From peter.ksmtf at gmail.com Sun Jun 1 12:55:14 2008 From: peter.ksmtf at gmail.com (T Peter) Date: Sun, 1 Jun 2008 12:55:14 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fish workers oppose reforms Message-ID: <3457ce860806010025u7fc9156ay5afbbcd52f46ee15@mail.gmail.com> Fish-workers national campaign reaches Kollam Staff Reporter Date:30/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/30/stories/2008053053320300.htm A precursor to their Parliament march Coastal march: The Kutch-Kanyakumari-Kolkata campaign of the National Fish-workers Forum passing through Kollam on Thursday. KOLLAM: The Kutch-Kanyakumari-Kolkata vehicle campaign of the National Fish-workers Forum (NFF) to garner support for the Parliament march of fish-workers in July reached Kollam on Thursday. The campaign that began on May 1 from Kutch will reach Kolkatta on June 27 after covering the entire coastal belt of the country. NFF chairman Harikrishna Debnath who leads the campaign said that the Parliament march was in protest against the move to replace the 1991 Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification with the Coastal Zone Management notification. He alleged that the basic intention behind the move was to sell the coastal areas for commercial plunder. Addressing the campaign at Vady Junction here, NFF activist and former Tourism Minister of Goa Mathani Saldhana said that there had never been any attempt from the government side to garner the strength of the fishing community in managing coastal resources. On the contrary, there had been a systematic effort to shut off this community from any meaningful participation in coastal management. He said that the CZM notification would result in the fishing community's future turning uncertain. Traditional fishing grounds could be denied to the fishermen. The CZM reflects the Government of India's determination to sell the sea for commercial looting by foreign companies. Mr. Saldhana, who champions the movement against special economic zones in Goa, said that in order to resist the CZM, fishermen of the country had to unite. He alleged there was a concerted effort by vested interests to keep the fishing communities divided on the basis caste and creed. The fishing community should see through this game plan and oppose the CZM. Some of the demands to be raised during the Parliament march include recognition of the customary and traditional rights of the fishing community over coastal land and waters, implementation of the CRZ notification, ban on intensive aquaculture along the coast, announcing a comprehensive legislation for the exclusive economic zone waters, sufficient cheaper fuel for sustainable fishing and reforming the Marine Fishing Regulation Acts of the States to improve fisheries management. The Kerala course of the campaign was also led by president of the Kerala Matsyathozhilali Federation T. Peter and general secretary A. Andrews. ........................................................................... Fish workers oppose reforms Date:01/06/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/01/stories/2008060158720300.htm Special Correspondent Thiruvananthapuram: Hundreds of fish workers took out a march to the office of the Accountant-General here on Saturday in protest against the proposed reforms in the fisheries sector and the government's move to replace the Coastal Regulation Zone policy with the Coastal Zone Management policy. The stir was organised as part of a nation-wide campaign by the National Fishworkers' Forum (NFF) urging the Central and State governments to take steps to ensure the livelihood security of fisherfolk. Inaugurating the march, Pannian Ravindran, MP, said the government had a responsibility to protect coastal and marine resources. NFF leaders alleged that the proposed reforms in the fisheries sector would expose traditional fishermen to unhealthy competition from multinational companies and lead to plunder of marine resources. They said the Coastal Zone Management policy and the decision to permit the operation of foreign trawlers would affect the livelihood of traditional fishermen all over the country. NFF leaders Harekrishna Debnath and Matanhy Saldanha; State president of Kerala Swathantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation T. Peter; and general secretary A. Andrews; were among those who spoke. The NFF national campaign for the rights of fish workers began in Gujarat on May 1. During the Kerala leg of the campaign, the team visited fishing villages and landing centres along the coast from Kasaragod to Thiruvananthapuram and addressed public meetings. Mr. Debnath said the team had received complaints from fish workers against sand-mining, import of fish, inadequate supply of kerosene for outboard engines and discrepancy in utilisation of tsunami rehabilitation funds. From naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com Mon Jun 2 15:17:46 2008 From: naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com (Naeem Mohaiemen) Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2008 15:47:46 +0600 Subject: [Reader-list] Islamic Hardliners attack Jakarta Peace Rally Message-ID: >From Indonesian author Laksmi Pamuntjak Yesterday afternoon my partner Goenawan and I were in the National Monument (Monas) area in Central Jakarta to commemorate the 63rd year of Pancasila state ideology (and its spirit of pluralism and diversity). We were part of the National Alliance for the Freedom of Faith and Religion (AKKBB) which comprises 70 institutions of different faiths. Suddenly, members of our alliance who had already congregated below the National Monument, getting ready for our peace parade scheduled at 2 pm, were ambushed by members of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) wielding sharp bamboo sticks. At least 34 alliance members including women and children and our close friends were chased and beaten, some sustaining severe injuries. We are okay -- we had stopped briefly at the National Gallery nearby to use their toilets -- and so escaped, by ten minutes, the worst of the attacks. But our thoughts and prayers are with the wounded, some of whom are still in hospital. But we are deeply saddened and angered by this heinous crime, committed by a group bent on imposing a fascist interpretation on Islam through the use of violence upon our vast diversity and ignoring the principles of pluralism and tolerance upon which our nation was founded. Actually, the peace rally yesterday by the National Alliance for the Freedom of Faith and Religion (AKKBB) that comprises some 70 institutions of different faiths (including Indonesia's two Muslim organizations Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah and Christian communities) was not to defend the Ahmadiyah sect (as was alleged by the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) but to reiterate a point begun in 2006, during the height of opposition to the proposed anti-pornography bill (drafted and fought for also by Islamic hardliners), ie. 1) to reclaim space, through the state ideology Pancasila, for a renewed sense of nationhood and diversity vis a vis faith-based sectarianism, 2) to appeal to, reeducate and refresh public memory of the strength and beauty of difference; 3) to turn on their heads deeply entrenched nation-building rhetoric such as the state ideology Pancasila and the Unity in Diversity slogan of Bhineka Tunggal Ika long used by the New Order regime under Suharto to repress civil society, by bringing them back to their pluralistic essence. This latest assault on pluralism, as with earlier FPI attacks on human freedom and civil rights—which has seen countless pubs and restaurants destroyed or closed down or banned from serving alcohol during the Islamic Fasting Month, art exhibitions attacked for displaying works of pornographic content, and the Ahmadiyah sect as well as others living under threat—is inhuman and unacceptable. It is un-Islamic, unconstitutional and anti-Indonesia. FPI has to be disbanded. What saddens us more is the fact that no one was arrested in the incident even though there were 1,200 police officers at the scene when the clash occurred. One of the alliance's cars was burned by FPI, while police officers who were barely 5 meters away, just looked on! I am flummoxed that these thugs have been roaming freely for years with alarming impunity without the police clamping down on them. The fact that the state and its security apparatus are intimidated by these Islamic hardliners of course plays a crucial role in perpetuating the situation. Indeed, there is no more a state vs civil society dicothomy as per the Suharto years. In its place, we have groups bent on imposing a single value, a fascist interpretation of Islam through the use of violence, upon this vast diversity that is Indonesia while the state is relegated to the sidelines, often as a mute spectator rather than an actor, let alone one with authority to put a stop on this criminal act. Furthermore, the statement by the Chief of Police of Central Jakarta yesterday, claiming that the alliance had been warned of a possible attack but did not pay heed, is so typical. It's like saying, to quote a Singaporean activist friend, "You deserve to be raped because you are in a place where you can be raped." In a somewhat belated corrective P.R. attempt, Jakarta Chief of Police Sr. Commr. Budi Winarko told reporters he would arrest perpetrators beginning today (Monday, 2/6/08). However, in the same breath, he said that arresting them at the scene would only "worsen the situation." One wonders what the police as an institution is there for in the first place if it cannot protect citizens from arbitrary, unlawful violence. Today we just received word from the presidential spokesperson that the President has instructed the Chief of Police of the Republic of Indonesia to take legal action against FPI. We know more than to be hopeful but let's see what will happen in the next few days. In the meantime, I join others in hoping that the natural resources we have that make pluralism a foregone conclusion in our country—our own vast diversity that cobbles together 17,000 islands, some 450 languages and different faiths as guaranteed by Pancasila—as well as our hard-earned freedom of expression following the collapse of the Suharto regime, will withstand this increased Talibanism. The government will also have to toughen up, or else its authority will be destroyed, the hardliners will be emboldened, more innocent lives will be risked, and we can say goodbye to religious freedom. Below is a more comprehensive report, taken from Koran Tempo and The Jakarta Post. To see some of the photos I've taken please click on: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=27744&l=f3d1e&id=533987122 and here's another useful link including photos, videos, news reports and news links: http://aksidamai.blogspot.com/ On 1 June 2008, the National Day of Pancasila State Ideology, National Alliance for the Freedom of Faith and Religion (AKKBB) activists preparing for a peace parade celebrating pluralism and diversity in the National Monument (Monas) area were confronted and beaten by Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) members wielding sharp bamboo sticks. At least 34 people from an alliance that comprises 70 institutions including Nadhlatul Ulama, the largest Muslim association in Indonesia , The Church Community, the Cirebon Islamic Boarding School community, the Liberal Islam Network and the much-maligned Ahmadiyah sect (the last FPI's alleged target) were injured, including women and children. Among the injured are the Director of the International Conference for Islamic Peace Syafii Anwar, Wahid Institute director Achmad Suaedi, leader of the Cirebon-based As-Zaman Islamic boarding school Kiai Maman Imanulhaq and one of our dear friends, Utan Kayu curator and Jurnal Perempuan activist Mohamad Guntur Romli, who underwent surgery last night. Guntur 's cheekbone and nose were fractured by repeated blows from FPI members wielding sticks. No one was arrested in the incident even though there were 1,200 police officers at the scene when the clash occured. In a somewhat belated attempt by the police to take some responsibility for this incident, Jakarta Police Chief Sr. Comr. Budi Winarko said he would arrest perpetrators starting Monday. Earlier yesterday, the Chief of Central Jakarta police claimed that the alliance had been warned of a possible confrontation but did not pay heed. Meanwhile FPI spokesman Munarman told reporters that the incident was a reaction to AKKBB's "offensive" statement in several newspapers last Tuesday, saying it endorsed pluralism and urged everybody not to be intimidated by people who threatened practitioners of different beliefs, as in the case of the Ahmadiyah sect, whose thousands of followers all around the country have lived under threat after the sect was declared blasphemous by several hard-line groups. The attack was quickly condemned by human rights activists, politicians and Muslim organisations Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah. From naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com Mon Jun 2 17:42:25 2008 From: naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com (Naeem Mohaiemen) Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2008 18:12:25 +0600 Subject: [Reader-list] Specks Of Dirt in Dubai Message-ID: >From The Times March 24, 2008 Endemol exec sent to Dubai jail after customs find 'speck of dirt' Warning to travellers over Dubai drug laws as it is claimed officials 'are paid bounty for each arrest' A speck of dirt invisible to the human eye was all it took to land Cat Le Huy in a Dubai jail. Officials at Dubai airport claimed they had found 0.03 grams of hashish in the Endemol television executive?s bag after he had travelled to the United Arab Emirates to visit a friend last month. They accused him of possession ? which would have led to a mandatory four-year prison sentence had he been convicted. After he spent six weeks in Dubai?s jails protesting his innocence, prosecutors dropped the case this month. Mr Le Huy, 31, a German citizen living in London, claims that Dubai officials are paid a ?bounty? for arresting drug offenders, a practice confirmed independently to The Times by sources who did not wish to be named. ?People shouldn?t go to Dubai until the laws change,? Mr Le Huy said. ?They are running a risk. Even if you?re innocent and know about the laws, if they suspect you of anything, you run the risk of incarceration.? Taking medicine into Dubai Russell Secker is concerned that the country's strict policy on drugs may outlaw some prescription medicine Tourists get four years in a Dubai jail Two Britons visiting Dubai have each been jailed for four years for possessing tiny amounts of soft drugs for personal use Background His experience is common, according to Fair Trials International, a legal charity, which says that drug-related arrests have increased rapidly since 2006, when the laws changed in Dubai so that trace amounts of banned substances picked up by airport detection equipment were deemed to indicate possession. ?People are being subjected to very thorough searches,? said Saima Jirji, a solicitor at the charity. ?Even seams in their clothing and the fluff in their pockets is being checked.? Mr Le Huy claims that he was also approached by a detective asking whether he knew any drug-takers back in Britain and whether he could coerce them into coming to Dubai. He alleged that at least two other foreign inmates had been approached with similar requests. The UAE Embassy in London refused to comment. At first he was accused of smuggling heroin after officials found pills in an unmarked container that turned out to be jet-lag medicine sold freely over the counter in Dubai and the US. He was strip-searched. Officials claimed to have found a trace of hashish in his bag and detained him. He was asked to sign letters in Arabic, which he could not read. Only after being told that he would at once be deported if he signed did he do so, but he wrote ?under duress? beneath each signature. Instead of being deported he was put in solitary confinement. Because he was dehydrated and forbidden from drinking he was only able to produce a urine sample after eight hours. Last year 59 British people were detained in Dubai over drugs offences, and so far this year the figure is nine, according to the Foreign Office. Keith Brown served nine months after customs officers found a 0.003 gram trace of cannabis stuck to his shoe. This month the BBC Radio 1 DJ Grooverider, whose real name is Raymond Bingham, started a four-year sentence for possessing 2.16 grams of cannabis. Fair Trials said the list of prohibited substances included everything from antidepressants to a cough medicine for children. Even those in Dubai on transit to another destination can be arrested under the regulations. Mr Le Huy denies that there were ever any drugs on his person. ?Hashish isn?t something available in my social circle ? the idea it was in my bag is absolutely ludicrous,? he says. He was pressed by the authorities to plead guilty, but his refusal left him in a legal limbo. After a persistent campaign by his friends in Britain and after negotiations with his lawyer in the UAE, the Dubai authorities agreed to drop the investigation. He had initially spent two weeks at the airport jail, where he couldn?t shower because of the condition of the bathrooms. To compensate, he ?discovered the magic of Dettol?, using the disinfectant to shower. At Dubai Central Jail he suffered even worse conditions. Inmates slept eight to a cell. Because of the poor food he lost 15 kilograms in weight (more than two stone). ?Every day was a bad day when you wake up and realise, ?I?m still here.? ? When he was finally released, he was taken to a police station to pick up his passport, only for detectives to put him in a bloodstained cell for another four hours. During the six weeks he had found solace in the company of other English-speaking inmates such as Grooverider. Mr Le Huy said that foreign inmates were treated with ?distant contempt? by guards, who ?played mind games? with them. ?They?d ask us to go out in the courtyard at 1am, then take four hours to search all our cells. There was a lad from London who had a bronchial infection. They made him wait in the rain for four hours even after we asked the guards if he could stand in the corridor.? ?The laws and punishments of a nation are theirs to set,? he emphasised, adding: ?My point is that you will be detained for a minimum of 21 days if they suspect you of anything, whether or not you?re innocent.? From indersalim at gmail.com Mon Jun 2 22:37:07 2008 From: indersalim at gmail.com (inder salim) Date: Mon, 2 Jun 2008 18:07:07 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Book now for: Plum Flower in the Snow at home In-Reply-To: <32140028.9061212337105654.JavaMail.www@wwinf3106> References: <32140028.9061212337105654.JavaMail.www@wwinf3106> Message-ID: <47e122a70806021007q715fdc90uc155d6606eb4244a@mail.gmail.com> > Book now for: Plum Flower in the Snow at home > > home is a leading creative production company in the UK; specializing in > innovative live events with contemporary artists and performers. We explore > diverse contexts and spaces, create new forms of cultural experience and > emphasize interactivity, entertainment and participation. > > Plum Flower in the Snow > > Created by: Greta Mendez > > Designed by: Martina von Holn > > Performers: Nina Baden-Semper, Jacqui Chan and Inder Salim > > Co-produced by London Artists Projects and home live art and presented as > part of China Now 2008. > > Live artist and raconteur Greta Mendez fuses her Trinidadian roots with > Asian cultures. > Plum Flower in The Snow is an artist residency and performance installation > at HOME which traces her recent travels in China and India. > Through image and recital, Greta deconstructs moments, rituals and > encounters that left their mark. > Join her for an oriental bite and a cup of chai as Greta interprets the > cultures she once only knew as a child. > A feast for the senses. > Click here for more info... > Man with horse photo by: Inder Salim > > Booking Details > > Performances: > 6th June from 7pm: food and drinks, screenings and performances. > > 9th–10th June Performances: 12.30pm, 2pm, 3.30pm > > Booking is essential. > > Tickets: £8/£5 (includes food and drinks). > > To book call: 07957 565 336 or email: laura at homeliveart.com > > Venue: home London, 1a Flodden Road, SE5 9LL > Funded by Arts Council England, London. > Greta Mendez acknowledges financial support from Dr Neville Linton and > Artsadmin > Click here for more info... > Greta Mendez > > home live art forthcoming: Pub Crawl > > Pub Crawl at Camberwell Arts Festival > Saturday 14th June, 7pm – 2am > > A performance tour of some of Camberwell's best-loved pubs, linking with > Dukie's Camberwell Cabaret in Vauxhall. > > Featuring: Yara El-Sherbini, Lottie Leedham, The Dulwich Ukulele Club, > Duckie. > A tour of all venues starts at The Sun & Doves, 61-63 Coldharbour Lane, SE5 > 9NS at 6.45pm. > > Commissioned by Camberwell Arts, produced by home live art and Duckie. > Click here for more info... > Readers Wifes at Duckie > > home live art forthcoming: The Alternative Village Fete > > The Alternative Village Fete at Watch this Space Festival, National Theatre > Saturday 5th July, 1pm - 7.15pm > > A free event which celebrates the great British Tradition of the village > fete, with performances, music, interactive artists stalls, produce and > environmental stalls. > > Featuring: Bob & Roberta Smith, Shane Waltener, Barby Asante, Society of > Wonders, Fete Encounter, The Bollywood Brass Band, Rediscovered Urban > Rituals, Morris Dancers, Cake Stalls and much much more tbc. > Click here for more info... > Rediscovered Urban Rituals > > home > Email; laura at homeliveart.com > Website; www.homeliveart.com > Tel. 07957 565336 > London; 1a Flodden Road, SE5 9LL > > You have received this email because you are subscribed to the home mailing > list. Select this link, if you would like to unsubscribe, or update your > details. -- http://indersalim.livejournal.com From gowharfazili at yahoo.com Tue Jun 3 14:03:10 2008 From: gowharfazili at yahoo.com (gowhar fazli) Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 01:33:10 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] THE SOCIAL VISION OF ANTICASTE INTELLECTUALS Message-ID: <50979.6093.qm@web65607.mail.ac4.yahoo.com> http://www.scholars withoutborders. in/item_show. php?code_ no=DST034&ID=undefined&calcStr= Seeking Begumpura THE SOCIAL VISION OF ANTICASTE INTELLECTUALS Author/Editor : Gail Omvedt The bhakti radical Ravidas (c 1450–1520), calling himself a 'tanner now set free', was the first to envision an Indian utopia in his song "Begumpura"—a modern casteless, classless, tax-free city without sorrow. This was in contrast to the dystopia of the brahmanical kaliyuga. Anticaste intellectuals in India posited utopias much before Thomas More, in 1516, articulated a Renaissance humanist version. Gail Omvedt, in this study, focuses on the worldviews of subaltern visionaries spanning five centuries—Chokhamela , Janabai, Kabir, Ravidas, Tukaram, the Kartabhajas, Phule, Iyothee Thass, Pandita Ramabai, Periyar and Ambedkar. She charts the development of their utopian visions and the socioeconomic characteristics of the societies conceived through this long period. Reason and ecstasy – dnyan and bhakti/bhav – are the underlying themes in this book. They constitute the two main strands of the utopian vision: the joy taken in the consciousness of a promised land and the analytical power that defines the contours of that land. Together, they make the road that leads to the promised land. Rejecting Orientalist, nationalist and hindutva impulses to 'reinvent' India, Omvedt says all we need to do is take up the India envisioned by its dalit-bahujan intellectuals and leaders—the Begumpura of Ravidas, the Bali Rajya of Phule, the Dravidastan of Periyar, the Buddhist commonwealth of the Sakya Buddhists and Ambedkar's Prabuddha Bharat. These are contrasted with Gandhi's village utopia of Ram Rajya, Nehru's hindutva-laced socialism and Savarkar's territorialist Hindu Rashtra. Finally, Omvedt emphasizes the continued relevance of the vision of the anticaste intellectuals in the era of globalization. Price Rs. 450 Product Details Hardback : 304 pages Author/Editor : Gail Omvedt Year of Publication : 2008 Publisher : Navayana, Pondicherry Language : English Product Dimension : Demy Shipping Weight : 550 ISBN Number : 978-81-89059- 11-8 Table of Contents : Reviews and Author details: Gail Omvedt is the author of Dalits and the Democratic Revolution (1994), Buddhism in India: Challenging Brahmanism and Caste (2003) and Ambedkar: Towards an Enlightened India (2004) among other books. Seeking Begumpura is the product of five years of research and writing as Senior Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. She lives in Kasegaon, Maharashtra. 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 From anivar.aravind at gmail.com Tue Jun 3 18:29:26 2008 From: anivar.aravind at gmail.com (Anivar Aravind) Date: Tue, 03 Jun 2008 18:29:26 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] An Open letter on OOXML happenings in India Message-ID: <4845402E.4050704@gmail.com> It is time of Open Letters, this time it is from Dr Deepak Phatak of IIT Bombay. "With reference to the recent happenings in connection with the ISO standardization process of OOXML, actions by or on behalf of Microsoft have caused me deep pain and hurt. Apart from the personal anguish, these actions have tarnished the name of my Institute along with that of several other organizations represented on our committee. In my opinion, these actions go well beyond the behavioral boundaries for a commercial entity. some of these amount to interference with the governance process of a sovereign country. Luckily, wiser and experienced people are in-charge of governance of the nation. However, as a humble teacher and a proud Indian, I wish to register a strong and visible protest." It is a really long post, but surely worth reading. It will give you an insight into a real and personal experience by a professor in one of the most respected institutions of our country. Read full letter at http://deepakphatak.blogspot.com/2008/05/this-is.html Cheers Anivar Aravind -- I know my rights; I want my phone call! What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak? (as seen on /.) Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now! http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign From rashneek at gmail.com Wed Jun 4 09:26:18 2008 From: rashneek at gmail.com (rashneek kher) Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 09:26:18 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Kashmir: the war for hearts and minds by Parveen Swami(in The Hindu) Message-ID: <13df7c120806032056k23d94c0bn36fa9a0c406fdf53@mail.gmail.com> Last week, thousands of young Srinagar residents turned out to hear the Pakistani rock band, Junoon, performing the hit, *Sayonee*. Days earlier, the Hizb ul-Mujahideen chief, Mohammad Yusuf Shah, demanded that the Pakistan government order Junoon not to perform in Jammu and Kashmir, claiming its presence in Srinagar would "add insult to injury." Defiant, Junoon leader Salman Ahmad invited the portly terror commander to join him "in a musical jihad for peace." Not too many years ago, a remark like that would have invited certain death; now, all it provoked was an irate protest by a handful of Kashmir University campus Islamists. A week before the Junoon concert, though, a more familiar script played itself out. In April, students from the Anantnag Women's Degree College travelled across India on a college tour. One evening in Goa, the girls danced to the tunes of a rock band at a beach restaurant — dressed, it perhaps needs noting, in nothing more immodest than full-length trousers and shirts. A student videotaped the evening's harmless fun. When she gave the tape to an Anantnag storeowner to have it transferred to the compact disc, someone made copies — and the girls' dream holiday turned hell. Islamist leader Hilal Ahmad War led the charge, alleging that the girls had been "made to dance in nightclubs outside the State." It was "shameful and shocking that our sisters are being exploited and taken to dance clubs and bars in different States of India under the garb of educational and cultural tours." He lashed out at officials for "not only encouraging promiscuity in Kashmir but also facilitating the exploitation of our girls at the hands of outsiders." No less than Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the powerful Srinagar cleric who heads the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, weighed in with the claim that the Anantnag events pointed to Indian "cultural aggression to keep the younger generation [away] from religious and moral values." Several similar instances took place this summer, though their worrying message has been drowned out by the loud chorus of good news from Jammu and Kashmir — the flood of tourists, for example, or the decline of violence — and, of course, the resounding success of Junoon. Mumbai-based Meenakshi Sharan, who visited Srinagar to counsel school students on their career options, found herself at the receiving end of a scurrilous campaign that she was spreading vice — this because, according to one account, she offered beauty tips and relationship advice to teenage students. Mirwaiz Farooq announced that "notorious beauticians" had been "introduced as career counsellors and sent to girls' educational institutions to promote obscenity and immorality". For once, his far-right enemies agreed. Asiya Andrabi, head of the Dukhtaran-e-Millat, lashed out at Ms Sharan, claiming she was "actually doing the job of luring girls into modelling [to] later exploit them sexually." This, the Islamist politician claimed, was part of a larger enterprise of "marketing Kashmiri girls [which] sometimes surfaces by means of education tours, sometimes through the Army's Operation Sadbhawana and sometimes through the appointment of Kashmiri girls in different airlines and insurance companies." "If we don't wake up to this threat, the day won't be far off when our daughters would be marketed like tulips in the outside world," Ms Andrabi concluded emphatically. Leaving aside the minor point that Jammu and Kashmir does not yet have the infrastructure to market tulips to the world, her paranoiac language contains in it important clues to the concerns which drive Islamism in the State. Islamists in Jammu and Kashmir — correctly — identify culture as a more elemental threat to their project than any number of Indian troops. Over the years, the idea that the West and Hindu India are together engaged in a cultural project to annihilate Kashmir and Islam has figured repeatedly in Islamist discourse. Examples aren't hard to come by. As scholar Yoginder Sikand has recorded, the Jamaat-e-Islami long claimed that "a carefully planned Indian conspiracy was at work to destroy the Islamic identity of the Kashmiris, through Hinduizing the school syllabus and spreading immorality and vice among the youth." It was even alleged that "that the government of India had dispatched a team to Andalusia, headed by the Kashmiri Pandit [politician] D.P. Dhar, to investigate how Islam was driven out of Spain and to suggest measures as to how the Spanish experiment could be repeated in Kashmir, too." Just how little distance there is between these ideas and the invective directed at the Anantnag students is startling — but it ought not to surprise anyone. Among the first acts of jihadists in 1989 — when the long war in Jammu and Kashmir began — were attacks on bars and stores stocking liquor, followed by the proscription of popular film and television and the prohibition of beauty parlours. Women who resisted edicts to wear the veil were often attacked — some with acid; others with guns. One particularly gruesome incident was the 1993 murder of Shamima Parveen, the first woman to perform in the traditional Kashmiri satirical dance-drama form, *Bhaand Paather* — a tragedy that later formed the core of a play by author M.K. Raina. Women under Islamist rule In an article written eight years ago, journalist Suchita Vemuri provided a graphic illustration of what life was like for women under Islamist rule. "Women were pushed into purdah," she wrote, "deprived of access to contraception and abortion, and prevented from moving freely." Asma Khan, a senior gynaecologist in the Lal Ded Maternity Hospital, told Ms Vemuri: "Before this problem, there was a growing awareness of contraception in the State, and vasectomies and tubectomies were routine. But for several years now, no vasectomy has been performed; tubectomies have been attempted only in cases where another pregnancy could be life-threatening." Tanvir Jehan, Jammu and Kashmir's first woman District Magistrate, made clear that resistance was impossible: "Till 1995," she said, "I too would do exactly what they dictated." Islamists no longer have the military muscle needed to ensure compliance — a fact demonstrated in stark relief by Mr. Ahmad, whose exemplary courage ought to teach a lesson or two to politicians in the State. And that, in turn, has led them to begin to panic. Writing in the Srinagar-based *Daily Etelaat* on May 16, commentator Omar Akhtar asserted: "We are losing this battle because we forget [it] is not only about removing the Indian Army from Kashmir and the Indian flag from our Secretariat." Back in 1990, Mr. Akhtar argued that the "Kashmiri nation … sought to bring about the establishment of an Islamic state, from the suppressive [sic.] influence of the Indian state." Kashmiris, he claimed, "rose in unison against a perceived 'non-Muslim,' 'unbeliever'." However, "as a nation, we have failed to stick to the ideals of Islam and we are [therefore] losing this struggle." "Kashmiris," Mr. Akhtar said, "are more morally corrupt than ever before; they are more dishonest than ever before; they are more unseemly in their conduct than ever before." Arguments like these have long been made by followers of South Asia's most important Islamist, Abul Ala Maududi. He believed that true believers needed to be insulated from their cultural environment — from the complex interactions with local traditions and religions that gave Islam in South Asia its special character. Islamist patriarch Syed Ali Shah Geelani, drawing on this tradition, has argued that Hindus and Muslims in India are "members of two different nations despite living in the same territory." For Muslims to stay among Hindus is as difficult as it is "for a fish to stay alive in a desert." For Islamists like Mr. Geelani, modernity and the pluralist cultural currents which bear it hold out an existential threat. http://www.hindu.com/2008/06/04/stories/2008060455311000.htm Through much of its history, Mr. Geelani's parent organisation, the Jamaat-e-Islami, represented the traditional urban and rural middle class. Enriched by modernity but denied political space by the National Conference, these classes saw religion as an instrument with which to defend their traditional power. The Islamists sought to undermine the National Conference's influence by representing modernity as a force that threatens Jammu and Kashmir's identity and honour. Figures like Ms Andrabi have developed on this tradition, building careers by fuelling paranoia. In the wake of the uncovering of a large-scale prostitution racket in Srinagar last year, Ms Andrabi organised physical attacks on unmarried couples seen together in public. A summer on, the Islamists are at it again — minus the violence, it is true, but with no less venom. What kind of society do the Islamists want? Mr. Akhtar put it simply and honestly: "There should be no guilt in the effort to establish Allah's rule over our nation." In a fundamental sense, the conflict in Kashmir is not about its stated causes. It is not about India, Pakistan and independence; nor about democracy, secularism, and human rights; not even about Hinduism or Islam. It is, instead, a showdown between the god of the Islamists and the fiercely polytheist icon-suffused culture of modern high capitalism. For better or for worse, young people's responses to the Junoon concert make clear that Mr. Geelani's god is losing. -- Rashneek Kher Wandhama Massacre-The Forgotten Human Tragedy http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com From jeebesh at sarai.net Wed Jun 4 16:48:22 2008 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh) Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 16:48:22 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] riverfront update Message-ID: On 6/2/08, Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan wrote: Dear Friends, Today's incident at the Satyagrah Sthal not only highlighted the true face of the highly controversial structure called the Akshardham in the river bed bringing to fore its evil existence but a strange dilemma that we Satyagrahis came to be faced with as a result. A phone call during mid day alerted us to impending demolition of the Satyagrah Sthal by the police. Rushing to the scene we found that while the Satyagrah Sthal was untouched all the jhuggies nearby (about 10 of them) had been demolished by a strong police force on orders from the 'top'. These are labourers (migrants from East UP and nearby) who used to tend the nurseries, many plants from which grace the residences of the greenery lovers in the city. Discreet enquiries revealed that the Akshardham authorities had written to the Home Department about a security threat to the so called temple and hence these jhuggies had to go. And lo ! with no political voice whatsoever they were brought to ground by a police force obeying orders from their superiors. As if now Akshardham, not withstanding a prison like walls all around it, extra special security at its 'restricted' entrance, prison like watch towers in all corners could sleep in peace. If jhuggies and the like around the 'precious' Akshardham is a security risk then almost the whole of Pandav nagar (incidently the area where the Akshardham had first been allotted a piece of land for an educational and cultural centre that they refused to 'accept' – we have official documents to support this) and some part of the Samaspur Jagir village and Mayur Vihar should also have no right to exist ! But would the state have the guts to bring them down like wise? What is this Akshardham after all? Claiming to be a 'temple' as its public face it is a cultural centre on paper run by a private trust of monied and politically connected swamis (sic). It today encroaches upon about 100 acres of the river bed against its initially allotted 18 acres which had later on been extended to 30 acres. It must be perhaps the only temple anywhere with a highly restricted entry, paid parking and paid visits to some of its facilities. The MCD which is today controlled by the Party that facilitated its construction in the first place have surreptitiously also exempted it from payment of commercial taxes, despite it being an out and out commercial facility making crores of rupees annually through entry charges as well as payments for other commercial activities within the premises. A temple is ideally a place of worship where the devout get attracted for spiritual rejuvenation in a voluntary manner with no restricted entrance and receive whatever is given out freely as a parshad. Is any of this true of Akshardham? It is an illegal structure (has never sought any permission from the Yamuna Standing Committee) that is founded on deceit and illegal appropriation of farmer's land abetted by a party in power. (Even the so called approval by the SC of it on a dismissed PIL is based more on default rather any merit of the case – the fact that a sprawling concrete parking space stands where the SC was made to understand that no land use change would happen is a glaring example of the SC having been taken for a ride by the temple managers). With so much of evil intent, ill-gotten land and artificial security how can any devout really visit it with faith and fervour is beyond our comprehension. But people either attracted by its architectural grandeur (which indeed it exhibits) or blinded by faith continue to visit it in hordes almost everyday enriching the coffers of the trust managers. It is time that the civil society exposed its real face and advocated its public boycott as a structure which is not only illegal but is 'evil' in its existence in the river bed. That today it has taken toll of the hapless jhuggies in the river bed is but yet another instance of its power and reach. That the party that created it may yet again come into power more by default of the present regime's poor governance than any positive vote for the party in question may have played a part in today's action by the concerned authorities. Whatever, it presented a serious dilemma in front of us Yamuna Satyagrahis whereby us being better 'secured' politically by our high moral (?) ground of a public cause stood watching helplessly the demolitions of the homes of the helpless and the hapless. Two scenes of the day add to our dilemma. Two small kids of the 'homeless' labourers 'swinging' away to glory without a care on a 'vine swing' while their parents searched for their belongings amongst the demolished jhuggies and a police wallah carrying away a small plant home (presumably free) from a nursery whose help he had just dispossessed and made homeless ! Shall we call it 'Karma' and consign the happenings of the day to history? manoj -- www.yamunajiyeabhiyaan.blogspot.com From taraprakash at gmail.com Wed Jun 4 23:00:23 2008 From: taraprakash at gmail.com (TaraPrakash) Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 13:30:23 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] China Shuts Out 2 Lawyers Over Tibetans' Cases... (Washington Post) Message-ID: <03a501c8c668$aefe02c0$6400a8c0@taraprakash> China Shuts Out 2 Lawyers Over Tibetans' Cases; Activists Had Offered to Defend Those Arrested After Crackdown. By:Edward Cody. BEIJING, June 3. Chinese judicial authorities have in effect disbarred two activist lawyers who offered to defend Tibetans arrested in a recent Chinese security crackdown, lawyers said Tuesday. The two, Jiang Tianyong and Teng Biao, were denied renewal of the annual licenses necessary to practice law in China because of what Beijing Judicial Bureau officials described as a willingness to take on "sensitive" cases such as those involving charges of human rights abuses by the government, Jiang said. The decision was consistent with a broad security tightening in recent months in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics in August. Authorities have shown particular sensitivity about Tibet, which is still closed to foreign tourists and reporters, and Xinjiang, where the Public Security Bureau has accused Muslim separatists of plotting terrorist attacks to disrupt the games. Jiang and Teng were among 18 Chinese lawyers with a record of human rights activism who signed an open letter offering legal help to Tibetans arrested after riots erupted March 14 in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, and quickly spread to a number of other Tibetan-inhabited areas of the country. Responding to the riots, Chinese security forces arrested a large number of Tibetans on such crimes as arson and inciting subversion of state authority. Scores have been jailed since then and many more forced to undergo what are called patriotic education courses, designed to promote loyalty to the Chinese government and discourage Tibetan nationalism. Human Rights in China, the U.S. -based advocacy group, denounced the bureau's decision against the two lawyers as an attempt by the Chinese government to discourage lawyers from representing people who have human rights complaints. China cannot claim to enjoy rule of law unless lawyers are genuinely allowed to defend those accused of crimes, the group said. The targeting of lawyers who take cases deemed sensitive by the authorities makes a mockery of rule of law and newly effective amendments to the Lawyers Law, which claims to protect the practice of law by lawyers," Sharon Hom, executive director of Human Rights in China, said in a statement. The politicized use of the annual registration system undercuts a critical component of any rule of law: independent and professional lawyers doing their jobs. Li Xiongbing, a lawyer along with Jiang at the Gaobo Longhua law firm in Beijing, said almost all those who signed the letter offering help to Tibetans had trouble getting their licenses renewed before the Sunday deadline. Five already had lost their licenses because of previous run-ins with judicial authorities, he said, and most of the others received their renewal only at the last minute. Li said he got his renewal Thursday. Jiang said that after the letter was issued, authorities told his law firm to "strengthen internal management. That, Jiang said, meant that the firm should control the lawyers more and steer them away from such human rights cases. The Judicial Bureau wanted us to make promises like not to take sensitive cases and not accept media interviews, especially foreign media," he said. I just couldn't agree to that. To ask me to cede some of my rights and not be a lawyer and defend other people's rights, this is not possible for me. From taraprakash at gmail.com Wed Jun 4 23:07:19 2008 From: taraprakash at gmail.com (TaraPrakash) Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 13:37:19 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] Awareness about dyslexia in India, thanks to the movie "Taare Zameen Par" (washington Post) Message-ID: <03b201c8c669$a44d6360$6400a8c0@taraprakash> The Pain of Dyslexia, As Told by Bollywood; Film on Disability Raises Awareness About Touchy Issue. By:Rama Lakshmi. NEW DELHI. A recent Bollywood movie about a dreamy 8-year-old boy had all the ingredients of an Indian blockbuster -- six songs, tearful ups and downs and a happy ending. But the film has also planted the seeds of a movement to raise public awareness about dyslexia in India. When Madhu Mangla, 45, watched the movie, "Taare Zameen Par," Hindi for "Stars on Earth," she broke down and wept in the theater. She recalled feeling as if it were her son's life reenacted on screen. My son changed five schools, but he could not read and write. He was labeled a failure by teachers. Children picked on him at school. I scolded him at home all the time," Mangla said of her son, now 18. But after watching the movie, she went home and looked up dyslexia online. She read all night, and the next day she printed out the addresses of support groups in the city. The film gave me the strength to come out and admit he has dyslexia. It has taken me a very long time to do that," she said, as she played with the end of her floral chiffon sari and watched her son study at a learning center for dyslexic children. In the past three months, Mangla said, she has seen remarkable changes in her son, Rahul Mangla, who has been working with special-education teachers. He took the national 10th-grade test for the first time recently, and he has begun to type and send text messages from his cellphone. I learned in the movie that I have something called dyslexia," Rahul said. But I also learned that I can overcome it with the right kind of teachers. A runaway hit, the film is about a bucktoothed, wide-eyed boy who is scolded and punished by teachers and parents for poor test scores, and repeatedly called an "idiot" and "duffer. He retreats into a shell of silence and tears -- until a new, messiah-like arts teacher discovers the boy has dyslexia and encourages him to paint. The film has lifted the veil on an issue that has remained shrouded in private pain for many families in India. Parents, schools, activists and policymakers have held conferences and public meetings to talk openly about dyslexia since the film was released in December. Though a handful of groups have addressed the issue of dyslexia in India's big cities for more than a decade, public awareness and acceptance have been woefully low. Dyslexia is the most common learning disability among children, and it affects a person's ability to process the written word, symbols and numbers. Most Indian schools do not have programs to help children with learning disabilities, and teachers are generally not trained to deal with the issue, if not completely ignorant of it. The few private schools that offer special education charge extra fees. Activists estimate that 5 to 10 percent of Indian children show signs of dyslexia, but there are no official figures on the matter. There has been a sudden awakening about dyslexia in the popular consciousness after the movie. So many people are hearing the word for the first time. People who lived in denial or hid it for years are now coming out to talk about it," said Anjuli Bawa, a parent-activist who founded Action Dyslexia Delhi and fought for the right to an amanuensis, or a scribe, for dyslexic children taking national high school exams. Since the movie was released, Bawa said, the number of parents who come to her office every month has increased tenfold. Some women who live with traditional extended Indian families call about their children without the knowledge of their husbands or mothers-in-law. Earlier, they would come when the child was thrown out of school or when they were up against the wall. Now, they come proactively and want to know if their child has dyslexia. Educators and analysts say that as Indian schools have become more competitive, they have put too much emphasis on textbook studies and not enough on other skills. Schools dismiss children with learning disabilities as hopeless and badly behaved. In the film, when the father is told that his son has dyslexia, he asks: "My son is not normal? Is he mentally retarded? The screenwriter, Amole Gupte, said his film has changed the way dyslexia is seen in India. Since the film's release, Gupte has been asked to write on the subject in the press and has answered countless reader questions. I get so many painful letters and phone calls from parents across the country," Gupte said in a telephone interview. Fathers weep on the phone and say they saw the film and realized that they have been wrong in the way they treated their children. This is catharsis. The Indian government passed a comprehensive disabilities law in 1995 that guarantees rehabilitation, job quotas and housing for people with visual, hearing, mental and physical disabilities. But it does not mention learning disabilities. Unfortunately, many in India still think learning disability comes under the mental illness category, and that adds to the shame and stigma," said T.D. Dhariyal, the government's deputy chief commissioner for persons with disabilities. Officials are now considering a list of amendments that would expand the definition of disability. The government estimates that there are 21 million Indians with a disability, but the number would shoot up if learning disabilities are taken into account," Dhariyal said. At a recent meeting with parents, Bawa Aditya Singh, a 27-year-old executive who has emerged as the public face of dyslexia for many in the capital, took to the stage and introduced himself, saying "I am dyslexic. There was pin-drop silence for some minutes. People kept staring at me," Singh recalled. Then they asked what I did for a living. I said I have worked with Disney in the U.S. and am now the general manager at an upscale restaurant here. Their jaws dropped. After a few minutes, they began bringing their children in. And one after the other they stood up and said their child had dyslexia, too. From tapasrayx at gmail.com Wed Jun 4 23:50:08 2008 From: tapasrayx at gmail.com (Tapas Ray) Date: Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:20:08 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] China Shuts Out 2 Lawyers Over Tibetans' Cases... (Washington Post) In-Reply-To: <03a501c8c668$aefe02c0$6400a8c0@taraprakash> References: <03a501c8c668$aefe02c0$6400a8c0@taraprakash> Message-ID: <4846DCD8.5080406@gmail.com> Proof, if any was needed, that China has "opened up". This "openness" is an embarrassment even to some people in "the party"/government. Shortly after the earthquake, I was watching an interview of its young Deputy Information Minister or something like that, on PBS, which - for those who may not be familiar with it - is the US Public Broadcasting Service very much unlike the commercial networks in style and content. The gentleman's job title reminded me of 1984, because "information" in the hands of the Chinese government seems to be all about censorship, just as it has sometimes been about disinformation and even censorship in the West. But there is nothing new about this. What I found interesting, instead, was that the Minister momentarily lost his voice in embarrassment and had to clear his throat to speak when an inconvenient question about China's "openness" was thrown at him. Now, if "the truth" is that he had an infection of the upper respiratory tract and that made things difficult for him at that very moment, we must give the germs their due, and I must stand rebuked for distorting "the truth". TaraPrakash wrote: > China Shuts Out 2 Lawyers Over Tibetans' Cases; Activists Had Offered to Defend Those Arrested After Crackdown. From elkamath at yahoo.com Thu Jun 5 09:19:28 2008 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 20:49:28 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd : Entitled to their opinions, yes. But their facts? Message-ID: <175879.48731.qm@web53608.mail.re2.yahoo.com> FYI June 1, 2008 The Public Editor Entitled to Their Opinions, Yes. But Their Facts? By CLARK HOYT ON May 12, The Times published an Op-Ed article by Edward N. Luttwak, a military historian, who argued that any hopes that a President Barack Obama might improve relations with the Muslim world were unrealistic because Muslims would be "horrified" once they learned that Obama had abandoned the Islam of his father and embraced Christianity as a young adult. Under "Muslim law as it is universally understood," Luttwak wrote, Obama was born a Muslim, and his "conversion" to Christianity was an act of apostasy, a capital offense and "the worst of all crimes that a Muslim can commit." While no Muslim country would be likely to prosecute him, Luttwak said, a state visit to such a nation would present serious security challenges "because the very act of protecting him would be sinful for Islamic security guards." At a time when fears about Obama's security keep bubbling to the surface and an online whispering campaign suggests that he is secretly a Muslim — call him by his full name, Barack Hussein Obama, some Times readers demand — the Luttwak thesis was a double whammy: Obama cannot escape his Muslim history, and a lot of Muslims might want to kill him for trying. Many Times readers saw the article as irresponsible ("gasoline on the fire," said Paul Trachtman of Tierra Amarilla, N.M.) or false ("Islam is not like our hair or the color of our skin, which we inherited from our parents," said Ali Kamel of Rio de Janeiro). The blogosphere lit up with assertions that Luttwak did not know what he was talking about. The Times Op-Ed page, quite properly, is home to a lot of provocative opinions. But all are supposed to be grounded on the bedrock of fact. Op-Ed writers are entitled to emphasize facts that support their arguments and minimize others that don't. But they are not entitled to get the facts wrong or to so mangle them that they present a false picture. Did Luttwak cross the line from fair argument to falsehood? Did Times editors fail to adequately check his facts before publishing his article? Did The Times owe readers a contrasting point of view? I interviewed five Islamic scholars, at five American universities, recommended by a variety of sources as experts in the field. All of them said that Luttwak's interpretation of Islamic law was wrong. David Shipley, the editor of the Op-Ed page, said Luttwak's article was vetted by editors who consulted the Koran, associated text, newspaper articles and authoritative histories of Islam. No scholars of Islam were consulted because "we do not customarily call experts to invite them to weigh in on the work of our contributors," he said. That's a pity in this case, because it might have sparked a discussion about whether Luttwak's categorical language was misleading, at best. Interestingly, in defense of his own article, Luttwak sent me an analysis of it by a scholar of Muslim law whom he did not identify. That scholar also did not agree with Luttwak that Obama was an apostate or that Muslim law would prohibit punishment for any Muslim who killed an apostate. He wrote, "You seem to be describing some anarcho-utopian version of Islamic legalism, which has never existed, and after the birth of the modern nation state will never exist." Luttwak made several sweeping statements that the scholars I interviewed said were incorrect or highly debatable, including assertions that in Islam a father's religion always determines a child's, regardless of the facts of his upbringing; that Obama's "conversion" to Christianity was apostasy; that apostasy is, with few exceptions, a capital crime; and that a Muslim could not be punished for killing an apostate. Obama was born in Hawaii to a mother from Kansas with Christian roots and a Kenyan father whose own father had converted to Islam. When Obama was a toddler, his father left the family. His mother later married an Indonesian Muslim, and Obama spent five years in Jakarta, where he attended Catholic and Muslim schools and, according to The Los Angeles Times, was enrolled in the third and fourth grades as a Muslim. Luttwak wrote that given those facts, Obama was a Muslim and his mother's Christian background was irrelevant. But Sherman A. Jackson, a professor of Arabic and Islamic studies at the University of Michigan, cited an ancient Islamic jurist, Ibn al-Qasim, who said, "If you divorce a Christian woman and ignore your child from her to the point that the child grows up to be a Christian, the child is to be left," meaning left to make his own choice. Jackson said that there was not total agreement among Islamic jurists on the point, but Luttwak's assertion to the contrary was wrong. Khaled Abou El Fadl, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, said the majority opinion among Islamic jurists is that the law of apostasy can apply only to individuals who knowingly decide to be Muslims and later renege. One school of thought, he said, is that an individual must be at least a teenager to make the choice. Obama's campaign told The Los Angeles Times last year that he "has never been a practicing Muslim." As a young adult, he chose to be baptized as a Christian. Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, a professor of law at Emory University, said that Sharia, or Islamic law, including the law of apostasy, does not apply to an American or anyone outside the Muslim world. Of the more than 40 countries where Muslims are the majority, he said, Sharia is the official legal system only in Saudi Arabia and Iran, and even there apostasy is unevenly prosecuted, and apostates often wind up in prison, not executed. Several of the scholars agreed that, in classical Sharia, apostasy is a capital crime, but they said that Islamic thinking is evolving. Mahmoud Ayoub, a professor of Islamic studies and comparative religion at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, Calif., said, "Whether (apostasy) is punishable by death or not, there are different opinions." Last year, Egypt's highest Islamic cleric, Sheik Ali Gomaa, the grand mufti, spoke out against killing apostates. He said punishment for those abandoning the religion would come in the afterlife. All the scholars argued that Luttwak had a rigid, simplistic view of Islam that failed to take into account its many strains and the subtleties of its religious law, which is separate from the secular laws in almost all Islamic nations. The Islamic press and television have reported extensively on the United States presidential election, they said, and Obama's Muslim roots and his Christian religion are well known, yet there have been no suggestions in the Islamic world that he is an apostate. Luttwak said the scholars with whom I spoke were guilty of "gross misrepresentation" of Islam, which he said they portrayed as "a tolerant religion of peace;" he called it "intolerant." He said he was not out to attack Obama and regretted that, in the editing, a paragraph saying that an Obama presidency could be "beneficial" was cut for space. Shipley, the Op-Ed editor, said he regretted not urging Luttwak to soften his language about possible assassination, given how sensitive the subject is. But he said he did not think the Op-Ed page was under any obligation to present an alternative view, beyond some letters to the editor. I do not agree. With a subject this charged, readers would have been far better served with more than a single, extreme point of view. When writers purport to educate readers about complex matters, and they are arguably wrong, I think The Times cannot label it opinion and let it go at that. Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company ------------------------------------------------------ cross posted from Debate _______________________________________________ DEBATE mailing list DEBATE at debate.kabissa.org http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/debate From dash.suryashankar at gmail.com Wed Jun 4 18:11:02 2008 From: dash.suryashankar at gmail.com (Surya Dash) Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 18:11:02 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Niyamgiri Film on DVD/VCD In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Samadrusti Televisions Date: Wed, Jun 4, 2008 at 9:55 AM Subject: Niyamgiri Film on DVD/VCD To: Dear Friends After two years of hard work our film on Niyamgiri (the mountain of law) is now complete and was released on 1st June 08 at a small gathering in Lohia Academy. The film is divided into two parts named 1. Struggle for Democracy and 2. Development & Devastation. The first part is about the forceful land acquisition in Lanjigarh for the alumina factory, the role of state, mafia presence and political patronage as well as the resolution of the Dongria Kondh tribals of Niyamgiri who claim not to leave the mountain even if they are beheaded. The second part is what has happened since the factory came up - the pollution, the loss of livelihood, accidents, trafficking of women, and unimaginable terror. The film is a major expose of the state govt and central govt and more so of the company. After the first screening on Sunday Debjit Sarangi of Living farms said "The film shatters all notions about the pre dominant development paradigm and should be seen by as many people as possible". We haven't been funded by anyone to make this film and it was possible only through small donations and loans from friends. The only way to repay back and continue making films is by ensuring bulk orders of the film from institutions who are supportive of the cause of Niyamgiri. We request you to buy at least 10 copies of the film. It is 96 min long and available on DVD and CDs. The film costs Rs.1000/- per copy for instituions, Rs. 750/- for individuals and we don't have a choice but to give it for free to people who cant afford it like the tribals. In fact the more orders we get the more free copies we can distribute in villages so please do order for as many copies as you can! We would like to mention that our last film PANI (WAR FOR WATER) on the diversion of water from the Hirakud reservoir to industry (including Vedanta's aluminium smelter) was a major factor in the success of a farmer's movement against it. The film was screened in all the villages that were to be affected by the diversion of water and not less than another 10,000 people joined the movement after watching the film (as claimed by senior activists). The success of PANI motivates us to carry a similar exercise for Niyamgiri. We request you to buy copies of PANI film which is priced at Rs. 500/- per copy. The film is 25 min long and is a short essay on the farmers struggle to save their water and also for the first time the voice of those displaced by the Hirakud dam fifty years ago has been captured in the film. Looking forward to hear from you. Thank you. Best wishes, Surya Shankar Dash, Filmmaker, Samadrusti TV P.s. A preview of the Niyamgiri film is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3sNFrU9qJc a preview of War for Water is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZRu0hHstpw From chiarapassa at gmail.com Tue Jun 3 15:44:25 2008 From: chiarapassa at gmail.com (Chiara Passa) Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2008 12:14:25 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] =?utf-8?b?W0Fubm91bmNlbWVudHNdICJwcm9kdWN0IuKAkyBG?= =?utf-8?q?estival_of_Contemporary_Art_Varna=2C_Bulgaria?= Message-ID: "product"– Festival of Contemporary Art Varna, Bulgaria The "product" will take place from June 5th to June 15th 2008 in Varna, Bulgaria. The theme of this year's Festival is "Hope". The festival functions as transmitter and forum between artists and audience, art and institutions creating an atmosphere of confidence. It is designed as a cultural portal where the ideas of authors are to be developed, shared, discussed, and nurtured in workshops, lectures, discussions and performances. The festival is organised by KERA, a group of artists and cultural operators based in Varna – a major seaport on the Bulgarian Black Sea. In 2008, hope will be the leitmotif of the festival. We are looking forward to an exciting programme with contributions from different fields of contemporary art as well as to a series of lectures and an extensive film programme. There will be chance to meet some of the 28 artists and 55 filmmakers from 28 countries (Colombia, United Kingdom, Argentina, Germany, Bosnia, France, Peru, Spain, USA, Bulgaria, Austria, Ireland, Canada, Italia, Switzerland, Mexico, Chile, Japan, Netherland, Turkey, Belgium, Iran, Norway, Korea, China, Finland, Slovenia) and to find out about their artistic positions. Curators team exhibition: Emil Mirazchiev (Bulgaria), Nevan Lahart (Ireland), Rustha Luna Pozzi-Escot (France), Peter Anders (Germany), Michele Fiori (Italia) and Luis Gonzales Toussaint (Mexico), Curator "Some are watching" film program: Martin A. Dege (Germany). We are glad to invite you to this hopeful anniversary of the "product" festival of contemporary art in Bulgaria. KERA AssociationThe Festival Team etualartmachine.com FILMPROGRAM 2008 http://www.product-festival.com/film_08.html videoscreening Block 1 Open call: "about hope" Curator: Martin A. Dege Length: 74.00 minutes OPEN CALL Videoscreening "saw - some are watching" at "product– Festival of Contemporary Art 2008" The paradise garden Hyun-Joo MIN Finnland 2005, 03.38min. How to Fool your Fears Serafina Ouistiti United Kingdom 2007 Room Temperature Zhana Ivanova Bulgaria 2008, 26.14min. Malocchios Puppetshow Serafina Ouistiti United Kingdom 2007 - ohne Titel - Kristin Meyer Germany 2008, 12.45min. 'time is running and say nothing' Antea Arizanovic Slovenia 1988 - 2006, 16.30min. Dad´s Cellar Susan Schmidt und David Buob Germany 2006, 06.34min. Block 2 FAIRPLAY FILM & VIDEO AWARD SELECTION -1- Lugano / Switzerland Organizer: FAIRPLAY FILM & VIDEO Festival www.fairplay-lugano.com Curator: Silvia Anna Barrilà Length: 45.00 minutes Pendule Antonella Kurzen Switzerland / Germany 2006, 00.5min. When I wish upon a star Mai Yamashita & Naoto Kobayashi Japan / Switzerland 2004, 2.2min. Kino Krov Elise Florenty France / Germany 2005, 5.45min. Attica Manon de Boer Belgium 2008 9.55min. Rise Niklas Goldbach Germany 2007 2.22min. Six Apartments Reynold Reynolds USA / Germany 2007 12.00min. Twist Alexia Walther Switzerland / France 2006 11.00min. Block 3 The best of "loyal_rooftops_2007" Organizer: Martin A. Dege www.madege.de/projekte/rooftops Curator: Martin A. Dege "loyal_rooftops_2007" zeigte Videoarbeiten, die soziale Diskrepanzen und unwirtliche Urbanität aufnehmen und sich so zum Festival 'Bürgerstolz & Stadtfrieden - kurz vor der Schließung dieser Freiräume, genau am richtigen Ort und zum richtigen Zeitpunkt positionierten. Talking walls Kristoffer Ardena Spain 2007, 3.44min Time bomb the love Chiara Passa Italy 1998, 5.00min. untitled Fotis Theotis United Kingdom 2004 All the Kings Horses and all the kings Men Marisa Cunningham United Kingdom Zone End Nooshin Farhid United Kingdom 2007, 2.30min. The desreet charm of the bourgeoisie Ron den Daas & Kathy Kenny Canada 2006, 1.00min. follow Andrew Thomas Germany 2007, 3.00min. touch Lieve D'hondt Belgium 2007 Fliessband Sandra Becker Germany 1996-2006, 2.00min .one day, 2000 Martin A. Dege Germany 2000, 2.23min. 25 horses in the room next door Eric Pries Germany 2007 Home Martin Sommer Germany 2007 Rompiendo Nubes Bongore Spain 2006, 1.47min. Nur ich lache Liu Ke China / Germany 2007 Force 2 Peter Borgers Netherland Block 4 "PAM Perpetual Art Machine" Organizer: PAM Perpetual Art Machine - living archive, USA www.perpetualartmachine.com Curator: Lee Wells, Raphaele Shirley, Chris Borkowski and Aaron Miller Length: 83.00 minutes Perpetual Art Machine is a living archive of 21st century international video art, featuring over 1000 videos from more than 700 artists from over 70 countries culminating in an immersive interactive video experience. Created in December 2005 as a collaboration between the artists Lee Wells, Raphaele Shirley, Chris Borkowski and Aaron Miller as a means to democratize the curatorial process by inviting both the artist and the viewer/user to participate through live interactive installations and online through [PAM]'s free community video portal. The artists represented in this program are just but a small cross section of the great artists [PAM] has been lucky enough to work with. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do. Scared at Birth Hackworth Ashley USA 2006 0.5min. Shouting Match George Barber United Kingdom 2004, 4.59min. Hibernation Josephin Böttger Germany 2006, 10.50min. Modern Times Chris Coleman USA 2004, 2.45min. Cloths for a Summer Hotel Cecilie Dahl Norway 2004, 6.36min. False Hope & Invented God G.H. Hovagimyan USA 2006, 2.00min. Read My Lips Stephanie Lempert USA 2005, 1.12min Soon & Sleep Iris Piers Netherland 2006, 7.46min. A Life of Errors Nicholas and Sheila Pye Canada 2006, 14.24min. Star Alexander Reyna USA 2007, 3.21min. Pampering Jaye Rhee Korea 2006, 2.25min. Una Sporca Vacanza Cinzia Sarto Italy 2004, 9.53min. Would you rather it was love Melissa Schubeck USA 2006, 1.35min. Building Endre Tveitan Norway 2006, 1.18min. The Other Lam Mai Kit China 2004, 2.05min. The State of Things Amelia Winger-Bearskin USA 2007, 9.00min. Block 5 "Stay here..." Organizer: Open Space Zentrum für Kunstprojekte – Wien, Austria www.openspace-zkp.org Curator: Gulsen Bal In its focus on a space of possibilities reflected within the realm of 'event' that we inhabit, Stay here... will address the ambivalent relationship with local epistemology in new political understanding of habitual durations rooted in precarious condition of the nomadic 'enclosures' within and against available structures where other worlds are possible. The statement thus spans a discursive field that ranges from hybridity, the "difference and rupture" to the issues of identification within unnameable potentials, with which all political and social questions are opened up. This traces a dynamics between nomadic 'enclosures' and what temporarily traversing them; conducting a journey, which makes long-hidden mystery into the open. Inevitably, this is bound to lead to the idea of "being against in any place", given that it includes both the possibility of belonging to "any" place and the necessity of opposition in "every" place. And these places must be sought. Diglossia Fatih Aydogdu Turkey / Austria 2007, 2.44min. WEST Nada Prlja United Kingdom 2007, 2min. One cannot deny it might just happen Anne-Britt Rage Norway 2007 Block 6 FAIRPLAY FILM & VIDEO AWARD SELECTION -2- Lugano / Switzerland Organizer: FAIRPLAY FILM & VIDEO Festival www.fairplay-lugano.com Curator: Silvia Anna Barrilà Length: 55:52 minutes Voice Over Nevin Aladag Turkey / Germany 2006, 14.0min. Lucía Cristóbal León, Niles Atallah, Joaquin Cocina Chile 2007, 3.55min. Charismatic Fates & Vanishing Dates Sara Rajaei Iran / Netherland 2006 3.20min. The sun shines in Kiev Rossella Biscotti Italy / Netherland 2006, 9.0min. Indocumentado Edgar Endress Chile 2005, 10.0min. -- Chiara Passa chiarapassa at gmail.com http://www.chiarapassa.it http://www.ideasonair.net http://twitter.com/jogador Skype: ideasonair _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From pratilipi.in at gmail.com Thu Jun 5 11:55:14 2008 From: pratilipi.in at gmail.com (Pratilipi) Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2008 11:55:14 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Announcement: Pratilipi 2 In-Reply-To: <435290ba0806030217p42a810c7w9475a35bf372b544@mail.gmail.com> References: <435290ba0806030217p42a810c7w9475a35bf372b544@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <435290ba0806042325i54cedaa9nb9be94ab1219603b@mail.gmail.com> मित्रों/ Friends प्रतिलिपि के प्रवेशांक ने पाठकों, लेखकों, प्रकाशकों, सरकारों को हिला के नहीं रख दिया. हमें ऐसी अपेक्षा नहीं थी. न ही इसने (ऑनलाइन) साहित्यिक पत्रकारिता के नए प्रतिमान तय कर दिए. ऐसी अपेक्षा भी हमें नहीं थी. हमारी साईट पर रोज़ पाँच सौ पाठक नहीं आए. अपेक्षा हमें इसकी भी नहीं थी. क्या हम कुछ अपेक्षा कर भी रहे थे? बस यही कि जो पाठक/लेखक इस अंक तक पहुँचें, वे इसे संजीदगी से लें और ज्यादातर ऐसा हुआ भी. अब दूसरे अंक का समय है. हमारा पूर्वानुमान था दूसरा अंक निकलना कठिन होगा लेकिन ऐसा नहीं हुआ. * * Pratilipi's inaugural issue did not take readers, writers, publishers or governments by storm. We didn't expect that. It did not set new standards for (online) literary journalism. We didn't expect that either. It didn't have five hundred visitors a day and that too was not unexpected. Did we expect anything, then? Yes, we expected it to be enjoyed by readers/writers once they came to visit/read it. And they did. At least, most of them. Now it is time for the second issue. We anticipated it to be a tougher task than it turned out to be. * * * * *दूसरा अंक** / THE SECOND ISSUE* * * *Features* आन येदरलुण्ड की बारह कवितायें, स्ताफान स्यदरब्लुम की परिचयात्मक टिप्पणी के साथ Ann Jäderlund : 12 Poems Introduced by Staffan Soderblom विशेष - एक तिलस्मी उपाख्यान: वागीश शुक्ल / Vishesh – Ek Tilismi Upakhyaan : Wagish Shukla १८५७ के विद्रोह में दलितों की भूमिका पर बद्री नारायण / Badri Narayan on the Role of Dalits in the 1857 Revolt डैथ एंड द सेल्फ : रुस्तम (सिंह) / Death and the Self: Rustam (Singh) मलयज के पत्र: Malayj's Letters *Fiction* कृष्ण बलदेव वैद / Krishna Baldev Vaid सम्पूर्णा चटर्जी / Sampurna Chattarji तेजी ग्रोवर / Teji Grover सारा राय / Sara Rai संगीता गुन्देचा / Sangeeta Gundecha *कविता / Poetry* पुरुषोत्तम अग्रवाल/ Purushottam Agrawal मंगलेश डबराल / Mangalesh Dabral के.वी.के. मूर्ती / KVK Murthy शीन काफ़ निज़ाम/ Sheen Kaaf Nizam एच.एस.शिवप्रकाश / H.S. Shiva Prakash समीर रावल / Sameer Rawal विवेक नारायणन / Vivek Narayanan एनी ज़ैदी / Annie Zaidi *कथेत्तर/ Non-Fiction* के.एन.पणिक्कर के रंगमंच पर उदयन वाजपेयी /Udayan Vajpeyi on KN Panikkar's Theatre शेक्सपीयर, भारतीय पूर्वग्रहों और ए लुनेटिक इन माय हैड पर चंद्रहास चौधरी/ Chandrahas Choudhuri on Shakespeare, Indian prejudices and A Lunatic in My Head आन येदरलुण्ड को अनुवाद करने पर तेजी ग्रोवर / Teji Grover on Translating Ann Jäderlund *संपादक / Editors* गिरिराज किराडू / Giriraj Kiradoo राहुल सोनी / Rahul Soni *संपादक कला / Art Editor* शिव कुमार गाँधी / Shiv Kumar Gandhi http://pratilipi.in/ -- www.pratilipi.in ----Pratilipi is (for the time being) a completely non-commercial magazine running on the editors' investments and on the works of likeminded contributors. Pratilipi forbids itself nothing – except taking on a representational role on the web or catering to such expectations – and, hopefully, never will. -- www.pratilipi.in ----Pratilipi is (for the time being) a completely non-commercial magazine running on the editors' investments and on the works of likeminded contributors. Pratilipi forbids itself nothing – except taking on a representational role on the web or catering to such expectations – and, hopefully, never will. From pratilipi.in at gmail.com Thu Jun 5 12:01:11 2008 From: pratilipi.in at gmail.com (Pratilipi) Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2008 12:01:11 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Announcement: Pratilipi 2 Message-ID: <435290ba0806042331s63d69f58h1b52910d347aef47@mail.gmail.com> मित्रों/ Friends प्रतिलिपि के प्रवेशांक ने पाठकों, लेखकों, प्रकाशकों, सरकारों को हिला के नहीं रख दिया. हमें ऐसी अपेक्षा नहीं थी. न ही इसने (ऑनलाइन) साहित्यिक पत्रकारिता के नए प्रतिमान तय कर दिए. ऐसी अपेक्षा भी हमें नहीं थी. हमारी साईट पर रोज़ पाँच सौ पाठक नहीं आए. अपेक्षा हमें इसकी भी नहीं थी. क्या हम कुछ अपेक्षा कर भी रहे थे? बस यही कि जो पाठक/लेखक इस अंक तक पहुँचें, वे इसे संजीदगी से लें और ज्यादातर ऐसा हुआ भी. अब दूसरे अंक का समय है. हमारा पूर्वानुमान था दूसरा अंक निकलना कठिन होगा लेकिन ऐसा नहीं हुआ. * * Pratilipi's inaugural issue did not take readers, writers, publishers or governments by storm. We didn't expect that. It did not set new standards for (online) literary journalism. We didn't expect that either. It didn't have five hundred visitors a day and that too was not unexpected. Did we expect anything, then? Yes, we expected it to be enjoyed by readers/writers once they came to visit/read it. And they did. At least, most of them. Now it is time for the second issue. We anticipated it to be a tougher task than it turned out to be. * * * * *दूसरा अंक** / THE SECOND ISSUE* * * *Features* आन येदरलुण्ड की बारह कवितायें, स्ताफान स्यदरब्लुम की परिचयात्मक टिप्पणी के साथ Ann Jäderlund : 12 Poems Introduced by Staffan Soderblom विशेष - एक तिलस्मी उपाख्यान: वागीश शुक्ल / Vishesh – Ek Tilismi Upakhyaan : Wagish Shukla १८५७ के विद्रोह में दलितों की भूमिका पर बद्री नारायण / Badri Narayan on the Role of Dalits in the 1857 Revolt डैथ एंड द सेल्फ : रुस्तम (सिंह) / Death and the Self: Rustam (Singh) - Hide quoted text - मलयज के पत्र: Malayj's Letters *Fiction* कृष्ण बलदेव वैद / Krishna Baldev Vaid सम्पूर्णा चटर्जी / Sampurna Chattarji तेजी ग्रोवर / Teji Grover सारा राय / Sara Rai संगीता गुन्देचा / Sangeeta Gundecha *कविता / Poetry* पुरुषोत्तम अग्रवाल/ Purushottam Agrawal मंगलेश डबराल / Mangalesh Dabral के.वी.के. मूर्ती / KVK Murthy शीन काफ़ निज़ाम/ Sheen Kaaf Nizam एच.एस.शिवप्रकाश / H.S. Shiva Prakash समीर रावल / Sameer Rawal विवेक नारायणन / Vivek Narayanan एनी ज़ैदी / Annie Zaidi *कथेत्तर/ Non-Fiction* के.एन.पणिक्कर के रंगमंच पर उदयन वाजपेयी /Udayan Vajpeyi on KN Panikkar's Theatre शेक्सपीयर, भारतीय पूर्वग्रहों और ए लुनेटिक इन माय हैड पर चंद्रहास चौधरी/ Chandrahas Choudhuri on Shakespeare, Indian prejudices and A Lunatic in My Head आन येदरलुण्ड को अनुवाद करने पर तेजी ग्रोवर / Teji Grover on Translating Ann Jäderlund *संपादक / Editors* गिरिराज किराडू / Giriraj Kiradoo राहुल सोनी / Rahul Soni *संपादक कला / Art Editor* शिव कुमार गाँधी / Shiv Kumar Gandhi http://pratilipi.in/ -- www.pratilipi.in ----Pratilipi is (for the time being) a completely non-commercial magazine running on the editors' investments and on the works of likeminded contributors. Pratilipi forbids itself nothing – except taking on a representational role on the web or catering to such expectations – and, hopefully, never will. From sonia.jabbar at gmail.com Thu Jun 5 15:42:50 2008 From: sonia.jabbar at gmail.com (S. Jabbar) Date: Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:42:50 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Burma cyclone & China Message-ID: Requests For Aid to Burma ŒJunk Mail¹ Says China 30 May 2008 Supporters of the Burma Campaign UK who have written to the Chinese Embassy in London calling on China to support moves for the Security Council to authorise aid to cyclone victims are being told that their requests are Œjunk mail¹. More than 2,000 people have emailed the embassy in London. The email sends condolences following the Sichuan earthquake, notes the stark contrast between the responses of the Chinese and Burmese authorities, and asks China to stop blocking efforts at the United Nations Security Council to authorise aid deliveries under the doctrine of ŒResponsibility to Protect¹. China has blocked the Security Council even discussing the current crisis in Burma. ³The Chinese government thinks calls to saves the lives of cyclone victims are junk mail,² said Mark Farmaner. ³Once again they are protecting the dictatorship in Burma, and this time they are helping them kill thousands of people by denying them aid. To dismiss these requests as junk mail is not exactly a sophisticated response to a serious issue.² Despite Than Shwe, the dictator of Burma, telling UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon that aid workers would be allowed into the country, access to the delta region is still restricted. The Burma Campaign UK has received reports from aid agencies in the UK that they have still had visas refused by the embassy in London, and sources in Burma report that some Burmese people trying to deliver aid are also being turned back. The regime is also refusing to allow in foreign military with the helicopters and boats needed to deliver aid, further delaying aid reaching those in need. ³China has blood on its hands by stopping international action to deliver aid² said Mark Farmaner. ³Thousands will have died because aid didn¹t reach them. How can they say calling for lives to be saved is junk mail?² For more information contact Mark Farmaner on 020 7324 4710. Text of email sent by Burma Campaign UK supporters: ŒWe send you our deepest condolences for the recent terrible loss of life in China following the devastating earthquake. This tragedy follows the recent devastation and tragic loss of life caused by Cyclone Nargis in neighbouring Burma. However, the response to the two natural disasters could not be more different. Your government responded without delay, dispatching 50,000 troops to help, and Premier Wen Jiabao immediately flying to the disaster area. In contrast, the Burmese regime has not only failed to deliver aid to the people in desperate need, it has blocked international efforts to help deliver aid and the expertise needed in such a crisis. I am concerned that China is not doing all it can to help the victims of Cyclone Nargis. Over 1.5 million people are at risk from disease, starvation and famine because of Cyclone Nargis, yet Burma¹s Generals refuse to let the world help. Every delay is unacceptable; if aid does not reach those in need urgently, the death toll could rise by thousands every day. Your government has the power to make the generals listen. By blocking UN Security Council action your government is condemning thousands of innocent Burmese people to death. China has a responsibility to the world, and the Burmese people, to immediately back the world¹s efforts to help the people of Burma.¹ Text of response from Chinese Embassy in London: ŒThere are over 68,000 died in this earthquake and 21,000 more still missing. Millions of people are at risk from disease, starvation and famine due to Sichuan earthquake.Our task is daunting. Do you think it is appropriate to ask us to dictate other government? pls stop sending this kind of junk mail.¹ From vishal.rawlley at gmail.com Fri Jun 6 01:05:11 2008 From: vishal.rawlley at gmail.com (Vishal Rawlley) Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2008 01:05:11 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Surviving Globalization In-Reply-To: <4840C514.7060609@ranadasgupta.com> References: <4840C514.7060609@ranadasgupta.com> Message-ID: <31d5ea920806051235m6f1af7aby11fe891f0ad4d6bb@mail.gmail.com> what a beautifully written piece! congratulations. it got me thinking about a point that I have been pondering a while: counter culture will there be a repeat counter culture? what precipitated it, then? was the vietnam war cause alone? and why is the iraq war not cause enough? have societies lost their ability to feel and react? is the job pressure that high? what about songs, bandanas and bikes? sex and drugs? no one craves it anymore? wasn't the counter culture mostly an emotional and artistic response - a popular sentiment rather than an intellectual movement or informed activism? isn't that why it caught the fancy of so many of us? can we hope for a counter culture from india? why not? yesterday i met a guy who wore a Che t-shirt and who works in a call center in Gurgaon. last month i attended a *hasya kavi sammelan* which was full of genuine wit, satire and humour. few months ago i saw young guys from Orrisa on bikes doing an all India tour spreading the message of "world peace". Jaspal Bhatti is doing a protest on fuel hike on TV just now... should i laugh or should i cry? On Sat, May 31, 2008 at 8:55 AM, Rana Dasgupta wrote: > An essay I wrote recently about globalization, paranoia, apocalypse and > the reconstruction of human society. > > :-) > > http://www.ranadasgupta.com/texts.asp?text_id=44 > > R > _________________________________________ > 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 naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com Fri Jun 6 08:54:10 2008 From: naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com (Naeem Mohaiemen) Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2008 09:24:10 +0600 Subject: [Reader-list] And Then There's Always Bangladesh Message-ID: >From today's Indian Express. I made some revisions from the original op-ed. They changed the title... And Then There's Always Bangladesh http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/319312.html From markcmarino at gmail.com Fri Jun 6 11:43:48 2008 From: markcmarino at gmail.com (Mark Marino) Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2008 22:13:48 -0800 Subject: [Reader-list] =?windows-1252?q?=5BAnnouncements=5D_Electronic_Lit?= =?windows-1252?q?erature_Collection=2C_Vol=2E_2_=97_Call_for_Work?= Message-ID: <287213f30806052313j6569f87cs41049d2951899736@mail.gmail.com> Hi, Here's a big call: Please, pass this along! Electronic Literature Collection, Vol. 2 — Call for Work The Electronic Literature Organization seeks submissions for the Electronic Literature Collection, volume 2. We invite the submission of literary works that take advantage of the capabilities and contexts provided by the computer. Works will be accepted from June 1 to September 30, 2008. Up to three works per author will be considered; previously published works will be considered. The Electronic Literature Collection is a biannual publication of current and older electronic literature in a form suitable for individual, public library, and classroom use. Volume 1, presently available both online (http://collection.eliterature.org) and as a packaged, cross-platform CD-ROM, has been used in dozens of courses at universities in the United States and internationally, and has been widely reviewed in the United States and Europe. It is also available as a CD-ROM insert with N. Katherine Hayles' full-length study, Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary (University of Notre Dame Press, 2008). Volume 2, comprising approximately 50 works, will likewise be available online, and as a cross-platform DVD in a case appropriate for library processing, marking, and distribution. The contents of the Collection are offered under a Creative Commons license so that libraries and educational institutions will be allowed to duplicate and install works and individuals will be free to share the disc with others. The editorial collective for the second volume of the Electronic Literature Collection, to be published in 2009, is Laura Borràs Castanyer, Talan Memmott, Rita Raley and Brian Kim Stefans. This collective will review the submitted work and select pieces for the Collection. Literary quality will be the chief criterion for selection of works. Other aspects considered will include innovative use of electronic techniques, quality and navigability of interface, and adequate representation of the diverse forms of electronic literature in the collection as a whole. For volume 2, we are considering works of electronic literature in video. Works submitted should function on both Macintosh OS X (10.5) and Windows Vista. Works should function without requiring users to purchase or install additional software. Submissions may require software that is typically pre-installed on contemporary computers, such as a web browser, and are allowed to use the current versions of the most common plugins. To have a work considered, all the authors of the work must agree that if their work is published in the Collection, they will license it under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License, which will permit others to copy and freely redistribute the work, provided the work is attributed to its authors, that it is redistributed non-commercially, and that it is not used in the creation of derivative works. No other limitation is made regarding the author's use of any work submitted or accepted. To submit a work, prepare a plain text file with the following information: * The title of the work. * The names and email addresses of all authors and contributors of the work. * The URL where you are going to make your .zip file available for us to download. The editorial collective will not publish the address of this file. * A short description of the work — less than 200 words in length. * Any instructions required to operate the work. * The date the work was first distributed or published, or "unpublished" if it has not yet been made available to the public. Prepare a .zip archive including the work in its entirety. Include the text file at the top level of this archive, and name it "submisson.txt". Upload the .zip file to a web server so that it is available at the specified location. Place all of the text in the "submisson.txt" file in the body of an email and send it to elc2.elo at gmail.com with the name of the piece being submitted included in the subject line. The Electronic Literature Collection is supported by institutional partners including: Brown University, Literary Arts Program; Center for Program in Contemporary Writing at the University of Pennsylvania; Duke University, Program in Literature; Hermeneia at the Open University of Catalonia; Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies; nt2; Pomona College, Media Studies Program; UCSB, Department of English; University of Bergen, Department of Literary, Linguistic, and Aesthetic Studies, Program in Digital Culture; University of Dundee, School of Humanities. Institutional sponsorship opportunities are still available. If your organization or academic department is interested in more information, please contact helen DeVinney, Managing Director of the ELO, at hdevinney at gmail.com. Mark Marino, ELO. Director of Communication -- Writing Program University of Southern California http://WriterResponseTheory.org http://CriticalCodeStudies.com _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com Fri Jun 6 18:59:51 2008 From: mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com (mahmood farooqui) Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2008 18:59:51 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] How about banning the police Message-ID: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZzOAFYllWI From bawazainab79 at gmail.com Fri Jun 6 19:10:30 2008 From: bawazainab79 at gmail.com (Zainab Bawa) Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2008 19:10:30 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Of claimed spaces, messy spaces and property markets Message-ID: It is strange to feel a sense of communion with Bangalore city. In recent times, someone mentioned how he found Bangalore to be a flat city while Bombay was a city thick with stories. Perhaps those stories abound in Bangalore too, but I have isolated myself enough not to recognize them. One such story has been surfacing since the last two days and has gotten me thinking, once again, about space, about accessing the city, about urban land, and about the notions and practices of property. It is indeed strange to feel a sense of communion with this city, this city which has since sometime been labeled as the epitome of fast paced and messy growth. "It is S. M. Krishna's fault," I am told, "He has brought the city to be the way it is today. He sold it to the real estate sharks and to the global land developers." I wonder whether the story of today's Bangalore is as simple as this. It is rhetorical to even make such a statement, but what needs to be stated is the fact that the story of this city is yet to be told, in all its thickness and richness. The story of this city is not all flat; it is the story of our times. I will try a little now ... So, it is absolutely strange to feel a sense of communion with this mad city called Bangalore. The airport has moved to 40 kms away from the city. The traffic is as bad as it could be. The city's drains are already overflowing even with the wee bit of heavy showers. What is becoming of this city? That is the plaint with which civil society movements and organizations started in Bangalore, the city which is overflowing and teeming with the good governance and fight-corruption organizations. But that indeed is a flat paradigm of the city. I am confronted with the question of how do I understand and frame the notion and process of change? Yes, it is indeed strange to feel one with this city, this city that is usually seen as a flat and a doomed-to-fail city. But it is not. It is a city which is at the crossroads of very important trajectories and what defines these trajectories are the contests and conflicts over accessing urban space. I was watching the Majestic area through the windows of the BMTC bus - every nook and corner of Majestic is occupied, legally and illegally. Sometimes, the illegal don't even know that what they are engaging in is deemed illegal by law and planning. Everyone needs access to space - space, both metaphorically and physically. Booksellers on the footpath, pirated VCDs and pornographic material, bags, shoes, clothes, security services, banking services, pawnbrokers, jewellers, restaurants, hotels, malls at the side of the roadside messiness and occupied spaces - in Bombay they call this cheek by jowl. In Bangalore, I would say that the different times of the city co-exist in Majestic area and beyond. Different groups of people and individuals have occupied space, some nook, some corner, some cranny. And there are occupations and professions that exist in this area which are hidden from the eye but very much located in this geography. Majestic reminds me of a different time in the city. Yes, there are plots on which malls are being constructed in Majestic too and in a few years, the malls will be there unless something drastic happens. But what you see in Majestic is the existence of all kinds of time streams - yesterday, today and tomorrow. That yesterday is not disintegrated from today and tomorrow; it is intimately connected. And that yesterday will be shaped by today and tomorrow just as much as today and tomorrow will be shaped by yesterday. The physicality and the mortality of yesterday may disappear, but yesterday itself cannot disappear. Majestic says this to me as I observe the hectic and frenzied pace of urban space in this part of Bangalore. As I move from Majestic into Rajajinagar, I am further surprised. Rajajinagar appears much more insular than the Richmond Town area that I live in. It appears that Rajajinagar is living in a time of its own. Photographs of Dr. Rajkumar, the famous cinestar whose death rocked the city, abound in this area. Rajkumar seems absolutely alive and kicking in the spirit of Rajajinagar. Perhaps, his presence even defines the locality of Rajajinagar and marks this space as distinct from other parts of the city. A strong feeling of Kannadiga-ness envelops you if you walk carefully through the area - the sounds, sights, smells, scenes- they strongly remind you that you are in the state of Karnataka of which Bangalore is an important geographical party and symbolic aspect. A subtle sense of the Kannada nation grips you as you walk preceptively, a feeling that is distinct and particular to this area. Now, with the Bangalore Metro expected to run through this area, one will have to wait and watch to see what processes the notions and practices of modernity, locality, community, urbanity, nation and globalization will generate. Clearly, what has been most interesting about this form of participant observation across the Western parts of the city is the ways by which people have occupied urban space. At Magadi, as we see the hectic and frenetic construction of an underpass, we also simulataneously note that under the trees, there are people who are making and selling bamboo curtains. At Majestic, one notices fruit-cake kind of constructions that were certainly not planned, but created over time, through various networks of politics, graft, deception, illegality, identity and finance. Rajajinagar abounds with spaces that are known in our parlance as "neeche dukan, upar makaan", again a form od practice that planning defies as illegal and that is increasingly coming under scrutiny with the construction of the Metro Rail. These are spaces which are being practiced variously and in ways that may not be recognnized by urban planning and law. They exist and yet, there is a strong feeling that runs through a large number of us that eventually, these spaces may be destroyed, taken over, annihilated and subsumed. Urbanity is being conceived as this process of the big fish eating the small and the small eating the smaller. The question is whether the current stream of urbanization requires much more intense attention to the processes that are taking place, irrespective of outcomes, if we are to nuance our understanding of change, growth, future, 'development'? As I moved into Nagarbhavi, I noticed that virgin properties which were once rocky lands, are now being constructed over. The pace of construction in the area is tremendous. I realized that the potential construction of the Bangalore Metro Rail around Vijaynagar will lead to property prices rising in and around the interiors of West Bangalore. I recognize that this is one of the ways in which property markets develop. The question that arises is whether the growth of property markets, the conversion of multiply claimed spaces into single ownership and title deeds that can be traded between people 'legally', is an irreversible process? Are the trajectories of cities defined? How do we conceive of the future? How does one draw on the past to understand and conceive the future? I begin with these questions and many more ... It is absolutely strange, yet wonderful, to feel a sense of communion with the city. It is an enabler, one that allows you to see the city as an organic entity that has life and is not a determined/controlled mass of space ... -- Zainab Bawa Ph.D. Student and Independent Researcher Between Places ... http://wbfs.wordpress.com From sonia.jabbar at gmail.com Sat Jun 7 14:42:15 2008 From: sonia.jabbar at gmail.com (S. Jabbar) Date: Sat, 07 Jun 2008 14:42:15 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fisk Message-ID: Robert Fisk: The West's weapon of self-delusion There are gun battles in Beirut ­ and America thinks things are going fine The Independent. Saturday, 7 June 2008: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/fisk/robert-fisk-the-wests-weapon-of-selfd elusion-842117.html So they are it again, the great and the good of American democracy, grovelling and fawning to the Israeli lobbyists of American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), repeatedly allying themselves to the cause of another country and one that is continuing to steal Arab land. Will this ever end? Even Barack Obama ­ or "Mr Baracka" as an Irish friend of mine innocently and wonderfully described him ­ found time to tell his Jewish audience that Jerusalem is the one undivided capital of Israel, which is not the view of the rest of the world which continues to regard the annexation of Arab East Jerusalem as illegal. The security of Israel. Say it again a thousand times: the security of Israel ­ and threaten Iran, for good measure. Yes, Israelis deserve security. But so do Palestinians. So do Iraqis and Lebanese and the people of the wider Muslim world. Now even Condoleezza Rice admits ­ and she was also talking to Aipac, of course ­ that there won't be a Palestinian state by the end of the year. That promise of George Bush ­ which no-one believed anyway ­ has gone. In Rice's pathetic words, "The goal itself will endure beyond the current US leadership." Of course it will. And the siege of Gaza will endure beyond the current US leadership. And the Israeli wall. And the illegal Israeli settlement building. And deaths in Iraq will endure beyond "the current US leadership" ­ though "leadership" is pushing the definition of the word a bit when the gutless Bush is involved ­ and deaths in Afghanistan and, I fear, deaths in Lebanon too. It's amazing how far self-delusion travels. The Bush boys and girls still think they're supporting the "American-backed government" of Fouad Siniora in Lebanon. But Siniora can't even form a caretaker government to implement a new set of rules which allows Hizbollah and other opposition groups to hold veto powers over cabinet decisions. Thus there will be no disarming of Hizbollah and thus ­ again, I fear this ­ there will be another Hizbollah-Israeli proxy war to take up the slack of America's long-standing hatred of Iran. No wonder President Bashar Assad of Syria is now threatening a triumphal trip to Lebanon. He's won. And wasn't there supposed to be a UN tribunal to try those responsible for the murder of ex-prime minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005? This must be the longest police enquiry in the history of the world. And I suspect it's never going to achieve its goal (or at least not under the "current US leadership"). There are gun battles in Beirut at night; there are dark-uniformed Lebanese interior ministry troops in equally dark armoured vehicles patrolling the night-time Corniche outside my home. At least Lebanon has a new president, former army commander Michel Sleiman, an intelligent man who initially appeared on posters, eyes turned to his left, staring at Lebanon with a creditor's concern. Now he has wisely ordered all these posters to be torn down in an attempt to get the sectarian groups to take down their own pictures of martyrs and warlords. And America thinks things are going fine in Lebanon. And Bush and his cohorts go on saying that they will never speak to "terrorists". And what has happened meanwhile? Why, their Israeli friends ­ Mr Baracka's Israeli friends ­ are doing just that. They are talking to Hamas via Egypt and are negotiating with Syria via Turkey and have just finished negotiating with Hizbollah via Germany and have just handed back one of Hizbollah's top spies in Israel in return for body parts of Israelis killed in the 2006 war. And Bush isn't going to talk to "terrorists", eh? I bet he didn't bring that up with the equally hapless Ehud Olmert in Washington this week. And so our dementia continues. In front of us this week was Blair with his increasingly maniacal eyes, poncing on about faith and God and religion, and I couldn't help reflecting on an excellent article by a colleague a few weeks ago who pointed out that God never seemed to give Blair advice. Like before April of 2003, couldn't He have just said, er, Tony, this Iraq invasion might not be a good idea. Indeed, Blair's relationship with God is itself very odd. And I rather suspect I know what happens. I think Blair tells God what he absolutely and completely knows to be right ­ and God approves his words. Because Blair, like a lot of devious politicians, plays God himself. For there are two Gods out there. The Blair God and the infinite being which blesses his every word, so obliging that He doesn't even tell Him to go to Gaza. I despair. The Tate has just sent me its magnificent book of orientalist paintings to coincide with its latest exhibition (The Lure of the East: British Orientalist Painting) and I am struck by the awesome beauty of this work. In the 19th century, our great painters wondered at the glories of the Orient. No more painters today. Instead, we send our photographers and they return with pictures of car bombs and body parts and blood and destroyed homes and Palestinians pleading for food and fuel and hooded gunmen on the streets of Beirut, yes, and dead Israelis too. The orientalists looked at the majesty of this place and today we look at the wasteland which we have helped to create. But fear not. Israel's security comes first and Mr Baracka wants Israel to keep all of Jerusalem ­ so much for the Palestinian state ­ and Condee says the "goal will endure beyond the current American leadership". And I have a bird that sits in the palm tree outside my home in Beirut and blasts away, going "cheep-cheep-cheep-cheep-cheep" for about an hour every morning ­ which is why my landlord used to throw stones at it. But I have a dear friend who believes that once there was an orchestra of birds outside my home and that one day, almost all of them ­ the ones which sounded like violins and trumpets ­ got tired of the war and flew away (to Cyprus, if they were wise, but perhaps on to Ireland), leaving only the sparrows with their discordant flutes to remind me of the stagnant world of the Middle East and our cowardly, mendacious politicians. "Cheep-cheep-cheep," they were saying again yesterday morning. "Cheap-cheap-cheap." And I rather think they are right. From asitredsalute at gmail.com Sat Jun 7 14:54:59 2008 From: asitredsalute at gmail.com (Asit asitreds) Date: Sat, 7 Jun 2008 14:54:59 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] sez landquestion and urbanisation in india Message-ID: From asitredsalute at gmail.com Sat Jun 7 14:56:55 2008 From: asitredsalute at gmail.com (Asit asitreds) Date: Sat, 7 Jun 2008 14:56:55 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] sezs, land question and urbanisation in india a marxist persepective Message-ID: Dear Friends and Comrades there is a tendency amongst activists and acdemics to look at the land question, displacement, agrarian crises,and urban poverty in isolation. Iam sending you a write up where I have tried to trace the linkages among the above factors.Please send your comments, criticisms and suggestions . *Special Economic Zones and the Land Question in India* The land question in India has suddenly attained extraordinary importance in the Media for the past few months. Ekta Parishads Janadesh Yatra few months ago, the agitations for notification of the Adivasi forest land rights bill, the social movements trenchant criticisms of the Rehabilitation Act and Land Acquisition Act has brought the land question into the centre stage of the public discourse. However the news media, which work overtime to sell the American dream and Propogating the 9% growth story suffers from a criminal historical amnesia land rights, tenancy and share cropers rights mere central issue of the historical uprisings massive tribal rebellions from Rajmahal hills in the east to Khandesh in the West more fought by the heroic adivasis against the Marauding British imperialists to save their habitats and commons. Land and share croppers rights were the central issue in the great Telengana, Punappra Vylar and Moplah Uprisings. In the post Independent India the fight continued in the strong holds of the organised left and other Social Movements like Naxal bari, Bodh Gaya, Srikakulam were some of the well known areas while the struggle continued all over the sub continent. In fact, land to the tiller has been the central slogan of the organized left other organisations like Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Vahini fought for land rights against the Bodh Gaya Mahant struggles against tribal land alienation is a perpetual phenomenon in all over tribal India. Postcolonial social movement added a new dimension to the land question in India this time the protest against forcible displacement from the homes, habitats and commons for Mega developmental projects. Bigdams, Mines, Factories and Industrial townships were declared to be the temples of Modern India, the Indian ruling classes took a path of capitalist development through heavy Industrialisation forcibly displacing millions adivasi's peasants from all over India. There were protests in all over India. Arundhati Roy in her essay Greater common goods says that by early nintees more the four crore farmers and adivasis were displaced due to mega development projects. Post-Independent India has seen massive protests in Hirakud, Baliapal, Gopalpur, Koel Karo, Netarhat, Narmada Valley, Kalinganagar, Singrauli and many other places against their forcible displacement for construction of dams, steel plants, thermal power stations etc. Displacement, right over natural resources including forest and commons, against usury and feudal opression has been the main issues of discontent in Rural India. India is endowed with huge natural resources and vast fertile lands, forest and labour power, but the paradox is in this country of enormous wealth majority of the population live in extreme poverty. The Indian ruling classes used the label of socialism following independence to adopt a public sector supported capitalist path of development sustained by rapacious neocolonial plunder through bretton woods institutions and imperialist transnational corporations. This paradigm is founded on the predatory profit oriented mercantile principle of inequality as an essential condition of development and decimation of peasantry through the continuation of the extreme backwardness of agriculture. According to the Arjun Sen Gupta committee report on unorganised sector more than 75% of the population subsist on twenty rupees a day around 20% of the population which includes majority of the Dalits and Adivasis hover on the brink news of starvation deaths poor in everyday from different regions of the country. Excruciating poverty causes mass starvation, rampant disease and premature deaths amidst vulgar affluence for a few. In addition large sections of the population have to face crude discrimination in the form of caste, religion, ethnicity and gender reduce them to the status of a slave in their own country. About 70% of the country's population depends on agriculture directly and indirectly even today. Capital intensive developments has been foisted by the Neocolonial masters for the profits multination corporations who supply agricultural machines, fertilizers pesticides and seeds. The policy has proved to be not only anti poor but against the interests of the country as a whole. It has rendered agricultural labourers and small farmers nonviable who are loosing their lands joining the impoverished reserve army of labour. Under the pressure from the bretton woods institutions subsidies are with drawn while the costs of inputs soar making farming unviable for the majority of farmers especially small middle and marginal peasants. Rising costs of input and low prices of primary commodities has pushed agriculture and its dependant into the brink of disaster. The neoliberal state has been with drawing credits through nationalised bank and cooperatives pushing the farmers to take loans from usurious moneylenders forcing thousands of farmers to commit suicide. The new agricultural policy of 2000 has transformed the very paradigm of agricultural development by throwing the concept of land to the tiller to winds. In its place it introduced priority for cash crops and agriculture for profits to facilitate Mnc's and corporate take over, in the process small and middle farmers are forced to commit suicide and are driven off agriculture. Infact the phenomenon of reverse tenancy has been taking place in the name of contract farming at the behest of agribusiness.In fact, the MNCS and Indian corporations have emerged as new feudal lords in this predatory neoliberal era of global enclosure and ruthless 21st century primitive accumulation. The powerful class of upper caste absentee landlords represented by the Kulak Lobby in politics are the biggest facilitators for entry of International big business into Indian agriculture in spite of the much flaunted but failed cry about the land reform measures, most of the cultivable lands are in the hands of 10% of the landed gentry. Neither the land ceiling act nor security of Tenancy and other land reforms acts have been implemented effectively during the last six decades. While their is no security of livelihood of landless labourers in spite of the much trumpeted national employment guarantee act, so massive distress migrations to urban slums are a living reality of rural India. The feudal relations in land is one of the biggest reason for the backwardness in agriculture and the chief cause for the extreme poverty and socio economic disparity in rural India. Under the pressure of radical peasant movements land reform acts were made with enough 100 loopholes to circumvent it with the active connivance of the corrupt upper caste judiciary and bureaucracy. Therefore radical land reforms with the principle of land to the tiller is the highest priority for India Today. With neoliberal restructuring of Global Capitalism known as globalisation, the Indian ruling classes adopted the New Economic Policies in 1991 giving up all the pretensions of self reliance, egalitarianism, welfare state, non aligned status etc. Special Economic Zones were a logical outcome of this anti people neoliberal paradigm. A Special Economic Zone Act was passed in the Indian Parliament in 2005 various states have their own SEZ Acts. Salient Features of SEZs A Special Economic Zone is an especially demarcated area of land, owned and operated by a private company, which is deemed to be foreign territory for the purpose of trade, duties and tariffs. SEZs will enjoy exemptions from custom duties, income tax, sales tax, service tax. From the point of view of industry, a SEZ is an industrial cluster with assured infrastructure aimed at increasing the country's export the stated purpose of creating SEZs across India is the promotion of exports. The Commerce and Industries Minister Kamal Nath Claims that exports will ultimately grow five times, GDP will rise 2% and the 30 lakh jobs will be generated by SEZs across India. His also claimed by the Govt. that SEZ will attract global manufacturing through foreign direct investment, enable transfer of Modern Technology and will create incentives for infrastructure. As of 30 November 2007 according to the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, total no. of approved SEZs are 760, formally approved SEZs are 404, SEZs with in principle approval are 165 SEZs notified after 2005 Act are 172 SEZs functional before SEZs Act are 19. Many more applications await processing. Total are under SEZs, in 20 states across India is expected to be over 200,000 hectares, an area the Size of National capital region. This land predominantly agricultural and multi cropped is capable to producing close to one million food grains. If SEZs are seen to be successful in the future and more cultivated land is acquired, they will endanger the food security of the country. Displacement and loss of livelihoods in SEZs Estimate Show that close to 114,000 farming household (each house hold on an average comprising five members) and an additional 82,000 farm worker families who are dependent upon these farms for their livelihoods will be displaced. In other words, at least one million people who primarily depend upon agriculture for their survival will face eviction. Experts calculate that the total loss of income to the farming and farm workers family will be at least Rs. 212 crore a year. This does not include other income tax (for instance artisans) due to the demise of local rural economies. The government promise humane displacement followed by relief and rehabilitation. However historical records does not offer any room for hope on this count an estimated 40 million people (of which nearly 40% area Adivasis and 25% Dalits) have lost their land since 1950 on account of displacement due to large development projects. At least 75% of them still await rehabilitation. Almost 80% at the agricultural population owns only about 17% of the total agricultural land, making them near landless farmers. Farmers families and communities depend on a piece of land (for work, grazing) than those who simply own it. Employment in SEZs The growth of employment in the entire organised sector since inception of the economic reforms in 1991 has been negligible. The total employment in the organised sector is still less then 3 crore. Even in the IT and ITES the boom areas of the economy employment is less than 15 crore (60% of SEZs are for IT). The Indian labour force is estimated at 45 to 55 Crore. Thanks to growing automation modern manufacturing grows joblessty around the world. In India automobile production has grown rapidly, while employing hers labour than before. With more automation, rganized services also require limited supplies of labour. SEZ are actually land grab by the real estate mafia and the coroporate sector What are SEZs likely to become in few years time? According to a clause in the SEZ Act (section 5(2) as much as 75% of the area under large SEZs above 1000 hectares) can be used for non-industrial purposes. What will the remainder of the land used for? This lacuna in the law is likely to become a loophole for massive accumulation of land by private players including the real estate mafia, developers and property dealers for the purposes of real estate speculation. This explains why so many of them have been buying land for SEZs. In fact it may well be the case that the rationale for the above clause in the SEZ Act is the uncertainty surrounding the economic attractiveness of SEZs. If adequate productive investment is not forthcoming, the SEZ developer can at least cash in on the land value. Conglomerates like Reliance already own upwards of 100,00 acre of land in the countywide (courtesy - seminar no. 582, sez issue Feb 2008). In the light of the real estate boom and imposition of JNNURM SEZs have also emerged as a new form of colonial urbanisation. As all of know the majority of urban population are slum dwellers. Slums are not made by slum dwellers, not even by the poor they may actually be built by the poor or by the not so poor slumlord, but they are conceptualised and designed by the capitalist system itself. They exist because the capitalist system needs them. Being designed upon making a profit by exploiting labour the system requires that the cost of labour power kept as low as possible. Imagine if every citizen of Mumbai or Delhi had to buy a flat or a house. Would that be possible on the wages that they are getting today? Even in the organised sector? In Mumbai even a small flat on the outskirts of the city would not cast less than Rs 20 lakhs. Even in the organised sector a worker, with diligence and frugality throughout his life, cannot expect to save that amount even after a lifetime of working. With the rise of capitalism after the renaissance in Europe, many new cities came up all over the world. Many of the cities that we live in today are a product of these times. New York and Mumbai provide prime examples. These were industrial cities made with the express purpose of utilising the new opportunities for vastly enhanced exploitation of workers afforded by the Industrial revolution. Even the older cities like Rome, London and Delhi had to adapt to this new world order. From the beginning of 18th and 19th centuries and get industrialised. These not able to make this transformation perished, as cities - like Susa in Persia and Badami in Karnataka. In today's globalised context after the enactment of SEZ Act it is necessary to see the new colonial urbanisation and its connection with, displacement, agrarian crisis, growth of slums and migration. Some growth centres like, Noida, Gurgaon, Bangalore etc tell the sordid human drama behind their glazed tiles and golf courses. It is interesting to look at the neocolonial urban growth in Maharastra in context of the special economic zones. It will lead us to the reality behind slum demolitions and the hidden hands of the Bombay under world, the builders mafia and the honorable members of the Indian big bourgeoisie. Maharashtra has always been the favourite destination for investment, especially foreign investment in India. At one time the most Industrialised state in country, it still ranks among the top. However in terms of investment it is clearly, without any close rival, the top most state in India. For example, the amount of bank credit disbursed by public sector banks, in Maharashtra was over 3,71,000 crores in June 2006 (About 32% of the total National Figure). The next closest state was Delhi with less than half the investment in Maharashtra. The total amount in investment projects under execution, in September 2006, in Maharashtra was over Rs. 92,000 crores and the total of investment projects at the same time was around 2,53,000 crores, the highest in the country. In terms of foreign direct investment (FDI) The Economic Survey 2005-06 states "In terms of FDI approvals, however, Maharashtra topped the list followed by Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat. In some estimates Maharashtra accounts for almost one-third of the total foreign investment in India. Fittingly, Maharashtra is also therefore, the state with the largest number of SEZS (both formally approved in principle) with 89 formally approved and another 32 SEZS approved in principle is more than twice the total area of those which have already been formally approved. This is because the in principle stage mainly applies to those large SEZS where the land has still to be acquired in total, all the SEZS planned till today will occupy around 60,000 hectares of land. Since the new Economic Policies were adopted Maharashtra has seen fast urban growth. Maharashtra has the highest level of urbanization in India at 42% Compared to 25.7% percent as the all India average. In the context of Land question and Sezs writing about the urbanization experience in Maharashtra is important because this urbanization has not been in the normal organic fashion as in the advanced capitalist countries in the west. The urbanization of Maharashtra has been artificial engrafted urbanization. The people have been driven out of their land by the devastation of agriculture. It must be noted that while Maharashtra has the highest level of urbanization in India and has one of the highest per capita incomes in the country. It also has the lowest yield per hectare of food grains in the country at 872 kg/hectare as against 1667 kg / hectare as the national average. It is no coincidence that Maharashtra also has the highest level of peasant suides in the country. It may be argued that the same process of devastating agriculture to feed the cities has taken place in cities like London and Paris in the 17th and 18th centuries and the US during the Civil war However though the condition in urban Maharashtra may be as dismal and revolting as the Western Countries in the 17th and 18th centuries, this misery and poverty is painted not on the background of the London of that time but on the Canvas of today's Mumbai and Delhi where the rich have the latest Cars in the world and the costliest properties in the world. This makes all the difference in the world. The very degree of massiveness' in the cities of today makes a qualitative difference from the cities of medieval times. Engrafted into this is the unthinkable advanced system of communication and transport. This brings people into more close and intimate contact with the rest of the world. All this makes the level of disparity that is produced and reproduced in cities like Mamba and Delhi, qualitatively different from that in medieval London or Paris. The people thrown out of agriculture (both in Maharashtra and out side) have been forced to stay in hovels in over crowded and disease ridden slums in the cities. No new cities have been suburban satellites of Mega Polis's. Cities like "New Mumbai and Noida were originally planned as independent cities with their own industrial area. Commercial areas and transport systems. However, they have only developed as suburbs to larger and older cities like Mumbai or Delhi. This has not helped to solve the problems of the cities but only has accentuated them. It is again no. coincidence that all most all the Sezs are being built only on the fringes of cities - like satellites all over again. A rough Study based upon the "in principle" approved Sez's in Maharashtra shows that around 67% of the land for Sezs's is within 100 km. Of Mumbai. If the cities of Pune and Nagpur are also considered, then a figure of 85% of land for Sezs is arrived at, and if Nashik and Aurangabad are also thrown then about 98% of the land for Sezs in within 100 km of these five cities. Thus there will be no real development. The rural areas will be further devastated. Farmers will commit more suicides larger slums with even more squalor will be created. There will be more crime, more communal riots, more atrocities against dalits and more attacks and exploitation of women as always happens in the condition of squalor. However the Sezs are not the only instruments for grabbing the lands of the peasantry, millions of acres of land are taken by national and international big business for construction of Greenfield projects, private airports, tourist resorts , health tourism, smart cities, entertainment parks, building of private townships for the superrich including vast areas for golf courses and luxury hotels. To provide infrastructure for super profits of local and multinational big business the state is acquiring millions of acres of fertile land to build industrial zones, golden corridors, express ways including the much flaunted golden quadrangle express highway systems. This is the glaring phenomenon of contemporary global enclosure of forcible depeasantisation ruthlessly divesting the producers from their means of production, cultural moorings and commons. Adding salt to the injury the neoliberal state is resorting to the most predatory inhuman primitive accumulation of forcing the farmers and adivasi's out of their land when the entire peasantry is reeling under acute agrarian crisis where more than 2 lakh farmers have committed suicide in the past decade under the neoliberal economic regime. Another despicable instrument of forcibly uprooting adivasi's from their habitats and livelihoods is the New Mines Policy. The dangers of New Mining Policy has been brilliantly Analysed by friend Mansi Ashar in September October issue of Combat law 2007. (See mined games by Mansi Asher Combat law Volume 6 issues 5 2007) The key reason being that several recommendation and clauses of the new national mine policy were not acceptable to mineral rich states and Mining Companies, especially steel makers with every party wanting to maintain their control over the rich mineral resources of the country. What has slipped the public eye is probably the very critical changes being proposed to ensure that investments in the mining sector gets a boost by deregulating procedures of environmental and forest clearances. These clearances have been seen as hurdles for quick implementation of mining projects in the past 10 years. It is interesting to note that the sector which was essentially dominated by the public sector companies has in the past decade become the money bags for companies ranging from domestic giants like Tata, Jindal and Birla to global companies like Mittal, Posco, Vedanta, BHP, Billiton Riotinto et al. Hence the stakes of the market are higher, and the new mineral policy is paving the way for second generation reform in the mining sector in India to protect and promote these stakes (Mansi Asher, Combat law). It is needless to say that real estate and the construction boom is the motor force behind Indias high growth Indicators. Infact the whole country has been converted into a construction site. The real estate and mafia developer and other unscrupulous speculators make millions while the small and middle peasantry is pauperized. In this context the value of land should be critically examined. The entire valuation process is arbitrary and exploitative while the builders and developers buy cheap land sell the developed plots many times higher than the original market price of the said land. On the other hand the peasantry is paid a pittance for the land forcibly acquired through the draconian land acquisition act. In fact land is never valued in financial terms by Adivasi's and farmers for them agriculture is a way of life and they consider land as their mother. For adivasi's the commons, the forests, pastures and water resources are equally important as the tilled land and is sacred. In any Mega projects these are snatched away from them which is like taking the fish out of water. Of late this notion of sacredness has become a powerful instrument of resistance by the adivasi's for protecting their habitats. In March this year thousands of adivasi's gathered in Niyamagiri hills in Lanjigarh Orissa to worship. They consider the Niyamagiri hills as sacred and this mass worship has become a powerful symbol of protest to save their habitats greedily eyed by the Vedanta Aluminium Company. In nearby Baphlimali hills in Kashipur a heroic struggle is ongoing on for past twelve years to save their habitats from Utkal Alumina at the time of writing this note a dharma is still go in on against Utkal Alumina by Prakrutik Sampad Suraksha Parishad at Kashipur in Rayagada district of Orissa. It is important to note that the artisans, sharecroppers and landless labourers are the biggest loosers in any forcible land acquisition process they loose both their livelihoods and habitats and don't get any thing in return other than forced destitution and marginilasation . The entire peasantry is up in arms against their forcible eviction all over India for Sezs and other projects. The blood bath at Nandigram was a signal event of peasant resistance against forcible displacement, Fierce Struggles against Sezs and other projects are going on in Raigad Maharashtra against reliance Maha Mumbai Sez, against Posco in Jagatsingh Pur Orissa, Infact entire Orissa has become a battle field. Farmers are struggling against proposed Sezs in Kakinada in Andhra, Mangalore in Karnataka, Jhajjar in Haryana, against the proposed entertainment Sez in gorai near Mumbai and so on. The land question, the fundamental failure of Independent India, has become one of most debatable and controversial topics today. Although the mass media and the dominant parliamentary political parties suppress any public mention of radical land reform, land to the tillers and the abolition of feudal remnants. The irrepressible reality raised the question in one or another form. Today land grabbing by the private corporate sector, both Indian and of foreign origins especially the MNCs of advanced capitalist countries, in the name of so called "development" and with the aid of government agencies and state machinery, has become a subject that can not be avoided. The reason at base is sixty years of failure to meet the legitimate demands of many crore landless peasants who depend on agricultural land for their subsistence but have no claims deemed fully worthy by the judiciary, still the firmest bastion of colonial mentality. With the introduction of the new economic policy since 1991 what has been a half century of localized injustice and repression became a qualitatively different phenomenon; the theft of land on a scale that could not be kept from public attention. Thus the land question is the most important question in India today and the slogan "Land to the tiller the core political slogan today. The struggle for land is going on all over India. *Asit** Note- For the case studies of farmers resistance struggle against Reliance Maha Mumbai SEZ in Raigarh Maharastra and POSCO, Jagatsinghpur, Orissa.See the author's personal webpage at www.revolutionarynucleus.blogspot.com * From anansi1 at earthlink.net Sun Jun 8 01:27:52 2008 From: anansi1 at earthlink.net (Paul D. Miller) Date: Sat, 7 Jun 2008 15:57:52 -0400 (GMT-04:00) Subject: [Reader-list] Dj Spooky, Dj Rekha present - Loving Day: a Festival of Multiculturalism, NY Message-ID: <25975256.1212868673069.JavaMail.root@elwamui-huard.atl.sa.earthlink.net> Hello people - on Sunday (tomorrow!!!) we're presenting a festival to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Loving vs Virginia, the Supreme Court Case that de-criminalized relationships across racial lines. In 1967, a mixed race couple brought a case to the Supreme Court to legalize their relationship, and won. Mildred Loving passed away a little while ago, and we're presenting a festival to celebrate their victory. There will be several thousand people, and I guess you can think of it as a NY update of Love Parade in Berlin. It's a big outdoor festival!!! come out to the show! Paul aka Dj Spooky 388 U.S. 1 (1967)[1], was a landmark civil rights case in which the United States Supreme Court declared Virginia's anti-miscegenation statute, the "Racial Integrity Act of 1924", unconstitutional, thereby overturning Pace v. Alabama (1883) and ending all race-based legal restrictions on marriage in the United States. On June 8 we celebrate their victory - there will be music from all over the world: India, Russia, China, Brazil, South Africa, France, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Iraq, Tibet, Israel, Palestine, England, Jamaica, Nigeria etc etc - and yes, it's about digital media art as well. There will be surprise guests throughout the day. http://www.lovingday.org/ Details: Sunday June 8, 2008 3:00 - 7pm EDT Loving Day proudly presents: The 5th Annual New York Loving Day Celebration Come celebrate the 41st anniversary of Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court case that legalized interracial relationships in the United States. FREE MUSIC Enjoy incredible music all day long! DJ SPOOKY (http://www.djspooky.com) DJ REKHA (http://www.djrekha.com) DHUNDEE (http://www.sugarcutsmusic.com) FREE BBQ Grilling for you all day long! FREE BEER Free Asahi the first hour! FREE ICE CREAM Free Ben & Jerry's for the 1st hour! BIG PRIZES Raffle all day: Puma and Zipcar! RAIN OR SHINE Our huge tent will keep you happy! No Cover • Everyone is Welcome • All Ages (21+ to drink) • Multicultural • International • Good Sunday Vibes SUBWAY: 6 train to 23rd, the M23 bus or walk east past Ave. C & FDR. Look for the Gulf gas station. Or, L train to 1st Ave: Walk N. to 23rd. BY CAR: from the south, FDR to 20-23rd St. exit. Right on Ave. C, right on 23rd as if going to Gulf gas station, then service road to Solar 1. RSVP your spot: lovingdayparty at gmail.com For more info, visit us online: www.lovingday.org Thanks to our sponsors: Asahi, Ben & Jerry's, Zipcar, Steaz, Solar One, WorldUp, DJ Spooky, DJ Rekha, Puma Also, thanks to our supporter in the multiethnic community: Association of MultiEthnic Americans (AMEA) Swirl NYC From naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com Sun Jun 8 09:49:18 2008 From: naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com (Naeem Mohaiemen) Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2008 10:19:18 +0600 Subject: [Reader-list] Bangladeshi is 3d South Asian Attacked in South African Riots Message-ID: http://www.indolink.com/displayArticleS.php?id=052508094309 Durban, May 25 (PTI) A Bangladeshi citizen has become the latest victim of the anti-foreigner violence in South Africa, as xenophobic violence spreads in new areas. The Bangladeshi, whose name has not been disclosed, was attacked and his shop was looted yesterday in the town of George in the Western Cape province, the latest area to be affected by the violence. "I don't know why these people attacked my shop."They just came here and without saying anything began to loot the shop. I have now lost everything," said the Bangladeshi with tears running down his face. He is the third south Asian national to be affected by the violence. Shops of two Pakistani nationals were looted in the town of Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria, and in the Free State province early this week. The attack against the Bangladeshi man came hours after an 18-year-old local youth in Cape Town was shot dead by a Somali man who was protecting his small shop. On Thursday, a Somali man was killed by mobs attacking foreign nationals in Cape Town. The latest death brings the toll to more than 44, since the violence first broke on May 11 in the township of Alexandria in Johannesburg. More than 30,000 foreigners have now been made destitute, while more than 50,000 Mozambicans have now returned to their country for fear of the attacks. Meanwhile, hundreds of people took part in protest marches in Johannesburg and Durban against the xenophobic attacks. The protest marches come at a time when South Africans in general, including political, religious and civic leaders, condemning the attacks as a "shame" on the country. President Thabo Mbeki, who has come under severe criticism for failing to take action after the first violent attacks, will address the nation today evening. From elkamath at yahoo.com Sun Jun 8 17:29:27 2008 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2008 04:59:27 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] FW: the failed harvest of food policy by Aseem Shrivastava Message-ID: <535128.32519.qm@web53609.mail.re2.yahoo.com> FYI The failed harvest of food policy Any way you cut it, the food crisis in Southasia and around the world is bordering on the critical. And the culpability extends all the way from the Chicago Board of Trade to the power corridors of New Delhi, as organised greed takes control of our lives and diets. By : Aseem Shrivastava http://www.himalmag.com/2008/june/cover_food_policy.htm From vivek at sarai.net Sun Jun 8 20:41:55 2008 From: vivek at sarai.net (Vivek Narayanan) Date: Sun, 08 Jun 2008 11:11:55 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] Chithralekha's Burning Auto Message-ID: <484BF6BB.8050405@sarai.net> Hi all, this is a recent follow up related to an independent fellowship project by P. Jenny and C. Christy, relating to their research on the Dalit woman autorickshaw driver in Kerala, Chithralekha... First posting: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/2007-March/008969.html Final presentation: http://cid-eb2914bb9c5b6880.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Chithra%20Lekha/Chithra%20Lekha.doc Chithralekha Gets a New Autorickshaw: http://venukm.blogspot.com/2008/06/chithralekha-gets-new-auto.html Cheers vivek > > > *CHITHRALEKHA REHABILITATION COMMITTEE > Update As On 07-06-08* > > Dear friends, > It is 10 months since the campaign to raise the targeted amount of Rs 1.5 > lakhs in rehabilitating Chithralekha by restoring her means of livelihood by > procuring a new auto rikshaw for her, with the money raised from concerned > citizens took off. The whole story needn't be repeated here, as we are too > well aware of the background from which this campaign happened to take > place. > > As we conclude on 7th June 2008, we have an amount of over Rs *1,53,700/*= > collected . > *Please peruse here the details of contribution we received so far:* > S/sri > 1.Salim T.K ( Thalassery/ UAE): Rs1,500.00 > 2.Dr.Jayasree A.K (Rajamundry,A.P) : Rs 1,000.00 > 3.Mr.K.K.Baburaj(Kottayam) : Rs 1,000.00 > 4.Prof. Shiva Shankar > (Chennai Mathematical Institute) : Rs 1,000.00 > 5.Sri.K.Panur (Kannur) :Rs 100.00 > 6.Dr.Jenny Roweena, } > Carmel Christy, Dr.Ranjith.R} } : Rs 10,000.00 > and Dr.Hani Babu(Hydbad), } > 7.Jenson Joseph (Hydbad): Rs 1,000.00 > 8.P.V.Ayyappan(Trissur): Rs 1,000.00 > 9.Dr.A.V.Bharathan(Trissur): Rs 1,000.00 > 10.Dr.M.R.Govindan(Thrissur) Rs 500.00 > 11.Dr.K.K.Rahulan(Thrissur) Rs 200.00 > 12.C.R.Parameswaran(Thrissur) Rs 500.00 > 13.K.Venu(Thrissur) : Rs 2,000.00 > > 14.Dr.A.K.Ramakrishnan > (MGU,Kottayam): Rs 1,000.00 > 15.Dr.V.C.Harris, > (MGU,Kottayam): Rs 1,000.00 > 16.Dr.K.M.Seethi > (MGU,Kottayam): Rs 500.00 > 17.Dr.N.J.Phillip(Kottayam) :Rs 1,000.00 > 18.V.P.Zuhara(Kozhikkode) :Rs 500.00 > 19.Deepa V.N( Kottayam): :Rs 5,000.00 > 20.Mythri, Roshni, > Sunitha, Vijaya(CDS,Tvm) } :Rs 500.00 > 21.Dr.Alice(CDS,Tvm) :Rs 500.00 > 22.Dr.Binita Thampi(CDS,Tvm) :Rs 500.00 > 23.B.R.P.Bhaskar(Tvm): Rs 1,000.00 > 24.Dr.Ranjini Lakshmi(CDS): Rs 6,650.00 > 25.Dr.Shivanandan(CDS,Tvm): Rs 500.00 > 26.P.N.Gopeekrishnan(Thrissur) Rs 500.00 > 27.M/s.SNA Oushadhashala(Thrissur) Rs 500.00: > 28Prof. V.G.Thampi (Thrissur): Rs 250.00 > 30.Prof.Hiranyan(Thrissur) : Rs 500.00 > 31.M/s Anveshi (Kozhikkode): Rs 2,000.00 > 32.Dr.Mini Sukumar(Calicut University): Rs 400.00 > 33.Ravi.P.C(Thrissur) : Rs 500.00 > 34.Prof.N.N.Gokuldas,(Thrissur) : Rs 1,000.00 > 35.K.Radhakrishnan(Thrissur) : Rs 500.00 > 36.Dr.Jayaraj,(Thrissur) : Rs 1,000.00 > 37.Anil, Altermedia(Thrissur): Rs 250.00 > 38.K.V.Abdul Azeez(Thrissur) : Rs 2,000.00 > 39.Dr.T.T Sreekumar (Singapur) : Rs 6,000.00 > 40.Dr.K.V.Devadhasan(Payyanur): Rs 1,000.00 > 41.V.P.Sreenivasan(B'lore/Payyanur) Rs 1,000.00 > > 42.K.M.Hrisheekeshan > (Gurgav/Payyanur) : } Rs 1,000.00 > 43.K.M.Nandakishor(UK/Payyanur) Rs 1,000.00 > 44.Dr.K.Aravindakshan(Thrissur) : Rs 500.00 > 45.T.P.Yakub(Kozhikkode) : Rs 2,000.00 > 46.Suresh,K.P.Mohsin, > Dinesh,Dr.K.V.Balakrishnan, } : Rs 500.00 > Dr.Geethakumari,Raju Kuttan, > (Calicut University) > 47.Dr.Mohanakrishnan.V (Calicut University): Rs 500.00 > 48.Smt.Ganga Parvathi Shankar (Pune) : Rs 1,000.00 > 49.Ajesh C.A (Calicut University) :Rs 500.00 > 50.O.P.Ravindran (Calicut University) : Rs 500.00 > 51.C.R.Ramesh(Thrissur) : Rs 200.00 > 52.Harinarayanan (Mumbai) : Rs 1,000.00 > 53.U.K.Nair(Mumbai) : Rs 1,000.00 > 54.Harishankar,(Mumbai) : Rs 1,000.00 > 55.Dr.J.Devika (CDS) and others : Rs 1,100.00 > 56.Balakrishnan V.Rtd Officer, > Shipyard,Cochin > (Narath,Kannur) : } Rs 500.00 > 57.K.P.Girija (Hydbad) : Rs 500.00 > 58.Bindulakhsmi/Suprathik (Mumbai) Rs 5,000.00 > 59.Prof.K.G.Shankara Pillai : Rs 500.00 > 60.Prof.Sujatha.R, > Chennai Mathematical Institute } :Rs 1,500.00 > 61.Mr.Pradeepan,Kannur :Rs 500.00 > 62.Prof. Alladi Sitharam IISC,B'lore :Rs 2,000.00 > 63.Prof. Annapoorna Sitharam ,, :Rs 2,000.00 > 64.Prof Shobha Madan ,, :Rs 2,000.00 > 65.Prof Gadadhar Mishra ,, :Rs 1,000.00 > 66.Mr.Aftab Ellath(Champad/UAE) :Rs 3,000.00 > 67.Mr.Krishnakumar.A.V(UAE) :Rs1,000.00 > 68.Mr.Abdul Kareem M.K (UAE) :Rs 1,000.00 > 69. A friend from New Delhi > (Prefers anonymity) } :Rs 5,000.00 > 70.Mr.Mitesh Damania (US) :Rs 10,000.00 > 71.Dr.Ratheesh Radhakrishnan : Rs 1,000.00 > 72.Ms.Smriti,Nokia Seimens > Network Group,B'lore. } : Rs 1,500.00 > 72.Mr.Vinod Chandran, > Ivory Group,Dubai } :Rs I,000.00 > > 73.Mr.P.Dasan, > Ani Gas Agencies,Kannur : Rs 1,000.00 > 74.Mr.P.Shekhara Poduval : Rs 1,000.00 > 75.Mr.P.C.Jose, Alakkode : Rs 100.00 > 76.Mr.Anil, Alakkode : Rs 300.00 > 77,Mr.K.K.Kochu : Rs 100.00 > 78.Mr.V.Krishnan ,Kannur : Rs 50.00 > 79.Mr.K.Rajan, Kannur : Rs 50.00 > 80.Mr.K.M.Venugopalan,Payyanur : Rs 500.00 > 81.Mr.Dileepraj (Thuravoor) : Rs 2,000.00 > 82.Ms.Reshma Bharadwaj :Rs 2,000.00 > 83.Mr.Damodar Prasad(C-dit) :Rs 500.00 > 84.Dr.T.V.Sajeev (KFRI,Thrissur) :Rs 500.00 > 85.Dr.V.J Varghese(CDS,Thiruvananthapuran) Rs 500.00 > > 86.Dr.Hari P Sharma} (President,SANSAD,Canada) : Rs 5,000.00 > 87.M/s South Asian Network > for Secularism And Democracy > (SANSAD),Canada :Rs 5,000.00 > ** 88.Mr.Joy Charles(US) :Rs 5,000.00 > > 89-92: Donations through Ambedkarscolarships: > > (*1).Mr.Benjamin Kaila.(US) : *Rs.5,000.00 > > *(2). Prof Anand Swarup, Australia :*Rs.5,000.00 > > *(3). Prof K Ravishankar(US) :*Rs 5,000.00* > * > *(4).Mr Karthik Subramanian, US :*Rs 5,000.00. > > 93. <94.humaneight at gmail.com>A friend who prefers anonymity : Rs 600.00 94.Mr Rajan Robert, Kollam : Rs 1,000.00 95.M/s Neethi Agencies, Puthiyatheru,Kannur } :Rs 1,000.00 *TOTAL DONATIONS ** RECEIVED AS ON 07-06-2008: Rs 153,700.00 * *(Rupees One Lakh Fiftythree Thousand and Seven hundred ):* *This figure excludes bank charges for collection of out station cheques and DDs ; it aslo excludes the small amount of interests accrued for the money deposited with the bank . ** * Chithralekha had been violently deprived of her means of livelihood by political actors encouraged by the characteristically casteist and sexist hate toward a dalit woman who wanted to stand up against the hegemony at the workplace. Eversince her autorikshaw was destroyed in 2005 December by putting it on fire , Chithralekha has been eking out livelihood by going out for unskilled manual jobs in house construction and farming sectors. Hence, notwithstanding the outcome of the cumbersome legal battle in which she needs support too, steps to immediately rehabilitate her became the imperative for all concerned . > *The kind of caste- gender related violence that had been acted out > against Chithralekha is hoped to be remembered only in the restricted > context of a collective wish for it not showing up again, and otherwise, we > would rather forget it.* > The Rehabilitation Committee based at Kannur is having a public function > at Kannur at 2pm on 7-06-2008; Ms.C.K.Janu of Adivasi Gothra Maha Sabha, > Keralam will hand the keys of a new Bajaj Diesel Autorikshaw to > Chithralekha.Many leading figures and activists on the human rights front > will either give felicitation addresses directly or the messages received > from them will be to read over to the audience. > > Hence, the new vehicle is going to be gifted to Chithralekha with a view > to creating a firm resolve to support Chithralekha in her struggle for > justice ans right to live with honour , though in a much changed different > atmosphere of goodwill and understanding, where the old hostilities are best > expected to be rolled back. > > > Yours sincerely, > *Venugopalan.K.M,* > *Convener,* > *Chithralekha Rehabilitation Committee* > *,Kannur.* > *e-mail: kmvenuannur at gmail.com* > *phone: 09447488215* > * > [You may please read here the original message by the Chithralekha > Rehabilitation Committee here, which may help recap the whole story ]:* > > *[Following is the translated text of an appeal released at a press > conference on 26-09-07 in Kannur, by the Chithralekha Rehabilitation > Committee, Kannur, Kerala ] * > Dear friends, > Despite our pride in having achieved 100% literacy, we have to acknowledge > sadly that Kerala's social life continues to be reigned by several unwrit > rules of caste and gender, rather than by law. A series of incidents that > took place at Edat (Payyanur, Kannur District) starting from organized abuse > and harassment of a dalit woman at her workplace, physically attacking her > for having complained to the police, and finally seeing her only means of > livelihood, an autorikshaw, destroyed by unknown persons setting fire to the > vehicle in the dead of night, and to cap these all, a CITU autorikshaw > workers' union coming out openly to defend the accused persons, seems to > demonstrate this. > Chithralekha had procured her autorikshaw under the PMRY Scheme in October > 2004. Nevertheless, she had to wait for three months before the permission > to park her vehicle in the Payyanur College bus stop Autostand as well as > the membership in the Union was given to her by the CITU Union. > When finally she did succeed in this, she was greeted by an all-male group > of non-dalit autoworkers by the following comments"Look, the pulachi ( > female gender for pulaya, name of a prominent SC) is coming with with her > auto". > Since then, Chithralekha had to suffer a host of humiliations and untold > sufferings. On 11-10-2005, Ajith, a fellow auto driver tore the hood of her > vehicle. She complained to the Union only to be ridiculed and turned back. > Further, a complaint made to the Police ended up with her tormentor being > warned by the police. Obviously outraged by this daring act of Chithralekha > petitioning against a comrade to the police, Ajith along with Pavithran, > Naveen and Rameshan physically attacked Chithralekha at her workplace, the > auto stand on 14-10-2005 morning. They publicly dragged her out from the > vehicle and drove one of the autorikshaws on to her body, which caused > injury to her leg serious enough to stay as inpatient in the Payyanur Govt > hospital for many days. As they were doing all these acts of brutality, one > of them shouted these words" pulachies of your ilk in future shall never > ride auto here, and it is the union's decision" > The above incident has been booked by the Payyanur Police under various > sections of IPC as well as under sections of the SC/ST Atrocities > (Prevention) Act of 1999. This case with FIR No 367/05 is presently posted > for trial before the Special Court (SC/ST Atrocities), Thalassery. > We believe that but for the timely intervention of the District Level > Monitoring Committee which is a statutory committee for monitoring such > cases of atrocities against dalits, the above mentioned case would not have > been booked at all; on the contrary, the dominant caste-gender set up in > combination with the generally existing status-quoist bias of individual > police officers would have ensured impunity for the offenders and further > institutionalization of such crimes. > Even against the successful intervention on the part of the Dist Level > Monitoring Committee to get the case booked and properly pursued, > collectively expressed hatred and openly displayed hostility against > Chithralekha were only heading to a point of vantage. In the night of > 31-12-2005, her vehicle was burned by unidentified persons. This incident > was registered as FIR No 474/05 in the Payyanur Police Station. > As we hear further stories of intimidation and demoralizing of witnesses by > several quarters of vested interests with a view to weakening of > these cases as such, we notice that unless the civil society actively > involves in the process of bringing justice to the victim, this kind of > crimes motivated by caste and gender is going to get institutionalized. > Chithralekha is presently dependent solely on the Monitoring Committee that > includes a few civilian(dalit) representatives and the State mechanism > available. While it needs to be clearly reiterated that without such State > mechanism it would not have been possible to bring the culprits to book > under the relevant provisions of law, the ridiculously unwarranted attempts > to impose virtual compromise on the victim by intimidating and demoralizing > her witnesses and in many other ways need to be resisted. The absolutely > unfair interventions of political manipulators to protect the non-dalit, > male accuseds from the reach of law, in this case, should be effectively > challenged by vigorous pursuit of the Rule Of Law by an informed civil > society. > It is worth mentioning in this context, that a citizens' action committee > based at Payyanur was indeed on the scene until April 2006 to support > Chithralekha. The committee though succeeded in getting an auto for her on > rental basis and as part of their endeavour to restore work to > Chithralekha, it became defunct soon after the election campaign for the > Kerala Assembly picked up momentum. Due to several reasons, Chithralekha was > virtually compelled to return the hired vehicle to its owner. Since then, > she had to support herself and her family by going outside for unskilled > labour in the building sector, evenwhile she refused to compromise in her > determined struggle against the cast-gender hostilities still propagated > against her. > On the 29th August of this year, a new initiative to support Chithralekha > came to existence by forming a new forum based at Kannur, the District > headquarters. The meeting convened by Dr D.Surendranath was personally > attended by Mr. K.K.Kochu,the well known dalit leader.Several other > prominent dalit activists and intellectuals had also extended thier support > to this initiative. This committee was named as Chithralekha > Punaradhivasa (Rehabilitation) Committee and it took stock of the situation > as a whole.,against the background of conspicuous lack of any collective > expression of solidarity with her continuing struggle.The next meeting of > this committee on 4-09-2007resolved to extend unconditional support to > Chithralekha in her struggle for justice.The committee identified the urgent > need of rehabilitating Chithralekha, with the work as well as a > nightmares-free workplace restored to her. For this, it was decided to > purchase a new autorikhshaw for her by collecting the necessary fund from > the people. For carrying out this effectively and transparently, Dr > Surendranath(Chairman), Mr.P.K.Ayyappan (Treasurer) and Mr.K.M.Venugopalan > (Convenor) would jointly operate an account in the Thalap branch of the > Kannur District Central Co-operative Bank in connection with collecting and > depositing of a targeted fund of Rs1,50,000/= > While we ourselves fully endorse the above mentioned objectives of the > Chithralekha Punaradhivasa Committee,Kannur, we would like to request the > entire civil society of Kerala to come forward in support of these causes > ,viz; of ending hostilities toward a dalit woman and allowing the law to > take the right course on the one hand, and helping rehabilitation of > Chithralekha by restoring her means of livelihood and work. > Hence,we request everybody to make contribution to the Cithralekha > Rhabilitation Fund either by depositing direct to *Chithralekha > Rehabilitation Committee SB Ac. No.1* of *Thalap* branch of *CDCC bank of > Kannur ( Kannur District Central Co-operative Bank)*, or by sending in *Ac.Payee > Cheque or crossed DD payable at Kannur, or Money Order, to the following > address :- * > *Dr.D.Surendranath,* > *Chairman,* > *Chithralekha Rehabilitation Committee, * > *Pallikunnu P.O., Kannur. > > * > > Among the persons who have already signed this draft are ---Bhargavi > Thankappan (former Dy Speaker,Kerala Assembly), L.Natarajan ( Retd > IAS),K.C.Venu ( Retired Director, Public Relations, Thiruvananthapuram) > K.K..Kochu (Dalit activist and writer),Sunny Kapikkad (Dalit writer and > activist, Kottayam) , M.B.Manoj ( Poet and Dalit activist, Kottayam), Rekha > Raj (Dalit Women's Forum, Kottayam), K.Panur (Senior campaigner and writer > on Adivasi-Dalit issues & Human Rights, Kannur), K.Venu , Dr.M.Gangadharan, > Dr .A.K.Ramakrishnan (School Of International Relations, MG University, > Kottayam), K.Ajitha (Campaigner in Womens' issues and the leading activist > in Anweshi, Womens'Organization, Kozhikkode) , A.Vasu ( Human Rights > activist, Kozhikkode), Dr.J.Devika (CDS, Thiruvananthapuram), V.P.Zuhara ( > Nisa,Organization For Progressive Muslim Women, Kozhokkode) , Anivar Aravind > (Greenyouth Forum& GAYA, Trissur), B.R.P.Bhaskar (senior Human Rights > campaigner and journalist, Thiruvananthapuram), Dr.V.C.Harris (School Of > Social Sciences, MGU, Kottayam) , C.K.Janu (leader, Adivasi Gothra > Mahasabha, Wynad), Prof Sara Joseph ( Literatuer and Womens' Rights > campaigner, Thrissur), Advocate P.A.Pauran (PUCL-Kerala, Manjeri), > K.Haridas ( writer and Human Rights activist, Mumbai ), Dr.Jenny Roweena > (Writer and Researcher in Gender and Caste Issues ,Hydbad), Carmel Chrity > (Research Scholar, Hyderabad Central University & activist researcher In > Gender and Caste ), Elizabeth Philip( Sahaja, Womens' Rights organization, > Kottayam), Ranjith Thakappan ( Lecturer, Indira Gandhi Open University, New > Delhi), I.Gopinath (Media Initiatives and Human Rights activist, Thrissur), > Sarat (Thirdeyefilms , Ernakulam), A.Arun (Research Scholar, Hyderabad > Central University), P.Baburaj (Thirdeye films,Ernakulam), K.K.Ushakumari > (Janakeeya Samskarika Kendram, Kodungallur), Radhika Menon (Forum For > Democratic Initiatives,New Delhi), Vinod.K.Jose ( Human Rights activist and > Fellow, Columbia Journalism School, New York), K.P.Sasi( Human Rights > activist and film maker, Bangalore), Bauraj.K (writer and activist, > Kodungallur), Shyla.K.John (Secretary, AIMSS, Kerala), Advocate Kasthuri > Devan (social activist, Kannur), Dr.A.K.Jayasree( womens'rights > campaigner,Rajamundri, A.P) ,Dr.K.M.Seethi (School Of International > Relations and Political Science, MG University, Kottayam), Deepa V.N > (Sahayatrika, Kerala), Girija K.P (Kerala),S.Sanjeev (Kerala), Rev Sunil Raj > (Bangalore), Mustafa Desamangalam ( Media and Films activist, Kerala), > Sudeep Joseph (Bangalore), Bobby Kunju (Human Rights and Legal activist,New > Delhi),Sandhya P.C (GAIA,Thrissur, Kerala), Anil Tharayath Varghese > (National Centre For Advocacy Studies, Pune), Dr.Ratheesh Radhakrishnan > (Kerala), Shinaj.P.S(Hyderabad Central University), I.K.Shukla (Writer, Los > Angeles ) ,Sushovan Dhar (Radical Politics,Mumbai).Subhash Lokjith (Pune), > Sukla Sen, (Peoples' Media Initiative, Mumbai ), George Pulikuthiyil > (Jananeethi Institue, Kerala), Bindhulakshmi (Hyderabad), Ajay(People's > Watch), Dr.Sanal Mohan (School Of Social Sciences, MGU,Kottayam), Salim.T.K > (Greenyouthsgooglegroup), Savad Rahman (Journalist, Kochi),Rajesh > Ramakrishnan (Activist and Researcher, New Delhi), Dr.Soma Marik( Kolkatha), > Dr.T.T.Sreekumar ( Academic / Asst Professor, National University Of > Singapore), Gilbert Rodrigo (Pondicherry Fisher peoples' forum),T.Peter > (Secretary, National Fishworkers' Forum & President, KSMTU,Kerala), > Dileepraj ( writer and Human Rights campaigner, Kerala ). > We look forward to your co-operation in further spreading the message. > > > Thanking you, > > K.M.Venugopalan. > for Chithralekha Rehabilitation Committee, Kannur . > > *Kindly use the following postal addresses/ emails as well, for future > communication: * > > Dr.D.Surendranath, > ( Chairman, Chithralekha Rehabilitation Committee), > Pallikkunnu P.O; > Kannur-4, > Kerala (State), > S.India > Pin code- 670004 > email: dskannur at gmail.com > phone: 04972-701279 > > > > K.M.Venugopalan, > Convener, Chithralekha Rehabilitation Committee, Kannur. > email: kmvenuannur at gmail.com > phone: 09447488215. > C.K.Vishwanath, > Member, Chithralekha Punaradhivasa Committe, kannur > email: ckvishwanath at gmail.com > ck_vishwanath2000 at yahoo.com > ck_vishwanath at yahoo.com > phone: 04985-277680. > > With immense gratitude to everybody and In solidarity, > K.M.Venugopalan, Convener. From the.solipsist at gmail.com Mon Jun 9 00:52:55 2008 From: the.solipsist at gmail.com (Pranesh Prakash) Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2008 00:52:55 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] "Anti-begging drive" in New Delhi Message-ID: <4785f1e20806081222p9324b97v36b02a5e9809382f@mail.gmail.com> Dear All, Reopening the debate on criminalisation of poverty vs. "beautification" of urban spaces, the Delhi Government (Social Welfare Department) has started enforcing anti-begging legislation (by rounding up beggars) and, as a new measure, fingerprinting them as well. Delhi is not alone in this regard. Received knowledge tells me that in some cities (Dubai and Hong Kong come readily to mind) the poverty levels are much higher than one realises by casually walking through most of the streets because the governments have worked hard in concealing the poverty. (Many years back, a news documentary on one of the two major networks in Hong Kong dealt with this issue, showing the squalid chicken-coops (which were positively inhuman) in which the poor were provided "free housing" by the government.) The issues aren't that clear-cut. While we all know of artificially scarred/burnt/crippled children, who are thrown into the deep end of the begging pool, and we also know that government-run "beggars' homes" are more often than places filled with corruption (a Tehelka investigation brought this to light, if memory serves me right). A simple pro-poor/pro-government stance can't be taken, as the issues can't be reduced to a poor vs. the State dichotomy. What are the ways out of this (apart from a magical reduction in poverty)? Any thoughts? - Pranesh ------ http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c_online.php?leftnm=10&bKeyFlag=IN&autono=39500 Anti-begging drive intensified in Delhi Press Trust of India / New Delhi June 08, 2008, 16:41 IST Intensifying the anti-begging campaign in Delhi, authorities have picked around 100 beggars, including women and children, in the last three days and sent them to the homes meant for their rehabilitation. The drive is being launched by the Department of Social Welfare in a bid to make the national capital beggar-free by 2010, when it will host the Commonwealth Games. "In the last three days, we picked these beggars spotted in Connaught Place, Hanuman Mandir and Janpath area and sent them to the homes in Lampur and Kingsway Camp," Social Welfare Department director S K Saxena said. He said the beggars are being produced before respective magistrates and to prove their case the department have done videography of the beggars seeking alms. The anti-begging campaign had to be stopped in March because of shortage of officials. Now the drive has been restarted and will continue with an aim to put an end to the practice of begging in the city, the official said. Saxena said there is a provision under the anti-begging legislation in Delhi to remove beggars from the streets and keep them in beggars' homes or at juvenile rehabilitation centres if they are under the age of 16. He said, "begging in the city is on rise and at times the involvement of mafia has been found." "To ensure that the beggars do not start begging again, we are taking their finger-prints through bio-metric system installed at the beggars' homes," he said. From b_vjg at yahoo.com Mon Jun 9 01:20:41 2008 From: b_vjg at yahoo.com (Gandhi, Valentine Joseph) Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2008 12:50:41 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] A Query on Urban and Peri Urban Agriculture Message-ID: <797773.89642.qm@web65405.mail.ac4.yahoo.com> Dear Colleagues, I am in the process of drafting a report for one of the centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) on the state of urban agriculture in India with particular reference to Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. According to the Resource Centre on Urban Agriculture and Food Security (RUAF), urban agriculture (includes peri-urban agriculture) can be defined shortly as the growing of plants and the raising of animals within and around the cities. (Home gardens, small plots of vegetables, etc). Some important urban and urban agricultural facts are: · 50% of the world’s population lives in cities. · 800 million people are involved in urban agriculture world-wide and contribute to feeding urban residents. · Low income urban dwellers spend between 40% and 60% of their income on food each year. · By 2015, about 26 cities in the world are expected to have a population of 10 million or more. To feed a city of this size – at least 6000 tons of food must be imported each day. The most striking feature of urban agriculture, which distinguishes it from rural agriculture, is that it is integrated into the urban economic and ecological system. Urban agriculture is embedded in - and interacting with - the urban ecosystem. Such linkages include the use of urban residents as laborers, use of typical urban resources (like organic waste as compost and urban wastewater for irrigation), direct links with urban consumers, direct impacts on urban ecology (positive and negative), being part of the urban food system, competing for land use with other urban land use requirements, being influenced by urban policies and plans etc. Urban agriculture tends to increase when the city grows. It is an integral part of the urban system. In the above context, I would appreciate inputs/ideas/suggestions and any case studies from members on the following points: 1. Role of Urban and Peri Urban Agriculture (UPA) in contributing to food security, and the kind of institutional mechanism required for its promotion 2. Key issues related to UPA in India (with specific experiences if any, from Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh) 3. What are various policies or laws that could impede/or aid the urban agriculture process in Indian cities and who should be the key stakeholders in promoting Urban and Peri urban agriculture Regards, Valentine J Gandhi Independent Consultant From kuhutanvir at gmail.com Mon Jun 9 13:08:32 2008 From: kuhutanvir at gmail.com (Kuhu Tanvir) Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2008 13:08:32 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] theatre reading - Russia Dying Message-ID: The First City Theatre Foundation invites you to OFF THE MANTLE#10 The First City Theatre Readings Russia Dying New versions of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard and Alexei Arbuzov's The Promise 12 June 2008 | 7 pm | The Attic (36, Regal Building. Connaught Place) To celebrate its tenth Off The Mantle reading, The First City Theatre Foundation picks scenes from two recent rewritings of classic plays from the Russian theatre. The first is American playwright David Mamet's adaptation of Chekhov's masterpiece, The Cherry Orchard. Audacious and consistently arresting, Mamet's version blows a gust of fresh air into this classic. Similarly, Nick Dear's striking adaptation of The Promise brings out the lyrical subtleties of Alexei Arbuzov's original play from the 60s – a powerfully historic and ironic drama set amidst the post-war reconstruction in Russia. For more details call: 011-46070317 | email: theatre at firstcitydelhi.com From jeebesh at sarai.net Mon Jun 9 13:40:10 2008 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh) Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2008 13:40:10 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Mobile Videos Message-ID: <253F4401-E082-4E1D-BC7D-4485D849FC40@sarai.net> Dear All, Below are the transcripts of a discussion on videos shot by mobile phones. The link to the mobile video Mobile Sketches Memory Card 01 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbnSth4cxOY best Jeebesh --------------------------------- Extracts from a discussion on Mobile Videos Cybermohalla Ensemble June 2008 Suraj Rai: A mobile phone... It's in our pockets. We just take it with us to the fair, take it with us to the play, take it with us when going from one place to the other, carry it with us on the way. Kiran Verma: Often, while looking out of the window of a bus, I used to wonder... if I were to pause and think, what would I think about the outside? I made a mobile video of the view from the window of the bus. And then when I saw it later, I realised, while music played and people chatted, and there was a restlessness in the bus, people on the road were very quiet and completely solitary. Jaanu Nagar Just day before yesterday, in the evening, it was raining heavily. It is said a downpour can ruin many things. But when I stood and watched, it seemed to me everything was becoming more resplendent. I found this attractive. Everything looked so different from usual. Descriptions of rain are usually about how people run for shelter, leave what they are doing, But what I was seeing was something different. I thought a photo may not capture this difference. I wanted to see if I could make a video resonate with what I was thinking. I looked through the screen and started recording. Someone held an umbrella, another had covered himself with a plastic sheet. Someone was returning from work, a scarf thrown over his head. People were not running around. Some were buying vegetables for home. And there was a chowmein stall - It was open to the sky. The man was busy frying chowmien in the pan. I thought a photograph would not have helped me capture this style, the special music... Along with the raindrops was the sound "chhan-chhan-chhan", as the stirrer moved in the pan, while everyone stood around under their umbrellas, waiting to eat. Tripan Kumar - That day my parents, my sisters and cousins - they all started dancing together, spontaneously. I had never seen them like this before. I mean, it wasn't any special occasion... We just happened to be in a room together, and everyone started dancing. The young and the old, all danced together. For no special reason. I'd never seen such a burst of joy, expressed in this way, inside a room, before. I was surprised. And I wanted to keep with myself this memory of having been surprised. Nasreen - It could be something banal. But was I attracted by it? If it attracted me, then it was significant enough to be shot. It's possible it remained banal for someone else. But if it seemed important to me, then, yes, it was something worthy of being looked at. Love Anand - For instance, I'd often look out of my window at the shadows cast by clothes put out to dry. These shadows would hover over the entire lane, and create a very special ambience. Shadows would glide over people's faces, knock against things. I'd always try to search a language to think, to describe this environment of shadows. Babli Rai - To make a mobile video, one doesn't need to go out in search of a "special" event or occasion. Mobile videos draw from the simplest moments of our lives. In that sense, the mobile phone camera makes one look for the special within the ordinary. A woman may wear make-up everyday. But to make a mobile video of this simple thing, makes her, her make-up and the ordinariness of that moment, special. Lakhmi Chand - One immediately thinks of a mobile video as being something personal. But mobile phone conversations, sms, photos, videos, ring tone etc have a velocity in everyday life - they get their life from being in circulation. That is why, even though mobile phones have very small screens, the staggered circulation of its images stretches their lived beyond the first moment in which they were taken. Love Anand - In the two years that we have been making mobile videos, it seems to me that all of us have deepened out ways of looking through the act of looking around us, everyday. In writing, we think about what we have seen and how to write it. But in making mobile videos, the view before us unravels itself frame by frame. There is a relation between the practice of writing and the practice of making mobile videos. One requires inner stillness, and the other requires us to still our surroundings. I think with a mobile video, we try to find a stillness amidst the speed around us. We try to find a moment of stillness in the world. Yashoda Singh And in writing? Love Anand - In writing... In writing it is as if we are inhabiting a stillness and trying to write it. By making a mobile video, we still that which is speeding, so we may think from within it. Yashoda Singh - So a mobile video makes us go deeper into something than writing does...? Love Anand - No, I'm not saying that. I can try to understand that which I can see by revisiting it in my mind's eye. But what about that which elides me? A mobile video can help me bring it into my view. So I can be with it. Yashoda Singh - Is it that we see something and immediately know it is interesting, we should make a mobile video of it? Love Anand - No... The question for me is, how do we perceive something that races past us? What can we do to bring it into our field of vision? How can I hold it, even for a moment, while it rushes past me, so I may enter it to think with it? Lakhmi Chand - Mobile phone videos are embedded in networks. This opens up a big playing field. The shrinking and expanding images around us become a player here. As do those minor moments which would not even have been thought of as occasions before. Jaanu Nagar - The world is foggy. When you capture a grain from it, as you may sometimes do with a mobile video, it helps you understand the expanse and the detail. Tripan Kumar - I may have made an image of something that I don't recognise. This image may allow others to address those images which remain unnamed in their lives. Azra Tabassum - A frame is like a hook that gathers that which lies scattered around us. And I join a few of my own hooks to think ahead with the frame. Probably the attempt is that what lies scattered in my life is brought to speech through the movement within the frames. Or maybe I depict the dilations of my eyes and in this I connect the various scattered flickers that are around me. Rakesh Khairalia - In the depiction of things around us, we sometimes see them still, sometimes in movement, and sometimes in turmoil. So this is a way to try to understand how to look. And when this is deepened, we create generative environments. From where does this generative form come into our thinking? This is a question. What is in our imagination that searches the generative both in stillness and in change? Whose mind is this? Where did it come from? Where is it about to go? It is the turmoil of these questions that shapes the way we construct a frame. They are an occasion to think, to rethink what we have thought before, and to plough further. Where can it take us? How deeply are we connected to it? This life, things around us, changes around us, the time in which we live - how are we related to all this? This is how we think with mobile videos. ----------- From sabyesachi at cultureunplugged.com Mon Jun 9 17:28:22 2008 From: sabyesachi at cultureunplugged.com (Sabyesachi Bharti) Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2008 17:28:22 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] festival invite Message-ID: Dear Friend, You are invited to the Film Festival 08 : East Speaks, Here - Asia & Middle East 's first online film festival, now live at www.cultureunplugged.com the hearts & minds of storytellers, from various countries, unveiled at this open film festival presented by Culture Unplugged Studios in partnership with you and all the film-makers participating. the festival, wishing to focus on not just films, nor just film-makers, but the consciousness transplanted thru cinema. Be the jury and Enjoy! Film Festival 08 : East Speaks, Here. http://www.cultureunplugged.com watch, vote and spread the buzz in your community, on your social networks, in your blogs. promote films. promote consciousness. Enjoy, Sabyesachi Bharti www.cultureunplugged.com Culture Unplugged Film Festival Team From deelited at gmail.com Sat Jun 7 18:05:08 2008 From: deelited at gmail.com (deepti) Date: Sat, 7 Jun 2008 18:05:08 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Announcing the Nigah QueerFest '08: www.thequeerfest.com Message-ID: <2617ab630806070535q5bcb779bn37dc563fd3e6c00a@mail.gmail.com> *The Nigah QueerFest '08* *8th-17th August 2008, New Delhi* Following the success of the inaugural festival last year, we are excited to announce the Nigah QueerFest '08 which will be held in multiple venues in Delhi from 8th-17th August 2008. This year, the ten-day celebration of queerness is anchored around August 11th, the date of the first queer protest in Delhi sixteen years ago. The QueerFest remains proud to be entirely funded by individual donations from queer and queerfriendly people from India and abroad in its attempt to continuously expand queer-positive spaces around us. The festival includes a film festival, a photography exhibit, interactive workshops, parties and new publications. All the info you need is on our website: www.thequeerfest.com For submissions, please see these links: Call for films: http://www.thequeerfest.com/Calls08/nqf_filmcall.pdf Call for photo: http://www.thequeerfest.com/Calls08/nqf_photocall.pdf To support us: http://www.thequeerfest.com/Calls08/nqf_supportcall.pdf For updates and announcements, keep checking our website! Cheers Nigah >>Apologies for Cross Posting<< -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From logos.theword at gmail.com Mon Jun 9 12:09:35 2008 From: logos.theword at gmail.com (Logos Theatre) Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2008 22:39:35 -0800 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] A date with Shakespeare - Shreds and Patches at the Alliance Francaise de Bangalore Message-ID: <33bc2ee60806082339h24283722v8b3826de923b6116@mail.gmail.com> He's there in your morning newspaper... he's there on the TV news... that film you are watching is probably ripped off from one of his plays... you use words coined by him all the time - now meet the man himself: Logos Theatre presents Shreds and Patches based on the works of William Shakespeare Devised and performed by: Arka Mukhopadhyay Alliance Francaise, Vasanthnagar June 13th, 11 AM and 2 PM (for schools/colleges only), 6 PM and 8 PM (open to all) June 15th, 11 AM (for schools/colleges only), 2 PM, 6 PM and 8 PM (open to all) Tickets: Rs.125/- for the 13th and Rs. 150/- for the 15th Available at: Alliance Francaise Cafe and Crossword, Residency Road For bookings call: 9945799224 or 9886765198 For bulk bookings: 9845530323 "...refreshing... "Shreds and Patches" was an innovative and comprehensive whole-hearted performance ... leaving the audience with the fact that even today, there is a little bit of Shakespeare in each one of us." - The Hindu "...commendable" - Mid Day "...riveting performance" - WOW, Hyderabad. A little classical, a little contemporary, a little funny, a little serious, and a whole lot of the Bard -- Logos Theatre In the beginning was the word No. 126, 3rd Main Road, Jayamahal Extension, Bangalore 560046 -------------------------------------------------------- If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all. Since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is 't to leave betimes? Let be. -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From J.Dow at leeds.ac.uk Mon Jun 9 23:14:10 2008 From: J.Dow at leeds.ac.uk (Jamie Dow) Date: Mon, 9 Jun 2008 18:44:10 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Bibliography on the Ethics of Free Software Message-ID: Dear listmembers, This post is partly for information, partly to see if this information can be improved upon. It's a bibliography of serious academic work on the ethics of Free (Libre) and Open-Source Software - but mainly Free Software. The bibliography is pasted below - I know that this is an issue on which many on this list take a keen interest. I hope this is a useful source to you. I'd be interested to hear of any important or good pieces that you know of that are not listed here. In that connection, I'm interested specifically on the *ethics* of free and non-free software (so history of the movement, technical evaluations, and sociological analysis are not relevant here. Legal stuff on licensing can go either way - I'm only interested in jurisprudential stuff that deals with the ethical issues.). Best wishes, Jamie Dow *Free Software Bibliography* _2 Classics:_ Raymond, Eric (2001) /The Cathedral and the Bazaar, 2/^/nd/ / Edition, /O’Reilly. Stallman, Richard M (2002) /Free Software, Free Society/, (Intro by Lawrence Lessig, edited by Joshua Gay) Cambridge, MA: Free Software Foundation. _General (lightly vetted, and simply in the order they came to me):_ Falquet, G and Grin, F (2008) “Free Software, Proprietary Software and Linguistic Justice” in eds. Gosseries, A, Marciano, A and Strowel, A (2008) /Intellectual Property and Theories of Justice/, London: Macmillan. Nissenbaum*,* Helen (1995) “Should I copy my Neighbour’s Software?” in eds. Nissenbaum, H & Johnson, D (1995) /Computers, Ethics and Social Values/, Prentice Hall, pp.201-213. Lerner, Joshua and Tirole, Jean (2000) /The Simple Economics of Open Source (NBER working paper series), /NBER. Kimppa, Kai K. (2005) “Intellectual Property Rights in Software—Justifiable from a Liberalist Position? The Free Software Foundations Position in Comparison to John Locke's Concept of Property”, in Richard A. Spinello and Herman T. Tavani (eds.), /Intellectual Property Rights in a Networked World: Theory and Practice/, Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing. Kimppa, Kai K. (2004) “Intellectual Property Rights – or Rights to the Immaterial – in Digitally Distributable Media Gone All Wrong?”, in Lee Freeman and Graham Peace (eds.), /Information Ethics: Privacy and Intellectual Property/, Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing. Kimppa Kai K. (2007) /Problems with the Justification of Intellectual Property Rights in Relation to Software and Other Digitally Distributable Media: PhD thesis/, May 2007. Available (in part) at: _http://www.tucs.fi/publications/attachment.php?fname=DISS83.pdf_ Tavani, Herman T. (2004) “Balancing intellectual property rights and the intellectual commons: a Lockean analysis”, /Information, Communication and Ethics in Society,/ 2: S5–S14 Tavani, Herman T. (2005) “Locke, Intellectual Property Rights, and the Information Commons”, /Ethics and Information Technology,/ 7:87–97 DiBona,Chris; Ockman, Sam and Stone, Mark (1999) /Open Sources : Voices from the Open Source Revolution/, Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media Inc.. DiBona, Chris; Stone, Mark and Cooper, Danese (2005) /Open Sources 2.0 The Continuing Evolution, /Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media Inc.. Sunstein, Cass R. (2006) /Infotopia: How Many Minds Produce Knowledge/, New York: Oxford University Press. Esp. ch 5. Moglen, Eben (2003) /Freeing the Mind: Free Software and the Death of Proprietary Culture, /http://moglen.law.columbia.edu/publications/maine-speech.html. Moglen, Eben (2003) /The dotCommunist Manifesto, /http://emoglen.law.columbia.edu/publications/dcm.html Berry, David M. (2004) “The Contestation of Code: A Preliminary Investigation into the Discourse of the Free/Libre and Open Source Movements”, /Critical Discourse Studies/ 1 (1): 65–89. Berry, David M., and Moss, Giles (2006) “Free and Open Source Software: Opening and Democratising E-Government’s Black Box”, /Information Polity/ 11:21–34. Cusumano, Michael; Shirky, Clay; Feller, Joseph; Fitzgerald, Brian; Hissam, Scott A. and Lakhani, Karim R. (eds.) (2005) /Perspectives on Free and Open Source Software,/ Cambridge: MIT Press. Weber, Steven (2004) /The Success of Open Source,/ Cambridge: Harvard University Press. M. Wolf (moderator), D. Gotterbarn, K. Bowyer, and K. Miller. (2002) “Open Source Software: Intellectual Challenges to the Status Quo”/,/ /ACM, SIGCSE 2002/, Cincinnati, OH (March 2, 2002). F. Grodzinsky, K. Miller and M. Wolf. (2004) “Ethical Issues in Open Source Software”, /Readings in Cyberethics 2/^/nd/ /edition,/ R. Spinello and H. Tavani, eds. Jones and Bartlett, 2004. 