat Cartoon http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/category/religion/ OP-ED: Save Us From Cats http://rumiahmed.wordpress.com/2007/09/23/save-us-from-cats/ HISTORY: Chronology of Major Blasphemy Cases http://rumiahmed.wordpress.com/2007/09/30/chronology-of-major-blasphemy-cases-in-bangladesh-1972-2007/ Free Cartoonist Arifur Rahman http://rezwanul.blogspot.com/2007/09/free-cartoonist-arifur-rahman.html Hypocrisy of Mullahs http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/2007/09/19/the-hypocrisy-of-the-bangla-mullahs/ Letter For Arif http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/2007/10/22/a-letter-for-arif/ Glimpse At The Future http://rumiahmed.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/a-glimpse-at-the-future/ Ex Communist Party leader Begs Forgiveness From Mullahs http://rumiahmed.wordpress.com/2007/09/20/picture-of-the-day/ The Power of War Criminal at Baitul Mokarram http://rumiahmed.wordpress.com/2007/09/18/the-only-totally-independent-government-officer-in-bangladesh/ Release Arifur Rahman http://rumiahmed.wordpress.com/2007/09/26/release-them/ From pkray11 at gmail.com Wed Oct 24 13:43:54 2007 From: pkray11 at gmail.com (prakash ray) Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 13:43:54 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] A letter from an activist of the Narmada Andolan Message-ID: <98f331e00710240113r34c0d4bcgb91d079189debda5@mail.gmail.com> Dear Jagga, I am really sorry for posting your letter to the list without your consent. I regret my act which hurt you. I received this letter three times in the last six months but never thought about the posting. Only when an article with your name as author was published in a Hindi journal, I thought to post it. I think the issue is bigger than us and any problem, internal or external, affecting that must be discussed. In that spirit I posted the letter. I demand an explanation from the leadership of the NBA on the issues raised in your letter. regards, Prakash -- From alice at tank.tv Wed Oct 17 22:09:08 2007 From: alice at tank.tv (Alice O'Reilly) Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2007 17:39:08 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] www.tank.tv : Love & Hate - Moving Image Work from Former Yugoslavia : Online 15/10/07 - 15/11/07 Message-ID: <442eb4460710170939g52f03605q2f752be18d87a381@mail.gmail.com> Love & Hate concept by Nada Prlja for www.tank.tv 15th October - 15th November 2007 The concept for the October-November online tank.tv exhibition has been defined by the artist Nada Prlja. Artists: Nemanja Cvijanović, Olgica Dimitrovska, Vesna Miličević, Nada Prlja, Nikola Uzunovski, Škart and Žaneta Vangeli The geographical region selected for the project Love & Hate is the area defined by former Yugoslavia, encompassing Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. The region was chosen for an artistic examination by tank.tv because of the unique political and economic situation that has evolved since the death of President Tito in 1980 and the subsequent dissolution of the former nation state. These ex-Yugoslav countries now find themselves in what is popularly known as the phase of "Transition". It is a state brought about by the transformation of a socialist society into one of (apparent) liberal democracy but also related to the recent sectarian civil wars, and how their aftermath has contributed to a sense of 'incompleteness' for these new societies. The video projects featured in October's tank.tv exhibition inhabit the very territory named "Transition" and reflect the relationship between the past, the present and the future. In Nemanja Cvijanović's video project Marinetti vaffanculo feat. Spielberg, the artist sings along and whistles the tune of the song 8 souls blown up by a single bomb , borrowed from the futuristic poet F.T.Marinetti. By performing this casual act, the artist adds a cynical aspect to a grotesque scene from Spielberg's war film Saving Private Ryan, and in so doing, Cvijanović 'has a laugh' with the past, present and the future . He looks ironically at human nature and the realities of any war. By contrast, in Vesna Milicević's video work Somebody Else's Daughters, the artist decides to speak out against her own nation. Vesna Milicević chooses to give both the victim and the aggressor equal consideration. The victim is a Romanian girl while the perpetrators are men, involved in human trafficking for the purpose of prostitution within the area of ex –Yugoslavia. Milicević positions herself, self-sacrificially, as a servant of the truth, despite the fact that it is painful - as she herself is a daughter of the nation, to which these aggressors belong. Milicević's video occupies, in a very direct manner, the situation of the transition between two systems where monstrous acts, such as the one shown, can become an unfortunate reality. The seven artists featured on tank.tv as part of Love & Hate , describ e and criticise the turbulence of a system that in reality should not yet be acknowledged as a system at all, if one accepts Mao's statement: 'Chaos is a perfect condition for a society in transition.' www.tank.tv www.tank.tv/freshmoves.htm -- - - - - - - - - - - - - Alice O'Reilly tank.tv 5th floor 49-50 Great Marlborough street London W1F 7JR alice at tank.tv T +44 (0)207434 0110 F +44 (0)207434 9232 http://www.tank.tv - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Now showing: Love & Hate 15th October – 15th November 2007 Fresh Moves - Out now! Order your copy on www.tank.tv "A significant archive of creative practices in the early years of twenty-first century England" Tyler Coburn, Tomorrow Unlimited --- tank.tv is an inspirational showcase for innovative work in film and video. Dedicated to exhibiting and promoting emerging and established international artists, www.tank.tv acts as a major online gallery and archive for video art. A platform for contemporary moving images. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071017/eac17257/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From iram at sarai.net Thu Oct 25 11:09:21 2007 From: iram at sarai.net (Iram Ghufran) Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 11:09:21 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Exhibition: 'RAMKINKAR IN FOCUS' at JNU Message-ID: <47202C09.3010203@sarai.net> Fwd: Exhibition: 'RAMKINKAR IN FOCUS: THROUGH THE EYES OF DEVI PRASAD' -- The School of Arts and Aesthetics has curated an exhibition 'RAMKINKAR IN FOCUS: THROUGH THE EYES OF DEVI PRASAD' which has opened to the public on October 9 and will be open for viewing till Monday,October 29, 2007 in the School of Arts and Aesthetics Gallery, JNU. It commemorates the centenary year of Ramkinkar Baij. The exhibition has received an overwhelming public and critical response. It is open for viewing daily, from 10 AM- 7PM, except Sundays . In response to a special request from the JNU community, we have late night viewings till 10 PM on Friday nights. The exhibition showcases the critically acclaimed photographs by Devi Prasad and of course, India's greatest modernist sculptor Ramkinkar Baij's bronzes. We also have a rare opportunity to see pages from Ramkinkar's sketchbooks, his watercolours and oil paintings alongside rare footage of Ramkinkar from Ritwik Ghatak's unfinished film. The conference on the 29th will bring several scholars together (please see the attachment), and people will have a chance to reflect on what they can make of the artist from the exhibition - we hope you will be able to join us that day. -- Ranjani Mazumdar Associate Professor of Cinema Studies School of Arts and Aesthetics Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi 110067 http://www.jnu.ac.in/SAA/ _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From rahaab at acparchives.com Wed Oct 24 12:36:22 2007 From: rahaab at acparchives.com (rahaab - ACP Archives) Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 12:36:22 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] From Alkazi Foundation: 1857 Exhibition Message-ID: Traces of the Uprising, 1857 A Delhi University and Alkazi Foundation Collaboration The following exhibition is a collaboration between Delhi University and the Alkazi Foundation for the Arts. In the wake of the commemoration of events related to the Uprising, the joint venture in the North Campus of Delhi University is in fact the most appropriate setting for this exhibition, since these university grounds were once a wasteland of war and memorials. The exhibition at University is an extended attempt to assimilate the past and present lives of Delhi and other effected cities, connected intrinsically by a chain of events that led to its memorialisation after the Uprising. Early photography; its poignant simplicity and sheer visual splendour captured in shades of sepia, is a prism through which the changing contours of life are perceived and visualised. In addition, images from the satellite today, help us chart the sectors of unrest and resistance during this tumultuous period, mainly between the Ridge, Shahjehanabad and Humayun’s tomb. Images become a means of bridging the historical rupture between rarefied cultural zones and commonplace locales. This stimulating endeavour with the staff and students of Delhi University has helped us realise that the commemoration of 1857 is about a respect for the past, the preservation of antiquated structures and a mutual recognition of our collective responsibility in treasuring the sanctity of India’s myriad culture for the future. Reprints of rare19th Century photographs will be juxtaposed with current documentation of the sites and some important maps that will highlight the geography of unrest and the strategies put in place by the troops. Though the exhibition covers the entire Uprising, there will be a greater focus on Delhi. There will be a joint exhibition catalogue with contributions by: Prof. Nayanjot Lahiri: Dean of Colleges Shinbani Bose: Independent research scholar and PHD applicant from Delhi University Opening Date: 26th October 2007, Conference Centre Opening Talk: 26th October, 4.30 p.m. Convocation Hall, Vice Chancellors building 10.00- 5.00 daily (except Sundays) Mr. Alkazi will give a brief introduction. Contact: Rahaab Allana, Curator, Alkazi Foundation (rahaab at acparchives.com) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071024/00cd9633/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From cised_blr at yahoo.co.in Fri Oct 19 16:05:56 2007 From: cised_blr at yahoo.co.in (CISED BLR) Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 11:35:56 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Openings at CISED Message-ID: Openings for Core Faculty, Visiting Fellows and Postdoctoral Research Associates at CISED CORE FACULTY, VISITING & POSTDOCTORAL POSITIONS IN ENVIRONMENT-DEVELOPMENT STUDIES Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Environment and Development (CISED) at the Institute for Social & Economic Change, Bangalore, seeks applications for the following positions in the thrust areas of Water Resources, Forests & Common Lands, or Energy & Pollution. Core Faculty: Candidates should typically have a Ph.D. (social or natural/engineering sciences) with a strong interest in and demonstrated capacity to carry out interdisciplinary research that speaks to academic, policy and practitioner audiences, and be prepared to engage extensively in institution-related activities, Visiting Fellows: Persons with academic, activist, policy-making or practitioner backgrounds interested in being located at CISED for six months to one year to pursue a writing project based on earlier research and/or practical experience. The topic should be linked to CISED’s thrust areas. Postdoctoral Research Associates: Candidates should have submitted their Ph.D. thesis and be interested in pursuing independent research in CISED’s thrust areas for one to two years. Deadline for receiving applications is November 15, 2007. For full advertisement & application details: www.cised.org. Contact: Coordinator, CISED , Institute for Social and Economic Change, Nagarabhavi Bangalore – 560 072, INDIA Tel: +91 (80) 2321-7013, Fax: +91 (80) 2321-7008, E-mail: cised at isec.ac.in Forgot the famous last words? Access your message archive online at http://in.messenger.yahoo.com/webmessengerpromo.php _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From mitoo at sarai.net Wed Oct 24 15:10:05 2007 From: mitoo at sarai.net (mitoo das) Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 15:10:05 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Drama Workshop by Rainbow Inc, Hyderabad Message-ID: <471F12F5.50205@sarai.net> Dear friends, Rainbow Inc. (Hyderabad) is conducting a three-day Drama workshop, details of which are given below. Please let us know if you are interested in attending this program. If not ……. we would appreciate your forwarding this to other interested individuals. Accommodation arrangements for outstation participants can be made if required. Looking forward to hearing from you. Regards, Vaneeta Bhattacharyya *Rainbow Inc. Hyd presents:* *"I want to be ME"* Each one of us has hidden within thoughts, ideas, feelings, emotions and a lot more that we find difficult to talk about, express or reveal. We shut these aspects within us and try and ignore them. When and if they surface they can leave us depressed, overwhelmed, angry and aggressive. As a result we end up hurting ourselves and others around us. Role-play and drama are techniques by which actual incidents can be enacted under the guise of fiction, thus offering us the protection we may need. It creates an atmosphere and space where we can express ourselves without feeling threatened. It also provides us with an alternative language – a language beyond the mere verbal. Drama allows unlimited possibilities for response. It allows one experiment with identity, discover and express dormant aspects of oneself, and practice new ways of relating. "Theatre is the fire which makes the pressure cooker explode and release the angels and devils dwelling inside it." "I Want to Be ME" is a three-day interactive workshop that puts participants through a series of drama techniques through which they can address concerns – be they social, cultural, personal and/or political. The experiential workshop is introduced in a private space with no observers and no public performances. The point of the use of drama techniques as a healing process is not to teach people how to act but to be used as a medium through which each participant participates at her/his level. The important aspect of this process is getting the group to accept each one for what they are and not imposing what they feel is right or wrong. Moving away from conditioned trends in thinking to a more open and liberal acceptance of what is and then taking it from there. *Workshop facilitator: Mahnoor Yar Khan * (drama therapist) Workshop open to adults only HURRY! Limited seats available! Venue: *Vidyaranya High School* * 'Green Gates'* * Opposite Secretariat* * Saifabad* * Hyderabad - 500004* * * Date: *Fri 30th Nov – Sun 2nd Dec 2007* Timings: *10:00 am – 5:00 pm* Fees (inclusive of lunch & refreshments): *Rs.2000/-* *For registration contact workshop coordinator: Vaneeta Bhattacharyya * Email: rainbowinc.hyd at gmail.com Mobile no: 09347056907 *Last date for registration:* *20th Nov 2007* *Bioprofile of facilitator: **Mahnoor Yar Khan has** **been using techniques in drama as a tool to address concerns and look for alternatives to those concerns as a healing process. She started her research in 1992 and has since conducted a series of workshops and training programs in Palestine, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Lebanon and India. Mahnoor has worked with adolescents, young adults, women, teachers, animators, IT professionals and others.* _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From ravikant at sarai.net Tue Oct 23 11:46:13 2007 From: ravikant at sarai.net (Ravikant) Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 11:46:13 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Fwd: Ghadar on DU Campus Message-ID: <200710231146.13325.ravikant@sarai.net> 'Ghadar on the DU Campus' Inauguration Oct 26, 2007, 4.30 pm Venue: University Convention Hall, Vice-Chancellor's Office *--------* Traces of the Uprising, 1857 Exhibition of photographs: a University of Delhi and Alkazi Foundation for the Arts collaboration Oct 26 – Nov 20, 2007 (10 am – 5 pm, Monday to Saturday) Venue: University Conference Centre* *(opposite the Botany Dept.) * * *The exhibition will showcase a selection of 19th Century photographs from the Alkazi Collection relating to three sectors of the Uprising: Delhi, Kanpur and Lucknow, with a special focus on Delhi.* *--------* Film Screenings *Shatranj ke Khilari*, Oct 29, 2007, 4 pm *Junoon*, Nov 12, 2007, 4 pm *Jhansi ki Rani*, Dec 3, 2007, 4 pm *Mirza Ghalib*, Dec 17, 2007, 4 pm Venue: Auditorium, School of Environmental Studies *--------* European Responses to the 1857 Rebellion in India Conference organized by the Department of Germanic and Romance Studies Oct 30 – 31, 2007, 10 am – 5 pm Venue: University Conference Centre * * *The conference will focus on continental European responses to the 1857 events – literary texts, press reports, and other documents that appeared in languages other than English. * *--------* The Revolt of 1857: Re-thinking colonial resistance Conference / Nov 26 – 28, 2007 Venue: University Conference Centre * * *The conference will bring together scholars to share their work on various issues related to the Revolt – its historiography, the events in Delhi, the military aspect, the intellectual impact and representations in popular and folk literature * *--------* Mirza Ghalib's letters read by Anis Azmi Nov 27, 2007, 2 pm Venue: University Conference Centre *--------* Qawwali: Miraj Ahmad Nizami and party Nov 28, 2007, 6.30 pm Venue: University Conference Centre *--------* Dastan Goi: Traditional Hindustani Oral Narrative by Mahmood Farooqui and Danish Hussain Dec 18, 2007, 4 pm Venue: University Conference Centre *--------* Special Lectures Dec 7, 2007, 4 pm Gautam Chakravarty Mutiny or War? Revisiting an old debate Jan 25, 2008, 4 pm Rudrangshu Mukherjee Nationalism and History Writing: S.N.Sen and S.B.Chaudhuri as historians of 1857 Feb 20, 2008, 4 pm Margrit Pernau Contested memories and memoirs. Remembering 1857 in Delhi Mar 4, 2008, 4 pm C.M. Naim The Three Delhis of Syed Ahmad Khan *--------* A Walk through Time Heritage walks: Northern Ridge, its monuments and 1857 * * *In 1857, as the rebels captured Shahjahanabad, the British retreated to the ridge and planned the recapture of the city. The northern ridge also has structures that represent periods and events that date back to earlier times. The heritage walks will cover the Vice-Chancellor's Office, the Flagstaff Tower, Chauburja, Pir Ghaib, Bara Hindu Rao, Ashoka Pillar and Mutiny Memorial.* Dates: November: 6, 7, 12, 17,19, 21, 24, 26, 28; December: 7, 8, 10, 15, 17, 22. Time: 10 am-1 pm Starting point for the walks: University Conference Centre For details regarding the walks, please contact: Srimanjari (srimanjari at gmail.com) / Sanjay Sharma (sanjaykusharma at yahoo.co.in) ------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From eapl at vsnl.net Wed Oct 24 12:16:23 2007 From: eapl at vsnl.net (Kitabmahal, The Fourth Floor) Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 08:46:23 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Understanding Oneness in Diversity art exhibition at Kitab Mahal, Fort from 25th till 31st October 2007 Message-ID: <732b4c5ea911cbbfdf46594e9f65178a@copley.ymlpsrv.com> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071024/9455bb9b/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From cahen.x at levels9.com Sun Oct 21 22:52:33 2007 From: cahen.x at levels9.com (xavier cahen) Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 19:22:33 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] pourinfos Newsletter / 21-10 to 09-11-2007 Message-ID: <471B8AD9.5050202@levels9.com> pourinfos.org l'actualité du monde de l'art / daily Art news ----------------------------------------------------------------------- >From Sunday, October 21, 2007 on Friday, November 9, 2007 (included) ------------------------------------------------------------------- (mostly in french) @ 001 (21/10/2007) Residence: Georges County Hospital Center Daumezon, Fleury les Aubrais, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35120-tit-Residence-Centre-Hospitalier-Departemental -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 002 (21/10/2007) Residence: artist, Center for Contemporary Art Pontmain, Pontmarin, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35121-tit-Residence-d-artiste-Centre-d-Art -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 003 (21/10/2007) Meetings: Les Rencontres Internationales, New cinema and contemporary art, Centre Pompidou, Jeu de Paume, Palais de Tokyo, ..., Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35124-tit--Les-Internationales-Nouveau-cinema-et -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 004 (21/10/2007) Meetings: 5th Congress InterProfessionnel of Contemporary Art, Art shoud do event? Lyon, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35126-tit--5-ieme-Congres-InterProfessionnel-de -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 005 (21/10/2007) Publication: « Rituels/Rituals », n° 79, ETC, quarterly magazine of contemporary art, Montreal, Canada. http://pourinfos.org/art-35133-tit--Rituels-Rituals-n-79-ETC-revue -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 006 (21/10/2007) publication: Protee, Imaginary ruins (Imaginaire des ruines), volume 35, number 2, Fall 2007, Department Arts and Letters from the University of Quebec, Chicoutimi, Canada. http://pourinfos.org/art-35134-tit-publication-Protee-Imaginaire-des -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 007 (21/10/2007) Publication: ART ++, editions HYX et le Laboratoire des Arts et des Médias, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35135-tit--ART-editions-HYX-et-le-Laboratoire -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 008 (21/10/2007) Publication: Linus Bill, New Book, nieves edition, Zurich, Switzerland. http://pourinfos.org/art-35138-tit--Linus-Bill-New-Book-nieves-edition- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 009 (21/10/2007) Publication: Sleep, N#10, Drome Magazine, Rome, Italy. http://pourinfos.org/art-35139-tit--Sleep-N-10-Drome-Magazine-Rome- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 010 (21/10/2007) Publication: The Hidden Sense: Synesthesia in Art and Science, Cretien van Campen, The Leonardo Book, MIT Press, San Francisco, Usa. http://pourinfos.org/art-35140-tit--The-Hidden-Sense-Synesthesia-in-Art-and -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 011 (21/10/2007) Publication: N°21, art.es, Madrid , Spain. http://pourinfos.org/art-35141-tit--N-21-art-es-Madrid- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 012 (21/10/2007) Publication: Gender, feminism and value of art (Genre, féminisme et valeur de l'art), Cahiers du Genre 43 / 2007,Revue aux éditions L’Harmattan, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35142-tit--Genre-feminisme-et-valeur-de-l-art- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 013 (21/10/2007) Job: Assistant Professor in Culture and Media,Eugene Lang College, The New School for Liberal Arts, New York, Usa. http://pourinfos.org/art-35143-tit--Assistant-Professor-in-Culture-and -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 014 (21/10/2007) Job: Assistant Professor, Department of Design and Computation Arts, Concordia University's Department of Design and Computation Arts, Montreal, Canada. http://pourinfos.org/art-35144-tit--Assistant-Professor-Department-of-Design -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 015 (21/10/2007) Formation: MFA in Photography program at The Ohio State University, Usa. http://pourinfos.org/art-35145-tit-Formation-MFA-in-Photography-program-at -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 016 (21/10/2007) Formation: Workshop experimental cinema, L'ETNA, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35146-tit-Formation-Atelier-de-cinema-experimental- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 017 (21/10/2007) Call: Prize of young creation-International Museum of the Republic Banana, Banana Republic. http://pourinfos.org/art-35149-tit--Prix-de-la-Jeune-Creation-Musee -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 018 (21/10/2007) Call: An exciting opportunity for aspiring & emerging curators, Vlaeberg, South Africa. http://pourinfos.org/art-35150-tit--An-exciting-opportunity-for-aspiring- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 019 (21/10/2007) Call: Convocatoria Internacional de Creación Audiovisual de la 10a edición de ZEMOS98, Sevilla, Spain. http://pourinfos.org/art-35151-tit--Convocatoria-Internacional-de-Creacion -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 020 (21/10/2007) Call: Call for the creation in 2008, Association Grain d’Image, Montpellier, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35152-tit--Appel-a-la-creation-2008-Association -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 021 (21/10/2007) Call: Nicolas Frespech, Théâtre Paris-Villette, Poptronics, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35153-tit--Nicolas-Frespech-Theatre-Paris-Villette- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 022 (21/10/2007) Call: "cut – past" call for project, Centre Culturel Bellegarde, Empreintes numériques, Toulouse, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35155-tit--Copie-Colle-appel-a-projet-Centre -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 023 (21/10/2007) Call: FESTIVAL OF LISTENING, phonurgia.org, Arles, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35156-tit--FESTIVAL-OF-LISTENING-phonurgia-org- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 024 (21/10/2007) Call: call for project, edition de Dorkbot Paris #7, Agnès B. à Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35157-tit-Appel-a-candiature-appel-a-projet-edition -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 025 (21/10/2007) Call: call for project, Négrepelisse, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35158-tit--Appel-a-projet-Negrepelisse- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 026 (21/10/2007) Call: In Transition Russia 2008, National Centres of Contemporary Art, Yekaterinburg and Moscow, Russia. http://pourinfos.org/art-35159-tit--In-Transition-Russia-2008-National -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 027 (22/10/2007) Residence: AIR-HMC, Hungarian Multicultural Center, Inc, Csopak, Hungary. http://pourinfos.org/art-35119-tit-Residence-AIR-HMC-Hungarian-Multicultural -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 028 (23/10/2007) Rencontres : extensions, Oct. 23 with Yves Buraud and Nicolas Tardy and December 4, 2007 with Henri Lefèvre And Gaétan Bulourde 2007, Ensci/Les Ateliers, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35130-tit--extensions-le-23-octobre-avec-Yves -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 029 (24/10/2007) Meetings: Christophe Bruno "net.artiste ", Wednesday, October 24, 2007, Observatoire des nouveaux médias, Ensad, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35127-tit--Christophe-Bruno-net-artiste- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 030 (25/10/2007) Meetings: Culture-free, hacker culture, Place Publique à Marseille, Marseille, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35123-tit--culture-libre-culture-hacker-Place -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 031 (25/10/2007) Publication: Mahi Binebine, Paintings, editions de l'Aube, la Tour d'Aigues, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35137-tit--Mahi-Binebine-Peintures-editions-de -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 032 (25/10/2007) Various: Opening of Lab-Labanque, Bethune, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35148-tit-Divers-Ouverture-de-Lab-Labanque-Bethune- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 033 (27/10/2007) Meetings: Art at the time of service company (L’art à l’heure de la société de services) Study Day organized by the magazine Marges, Saturday, October 27, 2007, INHA, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35128-tit--L-art-a-l-heure-de-la-societe-de -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 034 (27/10/2007) Meetings: Art in the Age of Competitive Cultural Nationalism, Discussion event, Market Gallery, Glasgow, United Kingdom. http://pourinfos.org/art-35132-tit--Art-in-the-Age-of-Competitive-Cultural -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 035 (27/10/2007) Publication: N# 8, Noël Dolla, review ART VIF, Nice, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35136-tit--numero-8-Noel-Dolla-revue-ART-VIF- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 036 (08/11/2007) Various: Opening of Galerie Griesmar & Tamer, Paris, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35147-tit-Divers-Ouverture-de-la-Galerie-Griesmar- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 037 (09/11/2007) Meetings: Art and Politics: Perspectives franco-american, International symposium - University Paris X-Nanterre, Nanterre, France. http://pourinfos.org/art-35122-tit--Arts-et-politique-Perspectives _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From manzilechar at yahoo.com Fri Oct 19 10:40:45 2007 From: manzilechar at yahoo.com (tangella Madhavi) Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:10:45 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] =?iso-8859-1?q?=5BAnnouncements=5D_docedge=9208=2C_?= =?iso-8859-1?q?Asian_Documentary_Forum?= Message-ID: <04F69B61-97A5-4166-8AC1-A4B9DB867E7E@yahoo.com> docedge’08 Asian Documentary Forum Deadline: November 30th, 2007 Organized by Satyajit Ray Film Television Institute In association with European Documentary Network Friends, The 5th edition of docedge International Documentary Workshop will take place from January 8th to 13th, 2008 at Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata, India. This edition of docedge aims to create a platform for intense dialogue on Asian socio-political reality as seen and interpreted by filmmakers through its first ever Asian Documentary Forum. The authors will present their new documentary ideas for feedback, sharing, and guidance and for possible fund/co-pro support. The workshop includes three days of tutoring and two days of pitching session with a panel of international commissioning editors. Maximum of 24 projects will be critically discussed, tutored and finally pitched to the distinguished panel. A team of internationally acknowledged professionals will train filmmakers through project development clinics and pitch labs in warm and caring environment where you further improve your ideas and visual pitch. The workshop also includes master classes, budget session, open forums on documentary issues and channel presentations with regular screening of international documentaries. docedge’08 is expected to appear as a great place of networking, finding co-production partners and improving authors’ ideas with quality professional input and a provocative place of sharing documentary thoughts. What to submit: Short synopsis – within 60 words only Synopsis – I page Treatment -2 pages Budget - One page formatted budget Co-production details – 1 page Production Company profile – 1 page CVs (director/producer) – 1 page Visual clip (DVD) – maximum of 4 minutes (the applicant can submit previous work in case visual material of the film in progress is not available at the time of submission. Fees: Applicants with Project – INR 6000 (Euro 120) Applicants as Observer – INR – 1000 (Euro 30) [limited slots – preferably students] The deadline for project submissions is November 30th, 2007 We would like to invite you to submit your application at your earliest. The online application/entry form is available at www.docedge.org from 25th of October 2007. Warm Wishes Nilotpal Majumdar email: nilotpalmajumdar at yahoo.com for docedge Team __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From gowharfazili at yahoo.com Thu Oct 25 10:16:33 2007 From: gowharfazili at yahoo.com (gowhar fazli) Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:46:33 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Burma Solidarity Press Release Message-ID: <844762.5918.qm@web60616.mail.yahoo.com> (Memorandum attached ) Burma Solidarity B-5/136, Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi – 110 029, Phone - +91 11 2619 7328, Email: burmasolidarity2007 at gmail.com Press Release Burma Solidarity submits Memorandum to the UN Special Envoy to Burma, Mr. Ibrahim Gambari Representatives of Burma Solidarity, an open platform of concerned people, activists, academicians, NGOs, students, teachers, journalists, politicians, civil liberties organisations and individuals presented a memorandum to the UN Special Envoy to Burma, Mr. Ibrahim Gambari at the Press Conference called by the UN at UN office, Delhi on 23 October 2007. They welcomed Mr. Gambari to India in the efforts to engage with Indian Government on current political situation and the continuing crisis in Burma. Burma Solidarity expressed its optimism on the discussions held by Mr. Gambari with the Prime Minister, Sri Manmohan Singh, Minister of External Affairs, Sri Pranab Mukherjee and the Foreign Secretary, Sri Shivshankar Menon. Burma Solidarity hopes that Mr. Gambari's visit will successfully lead to: India joining the rest of the international community in condemning and demanding an immediate halt to the violence of the Burmese military junta; India stopping its sale and supply of military hardware to the Burmese junta; India ceasing all investment in Burma including gas until there is a democratically elected government in Burma; India demanding the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, like it has done in the recent weeks but also other political prisoners who have been detained without free or fair trial; India not only unconditionally supporting commencement of the Tripartite Dialogue (as called by UN General Assembly in1994) and a genuine reconciliation but also publicly stating that it backs such an effort by the United Nations. India working along with countries in the Asian region such as China as well as the regional forum such as ASEAN for restoration of multi-party democracy in Burma. Sd/- Burma Solidarity 23 October 2007, New Delhi Contact persons: Achan Mungleng : +91 9868 240809 Kim : +91 9810 476273 Sahana Basavapatna : +91 9968 296202 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For more info visit our blog http://burmasolidarity.wordpress.com/ Burma Solidarity Memorandum to Gambari Press Release.doc 29K View as HTML Open as a Google document Download Unfortunately, the balance of nature decrees that a super-abundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares. Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit. Peter Ustinov __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From gowharfazili at yahoo.com Thu Oct 25 10:21:15 2007 From: gowharfazili at yahoo.com (gowhar fazli) Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:51:15 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Burma Uprising... a talk by Praful Bidwai at Ramjas College 26th.. 1 to 3 pm Message-ID: <141736.65184.qm@web60623.mail.yahoo.com> A Talk On Peoples’ Uprising In Burma By Praful Bidwai 26th October 07 1 pm to 3 pm RAMJAS COLLEGE Facilitated by Amnesty International India Unfortunately, the balance of nature decrees that a super-abundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares. Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit. Peter Ustinov __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From gowharfazili at yahoo.com Thu Oct 25 10:29:34 2007 From: gowharfazili at yahoo.com (gowhar fazli) Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 21:59:34 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] A talk on peoples uprising in Burma Praful Bidwai, 26th, 1 pm @ Ramjas College Message-ID: <243982.51758.qm@web60612.mail.yahoo.com> A Talk On Peoples’ Uprising In Burma By Praful Bidwai 26th October 07 1 pm to 3 pm RAMJAS COLLEGE Facilitated by Amnesty International India Unfortunately, the balance of nature decrees that a super-abundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares. Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit. Peter Ustinov __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From jenny.chithra at gmail.com Thu Oct 25 04:03:01 2007 From: jenny.chithra at gmail.com (jenny chithra) Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 04:03:01 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] fourth posting: caste and gender in the urban space of Keralam Message-ID: Dear friends, Like we mentioned in our last posting, during our field trip, we came across many other cases that were very similar to that of Chithra Lekha's. Below we give some of the details. 1. Whenever we mentioned Chithra Lekha's case to anyone, they always told us about another Dalit Christian woman, Elizabeth, living in a nearby town called Pazhayangadi. She was also harassed by her fellow auto rickshaw drivers (again from backward caste communities and belonging to the trade unions of the Left) branded as a loose woman and was forced to leave the field. We could not talk to her as we were told that the situation was still tense and it would be best to keep away at that point. 2. Chithra Lekha told us about a Dalit woman, Shyamala who was at present driving an auto rickshaw in another small-town in Kannur. Her auto rickshaw was burned 8 years ago and though people had inquired about this when Chithra Lekha's problems had become an issue, the woman had refused to speak out. We also came to know that at present she had close familial connections with people who were office bearers of the Marxist party. 3.We met a Muslim woman, Jazeera, again in a small town in Kannur, who was fighting against her fellow drivers from the Left trade union and belonging to the Muslim community. She was also being accused of being a "loose woman" and was beaten up by her fellow drivers. She had registered a police complaint but as a result her employer had refused to let rent out his auto rickshaw. He was afraid that it would be burned like Chithra Lekha's and he would suffer loss. At the time when we met her, she was planning to meet the Chief Minister to register a complaint against the harassment she was facing. 