351-366. (reprinted conference paper) Miller, Keith (2007) “Open source software and consequential responsibility: GPU, GPL, and the no military use clause”, /APA Newsletter of Philosophy and Computers/, Vol. 6, No. 2 (ed. Boltuc, P), 17-22. _More towards Legal-Theory:_ Rosen, Lawrence (2004) /Open Source Licensing: Software Freedom and Intellectual Property Law,/ Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall PTR. St Laurent, Andrew (2004) /Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing/, O’Reilly. (The Eben Moglen writings may belong in this “legal” category.) Zittrain, Jonathan (2004) “Normative Principles for Evaluating Free and Proprietary Software”, /Harvard Law School Public Law Research Papers,/ No. 98, available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=529862 . From logos.theword at gmail.com Mon Jun 9 12:08:08 2008 From: logos.theword at gmail.com (Logos Theatre) Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2008 22:38:08 -0800 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Workshop : Selves, Masks, Performance - The Stage And Beyond In-Reply-To: <33bc2ee60806082238i4d8821f0wd674f96a658312a1@mail.gmail.com> References: <33bc2ee60806062328t5b82a261vc8bf318e7f953bc2@mail.gmail.com> <33bc2ee60806070959j7306435u98118c988b1a11c3@mail.gmail.com> <33bc2ee60806080306i34258c54s574bcc8f51a8b814@mail.gmail.com> <33bc2ee60806080320g6ab5a6f3h99438b2d42174b47@mail.gmail.com> <33bc2ee60806082238i4d8821f0wd674f96a658312a1@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <33bc2ee60806082338m38993acv24ad73a585a825f4@mail.gmail.com> Move... laugh... cry... emote... argue... resolve... play... and discover a person called 'you', somewhere along the way... Logos Theatre presents Selves, Masks, Performance - The Stage And Beyond A workshop for aspiring performers and for those who want to discover themselves through performance, conducted by artistes from the fields of drama, movement, storytelling, etc. An outline: •Patterns of movement: Threads in space •Breath and voice •Play and playing - ideas, objects and space. •Body sculpts, images, thought tracking, power and hierarchy - conflict and mediation •Associations, images, and imagination. •Improv •Speaking the speech - A physical approach to text. Classical Indian and Greek theatre, Shakespeare, and beyond. •Theatre of the absurd, contemporary performance texts and devised work Feedback from our previous workshops: 'superb and eye-opening' 'very informative and a lot of fun' 'fantastic... very useful. Especially with regard to... realistic conflict resolution' 'insightful and a great learning experience' 'interesting concepts and methods' Dates: June 16th - June 26th. Venue: Abobve Chung Wah, Church Street, Bangalore Workshop timings: 19:00 to 21:30 Fees: Rs. 2,200/- Registration deadline: June 12th. contact: 9880966313/ 9845530323 e-mail: logos.theword at gmail.com Do pass this along -- Logos Theatre In the beginning was the word No. 126, 3rd Main Road, Jayamahal Extension, Bangalore 560046 -------------------------------------------------------- If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all. Since no man has aught of what he leaves, what is 't to leave betimes? Let be. -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From asitredsalute at gmail.com Tue Jun 10 12:58:09 2008 From: asitredsalute at gmail.com (Asit asitreds) Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 12:58:09 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] sez land question and urbanisation in india a marxist persepective Message-ID: Dear Friends and Comrades there is a tendency amongst activists and acdemics to look at the land question, displacement, agrarian crises,and urban poverty in isolation. Iam sending you a write up where I have tried to trace the linkages among the above factors.Please send your comments, criticisms and suggestions . *Special Economic Zones and the Land Question in India* The land question in India has suddenly attained extraordinary importance in the Media for the past few months. Ekta Parishads Janadesh Yatra few months ago, the agitations for notification of the Adivasi forest land rights bill, the social movements trenchant criticisms of the Rehabilitation Act and Land Acquisition Act has brought the land question into the centre stage of the public discourse. However the news media, which work overtime to sell the American dream and Propogating the 9% growth story suffers from a criminal historical amnesia land rights, tenancy and share cropers rights mere central issue of the historical uprisings massive tribal rebellions from Rajmahal hills in the east to Khandesh in the West more fought by the heroic adivasis against the Marauding British imperialists to save their habitats and commons. Land and share croppers rights were the central issue in the great Telengana, Punappra Vylar and Moplah Uprisings. In the post Independent India the fight continued in the strong holds of the organised left and other Social Movements like Naxal bari, Bodh Gaya, Srikakulam were some of the well known areas while the struggle continued all over the sub continent. In fact, land to the tiller has been the central slogan of the organized left other organisations like Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Vahini fought for land rights against the Bodh Gaya Mahant struggles against tribal land alienation is a perpetual phenomenon in all over tribal India. Postcolonial social movement added a new dimension to the land question in India this time the protest against forcible displacement from the homes, habitats and commons for Mega developmental projects. Bigdams, Mines, Factories and Industrial townships were declared to be the temples of Modern India, the Indian ruling classes took a path of capitalist development through heavy Industrialisation forcibly displacing millions adivasi's peasants from all over India. There were protests in all over India. Arundhati Roy in her essay Greater common goods says that by early nintees more the four crore farmers and adivasis were displaced due to mega development projects. Post-Independent India has seen massive protests in Hirakud, Baliapal, Gopalpur, Koel Karo, Netarhat, Narmada Valley, Kalinganagar, Singrauli and many other places against their forcible displacement for construction of dams, steel plants, thermal power stations etc. Displacement, right over natural resources including forest and commons, against usury and feudal opression has been the main issues of discontent in Rural India. India is endowed with huge natural resources and vast fertile lands, forest and labour power, but the paradox is in this country of enormous wealth majority of the population live in extreme poverty. The Indian ruling classes used the label of socialism following independence to adopt a public sector supported capitalist path of development sustained by rapacious neocolonial plunder through bretton woods institutions and imperialist transnational corporations. This paradigm is founded on the predatory profit oriented mercantile principle of inequality as an essential condition of development and decimation of peasantry through the continuation of the extreme backwardness of agriculture. According to the Arjun Sen Gupta committee report on unorganised sector more than 75% of the population subsist on twenty rupees a day around 20% of the population which includes majority of the Dalits and Adivasis hover on the brink news of starvation deaths poor in everyday from different regions of the country. Excruciating poverty causes mass starvation, rampant disease and premature deaths amidst vulgar affluence for a few. In addition large sections of the population have to face crude discrimination in the form of caste, religion, ethnicity and gender reduce them to the status of a slave in their own country. About 70% of the country's population depends on agriculture directly and indirectly even today. Capital intensive developments has been foisted by the Neocolonial masters for the profits multination corporations who supply agricultural machines, fertilizers pesticides and seeds. The policy has proved to be not only anti poor but against the interests of the country as a whole. It has rendered agricultural labourers and small farmers nonviable who are loosing their lands joining the impoverished reserve army of labour. Under the pressure from the bretton woods institutions subsidies are with drawn while the costs of inputs soar making farming unviable for the majority of farmers especially small middle and marginal peasants. Rising costs of input and low prices of primary commodities has pushed agriculture and its dependant into the brink of disaster. The neoliberal state has been with drawing credits through nationalised bank and cooperatives pushing the farmers to take loans from usurious moneylenders forcing thousands of farmers to commit suicide. The new agricultural policy of 2000 has transformed the very paradigm of agricultural development by throwing the concept of land to the tiller to winds. In its place it introduced priority for cash crops and agriculture for profits to facilitate Mnc's and corporate take over, in the process small and middle farmers are forced to commit suicide and are driven off agriculture. Infact the phenomenon of reverse tenancy has been taking place in the name of contract farming at the behest of agribusiness.In fact, the MNCS and Indian corporations have emerged as new feudal lords in this predatory neoliberal era of global enclosure and ruthless 21st century primitive accumulation. The powerful class of upper caste absentee landlords represented by the Kulak Lobby in politics are the biggest facilitators for entry of International big business into Indian agriculture in spite of the much flaunted but failed cry about the land reform measures, most of the cultivable lands are in the hands of 10% of the landed gentry. Neither the land ceiling act nor security of Tenancy and other land reforms acts have been implemented effectively during the last six decades. While their is no security of livelihood of landless labourers in spite of the much trumpeted national employment guarantee act, so massive distress migrations to urban slums are a living reality of rural India. The feudal relations in land is one of the biggest reason for the backwardness in agriculture and the chief cause for the extreme poverty and socio economic disparity in rural India. Under the pressure of radical peasant movements land reform acts were made with enough 100 loopholes to circumvent it with the active connivance of the corrupt upper caste judiciary and bureaucracy. Therefore radical land reforms with the principle of land to the tiller is the highest priority for India Today. With neoliberal restructuring of Global Capitalism known as globalisation, the Indian ruling classes adopted the New Economic Policies in 1991 giving up all the pretensions of self reliance, egalitarianism, welfare state, non aligned status etc. Special Economic Zones were a logical outcome of this anti people neoliberal paradigm. A Special Economic Zone Act was passed in the Indian Parliament in 2005 various states have their own SEZ Acts. Salient Features of SEZs A Special Economic Zone is an especially demarcated area of land, owned and operated by a private company, which is deemed to be foreign territory for the purpose of trade, duties and tariffs. SEZs will enjoy exemptions from custom duties, income tax, sales tax, service tax. From the point of view of industry, a SEZ is an industrial cluster with assured infrastructure aimed at increasing the country's export the stated purpose of creating SEZs across India is the promotion of exports. The Commerce and Industries Minister Kamal Nath Claims that exports will ultimately grow five times, GDP will rise 2% and the 30 lakh jobs will be generated by SEZs across India. His also claimed by the Govt. that SEZ will attract global manufacturing through foreign direct investment, enable transfer of Modern Technology and will create incentives for infrastructure. As of 30 November 2007 according to the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, total no. of approved SEZs are 760, formally approved SEZs are 404, SEZs with in principle approval are 165 SEZs notified after 2005 Act are 172 SEZs functional before SEZs Act are 19. Many more applications await processing. Total are under SEZs, in 20 states across India is expected to be over 200,000 hectares, an area the Size of National capital region. This land predominantly agricultural and multi cropped is capable to producing close to one million food grains. If SEZs are seen to be successful in the future and more cultivated land is acquired, they will endanger the food security of the country. Displacement and loss of livelihoods in SEZs Estimate Show that close to 114,000 farming household (each house hold on an average comprising five members) and an additional 82,000 farm worker families who are dependent upon these farms for their livelihoods will be displaced. In other words, at least one million people who primarily depend upon agriculture for their survival will face eviction. Experts calculate that the total loss of income to the farming and farm workers family will be at least Rs. 212 crore a year. This does not include other income tax (for instance artisans) due to the demise of local rural economies. The government promise humane displacement followed by relief and rehabilitation. However historical records does not offer any room for hope on this count an estimated 40 million people (of which nearly 40% area Adivasis and 25% Dalits) have lost their land since 1950 on account of displacement due to large development projects. At least 75% of them still await rehabilitation. Almost 80% at the agricultural population owns only about 17% of the total agricultural land, making them near landless farmers. Farmers families and communities depend on a piece of land (for work, grazing) than those who simply own it. Employment in SEZs The growth of employment in the entire organised sector since inception of the economic reforms in 1991 has been negligible. The total employment in the organised sector is still less then 3 crore. Even in the IT and ITES the boom areas of the economy employment is less than 15 crore (60% of SEZs are for IT). The Indian labour force is estimated at 45 to 55 Crore. Thanks to growing automation modern manufacturing grows joblessty around the world. In India automobile production has grown rapidly, while employing hers labour than before. With more automation, rganized services also require limited supplies of labour. SEZ are actually land grab by the real estate mafia and the coroporate sector What are SEZs likely to become in few years time? According to a clause in the SEZ Act (section 5(2) as much as 75% of the area under large SEZs above 1000 hectares) can be used for non-industrial purposes. What will the remainder of the land used for? This lacuna in the law is likely to become a loophole for massive accumulation of land by private players including the real estate mafia, developers and property dealers for the purposes of real estate speculation. This explains why so many of them have been buying land for SEZs. In fact it may well be the case that the rationale for the above clause in the SEZ Act is the uncertainty surrounding the economic attractiveness of SEZs. If adequate productive investment is not forthcoming, the SEZ developer can at least cash in on the land value. Conglomerates like Reliance already own upwards of 100,00 acre of land in the countywide (courtesy - seminar no. 582, sez issue Feb 2008). In the light of the real estate boom and imposition of JNNURM SEZs have also emerged as a new form of colonial urbanisation. As all of know the majority of urban population are slum dwellers. Slums are not made by slum dwellers, not even by the poor they may actually be built by the poor or by the not so poor slumlord, but they are conceptualised and designed by the capitalist system itself. They exist because the capitalist system needs them. Being designed upon making a profit by exploiting labour the system requires that the cost of labour power kept as low as possible. Imagine if every citizen of Mumbai or Delhi had to buy a flat or a house. Would that be possible on the wages that they are getting today? Even in the organised sector? In Mumbai even a small flat on the outskirts of the city would not cast less than Rs 20 lakhs. Even in the organised sector a worker, with diligence and frugality throughout his life, cannot expect to save that amount even after a lifetime of working. With the rise of capitalism after the renaissance in Europe, many new cities came up all over the world. Many of the cities that we live in today are a product of these times. New York and Mumbai provide prime examples. These were industrial cities made with the express purpose of utilising the new opportunities for vastly enhanced exploitation of workers afforded by the Industrial revolution. Even the older cities like Rome, London and Delhi had to adapt to this new world order. From the beginning of 18th and 19th centuries and get industrialised. These not able to make this transformation perished, as cities - like Susa in Persia and Badami in Karnataka. In today's globalised context after the enactment of SEZ Act it is necessary to see the new colonial urbanisation and its connection with, displacement, agrarian crisis, growth of slums and migration. Some growth centres like, Noida, Gurgaon, Bangalore etc tell the sordid human drama behind their glazed tiles and golf courses. It is interesting to look at the neocolonial urban growth in Maharastra in context of the special economic zones. It will lead us to the reality behind slum demolitions and the hidden hands of the Bombay under world, the builders mafia and the honorable members of the Indian big bourgeoisie. Maharashtra has always been the favourite destination for investment, especially foreign investment in India. At one time the most Industrialised state in country, it still ranks among the top. However in terms of investment it is clearly, without any close rival, the top most state in India. For example, the amount of bank credit disbursed by public sector banks, in Maharashtra was over 3,71,000 crores in June 2006 (About 32% of the total National Figure). The next closest state was Delhi with less than half the investment in Maharashtra. The total amount in investment projects under execution, in September 2006, in Maharashtra was over Rs. 92,000 crores and the total of investment projects at the same time was around 2,53,000 crores, the highest in the country. In terms of foreign direct investment (FDI) The Economic Survey 2005-06 states "In terms of FDI approvals, however, Maharashtra topped the list followed by Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat. In some estimates Maharashtra accounts for almost one-third of the total foreign investment in India. Fittingly, Maharashtra is also therefore, the state with the largest number of SEZS (both formally approved in principle) with 89 formally approved and another 32 SEZS approved in principle is more than twice the total area of those which have already been formally approved. This is because the in principle stage mainly applies to those large SEZS where the land has still to be acquired in total, all the SEZS planned till today will occupy around 60,000 hectares of land. Since the new Economic Policies were adopted Maharashtra has seen fast urban growth. Maharashtra has the highest level of urbanization in India at 42% Compared to 25.7% percent as the all India average. In the context of Land question and Sezs writing about the urbanization experience in Maharashtra is important because this urbanization has not been in the normal organic fashion as in the advanced capitalist countries in the west. The urbanization of Maharashtra has been artificial engrafted urbanization. The people have been driven out of their land by the devastation of agriculture. It must be noted that while Maharashtra has the highest level of urbanization in India and has one of the highest per capita incomes in the country. It also has the lowest yield per hectare of food grains in the country at 872 kg/hectare as against 1667 kg / hectare as the national average. It is no coincidence that Maharashtra also has the highest level of peasant suides in the country. It may be argued that the same process of devastating agriculture to feed the cities has taken place in cities like London and Paris in the 17th and 18th centuries and the US during the Civil war However though the condition in urban Maharashtra may be as dismal and revolting as the Western Countries in the 17th and 18th centuries, this misery and poverty is painted not on the background of the London of that time but on the Canvas of today's Mumbai and Delhi where the rich have the latest Cars in the world and the costliest properties in the world. This makes all the difference in the world. The very degree of massiveness' in the cities of today makes a qualitative difference from the cities of medieval times. Engrafted into this is the unthinkable advanced system of communication and transport. This brings people into more close and intimate contact with the rest of the world. All this makes the level of disparity that is produced and reproduced in cities like Mamba and Delhi, qualitatively different from that in medieval London or Paris. The people thrown out of agriculture (both in Maharashtra and out side) have been forced to stay in hovels in over crowded and disease ridden slums in the cities. No new cities have been suburban satellites of Mega Polis's. Cities like "New Mumbai and Noida were originally planned as independent cities with their own industrial area. Commercial areas and transport systems. However, they have only developed as suburbs to larger and older cities like Mumbai or Delhi. This has not helped to solve the problems of the cities but only has accentuated them. It is again no. coincidence that all most all the Sezs are being built only on the fringes of cities - like satellites all over again. A rough Study based upon the "in principle" approved Sez's in Maharashtra shows that around 67% of the land for Sezs's is within 100 km. Of Mumbai. If the cities of Pune and Nagpur are also considered, then a figure of 85% of land for Sezs is arrived at, and if Nashik and Aurangabad are also thrown then about 98% of the land for Sezs in within 100 km of these five cities. Thus there will be no real development. The rural areas will be further devastated. Farmers will commit more suicides larger slums with even more squalor will be created. There will be more crime, more communal riots, more atrocities against dalits and more attacks and exploitation of women as always happens in the condition of squalor. However the Sezs are not the only instruments for grabbing the lands of the peasantry, millions of acres of land are taken by national and international big business for construction of Greenfield projects, private airports, tourist resorts , health tourism, smart cities, entertainment parks, building of private townships for the superrich including vast areas for golf courses and luxury hotels. To provide infrastructure for super profits of local and multinational big business the state is acquiring millions of acres of fertile land to build industrial zones, golden corridors, express ways including the much flaunted golden quadrangle express highway systems. This is the glaring phenomenon of contemporary global enclosure of forcible depeasantisation ruthlessly divesting the producers from their means of production, cultural moorings and commons. Adding salt to the injury the neoliberal state is resorting to the most predatory inhuman primitive accumulation of forcing the farmers and adivasi's out of their land when the entire peasantry is reeling under acute agrarian crisis where more than 2 lakh farmers have committed suicide in the past decade under the neoliberal economic regime. Another despicable instrument of forcibly uprooting adivasi's from their habitats and livelihoods is the New Mines Policy. The dangers of New Mining Policy has been brilliantly Analysed by friend Mansi Ashar in September October issue of Combat law 2007. (See mined games by Mansi Asher Combat law Volume 6 issues 5 2007) The key reason being that several recommendation and clauses of the new national mine policy were not acceptable to mineral rich states and Mining Companies, especially steel makers with every party wanting to maintain their control over the rich mineral resources of the country. What has slipped the public eye is probably the very critical changes being proposed to ensure that investments in the mining sector gets a boost by deregulating procedures of environmental and forest clearances. These clearances have been seen as hurdles for quick implementation of mining projects in the past 10 years. It is interesting to note that the sector which was essentially dominated by the public sector companies has in the past decade become the money bags for companies ranging from domestic giants like Tata, Jindal and Birla to global companies like Mittal, Posco, Vedanta, BHP, Billiton Riotinto et al. Hence the stakes of the market are higher, and the new mineral policy is paving the way for second generation reform in the mining sector in India to protect and promote these stakes (Mansi Asher, Combat law). It is needless to say that real estate and the construction boom is the motor force behind Indias high growth Indicators. Infact the whole country has been converted into a construction site. The real estate and mafia developer and other unscrupulous speculators make millions while the small and middle peasantry is pauperized. In this context the value of land should be critically examined. The entire valuation process is arbitrary and exploitative while the builders and developers buy cheap land sell the developed plots many times higher than the original market price of the said land. On the other hand the peasantry is paid a pittance for the land forcibly acquired through the draconian land acquisition act. In fact land is never valued in financial terms by Adivasi's and farmers for them agriculture is a way of life and they consider land as their mother. For adivasi's the commons, the forests, pastures and water resources are equally important as the tilled land and is sacred. In any Mega projects these are snatched away from them which is like taking the fish out of water. Of late this notion of sacredness has become a powerful instrument of resistance by the adivasi's for protecting their habitats. In March this year thousands of adivasi's gathered in Niyamagiri hills in Lanjigarh Orissa to worship. They consider the Niyamagiri hills as sacred and this mass worship has become a powerful symbol of protest to save their habitats greedily eyed by the Vedanta Aluminium Company. In nearby Baphlimali hills in Kashipur a heroic struggle is ongoing on for past twelve years to save their habitats from Utkal Alumina at the time of writing this note a dharma is still go in on against Utkal Alumina by Prakrutik Sampad Suraksha Parishad at Kashipur in Rayagada district of Orissa. It is important to note that the artisans, sharecroppers and landless labourers are the biggest loosers in any forcible land acquisition process they loose both their livelihoods and habitats and don't get any thing in return other than forced destitution and marginilasation . The entire peasantry is up in arms against their forcible eviction all over India for Sezs and other projects. The blood bath at Nandigram was a signal event of peasant resistance against forcible displacement, Fierce Struggles against Sezs and other projects are going on in Raigad Maharashtra against reliance Maha Mumbai Sez, against Posco in Jagatsingh Pur Orissa, Infact entire Orissa has become a battle field. Farmers are struggling against proposed Sezs in Kakinada in Andhra, Mangalore in Karnataka, Jhajjar in Haryana, against the proposed entertainment Sez in gorai near Mumbai and so on. The land question, the fundamental failure of Independent India, has become one of most debatable and controversial topics today. Although the mass media and the dominant parliamentary political parties suppress any public mention of radical land reform, land to the tillers and the abolition of feudal remnants. The irrepressible reality raised the question in one or another form. Today land grabbing by the private corporate sector, both Indian and of foreign origins especially the MNCs of advanced capitalist countries, in the name of so called "development" and with the aid of government agencies and state machinery, has become a subject that can not be avoided. The reason at base is sixty years of failure to meet the legitimate demands of many crore landless peasants who depend on agricultural land for their subsistence but have no claims deemed fully worthy by the judiciary, still the firmest bastion of colonial mentality. With the introduction of the new economic policy since 1991 what has been a half century of localized injustice and repression became a qualitatively different phenomenon; the theft of land on a scale that could not be kept from public attention. Thus the land question is the most important question in India today and the slogan "Land to the tiller the core political slogan today. The struggle for land is going on all over India. *Asit** Note- For the case studies of farmers resistance struggle against Reliance Maha Mumbai SEZ in Raigarh Maharastra and POSCO, Jagatsinghpur, Orissa.See the author's personal webpage at www.revolutionarynucleus.blogspot.com * From jeebesh at sarai.net Tue Jun 10 16:39:26 2008 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh) Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:39:26 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Cyclonudist Message-ID: From a friend in Paris: [On Saturday, a "cyclonudist" protest was organised in Paris : women and men who wanted to cycle naked, to claim for their rights to circulate safely on their bikes in the city. Police said : only upper waist nakedness allowed for men, not for women (the video shows a Green member of the City hall council cycling with her breast covered by her national "scarf", the emblema of her elected status). 3 people have been arrested by the police for so called "sexual exhibition" charges. Exhibiting naked women on giant advertising posters, all over the city, is definitely less provocative and dangerous than 3 naked cyclists. Thanks to the French police, our morality standards are well guarded. Welcome to the 21st century, thank you Mr Sarkozy. To see the video of the naked "mob" http://videos.leparisien.fr/video/iLyROoafYg3T.html ] From project.labels at gmail.com Tue Jun 10 17:28:57 2008 From: project.labels at gmail.com (Raheema Begum) Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:28:57 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] And proclaim to mankind the pilgrimage... Message-ID: Hi everyone! This is to open out the labels game and announce the completion of a poora cycle on the labels blog.I invite you to play! -- http://whosebody.wordpress.com *And*, as always I invite a long term involvement in my work especially towards making collaborative stories and performances from those stories. If you follow the narrative pattern of the game then I would ask that you think about each level a little closely and see if you can fit your life into it, in any way.If you wish to work with that story, then allow us to colour it bring it to life in the form of a performance, about you. So do write in and let me know, because this all I'm saying until we go any further! Best Wishes, Raheema. From oishiksircar at gmail.com Tue Jun 10 23:26:47 2008 From: oishiksircar at gmail.com (OISHIK SIRCAR) Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:26:47 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Play for Peace: Workshop in June In-Reply-To: <62cba67a0806101047n23a06e5bsf044b752d1842c48@mail.gmail.com> References: <62cba67a0806101047n23a06e5bsf044b752d1842c48@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <62cba67a0806101056q1e1b7d5bu2c7a1ecbdda79ea1@mail.gmail.com> Please circulate widely PEACEWORKS, An initiative of The Seagull Foundation for the Arts presents A 3-day intensive workshop on peace-building and conflict resolution conducted by 'Play for Peace' (PFP) – a global organization now in its 10th year which brings together children, youth and organizations from communities in conflict. PFP has worked extensively with young people, notably with Hindu-Muslim and Arab-Jew children/ youth in Gujarat, and in Israel. PFP is a process of community building. It is the creation of ongoing learning partnerships that teaches people to be leaders for peace. The workshop is aimed at training socially committed young people and professionals with the PFP tools to become peacemakers in their own unique ways. WORKSHOP VENUE: 46 Satish Mukherjee Road, Calcutta-700026 (near the Rashbehari crossing) WORKSHOP DATES 27, 28, 29 JUNE 2008 10 am TO 5 pm daily ELIGIBILITY: AGE 16 AND ABOVE REGISTRATION FEE: RS 500 for students Rs. 700 for sponsored candidates SEATS: 30 LAST DATE FOR REGISTRATION: 20 JUNE 2008 CONTACT: INDRANI ROY or SUMEET THAKUR at 2455 6942/43 REGISTER NOW AT SEAGULL ARTS & MEDIA RESOURCE CENTRE 36C S.P. MUKHERJEE ROAD, CALCUTTA-700025 www.seagullindia.com www.playforpeace.org -- OISHIK SIRCAR Scholar in Women's Rights Faculty of Law, University of Toronto oishiksircar at gmail.com oishik.sircar at utoronto.ca From indersalim at gmail.com Wed Jun 11 03:29:24 2008 From: indersalim at gmail.com (inder salim) Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:59:24 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Vivek Narayanan: Readings in Amerika In-Reply-To: <79705fb50806100617x793053dl9f4b229a0d941bd0@mail.gmail.com> References: <79705fb50806100617x793053dl9f4b229a0d941bd0@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <47e122a70806101459g92be0cag47bc386334fff941@mail.gmail.com> hi my dear poet i yearn to see u in a dream you ,be in america or not-america my best of wishes and deep hugs and love to you as ever is On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 2:17 PM, Vivek Narayanan wrote: > Hi friends, > > I'm sending this note perhaps a little indiscriminately, since you never > know who (or whose friends) who might be in New York, Boston or Chicago this > summer... If it's an irritant, do let me know please. Need tips on how to > do this mailing list thing efficiently and non-intrusively. > > If you are around, I hope you can come to one of my readings: > > *Boston*: tonight (June 10), with Katia Kapovich (Russian poet, and one of > the most amazing, intense poets I know of, the very embodiment of poetry) at > Pierre Menard Gallery. Sorry if you weren't invited earlier! The event > invitation is here: > > http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/event.php?eid=19886680094&ref=mf > > This event kindly sponsored by Fulcrum Annual and Pierre Menard Gallery. > > *New York* > > 1. Friday June 20: Bronx Museum, 1040 Grand Concourse, Bronx, NY. (T: > 718-681-6000) 7-9 pm. > > I will be performing with Rodrigo Toscano, Camille Guthrie, Drew Gardner, > Brandon Downing and Monica de la Torre, for an event linked to the ongoing > show at the Bronx Museum, "How Soon Is Now?", featuring 30 emerging > artists. Each of us will be collaborating with an artist in the exhibition; > for my part, I am working with Laura Napier on a performance in relation to > her fascinating piece that looks at crowd formations in New York City: > > http://www.lauranapier.com/there.pdf > http://www.lauranapier.com/ > > It's really interesting to watch the different kinds of crowds from the > vantage points listed in the brochure, so do go there! > > This event kindly sponsored by Poets and Writers and the Bronx Museum. > > > > 2. Sunday June 22: Zinc Bar Poetry Reading Series, Greenwich Village: > http://www.zincbar.com/ . 6.30 pm. > > I'll be reading with Michael Scharf. This event kindly sponsored by Poets > and Writers. > > > > *Chicago*: Thursday June 26 (location TBA). > > This event kindly sponsored by Desilit.org and the Kiran Bavikatte > Foundation. > > > > I'll also be in LA (July 1 - 9) and San Francisco (July 9-15), and would be > open to doing readings in those cities. > > > > Cheers > Vivek -- http://indersalim.livejournal.com From luigi at artificialia.com Wed Jun 11 14:04:32 2008 From: luigi at artificialia.com (Luigi Pagliarini) Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:34:32 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] move final release In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <483219C102CB5CFB@> (added by postmaster@aa012msr.fastwebnet.it) re:move final release [http://www.move2digital.net/en/index.html] fernando casás [http://www.fernandocasas.es] intervention uses leds put together by francis naranjo [http://www.francisnaranjo.blogspot.com] in a mural outside expocoruña exhibition centre [http://www.expocoruna.com] fernando casás launches the first of the series of leds which have been set by francis naranjo in a display unit outside expocoruña trade centre. his work _despois de m/arte_, is a contribution to the collective works titled _re:move final release_ on the 10 july 2008 at 12 noon begins the temporary interventions of the electronic display unit set outside expocoruña exhibition centre fernando casás, the galician artist known by his ephemeral work on nature, will open up these series with _despois de m/arte_, his first digital project. he succeeds thanks to his treatment of what is ephemeral which goes together well with this luminous writing on 15 leds which are the framework of frances naranjo´s display unit each intervention will last around a month and will be part of the _re:move final release_ a collective work which is one of the fundamental components of new media art; without each artist's contribution a complete production would not be possible. curator: nilo casares [http://comisario.net] artists: fernando casás (gondomar, spain) [http://www.fernandocasas.es] darko fritz (amsterdam, holland, born in croatia) [http://darkofritz.net] dionisio cañas (tomelloso, spain) [http://www.dionisioc.com] yucef mehri (venezuela) [http://www.cibernetic.com] eva y franco mattes (europe) [http://www.0100101110101101.org] luigi pagliarini (pescara, italia) [http://www.artificialia.com/luigi] arcángel constantini (méxico df, méxico) [http://www.unosunosyunosceros.com] antonio mendoza (los angeles, usa) [http://www.subculture.com] fernando llanos (méxico df, méxico) [http://www.fllanos.com] gazira babeli (second life) [http://gazirababeli.com] brian mackern (montevideo, uruguay) [http://netart.org.uy] jimpunk (paris, france) [http://www.jimpunk.com/] From anivar.aravind at gmail.com Wed Jun 11 14:42:53 2008 From: anivar.aravind at gmail.com (Anivar Aravind) Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:42:53 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] ISO has put the OOXML standardisation process on hold Message-ID: <484F9715.5070402@gmail.com> http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/10/2018238&from=rss schliz alerts us that ISO, in response to the four appeals (Denmark, India, Brazil, South Arica) filed in recent weeks, has put the OOXML standardization process on hold. Here is ISO's press release, which says that ISO/IEC DIS 29500 will not be published for at least "several months" while the appeals process goes forward. Importantly, as ISO's press release states, 'according to the ISO/IEC rules, a document which is the subject of an appeal cannot be published as an ISO/IEC International Standard while the appeal is going on. Therefore, the decision to publish or not ISO/IEC DIS 29500 as an ISO/IEC International Standard cannot be taken until the outcome of the appeals is known'. From moinakb at yahoo.com Thu Jun 12 20:27:30 2008 From: moinakb at yahoo.com (moinak biswas) Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 07:57:30 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Journal of the Moving Image No. 6 Message-ID: <198611.78277.qm@web55003.mail.re4.yahoo.com> Journal of the Moving Image, No. 6, issue on 'Sound Cultures in Indian Cinema', is available online http://www.jmionline.org/jmi6.htm Moinak Biswas On behalf of the Editorial Borad Department of Film Studies Jadavpur University, Calcutta 700 032 From info at fondation-langlois.org Fri Jun 13 01:20:39 2008 From: info at fondation-langlois.org (La fondation Daniel Langlois) Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:50:39 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] Daniel Langlois Foundation Newsletter Message-ID: <282a768ee57c32112e04c324388b7ec7@fdl-webmestre> An installation by Juliana Rosales in Montreal >From April to May 2008, artist and architect Juliana Rosales from Montevideo (Uruguay) participated in a research and experimentation residency at OBORO's MediaLab as part of the program Research and Experimentation Residency in Montreal for Professional Artists from Emerging Countries or Regions, offered jointly by the Daniel Langlois Foundation and OBORO. Inside the lobby of the Caisse populaire Desjardins du Mont-Royal in Montreal, Rosales has created a botanical installation with native plants from the Laurentian. Various sensors monitor a range of environmental parameters as well as the reactions of passers-by: http://www.fondation-langlois.org/html/e/page.php?Lstsrv=200806&NumPage=2093 Latin American Electroacoustic Music Collection We are pleased to present the third component of the research project conducted by Ricardo Dal Farra, the Latin American Electroacoustic Music Collection. Mr. Dal Farra has received permission from 33 Latin-American composers to post an additional 200 audio files on the Foundation's Web site. In all, 231 electroacoustic pieces are now available online, which translates into more than 40 hours of music: http://www.fondation-langlois.org/html/e/page.php?Lstsrv=200806&NumPage=556 From berlin at bodhiart.com Thu Jun 12 19:10:22 2008 From: berlin at bodhiart.com (BodhiBerlin) Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2008 09:40:22 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Invitation for BlindStars StarsBlind by Shilpa Gupta Message-ID: <1102132797596.1101864521903.3563.1.130935DE@scheduler> Shilpa Gupta Berlin Invite [http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001HuSWhFyY2C1-s1xrvNxHoz3hvLTH_icHeFtanFsdEP1IK1LlAnTVefwskO0iXZ-MgKiqWdCBFwAAon8-FkLYZQbu7487OqObiqB01Q-GpBPdQIhVZPsWNhXdGkWjLdN4zn_gvfP156D19fRSkoRosFz4rb3NycWDa5zxlrj625BzK2ZfH6gAeA==] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BlindStars StarsBlind Vernissage June 13th, 2008 6 pm at BodhiBerlin 8 pm at Galerie Volker Diehl BodhiBerlin and Galerie Volker Diehl are proud to present the first monograph exhibition in Germany of the eminent media artist, Shilpa Gupta. Both galleries have collaborated with the artist to allow both Berliners and an international audience further access to her particular use of regional and political geography in which she tackles issues that include notions of borders within and in-between media, religion and nations. The work of Shilpa Gupta has been widely shown in the context of major group exhibitions, including the Media City Seoul Biennale in 2004, the Biennales of Sydney, Shanghai, Havana, and Liverpool in 2006, and Lyon in 2007. She has had a number of monograph shows in New York and in Bombay, where her oeuvre has been widely acclaimed and welcomed for its vehement reworking of the mixed media tradition. Her ensemble of works, begun after graduating in 1997 from the B.F.A. Sculpture Program at the prestigious Sir J. J. School of Fine Arts, Bombay, has included the use of interactive mediums fused with traditional sculptural and photographic elements. Performance has also played a major role in demonstrating her ability to contextualise difficult contemporary subjects and subjectivities, including personal space, and the abrupt global relationship to security and alterity: the internal experience of what Jacques Derrida aptly called "difference". BlindStars StarsBlind is an apt title for an exhibition and a book by an artist who uses language in a fragmented form of translation. The works by Gupta talk about region, border, and territory to express themselves in their own kind of historical intention. This exhibition highlights a spectrum of works that help to grasp those concerns that drive her aesthetic and media judgments in the age of global mediation and cultural translation. In an interview with Shaheen Merali, she described her concerns as follows: "Often artists like myself who are working in a so called 'activist' role become branded as activist artists". The role of activism is a driving force for many of her observations as she visually vocalizes her deeply felt concerns for the plight of those who remain speechless and are made silent through disempowering conditions. The crossover between facilitation, production, performance, and gallery practice creates a rich mix that helps render the agonizing cosmopolis of cultural exchange and political discourse. Triggering such mechanisms and positions, Gupta allows us to evaluate the lived and perceived experiences of our realities by bringing together a number of contradictions in the fabric of contemporary life and our notions of freedom. Furthermore, Gupta's leanings towards a more democratising, even socialist, agenda in terms of ideology allows her to remain somewhat skeptical of the role of the market place in the artistic realm. Her works question this contradictory position in both their construction and in their context. In creating a world as her ambition, she helps us to manage the necessary labour in looking at and measuring a strategic globalisation, which is based on disruption, rather than focussing on a crisis state where consumerism seems to be the only measurable form of change. The exhibition BlindStars StarsBlind prompted an identically titled publication which will be launched at the end of June 2008. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Forward email http://ui.constantcontact.com/sa/fwtf.jsp?m=1101864521903&ea=announcements at sarai.net&a=1102132797596 This email was sent to announcements at sarai.net, by berlin at bodhiart.com Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe(TM) http://visitor.constantcontact.com/d.jsp?v=001ZfiuR_73g8obnMC1KRdBd9agKBrt5l_1Ec5zydF54cP5ztxR7t_Bt9LVXSGmt1dvDFcAN8J1P8ETdt0DljFinw%3D%3D&p=un Privacy Policy: http://ui.constantcontact.com/roving/CCPrivacyPolicy.jsp BodhiBerlin | Hamburger Bahnhof | Invaliden Strasse 50-51 | Berlin | Berlin | 10557 | Germany -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From sreejatac at gmail.com Fri Jun 13 15:21:54 2008 From: sreejatac at gmail.com (sreejata roy) Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2008 10:51:54 +0100 Subject: [Reader-list] Invitation Message-ID: Khoj Studios invite you for the Open Day of the City[In]visible by Sreejata Roy Associate Residency (Community Art Project) on Sunday, 15th June 2008 Part I An Exciting Space is Opening Soon Venue: Open ground in front of Gyan Deep School Time: 5pm-7pm Part II Paar Nazar Ke Venue: Khoj Studio 6:30pm onwards Khoj Studios S-17 Khirki Extension New Delhi - 110017 Tel: 11 65655873/74 http://khojworkshop.org/ From khurramparvez at yahoo.com Fri Jun 13 16:37:26 2008 From: khurramparvez at yahoo.com (Khurram Parvez) Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2008 04:07:26 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] =?utf-8?q?=E2=80=A6and_injustice_for_all?= Message-ID: <551355.75602.qm@web31813.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Press Statement by the Relatives of the  victims of  Triple Murder case   The acquittal of Abdur Rashid Khan Alias Rashid Billa (SDPO) and the other police officials responsible for the killing of three youth namely Nazir Ahmed Gilkar, Javed Ahmed Shah and Ghulam Rasool Mattoo who were arrested on 23rd of June 1999 is condemnable and serious miscarriage of justice.   On 23rd June 1999 the trio while returning from the marriage ceremony were detained by the Soura Police station, where Nazir Ahmed Gilkar was tortured to death and his body was thrown in Dal Lake . The other two detainees were taken to Sheeri Baramulla where they were killed and buried secretively in Kichama graveyard.   The case became high profile and was entrusted to Crime Branch and accused except Rashid Billa who remained absconding, were arrested and put on trial. Rashid Billa was believed to be living under the protection and patronage of then IGP Mr. Gill and staying at his farm house. The accused got the case transferred to Jammu . The Special Leave to Appeal filed against the transfer of case to Jammu which caused inconvenience to the family members of the victims was dismissed by the Supreme Court of India on 01-10-2001.   During trial out of 63 witnesses only 36 deposed and all the police witnesses turned hostile. They even contradicted their own statements made under section 161 of Cr. P.C. thereby paving way for the acquittal of the accused. According to the Sessions Judge Jammu, observations:   “The police witnesses on whom the prosecution could depend upon ion the case have not deposed even a word against the accused. The police witnesses have in totality denied the occurrence having taken place in the police station Soura. The statement of the police witnesses at the very first glance proves fatal for the prosecution. Their statements were very key for the prosecution as very important link could be established connecting the accused with the commission of offence. If the police witnesses are not supporting the prosecution version then who else is expected to depend for the prosecution.   Judiciary has now become very sensitive against acquittals in the cases where the investigation remains under pressure or the witnesses are turned hostile. The important cases like Priyadarshini Mattoo’s, Jessica Lal’s and the Best Bakery Case of Gujarat violence were the cases in which superior judiciary ordered re-trial and set aside the acquittals made in the trial courts. In Priyadarshini Mattoo’s case the accused Santosh Kumar who was acquitted by the trial court was finally convicted after the Delhi High Court in consequence of massive public outcry had fixed day-to-day trial and judgment was reached in 42 days. The original acquittal was over turned and Santosh Singh was found guilty of murder and rape. The court also observed that there has been inaction by Delhi Police and under influence of his father who was then the Joint Commissioner of Police in Delhi . Similarly in Jessica Lal’s case, the accused Mannu Sharma, son of the influential politician was also acquitted by the trail court but finally after the massive outcry from the civil society groups the Delhi High Court set aside the acquittal order and convicted Mannu Sharma for life imprisonment. Even the witnesses who turned hostile initially have been put on notice to explain why they should not be tried for perjury.   The Best Bakery murder trail received wide attention after witnesses retracted testimony in court and all accused were acquitted. The Indian Supreme court ordered a re-trial outside Gujarat and 9 accused were found guilty. Even Zahira Sheikh the prime witness was found guilty of perjury.   In the state of Jammu Kashmir the acquittals are normal and conviction of the police officials is very rare. Even in the rape cases the accused have been acquitted. The glaring example is the rape case of mother and daughter from Banihal, where the accused army official has been acquitted by court. No appeals have been filed by the state. The triple murder case demonstrates that even in the high profile murder cases the conviction rate is zero and justice is a mirage for people. The only option left for the relatives of the triple murder case is to mobilize the public opinion and also expose the farcical institutions claimed to be upholders the rights of the people.   The relatives have decided to file an appeal seeking for re-trial of the investigation expecting the judiciary to follow the precedents outside the state. The family members also expect the Judiciary to initiate action against the police witnesses for perjury. Fair trial in future demands prosecution of the high ranking official Mr. Gill who has been patronizing the prime accused, Rashid Billa, who is still absconding even after acquittal.   We the family members pledge that we shall not rest till we get justice.   Relatives of the victims of triple murder case From elkamath at yahoo.com Sat Jun 14 11:24:56 2008 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2008 22:54:56 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] FW: Missing Public Intellectual by S Srinivasaraju Message-ID: <590895.2770.qm@web53612.mail.re2.yahoo.com> FYI http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080611&fname=sugata&sid=1 Print This Page Web| Jun 11, 2008 Bangalore Byte Missing: Public Intellectual The simple fact about the just concluded polls is that there was no big point made, no big idea discussed. No political leader or party took the risk of espousing a big cause. We still do not know what ideas we defeated and what we accepted. SUGATA SRINIVASARAJU The election dust has settled down in Karnataka. The BJP government is safe, at least for the time being. Even as I recover from the fatigue of closely watching the polls, I have been asking myself: What is it that we debated during these elections? Did we vote for a fresh perspective or was there any perspective at all? Surprisingly, the debate that obsessively took place about money-spent by candidates to buy votes, caste combinations, the various lobbies at play and the stability factor which, in the final reckoning, are segmented issues on the fringe. They are lazy stereotypes of any election season that simply devours newsprint and scatters attention. Surely, they are not the larger purpose of elections or a democracy. The simple fact about the just concluded polls is that there was no big point made, no big idea discussed. No political leader or party took the risk of espousing a big cause. With all the statistics and analyses of results before us we still do not know what ideas we defeated and what we accepted. I somehow get a feeling that imagining 'public interest' has itself been outmoded in recent years. It appears that for political parties there is no public, there are only caste or class groups; there are urban elite or rural masses. The latest addition to this are the various corporate entities vying for attention. A simplistic slotting of almost everything has taken place. Each caste, class or corporate entity represents only its interests, conveniently assuming that the whole is made up of such disparate interests. But we have often seen that this is not true. The truth is that the different parts of a whole are not equally sized or similarly endowed. When such is the case, isn't there a need to reconstruct, reimagine a whole, a larger public? Are we mistaking the trees for the woods? Do we need to allow elections to merely become an exercise in winning or should we ensure that big issues and grand ideas take the lead? Manifestos that political parties put out are shabby and dull documents that have no currency beyond the day of their release. Neither idealism nor ideology governs our political parties anymore. They are gripped by the bug of pragmatism. With our economic orientation placing a heavy accent on individual growth the resulting alteration that has taken place in our social outlook is reflected in the general attitude of our political parties during elections. The emphasis within parties is on the 'winnability' of candidates, not on the winnability of ideas. I am not saying that there was a lot of idealism in the past and it has now vanished, what I am trying to say is that there is not even a pretence of it anymore. Even as we try to resurrect the dream of a greater common good, a question that trails us is who should ensure that big issues are raised and brought to focus? It is here that we feel the absence of public intellectuals. This is a tribe that has diminished in the recent past. We are surrounded by academicians, professionals, experts, strategists, lobbyists, but one rarely comes across a public intellectual these days. An independent, non-aligned, amateur hell-raiser, dutiful letter writer and conscience-keeper has gone missing from our midst -- and hence the steep fall in public discourse. To borrow the words of Italian political philosopher Antonio Gramsci we are only left with "organic intellectuals." By which he means people who are used by 'classes' or 'enterprises' to organise interests, gain more power and get more control.Eminent thinker and activist Edward Said interpreting Gramsci's phrase in his Reith Lectures (on BBC in 1993) says that today's "advertising and public relations expert, who devises techniques for winning a detergent or airline company a larger share of the market, would (also) be considered an organic intellectual by Gramsci, someone who in a democratic society tries to gain the consent of potential customers, win approval, marshal consumer or voter opinion." In what can be seen as a symbolic decapitation of a public intellectual, a man who once actively filled up the 'letters to the editor' column on issues of public concern in Karnataka, Mumtaz Ali Khan, is now a cabinet minister in the new BJP government. He has submitted himself to BJP's tokenism of representing a minority person in the cabinet. This, after BJP did not give a single ticket to a person from any minority community to contest the elections. Very soon more intellectuals, irrespective of their professed ideological hues, will line up outside ministerial chambers in the Vidhana Soudha to corner positions in the various academies of arts and literature that are now up for grabs. The scene is such that every thinking man or woman is waiting for his or her turn to be co-opted by the state. Watching television during elections further confirmed my fears of the missing public intellectual. One heard spokespersons after spokespersons in different garbs, but nobody who spoke for the common man and a common good. Spokespersons have taken up the space vacated by public intellectuals. Similarly so in the print media, if one newspaper promotes a set of intellectuals 'close' to a party, the rival newspaper allows intellectuals from another party to cultivate the space. The game is so entrenched that pontiffs of powerful caste seminaries too have come to alternatively share space in the op-ed pages of newspapers. As a result, the space that a public intellectual once occupied is no longer a non-aligned, neutral space, but is a space that is cleverly shared by political parties and interest groups. As a result of all this, where we need to have a multiplicity of views, we have just two views in the public domain. I will conclude by quoting from Edward Said's Reith Lectures again: "...The intellectual is an individual with a specific public role in society that cannot be reduced simply to being a faceless professional, a competent member of a class just going about her/his business. The central fact for me is, I think, that an intellectual is an individual endowed with a faculty for representing, embodying, articulating a message, a view, an attitude, philosophy or opinion to, as well as for, a public. And this role has an edge to it, and cannot be played without a sense of being someone whose place it is publically to raise embarrassing questions, to confront orthodoxy and dogma (rather than produce them), to be someone who cannot be easily co-opted by governments or corporations, and whose raison d'etre is to represent all those people and issues that are routinely forgotten or swept under the rug..." So, isn't it time to recover the big idea and rescue the public intellectual? From b_a_r_u_k at yahoo.com Sat Jun 14 15:58:33 2008 From: b_a_r_u_k at yahoo.com (Baruk S. Jacob) Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2008 03:28:33 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] FW: Missing Public Intellectual by S Srinivasaraju In-Reply-To: <590895.2770.qm@web53612.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <824534.47788.qm@web54205.mail.re2.yahoo.com> interesting article. and while is correctly points out our lack of 'public' life, it doesn't look into why this public life is missing. have we all gone online? are we too disconnected from the immediate politics around us? too much work? too little time? or have we just stopeed caring? ~baruk --- On Sat, 6/14/08, lalitha kamath wrote: > From: lalitha kamath > Date: Saturday, June 14, 2008, 11:24 AM > FYI > > > http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080611&fname=sugata&sid=1 > > > Print This Page > Web| Jun 11, 2008 > > Bangalore Byte > > Missing: Public Intellectual > > The simple > fact about the just concluded polls is that there was no > big point > made, no big idea discussed. No political leader or party > took the risk > of espousing a big cause. We still do not know what ideas > we defeated > and what we accepted. From taraprakash at gmail.com Sat Jun 14 20:51:14 2008 From: taraprakash at gmail.com (TaraPrakash) Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2008 11:21:14 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] FW: Missing Public Intellectual by S Srinivasaraju References: <590895.2770.qm@web53612.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <01cd01c8ce32$498be250$6400a8c0@taraprakash> "The simple fact about the just concluded polls is that there was no big point made, no big idea discussed. No political leader or party took the risk of espousing a big cause. We still do not know what ideas we defeated and what we accepted. One would assume that the elections in India are otherwise about ideas. Was Karnataka election an exception? "what can be seen as a symbolic decapitation of a public > intellectual, a man who once actively filled up the 'letters to the > editor' column on issues of public concern in Karnataka, Mumtaz Ali > Khan, is now a cabinet minister in the new BJP government. He has > submitted himself to BJP's tokenism of representing a minority person > in the cabinet. This, after BJP did not give a single ticket to a > person from any minority community to contest the elections." That seems very correct. However, the author would look like practicing what he seems to be preaching if he had not singled out a supposed intellectual who joined BJP. It appears that Srinivasaraju is unhappy as BJP is the gainer. Many others have left the "intellectual" sphere to join the "pragmatic" sphere for the obvious perks. People previously known as "intellectuals" like Prabhat Patnaik were hellbent to defend all the brutal/"pragmatic" steps taken by CPI(M) Even though previously they had been lauded for opposing the "right wing" Congress for the similar "pragmatism". Sanjay Nirupam, whom the Sangh Parivar thought an "intellectual" for writing in Shiv Sena's mouthpiece Samna, lost his untouchability status once he joined Congress. Srinivasaraju would appear more "intellectual" if he had named such parties who are always open to anyone who renounces his/her party for the perks from different ones. Now BJP is not the only one, intellectuals have renounced their ideology to join other parties too. The question whether one should consider individual trees or the entire wood is very pertinent. In the context of the political parties, I think many trees stand out in the woods. It is not the wood that shapes them, it is the tree/s which shape the wood. Remember that the woods called Shiv Sena and BJP were not involved in the recent attacks on the North Indians, attack on Loksatta journalist or on Samna office in Maharashtra. Even though the trees that were involved were part of those woods. If one likes to join the woods and all the woods have same kind of trees in the available woods, one would look for the maximum perks that a particular wood can offer. ----- Original Message ----- From: "lalitha kamath" To: "reader-list" Sent: Saturday, June 14, 2008 1:54 AM Subject: [Reader-list] FW: Missing Public Intellectual by S Srinivasaraju > FYI > > > http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080611&fname=sugata&sid=1 > > > Print This Page > Web| Jun 11, 2008 > > Bangalore Byte > > Missing: Public Intellectual > > The simple > fact about the just concluded polls is that there was no big point > made, no big idea discussed. No political leader or party took the risk > of espousing a big cause. We still do not know what ideas we defeated > and what we accepted. > > SUGATA SRINIVASARAJU The election dust has settled down in Karnataka. The > BJP government > is safe, at least for the time being. Even as I recover from the > fatigue of closely watching the polls, I have been asking myself: What > is it that we debated during these elections? Did we vote for a fresh > perspective or was there any perspective at all? > Surprisingly, the debate that obsessively took place about > money-spent by candidates to buy votes, caste combinations, the various > lobbies at play and the stability factor which, in the final reckoning, > are segmented issues on the fringe. They are lazy stereotypes of any > election season that simply devours newsprint and scatters attention. > Surely, they are not the larger purpose of elections or a democracy. > The simple fact about the just concluded polls is that there was no > big point made, no big idea discussed. No political leader or party > took the risk of espousing a big cause. With all the statistics and > analyses of results before us we still do not know what ideas we > defeated and what we accepted. > > I somehow get a feeling that imagining 'public interest' has itself > been outmoded in recent years. It appears that for political parties > there is no public, there are only caste or class groups; there are > urban elite or rural masses. The latest addition to this are the > various corporate entities vying for attention. A simplistic slotting > of almost everything has taken place. > Each caste, class or corporate entity represents only its interests, > conveniently assuming that the whole is made up of such disparate > interests. But we have often seen that this is not true. The truth is > that the different parts of a whole are not equally sized or similarly > endowed. When such is the case, isn't there a need to reconstruct, > reimagine a whole, a larger public? Are we mistaking the trees for the > woods? Do we need to allow elections to merely become an exercise in > winning or should we ensure that big issues and grand ideas take the > lead? > Manifestos that political parties put out are shabby and dull > documents that have no currency beyond the day of their release. > Neither idealism nor ideology governs our political parties anymore. > They are gripped by the bug of pragmatism. With our economic > orientation placing a heavy accent on individual growth the resulting > alteration that has taken place in our social outlook is reflected in > the general attitude of our political parties during elections. The > emphasis within parties is on the 'winnability' of candidates, not on > the winnability of ideas. I am not saying that there was a lot of > idealism in the past and it has now vanished, what I am trying to say > is that there is not even a pretence of it anymore. > > Even as we try to resurrect the dream of a greater common good, a > question that trails us is who should ensure that big issues are raised > and brought to focus? It is here that we feel the absence of public > intellectuals. This is a tribe that has diminished in the recent past. > We are surrounded by academicians, professionals, experts, strategists, > lobbyists, but one rarely comes across a public intellectual these > days. An independent, non-aligned, amateur hell-raiser, dutiful letter > writer and conscience-keeper has gone missing from our midst -- and > hence the steep fall in public discourse. > To borrow the words of Italian political philosopher Antonio Gramsci > we are only left with "organic intellectuals." By which he means people > who are used by 'classes' or 'enterprises' to organise interests, gain > more power and get more control.Eminent thinker and activist Edward > Said interpreting Gramsci's phrase in his Reith Lectures (on BBC in > 1993) says that today's "advertising and public relations expert, who > devises techniques for winning a detergent or airline company a larger > share of the market, would (also) be considered an organic intellectual > by Gramsci, someone who in a democratic society tries to gain the > consent of potential customers, win approval, marshal consumer or voter > opinion." > > In what can be seen as a symbolic decapitation of a public > intellectual, a man who once actively filled up the 'letters to the > editor' column on issues of public concern in Karnataka, Mumtaz Ali > Khan, is now a cabinet minister in the new BJP government. He has > submitted himself to BJP's tokenism of representing a minority person > in the cabinet. This, after BJP did not give a single ticket to a > person from any minority community to contest the elections. Very soon > more intellectuals, irrespective of their professed ideological hues, > will line up outside ministerial chambers in the Vidhana Soudha to > corner positions in the various academies of arts and literature that > are now up for grabs. The scene is such that every thinking man or > woman is waiting for his or her turn to be co-opted by the state. > > Watching television during elections further confirmed my fears of > the missing public intellectual. One heard spokespersons after > spokespersons in different garbs, but nobody who spoke for the common > man and a common good. Spokespersons have taken up the space vacated by > public intellectuals. Similarly so in the print media, if one newspaper > promotes a set of intellectuals 'close' to a party, the rival newspaper > allows intellectuals from another party to cultivate the space. The > game is so entrenched that pontiffs of powerful caste seminaries too > have come to alternatively share space in the op-ed pages of > newspapers. As a result, the space that a public intellectual once > occupied is no longer a non-aligned, neutral space, but is a space that > is cleverly shared by political parties and interest groups. As a > result of all this, where we need to have a multiplicity of views, we > have just two views in the public domain. > > I will conclude by quoting from Edward Said's Reith Lectures again: > "...The intellectual is an individual with a specific public role in > society that cannot be reduced simply to being a faceless professional, > a competent member of a class just going about her/his business. The > central fact for me is, I think, that an intellectual is an individual > endowed with a faculty for representing, embodying, articulating a > message, a view, an attitude, philosophy or opinion to, as well as for, > a public. And this role has an edge to it, and cannot be played without > a sense of being someone whose place it is publically to raise > embarrassing questions, to confront orthodoxy and dogma (rather than > produce them), to be someone who cannot be easily co-opted by > governments or corporations, and whose raison d'etre is to represent > all those people and issues that are routinely forgotten or swept under > the rug..." > > So, isn't it time to recover the big idea and rescue the public > intellectual? > > > > > _________________________________________ > 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 iram at sarai.net Sat Jun 14 22:39:40 2008 From: iram at sarai.net (Iram Ghufran) Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2008 22:39:40 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Re: from Kafila: to whom it may conecrn In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4853FB54.3050700@sarai.net> > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > > Subject: > Re: [Reader-list] from Kafila: to whom it may conecrn > From: > "Shivam Vij > Date: > Sat, 14 Jun 2008 17:32:01 +0530 > > CC: > reader-list at sarai.net > > > > Dear friends, > > After being down for some weeks, Kafila is back, and you'll notice if > you visit it, with a bang. > > http://kafila.org > > > > > > On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 12:57 PM, Ravikant wrote: > >> Hey where did Kafila go? >> >> For those who have been thinking just that. This message comes from the Kafila >> bloggers- >> The Kafila Group of Bloggers wishes to inform >> a) those offended/satisfied by its recent trail of porn links, >> b) puzzled/thrilled by disappearance of autorickshaws and new First World >> global cityscape look >> c) frustrated/vindicated by its complete unavailability over the past few >> days >> d) all of the above, >> that we have been slowly and systematically HACKED but are working on it. >> We would like to believe that the hackers are >> a) the Chinese government >> b) the RSS >> c) They Who Must Not Be Named. >> But most probably the hacking is due merely to Search Engine Optimization >> (only one of us is even remotely near understanding what this means, so most >> of us continue to be in a state of smug smirkiness about how dangerous we are >> to all sorts of Forces of Evil.) >> We hope to be back soon, our impudent little autos intact, so please bear >> with us. >> For those who dont really give a damn either way about kafila - consider the >> fact that this is no worse spam than ads for Cialis. >> >> kafila Gr. >> _________________________________________ >> 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/> >> > > > -- > "Journalism 101, I am sure taught you the difference between reporting > and pontificating. However, the first amendment protects your right > to free speech and therefore your right to ponificate." > From iram at sarai.net Sat Jun 14 22:47:02 2008 From: iram at sarai.net (Iram Ghufran) Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2008 22:47:02 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] In Trafalgar Square: The Other 1857: Short Performance by Inder Salim Message-ID: <4853FD0E.4070408@sarai.net> IN TRAFALGAR SQUARE: THE OTHER 1857 A short performance by Inder Salim Trafalgar Square 6pm June 19th, 2008 ================ One million died, And I was born: INDIA 1857 Blood all around, cries, cries of scattered limbs, Raped women and beheaded children, Men, either hanged or blown to pieces in front of cannons or drowned alive, That was my umbilical cord Which I didn't saw, but my mother Who is memory now… My father and me grew up, hand in hand Marching, left right, left right left, Hey, you Indian Sepoy, Keep your nails in check, else I chop off your fingers. That was Him to him in between left right left. Hey, you little boy, clean your hands before meals Else I chop off your fingers, that was him to me. Blue and red uniform brought food to me I remember, how I grew up with saxaphones, drums of Military Parade And that simmering disquiet against that Sun-that-never-sets. I remember, how violence met non-violence. Two million died And I was cut into two: FREEDOM AT MIDNIGHT-1947. Celebrations, and unrest, hunger amidst few rich Few rich who hired me to perform. Perform and perform in those blues and reds Performing those crammed notes, I died. Nobody died, But I was Dalit: a born non-existent: A BAND-WALLA A monsoon wedding, or a simple wedding And they tell me to perform In my predecessors blues and reds Which brings food to me and my family. And ah! I play Bollywood tunes. Meri piyaari Bahaniyaa banighee dulhanihya Ban kay aayiangey dulhey rajaa Bhaiya rajaa bajayega bajaa ( my beautiful sister will become the bride, as he will come as a groom , this brother will perform) Perform, I will, to resurrect, 'the other 1857', I promised to my brothers and sisters back in India. In Trafarlgar square, London As I saw myself, living, inside the white concrete slab with 'text' Under General Sir Henry Havelock of1857, who is Silent, but standing confidently high in his robes, So this other 1857, too Silent, but standing confidently in his robes.. -- http://indersalim.livejournal.com From space.cotoners8 at gmail.com Sun Jun 15 00:24:36 2008 From: space.cotoners8 at gmail.com (Space Cotoners8) Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2008 20:54:36 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Open calling for artist :: Convocatoria artistas Message-ID: <2ad987420806141154n6b611f33s817113edb767fb17@mail.gmail.com> OPEN CALLING FOR ARTIST C8 offers you 'El Escaparate', a space placed in the main cultural district and busy shopping area of El Born in the city of Barcelona. 'El Escaparate' is a project that tries give a draft to the concept of a 'commercial shop window'. A draft towards the artistic contemporany creation and the expression of ideas. A specific space (2.11 height/1.81 wide/1.22 deep) where the artists can present their offers created through any artistic medium: painting, video, photography, light, text, action… You can send us your offers through our web page www.c8artwindow.com ABIERTA LA CONVOCATORIA DE ARTISTAS C8 te ofrece 'El Escaparate', un espacio situado en el barrio cultural y de compras más visitado de la ciudad de Barcelona: el Born. 'El Escaparate' es un proyecto que pretende dar un giro al concepto de 'escaparate comercial'. Un giro hacia la creación artística contemporánea y la expresión de ideas. Un espacio específico (211 alto/181 ancho/122 fondo) donde los artistas pueden presentar sus propuestas creadas a través de cualquier medio artístico: pintura, video, fotografía, luz, texto, acción... Puedes hacernos llegar tu propuesta a través de nuestra web www.c8artwindow.com From gowharfazili at yahoo.com Sun Jun 15 02:09:24 2008 From: gowharfazili at yahoo.com (gowhar fazli) Date: Sat, 14 Jun 2008 13:39:24 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Hong Kong and Kashmiriat Message-ID: <505820.11140.qm@web65601.mail.ac4.yahoo.com> Hong Kong is unnerving for someone who lives in India for more than one reason... the foremost being the level of organization, order and structure... The buildings.... the transport system... cry out and say the place seems to have no people... people the way we know in India... as active agents. High levels of organization that people in this region... the economy driven human change seems to have eaten away at life... Well there might be surprises in store...there ought to be. The glass faces are unnerving. The order is extremely alienating for someone used to nudges and pushes and glares and protests and mocks and general attitude communicated by the passers by in a typical full blown Indian city or even a town. But what is it really... a deeper cultural background or loss of all culture... a complete surrender to market forces... to live as abiding citizen to this huge engine called capitalist state? People do seem to be in rush to get somewhere. It is not that they are unhelpful and uncheerful. It is just that the help is so precise and the smiles are so too much measured and polite. Is everyone exactly the same... one wonders at first site. The hell is that a bus service from the metro... something we call a feeder service in India... goes to exact stations even while it is almost empty... even with just two people on board who the driver knows will get off at the last station. He actually stops at all stations.... goes to every hotel door to pick up imaginary people... moves only when the valet bids him to go! A Kashmiri mini bus driver would either stay on till he packs the bus with real people to the brim or would take major short cuts and sell off the state fuel he will save, for extra pocket money! A Delhi DTC guy will skip stations even when he sees real people, only because he wants to drive fast and be in control... may be even running down a couple of unsuspecting people in the process (thus the name killer dtc!) It is by experiencing the positive attitude of the people at another level of interaction that you understand that there is more to this culture and city. The energy is bewildering. The amount of themselves they put into their work... the effort to do it right... without making two bones about it (!) Wow! This is how they ACTUALLY are! They just don't pull you down and make you feel bad at all. How can PEOPLE be like this! This short visit has changed my view about East Asian people so drastically... I always felt Indian Asians are smarter. But negativeness is not actually smart. Because being positive and giving a pleasant feeling to others actually pushes everybody forward... while the cumulative effect of trying to pull others down to move up actually ensures collective backwardness and bad feeling... even if people do actually get a bit crafty in the process. There is a place called Ladies Market in Hong Kong... some thing comparable to cheap clothes market on JANPATH Delhi. There is bargaining... almost exactly alike in both places (but that Indians bargain much harder and break deals much too often)... except in Hong Kong... they make you feel beautiful at the end of every deal with a smile and a bow. The skeptic Indian mind wonders if this is real or just habit.... but even if it were mere gesture... we all love to be treated well. We deserve this minimum. In this case Hong Kong is right. Perfection, cleanliness, rules, have not yet left me comfortable just as yet. They are good but my South South Asian sensibilities long for chaos, disorder, warmth and some defiance... I am more at home in that. Perfection cleanliness and order are a mixed blessing and come at a price. We must bargain hard. We shouldn’t buy them at the cost of surrendering our individual autonomies... especially the right to speak up and express disgust. Freedom to the level of self destructiveness is necessary for ones being and soul... so says my Kashmiri mind (it tops the Indian one in all senses let me tell you! especially in the latter feature... probably we have understood the value of freedom over the centuries of denial... and its fake forms in recent history in a hard hard way. Give it to us I tell you!) How do we get a high dose of passion and kindness at the same time and that too without creating a bad upset! There must be a place in the world that has done it all well or is there any? I can't say... I have hardly travelled. But I buy this one from Irfan... one must travel... internationally... in order to feel the real difference among people living under different systems... if only to return and understand ones own better. Thanks for the realization that India, however massive and diverse... is not the World! 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 From anivar.aravind at gmail.com Sun Jun 15 17:32:59 2008 From: anivar.aravind at gmail.com (Anivar Aravind) Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2008 17:32:59 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] =?utf-8?q?On_Chengara_Struggle=3A_Beyond_just_a_?= =?utf-8?b?4oCYSG9tZSBhbmQgYSBOYW1l4oCZ?= Message-ID: <485504F3.3050902@gmail.com> Translation of speech by Sunny Kapikkad Beyond just a ‘Home and a Name’ from Kafila by jdevika http://kafila.org/2008/06/14/beyond-just-a-home-and-a-name/ [The transformation of the agenda of the mainstream left in Kerala is beginning to produce resistance, and nowhere is this more visible than at Chengara in the south eastern Pathanamthitta district. The ongoing struggle for land there brings into relief not just the denial of productive resources to the real tillers of the soil – the Dalits – in Kerala’s land reforms, but also the shift of the left from the fight against inequality to the distribution of ‘minimum entitlements’. It also draws attention to the manner in which a ‘state-centric’ civil society, mainly the large network of poor women’s self-help groups sponsored by the State’s poverty eradication “Mission’, has been authorized as ‘authentic civil society’. All claims made outside these formal institutions are thereby rendered illegitimate and indeed, ‘against the law’. At Chengara, the protestors have been resisting the combined force of the state and the major political parties, laying claims to productive resources – and rejecting ‘minimum entitlements’. Indeed, the darker side of ‘democratic decentralization’ in Kerala, the ‘new Kerala Model’, as it has been called by its admirers, is the implicit legitimacy it grants to blatant violence unleashed upon people who struggle for economic equality, who do not find ‘minimum entitlements’ the solution to rampant and growing economic inequalities in contemporary Kerala. No wonder, then, that the Chief Minister of Kerala felt no qualms in warning the leader of the Chengara land struggle, Laha Gopalan, that if the protestors did not peacefully return to their villages (where they could put in applications for 3 or 5 cents of land for housing), they would have to encounter “police with horns and thorns” – in other words, not just armed police, but a bestial force. Nandigram, in short. The struggle, however, remains vibrant and growing. Below is a translated version of a speech made by leading Dalit activist and intellectual, Sunny M Kapicadu, at a night-vigil organized in support of the ongoing land struggle in Thiruvananthapuram on 7 March 2008, in which he defends the struggle against powerful efforts to malign and undermine it. - JD ] Friends, The land struggle at Chengara, the circumstances that led to the struggle and the government’s attitude towards it urgently demand our attention today. According to available information, in the past seven months or so, more than 7,000 families have settled down there and built hutments. Till today, no official attempt has been made by the government to approach those who are struggling with the intention of inquiring about their demands; no democratic talks have been initiated. It was on 4 August 2007 that 300 families entered the Chengara Estate, which was being held by Harrison Malayalam Plantations and began to live there. After that there has not been much of organizational work around this move. In other words, the struggle did not grow in force because the Sadhujana Vimochana Munnani, which leads the struggle, went about the length and breadth of Kerala, inviting landless folk. In fact, the reverse. The intensity of struggle was maintained by the 300 there, and because they successfully overcame the first crisis – a crisis that arose when organized plantation workers belonging to the CITU, AITUC, INTUC and other trade unions attacked them – landless people began to flow there, finding it to be a site of struggle in which violence had been beaten back. Thus, after two months, the number of families grew from 300 to more than 7000. The newly arrived folk have all built huts and settled down. People from many districts of Kerala – Alapuzha, Pathanamtitta, Kollam, Kottayam, Idukki, Thiruvananthapuram, and Kasaragod – have reached Chengara – large numbers of folk who have no land, who live on the streets, who lived paying rent in small rooms. They are not spending their lives there shouting slogans for all twenty-four hours; they lead lives as families, husbands, wives and children. The husband goes out seeking work outside the plantation; he returns with a few days’ earnings from manual labour. The next week, it may be the wife who goes out seeking work. So the 7000 families here live from their labour alone. I stress this because there is the idea that such a massive struggle can happen only if supported by crores of rupees flowing in from here and abroad. But the struggle has a very different ethical stance, and this is proof of that: the struggle committee constituted there is not one that helps those of come there to hang on through handouts of money and food. Rather, each person who lives there has survived on his or her own labour for all the past seven months. The second point I want to stress is that people from all castes and creeds are to be found among these 7000 families. I think there are no Nambutiri Brahmins , but there are Nairs, Syrian Christians, Muslims, members of the Scheduled Castes, Dalit Christians, Adivasis, and all others. But about 90 per cent are Dalits and Adivasis. Next come the Muslims. This is not the case in Chengara alone; in our visits to colonies of landless people in Kollam district and other places, we saw that next to the Dalit community, Muslims constitute the largest chunk of landless people. In Punalur, there are landless people living on both sides of the road, for kilometers altogether, most of who are Muslims. But in Chengara, the majority is Dalits, Dalit Christians, and Adivasis. In reality, this is a cross-section sample of the landless in Kerala. Sample surveys have shown that the Dalits constitute 85 per cent of the landless folk in Kerala. There is good reason to believe this. Thus wherever struggles around land occur in Kerala, the majority of the participants will be Dalits and Adivasis. Chengara is no exception. The struggle at Chengara is undoubtedly one of the major land struggles in Kerala’s history. Ten years back, such a struggle would have been unthinkable. Ten years back we all thought that there was no scope for another land struggle in Kerala. That there was no land to be redistributed in Kerala. Even social activists thought that all the land that could have been legitimately redistributed had been exhausted. It was the Adivasi land struggles that revealed to us that this notion was false, and that there is arable land in Kerala that may be redistributed. For whole of forty-eight days, the Adivasis laid siege by building little huts here, in front of the Secretariat where we have now gathered, and in front of the Chief Ministers’ House. An agreement was reached only on the forty-eighth day. In those days, when hundreds of Adivasis camped here demanding arable land, political leaders of both the ruling and opposition parties were united in proclaiming that C K Janu and her group were being propped up by funds from abroad. It is only natural that a political party thought that way. The parties may have assets worth crores, but they lack the ethical will to support 500 people for 48 days in this city. For that the daily expenses of these people will have to be met. As someone who had actively intervened in the organization of that Adivasi struggle, I can tell you that it was the colonies in this city that made it possible for the struggle to survive. It was from the dalit colonies in this city that sacks of rice arrived at the cooking shed here. A jeep used to go around for that purpose. The situation would be explained to folk there, and each house would contribute handfuls of rice to make sackfuls. After the struggle ended, after the forty-eighth day, there were just two sacks of rice left. I am saying this because the politicians were sure that the struggle was supported by foreign hands. My point here is that it was this struggle that taught the people of Kerala that arable land was indeed available for redistribution. It is in the context of this struggle that landless people of other communities entered the land struggle at Chengara. How the majority of such people happen to be Dalits and Adivasis is something that must be examined historically. It is not enough to understand this struggle as if it were merely a struggle for land by the landless, a united fight by all those who have no land. For it is those people who did not receive land in Kerala’s land reforms who are coming here. However may we idealise the land reforms, it has been proved beyond doubt that they failed to make available land to some social groups in Kerala. The crux of the land reforms that were put forward by the government in 1957, which were implemented on 1 January 1970 was the fixing of ceilings on the amount of land that a family could possess, and the promise that surplus land would be taken over by the government and redistributed among the landless. However, the plantation sector was exempted from land ceilings. We have to realize that once the plantation sector was exempted, all that was left for redistribution were some paddy land towards the west, some land in the midland areas, and some fallow fields that belonged to the Nilambur royal house. These famous land reforms that we’ve all heard of is actually a law that gave full ownership rights to tenant cultivators. The Dalit and the Adivasi who could never even once become a tenant within Kerala’s traditional caste system, they did not receive any protection from this law. Thus the historical fact about Kerala is that lakhs of people had to live outside the land reform law. The Hutment Dwellers’ Act was passed to deal with these surplus folk. It is estimated that 25 lakh families benefited from Kerala’s land reforms; we need to be clear about this. Nearly 5 lakh families gained from the Hutment Dweller’s Act. Of this, 4, 25,000 lakh families are Dalit or Adivasi. When the land reforms were interpreted by government officials in Wayanad, the Adivasi became the land lord, and the migrant farmer, the tenant! Besides, the person claiming ten cents of land as per the law had to prove that he had been residing there since 1968. These crafty fellows persuaded the Adivasis to move out of their traditional habitations, convincing them that they would be made possessors of the best land if they resided there at the time of the reforms. When the law was passed, evidence was produced that showed that the Adivasis had been residing in those lands only since 1970; and thus, in this strange way, they were dispossessed. Many more such frauds were perpetrated as part of the implementation of the land reforms. In 1968 the government had estimated that some 8, 75,000 acres of surplus land would be available for redistribution. However, till date, the government has been able to acquire just 1,24,000 acres. The rest has all been usurped through underhand practices. Trusts had been exempted from ceilings. Overnight, hundreds of trusts were formed in Kerala. Through creating trusts and registering deeds in false names and other ways, all this land was spirited away. Out of the roughly 1,25,000 acres acquired only 96,000 was redistributed. This is how land redistribution in Kerala is. The Dalit, the Adivasi, and the coastal people, who could not be tenants within Kerala’s traditional caste system did not gain anything, not even a cent. The Hutment Dweller’s Act was passed to accommodate this section of the people. According to this Act, 10 cents of landing the panchayat area, 5 cents in municipal areas, and 3 in corporation areas could be claimed by a family. But many people were yet to receive land even after such distribution. Because lakhs of people were still outside this law. The One Lakh Houses Scheme was announced in 1972 for these people. In 1970, a revolutionary land reform was implemented. The One Lakh Housing Scheme was announced only in 1972! One Lakh houses. A wall in the middle. A house on each side. Two houses in one building. Five cents per house. The government came forward to build one lakh houses with this calculation. Naturally, in those days all of us thought that this was a progressive scheme to provide housing for all people in Kerala. Actually, this was a scheme to accommodate all the people who had been excluded by the land reforms. And there were still more people left after the One Lakh Housing Scheme was implemented. It is for these people that hundreds of Harijan colonies were established in Kerala. The first Harijan colony in Kerala was formed in 1938. From one in 1938, their numbers have gone up to more than 12500 Dalit colonies in 14 districts, as the SC/ST Department’s figures admit. The Revenue Department has announced that there are 4083 Adivasi colonies in Kerala. Thus lakhs of people live today crowded into two and three cents of land in some 16000-20000 official or unofficial colonies. Besides, tens of thousands of people live in huts beside roads, canals, and other unoccupied marginal land – as we see when we travel in Kerala. These are the people who have become the focal point in a struggle like Chengara. Thus it is the people who, historically, have been excluded from land reforms, who have come forward with claims upon land today. We will be able to see why the government has taken such a hostile stand against the struggle only if we understand it from such a historical context. We need to take very seriously the fact that even though this section of society has waged a struggle since the past seven months and a half, the democratic government in Kerala has not bothered to invite them for talks. This is so, because land has always been a major issue. The intellectuals who asked us why we need land in this digital age need to understand that in Kerala, even a dispute over title deeds would make sparks fly. This means that the organized sections of society need their land, consider it valuable. If there is a dispute over title deeds in the hilly areas of Kerala into which migration has taken place from the plains, both the ruling party and the opposition would surely pitch in heavily. It would grow into a fiery issue. Why is it, then, in this politically-enlightened Kerala, that the powerful lack the democratic ethics, which would have made them go to the group that has struggled persistently for the whole of seven and a half months to ask what their struggle was for? Here we need to see deeper. We know from experience that Kerala’s society is shaken only if some particular groups struggle. That’s something we can’t miss. In a particular part of Kozhikode district, around 200 families have occupied some land, and have been staying there. It’s been many years since the High Court of Kerala ordered their eviction in clear terms. The government of Kerala has not yet evicted them, and further, their right to stay on has been protected through a special order. There’s something in this. These people have occupied land under orders from a certain church in Pala. Neither the LDF nor the UDF have any problems about offering them protection. But the government’s stand is that it will not respond justly when the Dalits, Adivasis, and those who sleep on the roadside take to the streets. The second experience comes from Muthanga. The then-Chief Minister, A.K. Antony had signed an agreement with the struggling Adivasis that land would be distributed to them, and that the constitutional provision for Adivasi self-government would be recommended. The same Chief Minister then deployed thousands of policemen against those who conducted another struggle to get the agreement implemented, not caring to find out why the struggle had been re-kindled, leading to the police firing. Four days before the firing, all four political parties in Wayanad held a joint hartal. It demanded that the Adivasis should be evicted from Muthanga. So it is clear that this enlightened Kerala, this Kerala which is considered the very home of political alertness, its legacy is one that turns away from the completely legitimate demands of Dalits and Adivasis. There is not even the recognition that such a struggle has been on since the past seven months and a half. The members of the Chengara Land Struggle Solidarity Committee met the Kerala Chief Minister, the convener of the Left Democratic Front, and the CPM State Secretary, with the demand that the government should redistribute land to the struggling families and bring their struggle to an end.I was a member of that group. All three told us, in the same voice, that this was no struggle, this was illegal land grab. We have plans to give land to the landless, they said, and we will indeed give. But we will not countenance your struggle; we will not accept it. This is a very important thing. The Dalits and Adivasis are trying to create a dialogue with the Kerala government, are trying to exercise collective social agency, within a democratic society. But the government tells us: you aren’t social agents. We are here to do all these things, and we will do them, they proclaim. This is illegal occupation. Indeed. Kerala is ruled today by a person who’d demanded that those who possessed land by illegal means should be blacklisted. If that list is even prepared, Harrisons Malayalam will figure topmost in it. Harrison has not paid a pie as rent on the Chengara Estate since 1994. And so, the lease agreement is invalid now. If I lease out land, I should pay rent. If I default voluntarily, then the lease expires. The Harrison lawyers have moved the law on an estate for which the lease has expired. The government, which ought to use the strong evidence against Harrison to take back the estate, is accusing us of illegal occupation! The same company sold 3500 acres of leased land held by it in the Cheruvally estate at Kottayam to an individual — a priest called Yohannaan — for 126 crores; it has sub-let leased land at an estate in Thrissur. The government’s own enquiry commission discovered that Harrison had amassed 99 crores this way. Yet the government’s ire is not against such persistent law-breakers, but against the struggling landless poor. It continues to argue that they have grabbed land, and that such actions are unacceptable. The other day, Kerala’s Minister in charge of SC/ST affairs said that we should not occupy land as part of political action. Balan, the communist, talks just like the pastor. Kerala is not going to find any respite as long as people of this ilk rule. These people ought to realize that India itself was born out of massive civil disobedience. It can happen only that way, that’s how history is. So I don’t claim that we aren’t breaking the law. We aren’t going to bow low and touch the government’s feet. We are indeed law-breakers. Balan tells us, don’t do it. Remember, this is a Minister who represents a movement that was born out of the successive waves of law-breaking initiated by many different groups of people in Kerala in their fight for rights. So in effect, what they are saying is this: if the law has to be broken, we are the ones who can do it. We alone. This Dalit, this Adivasi, they haven’t grown tall enough to do it. Balan reminds us that we aren’t citizens enough to break the law. The Home Minister declared that the people in Chengara don’t belong to those who hunger for land. According to the positions that the government has taken hitherto, Harrison and other similar players are the ones who hunger for land. The second announcement was that these struggling folk are actually land owners. That comes out of a conspiracy. Nowhere in Kerala does a struggle take life for land to land owners. Not in Chengara, not in Aaralam, or Aalakkot. ‘Land to the Landless’ is indeed the major demand of the struggle. The Struggle Committee, too, demand that if there are any land owners among the people demanding land, they should be identified and excluded. The very government that ought to inquire about this and exclude such elements, is indulging in slander. Laha Gopalan has land, they say. Laha Gopalan, who is the State President of the Sadhujana Vimochana Samyukata Vedi is not trying to communicate his domestic wants and lacks to the Chief Minister. The people who agree that EMS Nambutiripad, who owned tens of thousands of paras [a traditional measure] of land, could speak for the landless, they can’t accept that Laha Gopalan, who owns one and a half acres,can do so, too. This is what I call the Dalit issue. Do you know, the night the firing took place at Muthanga, Janu and Geethanandan went missing. After the rumour that he had been killed spread, press reporters went looking for Geethanandan’s house and ended up near a two-storied house in the Tayyil area of Kannur. They came back, saying that it can’t be Geethanandan’s house! I call this the Dalit issue: the idea that Geethanandan, who struggles for Adivasi land rights, must necessarily live in a run-down hovel. We can’t discuss political issues in Kerala without getting rid of such baggage. Laha Gopalan represents the Sadhujana Vimochana Samyukata Vedi and its demand that all landless people in Kerala should receive land. He doesn’t say, I don’t have land, give me some. The Chief Minister should understand that. He isn’t advancing a simple basic necessity of life. He is talking politics. The Chief Minster’s refusal indicated that he does not accept this. Finally the government says that it will give land only to the Adivasi. This is a strange defense, indeed. In 2001, when the Adivasis slept on the streets of this city for full 48 days, all these politicians said that they won’t be given land. Six years hence, when all the landless – Dalits, Dalit Christians, Muslims, and all others – joined together to struggle for land, they say that only the Adivasi needs land. This move is a well-planned one. In effect the government says that other than the Adivasi, there are no landless people in Kerala. That is, it does not accept that those of live in Harijan colonies, One-Lakh houses, by the roadside, and so on are landless. It does not accept that the fish workers who lead hellish lives in one and one and a half cents, without the land to even build a shelter are landless. By ignoring these landless groups, and picking out just the Adivasis, the government is trying to scatter the political action building up at Chengara. But someday the government will have to concede; it will have to accept the claims of these landless groups. The numbers of women and children who were ready to immolate themselves with kerosene there last week ran to hundreds. We do not favour self-sacrifice. We want all the landless in Kerala to gain land without a single life lost. But after a seven-and-a-half month long struggle in the face of social neglect, if the police march in there, these people have no other way. No other way but say, I sacrifice my life. We must understand that if one life is lost there, we will have to witness hundreds of deaths. I say this as someone who knows the place directly, who knows the tension the people there have been living through. If the news gets out that people sacrificed their lives for land in a place like Kerala, that will be counted as a tragedy in history. That’s why there should be pressure from the general public to resolve the issue without provoking unfortunate incidents there. Today we need such pressure that will force the government to deal with the issue democratically, to redistribute land to the landless without causing any loss of life. That is the only way this struggle can succeed. But today no such pressure exists. Kerala did not react to the terrible violence of the state at Moolampally. In Chengara hundreds of people came to the brink of self-sacrifice; Kerala has looked away. It is hard to be proud of this Kerala. We need to see Chengara as a struggle for a new Kerala, one that dismantles the old. This is new Kerala would be one in which the social agency of all marginalised groups including Dalits and Adivasis are recognized. We must reconstruct our sense of citizenship. Kerala needs to be turned into a physical and cultural space that includes all sections of society. A major task has been initiated at Chengara, one that exceeds the amount of land the occupants get. Our actions in solidarity need to be attentive to this fact. I end my words, with the plea that we need to think of the various forms of activism possible, and that individuals and organizations should take them forward. From elkamath at yahoo.com Sun Jun 15 20:56:04 2008 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2008 08:26:04 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Fw: Is It Time for Gay Arranged Marriages? Message-ID: <84954.90568.qm@web53607.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Is It Time for Gay Arranged Marriages? By Sandip Roy, New American Media Posted on June 10, 2008 When I left India for America, my aunts worried about who I might end up marrying. "I hope you'll marry another Bengali," an aunt told me. Over the years that relaxed to, "I hope she's a Hindu, even if she's not Bengali." Then it became, "At least another Indian," until finally we reached, "I hope you'll get married to someone before we all die." She probably didn't mean another man. But now it might just happen. Same-sex marriage is on a roll in California. First a Republican-dominated Supreme Court said there was no reason gays and lesbians couldn't get married. Now there comes a new Field poll that says that, for the first time ever, a majority of Californians think same-sex couples should be allowed to marry. As the pink confetti settles around us, I'm left wondering how immigrants are going to come out anymore. Many of us come from countries that really don't have a word for "gay." India certainly doesn't. There are epithets and some rather technical terms. Coming out in India is usually about marriage. This is the default coming out line: "Mom, Dad, I don't think I am going to get married." Now the California Supreme Court has yanked that line away. Perhaps it's time. After all, the Oxford English Dictionary has apparently had to recalibrate its definition of marriage to allow same-sex marriage. The Field poll shows that Californians support the right of same-sex couples to marry by a margin of 51 to 42 percent. In a state where one in four Californians is foreign-born, that seems to be an astonishing change. When San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom started issuing same-sex wedding licenses in 2004, some of the first protests came from Chinese churchgoers. After all, immigrant families are supposed to be socially conservative. But that might be part of the reason why the tide is finally shifting on gay marriage. (Of course a younger, more socially liberal state helps.) For my immigrant friends, being gay in California is not much of an issue. Being unmarried in their 30s and 40s is the real issue, the conversation-stopper at Indian potlucks, the thing that makes them stick out at Chinese banquets. My friend said that when a heterosexual but unmarried Chinese friend of his told his parents that at least he wasn't gay, the parents retorted "We'd rather you were gay with kids." Immigrant families just understand marriage, even same-sex marriage more easily than singlehood. Singleness means you never grew up. It's the biggest failing of parenthood -- the incompleteness of the unmarried child. It leads to acts of desperation. I've seen the ads for marriages of convenience -- 29 year old professional Indian gay, 5'9", good job, looking for Indian lesbian facing similar family pressures. There was even a website devoted to Assisting Matrimonial Arrangements for Lesbians and Gays from India, complete with a "gaylerry" of posted ads [URL: ]. In 1993 my friend Aditya Advani went to India with his boyfriend Michael Tarr and complained to his mother that no one would ever come to his wedding. She promptly organized a ceremony. The family priest presided over it. "Openly gay and married in my parents' drawing room at the age of thirty," marveled Aditya. "Right on schedule as a good Indian boy should be!" I recently watched their wedding video again at their home in Berkeley while their cats purred on the couch. It still felt like a fairy tale, a lump-in-the-throat act of domestic revolution. In 2004 when San Francisco started issuing the same-sex wedding licenses Arvind Kumar and Ashok Jethanandani rose at 5:30 am to drive from their home in San Jose to San Francisco to stand in line to get married. The couple were already married in a sense. Arvind's mother, who had once adamantly rejected her son's sexuality, presided over a Hindu ceremony for the two after they had been together for more than a decade. They are registered as domestic partners in Palo Alto and the state of California. The registration licenses hang on the wall where other couples might have pictures of their children. Arvind and Ashok couldn't get married in 2004. Despite getting up so early they were behind 300 other couples in line. They finally got an appointment but by then the Supreme Court had halted the marriages. At that time Arvind was philosophical. He knew it was going to be a long fight. "We are just fighting to simplify our lives," says Arvind. "I don't want a Palo Alto date, a state of California date, a Hindu ceremony date. I just want one date, one wedding anniversary like everyone else." Now Arvind and Ashok can get their one date after all. On June 17 California counties will start issuing marriage licenses to couples like them. The next generation of gays and lesbians will have to come up with some other coming out line. And the revolution will have to find some new frontier. Imagine this ad in the local Indian weekly - Hindu very well-established Los Angeles family invites professional match for daughter, 25, 5'3", slim, wheatish complexion, U.S. born, Senior Executive in Fortune 500 company. Loves music and dance. Prospective brides encouraged to reply in confidence with complete biodata and returnable photo. Must be professional, under 30, caste no bar. It might just be time for the gay arranged marriage. Sandip Roy (sandip at pacificnews.org) is host of "Upfront," the Pacific News Service weekly radio program on KALW-FM, San Francisco. -- Cross posted from DEBATE From anansi1 at earthlink.net Mon Jun 16 04:57:41 2008 From: anansi1 at earthlink.net (Paul Miller) Date: Sun, 15 Jun 2008 19:27:41 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] Palestine - Another normal saturday, another invasion of Dheisheh References: <63fbdb420806141202q3855ffb7mea96796125005c64@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <747A1912-AB24-4AF3-9A99-618F0919FDE6@earthlink.net> > In the process of recording an album with the hip hop group DAM from > Ramallah, Palestine, I came into contact with some interesting > figures from the electronic music scene from both Israel and > Palestine. DAM is doing 2 songs on my next album, and so is Hadag > NacHash, from Tel Aviv, I'm also working on material with JDUB > records, a progressive Jewish record label in Brooklyn. During the > process everyone ended up sending me alot of interesting blog > material from alot of different perspectives. DAM is also the > subject of a friend of mine's new film "Sling Shot Hip Hop" about > hip hop in the Middle East: Sling Shot Hip Hop www.slingshothiphop.com and you can view the trailer at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rdS8zNp3ow I just thought I'd forward this - it's from yesterday, Saturday, June 14, 2008. in peace, Paul aka DJ Spooky From: DAM Subject: another normal saturday, another invasion of Dheisheh Suhell - more to come. > i'll add more pictures on www.norabf.com soon. > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Nora Barrows-Friedman > Date: Sat, Jun 14, 2008 at 9:16 PM > Subject: another normal saturday, another invasion of Dheisheh > > > > friends, fam, > > on the table next to me as i write this are two steel bullets, one > encased in hard black rubber, and the other a naked, dull silver. > they were picked up from the street in dheisheh this afternoon, > fired from US-made and financed Israeli weapons. > > At about 2pm, over two dozen israeli armored jeeps and APCs and > bulldozers and secret service rolled into the main street right > outside of Ibdaa center, cut traffic off, and began firing sound > grenades, tear gas, rubber-coated steel bullets and live ammunition. > israeli snipers kicked people out of their homes on the other side > of the street and used the top floors as sniper posts. > > my friend Hanin and i were up north in Nablus, catching up with old > friends and planning/researching a few stories for later next week, > and my friend Marcy Newman called my phone with the news. we > immediately headed back to bethlehem, and were receiving updates > throughout the whole two-hour, three-taxi, five-checkpoint ride. two > people shot. then three. half an hour later, five people shot and > injured, one of them a woman. the count is now at 15 people injured. > i felt horrible that i wasn't there as the invasion began. > > hanin and i got out of the taxi about 500 meters down the street > from ibdaa, right in front of a huge APC (armored personnel carrier) > parked next to an armored jeep. several israeli occupation soldiers > were inside and outside, reloading their M16s and firing sound > grenades into the camp. a rain of stones would come, bouncing off > the hoods of the vehicles. the entire street, a normally bustling > thoroughfare that connects Hebron with Bethlehem, was eerily quiet > except for the stones and the blasting fire of the israeli weapons. > we ran across the street, into a shwarmeh cafe, where people were > watching the events unfold from the back room. > > we cut into the camp with some of my former students, a group of > beautiful, tall girls who were coming back from their high school > exams and surprised to see the camp under seige, and headed back > toward Ibdaa. > > we found ourselves running with the throngs of stone-throwing > Dheisheh boys, as we tripped over white stones and green and silver > tear gas canisters with hebrew and english ("made in Philadelphia, > USA") written on them, my camera and digital recorder working > overtime trying to document as much as possible. tear gas stinging > noses, eyes, the backs of our mouths. we made our way carefully back > to ibdaa from the back, tear gas permeating the entire front area of > the camp. hours later, you can still smell it and taste it on your > lips. > > at about 6pm, the soldiers began piling back in their jeeps, > followed by dozens of young men, encroaching closer and closer to > the remaining occupation soldiers, throwing stones and beating them > back in defense of the street, the camp, the community. as the last > jeep turned the corner to leave the camp, soldiers still firing > sound grenades indiscriminately, dozens of boys turned into > hundreds, cheering and holding up the international victory sign. > > more than four hours of siege, shooting, and resistance. > > my former radio production student Loai lives in the house that the > Israelis destroyed during this invasion. they apparently were > looking for his 16 year old cousin who was "wanted" by the israeli > military. "wanted," after his father Ahmed was killed by the same > military just four months ago. "wanted," for throwing stones. an > invasion for this boy. a relative told me, his hands in the air, > "it's not like he had an RPG! he's just a kid!" > > Loai took me and Marcy into his cousin's house. the israelis hadn't > needed to use their Caterpillar bulldozer; they did a smashing job > with their guns and their bare hands. the walls were smashed in. the > sink and the entire bathroom was smashed to pieces. furniture was > smashed to splinters. cooking gas poured on the rugs and on the > couches and beds. mirrors smashed to glass slivers. the door was > bombed. the wardrobes were open, rummaged through, pocked with > bullet holes. Another one of Loai's young cousins came in the front > room with a giant plastic bag full of bullet casings, including > several tear gas canisters, heavy sound grenades, and some shrapnel- > like slivers of metal that no one had seen before. "they're using > new ammunition, we have no idea what it is," Loai explained. > > the entire place was destroyed. the 16 year old "wanted" boy managed > to escape. and the boys of dheisheh had beat the fourth-largest > military in the world. > > now, as the sunset casts a purple-orange glow over the streets, > littered with stones and normal traffic rumblings, the television is > set to the sweden-spain soccer match and people are laughing, white > dust still on some of the boys' hands. > > there are kites flying over the camp now. one of them has a > palestinian flag fluttering behind it, one hundred feet up in the air. > > another day in occupied palestine. > > more to come. > i'll add more pictures on www.norabf.com soon. > > nora > > > > -- > ☆┌─┐　 ─┐☆ > 　│▒│ /▒/ > 　│▒│/▒/ > 　│▒ /▒/─┬─┐ > 　│▒│▒|▒│▒│ > ┌┴─┴─┐-┘─┘ > │▒┌──┘▒▒▒│ > └┐▒▒▒▒▒▒┌┘ > 　└┐▒▒▒▒┌┘ > 　 ＼__　___/ > 　 ＼__　___/ > YaMaN > ☆　　　 ▦　　　 ☆ > -- > Suhell from DAM > www.myspace.com/damrap > www.slingshothiphop.com > www.dampalestine.com From sonia.jabbar at gmail.com Mon Jun 16 10:38:53 2008 From: sonia.jabbar at gmail.com (S. Jabbar) Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 10:38:53 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Another Lal Masjid Message-ID: Another Lal Masjid in the Making? Ahmad Bilal >From Chowk, June 8. In April, I had to make an emergency trip to Pakistan due to declining health of my father. Since my last couple of trips had been very short, this was after more than two years that I was visiting Pakistan for four weeks, most of them to be spent in my hometown of Bahawalpur. When I had visited back in 2005, it was a visit after 4 years, so new roads and cell phones in every hand looked quite fresh. This time, at least on the surface, little seemed to have changed since my last trip. On my way home from the airport, it looked like the same old desert town of Bahawalpur. The date palms, the early summer heat, the dust and the desert wind were all too familiar. As the car stopped at the main gate of my parents¹ house, a poster pasted on the gate caught my attention. The title of the poster was ³Azmat-e-Quran Conference². And the key speaker was going to be someone named Masood Azhar. Why did the name sound familiar? I thought about it for a moment, but then as the car moved in, the happy feeling of meeting my parents again overwhelmed me and I quite forgot about it all. The next few days were spent making courtesy calls and getting over the jet lag. Then came the day when I was fresh again to go out and meet relatives and family friends in the city. As I went out, I saw the same poster pasted all over the city with a lot of white flags hoisted on all major intersections. I wondered what was going on, and the name Masood Azhar clicked with some old memories of watching this man on the news a long time ago. Yes, he was the same Masood Azhar who founded the Jaish-e-Muhammad organization and served time in Indian jails before getting freed through hijacking of an Indian Airlines jet. Bahawalpur always used to be laid back small town where everyone knew everyone. Masood Azhar was a neighbor of my cousins and used to have a small low profile house which wasn¹t even visible from the road. I remember when he was released, the BBC wanted to film his return from the terrace of my cousins¹ house, but they refused due to privacy concerns. Since then, we heard little about him in the news or local gossip. In general, the people didn¹t give him much credibility. While I was thinking about the past, my attention was drawn towards the wall chalking around me. Gone were the usual slogans of old times, directing people to visit miraculous witchdoctors for solutions of all their problems. The walls were filled with anti-west hate slogans, with ³Al-Jihad Al-Qital² (holy war, bloody battle) written everywhere around the central mosque. This was not the Bahawalpur I knew when I was growing up. As we got closer to the central mosque, I saw the adjacent ground filled with bearded men in white robes, with more of them reaching the place in buses, chanting the slogans which were written all over the city. A number of men were uniformed, and they had closed the road to facilitate movement of buses into the place. The purpose of the conference was to distribute a new book of Masood Azhar which had supposedly substantiated that the jihad these men thought they were preparing for was actually sanctioned by the verses of Quran, based on their strict politically-motivated interpretation. We reached the house of our family friends with mixed thoughts. Obviously disturbed by these developments, I asked them what was going on in the city. They said it had been silently going on for a long time. Over the years, Masood Azhar had converted his small house into a multi-floor concrete compound housing 700 armed men, who freely did target practice there. All this was located in a very central part of the city, ironically called Model Town. The police dared not touch these men, and instead of putting pressure on them to stop their activities, the local politicians were actually hiring these men as bodyguards during the elections. After leaving their house, as we got closer to my cousins¹ house, a strange tall building with the same white flags on top was visible from a distance. This was Masood Azhar¹s compound. A few blocks away from my cousins¹ house, our car got stuck in a crowd of the same bearded men in white robes who flocked outside the compound and watched us suspiciously as we drove through them. For a moment, I felt like a stranger in my own hometown. Everyone at my cousins¹ house thought of all this as something normal and didn¹t seem to be bothered. While talking to people about this, I had some interesting conversations with some of the people who were involved in local politics and the internal politics of Islamabad. Their understanding was that Masood Azhar was like Rasheed Ghazi of Lal Masjid. The way they explained it was that ISI gets money channeled through CIA. Some of it goes to fund extremists, some of it goes to eliminate them, and most of it goes in shady bank accounts. The agencies get their money, the US benefits from the instability in the region to maintain military presence here, Musharraf gets to stay in power by showing his performance in war on terror, and the bearded men in white robes think they are doing some great service to religion by dedicating their lives to militancy. So this was a win-win situation for all parties, at the expense of the fabric of Pakistani society. Although I took their explanation with a grain of salt, I thought a lot of it did make sense. On my way back home, a huge billboard at the heart of the city grabbed my attention. It showed a passenger plane on fire with a slogan on top: Another Victory for Muslims. I had a flight back to the US coming up, and the plane on the billboard resembled the 777 I took to fly to Pakistan. I wondered if the ones behind this billboard actually realized what they were portraying. Beneath the billboard, the cityscape was filled with common Pakistanis going about their everyday struggle for survival. From sonia.jabbar at gmail.com Mon Jun 16 11:19:42 2008 From: sonia.jabbar at gmail.com (S. Jabbar) Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 11:19:42 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] NREGA Message-ID: From: aruna roy Date: Sat, Jun 14, 2008 at 7:23 PM Subject: Please read and Sign - Statement in response to DC and SP Palamau report Dear friends, We are attaching (and enclosing inline text with some of the initial signatories) a statement on the happenings in Palamau jharkhand related to uncovering of fraud in NREGA works in social audits and violent reactions to that. The latest is a report that has been sent by the District Administration of Palamau which, amongst other things contains many ridiculous allegations against Jean and the survey team. we are also attaching the scanned copy of the DCs report as carried by Prabhat Khabar, and a link to an article in the Indian Express on the growing violence against NREGA activists: http://indianexpress.com/story/322527.html Could you please go through the statement below, and if you approve send your concurrence as soon as possible so that the signed statement can go to various newspapers. Please send this urgently to kiranshaheen at gmail.com with a copy to mkssrajasthan at gmail.com . Also please send this on to others for them to sign. If you need any more details, do let us know. in solidarity, Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey (for the MKSS) Palamau Report: Enquiry or Cover-up? We are shocked by the recent report prepared by the Deputy Commissioner (DC) and Superintendent of Police (SP) of Palamau, commenting on Lalit Mehta's murder as well as on the survey of NREGA conducted there in May 2008 by the G.B. Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad. This report is a deliberate attempt to divert attention from the real issues, which effectively protects those responsible for corruption and violence in the area. The report shows that the police have made no serious enquiries into Lalit Mehta's murder. It does not provide any credible clue to this murder, but raises a number of mischievous conjectures using selective evidence. For instance, the report refers to interviews with Lalit Mehta's brother and his sons, without mentioning that the sons are one and three years old, respectively. Meanwhile, evidence from extensive interviews with Lalit's wife, Ashrita, is ignored. Further, the report is full of factual mistakes. Even the date of the murder is incorrect: Lalit Mehta was murdered on 14 May, not on 15 May as stated in the report. Instead of presenting a serious analysis of the circumstances of the murder, the report makes absurd insinuations, such as Jean Drèze's possible involvement in the murder, or the allegation that he and his team manufactured evidence of fraud in NREGA works. Equally ridiculous is the unsubstantiated claim of the possible role of an old family dispute about Lalit Mehta's inter-religious marriage being the cause for the murder. The report also makes insidious allegations about the survey team, Vikas Sahyog Kendra, and Lalit Mehta's family. For instance, the report presents a ludicrous picture of the social audit activities conducted by the survey team, and even accuses the team of using devious means to collect testimonies. No-one familiar with the team's work (which was conducted in a transparent manner in full view of the public and the media) can take this seriously. Casting unwarranted aspersions on people like Jean Drèze, who is a member of the Central Employment Guarantee Council (and therefore mandated to monitor and investigate NREGA implementation anywhere in the country), and on students from Delhi University and other reputed universities, is in fact an attempt to snuff out any independent monitoring of government expenditure. The report reinforces earlier suspicions that there is an entrenched and deep rooted nexus of corruption and violence surrounding NREGA in Palamau, with powerful connections. Otherwise, why would the district's seniormost officers go to such length to undermine a forthright examination of the use of NREGA funds in this area? We demand that the report of the DC and SP Palamau be rejected by the Central Government as well as by the State Government, and that a CBI enquiry into Lalit Mehta's murder and the corruption in NREGA works in Palamau District be initiated immediately. signed Aruna Roy Bunker Roy Arundhati Roy Prabhash Joshi Harsh Mander Kiran Shaheen Nikhil Dey Shanker Singh -- Aruna Roy Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) Village Devdungri, Post Barar District Rajsamand 313341 Rajasthan Telephone : 09929519361 01463-288247 From radhikarajen at vsnl.net Mon Jun 16 13:00:51 2008 From: radhikarajen at vsnl.net (radhikarajen at vsnl.net) Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:30:51 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] NREGA In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi, as usual, all this much hyped poverty alleviation programmes of the central government be it national rural emplyoment guarantee schemes or the suraksha, vidya abhiyans are all hogwash at the stage of implementation irrespective of which political party rules the state and implements the schemes as seen in free India. Inspite of foreign banks openly announcing the fact that there are 900 indian accounts in overseas banks with billions of rupees in safekeeping, the present FM being a "criminal" lawyer with income tax practise has the audacity to tell that he has sent legally worded letter asking for the details of these accounts under a separate classification of avoidance of double taxation.! To add to the misery we have a PM who is "honest" economist and has to follow dictates of Madam for mafia appeasements even at the cost of the economy of the nation with wasteful expenditure. Public attention is sought to be drawn with spins of diverting attention from main issue of wastage of funds with differently ruled states be it law and order or criminal offences, as CMs of congress ruled states are holy cows for the neo journalists as they refuse to see the crimes committed in daylight in such states but cry hoarse about states ruled by other party.? Crime and governance of the state is bad in any state but daily dose of rapes, in moving cars, murders and thuggery is highlighted only of some states and ignored if they are in other states by our "secular visual media journalists" thus giving a spin to crimes and sustaining themselves as sellers of miseries of human beings as trp driven titllation mongering living on speculative narratives of the victims.! Regards. ----- Original Message ----- From: "S. Jabbar" Date: Monday, June 16, 2008 11:20 am Subject: [Reader-list] NREGA To: sarai list > From: aruna roy > Date: Sat, Jun 14, 2008 at 7:23 PM > Subject: Please read and Sign - Statement in response to DC and SP > Palamaureport > > > Dear friends, > We are attaching (and enclosing inline text with some of the initial > signatories) a statement on the happenings in Palamau jharkhand > related to > uncovering of fraud in NREGA works in social audits and violent > reactions to > that. The latest is a report that has been sent by the District > Administration of Palamau which, amongst other things contains many > ridiculous allegations against Jean and the survey team. we are also > attaching the scanned copy of the DCs report as carried by Prabhat > Khabar,and a link to an article in the Indian Express on the > growing violence > against NREGA activists: http://indianexpress.com/story/322527.html > Could you please go through the statement below, and if you > approve send > your concurrence as soon as possible so that the signed statement > can go to > various newspapers. > Please send this urgently to kiranshaheen at gmail.com with a copy to > mkssrajasthan at gmail.com . Also please send this on to others for > them to > sign. If you need any more details, do let us know. > in solidarity, > Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey > (for the MKSS) > > Palamau Report: Enquiry or Cover-up? > > We are shocked by the recent report prepared by the Deputy > Commissioner (DC) > and Superintendent of Police (SP) of Palamau, commenting on Lalit > Mehta'smurder as well as on the survey of NREGA conducted there in > May 2008 by the > G.B. Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad. This report is a > deliberateattempt to divert attention from the real issues, which > effectively protects > those responsible for corruption and violence in the area. > > > > The report shows that the police have made no serious enquiries > into Lalit > Mehta's murder. It does not provide any credible clue to this > murder, but > raises a number of mischievous conjectures using selective > evidence. For > instance, the report refers to interviews with Lalit Mehta's > brother and his > sons, without mentioning that the sons are one and three years old, > respectively. Meanwhile, evidence from extensive interviews with > Lalit'swife, Ashrita, is ignored. Further, the report is full of > factual mistakes. > Even the date of the murder is incorrect: Lalit Mehta was murdered > on 14 > May, not on 15 May as stated in the report. > > > > Instead of presenting a serious analysis of the circumstances of > the murder, > the report makes absurd insinuations, such as Jean Drèze's possible > involvement in the murder, or the allegation that he and his team > manufactured evidence of fraud in NREGA works. Equally ridiculous > is the > unsubstantiated claim of the possible role of an old family > dispute about > Lalit Mehta's inter-religious marriage being the cause for the murder. > > > > The report also makes insidious allegations about the survey team, > VikasSahyog Kendra, and Lalit Mehta's family. For instance, the > report presents a > ludicrous picture of the social audit activities conducted by the > surveyteam, and even accuses the team of using devious means to > collecttestimonies. No-one familiar with the team's work (which > was conducted in a > transparent manner in full view of the public and the media) can > take this > seriously. Casting unwarranted aspersions on people like Jean > Drèze, who is > a member of the Central Employment Guarantee Council (and > therefore mandated > to monitor and investigate NREGA implementation anywhere in the > country),and on students from Delhi University and other reputed > universities, is in > fact an attempt to snuff out any independent monitoring of government > expenditure. > > > > The report reinforces earlier suspicions that there is an > entrenched and > deep rooted nexus of corruption and violence surrounding NREGA in > Palamau,with powerful connections. Otherwise, why would the > district's seniormost > officers go to such length to undermine a forthright examination > of the use > of NREGA funds in this area? > > > > We demand that the report of the DC and SP Palamau be rejected by the > Central Government as well as by the State Government, and that a CBI > enquiry into Lalit Mehta's murder and the corruption in NREGA > works in > Palamau District be initiated immediately. > > > > > > signed > > > > Aruna Roy > > Bunker Roy > > Arundhati Roy > > Prabhash Joshi > > Harsh Mander > > Kiran Shaheen > > Nikhil Dey > > Shanker Singh > > > > > > > > -- > Aruna Roy > Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) > Village Devdungri, Post Barar > District Rajsamand 313341 > Rajasthan > > Telephone : 09929519361 > 01463-288247 > _________________________________________ > 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 Jun 16 15:25:17 2008 From: rashneek at gmail.com (rashneek kher) Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:25:17 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Invitation Message-ID: <13df7c120806160255q4617d611sbe8af4f46e1f8ebe@mail.gmail.com> *In commemoration of those who were brutally massacred in an un-ending saga of ethnic cleansing* * * *Roots in Kashmir* requests your presence for an Audio-Visual Presentation and an interactive panel discussion featuring 1.Shankarshan Thakur(Eminent Journalist and Coulmnist) 2.Gautam Kaul( former DGP-ITBP) 3.Mukul Sharma(Director-India,Amnesty International) 4.Zafar Meraj(Freelance Journalist and JKLF idealogue) 5.Tarun Vijay(Noted Columnist and Former Editor-Panchjanya) on *Wandhama Massacre* *The Forgotten Human Tragedy* At Chinmaya Auditorium,Lodhi Road at 6 PM on 20th June,08 Blog: http://kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com/ E-mail: kashmiris.humanrights at gmail.com -- Rashneek Kher Wandhama Massacre-The Forgotten Human Tragedy http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com From asitredsalute at gmail.com Mon Jun 16 16:29:58 2008 From: asitredsalute at gmail.com (Asit asitreds) Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:29:58 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] endorsement campaign of official apathy into lalitmehta murder enquriy Message-ID: Dear friends, We are attaching (and enclosing inline text with some of the initial signatories) a statement on the happenings in Palamau jharkhand related to uncovering of fraud in NREGA works in social audits and violent reactions to that. The latest is a report that has been sent by the District Administration of Palamau which, amongst other things contains many ridiculous allegations against jean and the survey team. we are also attaching the scanned copy of the DCs report as carried by Prabhat Khabar, and a link to an article in the Indian Express on the growing violence against NREGA activists: http://indianexpress.com/story/322527.html *Could you please go through the statement below, and if you approve send your concurrence as soon as possible so that the signed statement can go to various newspapers. *Please send this urgently to kiranshaheen at gmail.com with a copy to mkssrajasthan at gmail.com . Also please send this on to others for them to sign. If you need any more details, do let us know. in solidarity, Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey (for the MKSS) *Palamau Report: Enquiry or Cover-up? * We are shocked by the recent report prepared by the Deputy Commissioner (DC) and Superintendent of Police (SP) of Palamau, commenting on Lalit Mehta's murder as well as on the survey of NREGA conducted there in May 2008 by the G.B. Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad (As published in the newspaper Prabhat Khabar, Ranchi on 12th, 13th and 14th June ). This report is a deliberate attempt to divert attention from the real issues, which effectively protects those responsible for corruption and violence in the area. The report shows that the police have made no serious enquiries into Lalit Mehta's murder. It does not provide any credible clue to this murder, but raises a number of mischievous conjectures using selective evidence. For instance, the report refers to interviews with Lalit Mehta's brother and his sons, without mentioning that the sons are one and three years old, respectively. Meanwhile, evidence from extensive interviews with Lalit's wife, Ashrita, is ignored. Further, the report is full of factual mistakes. Even the date of the murder is incorrect: Lalit Mehta was murdered on 14 May, not on 15 May as stated in the report. Instead of presenting a serious analysis of the circumstances of the murder, the report makes absurd insinuations, such as Jean Drèze's possible involvement in the murder, or the allegation that he and his team manufactured evidence of fraud in NREGA works. Equally ridiculous is the unsubstantiated claim of the possible role of an old family dispute about Lalit Mehta's inter-religious marriage being the cause for the murder. The report also makes insidious allegations about the survey team, Vikas Sahyog Kendra, and Lalit Mehta's family. For instance, the report presents a ludicrous picture of the social audit activities conducted by the survey team, and even accuses the team of using devious means to collect testimonies. No-one familiar with the team's work (which was conducted in a transparent manner in full view of the public and the media) can take this seriously. Casting unwarranted aspersions on people like Jean Drèze, who is a member of the Central Employment Guarantee Council (and therefore mandated to monitor and investigate NREGA implementation anywhere in the country), and on students from Delhi University and other reputed universities, is in fact an attempt to snuff out any independent monitoring of government expenditure. The report reinforces earlier suspicions that there is an entrenched and deep rooted nexus of corruption and violence surrounding NREGA in Palamau, with powerful connections. Otherwise, why would the district's seniormost officers go to such length to undermine a forthright examination of the use of NREGA funds in this area? We demand that the report of the DC and SP Palamau be rejected by the Central Government as well as by the State Government, and that a CBI enquiry into Lalit Mehta's murder and the corruption in NREGA works in Palamau District be initiated immediately. signed Aruna Roy Bunker Roy Arundhati Roy Prabhash Joshi Harsh Mander Kiran Shaheen Nikhil Dey Shanker Singh and many more A comprehensive list is being prepared . From mail at shivamvij.com Mon Jun 16 21:48:21 2008 From: mail at shivamvij.com (=?UTF-8?Q?Shivam_Vij?= =?UTF-8?Q?_=E0=A4=B6=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=AE?= =?UTF-8?Q?=E0=A5=8D_=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=9C=E0=A5=8D?=) Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 21:48:21 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Firefox 3 Message-ID: <9c06aab30806160918t654c7276saf37005e8c051096@mail.gmail.com> 26,947 people from India alone have pledged to download Firefox 3 on 17 June, that is, tomorrow. You can do so, too: http://www.spreadfirefox.com/en-US/worldrecord/ If you don't know what Firefox is, it is an open-source alternative to Internet Explorer that's faster, safer and does not make you loyal to Micro$oft :) See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Firefox This is part of Firefox's attempt to set a world record in maximum number of software downloads in a span of 24 hours. If you love Firefox, you will know the passion behind this. Here's why Firefox version 3 is special: http://www.dria.org/wordpress/archives/2008/06/12/655/ From elkamath at yahoo.com Tue Jun 17 10:41:56 2008 From: elkamath at yahoo.com (lalitha kamath) Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:11:56 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Fw: Web resource for researchers Message-ID: <581899.7286.qm@web53612.mail.re2.yahoo.com> H-ASIA June 16, 2008 A Web resource for researchers ************************************************************************ From: Daniel Niles Here is a site that should be of interest to some on this list: a peer-to-peer cross-disciplinary clearing-house for researchers of all kinds. http://cooperative.ning.com The site will evolve, but it is envisioned as a place where research writers, fieldworkers, local experts, publishers, editors, translators and others can find and help one another. All languages, topics, and research-related requests and offers are appropriate. Once there, for more about the site, see "notes" > "All notes." Daniel Niles National Museum of Ethnology Senri Expo Park, Suita City, Osaka 565-8511, Japan ****************************************************************** From oishiksircar at gmail.com Tue Jun 17 11:31:29 2008 From: oishiksircar at gmail.com (OISHIK SIRCAR) Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 11:31:29 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Please Endorse Statement on Bhopal to PM TODAY - PLEASE CIRCULATE TO YOUR CONTACTS urgent ! In-Reply-To: <485751FD.9030708@gmail.com> References: <485751FD.9030708@gmail.com> Message-ID: <62cba67a0806162301h121123d0uff79709d5692160f@mail.gmail.com> Friends, Help us get as many endorsement as possible from all cross the country. It would really be helpful. We plan to release it tomorrow at a press conference here and send it to PM. Thanks ! June 17 2008 *Request to Federations, Alliances, Movements, Organisations and Individuals for Endorsement on the Statement to PM in support of Bhopal. Send endorsements to madhuresh at cacim.net * Dear Friends, The survivors of the Bhopal gas disaster and activists have been on a dharna at Jantar Mantar for over 75 days. So far there has been no concrete response from the Prime Minister on their demands. On June 9 in response to a peaceful sit-in at South Block they were arrested and children were abused by the Delhi police. In protest, 5 days ago, nine activists started an indefinite hunger strike. Even till today 23 of the Bhopalis are in Tihar Jail and our attempts to secure bail for them has been met with stiff resistance from the State. This shameful state of affairs must stop. It is crucial that groups across the country unite in support to up the ante on the Manmohan Singh Government. In consultation with the Bhopal Groups it has also been decided to observe a *National Day of Action and Solidarity for Bhopal* on 17^th June 2008 across the country. *We hope you will endorse the statement to PM (pasted below) so that it can be delivered collectively to PMO after 17^th and released to media on 18^th June in a press conference in Delhi. * We have heard from friends and comrades in Delhi, Bombay, Chennai, Coimbatore, Raipur and some other places who will hold some kind of action there today. Let us all join hands now… Please circulate this to your friends, networks and ask them to endorse it too. Every small action counts … In Solidarity Supporters of Bhopal (Send endorsements to madhuresh at cacim.net ) *Statement to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh* *BHOPAL** INJUSTICE A BLOT ON INDIAN DEMOCRACY* We, the undersigned organisations and individuals, express our dismay and indignation at the indifference of the Prime Minister's office towards the rightful demands of the Bhopal gas survivors. Rather than meet their demands promptly, the Government has ignored their march from Bhopal to Delhi, met their 2 month-long dharna with empty promises, and dealt their non-violent protests with beatings and jailing. Your silence has now prompted them to launch an indefinite fast, where they are being joined by a growing number of people, including several from the USA, UK and India, who have volunteered to fast indefinitely along with them. For the past 23 years they have had a set of basic and simple demands; those that should have been met decades ago by any Government that claimed to work for its people. However, on February 20, 2008, women, children and men from Bhopal, had to undertake a grueling march of 800 kms to reach Delhi to press their demands. We are concerned for the health of the people who have begun an indefinite fast. In particular, we are concerned about the well-being of those among the hunger strikers who have already been affected by Union Carbide's poisons. We also are dismayed with the treatment meted out by the police on the protesters who resorted to a peaceful protest in South Block on June 9. 14 Bhopali children, along with 22 adults, were arrested and later beaten up in police custody. To add insult to injury, the Prime Minister's Office and the Police have denied this, hinting that the Bhopalis are liars. The PMO cannot reach any such conclusion without conducting an enquiry, and without speaking to the children who allege this abuse. We urge you to initiate an enquiry and take legal action against the policepersons, many of whose names are known. The PMO has also conveyed that the Bhopalis would need to understand that the law will take its course if they break it – for instance, by breaching a high-security area around your house or office. How is it that the law takes its course for the Bhopalis, but not for Union Carbide or Dow? How is it that the law does not take its course in delivering water to the Bhopalis for years after the Supreme Court orders that this should be done? Sir, the statement read by your emissary Mr. Prithviraj Chavan gave us a little hope, and we thank you for that first step. But we are disappointed by the tentative manner in which the Government is approaching the setting up of the Commission, claiming that the matter requires the complete assent of the State Government. The Government forgets that by declaring itself /parens patriae/, it assumed the role of a parent to the Bhopalis during the civil litigation for damages from Union Carbide. While we welcome the initiative taken by the Prime Minister towards meeting their demands, we request him to take adequate measures to make his promises genuine. The signatories to this statement reiterate the demands of the Bhopalis: · Set up an Empowered Commission on Bhopal by endorsing the bill proposed by survivors organisations and committing to introducing it in the Parliament in the monsoon session. This includes committing the funds required to allow the Commission to function for 30 years for medical, economic, social and environmental rehabilitation. · The Government should immediately initiate legal action against Dow Chemical and Union Carbide. /Endorsed by: / 1. Aasha Parivar, 2. AID India 3. AISA 4. Amnesty International 5. Delhi Solidarity Group 6. Fishermen Coordination of Tamil Nadu & Pondycherry 7. INSAF 8. International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal 9. JNUSU 10. NAPM Delhi 11. MKSS – Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan 12. Nadi Ghati Morcha 13. NCDHR 14. NFFPFW 15. PSU 16. PUCL Rajasthan 17. People's Union for civil Liberties - Tamil Nadu 18. Stree Adhikar Sangathan 19. Students for Bhopal 20. Tamil Nadu Womens' Collective 21. Yuva Samvad 22. CACIM 23. Corporate Accountability Desk, Chennai 24. Delhi Forum 25. Focus on the Global South 26. Intercultural Resources 27. Jagori 28. The Other Media 29. Swechcha 30. Tamil Nadu Environment Council-Dindigul 31. Human Rights Initiative- Tamil Nadu 32. Cuddalore District Consumer Protection Organisation 33. Kanchi Makkal Mandram 34. Chankya Group -- ********************************************** CACIM, A-3 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India Ph : +91-11-4155 1521, +91-98-1890 5316 (Mobile) madhuresh at cacim.net / kmadhuresh at gmail.com www.cacim.net Check out the OpenSpaceForum @ www.openspaceforum.net Subscribe to WSFDiscuss, an open and unmoderated forum on the World Social Forum and on related social and political movements and issues. Simply send an empty email to worldsocialforum-discuss-subscribe at openspaceforum.net And, NEW ! : Join CEOS at openspaceforum.net, the CEOS (Critical Engagement with Open Space) listserve for exchange and coordination on open space theory and practice and to facilitate a critical discussion of the idea of 'open space'. Just send an empty mail to CEOS-subscribe at openspaceforum.net -- OISHIK SIRCAR Scholar in Women's Rights Faculty of Law, University of Toronto oishiksircar at gmail.com oishik.sircar at utoronto.ca From radhikarajen at vsnl.net Tue Jun 17 13:02:37 2008 From: radhikarajen at vsnl.net (radhikarajen at vsnl.net) Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 12:32:37 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] endorsement campaign of official apathy into lalitmehtamurder enquriy In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: All citizens must raise the question of propriety of central government and state government which is scared to go into any probe in the irregularities in utilisation of funds in the NREGA scheme, for one this state government is foisted on the citizens by the political parties without any ethics or morals in politics with one point agenda of keeping "communal" BJP out of power. What the citizens should understand is that this communal label is as applicable to all the political parties as it is to BJP as all these parties are with votes of communities based on faith and castes. In the whole process misuse of national exchequer for personal gains has become hallmark of governance with allies of UPA, be it RJD or BSP or Congress itself, where is the funds of oil coupons Sonia. ? Regards. ----- Original Message ----- From: Asit asitreds Date: Monday, June 16, 2008 4:31 pm Subject: [Reader-list] endorsement campaign of official apathy into lalitmehtamurder enquriy To: Sarai Reader List > Dear friends, > We are attaching (and enclosing inline text with some of the initial > signatories) a statement on the happenings in Palamau jharkhand > related to > uncovering of fraud in NREGA works in social audits and violent > reactions to > that. The latest is a report that has been sent by the District > Administration of Palamau which, amongst other things contains many > ridiculous allegations against jean and the survey team. we are also > attaching the scanned copy of the DCs report as carried by Prabhat > Khabar,and a link to an article in the Indian Express on the > growing violence > against NREGA activists: http://indianexpress.com/story/322527.html > *Could you please go through the statement below, and if you > approve send > your concurrence as soon as possible so that the signed statement > can go to > various newspapers. > *Please send this urgently to kiranshaheen at gmail.com with a > copy to > mkssrajasthan at gmail.com . Also please send this on to others for > them to > sign. If you need any more details, do let us know. > in solidarity, > Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey > (for the MKSS) > > *Palamau Report: Enquiry or Cover-up? > * > We are shocked by the recent report prepared by the Deputy > Commissioner (DC) > and Superintendent of Police (SP) of Palamau, commenting on Lalit > Mehta'smurder as well as on the survey of NREGA conducted there in > May 2008 by the > G.B. Pant Social Science Institute, Allahabad (As published in the > newspaperPrabhat Khabar, Ranchi on 12th, 13th and 14th June ). > This report is a > deliberate attempt to divert attention from the real issues, which > effectively protects those responsible for corruption and violence > in the > area. > > The report shows that the police have made no serious enquiries > into Lalit > Mehta's murder. It does not provide any credible clue to this > murder, but > raises a number of mischievous conjectures using selective > evidence. For > instance, the report refers to interviews with Lalit Mehta's > brother and his > sons, without mentioning that the sons are one and three years old, > respectively. Meanwhile, evidence from extensive interviews with > Lalit'swife, Ashrita, is ignored. Further, the report is full of > factual mistakes. > Even the date of the murder is incorrect: Lalit Mehta was murdered > on 14 > May, not on 15 May as stated in the report. > > Instead of presenting a serious analysis of the circumstances of > the murder, > the report makes absurd insinuations, such as Jean Drèze's possible > involvement in the murder, or the allegation that he and his team > manufactured evidence of fraud in NREGA works. Equally ridiculous > is the > unsubstantiated claim of the possible role of an old family > dispute about > Lalit Mehta's inter-religious marriage being the cause for the murder. > > The report also makes insidious allegations about the survey team, > VikasSahyog Kendra, and Lalit Mehta's family. For instance, the > report presents a > ludicrous picture of the social audit activities conducted by the > surveyteam, and even accuses the team of using devious means to > collecttestimonies. No-one familiar with the team's work (which > was conducted in a > transparent manner in full view of the public and the media) can > take this > seriously. Casting unwarranted aspersions on people like Jean > Drèze, who is > a member of the Central Employment Guarantee Council (and > therefore mandated > to monitor and investigate NREGA implementation anywhere in the > country),and on students from Delhi University and other reputed > universities, is in > fact an attempt to snuff out any independent monitoring of government > expenditure. > > The report reinforces earlier suspicions that there is an > entrenched and > deep rooted nexus of corruption and violence surrounding NREGA in > Palamau,with powerful connections. Otherwise, why would the > district's seniormost > officers go to such length to undermine a forthright examination > of the use > of NREGA funds in this area? > > We demand that the report of the DC and SP Palamau be rejected by the > Central Government as well as by the State Government, and that a CBI > enquiry into Lalit Mehta's murder and the corruption in NREGA > works in > Palamau District be initiated immediately. > > > signed > > Aruna Roy > > Bunker Roy > > Arundhati Roy > > Prabhash Joshi > > Harsh Mander > > Kiran Shaheen > > Nikhil Dey > > Shanker Singh > and many more > A comprehensive list is being prepared . > _________________________________________ > 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 swakkhyar at gmail.com Tue Jun 17 18:25:54 2008 From: swakkhyar at gmail.com (swakkhyar deka) Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:25:54 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Aarushi murder case Message-ID: <99ca36500806170555i48eed1f8q32b36345dbffc35e@mail.gmail.com> hey folks.....what is going on with the case of the little girl Aarusih's killing....CBI seems to be going round and round with the investigation and finding it very hard come to any conclusion.....has the mystery surronding the case getting too deep for the agency?...in the meantime media have found a cracker material to keep the circulation and TRPs going strong....c'mon give it a break guys...Channels like Star News dramatising and doing everything to make the case a potboiler...I think the CBI men should be allowed to concentrate on their work and Media should hold back a bit....what say? From mail at shivamvij.com Tue Jun 17 19:37:16 2008 From: mail at shivamvij.com (=?UTF-8?Q?Shivam_Vij?= =?UTF-8?Q?_=E0=A4=B6=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=AE?= =?UTF-8?Q?=E0=A5=8D_=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=9C=E0=A5=8D?=) Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 19:37:16 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Aarushi murder case In-Reply-To: <99ca36500806170555i48eed1f8q32b36345dbffc35e@mail.gmail.com> References: <99ca36500806170555i48eed1f8q32b36345dbffc35e@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <9c06aab30806170707w23bb5f0fya5722de5e52af4f9@mail.gmail.com> "Little girl Arushi"... Why aren't you equally bothered about big man Hemraj? On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 6:25 PM, swakkhyar deka wrote: > hey folks.....what is going on with the case of the little girl Aarusih's > killing....CBI seems to be going round and round with the investigation and > finding it very hard come to any conclusion.....has the mystery surronding > the case getting too deep for the agency?...in the meantime media have > found > a cracker material to keep the circulation and TRPs going strong....c'mon > give it a break guys...Channels like Star News dramatising and doing > everything to make the case a potboiler...I think the CBI men should > be allowed to concentrate on their work and Media should hold back a > bit....what say? > _________________________________________ > 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/> -- "Journalism 101, I am sure taught you the difference between reporting and pontificating. However, the first amendment protects your right to free speech and therefore your right to ponificate." From mail at shivamvij.com Tue Jun 17 20:03:54 2008 From: mail at shivamvij.com (=?UTF-8?Q?Shivam_Vij?= =?UTF-8?Q?_=E0=A4=B6=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=AE?= =?UTF-8?Q?=E0=A5=8D_=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=9C=E0=A5=8D?=) Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 20:03:54 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again Message-ID: <9c06aab30806170733t48302bablf56c69c6427f5b82@mail.gmail.com> An organisation in Ahemdabad called National Council for Civil Liberties has filed a case against Ashis Nandy for his article in The Times of India in January after Modi's election victory. The case has been filed for for 'promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth and language' [Sections 153 (A) and (B) of IPC]. 178 academics and intellectuals have signed a statement in protest, which is available at http://www.sacw.net/FreeExpAndFundos/defendNandy16June08.html Given below is the 'offending' article: o o o Blame The Middle Class By Ashis Nandy 8 Jan 2008 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/LEADER_ARTICLE_Blame_The_Middle_Class/rssarticleshow/2681517.cms Now that the dust has settled over the Gujarat elections, we can afford to defy the pundits and admit that, even if Narendra Modi had lost the last elections, it would not have made much difference to the culture of Gujarat politics. Modi had already done his job. Most of the state's urban middle class would have remained mired in its inane versions of communalism and parochialism and the VHP and the Bajrang Dal would have continued to set the tone of state politics. Forty years of dedicated propaganda does pay dividends, electorally and socially. The Hindus and the Muslims of the state — once bonded so conspicuously by language, culture and commerce — have met the demands of both V D Savarkar and M A Jinnah. They now face each other as two hostile nations. The handful of Gujarati social and political activists who resist the trend are seen not as dissenters but as treacherous troublemakers who should be silenced by any means, including surveillance, censorship and direct violence. As a result, Gujarati cities, particularly its educational institutions are turning cultural deserts. Gujarat has already disowned the Indian Constitution and the state apparatus has adjusted to the change. The Congress, the main opposition party, has no effective leader. Nor does it represent any threat to the mainstream politics of Gujarat. The days of grass-roots leaders like Jhinabhai Darji are past and a large section of the party now consists of Hindu nationalists. The national leadership of the party does not have the courage to confront Modi over 2002, given its abominable record of 1984. The Left is virtually non-existent in Gujarat. Whatever minor presence it once had among intellectuals and trade unionists is now a vague memory. The state has disowned Gandhi, too; Gandhian politics arouses derision in middle-class Gujarat. Except for a few valiant old-timers, Gandhians have made peace with their conscience by withdrawing from the public domain. Gandhi himself has been given a saintly, Hindu nationalist status and shelved. Even the Gujarati translations of his Complete Works have been stealthily distorted to conform to the Hindu nationalist agenda. Gujarati Muslims too are "adjusting" to their new station. Denied justice and proper compensation, and as second-class citizens in their home state, they have to depend on voluntary efforts and donor agencies. The state's refusal to provide relief has been partly met by voluntary groups having fundamentalist sympathies. They supply aid but insist that the beneficiaries give up Gujarati and take to Urdu, adopt veil, and send their children to madrassas. Events like the desecration of Wali Gujarati's grave have pushed one of India's culturally richest, most diverse, vernacular Islamic traditions to the wall. Future generations will as gratefully acknowledge the sangh parivar's contribution to the growth of radical Islam in India as this generation remembers with gratitude the handsome contribution of Rajiv Gandhi and his cohorts to Sikh militancy. The secularist dogma of many fighting the sangh parivar has not helped matters. Even those who have benefited from secular lawyers and activists relate to secular ideologies instrumentally. They neither understand them nor respect them. The victims still derive solace from their religions and, when under attack, they cling more passionately to faith. Indeed, shallow ideologies of secularism have simultaneously broken the back of Gandhism and discouraged the emergence of figures like Ali Shariatis, Desmond Tutus and the Dalai Lama — persons who can give suffering a new voice audible to the poor and the powerless and make a creative intervention possible from within worldviews accessible to the people. Finally, Gujarat's spectacular development has underwritten the de-civilising process. One of the worst-kept secrets of our times is that dramatic development almost always has an authoritarian tail. Post-World War II Asia too has had its love affair with developmental despotism and the censorship, surveillance and thought control that go with it. The East Asian tigers have all been maneaters most of the time. Gujarat has now chosen to join the pack. Development in the state now justifies amorality, abridgement of freedom, and collapse of social ethics. Is there life after Modi? Is it possible to look beyond the 35 years of rioting that began in 1969 and ended in 2002? Prima facie, the answer is "no". We can only wait for a new generation that will, out of sheer self-interest and tiredness, learn to live with each other. In the meanwhile, we have to wait patiently but not passively to keep values alive, hoping that at some point will come a modicum of remorse and a search for atonement and that ultimately Gujarati traditions will triumph over the culture of the state's urban middle class. Recovering Gujarat from its urban middle class will not be easy. The class has found in militant religious nationalism a new self- respect and a new virtual identity as a martial community, the way Bengali babus, Maharashtrian Brahmins and Kashmiri Muslims at different times have sought salvation in violence. In Gujarat this class has smelt blood, for it does not have to do the killings but can plan, finance and coordinate them with impunity. The actual killers are the lowest of the low, mostly tribals and Dalits. The middle class controls the media and education, which have become hate factories in recent times. And they receive spirited support from most non-resident Indians who, at a safe distance from India, can afford to be more nationalist, bloodthirsty, and irresponsible. [The writer is a political psychologist.] From siddharth.narrain at gmail.com Tue Jun 17 21:54:59 2008 From: siddharth.narrain at gmail.com (siddharth narrain) Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:54:59 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] TOI's "Private Treaties" Message-ID: <1773a06d0806170924s39c6faaas743fa569c0fbb02e@mail.gmail.com> Here's an interesting piece on the way the Times of India's "Private Treaties" work. While its not the first piece to be written on the subject, this piece has triggered off a serious debate within the journalist community http://www.thehoot.org/web/home/story.php?storyid=3174&mod=1&pg=1§ionId=4&valid=true From taraprakash at gmail.com Wed Jun 18 08:50:08 2008 From: taraprakash at gmail.com (TaraPrakash) Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 23:20:08 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] Aarushi murder case References: <99ca36500806170555i48eed1f8q32b36345dbffc35e@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <025001c8d0f2$445344f0$6400a8c0@taraprakash> How about jumping in Rahel? I think you covered the news for CNNIBN initially. And the news has been amongst top two headlines on the channel for sometime. I'm not being judgemental about the channel's coverage. CNNIBN is the only channel available to me at the moment. Regards ----- Original Message ----- From: "swakkhyar deka" To: Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 8:55 AM Subject: [Reader-list] Aarushi murder case > hey folks.....what is going on with the case of the little girl Aarusih's > killing....CBI seems to be going round and round with the investigation > and > finding it very hard come to any conclusion.....has the mystery surronding > the case getting too deep for the agency?...in the meantime media have > found > a cracker material to keep the circulation and TRPs going strong....c'mon > give it a break guys...Channels like Star News dramatising and doing > everything to make the case a potboiler...I think the CBI men should > be allowed to concentrate on their work and Media should hold back a > bit....what say? > _________________________________________ > 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 sonia.jabbar at gmail.com Wed Jun 18 10:28:15 2008 From: sonia.jabbar at gmail.com (S. Jabbar) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:28:15 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] FW: Demonstration on 19th June In-Reply-To: <004d01c8d0fe$1e03df60$4d01a8c0@ridhima> Message-ID: On Thu, 12/6/08, vijay bahadur wrote: Dear all, Thanks for all the support that I have been getting from you all in my struggle for justice. Please do try to mark your presence, if possible. Thanks Regards Vijay Dear Friends, 2nd floor, 165, Dr. Mukherjee Nagar, Delhi, is the address where Kanak Lata, an M. Phil student from University of Delhi, her sister Manorama and Brother Chandra Bhushan shifted on 11th February 2007 as tenants. These siblings were in very good relations with the landlord¹s (Grover¹s) family. They would sometimes even help the kids in her house owner¹s family with their studies. Suddenly on 30th April 2008 the Grover family came to know that Kanak belong to the Chamar (Dalit) Community. From there started the acts of caste based abuses, and efforts to get the house vacated, and warnings of brutal beatings and gang rape upon Kanak Lata and her siblings living with her. Grover family even disconnected the water supply for Kanak and her siblings. For three days they underwent inhuman sufferings for water. On 3rd May 2008 evening, Kanak Lata went to fetch water from the tap on the ground floor. At a sudden the whole Grover family attacked her and started beating Kanak Lata very brutally. They shouted, ³saali kutiya chamarin aaj hum tum logon ko batayenge! poore eek saal se jaat chhupa kar hamare ghar ko apavitra kar rakha hain². When her sister Manorama and a brother, Chandra Bhushan came down stairs on hearing the cries of Kanak Lata they too were very brutally kicked, punched and beaten by the whole Grover family. When Kanak¹s one brother and a friend living in nearby colony went to their rescue they too were very brutally beaten by the Grover family. This went for several minutes. The Grover family members were abusing Kanak¹s parents and were shouting to gang rape Kanak and Manorama. They were publicly shouting, ³Saale ek to Bihari aur doosare Chamar ­ neech jaati ke hokar hamaara poora ghar ek saal se apavitra kar rakha hain, aabhi bhago nahin to botiyan kaat kar phek doonga² (you Bihari chamars - the lower caste people, you have been polluting my house for an year, leave my house immediately otherwise I will cut you in pieces and throw it). ³Saalon Chamaron tumhara dilli se namon nishan mita denge² (we will erase your name from Delhi), and many such other abuses and insulting statements. When this shameful act of caste atrocity reached the Mukherjee Nagar Police Station the SHO, Smt. Indra Sharma used all the means to discourage the victims to not lodge an FIR/complaint. The five victims were forced to sit in Mukherjee Nagar police station for more than 18 hours and that too without a drop of water or a grain of food. Meanwhile, the SHO herself directly warned about filing case of molestation and other cases under different sections on Kanak Lata and her brothers. The SHO even talked about monetary compensation. Lastly, when Kanak and other victims did not agree to compromise, a case under Section 354, 324, 341/34 of IPC was registered against Grover family, even though the matter was very visibly of Caste Atrocity and was to be registered under Section 3 of The Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989. The nexus between Police and Grover family is so strong that Police imposed same sections i.e. 354, 324, 341/34 on Kanak Lata, her siblings and their friend. On arrival of her father from Bokaro Steel City, Kanak Lata with her father and other victims visited the ACP North West Delhi, Mr. Chandrahas Yadav for many a times with the hope to get justice. But to utter surprise, even the ACP very clearly tried to protect Grover family. He asked Kanak Lata to take back the complaint and work towards making her carrier. He also showed the fear of court and examination of the charges made on Kanak Lata, her siblings and a friend. He too also talked about monetary compensation. In the process of seeking justice to the victims of the caste atrocity, Kanak Lata, her siblings, her parents, and friends visited the offices starting from Mr. ACP to the Police Commissioner of Delhi, Mr. Dadwal, and SC/ST Commission, set up to work for the justice to the SCs/STs, Woman Commission, set up to provide justice to the women, and the vice ­ chancellor of University of Delhi. Besides, the print and the electronic media to have been discussing the issue quiet often. But, to our utter surprise, even after completion of one month of this shameful act of caste atrocity in the Capital of Indian Republic, neither the case of caste atrocity has been registered against the Grover family, nor against those Delhi Police officials, who has been highly negligent and unbelievably partial, from the date of this inhuman incident to till date, in this matter. In these adverse situations, Kanak Lata, her siblings, friend, and the supporters of their struggle are now left with no other means, than coming on the road to voice out for justice and let the world, and of course, The Government of India, hear from the victims, the reality of Caste Atrocity in the Very Capital of The Indian Republic. We request all the Progressive People and supporters of Human Rights and Dignity to join hands in Kanak Lata¹s struggle for justice and join the demonstration at the Police Headquarter, ITO, Delhi, on June 19th 2008. Our Justifiable Demands Includes: 1. Imposition of Section 3 of The Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 on Om Prakash Grover and his family members and thus their immediate arrest. 2. Suspension and legal proceedings under Section 4 of The Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 against the ACP, North West Delhi, Mr. Chandrahas Yadav, and SHO Dr. Mukherjee Nagar, Smt. Indra Sharma, who very strongly and willfully overlooked this shameful matter of caste atrocity. 3. The immediate withdrawal of the fraudulent cases made against Kanak Lata, her siblings and a friend. ------ End of Forwarded Message From sonia.jabbar at gmail.com Wed Jun 18 10:34:01 2008 From: sonia.jabbar at gmail.com (S. Jabbar) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:34:01 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Ramjas case Message-ID: Insult to Injury By Dilip Simeon On June 13, I was reminded that the past never leaves us. The newspapers reported an 'HC clean chit' of the Ramjas ex-Principal in the 26 year-old case of an assault on a college lecturer named 'Dalip'. Since I was the person assaulted, I was deeply perturbed by this judgement. I had no idea that the state had approached the High Court. Where does this leave me, as a law-abiding citizen? The bare facts are as follows. I joined the Ramjas History Department in 1974. In October 1981 I went on hunger-strike to obtain the salary of Sita Ram the head mali, who had been wrongfully denied it without an inquiry. My actions were part of a campaign that I did not initiate. The backdrop was an autocratic regime, allegations of administrative corruption and divisions amongst teachers. Efforts to secure a just procedure had been scornfully turned down. After a nine-day strike joined by teachers from Ramjas and SRCC, we resolved to pursue the struggle by other means. Ramjas remained extremely tense in the new year. On February 18, my scooter was intercepted near ISBT by six young men who had followed me in a car. I was beaten with iron rods, my left leg broken in two places and my upper jaw permanently damaged, with five teeth lost. But for my helmet, I might have suffered severe skull injuries. I was picked up by a kindly couple in a car and taken to Bara Hindu Rao Hospital. The Vice Chancellor, colleagues and friends arrived, and that evening I was taken to AIIMS. The subsequent agitation brought about the Principal's suspension. I was removed to Bombay for surgery, and needed nine weeks to walk again. We knew who had instigated and carried out the deed, but the public prosecutor could prove nothing in court. When I appeared as witness, the magistrate treated me as if I were a defendant, rather than the victim of a crime. In acquitting the accused, he implied that I was using an opportunity to implicate certain persons on account of personal enmity. There was no curiosity as to how I came to be so grievously injured, or whether my injuries were compatible with a traffic accident. There was no effort to get at the truth. The High Court judge has observed that my failure to speak to the police "at the first opportunity" indicates that my statement was 'tutored', and hence he upholds the acquittal. How fair is this reasoning? Medical records will show that I lost five teeth, my upper jaw was damaged and my left leg broken in two places. I lay in Hindu Rao the entire day, during which time stitches were applied inside my mouth without anaesthesia. I was unable to speak, and needed pencil and paper to state my identity. Even the application of plaster took place after 10 pm. Owing to the severity of my condition, the police recorded my statement the following day: this was not my personal decision. Is this an adequate reason for the trial court and the honourable judge to impugn my honesty? Would it not have been reasonable to conclude that the delay in recording my statement was due to my medical condition? The prosecution did not have the courtesy to inform me of the appeal in the HC. Surely as the victim I would have been most interested in pursuing the matter? Had it done so, I might have asked for representation, and prayed for the infirmities of the judgement to be overturned. The recent news report came as a bolt from the blue. And it is misleading, for I never accused the principal and physical training instructor of assaulting me. I only stated my suspicion of their being implicated in the assault. I had this intuition at the moment of the attack and have not altered it since. Of course, intuition is not evidence. But the investigation and framing of charges was the job of the police. Incidentally, in October 1982 I was introduced to my assailants in a police station. They said they had been misled and asked for forgiveness. One of them visited my house to ask me not to give evidence. The events of the 1980's had many repercussions. Teachers launched a campaign for democratic functioning. A movement against goondaism was undertaken by students. In 1988 I was elected to the university's Academic Council and chaired the DUTA Committee on Accountability. Our college became the first to set up a staff committee to maintain academic standards. All that energy was not expended in vain. We often come across the term "judicial conscience". Where exactly does this entity reside? The CJI has observed that the judiciary is the ultimate defender of citizens' rights. Who will defend these rights if the courts fail us? One of the most twisted problems in legal theory is the assumed neutrality of judges. Not to mention the distinction between forensic and narrative versions of truth. What is the guarantee of this neutrality and how is it manifested? Truth is surely not a mere technical or formal detail. The idea of justice is antecedent to the emergence of constitutional systems or governments. Otherwise we would not speak of natural law. But does justice reside exclusively in the utterances of courts? Law is the basis of an orderly society. It represents the need for a fair resolution of conflicts. Although democratic governments may exist only upon public approval, judges cannot be subject to the whims of electorates. What then, can ensure that those entrusted with the care of justice will fulfil their charge? Ultimately the social contract is a historical gamble. It depends upon the alertness of the citizenry and a public ethos that respects the ideals that lie behind the phrase "the rule of law". Homer's Iliad describes a dispute in a market-place between two men over the blood-price for a victim of murder. The crowd asks the elders to arbitrate whilst they keep the antagonists in check. "Between them, on the ground lay two talents of gold, to be given to that judge who in this case spoke the straightest opinion". The public stands in judgement over the arbitrators. Here is a clue to the mystery of the judicial conscience. It is a circular thread that runs through all of society's constituents, the ones that are wise and the ones who accord them the status of being wise. There is no exclusive judge and no exclusive witness - all judge and are judged. When this thread is broken, we are on the brink of disintegration. The circle of public conscience points to the true meaning of law and judgement in a democratic society. The seat of law is not synonymous with the person occupying it, nor are judicial decisions always coterminous with justice. In 1982 I became the victim of a violent crime. But in the eyes of the justice system no one is guilty. All that it has done is to suggest that I made a 'tutored' accusation. The crime has now become invisible. I expect no recompense for that murderous assault on me 26 years ago. I still respect the law. I cannot say the same for those to whom I turned for justice. From radhikarajen at vsnl.net Wed Jun 18 13:30:53 2008 From: radhikarajen at vsnl.net (radhikarajen at vsnl.net) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:00:53 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Aarushi murder case In-Reply-To: <025001c8d0f2$445344f0$6400a8c0@taraprakash> References: <99ca36500806170555i48eed1f8q32b36345dbffc35e@mail.gmail.com> <025001c8d0f2$445344f0$6400a8c0@taraprakash> Message-ID: Hi, all of you who are concerned with the judicial process of investigation can be sure of one aspect after CBI investigation. NOTHING except some small fries will be booked and all the rich and powerful, politically connected accused will be let off with lame excuses like bungling of police in initial investigation etc. CBI once autonomous premier investigating agency is also made up of humans with all their flaws intact, once a ferociuous hound to seek jusitce in all the cases it handled is now a poodle of rich and powerful, pounces only on weak law abiding citizens, not the rich and powerful as all those in CBI work for their gains, even after their retirement of the tenure in CBI. Modus operandi of CBI investigation after the 1984 fiasco of bofors case is a point to be noted for the free India as to how the case was handled, is being handled even now with the active connivance of the judiciary and its' single judges extending stays and delaying the process of investigations, rich and powerful getting away from all the malfeasence and ommissions and commisssions they committed and being declared innocents and the lawyers who defended the accused becoming the MPs in the rajyasabha is not missed by the citizens of the nation, just as the queen bee in the whole process getting releaqsed 21 crores from London Bank with the attorney general himself requesting the crown for release of funds with out knowledge of the Supreme court of india, is well documented and for all in public domain to see and wonder whether the judiciary is fair in handling the case in their perview. Ofcourse as citizens we always have "faith" in judiciary and "media" but not necessar ily in individuals in judiciary and media who play games of spin doctors for their rewards and awards for the personal gains of Padma awards, post retirement benefits totally sacrificing the the ethics and morals of their life.! Regards. ----- Original Message ----- From: TaraPrakash Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 8:51 am Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Aarushi murder case To: swakkhyar deka , reader-list at sarai.net > How about jumping in Rahel? > I think you covered the news for CNNIBN initially. And the news > has been > amongst top two headlines on the channel for sometime. > I'm not being judgemental about the channel's coverage. CNNIBN is > the only > channel available to me at the moment. > Regards > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "swakkhyar deka" > To: > Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 8:55 AM > Subject: [Reader-list] Aarushi murder case > > > > hey folks.....what is going on with the case of the little girl > Aarusih's> killing....CBI seems to be going round and round with > the investigation > > and > > finding it very hard come to any conclusion.....has the mystery > surronding> the case getting too deep for the agency?...in the > meantime media have > > found > > a cracker material to keep the circulation and TRPs going > strong....c'mon> give it a break guys...Channels like Star News > dramatising and doing > > everything to make the case a potboiler...I think the CBI men should > > be allowed to concentrate on their work and Media should hold > back a > > bit....what say? > > _________________________________________ > > 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: From radhikarajen at vsnl.net Wed Jun 18 14:02:35 2008 From: radhikarajen at vsnl.net (radhikarajen at vsnl.net) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:32:35 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again In-Reply-To: <9c06aab30806170733t48302bablf56c69c6427f5b82@mail.gmail.com> References: <9c06aab30806170733t48302bablf56c69c6427f5b82@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Hi all, it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis at the drop of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is administrator and chief minister with the difference of of governance of all in the same state without favour or fear as per the oath he has taken to administer the state. Times of India and its media group is owned by Bennet group which traditionally has been political and supporting sycophants of Congress and media generally feels if it has to be "secular" it has to bash hindu sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times group is never fair and free in its journalism and always favoured Congress and its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and pritish is no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest in journalism by sycophancy. The worst part of it is this "secular"media can not digest the fact that hindu society is slowly and steadily getting out of caste conundrums and beginning to gel as one homogeneous society, while muslim community is being systematically divided by christian missions to achieve its divide and rule game, into smaller forms of shias, sunnis and other denominations with terror as subtextt just as the vote banks are getting divided between good governance and sycophancy and secular media keeps on playing old footage of "carnages so that they remain in the ghettos and wounds are never allowed to heal.The ultimate goal of Sonia and her mafia is to divided and rule with rome as its remote control which hindus have understood except for a few handful of sycophants in Congress of all faiths who have no mass base or electoral prospects and have to live on doleouts of the mafia queen. These along with christian mafia in the kitchen cabinet have used all those "journalists" and "int ellectuals" of modern day to devise the spins to bring back the old lost horse of Congress in new avtar as christian brigade for the crusade, while in comity of nations it is seen that Bush uses- the terror and weapons of mass destruction as excuses to bring in his form of democracy in the nations of muslim faith, first by attack of shia dominated Afghanistan and then on Iraq for the imaginary weapons of mass destruction.?---- Original Message ----- From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 8:04 pm Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again To: sarai list > An organisation in Ahemdabad called National Council for Civil > Liberties has filed a case against Ashis Nandy for his article in The > Times of India in January after Modi's election victory. The case has > been filed for for 'promoting enmity between different groups on > grounds of religion, race, place of birth and language' [Sections 153 > (A) and (B) of IPC]. > > 178 academics and intellectuals have signed a statement in protest, > which is available at > http://www.sacw.net/FreeExpAndFundos/defendNandy16June08.html > > Given below is the 'offending' article: > > o o o > > > Blame The Middle Class > > By Ashis Nandy > 8 Jan 2008 > http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/LEADER_ARTICLE_Blame_The_Middle_Class/rssarticleshow/2681517.cms > > Now that the dust has settled over the Gujarat elections, we can > afford to defy the pundits and admit that, even if Narendra Modi had > lost the last elections, it would not have made much difference to the > culture of Gujarat politics. Modi had already done his job. Most of > the state's urban middle class would have remained mired in its inane > versions of communalism and parochialism and the VHP and the Bajrang > Dal would have continued to set the tone of state politics. Forty > years of dedicated propaganda does pay dividends, electorally and > socially. > > The Hindus and the Muslims of the state — once bonded so conspicuously > by language, culture and commerce — have met the demands of both V D > Savarkar and M A Jinnah. They now face each other as two hostile > nations. The handful of Gujarati social and political activists who > resist the trend are seen not as dissenters but as treacherous > troublemakers who should be silenced by any means, including > surveillance, censorship and direct violence. As a result, Gujarati > cities, particularly its educational institutions are turning cultural > deserts. Gujarat has already disowned the Indian Constitution and the > state apparatus has adjusted to the change. > > The Congress, the main opposition party, has no effective leader. Nor > does it represent any threat to the mainstream politics of Gujarat. > The days of grass-roots leaders like Jhinabhai Darji are past and a > large section of the party now consists of Hindu nationalists. The > national leadership of the party does not have the courage to confront > Modi over 2002, given its abominable record of 1984. > > The Left is virtually non-existent in Gujarat. Whatever minor presence > it once had among intellectuals and trade unionists is now a vague > memory. The state has disowned Gandhi, too; Gandhian politics arouses > derision in middle-class Gujarat. Except for a few valiant old-timers, > Gandhians have made peace with their conscience by withdrawing from > the public domain. Gandhi himself has been given a saintly, Hindu > nationalist status and shelved. Even the Gujarati translations of his > Complete Works have been stealthily distorted to conform to the Hindu > nationalist agenda. > > Gujarati Muslims too are "adjusting" to their new station. Denied > justice and proper compensation, and as second-class citizens in their > home state, they have to depend on voluntary efforts and donor > agencies. The state's refusal to provide relief has been partly > met by > voluntary groups having fundamentalist sympathies. They supply aid but > insist that the beneficiaries give up Gujarati and take to Urdu, adopt > veil, and send their children to madrassas. Events like the > desecration of Wali Gujarati's grave have pushed one of India's > culturally richest, most diverse, vernacular Islamic traditions to the > wall. Future generations will as gratefully acknowledge the sangh > parivar's contribution to the growth of radical Islam in India as this > generation remembers with gratitude the handsome contribution of Rajiv > Gandhi and his cohorts to Sikh militancy. > > The secularist dogma of many fighting the sangh parivar has not helped > matters. Even those who have benefited from secular lawyers and > activists relate to secular ideologies instrumentally. They neither > understand them nor respect them. The victims still derive solace from > their religions and, when under attack, they cling more passionately > to faith. Indeed, shallow ideologies of secularism have simultaneously > broken the back of Gandhism and discouraged the emergence of figures > like Ali Shariatis, Desmond Tutus and the Dalai Lama — persons who can > give suffering a new voice audible to the poor and the powerless and > make a creative intervention possible from within worldviews > accessible to the people. > > Finally, Gujarat's spectacular development has underwritten the > de-civilising process. One of the worst-kept secrets of our times is > that dramatic development almost always has an authoritarian tail. > Post-World War II Asia too has had its love affair with developmental > despotism and the censorship, surveillance and thought control > that go > with it. The East Asian tigers have all been maneaters most of the > time. Gujarat has now chosen to join the pack. Development in the > state now justifies amorality, abridgement of freedom, and > collapse of > social ethics. > > Is there life after Modi? Is it possible to look beyond the 35 years > of rioting that began in 1969 and ended in 2002? Prima facie, the > answer is "no". We can only wait for a new generation that will, out > of sheer self-interest and tiredness, learn to live with each other. > In the meanwhile, we have to wait patiently but not passively to keep > values alive, hoping that at some point will come a modicum of remorse > and a search for atonement and that ultimately Gujarati traditions > will triumph over the culture of the state's urban middle class. > > Recovering Gujarat from its urban middle class will not be easy. The > class has found in militant religious nationalism a new self- respect > and a new virtual identity as a martial community, the way Bengali > babus, Maharashtrian Brahmins and Kashmiri Muslims at different times > have sought salvation in violence. In Gujarat this class has smelt > blood, for it does not have to do the killings but can plan, finance > and coordinate them with impunity. The actual killers are the lowest > of the low, mostly tribals and Dalits. The middle class controls the > media and education, which have become hate factories in recent times. > And they receive spirited support from most non-resident Indians who, > at a safe distance from India, can afford to be more nationalist, > bloodthirsty, and irresponsible. > > [The writer is a political psychologist.] > _________________________________________ > 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 iram at sarai.net Wed Jun 18 13:23:37 2008 From: iram at sarai.net (Iram Ghufran) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:23:37 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Fwd: The MRC Fellowships Message-ID: <4858BF01.7050304@sarai.net> From: Shohini Ghosh Date: 17 June 2008 9:28:17 AM GMT+05:30 To: CACDelhi at yahoogroups.co.in Subject: [CACDelhi] The MRC Fellowships Reply-To: CACDelhi at yahoogroups.co.in ===================== CALL FOR PROPOSALS The Media Resource Centre, AJK MCRC announces its first round of annual fellowships from August 1, 2008 to January 31, 2009. CATEGORIES: Senior Research Fellowships & Jamia Student Fellowship The MEDIA RESOURCE CENTRE, set up with a grant from the Sir Ratan Tata Trust (SRTT), is devoted to the study, research and contemplation of documentary and contemporary media practices with particular emphasis on film, television, photography and multi-media. The MRC also plans to build an archive of material on Documentary and Asian Cinemas. Both categories of work are defined expansively and include both film and film culture. It plans to house curated film collections in addition to journals, books, monographs and catalogues. Locating itself at the intersection of theory and practice, it plans to offer fellowships, conduct courses, organize public lectures, conferences, seminars, workshops and special screenings. It seeks to complement the hands-on learning experience at the MCRC by creating an intellectually vibrant space for theoretical engagement, research and study. The Fellowships are designed to contribute to the building of the archives and the ongoing research and scholarly work at the MRC. AIM /PURPOSE OF FELLOWSHIPS: The Research Fellowships are expected to contribute to the creation of the Visual Archives as well as engage with the scholarly preoccupations of the MRC. Applicants are encouraged to send in proposals that seek to provide analyses, histories, ethnographies, empirical data and/or critical commentaries on any theme relating to contemporary visual media and documentary cultures. The MRC has a special interest in Documentary film making practices, cultures and activities. Similarly, it is invested in encouraging scholarly work on photographic practices. Therefore, proposals that deal with the above two themes will be given special importance. It is hoped that the written text finally submitted to the MRC will be accompanied by visual material that will substantively enrich the Visual Archive of the MRC. The MRC will grant two categories of Fellowships that is, (1) Senior Research Fellowships and [@15,000 per month] (2) Jamia Student Fellowships [@ 5,000 per month] ============================ CONDITIONS: Ø Applicants are required to be resident in India and should have an account in a bank operating in India. In case of the Senior Research Fellowships, He/She must also be a Pan Card Holder. Ø Applications can only be in English. Ø While the Student Fellowship is available only to students pursuing their Masters Course in Jamia, anyone can apply for the Senior Research Fellowship. There is no age limit. Ø The Fellowship will run from August 2008 to the end of January 2008. The Senior Research Fellowship is extendable to one year based on performance evaluation. Ø The Fellowship Grant will be disbursed in three stages over a period of 6-8 months. The fellows are required to make written submissions every three months on their research progress following which each installment will be released. The last installment would be given after the presentation and submission of the research. Ø Individuals, partners and groups/collectives can apply to a single fellowship, where the grant will be payable to the account of one. Ø A working draft would be expected by the end of December. A detailed research report must be submitted to the MRC at the end of the fellowship. Ø When the Fellowship period comes to an end it is mandatory for all Fellows to make a public presentation at the Media Resource Centre. Ø Although the participation in the fellowship programme does require a substantial time commitment, participants are welcome to pursue their primary occupations in addition to the fellowship research. However, Fellows of the MRC cannot be committed to any other grant or fellowship during the same period. Ø The primary material collected as part of the Fellowship must be submitted at the end of the grant period to the MRC. This should preferably be in a digital form, that is, CDs, DVDs, scans, digital images etc. All material submitted along with the report must be annotated. Ø The MRC may select some the research for publication as monographs if they are of a high academic calibre. Ø Copyright: The Copyright for the research will be shared by both the MRC and the individual scholar concerned. The scholar is free to publish the material while duly and fully acknowledging MRC support through the Fellowship programme. =============================== GUIDELINES FOR APPLICATION The Senior Fellowships: The Proposal for the senior fellowships should be between 1500-2000 words. It should be accompanied by a Statement of Purpose of not more than 1000 words explaining to how the Proposal connects to work previously done Two Letters of Recommendation Student Fellowships: The Proposal for the Student Fellowship should be between 800-1000 words. It should be accompanied by a Statement-of-Purpose. Two Letters of Recommendation of which one should be from a Faculty member in Jamia Millia Islamia. Please Note: All paper work submitted should be typed. Handwritten proposals will not be accepted. Your proposal package should include: Applicant's name, email address, telephone number and Postal Address Category of Fellowship Proposal Work Sample related to the Proposal Work Plan An Updated CV A Self-addressed & stamped envelope ========================= Fellows can submit their applications by post or hand-deliver them to the AJK MCRC at the following address: 'ATTN: FELLOWS PROPOSAL 2008-2009', to SHOHINI GHOSH MEDIA RESOURCE CENTRE AJK MASS COMMUNICATION & RESEARCH CENTRE JAMIA MILLIA ISLAMIA NEW DELHI -110025. Last Date for Proposal Submission: June 30, 2008 Inquiries: mrc.jamia at gmail.com _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From deelited at gmail.com Wed Jun 18 12:48:49 2008 From: deelited at gmail.com (deepti) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 12:48:49 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Announcing Delhi Queer Pride '08: June 29th: 5:30pm, Regal, CP In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <2617ab630806180018ue96e220j9e9deebd30a30c4a@mail.gmail.com> _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From radhikarajen at vsnl.net Wed Jun 18 14:08:03 2008 From: radhikarajen at vsnl.net (radhikarajen at vsnl.net) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 13:38:03 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Aarushi murder case In-Reply-To: <9c06aab30806170707w23bb5f0fya5722de5e52af4f9@mail.gmail.com> References: <99ca36500806170555i48eed1f8q32b36345dbffc35e@mail.gmail.com> <9c06aab30806170707w23bb5f0fya5722de5e52af4f9@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: CBI is doing its best to what it is known for, weakening all the forensic evidence to save the culprit, rich and powerful, throw the weak innocents to prosecution, it is no more an autonomous body that it once was. Media is doing its best to catch the eyeballs of the viewers by unncecessarily investigating rather than reporting, flaunting neo journalism of dispensing favours for awards and rewards.?Media in other noted cases like katara, Mattoo or Jessicas case had a role AFTER the judgement in the cases but in this case what is seen is speculative views touted as news and playing to the galleries by celebs of journalists for heir channels for the trps. Shame on this kind of journalism without ethics and morals, who seem to worry more about competetion and trp than good work of journalism of reportage ? ----- Original Message ----- From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 7:37 pm Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Aarushi murder case To: swakkhyar deka Cc: reader-list at sarai.net > "Little girl Arushi"... > > Why aren't you equally bothered about big man Hemraj? > > On Tue, Jun 17, 2008 at 6:25 PM, swakkhyar deka > wrote: > > > hey folks.....what is going on with the case of the little girl > Aarusih's> killing....CBI seems to be going round and round with > the investigation and > > finding it very hard come to any conclusion.....has the mystery > surronding> the case getting too deep for the agency?...in the > meantime media have > > found > > a cracker material to keep the circulation and TRPs going > strong....c'mon> give it a break guys...Channels like Star News > dramatising and doing > > everything to make the case a potboiler...I think the CBI men should > > be allowed to concentrate on their work and Media should hold > back a > > bit....what say? > > _________________________________________ > > 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: > > > > > -- > "Journalism 101, I am sure taught you the difference between reporting > and pontificating. However, the first amendment protects your right > to free speech and therefore your right to ponificate." > _________________________________________ > 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 shuddha at sarai.net Wed Jun 18 16:32:00 2008 From: shuddha at sarai.net (Shuddhabrata Sengupta) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:32:00 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again In-Reply-To: References: <9c06aab30806170733t48302bablf56c69c6427f5b82@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Dear Radhikarajen, Thank you for your pertinent critique on the Sarai Reader List of the way in which the media represents issues, particularly with regard to the murder of Hemraj Banjade and Arushi Talwar in NOIDA. I think that your thoughts on 'media trials' are salutary. Had newspapers and TV channels been more restrained in the matter of the way in which they report 'sensational' crimes, then the grave and malicious harrassment that had been the fate of S.A.R.Geelani in the '13 December' case might not have taken place. And nor would there have been currency for the hysterical and blood-thirsty demand for the execution of Muhammad Afzal Guru, which continues to beseige our consciousness today. I do hope that you, in the spirit of your own argument, will join me in condemning the irresponsible behaviour of much of the media in these instances. Having said that, I am a bit mystified by your anger against the condemnation of the strange attempt at filing a case on grounds of 'promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth and language' 'under Sections 153 A and B of the IPC against Ashis Nandy for his op-ed piece 'Blame the Middle Class' in the Times of India of January 8, 2008. Ashis Nandy is, in my opinion, one of the most acute analysts of political culture and modernity in South Asia. It is ironic that a person, who has maintained a life time of critique against the excesses of the state- secularist agenda in India, (for which he was at times unfairly and idiotically denounced as an apolgist of the hindu right by some un- intelligent so called 'left-liberal' critics) is someone you now are prepared to argue against, merely because he happens to have taken on the poster boy of hindutva hate-mongering, the chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Damodarbhai Modi. To be fair to Nandy, there is no particular group that escapes the sharp edge of his sadness in his article on Gujarat. His words (in this particular article) criticize the actions done by people speaking in the name of Bengali Hindus, Kashmiri Muslims, Punjabi Sikhs, Non Resident Indians, Dalits and Adivasis and most of all - the middle classes. If all these kinds of people were to be united because they were all attacked by Ashis Nandy, then, we would see a rare example of the promotion of conviviality between groups that are otherwise expected to be at each others throats. Unfortunately, for you, and for the petitioner belonging to the Ahmedabad based National Council for Civil Liberties, there is as yet no provision in the the Indian Penal Code for the offense of the promotion of conviviality on grounds of religion, race, place of birth and language. . I find it equally strange that you should impute the sentiments and the analysis contained in Nandy's trenchant criticque of Moditva, (or should it be Moditude, or Modismo) to the antipathy of the Bennet Coleman Group, who happen to own the majority shares of the Times of India newspaper, and their so called pro Congress bias. It is instructive to do a careful analysis of the press that Modi and Modismo get in the Times of India's sister publication, the Economic Times, (which for my money, is the more serious of the two publications, the one that actually gets read by captains of industry and politics, not one that teenagers decorate their lockers with because it has scantily clad men and women, the publication of images of which, you will no doubt agree, is the primary reason for the Times of India to exist.) Now, were you to look at the Economic Times reportage of Modi, Modismo and Gujarat, you would find a glowing picture that would warm your hearts. All you (and everyone who is interested on this list) needs to do is to type Narendra Modi on the search bar of the Economic Times home page, and you will be showered by what looks like a public relations campaign for Gujarati Asmita and Modismo. You will find articles such as - Rajiv Gandhi Foundation finds Gujarat No 1 state Chairman of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani, today hailed Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi saying that he has a "bias" for action. And there are many more where these came from. Even your own pet hate, the Times of India, has articles such as 'Women Mesmerised by Narendra Modi' What are we to make of this, other than that this is but an instance of the totally commonplace practice of a media group trying to placate all sides. So damn Modi in one article in one publication that you own, and then praise him to the skies in another. A detailed analysis of the politics of who reports what about whom, and when, in the Indian media can be an entertaining, and instructive diversion. What, however, are we to make of your own pathological anxiety whenever Shri Narendra Damodarbhai Modi is criticised ? You have (again) neatly sidestepped the substance of Ashis Nandy's critique and taken us on the pursuit of the red herring of the Times of India's pro-Congress bias, which for you, explains everything that there is to understand about what Ashis Nandy has written. Take a break from the computer, and go take a long look at the mirror, and you will see the visage of that same middle class Indian, quick to fume, quick to claim an injury to your precious pride, quick to demand that the slate be cleaned of all 'others', and short, tragically, comically short on anything like the ability to reflect on the tightening limits of the sources of your self. I sympathise with your predicament. It must be really hard, and sad, to be you. regards Shuddha media trials of this sort were On 18-Jun-08, at 2:02 PM, radhikarajen at vsnl.net wrote: > Hi all, > > it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis at the drop > of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is > administrator and chief minister with the difference of of > governance of all in the same state without favour or fear as per > the oath he has taken to administer the state. Times of India and > its media group is owned by Bennet group which traditionally has > been political and supporting sycophants of Congress and media > generally feels if it has to be "secular" it has to bash hindu > sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times group is never > fair and free in its journalism and always favoured Congress and > its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and pritish is > no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest in journalism > by sycophancy. > > The worst part of it is this "secular"media can not digest the > fact that hindu society is slowly and steadily getting out of caste > conundrums and beginning to gel as one homogeneous society, while > muslim community is being systematically divided by christian > missions to achieve its divide and rule game, into smaller forms of > shias, sunnis and other denominations with terror as subtextt just > as the vote banks are getting divided between good governance and > sycophancy and secular media keeps on playing old footage of > "carnages so that they remain in the ghettos and wounds are never > allowed to heal.The ultimate goal of Sonia and her mafia is to > divided and rule with rome as its remote control which hindus have > understood except for a few handful of sycophants in Congress of > all faiths who have no mass base or electoral prospects and have to > live on doleouts of the mafia queen. These along with christian > mafia in the kitchen cabinet have used all those "journalists" and > "int > ellectuals" of modern day to devise the spins to bring back the old > lost horse of Congress in new avtar as christian brigade for the > crusade, while in comity of nations it is seen that Bush uses- the > terror and weapons of mass destruction as excuses to bring in his > form of democracy in the nations of muslim faith, first by attack > of shia dominated Afghanistan and then on Iraq for the imaginary > weapons of mass destruction.?---- Original Message ----- > From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् > Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 8:04 pm > Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > To: sarai list > >> An organisation in Ahemdabad called National Council for Civil >> Liberties has filed a case against Ashis Nandy for his article in The >> Times of India in January after Modi's election victory. The case has >> been filed for for 'promoting enmity between different groups on >> grounds of religion, race, place of birth and language' [Sections 153 >> (A) and (B) of IPC]. >> >> 178 academics and intellectuals have signed a statement in protest, >> which is available at >> http://www.sacw.net/FreeExpAndFundos/defendNandy16June08.html >> >> Given below is the 'offending' article: >> >> o o o >> >> >> Blame The Middle Class >> >> By Ashis Nandy >> 8 Jan 2008 >> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/ >> LEADER_ARTICLE_Blame_The_Middle_Class/rssarticleshow/2681517.cms >> >> Now that the dust has settled over the Gujarat elections, we can >> afford to defy the pundits and admit that, even if Narendra Modi had >> lost the last elections, it would not have made much difference to >> the >> culture of Gujarat politics. Modi had already done his job. Most of >> the state's urban middle class would have remained mired in its inane >> versions of communalism and parochialism and the VHP and the Bajrang >> Dal would have continued to set the tone of state politics. Forty >> years of dedicated propaganda does pay dividends, electorally and >> socially. >> >> The Hindus and the Muslims of the state — once bonded so >> conspicuously >> by language, culture and commerce — have met the demands of both >> V D >> Savarkar and M A Jinnah. They now face each other as two hostile >> nations. The handful of Gujarati social and political activists who >> resist the trend are seen not as dissenters but as treacherous >> troublemakers who should be silenced by any means, including >> surveillance, censorship and direct violence. As a result, Gujarati >> cities, particularly its educational institutions are turning >> cultural >> deserts. Gujarat has already disowned the Indian Constitution and the >> state apparatus has adjusted to the change. >> >> The Congress, the main opposition party, has no effective leader. Nor >> does it represent any threat to the mainstream politics of Gujarat. >> The days of grass-roots leaders like Jhinabhai Darji are past and a >> large section of the party now consists of Hindu nationalists. The >> national leadership of the party does not have the courage to >> confront >> Modi over 2002, given its abominable record of 1984. >> >> The Left is virtually non-existent in Gujarat. Whatever minor >> presence >> it once had among intellectuals and trade unionists is now a vague >> memory. The state has disowned Gandhi, too; Gandhian politics arouses >> derision in middle-class Gujarat. Except for a few valiant old- >> timers, >> Gandhians have made peace with their conscience by withdrawing from >> the public domain. Gandhi himself has been given a saintly, Hindu >> nationalist status and shelved. Even the Gujarati translations of his >> Complete Works have been stealthily distorted to conform to the Hindu >> nationalist agenda. >> >> Gujarati Muslims too are "adjusting" to their new station. Denied >> justice and proper compensation, and as second-class citizens in >> their >> home state, they have to depend on voluntary efforts and donor >> agencies. The state's refusal to provide relief has been partly >> met by >> voluntary groups having fundamentalist sympathies. They supply aid >> but >> insist that the beneficiaries give up Gujarati and take to Urdu, >> adopt >> veil, and send their children to madrassas. Events like the >> desecration of Wali Gujarati's grave have pushed one of India's >> culturally richest, most diverse, vernacular Islamic traditions to >> the >> wall. Future generations will as gratefully acknowledge the sangh >> parivar's contribution to the growth of radical Islam in India as >> this >> generation remembers with gratitude the handsome contribution of >> Rajiv >> Gandhi and his cohorts to Sikh militancy. >> >> The secularist dogma of many fighting the sangh parivar has not >> helped >> matters. Even those who have benefited from secular lawyers and >> activists relate to secular ideologies instrumentally. They neither >> understand them nor respect them. The victims still derive solace >> from >> their religions and, when under attack, they cling more passionately >> to faith. Indeed, shallow ideologies of secularism have >> simultaneously >> broken the back of Gandhism and discouraged the emergence of figures >> like Ali Shariatis, Desmond Tutus and the Dalai Lama — persons >> who can >> give suffering a new voice audible to the poor and the powerless and >> make a creative intervention possible from within worldviews >> accessible to the people. >> >> Finally, Gujarat's spectacular development has underwritten the >> de-civilising process. One of the worst-kept secrets of our times is >> that dramatic development almost always has an authoritarian tail. >> Post-World War II Asia too has had its love affair with developmental >> despotism and the censorship, surveillance and thought control >> that go >> with it. The East Asian tigers have all been maneaters most of the >> time. Gujarat has now chosen to join the pack. Development in the >> state now justifies amorality, abridgement of freedom, and >> collapse of >> social ethics. >> >> Is there life after Modi? Is it possible to look beyond the 35 years >> of rioting that began in 1969 and ended in 2002? Prima facie, the >> answer is "no". We can only wait for a new generation that will, out >> of sheer self-interest and tiredness, learn to live with each other. >> In the meanwhile, we have to wait patiently but not passively to keep >> values alive, hoping that at some point will come a modicum of >> remorse >> and a search for atonement and that ultimately Gujarati traditions >> will triumph over the culture of the state's urban middle class. >> >> Recovering Gujarat from its urban middle class will not be easy. The >> class has found in militant religious nationalism a new self- respect >> and a new virtual identity as a martial community, the way Bengali >> babus, Maharashtrian Brahmins and Kashmiri Muslims at different times >> have sought salvation in violence. In Gujarat this class has smelt >> blood, for it does not have to do the killings but can plan, finance >> and coordinate them with impunity. The actual killers are the lowest >> of the low, mostly tribals and Dalits. The middle class controls the >> media and education, which have become hate factories in recent >> times. >> And they receive spirited support from most non-resident Indians who, >> at a safe distance from India, can afford to be more nationalist, >> bloodthirsty, and irresponsible. >> >> [The writer is a political psychologist.] >> _________________________________________ >> 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: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/> Shuddhabrata Sengupta The Sarai Programme at CSDS Raqs Media Collective shuddha at sarai.net www.sarai.net www.raqsmediacollective.net From shuddha at sarai.net Wed Jun 18 16:57:26 2008 From: shuddha at sarai.net (Shuddhabrata Sengupta) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:57:26 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Blood in the Water Message-ID: <82AE2DFC-2B97-419D-B778-DE50139B4AA0@sarai.net> Dear All, A friend forward this article, published recently in the Asian Sentinel, to me recently. I think that it introduces an element, control of water and natural resources, that are actually key to an understanding of how conflicts such as Kashmir get played out. In the longer term, these issues may be far more significant than the issues of ethnic and religious identity. it is a pity, that whenever the question of say Kashmir, comes up, or whenever the issue of Bangladeshi migrants to India rears its head, all that everyone wants to talk about is the 'identity' issue, what gets left behind is thought about things like water. Ask a Bangladeshi immigrant to Delhi about what drove him to cross so many miles of hazardous territory, and the chances are, that if you are prepared to pay attention, he or she will have something to say about floods, and the lethality of rivers, and the rising sea. I know many people who are ambivalent about their identities, but I have yet to come across a person who does not feel thirsty. Given that water is so important to our survival and life, it is a sad travesty that we pay it so little attention when it comes to politics. We wouldn't be around to protect our identities and our nationalities if we could not drink water, or did not have the guarantee that our homes would not be flooded, year after year. regards Shuddha ------------------ http://asiasentinel.com/index.php? option=com_content&task=view&id=1269&Itemid=31 Blood in Kashmir's Water Sankar Ray 18 June 2008 A decades-old competition for water complicates the already-bitter relationship between India and her neighbors Water is destined to be a determining factor in the regional conflicts of South Asia in the years to come, particularly between India and Pakistan. Unquestionably one of the most crucial of environmental resources, this essential ingredient for human life is growing so scarce in some areas globally that if current trends continue, two-thirds of humanity will suffer "moderate to severe water stress" within 30 years, according to a comprehensive assessment of freshwater resources by the United Nations. Nowhere is this truer, however, than in the parched regions of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, where overpopulation, poverty and scarce resources make the competition more acute. In a remarkably even- handed paper published in a recent issue of the Journal of International Affairs, Saleem H. Ali, associate professor of Environmental Policy and Planning, at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources of the University of Vermont in the US, identifies the lack of environmental cooperation in bilateral and multilateral relations as the root cause of a potential conflict "between two nuclear neighbours, India and Pakistan, predicated in a history of religious rivalries and post-colonial demarcation." The Pakistani scholar urges India and Pakistan to put aside their mutual distrust to reconfigure the riparian issues for lasting piece in the region, their inveterate, decades-old antagonism notwithstanding, and concentrate on a matter of equal importance to their survival of each country. Ali praises the World Bank's "instrumental role in its negotiation during the height of the Cold War to bring the two countries to the negotiating table with the Indus Water Treaty after bilateral negotiations failed. The outcome of this historic treaty was the unrestricted use by India of the three eastern rivers, the Ravi, Sutlej and Beas and complete control of the three western rivers, the Jhelum, Chenab and Indus by Pakistan. The rivers all have their origin in the bitterly disputed region of Kashmir. And thus, theoretically whoever controls Kashmir controls the rivers, a fact conveniently forgotten for years as Pakistan and India tested each other's mettle in a series of wars. The Pakistani Prime Minister, Hussain Suhrwardy, in 1958 pointed to the geographical importance of Kashmir when he emphasized the importance of the six rivers of the Indus Basin. "Most of them rise in Kashmir. One of the reasons why, therefore, that Kashmir is so important for us is this water, these waters which irrigate our lands," Suhrwardy said at the time. He proved himself a prophet. The only other international statesman who thought along the same lines was the British Premier, Anthony Eden, who believed that the resolution of the water dispute would reduce the tension over Kashmir, hence the Indus Water Treaty. India denied the link between Kashmir and the water issue, however, a denial that has contributed to the growing resentment between the two countries, and an amazing one given reality. The head of the Indus flows through the valley corridor that connects Indian and Pakistani- held Kashmir. Further south India has been engaged in a running dispute with Bangladesh over the Farakka Barrage over the River Ganges since 1973. This project involved a dam built on the Ganges in West Bengal, about 10 kilometers from the Bangladesh border. Bangladeshi objections that the project would seriously affect the country's water supply have proved correct. Falling water levels below the dam have raised salinity levels, affecting fisheries and hindering navigation. Falling soil moisture levels have also also led to desertification. Ali firmly believes that "environmental factors can play a pivotal role since they help link various issues such as economic development and security." He points out that, "states that are ecologically vulnerable to extreme climatic events, such as Bangladesh, are recognizing that poor environmental planning in coastal areas can have devastating economic impacts". "I have long been criticizing the brazenly reactionary promotion of water disputes among Indian states by the political parties in power," said Surajit Guha, the former deputy-director general of the Geological Survey of India and one of India's top hydrologists "It may not be confined within the Indian territory. The Farakka impasse is a clear evidence of this. Have you seen European countries through which the mighty River Danube flows engaging themselves in dispute over sharing of water during the last one hundred years? I do not know why water is increasingly politicized when most of the peoples of SAARC region are deprived of access to safe and potable water." While the west is busy concentrating its efforts on securing a ready supply of oil, in South Asia the governments are slowly but surely waking up to the fact that in the not too distant future water is going to be equally, if not more important to the survival of their people. Shuddhabrata Sengupta The Sarai Programme at CSDS Raqs Media Collective shuddha at sarai.net www.sarai.net www.raqsmediacollective.net From radhikarajen at vsnl.net Wed Jun 18 17:07:39 2008 From: radhikarajen at vsnl.net (radhikarajen at vsnl.net) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:37:39 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again In-Reply-To: References: <9c06aab30806170733t48302bablf56c69c6427f5b82@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Dear Shuddha, my concern is not for the critciism of our "bhai" Modi. But it is more for the fact that citizens fail to recognise the merits of good governance that is now in force in Gujarath.When Modi addresses all the citizens of the state, each and every visual media journalist was more keen to create a controversy during the election campaign as if on cue from madam about "communal" Modi, after he comments about muslims and other vote banks. Truth of the matter is hindus do not hate muslims, having been living in harmony with them in free India inspite of the fact that the muslim leaders divided the nation on faith and most of the muslims did not prefer to go to that portion of the land, making me wish that these areas are again joined together to put an end once for all for the hate campaign. A Rajdeep or a Barkha can do more harm to the society than a Modi today with their 24 x 7 campaign on the channels showing the same old footage and whipping up the frenzy of passions and at the same time blaming the parties for using emotions for electoral victrories.As to Times group, it is wellknown how sycophancy works after the journalism of courage of Indian Express strayed away from it after the days of Chitra Subramaniam and her expose" on Bofors and now how the Shekhar Gupta is doing the balancing act of praise and critical journalism which is seen in all media barons approach. If a citizen carefully observes the role of CNNIBN in N-deal and its commentary, it is obivious in whose pay rolls they are working with new designations of HR departments.! Are any of these celeb journalists caring to inform the citizens of the role of hyde act vis-a-vis the 123 deal. ? India has suffered enough earlier after Indira and Pokhran I with sanctions crippling the atomic plant at Bombay after thousands of crores invested in that plant, used for peaceful energy generation for the nation.Why our journalists crawl when they are only supposed to bend is the big question that haunts me. Regards.. ----- Original Message ----- From: Shuddhabrata Sengupta Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 4:33 pm Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net Cc: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् , sarai list > Dear Radhikarajen, > > Thank you for your pertinent critique on the Sarai Reader List of > the > way in which the media represents issues, particularly with regard > to > the murder of Hemraj Banjade and Arushi Talwar in NOIDA. I think > that > your thoughts on 'media trials' are salutary. Had newspapers and TV > > channels been more restrained in the matter of the way in which > they > report 'sensational' crimes, then the grave and malicious > harrassment > that had been the fate of S.A.R.Geelani in the '13 December' case > might not have taken place. And nor would there have been currency > for the hysterical and blood-thirsty demand for the execution of > Muhammad Afzal Guru, which continues to beseige our consciousness > today. I do hope that you, in the spirit of your own argument, will > > join me in condemning the irresponsible behaviour of much of the > media in these instances. > > Having said that, I am a bit mystified by your anger against the > condemnation of the strange attempt at filing a case on grounds of > > 'promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, > race, place of birth and language' 'under Sections 153 A and B of > the > IPC against Ashis Nandy for his op-ed piece 'Blame the Middle > Class' > in the Times of India of January 8, 2008. Ashis Nandy is, in my > opinion, one of the most acute analysts of political culture and > modernity in South Asia. It is ironic that a person, who has > maintained a life time of critique against the excesses of the > state- > secularist agenda in India, (for which he was at times unfairly and > > idiotically denounced as an apolgist of the hindu right by some un- > intelligent so called 'left-liberal' critics) is someone you now > are > prepared to argue against, merely because he happens to have taken > on > the poster boy of hindutva hate-mongering, the chief minister of > Gujarat, Narendra Damodarbhai Modi. To be fair to Nandy, there is > no > particular group that escapes the sharp edge of his sadness in his > article on Gujarat. His words (in this particular article) > criticize > the actions done by people speaking in the name of Bengali Hindus, > Kashmiri Muslims, Punjabi Sikhs, Non Resident Indians, Dalits and > Adivasis and most of all - the middle classes. If all these kinds > of > people were to be united because they were all attacked by Ashis > Nandy, then, we would see a rare example of the promotion of > conviviality between groups that are otherwise expected to be at > each > others throats. Unfortunately, for you, and for the petitioner > belonging to the Ahmedabad based National Council for Civil > Liberties, there is as yet no provision in the the Indian Penal > Code > for the offense of the promotion of conviviality on grounds of > religion, race, place of birth and language. > . > I find it equally strange that you should impute the sentiments and > > the analysis contained in Nandy's trenchant criticque of Moditva, > (or > should it be Moditude, or Modismo) to the antipathy of the Bennet > Coleman Group, who happen to own the majority shares of the Times > of > India newspaper, and their so called pro Congress bias. It is > instructive to do a careful analysis of the press that Modi and > Modismo get in the Times of India's sister publication, the > Economic > Times, (which for my money, is the more serious of the two > publications, the one that actually gets read by captains of > industry > and politics, not one that teenagers decorate their lockers with > because it has scantily clad men and women, the publication of > images > of which, you will no doubt agree, is the primary reason for the > Times of India to exist.) > > Now, were you to look at the Economic Times reportage of Modi, > Modismo and Gujarat, you would find a glowing picture that would > warm > your hearts. All you (and everyone who is interested on this list) > needs to do is to type Narendra Modi on the search bar of the > Economic Times home page, and you will be showered by what looks > like > a public relations campaign for Gujarati Asmita and Modismo. > > You will find articles such as - > > Rajiv Gandhi Foundation finds Gujarat No 1 state > > Chairman of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani, today hailed > Gujarat > Chief Minister Narendra Modi saying that he has a "bias" for action. > > And there are many more where these came from. > > Even your own pet hate, the Times of India, has articles such as > 'Women Mesmerised by Narendra Modi' > > What are we to make of this, other than that this is but an > instance > of the totally commonplace practice of a media group trying to > placate all sides. So damn Modi in one article in one publication > that you own, and then praise him to the skies in another. A > detailed > analysis of the politics of who reports what about whom, and when, > in > the Indian media can be an entertaining, and instructive diversion. > > What, however, are we to make of your own pathological anxiety > whenever Shri Narendra Damodarbhai Modi is criticised ? You have > (again) neatly sidestepped the substance of Ashis Nandy's critique > and taken us on the pursuit of the red herring of the Times of > India's pro-Congress bias, which for you, explains everything that > there is to understand about what Ashis Nandy has written. Take a > break from the computer, and go take a long look at the mirror, and > > you will see the visage of that same middle class Indian, quick to > fume, quick to claim an injury to your precious pride, quick to > demand that the slate be cleaned of all 'others', and short, > tragically, comically short on anything like the ability to reflect > > on the tightening limits of the sources of your self. > > I sympathise with your predicament. It must be really hard, and > sad, > to be you. > > regards > > Shuddha > > > > > > > > > > media trials of this sort were > On 18-Jun-08, at 2:02 PM, radhikarajen at vsnl.net wrote: > > > Hi all, > > > > it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis at the > drop > > of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is > > administrator and chief minister with the difference of of > > governance of all in the same state without favour or fear as per > > > the oath he has taken to administer the state. Times of India and > > > its media group is owned by Bennet group which traditionally has > > been political and supporting sycophants of Congress and media > > generally feels if it has to be "secular" it has to bash hindu > > sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times group is > never > > fair and free in its journalism and always favoured Congress and > > its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and pritish is > > > no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest in > journalism > > by sycophancy. > > > > The worst part of it is this "secular"media can not digest the > > > fact that hindu society is slowly and steadily getting out of > caste > > conundrums and beginning to gel as one homogeneous society, while > > > muslim community is being systematically divided by christian > > missions to achieve its divide and rule game, into smaller forms > of > > shias, sunnis and other denominations with terror as subtextt > just > > as the vote banks are getting divided between good governance and > > > sycophancy and secular media keeps on playing old footage of > > "carnages so that they remain in the ghettos and wounds are never > > > allowed to heal.The ultimate goal of Sonia and her mafia is to > > divided and rule with rome as its remote control which hindus > have > > understood except for a few handful of sycophants in Congress of > > all faiths who have no mass base or electoral prospects and have > to > > live on doleouts of the mafia queen. These along with christian > > mafia in the kitchen cabinet have used all those "journalists" > and > > "int > > ellectuals" of modern day to devise the spins to bring back the > old > > lost horse of Congress in new avtar as christian brigade for the > > crusade, while in comity of nations it is seen that Bush uses- > the > > terror and weapons of mass destruction as excuses to bring in his > > > form of democracy in the nations of muslim faith, first by attack > > > of shia dominated Afghanistan and then on Iraq for the imaginary > > weapons of mass destruction.?---- Original Message ----- > > From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् > > Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 8:04 pm > > Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > > To: sarai list > > > >> An organisation in Ahemdabad called National Council for Civil > >> Liberties has filed a case against Ashis Nandy for his article > in The > >> Times of India in January after Modi's election victory. The > case has > >> been filed for for 'promoting enmity between different groups on > >> grounds of religion, race, place of birth and language' > [Sections 153 > >> (A) and (B) of IPC]. > >> > >> 178 academics and intellectuals have signed a statement in protest, > >> which is available at > >> http://www.sacw.net/FreeExpAndFundos/defendNandy16June08.html > >> > >> Given below is the 'offending' article: > >> > >> o o o > >> > >> > >> Blame The Middle Class > >> > >> By Ashis Nandy > >> 8 Jan 2008 > >> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/ > >> LEADER_ARTICLE_Blame_The_Middle_Class/rssarticleshow/2681517.cms > >> > >> Now that the dust has settled over the Gujarat elections, we can > >> afford to defy the pundits and admit that, even if Narendra Modi > had>> lost the last elections, it would not have made much > difference to > >> the > >> culture of Gujarat politics. Modi had already done his job. Most of > >> the state's urban middle class would have remained mired in its > inane>> versions of communalism and parochialism and the VHP and > the Bajrang > >> Dal would have continued to set the tone of state politics. Forty > >> years of dedicated propaganda does pay dividends, electorally and > >> socially. > >> > >> The Hindus and the Muslims of the state — once bonded so > >> conspicuously > >> by language, culture and commerce — have met the demands of both > > >> V D > >> Savarkar and M A Jinnah. They now face each other as two hostile > >> nations. The handful of Gujarati social and political activists who > >> resist the trend are seen not as dissenters but as treacherous > >> troublemakers who should be silenced by any means, including > >> surveillance, censorship and direct violence. As a result, Gujarati > >> cities, particularly its educational institutions are turning > >> cultural > >> deserts. Gujarat has already disowned the Indian Constitution > and the > >> state apparatus has adjusted to the change. > >> > >> The Congress, the main opposition party, has no effective > leader. Nor > >> does it represent any threat to the mainstream politics of Gujarat. > >> The days of grass-roots leaders like Jhinabhai Darji are past > and a > >> large section of the party now consists of Hindu nationalists. The > >> national leadership of the party does not have the courage to > >> confront > >> Modi over 2002, given its abominable record of 1984. > >> > >> The Left is virtually non-existent in Gujarat. Whatever minor > >> presence > >> it once had among intellectuals and trade unionists is now a vague > >> memory. The state has disowned Gandhi, too; Gandhian politics > arouses>> derision in middle-class Gujarat. Except for a few > valiant old- > >> timers, > >> Gandhians have made peace with their conscience by withdrawing from > >> the public domain. Gandhi himself has been given a saintly, Hindu > >> nationalist status and shelved. Even the Gujarati translations > of his > >> Complete Works have been stealthily distorted to conform to the > Hindu>> nationalist agenda. > >> > >> Gujarati Muslims too are "adjusting" to their new station. Denied > >> justice and proper compensation, and as second-class citizens in > > >> their > >> home state, they have to depend on voluntary efforts and donor > >> agencies. The state's refusal to provide relief has been partly > >> met by > >> voluntary groups having fundamentalist sympathies. They supply > aid > >> but > >> insist that the beneficiaries give up Gujarati and take to Urdu, > > >> adopt > >> veil, and send their children to madrassas. Events like the > >> desecration of Wali Gujarati's grave have pushed one of India's > >> culturally richest, most diverse, vernacular Islamic traditions > to > >> the > >> wall. Future generations will as gratefully acknowledge the sangh > >> parivar's contribution to the growth of radical Islam in India > as > >> this > >> generation remembers with gratitude the handsome contribution of > > >> Rajiv > >> Gandhi and his cohorts to Sikh militancy. > >> > >> The secularist dogma of many fighting the sangh parivar has not > >> helped > >> matters. Even those who have benefited from secular lawyers and > >> activists relate to secular ideologies instrumentally. They neither > >> understand them nor respect them. The victims still derive > solace > >> from > >> their religions and, when under attack, they cling more > passionately>> to faith. Indeed, shallow ideologies of secularism > have > >> simultaneously > >> broken the back of Gandhism and discouraged the emergence of > figures>> like Ali Shariatis, Desmond Tutus and the Dalai Lama — > persons > >> who can > >> give suffering a new voice audible to the poor and the powerless > and>> make a creative intervention possible from within worldviews > >> accessible to the people. > >> > >> Finally, Gujarat's spectacular development has underwritten the > >> de-civilising process. One of the worst-kept secrets of our > times is > >> that dramatic development almost always has an authoritarian tail. > >> Post-World War II Asia too has had its love affair with > developmental>> despotism and the censorship, surveillance and > thought control > >> that go > >> with it. The East Asian tigers have all been maneaters most of the > >> time. Gujarat has now chosen to join the pack. Development in the > >> state now justifies amorality, abridgement of freedom, and > >> collapse of > >> social ethics. > >> > >> Is there life after Modi? Is it possible to look beyond the 35 > years>> of rioting that began in 1969 and ended in 2002? Prima > facie, the > >> answer is "no". We can only wait for a new generation that will, > out>> of sheer self-interest and tiredness, learn to live with each > other.>> In the meanwhile, we have to wait patiently but not > passively to keep > >> values alive, hoping that at some point will come a modicum of > >> remorse > >> and a search for atonement and that ultimately Gujarati traditions > >> will triumph over the culture of the state's urban middle class. > >> > >> Recovering Gujarat from its urban middle class will not be easy. > The>> class has found in militant religious nationalism a new self- > respect>> and a new virtual identity as a martial community, the > way Bengali > >> babus, Maharashtrian Brahmins and Kashmiri Muslims at different > times>> have sought salvation in violence. In Gujarat this class > has smelt > >> blood, for it does not have to do the killings but can plan, > finance>> and coordinate them with impunity. The actual killers are > the lowest > >> of the low, mostly tribals and Dalits. The middle class controls > the>> media and education, which have become hate factories in > recent > >> times. > >> And they receive spirited support from most non-resident Indians > who,>> at a safe distance from India, can afford to be more > nationalist,>> bloodthirsty, and irresponsible. > >> > >> [The writer is a political psychologist.] > >> _________________________________________ > >> 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: > > Shuddhabrata Sengupta > The Sarai Programme at CSDS > Raqs Media Collective > shuddha at sarai.net > www.sarai.net > www.raqsmediacollective.net > > > From radhikarajen at vsnl.net Wed Jun 18 17:23:52 2008 From: radhikarajen at vsnl.net (radhikarajen at vsnl.net) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:53:52 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again In-Reply-To: References: <9c06aab30806170733t48302bablf56c69c6427f5b82@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Dear Shuddha, sometimes I wonder whether any ethics and morals are left in these neo journalists who are working in visual media as anchors. ? As they so fluently talk about the IG of police as if they are above the law when they comment on the character of the 14 year child, as if these anchors are living a clean life.? And at times I wonder what made a brilliant social scientist to become a puppet in the hands of a channel with so many if and buts added for his pre poll survey in channel degrading himself along with channel and loss of credibilty.! ----- Original Message ----- From: Shuddhabrata Sengupta Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 4:33 pm Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net Cc: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् , sarai list > Dear Radhikarajen, > > Thank you for your pertinent critique on the Sarai Reader List of > the > way in which the media represents issues, particularly with regard > to > the murder of Hemraj Banjade and Arushi Talwar in NOIDA. I think > that > your thoughts on 'media trials' are salutary. Had newspapers and TV > > channels been more restrained in the matter of the way in which > they > report 'sensational' crimes, then the grave and malicious > harrassment > that had been the fate of S.A.R.Geelani in the '13 December' case > might not have taken place. And nor would there have been currency > for the hysterical and blood-thirsty demand for the execution of > Muhammad Afzal Guru, which continues to beseige our consciousness > today. I do hope that you, in the spirit of your own argument, will > > join me in condemning the irresponsible behaviour of much of the > media in these instances. > > Having said that, I am a bit mystified by your anger against the > condemnation of the strange attempt at filing a case on grounds of > > 'promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, > race, place of birth and language' 'under Sections 153 A and B of > the > IPC against Ashis Nandy for his op-ed piece 'Blame the Middle > Class' > in the Times of India of January 8, 2008. Ashis Nandy is, in my > opinion, one of the most acute analysts of political culture and > modernity in South Asia. It is ironic that a person, who has > maintained a life time of critique against the excesses of the > state- > secularist agenda in India, (for which he was at times unfairly and > > idiotically denounced as an apolgist of the hindu right by some un- > intelligent so called 'left-liberal' critics) is someone you now > are > prepared to argue against, merely because he happens to have taken > on > the poster boy of hindutva hate-mongering, the chief minister of > Gujarat, Narendra Damodarbhai Modi. To be fair to Nandy, there is > no > particular group that escapes the sharp edge of his sadness in his > article on Gujarat. His words (in this particular article) > criticize > the actions done by people speaking in the name of Bengali Hindus, > Kashmiri Muslims, Punjabi Sikhs, Non Resident Indians, Dalits and > Adivasis and most of all - the middle classes. If all these kinds > of > people were to be united because they were all attacked by Ashis > Nandy, then, we would see a rare example of the promotion of > conviviality between groups that are otherwise expected to be at > each > others throats. Unfortunately, for you, and for the petitioner > belonging to the Ahmedabad based National Council for Civil > Liberties, there is as yet no provision in the the Indian Penal > Code > for the offense of the promotion of conviviality on grounds of > religion, race, place of birth and language. > . > I find it equally strange that you should impute the sentiments and > > the analysis contained in Nandy's trenchant criticque of Moditva, > (or > should it be Moditude, or Modismo) to the antipathy of the Bennet > Coleman Group, who happen to own the majority shares of the Times > of > India newspaper, and their so called pro Congress bias. It is > instructive to do a careful analysis of the press that Modi and > Modismo get in the Times of India's sister publication, the > Economic > Times, (which for my money, is the more serious of the two > publications, the one that actually gets read by captains of > industry > and politics, not one that teenagers decorate their lockers with > because it has scantily clad men and women, the publication of > images > of which, you will no doubt agree, is the primary reason for the > Times of India to exist.) > > Now, were you to look at the Economic Times reportage of Modi, > Modismo and Gujarat, you would find a glowing picture that would > warm > your hearts. All you (and everyone who is interested on this list) > needs to do is to type Narendra Modi on the search bar of the > Economic Times home page, and you will be showered by what looks > like > a public relations campaign for Gujarati Asmita and Modismo. > > You will find articles such as - > > Rajiv Gandhi Foundation finds Gujarat No 1 state > > Chairman of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani, today hailed > Gujarat > Chief Minister Narendra Modi saying that he has a "bias" for action. > > And there are many more where these came from. > > Even your own pet hate, the Times of India, has articles such as > 'Women Mesmerised by Narendra Modi' > > What are we to make of this, other than that this is but an > instance > of the totally commonplace practice of a media group trying to > placate all sides. So damn Modi in one article in one publication > that you own, and then praise him to the skies in another. A > detailed > analysis of the politics of who reports what about whom, and when, =3E in > the Indian media can be an entertaining, and instructive diversion. > > What, however, are we to make of your own pathological anxiety > whenever Shri Narendra Damodarbhai Modi is criticised ? You have > (again) neatly sidestepped the substance of Ashis Nandy's critique > and taken us on the pursuit of the red herring of the Times of > India's pro-Congress bias, which for you, explains everything that > there is to understand about what Ashis Nandy has written. Take a > break from the computer, and go take a long look at the mirror, and > > you will see the visage of that same middle class Indian, quick to > fume, quick to claim an injury to your precious pride, quick to > demand that the slate be cleaned of all 'others', and short, > tragically, comically short on anything like the ability to reflect > > on the tightening limits of the sources of your self. > > I sympathise with your predicament. It must be really hard, and > sad, > to be you. > > regards > > Shuddha > > > > > > > > > > media trials of this sort were > On 18-Jun-08, at 2:02 PM, radhikarajen at vsnl.net wrote: > > > Hi all, > > > > it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis at the > drop > > of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is > > administrator and chief minister with the difference of of > > governance of all in the same state without favour or fear as per > > > the oath he has taken to administer the state. Times of India and > > > its media group is owned by Bennet group which traditionally has > > been political and supporting sycophants of Congress and media > > generally feels if it has to be "secular" it has to bash hindu > > sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times group is > never > > fair and free in its journalism and always favoured Congress and > > its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and pritish is > > > no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest in > journalism > > by sycophancy. > > > > The worst part of it is this "secular"media can not digest the > > > fact that hindu society is slowly and steadily getting out of > caste > > conundrums and beginning to gel as one homogeneous society, while > > > muslim community is being systematically divided by christian > > missions to achieve its divide and rule game, into smaller forms > of > > shias, sunnis and other denominations with terror as subtextt > just > > as the vote banks are getting divided between good governance and > > > sycophancy and secular media keeps on playing old footage of > > "carnages so that they remain in the ghettos and wounds are never > > > allowed to heal.The ultimate goal of Sonia and her mafia is to > > divided and rule with rome as its remote control which hindus > have > > understood except for a few handful of sycophants in Congress of > > all faiths who have no mass base or electoral prospects and have > to > > live on doleouts of the mafia queen. These along with christian > > mafia in the kitchen cabinet have used all those "journalists" > and > > "int > > ellectuals" of modern day to devise the spins to bring back the > old > > lost horse of Congress in new avtar as christian brigade for the > > crusade, while in comity of nations it is seen that Bush uses- > the > > terror and weapons of mass destruction as excuses to bring in his > > > form of democracy in the nations of muslim faith, first by attack > > > of shia dominated Afghanistan and then on Iraq for the imaginary > > weapons of mass destruction.?---- Original Message ----- > > From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् > > Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 8:04 pm > > Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > > To: sarai list > > > >> An organisation in Ahemdabad called National Council for Civil > >> Liberties has filed a case against Ashis Nandy for his article > in The > >> Times of India in January after Modi's election victory. The > case has > >> been filed for for 'promoting enmity between different groups on > >> grounds of religion, race, place of birth and language' > [Sections 153 > >> (A) and (B) of IPC]. > >> > >> 178 academics and intellectuals have signed a statement in protest, > >> which is available at > >> http://www.sacw.net/FreeExpAndFundos/defendNandy16June08.html > >> > >> Given below is the 'offending' article: > >> > >> o o o > >> > >> > >> Blame The Middle Class > >> > >> By Ashis Nandy > >> 8 Jan 2008 > >> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/ > >> LEADER_ARTICLE_Blame_The_Middle_Class/rssarticleshow/2681517.cms > >> > >> Now that the dust has settled over the Gujarat elections, we can > >> afford to defy the pundits and admit that, even if Narendra Modi > had>> lost the last elections, it would not have made much > difference to > >> the > >> culture of Gujarat politics. Modi had already done his job. Most of > >> the state's urban middle class would have remained mired in its > inane>> versions of communalism and parochialism and the VHP and > the Bajrang > >> Dal would have continued to set the tone of state politics. Forty > >> years of dedicated propaganda does pay dividends, electorally and > >> socially. > >> > >> The Hindus and the Muslims of the state — once bonded so > >> conspicuously > >> by language, culture and commerce — have met the demands of both > > >> V D > >> Savarkar and M A Jinnah. They now face each other as two hostile > >> nations. The handful of Gujarati social and political activists who > >> resist the trend are seen not as dissenters but as treacherous > >> troublemakers who should be silenced by any means, including > >> surveillance, censorship and direct violence. As a result, Gujarati > >> cities, particularly its educational institutions are turning > >> cultural > >> deserts. Gujarat has already disowned the Indian Constitution > and the > >> state apparatus has adjusted to the change. > >> > >> The Congress, the main opposition party, has no effective > leader. Nor > >> does it represent any threat to the mainstream politics of Gujarat. > >> The days of grass-roots leaders like Jhinabhai Darji are past > and a > >> large section of the party now consists of Hindu nationalists. The > >> national leadership of the party does not have the courage to > >> confront > >> Modi over 2002, given its abominable record of 1984. > >> > >> The Left is virtually non-existent in Gujarat. Whatever minor > >> presence > >> it once had among intellectuals and trade unionists is now a vague > >> memory. The state has disowned Gandhi, too; Gandhian politics > arouses>> derision in middle-class Gujarat. Except for a few > valiant old- > >> timers, > >> Gandhians have made peace with their conscience by withdrawing from > >> the public domain. Gandhi himself has been given a saintly, Hindu > >> nationalist status and shelved. Even the Gujarati translations > of his > >> Complete Works have been stealthily distorted to conform to the > Hindu>> nationalist agenda. > >> > >> Gujarati Muslims too are "adjusting" to their new station. Denied > >> justice and proper compensation, and as second-class citizens in > > >> their > >> home state, they have to depend on voluntary efforts and donor > >> agencies. The state's refusal to provide relief has been partly > >> met by > >> voluntary groups having fundamentalist sympathies. They supply > aid > >> but > >> insist that the beneficiaries give up Gujarati and take to Urdu, > > >> adopt > >> veil, and send their children to madrassas. Events like the > >> desecration of Wali Gujarati's grave have pushed one of India's > >> culturally richest, most diverse, vernacular Islamic traditions > to > >> the > >> wall. Future generations will as gratefully acknowledge the sangh > >> parivar's contribution to the growth of radical Islam in India > as > >> this > >> generation remembers with gratitude the handsome contribution of > > >> Rajiv > >> Gandhi and his cohorts to Sikh militancy. > >> > >> The secularist dogma of many fighting the sangh parivar has not > >> helped > >> matters. Even those who have benefited from secular lawyers and > >> activists relate to secular ideologies instrumentally. They neither > >> understand them nor respect them. The victims still derive > solace > >> from > >> their religions and, when under attack, they cling more > passionately>> to faith. Indeed, shallow ideologies of secularism > have > >> simultaneously > >> broken the back of Gandhism and discouraged the emergence of > figures>> like Ali Shariatis, Desmond Tutus and the Dalai Lama — > persons > >> who can > >> give suffering a new voice audible to the poor and the powerless > and>> make a creative intervention possible from within worldviews > >> accessible to the people. > >> > >> Finally, Gujarat's spectacular development has underwritten the > >> de-civilising process. One of the worst-kept secrets of our > times is > >> that dramatic development almost always has an authoritarian tail. > >> Post-World War II Asia too has had its love affair with > developmental>> despotism and the censorship, surveillance and > thought control > >> that go > >> with it. The East Asian tigers have all been maneaters most of the > >> time. Gujarat has now chosen to join the pack. Development in the > >> state now justifies amorality, abridgement of freedom, and > >> collapse of > >> social ethics. > >> > >> Is there life after Modi? Is it possible to look beyond the 35 > years>> of rioting that began in 1969 and ended in 2002? Prima > facie, the > >> answer is "no". We can only wait for a new generation that will, > out>> of sheer self-interest and tiredness, learn to live with each > other.>> In the meanwhile, we have to wait patiently but not > passively to keep > >> values alive, hoping that at some point will come a modicum of > >> remorse > >> and a search for atonement and that ultimately Gujarati traditions > >> will triumph over the culture of the state's urban middle class. > >> > >> Recovering Gujarat from its urban middle class will not be easy. > The>> class has found in militant religious nationalism a new self- > respect>> and a new virtual identity as a martial community, the > way Bengali > >> babus, Maharashtrian Brahmins and Kashmiri Muslims at different > times>> have sought salvation in violence. In Gujarat this class > has smelt > >> blood, for it does not have to do the killings but can plan, > finance>> and coordinate them with impunity. The actual killers are > the lowest > >> of the low, mostly tribals and Dalits. The middle class controls > the>> media and education, which have become hate factories in > recent > >> times. > >> And they receive spirited support from most non-resident Indians > who,>> at a safe distance from India, can afford to be more > nationalist,>> bloodthirsty, and irresponsible. > >> > >> [The writer is a political psychologist.] > >> _________________________________________ > >> 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: > > Shuddhabrata Sengupta > The Sarai Programme at CSDS > Raqs Media Collective > shuddha at sarai.net > www.sarai.net > www.raqsmediacollective.net > > > Dear Shuddha, From asitredsalute at gmail.com Wed Jun 18 17:44:54 2008 From: asitredsalute at gmail.com (Asit asitreds) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:44:54 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] protest demonstration at jharkhand bhawan, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi on Lalt Mehta murder case Message-ID: Dear Friends, In a meeting held at 7, Jantar Mantar, New Delhi on 17th June 2008, it has been decided to hold a dharna (Sit-in protest) in front of Jharkhand Bhawan on 20th June, friday at 12 pm. As you know a NREGA activist Lalit Mehta has been killed by the vested interests in Palamau while he was helping Social Audit team led by Prof. Jean Drez. People all across the Jharkhand and elsewhere are demanding for a CBI probe into the killing of Lalit Mehta and enquiry into the irregularities in NREGA implementation in Jharkhand. Please join in and raise your voice collectively. Location : New Jharkhand Bhawan Near PRIYA Cinema, Close to India Airlines Colony Kusumpur Pahadi Vasant Vihar On Priya Cinema Road turn left after Priya Complex Phone No of Jharkhand Bhawan : 011-2673 9000 In Solidarity, Aruna Roy Swami Agnivesh Anne Raja Nikhil Dey Kiran Shaheen Contact no : 91-11-99116 41423 From kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com Wed Jun 18 19:31:43 2008 From: kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com (Kshmendra Kaul) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 07:01:43 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Blood in the Water In-Reply-To: <82AE2DFC-2B97-419D-B778-DE50139B4AA0@sarai.net> Message-ID: <338938.44785.qm@web57206.mail.re3.yahoo.com> Many moons back I had seen a documentary, either on BBC or one of the 'environmental' channels that put 'water wars' as the backgrounder for very many on the global conflicts including the ones over Kashmir and Palestine.   In Pakistan, Kashmir is often called the "Shah Rug" (jugular vein) of Pakistan. One of the interpretations of that term is the importance of Kashmir as a 'water source' for Pakistan. I would not know who first used it but Benazir Bhutto in her Primeministership often mouthed it. It was the phase when she would be frothing at her mouth while she screamed "Jihad, Jihad, Jihad".   Was looking at some available material on the Web:   1.    - From "Water Wars of the Near Future" by Marq de Villiers Found at http://www.itt.com/waterbook/Wars.asp          -   Ismail Serageldin, the bank's (World Bank) vice president for environmental affairs and chairman of the World Water Commission, stated bluntly a few years ago that the wars of the 21st century will be fought over water.      -   There is another way of looking at the notion of water conflicts, which Homer-Dixon acknowledges and urges on the world's policy makers. Water shortages may not lead to shooting wars, but they most certainly lead to food shortages, increased poverty, and to the spread of disease. .................. Bangladesh may never go to war with India--even before the recent settlement, the Bangladeshis were too poor to do much more than grumble--but the stress caused by water shortages led to massive migrations of people, upsetting the ethnic balance of several Bangladeshi and Indian states, and leading to the rise of terrorist and nascent revolutionary movements. By other definitions, then--water wars.    2. - From excerpts from the book "Water Wars" by Vandana Shiva Found at http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Vandana_Shiva/Water_Wars_VShiva.html      - By the late 1890s, Los Angeles had already tapped its local supplies and city officials were secretly purchasing land and water rights in neighboring Owens Valley. ........... In 1924, Owens Valley residents blasted an aqueduct to prevent water diversion to Los Angeles. The water war had begun.     - The 1967 war, which led to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Golan Heights, was in effect an occupation of the freshwater resources from the Golan Heights, the Sea of Galilee, the Jordan River, and the West Bank. As Middle-Eastern scholar Ewan Anderson, notes, "The West Bank has become a critical source of water for Israel, and it could be argued that this consideration outweighs other political and strategic factors."     - Neither international nor national water laws adequately respond to the ecological and political challenges posed by water conflicts. No legal document in contemporary Iaw mentions the most basic law related to water-the natural law of the water cycle. Claims are derived from and protection is limited to artificial concrete structures. This limitation has propelled regions and states to enter a contest for the most extravagant water projects as a means of establishing their rights to water-the more you extract and divert water through giant projects, the more you can claim rights. Water conflicts continue to escalate and, to date, no appropriate legal framework exists to resolve these conflicts.      - Not only has the World Bank played a major role in the creation of water scarcity and pollution, it is now transforming that scarcity into a market opportunity for water corporations.       - Water has become big business for global corporations, which see limitless markets in growing water scarcity and demand. The two major players in the water industry are the French companies Vivendi Environment and Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, whose empires extend to 120 countries. Vivendi is the water giant, with a turnover of $17.1 billion. Suez had a turnover of $5.1 billion in 1996.      - The privatization of water services is the first step toward the privatization of all aspects of water.   3. From "The next major conflict in the Middle East - Water Wars" -  A Lecture by Adel Darwish- Geneva conference on Environment and Quality of Life June 1994. Found at http://www.mideastnews.com/WaterWars.htm     - When President Anwar Sadat signed the peace treaty with Israel in 1979, he said Egypt will never go to war again, except to protect its water resources. King Hussein of Jordan has said he will never go to war with Israel again except over water and the Untied Nation Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali has warned bluntly that the next war in the area will be over water.      - In theory, peace between the Arabs and Israel should end their rivalry over water, but it is just as likely that water will delay, if not altogether prevent, peace. In a final settlement, Israel would have to give up the West Bank which gives it control of the southern portion of the Jordan, the west bank of the river with its aquifers; the Golan Heights in Syria which contains the headwaters of the Jordan and the strip of land along the southern Lebanese border where the Zahrani and Litani rivers flow.       - Most alarming, and perhaps most telling, was an off-the-record comment by a leading politician about his country's water need. `` A time may well come,'' he said,`` we have to calculate whether a small swift war might be economically more rewarding than putting up with a drop in our water supplies.''    4.  - Potential for Water Wars in the 21st Century - Erwin E. Klaas, Professor Emeritus of Animal Ecology, Iowa State University Found at http://www.public.iastate.edu/~mariposa/waterwars.htm   5.  - Water Wars: Cauvery, Chinatown and Cadillac Desert by Rajeev Srinivasan Found at http://www.rediff.com/news/2000/jan/17rajeev.htm   6.  - Asia's Coming Water Wars By Chietigj Bajpaee Found at http://www.pinr.com/report.php?ac=view_report&report_id=545&language_id=1   7.  - "Water wars - Sindh’s struggle for control of the Indus" by Hasan Mansoor Found at http://www.himalmag.com/2002/july/report_4.htm     Kshmendra --- On Wed, 6/18/08, Shuddhabrata Sengupta wrote: From: Shuddhabrata Sengupta Subject: [Reader-list] Blood in the Water To: "sarai list" Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2008, 4:57 PM Dear All, A friend forward this article, published recently in the Asian Sentinel, to me recently. I think that it introduces an element, control of water and natural resources, that are actually key to an understanding of how conflicts such as Kashmir get played out. In the longer term, these issues may be far more significant than the issues of ethnic and religious identity. it is a pity, that whenever the question of say Kashmir, comes up, or whenever the issue of Bangladeshi migrants to India rears its head, all that everyone wants to talk about is the 'identity' issue, what gets left behind is thought about things like water. Ask a Bangladeshi immigrant to Delhi about what drove him to cross so many miles of hazardous territory, and the chances are, that if you are prepared to pay attention, he or she will have something to say about floods, and the lethality of rivers, and the rising sea. I know many people who are ambivalent about their identities, but I have yet to come across a person who does not feel thirsty. Given that water is so important to our survival and life, it is a sad travesty that we pay it so little attention when it comes to politics. We wouldn't be around to protect our identities and our nationalities if we could not drink water, or did not have the guarantee that our homes would not be flooded, year after year. regards Shuddha ------------------ http://asiasentinel.com/index.php? option=com_content&task=view&id=1269&Itemid=31 Blood in Kashmir's Water Sankar Ray 18 June 2008 A decades-old competition for water complicates the already-bitter relationship between India and her neighbors Water is destined to be a determining factor in the regional conflicts of South Asia in the years to come, particularly between India and Pakistan. Unquestionably one of the most crucial of environmental resources, this essential ingredient for human life is growing so scarce in some areas globally that if current trends continue, two-thirds of humanity will suffer "moderate to severe water stress" within 30 years, according to a comprehensive assessment of freshwater resources by the United Nations. Nowhere is this truer, however, than in the parched regions of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, where overpopulation, poverty and scarce resources make the competition more acute. In a remarkably even- handed paper published in a recent issue of the Journal of International Affairs, Saleem H. Ali, associate professor of Environmental Policy and Planning, at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources of the University of Vermont in the US, identifies the lack of environmental cooperation in bilateral and multilateral relations as the root cause of a potential conflict "between two nuclear neighbours, India and Pakistan, predicated in a history of religious rivalries and post-colonial demarcation." The Pakistani scholar urges India and Pakistan to put aside their mutual distrust to reconfigure the riparian issues for lasting piece in the region, their inveterate, decades-old antagonism notwithstanding, and concentrate on a matter of equal importance to their survival of each country. Ali praises the World Bank's "instrumental role in its negotiation during the height of the Cold War to bring the two countries to the negotiating table with the Indus Water Treaty after bilateral negotiations failed. The outcome of this historic treaty was the unrestricted use by India of the three eastern rivers, the Ravi, Sutlej and Beas and complete control of the three western rivers, the Jhelum, Chenab and Indus by Pakistan. The rivers all have their origin in the bitterly disputed region of Kashmir. And thus, theoretically whoever controls Kashmir controls the rivers, a fact conveniently forgotten for years as Pakistan and India tested each other's mettle in a series of wars. The Pakistani Prime Minister, Hussain Suhrwardy, in 1958 pointed to the geographical importance of Kashmir when he emphasized the importance of the six rivers of the Indus Basin. "Most of them rise in Kashmir. One of the reasons why, therefore, that Kashmir is so important for us is this water, these waters which irrigate our lands," Suhrwardy said at the time. He proved himself a prophet. The only other international statesman who thought along the same lines was the British Premier, Anthony Eden, who believed that the resolution of the water dispute would reduce the tension over Kashmir, hence the Indus Water Treaty. India denied the link between Kashmir and the water issue, however, a denial that has contributed to the growing resentment between the two countries, and an amazing one given reality. The head of the Indus flows through the valley corridor that connects Indian and Pakistani- held Kashmir. Further south India has been engaged in a running dispute with Bangladesh over the Farakka Barrage over the River Ganges since 1973. This project involved a dam built on the Ganges in West Bengal, about 10 kilometers from the Bangladesh border. Bangladeshi objections that the project would seriously affect the country's water supply have proved correct. Falling water levels below the dam have raised salinity levels, affecting fisheries and hindering navigation. Falling soil moisture levels have also also led to desertification. Ali firmly believes that "environmental factors can play a pivotal role since they help link various issues such as economic development and security." He points out that, "states that are ecologically vulnerable to extreme climatic events, such as Bangladesh, are recognizing that poor environmental planning in coastal areas can have devastating economic impacts". "I have long been criticizing the brazenly reactionary promotion of water disputes among Indian states by the political parties in power," said Surajit Guha, the former deputy-director general of the Geological Survey of India and one of India's top hydrologists "It may not be confined within the Indian territory. The Farakka impasse is a clear evidence of this. Have you seen European countries through which the mighty River Danube flows engaging themselves in dispute over sharing of water during the last one hundred years? I do not know why water is increasingly politicized when most of the peoples of SAARC region are deprived of access to safe and potable water." While the west is busy concentrating its efforts on securing a ready supply of oil, in South Asia the governments are slowly but surely waking up to the fact that in the not too distant future water is going to be equally, if not more important to the survival of their people. Shuddhabrata Sengupta The Sarai Programme at CSDS Raqs Media Collective shuddha at sarai.net www.sarai.net www.raqsmediacollective.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 shuddha at sarai.net Wed Jun 18 21:57:28 2008 From: shuddha at sarai.net (Shuddhabrata Sengupta) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:57:28 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Reading Radhilarajen and the Hyde Act/123 Deal Message-ID: <36CC6A0F-92B3-49AD-A75A-4131867D80D6@sarai.net> Dear Radhikarajen, It is interesting that you mention the Hyde Act, and its supposed role vis-a-vis the so called "123 treaty" on Nuclear Co-Operation between the United States and India in one of your recent posts in the thread on "Gujarati Pride".You have done this, while making some ad-hominem attacks on journalists of the CNN-IBN channel (for whom I hold no brief, for and against) for being 'obviously on someone's payroll' etc. I find it interesting that you have to jump from an imputed defence of the person or persons who have brought a specious case against Ashis Nandy, to a rant on governance and finally to your casual observations on the Indo-US Nuclear deal. What connects these disparate threads remains a mystery to me. I think you need to be careful when saying things like 'being on payrolls'. Such speculations, are deeply unethical, and do not aid the climate of a healthy discussion. In any case, whether or not 'they' (whoseover they may be) are indeed on someone's payroll is a fact that neither aids nor damages your argument. Especially all those who oppose the said (nuclear) deal do not necessarily oppose Modi, and all those who support Modi do not necessarily oppose the deal. So I don't quite understand why, in trying to argue about the treatment that Narendra Damodarbhai Modi gets in the media, you have to unnecessarily drag in the question of the so called Nuclear deal. Is there some kind of special training you have received of trying to distract your audience whenever you are criticized on the basis of the logic of your argument? I will spend some time trying to think through the issues that you have raised, because, the kind of loose reasoning that you bring to this list needs, in my opinion, a redressal, from time to time. Now, what is the Hyde Act, what exactly is the 123 Treaty These matters need a little clarification. The Hyde Act, or, the Henry J. Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act of 2006, to give the act its full title, is a piece of legislation, introduced by Congressman Henry Hyde, passed by the US Congress, which creates the legal basis (under US Law) for co-operation between the United States and India. US law, ordinarily, declares that the United States cannot enter into nuclear collaboration with a country that is not governed by the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. India, Israel, and Pakistan are countries that have not joined the NPT and the CTBT. North Korea joined, but later withdrew. Iran, for instance, is a signatory. (which is why it has to allow for International Atomic Energy Agency inspections, which it does, dodgily) US law permits the United States to enter into nuclear energy collaboration with declared non-nuclear weapons states who have signed the NPT and the CTBT under section 123 (titled - "Cooperation with Other Nations") of the United States Atomic Energy Act of 1954. Hence, the United States enters into '123 Agreements' with other countries. At the present moment, 25 such agreements have been signed, including with countries such as Morocco, Ukraine, Romania etc. The Hyde Act, which incidentally includes provisions inserted by Democratic representative for Illinois, Barack Obama to restrict fuel supplies to India at a scale commensurate only with "reasonable civilian reactor requirements" is in a way, a one-time only exemption being made by US lawmakers with regard to India. It may come as surprise to some, but the United States has refused, and continues to refuse to make the same exemption even for its close ally, Israel. Some of the people (both CPI-M and BJP, for instance) who say that the Hyde Act and provisions of the 123 are discriminatory towards India, forget that the acts in themselves represent an exception that the United States is prepared to make for India, but not even for Israel. Israel has recently lobbied with the US government for an extension of the same treatment, effectively saying that the US government is unfairly favouring India over Israel. see - a recent AP news report to this effect at - http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/ 2007/09israel_seeks_exemption_from_at.php Indeed, the Hyde Act puts limitations on the scope of the 123 Treaty. And we might ask, why not? A nuclear power is making a special case for relating to another nuclear power that has not joined the NPT or the CTBT (that the US has not either is another, not un-interesting fact, but nothing compels the United States government to enter into treaties with itself, hence this, strictly speaking is of no consequence), and in doing so, it might wish to maintain some safeguards. Those who oppose the Indo-US nuclear deal on the grounds that it discriminates against India are wrong. It makes a special case for India, despite Inida's status as a non-signatory to the NPT and CTBT and in a sense puts the Indo-US relationship on an even closer footing (in the specific instance of nuclear cooperation) than US- Israel ties. Those who support the Indo-US nuclear deal on the grounds that it places no limitations on India are also wrong. Because, the Hyde Act clearly places limitations in the events of testing, or any trace of military use (which have to be verified by the IAEA). Both (Indian Pro and Anti Nuclear Deal partisans) see a perfectly ordinary piece of legislation through the lens of Indian exceptionalism. In one case, by refusing to see that India is not discriminated against (because provisions are made for India that are not in force for Israel) on the other hand by refusing to see that India is treated just like any other country that has signed the 123 agreement is treated. Why should India be treated any differently from Morocco. What makes India, so special? My take on this is very simple, and I have said it before on this list. We do not need nuclear weapons. Hence, the Indian government should be pressuriezed to sign the NPT and the CTBT, and then, the debate on whether we need nuclear energy supplies can have a real meaning. This debate would be on the ecological and political implications of nuclear power as a source of energy per se. Until that occurs, there is nothing to be gained by moving close to the United States, or Russia, or France, or any other nuclear power for obtaining nuclear supplies. Those opposed to the deal are barking up the wrong tree if they think that there can be better 'deals' on offer. The only 'better deal' on the terms that these people set, are the ones that place on limits or caveats on testing and further weaponization. In other words, those, such as the CPI(M) and the BJP that oppose the deal, do so, only because they want to keep building bombs. Those that support the deal, are somehow convinced that the deal wont stop them from testing and building bombs, which is why they tell the opponents of the deal that nothing changes once the deal is signed. Both parties speak from a position that clearly wants to keep building bombs and testing, one with and another without the operationalization of the deal. It would be good were a real public debate on this fact to occur, instead of the pro and anti US shadow boxing that generally takes place in its stead. If this list is a space where this could occur, (clearly, it is not happening in the mainstream media, again) it would be a welcome thing. I hope I have made myself abundantly clear. regards Shuddha Shuddhabrata Sengupta The Sarai Programme at CSDS Raqs Media Collective shuddha at sarai.net www.sarai.net www.raqsmediacollective.net From space.cotoners8 at gmail.com Wed Jun 18 23:12:05 2008 From: space.cotoners8 at gmail.com (Space Cotoners8) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:42:05 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] Call for artist :: Convocatoria artistas Message-ID: <2ad987420806181042y2cc815e0g23c9f0cbd15ccf7@mail.gmail.com> SpanishABIERTA LA CONVOCATORIA DE ARTISTAS C8 te ofrece 'El Escaparate', un espacio situado en el barrio del Born de Barcelona: . 'El Escaparate' es un proyecto sin animo de lucro que pretende dar un giro al concepto de 'escaparate comercial'. Un giro hacia la creación artística contemporánea y la expresión de ideas. Un espacio específico (211 alto/181 ancho/122 fondo) donde los artistas pueden presentar sus propuestas creadas a través de cualquier medio artístico: pintura, video, fotografía, luz, texto, acción... Mas informacion en el pdf adjunto. Puedes hacernos llegar tu propuesta a través de nuestra web www.c8artwindow.com English OPEN CALLING FOR ARTIST C8 offers you 'El Escaparate', a space placed in the main cultural district and busy shopping area of El Born in the city of Barcelona. 'El Escaparate' is a project that tries give a draft to the concept of a 'commercial shop window'. A draft towards the artistic contemporany creation and the expression of ideas. A specific space (2.11 height/1.81 wide/1.22 deep) where the artists can present their offers created through any artistic medium: painting, video, photography, light, text, action… More information in pdf. You can send us your offers through our web page www.c8artwindow.com From tasveerghar at gmail.com Thu Jun 19 10:50:48 2008 From: tasveerghar at gmail.com (Tasveer Ghar) Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:50:48 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Announcing the Fellows for 2008 Message-ID: <484c1050806182220j7573a844r374a8e094264f1df@mail.gmail.com> Dear friends Tasveer Ghar, the house of images, is delighted to announce the selection of candidates for its 2nd Popular Art Fellowship for the year 2008. The theme for this year's fellowships is "Kaleidoscopic Sites and Sights: The Printed Visual Culture/s of Religious Pluralism", and we received an overwhelming number of exciting ideas and proposals for the same. This year we needed to select only four fellows, hence the job of the 4-member selection committee was even more difficult. We congratulate the following four candidates/teams that have been selected as Tasveer Ghar Fellows for 2008, for their respective topics: 1. Subah Dayal and Suzanne Schulz Topic: Outside the Imambara: The Lives of Pilgrimage Souvenirs 2. Shirly Abraham and Amit Madhesiya Topic: Religious Iconography in the Public Sphere - Painted and Tile Gods Adorning the Streets. 3. Daljit Ami Topic: Exploring Ravidas, Understanding a Meeting Point of Faiths and Resistance 4. Joe Christopher/Alice Sampson Topic: Challenging Dominance: The Visual Repertoire of the Bonallu Festival and Subaltern shrines in Hyderabad More details about these fellows and their proposed work would soon be available on our website. They would work towards creation of art collections to be culminated in virtual galleries and an essay at the end of their 6 months fellowship period. Their galleries are likely to be inaugurated in January 2009. Invitation: Besides the above fellowships, Tasveer Ghar is always open to contributions of exciting images representing the unique examples of popular visual culture of India/South Asia, from artists, art collectors, photographers, students and everyone else. You can send us photo prints, old photographs, old printed material, photo negatives, transparencies, digital photographs, high-resolution scans, posters, calendar, old advertisements, printed packing material, wall graffiti, hoardings, road-side banners, or any other medium, preferably mass-produced or truly archival and rare, but representing certain popular trends of our society. Kindly see more details in our Call for Proposals. Your contributions, if accepted by us, would be compensated with a basic honorarium. We can also sign a contract with you about the use of such images. Kindly send us samples of such artwork, so that we can immediately respond. Past Galleries on our website: Kindly visit the exciting image essays and galleries that have been posted on Tasveer Ghar so far. Good Morning – Welcome – Svagatam: Kitschy Indian 'Welcome' Posters
By Patricia Uberoi http://tasveerghar.net/welcome/ Celebrating More Than the New Year: The Hindu Nationalist Greeting Cards
By Christiane Brosius http://tasveerghar.net/hgreet/ When a Language Becomes a Mother/Goddess - An Image Essay on Tamil
by Sumathi Ramaswamy http://tasveerghar.net/stamil/ This is What They Look Like: Stereotypes of Muslim Piety in Calendar Art and Hindi Cinema. By Yousuf Saeed http://tasveerghar.net/mstereo/ Remediation: Iconic Images and Everyday Spaces - 'Female Film Stars' in Print Media: by Madhuja Mukherji http://tasveerghar.net/2007/madhuja/ Miss Use: A Survey of Raunchy Bhojpuri Music Album Covers: By Vishal Rawlley http://tasveerghar.net/2007/vishal/ Catering to Indian and British Tastes: Gender in Early Indian Print Advertisements: By Javed Masood http://tasveerghar.net/2007/javed/ Miniature Societies & Grihani Aesthetics: Traditional Dolls from South India: By Annapurna Garimella http://tasveerghar.net/2007/annapurna/ Objects of Desire: Commodification of Gender in the Titles of Popular Hindi Novels: By Atmaram K. Bhakal http://tasveerghar.net/2007/atmaram/ We welcome you to visit our website and spread the word to more people. We would also welcome your comments, queries, and criticism about the work Tasveer Ghar is doing. Yours sincerely, Christiane Brosius Manishita Dass Sumathi Ramaswamy Yousuf Saeed -- http://www.tasveerghar.net From abhijit8086 at yahoo.com Thu Jun 19 11:06:40 2008 From: abhijit8086 at yahoo.com (Abhijit) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 22:36:40 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] Minions of US Media Message-ID: <820114.82822.qm@web36908.mail.mud.yahoo.com>   Did rogue network leak nuclear bomb design? An infamous atomic smuggler may have had blueprints for a compact, sophisticated nuclear warhead, and that could mean that the world's proliferation problem is even worse than many experts had thought. Posted Jun 18, 2008 09:36 AM PST Category: PAKISTAN Right on time, just right after the Pakistani government has expressed its fury over the US killing of their soldiers to the point where they are perhaps going to suspend the US training of their paramilitary soldiers.   In an earlier comment this morning, I mentioned we would probably see more demonization of Pakistan. And although the original story broke on Monday, here it is again, getting waived in our faces.     I thought that was an illustrative example. From kauladityaraj at gmail.com Thu Jun 19 13:43:53 2008 From: kauladityaraj at gmail.com (Aditya Raj Kaul) Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:43:53 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Wandhama: A Forgotten Carnage Message-ID: <6353c690806190113u1ea130bcuf58e96e50e617acf@mail.gmail.com> Wandhama: A Forgotten Carnage *On the eve of International Refugee's Day I pay my homage to 23 innocent victims of terrorism in the valley. Wandhama was an unknown village in central Kashmir till 26th Jan. 1998. Its been 10 long years now....* *"It didn't occur on the midnight of 25th of January, 1998. It wasn't those odd 23 Kashmiri Pandits including 4 young children from Wandhama; a village on the outskirts of Srinagar who fell to the bullets". This is what the state government of J&K wishes all the common people to believe.* - It surely may seem to be a strange occurrence but is a hard fact. The J&K Police has closed its investigations into one of the most cold-blooded massacres and that too in its 10th anniversary year. Read more at - http://activistsdiary.blogspot.com/ *Be there at Chinmaya Mission Auditorium on 20th June, 2008 at 6:00pm.* ** *Campaign Blog - www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com/ * ** *Thanks* *Aditya Raj Kaul* *Roots In Kashmir* *New Delhi* From asitredsalute at gmail.com Thu Jun 19 14:15:14 2008 From: asitredsalute at gmail.com (Asit asitreds) Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:15:14 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] protest demonstration at jharkhand bhawan, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi on Lalit Mehta murder case and nrega scams Message-ID: Dear Friends, All over the country, activists who have sought to struggle for implementation of NREG, PDS, and BPL schemes have faced the brunt of state repression, custodial torture and killing and assassinations at the hands of political vested interests. The latest in the series are Lalit Mehta and Kameshwar Yadav in Jharkhand. *Please join a protest meeting at Jharkhand Bhawan, (Near PVR Priya, Near Indian Airlines Colony, Kusumpur Pahari, Vasant Vihar*) on 20th June (Friday) at 12 noon to raise our voice against the brutal cycle of corruption and violence, and to demand justice for Lalit Mehta and Kameshwar Yadav. * * * Please bring your banners and placards. Please also find below a letter of protest addressed to the Governor of Jharkhand. Kindly send your endorsement to manisha.sethy at gmail.com or radhikamenon1 at gmail.com or fdidelhi at gmail.com In solidarity, Radhika Menon, Lalit Batra, Manisha sethi, Ahmed Sohaib, Ritu Sinha, Suchetna Ghosh and others Forum for democratic Initiatives 9811625577; 9868038981 * To reach Jharkhand Bhawan, Go down the road past Vasant Continental and PVR Priya market and take the first left. Go past the Gurdwara. Jharkhand Bhwan is a green-coloured building close to it. From anansi1 at earthlink.net Thu Jun 19 17:54:24 2008 From: anansi1 at earthlink.net (Paul Miller) Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2008 08:24:24 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] Project Kashmir: A Film In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <3E0F83A8-463C-458C-B781-36519B746970@earthlink.net> Senain Kheshgi is an interesting film maker. I think that the Sarai reader group would enjoy the film. It's a kaleidoscope of perspectives, but hey, what occupied place - whether it was Ireland, or Palestine, or Kashmir... isn't? Paul aka Dj Spooky Details: http://www.projectkashmir.org/index.html THE HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL PRESENTS THE WORLD PREMIERE OF PROJECT KASHMIR Dir. Senain Kheshgi & Geeta V. Patel US, 2008, 89 min, Documentary In English, Urdu, Kashmiri, Hindi with English subtitles From directors Senain Kheshgi and Geeta V. Patel comes PROJECT KASHMIR--a feature documentary in which the directors, two American friends from opposite sides of the divide, investigate the war in Kashmir and find their friendship tested over deeply rooted political, cultural and religious biases they never had to face in the U.S. PROJECT KASHMIR explores war between countries and war within oneself by delving into the fraught lives of young people caught in the social/ political conflict of one of the most beautiful, and most deadly, places on earth--Kashmir. Most Indians and Pakistanis cant agree where Kashmir is on a map. But ask them who started the war, and they will have an answer. For over 50 years, India and Pakistan have fought over Kashmir; a lush mountainous region nestled in the Himalayas. By Indian estimates, Asia's most bitter conflict has claimed 40,000 lives, while Pakistan says the number is closer to 80,000. Human Rights groups, says that more than 4,000 civilians have "disappeared" since the Line of Control was established by the UN in 1949. Harassment continues in the countryside, and many Kashmiris believe that killings in "encounters" with the army or police are in fact deaths after torture in custody. Yet the West remains mostly ignorant of this bloody conflict, and its potential to escalate into a full-scale nuclear war. Unlike the Middle East, the war in Kashmir does not make headlines around the world. As peace talks between India and Pakistan continue and a historic road opens between their respective portions of Kashmir, dodging artillery fire and escaping rape or torture remains the daily reality of living in any region of Kashmir. The fact that no Kashmiris are currently at the peace table with India and Pakistan compounds the skepticism toward any improvement in the lives of civilians. Beautifully lensed by Academy Award® winner, Ross Kauffman, the film captures the stunning beauty of Kashmir, while expertly interweaving deeply moving personal stories of Kashmiris with those of the two American women, who strive to reconcile their ethnic and religious heritage with the violence that haunts their homeland. Presented in association with: Breakthrough Tribeca All Access Tribeca Film Festival Screening info: Walter Reade Theater at Lincoln Center Sat., June 21st, 6:30 p.m. Discussion w/ filmmakers and reception to follow Sun., June 22nd, 8:30 p.m. Discussion w/ filmmakers to follow Mon., June 23rd, 4:00 p.m. From arshad.mcrc at gmail.com Thu Jun 19 18:07:13 2008 From: arshad.mcrc at gmail.com (arshad amanullah) Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:07:13 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] INVITATION FROM CMM FOR 1ST JULY SHAHEED DIVAS AT BHILAI. Message-ID: <2076f31d0806190537x299578e2iee06dea45e7d3c99@mail.gmail.com> 1st July, Shaheed Diwas-Shapath Diwas Bhilai Chalo! Dear Friends, Mazdoor Karyakarta Samiti, Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha, Bhilai,Chhattisgarh invites to join us in observing 1st July, Shaheed Diwas, commemorating the martyrdom of 17 workers who were killed in the police firirg on the Rail Roko Agitation by the BJP govt. of Sunderlal Patwa in 1992. The onslaught of big capital - foreign and Indian on the working class as well as adivasis in Chhattisgarh has much intensified since then. CMM Bhilai has been battling bravely to implement 8 hour work day, minimum wages and safe working conditions for the young generation of contractual workers and has been successful in several companies after braving serious attacks by management goons, long periods of lockouts, repeated arrests of agitaing workmen etc. The working class bastis, particularly the women, are militantly resisting the land mafia of industrialists and struggling for the bare necessities - water, electricity, ration cards, BPL survey ..Workers in the cement factories of multinationals Holcim and Lafarge and of Aditya Birla are trying to unite and agitate across unions to break the Chhattisgarh cement cartel and implement the Cement Wage Board to abolish contract labour in the cement industry. Fighting economism and continuing Shaheed Niyogis tradition: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere", the CMM has been actively participating in the struggle of 7 villages of Rajnandgaon against the forcible acquisition of their lands for a SIZ -Food Park; protested against the arrests of Adivasi Mahasabha leaders and peasants in their agitation against land acquisition by Tata and Essar; demonstrated against the deaths of workmen in a factory explosion in Godavari Ispat Factory at Urla etc. etc... and is active in the movement for the release of Dr Binayak Sen and the repeal of the black law: Chhattisgarh Special Public Safety Act (CSPSA).Its cultural wing is taking the story of the 1857 adivasi hero Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh to village after village and trying to build upon the rich progressive folk culture of Chhattisgarh.Recently irked by the vocal protest of the CMM agaisnt the violent widespread displacement of lakhs of adivasis in Bastar in the name of Salwa Judum and also against the atrocities of police and paramilitary, the DGP had issued a statement "Niyogi was a Naxalite", a not-so-veiled threat that CMM activists would be booked under the CSPSA.There was a strong protest demonstration against this on 7 April 2008with CMM activists saying openly "Shaheed Niyogi was a declared Marxist-Leninist and if the sacrifices he made for the working class made him a Naxalite, then we are too!" Unionising in these tough times of "free hand to industrialists", "hire and fire economic regime" and "militarised state", demands a high level of integrity commitment and political maturity from the leadership.Developing committee system at all levels of the organisation to allow for the most democratic participation and carrying out incessant struggle through this against the efforts of the industrialists to terrorise, buy off, or sweet talk the leaders is a big challenge and CMM can proudly say that it is carrying out this democratic exercise with vigour. On 1st July there will be a procession and public meeting at the site of the police firing namely Bhilai Powerhouse, about 40 km from Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh. The nearest railway station is Durg. All are welcome to stay in our union office and partake of the modest working class fare in the common mess. Please contact 0788-3205766, 09754777988 (kaladas, bansi); 09826689317 (kalyan patel); 09926603877 (sudha); We look forward to your active participation: Sudha Bharadwaj (advsudhacmm at yahoo.co.in) C/o CMM Office, Labour Camp, Jamul, Bhilai, Chhattisgarh. From mail at shivamvij.com Thu Jun 19 22:00:09 2008 From: mail at shivamvij.com (=?UTF-8?Q?Shivam_Vij?= =?UTF-8?Q?_=E0=A4=B6=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=AE?= =?UTF-8?Q?=E0=A5=8D_=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=9C=E0=A5=8D?=) Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2008 22:00:09 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again In-Reply-To: References: <9c06aab30806170733t48302bablf56c69c6427f5b82@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <9c06aab30806190930u20fc56efj5ba9a21f72994fa8@mail.gmail.com> Dear Radhikarajen, Your responses on this thread are a little intriguing, and I wonder if you would mind explaining them? Let us go point-by-point, so that you can also reply point by point. This will prevent us from meandering from, well, the point, either inadvertently or because of deliberate shifting of goal-posts. The post: Two days ago I posted an article written by Ashis Nandy in the Times of India in January. I mentioned why I was posting the article though not my views: a little known organisation in Ahemadabad has filed a police case against Nandy for "'promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth and language," which under the Indian Penal Code is a criminal offence. The protest: I gave out a link to a joint statement made in protest of this case by 178 academics and activists, who thought that this was done for no reason other than legal harassment and intimidation. The article: In the article Ashis Nandy wrote that even if Modi had lost the December 2007 elections, it wouldn't have made a difference because thanks to the Gujarati middle class, the political culture of Gujarat has been communalised to an extent that "recovering" it won't be easy. For the situation he blames Hindus and Muslims, Congress and Left, NGOs and Gandhians. And secularists. That is all. On Modi, Bajrang Dal, VHP, RSS, the Gujarat government - he just says things matter of fact and does not have much direct condemnation or criticism to offer. His aim is not to attack them but those who should be helping defuse the social and political crisis cause d by the Hindutva forces. He does blame them for being the cause of exacerbating "radical Islam" in India. On development: he is not denying Gujarat's "spectacular development" but linking it to historical examples where development and authoritarianism have gone hand in hand. Your first response: In your first response you make these points: 1) " it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis at the drop of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is administrator and chief minister with the difference of of governance of all in the same state without favour or fear as per the oath he has taken to administer the state." Now, as I paraphrased above, Nandy's article is not denying the qualities you attribute to Modi's administrative skills and governance. And he has found faults in many others but very few in Modi. In fact, none in Modi: it is the Sangh Parivar in general. So what you are doing is, creating a straw man [ http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/straw-man.html ]. You are representing Nandy as saying he never did, and then attacking him for saying something he never did! 2) "Times of India and its media group is owned by Bennet group which traditionally has been political and supporting sycophants of Congress and media generally feels if it has to be "secular" it has to bash hindu sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times group is never fair and free in its journalism" Having created your straw man and having attacked it, you begin to explain it. You explain it by attacking the newspaper where Nandy's article was published. Since the pro-Congress Times of India published this article, the article must also be pro-Congress. How does it matter that the article actually *attacks* the Congress! By doing so you are committing the logical fallacy of post hoc: http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/post-hoc.html Also the fallacy of circumstantial ad hominem: http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/circumstantial-ad-hominem.html The tone of the issue was the harassment of Nandy by legal means, but you shift it to The Times of India and its alleged biases, which, as Shuddha said, amount to a red herring: http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/red-herring.html As Shuddha demonstrated, there's been no dearth of pro-Modi, pro-BJP articles in Times of India. The Times is not politically aligned like, say, The Pioneer, The Hindu, the recently buried National Herald, or even magazines such as India Today or Outlook. You are guilty of making a hasty generalisation about the paper, and on that basis applying it to Nandy just because the paper published Nandy's article on its opinion-editorial page. See http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/hasty-generalization.html Also, similarly, the fallacy of questionable cause: http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ignoring-a-common-cause.html Please also note that newspapers don't have TRP ratings, and that if most people in Gujarat vote for Modi, publishing anti-Modi articles would affect the Times of India's circulation in Gujarat adversely, not positively. 3) "and its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and pritish is no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest in journalism by sycophancy" This is my favourite set of words in your response. Your attention span and presence of mind are both so feeble that you confused Ashis Nandy with one pritish! The article was not by pritish my dear Radhikarajen, but by Ashis! Factual error! You cannot even save face on this by claiming poor eyesight or broken glasses, because there's no way 'Ashis' could read like 'pritish', even though Gujarat could read like Gujarath :) And as you might now Ashis Nandy is a scholar at CSDS and not an employee of The Times of India. The article introduced him as a political psychologist, so he is clearly not a journalist, but this detail was mentioned at the end of the article which you didn't even glance carefully enough to realise which brother wrote it. If you read the article you would realise that it does not amount to sycophancy of anyone, but, as Shuddha said, takes on *everyone*. I presume that you thought the article was by Pritish Nandy [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pritish_Nandy ] but even he is not an employee of the Times of India or a journalist. He is a former editor who also happens to be related to Ashis Nandy. By calling Pritish Nandy a sycophant for an article he did not write, you are committing a personal attack [ http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/personal-attack.html ] I presume, with all the above evidence, that you did not even *read* the Nandy article and began to attack it. No wonder about the straw man then. I am not going to count and cite the number of logical fallacies you make by calling pritish a sycophant, attributing the motive of surviving in journalism to his sycophancy, and presuming that The Times of India bosses are his bosses, who are pro-Congress, and so therefore is Pritish. a) He is not pritish b) He is not a journalist, so he does not have to 'survive in journalism' c) He is therefore not forced to resort to sycophancy of anyone to 'survive in journalism' d) He does not work at The Times of India, he merely wrote an article for the paper, which they either commissioned or chose to publish. His bosses are not The Times of India's bosses but CSDS'. e) You have stated without evidence that The Times of India is pro-Congress but even if that were to be considered a proven fact, it does not by implication mean that all their employees are Congress sycophants, and even if it did it wouldn't make Nandy do so because he is not a Times employee, and in any case the article itself speaks against the Congress. * That is just the first paragraph - 144 words - of your response. All the 245 words in the second paragraph amount to red herring(s) but I would repond to the points raised therein as well, if you respond to my three points above. Please reply, as I said, point by point, to make it comprehensible. And do read Nandy's short article, it is interesting. I will soon find the time to similarly analyse your response to Shuddha's response. Looking forward to your response. best shivam On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 5:23 PM, wrote: > > Dear Shuddha, > > sometimes I wonder whether any ethics and morals are left in these neo journalists who are working in visual media as anchors. ? As they so fluently talk about the IG of police as if they are above the law when they comment on the character of the 14 year child, as if these anchors are living a clean life.? > > And at times I wonder what made a brilliant social scientist to become a puppet in the hands of a channel with so many if and buts added for his pre poll survey in channel degrading himself along with channel and loss of credibilty.! > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Shuddhabrata Sengupta > Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 4:33 pm > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net > Cc: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् , sarai list > > > Dear Radhikarajen, > > > > Thank you for your pertinent critique on the Sarai Reader List of > > the > > way in which the media represents issues, particularly with regard > > to > > the murder of Hemraj Banjade and Arushi Talwar in NOIDA. I think > > that > > your thoughts on 'media trials' are salutary. Had newspapers and TV > > > > channels been more restrained in the matter of the way in which > > they > > report 'sensational' crimes, then the grave and malicious > > harrassment > > that had been the fate of S.A.R.Geelani in the '13 December' case > > might not have taken place. And nor would there have been currency > > for the hysterical and blood-thirsty demand for the execution of > > Muhammad Afzal Guru, which continues to beseige our consciousness > > today. I do hope that you, in the spirit of your own argument, will > > > > join me in condemning the irresponsible behaviour of much of the > > media in these instances. > > > > Having said that, I am a bit mystified by your anger against the > > condemnation of the strange attempt at filing a case on grounds of > > > > 'promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, > > race, place of birth and language' 'under Sections 153 A and B of > > the > > IPC against Ashis Nandy for his op-ed piece 'Blame the Middle > > Class' > > in the Times of India of January 8, 2008. Ashis Nandy is, in my > > opinion, one of the most acute analysts of political culture and > > modernity in South Asia. It is ironic that a person, who has > > maintained a life time of critique against the excesses of the > > state- > > secularist agenda in India, (for which he was at times unfairly and > > > > idiotically denounced as an apolgist of the hindu right by some un- > > intelligent so called 'left-liberal' critics) is someone you now > > are > > prepared to argue against, merely because he happens to have taken > > on > > the poster boy of hindutva hate-mongering, the chief minister of > > Gujarat, Narendra Damodarbhai Modi. To be fair to Nandy, there is > > no > > particular group that escapes the sharp edge of his sadness in his > > article on Gujarat. His words (in this particular article) > > criticize > > the actions done by people speaking in the name of Bengali Hindus, > > Kashmiri Muslims, Punjabi Sikhs, Non Resident Indians, Dalits and > > Adivasis and most of all - the middle classes. If all these kinds > > of > > people were to be united because they were all attacked by Ashis > > Nandy, then, we would see a rare example of the promotion of > > conviviality between groups that are otherwise expected to be at > > each > > others throats. Unfortunately, for you, and for the petitioner > > belonging to the Ahmedabad based National Council for Civil > > Liberties, there is as yet no provision in the the Indian Penal > > Code > > for the offense of the promotion of conviviality on grounds of > > religion, race, place of birth and language. > > . > > I find it equally strange that you should impute the sentiments and > > > > the analysis contained in Nandy's trenchant criticque of Moditva, > > (or > > should it be Moditude, or Modismo) to the antipathy of the Bennet > > Coleman Group, who happen to own the majority shares of the Times > > of > > India newspaper, and their so called pro Congress bias. It is > > instructive to do a careful analysis of the press that Modi and > > Modismo get in the Times of India's sister publication, the > > Economic > > Times, (which for my money, is the more serious of the two > > publications, the one that actually gets read by captains of > > industry > > and politics, not one that teenagers decorate their lockers with > > because it has scantily clad men and women, the publication of > > images > > of which, you will no doubt agree, is the primary reason for the > > Times of India to exist.) > > > > Now, were you to look at the Economic Times reportage of Modi, > > Modismo and Gujarat, you would find a glowing picture that would > > warm > > your hearts. All you (and everyone who is interested on this list) > > needs to do is to type Narendra Modi on the search bar of the > > Economic Times home page, and you will be showered by what looks > > like > > a public relations campaign for Gujarati Asmita and Modismo. > > > > You will find articles such as - > > > > Rajiv Gandhi Foundation finds Gujarat No 1 state > > > > Chairman of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani, today hailed > > Gujarat > > Chief Minister Narendra Modi saying that he has a "bias" for action. > > > > And there are many more where these came from. > > > > Even your own pet hate, the Times of India, has articles such as > > 'Women Mesmerised by Narendra Modi' > > > > What are we to make of this, other than that this is but an > > instance > > of the totally commonplace practice of a media group trying to > > placate all sides. So damn Modi in one article in one publication > > that you own, and then praise him to the skies in another. A > > detailed > > analysis of the politics of who reports what about whom, and when, > > in > > the Indian media can be an entertaining, and instructive diversion. > > > > What, however, are we to make of your own pathological anxiety > > whenever Shri Narendra Damodarbhai Modi is criticised ? You have > > (again) neatly sidestepped the substance of Ashis Nandy's critique > > and taken us on the pursuit of the red herring of the Times of > > India's pro-Congress bias, which for you, explains everything that > > there is to understand about what Ashis Nandy has written. Take a > > break from the computer, and go take a long look at the mirror, and > > > > you will see the visage of that same middle class Indian, quick to > > fume, quick to claim an injury to your precious pride, quick to > > demand that the slate be cleaned of all 'others', and short, > > tragically, comically short on anything like the ability to reflect > > > > on the tightening limits of the sources of your self. > > > > I sympathise with your predicament. It must be really hard, and > > sad, > > to be you. > > > > regards > > > > Shuddha > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > media trials of this sort were > > On 18-Jun-08, at 2:02 PM, radhikarajen at vsnl.net wrote: > > > > > Hi all, > > > > > > it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis at the > > drop > > > of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is > > > administrator and chief minister with the difference of of > > > governance of all in the same state without favour or fear as per > > > > > the oath he has taken to administer the state. Times of India and > > > > > its media group is owned by Bennet group which traditionally has > > > been political and supporting sycophants of Congress and media > > > generally feels if it has to be "secular" it has to bash hindu > > > sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times group is > > never > > > fair and free in its journalism and always favoured Congress and > > > its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and pritish is > > > > > no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest in > > journalism > > > by sycophancy. > > > > > > The worst part of it is this "secular"media can not digest the > > > > > fact that hindu society is slowly and steadily getting out of > > caste > > > conundrums and beginning to gel as one homogeneous society, while > > > > > muslim community is being systematically divided by christian > > > missions to achieve its divide and rule game, into smaller forms > > of > > > shias, sunnis and other denominations with terror as subtextt > > just > > > as the vote banks are getting divided between good governance and > > > > > sycophancy and secular media keeps on playing old footage of > > > "carnages so that they remain in the ghettos and wounds are never > > > > > allowed to heal.The ultimate goal of Sonia and her mafia is to > > > divided and rule with rome as its remote control which hindus > > have > > > understood except for a few handful of sycophants in Congress of > > > all faiths who have no mass base or electoral prospects and have > > to > > > live on doleouts of the mafia queen. These along with christian > > > mafia in the kitchen cabinet have used all those "journalists" > > and > > > "int > > > ellectuals" of modern day to devise the spins to bring back the > > old > > > lost horse of Congress in new avtar as christian brigade for the > > > crusade, while in comity of nations it is seen that Bush uses- > > the > > > terror and weapons of mass destruction as excuses to bring in his > > > > > form of democracy in the nations of muslim faith, first by attack > > > > > of shia dominated Afghanistan and then on Iraq for the imaginary > > > weapons of mass destruction.?---- Original Message ----- > > > From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् > > > Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 8:04 pm > > > Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > > > To: sarai list > > > > > >> An organisation in Ahemdabad called National Council for Civil > > >> Liberties has filed a case against Ashis Nandy for his article > > in The > > >> Times of India in January after Modi's election victory. The > > case has > > >> been filed for for 'promoting enmity between different groups on > > >> grounds of religion, race, place of birth and language' > > [Sections 153 > > >> (A) and (B) of IPC]. > > >> > > >> 178 academics and intellectuals have signed a statement in protest, > > >> which is available at > > >> http://www.sacw.net/FreeExpAndFundos/defendNandy16June08.html > > >> > > >> Given below is the 'offending' article: > > >> > > >> o o o > > >> > > >> > > >> Blame The Middle Class > > >> > > >> By Ashis Nandy > > >> 8 Jan 2008 > > >> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/ > > >> LEADER_ARTICLE_Blame_The_Middle_Class/rssarticleshow/2681517.cms > > >> > > >> Now that the dust has settled over the Gujarat elections, we can > > >> afford to defy the pundits and admit that, even if Narendra Modi > > had>> lost the last elections, it would not have made much > > difference to > > >> the > > >> culture of Gujarat politics. Modi had already done his job. Most of > > >> the state's urban middle class would have remained mired in its > > inane>> versions of communalism and parochialism and the VHP and > > the Bajrang > > >> Dal would have continued to set the tone of state politics. Forty > > >> years of dedicated propaganda does pay dividends, electorally and > > >> socially. > > >> > > >> The Hindus and the Muslims of the state — once bonded so > > >> conspicuously > > >> by language, culture and commerce — have met the demands of both > > > > >> V D > > >> Savarkar and M A Jinnah. They now face each other as two hostile > > >> nations. The handful of Gujarati social and political activists who > > >> resist the trend are seen not as dissenters but as treacherous > > >> troublemakers who should be silenced by any means, including > > >> surveillance, censorship and direct violence. As a result, Gujarati > > >> cities, particularly its educational institutions are turning > > >> cultural > > >> deserts. Gujarat has already disowned the Indian Constitution > > and the > > >> state apparatus has adjusted to the change. > > >> > > >> The Congress, the main opposition party, has no effective > > leader. Nor > > >> does it represent any threat to the mainstream politics of Gujarat. > > >> The days of grass-roots leaders like Jhinabhai Darji are past > > and a > > >> large section of the party now consists of Hindu nationalists. The > > >> national leadership of the party does not have the courage to > > >> confront > > >> Modi over 2002, given its abominable record of 1984. > > >> > > >> The Left is virtually non-existent in Gujarat. Whatever minor > > >> presence > > >> it once had among intellectuals and trade unionists is now a vague > > >> memory. The state has disowned Gandhi, too; Gandhian politics > > arouses>> derision in middle-class Gujarat. Except for a few > > valiant old- > > >> timers, > > >> Gandhians have made peace with their conscience by withdrawing from > > >> the public domain. Gandhi himself has been given a saintly, Hindu > > >> nationalist status and shelved. Even the Gujarati translations > > of his > > >> Complete Works have been stealthily distorted to conform to the > > Hindu>> nationalist agenda. > > >> > > >> Gujarati Muslims too are "adjusting" to their new station. Denied > > >> justice and proper compensation, and as second-class citizens in > > > > >> their > > >> home state, they have to depend on voluntary efforts and donor > > >> agencies. The state's refusal to provide relief has been partly > > >> met by > > >> voluntary groups having fundamentalist sympathies. They supply > > aid > > >> but > > >> insist that the beneficiaries give up Gujarati and take to Urdu, > > > > >> adopt > > >> veil, and send their children to madrassas. Events like the > > >> desecration of Wali Gujarati's grave have pushed one of India's > > >> culturally richest, most diverse, vernacular Islamic traditions > > to > > >> the > > >> wall. Future generations will as gratefully acknowledge the sangh > > >> parivar's contribution to the growth of radical Islam in India > > as > > >> this > > >> generation remembers with gratitude the handsome contribution of > > > > >> Rajiv > > >> Gandhi and his cohorts to Sikh militancy. > > >> > > >> The secularist dogma of many fighting the sangh parivar has not > > >> helped > > >> matters. Even those who have benefited from secular lawyers and > > >> activists relate to secular ideologies instrumentally. They neither > > >> understand them nor respect them. The victims still derive > > solace > > >> from > > >> their religions and, when under attack, they cling more > > passionately>> to faith. Indeed, shallow ideologies of secularism > > have > > >> simultaneously > > >> broken the back of Gandhism and discouraged the emergence of > > figures>> like Ali Shariatis, Desmond Tutus and the Dalai Lama — > > persons > > >> who can > > >> give suffering a new voice audible to the poor and the powerless > > and>> make a creative intervention possible from within worldviews > > >> accessible to the people. > > >> > > >> Finally, Gujarat's spectacular development has underwritten the > > >> de-civilising process. One of the worst-kept secrets of our > > times is > > >> that dramatic development almost always has an authoritarian tail. > > >> Post-World War II Asia too has had its love affair with > > developmental>> despotism and the censorship, surveillance and > > thought control > > >> that go > > >> with it. The East Asian tigers have all been maneaters most of the > > >> time. Gujarat has now chosen to join the pack. Development in the > > >> state now justifies amorality, abridgement of freedom, and > > >> collapse of > > >> social ethics. > > >> > > >> Is there life after Modi? Is it possible to look beyond the 35 > > years>> of rioting that began in 1969 and ended in 2002? Prima > > facie, the > > >> answer is "no". We can only wait for a new generation that will, > > out>> of sheer self-interest and tiredness, learn to live with each > > other.