4. In another town (close to Jazeera's place) we heard that a Thiyya woman had committed suicide following some allegations made about her involvement with a fellow driver from the same community. In all the four cases above, the reaction of other auto drivers and people of the region were the same. They all blamed the women for being loose, for exceeding their limits, etc. These women were always spoken about without any respect or consideration. As we mentioned in our last post, there were also women who expressed satisfaction with the leftist trade unions. It is interesting to note that fellow auto drivers, spoke without much regard for these women too. When we went looking for them, we were old that they hardly come for work and could be found at home. However, we found at least two of the women with their autos. These women also belittled their trade and talked about doing other "side-business", like selling night gowns, for making ends meet. On the other hand, Elizabeth, Chithralekha and Jazeera were all efficient workers, who were able to earn more than their fellow, male, auto drivers. Christy, Jenny -- (All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave) From jenny.chithra at gmail.com Thu Oct 25 04:04:14 2007 From: jenny.chithra at gmail.com (jenny chithra) Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 04:04:14 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] fifth posting: caste and gender in the urban space of Keralam Message-ID: dear friends, In this post we want to write a few things about the way in which the Left strategically engages with the Malabar region. >From the outside, most panchayaths in North Kerala, even the most interior places, looks urbanized or at least like small towns. Most panchayaths are marked with small bazaars and bus routes that lead to the main town. The panchayath area in which Chithralekha lived and tried to work as an auto rickshaw driver is also similar. The auto rickshaw stand where her assailants still spend time reading the newspaper has a small bakery, a tea shop, a Photostat cum STD booth, a vegetable shop and a bus stop with buses that come every 10 minutes. Yet if you are from such an area, you would surely know that this urban development combines itself with a very conventional and conservative mind-set severely marked by strict codes concerning caste, gender, religion and sexuality. The minute you get down from the bus, like we did in the Edaatu stand, you know that you are being watched, scrutinized and discussed mainly because you happen to be a woman. Anyone who has lived in such areas can immediately recognize the very rustic, prying, gossiping nature of such panchayaths. This seemingly harmless attitude can at times turn into large-scale cultural policing at any time. In fact, when everyone and everything new or different is discussed, what is also being reiterated are the given codes of ideological conduct. Anyone subverting these codes or exceeding given limits are noticed, talked about and dealt with. Such policing happens at various levels and in many ways the Left political institution in Malabar is deeply entrenched in this local culture of the small-town, where ideologies are kept warm through constant prying, gossiping and cultural policing. This is what happened in the case of Chithra Lekha too. The Left came forward with all its power to play an active role in suppressing Chithra Lekha's aspirations, which in many ways challenged given ideological codes. We feel that is very important to understand the very local nature of this intervention by the Left. We could feel it everywhere during our field trip. We came to know that when Chithra Lekha complained against her harassers, the Leftist auto rickshaw drivers union, unleashed a huge public campaign against her. Huge boards were written and notices distributed where in Chithra Lekha was accused of loose sexual morals. Her mother was called a whore and the activists of the action committee were termed pimps. With this kind of a campaign, Chithra Lekha, who had once been a very popular driver – with many preferring her to the men in the auto stand –­­ suddenly fell from grace. All the local men we met told us about her loose morals. Women talked about her arrogant and unwomanly nature. In distant auto rickshaw stands, auto rickshaw drivers, both men and women, told us again and again that the fault was all hers. Again and again we heard the same message: "Yes, burning her auto rickshaw was very wrong, but she was an immoral woman and that is why all this happened." In other words: SHE ASKED FOR IT. And the party-aided local men were always there to give it to her or any other such persons, who try to wriggle out of the strict codes of conduct laid out by various cultural ideologies. We saw a similar pattern in all the other cases of sexual harassment among women auto rickshaw drivers. Most of them were from developing panchayats like that of Chithra Lekha and were harassed by men with the support of Leftist trade unions. However, we would not call this desire for cultural policing as belonging to the party alone. Instead we would say that this is the cultural desire of the region also, which the party strategically uses. christy, jenny -- (All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave) From ravikant at sarai.net Thu Oct 25 15:20:25 2007 From: ravikant at sarai.net (Ravikant) Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:20:25 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: GUJARAT: Tehelka's Groundbreaking Investigation Message-ID: <200710251520.25521.ravikant@sarai.net> ---------- आगे भेजे गए संदेश ---------- Subject: GUJARAT: Tehelka's Groundbreaking Investigation Date: गुरुवार 25 अक्टूबर 2007 14:40 From: "Anand Tehelka" To: sanand at tehelka.com *The Most Important Story of Our Time** * *Tonight, October 25th, Tehelka breaks a groundbreaking investigation of national and international importance on Aaj Tak and Headlines Today at 7 pm. * *The entire story, on GUJARAT, will also be available in a 108-page special issue of the Tehelka weekly magazine which hits the stands tomorrow morning. * *It can also be read on Tehelka's website, www.tehelka.com and www.tehelkahindi.com from 8 pm (IST) tonight. * *The investigation establishes the chilling truth of one of the worst societal ruptures in modern Indian history. * *(*Please pass on the information to everyone.) -- S. Anand Asst Editor Tehelka M-76, Greater Kailash-2 New Delhi--110048 Ph: 011-41638753 Mob: +91-9971433117 ------------------------------------------------------- From s_kavula at yahoo.com Sun Oct 21 00:03:04 2007 From: s_kavula at yahoo.com (saraswati) Date: Sat, 20 Oct 2007 11:33:04 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Coastal Wind farms Message-ID: <30233.33011.qm@web36603.mail.mud.yahoo.com> If US does it in Texas...why not here in India? Why does Bush send us his Dirty Nuclear energy??? saraswati From: Reuters Published October 19, 2007 10:29 AM Texas coastal wind farms advance despite critics RELATED ARTICLES Texas Plans Nation's Largest Offshore Wind Farm Mammoth, $200 Million Wind Farm Proposed in Iowa Largest Ever Wind Turbine Deal Signed U.S. to issue report in autumn on Mass. wind project HOUSTON (Reuters) - Two companies developing more than 600 megawatts of wind generation along the Texas coastline aren't daunted by threats of hurricane damage or opposition from environmentalists and powerful ranching interests, executives said Thursday. PPM Energy, a U.S subsidiary of Iberdrola's Scottish Power unit, and Babcock & Brown are developing two wind farms in Kenedy County, a thinly populated county south of Corpus Christi. Both companies expect to produce power by the end of 2008. The Texas Public Utility Commission on Wednesday blocked a coalition of environmental groups, backed by the powerful King Ranch interests of South Texas, from intervening in a case related to the sitting of a transmission line to move power from the two coastal wind farms to the Texas grid. The mostly deserted county "is a bull's-eye" for potential wind along the Gulf of Mexico, John Calaway, chief development officer for Babcock & Brown, told the Gulf Coast Power Association in Houston. "The wind blows when we need it. It follows the load beautifully." Texas leads the nation as the state with the most wind-generated power, but most wind-farm development is occurring in west Texas and the Panhandle where construction has led to congestion along existing transmission paths. West Texas wind typically blows the strongest at night and during the spring and autumn while Texas electric demand peaks in the afternoon hours in July and August. Wind along the coast varies little during the year, said Raimund Grube, managing director of business development for PPM Energy. "All the energy is coming from one direction; it makes sitting turbines much easier." Coastal wind farms won't require costly upgrades to the existing transmission network, but the projects must deal with the threat of hurricane-force wind. To survive hurricanes, Calaway said Babcock & Brown has developed special construction techniques for foundations to support its turbines while Grube said PPM will use shorter turbine blades which can survive high-wind conditions. Both coastal and west Texas wind projects "are very viable resources," said John Moore, a director of Navigant Consulting. "The south Texas wind has the profile advantage" of being available when power prices are highest during afternoon peak hours. Some environmental groups have complained that coastal wind turbines may interfere with migrating birds, but Calaway said radar testing on its property show that most birds fly at least 2,000 feet above the ground, well above spinning turbines. Even so, Babcock & Brown is developing control systems to allow turbines to be shut when unfavorable weather forces birds to fly at lower altitudes, closer to turbines. Although Babcock & Brown canceled a lease option to build an offshore wind farm near Kenedy County due to economics, Calaway said offshore wind may work when projects are sited closer to large population centers, such as the East Coast. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071020/f3187380/attachment.html From dhatr1i at yahoo.com Tue Oct 16 16:15:46 2007 From: dhatr1i at yahoo.com (we wi) Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 03:45:46 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to junaid mails on Invasion of Indian culture In-Reply-To: <32144e990710152034w6959cd07yc28dfe2cdca4858d@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <110371.6114.qm@web45507.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Dear Partha, Go through the chain mail in particular the one below YUG,MERU... ? You will come to know how you wrote and then read my response on Indian-ness. Any way I received the details about you yesterday! Although Its just a second matter for me to manage you by controlling all my emotions but, ...let me finish! --As per the proverb, "Robbers can steal Material wealth but they have nothing to do with knowledge" The relevance is, despite of people tornishing(ruining the physical existance), the sacredness and the knowledge imbibed into the lives which no body can eliminate/anhillate. This is the point in mentioning the Yug history and MERU or sankalp. My family practice vaidic karma(there are daily early morning prayers starts with GAYATRI,afternoon nivedan before lunch ,upvas,vrata and festivals(lets say for the purpose of relative gathering atleast) apart from that my father offer YEARWISE ABDIKA(the day on which the death of his forefathers occured long ago)(SAMVATSARIK) to his died elders (ancestors and inlaws for remembering them atleast I can say) ) and believe in god and good. Ours is not the only family following this so strictly, Like the politicians and coroporate do the things in such a way that common people couldn't believe(unless they practically experience) and prove, the God is also the same. Also 1) You tell me what exactly you expect me to do or people adviced you to do with me??? 2) Let me know what exactly you do in meetings? I am verymuch interested to know how your meetings are different than that of mine? Though you are partha, I am not lord krishna to offer you special vision TO SEE ALL THE LOGICS. P.S: I will delete this account by this November. Regards, Dhatri. Partha Dasgupta wrote: Hi Dhatri, Was out of office on meetings second half of the day, and though I did see your mail, didn't get the time to sit down and respond. To get back to the issue of the debate, I fail to see where my mail was provoking as all I did is question the provenance of your claims about J&K being a 'Hindu Nation' wherein you replied with a host of information about Brahma and the ages... but nothing in response to the issues that were raised. If you think I am 'skipping' your questions that's because I didn't see any questions in the mass of information you copied and pasted from a previous mail. In case you really have questions, why don't you do what most people do - and list the questions out? I'm sure you'll notice that's precisely what I did. And as a Computer Graduate you'll be familiar with the concept of logic and framing a statement or a question. As for the issue of your being a male or a female - that's irrelevant. This is a debate forum where we exchange ideas and concepts irrespective of gender, caste or religion - or even region of current domicile. In case my questions are not clear as to why I thought your response to the post was a complete tangent and you responded to a mention that has not been made here, do let me know, and I will list them out again along with a copy of this initial post which has no reference to Brahma, Yug, Meru and all the other stuff you have responded with. I do not question your faith in God, as that is a personal belief and can never be proved, but only believed. However, I do question the chain of logic you have followed - and if you really think as a Computer Graduate that the logic is complete, then as one IT professional to another, show me the chain of logic without the copy and paste which hides the issue and presents no facts. Regards, Partha ................................... On 10/15/07, we wi wrote: Dear Partha, Initially you tried to force your view on me through SARAI by writing a provoking mail. Its ok. Simple reason junaid is questioning the sovereignty of INDIA and making false statements about JAMMU & KASHMIR and creating fallacious supportive argument to MUSLIMS. Your arguments are framed in such a way that INDIA is a dumb in many ways. May be I am dumb but what about India? I know you were asked to condemn whatever I say. You simply skipping of many of my questions for different reasons. You tell me what exactly you expect me to do or people ad viced you to do with me??? Write down in plain direct words, and don't assume that since dhatri is a female hence can be manageable or dominated. Regards, Dhatri. Partha Dasgupta wrote: Dear Dhatri, Am replying to this off the post for the simple reason that this is a dialogue between you and me, and Sarai doesn't really have a role to play. Also, what I'd like to make clear is that I don't doubt your IT skills (since you're obviously online and replying to Sarai). What I did deny is the veracity of Wikepedia as a source. However, Gandharv, Meru, etc aside - I really don't get the link between what Junaid said and your response(s). Traditional or not, you obviously know and use modern technology and information as well as sources of reference, yet you accept a few like Wikepedia which makes it clear that there is no veracity in it's statements and deny others that have documented sources of verification. It is a known fact that Aryans (and the caste system) came to the Indian subcontinent well after the Dravid's were in residence - yet they along with all others have been assimilated into India. Do you deny this fact? It is also accepted that religion has nothing to do with region, and something I presume that both of us are agreeing to. I would really like to understand the answers you have given me with reference to Junaid's mail and my questions as I completely fail to understand what points of the debate you are responding to by mentioning the Peacock Throne or temple. Let us forget Caste reservation as that is another debate all together. Regards, Partha ....................................... On 10/13/07, we wi wrote: Partha, Really? EVEN I AM INTO IT, I am a POST GRADUATE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE. Whats your greatness of somebody else greatness of being into 21st century/IT etc., But I am traditional(not orthodox and not modern). GANDHARV,YAKSH,KINNER,KIMPURUSH are all fall into divine category. (Holiness/--sainthood in your terms :P) Himalayas are divine and demons occupied them now. MERU is at MANAS SAROVAR -- occupied by CHINA, kashmire SHARADA DEVI .... LANKAYAM SHANKARI. Sharda temple is in J&K at POK(PAKISTAN OCCUPIED KASHMIR). >>I do hope you have read up on Indian history and discovered that many INDIAN >>people converted to Islam because of oppression by caste. They are still residents >>of India with an equal right to vote or express their opinion. While there are so many other religions are available and More freedom is there in them, Why do anybody choose Islam? They do have their own reasons and how does ones anger reflect except causing the disintegration((self or community)) due to force/confusion created due to exploitation of the system by somebody or self for whatever interests? Every religion is copy cat of HINDUISM, and do have dual categories why ??? Why reservations in India in the name of caste??? Why religion and caste is there in Indian life then from birth,schooling,jobs,death??? Have you ever heard about SRI CHAKRA? Could you please tell me the impact on foreign astrological calculations(websites and astologers foreign) and their truthfulness due to expulsion of PLUTO as a PLANET from the Solar system? Does that mean Whatever they predicted is wrong? Doesn't it clearly show they looted money through credit cards??? How will they adjust this expulsion and calculate the time now??? Should anybody in the world believe it or not??? I understood that you write something whatever I post. Leave Wikepedia,scriptures what about this. In Every part of India, some birth,marriage,death used to happen on seconds(least measurable time frame) basis apart from that people are there living and practicing the below line into their daily prayers(Officially at temples and personally at home). THIS IS REAL thing happening along with TIME. Even the same is the official calender for GOI(Government of India). Pl try to listen any Indian Radio channel(Irrespective of language) at morning 5:56(IST) minutes "PRAVARTA MANASYA, ADYA BRAHMANA,DWITEEYA PARAADHE,SWEETAVARAH KALPE, VAIVASWATA MANVANTARE, KALI YUGE,PRDHAMA PAADE, JAMBU DWEEPE, BHARATA VARSHE, BHARATA KHADE, MERU... ASMIN VARTHAMAANA VYAVAHARIK CHANDRAMAANEENA ,PRABHAVAADI SHASTI SAMVATSARAANAM MADHYE,SRI SARVAJITH NAAM VATSARE,DAKSHINAAYANE,VARSHA RUTAU,AASWAYUJA MAASE,SUKLA PAKSHE,VIDIYA MYAYAM,STHIRA VASARA Translation: _________ Adya Brahmanaha : Beginning from Brahma's life. Dvitheeya Parardhe : we are now in 2nd Parardha. Sweta Varaha Kalpe : In Swetha Varaha Kalpa. Vyvaswata manvantare : Manu's name is Vyvaswatha Kaliyuge : We are now in Kali Yug Pratham paade : Ist Pada—just in 52nd century Of Brahma. Christian Year 2007 ---- SARVAJITH NAAM vathsare (yeaar) Ayan: ---- DAKSHINAYAN RUTU ---- VARSH RUTU Month: ---- ASHVAYUJ MAase Paksh: ---- Sukla Pakshe Thithi: ---- VIDIYA Day ( SATURDAY) ---- STHIRA vasara Too deep explanation: ___________________ KRITA YUG = 17,28,000 YEARS TRETA YUG = 12,96,000 YEARS DWAPARA YUG = 8,64,000 YEARS KALI YUG = 4,32,000 YEARS --------------------------------- TOTAL= 43,20,000 YEARS --------------------------------- 1000 CHATUR YUGAS = 1 day of Brahma ( kalpa) 1000 CHATUR YUGAS = 1 night of Brahma. 2000 CHATUR YUGAS = 1 day & night of Brahma 360 DAYS OF BRAHMA = 1 year of Brahma. 100 YEARS OF BRAHMA = Brahma's full age and that is the duration of the great Deluge too. 50 YEARS OF BRAHMA = PARARDHA. TWO PARARDHAS = Life span of Brahma i.e., 100 Years which is equal to: 31104,000,00,00,000 or 311040 billion human years. After that, pralaya equal to the duration of two Parardhas take place, and at its end, a new cycle of creation starts with a new Brahma at its head. 1) laya, at the end of a mahayuga, when the physical world is destroyed; 2) pralaya, at the end of a kalpa, when both the physical and subtle worlds are destroyed; and 3) mahapralaya at the end of a mahakalpa, when all three worlds (physical, subtle and causal) are absorbed into Shiv. Brahma has now completed one Parardha. He is now in His 51st year. He has thus passed 50 X 360 = 18,000 Kalpas. The first Kalpa is called Brahma and the last Padma. The current Kalpa is SWETA VARAHA KALPA. Within each Kalpa 14 Manus reign; a Manvantara, or period of a Manu, therefore is consequently one-fourteenth part of a Kalpa, or day of Brahma. "In the present Kalpa, six Manus, of whom Swayambhu was the first, have already passed away; the present being Vaivaswata. Brahma creates and his own life time is 2 Parardhas i.e; 100 years of Brahma and His date of death is certain. Historians/foreigners measure time scale(this age,that age,cabbage and cauliflower or whatever flower into your ears or some body else hair). But the above one(SANKALP) has been coming as a part of Indian way of life and will continue to go. BRAHMA(out of 100) COMPLETED 52 YEARS AND 48 REMAINING, I could not foresee the KALI ERA and the life ahead at Brahma's 100th year(at pralaya time). If I say because you got married to a christian(though its a conceptual one, I doubt on you), one Hindu girl lost a good husband and got unmarried and living whats your reaction??? Even after my spoon feeding mail, explaining the relevance(depicting the false facts like PEACOCK THROWN WAS BUILT BY MUGHAL KINGS thats true but the material used is the stolen/robbed one,KASHMIRI PUNDITS made muslims as slaves) I doubt your understanding skills and your employer/business capabilities. Regards, Dhatri. Partha Dasgupta < parthaekka at gmail.com > wrote: Dear Dhatri, Once again you jump around the debate on a tangent which has no relevance to what Junaid had mentioned. Also, since Sarai is a public forum for debate, we all raise issues here - like the one you had raised about Zero being discovered by India. In any case, to go back to the points you raised. 1. Jammu & Kashmir being a "Hindu" kingdom. If you are referring to the rulers being 'Hindu', then Junaid has shown you the fallacy. If you refer to the majority being 'Hindu' then that to is a fallacy. Firstly because J&K has a large Muslim population as well as Tribals. I presume you are aware that a 'Hindu' is one who believes in the trinity of Bramha, Vishnu and Shiva - and that tribals follow Yakshas and Yakhsis - which means that they are not 'Hindu'. Further, India is not a 'Hindu' country. The only Hindu nation I'm aware of is Nepal. And as you must be aware, the Hindu king there has caused much pain and death till there was a public revolt. The 'India' you are referring to pre-independence was actually a non-federation of independents rulers (who would more often than not be warring and looting other kingdoms). And if you really want to go that far back, shouldn't 'India' reject all tribes but the Dravid's who are the original inhabitants of this geographical place. By your logic of everyone being 'migrants', then all races in India other than Dravid's are migrants. So, are you going to give up your claim to India? More importantly, you seem to continuously get confused between religion and the region of people. If for example a Bengali converts to Buddhism, would you insist on sending him to Japan (even though Buddhism's roots are in India) or if he converted to being a Muslim does that change the fact that he's still a Bengali? I do hope you have read up on Indian history and discovered that many INDIAN people converted to Islam because of oppression by caste. They are still residents of India with an equal right to vote or express their opinion. 2. You use Wikepedia as a reference (and so do I). However, as an IT professional am aware that Wikepedia is a collective effort where anyone can make a post. And that the veracity of information there is not complete - which is why it gives references to places it has used information from as 'probable' history. 3. The article you've mentioned about the Kohinoor makes it very clear that most of it's sources are rumours and hearsay - which is why the mention conflicting sources and claims so that the reader is open to make his / her interpretation. It also makes it clear that ownership claims have been made by India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran as the actual origin is a matter of historical dispute. 4. From what I understood of Junaid's mail, he talked about the existence and oppression of Muslims in the princely state of J&K (which didn't have much to do with the Kohinoor or the Peacock Throne) which is why there was a revolt - much like there is one in the Hindu nation of Nepal. 5. From what little I've read and understood, Indian history and tradition is a mix of Mughal, Mongol, Portugese, Dravid, Roman, Grecian, Aryan and a host of other influences. The thought of India I have always loved as a secular nation (even before independence, actually) that assimilated concepts and people - inclusive and not exclusive. If you really are a follower of Indian tradition then look at how we inculcated all these influences (including English as an official language!) and used it to grow and move forward instead of closing our minds. Finally, are we looking at a resolution, are are we insistent upon staying enveloped in blind hate that shouts down everything except our angst irrespective of the logic. Maybe Juniad's angst is not as recent as yours, but it does exist, as does yours. So, what do we do? Keep fighting on small irrelevant issues like the Kohinoor or look at a way to resolve the larger issue that is causing so much pain, death and misery? What's more important? If you still think that your mail was not off on a tangent from the issues raised by Junaid, please fell free to correct me. However, I could not find any link between the points raised by Junaid and your response, or any facts behind your claims (with even Wikepedia making it abundantly clear that it can not verify sources). Rgds, Partha .............................. On 10/13/07, we wi < dhatr1i at yahoo.com> wrote: Dear Partha, Why SARAI was being chosen as an avenue to gossip and rumour about JAMMU and KASHMIR? Junaid writings are clearly objectionable because of many reasons. Among them let me pinpoint 1) Hindu kings did this, that against whatever so called Muslim population? Clearly Jammu and Kashmir is a HINDU KINGDOM like wise many kingdoms and kings and so as then population and culture. Let me ask you in a country/kingdom where there exists only HINDUS(by any time), if anybody else exists aren't they migrants? What do they be called? Instead of living peacefully why would they continue attacking heritage and culture? If they started doing things in wrong way how will authorities react? Going further If they continue ransacking by misusing the liberty What to do? 2) PEACOCK THROWN was built with Koh-i-Noor. The history of kohinoor is! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh-i-Noor . Junaid clearly do not know this. With lack of knowledge like this he is writing on SARAI. Forget the manners but the schools they studied taught wrong lectures, the atmosphere they grew taught -ve and violence. Did they question themselves before doing any such -ve,violent acts? for just 1000 years of history and existence they are shouting like this then for being own the history and existence of unmeasurable age how Hinduism/India/Indians/Hindu followers should feel about and react??? I can produce sin,cos and cotangents also if you QUOTE my replies are unrelated tangent. But if you look at mails on SARAI list, they are in such a provoking way that atleast I could not show lenience. By writing like this I just invest 5 minutes of my writing and 30 minutes of surfing time. So junaid comments on 1) JAMMU & KASHMIR with its culture and population then and KASHMIR PUNDITS (now)is totally wrong. 2) ISLAM is a myth just. Not only junaid but many are doing the same. I am just an ordinary person and with the above justification hope you will not use the word unrelated tangent again. Regards, Dhatri. Partha Dasgupta < parthaekka at gmail.com> wrote: Dear Dhatri, One of the reasons we were asked off the list for two weeks was that you keep going off on unrelated tangents. Please, please stick to replying to points raised in the current post, and if you wish to respond to another post, then do it on that post and not any one that you happen to click on. Rgds, Partha On 10/12/07, we wi < dhatr1i at yahoo.com> wrote: Junaid, Though people are busy in false accusations,interpretations and assaults on INDIA, Its culture and to support this there is no need to argue endlessly, but to enlighten people like you who are doing intentionally, I am writing this again. I used enlighten because either 1) You don't know about Indian history and culture-- to support this is I prefer to use your earlier comments on PEACOCK THROWN. I request you to go through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh-i-Noor, 2) If you spread rumors purposefully, then I remind you that you will not succeed like Pakistan and China. Indian heritage is rich and culture is widespread across the globe. Every HINDU home contain, atleast few ancestral,cultural,spiritual,traditional wealths/residue whatever you say. From the beginning of its origin to the present, ISLAM produced violence that is the fact though its unfortunate and so as people. So violent in thoughts leave 1/2 exceptional cases for whatever reasons . You can say whatever but ISLAM IS MIGRATION TO INDIA. Please just keep it in mind. Regards, Dhatri. --------------------------------- Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. _________________________________________ 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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: -- Partha Dasgupta +919811047132 --------------------------------- Tonight's top picks. What will you watch tonight? Preview the hottest shows on Yahoo! TV. -- Partha Dasgupta +919811047132 --------------------------------- Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha! Play Monopoly Here and Now (it's updated for today's economy) at Yahoo! Games. -- Partha Dasgupta +919811047132 --------------------------------- Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. -- Partha Dasgupta +919811047132 --------------------------------- Shape Yahoo! in your own image. Join our Network Research Panel today! -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/defanged-26368 Size: 59030 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071016/76280f2a/attachment.bin From pawan.durani at gmail.com Thu Oct 18 10:27:45 2007 From: pawan.durani at gmail.com (Pawan Durani) Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:27:45 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Article 370 Message-ID: <6b79f1a70710172157l3ef80d09vae9ac4098796b9b5@mail.gmail.com> http://ikashmir.net/article370/index.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071018/613150e7/attachment.html From pawan.durani at gmail.com Mon Oct 22 08:07:31 2007 From: pawan.durani at gmail.com (Pawan Durani) Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 08:07:31 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] images from Kashmir In-Reply-To: <6b79f1a70710211935v3867397cu371bbfb0f54574e4@mail.gmail.com> References: <47e122a70710200809p7016eaa0x1fd0d9dddce47e50@mail.gmail.com> <6b79f1a70710211935v3867397cu371bbfb0f54574e4@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <6b79f1a70710211937w40744b87u35f5cfbb7bb80354@mail.gmail.com> Inder , Isnt this Maqbool Butt the one who had looted a bank and later killed the Bank Manager. Does he deserve to e called a Saheed - E-Azam ? Disappointed with your ideas and thoughts !!! On 10/20/07, inder salim wrote: > > 1. Idd Gah, Srinagar, text: Mustaq Ahmad PANDIT s/o Abdul Gaffar Pandit > > 2. Idd Gah, Srinagar, Text: Saheed-e-Azam, Mohd. Maqbool Bhat, Date of > Martydom, 11th of Feb. 1982. The People of Kashmir are still > waiting for his mortal remains to be buried here which are still with > Govt of India. ( practically the grave is empty or.. ) > > 3. Self Portrait in Al-e-Hachi ( dried vegetable bottle gourd, Gia ) > used by Kashmiris during winter > > 4. Amirakadal Srinagar, a view > 5. Security man upon the shiva temple roof in Verinag. > 6. Routine checking in down town srinagar > 7. Abandoned hosue opposite CRPF post. > > please click > > > http://indersalim.livejournal.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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > 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/20071022/580a294b/attachment.html From pawan.durani at gmail.com Mon Oct 22 23:09:16 2007 From: pawan.durani at gmail.com (Pawan Durani) Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 23:09:16 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] images from Kashmir In-Reply-To: <47e122a70710220731t28534f4dmc3e05a6c7c32bd01@mail.gmail.com> References: <47e122a70710200809p7016eaa0x1fd0d9dddce47e50@mail.gmail.com> <6b79f1a70710211935v3867397cu371bbfb0f54574e4@mail.gmail.com> <47e122a70710220731t28534f4dmc3e05a6c7c32bd01@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <6b79f1a70710221039o1a8a716dsba560791527e15d1@mail.gmail.com> Inder Ji , With all respect to you and your artistic vision, I still am unable to understand why does any ones [ even yours ] artistic vision arise at the cost of Indian nation or Hinduism as a religion. Why not at the cost of others ? I saw your website / blog and found you standing naked on Martand (sun) temple . Would you dare to do the same thing at other religious place of worship ? I would wait for your answer and your demonstration to prove your point. With regards Pawan Durani On 10/22/07, inder salim wrote: > > Dear Pawan > > without mincing words, please feel free to call me an idiot. I am. > This is what i feel as a human being in this animal world. In parts i > feel that this animal thing is within too, and that is what i want to > confront. Of course, there are given norms ( usually aesthetic ) for a > an artist to follow and realize her/his true being, but as on date i > doubt everything, may be it is my problem, but this gives me strength > to sabatoge everything, everything. > > I believe, I am dancing with the sacred and the profane > simultaneously As Ghalib suggests that ' let us merge Heaven and Hell > for a new space for a morning walk or so'. You are free to dance > with what you want to but i create a space for myself and for those > who want to do things differently. We are obsessed to read political > in everything, if the image cleverly suggests so. But i guess every > blade of grass in Kashmir is not bereft of politics. Please read the > foliage around the emtpy grave stone of Maqbool Bhat. or not even, how > does it matter, he is not there even. But this empty grave has created > a content within the form of Kashmir conflict. You will agree there, i > guess. > > If there is some ' artist' inside me then i must have also played the > role of an observer in the valley. I remember, the role of Barbareek > in Mahabharata. He was beheaded, not only because he hurt the foot of > dear Lord Krishna with his sharp dancing magical arrow, but he > believed that his skills are always at the service of the weak, the > opressed. In short he was unable to celebrate a war winner. Now for > the real players of the war this is most unusal. So he agreed to play > the role of a witness to the war. Imagine the pain of a head which is > living withiout the body. Imagine such a set of eyes which can not > move to action and decide. It is a quite paradoxical, that is what > charms me, spiritually also. > > Was Barbareek an artist? Just before the legendary Virath Sarup, I > guess, Arjuna also wanted to be an artist , but the Lord denied him a > chance to be. In this sense there is nothing celebratory to be an > artist as conventionally we know, but to be an artist, means to outwit > the Lord even. Barbareek indeed outwitted the Lord. > > Artists as on date are trying to play some role in the on going issues > of the world, but deep down we all know that art is a very small force > in the world now. It is run by big things, the market, the religion, > the war, and the politics which emerges from the dynamics of all this. > > I am really surprised when i hear that the cartoons, or a book, or a > demonstration is taking a centre stage in the politics or media, But > believe me, the real players of the game are hardly worried abuot > these things. Again what is really intersting that the people in > general react to the such things, and that is what works as opium for > artists. > > I am happy that u reacted to the images, May be that would give me > some more inspiration to do more. i am usually so lonely. My audience > is my 'muse' > > lot of love > is > > On 10/22/07, Pawan Durani wrote: > > Inder , > > > > Isnt this Maqbool Butt the one who had looted a bank and later killed > the > > Bank Manager. Does he deserve to e called a Saheed - E-Azam ? > > > > Disappointed with your ideas and thoughts !!! > > > > > > > > > > On 10/20/07, inder salim wrote: > > > > > > 1. Idd Gah, Srinagar, text: Mustaq Ahmad PANDIT s/o Abdul Gaffar > Pandit > > > > > > 2. Idd Gah, Srinagar, Text: Saheed-e-Azam, Mohd. Maqbool Bhat, Date of > > > Martydom, 11th of Feb. 1982. The People of Kashmir are still > > > waiting for his mortal remains to be buried here which are still with > > > Govt of India. ( practically the grave is empty or.. ) > > > > > > 3. Self Portrait in Al-e-Hachi ( dried vegetable bottle gourd, Gia ) > > > used by Kashmiris during winter > > > > > > 4. Amirakadal Srinagar, a view > > > 5. Security man upon the shiva temple roof in Verinag. > > > 6. Routine checking in down town srinagar > > > 7. Abandoned hosue opposite CRPF post. > > > > > > please click > > > > > > > > > http://indersalim.livejournal.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. > > > To unsubscribe: > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > > > List archive: > > <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> > > > > > > > -- > > http://indersalim.livejournal.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. > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/defanged-46972 Size: 7423 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071022/713f001c/attachment.bin From dhatr1i at yahoo.com Tue Oct 16 16:16:03 2007 From: dhatr1i at yahoo.com (we wi) Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 03:46:03 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Reply to junaid mails on Invasion of Indian culture In-Reply-To: <32144e990710152034w6959cd07yc28dfe2cdca4858d@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <626636.65869.qm@web45508.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Dear Partha, Go through the chain mail in particular the one below YUG,MERU... ? You will come to know how you wrote and then read my response on Indian-ness. Any way I received the details about you yesterday! Although Its just a second matter for me to manage you by controlling all my emotions but, ...let me finish! --As per the proverb, "Robbers can steal Material wealth but they have nothing to do with knowledge" The relevance is, despite of people tornishing(ruining the physical existance), the sacredness and the knowledge imbibed into the lives which no body can eliminate/anhillate. This is the point in mentioning the Yug history and MERU or sankalp. My family practice vaidic karma(there are daily early morning prayers starts with GAYATRI,afternoon nivedan before lunch ,upvas,vrata and festivals(lets say for the purpose of relative gathering atleast) apart from that my father offer YEARWISE ABDIKA(the day on which the death of his forefathers occured long ago)(SAMVATSARIK) to his died elders (ancestors and inlaws for remembering them atleast I can say) ) and believe in god and good. Ours is not the only family following this so strictly, Like the politicians and coroporate do the things in such a way that common people couldn't believe(unless they practically experience) and prove, the God is also the same. Also 1) You tell me what exactly you expect me to do or people adviced you to do with me??? 2) Let me know what exactly you do in meetings? I am verymuch interested to know how your meetings are different than that of mine? Though you are partha, I am not lord krishna to offer you special vision TO SEE ALL THE LOGICS. P.S: I will delete this account by this November. Regards, Dhatri. Partha Dasgupta wrote: Hi Dhatri, Was out of office on meetings second half of the day, and though I did see your mail, didn't get the time to sit down and respond. To get back to the issue of the debate, I fail to see where my mail was provoking as all I did is question the provenance of your claims about J&K being a 'Hindu Nation' wherein you replied with a host of information about Brahma and the ages... but nothing in response to the issues that were raised. If you think I am 'skipping' your questions that's because I didn't see any questions in the mass of information you copied and pasted from a previous mail. In case you really have questions, why don't you do what most people do - and list the questions out? I'm sure you'll notice that's precisely what I did. And as a Computer Graduate you'll be familiar with the concept of logic and framing a statement or a question. As for the issue of your being a male or a female - that's irrelevant. This is a debate forum where we exchange ideas and concepts irrespective of gender, caste or religion - or even region of current domicile. In case my questions are not clear as to why I thought your response to the post was a complete tangent and you responded to a mention that has not been made here, do let me know, and I will list them out again along with a copy of this initial post which has no reference to Brahma, Yug, Meru and all the other stuff you have responded with. I do not question your faith in God, as that is a personal belief and can never be proved, but only believed. However, I do question the chain of logic you have followed - and if you really think as a Computer Graduate that the logic is complete, then as one IT professional to another, show me the chain of logic without the copy and paste which hides the issue and presents no facts. Regards, Partha ................................... On 10/15/07, we wi wrote: Dear Partha, Initially you tried to force your view on me through SARAI by writing a provoking mail. Its ok. Simple reason junaid is questioning the sovereignty of INDIA and making false statements about JAMMU & KASHMIR and creating fallacious supportive argument to MUSLIMS. Your arguments are framed in such a way that INDIA is a dumb in many ways. May be I am dumb but what about India? I know you were asked to condemn whatever I say. You simply skipping of many of my questions for different reasons. You tell me what exactly you expect me to do or people ad viced you to do with me??? Write down in plain direct words, and don't assume that since dhatri is a female hence can be manageable or dominated. Regards, Dhatri. Partha Dasgupta wrote: Dear Dhatri, Am replying to this off the post for the simple reason that this is a dialogue between you and me, and Sarai doesn't really have a role to play. Also, what I'd like to make clear is that I don't doubt your IT skills (since you're obviously online and replying to Sarai). What I did deny is the veracity of Wikepedia as a source. However, Gandharv, Meru, etc aside - I really don't get the link between what Junaid said and your response(s). Traditional or not, you obviously know and use modern technology and information as well as sources of reference, yet you accept a few like Wikepedia which makes it clear that there is no veracity in it's statements and deny others that have documented sources of verification. It is a known fact that Aryans (and the caste system) came to the Indian subcontinent well after the Dravid's were in residence - yet they along with all others have been assimilated into India. Do you deny this fact? It is also accepted that religion has nothing to do with region, and something I presume that both of us are agreeing to. I would really like to understand the answers you have given me with reference to Junaid's mail and my questions as I completely fail to understand what points of the debate you are responding to by mentioning the Peacock Throne or temple. Let us forget Caste reservation as that is another debate all together. Regards, Partha ....................................... On 10/13/07, we wi wrote: Partha, Really? EVEN I AM INTO IT, I am a POST GRADUATE IN COMPUTER SCIENCE. Whats your greatness of somebody else greatness of being into 21st century/IT etc., But I am traditional(not orthodox and not modern). GANDHARV,YAKSH,KINNER,KIMPURUSH are all fall into divine category. (Holiness/--sainthood in your terms :P) Himalayas are divine and demons occupied them now. MERU is at MANAS SAROVAR -- occupied by CHINA, kashmire SHARADA DEVI .... LANKAYAM SHANKARI. Sharda temple is in J&K at POK(PAKISTAN OCCUPIED KASHMIR). >>I do hope you have read up on Indian history and discovered that many INDIAN >>people converted to Islam because of oppression by caste. They are still residents >>of India with an equal right to vote or express their opinion. While there are so many other religions are available and More freedom is there in them, Why do anybody choose Islam? They do have their own reasons and how does ones anger reflect except causing the disintegration((self or community)) due to force/confusion created due to exploitation of the system by somebody or self for whatever interests? Every religion is copy cat of HINDUISM, and do have dual categories why ??? Why reservations in India in the name of caste??? Why religion and caste is there in Indian life then from birth,schooling,jobs,death??? Have you ever heard about SRI CHAKRA? Could you please tell me the impact on foreign astrological calculations(websites and astologers foreign) and their truthfulness due to expulsion of PLUTO as a PLANET from the Solar system? Does that mean Whatever they predicted is wrong? Doesn't it clearly show they looted money through credit cards??? How will they adjust this expulsion and calculate the time now??? Should anybody in the world believe it or not??? I understood that you write something whatever I post. Leave Wikepedia,scriptures what about this. In Every part of India, some birth,marriage,death used to happen on seconds(least measurable time frame) basis apart from that people are there living and practicing the below line into their daily prayers(Officially at temples and personally at home). THIS IS REAL thing happening along with TIME. Even the same is the official calender for GOI(Government of India). Pl try to listen any Indian Radio channel(Irrespective of language) at morning 5:56(IST) minutes "PRAVARTA MANASYA, ADYA BRAHMANA,DWITEEYA PARAADHE,SWEETAVARAH KALPE, VAIVASWATA MANVANTARE, KALI YUGE,PRDHAMA PAADE, JAMBU DWEEPE, BHARATA VARSHE, BHARATA KHADE, MERU... ASMIN VARTHAMAANA VYAVAHARIK CHANDRAMAANEENA ,PRABHAVAADI SHASTI SAMVATSARAANAM MADHYE,SRI SARVAJITH NAAM VATSARE,DAKSHINAAYANE,VARSHA RUTAU,AASWAYUJA MAASE,SUKLA PAKSHE,VIDIYA MYAYAM,STHIRA VASARA Translation: _________ Adya Brahmanaha : Beginning from Brahma's life. Dvitheeya Parardhe : we are now in 2nd Parardha. Sweta Varaha Kalpe : In Swetha Varaha Kalpa. Vyvaswata manvantare : Manu's name is Vyvaswatha Kaliyuge : We are now in Kali Yug Pratham paade : Ist Pada—just in 52nd century Of Brahma. Christian Year 2007 ---- SARVAJITH NAAM vathsare (yeaar) Ayan: ---- DAKSHINAYAN RUTU ---- VARSH RUTU Month: ---- ASHVAYUJ MAase Paksh: ---- Sukla Pakshe Thithi: ---- VIDIYA Day ( SATURDAY) ---- STHIRA vasara Too deep explanation: ___________________ KRITA YUG = 17,28,000 YEARS TRETA YUG = 12,96,000 YEARS DWAPARA YUG = 8,64,000 YEARS KALI YUG = 4,32,000 YEARS --------------------------------- TOTAL= 43,20,000 YEARS --------------------------------- 1000 CHATUR YUGAS = 1 day of Brahma ( kalpa) 1000 CHATUR YUGAS = 1 night of Brahma. 2000 CHATUR YUGAS = 1 day & night of Brahma 360 DAYS OF BRAHMA = 1 year of Brahma. 100 YEARS OF BRAHMA = Brahma's full age and that is the duration of the great Deluge too. 50 YEARS OF BRAHMA = PARARDHA. TWO PARARDHAS = Life span of Brahma i.e., 100 Years which is equal to: 31104,000,00,00,000 or 311040 billion human years. After that, pralaya equal to the duration of two Parardhas take place, and at its end, a new cycle of creation starts with a new Brahma at its head. 1) laya, at the end of a mahayuga, when the physical world is destroyed; 2) pralaya, at the end of a kalpa, when both the physical and subtle worlds are destroyed; and 3) mahapralaya at the end of a mahakalpa, when all three worlds (physical, subtle and causal) are absorbed into Shiv. Brahma has now completed one Parardha. He is now in His 51st year. He has thus passed 50 X 360 = 18,000 Kalpas. The first Kalpa is called Brahma and the last Padma. The current Kalpa is SWETA VARAHA KALPA. Within each Kalpa 14 Manus reign; a Manvantara, or period of a Manu, therefore is consequently one-fourteenth part of a Kalpa, or day of Brahma. "In the present Kalpa, six Manus, of whom Swayambhu was the first, have already passed away; the present being Vaivaswata. Brahma creates and his own life time is 2 Parardhas i.e; 100 years of Brahma and His date of death is certain. Historians/foreigners measure time scale(this age,that age,cabbage and cauliflower or whatever flower into your ears or some body else hair). But the above one(SANKALP) has been coming as a part of Indian way of life and will continue to go. BRAHMA(out of 100) COMPLETED 52 YEARS AND 48 REMAINING, I could not foresee the KALI ERA and the life ahead at Brahma's 100th year(at pralaya time). If I say because you got married to a christian(though its a conceptual one, I doubt on you), one Hindu girl lost a good husband and got unmarried and living whats your reaction??? Even after my spoon feeding mail, explaining the relevance(depicting the false facts like PEACOCK THROWN WAS BUILT BY MUGHAL KINGS thats true but the material used is the stolen/robbed one,KASHMIRI PUNDITS made muslims as slaves) I doubt your understanding skills and your employer/business capabilities. Regards, Dhatri. Partha Dasgupta < parthaekka at gmail.com > wrote: Dear Dhatri, Once again you jump around the debate on a tangent which has no relevance to what Junaid had mentioned. Also, since Sarai is a public forum for debate, we all raise issues here - like the one you had raised about Zero being discovered by India. In any case, to go back to the points you raised. 1. Jammu & Kashmir being a "Hindu" kingdom. If you are referring to the rulers being 'Hindu', then Junaid has shown you the fallacy. If you refer to the majority being 'Hindu' then that to is a fallacy. Firstly because J&K has a large Muslim population as well as Tribals. I presume you are aware that a 'Hindu' is one who believes in the trinity of Bramha, Vishnu and Shiva - and that tribals follow Yakshas and Yakhsis - which means that they are not 'Hindu'. Further, India is not a 'Hindu' country. The only Hindu nation I'm aware of is Nepal. And as you must be aware, the Hindu king there has caused much pain and death till there was a public revolt. The 'India' you are referring to pre-independence was actually a non-federation of independents rulers (who would more often than not be warring and looting other kingdoms). And if you really want to go that far back, shouldn't 'India' reject all tribes but the Dravid's who are the original inhabitants of this geographical place. By your logic of everyone being 'migrants', then all races in India other than Dravid's are migrants. So, are you going to give up your claim to India? More importantly, you seem to continuously get confused between religion and the region of people. If for example a Bengali converts to Buddhism, would you insist on sending him to Japan (even though Buddhism's roots are in India) or if he converted to being a Muslim does that change the fact that he's still a Bengali? I do hope you have read up on Indian history and discovered that many INDIAN people converted to Islam because of oppression by caste. They are still residents of India with an equal right to vote or express their opinion. 2. You use Wikepedia as a reference (and so do I). However, as an IT professional am aware that Wikepedia is a collective effort where anyone can make a post. And that the veracity of information there is not complete - which is why it gives references to places it has used information from as 'probable' history. 3. The article you've mentioned about the Kohinoor makes it very clear that most of it's sources are rumours and hearsay - which is why the mention conflicting sources and claims so that the reader is open to make his / her interpretation. It also makes it clear that ownership claims have been made by India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran as the actual origin is a matter of historical dispute. 4. From what I understood of Junaid's mail, he talked about the existence and oppression of Muslims in the princely state of J&K (which didn't have much to do with the Kohinoor or the Peacock Throne) which is why there was a revolt - much like there is one in the Hindu nation of Nepal. 5. From what little I've read and understood, Indian history and tradition is a mix of Mughal, Mongol, Portugese, Dravid, Roman, Grecian, Aryan and a host of other influences. The thought of India I have always loved as a secular nation (even before independence, actually) that assimilated concepts and people - inclusive and not exclusive. If you really are a follower of Indian tradition then look at how we inculcated all these influences (including English as an official language!) and used it to grow and move forward instead of closing our minds. Finally, are we looking at a resolution, are are we insistent upon staying enveloped in blind hate that shouts down everything except our angst irrespective of the logic. Maybe Juniad's angst is not as recent as yours, but it does exist, as does yours. So, what do we do? Keep fighting on small irrelevant issues like the Kohinoor or look at a way to resolve the larger issue that is causing so much pain, death and misery? What's more important? If you still think that your mail was not off on a tangent from the issues raised by Junaid, please fell free to correct me. However, I could not find any link between the points raised by Junaid and your response, or any facts behind your claims (with even Wikepedia making it abundantly clear that it can not verify sources). Rgds, Partha .............................. On 10/13/07, we wi < dhatr1i at yahoo.com> wrote: Dear Partha, Why SARAI was being chosen as an avenue to gossip and rumour about JAMMU and KASHMIR? Junaid writings are clearly objectionable because of many reasons. Among them let me pinpoint 1) Hindu kings did this, that against whatever so called Muslim population? Clearly Jammu and Kashmir is a HINDU KINGDOM like wise many kingdoms and kings and so as then population and culture. Let me ask you in a country/kingdom where there exists only HINDUS(by any time), if anybody else exists aren't they migrants? What do they be called? Instead of living peacefully why would they continue attacking heritage and culture? If they started doing things in wrong way how will authorities react? Going further If they continue ransacking by misusing the liberty What to do? 2) PEACOCK THROWN was built with Koh-i-Noor. The history of kohinoor is! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh-i-Noor . Junaid clearly do not know this. With lack of knowledge like this he is writing on SARAI. Forget the manners but the schools they studied taught wrong lectures, the atmosphere they grew taught -ve and violence. Did they question themselves before doing any such -ve,violent acts? for just 1000 years of history and existence they are shouting like this then for being own the history and existence of unmeasurable age how Hinduism/India/Indians/Hindu followers should feel about and react??? I can produce sin,cos and cotangents also if you QUOTE my replies are unrelated tangent. But if you look at mails on SARAI list, they are in such a provoking way that atleast I could not show lenience. By writing like this I just invest 5 minutes of my writing and 30 minutes of surfing time. So junaid comments on 1) JAMMU & KASHMIR with its culture and population then and KASHMIR PUNDITS (now)is totally wrong. 2) ISLAM is a myth just. Not only junaid but many are doing the same. I am just an ordinary person and with the above justification hope you will not use the word unrelated tangent again. Regards, Dhatri. Partha Dasgupta < parthaekka at gmail.com> wrote: Dear Dhatri, One of the reasons we were asked off the list for two weeks was that you keep going off on unrelated tangents. Please, please stick to replying to points raised in the current post, and if you wish to respond to another post, then do it on that post and not any one that you happen to click on. Rgds, Partha On 10/12/07, we wi < dhatr1i at yahoo.com> wrote: Junaid, Though people are busy in false accusations,interpretations and assaults on INDIA, Its culture and to support this there is no need to argue endlessly, but to enlighten people like you who are doing intentionally, I am writing this again. I used enlighten because either 1) You don't know about Indian history and culture-- to support this is I prefer to use your earlier comments on PEACOCK THROWN. I request you to go through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh-i-Noor, 2) If you spread rumors purposefully, then I remind you that you will not succeed like Pakistan and China. Indian heritage is rich and culture is widespread across the globe. Every HINDU home contain, atleast few ancestral,cultural,spiritual,traditional wealths/residue whatever you say. From the beginning of its origin to the present, ISLAM produced violence that is the fact though its unfortunate and so as people. So violent in thoughts leave 1/2 exceptional cases for whatever reasons . You can say whatever but ISLAM IS MIGRATION TO INDIA. Please just keep it in mind. Regards, Dhatri. --------------------------------- Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. _________________________________________ 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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: -- Partha Dasgupta +919811047132 --------------------------------- Tonight's top picks. What will you watch tonight? Preview the hottest shows on Yahoo! TV. -- Partha Dasgupta +919811047132 --------------------------------- Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha! Play Monopoly Here and Now (it's updated for today's economy) at Yahoo! Games. -- Partha Dasgupta +919811047132 --------------------------------- Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. -- Partha Dasgupta +919811047132 --------------------------------- Fussy? Opinionated? Impossible to please? Perfect. Join Yahoo!'s user panel and lay it on us. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/defanged-846 Size: 59053 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071016/230c1377/attachment.bin From dhatr1i at yahoo.com Tue Oct 16 18:25:43 2007 From: dhatr1i at yahoo.com (we wi) Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 05:55:43 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] The importance of names??? In-Reply-To: <133623.22790.qm@web60613.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <576559.55322.qm@web45504.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Hi, If name doesn't play an important role then 1) why ancient PUSHKALAVAT/I (named then king Pushkal ,son of the BHARAT) changed as PURUSHPURA by kushan dynasty once again changed as PESHAWAR in Islamized Pakistan now? BHARAT Son of Dashrath and Kaikeyee of Ayodhyaa(still it is referred with the same name in India), Married to - Maandavee (Daughter of Kushdhwaj, the brother of Janak of Mithilaa) have 2 sons named as Taksh and Pushkal. Bharat inhabited two cities for his sons - Takshshilaa and Pushkalaavat for his two sons. 2) Why TAKSHASHILA was changed to TAXILA?. Forget the university ransacking apart from the Nalanda. Those are not the only places where all books preserved and so as the research. 3) Why the Greek mythology and literature was recorded by the so called historians in such a way that the king PURUSHOTHAM was mentioned as PORUS?. Probably people tongues are so ugly in such a way that original names could not be pronounced and they may unaware about tongue cleaner usage. That's why changes happened? PS: Kashmir was used to refer as ABHISARA long ago. Regards, Dhatri. gowhar fazli wrote: I am bamboozled by your response gowhar2... or 1 for that matter let me take a deep breath... recover n then respond! --- gowhar yaqoob wrote: > When Shakespeare wrote: "What's in the name", > perhaps his sensibility was gliding through a truly > liberated psyche of populace, yet, when Oscar Wilde > wrote: The Importance of being an Earnest, there was > along with Wilde's well-known wit an unmistakble > insistence to capture within the matrix an > Imposition fulfilled through the jargons! (names). > > Ofcourse to many just a semantic quibble, is > 'baptizing' (naming) not an issue replete with the > diktats (pro-government or otherwise) with > linguistic politics getting under way and hasn't the > historical deceit(s) taught us how names were made > accessible for indexing - writing (deforming) the > past(s); henceforth imposing many unknown > potrait(s): of people(s), citie(s), culture(s) > through juxtapositions untimely to manifest the > hegemony. > > Yes, the two names 'Anathnag' and 'Islambaad' > would continue to remain interchangeable as long as > certain provocations would not allign again towards > some form of deceit (political correctness). ''Some > fools politicize the names and insist on using one > or the other." If it were so naive? A well worked > out conviction that decide to priviledge one of the > binaries is not at all just a fool's politics.... It > harps at deeper levels beyond people's recognition; > with redoing and undoing of the past(s) with which > the present (whatever) is legitimized, and hegemony > ("pro-government" or "otherwise") imposed further ! > > > gowhar fazli wrote: > The two names 'Anathnag' and 'Islambaad' were/are > used > interchangeably in daily conversation. Some fools > politicize the names and insist on using one or the > other. But the larger population keeps insisting on > the mistake/s. > > Who is this naming aunty Indian State? What right > does > the Indian state have to confer names to places? > People use whatever they like and there is no need > for > bans or conferment or to get worked up about this. > How > can you prevent people from calling a place whatever > they want to call it? You can't use military or > militant diktats to impose names. It wont work. The > name controversy is a big joke. > > I buy all the myths about kohimaran, Kari parbat, > killah, shankracharya, takhte suleiman and so do > most > people. As a child, it made Srinagar an interesting > place to live in. Imagine all the deamons, rishis > and > prophets flying around! One knew then to relish a > story.... > > > There is this other insistence on making Baramulla, > Varmul to make it sound more Kashmiri and in the > same > vein, Kupwara-Kopwor Pulwama-Pulwom and so on... > This > is the hight of self-righteousness. As though by > doing > this one would undo the history of colonialism! Why > does a place have to have an official name... All > name-variants in different languages/traditions > carry > their own stories and significance, that tell us of > the different versions of our past. Reflection on > these stories is more interesting than the tongue > twisters and political correctness of names. I think > we can afford to have a hundred names for each > place... the ones that make it harder to roll the > tongue will drop out eventually! > > > > > --- inder salim wrote: > > > cool down, my friend > > > > what would u call it : M.H. Zafar ( the noted poet > > intellectual of > > Kashmir ) has named his son Abhinav ( after the > > great poet saint > > Abhinav Gupt ) > > > > my friend Shafi from Islamabad ( Anantnag ) has > two > > children one Viru > > and other Nishu. > > > > my other friend has named his son Jibran ( after > the > > rebel poet Khalil > > jibran ) and so on.... > > > > so please look into this fact that why muslims > dont > > eat fish from > > Anant-Nag ( springs ) in Kashmir. > > > > something is still there, let us restore that.... > > naming Islamabad can > > not make it pakistan, but it will certainly > resotre > > the popular. why > > to ignore what is so loudly breating out there. > > > > love > > is > > > > > > > > On 10/14/07, Pawan Durani > > > wrote: > > > And what do you wish to call New Delhi ? Perhaps > > Kabul !!! > > > Strange fanatic demands which your intellectual > > SARAI friends would term as > > > something right ..... > > > > > > A cancer which is being hidden and projected as > a > > medicine ....till it > > > strikes Kolkotta , Bangalore ,Chennai and other > > Indian cities..... > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On 10/14/07, inder salim > > wrote: > > > > > > > > EID MUBARAK to all > > > > > > > > can be a little healing touch in Kashmir if > > Govt of India on this > > > occasion > > > > officiallydeclares: > > > > > > > > Islamabad (Anantnag) > > > > instead of Ananatnag ( Islamabad ) > > > > > > > > which is quite a popular demand in Kashmir. > > > > > > > > Kashmiri Pandits ought to understand > > > > that even now, no body in Islamabad ( Anantnag > ) > > eats fish from the > > > > springs in Kashmir. > > > > > > > > I guess, we all need to celebrate the popular > > culture ? > > > > > > > > love and eid mubarak once again > > > > > > > > is > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > > > > > http://indersalim.livejournal.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. > > > > To unsubscribe: > > > > > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list > > > > List archive: > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > > > http://indersalim.livejournal.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. > === message truncated === Unfortunately, the balance of nature decrees that a super-abundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares. Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit. Peter Ustinov ____________________________________________________________________________________ Yahoo! oneSearch: Finally, mobile search that gives answers, not web links. http://mobile.yahoo.com/mobileweb/onesearch?refer=1ONXIC _________________________________________ 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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: --------------------------------- Be a better Globetrotter. Get better travel answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/defanged-16 Size: 12161 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071016/efd3bdcb/attachment.bin From dhatr1i at yahoo.com Tue Oct 16 20:58:29 2007 From: dhatr1i at yahoo.com (we wi) Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2007 08:28:29 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] An eye opener to all those who talk, that India was UNITED by BRITISH Message-ID: <698104.7521.qm@web45514.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> The list of Emperors ruled UNITED INDIA with city names as well. http://vedabase.net/sb/12/1/en1 Regards, Dhatri. --------------------------------- Don't let your dream ride pass you by. Make it a reality with Yahoo! Autos. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071016/c8b803c8/attachment.html From dhatr1i at yahoo.com Wed Oct 24 12:10:34 2007 From: dhatr1i at yahoo.com (we wi) Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2007 23:40:34 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Greek Workshop: 'The Sprit of Hellas' landmarks in history, language, literature & culture of the Greeks In-Reply-To: <667867.12478.qm@web60612.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <761739.28836.qm@web45506.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Hi Gowhar, I would like to share a bit of incident with you. Pl Ensure that this part will be covered. The Indian king name is PURUSHOTHAM and the city is PURUSHAPURA NOW PESHAWAR in Pakistan. ROXANA(ALEXANDER WIFE) sent a rakhi to the then king Purushotham at first instance and vice versa!!! To support the incident that ROXANA send rakhi to purushotham just follow http://innervoice.sulekha.com/blog/p ost/2007/08/raksha-bandhan.htm Did the greek mythology or world historians aware of this ??? Why did they omitted to record this particular bit? Regards, Dhatri. gowhar fazli wrote: Please circulate widely... “The sprit of Hellas: landmarks in history, language, literature & culture of the Greeks” Workshop A workshop on the theme “The sprit of Hellas: landmarks in history, language, literature & culture of the Greeks” shall be organized in the School of languages literature and cultural studies, Jawaharlal Nehru university, New Delhi from 13th to 17th November 2007. The workshop has been planned to provide an insight to young scholars into the various elements of Greek culture and thought and also the comparative aspects of Indian and Greek civilization. Experts and specialists have been invited to present lectures and conduct the course as resource persons. Special screening of short films and slide shows that relate to Greek history and culture with be done. A food festival is also on the planned for. Certificates will be awarded to successful participants. There are limited seats for which applications are invited from young scholars. The last date for submitting application to join the workshop is 31st October 2007. Interested young scholars should contact the undersigned. U. P ARORA Room no. 394 SLL&CS, JNU Mobile no: 9873673300 Tel: 26704736, 26704875 email:uparora12 at yahoo.com Jawaharlal Nehru University School of Language, Literature & Culture Studies New Delhi-110067 Workshop On “The Spirit of Hellas: Landmarks in History, Language, Literature and Culture of the Greeks” (13th – 17th November 2007) Hellas or Greece is considered to be the Cradle of Western Civilization. It was the discovery of ancient Greek Wisdom after the fall the Constantinople which has been recognized as the main causative factor responsible for the end of medievalism and the beginning of Renaissance in Europe. The Greek ways of exploring the problem of cosmos, the creation of language in which such problems are explored, understanding the physical world and human society, describing the past, still underlie the Western Cultural tradition. It is, therefore, very much essential for the young scholars to understand the Greek mind in order to appreciate the Greek contribution to human civilization. The cultural contacts between India representing the Asiatic consciousness and the Greek World representing the Western consciousness occur since remote antiquity. There may be noted connections and parallels between India and Greek mythology, literature, art and aesthetics, political ideas and institutions, philosophical and scientific understanding. The striking analogies between the Vedic and Greek deities in their names and functions had led early European scholars coming to India to propound the theory of their common Indo-European origin. They also discovered the equivalents of the Greek inflections in Sanskrit and ancient Iranian language. It resulted in the birth of the comparative philology and the efforts were made for the reconstruction of the Indo-European lexicon. Objective The object of the proposed Workshop is to create an awareness among young researchers and scholars about the civilization which is often remarked as “Greek Miracle”. The focus will be on explaining the development of Greek civilization in its various aspects, its strengths and weaknesses, materially, socially, politically, culturally. Many scholars may thereby be tempted and initiated to serious research into Classical Greek Culture; which is a great desideratum in face of the fact that a Centre of Greek Studies, which is pride of any European academic institution, is completely absent in South Asia. India has too long been the object of historical research by western scholars; it is now time for the Indians to turn their attention to the Greek World, to be the authors of researches on the so-called classical civilizations. The present Workshop is directed towards this goal. The Theme and Sub-themes The proposed theme for the Workshop is divided into two parts; the first shall cover the aspects of history, language, literature and culture of the Greeks, while the second part shall deal with the comparative analysis of Indian and Greek civilization. Part One: (i) Land and the People (ii) The World of Homer (iii) Social division and gender relations (iv) Greeks and the barbarians (v) Athenian democracy (vi) Rise and decline of the Polis (vii) Language and Literature (viii) Philosophical and Scientific Concepts (ix) Myth, religion and rituals (x) Art and aesthetics (xi) Economy (xii) Byzantium (xiii) Heritage of the Greeks (xiv) Greece: Past and Present Part Two (i) Perception of India in Greek Writings (ii) Yavanas in ancient Indian literature and inscriptions (iii) Comparative philology: Greek and Sanskrit (iv) Comparative mythology (v) Greek and Indian epic literature (vi) Dramatic concepts: Indian and Greek (vii) Interaction between Art and Architecture (viii) Greek and Indian philosophical and scientific understanding (ix) Political institutions: Indian and Greek (x) Greece in Modern European Literature and Thought Participation The eligibility to join the Workshop is restricted to University and College teachers and registered research scholars, from Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences. There shall be an intake of a maximum of 30 participants. The eligibility conditions may be relaxed by the Organizers in case of seats falling vacant. Each participant shall be provided local hospitality/daily allowance and travel allowance as per the rules of the University. Programme The Workshop shall comprise of 24 Lectures for five consecutive days from 13th to 17th November 2007. The participants will be required to present or submit a paper at the conclusion of the Workshop. Certificates will be awarded on successful completion of the Course. List of Speakers Name Topic 1. Prof. Jean Marie Lafont The Greek presentation in Afghanistan and Northern India 2. Prof. D.N. Tripathi India and Greece : Pre and proto historic connection 3. Prof. R.N. Misra Greek and Indian Art : Mathura and Gandhar 4. Dr. Naman P. Ahuja Dionysus in Indian Art 5. Prof. G.C. Tripathi India and Greece : Early Philosophical understanding 6. Dr. Ishrat Alam Influence of Greek Science on India 7. Dr. A.J. Khan Greek Medical Science and India 8. Prof. Om Prakash Political Institution : India and Greece 9. Prof. S.C. Bhattacharya Greek and Indian Historiography 10. Prof. A.K. Sinha Idea of History in India and Greece 11. Prof. Abhay Kumar Singh Indo-Greeks : A Reappraisal 12. Dr. Prashant Srivastava Greek Coins 13. Prof. R.P. Singh Dialogue Dialectic and Reconstruction: Socrates, Kant, Hegel, and Derrida 14. Ranvir Chakrabarti India and Graeco Roman Word : Trade Connections 15. Prof. Bharat Gupt Dramatic Parallels in India and Greece 16. Prof. Prem Singh Indo-European Background of Greek and Sanskrit Lanuage 17. Prof. Kapil Kapoor Language and Literature in Greek Thought 18. Prof. Anil Bhatti Greek Fascination in Modern European Literature 19. Prof. U.P. Arora Greek Civilization : A Critique Ancient India and Greece : On Overview 20. Prof. Varyam Singh Names of Greek Professors have not yet been received. The names of Professor of Cyprus will be received on Friday 26th October 2007. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.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. To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list List archive: __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071023/0181396b/attachment.html From shambhu.rahmat at gmail.com Wed Oct 24 23:52:19 2007 From: shambhu.rahmat at gmail.com (Shambhu Rahmat) Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:22:19 +0600 Subject: [Reader-list] BANGLADESH: Bengali Domination Of CHT Continues Message-ID: <2726c5b80710241122r1d132389r6eb9f58009a5d3a3@mail.gmail.com> Bengali-led ethnic cleansing of indigenous Pahari people in CHT, Bangladesh continues. The 30 year guerilla war in Chittagong Hill Tracts was temporarily halted in 1997 when a historic Peace Accord was signed. But the Accord stalled from non-implementation and now the army-backed "Caretaker Government" looks set to use the Voter List to permanently seal the ethnic cleansing of CHT. Alarmist rhetoric & hyperbole? If only... My Own Little Palestine http://www.thedailystar.net/2007/07/10/d707101502126.htm CHT Peace Accord & Voters List - Zobaida Nasrin Kona Along with various parts of the country, the listing of voters in Chittagong and the three Hill Districts of Rangamati, Khagrachari and Bandarban began on 22nd October, 2007 (Prothom Alo, 23rd Oct.2007). Each part of Bangladesh has its own historicity and geographical characteristic. >From that perspective, the Chittagong Hill Tracts with its cultural richness and geographic distinctiveness has always deserved special attention. On 2nd December, 1997, a Peace Accord was signed between the Parbottyo Chattogram Janasanghati Samiti and the erstwhile Government. But over the years, the implementation of the Accord has been questioned from time to time by Adivasi leaders. The reason for bringing up the issue of the voters list is due to a writ petition issued by the High Court to the Government of Bangladesh on 27th August in response to a case filed by Tajul Islam (writ petition 6451/2007). The petition asks the Government to give reasons as to why the Peace Accord between the Government of Bangladesh and the Parbottyo Chattagrram Jana Shanghato Samiti (PCJSS) should not be considered as unconstitutional. Previously a Md. Shamsuddin had filed a similar case in 1999 against the Government of Bangladesh and others, opposing the signing and implementation of the Peace Accord. Through the writ petition issued by the High Court (4113/99), the Bangladesh government was asked to respond as to why the Peace Accord should not be regarded as unconstitutional. More recently, another case was filed by a Md. Badiuzzaman on a similar tone. In the writ petition (no. 26669/2000), the government was asked to explain as to why the Regional Council 1998 and Rangamati, Khagrachari and Bandarban Hill District Council Act should not be considered anti-constitutional. Both these cases were subject to prolonged hearing, and a final verdict is still in the offing. Under the present circumstances, the writ petition given in the third case bears some distinctive characteristics. This case was filed against the Government as the sole opposition. No mention was made of PCJSS as the opposing party or the Regional Council. But more important, was the special directive given to the Election Commission as part of the writ petition: "Direct the Respondent No. 8, The Election Commission not to deprive of any non-tribal citizen residing on CHT area from being enlisted as voter during the ensuing voter enlistment process on ground of being non-permanent resident in CHT pending disposal of the rule.". According to the Peace Treaty only permanent settlers of the CHT should become voters. The criterion for permanent settlement was defined as a minimum of 15 year residentship and ownership of land. If this is disregarded and everybody is considered to be a voter, then for all practical purposes, in both national and international perspective it will only foreground the possibility of considering the Peace Accord to be null and void.. On the other hand, the process of illegal migration of Bengali settlers continues even today. And under the provision of this recent writ petition they could be enumerated into the voters list. Such a process is not devoid of the kind of politics that the Peace Accord has been trying to resolve, the strengthening and imposition of Bengali rule over the indigenous people of the Hill Tracts. From pawan.durani at gmail.com Fri Oct 19 15:07:59 2007 From: pawan.durani at gmail.com (Pawan Durani) Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2007 15:07:59 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Auschwitz in Kashmir Message-ID: <6b79f1a70710190237u4933d24al61ebeaa4c97edd96@mail.gmail.com> http://ikashmir.org/ikashmir_culture_items.php?subchkey=47&chname=Politics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071019/095578cd/attachment.html From gchat at vsnl.net Thu Oct 25 23:57:03 2007 From: gchat at vsnl.net (Gayatri Chatterjee) Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 23:57:03 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] GUJARAT: Tehelka's Groundbreaking Investigation Message-ID: <001901c81734$a4d09350$0201a8c0@abcl> Also, listen to the BJP leaders' comments while talking to anchors of Breaking News (at this point only this channel, and also Aaj Tak). They are saying...implying...the coming elections will show what happened is not against what the "public" want(ed). I think this is where all our concerted efforts should lie. We should appeal to Gujaratis all over the world to stop such an election from happening---assuming there is such a possibility. We knew this; but to listen to those people speaking on camera is another matter. It is paralysing... Gayatri Chatterjee -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071025/b5a083bd/attachment.html From s_kavula at yahoo.com Fri Oct 26 12:59:13 2007 From: s_kavula at yahoo.com (saraswati) Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 00:29:13 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Gujarat Carnage 2002: Some Excertpts Message-ID: <728746.59800.qm@web36601.mail.mud.yahoo.com> IIV. http://tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107Editor'sCut.asp Editor’s Cut Lest We Forget Our Shame HARINDER BAWEJA FOR ALL of us at TEHELKA, Gujarat 2002: The Truth is the most important investigation of our time. Some may argue against this but in so many ways, it is more urgent than Operation West End. Exposing corruption in the procurement of arms was critical. That the gravy chain ran long and deep — through top political echelons — was a revelation in the national interest. But unlike West End, which dealt with greed and avarice, Gujarat is about our fundamentals. It is about ourselves. It is important because the hopelessly one-sided perpetration of violence on hapless Muslims is one of the biggest ruptures of recent times. A corrosive rupture. A nation’s shame. We all knew that the State had conspired in the events of 2002. That the rioters — or is assassins the right word? — had political protection. But we had no faces. The perpetrators were part of large amorphous mobs. We didn’t know the details. We had no idea of the extent to which the masters and their men plotted and executed the genocide. This investigation lays bare the anatomy of the rioters. The groundbreaking exposé — entirely the work of one gutsy, truth-hungry journalist, armed with nothing but two buttonsized cameras — takes the lid off all that was known but never established. The chilling details come first hand, from the accused themselves. The accused damn themselves — they tell us how everything, every last thing was planned and thought through. How bombs were manufactured in factories owned by members of the Sangh Parivar. How arms were smuggled in from other states. How, for the men in uniform, the colour saffron meant more than khaki. How Narendra Modi, custodian of the law, volunteered to let his state resemble a killing field. The revelations are important because they are entirely voluntary. They were not made under any inducement. Wads of notes were not brandished to elicit them. Extraordinary stories need extraordinary methods, we often say. This extraordinary investigation, in fact, is an account of what the killers willingly narrated to the reporter who approached them as a student researching Hindu resurgence. What they said was checked and cross-checked — through field visits, through other accused. Some were cautious, but most were willing to talk with a little bit of goading. They gave out horrifying details without batting an eyelid. Their testimonies are not just an insight into their mindsets — they are accounts that should have been in official police records — in FIRs and chargesheets. Accounts that fit different sections of the IPC. Accounts that lend themselves to the criminal procedure code. Babu Bajrangi, the Bajrang Dal zealot, confesses to how he slashed open a pregnant woman’s womb and wrenched the foetus out. Suresh Richard, an accused in the Naroda Patiya massacre, confesses to rape. He tells you he is not lying, because he is admitting to it in the presence of his wife. He tells also of how he and his fellows killed Muslims when they heard that some of them were hiding in a gutter, hoping to escape the marauding mobs. Haresh Bhatt, a sitting MLA, similarly needs to be questioned, to be proceeded against because he reveals how rocket launchers were assembled in a factory owned by him. In over 40 hours of tape, none, save one of the protagonists, expressed any remorse. Frighteningly, they all said they would