>> In the meanwhile, we have to wait patiently but not > > passively to keep > > >> values alive, hoping that at some point will come a modicum of > > >> remorse > > >> and a search for atonement and that ultimately Gujarati traditions > > >> will triumph over the culture of the state's urban middle class. > > >> > > >> Recovering Gujarat from its urban middle class will not be easy. > > The>> class has found in militant religious nationalism a new self- > > respect>> and a new virtual identity as a martial community, the > > way Bengali > > >> babus, Maharashtrian Brahmins and Kashmiri Muslims at different > > times>> have sought salvation in violence. In Gujarat this class > > has smelt > > >> blood, for it does not have to do the killings but can plan, > > finance>> and coordinate them with impunity. The actual killers are > > the lowest > > >> of the low, mostly tribals and Dalits. The middle class controls > > the>> media and education, which have become hate factories in > > recent > > >> times. > > >> And they receive spirited support from most non-resident Indians > > who,>> at a safe distance from India, can afford to be more > > nationalist,>> bloodthirsty, and irresponsible. > > >> > > >> [The writer is a political psychologist.] From pawan.durani at gmail.com Thu Jun 19 23:51:27 2008 From: pawan.durani at gmail.com (Pawan Durani) Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:51:27 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Info : Wandhama Massacre Message-ID: <6b79f1a70806191121o23e40af5k975189d41bfd9b65@mail.gmail.com> http://thekashmir.wordpress.com/2008/06/15/wandhama-massacre-the-forgotten-human-tragedy/ From shuddha at gmail.com Wed Jun 18 16:47:15 2008 From: shuddha at gmail.com (Shuddhabrata Sengupta) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:47:15 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Blood in the Water Message-ID: <162BD66F-45B9-472A-89B2-0EF1D12DC4DC@gmail.com> Dear All, A friend forward this article, published recently in the Asian Sentinel, to me recently. I think that it introduces an element, control of water and natural resources, that are actually key to an understanding of how conflicts such as Kashmir get played out. In the longer term, these issues may be far more significant than the issues of ethnic and religious identity. it is a pity, that whenever the question of say Kashmir, comes up, or whenever the issue of Bangladeshi migrants to India rears its head, all that everyone wants to talk about is the 'identity' issue, what gets left behind is thought about things like water. Ask a Bangladeshi immigrant to Delhi about what drove him to cross so many miles of hazardous territory, and the chances are, that if you are prepared to pay attention, he or she will have something to say about floods, and the lethality of rivers, and the rising sea. I know many people who are ambivalent about their identities, but I have yet to come across a person who does not feel thirsty. Given that water is so important to our survival and life, it is a sad travesty that we pay it so little attention when it comes to politics. We wouldn't be around to protect our identities and our nationalities if we could not drink water, or did not have the guarantee that our homes would not be flooded, year after year. regards Shuddha ------------------ http://asiasentinel.com/index.php? option=com_content&task=view&id=1269&Itemid=31 Blood in Kashmir's Water Sankar Ray 18 June 2008 A decades-old competition for water complicates the already-bitter relationship between India and her neighbors Water is destined to be a determining factor in the regional conflicts of South Asia in the years to come, particularly between India and Pakistan. Unquestionably one of the most crucial of environmental resources, this essential ingredient for human life is growing so scarce in some areas globally that if current trends continue, two-thirds of humanity will suffer "moderate to severe water stress" within 30 years, according to a comprehensive assessment of freshwater resources by the United Nations. Nowhere is this truer, however, than in the parched regions of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, where overpopulation, poverty and scarce resources make the competition more acute. In a remarkably even- handed paper published in a recent issue of the Journal of International Affairs, Saleem H. Ali, associate professor of Environmental Policy and Planning, at the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources of the University of Vermont in the US, identifies the lack of environmental cooperation in bilateral and multilateral relations as the root cause of a potential conflict "between two nuclear neighbours, India and Pakistan, predicated in a history of religious rivalries and post-colonial demarcation." The Pakistani scholar urges India and Pakistan to put aside their mutual distrust to reconfigure the riparian issues for lasting piece in the region, their inveterate, decades-old antagonism notwithstanding, and concentrate on a matter of equal importance to their survival of each country. Ali praises the World Bank's "instrumental role in its negotiation during the height of the Cold War to bring the two countries to the negotiating table with the Indus Water Treaty after bilateral negotiations failed. The outcome of this historic treaty was the unrestricted use by India of the three eastern rivers, the Ravi, Sutlej and Beas and complete control of the three western rivers, the Jhelum, Chenab and Indus by Pakistan. The rivers all have their origin in the bitterly disputed region of Kashmir. And thus, theoretically whoever controls Kashmir controls the rivers, a fact conveniently forgotten for years as Pakistan and India tested each other's mettle in a series of wars. The Pakistani Prime Minister, Hussain Suhrwardy, in 1958 pointed to the geographical importance of Kashmir when he emphasized the importance of the six rivers of the Indus Basin. "Most of them rise in Kashmir. One of the reasons why, therefore, that Kashmir is so important for us is this water, these waters which irrigate our lands," Suhrwardy said at the time. He proved himself a prophet. The only other international statesman who thought along the same lines was the British Premier, Anthony Eden, who believed that the resolution of the water dispute would reduce the tension over Kashmir, hence the Indus Water Treaty. India denied the link between Kashmir and the water issue, however, a denial that has contributed to the growing resentment between the two countries, and an amazing one given reality. The head of the Indus flows through the valley corridor that connects Indian and Pakistani- held Kashmir. Further south India has been engaged in a running dispute with Bangladesh over the Farakka Barrage over the River Ganges since 1973. This project involved a dam built on the Ganges in West Bengal, about 10 kilometers from the Bangladesh border. Bangladeshi objections that the project would seriously affect the country's water supply have proved correct. Falling water levels below the dam have raised salinity levels, affecting fisheries and hindering navigation. Falling soil moisture levels have also also led to desertification. Ali firmly believes that "environmental factors can play a pivotal role since they help link various issues such as economic development and security." He points out that, "states that are ecologically vulnerable to extreme climatic events, such as Bangladesh, are recognizing that poor environmental planning in coastal areas can have devastating economic impacts". "I have long been criticizing the brazenly reactionary promotion of water disputes among Indian states by the political parties in power," said Surajit Guha, the former deputy-director general of the Geological Survey of India and one of India's top hydrologists "It may not be confined within the Indian territory. The Farakka impasse is a clear evidence of this. Have you seen European countries through which the mighty River Danube flows engaging themselves in dispute over sharing of water during the last one hundred years? I do not know why water is increasingly politicized when most of the peoples of SAARC region are deprived of access to safe and potable water." While the west is busy concentrating its efforts on securing a ready supply of oil, in South Asia the governments are slowly but surely waking up to the fact that in the not too distant future water is going to be equally, if not more important to the survival of their people. Shuddhabrata Sengupta shuddha at gmail.com From taraprakash at gmail.com Thu Jun 19 23:59:57 2008 From: taraprakash at gmail.com (TaraPrakash) Date: Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:29:57 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] From Daily Telegraph: Punjabi novel "Bhau" References: <9c06aab30806170733t48302bablf56c69c6427f5b82@mail.gmail.com> <9c06aab30806190930u20fc56efj5ba9a21f72994fa8@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <02af01c8d23a$7a1d8430$befdbd48@taraprakash> Hi all. Does anyone have any idea if any English translation of this novel is available now? Surjeet-Karat spat? It’s fiction OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT New Delhi, June 3: None of this ever took place, you must first understand. Now read on. It’s election time in 2004. A Sikh Marxist helps “Madam” cobble together a coalition to keep the Hindu nationalists out of power. But the aged Marxist general secretary has serious differences with his would-be successor, a hard-line communist whose wife is eyeing a politburo berth. Surely Harkishen Singh Surjeet, before he stepped down as CPM general secretary, didn’t get a hard time from Prakash Karat? Of course not: any resemblance to living people is merely coincidental, says Darshan Singh, author of the just-released Punjabi novel, Bhaau (Elder Brother). Just as coincidental as the 80-year-old author’s allegedly long acquaintance with Surjeet, 92, who was discharged from hospital today after a long illness. “It’s fiction,” Singh told The Telegraph. But aren’t the similarities with Surjeet, the Karats and Sonia too overwhelming? “It’s a work of fiction in Punjabi,” Darshan repeated before hanging up. Rohit Jain, spokesman for Unistar Books Pvt Ltd, the Chandigarh-based publisher, said there was no English edition yet. “We released the book two weeks ago. The first edition has 500 copies — the standard number for most Punjabi books.” Bhau describes the “fictional” events of 10 weeks in 2004 — starting just before a “fictional” election and ending with the appointment of a Prime Minister — as seen by the protagonist, Karam Singh Kirti. Kirti, the Sikh Marxist, skilfully handles conflicting views in his party and regularly advises a “European lady”, referred to as “Madam”, who heads one of the election’s leading parties. The book describes Kirti’s differences with the then shadow general secretary, “PR”. It’s clear that the author doesn’t have much love for PR or his ambitious wife. Nor does he hold any brief for this man Salve, from a sugar mill-dotted region of Maharashtra, who has the gall to question Madam’s Indianness. And oh, another coincidence: Kirti’s party is stuffed with Bengalis and Malayalis. The publishers said Singh worked in the Soviet embassy’s publications division several decades ago when he came into contact with Surjeet. They apparently kept in touch, though the author wouldn’t give details. Bhau is his fifth novel; the plot of the fourth followed poet-novelist Amrita Pritam’s life rather closely. Some CPM leaders said they had heard about the book but hadn’t read it since no English translation is available. Top party leaders were not available for comments. “I haven’t seen the book,” party MP Hannan Mollah said. From kj.impulse at gmail.com Wed Jun 18 18:55:12 2008 From: kj.impulse at gmail.com (Kavita Joshi) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:55:12 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [DFA NewsLetter] Fwd: You're invited: Kriti Film Club Screening/ 21st June, Saturday/ 5.30 pm In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <821019d70806180625m3167fdf2vb46337452f66ac9c@mail.gmail.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: aanchal kapur aanchal_kapur at hotmail.com *KRITI FILM CLUB * *invites you to the screening of two films that speak of and show how our capital city, Delhi is changing!* ** Date: *21st June, Saturday* Time: 5.30 pm onwards Venue: S-35 Tara Apartments, Alaknanda (near Greater Kailash II), New Delhi 110019 Phone: +91-11-26027845/ 26033088 Email: space.kriti at gmail.com *Dunu Roy would join us for the discussions on the films.* ** *Open for all but do try and confirm so we can keep enough kullad wali chai and namkeen for you!* ** *Baarah Mann Ki Dhuban* *(English / 17 mins / 20007 / Delhi / Ms. Vrinda Kapoor & Nitesh Bhatia)* * * This film revolves around the bioscope as a means of livelihood in Delhi and the prevailing conditions of the community of bioscope workers. It also tells a brief history of bioscope and that it was the first form of moving pictures in India. The film tends to highlight the present decline of the bioscope workers in Delhi and the role of the authorities like NDMC, police officials and NGOs on them. Finally it also infuses array of hope for the bioscope by giving knowledge of electronic bioscope to the audience and the role of certain NGOs in its promotion indirectly. It also highlights the enthusiasm of the few existing bioscope workers in the instrument who consider it as a unique and interesting art form. *NEW DELHI Pvt. Ltd.* *(Hindi & English / 37 mins / **2006** / **Delhi** / Mr. Ravinder S Randhawa)* An attempt to capture the city of Delhi as it gets systematically refashioned to become a world class space, a productive site of neo-liberal regime. Urban scape is being reconfigured to facilitate entry and transaction of global capital, most emphatically visible in the proliferation of giant transnational corporations, ostentatious malls, high rise housing and commercial centers, expensive metros and flyovers. As the space gets takeover, it has to be thoroughly and urgently purged of those who have toiled to built it, thereby resulting in rampant and brutal destruction of their shelter and livelihood, this process is systematically being planned in the larger framework provided by the neo-liberal regime, and executed by the state-judiciary nexus. What emerges is a desirable, commodified, privatized, cordoned city space that comes at a 'cost' and therefore only for those who can 'afford' it. *The Film Club *We offer an independent and informal space for screening documentary & mainstream films as well as slide shows, on a whole range of issues connected with development, human rights & social attitudes/ trends once a month. We also serve as a borrowing & buying space for documentary films. Consistently screening films since 1999 in New Delhi, non-funded and existing on our audiences' contribution into our 'gullak' (collection box)! *http://krititeam.blogspot.com* These films were part of Jeevika South Asian Livelihood Film Festival 2007. Look out for the next Jeevika festival between August 28-31, 2008 in New Delhi. www.ccs.in - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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.google.com/group/delhifilmarchive Our WEBSITE: www.delhifilmarchive.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~--- From laa.gallery at inMail24.com Thu Jun 19 01:42:11 2008 From: laa.gallery at inMail24.com (LAA Gallery) Date: Wed, 18 Jun 2008 23:12:11 +0300 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Lebanon Now - New Media Art Exhibition. OUVERTURE : Vendredi 20 Juin a 18h a la galerie LAA - Verdun. Message-ID: <3814-22008631820121193@3D> FRANCAIS CI-DESSOUS ------------------------------ "Lebanon Now" New Media Art Exhibition From 21 to 30 June 2008 Between 11 am and 7 pm (except Sundays) Opening : Friday 20 June at 6 pm LAA Gallery Al Wagf Addurzi Bldg. 2nd floor Verdun Street. Beirut Information: Suzanne Khairallah Mobile : +961 3 756 404 Email : lbaaps at gmail.com The Association of Lebanese Artists presents « Lebanon Now », the art exhibition of the new media. Sponsored by USAID, this exhibition shows works done with the latest technological means. These works question Lebanon today, which is more disconcerting and intriguing than ever. The artists experiment with the binary code and look at Information and Communication Technology from a new perspective. There is no doubt that the sociocultural and the sociopolitical are featured. The artists « tell » their Lebanon through the elements of their numerical world, i.e. images, sound, and words. This event transposes the observer (turned into user) into a new esthetic experiment. It is the long-awaited occasion both by the artists and an art (and technology)-loving public to experience together a form of contemporary art involving not only the observer but also an important team of scientists and computer engineers without whom the new media art would simply be disembodied. The participating artists: Jean-Louis Eddé and Hayla Saab Demelero Type of work: Telepresence device Title: Message not delivered © 2008 Through their « Message not delivered », the two artists build a representation of themselves in society, where elements from their respective lives in relation with their real-life experiences are featured. They deal with the issues of immigration and long-distance relationships through a telepresence system. Charbel Haber and Yara Raffoul Type of work: Audio website Title: 6 O’clock © 2003 The work of these two artists is defined as a leisurely walk that can be perceived in two manners. On the one hand it is a graphic and visual stroll accompanied by music, noises, and sound patches. This same road can also be perceived in the opposite direction: it is the graphic that represents the music. This walk remains a free walk of traditional page layout, proportion, typography, and even readability. Mansour El-Habre Type of work: Experimental website Title: How he lost his right hand finger © 2008 Mansour El-Habre presents a website where the user browses around and collects elements aiming to answer the question: « What did he do to lose his right hand middle finger as a child? ». The reply is attained through a labyrinthine navigation that puts the user in front of numerous disturbing possibilities that question the reality of the civil war of 1975. Rabih Khalil Type of work: Internet Search Engine Title: Lebanon everywhere © 2008 The artist presents a Search Engine under the name “Lebanon everywhere”. It is a letter collector that searches exclusively for the letters composing the word “Lebanon”. In any text appearing on any website, the letters that constitute the word “Lebanon” are automatically selected, reassembled, and displayed. Ricardo Mbarkho Type of work: Digital images Title: Digital visuals from Lebanon © 2008 Ricardo Mbarkho presents « Digital visuals from Lebanon », a series of digital images printed on large format photo papers based on the numerous agreements signed by the Lebanese State since the independence of Lebanon. In order to obtain these images, the artist made the computer “believe” that the files containing the texts of these agreements are image files. The computer calculated the binary code of each text file and generated the corresponding image. The series comprises images of binary codes of texts such as: the Doha agreement, the Taef accord, the Lebanon-Syria Treaty of Brotherhood, Cooperation and Coordination, the tripartite agreement, the Cairo agreement, the national pact, the Lebanese constitution, as well as the word « Lebanon » itself. Nadia Oufrid Type of work: Online theatre Title: Dialogue © 2008 Nadia Oufrid presents an online play entitled « Dialogue ». Once the user is connected to the project’s website, he is greeted by two virtual actors on a virtual stage. They recite texts taken from two URL addresses randomly selected by the system. The user can change the URL addresses to his liking and therefore change the dialogue of the actors, as by drawing from various Lebanese sites (political, artistic, or other). The various emotions that characterize the lines are rendered by the tone of the voice, the noises, and the music. Shawki Youssef Type of work: Online interactive game Title: Construct Lebanon © 2008 Shawki Youssef’s project is an online game on the possibilities of a potential « construction » of Lebanon, based on the daily political speeches. The screen displays the pieces of a puzzle that constitutes the map of Lebanon. The player has to manually assemble the pieces, but his success depends on the choice of the “words” of politicians that are published in newspapers. Some “words” might lead the player to victory and end the game whereas others would lead to a higher difficulty level and thus extend the game’s duration. =========== FRANCAIS ------------- "Lebanon Now" New Media Art Exhibition Ouverture : vendredi, 20 juin, à 18h L’exposition continue du 21 au 30 juin 2008, de 11h à 19h (sauf les Dimanches) A la galerie LAA Imm. Al Wagf Addurzi. 2ème étage Rue Verdun. Beyrouth. Liban Informations : Suzanne Khairallah. Mobile : +961 3 756 404. Email : lbaaps at gmail.com L'Association des Artistes Libanais présente l’exposition « Lebanon Now » d’art des nouveaux médias. Cette exposition sponsorisée par USAID rassemble des œuvres réalisées grâce aux moyens techniques les plus avancés s'interrogent sur un Liban aujourd’hui plus déconcertant, plus intrigant que jamais. Les artistes se livrent à des expériences où le code binaire occupe le devant de la scène, où la Nouvelle Technologie de l’Information et de la Communication est vue autrement. Nul doute que le socioculturel ainsi que le sociopolitique sont à l’ordre du jour. Les artistes « disent » leur Liban à travers les éléments du monde numérique, à savoir les images, le son, et les mots. Cet événement transpose l’observateur (métamorphosé en utilisateur) dans une expérimentation esthétique nouvelle ; il est l’occasion tant attendue, aussi bien par les artistes que par un public qui aime l’art (et la technologie), pour expérimenter ensemble une forme de l’art contemporain où sont impliqués, non seulement l’observateur, mais également une importante équipe de scientifiques et d’ingénieurs informatiques sans lesquels l’art des nouveaux médias est simplement irréalisable. Les artistes participants : Jean-Louis Eddé et Hayla Saab Demelero Type du travail : Dispositif de télépresence Titre : Message not delivered © 2008 A travers leur « Message not delivered », les deux artistes construisent une représentation d’eux-mêmes dans la société, dans laquelle sont mis en scène des éléments de leurs vies respectives qui ont un sens par rapport à leur vécu. Par un système de téléprésence, ils traitent de la question de l’immigration et celle de la relation de couple à distance. Charbel Haber et Yara Raffoul Type du travail : Expérimentation multimédia en ligne Titre : 6 O'clock © 2003 Le travail de ces deux artistes se définit comme une balade qui peut être vue de deux manières. D'un côté, c'est une balade graphique et visuelle accompagnée de musique, de bruits, de nappes de son. Ce même parcours peut aussi être vu dans le sens inverse : c'est le graphisme qui figure, représente la musique. Cette balade reste une balade libre de mise en page traditionnelle, de proportion, de typographie et même de lisibilité. Mansour El-Habre Type du travail : Site Web expérimental Titre : How he lost his right hand finger © 2008 Haber présente un Site Web sur lequel l’utilisateur est invité à surfer afin de rassembler des éléments de réponse à la question : « Il a fait comment pour perdre le majeur de la main droite étant petit ? ». La réponse à cette question se fait par le biais d'une navigation labyrinthique qui met l’utilisateur face à de multiples possibilités dérangeantes qui remettent en cause la réalité de la guerre civile libanaise de 1975. Rabih Khalil Type du travail : Un moteur de recherche sur Internet Titre : Lebanon everywhere © 2008 L’artiste présente un moteur de recherche qu’il baptise « Lebanon everywhere ». C’est un collecteur de lettres, pour ainsi dire, qui cherche exclusivement les lettres composant le mot ''Lebanon''. Dans n’importe quel texte apparaissant dans n’importe quel Site Web choisi par l’utilisateur, les lettres constituant le mot ''Lebanon'' sont automatiquement sélectionnées, rassemblées et affichées. Ricardo Mbarkho Type du travail : Images numériques Titre : Digital visuals from Lebanon © 2008 Ricardo Mbarkho présente une série d’images numériques imprimées sur papiers photo grande taille. Elles sont faites à partir de multiples accords conclus par l’Etat libanais depuis l’indépendance du Liban jusqu’à nos jours. Pour avoir ces images, l’artiste a fait « croire » à l’ordinateur que les fichiers contenant les textes de ces accords sont bel et bien des fichiers images. L’ordinateur calcule ainsi le code binaire de chaque fichier texte pour en générer l’image équivalente. Dans la série, on trouve des images issues des codes binaires de textes comme : l'accord de Doha, l’accord de Taef, Lebanon-Syria Treaty of Brotherhood, Cooperation and Coordination, l’accord tripartite, l’accord du Caire, le pacte national, la constitution du Liban, ainsi que le mot « Lebanon » lui-même. Nadia Oufrid Type du travail : Théâtre en ligne Titre : Dialogue © 2008 Nadia Oufrid propose une pièce de théâtre en ligne intitulée « Dialogue ». Dès qu’on se connecte au site web du projet, se présentent à nous deux acteurs virtuels jouant sur un plateau virtuel. Ils récitent des textes tirés de deux adresses URL choisies aléatoirement par le système. L’internaute peut modifier à son gré les adresses URL et changer ainsi le dialogue des acteurs en puisant dans différents sites, par exemple des sites libanais à l’occasion de cette exposition (politiques, artistiques ou autres). Les diverses émotions dont sont chargées les répliques sont rendues par le ton de la voix, le bruitage et la musique. Shawki Youssef Type du travail : Jeu interactif en ligne Titre : Construct Lebanon © 2008 Le projet de Youssef est un jeu en ligne sur les possibilités d’une éventuelle « construction » du Liban, fondée sur le discours politique quotidien. Sur l’écran, s’affichent les pièces d'un puzzle constituant la carte du Liban. Le joueur devra rassembler manuellement les pièces mais le succès de la manœuvre dépend du choix des « mots » des leaders politiques libanais publiés dans les quotidiens. Quelques « mots » pourraient mener le joueur à la « victoire » et marquer la fin de la partie, tandis que d’autres déclencheraient le passage à un degré de difficulté supérieur, prolongeant ainsi la durée du jeu. ======== _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From anoopkheri at gmail.com Fri Jun 20 01:00:16 2008 From: anoopkheri at gmail.com (anoop kumar) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:00:16 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Insight Study Circle meeting (22nd June) on Women's Reservation Bill & Caste Discrimination in IIT Delhi Message-ID: Dear Friends, Jaibheem! *Insight Study Circle *invites you for a public talk on *22nd June* *(Sunday @ **10.30 AM- 1.30PM**)* on the following topics: - *Women's Reservation Bill * * * * * *Speakers:-* · Prof. Sushma Yadav (*Indian Institute of Public Administration*) · Prof. Nivedita Menon (*Delhi** **University*) *Caste Discrimination in IIT **Delhi** * * * * * *Speakers:**- * * * · Dalit students from IIT Delhi will share their experiences · Anoop Kumar will share the fact-finding report of Insight group on 'Caste Discrimination in IIT Delhi' * * *Venue*: - Room No- 304, Indian Social Institute (ISI), Lodi Road, New Delhi *Date*: - 22nd June (Sunday) *Time*: -* *10.30 am- 1.30 pm * * *---- Caste Discrimination in IIT **Delhi** ----* ** The hostility towards SC and ST students by the faculty members in higher educational institutions, especially in the professional institutions and the Sciences, has been 'legendary'. From not fulfilling the required quotas to harassing Dalit students for intruding and polluting these 'sacred' spaces- have been the hall-marks of their behaviours. In all the institutes of 'excellence', the question of merit has turned into blatant casteism, as faculty members believe that Dalit students are born inferior. SC/ST students' weak financial backgrounds and lack of English proficiency often become easy markers of their supposed inferiority. Coupled with this is a total lack of support systems within the Dalit community that can go a long way in preparing and equipping Dalit students to negotiate with such casteism. Recently, some of the Dalit students in IIT Delhi approached the SC Commission alleging discriminatory behaviour. The IIT faculty members, most of whom cancelled their classes to help 'upper' caste students to join anti-reservation agitations last year, try every means possible to demoralize Dalit students in order to punish them for their 'sin' of using reservation to gain admission. The suicides of Dalit students Senthil Kumar (University of Hyderabad), Ajay Sri Chandra (Indian Institute of Sciences, Bangalore), Jaspreet Singh (Government Medical College, Chandigarh) and Prof. Thorat Committee report on AIIMS provide us enough evidences of the kind of environment our campuses provide to the Dalit students. *--- Women's Reservation Bill ---* ** The Women's Reservation Bill has thrown significant questions on the state of democracy in India. The proponents of the Bill in the present form argue for reservation for the universal category- 'women', ignoring other axes of marginalization, like caste. The historical investigation of the debates surrounding women's reservation shows that neither the women's organizations nor the Left parties have been in favour of reservation of any kind! In fact, women's organizations have dismissed any reservation for women, saying, "We do not want to be likened to the Scheduled Castes"! It is, therefore, crucial that firstly, to contextualize the present debate surrounding the Bill in a historical perspective, and, secondly, to investigate how caste and gender interact with each other in the process of deepening democracy through reservation. Finally, the question of Dalit women's representation in Parliament has not been raised adequately by either the proponents of the Bill or by the Dalit movement. *We invite all of you to take part in an engaging discussion on the various aspects of the both the topics.* -- INSIGHT: YOUNG VOICES is an English bimonthly Dalit youth magazine. One of our prime objectives has been to create a platform for Dalit students and youth to share their views and to interact with scholars, academicians, activists and organizations working on the issues related with the Dalit community. Towards this, our study circle organizes meetings on any particular issue every month. We encourage young Dalit students/ researchers/ activists to share their work with us during the meetings of Study Circle. From rohitism at gmail.com Fri Jun 20 11:00:02 2008 From: rohitism at gmail.com (Rohit Shetti) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 11:00:02 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Bangalore in solidarity with Bhopal, Candle light vigil tomorrow 5.30 PM! In-Reply-To: <43923.23184.qm@web30704.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <43923.23184.qm@web30704.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: *Join us for the CANDLE-LIGHT VIGIL in Solidarity with the Bhopal Gas Survivors who are on an indefinite hunger fast since 10th June 2008 On 21st June 2008, 5.30 p.m. to 7 p.m. At the Gandhi Statue, M.G. Road * Background: At noon on June 10th, seven survivors of the 1984 Union Carbide gas disaster and current water poisoning, and two of their supporters, began an indefinite hunger strike in New Delhi, in average temperatures of 40-45 C. They are joined by Indra Sinha, author of Animal's people which was nominated for the Booker Prize fasting from France and several others across the world. This extreme decision is a last resort, taken after months of rigorous efforts to persuade Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to address the situation in Bhopal. Since February 20, 2008 – when 50 men, women and children set off on foot to cover the 500 miles from Bhopal to New Delhi – the Bhopalis have faced numerous hardships over more than one hundred days. They arrived in Delhi on 28 March and set up home on a small piece of footpath close to parliament. They've been arrested several times, twice for protesting in front of the Prime Minister's Residence. Finally, on June 2nd, the Prime Minister conveyed his "in principle" agreement to a National Commission on Bhopal. But like past-unfulfilled promises, neither details nor timelines were provided, no proper health care or clean water was guaranteed. On the second demand of holding Dow/Carbide liable, there is silence. On June 9th, in desperation, 33 women, children and three men lay on the ground outside the PM's office. After arrest, several of them, including 6 and 11 year old children, were beaten and verbally abused by the Delhi police. Come together with us on June 21st, to oppose state brutality and indifference against the victims of the world's worst industrial disaster. Be a part of the candle light vigil. Visit www.bhopal.net for complete coverage. For Details Contact: Lakshmi Premkumar - 9739359511 International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal From radhikarajen at vsnl.net Fri Jun 20 15:05:18 2008 From: radhikarajen at vsnl.net (radhikarajen at vsnl.net) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:35:18 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again In-Reply-To: <9c06aab30806190930u20fc56efj5ba9a21f72994fa8@mail.gmail.com> References: <9c06aab30806170733t48302bablf56c69c6427f5b82@mail.gmail.com> <"e4 73eba64e673.48590e73"@vsnl.net> <9c06aab30806190930u20fc56efj5ba9a21f72994fa8@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Dear Shivam' many sincere thanks for correcting my perceptions, days and nights bombarded by visual media anchors and their panellists with the coverage of dual murder case at Noida, mind was cluttered and cynical mindset did not grasp the finer aspects of life. Apologies to nandys, as it was sheer magnitude of the visual media and its correspondents who more or less resemble wrestlers with the mikes in their hands wrestling with a grieving family on the deaths, that made me very mad at these visual media as well as the coverage in the papers that i buy, Times of india and Indian express, which saw me reading speculation rather than reportage of events. Starting the career as journalist after graduation was not easy with 10/- salary and still, in those days with peanuts for lunch, filterless cigarettes and water as filler, we had not swayed to the rulers and did not speculate about the events, reported as honestly as possible without our views, views if any were disacussed with colleugaes and later came out as expression without prejudice, present day coverage of bias and partisan reportage with "stories" in media is some how is degrading the society in general, citizens in particular. But all the issues raised by you are correct, hence the apology.to all the members in the list about the nandy episode.! Regards. ----- Original Message ----- From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् Date: Thursday, June 19, 2008 10:00 pm Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net Cc: Shuddhabrata Sengupta , sarai list > Dear Radhikarajen, > > Your responses on this thread are a little intriguing, and I > wonder if > you would mind explaining them? > > Let us go point-by-point, so that you can also reply point by point. > This will prevent us from meandering from, well, the point, either > inadvertently or because of deliberate shifting of goal-posts. > > The post: Two days ago I posted an article written by Ashis Nandy in > the Times of India in January. I mentioned why I was posting the > article though not my views: a little known organisation in Ahemadabad > has filed a police case against Nandy for "'promoting enmity between > different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth and > language," which under the Indian Penal Code is a criminal offence. > > The protest: I gave out a link to a joint statement made in > protest of > this case by 178 academics and activists, who thought that this was > done for no reason other than legal harassment and intimidation. > > The article: In the article Ashis Nandy wrote that even if Modi had > lost the December 2007 elections, it wouldn't have made a difference > because thanks to the Gujarati middle class, the political culture of > Gujarat has been communalised to an extent that "recovering" it won't > be easy. For the situation he blames Hindus and Muslims, Congress and > Left, NGOs and Gandhians. And secularists. > > That is all. On Modi, Bajrang Dal, VHP, RSS, the Gujarat > government - > he just says things matter of fact and does not have much direct > condemnation or criticism to offer. His aim is not to attack them but > those who should be helping defuse the social and political crisis > cause d by the Hindutva forces. He does blame them for being the cause > of exacerbating "radical Islam" in India. > > On development: he is not denying Gujarat's "spectacular development" > but linking it to historical examples where development and > authoritarianism have gone hand in hand. > > Your first response: In your first response you make these points: > > 1) " it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis at the drop > of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is > administrator and chief minister with the difference of of governance > of all in the same state without favour or fear as per the oath he has > taken to administer the state." > > Now, as I paraphrased above, Nandy's article is not denying the > qualities you attribute to Modi's administrative skills and > governance. And he has found faults in many others but very few in > Modi. In fact, none in Modi: it is the Sangh Parivar in general. > > So what you are doing is, creating a straw man [ > http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/straw-man.html ]. You are > representing Nandy as saying he never did, and then attacking him for > saying something he never did! > > > 2) "Times of India and its media group is owned by Bennet group which > traditionally has been political and supporting sycophants of Congress > and media generally feels if it has to be "secular" it has to bash > hindu sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times group is > never fair and free in its journalism" > > Having created your straw man and having attacked it, you begin to > explain it. You explain it by attacking the newspaper where Nandy's > article was published. Since the pro-Congress Times of India published > this article, the article must also be pro-Congress. How does it > matter that the article actually *attacks* the Congress! > > By doing so you are committing the logical fallacy of post hoc: > http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/post-hoc.html > > Also the fallacy of circumstantial ad hominem: > http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/circumstantial-ad- > hominem.html > The tone of the issue was the harassment of Nandy by legal means, but > you shift it to The Times of India and its alleged biases, which, as > Shuddha said, amount to a red herring: > http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/red-herring.html > > As Shuddha demonstrated, there's been no dearth of pro-Modi, pro-BJP > articles in Times of India. The Times is not politically aligned like, > say, The Pioneer, The Hindu, the recently buried National Herald, or > even magazines such as India Today or Outlook. You are guilty of > making a hasty generalisation about the paper, and on that basis > applying it to Nandy just because the paper published Nandy's article > on its opinion-editorial page. See > http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/hasty-generalization.html > Also, similarly, the fallacy of questionable cause: > http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ignoring-a-common-cause.html > > Please also note that newspapers don't have TRP ratings, and that if > most people in Gujarat vote for Modi, publishing anti-Modi articles > would affect the Times of India's circulation in Gujarat adversely, > not positively. > > 3) "and its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and pritish > is no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest in journalism > by sycophancy" > > This is my favourite set of words in your response. Your attention > span and presence of mind are both so feeble that you confused Ashis > Nandy with one pritish! The article was not by pritish my dear > Radhikarajen, but by Ashis! Factual error! You cannot even save face > on this by claiming poor eyesight or broken glasses, because there's > no way 'Ashis' could read like 'pritish', even though Gujarat could > read like Gujarath :) > > And as you might now Ashis Nandy is a scholar at CSDS and not an > employee of The Times of India. The article introduced him as a > political psychologist, so he is clearly not a journalist, but this > detail was mentioned at the end of the article which you didn't even > glance carefully enough to realise which brother wrote it. > > If you read the article you would realise that it does not amount to > sycophancy of anyone, but, as Shuddha said, takes on *everyone*. > > I presume that you thought the article was by Pritish Nandy [ > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pritish_Nandy ] but even he is not an > employee of the Times of India or a journalist. He is a former editor > who also happens to be related to Ashis Nandy. > > By calling Pritish Nandy a sycophant for an article he did not write, > you are committing a personal attack [ > http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/personal-attack.html ] > > I presume, with all the above evidence, that you did not even *read* > the Nandy article and began to attack it. No wonder about the straw > man then. > > I am not going to count and cite the number of logical fallacies you > make by calling pritish a sycophant, attributing the motive of > surviving in journalism to his sycophancy, and presuming that The > Times of India bosses are his bosses, who are pro-Congress, and so > therefore is Pritish. > > a) He is not pritish > > b) He is not a journalist, so he does not have to 'survive in > journalism' > c) He is therefore not forced to resort to sycophancy of anyone to > 'survive in journalism' > > d) He does not work at The Times of India, he merely wrote an article > for the paper, which they either commissioned or chose to publish. His > bosses are not The Times of India's bosses but CSDS'. > > e) You have stated without evidence that The Times of India is > pro-Congress but even if that were to be considered a proven fact, it > does not by implication mean that all their employees are Congress > sycophants, and even if it did it wouldn't make Nandy do so > because he > is not a Times employee, and in any case the article itself speaks > against the Congress. > > > * > > That is just the first paragraph - 144 words - of your response. All > the 245 words in the second paragraph amount to red herring(s) but I > would repond to the points raised therein as well, if you respond to > my three points above. Please reply, as I said, point by point, to > make it comprehensible. > > And do read Nandy's short article, it is interesting. > > I will soon find the time to similarly analyse your response to > Shuddha's response. > > Looking forward to your response. > > best > shivam > > > > > > > On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 5:23 PM, wrote: > > > > Dear Shuddha, > > > > sometimes I wonder whether any ethics and morals are left in > these neo journalists who are working in visual media as anchors. > ? As they so fluently talk about the IG of police as if they are > above the law when they comment on the character of the 14 year > child, as if these anchors are living a clean life.? > > > > And at times I wonder what made a brilliant social scientist > to become a puppet in the hands of a channel with so many if and > buts added for his pre poll survey in channel degrading himself > along with channel and loss of credibilty.! > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: Shuddhabrata Sengupta > > Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 4:33 pm > > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > > To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net > > Cc: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् , sarai list > > > > > > Dear Radhikarajen, > > > > > > Thank you for your pertinent critique on the Sarai Reader List of > > > the > > > way in which the media represents issues, particularly with regard > > > to > > > the murder of Hemraj Banjade and Arushi Talwar in NOIDA. I think > > > that > > > your thoughts on 'media trials' are salutary. Had newspapers > and TV > > > > > > channels been more restrained in the matter of the way in which > > > they > > > report 'sensational' crimes, then the grave and malicious > > > harrassment > > > that had been the fate of S.A.R.Geelani in the '13 December' case > > > might not have taken place. And nor would there have been currency > > > for the hysterical and blood-thirsty demand for the execution of > > > Muhammad Afzal Guru, which continues to beseige our consciousness > > > today. I do hope that you, in the spirit of your own argument, > will> > > > > join me in condemning the irresponsible behaviour of much of the > > > media in these instances. > > > > > > Having said that, I am a bit mystified by your anger against the > > > condemnation of the strange attempt at filing a case on > grounds of > > > > > > 'promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, > > > race, place of birth and language' 'under Sections 153 A and B of > > > the > > > IPC against Ashis Nandy for his op-ed piece 'Blame the Middle > > > Class' > > > in the Times of India of January 8, 2008. Ashis Nandy is, in my > > > opinion, one of the most acute analysts of political culture and > > > modernity in South Asia. It is ironic that a person, who has > > > maintained a life time of critique against the excesses of the > > > state- > > > secularist agenda in India, (for which he was at times > unfairly and > > > > > > idiotically denounced as an apolgist of the hindu right by > some un- > > > intelligent so called 'left-liberal' critics) is someone you now > > > are > > > prepared to argue against, merely because he happens to have taken > > > on > > > the poster boy of hindutva hate-mongering, the chief minister of > > > Gujarat, Narendra Damodarbhai Modi. To be fair to Nandy, there is > > > no > > > particular group that escapes the sharp edge of his sadness in his > > > article on Gujarat. His words (in this particular article) > > > criticize > > > the actions done by people speaking in the name of Bengali Hindus, > > > Kashmiri Muslims, Punjabi Sikhs, Non Resident Indians, Dalits and > > > Adivasis and most of all - the middle classes. If all these kinds > > > of > > > people were to be united because they were all attacked by Ashis > > > Nandy, then, we would see a rare example of the promotion of > > > conviviality between groups that are otherwise expected to be at > > > each > > > others throats. Unfortunately, for you, and for the petitioner > > > belonging to the Ahmedabad based National Council for Civil > > > Liberties, there is as yet no provision in the the Indian Penal > > > Code > > > for the offense of the promotion of conviviality on grounds of > > > religion, race, place of birth and language. > > > . > > > I find it equally strange that you should impute the > sentiments and > > > > > > the analysis contained in Nandy's trenchant criticque of Moditva, > > > (or > > > should it be Moditude, or Modismo) to the antipathy of the Bennet > > > Coleman Group, who happen to own the majority shares of the Times > > > of > > > India newspaper, and their so called pro Congress bias. It is > > > instructive to do a careful analysis of the press that Modi and > > > Modismo get in the Times of India's sister publication, the > > > Economic > > > Times, (which for my money, is the more serious of the two > > > publications, the one that actually gets read by captains of > > > industry > > > and politics, not one that teenagers decorate their lockers with > > > because it has scantily clad men and women, the publication of > > > images > > > of which, you will no doubt agree, is the primary reason for the > > > Times of India to exist.) > > > > > > Now, were you to look at the Economic Times reportage of Modi, > > > Modismo and Gujarat, you would find a glowing picture that would > > > warm > > > your hearts. All you (and everyone who is interested on this list) > > > needs to do is to type Narendra Modi on the search bar of the > > > Economic Times home page, and you will be showered by what looks > > > like > > > a public relations campaign for Gujarati Asmita and Modismo. > > > > > > You will find articles such as - > > > > > > Rajiv Gandhi Foundation finds Gujarat No 1 state > > > > > > Chairman of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani, today hailed > > > Gujarat > > > Chief Minister Narendra Modi saying that he has a "bias" for > action.> > > > > And there are many more where these came from. > > > > > > Even your own pet hate, the Times of India, has articles such as > > > 'Women Mesmerised by Narendra Modi' > > > > > > What are we to make of this, other than that this is but an > > > instance > > > of the totally commonplace practice of a media group trying to > > > placate all sides. So damn Modi in one article in one publication > > > that you own, and then praise him to the skies in another. A > > > detailed > > > analysis of the politics of who reports what about whom, and when, > > > in > > > the Indian media can be an entertaining, and instructive > diversion.> > > > > What, however, are we to make of your own pathological anxiety > > > whenever Shri Narendra Damodarbhai Modi is criticised ? You have > > > (again) neatly sidestepped the substance of Ashis Nandy's critique > > > and taken us on the pursuit of the red herring of the Times of > > > India's pro-Congress bias, which for you, explains everything that > > > there is to understand about what Ashis Nandy has written. > Take a > > > break from the computer, and go take a long look at the > mirror, and > > > > > > you will see the visage of that same middle class Indian, > quick to > > > fume, quick to claim an injury to your precious pride, quick to > > > demand that the slate be cleaned of all 'others', and short, > > > tragically, comically short on anything like the ability to > reflect> > > > > on the tightening limits of the sources of your self. > > > > > > I sympathise with your predicament. It must be really hard, and > > > sad, > > > to be you. > > > > > > regards > > > > > > Shuddha > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > media trials of this sort were > > > On 18-Jun-08, at 2:02 PM, radhikarajen at vsnl.net wrote: > > > > > > > Hi all, > > > > > > > > it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis at the > > > drop > > > > of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is > > > > administrator and chief minister with the difference of of > > > > governance of all in the same state without favour or fear > as per > > > > > > > the oath he has taken to administer the state. Times of > India and > > > > > > > its media group is owned by Bennet group which traditionally has > > > > been political and supporting sycophants of Congress and media > > > > generally feels if it has to be "secular" it has to bash hindu > > > > sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times group is > > > never > > > > fair and free in its journalism and always favoured Congress and > > > > its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and > pritish is > > > > > > > no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest in > > > journalism > > > > by sycophancy. > > > > > > > > The worst part of it is this "secular"media can not > digest the > > > > > > > fact that hindu society is slowly and steadily getting out of > > > caste > > > > conundrums and beginning to gel as one homogeneous society, > while> > > > > > muslim community is being systematically divided by christian > > > > missions to achieve its divide and rule game, into smaller forms > > > of > > > > shias, sunnis and other denominations with terror as subtextt > > > just > > > > as the vote banks are getting divided between good > governance and > > > > > > > sycophancy and secular media keeps on playing old footage of > > > > "carnages so that they remain in the ghettos and wounds are > never> > > > > > allowed to heal.The ultimate goal of Sonia and her mafia is to > > > > divided and rule with rome as its remote control which hindus > > > have > > > > understood except for a few handful of sycophants in > Congress of > > > > all faiths who have no mass base or electoral prospects and have > > > to > > > > live on doleouts of the mafia queen. These along with christian > > > > mafia in the kitchen cabinet have used all those "journalists" > > > and > > > > "int > > > > ellectuals" of modern day to devise the spins to bring back the > > > old > > > > lost horse of Congress in new avtar as christian brigade for the > > > > crusade, while in comity of nations it is seen that Bush > uses- > > > the > > > > terror and weapons of mass destruction as excuses to bring > in his > > > > > > > form of democracy in the nations of muslim faith, first by > attack> > > > > > of shia dominated Afghanistan and then on Iraq for the imaginary > > > > weapons of mass destruction.?---- Original Message ----- > > > > From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् > > > > Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 8:04 pm > > > > Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > > > > To: sarai list > > > > > > > >> An organisation in Ahemdabad called National Council for Civil > > > >> Liberties has filed a case against Ashis Nandy for his article > > > in The > > > >> Times of India in January after Modi's election victory. The > > > case has > > > >> been filed for for 'promoting enmity between different > groups on > > > >> grounds of religion, race, place of birth and language' > > > [Sections 153 > > > >> (A) and (B) of IPC]. > > > >> > > > >> 178 academics and intellectuals have signed a statement in > protest,> > >> which is available at > > > >> http://www.sacw.net/FreeExpAndFundos/defendNandy16June08.html > > > >> > > > >> Given below is the 'offending' article: > > > >> > > > >> o o o > > > >> > > > >> > > > >> Blame The Middle Class > > > >> > > > >> By Ashis Nandy > > > >> 8 Jan 2008 > > > >> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/ > > > >> > LEADER_ARTICLE_Blame_The_Middle_Class/rssarticleshow/2681517.cms> > > >> > > > >> Now that the dust has settled over the Gujarat elections, > we can > > > >> afford to defy the pundits and admit that, even if Narendra > Modi> > had>> lost the last elections, it would not have made much > > > difference to > > > >> the > > > >> culture of Gujarat politics. Modi had already done his job. > Most of > > > >> the state's urban middle class would have remained mired in its > > > inane>> versions of communalism and parochialism and the VHP and > > > the Bajrang > > > >> Dal would have continued to set the tone of state politics. > Forty> > >> years of dedicated propaganda does pay dividends, > electorally and > > > >> socially. > > > >> > > > >> The Hindus and the Muslims of the state — once bonded so > > > >> conspicuously > > > >> by language, culture and commerce — have met the demands of > both> > > > > >> V D > > > >> Savarkar and M A Jinnah. They now face each other as two > hostile> > >> nations. The handful of Gujarati social and > political activists who > > > >> resist the trend are seen not as dissenters but as treacherous > > > >> troublemakers who should be silenced by any means, including > > > >> surveillance, censorship and direct violence. As a result, > Gujarati> > >> cities, particularly its educational institutions > are turning > > > >> cultural > > > >> deserts. Gujarat has already disowned the Indian Constitution > > > and the > > > >> state apparatus has adjusted to the change. > > > >> > > > >> The Congress, the main opposition party, has no effective > > > leader. Nor > > > >> does it represent any threat to the mainstream politics of > Gujarat.> > >> The days of grass-roots leaders like Jhinabhai > Darji are past > > > and a > > > >> large section of the party now consists of Hindu > nationalists. The > > > >> national leadership of the party does not have the courage to > > > >> confront > > > >> Modi over 2002, given its abominable record of 1984. > > > >> > > > >> The Left is virtually non-existent in Gujarat. Whatever minor > > > >> presence > > > >> it once had among intellectuals and trade unionists is now > a vague > > > >> memory. The state has disowned Gandhi, too; Gandhian politics > > > arouses>> derision in middle-class Gujarat. Except for a few > > > valiant old- > > > >> timers, > > > >> Gandhians have made peace with their conscience by > withdrawing from > > > >> the public domain. Gandhi himself has been given a saintly, > Hindu> > >> nationalist status and shelved. Even the Gujarati > translations> > of his > > > >> Complete Works have been stealthily distorted to conform to the > > > Hindu>> nationalist agenda. > > > >> > > > >> Gujarati Muslims too are "adjusting" to their new station. > Denied> > >> justice and proper compensation, and as second-class > citizens in > > > > > > >> their > > > >> home state, they have to depend on voluntary efforts and donor > > > >> agencies. The state's refusal to provide relief has been partly > > > >> met by > > > >> voluntary groups having fundamentalist sympathies. They supply > > > aid > > > >> but > > > >> insist that the beneficiaries give up Gujarati and take to > Urdu,> > > > > >> adopt > > > >> veil, and send their children to madrassas. Events like the > > > >> desecration of Wali Gujarati's grave have pushed one of India's > > > >> culturally richest, most diverse, vernacular Islamic traditions > > > to > > > >> the > > > >> wall. Future generations will as gratefully acknowledge the > sangh> > >> parivar's contribution to the growth of radical Islam > in India > > > as > > > >> this > > > >> generation remembers with gratitude the handsome > contribution of > > > > > > >> Rajiv > > > >> Gandhi and his cohorts to Sikh militancy. > > > >> > > > >> The secularist dogma of many fighting the sangh parivar has not > > > >> helped > > > >> matters. Even those who have benefited from secular lawyers and > > > >> activists relate to secular ideologies instrumentally. They > neither> > >> understand them nor respect them. The victims still > derive> > solace > > > >> from > > > >> their religions and, when under attack, they cling more > > > passionately>> to faith. Indeed, shallow ideologies of secularism > > > have > > > >> simultaneously > > > >> broken the back of Gandhism and discouraged the emergence of > > > figures>> like Ali Shariatis, Desmond Tutus and the Dalai Lama — > > > persons > > > >> who can > > > >> give suffering a new voice audible to the poor and the > powerless> > and>> make a creative intervention possible from > within worldviews > > > >> accessible to the people. > > > >> > > > >> Finally, Gujarat's spectacular development has underwritten the > > > >> de-civilising process. One of the worst-kept secrets of our > > > times is > > > >> that dramatic development almost always has an > authoritarian tail. > > > >> Post-World War II Asia too has had its love affair with > > > developmental>> despotism and the censorship, surveillance and > > > thought control > > > >> that go > > > >> with it. The East Asian tigers have all been maneaters most > of the > > > >> time. Gujarat has now chosen to join the pack. Development > in the > > > >> state now justifies amorality, abridgement of freedom, and > > > >> collapse of > > > >> social ethics. > > > >> > > > >> Is there life after Modi? Is it possible to look beyond the 35 > > > years>> of rioting that began in 1969 and ended in 2002? Prima > > > facie, the > > > >> answer is "no". We can only wait for a new generation that > will,> > out>> of sheer self-interest and tiredness, learn to live > with each > > > other.>> In the meanwhile, we have to wait patiently but not > > > passively to keep > > > >> values alive, hoping that at some point will come a modicum of > > > >> remorse > > > >> and a search for atonement and that ultimately Gujarati > traditions> > >> will triumph over the culture of the state's > urban middle class. > > > >> > > > >> Recovering Gujarat from its urban middle class will not be > easy.> > The>> class has found in militant religious nationalism a > new self- > > > respect>> and a new virtual identity as a martial community, the > > > way Bengali > > > >> babus, Maharashtrian Brahmins and Kashmiri Muslims at different > > > times>> have sought salvation in violence. In Gujarat this class > > > has smelt > > > >> blood, for it does not have to do the killings but can plan, > > > finance>> and coordinate them with impunity. The actual > killers are > > > the lowest > > > >> of the low, mostly tribals and Dalits. The middle class > controls> > the>> media and education, which have become hate > factories in > > > recent > > > >> times. > > > >> And they receive spirited support from most non-resident > Indians> > who,>> at a safe distance from India, can afford to be more > > > nationalist,>> bloodthirsty, and irresponsible. > > > >> > > > >> [The writer is a political psychologist.] > From mail at shivamvij.com Fri Jun 20 21:58:08 2008 From: mail at shivamvij.com (=?UTF-8?Q?Shivam_Vij?= =?UTF-8?Q?_=E0=A4=B6=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=AE?= =?UTF-8?Q?=E0=A5=8D_=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=9C=E0=A5=8D?=) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:58:08 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again In-Reply-To: References: <9c06aab30806170733t48302bablf56c69c6427f5b82@mail.gmail.com> <9c06aab30806190930u20fc56efj5ba9a21f72994fa8@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <9c06aab30806200928y3cb13e97k6191895fc809b769@mail.gmail.com> Dear Radhikarajen, Thanks for your response and your apology. I hope most members of this list will be accept it. However, I find it funny that you are explaining away your errors by ascribing them to what the visual media coverage of the Arushi-Hemraj double murder case has done to your mind. Yourr argument is silly on these counts: 1) If you don't like TV news channels, you don't have to watch them. If you don't like the Arushi-Hemraj murder cases' coverage, use the remote, watch BBC World or Discovery Travel and Living or MTV. It is precisely because you (amongst millions of others) continue to watch TV news channels for the Arushi-Hemraj case that they are continuing with it. 2) To argue that the obsessive, sensationalist coverage of the Arushi-Hemraj case had cluttered your brain and made your mindset cynical, and cynical clutter affected you so much that you read Ashis as Pritish and found an anti-Congress article to be pro-Congress, is to say that your mental faculties for clear and illogical thinking are extremely feeble. However, I don't think that is true, just that you are intellectually dishonest. I wonder which is worse. However, if former is the case, then you might soon want to see a psychiatrist. 3) As for the Times of India and the Indian Express, once again, buy The Hindu. Don't blame them for the stupid act of ranting in the air without having read the Nandy article. 4) The second part of your reply has nothing to do with anything discussed so far. If you started your career as a journalist at a salary of Rs. "10/-" then you must have started you career before India attained independence! So you are trying to tell us that you are a veteran journalist! And you think we'll take that seriously! Not only are you a liar, but a very naive one. You must be 14. In any case, your starting salary has nothing to do with the legal harassment of Ashis Nandy over an article he wrote. 5) Given that you have apologised, may I please presume that you unconditionally condemn the harassment through legal means of Professor Ashis Nandy? Please let me know. Please answer that without any rant against the media, or I'll throw my keyboard at you. best shivam On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 3:05 PM, wrote: > Dear Shivam' > > many sincere thanks for correcting my perceptions, days and nights bombarded by visual media anchors and their panellists with the coverage of dual murder case at Noida, mind was cluttered and cynical mindset did not grasp the finer aspects of life. Apologies to nandys, as it was sheer magnitude of the visual media and its correspondents who more or less resemble wrestlers with the mikes in their hands wrestling with a grieving family on the deaths, that made me very mad at these visual media as well as the coverage in the papers that i buy, Times of india and Indian express, which saw me reading speculation rather than reportage of events. > > Starting the career as journalist after graduation was not easy with 10/- salary and still, in those days with peanuts for lunch, filterless cigarettes and water as filler, we had not swayed to the rulers and did not speculate about the events, reported as honestly as possible without our views, views if any were disacussed with colleugaes and later came out as expression without prejudice, present day coverage of bias and partisan reportage with "stories" in media is some how is degrading the society in general, citizens in particular. > > But all the issues raised by you are correct, hence the apology.to all the members in the list about the nandy episode.! > > Regards. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् > Date: Thursday, June 19, 2008 10:00 pm > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net > Cc: Shuddhabrata Sengupta , sarai list > >> Dear Radhikarajen, >> >> Your responses on this thread are a little intriguing, and I >> wonder if >> you would mind explaining them? >> >> Let us go point-by-point, so that you can also reply point by point. >> This will prevent us from meandering from, well, the point, either >> inadvertently or because of deliberate shifting of goal-posts. >> >> The post: Two days ago I posted an article written by Ashis Nandy in >> the Times of India in January. I mentioned why I was posting the >> article though not my views: a little known organisation in Ahemadabad >> has filed a police case against Nandy for "'promoting enmity between >> different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth and >> language," which under the Indian Penal Code is a criminal offence. >> >> The protest: I gave out a link to a joint statement made in >> protest of >> this case by 178 academics and activists, who thought that this was >> done for no reason other than legal harassment and intimidation. >> >> The article: In the article Ashis Nandy wrote that even if Modi had >> lost the December 2007 elections, it wouldn't have made a difference >> because thanks to the Gujarati middle class, the political culture of >> Gujarat has been communalised to an extent that "recovering" it won't >> be easy. For the situation he blames Hindus and Muslims, Congress and >> Left, NGOs and Gandhians. And secularists. >> >> That is all. On Modi, Bajrang Dal, VHP, RSS, the Gujarat >> government - >> he just says things matter of fact and does not have much direct >> condemnation or criticism to offer. His aim is not to attack them but >> those who should be helping defuse the social and political crisis >> cause d by the Hindutva forces. He does blame them for being the cause >> of exacerbating "radical Islam" in India. >> >> On development: he is not denying Gujarat's "spectacular development" >> but linking it to historical examples where development and >> authoritarianism have gone hand in hand. >> >> Your first response: In your first response you make these points: >> >> 1) " it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis at the drop >> of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is >> administrator and chief minister with the difference of of governance >> of all in the same state without favour or fear as per the oath he has >> taken to administer the state." >> >> Now, as I paraphrased above, Nandy's article is not denying the >> qualities you attribute to Modi's administrative skills and >> governance. And he has found faults in many others but very few in >> Modi. In fact, none in Modi: it is the Sangh Parivar in general. >> >> So what you are doing is, creating a straw man [ >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/straw-man.html ]. You are >> representing Nandy as saying he never did, and then attacking him for >> saying something he never did! >> >> >> 2) "Times of India and its media group is owned by Bennet group which >> traditionally has been political and supporting sycophants of Congress >> and media generally feels if it has to be "secular" it has to bash >> hindu sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times group is >> never fair and free in its journalism" >> >> Having created your straw man and having attacked it, you begin to >> explain it. You explain it by attacking the newspaper where Nandy's >> article was published. Since the pro-Congress Times of India published >> this article, the article must also be pro-Congress. How does it >> matter that the article actually *attacks* the Congress! >> >> By doing so you are committing the logical fallacy of post hoc: >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/post-hoc.html >> >> Also the fallacy of circumstantial ad hominem: >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/circumstantial-ad- >> hominem.html >> The tone of the issue was the harassment of Nandy by legal means, but >> you shift it to The Times of India and its alleged biases, which, as >> Shuddha said, amount to a red herring: >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/red-herring.html >> >> As Shuddha demonstrated, there's been no dearth of pro-Modi, pro-BJP >> articles in Times of India. The Times is not politically aligned like, >> say, The Pioneer, The Hindu, the recently buried National Herald, or >> even magazines such as India Today or Outlook. You are guilty of >> making a hasty generalisation about the paper, and on that basis >> applying it to Nandy just because the paper published Nandy's article >> on its opinion-editorial page. See >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/hasty-generalization.html >> Also, similarly, the fallacy of questionable cause: >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ignoring-a-common-cause.html >> >> Please also note that newspapers don't have TRP ratings, and that if >> most people in Gujarat vote for Modi, publishing anti-Modi articles >> would affect the Times of India's circulation in Gujarat adversely, >> not positively. >> >> 3) "and its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and pritish >> is no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest in journalism >> by sycophancy" >> >> This is my favourite set of words in your response. Your attention >> span and presence of mind are both so feeble that you confused Ashis >> Nandy with one pritish! The article was not by pritish my dear >> Radhikarajen, but by Ashis! Factual error! You cannot even save face >> on this by claiming poor eyesight or broken glasses, because there's >> no way 'Ashis' could read like 'pritish', even though Gujarat could >> read like Gujarath :) >> >> And as you might now Ashis Nandy is a scholar at CSDS and not an >> employee of The Times of India. The article introduced him as a >> political psychologist, so he is clearly not a journalist, but this >> detail was mentioned at the end of the article which you didn't even >> glance carefully enough to realise which brother wrote it. >> >> If you read the article you would realise that it does not amount to >> sycophancy of anyone, but, as Shuddha said, takes on *everyone*. >> >> I presume that you thought the article was by Pritish Nandy [ >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pritish_Nandy ] but even he is not an >> employee of the Times of India or a journalist. He is a former editor >> who also happens to be related to Ashis Nandy. >> >> By calling Pritish Nandy a sycophant for an article he did not write, >> you are committing a personal attack [ >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/personal-attack.html ] >> >> I presume, with all the above evidence, that you did not even *read* >> the Nandy article and began to attack it. No wonder about the straw >> man then. >> >> I am not going to count and cite the number of logical fallacies you >> make by calling pritish a sycophant, attributing the motive of >> surviving in journalism to his sycophancy, and presuming that The >> Times of India bosses are his bosses, who are pro-Congress, and so >> therefore is Pritish. >> >> a) He is not pritish >> >> b) He is not a journalist, so he does not have to 'survive in >> journalism' >> c) He is therefore not forced to resort to sycophancy of anyone to >> 'survive in journalism' >> >> d) He does not work at The Times of India, he merely wrote an article >> for the paper, which they either commissioned or chose to publish. His >> bosses are not The Times of India's bosses but CSDS'. >> >> e) You have stated without evidence that The Times of India is >> pro-Congress but even if that were to be considered a proven fact, it >> does not by implication mean that all their employees are Congress >> sycophants, and even if it did it wouldn't make Nandy do so >> because he >> is not a Times employee, and in any case the article itself speaks >> against the Congress. >> >> >> * >> >> That is just the first paragraph - 144 words - of your response. All >> the 245 words in the second paragraph amount to red herring(s) but I >> would repond to the points raised therein as well, if you respond to >> my three points above. Please reply, as I said, point by point, to >> make it comprehensible. >> >> And do read Nandy's short article, it is interesting. >> >> I will soon find the time to similarly analyse your response to >> Shuddha's response. >> >> Looking forward to your response. >> >> best >> shivam >> >> >> >> >> >> >> On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 5:23 PM, wrote: >> > >> > Dear Shuddha, >> > >> > sometimes I wonder whether any ethics and morals are left in >> these neo journalists who are working in visual media as anchors. >> ? As they so fluently talk about the IG of police as if they are >> above the law when they comment on the character of the 14 year >> child, as if these anchors are living a clean life.? >> > >> > And at times I wonder what made a brilliant social scientist >> to become a puppet in the hands of a channel with so many if and >> buts added for his pre poll survey in channel degrading himself >> along with channel and loss of credibilty.! >> > ----- Original Message ----- >> > From: Shuddhabrata Sengupta >> > Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 4:33 pm >> > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again >> > To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net >> > Cc: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् , sarai list >> >> > >> > > Dear Radhikarajen, >> > > >> > > Thank you for your pertinent critique on the Sarai Reader List of >> > > the >> > > way in which the media represents issues, particularly with regard >> > > to >> > > the murder of Hemraj Banjade and Arushi Talwar in NOIDA. I think >> > > that >> > > your thoughts on 'media trials' are salutary. Had newspapers >> and TV >> > > >> > > channels been more restrained in the matter of the way in which >> > > they >> > > report 'sensational' crimes, then the grave and malicious >> > > harrassment >> > > that had been the fate of S.A.R.Geelani in the '13 December' case >> > > might not have taken place. And nor would there have been currency >> > > for the hysterical and blood-thirsty demand for the execution of >> > > Muhammad Afzal Guru, which continues to beseige our consciousness >> > > today. I do hope that you, in the spirit of your own argument, >> will> > >> > > join me in condemning the irresponsible behaviour of much of the >> > > media in these instances. >> > > >> > > Having said that, I am a bit mystified by your anger against the >> > > condemnation of the strange attempt at filing a case on >> grounds of >> > > >> > > 'promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, >> > > race, place of birth and language' 'under Sections 153 A and B of >> > > the >> > > IPC against Ashis Nandy for his op-ed piece 'Blame the Middle >> > > Class' >> > > in the Times of India of January 8, 2008. Ashis Nandy is, in my >> > > opinion, one of the most acute analysts of political culture and >> > > modernity in South Asia. It is ironic that a person, who has >> > > maintained a life time of critique against the excesses of the >> > > state- >> > > secularist agenda in India, (for which he was at times >> unfairly and >> > > >> > > idiotically denounced as an apolgist of the hindu right by >> some un- >> > > intelligent so called 'left-liberal' critics) is someone you now >> > > are >> > > prepared to argue against, merely because he happens to have taken >> > > on >> > > the poster boy of hindutva hate-mongering, the chief minister of >> > > Gujarat, Narendra Damodarbhai Modi. To be fair to Nandy, there is >> > > no >> > > particular group that escapes the sharp edge of his sadness in his >> > > article on Gujarat. His words (in this particular article) >> > > criticize >> > > the actions done by people speaking in the name of Bengali Hindus, >> > > Kashmiri Muslims, Punjabi Sikhs, Non Resident Indians, Dalits and >> > > Adivasis and most of all - the middle classes. If all these kinds >> > > of >> > > people were to be united because they were all attacked by Ashis >> > > Nandy, then, we would see a rare example of the promotion of >> > > conviviality between groups that are otherwise expected to be at >> > > each >> > > others throats. Unfortunately, for you, and for the petitioner >> > > belonging to the Ahmedabad based National Council for Civil >> > > Liberties, there is as yet no provision in the the Indian Penal >> > > Code >> > > for the offense of the promotion of conviviality on grounds of >> > > religion, race, place of birth and language. >> > > . >> > > I find it equally strange that you should impute the >> sentiments and >> > > >> > > the analysis contained in Nandy's trenchant criticque of Moditva, >> > > (or >> > > should it be Moditude, or Modismo) to the antipathy of the Bennet >> > > Coleman Group, who happen to own the majority shares of the Times >> > > of >> > > India newspaper, and their so called pro Congress bias. It is >> > > instructive to do a careful analysis of the press that Modi and >> > > Modismo get in the Times of India's sister publication, the >> > > Economic >> > > Times, (which for my money, is the more serious of the two >> > > publications, the one that actually gets read by captains of >> > > industry >> > > and politics, not one that teenagers decorate their lockers with >> > > because it has scantily clad men and women, the publication of >> > > images >> > > of which, you will no doubt agree, is the primary reason for the >> > > Times of India to exist.) >> > > >> > > Now, were you to look at the Economic Times reportage of Modi, >> > > Modismo and Gujarat, you would find a glowing picture that would >> > > warm >> > > your hearts. All you (and everyone who is interested on this list) >> > > needs to do is to type Narendra Modi on the search bar of the >> > > Economic Times home page, and you will be showered by what looks >> > > like >> > > a public relations campaign for Gujarati Asmita and Modismo. >> > > >> > > You will find articles such as - >> > > >> > > Rajiv Gandhi Foundation finds Gujarat No 1 state >> > > >> > > Chairman of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani, today hailed >> > > Gujarat >> > > Chief Minister Narendra Modi saying that he has a "bias" for >> action.> > >> > > And there are many more where these came from. >> > > >> > > Even your own pet hate, the Times of India, has articles such as >> > > 'Women Mesmerised by Narendra Modi' >> > > >> > > What are we to make of this, other than that this is but an >> > > instance >> > > of the totally commonplace practice of a media group trying to >> > > placate all sides. So damn Modi in one article in one publication >> > > that you own, and then praise him to the skies in another. A >> > > detailed >> > > analysis of the politics of who reports what about whom, and when, >> > > in >> > > the Indian media can be an entertaining, and instructive >> diversion.> > >> > > What, however, are we to make of your own pathological anxiety >> > > whenever Shri Narendra Damodarbhai Modi is criticised ? You have >> > > (again) neatly sidestepped the substance of Ashis Nandy's critique >> > > and taken us on the pursuit of the red herring of the Times of >> > > India's pro-Congress bias, which for you, explains everything that >> > > there is to understand about what Ashis Nandy has written. >> Take a >> > > break from the computer, and go take a long look at the >> mirror, and >> > > >> > > you will see the visage of that same middle class Indian, >> quick to >> > > fume, quick to claim an injury to your precious pride, quick to >> > > demand that the slate be cleaned of all 'others', and short, >> > > tragically, comically short on anything like the ability to >> reflect> > >> > > on the tightening limits of the sources of your self. >> > > >> > > I sympathise with your predicament. It must be really hard, and >> > > sad, >> > > to be you. >> > > >> > > regards >> > > >> > > Shuddha >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > media trials of this sort were >> > > On 18-Jun-08, at 2:02 PM, radhikarajen at vsnl.net wrote: >> > > >> > > > Hi all, >> > > > >> > > > it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis at the >> > > drop >> > > > of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is >> > > > administrator and chief minister with the difference of of >> > > > governance of all in the same state without favour or fear >> as per >> > > >> > > > the oath he has taken to administer the state. Times of >> India and >> > > >> > > > its media group is owned by Bennet group which traditionally has >> > > > been political and supporting sycophants of Congress and media >> > > > generally feels if it has to be "secular" it has to bash hindu >> > > > sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times group is >> > > never >> > > > fair and free in its journalism and always favoured Congress and >> > > > its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and >> pritish is >> > > >> > > > no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest in >> > > journalism >> > > > by sycophancy. >> > > > >> > > > The worst part of it is this "secular"media can not >> digest the >> > > >> > > > fact that hindu society is slowly and steadily getting out of >> > > caste >> > > > conundrums and beginning to gel as one homogeneous society, >> while> > >> > > > muslim community is being systematically divided by christian >> > > > missions to achieve its divide and rule game, into smaller forms >> > > of >> > > > shias, sunnis and other denominations with terror as subtextt >> > > just >> > > > as the vote banks are getting divided between good >> governance and >> > > >> > > > sycophancy and secular media keeps on playing old footage of >> > > > "carnages so that they remain in the ghettos and wounds are >> never> > >> > > > allowed to heal.The ultimate goal of Sonia and her mafia is to >> > > > divided and rule with rome as its remote control which hindus >> > > have >> > > > understood except for a few handful of sycophants in >> Congress of >> > > > all faiths who have no mass base or electoral prospects and have >> > > to >> > > > live on doleouts of the mafia queen. These along with christian >> > > > mafia in the kitchen cabinet have used all those "journalists" >> > > and >> > > > "int >> > > > ellectuals" of modern day to devise the spins to bring back the >> > > old >> > > > lost horse of Congress in new avtar as christian brigade for the >> > > > crusade, while in comity of nations it is seen that Bush >> uses- >> > > the >> > > > terror and weapons of mass destruction as excuses to bring >> in his >> > > >> > > > form of democracy in the nations of muslim faith, first by >> attack> > >> > > > of shia dominated Afghanistan and then on Iraq for the imaginary >> > > > weapons of mass destruction.?---- Original Message ----- >> > > > From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् >> > > > Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 8:04 pm >> > > > Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again >> > > > To: sarai list >> > > > >> > > >> An organisation in Ahemdabad called National Council for Civil >> > > >> Liberties has filed a case against Ashis Nandy for his article >> > > in The >> > > >> Times of India in January after Modi's election victory. The >> > > case has >> > > >> been filed for for 'promoting enmity between different >> groups on >> > > >> grounds of religion, race, place of birth and language' >> > > [Sections 153 >> > > >> (A) and (B) of IPC]. >> > > >> >> > > >> 178 academics and intellectuals have signed a statement in >> protest,> > >> which is available at >> > > >> http://www.sacw.net/FreeExpAndFundos/defendNandy16June08.html >> > > >> >> > > >> Given below is the 'offending' article: >> > > >> >> > > >> o o o >> > > >> >> > > >> >> > > >> Blame The Middle Class >> > > >> >> > > >> By Ashis Nandy >> > > >> 8 Jan 2008 >> > > >> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/ >> > > >> >> LEADER_ARTICLE_Blame_The_Middle_Class/rssarticleshow/2681517.cms> >> > >> >> > > >> Now that the dust has settled over the Gujarat elections, >> we can >> > > >> afford to defy the pundits and admit that, even if Narendra >> Modi> > had>> lost the last elections, it would not have made much >> > > difference to >> > > >> the >> > > >> culture of Gujarat politics. Modi had already done his job. >> Most of >> > > >> the state's urban middle class would have remained mired in its >> > > inane>> versions of communalism and parochialism and the VHP and >> > > the Bajrang >> > > >> Dal would have continued to set the tone of state politics. >> Forty> > >> years of dedicated propaganda does pay dividends, >> electorally and >> > > >> socially. >> > > >> >> > > >> The Hindus and the Muslims of the state — once bonded so >> > > >> conspicuously >> > > >> by language, culture and commerce — have met the demands of >> both> > >> > > >> V D >> > > >> Savarkar and M A Jinnah. They now face each other as two >> hostile> > >> nations. The handful of Gujarati social and >> political activists who >> > > >> resist the trend are seen not as dissenters but as treacherous >> > > >> troublemakers who should be silenced by any means, including >> > > >> surveillance, censorship and direct violence. As a result, >> Gujarati> > >> cities, particularly its educational institutions >> are turning >> > > >> cultural >> > > >> deserts. Gujarat has already disowned the Indian Constitution >> > > and the >> > > >> state apparatus has adjusted to the change. >> > > >> >> > > >> The Congress, the main opposition party, has no effective >> > > leader. Nor >> > > >> does it represent any threat to the mainstream politics of >> Gujarat.> > >> The days of grass-roots leaders like Jhinabhai >> Darji are past >> > > and a >> > > >> large section of the party now consists of Hindu >> nationalists. The >> > > >> national leadership of the party does not have the courage to >> > > >> confront >> > > >> Modi over 2002, given its abominable record of 1984. >> > > >> >> > > >> The Left is virtually non-existent in Gujarat. Whatever minor >> > > >> presence >> > > >> it once had among intellectuals and trade unionists is now >> a vague >> > > >> memory. The state has disowned Gandhi, too; Gandhian politics >> > > arouses>> derision in middle-class Gujarat. Except for a few >> > > valiant old- >> > > >> timers, >> > > >> Gandhians have made peace with their conscience by >> withdrawing from >> > > >> the public domain. Gandhi himself has been given a saintly, >> Hindu> > >> nationalist status and shelved. Even the Gujarati >> translations> > of his >> > > >> Complete Works have been stealthily distorted to conform to the >> > > Hindu>> nationalist agenda. >> > > >> >> > > >> Gujarati Muslims too are "adjusting" to their new station. >> Denied> > >> justice and proper compensation, and as second-class >> citizens in >> > > >> > > >> their >> > > >> home state, they have to depend on voluntary efforts and donor >> > > >> agencies. The state's refusal to provide relief has been partly >> > > >> met by >> > > >> voluntary groups having fundamentalist sympathies. They supply >> > > aid >> > > >> but >> > > >> insist that the beneficiaries give up Gujarati and take to >> Urdu,> > >> > > >> adopt >> > > >> veil, and send their children to madrassas. Events like the >> > > >> desecration of Wali Gujarati's grave have pushed one of India's >> > > >> culturally richest, most diverse, vernacular Islamic traditions >> > > to >> > > >> the >> > > >> wall. Future generations will as gratefully acknowledge the >> sangh> > >> parivar's contribution to the growth of radical Islam >> in India >> > > as >> > > >> this >> > > >> generation remembers with gratitude the handsome >> contribution of >> > > >> > > >> Rajiv >> > > >> Gandhi and his cohorts to Sikh militancy. >> > > >> >> > > >> The secularist dogma of many fighting the sangh parivar has not >> > > >> helped >> > > >> matters. Even those who have benefited from secular lawyers and >> > > >> activists relate to secular ideologies instrumentally. They >> neither> > >> understand them nor respect them. The victims still >> derive> > solace >> > > >> from >> > > >> their religions and, when under attack, they cling more >> > > passionately>> to faith. Indeed, shallow ideologies of secularism >> > > have >> > > >> simultaneously >> > > >> broken the back of Gandhism and discouraged the emergence of >> > > figures>> like Ali Shariatis, Desmond Tutus and the Dalai Lama — >> > > persons >> > > >> who can >> > > >> give suffering a new voice audible to the poor and the >> powerless> > and>> make a creative intervention possible from >> within worldviews >> > > >> accessible to the people. >> > > >> >> > > >> Finally, Gujarat's spectacular development has underwritten the >> > > >> de-civilising process. One of the worst-kept secrets of our >> > > times is >> > > >> that dramatic development almost always has an >> authoritarian tail. >> > > >> Post-World War II Asia too has had its love affair with >> > > developmental>> despotism and the censorship, surveillance and >> > > thought control >> > > >> that go >> > > >> with it. The East Asian tigers have all been maneaters most >> of the >> > > >> time. Gujarat has now chosen to join the pack. Development >> in the >> > > >> state now justifies amorality, abridgement of freedom, and >> > > >> collapse of >> > > >> social ethics. >> > > >> >> > > >> Is there life after Modi? Is it possible to look beyond the 35 >> > > years>> of rioting that began in 1969 and ended in 2002? Prima >> > > facie, the >> > > >> answer is "no". We can only wait for a new generation that >> will,> > out>> of sheer self-interest and tiredness, learn to live >> with each >> > > other.>> In the meanwhile, we have to wait patiently but not >> > > passively to keep >> > > >> values alive, hoping that at some point will come a modicum of >> > > >> remorse >> > > >> and a search for atonement and that ultimately Gujarati >> traditions> > >> will triumph over the culture of the state's >> urban middle class. >> > > >> >> > > >> Recovering Gujarat from its urban middle class will not be >> easy.> > The>> class has found in militant religious nationalism a >> new self- >> > > respect>> and a new virtual identity as a martial community, the >> > > way Bengali >> > > >> babus, Maharashtrian Brahmins and Kashmiri Muslims at different >> > > times>> have sought salvation in violence. In Gujarat this class >> > > has smelt >> > > >> blood, for it does not have to do the killings but can plan, >> > > finance>> and coordinate them with impunity. The actual >> killers are >> > > the lowest >> > > >> of the low, mostly tribals and Dalits. The middle class >> controls> > the>> media and education, which have become hate >> factories in >> > > recent >> > > >> times. >> > > >> And they receive spirited support from most non-resident >> Indians> > who,>> at a safe distance from India, can afford to be more >> > > nationalist,>> bloodthirsty, and irresponsible. >> > > >> >> > > >> [The writer is a political psychologist.] >> > From mail at shivamvij.com Fri Jun 20 21:58:08 2008 From: mail at shivamvij.com (=?UTF-8?Q?Shivam_Vij?= =?UTF-8?Q?_=E0=A4=B6=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=AE?= =?UTF-8?Q?=E0=A5=8D_=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=9C=E0=A5=8D?=) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:58:08 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again In-Reply-To: References: <9c06aab30806170733t48302bablf56c69c6427f5b82@mail.gmail.com> <9c06aab30806190930u20fc56efj5ba9a21f72994fa8@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <9c06aab30806200928y3cb13e97k6191895fc809b769@mail.gmail.com> Dear Radhikarajen, Thanks for your response and your apology. I hope most members of this list will be accept it. However, I find it funny that you are explaining away your errors by ascribing them to what the visual media coverage of the Arushi-Hemraj double murder case has done to your mind. Yourr argument is silly on these counts: 1) If you don't like TV news channels, you don't have to watch them. If you don't like the Arushi-Hemraj murder cases' coverage, use the remote, watch BBC World or Discovery Travel and Living or MTV. It is precisely because you (amongst millions of others) continue to watch TV news channels for the Arushi-Hemraj case that they are continuing with it. 2) To argue that the obsessive, sensationalist coverage of the Arushi-Hemraj case had cluttered your brain and made your mindset cynical, and cynical clutter affected you so much that you read Ashis as Pritish and found an anti-Congress article to be pro-Congress, is to say that your mental faculties for clear and illogical thinking are extremely feeble. However, I don't think that is true, just that you are intellectually dishonest. I wonder which is worse. However, if former is the case, then you might soon want to see a psychiatrist. 3) As for the Times of India and the Indian Express, once again, buy The Hindu. Don't blame them for the stupid act of ranting in the air without having read the Nandy article. 4) The second part of your reply has nothing to do with anything discussed so far. If you started your career as a journalist at a salary of Rs. "10/-" then you must have started you career before India attained independence! So you are trying to tell us that you are a veteran journalist! And you think we'll take that seriously! Not only are you a liar, but a very naive one. You must be 14. In any case, your starting salary has nothing to do with the legal harassment of Ashis Nandy over an article he wrote. 5) Given that you have apologised, may I please presume that you unconditionally condemn the harassment through legal means of Professor Ashis Nandy? Please let me know. Please answer that without any rant against the media, or I'll throw my keyboard at you. best shivam On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 3:05 PM, wrote: > Dear Shivam' > > many sincere thanks for correcting my perceptions, days and nights bombarded by visual media anchors and their panellists with the coverage of dual murder case at Noida, mind was cluttered and cynical mindset did not grasp the finer aspects of life. Apologies to nandys, as it was sheer magnitude of the visual media and its correspondents who more or less resemble wrestlers with the mikes in their hands wrestling with a grieving family on the deaths, that made me very mad at these visual media as well as the coverage in the papers that i buy, Times of india and Indian express, which saw me reading speculation rather than reportage of events. > > Starting the career as journalist after graduation was not easy with 10/- salary and still, in those days with peanuts for lunch, filterless cigarettes and water as filler, we had not swayed to the rulers and did not speculate about the events, reported as honestly as possible without our views, views if any were disacussed with colleugaes and later came out as expression without prejudice, present day coverage of bias and partisan reportage with "stories" in media is some how is degrading the society in general, citizens in particular. > > But all the issues raised by you are correct, hence the apology.to all the members in the list about the nandy episode.! > > Regards. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् > Date: Thursday, June 19, 2008 10:00 pm > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net > Cc: Shuddhabrata Sengupta , sarai list > >> Dear Radhikarajen, >> >> Your responses on this thread are a little intriguing, and I >> wonder if >> you would mind explaining them? >> >> Let us go point-by-point, so that you can also reply point by point. >> This will prevent us from meandering from, well, the point, either >> inadvertently or because of deliberate shifting of goal-posts. >> >> The post: Two days ago I posted an article written by Ashis Nandy in >> the Times of India in January. I mentioned why I was posting the >> article though not my views: a little known organisation in Ahemadabad >> has filed a police case against Nandy for "'promoting enmity between >> different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth and >> language," which under the Indian Penal Code is a criminal offence. >> >> The protest: I gave out a link to a joint statement made in >> protest of >> this case by 178 academics and activists, who thought that this was >> done for no reason other than legal harassment and intimidation. >> >> The article: In the article Ashis Nandy wrote that even if Modi had >> lost the December 2007 elections, it wouldn't have made a difference >> because thanks to the Gujarati middle class, the political culture of >> Gujarat has been communalised to an extent that "recovering" it won't >> be easy. For the situation he blames Hindus and Muslims, Congress and >> Left, NGOs and Gandhians. And secularists. >> >> That is all. On Modi, Bajrang Dal, VHP, RSS, the Gujarat >> government - >> he just says things matter of fact and does not have much direct >> condemnation or criticism to offer. His aim is not to attack them but >> those who should be helping defuse the social and political crisis >> cause d by the Hindutva forces. He does blame them for being the cause >> of exacerbating "radical Islam" in India. >> >> On development: he is not denying Gujarat's "spectacular development" >> but linking it to historical examples where development and >> authoritarianism have gone hand in hand. >> >> Your first response: In your first response you make these points: >> >> 1) " it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis at the drop >> of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is >> administrator and chief minister with the difference of of governance >> of all in the same state without favour or fear as per the oath he has >> taken to administer the state." >> >> Now, as I paraphrased above, Nandy's article is not denying the >> qualities you attribute to Modi's administrative skills and >> governance. And he has found faults in many others but very few in >> Modi. In fact, none in Modi: it is the Sangh Parivar in general. >> >> So what you are doing is, creating a straw man [ >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/straw-man.html ]. You are >> representing Nandy as saying he never did, and then attacking him for >> saying something he never did! >> >> >> 2) "Times of India and its media group is owned by Bennet group which >> traditionally has been political and supporting sycophants of Congress >> and media generally feels if it has to be "secular" it has to bash >> hindu sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times group is >> never fair and free in its journalism" >> >> Having created your straw man and having attacked it, you begin to >> explain it. You explain it by attacking the newspaper where Nandy's >> article was published. Since the pro-Congress Times of India published >> this article, the article must also be pro-Congress. How does it >> matter that the article actually *attacks* the Congress! >> >> By doing so you are committing the logical fallacy of post hoc: >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/post-hoc.html >> >> Also the fallacy of circumstantial ad hominem: >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/circumstantial-ad- >> hominem.html >> The tone of the issue was the harassment of Nandy by legal means, but >> you shift it to The Times of India and its alleged biases, which, as >> Shuddha said, amount to a red herring: >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/red-herring.html >> >> As Shuddha demonstrated, there's been no dearth of pro-Modi, pro-BJP >> articles in Times of India. The Times is not politically aligned like, >> say, The Pioneer, The Hindu, the recently buried National Herald, or >> even magazines such as India Today or Outlook. You are guilty of >> making a hasty generalisation about the paper, and on that basis >> applying it to Nandy just because the paper published Nandy's article >> on its opinion-editorial page. See >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/hasty-generalization.html >> Also, similarly, the fallacy of questionable cause: >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ignoring-a-common-cause.html >> >> Please also note that newspapers don't have TRP ratings, and that if >> most people in Gujarat vote for Modi, publishing anti-Modi articles >> would affect the Times of India's circulation in Gujarat adversely, >> not positively. >> >> 3) "and its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and pritish >> is no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest in journalism >> by sycophancy" >> >> This is my favourite set of words in your response. Your attention >> span and presence of mind are both so feeble that you confused Ashis >> Nandy with one pritish! The article was not by pritish my dear >> Radhikarajen, but by Ashis! Factual error! You cannot even save face >> on this by claiming poor eyesight or broken glasses, because there's >> no way 'Ashis' could read like 'pritish', even though Gujarat could >> read like Gujarath :) >> >> And as you might now Ashis Nandy is a scholar at CSDS and not an >> employee of The Times of India. The article introduced him as a >> political psychologist, so he is clearly not a journalist, but this >> detail was mentioned at the end of the article which you didn't even >> glance carefully enough to realise which brother wrote it. >> >> If you read the article you would realise that it does not amount to >> sycophancy of anyone, but, as Shuddha said, takes on *everyone*. >> >> I presume that you thought the article was by Pritish Nandy [ >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pritish_Nandy ] but even he is not an >> employee of the Times of India or a journalist. He is a former editor >> who also happens to be related to Ashis Nandy. >> >> By calling Pritish Nandy a sycophant for an article he did not write, >> you are committing a personal attack [ >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/personal-attack.html ] >> >> I presume, with all the above evidence, that you did not even *read* >> the Nandy article and began to attack it. No wonder about the straw >> man then. >> >> I am not going to count and cite the number of logical fallacies you >> make by calling pritish a sycophant, attributing the motive of >> surviving in journalism to his sycophancy, and presuming that The >> Times of India bosses are his bosses, who are pro-Congress, and so >> therefore is Pritish. >> >> a) He is not pritish >> >> b) He is not a journalist, so he does not have to 'survive in >> journalism' >> c) He is therefore not forced to resort to sycophancy of anyone to >> 'survive in journalism' >> >> d) He does not work at The Times of India, he merely wrote an article >> for the paper, which they either commissioned or chose to publish. His >> bosses are not The Times of India's bosses but CSDS'. >> >> e) You have stated without evidence that The Times of India is >> pro-Congress but even if that were to be considered a proven fact, it >> does not by implication mean that all their employees are Congress >> sycophants, and even if it did it wouldn't make Nandy do so >> because he >> is not a Times employee, and in any case the article itself speaks >> against the Congress. >> >> >> * >> >> That is just the first paragraph - 144 words - of your response. All >> the 245 words in the second paragraph amount to red herring(s) but I >> would repond to the points raised therein as well, if you respond to >> my three points above. Please reply, as I said, point by point, to >> make it comprehensible. >> >> And do read Nandy's short article, it is interesting. >> >> I will soon find the time to similarly analyse your response to >> Shuddha's response. >> >> Looking forward to your response. >> >> best >> shivam >> >> >> >> >> >> >> On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 5:23 PM, wrote: >> > >> > Dear Shuddha, >> > >> > sometimes I wonder whether any ethics and morals are left in >> these neo journalists who are working in visual media as anchors. >> ? As they so fluently talk about the IG of police as if they are >> above the law when they comment on the character of the 14 year >> child, as if these anchors are living a clean life.? >> > >> > And at times I wonder what made a brilliant social scientist >> to become a puppet in the hands of a channel with so many if and >> buts added for his pre poll survey in channel degrading himself >> along with channel and loss of credibilty.! >> > ----- Original Message ----- >> > From: Shuddhabrata Sengupta >> > Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 4:33 pm >> > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again >> > To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net >> > Cc: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् , sarai list >> >> > >> > > Dear Radhikarajen, >> > > >> > > Thank you for your pertinent critique on the Sarai Reader List of >> > > the >> > > way in which the media represents issues, particularly with regard >> > > to >> > > the murder of Hemraj Banjade and Arushi Talwar in NOIDA. I think >> > > that >> > > your thoughts on 'media trials' are salutary. Had newspapers >> and TV >> > > >> > > channels been more restrained in the matter of the way in which >> > > they >> > > report 'sensational' crimes, then the grave and malicious >> > > harrassment >> > > that had been the fate of S.A.R.Geelani in the '13 December' case >> > > might not have taken place. And nor would there have been currency >> > > for the hysterical and blood-thirsty demand for the execution of >> > > Muhammad Afzal Guru, which continues to beseige our consciousness >> > > today. I do hope that you, in the spirit of your own argument, >> will> > >> > > join me in condemning the irresponsible behaviour of much of the >> > > media in these instances. >> > > >> > > Having said that, I am a bit mystified by your anger against the >> > > condemnation of the strange attempt at filing a case on >> grounds of >> > > >> > > 'promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, >> > > race, place of birth and language' 'under Sections 153 A and B of >> > > the >> > > IPC against Ashis Nandy for his op-ed piece 'Blame the Middle >> > > Class' >> > > in the Times of India of January 8, 2008. Ashis Nandy is, in my >> > > opinion, one of the most acute analysts of political culture and >> > > modernity in South Asia. It is ironic that a person, who has >> > > maintained a life time of critique against the excesses of the >> > > state- >> > > secularist agenda in India, (for which he was at times >> unfairly and >> > > >> > > idiotically denounced as an apolgist of the hindu right by >> some un- >> > > intelligent so called 'left-liberal' critics) is someone you now >> > > are >> > > prepared to argue against, merely because he happens to have taken >> > > on >> > > the poster boy of hindutva hate-mongering, the chief minister of >> > > Gujarat, Narendra Damodarbhai Modi. To be fair to Nandy, there is >> > > no >> > > particular group that escapes the sharp edge of his sadness in his >> > > article on Gujarat. His words (in this particular article) >> > > criticize >> > > the actions done by people speaking in the name of Bengali Hindus, >> > > Kashmiri Muslims, Punjabi Sikhs, Non Resident Indians, Dalits and >> > > Adivasis and most of all - the middle classes. If all these kinds >> > > of >> > > people were to be united because they were all attacked by Ashis >> > > Nandy, then, we would see a rare example of the promotion of >> > > conviviality between groups that are otherwise expected to be at >> > > each >> > > others throats. Unfortunately, for you, and for the petitioner >> > > belonging to the Ahmedabad based National Council for Civil >> > > Liberties, there is as yet no provision in the the Indian Penal >> > > Code >> > > for the offense of the promotion of conviviality on grounds of >> > > religion, race, place of birth and language. >> > > . >> > > I find it equally strange that you should impute the >> sentiments and >> > > >> > > the analysis contained in Nandy's trenchant criticque of Moditva, >> > > (or >> > > should it be Moditude, or Modismo) to the antipathy of the Bennet >> > > Coleman Group, who happen to own the majority shares of the Times >> > > of >> > > India newspaper, and their so called pro Congress bias. It is >> > > instructive to do a careful analysis of the press that Modi and >> > > Modismo get in the Times of India's sister publication, the >> > > Economic >> > > Times, (which for my money, is the more serious of the two >> > > publications, the one that actually gets read by captains of >> > > industry >> > > and politics, not one that teenagers decorate their lockers with >> > > because it has scantily clad men and women, the publication of >> > > images >> > > of which, you will no doubt agree, is the primary reason for the >> > > Times of India to exist.) >> > > >> > > Now, were you to look at the Economic Times reportage of Modi, >> > > Modismo and Gujarat, you would find a glowing picture that would >> > > warm >> > > your hearts. All you (and everyone who is interested on this list) >> > > needs to do is to type Narendra Modi on the search bar of the >> > > Economic Times home page, and you will be showered by what looks >> > > like >> > > a public relations campaign for Gujarati Asmita and Modismo. >> > > >> > > You will find articles such as - >> > > >> > > Rajiv Gandhi Foundation finds Gujarat No 1 state >> > > >> > > Chairman of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani, today hailed >> > > Gujarat >> > > Chief Minister Narendra Modi saying that he has a "bias" for >> action.> > >> > > And there are many more where these came from. >> > > >> > > Even your own pet hate, the Times of India, has articles such as >> > > 'Women Mesmerised by Narendra Modi' >> > > >> > > What are we to make of this, other than that this is but an >> > > instance >> > > of the totally commonplace practice of a media group trying to >> > > placate all sides. So damn Modi in one article in one publication >> > > that you own, and then praise him to the skies in another. A >> > > detailed >> > > analysis of the politics of who reports what about whom, and when, >> > > in >> > > the Indian media can be an entertaining, and instructive >> diversion.> > >> > > What, however, are we to make of your own pathological anxiety >> > > whenever Shri Narendra Damodarbhai Modi is criticised ? You have >> > > (again) neatly sidestepped the substance of Ashis Nandy's critique >> > > and taken us on the pursuit of the red herring of the Times of >> > > India's pro-Congress bias, which for you, explains everything that >> > > there is to understand about what Ashis Nandy has written. >> Take a >> > > break from the computer, and go take a long look at the >> mirror, and >> > > >> > > you will see the visage of that same middle class Indian, >> quick to >> > > fume, quick to claim an injury to your precious pride, quick to >> > > demand that the slate be cleaned of all 'others', and short, >> > > tragically, comically short on anything like the ability to >> reflect> > >> > > on the tightening limits of the sources of your self. >> > > >> > > I sympathise with your predicament. It must be really hard, and >> > > sad, >> > > to be you. >> > > >> > > regards >> > > >> > > Shuddha >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > media trials of this sort were >> > > On 18-Jun-08, at 2:02 PM, radhikarajen at vsnl.net wrote: >> > > >> > > > Hi all, >> > > > >> > > > it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis at the >> > > drop >> > > > of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is >> > > > administrator and chief minister with the difference of of >> > > > governance of all in the same state without favour or fear >> as per >> > > >> > > > the oath he has taken to administer the state. Times of >> India and >> > > >> > > > its media group is owned by Bennet group which traditionally has >> > > > been political and supporting sycophants of Congress and media >> > > > generally feels if it has to be "secular" it has to bash hindu >> > > > sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times group is >> > > never >> > > > fair and free in its journalism and always favoured Congress and >> > > > its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and >> pritish is >> > > >> > > > no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest in >> > > journalism >> > > > by sycophancy. >> > > > >> > > > The worst part of it is this "secular"media can not >> digest the >> > > >> > > > fact that hindu society is slowly and steadily getting out of >> > > caste >> > > > conundrums and beginning to gel as one homogeneous society, >> while> > >> > > > muslim community is being systematically divided by christian >> > > > missions to achieve its divide and rule game, into smaller forms >> > > of >> > > > shias, sunnis and other denominations with terror as subtextt >> > > just >> > > > as the vote banks are getting divided between good >> governance and >> > > >> > > > sycophancy and secular media keeps on playing old footage of >> > > > "carnages so that they remain in the ghettos and wounds are >> never> > >> > > > allowed to heal.The ultimate goal of Sonia and her mafia is to >> > > > divided and rule with rome as its remote control which hindus >> > > have >> > > > understood except for a few handful of sycophants in >> Congress of >> > > > all faiths who have no mass base or electoral prospects and have >> > > to >> > > > live on doleouts of the mafia queen. These along with christian >> > > > mafia in the kitchen cabinet have used all those "journalists" >> > > and >> > > > "int >> > > > ellectuals" of modern day to devise the spins to bring back the >> > > old >> > > > lost horse of Congress in new avtar as christian brigade for the >> > > > crusade, while in comity of nations it is seen that Bush >> uses- >> > > the >> > > > terror and weapons of mass destruction as excuses to bring >> in his >> > > >> > > > form of democracy in the nations of muslim faith, first by >> attack> > >> > > > of shia dominated Afghanistan and then on Iraq for the imaginary >> > > > weapons of mass destruction.?---- Original Message ----- >> > > > From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् >> > > > Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 8:04 pm >> > > > Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again >> > > > To: sarai list >> > > > >> > > >> An organisation in Ahemdabad called National Council for Civil >> > > >> Liberties has filed a case against Ashis Nandy for his article >> > > in The >> > > >> Times of India in January after Modi's election victory. The >> > > case has >> > > >> been filed for for 'promoting enmity between different >> groups on >> > > >> grounds of religion, race, place of birth and language' >> > > [Sections 153 >> > > >> (A) and (B) of IPC]. >> > > >> >> > > >> 178 academics and intellectuals have signed a statement in >> protest,> > >> which is available at >> > > >> http://www.sacw.net/FreeExpAndFundos/defendNandy16June08.html >> > > >> >> > > >> Given below is the 'offending' article: >> > > >> >> > > >> o o o >> > > >> >> > > >> >> > > >> Blame The Middle Class >> > > >> >> > > >> By Ashis Nandy >> > > >> 8 Jan 2008 >> > > >> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/ >> > > >> >> LEADER_ARTICLE_Blame_The_Middle_Class/rssarticleshow/2681517.cms> >> > >> >> > > >> Now that the dust has settled over the Gujarat elections, >> we can >> > > >> afford to defy the pundits and admit that, even if Narendra >> Modi> > had>> lost the last elections, it would not have made much >> > > difference to >> > > >> the >> > > >> culture of Gujarat politics. Modi had already done his job. >> Most of >> > > >> the state's urban middle class would have remained mired in its >> > > inane>> versions of communalism and parochialism and the VHP and >> > > the Bajrang >> > > >> Dal would have continued to set the tone of state politics. >> Forty> > >> years of dedicated propaganda does pay dividends, >> electorally and >> > > >> socially. >> > > >> >> > > >> The Hindus and the Muslims of the state — once bonded so >> > > >> conspicuously >> > > >> by language, culture and commerce — have met the demands of >> both> > >> > > >> V D >> > > >> Savarkar and M A Jinnah. They now face each other as two >> hostile> > >> nations. The handful of Gujarati social and >> political activists who >> > > >> resist the trend are seen not as dissenters but as treacherous >> > > >> troublemakers who should be silenced by any means, including >> > > >> surveillance, censorship and direct violence. As a result, >> Gujarati> > >> cities, particularly its educational institutions >> are turning >> > > >> cultural >> > > >> deserts. Gujarat has already disowned the Indian Constitution >> > > and the >> > > >> state apparatus has adjusted to the change. >> > > >> >> > > >> The Congress, the main opposition party, has no effective >> > > leader. Nor >> > > >> does it represent any threat to the mainstream politics of >> Gujarat.> > >> The days of grass-roots leaders like Jhinabhai >> Darji are past >> > > and a >> > > >> large section of the party now consists of Hindu >> nationalists. The >> > > >> national leadership of the party does not have the courage to >> > > >> confront >> > > >> Modi over 2002, given its abominable record of 1984. >> > > >> >> > > >> The Left is virtually non-existent in Gujarat. Whatever minor >> > > >> presence >> > > >> it once had among intellectuals and trade unionists is now >> a vague >> > > >> memory. The state has disowned Gandhi, too; Gandhian politics >> > > arouses>> derision in middle-class Gujarat. Except for a few >> > > valiant old- >> > > >> timers, >> > > >> Gandhians have made peace with their conscience by >> withdrawing from >> > > >> the public domain. Gandhi himself has been given a saintly, >> Hindu> > >> nationalist status and shelved. Even the Gujarati >> translations> > of his >> > > >> Complete Works have been stealthily distorted to conform to the >> > > Hindu>> nationalist agenda. >> > > >> >> > > >> Gujarati Muslims too are "adjusting" to their new station. >> Denied> > >> justice and proper compensation, and as second-class >> citizens in >> > > >> > > >> their >> > > >> home state, they have to depend on voluntary efforts and donor >> > > >> agencies. The state's refusal to provide relief has been partly >> > > >> met by >> > > >> voluntary groups having fundamentalist sympathies. They supply >> > > aid >> > > >> but >> > > >> insist that the beneficiaries give up Gujarati and take to >> Urdu,> > >> > > >> adopt >> > > >> veil, and send their children to madrassas. Events like the >> > > >> desecration of Wali Gujarati's grave have pushed one of India's >> > > >> culturally richest, most diverse, vernacular Islamic traditions >> > > to >> > > >> the >> > > >> wall. Future generations will as gratefully acknowledge the >> sangh> > >> parivar's contribution to the growth of radical Islam >> in India >> > > as >> > > >> this >> > > >> generation remembers with gratitude the handsome >> contribution of >> > > >> > > >> Rajiv >> > > >> Gandhi and his cohorts to Sikh militancy. >> > > >> >> > > >> The secularist dogma of many fighting the sangh parivar has not >> > > >> helped >> > > >> matters. Even those who have benefited from secular lawyers and >> > > >> activists relate to secular ideologies instrumentally. They >> neither> > >> understand them nor respect them. The victims still >> derive> > solace >> > > >> from >> > > >> their religions and, when under attack, they cling more >> > > passionately>> to faith. Indeed, shallow ideologies of secularism >> > > have >> > > >> simultaneously >> > > >> broken the back of Gandhism and discouraged the emergence of >> > > figures>> like Ali Shariatis, Desmond Tutus and the Dalai Lama — >> > > persons >> > > >> who can >> > > >> give suffering a new voice audible to the poor and the >> powerless> > and>> make a creative intervention possible from >> within worldviews >> > > >> accessible to the people. >> > > >> >> > > >> Finally, Gujarat's spectacular development has underwritten the >> > > >> de-civilising process. One of the worst-kept secrets of our >> > > times is >> > > >> that dramatic development almost always has an >> authoritarian tail. >> > > >> Post-World War II Asia too has had its love affair with >> > > developmental>> despotism and the censorship, surveillance and >> > > thought control >> > > >> that go >> > > >> with it. The East Asian tigers have all been maneaters most >> of the >> > > >> time. Gujarat has now chosen to join the pack. Development >> in the >> > > >> state now justifies amorality, abridgement of freedom, and >> > > >> collapse of >> > > >> social ethics. >> > > >> >> > > >> Is there life after Modi? Is it possible to look beyond the 35 >> > > years>> of rioting that began in 1969 and ended in 2002? Prima >> > > facie, the >> > > >> answer is "no". We can only wait for a new generation that >> will,> > out>> of sheer self-interest and tiredness, learn to live >> with each >> > > other.>> In the meanwhile, we have to wait patiently but not >> > > passively to keep >> > > >> values alive, hoping that at some point will come a modicum of >> > > >> remorse >> > > >> and a search for atonement and that ultimately Gujarati >> traditions> > >> will triumph over the culture of the state's >> urban middle class. >> > > >> >> > > >> Recovering Gujarat from its urban middle class will not be >> easy.> > The>> class has found in militant religious nationalism a >> new self- >> > > respect>> and a new virtual identity as a martial community, the >> > > way Bengali >> > > >> babus, Maharashtrian Brahmins and Kashmiri Muslims at different >> > > times>> have sought salvation in violence. In Gujarat this class >> > > has smelt >> > > >> blood, for it does not have to do the killings but can plan, >> > > finance>> and coordinate them with impunity. The actual >> killers are >> > > the lowest >> > > >> of the low, mostly tribals and Dalits. The middle class >> controls> > the>> media and education, which have become hate >> factories in >> > > recent >> > > >> times. >> > > >> And they receive spirited support from most non-resident >> Indians> > who,>> at a safe distance from India, can afford to be more >> > > nationalist,>> bloodthirsty, and irresponsible. >> > > >> >> > > >> [The writer is a political psychologist.] >> > From taraprakash at gmail.com Fri Jun 20 22:24:18 2008 From: taraprakash at gmail.com (TaraPrakash) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:54:18 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again References: <9c06aab30806170733t48302bablf56c69c6427f5b82@mail.gmail.com><9c06aab30806190930u20fc56efj5ba9a21f72994fa8@mail.gmail.com> <9c06aab30806200928y3cb13e97k6191895fc809b769@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <027401c8d2f6$4a635230$befdbd48@taraprakash> Hi Shivam. I was not expecting a harsh reply on this. What I was expecting, however, was another www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/... link. I am planning to teach Argument this August onwards. I found sort of answer in your mails to my question "how the hell do you teach argument?" ----- Original Message ----- From: "Shivam Vij शिवम् विज्" To: Cc: "sarai list" ; "Shuddhabrata Sengupta" Sent: Friday, June 20, 2008 12:28 PM Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > Dear Radhikarajen, > > Thanks for your response and your apology. I hope most members of this > list will be accept it. > > However, I find it funny that you are explaining away your errors by > ascribing them to what the visual media coverage of the Arushi-Hemraj > double murder case has done to your mind. > > Yourr argument is silly on these counts: > > 1) If you don't like TV news channels, you don't have to watch them. > If you don't like the Arushi-Hemraj murder cases' coverage, use the > remote, watch BBC World or Discovery Travel and Living or MTV. It is > precisely because you (amongst millions of others) continue to watch > TV news channels for the Arushi-Hemraj case that they are continuing > with it. > > 2) To argue that the obsessive, sensationalist coverage of the > Arushi-Hemraj case had cluttered your brain and made your mindset > cynical, and cynical clutter affected you so much that you read Ashis > as Pritish and found an anti-Congress article to be pro-Congress, is > to say that your mental faculties for clear and illogical thinking are > extremely feeble. However, I don't think that is true, just that you > are intellectually dishonest. I wonder which is worse. However, if > former is the case, then you might soon want to see a psychiatrist. > > 3) As for the Times of India and the Indian Express, once again, buy > The Hindu. Don't blame them for the stupid act of ranting in the air > without having read the Nandy article. > > 4) The second part of your reply has nothing to do with anything > discussed so far. If you started your career as a journalist at a > salary of Rs. "10/-" then you must have started you career before > India attained independence! So you are trying to tell us that you are > a veteran journalist! And you think we'll take that seriously! Not > only are you a liar, but a very naive one. You must be 14. In any > case, your starting salary has nothing to do with the legal harassment > of Ashis Nandy over an article he wrote. > > 5) Given that you have apologised, may I please presume that you > unconditionally condemn the harassment through legal means of > Professor Ashis Nandy? Please let me know. Please answer that without > any rant against the media, or I'll throw my keyboard at you. > > best > shivam > > > > > > On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 3:05 PM, wrote: >> Dear Shivam' >> >> many sincere thanks for correcting my perceptions, days and nights >> bombarded by visual media anchors and their panellists with the coverage >> of dual murder case at Noida, mind was cluttered and cynical mindset did >> not grasp the finer aspects of life. Apologies to nandys, as it was sheer >> magnitude of the visual media and its correspondents who more or less >> resemble wrestlers with the mikes in their hands wrestling with a >> grieving family on the deaths, that made me very mad at these visual >> media as well as the coverage in the papers that i buy, Times of india >> and Indian express, which saw me reading speculation rather than >> reportage of events. >> >> Starting the career as journalist after graduation was not easy with >> 10/- salary and still, in those days with peanuts for lunch, filterless >> cigarettes and water as filler, we had not swayed to the rulers and did >> not speculate about the events, reported as honestly as possible without >> our views, views if any were disacussed with colleugaes and later came >> out as expression without prejudice, present day coverage of bias and >> partisan reportage with "stories" in media is some how is degrading the >> society in general, citizens in particular. >> >> But all the issues raised by you are correct, hence the apology.to all >> the members in the list about the nandy episode.! >> >> Regards. >> >> ----- Original Message ----- >> From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् >> Date: Thursday, June 19, 2008 10:00 pm >> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again >> To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net >> Cc: Shuddhabrata Sengupta , sarai list >> >> >>> Dear Radhikarajen, >>> >>> Your responses on this thread are a little intriguing, and I >>> wonder if >>> you would mind explaining them? >>> >>> Let us go point-by-point, so that you can also reply point by point. >>> This will prevent us from meandering from, well, the point, either >>> inadvertently or because of deliberate shifting of goal-posts. >>> >>> The post: Two days ago I posted an article written by Ashis Nandy in >>> the Times of India in January. I mentioned why I was posting the >>> article though not my views: a little known organisation in Ahemadabad >>> has filed a police case against Nandy for "'promoting enmity between >>> different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth and >>> language," which under the Indian Penal Code is a criminal offence. >>> >>> The protest: I gave out a link to a joint statement made in >>> protest of >>> this case by 178 academics and activists, who thought that this was >>> done for no reason other than legal harassment and intimidation. >>> >>> The article: In the article Ashis Nandy wrote that even if Modi had >>> lost the December 2007 elections, it wouldn't have made a difference >>> because thanks to the Gujarati middle class, the political culture of >>> Gujarat has been communalised to an extent that "recovering" it won't >>> be easy. For the situation he blames Hindus and Muslims, Congress and >>> Left, NGOs and Gandhians. And secularists. >>> >>> That is all. On Modi, Bajrang Dal, VHP, RSS, the Gujarat >>> government - >>> he just says things matter of fact and does not have much direct >>> condemnation or criticism to offer. His aim is not to attack them but >>> those who should be helping defuse the social and political crisis >>> cause d by the Hindutva forces. He does blame them for being the cause >>> of exacerbating "radical Islam" in India. >>> >>> On development: he is not denying Gujarat's "spectacular development" >>> but linking it to historical examples where development and >>> authoritarianism have gone hand in hand. >>> >>> Your first response: In your first response you make these points: >>> >>> 1) " it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis at the drop >>> of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is >>> administrator and chief minister with the difference of of governance >>> of all in the same state without favour or fear as per the oath he has >>> taken to administer the state." >>> >>> Now, as I paraphrased above, Nandy's article is not denying the >>> qualities you attribute to Modi's administrative skills and >>> governance. And he has found faults in many others but very few in >>> Modi. In fact, none in Modi: it is the Sangh Parivar in general. >>> >>> So what you are doing is, creating a straw man [ >>> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/straw-man.html ]. You are >>> representing Nandy as saying he never did, and then attacking him for >>> saying something he never did! >>> >>> >>> 2) "Times of India and its media group is owned by Bennet group which >>> traditionally has been political and supporting sycophants of Congress >>> and media generally feels if it has to be "secular" it has to bash >>> hindu sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times group is >>> never fair and free in its journalism" >>> >>> Having created your straw man and having attacked it, you begin to >>> explain it. You explain it by attacking the newspaper where Nandy's >>> article was published. Since the pro-Congress Times of India published >>> this article, the article must also be pro-Congress. How does it >>> matter that the article actually *attacks* the Congress! >>> >>> By doing so you are committing the logical fallacy of post hoc: >>> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/post-hoc.html >>> >>> Also the fallacy of circumstantial ad hominem: >>> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/circumstantial-ad- >>> hominem.html >>> The tone of the issue was the harassment of Nandy by legal means, but >>> you shift it to The Times of India and its alleged biases, which, as >>> Shuddha said, amount to a red herring: >>> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/red-herring.html >>> >>> As Shuddha demonstrated, there's been no dearth of pro-Modi, pro-BJP >>> articles in Times of India. The Times is not politically aligned like, >>> say, The Pioneer, The Hindu, the recently buried National Herald, or >>> even magazines such as India Today or Outlook. You are guilty of >>> making a hasty generalisation about the paper, and on that basis >>> applying it to Nandy just because the paper published Nandy's article >>> on its opinion-editorial page. See >>> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/hasty-generalization.html >>> Also, similarly, the fallacy of questionable cause: >>> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ignoring-a-common-cause.html >>> >>> Please also note that newspapers don't have TRP ratings, and that if >>> most people in Gujarat vote for Modi, publishing anti-Modi articles >>> would affect the Times of India's circulation in Gujarat adversely, >>> not positively. >>> >>> 3) "and its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and pritish >>> is no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest in journalism >>> by sycophancy" >>> >>> This is my favourite set of words in your response. Your attention >>> span and presence of mind are both so feeble that you confused Ashis >>> Nandy with one pritish! The article was not by pritish my dear >>> Radhikarajen, but by Ashis! Factual error! You cannot even save face >>> on this by claiming poor eyesight or broken glasses, because there's >>> no way 'Ashis' could read like 'pritish', even though Gujarat could >>> read like Gujarath :) >>> >>> And as you might now Ashis Nandy is a scholar at CSDS and not an >>> employee of The Times of India. The article introduced him as a >>> political psychologist, so he is clearly not a journalist, but this >>> detail was mentioned at the end of the article which you didn't even >>> glance carefully enough to realise which brother wrote it. >>> >>> If you read the article you would realise that it does not amount to >>> sycophancy of anyone, but, as Shuddha said, takes on *everyone*. >>> >>> I presume that you thought the article was by Pritish Nandy [ >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pritish_Nandy ] but even he is not an >>> employee of the Times of India or a journalist. He is a former editor >>> who also happens to be related to Ashis Nandy. >>> >>> By calling Pritish Nandy a sycophant for an article he did not write, >>> you are committing a personal attack [ >>> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/personal-attack.html ] >>> >>> I presume, with all the above evidence, that you did not even *read* >>> the Nandy article and began to attack it. No wonder about the straw >>> man then. >>> >>> I am not going to count and cite the number of logical fallacies you >>> make by calling pritish a sycophant, attributing the motive of >>> surviving in journalism to his sycophancy, and presuming that The >>> Times of India bosses are his bosses, who are pro-Congress, and so >>> therefore is Pritish. >>> >>> a) He is not pritish >>> >>> b) He is not a journalist, so he does not have to 'survive in >>> journalism' >>> c) He is therefore not forced to resort to sycophancy of anyone to >>> 'survive in journalism' >>> >>> d) He does not work at The Times of India, he merely wrote an article >>> for the paper, which they either commissioned or chose to publish. His >>> bosses are not The Times of India's bosses but CSDS'. >>> >>> e) You have stated without evidence that The Times of India is >>> pro-Congress but even if that were to be considered a proven fact, it >>> does not by implication mean that all their employees are Congress >>> sycophants, and even if it did it wouldn't make Nandy do so >>> because he >>> is not a Times employee, and in any case the article itself speaks >>> against the Congress. >>> >>> >>> * >>> >>> That is just the first paragraph - 144 words - of your response. All >>> the 245 words in the second paragraph amount to red herring(s) but I >>> would repond to the points raised therein as well, if you respond to >>> my three points above. Please reply, as I said, point by point, to >>> make it comprehensible. >>> >>> And do read Nandy's short article, it is interesting. >>> >>> I will soon find the time to similarly analyse your response to >>> Shuddha's response. >>> >>> Looking forward to your response. >>> >>> best >>> shivam >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 5:23 PM, wrote: >>> > >>> > Dear Shuddha, >>> > >>> > sometimes I wonder whether any ethics and morals are left in >>> these neo journalists who are working in visual media as anchors. >>> ? As they so fluently talk about the IG of police as if they are >>> above the law when they comment on the character of the 14 year >>> child, as if these anchors are living a clean life.? >>> > >>> > And at times I wonder what made a brilliant social scientist >>> to become a puppet in the hands of a channel with so many if and >>> buts added for his pre poll survey in channel degrading himself >>> along with channel and loss of credibilty.! >>> > ----- Original Message ----- >>> > From: Shuddhabrata Sengupta >>> > Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 4:33 pm >>> > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again >>> > To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net >>> > Cc: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् , sarai list >>> >>> > >>> > > Dear Radhikarajen, >>> > > >>> > > Thank you for your pertinent critique on the Sarai Reader List of >>> > > the >>> > > way in which the media represents issues, particularly with regard >>> > > to >>> > > the murder of Hemraj Banjade and Arushi Talwar in NOIDA. I think >>> > > that >>> > > your thoughts on 'media trials' are salutary. Had newspapers >>> and TV >>> > > >>> > > channels been more restrained in the matter of the way in which >>> > > they >>> > > report 'sensational' crimes, then the grave and malicious >>> > > harrassment >>> > > that had been the fate of S.A.R.Geelani in the '13 December' case >>> > > might not have taken place. And nor would there have been currency >>> > > for the hysterical and blood-thirsty demand for the execution of >>> > > Muhammad Afzal Guru, which continues to beseige our consciousness >>> > > today. I do hope that you, in the spirit of your own argument, >>> will> > >>> > > join me in condemning the irresponsible behaviour of much of the >>> > > media in these instances. >>> > > >>> > > Having said that, I am a bit mystified by your anger against the >>> > > condemnation of the strange attempt at filing a case on >>> grounds of >>> > > >>> > > 'promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, >>> > > race, place of birth and language' 'under Sections 153 A and B of >>> > > the >>> > > IPC against Ashis Nandy for his op-ed piece 'Blame the Middle >>> > > Class' >>> > > in the Times of India of January 8, 2008. Ashis Nandy is, in my >>> > > opinion, one of the most acute analysts of political culture and >>> > > modernity in South Asia. It is ironic that a person, who has >>> > > maintained a life time of critique against the excesses of the >>> > > state- >>> > > secularist agenda in India, (for which he was at times >>> unfairly and >>> > > >>> > > idiotically denounced as an apolgist of the hindu right by >>> some un- >>> > > intelligent so called 'left-liberal' critics) is someone you now >>> > > are >>> > > prepared to argue against, merely because he happens to have taken >>> > > on >>> > > the poster boy of hindutva hate-mongering, the chief minister of >>> > > Gujarat, Narendra Damodarbhai Modi. To be fair to Nandy, there is >>> > > no >>> > > particular group that escapes the sharp edge of his sadness in his >>> > > article on Gujarat. His words (in this particular article) >>> > > criticize >>> > > the actions done by people speaking in the name of Bengali Hindus, >>> > > Kashmiri Muslims, Punjabi Sikhs, Non Resident Indians, Dalits and >>> > > Adivasis and most of all - the middle classes. If all these kinds >>> > > of >>> > > people were to be united because they were all attacked by Ashis >>> > > Nandy, then, we would see a rare example of the promotion of >>> > > conviviality between groups that are otherwise expected to be at >>> > > each >>> > > others throats. Unfortunately, for you, and for the petitioner >>> > > belonging to the Ahmedabad based National Council for Civil >>> > > Liberties, there is as yet no provision in the the Indian Penal >>> > > Code >>> > > for the offense of the promotion of conviviality on grounds of >>> > > religion, race, place of birth and language. >>> > > . >>> > > I find it equally strange that you should impute the >>> sentiments and >>> > > >>> > > the analysis contained in Nandy's trenchant criticque of Moditva, >>> > > (or >>> > > should it be Moditude, or Modismo) to the antipathy of the Bennet >>> > > Coleman Group, who happen to own the majority shares of the Times >>> > > of >>> > > India newspaper, and their so called pro Congress bias. It is >>> > > instructive to do a careful analysis of the press that Modi and >>> > > Modismo get in the Times of India's sister publication, the >>> > > Economic >>> > > Times, (which for my money, is the more serious of the two >>> > > publications, the one that actually gets read by captains of >>> > > industry >>> > > and politics, not one that teenagers decorate their lockers with >>> > > because it has scantily clad men and women, the publication of >>> > > images >>> > > of which, you will no doubt agree, is the primary reason for the >>> > > Times of India to exist.) >>> > > >>> > > Now, were you to look at the Economic Times reportage of Modi, >>> > > Modismo and Gujarat, you would find a glowing picture that would >>> > > warm >>> > > your hearts. All you (and everyone who is interested on this list) >>> > > needs to do is to type Narendra Modi on the search bar of the >>> > > Economic Times home page, and you will be showered by what looks >>> > > like >>> > > a public relations campaign for Gujarati Asmita and Modismo. >>> > > >>> > > You will find articles such as - >>> > > >>> > > Rajiv Gandhi Foundation finds Gujarat No 1 state >>> > > >>> > > Chairman of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani, today hailed >>> > > Gujarat >>> > > Chief Minister Narendra Modi saying that he has a "bias" for >>> action.> > >>> > > And there are many more where these came from. >>> > > >>> > > Even your own pet hate, the Times of India, has articles such as >>> > > 'Women Mesmerised by Narendra Modi' >>> > > >>> > > What are we to make of this, other than that this is but an >>> > > instance >>> > > of the totally commonplace practice of a media group trying to >>> > > placate all sides. So damn Modi in one article in one publication >>> > > that you own, and then praise him to the skies in another. A >>> > > detailed >>> > > analysis of the politics of who reports what about whom, and when, >>> > > in >>> > > the Indian media can be an entertaining, and instructive >>> diversion.> > >>> > > What, however, are we to make of your own pathological anxiety >>> > > whenever Shri Narendra Damodarbhai Modi is criticised ? You have >>> > > (again) neatly sidestepped the substance of Ashis Nandy's critique >>> > > and taken us on the pursuit of the red herring of the Times of >>> > > India's pro-Congress bias, which for you, explains everything that >>> > > there is to understand about what Ashis Nandy has written. >>> Take a >>> > > break from the computer, and go take a long look at the >>> mirror, and >>> > > >>> > > you will see the visage of that same middle class Indian, >>> quick to >>> > > fume, quick to claim an injury to your precious pride, quick to >>> > > demand that the slate be cleaned of all 'others', and short, >>> > > tragically, comically short on anything like the ability to >>> reflect> > >>> > > on the tightening limits of the sources of your self. >>> > > >>> > > I sympathise with your predicament. It must be really hard, and >>> > > sad, >>> > > to be you. >>> > > >>> > > regards >>> > > >>> > > Shuddha >>> > > >>> > > >>> > > >>> > > >>> > > >>> > > >>> > > >>> > > >>> > > >>> > > media trials of this sort were >>> > > On 18-Jun-08, at 2:02 PM, radhikarajen at vsnl.net wrote: >>> > > >>> > > > Hi all, >>> > > > >>> > > > it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis at the >>> > > drop >>> > > > of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is >>> > > > administrator and chief minister with the difference of of >>> > > > governance of all in the same state without favour or fear >>> as per >>> > > >>> > > > the oath he has taken to administer the state. Times of >>> India and >>> > > >>> > > > its media group is owned by Bennet group which traditionally has >>> > > > been political and supporting sycophants of Congress and media >>> > > > generally feels if it has to be "secular" it has to bash hindu >>> > > > sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times group is >>> > > never >>> > > > fair and free in its journalism and always favoured Congress and >>> > > > its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and >>> pritish is >>> > > >>> > > > no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest in >>> > > journalism >>> > > > by sycophancy. >>> > > > >>> > > > The worst part of it is this "secular"media can not >>> digest the >>> > > >>> > > > fact that hindu society is slowly and steadily getting out of >>> > > caste >>> > > > conundrums and beginning to gel as one homogeneous society, >>> while> > >>> > > > muslim community is being systematically divided by christian >>> > > > missions to achieve its divide and rule game, into smaller forms >>> > > of >>> > > > shias, sunnis and other denominations with terror as subtextt >>> > > just >>> > > > as the vote banks are getting divided between good >>> governance and >>> > > >>> > > > sycophancy and secular media keeps on playing old footage of >>> > > > "carnages so that they remain in the ghettos and wounds are >>> never> > >>> > > > allowed to heal.The ultimate goal of Sonia and her mafia is to >>> > > > divided and rule with rome as its remote control which hindus >>> > > have >>> > > > understood except for a few handful of sycophants in >>> Congress of >>> > > > all faiths who have no mass base or electoral prospects and have >>> > > to >>> > > > live on doleouts of the mafia queen. These along with christian >>> > > > mafia in the kitchen cabinet have used all those "journalists" >>> > > and >>> > > > "int >>> > > > ellectuals" of modern day to devise the spins to bring back the >>> > > old >>> > > > lost horse of Congress in new avtar as christian brigade for the >>> > > > crusade, while in comity of nations it is seen that Bush >>> uses- >>> > > the >>> > > > terror and weapons of mass destruction as excuses to bring >>> in his >>> > > >>> > > > form of democracy in the nations of muslim faith, first by >>> attack> > >>> > > > of shia dominated Afghanistan and then on Iraq for the imaginary >>> > > > weapons of mass destruction.?---- Original Message ----- >>> > > > From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् >>> > > > Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 8:04 pm >>> > > > Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again >>> > > > To: sarai list >>> > > > >>> > > >> An organisation in Ahemdabad called National Council for Civil >>> > > >> Liberties has filed a case against Ashis Nandy for his article >>> > > in The >>> > > >> Times of India in January after Modi's election victory. The >>> > > case has >>> > > >> been filed for for 'promoting enmity between different >>> groups on >>> > > >> grounds of religion, race, place of birth and language' >>> > > [Sections 153 >>> > > >> (A) and (B) of IPC]. >>> > > >> >>> > > >> 178 academics and intellectuals have signed a statement in >>> protest,> > >> which is available at >>> > > >> http://www.sacw.net/FreeExpAndFundos/defendNandy16June08.html >>> > > >> >>> > > >> Given below is the 'offending' article: >>> > > >> >>> > > >> o o o >>> > > >> >>> > > >> >>> > > >> Blame The Middle Class >>> > > >> >>> > > >> By Ashis Nandy >>> > > >> 8 Jan 2008 >>> > > >> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/ >>> > > >> >>> LEADER_ARTICLE_Blame_The_Middle_Class/rssarticleshow/2681517.cms> >>> > >> >>> > > >> Now that the dust has settled over the Gujarat elections, >>> we can >>> > > >> afford to defy the pundits and admit that, even if Narendra >>> Modi> > had>> lost the last elections, it would not have made much >>> > > difference to >>> > > >> the >>> > > >> culture of Gujarat politics. Modi had already done his job. >>> Most of >>> > > >> the state's urban middle class would have remained mired in its >>> > > inane>> versions of communalism and parochialism and the VHP and >>> > > the Bajrang >>> > > >> Dal would have continued to set the tone of state politics. >>> Forty> > >> years of dedicated propaganda does pay dividends, >>> electorally and >>> > > >> socially. >>> > > >> >>> > > >> The Hindus and the Muslims of the state — once bonded so >>> > > >> conspicuously >>> > > >> by language, culture and commerce — have met the demands of >>> both> > >>> > > >> V D >>> > > >> Savarkar and M A Jinnah. They now face each other as two >>> hostile> > >> nations. The handful of Gujarati social and >>> political activists who >>> > > >> resist the trend are seen not as dissenters but as treacherous >>> > > >> troublemakers who should be silenced by any means, including >>> > > >> surveillance, censorship and direct violence. As a result, >>> Gujarati> > >> cities, particularly its educational institutions >>> are turning >>> > > >> cultural >>> > > >> deserts. Gujarat has already disowned the Indian Constitution >>> > > and the >>> > > >> state apparatus has adjusted to the change. >>> > > >> >>> > > >> The Congress, the main opposition party, has no effective >>> > > leader. Nor >>> > > >> does it represent any threat to the mainstream politics of >>> Gujarat.> > >> The days of grass-roots leaders like Jhinabhai >>> Darji are past >>> > > and a >>> > > >> large section of the party now consists of Hindu >>> nationalists. The >>> > > >> national leadership of the party does not have the courage to >>> > > >> confront >>> > > >> Modi over 2002, given its abominable record of 1984. >>> > > >> >>> > > >> The Left is virtually non-existent in Gujarat. Whatever minor >>> > > >> presence >>> > > >> it once had among intellectuals and trade unionists is now >>> a vague >>> > > >> memory. The state has disowned Gandhi, too; Gandhian politics >>> > > arouses>> derision in middle-class Gujarat. Except for a few >>> > > valiant old- >>> > > >> timers, >>> > > >> Gandhians have made peace with their conscience by >>> withdrawing from >>> > > >> the public domain. Gandhi himself has been given a saintly, >>> Hindu> > >> nationalist status and shelved. Even the Gujarati >>> translations> > of his >>> > > >> Complete Works have been stealthily distorted to conform to the >>> > > Hindu>> nationalist agenda. >>> > > >> >>> > > >> Gujarati Muslims too are "adjusting" to their new station. >>> Denied> > >> justice and proper compensation, and as second-class >>> citizens in >>> > > >>> > > >> their >>> > > >> home state, they have to depend on voluntary efforts and donor >>> > > >> agencies. The state's refusal to provide relief has been partly >>> > > >> met by >>> > > >> voluntary groups having fundamentalist sympathies. They supply >>> > > aid >>> > > >> but >>> > > >> insist that the beneficiaries give up Gujarati and take to >>> Urdu,> > >>> > > >> adopt >>> > > >> veil, and send their children to madrassas. Events like the >>> > > >> desecration of Wali Gujarati's grave have pushed one of India's >>> > > >> culturally richest, most diverse, vernacular Islamic traditions >>> > > to >>> > > >> the >>> > > >> wall. Future generations will as gratefully acknowledge the >>> sangh> > >> parivar's contribution to the growth of radical Islam >>> in India >>> > > as >>> > > >> this >>> > > >> generation remembers with gratitude the handsome >>> contribution of >>> > > >>> > > >> Rajiv >>> > > >> Gandhi and his cohorts to Sikh militancy. >>> > > >> >>> > > >> The secularist dogma of many fighting the sangh parivar has not >>> > > >> helped >>> > > >> matters. Even those who have benefited from secular lawyers and >>> > > >> activists relate to secular ideologies instrumentally. They >>> neither> > >> understand them nor respect them. The victims still >>> derive> > solace >>> > > >> from >>> > > >> their religions and, when under attack, they cling more >>> > > passionately>> to faith. Indeed, shallow ideologies of secularism >>> > > have >>> > > >> simultaneously >>> > > >> broken the back of Gandhism and discouraged the emergence of >>> > > figures>> like Ali Shariatis, Desmond Tutus and the Dalai Lama — >>> > > persons >>> > > >> who can >>> > > >> give suffering a new voice audible to the poor and the >>> powerless> > and>> make a creative intervention possible from >>> within worldviews >>> > > >> accessible to the people. >>> > > >> >>> > > >> Finally, Gujarat's spectacular development has underwritten the >>> > > >> de-civilising process. One of the worst-kept secrets of our >>> > > times is >>> > > >> that dramatic development almost always has an >>> authoritarian tail. >>> > > >> Post-World War II Asia too has had its love affair with >>> > > developmental>> despotism and the censorship, surveillance and >>> > > thought control >>> > > >> that go >>> > > >> with it. The East Asian tigers have all been maneaters most >>> of the >>> > > >> time. Gujarat has now chosen to join the pack. Development >>> in the >>> > > >> state now justifies amorality, abridgement of freedom, and >>> > > >> collapse of >>> > > >> social ethics. >>> > > >> >>> > > >> Is there life after Modi? Is it possible to look beyond the 35 >>> > > years>> of rioting that began in 1969 and ended in 2002? Prima >>> > > facie, the >>> > > >> answer is "no". We can only wait for a new generation that >>> will,> > out>> of sheer self-interest and tiredness, learn to live >>> with each >>> > > other.>> In the meanwhile, we have to wait patiently but not >>> > > passively to keep >>> > > >> values alive, hoping that at some point will come a modicum of >>> > > >> remorse >>> > > >> and a search for atonement and that ultimately Gujarati >>> traditions> > >> will triumph over the culture of the state's >>> urban middle class. >>> > > >> >>> > > >> Recovering Gujarat from its urban middle class will not be >>> easy.> > The>> class has found in militant religious nationalism a >>> new self- >>> > > respect>> and a new virtual identity as a martial community, the >>> > > way Bengali >>> > > >> babus, Maharashtrian Brahmins and Kashmiri Muslims at different >>> > > times>> have sought salvation in violence. In Gujarat this class >>> > > has smelt >>> > > >> blood, for it does not have to do the killings but can plan, >>> > > finance>> and coordinate them with impunity. The actual >>> killers are >>> > > the lowest >>> > > >> of the low, mostly tribals and Dalits. The middle class >>> controls> > the>> media and education, which have become hate >>> factories in >>> > > recent >>> > > >> times. >>> > > >> And they receive spirited support from most non-resident >>> Indians> > who,>> at a safe distance from India, can afford to be more >>> > > nationalist,>> bloodthirsty, and irresponsible. >>> > > >> >>> > > >> [The writer is a political psychologist.] >>> >> > _________________________________________ > 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 aman.am at gmail.com Fri Jun 20 23:31:16 2008 From: aman.am at gmail.com (Aman Sethi) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 23:31:16 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Who needs Government when you have Chrysler? Message-ID: <995a19920806201101u310adf9cx1af616f5a3d31fb1@mail.gmail.com> In its attempt to ensure that North Americans continue to buy Chrysler's gas guzzling Grand Cherokee, the company has announced a 2.99$ fuel guarantee. According to the press release (appended below) - purchasers of a variety of chrysler cars can get a card the locks in the price of gas at 2.99$ for three whole years under the ingeniously titled "Lets Re-Fuel America" scheme. Under the scheme, you get card that allows you to refuel at participating fuel stations. Irrespective of the cost of fuel, the customer will be billed 2.99 ; chrysler will pay for the rest. Another wonderful way to save the planet from the country that churns out the most greenhouse gases every year. best a. Chrysler LLC Delivers Economic Stimulus; Protects Consumers from Rising Gas Prices for Three Years "Let's Refuel America" available throughout the U.S. exclusively at Chrysler, Jeep(R) and Dodge dealerships through June 2, 2008 Three-year price protection from volatile gas prices available on compact, mid-size and full-size models, minivans, crossovers and pickup truck models Seventy-six percent of customers cite rising gas prices as "top concern" Auburn Hills, Mich. - In response to direct customer feedback citing the prospect of rising gas prices as a top concern, Chrysler LLC today announces its own economic stimulus package: an exclusive gas price protection policy that eliminates the risk of further spikes in fuel prices. With the U.S. purchase of eligible Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge vehicles, customers can enroll in the "Let's Refuel America" program and receive a gas card that immediately lowers their gas price to $2.99 a gallon, and keeps it there for three years. The offer is available at 3,521 U.S. Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge dealerships through June 2, 2008, and is available on vehicles ranging from popular new compacts, crossovers and minivans to full-size diesel-powered pickup trucks. "Today we are proud to introduce an unprecedented program to help put customers' minds at ease and do something to help working people who are worried about the volatility of fuel prices and vehicle cost of ownership," said Jim Press, Vice-Chairman and President, Chrysler LLC. "The Let's Refuel America Price Guarantee puts money in your pocket today, and allows our customers to better manage their fuel expenses. And you can't get it anywhere else besides a Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge dealership." The Let's Refuel America program offers consumers a combination of the fuel price protection program and additional bonus cash up to $3,000 on available vehicles, including Chrysler PT Cruiser, Dodge Charger, Jeep Grand Cherokee, Dodge Dakota and Dodge Ram. The Let's Refuel America gas card program works when a customer purchases a new and unused Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge vehicle and selects the program in lieu of other available incentives. The customer is provided with the registration process documentation and registers providing their required personal information via the dedicated web site or toll-free 800 number. Once registered, the customer receives their gas card and separately, their Personal Identification Number (PIN) within 4 to 6 weeks of application. The customer then swipes their Let's Refuel America Gas Card at an eligible gas station, selecting up to 87 octane regular, E85 fuel or diesel fuel, and enters their PIN to begin the fueling process. After the fuel transaction occurs, the customer's personal credit card (identified in the registration process) is charged $2.99 per gallon. Let's Refuel America Eligibility The following vehicles are eligible for the Let's Refuel America program: Small/Compact Car Dodge Caliber, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Chrysler PT Cruiser Convertible Mid-size Car Dodge Avenger, Chrysler Sebring, Chrysler Sebring Convertible Large Car Dodge Charger, Chrysler 300, Dodge Magnum Crossover Dodge Journey Minivan Dodge Grand Caravan, Chrysler Town and Country Compact SUV Jeep Patriot, Jeep Compass Mid-size SUV Dodge Nitro, Jeep Liberty Large SUV Jeep Grand Cherokee, Jeep Commander, Dodge Durango, Chrysler Aspen Pickup Truck Dodge Dakota, Dodge Ram, Dodge Ram HD The following vehicles are not eligible for the Let's Refuel America program: All SRT models, Dodge Viper, Dodge Challenger, Dodge Ram Chassis Cab, Chrysler Crossfire, Jeep Wrangler and Dodge Sprinter. Select Program Offer $2.99 guaranteed fuel card for up to 3 years Offer valid with up to 87 octane regular unleaded fuel, E85 fuel or diesel fuel only, depending upon purchased vehicle* Yearly allotment of gallons provided Annual gallon allotment ends each year on 7/31 (first year ends 7/31/09) Enroll Easily register via a dedicated web site or by calling designated 1-800 number Personalized Let's Refuel America Gas Card arrives within 4-6 weeks of receipt of application Use & Save Use the Let's Refuel America Gas Card like any credit card – just swipe and type in your PIN to use From taraprakash at gmail.com Sat Jun 21 00:11:21 2008 From: taraprakash at gmail.com (TaraPrakash) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 14:41:21 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] Who needs Government when you have Chrysler? References: <995a19920806201101u310adf9cx1af616f5a3d31fb1@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <02cd01c8d305$3ca6f110$befdbd48@taraprakash> It looked more like a commercial for Chrysler than a criticism. Wonder if you wanted it to be like that. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Aman Sethi" To: "sarai list" Sent: Friday, June 20, 2008 2:01 PM Subject: [Reader-list] Who needs Government when you have Chrysler? > In its attempt to ensure that North Americans continue to buy > Chrysler's gas guzzling Grand Cherokee, the company has announced a > 2.99$ fuel guarantee. According to the press release (appended below) > - purchasers of a variety of chrysler cars can get a card the locks in > the price of gas at 2.99$ for three whole years under the ingeniously > titled "Lets Re-Fuel America" scheme. Under the scheme, you get card > that allows you to refuel at participating fuel stations. > Irrespective of the cost of fuel, the customer will be billed 2.99 ; > chrysler will pay for the rest. > > Another wonderful way to save the planet from the country that churns > out the most greenhouse gases every year. > best > a. > > Chrysler LLC Delivers Economic Stimulus; Protects Consumers from > Rising Gas Prices for Three Years > > > "Let's Refuel America" available throughout the U.S. exclusively at > Chrysler, Jeep(R) and Dodge dealerships through June 2, 2008 > Three-year price protection from volatile gas prices available on > compact, mid-size and full-size models, minivans, crossovers and > pickup truck models > > Seventy-six percent of customers cite rising gas prices as "top > concern" Auburn Hills, Mich. - In response to direct customer feedback > citing the prospect of rising gas prices as a top concern, Chrysler > LLC today announces its own economic stimulus package: an exclusive > gas price protection policy that eliminates the risk of further spikes > in fuel prices. With the U.S. purchase of eligible Chrysler, Jeep and > Dodge vehicles, customers can enroll in the "Let's Refuel America" > program and receive a gas card that immediately lowers their gas price > to $2.99 a gallon, and keeps it there for three years. The offer is > available at 3,521 U.S. Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge dealerships through > June 2, 2008, and is available on vehicles ranging from popular new > compacts, crossovers and minivans to full-size diesel-powered pickup > trucks. > > "Today we are proud to introduce an unprecedented program to help put > customers' minds at ease and do something to help working people who > are worried about the volatility of fuel prices and vehicle cost of > ownership," said Jim Press, Vice-Chairman and President, Chrysler LLC. > "The Let's Refuel America Price Guarantee puts money in your pocket > today, and allows our customers to better manage their fuel expenses. > And you can't get it anywhere else besides a Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge > dealership." > > The Let's Refuel America program offers consumers a combination of the > fuel price protection program and additional bonus cash up to $3,000 > on available vehicles, including Chrysler PT Cruiser, Dodge Charger, > Jeep Grand Cherokee, Dodge Dakota and Dodge Ram. > > The Let's Refuel America gas card program works when a customer > purchases a new and unused Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge vehicle and selects > the program in lieu of other available incentives. The customer is > provided with the registration process documentation and registers > providing their required personal information via the dedicated web > site or toll-free 800 number. Once registered, the customer receives > their gas card and separately, their Personal Identification Number > (PIN) within 4 to 6 weeks of application. The customer then swipes > their Let's Refuel America Gas Card at an eligible gas station, > selecting up to 87 octane regular, E85 fuel or diesel fuel, and enters > their PIN to begin the fueling process. After the fuel transaction > occurs, the customer's personal credit card (identified in the > registration process) is charged $2.99 per gallon. > > Let's Refuel America Eligibility > > The following vehicles are eligible for the Let's Refuel America program: > Small/Compact Car > Dodge Caliber, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Chrysler PT Cruiser Convertible > Mid-size Car > Dodge Avenger, Chrysler Sebring, Chrysler Sebring Convertible > Large Car > Dodge Charger, Chrysler 300, Dodge Magnum > Crossover > Dodge Journey > Minivan > Dodge Grand Caravan, Chrysler Town and Country > Compact SUV > Jeep Patriot, Jeep Compass > Mid-size SUV > Dodge Nitro, Jeep Liberty > Large SUV > Jeep Grand Cherokee, Jeep Commander, Dodge Durango, Chrysler Aspen > Pickup Truck > Dodge Dakota, Dodge Ram, Dodge Ram HD > The following vehicles are not eligible for the Let's Refuel America > program: > All SRT models, Dodge Viper, Dodge Challenger, Dodge Ram Chassis Cab, > Chrysler Crossfire, Jeep Wrangler and Dodge Sprinter. > Select Program Offer > $2.99 guaranteed fuel card for up to 3 years > > Offer valid with up to 87 octane regular unleaded fuel, E85 fuel or > diesel fuel only, depending upon purchased vehicle* > Yearly allotment of gallons provided > Annual gallon allotment ends each year on 7/31 (first year ends 7/31/09) > Enroll > Easily register via a dedicated web site or by calling designated 1-800 > number > Personalized Let's Refuel America Gas Card arrives within 4-6 weeks of > receipt of application > Use & Save > Use the Let's Refuel America Gas Card like any credit card – just swipe > and type in your PIN to use > _________________________________________ > 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 santhosh.kanipayur at gmail.com Fri Jun 20 13:17:28 2008 From: santhosh.kanipayur at gmail.com (Santhosh Kumar) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:17:28 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] FOREVER YOUNG: ViBGYOR Monthly Screening Message-ID: <19d498870806200047v53965154h1825509b9b8801d5@mail.gmail.com> ViBGYOR Film Collective Monthly Screening Kerala Sahitya Akademy Vyloppilly Hall, Thrissur, Kerala ** *Saturday, June 21, 2008 5.30pm * In connection with the World Music Day * * *Forever Young* India / MiniDV / 2008 / English, Khasi / 75min. Direction, Screenplay & Producer: Ranjan Palit Camera: Ranu Ghosh, Setu & Ranjan Palit Editing: Avishek Ghosh Sound: Suresh Rajamani This film is about 60-year-old Lou Majaw and his band 'Ace of Spades', who have been celebrating Bob Dylan's birthday in Shillong for the last 15years, by holding an annual tribute concert. -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From sonia.jabbar at gmail.com Sat Jun 21 10:23:33 2008 From: sonia.jabbar at gmail.com (S. Jabbar) Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 10:23:33 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Who needs Government when you have Chrysler? In-Reply-To: <02cd01c8d305$3ca6f110$befdbd48@taraprakash> Message-ID: Why, Santro is following in this hallowed tradition too. Haven't you seen the fuel discount ads? On 6/21/08 12:11 AM, "TaraPrakash" wrote: > It looked more like a commercial for Chrysler than a criticism. Wonder if you > wanted it to be like that. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Aman Sethi" > To: "sarai list" Sent: Friday, > June 20, 2008 2:01 PM Subject: [Reader-list] Who needs Government when you > have Chrysler? > In its attempt to ensure that North Americans continue to > buy > Chrysler's gas guzzling Grand Cherokee, the company has announced a > > 2.99$ fuel guarantee. According to the press release (appended below) > - > purchasers of a variety of chrysler cars can get a card the locks in > the > price of gas at 2.99$ for three whole years under the ingeniously > titled > "Lets Re-Fuel America" scheme. Under the scheme, you get card > that allows > you to refuel at participating fuel stations. > Irrespective of the cost of > fuel, the customer will be billed 2.99 ; > chrysler will pay for the rest. > > > Another wonderful way to save the planet from the country that churns > out > the most greenhouse gases every year. > best > a. > > Chrysler LLC Delivers > Economic Stimulus; Protects Consumers from > Rising Gas Prices for Three > Years > > > "Let's Refuel America" available throughout the U.S. exclusively > at > Chrysler, Jeep(R) and Dodge dealerships through June 2, 2008 > Three-year > price protection from volatile gas prices available on > compact, mid-size and > full-size models, minivans, crossovers and > pickup truck models > > > Seventy-six percent of customers cite rising gas prices as "top > concern" > Auburn Hills, Mich. - In response to direct customer feedback > citing the > prospect of rising gas prices as a top concern, Chrysler > LLC today announces > its own economic stimulus package: an exclusive > gas price protection policy > that eliminates the risk of further spikes > in fuel prices. With the U.S. > purchase of eligible Chrysler, Jeep and > Dodge vehicles, customers can enroll > in the "Let's Refuel America" > program and receive a gas card that > immediately lowers their gas price > to $2.99 a gallon, and keeps it there for > three years. The offer is > available at 3,521 U.S. Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge > dealerships through > June 2, 2008, and is available on vehicles ranging from > popular new > compacts, crossovers and minivans to full-size diesel-powered > pickup > trucks. > > "Today we are proud to introduce an unprecedented program > to help put > customers' minds at ease and do something to help working people > who > are worried about the volatility of fuel prices and vehicle cost of > > ownership," said Jim Press, Vice-Chairman and President, Chrysler LLC. > "The > Let's Refuel America Price Guarantee puts money in your pocket > today, and > allows our customers to better manage their fuel expenses. > And you can't get > it anywhere else besides a Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge > dealership." > > The > Let's Refuel America program offers consumers a combination of the > fuel > price protection program and additional bonus cash up to $3,000 > on available > vehicles, including Chrysler PT Cruiser, Dodge Charger, > Jeep Grand Cherokee, > Dodge Dakota and Dodge Ram. > > The Let's Refuel America gas card program > works when a customer > purchases a new and unused Chrysler, Jeep or Dodge > vehicle and selects > the program in lieu of other available incentives. The > customer is > provided with the registration process documentation and > registers > providing their required personal information via the dedicated > web > site or toll-free 800 number. Once registered, the customer receives > > their gas card and separately, their Personal Identification Number > (PIN) > within 4 to 6 weeks of application. The customer then swipes > their Let's > Refuel America Gas Card at an eligible gas station, > selecting up to 87 > octane regular, E85 fuel or diesel fuel, and enters > their PIN to begin the > fueling process. After the fuel transaction > occurs, the customer's personal > credit card (identified in the > registration process) is charged $2.99 per > gallon. > > Let's Refuel America Eligibility > > The following vehicles are > eligible for the Let's Refuel America program: > Small/Compact Car > Dodge > Caliber, Chrysler PT Cruiser, Chrysler PT Cruiser Convertible > Mid-size Car > > Dodge Avenger, Chrysler Sebring, Chrysler Sebring Convertible > Large Car > > Dodge Charger, Chrysler 300, Dodge Magnum > Crossover > Dodge Journey > > Minivan > Dodge Grand Caravan, Chrysler Town and Country > Compact SUV > Jeep > Patriot, Jeep Compass > Mid-size SUV > Dodge Nitro, Jeep Liberty > Large SUV > > Jeep Grand Cherokee, Jeep Commander, Dodge Durango, Chrysler Aspen > Pickup > Truck > Dodge Dakota, Dodge Ram, Dodge Ram HD > The following vehicles are not > eligible for the Let's Refuel America > program: > All SRT models, Dodge > Viper, Dodge Challenger, Dodge Ram Chassis Cab, > Chrysler Crossfire, Jeep > Wrangler and Dodge Sprinter. > Select Program Offer > $2.99 guaranteed fuel > card for up to 3 years > > Offer valid with up to 87 octane regular unleaded > fuel, E85 fuel or > diesel fuel only, depending upon purchased vehicle* > > Yearly allotment of gallons provided > Annual gallon allotment ends each year > on 7/31 (first year ends 7/31/09) > Enroll > Easily register via a dedicated > web site or by calling designated 1-800 > number > Personalized Let's Refuel > America Gas Card arrives within 4-6 weeks of > receipt of application > Use & > Save > Use the Let's Refuel America Gas Card like any credit card ­ just > swipe > and type in your PIN to use > > _________________________________________ > 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/> From radhikarajen at vsnl.net Sat Jun 21 12:33:53 2008 From: radhikarajen at vsnl.net (radhikarajen at vsnl.net) Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:03:53 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again In-Reply-To: <027401c8d2f6$4a635230$befdbd48@taraprakash> References: <9c06aab30806170733t48302bablf56c69c6427f5b82@mail.gmail.com> <"C8 292C97-9720-44DF-A7EA-D8CEFFF02C89"@sarai.net> <9c06aab30806190930u20fc56efj5ba9a21f72994fa8@mail.gmail.com> <"e3d7f15b4c 7f3.485bc026"@vsnl.net> <9c06aab30806200928y3cb13e97k6191895fc809b769@mail.gmail.com> <027401c8d2f6$4a635230$befdbd48@taraprakash> Message-ID: Dear Shivam, your reply betrays that you are neither capable of honest argument in a debate nor are you keen in exchange of thoughts, but gloating and going with killer instinct in the competetive world with your demeaning reply with absurd thoughts. If you want to score brownie points you are free citizen, entitled to it, but it shows how hollow is your concern for the society that you live in.! As to my remote, and my career with journalism, you are free to use your faculties to draw your own conclusions, which reflect your immature or mature mindset as they do not seem to be concerned about moral degradation in society and rightly so, in the present system only money matters and success at any cost seems to be credo/ achievement.? Regards. From: TaraPrakash Date: Friday, June 20, 2008 10:24 pm Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again To: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् , radhikarajen at vsnl.net Cc: sarai list , Shuddhabrata Sengupta > Hi Shivam. > I was not expecting a harsh reply on this. What I was expecting, > however, > was another > www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/... > > link. I am planning to teach Argument this August onwards. I found > sort of > answer in your mails to my question "how the hell do you teach > argument?" > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Shivam Vij शिवम् विज्" > To: > Cc: "sarai list" ; "Shuddhabrata Sengupta" > > Sent: Friday, June 20, 2008 12:28 PM > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > > > > Dear Radhikarajen, > > > > Thanks for your response and your apology. I hope most members > of this > > list will be accept it. > > > > However, I find it funny that you are explaining away your > errors by > > ascribing them to what the visual media coverage of the Arushi- > Hemraj> double murder case has done to your mind. > > > > Yourr argument is silly on these counts: > > > > 1) If you don't like TV news channels, you don't have to watch them. > > If you don't like the Arushi-Hemraj murder cases' coverage, use the > > remote, watch BBC World or Discovery Travel and Living or MTV. > It is > > precisely because you (amongst millions of others) continue to watch > > TV news channels for the Arushi-Hemraj case that they are continuing > > with it. > > > > 2) To argue that the obsessive, sensationalist coverage of the > > Arushi-Hemraj case had cluttered your brain and made your mindset > > cynical, and cynical clutter affected you so much that you read > Ashis> as Pritish and found an anti-Congress article to be pro- > Congress, is > > to say that your mental faculties for clear and illogical > thinking are > > extremely feeble. However, I don't think that is true, just that you > > are intellectually dishonest. I wonder which is worse. However, if > > former is the case, then you might soon want to see a psychiatrist. > > > > 3) As for the Times of India and the Indian Express, once again, buy > > The Hindu. Don't blame them for the stupid act of ranting in the air > > without having read the Nandy article. > > > > 4) The second part of your reply has nothing to do with anything > > discussed so far. If you started your career as a journalist at a > > salary of Rs. "10/-" then you must have started you career before > > India attained independence! So you are trying to tell us that > you are > > a veteran journalist! And you think we'll take that seriously! Not > > only are you a liar, but a very naive one. You must be 14. In any > > case, your starting salary has nothing to do with the legal > harassment> of Ashis Nandy over an article he wrote. > > > > 5) Given that you have apologised, may I please presume that you > > unconditionally condemn the harassment through legal means of > > Professor Ashis Nandy? Please let me know. Please answer that > without> any rant against the media, or I'll throw my keyboard at you. > > > > best > > shivam > > > > > > > > > > > > On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 3:05 PM, wrote: > >> Dear Shivam' > >> > >> many sincere thanks for correcting my perceptions, days and > nights > >> bombarded by visual media anchors and their panellists with > the coverage > >> of dual murder case at Noida, mind was cluttered and cynical > mindset did > >> not grasp the finer aspects of life. Apologies to nandys, as it > was sheer > >> magnitude of the visual media and its correspondents who more > or less > >> resemble wrestlers with the mikes in their hands wrestling with > a > >> grieving family on the deaths, that made me very mad at these > visual > >> media as well as the coverage in the papers that i buy, Times > of india > >> and Indian express, which saw me reading speculation rather > than > >> reportage of events. > >> > >> Starting the career as journalist after graduation was not > easy with > >> 10/- salary and still, in those days with peanuts for lunch, > filterless > >> cigarettes and water as filler, we had not swayed to the rulers > and did > >> not speculate about the events, reported as honestly as > possible without > >> our views, views if any were disacussed with colleugaes and > later came > >> out as expression withoutprejudice, present day coverage of > bias and > >> partisan reportage with "stories" in media is some how is > degrading the > >> society in general, citizens in particular. > >> > >> But all the issues raised by you are correct, hence the > apology.to all > >> the members in the list about the nandy episode.! > >> > >> Regards. > >> > >> ----- Original Message ----- > >> From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् > >> Date: Thursday, June 19, 2008 10:00 pm > >> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > >> To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net > >> Cc: Shuddhabrata Sengupta , sarai list > >> > >> > >>> Dear Radhikarajen, > >>> > >>> Your responses on this thread are a little intriguing, and I > >>> wonder if > >>> you would mind explaining them? > >>> > >>> Let us go point-by-point, so that you can also reply point by > point.