like to kill many more. THIS INVESTIGATION is important for so many reasons, the two most important being that the Police and the Judiciary — the two pillars that ordinary Indians bank on — stand naked. Two public prosecutors are on camera acknowledging allegiance to their faith over their profession — paying homage to a warped sense of religion over nobility of duty. Details of how they are actually working to help the guilty escape the law. How they have even turned brokers and have already helped an accused — who had used a sword to cut a man to pieces — by offering money to the victim’s family. This story is about the subversion that continues at different levels, political and judicial. The Gujarat government’s own counsel casts aspersions on the two-member Nanavati-Shah Commission. It took us six months to unearth the startling truth behind Gujarat 2002. Five years since, it is clear why the government in the state is not interested in delivering justice to its own victims. The investigation begs attention. We need police reforms urgently. Thousands of victims — eyewitnesses to the genocide — are looking for justice to courts outside Gujarat. A Delhi High Court bench recently took suo motu notice of reports that pointed a finger at YK Sabharwal, the former chief justice of India. This investigation deserves all the attention the judiciary can pay it. It is a nation’s shame. Our collective shame. Nov 03, 2007 II/IV. http://tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107Overview_Conspirators.asp Conspirators & Rioters Overview NARENDRA MODI visited Godhra on the day of the burning of coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express. His outburst provided the first sign to Sangh workers that the time to corner the Muslims had come THAT VERY NIGHT, top BJP and Sangh leaders met at Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Godhra, and gave the green signal for an all-out assault on Muslims across the state A STRATEGY was devised on how to shield the attackers from the law after the riots. Prominent lawyers were briefed and senior police officers taken into confidence. The cadres were told Modi was squarely behind them THE MOBILISATION of the under castes, something the Sangh had been engaged in for years, dovetailed into the deep penetration Hindutva already had among Gujarat’s higher castes. Godhra provided the perfect spark to fuse them together FROM THE very outset, the police played partisan, often joining the mobs. Officers who tried to do their duty found their hands tied. The complicity was led by then Ahmedabad Commissioner PC Pandey, who ensured compliance by a swathe of junior officers WEAPONS, FROM BOMBS to guns to trishuls, were either manufactured and distributed by Sangh workers themselves, or smuggled through Sangh channels from all over India. The Bajrang Dal and the VHP already had a large cache of firearms and daggers BJP AND SANGH LEADERS led the bloodthirsty mobs through Ahmedabad’s bylanes, Sabarkantha’s villages, Vadodara’s localities. The police stood guard to the mayhem BJP MLA MAYABEN KODNANI drove around Ahmedabad’s Naroda locality all day, directing the mobs. VHP leaders Atul Vaid and Bharat Teli did the same at the Gulbarg Housing Society. None of them ever went to jail FIRE WAS THE MOST FAVOURED weapon in the rioters’ hands. That cremation is considered un-Islamic fuelled their frenzy to burn. Petrol and kerosene were lavishly used, as were the victims’ own gas cylinders BABU BAJRANGI reveals he collected 23 revolvers from Hindus in Naroda Patiya. He called VHP general secretary Jaideep Patel 11 times and informed Gordhan Zadaphia, the then minister of state for home, about the death toll GOVERNMENT COUNSEL before the Nanavati-Shah Commission, Arvind Pandya, himself worships Modi and describes Justice Shah as “our man”. Nanavati’s own report on the 1984 anti-Sikh riots is gathering dust till today III/IV. http://tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107RoleOfPolice_Overview.asp Role Of The Police Overview POLICE COMMISSIONER PC Pandey (recently removed from the post of Gujarat DGP by the Election Commission) ordered that the 700-800 dead bodies at Naroda Patiya be clandestinely picked up and dumped all over Ahmedabad to reduce the toll of the massacre BAJRANG DAL LEADER Babu Bajrangi says he surrendered when Narendra Modi asked him to do so. Joint Commissioner (Crime Branch) PP Pandey and his men arrested him, and told him it was all part of a show ON PAPER, District Superintendent of Police ND Solanki sent a local Sangh leader to judicial custody, but in reality he sent him to stay in a VHP office DCP GADVI promised VHP’S Kalupurzila mantri Ramesh Dave that he would kill “at least four-five Muslims” if Dave pointed them out to him. Dave took him to a house from where a group of Muslims could be seen. “Before we knew it, he’d killed five people,” Dave said INSPECTOR KG ERDA told the mob gathered outside the Gulbarg society it had three hours to do its work. The mob went berserk. One man was hacked to death in front of Erda ERDA told VHP workers to set fire to a vehicle carrying Muslims. He said that the police constable accompanying the vehicle would run away. “The whole episode will end here itself and there will be no question of framing a case against anyone,” he said IV. http://tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107Reporter'sDiary.asp Reporter’s Diary Voyager Between Two Worlds Having been undercover on the shadow lines between sanity and mayhem, ASHISH KHETAN retraces a quest for truth I HAD JUST finished breakfast and was settling down to the newspaper when my cellphone rang in the next room. Before I could reach it, the caller had disconnected and left an SMS. Call me, it read. The sender was Tarun Tejpal, my editor. I had returned from Gujarat only a couple of days ago, having completed a sting operation on Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s involvement in a spate of fake encounter killings. The story had exposed, fairly conclusively, that the Gujarat cops — more hitmen than cops — had made quite a practice of killing Muslims in these “encounters”. I wondered why Tarun wanted to talk to me so early in the morning (it was almost 11, but that, for most journalists, is an early hour). Maybe it was about the story’s fallout. Maybe those exposed had sent a legal notice. I dialled Tarun with questions crowding my mind. “Ashish, have you heard about the vandalism in Baroda”, asked Tarun. Of course I’d heard. For years, Gujarat had been in the news for all the wrong reasons — this was one more instance of a few lunatics, doped out on “Hindutava”, going on a rampage. This time their target was the Fine Arts Faculty of Vadodara’s Maharaja Sayajirao University (MSU). “It’s appalling,” said Tarun. The hooligans had already been on more than one TV channel, articulating their twisted ideology, announcing loudly to the world how the “obscene” portrayal of Hindu deities had hurt their religious sentiments. But there seemed a larger motive behind the targeting of a few Fine Arts students and professors, Tarun argued. Find out who these people are, what they do and above all what their views in private are as opposed to their public postures. As I put the phone down, I felt a sense of melancholy enveloping me. Three back-toback investigative reports (we had also exposed Sanjay Dutt for his involvement in the 1993 serial bombing and Maharashtra DGP PS Pasricha for his illegally-gotten wealth) had made me a bit battle-weary. I had repeatedly failed to honour my promise to take Chris, my wife, on vacation. It had been a while since I’d spent time with my nine-month-old daughter. But there I was, within a few hours of that call, packing my bags to leave for Gujarat, a place that evoked foreboding every time I went there. My first visit to Vadodara had been in the winter of 2004, after Zaheera Sheikh — the prime witness in the Best Bakery massacre — had made yet another retraction in court, playing yet again into the hands of her tormentors. As the autorickshaw took me from Vadodara airport to Alkapuri, the city centre where all the hotels are, I passed places I’d visited then — the station, the roundabouts, the restaurants. I remembered how incredible that visit was. But the familiarity of the place, half-blackened by shadow, half illuminated by streetlights, only made me the more sombre. Now, as in 2004, I had set out for a story, armed with nothing more than a couple of spycams and some daredevilry. Now, as then, the biggest question was where to start? And, now as then, I knew nobody, not a soul in this alien land. A magic, perhaps divine intervention had seen me through my 2004 visit — within a fortnight of my arrival, I’d been sitting right before Zaheera’s chief tormentor, BJP MLA Madhu Srivastava, the local ganglord, in his own front garden, he on a swing, I on a shabby plastic chair, with a spycam on my lap. Then, as now, my brief was simple. Nothing was adding up in the Zaheera episode, Tarun had said. I was to join together the scattered pieces and complete the picture. And when completed, it added up to a nice round figure: Rs 18 lakh. The sum Srivastava had paid Zaheera to buy her silence. But that was then. Miracles don’t happen everyday, I told myself. Still I had to give it a shot. After a frantic search for a reasonably priced hotel room, I checked into Hotel Aditi International, Room No 506. Except for its name, there was nothing grand about the hotel. The peeling paint and the murky light of the bare room, did little to cheer me up. Maybe a few cigarettes would bring some clarity. Then, an idea floated up, above the plume of self-doubt and nicotine. Since I didn’t know where to go, why not take a few small steps on every lane that opened up? And then see which road would lead to my goal? I hastily made a few calls to rights activists protesting the events at MSU; I also got in touch with a contact in Mumbai who had friends in Gujarat. I told him to put me in touch with people in the BJP’s Vadodara unit without telling them I was a journalist. “Tell them I’m Piyush Aggarwal, a research scholar from Delhi University, writing a thesis on Hindutva in Gujarat.” He said he’d give me a few references in the morning. The next day, I called him at 10am. He did not respond. I called several times, to no avail. I then decided to line up meetings with a few activists. Later in the day, one of them put me in touch with Prof Iftikhar, who was among the few at MSU to come out openly against the saffron hooligans. Iftikhar spoke of how the BJP had crowded the MSU senate and syndicate — its two governing bodies — with men affiliated to either the RSS or the VHP. One’s appointment, promotion, even authority in the university all hinged on which side of the ideological divide — Right against Centrist and Left — one was. My Mumbai contact finally answered my call. He gave an excuse for not having been available earlier. I was more interested in getting the names and numbers of local BJP men. He obliged with a few. “I hope you’ve told them I’m a research scholar, not a journalist,” I said. My contact assured me this was exactly what he’d done. I called up Mr A. He was a bit probing, asking questions about the nature and purpose of my research. He didn’t sound like I’d convinced him, but he put me in touch with Mr B., who in turn put me in touch with one Dhimant Bhatt who, I was told, was personal assistant to the Vadodara BJP MP and would introduce me to the right people. >From the news, I already had the name of Neeraj Jain, the BJP office bearer who led the ruckus at MSU. I called up Bhatt and told him I wanted to meet Neerajbhai Jain (bhai is an essential suffix to most names in Gujarat). At the appointed time, I walked into the high-ceilinged reception room of the Vadodara BJP party office. Half an hour later, Jain walked in, a short man in his late 30s with a newly-acquired paunch. He was fixated with Muslims, whom he evidently considered the root of all evil. But his hatred for Muslims did not seem to flow naturally — it seemed more a matter of political expediency, of routine. From ordinary Bajrang Dal worker to Vadodara BJP general secretary, Jain had travelled a long enough path to know that Hate Muslims was his ticket to political success. Vandalising paintings in the name of Hinduism had only enhanced his reputation. JAIN’S MUSLIM phobia did not make a story for me. A day passed before I decided to meet Dhimant Bhatt who, besides being a BJP man, was the MSU chief accountant. At 11:30am on May 19, I walked into Bhatt’s second floor office in an administrative block on the MSU campus. Struggling between perusing files and answering a near-incessant string of phone calls, he was most hospitable, offering me water, then tea, then showing me the way to the toilet (where I switched on the two spy cams I was wearing). Fifteen minutes into the conversation, after Bhatt was convinced I was as staunch a Hindu as he was (love for Hinduism being displayed on both sides by heaping abuse on Muslims), he uttered a few lines which would not only redefine my story but also, I believe, the way the nation sees the Gujarat riots. “I was involved in burning down the houses of Professor Bandukwala and the bureaucrat, Peerzada Disguised as a peacekeeper, I supplied weapons during the riots We should put the Sangh’s lathis aside and take up AK-56s instead.” My head began to reel. Bhatt might be an accountant by day, but his true vocation lay in tormenting religious minorities. Destroying paintings was, for him, a small skirmish. The real battle had been fought and won five years ago, in 2002. And five years ago was where the real story lay, I told Harinder Baweja, known also as Shammy, my immediate boss. Both Tarun and Shammy agreed, and told me to go after the story. Resources and time were no constraint, said Tarun. “Let your story be the last word on the Gujarat riots,” Shammy said. And thus began a sixmonth journey. A journey that would take me back in time, looking to rewrite the history of the year 2002. A journey in which my only companions would be fear and hope — hope of finding the truth and fear of being consumed by it; hope of hunting down the murderers and fear of being hunted myself. Hope, which is so rare for so many in Gujarat. Fear, a permanent shadow, almost an extension of your being, always lurking at your shoulder. I set out to meet as many VHP, BJP and RSS men as I could. I asked Bhatt for a few introductions to members of the ‘Parivar’ — all the Hindu organisations are known collectively as ‘Parivar’ or one single family — in Ahmedabad. He readily agreed. And the journey continued, In Ahmedabad, one man would put me in touch with another, another with a third. A pyramid of contacts rose and kept rising. A few days later, I asked a BJP man if he could send me to Godhra — a small town that had leapt out of obscurity to become one of the most important words in the Indian political lexicon, a tragic conundrum yet to be solved. Next day, I was in Godhra, sitting before Kakul Pathak, a BJP man and an eyewitness to the Sabarmati Express fire. He referred me to Haresh Bhatt, former Bajrang Dal president, now a BJP MLA from Godhra. Bhatt was an extempore speaker, a man who preferred being heard to having a discussion. For a journalist, such men, particularly if they have things to reveal, are a blessing. After 45 minutes of tiring discourse on Hindutva, I edged a question in. “We” (meaning the Hindus; Bhatt was convinced I was an adherent of the militant religiosity he had preached all his life) “never keep arms. How then could we manage to kill so many Muslims in 2002?” “If I tell, do you promise it won’t be in your book?” (I had said I was writing a book to propagate the VHP’s brand of Hindutva.) “I made bombs, rocket launchers, swords, and distributed them across Gujarat. Firearms and swords were smuggled in from other states as well. It’s the first time I’m telling anyone this outside the party circle,” he said. For a moment, I was numbed with fear. That was June 1, 2007. Over the next few months, I would meet many who had been charged with rioting and killing and many who had worked behind the scenes. Along the way, I negotiated dead ends, spells of despair, moments of sheer terror. I was travelling once with Bhatt in his car from Ahmedabad to Godhra. Mid-way, he received a phone call. After disconnecting it, he turned to me and said he had just been informed that a journalist from Delhi was carrying out a sting operation on the Sabarmati Express incident and that he had been told to be careful. Oh, really, I said, with a straight face. A FEW MINUTES later, Bhatt’s driver steered the car off the main road and turned into a narrow, deserted, kutcha road. As the car stopped outside a desolate, one-storey house, another car pulled up and two men got out. Bhatt and these men went into the house and told me to wait. I had two spy-cams on me and all it needed to blow my cover was a body frisk. I prepared myself for the worst. Twenty minutes later, Bhatt returned and we set out for Godhra again. The two men went off in a different direction. Bhatt told me he’d had been doing business with them. On another occasion, Bharat Bhatt, a Sabarkantha public prosecutor, became suspicious about my identity. Having told me how he’d threatened and bought off Muslim witnesses, Bhatt called me as soon as I’d taken his leave and said he had serious doubts I was an RSS man. Within a few minutes, another VHP man I’d stung a few days earlier called and asked for my location. However, I survived these close shaves and kept sailing. Whenever the tension became too much, I’d make a quick trip to Mumbai, to my wife and daughter, my home, my cocoon. For six months, I remained a voyager between two worlds — my world, where I was Ashish Khetan, a journalist with a Catholic wife, a daughter with a French name and no fixed religion, and a host of Muslim and Christian friends. And then there was the other world, where I was Piyush Aggarwal, a member of the “Parivar”, a Hindu zealot, a religious fanatic, with only murderers and rapists for friends. Nov 03, 2007 Peace is doable. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071026/e781b889/attachment.html From sarah.turner at manchesterurbanscreens.org.uk Thu Oct 25 18:34:27 2007 From: sarah.turner at manchesterurbanscreens.org.uk (Sarah Turner) Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2007 15:04:27 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Urban Screens Manchester Newsletter 9 Message-ID: <001a01c81707$937aaf00$0bb2a8c0@sarahj6y7loy0> Urban Screens Manchester It's about content! At midnight Sunday 14 Oct, the two temporary screens were unplugged which together with a third permanent one, displayed the Urban Screens art and events programme. Urban Screens Manchester 07 was over. During the four preceding days, Manchester was a hub for the international Urban Screens crowd arriving from around the world to learn about the most interesting developments in the field of public displays, media facades and giant outdoor projection and to discuss the cultural potential of urban screens. Around 150 delegates attended the conference which was designed to contain two strands. The so-called poster sessions were short presentations in which the speakers presented single academic research projects, artworks for urban screens and latest research on interfaces and screen technology. The longer Focus sessions gave both speakers and the audience the opportunity to debate. The conference attendees appreciated both formats and commuted between the two Cornerhouse cinemas which served as conference locations. With 55 speakers, moderators included, there was a lot to discover and discuss. Erkki Huhtamo (UCLA) and Uta Caspary related urban screens to historic events and ancient architecture thus comparing the increasing plethora of public displays in the urban realm to old media. The conference also provided a platform for critical voices and warnings. Amongst others, Jai Redman (UHC), Ingrid Smit and Jean Claude Bustros (Concordia) discussed the problem of visual pollution through urban displays and demanded their limitation. Recurrent topics were the dissolution of the rectangular screen by integrating it into the urban fabric and (self-)censorship by screen operators when programming content for urban screens. Jochen Gerz and Joachim Sauter (UDK) emphasised the identity-giving nature of urban screens, thus arguing for an embedding of screens not only into the physical space of the city but also its social and historic space. The thematic sessions blended nicely into each other, giving all participants a better understanding of the current discourse and broader context of urban screens. In contrast to the first Urban Screens conference in Amsterdam, the Manchester conference put strong emphasis on the artistic content for screens. The production and aesthetics of art and non-commercial content for urban screens was a visible red thread throughout the entire conference. The extensive art and events programme which took place parallel to the conference and continued for two subsequent days exemplified potential and actual content for urban screens. Particularly the participatory events such as the Global Youth show by Lets Go Global or the DIY Ballroom by susan pui san lok attracted crowds in the city centre of Manchester. For the roaming film projection by A Wall is a Screen around 150 people moved through the streets of Manchester. If you are interested in seeing more, you can find pictures by various contributors of Urban Screens Manchester 07 on Flickr. The next Urban Screens Conference will take place in Melbourne in October 2008. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071025/c330b841/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From safar.delhi at gmail.com Fri Oct 26 10:09:10 2007 From: safar.delhi at gmail.com (Safar Delhi) Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 10:09:10 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Media writing workshop: 2-3 November 2007 Message-ID: Dear all Safar is going to orgainse a two day MEDIA WRITING WORKSHOP on 2-3 November in the Delhi University. The related note and relevant information is given below. Circulate this information widely. Media is popular like any thing today and a section of it is a source of hefty income. This is why every second day a new media institute is coming into being. These media institutes are promising a sure lucrative journalistic career and charging heavy fees from the students. On the other hand universities and colleges have started teaching media in the name of employment oriented course. The private media institutes aim to prepare an army of media walkers and managers while the govt. institutions are teaching media to make ideals, which hardly have any understanding of the society. Even after spending 2-3 years the learners do not acquire skill and knowledge to work as freelancers going beyond the preconditions of market. The question of social commitment remains far behind in both the situations. While the fact is that when media loses social concern and leaves the issue of social development and transformation, it becomes meaningless. And this kind of 'media' can be management, can be a lucrative profession or anything else but not media. But the state of affair is not very promising. This is the high time for look at the media scenario, and include all those socially relevant issues which will help the students and media-personals in developing a social approach, so that they could think and work towards a better and just society. It is not always necessary to start with a big capital and heavy machine. In fact, many a times it forbids genuine initiatives and creates havoc in the process of learning. Now, several examples have been set all over the world, where a meager technological assistance has boosted the proliferation process of alternative media. The pertinent thing is how open your eyes are, how you see your everyday life and what is your understanding of your neighborhood. The media programme of SAFAR constantly searching and exploring opportunities to establish an alternative media, a media which will go beyond the academic barriers and market preconditions. It also intends to do experimental media activities of different kinds. This two day Media Writing workshop (2-3 November) has been scheduled under the same line. In these two days there will be sessions on writings for print, radio, television, film and blog. There will be some practical sessions also where the students will learn about easy and handy technologies. Ravikant, *Sarai-CSDS*, Delhi, Sanjay Sharma, *DU*, formerly associated with BBC*, Hindi Service*, Prabhat Ranjan, *Columnist* and Lecturer in *DU*, Kumar Kunal, *Aajtak* and Girindranath Jha, *IANS* will be speaking in different sessions. No formal qualification is required to attend the workshop. Since we are a self funded initiative, we are charging a small contribution of rs. 100/- from each participant for lunch, snacks and stationeries. Due to the limitation of space and other logistical constraints we will not be able to accommodate more than 50 participants. Last date of registration 30 October. For workshop related query write to vineetdu at gmail.com rajeevrmn2007 at gmail.com safar.delhi at gmail.com or call @ +91 9811 853 307 +91 9899 947 428 -- SAFAR a collective journey of researchers, journalists, students, lawyers, activists, cultural practitioners and performing artists with a deep commitment to the ideals of social and gender equality. This is an open space for the dialogue, betterment and empowerment of the marginalized. http://safarr.blogspot.com http://www.freewebs.com/safarindia -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071026/dfb4581a/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From rana at ranadasgupta.com Fri Oct 26 13:44:11 2007 From: rana at ranadasgupta.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 13:44:11 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] dogs in delhi, and the commonwealth games Message-ID: <4721A1D3.8070007@ranadasgupta.com> someone wrote to me about plans to eliminate all delhi street dogs in advance of the commonwealth games. does anyone else know about these plans and how they're supposed to work? R From eye at ranadasgupta.com Fri Oct 26 14:00:19 2007 From: eye at ranadasgupta.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 14:00:19 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] dogs in delhi, and the commonwealth games Message-ID: <4721A59B.3070007@ranadasgupta.com> someone wrote to me about plans to eliminate all delhi street dogs in advance of the commonwealth games. does anyone else know about these plans and how they're supposed to work? R From shijusam at gmail.com Fri Oct 26 16:11:18 2007 From: shijusam at gmail.com (Shiju Sam Varughese) Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 16:11:18 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Public Understanding of Science in India; the fifth posting Message-ID: <345848710710260341h20dbb3catb6d6720344ca0b30@mail.gmail.com> dear friends, soory for the delay in posting. I was out of station for a month.... This is my fifth posting. In India, the 'Public Understanding of Science' (PUS) studies is still in its infancy as an academic field. Many of the early studies are based on large quantitative opinion surveys that assess public attitudes to science. A review of literature shows that the Indian studies on PUS can be classified into two main areas. Investigation into the public reception of science is the first category. For instance, the study that was done by Gauhar Raza, Surjit Singh and Bharvi Dutt (2002 "Public, Science, and Cultural Distance". Science Communication 23/3, March: 293-309) attempts to define the 'cultural distance' of the public from science and they propose a quantitative method to empirically measure it. They measure the cultural distance by developing an indicator on the basis of the number of years a person spends in formal schooling. Many of these studies keep positivist picture of science as the standard against which the depth of people's 'assimilation of science' is tested. There are some studies which examine the journalistic production of science news. Bharvi Dutt and K.C. Garg (2000 "An Overview of Science and Technology Coverage in Indian-Language Dailies". Public Understanding of Science 9:123-140.) analyse news items on science and technology in English newspapers published in different parts of India during 1996. They use the technique of counting columns of science news to quantify the amount of space provided for science news by each newspaper. This study identifies the newspapers that report more science news, and also the most reported themes. A historical study of science journalism in Kerala since its inception in the latter half of the nineteenth century was carried out by Anil Kumar Vadavathoor (2001 Science Journalism: Vikasavum Parinamavum (Mal.). Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Language Institute.) that factually describes the content of the early Malayalam magazines and the science themes reported. A study that considers the media as an active agent in the negotiations over science is Renu Addlakha (2001 "State Legitimacy and Social Suffering in a Modern Epidemic: A Case Study of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever in Delhi". Contributions to Indian Sociology ( n.s) 35/2:151-179.). The study on the outbreak of dengue fever in Delhi in 1996 uses a 'multi-sited ethnographic approach' to capture the nexus between law, medicine and the state administration. She looks at the media as an active agent who function as a commentator, communicator, educator and watchdog in the context of the epidemic. She opines that the media has a 'representational role' in constructing the crisis and in functioning as a crucial link between the state, the medical establishment and local communities. She points out that the media has its own agenda and stakes in pursuing the issue: "An overview of the news reports during the dengue outbreak shows that the print media played a vital role, acting both as a source of information for the public and as a sentinel of government action. The press tried to access the outbreaks from the perspective of different actors, such as the state agencies, the medical profession and the affected communities. In the process, it became a platform on which negotiations between the agents of control and the communities took place" (ibid: 159). However, the study considers the media no more than an actor among others in the issue. The study also fails to conceive the public as active actors with their own perspectives on medical science and public health. A review of the existing studies on the PUS in India indicates that they consider science as disembodied knowledge, which is produced in laboratories by the scientific community. These studies refuse to understand modern science as a culture with a "diffuse collection of institutions, areas of special knowledge and theoretical interpretations whose forms and boundaries are open to negotiation with other social institutions and forms of knowledge" (see the authors' introduction (p.8) in Alan Irwin and Brian Wynne (eds.) 1996. Misunderstanding Science? The Public Reconstruction of Science and Technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). This shortcoming leads to a failure in capturing the ways in which the publics actively negotiate on the social meanings of sciences and questioning the legitimacy of modern science in their daily life. The Indian studies on science and media hold the 'deficit' perspective that approaches science as an esoteric activity of the scientific community, devoid of 'social contamination' of any kind and the main attempt here is to quantify science news in order to understand the themes/disciplines that frequently appear in the press, and those newspapers reporting maximum science news. Moreover, majority of these studies analyse exclusively the English dailies for science news. There are hardly any studies on the regional press and the public understanding of science in the regions in India. The emphasis on the English media is misleading, as there are studies which show the stagnation in the growth rate of the English press and the rapid growth and diversification of the regional newspapers in India. Therefore, it is important to explore the regional dynamics to understand the characteristics of the public understanding of science in India. My proposed study analyses the regional press for the debates and negotiations over a scientific controversy, situating the popular press in the wider context of public understanding of science in Kerala society. -- shiju sam varughese http://shijusam.blogspot.com/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071026/58107522/attachment.html From shijusam at gmail.com Fri Oct 26 16:19:39 2007 From: shijusam at gmail.com (Shiju Sam Varughese) Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 16:19:39 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Public Understanding of Science and the Indian press ; the fifth posting In-Reply-To: <345848710710260349k544eb0ebma5d384d1f8be2b99@mail.gmail.com> References: <345848710710260349k544eb0ebma5d384d1f8be2b99@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <345848710710260349v48b880d2xb85b0ab377e7d589@mail.gmail.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Shiju Sam Varughese Date: 26 Oct 2007 16:19 Subject: Public Understanding of Science and the Indian press ; the fifth posting To: shijusam at gmail.com dear friends, this is my fifth posting. sorry for the delay as I was out of station for one month. In India, the 'Public Understanding of Science' (PUS) studies is still in its infancy as an academic field. Many of the early studies are based on large quantitative opinion surveys that assess public attitudes to science. A review of literature shows that the Indian studies on PUS can be classified into two main areas. Investigation into the public reception of science is the first category. For instance, the study that was done by Gauhar Raza, Surjit Singh and Bharvi Dutt (2002 "Public, Science, and Cultural Distance". Science Communication 23/3, March: 293-309) attempts to define the 'cultural distance' of the public from science and they propose a quantitative method to empirically measure it. They measure the cultural distance by developing an indicator on the basis of the number of years a person spends in formal schooling. Many of these studies keep positivist picture of science as the standard against which the depth of people's 'assimilation of science' is tested. There are some studies which examine the journalistic production of science news. Bharvi Dutt and K.C. Garg (2000 "An Overview of Science and Technology Coverage in Indian-Language Dailies". Public Understanding of Science 9:123-140.) analyse news items on science and technology in English newspapers published in different parts of India during 1996. They use the technique of counting columns of science news to quantify the amount of space provided for science news by each newspaper. This study identifies the newspapers that report more science news, and also the most reported themes. A historical study of science journalism in Kerala since its inception in the latter half of the nineteenth century was carried out by Anil Kumar Vadavathoor (2001 Science Journalism: Vikasavum Parinamavum (Mal.). Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Language Institute.) that factually describes the content of the early Malayalam magazines and the science themes reported. A study that considers the media as an active agent in the negotiations over science is Renu Addlakha (2001 "State Legitimacy and Social Suffering in a Modern Epidemic: A Case Study of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever in Delhi". Contributions to Indian Sociology (n.s) 35/2:151-179.). The study on the outbreak of dengue fever in Delhi in 1996 uses a 'multi-sited ethnographic approach' to capture the nexus between law, medicine and the state administration. She looks at the media as an active agent who function as a commentator, communicator, educator and watchdog in the context of the epidemic. She opines that the media has a 'representational role' in constructing the crisis and in functioning as a crucial link between the state, the medical establishment and local communities. She points out that the media has its own agenda and stakes in pursuing the issue: "An overview of the news reports during the dengue outbreak shows that the print media played a vital role, acting both as a source of information for the public and as a sentinel of government action. The press tried to access the outbreaks from the perspective of different actors, such as the state agencies, the medical profession and the affected communities. In the process, it became a platform on which negotiations between the agents of control and the communities took place" (ibid: 159). However, the study considers the media no more than an actor among others in the issue. The study also fails to conceive the public as active actors with their own perspectives on medical science and public health. A review of the existing studies on the PUS in India indicates that they consider science as disembodied knowledge, which is produced in laboratories by the scientific community. These studies refuse to understand modern science as a culture with a "diffuse collection of institutions, areas of special knowledge and theoretical interpretations whose forms and boundaries are open to negotiation with other social institutions and forms of knowledge" (see the authors' introduction (p.8) in Alan Irwin and Brian Wynne (eds.) 1996. Misunderstanding Science? The Public Reconstruction of Science and Technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). This shortcoming leads to a failure in capturing the ways in which the publics actively negotiate on the social meanings of sciences and questioning thelegitimacy of modern science in their daily life. The Indian studies on science and media hold the 'deficit' perspective that approaches science as an esoteric activity of the scientific community, devoid of 'social contamination' of any kind and the main attempt here is to quantify science news in order to understand the themes/disciplines that frequently appear in the press, and those newspapers reporting maximum science news. Moreover, majority of these studies analyse exclusively the English dailies for science news. There are hardly any studies on the regional press and the public understanding of science in the regions in India. The emphasis on the English media is misleading, as there are studies which show the stagnation in the growth rate of the English press and the rapid growth and diversification of the regional newspapers in India. Therefore, it is important to explore the regional dynamics to understand the characteristics of the public understanding of science in India. My study analyses the regional press for the debates and negotiations over a scientific controversy, situating the popular press in the wider context of public understanding of science in Kerala society. - -- shiju sam varughese http://shijusam.blogspot.com/ - -- shiju sam varughese http://shijusam.blogspot.com/ From nalin.mathur at gmail.com Fri Oct 26 20:51:45 2007 From: nalin.mathur at gmail.com (Nalin Mathur) Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 20:51:45 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] B - Grade Engineering College Culture / Fifth Posting / Nalin N. Mathur Message-ID: <7c0063460710260821t4ac7263em4f56ce74f9be54e7@mail.gmail.com> B - Grade Engineering College Culture / Fifth Posting / Nalin N. Mathur The text for this posting has been copy-pasted from the website of Department of Education. It gives in a beautiful insight as to how engineering evolved as a subject. This article has helped me conclude one important thing - All present day renowned colleges were born out of need, while the ones that are coming up are because of requirement. I believe herein lies the different. ******************************************************** Engineering and Technological Education in India up to 1920 The impulse for creation of centers of technical training came from the British rulers of India, and it arose out of the necessity for the training of overseers for construction and maintenance of public buildings, roads, canals, and ports, and for the training of artisans and craftsmen for the use of instruments, and apparatus needed for the army, the navy, and the survey department. The superintending engineers were mostly recruited from Britain from the Cooper's Hill College, and this applied as well to foremen and artificers; but this could not be done in the case of lower grades- craftsmen, artisans and sub-overseers who were recruited locally. As they were mostly illiterate, efficiency was low. The necessity to make them more efficient by giving them elementary lessons in reading, writing, arithmetic, geometry, and mechanics, led to the establishment of industrial schools attached to Ordnance Factories and other engineering establishments. While it is stated that such schools existed in Calcutta and Bombay as early as 1825, the first authentic account we have is that of an industrial school established at Guindy, Madras, in 1842, attached to the Gun Carriage Factory there. A school for the training of overseers was known to exist in Poona in 1854. Meanwhile in Europe and America, Colleges of Engineering were growing up, which drew to them men having good education, and special proficiency in mathematical subjects. This led to discussions in Government circles in India, and similar institutions were sought to be established in the Presidency Towns. The first engineering college was established in the U.P. in 1847 for the training of Civil Engineers at Roorkee, which made use of the large workshops and public buildings there that were erected for the Upper Ganges Canal. The Roorkee College (or to give it its official name, the Thomason Engineering College) was never affiliated to any university, but has been giving diplomas which are considered to be equivalent to degrees. In pursuance of the Government policy, three Engineering Colleges were opened by about 1856 in the three Presidencies. In Bengal, a College called the Calcutta College of Civil Engineering was opened at the Writers' Buildings in November 1856; the name was changed to Bengal Engineering College in 1857, and it, was affiliated to the Calcutta University. It gave a licentiate course in Civil Engineering. In 1865 it was amalgamated with the Presidency College. Later, in 1880, it was detached from the Presidency College and shifted to its present quarters at Sibpur, occupy in the premises and buildings belonging to the Bishop's College. Proposals for having an Engineering College at Bombay city having failed for some reasons, the overseers' school at Poona eventually became the Poona College of Engineering and affiliated to the Bombay University in 1858. For a long time, this was the only College of Engineering in the Western Presidency. In the Madras Presidency, the industrial school attached to the Gun Carriage Factory became ultimately the Guindy College of Engineering and affiliated to the Madras University (1858). The educational work in the three Colleges of Sibpur, Poona, and Guindy has been more or less similar. They all had licentiate courses in civil engineering up to 1880, when they organized degree classes in this branch alone. After 1880, the demand for mechanical and electrical engineering was felt, but the three Engineering Colleges started only apprenticeship classes in these subjects. The Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute, which was started at Bombay in 1887, had as its objective the training of licentiates in Electrical, Mechanical and Textile Engineering In 1915, the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, opened Electrical Engineering classes under Dr. Alfred Hay, and began to give certificates and associateships, the latter being regarded equivalent to a degree. In Bengal, the leaders of the Swadeshi Movement organized in 1907 a National Council of Education which tried to organize a truly National University. Out of the many institutions it started, only the College of Engineering and Technology at Jadavpur had survived. It started granting diplomas in a mechanical and engineering course in 1908, and in chemical engineering in 1921. The Calcutta University Commission debated the pros and cons for the introduction of degree courses in mechanical and electrical engineering. One of the reasons cited, form the recommendations of the Indian Industrial Commission (1915, under the Chairmanship of Sir Thomas (Holland) against the introduction of electrical engineering courses is given in the following quotation from their report: "We have not specifically referred to the training of electrical engineers, because electrical manufactures have not yet been started in India, and there is only scope for the employment of men to do simple repair work, to take charge of the running of electrical machinery, and to manage and control hydroelectric and steam-operated stations. The men required for these three classes of work will be provided by the foregoing proposals for the training of the various grades required in mechanical engineering. They will have to acquire in addition, special experience in electrical matters, but, till this branch of engineering is developed on the constructional side, and the manufacture of electrical machinery taken in hand, the managers of electrical undertakings must train their own men, making such use as they can of the special facilities offered for instruction at the engineering colleges and the Indian Institute of Science". The credit of first starting degree classes in mechanical and electrical engineering and in metallurgy belong to the University of Banaras, thanks to the foresight of its great founder, Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya (1917). About fifteen years later, in 1931-32, the Bengal Engineering College at Sibpur started mechanical engineering courses, electrical engineering courses in 1935-36, and courses in metallurgy in 1939-40. Courses in these subjects were also introduced at Guindy and Poona about the same time. Quite a number of engineering colleges have been started since August 15, 1947. It is due to the realization that India has to become a great industrial country, and would require a far larger number of engineers than could be supplied by the older institutions. In some cases, existing lower type institutions have been raised to the status of degree-giving colleges. Post Independence Scenario The last half of this century has transformed our environment, perhaps radically, and brought more changes in our lives and thinking than in any corresponding period in history. These are the consequences of discoveries of sciences and applications of technology. The concept of absolute knowledge in the sense of storing all knowledge is perhaps no more relevant today. Our efforts for reconciling the traditional concepts and ways with the demands of technological age cannot provide simple solutions for our difficulties and complexities based on such stored knowledge. Frontiers of knowledge are themselves expanding rapidly making it possible to device newer and more efficient methods of solving problems of the society. Education must therefore make efforts for securing knowledge and mastering modern skills and methods than merely storing and distributing the traditional ones. For this purpose of training of mind and mastering of skills and for harnessing science and technology to profitable and productive processes of economic growth and social well-being, the technological education system has to be continuously reviewed and adopted. This has indeed been the basis of our efforts during the last three decades, the result is that there is a well-organized structure and a wide network of technical institutions offering different types of programmes: craftsman courses, technician (diploma) courses, graduate and post- graduate courses, etc., catering to the various levels of knowledge, skills and competences required by the economy. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/defanged-6618 Size: 9460 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071026/fe3bb846/attachment.bin From shuklasawant at hotmail.com Sat Oct 27 09:18:18 2007 From: shuklasawant at hotmail.com (shukla sawant) Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2007 09:18:18 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Exhibition Ramkinkar in focus - last three days Message-ID: Exhibition Ramkinkar in focus - last three days friends don’t miss this show Ramkinkar in focus Through the eyes of Devi Prasad curated by Naman Ahuja and the students of the School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU. New Delhi venue: School of Arts and Aesthetics gallery 9am to 7pm To mark the end of the centenary celebration of Ramkinkar Baij, the School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU invites you to participate in a symposium Ramkinkar in focus Contextualizing the Indian Modernist Monday, 29.10.2007 At the School’s auditorium 11 am: Ramkinkar and the Alternative Trajectories of Modernism, Shukla Sawant, JNU 11.30: Ramkinkar: Encountering Modernism, 'R. Siva Kumar, Santiniketan 12.00: Ramkinkar: re-examining our standpoints for appreciation Sanjoy Mallik, Santiniketan 12.30: Ramkinkar’s Place in Indian Sculpture, K.S. Radhakrishnan in conversation with Ella Datta 1 pm: Lunch 1.45: Ram Kinkar and the Other Arts, Rimli Bhattacharya, Delhi University 2.15: Screening of Ritwik Ghatak’s footage from his unfinished film on Ramkinkar followed by a discussion between Ritaban Ghatak and Ira Bhaskar. 3 pm: Ramkinkar Baij: modernist language, subaltern speech, Geeta Kapur 3.30: Education for Living Creatively and Peacefully, Devi Prasad in conversation with Naman Ahuja 4 pm: Tea _________________________________________________________________ Windows Live Spaces is here! It’s easy to create your own personal Web site. http://spaces.live.com/?mkt=en-in -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071027/a8679b79/attachment.html From pukar at pukar.org.in Fri Oct 26 23:14:17 2007 From: pukar at pukar.org.in (PUKAR) Date: Fri, 26 Oct 2007 19:44:17 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Lecture by Saskia Sassen: Sunday, 4th November 2007 Message-ID: <5cdc9c3253356a5ac4d9931869b280e7@edisto.ymlpsrvcom.net> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... 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Now we know, at least from the three MIT publications highlighted in Leonardo Reviews here, that nothing changes. After the brief wild party, the historians have come in to sweep up the pieces into a sensible heap. This is not to decry writing history, an enterprise that I hope I also have contributed to. It is merely to point out that at least as far as publishing in the field of science, art and technology is concerned it is about time to quietly abandon the word 'new' when we talk of media - even when it is willfully confused with technology. The three featured reviews below identify distinct historical methods for conceptualizing the relationship between art and those technologies that some choose to call media. Our reviewers collectively address this topic and their dialogue sets up the debate about how future histories are to be written. Histories in which the assumptions, parallelisms and the tenuous associations of coincidence of populist writing are replaced by the rigor of researchers trained to avoid the seductions of their own rhetoric. Not only in these three reviews but also throughout the recent postings at http://www.leonardo.info/reviews/books.html the maturation of our practices, discussions and reflections concerning the intersection of art, science and technology is increasingly evident. We hope that the early warning radar of this trend will be reflected in our future reviews for the benefit of the Leonardo community Michael Punt Editor-in-Chief Leonardo Reviews < Deep Time of the Media: Toward an Archaeology of Hearing and Seeing by Technical Means by Siegfried Zielinski, Gloria Custance > reviewed by Sean Cubitt Siegfried Zielinski offers a new take on the long history of media technologies, taking his readers on a tour of forgotten archives and forgotten innovators. Familiar names appear, among them a fascinating repositioning of Athanasius Kircher. By refusing to accept the normative histories, Zielinski recovers a lost trajectory that involves a long tradition of magical and quasi-rational thought from Empedocles to the Illuminati and, thence, to the late 19th century reinvention of time. Among those recovered from obscurity are Giovan Battista Della Porta, Purkyne, Lombroso and the extraordinary Aleksej Kapitanovich Gastev. In his conclusion, Zielinski not only draws together the legacy of Ramon Llull, but proposes a new cartography of media 'anarcheology', whose centres are no longer London, Paris, Berlin and New York but Petersburg, Prague and places south and east. It is a marvelous book in the most literal sense of the word, and a wonderful read in its own right, quite apart from the scholarship and the revelation of new trajectories for media historiography. One reason for this is that the book opens onto a landscape of strangely familiar if obscure beauty: the history of the magical tradition as an intellectual pathway now left in darkness, but once a shining path for intellectual and technological enquiry. Zielinski's passion for the hermetic tradition steers clear of the worst excesses of Jungian mysticism while recalling the line, from Robert Fludd to Vilém Flusser, that situates a history of media in the gnostic tradition in Western Europe. He reminds us that Newton's dark obsession with alchemy is of a piece with his physics and optics; and that Copernicus is as much the heir of Pico della Mirandola's solar worship as he is the ancestor of scientific rationalism. It is an attractive thought, that right knowing of material science sails so close to the perennial philosophy; and that however materialist this history is, it addresses, if only by rejection, the repressed chronotope of the eternal wisdom. What has always repelled materialists from the hermetic tradition is not its whimsy but on the contrary the solemnity with which its priesthood has historically erected ever more complex cathedrals of theodicy and theogeny on the intuition that something 'more' inhabits, locates and frames the givenness of the world. It is sad therefore to note that materialism has often - though not universally - eschewed any address to the sacred. By this I do not mean that materialism in any way fails for lack of a theology, nor that the sacred forms some ontological ground on which the material world is more deeply founded. Rather, what has been often lacking is a commitment to understanding that affect which we recognise under the rubric of sacredness, an elevation beyond not merely the instinctual but also the intellectual pleasures, a yearning apart from the desire for justice, peace and plenty for all. Since the term sacred has, moreover, been tainted by centuries of mouthing in institutions that have done little for justice, peace or plenty, we need another term, one that might displace the materialist reluctance to address affect in general and this affect in particular. I propose a mediological enquiry into the nature of wonder, a task admirably launched by Zielinski's book. Quite properly Zielinski calls this tradition 'magic'. It is hard nowadays not to evoke Arthur C Clarke's dictum that any sufficiently advanced technology appears as magic. What neither Clarke nor Zielinski undertake is an analysis of the curiously braided destinies of magic and familiarity. As Don Ihde observes, technologies that at their invention appear magical can, with widespread adoption, become 'embedded' and transparent, as signs written in one's native language are transparent. Embedded technologies like television, once marvellous, become the invisible vehicles of messages whose mediation we notice only when the machinery breaks down. The braiding of magic and the mundane occurs when familiarity breeds contentment. The internet is a case in point. Early adopters not only found the technology marvellous: we found it interesting. The early adopter generation tended to be computer literate, at least at the level of understanding (and wondering at) the processes of packet switching, the efficacy of html, even the duplicity of cookie technology. But for the internet generation who grew up with them, these marvels are the more truly magical because they are not understood. Comprehension of how the net works is today a specialist discipline, or the domain of nerds, and while nerds command a higher degree of peer respect than in previous generations, their knowledge is regarded as arcane, and only its instrumental use in problem solving genuinely prized. For the rest, the web, e-mail, IRC are apparitions whose arrival might as well be the result of angels fluttering in Intel Core Duos as of the massive infrastructure of satellites, fibre- optics, domain name servers and internet access points. Not only does this leave internet governance at the mercy of cultures of expertise; nor merely open the doors to the exercise of power through control of code and protocol. It can also be damned for condemning us to good-enough solutions, like web-safe colours. At the same time, this state of affairs echoes with the same magical apparatuses that Zielinski points us towards. The difference is that while embedded internet appears without explanation or the need for it, it rarely evokes the sense of wonder that Zielinski's protagonists and their audiences so graphically experienced. It is a task - perhaps preliminary, but vital - of critical enquiry to restore that sense of wonder in the face of technologies that have become banal. There is a further refinement required to the concepts of the hermetic tradition and of magic that such a project requires. Hermeticism's reliance on correspondences - on similarities held to embody a deeper linkage between phenomena at some metaphysical level - has a tendency to proliferate connections, drawing ragged collocations of words, numbers and things into mystic configurations. Pilloried by Umberto Eco in his novels, and defended as the root of radical (and contemporary) art practice by Barbara Maria Stafford, the practice of analogy can be as ludicrous as it is illuminating. Critical studies of technology seeking to induce a sense of the strangeness of their objects need to be alert to both the poetic affordances of analogy and its capacity for mystification. The methodological brush with magic reminds us that the world still has surprises in store for us. Should the word 'surprise' seem too redolent of fairground attractions, Tom Gunning has taught us that this is no bad thing. If we are to retain our capacity for amazement, we have to remain open to the chance encounter of the sewing machine and the umbrella stand on the operating table. If this encounter explains nothing, we must place it alongside more licit engines of interpretation which, it appears, increasingly can offer only approximations, intimations, abstractions of or from reality. Fractal geometry, the uncertainty principle, string theory all move away from claims to describe nature and natural processes. Without abandoning the claim to some kind of relation to reality, such theoretical and mathematical models no longer offer one-to-one transcriptions of the real. The relation is neither one of utter deracination nor of simulacra lacking an original. On the contrary, such expressions mediate between reality and ourselves using processes that often enough arise equally from natural and artificial domains. Zielinski's book traces processes of mediation that have found some material form that would allow some mode of conformation or congruence between terms. His achievement is to have noted that proximity is no guarantor of truth: the fleck in my own eye is as strange as, if not stranger than, the beam in my ancestor's. < From Technological to Virtual Art by Frank Popper > reviewed by Amy Ione Technological and virtual art have become so prevalent in recent years that I find it difficult to conceptualize a world in which static media were the norm. Frank Popper's From Technological to Virtual Art chronicles the trajectory that brought about this revolution. Defining virtual art as art that allows us, through an interface with technology, to immerse ourselves in the image and interact with it, the book surveys the originality and power of recent projects and offers some historical antecedents as well. A well-respected art historian, long at the forefront of art and technology studies, Popper is an appropriate figure to present this material. Among those who have taken the art/ science/technology interface from the fringes and into the mainstream, his expertise is vividly translated into this well-documented and comprehensive study of the paradigmatic change. Here he argues that the move toward technologically based projects, largely begun in the twentieth century, has humanized technology due to an emphasis on interactivity. It is also noteworthy that many of the artists Popper focuses on see their commitment to art in larger terms. As the book details, this brings them in touch with politics, the community, and various social dimensions. Reading through the publication is like visiting an exhibition with a smorgasbord of themes, a global sweep, and sensitivity to the personal relationship artists establish with their projects. Popper sets the stage with an impressive history of technology- inspired work from 1918 to 1983 that immediately demonstrates the wealth of material packed into this volume. Accounting for about a third of the book, Part I includes historical antecedents and key figures. This section begins to make it clear that the artistic imagination sometimes finds the "right" technology through incremental experimentation. Surveying technologies that include lasers, holography and eco- technological, computer and communication art, the overview also offers a fine foundation for the coverage of contemporary technological/virtual art and artists, which comprises the bulk of the publication. Part II is subdivided into sections on materialized digital-based work, off-line multimedia and multisensoral works, interactive digital installations, and multimedia online works (net art). Covering 1983-2004, the second part examines plastic and cognitive issues, sensory experiments, interactivity, and experimental modalities more recently pursued. Well-crafted vignettes of key innovators, in both sections, underscore that many practitioners who bring science and technology into their research are sensitive to aesthetic values. What sets them apart is that formal elements are addressed in tandem with investigations of everything from politics to philosophical questions about the real, their own virtual "space," connections between the real, the virtual, and the imagined, and multisensory experience. Indeed, the juxtapositions of themes and formal goals accounts for the work's strength and power. Given its sweep, From Technological to Virtual Art is a hard book to evaluate critically. Popper shows a willingness to let the artists speak for themselves and honors their intentions by explaining their aspirations non-judgmentally. This style of authorship successfully outlines artistic histories and the movement's growth but does not contextualize the kinds of critical themes that are apt to arise in a general academic discussion of the art, science, and technology interface. It is my impression that when critical questions were introduced in depth it was because an artist brought this dimension into a discussion with Popper. This minimalistic approach led me to relish the few parts where deeper issues were more fully brought into play. One of these exceptions was in the chapter on Interactive Digital Installations; perhaps the strongest in the book. Here there is some discussion of how the transcendental approach of immersive, virtual projects (such as Char Davies) intersects with the historical view. Stepping aside from his theme driven biographical survey style, Popper mentions how transcendence, as discussed by Plato, Kant, and other philosophers who have thought about this topic, differs from the common presentation of virtual art. Including more developed commentary throughout the book on how the field has re-visited philosophical issues and artistic questions would have added a nice tension to the chapters. Overall, the book works best as a tribute to the art/science/technology paradigm and as an invitation to seek out the pieces presented. I was delighted with the background material on a number of artists whose work I have encountered over the years, and on figures I know more by name than from exposure to their contributions. For example, Leonardo readers will particularly appreciate Popper's summary of the life, inventive mind, and artistic contributions of Frank Malina. Also of note were summaries on Patrick Lichty, Nina Czegledy, Catherine Ikam and Louis Fléri, Roy Ascott, Orlan, and Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. On the other hand, even a thorough introduction cannot include the wealth of talent within this community. In this case, I was sorry there was no mention of Margaret Dolinsky's work and wished that Victoria Vesna's research, particularly with nanotechnology, had received a fuller treatment. I also found myself surprised by some of the examples Popper chose. Jenny Holzer, for instance, is not someone I think of in terms of technological or virtual art, although her neon sign projects are well known and definitely qualify as technological artifacts. Just as I was ruminating on the Holzer section, I learned that she now has new silk-screen works on display at the Venice Biennial. Her latest turn to this older technology is a reminder that as the virtual becomes more a part of the art world, artists still move in and out of diverse media, at times returning to more traditional forms. Perhaps the book's greatest contribution is its expansion of the art/science/technology literature. Popper mentions early in the book that his intention is to present the history of technological and virtual art in a manner that goes beyond the contributions of Oliver Grau and Christine Buci-Glücksmann. In this he is successful. Grau makes a compelling case that media art has a history that is receiving more (well-deserved) attention, and Buci-Glücksmann demonstrates that technological art now has a place at the table. By contrast, Popper highlights the characters who have brought about our current vision. His much-needed history of key players brings Vasari's sixteenth- century Lives of the Artists to mind. This is not a trivial comparison. On the one hand, both authors present brief overviews of the revolutionary artists of an era. On the other hand, both authors offer presentations that need to accommodate the technological realities of their time. Vasari's descriptions were primarily textually based due to the limitations in printing visual images in the sixteenth century. Although the second edition included woodcuts of the faces of most of the artists mentioned, there were no reproductions of the artworks he described. Ironically, the Popper book is similarly limited in relation to the artworks. One or two small black and white static images accompany the short sketches of the various artists. While numerous, these are a far cry from the actual installations. Having said this, it should surprise no one that the distance between an illustrated text and physical reality was foremost on my mind as I read the book and prepared this review. During this period, coincidentally, I visited Anthony McCall's installation, You and I, Horizontal (2005) at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Although McCall is a figure Popper does not include, he could easily have found a place in the mix. Interacting with this piece, which emphasized the sculptural qualities of a light beam as it comes in contact with a changing geometrical projection and particles in the air - here, vapor from a theatrical haze machine - I could not help but think how poorly this active piece would translate if presented as a small black and white reproduction, even though it is a monochromatic work. Spending time digesting its magical qualities, as the haze seemed to continually change its "physical" form(s) in real time and physical space, underscored how necessary the unfolding experience is to our comprehension of technological art, virtual art, and art in general. To be sure, Popper's words convey that he recognizes how hard it is to articulate all that "embodiment" adds in the book form. Fortunately he did try to address this limitation through the artist list at the end of the volume, which provides URLs that supplement the print medium. Finally, it is important to underscore that a short review cannot even begin to touch on the many wonderful tidbits of information Popper packs into this history. Without a doubt, his knowledge of the field and personal acquaintance with the range of artwork discussed elevates his exposition of motives, technology, and the creative problem-solving involved in moving a piece from idea to actuality. Even given the distance between the publication and the actual experience of the work, Technological to Virtual Art (particularly with the supplementary material) provides a nice overview of the field. It would be a wonderful choice for a textbook in a course exploring the professionals who have nurtured the current art/science/technology climate. Educators could enlarge the book with the URLs, onsite visits, and other media examples that more fully convey the artistic projects outlined in the text. Indeed, and to Popper's credit, much of the material about the work has genuineness to it that came about through his extensive reliance on personal interviews rather than secondary sources. Crafted to touch upon key themes within the work and the creative problem solving that motivated the artistic imagination and technological development needed to bring an aspiration to fruition, the book is a welcome addition to the field. Those who are new to the art/science/technology discipline will find the sweeping survey offers a nice map. Those who know the terrain will no doubt learn more about groundbreaking practitioners and appreciate the wealth of detail that illuminates how we got to this point in time. Libraries now building collections that cover the emergence of recent virtual and media projects should definitely put this book on their shelves. From Technological to Virtual Art is a book that marks the arrival of the art/science/technology perspective and presents the work of many of the innovative people responsible for its ascendancy. I highly recommend it. < Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theater, Dance, Performance Art, and Installation by Steve Dixon > reviewed by Dene Grigar It's hard to imagine a bolder or more in-depth book on digital performance than Steve Dixon's Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theater, Dance, Performance Art, and Installation. Exhaustive without being exhausting, Digital Performance includes 800 pages that outline histories as well as theories surrounding digital performance, with large sections of the book paying detailed attention to such topics as the "body," "space," "time," and "interactivity." Along with providing a history of digital performance, Dixon addresses assumptions and critiques views taken by some at face value. Little escapes Dixon's lens, for it is a book with roots in a long-running research project undertaken, from 1999-2001, by Dixon and Barry Smith that "document[ed] developments in the creative use of computer technologies in performance." Called The Digital Performance Archive (DPA), the web-based archive included "live theater and dance productions that incorporate[d] digital media to cyberspace interactive dramas and webcasts. . . [and] collate[d] examples of the use of computers technologies to document, discuss, or analyze performance, including specialist websites, e-zines, and academic CD-ROMs" (ix). The book begins with a revised perspective of the postmodern take on art, challenging Lev Manovich's stance on new media art, which Dixon says "fetishizes the technology without regard for artistic vision and content" (5) and views that ignore the influence of Italian Futurism (and those movements connected to it) on digital performance (47). Section one of the book traces this influence as well as the development of digital performance in three periods, looking first at the avant-garde in the early 20th C, then to multimedia theater from 1911-1959, and finally to technology infused performance work from 1960 onwards. Section two concerns itself with the "Theories and Contexts" surrounding digital performance, starting with the "liveness problem" (115), then "Postmodernism and Posthumanism," "The Digital Revolution," and "Digital Dancing and Software Developments." Here Dixon critiques postmodern theories that he says "can . . . operate doctrinally to impose specific and sometimes inappropriate ideas onto cultural and artistic works" (135) - and takes on the theorists who propose them. Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin's "remediation," Dixon says, though not a new idea (it is itself repurposed from the "disposal and recycling industries") does shed light on "inherent dialectical tensions at play within computer representations and simulations" (136). George Landow, Dixon tells us, possesses "evangelical zeal typical of the writers at the time" (137). Dixon points to Diane Gromala's utilization of Lyotard's language game to talk about new technologies and, then, Deleuze and Guttari's theories to explain her views of virtual reality and, next, to Gregory Ulmer's focus on Derrida, Lacan, and Wittgenstein for theories of hypertextuality. A whole section is devoted to Jean Baudrillard, whose nihilistic and cynical view of technology, while "seductive and compelling," is "over the top" and in the end offers a view that is for the most part one- sided and incomplete (140-143). There is a section, also, on Derrida, whose theory of deconstruction (particularly, that the "world [is] constant flux") does not really fit "the liveness of theater," which "conspires to fix time and space" (author's emphasis, 145). It would be easy to react to Dixon's critique of theory as simply as one of a Monday morning quarterback able to make better claims in hindsight than those living in the moment of action, as he picks apart past ideas, showing them to be hyperbolic or faulty. When he writes, for example, that "an inescapable fact about the progression of software is that after the initial miracle of new computer 'life,' a certain sameness and staleness creeps in through the repetition that replaced the initial awe and wonderment" (208), we have to ask, isn't this problem true for all new things? Is it just a problem with software? I say this because I remember having to explain to a roomful of college students why Piet Mondrian's Composition in Blue, Yellow, and Black is, paraphrasing their comments, "a big deal, considering that the painting was just lines and squares that anyone can do with PhotoShop." The fact does remain that postmodernism does (or did, depending on one's perspective) offer an alternative to ancient Greek philosophy and worldviews that have dominated the Western world for over two thousand years and don't necessarily work for a contemporary world that is vastly larger and more technologically advanced than that of 5th century Athens. At some point we do get excited about something new and must be able to map new views onto our new world. But the question Dixon forces us to remember is, when and which ones? But this questioning of Dixon's perspective on postmodernism does not mean that his insights are off base. Far from the truth: They are right on target for those performers and performance scholars who have long wondered about the wisdom of placing so much importance on theories not born out of performance practice. Dixon's views will be perceived as sensible and be felt as breaths of fresh air. The next sections, as stated previously, look at the body, space, time, and interactivity. There is a lot to like in the next 600 pages, starting with Dixon's position that "bodies are not animated cadavers . . . . Bodies embody consciousness" (212), to the dream quality of performance (337), to the notion of "media time" (517), to his definition of and categories for interactivity (563), to cite just a few of the hundreds of pages of ideas and insights he offers. Readers looking to consult the DPA database introduced at the front of the book will be disappointed that it is not currently available. Some may wonder why Dixon did not cite Mike Phillips' wry work concerning Shakespeare's works and monkeys but simply alluded to it (166) or question his spelling of Margarete Jahrmann and Max Moswitzer's work, the "nibble-engine-project" (611) when they themselves write of it as "nybble-engine." Women who have been working with computers for decades may take umbrage at Dixon's own assumption that the internet was populated by cowboys, forgetting about us cowgirls (160) or grrls, as many of us called ourselves. Despite these issues, Dixon's book possesses both depth and breadth that performance theorists and practitioners will find not only useful but also necessary for research and teaching. As such Dixon's book is not a history of digital performances but rather a book about the whole concept of digital performance. _______________________ Leonardo Reviews, August 2007 < Bullshit by Pea Holmquist and Suzanne Khardalian > Reviewed by Jonathan Zilberg < Cartographic Cinema by Tom Conley > Reviewed by Jan Baetens < Clarence John Laughlin: Prophet Without Honor by A.J. Meek > Reviewed by Allan Graubard < Deep Time of the Media: Toward an Archaeology of Hearing and Seeing by Technical Means by Siegfried Zielinski and Gloria Custance > Reviewed by Sean Cubitt < Design Anarchy by Kalle Lasn > Reviewed by John F. Barber < Digital Performance: A History of New Media in Theater, Dance, Performance Art, and Installation by Steve Dixon > Reviewed by Dene Grigar < Dub: Soundscapes and Shattered Songs in Jamaican Reggae by Michael E. Veal > Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen < The Face of Evil by David Tosco, Director > Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens < Forever by Heddy Honigann > Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens < From Technological to Virtual Art by Frank Popper > Reviewed by Amy Ione < Imagining MIT: Designing a Campus for the Twenty-First Century by William J. Mitchell > Reviewed by Dr Eugenia Fratzeskou < Jules Kirschenbaum: The Need to Dream of Some Transcendent Meaning by Thomas Worthen > Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens < Mind as Machine: A History of Cognitive Science by Margaret Boden > Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens < Native Moderns: American Indian Painting, 1940-1960 by Bill Anthes > Reviewed by Jonathan Zilberg < Notes on Marie Menken by Martina Kudlacek > Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens < Ohne Schnur: Kunst und Drahtlose Kommunikation Edited by Katja Kwastek > Reviewed by Stefaan Van Ryssen < Our Daily Bread by Nikolaus Geyrhalter > and < The Gleaners and I by Agnes Varda > Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens < Shigeru Ban: An Architect for Emergencies by Michel Quinejure > Reviewed by Roy R. Behrens To read all the reviews posted for August 2007, visit Leonardo Reviews at: . ______________________________________________________ LEONARDO, VOL. 40, No. 4 (July 2007) TABLE OF CONTENTS AND SELECT ABSTRACTS ______________________________________________________ Editorial < Research on and from within Creative Practice > by Ernest Edmonds _______________________ Special Section: The Fire Arts of Burning Man < Introduction: A Passion to Burn > by Louis M. Brill < Curator Overview: Playing with Fire > by Christine Kristen (a.k.a. LadyBee) ABSTRACT: Fire as an art form is evolving in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada, where many Burning Man artists explore the creation and manipulation of fire in their installations. Sculptors, engineers, geeks and pyromaniacs experiment with open fires, pressurized gases and pyrotechnics to produce mesmerizing and beautiful works of art. < Burning Man Artists' Statements > by Joe Bard and Danya Parkinson, Tim Black, Larry Breed, Paul Cesewski and Jenne Giles, Bill Codding, Dan Das Mann, Wally Glenn, Lucy Hosking, Syd Klinge, Tamara Li, Dan Ng, Andrew Sano, Jack Schroll, Eric Singer, Nate Smith, Charlie Smith and Jaime Ladet, Kal Spelletich, Kasia Wojnarski _______________________ General Note < The Use of Artistic Analogies in Chemical Research and Education > by Balazs Hargittai and Magdolna Hargittai ABSTRACT: This compilation presents examples of artistic artifacts that have served as successful visual analogies to aspects of chemistry. The authors have used them in various college-level chemistry classes, outreach programs and chemistry textbooks, as well as in journals and monographs. They include ancient Chinese, Turkish and Thai sculptures, modern sculptures and a medieval fresco. These examples illustrate the chemical concept of chirality, the periodic table of the elements and molecular systems such as buckminsterfullerene, nanotubes and quasicrystals. _______________________ Transactions < Interactive Experience in Public Context: Tango Tangle > by Zafer Bilda < Constraints and Creativity in the Digital Arts > by Linda Candy < Interaction as a Medium in Architectural Design > by Joanne Jakovich and Kirsty Beilharz < A Pleasure Framework > by Brigid Costello < Fundamental Insights on Complex Systems Arising from Generative Arts Practice > by C. Burraston _______________________ Special Section: ArtScience: The Essential Connection < Deconstructing the Genome with Cinema > by Gabriel A. Harp ABSTRACT: Evidence from language, history and form suggest an analogy between the cinema and the genome. The author describes some of the relationships between cinema and the genome and points to opportunities for discovering unmarked categories within the genome and new methods of representation. This is accomplished by evaluating existing metaphors presented for the understanding of genetics and revealing how current scientific understanding and social concerns suggest a cinematic alternative. The formal principles of function, difference and development mediate discussion and serve as heuristics for investigating creative opportunities. < Fractal Graphic Designer Anton Stankowski > by Vladimir A. Shlyk ABSTRACT: The