>>> This will prevent us from meandering from, well, the > point, either > >>> inadvertently or because of deliberate shifting of goal-posts. > >>> > >>> The post: Two days ago I posted an article written by Ashis > Nandy in > >>> the Times of India in January. I mentioned why I was posting the > >>> article though not my views: a little known organisation in > Ahemadabad>>> has filed a police case against Nandy for > "'promoting enmity between > >>> different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth and > >>> language," which under the Indian Penal Code is a criminal > offence.>>> > >>> The protest: I gave out a link to a joint statement made in > >>> protest of > >>> this case by 178 academics and activists, who thought that > this was > >>> done for no reason other than legal harassment and intimidation. > >>> > >>> The article: In the article Ashis Nandy wrote that even if > Modi had > >>> lost the December 2007 elections, it wouldn't have made a > difference>>> because thanks to the Gujarati middle class, the > political culture of > >>> Gujarat has been communalised to an extent that "recovering" > it won't > >>> be easy. For the situation he blames Hindus and Muslims, > Congress and > >>> Left, NGOs and Gandhians. And secularists. > >>> > >>> That is all. On Modi, Bajrang Dal, VHP, RSS, the Gujarat > >>> government - > >>> he just says things matter of fact and does not have much direct > >>> condemnation or criticism to offer. His aim is not to attack > them but > >>> those who should be helping defuse the social and political crisis > >>> cause d by the Hindutva forces. He does blame them for being > the cause > >>> of exacerbating "radical Islam" in India. > >>> > >>> On development: he is not denying Gujarat's "spectacular > development">>> but linking it to historical examples where > development and > >>> authoritarianism have gone hand in hand. > >>> > >>> Your first response: In your first response you make these points: > >>> > >>> 1) " it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis at > the drop > >>> of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is > >>> administrator and chief minister with the difference of of > governance>>> of all in the same state without favour or fear as > per the oath he has > >>> taken to administer the state." > >>> > >>> Now, as I paraphrased above, Nandy's article is not denying the > >>> qualities you attribute to Modi's administrative skills and > >>> governance. And he has found faults in many others but very > few in > >>> Modi. In fact, none in Modi: it is the Sangh Parivar in general. > >>> > >>> So what you are doing is, creating a straw man [ > >>> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/straw-man.html ]. You are > >>> representing Nandy as saying he never did, and then attacking > him for > >>> saying something he never did! > >>> > >>> > >>> 2) "Times of India and its media group is owned by Bennet > group which > >>> traditionally has been political and supporting sycophants of > Congress>>> and media generally feels if it has to be "secular" it > has to bash > >>> hindu sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times > group is > >>> never fair and free in its journalism" > >>> > >>> Having created your straw man and having attacked it, you > begin to > >>> explain it. You explain it by attacking the newspaper where > Nandy's>>> article was published. Since the pro-Congress Times of > India published > >>> this article, the article must also be pro-Congress. How does it > >>> matter that the article actually *attacks* the Congress! > >>> > >>> By doing so you are committing the logical fallacy of post hoc: > >>> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/post-hoc.html > >>> > >>> Also the fallacy of circumstantial ad hominem: > >>> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/circumstantial-ad- > >>> hominem.html > >>> The tone of the issue was the harassment of Nandy by legal > means, but > >>> you shift it to The Times of India and its alleged biases, > which, as > >>> Shuddha said, amount to a red herring: > >>> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/red-herring.html > >>> > >>> As Shuddha demonstrated, there's been no dearth of pro-Modi, > pro-BJP > >>> articles in Times of India. The Times is not politically > aligned like, > >>> say, The Pioneer, The Hindu, the recently buried National > Herald, or > >>> even magazines such as India Today or Outlook. You are guilty of > >>> making a hasty generalisation about the paper, and on that basis > >>> applying it to Nandy just because the paper published Nandy's > article>>> on its opinion-editorial page. See > >>> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/hasty-generalization.html > >>> Also, similarly, the fallacy of questionable cause: > >>> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ignoring-a-common- > cause.html>>> > >>> Please also note that newspapers don't have TRP ratings, and > that if > >>> most people in Gujarat vote for Modi, publishing anti-Modi > articles>>> would affect the Times of India's circulation in > Gujarat adversely, > >>> not positively. > >>> > >>> 3) "and its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and > pritish>>> is no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest > in journalism > >>> by sycophancy" > >>> > >>> This is my favourite set of words in your response. Your attention > >>> span and presence of mind are both so feeble that you confused > Ashis>>> Nandy with one pritish! The article was not by pritish my > dear>>> Radhikarajen, but by Ashis! Factual error! You cannot even > save face =3E >>> on this by claiming poor eyesight or broken glasses, because > there's>>> no way 'Ashis' could read like 'pritish', even though > Gujarat could > >>> read like Gujarath :) > >>> > >>> And as you might now Ashis Nandy is a scholar at CSDS and not an > >>> employee of The Times of India. The article introduced him as a > >>> political psychologist, so he is clearly not a journalist, but > this>>> detail was mentioned at the end of the article which you > didn't even > >>> glance carefully enough to realise which brother wrote it. > >>> > >>> If you read the article you would realise that it does not > amount to > >>> sycophancy of anyone, but, as Shuddha said, takes on *everyone*. > >>> > >>> I presume that you thought the article was by Pritish Nandy [ > >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pritish_Nandy ] but even he is > not an > >>> employee of the Times of India or a journalist. He is a former > editor>>> who also happens to be related to Ashis Nandy. > >>> > >>> By calling Pritish Nandy a sycophant for an article he did not > write,>>> you are committing a personal attack [ > >>> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/personal-attack.html ] > >>> > >>> I presume, with all the above evidence, that you did not even > *read*>>> the Nandy article and began to attack it. No wonder > about the straw > >>> man then. > >>> > >>> I am not going to count and cite the number of logical > fallacies you > >>> make by calling pritish a sycophant, attributing the motive of > >>> surviving in journalism to his sycophancy, and presuming that The > >>> Times of India bosses are his bosses, who are pro-Congress, > and so > >>> therefore is Pritish. > >>> > >>> a) He is not pritish > >>> > >>> b) He is not a journalist, so he does not have to 'survive in > >>> journalism' > >>> c) He is therefore not forced to resort to sycophancy of > anyone to > >>> 'survive in journalism' > >>> > >>> d) He does not work at The Times of India, he merely wrote an > article>>> for the paper, which they either commissioned or chose > to publish. His > >>> bosses are not The Times of India's bosses but CSDS'. > >>> > >>> e) You have stated without evidence that The Times of India is > >>> pro-Congress but even if that were to be considered a proven > fact, it > >>> does not by implication mean that all their employees are Congress > >>> sycophants, and even if it did it wouldn't make Nandy do so > >>> because he > >>> is not a Times employee, and in any case the article itself speaks > >>> against the Congress. > >>> > >>> > >>> * > >>> > >>> That is just the first paragraph - 144 words - of your > response. All > >>> the 245 words in the second paragraph amount to red herring(s) > but I > >>> would repond to the points raised therein as well, if you > respond to > >>> my three points above. Please reply, as I said, point by > point, to > >>> make it comprehensible. > >>> > >>> And do read Nandy's short article, it is interesting. > >>> > >>> I will soon find the time to similarly analyse your response to > >>> Shuddha's response. > >>> > >>> Looking forward to your response. > >>> > >>> best > >>> shivam > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 5:23 PM, wrote: > >>> > > >>> > Dear Shuddha, > >>> > > >>> > sometimes I wonder whether any ethics and morals are left in > >>> these neo journalists who are working in visual media as anchors. > >>> ? As they so fluently talk about the IG of police as if they are > >>> above the law when they comment on the character of the 14 year > >>> child, as if these anchors are living a clean life.? > >>> > > >>> > And at times I wonder what made a brilliant social scientist > >>> to become a puppet in the hands of a channel with so many if and > >>> buts added for his pre poll survey in channel degrading himself > >>> along with channel and loss of credibilty.! > >>> > ----- Original Message ----- > >>> > From: Shuddhabrata Sengupta > >>> > Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 4:33 pm > >>> > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > >>> > To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net > >>> > Cc: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् , sarai list > >>> > >>> > > >>> > > Dear Radhikarajen, > >>> > > > >>> > > Thank you for your pertinent critique on the Sarai Reader > List of > >>> > > the > >>> > > way in which the media represents issues, particularly > with regard > >>> > > to > >>> > > the murder of Hemraj Banjade and Arushi Talwar in NOIDA. I > think>>> > > that > >>> > > your thoughts on 'media trials' are salutary. Had newspapers > >>> and TV > >>> > > > >>> > > channels been more restrained in the matter of the way in > which>>> > > they > >>> > > report 'sensational' crimes, then the grave and malicious > >>> > > harrassment > >>> > > that had been the fate of S.A.R.Geelani in the '13 > December' case > >>> > > might not have taken place. And nor would there have been > currency>>> > > for the hysterical and blood-thirsty demand for > the execution of > >>> > > Muhammad Afzal Guru, which continues to beseige our > consciousness>>> > > today. I do hope that you, in the spirit of > your own argument, > >>> will> > > >>> > > join me in condemning the irresponsible behaviour of much > of the > >>> > > media in these instances. > >>> > > > >>> > > Having said that, I am a bit mystified by your anger > against the > >>> > > condemnation of the strange attempt at filing a case on > >>> grounds of > >>> > > > >>> > > 'promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of > religion,>>> > > race, place of birth and language' 'under > Sections 153 A and B of > >>> > > the > >>> > > IPC against Ashis Nandy for his op-ed piece 'Blame the Middle > >>> > > Class' > >>> > > in the Times of India of January 8, 2008. Ashis Nandy is, > in my > >>> > > opinion, one of the most acute analysts of political > culture and > >>> > > modernity in South Asia. It is ironic that a person, who has > >>> > > maintained a life time of critique against the excesses of the > >>> > > state- > >>> > > secularist agenda in India, (for which he was at times > >>> unfairly and > >>> > > > >>> > > idiotically denounced as an apolgist of the hindu right by > >>> some un- > >>> > > intelligent so called 'left-liberal' critics) is someone > you now > >>> > > are > >>> > > prepared to argue against, merely because he happens to > have taken > >>> > > on > >>> > > the poster boy of hindutva hate-mongering, the chief > minister of > >>> > > Gujarat, Narendra Damodarbhai Modi. To be fair to Nandy, > there is > >>> > > no > >>> > > particular group that escapes the sharp edge of his > sadness in his > >>> > > article on Gujarat. His words (in this particular article) > >>> > > criticize > >>> > > the actions done by people speaking in the name of Bengali > Hindus,>>> > > Kashmiri Muslims, Punjabi Sikhs, Non Resident > Indians, Dalits and > >>> > > Adivasis and most of all - the middle classes. If all > these kinds > >>> > > of > >>> > > people were to be united because they were all attacked by > Ashis>>> > > Nandy, then, we would see a rare example of the > promotion of > >>> > > conviviality between groups that are otherwise expected to > be at > >>> > > each > >>> > > others throats. Unfortunately, for you, and for the petitioner > >>> > > belonging to the Ahmedabad based National Council for Civil > >>> > > Liberties, there is as yet no provision in the the Indian > Penal>>> > > Code > >>> > > for the offense of the promotion of conviviality on > grounds of > >>> > > religion, race, place of birth and language. > >>> > > . > >>> > > I find it equally strange that you should impute the > >>> sentiments and > >>> > > > >>> > > the analysis contained in Nandy's trenchant criticque of > Moditva,>>> > > (or > >>> > > should it be Moditude, or Modismo) to the antipathy of the > Bennet>>> > > Coleman Group, who happen to own the majority shares > of the Times > >>> > > of > >>> > > India newspaper, and their so called pro Congress bias. It is > >>> > > instructive to do a careful analysis of the press that > Modi and > >>> > > Modismo get in the Times of India's sister publication, the > >>> > > Economic > >>> > > Times, (which for my money, is the more serious of the two > >>> > > publications, the one that actually gets read by captains of > >>> > > industry > >>> > > and politics, not one that teenagers decorate their > lockers with > >>> > > because it has scantily clad men and women, the > publication of > >>> > > images > >>> > > of which, you will no doubt agree, is the primary reason > for the > >>> > > Times of India to exist.) > >>> > > > >>> > > Now, were you to look at the Economic Times reportage of Modi, > >>> > > Modismo and Gujarat, you would find a glowing picture that > would>>> > > warm > >>> > > your hearts. All you (and everyone who is interested on > this list) > >>> > > needs to do is to type Narendra Modi on the search bar of the > >>> > > Economic Times home page, and you will be showered by what > looks>>> > > like > >>> > > a public relations campaign for Gujarati Asmita and Modismo. > >>> > > > >>> > > You will find articles such as - > >>> > > > >>> > > Rajiv Gandhi Foundation finds Gujarat No 1 state > >>> > > > >>> > > Chairman of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani, today hailed > >>> > > Gujarat > >>> > > Chief Minister Narendra Modi saying that he has a "bias" for > >>> action.> > > >>> > > And there are many more where these came from. > >>> > > > >>> > > Even your own pet hate, the Times of India, has articles > such as > >>> > > 'Women Mesmerised by Narendra Modi' > >>> > > > >>> > > What are we to make of this, other than that this is but an > >>> > > instance > >>> > > of the totally commonplace practice of a media group > trying to > >>> > > placate all sides. So damn Modi in one article in one > publication>>> > > that you own, and then praise him to the skies > in another. A > >>> > > detailed > >>> > > analysis of the politics of who reports what about whom, > and when, > >>> > > in > >>> > > the Indian media can be an entertaining, and instructive > >>> diversion.> > > >>> > > What, however, are we to make of your own pathological anxiety > >>> > > whenever Shri Narendra Damodarbhai Modi is criticised ? > You have > >>> > > (again) neatly sidestepped the substance of Ashis Nandy's > critique>>> > > and taken us on the pursuit of the red herring of > the Times of > >>> > > India's pro-Congress bias, which for you, explains > everything that > >>> > > there is to understand about what Ashis Nandy has written. > >>> Take a > >>> > > break from the computer, and go take a long look at the > >>> mirror, and > >>> > > > >>> > > you will see the visage of that same middle class Indian, > >>> quick to > >>> > > fume, quick to claim an injury to your precious pride, > quick to > >>> > > demand that the slate be cleaned of all 'others', and short, > >>> > > tragically, comically short on anything like the ability to > >>> reflect> > > >>> > > on the tightening limits of the sources of your self. > >>> > > > >>> > > I sympathise with your predicament. It must be really > hard, and > >>> > > sad, > >>> > > to be you. > >>> > > > >>> > > regards > >>> > > > >>> > > Shuddha > >>> > > > >>> > > > >>> > > > >>> > > > >>> > > > >>> > > > >>> > > > >>> > > > >>> > > > >>> > > media trials of this sort were > >>> > > On 18-Jun-08, at 2:02 PM, radhikarajen at vsnl.net wrote: > >>> > > > >>> > > > Hi all, > >>> > > > > >>> > > > it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis > at the > >>> > > drop > >>> > > > of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is > >>> > > > administrator and chief minister with the difference of of > >>> > > > governance of all in the same state without favour or fear > >>> as per > >>> > > > >>> > > > the oath he has taken to administer the state. Times of > >>> India and > >>> > > > >>> > > > its media group is owned by Bennet group which > traditionally has > >>> > > > been political and supporting sycophants of Congress and > media>>> > > > generally feels if it has to be "secular" it has to > bash hindu > >>> > > > sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times > group is > >>> > > never > >>> > > > fair and free in its journalism and always favoured > Congress and > >>> > > > its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and > >>> pritish is > >>> > > > >>> > > > no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest in > >>> > > journalism > >>> > > > by sycophancy. > >>> > > > > >>> > > > The worst part of it is this "secular"media can not > >>> digest the > >>> > > > >>> > > > fact that hindu society is slowly and steadily getting > out of > >>> > > caste > >>> > > > conundrums and beginning to gel as one homogeneous society, > >>> while> > > >>> > > > muslim community is being systematically divided by > christian>>> > > > missions to achieve its divide and rule game, > into smaller forms > >>> > > of > >>> > > > shias, sunnis and other denominations with terror as > subtextt>>> > > just > >>> > > > as the vote banks are getting divided between good > >>> governance and > >>> > > > >>> > > > sycophancy and secular media keeps on playing old > footage of > >>> > > > "carnages so that they remain in the ghettos and wounds are > >>> never> > > >>> > > > allowed to heal.The ultimate goal of Sonia and her mafia > is to > >>> > > > divided and rule with rome as its remote control which > hindus>>> > > have > >>> > > > understood except for a few handful of sycophants in > >>> Congress of > >>> > > > all faiths who have no mass base or electoral prospects > and have > >>> > > to > >>> > > > live on doleouts of the mafia queen. These along with > christian>>> > > > mafia in the kitchen cabinet have used all > those "journalists" > >>> > > and > >>> > > > "int > >>> > > > ellectuals" of modern day to devise the spins to bring > back the > >>> > > old > >>> > > > lost horse of Congress in new avtar as christian brigade > for the > >>> > > > crusade, while in comity of nations it is seen that Bush > >>> uses- > >>> > > the > >>> > > > terror and weapons of mass destruction as excuses to bring > >>> in his > >>> > > > >>> > > > form of democracy in the nations of muslim faith, first by > >>> attack> > > >>> > > > of shia dominated Afghanistan and then on Iraq for the > imaginary>>> > > > weapons of mass destruction.?---- Original > Message ----- > >>> > > > From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् > >>> > > > Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 8:04 pm > >>> > > > Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > >>> > > > To: sarai list > >>> > > > > >>> > > >> An organisation in Ahemdabad called National Council > for Civil > >>> > > >> Liberties has filed a case against Ashis Nandy for his > article>>> > > in The > >>> > > >> Times of India in January after Modi's election > victory. The > >>> > > case has > >>> > > >> been filed for for 'promoting enmity between different > >>> groups on > >>> > > >> grounds of religion, race, place of birth and language' > >>> > > [Sections 153 > >>> > > >> (A) and (B) of IPC]. > >>> > > >> > >>> > > >> 178 academics and intellectuals have signed a statement in > >>> protest,> > >> which is available at > >>> > > >> > http://www.sacw.net/FreeExpAndFundos/defendNandy16June08.html>>> > > > >> > >>> > > >> Given below is the 'offending' article: > >>> > > >> > >>> > > >> o o o > >>> > > >> > >>> > > >> > >>> > > >> Blame The Middle Class > >>> > > >> > >>> > > >> By Ashis Nandy > >>> > > >> 8 Jan 2008 > >>> > > >> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/ > >>> > > >> > >>> LEADER_ARTICLE_Blame_The_Middle_Class/rssarticleshow/2681517.cms> > >>> > >> > >>> > > >> Now that the dust has settled over the Gujarat elections, > >>> we can > >>> > > >> afford to defy the pundits and admit that, even if Narendra > >>> Modi> > had>> lost the last elections, it would not have made much > >>> > > difference to > >>> > > >> the > >>> > > >> culture of Gujarat politics. Modi had already done his job. > >>> Most of > >>> > > >> the state's urban middle class would have remained > mired in its > >>> > > inane>> versions of communalism and parochialism and the > VHP and > >>> > > the Bajrang > >>> > > >> Dal would have continued to set the tone of state politics. > >>> Forty> > >> years of dedicated propaganda does pay dividends, > >>> electorally and > >>> > > >> socially. > >>> > > >> > >>> > > >> The Hindus and the Muslims of the state — once bonded so > >>> > > >> conspicuously > >>> > > >> by language, culture and commerce — have met the > demands of > >>> both> > > >>> > > >> V D > >>> > > >> Savarkar and M A Jinnah. They now face each other as two > >>> hostile> > >> nations. The handful of Gujarati social and > >>> political activists who > >>> > > >> resist the trend are seen not as dissenters but as > treacherous>>> > > >> troublemakers who should be silenced by any > means, including > >>> > > >> surveillance, censorship and direct violence. As a result, > >>> Gujarati> > >> cities, particularly its educational institutions > >>> are turning > >>> > > >> cultural > >>> > > >> deserts. Gujarat has already disowned the Indian > Constitution>>> > > and the > >>> > > >> state apparatus has adjusted to the change. > >>> > > >> > >>> > > >> The Congress, the main opposition party, has no effective > >>> > > leader. Nor > >>> > > >> does it represent any threat to the mainstream politics of > >>> Gujarat.> > >> The days of grass-roots leaders like Jhinabhai > >>> Darji are past > >>> > > and a > >>> > > >> large section of the party now consists of Hindu > >>> nationalists. The > >>> > > >> national leadership of the party does not have the > courage to > >>> > > >> confront > >>> > > >> Modi over 2002, given its abominable record of 1984. > >>> > > >> > >>> > > >> The Left is virtually non-existent in Gujarat. Whatever > minor>>> > > >> presence > >>> > > >> it once had among intellectuals and trade unionists is now > >>> a vague > >>> > > >> memory. The state has disowned Gandhi, too; Gandhian > politics>>> > > arouses>> derision in middle-class Gujarat. Except > for a few > >>> > > valiant old- > >>> > > >> timers, > >>> > > >> Gandhians have made peace with their conscience by > >>> withdrawing from > >>> > > >> the public domain. Gandhi himself has been given a saintly, > >>> Hindu> > >> nationalist status and shelved. Even the Gujarati > >>> translations> > of his > >>> > > >> Complete Works have been stealthily distorted to > conform to the > >>> > > Hindu>> nationalist agenda. > >>> > > >> > >>> > > >> Gujarati Muslims too are "adjusting" to their new station. > >>> Denied> > >> justice and proper compensation, and as second-class > >>> citizens in > >>> > > > >>> > > >> their > >>> > > >> home state, they have to depend on voluntary efforts > and donor > >>> > > >> agencies. The state's refusal to provide relief has > been partly > >>> > > >> met by > >>> > > >> voluntary groups having fundamentalist sympathies. They > supply>>> > > aid > >>> > > >> but > >>> > > >> insist that the beneficiaries give up Gujarati and take to > >>> Urdu,> > > >>> > > >> adopt > >>> > > >> veil, and send their children to madrassas. Events like the > >>> > > >> desecration of Wali Gujarati's grave have pushed one of > India's>>> > > >> culturally richest, most diverse, vernacular > Islamic traditions > >>> > > to > >>> > > >> the > >>> > > >> wall. Future generations will as gratefully acknowledge the > >>> sangh> > >> parivar's contribution to the growth of radical Islam > >>> in India > >>> > > as > >>> > > >> this > >>> > > >> generation remembers with gratitude the handsome > >>> contribution of > >>> > > > >>> > > >> Rajiv > >>> > > >> Gandhi and his cohorts to Sikh militancy. > >>> > > >> > >>> > > >> The secularist dogma of many fighting the sangh parivar > has not > >>> > > >> helped > >>> > > >> matters. Even those who have benefited from secular > lawyers and > >>> > > >> activists relate to secular ideologies instrumentally. They > >>> neither> > >> understand them nor respect them. The victims still > >>> derive> > solace > >>> > > >> from > >>> > > >> their religions and, when under attack, they cling more > >>> > > passionately>> to faith. Indeed, shallow ideologies of > secularism>>> > > have > >>> > > >> simultaneously > >>> > > >> broken the back of Gandhism and discouraged the > emergence of > >>> > > figures>> like Ali Shariatis, Desmond Tutus and the Dalai > Lama — > >>> > > persons > >>> > > >> who can > >>> > > >> give suffering a new voice audible to the poor and the > >>> powerless> > and>> make a creative intervention possible from > >>> within worldviews > >>> > > >> accessible to the people. > >>> > > >> > >>> > > >> Finally, Gujarat's spectacular development has > underwritten the > >>> > > >> de-civilising process. One of the worst-kept secrets of our > >>> > > times is > >>> > > >> that dramatic development almost always has an > >>> authoritarian tail. > >>> > > >> Post-World War II Asia too has had its love affair with > >>> > > developmental>> despotism and the censorship, surveillance and > >>> > > thought control > >>> > > >> that go > >>> > > >> with it. The East Asian tigers have all been maneaters most > >>> of the > >>> > > >> time. Gujarat has now chosen to join the pack. Development > >>> in the > >>> > > >> state now justifies amorality, abridgement of freedom, and > >>> > > >> collapse of > >>> > > >> social ethics. > >>> > > >> > >>> > > >> Is there life after Modi? Is it possible to look beyond > the 35 > >>> > > years>> of rioting that began in 1969 and ended in 2002? Prima > >>> > > facie, the > >>> > > >> answer is "no". We can only wait for a new generation that > >>> will,> > out>> of sheer self-interest and tiredness, learn to live > >>> with each > >>> > > other.>> In the meanwhile, we have to wait patiently but not > >>> > > passively to keep > >>> > > >> values alive, hoping that at some point will come a > modicum of > >>> > > >> remorse > >>> > > >> and a search for atonement and that ultimately Gujarati > >>> traditions> > >> will triumph over the culture of the state's > >>> urban middle class. > >>> > > >> > >>> > > >> Recovering Gujarat from its urban middle class will not be > >>> easy.> > The>> class has found in militant religious > nationalism a > >>> new self- > >>> > > respect>> and a new virtual identity as a martial > community, the > >>> > > way Bengali > >>> > > >> babus, Maharashtrian Brahmins and Kashmiri Muslims at > different>>> > > times>> have sought salvation in violence. In > Gujarat this class > >>> > > has smelt > >>> > > >> blood, for it does not have to do the killings but can > plan,>>> > > finance>> and coordinate them with impunity. The actual > >>> killers are > >>> > > the lowest > >>> > > >> of the low, mostly tribals and Dalits. The middle class > >>> controls> > the>> media and education, which have become hate > >>> factories in > >>> > > recent > >>> > > >> times. > >>> > > >> And they receive spirited support from most non-resident > >>> Indians> > who,>> at a safe distance from India, can afford to > be more > >>> > > nationalist,>> bloodthirsty, and irresponsible. > >>> > > >> > >>> > > >> [The writer is a political psychologist.] > >>> > >> > > _________________________________________ > > 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 radhikarajen at vsnl.net Sat Jun 21 12:41:27 2008 From: radhikarajen at vsnl.net (radhikarajen at vsnl.net) Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:11:27 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again In-Reply-To: <9c06aab30806200928y3cb13e97k6191895fc809b769@mail.gmail.com> References: <9c06aab30806170733t48302bablf56c69c6427f5b82@mail.gmail.com> <"C8 292C97-9720-44DF-A7EA-D8CEFFF02C89"@sarai.net> <9c06aab30806190930u20fc56efj5ba9a21f72994fa8@mail.gmail.com> <9c06aab30806200928y3cb13e97k6191895fc809b769@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Dear Shivam, by your standards are the journalists above law, just because they are journalists and can express any sort of lopsided jargons. ? When media is respected it is only because the personnel in media are at the thankless job of reflecting the society with good and bad in society and inducing the society and citizens to democratic life of good social values. But the way the present day personeel in media work with eye on trp and make a business of earning out of their news stories at whatever it takes make them loose their credibilty and make them as despisable as the blacksheeps in babudom and politics with their own type of politics.! Regards. ----- Original Message ----- From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् Date: Friday, June 20, 2008 9:58 pm Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net Cc: Shuddhabrata Sengupta , sarai list > Dear Radhikarajen, > > Thanks for your response and your apology. I hope most members of this > list will be accept it. > > However, I find it funny that you are explaining away your errors by > ascribing them to what the visual media coverage of the Arushi-Hemraj > double murder case has done to your mind. > > Yourr argument is silly on these counts: > > 1) If you don't like TV news channels, you don't have to watch them. > If you don't like the Arushi-Hemraj murder cases' coverage, use the > remote, watch BBC World or Discovery Travel and Living or MTV. It is > precisely because you (amongst millions of others) continue to watch > TV news channels for the Arushi-Hemraj case that they are continuing > with it. > > 2) To argue that the obsessive, sensationalist coverage of the > Arushi-Hemraj case had cluttered your brain and made your mindset > cynical, and cynical clutter affected you so much that you read Ashis > as Pritish and found an anti-Congress article to be pro-Congress, is > to say that your mental faculties for clear and illogical thinking are > extremely feeble. However, I don't think that is true, just that you > are intellectually dishonest. I wonder which is worse. However, if > former is the case, then you might soon want to see a psychiatrist. > > 3) As for the Times of India and the Indian Express, once again, buy > The Hindu. Don't blame them for the stupid act of ranting in the air > without having read the Nandy article. > > 4) The second part of your reply has nothing to do with anything > discussed so far. If you started your career as a journalist at a > salary of Rs. "10/-" then you must have started you career before > India attained independence! So you are trying to tell us that you are > a veteran journalist! And you think we'll take that seriously! Not > only are you a liar, but a very naive one. You must be 14. In any > case, your starting salary has nothing to do with the legal harassment > of Ashis Nandy over an article he wrote. > > 5) Given that you have apologised, may I please presume that you > unconditionally condemn the harassment through legal means of > Professor Ashis Nandy? Please let me know. Please answer that without > any rant against the media, or I'll throw my keyboard at you. > > best > shivam > > > > > > On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 3:05 PM, wrote: > > Dear Shivam' > > > > many sincere thanks for correcting my perceptions, days and > nights bombarded by visual media anchors and their panellists > with the coverage of dual murder case at Noida, mind was cluttered > and cynical mindset did not grasp the finer aspects of life. > Apologies to nandys, as it was sheer magnitude of the visual media > and its correspondents who more or less resemble wrestlers with > the mikes in their hands wrestling with a grieving family on the > deaths, that made me very mad at these visual media as well as the > coverage in the papers that i buy, Times of india and Indian > express, which saw me reading speculation rather than reportage of > events.> > > Starting the career as journalist after graduation was not > easy with 10/- salary and still, in those days with peanuts for > lunch, filterless cigarettes and water as filler, we had not > swayed to the rulers and did not speculate about the events, > reported as honestly as possible without our views, views if any > were disacussed with colleugaes and later came out as expression > without prejudice, present day coverage of bias and partisan > reportage with "stories" in media is some how is degrading the > society in general, citizens in particular. > > > > But all the issues raised by you are correct, hence the > apology.to all the members in the list about the nandy episode.! > > > > Regards. > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् > > Date: Thursday, June 19, 2008 10:00 pm > > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > > To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net > > Cc: Shuddhabrata Sengupta , sarai list > > > > >> Dear Radhikarajen, > >> > >> Your responses on this thread are a little intriguing, and I > >> wonder if > >> you would mind explaining them? > >> > >> Let us go point-by-point, so that you can also reply point by > point.>> This will prevent us from meandering from, well, the > point, either > >> inadvertently or because of deliberate shifting of goal-posts. > >> > >> The post: Two days ago I posted an article written by Ashis > Nandy in > >> the Times of India in January. I mentioned why I was posting the > >> article though not my views: a little known organisation in > Ahemadabad>> has filed a police case against Nandy for "'promoting > enmity between > >> different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth and > >> language," which under the Indian Penal Code is a criminal offence. > >> > >> The protest: I gave out a link to a joint statement made in > >> protest of > >> this case by 178 academics and activists, who thought that this was > >> done for no reason other than legal harassment and intimidation. > >> > >> The article: In the article Ashis Nandy wrote that even if Modi had > >> lost the December 2007 elections, it wouldn't have made a > difference>> because thanks to the Gujarati middle class, the > political culture of > >> Gujarat has been communalised to an extent that "recovering" it > won't>> be easy. For the situation he blames Hindus and Muslims, > Congress and > >> Left, NGOs and Gandhians. And secularists. > >> > >> That is all. On Modi, Bajrang Dal, VHP, RSS, the Gujarat > >> government - > >> he just says things matter of fact and does not have much direct > >> condemnation or criticism to offer. His aim is not to attack > them but > >> those who should be helping defuse the social and political crisis > >> cause d by the Hindutva forces. He does blame them for being > the cause > >> of exacerbating "radical Islam" in India. > >> > >> On development: he is not denying Gujarat's "spectacular > development">> but linking it to historical examples where > development and > >> authoritarianism have gone hand in hand. > >> > >> Your first response: In your first response you make these points: > >> > >> 1) " it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis at > the drop > >> of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is > >> administrator and chief minister with the difference of of > governance>> of all in the same state without favour or fear as > per the oath he has > >> taken to administer the state." > >> > >> Now, as I paraphrased above, Nandy's article is not denying the > >> qualities you attribute to Modi's administrative skills and > >> governance. And he has found faults in many others but very few in > >> Modi. In fact, none in Modi: it is the Sangh Parivar in general. > >> > >> So what you are doing is, creating a straw man [ > >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/straw-man.html ]. You are > >> representing Nandy as saying he never did, and then attacking > him for > >> saying something he never did! > >> > >> > >> 2) "Times of India and its media group is owned by Bennet group > which>> traditionally has been political and supporting sycophants > of Congress > >> and media generally feels if it has to be "secular" it has to bash > >> hindu sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times > group is > >> never fair and free in its journalism" > >> > >> Having created your straw man and having attacked it, you begin to > >> explain it. You explain it by attacking the newspaper where Nandy's > >> article was published. Since the pro-Congress Times of India > published>> this article, the article must also be pro-Congress. > How does it > >> matter that the article actually *attacks* the Congress! > >> > >> By doing so you are committing the logical fallacy of post hoc: > >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/post-hoc.html > >> > >> Also the fallacy of circumstantial ad hominem: > >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/circumstantial-ad- > >> hominem.html > >> The tone of the issue was the harassment of Nandy by legal > means, but > >> you shift it to The Times of India and its alleged biases, > which, as > >> Shuddha said, amount to a red herring: > >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/red-herring.html > >> > >> As Shuddha demonstrated, there's been no dearth of pro-Modi, > pro-BJP > >> articles in Times of India. The Times is not politically > aligned like, > >> say, The Pioneer, The Hindu, the recently buried National > Herald, or > >> even magazines such as India Today or Outlook. You are guilty of > >> making a hasty generalisation about the paper, and on that basis > >> applying it to Nandy just because the paper published Nandy's > article>> on its opinion-editorial page. See > >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/hasty-generalization.html > >> Also, similarly, the fallacy of questionable cause: > >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ignoring-a-common- > cause.html>> > >> Please also note that newspapers don't have TRP ratings, and > that if > >> most people in Gujarat vote for Modi, publishing anti-Modi articles > >> would affect the Times of India's circulation in Gujarat adversely, > >> not positively. > >> > >> 3) "and its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and > pritish>> is no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest > in journalism > >> by sycophancy" > >> > >> This is my favourite set of words in your response. Your attention > >> span and presence of mind are both so feeble that you confused > Ashis>> Nandy with one pritish! The article was not by pritish my dear > >> Radhikarajen, but by Ashis! Factual error! You cannot even save > face>> on this by claiming poor eyesight or broken glasses, > because there's > >> no way 'Ashis' could read like 'pritish', even though Gujarat could > >> read like Gujarath :) > >> > >> And as you might now Ashis Nandy is a scholar at CSDS and not an > >> employee of The Times of India. The article introduced him as a > >> political psychologist, so he is clearly not a journalist, but this > >> detail was mentioned at the end of the article which you didn't > even>> glance carefully enough to realise which brother wrote it. > >> > >> If you read the article you would realise that it does not > amount to > >> sycophancy of anyone, but, as Shuddha said, takes on *everyone*. > >> > >> I presume that you thought the article was by Pritish Nandy [ > >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pritish_Nandy ] but even he is not an > >> employee of the Times of India or a journalist. He is a former > editor>> who also happens to be related to Ashis Nandy. > >> > >> By calling Pritish Nandy a sycophant for an article he did not > write,>> you are committing a personal attack [ > >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/personal-attack.html ] > >> > >> I presume, with all the above evidence, that you did not even > *read*>> the Nandy article and began to attack it. No wonder about > the straw > >> man then. > >> > >> I am not going to count and cite the number of logical > fallacies you > >> make by calling pritish a sycophant, attributing the motive of > >> surviving in journalism to his sycophancy, and presuming that The > >> Times of India bosses are his bosses, who are pro-Congress, and so > >> therefore is Pritish. > >> > >=3E a) He is not pritish > >> > >> b) He is not a journalist, so he does not have to 'survive in > >> journalism' > >> c) He is therefore not forced to resort to sycophancy of anyone to > >> 'survive in journalism' > >> > >> d) He does not work at The Times of India, he merely wrote an > article>> for the paper, which they either commissioned or chose > to publish. His > >> bosses are not The Times of India's bosses but CSDS'. > >> > >> e) You have stated without evidence that The Times of India is > >> pro-Congress but even if that were to be considered a proven > fact, it > >> does not by implication mean that all their employees are Congress > >> sycophants, and even if it did it wouldn't make Nandy do so > >> because he > >> is not a Times employee, and in any case the article itself speaks > >> against the Congress. > >> > >> > >> * > >> > >> That is just the first paragraph - 144 words - of your > response. All > >> the 245 words in the second paragraph amount to red herring(s) > but I > >> would repond to the points raised therein as well, if you > respond to > >> my three points above. Please reply, as I said, point by point, to > >> make it comprehensible. > >> > >> And do read Nandy's short article, it is interesting. > >> > >> I will soon find the time to similarly analyse your response to > >> Shuddha's response. > >> > >> Looking forward to your response. > >> > >> best > >> shivam > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 5:23 PM, wrote: > >> > > >> > Dear Shuddha, > >> > > >> > sometimes I wonder whether any ethics and morals are left in > >> these neo journalists who are working in visual media as anchors. > >> ? As they so fluently talk about the IG of police as if they are > >> above the law when they comment on the character of the 14 year > >> child, as if these anchors are living a clean life.? > >> > > >> > And at times I wonder what made a brilliant social scientist > >> to become a puppet in the hands of a channel with so many if and > >> buts added for his pre poll survey in channel degrading himself > >> along with channel and loss of credibilty.! > >> > ----- Original Message ----- > >> > From: Shuddhabrata Sengupta > >> > Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 4:33 pm > >> > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > >> > To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net > >> > Cc: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् , sarai list > >> > >> > > >> > > Dear Radhikarajen, > >> > > > >> > > Thank you for your pertinent critique on the Sarai Reader > List of > >> > > the > >> > > way in which the media represents issues, particularly with > regard>> > > to > >> > > the murder of Hemraj Banjade and Arushi Talwar in NOIDA. I > think>> > > that > >> > > your thoughts on 'media trials' are salutary. Had newspapers > >> and TV > >> > > > >> > > channels been more restrained in the matter of the way in which > >> > > they > >> > > report 'sensational' crimes, then the grave and malicious > >> > > harrassment > >> > > that had been the fate of S.A.R.Geelani in the '13 > December' case > >> > > might not have taken place. And nor would there have been > currency>> > > for the hysterical and blood-thirsty demand for the > execution of > >> > > Muhammad Afzal Guru, which continues to beseige our > consciousness>> > > today. I do hope that you, in the spirit of > your own argument, > >> will> > > >> > > join me in condemning the irresponsible behaviour of much > of the > >> > > media in these instances. > >> > > > >> > > Having said that, I am a bit mystified by your anger > against the > >> > > condemnation of the strange attempt at filing a case on > >> grounds of > >> > > > >> > > 'promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of > religion,>> > > race, place of birth and language' 'under Sections > 153 A and B of > >> > > the > >> > > IPC against Ashis Nandy for his op-ed piece 'Blame the Middle > >> > > Class' > >> > > in the Times of India of January 8, 2008. Ashis Nandy is, > in my > >> > > opinion, one of the most acute analysts of political > culture and > >> > > modernity in South Asia. It is ironic that a person, who has > >> > > maintained a life time of critique against the excesses of the > >> > > state- > >> > > secularist agenda in India, (for which he was at times > >> unfairly and > >> > > > >> > > idiotically denounced as an apolgist of the hindu right by > >> some un- > >> > > intelligent so called 'left-liberal' critics) is someone > you now > >> > > are > >> > > prepared to argue against, merely because he happens to > have taken > >> > > on > >> > > the poster boy of hindutva hate-mongering, the chief > minister of > >> > > Gujarat, Narendra Damodarbhai Modi. To be fair to Nandy, > there is > >> > > no > >> > > particular group that escapes the sharp edge of his sadness > in his > >> > > article on Gujarat. His words (in this particular article) > >> > > criticize > >> > > the actions done by people speaking in the name of Bengali > Hindus,>> > > Kashmiri Muslims, Punjabi Sikhs, Non Resident > Indians, Dalits and > >> > > Adivasis and most of all - the middle classes. If all these > kinds>> > > of > >> > > people were to be united because they were all attacked by > Ashis>> > > Nandy, then, we would see a rare example of the > promotion of > >> > > conviviality between groups that are otherwise expected to > be at > >> > > each > >> > > others throats. Unfortunately, for you, and for the petitioner > >> > > belonging to the Ahmedabad based National Council for Civil > >> > > Liberties, there is as yet no provision in the the Indian Penal > >> > > Code > >> > > for the offense of the promotion of conviviality on grounds of > >> > > religion, race, place of birth and language. > >> > > . > >> > > I find it equally strange that you should impute the > >> sentiments and > >> > > > >> > > the analysis contained in Nandy's trenchant criticque of > Moditva,>> > > (or > >> > > should it be Moditude, or Modismo) to the antipathy of the > Bennet>> > > Coleman Group, who happen to own the majority shares > of the Times > >> > > of > >> > > India newspaper, and their so called pro Congress bias. It is > >> > > instructive to do a careful analysis of the press that Modi and > >> > > Modismo get in the Times of India's sister publication, the > >> > > Economic > >> > > Times, (which for my money, is the more serious of the two > >> > > publications, the one that actually gets read by captains of > >> > > industry > >> > > and politics, not one that teenagers decorate their lockers > with>> > > because it has scantily clad men and women, the > publication of > >> > > images > >> > > of which, you will no doubt agree, is the primary reason > for the > >> > > Times of India to exist.) > >> > > > >> > > Now, were you to look at the Economic Times reportage of Modi, > >> > > Modismo and Gujarat, you would find a glowing picture that > would>> > > warm > >> > > your hearts. All you (and everyone who is interested on > this list) > >> > > needs to do is to type Narendra Modi on the search bar of the > >> > > Economic Times home page, and you will be showered by what > looks>> > > like > >> > > a public relations campaign for Gujarati Asmita and Modismo. > >> > > > >> > > You will find articles such as - > >> > > > >> > > Rajiv Gandhi Foundation finds Gujarat No 1 state > >> > > > >> > > Chairman of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani, today hailed > >> > > Gujarat > >> > > Chief Minister Narendra Modi saying that he has a "bias" for > >> action.> > > >> > > And there are many more where these came from. > >> > > > >> > > Even your own pet hate, the Times of India, has articles > such as > >> > > 'Women Mesmerised by Narendra Modi' > >> > > > >> > > What are we to make of this, other than that this is but an > >> > > instance > >> > > of the totally commonplace practice of a media group trying to > >> > > placate all sides. So damn Modi in one article in one > publication>> > > that you own, and then praise him to the skies > in another. A > >> > > detailed > >> > > analysis of the politics of who reports what about whom, > and when, > >> > > in > >> > > the Indian media can be an entertaining, and instructive > >> diversion.> > > >> > > What, however, are we to make of your own pathological anxiety > >> > > whenever Shri Narendra Damodarbhai Modi is criticised ? You > have>> > > (again) neatly sidestepped the substance of Ashis > Nandy's critique > >> > > and taken us on the pursuit of the red herring of the Times of > >> > > India's pro-Congress bias, which for you, explains > everything that > >> > > there is to understand about what Ashis Nandy has written. > >> Take a > >> > > break from the computer, and go take a long look at the > >> mirror, and > >> > > > >> > > you will see the visage of that same middle class Indian, > >> quick to > >> > > fume, quick to claim an injury to your precious pride, > quick to > >> > > demand that the slate be cleaned of all 'others', and short, > >> > > tragically, comically short on anything like the ability to > >> reflect> > > >> > > on the tightening limits of the sources of your self. > >> > > > >> > > I sympathise with your predicament. It must be really hard, and > >> > > sad, > >> > > to be you. > >> > > > >> > > regards > >> > > > >> > > Shuddha > >> > > > >> > > > >> > > > >> > > > >> > > > >> > > > >> > > > >> > > > >> > > > >> > > media trials of this sort were > >> > > On 18-Jun-08, at 2:02 PM, radhikarajen at vsnl.net wrote: > >> > > > >> > > > Hi all, > >> > > > > >> > > > it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis at the > >> > > drop > >> > > > of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is > >> > > > administrator and chief minister with the difference of of > >> > > > governance of all in the same state without favour or fear > >> as per > >> > > > >> > > > the oath he has taken to administer the state. Times of > >> India and > >> > > > >> > > > its media group is owned by Bennet group which > traditionally has > >> > > > been political and supporting sycophants of Congress and > media>> > > > generally feels if it has to be "secular" it has to > bash hindu > >> > > > sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times > group is > >> > > never > >> > > > fair and free in its journalism and always favoured > Congress and > >> > > > its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and > >> pritish is > >> > > > >> > > > no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest in > >> > > journalism > >> > > > by sycophancy. > >> > > > > >> > > > The worst part of it is this "secular"media can not > >> digest the > >> > > > >> > > > fact that hindu society is slowly and steadily getting > out of > >> > > caste > >> > > > conundrums and beginning to gel as one homogeneous society, > >> while> > > >> > > > muslim community is being systematically divided by christian > >> > > > missions to achieve its divide and rule game, into > smaller forms > >> > > of > >> > > > shias, sunnis and other denominations with terror as subtextt > >> > > just > >> > > > as the vote banks are getting divided between good > >> governance and > >> > > > >> > > > sycophancy and secular media keeps on playing old footage of > >> > > > "carnages so that they remain in the ghettos and wounds are > >> never> > > >> > > > allowed to heal.The ultimate goal of Sonia and her mafia > is to > >> > > > divided and rule with rome as its remote control which hindus > >> > > have > >> > > > understood except for a few handful of sycophants in > >> Congress of > >> > > > all faiths who have no mass base or electoral prospects > and have > >> > > to > >> > > > live on doleouts of the mafia queen. These along with > christian>> > > > mafia in the kitchen cabinet have used all those > "journalists">> > > and > >> > > > "int > >> > > > ellectuals" of modern day to devise the spins to bring > back the > >> > > old > >> > > > lost horse of Congress in new avtar as christian brigade > for the > >> > > > crusade, while in comity of nations it is seen that Bush > >> uses- > >> > > the > >> > > > terror and weapons of mass destruction as excuses to bring > >> in his > >> > > > >> > > > form of democracy in the nations of muslim faith, first by > >> attack> > > >> > > > of shia dominated Afghanistan and then on Iraq for the > imaginary>> > > > weapons of mass destruction.?---- Original > Message ----- > >> > > > From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् > >> > > =3E Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 8:04 pm > >> > > > Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > >> > > > To: sarai list > >> > > > > >> > > >> An organisation in Ahemdabad called National Council for > Civil>> > > >> Liberties has filed a case against Ashis Nandy for > his article > >> > > in The > >> > > >> Times of India in January after Modi's election victory. The > >> > > case has > >> > > >> been filed for for 'promoting enmity between different > >> groups on > >> > > >> grounds of religion, race, place of birth and language' > >> > > [Sections 153 > >> > > >> (A) and (B) of IPC]. > >> > > >> > >> > > >> 178 academics and intellectuals have signed a statement in > >> protest,> > >> which is available at > >> > > >> > http://www.sacw.net/FreeExpAndFundos/defendNandy16June08.html>> > > > >> > >> > > >> Given below is the 'offending' article: > >> > > >> > >> > > >> o o o > >> > > >> > >> > > >> > >> > > >> Blame The Middle Class > >> > > >> > >> > > >> By Ashis Nandy > >> > > >> 8 Jan 2008 > >> > > >> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/ > >> > > >> > >> LEADER_ARTICLE_Blame_The_Middle_Class/rssarticleshow/2681517.cms> > >> > >> > >> > > >> Now that the dust has settled over the Gujarat elections, > >> we can > >> > > >> afford to defy the pundits and admit that, even if Narendra > >> Modi> > had>> lost the last elections, it would not have made much > >> > > difference to > >> > > >> the > >> > > >> culture of Gujarat politics. Modi had already done his job. > >> Most of > >> > > >> the state's urban middle class would have remained mired > in its > >> > > inane>> versions of communalism and parochialism and the > VHP and > >> > > the Bajrang > >> > > >> Dal would have continued to set the tone of state politics. > >> Forty> > >> years of dedicated propaganda does pay dividends, > >> electorally and > >> > > >> socially. > >> > > >> > >> > > >> The Hindus and the Muslims of the state — once bonded so > >> > > >> conspicuously > >> > > >> by language, culture and commerce — have met the demands of > >> both> > > >> > > >> V D > >> > > >> Savarkar and M A Jinnah. They now face each other as two > >> hostile> > >> nations. The handful of Gujarati social and > >> political activists who > >> > > >> resist the trend are seen not as dissenters but as > treacherous>> > > >> troublemakers who should be silenced by any > means, including > >> > > >> surveillance, censorship and direct violence. As a result, > >> Gujarati> > >> cities, particularly its educational institutions > >> are turning > >> > > >> cultural > >> > > >> deserts. Gujarat has already disowned the Indian > Constitution>> > > and the > >> > > >> state apparatus has adjusted to the change. > >> > > >> > >> > > >> The Congress, the main opposition party, has no effective > >> > > leader. Nor > >> > > >> does it represent any threat to the mainstream politics of > >> Gujarat.> > >> The days of grass-roots leaders like Jhinabhai > >> Darji are past > >> > > and a > >> > > >> large section of the party now consists of Hindu > >> nationalists. The > >> > > >> national leadership of the party does not have the > courage to > >> > > >> confront > >> > > >> Modi over 2002, given its abominable record of 1984. > >> > > >> > >> > > >> The Left is virtually non-existent in Gujarat. Whatever > minor>> > > >> presence > >> > > >> it once had among intellectuals and trade unionists is now > >> a vague > >> > > >> memory. The state has disowned Gandhi, too; Gandhian > politics>> > > arouses>> derision in middle-class Gujarat. Except > for a few > >> > > valiant old- > >> > > >> timers, > >> > > >> Gandhians have made peace with their conscience by > >> withdrawing from > >> > > >> the public domain. Gandhi himself has been given a saintly, > >> Hindu> > >> nationalist status and shelved. Even the Gujarati > >> translations> > of his > >> > > >> Complete Works have been stealthily distorted to conform > to the > >> > > Hindu>> nationalist agenda. > >> > > >> > >> > > >> Gujarati Muslims too are "adjusting" to their new station. > >> Denied> > >> justice and proper compensation, and as second-class > >> citizens in > >> > > > >> > > >> their > >> > > >> home state, they have to depend on voluntary efforts and > donor>> > > >> agencies. The state's refusal to provide relief has > been partly > >> > > >> met by > >> > > >> voluntary groups having fundamentalist sympathies. They > supply>> > > aid > >> > > >> but > >> > > >> insist that the beneficiaries give up Gujarati and take to > >> Urdu,> > > >> > > >> adopt > >> > > >> veil, and send their children to madrassas. Events like the > >> > > >> desecration of Wali Gujarati's grave have pushed one of > India's>> > > >> culturally richest, most diverse, vernacular > Islamic traditions > >> > > to > >> > > >> the > >> > > >> wall. Future generations will as gratefully acknowledge the > >> sangh> > >> parivar's contribution to the growth of radical Islam > >> in India > >> > > as > >> > > >> this > >> > > >> generation remembers with gratitude the handsome > >> contribution of > >> > > > >> > > >> Rajiv > >> > > >> Gandhi and his cohorts to Sikh militancy. > >> > > >> > >> > > >> The secularist dogma of many fighting the sangh parivar > has not > >> > > >> helped > >> > > >> matters. Even those who have benefited from secular > lawyers and > >> > > >> activists relate to secular ideologies instrumentally. They > >> neither> > >> understand them nor respect them. The victims still > >> derive> > solace > >> > > >> from > >> > > >> their religions and, when under attack, they cling more > >> > > passionately>> to faith. Indeed, shallow ideologies of > secularism>> > > have > >> > > >> simultaneously > >> > > >> broken the back of Gandhism and discouraged the > emergence of > >> > > figures>> like Ali Shariatis, Desmond Tutus and the Dalai > Lama — > >> > > persons > >> > > >> who can > >> > > >> give suffering a new voice audible to the poor and the > >> powerless> > and>> make a creative intervention possible from > >> within worldviews > >> > > >> accessible to the people. > >> > > >> > >> > > >> Finally, Gujarat's spectacular development has > underwritten the > >> > > >> de-civilising process. One of the worst-kept secrets of our > >> > > times is > >> > > >> that dramatic development almost always has an > >> authoritarian tail. > >> > > >> Post-World War II Asia too has had its love affair with > >> > > developmental>> despotism and the censorship, surveillance and > >> > > thought control > >> > > >> that go > >> > > >> with it. The East Asian tigers have all been maneaters most > >> of the > >> > > >> time. Gujarat has now chosen to join the pack. Development > >> in the > >> > > >> state now justifies amorality, abridgement of freedom, and > >> > > >> collapse of > >> > > >> social ethics. > >> > > >> > >> > > >> Is there life after Modi? Is it possible to look beyond > the 35 > >> > > years>> of rioting that began in 1969 and ended in 2002? Prima > >> > > facie, the > >> > > >> answer is "no". We can only wait for a new generation that > >> will,> > out>> of sheer self-interest and tiredness, learn to live > >> with each > >> > > other.>> In the meanwhile, we have to wait patiently but not > >> > > passively to keep > >> > > >> values alive, hoping that at some point will come a > modicum of > >> > > >> remorse > >> > > >> and a search for atonement and that ultimately Gujarati > >> traditions> > >> will triumph over the culture of the state's > >> urban middle class. > >> > > >> > >> > > >> Recovering Gujarat from its urban middle class will not be > >> easy.> > The>> class has found in militant religious > nationalism a > >> new self- > >> > > respect>> and a new virtual identity as a martial > community, the > >> > > way Bengali > >> > > >> babus, Maharashtrian Brahmins and Kashmiri Muslims at > different>> > > times>> have sought salvation in violence. In > Gujarat this class > >> > > has smelt > >> > > >> blood, for it does not have to do the killings but can plan, > >> > > finance>> and coordinate them with impunity. The actual > >> killers are > >> > > the lowest > >> > > >> of the low, mostly tribals and Dalits. The middle class > >> controls> > the>> media and education, which have become hate > >> factories in > >> > > recent > >> > > >> times. > >> > > >> And they receive spirited support from most non-resident > >> Indians> > who,>> at a safe distance from India, can afford to > be more > >> > > nationalist,>> bloodthirsty, and irresponsible. > >> > > >> > >> > > >> [The writer is a political psychologist.] > >> > > > From parthaekka at gmail.com Sat Jun 21 13:16:01 2008 From: parthaekka at gmail.com (Partha Dasgupta) Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 13:16:01 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again In-Reply-To: References: <9c06aab30806170733t48302bablf56c69c6427f5b82@mail.gmail.com> <9c06aab30806190930u20fc56efj5ba9a21f72994fa8@mail.gmail.com> <9c06aab30806200928y3cb13e97k6191895fc809b769@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <32144e990806210046h195101ado7b4ad31d8e92ea0b@mail.gmail.com> Dear Radhikarajen, Unfortunately, the habit of fitting people into a group or assigning misdeeds (or as perceived by a person as misdeeds) to a group is extremely dangerous. Just as one Hindu being a thief does not mean all Hindu's are theives, one (or some) journalist being sensational does not allow us to claim that all journalists are sensational. As far as media being 'respected' goes - at the end of the day, an article is written by a person who has his / her personal views and bias which will come out, which again is edited. In short, any reader / viewer of news can't put their faculties on hold and take what's being aired as gospel. While we're at it, isn't it just as irresponsible to bring the Arushi case up as it is still being investigated and you're adding to the sensationalism by raising it on a totally unrelated platform. Rgds, Partha .............. On Sat, Jun 21, 2008 at 12:41 PM, wrote: > Dear Shivam, > > by your standards are the journalists above law, just because they are journalists and can express any sort of lopsided jargons. ? When media is respected it is only because the personnel in media are at the thankless job of reflecting the society with good and bad in society and inducing the society and citizens to democratic life of good social values. But the way the present day personeel in media work with eye on trp and make a business of earning out of their news stories at whatever it takes make them loose their credibilty and make them as despisable as the blacksheeps in babudom and politics with their own type of politics.! > > Regards. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् > Date: Friday, June 20, 2008 9:58 pm > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net > Cc: Shuddhabrata Sengupta , sarai list > >> Dear Radhikarajen, >> >> Thanks for your response and your apology. I hope most members of this >> list will be accept it. >> >> However, I find it funny that you are explaining away your errors by >> ascribing them to what the visual media coverage of the Arushi-Hemraj >> double murder case has done to your mind. >> >> Yourr argument is silly on these counts: >> >> 1) If you don't like TV news channels, you don't have to watch them. >> If you don't like the Arushi-Hemraj murder cases' coverage, use the >> remote, watch BBC World or Discovery Travel and Living or MTV. It is >> precisely because you (amongst millions of others) continue to watch >> TV news channels for the Arushi-Hemraj case that they are continuing >> with it. >> >> 2) To argue that the obsessive, sensationalist coverage of the >> Arushi-Hemraj case had cluttered your brain and made your mindset >> cynical, and cynical clutter affected you so much that you read Ashis >> as Pritish and found an anti-Congress article to be pro-Congress, is >> to say that your mental faculties for clear and illogical thinking are >> extremely feeble. However, I don't think that is true, just that you >> are intellectually dishonest. I wonder which is worse. However, if >> former is the case, then you might soon want to see a psychiatrist. >> >> 3) As for the Times of India and the Indian Express, once again, buy >> The Hindu. Don't blame them for the stupid act of ranting in the air >> without having read the Nandy article. >> >> 4) The second part of your reply has nothing to do with anything >> discussed so far. If you started your career as a journalist at a >> salary of Rs. "10/-" then you must have started you career before >> India attained independence! So you are trying to tell us that you are >> a veteran journalist! And you think we'll take that seriously! Not >> only are you a liar, but a very naive one. You must be 14. In any >> case, your starting salary has nothing to do with the legal harassment >> of Ashis Nandy over an article he wrote. >> >> 5) Given that you have apologised, may I please presume that you >> unconditionally condemn the harassment through legal means of >> Professor Ashis Nandy? Please let me know. Please answer that without >> any rant against the media, or I'll throw my keyboard at you. >> >> best >> shivam >> >> >> >> >> >> On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 3:05 PM, wrote: >> > Dear Shivam' >> > >> > many sincere thanks for correcting my perceptions, days and >> nights bombarded by visual media anchors and their panellists >> with the coverage of dual murder case at Noida, mind was cluttered >> and cynical mindset did not grasp the finer aspects of life. >> Apologies to nandys, as it was sheer magnitude of the visual media >> and its correspondents who more or less resemble wrestlers with >> the mikes in their hands wrestling with a grieving family on the >> deaths, that made me very mad at these visual media as well as the >> coverage in the papers that i buy, Times of india and Indian >> express, which saw me reading speculation rather than reportage of >> events.> >> > Starting the career as journalist after graduation was not >> easy with 10/- salary and still, in those days with peanuts for >> lunch, filterless cigarettes and water as filler, we had not >> swayed to the rulers and did not speculate about the events, >> reported as honestly as possible without our views, views if any >> were disacussed with colleugaes and later came out as expression >> without prejudice, present day coverage of bias and partisan >> reportage with "stories" in media is some how is degrading the >> society in general, citizens in particular. >> > >> > But all the issues raised by you are correct, hence the >> apology.to all the members in the list about the nandy episode.! >> > >> > Regards. >> > >> > ----- Original Message ----- >> > From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् >> > Date: Thursday, June 19, 2008 10:00 pm >> > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again >> > To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net >> > Cc: Shuddhabrata Sengupta , sarai list >> >> > >> >> Dear Radhikarajen, >> >> >> >> Your responses on this thread are a little intriguing, and I >> >> wonder if >> >> you would mind explaining them? >> >> >> >> Let us go point-by-point, so that you can also reply point by >> point.>> This will prevent us from meandering from, well, the >> point, either >> >> inadvertently or because of deliberate shifting of goal-posts. >> >> >> >> The post: Two days ago I posted an article written by Ashis >> Nandy in >> >> the Times of India in January. I mentioned why I was posting the >> >> article though not my views: a little known organisation in >> Ahemadabad>> has filed a police case against Nandy for "'promoting >> enmity between >> >> different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth and >> >> language," which under the Indian Penal Code is a criminal offence. >> >> >> >> The protest: I gave out a link to a joint statement made in >> >> protest of >> >> this case by 178 academics and activists, who thought that this was >> >> done for no reason other than legal harassment and intimidation. >> >> >> >> The article: In the article Ashis Nandy wrote that even if Modi had >> >> lost the December 2007 elections, it wouldn't have made a >> difference>> because thanks to the Gujarati middle class, the >> political culture of >> >> Gujarat has been communalised to an extent that "recovering" it >> won't>> be easy. For the situation he blames Hindus and Muslims, >> Congress and >> >> Left, NGOs and Gandhians. And secularists. >> >> >> >> That is all. On Modi, Bajrang Dal, VHP, RSS, the Gujarat >> >> government - >> >> he just says things matter of fact and does not have much direct >> >> condemnation or criticism to offer. His aim is not to attack >> them but >> >> those who should be helping defuse the social and political crisis >> >> cause d by the Hindutva forces. He does blame them for being >> the cause >> >> of exacerbating "radical Islam" in India. >> >> >> >> On development: he is not denying Gujarat's "spectacular >> development">> but linking it to historical examples where >> development and >> >> authoritarianism have gone hand in hand. >> >> >> >> Your first response: In your first response you make these points: >> >> >> >> 1) " it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis at >> the drop >> >> of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is >> >> administrator and chief minister with the difference of of >> governance>> of all in the same state without favour or fear as >> per the oath he has >> >> taken to administer the state." >> >> >> >> Now, as I paraphrased above, Nandy's article is not denying the >> >> qualities you attribute to Modi's administrative skills and >> >> governance. And he has found faults in many others but very few in >> >> Modi. In fact, none in Modi: it is the Sangh Parivar in general. >> >> >> >> So what you are doing is, creating a straw man [ >> >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/straw-man.html ]. You are >> >> representing Nandy as saying he never did, and then attacking >> him for >> >> saying something he never did! >> >> >> >> >> >> 2) "Times of India and its media group is owned by Bennet group >> which>> traditionally has been political and supporting sycophants >> of Congress >> >> and media generally feels if it has to be "secular" it has to bash >> >> hindu sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times >> group is >> >> never fair and free in its journalism" >> >> >> >> Having created your straw man and having attacked it, you begin to >> >> explain it. You explain it by attacking the newspaper where Nandy's >> >> article was published. Since the pro-Congress Times of India >> published>> this article, the article must also be pro-Congress. >> How does it >> >> matter that the article actually *attacks* the Congress! >> >> >> >> By doing so you are committing the logical fallacy of post hoc: >> >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/post-hoc.html >> >> >> >> Also the fallacy of circumstantial ad hominem: >> >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/circumstantial-ad- >> >> hominem.html >> >> The tone of the issue was the harassment of Nandy by legal >> means, but >> >> you shift it to The Times of India and its alleged biases, >> which, as >> >> Shuddha said, amount to a red herring: >> >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/red-herring.html >> >> >> >> As Shuddha demonstrated, there's been no dearth of pro-Modi, >> pro-BJP >> >> articles in Times of India. The Times is not politically >> aligned like, >> >> say, The Pioneer, The Hindu, the recently buried National >> Herald, or >> >> even magazines such as India Today or Outlook. You are guilty of >> >> making a hasty generalisation about the paper, and on that basis >> >> applying it to Nandy just because the paper published Nandy's >> article>> on its opinion-editorial page. See >> >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/hasty-generalization.html >> >> Also, similarly, the fallacy of questionable cause: >> >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ignoring-a-common- >> cause.html>> >> >> Please also note that newspapers don't have TRP ratings, and >> that if >> >> most people in Gujarat vote for Modi, publishing anti-Modi articles >> >> would affect the Times of India's circulation in Gujarat adversely, >> >> not positively. >> >> >> >> 3) "and its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and >> pritish>> is no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest >> in journalism >> >> by sycophancy" >> >> >> >> This is my favourite set of words in your response. Your attention >> >> span and presence of mind are both so feeble that you confused >> Ashis>> Nandy with one pritish! The article was not by pritish my dear >> >> Radhikarajen, but by Ashis! Factual error! You cannot even save >> face>> on this by claiming poor eyesight or broken glasses, >> because there's >> >> no way 'Ashis' could read like 'pritish', even though Gujarat could >> >> read like Gujarath :) >> >> >> >> And as you might now Ashis Nandy is a scholar at CSDS and not an >> >> employee of The Times of India. The article introduced him as a >> >> political psychologist, so he is clearly not a journalist, but this >> >> detail was mentioned at the end of the article which you didn't >> even>> glance carefully enough to realise which brother wrote it. >> >> >> >> If you read the article you would realise that it does not >> amount to >> >> sycophancy of anyone, but, as Shuddha said, takes on *everyone*. >> >> >> >> I presume that you thought the article was by Pritish Nandy [ >> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pritish_Nandy ] but even he is not an >> >> employee of the Times of India or a journalist. He is a former >> editor>> who also happens to be related to Ashis Nandy. >> >> >> >> By calling Pritish Nandy a sycophant for an article he did not >> write,>> you are committing a personal attack [ >> >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/personal-attack.html ] >> >> >> >> I presume, with all the above evidence, that you did not even >> *read*>> the Nandy article and began to attack it. No wonder about >> the straw >> >> man then. >> >> >> >> I am not going to count and cite the number of logical >> fallacies you >> >> make by calling pritish a sycophant, attributing the motive of >> >> surviving in journalism to his sycophancy, and presuming that The >> >> Times of India bosses are his bosses, who are pro-Congress, and so >> >> therefore is Pritish. >> >> >> >=3E a) He is not pritish >> >> >> >> b) He is not a journalist, so he does not have to 'survive in >> >> journalism' >> >> c) He is therefore not forced to resort to sycophancy of anyone to >> >> 'survive in journalism' >> >> >> >> d) He does not work at The Times of India, he merely wrote an >> article>> for the paper, which they either commissioned or chose >> to publish. His >> >> bosses are not The Times of India's bosses but CSDS'. >> >> >> >> e) You have stated without evidence that The Times of India is >> >> pro-Congress but even if that were to be considered a proven >> fact, it >> >> does not by implication mean that all their employees are Congress >> >> sycophants, and even if it did it wouldn't make Nandy do so >> >> because he >> >> is not a Times employee, and in any case the article itself speaks >> >> against the Congress. >> >> >> >> >> >> * >> >> >> >> That is just the first paragraph - 144 words - of your >> response. All >> >> the 245 words in the second paragraph amount to red herring(s) >> but I >> >> would repond to the points raised therein as well, if you >> respond to >> >> my three points above. Please reply, as I said, point by point, to >> >> make it comprehensible. >> >> >> >> And do read Nandy's short article, it is interesting. >> >> >> >> I will soon find the time to similarly analyse your response to >> >> Shuddha's response. >> >> >> >> Looking forward to your response. >> >> >> >> best >> >> shivam >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 5:23 PM, wrote: >> >> > >> >> > Dear Shuddha, >> >> > >> >> > sometimes I wonder whether any ethics and morals are left in >> >> these neo journalists who are working in visual media as anchors. >> >> ? As they so fluently talk about the IG of police as if they are >> >> above the law when they comment on the character of the 14 year >> >> child, as if these anchors are living a clean life.? >> >> > >> >> > And at times I wonder what made a brilliant social scientist >> >> to become a puppet in the hands of a channel with so many if and >> >> buts added for his pre poll survey in channel degrading himself >> >> along with channel and loss of credibilty.! >> >> > ----- Original Message ----- >> >> > From: Shuddhabrata Sengupta >> >> > Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 4:33 pm >> >> > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again >> >> > To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net >> >> > Cc: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् , sarai list >> >> >> >> > >> >> > > Dear Radhikarajen, >> >> > > >> >> > > Thank you for your pertinent critique on the Sarai Reader >> List of >> >> > > the >> >> > > way in which the media represents issues, particularly with >> regard>> > > to >> >> > > the murder of Hemraj Banjade and Arushi Talwar in NOIDA. I >> think>> > > that >> >> > > your thoughts on 'media trials' are salutary. Had newspapers >> >> and TV >> >> > > >> >> > > channels been more restrained in the matter of the way in which >> >> > > they >> >> > > report 'sensational' crimes, then the grave and malicious >> >> > > harrassment >> >> > > that had been the fate of S.A.R.Geelani in the '13 >> December' case >> >> > > might not have taken place. And nor would there have been >> currency>> > > for the hysterical and blood-thirsty demand for the >> execution of >> >> > > Muhammad Afzal Guru, which continues to beseige our >> consciousness>> > > today. I do hope that you, in the spirit of >> your own argument, >> >> will> > >> >> > > join me in condemning the irresponsible behaviour of much >> of the >> >> > > media in these instances. >> >> > > >> >> > > Having said that, I am a bit mystified by your anger >> against the >> >> > > condemnation of the strange attempt at filing a case on >> >> grounds of >> >> > > >> >> > > 'promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of >> religion,>> > > race, place of birth and language' 'under Sections >> 153 A and B of >> >> > > the >> >> > > IPC against Ashis Nandy for his op-ed piece 'Blame the Middle >> >> > > Class' >> >> > > in the Times of India of January 8, 2008. Ashis Nandy is, >> in my >> >> > > opinion, one of the most acute analysts of political >> culture and >> >> > > modernity in South Asia. It is ironic that a person, who has >> >> > > maintained a life time of critique against the excesses of the >> >> > > state- >> >> > > secularist agenda in India, (for which he was at times >> >> unfairly and >> >> > > >> >> > > idiotically denounced as an apolgist of the hindu right by >> >> some un- >> >> > > intelligent so called 'left-liberal' critics) is someone >> you now >> >> > > are >> >> > > prepared to argue against, merely because he happens to >> have taken >> >> > > on >> >> > > the poster boy of hindutva hate-mongering, the chief >> minister of >> >> > > Gujarat, Narendra Damodarbhai Modi. To be fair to Nandy, >> there is >> >> > > no >> >> > > particular group that escapes the sharp edge of his sadness >> in his >> >> > > article on Gujarat. His words (in this particular article) >> >> > > criticize >> >> > > the actions done by people speaking in the name of Bengali >> Hindus,>> > > Kashmiri Muslims, Punjabi Sikhs, Non Resident >> Indians, Dalits and >> >> > > Adivasis and most of all - the middle classes. If all these >> kinds>> > > of >> >> > > people were to be united because they were all attacked by >> Ashis>> > > Nandy, then, we would see a rare example of the >> promotion of >> >> > > conviviality between groups that are otherwise expected to >> be at >> >> > > each >> >> > > others throats. Unfortunately, for you, and for the petitioner >> >> > > belonging to the Ahmedabad based National Council for Civil >> >> > > Liberties, there is as yet no provision in the the Indian Penal >> >> > > Code >> >> > > for the offense of the promotion of conviviality on grounds of >> >> > > religion, race, place of birth and language. >> >> > > . >> >> > > I find it equally strange that you should impute the >> >> sentiments and >> >> > > >> >> > > the analysis contained in Nandy's trenchant criticque of >> Moditva,>> > > (or >> >> > > should it be Moditude, or Modismo) to the antipathy of the >> Bennet>> > > Coleman Group, who happen to own the majority shares >> of the Times >> >> > > of >> >> > > India newspaper, and their so called pro Congress bias. It is >> >> > > instructive to do a careful analysis of the press that Modi and >> >> > > Modismo get in the Times of India's sister publication, the >> >> > > Economic >> >> > > Times, (which for my money, is the more serious of the two >> >> > > publications, the one that actually gets read by captains of >> >> > > industry >> >> > > and politics, not one that teenagers decorate their lockers >> with>> > > because it has scantily clad men and women, the >> publication of >> >> > > images >> >> > > of which, you will no doubt agree, is the primary reason >> for the >> >> > > Times of India to exist.) >> >> > > >> >> > > Now, were you to look at the Economic Times reportage of Modi, >> >> > > Modismo and Gujarat, you would find a glowing picture that >> would>> > > warm >> >> > > your hearts. All you (and everyone who is interested on >> this list) >> >> > > needs to do is to type Narendra Modi on the search bar of the >> >> > > Economic Times home page, and you will be showered by what >> looks>> > > like >> >> > > a public relations campaign for Gujarati Asmita and Modismo. >> >> > > >> >> > > You will find articles such as - >> >> > > >> >> > > Rajiv Gandhi Foundation finds Gujarat No 1 state >> >> > > >> >> > > Chairman of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani, today hailed >> >> > > Gujarat >> >> > > Chief Minister Narendra Modi saying that he has a "bias" for >> >> action.> > >> >> > > And there are many more where these came from. >> >> > > >> >> > > Even your own pet hate, the Times of India, has articles >> such as >> >> > > 'Women Mesmerised by Narendra Modi' >> >> > > >> >> > > What are we to make of this, other than that this is but an >> >> > > instance >> >> > > of the totally commonplace practice of a media group trying to >> >> > > placate all sides. So damn Modi in one article in one >> publication>> > > that you own, and then praise him to the skies >> in another. A >> >> > > detailed >> >> > > analysis of the politics of who reports what about whom, >> and when, >> >> > > in >> >> > > the Indian media can be an entertaining, and instructive >> >> diversion.> > >> >> > > What, however, are we to make of your own pathological anxiety >> >> > > whenever Shri Narendra Damodarbhai Modi is criticised ? You >> have>> > > (again) neatly sidestepped the substance of Ashis >> Nandy's critique >> >> > > and taken us on the pursuit of the red herring of the Times of >> >> > > India's pro-Congress bias, which for you, explains >> everything that >> >> > > there is to understand about what Ashis Nandy has written. >> >> Take a >> >> > > break from the computer, and go take a long look at the >> >> mirror, and >> >> > > >> >> > > you will see the visage of that same middle class Indian, >> >> quick to >> >> > > fume, quick to claim an injury to your precious pride, >> quick to >> >> > > demand that the slate be cleaned of all 'others', and short, >> >> > > tragically, comically short on anything like the ability to >> >> reflect> > >> >> > > on the tightening limits of the sources of your self. >> >> > > >> >> > > I sympathise with your predicament. It must be really hard, and >> >> > > sad, >> >> > > to be you. >> >> > > >> >> > > regards >> >> > > >> >> > > Shuddha >> >> > > >> >> > > >> >> > > >> >> > > >> >> > > >> >> > > >> >> > > >> >> > > >> >> > > >> >> > > media trials of this sort were >> >> > > On 18-Jun-08, at 2:02 PM, radhikarajen at vsnl.net wrote: >> >> > > >> >> > > > Hi all, >> >> > > > >> >> > > > it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis at the >> >> > > drop >> >> > > > of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is >> >> > > > administrator and chief minister with the difference of of >> >> > > > governance of all in the same state without favour or fear >> >> as per >> >> > > >> >> > > > the oath he has taken to administer the state. Times of >> >> India and >> >> > > >> >> > > > its media group is owned by Bennet group which >> traditionally has >> >> > > > been political and supporting sycophants of Congress and >> media>> > > > generally feels if it has to be "secular" it has to >> bash hindu >> >> > > > sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times >> group is >> >> > > never >> >> > > > fair and free in its journalism and always favoured >> Congress and >> >> > > > its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and >> >> pritish is >> >> > > >> >> > > > no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest in >> >> > > journalism >> >> > > > by sycophancy. >> >> > > > >> >> > > > The worst part of it is this "secular"media can not >> >> digest the >> >> > > >> >> > > > fact that hindu society is slowly and steadily getting >> out of >> >> > > caste >> >> > > > conundrums and beginning to gel as one homogeneous society, >> >> while> > >> >> > > > muslim community is being systematically divided by christian >> >> > > > missions to achieve its divide and rule game, into >> smaller forms >> >> > > of >> >> > > > shias, sunnis and other denominations with terror as subtextt >> >> > > just >> >> > > > as the vote banks are getting divided between good >> >> governance and >> >> > > >> >> > > > sycophancy and secular media keeps on playing old footage of >> >> > > > "carnages so that they remain in the ghettos and wounds are >> >> never> > >> >> > > > allowed to heal.The ultimate goal of Sonia and her mafia >> is to >> >> > > > divided and rule with rome as its remote control which hindus >> >> > > have >> >> > > > understood except for a few handful of sycophants in >> >> Congress of >> >> > > > all faiths who have no mass base or electoral prospects >> and have >> >> > > to >> >> > > > live on doleouts of the mafia queen. These along with >> christian>> > > > mafia in the kitchen cabinet have used all those >> "journalists">> > > and >> >> > > > "int >> >> > > > ellectuals" of modern day to devise the spins to bring >> back the >> >> > > old >> >> > > > lost horse of Congress in new avtar as christian brigade >> for the >> >> > > > crusade, while in comity of nations it is seen that Bush >> >> uses- >> >> > > the >> >> > > > terror and weapons of mass destruction as excuses to bring >> >> in his >> >> > > >> >> > > > form of democracy in the nations of muslim faith, first by >> >> attack> > >> >> > > > of shia dominated Afghanistan and then on Iraq for the >> imaginary>> > > > weapons of mass destruction.?---- Original >> Message ----- >> >> > > > From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् >> >> > > =3E Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 8:04 pm >> >> > > > Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again >> >> > > > To: sarai list >> >> > > > >> >> > > >> An organisation in Ahemdabad called National Council for >> Civil>> > > >> Liberties has filed a case against Ashis Nandy for >> his article >> >> > > in The >> >> > > >> Times of India in January after Modi's election victory. The >> >> > > case has >> >> > > >> been filed for for 'promoting enmity between different >> >> groups on >> >> > > >> grounds of religion, race, place of birth and language' >> >> > > [Sections 153 >> >> > > >> (A) and (B) of IPC]. >> >> > > >> >> >> > > >> 178 academics and intellectuals have signed a statement in >> >> protest,> > >> which is available at >> >> > > >> >> http://www.sacw.net/FreeExpAndFundos/defendNandy16June08.html>> > >> > >> >> >> > > >> Given below is the 'offending' article: >> >> > > >> >> >> > > >> o o o >> >> > > >> >> >> > > >> >> >> > > >> Blame The Middle Class >> >> > > >> >> >> > > >> By Ashis Nandy >> >> > > >> 8 Jan 2008 >> >> > > >> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/ >> >> > > >> >> >> LEADER_ARTICLE_Blame_The_Middle_Class/rssarticleshow/2681517.cms> >> >> > >> >> >> > > >> Now that the dust has settled over the Gujarat elections, >> >> we can >> >> > > >> afford to defy the pundits and admit that, even if Narendra >> >> Modi> > had>> lost the last elections, it would not have made much >> >> > > difference to >> >> > > >> the >> >> > > >> culture of Gujarat politics. Modi had already done his job. >> >> Most of >> >> > > >> the state's urban middle class would have remained mired >> in its >> >> > > inane>> versions of communalism and parochialism and the >> VHP and >> >> > > the Bajrang >> >> > > >> Dal would have continued to set the tone of state politics. >> >> Forty> > >> years of dedicated propaganda does pay dividends, >> >> electorally and >> >> > > >> socially. >> >> > > >> >> >> > > >> The Hindus and the Muslims of the state — once bonded so >> >> > > >> conspicuously >> >> > > >> by language, culture and commerce — have met the demands of >> >> both> > >> >> > > >> V D >> >> > > >> Savarkar and M A Jinnah. They now face each other as two >> >> hostile> > >> nations. The handful of Gujarati social and >> >> political activists who >> >> > > >> resist the trend are seen not as dissenters but as >> treacherous>> > > >> troublemakers who should be silenced by any >> means, including >> >> > > >> surveillance, censorship and direct violence. As a result, >> >> Gujarati> > >> cities, particularly its educational institutions >> >> are turning >> >> > > >> cultural >> >> > > >> deserts. Gujarat has already disowned the Indian >> Constitution>> > > and the >> >> > > >> state apparatus has adjusted to the change. >> >> > > >> >> >> > > >> The Congress, the main opposition party, has no effective >> >> > > leader. Nor >> >> > > >> does it represent any threat to the mainstream politics of >> >> Gujarat.> > >> The days of grass-roots leaders like Jhinabhai >> >> Darji are past >> >> > > and a >> >> > > >> large section of the party now consists of Hindu >> >> nationalists. The >> >> > > >> national leadership of the party does not have the >> courage to >> >> > > >> confront >> >> > > >> Modi over 2002, given its abominable record of 1984. >> >> > > >> >> >> > > >> The Left is virtually non-existent in Gujarat. Whatever >> minor>> > > >> presence >> >> > > >> it once had among intellectuals and trade unionists is now >> >> a vague >> >> > > >> memory. The state has disowned Gandhi, too; Gandhian >> politics>> > > arouses>> derision in middle-class Gujarat. Except >> for a few >> >> > > valiant old- >> >> > > >> timers, >> >> > > >> Gandhians have made peace with their conscience by >> >> withdrawing from >> >> > > >> the public domain. Gandhi himself has been given a saintly, >> >> Hindu> > >> nationalist status and shelved. Even the Gujarati >> >> translations> > of his >> >> > > >> Complete Works have been stealthily distorted to conform >> to the >> >> > > Hindu>> nationalist agenda. >> >> > > >> >> >> > > >> Gujarati Muslims too are "adjusting" to their new station. >> >> Denied> > >> justice and proper compensation, and as second-class >> >> citizens in >> >> > > >> >> > > >> their >> >> > > >> home state, they have to depend on voluntary efforts and >> donor>> > > >> agencies. The state's refusal to provide relief has >> been partly >> >> > > >> met by >> >> > > >> voluntary groups having fundamentalist sympathies. They >> supply>> > > aid >> >> > > >> but >> >> > > >> insist that the beneficiaries give up Gujarati and take to >> >> Urdu,> > >> >> > > >> adopt >> >> > > >> veil, and send their children to madrassas. Events like the >> >> > > >> desecration of Wali Gujarati's grave have pushed one of >> India's>> > > >> culturally richest, most diverse, vernacular >> Islamic traditions >> >> > > to >> >> > > >> the >> >> > > >> wall. Future generations will as gratefully acknowledge the >> >> sangh> > >> parivar's contribution to the growth of radical Islam >> >> in India >> >> > > as >> >> > > >> this >> >> > > >> generation remembers with gratitude the handsome >> >> contribution of >> >> > > >> >> > > >> Rajiv >> >> > > >> Gandhi and his cohorts to Sikh militancy. >> >> > > >> >> >> > > >> The secularist dogma of many fighting the sangh parivar >> has not >> >> > > >> helped >> >> > > >> matters. Even those who have benefited from secular >> lawyers and >> >> > > >> activists relate to secular ideologies instrumentally. They >> >> neither> > >> understand them nor respect them. The victims still >> >> derive> > solace >> >> > > >> from >> >> > > >> their religions and, when under attack, they cling more >> >> > > passionately>> to faith. Indeed, shallow ideologies of >> secularism>> > > have >> >> > > >> simultaneously >> >> > > >> broken the back of Gandhism and discouraged the >> emergence of >> >> > > figures>> like Ali Shariatis, Desmond Tutus and the Dalai >> Lama — >> >> > > persons >> >> > > >> who can >> >> > > >> give suffering a new voice audible to the poor and the >> >> powerless> > and>> make a creative intervention possible from >> >> within worldviews >> >> > > >> accessible to the people. >> >> > > >> >> >> > > >> Finally, Gujarat's spectacular development has >> underwritten the >> >> > > >> de-civilising process. One of the worst-kept secrets of our >> >> > > times is >> >> > > >> that dramatic development almost always has an >> >> authoritarian tail. >> >> > > >> Post-World War II Asia too has had its love affair with >> >> > > developmental>> despotism and the censorship, surveillance and >> >> > > thought control >> >> > > >> that go >> >> > > >> with it. The East Asian tigers have all been maneaters most >> >> of the >> >> > > >> time. Gujarat has now chosen to join the pack. Development >> >> in the >> >> > > >> state now justifies amorality, abridgement of freedom, and >> >> > > >> collapse of >> >> > > >> social ethics. >> >> > > >> >> >> > > >> Is there life after Modi? Is it possible to look beyond >> the 35 >> >> > > years>> of rioting that began in 1969 and ended in 2002? Prima >> >> > > facie, the >> >> > > >> answer is "no". We can only wait for a new generation that >> >> will,> > out>> of sheer self-interest and tiredness, learn to live >> >> with each >> >> > > other.>> In the meanwhile, we have to wait patiently but not >> >> > > passively to keep >> >> > > >> values alive, hoping that at some point will come a >> modicum of >> >> > > >> remorse >> >> > > >> and a search for atonement and that ultimately Gujarati >> >> traditions> > >> will triumph over the culture of the state's >> >> urban middle class. >> >> > > >> >> >> > > >> Recovering Gujarat from its urban middle class will not be >> >> easy.> > The>> class has found in militant religious >> nationalism a >> >> new self- >> >> > > respect>> and a new virtual identity as a martial >> community, the >> >> > > way Bengali >> >> > > >> babus, Maharashtrian Brahmins and Kashmiri Muslims at >> different>> > > times>> have sought salvation in violence. In >> Gujarat this class >> >> > > has smelt >> >> > > >> blood, for it does not have to do the killings but can plan, >> >> > > finance>> and coordinate them with impunity. The actual >> >> killers are >> >> > > the lowest >> >> > > >> of the low, mostly tribals and Dalits. The middle class >> >> controls> > the>> media and education, which have become hate >> >> factories in >> >> > > recent >> >> > > >> times. >> >> > > >> And they receive spirited support from most non-resident >> >> Indians> > who,>> at a safe distance from India, can afford to >> be more >> >> > > nationalist,>> bloodthirsty, and irresponsible. >> >> > > >> >> >> > > >> [The writer is a political psychologist.] >> >> >> > >> > _________________________________________ > 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/> -- Partha Dasgupta +919811047132 From asitredsalute at gmail.com Sat Jun 21 16:20:57 2008 From: asitredsalute at gmail.com (Asit asitreds) Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 16:20:57 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] prytest against the hired goons of posco in Jagatsinghpur Orissa Message-ID: *Dear Friends and Comrades* Neoliberalism has tasted blood in this era of ruthless accumulation through violent dispossession where direct producers are brutally divorced from their means of production and sustance. The past era has seen sadistic decimation and devastation of Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo and so on, the list is endless. The postcolonial dirigste regimes of the third world gave up all their pretensions of the social justice and self reliance to transfer the mineral wealth and fertile agricultural lands to the Imperialist transnational corporations and local monopoly houses. Specially economic zones are the latest weapon of Neoliberalism to usurp the natural resources and forcibly uproot the farmers during an unprecedented agrarian crisis. Farmers all over India are up in arms to protest this onslaught on their livelihoods.For the past three years the farmers of Jagat Singhpur in Orissa are up in arms against the proposed Posco SEZ in their area. Naveen Patnaik govt shamelessly connived with Posco to brutally suppress the voices of farmers. There is one dangerous thing to be noted in the brutality of the neoliberal regime in India. The state which had the monopoly of legal violence has shamelessly transferred the right to kill to Multinational companies, the Indian big bourgeoise and their hired hoodlums. Last November the hired goons of Posco had brutally attacked Men and women sitting in a Dharna at Balitutha in Jagatsinghpur District where many people including elderly men and women were injured. Few days ago the hired goons had killed a person in Kalinganagar the killing spree goes on. Last night the hired goons of Posco threw bombs and killed Dula Mandal and critically injured five others of Gobindpur village of Jagatsinghpur District. Shri Kalindi Sena and Subha Saini are battling for their lives in Cuttack Medical College. We call upon all the progressive democratic and patriotic forces to demand the dismissal of Naveen Pattnaic govt and punish the hired goons of POSCO in Orissa. Regards Asit *Details of the attack of the posco goons on farmers is attached below.* Update from Surya, Bhubaneswar (21 June 2008) Dula Mandal, aged 35, an activist of Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samiti succumbed to injuries late last night. He was amongst the five people admitted in SCB hospital, Cuttack after being seriously wounded in a crude bomb attack by miscreants supporting POSCO in Gobindpur village. Kalindi Jena, 65 and Subha Saini, 40 are also battling for their life in the hospital. Meanwhile the situation continues to be tense in Gobindpur where thousands of villagers have surrounded the school building where the miscreants are hiding. Yesterday when the people were busy with the widening of the river mouth the miscreants took advantage of the situation and sneaked into the desolate village in a car and took over the first floor of the village school. They are armed and yesterday they attacked with crude bombs from there on PPSS activists returning from Jatadhar. It is said that they hurled at least 4 bombs at the people. Though there is no clear count of the number of miscreants hiding inside the building it could be anything from 10 to 20 people. The villagers who have surrounded the school have not yet tried gaining entry into the school building as they are afraid the miscreants might attack again. The PPSS has condemned the attack and is preparing for widespread agitation with the following demands - - POSCO project be scrapped immediately - Rs 1 crore be paid as compensation to the deceased's family - Rs 50 lakh be paid as compensation to those injured This came last night. Six injured as anti and pro-POSCO activists clash Friday, June 20, 2008 22:39 [IST] Paradip (Orissa): At least six persons, including a child, were injured in a clash at Gobindpur near here today between supporters and opponents of POSCO's proposed steel project, policesources said. The incident took place when a group of POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti activists were returning from work to prevent water-logging near the mouthof Jatadhari river where the South Korean major has proposed to set up a steel plant, they said. As the PPSS activists neared Gobindpur School on their way back to Dhinkia village, a group of nearly 200 armed supporters of POSCO confronted them, leading to the clash, the sources said. Three POSCO opponents and an equal number from the rival camp were injured in the incident, they said adding the injured were taken to a nearby hospital and two of them were later shifted to SCB Medical Collegeand Hospital in Cuttack. Water-logging near Jatadhari mouth had affected vast areas of agriculturalland. Members of a government team which had gone to the area to clear water-logging last year had been attacked allegedly by PPSS activists, sources said. Source : *PTI* http://news.indiainfo.com/2008/06/20/0806202241_posco-clash.html Orissa villagers dig river mouth to drain out floodwaters June 20th, 2008 - 9:00 pm ICT by IANS – http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/orissa-villagers-dig-river-mouth-to-drain-out-floodwaters_10062516.html Jagatsinghpur (Orissa), June 20 (IANS) Over 2,000 people from seven Orissa villages dug a channel in a river mouthin Jagatsinghpur district Friday to drain out floodwaters submerging many villages. They also protested the proposed port in the region by South Korean steel major Posco. The floodwaters of Hanusa river were not flowing into the sea through the nearby Jatadhari river because of silt deposits at its mouth. Villagers cut a channel in the river mouth themselves after the state government failed to clear the silt despite repeated calls. The villagers also said they were also opposed to Posco's plan to set up a captive port at the mouth of the Jatadhari river as this would lead to more floodsin the area. The villagers, mostly members of the Posco Pratirodha Sangram Samiti (Anti-Posco Agitation Committee), crossed the Hanusa river in four mechanized boats and using crowbars and spades, dug out silt from the river's mouth near the Bay of Bengal, Samiti leader Abhaya Sahu told IANS. "We dug the mouth because the floodwater was blocked and we wanted to clear it. Besides, we also want to send a message to the government and Posco that we are not going to allow Posco to set up a port here," he said. "More than 200 villages have been submerged with floodwaters of Hanusa and thousands of residents have lost their property and paddy crops," Sahu added. Residents of the area repeatedly requested the state government to de-silt the mouth of the river, but all in vain, he said. "We dug the river mouth and helped the water flow into the sea smoothly," he said. Posco, the world's fourth largest steel maker, signed a deal with the state government in June 2005 to build a $12 billion steel plant near the port town of Paradip by 2016. It also later announced plans to develop a captive port at the mouth of Jatadhari river, 10 km from Paradip. However, there has been little progress on the ground as activists and villagers have been agitating against the project, which they say would take away their homes, lands and livelihood. The company says the plant would affect only 500 families, but would create thousands of jobs. From tapasrayx at gmail.com Sat Jun 21 17:54:44 2008 From: tapasrayx at gmail.com (Tapas Ray) Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 08:24:44 -0400 Subject: [Reader-list] [Fwd: Re: Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again] Message-ID: <485CF30C.4010906@gmail.com> Sorry, Radhika! I sent this to you instead of the list a couple of minutes ago, by clicking "Reply" instead of "Reply to" for the umpteenth time. But this gives me the opportunity to add something I had on my mind but forgot to mention: Speaking of Modi's quality of governance and his supposed impartiality, let's not forget that, while visiting Gujarat during or immediately after the riots, none other than Atal Behari Vajpayee - his own party boss and Prime Minister of India - had found it necessary to remind him, in public, to follow "rajdharma". That means Vajpayee - no "pseudo-secularist" himself - did not think Modi was practising statecraft based on ethics and morality. -------- Original Message -------- Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 08:07:32 -0400 From: Tapas Ray To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net Peace, my friends! I haven't been able to follow discussions on this list lately. This thread caught my eye and I tried to read the whole thing, but gave up after the last few posts. From that, I can say a couple of relatively inconsequential things: 1) Radhikarajen need not worry about her (assuming s/he is a she) physical safety because of Shivam's threat to throw his keyboard at her. I'm sure he (assuming s/he is a he) is speaking rhetorically ... or is he? Even if he is speaking literally, Radhika need not worry too much, because: (a) computer keyboards are pretty light these days (let's sing the praises of technology), and (b) if Shivam is somewhere up north (Delhi?) and Radhika down south (Bangalore?) as I think they are, the keyboard will lose all its momentum by the time it reaches Radhika. 2) About the ideologies of the mass media, I think their main aim in life is to make money, and everything else is secondary. We should not forget this when we say the Times of India is pro-Congress and The Hindu is pro-CPI(M). Most businesses have to cater to a particular niche of the market, and they have found their own niches among people who do not mind Congress and CPI(M) slants, or actually want these. Of course, this is not as simple as it sounds: just as the audience is not passive, to be moulded by the media, the media too are not passive, to be moulded by the audience. They are mutually constitutive. Even after counting that in, I think the media will not hesitate to give up, or at least tone down their respective political slants if these lead to sustained losses at some point, unless they have the death wish. Once again, let there be peace on earth, or at least on the Sarai list ;) Tapas radhikarajen at vsnl.net wrote: > Dear Shivam, > > your reply betrays that you are neither capable of honest argument in a debate nor are you keen in exchange of thoughts, but gloating and going with killer instinct in the competetive world with your demeaning reply with absurd thoughts. If you want to score brownie points you are free citizen, entitled to it, but it shows how hollow is your concern for the society that you live in.! > > As to my remote, and my career with journalism, you are free to use your faculties to draw your own conclusions, which reflect your immature or mature mindset as they do not seem to be concerned about moral degradation in society and rightly so, in the present system only money matters and success at any cost seems to be credo/ achievement.? > > Regards. > From: TaraPrakash > Date: Friday, June 20, 2008 10:24 pm > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > To: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् , radhikarajen at vsnl.net > Cc: sarai list , Shuddhabrata Sengupta > >> Hi Shivam. >> I was not expecting a harsh reply on this. What I was expecting, >> however, >> was another >> www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/... >> >> link. I am planning to teach Argument this August onwards. I found >> sort of >> answer in your mails to my question "how the hell do you teach >> argument?" From mail at shivamvij.com Sun Jun 22 17:07:30 2008 From: mail at shivamvij.com (=?UTF-8?Q?Shivam_Vij?= =?UTF-8?Q?_=E0=A4=B6=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=AE?= =?UTF-8?Q?=E0=A5=8D_=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=9C=E0=A5=8D?=) Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:07:30 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again In-Reply-To: References: <9c06aab30806170733t48302bablf56c69c6427f5b82@mail.gmail.com> <9c06aab30806190930u20fc56efj5ba9a21f72994fa8@mail.gmail.com> <9c06aab30806200928y3cb13e97k6191895fc809b769@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <9c06aab30806220437v10a88369ja9815f536e1d69ca@mail.gmail.com> Forget all else, Radhikarajen, I just want to know this: do you or do you not condemn the legal harassment of Ashis Nandy? Answer that and I won't bother you. best shivam On 6/21/08, radhikarajen at vsnl.net wrote: > Dear Shivam, > > by your standards are the journalists above law, just because they are journalists and can express any sort of lopsided jargons. ? When media is respected it is only because the personnel in media are at the thankless job of reflecting the society with good and bad in society and inducing the society and citizens to democratic life of good social values. But the way the present day personeel in media work with eye on trp and make a business of earning out of their news stories at whatever it takes make them loose their credibilty and make them as despisable as the blacksheeps in babudom and politics with their own type of politics.! > > Regards. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् > Date: Friday, June 20, 2008 9:58 pm > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net > Cc: Shuddhabrata Sengupta , sarai list > > > Dear Radhikarajen, > > > > Thanks for your response and your apology. I hope most members of this > > list will be accept it. > > > > However, I find it funny that you are explaining away your errors by > > ascribing them to what the visual media coverage of the Arushi-Hemraj > > double murder case has done to your mind. > > > > Yourr argument is silly on these counts: > > > > 1) If you don't like TV news channels, you don't have to watch them. > > If you don't like the Arushi-Hemraj murder cases' coverage, use the > > remote, watch BBC World or Discovery Travel and Living or MTV. It is > > precisely because you (amongst millions of others) continue to watch > > TV news channels for the Arushi-Hemraj case that they are continuing > > with it. > > > > 2) To argue that the obsessive, sensationalist coverage of the > > Arushi-Hemraj case had cluttered your brain and made your mindset > > cynical, and cynical clutter affected you so much that you read Ashis > > as Pritish and found an anti-Congress article to be pro-Congress, is > > to say that your mental faculties for clear and illogical thinking are > > extremely feeble. However, I don't think that is true, just that you > > are intellectually dishonest. I wonder which is worse. However, if > > former is the case, then you might soon want to see a psychiatrist. > > > > 3) As for the Times of India and the Indian Express, once again, buy > > The Hindu. Don't blame them for the stupid act of ranting in the air > > without having read the Nandy article. > > > > 4) The second part of your reply has nothing to do with anything > > discussed so far. If you started your career as a journalist at a > > salary of Rs. "10/-" then you must have started you career before > > India attained independence! So you are trying to tell us that you are > > a veteran journalist! And you think we'll take that seriously! Not > > only are you a liar, but a very naive one. You must be 14. In any > > case, your starting salary has nothing to do with the legal harassment > > of Ashis Nandy over an article he wrote. > > > > 5) Given that you have apologised, may I please presume that you > > unconditionally condemn the harassment through legal means of > > Professor Ashis Nandy? Please let me know. Please answer that without > > any rant against the media, or I'll throw my keyboard at you. > > > > best > > shivam > > > > > > > > > > > > On Fri, Jun 20, 2008 at 3:05 PM, wrote: > > > Dear Shivam' > > > > > > many sincere thanks for correcting my perceptions, days and > > nights bombarded by visual media anchors and their panellists > > with the coverage of dual murder case at Noida, mind was cluttered > > and cynical mindset did not grasp the finer aspects of life. > > Apologies to nandys, as it was sheer magnitude of the visual media > > and its correspondents who more or less resemble wrestlers with > > the mikes in their hands wrestling with a grieving family on the > > deaths, that made me very mad at these visual media as well as the > > coverage in the papers that i buy, Times of india and Indian > > express, which saw me reading speculation rather than reportage of > > events.> > > > Starting the career as journalist after graduation was not > > easy with 10/- salary and still, in those days with peanuts for > > lunch, filterless cigarettes and water as filler, we had not > > swayed to the rulers and did not speculate about the events, > > reported as honestly as possible without our views, views if any > > were disacussed with colleugaes and later came out as expression > > without prejudice, present day coverage of bias and partisan > > reportage with "stories" in media is some how is degrading the > > society in general, citizens in particular. > > > > > > But all the issues raised by you are correct, hence the > > apology.to all the members in the list about the nandy episode.! > > > > > > Regards. > > > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > > From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् > > > Date: Thursday, June 19, 2008 10:00 pm > > > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > > > To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net > > > Cc: Shuddhabrata Sengupta , sarai list > > > > > > > >> Dear Radhikarajen, > > >> > > >> Your responses on this thread are a little intriguing, and I > > >> wonder if > > >> you would mind explaining them? > > >> > > >> Let us go point-by-point, so that you can also reply point by > > point.>> This will prevent us from meandering from, well, the > > point, either > > >> inadvertently or because of deliberate shifting of goal-posts. > > >> > > >> The post: Two days ago I posted an article written by Ashis > > Nandy in > > >> the Times of India in January. I mentioned why I was posting the > > >> article though not my views: a little known organisation in > > Ahemadabad>> has filed a police case against Nandy for "'promoting > > enmity between > > >> different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth and > > >> language," which under the Indian Penal Code is a criminal offence. > > >> > > >> The protest: I gave out a link to a joint statement made in > > >> protest of > > >> this case by 178 academics and activists, who thought that this was > > >> done for no reason other than legal harassment and intimidation. > > >> > > >> The article: In the article Ashis Nandy wrote that even if Modi had > > >> lost the December 2007 elections, it wouldn't have made a > > difference>> because thanks to the Gujarati middle class, the > > political culture of > > >> Gujarat has been communalised to an extent that "recovering" it > > won't>> be easy. For the situation he blames Hindus and Muslims, > > Congress and > > >> Left, NGOs and Gandhians. And secularists. > > >> > > >> That is all. On Modi, Bajrang Dal, VHP, RSS, the Gujarat > > >> government - > > >> he just says things matter of fact and does not have much direct > > >> condemnation or criticism to offer. His aim is not to attack > > them but > > >> those who should be helping defuse the social and political crisis > > >> cause d by the Hindutva forces. He does blame them for being > > the cause > > >> of exacerbating "radical Islam" in India. > > >> > > >> On development: he is not denying Gujarat's "spectacular > > development">> but linking it to historical examples where > > development and > > >> authoritarianism have gone hand in hand. > > >> > > >> Your first response: In your first response you make these points: > > >> > > >> 1) " it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis at > > the drop > > >> of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is > > >> administrator and chief minister with the difference of of > > governance>> of all in the same state without favour or fear as > > per the oath he has > > >> taken to administer the state." > > >> > > >> Now, as I paraphrased above, Nandy's article is not denying the > > >> qualities you attribute to Modi's administrative skills and > > >> governance. And he has found faults in many others but very few in > > >> Modi. In fact, none in Modi: it is the Sangh Parivar in general. > > >> > > >> So what you are doing is, creating a straw man [ > > >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/straw-man.html ]. You are > > >> representing Nandy as saying he never did, and then attacking > > him for > > >> saying something he never did! > > >> > > >> > > >> 2) "Times of India and its media group is owned by Bennet group > > which>> traditionally has been political and supporting sycophants > > of Congress > > >> and media generally feels if it has to be "secular" it has to bash > > >> hindu sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times > > group is > > >> never fair and free in its journalism" > > >> > > >> Having created your straw man and having attacked it, you begin to > > >> explain it. You explain it by attacking the newspaper where Nandy's > > >> article was published. Since the pro-Congress Times of India > > published>> this article, the article must also be pro-Congress. > > How does it > > >> matter that the article actually *attacks* the Congress! > > >> > > >> By doing so you are committing the logical fallacy of post hoc: > > >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/post-hoc.html > > >> > > >> Also the fallacy of circumstantial ad hominem: > > >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/circumstantial-ad- > > >> hominem.html > > >> The tone of the issue was the harassment of Nandy by legal > > means, but > > >> you shift it to The Times of India and its alleged biases, > > which, as > > >> Shuddha said, amount to a red herring: > > >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/red-herring.html > > >> > > >> As Shuddha demonstrated, there's been no dearth of pro-Modi, > > pro-BJP > > >> articles in Times of India. The Times is not politically > > aligned like, > > >> say, The Pioneer, The Hindu, the recently buried National > > Herald, or > > >> even magazines such as India Today or Outlook. You are guilty of > > >> making a hasty generalisation about the paper, and on that basis > > >> applying it to Nandy just because the paper published Nandy's > > article>> on its opinion-editorial page. See > > >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/hasty-generalization.html > > >> Also, similarly, the fallacy of questionable cause: > > >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ignoring-a-common- > > cause.html>> > > >> Please also note that newspapers don't have TRP ratings, and > > that if > > >> most people in Gujarat vote for Modi, publishing anti-Modi articles > > >> would affect the Times of India's circulation in Gujarat adversely, > > >> not positively. > > >> > > >> 3) "and its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and > > pritish>> is no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest > > in journalism > > >> by sycophancy" > > >> > > >> This is my favourite set of words in your response. Your attention > > >> span and presence of mind are both so feeble that you confused > > Ashis>> Nandy with one pritish! The article was not by pritish my dear > > >> Radhikarajen, but by Ashis! Factual error! You cannot even save > > face>> on this by claiming poor eyesight or broken glasses, > > because there's > > >> no way 'Ashis' could read like 'pritish', even though Gujarat could > > >> read like Gujarath :) > > >> > > >> And as you might now Ashis Nandy is a scholar at CSDS and not an > > >> employee of The Times of India. The article introduced him as a > > >> political psychologist, so he is clearly not a journalist, but this > > >> detail was mentioned at the end of the article which you didn't > > even>> glance carefully enough to realise which brother wrote it. > > >> > > >> If you read the article you would realise that it does not > > amount to > > >> sycophancy of anyone, but, as Shuddha said, takes on *everyone*. > > >> > > >> I presume that you thought the article was by Pritish Nandy [ > > >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pritish_Nandy ] but even he is not an > > >> employee of the Times of India or a journalist. He is a former > > editor>> who also happens to be related to Ashis Nandy. > > >> > > >> By calling Pritish Nandy a sycophant for an article he did not > > write,>> you are committing a personal attack [ > > >> http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/personal-attack.html ] > > >> > > >> I presume, with all the above evidence, that you did not even > > *read*>> the Nandy article and began to attack it. No wonder about > > the straw > > >> man then. > > >> > > >> I am not going to count and cite the number of logical > > fallacies you > > >> make by calling pritish a sycophant, attributing the motive of > > >> surviving in journalism to his sycophancy, and presuming that The > > >> Times of India bosses are his bosses, who are pro-Congress, and so > > >> therefore is Pritish. > > >> > > >> a) He is not pritish > > >> > > >> b) He is not a journalist, so he does not have to 'survive in > > >> journalism' > > >> c) He is therefore not forced to resort to sycophancy of anyone to > > >> 'survive in journalism' > > >> > > >> d) He does not work at The Times of India, he merely wrote an > > article>> for the paper, which they either commissioned or chose > > to publish. His > > >> bosses are not The Times of India's bosses but CSDS'. > > >> > > >> e) You have stated without evidence that The Times of India is > > >> pro-Congress but even if that were to be considered a proven > > fact, it > > >> does not by implication mean that all their employees are Congress > > >> sycophants, and even if it did it wouldn't make Nandy do so > > >> because he > > >> is not a Times employee, and in any case the article itself speaks > > >> against the Congress. > > >> > > >> > > >> * > > >> > > >> That is just the first paragraph - 144 words - of your > > response. All > > >> the 245 words in the second paragraph amount to red herring(s) > > but I > > >> would repond to the points raised therein as well, if you > > respond to > > >> my three points above. Please reply, as I said, point by point, to > > >> make it comprehensible. > > >> > > >> And do read Nandy's short article, it is interesting. > > >> > > >> I will soon find the time to similarly analyse your response to > > >> Shuddha's response. > > >> > > >> Looking forward to your response. > > >> > > >> best > > >> shivam > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> On Wed, Jun 18, 2008 at 5:23 PM, wrote: > > >> > > > >> > Dear Shuddha, > > >> > > > >> > sometimes I wonder whether any ethics and morals are left in > > >> these neo journalists who are working in visual media as anchors. > > >> ? As they so fluently talk about the IG of police as if they are > > >> above the law when they comment on the character of the 14 year > > >> child, as if these anchors are living a clean life.? > > >> > > > >> > And at times I wonder what made a brilliant social scientist > > >> to become a puppet in the hands of a channel with so many if and > > >> buts added for his pre poll survey in channel degrading himself > > >> along with channel and loss of credibilty.! > > >> > ----- Original Message ----- > > >> > From: Shuddhabrata Sengupta > > >> > Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 4:33 pm > > >> > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > > >> > To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net > > >> > Cc: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् , sarai list > > >> > > >> > > > >> > > Dear Radhikarajen, > > >> > > > > >> > > Thank you for your pertinent critique on the Sarai Reader > > List of > > >> > > the > > >> > > way in which the media represents issues, particularly with > > regard>> > > to > > >> > > the murder of Hemraj Banjade and Arushi Talwar in NOIDA. I > > think>> > > that > > >> > > your thoughts on 'media trials' are salutary. Had newspapers > > >> and TV > > >> > > > > >> > > channels been more restrained in the matter of the way in which > > >> > > they > > >> > > report 'sensational' crimes, then the grave and malicious > > >> > > harrassment > > >> > > that had been the fate of S.A.R.Geelani in the '13 > > December' case > > >> > > might not have taken place. And nor would there have been > > currency>> > > for the hysterical and blood-thirsty demand for the > > execution of > > >> > > Muhammad Afzal Guru, which continues to beseige our > > consciousness>> > > today. I do hope that you, in the spirit of > > your own argument, > > >> will> > > > >> > > join me in condemning the irresponsible behaviour of much > > of the > > >> > > media in these instances. > > >> > > > > >> > > Having said that, I am a bit mystified by your anger > > against the > > >> > > condemnation of the strange attempt at filing a case on > > >> grounds of > > >> > > > > >> > > 'promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of > > religion,>> > > race, place of birth and language' 'under Sections > > 153 A and B of > > >> > > the > > >> > > IPC against Ashis Nandy for his op-ed piece 'Blame the Middle > > >> > > Class' > > >> > > in the Times of India of January 8, 2008. Ashis Nandy is, > > in my > > >> > > opinion, one of the most acute analysts of political > > culture and > > >> > > modernity in South Asia. It is ironic that a person, who has > > >> > > maintained a life time of critique against the excesses of the > > >> > > state- > > >> > > secularist agenda in India, (for which he was at times > > >> unfairly and > > >> > > > > >> > > idiotically denounced as an apolgist of the hindu right by > > >> some un- > > >> > > intelligent so called 'left-liberal' critics) is someone > > you now > > >> > > are > > >> > > prepared to argue against, merely because he happens to > > have taken > > >> > > on > > >> > > the poster boy of hindutva hate-mongering, the chief > > minister of > > >> > > Gujarat, Narendra Damodarbhai Modi. To be fair to Nandy, > > there is > > >> > > no > > >> > > particular group that escapes the sharp edge of his sadness > > in his > > >> > > article on Gujarat. His words (in this particular article) > > >> > > criticize > > >> > > the actions done by people speaking in the name of Bengali > > Hindus,>> > > Kashmiri Muslims, Punjabi Sikhs, Non Resident > > Indians, Dalits and > > >> > > Adivasis and most of all - the middle classes. If all these > > kinds>> > > of > > >> > > people were to be united because they were all attacked by > > Ashis>> > > Nandy, then, we would see a rare example of the > > promotion of > > >> > > conviviality between groups that are otherwise expected to > > be at > > >> > > each > > >> > > others throats. Unfortunately, for you, and for the petitioner > > >> > > belonging to the Ahmedabad based National Council for Civil > > >> > > Liberties, there is as yet no provision in the the Indian Penal > > >> > > Code > > >> > > for the offense of the promotion of conviviality on grounds of > > >> > > religion, race, place of birth and language. > > >> > > . > > >> > > I find it equally strange that you should impute the > > >> sentiments and > > >> > > > > >> > > the analysis contained in Nandy's trenchant criticque of > > Moditva,>> > > (or > > >> > > should it be Moditude, or Modismo) to the antipathy of the > > Bennet>> > > Coleman Group, who happen to own the majority shares > > of the Times > > >> > > of > > >> > > India newspaper, and their so called pro Congress bias. It is > > >> > > instructive to do a careful analysis of the press that Modi and > > >> > > Modismo get in the Times of India's sister publication, the > > >> > > Economic > > >> > > Times, (which for my money, is the more serious of the two > > >> > > publications, the one that actually gets read by captains of > > >> > > industry > > >> > > and politics, not one that teenagers decorate their lockers > > with>> > > because it has scantily clad men and women, the > > publication of > > >> > > images > > >> > > of which, you will no doubt agree, is the primary reason > > for the > > >> > > Times of India to exist.) > > >> > > > > >> > > Now, were you to look at the Economic Times reportage of Modi, > > >> > > Modismo and Gujarat, you would find a glowing picture that > > would>> > > warm > > >> > > your hearts. All you (and everyone who is interested on > > this list) > > >> > > needs to do is to type Narendra Modi on the search bar of the > > >> > > Economic Times home page, and you will be showered by what > > looks>> > > like > > >> > > a public relations campaign for Gujarati Asmita and Modismo. > > >> > > > > >> > > You will find articles such as - > > >> > > > > >> > > Rajiv Gandhi Foundation finds Gujarat No 1 state > > >> > > > > >> > > Chairman of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani, today hailed > > >> > > Gujarat > > >> > > Chief Minister Narendra Modi saying that he has a "bias" for > > >> action.> > > > >> > > And there are many more where these came from. > > >> > > > > >> > > Even your own pet hate, the Times of India, has articles > > such as > > >> > > 'Women Mesmerised by Narendra Modi' > > >> > > > > >> > > What are we to make of this, other than that this is but an > > >> > > instance > > >> > > of the totally commonplace practice of a media group trying to > > >> > > placate all sides. So damn Modi in one article in one > > publication>> > > that you own, and then praise him to the skies > > in another. A > > >> > > detailed > > >> > > analysis of the politics of who reports what about whom, > > and when, > > >> > > in > > >> > > the Indian media can be an entertaining, and instructive > > >> diversion.> > > > >> > > What, however, are we to make of your own pathological anxiety > > >> > > whenever Shri Narendra Damodarbhai Modi is criticised ? You > > have>> > > (again) neatly sidestepped the substance of Ashis > > Nandy's critique > > >> > > and taken us on the pursuit of the red herring of the Times of > > >> > > India's pro-Congress bias, which for you, explains > > everything that > > >> > > there is to understand about what Ashis Nandy has written. > > >> Take a > > >> > > break from the computer, and go take a long look at the > > >> mirror, and > > >> > > > > >> > > you will see the visage of that same middle class Indian, > > >> quick to > > >> > > fume, quick to claim an injury to your precious pride, > > quick to > > >> > > demand that the slate be cleaned of all 'others', and short, > > >> > > tragically, comically short on anything like the ability to > > >> reflect> > > > >> > > on the tightening limits of the sources of your self. > > >> > > > > >> > > I sympathise with your predicament. It must be really hard, and > > >> > > sad, > > >> > > to be you. > > >> > > > > >> > > regards > > >> > > > > >> > > Shuddha > > >> > > > > >> > > > > >> > > > > >> > > > > >> > > > > >> > > > > >> > > > > >> > > > > >> > > > > >> > > media trials of this sort were > > >> > > On 18-Jun-08, at 2:02 PM, radhikarajen at vsnl.net wrote: > > >> > > > > >> > > > Hi all, > > >> > > > > > >> > > > it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis at the > > >> > > drop > > >> > > > of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is > > >> > > > administrator and chief minister with the difference of of > > >> > > > governance of all in the same state without favour or fear > > >> as per > > >> > > > > >> > > > the oath he has taken to administer the state. Times of > > >> India and > > >> > > > > >> > > > its media group is owned by Bennet group which > > traditionally has > > >> > > > been political and supporting sycophants of Congress and > > media>> > > > generally feels if it has to be "secular" it has to > > bash hindu > > >> > > > sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times > > group is > > >> > > never > > >> > > > fair and free in its journalism and always favoured > > Congress and > > >> > > > its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and > > >> pritish is > > >> > > > > >> > > > no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest in > > >> > > journalism > > >> > > > by sycophancy. > > >> > > > > > >> > > > The worst part of it is this "secular"media can not > > >> digest the > > >> > > > > >> > > > fact that hindu society is slowly and steadily getting > > out of > > >> > > caste > > >> > > > conundrums and beginning to gel as one homogeneous society, > > >> while> > > > >> > > > muslim community is being systematically divided by christian > > >> > > > missions to achieve its divide and rule game, into > > smaller forms > > >> > > of > > >> > > > shias, sunnis and other denominations with terror as subtextt > > >> > > just > > >> > > > as the vote banks are getting divided between good > > >> governance and > > >> > > > > >> > > > sycophancy and secular media keeps on playing old footage of > > >> > > > "carnages so that they remain in the ghettos and wounds are > > >> never> > > > >> > > > allowed to heal.The ultimate goal of Sonia and her mafia > > is to > > >> > > > divided and rule with rome as its remote control which hindus > > >> > > have > > >> > > > understood except for a few handful of sycophants in > > >> Congress of > > >> > > > all faiths who have no mass base or electoral prospects > > and have > > >> > > to > > >> > > > live on doleouts of the mafia queen. These along with > > christian>> > > > mafia in the kitchen cabinet have used all those > > "journalists">> > > and > > >> > > > "int > > >> > > > ellectuals" of modern day to devise the spins to bring > > back the > > >> > > old > > >> > > > lost horse of Congress in new avtar as christian brigade > > for the > > >> > > > crusade, while in comity of nations it is seen that Bush > > >> uses- > > >> > > the > > >> > > > terror and weapons of mass destruction as excuses to bring > > >> in his > > >> > > > > >> > > > form of democracy in the nations of muslim faith, first by > > >> attack> > > > >> > > > of shia dominated Afghanistan and then on Iraq for the > > imaginary>> > > > weapons of mass destruction.?---- Original > > Message ----- > > >> > > > From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् > > >> > > > Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 8:04 pm > > >> > > > Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > > >> > > > To: sarai list > > >> > > > > > >> > > >> An organisation in Ahemdabad called National Council for > > Civil>> > > >> Liberties has filed a case against Ashis Nandy for > > his article > > >> > > in The > > >> > > >> Times of India in January after Modi's election victory. The > > >> > > case has > > >> > > >> been filed for for 'promoting enmity between different > > >> groups on > > >> > > >> grounds of religion, race, place of birth and language' > > >> > > [Sections 153 > > >> > > >> (A) and (B) of IPC]. > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> 178 academics and intellectuals have signed a statement in > > >> protest,> > >> which is available at > > >> > > >> > > http://www.sacw.net/FreeExpAndFundos/defendNandy16June08.html>> > > > > >> > > >> > > >> Given below is the 'offending' article: > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> o o o > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> Blame The Middle Class > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> By Ashis Nandy > > >> > > >> 8 Jan 2008 > > >> > > >> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/ > > >> > > >> > > >> LEADER_ARTICLE_Blame_The_Middle_Class/rssarticleshow/2681517.cms> > > >> > >> > > >> > > >> Now that the dust has settled over the Gujarat elections, > > >> we can > > >> > > >> afford to defy the pundits and admit that, even if Narendra > > >> Modi> > had>> lost the last elections, it would not have made much > > >> > > difference to > > >> > > >> the > > >> > > >> culture of Gujarat politics. Modi had already done his job. > > >> Most of > > >> > > >> the state's urban middle class would have remained mired > > in its > > >> > > inane>> versions of communalism and parochialism and the > > VHP and > > >> > > the Bajrang > > >> > > >> Dal would have continued to set the tone of state politics. > > >> Forty> > >> years of dedicated propaganda does pay dividends, > > >> electorally and > > >> > > >> socially. > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> The Hindus and the Muslims of the state — once bonded so > > >> > > >> conspicuously > > >> > > >> by language, culture and commerce — have met the demands of > > >> both> > > > >> > > >> V D > > >> > > >> Savarkar and M A Jinnah. They now face each other as two > > >> hostile> > >> nations. The handful of Gujarati social and > > >> political activists who > > >> > > >> resist the trend are seen not as dissenters but as > > treacherous>> > > >> troublemakers who should be silenced by any > > means, including > > >> > > >> surveillance, censorship and direct violence. As a result, > > >> Gujarati> > >> cities, particularly its educational institutions > > >> are turning > > >> > > >> cultural > > >> > > >> deserts. Gujarat has already disowned the Indian > > Constitution>> > > and the > > >> > > >> state apparatus has adjusted to the change. > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> The Congress, the main opposition party, has no effective > > >> > > leader. Nor > > >> > > >> does it represent any threat to the mainstream politics of > > >> Gujarat.> > >> The days of grass-roots leaders like Jhinabhai > > >> Darji are past > > >> > > and a > > >> > > >> large section of the party now consists of Hindu > > >> nationalists. The > > >> > > >> national leadership of the party does not have the > > courage to > > >> > > >> confront > > >> > > >> Modi over 2002, given its abominable record of 1984. > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> The Left is virtually non-existent in Gujarat. Whatever > > minor>> > > >> presence > > >> > > >> it once had among intellectuals and trade unionists is now > > >> a vague > > >> > > >> memory. The state has disowned Gandhi, too; Gandhian > > politics>> > > arouses>> derision in middle-class Gujarat. Except > > for a few > > >> > > valiant old- > > >> > > >> timers, > > >> > > >> Gandhians have made peace with their conscience by > > >> withdrawing from > > >> > > >> the public domain. Gandhi himself has been given a saintly, > > >> Hindu> > >> nationalist status and shelved. Even the Gujarati > > >> translations> > of his > > >> > > >> Complete Works have been stealthily distorted to conform > > to the > > >> > > Hindu>> nationalist agenda. > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> Gujarati Muslims too are "adjusting" to their new station. > > >> Denied> > >> justice and proper compensation, and as second-class > > >> citizens in > > >> > > > > >> > > >> their > > >> > > >> home state, they have to depend on voluntary efforts and > > donor>> > > >> agencies. The state's refusal to provide relief has > > been partly > > >> > > >> met by > > >> > > >> voluntary groups having fundamentalist sympathies. They > > supply>> > > aid > > >> > > >> but > > >> > > >> insist that the beneficiaries give up Gujarati and take to > > >> Urdu,> > > > >> > > >> adopt > > >> > > >> veil, and send their children to madrassas. Events like the > > >> > > >> desecration of Wali Gujarati's grave have pushed one of > > India's>> > > >> culturally richest, most diverse, vernacular > > Islamic traditions > > >> > > to > > >> > > >> the > > >> > > >> wall. Future generations will as gratefully acknowledge the > > >> sangh> > >> parivar's contribution to the growth of radical Islam > > >> in India > > >> > > as > > >> > > >> this > > >> > > >> generation remembers with gratitude the handsome > > >> contribution of > > >> > > > > >> > > >> Rajiv > > >> > > >> Gandhi and his cohorts to Sikh militancy. > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> The secularist dogma of many fighting the sangh parivar > > has not > > >> > > >> helped > > >> > > >> matters. Even those who have benefited from secular > > lawyers and > > >> > > >> activists relate to secular ideologies instrumentally. They > > >> neither> > >> understand them nor respect them. The victims still > > >> derive> > solace > > >> > > >> from > > >> > > >> their religions and, when under attack, they cling more > > >> > > passionately>> to faith. Indeed, shallow ideologies of > > secularism>> > > have > > >> > > >> simultaneously > > >> > > >> broken the back of Gandhism and discouraged the > > emergence of > > >> > > figures>> like Ali Shariatis, Desmond Tutus and the Dalai > > Lama — > > >> > > persons > > >> > > >> who can > > >> > > >> give suffering a new voice audible to the poor and the > > >> powerless> > and>> make a creative intervention possible from > > >> within worldviews > > >> > > >> accessible to the people. > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> Finally, Gujarat's spectacular development has > > underwritten the > > >> > > >> de-civilising process. One of the worst-kept secrets of our > > >> > > times is > > >> > > >> that dramatic development almost always has an > > >> authoritarian tail. > > >> > > >> Post-World War II Asia too has had its love affair with > > >> > > developmental>> despotism and the censorship, surveillance and > > >> > > thought control > > >> > > >> that go > > >> > > >> with it. The East Asian tigers have all been maneaters most > > >> of the > > >> > > >> time. Gujarat has now chosen to join the pack. Development > > >> in the > > >> > > >> state now justifies amorality, abridgement of freedom, and > > >> > > >> collapse of > > >> > > >> social ethics. > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> Is there life after Modi? Is it possible to look beyond > > the 35 > > >> > > years>> of rioting that began in 1969 and ended in 2002? Prima > > >> > > facie, the > > >> > > >> answer is "no". We can only wait for a new generation that > > >> will,> > out>> of sheer self-interest and tiredness, learn to live > > >> with each > > >> > > other.>> In the meanwhile, we have to wait patiently but not > > >> > > passively to keep > > >> > > >> values alive, hoping that at some point will come a > > modicum of > > >> > > >> remorse > > >> > > >> and a search for atonement and that ultimately Gujarati > > >> traditions> > >> will triumph over the culture of the state's > > >> urban middle class. > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> Recovering Gujarat from its urban middle class will not be > > >> easy.> > The>> class has found in militant religious > > nationalism a > > >> new self- > > >> > > respect>> and a new virtual identity as a martial > > community, the > > >> > > way Bengali > > >> > > >> babus, Maharashtrian Brahmins and Kashmiri Muslims at > > different>> > > times>> have sought salvation in violence. In > > Gujarat this class > > >> > > has smelt > > >> > > >> blood, for it does not have to do the killings but can plan, > > >> > > finance>> and coordinate them with impunity. The actual > > >> killers are > > >> > > the lowest > > >> > > >> of the low, mostly tribals and Dalits. The middle class > > >> controls> > the>> media and education, which have become hate > > >> factories in > > >> > > recent > > >> > > >> times. > > >> > > >> And they receive spirited support from most non-resident > > >> Indians> > who,>> at a safe distance from India, can afford to > > be more > > >> > > nationalist,>> bloodthirsty, and irresponsible. > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> [The writer is a political psychologist.] > > >> > > > > > > From nc-agricowi at netcologne.de Sun Jun 22 15:48:35 2008 From: nc-agricowi at netcologne.de (JavaMuseum) Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2008 12:18:35 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] =?iso-8859-1?q?=5BAnnouncements=5D_News_from_JavaMu?= =?iso-8859-1?q?seum?= Message-ID: <20080622121835.7AB8B045.52AF895E@192.168.0.3> JavaMuseum - Forum for Internet Technology in Contemporary Art http://www.javamuseum.org News ---------------------------------- 1. New interviews on: JIP. JavaMuseum Interview Project 2. New call for: Netart Features 2009 ---------------------------------- 1. JavaMuseum is happy to publish three new interviews on JIP - JavaMuseum Interview Project http://jip.javamuseum.org a) Alan Bigelow (USA) http://jip.javamuseum.org/jipblog/?page_id=93 b). Ethan Ham (USA) http://jip.javamuseum.org/jipblog/?page_id=94 c) Hyeseung Yoo (South Korea) http://jip.javamuseum.org/jipblog/?page_id=96 ------------------------------------ 2. Call for entries: Netart Features 2009 Also in 2009, JavaMuseum will continue its netart features. Artists are invited to submit up to 5 works completed after1 January 2005. The complete call, including regulations and form can be found here---> http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=329 ------------------------------------ JavaMuseum - Forum for Internet Technology in Contemporary Art http://www.javamuseum.org is a corporate part of [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne www.nmartproject.net - the experimental platform for art and new media from Cologne/Germany ------------------------------------ info (at) javamuseum.org _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com Mon Jun 23 06:03:59 2008 From: naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com (Naeem Mohaiemen) Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2008 06:33:59 +0600 Subject: [Reader-list] War Hero, Bangladeshi Killer Message-ID: Racist killer captured after bid to flee court By DAVID ROSS, Highland Correspondent The HIGHLAND 12:59am Saturday 21st June 2008 http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/news/display.var.2356131.0.Racist_killer_captured_after_bid_to_flee_court.php An Iraq war hero dramatically tried to flee court after he was convicted of the "savage, merciless, and pointless" murder of a Bangladeshi waiter 14 years ago. Black Watch soldier Michael Ross was 15 when he entered a restaurant on Orkney and shot Shamsuddin Mahmood in front of customers because of the colour of his skin. After being found guilty yesterday at the High Court in Glasgow, Ross, now 29, leapt from the dock. There were gasps from the public gallery as he veered towards the jury before leaving by a side door, pursued by police officers and court officials. He was wrestled to the ground in the corridor by a court official and handcuffed as he sat on the floor, before being taken from the court to prison. His desperate attempt to escape came after the jury of 10 women and five men took less than a day's deliberation to convict him of murder and attempting to defeat the ends of justice, on a majority verdict. Judge Lord Hardie told Ross, a first offender, that he would not be sentenced until July 11 because a social inquiry report was required. Police later confirmed Ross had become the main suspect soon after the murder of the Bangladeshi waiter at the Mumutaz Indian restaurant in Kirkwall in June 1994, only two months after Mr Mahmood arrived on Orkney. They were sure it had been Ross who had walked into the restaurant that evening wearing a balaclava, but did not have enough evidence to charge him. The breakthrough came in 2006 when a new witness, William Grant, came forward, saying he had seen Ross in public toilets in Kirkwall with a balaclava and a weapon on the night of the killing, and felt obliged to tell police. Detective Inspector Iain Smith, the senior investigating officer, said: "That was the spur for us to reopen the inquiry." Asked why it took Mr Grant so long to come forward, he replied: "I have no idea why, but we are grateful that he did." It has been suggested Mr Grant feared for his safety, particularly given that Ross's father, Edmund, was a serving police officer at the time of the murder. Mr Smith expressed delight yesterday that, after 14 years, Ross had finally been brought to justice for this "shocking and sickening crime". He said a racist motive became increasingly apparent from witness evidence and items recovered from Ross's home, including a notebook with racist writing on it. "At the time, there was great difficulty in establishing a motive. It was a senseless crime. It was only through the inquiry, through the years, that we had been able to come to the conclusion in all probability this was a racially motivated crime." Ross had been questioned first as a witness and then as a suspect, and had changed his testimony which had been significant, "but he didn't come close to confessing". Asked if Ross joined the Army to continue racist killings, Mr Smith said: "You have to second-guess him. I can't say what his reason was for joining the Army. "He was extremely keen in firearms and shooting, as was his father and brother. It became apparent from his cadet days and has followed him through his career." Asked about his father lying to protect his son while a serving officer, Mr Smith said: "It is a decision he has made as a father protecting his son. Given his position as a police officer, that was an extremely frustrating scenario." Mr Smith said Ross's actions in trying to escape "spoke volumes". Mr Mahmood's brother, Abul Shafuddin, sent a statement from Bangladesh. It read: "Justice has been done. The family feel happy with the verdict and happy with the performance of the police. We are grateful to all who worked to bring the accused to trial." Andrew Laing, area procurator-fiscal for the Highland and Islands, said: "This was a callous murder of an innocent young man who was well known and liked within the town. This cowardly act shocked not only the local community but people throughout Scotland." Advocate-depute Brian McConnachie had described the murder as "savage, merciless, and pointless", but Donald Findlay QC, defending, brought forward several black soldiers Ross had served alongside in Iraq, who spoke of his brave actions on the frontline. A Ministry of Defence spokesman said the Army was aware of the conviction, but said it would be inappropriate to comment until the judge had passed sentence. Meanwhile, the Scottish Court Service said it would be carrying out a full review of the circumstances surrounding Ross's attempted escape. From monica at sarai.net Mon Jun 23 16:37:40 2008 From: monica at sarai.net (Monica Narula) Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:37:40 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Film: Digital Handicraft Message-ID: <2ACB4C68-EBE9-4C62-80FC-ACD8EB03911C@sarai.net> (from incom list) http://v2v.cc/v2v/digital_handcraft Digital Handcraft - China's Global Factory for Computers "digital handcraft" is an educational film, a portrait of the process of computer hardware production. It displays the organisation of production in global value chains and investigates the conditions of life and labour for millions of migrant worker in China's factories, which manufacture the hardware for the immaterial production of the 21st century. This film takes a look at the flipside of globalised computer production, which is incongruous with the "clean" image the industry usually displays. By interviewing both activists and workers, the film investigates the current situation as well as future possibilities for improving their situation. Furthermore, the film looks at issues surrounding the illegal shipping of computer scrap parts from Germany to developing countries. _______________________________________________ Monica Narula Raqs Sarai-CSDS 29 Rajpur Road Delhi 110 054 www.raqsmediacollective.net www.sarai.net From kashaffairs at yahoo.co.uk Mon Jun 23 17:10:35 2008 From: kashaffairs at yahoo.co.uk (Kashmir Affairs) Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2008 11:40:35 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [Reader-list] Book Review and Interview: A journery interrupted: Being Indian in Pakistan In-Reply-To: <2ACB4C68-EBE9-4C62-80FC-ACD8EB03911C@sarai.net> Message-ID: <183158.87275.qm@web27803.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Book Review A Journey Interrupted:  Being Indian in Pakistan by Farzana Versey [Harper Collins India; Rupees 295, Pages 279]   Murtaza Shibli 21 July 2008 Being Muslim in India is a very hard job. Threatened and terrorised by the growing Hindu militant extremists and constantly looked at with suspicion and treated with a certain degree of caution, the Muslims are believed to harbour a certain desire to separate from the union and create a country of their own a la Pakistan that a modernist Jinnah created but has since been usurped by the dubious Islamist agenda. The suspicion is so institutionalised, that the Muslims are hardly represented in the country’s million plus armed forces and there is no Muslim officer in the country’s premier intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). This suspicion turns into contempt when an ‘Indian Muslim’ travels to Pakistan. In the popular Pakistani imagination, India is a country of Hindus and if at all there are any Muslims they are seen as Kafirs or infidels. Farzana Versey’s encounters in Pakistan are replete with her confrontations with such stereotypes. However, as her expedition of exploration furthers, she finds fascinating contours of a human society with diametric contradictions where ‘personal becomes political’. Reading Versey’s account it seems that the Indian Muslim faces more suspicion in Pakistan as they are not treated at par with the Indian Hindus in the country that is supposedly Muslim. In ‘A Journey Interrupted’, Farzana Versey weaves a collage of her experiences that she acquired during her four visits to Pakistan in six years; a journey of exploration with continuous negotiations and constant reconciliation with her own identity of an Indian Muslim woman. 'When I was on the soil of the land of the pure, my impurity struck me. I was the emotional mulatto,' she writes. She travels through the cities of Karachi, Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar and meets a vast array of people - from common chai wallahs to prostitutes and actors, poets  and retired army men to find out strange and contrasting factors of Pakistani identity, if at all there is one. Despite dancing to the tunes of Bollywood films and replacing the peeling posters of Bin Laden with the likes of Shah Rukh Khan, being anti-Indian is an important part of Pakistani identity. And Kashmir fits perfectly in that quest for a national narrative that has been interrupted by Army dictatorships, political mismanagement and Islamist Jihadism.  In order to sustain the rationale of a struggling identity, Versey writes that ‘every few years Pakistan writes a new fiction’. The book is ‘about Pakistan, but it is also about India. It is about Them and Us, Her/Him and Me’, the author contends. Although not a ‘conventional’ travelogue, ‘A Journey Interrupted’ could not escape the trap of Kashmir - the place that defines the ‘convention’ between India and Pakistan. ‘Kashmir was like a shadow tailing me’, the author said to me. The reason is simple, she adds, ‘the Pakistani interest in India is centred on Kashmir. Not the Kashmiri people, mind you, but Kashmir as real estate, as a brownie point. And this will continue to be a hotbed because the most important thing is that this one state keeps the armies of both countries occupied’. She terms the ongoing peace process as ‘designer process’ observing that ‘political peace’ is not possible and will not happen. She calls her observation as ‘freedom from delusion’ but says that ‘it would suffice if the ordinary people kept up a semblance of civility and left politicians out of the peace process. When you want to sup with your neighbour you do not seek the permission of the landlord, do you?’, she poses back a question. ‘A Journey Interrupted’ is primarily from an Indian Muslim perspective that subtly tries to debunk a few stereotypes that exist about both Pakistanis and the Indian Muslim 'affiliation', a cause both the Hindu fundamentalist militants in India and Islamist extremists in Pakistan are wedded to. As India and Pakistan are trying to overcome the legacy of Partition and build new bridges, Versey while watching from the Pakistani side of border at Wagah feels unsettled by the ‘unsheathed anger and the charade of candlelit peace’ and finds ‘proximity’ and not the ‘distance’ as ‘disturbing’. A wonderfully written account, Farzana Versey uses terse language in effective idiom, imagery and poetic observation. ‘In these times of political and social unrest in Pakistan, this is a timely book - one that delves into the Pakistani mind and traces the chasms in its recent history’.     Interview: Farzana Versey By Murtaza Shibli This was your fourth trip to Pakistan in last six years and now a book. Why Pakistan? The more appropriate question would be: why not Pakistan for all these years and why now? I have spoken about the fear of visiting that country and being stuck there in the event of a war. That fear remained. In some ways the first trip was to purge that fear; the subsequent visits were to understand the hurt of the statement I begin my Prologue with when the retired army general said, “You need to be deported”. I sensed a deep resentment in his voice and tone. And it was directed not against India, but against the Indian Muslim. He was hitting out at my identity. The talk of the Partition is prominently placed in your discourse. Is it still that powerful? I would say the Partition resonating in the book is more psychological. I have compared the attitude of the pre-partition generation, which has now taken on a soft-focus, let us forget it all and get over it attitude, with our generation and even more importantly the younger generation. We are, as I wrote, living contemporary history. The youngsters are finding absolutely no connection with us. The geographical partition, however gruesome it was, at least had the advantage of bloodshed. The suspicion the Indian Muslim faces both at home and in Pakistan is without this benefit of catharsis. The fissures now get fossilised with every stereotype. Can the present peace process between the two countries heal the wounds? As I already said, we are not talking about those old wounds as much as new arrows being aimed blindly from both sides. Political peace is not possible and will not happen, ever. I am afraid if this is a pessimistic view…I would call it freedom from delusion. It would suffice if the ordinary people kept up a semblance of civility and left politicians out of the peace process. When you want to sup with your neighbour you do not seek the permission of the landlord, do you? Was it possible to do a book without Kashmir in it? I tried. But Kashmir was like a shadow tailing me. The reason is simple: The Pakistani interest in India is centred on Kashmir. Not the Kashmiri people, mind you, but Kashmir as real estate, as a brownie point. And this will continue to be a hotbed because the most important thing is that this one state keeps the armies of both countries occupied. It has probably become a symbol to judge how patriotic one is. Why did you choose Indian Muslim identity to set the narrative? It happens to be my identity. And this book is about the identity question in large measure - my identity, the Pakistani identities. You forgot to add the ‘woman’ identity too. This was crucial because a female perspective put me in the real conflict with the terrain…given that Pakistani society is considered misogynistic; I got to see it in action in my encounters with men from different strata. I do not think a man would ever write about Peshawar the way it has been written…and I do believe I have shown the women of the frontier province as I saw them without wearing blinkers. If I saw an amazingly courageous rebel in a village here, I saw the complete helplessness of the so-called liberated woman in a big city too. There cannot be fixed ideas. Incidentally, Peshawar was the only place where my religion was of no consequence, as opposed to other cities. Despite placing your Muslim identity at core, you are seen as a ?Kafir Musalman'? The ‘kafir Mussalman’ must be seen in the context of my various fractured selves that came along as baggage. I do tend to travel heavy! I referred to feeling like an emotional mulatto in the land of the pure where my supposed impurity hit me. This personal aspect was to take off on other ‘marginals’. You are using a limited set of people to comment on the society. How exhaustive can this be? I am not a bird, so there was no sense in giving a bird’s eye-view. I had not set out to write the definitive book on Pakistan society, with a title that had every word in caps and footnotes that ran into pages. Interestingly, while researching some aspects it would take me to many of my earlier articles, so a bibliography would have ended up as an exercise in vanity that I can ill-afford beyond a point. To answer your question, it may not be exhaustive, which is why it is not exhausting. However, it is most certainly relevant because those people are an intrinsic part of the country, they are its voices. Mores and norms are formed by lived experiences not pontification. A Bengali Muslim talking about Bangladesh makes more sense to me than my quoting ten experts. That information is available from any search engine. And will anyone be able to replicate the sheer anguish of people’s personal lives by not empathising with it? I could have written a nice sensational chapter on Heera Mandi but as I stated I am not a western sociologist ‘doing’ a place; my sensitivity is different; not better or worse, just different. I have a background in working among children of Commercial Sex Workers so I cannot take those images away. What I have instead is a more touching account about a real person who is hiding her past. We again come to the identity question. What is hidden is often more potent. How would you compare Indian and Pakistan identity? I called Pakistan an amputated nation; some would see it as trashing…I see it with anguish. Therefore Pakistan, as I believe and several people there do, is restructuring its identity to deny its roots. This is a tough call. The Indian identity is about the memory of what has been taken away. India does act like Big Brother but it is surprisingly insecure about the loss. The constant sloganeering about India Shining is really an attempt to gloss over that. The current struggle for democracy in Pakistan is generally seen as intellectual. Do the intellectuals and the civil society feel trapped in the milieu that has shaped the country? The intellectuals are not of one stripe, as they ought not to be, so there are differing versions of democracy. An Ahmed Faraz has a vastly different take from a Sheema Kirmani. Faraz is attached to his passport, Sheema does not even believe in the concept of nationalism. The section on dissenters was mainly to question them about the Pakistani identity and many felt there was none. I would like to add here that it is easy to term liberals as dissenters, but I have included the Jamia Hafsa women because in many ways they set the tone of the current crisis of rebelling against the system. I find this most interesting because in an Islamic society you have bunch of Muslims, women at that, going around with sticks. We really need to broaden our way of looking at the idea of dissent. What kind of India lives in the public memory of Pakistan? The India they can still conquer! Besides Indian films and soaps, Pakistanis think India is a Hindu nation. Perhaps they are trying to justify their Islamic nation call. This was my major grouse as an Indian Muslim. Your interaction with gays and minorities is interesting. How do they cope in the supposed harsh Islamist settings? The gays are doing fine as long as they stick to their groups. Let us not forget that homosexuality is illegal in India, in Pakistan there is no such law. It is against sodomy. So you can feel up a guy and no law can do a thing, unless someone is there to watch you in the act. The more touching aspect is about gay women, and they do exist. Religious minorities have their own problems, but they have found canny ways to deal with it. Say Allah hafiz and all is well with the world. Your book is wanting for any interactions with Islamists/ISI/Army/Al-Qaeda or Taliban. You didn’t try to meet any? If by Islamist you mean the totems that have made it their vocation, then no, I did not attempt to meet any. The very idea about debunking stereotypes is to first understand them. My understanding is being an Islamist is not a profession. Therefore, if you look carefully there are traces of all the types you mentioned. I cannot identify some for obvious reasons. For me the genesis is more important, and I found it in the person who joined the Tablighi movement or the atheist who completely changed. What prompts those changes? That leaves more room for exploration. Is there any difference in pre and post 9/11 Pakistan? If there is anything that should tell Pakistan that it is not an Arab country, it is this. Before 9/11 the bookshop owner was not enthusiastic about selling Osama’s biography to me…this in Peshawar. Post 9/11 Osama was lionized, posters everywhere…and in 2007, my past trip, his posters were peeling and no one cared for him but anti-Americanism is perhaps more prominent as indeed are American accents. A society full of contradictions... As Indian Muslim, how different did you feel from the cousins of your extended family in Pakistan? Completely different. Mainly because unlike the pre-1947 elders, like my mother here and aunt there, we do not share any memories. And memories make all the difference. __________________________________________________________ Sent from Yahoo! Mail. A Smarter Email http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html From karimnonvore at gmail.com Mon Jun 23 20:15:54 2008 From: karimnonvore at gmail.com (karimnanvore karim) Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:15:54 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Invite - June 25th IHC In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: > > > > > Dear friends, > > > Praxis is organising a small get together at IHC on *June 25th between > 6.00 – 8.30 pm* for sharing our experiences of from the recent floods in > Bihar. The experiences have been captured in the form of a book '*Dateline > Ganshyampur*' and a film '*Waters of Despair*'. We will use the occasion > to release the book formally and screen the film. The film has already been > invited to many festivals and it will also be screened NDTV soon. The film > was produced entirely by an in-house team . > > After the screening, Community members, CSO representatives from Bihar, > Dalit network representatives and scientists from Bihar will share their > thoughts with participants. > > I am attaching the invitation for the programme. Will greatly appreciate if > you and your colleagues could participate in the programme. > > Warm regards. > > > -- > Sign up for Praxis's annual commune on participatory development at > http://www.theworkshop.in > Join the voice of the nile expedition launch at http://voiceofnile.org/ > > > > > From gif at 220hex.org Mon Jun 23 20:34:24 2008 From: gif at 220hex.org (220hex) Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2008 17:04:24 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] piksel08 - code dreams :: open call Message-ID: <200806231704.24720.gif@220hex.org> <<<<<<<<>>>>>>>> **Piksel08: code dreams december 4-7 2008 Bergen, Norway How does code dream? What are the dreams of code? Piksel08 examines the other side of code, an alternative side to a hard-coded reality of work and play. Open hardware and free software project a utopic vision, yet exist within economies of capital, the dream factory of mainstream technology. Within the chance meeting of sewing machine and umbrella on the dissecting table, hardware and software are flattened. Piksel08: code dreams explores the dreams of this soft machine; bachelors coding for pleasure, reverse engineering paranoiac constructs of the real, automatic coding practice, soft hardware, and everyday magic. <<<<<<<<>>>>>>>> **open call: 1. Installations Projects related to the code dreams theme including but not restricted to: reverse engineering, soft hardware, code poetry, novel instruction sets, invisible exploration, ghosted computation... programmed by and running on free and open source software and/or open/DIY hardware. 2. Audiovisual performance Live art realised by the use of free and open source software. We specially encourage live coding and DIY hardware projects to apply. 3. Software/Hardware Innovative DIY hardware and audiovisual software tools or software art released under an open licence. <<<<<< Deadline - august 15. 2008 >>>>>> Please use the online submit form at: http://piksel.no/piksel08/subform.html or send documentation material - preferably as a URL to online documentation with images/video to piksel08 [AT] piksel [DOT] no <<<<<<<<>>>>>>>> **subsections: **real code real.co.[de][re] actively explores code which has strong effects on the real, constructing the world through prediction and description. The twelve hour real.co.[de][re] session will attempt the active construction of a working code model (of any form) which addresses a flattening of the distinction between software and hardware, to resolve a new political reference for real core code. **abstract code Abstract code is software whose results can be invisible, a software implementing different layers of action at the same time. Abstract code is a connection to parallel worlds, a poetic formula dealing with outer forces. Code is art, its action is subtile, effective, magic. procedural text maledictions, oracles, iambi, hymn, formula, refrains, hypnotic sentences, prayers, and other. <<<<<<<<>>>>>>>> Piksel is supported by the Municipality of Bergen, Arts Council Norway, Vestnorsk Filmsenter, Hordaland County Council and others. More info: http://piksel.no --- From nikhilmehra at email.com Mon Jun 23 16:28:43 2008 From: nikhilmehra at email.com (nikhil mehra) Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2008 05:58:43 -0500 Subject: [Reader-list] [nls2002] TOI's "Private Treaties" Message-ID: <20080623105843.EAE9C164293@ws1-4.us4.outblaze.com> Sidey,Good to hear from you. I read the article and spoke to a few other journalist friends. They suggested that the practice - petty corruption among journalists - has been around forever and is in fact institutionalized if not formalized. I see the concerns relating to neutrality and objectivity that such an investment might raise but from what I've heard, this is nothin new for ToI. If anything this is a corporate relationship that perfectly mirrors arrangements that have been in place for years. I'm attaching a story from rediff to similar effect http://www.rediff.com/money/2003/mar/05dalal.htm. I heard from someone that HT has struck a deal with a real estate developer for ads in exchange for developed flats (presumably to offer editors when they have to poach them from somewhere!). I'm getting a lot of this data from a mailing group that I am a part of (as is Bumsy) which has a no. of people who are or have been journos. Let me know what you think. Best,Nikhil ----- Original Message ----- From: "siddharth narrain" To: acj2003 at yahoogroups.com, acj_chennai at yahoogroups.com, "sibi arasu" , "vikram doctor" , reader-list at sarai.net, nls2002 at yahoogroups.com Subject: [nls2002] TOI's "Private Treaties" Date: Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:54:59 +0530 Here's an interesting piece on the way the Times of India's "Private Treaties" work. While its not the first piece to be written on the subject, this piece has triggered off a serious debate within the journalist community http://www.thehoot.org/web/home/story.php?storyid=3174&mod=1&pg=1§ionId=4&valid=true __._,_.___Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic Messages | Files | Photos | Links | Database | Polls | Members | CalendarMARKETPLACE -------------------------------------------------------------------- You rock! Blockbuster wants to give you a complimentary trial of - Blockbuster Total Access.[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 Visit Your Group Yahoo! Finance It's Now Personal Guides, news, advice & more. Y! Messenger Send pics quick Share photos while you IM friends. Yahoo! Groups Familyographer Zone Learn how to capture family moments. .[IMAGE] __,_._,___ -- See Exclusive Videos: 10th Annual Young Hollywood Awards http://www.hollywoodlife.net/younghollywoodawards2008/ From rana at ranadasgupta.com Fri Jun 20 16:47:05 2008 From: rana at ranadasgupta.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:17:05 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] chimurenga announcement Message-ID: <821C7E7D-B5F8-47FD-A11C-49D241E20485@ranadasgupta.com> Chimurenga 14: Everyone Has Their Indian* Indian traders hit the shores of Africa in 1 AD. We have no concrete proof of this /per se/, but all the search engines think so. The Africans beat them to it, beginning their trips to India (should we say South Asia?) many thousands of years ago ? some of them staying put in exactly the same spot until National Geographic showed up. It's true: even today, in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, you can spot the carefree "negrito" shooting arrows at government helicopters, surviving deadly tsunamis or roasting the odd tourist for dinner. We are reliably informed that human cargo of a more recent vintage ? the blob of people branded as "Africans in India" and "Indians in Africa" ? are behaving slightly better. Seems like only yesterday that every self-respecting postcolony was calling for socialism and south-south solidarity (think "Stuck in the middle with you" if this last phrase makes you cringe). How things change. Nehru is no more and his big dams are a national nightmare, Nyerere is gone, taking his iron fist with him, the region politely referred to as South Asia is a Godly mess, Bad Bob is Mad Bob, someone dug up all those impolite words that Gandhi hurled at the Natal indigene? and, oh yes, Naipaul finally won the Nobel. Still, third world solidarity warmed the cockles of our coloured hearts and we miss it sorely. Hypocrisy just isn't the same, what with this economically integrated world and all. Circa today: India is the world's favourite market ? 50 million engineers to the backdrop of an ancient culture. Africa is the world's favourite cause ? 50 million problems, and such fascinating wildlife. Put them together and we should have an opera of cinematic proportions. Instead, what we see is mere stock footage; what we hear, the dull drone of conventional foolishnesses volleyed across the Indian Ocean. It is not our intention to quibble with the great minds who've tackled such intercontinental themes before (not solely our intention, at least). Fact is, the present is a foreign country and people do strange things there. And we are unnaturally besotted with foreign countries and strange things. Could it be true that the Mandrax currently hobbling pre-teen South Africa is entirely manufactured in India? Why does the Hausa film look like a low-budget Hindi potboiler? How is it that so many Nigerian footballers play for Bangladesh? Who decided that the lost tribes of Shiva built the foundations of Great Zimbabwe? And were they on Mandrax? Today, there are all kinds of lines criss-crossing the Indian Ocean and they're just as likely to be drawn by governments and tourists as pirates and preachers. (Plus ca change, you might say, but hey, lineage is a line too.) The lines we are interested in are any and none of these and more: all we want is a new conversation. Send your stuff to chimurenga at panafrican.co.za before end of July 2008. * We don't own that phrase ? the leading brain of the legendary Sunday Times uttered it in a fit of worldliness, at the height of the Shaik opera. .................. Cédric Vincent 38 rue de Torcy 75018 Paris tel. +33 (0)1 40 37 19 73 mob. +33 (0)6 77 22 10 84 _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From kauladityaraj at gmail.com Tue Jun 24 13:47:36 2008 From: kauladityaraj at gmail.com (Aditya Raj Kaul) Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:47:36 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Wandhama echoes through the nation - Indian Express In-Reply-To: <6353c690806240116n3ebd300t3ce084cc93b436cb@mail.gmail.com> References: <6353c690806240116n3ebd300t3ce084cc93b436cb@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <6353c690806240117n776cbae2p9b705e52219d1d8@mail.gmail.com> *Wandhama echoes through the nation* ** *Indian Express * ** *At a panel discussion in Delhi, Mukul Sharma, Head of Amnesty International, India, was bombarded with questions regarding the role of his agency in bringing retribution to the victims of the Wandhama massacre, he lamented the fact that the government had not let the UN special repertoire to investigate the situation in the valley, which continues to see human rights violations.* Read more at - http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com/ Please do comment. Thanks Aditya Raj Kaul From radhikarajen at vsnl.net Tue Jun 24 14:18:41 2008 From: radhikarajen at vsnl.net (radhikarajen at vsnl.net) Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:48:41 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again In-Reply-To: References: <9c06aab30806170733t48302bablf56c69c6427f5b82@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Hi, Shuddha, by now you might not have missed the posts of Private treaties of the media barons and their reportage.? These posts not only have appeared in sarai list, also in other groups discussing ethics of journalists and what all can happen with media barons aligned to party politics.! That apart, the craze to be numero uno visual media even with speculative reportage of views rather than news by the journalists in visual and print media raises more important issue, are the journalists above law. ? Ca a Rajdeep, Barkha or a Pritish being journalist do more damage to society than a terrorists for peace and harmony in the society. ? The answer to this issue is unfortunately a BIG YES. Channels showing old footage of riots and then juxtaposing the plight of riot victims selectively, thus provoking the sensibilty of their viewers for the sake of their political sponsors invokes disgust at these type of journalists. In situations like communal disturbances citizens of all faiths do suffer. Victims of riots are from society irrespective of their faith, who have lost their loved ones. But channels showing selectively from one communiy as if none others have had the miseries of unrest is to say the least spinning yarns for their political masters. ! 57 ordinary humans, women and children were burnt alive, have you seen any channel covering the issues and miseries of their families at any point of time. ? Mumbai blasts had taken toll of humans as bombs did not discriminate in injuring the humans depending on their faiths. But these channels and the fanatic owned NGOs had time only for one community of their choice faith.! In Jammu and kashmir is it only humans of one faith that are targets of miseries and sufferings. ? Why media is hyper about coverage of partial and partisan view of some ignoring the sufferings of other humans. ? Are the humans in other faith and coverage of the miseries, less informative, for award and rewar wining journalism. ? More over how is it that these journalists dig old footage only at the time of elections and try to impose their views that communal politics is the policy of few or one political outfit whereas in practise all the political parties think of commune cotes of communities be it caste based or faith based. ? From: Shuddhabrata Sengupta Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2008 4:33 pm Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net Cc: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् , sarai list > Dear Radhikarajen, > > Thank you for your pertinent critique on the Sarai Reader List of > the > way in which the media represents issues, particularly with regard > to > the murder of Hemraj Banjade and Arushi Talwar in NOIDA. I think > that > your thoughts on 'media trials' are salutary. Had newspapers and > TV > channels been more restrained in the matter of the way in which > they > report 'sensational' crimes, then the grave and malicious > harrassment > that had been the fate of S.A.R.Geelani in the '13 December' case > might not have taken place. And nor would there have been currency > > for the hysterical and blood-thirsty demand for the execution of > Muhammad Afzal Guru, which continues to beseige our consciousness > today. I do hope that you, in the spirit of your own argument, > will > join me in condemning the irresponsible behaviour of much of the > media in these instances. > > Having said that, I am a bit mystified by your anger against the > condemnation of the strange attempt at filing a case on grounds of > > 'promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, > > race, place of birth and language' 'under Sections 153 A and B of > the > IPC against Ashis Nandy for his op-ed piece 'Blame the Middle > Class' > in the Times of India of January 8, 2008. Ashis Nandy is, in my > opinion, one of the most acute analysts of political culture and > modernity in South Asia. It is ironic that a person, who has > maintained a life time of critique against the excesses of the > state- > secularist agenda in India, (for which he was at times unfairly > and > idiotically denounced as an apolgist of the hindu right by some un- > > intelligent so called 'left-liberal' critics) is someone you now > are > prepared to argue against, merely because he happens to have taken > on > the poster boy of hindutva hate-mongering, the chief minister of > Gujarat, Narendra Damodarbhai Modi. To be fair to Nandy, there is > no > particular group that escapes the sharp edge of his sadness in his > > article on Gujarat. His words (in this particular article) > criticize > the actions done by people speaking in the name of Bengali Hindus, > > Kashmiri Muslims, Punjabi Sikhs, Non Resident Indians, Dalits and > > Adivasis and most of all - the middle classes. If all these kinds > of > people were to be united because they were all attacked by Ashis > Nandy, then, we would see a rare example of the promotion of > conviviality between groups that are otherwise expected to be at > each > others throats. Unfortunately, for you, and for the petitioner > belonging to the Ahmedabad based National Council for Civil > Liberties, there is as yet no provision in the the Indian Penal > Code > for the offense of the promotion of conviviality on grounds of > religion, race, place of birth and language. > . > I find it equally strange that you should impute the sentiments > and > the analysis contained in Nandy's trenchant criticque of Moditva, > (or > should it be Moditude, or Modismo) to the antipathy of the Bennet > Coleman Group, who happen to own the majority shares of the Times > of > India newspaper, and their so called pro Congress bias. It is > instructive to do a careful analysis of the press that Modi and > Modismo get in the Times of India's sister publication, the > Economic > Times, (which for my money, is the more serious of the two > publications, the one that actually gets read by captains of > industry > and politics, not one that teenagers decorate their lockers with > because it has scantily clad men and women, the publication of > images > of which, you will no doubt agree, is the primary reason for the > Times of India to exist.) > > Now, were you to look at the Economic Times reportage of Modi, > Modismo and Gujarat, you would find a glowing picture that would > warm > your hearts. All you (and everyone who is interested on this list) > > needs to do is to type Narendra Modi on the search bar of the > Economic Times home page, and you will be showered by what looks > like > a public relations campaign for Gujarati Asmita and Modismo. > > You will find articles such as - > > Rajiv Gandhi Foundation finds Gujarat No 1 state > > Chairman of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani, today hailed > Gujarat > Chief Minister Narendra Modi saying that he has a "bias" for action. > > And there are many more where these came from. > > Even your own pet hate, the Times of India, has articles such as > 'Women Mesmerised by Narendra Modi' > > What are we to make of this, other than that this is but an > instance > of the totally commonplace practice of a media group trying to > placate all sides. So damn Modi in one article in one publication > that you own, and then praise him to the skies in another. A > detailed > analysis of the politics of who reports what about whom, and when, > in > the Indian media can be an entertaining, and instructive diversion. > > What, however, are we to make of your own pathological anxiety > whenever Shri Narendra Damodarbhai Modi is criticised ? You have > (again) neatly sidestepped the substance of Ashis Nandy's critique > > and taken us on the pursuit of the red herring of the Times of > India's pro-Congress bias, which for you, explains everything that > > there is to understand about what Ashis Nandy has written. Take a > break from the computer, and go take a long look at the mirror, > and > you will see the visage of that same middle class Indian, quick to > > fume, quick to claim an injury to your precious pride, quick to > demand that the slate be cleaned of all 'others', and short, > tragically, comically short on anything like the ability to > reflect > on the tightening limits of the sources of your self. > > I sympathise with your predicament. It must be really hard, and > sad, > to be you. > > regards > > Shuddha > > > > > > > > > > media trials of this sort were > On 18-Jun-08, at 2:02 PM, radhikarajen at vsnl.net wrote: > > > Hi all, > > > > it is very nice to find flaws with BJP and gujarathis at the > drop > > of a hat even after Modi asserted time and again that he is > > administrator and chief minister with the difference of of > > governance of all in the same state without favour or fear as > per > > the oath he has taken to administer the state. Times of India > and > > its media group is owned by Bennet group which traditionally has > > > been political and supporting sycophants of Congress and media > > generally feels if it has to be "secular" it has to bash hindu > > sentiments and encash its trp and circulation, Times group is > never > > fair and free in its journalism and always favoured Congress and > > > its employees have to toe the line of media bosses and pritish > is > > no exception to the rules of survival of the fittest in > journalism > > by sycophancy. > > > > The worst part of it is this "secular"media can not digest > the > > fact that hindu society is slowly and steadily getting out of > caste > > conundrums and beginning to gel as one homogeneous society, > while > > muslim community is being systematically divided by christian > > missions to achieve its divide and rule game, into smaller forms > of > > shias, sunnis and other denominations with terror as subtextt > just > > as the vote banks are getting divided between good governance > and > > sycophancy and secular media keeps on playing old footage of > > "carnages so that they remain in the ghettos and wounds are > never > > allowed to heal.The ultimate goal of Sonia and her mafia is to > > divided and rule with rome as its remote control which hindus > have > > understood except for a few handful of sycophants in Congress of > > > all faiths who have no mass base or electoral prospects and have > to > > live on doleouts of the mafia queen. These along with christian > > mafia in the kitchen cabinet have used all those "journalists" > and > > "int > > ellectuals" of modern day to devise the spins to bring back the > old > > lost horse of Congress in new avtar as christian brigade for the > > > crusade, while in comity of nations it is seen that Bush uses- > the > > terror and weapons of mass destruction as excuses to bring in > his > > form of democracy in the nations of muslim faith, first by > attack > > of shia dominated Afghanistan and then on Iraq for the imaginary > > > weapons of mass destruction.?---- Original Message ----- > > From: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् > > Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2008 8:04 pm > > Subject: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > > To: sarai list > > > >> An organisation in Ahemdabad called National Council for Civil > >> Liberties has filed a case against Ashis Nandy for his article > in The > >> Times of India in January after Modi's election victory. The > case has > >> been filed for for 'promoting enmity between different groups on > >> grounds of religion, race, place of birth and language' > [Sections 153 > >> (A) and (B) of IPC]. > >> > >> 178 academics and intellectuals have signed a statement in protest, > >> which is available at > >> http://www.sacw.net/FreeExpAndFundos/defendNandy16June08.html > >> > >> Given below is the 'offending' article: > >> > >> o o o > >> > >> > >> Blame The Middle Class > >> > >> By Ashis Nandy > >> 8 Jan 2008 > >> http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/ > >> LEADER_ARTICLE_Blame_The_Middle_Class/rssarticleshow/2681517.cms > >> > >> Now that the dust has settled over the Gujarat elections, we can > >> afford to defy the pundits and admit that, even if Narendra > Modi had > >> lost the last elections, it would not have made much difference > to > >> the > >> culture of Gujarat politics. Modi had already done his job. > Most of > >> the state's urban middle class would have remained mired in its > inane>> versions of communalism and parochialism and the VHP and > the Bajrang > >> Dal would have continued to set the tone of state politics. Forty > >> years of dedicated propaganda does pay dividends, electorally and > >> socially. > >> > >> The Hindus and the Muslims of the state — once bonded so > >> conspicuously > >> by language, culture and commerce — have met the demands of > both > >> V D > >> Savarkar and M A Jinnah. They now face each other as two hostile > >> nations. The handful of Gujarati social and political activists who > >> resist the trend are seen not as dissenters but as treacherous > >> troublemakers who should be silenced by any means, including > >> surveillance, censorship and direct violence. As a result, Gujarati > >> cities, particularly its educational institutions are turning > >> cultural > >> deserts. Gujarat has already disowned the Indian Constitution > and the > >> state apparatus has adjusted to the change. > >> > >> The Congress, the main opposition party, has no effective > leader. Nor > >> does it represent any threat to the mainstream politics of Gujarat. > >> The days of grass-roots leaders like Jhinabhai Darji are past > and a > >> large section of the party now consists of Hindu nationalists. The > >> national leadership of the party does not have the courage to > >> confront > >> Modi over 2002, given its abominable record of 1984. > >> > >> The Left is virtually non-existent in Gujarat. Whatever minor > >> presence > >> it once had among intellectuals and trade unionists is now a vague > >> memory. The state has disowned Gandhi, too; Gandhian politics > arouses>> derision in middle-class Gujarat. Except for a few > valiant old- > >> timers, > >> Gandhians have made peace with their conscience by withdrawing from > >> the public domain. Gandhi himself has been given a saintly, Hindu > >> nationalist status and shelved. Even the Gujarati translations > of his > >> Complete Works have been stealthily distorted to conform to the > Hindu>> nationalist agenda. > >> > >> Gujarati Muslims too are "adjusting" to their new station. Denied > >> justice and proper compensation, and as second-class citizens > in > >> their > >> home state, they have to depend on voluntary efforts and donor > >> agencies. The state's refusal to provide relief has been partly > >> met by > >> voluntary groups having fundamentalist sympathies. They supply > aid > >> but > >> insist that the beneficiaries give up Gujarati and take to > Urdu, > >> adopt > >> veil, and send their children to madrassas. Events like the > >> desecration of Wali Gujarati's grave have pushed one of India's > >> culturally richest, most diverse, vernacular Islamic traditions > to > >> the > >> wall. Future generations will as gratefully acknowledge the sangh > >> parivar's contribution to the growth of radical Islam in India > as > >> this > >> generation remembers with gratitude the handsome contribution > of > >> Rajiv > >> Gandhi and his cohorts to Sikh militancy. > >> > >> The secularist dogma of many fighting the sangh parivar has not > > >> helped > >> matters. Even those who have benefited from secular lawyers and > >> activists relate to secular ideologies instrumentally. They neither > >> understand them nor respect them. The victims still derive > solace > >> from > >> their religions and, when under attack, they cling more > passionately>> to faith. Indeed, shallow ideologies of secularism > have > >> simultaneously > >> broken the back of Gandhism and discouraged the emergence of > figures>> like Ali Shariatis, Desmond Tutus and the Dalai Lama — > persons > >> who can > >> give suffering a new voice audible to the poor and the > powerless and > >> make a creative intervention possible from within worldviews > >> accessible to the people. > >> > >> Finally, Gujarat's spectacular development has underwritten the > >> de-civilising process. One of the worst-kept secrets of our > times is > >> that dramatic development almost always has an authoritarian tail. > >> Post-World War II Asia too has had its love affair with > developmental>> despotism and the censorship, surveillance and > thought control > >> that go > >> with it. The East Asian tigers have all been maneaters most of the > >> time. Gujarat has now chosen to join the pack. Development in the > >> state now justifies amorality, abridgement of freedom, and > >> collapse of > >> social ethics. > >> > >> Is there life after Modi? Is it possible to look beyond the 35 > years>> of rioting that began in 1969 and ended in 2002? Prima > facie, the > >> answer is "no". We can only wait for a new generation that > will, out > >> of sheer self-interest and tiredness, learn to live with each > other.>> In the meanwhile, we have to wait patiently but not > passively to keep > >> values alive, hoping that at some point will come a modicum of > >> remorse > >> and a search for atonement and that ultimately Gujarati traditions > >> will triumph over the culture of the state's urban middle class. > >> > >> Recovering Gujarat from its urban middle class will not be > easy. The > >> class has found in militant religious nationalism a new self- > respect>> and a new virtual identity as a martial community, the > way Bengali > >> babus, Maharashtrian Brahmins and Kashmiri Muslims at different > times>> have sought salvation in violence. In Gujarat this class > has smelt > >> blood, for it does not have to do the killings but can plan, > finance>> and coordinate them with impunity. The actual killers > are the lowest > >> of the low, mostly tribals and Dalits. The middle class > controls the > >> media and education, which have become hate factories in recent > > >> times. > >> And they receive spirited support from most non-resident > Indians who, > >> at a safe distance from India, can afford to be more nationalist, > >> bloodthirsty, and irresponsible. > >> > >> [The writer is a political psychologist.] > >> _________________________________________ > >> 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: > Shuddhabrata Sengupta > The Sarai Programme at CSDS > Raqs Media Collective > shuddha at sarai.net > www.sarai.net > www.raqsmediacollective.net > > > From radhikarajen at vsnl.net Tue Jun 24 14:28:37 2008 From: radhikarajen at vsnl.net (radhikarajen at vsnl.net) Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:58:37 +0500 Subject: [Reader-list] [Fwd: Re: Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again] In-Reply-To: <485CF30C.4010906@gmail.com> References: <485CF30C.4010906@gmail.com> Message-ID: Hi, Tapas, you are exactly right when you say that Atalji has asked Modi to follow rajdharma in good governance. But unfortunately there seems to be none to say that in Assam to tarun Gogoi, or to Sheila dixit or to SM Krishna who sold public property to private enterprises and lakes are destroyed in karnatak during his rule.! When poor were killed in Singur and nandigram there is none to say that to Buddhadeb. ! Atleast that indicates the statesmanship of Atalji and corrective actions that followed by Modi, who ordered firing of rioters whoever they may be, hindus and muslims. Did you in free india ever see this type of strict action in any state where rioters are normally rewrded with MLA and MP seats and tickets. ! Journalists being awarded for partisan coverage and spinned pre poll surveys. ?CM or any one being human may make mistakes in governance but seniors in party correct such mistakes, does any other set up has this sort of advice in other parties. ? If that be so, we could not have seen a good CM Achuthananda suffering in the hands of Pinarayi ravi. ! Regards. ----- Original Message ----- From: Tapas Ray Date: Saturday, June 21, 2008 5:55 pm Subject: [Reader-list] [Fwd: Re: Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again] To: sarai list > Sorry, Radhika! I sent this to you instead of the list a couple of > minutes ago, by clicking "Reply" instead of "Reply to" for the > umpteenth > time. > > But this gives me the opportunity to add something I had on my > mind but > forgot to mention: > > Speaking of Modi's quality of governance and his supposed > impartiality, > let's not forget that, while visiting Gujarat during or > immediately > after the riots, none other than Atal Behari Vajpayee - his own > party > boss and Prime Minister of India - had found it necessary to > remind him, > in public, to follow "rajdharma". That means Vajpayee - no > "pseudo-secularist" himself - did not think Modi was practising > statecraft based on ethics and morality. > > > -------- Original Message -------- > Date: Sat, 21 Jun 2008 08:07:32 -0400 > From: Tapas Ray > To: radhikarajen at vsnl.net > > Peace, my friends! I haven't been able to follow discussions on this > list lately. This thread caught my eye and I tried to read the whole > thing, but gave up after the last few posts. From that, I can say a > couple of relatively inconsequential things: > > 1) Radhikarajen need not worry about her (assuming s/he is a she) > physical safety because of Shivam's threat to throw his keyboard > at her. > I'm sure he (assuming s/he is a he) is speaking rhetorically ... > or is > he? Even if he is speaking literally, Radhika need not worry too much, > because: (a) computer keyboards are pretty light these days (let's > singthe praises of technology), and (b) if Shivam is somewhere up > north(Delhi?) and Radhika down south (Bangalore?) as I think they > are, the > keyboard will lose all its momentum by the time it reaches Radhika. > > 2) About the ideologies of the mass media, I think their main aim in > life is to make money, and everything else is secondary. We should not > forget this when we say the Times of India is pro-Congress and The > Hinduis pro-CPI(M). Most businesses have to cater to a particular > niche of > the market, and they have found their own niches among people who > do not > mind Congress and CPI(M) slants, or actually want these. Of > course, this > is not as simple as it sounds: just as the audience is not > passive, to > be moulded by the media, the media too are not passive, to be > moulded by > the audience. They are mutually constitutive. Even after counting that > in, I think the media will not hesitate to give up, or at least tone > down their respective political slants if these lead to sustained > lossesat some point, unless they have the death wish. > > Once again, let there be peace on earth, or at least on the Sarai > list ;) > > Tapas > > > > radhikarajen at vsnl.net wrote: > > Dear Shivam, > > > > your reply betrays that you are neither capable of honest > argument in a debate nor are you keen in exchange of thoughts, but > gloating and going with killer instinct in the competetive world > with your demeaning reply with absurd thoughts. If you want to > score brownie points you are free citizen, entitled to it, but it > shows how hollow is your concern for the society that you live in.! > > > > As to my remote, and my career with journalism, you are free > to use your faculties to draw your own conclusions, which reflect > your immature or mature mindset as they do not seem to be > concerned about moral degradation in society and rightly so, in > the present system only money matters and success at any cost > seems to be credo/ achievement.? > > > > Regards. > > From: TaraPrakash > > Date: Friday, June 20, 2008 10:24 pm > > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Gujarati 'pride' hurt once again > > To: Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् , > radhikarajen at vsnl.net> Cc: sarai list , > Shuddhabrata Sengupta > > > >> Hi Shivam. > >> I was not expecting a harsh reply on this. What I was > expecting, > >> however, > >> was another > >> www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/... > >> > >> link. I am planning to teach Argument this August onwards. I > found > >> sort of > >> answer in your mails to my question "how the hell do you teach > >> argument?" > > _________________________________________ > 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 sahbittu at gmail.com Tue Jun 24 15:54:14 2008 From: sahbittu at gmail.com (sah bittu) Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:54:14 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Observe Sangharsh Diwas March from Shaheed Park June 26th 12 noon onwards In-Reply-To: <4860C273.9070600@cacim.net> References: <4860C273.9070600@cacim.net> Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Madhuresh Date: Tue, Jun 24, 2008 at 3:16 PM Subject: Observe Sangharsh Diwas March from Shaheed Park June 26th 12 noon onwards To: Action 2007 [*Join us in a Silent protest march from Shaheed Park, near Delhi Gate on June 26^th from 12 noon onwards. Pass it on ... ]* New Delhi, June 22 2008 Dear Friends, Remembering the Black Day of June 25/6^th 1975 when a State of Emergency was imposed by the Indira Gandhi Government suspending all civil liberties, curtailing freedom of press, powers of judiciary and incarcerating any opposition to her rule, we the concerned citizens of Delhi in pursuant to the call given by the social-movements across the country call upon you to declare that the /moment of siege has not ended and India is in a state of emergency. /Apart from the prevailing repressive conditions elsewhere in the country, in Delhi, we are witness to demolitions of slums, increasing difficulties for common people, informalisation of labour and worst of all protests by victims of Bhopal on the streets entering now the fifth month along with an indefinite hunger strike for 15 days. Democracy in India is alive not because of the parliament and judiciary but because common struggling masses who in their quest for justice have time and again shown their faith in the democratic values best epitomized in the Constitution. In the troubled times when we are witnessing this siege, its upon us to work towards reclaiming our right to live in harmony, enjoy the freedoms, dissent and debate without fear and voice our protests at every nook and corner in the city. We stand opposed to restrictions put on our right to protest confined within the streets of Jantar Mantar and declare that its time we reclaimed the streets and spaces for celebration and resistance. *To mark this event we call upon you all to join us in a Silent protest march from Shaheed Park, near Delhi Gate on June 26^th from 12 noon onwards. The march will converge at Lal Quila Maidan where a public meeting will be held. * Join us with your banners, songs, dances, slogans, and silences … Zindabaad National Alliance for Peoples Movement (Delhi), Delhi Solidarity Group and others … Contact : Rajendra Ravi (9868200316) and Madhuresh (9818905316) *************************** CALL TO ACTION ** *'Emergency' Day - June 26, 2008 * *People's Declaration of Emergency and Pledge to reclaim democracy* India, today is at the crossroads, for a multitude of reasons. While on the one hand the city lines are gleaming with glossy malls, plush high rises, immaculate roads, flyovers and other 'structures of growth', a vast majority of the rest of the nation, presents a grim reality, which the State planners and policymakers would love to brush under the carpet. From the continuing spate of rather frequently reported suicides of farmers and weavers, and equally poignant /albeit /less reported suicides of thousands of others practicing traditional livelihoods, to persistent starvation and malnourishment in urban and rural pockets, continuing atrocities against women, dalits, adivasis, fisher folk, hawkers, and other marginalized groups in the name of SEZs, large dams, and other infrastructure projects (read 'development'), continued deprivation and neglect of 93% of the country's toiling work force to the plummeting state expenditure on crucial human rights concerns like education, health, agriculture and food security, among others on the one hand and the rocketing inflation, which is hitting the poor hardest, the State in every which way seems to be disowning its most fundamental constitutional mandate and instead paving way for corporatization and privatization of all essential services. The State is infact actively abetting, now even blatantly through the legal framework, the plunder of natural and human resources, stamping away the rights of communities, coupled with scheming exploitation of already limited state investments in irrigation, water and allied sectors, not to mention the countless incentives doled out to big business houses and branding anyone who questions this unconstitutional paradigm of 'development' in a confrontationist way as 'maoists, naxalites and so on.... We, the people, are particularly concerned about the increasing legitimization of this skewed and distorted form of technocratic and capitalist development from all quarters of the State, which is further passed off as India – Shining, glowing, glittering by political manipulators the media megaphones. We are living in a 'police state' today where human rights defenders, artists, and those fighting for the justice have to bear the brunt of state's oppression. The laws like AFSPA, CSPSA, NSA etc. continue to harass and terrorise its own citizens all across India including J&K and North East. */The Legislature/** *enacts nothing short of draconian legislations like the SEZ Act, proposes blatant changes in the CMZ Rules, introduces the Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill, which distorts the definition of public purpose, excelling even the British lawmakers and anti-people policies like JNNURM and scores of other policy and legal initiatives in various states to please corporates at the cost of the people./ /Submissive to the global powers and allowing the vision to investment, the self-reliance to sovereignty is compromised and loot is permitted. */The Executive/*/,/ as always is over-zealous in the execution of these policies and further indulges in non-transparent exercises of bringing in questionable Government Orders, Policies, Rules and Regulations and special amendments in the garb of 'delegated legislation'. Failure of global markets and paradigm in providing employment, of protecting masses from terrorism, preventing price rise stands exposed. */The Judiciary/** *has also, in many cases, chosen to be blinded by the vision of 'development', be it in the Narmada case, or in the recent order in the Vedanta Case, or many other cases. The lives and cultures of dalit, adivasis and other marginalised communities have and are being staked in the process of monolithic vision of technocratic development. It has also failed to defend the fundamental rights of its citizens when the State is impinging on them with impunity in name of fighting terrorism and naxalism and continues to use draconian laws in the name of security. Key to be noted also is the manner in which one set of legislations are sought to be brought in and favoured by bypassing, neglecting, and violating another set of legislations and constitutional guarantees. In the latter line fall the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, the Forest Rights Act, the V Schedule to the Constitution the CRZ and EIA Notifications, the Environment Protection Act, related legislations and most important of all, the 73rd and 74th Constitutional amendments. Central to all of these is probably the willful slackness of /India Private Limited /in that. Despite decades of these historical parliamentary interventions to further democratise governance, the State has chosen not to enact a law that would actualise the constitutional-democratic-decentralised governance by people themselves whether in urban or rural areas. *Nandigram to Narmada to Nandgudi, Kakinada to Kevadia to Kushinagar, Polepally to Plachimada to Posco, Raigad to Sonbhadra to Teesta, the struggle, issues and repression is the same, in a strange way bringing together and binding the victims of development in a common voice against this unconstitutional, undemocratic and inhuman process of limited growth just as the pre-independence era saw the unison of varied forces with the common agenda of deliverance. **But the movement's politics, beyond electoral politics needs to be asserted towards the goal of 'people's power' that can bring in true democracy and development, both. It is this demand for a comprehensive Development Planning Act that we, the people's movements, put forth as the real pro-people alternative to the current pro-rich, pro-corporate paradigm of development and it is the passion for the realisation of this which brings us together in solidarity to continue our struggle for a just, sustainable and humane society and development.* *The Why and What of 'Emergency'* A Government declares a 'State of Emergency' when it cannot handle a situation, either due to incompetence or because it is truly beyond its control. Such a declaration entails the abrogation of citizens' rights, suspension of recourse to law, press censorship and investiture of special powers in the Executive Authority. State authorities invoke such sweeping powers, more often than not, to suppress people's democratic rights as was the case 33 years ago in 1975, when Mrs. Indira Gandhi declared an unwarranted 'Emergency' to cling to power. Quite unlike 1975, we are now in a real crisis-situation where the State has unleashed a kind of a war on the common people of this land, be they farmers, fisherpeople, factory workers, Adivasis, Dalits or women. That is borne out by untold violence and atrocities perpetrated on the people of Nandigram, Nandagudi, Kalinganagar, Raigadh and Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, slums of Mumbai, Delhi and other cities, the farmers' suicides, displacement and dispossession of traditional communities across the country. *In spite of the unprecedented crisis facing the country the Government of the day is at best mouthing platitudes and promises. The people of this country will therefore have to take it upon themselves to declare that we are in a 'State of Emergency' and announce a series of measures to counteract the crisis. The citizen-announced 'Emergency' would call for the following code of conduct to be followed (measures that would be reverse of a Government-announced Emergency):* *1)* Rather than a draconian censorship the Press is called upon to disseminate the truth, facts that sensitively portray the toiling people's struggle for survival against the State-corporate nexus and its machinations to privatise all natural resources and public properties. *2)* The State rather than being given sweeping powers, its right to acquire land in the name of 'public purpose' for SEZs, for destructive industrial and other 'development' projects etc. will be abrogated. *3)* If Courts abdicate their responsibility of protecting peoples' rights, all issues of public interest will be decided in 'Janata Adalats'. *4)* The only real 'opposition' to the State-corporate-bureaucracy nexus is not from opposition political parties but from affected people, victims, concerned and aware citizens. The hypocrisy of the all mainstream political parties whether in power or opposition, stands exposed in this 'state of emergency'. People would do well to realise that all parties, of whatever hue, are hand-in-glove with each other. *5) *People will have to watch out against the twin threats of Communalism and New Economic Policy, declaring NO to the new treaty with the WTO. *6) *Declaring people's rule, 'Lok Raj', we would begin in small to large ways, to assert our rights to resources to planning towards fuilfillment of basic needs. *7)* More sustainable ways of harnessing and utilizing our natural and human capital would be facilitated and expropriative global to national powers be challenged. *8)* People and people's politics will take over, step by step, the Statist and fascist controls of powers-to-be, to bring in a revolutionary change towards a humane society. If you agree, plan an action in your State/district/town/village, in any form. including marching to to the Governor's house and declare it through a pledge or a memorandum, or hold a mass programme, not only to protest, but also to propagate our vision, our strength, and our alternatives, in the present crisis. The action is already planned in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Raipur and other places. Let us know what you think and how you plan to link and express the unity of our biradari. Expecting a response soon. Yours sincerely Bhupender Rawat Gautam Bandopadhyay Mukta Srivastava Anand Mazgaonkar Medha Patkar Sridevi Panikkar and others /For National Alliance of Peoples Movement, Sangharsh and others / - -- ********************************************** CACIM, A-3 Defence Colony, New Delhi 110 024, India Ph : +91-11-4155 1521, +91-98-1890 5316 (Mobile) madhuresh at cacim.net / kmadhuresh at gmail.com www.cacim.net Check out the OpenSpaceForum @ www.openspaceforum.net Subscribe to WSFDiscuss, an open and unmoderated forum on the World Social Forum and on related social and political movements and issues. Simply send an empty email to worldsocialforum-discuss-subscribe at openspaceforum.net And, NEW ! : Join CEOS at openspaceforum.net, the CEOS (Critical Engagement with Open Space) listserve for exchange and coordination on open space theory and practice and to facilitate a critical discussion of the idea of 'open space'. Just send an empty mail to CEOS-subscribe at openspaceforum.net From b_a_r_u_k at yahoo.com Tue Jun 24 23:22:43 2008 From: b_a_r_u_k at yahoo.com (Baruk S. Jacob) Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:52:43 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Reader-list] TOI's "Private Treaties" In-Reply-To: <20080623105843.EAE9C164293@ws1-4.us4.outblaze.com> Message-ID: <910569.47806.qm@web54202.mail.re2.yahoo.com> > from what I've heard, this is nothin new for ToI. If anything this is a > corporate relationship that perfectly mirrors arrangements that have been > in place for years. thinking aloud: many people i meet talk of how the ToI content is full of fluff. i have also heard these accusations of their being driven solely by profit. what worries me, however, is the fact that they continue to be the largest selling newspaper in the world(?). that seems to suggest that we WANT this fluff, that we honestly do not care about the deals our newspapers make with business, about how the quality of the information we receive is being compromised. maybe this is what we WANT. and that's really scary. ~baruk http://bottlebroke.blogspot.com From oishiksircar at gmail.com Wed Jun 25 11:48:53 2008 From: oishiksircar at gmail.com (OISHIK SIRCAR) Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:48:53 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] "Doing Peace": An interactive workshop on peace building, June 29 In-Reply-To: <62cba67a0806242317p1381253avbcb863ea881c4cb3@mail.gmail.com> References: <62cba67a0806242317p1381253avbcb863ea881c4cb3@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <62cba67a0806242318t6f3d69dem478ca0bb490a1645@mail.gmail.com> *OPEN SPACE & PEACEWORKS * *present* *"Doing Peace" * *An interactive play session on peace building and conflict resolution* *conducted by Swati and Agyat of PLAY FOR PEACE and volunteers of the PeaceWorks Human Rights Defenders Programme * *Screening of two music videos on peace by Anand Patwardhan* *"Ribbons of Peace" and "Images we didn't see" * on JUNE 29, SUNDAY, 6.00-7.30pm at 46 Satish Mukherjee Road, Calcutta-700026 (near the Rashbehari crossing) *CALL: INDRANI ROY or SUMEET THAKUR at 2455 6942/43 for directions ALL ARE WELCOME. REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED * * About Play for Peace: **'Play for Peace' (PFP) – a global organization now in its 10th year which brings together children, youth and organizations from communities in conflict. PFP is a process of community building. It is the creation of ongoing learning partnerships that teaches people to be leaders for peace. * *Swati and Agyat from PFP have worked extensively with young people, notably with Hindu-Muslim and Arab-Jew children/ youth in Gujarat, and in Israel. **About the Organizers: ** Open Space (OS) is a Pune-based social change resource centre focusing on the research and communication of information for change, and has recently begun operations in Kolkata. OS uses communication tools and processes to inform, initiate and inspire change in societal attitudes and public policy. Our activities are designed to strengthen civil society, especially the youth, by promoting a deeper understanding of issues related to sustainable development, justice, equity and rights. **PeaceWorks (PW) is an initiative of the Seagull Foundation for the Arts and is committed to encouraging communal harmony and respect for the customs and culture of 'the other'. PW believes that peace is not only a central necessity for society to advance, but is also more productive culturally and socially than violence and hatred.** * **www.playforpeace.org www.openspaceindia.org www.seagullindia.com -- OISHIK SIRCAR Scholar in Women's Rights Faculty of Law, University of Toronto oishiksircar at gmail.com oishik.sircar at utoronto.ca From rohitism at gmail.com Wed Jun 25 12:08:40 2008 From: rohitism at gmail.com (Rohit Shetti) Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:08:40 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Prime Minister, Have a Heart!! In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: *URGENTLY NEEDED: A Heart for the Prime Minister of India.* More than 23 years of tortured existence, countless deaths, poisoned lives and daylight robbery by his own men of people's freedom, dignity and rights have not moved this man. Opportunity upon opportunity went past this man to be bold, to listen to people, to abide by his promises and show that he has a heart. However, it is now quite clear that he does not have one – a heart that can feel, that can listen, and that can tell him right from wrong. So let us send our Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a much needed *'heart'*. *Take action: Send a heart NOW* Team up with friends, colleagues, neighbors and their children to draw/make hearts, enclose it with their messages and send to "The Other Media, B-5/136, Safdarjang Enclave, New Delhi – 110029" *before 30th June, 2008. **We will deliver your hearts to the PM. * You may also send the hearts directly to the Prime Minister of India at 7, Race Course Road, New Delhi – 110001. Send an e-mail to justiceinbhopal at yahoo.co.in to let us know how many hearts you have sent and where. *Reach out for more hearts:* 1. Talk about Bhopal, its sufferings & struggles in your neighborhood, in your colonies, schools, colleges, offices and how the PM's lack of a heart is preventing him from doing justice in Bhopal. 2. Post the story of a heartless PM in Orkut, Facebook and other online communities asking people, especially children to send a heart. Blog about it. 3. Put up posters in parlors, coffee-shops and other popular hangouts with ads pleading for a heart to be sent to the Indian PM. *Be updated: Visit **www.bhopal.net* * for daily updates on the struggle for justice in Bhopal.* From asitredsalute at gmail.com Wed Jun 25 13:37:33 2008 From: asitredsalute at gmail.com (Asit asitreds) Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:37:33 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] jharkhand update Message-ID: Dear Friends and Handholders, I am genuinely sorry for the delay in sharing the update on Jharkhand situation, specially about the development on NREGA activist Lalit Mehta's murder which stirred the public conscience in Jharkhand and outside. As you are aware in Orissa in Posco battle field a bomb blast by the pro Posco goons took another life And injured two others. The person killed was Dhula Mandal. The story is same, the local people were opposing the Posco and they were bombed. *Update on Lalit Mehta's Murder and NReGA in Jharkhand* ** I am writing the following note on behalf of the group which took and performed the responsibility to mobilise the right people at the right time. The list is long but I would take a few names for reference like Anne Raja, Medha Patekar, Nikhil Dey, Aruna Roy, Anuradha and Kamal Mitra Chenoy, Balram, Gopinath Ghosh, Vinay Ohdar, Ghanshyam, Asit Das, Tridib Ghosh, Babu Mathew, K N Tripathi, RamDayal Munda and Swmi Agnivesh. *Because of our continuous struggle on this matter, the demand of the CBI enquiry into the Lalit Mehta's killing has been accepted on 18th June 2008 by the government of Jharkhand. * - As you are aware that an Right to Food activist Lalit Mehtawas killed on 14th may 2008 while he was helping a social audit process on NREGA in Chatar Pur in Palamau, Jharkhand, India. - Daman - bhrashtachar virodhi sangharsh samiti was formed in Ranchi - Local people and middle class in the state capital Ranchi launched a massive campaign against this murder and demanded CBI enquiry, they sat on fast, held sit-in protests, held candle light demonstration and on 10th June held a massive rally and mass meeting in Ranchi which was addressed by national level activists and leaders like Swami Agnivesh, D Raja, Aruna Roy, Ram Dayal Munda, Tridib Ghosh, Balram, Rose Kerketta, Juri Bardoloi and others. Swami Agnivesh met the CM and demanded CBI enquiry into the killing. - A signature campaign was launched with people like Arundhati Roy, Shabana Azmi, Medha Patekar, Aruna Roy, Sandeep Pandey and many more in support of the demand; - As member of the National Rural Employment Guarantee council Aruna Roy wrote to Rural Development Minister and the Central NREG council to intervin. - A meeting was called on 17th June 2008 at 7, Jantar Mantar, New Delhi to discuss the further strategy and plan; - On 18th june as per information Jean Dez and team held a social audit of NREGA work in a village in Giridih, jahrkhand, Dr B D Sharma of Bharat Jan Aandolan and others participated. - As decided in the abovementioned meeting a dharna (Sit-in Protest ) was held at Jharkhand Bhawan, New Delhi on 20th june in which activists of various organisations icluding NFIW and IASA participated. Kuldeep Nayyar among other renowned speakers addressed the Dharna. - Same day a delegation met the rural development minister and extended the demand to fair enquiry in all similar killings including Kameshwar Yadav in Giridih and special audit of all the charges of irregularities and corruption in the implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in Jharkhand, specially Palamau district. The delegation (comprising Anne Raja, Kavita Krushnan and Kiran Shaheen) also demanded for Panchayat elections in Jharkhand. - The signature campaign is on. Please send your endorsement and messages in solidarity and pass the appeal as our struggle is continued till the proper implementation of NREGA on the grounds is pending. Make it a mass activity with maximum participation of the people everywhere. - Gram Swaraj Abhiyan is holding a meeting in Ranchi on 25th June to discuss further state level plan and on the issue of safty and security for the activists working at the grassroots level. Friends, the implementation of NREGA on the ground is a task which seeks a broadbased solidarity and continuous struggle. Please join in this struggle and be a part of this campaign. Feel free to write if you seek any clarification or want to extend your support in any form. Warm Regards and In Solidarity, Kiran Shaheen On behalf of all From asitredsalute at gmail.com Wed Jun 25 13:45:09 2008 From: asitredsalute at gmail.com (Asit asitreds) Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2008 13:45:09 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] jharkhand update Message-ID: Dear Friends and Handholders, I am genuinely sorry for the delay in sharing the update on Jharkhand situation, specially about the development on NREGA activist Lalit Mehta's murder which stirred the public conscience in Jharkhand and outside. As you are aware in Orissa in Posco battle field a bomb blast by the pro Posco goons took another life And injured two others. The person killed was Dhula Mandal. The story is same, the local people were opposing the Posco and they were bombed. *Update on Lalit Mehta's Murder and NReGA in Jharkhand* ** I am writing the following note on behalf of the group which took and performed the responsibility to mobilise the right people at the right time. The list is long but I would take a few names for reference like Anne Raja, Medha Patekar, Nikhil Dey, Aruna Roy, Anuradha and Kamal Mitra Chenoy, Balram, Gopinath Ghosh, Vinay Ohdar, Ghanshyam, Asit Das, Tridib Ghosh, Babu Mathew, K N Tripathi, RamDayal Munda and Swmi Agnivesh. *Because of our continuous struggle on this matter, the demand of the CBI enquiry into the Lalit Mehta's killing has been accepted on 18th June 2008 by the government of Jharkhand. * - As you are aware that an Right to Food activist Lalit Mehtawas killed on 14th may 2008 while he was helping a social audit process on NREGA in Chatar Pur in Palamau, Jharkhand, India. - Daman - bhrashtachar virodhi sangharsh samiti was formed in Ranchi - Local people and middle class in the state capital Ranchi launched a massive campaign against this murder and demanded CBI enquiry, they sat on fast, held sit-in protests, held candle light demonstration and on 10th June held a massive rally and mass meeting in Ranchi which was addressed by national level activists and leaders like Swami Agnivesh, D Raja, Aruna Roy, Ram Dayal Munda, Tridib Ghosh, Balram, Rose Kerketta, Juri Bardoloi and others. Swami Agnivesh met the CM and demanded CBI enquiry into the killing. - A signature campaign was launched with people like Arundhati Roy, Shabana Azmi, Medha Patekar, Aruna Roy, Sandeep Pandey and many more in support of the demand; - As member of the National Rural Employment Guarantee council Aruna Roy wrote to Rural Development Minister and the Central NREG council to intervin. - A meeting was called on 17th June 2008 at 7, Jantar Mantar, New Delhi to discuss the further strategy and plan; - On 18th june as per information Jean Dez and team held a social audit of NREGA work in a village in Giridih, jahrkhand, Dr B D Sharma of Bharat Jan Aandolan and others participated. - As decided in the abovementioned meeting a dharna (Sit-in Protest ) was held at Jharkhand Bhawan, New Delhi on 20th june in which activists of various organisations icluding NFIW and IASA participated. Kuldeep Nayyar among other renowned speakers addressed the Dharna. - Same day a delegation met the rural development minister and extended the demand to fair enquiry in all similar killings including Kameshwar Yadav in Giridih and special audit of all the charges of irregularities and corruption in the implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in Jharkhand, specially Palamau district. The delegation (comprising Anne Raja, Kavita Krushnan and Kiran Shaheen) also demanded for Panchayat elections in Jharkhand. - The signature campaign is on. Please send your endorsement and messages in solidarity and pass the appeal as our struggle is continued till the proper implementation of NREGA on the grounds is pending. Make it a mass activity with maximum participation of the people everywhere. - Gram Swaraj Abhiyan is holding a meeting in Ranchi on 25th June to discuss further state level plan and on the issue of safty and security for the activists working at the grassroots level. Friends, the implementation of NREGA on the ground is a task which seeks a broadbased solidarity and continuous struggle. Please join in this struggle and be a part of this campaign. Feel free to write if you seek any clarification or want to extend your support in any form. Warm Regards and In Solidarity, Kiran Shaheen On behalf of all From rakesh at sarai.net Wed Jun 25 17:12:38 2008 From: rakesh at sarai.net (rakesh at sarai.net) Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2008 17:12:38 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Reader-list] join the Demonstration At IIT Delhi Main Gate on 26th June 2008 Message-ID: <2305.59.180.33.227.1214394158.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Dear Friends, In the beginning of this month, IIT Delhi, citing ‘very low’ academic performance as the reason, served termination notices to 28 students coming from 1st, 2nd and Final Years of the B.Tech. Programs. Majority of the terminated students are SC/ST (20), with rest from General Category primarily including OBC and Minority students. All these students were asked to leave the campus immediately. There is a complete lack of transparency in the Grading System followed by IIT Delhi giving Absolute Powers to the Professors and leaving the fate of the students on the mercy of the faculty members. The arbitrariness of such system is the basis of the alleged poor academic performance. Though IIT Delhi claims to follow a ‘relative’ evaluation system, however, the Administration is highly secretive and does not disclose any information, which can be used to make any relative evaluation and comparisons. The Administration is not even disclosing the complete list of terminated students, despite repeated requests to the Administration by the students. With dreams shattered and taken aback by the highhandedness of the Administration, the terminated Dalit students were forced to approach the National Commission for Scheduled Castes for redressing of their grievances. The students narrated their experiences of Caste Based Humiliation and the Discrimination they faced in campus, both from the Faculty & the Administration. The Chairperson of the Commission, Sh Buta Singh called the Director of IIT Delhi for explanation on 17th June 2008, wherein the Director underplayed the issue by giving wrong information that only 12 students were terminated of which 7 belong to SC/ST. Sh Buta Singh has given 2 weeks time for the administration to reply back to the Commission. Meanwhile, IIT Delhi has formed a Review Committee headed by a Retired Dalit Professor with some Internal Faculty Members, which has started the inquiry into the termination. However, the student who have deposed in front of this committee have expressed their dissatisfaction with the committee, as it is not revoking the termination also not redressing the caste discrimination faced by the students. Our Justifiable Demands · Immediate repeal of the termination order of all 28 students. · Nullification of the existing committee to look into the alleged termination of students. · An independent Committee headed by an outside Expert, comprising of Socially Sensitive members to be constituted under the Aegis of Government/HRD Ministry to look into the caste based Discrimination in IIT Delhi. We Appeal The Progressive People, Students & Supporters of Human Rights & Dignity to join hands in IIT Delhi Students for Struggle for Justice & join the Demonstration At IIT Delhi Main Gate on 26th June 2008 at 10:30am IIT Delhi: DALIT STUDENTS FORUM FOR JUSTICE Contact: , Anoop: 09313432410; Sanjeev: 09958797409, Chandra Nigam 9899870597 Dr Ajita Rao 9818929480 ; Rajesh 09868664313 ----------------------------------------- This email was sent using SquirrelMail. "Webmail for nuts!" http://squirrelmail.org/ From nc-agricowi at netcologne.de Wed Jun 25 11:06:34 2008 From: nc-agricowi at netcologne.de (artNET) Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2008 07:36:34 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] =?iso-8859-1?q?=5BAnnouncements=5D_CologneOFF-_dead?= =?iso-8859-1?q?line_extended?= Message-ID: <20080625073634.7206A7E9.3805EF92@192.168.0.3> Call for entries: extended deadline: Monday, 1 September 2008 --------------------------- CologneOFF IV - 4th edition of Cologne Online Film Festival http://coff.newmediafest.org is planned to be launched in November 2008 under the festival theme: Here We Are! - "memory" and "identity" in an experimental context ---------------------------------------------------- Entry ---------------------------------------------------- VideoChannel - video project environments http://videochannel.newmediafest.org invites artists and directors for submitting videos/films, i.e. narratives and documentations (max 15 min.) experimenting with new concepts of transforming artistic contents into moving images, new forms of representing und new technologies extended deadline: 1 September 2008 All entry details and the submission form can be found on netEX - networked experience http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=238 ---------------------------------------------------- About CologneOFF ---------------------------------------------------- CologneOFF - Cologne Online Film Festival http://coff.newmediafest.org , founded in 2006 as a new type of mobile film & video festival taking place simultaneously online and physical space in cooperation with partner festivals, is directed by Wilfried Agricola de Cologne The first 3 festival editions CologneOFF I - "Identityscapes" - 2006 CologneOFF II - "Image vs Music" - 2006 CologneOFF III - "Toon! Toon! - art cartoons and animates narriatives" - 2007 were presented between 2006 and 2008 in cooperation with festivals in India, The Netherlands Venezuela, Argentina, France Serbia, Spain, Poland, Belgium, Turkey, Greece, Mexico, Bosnia-Hercegovia and others More info on http://coff.newmediafest.org ------------------------------------------- This call is released by netEX - networked experience http://www.nmartproject.net/netex . info (at) nmartproject.net _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From sonia.jabbar at gmail.com Thu Jun 26 10:04:28 2008 From: sonia.jabbar at gmail.com (S. Jabbar) Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 10:04:28 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Bear facts Message-ID: Heartbreak over cub confiscation By Sanjaya Jena BBC News, Bhubaneswar A tribal man in India who rescued an abandoned bear cub to help his daughter overcome her mother's death has fallen foul of forestry officials. They confiscated the animal arguing that its capture was in contravention of wildlife laws. As a result, Ramesh Munda, 35, was briefly jailed and the bear was sent to a zoo where some reports say it has refused to eat. His daughter is now distraught over the loss of a "much-loved" family friend. Mutual affection Mr Munda, who is also known as Ram Singh, rescued Rani almost two years ago from the dense forest of Keonjhar in the eastern state of Orissa. >From the moment the cub was recovered, both man and animal appeared to develop an unusual bond of love. Such was the level of affection between the bear and Mr Munda's family, that the local press began to write stories about this rare example of mutual affection. But Orissa forestry department officials were not so sentimental. Keonjhar district forest officials arrested and jailed him under the Wildlife Protection Act and sent Rani to Nandankanan Zoological Park. Now both man and animal are pining to be reunited, with the bear reportedly refusing to eat any food. Deserted Recently released on bail, Mr Munda is desperately looking for an opportunity to visit Nandankanan and spend a few moments with Rani. "I brought her up like my own daughter Gulki. I'm eager to meet her," he said. Little Gulki, who spent her childhood with Rani, is also shedding tears over the absence of her furry friend. She has now been reunited with her father after his time in prison, but the pair are pining for Rani. Nandankanan Zoo director Ajit Patnaik insisted that Rani was doing well in the zoo. "She is absolutely well and taking her normal food. If Ram Singh wants to meet the bear, we can allow him," he said. Mr Munda stumbled upon the newborn bear during one of his regular visits to the forest to collect firewood. The cub had been deserted by its mother. Mr Munda fed it and the animal ate, drank and slept with father and daughter. The trio have even been seen riding around on a bicycle. The tale of the confiscated cub has evoked strong protests from wildlife activists, who accuse officials of hypocrisy. "The rights of animals and reptiles to live a life of freedom in their natural surroundings in the dense forests of the state are being illegally violated by the zoo authorities," Wildlife Society of Orissa secretary Biswajit Mohanty said. India's Wildlife Protection Act stipulates that only a wild animal dangerous to human life or which is diseased or disabled beyond recovery can be kept in captivity. From asitredsalute at gmail.com Thu Jun 26 11:22:48 2008 From: asitredsalute at gmail.com (Asit asitreds) Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:22:48 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] resolution of janhasthakshep on the rerroring of adivasis in kalingagar by the armed goons of tatas Message-ID: *Janhastakshep * *Campaign Against Fascist Designs* To, Shri. Naveen Patnaik Chief Minister of Orissa 25.06.2008 *Resolution* passed in a meeting of JAN HASTAKSHEP on June 25, 2008 at the Gandhi Peace Foundation. 1. The meeting organized by JAN HASTAKSHEP expresses its grave concern over the hired goons of BJD and the hired goons of TATA led by company officials, who tried to enter the project area at Kalinganagar this morning. Later armed police also tried to enter the project site but retreated on facing stiff resistance from the people. 1. This meeting condemns the Naveen Patnaik government for abetting the TATAS in letting loose a reign of violence against the Kalainganagar people who are resisting forcible acquisition of land. The tense situation is continuing. Barely three months earlier, the Orissa government backed by TATA goons killed an activist of Bistaphan Birodhi Janmanch - Sukinda in order to terrorise the people *We demand:* 1. *Immediate withdrawal of armed police.* 2. *Immediate arrest of goons and TATA company officials who entered the disputed site.* *This meeting expresses its solidarity with the struggling people of Kalinganagar.* N. K Bhattacharya Convener, Janhastakshep. From asitredsalute at gmail.com Thu Jun 26 11:49:09 2008 From: asitredsalute at gmail.com (Asit asitreds) Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:49:09 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] janahastkshep resolution on the terrorisng of adivasis of kalinganagar by the armed goons of tatas Message-ID: *Janhastakshep * *Campaign Against Fascist Designs* To, Shri. Naveen Patnaik Chief Minister of Orissa 25.06.2008 *Resolution* passed in a meeting of JAN HASTAKSHEP on June 25, 2008 at the Gandhi Peace Foundation. 1. The meeting organized by JAN HASTAKSHEP expresses its grave concern over the hired goons of BJD and the hired goons of TATA led by company officials, who tried to enter the project area at Kalinganagar this morning. Later armed police also tried to enter the project site but retreated on facing stiff resistance from the people. 1. This meeting condemns the Naveen Patnaik government for abetting the TATAS in letting loose a reign of violence against the Kalainganagar people who are resisting forcible acquisition of land. The tense situation is continuing. Barely three months earlier, the Orissa government backed by TATA goons killed an activist of Bistaphan Birodhi Janmanch - Sukinda in order to terrorise the people *We demand:* 1. *Immediate withdrawal of armed police.* 2. *Immediate arrest of goons and TATA company officials who entered the disputed site.* *This meeting expresses its solidarity with the struggling people of Kalinganagar.* N. K Bhattacharya Convener, Janhastakshep. From mail at shivamvij.com Thu Jun 26 20:49:30 2008 From: mail at shivamvij.com (=?UTF-8?Q?Shivam_Vij?= =?UTF-8?Q?_=E0=A4=B6=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=AE?= =?UTF-8?Q?=E0=A5=8D_=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=9C=E0=A5=8D?=) Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:49:30 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] The Truth About Reservations Message-ID: <9c06aab30806260819h4efd9853pcc34a9c492950cd3@mail.gmail.com> The passions that reservations incite amongst us, on both sides of the divide, are surprisingly not reflected in any research or even journalism on the impact of reservations. Given below is a report about a happy exception, but much more work of this kind is required. The full paper which this report summarises is available at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w13926 If you are a hardened anti-reservationist, please don't read any further, it's not going to help your shock of the Supreme Court giving a go-ahead to "Mandal II". best shivam o o o o Social justice and its myths Mihir Sharma The Indian Express Wednesday, June 25, 2008 http://www.indianexpress.com/story/326971.html Who benefits from reservations? And who loses out? A new study has some answers No politically fraught issue has been debated without hard data for as long as has the question of caste-based quotas in higher education. Very little is known definitively about who actually wins and loses from the policy; even the parameters around which the size of the quotas are based are almost certainly outdated. In this vacuum, anecdotal evidence has combined with political polemic to lead to a generally believed set of principles, which are trotted out with monotonous regularity whenever required. This is one commonly held belief: students benefiting from reservations are frequently not good enough — or do not have the skills — to actually benefit from the education they will receive. This 'mis-match' is, we are expected to believe, not only a waste for the institutions forced to admit them and to the individuals themselves, but to the economy as a whole. Twelve students, recently expelled from IIT-Delhi, allege that they were told this quite explicitly. Consider, also, the marvellously evocative phrase 'creamy layer'. While the phrase now has a legal meaning — the children of government employees above a certain rank, or of households earning more than 2.5 lakh a year — its centrality in discussion reflects the degree to which people are convinced that those who benefit from reservation are 'rich' in some sense, and indeed probably better-off than the candidates that they displace. Thus it is implied that deserving candidates are frequently excluded for the dubious social benefit provided by admitting candidates who are already, in economic terms, privileged. Fortunately, for the first time, these common assumptions — and others like them — can be put to the test. This is thanks to a mammoth project undertaken by a small group of economists: Marianne Bertand of Chicago, Rema Hanna of New York University, and Sendhil Mullainathan of MIT. They spent years gathering information about applicants for admission to engineering colleges from an unnamed Indian state in 1996, focusing on those who just made and those who just missed the admissions cutoff in each caste category — general, SC and OBC. This required them to trawl through lists and actually, physically, trace and interview those applicants and their families — some of whom had moved several times since their last known address was recorded. What did their analysis of that information, now available online, reveal? First of all, it is certainly true that successful SC and OBC applicants have a family income higher than that of the average SC and OBC family in their state. That much of the 'creamy layer' story is correct. Absolutely everything else appears to be completely false. They find that exactly the same thing is true of all SC/OBC applicants as a whole — not just the successful ones — and, indeed, even of general quota applicants, who also have family incomes above the average for their state and caste. So it is not the case that relatively richer families benefit from quotas in admission; only relatively richer families ever have children that sit for admissions tests anyway. And it is definitely not the case that richer lower-caste applicants are taking seats away from poorer general-category students; when the economists compared "applicants offered a seat in an engineering college in 1996 due to the reservation programme to those that were refused a seat but would have been admitted in the absence of the programme", they found that the family income of the former set was, on average, less than 60 per cent of the family income of the latter group. Secondly, the 'mis-match' theory isn't supported either. If it were true, then just being admitted to an engineering college under a quota would not mean that an applicant became a more productive worker. This wasn't the case when that 'productivity increase' was measured in terms of the salary increases that those individuals were able to command and hold down. Those salary increases, while significant, were however not as much as the salary increases an upper-caste candidate would expect if he happened to make it through the engineering admissions test: this, at last, is partial support for at least one of the standard stories, that the economy's overall productivity is hurt by prioritising lower-caste applicants. The study's authors, however, offer another explanation for this result: the choice of job for SC/OBC engineers is distorted by the fact that they find it easier to get stable but lower-paying government jobs. (They do not add that another source of distortion is possible discrimination against lower castes in the private sector job market. However, the same authors are also working on a large-scale analysis of that problem; they are using methodology that revealed large-scale implicit discrimination against African-Americans in the US private sector.) So if the standard myths about reservations have so little support in the data, how can we account for their persistence? The last part of the study, which analyses the attitudes of successful and unsuccessful applicants, provides an eminently believable reason. It turns out that "it does not appear that those who are denied a seat in an engineering college due to the affirmative action programme end up expressing more negative attitudes towards these programmes." So all those who are responsible for perpetuating and politicising these narratives about reservations might not, after all, actually represent those who genuinely lose from the policies. mihir.sharma at expressindia.com o o o DOCUMENT http://www.indianexpress.com/story/326972.html 'Displaced come from stronger socio-economic backgrounds than displacers' Wednesday, June 25, 2008 Excerpts from 'Affirmative Action in Education', by Marianne Bertrand, Rema Hanna and Sendhil Mullainathan Why the study There are strong beliefs that affirmative action programmes greatly harm non-minority groups and this belief dampens support for such programmes. However, these beliefs are hard to evaluate, since there is very little real evidence to date on the magnitude (if any) of the harm... In contrast, this study assembles the most comprehensive dataset available on affirmative action in higher education. The data We collected two data sets. First, we collected a census of all individuals who took the admissions exam in 1996... To better understand outcomes across caste groups, we interviewed about 700 households from this census of applicants between 2004 and 2006 (approximately 8-10 years after the entrance exam). We surveyed both the applicant and their parents to gauge life outcomes including income and occupation, job satisfaction, social networks, and caste identity. How was it collected? The enumerators first visited the parents' recorded address as of 1996 to determine if the parents still lived there. If the parents had moved, the enumerators went door to door and asked the neighbours for contact information... In total, we searched for 1,984 households. Are quota students from the economically better off sections? The reservation policy is associated with the admission of individuals of a lower socio-economic background. Under the assumption of a 70 per cent enrolment rate, mean parental income among the displaced individuals is Rs 14,088 compared to Rs 8,340 among the displacing individuals; 41 per cent of displaced individuals come from a household in which the head holds at least a master's degree, compared to only 14 per cent of displacing individuals; also, 59 per cent of displaced individuals attended an English-language private school, compared to only 35 per cent of displacing individuals. Do quota students benefit? Attending engineering college increases the monthly income of upper-caste individuals by between Rs 9,500 and Rs 13,000 (statistically significant in all four specifications); in contrast, attending engineering college increases the monthly income of lower-caste applicants by between Rs 5,500 and Rs 6,200 (statistically significant in all four specifications). Hence, the estimates... paint a less favourable picture of the welfare implications of the reservation policy: attending engineering college increases the monthly income of an upper-caste candidate by Rs 3,000 to Rs 7,000 more than it increases the monthly income of a lower-caste candidate. The between-caste difference in the returns to an engineering education is especially large when we compare general-caste applicants to SC applicants... Interestingly, we cannot reject the hypothesis that the returns between the upper-caste group and OBC are the same. Some conclusions: Our analysis suggests that the affirmative action policy redistributes resources to minority groups. Contrary to the arguments of some critics, the policy does not merely crowd out economically-disadvantaged upper-caste students to make way for economically-advantaged lower-caste students. The individuals who are displaced by the programme come from stronger socio-economic backgrounds than the displacers. Hence, by targeting disadvantaged caste groups, the policy achieves some income targeting without generating any of the behavioural distortions typically associated with income targeting. Moreover, despite their low test scores, the marginal admits from lower castes earned significant returns from attending engineering college. In other words, our findings do not support the view that the academic resources that are devoted to the lower-caste students are totally wasted on them. The full text of the report is available online at http://www.nber.org/papers/w13926 From chiarapassa at gmail.com Wed Jun 25 15:12:18 2008 From: chiarapassa at gmail.com (Chiara Passa) Date: Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:42:18 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] "Replicating Architecture" out now! Message-ID: Hello friends & colleagues, I'm glad to announce my last artwork made for a site specific project. Replicating Architecture http://www.chiarapassa.it/replicatingarchitecture.html For the series digital art in public space: "Replicating architecture" is an interactive video installation that I'm developing for a site-specific place. The time is variable. "Replicating architecture" shows how the net art feeds (for example the rhizome news at: http://feeds.feedburner.com/rhizome-art) can influence and reshape an architecture placed in a real urban environment. In fact, through the patch 'RSS Downloader' in Quartz Composer, I can manage the rss feeds received from a web site and convert them into a sort of variable texture that I've constructed and shaped as a dna structure. It is made by aggregated lines connected to a several other patches that determine: phases, amplitudes, light environment, colours, xyz rotations, etc… As the DNA configuration is vertical, I've selected a tower or an obelisk for the projection. In this illusory dimension, infinite lines generating emptiness and distances are "attracted" and skimmed one with the others, fading. Thanks to the Net-Art news, the architecture becomes an essential structure that draws a sort of fluctuating original human structure always in transformation. Best regards, Chiara. -- Chiara Passa chiarapassa at gmail.com http://www.chiarapassa.it http://www.ideasonair.net http://twitter.com/jogador Skype: ideasonair _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From dulali.nag at gmail.com Thu Jun 26 12:41:38 2008 From: dulali.nag at gmail.com (DULALI NAG) Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:41:38 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: Bear facts In-Reply-To: <9a38651a0806252335y2d101178te84a708f92840ee5@mail.gmail.com> References: <9a38651a0806252335y2d101178te84a708f92840ee5@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <9a38651a0806260011l16449673l9f694dc809a132ed@mail.gmail.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: DULALI NAG Date: Jun 26, 2008 12:05 PM Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Bear facts To: "S. Jabbar" Cc: Sudnya Patkar , Vivienne Choudhury , "D. Rajasekar" Dear Sonia, It would have been amusing if it were not so heart-breaking. Just a couple of weeks ago the forest officials in the *same* area were nowhere to be found to rescue an elephant who was being burnt alive by a murderous crowd, and now they have "rescued" an animal from the "clutches" of its loving human family. Is there any way to save these hapless animals from the forest officials? Dulali Nag On 6/26/08, S. Jabbar wrote: > > Heartbreak over cub confiscation > By Sanjaya Jena > BBC News, Bhubaneswar > > A tribal man in India who rescued an abandoned bear cub to help his > daughter > overcome her mother's death has fallen foul of forestry officials. > > They confiscated the animal arguing that its capture was in contravention > of > wildlife laws. > > As a result, Ramesh Munda, 35, was briefly jailed and the bear was sent to > a > zoo where some reports say it has refused to eat. > > His daughter is now distraught over the loss of a "much-loved" family > friend. > > Mutual affection > > Mr Munda, who is also known as Ram Singh, rescued Rani almost two years ago > from the dense forest of Keonjhar in the eastern state of Orissa. > > From the moment the cub was recovered, both man and animal appeared to > develop an unusual bond of love. > > Such was the level of affection between the bear and Mr Munda's family, > that > the local press began to write stories about this rare example of mutual > affection. > > But Orissa forestry department officials were not so sentimental. > > Keonjhar district forest officials arrested and jailed him under the > Wildlife Protection Act and sent Rani to Nandankanan Zoological Park. > > Now both man and animal are pining to be reunited, with the bear reportedly > refusing to eat any food. > > Deserted > > Recently released on bail, Mr Munda is desperately looking for an > opportunity to visit Nandankanan and spend a few moments with Rani. > > "I brought her up like my own daughter Gulki. I'm eager to meet her," he > said. > > Little Gulki, who spent her childhood with Rani, is also shedding tears > over > the absence of her furry friend. > > She has now been reunited with her father after his time in prison, but the > pair are pining for Rani. > > Nandankanan Zoo director Ajit Patnaik insisted that Rani was doing well in > the zoo. > > "She is absolutely well and taking her normal food. If Ram Singh wants to > meet the bear, we can allow him," he said. > > Mr Munda stumbled upon the newborn bear during one of his regular visits to > the forest to collect firewood. > > The cub had been deserted by its mother. > > Mr Munda fed it and the animal ate, drank and slept with father and > daughter. The trio have even been seen riding around on a bicycle. > > The tale of the confiscated cub has evoked strong protests from wildlife > activists, who accuse officials of hypocrisy. > > "The rights of animals and reptiles to live a life of freedom in their > natural surroundings in the dense forests of the state are being illegally > violated by the zoo authorities," Wildlife Society of Orissa secretary > Biswajit Mohanty said. > > India's Wildlife Protection Act stipulates that only a wild animal > dangerous > to human life or which is diseased or disabled beyond recovery can be kept > in captivity. > _________________________________________ > 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 difusion at medialab-prado.es Thu Jun 26 18:13:32 2008 From: difusion at medialab-prado.es (Difusion Medialab-Prado) Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 14:43:32 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] =?iso-8859-1?q?Sperm=F6la!=2C_by_Basurama_=5BMadrid?= =?iso-8859-1?q?=B7Spain_July_7-13=2C_2008=5D?= Message-ID: <48638EF4.4010605@medialab-prado.es> *spermöla O**rganized by Basurama 7-13 July 2008 @ Intermediae/Matadero (Madrid/Spain)* Spermöla reproduces the forum of used objects or spermüll held under official auspices in some European countries. City governments announce the dates on which the residents of each street may deposit the objects they no longer want or use in a specific location so that others can take them. Spermöla aims to generate a useful platform or tool to prolong the useful lives of discarded objects and create a space for neighbours to meet based on the memory of those objects. Spermöla consists of a workshop, a space of exchange and the launching of a webpage where any kind of object may be seen or left. *Workshop:* Pre-registration (www.inermedie.es) until 30 June via submission of personal data and a few lines explaining the reasons one wishes to take part in the workshop, which has space for 10 attendees. Basurama will select the participants. Workshop contents: 1. Looking for, cataloguing, and setting out the useful objects to be displayed and the exchanged. 2. Updating and managing the contents on the Web tool created by meipi to be launched on 8 July. 3. Design and distribution of divulgation material: Creation and display of an announcement-furniture assembly made of objet trouvés (found objects). Looking for, collecting, repairing, and "tuning" the objects. Schedule of events: 7-9 July basura safari nights 7-9 July setting up the exchange space and "tuning" the objects 9-13 July Spermöla - Your rubbish is not rubbish! Space to exchange furniture and objects. * **Spermöla space:* Open from the 9th until the 13th of July during the regular opening hours of Intermediae. Your rubbish is not rubbish!The Intermediae Matadero building will be transformed into a place where one will be able to collect or leave all kinds of objects without any charge. *Website launching the 8th of July **www.spermola.org* created by meipi where you can share the objects you no longer need. The website under construction can be currently seen: www.meipi.org/spermola For additional information: www.intermediae.es www.basurama.org -- Nerea García Garmendia Medialab Prado Área de Las Artes, Ayuntamiento de Madrid Plaza de las Letras Alameda, 15 28014 Madrid Tfno. +34 914 202 754 difusion at medialab-prado.es www.medialab-prado.es From space.cotoners8 at gmail.com Thu Jun 26 23:46:33 2008 From: space.cotoners8 at gmail.com (Space Cotoners8) Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:16:33 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] El Escaparate :: WORK IN PROGRESS :: Inauguracion/Inauguration In-Reply-To: References: <7AEA1C18-5400-4623-8FD9-431409EF1980@c8artwindow.com> Message-ID: <2ad987420806261116l3a8bb75y81fd1dc56f2d5f44@mail.gmail.com> Spanish > ¡Hola! > > 'El Escaparate' ya está en marcha. > > *Desde el día 20 de Junio y hasta el 12 de Julio* 'El Escaparate' estará > tapado con un anuncio inaugural de su próxima apertura realizado por Jo > Graell. Un anuncio que se irá abriendo dando la posibilidad al espectador de > descubrir que se oculta en 'El Escaparate'. > > La primera performance de nuestro espacio se titula WORK IN PROGRESS. > Partiendo del eterno intento de construir un castillo de naipes, 10 artistas > tendrán la tarea de continuar el trabajo del anterior, hasta que por error o > descuido, la construcción caiga de nuevo y deban volver a comenzar. WORK IN > PROGRESS tendrá lugar dentro de 'El Escaparate' *del 1 al 11 de Julio*, de > 19-20 horas. > > Te invitamos a venir, pero si no puedes, tienes la posibilidad de verlo en > directo cada día en *http://es.justin.tv/artwindow* > > *Programación*: > > *Días y artistas*: 1 Carolina Asensio // 2 José Luis Asensio // 3 María > Ribera // 4 Javier Bermúdez López // 5 Tatto Cabrero // 7 Nani Serrano // 8 > Jesús Pau // 9 Constanza Aguirre // 10 Gurene Marín // 11 Jaume > García-Barzanallana. > > Y el día *12 de Julio a las 19 horas* te esperamos en nuestra FIESTA DE > INAUGURACIÓN. > > www.c8artwindow.com > > :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: > > English > > Hello! > > 'El Escaparate' is already a reality. > > *From June 20 until July 12*, 'El Escaparate' it will be covered by an > inaugural advertisement of his next opening produced by Jo Graell. An > advertisement that will be opened giving the possibility to the spectator of > discovering that hides itself in 'El Escaparate'. > > The first performance of our space titles WORK IN PROGRESS. This > performance is based on the eternal attempt to construct a house of cards, > 10 artists will have the task of continuing the work of the previous one, > until by mistake or by carelessness, the construction falls down again and > they should return to begin. WORK IN PROGRESS will take place inside 'El > Escaparate' *from July 1 to 11*, of 19-20 hours. > > We invite you to come, but if you can't, you have the possibility of seeing > it in live every day in *http://es.justin.tv/artwindow* > > Program: > > *Days and artists*: 1 Carolina Asensio // 2 José Luis Asensio // 3 María > Ribera // 4 Javier Bermúdez López // 5 Tatto Cabrero // 7 Nani Serrano // 8 > Jesús Pau // 9 Constanza Aguirre // 10 Gurene Marín // 11 Jaume > García-Barzanallana. > > And on *July 12 at 7 p.m*. we wait for you in our INAUGURATION. > > www.c8artwindow.com From sen.gargi at gmail.com Fri Jun 27 07:28:09 2008 From: sen.gargi at gmail.com (Gargi Sen) Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:28:09 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] The report of Persistence Resistance: a festival of contemporary political films Message-ID: is available at http://www.magiclanternfoundation.org/FilmFestival%20Reports/PRFest_Report.h tml Gargi Sen From rohitism at gmail.com Fri Jun 27 19:13:37 2008 From: rohitism at gmail.com (Rohit Shetti) Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:13:37 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] ACTION ALERT: 28/29 JUNE - BANGALORE JOINS GLOBAL HUNGER FAST FOR BHOPAL Message-ID: Dear Friends, *SATURDAY JUNE 28TH* has been declared as a Global Day of Action for Bhopal wherein people around the world would join the Bhopalis by observing a day-long Hunger Fast in solidarity with the struggle for Justice. You can join the Fast wherever you are in the world, and if you are Fasting in *Bangalore*, do sign-up under the respective city at the below link. http://www.boston4bhopal.org/view_events.php Some of us plan to meet together on Sunday Morning (29th June) to break our Fast, and also have a small discussion. I will send the details shortly. In case you are not able to check your mails before that, please call me to know the plans. WE'RE ASKING EVERYONE to join us!! WE NEED YOUR BEST EFFORT TO TOP THE PRIME MINISTER'S OPPOSITION to JUSTICE in Bhopal! Thanks for circulating the message far and wide. Best regards, Rohit / 9731866211 From naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com Sat Jun 28 16:12:45 2008 From: naeem.mohaiemen at gmail.com (Naeem Mohaiemen) Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2008 16:42:45 +0600 Subject: [Reader-list] Bangladesh & "The Generation Thing" Message-ID: If images don't show, go to: http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/2008/06/26/the-generation-thing The Generation Thing (Rumi Ahmed) SSC results are out. For the first time in history of Bangladesh, students could get their result via the cell phone interactive SMS. A whopping 70% test takers passed the exam this year. This is significantly different from when I took my public exams in the mid 80s. During those days, the only way to get the results were either school notice board ( which will be torn and taken out as souvenir within hours after posting) or the fine print result sheets in the national newspapers. The pass rate is an improvement too. The pass rate used to be a lowly 30 something percent those days. A better pass rate is a remarkable and much needed leap forward. 'Nearly 2/3rd of the students are flunking the first national public exams and majority of those failing are from the rural downtrodden communities'– It was indeed a lousy state of affairs. There are other dramatic changes in associated social factors evolving on the SSC/HSC results. In the past the nation used to celebrate a select dozen, only those securing first place in different boards and different concentrations. Invariably, on the morning after the results, there would have been first page picture of the boy/girl who stood first flanked by the parents. There would have been a first page report, " Shihab Boigganik Hoite Chay." Or " Dhiman er kono private tutor chhilo na". This time more than 52 thousand students secured the highest score i.e. GPA 5. This is indeed a more justified approach as I do not feel our public exams are designed to identify one or twenty best students out of a pool of more than one million pupils. And rightfully we are now celebrating for 52 thousand rather than a select twenty. A better focus and some incentive for these 52 thousand capable students can turn out to be much more beneficial for the nation than idolizing 20 lucky nerds. *And then those screaming dancing girls, the 'V' signs, the 'Girls Guide' drum troops in full motion and the spontaneous expressions in front of TV cameras ! News TV footage from Dhaka this morning was amazing. Its definitely a changed Bangladesh and surely a change for good.* In early-mid 80s, with the news of the result, most boys would go to the school in the evening for the results and some urban cowboys will flock at the board office at Bakhshi Bazaar through late at night. *And the girl? In some cases, would walk to the school behind the dad and stay back while the dad struggles with the young male students for a glimpse of the result sheet posted in school notice board. And even at homes, when the morning newspaper with the results would come, it will be the dad or the brother who will start searching for the 'roll number'.* In today's TV news, looking at the girls dancing singing with boys and teachers, I thought that time has indeed changed. And after many years boys overall did better than girl students in this public exam. Its definitely another sign of the changes. Traditionally boy students used to do better in public exam until the tide changed in the 80s. This was a result of the changed attitude of our society towards the girl child. In 60s and before boys used to get a preference in education i.e they would get a tutor and a place to study. For the girl in average middle class Bengali family, the full focus was on learning household things and then use additional time to study. After a decade following a changing attitude towards the girl child, the tide started to change. The result was clear starting 80s. Girls started doing better in all faculty of education. Science, arts, commerce, debate etc. Boys, more distracted by outside world, game, adda, the cute girl at the corner home… , fell behind the girls. Girls had more time to focus on homework and study at home. Time and generation has definitely played a role in a futher change in the trend too. *The cell phone revolution, the change of attitude of the society to the girl child etc. has definitely helped the girls come finally out of the indoor life. — the "onto:pur". Girls are now equally attracted and distracted by the outside world. Hence their academic advantage is lost.* Instead of 20, we now have 52 thousands fresh brain to work with. *Instead of boy only urban cowboys, we now have equal number of damn-care girls and boys joining hands together to make a tremendously fierce storm to rattle the society.* This is the best harvest of our nation, the best thing we got this year. We must make ways for them to grow, we must reap the harvest. We must not let them down. Cross Posted at rumiahmed.wordpress.com From rohitism at gmail.com Sat Jun 28 17:54:45 2008 From: rohitism at gmail.com (Rohit Shetti) Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:54:45 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Global Fast in support of Bhopalis - Bangalore Message-ID: Hi All, Supporters of the struggle for justice in Bhopal who have joined the Global Hunger Fast for Bhopal on 28th June in Bangalore are meeting at 8-45 a.m. on Sunday Morning (29th June) to break the fast and have a solidarity meeting. *Venue:* Cubbon Park (under the big rock). Entrance from MG Road, Kasthurba Road Junction. Interaction with interested members of the Public and sign-up for Fax action is also planned. All are invited. Thanks and regards, Rohit / 9731866211 From rohitism at gmail.com Sat Jun 28 17:56:22 2008 From: rohitism at gmail.com (Rohit Shetti) Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:56:22 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] ACTION ALERT: 28/29 JUNE - BANGALORE JOINS GLOBAL HUNGER FAST FOR BHOPAL In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi All, Supporters of the struggle for justice in Bhopal who have joined the Global Hunger Fast for Bhopal on 28th June in Bangalore are meeting at 8-45 a.m. on Sunday Morning (29th June) to break the fast and have a solidarity meeting. Venue: Cubbon Park (under the big rock). Entrance from MG Road, Kasthurba Road Junction. Interaction with interested members of the Public and sign-up for Fax action is also planned. All are invited. Thanks and regards, Rohit / 9731866211 On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 7:13 PM, Rohit Shetti wrote: > Dear Friends, > > *SATURDAY JUNE 28TH* has been declared as a Global Day of Action for > Bhopal wherein people around the world would join the Bhopalis by observing > a day-long Hunger Fast in solidarity with the struggle for Justice. > > You can join the Fast wherever you are in the world, and if you are Fasting > in *Bangalore*, do sign-up under the respective city at the below link. > http://www.boston4bhopal.org/view_events.php > > Some of us plan to meet together on Sunday Morning (29th June) to break our > Fast, and also have a small discussion. I will send the details shortly. In > case you are not able to check your mails before that, please call me to > know the plans. > > WE'RE ASKING EVERYONE to join us!! WE NEED YOUR BEST EFFORT TO TOP THE > PRIME MINISTER'S OPPOSITION to JUSTICE in Bhopal! > > Thanks for circulating the message far and wide. > > Best regards, > > Rohit / 9731866211 > From dash.suryashankar at gmail.com Fri Jun 27 14:58:02 2008 From: dash.suryashankar at gmail.com (Surya Dash) Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:58:02 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] POSCO's R&R offer to villagers - 6 crates of bombs and 75 swords? Message-ID: With the murder of Dula Mandal many conspiracy theories have come to a rest. For instance, in the eyes of the district administration, the police and certain sections of the media, the Posco Pratirod sangram Samiti led movement against the POSCO project is being sponsored by Maoist groups. But time and again and the pro POSCO groups have led murderous attacks on villagers of Dhinkia & activists of Gobindpur which has now culminated with the murder of Mandal. On 29 Nov, 07 a peaceful dharna by women of Dhinkia and other villages at Balitutha was disturbed by an armed mob who resorted to hurling crude bombs and attacking people with swords. The women had fled for their lives with many falling into a river and almost losing their lives. Since then there have been many such attacks including one where an armed pro Posco assailant's palm was chopped off by irate villagers of Dhinkia. Though the incident was reported as an attack by PPSS the other side of the story was that the injured man had been at the forefront of many attacks on PPSS activists. On that day too he had been attacked after he had hurled a crude bomb at a PPSS activist meeting. Instead of protecting the lives of people locked in a struggle to save their land and livelihood the state has rather resorted to giving a free hand to pro POSCO goons who attack and murder freely. The gang behind the murder of Dula Mandal might have been arrested by the police but it was more of a rescue operation as they had already been surrounded by hundreds of angry villagers. And now with the recovery of bombs, swords and weapons inside the Gobindpur school premises the allegations of PPSS activists has been vindicated - the attack that claimed Mandal's life was pre planned. If they were simply holding a meeting what were they doing with boxes of bombs and swords?The number of bombs and swords recovered just goes to show what kind of preparedness the pro POSCO goons have undertaken to push the project ahead. Not only that it goes to show that they are nothing less than terrorists. Many questions arise, if the PPSS is a Maoist outfit how come in three years of struggle they have never attacked with bombs? If the pro POSCO faction are simply locals who endorse the project then why haven't they simply stopped at giving up their land and accepting the compensation offered? Why are they waging an armed battle against PPSS? Who is providing them with such arms and ammunition? And is it really true that all of them are local supporters of the project and not seasoned criminals who know how to use bombs and swords? Why has the police not made any attempt to contain the pro POSCO faction's violence? There are 70 cases against Abhay Sahu but was anyone arrested for the attack on 29 Nov at Balitutha? The women who miraculously survived the vicious attack are yet to recover from the trauma. Does the state not have any responsibility towards their protection and well being? Why has the POSCO management been spared from all this? Is it possible they are not involved in these attacks? Who is sponsoring the criminals then? What is the role of local politicians and contractors who will get plum jobs if the project happens? Moreover the IAS officer who said in a TV interview 'the people have been taught a lesson' after the 29 Nov bomb attack on women, Priyabrata Patnaik, the former govt nodal officer of the POSCO project was not even questioned for making statements to the press that are anti-constitutional. He had even commented 'that the people would not dare to raise their voice again' to the press which blatantly disrespected the constitutional rights of citizens of India His links with gangsters has also been exposed with one dreaded criminal, Raja Acharya openly alleging that Patnaik offered him a contract job in the POSCO project. No inquiry has been made in this regard to find out the nexus between bureaucrats and mafia though it is evident that such a nexus does exist. Pramod Meherda, the present collector of Jagatsingpur, is infamous for his stint as collector of Rayagada where he had gained notoriety for the repression of anti UAIL activists. His posting in Jagatsingpur is unlikely to be an innocuous choice and the SP too has a similar track record in Rayagada where he has even arrested journalists on false allegations of being Maoist sympathisers. The presence of such officers in key posts is a direct implication that the state is not just paranoid about Maoists but rather uses the 'M' tag to take away the credibility of democratic movements and facilitate repression. Six boxes of bombs is a staggering figure as it can claim many lives and then 75 swords is enough to wage a medieval war. Is this not enough for the administration, police and media to stop calling PPSS a Maoist movement and start calling the pro POSCO faction a deadly mafia gang? What kind of a democracy is India then if armed goons are allowed to kill and bomb while those who are fighting to retain their constitutional rights are termed political extremists? The most important question being, who will protect the villagers of Dhinkia... Please see below for media report on the recovery of weapons. On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 7:33 AM, Manshi Asher wrote: > > > *PPSS claims recovery of arms from school* > http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=9&theme=&usrsess=1&id=210313 > > Statesman News Service > JAGATSINGHPUR, June 26: Lawlessness reigned supreme in Govindpur village as > anti-Posco activists, on the rampage since last week following the death of > one of their activist Dula Mandal, today confined two persons and claimed > recovery of huge cache of weapons and bombs from Govindpur school premises. > The Posco Pratirodh Sangram Samity (PPSS) activists claimed to have made a > break through to the assault and murder of Dula Mandal. We confronted a > pro-project activist Mr Narottam Mohanty, confined and interrogated him, > they said. > Some of the anti-Posco activists then assaulted schoolteacher Mr Jadumani > Das to ascertain as to who had attacked Mandal. Basing on the information > provided by Mr Mohanty and Mr Das, they raided the school premises and > claimed to have recovered six boxes containing country bombs, 75 swords and > other weapons. > It may be noted here that Mandal and other anti-Posco activists had clashed > near the Govindpur primary schools premises on 20 June. Bombs were hurled > and Dula Mandal died in the attack. > The PPSS which is observing a Black Week since 22 June, had alleged that it > was a pre-planned attack by goons who had been hiding at the school. The > counter version was that a pro-project faction was holding a meeting at the > school when their rivals started pelting stones leading to the violence. > Police had arrested 22 people in this connection with the clash even as > PPSS activists aggressively held a meeting attended by CPI leader Mr AB > Bardhan and leaders of all Opposition political parties. > The arrests and police action had irked pro-project activists who said that > strangely the administration was behaving like stooges of the PPSS. No > action has been taken against PPSS leaders including their chief Mr Abaya > Sahoo despite the fact that over 70 cases are pending against them. > They also pointed out that PPSS activists had indulged in goondaism for > over two years and one and half months ago they chopped the palm of a > pro-project activist. Yet nobody was arrested. People have lost faith in the > administration and are only trying to defend themselves, remarked > pro-project activist. > Today, however the PPSS was in a belligerent mood, claiming that it had now > established that pro-Posco activist, backed both by the company and the > administration had armed themselves and planned the attack of 20 June in > which Dula Mandal had died. > The revelation by the school teacher and the recovery of weapons and bombs > has established this, they claimed while stating that they will hand over > the arms to the police. Tension gripped at Govindpur village and the PPSS > activists set fire to bags and other material provided by the steel company > to the school. > In fact since the death of Dula Mandal, anti-Posco activists have allegedly > set fire to two houses of pro-project activists. Anti Posco leader Mr Babuli > Rout said that they had informed Kujang police about the recovery of arms > from the school and a police team led by IIC Mr Anil Mishra have reached the > village. > In a related development at Bhubaneswar, the Kujang district Bar members > have petitioned the state human rights commission seeking its intervention > as human rights of people living in the proposed Posco project site villages > have been violated. Innumerable instances of violation of human rights take > place in the area almost on a daily basis and this has been happening since > last two years. > > > __._,_.___ Messages in this topic > ( > 1) Reply (via web post) > | Start > a new topic > > Messages| > Files| > Photos| > Links| > Database| > Polls| > Members| > Calendar > MARKETPLACE > You rock! Blockbuster wants to give you a complimentary trial of > Blockbuster Total Access. > [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 > > Visit Your Group > > Yahoo! Finance > > It's Now Personal > > Guides, news, > > advice & more. > Y! Messenger > > Group get-together > > Host a free online > > conference on IM. > Yahoo! Groups > > Cat Zone > > Connect w/ others > > who love cats. > . > > __,_._,___ > From cahen.x at levels9.com Sat Jun 28 16:19:36 2008 From: cahen.x at levels9.com (xavier cahen) Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2008 12:49:36 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] pourinfos Newsletter / from 24-06 to 15-09-2008 Message-ID: <48661740.1040504@levels9.com> pourinfos.org l'actualite du monde de l'art / daily Art news ----------------------------------------------------------------------- >From Tuesday, Juin 24, 2008 through September 15, 2008 (included) ------------------------------------------------------------------- (mostly in french) Dear readers, pourinfos suspend its newsletter until mid-September. Have a pleasant summer 2008! Yours Xavier Cahen for the pourinfos' Team @ 001 (24/06/2008) Call: MAKE ART 2008 - OpenOS, Poitiers, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35880-tit--MAKE-ART-2008-OpenOS-Poitiers- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 002 (24/06/2008) Call: VIDEOFORMES 2009, video competition, Clermont-Ferrand, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35881-tit--VIDEOFORMES-2009-video-competition- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 003 (24/06/2008) Call: Piksel08: code dreams, Bergen, Norway. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35882-tit--Piksel08-code-dreams-Bergen- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 004 (24/06/2008) Residency: Kuenstlerhaeuser Worpswede, Germany. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35883-tit-Residence-Kuenstlerhaeuser-Worpswede- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 005 (24/06/2008) Call: THE OPEN WALL, Trondheim Electronic Arts Centre, Trondheim, Norway. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35884-tit--THE-OPEN-WALL-Trondheim-Electronic-Arts -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 006 (24/06/2008) Exhibition: .fiction DOCUMENTAIRE, 2007.2008, University Paris 8, Saint-Denis, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35894-tit--fiction-DOCUMENTAIRE-2007-2008- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 007 (25/06/2008) Call: RENCONTRES INTERNATIONALES SCIENCES & CINÉMAS (RISC), 3rd edition, Marseille, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35886-tit--RENCONTRES-INTERNATIONALES-SCIENCES- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 008 (25/06/2008) Call: One MINUTE 2009, VIDEOFORMES, Clermont-Ferrand, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35887-tit--UNE-MINUTE-2009-VIDEOFORMES- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 009 (25/06/2008) Call: APPEL A PROJETS - DEDALE / CITE INTERNATIONALE UNIVERSITAIRE DE PARIS, Paris, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35888-tit--APPEL-A-PROJETS-DEDALE-CITE -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 010 (25/06/2008) Call fo participation : "Let's fuck, not fight!", wltf-mag, online magazine, Sao Paulo, Brazil. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35889-tit--Let-s-fuck-not-fight-wltf-mag- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 011 (25/06/2008) Call: Cimatics, 08AVFestival, Brussels, Belgium. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35890-tit--Cimatics-08AVFestival-Brussels- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 012 (25/06/2008) Divers : END THE PLAN TO ELIMINATE THE CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY IMAGES (CIC) - SAINT-GERVAIS GENEVA, Switzerland. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35891-tit-Divers-NON-A-LA-LIQUIDATION-DU-CENTRE-POUR -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 013 (25/06/2008) Various: petition "ORPHAN WORKS BILL, Menace on copyrights, capic.org, Toronto, Canada. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35892-tit-Divers-petition-ORPHAN-WORKS-BILL-Menace -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 014 (25/06/2008) Various: Steven Kurtz, ARTIST CLEARED OF ALL CHARGES IN PRECEDENT-SETTING CASE, Buffalo, Usa. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35897-tit-Divers-Steven-Kurtz-ARTIST-CLEARED-OF -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 015 (25/06/2008) Training: workshop of PHOTOGRAPHY DES RENCONTRES D'ARLES, Arles, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35898-tit-Formation-LES-STAGES-DE-PHOTOGRAPHIE-DES -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 016 (25/06/2008) Education: MA Fine Arts, York St John University, United Kingdom. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35899-tit-Formation-MA-Fine-Arts-York-St-John -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 017 (25/06/2008) Education: Cycle professional "Diffusion International, Act, Nantes, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35901-tit-Formation-Cycle-professionnel-Diffusion -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 018 (25/06/2008) Job: flash animators, layout of a series of 2D animation, animation, Blue Spirit, Brussels, Belgium. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35902-tit--animateurs-flash-layout-d-une-serie -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 019 (25/06/2008) Training: Summer Workshops Digital Arts, iMAL, Brussels, Belgium. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35903-tit-Formation-Ateliers-d-Ete-Arts-Numeriques- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 020 (25/06/2008) Call for participation: Folder «FRAGILE», esse arts + opinions, Montréal, Canada. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35904-tit--Dossier-FRAGILE-esse-arts-opinions- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 021 (25/06/2008) Call for participation: "Video Editing with Open Source Tools", Handbook, folly, Lancaster, United Kingdom. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35906-tit--Video-Editing-with-Open-Source-Tools- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 022 (25/06/2008) Residency: residence of Production Art Web TOPO Agency, Montreal, Canada. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35908-tit-Residence-residence-de-Production-d-Art -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 023 (25/06/2008) Publication: Cheap n ° 3, Nantes, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35909-tit--Cheap-n-3-Nantes- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 024 (25/06/2008) Publication: n#11-12 Opus , Opus, review of Sociology of art, Paris, Editions L'Harmattan, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35910-tit--n-11-12-Opus-revue-Sociologie-de-l-art- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 025 (25/06/2008) Publication: N°13 [2008] Art and political review land & work, ENS Cachan, Cachan, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35911-tit--N-13-2008-Art-et-politique-revue -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 026 (25/06/2008) Publication: N°20 of the newspaper, Editions Particules, Paris, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35913-tit--N-20-du-journal-Editions-Particules- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 027 (26/06/2008) Exhibiton: .fiction DOCUMENTAIRE, 2007.2008, University Paris 8, Saint-Denis, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35893-tit--fiction-DOCUMENTAIRE-2007-2008- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 028 (26/06/2008) Various: Survey Commission of exhibition, Cipac, Paris, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35895-tit-Divers-Enquete-commissariat-d-exposition- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 029 (26/06/2008) Education: Cycle professional "Cultural Action and the public relations", Act, Nantes, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35900-tit-Formation-Cycle-professionnel-Action -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 030 (26/06/2008) Call for participation: Call to participate, Bandits-Mages Festival, Bourges, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35905-tit--Call-to-participate-Bandits-Mages -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 031 (26/06/2008) Residency: Call for project residence - Discover & creation, the Méjannes Clap, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35907-tit--Appel-a-projet-residence-Decouverte- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 032 (26/06/2008) Publication: Ari Marcopoulos, Wesley Willis, nieves édition, Zurich, Switzerland. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35914-tit--Ari-Marcopoulos-Wesley-Willis-nieves -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 033 (26/06/2008) Publication: "Pirates!", Number 733-734, revue Critique, Paris, France http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35921-tit--Pirates-numero-733-734-revue -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 034 (26/06/2008) Exhibition: meetings Thursday, June 26, 2008 at the Olympic Cafe, PHOTSOC, International Festival of Photography Sociale in Sarcelles, Sarcelles, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35925-tit--rencontres-jeudi-26-juin-2008-a -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 035 (26/06/2008) Meetings: Seminar "social sciences in society" (sciences sociales en societe) - meeting on Thursday, June 26, 2008: "Social sciences, statistics and cultural policies in France", CERLIS, Paris, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35927-tit--Seminaire-sciences-sociales-en-societe- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 036 (26/06/2008) Meetings: « TALK IS CHEAP » Adel Abdessemed, lecture-performance, Situations of contemporary art, Thursday, June 26, 2008, Musée du quai Branly, Paris, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35932-tit--TALK-IS-CHEAP-Adel-Abdessemed- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 037 (27/06/2008) Exhibition : 2nd Exhibition of Contemporary Art Africain, Brussels, Belgium. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35848-tit--2eme-Salon-d-Art-Contemporain-Africain- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 038 (27/06/2008) Exhibition : The gun with white hair, Museum of Purpose, Blois, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35851-tit--Le-revolver-a-cheveux-blancs-Musee-de -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 039 (27/06/2008) Publication: No. 23 "The fear of images" (La peur des images), La Part de l’Œil, annual review of thought visual arts, Brussels, Belgium. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35915-tit--n-23-La-peur-des-images-La-Part-de -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 040 (27/06/2008) Publication: FILIATIONS, VU MAG I, Editions Filigranes, Paris, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35920-tit--FILIATIONS-VU-MAG-I-Editions -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 041 (27/06/2008) Publication: "You write," (Vous ecrire), Amers Editions, Espace en Cours, Paris, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35922-tit--Vous-ecrire-Amers-Editions-Espace-en -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 042 (27/06/2008) Exhibition: + IF AFFINITÉ 2008, association AFIAC, Village of FIAC, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35926-tit--SI-AFFINITE-2008-association-AFIAC- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 043 (27/06/2008) Meetings: Estefanía Peñafiel-Loaiza, Virginie Poitrasson, June 27, 2008, Galerie Paul Frèches Paris, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35928-tit--Estefania-Penafiel-Loaiza-Virginie -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 044 (28/06/2008) Various: Troc’Art, Jardin d’EOLE, Paris, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35837-tit-Divers-Troc-Art-Jardin-d-EOLE-Paris- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 045 (28/06/2008) Publication: E-formes : visual scriptures on digital media (écritures visuelles sur supports numériques), the direction of Monique Maza and Alexandra Saemmer, University of Saint-Etienne, Saint-Etienne, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35917-tit--E-formes-ecritures-visuelles-sur -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 046 (28/06/2008) Meetings: travel motionless "le voyage immobile", Saturday, June 28, 2008, Forum des Halles, ARS LONGA, Paris, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35931-tit--le-voyage-immobile-Samedi-28-juin-2008- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 047 (29/06/2008) Publication: new number, web access free devoted to André Gorz, the magazine devices you speak, Paris, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35916-tit--numero-web-en-acces-libre-consacre-a -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 048 (29/06/2008) Publication: DROME 13, egality in omaggio, Roma, Italy. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35919-tit--DROME-13-egalite-in-omaggio-Roma- -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 049 (29/06/2008) Publication: "What artistic critique? For a critical function of art at the contemporary age" (Quelle critique artiste ? Pour une fonction critique de l’art à l’âge contemporain), Aline Caillet, Collection L’art en bref, Editions L’Harmattan, Paris, France. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35923-tit--Quelle-critique-artiste-Pour-une -------------------------------------------------------------------- @ 050 (29/06/2008) Publication: La prolifération des écrans / Proliferation of Screens, Presse de l'Université du Québec, Canada. http://www.pourinfos.org/art-35924-tit--La-proliferation-des-ecrans- ----------------------------------------------------------------------- http://pourinfos.org l'actualité du monde de l'art / daily Art news Direction de la publication Xavier Cahen, webdesign Loz pourinfos.org est une page d’informations diverses et variées sur l'art contemporain, entendez ici, l’art qui se fait aujourd’hui. Cette lettre d’informations est bihebdomadaire. Contact humain xavier.cahen at pourinfos.org _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From deelited at gmail.com Sat Jun 28 20:19:57 2008 From: deelited at gmail.com (deepti) Date: Sat, 28 Jun 2008 20:19:57 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] Join the Delhi Queer Pride '08: June 29th: 5:30 pm (and see new route info in this mail) Message-ID: <2617ab630806280749i5a424b54x80b0f9c009ef34db@mail.gmail.com> Come join the *Delhi Queer Pride '08* on Sunday 29th June 2008 at 5.30 pm New Meeting Point: We assemble at the corner of Barakhamba Road and Tolstoy Marg, just south of the Metro station on Barakhamba Road, and in front of the Intercontinental Hotel on Tolstoy Marg. We will then march to Jantar Mantar, where we will have celebrating, singing, speeches and a candlelight vigil. **************************************************************************** This June, for the first time, Queer Pride celebrations will erupt on the streets of Delhi, alongside simultaneous marches in Kolkata and Bangalore! Queer Pride is a celebration. It is about loving who we are, whether lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, hijra or straight, and affirming everyone's right to be respected for their own sexual choices. This year, queer people, friends, and allies take this message to the streets! - Forward this message widely to your queer friends and straight allies -- lets get everyone to CP! **If you want to be out on the street and yet under cover, we will provide masks to cover your face, or bring something along yourself. Nevertheless, please remember this is a public event.** Delhi Queer Pride Commitee is an open forum of city residents. Anyone can join - please email delhiqueerpride at gmail.com to be part of organising Delhi Queer Pride '08. We are also fundraising for the Pride, so email if you want to contribute or volunteer! -------------- next part -------------- _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From namratakakkar1 at yahoo.co.in Sun Jun 29 14:00:15 2008 From: namratakakkar1 at yahoo.co.in (Namrata Kakkar) Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2008 14:00:15 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Reader-list] TOI's "Private Treaties" In-Reply-To: <910569.47806.qm@web54202.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <872644.36341.qm@web8614.mail.in.yahoo.com> Fluff is everywhere.The point is,any pornographic magazine in hard or soft copies sells, are read or viewed more than TOI or anything else, does that mean we those who aren't the porn audience or addicts, want pornography? I don't think so. --- On Tue, 24/6/08, Baruk S. Jacob wrote: > From: Baruk S. Jacob > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] TOI's "Private Treaties" > To: reader-list at sarai.net > Date: Tuesday, 24 June, 2008, 11:22 PM > > from what I've heard, this is nothin new for ToI. > If anything this is a > > corporate relationship that perfectly mirrors > arrangements that have been > > in place for years. > > thinking aloud: > > many people i meet talk of how the ToI content is full of > fluff. i have also heard these accusations of their being > driven solely by profit. what worries me, however, is the > fact that they continue to be the largest selling newspaper > in the world(?). that seems to suggest that we WANT this > fluff, that we honestly do not care about the deals our > newspapers make with business, about how the quality of the > information we receive is being compromised. > > maybe this is what we WANT. and that's really scary. > > ~baruk > > http://bottlebroke.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/> Did you know? You can CHAT without downloading messenger. Go to http://in.messenger..yahoo.com/webmessengerpromo.php/ From mail at shivamvij.com Sun Jun 29 22:10:47 2008 From: mail at shivamvij.com (=?UTF-8?Q?Shivam_Vij?= =?UTF-8?Q?_=E0=A4=B6=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=AE?= =?UTF-8?Q?=E0=A5=8D_=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=9C=E0=A5=8D?=) Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2008 22:10:47 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Under Development: Singur Message-ID: <9c06aab30806290940t3bcf50d8y4b8a4ad5cac19bdb@mail.gmail.com> Under Development: Singur The present event, hosted at the Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre, Kolkata, runs through 27 June to 2 July 2008. The programme stands as follows: Photo exhibition The photographs will remain mounted for viewing everyday from 2 to 8 pm at the Seagull Arts and Media Resource Centre, Kolkata. Panel discussion and open forum Friday 27 June, 4:30 pm 'On the Representation of Displacement and Development' Speakers: - Professor Samik Bandyopadhyay (Senior Film Critic and Scholar) - Dr Kavita Panjabi (Professor, Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University) - Dr Rajarshi Dasgupta (Fellow in Political Science, CSSSC) - Dr Paromita Chakravarti (Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Jadavpur University) Film festival Saturday 28 June 2008 11.00 am Bombay: Our City – Anand Patwardhan (India: 1985, 82 min) 2.00 pm Mahua Memoirs – Vinod Raja (India: 2007, 80 min) 4.30 pm Czech Dream – Vit Klusak and Felip Remunda (Czechoslovakia: 2004, 90 min) 6.00 pm An Aura of Development – Shubhasree Bhattacharyya and Sumantra Roy (India: 2008, 65 min) 7.00 pm Unnayan - Banduker Nole – Pramod Gupta (India: 2007, 44 min) Sunday 29 July 2008 11.00 am A Narmada Diary – Anand Patwardhan (India: 1996, 60 min) 2.00 pm Still Life – Zhang ke Jia (Hong Kong: 2006, 111 min) 4.30 pm Mahua Memoirs – Vinod Raja (India: 2007, 80 min) 6.00 pm Teardrops of Karnaphuli – Tanvir Mokammel (Bangladesh: 2006, 60 min) o o o o We at The Citizens' Initiative are trying to organize a continuing open discussion on the paradigms of development and the relationship, in this context, between politics and ethics. These issues, we feel, are extremely important given the kind of state-sponsored violence that people are facing all over India and particularly in West Bengal. The group of students, researchers, and teachers that is the CI started out in February 2007 to debate and question the cost of development and the growing schism between ethics and contemporary political culture. Questions have also begun to arise on the naive equation of the 'partisan' with the 'political', and the brushing aside of any non-partisan civil political action as not just irrelevant, but, as in some circles it is fashionable to say, 'anti-political.' The role of the civil society in a democracy is a subject of critical re-examination now, and it is the disregard for non-partisan opinion and the consequences of it that have led us to discuss and take more concrete actions. We launched this initiative with a one-day seminar on 16 February 2008 on 'Development and Ethics', where the speakers were Dr Dilip Simeon and Dr Aseem Shrivastava. Dr Dilip Simeon taught history at Delhi University for several years and is currently a Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi. Dr Aseem Shrivastava has a doctorate in Economics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He has taught Economics at various universities in the US and India, and Philosophy at Nordic College in Norway. He is an independent writer who writes on various contemporary themes like globalisation, human rights and US foreign policy. At the seminar, Dr Simeon spoke on 'Ethics and Contemporary Political Culture', and Dr Shrivastava's talk was titled 'SEZ and the Cost of Development'. Our next event was a workshop on the legal possibilities of the common citizen's redress of wrongs. Mr Sabir Ahamed of the RTI Mancha spoke on the Right to Information and Mr Sujato Bhadra of Association for Protection of Democratic Rights spoke on Public Interest Litigations. We have visited Singur six times since February 2008. A full report of our findings is to be released shortly, and a brief interim report is now ready for dissemination. In the last few months, we have carried relief – in the form of clothes, rice and pulses – to Dobandi in Singur (in March 2008), and organized a medical camp there (on 18 May 2008) with the help of the Centre for Care of Torture Victims. But neither of these efforts reflects our primary objectives. Our most ardent wish is to everywhere induce long-term reflection on models – and ethics – of development, and to contribute to reconstructive thought and efforts in the areas already adversely affected by the present political take on development. We have extensively photographed life in Singur and how it has been affected by the fencing-off of the land for the Tata Motors factory. Very few people in Kolkata have any idea of what Singur looks like, and press photographs can perhaps tell only a minuscule portion of the story. Our photographs are aimed at covering this invisible distance between the affected village and the urban centre – to put it simply, to show what development looks like in reality. However, we should stress that we have not been to Singur as unaffected photographers who are there to snatch images and leave. We wish to be able to propose/introduce alternative means of livelihood for people who have for generations been based in agriculture. Unhappily, the government's promises that alternative training and employment shall be the norm rather than the exception among all peoples displaced from land and/or livelihood, have been resoundingly empty. In even our limited ways, we hope that we shall, in a few months, be able to organize in Singur training workshops on certain alternative means of livelihood like machine knitting, embroidery, machine embroidery, and even cultivation of mushrooms. citizensinitiativecal at gmail.com From phadkeshilpa at gmail.com Sun Jun 29 23:50:50 2008 From: phadkeshilpa at gmail.com (Shilpa Phadke) Date: Sun, 29 Jun 2008 23:50:50 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Fwd: CMCS Fellowship: Deadline Extended to July 10 In-Reply-To: References: <4866308D.4060709@gmail.com> Message-ID: *Deadline Extended to July 10, 2008* CMCS Fellowship for Early Career Film Makers http://cmcs.tiss.edu/fellowships.html The Centre for Media and Cultural Studies (www.cmcs.tiss.edu), Tata Institute of Social Sciences announces a fellowship for film-makers at an early stage of their career. The fellowship is designed to provide the resources and environment for films that are innovative, relevant and contribute to the growing body of documentary and short film work in India. The fellowship consists of: * A stipend of up to Rs. 15,000 per month for a maximum period of five months. * The provision of in-house HDV equipment including camera and editing facilities. * Reimbursement of actuals of production expenses on the basis of a pre-approved budget. In order to be considered for the fellowship applicants are required to provide: * A detailed curriculum vitae * Up to two non-returnable samples of work on DVD/VCD. * An essay outlining the film proposal in not more than 2000 words. This essay should include: a working title for the film, language, the central theme of the film, approach to the content and narrative style, possible visual segments. * A production schedule with a detailed time frame for:research and script, cinematography, editing to rough cut, editing to final cut, submission of all material. * A budget for other production expenses (e.g. travel, field expenses, payments to other professionals etc.). Please note that the fellowship does not support any infrastructural costs such as setting up of an office, buying of equipment, or per diem costs. * Names and contact details of two referees, preferably from the field of media, whom we will contact for a reference if needed. The fellowship is open to all Indian nationals. Up to two fellowships are available based on the quality of applications. Short-listed candidates may have to come for an interview in August 2008. Travel will be reimbursed at the rates of three tier non-AC train fare against valid tickets. All proposals must be submitted as hard copies and signed by the film maker. For any queries please contact: cmcs.fellowships at gmail.com Last date for receipt of applications is June 30, 2008 Terms of the fellowship: o Selected fellows will be paid their fellowship amount on a monthly basis and for production expenses in instalments as and when needed. o The footage and final film produced will remain with the Digital Archive of the Centre. However, the fellow might retain a copy of the same, for her/his personal use. The copyright will be held jointly by the fellow and the Centre. The film will be distributed by the Centre as a part of its catalogue of productions. The fellow may also distribute the film. The Centre will be cited in the credits as the Producer of the film and the fellow will be cited as Director of the said film. o The fellow is expected to adhere to the time schedule s/he proposes. Any changes should be notified in advance. o There will be a small advisory committee for each project. The committee will facilitate the work of the fellow. S/he is expected to keep in touch with the committee on a regular basis and discuss and share her/his work at every stage (shooting script/ rough edit and final edit). o Fellows are expected to begin work by October 2008 and complete their films by March 2009 at the latest. _________________________________ Anjali Monteiro, Ph.D., Professor K.P. Jayasankar, Ph.D., Professor and Chair Centre for Media and Cultural Studies Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Deonar, Bombay 400 088, India Phone: +91 22 2556 3290 to 3296, Ext. 660 (Work) Fax: +91 22 2556 2912 e-mail: cmcs.tiss at gmail.com URL: www.cmcs.tiss.edu http://ourfamily2007.wordpress.com/ http://naata2003.tripod.com/index.htm From wonton_warriorprincess at yahoo.com Mon Jun 30 09:45:59 2008 From: wonton_warriorprincess at yahoo.com (hasina hasan) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:45:59 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Reader-list] TOI's "Private Treaties" In-Reply-To: <872644.36341.qm@web8614.mail.in.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <251143.1460.qm@web94711.mail.in2.yahoo.com> i nearly totally agree with that. porn sells big bucks yes but i'm not so sure we aren't all drawn to it in one way or another. i'm not a 100% sure about porn but the pornification of news is not alright. anyway i wanted to add here: i hail from the hospitality sector and had met with medianet which is toi's sibling concern, a couple years ago. around that time also was privy to the fact that one can (and must) pay one's way to being reviewed therein and in other many more bought and sought after papers. of course i was disillusioned. pop went my bubblegum hopes of there being anonymous reviewers and honest write ups. heh. anyway so with wider open eyes i chose to stick to the alternate forms of reviews..which is the people's voice. word of mouth works better and feels better than stinky treaties. insha allah i will be able to continue keeping a low profile and not approach them noisepapers ever again. --- On Sun, 29/6/08, Namrata Kakkar wrote: From: Namrata Kakkar Subject: Re: [Reader-list] TOI's "Private Treaties" To: b_a_r_u_k at yahoo.com Cc: reader-list at sarai.net Date: Sunday, 29 June, 2008, 1:30 AM Fluff is everywhere.The point is,any pornographic magazine in hard or soft copies sells, are read or viewed more than TOI or anything else, does that mean we those who aren't the porn audience or addicts, want pornography? I don't think so. --- On Tue, 24/6/08, Baruk S. Jacob wrote: > From: Baruk S. Jacob > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] TOI's "Private Treaties" > To: reader-list at sarai.net > Date: Tuesday, 24 June, 2008, 11:22 PM > > from what I've heard, this is nothin new for ToI. > If anything this is a > > corporate relationship that perfectly mirrors > arrangements that have been > > in place for years. > > thinking aloud: > > many people i meet talk of how the ToI content is full of > fluff. i have also heard these accusations of their being > driven solely by profit. what worries me, however, is the > fact that they continue to be the largest selling newspaper > in the world(?). that seems to suggest that we WANT this > fluff, that we honestly do not care about the deals our > newspapers make with business, about how the quality of the > information we receive is being compromised. > > maybe this is what we WANT. and that's really scary. > > ~baruk > > http://bottlebroke.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/> Did you know? You can CHAT without downloading messenger. Go to 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/> Explore your hobbies and interests. Go to http://in.promos.yahoo.com/groups/ From sonia.jabbar at gmail.com Mon Jun 30 10:13:18 2008 From: sonia.jabbar at gmail.com (S. Jabbar) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 10:13:18 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Amaranth Yatra Message-ID: Dear Friends, A considerably flattened and shortened (read boring) version appeared in the HT today. Best sj Politics of Pilgrimage By Sonia Jabbar Until two weeks ago, the annual pilgrimage to the Amarnath cave in the high Himalayas bore testimony to the symbiotic relationship between Kashmiri Muslims and the Hindus of the plains. The continuing communal tension, bandhs, demonstrations, stone-pelting mobs, and retaliatory fire by the CRPF and police that have taken the lives of four lives so far, threaten to overturn it. For once the Government of India cannot blame Pakistan. The credit for the chaos that recalls the vitiated atmosphere of the 1990s must firmly be placed at the feet of a few key players in the state, some of who have tried to gain dubious advantage in an election year. The first on the list of honour is the head of state, Lt. Gen. S.K. Sinha (retd.). Due to retire on June 4 this year, the octogenarian governor nonetheless insisted that the state government, in a wholly illegal move, transfer 100 acres of forest land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) of which he is the president. This was done ostensibly to build permanent accommodation for the pilgrims en route to the cave. Correspondence between the concerned departments reveal that the Forest Department had strongly objected to the transfer, citing the fragile environment and the downright illegality of taking over forest land, but the Forest and Law Ministers had pushed it through regardless. Was it cussedness, corruption or a sheer slide into dementia that prompted these gents to do what they did? One will never know, because the former Governor has retreated into a stony silence, and the ministers in question are too busy doing gymnastics to appear as the injured party. Once the information of the land transfer was leaked, and the concerned Forest Minister, Qazi Afzal of the PDP questioned, his party turned tail and placed the blame squarely on the Congress. The Congress blackmailed the PDP into obliging the governor and would have blocked the construction of the Mughal Road, which is to link the Muslims areas of Rajouri and Poonch with the Valley. Or such was the breathless claim of a personage no less than the Deputy Chief Minister, Muzaffar Hussain Beig. The Valley erupted. The Congress was accused of communalizing the atmosphere and the PDP threatened for the nth time to pull out of the government. In a stunning revelation, the PDP accusation turned out to be a complete hoax, but by then no one was listening. The Hurriyat, that had been unemployed the last few years because of Pakistan¹s internal problems suddenly woke up to an Œissue¹ and declared that the land transfer was the first move towards a demographic change in Kashmir. No one bothered to ask the venerable leaders how many million Œoutsiders¹ would fit into 100 acres of land at an altitude of 10,000 ft. Though the leaders have been at pains to state that this was not a communal issue, the fact is that neither the 700,000 kanals of land that have long been occupied by Indian security forces nor the several thousand kanals of land given to projects like the rail link to Kashmir have generated a similar response. Across the Pir Panjal in Jammu, in a move mirroring the Hurriyat, the BJP, Bajrang Dal, VHP and sundry Hindu groups organized a strike to oppose the Kashmiris. How the people of Jammu should be affected by the building of permanent structures or not on the Amarnath route no one stops to ask because passions have been inflamed and everyone is out on the streets screaming blue murder, and all of this helps thugs to substantiate their claim of being the sole custodians of Hindu interests. It takes a particularly diabolical genius to manufacture a crisis out of thin air. In a secular state the government has no business getting involved in religious affairs, whether it is meddling in Hindu pilgrimages or providing an entirely questionable Haj subsidy to Muslims‹ one that only bankrolls a bankrupt Air India. The Amarnath pilgrimage, compared to ancient Hindu tiraths is a fairly recent affair, and came into being only in the 1850s when the cave with its ice lingam was discovered by a Muslim shepherd. His descendents, together with Hindu sadhus, continued to be involved in the organization and logistics of the pilgrimage until 2001. From all accounts the pilgrimage ran smoothly for a hundred and fifty years, even at the height of militancy, until the J&K Government stepped in. If there is a case of fixing something that ain¹t broke it is this. Ever since the government took over, the SASB has been mired in controversy. In 2004, the Governor decided to extend the pilgrimage from one to two months. Why, when the ice lingam has a life of a month, don¹t ask. A second route, bulldozed through fragile mountains via Baltal from the north, 30 km shorter than the traditional route, was regularized. All kinds of new and Œimproved¹ facilities, including a helicopter service to the cave were advertised. The result was an increase in traffic from a few thousand pilgrims to 400,000. Can high altitudes sustain large populations, even if it is for a short period? The State Pollution Control Board complained bitterly about the sheer quantity of garbage and human waste that was generated during the yatra, and which flowed straight into the pristine Lidder River. The SASB¹s response to this environmental disaster of its own making was a promise to build more toilets. In 2005, on a hike in the sylvan Betab valley soon after the yatra closed, I walked straight into the lies and realized to my horror, that the 400,000 much preferred a lota and the woods to the sarkari latrines. In 2006, the mahant who had been involved in organizing the yatra all these years, Deepender Giri, resigned from the SASB in disgust, accusing the Governor of creating an artificial lingam. The ice lingam had begun to melt earlier than normal because of unseasonal heat and the unreasonable number of pilgrims entering the cave. In a move to stem the melting lingam and the howl of protest by the pilgrims who felt they¹d been cheated, the Governor, without consulting the board, had ordered bags of dry ice to be placed around the lingam. Another howl of protestŠ In all this cacophony the wise pilgrim should pause and consider the object of pilgrimage. In this case it is Shiva. Once, a long time ago a Bengali babaji who lived in the Khir Bhavani temple in Ganderbal reminded me, ŒPlaces that are associated with Vishnu are calm and peaceful. Kashmir is always in ferment because it belongs to Bhairav and Kali.¹ Shiva is the creator, preserver and destroyer. In the skandas he is constantly called upon to maintain order, to restore the balance of the universe. This he does sometimes by dancing the tandav, the dance of destruction. The wise pilgrim should ask why it is that the lingam has begun to melt. From shambhu.rahmat at gmail.com Mon Jun 30 11:01:41 2008 From: shambhu.rahmat at gmail.com (Shambhu Rahmat) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:31:41 +0600 Subject: [Reader-list] Bangladesh #12 on Failed State Index After 18 Months of Emergency Message-ID: "This report does not make any Bangladeshi happy. But I post this, with a flicker of hope that, our fellow NRBs and Urban Bangladeshi's will wake up from the dream and see the reality. The reality is that the current Army Chief controlled puppet government of Bangladesh is not the panacea and not even the better of two bad. Report after report is coming out with damning indictment of this government's performance. And it is not a matter of whether this government was given adequate time or not. After the take over of 11 January, 2007, on most of the objective indicators of a nation's well being, Bangladesh's decade long development has taken a U turn. And most most importantly this report clearly cites the failure of a designed democracy to suit a military General or an elite class." "Bangladesh took this year's hardest fall, set off in part by postponed elections, a feuding, deadlocked government, and the imposition of emergency rule that has dragged on for more than 18 months…Ironically, Bangladesh and Pakistan are the world's top two contributors of U.N. peacekeepers, often deploying troops to the very countries enjoying this year's biggest advances. Pakistanis constitute the largest national U.N. contingent operating in Liberia. More than 9,000 Bangladeshi troops wear U.N. blue helmets around the world, a third of them in the Ivory Coast. It is a reminder that while helping to maintain peace abroad might be an attractive national project, keeping the peace at home can be even more elusive." Bangladesh 2008 — A failing grade. Posted by Rumi under Bangladesh , Democracy http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/2008/06/29/bangladesh-2008-a-failing-grade Somalia 114.2 Sudan 113.0 Zimbabwe 112.5 Chad 110.9 Iraq 110.6 D. R. Congo 106.7 Afghanistan 105.4 Cote d'Ivoire 104.6 Pakistan 103.8 Central African Republic 103.7 Guinea 101.8 Bangladesh 100.3 Burma 100.3 Haiti 99.3 North Korea 97.7 Ethiopia 96.1 [ Graph: The Fund For Peace, Washington, D.C.] The above is the list of the worst performers in the The failed States Index 2008 recently published jointly by US based Foreign Policy Magazine and The Fund For peace. According to this ranking, Bangladesh in the year 2007-2008 had the fastest decline towards a failed nationhood. Bangladesh was 17th worst in 2005, improved to 19th in 2006 but started to decline in 2007 when she ranked 16th and this year Bangladesh ranked 12th, a tie with Burma. Countries who traditionally fared much worse than us, have improved and passed us in last two years. Notable among these are Haiti, Rwanda or Sierra Leon. The foreign policy magazines clearly identifies the states with significant improvement, In 2007, several countries that have long served as the poster children for failed states managed to achieve some unlikely gains. The Ivory Coast, which unraveled in 2002 after a flawed election divided north and south, experienced a year of relative calm thanks to a new peace agreement. Liberia, the most improved country in last year's index, continued to make gains due to a renewed anticorruption effort and the resettlement of nearly 100,000 refugees. And Haiti, long considered the basket case of the Western Hemisphere, stepped back from the edge, with moderate improvements in security in the capital's violence-ravaged slums. But the report was alarmed at the fast decline of Bangladesh as it points out, Bangladesh took this year's hardest fall, set off in part by postponed elections, a feuding, deadlocked government, and the imposition of emergency rule that has dragged on for more than 18 months… A very interesting observation by the Foreign Policy magazine was the irony of our contribution to UN peacekeeping force. Ironically, Bangladesh and Pakistan are the world's top two contributors of U.N. peacekeepers, often deploying troops to the very countries enjoying this year's biggest advances. Pakistanis constitute the largest national U.N. contingent operating in Liberia. More than 9,000 Bangladeshi troops wear U.N. blue helmets around the world, a third of them in the Ivory Coast. It is a reminder that while helping to maintain peace abroad might be an attractive national project, keeping the peace at home can be even more elusive. Foreign policy magazine emphasizes, very clearly, the need of a vibrant and independent Parliament and decries the role of customized rubber stamp parliament our de facto ruler in planning on imposing on our nation. Every autocrat's wish list probably includes having a country rich in resources, a public prone to hero worship, and a rubber-stamp parliament. But, when it comes to legislatures, dictators should be careful what they wish for: The world's most vulnerable states are also home to the weakest parliaments, according to the Parliamentary Powers Index, a ranking of these bodies based on factors such as the power to declare war, impeach the executive, and establish veto-proof laws. Leaders most adept at legislative manipulation often simply extend their own rule; last year, Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev persuaded his pliant parliament to declare him president for life. Others, like Burma's military junta, simply ban the legislature from convening altogether. But these results should send a clear message to the world's autocrats: Sometimes, it can be a good thing if the House wins. It is not a happy thing to blog about. This report does not make any Bangladeshi happy. But I post this, with a flicker of hope that, our fellow NRBs and Urban Bangladeshi's will wake up from the dream and see the reality. The reality is that the current Army Chief controlled puppet government of Bangladesh is not the panacea and not even the better of two bad. Report after report is coming out with damning indictment of this government's performance. And it is not a matter of whether this government was given adequate time or not. After the take over of 11 January, 2007, on most of the objective indicators of a nation's well being, Bangladesh's decade long development has taken a U turn. And most most importantly this report clearly cites the failure of a designed democracy to suit a military General or an elite class. This report has clearly shown that a free, strong, vibrant and fairly elected parliament is vital to nations well being. But with great apprehension I suspect that we are heading towards a direction away from a free, strong, vibrant and fairly elected parliament. At least these rhetoric's of army chief General Moeen U Ahmed, "If they want to make trouble, let them" ; or ""You can judge the people of a nation by the type of leaders they select," etc. make us fear that we may be heading towards a rubber stamp 'Yes General' Parliament. From rashneek at gmail.com Mon Jun 30 11:30:25 2008 From: rashneek at gmail.com (rashneek kher) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 11:30:25 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Amaranth Yatra In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <13df7c120806292300m2fcc5725o7302bbb49e6fc65b@mail.gmail.com> Dear Sonia, I am afraid about your understanding of the "recentness" of the Amarnath Piligrimmage is far from correct.Please do read Rajatarangni and you will know that this was a piligrimmage even in ancient times.It was called Amreshwar then.Just go the appendix of the Stein's translation to see how old the piligrimmage is. I cannot say with precision who started this new idea of it being a recent pilgrimmage but it somehow seems to suit the Kashmiriyat wadis to say that.It was only re-discovered in 1860 by the Malik shephered. While I agree that the piligrimmage should be restored to its 15 days time and no more,I cannot cannot understand how 100 acres of land could have changed the demography of Kashmir.Strange as it may seem the very people who by driving away almost the entire Pandit population have changed the demography seem to be crying foul now. It is also pertinent to note that while Vitasta was used to receiving the nirmal(the water post the pooja mixed with flowers) it was Sheikh Abdullah who built all the toilets on the Viatasta banks so that the Hindus could no longer pray or do Sandhya(the prayer rituals) on the banks of the Vitasta.Did that not pollute,I wonder.The Anchar and Nallah Maer were reduced to garbage dumbs and so were the abodes of Mangleshwar Bhairava and Nandkeshwar Bhairwa(in small ponds)so that somehow their sanctity could be defiled.In process not just the environment but entire Kashmir got polluted.Eve Dal is a pale shadow of its past.Who has occupied it?Certainly not the SASB or any Indian Agency or the Army. The very leaders who are now at the forefront of this agitation including the venrable Geelani Saab are the biggest encorachers of land in Kashmir.Why did they not speak out when thousnads of kanals of Forest land were being cleaned over Shopian and Bandipore,I wonder.? The Lingam is melting because even the Lord is sick of us "Kashmiris".Meanwhile "the curse of Lakshmi lives on" Love Rashneek On 6/30/08, S. Jabbar wrote: > > Dear Friends, > A considerably flattened and shortened (read boring) version appeared in > the > HT today. > Best > sj > > Politics of Pilgrimage > > By Sonia Jabbar > > Until two weeks ago, the annual pilgrimage to the Amarnath cave in the high > Himalayas bore testimony to the symbiotic relationship between Kashmiri > Muslims and the Hindus of the plains. The continuing communal tension, > bandhs, demonstrations, stone-pelting mobs, and retaliatory fire by the > CRPF > and police that have taken the lives of four lives so far, threaten to > overturn it. > > For once the Government of India cannot blame Pakistan. The credit for the > chaos that recalls the vitiated atmosphere of the 1990s must firmly be > placed at the feet of a few key players in the state, some of who have > tried > to gain dubious advantage in an election year. > > The first on the list of honour is the head of state, Lt. Gen. S.K. Sinha > (retd.). Due to retire on June 4 this year, the octogenarian governor > nonetheless insisted that the state government, in a wholly illegal move, > transfer 100 acres of forest land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) > of which he is the president. This was done ostensibly to build permanent > accommodation for the pilgrims en route to the cave. > > Correspondence between the concerned departments reveal that the Forest > Department had strongly objected to the transfer, citing the fragile > environment and the downright illegality of taking over forest land, but > the > Forest and Law Ministers had pushed it through regardless. Was it > cussedness, corruption or a sheer slide into dementia that prompted these > gents to do what they did? One will never know, because the former > Governor > has retreated into a stony silence, and the ministers in question are too > busy doing gymnastics to appear as the injured party. > > Once the information of the land transfer was leaked, and the concerned > Forest Minister, Qazi Afzal of the PDP questioned, his party turned tail > and > placed the blame squarely on the Congress. The Congress blackmailed the > PDP > into obliging the governor and would have blocked the construction of the > Mughal Road, which is to link the Muslims areas of Rajouri and Poonch with > the Valley. Or such was the breathless claim of a personage no less than > the Deputy Chief Minister, Muzaffar Hussain Beig. The Valley erupted. The > Congress was accused of communalizing the atmosphere and the PDP threatened > for the nth time to pull out of the government. In a stunning revelation, > the PDP accusation turned out to be a complete hoax, but by then no one was > listening. > > The Hurriyat, that had been unemployed the last few years because of > Pakistan¹s internal problems suddenly woke up to an Œissue¹ and declared > that the land transfer was the first move towards a demographic change in > Kashmir. No one bothered to ask the venerable leaders how many million > Œoutsiders¹ would fit into 100 acres of land at an altitude of 10,000 ft. > Though the leaders have been at pains to state that this was not a communal > issue, the fact is that neither the 700,000 kanals of land that have long > been occupied by Indian security forces nor the several thousand kanals of > land given to projects like the rail link to Kashmir have generated a > similar response. > > Across the Pir Panjal in Jammu, in a move mirroring the Hurriyat, the BJP, > Bajrang Dal, VHP and sundry Hindu groups organized a strike to oppose the > Kashmiris. How the people of Jammu should be affected by the building of > permanent structures or not on the Amarnath route no one stops to ask > because passions have been inflamed and everyone is out on the streets > screaming blue murder, and all of this helps thugs to substantiate their > claim of being the sole custodians of Hindu interests. > > It takes a particularly diabolical genius to manufacture a crisis out of > thin air. In a secular state the government has no business getting > involved in religious affairs, whether it is meddling in Hindu pilgrimages > or providing an entirely questionable Haj subsidy to Muslims‹ one that only > bankrolls a bankrupt Air India. > > The Amarnath pilgrimage, compared to ancient Hindu tiraths is a fairly > recent affair, and came into being only in the 1850s when the cave with its > ice lingam was discovered by a Muslim shepherd. His descendents, together > with Hindu sadhus, continued to be involved in the organization and > logistics of the pilgrimage until 2001. From all accounts the pilgrimage > ran > smoothly for a hundred and fifty years, even at the height of militancy, > until the J&K Government stepped in. > > If there is a case of fixing something that ain¹t broke it is this. Ever > since the government took over, the SASB has been mired in controversy. In > 2004, the Governor decided to extend the pilgrimage from one to two months. > Why, when the ice lingam has a life of a month, don¹t ask. A second route, > bulldozed through fragile mountains via Baltal from the north, 30 km > shorter > than the traditional route, was regularized. All kinds of new and > Œimproved¹ > facilities, including a helicopter service to the cave were advertised. The > result was an increase in traffic from a few thousand pilgrims to 400,000. > > Can high altitudes sustain large populations, even if it is for a short > period? The State Pollution Control Board complained bitterly about the > sheer quantity of garbage and human waste that was generated during the > yatra, and which flowed straight into the pristine Lidder River. The SASB¹s > response to this environmental disaster of its own making was a promise to > build more toilets. In 2005, on a hike in the sylvan Betab valley soon > after > the yatra closed, I walked straight into the lies and realized to my > horror, > that the 400,000 much preferred a lota and the woods to the sarkari > latrines. > > In 2006, the mahant who had been involved in organizing the yatra all these > years, Deepender Giri, resigned from the SASB in disgust, accusing the > Governor of creating an artificial lingam. The ice lingam had begun to > melt > earlier than normal because of unseasonal heat and the unreasonable number > of pilgrims entering the cave. In a move to stem the melting lingam and > the > howl of protest by the pilgrims who felt they¹d been cheated, the Governor, > without consulting the board, had ordered bags of dry ice to be placed > around the lingam. Another howl of protestŠ > > In all this cacophony the wise pilgrim should pause and consider the object > of pilgrimage. In this case it is Shiva. Once, a long time ago a Bengali > babaji who lived in the Khir Bhavani temple in Ganderbal reminded me, > ŒPlaces that are associated with Vishnu are calm and peaceful. Kashmir is > always in ferment because it belongs to Bhairav and Kali.¹ Shiva is the > creator, preserver and destroyer. In the skandas he is constantly called > upon to maintain order, to restore the balance of the universe. This he > does > sometimes by dancing the tandav, the dance of destruction. The wise > pilgrim > should ask why it is that the lingam has begun to melt. > > > > > > > > > > _________________________________________ > 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 Wandhama Massacre-The Forgotten Human Tragedy http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com From sonia.jabbar at gmail.com Mon Jun 30 13:08:17 2008 From: sonia.jabbar at gmail.com (S. Jabbar) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:08:17 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Amaranth Yatra In-Reply-To: <13df7c120806292300m2fcc5725o7302bbb49e6fc65b@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Dear Rashneek, It seems that the truth is located somewhere between what you said and what I said. I have located and now quote from the relevant section from Aurel Stein’s notes on the Ancient Geography of Kashmir: ...At its northern end and close to the great snowy peak..is the tirtha of AMARESHVARA or Amarnath known by its Ks. name as Amburnath...it is now the most popular of Kasmirian pilgrimage places... Judging from the scanty references made to this Tirtha in the Rajatarangini and the Nilmata, it appears doubtful whether it could have enjoyed in old times quite such great celebrity as now... Lawrence writing a good two decades earlier speaks of the Malik family of Batkot and their share of the offerings (p.298): The offerings of the cave are divided into three parts— one goes to the Lal Gir Sadhu, one to the Pandits of Mach Bawan, and one to the Maliks of Batkot. It seems unlikely to me that the Lal Gir Sadhu or the Pandits of Mach Bawan would have agreed to share in the offerings if the Maliks had been mere transporters. I think their claim of discovering the cave is not simply a fiction of Kashmiriyat. Taking Stein’s work into account and that of Walter Lawrence I’d hazard a guess that the yatra was a minor one in the days of the Rajatarangini and over time eventually fell into disuse. Once the cave was discovered in the mid-19th c by the Maliks the yatra benefited from royal (Dogra) patronage — Lawrence has an amusing anecdote of Maharaja Ranbir Singh racing to reach the shrine before the sadhus, and the sadhus not being amused— and the yatra grew to become a regular feature. Whatever its provenance, the point is that the yatra has become a political tool for all groups concerned and that fragile environments cannot support wanton pollution, whether it is the Lidder or the Jhelum or the Dal Lake. Best regards sj On 6/30/08 11:30 AM, "rashneek kher" wrote: > Dear Sonia, > > I am afraid about your understanding of the "recentness" of the Amarnath > Piligrimmage is far from correct.Please do read Rajatarangni and you will know > that this was a piligrimmage even in ancient times.It was called Amreshwar > then.Just go the appendix of the Stein's translation to see how old the > piligrimmage is. > I cannot say with precision who started this new idea of it being a recent > pilgrimmage but it somehow seems to suit the Kashmiriyat wadis to say that.It > was only re-discovered in 1860 by the Malik shephered. > While I agree that the piligrimmage should be restored to its 15 days time and > no more,I cannot cannot understand how 100 acres of land could have changed > the demography of Kashmir.Strange as it may seem the very people who by > driving away almost the entire Pandit population have changed the demography > seem to be crying foul now. > It is also pertinent to note that while Vitasta was used to receiving the > nirmal(the water post the pooja mixed with flowers) it was Sheikh Abdullah who > built all the toilets on the Viatasta banks so that the Hindus could no longer > pray or do Sandhya(the prayer rituals) on the banks of the Vitasta.Did that > not pollute,I wonder.The Anchar and Nallah Maer were reduced to garbage dumbs > and so were the abodes of Mangleshwar Bhairava and Nandkeshwar Bhairwa(in > small ponds)so that somehow their sanctity could be defiled.In process not > just the environment but entire Kashmir got polluted.Eve Dal is a pale shadow > of its past.Who has occupied it?Certainly not the SASB or any Indian Agency or > the Army. > The very leaders who are now at the forefront of this agitation including the > venrable Geelani Saab are the biggest encorachers of land in Kashmir.Why did > they not speak out when thousnads of kanals of Forest land were being cleaned > over Shopian and Bandipore,I wonder.? > The Lingam is melting because even the Lord is sick of us > "Kashmiris".Meanwhile "the curse of Lakshmi lives on" > > Love > > Rashneek > > > > On 6/30/08, S. Jabbar wrote: >> Dear Friends, >> A considerably flattened and shortened (read boring) version appeared in the >> HT today. >> Best >> sj >> >> Politics of Pilgrimage >> >> By Sonia Jabbar >> >> Until two weeks ago, the annual pilgrimage to the Amarnath cave in the high >> Himalayas bore testimony to the symbiotic relationship between Kashmiri >> Muslims and the Hindus of the plains. The continuing communal tension, >> bandhs, demonstrations, stone-pelting mobs, and retaliatory fire by the CRPF >> and police that have taken the lives of four lives so far, threaten to >> overturn it. >> >> For once the Government of India cannot blame Pakistan. The credit for the >> chaos that recalls the vitiated atmosphere of the 1990s must firmly be >> placed at the feet of a few key players in the state, some of who have tried >> to gain dubious advantage in an election year. >> >> The first on the list of honour is the head of state, Lt. Gen. S.K. Sinha >> (retd.). Due to retire on June 4 this year, the octogenarian governor >> nonetheless insisted that the state government, in a wholly illegal move, >> transfer 100 acres of forest land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) >> of which he is the president. This was done ostensibly to build permanent >> accommodation for the pilgrims en route to the cave. >> >> Correspondence between the concerned departments reveal that the Forest >> Department had strongly objected to the transfer, citing the fragile >> environment and the downright illegality of taking over forest land, but the >> Forest and Law Ministers had pushed it through regardless. Was it >> cussedness, corruption or a sheer slide into dementia that prompted these >> gents to do what they did? One will never know, because the former Governor >> has retreated into a stony silence, and the ministers in question are too >> busy doing gymnastics to appear as the injured party. >> >> Once the information of the land transfer was leaked, and the concerned >> Forest Minister, Qazi Afzal of the PDP questioned, his party turned tail and >> placed the blame squarely on the Congress. The Congress blackmailed the PDP >> into obliging the governor and would have blocked the construction of the >> Mughal Road, which is to link the Muslims areas of Rajouri and Poonch with >> the Valley. Or such was the breathless claim of a personage no less than >> the Deputy Chief Minister, Muzaffar Hussain Beig. The Valley erupted. The >> Congress was accused of communalizing the atmosphere and the PDP threatened >> for the nth time to pull out of the government. In a stunning revelation, >> the PDP accusation turned out to be a complete hoax, but by then no one was >> listening. >> >> The Hurriyat, that had been unemployed the last few years because of >> Pakistan¹s internal problems suddenly woke up to an Œissue¹ and declared >> that the land transfer was the first move towards a demographic change in >> Kashmir. No one bothered to ask the venerable leaders how many million >> Œoutsiders¹ would fit into 100 acres of land at an altitude of 10,000 ft. >> Though the leaders have been at pains to state that this was not a communal >> issue, the fact is that neither the 700,000 kanals of land that have long >> been occupied by Indian security forces nor the several thousand kanals of >> land given to projects like the rail link to Kashmir have generated a >> similar response. >> >> Across the Pir Panjal in Jammu, in a move mirroring the Hurriyat, the BJP, >> Bajrang Dal, VHP and sundry Hindu groups organized a strike to oppose the >> Kashmiris. How the people of Jammu should be affected by the building of >> permanent structures or not on the Amarnath route no one stops to ask >> because passions have been inflamed and everyone is out on the streets >> screaming blue murder, and all of this helps thugs to substantiate their >> claim of being the sole custodians of Hindu interests. >> >> It takes a particularly diabolical genius to manufacture a crisis out of >> thin air. In a secular state the government has no business getting >> involved in religious affairs, whether it is meddling in Hindu pilgrimages >> or providing an entirely questionable Haj subsidy to Muslims‹ one that only >> bankrolls a bankrupt Air India. >> >> The Amarnath pilgrimage, compared to ancient Hindu tiraths is a fairly >> recent affair, and came into being only in the 1850s when the cave with its >> ice lingam was discovered by a Muslim shepherd. His descendents, together >> with Hindu sadhus, continued to be involved in the organization and >> logistics of the pilgrimage until 2001. From all accounts the pilgrimage ran >> smoothly for a hundred and fifty years, even at the height of militancy, >> until the J&K Government stepped in. >> >> If there is a case of fixing something that ain¹t broke it is this. Ever >> since the government took over, the SASB has been mired in controversy. In >> 2004, the Governor decided to extend the pilgrimage from one to two months. >> Why, when the ice lingam has a life of a month, don¹t ask. A second route, >> bulldozed through fragile mountains via Baltal from the north, 30 km shorter >> than the traditional route, was regularized. All kinds of new and Œimproved¹ >> facilities, including a helicopter service to the cave were advertised. The >> result was an increase in traffic from a few thousand pilgrims to 400,000. >> >> Can high altitudes sustain large populations, even if it is for a short >> period? The State Pollution Control Board complained bitterly about the >> sheer quantity of garbage and human waste that was generated during the >> yatra, and which flowed straight into the pristine Lidder River. The SASB¹s >> response to this environmental disaster of its own making was a promise to >> build more toilets. In 2005, on a hike in the sylvan Betab valley soon after >> the yatra closed, I walked straight into the lies and realized to my horror, >> that the 400,000 much preferred a lota and the woods to the sarkari >> latrines. >> >> In 2006, the mahant who had been involved in organizing the yatra all these >> years, Deepender Giri, resigned from the SASB in disgust, accusing the >> Governor of creating an artificial lingam. The ice lingam had begun to melt >> earlier than normal because of unseasonal heat and the unreasonable number >> of pilgrims entering the cave. In a move to stem the melting lingam and the >> howl of protest by the pilgrims who felt they¹d been cheated, the Governor, >> without consulting the board, had ordered bags of dry ice to be placed >> around the lingam. Another howl of protestŠ >> >> In all this cacophony the wise pilgrim should pause and consider the object >> of pilgrimage. In this case it is Shiva. Once, a long time ago a Bengali >> babaji who lived in the Khir Bhavani temple in Ganderbal reminded me, >> ŒPlaces that are associated with Vishnu are calm and peaceful. Kashmir is >> always in ferment because it belongs to Bhairav and Kali.¹ Shiva is the >> creator, preserver and destroyer. In the skandas he is constantly called >> upon to maintain order, to restore the balance of the universe. This he does >> sometimes by dancing the tandav, the dance of destruction. The wise pilgrim >> should ask why it is that the lingam has begun to melt. >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> _________________________________________ >> 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 rashneek at gmail.com Mon Jun 30 13:15:23 2008 From: rashneek at gmail.com (rashneek kher) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:15:23 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Amaranth Yatra In-Reply-To: References: <13df7c120806292300m2fcc5725o7302bbb49e6fc65b@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <13df7c120806300045h79216f14jc85cb88f8e8bd9f2@mail.gmail.com> Dear Sonia, I must say that was quick. I did not say that Malik did not discover it.Infact if you read you will notice,I wrote ,It was rediscovered by the Malik shepherd. Yes it has not just been politicised but communalised too.... Sad but true... Best Rashneek On 6/30/08, S. Jabbar wrote: > > Dear Rashneek, > > It seems that the truth is located somewhere between what you said and what > I said. > > I have located and now quote from the relevant section from Aurel Stein's > notes on the Ancient Geography of Kashmir: > > ...At its northern end and close to the great snowy peak..is the tirtha of > AMARESHVARA or Amarnath known by its Ks. name as Amburnath...it is now the > most popular of Kasmirian pilgrimage places... Judging from the scanty > references made to this Tirtha in the Rajatarangini and the Nilmata, it > appears doubtful whether it could have enjoyed in old times quite such great > celebrity as now... > > Lawrence writing a good two decades earlier speaks of the Malik family of > Batkot and their share of the offerings (p.298): > > The offerings of the cave are divided into three parts— one goes to the Lal > Gir Sadhu, one to the Pandits of Mach Bawan, and one to the Maliks of > Batkot. > > It seems unlikely to me that the Lal Gir Sadhu or the Pandits of Mach Bawan > would have agreed to share in the offerings if the Maliks had been mere > transporters. I think their claim of discovering the cave is not simply a > fiction of Kashmiriyat. > > Taking Stein's work into account and that of Walter Lawrence I'd hazard a > guess that the yatra was a minor one in the days of the Rajatarangini and > over time eventually fell into disuse. Once the cave was discovered in the > mid-19th c by the Maliks the yatra benefited from royal (Dogra) patronage — > Lawrence has an amusing anecdote of Maharaja Ranbir Singh racing to reach > the shrine before the sadhus, and the sadhus not being amused— and the yatra > grew to become a regular feature. > > Whatever its provenance, the point is that the yatra has become a political > tool for all groups concerned and that fragile environments cannot support > wanton pollution, whether it is the Lidder or the Jhelum or the Dal Lake. > > > Best regards > sj > > > > > > > > On 6/30/08 11:30 AM, "rashneek kher" wrote: > > Dear Sonia, > > I am afraid about your understanding of the "recentness" of the Amarnath > Piligrimmage is far from correct.Please do read Rajatarangni and you will > know that this was a piligrimmage even in ancient times.It was called > Amreshwar then.Just go the appendix of the Stein's translation to see how > old the piligrimmage is. > I cannot say with precision who started this new idea of it being a recent > pilgrimmage but it somehow seems to suit the Kashmiriyat wadis to say > that.It was only re-discovered in 1860 by the Malik shephered. > While I agree that the piligrimmage should be restored to its 15 days time > and no more,I cannot cannot understand how 100 acres of land could have > changed the demography of Kashmir.Strange as it may seem the very people who > by driving away almost the entire Pandit population have changed the > demography seem to be crying foul now. > It is also pertinent to note that while Vitasta was used to receiving the > nirmal(the water post the pooja mixed with flowers) it was Sheikh Abdullah > who built all the toilets on the Viatasta banks so that the Hindus could no > longer pray or do Sandhya(the prayer rituals) on the banks of the > Vitasta.Did that not pollute,I wonder.The Anchar and Nallah Maer were > reduced to garbage dumbs and so were the abodes of Mangleshwar Bhairava and > Nandkeshwar Bhairwa(in small ponds)so that somehow their sanctity could be > defiled.In process not just the environment but entire Kashmir got > polluted.Eve Dal is a pale shadow of its past.Who has occupied it?Certainly > not the SASB or any Indian Agency or the Army. > The very leaders who are now at the forefront of this agitation including > the venrable Geelani Saab are the biggest encorachers of land in Kashmir.Why > did they not speak out when thousnads of kanals of Forest land were being > cleaned over Shopian and Bandipore,I wonder.? > The Lingam is melting because even the Lord is sick of us > "Kashmiris".Meanwhile "the curse of Lakshmi lives on" > > Love > > Rashneek > > > > On 6/30/08, *S. Jabbar* wrote: > > Dear Friends, > A considerably flattened and shortened (read boring) version appeared in > the > HT today. > Best > sj > > Politics of Pilgrimage > > By Sonia Jabbar > > Until two weeks ago, the annual pilgrimage to the Amarnath cave in the high > Himalayas bore testimony to the symbiotic relationship between Kashmiri > Muslims and the Hindus of the plains. The continuing communal tension, > bandhs, demonstrations, stone-pelting mobs, and retaliatory fire by the > CRPF > and police that have taken the lives of four lives so far, threaten to > overturn it. > > For once the Government of India cannot blame Pakistan. The credit for the > chaos that recalls the vitiated atmosphere of the 1990s must firmly be > placed at the feet of a few key players in the state, some of who have > tried > to gain dubious advantage in an election year. > > The first on the list of honour is the head of state, Lt. Gen. S.K. Sinha > (retd.). Due to retire on June 4 this year, the octogenarian governor > nonetheless insisted that the state government, in a wholly illegal move, > transfer 100 acres of forest land to the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) > of which he is the president. This was done ostensibly to build permanent > accommodation for the pilgrims en route to the cave. > > Correspondence between the concerned departments reveal that the Forest > Department had strongly objected to the transfer, citing the fragile > environment and the downright illegality of taking over forest land, but > the > Forest and Law Ministers had pushed it through regardless. Was it > cussedness, corruption or a sheer slide into dementia that prompted these > gents to do what they did? One will never know, because the former > Governor > has retreated into a stony silence, and the ministers in question are too > busy doing gymnastics to appear as the injured party. > > Once the information of the land transfer was leaked, and the concerned > Forest Minister, Qazi Afzal of the PDP questioned, his party turned tail > and > placed the blame squarely on the Congress. The Congress blackmailed the > PDP > into obliging the governor and would have blocked the construction of the > Mughal Road, which is to link the Muslims areas of Rajouri and Poonch with > the Valley. Or such was the breathless claim of a personage no less than > the Deputy Chief Minister, Muzaffar Hussain Beig. The Valley erupted. The > Congress was accused of communalizing the atmosphere and the PDP threatened > for the nth time to pull out of the government. In a stunning revelation, > the PDP accusation turned out to be a complete hoax, but by then no one was > listening. > > The Hurriyat, that had been unemployed the last few years because of > Pakistan¹s internal problems suddenly woke up to an Œissue¹ and declared > that the land transfer was the first move towards a demographic change in > Kashmir. No one bothered to ask the venerable leaders how many million > Œoutsiders¹ would fit into 100 acres of land at an altitude of 10,000 ft. > Though the leaders have been at pains to state that this was not a communal > issue, the fact is that neither the 700,000 kanals of land that have long > been occupied by Indian security forces nor the several thousand kanals of > land given to projects like the rail link to Kashmir have generated a > similar response. > > Across the Pir Panjal in Jammu, in a move mirroring the Hurriyat, the BJP, > Bajrang Dal, VHP and sundry Hindu groups organized a strike to oppose the > Kashmiris. How the people of Jammu should be affected by the building of > permanent structures or not on the Amarnath route no one stops to ask > because passions have been inflamed and everyone is out on the streets > screaming blue murder, and all of this helps thugs to substantiate their > claim of being the sole custodians of Hindu interests. > > It takes a particularly diabolical genius to manufacture a crisis out of > thin air. In a secular state the government has no business getting > involved in religious affairs, whether it is meddling in Hindu pilgrimages > or providing an entirely questionable Haj subsidy to Muslims‹ one that only > bankrolls a bankrupt Air India. > > The Amarnath pilgrimage, compared to ancient Hindu tiraths is a fairly > recent affair, and came into being only in the 1850s when the cave with its > ice lingam was discovered by a Muslim shepherd. His descendents, together > with Hindu sadhus, continued to be involved in the organization and > logistics of the pilgrimage until 2001. From all accounts the pilgrimage > ran > smoothly for a hundred and fifty years, even at the height of militancy, > until the J&K Government stepped in. > > If there is a case of fixing something that ain¹t broke it is this. Ever > since the government took over, the SASB has been mired in controversy. In > 2004, the Governor decided to extend the pilgrimage from one to two months. > Why, when the ice lingam has a life of a month, don¹t ask. A second route, > bulldozed through fragile mountains via Baltal from the north, 30 km > shorter > than the traditional route, was regularized. All kinds of new and > Œimproved¹ > facilities, including a helicopter service to the cave were advertised. The > result was an increase in traffic from a few thousand pilgrims to 400,000. > > Can high altitudes sustain large populations, even if it is for a short > period? The State Pollution Control Board complained bitterly about the > sheer quantity of garbage and human waste that was generated during the > yatra, and which flowed straight into the pristine Lidder River. The SASB¹s > response to this environmental disaster of its own making was a promise to > build more toilets. In 2005, on a hike in the sylvan Betab valley soon > after > the yatra closed, I walked straight into the lies and realized to my > horror, > that the 400,000 much preferred a lota and the woods to the sarkari > latrines. > > In 2006, the mahant who had been involved in organizing the yatra all these > years, Deepender Giri, resigned from the SASB in disgust, accusing the > Governor of creating an artificial lingam. The ice lingam had begun to > melt > earlier than normal because of unseasonal heat and the unreasonable number > of pilgrims entering the cave. In a move to stem the melting lingam and > the > howl of protest by the pilgrims who felt they¹d been cheated, the Governor, > without consulting the board, had ordered bags of dry ice to be placed > around the lingam. Another howl of protestŠ > > In all this cacophony the wise pilgrim should pause and consider the object > of pilgrimage. In this case it is Shiva. Once, a long time ago a Bengali > babaji who lived in the Khir Bhavani temple in Ganderbal reminded me, > ŒPlaces that are associated with Vishnu are calm and peaceful. Kashmir is > always in ferment because it belongs to Bhairav and Kali.¹ Shiva is the > creator, preserver and destroyer. In the skandas he is constantly called > upon to maintain order, to restore the balance of the universe. This he > does > sometimes by dancing the tandav, the dance of destruction. The wise > pilgrim > should ask why it is that the lingam has begun to melt. > > > > > > > > > > _________________________________________ > 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 Wandhama Massacre-The Forgotten Human Tragedy http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com From kauladityaraj at gmail.com Mon Jun 30 13:21:44 2008 From: kauladityaraj at gmail.com (Aditya Raj Kaul) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:21:44 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] =?windows-1252?q?What_Mughal_Road_didn=92t_that_shr?= =?windows-1252?q?ine_land-transfer_plans_did_-_Kavita_Suri?= In-Reply-To: <6353c690806300032t1cb72c82oc88b0ac7998bb1ef@mail.gmail.com> References: <6353c690806300032t1cb72c82oc88b0ac7998bb1ef@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <6353c690806300051o2877bf0egdfc7cabac061e3be@mail.gmail.com> The Truth Behind *What Mughal Road didn't that shrine land-transfer plans did* ** http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=2&id=210771&usrsess=1 Kavita Suri JAMMU, June 29: Three years ago, when the then chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mufti Mohammed Sayeed decided to revive the centuries-old Mughal Road in the region, no one in Kashmir even uttered a single word on the massive destruction of environment in Pir Panjal mountain ranges of the Himalayas. The revival of the old Mughal Road which was once used by the great Mughals to travel to Kashmir from Lahore and its subsequent reconstruction ordered by Mufti Sayeed not only witnessed destruction of over 10,000 trees and 26 wild life sanctuaries but also fragmented the habitat of the highly-endangered wild Markhor goat. India is estimated to have a total population of only 300-200 of this species, which is found in southwest Kashmir's Hirpora, Lachipora and Limber wildlife sanctuaries falling on Mughal Road. Surprisingly, all the political parties remained silent over the issue of degradation of environment and destruction of the wild life sanctuaries due to the work on the Mughal Road. But when the Jammu and Kashmir government recently decided to transfer 40 hectares of forest land at Baltal and Domail for the proposed camping sites located on the right side of the Sindh River for the purpose of constructing temporary shelters for the Amarnath pilgrims, the political parties in Kashmir have opposed it tooth and nail on the pretext of environment degradation. The issue had deeply polarised the entire state. Politicians and other organisations in Jammu see it as a deliberate move to suppress Hindu identity and communalisation in the region. "When 10,000 trees were cut and the habitat of the wild Markhor destroyed for the reconstruction of the Mughal Road, no one said anything but when SASB wanted to set up temporary shelters for two months only, there was an uproar," Dr Nirmal Singh, member, national executive & former state president of the BJP said. The PDP, National Conference and other parties were playing with fire by communalising the whole issue of the Amarnath Yatra and opposing the decision to transfer 800 kanals of land to SASB for creating facilities for pilgrims, he added. To prevent environmental destruction due to the work on the Mughal Road, a Kashmir-based NGO, Bio-diversity Conservation Trust had gone to Supreme Court arguing that construction work would affect the region's biodiversity and the movement of wild animals, especially the Markhor goat. The Wild Markhor is on IUCN's Red List of highly endangered wild animals and is also named in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and the Jammu Kashmir Wildlife Protection Act, 1978 (amended in 2002). But in the case of SASB, the transfer of 800 kanals (40 hectares) of forest land was no issue at all. The Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board had assured the government that it would take all possible environmental safeguards in consultation with the State Pollution Control Board to ensure that no damage is caused to the ecology of the area. "The SASB camping sites did not involve any area of Thajwas Wild Life Sanctuary, which is located on the left side of River Sindh. The Shrine Board had to use prefabricated structures for the camping purpose of the pilgrims and would not have gone for construction of permanent structures," the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad had pointed out. Raising a few pertinent questions, Dr Singh asked as to why no hue and cry was raised when the Mufti government transferred over 5,000 kanals of forest land to Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University at Rajouri which also affected the environment badly. No one uttered a single word then. "Besides, Sharda Peeth university project was scuttled whereas government gave free land to Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University project and also free land was transferred to Islamic University at Awantipora in South Kashmir," adds Dr Agnishekhar, president, Panun Kashmir. People in Jammu believe that all this points to the complete cleansing of the last vestiges of Hindu presence in the valley. "The protagonists of this vicious tirade dub the holy Amarnath Yatra as a cultural invasion of Kashmir affecting its ecology, cultural identity and demography. Whatever ecological damage Kashmir has suffered is as a result of illegal felling of trees by land mafia in connivance with corrupt administration over the years," said Dr Agnishekher adding the systematic reclamation of water bodies and continuous flow of waste materials into lakes like the famous Dal lake and uncontrolled construction activity has resulted in much more ecological damage than the Amarnath pilgrimage. "An environmental impact assessment report to the Jammu and Kashmir Pollution Control Board regarding the Mughal Road clearly said that it would cut through 67 hectares of the Hirpora sanctuary disturbing the habitat of the Markhor. The cutting of many trees would have a cascading effect on the associated biota. Besides, traffic on the road may cause death of many animals that utilise verge habitats or try to cross the road. The presence of motor vehicles may introduce the potential for contamination of soil, air and water adjacent to the road and in the case of surface water, well beyond the immediate surroundings. Chronic contamination may become a problem for animal species, especially those at the top of the food chain.why there was no public outcry then," asks Dr Agnishekher. From peter.ksmtf at gmail.com Mon Jun 30 13:23:31 2008 From: peter.ksmtf at gmail.com (T Peter) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:23:31 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Changes in draft CZM guidelines sought Message-ID: <3457ce860806300053u2ba0645cmb705f5b927ff7392@mail.gmail.com> Changes in draft CZM guidelines sought Date:28/06/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/28/stories/2008062859090400.htm Special Correspondent Move aimed at ensuring that fishing communities are not hit -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call to retain 'No Development Zones' Consultations with trade unions held -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The State government has sought comprehensive changes in the draft Coastal Zone Management (CZM) norms published by the Centre. Responding to a calling attention by Babu Prasad (Congress) in the Assembly on Friday, Fisheries Minister S. Sarma said the government had submitted to the Centre a series of proposals aimed at ensuring that the CZM norms did not hit the livelihood of fishing communities or prevent them from constructing houses on the coastal stretches of the country. The State government had prepared its objections to various provisions of the draft norms after holding two rounds of consultation with trade unions in the fisheries sector in Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi, he added. Mr. Sarma said the State had taken exception to the draft proposal to place the territorial waters up to 22 kilometres under the CZM norms and had told the Centre that this should not in any way affect fishing rights of indigenous communities. It had also told the Centre that the local bodies and the fishing community must have sufficient say in the planning and development processes along the coastal areas. He said the State was particularly concerned about the decision to have a 'setback line' along the coast which would mean that the fisher folk would be able to have houses only outside the 'setback line.' Since fishermen families cannot live away from the sea, the State had urged the Centre to see to it that such a measure did not affect their habitation needs. It had also taken an equally serious view of the proposal to drop the existing 'No Development Zones' in the coastal stretches as this would result in indiscriminate construction activity in the coastal areas leading to alienation of the fishing communities, the Fisheries Minister added. Replying to a specific question from Mr. Babu Prasad, the Minister said the government would issue strict instructions to officials if any instance of construction activities, forming part of the tsunami rehabilitation programme, being disallowed was brought to its notice. From sonia.jabbar at gmail.com Mon Jun 30 13:50:55 2008 From: sonia.jabbar at gmail.com (S. Jabbar) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:50:55 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] =?iso-8859-1?q?What_Mughal_Road_didn_=B9_t_that_shr?= =?iso-8859-1?q?ine_land-transfer_plans_did_-_Kavita_Suri?= In-Reply-To: <6353c690806300051o2877bf0egdfc7cabac061e3be@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: It's interesting that all this is coming out now. I had no idea about the 10,000 trees cut to make way for the Mughal Rd or the Markhor sanctuary being threatened. Both are reasons enough to rethink the project, even though I feel the people of Rajouri & Poonch need a second link to the outside world to end their isolation that have made them 2nd class citizens of J&K since 1947. The Mughal Road project has been going on for quite sometime now, it's strange that Dr. Singh, Agnishekhar et al did not raise their voices earlier... Or did I miss something? On 6/30/08 1:21 PM, "Aditya Raj Kaul" wrote: > The Truth Behind *What Mughal Road didn't that shrine land-transfer plans > did* ** http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=2&id=210771&usrsess=1 > Kavita Suri JAMMU, June 29: Three years ago, when the then chief minister of > Jammu and Kashmir Mufti Mohammed Sayeed decided to revive the centuries-old > Mughal Road in the region, no one in Kashmir even uttered a single word on > the massive destruction of environment in Pir Panjal mountain ranges of > the Himalayas. The revival of the old Mughal Road which was once used by the > great Mughals to travel to Kashmir from Lahore and its subsequent > reconstruction ordered by Mufti Sayeed not only witnessed destruction of over > 10,000 trees and 26 wild life sanctuaries but also fragmented the habitat of > the highly-endangered wild Markhor goat. India is estimated to have a > total population of only 300-200 of this species, which is found in > southwest Kashmir's Hirpora, Lachipora and Limber wildlife sanctuaries falling > on Mughal Road. Surprisingly, all the political parties remained silent over > the issue of degradation of environment and destruction of the wild life > sanctuaries due to the work on the Mughal Road. But when the Jammu and > Kashmir government recently decided to transfer 40 hectares of forest land at > Baltal and Domail for the proposed camping sites located on the right side of > the Sindh River for the purpose of constructing temporary shelters for the > Amarnath pilgrims, the political parties in Kashmir have opposed it tooth and > nail on the pretext of environment degradation. The issue had deeply > polarised the entire state. Politicians and other organisations in Jammu see > it as a deliberate move to suppress Hindu identity and communalisation in the > region. "When 10,000 trees were cut and the habitat of the wild Markhor > destroyed for the reconstruction of the Mughal Road, no one said anything but > when SASB wanted to set up temporary shelters for two months only, there was > an uproar," Dr Nirmal Singh, member, national executive & former state > president of the BJP said. The PDP, National Conference and other parties > were playing with fire by communalising the whole issue of the Amarnath Yatra > and opposing the decision to transfer 800 kanals of land to SASB for creating > facilities for pilgrims, he added. To prevent environmental destruction due to > the work on the Mughal Road, a Kashmir-based NGO, Bio-diversity Conservation > Trust had gone to Supreme Court arguing that construction work would affect > the region's biodiversity and the movement of wild animals, especially > the Markhor goat. The Wild Markhor is on IUCN's Red List of highly > endangered wild animals and is also named in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife > Protection Act, 1972, and the Jammu Kashmir Wildlife Protection Act, 1978 > (amended in 2002). But in the case of SASB, the transfer of 800 kanals (40 > hectares) of forest land was no issue at all. The Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board > had assured the government that it would take all possible environmental > safeguards in consultation with the State Pollution Control Board to ensure > that no damage is caused to the ecology of the area. "The SASB camping sites > did not involve any area of Thajwas Wild Life Sanctuary, which is located on > the left side of River Sindh. The Shrine Board had to use > prefabricated structures for the camping purpose of the pilgrims and would not > have gone for construction of permanent structures," the Jammu and Kashmir > chief minister Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad had pointed out. Raising a few pertinent > questions, Dr Singh asked as to why no hue and cry was raised when the Mufti > government transferred over 5,000 kanals of forest land to Baba Ghulam Shah > Badshah University at Rajouri which also affected the environment badly. No > one uttered a single word then. "Besides, Sharda Peeth university project > was scuttled whereas government gave free land to Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah > University project and also free land was transferred to Islamic University at > Awantipora in South Kashmir," adds Dr Agnishekhar, president, Panun Kashmir. > People in Jammu believe that all this points to the complete cleansing of the > last vestiges of Hindu presence in the valley. "The protagonists of this > vicious tirade dub the holy Amarnath Yatra as a cultural invasion of Kashmir > affecting its ecology, cultural identity and demography. Whatever ecological > damage Kashmir has suffered is as a result of illegal felling of trees by land > mafia in connivance with corrupt administration over the years," said Dr > Agnishekher adding the systematic reclamation of water bodies and continuous > flow of waste materials into lakes like the famous Dal lake and uncontrolled > construction activity has resulted in much more ecological damage than the > Amarnath pilgrimage. "An environmental impact assessment report to the Jammu > and Kashmir Pollution Control Board regarding the Mughal Road clearly said > that it would cut through 67 hectares of the Hirpora sanctuary disturbing the > habitat of the Markhor. The cutting of many trees would have a cascading > effect on the associated biota. Besides, traffic on the road may cause death > of many animals that utilise verge habitats or try to cross the road. The > presence of motor vehicles may introduce the potential for contamination of > soil, air and water adjacent to the road and in the case of surface water, > well beyond the immediate surroundings. Chronic contamination may become a > problem for animal species, especially those at the top of the food chain.why > there was no public outcry then," asks Dr > Agnishekher. _________________________________________ 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 rashneek at gmail.com Mon Jun 30 13:55:23 2008 From: rashneek at gmail.com (rashneek kher) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:55:23 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] =?iso-8859-1?q?What_Mughal_Road_didn_=B9_t_that_shr?= =?iso-8859-1?q?ine_land-transfer_plans_did_-_Kavita_Suri?= In-Reply-To: References: <6353c690806300051o2877bf0egdfc7cabac061e3be@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <13df7c120806300125w7a09054ftaa9fbc30cb1d3c2c@mail.gmail.com> Dear Sonia, They did...but with a pen just that no one heard because they did not create ruckus,block streets,burn tyres and CRPF pickets....did not have the power to pull down a government... Awwazon ke bazzaron main khamoshe pehchanne kyon... Best Rashneek On 6/30/08, S. Jabbar wrote: > > It's interesting that all this is coming out now. I had no idea about the > 10,000 trees cut to make way for the Mughal Rd or the Markhor sanctuary > being threatened. Both are reasons enough to rethink the project, even > though I feel the people of Rajouri & Poonch need a second link to the > outside world to end their isolation that have made them 2nd class citizens > of J&K since 1947. The Mughal Road project has been going on for quite > sometime now, it's strange that Dr. Singh, Agnishekhar et al did not raise > their voices earlier... Or did I miss something? > > > On 6/30/08 1:21 PM, "Aditya Raj Kaul" wrote: > > > The Truth Behind > > > *What Mughal Road didn't that shrine land-transfer plans > > did* > ** > http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=2&id=210771&usrsess=1 > > > > > Kavita Suri > JAMMU, June 29: Three years ago, when the then chief minister of > > Jammu and > Kashmir Mufti Mohammed Sayeed decided to revive the centuries-old > > Mughal > Road in the region, no one in Kashmir even uttered a single word on > > the > massive destruction of environment in Pir Panjal mountain ranges of > > the > Himalayas. > > > The revival of the old Mughal Road which was once used by the > > great Mughals > to travel to Kashmir from Lahore and its subsequent > > reconstruction ordered > by Mufti Sayeed not only witnessed destruction of over > > 10,000 trees and 26 > wild life sanctuaries but also fragmented the habitat of > > the > highly-endangered wild Markhor goat. India is estimated to have a > > total > population of only 300-200 of this species, which is found in > > southwest > Kashmir's Hirpora, Lachipora and Limber wildlife sanctuaries falling > > on > Mughal Road. > > > Surprisingly, all the political parties remained silent over > > the issue of > degradation of environment and destruction of the wild life > > sanctuaries due > to the work on the Mughal Road. > > > But when the Jammu and > > Kashmir government recently decided to transfer 40 > hectares of forest land at > > Baltal and Domail for the proposed camping sites > located on the right side of > > the Sindh River for the purpose of constructing > temporary shelters for the > > Amarnath pilgrims, the political parties in > Kashmir have opposed it tooth and > > nail on the pretext of environment > degradation. > > > The issue had deeply > > polarised the entire state. Politicians and other > organisations in Jammu see > > it as a deliberate move to suppress Hindu > identity and communalisation in the > > region. "When 10,000 trees were cut and > the habitat of the wild Markhor > > destroyed for the reconstruction of the > Mughal Road, no one said anything but > > when SASB wanted to set up temporary > shelters for two months only, there was > > an uproar," Dr Nirmal Singh, member, > national executive & former state > > president of the BJP said. > > > The PDP, National Conference and other parties > > were playing with fire by > communalising the whole issue of the Amarnath Yatra > > and opposing the > decision to transfer 800 kanals of land to SASB for creating > > facilities for > pilgrims, he added. To prevent environmental destruction due to > > the work on > the Mughal Road, a Kashmir-based NGO, Bio-diversity Conservation > > Trust had > gone to Supreme Court arguing that construction work would affect > > the > region's biodiversity and the movement of wild animals, especially > > the > Markhor goat. > > > The Wild Markhor is on IUCN's Red List of highly > > endangered wild animals and > is also named in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife > > Protection Act, 1972, and the > Jammu Kashmir Wildlife Protection Act, 1978 > > (amended in 2002). > > > But in the case of SASB, the transfer of 800 kanals (40 > > hectares) of forest > land was no issue at all. The Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board > > had assured the > government that it would take all possible environmental > > safeguards in > consultation with the State Pollution Control Board to ensure > > that no damage > is caused to the ecology of the area. "The SASB camping sites > > did not > involve any area of Thajwas Wild Life Sanctuary, which is located on > > the > left side of River Sindh. The Shrine Board had to use > > prefabricated > structures for the camping purpose of the pilgrims and would not > > have gone > for construction of permanent structures," the Jammu and Kashmir > > chief > minister Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad had pointed out. > > > Raising a few pertinent > > questions, Dr Singh asked as to why no hue and cry > was raised when the Mufti > > government transferred over 5,000 kanals of forest > land to Baba Ghulam Shah > > Badshah University at Rajouri which also affected > the environment badly. No > > one uttered a single word then. > > > "Besides, Sharda Peeth university project > > was scuttled whereas government > gave free land to Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah > > University project and also free > land was transferred to Islamic University at > > Awantipora in South Kashmir," > adds Dr Agnishekhar, president, Panun Kashmir. > > People in Jammu believe that > all this points to the complete cleansing of the > > last vestiges of Hindu > presence in the valley. > > > "The protagonists of this > > vicious tirade dub the holy Amarnath Yatra as a > cultural invasion of Kashmir > > affecting its ecology, cultural identity and > demography. Whatever ecological > > damage Kashmir has suffered is as a result > of illegal felling of trees by land > > mafia in connivance with corrupt > administration over the years," said Dr > > Agnishekher adding the systematic > reclamation of water bodies and continuous > > flow of waste materials into > lakes like the famous Dal lake and uncontrolled > > construction activity has > resulted in much more ecological damage than the > > Amarnath pilgrimage. > > > "An environmental impact assessment report to the Jammu > > and Kashmir > Pollution Control Board regarding the Mughal Road clearly said > > that it would > cut through 67 hectares of the Hirpora sanctuary disturbing the > > habitat of > the Markhor. The cutting of many trees would have a cascading > > effect on the > associated biota. Besides, traffic on the road may cause death > > of many > animals that utilise verge habitats or try to cross the road. The > > presence > of motor vehicles may introduce the potential for contamination of > > soil, air > and water adjacent to the road and in the case of surface water, > > well beyond > the immediate surroundings. Chronic contamination may become a > > problem for > animal species, especially those at the top of the food chain.why > > there was > no public outcry then," asks Dr > > Agnishekher. > _________________________________________ > 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/> -- Rashneek Kher Wandhama Massacre-The Forgotten Human Tragedy http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com From shuddha at sarai.net Mon Jun 30 14:03:25 2008 From: shuddha at sarai.net (Shuddhabrata Sengupta) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:03:25 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Amaranth Yatra In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Dear Sonia, Dear Rashneek, dear all, Thank you, Sonia and Rashneek for the debate on the Amarnath Yatra issue. The question of temple boards and their closeness to power, and their lust for acquiring forest lands is not unique to Kashmir. It also happens, as you will see below, (see the report - Sabarimala: The Faith in Spate, by K.A. Shaji) in distant Kerala. The ruling left front government in Kerala is as involved in this game as anyone else, because 'Temple Boards' are gold-mines and no state government wants to close an operation that earns them the gold that can be mined in these gold mines. I am appending below a report on the question of the Sabarimala Temple boards desire for even more reserved forest land. The story is remarkably resonant of the Amarnath issue. A local, highly culturally specific, syncretic pilgrimage turning into the road-show of a revivalist 'Hinduism', with lucrative revenue spin-offs. I live in an area in Delhi where I have witnessed every year, for the past few years - 'Chalo Amarnath Chalo' (Let's go to Amarnath) posters and banners being put up by local RSS functionaries. And there are active fundraising drives which culminate in a cavalcade of Tata Sumos with the local 'Youth' blaring 'bhajans' from their booming auto-sound systems taking off to go do 'darshan' of the melting lingam. I don't think they (the Sumo Pilgrims of my neighbourhood) really care whether or not the forests of Kashmir go up in smoke. I also know that the Sabarimala pilgrimage has been twisted out of shape in a similar way, both by Hindutva enthusiasts, and by construction contractors close to the ruling Left Front. Fragile forests can barely sustain the burden of so much sudden faith. Incidentally, revivalist Hindus are by no means alone in their disregard for the local heritage and environment. The ruling dispensation in Saudi Arabia has effectively turned the pilgrimage sites of Mecca and Medina into an air-conditioned cultural wasteland. it has systematically destroyed shrines that were considered holy by millions of Muslim pilgrims, especially from South Asia, and completely transformed the intricate urban fabric of Mecca and Medina. There is a long history of protest, including in India, by Muslims against the way in which the Saudi Government, in cohorts with the Wahabi establishment has wrecked the topography of Mecca and Medina. Similarly, the Israeli state's policy of expansion, through settlements, and building high security segregated roads that cut through the west bank of the Jordan river are often camouflaged under an appeal to scriptural sanction for 'Greater' or 'Eretz' Israel. There is a great deal of money to be made in pilgrimage, and it affords everybody an opportunity to make some quick transformations of the landscape in the name of 'infrastructure development' and 'settlement' , both of which are euphemisms for speculation in real estate. I am also appending a detailed report on the environmental impact of what was proposed by the erstwhile governor Gen (Retd) Sinha of Jammu and Kashmir for the Amarnath Yatra by Gautam Navlakha that appeared recently in the website of a journal called Kashmir Affairs. Finally, it is not my case that the acquisition of land for the Amarnath Board (SASB) is wrong, and the acquisition of land for the so-called 'Mughal Road', which has been pointed out by Aditya Raj Kaul, in a recent post is wrong. Both are equally disastrous from the environmental point of view. And the silence of political formations (of all persuasions) on the environmental impact of the revived Mughal Road and their recent discovery of environmentalism (in the case of the Amarnath land transfer issue) does make their commitment to environmentalism somewhat suspect. The PDP's stance is particularly hypocritical, as the original decision has been ratified by its own minister, (for Forest) in the (Indian Held) J&K state government. Still, even if the commitment of all the protagonists is suspect, I must say that I have rarely seen a popular movement reverse a state-driven decision on an 'environmental' issue, and the recent success of the agitation in Kashmir (whatever be the motives that impelled it) which has resulted in a reversal of the Land Transfer issue is something to be grateful for. These are issues that need to be seen quite separately from secterian concerns. I hope this debate can help us see them in that way. best Shuddha ------------------- 1. Sabarimala: The Faith in Spate by K A Shaji http://www.boloji.com/society/115.htm Legend has it that when Lord Ayyappa set out to seek solitude, he settled upon Sabarimala. Its sylvan surroundings and undulating terrain had made it an ideal retreat for the bachelor god. The pristine monsoon forests had wrapped like an ornament around his hermitage at the top of the hill. The Lord believed to have called the area with tranquil atmosphere as his poonkavanam (sacred forest). A shrine inside the forest and a deity who chose the calm ambience of hills and valleys has few parallels in the country and outside. But now, it seems, all of the glories of Sabarimala were a thing of the past. When mythology meets present-day reality, Sabarimala is no more a chosen abode of the hermit God. During January-February each year, more than 50 million devotees, as claimed by the temple authorities, are thronging this forest temple for annual pilgrimage, putting the fragile ecology of the region under severe stress. Now, the holy hill is a synonym of increasing inflow of pilgrims, inadequate infrastructure, a devastated environment and a hapless wildlife. While the entire hill and the adjacent river Pampa, the third largest river in Kerala, are stinking due to sewage pollution and accumulation of garbage, the situation is not much different in the administrative and spiritual circles of the hill shrine. First, it was a controversy involving Kannada film actress Jayamala and a group of orthodox Hindus, who questioned her claim of touching the idol of the bachelor god defying the barricades meant for preventing sexually active women from entering the hill shrine. Then one of the highly revered traditional priests of the temple was robbed of a large amount of money and gold ornaments during his visit to the house of a woman engaged in flesh trade by a mafia gang. And now, it is the turn of aged father of a senior priest to allege that his son is under influence of a powerful Ezhava community leader with shadowy nature and the leader's followers are using his son to pocket the temple money. In the meantime, the Left Front Government has disbanded the existing administrative body of the temple citing corruption at high level and is preparing to enact a legislation to keep the corrupt community leaders out of the administrative body forever. On monetary grounds, the temple is the third largest in the country, standing very close to Tirupathi and Guruvayur. The cash-strapped Kerala Government, despite its leftist moorings, is depending very much on the income from the temple to meet salary needs of its employees. In order to increase the revenue, the successive governments and the so-called proponents of development are vociferous of implementing multi-crore construction plans in Sabarimala clearing forests and building a concrete jungle in its place. But nobody in the spiritual and administrative levels of the temple as well as the government establishment are apprehensive of the increasing level of pollution and the extreme level of deforestation. Their focus is entangled only in the growing number of controversies and the commissions to be available after the beginning of the construction work. Located about 467 metres above sea level, the Sabarimala temple is surrounded by 18 hills and situated inside Periyar Tiger Reserve, one of the few safe havens for tigers in the country. According to bird watcher B.Sethumadhavan, as many as 2000 species of flowering plants, endemic and medicinal, have been identified among the region's flora. `` About 63 species of mammals, some of them endangered like tigers, elephants and lion tailed macaque live here. So far, 223 species of birds and 45 species of reptiles including King Cobra have been identified in this area,'' he said. The ever- expanding number of pilgrims and mindless construction works are posing severe threat to their very survival. Devotees of a Lord, who believed to have loved the flora and fauna and their safekeeping, are now on a rampage in the name of development forcing the wildlife to move out of their traditional habitat. As per legends, the vehicle of Lord Ayyappa is tiger. But, astonishingly, neither the tiger nor the surrounding evergreen forests do not come in the list of priorities before the |Travancore Devaswam Board, which administers the shrine. ``There was an increase of 35 per cent in revenue while comparing with last year during the November-December period. In the number of visitors, the increase is of 19 per cent. These figures show the need for immediate developmental works in Sabarimala. But there are agencies like Forest Department which cry for tigers and forests,'' alleges G.Raman Nair, outgoing president of the board. However, environmentalists and forest officials are countering the allegation. ``The development works so far at Pampa have made it impossible a soul-filling holy dip in river Pampa. At least, two scientific studies conducted by Government's own agencies had found that landslips and tremors would take place at the holy hillock any time largely because of the extensive concrete flooring at the temple premises. The devaswam is only interested in money making. It has no concern for the impending dangers for both nature and devotees,'' pointed out Sumesh Mangalassery, a member of the environmental group Kabani. According to Sumesh, a panel of Kerala Legislature on environment led by RSP leader A V Thamarakshan had submitted 32 proposals to the Devaswam Board to protect Sabarimala around five years back. But none of them were acceptable to the board. Even the suggestions of Kerala State Pollution Control Board to minimise the pollution of river Pampa were paid scant regard by the board. A visit by Tehelka to Sabarimala found that river Pampa continues to remain the main victim of the callous attitude of the authorities. It gets choked in the temple area as solid waste including human excreta; plastic bags, empty water bottles and coconut husks block the free flow of water. About 35 million people took a holy dip in the river between November and January, which is the major source of drinking water for three districts. According to a study by the pollution control board, the total coliform count recorded at the river portion close to Sabarimala is about 1,14,000 per 100 millilitres (ML) during the peak of pilgrimage. Just before the pilgrimage season, it is merely 380 per 100 ml- well below the permissible limits of 500 per 100 ml. According to local people, the overflow of human faeces from sceptic tanks around the temple stands the major reason of the pollution of the river. ``More than 3,000 temporary toilets are functioning close to the temple in addition to about 600 permanent toilets. The capacity of the sewerage treatment plant is very limited,'' pointed out K.Anirudhan of Sabarimala Samrakshana Samithy. Most of the experts, who had conducted studies on the pollution and environmental problems prevailing in Sabarimala, point to the need of regulating the ever- increasing number of pilgrims. ``Sabarimala is bursting at the seams with millions of devotees now. Thirty or forty years ago, only around 50,000 pilgrims visited the temple. Today, the number is fifty million and is rising at the rate of 20 per cent every year. The ever-swelling flow resulted in a major mishap on January 14, 1999, when 100 pilgrims died in a stampede at the site. Indications are that Sabarimala is a disaster waiting to be happen,'' warns noted Kerala based environmentalist P K Uthaman. According to him, almost two thousand tonnes of human waste are deposited in crude earth pits and outside in Sabarimala every year. These wastes are finding their way into not only the river Pampa but also to river Periyar by underground as well as over ground rivulets, posing a threat great health hazard for the pilgrims as well as those living downstream. In addition, the lack of post pilgrimage cleaning drives often result in unabated flow of hazardous waste into the rivers. The temple area has already been converted into a concrete jungle where guesthouses and other structures are constructed haphazardly all around. They are meant for temple officials, priests, VVIPs and police personnel. According to M.Gopal, a pilgrim from Bangalore who visited Sabarimala this year, human excreta and plastic waste were found strewn just outside the Sannidhanam (the main building of the temple). As per data available from forest department, over 2.5 lakh empty plastic bottles of packaged water were collected from inside the tiger reserve. The number of tetra packs collected would come around 4.5 lakh. The temple complex of the hermit, who believed in renunciation of earthly attractions, is now filled with commercial shops selling products ranging from gold ornaments to dress materials. All these shops were constructed by clearing forests. ``The total time available for darsan as of now is a total of 1431 hours, i.e. 515160 seconds. If a darsan goes on one at a time basis and a devotee gets a second, the total strength of the pilgrims can only be 5,15, 160 per year. If ten people could somehow cluster together per second for darsan, the maximum number would be 51,51,600,'' points out a document prepared by |School of Social Sciences at Mahatma Gandhi University on behalf of Kerla Forest Department. The document also questions the claims of the board that over 50 million people visit the temple annually. But anyway, the number of pilgrims' visting Sabarimala is many times more than its capacity. ``The authorities must find out some mechanism to regulate the alarming increase in the number of pilgrims. Sabarimala is not only an environmental but also a social disaster,'' opined Dr.Rajan Gurukkal of School of Social Sciences. Now a day, the uncontrolled flow of pilgrims from various entry points is resulting in people swarming all around the protected sanctuary leading to man –animal conflicts. Recently, an elephant trampled upon one pilgrim. Then it was found that the pilgrims were sleeping in the corridor used by the elephants for going to the river to drink water at the night. A large number of such corridors were already disrupted due to the construction works undertaken in the recent past. According to Sedumadhavan, the authorities are even paying scant attention on the safety of pilgrims. As many as 12,000 litres of diesel are being stored just above the sannidhanam without any storage licence or safety parameters. They are also keeping a large number of crackers near the sanctum sanctoram without any safety concern. The only solution on the part of Trvancore Devaswom Board for all problems plaguing Sabarimala is denudation of nearby forests and setting up new amenities. According to Rajan Gurukkal, such an attempt would be disastrous as all the existing problems of Sabarimala can be viwed as the after effect of deforestation. The devaswam board has already ruined about 55.09 ha of forestland in the name of sabarimala development. In the opinion of environmentalists, they demand more forests to cut and smuggle out precious trees and construction of further concrete strctures with ulterior motives. Maintaining the sanctity of the shrine and the precious eco-system never appeared a priority before them. So far, the devaswam board was constituted once in five years by nomination of people with no administrative acumen at the behest of successive governments. Rajan Gurukkal and his team at School of Social Sciences have prepared a long-term action plan for saving Sabarimala from the sequence of disasters in the offing. But the lobbies of corrupt and communal elements are not allowing the devaswam to look into them. Even the small step of Left Government in disbanding the existing devaswam committee is being interpreted as an attempt by atheists to interfere in Hindu religious matters. The move by left government to appoint experts in place of politicians at the board also facing opposition from Sangh Parivar organisations, who claim as custodians of Hindu places of worship. The board and its corrupt administrators were not able to get their hand on the forest so far due to stringent central acts and Supreme Court rulings. But even the outgoing members are repeating their old slogan of `no development in Sabarimala would be possible without deforestation.' Unless the authorities change their attitude from a revenue-centred approach to a pilgrim centred aprach, there is not much hope. But they still repeat that development (read deforestation) could not be stopped for the sake of a few birds and animals. ``The board had neither faith in environmental protection nor in religious sanctity,'' opines Rajan Gurukkal. Decongestion of base town Pampa by increasing facilities at a relatively distant town of Nilakkal, demolition of unauthorised concrete structures at Sannidhanam and Pampa, cleaning of the river, better waste disposal facilities and provisions of basic facilities for pilgrims without affecting ecology are the urgent needs of Sabarimala. The tigers and elephants must be protected. If there is no mechanism to check the number of pilgrims, that would increase to two to three crores within years. Moderate elements among the Hindu community are favouring a statutory body for Sabarimala in line with Tirumala-Thirupathy Devasthanam and Amarnath temple. Such a body consisting of experts from different fields can change the course of priorities of the forest temple. ----------- 2. Amarnath Yatra: The Pilgrimage to Eco Disaster Gautam Navlakha http://www.kashmiraffairs.org/gautam_amarnath%20yatra.html Should one question the propriety of promoting pilgrimage in a ecologically fragile area or wink at it in the name of devotees right to free movement and worship? This question comes to mind when looking at Amarnath Yatra especially the phenomenal increase in the number of pilgrims. This increase is not of few hundred or few thousand but runs into hundreds of thousands. There has been a doubling of the period for pilgrimage from one month to two this year as well as forty times increase in number of pilgrims, from 12,000 in 1989 to 450,000 in 2005 (this year it is set to cross 500,000) are cause for concern. In fact the actual period is longer because a fortnight before the official yatra is reserved for army men and their families to visit the Amarnath cave through ecologically more vulnerable Baltal route. Moreover, in order to provide security for pilgrims who come out in large number, the paramilitary forces have to be deployed in large number. The current deployment will be in excess of 20,000 for the entire period. Their presence and stay cannot but affect the rise in pollution levels. Inclement weather too is an issue because rains in the plain means snow in the higher reaches. This results in crowding at the camps, straining services including disposal of waste. But worse things can happen as in 1996 when unexpected heavy snowfall resulted in death of 243 pilgrims and injuries to hundred more due to avalanche. The State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), recently in a 37 page report warns that generation of waste by pilgrims, absence of waste disposal sites, open dumping of garbage, air pollution, sewage generated by hotels, yatri camps and local residential areas makes its way into Lidder river. The SPCB warned that waste generated by pilgrims more than the local average and primarily contains plastics, polythene and leftover food packets all along the route. According to their calculation 55,000 kgs of plastic waste is generated every day during the pilgrimage. Besides, thousands of open toilets erected along the banks of Lidder river ensures that effluents enter the river. Thousands of vehicles ply up and down the mountains around Pahalgam all the way up to Chandanwari spewing carbon monoxide. The Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), which came into existence on February 21, 2001, has been dismissive of such claims. They assert that 230 pre-fabricated toilets being raised in Nunwan base camp and human waste disposal off in leach pits with micro-organism technology using Bokaslin powder and other chemicals would take care of the problem. However, the issue is more than the supposedly effective modern methods to manage waste. The sheer presence of large mass of people is a cause for concern. Department of Science and technology through its principal investigator on glaciology has argued that “the ecology, the environment and health of the glacier can be under severe threat in case the Baltal route to the Holy Cave was frequented by thousands of pilgrims”. And pointed out that “depletion and degradation (of glaciers) are the result of human breath, refuse and land erosion”. (The Tribune July 5, 2005). It is disconcerting to note that opening of Baltal route for pilgrims on foot and those using helicopters has crossed several thousand every day. Apart from the Department of Science and Technology of J&K government even the Nitish Sengupta committee, which was constituted to look into the deaths of 243 pilgrims in 1996 due to the snowstorm, had recommended that number of yatris be restricted to 5000 per day for a period of one month and the total number of pilgrims be capped at1.5 lakhs. According to them Baltal route should allow 1500 pilgrims and Pahalgam 3500 per day. However, the General JR Mukherjee committee, which looked into the cause of death of 35 people, due to cross fire, during the 2000 yatra, focussed on security arrangement and wanted the duration of the yatra to increase as security scenario improved. But neither report looked at the environmental impact of the yatra. Thus when the SASB invokes the recommendations of the two committees what it does is to use it selectively and link the number of pilgrims to the issue of managing security for them. In this sense they underplay the question whether the eco-system can bear heavy influx of pilgrims. This emphasis on encouraging larger number of pilgrims shows its impact on the environment in unexpected ways. Such as the SASB contemplating “air conditioning” to preserve the shiva lingam from melting. The recent controversy over the pilgrims alleging that the SASB has been constructing the “snow lingam” is now being passed off as due to change in the course of the water channels after last year’s earthquake and global warming. Without ruling this out human contribution to this phenomenon cannot be ignored when glaciers are rapidly receding. As a matter of fact yatra was never undertaken in June precisely because formation of shiva lingam does not always take place then. Incidentally the local people speak of “human” intervention in restoring what is a natural phenomenon, as something that has happened in the past too. This apart large number of pilgrims means that going gets tough as one draws close to the cave with traffic jam being the order of the day. At times pilgrims have to wait for hours for their turn. Increase in dust in atmosphere too is caused by crowds of people as well as helicopter service. The dust raised is visible from long distance away. All this also means that individual pilgrims, that is other than VIPs, are disallowed from spending more than seconds inside the cave. Above all carbon dioxide levels shoot up warming the area all around. It cannot be that the SASB is unaware of the environmental concerns. If it receives short shrift it is because the yatra has come to symbolise Indian government’s determination to promote its claim in J&K. That pilgrimage is being heralded as victory against a movement demanding azadi from India is available in the news portal of Indian government, Press Information Bureau. It says that “yearning for moksha (salvation) can move the devotees to the challenging heights of Kashmir and will be a fitting gesture of solidarity with our valiant soldiers who have been fighting the enemy to defend our borders”. (pib.nic.in/feature/feo799/f1507992.html). Thus what is otherwise merely a religious pilgrimage of the Hindus has been elevated to represent a patriotic enterprise. Besides, the SASB is headed by the Governor and his principal secretary is the CEO of the SASB. Thus the Government of India is clearly in charge of organising the yatra. And it is the SASB which has been pushing for larger and larger numbers of pilgrims and challenging the right of the state government from interfering in anyway with the schedule announced by the SASB. It is true that not everyone who goes to Amarnath accepts this association of religion with patriotism. But the fact of the matter is that official perception of pilgrimage as patriotic duty has allowed the communal fascist elements to join in organising their supporters. Little wonder that frequency of conflict between section of such ‘pilgrims’ and local population due to their obnoxious behaviour has shown an increase. What is equally disconcerting is that the SASB presided over by the Governor has also been engaged in controversial transactions. The CEO of SASB is the principal secretary to the Governor. Present CEO’s wife, in her capacity of Principal secretary forest department granted permission to SASB on May 29, 2005 to use forest land. But this provision was not in accordance with the provision of J&K Forest Conservation Act 1997 and, therefore, the state government withdrew the order. However, thanks to a stay order by a division bench of the J&K High Court the withdrawal of permission to occupy forest land, was suspended. Any visitor to Pahalgam can observe how this forest land is being cleared to setup camps for the yatris. In fact now the SASB has asked the state government to give them land in the radius of 5kms of the cave. This arouses local passions precisely because Indian security forces and other entities have transferred large tracts of land to house camps for security force personnel, or for central projects, as well as for schools which are run by army among others. Even a pro-Indian National Conference party has protested such transfers of land since 1989. Not very far from the camp for the pilgrims in Pahalgam, in Lidru (opposite Kulan village) what locals describe as one of the finest meadows, spread over 550 kanals (one kanal=one eighth of acre) in area, has been given to the army to run a school! Local population feels helpless at being unable to stop this. Therefore, when SASB wants large tract of land transferred to it under the claim of providing accommodation for lakhs of pilgrims it must be weighed against this local concern. Were the numbers of pilgrims to be brought down the pressing need for transferring large areas to SASB or for providing carpet security and thus deployment of force, can be brought down. This apart the SASB has also been involved in other controversial acts. One such was the recent attempt by the SASB to bring down the involvement of local people in the yatra. When on June 5, 2006 the local pro-India Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) claimed that SASB was ignoring livelihood of locals, the SASB countered by claiming that such criticism would generate controversy and thus “jeopardise” tourism in Kashmir. Quite apart from the fact that promotion of pilgrimage for commerce flies in the face of proclaimed concern for people’s faith PDP pointed out that if local porters and ponywallahs can strike work at Vaishnodevi Shrine against the (mis)management of the Shri Vaishnodevi Shrine Board (SVDSB) and seek support from local Congress leaders then what is wrong if local people from Pahalgam and Kangan areas seek their help to protest against the practises of SASB which discriminate against them. In fact the Pithoo Workers Union at Katra have protested the suspension of six of their leaders, alleged manhandling by SVDSB officials and demanded recall of its additional CEO. Neither the Governor as head of SVDSB nor the Board issued any statement chastising the Congress party! Arguably, when yatra was halted between 1991-96 due to threat of section of the militants it played into the hands of the extreme right wing elements in Indian society who have since then become an integral part of mobilising large numbers of pilgrims. Thus a form of competitive communalism came into play. Thus when section of the militants represented earlier by Harkatul Ansar and now Lashkar-e- Taiyyaba or Jaish-e-Mohammed threaten to disrupt the pilgrimage it only gets the backs up of the devout Hindus opens them to vitriol of the rabidly anti-Muslim Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Shiv Sena etc. and accentuates the communal divide. However, it is equally important to note the actual fact that more people have died in yatra due to inclement weather and cross fire than at the hands of the militants. Besides, the main indigenous militant organisation Hizbul Mujahideen has always supported the yatra and has consistently demonstrated its opposition towards those who have tried to disrupt the yatra. Moreover, prior to constituting SASB the state government, local people and social activists provided aid and assistance to the pilgrims. However, threat of environmental damage has become a matter of utmost concern because the central government under the cover of SASB remains unrelenting in its pursuit of ever larger numbers to come for pilgrimage. In a way the Amarnath yatra illustrates the way in which the Indian government injects communalism in our body politic. And also represents how secularism in India has been perverted to mean state patronage of religion/s. This patronage is not equitably distributed since Hindus outnumber others by more than eight times. Which is to say that between un-equals equality ends up promoting Hindu religious practises. In Amarnath yatra, in fact, the India government even discarded its pretended neutrality by publicising the yatra as a patriotic duty! Consequently, the likelihood of Amarnath pilgrimage getting mired in controversy, over environmental damage and eventually feeding into further alienation of people because they can do little to save damage to their lived environment, has increased. Trouble is the Indian government cares little for people and prefers to pander to the extreme rightwing by projecting the yatra as a patriotic enterprise to boost the morale of the Indian paramilitary forces. The very same force which the local population regards as symbol of their oppression. Thus a bigger mess is in the making right before our own eyes. --------------- Shuddhabrata Sengupta The Sarai Programme at CSDS Raqs Media Collective shuddha at sarai.net www.sarai.net www.raqsmediacollective.net From pawan.durani at gmail.com Mon Jun 30 16:44:30 2008 From: pawan.durani at gmail.com (Pawan Durani) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:44:30 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Amaranth Yatra In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <6b79f1a70806300414k66445bfai709f596b9ab8368d@mail.gmail.com> Hello Shuddha , Lemme just inform everyone that , the land may have belonged to Forest Department , but there is no single tree over there. Even when you reach Amarntah , there are no trees over there , becuase of high altitude. I visited the site, Baltal , two years back. Unfortunately the issue is not about ecology ..... the way it has been treated is a pure indicator that anything related to Hindus is not tolerable in Kashmir, and proves once again that it is not "freedom" but Islamic fanaticism which rules the shot in Kashmir. Pawan On 6/30/08, Shuddhabrata Sengupta wrote: > > Dear Sonia, Dear Rashneek, dear all, > > Thank you, Sonia and Rashneek for the debate on the Amarnath Yatra > issue. The question of temple boards and their closeness to power, > and their lust for acquiring forest lands is not unique to Kashmir. > It also happens, as you will see below, (see the report - Sabarimala: > The Faith in Spate, by K.A. Shaji) in distant Kerala. The ruling left > front government in Kerala is as involved in this game as anyone > else, because 'Temple Boards' are gold-mines and no state government > wants to close an operation that earns them the gold that can be > mined in these gold mines. I am appending below a report on the > question of the Sabarimala Temple boards desire for even more > reserved forest land. The story is remarkably resonant of the > Amarnath issue. A local, highly culturally specific, syncretic > pilgrimage turning into the road-show of a revivalist 'Hinduism', > with lucrative revenue spin-offs. > > I live in an area in Delhi where I have witnessed every year, for the > past few years - 'Chalo Amarnath Chalo' (Let's go to Amarnath) > posters and banners being put up by local RSS functionaries. And > there are active fundraising drives which culminate in a cavalcade of > Tata Sumos with the local 'Youth' blaring 'bhajans' from their > booming auto-sound systems taking off to go do 'darshan' of the > melting lingam. I don't think they (the Sumo Pilgrims of my > neighbourhood) really care whether or not the forests of Kashmir go > up in smoke. > > I also know that the Sabarimala pilgrimage has been twisted out of > shape in a similar way, both by Hindutva enthusiasts, and by > construction contractors close to the ruling Left Front. Fragile > forests can barely sustain the burden of so much sudden faith. > > Incidentally, revivalist Hindus are by no means alone in their > disregard for the local heritage and environment. The ruling > dispensation in Saudi Arabia has effectively turned the pilgrimage > sites of Mecca and Medina into an air-conditioned cultural wasteland. > it has systematically destroyed shrines that were considered holy by > millions of Muslim pilgrims, especially from South Asia, and > completely transformed the intricate urban fabric of Mecca and > Medina. There is a long history of protest, including in India, by > Muslims against the way in which the Saudi Government, in cohorts > with the Wahabi establishment has wrecked the topography of Mecca and > Medina. Similarly, the Israeli state's policy of expansion, through > settlements, and building high security segregated roads that cut > through the west bank of the Jordan river are often camouflaged under > an appeal to scriptural sanction for 'Greater' or 'Eretz' Israel. > There is a great deal of money to be made in pilgrimage, and it > affords everybody an opportunity to make some quick transformations > of the landscape in the name of 'infrastructure development' and > 'settlement' , both of which are euphemisms for speculation in real > estate. > > I am also appending a detailed report on the environmental impact of > what was proposed by the erstwhile governor Gen (Retd) Sinha of Jammu > and Kashmir for the Amarnath Yatra by Gautam Navlakha that appeared > recently in the website of a journal called Kashmir Affairs. Finally, > it is not my case that the acquisition of land for the Amarnath Board > (SASB) is wrong, and the acquisition of land for the so-called > 'Mughal Road', which has been pointed out by Aditya Raj Kaul, in a > recent post is wrong. Both are equally disastrous from the > environmental point of view. And the silence of political formations > (of all persuasions) on the environmental impact of the revived > Mughal Road and their recent discovery of environmentalism (in the > case of the Amarnath land transfer issue) does make their commitment > to environmentalism somewhat suspect. The PDP's stance is > particularly hypocritical, as the original decision has been ratified > by its own minister, (for Forest) in the (Indian Held) J&K state > government. Still, even if the commitment of all the protagonists is > suspect, I must say that I have rarely seen a popular movement > reverse a state-driven decision on an 'environmental' issue, and the > recent success of the agitation in Kashmir (whatever be the motives > that impelled it) which has resulted in a reversal of the Land > Transfer issue is something to be grateful for. > > These are issues that need to be seen quite separately from secterian > concerns. I hope this debate can help us see them in that way. > > best > > Shuddha > ------------------- > > 1. Sabarimala: The Faith in Spate > by K A Shaji > > http://www.boloji.com/society/115.htm > > Legend has it that when Lord Ayyappa set out to seek solitude, he > settled upon Sabarimala. Its sylvan surroundings and undulating > terrain had made it an ideal retreat for the bachelor god. The > pristine monsoon forests had wrapped like an ornament around his > hermitage at the top of the hill. The Lord believed to have called > the area with tranquil atmosphere as his poonkavanam (sacred forest). > > A shrine inside the forest and a deity who chose the calm ambience of > hills and valleys has few parallels in the country and outside. But > now, it seems, all of the glories of Sabarimala were a thing of the > past. When mythology meets present-day reality, Sabarimala is no more > a chosen abode of the hermit God. During January-February each year, > more than 50 million devotees, as claimed by the temple authorities, > are thronging this forest temple for annual pilgrimage, putting the > fragile ecology of the region under severe stress. Now, the holy hill > is a synonym of increasing inflow of pilgrims, inadequate > infrastructure, a devastated environment and a hapless wildlife. > > While the entire hill and the adjacent river Pampa, the third largest > river in Kerala, are stinking due to sewage pollution and > accumulation of garbage, the situation is not much different in the > administrative and spiritual circles of the hill shrine. First, it > was a controversy involving Kannada film actress Jayamala and a group > of orthodox Hindus, who questioned her claim of touching the idol of > the bachelor god defying the barricades meant for preventing sexually > active women from entering the hill shrine. Then one of the highly > revered traditional priests of the temple was robbed of a large > amount of money and gold ornaments during his visit to the house of a > woman engaged in flesh trade by a mafia gang. And now, it is the turn > of aged father of a senior priest to allege that his son is under > influence of a powerful Ezhava community leader with shadowy nature > and the leader's followers are using his son to pocket the temple > money. In the meantime, the Left Front Government has disbanded the > existing administrative body of the temple citing corruption at high > level and is preparing to enact a legislation to keep the corrupt > community leaders out of the administrative body forever. > > On monetary grounds, the temple is the third largest in the country, > standing very close to Tirupathi and Guruvayur. The cash-strapped > Kerala Government, despite its leftist moorings, is depending very > much on the income from the temple to meet salary needs of its > employees. In order to increase the revenue, the successive > governments and the so-called proponents of development are > vociferous of implementing multi-crore construction plans in > Sabarimala clearing forests and building a concrete jungle in its > place. But nobody in the spiritual and administrative levels of the > temple as well as the government establishment are apprehensive of > the increasing level of pollution and the extreme level of > deforestation. Their focus is entangled only in the growing number of > controversies and the commissions to be available after the beginning > of the construction work. > > Located about 467 metres above sea level, the Sabarimala temple is > surrounded by 18 hills and situated inside Periyar Tiger Reserve, one > of the few safe havens for tigers in the country. According to bird > watcher B.Sethumadhavan, as many as 2000 species of flowering plants, > endemic and medicinal, have been identified among the region's flora. > `` About 63 species of mammals, some of them endangered like tigers, > elephants and lion tailed macaque live here. So far, 223 species of > birds and 45 species of reptiles including King Cobra have been > identified in this area,'' he said. The ever- expanding number of > pilgrims and mindless construction works are posing severe threat to > their very survival. Devotees of a Lord, who believed to have loved > the flora and fauna and their safekeeping, are now on a rampage in > the name of development forcing the wildlife to move out of their > traditional habitat. > > As per legends, the vehicle of Lord Ayyappa is tiger. But, > astonishingly, neither the tiger nor the surrounding evergreen > forests do not come in the list of priorities before the |Travancore > Devaswam Board, which administers the shrine. ``There was an increase > of 35 per cent in revenue while comparing with last year during the > November-December period. In the number of visitors, the increase is > of 19 per cent. These figures show the need for immediate > developmental works in Sabarimala. But there are agencies like Forest > Department which cry for tigers and forests,'' alleges G.Raman Nair, > outgoing president of the board. > > However, environmentalists and forest officials are countering the > allegation. ``The development works so far at Pampa have made it > impossible a soul-filling holy dip in river Pampa. At least, two > scientific studies conducted by Government's own agencies had found > that landslips and tremors would take place at the holy hillock any > time largely because of the extensive concrete flooring at the temple > premises. The devaswam is only interested in money making. It has no > concern for the impending dangers for both nature and devotees,'' > pointed out Sumesh Mangalassery, a member of the environmental group > Kabani. > > According to Sumesh, a panel of Kerala Legislature on environment led > by RSP leader A V Thamarakshan had submitted 32 proposals to the > Devaswam Board to protect Sabarimala around five years back. But none > of them were acceptable to the board. Even the suggestions of Kerala > State Pollution Control Board to minimise the pollution of river > Pampa were paid scant regard by the board. A visit by Tehelka to > Sabarimala found that river Pampa continues to remain the main victim > of the callous attitude of the authorities. It gets choked in the > temple area as solid waste including human excreta; plastic bags, > empty water bottles and coconut husks block the free flow of water. > About 35 million people took a holy dip in the river between November > and January, which is the major source of drinking water for three > districts. > > According to a study by the pollution control board, the total > coliform count recorded at the river portion close to Sabarimala is > about 1,14,000 per 100 millilitres (ML) during the peak of > pilgrimage. Just before the pilgrimage season, it is merely 380 per > 100 ml- well below the permissible limits of 500 per 100 ml. > According to local people, the overflow of human faeces from sceptic > tanks around the temple stands the major reason of the pollution of > the river. ``More than 3,000 temporary toilets are functioning close > to the temple in addition to about 600 permanent toilets. The > capacity of the sewerage treatment plant is very limited,'' pointed > out K.Anirudhan of Sabarimala Samrakshana Samithy. > > Most of the experts, who had conducted studies on the pollution and > environmental problems prevailing in Sabarimala, point to the need of > regulating the ever- increasing number of pilgrims. ``Sabarimala is > bursting at the seams with millions of devotees now. Thirty or forty > years ago, only around 50,000 pilgrims visited the temple. Today, the > number is fifty million and is rising at the rate of 20 per cent > every year. The ever-swelling flow resulted in a major mishap on > January 14, 1999, when 100 pilgrims died in a stampede at the site. > Indications are that Sabarimala is a disaster waiting to be happen,'' > warns noted Kerala based environmentalist P K Uthaman. According to > him, almost two thousand tonnes of human waste are deposited in crude > earth pits and outside in Sabarimala every year. These wastes are > finding their way into not only the river Pampa but also to river > Periyar by underground as well as over ground rivulets, posing a > threat great health hazard for the pilgrims as well as those living > downstream. > > In addition, the lack of post pilgrimage cleaning drives often result > in unabated flow of hazardous waste into the rivers. The temple area > has already been converted into a concrete jungle where guesthouses > and other structures are constructed haphazardly all around. They are > meant for temple officials, priests, VVIPs and police personnel. > According to M.Gopal, a pilgrim from Bangalore who visited Sabarimala > this year, human excreta and plastic waste were found strewn just > outside the Sannidhanam (the main building of the temple). As per > data available from forest department, over 2.5 lakh empty plastic > bottles of packaged water were collected from inside the tiger > reserve. The number of tetra packs collected would come around 4.5 > lakh. The temple complex of the hermit, who believed in renunciation > of earthly attractions, is now filled with commercial shops selling > products ranging from gold ornaments to dress materials. All these > shops were constructed by clearing forests. > > ``The total time available for darsan as of now is a total of 1431 > hours, i.e. 515160 seconds. If a darsan goes on one at a time basis > and a devotee gets a second, the total strength of the pilgrims can > only be 5,15, 160 per year. If ten people could somehow cluster > together per second for darsan, the maximum number would be > 51,51,600,'' points out a document prepared by |School of Social > Sciences at Mahatma Gandhi University on behalf of Kerla Forest > Department. The document also questions the claims of the board that > over 50 million people visit the temple annually. But anyway, the > number of pilgrims' visting Sabarimala is many times more than its > capacity. > > ``The authorities must find out some mechanism to regulate the > alarming increase in the number of pilgrims. Sabarimala is not only > an environmental but also a social disaster,'' opined Dr.Rajan > Gurukkal of School of Social Sciences. Now a day, the uncontrolled > flow of pilgrims from various entry points is resulting in people > swarming all around the protected sanctuary leading to man –animal > conflicts. Recently, an elephant trampled upon one pilgrim. Then it > was found that the pilgrims were sleeping in the corridor used by the > elephants for going to the river to drink water at the night. A large > number of such corridors were already disrupted due to the > construction works undertaken in the recent past. > > According to Sedumadhavan, the authorities are even paying scant > attention on the safety of pilgrims. As many as 12,000 litres of > diesel are being stored just above the sannidhanam without any > storage licence or safety parameters. They are also keeping a large > number of crackers near the sanctum sanctoram without any safety > concern. The only solution on the part of Trvancore Devaswom Board > for all problems plaguing Sabarimala is denudation of nearby forests > and setting up new amenities. According to Rajan Gurukkal, such an > attempt would be disastrous as all the existing problems of > Sabarimala can be viwed as the after effect of deforestation. > > The devaswam board has already ruined about 55.09 ha of forestland in > the name of sabarimala development. In the opinion of > environmentalists, they demand more forests to cut and smuggle out > precious trees and construction of further concrete strctures with > ulterior motives. Maintaining the sanctity of the shrine and the > precious eco-system never appeared a priority before them. So far, > the devaswam board was constituted once in five years by nomination > of people with no administrative acumen at the behest of successive > governments. > > Rajan Gurukkal and his team at School of Social Sciences have > prepared a long-term action plan for saving Sabarimala from the > sequence of disasters in the offing. But the lobbies of corrupt and > communal elements are not allowing the devaswam to look into them. > Even the small step of Left Government in disbanding the existing > devaswam committee is being interpreted as an attempt by atheists to > interfere in Hindu religious matters. The move by left government to > appoint experts in place of politicians at the board also facing > opposition from Sangh Parivar organisations, who claim as custodians > of Hindu places of worship. > > The board and its corrupt administrators were not able to get their > hand on the forest so far due to stringent central acts and Supreme > Court rulings. But even the outgoing members are repeating their old > slogan of `no development in Sabarimala would be possible without > deforestation.' Unless the authorities change their attitude from a > revenue-centred approach to a pilgrim centred aprach, there is not > much hope. But they still repeat that development (read > deforestation) could not be stopped for the sake of a few birds and > animals. ``The board had neither faith in environmental protection > nor in religious sanctity,'' opines Rajan Gurukkal. > > Decongestion of base town Pampa by increasing facilities at a > relatively distant town of Nilakkal, demolition of unauthorised > concrete structures at Sannidhanam and Pampa, cleaning of the river, > better waste disposal facilities and provisions of basic facilities > for pilgrims without affecting ecology are the urgent needs of > Sabarimala. The tigers and elephants must be protected. > > If there is no mechanism to check the number of pilgrims, that would > increase to two to three crores within years. Moderate elements among > the Hindu community are favouring a statutory body for Sabarimala in > line with Tirumala-Thirupathy Devasthanam and Amarnath temple. Such a > body consisting of experts from different fields can change the > course of priorities of the forest temple. > > > ----------- > > 2. Amarnath Yatra: The Pilgrimage to Eco Disaster > Gautam Navlakha > http://www.kashmiraffairs.org/gautam_amarnath%20yatra.html > > Should one question the propriety of promoting pilgrimage in a > ecologically fragile area or wink at it in the name of devotees right > to free movement and worship? This question comes to mind when > looking at Amarnath Yatra especially the phenomenal increase in the > number of pilgrims. This increase is not of few hundred or few > thousand but runs into hundreds of thousands. There has been a > doubling of the period for pilgrimage from one month to two this year > as well as forty times increase in number of pilgrims, from 12,000 in > 1989 to 450,000 in 2005 (this year it is set to cross 500,000) are > cause for concern. In fact the actual period is longer because a > fortnight before the official yatra is reserved for army men and > their families to visit the Amarnath cave through ecologically more > vulnerable Baltal route. Moreover, in order to provide security for > pilgrims who come out in large number, the paramilitary forces have > to be deployed in large number. The current deployment will be in > excess of 20,000 for the entire period. Their presence and stay > cannot but affect the rise in pollution levels. Inclement weather too > is an issue because rains in the plain means snow in the higher > reaches. This results in crowding at the camps, straining services > including disposal of waste. But worse things can happen as in 1996 > when unexpected heavy snowfall resulted in death of 243 pilgrims and > injuries to hundred more due to avalanche. > > The State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), recently in a 37 page > report warns that generation of waste by pilgrims, absence of waste > disposal sites, open dumping of garbage, air pollution, sewage > generated by hotels, yatri camps and local residential areas makes > its way into Lidder river. The SPCB warned that waste generated by > pilgrims more than the local average and primarily contains plastics, > polythene and leftover food packets all along the route. According to > their calculation 55,000 kgs of plastic waste is generated every day > during the pilgrimage. Besides, thousands of open toilets erected > along the banks of Lidder river ensures that effluents enter the > river. Thousands of vehicles ply up and down the mountains around > Pahalgam all the way up to Chandanwari spewing carbon monoxide. The > Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), which came into existence on > February 21, 2001, has been dismissive of such claims. They assert > that 230 pre-fabricated toilets being raised in Nunwan base camp and > human waste disposal off in leach pits with micro-organism technology > using Bokaslin powder and other chemicals would take care of the > problem. However, the issue is more than the supposedly effective > modern methods to manage waste. The sheer presence of large mass of > people is a cause for concern. Department of Science and technology > through its principal investigator on glaciology has argued that "the > ecology, the environment and health of the glacier can be under > severe threat in case the Baltal route to the Holy Cave was > frequented by thousands of pilgrims". And pointed out that "depletion > and degradation (of glaciers) are the result of human breath, refuse > and land erosion". (The Tribune July 5, 2005). > > It is disconcerting to note that opening of Baltal route for pilgrims > on foot and those using helicopters has crossed several thousand > every day. Apart from the Department of Science and Technology of J&K > government even the Nitish Sengupta committee, which was constituted > to look into the deaths of 243 pilgrims in 1996 due to the snowstorm, > had recommended that number of yatris be restricted to 5000 per day > for a period of one month and the total number of pilgrims be capped > at1.5 lakhs. According to them Baltal route should allow 1500 > pilgrims and Pahalgam 3500 per day. However, the General JR Mukherjee > committee, which looked into the cause of death of 35 people, due to > cross fire, during the 2000 yatra, focussed on security arrangement > and wanted the duration of the yatra to increase as security scenario > improved. But neither report looked at the environmental impact of > the yatra. Thus when the SASB invokes the recommendations of the two > committees what it does is to use it selectively and link the number > of pilgrims to the issue of managing security for them. In this sense > they underplay the question whether the eco-system can bear heavy > influx of pilgrims. This emphasis on encouraging larger number of > pilgrims shows its impact on the environment in unexpected ways. Such > as the SASB contemplating "air conditioning" to preserve the shiva > lingam from melting. The recent controversy over the pilgrims > alleging that the SASB has been constructing the "snow lingam" is now > being passed off as due to change in the course of the water channels > after last year's earthquake and global warming. Without ruling this > out human contribution to this phenomenon cannot be ignored when > glaciers are rapidly receding. As a matter of fact yatra was never > undertaken in June precisely because formation of shiva lingam does > not always take place then. Incidentally the local people speak of > "human" intervention in restoring what is a natural phenomenon, as > something that has happened in the past too. This apart large number > of pilgrims means that going gets tough as one draws close to the > cave with traffic jam being the order of the day. At times pilgrims > have to wait for hours for their turn. Increase in dust in atmosphere > too is caused by crowds of people as well as helicopter service. The > dust raised is visible from long distance away. All this also means > that individual pilgrims, that is other than VIPs, are disallowed > from spending more than seconds inside the cave. Above all carbon > dioxide levels shoot up warming the area all around. > > It cannot be that the SASB is unaware of the environmental concerns. > If it receives short shrift it is because the yatra has come to > symbolise Indian government's determination to promote its claim in > J&K. That pilgrimage is being heralded as victory against a movement > demanding azadi from India is available in the news portal of Indian > government, Press Information Bureau. It says that "yearning for > moksha (salvation) can move the devotees to the challenging heights > of Kashmir and will be a fitting gesture of solidarity with our > valiant soldiers who have been fighting the enemy to defend our > borders". (pib.nic.in/feature/feo799/f1507992.html). Thus what is > otherwise merely a religious pilgrimage of the Hindus has been > elevated to represent a patriotic enterprise. Besides, the SASB is > headed by the Governor and his principal secretary is the CEO of the > SASB. Thus the Government of India is clearly in charge of organising > the yatra. And it is the SASB which has been pushing for larger and > larger numbers of pilgrims and challenging the right of the state > government from interfering in anyway with the schedule announced by > the SASB. > > It is true that not everyone who goes to Amarnath accepts this > association of religion with patriotism. But the fact of the matter > is that official perception of pilgrimage as patriotic duty has > allowed the communal fascist elements to join in organising their > supporters. Little wonder that frequency of conflict between section > of such 'pilgrims' and local population due to their obnoxious > behaviour has shown an increase. What is equally disconcerting is > that the SASB presided over by the Governor has also been engaged in > controversial transactions. The CEO of SASB is the principal > secretary to the Governor. Present CEO's wife, in her capacity of > Principal secretary forest department granted permission to SASB on > May 29, 2005 to use forest land. But this provision was not in > accordance with the provision of J&K Forest Conservation Act 1997 > and, therefore, the state government withdrew the order. However, > thanks to a stay order by a division bench of the J&K High Court the > withdrawal of permission to occupy forest land, was suspended. Any > visitor to Pahalgam can observe how this forest land is being cleared > to setup camps for the yatris. In fact now the SASB has asked the > state government to give them land in the radius of 5kms of the cave. > This arouses local passions precisely because Indian security forces > and other entities have transferred large tracts of land to house > camps for security force personnel, or for central projects, as well > as for schools which are run by army among others. Even a pro-Indian > National Conference party has protested such transfers of land since > 1989. Not very far from the camp for the pilgrims in Pahalgam, in > Lidru (opposite Kulan village) what locals describe as one of the > finest meadows, spread over 550 kanals (one kanal=one eighth of acre) > in area, has been given to the army to run a school! Local population > feels helpless at being unable to stop this. Therefore, when SASB > wants large tract of land transferred to it under the claim of > providing accommodation for lakhs of pilgrims it must be weighed > against this local concern. Were the numbers of pilgrims to be > brought down the pressing need for transferring large areas to SASB > or for providing carpet security and thus deployment of force, can be > brought down. > > This apart the SASB has also been involved in other controversial > acts. One such was the recent attempt by the SASB to bring down the > involvement of local people in the yatra. When on June 5, 2006 the > local pro-India Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) claimed that SASB was > ignoring livelihood of locals, the SASB countered by claiming that > such criticism would generate controversy and thus "jeopardise" > tourism in Kashmir. Quite apart from the fact that promotion of > pilgrimage for commerce flies in the face of proclaimed concern for > people's faith PDP pointed out that if local porters and ponywallahs > can strike work at Vaishnodevi Shrine against the (mis)management of > the Shri Vaishnodevi Shrine Board (SVDSB) and seek support from local > Congress leaders then what is wrong if local people from Pahalgam and > Kangan areas seek their help to protest against the practises of SASB > which discriminate against them. In fact the Pithoo Workers Union at > Katra have protested the suspension of six of their leaders, alleged > manhandling by SVDSB officials and demanded recall of its additional > CEO. Neither the Governor as head of SVDSB nor the Board issued any > statement chastising the Congress party! > > Arguably, when yatra was halted between 1991-96 due to threat of > section of the militants it played into the hands of the extreme > right wing elements in Indian society who have since then become an > integral part of mobilising large numbers of pilgrims. Thus a form of > competitive communalism came into play. Thus when section of the > militants represented earlier by Harkatul Ansar and now Lashkar-e- > Taiyyaba or Jaish-e-Mohammed threaten to disrupt the pilgrimage it > only gets the backs up of the devout Hindus opens them to vitriol of > the rabidly anti-Muslim Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Shiv Sena etc. > and accentuates the communal divide. However, it is equally important > to note the actual fact that more people have died in yatra due to > inclement weather and cross fire than at the hands of the militants. > Besides, the main indigenous militant organisation Hizbul Mujahideen > has always supported the yatra and has consistently demonstrated its > opposition towards those who have tried to disrupt the yatra. > Moreover, prior to constituting SASB the state government, local > people and social activists provided aid and assistance to the > pilgrims. However, threat of environmental damage has become a matter > of utmost concern because the central government under the cover of > SASB remains unrelenting in its pursuit of ever larger numbers to > come for pilgrimage. > > In a way the Amarnath yatra illustrates the way in which the Indian > government injects communalism in our body politic. And also > represents how secularism in India has been perverted to mean state > patronage of religion/s. This patronage is not equitably distributed > since Hindus outnumber others by more than eight times. Which is to > say that between un-equals equality ends up promoting Hindu religious > practises. In Amarnath yatra, in fact, the India government even > discarded its pretended neutrality by publicising the yatra as a > patriotic duty! Consequently, the likelihood of Amarnath pilgrimage > getting mired in controversy, over environmental damage and > eventually feeding into further alienation of people because they can > do little to save damage to their lived environment, has increased. > Trouble is the Indian government cares little for people and prefers > to pander to the extreme rightwing by projecting the yatra as a > patriotic enterprise to boost the morale of the Indian paramilitary > forces. The very same force which the local population regards as > symbol of their oppression. Thus a bigger mess is in the making right > before our own eyes. > --------------- > > Shuddhabrata Sengupta > The Sarai Programme at CSDS > Raqs Media Collective > shuddha at sarai.net > www.sarai.net > www.raqsmediacollective.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 pawan.durani at gmail.com Mon Jun 30 16:46:22 2008 From: pawan.durani at gmail.com (Pawan Durani) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:46:22 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] What Mughal Road didn't that shrine land-transfer plans did Message-ID: <6b79f1a70806300416p3a82303jba64103cd55edb0b@mail.gmail.com> *What Mughal Road didn't that shrine land-transfer plans did* ** http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=2&id=210771&usrsess=1 Kavita Suri JAMMU, June 29: Three years ago, when the then chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mufti Mohammed Sayeed decided to revive the centuries-old Mughal Road in the region, no one in Kashmir even uttered a single word on the massive destruction of environment in Pir Panjal mountain ranges of the Himalayas. The revival of the old Mughal Road which was once used by the great Mughals to travel to Kashmir from Lahore and its subsequent reconstruction ordered by Mufti Sayeed not only witnessed destruction of over 10,000 trees and 26 wild life sanctuaries but also fragmented the habitat of the highly-endangered wild Markhor goat. India is estimated to have a total population of only 300-200 of this species, which is found in southwest Kashmir's Hirpora, Lachipora and Limber wildlife sanctuaries falling on Mughal Road. Surprisingly, all the political parties remained silent over the issue of degradation of environment and destruction of the wild life sanctuaries due to the work on the Mughal Road. But when the Jammu and Kashmir government recently decided to transfer 40 hectares of forest land at Baltal and Domail for the proposed camping sites located on the right side of the Sindh River for the purpose of constructing temporary shelters for the Amarnath pilgrims, the political parties in Kashmir have opposed it tooth and nail on the pretext of environment degradation. The issue had deeply polarised the entire state. Politicians and other organisations in Jammu see it as a deliberate move to suppress Hindu identity and communalisation in the region. "When 10,000 trees were cut and the habitat of the wild Markhor destroyed for the reconstruction of the Mughal Road, no one said anything but when SASB wanted to set up temporary shelters for two months only, there was an uproar," Dr Nirmal Singh, member, national executive & former state president of the BJP said. The PDP, National Conference and other parties were playing with fire by communalising the whole issue of the Amarnath Yatra and opposing the decision to transfer 800 kanals of land to SASB for creating facilities for pilgrims, he added. To prevent environmental destruction due to the work on the Mughal Road, a Kashmir-based NGO, Bio-diversity Conservation Trust had gone to Supreme Court arguing that construction work would affect the region's biodiversity and the movement of wild animals, especially the Markhor goat. The Wild Markhor is on IUCN's Red List of highly endangered wild animals and is also named in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and the Jammu Kashmir Wildlife Protection Act, 1978 (amended in 2002). But in the case of SASB, the transfer of 800 kanals (40 hectares) of forest land was no issue at all. The Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board had assured the government that it would take all possible environmental safeguards in consultation with the State Pollution Control Board to ensure that no damage is caused to the ecology of the area. "The SASB camping sites did not involve any area of Thajwas Wild Life Sanctuary, which is located on the left side of River Sindh. The Shrine Board had to use prefabricated structures for the camping purpose of the pilgrims and would not have gone for construction of permanent structures," the Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad had pointed out. Raising a few pertinent questions, Dr Singh asked as to why no hue and cry was raised when the Mufti government transferred over 5,000 kanals of forest land to Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University at Rajouri which also affected the environment badly. No one uttered a single word then. "Besides, Sharda Peeth university project was scuttled whereas government gave free land to Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University project and also free land was transferred to Islamic University at Awantipora in South Kashmir," adds Dr Agnishekhar, president, Panun Kashmir. People in Jammu believe that all this points to the complete cleansing of the last vestiges of Hindu presence in the valley. "The protagonists of this vicious tirade dub the holy Amarnath Yatra as a cultural invasion of Kashmir affecting its ecology, cultural identity and demography. Whatever ecological damage Kashmir has suffered is as a result of illegal felling of trees by land mafia in connivance with corrupt administration over the years," said Dr Agnishekher adding the systematic reclamation of water bodies and continuous flow of waste materials into lakes like the famous Dal lake and uncontrolled construction activity has resulted in much more ecological damage than the Amarnath pilgrimage. "An environmental impact assessment report to the Jammu and Kashmir Pollution Control Board regarding the Mughal Road clearly said that it would cut through 67 hectares of the Hirpora sanctuary disturbing the habitat of the Markhor. The cutting of many trees would have a cascading effect on the associated biota. Besides, traffic on the road may cause death of many animals that utilise verge habitats or try to cross the road. The presence of motor vehicles may introduce the potential for contamination of soil, air and water adjacent to the road and in the case of surface water, well beyond the immediate surroundings. Chronic contamination may become a problem for animal species, especially those at the top of the food chain.why there was no public outcry then," asks Dr Agnishekher. From shuddha at sarai.net Mon Jun 30 18:08:05 2008 From: shuddha at sarai.net (Shuddhabrata Sengupta) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:08:05 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Amaranth Yatra In-Reply-To: <6b79f1a70806300414k66445bfai709f596b9ab8368d@mail.gmail.com> References: <6b79f1a70806300414k66445bfai709f596b9ab8368d@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <79BDBC00-FF66-4F16-A714-45DE6314B0C4@sarai.net> Dear Pawan, Just because a terrain does not have trees, or that the altitude it is located in happens to be above the treeline, does not mean that it is not ecologically sensitive. Often, it is precisely terrain of this nature, such as for instance is at the vicinity of the mouth of the Gomukh glacier above Gangotri, (again above the treeline) that is extremely fragile and needs very careful nurturing. I know for a fact that the ecosystem of the Gomukh glacial region is very badly threatened because of the completely haphazard way in which access to this region (and the logistics of pilgrimage and tourism) have been managed. I can very easily see that something similar can happen in the case of Amarnath. I would urge you not to make the discussion of this question into a 'Hindu' question. It is not one, it is about the way in which State managed, so called, 'Temple Development Boards', enter into schemes to grab land, and about the ecological consequences of their land- grabbing propensities. You might recall that some months back you tried to pose the question of the building of a shipping canal between India and Sri Lanka as a matter of hurting Hindu sentiments. I endorsed your opposition to the so called 'Sethu-Samudram Shipping Channel' scheme, because to me it represented a threat to a fragile marine ecosystem, not on the basis of its alleged injury to Hindu sentiments. I also pointed out to you and to others on the list that the protectors of Hindutva, while proposing a Panama Canal style waterway cutting through the apex of the Deccan peninsula as an alternative to the 'Sethu-Samudram' plan were also proposing what was certainly a blueprint for an ecological disaster. Here too, my opposition to the proposed Amarnath Land Grab scheme has nothing to do, either with the fact that Amarnath is a Hindu shrine, or that many of those opposing the scheme happen to be Muslim. You will notice, that not a single voice in opposition (in Kashmir) to the land grab scheme has said anything against the tradition of pilgrimage to the Amarnath shrine. Opposition to the proposed (and now rescinded) land grab proposal by the SASB in the Amarnath case does not automatically translate into partisanship across the Hindu-Muslim question in Kashmir. Those who translate it as such, whether they are Hindu, or Muslim, are needlessly confusing a straightforward matter by bringing their own secterian biases to bear on the issue. No one should be misled by such attempts at confusion. best Shuddha Shuddhabrata Sengupta The Sarai Programme at CSDS Raqs Media Collective shuddha at sarai.net www.sarai.net www.raqsmediacollective.net From mail at shivamvij.com Mon Jun 30 19:34:21 2008 From: mail at shivamvij.com (=?UTF-8?Q?Shivam_Vij?= =?UTF-8?Q?_=E0=A4=B6=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=AE?= =?UTF-8?Q?=E0=A5=8D_=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=9C=E0=A5=8D?=) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:34:21 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] TOI's "Private Treaties" In-Reply-To: <251143.1460.qm@web94711.mail.in2.yahoo.com> References: <872644.36341.qm@web8614.mail.in.yahoo.com> <251143.1460.qm@web94711.mail.in2.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <9c06aab30806300704v73359c92qececb3c778f01aba@mail.gmail.com> Those following this thread may want to read this illuminating interview: http://www.medianama.com/2008/06/223-there-are-two-currencies-for-advertising-cash-and-treaties-were-not-buying-to-sell-s-sivakumar-ceo-designate-times-private-treaties/ best shivam On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 9:45 AM, hasina hasan wrote: > i nearly totally agree with that. porn sells big bucks yes but i'm not so sure we aren't all drawn to it in one way or another. i'm not a 100% sure about porn but the pornification of news is not alright. > > anyway i wanted to add here: > i hail from the hospitality sector and had met with medianet which is toi's sibling concern, a couple years ago. around that time also was privy to the fact that one can (and must) pay one's way to being reviewed therein and in other many more bought and sought after papers. of course i was disillusioned. pop went my bubblegum hopes of there being anonymous reviewers and honest write ups. heh. anyway so with wider open eyes i chose to stick to the alternate forms of reviews..which is the people's voice. word of mouth works better and feels better than stinky treaties. insha allah i will be able to continue keeping a low profile and not approach them noisepapers ever again. > > > > > > > --- On Sun, 29/6/08, Namrata Kakkar wrote: > From: Namrata Kakkar > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] TOI's "Private Treaties" > To: b_a_r_u_k at yahoo.com > Cc: reader-list at sarai.net > Date: Sunday, 29 June, 2008, 1:30 AM > > Fluff is everywhere.The point is,any pornographic magazine in hard or soft > copies sells, are read or viewed more than TOI or anything else, does that mean > we those who aren't the porn audience or addicts, want pornography? > I don't think so. > > > --- On Tue, 24/6/08, Baruk S. Jacob wrote: > >> From: Baruk S. Jacob >> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] TOI's "Private Treaties" >> To: reader-list at sarai.net >> Date: Tuesday, 24 June, 2008, 11:22 PM >> > from what I've heard, this is nothin new for ToI. >> If anything this is a >> > corporate relationship that perfectly mirrors >> arrangements that have been >> > in place for years. >> >> thinking aloud: >> >> many people i meet talk of how the ToI content is full of >> fluff. i have also heard these accusations of their being >> driven solely by profit. what worries me, however, is the >> fact that they continue to be the largest selling newspaper >> in the world(?). that seems to suggest that we WANT this >> fluff, that we honestly do not care about the deals our >> newspapers make with business, about how the quality of the >> information we receive is being compromised. >> >> maybe this is what we WANT. and that's really scary. >> >> ~baruk >> >> http://bottlebroke.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: >> > > > Did you know? You can CHAT without downloading messenger. Go to > 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: > > > Explore your hobbies and interests. Go to http://in.promos.yahoo.com/groups/ > _________________________________________ > 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 mail at shivamvij.com Mon Jun 30 19:46:15 2008 From: mail at shivamvij.com (=?UTF-8?Q?Shivam_Vij?= =?UTF-8?Q?_=E0=A4=B6=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=AE?= =?UTF-8?Q?=E0=A5=8D_=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=9C=E0=A5=8D?=) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 19:46:15 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] What Mughal Road didn't that shrine land-transfer plans did In-Reply-To: <6b79f1a70806300416p3a82303jba64103cd55edb0b@mail.gmail.com> References: <6b79f1a70806300416p3a82303jba64103cd55edb0b@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <9c06aab30806300716i7992a64cv6077d1b35c0c37b3@mail.gmail.com> Thanks for posting this, Pawan. I think, as in the Sethusamudram project, the ecological issue is merely a political smokescreen. It is laughable when politicians suddenly remember ecology when it is politically convenient. So the separatists and the PDP in the Amarnath land case, and the BJP-VHP-RSS in the Sethusamudram case, do make for strange ecological bedfellows. I think that the least politicians can do in such cases is be honest about their politics, we would be able to appreciate them better. It does not help me appreciate your point of view when you suddenly show ecological concern when your only concern is the escalation of the New Delhi strategy to increase India's stake in the Valley. Even if your supporters and voters don't mind, ecologists would. best shivam On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 4:46 PM, Pawan Durani wrote: > *What Mughal Road didn't that shrine land-transfer plans did* > ** > http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=2&id=210771&usrsess=1 > > > Kavita Suri > JAMMU, June 29: Three years ago, when the then chief minister of Jammu and > Kashmir Mufti Mohammed Sayeed decided to revive the centuries-old Mughal > Road in the region, no one in Kashmir even uttered a single word on the > massive destruction of environment in Pir Panjal mountain ranges of the > Himalayas. > > > The revival of the old Mughal Road which was once used by the great Mughals > to travel to Kashmir from Lahore and its subsequent reconstruction ordered > by Mufti Sayeed not only witnessed destruction of over 10,000 trees and 26 > wild life sanctuaries but also fragmented the habitat of the > highly-endangered wild Markhor goat. India is estimated to have a total > population of only 300-200 of this species, which is found in southwest > Kashmir's Hirpora, Lachipora and Limber wildlife sanctuaries falling on > Mughal Road. > > > Surprisingly, all the political parties remained silent over the issue of > degradation of environment and destruction of the wild life sanctuaries due > to the work on the Mughal Road. > > > But when the Jammu and Kashmir government recently decided to transfer 40 > hectares of forest land at Baltal and Domail for the proposed camping sites > located on the right side of the Sindh River for the purpose of constructing > temporary shelters for the Amarnath pilgrims, the political parties in > Kashmir have opposed it tooth and nail on the pretext of environment > degradation. > > > The issue had deeply polarised the entire state. Politicians and other > organisations in Jammu see it as a deliberate move to suppress Hindu > identity and communalisation in the region. "When 10,000 trees were cut and > the habitat of the wild Markhor destroyed for the reconstruction of the > Mughal Road, no one said anything but when SASB wanted to set up temporary > shelters for two months only, there was an uproar," Dr Nirmal Singh, member, > national executive & former state president of the BJP said. > > > The PDP, National Conference and other parties were playing with fire by > communalising the whole issue of the Amarnath Yatra and opposing the > decision to transfer 800 kanals of land to SASB for creating facilities for > pilgrims, he added. To prevent environmental destruction due to the work on > the Mughal Road, a Kashmir-based NGO, Bio-diversity Conservation Trust had > gone to Supreme Court arguing that construction work would affect the > region's biodiversity and the movement of wild animals, especially the > Markhor goat. > > > The Wild Markhor is on IUCN's Red List of highly endangered wild animals and > is also named in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and the > Jammu Kashmir Wildlife Protection Act, 1978 (amended in 2002). > > > But in the case of SASB, the transfer of 800 kanals (40 hectares) of forest > land was no issue at all. The Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board had assured the > government that it would take all possible environmental safeguards in > consultation with the State Pollution Control Board to ensure that no damage > is caused to the ecology of the area. "The SASB camping sites did not > involve any area of Thajwas Wild Life Sanctuary, which is located on the > left side of River Sindh. The Shrine Board had to use prefabricated > structures for the camping purpose of the pilgrims and would not have gone > for construction of permanent structures," the Jammu and Kashmir chief > minister Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad had pointed out. > > > Raising a few pertinent questions, Dr Singh asked as to why no hue and cry > was raised when the Mufti government transferred over 5,000 kanals of forest > land to Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University at Rajouri which also affected > the environment badly. No one uttered a single word then. > > > "Besides, Sharda Peeth university project was scuttled whereas government > gave free land to Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University project and also free > land was transferred to Islamic University at Awantipora in South Kashmir," > adds Dr Agnishekhar, president, Panun Kashmir. People in Jammu believe that > all this points to the complete cleansing of the last vestiges of Hindu > presence in the valley. > > > "The protagonists of this vicious tirade dub the holy Amarnath Yatra as a > cultural invasion of Kashmir affecting its ecology, cultural identity and > demography. Whatever ecological damage Kashmir has suffered is as a result > of illegal felling of trees by land mafia in connivance with corrupt > administration over the years," said Dr Agnishekher adding the systematic > reclamation of water bodies and continuous flow of waste materials into > lakes like the famous Dal lake and uncontrolled construction activity has > resulted in much more ecological damage than the Amarnath pilgrimage. > > > "An environmental impact assessment report to the Jammu and Kashmir > Pollution Control Board regarding the Mughal Road clearly said that it would > cut through 67 hectares of the Hirpora sanctuary disturbing the habitat of > the Markhor. The cutting of many trees would have a cascading effect on the > associated biota. Besides, traffic on the road may cause death of many > animals that utilise verge habitats or try to cross the road. The presence > of motor vehicles may introduce the potential for contamination of soil, air > and water adjacent to the road and in the case of surface water, well beyond > the immediate surroundings. Chronic contamination may become a problem for > animal species, especially those at the top of the food chain.why there was > no public outcry then," asks Dr Agnishekher. > _________________________________________ > 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 pawan.durani at gmail.com Mon Jun 30 21:11:20 2008 From: pawan.durani at gmail.com (Pawan Durani) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:11:20 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] What Mughal Road didn't that shrine land-transfer plans did In-Reply-To: <9c06aab30806300716i7992a64cv6077d1b35c0c37b3@mail.gmail.com> References: <6b79f1a70806300416p3a82303jba64103cd55edb0b@mail.gmail.com> <9c06aab30806300716i7992a64cv6077d1b35c0c37b3@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <6b79f1a70806300841r51be1ca1q101f6bcad4c906f3@mail.gmail.com> Dear Friend Shivam , I hope you would learn to identify between my views and the views I have posted with proper credit to the source. The story proves a point that for people of Kashmir , ecology is a non issue ..but providing facilities for hindu pligrim is a pain . Pawan On 6/30/08, Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् wrote: > > Thanks for posting this, Pawan. I think, as in the Sethusamudram > project, the ecological issue is merely a political smokescreen. It is > laughable when politicians suddenly remember ecology when it is > politically convenient. So the separatists and the PDP in the Amarnath > land case, and the BJP-VHP-RSS in the Sethusamudram case, do make for > strange ecological bedfellows. > > I think that the least politicians can do in such cases is be honest > about their politics, we would be able to appreciate them better. It > does not help me appreciate your point of view when you suddenly show > ecological concern when your only concern is the escalation of the > New Delhi strategy to increase India's stake in the Valley. Even if > your supporters and voters don't mind, ecologists would. > > best > shivam > > On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 4:46 PM, Pawan Durani > wrote: > > *What Mughal Road didn't that shrine land-transfer plans did* > > ** > > http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=2&id=210771&usrsess=1 > > > > > > Kavita Suri > > JAMMU, June 29: Three years ago, when the then chief minister of Jammu > and > > Kashmir Mufti Mohammed Sayeed decided to revive the centuries-old Mughal > > Road in the region, no one in Kashmir even uttered a single word on the > > massive destruction of environment in Pir Panjal mountain ranges of the > > Himalayas. > > > > > > The revival of the old Mughal Road which was once used by the great > Mughals > > to travel to Kashmir from Lahore and its subsequent reconstruction > ordered > > by Mufti Sayeed not only witnessed destruction of over 10,000 trees and > 26 > > wild life sanctuaries but also fragmented the habitat of the > > highly-endangered wild Markhor goat. India is estimated to have a total > > population of only 300-200 of this species, which is found in southwest > > Kashmir's Hirpora, Lachipora and Limber wildlife sanctuaries falling on > > Mughal Road. > > > > > > Surprisingly, all the political parties remained silent over the issue of > > degradation of environment and destruction of the wild life sanctuaries > due > > to the work on the Mughal Road. > > > > > > But when the Jammu and Kashmir government recently decided to transfer 40 > > hectares of forest land at Baltal and Domail for the proposed camping > sites > > located on the right side of the Sindh River for the purpose of > constructing > > temporary shelters for the Amarnath pilgrims, the political parties in > > Kashmir have opposed it tooth and nail on the pretext of environment > > degradation. > > > > > > The issue had deeply polarised the entire state. Politicians and other > > organisations in Jammu see it as a deliberate move to suppress Hindu > > identity and communalisation in the region. "When 10,000 trees were cut > and > > the habitat of the wild Markhor destroyed for the reconstruction of the > > Mughal Road, no one said anything but when SASB wanted to set up > temporary > > shelters for two months only, there was an uproar," Dr Nirmal Singh, > member, > > national executive & former state president of the BJP said. > > > > > > The PDP, National Conference and other parties were playing with fire by > > communalising the whole issue of the Amarnath Yatra and opposing the > > decision to transfer 800 kanals of land to SASB for creating facilities > for > > pilgrims, he added. To prevent environmental destruction due to the work > on > > the Mughal Road, a Kashmir-based NGO, Bio-diversity Conservation Trust > had > > gone to Supreme Court arguing that construction work would affect the > > region's biodiversity and the movement of wild animals, especially the > > Markhor goat. > > > > > > The Wild Markhor is on IUCN's Red List of highly endangered wild animals > and > > is also named in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and the > > Jammu Kashmir Wildlife Protection Act, 1978 (amended in 2002). > > > > > > But in the case of SASB, the transfer of 800 kanals (40 hectares) of > forest > > land was no issue at all. The Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board had assured > the > > government that it would take all possible environmental safeguards in > > consultation with the State Pollution Control Board to ensure that no > damage > > is caused to the ecology of the area. "The SASB camping sites did not > > involve any area of Thajwas Wild Life Sanctuary, which is located on the > > left side of River Sindh. The Shrine Board had to use prefabricated > > structures for the camping purpose of the pilgrims and would not have > gone > > for construction of permanent structures," the Jammu and Kashmir chief > > minister Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad had pointed out. > > > > > > Raising a few pertinent questions, Dr Singh asked as to why no hue and > cry > > was raised when the Mufti government transferred over 5,000 kanals of > forest > > land to Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University at Rajouri which also > affected > > the environment badly. No one uttered a single word then. > > > > > > "Besides, Sharda Peeth university project was scuttled whereas government > > gave free land to Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University project and also > free > > land was transferred to Islamic University at Awantipora in South > Kashmir," > > adds Dr Agnishekhar, president, Panun Kashmir. People in Jammu believe > that > > all this points to the complete cleansing of the last vestiges of Hindu > > presence in the valley. > > > > > > "The protagonists of this vicious tirade dub the holy Amarnath Yatra as a > > cultural invasion of Kashmir affecting its ecology, cultural identity and > > demography. Whatever ecological damage Kashmir has suffered is as a > result > > of illegal felling of trees by land mafia in connivance with corrupt > > administration over the years," said Dr Agnishekher adding the systematic > > reclamation of water bodies and continuous flow of waste materials into > > lakes like the famous Dal lake and uncontrolled construction activity has > > resulted in much more ecological damage than the Amarnath pilgrimage. > > > > > > "An environmental impact assessment report to the Jammu and Kashmir > > Pollution Control Board regarding the Mughal Road clearly said that it > would > > cut through 67 hectares of the Hirpora sanctuary disturbing the habitat > of > > the Markhor. The cutting of many trees would have a cascading effect on > the > > associated biota. Besides, traffic on the road may cause death of many > > animals that utilise verge habitats or try to cross the road. The > presence > > of motor vehicles may introduce the potential for contamination of soil, > air > > and water adjacent to the road and in the case of surface water, well > beyond > > the immediate surroundings. Chronic contamination may become a problem > for > > animal species, especially those at the top of the food chain.why there > was > > no public outcry then," asks Dr Agnishekher. > > _________________________________________ > > 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 mail at shivamvij.com Mon Jun 30 21:22:38 2008 From: mail at shivamvij.com (=?UTF-8?Q?Shivam_Vij?= =?UTF-8?Q?_=E0=A4=B6=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=AE?= =?UTF-8?Q?=E0=A5=8D_=E0=A4=B5=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=9C=E0=A5=8D?=) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:22:38 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] What Mughal Road didn't that shrine land-transfer plans did In-Reply-To: <6b79f1a70806300841r51be1ca1q101f6bcad4c906f3@mail.gmail.com> References: <6b79f1a70806300416p3a82303jba64103cd55edb0b@mail.gmail.com> <9c06aab30806300716i7992a64cv6077d1b35c0c37b3@mail.gmail.com> <6b79f1a70806300841r51be1ca1q101f6bcad4c906f3@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <9c06aab30806300852q59d59371o22cff84a60563cb2@mail.gmail.com> Dear Pawan, I was commenting on the article, I didn't even know your views. best shivam On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 9:11 PM, Pawan Durani wrote: > Dear Friend Shivam , > > I hope you would learn to identify between my views and the views I have > posted with proper credit to the source. > > The story proves a point that for people of Kashmir , ecology is a non > issue ..but providing facilities for hindu pligrim is a pain . > > > Pawan > > > > On 6/30/08, Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् wrote: >> >> Thanks for posting this, Pawan. I think, as in the Sethusamudram >> project, the ecological issue is merely a political smokescreen. It is >> laughable when politicians suddenly remember ecology when it is >> politically convenient. So the separatists and the PDP in the Amarnath >> land case, and the BJP-VHP-RSS in the Sethusamudram case, do make for >> strange ecological bedfellows. >> >> I think that the least politicians can do in such cases is be honest >> about their politics, we would be able to appreciate them better. It >> does not help me appreciate your point of view when you suddenly show >> ecological concern when your only concern is the escalation of the >> New Delhi strategy to increase India's stake in the Valley. Even if >> your supporters and voters don't mind, ecologists would. >> >> best >> shivam >> >> On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 4:46 PM, Pawan Durani >> wrote: >> > *What Mughal Road didn't that shrine land-transfer plans did* >> > ** >> > http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=2&id=210771&usrsess=1 >> > >> > >> > Kavita Suri >> > JAMMU, June 29: Three years ago, when the then chief minister of Jammu >> and >> > Kashmir Mufti Mohammed Sayeed decided to revive the centuries-old Mughal >> > Road in the region, no one in Kashmir even uttered a single word on the >> > massive destruction of environment in Pir Panjal mountain ranges of the >> > Himalayas. >> > >> > >> > The revival of the old Mughal Road which was once used by the great >> Mughals >> > to travel to Kashmir from Lahore and its subsequent reconstruction >> ordered >> > by Mufti Sayeed not only witnessed destruction of over 10,000 trees and >> 26 >> > wild life sanctuaries but also fragmented the habitat of the >> > highly-endangered wild Markhor goat. India is estimated to have a total >> > population of only 300-200 of this species, which is found in southwest >> > Kashmir's Hirpora, Lachipora and Limber wildlife sanctuaries falling on >> > Mughal Road. >> > >> > >> > Surprisingly, all the political parties remained silent over the issue >> of >> > degradation of environment and destruction of the wild life sanctuaries >> due >> > to the work on the Mughal Road. >> > >> > >> > But when the Jammu and Kashmir government recently decided to transfer >> 40 >> > hectares of forest land at Baltal and Domail for the proposed camping >> sites >> > located on the right side of the Sindh River for the purpose of >> constructing >> > temporary shelters for the Amarnath pilgrims, the political parties in >> > Kashmir have opposed it tooth and nail on the pretext of environment >> > degradation. >> > >> > >> > The issue had deeply polarised the entire state. Politicians and other >> > organisations in Jammu see it as a deliberate move to suppress Hindu >> > identity and communalisation in the region. "When 10,000 trees were cut >> and >> > the habitat of the wild Markhor destroyed for the reconstruction of the >> > Mughal Road, no one said anything but when SASB wanted to set up >> temporary >> > shelters for two months only, there was an uproar," Dr Nirmal Singh, >> member, >> > national executive & former state president of the BJP said. >> > >> > >> > The PDP, National Conference and other parties were playing with fire by >> > communalising the whole issue of the Amarnath Yatra and opposing the >> > decision to transfer 800 kanals of land to SASB for creating facilities >> for >> > pilgrims, he added. To prevent environmental destruction due to the work >> on >> > the Mughal Road, a Kashmir-based NGO, Bio-diversity Conservation Trust >> had >> > gone to Supreme Court arguing that construction work would affect the >> > region's biodiversity and the movement of wild animals, especially the >> > Markhor goat. >> > >> > >> > The Wild Markhor is on IUCN's Red List of highly endangered wild animals >> and >> > is also named in Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and >> the >> > Jammu Kashmir Wildlife Protection Act, 1978 (amended in 2002). >> > >> > >> > But in the case of SASB, the transfer of 800 kanals (40 hectares) of >> forest >> > land was no issue at all. The Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board had assured >> the >> > government that it would take all possible environmental safeguards in >> > consultation with the State Pollution Control Board to ensure that no >> damage >> > is caused to the ecology of the area. "The SASB camping sites did not >> > involve any area of Thajwas Wild Life Sanctuary, which is located on the >> > left side of River Sindh. The Shrine Board had to use prefabricated >> > structures for the camping purpose of the pilgrims and would not have >> gone >> > for construction of permanent structures," the Jammu and Kashmir chief >> > minister Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad had pointed out. >> > >> > >> > Raising a few pertinent questions, Dr Singh asked as to why no hue and >> cry >> > was raised when the Mufti government transferred over 5,000 kanals of >> forest >> > land to Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University at Rajouri which also >> affected >> > the environment badly. No one uttered a single word then. >> > >> > >> > "Besides, Sharda Peeth university project was scuttled whereas >> government >> > gave free land to Baba Ghulam Shah Badshah University project and also >> free >> > land was transferred to Islamic University at Awantipora in South >> Kashmir," >> > adds Dr Agnishekhar, president, Panun Kashmir. People in Jammu believe >> that >> > all this points to the complete cleansing of the last vestiges of Hindu >> > presence in the valley. >> > >> > >> > "The protagonists of this vicious tirade dub the holy Amarnath Yatra as >> a >> > cultural invasion of Kashmir affecting its ecology, cultural identity >> and >> > demography. Whatever ecological damage Kashmir has suffered is as a >> result >> > of illegal felling of trees by land mafia in connivance with corrupt >> > administration over the years," said Dr Agnishekher adding the >> systematic >> > reclamation of water bodies and continuous flow of waste materials into >> > lakes like the famous Dal lake and uncontrolled construction activity >> has >> > resulted in much more ecological damage than the Amarnath pilgrimage. >> > >> > >> > "An environmental impact assessment report to the Jammu and Kashmir >> > Pollution Control Board regarding the Mughal Road clearly said that it >> would >> > cut through 67 hectares of the Hirpora sanctuary disturbing the habitat >> of >> > the Markhor. The cutting of many trees would have a cascading effect on >> the >> > associated biota. Besides, traffic on the road may cause death of many >> > animals that utilise verge habitats or try to cross the road. The >> presence >> > of motor vehicles may introduce the potential for contamination of soil, >> air >> > and water adjacent to the road and in the case of surface water, well >> beyond >> > the immediate surroundings. Chronic contamination may become a problem >> for >> > animal species, especially those at the top of the food chain.why there >> was >> > no public outcry then," asks Dr Agnishekher. >> > _________________________________________ >> > 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 pawan.durani at gmail.com Mon Jun 30 21:24:56 2008 From: pawan.durani at gmail.com (Pawan Durani) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:24:56 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Amaranth Yatra In-Reply-To: <63FC64B5-4517-42C5-BC2C-55E4FF5B4BDE@sarai.net> References: <6b79f1a70806300414k66445bfai709f596b9ab8368d@mail.gmail.com> <63FC64B5-4517-42C5-BC2C-55E4FF5B4BDE@sarai.net> Message-ID: <6b79f1a70806300854w547d1e45v989f78a8954d4899@mail.gmail.com> Dear Shuddha , While I may trust your belief in ecological fallout , i completely disagree with your understanding that the issue is not about the resentment towards hindu pligrims. It is all about that , non tolerance towards so called hindus or what they love to call...."Kufr". Pawan On 6/30/08, Shuddhabrata Sengupta wrote: > > Dear Pawan, > > > Just because a terrain does not have trees, or that the altitude it is > located in happens to be above the treeline, does not mean that it is not > ecologically sensitive. > > Often, it is precisely terrain of this nature, such as for instance is at > the vicinity of the mouth of the Gomukh glacier above Gangotri,(again above > the treeline) that is extremely fragile and needs very careful nurturing. > > > I know for a fact that the ecosystem of the Gomukh glacial region is very > badly threatened because of the completely haphazard way in which access to > this region (and the logistics of pilgrimage and tourism) has been managed. > I can very easily see that something similar can happen in the case of > Amarnath. > > > I would urge you not to make the discussion of this question into a 'Hindu' > question. It is not one, it is about the way in which State managed, so > called, 'Temple Development Boards', enter into schemes to grab land, and > about the ecological consequences of their land-grabbing propensities. > > > You might recall that some months back you tried to pose the question of > the building of a shipping canal between India and Sri Lanka as a matter of > hurting Hindu sentiments. I endorsed your opposition to the so called > 'Sethu-Samudram Shipping Channel' scheme, because to me it represented a > threat to a fragile marine ecosystem, not on the basis of its alleged injury > to Hindu sentiments. I also pointed out to you and to others on the list > that the protectors of Hindutva, while proposing a Panama Canal style > waterway cutting through the apex of the Deccan peninsula as an alternative > to the 'Sethu-Samudram' plan were also proposing what was certainly a > blueprint for an ecological disaster. > > > Opposition to the proposed (and now rescinded) land grab proposal by the > SASB in the Amarnath case does not automatically translate into partisanship > across the Hindu-Muslim question in Kashmir. Those who translate it as such, > whether they are Hindu, or Muslim, are needlessly confusing a > straightforward matter by bringing their own secterian biases to bear on the > issue. No one should be misled by such attempts at confusion. > > > best > > > Shuddha > > > > > On 30-Jun-08, at 4:44 PM, Pawan Durani wrote: > > Hello Shuddha , > > > Lemme just inform everyone that , the land may have belonged to Forest > > Department , but there is no single tree over there. > > > Even when you reach Amarntah , there are no trees over there , becuase of > > high altitude. > > > I visited the site, Baltal , two years back. > > > Unfortunately the issue is not about ecology ..... the way it has been > > treated is a pure indicator that anything related to Hindus is not > tolerable > > in Kashmir, and proves once again that it is not "freedom" but Islamic > > fanaticism which rules the shot in Kashmir. > > > > Pawan > > > > On 6/30/08, Shuddhabrata Sengupta wrote: > > > Dear Sonia, Dear Rashneek, dear all, > > > Thank you, Sonia and Rashneek for the debate on the Amarnath Yatra > > issue. The question of temple boards and their closeness to power, > > and their lust for acquiring forest lands is not unique to Kashmir. > > It also happens, as you will see below, (see the report - Sabarimala: > > The Faith in Spate, by K.A. Shaji) in distant Kerala. The ruling left > > front government in Kerala is as involved in this game as anyone > > else, because 'Temple Boards' are gold-mines and no state government > > wants to close an operation that earns them the gold that can be > > mined in these gold mines. I am appending below a report on the > > question of the Sabarimala Temple boards desire for even more > > reserved forest land. The story is remarkably resonant of the > > Amarnath issue. A local, highly culturally specific, syncretic > > pilgrimage turning into the road-show of a revivalist 'Hinduism', > > with lucrative revenue spin-offs. > > > I live in an area in Delhi where I have witnessed every year, for the > > past few years - 'Chalo Amarnath Chalo' (Let's go to Amarnath) > > posters and banners being put up by local RSS functionaries. And > > there are active fundraising drives which culminate in a cavalcade of > > Tata Sumos with the local 'Youth' blaring 'bhajans' from their > > booming auto-sound systems taking off to go do 'darshan' of the > > melting lingam. I don't think they (the Sumo Pilgrims of my > > neighbourhood) really care whether or not the forests of Kashmir go > > up in smoke. > > > I also know that the Sabarimala pilgrimage has been twisted out of > > shape in a similar way, both by Hindutva enthusiasts, and by > > construction contractors close to the ruling Left Front. Fragile > > forests can barely sustain the burden of so much sudden faith. > > > Incidentally, revivalist Hindus are by no means alone in their > > disregard for the local heritage and environment. The ruling > > dispensation in Saudi Arabia has effectively turned the pilgrimage > > sites of Mecca and Medina into an air-conditioned cultural wasteland. > > it has systematically destroyed shrines that were considered holy by > > millions of Muslim pilgrims, especially from South Asia, and > > completely transformed the intricate urban fabric of Mecca and > > Medina. There is a long history of protest, including in India, by > > Muslims against the way in which the Saudi Government, in cohorts > > with the Wahabi establishment has wrecked the topography of Mecca and > > Medina. Similarly, the Israeli state's policy of expansion, through > > settlements, and building high security segregated roads that cut > > through the west bank of the Jordan river are often camouflaged under > > an appeal to scriptural sanction for 'Greater' or 'Eretz' Israel. > > There is a great deal of money to be made in pilgrimage, and it > > affords everybody an opportunity to make some quick transformations > > of the landscape in the name of 'infrastructure development' and > > 'settlement' , both of which are euphemisms for speculation in real > > estate. > > > I am also appending a detailed report on the environmental impact of > > what was proposed by the erstwhile governor Gen (Retd) Sinha of Jammu > > and Kashmir for the Amarnath Yatra by Gautam Navlakha that appeared > > recently in the website of a journal called Kashmir Affairs. Finally, > > it is not my case that the acquisition of land for the Amarnath Board > > (SASB) is wrong, and the acquisition of land for the so-called > > 'Mughal Road', which has been pointed out by Aditya Raj Kaul, in a > > recent post is wrong. Both are equally disastrous from the > > environmental point of view. And the silence of political formations > > (of all persuasions) on the environmental impact of the revived > > Mughal Road and their recent discovery of environmentalism (in the > > case of the Amarnath land transfer issue) does make their commitment > > to environmentalism somewhat suspect. The PDP's stance is > > particularly hypocritical, as the original decision has been ratified > > by its own minister, (for Forest) in the (Indian Held) J&K state > > government. Still, even if the commitment of all the protagonists is > > suspect, I must say that I have rarely seen a popular movement > > reverse a state-driven decision on an 'environmental' issue, and the > > recent success of the agitation in Kashmir (whatever be the motives > > that impelled it) which has resulted in a reversal of the Land > > Transfer issue is something to be grateful for. > > > These are issues that need to be seen quite separately from secterian > > concerns. I hope this debate can help us see them in that way. > > > best > > > Shuddha > > ------------------- > > > 1. Sabarimala: The Faith in Spate > > by K A Shaji > > > http://www.boloji.com/society/115.htm > > > Legend has it that when Lord Ayyappa set out to seek solitude, he > > settled upon Sabarimala. Its sylvan surroundings and undulating > > terrain had made it an ideal retreat for the bachelor god. The > > pristine monsoon forests had wrapped like an ornament around his > > hermitage at the top of the hill. The Lord believed to have called > > the area with tranquil atmosphere as his poonkavanam (sacred forest). > > > A shrine inside the forest and a deity who chose the calm ambience of > > hills and valleys has few parallels in the country and outside. But > > now, it seems, all of the glories of Sabarimala were a thing of the > > past. When mythology meets present-day reality, Sabarimala is no more > > a chosen abode of the hermit God. During January-February each year, > > more than 50 million devotees, as claimed by the temple authorities, > > are thronging this forest temple for annual pilgrimage, putting the > > fragile ecology of the region under severe stress. Now, the holy hill > > is a synonym of increasing inflow of pilgrims, inadequate > > infrastructure, a devastated environment and a hapless wildlife. > > > While the entire hill and the adjacent river Pampa, the third largest > > river in Kerala, are stinking due to sewage pollution and > > accumulation of garbage, the situation is not much different in the > > administrative and spiritual circles of the hill shrine. First, it > > was a controversy involving Kannada film actress Jayamala and a group > > of orthodox Hindus, who questioned her claim of touching the idol of > > the bachelor god defying the barricades meant for preventing sexually > > active women from entering the hill shrine. Then one of the highly > > revered traditional priests of the temple was robbed of a large > > amount of money and gold ornaments during his visit to the house of a > > woman engaged in flesh trade by a mafia gang. And now, it is the turn > > of aged father of a senior priest to allege that his son is under > > influence of a powerful Ezhava community leader with shadowy nature > > and the leader's followers are using his son to pocket the temple > > money. In the meantime, the Left Front Government has disbanded the > > existing administrative body of the temple citing corruption at high > > level and is preparing to enact a legislation to keep the corrupt > > community leaders out of the administrative body forever. > > > On monetary grounds, the temple is the third largest in the country, > > standing very close to Tirupathi and Guruvayur. The cash-strapped > > Kerala Government, despite its leftist moorings, is depending very > > much on the income from the temple to meet salary needs of its > > employees. In order to increase the revenue, the successive > > governments and the so-called proponents of development are > > vociferous of implementing multi-crore construction plans in > > Sabarimala clearing forests and building a concrete jungle in its > > place. But nobody in the spiritual and administrative levels of the > > temple as well as the government establishment are apprehensive of > > the increasing level of pollution and the extreme level of > > deforestation. Their focus is entangled only in the growing number of > > controversies and the commissions to be available after the beginning > > of the construction work. > > > Located about 467 metres above sea level, the Sabarimala temple is > > surrounded by 18 hills and situated inside Periyar Tiger Reserve, one > > of the few safe havens for tigers in the country. According to bird > > watcher B.Sethumadhavan, as many as 2000 species of flowering plants, > > endemic and medicinal, have been identified among the region's flora. > > `` About 63 species of mammals, some of them endangered like tigers, > > elephants and lion tailed macaque live here. So far, 223 species of > > birds and 45 species of reptiles including King Cobra have been > > identified in this area,'' he said. The ever- expanding number of > > pilgrims and mindless construction works are posing severe threat to > > their very survival. Devotees of a Lord, who believed to have loved > > the flora and fauna and their safekeeping, are now on a rampage in > > the name of development forcing the wildlife to move out of their > > traditional habitat. > > > As per legends, the vehicle of Lord Ayyappa is tiger. But, > > astonishingly, neither the tiger nor the surrounding evergreen > > forests do not come in the list of priorities before the |Travancore > > Devaswam Board, which administers the shrine. ``There was an increase > > of 35 per cent in revenue while comparing with last year during the > > November-December period. In the number of visitors, the increase is > > of 19 per cent. These figures show the need for immediate > > developmental works in Sabarimala. But there are agencies like Forest > > Department which cry for tigers and forests,'' alleges G.Raman Nair, > > outgoing president of the board. > > > However, environmentalists and forest officials are countering the > > allegation. ``The development works so far at Pampa have made it > > impossible a soul-filling holy dip in river Pampa. At least, two > > scientific studies conducted by Government's own agencies had found > > that landslips and tremors would take place at the holy hillock any > > time largely because of the extensive concrete flooring at the temple > > premises. The devaswam is only interested in money making. It has no > > concern for the impending dangers for both nature and devotees,'' > > pointed out Sumesh Mangalassery, a member of the environmental group > > Kabani. > > > According to Sumesh, a panel of Kerala Legislature on environment led > > by RSP leader A V Thamarakshan had submitted 32 proposals to the > > Devaswam Board to protect Sabarimala around five years back. But none > > of them were acceptable to the board. Even the suggestions of Kerala > > State Pollution Control Board to minimise the pollution of river > > Pampa were paid scant regard by the board. A visit by Tehelka to > > Sabarimala found that river Pampa continues to remain the main victim > > of the callous attitude of the authorities. It gets choked in the > > temple area as solid waste including human excreta; plastic bags, > > empty water bottles and coconut husks block the free flow of water. > > About 35 million people took a holy dip in the river between November > > and January, which is the major source of drinking water for three > > districts. > > > According to a study by the pollution control board, the total > > coliform count recorded at the river portion close to Sabarimala is > > about 1,14,000 per 100 millilitres (ML) during the peak of > > pilgrimage. Just before the pilgrimage season, it is merely 380 per > > 100 ml- well below the permissible limits of 500 per 100 ml. > > According to local people, the overflow of human faeces from sceptic > > tanks around the temple stands the major reason of the pollution of > > the river. ``More than 3,000 temporary toilets are functioning close > > to the temple in addition to about 600 permanent toilets. The > > capacity of the sewerage treatment plant is very limited,'' pointed > > out K.Anirudhan of Sabarimala Samrakshana Samithy. > > > Most of the experts, who had conducted studies on the pollution and > > environmental problems prevailing in Sabarimala, point to the need of > > regulating the ever- increasing number of pilgrims. ``Sabarimala is > > bursting at the seams with millions of devotees now. Thirty or forty > > years ago, only around 50,000 pilgrims visited the temple. Today, the > > number is fifty million and is rising at the rate of 20 per cent > > every year. The ever-swelling flow resulted in a major mishap on > > January 14, 1999, when 100 pilgrims died in a stampede at the site. > > Indications are that Sabarimala is a disaster waiting to be happen,'' > > warns noted Kerala based environmentalist P K Uthaman. According to > > him, almost two thousand tonnes of human waste are deposited in crude > > earth pits and outside in Sabarimala every year. These wastes are > > finding their way into not only the river Pampa but also to river > > Periyar by underground as well as over ground rivulets, posing a > > threat great health hazard for the pilgrims as well as those living > > downstream. > > > In addition, the lack of post pilgrimage cleaning drives often result > > in unabated flow of hazardous waste into the rivers. The temple area > > has already been converted into a concrete jungle where guesthouses > > and other structures are constructed haphazardly all around. They are > > meant for temple officials, priests, VVIPs and police personnel. > > According to M.Gopal, a pilgrim from Bangalore who visited Sabarimala > > this year, human excreta and plastic waste were found strewn just > > outside the Sannidhanam (the main building of the temple). As per > > data available from forest department, over 2.5 lakh empty plastic > > bottles of packaged water were collected from inside the tiger > > reserve. The number of tetra packs collected would come around 4.5 > > lakh. The temple complex of the hermit, who believed in renunciation > > of earthly attractions, is now filled with commercial shops selling > > products ranging from gold ornaments to dress materials. All these > > shops were constructed by clearing forests. > > > ``The total time available for darsan as of now is a total of 1431 > > hours, i.e. 515160 seconds. If a darsan goes on one at a time basis > > and a devotee gets a second, the total strength of the pilgrims can > > only be 5,15, 160 per year. If ten people could somehow cluster > > together per second for darsan, the maximum number would be > > 51,51,600,'' points out a document prepared by |School of Social > > Sciences at Mahatma Gandhi University on behalf of Kerla Forest > > Department. The document also questions the claims of the board that > > over 50 million people visit the temple annually. But anyway, the > > number of pilgrims' visting Sabarimala is many times more than its > > capacity. > > > ``The authorities must find out some mechanism to regulate the > > alarming increase in the number of pilgrims. Sabarimala is not only > > an environmental but also a social disaster,'' opined Dr.Rajan > > Gurukkal of School of Social Sciences. Now a day, the uncontrolled > > flow of pilgrims from various entry points is resulting in people > > swarming all around the protected sanctuary leading to man –animal > > conflicts. Recently, an elephant trampled upon one pilgrim. Then it > > was found that the pilgrims were sleeping in the corridor used by the > > elephants for going to the river to drink water at the night. A large > > number of such corridors were already disrupted due to the > > construction works undertaken in the recent past. > > > According to Sedumadhavan, the authorities are even paying scant > > attention on the safety of pilgrims. As many as 12,000 litres of > > diesel are being stored just above the sannidhanam without any > > storage licence or safety parameters. They are also keeping a large > > number of crackers near the sanctum sanctoram without any safety > > concern. The only solution on the part of Trvancore Devaswom Board > > for all problems plaguing Sabarimala is denudation of nearby forests > > and setting up new amenities. According to Rajan Gurukkal, such an > > attempt would be disastrous as all the existing problems of > > Sabarimala can be viwed as the after effect of deforestation. > > > The devaswam board has already ruined about 55.09 ha of forestland in > > the name of sabarimala development. In the opinion of > > environmentalists, they demand more forests to cut and smuggle out > > precious trees and construction of further concrete strctures with > > ulterior motives. Maintaining the sanctity of the shrine and the > > precious eco-system never appeared a priority before them. So far, > > the devaswam board was constituted once in five years by nomination > > of people with no administrative acumen at the behest of successive > > governments. > > > Rajan Gurukkal and his team at School of Social Sciences have > > prepared a long-term action plan for saving Sabarimala from the > > sequence of disasters in the offing. But the lobbies of corrupt and > > communal elements are not allowing the devaswam to look into them. > > Even the small step of Left Government in disbanding the existing > > devaswam committee is being interpreted as an attempt by atheists to > > interfere in Hindu religious matters. The move by left government to > > appoint experts in place of politicians at the board also facing > > opposition from Sangh Parivar organisations, who claim as custodians > > of Hindu places of worship. > > > The board and its corrupt administrators were not able to get their > > hand on the forest so far due to stringent central acts and Supreme > > Court rulings. But even the outgoing members are repeating their old > > slogan of `no development in Sabarimala would be possible without > > deforestation.' Unless the authorities change their attitude from a > > revenue-centred approach to a pilgrim centred aprach, there is not > > much hope. But they still repeat that development (read > > deforestation) could not be stopped for the sake of a few birds and > > animals. ``The board had neither faith in environmental protection > > nor in religious sanctity,'' opines Rajan Gurukkal. > > > Decongestion of base town Pampa by increasing facilities at a > > relatively distant town of Nilakkal, demolition of unauthorised > > concrete structures at Sannidhanam and Pampa, cleaning of the river, > > better waste disposal facilities and provisions of basic facilities > > for pilgrims without affecting ecology are the urgent needs of > > Sabarimala. The tigers and elephants must be protected. > > > If there is no mechanism to check the number of pilgrims, that would > > increase to two to three crores within years. Moderate elements among > > the Hindu community are favouring a statutory body for Sabarimala in > > line with Tirumala-Thirupathy Devasthanam and Amarnath temple. Such a > > body consisting of experts from different fields can change the > > course of priorities of the forest temple. > > > > ----------- > > > 2. Amarnath Yatra: The Pilgrimage to Eco Disaster > > Gautam Navlakha > > http://www.kashmiraffairs.org/gautam_amarnath%20yatra.html > > > Should one question the propriety of promoting pilgrimage in a > > ecologically fragile area or wink at it in the name of devotees right > > to free movement and worship? This question comes to mind when > > looking at Amarnath Yatra especially the phenomenal increase in the > > number of pilgrims. This increase is not of few hundred or few > > thousand but runs into hundreds of thousands. There has been a > > doubling of the period for pilgrimage from one month to two this year > > as well as forty times increase in number of pilgrims, from 12,000 in > > 1989 to 450,000 in 2005 (this year it is set to cross 500,000) are > > cause for concern. In fact the actual period is longer because a > > fortnight before the official yatra is reserved for army men and > > their families to visit the Amarnath cave through ecologically more > > vulnerable Baltal route. Moreover, in order to provide security for > > pilgrims who come out in large number, the paramilitary forces have > > to be deployed in large number. The current deployment will be in > > excess of 20,000 for the entire period. Their presence and stay > > cannot but affect the rise in pollution levels. Inclement weather too > > is an issue because rains in the plain means snow in the higher > > reaches. This results in crowding at the camps, straining services > > including disposal of waste. But worse things can happen as in 1996 > > when unexpected heavy snowfall resulted in death of 243 pilgrims and > > injuries to hundred more due to avalanche. > > > The State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), recently in a 37 page > > report warns that generation of waste by pilgrims, absence of waste > > disposal sites, open dumping of garbage, air pollution, sewage > > generated by hotels, yatri camps and local residential areas makes > > its way into Lidder river. The SPCB warned that waste generated by > > pilgrims more than the local average and primarily contains plastics, > > polythene and leftover food packets all along the route. According to > > their calculation 55,000 kgs of plastic waste is generated every day > > during the pilgrimage. Besides, thousands of open toilets erected > > along the banks of Lidder river ensures that effluents enter the > > river. Thousands of vehicles ply up and down the mountains around > > Pahalgam all the way up to Chandanwari spewing carbon monoxide. The > > Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), which came into existence on > > February 21, 2001, has been dismissive of such claims. They assert > > that 230 pre-fabricated toilets being raised in Nunwan base camp and > > human waste disposal off in leach pits with micro-organism technology > > using Bokaslin powder and other chemicals would take care of the > > problem. However, the issue is more than the supposedly effective > > modern methods to manage waste. The sheer presence of large mass of > > people is a cause for concern. Department of Science and technology > > through its principal investigator on glaciology has argued that "the > > ecology, the environment and health of the glacier can be under > > severe threat in case the Baltal route to the Holy Cave was > > frequented by thousands of pilgrims". And pointed out that "depletion > > and degradation (of glaciers) are the result of human breath, refuse > > and land erosion". (The Tribune July 5, 2005). > > > It is disconcerting to note that opening of Baltal route for pilgrims > > on foot and those using helicopters has crossed several thousand > > every day. Apart from the Department of Science and Technology of J&K > > government even the Nitish Sengupta committee, which was constituted > > to look into the deaths of 243 pilgrims in 1996 due to the snowstorm, > > had recommended that number of yatris be restricted to 5000 per day > > for a period of one month and the total number of pilgrims be capped > > at1.5 lakhs. According to them Baltal route should allow 1500 > > pilgrims and Pahalgam 3500 per day. However, the General JR Mukherjee > > committee, which looked into the cause of death of 35 people, due to > > cross fire, during the 2000 yatra, focussed on security arrangement > > and wanted the duration of the yatra to increase as security scenario > > improved. But neither report looked at the environmental impact of > > the yatra. Thus when the SASB invokes the recommendations of the two > > committees what it does is to use it selectively and link the number > > of pilgrims to the issue of managing security for them. In this sense > > they underplay the question whether the eco-system can bear heavy > > influx of pilgrims. This emphasis on encouraging larger number of > > pilgrims shows its impact on the environment in unexpected ways. Such > > as the SASB contemplating "air conditioning" to preserve the shiva > > lingam from melting. The recent controversy over the pilgrims > > alleging that the SASB has been constructing the "snow lingam" is now > > being passed off as due to change in the course of the water channels > > after last year's earthquake and global warming. Without ruling this > > out human contribution to this phenomenon cannot be ignored when > > glaciers are rapidly receding. As a matter of fact yatra was never > > undertaken in June precisely because formation of shiva lingam does > > not always take place then. Incidentally the local people speak of > > "human" intervention in restoring what is a natural phenomenon, as > > something that has happened in the past too. This apart large number > > of pilgrims means that going gets tough as one draws close to the > > cave with traffic jam being the order of the day. At times pilgrims > > have to wait for hours for their turn. Increase in dust in atmosphere > > too is caused by crowds of people as well as helicopter service. The > > dust raised is visible from long distance away. All this also means > > that individual pilgrims, that is other than VIPs, are disallowed > > from spending more than seconds inside the cave. Above all carbon > > dioxide levels shoot up warming the area all around. > > > It cannot be that the SASB is unaware of the environmental concerns. > > If it receives short shrift it is because the yatra has come to > > symbolise Indian government's determination to promote its claim in > > J&K. That pilgrimage is being heralded as victory against a movement > > demanding azadi from India is available in the news portal of Indian > > government, Press Information Bureau. It says that "yearning for > > moksha (salvation) can move the devotees to the challenging heights > > of Kashmir and will be a fitting gesture of solidarity with our > > valiant soldiers who have been fighting the enemy to defend our > > borders". (pib.nic.in/feature/feo799/f1507992.html). Thus what is > > otherwise merely a religious pilgrimage of the Hindus has been > > elevated to represent a patriotic enterprise. Besides, the SASB is > > headed by the Governor and his principal secretary is the CEO of the > > SASB. Thus the Government of India is clearly in charge of organising > > the yatra. And it is the SASB which has been pushing for larger and > > larger numbers of pilgrims and challenging the right of the state > > government from interfering in anyway with the schedule announced by > > the SASB. > > > It is true that not everyone who goes to Amarnath accepts this > > association of religion with patriotism. But the fact of the matter > > is that official perception of pilgrimage as patriotic duty has > > allowed the communal fascist elements to join in organising their > > supporters. Little wonder that frequency of conflict between section > > of such 'pilgrims' and local population due to their obnoxious > > behaviour has shown an increase. What is equally disconcerting is > > that the SASB presided over by the Governor has also been engaged in > > controversial transactions. The CEO of SASB is the principal > > secretary to the Governor. Present CEO's wife, in her capacity of > > Principal secretary forest department granted permission to SASB on > > May 29, 2005 to use forest land. But this provision was not in > > accordance with the provision of J&K Forest Conservation Act 1997 > > and, therefore, the state government withdrew the order. However, > > thanks to a stay order by a division bench of the J&K High Court the > > withdrawal of permission to occupy forest land, was suspended. Any > > visitor to Pahalgam can observe how this forest land is being cleared > > to setup camps for the yatris. In fact now the SASB has asked the > > state government to give them land in the radius of 5kms of the cave. > > This arouses local passions precisely because Indian security forces > > and other entities have transferred large tracts of land to house > > camps for security force personnel, or for central projects, as well > > as for schools which are run by army among others. Even a pro-Indian > > National Conference party has protested such transfers of land since > > 1989. Not very far from the camp for the pilgrims in Pahalgam, in > > Lidru (opposite Kulan village) what locals describe as one of the > > finest meadows, spread over 550 kanals (one kanal=one eighth of acre) > > in area, has been given to the army to run a school! Local population > > feels helpless at being unable to stop this. Therefore, when SASB > > wants large tract of land transferred to it under the claim of > > providing accommodation for lakhs of pilgrims it must be weighed > > against this local concern. Were the numbers of pilgrims to be > > brought down the pressing need for transferring large areas to SASB > > or for providing carpet security and thus deployment of force, can be > > brought down. > > > This apart the SASB has also been involved in other controversial > > acts. One such was the recent attempt by the SASB to bring down the > > involvement of local people in the yatra. When on June 5, 2006 the > > local pro-India Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) claimed that SASB was > > ignoring livelihood of locals, the SASB countered by claiming that > > such criticism would generate controversy and thus "jeopardise" > > tourism in Kashmir. Quite apart from the fact that promotion of > > pilgrimage for commerce flies in the face of proclaimed concern for > > people's faith PDP pointed out that if local porters and ponywallahs > > can strike work at Vaishnodevi Shrine against the (mis)management of > > the Shri Vaishnodevi Shrine Board (SVDSB) and seek support from local > > Congress leaders then what is wrong if local people from Pahalgam and > > Kangan areas seek their help to protest against the practises of SASB > > which discriminate against them. In fact the Pithoo Workers Union at > > Katra have protested the suspension of six of their leaders, alleged > > manhandling by SVDSB officials and demanded recall of its additional > > CEO. Neither the Governor as head of SVDSB nor the Board issued any > > statement chastising the Congress party! > > > Arguably, when yatra was halted between 1991-96 due to threat of > > section of the militants it played into the hands of the extreme > > right wing elements in Indian society who have since then become an > > integral part of mobilising large numbers of pilgrims. Thus a form of > > competitive communalism came into play. Thus when section of the > > militants represented earlier by Harkatul Ansar and now Lashkar-e- > > Taiyyaba or Jaish-e-Mohammed threaten to disrupt the pilgrimage it > > only gets the backs up of the devout Hindus opens them to vitriol of > > the rabidly anti-Muslim Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Shiv Sena etc. > > and accentuates the communal divide. However, it is equally important > > to note the actual fact that more people have died in yatra due to > > inclement weather and cross fire than at the hands of the militants. > > Besides, the main indigenous militant organisation Hizbul Mujahideen > > has always supported the yatra and has consistently demonstrated its > > opposition towards those who have tried to disrupt the yatra. > > Moreover, prior to constituting SASB the state government, local > > people and social activists provided aid and assistance to the > > pilgrims. However, threat of environmental damage has become a matter > > of utmost concern because the central government under the cover of > > SASB remains unrelenting in its pursuit of ever larger numbers to > > come for pilgrimage. > > > In a way the Amarnath yatra illustrates the way in which the Indian > > government injects communalism in our body politic. And also > > represents how secularism in India has been perverted to mean state > > patronage of religion/s. This patronage is not equitably distributed > > since Hindus outnumber others by more than eight times. Which is to > > say that between un-equals equality ends up promoting Hindu religious > > practises. In Amarnath yatra, in fact, the India government even > > discarded its pretended neutrality by publicising the yatra as a > > patriotic duty! Consequently, the likelihood of Amarnath pilgrimage > > getting mired in controversy, over environmental damage and > > eventually feeding into further alienation of people because they can > > do little to save damage to their lived environment, has increased. > > Trouble is the Indian government cares little for people and prefers > > to pander to the extreme rightwing by projecting the yatra as a > > patriotic enterprise to boost the morale of the Indian paramilitary > > forces. The very same force which the local population regards as > > symbol of their oppression. Thus a bigger mess is in the making right > > before our own eyes. > > --------------- > > > Shuddhabrata Sengupta > > The Sarai Programme at CSDS > > Raqs Media Collective > > shuddha at sarai.net > > www.sarai.net > > www.raqsmediacollective.