author introduces an outstanding master of graphic design and photography, Anton Stankowski, as a fractal artist. Stankowski saw his challenge as inventing a visual graphic language capable of depicting natural and technological processes and abstract notions in an aesthetic and comprehensible way. Many of Stankowski's works demonstrate fractal-like characteristics. Analysis of his theory of design provides convincing evidence that this is not accidental. Stankowski used these features consciously. He devised and applied a principle of organizing forms in pictures by means of two components, branching and regeneration, both of which are properties of self-similarity and the underlying bases of fractals. _______________________ From the Leonardo Archive < Introduction > by Darlene Tong and Roger F. Malina < Caricature Generator, the Dynamic Exaggeration of Faces by Computer and Illustrated Works > by Susan Brennan (Reprinted from Leonardo Vol. 18, No. 3, 1985) ABSTRACT: The author has researched and developed a theory of computation for caricature and has implemented this theory as an interactive computer graphics program. The Caricature Generator program is used to create caricatures by amplifying the differences between the face to be caricatured and a comparison face. This continuous, parallel amplification of facial features on the computer screen simulates the visualization process in the imagination of the caricaturist. The result is a recognizable, animated caricature, generated by computer and mediated by an individual who may or may not have facility for drawing, but who, like most human beings, is expert at visualizing and recognizing faces. _______________________ Leonardo Reviews Reviews by Kathryn Adams, Wilfred Niels Arnold, John F. Barber, Martha Blassnigg, Andrea Dahlberg, Sean Cubitt, Amy Ione, Mike Leggett, Michael Punt, Eugene Thacker, Stefaan Van Ryssen, Jonathan Zilberg ______________________________________________________ LEONARDO NETWORK NEWS ______________________________________________________ < Leonardo/OLATS Awards the Leonardo-EMS Award for Excellence to criticalartware > We are pleased to announce that Leonardo/OLATS and the Electroacoustic Music Studies Network (EMS Network) have awarded the Leonardo-EMS Award for Excellence to criticalartware (Jon Cates, Ben Syverson and Jon Satrom) for their paper "likn: A Flexible Platform for Information and Metadata Exchange" which they presented at the Electroacoustic Music Studies Conference in Beijing, October 2006. criticalartware's likn project is an artware application that addresses the nature of knowledge, ideas and language in the era of globalization. More specifically, likn is a functional online collaborative environment which wages a persistent critique of the desire to standardize and universalize meaning, and offers an alternative by applying postmodern and postcolonial theories to the challenge of organizing discourse and media. The paper can be accessed online at http://www.leonardo.info/isast/announcements/LeoEMS2006_announce .html The Leonardo-EMS jury convened on Thursday, October 26 after the official closure of the third Electroacoustic Music Studies Conference. The Leonardo-EMS jury, consisting of Marc Battier, Kenneth Fields and Ricardo dal Farra, was thrilled at the high quality of presentations by young researchers during the Beijing event and the final decision was difficult to reach. The EMS Network has been organized to fill an important gap in electroacoustic music, namely focusing on the better understanding of the various manifestations of electroacoustic music. Areas related to the study of electroacoustic music range from the musicological to more interdisciplinary approaches, from studies concerning the impact of technology on musical creativity to the investigation of the ubiquitous nature of electroacoustic sounds today. The choice of the word "network" is of fundamental importance, as one of the goals of the EMS Network is to make relevant initiatives more widely available. More about the Electroacoustic Music Studies Network can be found at http://www.ems-network.org Leonardo/OLATS has established a collaboration with the EMS network through which annual Leonardo-EMS Awards for Excellence will be made for the best contribution to the EMS symposium by a young researcher as decided by a joint jury. < MutaMorphosis Conference Speakers Announced > The MutaMorphosis conference is part of the Leonardo 40th Anniversary celebrations and of the e n t e r 3 festival. The festival will feature performances, screenings and exhibitions at various locations around Prague 8 - 11 November 2007, including the first retrospective of Frank J. Malina (artist, scientist and founder of Leonardo). Scheduled Plenary Speakers at this time are: Roy Ascott Terror Incognito: Steps toward an Extremity of Mind Albert-László Barabási The Architecture of Complexity Louis Bec Václav Cílek Climate as the Last Wilderness David Dunn & James P. Crutchfield Insects, Trees, and Climate: The Bioaocustic Ecology of Deforestation and Entomogenic Climate Change Roger F. Malina Limits of Cognition: Artists in the Dark Universe Stelarc Alternate Anatomical Architectures: Extruded, Empty and Absent Bodies Victoria Vesna & James Gimzewski The new territory of nano Plenary speakers abstracts are available on line at: http://www.mutamorphosis.org Join us in Prague November 8 - 10, 2007 for this outstanding international event! MutaMorphosis concentrates on the growing interest - within the worlds of the arts, sciences and technologies - in EXTREME AND HOSTILE ENVIRONMENTS. More than 60 renowned practitioners in the arts, sciences, engineering and humanities will speak about the limits and extremes in our conceptions of life, space and cognition. Feel free to BROWSE the abstracts at our web site http://www.mutamorphosis.org where you can also REGISTER and BOOK your hotel at special conference prices. Please note that the capacity of the conference halls is limited. - Early registration: June 1, 2007 - July 31, 2007 - Regular registration: August 1, 2007 - October 15, 2007 The international conference MutaMorphosis: Challenging Arts and Sciences is organized by CIANT - International Centre for Art and New Technologies in Prague and co-organized by Leonardo/ISAST, Hexagram - Institute for Research/Creation in Media Arts and Technologies and Pépinières européenes pour jeunes artistes. Should you require further information do not hesitate to contact us at mutamorphosis at ciant.cz. < Leonardo Abstracts Service (LABS) opens new Chinese language database > Leonardo is delighted to announce the opening of the Chinese language Leonardo Abstracts Service (LABS) database, following the establishment of the English language and Spanish language LABS databases. The Chinese language LABS, organized by Ken Fields at the China Electronic Music Center at China's Central Conservatory of Music, is for abstracts of art/science/technology MA or PHD theses written in Chinese and can be found at: http://china- labs.daohaus.org The Chinese-language peer review panel for 2006/2007 includes: Ma Gang, Central Academy of Fine Art, Beijing Zhang Peili, China Academy of Fine Art, Hangzhou Zhang Xiaofu, Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing Zhu Qingsheng, Peking University, Beijing Lothar Spree, Tongji University, Shanghai Kenneth Fields, Central Conservatory of Music, Beijing Thesis Abstract submittal forms for Chinese language abstracts can be found at: http://china-labs.daohaus.org. Leonardo Abstracts Service (LABS) Bi-annual submission deadlines (on-going) are: 30 June and 31 December Leonardo Abstracts Service (LABS), consisting of the English- language database, Spanish-language database and Chinese-language database, is a comprehensive collection of Ph.D., Masters and MFA thesis abstracts on topics in the emerging intersection between art, science and technology. Individuals receiving advanced degrees in the arts (visual, sound, performance, text), computer sciences, the sciences and/or technology that in some way investigate philosophical, historical or critical applications of science or technology to the arts are invited to submit abstracts of their theses for consideration. Further information on LABS: http://www.leonardo.info/isast/journal/calls/labsprojectcall.html _____________________________ LEONARDO NETWORK NEWS COORDINATOR: Kathleen Quillian kq [@] leonardo [dot] info ______________________________________________________ BYTES ______________________________________________________ < Digital Humanities Chair Position available at Dartmouth College > Dartmouth College invites applications for a newly endowed chair in the Digital Humanities. The successful candidate should be committed to interdisciplinary collaboration, technological innovation, and creating curricular links within the Humanities and across divisions. The position offers the opportunity to define a new area of research and teaching, and to build on Dartmouth's existing strengths in the Humanities and Computing. The field of research and teaching is open; we seek candidates with practical and/or theoretical expertise in one or several of the following fields in the Arts and Humanities: visual arts, visual culture, new media, screen studies, performance arts, music and sound, film, TV/Video, literature, and human-computer interaction. Expertise in computer hardware and/or software will be welcome but is not essential. The role of the Chair in Digital Humanities is intended to be broad in scope, potentially incorporating current or future initiatives in cyber-culture and the creation, performance, and critical study of digital arts, including a consideration of the socio-political and theoretical implications of new artistic technologies. The endowment for this Chair provides additional funds for projects involving research, teaching, and program building in the Digital Humanities. Our intention is to hire at the rank of associate or full professor with tenure. The successful candidate will be located in a single Dartmouth department or program, or jointly appointed to one or more departments or programs. Considerable flexibility exists regarding joint appointments, which may cross departmental or even divisional boundaries. Dartmouth College combines a commitment to innovative scholarship, creative practice, and excellent teaching, primarily but not only of undergraduate students. One of the most diverse institutions of higher education in New England, Dartmouth College is an equal opportunity/ affirmative action employer and has a strong commitment to diversity. In that spirit, we are particularly interested in receiving applications from a broad spectrum of people, including women, persons of color, persons with disabilities, and veterans. The Search Committee will begin reviewing applications after October 1, 2007. Applications will be considered until the position is filled. Applications should be submitted in digital form. Please send letter of application, CV, and the names of three references to: digital.search at dartmouth.edu Please contact Mark Williams, Chair of the Search Committee with any questions Mark Williams (Mark.J.Williams at Dartmouth.edu) Dept. of Film and Television Studies 317 Wilson Hall Dartmouth College Hanover, NH 03755 USA _____________________________ ________________________________________________________________ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * CREDITS * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ________________________________________________________________ Nisar Keshvani: LEA Editor-in-Chief Natra Haniff: LEA Editor Nicholas Cronbach: LEA Editor Kathleen Quillian: LEA e-news Digest Coordinator Michael Punt: LR Editor-in-Chief Andre Ho: Web Concept and Design Consultant Roger Malina: Leonardo Executive Editor Stephen Wilson: Chair, Leonardo/ISAST Web Committee Craig Harris: Founding Editor Editorial Advisory Board: Irina Aristarkhova, Roy Ascott, Craig Harris, Fatima Lasay, Michael Naimark, Julianne Pierce Gallery Advisory Board: Mark Amerika, Paul Brown, Choy Kok Kee, Steve Dietz, Kim Machan fAf-LEA Corresponding Editors: Lee Weng Choy, Ricardo Dal Farra, Elga Ferreira, Young Hae- Chang, Fatima Lasay, Jose-Carlos Mariategui, Marcus Neustetter, Elaine Ng, Marc Voge ________________________________________________________________ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * LEA PUBLISHING INFORMATION * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ________________________________________________________________ Editorial Address: Leonardo Electronic Almanac PO Box 850 Robinson Road Singapore 901650 keshvani [@] leoalmanac [dot] org ________________________________________________________________ Copyright (2007), Leonardo, the International Society for the Arts, Sciences and Technology All Rights Reserved. Re-posting of the content of this journal is prohibited without permission of Leonardo/ISAST, except for the posting of news and events listings that have been independently received. Leonardo/ISAST and the MIT Press give institutions permission to offer access to LEA within the organization through such resources as restricted local gopher and mosaic services. Open access to other individuals and organizations is not permitted. ________________________________________________________________ < Ordering Information > Leonardo Electronic Almanac is a free supplement to subscribers of Leonardo and Leonardo Music Journal. To subscribe to Leonardo Electronic Almanac e-news digest, visit: http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/leon_e_almanac To subscribe to Leonardo, visit: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/leon To subscribe to Leonardo Music Journal, visit: http://www.mitpressjournals.org/lmj For Leonardo and LMJ subscription queries contact: journals-orders [@] mit [dot] edu ________________________________________________________________ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ADVERTISING * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ________________________________________________________________ Leonardo Electronic Almanac is published monthly -- individuals and institutions interested in advertising in LEA, either in the distributed text version or on the World Wide Web site should contact: Leonardo - Advertising 211 Sutter Street, suite #501 San Francisco, CA 94108 phone: (415) 391-1110 fax: (415) 391-2385 E-mail: kq [@] leonardo [dot] info More Info: http://leonardo.info/isast/placeads.html#LEAads ________________________________________________________________ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ACKNOWLEDGMENTS * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ________________________________________________________________ LEA acknowledges with thanks the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations for their support to Leonardo/ISAST and its projects. ________________________________________________________________ < End of Leonardo Electronic Almanac > ________________________________________________________________ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leonardo electronic almanac alerts list" group. 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URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071027/18af8748/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From pkray11 at gmail.com Sat Oct 27 17:07:13 2007 From: pkray11 at gmail.com (prakash ray) Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2007 17:07:13 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Punish the modis og Gujarat Message-ID: <98f331e00710270437jba4b7fdv8b6658f22365c2d8@mail.gmail.com> *Gujarat Pogroms: Take Immediate Action* *The shocking and graphic details of the massacre of the minority community in Gujarat in 2002 have been brought out by the perpetrators themselves in the Tehelka footage shown on television. It has confirmed what is well known that the 2002 violence in Gujarat was a State-sponsored one. The Chief Minister Modi and his government were fully responsible for this gross violation of human rights and subversion of the Constitution. * *A number of cases pertaining to the Gujarat killings are before the Supreme Court. There has been a great delay in disposing of these cases and bringing the culprits to book. The Tehelka tapes should be taken as prime facieevidence and the Supreme Court and the Central Government should move expeditiously to see that all those guilty are brought to justice. The Central Government and the law enforcement agencies have a special responsibility in this regard.* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071027/aa1aad0b/attachment.html From jenny.chithra at gmail.com Sat Oct 27 22:59:31 2007 From: jenny.chithra at gmail.com (jenny chithra) Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2007 22:59:31 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] fourth posting: caste and gender in the urban space of Keralam Message-ID: Dear friends, Like we mentioned in our last posting, during our field trip, we came across many other cases that were very similar to that of Chithra Lekha's. Below we give some of the details. 1. Whenever we mentioned Chithra Lekha's case to anyone, they always told us about another Dalit Christian woman, Elizabeth, living in a nearby town called Pazhayangadi. She was also harassed by her fellow auto rickshaw drivers (again from backward caste communities and belonging to the trade unions of the Left) branded as a loose woman and was forced to leave the field. We could not talk to her as we were told that the situation was still tense and it would be best to keep away at that point. 2. Chithra Lekha told us about a Dalit woman, Shyamala who was at present driving an auto rickshaw in another small-town in Kannur. Her auto rickshaw was burned 8 years ago and though people had inquired about this when Chithra Lekha's problems had become an issue, the woman had refused to speak out. We also came to know that at present she had close familial connections with people who were office bearers of the Marxist party. 3.We met a Muslim woman, Jazeera, again in a small town in Kannur, who was fighting against her fellow drivers from the Left trade union and belonging to the Muslim community. She was also being accused of being a "loose woman" and was beaten up by her fellow drivers. She had registered a police complaint but as a result her employer had refused to let rent out his auto rickshaw. He was afraid that it would be burned like Chithra Lekha's and he would suffer loss. At the time when we met her, she was planning to meet the Chief Minister to register a complaint against the harassment she was facing. 4. In another town (close to Jazeera's place) we heard that a Thiyya woman had committed suicide following some allegations made about her involvement with a fellow driver from the same community. In all the four cases above, the reaction of other auto drivers and people of the region were the same. They all blamed the women for being loose, for exceeding their limits, etc. These women were always spoken about without any respect or consideration. As we mentioned in our last post, there were also women who expressed satisfaction with the leftist trade unions. It is interesting to note that fellow auto drivers, spoke without much regard for these women too. When we went looking for them, we were old that they hardly come for work and could be found at home. However, we found at least two of the women with their autos. These women also belittled their trade and talked about doing other "side-business", like selling night gowns, for making ends meet. On the other hand, Elizabeth, Chithralekha and Jazeera were all efficient workers, who were able to earn more than their fellow, male, auto drivers. Christy, Jenny -- (All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave) From shambhu.rahmat at gmail.com Sun Oct 28 10:18:56 2007 From: shambhu.rahmat at gmail.com (Shambhu Rahmat) Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2007 10:48:56 +0600 Subject: [Reader-list] The Case Of The Blasphemous Cat Message-ID: Cartoonist Arrested Over Cat Cartoon http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/category/religion/ OP-ED: Save Us From Cats http://rumiahmed.wordpress.com/2007/09/23/save-us-from-cats/ HISTORY: Chronology of Major Blasphemy Cases http://rumiahmed.wordpress.com/2007/09/30/chronology-of-major-blasphemy-cases-in-bangladesh-1972-2007/ Free Cartoonist Arifur Rahman http://rezwanul.blogspot.com/2007/09/free-cartoonist-arifur-rahman.html Hypocrisy of Mullahs http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/2007/09/19/the-hypocrisy-of-the-bangla-mullahs/ Letter For Arif http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/2007/10/22/a-letter-for-arif/ Glimpse At The Future http://rumiahmed.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/a-glimpse-at-the-future/ Ex Communist Party leader Begs Forgiveness From Mullahs http://rumiahmed.wordpress.com/2007/09/20/picture-of-the-day/ The Power of War Criminal at Baitul Mokarram http://rumiahmed.wordpress.com/2007/09/18/the-only-totally-independent-government-officer-in-bangladesh/ Release Arifur Rahman http://rumiahmed.wordpress.com/2007/09/26/release-them/ From mail at shivamvij.com Sun Oct 28 16:36:56 2007 From: mail at shivamvij.com (Shivam Vij) Date: Sun, 28 Oct 2007 16:36:56 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Babu Bajrangi Superstar Message-ID: <9c06aab30710280406r55c81a4ep8ddd875183738079@mail.gmail.com> Various spycam video clippings of Tehelka's Gujarat story are available on YouTube and some more are being gradually uploaded. http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=tehelkatv Babu Bajrangi's video has become one of the most watched, commented and linked-to in YouTube's News section. And if you haven't already, read and be afraid: http://tehelka.com/story_main35.asp?filename=Ne031107gujrat_sec.asp best shivam From pkray11 at gmail.com Mon Oct 29 19:59:46 2007 From: pkray11 at gmail.com (prakash ray) Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 19:59:46 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Violence in Nandigram- a report Message-ID: <98f331e00710290729o5cb6c538ua6697a368df8b972@mail.gmail.com> VIOLENCE ERUPTS AT NANDIGRAM AS TRINAMUL-MAOISTS RUN RIOT: FOUR REFUGEES KILLED The information that Trinamul Congress chieftain Mamata Banerjee was coming to Khejuri was enough to trigger off a planned and barbaric attack by the hardened criminals, armed and ruthless, in the pay and protection of the Trinamul Congress, the Maoists, the Naxalites, and the SUCI on the hapless refugees of the Sher Khan Chak relief camp very early in the morning. Four villagers lost their lives. More than thirty wounded. A part of the relief camp burst into flames as the bombs and incendiary devices rained down. Before the relief camp inhabitants could organise themselves enough to flee (what else they could do), they found four villagers lying in pools of blood, their bodies singed and burnt beyond recognition with an acrid smell filling the air. By the time, the villagers could regroup and send for medical help, three of the victims had breathed their last in extreme pain and agony. FOUR KILLED They were Sunil Bar (42), Gobindo Singh (37), and Charan Garu Das (24). Gouraloy Das (25) died on the way to Tamluk hospital. The injured are under medical care in various medical centres and hospitals around. A successful 12-hour bandh has been held under the aegis of the CPI (M) in the five blocks of Nandigram I & II, Chandipore, Khejuri, and Hendia to protest against the dastardly killing. It is now widely believed that the popular resistance that prevents the Trinamul-Maoists-SUCI-Naxalite 'front' from occupying newer areas at Nandigram has made the criminals desperate. Even on the day of the bombing of the Sher Khan Chak relief camp, more than 100 people, men, women, and children, defied the 'ban' imposed by the forces of reaction and sectarianism on their return to their villages, and marched home, Red Flags held aloft. The criminals dared not attack these brave and completely unarmed villagers, carrying their meagre belongings on their heads. DASTARDLY RUMOUR Elsewhere, Mamata Banerjee staged a fruitless drama to 'prove' that she was shot at 'with intent to kill,' while she was on her way to Khejuri. Fishing out a couple of spent cartridges, her acolytes started to talk rapidly into their cell phones informing Trinamul Congress and Maoists goons at Nandigram and beyond to Kolkata to spread the rumour that Mamata Banerjee 'has been shot at, no, shot, and killed.' The ritual of road blockades including blocking up of highways, burning of public vehicles and attacks on CPI (M) supporters, however, did not last long as it was soon realised by the red faced goons of the Trinamul Congress that had she been actually shot or even shot at, bullets, and not cartridges would have to be 'found' near the 'scene of the crime.' Cartridges get ejected where the gun is fired and not where the bullet goes. The media, too, got a bit of crimson on the faces and had to stop abruptly running of the story of 'Mamata Banerjee shot at Khejuri' complete with close-ups of Trinamul Congress leaders holding up spent cartridges as 'undeniable proof.' Even the devoutly anti-CPI (M) Telegraph which found time to chat and extract 'confessions' from a dead victim of Trinamul Congress bomb attacks, did a bit of confession itself in headline, and said that there appeared to a "hole in Mamata 'bullet.' " - B PRASANT (India News Network) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071029/3c5f3f80/attachment.html From ysaeed7 at yahoo.com Mon Oct 29 22:49:33 2007 From: ysaeed7 at yahoo.com (Yousuf) Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 10:19:33 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] "The New Muslim" in Hindustan Times Message-ID: <757760.93062.qm@web51411.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Dear friends I don’t know if any of you have been following a series of articles in the English daily Hindustan Times, called “The New Muslim” on their front page, for last 10 days or so. Each day this series features a unique Indian Muslim who has made it big in life while remaining steadfast in his/her faith. Most of these characters have the typical ghettoized Muslim image – each one having been victimized by a communal riot or an orthodox family, each going into a deeper study of her faith and finding the blueprint of worldly success in the holy scriptures, many of them walking on a tightrope between terrorism and peace, many grappling with the definition of jihad, each being proud of being a practicing Muslim, and finally making it big financially while remaining in the decorum of a burqa (veil), or a skullcap and beard – the most idealized 21st century, post-Godhra, Indian Muslim one can be. http://hindustantimes.com/news/specials/thenewmuslim/ When I read the very first story of this series (called “From masjid to stock market” by Neelesh Mishra), I wrote a letter to the editor saying that this story and the proposed series seems to be affirming the most hackneyed stereotypes about Indian Muslims, and one doesn’t see what’s new in it. Of course, millions of Muslims (just as millions of Hindus and Christians) have been victimized by something or the other, and want to progress and make it big in life, WHILE remaining steadfast to their religious faith. But why do you have to make only Muslims as some kind museum specimens and feature them on the front-page as New Muslims. Neelesh Misra replied saying that, unlike my feedback, majority of their readers have written in to say that they really liked these articles, and that HT’s purpose by this series is really to break the stereotypes of the community. I of course didn’t agree, but I happened to visit their feedback section on the website, and was quite shocked to see the letters written by readers. Almost 90 percent readers (with Muslim names) have congratulated HT for this new initiative. They think that HT is doing a great favour to the Muslims by featuring these young achievers who should be the role models for the entire community! Some of their comments were: "it’s a revolutionary idea", "Continue this column", "Inspiring! Inspiring! Thanks for defining what most Muslims are not", "You are doing a phenomenal job - this is what journalism is all about", and so on. I felt like a fool since I was probably the only person to have disapproved this series on various grounds. My biggest problem is the "objectification" of a community (which has already been objectified beyond recognition), and that too by featuring the most clichéd characters (a guy who dreams of an Islamic stock exchange, a burqa-clad woman who runs a restaurant, a bar-singer who starts praying 5-times a day, Muslim schools that don't teach Darwin's theory of evolution – each example more emblematic than the other). Any way, this series continues in HT every day and is certainly getting more bouquets and hardly any brickbats. Most Muslim readers are overjoyed by the fact that this is the first time a national daily such as HT is not calling them terrorists and instead presenting "positive" stories about them. I wonder if most Muslims are in such low spirits that are actually pleasantly surprised to see a jazzy picture of them on the front page? But no one is realizing that what the New Muslim series actually says is that "look, not all Muslims are terrorists (or no longer are), they are now finding peaceful meanings of jihad, they want to progress in life, make money and be happy, but continue to wear caps and veil". I am amazed that nobody else (among the so-called Muslim intelligentsia or any other kind of gentsia) is recognizing what such objectification leads to. I tried to engage with a couple of readers who had congratulated HT for the series, and they told me "what’s wrong if one wants to be progressive and follow ones religious faith at the same time?" "But why would you like to announce that trait to the whole world?" I asked. "Well, it’s much better than the terrorist image" I was told. But I am not convinced. To me, both the images are equally dishonest somewhere. http://hindustantimes.com/news/specials/thenewmuslim/board.asp I want some of you to take a look (if you haven’t already) at this series of articles as well as their feedback page, and let me know if I am really going off-track somewhere, or is that how the world is. Yousuf http://hindustantimes.com/news/specials/thenewmuslim/board.asp __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From kalakamra at gmail.com Tue Oct 30 12:23:12 2007 From: kalakamra at gmail.com (shaina a) Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 12:23:12 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] CAMP Mumbai on FRIDAY Message-ID: <33eee40c0710292353u4b4f52abnfa58b64ff0949627@mail.gmail.com> Dear readers, The usual apologies for cross-posting. Announcing the launch of CAMP Friday, November 2, 2007. 6:00 pm. at Jnanapravaha, 3rd floor Queens mansion, (opp. new Chemould), G. Talwatkar Marg Fort, Mumbai.-1 CAMP is a new city-based initiative around art, media and technology practices, in collaboration with the Khoj International Artists Association. www.camputer.org CAMP's founding members are: Shaina Anand, filmmaker, artist and media activist, founder of www.chitrakarkhana.net Sanjay Bhangar, who trained in indymedia and urban studies, now works as an independent web developer and technology writer. Ashok Sukumaran, who trained as an architect and artist, and now develops speculative technical and conceptual projects. http://0ut.in The evening consists of an extended screening-cum-talk by the CAMP initiators, as an introduction to the context, politics and practices that CAMP will promote. This includes a discussion of Chitrakarkhana's ongoing work with alternative cable TV and CCTV systems, a social history of the internet in Bombay as told by Sanjay Bhangar, and Ashok Sukumaran's recent projects around electrical redistribution, and design. They will also discuss the CAMP program for this year, and invite participation in various forms. The program will be interrupted by refreshments. ______________ About CAMP: CAMP is a platform to organise, and then to do, things that are critical, egalitarian and inspirational, within the city. It seeks to promote such artistic and media practices that build interfaces between themselves and urban activities at various scales. This project is being undertaken with a broad shared experience (among CAMP members, its advisors and peers) of the "digital moment" of the past decade. CAMP promises bold interpretations of current socio-economic and technology contexts, and their various micro-political implications. CAMP will begin its relationship with various Mumbai publics through 'weekends', fortnightly events that look intensively at specific histories, futures, and areas of multi-disciplinary collaboration. For example there are planned weekends around the history of broadcast as an artistic medium, on the art market, on building technological "confidence", on censorship, on local-area networks, on various kinds of maps, rooftop "real-estate" surveys and so on, mostly with an orientation towards practitioners and projects. While CAMP is beginning with such small-scale activities, it also seeds two long term projects: a) New Documentary: On the future of the documentary image, in times of video's material abundance.To produce, receive and redistribute video by adopting a range of existing technigues and technologies. This is related to chitrakarkhana's ongoing work, and will address a range of artistic, ethical and pragmatic questions around video. b) On Design: on what "making things for others" means now, when you- and i- can both seemingly contribute. The project will engage with questions of "participation" and of how knowledge moves across different forms, through institutional and pedagogic interventions into the broad field of activity presently known as Design. And finally, on its name: CAMP has various possible "backronyms", a large number in fact. This came from our inability to claim a singular identity within a field of ideas, to say that this and not that, is what will actually happen with CAMP. For more see www.camputer.org/?acronyms=many -- chitrakarkhana.net camputer.org _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From dhatr1i at yahoo.com Tue Oct 30 13:26:00 2007 From: dhatr1i at yahoo.com (we wi) Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:56:00 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Hi Message-ID: <299965.52051.qm@web45503.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Dear All, I am fine and hope the same with you. I thank all who ever supported me fully and deferred with me on different things. It would be a nice experience to meet you all and communicate with you nicely. I expressed my views during this short period with SARAI which helped me to sharpen my knowledge about EVERYTHING. During this period If any of you hurt by any of my mails, I regret for that. Regards, Dhatri. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071030/498de17c/attachment.html From zigzackly at gmail.com Tue Oct 30 14:52:14 2007 From: zigzackly at gmail.com (peter griffin) Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 14:52:14 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Citizens for Peace seeks contributors for its blog Message-ID: <4d145a50710300222n586bc5a3s61d17b706bcb67e0@mail.gmail.com> Hi This letter is on behalf of Citizens for Peace - http://citizensforpeace.in/ - a non-party group of volunteers committed to working for communal harmony and a vibrant secular polity. The URL has lots more about them. Plans for the site include a blog and a forum. The forum will take a little time to set up, but the blog - http://citizensforpeace.in/blog - is up and running already, and CfP wants to invite a few more people to join them on the blog. I'm sending this on behalf of the trustees of Citizens for Peace, in my role as consultant on their web presence. But I also support what they are doing as an individual. ~peter ====== The following text is also posted at http://citizensforpeace.in/blog/2007/10/30/wanted-writers-and-bloggers/ should you want something to link to rather than post or forward the whole thing. ====== *Would you like to join our blog team?* Do take a look around the site, and if you agree with our stance, goals and objectives, and would like to become a contributor to the blog, please send us: - Your full name - Your preferred username (You can create a 'Subscriber' level* username yourself, via the Registerlink at the bottom of all blog pages. If you do this, please send us that username instead.) - A link to your blog or to specific blogposts, or a writing sample if you don't have any writing online. Something that shows your thinking on the focus areas of CfP would be best, naturally. Mail this to *blog AT citizensforpeace DOT in* with the subject line "*I'd like to blog for CfP*." This email address forwards mail to the four members of CfP's Managing Committee who are selecting the blog team. They are: Rajni Bakshi, journalist; author of *Bapu Kuti* Dilip D'Souza, writer; journalist Gulan Kripalani, development communications professional; film maker Pervin Varma, former CEO of Child Rights & You (CRY) The blog runs on Wordpress , so it would help if you have some experience with the interface, though that's not a condition. Note: If you are invited to join the blog team, your initial status will be 'Contributor,' which means that your posts will not appear on on the blog until an Editor or Administrator* approves them. Dilip D'souza is the editor of the blog, and will be the one approving posts on a day-to-day basis. * For more information on what Subscriber, Contributor, Author, Editor and Admin mean in the Wordpress context, please read this . Do feel free to pass this on to blogger friends who might be interested. *What if you'd like to guest post? Perhaps write a one-off essay?* Do write to us anyway. Same address, just make your subject line "*Guest post for blog.*" Send the essay or post in the body of the email or as an RTF attachment. No Word docs or any other proprietary format, please. Don't forget to tell us how you'd like to be credited, and whether there's a site somewhere that we can link that credit line to. *What if you'd rather not blog or write, but would like to get involved in some way?* Please use the form here . *Are you a journalist?* We'd love to hear from you. Please write to us at *press AT citizensforpeace DOT in*. (And do read our latest press statement, please) *Please read, link, pass around* Whether you choose to blog, get involved or not, we'd greatly appreciate it if you could spend another couple of minutes of your time your reading, and, if you choose, linking to and passing around the following. - Our press statementin reaction to Tehelka's expose on the perpetrators of the violence in Gujarat in 2002 (which you can see here ). - Our open letters to the Prime Minister, the Home Minister, the BJP, and to all political parties . ====== -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20071030/731ebc97/attachment.html From shijusam at gmail.com Tue Oct 30 16:29:03 2007 From: shijusam at gmail.com (Shiju Sam Varughese) Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:29:03 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Public Understanding of science and the role of the media Message-ID: <345848710710300359i25829e2dn2871bb6920c88a48@mail.gmail.com> dear friends, this is my fifth posting. sorry for the delay as I was out of station for one month. In India, the 'Public Understanding of Science' (PUS) studies is still in its infancy as an academic field. Many of the early studies are based on large quantitative opinion surveys that assess public attitudes to science. A review of literature shows that the Indian studies on PUS can be classified into two main areas. Investigation into the public reception of science is the first category. For instance, the study that was done by Gauhar Raza, Surjit Singh and Bharvi Dutt (2002 "Public, Science, and Cultural Distance". Science Communication 23/3, March: 293-309) attempts to define the 'cultural distance' of the public from science and they propose a quantitative method to empirically measure it. They measure the cultural distance by developing an indicator on the basis of the number of years a person spends in formal schooling. Many of these studies keep positivist picture of science as the standard against which the depth of people's 'assimilation of science' is tested. There are some studies which examine the journalistic production of science news. Bharvi Dutt and K.C. Garg (2000 "An Overview of Science and Technology Coverage in Indian-Language Dailies". Public Understanding of Science 9:123-140.) analyse news items on science and technology in English newspapers published in different parts of India during 1996. They use the technique of counting columns of science news to quantify the amount of space provided for science news by each newspaper. This study identifies the newspapers that report more science news, and also the most reported themes. A historical study of science journalism in Kerala since its inception in the latter half of the nineteenth century was carried out by Anil Kumar Vadavathoor (2001 Science Journalism: Vikasavum Parinamavum (Mal.). Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Language Institute.) that factually describes the content of the early Malayalam magazines and the science themes reported. A study that considers the media as an active agent in the negotiations over science is Renu Addlakha (2001 "State Legitimacy and Social Suffering in a Modern Epidemic: A Case Study of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever in Delhi". Contributions to Indian Sociology (n.s) 35/2:151-179.). The study on the outbreak of dengue fever in Delhi in 1996 uses a 'multi-sited ethnographic approach' to capture the nexus between law, medicine and the state administration. She looks at the media as an active agent who function as a commentator, communicator, educator and watchdog in the context of the epidemic. She opines that the media has a 'representational role' in constructing the crisis and in functioning as a crucial link between the state, the medical establishment and local communities. She points out that the media has its own agenda and stakes in pursuing the issue: "An overview of the news reports during the dengue outbreak shows that the print media played a vital role, acting both as a source of information for the public and as a sentinel of government action. The press tried to access the outbreaks from the perspective of different actors, such as the state agencies, the medical profession and the affected communities. In the process, it became a platform on which negotiations between the agents of control and the communities took place" (ibid: 159). However, the study considers the media no more than an actor among others in the issue. The study also fails to conceive the public as active actors with their own perspectives on medical science and public health. A review of the existing studies on the PUS in India indicates that they consider science as disembodied knowledge, which is produced in laboratories by the scientific community. These studies refuse to understand modern science as a culture with a "diffuse collection of institutions, areas of special knowledge and theoretical interpretations whose forms and boundaries are open to negotiation with other social institutions and forms of knowledge" (see the authors' introduction (p.8) in Alan Irwin and Brian Wynne (eds.) 1996. Misunderstanding Science? The Public Reconstruction of Science and Technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). This shortcoming leads to a failure in capturing the ways in which the publics actively negotiate on the social meanings of sciences and questioning thelegitimacy of modern science in their daily life. The Indian studies on science and media hold the 'deficit' perspective that approaches science as an esoteric activity of the scientific community, devoid of 'social contamination' of any kind and the main attempt here is to quantify science news in order to understand the themes/disciplines that frequently appear in the press, and those newspapers reporting maximum science news. Moreover, majority of these studies analyse exclusively the English dailies for science news. There are hardly any studies on the regional press and the public understanding of science in the regions in India. The emphasis on the English media is misleading, as there are studies which show the stagnation in the growth rate of the English press and the rapid growth and diversification of the regional newspapers in India. Therefore, it is important to explore the regional dynamics to understand the characteristics of the public understanding of science in India. My study analyses the regional press for the debates and negotiations over a scientific controversy, situating the popular press in the wider context of public understanding of science in Kerala society. shiju sam varughese From ysaeed7 at yahoo.com Tue Oct 30 22:23:11 2007 From: ysaeed7 at yahoo.com (Yousuf) Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 09:53:11 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] "The New Muslim" in Hindustan Times In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <645583.48090.qm@web51404.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Dear Sadan Thanks for your comments. I will try to clarify on the use of certain words that you mentioned from my letter. When I say "dishonest images of Muslims" I don't mean to say that there is something called "the honest image" and I know it – certainly not. You and I know that some images in the popular media are definitely dishonest as their intention is to vilify a certain community. But in the case of the New Muslim series in HT, I found many images problematic or naively dishonest since the author assumes that to be a Muslim is to be deeply religious and to be coming out of a ghetto, and so on. In fact, someone asked me if I have a problem with these images (in HT), then what is my ideal and honest picture of the Muslims. I said the only way to portray an honest picture of Muslims (or any other community) is to portray them not so conspicuously at all - let them be ordinary people trying to live ordinary lives. And I think that's what should answer your question about objectification. Why make them objects or museum specimens on the front page. You may be right about the aspirations. Yes, most readers who liked these writings find them at par with their aspirations. And I don't know about my aspirations, but my discomfort is mostly due to the generous use of religion and the newly defined jihad and so on, that is shown to be their aspiration. Do you find that cool? Should we promote such role models for the Muslim community’s future? Cheers Yousuf --- "sadan at sarai.net" wrote: > Dear Yousuf, > thanks for sharing your anxiety about Hindustan > Times series on 'the new > muslim'. I have been following your postings ( on > reader list) and your > work on religious posters as well as representations > of muslim steriotypes > and hence thought to respond to you by raising few > questions back to you. > This may help you to think about your anxiety from a > different vantage > point. If so I would be happy. > You have used certain words and I want you to go > back to them. these are > 'dishonest images' and objectified community ( > 'objectification'). While I > can , to some extent, anticipate your anxiety I am > not certain about why > you have used this word dishonest image. Do mean to > say that these images > are not true representatives of the social realities > they are trying to > convey? What is true representation? what is honest > image? Can we portray > this 'true' this honest picture? > We both know ( i hope so) that this would be a > dream. I think your anxiety > is not about the truthfulness of these images but > the way these reports, > this series bracket muslim identity and portray an > image that are > fossilised within majoritarian politics of > representing 'muslim subject'. > The series claims to break stereotypification but > accroding to you it fails > to do so and actually caters to the same mindset. > So, in a way you have > deciphered a set of meanings, certain politics that > operate there. > However, many readers prefer this image. They > receive this series > differently then you. Now, to say that they cant > understand the politics > that you can would be unfare. At the same time, you > cant not say that > because some readers like it as iconoclastic images > the purpose of this > series is achieved. > This is all about aspirations that an image > generates. You have your own > aspiration and your own criticism. Other readers > have their own way of > looking at same representation. And your anxiety > comes from the fact that > you do not find a voice that can echo your > viewpoint, your anxiety. > Having said this, I must say that I fully agree with > your concerns, your > anxiety that this series certainly produces another > set of otherness and > hence politically quite problematic and difficult to > accept. > Hope I made some sense. > wishes, > sadan. > > > > > On 10:49 pm 10/29/07 Yousuf > wrote: > > Dear friends > > I don’t know if any of you have been following a > > series of articles in the English daily Hindustan > > Times, called “The New Muslim” on their front > page, > > for last 10 days or so. Each day this series > features > > a unique Indian Muslim who has made it big in life > > while remaining steadfast in his/her faith. Most > of > > these characters have the typical ghettoized > Muslim > > image – each one having been victimized by a > communal > > riot or an orthodox family, each going into a > deeper > > study of her faith and finding the blueprint of > > worldly success in the holy scriptures, many of > them > > walking on a tightrope between terrorism and > peace, > > many grappling with the definition of jihad, each > > being proud of being a practicing Muslim, and > finally > > making it big financially while remaining in the > > decorum of a burqa (veil), or a skullcap and beard > – > > the most idealized 21st century, post-Godhra, > Indian > > Muslim one can be. > > > > > http://hindustantimes.com/news/specials/thenewmuslim/ > > > > When I read the very first story of this series > > (called “From masjid to stock market” by > Neelesh > > Mishra), I wrote a letter to the editor saying > that > > this story and the proposed series seems to be > > affirming the most hackneyed stereotypes about > Indian > > Muslims, and one doesn’t see what’s new in it. > Of > > course, millions of Muslims (just as millions of > > Hindus and Christians) have been victimized by > > something or the other, and want to progress and > make > > it big in life, WHILE remaining steadfast to their > > religious faith. But why do you have to make only > > Muslims as some kind museum specimens and feature > them > > on the front-page as New Muslims. > > > > Neelesh Misra replied saying that, unlike my > feedback, > > majority of their readers have written in to say > that > > they really liked these articles, and that HT’s > > purpose by this series is really to break the > > stereotypes of the community. I of course didn’t > > agree, but I happened to visit their feedback > section > > on the website, and was quite shocked to see the > > letters written by readers. Almost 90 percent > readers > > (with Muslim names) have congratulated HT for this > new > > initiative. They think that HT is doing a great > favour > > to the Muslims by featuring these young achievers > who > > should be the role models for the entire > community! > > Some of their comments were: "it’s a > revolutionary > > idea", "Continue this column", "Inspiring! > Inspiring! > > Thanks for defining what most Muslims are not", > "You > > are doing a phenomenal job - this is what > journalism > > is all about", and so on. I felt like a fool since > I > > was probably the only person to have disapproved > this > > series on various grounds. > > > > My biggest problem is the "objectification" of a > > community (which has already been objectified > beyond > > recognition), and that too by featuring the most > > clichéd characters (a guy who dreams of an > Islamic > > stock exchange, a burqa-clad woman who runs a > > restaurant, a bar-singer who starts praying > 5-times a > > day, Muslim schools that don't teach Darwin's > theory > > of evolution – each example more emblematic than > the > > other). Any way, this series continues in HT every > day > > and is certainly getting more bouquets and hardly > any > > brickbats. Most Muslim readers are overjoyed by > the > > fact that this is the first time a national daily > such > > as HT is not calling them terrorists and instead > > presenting "positive" stories about them. I wonder > if > > most Muslims are in such low spirits that are > actually > > pleasantly surprised to see a jazzy picture of > them on > > the front page? But no one is realizing that what > the > > New Muslim series actually says is that "look, not > all > > Muslims are terrorists (or no longer are), they > are > > now finding peaceful meanings of jihad, they want > to > > progress in life, make money and be happy, but > > continue to wear caps and veil". I am amazed that > > nobody else (among the so-called Muslim > intelligentsia > > or any other kind of gentsia) is recognizing what > such > === message truncated === __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com Tue Oct 30 22:38:21 2007 From: naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com (Naeem Mohaiemen) Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 23:08:21 +0600 Subject: [Reader-list] On Humayun Azad Message-ID: > repply to an old Sarai Thread on Bangladesh....someone wrote... > Humayun Azad (killed by islamists) Actually they tried to kill him. He recovered from the brutal machette attack but died in Germany 6 months later (no doubt due to his lingering injuries. For those who don't know his work, here are 2 excerpts. >From Humayun Azad's "Amra Ki Ey Bangladesh Cheyechilam? (Is This The Bangladesh We Wanted?)": "[Constitution says] 'Absolute trust and faith in the Almighty Allah shall be the basis of all state actions.' This is a clever trick to deceive the common, God-fearing man. In this country, Muslims have always followed their faith, and always will-- no one is stopping them. But using religion as a tool is trickery, a ploy to give the people nothing. They will promise the people heaven, but will not give them economic self-sufficiency ... all our government functions have become competitions of religious sermons. If using religion [in government] was useful, Bangladesh should have become the world's most holy and developed nation. Instead, it has become the world's most corrupt nation. The corruption of religious politicians has destroyed the country." "Our fathers committed a deadly mistake, a crime-- they made Bengal Pakistan. We did not want to stay sons of slaves, so we created Bangladesh. Now, let us imagine Bangladesh never became independent, we were still East Pakistan. What would we see around us? We would see the flag with moon and stars, we would hear 'Pak Sar Zamin Sad Bad', the Ministers would all be Punjabis, the army would be filled with Pathan and Punjabi Generals. Those who roar around in Pajeros today -- would be standing on the roadside shaking in front of those same jeeps. The Adamjis, Dauds, Bawanis, and Kabuliwalas would run this country ..." From sushil at tetrain.com Tue Oct 30 22:36:43 2007 From: sushil at tetrain.com (sushil at tetrain.com) Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 22:36:43 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Apologies for technical problem Message-ID: <472764A3.5040304@tetrain.com> Dear All "Some users of the reader-list are not getting mails. To rectify this issue we need to restore the list with backed up information. This activity will take place at 10:00 PM IST on 30th oct 2007. It is possible that some of you might not receive list postings; if this is the case, we request you to re-subscribe to the list. Please email me if its difficult to subscribe online. Apologies for this technical problem". -- ................................. Thanks And Warm Regards Sushil Kumar Sharma Sr. Linux Engineer From nalin.mathur at gmail.com Tue Oct 30 23:11:17 2007 From: nalin.mathur at gmail.com (Nalin Mathur) Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 23:11:17 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] B - Grade Engineering College Culture / Fifth Posting / Nalin N. Mathur Message-ID: <7c0063460710301041i3e8b3e1doc1da83211d3bb54@mail.gmail.com> B - Grade Engineering College Culture / Fifth Posting / Nalin N. Mathur The text for this posting has been copy-pasted from the website of Department of Education. It gives in a beautiful insight as to how engineering evolved as a subject. This article has helped me conclude one important thing - All present day renowned colleges were born out of need, while the ones that are coming up are because of requirement. I believe herein lies the different. ******************************************************** Engineering and Technological Education in India up to 1920 The impulse for creation of centers of technical training came from the British rulers of India, and it arose out of the necessity for the training of overseers for construction and maintenance of public buildings, roads, canals, and ports, and for the training of artisans and craftsmen for the use of instruments, and apparatus needed for the army, the navy, and the survey department. The superintending engineers were mostly recruited from Britain from the Cooper's Hill College, and this applied as well to foremen and artificers; but this could not be done in the case of lower grades- craftsmen, artisans and sub-overseers who were recruited locally. As they were mostly illiterate, efficiency was low. The necessity to make them more efficient by giving them elementary lessons in reading, writing, arithmetic, geometry, and mechanics, led to the establishment of industrial schools attached to Ordnance Factories and other engineering establishments. While it is stated that such schools existed in Calcutta and Bombay as early as 1825, the first authentic account we have is that of an industrial school established at Guindy, Madras, in 1842, attached to the Gun Carriage Factory there. A school for the training of overseers was known to exist in Poona in 1854. Meanwhile in Europe and America, Colleges of Engineering were growing up, which drew to them men having good education, and special proficiency in mathematical subjects. This led to discussions in Government circles in India, and similar institutions were sought to be established in the Presidency Towns. The first engineering college was established in the U.P. in 1847 for the training of Civil Engineers at Roorkee, which made use of the large workshops and public buildings there that were erected for the Upper Ganges Canal. The Roorkee College (or to give it its official name, the Thomason Engineering College) was never affiliated to any university, but has been giving diplomas which are considered to be equivalent to degrees. In pursuance of the Government policy, three Engineering Colleges were opened by about 1856 in the three Presidencies. In Bengal, a College called the Calcutta College of Civil Engineering was opened at the Writers' Buildings in November 1856; the name was changed to Bengal Engineering College in 1857, and it, was affiliated to the Calcutta University. It gave a licentiate course in Civil Engineering. In 1865 it was amalgamated with the Presidency College. Later, in 1880, it was detached from the Presidency College and shifted to its present quarters at Sibpur, occupy in the premises and buildings belonging to the Bishop's College. Proposals for having an Engineering College at Bombay city having failed for some reasons, the overseers' school at Poona eventually became the Poona College of Engineering and affiliated to the Bombay University in 1858. For a long time, this was the only College of Engineering in the Western Presidency. In the Madras Presidency, the industrial school attached to the Gun Carriage Factory became ultimately the Guindy College of Engineering and affiliated to the Madras University (1858). The educational work in the three Colleges of Sibpur, Poona, and Guindy has been more or less similar. They all had licentiate courses in civil engineering up to 1880, when they organized degree classes in this branch alone. After 1880, the demand for mechanical and electrical engineering was felt, but the three Engineering Colleges started only apprenticeship classes in these subjects. The Victoria Jubilee Technical Institute, which was started at Bombay in 1887, had as its objective the training of licentiates in Electrical, Mechanical and Textile Engineering In 1915, the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, opened Electrical Engineering classes under Dr. Alfred Hay, and began to give certificates and associateships, the latter being regarded equivalent to a degree. In Bengal, the leaders of the Swadeshi Movement organized in 1907 a National Council of Education which tried to organize a truly National University. Out of the many institutions it started, only the College of Engineering and Technology at Jadavpur had survived. It started granting diplomas in a mechanical and engineering course in 1908, and in chemical engineering in 1921. The Calcutta University Commission debated the pros and cons for the introduction of degree courses in mechanical and electrical engineering. One of the reasons cited, form the recommendations of the Indian Industrial Commission (1915, under the Chairmanship of Sir Thomas (Holland) against the introduction of electrical engineering courses is given in the following quotation from their report: "We have not specifically referred to the training of electrical engineers, because electrical manufactures have not yet been started in India, and there is only scope for the employment of men to do simple repair work, to take charge of the running of electrical machinery, and to manage and control hydroelectric and steam-operated stations. The men required for these three classes of work will be provided by the foregoing proposals for the training of the various grades required in mechanical engineering. They will have to acquire in addition, special experience in electrical matters, but, till this branch of engineering is developed on the constructional side, and the manufacture of electrical machinery taken in hand, the managers of electrical undertakings must train their own men, making such use as they can of the special facilities offered for instruction at the engineering colleges and the Indian Institute of Science". The credit of first starting degree classes in mechanical and electrical engineering and in metallurgy belong to the University of Banaras, thanks to the foresight of its great founder, Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya (1917). About fifteen years later, in 1931-32, the Bengal Engineering College at Sibpur started mechanical engineering courses, electrical engineering courses in 1935-36, and courses in metallurgy in 1939-40. Courses in these subjects were also introduced at Guindy and Poona about the same time. Quite a number of engineering colleges have been started since August 15, 1947. It is due to the realization that India has to become a great industrial country, and would require a far larger number of engineers than could be supplied by the older institutions. In some cases, existing lower type institutions have been raised to the status of degree-giving colleges. Post Independence Scenario The last half of this century has transformed our environment, perhaps radically, and brought more changes in our lives and thinking than in any corresponding period in history. These are the consequences of discoveries of sciences and applications of technology. The concept of absolute knowledge in the sense of storing all knowledge is perhaps no more relevant today. Our efforts for reconciling the traditional concepts and ways with the demands of technological age cannot provide simple solutions for our difficulties and complexities based on such stored knowledge. Frontiers of knowledge are themselves expanding rapidly making it possible to device newer and more efficient methods of solving problems of the society. Education must therefore make efforts for securing knowledge and mastering modern skills and methods than merely storing and distributing the traditional ones. For this purpose of training of mind and mastering of skills and for harnessing science and technology to profitable and productive processes of economic growth and social well-being, the technological education system has to be continuously reviewed and adopted. This has indeed been the basis of our efforts during the last three decades, the result is that there is a well-organized structure and a wide network of technical institutions offering different types of programmes: craftsman courses, technician (diploma) courses, graduate and post- graduate courses, etc., catering to the various levels of knowledge, skills and competences required by the economy. From sayandebmukherjee at yahoo.co.in Wed Oct 31 00:06:15 2007 From: sayandebmukherjee at yahoo.co.in (sayandeb mukherjee) Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:36:15 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] the space interlude/8th posting Message-ID: <501120.51333.qm@web7708.mail.in.yahoo.com> although it needs a thorough revision, here is the eighth one 8th POSTING A.FOR SINGE LOADED CORRIDORS OR VERANDAH Case A/1.: when the individual is a new-comer to the space For a single loaded corridor, the walker is, to some extent, engrossed in the visual world out there. The case will be distinguishable if the space is new to the individual. If he is a new-comer, he will be exploring the architectural attributes, observing human activities there and mostly gazing at the happenings outside the verandah. The next and the most important thing that he will be conscious about is the pre-planned ‘target’- the justification of his visit to the place. He will be constantly seeking/looking for the department/cell/classroom/room that this verandah links to and drive him to this destiny. The next strata of consciousness will be an agglomeration of anticipatory thought-a futuristic projection of the calculative, analytical mind that unorderly and uncontrollably juxtaposes or overlaps with the perceptual mind. This sets him to take off from the present; the state could be extremely momentary or will hold for considerable period. The other thought could be related to memories-‘recollections’; there could be some associative elements in the space that he perceives which triggers the memoryscape. But these transitory frequencies and the time that it holds cannot be put into any logical frame or any pattern. And the stratas of consciousness will be inseparably intermingled with each other. Case A/2.: when the space is not new to the individual In this case, the individual will be well-acquainted with the entries, exits and the spatial configuration. So the partitions of the thought process that are involved in the exploration of the space or appreciating the architectural details of the space or the route to the destiny (if the individual is quite familiar with the space by then) will get submerged from the surface of consciousness. The exploratory works of the mind is moved to a sphere of mental activity which is least sensitive and is at an almost slept mode. More time of his journey will be spent in the anticipatory thought or thinking the past. But, momentarily he may be brought in to the present by virtue of any modification or alteration in the space at his disposal. So the exploratory tendencies or the inclination to perceive the real is a command that will be stimulated instantaneously as there is any quanta modification/shift from everyday’s observed and memorized spatial configuration. For me, it is the recurrence of the same set of elements and its correlations with other elements, for example- the same disordered fan in the lift, the same button numbered [3] of the lift that doesn’t glow, the same creaky sound of the shutter that opens the lift, the same patch of discoloration over the wall in the corridor, the similar sound of the crowd with its similar acoustic attributes, the similar smell from the laboratory as we pass closely to it, that shapes a familiar space; most of the elements and its sequential opening would appear as repetitive as the cyclic structure of day and night. But the moment as I find that the discolored patch is removed, the fan of the lift is put into order, the shutter opens with a different/distinguishable sound (identifiable from other days), the crowd behaves in a different manner - they could be shouting/quarrelling or speaking in a loudness different from other days, the laboratory is not emanating the familiar odour (>an absence of a parameter that renders the presence of the space- a contrapuntal perspective), I will arrive at a conscious platform thereby seeking the modulation in the familiarities. The transcendental eye transforms into a navigating eye - a momentary lapse from the subconscious trajectory. Otherwise, the repetition or a habituated regularity of the course where the differences between the lasting impressions are negligible will diminish the functioning of the conscious mind. So, after a point of time, he could transcend to a spatio-temporal scape different from the present perceivable world. Momentarily or for considerable time, he could be absent-minded or day-dreaming. So the predominance of the anticipatory thought that which is driving him to the destination is probably the characteristic of this case. Case B/1.: when the space is not new to the individual and nobody is there in the verandah This is more an abstract case that cannot be deterministically stated about - the exact psycho-pathology of these modern urban spaces when the individual is left alone in his familiar place. ‘Our minds respond, with some definite feeling, to almost very impression emanating from another person’ writes Georg Simmel, in his treatise - ‘The Metropolis and Mental Life’. But what happens to this ever-responding faculty of the mind when he finds no person to respond to. Does he renounces totally from the property of responsiveness, perhaps no (?) He perhaps begins to interact with the space with an intensified perception. It will be a stern cohesion of the space with the individual; a gaze will be derived from conglomeration/agglomeration of perception of different elements of the space that correspondingly correlate with a set of memories. Sometimes, a slight modification in the spatial configuration will be macroscopically perceived that can intrigue a set of new emotional flow or a different form of curiosity. The spider sitting at the intersection of the ceiling and the wall be magnified and it will appear to commence a non-verbal interaction with me. When I am walking alone in a college/university verandah and am seeing for the first time that the windows and the doors are closed, (for I see it always open) a new stimulation is introduced. The empty corridor along with the closed doors and windows strongly emphasize the magnitude of absence of people out there. Man being a social animal, is not well conversant with this circumstantial isolation. What could happen is a momentary shift from his logical mind and there could be an uncontrollable intervention of anxiety on the basis of certain absurd anticipations. Along with these visual differences, there is another attribute of the space which changes subtly (subtle appears is the change because it seldom strikes our conscious mind) – the soundscape. Since one dominant element of the scape and its reflections are depleted, what strongly exaggerates is the sound that I myself make – that could be the footsteps, the cloth-rustling, sometimes, my breathe (if the reference level of the environmental noise is appreciably low). I may not be prepared for this set of acoustic differences. The flutter sound of the footsteps will appear to me very unnatural as I don’t hear it in normal college days. There are primarily two factors for its inaudibility – (i) the sound remains submerged in the group footsteps, crowd and also because of the stupendous activities that happen out here, (ii) I psychologically filter it out, for we’re bewildered by this encompassing over-active sound elements of the eccentric social-scape. So the absence of all these exaggerated sounds will render inner upheaval of the subliminal and submerged sounds of the surrounding. For the washing away of the dense superficial layer of the audio-visual elements that exist during the so-called ‘working hours’, the feeling of isolation is intensified and the walker is distracted to the human activities over the street. This unconscious submission to the external part of the verandah could be administered from a repressed inner desire to mingle himself with the social sphere. It could be a tendency, historically inherited from the primitive man, that the modern man always seeks the association of same family members contd B. FOR DOUBLE LOADED CORRIDORS Case A/1.: when the individual is not a new-comer (The confinement and the spatial intercourse) Here you don’t walk in and embrace the space, but the space embraces you. While the individual makes his long journey to the destination through the space whose every characteristic-bit is pre-recorded in his mind and preceded impressions are well planted/memorized, (like a looped movement of an electron in its orbit round the nucleus of an atom) it doesn’t consume much mental energy anymore. Even the slightness in the differences between the lasting impressions and the present or a mild contrast between them doesn’t extract any influx of adrenaline flow in him. Unless it is a rapid telescoping of changing images, pronounced differences within what is grasped at a single glance everything remains in the state of equilibrium. The lucid smoothly flowing rhythm of movement and an immense habituation of the daily user is the emotional tone of the zone that endorses the user with an improbability of any kind of unpleasant incident out here. Shifts and contradictions in event that creates a crisis in the logical deduction reckon a sudden surge in the neurotic equilibrium. The unexpected occurrence of a violent stimulus needs all faculties of perception, of consciousness to be attended and also needs the respective organs to be stimulated to neutralize this impulse in the neurotic chain. That renders an instant intensification of consciousness to seek the source of the event and parallely the rational mind works on calculability projecting a reason to the cause. Within few moments, if the mind fails to give any reason and throws the person in an utter confusion, he will probably try to get rid of this space as early as possible .contd thank you and waiting for your comments sayandeb SAYANDEB MUKHERJEE FT#308, SUBBARAJU TOWERS, ROAD NO.4, VIJAYAPURI COLONY, KOTHAPET, HYDERABAD PIN: 500 035 PH#9849383863 Now you can chat without downloading messenger. Go to http://in.messenger.yahoo.com/webmessengerpromo.php From zubinpastakia at gmail.com Wed Oct 31 03:52:10 2007 From: zubinpastakia at gmail.com (Zubin Pastakia) Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 03:52:10 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Photographs and Thoughts from Bombay's Cinema Halls/ 6th Post Message-ID: <379173b10710301522y31ab9c14if7ae98d46b7e6bab@mail.gmail.com> Hello, This is my sixth post to the Reader-List related to my fellowship project "A Photographic Study of Bombay's Cinema Halls as a Cultural Experience of Space." I am often confronted with the choice of making a picture with a figure in the frame - or - of leaving the image without any (physical) human presence. Usually, I opt for shooting without the person in the frame as I am primarily interested in looking at the built environment and trying to understand how we relate to its architectures and how they reflect us. Also, I find it more interesting to create images that hint at the presence of people. A person in the frame tends to take over and become the "subject" of the picture, and then the picture tends to become primarily about that person. Photographing for me is primarily an analytical activity. I tend to work in an extremely measured, conscious manner with a tripod, shooting less and choosing more. I have certain questions in my head, and certain answers that I am trying to provide visually. It becomes impossible to shoot "decisive moments" with this process. And, as time has gone on, I have become completely uninterested in these "decisive moments." John Berger wrote about this in his essay on photographer Paul Strand where he compares his style to that of the Frenchman Cartier-Bresson: "One could say that it was the antithesis to Henri-Cartier Bresson's. The photographic moment for Cartier-Bresson is an instant, a fraction of a second, and he stalks that instant as though it were a wild animal. The photographic moment for Strand is a biographical of historic moment, whose duration is ideally measured not by seconds but by its relation to a lifetime. Strand does not pursue an instant, but encourages a moment to arise as one might encourage a story be told." I have recently finished photographing in Capitol cinema, which shut down shortly after. Vishwas Kulkarni has recently written two articles in the Mumbai Mirror on the sudden closure of the cinema hall and on one of the last films that played there. I have pasted the links below: http://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article§id=2&contentid=2007092820070928022316375c3a5d97a&pageno=1 http://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article§id=47&contentid=2007072902303200974c49e9&pageno=1 I have also recently been photographing Bharat Mata cinema, which is the only cinema hall in the city that plays only Marathi-language films. As usual, all feedback and comments are most welcome. Please take a moment to view the pictures: http://peripheralvision.blogspot.com Best, Zubin -- Zubin B. Pastakia Photographer e: zubinpastakia at gmail.com w: http://peripheralvision.blogspot.com t: [91] 9833739998 From vidyashah at hotmail.com Wed Oct 31 08:06:08 2007 From: vidyashah at hotmail.com (vidya shah) Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 02:36:08 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] "The New Muslim" in Hindustan Times In-Reply-To: <645583.48090.qm@web51404.mail.re2.yahoo.com> References: <645583.48090.qm@web51404.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Dear Yousuf, While the questions and concerns that you raise are totally valid, in fact I pretty much felt like that when I read the series, but clearly you and I do not fit popular perception. My neighborhood of fairly Jagran attending, satyanarayan puja believing families who think of us as reasonably weird and unconventional, have also talked to me about these stories in HT. If the stories have caught their attention, then I would think that it was at least some kind of an attempt where none existed. Not that I want to compliment HT but I think in our own insular world we tend to underestimate both the ignorance and the intolerance that we are surrounded by. How else can you justify the silence and lack of reaction from the community at large on the Tehelka expose? We didn�t see the Rang De Basanti effect on this one! It is unfortunate that we have to even articulate categories like the �regular Muslim� (i.e. not the burqa clad etc). But I think Sadan�s question of representation is very valid. Parthiv recently did a project with NRI�s in UK where they framed their own identities for camera. And at least 90 % of the first generation wanted to sit either near Gandhiji�s photograph or the triumvirate of Ram Laxman and Sita. Their favourite book was the Bhagvad Geeta or My experiments with truth� Perhaps you should suggest to Neelesh that they should do another series a sequel on the "everyday" Muslim now that people seem ready for it! Vidya> Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 09:53:11 -0700> From: ysaeed7 at yahoo.com> To: sadan at sarai.net; reader-list at sarai.net> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] "The New Muslim" in Hindustan Times> > Dear Sadan> Thanks for your comments. I will try to clarify on the> use of certain words that you mentioned from my> letter. When I say "dishonest images of Muslims" I> don't mean to say that there is something called "the> honest image" and I know it � certainly not. You and I> know that some images in the popular media are> definitely dishonest as their intention is to vilify a> certain community. But in the case of the New Muslim> series in HT, I found many images problematic or> naively dishonest since the author assumes that to be> a Muslim is to be deeply religious and to be coming> out of a ghetto, and so on. In fact, someone asked me> if I have a problem with these images (in HT), then> what is my ideal and honest picture of the Muslims. I> said the only way to portray an honest picture of> Muslims (or any other community) is to portray them> not so conspicuously at all - let them be ordinary> people trying to live ordinary lives. And I think> that's what should answer your question about> objectification. Why make them objects or museum> specimens on the front page.> > You may be right about the aspirations. Yes, most> readers who liked these writings find them at par with> their aspirations. And I don't know about my> aspirations, but my discomfort is mostly due to the> generous use of religion and the newly defined jihad> and so on, that is shown to be their aspiration. Do> you find that cool? Should we promote such role models> for the Muslim community�s future?> > Cheers> > Yousuf> > > --- "sadan at sarai.net" wrote:> > > Dear Yousuf,> > thanks for sharing your anxiety about Hindustan> > Times series on 'the new> > muslim'. I have been following your postings ( on> > reader list) and your> > work on religious posters as well as representations> > of muslim steriotypes> > and hence thought to respond to you by raising few> > questions back to you.> > This may help you to think about your anxiety from a> > different vantage> > point. If so I would be happy.> > You have used certain words and I want you to go> > back to them. these are> > 'dishonest images' and objectified community (> > 'objectification'). While I> > can , to some extent, anticipate your anxiety I am> > not certain about why> > you have used this word dishonest image. Do mean to> > say that these images> > are not true representatives of the social realities> > they are trying to> > convey? What is true representation? what is honest> > image? Can we portray> > this 'true' this honest picture?