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. > > ... > > [Message clipped] From shuddha at sarai.net Mon Jun 30 21:57:50 2008 From: shuddha at sarai.net (Shuddhabrata Sengupta) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:57:50 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Amaranth Yatra In-Reply-To: <6b79f1a70806300854w547d1e45v989f78a8954d4899@mail.gmail.com> References: <6b79f1a70806300414k66445bfai709f596b9ab8368d@mail.gmail.com> <63FC64B5-4517-42C5-BC2C-55E4FF5B4BDE@sarai.net> <6b79f1a70806300854w547d1e45v989f78a8954d4899@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Dear Pawan, That is your opinion, not a substantiated fact. As far as I have seen, there has not been a single statement made against Hindu pligrims by anyone in the leadership or the constituency of the movement against land transfer in Kashmir. And until such a statement is made, we cannot say that it arises out of a 'resentment towards hindu pligrims'. People across the spectrum of political opinion in Kashmir have taken pains to point out that they welcome pilgrims. And the question of the acquisition of land has nothing to do with pilgrims. There is a long history of arbitrary acquisition and occupation of land, including orchards, schools, meadows, pastures, grazing comons and private homes in Kashmir, especially by the Armed Forces and paramilitaries, it is possible that the movement we see crystallizes the pent up feeling of anger against this long history of land acquisition. An audit of the impact of land acquisition on the ecology and social fabric of Kashmir (on both sides of the line of control) is still pending. best Shuddha On 30-Jun-08, at 9:24 PM, Pawan Durani wrote: > Dear Shuddha , > > > > While I may trust your belief in ecological fallout , i completely > disagree with your understanding that the issue is not about the > resentment towards hindu pligrims. > > > > It is all about that , non tolerance towards so called hindus or > what they love to call...."Kufr". > > > > Pawan > > > > > > > > On 6/30/08, Shuddhabrata Sengupta wrote: > Dear Pawan, > > > > Just because a terrain does not have trees, or that the altitude it > is located in happens to be above the treeline, does not mean that > it is not ecologically sensitive. > > Often, it is precisely terrain of this nature, such as for instance > is at the vicinity of the mouth of the Gomukh glacier above > Gangotri,(again above the treeline) that is extremely fragile and > needs very careful nurturing. > > > > I know for a fact that the ecosystem of the Gomukh glacial region > is very badly threatened because of the completely haphazard way in > which access to this region (and the logistics of pilgrimage and > tourism) has been managed. I can very easily see that something > similar can happen in the case of Amarnath. > > > > I would urge you not to make the discussion of this question into a > 'Hindu' question. It is not one, it is about the way in which State > managed, so called, 'Temple Development Boards', enter into schemes > to grab land, and about the ecological consequences of their land- > grabbing propensities. > > > > You might recall that some months back you tried to pose the > question of the building of a shipping canal between India and Sri > Lanka as a matter of hurting Hindu sentiments. I endorsed your > opposition to the so called 'Sethu-Samudram Shipping Channel' > scheme, because to me it represented a threat to a fragile marine > ecosystem, not on the basis of its alleged injury to Hindu > sentiments. I also pointed out to you and to others on the list > that the protectors of Hindutva, while proposing a Panama Canal > style waterway cutting through the apex of the Deccan peninsula as > an alternative to the 'Sethu-Samudram' plan were also proposing > what was certainly a blueprint for an ecological disaster. > > > > Opposition to the proposed (and now rescinded) land grab proposal > by the SASB in the Amarnath case does not automatically translate > into partisanship across the Hindu-Muslim question in Kashmir. > Those who translate it as such, whether they are Hindu, or Muslim, > are needlessly confusing a straightforward matter by bringing their > own secterian biases to bear on the issue. No one should be misled > by such attempts at confusion. > > > > best > > > > Shuddha > > > > > > > > On 30-Jun-08, at 4:44 PM, Pawan Durani wrote: > > >> Hello Shuddha , >> >> >> >> Lemme just inform everyone that , the land may have belonged to >> Forest >> >> Department , but there is no single tree over there. >> >> >> >> Even when you reach Amarntah , there are no trees over there , >> becuase of >> >> high altitude. >> >> >> >> I visited the site, Baltal , two years back. >> >> >> >> Unfortunately the issue is not about ecology ..... the way it has >> been >> >> treated is a pure indicator that anything related to Hindus is not >> tolerable >> >> in Kashmir, and proves once again that it is not "freedom" but >> Islamic >> >> fanaticism which rules the shot in Kashmir. >> >> >> >> >> >> Pawan >> >> >> >> >> >> On 6/30/08, Shuddhabrata Sengupta wrote: >> >>> >>> Dear Sonia, Dear Rashneek, dear all, >>> >>> >>> >>> Thank you, Sonia and Rashneek for the debate on the Amarnath Yatra >>> >>> issue. The question of temple boards and their closeness to power, >>> >>> and their lust for acquiring forest lands is not unique to Kashmir. >>> >>> It also happens, as you will see below, (see the report - >>> Sabarimala: >>> >>> The Faith in Spate, by K.A. Shaji) in distant Kerala. The ruling >>> left >>> >>> front government in Kerala is as involved in this game as anyone >>> >>> else, because 'Temple Boards' are gold-mines and no state government >>> >>> wants to close an operation that earns them the gold that can be >>> >>> mined in these gold mines. I am appending below a report on the >>> >>> question of the Sabarimala Temple boards desire for even more >>> >>> reserved forest land. The story is remarkably resonant of the >>> >>> Amarnath issue. A local, highly culturally specific, syncretic >>> >>> pilgrimage turning into the road-show of a revivalist 'Hinduism', >>> >>> with lucrative revenue spin-offs. >>> >>> >>> >>> I live in an area in Delhi where I have witnessed every year, for >>> the >>> >>> past few years - 'Chalo Amarnath Chalo' (Let's go to Amarnath) >>> >>> posters and banners being put up by local RSS functionaries. And >>> >>> there are active fundraising drives which culminate in a >>> cavalcade of >>> >>> Tata Sumos with the local 'Youth' blaring 'bhajans' from their >>> >>> booming auto-sound systems taking off to go do 'darshan' of the >>> >>> melting lingam. I don't think they (the Sumo Pilgrims of my >>> >>> neighbourhood) really care whether or not the forests of Kashmir go >>> >>> up in smoke. >>> >>> >>> >>> I also know that the Sabarimala pilgrimage has been twisted out of >>> >>> shape in a similar way, both by Hindutva enthusiasts, and by >>> >>> construction contractors close to the ruling Left Front. Fragile >>> >>> forests can barely sustain the burden of so much sudden faith. >>> >>> >>> >>> Incidentally, revivalist Hindus are by no means alone in their >>> >>> disregard for the local heritage and environment. The ruling >>> >>> dispensation in Saudi Arabia has effectively turned the pilgrimage >>> >>> sites of Mecca and Medina into an air-conditioned cultural >>> wasteland. >>> >>> it has systematically destroyed shrines that were considered holy by >>> >>> millions of Muslim pilgrims, especially from South Asia, and >>> >>> completely transformed the intricate urban fabric of Mecca and >>> >>> Medina. There is a long history of protest, including in India, by >>> >>> Muslims against the way in which the Saudi Government, in cohorts >>> >>> with the Wahabi establishment has wrecked the topography of Mecca >>> and >>> >>> Medina. Similarly, the Israeli state's policy of expansion, through >>> >>> settlements, and building high security segregated roads that cut >>> >>> through the west bank of the Jordan river are often camouflaged >>> under >>> >>> an appeal to scriptural sanction for 'Greater' or 'Eretz' Israel. >>> >>> There is a great deal of money to be made in pilgrimage, and it >>> >>> affords everybody an opportunity to make some quick transformations >>> >>> of the landscape in the name of 'infrastructure development' and >>> >>> 'settlement' , both of which are euphemisms for speculation in real >>> >>> estate. >>> >>> >>> >>> I am also appending a detailed report on the environmental impact of >>> >>> what was proposed by the erstwhile governor Gen (Retd) Sinha of >>> Jammu >>> >>> and Kashmir for the Amarnath Yatra by Gautam Navlakha that appeared >>> >>> recently in the website of a journal called Kashmir Affairs. >>> Finally, >>> >>> it is not my case that the acquisition of land for the Amarnath >>> Board >>> >>> (SASB) is wrong, and the acquisition of land for the so-called >>> >>> 'Mughal Road', which has been pointed out by Aditya Raj Kaul, in a >>> >>> recent post is wrong. Both are equally disastrous from the >>> >>> environmental point of view. And the silence of political formations >>> >>> (of all persuasions) on the environmental impact of the revived >>> >>> Mughal Road and their recent discovery of environmentalism (in the >>> >>> case of the Amarnath land transfer issue) does make their commitment >>> >>> to environmentalism somewhat suspect. The PDP's stance is >>> >>> particularly hypocritical, as the original decision has been >>> ratified >>> >>> by its own minister, (for Forest) in the (Indian Held) J&K state >>> >>> government. Still, even if the commitment of all the protagonists is >>> >>> suspect, I must say that I have rarely seen a popular movement >>> >>> reverse a state-driven decision on an 'environmental' issue, and the >>> >>> recent success of the agitation in Kashmir (whatever be the motives >>> >>> that impelled it) which has resulted in a reversal of the Land >>> >>> Transfer issue is something to be grateful for. >>> >>> >>> >>> These are issues that need to be seen quite separately from >>> secterian >>> >>> concerns. I hope this debate can help us see them in that way. >>> >>> >>> >>> best >>> >>> >>> >>> Shuddha >>> >>> ------------------- >>> >>> >>> >>> 1. Sabarimala: The Faith in Spate >>> >>> by K A Shaji >>> >>> >>> >>> http://www.boloji.com/society/115.htm >>> >>> >>> >>> Legend has it that when Lord Ayyappa set out to seek solitude, he >>> >>> settled upon Sabarimala. Its sylvan surroundings and undulating >>> >>> terrain had made it an ideal retreat for the bachelor god. The >>> >>> pristine monsoon forests had wrapped like an ornament around his >>> >>> hermitage at the top of the hill. The Lord believed to have called >>> >>> the area with tranquil atmosphere as his poonkavanam (sacred >>> forest). >>> >>> >>> >>> A shrine inside the forest and a deity who chose the calm >>> ambience of >>> >>> hills and valleys has few parallels in the country and outside. But >>> >>> now, it seems, all of the glories of Sabarimala were a thing of the >>> >>> past. When mythology meets present-day reality, Sabarimala is no >>> more >>> >>> a chosen abode of the hermit God. During January-February each year, >>> >>> more than 50 million devotees, as claimed by the temple authorities, >>> >>> are thronging this forest temple for annual pilgrimage, putting the >>> >>> fragile ecology of the region under severe stress. Now, the holy >>> hill >>> >>> is a synonym of increasing inflow of pilgrims, inadequate >>> >>> infrastructure, a devastated environment and a hapless wildlife. >>> >>> >>> >>> While the entire hill and the adjacent river Pampa, the third >>> largest >>> >>> river in Kerala, are stinking due to sewage pollution and >>> >>> accumulation of garbage, the situation is not much different in the >>> >>> administrative and spiritual circles of the hill shrine. First, it >>> >>> was a controversy involving Kannada film actress Jayamala and a >>> group >>> >>> of orthodox Hindus, who questioned her claim of touching the idol of >>> >>> the bachelor god defying the barricades meant for preventing >>> sexually >>> >>> active women from entering the hill shrine. Then one of the highly >>> >>> revered traditional priests of the temple was robbed of a large >>> >>> amount of money and gold ornaments during his visit to the house >>> of a >>> >>> woman engaged in flesh trade by a mafia gang. And now, it is the >>> turn >>> >>> of aged father of a senior priest to allege that his son is under >>> >>> influence of a powerful Ezhava community leader with shadowy nature >>> >>> and the leader's followers are using his son to pocket the temple >>> >>> money. In the meantime, the Left Front Government has disbanded the >>> >>> existing administrative body of the temple citing corruption at high >>> >>> level and is preparing to enact a legislation to keep the corrupt >>> >>> community leaders out of the administrative body forever. >>> >>> >>> >>> On monetary grounds, the temple is the third largest in the country, >>> >>> standing very close to Tirupathi and Guruvayur. The cash-strapped >>> >>> Kerala Government, despite its leftist moorings, is depending very >>> >>> much on the income from the temple to meet salary needs of its >>> >>> employees. In order to increase the revenue, the successive >>> >>> governments and the so-called proponents of development are >>> >>> vociferous of implementing multi-crore construction plans in >>> >>> Sabarimala clearing forests and building a concrete jungle in its >>> >>> place. But nobody in the spiritual and administrative levels of the >>> >>> temple as well as the government establishment are apprehensive of >>> >>> the increasing level of pollution and the extreme level of >>> >>> deforestation. Their focus is entangled only in the growing >>> number of >>> >>> controversies and the commissions to be available after the >>> beginning >>> >>> of the construction work. >>> >>> >>> >>> Located about 467 metres above sea level, the Sabarimala temple is >>> >>> surrounded by 18 hills and situated inside Periyar Tiger Reserve, >>> one >>> >>> of the few safe havens for tigers in the country. According to bird >>> >>> watcher B.Sethumadhavan, as many as 2000 species of flowering >>> plants, >>> >>> endemic and medicinal, have been identified among the region's >>> flora. >>> >>> `` About 63 species of mammals, some of them endangered like tigers, >>> >>> elephants and lion tailed macaque live here. So far, 223 species of >>> >>> birds and 45 species of reptiles including King Cobra have been >>> >>> identified in this area,'' he said. The ever- expanding number of >>> >>> pilgrims and mindless construction works are posing severe threat to >>> >>> their very survival. Devotees of a Lord, who believed to have loved >>> >>> the flora and fauna and their safekeeping, are now on a rampage in >>> >>> the name of development forcing the wildlife to move out of their >>> >>> traditional habitat. >>> >>> >>> >>> As per legends, the vehicle of Lord Ayyappa is tiger. But, >>> >>> astonishingly, neither the tiger nor the surrounding evergreen >>> >>> forests do not come in the list of priorities before the |Travancore >>> >>> Devaswam Board, which administers the shrine. ``There was an >>> increase >>> >>> of 35 per cent in revenue while comparing with last year during the >>> >>> November-December period. In the number of visitors, the increase is >>> >>> of 19 per cent. These figures show the need for immediate >>> >>> developmental works in Sabarimala. But there are agencies like >>> Forest >>> >>> Department which cry for tigers and forests,'' alleges G.Raman Nair, >>> >>> outgoing president of the board. >>> >>> >>> >>> However, environmentalists and forest officials are countering the >>> >>> allegation. ``The development works so far at Pampa have made it >>> >>> impossible a soul-filling holy dip in river Pampa. At least, two >>> >>> scientific studies conducted by Government's own agencies had found >>> >>> that landslips and tremors would take place at the holy hillock any >>> >>> time largely because of the extensive concrete flooring at the >>> temple >>> >>> premises. The devaswam is only interested in money making. It has no >>> >>> concern for the impending dangers for both nature and devotees,'' >>> >>> pointed out Sumesh Mangalassery, a member of the environmental group >>> >>> Kabani. >>> >>> >>> >>> According to Sumesh, a panel of Kerala Legislature on environment >>> led >>> >>> by RSP leader A V Thamarakshan had submitted 32 proposals to the >>> >>> Devaswam Board to protect Sabarimala around five years back. But >>> none >>> >>> of them were acceptable to the board. Even the suggestions of Kerala >>> >>> State Pollution Control Board to minimise the pollution of river >>> >>> Pampa were paid scant regard by the board. A visit by Tehelka to >>> >>> Sabarimala found that river Pampa continues to remain the main >>> victim >>> >>> of the callous attitude of the authorities. It gets choked in the >>> >>> temple area as solid waste including human excreta; plastic bags, >>> >>> empty water bottles and coconut husks block the free flow of water. >>> >>> About 35 million people took a holy dip in the river between >>> November >>> >>> and January, which is the major source of drinking water for three >>> >>> districts. >>> >>> >>> >>> According to a study by the pollution control board, the total >>> >>> coliform count recorded at the river portion close to Sabarimala is >>> >>> about 1,14,000 per 100 millilitres (ML) during the peak of >>> >>> pilgrimage. Just before the pilgrimage season, it is merely 380 per >>> >>> 100 ml- well below the permissible limits of 500 per 100 ml. >>> >>> According to local people, the overflow of human faeces from sceptic >>> >>> tanks around the temple stands the major reason of the pollution of >>> >>> the river. ``More than 3,000 temporary toilets are functioning close >>> >>> to the temple in addition to about 600 permanent toilets. The >>> >>> capacity of the sewerage treatment plant is very limited,'' pointed >>> >>> out K.Anirudhan of Sabarimala Samrakshana Samithy. >>> >>> >>> >>> Most of the experts, who had conducted studies on the pollution and >>> >>> environmental problems prevailing in Sabarimala, point to the >>> need of >>> >>> regulating the ever- increasing number of pilgrims. ``Sabarimala is >>> >>> bursting at the seams with millions of devotees now. Thirty or forty >>> >>> years ago, only around 50,000 pilgrims visited the temple. Today, >>> the >>> >>> number is fifty million and is rising at the rate of 20 per cent >>> >>> every year. The ever-swelling flow resulted in a major mishap on >>> >>> January 14, 1999, when 100 pilgrims died in a stampede at the site. >>> >>> Indications are that Sabarimala is a disaster waiting to be >>> happen,'' >>> >>> warns noted Kerala based environmentalist P K Uthaman. According to >>> >>> him, almost two thousand tonnes of human waste are deposited in >>> crude >>> >>> earth pits and outside in Sabarimala every year. These wastes are >>> >>> finding their way into not only the river Pampa but also to river >>> >>> Periyar by underground as well as over ground rivulets, posing a >>> >>> threat great health hazard for the pilgrims as well as those living >>> >>> downstream. >>> >>> >>> >>> In addition, the lack of post pilgrimage cleaning drives often >>> result >>> >>> in unabated flow of hazardous waste into the rivers. The temple area >>> >>> has already been converted into a concrete jungle where guesthouses >>> >>> and other structures are constructed haphazardly all around. They >>> are >>> >>> meant for temple officials, priests, VVIPs and police personnel. >>> >>> According to M.Gopal, a pilgrim from Bangalore who visited >>> Sabarimala >>> >>> this year, human excreta and plastic waste were found strewn just >>> >>> outside the Sannidhanam (the main building of the temple). As per >>> >>> data available from forest department, over 2.5 lakh empty plastic >>> >>> bottles of packaged water were collected from inside the tiger >>> >>> reserve. The number of tetra packs collected would come around 4.5 >>> >>> lakh. The temple complex of the hermit, who believed in renunciation >>> >>> of earthly attractions, is now filled with commercial shops selling >>> >>> products ranging from gold ornaments to dress materials. All these >>> >>> shops were constructed by clearing forests. >>> >>> >>> >>> ``The total time available for darsan as of now is a total of 1431 >>> >>> hours, i.e. 515160 seconds. If a darsan goes on one at a time basis >>> >>> and a devotee gets a second, the total strength of the pilgrims can >>> >>> only be 5,15, 160 per year. If ten people could somehow cluster >>> >>> together per second for darsan, the maximum number would be >>> >>> 51,51,600,'' points out a document prepared by |School of Social >>> >>> Sciences at Mahatma Gandhi University on behalf of Kerla Forest >>> >>> Department. The document also questions the claims of the board that >>> >>> over 50 million people visit the temple annually. But anyway, the >>> >>> number of pilgrims' visting Sabarimala is many times more than its >>> >>> capacity. >>> >>> >>> >>> ``The authorities must find out some mechanism to regulate the >>> >>> alarming increase in the number of pilgrims. Sabarimala is not only >>> >>> an environmental but also a social disaster,'' opined Dr.Rajan >>> >>> Gurukkal of School of Social Sciences. Now a day, the uncontrolled >>> >>> flow of pilgrims from various entry points is resulting in people >>> >>> swarming all around the protected sanctuary leading to man –animal >>> >>> conflicts. Recently, an elephant trampled upon one pilgrim. Then it >>> >>> was found that the pilgrims were sleeping in the corridor used by >>> the >>> >>> elephants for going to the river to drink water at the night. A >>> large >>> >>> number of such corridors were already disrupted due to the >>> >>> construction works undertaken in the recent past. >>> >>> >>> >>> According to Sedumadhavan, the authorities are even paying scant >>> >>> attention on the safety of pilgrims. As many as 12,000 litres of >>> >>> diesel are being stored just above the sannidhanam without any >>> >>> storage licence or safety parameters. They are also keeping a large >>> >>> number of crackers near the sanctum sanctoram without any safety >>> >>> concern. The only solution on the part of Trvancore Devaswom Board >>> >>> for all problems plaguing Sabarimala is denudation of nearby forests >>> >>> and setting up new amenities. According to Rajan Gurukkal, such an >>> >>> attempt would be disastrous as all the existing problems of >>> >>> Sabarimala can be viwed as the after effect of deforestation. >>> >>> >>> >>> The devaswam board has already ruined about 55.09 ha of >>> forestland in >>> >>> the name of sabarimala development. In the opinion of >>> >>> environmentalists, they demand more forests to cut and smuggle out >>> >>> precious trees and construction of further concrete strctures with >>> >>> ulterior motives. Maintaining the sanctity of the shrine and the >>> >>> precious eco-system never appeared a priority before them. So far, >>> >>> the devaswam board was constituted once in five years by nomination >>> >>> of people with no administrative acumen at the behest of successive >>> >>> governments. >>> >>> >>> >>> Rajan Gurukkal and his team at School of Social Sciences have >>> >>> prepared a long-term action plan for saving Sabarimala from the >>> >>> sequence of disasters in the offing. But the lobbies of corrupt and >>> >>> communal elements are not allowing the devaswam to look into them. >>> >>> Even the small step of Left Government in disbanding the existing >>> >>> devaswam committee is being interpreted as an attempt by atheists to >>> >>> interfere in Hindu religious matters. The move by left government to >>> >>> appoint experts in place of politicians at the board also facing >>> >>> opposition from Sangh Parivar organisations, who claim as custodians >>> >>> of Hindu places of worship. >>> >>> >>> >>> The board and its corrupt administrators were not able to get their >>> >>> hand on the forest so far due to stringent central acts and Supreme >>> >>> Court rulings. But even the outgoing members are repeating their old >>> >>> slogan of `no development in Sabarimala would be possible without >>> >>> deforestation.' Unless the authorities change their attitude from a >>> >>> revenue-centred approach to a pilgrim centred aprach, there is not >>> >>> much hope. But they still repeat that development (read >>> >>> deforestation) could not be stopped for the sake of a few birds and >>> >>> animals. ``The board had neither faith in environmental protection >>> >>> nor in religious sanctity,'' opines Rajan Gurukkal. >>> >>> >>> >>> Decongestion of base town Pampa by increasing facilities at a >>> >>> relatively distant town of Nilakkal, demolition of unauthorised >>> >>> concrete structures at Sannidhanam and Pampa, cleaning of the river, >>> >>> better waste disposal facilities and provisions of basic facilities >>> >>> for pilgrims without affecting ecology are the urgent needs of >>> >>> Sabarimala. The tigers and elephants must be protected. >>> >>> >>> >>> If there is no mechanism to check the number of pilgrims, that would >>> >>> increase to two to three crores within years. Moderate elements >>> among >>> >>> the Hindu community are favouring a statutory body for Sabarimala in >>> >>> line with Tirumala-Thirupathy Devasthanam and Amarnath temple. >>> Such a >>> >>> body consisting of experts from different fields can change the >>> >>> course of priorities of the forest temple. >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> ----------- >>> >>> >>> >>> 2. Amarnath Yatra: The Pilgrimage to Eco Disaster >>> >>> Gautam Navlakha >>> >>> http://www.kashmiraffairs.org/gautam_amarnath%20yatra.html >>> >>> >>> >>> Should one question the propriety of promoting pilgrimage in a >>> >>> ecologically fragile area or wink at it in the name of devotees >>> right >>> >>> to free movement and worship? This question comes to mind when >>> >>> looking at Amarnath Yatra especially the phenomenal increase in the >>> >>> number of pilgrims. This increase is not of few hundred or few >>> >>> thousand but runs into hundreds of thousands. There has been a >>> >>> doubling of the period for pilgrimage from one month to two this >>> year >>> >>> as well as forty times increase in number of pilgrims, from >>> 12,000 in >>> >>> 1989 to 450,000 in 2005 (this year it is set to cross 500,000) are >>> >>> cause for concern. In fact the actual period is longer because a >>> >>> fortnight before the official yatra is reserved for army men and >>> >>> their families to visit the Amarnath cave through ecologically more >>> >>> vulnerable Baltal route. Moreover, in order to provide security for >>> >>> pilgrims who come out in large number, the paramilitary forces have >>> >>> to be deployed in large number. The current deployment will be in >>> >>> excess of 20,000 for the entire period. Their presence and stay >>> >>> cannot but affect the rise in pollution levels. Inclement weather >>> too >>> >>> is an issue because rains in the plain means snow in the higher >>> >>> reaches. This results in crowding at the camps, straining services >>> >>> including disposal of waste. But worse things can happen as in 1996 >>> >>> when unexpected heavy snowfall resulted in death of 243 pilgrims and >>> >>> injuries to hundred more due to avalanche. >>> >>> >>> >>> The State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), recently in a 37 page >>> >>> report warns that generation of waste by pilgrims, absence of waste >>> >>> disposal sites, open dumping of garbage, air pollution, sewage >>> >>> generated by hotels, yatri camps and local residential areas makes >>> >>> its way into Lidder river. The SPCB warned that waste generated by >>> >>> pilgrims more than the local average and primarily contains >>> plastics, >>> >>> polythene and leftover food packets all along the route. >>> According to >>> >>> their calculation 55,000 kgs of plastic waste is generated every day >>> >>> during the pilgrimage. Besides, thousands of open toilets erected >>> >>> along the banks of Lidder river ensures that effluents enter the >>> >>> river. Thousands of vehicles ply up and down the mountains around >>> >>> Pahalgam all the way up to Chandanwari spewing carbon monoxide. The >>> >>> Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), which came into existence on >>> >>> February 21, 2001, has been dismissive of such claims. They assert >>> >>> that 230 pre-fabricated toilets being raised in Nunwan base camp and >>> >>> human waste disposal off in leach pits with micro-organism >>> technology >>> >>> using Bokaslin powder and other chemicals would take care of the >>> >>> problem. However, the issue is more than the supposedly effective >>> >>> modern methods to manage waste. The sheer presence of large mass of >>> >>> people is a cause for concern. Department of Science and technology >>> >>> through its principal investigator on glaciology has argued that >>> "the >>> >>> ecology, the environment and health of the glacier can be under >>> >>> severe threat in case the Baltal route to the Holy Cave was >>> >>> frequented by thousands of pilgrims". And pointed out that >>> "depletion >>> >>> and degradation (of glaciers) are the result of human breath, refuse >>> >>> and land erosion". (The Tribune July 5, 2005). >>> >>> >>> >>> It is disconcerting to note that opening of Baltal route for >>> pilgrims >>> >>> on foot and those using helicopters has crossed several thousand >>> >>> every day. Apart from the Department of Science and Technology of >>> J&K >>> >>> government even the Nitish Sengupta committee, which was constituted >>> >>> to look into the deaths of 243 pilgrims in 1996 due to the >>> snowstorm, >>> >>> had recommended that number of yatris be restricted to 5000 per day >>> >>> for a period of one month and the total number of pilgrims be capped >>> >>> at1.5 lakhs. According to them Baltal route should allow 1500 >>> >>> pilgrims and Pahalgam 3500 per day. However, the General JR >>> Mukherjee >>> >>> committee, which looked into the cause of death of 35 people, due to >>> >>> cross fire, during the 2000 yatra, focussed on security arrangement >>> >>> and wanted the duration of the yatra to increase as security >>> scenario >>> >>> improved. But neither report looked at the environmental impact of >>> >>> the yatra. Thus when the SASB invokes the recommendations of the two >>> >>> committees what it does is to use it selectively and link the number >>> >>> of pilgrims to the issue of managing security for them. In this >>> sense >>> >>> they underplay the question whether the eco-system can bear heavy >>> >>> influx of pilgrims. This emphasis on encouraging larger number of >>> >>> pilgrims shows its impact on the environment in unexpected ways. >>> Such >>> >>> as the SASB contemplating "air conditioning" to preserve the shiva >>> >>> lingam from melting. The recent controversy over the pilgrims >>> >>> alleging that the SASB has been constructing the "snow lingam" is >>> now >>> >>> being passed off as due to change in the course of the water >>> channels >>> >>> after last year's earthquake and global warming. Without ruling this >>> >>> out human contribution to this phenomenon cannot be ignored when >>> >>> glaciers are rapidly receding. As a matter of fact yatra was never >>> >>> undertaken in June precisely because formation of shiva lingam does >>> >>> not always take place then. Incidentally the local people speak of >>> >>> "human" intervention in restoring what is a natural phenomenon, as >>> >>> something that has happened in the past too. This apart large number >>> >>> of pilgrims means that going gets tough as one draws close to the >>> >>> cave with traffic jam being the order of the day. At times pilgrims >>> >>> have to wait for hours for their turn. Increase in dust in >>> atmosphere >>> >>> too is caused by crowds of people as well as helicopter service. The >>> >>> dust raised is visible from long distance away. All this also means >>> >>> that individual pilgrims, that is other than VIPs, are disallowed >>> >>> from spending more than seconds inside the cave. Above all carbon >>> >>> dioxide levels shoot up warming the area all around. >>> >>> >>> >>> It cannot be that the SASB is unaware of the environmental concerns. >>> >>> If it receives short shrift it is because the yatra has come to >>> >>> symbolise Indian government's determination to promote its claim in >>> >>> J&K. That pilgrimage is being heralded as victory against a movement >>> >>> demanding azadi from India is available in the news portal of Indian >>> >>> government, Press Information Bureau. It says that "yearning for >>> >>> moksha (salvation) can move the devotees to the challenging heights >>> >>> of Kashmir and will be a fitting gesture of solidarity with our >>> >>> valiant soldiers who have been fighting the enemy to defend our >>> >>> borders". (pib.nic.in/feature/feo799/f1507992.html). Thus what is >>> >>> otherwise merely a religious pilgrimage of the Hindus has been >>> >>> elevated to represent a patriotic enterprise. Besides, the SASB is >>> >>> headed by the Governor and his principal secretary is the CEO of the >>> >>> SASB. Thus the Government of India is clearly in charge of >>> organising >>> >>> the yatra. And it is the SASB which has been pushing for larger and >>> >>> larger numbers of pilgrims and challenging the right of the state >>> >>> government from interfering in anyway with the schedule announced by >>> >>> the SASB. >>> >>> >>> >>> It is true that not everyone who goes to Amarnath accepts this >>> >>> association of religion with patriotism. But the fact of the matter >>> >>> is that official perception of pilgrimage as patriotic duty has >>> >>> allowed the communal fascist elements to join in organising their >>> >>> supporters. Little wonder that frequency of conflict between section >>> >>> of such 'pilgrims' and local population due to their obnoxious >>> >>> behaviour has shown an increase. What is equally disconcerting is >>> >>> that the SASB presided over by the Governor has also been engaged in >>> >>> controversial transactions. The CEO of SASB is the principal >>> >>> secretary to the Governor. Present CEO's wife, in her capacity of >>> >>> Principal secretary forest department granted permission to SASB on >>> >>> May 29, 2005 to use forest land. But this provision was not in >>> >>> accordance with the provision of J&K Forest Conservation Act 1997 >>> >>> and, therefore, the state government withdrew the order. However, >>> >>> thanks to a stay order by a division bench of the J&K High Court the >>> >>> withdrawal of permission to occupy forest land, was suspended. Any >>> >>> visitor to Pahalgam can observe how this forest land is being >>> cleared >>> >>> to setup camps for the yatris. In fact now the SASB has asked the >>> >>> state government to give them land in the radius of 5kms of the >>> cave. >>> >>> This arouses local passions precisely because Indian security forces >>> >>> and other entities have transferred large tracts of land to house >>> >>> camps for security force personnel, or for central projects, as well >>> >>> as for schools which are run by army among others. Even a pro-Indian >>> >>> National Conference party has protested such transfers of land since >>> >>> 1989. Not very far from the camp for the pilgrims in Pahalgam, in >>> >>> Lidru (opposite Kulan village) what locals describe as one of the >>> >>> finest meadows, spread over 550 kanals (one kanal=one eighth of >>> acre) >>> >>> in area, has been given to the army to run a school! Local >>> population >>> >>> feels helpless at being unable to stop this. Therefore, when SASB >>> >>> wants large tract of land transferred to it under the claim of >>> >>> providing accommodation for lakhs of pilgrims it must be weighed >>> >>> against this local concern. Were the numbers of pilgrims to be >>> >>> brought down the pressing need for transferring large areas to SASB >>> >>> or for providing carpet security and thus deployment of force, >>> can be >>> >>> brought down. >>> >>> >>> >>> This apart the SASB has also been involved in other controversial >>> >>> acts. One such was the recent attempt by the SASB to bring down the >>> >>> involvement of local people in the yatra. When on June 5, 2006 the >>> >>> local pro-India Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) claimed that SASB >>> was >>> >>> ignoring livelihood of locals, the SASB countered by claiming that >>> >>> such criticism would generate controversy and thus "jeopardise" >>> >>> tourism in Kashmir. Quite apart from the fact that promotion of >>> >>> pilgrimage for commerce flies in the face of proclaimed concern for >>> >>> people's faith PDP pointed out that if local porters and ponywallahs >>> >>> can strike work at Vaishnodevi Shrine against the (mis)management of >>> >>> the Shri Vaishnodevi Shrine Board (SVDSB) and seek support from >>> local >>> >>> Congress leaders then what is wrong if local people from Pahalgam >>> and >>> >>> Kangan areas seek their help to protest against the practises of >>> SASB >>> >>> which discriminate against them. In fact the Pithoo Workers Union at >>> >>> Katra have protested the suspension of six of their leaders, alleged >>> >>> manhandling by SVDSB officials and demanded recall of its additional >>> >>> CEO. Neither the Governor as head of SVDSB nor the Board issued any >>> >>> statement chastising the Congress party! >>> >>> >>> >>> Arguably, when yatra was halted between 1991-96 due to threat of >>> >>> section of the militants it played into the hands of the extreme >>> >>> right wing elements in Indian society who have since then become an >>> >>> integral part of mobilising large numbers of pilgrims. Thus a >>> form of >>> >>> competitive communalism came into play. Thus when section of the >>> >>> militants represented earlier by Harkatul Ansar and now Lashkar-e- >>> >>> Taiyyaba or Jaish-e-Mohammed threaten to disrupt the pilgrimage it >>> >>> only gets the backs up of the devout Hindus opens them to vitriol of >>> >>> the rabidly anti-Muslim Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Shiv Sena etc. >>> >>> and accentuates the communal divide. However, it is equally >>> important >>> >>> to note the actual fact that more people have died in yatra due to >>> >>> inclement weather and cross fire than at the hands of the militants. >>> >>> Besides, the main indigenous militant organisation Hizbul Mujahideen >>> >>> has always supported the yatra and has consistently demonstrated its >>> >>> opposition towards those who have tried to disrupt the yatra. >>> >>> Moreover, prior to constituting SASB the state government, local >>> >>> people and social activists provided aid and assistance to the >>> >>> pilgrims. However, threat of environmental damage has become a >>> matter >>> >>> of utmost concern because the central government under the cover of >>> >>> SASB remains unrelenting in its pursuit of ever larger numbers to >>> >>> come for pilgrimage. >>> >>> >>> >>> In a way the Amarnath yatra illustrates the way in which the Indian >>> >>> government injects communalism in our body politic. And also >>> >>> represents how secularism in India has been perverted to mean state >>> >>> patronage of religion/s. This patronage is not equitably distributed >>> >>> since Hindus outnumber others by more than eight times. Which is to >>> >>> say that between un-equals equality ends up promoting Hindu >>> religious >>> >>> practises. In Amarnath yatra, in fact, the India government even >>> >>> discarded its pretended neutrality by publicising the yatra as a >>> >>> patriotic duty! Consequently, the likelihood of Amarnath pilgrimage >>> >>> getting mired in controversy, over environmental damage and >>> >>> eventually feeding into further alienation of people because they >>> can >>> >>> do little to save damage to their lived environment, has increased. >>> >>> Trouble is the Indian government cares little for people and prefers >>> >>> to pander to the extreme rightwing by projecting the yatra as a >>> >>> patriotic enterprise to boost the morale of the Indian paramilitary >>> >>> forces. The very same force which the local population regards as >>> >>> symbol of their oppression. Thus a bigger mess is in the making >>> right >>> >>> before our own eyes. >>> >>> --------------- >>> >>> >>> >>> Shuddhabrata Sengupta >>> >>> The Sarai Programme at CSDS >>> >>> Raqs Media Collective >>> >>> shuddha at sarai.net >>> >>> www.sarai.net >>> >>> www.raqsmediacollective.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. >>> > ... > > [Message clipped] > > Shuddhabrata Sengupta The Sarai Programme at CSDS Raqs Media Collective shuddha at sarai.net www.sarai.net www.raqsmediacollective.net From aarti.sethi at gmail.com Mon Jun 30 22:30:24 2008 From: aarti.sethi at gmail.com (Aarti Sethi) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:30:24 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Amaranth Yatra In-Reply-To: References: <6b79f1a70806300414k66445bfai709f596b9ab8368d@mail.gmail.com> <63FC64B5-4517-42C5-BC2C-55E4FF5B4BDE@sarai.net> <6b79f1a70806300854w547d1e45v989f78a8954d4899@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <48c2916d0806301000u1c969e3ft44e1c83094d49ab7@mail.gmail.com> Apropos this, today's express or TOI I forget which has a story on Kashmiri Muslim's setting up food stalls and rest houses for stranded pilgrims. Several pilgrims were housed in people's homes when they discovered they had nowhere to stay. On being asked they said this was nothing new and that the local Muslim community had been hosting poilgrims for the lat hundred years and they saw no reason to change this tradition despite the current fracas over land allotment. So I would suggest Pavan that you excercise a little restraint before you make intemperate remarks about intolerance. best A On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 9:57 PM, Shuddhabrata Sengupta wrote: > Dear Pawan, > > That is your opinion, not a substantiated fact. As far as I have > seen, there has not been a single statement made against Hindu > pligrims by anyone in the leadership or the constituency of the > movement against land transfer in Kashmir. And until such a statement > is made, we cannot say that it arises out of a 'resentment towards > hindu pligrims'. People across the spectrum of political opinion in > Kashmir have taken pains to point out that they welcome pilgrims. And > the question of the acquisition of land has nothing to do with > pilgrims. There is a long history of arbitrary acquisition and > occupation of land, including orchards, schools, meadows, pastures, > grazing comons and private homes in Kashmir, especially by the Armed > Forces and paramilitaries, it is possible that the movement we see > crystallizes the pent up feeling of anger against this long history > of land acquisition. > > An audit of the impact of land acquisition on the ecology and social > fabric of Kashmir (on both sides of the line of control) is still > pending. > > best > > Shuddha > > > > On 30-Jun-08, at 9:24 PM, Pawan Durani wrote: > > > Dear Shuddha , > > > > > > > > While I may trust your belief in ecological fallout , i completely > > disagree with your understanding that the issue is not about the > > resentment towards hindu pligrims. > > > > > > > > It is all about that , non tolerance towards so called hindus or > > what they love to call...."Kufr". > > > > > > > > Pawan > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On 6/30/08, Shuddhabrata Sengupta wrote: > > Dear Pawan, > > > > > > > > Just because a terrain does not have trees, or that the altitude it > > is located in happens to be above the treeline, does not mean that > > it is not ecologically sensitive. > > > > Often, it is precisely terrain of this nature, such as for instance > > is at the vicinity of the mouth of the Gomukh glacier above > > Gangotri,(again above the treeline) that is extremely fragile and > > needs very careful nurturing. > > > > > > > > I know for a fact that the ecosystem of the Gomukh glacial region > > is very badly threatened because of the completely haphazard way in > > which access to this region (and the logistics of pilgrimage and > > tourism) has been managed. I can very easily see that something > > similar can happen in the case of Amarnath. > > > > > > > > I would urge you not to make the discussion of this question into a > > 'Hindu' question. It is not one, it is about the way in which State > > managed, so called, 'Temple Development Boards', enter into schemes > > to grab land, and about the ecological consequences of their land- > > grabbing propensities. > > > > > > > > You might recall that some months back you tried to pose the > > question of the building of a shipping canal between India and Sri > > Lanka as a matter of hurting Hindu sentiments. I endorsed your > > opposition to the so called 'Sethu-Samudram Shipping Channel' > > scheme, because to me it represented a threat to a fragile marine > > ecosystem, not on the basis of its alleged injury to Hindu > > sentiments. I also pointed out to you and to others on the list > > that the protectors of Hindutva, while proposing a Panama Canal > > style waterway cutting through the apex of the Deccan peninsula as > > an alternative to the 'Sethu-Samudram' plan were also proposing > > what was certainly a blueprint for an ecological disaster. > > > > > > > > Opposition to the proposed (and now rescinded) land grab proposal > > by the SASB in the Amarnath case does not automatically translate > > into partisanship across the Hindu-Muslim question in Kashmir. > > Those who translate it as such, whether they are Hindu, or Muslim, > > are needlessly confusing a straightforward matter by bringing their > > own secterian biases to bear on the issue. No one should be misled > > by such attempts at confusion. > > > > > > > > best > > > > > > > > Shuddha > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On 30-Jun-08, at 4:44 PM, Pawan Durani wrote: > > > > > >> Hello Shuddha , > >> > >> > >> > >> Lemme just inform everyone that , the land may have belonged to > >> Forest > >> > >> Department , but there is no single tree over there. > >> > >> > >> > >> Even when you reach Amarntah , there are no trees over there , > >> becuase of > >> > >> high altitude. > >> > >> > >> > >> I visited the site, Baltal , two years back. > >> > >> > >> > >> Unfortunately the issue is not about ecology ..... the way it has > >> been > >> > >> treated is a pure indicator that anything related to Hindus is not > >> tolerable > >> > >> in Kashmir, and proves once again that it is not "freedom" but > >> Islamic > >> > >> fanaticism which rules the shot in Kashmir. > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> Pawan > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> On 6/30/08, Shuddhabrata Sengupta wrote: > >> > >>> > >>> Dear Sonia, Dear Rashneek, dear all, > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> Thank you, Sonia and Rashneek for the debate on the Amarnath Yatra > >>> > >>> issue. The question of temple boards and their closeness to power, > >>> > >>> and their lust for acquiring forest lands is not unique to Kashmir. > >>> > >>> It also happens, as you will see below, (see the report - > >>> Sabarimala: > >>> > >>> The Faith in Spate, by K.A. Shaji) in distant Kerala. The ruling > >>> left > >>> > >>> front government in Kerala is as involved in this game as anyone > >>> > >>> else, because 'Temple Boards' are gold-mines and no state government > >>> > >>> wants to close an operation that earns them the gold that can be > >>> > >>> mined in these gold mines. I am appending below a report on the > >>> > >>> question of the Sabarimala Temple boards desire for even more > >>> > >>> reserved forest land. The story is remarkably resonant of the > >>> > >>> Amarnath issue. A local, highly culturally specific, syncretic > >>> > >>> pilgrimage turning into the road-show of a revivalist 'Hinduism', > >>> > >>> with lucrative revenue spin-offs. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> I live in an area in Delhi where I have witnessed every year, for > >>> the > >>> > >>> past few years - 'Chalo Amarnath Chalo' (Let's go to Amarnath) > >>> > >>> posters and banners being put up by local RSS functionaries. And > >>> > >>> there are active fundraising drives which culminate in a > >>> cavalcade of > >>> > >>> Tata Sumos with the local 'Youth' blaring 'bhajans' from their > >>> > >>> booming auto-sound systems taking off to go do 'darshan' of the > >>> > >>> melting lingam. I don't think they (the Sumo Pilgrims of my > >>> > >>> neighbourhood) really care whether or not the forests of Kashmir go > >>> > >>> up in smoke. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> I also know that the Sabarimala pilgrimage has been twisted out of > >>> > >>> shape in a similar way, both by Hindutva enthusiasts, and by > >>> > >>> construction contractors close to the ruling Left Front. Fragile > >>> > >>> forests can barely sustain the burden of so much sudden faith. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> Incidentally, revivalist Hindus are by no means alone in their > >>> > >>> disregard for the local heritage and environment. The ruling > >>> > >>> dispensation in Saudi Arabia has effectively turned the pilgrimage > >>> > >>> sites of Mecca and Medina into an air-conditioned cultural > >>> wasteland. > >>> > >>> it has systematically destroyed shrines that were considered holy by > >>> > >>> millions of Muslim pilgrims, especially from South Asia, and > >>> > >>> completely transformed the intricate urban fabric of Mecca and > >>> > >>> Medina. There is a long history of protest, including in India, by > >>> > >>> Muslims against the way in which the Saudi Government, in cohorts > >>> > >>> with the Wahabi establishment has wrecked the topography of Mecca > >>> and > >>> > >>> Medina. Similarly, the Israeli state's policy of expansion, through > >>> > >>> settlements, and building high security segregated roads that cut > >>> > >>> through the west bank of the Jordan river are often camouflaged > >>> under > >>> > >>> an appeal to scriptural sanction for 'Greater' or 'Eretz' Israel. > >>> > >>> There is a great deal of money to be made in pilgrimage, and it > >>> > >>> affords everybody an opportunity to make some quick transformations > >>> > >>> of the landscape in the name of 'infrastructure development' and > >>> > >>> 'settlement' , both of which are euphemisms for speculation in real > >>> > >>> estate. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> I am also appending a detailed report on the environmental impact of > >>> > >>> what was proposed by the erstwhile governor Gen (Retd) Sinha of > >>> Jammu > >>> > >>> and Kashmir for the Amarnath Yatra by Gautam Navlakha that appeared > >>> > >>> recently in the website of a journal called Kashmir Affairs. > >>> Finally, > >>> > >>> it is not my case that the acquisition of land for the Amarnath > >>> Board > >>> > >>> (SASB) is wrong, and the acquisition of land for the so-called > >>> > >>> 'Mughal Road', which has been pointed out by Aditya Raj Kaul, in a > >>> > >>> recent post is wrong. Both are equally disastrous from the > >>> > >>> environmental point of view. And the silence of political formations > >>> > >>> (of all persuasions) on the environmental impact of the revived > >>> > >>> Mughal Road and their recent discovery of environmentalism (in the > >>> > >>> case of the Amarnath land transfer issue) does make their commitment > >>> > >>> to environmentalism somewhat suspect. The PDP's stance is > >>> > >>> particularly hypocritical, as the original decision has been > >>> ratified > >>> > >>> by its own minister, (for Forest) in the (Indian Held) J&K state > >>> > >>> government. Still, even if the commitment of all the protagonists is > >>> > >>> suspect, I must say that I have rarely seen a popular movement > >>> > >>> reverse a state-driven decision on an 'environmental' issue, and the > >>> > >>> recent success of the agitation in Kashmir (whatever be the motives > >>> > >>> that impelled it) which has resulted in a reversal of the Land > >>> > >>> Transfer issue is something to be grateful for. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> These are issues that need to be seen quite separately from > >>> secterian > >>> > >>> concerns. I hope this debate can help us see them in that way. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> best > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> Shuddha > >>> > >>> ------------------- > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> 1. Sabarimala: The Faith in Spate > >>> > >>> by K A Shaji > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> http://www.boloji.com/society/115.htm > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> Legend has it that when Lord Ayyappa set out to seek solitude, he > >>> > >>> settled upon Sabarimala. Its sylvan surroundings and undulating > >>> > >>> terrain had made it an ideal retreat for the bachelor god. The > >>> > >>> pristine monsoon forests had wrapped like an ornament around his > >>> > >>> hermitage at the top of the hill. The Lord believed to have called > >>> > >>> the area with tranquil atmosphere as his poonkavanam (sacred > >>> forest). > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> A shrine inside the forest and a deity who chose the calm > >>> ambience of > >>> > >>> hills and valleys has few parallels in the country and outside. But > >>> > >>> now, it seems, all of the glories of Sabarimala were a thing of the > >>> > >>> past. When mythology meets present-day reality, Sabarimala is no > >>> more > >>> > >>> a chosen abode of the hermit God. During January-February each year, > >>> > >>> more than 50 million devotees, as claimed by the temple authorities, > >>> > >>> are thronging this forest temple for annual pilgrimage, putting the > >>> > >>> fragile ecology of the region under severe stress. Now, the holy > >>> hill > >>> > >>> is a synonym of increasing inflow of pilgrims, inadequate > >>> > >>> infrastructure, a devastated environment and a hapless wildlife. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> While the entire hill and the adjacent river Pampa, the third > >>> largest > >>> > >>> river in Kerala, are stinking due to sewage pollution and > >>> > >>> accumulation of garbage, the situation is not much different in the > >>> > >>> administrative and spiritual circles of the hill shrine. First, it > >>> > >>> was a controversy involving Kannada film actress Jayamala and a > >>> group > >>> > >>> of orthodox Hindus, who questioned her claim of touching the idol of > >>> > >>> the bachelor god defying the barricades meant for preventing > >>> sexually > >>> > >>> active women from entering the hill shrine. Then one of the highly > >>> > >>> revered traditional priests of the temple was robbed of a large > >>> > >>> amount of money and gold ornaments during his visit to the house > >>> of a > >>> > >>> woman engaged in flesh trade by a mafia gang. And now, it is the > >>> turn > >>> > >>> of aged father of a senior priest to allege that his son is under > >>> > >>> influence of a powerful Ezhava community leader with shadowy nature > >>> > >>> and the leader's followers are using his son to pocket the temple > >>> > >>> money. In the meantime, the Left Front Government has disbanded the > >>> > >>> existing administrative body of the temple citing corruption at high > >>> > >>> level and is preparing to enact a legislation to keep the corrupt > >>> > >>> community leaders out of the administrative body forever. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> On monetary grounds, the temple is the third largest in the country, > >>> > >>> standing very close to Tirupathi and Guruvayur. The cash-strapped > >>> > >>> Kerala Government, despite its leftist moorings, is depending very > >>> > >>> much on the income from the temple to meet salary needs of its > >>> > >>> employees. In order to increase the revenue, the successive > >>> > >>> governments and the so-called proponents of development are > >>> > >>> vociferous of implementing multi-crore construction plans in > >>> > >>> Sabarimala clearing forests and building a concrete jungle in its > >>> > >>> place. But nobody in the spiritual and administrative levels of the > >>> > >>> temple as well as the government establishment are apprehensive of > >>> > >>> the increasing level of pollution and the extreme level of > >>> > >>> deforestation. Their focus is entangled only in the growing > >>> number of > >>> > >>> controversies and the commissions to be available after the > >>> beginning > >>> > >>> of the construction work. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> Located about 467 metres above sea level, the Sabarimala temple is > >>> > >>> surrounded by 18 hills and situated inside Periyar Tiger Reserve, > >>> one > >>> > >>> of the few safe havens for tigers in the country. According to bird > >>> > >>> watcher B.Sethumadhavan, as many as 2000 species of flowering > >>> plants, > >>> > >>> endemic and medicinal, have been identified among the region's > >>> flora. > >>> > >>> `` About 63 species of mammals, some of them endangered like tigers, > >>> > >>> elephants and lion tailed macaque live here. So far, 223 species of > >>> > >>> birds and 45 species of reptiles including King Cobra have been > >>> > >>> identified in this area,'' he said. The ever- expanding number of > >>> > >>> pilgrims and mindless construction works are posing severe threat to > >>> > >>> their very survival. Devotees of a Lord, who believed to have loved > >>> > >>> the flora and fauna and their safekeeping, are now on a rampage in > >>> > >>> the name of development forcing the wildlife to move out of their > >>> > >>> traditional habitat. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> As per legends, the vehicle of Lord Ayyappa is tiger. But, > >>> > >>> astonishingly, neither the tiger nor the surrounding evergreen > >>> > >>> forests do not come in the list of priorities before the |Travancore > >>> > >>> Devaswam Board, which administers the shrine. ``There was an > >>> increase > >>> > >>> of 35 per cent in revenue while comparing with last year during the > >>> > >>> November-December period. In the number of visitors, the increase is > >>> > >>> of 19 per cent. These figures show the need for immediate > >>> > >>> developmental works in Sabarimala. But there are agencies like > >>> Forest > >>> > >>> Department which cry for tigers and forests,'' alleges G.Raman Nair, > >>> > >>> outgoing president of the board. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> However, environmentalists and forest officials are countering the > >>> > >>> allegation. ``The development works so far at Pampa have made it > >>> > >>> impossible a soul-filling holy dip in river Pampa. At least, two > >>> > >>> scientific studies conducted by Government's own agencies had found > >>> > >>> that landslips and tremors would take place at the holy hillock any > >>> > >>> time largely because of the extensive concrete flooring at the > >>> temple > >>> > >>> premises. The devaswam is only interested in money making. It has no > >>> > >>> concern for the impending dangers for both nature and devotees,'' > >>> > >>> pointed out Sumesh Mangalassery, a member of the environmental group > >>> > >>> Kabani. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> According to Sumesh, a panel of Kerala Legislature on environment > >>> led > >>> > >>> by RSP leader A V Thamarakshan had submitted 32 proposals to the > >>> > >>> Devaswam Board to protect Sabarimala around five years back. But > >>> none > >>> > >>> of them were acceptable to the board. Even the suggestions of Kerala > >>> > >>> State Pollution Control Board to minimise the pollution of river > >>> > >>> Pampa were paid scant regard by the board. A visit by Tehelka to > >>> > >>> Sabarimala found that river Pampa continues to remain the main > >>> victim > >>> > >>> of the callous attitude of the authorities. It gets choked in the > >>> > >>> temple area as solid waste including human excreta; plastic bags, > >>> > >>> empty water bottles and coconut husks block the free flow of water. > >>> > >>> About 35 million people took a holy dip in the river between > >>> November > >>> > >>> and January, which is the major source of drinking water for three > >>> > >>> districts. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> According to a study by the pollution control board, the total > >>> > >>> coliform count recorded at the river portion close to Sabarimala is > >>> > >>> about 1,14,000 per 100 millilitres (ML) during the peak of > >>> > >>> pilgrimage. Just before the pilgrimage season, it is merely 380 per > >>> > >>> 100 ml- well below the permissible limits of 500 per 100 ml. > >>> > >>> According to local people, the overflow of human faeces from sceptic > >>> > >>> tanks around the temple stands the major reason of the pollution of > >>> > >>> the river. ``More than 3,000 temporary toilets are functioning close > >>> > >>> to the temple in addition to about 600 permanent toilets. The > >>> > >>> capacity of the sewerage treatment plant is very limited,'' pointed > >>> > >>> out K.Anirudhan of Sabarimala Samrakshana Samithy. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> Most of the experts, who had conducted studies on the pollution and > >>> > >>> environmental problems prevailing in Sabarimala, point to the > >>> need of > >>> > >>> regulating the ever- increasing number of pilgrims. ``Sabarimala is > >>> > >>> bursting at the seams with millions of devotees now. Thirty or forty > >>> > >>> years ago, only around 50,000 pilgrims visited the temple. Today, > >>> the > >>> > >>> number is fifty million and is rising at the rate of 20 per cent > >>> > >>> every year. The ever-swelling flow resulted in a major mishap on > >>> > >>> January 14, 1999, when 100 pilgrims died in a stampede at the site. > >>> > >>> Indications are that Sabarimala is a disaster waiting to be > >>> happen,'' > >>> > >>> warns noted Kerala based environmentalist P K Uthaman. According to > >>> > >>> him, almost two thousand tonnes of human waste are deposited in > >>> crude > >>> > >>> earth pits and outside in Sabarimala every year. These wastes are > >>> > >>> finding their way into not only the river Pampa but also to river > >>> > >>> Periyar by underground as well as over ground rivulets, posing a > >>> > >>> threat great health hazard for the pilgrims as well as those living > >>> > >>> downstream. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> In addition, the lack of post pilgrimage cleaning drives often > >>> result > >>> > >>> in unabated flow of hazardous waste into the rivers. The temple area > >>> > >>> has already been converted into a concrete jungle where guesthouses > >>> > >>> and other structures are constructed haphazardly all around. They > >>> are > >>> > >>> meant for temple officials, priests, VVIPs and police personnel. > >>> > >>> According to M.Gopal, a pilgrim from Bangalore who visited > >>> Sabarimala > >>> > >>> this year, human excreta and plastic waste were found strewn just > >>> > >>> outside the Sannidhanam (the main building of the temple). As per > >>> > >>> data available from forest department, over 2.5 lakh empty plastic > >>> > >>> bottles of packaged water were collected from inside the tiger > >>> > >>> reserve. The number of tetra packs collected would come around 4.5 > >>> > >>> lakh. The temple complex of the hermit, who believed in renunciation > >>> > >>> of earthly attractions, is now filled with commercial shops selling > >>> > >>> products ranging from gold ornaments to dress materials. All these > >>> > >>> shops were constructed by clearing forests. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> ``The total time available for darsan as of now is a total of 1431 > >>> > >>> hours, i.e. 515160 seconds. If a darsan goes on one at a time basis > >>> > >>> and a devotee gets a second, the total strength of the pilgrims can > >>> > >>> only be 5,15, 160 per year. If ten people could somehow cluster > >>> > >>> together per second for darsan, the maximum number would be > >>> > >>> 51,51,600,'' points out a document prepared by |School of Social > >>> > >>> Sciences at Mahatma Gandhi University on behalf of Kerla Forest > >>> > >>> Department. The document also questions the claims of the board that > >>> > >>> over 50 million people visit the temple annually. But anyway, the > >>> > >>> number of pilgrims' visting Sabarimala is many times more than its > >>> > >>> capacity. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> ``The authorities must find out some mechanism to regulate the > >>> > >>> alarming increase in the number of pilgrims. Sabarimala is not only > >>> > >>> an environmental but also a social disaster,'' opined Dr.Rajan > >>> > >>> Gurukkal of School of Social Sciences. Now a day, the uncontrolled > >>> > >>> flow of pilgrims from various entry points is resulting in people > >>> > >>> swarming all around the protected sanctuary leading to man –animal > >>> > >>> conflicts. Recently, an elephant trampled upon one pilgrim. Then it > >>> > >>> was found that the pilgrims were sleeping in the corridor used by > >>> the > >>> > >>> elephants for going to the river to drink water at the night. A > >>> large > >>> > >>> number of such corridors were already disrupted due to the > >>> > >>> construction works undertaken in the recent past. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> According to Sedumadhavan, the authorities are even paying scant > >>> > >>> attention on the safety of pilgrims. As many as 12,000 litres of > >>> > >>> diesel are being stored just above the sannidhanam without any > >>> > >>> storage licence or safety parameters. They are also keeping a large > >>> > >>> number of crackers near the sanctum sanctoram without any safety > >>> > >>> concern. The only solution on the part of Trvancore Devaswom Board > >>> > >>> for all problems plaguing Sabarimala is denudation of nearby forests > >>> > >>> and setting up new amenities. According to Rajan Gurukkal, such an > >>> > >>> attempt would be disastrous as all the existing problems of > >>> > >>> Sabarimala can be viwed as the after effect of deforestation. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> The devaswam board has already ruined about 55.09 ha of > >>> forestland in > >>> > >>> the name of sabarimala development. In the opinion of > >>> > >>> environmentalists, they demand more forests to cut and smuggle out > >>> > >>> precious trees and construction of further concrete strctures with > >>> > >>> ulterior motives. Maintaining the sanctity of the shrine and the > >>> > >>> precious eco-system never appeared a priority before them. So far, > >>> > >>> the devaswam board was constituted once in five years by nomination > >>> > >>> of people with no administrative acumen at the behest of successive > >>> > >>> governments. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> Rajan Gurukkal and his team at School of Social Sciences have > >>> > >>> prepared a long-term action plan for saving Sabarimala from the > >>> > >>> sequence of disasters in the offing. But the lobbies of corrupt and > >>> > >>> communal elements are not allowing the devaswam to look into them. > >>> > >>> Even the small step of Left Government in disbanding the existing > >>> > >>> devaswam committee is being interpreted as an attempt by atheists to > >>> > >>> interfere in Hindu religious matters. The move by left government to > >>> > >>> appoint experts in place of politicians at the board also facing > >>> > >>> opposition from Sangh Parivar organisations, who claim as custodians > >>> > >>> of Hindu places of worship. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> The board and its corrupt administrators were not able to get their > >>> > >>> hand on the forest so far due to stringent central acts and Supreme > >>> > >>> Court rulings. But even the outgoing members are repeating their old > >>> > >>> slogan of `no development in Sabarimala would be possible without > >>> > >>> deforestation.' Unless the authorities change their attitude from a > >>> > >>> revenue-centred approach to a pilgrim centred aprach, there is not > >>> > >>> much hope. But they still repeat that development (read > >>> > >>> deforestation) could not be stopped for the sake of a few birds and > >>> > >>> animals. ``The board had neither faith in environmental protection > >>> > >>> nor in religious sanctity,'' opines Rajan Gurukkal. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> Decongestion of base town Pampa by increasing facilities at a > >>> > >>> relatively distant town of Nilakkal, demolition of unauthorised > >>> > >>> concrete structures at Sannidhanam and Pampa, cleaning of the river, > >>> > >>> better waste disposal facilities and provisions of basic facilities > >>> > >>> for pilgrims without affecting ecology are the urgent needs of > >>> > >>> Sabarimala. The tigers and elephants must be protected. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> If there is no mechanism to check the number of pilgrims, that would > >>> > >>> increase to two to three crores within years. Moderate elements > >>> among > >>> > >>> the Hindu community are favouring a statutory body for Sabarimala in > >>> > >>> line with Tirumala-Thirupathy Devasthanam and Amarnath temple. > >>> Such a > >>> > >>> body consisting of experts from different fields can change the > >>> > >>> course of priorities of the forest temple. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> ----------- > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> 2. Amarnath Yatra: The Pilgrimage to Eco Disaster > >>> > >>> Gautam Navlakha > >>> > >>> http://www.kashmiraffairs.org/gautam_amarnath%20yatra.html > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> Should one question the propriety of promoting pilgrimage in a > >>> > >>> ecologically fragile area or wink at it in the name of devotees > >>> right > >>> > >>> to free movement and worship? This question comes to mind when > >>> > >>> looking at Amarnath Yatra especially the phenomenal increase in the > >>> > >>> number of pilgrims. This increase is not of few hundred or few > >>> > >>> thousand but runs into hundreds of thousands. There has been a > >>> > >>> doubling of the period for pilgrimage from one month to two this > >>> year > >>> > >>> as well as forty times increase in number of pilgrims, from > >>> 12,000 in > >>> > >>> 1989 to 450,000 in 2005 (this year it is set to cross 500,000) are > >>> > >>> cause for concern. In fact the actual period is longer because a > >>> > >>> fortnight before the official yatra is reserved for army men and > >>> > >>> their families to visit the Amarnath cave through ecologically more > >>> > >>> vulnerable Baltal route. Moreover, in order to provide security for > >>> > >>> pilgrims who come out in large number, the paramilitary forces have > >>> > >>> to be deployed in large number. The current deployment will be in > >>> > >>> excess of 20,000 for the entire period. Their presence and stay > >>> > >>> cannot but affect the rise in pollution levels. Inclement weather > >>> too > >>> > >>> is an issue because rains in the plain means snow in the higher > >>> > >>> reaches. This results in crowding at the camps, straining services > >>> > >>> including disposal of waste. But worse things can happen as in 1996 > >>> > >>> when unexpected heavy snowfall resulted in death of 243 pilgrims and > >>> > >>> injuries to hundred more due to avalanche. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> The State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), recently in a 37 page > >>> > >>> report warns that generation of waste by pilgrims, absence of waste > >>> > >>> disposal sites, open dumping of garbage, air pollution, sewage > >>> > >>> generated by hotels, yatri camps and local residential areas makes > >>> > >>> its way into Lidder river. The SPCB warned that waste generated by > >>> > >>> pilgrims more than the local average and primarily contains > >>> plastics, > >>> > >>> polythene and leftover food packets all along the route. > >>> According to > >>> > >>> their calculation 55,000 kgs of plastic waste is generated every day > >>> > >>> during the pilgrimage. Besides, thousands of open toilets erected > >>> > >>> along the banks of Lidder river ensures that effluents enter the > >>> > >>> river. Thousands of vehicles ply up and down the mountains around > >>> > >>> Pahalgam all the way up to Chandanwari spewing carbon monoxide. The > >>> > >>> Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), which came into existence on > >>> > >>> February 21, 2001, has been dismissive of such claims. They assert > >>> > >>> that 230 pre-fabricated toilets being raised in Nunwan base camp and > >>> > >>> human waste disposal off in leach pits with micro-organism > >>> technology > >>> > >>> using Bokaslin powder and other chemicals would take care of the > >>> > >>> problem. However, the issue is more than the supposedly effective > >>> > >>> modern methods to manage waste. The sheer presence of large mass of > >>> > >>> people is a cause for concern. Department of Science and technology > >>> > >>> through its principal investigator on glaciology has argued that > >>> "the > >>> > >>> ecology, the environment and health of the glacier can be under > >>> > >>> severe threat in case the Baltal route to the Holy Cave was > >>> > >>> frequented by thousands of pilgrims". And pointed out that > >>> "depletion > >>> > >>> and degradation (of glaciers) are the result of human breath, refuse > >>> > >>> and land erosion". (The Tribune July 5, 2005). > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> It is disconcerting to note that opening of Baltal route for > >>> pilgrims > >>> > >>> on foot and those using helicopters has crossed several thousand > >>> > >>> every day. Apart from the Department of Science and Technology of > >>> J&K > >>> > >>> government even the Nitish Sengupta committee, which was constituted > >>> > >>> to look into the deaths of 243 pilgrims in 1996 due to the > >>> snowstorm, > >>> > >>> had recommended that number of yatris be restricted to 5000 per day > >>> > >>> for a period of one month and the total number of pilgrims be capped > >>> > >>> at1.5 lakhs. According to them Baltal route should allow 1500 > >>> > >>> pilgrims and Pahalgam 3500 per day. However, the General JR > >>> Mukherjee > >>> > >>> committee, which looked into the cause of death of 35 people, due to > >>> > >>> cross fire, during the 2000 yatra, focussed on security arrangement > >>> > >>> and wanted the duration of the yatra to increase as security > >>> scenario > >>> > >>> improved. But neither report looked at the environmental impact of > >>> > >>> the yatra. Thus when the SASB invokes the recommendations of the two > >>> > >>> committees what it does is to use it selectively and link the number > >>> > >>> of pilgrims to the issue of managing security for them. In this > >>> sense > >>> > >>> they underplay the question whether the eco-system can bear heavy > >>> > >>> influx of pilgrims. This emphasis on encouraging larger number of > >>> > >>> pilgrims shows its impact on the environment in unexpected ways. > >>> Such > >>> > >>> as the SASB contemplating "air conditioning" to preserve the shiva > >>> > >>> lingam from melting. The recent controversy over the pilgrims > >>> > >>> alleging that the SASB has been constructing the "snow lingam" is > >>> now > >>> > >>> being passed off as due to change in the course of the water > >>> channels > >>> > >>> after last year's earthquake and global warming. Without ruling this > >>> > >>> out human contribution to this phenomenon cannot be ignored when > >>> > >>> glaciers are rapidly receding. As a matter of fact yatra was never > >>> > >>> undertaken in June precisely because formation of shiva lingam does > >>> > >>> not always take place then. Incidentally the local people speak of > >>> > >>> "human" intervention in restoring what is a natural phenomenon, as > >>> > >>> something that has happened in the past too. This apart large number > >>> > >>> of pilgrims means that going gets tough as one draws close to the > >>> > >>> cave with traffic jam being the order of the day. At times pilgrims > >>> > >>> have to wait for hours for their turn. Increase in dust in > >>> atmosphere > >>> > >>> too is caused by crowds of people as well as helicopter service. The > >>> > >>> dust raised is visible from long distance away. All this also means > >>> > >>> that individual pilgrims, that is other than VIPs, are disallowed > >>> > >>> from spending more than seconds inside the cave. Above all carbon > >>> > >>> dioxide levels shoot up warming the area all around. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> It cannot be that the SASB is unaware of the environmental concerns. > >>> > >>> If it receives short shrift it is because the yatra has come to > >>> > >>> symbolise Indian government's determination to promote its claim in > >>> > >>> J&K. That pilgrimage is being heralded as victory against a movement > >>> > >>> demanding azadi from India is available in the news portal of Indian > >>> > >>> government, Press Information Bureau. It says that "yearning for > >>> > >>> moksha (salvation) can move the devotees to the challenging heights > >>> > >>> of Kashmir and will be a fitting gesture of solidarity with our > >>> > >>> valiant soldiers who have been fighting the enemy to defend our > >>> > >>> borders". (pib.nic.in/feature/feo799/f1507992.html). Thus what is > >>> > >>> otherwise merely a religious pilgrimage of the Hindus has been > >>> > >>> elevated to represent a patriotic enterprise. Besides, the SASB is > >>> > >>> headed by the Governor and his principal secretary is the CEO of the > >>> > >>> SASB. Thus the Government of India is clearly in charge of > >>> organising > >>> > >>> the yatra. And it is the SASB which has been pushing for larger and > >>> > >>> larger numbers of pilgrims and challenging the right of the state > >>> > >>> government from interfering in anyway with the schedule announced by > >>> > >>> the SASB. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> It is true that not everyone who goes to Amarnath accepts this > >>> > >>> association of religion with patriotism. But the fact of the matter > >>> > >>> is that official perception of pilgrimage as patriotic duty has > >>> > >>> allowed the communal fascist elements to join in organising their > >>> > >>> supporters. Little wonder that frequency of conflict between section > >>> > >>> of such 'pilgrims' and local population due to their obnoxious > >>> > >>> behaviour has shown an increase. What is equally disconcerting is > >>> > >>> that the SASB presided over by the Governor has also been engaged in > >>> > >>> controversial transactions. The CEO of SASB is the principal > >>> > >>> secretary to the Governor. Present CEO's wife, in her capacity of > >>> > >>> Principal secretary forest department granted permission to SASB on > >>> > >>> May 29, 2005 to use forest land. But this provision was not in > >>> > >>> accordance with the provision of J&K Forest Conservation Act 1997 > >>> > >>> and, therefore, the state government withdrew the order. However, > >>> > >>> thanks to a stay order by a division bench of the J&K High Court the > >>> > >>> withdrawal of permission to occupy forest land, was suspended. Any > >>> > >>> visitor to Pahalgam can observe how this forest land is being > >>> cleared > >>> > >>> to setup camps for the yatris. In fact now the SASB has asked the > >>> > >>> state government to give them land in the radius of 5kms of the > >>> cave. > >>> > >>> This arouses local passions precisely because Indian security forces > >>> > >>> and other entities have transferred large tracts of land to house > >>> > >>> camps for security force personnel, or for central projects, as well > >>> > >>> as for schools which are run by army among others. Even a pro-Indian > >>> > >>> National Conference party has protested such transfers of land since > >>> > >>> 1989. Not very far from the camp for the pilgrims in Pahalgam, in > >>> > >>> Lidru (opposite Kulan village) what locals describe as one of the > >>> > >>> finest meadows, spread over 550 kanals (one kanal=one eighth of > >>> acre) > >>> > >>> in area, has been given to the army to run a school! Local > >>> population > >>> > >>> feels helpless at being unable to stop this. Therefore, when SASB > >>> > >>> wants large tract of land transferred to it under the claim of > >>> > >>> providing accommodation for lakhs of pilgrims it must be weighed > >>> > >>> against this local concern. Were the numbers of pilgrims to be > >>> > >>> brought down the pressing need for transferring large areas to SASB > >>> > >>> or for providing carpet security and thus deployment of force, > >>> can be > >>> > >>> brought down. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> This apart the SASB has also been involved in other controversial > >>> > >>> acts. One such was the recent attempt by the SASB to bring down the > >>> > >>> involvement of local people in the yatra. When on June 5, 2006 the > >>> > >>> local pro-India Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) claimed that SASB > >>> was > >>> > >>> ignoring livelihood of locals, the SASB countered by claiming that > >>> > >>> such criticism would generate controversy and thus "jeopardise" > >>> > >>> tourism in Kashmir. Quite apart from the fact that promotion of > >>> > >>> pilgrimage for commerce flies in the face of proclaimed concern for > >>> > >>> people's faith PDP pointed out that if local porters and ponywallahs > >>> > >>> can strike work at Vaishnodevi Shrine against the (mis)management of > >>> > >>> the Shri Vaishnodevi Shrine Board (SVDSB) and seek support from > >>> local > >>> > >>> Congress leaders then what is wrong if local people from Pahalgam > >>> and > >>> > >>> Kangan areas seek their help to protest against the practises of > >>> SASB > >>> > >>> which discriminate against them. In fact the Pithoo Workers Union at > >>> > >>> Katra have protested the suspension of six of their leaders, alleged > >>> > >>> manhandling by SVDSB officials and demanded recall of its additional > >>> > >>> CEO. Neither the Governor as head of SVDSB nor the Board issued any > >>> > >>> statement chastising the Congress party! > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> Arguably, when yatra was halted between 1991-96 due to threat of > >>> > >>> section of the militants it played into the hands of the extreme > >>> > >>> right wing elements in Indian society who have since then become an > >>> > >>> integral part of mobilising large numbers of pilgrims. Thus a > >>> form of > >>> > >>> competitive communalism came into play. Thus when section of the > >>> > >>> militants represented earlier by Harkatul Ansar and now Lashkar-e- > >>> > >>> Taiyyaba or Jaish-e-Mohammed threaten to disrupt the pilgrimage it > >>> > >>> only gets the backs up of the devout Hindus opens them to vitriol of > >>> > >>> the rabidly anti-Muslim Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Shiv Sena etc. > >>> > >>> and accentuates the communal divide. However, it is equally > >>> important > >>> > >>> to note the actual fact that more people have died in yatra due to > >>> > >>> inclement weather and cross fire than at the hands of the militants. > >>> > >>> Besides, the main indigenous militant organisation Hizbul Mujahideen > >>> > >>> has always supported the yatra and has consistently demonstrated its > >>> > >>> opposition towards those who have tried to disrupt the yatra. > >>> > >>> Moreover, prior to constituting SASB the state government, local > >>> > >>> people and social activists provided aid and assistance to the > >>> > >>> pilgrims. However, threat of environmental damage has become a > >>> matter > >>> > >>> of utmost concern because the central government under the cover of > >>> > >>> SASB remains unrelenting in its pursuit of ever larger numbers to > >>> > >>> come for pilgrimage. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> In a way the Amarnath yatra illustrates the way in which the Indian > >>> > >>> government injects communalism in our body politic. And also > >>> > >>> represents how secularism in India has been perverted to mean state > >>> > >>> patronage of religion/s. This patronage is not equitably distributed > >>> > >>> since Hindus outnumber others by more than eight times. Which is to > >>> > >>> say that between un-equals equality ends up promoting Hindu > >>> religious > >>> > >>> practises. In Amarnath yatra, in fact, the India government even > >>> > >>> discarded its pretended neutrality by publicising the yatra as a > >>> > >>> patriotic duty! Consequently, the likelihood of Amarnath pilgrimage > >>> > >>> getting mired in controversy, over environmental damage and > >>> > >>> eventually feeding into further alienation of people because they > >>> can > >>> > >>> do little to save damage to their lived environment, has increased. > >>> > >>> Trouble is the Indian government cares little for people and prefers > >>> > >>> to pander to the extreme rightwing by projecting the yatra as a > >>> > >>> patriotic enterprise to boost the morale of the Indian paramilitary > >>> > >>> forces. The very same force which the local population regards as > >>> > >>> symbol of their oppression. Thus a bigger mess is in the making > >>> right > >>> > >>> before our own eyes. > >>> > >>> --------------- > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> Shuddhabrata Sengupta > >>> > >>> The Sarai Programme at CSDS > >>> > >>> Raqs Media Collective > >>> > >>> shuddha at sarai.net > >>> > >>> www.sarai.net > >>> > >>> www.raqsmediacollective.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. > >>> > > ... > > > > [Message clipped] > > > > > > Shuddhabrata Sengupta > The Sarai Programme at CSDS > Raqs Media Collective > shuddha at sarai.net > www.sarai.net > www.raqsmediacollective.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 shuddha at sarai.net Mon Jun 30 14:10:37 2008 From: shuddha at sarai.net (Shuddhabrata Sengupta) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 14:10:37 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Amaranth Yatra In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <2745FCCC-828A-4CF2-A70D-5D7D64B4803E@sarai.net> Dear all, A typo in my last posting which is not insignificant. The sentence which reads as "Finally,it is not my case that the acquisition of land for the Amarnath Board (SASB) is wrong, and the acquisition of land for the so-called 'Mughal Road', which has been pointed out by Aditya Raj Kaul, in a recent post is wrong." should read as "Finally,it is not my case that the acquisition of land for the Amarnath Board (SASB) is wrong, and the acquisition of land for the so-called 'Mughal Road', which has been pointed out by Aditya Raj Kaul, in a recent post is right." Apologies for this error. best Shuddha On 30-Jun-08, at 2:03 PM, Shuddhabrata Sengupta wrote: > Dear Sonia, Dear Rashneek, dear all, > > Thank you, Sonia and Rashneek for the debate on the Amarnath Yatra > issue. The question of temple boards and their closeness to power, > and their lust for acquiring forest lands is not unique to Kashmir. > It also happens, as you will see below, (see the report - Sabarimala: > The Faith in Spate, by K.A. Shaji) in distant Kerala. The ruling left > front government in Kerala is as involved in this game as anyone > else, because 'Temple Boards' are gold-mines and no state government > wants to close an operation that earns them the gold that can be > mined in these gold mines. I am appending below a report on the > question of the Sabarimala Temple boards desire for even more > reserved forest land. The story is remarkably resonant of the > Amarnath issue. A local, highly culturally specific, syncretic > pilgrimage turning into the road-show of a revivalist 'Hinduism', > with lucrative revenue spin-offs. > > I live in an area in Delhi where I have witnessed every year, for the > past few years - 'Chalo Amarnath Chalo' (Let's go to Amarnath) > posters and banners being put up by local RSS functionaries. And > there are active fundraising drives which culminate in a cavalcade of > Tata Sumos with the local 'Youth' blaring 'bhajans' from their > booming auto-sound systems taking off to go do 'darshan' of the > melting lingam. I don't think they (the Sumo Pilgrims of my > neighbourhood) really care whether or not the forests of Kashmir go > up in smoke. > > I also know that the Sabarimala pilgrimage has been twisted out of > shape in a similar way, both by Hindutva enthusiasts, and by > construction contractors close to the ruling Left Front. Fragile > forests can barely sustain the burden of so much sudden faith. > > Incidentally, revivalist Hindus are by no means alone in their > disregard for the local heritage and environment. The ruling > dispensation in Saudi Arabia has effectively turned the pilgrimage > sites of Mecca and Medina into an air-conditioned cultural wasteland. > it has systematically destroyed shrines that were considered holy by > millions of Muslim pilgrims, especially from South Asia, and > completely transformed the intricate urban fabric of Mecca and > Medina. There is a long history of protest, including in India, by > Muslims against the way in which the Saudi Government, in cohorts > with the Wahabi establishment has wrecked the topography of Mecca and > Medina. Similarly, the Israeli state's policy of expansion, through > settlements, and building high security segregated roads that cut > through the west bank of the Jordan river are often camouflaged under > an appeal to scriptural sanction for 'Greater' or 'Eretz' Israel. > There is a great deal of money to be made in pilgrimage, and it > affords everybody an opportunity to make some quick transformations > of the landscape in the name of 'infrastructure development' and > 'settlement' , both of which are euphemisms for speculation in real > estate. > > I am also appending a detailed report on the environmental impact of > what was proposed by the erstwhile governor Gen (Retd) Sinha of Jammu > and Kashmir for the Amarnath Yatra by Gautam Navlakha that appeared > recently in the website of a journal called Kashmir Affairs. Finally, > it is not my case that the acquisition of land for the Amarnath Board > (SASB) is wrong, and the acquisition of land for the so-called > 'Mughal Road', which has been pointed out by Aditya Raj Kaul, in a > recent post is wrong. Both are equally disastrous from the > environmental point of view. And the silence of political formations > (of all persuasions) on the environmental impact of the revived > Mughal Road and their recent discovery of environmentalism (in the > case of the Amarnath land transfer issue) does make their commitment > to environmentalism somewhat suspect. The PDP's stance is > particularly hypocritical, as the original decision has been ratified > by its own minister, (for Forest) in the (Indian Held) J&K state > government. Still, even if the commitment of all the protagonists is > suspect, I must say that I have rarely seen a popular movement > reverse a state-driven decision on an 'environmental' issue, and the > recent success of the agitation in Kashmir (whatever be the motives > that impelled it) which has resulted in a reversal of the Land > Transfer issue is something to be grateful for. > > These are issues that need to be seen quite separately from secterian > concerns. I hope this debate can help us see them in that way. > > best > > Shuddha > ------------------- > > 1. Sabarimala: The Faith in Spate > by K A Shaji > > http://www.boloji.com/society/115.htm > > Legend has it that when Lord Ayyappa set out to seek solitude, he > settled upon Sabarimala. Its sylvan surroundings and undulating > terrain had made it an ideal retreat for the bachelor god. The > pristine monsoon forests had wrapped like an ornament around his > hermitage at the top of the hill. The Lord believed to have called > the area with tranquil atmosphere as his poonkavanam (sacred forest). > > A shrine inside the forest and a deity who chose the calm ambience of > hills and valleys has few parallels in the country and outside. But > now, it seems, all of the glories of Sabarimala were a thing of the > past. When mythology meets present-day reality, Sabarimala is no more > a chosen abode of the hermit God. During January-February each year, > more than 50 million devotees, as claimed by the temple authorities, > are thronging this forest temple for annual pilgrimage, putting the > fragile ecology of the region under severe stress. Now, the holy hill > is a synonym of increasing inflow of pilgrims, inadequate > infrastructure, a devastated environment and a hapless wildlife. > > While the entire hill and the adjacent river Pampa, the third largest > river in Kerala, are stinking due to sewage pollution and > accumulation of garbage, the situation is not much different in the > administrative and spiritual circles of the hill shrine. First, it > was a controversy involving Kannada film actress Jayamala and a group > of orthodox Hindus, who questioned her claim of touching the idol of > the bachelor god defying the barricades meant for preventing sexually > active women from entering the hill shrine. Then one of the highly > revered traditional priests of the temple was robbed of a large > amount of money and gold ornaments during his visit to the house of a > woman engaged in flesh trade by a mafia gang. And now, it is the turn > of aged father of a senior priest to allege that his son is under > influence of a powerful Ezhava community leader with shadowy nature > and the leader's followers are using his son to pocket the temple > money. In the meantime, the Left Front Government has disbanded the > existing administrative body of the temple citing corruption at high > level and is preparing to enact a legislation to keep the corrupt > community leaders out of the administrative body forever. > > On monetary grounds, the temple is the third largest in the country, > standing very close to Tirupathi and Guruvayur. The cash-strapped > Kerala Government, despite its leftist moorings, is depending very > much on the income from the temple to meet salary needs of its > employees. In order to increase the revenue, the successive > governments and the so-called proponents of development are > vociferous of implementing multi-crore construction plans in > Sabarimala clearing forests and building a concrete jungle in its > place. But nobody in the spiritual and administrative levels of the > temple as well as the government establishment are apprehensive of > the increasing level of pollution and the extreme level of > deforestation. Their focus is entangled only in the growing number of > controversies and the commissions to be available after the beginning > of the construction work. > > Located about 467 metres above sea level, the Sabarimala temple is > surrounded by 18 hills and situated inside Periyar Tiger Reserve, one > of the few safe havens for tigers in the country. According to bird > watcher B.Sethumadhavan, as many as 2000 species of flowering plants, > endemic and medicinal, have been identified among the region's flora. > `` About 63 species of mammals, some of them endangered like tigers, > elephants and lion tailed macaque live here. So far, 223 species of > birds and 45 species of reptiles including King Cobra have been > identified in this area,'' he said. The ever- expanding number of > pilgrims and mindless construction works are posing severe threat to > their very survival. Devotees of a Lord, who believed to have loved > the flora and fauna and their safekeeping, are now on a rampage in > the name of development forcing the wildlife to move out of their > traditional habitat. > > As per legends, the vehicle of Lord Ayyappa is tiger. But, > astonishingly, neither the tiger nor the surrounding evergreen > forests do not come in the list of priorities before the |Travancore > Devaswam Board, which administers the shrine. ``There was an increase > of 35 per cent in revenue while comparing with last year during the > November-December period. In the number of visitors, the increase is > of 19 per cent. These figures show the need for immediate > developmental works in Sabarimala. But there are agencies like Forest > Department which cry for tigers and forests,'' alleges G.Raman Nair, > outgoing president of the board. > > However, environmentalists and forest officials are countering the > allegation. ``The development works so far at Pampa have made it > impossible a soul-filling holy dip in river Pampa. At least, two > scientific studies conducted by Government's own agencies had found > that landslips and tremors would take place at the holy hillock any > time largely because of the extensive concrete flooring at the temple > premises. The devaswam is only interested in money making. It has no > concern for the impending dangers for both nature and devotees,'' > pointed out Sumesh Mangalassery, a member of the environmental group > Kabani. > > According to Sumesh, a panel of Kerala Legislature on environment led > by RSP leader A V Thamarakshan had submitted 32 proposals to the > Devaswam Board to protect Sabarimala around five years back. But none > of them were acceptable to the board. Even the suggestions of Kerala > State Pollution Control Board to minimise the pollution of river > Pampa were paid scant regard by the board. A visit by Tehelka to > Sabarimala found that river Pampa continues to remain the main victim > of the callous attitude of the authorities. It gets choked in the > temple area as solid waste including human excreta; plastic bags, > empty water bottles and coconut husks block the free flow of water. > About 35 million people took a holy dip in the river between November > and January, which is the major source of drinking water for three > districts. > > According to a study by the pollution control board, the total > coliform count recorded at the river portion close to Sabarimala is > about 1,14,000 per 100 millilitres (ML) during the peak of > pilgrimage. Just before the pilgrimage season, it is merely 380 per > 100 ml- well below the permissible limits of 500 per 100 ml. > According to local people, the overflow of human faeces from sceptic > tanks around the temple stands the major reason of the pollution of > the river. ``More than 3,000 temporary toilets are functioning close > to the temple in addition to about 600 permanent toilets. The > capacity of the sewerage treatment plant is very limited,'' pointed > out K.Anirudhan of Sabarimala Samrakshana Samithy. > > Most of the experts, who had conducted studies on the pollution and > environmental problems prevailing in Sabarimala, point to the need of > regulating the ever- increasing number of pilgrims. ``Sabarimala is > bursting at the seams with millions of devotees now. Thirty or forty > years ago, only around 50,000 pilgrims visited the temple. Today, the > number is fifty million and is rising at the rate of 20 per cent > every year. The ever-swelling flow resulted in a major mishap on > January 14, 1999, when 100 pilgrims died in a stampede at the site. > Indications are that Sabarimala is a disaster waiting to be happen,'' > warns noted Kerala based environmentalist P K Uthaman. According to > him, almost two thousand tonnes of human waste are deposited in crude > earth pits and outside in Sabarimala every year. These wastes are > finding their way into not only the river Pampa but also to river > Periyar by underground as well as over ground rivulets, posing a > threat great health hazard for the pilgrims as well as those living > downstream. > > In addition, the lack of post pilgrimage cleaning drives often result > in unabated flow of hazardous waste into the rivers. The temple area > has already been converted into a concrete jungle where guesthouses > and other structures are constructed haphazardly all around. They are > meant for temple officials, priests, VVIPs and police personnel. > According to M.Gopal, a pilgrim from Bangalore who visited Sabarimala > this year, human excreta and plastic waste were found strewn just > outside the Sannidhanam (the main building of the temple). As per > data available from forest department, over 2.5 lakh empty plastic > bottles of packaged water were collected from inside the tiger > reserve. The number of tetra packs collected would come around 4.5 > lakh. The temple complex of the hermit, who believed in renunciation > of earthly attractions, is now filled with commercial shops selling > products ranging from gold ornaments to dress materials. All these > shops were constructed by clearing forests. > > ``The total time available for darsan as of now is a total of 1431 > hours, i.e. 515160 seconds. If a darsan goes on one at a time basis > and a devotee gets a second, the total strength of the pilgrims can > only be 5,15, 160 per year. If ten people could somehow cluster > together per second for darsan, the maximum number would be > 51,51,600,'' points out a document prepared by |School of Social > Sciences at Mahatma Gandhi University on behalf of Kerla Forest > Department. The document also questions the claims of the board that > over 50 million people visit the temple annually. But anyway, the > number of pilgrims' visting Sabarimala is many times more than its > capacity. > > ``The authorities must find out some mechanism to regulate the > alarming increase in the number of pilgrims. Sabarimala is not only > an environmental but also a social disaster,'' opined Dr.Rajan > Gurukkal of School of Social Sciences. Now a day, the uncontrolled > flow of pilgrims from various entry points is resulting in people > swarming all around the protected sanctuary leading to man –animal > conflicts. Recently, an elephant trampled upon one pilgrim. Then it > was found that the pilgrims were sleeping in the corridor used by the > elephants for going to the river to drink water at the night. A large > number of such corridors were already disrupted due to the > construction works undertaken in the recent past. > > According to Sedumadhavan, the authorities are even paying scant > attention on the safety of pilgrims. As many as 12,000 litres of > diesel are being stored just above the sannidhanam without any > storage licence or safety parameters. They are also keeping a large > number of crackers near the sanctum sanctoram without any safety > concern. The only solution on the part of Trvancore Devaswom Board > for all problems plaguing Sabarimala is denudation of nearby forests > and setting up new amenities. According to Rajan Gurukkal, such an > attempt would be disastrous as all the existing problems of > Sabarimala can be viwed as the after effect of deforestation. > > The devaswam board has already ruined about 55.09 ha of forestland in > the name of sabarimala development. In the opinion of > environmentalists, they demand more forests to cut and smuggle out > precious trees and construction of further concrete strctures with > ulterior motives. Maintaining the sanctity of the shrine and the > precious eco-system never appeared a priority before them. So far, > the devaswam board was constituted once in five years by nomination > of people with no administrative acumen at the behest of successive > governments. > > Rajan Gurukkal and his team at School of Social Sciences have > prepared a long-term action plan for saving Sabarimala from the > sequence of disasters in the offing. But the lobbies of corrupt and > communal elements are not allowing the devaswam to look into them. > Even the small step of Left Government in disbanding the existing > devaswam committee is being interpreted as an attempt by atheists to > interfere in Hindu religious matters. The move by left government to > appoint experts in place of politicians at the board also facing > opposition from Sangh Parivar organisations, who claim as custodians > of Hindu places of worship. > > The board and its corrupt administrators were not able to get their > hand on the forest so far due to stringent central acts and Supreme > Court rulings. But even the outgoing members are repeating their old > slogan of `no development in Sabarimala would be possible without > deforestation.' Unless the authorities change their attitude from a > revenue-centred approach to a pilgrim centred aprach, there is not > much hope. But they still repeat that development (read > deforestation) could not be stopped for the sake of a few birds and > animals. ``The board had neither faith in environmental protection > nor in religious sanctity,'' opines Rajan Gurukkal. > > Decongestion of base town Pampa by increasing facilities at a > relatively distant town of Nilakkal, demolition of unauthorised > concrete structures at Sannidhanam and Pampa, cleaning of the river, > better waste disposal facilities and provisions of basic facilities > for pilgrims without affecting ecology are the urgent needs of > Sabarimala. The tigers and elephants must be protected. > > If there is no mechanism to check the number of pilgrims, that would > increase to two to three crores within years. Moderate elements among > the Hindu community are favouring a statutory body for Sabarimala in > line with Tirumala-Thirupathy Devasthanam and Amarnath temple. Such a > body consisting of experts from different fields can change the > course of priorities of the forest temple. > > > ----------- > > 2. Amarnath Yatra: The Pilgrimage to Eco Disaster > Gautam Navlakha > http://www.kashmiraffairs.org/gautam_amarnath%20yatra.html > > Should one question the propriety of promoting pilgrimage in a > ecologically fragile area or wink at it in the name of devotees right > to free movement and worship? This question comes to mind when > looking at Amarnath Yatra especially the phenomenal increase in the > number of pilgrims. This increase is not of few hundred or few > thousand but runs into hundreds of thousands. There has been a > doubling of the period for pilgrimage from one month to two this year > as well as forty times increase in number of pilgrims, from 12,000 in > 1989 to 450,000 in 2005 (this year it is set to cross 500,000) are > cause for concern. In fact the actual period is longer because a > fortnight before the official yatra is reserved for army men and > their families to visit the Amarnath cave through ecologically more > vulnerable Baltal route. Moreover, in order to provide security for > pilgrims who come out in large number, the paramilitary forces have > to be deployed in large number. The current deployment will be in > excess of 20,000 for the entire period. Their presence and stay > cannot but affect the rise in pollution levels. Inclement weather too > is an issue because rains in the plain means snow in the higher > reaches. This results in crowding at the camps, straining services > including disposal of waste. But worse things can happen as in 1996 > when unexpected heavy snowfall resulted in death of 243 pilgrims and > injuries to hundred more due to avalanche. > > The State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), recently in a 37 page > report warns that generation of waste by pilgrims, absence of waste > disposal sites, open dumping of garbage, air pollution, sewage > generated by hotels, yatri camps and local residential areas makes > its way into Lidder river. The SPCB warned that waste generated by > pilgrims more than the local average and primarily contains plastics, > polythene and leftover food packets all along the route. According to > their calculation 55,000 kgs of plastic waste is generated every day > during the pilgrimage. Besides, thousands of open toilets erected > along the banks of Lidder river ensures that effluents enter the > river. Thousands of vehicles ply up and down the mountains around > Pahalgam all the way up to Chandanwari spewing carbon monoxide. The > Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), which came into existence on > February 21, 2001, has been dismissive of such claims. They assert > that 230 pre-fabricated toilets being raised in Nunwan base camp and > human waste disposal off in leach pits with micro-organism technology > using Bokaslin powder and other chemicals would take care of the > problem. However, the issue is more than the supposedly effective > modern methods to manage waste. The sheer presence of large mass of > people is a cause for concern. Department of Science and technology > through its principal investigator on glaciology has argued that “the > ecology, the environment and health of the glacier can be under > severe threat in case the Baltal route to the Holy Cave was > frequented by thousands of pilgrims”. And pointed out that “depletion > and degradation (of glaciers) are the result of human breath, refuse > and land erosion”. (The Tribune July 5, 2005). > > It is disconcerting to note that opening of Baltal route for pilgrims > on foot and those using helicopters has crossed several thousand > every day. Apart from the Department of Science and Technology of J&K > government even the Nitish Sengupta committee, which was constituted > to look into the deaths of 243 pilgrims in 1996 due to the snowstorm, > had recommended that number of yatris be restricted to 5000 per day > for a period of one month and the total number of pilgrims be capped > at1.5 lakhs. According to them Baltal route should allow 1500 > pilgrims and Pahalgam 3500 per day. However, the General JR Mukherjee > committee, which looked into the cause of death of 35 people, due to > cross fire, during the 2000 yatra, focussed on security arrangement > and wanted the duration of the yatra to increase as security scenario > improved. But neither report looked at the environmental impact of > the yatra. Thus when the SASB invokes the recommendations of the two > committees what it does is to use it selectively and link the number > of pilgrims to the issue of managing security for them. In this sense > they underplay the question whether the eco-system can bear heavy > influx of pilgrims. This emphasis on encouraging larger number of > pilgrims shows its impact on the environment in unexpected ways. Such > as the SASB contemplating “air conditioning” to preserve the shiva > lingam from melting. The recent controversy over the pilgrims > alleging that the SASB has been constructing the “snow lingam” is now > being passed off as due to change in the course of the water channels > after last year’s earthquake and global warming. Without ruling this > out human contribution to this phenomenon cannot be ignored when > glaciers are rapidly receding. As a matter of fact yatra was never > undertaken in June precisely because formation of shiva lingam does > not always take place then. Incidentally the local people speak of > “human” intervention in restoring what is a natural phenomenon, as > something that has happened in the past too. This apart large number > of pilgrims means that going gets tough as one draws close to the > cave with traffic jam being the order of the day. At times pilgrims > have to wait for hours for their turn. Increase in dust in atmosphere > too is caused by crowds of people as well as helicopter service. The > dust raised is visible from long distance away. All this also means > that individual pilgrims, that is other than VIPs, are disallowed > from spending more than seconds inside the cave. Above all carbon > dioxide levels shoot up warming the area all around. > > It cannot be that the SASB is unaware of the environmental concerns. > If it receives short shrift it is because the yatra has come to > symbolise Indian government’s determination to promote its claim in > J&K. That pilgrimage is being heralded as victory against a movement > demanding azadi from India is available in the news portal of Indian > government, Press Information Bureau. It says that “yearning for > moksha (salvation) can move the devotees to the challenging heights > of Kashmir and will be a fitting gesture of solidarity with our > valiant soldiers who have been fighting the enemy to defend our > borders”. (pib.nic.in/feature/feo799/f1507992.html). Thus what is > otherwise merely a religious pilgrimage of the Hindus has been > elevated to represent a patriotic enterprise. Besides, the SASB is > headed by the Governor and his principal secretary is the CEO of the > SASB. Thus the Government of India is clearly in charge of organising > the yatra. And it is the SASB which has been pushing for larger and > larger numbers of pilgrims and challenging the right of the state > government from interfering in anyway with the schedule announced by > the SASB. > > It is true that not everyone who goes to Amarnath accepts this > association of religion with patriotism. But the fact of the matter > is that official perception of pilgrimage as patriotic duty has > allowed the communal fascist elements to join in organising their > supporters. Little wonder that frequency of conflict between section > of such ‘pilgrims’ and local population due to their obnoxious > behaviour has shown an increase. What is equally disconcerting is > that the SASB presided over by the Governor has also been engaged in > controversial transactions. The CEO of SASB is the principal > secretary to the Governor. Present CEO’s wife, in her capacity of > Principal secretary forest department granted permission to SASB on > May 29, 2005 to use forest land. But this provision was not in > accordance with the provision of J&K Forest Conservation Act 1997 > and, therefore, the state government withdrew the order. However, > thanks to a stay order by a division bench of the J&K High Court the > withdrawal of permission to occupy forest land, was suspended. Any > visitor to Pahalgam can observe how this forest land is being cleared > to setup camps for the yatris. In fact now the SASB has asked the > state government to give them land in the radius of 5kms of the cave. > This arouses local passions precisely because Indian security forces > and other entities have transferred large tracts of land to house > camps for security force personnel, or for central projects, as well > as for schools which are run by army among others. Even a pro-Indian > National Conference party has protested such transfers of land since > 1989. Not very far from the camp for the pilgrims in Pahalgam, in > Lidru (opposite Kulan village) what locals describe as one of the > finest meadows, spread over 550 kanals (one kanal=one eighth of acre) > in area, has been given to the army to run a school! Local population > feels helpless at being unable to stop this. Therefore, when SASB > wants large tract of land transferred to it under the claim of > providing accommodation for lakhs of pilgrims it must be weighed > against this local concern. Were the numbers of pilgrims to be > brought down the pressing need for transferring large areas to SASB > or for providing carpet security and thus deployment of force, can be > brought down. > > This apart the SASB has also been involved in other controversial > acts. One such was the recent attempt by the SASB to bring down the > involvement of local people in the yatra. When on June 5, 2006 the > local pro-India Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) claimed that SASB was > ignoring livelihood of locals, the SASB countered by claiming that > such criticism would generate controversy and thus “jeopardise” > tourism in Kashmir. Quite apart from the fact that promotion of > pilgrimage for commerce flies in the face of proclaimed concern for > people’s faith PDP pointed out that if local porters and ponywallahs > can strike work at Vaishnodevi Shrine against the (mis)management of > the Shri Vaishnodevi Shrine Board (SVDSB) and seek support from local > Congress leaders then what is wrong if local people from Pahalgam and > Kangan areas seek their help to protest against the practises of SASB > which discriminate against them. In fact the Pithoo Workers Union at > Katra have protested the suspension of six of their leaders, alleged > manhandling by SVDSB officials and demanded recall of its additional > CEO. Neither the Governor as head of SVDSB nor the Board issued any > statement chastising the Congress party! > > Arguably, when yatra was halted between 1991-96 due to threat of > section of the militants it played into the hands of the extreme > right wing elements in Indian society who have since then become an > integral part of mobilising large numbers of pilgrims. Thus a form of > competitive communalism came into play. Thus when section of the > militants represented earlier by Harkatul Ansar and now Lashkar-e- > Taiyyaba or Jaish-e-Mohammed threaten to disrupt the pilgrimage it > only gets the backs up of the devout Hindus opens them to vitriol of > the rabidly anti-Muslim Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Shiv Sena etc. > and accentuates the communal divide. However, it is equally important > to note the actual fact that more people have died in yatra due to > inclement weather and cross fire than at the hands of the militants. > Besides, the main indigenous militant organisation Hizbul Mujahideen > has always supported the yatra and has consistently demonstrated its > opposition towards those who have tried to disrupt the yatra. > Moreover, prior to constituting SASB the state government, local > people and social activists provided aid and assistance to the > pilgrims. However, threat of environmental damage has become a matter > of utmost concern because the central government under the cover of > SASB remains unrelenting in its pursuit of ever larger numbers to > come for pilgrimage. > > In a way the Amarnath yatra illustrates the way in which the Indian > government injects communalism in our body politic. And also > represents how secularism in India has been perverted to mean state > patronage of religion/s. This patronage is not equitably distributed > since Hindus outnumber others by more than eight times. Which is to > say that between un-equals equality ends up promoting Hindu religious > practises. In Amarnath yatra, in fact, the India government even > discarded its pretended neutrality by publicising the yatra as a > patriotic duty! Consequently, the likelihood of Amarnath pilgrimage > getting mired in controversy, over environmental damage and > eventually feeding into further alienation of people because they can > do little to save damage to their lived environment, has increased. > Trouble is the Indian government cares little for people and prefers > to pander to the extreme rightwing by projecting the yatra as a > patriotic enterprise to boost the morale of the Indian paramilitary > forces. The very same force which the local population regards as > symbol of their oppression. Thus a bigger mess is in the making right > before our own eyes. > --------------- > > Shuddhabrata Sengupta > The Sarai Programme at CSDS > Raqs Media Collective > shuddha at sarai.net > www.sarai.net > www.raqsmediacollective.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/> Shuddhabrata Sengupta The Sarai Programme at CSDS Raqs Media Collective shuddha at sarai.net www.sarai.net www.raqsmediacollective.net From shuddha at sarai.net Mon Jun 30 17:58:16 2008 From: shuddha at sarai.net (Shuddhabrata Sengupta) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 17:58:16 +0530 Subject: [Reader-list] Amaranth Yatra In-Reply-To: <6b79f1a70806300414k66445bfai709f596b9ab8368d@mail.gmail.com> References: <6b79f1a70806300414k66445bfai709f596b9ab8368d@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <63FC64B5-4517-42C5-BC2C-55E4FF5B4BDE@sarai.net> Dear Pawan, Just because a terrain does not have trees, or that the altitude it is located in happens to be above the treeline, does not mean that it is not ecologically sensitive. Often, it is precisely terrain of this nature, such as for instance is at the vicinity of the mouth of the Gomukh glacier above Gangotri, (again above the treeline) that is extremely fragile and needs very careful nurturing. I know for a fact that the ecosystem of the Gomukh glacial region is very badly threatened because of the completely haphazard way in which access to this region (and the logistics of pilgrimage and tourism) has been managed. I can very easily see that something similar can happen in the case of Amarnath. I would urge you not to make the discussion of this question into a 'Hindu' question. It is not one, it is about the way in which State managed, so called, 'Temple Development Boards', enter into schemes to grab land, and about the ecological consequences of their land- grabbing propensities. You might recall that some months back you tried to pose the question of the building of a shipping canal between India and Sri Lanka as a matter of hurting Hindu sentiments. I endorsed your opposition to the so called 'Sethu-Samudram Shipping Channel' scheme, because to me it represented a threat to a fragile marine ecosystem, not on the basis of its alleged injury to Hindu sentiments. I also pointed out to you and to others on the list that the protectors of Hindutva, while proposing a Panama Canal style waterway cutting through the apex of the Deccan peninsula as an alternative to the 'Sethu-Samudram' plan were also proposing what was certainly a blueprint for an ecological disaster. Opposition to the proposed (and now rescinded) land grab proposal by the SASB in the Amarnath case does not automatically translate into partisanship across the Hindu-Muslim question in Kashmir. Those who translate it as such, whether they are Hindu, or Muslim, are needlessly confusing a straightforward matter by bringing their own secterian biases to bear on the issue. No one should be misled by such attempts at confusion. best Shuddha On 30-Jun-08, at 4:44 PM, Pawan Durani wrote: > Hello Shuddha , > > Lemme just inform everyone that , the land may have belonged to Forest > Department , but there is no single tree over there. > > Even when you reach Amarntah , there are no trees over there , > becuase of > high altitude. > > I visited the site, Baltal , two years back. > > Unfortunately the issue is not about ecology ..... the way it has been > treated is a pure indicator that anything related to Hindus is not > tolerable > in Kashmir, and proves once again that it is not "freedom" but Islamic > fanaticism which rules the shot in Kashmir. > > > Pawan > > > On 6/30/08, Shuddhabrata Sengupta wrote: >> >> Dear Sonia, Dear Rashneek, dear all, >> >> Thank you, Sonia and Rashneek for the debate on the Amarnath Yatra >> issue. The question of temple boards and their closeness to power, >> and their lust for acquiring forest lands is not unique to Kashmir. >> It also happens, as you will see below, (see the report - Sabarimala: >> The Faith in Spate, by K.A. Shaji) in distant Kerala. The ruling left >> front government in Kerala is as involved in this game as anyone >> else, because 'Temple Boards' are gold-mines and no state government >> wants to close an operation that earns them the gold that can be >> mined in these gold mines. I am appending below a report on the >> question of the Sabarimala Temple boards desire for even more >> reserved forest land. The story is remarkably resonant of the >> Amarnath issue. A local, highly culturally specific, syncretic >> pilgrimage turning into the road-show of a revivalist 'Hinduism', >> with lucrative revenue spin-offs. >> >> I live in an area in Delhi where I have witnessed every year, for the >> past few years - 'Chalo Amarnath Chalo' (Let's go to Amarnath) >> posters and banners being put up by local RSS functionaries. And >> there are active fundraising drives which culminate in a cavalcade of >> Tata Sumos with the local 'Youth' blaring 'bhajans' from their >> booming auto-sound systems taking off to go do 'darshan' of the >> melting lingam. I don't think they (the Sumo Pilgrims of my >> neighbourhood) really care whether or not the forests of Kashmir go >> up in smoke. >> >> I also know that the Sabarimala pilgrimage has been twisted out of >> shape in a similar way, both by Hindutva enthusiasts, and by >> construction contractors close to the ruling Left Front. Fragile >> forests can barely sustain the burden of so much sudden faith. >> >> Incidentally, revivalist Hindus are by no means alone in their >> disregard for the local heritage and environment. The ruling >> dispensation in Saudi Arabia has effectively turned the pilgrimage >> sites of Mecca and Medina into an air-conditioned cultural wasteland. >> it has systematically destroyed shrines that were considered holy by >> millions of Muslim pilgrims, especially from South Asia, and >> completely transformed the intricate urban fabric of Mecca and >> Medina. There is a long history of protest, including in India, by >> Muslims against the way in which the Saudi Government, in cohorts >> with the Wahabi establishment has wrecked the topography of Mecca and >> Medina. Similarly, the Israeli state's policy of expansion, through >> settlements, and building high security segregated roads that cut >> through the west bank of the Jordan river are often camouflaged under >> an appeal to scriptural sanction for 'Greater' or 'Eretz' Israel. >> There is a great deal of money to be made in pilgrimage, and it >> affords everybody an opportunity to make some quick transformations >> of the landscape in the name of 'infrastructure development' and >> 'settlement' , both of which are euphemisms for speculation in real >> estate. >> >> I am also appending a detailed report on the environmental impact of >> what was proposed by the erstwhile governor Gen (Retd) Sinha of Jammu >> and Kashmir for the Amarnath Yatra by Gautam Navlakha that appeared >> recently in the website of a journal called Kashmir Affairs. Finally, >> it is not my case that the acquisition of land for the Amarnath Board >> (SASB) is wrong, and the acquisition of land for the so-called >> 'Mughal Road', which has been pointed out by Aditya Raj Kaul, in a >> recent post is wrong. Both are equally disastrous from the >> environmental point of view. And the silence of political formations >> (of all persuasions) on the environmental impact of the revived >> Mughal Road and their recent discovery of environmentalism (in the >> case of the Amarnath land transfer issue) does make their commitment >> to environmentalism somewhat suspect. The PDP's stance is >> particularly hypocritical, as the original decision has been ratified >> by its own minister, (for Forest) in the (Indian Held) J&K state >> government. Still, even if the commitment of all the protagonists is >> suspect, I must say that I have rarely seen a popular movement >> reverse a state-driven decision on an 'environmental' issue, and the >> recent success of the agitation in Kashmir (whatever be the motives >> that impelled it) which has resulted in a reversal of the Land >> Transfer issue is something to be grateful for. >> >> These are issues that need to be seen quite separately from secterian >> concerns. I hope this debate can help us see them in that way. >> >> best >> >> Shuddha >> ------------------- >> >> 1. Sabarimala: The Faith in Spate >> by K A Shaji >> >> http://www.boloji.com/society/115.htm >> >> Legend has it that when Lord Ayyappa set out to seek solitude, he >> settled upon Sabarimala. Its sylvan surroundings and undulating >> terrain had made it an ideal retreat for the bachelor god. The >> pristine monsoon forests had wrapped like an ornament around his >> hermitage at the top of the hill. The Lord believed to have called >> the area with tranquil atmosphere as his poonkavanam (sacred forest). >> >> A shrine inside the forest and a deity who chose the calm ambience of >> hills and valleys has few parallels in the country and outside. But >> now, it seems, all of the glories of Sabarimala were a thing of the >> past. When mythology meets present-day reality, Sabarimala is no more >> a chosen abode of the hermit God. During January-February each year, >> more than 50 million devotees, as claimed by the temple authorities, >> are thronging this forest temple for annual pilgrimage, putting the >> fragile ecology of the region under severe stress. Now, the holy hill >> is a synonym of increasing inflow of pilgrims, inadequate >> infrastructure, a devastated environment and a hapless wildlife. >> >> While the entire hill and the adjacent river Pampa, the third largest >> river in Kerala, are stinking due to sewage pollution and >> accumulation of garbage, the situation is not much different in the >> administrative and spiritual circles of the hill shrine. First, it >> was a controversy involving Kannada film actress Jayamala and a group >> of orthodox Hindus, who questioned her claim of touching the idol of >> the bachelor god defying the barricades meant for preventing sexually >> active women from entering the hill shrine. Then one of the highly >> revered traditional priests of the temple was robbed of a large >> amount of money and gold ornaments during his visit to the house of a >> woman engaged in flesh trade by a mafia gang. And now, it is the turn >> of aged father of a senior priest to allege that his son is under >> influence of a powerful Ezhava community leader with shadowy nature >> and the leader's followers are using his son to pocket the temple >> money. In the meantime, the Left Front Government has disbanded the >> existing administrative body of the temple citing corruption at high >> level and is preparing to enact a legislation to keep the corrupt >> community leaders out of the administrative body forever. >> >> On monetary grounds, the temple is the third largest in the country, >> standing very close to Tirupathi and Guruvayur. The cash-strapped >> Kerala Government, despite its leftist moorings, is depending very >> much on the income from the temple to meet salary needs of its >> employees. In order to increase the revenue, the successive >> governments and the so-called proponents of development are >> vociferous of implementing multi-crore construction plans in >> Sabarimala clearing forests and building a concrete jungle in its >> place. But nobody in the spiritual and administrative levels of the >> temple as well as the government establishment are apprehensive of >> the increasing level of pollution and the extreme level of >> deforestation. Their focus is entangled only in the growing number of >> controversies and the commissions to be available after the beginning >> of the construction work. >> >> Located about 467 metres above sea level, the Sabarimala temple is >> surrounded by 18 hills and situated inside Periyar Tiger Reserve, one >> of the few safe havens for tigers in the country. According to bird >> watcher B.Sethumadhavan, as many as 2000 species of flowering plants, >> endemic and medicinal, have been identified among the region's flora. >> `` About 63 species of mammals, some of them endangered like tigers, >> elephants and lion tailed macaque live here. So far, 223 species of >> birds and 45 species of reptiles including King Cobra have been >> identified in this area,'' he said. The ever- expanding number of >> pilgrims and mindless construction works are posing severe threat to >> their very survival. Devotees of a Lord, who believed to have loved >> the flora and fauna and their safekeeping, are now on a rampage in >> the name of development forcing the wildlife to move out of their >> traditional habitat. >> >> As per legends, the vehicle of Lord Ayyappa is tiger. But, >> astonishingly, neither the tiger nor the surrounding evergreen >> forests do not come in the list of priorities before the |Travancore >> Devaswam Board, which administers the shrine. ``There was an increase >> of 35 per cent in revenue while comparing with last year during the >> November-December period. In the number of visitors, the increase is >> of 19 per cent. These figures show the need for immediate >> developmental works in Sabarimala. But there are agencies like Forest >> Department which cry for tigers and forests,'' alleges G.Raman Nair, >> outgoing president of the board. >> >> However, environmentalists and forest officials are countering the >> allegation. ``The development works so far at Pampa have made it >> impossible a soul-filling holy dip in river Pampa. At least, two >> scientific studies conducted by Government's own agencies had found >> that landslips and tremors would take place at the holy hillock any >> time largely because of the extensive concrete flooring at the temple >> premises. The devaswam is only interested in money making. It has no >> concern for the impending dangers for both nature and devotees,'' >> pointed out Sumesh Mangalassery, a member of the environmental group >> Kabani. >> >> According to Sumesh, a panel of Kerala Legislature on environment led >> by RSP leader A V Thamarakshan had submitted 32 proposals to the >> Devaswam Board to protect Sabarimala around five years back. But none >> of them were acceptable to the board. Even the suggestions of Kerala >> State Pollution Control Board to minimise the pollution of river >> Pampa were paid scant regard by the board. A visit by Tehelka to >> Sabarimala found that river Pampa continues to remain the main victim >> of the callous attitude of the authorities. It gets choked in the >> temple area as solid waste including human excreta; plastic bags, >> empty water bottles and coconut husks block the free flow of water. >> About 35 million people took a holy dip in the river between November >> and January, which is the major source of drinking water for three >> districts. >> >> According to a study by the pollution control board, the total >> coliform count recorded at the river portion close to Sabarimala is >> about 1,14,000 per 100 millilitres (ML) during the peak of >> pilgrimage. Just before the pilgrimage season, it is merely 380 per >> 100 ml- well below the permissible limits of 500 per 100 ml. >> According to local people, the overflow of human faeces from sceptic >> tanks around the temple stands the major reason of the pollution of >> the river. ``More than 3,000 temporary toilets are functioning close >> to the temple in addition to about 600 permanent toilets. The >> capacity of the sewerage treatment plant is very limited,'' pointed >> out K.Anirudhan of Sabarimala Samrakshana Samithy. >> >> Most of the experts, who had conducted studies on the pollution and >> environmental problems prevailing in Sabarimala, point to the need of >> regulating the ever- increasing number of pilgrims. ``Sabarimala is >> bursting at the seams with millions of devotees now. Thirty or forty >> years ago, only around 50,000 pilgrims visited the temple. Today, the >> number is fifty million and is rising at the rate of 20 per cent >> every year. The ever-swelling flow resulted in a major mishap on >> January 14, 1999, when 100 pilgrims died in a stampede at the site. >> Indications are that Sabarimala is a disaster waiting to be happen,'' >> warns noted Kerala based environmentalist P K Uthaman. According to >> him, almost two thousand tonnes of human waste are deposited in crude >> earth pits and outside in Sabarimala every year. These wastes are >> finding their way into not only the river Pampa but also to river >> Periyar by underground as well as over ground rivulets, posing a >> threat great health hazard for the pilgrims as well as those living >> downstream. >> >> In addition, the lack of post pilgrimage cleaning drives often result >> in unabated flow of hazardous waste into the rivers. The temple area >> has already been converted into a concrete jungle where guesthouses >> and other structures are constructed haphazardly all around. They are >> meant for temple officials, priests, VVIPs and police personnel. >> According to M.Gopal, a pilgrim from Bangalore who visited Sabarimala >> this year, human excreta and plastic waste were found strewn just >> outside the Sannidhanam (the main building of the temple). As per >> data available from forest department, over 2.5 lakh empty plastic >> bottles of packaged water were collected from inside the tiger >> reserve. The number of tetra packs collected would come around 4.5 >> lakh. The temple complex of the hermit, who believed in renunciation >> of earthly attractions, is now filled with commercial shops selling >> products ranging from gold ornaments to dress materials. All these >> shops were constructed by clearing forests. >> >> ``The total time available for darsan as of now is a total of 1431 >> hours, i.e. 515160 seconds. If a darsan goes on one at a time basis >> and a devotee gets a second, the total strength of the pilgrims can >> only be 5,15, 160 per year. If ten people could somehow cluster >> together per second for darsan, the maximum number would be >> 51,51,600,'' points out a document prepared by |School of Social >> Sciences at Mahatma Gandhi University on behalf of Kerla Forest >> Department. The document also questions the claims of the board that >> over 50 million people visit the temple annually. But anyway, the >> number of pilgrims' visting Sabarimala is many times more than its >> capacity. >> >> ``The authorities must find out some mechanism to regulate the >> alarming increase in the number of pilgrims. Sabarimala is not only >> an environmental but also a social disaster,'' opined Dr.Rajan >> Gurukkal of School of Social Sciences. Now a day, the uncontrolled >> flow of pilgrims from various entry points is resulting in people >> swarming all around the protected sanctuary leading to man –animal >> conflicts. Recently, an elephant trampled upon one pilgrim. Then it >> was found that the pilgrims were sleeping in the corridor used by the >> elephants for going to the river to drink water at the night. A large >> number of such corridors were already disrupted due to the >> construction works undertaken in the recent past. >> >> According to Sedumadhavan, the authorities are even paying scant >> attention on the safety of pilgrims. As many as 12,000 litres of >> diesel are being stored just above the sannidhanam without any >> storage licence or safety parameters. They are also keeping a large >> number of crackers near the sanctum sanctoram without any safety >> concern. The only solution on the part of Trvancore Devaswom Board >> for all problems plaguing Sabarimala is denudation of nearby forests >> and setting up new amenities. According to Rajan Gurukkal, such an >> attempt would be disastrous as all the existing problems of >> Sabarimala can be viwed as the after effect of deforestation. >> >> The devaswam board has already ruined about 55.09 ha of forestland in >> the name of sabarimala development. In the opinion of >> environmentalists, they demand more forests to cut and smuggle out >> precious trees and construction of further concrete strctures with >> ulterior motives. Maintaining the sanctity of the shrine and the >> precious eco-system never appeared a priority before them. So far, >> the devaswam board was constituted once in five years by nomination >> of people with no administrative acumen at the behest of successive >> governments. >> >> Rajan Gurukkal and his team at School of Social Sciences have >> prepared a long-term action plan for saving Sabarimala from the >> sequence of disasters in the offing. But the lobbies of corrupt and >> communal elements are not allowing the devaswam to look into them. >> Even the small step of Left Government in disbanding the existing >> devaswam committee is being interpreted as an attempt by atheists to >> interfere in Hindu religious matters. The move by left government to >> appoint experts in place of politicians at the board also facing >> opposition from Sangh Parivar organisations, who claim as custodians >> of Hindu places of worship. >> >> The board and its corrupt administrators were not able to get their >> hand on the forest so far due to stringent central acts and Supreme >> Court rulings. But even the outgoing members are repeating their old >> slogan of `no development in Sabarimala would be possible without >> deforestation.' Unless the authorities change their attitude from a >> revenue-centred approach to a pilgrim centred aprach, there is not >> much hope. But they still repeat that development (read >> deforestation) could not be stopped for the sake of a few birds and >> animals. ``The board had neither faith in environmental protection >> nor in religious sanctity,'' opines Rajan Gurukkal. >> >> Decongestion of base town Pampa by increasing facilities at a >> relatively distant town of Nilakkal, demolition of unauthorised >> concrete structures at Sannidhanam and Pampa, cleaning of the river, >> better waste disposal facilities and provisions of basic facilities >> for pilgrims without affecting ecology are the urgent needs of >> Sabarimala. The tigers and elephants must be protected. >> >> If there is no mechanism to check the number of pilgrims, that would >> increase to two to three crores within years. Moderate elements among >> the Hindu community are favouring a statutory body for Sabarimala in >> line with Tirumala-Thirupathy Devasthanam and Amarnath temple. Such a >> body consisting of experts from different fields can change the >> course of priorities of the forest temple. >> >> >> ----------- >> >> 2. Amarnath Yatra: The Pilgrimage to Eco Disaster >> Gautam Navlakha >> http://www.kashmiraffairs.org/gautam_amarnath%20yatra.html >> >> Should one question the propriety of promoting pilgrimage in a >> ecologically fragile area or wink at it in the name of devotees right >> to free movement and worship? This question comes to mind when >> looking at Amarnath Yatra especially the phenomenal increase in the >> number of pilgrims. This increase is not of few hundred or few >> thousand but runs into hundreds of thousands. There has been a >> doubling of the period for pilgrimage from one month to two this year >> as well as forty times increase in number of pilgrims, from 12,000 in >> 1989 to 450,000 in 2005 (this year it is set to cross 500,000) are >> cause for concern. In fact the actual period is longer because a >> fortnight before the official yatra is reserved for army men and >> their families to visit the Amarnath cave through ecologically more >> vulnerable Baltal route. Moreover, in order to provide security for >> pilgrims who come out in large number, the paramilitary forces have >> to be deployed in large number. The current deployment will be in >> excess of 20,000 for the entire period. Their presence and stay >> cannot but affect the rise in pollution levels. Inclement weather too >> is an issue because rains in the plain means snow in the higher >> reaches. This results in crowding at the camps, straining services >> including disposal of waste. But worse things can happen as in 1996 >> when unexpected heavy snowfall resulted in death of 243 pilgrims and >> injuries to hundred more due to avalanche. >> >> The State Pollution Control Board (SPCB), recently in a 37 page >> report warns that generation of waste by pilgrims, absence of waste >> disposal sites, open dumping of garbage, air pollution, sewage >> generated by hotels, yatri camps and local residential areas makes >> its way into Lidder river. The SPCB warned that waste generated by >> pilgrims more than the local average and primarily contains plastics, >> polythene and leftover food packets all along the route. According to >> their calculation 55,000 kgs of plastic waste is generated every day >> during the pilgrimage. Besides, thousands of open toilets erected >> along the banks of Lidder river ensures that effluents enter the >> river. Thousands of vehicles ply up and down the mountains around >> Pahalgam all the way up to Chandanwari spewing carbon monoxide. The >> Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), which came into existence on >> February 21, 2001, has been dismissive of such claims. They assert >> that 230 pre-fabricated toilets being raised in Nunwan base camp and >> human waste disposal off in leach pits with micro-organism technology >> using Bokaslin powder and other chemicals would take care of the >> problem. However, the issue is more than the supposedly effective >> modern methods to manage waste. The sheer presence of large mass of >> people is a cause for concern. Department of Science and technology >> through its principal investigator on glaciology has argued that "the >> ecology, the environment and health of the glacier can be under >> severe threat in case the Baltal route to the Holy Cave was >> frequented by thousands of pilgrims". And pointed out that "depletion >> and degradation (of glaciers) are the result of human breath, refuse >> and land erosion". (The Tribune July 5, 2005). >> >> It is disconcerting to note that opening of Baltal route for pilgrims >> on foot and those using helicopters has crossed several thousand >> every day. Apart from the Department of Science and Technology of J&K >> government even the Nitish Sengupta committee, which was constituted >> to look into the deaths of 243 pilgrims in 1996 due to the snowstorm, >> had recommended that number of yatris be restricted to 5000 per day >> for a period of one month and the total number of pilgrims be capped >> at1.5 lakhs. According to them Baltal route should allow 1500 >> pilgrims and Pahalgam 3500 per day. However, the General JR Mukherjee >> committee, which looked into the cause of death of 35 people, due to >> cross fire, during the 2000 yatra, focussed on security arrangement >> and wanted the duration of the yatra to increase as security scenario >> improved. But neither report looked at the environmental impact of >> the yatra. Thus when the SASB invokes the recommendations of the two >> committees what it does is to use it selectively and link the number >> of pilgrims to the issue of managing security for them. In this sense >> they underplay the question whether the eco-system can bear heavy >> influx of pilgrims. This emphasis on encouraging larger number of >> pilgrims shows its impact on the environment in unexpected ways. Such >> as the SASB contemplating "air conditioning" to preserve the shiva >> lingam from melting. The recent controversy over the pilgrims >> alleging that the SASB has been constructing the "snow lingam" is now >> being passed off as due to change in the course of the water channels >> after last year's earthquake and global warming. Without ruling this >> out human contribution to this phenomenon cannot be ignored when >> glaciers are rapidly receding. As a matter of fact yatra was never >> undertaken in June precisely because formation of shiva lingam does >> not always take place then. Incidentally the local people speak of >> "human" intervention in restoring what is a natural phenomenon, as >> something that has happened in the past too. This apart large number >> of pilgrims means that going gets tough as one draws close to the >> cave with traffic jam being the order of the day. At times pilgrims >> have to wait for hours for their turn. Increase in dust in atmosphere >> too is caused by crowds of people as well as helicopter service. The >> dust raised is visible from long distance away. All this also means >> that individual pilgrims, that is other than VIPs, are disallowed >> from spending more than seconds inside the cave. Above all carbon >> dioxide levels shoot up warming the area all around. >> >> It cannot be that the SASB is unaware of the environmental concerns. >> If it receives short shrift it is because the yatra has come to >> symbolise Indian government's determination to promote its claim in >> J&K. That pilgrimage is being heralded as victory against a movement >> demanding azadi from India is available in the news portal of Indian >> government, Press Information Bureau. It says that "yearning for >> moksha (salvation) can move the devotees to the challenging heights >> of Kashmir and will be a fitting gesture of solidarity with our >> valiant soldiers who have been fighting the enemy to defend our >> borders". (pib.nic.in/feature/feo799/f1507992.html). Thus what is >> otherwise merely a religious pilgrimage of the Hindus has been >> elevated to represent a patriotic enterprise. Besides, the SASB is >> headed by the Governor and his principal secretary is the CEO of the >> SASB. Thus the Government of India is clearly in charge of organising >> the yatra. And it is the SASB which has been pushing for larger and >> larger numbers of pilgrims and challenging the right of the state >> government from interfering in anyway with the schedule announced by >> the SASB. >> >> It is true that not everyone who goes to Amarnath accepts this >> association of religion with patriotism. But the fact of the matter >> is that official perception of pilgrimage as patriotic duty has >> allowed the communal fascist elements to join in organising their >> supporters. Little wonder that frequency of conflict between section >> of such 'pilgrims' and local population due to their obnoxious >> behaviour has shown an increase. What is equally disconcerting is >> that the SASB presided over by the Governor has also been engaged in >> controversial transactions. The CEO of SASB is the principal >> secretary to the Governor. Present CEO's wife, in her capacity of >> Principal secretary forest department granted permission to SASB on >> May 29, 2005 to use forest land. But this provision was not in >> accordance with the provision of J&K Forest Conservation Act 1997 >> and, therefore, the state government withdrew the order. However, >> thanks to a stay order by a division bench of the J&K High Court the >> withdrawal of permission to occupy forest land, was suspended. Any >> visitor to Pahalgam can observe how this forest land is being cleared >> to setup camps for the yatris. In fact now the SASB has asked the >> state government to give them land in the radius of 5kms of the cave. >> This arouses local passions precisely because Indian security forces >> and other entities have transferred large tracts of land to house >> camps for security force personnel, or for central projects, as well >> as for schools which are run by army among others. Even a pro-Indian >> National Conference party has protested such transfers of land since >> 1989. Not very far from the camp for the pilgrims in Pahalgam, in >> Lidru (opposite Kulan village) what locals describe as one of the >> finest meadows, spread over 550 kanals (one kanal=one eighth of acre) >> in area, has been given to the army to run a school! Local population >> feels helpless at being unable to stop this. Therefore, when SASB >> wants large tract of land transferred to it under the claim of >> providing accommodation for lakhs of pilgrims it must be weighed >> against this local concern. Were the numbers of pilgrims to be >> brought down the pressing need for transferring large areas to SASB >> or for providing carpet security and thus deployment of force, can be >> brought down. >> >> This apart the SASB has also been involved in other controversial >> acts. One such was the recent attempt by the SASB to bring down the >> involvement of local people in the yatra. When on June 5, 2006 the >> local pro-India Peoples' Democratic Party (PDP) claimed that SASB was >> ignoring livelihood of locals, the SASB countered by claiming that >> such criticism would generate controversy and thus "jeopardise" >> tourism in Kashmir. Quite apart from the fact that promotion of >> pilgrimage for commerce flies in the face of proclaimed concern for >> people's faith PDP pointed out that if local porters and ponywallahs >> can strike work at Vaishnodevi Shrine against the (mis)management of >> the Shri Vaishnodevi Shrine Board (SVDSB) and seek support from local >> Congress leaders then what is wrong if local people from Pahalgam and >> Kangan areas seek their help to protest against the practises of SASB >> which discriminate against them. In fact the Pithoo Workers Union at >> Katra have protested the suspension of six of their leaders, alleged >> manhandling by SVDSB officials and demanded recall of its additional >> CEO. Neither the Governor as head of SVDSB nor the Board issued any >> statement chastising the Congress party! >> >> Arguably, when yatra was halted between 1991-96 due to threat of >> section of the militants it played into the hands of the extreme >> right wing elements in Indian society who have since then become an >> integral part of mobilising large numbers of pilgrims. Thus a form of >> competitive communalism came into play. Thus when section of the >> militants represented earlier by Harkatul Ansar and now Lashkar-e- >> Taiyyaba or Jaish-e-Mohammed threaten to disrupt the pilgrimage it >> only gets the backs up of the devout Hindus opens them to vitriol of >> the rabidly anti-Muslim Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Shiv Sena etc. >> and accentuates the communal divide. However, it is equally important >> to note the actual fact that more people have died in yatra due to >> inclement weather and cross fire than at the hands of the militants. >> Besides, the main indigenous militant organisation Hizbul Mujahideen >> has always supported the yatra and has consistently demonstrated its >> opposition towards those who have tried to disrupt the yatra. >> Moreover, prior to constituting SASB the state government, local >> people and social activists provided aid and assistance to the >> pilgrims. However, threat of environmental damage has become a matter >> of utmost concern because the central government under the cover of >> SASB remains unrelenting in its pursuit of ever larger numbers to >> come for pilgrimage. >> >> In a way the Amarnath yatra illustrates the way in which the Indian >> government injects communalism in our body politic. And also >> represents how secularism in India has been perverted to mean state >> patronage of religion/s. This patronage is not equitably distributed >> since Hindus outnumber others by more than eight times. Which is to >> say that between un-equals equality ends up promoting Hindu religious >> practises. In Amarnath yatra, in fact, the India government even >> discarded its pretended neutrality by publicising the yatra as a >> patriotic duty! Consequently, the likelihood of Amarnath pilgrimage >> getting mired in controversy, over environmental damage and >> eventually feeding into further alienation of people because they can >> do little to save damage to their lived environment, has increased. >> Trouble is the Indian government cares little for people and prefers >> to pander to the extreme rightwing by projecting the yatra as a >> patriotic enterprise to boost the morale of the Indian paramilitary >> forces. The very same force which the local population regards as >> symbol of their oppression. Thus a bigger mess is in the making right >> before our own eyes. >> --------------- >> >> Shuddhabrata Sengupta >> The Sarai Programme at CSDS >> Raqs Media Collective >> shuddha at sarai.net >> www.sarai.net >> www.raqsmediacollective.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/> > _________________________________________ > 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/> Shuddhabrata Sengupta The Sarai Programme at CSDS Raqs Media Collective shuddha at sarai.net www.sarai.net www.raqsmediacollective.net From chiarapassa at gmail.com Mon Jun 30 12:24:16 2008 From: chiarapassa at gmail.com (Chiara Passa) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:54:16 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] [Announcements] "Replicating Architecture" out now! In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hello friends & colleagues, I'm glad to announce my new site specific installation "Replicating Architecture" http://www.chiarapassa.it/replicatingarchitecture.html For the series digital art in public space: "Replicating architecture" is an interactive video installation that I'm developing for a site-specific place. The time is variable. "Replicating architecture" shows how the net art feeds (for example the rhizome news at: http://feeds.feedburner.com/rhizome-art) can influence and reshape an architecture placed in a real urban environment. In fact, through the patch 'RSS Downloader' in Quartz Composer, I can manage the rss feeds received from a web site and convert them into a sort of variable texture that I've constructed and shaped as a dna structure. It is made by aggregated lines connected to a several other patches that determine: phases, amplitudes, light environment, colours, xyz rotations, etc… As the DNA configuration is vertical, I've selected a tower or an obelisk for the projection. In this illusory dimension, infinite lines generating emptiness and distances are "attracted" and skimmed one with the others, fading. Thanks to the Net-Art news, the architecture becomes an essential structure that draws a sort of fluctuating original human structure always in transformation. Best regards, Chiara. -- Chiara Passa chiarapassa at gmail.com http://www.chiarapassa.it http://www.ideasonair.net http://twitter.com/jogador Skype: ideasonair _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements From nc-agricowi at netcologne.de Mon Jun 30 12:40:41 2008 From: nc-agricowi at netcologne.de (netEX) Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 09:10:41 +0200 Subject: [Reader-list] =?iso-8859-1?q?=5BAnnouncements=5D_netEX=3A_calls_a?= =?iso-8859-1?q?nd_deadlines_-_July_2008?= Message-ID: <20080630091041.D5FF6E78.1EBB8C5D@192.168.0.3> netEX: calls & deadlines -->July 2008 ------------------------------------- [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne newsletter contents calls & deadlines 04 Calls: 2008 deadlines internal 20 Calls: July deadlines external 09 Calls: ongoing external/internal ------------------------------------- Calls & deadlines ---> ------------------------------------------------ 2008 deadlines: internal ------------------------------------------------ extended deadline 1 September 2008 !!! CologneOFF IV - 4th Cologne Online Film Festival http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=238 1 September 2008 VideoChannel - video project environments call on the subject "MOTHER" http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=292 31 October 2008 JavaMuseum - Forum for Internet Technology in Contemporary Art call: Netart Features 2009 http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=329 30 November 2008 SoundLAB VI - soundart for soundPOOL - sound compositions - a challenge for imagination http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=242 ------------------------------------------------ July 2008 deadlines: external ------------------------------------------------ 31 July Short Cuts Cologne - Shortfilm Festival Cologne/Germany http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=333 31 July 12th International Shortfilm Festival Winterthur/Switzerland http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=295 31 July Cimatics AV Festival Brussels/Belgium http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=319 30 July East Silver 2008 Prague/CZ - film documentaries - Central - Eastern Europe http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=304 28 July Experimental 7.0 - experimental film and sonic arts festival Nicosia/Cyprus http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=314 25 July International Kansk Video Festival Kansk/Russia http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=334 19 May Balmoral Scholarship Bad Ems (Germany) http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=298 18 July Onedotzero Festival London/UK http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=307 15 July VI Inter. Electro-acustic miniatures contest Huelva/Spain http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=309 15 July ETC Media Artists Residency http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=320 15 July Artist/curator Resideny - Hotel MariaKapel Hoorn/The Netherlands http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=310 15 July Tabula Rasa - Aferro Gallery Newark NJ New York/USA http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=281 15 July Images Festival Toronto 2009 http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=316 extended deadline 15 July Leonor Hirsch Award - electro-acoustic work & video http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=261 14 July 15th Regensburg Short Film Week 2008 http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=287 14 July International Shortfilm Festival Lille/F http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=216 12 July 7th International Shortfilm Fest Reggio Emilia/Italy http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=266 10 July Worpswede Artists Residency 2009 (Germany) http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=296 7 July 5th Sedicicorto Int. Shortfilm Festival Forli/Italy http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=233 4 July International Shortfilm Festival Berlin 2008 http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=231 1 July Unimovie Festival Pescara/Italy 2008 http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?p=300 ----------------------------------------------- Ongoing calls: external/internal ----------------------------------------------- --->OUTCASTING - web based screenings -->Projects for FILE LABO Sao Paulo/Brazil -->Films and video screenings Sioux City (USA) -->Laisle screenings Rio de Janeiro/Brazil -->Videos for Helsinki based video gallery - 00130 Gallery -->Web based works for 00130 Gallery Helsinki/Finland -->Project: Repetition as a Model for Progression by Marianne Holm Hansen -->Raw Video New York/NY (USA) -->US webjournal Atomic Unicorn seeks netart and video art for coming editions and more deadlines on http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?page_id=4 ----------------------------------------------- NetEX - networked experience http://netex.nmartproject.net # calls in the external section--> http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?cat=3 # calls in the internal section--> http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?cat=1 ----------------------------------------------- # This newsletter is also released on http://www.nmartproject.net/netex/?cat=9 # NetEx - networked experiences is a free information service powered by [NewMediaArtProjectNetwork]:||cologne www.nmartproject.net - the experimental platform for Art and New Media from Cologne/Germany # info & contact: info (at) nmartproject.net _______________________________________________ announcements mailing list announcements at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/announcements