> > We both know ( i hope so) that this would be a> > dream. I think your anxiety> > is not about the truthfulness of these images but> > the way these reports,> > this series bracket muslim identity and portray an> > image that are> > fossilised within majoritarian politics of> > representing 'muslim subject'.> > The series claims to break stereotypification but> > accroding to you it fails> > to do so and actually caters to the same mindset.> > So, in a way you have> > deciphered a set of meanings, certain politics that> > operate there.> > However, many readers prefer this image. They> > receive this series> > differently then you. Now, to say that they cant> > understand the politics> > that you can would be unfare. At the same time, you> > cant not say that> > because some readers like it as iconoclastic images> > the purpose of this> > series is achieved.> > This is all about aspirations that an image> > generates. You have your own> > aspiration and your own criticism. Other readers> > have their own way of> > looking at same representation. And your anxiety> > comes from the fact that> > you do not find a voice that can echo your> > viewpoint, your anxiety.> > Having said this, I must say that I fully agree with> > your concerns, your> > anxiety that this series certainly produces another> > set of otherness and> > hence politically quite problematic and difficult to> > accept.> > Hope I made some sense.> > wishes,> > sadan.> > > > > > > > > > On 10:49 pm 10/29/07 Yousuf > > wrote:> > > Dear friends> > > I don’t know if any of you have been following a> > > series of articles in the English daily Hindustan> > > Times, called “The New Muslim” on their front> > page,> > > for last 10 days or so. Each day this series> > features> > > a unique Indian Muslim who has made it big in life> > > while remaining steadfast in his/her faith. Most> > of> > > these characters have the typical ghettoized> > Muslim> > > image – each one having been victimized by a> > communal> > > riot or an orthodox family, each going into a> > deeper> > > study of her faith and finding the blueprint of> > > worldly success in the holy scriptures, many of> > them> > > walking on a tightrope between terrorism and> > peace,> > > many grappling with the definition of jihad, each> > > being proud of being a practicing Muslim, and> > finally> > > making it big financially while remaining in the> > > decorum of a burqa (veil), or a skullcap and beard> > –> > > the most idealized 21st century, post-Godhra,> > Indian> > > Muslim one can be.> > >> > >> >> http://hindustantimes.com/news/specials/thenewmuslim/> > >> > > When I read the very first story of this series> > > (called “From masjid to stock market” by> > Neelesh> > > Mishra), I wrote a letter to the editor saying> > that> > > this story and the proposed series seems to be> > > affirming the most hackneyed stereotypes about> > Indian> > > Muslims, and one doesn’t see what’s new in it.> > Of> > > course, millions of Muslims (just as millions of> > > Hindus and Christians) have been victimized by> > > something or the other, and want to progress and> > make> > > it big in life, WHILE remaining steadfast to their> > > religious faith. But why do you have to make only> > > Muslims as some kind museum specimens and feature> > them> > > on the front-page as New Muslims.> > >> > > Neelesh Misra replied saying that, unlike my> > feedback,> > > majority of their readers have written in to say> > that> > > they really liked these articles, and that HT’s> > > purpose by this series is really to break the> > > stereotypes of the community. I of course didn’t> > > agree, but I happened to visit their feedback> > section> > > on the website, and was quite shocked to see the> > > letters written by readers. Almost 90 percent> > readers> > > (with Muslim names) have congratulated HT for this> > new> > > initiative. They think that HT is doing a great> > favour> > > to the Muslims by featuring these young achievers> > who> > > should be the role models for the entire> > community!> > > Some of their comments were: "it’s a> > revolutionary> > > idea", "Continue this column", "Inspiring!> > Inspiring!> > > Thanks for defining what most Muslims are not",> > "You> > > are doing a phenomenal job - this is what> > journalism> > > is all about", and so on. I felt like a fool since> > I> > > was probably the only person to have disapproved> > this> > > series on various grounds.> > >> > > My biggest problem is the "objectification" of a> > > community (which has already been objectified> > beyond> > > recognition), and that too by featuring the most> > > clichéd characters (a guy who dreams of an> > Islamic> > > stock exchange, a burqa-clad woman who runs a> > > restaurant, a bar-singer who starts praying> > 5-times a> > > day, Muslim schools that don't teach Darwin's> > theory> > > of evolution – each example more emblematic than> > the> > > other). Any way, this series continues in HT every> > day> > > and is certainly getting more bouquets and hardly> > any> > > brickbats. Most Muslim readers are overjoyed by> > the> > > fact that this is the first time a national daily> > such> > > as HT is not calling them terrorists and instead> > > presenting "positive" stories about them. I wonder> > if> > > most Muslims are in such low spirits that are> > actually> > > pleasantly surprised to see a jazzy picture of> > them on> > > the front page? But no one is realizing that what> > the> > > New Muslim series actually says is that "look, not> > all> > > Muslims are terrorists (or no longer are), they> > are> > > now finding peaceful meanings of jihad, they want> > to> > > progress in life, make money and be happy, but> > > continue to wear caps and veil". I am amazed that> > > nobody else (among the so-called Muslim> > intelligentsia> > > or any other kind of gentsia) is recognizing what> > such> > > === message truncated ===> > > __________________________________________________> Do You Yahoo!?> Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.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: _________________________________________________________________ Get the new Windows Live Messenger! http://get.live.com/messenger/overview From vidyashah at hotmail.com Wed Oct 31 08:06:10 2007 From: vidyashah at hotmail.com (vidya shah) Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 02:36:10 +0000 Subject: [Reader-list] "The New Muslim" in Hindustan Times In-Reply-To: <645583.48090.qm@web51404.mail.re2.yahoo.com> References: <645583.48090.qm@web51404.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: Dear Yousuf, While the questions and concerns that you raise are totally valid, in fact I pretty much felt like that when I read the series, but clearly you and I do not fit popular perception. My neighborhood of fairly Jagran attending, satyanarayan puja believing families who think of us as reasonably weird and unconventional, have also talked to me about these stories in HT. If the stories have caught their attention, then I would think that it was at least some kind of an attempt where none existed. Not that I want to compliment HT but I think in our own insular world we tend to underestimate both the ignorance and the intolerance that we are surrounded by. How else can you justify the silence and lack of reaction from the community at large on the Tehelka expose? We didn�t see the Rang De Basanti effect on this one! It is unfortunate that we have to even articulate categories like the �regular Muslim� (i.e. not the burqa clad etc). But I think Sadan�s question of representation is very valid. Parthiv recently did a project with NRI�s in UK where they framed their own identities for camera. And at least 90 % of the first generation wanted to sit either near Gandhiji�s photograph or the triumvirate of Ram Laxman and Sita. Their favourite book was the Bhagvad Geeta or My experiments with truth� Perhaps you should suggest to Neelesh that they should do another series a sequel on the "everyday" Muslim now that people seem ready for it! Vidya> Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 09:53:11 -0700> From: ysaeed7 at yahoo.com> To: sadan at sarai.net; reader-list at sarai.net> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] "The New Muslim" in Hindustan Times> > Dear Sadan> Thanks for your comments. I will try to clarify on the> use of certain words that you mentioned from my> letter. When I say "dishonest images of Muslims" I> don't mean to say that there is something called "the> honest image" and I know it � certainly not. You and I> know that some images in the popular media are> definitely dishonest as their intention is to vilify a> certain community. But in the case of the New Muslim> series in HT, I found many images problematic or> naively dishonest since the author assumes that to be> a Muslim is to be deeply religious and to be coming> out of a ghetto, and so on. In fact, someone asked me> if I have a problem with these images (in HT), then> what is my ideal and honest picture of the Muslims. I> said the only way to portray an honest picture of> Muslims (or any other community) is to portray them> not so conspicuously at all - let them be ordinary> people trying to live ordinary lives. And I think> that's what should answer your question about> objectification. Why make them objects or museum> specimens on the front page.> > You may be right about the aspirations. Yes, most> readers who liked these writings find them at par with> their aspirations. And I don't know about my> aspirations, but my discomfort is mostly due to the> generous use of religion and the newly defined jihad> and so on, that is shown to be their aspiration. Do> you find that cool? Should we promote such role models> for the Muslim community�s future?> > Cheers> > Yousuf> > > --- "sadan at sarai.net" wrote:> > > Dear Yousuf,> > thanks for sharing your anxiety about Hindustan> > Times series on 'the new> > muslim'. I have been following your postings ( on> > reader list) and your> > work on religious posters as well as representations> > of muslim steriotypes> > and hence thought to respond to you by raising few> > questions back to you.> > This may help you to think about your anxiety from a> > different vantage> > point. If so I would be happy.> > You have used certain words and I want you to go> > back to them. these are> > 'dishonest images' and objectified community (> > 'objectification'). While I> > can , to some extent, anticipate your anxiety I am> > not certain about why> > you have used this word dishonest image. Do mean to> > say that these images> > are not true representatives of the social realities> > they are trying to> > convey? What is true representation? what is honest> > image? Can we portray> > this 'true' this honest picture?> > We both know ( i hope so) that this would be a> > dream. I think your anxiety> > is not about the truthfulness of these images but> > the way these reports,> > this series bracket muslim identity and portray an> > image that are> > fossilised within majoritarian politics of> > representing 'muslim subject'.> > The series claims to break stereotypification but> > accroding to you it fails> > to do so and actually caters to the same mindset.> > So, in a way you have> > deciphered a set of meanings, certain politics that> > operate there.> > However, many readers prefer this image. They> > receive this series> > differently then you. Now, to say that they cant> > understand the politics> > that you can would be unfare. At the same time, you> > cant not say that> > because some readers like it as iconoclastic images> > the purpose of this> > series is achieved.> > This is all about aspirations that an image> > generates. You have your own> > aspiration and your own criticism. Other readers> > have their own way of> > looking at same representation. And your anxiety> > comes from the fact that> > you do not find a voice that can echo your> > viewpoint, your anxiety.> > Having said this, I must say that I fully agree with> > your concerns, your> > anxiety that this series certainly produces another> > set of otherness and> > hence politically quite problematic and difficult to> > accept.> > Hope I made some sense.> > wishes,> > sadan.> > > > > > > > > > On 10:49 pm 10/29/07 Yousuf > > wrote:> > > Dear friends> > > I don’t know if any of you have been following a> > > series of articles in the English daily Hindustan> > > Times, called “The New Muslim” on their front> > page,> > > for last 10 days or so. Each day this series> > features> > > a unique Indian Muslim who has made it big in life> > > while remaining steadfast in his/her faith. Most> > of> > > these characters have the typical ghettoized> > Muslim> > > image – each one having been victimized by a> > communal> > > riot or an orthodox family, each going into a> > deeper> > > study of her faith and finding the blueprint of> > > worldly success in the holy scriptures, many of> > them> > > walking on a tightrope between terrorism and> > peace,> > > many grappling with the definition of jihad, each> > > being proud of being a practicing Muslim, and> > finally> > > making it big financially while remaining in the> > > decorum of a burqa (veil), or a skullcap and beard> > –> > > the most idealized 21st century, post-Godhra,> > Indian> > > Muslim one can be.> > >> > >> >> http://hindustantimes.com/news/specials/thenewmuslim/> > >> > > When I read the very first story of this series> > > (called “From masjid to stock market” by> > Neelesh> > > Mishra), I wrote a letter to the editor saying> > that> > > this story and the proposed series seems to be> > > affirming the most hackneyed stereotypes about> > Indian> > > Muslims, and one doesn’t see what’s new in it.> > Of> > > course, millions of Muslims (just as millions of> > > Hindus and Christians) have been victimized by> > > something or the other, and want to progress and> > make> > > it big in life, WHILE remaining steadfast to their> > > religious faith. But why do you have to make only> > > Muslims as some kind museum specimens and feature> > them> > > on the front-page as New Muslims.> > >> > > Neelesh Misra replied saying that, unlike my> > feedback,> > > majority of their readers have written in to say> > that> > > they really liked these articles, and that HT’s> > > purpose by this series is really to break the> > > stereotypes of the community. I of course didn’t> > > agree, but I happened to visit their feedback> > section> > > on the website, and was quite shocked to see the> > > letters written by readers. Almost 90 percent> > readers> > > (with Muslim names) have congratulated HT for this> > new> > > initiative. They think that HT is doing a great> > favour> > > to the Muslims by featuring these young achievers> > who> > > should be the role models for the entire> > community!> > > Some of their comments were: "it’s a> > revolutionary> > > idea", "Continue this column", "Inspiring!> > Inspiring!> > > Thanks for defining what most Muslims are not",> > "You> > > are doing a phenomenal job - this is what> > journalism> > > is all about", and so on. I felt like a fool since> > I> > > was probably the only person to have disapproved> > this> > > series on various grounds.> > >> > > My biggest problem is the "objectification" of a> > > community (which has already been objectified> > beyond> > > recognition), and that too by featuring the most> > > clichéd characters (a guy who dreams of an> > Islamic> > > stock exchange, a burqa-clad woman who runs a> > > restaurant, a bar-singer who starts praying> > 5-times a> > > day, Muslim schools that don't teach Darwin's> > theory> > > of evolution – each example more emblematic than> > the> > > other). Any way, this series continues in HT every> > day> > > and is certainly getting more bouquets and hardly> > any> > > brickbats. Most Muslim readers are overjoyed by> > the> > > fact that this is the first time a national daily> > such> > > as HT is not calling them terrorists and instead> > > presenting "positive" stories about them. I wonder> > if> > > most Muslims are in such low spirits that are> > actually> > > pleasantly surprised to see a jazzy picture of> > them on> > > the front page? But no one is realizing that what> > the> > > New Muslim series actually says is that "look, not> > all> > > Muslims are terrorists (or no longer are), they> > are> > > now finding peaceful meanings of jihad, they want> > to> > > progress in life, make money and be happy, but> > > continue to wear caps and veil". I am amazed that> > > nobody else (among the so-called Muslim> > intelligentsia> > > or any other kind of gentsia) is recognizing what> > such> > > === message truncated ===> > > __________________________________________________> Do You Yahoo!?> Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around > http://mail.yahoo.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: _________________________________________________________________ Call friends with PC-to-PC calling -- FREE http://get.live.com/messenger/overview From jenny.chithra at gmail.com Wed Oct 31 09:10:34 2007 From: jenny.chithra at gmail.com (jenny chithra) Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 09:10:34 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] 6th posting: caste and gender in the urban space of Keralam Message-ID: dear friends, In this posting we want to talk about some events and discussions that happened after we started our study: After our third posting to SARAI, some interesting debates took place in some forums in Keralam. 1. A very detailed report on the present status of Chitra Lekha was published in a regional magazine called 'Malayalam' by Sreejith Paithale who had accompanied us through out our field work trips. 2. An e-group called 'greenyouth' put up our third posting to which a young scholar responded with bitterness, complaining about the apathy of malayalee intellectuals. Though our posting had not elicited any response, this provocative response triggered off a heated debate that went on for days. As it often happens in the debate-obsessed space of Kerala, this too was a complete male war of words, with a feeble female voice. However, this debate, brought up some interesting points about ex-patriate malayalees like us, studying issues in Kerala; the need/problems of local action committees in dealing with such issues; and the whole issue about alliance politics, which helps to resist such caste/gender oppression at the local level. More importantly, the debate became so fiery that it soon went out of the forum with even media people becoming interested in it. This we feel did much to bring more attention to the Chithra Lekha case, which had been lying dormant for some time. 3. In Kannur, soon a new local action committee was formed at the initiative of people like K M Venugopal, who had already had problems with old one, with the intention of rehabilitating Chitra Lekha. Chithra Lekha, along with various activists and intellectuals came forward to be part of this forum. Together they have come up with a written public appeal, which details the struggle that Chithra Lekha has gone through and asks for financial support to buy her a new auto rickshaw, along with promising her the local support to run it. This committee called Chithra Lekha rehabilitation committee, has K.M.Venugopalan as Convenor, Dr.D.Surendranath, as Chair person, and P.K.Ayyappan as Treasurer. If anyone in this readers list is interested in supporting the struggle that Chithra Lekha has started, they can send financial help with an a) Ac.Payee Cheque or crossed DD payable at Kannur, b) Money Order, to the following address: Dr.D.Surendranath, Chairman, Chithra Lekha Rehabilitation Committee, Pallikunnu P.O, Kannur. 4. We also heard that some print and online magazines in Kerala are planning to bring out issues that focused on the Chithra Lekha case. Christy Jenny -- (All the Women Are White, All the Blacks Are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave) From burtoncleetus at yahoo.co.uk Wed Oct 31 10:57:56 2007 From: burtoncleetus at yahoo.co.uk (burton cleetus) Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 05:27:56 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Rockefeller foundation urban healthcare sixth posting Message-ID: <214583.35444.qm@web27110.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Dear friends, The activities of the Rockefeller foundation was laid on a society and state where social consciousness for the implementation of healthcare had already been laid down by the missionaries who considered Travancore experience as a blueprint for the spread of Christianity within the subcontinent. It was on the large-scale health care investments carried out by the missionaries that Rockefeller foundation laid the institutional structure for urban healthcare in the late 1920’s. Among the requests received from various states for assistance for healthcare, the Rockefeller foundation sought to chose Travancore for its sphere of activity. Though no concrete reasons were given for the choice of the land, it seems that the foundation’s considerations were primarily guided by the fact that Travancore had a relatively higher level of literacy and similar human development indices that would in turn ensure the successful implementation of western medical paradigms in Travancore. In a recently held interview, the President of the Foundation, Judith Rodin echoed the considerations of the foundation behind guided their philanthropic concerns. She argued, “...we measure success by looking at impact. That is, if you define your problem properly, then you can ask yourself in a really sensible way, have we made a difference? Have the beneficiaries been affected?” While vaccination and preventive measures against diseases were introduced in a large scale by the foundation, they focused on generating social consent for hygiene and sanitation measure by educating the people on waste management, against water logging, and the need to have clean roads and by lanes etc. The proponents of the foundation, like most of those who set out to formulate urban healthcare were of the realization that healthcare in its modern forms of understanding has to be implemented through a transformation in the behavioural patterns of the indigenous societies. Urbanization meant that the society had to be regulated and monitored to represent the new forms of governance, as laboratories of the new modes of governance. In Travancore, the popularization of sanitary and similar health care measures were laid down by the Christian missionaries, who introduced hospitals ad clinics during the mid nineteenth century. Education and healthcare formed the two most important forms of missionary intervention. They considered these as the path towards the realization of their objective of religious conversion. For the foundation, Travancore provided the ideal socio-political and geographical location for experimenting their medical and philanthropic concerns. The extend to which initial missionary intervention contributed to the generation of social consent for the later day popularization of western medicine is rarely explored. This was primarily for the fact that studies pertaining to sanitation and healthcare had in most circumstances overlooked the larger discourses that shaped urban hygiene and sanitary measures. Missionary perception on health sharply contrasted the therapeutic practices of the indigenous societies. personal hygiene, cleanliness etc formed an important part of missionary curricula. Regards Burton ___________________________________________________________ Want ideas for reducing your carbon footprint? Visit Yahoo! For Good http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/forgood/environment.html From keshvani at leoalmanac.org Tue Oct 30 18:05:02 2007 From: keshvani at leoalmanac.org (Nisar Keshvani, LEA) Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 20:35:02 +0800 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] ISEA 2008: Final Call for Papers - 14 Nov Deadline Message-ID: <5d60ab0c0710300535r3dca1826oe144b2e97938b4b8@mail.gmail.com> ISEA on Leonardo Electronic Almanac: http://leoalmanac.org/resources/sprojects/ISEA08/ ISEA website: http://isea2008.org/ Submission Link: http://isea2008.org/openconf/openconf.php Dear friends This is a gentle reminder that the submission deadline for ISEA2008 call for papers, artists and panel presentations will close on *14 Nov 2007. * International Symposium on Electronic Arts 2008 -ISEA2008 - is seeking both peer- reviewed individual papers and panel presentations. This year we are also encouraging artists who wish to share their works with a broader audience of their peers to submit artist presentations where they can speak about the specific aesthetic, conceptual and technological aspects of their works. We welcome contributions from creative practitioners and researchers from a variety of disciplines and institutional contexts as media arts benefits from and exemplifies the interdisciplinary linkages between contemporary art, science, technology and their related philosophies, pedagogies and institutional practices. The submissions must address or be of relevance to at least one of the themes of ISEA2008 in order to be considered for inclusion in the conference. The conference will be of interest to those working in but not limited to the following areas: media art, contemporary art, design, art history and theory, film and media studies, gaming, toy design, human-computer interaction, cultural studies, literary studies, musicology, sound studies, theatre, dance and performance studies, science, technology and society studies, history of science and history of technology, philosophy, history, gender studies, political science, anthropology, sociology and geography. For more information on the themes and for the submission link, please log on www.isea2008.org Apologies for cross and repeated postings. *The Leonardo Electronic Almanac (MIT Press) is the media partner for the ISEA Conference 2008.* --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "leonardo electronic almanac alerts list" group. To post to this group, send email to LEAalerts at googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to LEAalerts-unsubscribe at googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/LEAalerts -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From delhifilmarchive at gmail.com Tue Oct 30 18:15:38 2007 From: delhifilmarchive at gmail.com (Delhi Film Archive [DFA]) Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:15:38 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] [DFA: 24] DFA Screening of Jahaji Music Message-ID: <5a4334630710300545j3b0f97d4jfb621c41b4a19b4@mail.gmail.com> Delhi Film Archive with History Society Ramjas College present a season of documentaries Jahaji Music 112 minutes, India A film by Surabhi Sharma (present for the screening) Date : 1 November, 2007 at 1:15 pm Venue: Seminar Room, Ramjas College, Delhi University >From the mid-nineteenth century Indian labourers arrived in the Caribbean on boats, bringing a few belongings and their music – the beginnings of a remarkable cultural practice. More than 150 years later musician Remo Fernandes travels to the Islands to explore potential collaborations and create new work. *Jahaji Music: **India** in the **Caribbean* is a record of a difficult, if unusual and complex, musical journey. We walk around Trenchtown with Bob Marley's teacher and rastafari philosopher Mortimo Planno; accompany calypso and soca singer Rikki Jai to Skinner Park; chat with visual artist Chris Cozier in the Savannah; follow Dancehall Queen Stacey to *Weddy Weddy Wednesday*; groove to Lady Saw's lyrics; record a new song with Denise *Saucy Wow *Belfon and are guests at an East Indian Hindu wedding. Endeavouring, through it all, to weave a story of memory, identity and creativity. *Jahaji Music* is an attempt to make meaning of aspects of contemporary culture in Trinidad and Jamaica, even as it is a witness to the nature and possibilities of artistic collaboration VISIT OUR WEBSITE: www.delhifilmarchive.org JOIN OUR MAILING LIST OF FILM SCREENINGS: email: delhifilmarchive-subscribe at googlegroups.com CONTACT US: delhifilmarchive at gmail.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Please DO NOT REPLY to the sender. To contact the MODERATOR: delhifilmarchive [at] gmail.com To UNSUBSCRIBE: send an email to delhifilmarchive-unsubscribe at googlegroups.com More OPTIONS are on the web: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/delhifilmarchive/ Visit our WEBSITE: www.delhifilmarchive.org See the LIST OF FILMS in the Archive: http://www.delhifilmarchive.org/archive.html -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From anujaghosalkar at yahoo.com Wed Oct 31 18:33:31 2007 From: anujaghosalkar at yahoo.com (anuja ghosalkar) Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 06:03:31 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] IFS: Papaajoba: Post no 6 & 7 In-Reply-To: <7c0063460710301041i3e8b3e1doc1da83211d3bb54@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <884059.51440.qm@web54505.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Hi All, Below is the link to the blog for post no 6 & 7, Govinda ala re. More photos and transcripts on their way. www.papaajoba.blogspot.com/ Anuja __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From shijusam at gmail.com Wed Oct 31 19:26:33 2007 From: shijusam at gmail.com (Shiju Sam Varughese) Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 19:26:33 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Public Understanding of Science and the Media Message-ID: <345848710710310656o41327231w4426203c8969ac76@mail.gmail.com> Dear Friends, This is my fifth posting. Sorry for the delay as I was out of station for quite some time. Public Understanding of Science and the Media In India, the 'Public Understanding of Science' (PUS) Studies is still in its infancy as an academic field. Many of the early studies are based on large quantitative opinion surveys that assess public attitudes to science. A review of literature shows that the Indian studies on PUS can be classified into two main areas. Investigation into the public reception of science is the first category. For instance, the study that was done by Gauhar Raza, Surjit Singh and Bharvi Dutt (2002 "Public, Science, and Cultural Distance". Science Communication 23/3, March: 293-309) attempts to define the 'cultural distance' of the public from science and they propose a quantitative method to empirically measure it. They measure the cultural distance by developing an indicator on the basis of the number of years a person spends in formal schooling. Many of these studies keep positivist picture of science as the standard against which the depth of people's 'assimilation of science' is tested. There are some studies which examine the journalistic production of science news. Bharvi Dutt and K.C. Garg (2000 "An Overview of Science and Technology Coverage in Indian-Language Dailies". Public Understanding of Science 9:123-140.) analyse news items on science and technology in English newspapers published in different parts of India during 1996. They use the technique of counting columns of science news to quantify the amount of space provided for science news by each newspaper. This study identifies the newspapers that report more science news, and also the most reported themes. A historical study of science journalism in Kerala since its inception in the latter half of the nineteenth century was carried out by Anil Kumar Vadavathoor (2001 Science Journalism: Vikasavum Parinamavum (Mal.). Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Language Institute.) that factually describes the content of the early Malayalam magazines and the science themes reported. A study that considers the media as an active agent in the negotiations over science is Renu Addlakha (2001 "State Legitimacy and Social Suffering in a Modern Epidemic: A Case Study of Dengue Hemorrhagic Fever in Delhi". Contributions to Indian Sociology (n.s) 35/2:151-179.). The study on the outbreak of dengue fever in Delhi in 1996 uses a 'multi-sited ethnographic approach' to capture the nexus between law, medicine and the state administration. She looks at the media as an active agent who function as a commentator, communicator, educator and watchdog in the context of the epidemic. She opines that the media has a 'representational role' in constructing the crisis and in functioning as a crucial link between the state, the medical establishment and local communities. She points out that the media has its own agenda and stakes in pursuing the issue: "An overview of the news reports during the dengue outbreak shows that the print media played a vital role, acting both as a source of information for the public and as a sentinel of government action. The press tried to access the outbreaks from the perspective of different actors, such as the state agencies, the medical profession and the affected communities. In the process, it became a platform on which negotiations between the agents of control and the communities took place" (ibid: 159). However, the study considers the media no more than an actor among others in the issue. The study also fails to conceive the public as active actors with their own perspectives on medical science and public health. A review of the existing studies on the PUS in India indicates that they consider science as disembodied knowledge, which is produced in laboratories by the scientific community. These studies refuse to understand modern science as a culture with a "diffuse collection of institutions, areas of special knowledge and theoretical interpretations whose forms and boundaries are open to negotiation with other social institutions and forms of knowledge" (see the authors' introduction (p.8) in Alan Irwin and Brian Wynne (eds.) 1996. Misunderstanding Science? The Public Reconstruction of Science and Technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). This shortcoming leads to a failure in capturing the ways in which the publics actively negotiate on the social meanings of sciences and questioning the legitimacy of modern science in their daily life. The Indian studies on science and media hold the 'deficit' perspective that approaches science as an esoteric activity of the scientific community, devoid of 'social contamination' of any kind and the main attempt here is to quantify science news in order to understand the themes/disciplines that frequently appear in the press, and those newspapers reporting maximum science news. Moreover, majority of these studies analyse exclusively the English dailies for science news. There are hardly any studies on the regional press and the public understanding of science in the regions in India. The emphasis on the English media is misleading, as there are studies which show the stagnation in the growth rate of the English press and the rapid growth and diversification of the regional newspapers in India. Therefore, it is important to explore the regional dynamics to understand the characteristics of the public understanding of science in India. My proposed study analyses the regional press for the debates and negotiations over a scientific controversy, situating the popular press in the wider context of public understanding of science in Kerala society. -- shiju sam varughese http://shijusam.blogspot.com/ From shahzulf at yahoo.com Wed Oct 31 19:49:28 2007 From: shahzulf at yahoo.com (Zulfiqar Shah) Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 07:19:28 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Walk for Land Reforms & Sindh-Balochistan Peasants Assembly Message-ID: <159457.90126.qm@web38813.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Walk for Land Reforms & Sindh-Balochistan Peasants Assembly Dear All, Greetings from SAP-PK Sindh office! South Asia Partnership Pakistan Sindh Office has launched a campaign for land reforms, peasant’s rights and legislation. In this regard, we are going to organize a weeklong Sindh-Balochistan Interaction for Peasants Rights on November 01-05, 2007 in the different cities and villages of the province that will be participated by various organizations and networks representatives from both provinces. In the context, you are cordially invited to: - Walk for Land Reforms on November 4, 2007 at 11 am [Walk will begin from Old Campus Building to Press Club Hyderabad] - Sindh–Balochistan Harri Kath [Peasants’ Assembly] on November 5, 2007, 01:00 PM, at Hotel Indus, Hyderabad, in which representatives of peasant networks and organization of Sindh and Balochistan will discuss the peasants’ issue of the provinces. Your participation in the events will highly be appreciated. Kind Regards, Zulfiqar Shah ------------------------------------------------- Provincial Coordinator – Sindh South Asia Partnership – Pakistan 50, Muslim Housing Society Qasiamabad, Hyderabad Tel: +92 22 2650243 Cell: +92 321 3087024 Fax: +92 22 2650241 Email: zulf at cyber.net.pk shahzulf at yahoo.com ------------------------------------------------- Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com From dhatr1i at yahoo.com Wed Oct 31 21:16:50 2007 From: dhatr1i at yahoo.com (we wi) Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 08:46:50 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Regarding India Map #2 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <814964.24329.qm@web45504.mail.sp1.yahoo.com> Dear All, FYI. Jai Hind. Dhatri. Martin Gray wrote: Yes, this correction will indeed be made. It, and several others, are going to be some time soon...........thanks for the reminder anyway.............martin On Oct 30, 2007, at 12:13 AM, we wi wrote: Hi Martin, Hope you are doing well. This is just a reminder to your previous mail. Regards, Dhatri. Martin Gray wrote: Dhatri, I see what you mean. My map of India does indeed need to be corrected. I will not be able to do this until a few days after October 15 since I will be away from Sedona, Arizona, where I live, presenting several slide shows around the states. Thank you for alerting me to this matter. Sincerely, Martin Gray SacredSites.com --------------------------------- From: we wi Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 07:24:47 -0700 (PDT) To: Martin Gray Subject: Re: Regarding India Map Martin, Jammu and Kashmir of India should be like this. Please find the attachment. Regards, Dhatri. Martin Gray wrote: Tell me which parts. --------------------------------- From: we wi Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 05:07:01 -0700 (PDT) To: , , Subject: Regarding India Map Hi Martin, Could you please correct the India Map. Some parts of Jammu and Kashmir of India are mistakenly joined into Pakistan and China. Regards, Dhatri. --------------------------------- Building a website is a piece of cake. Yahoo! Small Business gives you all the tools to get online. --------------------------------- Shape Yahoo! in your own image. Join our Network Research Panel today! __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From naresh.rhythm at gmail.com Wed Oct 31 22:21:39 2007 From: naresh.rhythm at gmail.com (Naresh Kumar) Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 22:21:39 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Looking for material on partition Message-ID: <009201c81bde$53827f50$0d51a13b@hp5d91402bf38b> I am looking for some material on partition like maps of prepartitioned bengal and Punjab, undivided India, India after partition etc. Let me know from where i can downlode these maps and other photographs of the personalities and events related to independence and partition. If anyone has something like this then please send it to me through mail. Naresh Kumar, Phone:+91-11-65486858, Mobile:+91-9212066707. From gowharfazili at yahoo.com Wed Oct 31 15:53:46 2007 From: gowharfazili at yahoo.com (gowhar fazli) Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2007 03:23:46 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Workshop on the Greeks Message-ID: <215214.62014.qm@web60615.mail.yahoo.com> “The sprit of Hellas: landmarks in history, language, literature & culture of the Greeks” Workshop A workshop on the theme “The sprit of Hellas: landmarks in history, language, literature & culture of the Greeks” shall be organized in the School of languages literature and cultural studies, Jawaharlal Nehru university, New Delhi from 13th to 17th November 2007. The workshop has been planned to provide an insight to young scholars into the various elements of Greek culture and thought and also the comparative aspects of Indian and Greek civilization. Experts and specialists have been invited to present lectures and conduct the course as resource persons. Special screening of short films and slide shows that relate to Greek history and culture with be done. A food festival is also on the planned for. Certificates will be awarded to successful participants. There are limited seats for which applications are invited from young scholars. The last date for submitting application to join the workshop is 31st October 2007. Interested young scholars should contact the undersigned. contact greekworkshop07 at gmail.com or call Krishna Swami at 9818679556 U. P ARORA Room no. 394 SLL&CS, JNU Mobile no: 9873673300 Tel: 26704736, 26704875 email:uparora12 at yahoo.com Unfortunately, the balance of nature decrees that a super-abundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares. Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit. Peter Ustinov __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements