Published by Guest Writer October 7th, 2008
in Panic time and guest writer.
From Ratnakar Tripathy:
In a television interview on 5th October by a major Indian news channel the Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi got one more chance to expound on his views on terrorism. Known for his tough stance on terrorism, Modi suggested a number of measures including additional laws to deal with the menace. We thus need both, a nice thick clutter of laws and a heavy fist to restrain the terrorist. According to Modi, the trouble with terrorism is that we have been very soft on it, and that automatically and logically implies that we are complicit. Modi’s solution to the problem is summarized in a Hindi expression – ‘eent ka jabab patthar se’, meaning respond to ‘brickbats with stones’ [or pebbles with rocks]. He also emphasized that Gujarat now has a most sophisticated academic centre of Forensic science. This is clearly meant to compensate for the recent wrecking of academic freedom in the Gujarat universities by Modi government, in case you are complaining.
Published by Guest Writer September 2nd, 2008
in Theory, academics and guest writer.
From RATNAKAR TRIPATHY
The other day my friend Joe mentioned to me a curious experience with his academic peers. Having recently submitted an MPhil thesis on cricket at the English and Foreign Languages [EFL] University, Hyderabad, he showed a paper to his friends hoping for critical comments. The most outstandingly critical comment he got was this – ‘your writing is too simple. It requires no effort to understand’. This was followed by according to Joe, the disgustingly sage advice – ‘if you continue to write this way, you may damage your academic career. If people can understand you without any strain, they will not value your work.’
Published by Guest Writer August 11th, 2008
in kashmir.
Following up on the APDP report we published on the site yesterday… This comes from our Guest Writer Uma Chakravarti
Of Mass Graves and Mass Burials: What is Buried is State Accountability in Kashmir
Published by Guest Writer August 10th, 2008
in kashmir.
We have been meaning to put up this report on the site for very long but the recent events in Kashmir have had everybody’s attention elsewhere. However, here is the recent report done by the APDPÂ on mass graves in Kashmir.
Dear friends,
We are sending a report titled “Facts Under Ground“, recently released by Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP), a constituent of Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society. The report is a result of the fact-finding mission on nameless graves and mass graves in Uri region of Jammu Kashmir. We have been able to identify 940 persons buried in these nameless graves and mass graves.
The report has evoked a strong public response. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Asian Federation Against involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) and many more human rights groups have so far issued the statements.
We would appreciate if you could:
1. Issue a statement of support
2. Organise solidarity manifestations
3. Send urgent action appeals to Government of India.
Regards,
Khurram Parvez
Here is a related article by by Angana Chatterji published in the Etala’at - Disquiet Ghosts: Mass graves in Indian Kashmir.
Published by Guest Writer August 1st, 2008
in guest writer.
From our Guest Writer Ratnakar Tripathy
The recent explosions in Bangalore, Surat and Ahmedabad have sent renewed shivers among the common citizens all over India, where we have a rich variety of ‘terrorists’. As usual, there has been a spate of articles and statements demanding stricter laws and better intelligence. And yet no one is willing to admit that if an individual/group seriously decides to kill people and is willing to pay the price, there is nothing much you or me or the state can do about it except after the event. All you can do is keep an eye on how kids are growing up in your neighbourhood over time. Call it communal policing if you want. But this is not a counsel of despair.
Ironically, as the terrorists discover greater individual liberty and empowerment on behalf of the common citizen, it is often the common citizen that ends up becoming the target of these attacks and not the state – a zero sum game. Hitting out at the state via the common citizen is a very unethical but also a very circuitous idea. I reckon that in any terrorist group, half the members would be people with qualms, and the rest must be men and women who were anyway on their way to turning into suicides, serial killers, or child and wife beaters. It’s just that they find an excuse in a cause, and settle down to a humdrum career in violence. Many such people in India become cops and political leaders and succeed in sublimating their bestiality to various extents.
Published by Guest Writer July 29th, 2008
in theatre.
Watch Nimra Bucha as the Dictator’s Wife in a special Edinburgh Fringe preview at SOAS.
Published by Guest Writer July 11th, 2008
in films and guest writer.
From Guest Writers Manash Bhattacharjee and Richa Burman
(This is a re-look at the so-called popular classic ‘Black’, which was sent for the Oscars like so many other, ridiculous Bollywood entries. Aamir Khan’s recent comments on the film which provoked Amitabh’s shallow response behoove us to sum up the most glaring, distorted and offensive mistakes Bhansali made in his fantasy-project.)
The film ‘Black’ was lapped up by film critics and the middle-class “sensitive†crowd. The drugged intellectual connivance had never been so blatant between these two superimposed categories of people and their dream-masters, the Bombay film world. English speaking Indians have become so desperate down the years for a Hindi film to achieve world fame – the mere sight of something ‘different’ provokes their mind to lose sight of the most obvious banalities in a film and praise a cardboard copy of misplaced excellence. One shudders at how the official Indian entry to the Oscars last year was ‘Eklavya’ – a film which creates a montage out of a story which was only clear to the director. But audiences in India love marvels without substance and that meant we found much appreciation for the film. It is important in such circumstances, to look back at ‘Black’ and deconstruct the hyper-sensitive narcissism of a director like Sanjay Leela Bhansali and to address his distortion of a sensitive issue by a paradoxical attempt at romanticizing the physically challenged protagonist, where she is turned into a representational showpiece on the one hand, and on the other, reduced to a mournful figure fighting exaggerated difficulties.
Published by Guest Writer July 1st, 2008
in films and guest writer.
From our guest writer Manash Bhattacharjee
Despite a frightful and laughable take-off on Sholay, I was surprised to see an excited crowd queuing up on the very first day to watch Ram Gopal’s next film, Sarkar Raj. Against all my wisdom, I too was present for the show. And even before the film ended, I had to painfully accept that when I paid for the ticket I had also paid for my foolishness.
Bollywood always manages to produce in people a chronic desire to hope against history. Even if justice is repeatedly denied to a viewer’s expectations, nostalgic winds take him to the theatres with the hope of finally watching a satisfying spectacle. If it turns out badly, he will of course know how to point out the flaws with passion and meticulously lay the blame on the shoulders of those responsible for the debacle. But that will never deter him from being a victim of the next film with questionable merits. The desire to watch yet another Bollywood film is far greater than the repeated disappointments a viewer undergoes. Like all repressed fantasies, the desire for Bollywood movies is endless. But having said this, it is still important to put the finger on Bollywood’s nature of crime. It will surely help to know that even victims of Bollywood have a mind of their own, and are more aware of Bollywood’s problems than, perhaps, Bollywood itself.
From our reporter/guest writer who would like to remain anonymous for now.
The Indian media has been alive with stories on the huge protests in Kashmir for the last six days. The protests were sparked off by the transfer of forty hectares of forest land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board by the J&K government which organizes the Amarnath Yatra – an annual Hindu pilgrimage to the Holy Amarnath Cave by the devotees of Lord Shiva in Kashmir. These protests – which are largely pro-freedom protests – are being framed by the Hindu Right as a communal reaction against the transfer of land to Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB). The protests began against the transfer of the land to SASB but the protests have been so huge and defiant of a heavy security presence that it appears even after eighteen years of attrition, the sentiment for azaadi (freedom) remains as strong with Kashmiris as it did in 1990. As the BBC reports: “ it appeared as if the entire population of the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley had taken to the streets.â€
Image Courtesy BBC URDU.com
Published by Guest Writer November 28th, 2007
in Pakistan and guest writer.
From Adnan Sattar this poster and update on Muneer Malik.
This is the brave face of defiance that is Muneer A. Malik, ex-President Supreme Court Bar Asociation. Malik played an instrumental role in the lawyers’ movement and galvanized people through his fearless speeches. Following the November 3rd coup, he was among the first people to be bundled up and transferred to jail, of course without any charges, let alone a trial. On Saturday last, he was rushed to a hospital in Islamabad with kidney failure. We met him in the hospital where he was getting a dialysis. Malik maintains the authorities knew all along he was a kidney patient but provided him no medical support till his kidneys stopped functioning. He also underwent psychological torture in jail. His condition is still serious but stable.
Published by Guest Writer September 17th, 2007
in Death, India diary and Religion.
From our guest writer, Mayank Shekhar.
Dance of death
I’ve heard of civil unions, not a non-denominational funeral yet
India is a ‘juloos’. There isn’t an English word to capture that inexplicable spirit (a carnival sounds too joyous; a communal rally comes close, but probably for its political undertone).
Many don’t visit profitable temples for how they murder a private moment called faith there. So then, religions compete on the main roads; each one a more dangerously-sensitive holy-cow than the other. There is little space for the quiet individual in the 66 th car of the jam. He sits still. He has no one to complain to. In a few days, a group he calls his religion will take over his streets. The latest process, as I watch trucks pass by, stuck in the 66th car, has already begun. Must you survive a cardiac arrest on the road, another group that someone else calls his religion, will appear soon. This civic emergency is a celebration of life. Dance of death is no better.
For all of you who wondered where RATNAKAR TRIPATHY had disappeared after his brilliant posts on Bhojpuri cinema… he’s back with a new series titled Vignettes of Violence. Here is the first of the series.
We have all heard of the Stockholm Syndrome and seen moments of great tenderness between the kidnapper and the kidnapped on the screen and in bestselling thrillers. We also know how such moments of care and tenderness for the human cargo can end up in gunshots in a matter of minutes, given the limits of the victim-perpetrator relationship. A very different take on the syndrome was in evidence however on the streets of Patna recently when schoolchildren came together in a demo with placards saying – “Kidnapper Uncle, Please release Abhya’, Abhay being the latest victim in a long chain of child lifting incidents in the state of Bihar. In fact it is common to talk of a kidnapping ‘industry’ in Bihar, since over time the enterprise has developed its own norms and rules of the game. Enterprising people with the means and the will must fix up hideouts, transport and foot soldiers for the purpose before launching the business of course. ‘Apharan’, a recent Bollywood blockbuster dealt with this theme and was based on considerable research on the world of professional kidnappers and their networks. Apart from Bihar there are several kidnapping hotspots in India and the world over including the oil fields of Nigeria.
Here is a new one from our guest writer Joseph Zeitlyn. Enjoy!
The Medium of Caste
The behemoth that is caste has for millennia been transferred through tradition, ritual and religious dogma down lines and across families, seemingly transcending time and a huge geographical realm.
In the 21st century an India, globalised like never before it hangs on in confused state of denial and reaction, revulsion and pain. The myth that the marketisation and the pull of the city and the new economy will rid India of her caste-ridden soul has been firmly rejected, ‘the city is just as feudal’. The AIIMS campus squabbles over ‘ragging’ to the vehement anti reservation demonstrations all allude to the most parochial of prejudices existing in the centres of dynamism in modern India.
As a foreigner here my most peculiar encounter with the latter day manifestation of caste came entirely through chance and a young man’s desire to find a wife in the matrimonial desert that is Delhi.
His English letting him down the friend accosted me, whilst ensconced in work at my desk and requested help filling in forms on a curious matrimonial web site. The images flashing up looked promising as I presumptuously filled in various forms and boxes about a family I didn’t know and dream wife I could only guess at.
Further evidence has surfaced that I wasn’t being a complete idiot when I claimed in The Remix Republik that the content of Indian televised protests, controversies and breaking news is mythical in nature. A few days ago an organisation called HJS (Hindu Janjagran Samiti) took to the streets to protest an advertisement by www.indiatimes.com where Lord Krishna is depicted as a dating guru, holding a cellphone. The Blue God is surrounded by gopis (damsels) splashing about half-nekkid in the water. The SMS service is called Dating Sutra.
I want you to look at the first advertisement, and then at the picture of the protest held at Dadar railway station in Mumbai. Look very closely at the symmetry in these two pictures. The central role is being played by a Man in Blue. In the advertisement he holds a cellphone, and in the protest he holds a mike. He is looking to his left, where for some reason, you have only women with their hands raised (exactly like the raised hands of the gopis in the ad.)
This is not a protest pic, it is a communal date. I’m pretty sure that the HJS members had pani-puri together after taking the picture (link for the full article is HERE; images from Hindu Janjagran Samiti).
Published by Guest Writer May 23rd, 2007
in News and guest writer.
Friends, introducing our new guest writer, Aniruddha Dutta. He is currently finishing his M.A. in English Literature from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India, having graduated in the same subject from the University of Delhi - though ‘English Literature’ has become, through the years, an alibi for exploring issues of gender, sexuality, postcoloniality & c. in a wide range of texts. His interest in media critique took root while working as a sub-editor for an English-language daily (The Indian Express), and his most recent work has been a paper studying post-liberalisation deployments of sexuality in constructing an urban cosmopolitan identity in the Indian mainstream press, presented in a workshop at Lancaster University, UK. For future research he wishes, rather ambitously, to branch into fieldwork and ethnography. Apart from this, he is a closet composer (with a few public forays like participating in the online soundart exhibiton Soundlab, for its Memoryscapes Edition 4) and a passionate lover of classical music, cats, and the streetlife of Kolkata. He is a contributor to the blog Development Dialogues, and can be reached at anirdutt AT gmail DOT com
Space, Sanitization and the Press: The coverage of street vending in Kolkata
A post from our guest writer Adnan Sattar. This is an abridged version of an article published in The News.
Courtesy: BBC Urdu
Dictators ride to and fro upon tigers, which they dare not dismount. And the tigers are getting hungry.
–Winston Churchill
In the wake of non-violent protests against the chief justice’s removal, Pakistan’s Information Minister, Muhammad Ali Durrani, was repeatedly heard telling lawyers, legal experts politicians and activists not to ‘politicise the issue’. Advice to the same effect has also come our way from the prime minister and General Musharaf himself. While legal injunctions against commenting on matters sub judice can be understood, one wonders what right do the rulers have to tell people what they should and should not organise political struggles around.
These official statements implicitly seek to impose on people a very narrow and an exclusive legal interpretation of the events surrounding the chief justice’s suspension. They seem to be emanating from a misplaced belief that the government can hush the rising crescendo of public distrust and anger by stripping General Musharaf’s action of all political context and background. Nothing would suit the regime better than a muted populace willing to stand by as a silent spectator while it mops up all opposition to its present and future ambitions. If the people were to heed the official advice, they would be forced into inaction or, at best, compelled to view the government’s assault on judiciary as an innocuous, routine legal matter.
Friends, a new post from our guest writer, U.M. (Who has just emailed me to tell me about his new article on computers and mothers, over at remains of the desi…)
Metaphors for Love and Lust in the Hindi film Metro (Anurag Basu)
Unheimlich Maneuver
Having just seen the Hindi film Metro, my mind is freshly buzzing with the criticisms of the film that were murmured by fellow-movie goers as I was leaving the cinema. They tended to fall into the following categories; that the film was badly directed (not realistic enough), that the film was badly acted (not realistic enough), that the chicks were too ugly (too realistic), and that the themes in the film were too immoral (not realistic and also dangerous suggestions to young people who might be influenced by them). I think it is a shame that film critics should feel the need to “instruct†viewers to enjoy a film purely on the basis of whether or not it was credible, morally palatable, or whether or not the chicks were perfectly air-brushed and botoxed.
A great piece from our guest writer Adnan Sattar:
**
Pakistan’s Tryst with Destiny
Sixty years too late, a nation is having its tryst with destiny. Pakistan is being reborn in court rooms and cafes, on bus stations and streets, and of course, on television screens. General Musharaf, who was pretty much invincible in his military regalia a few months back, seems to be hanging by a flimsy thread now. What is most promising about the emerging movement is the convergence of media, legal community, politicians and increasingly the common men and women, on the imperative for rule of law, democracy and justice. Today, Pakistan is mobilizing on progressive, secular lines and not around religion or ethnicity.
The suspension of chief justice in March this year turned out to be a catalyst for the kind of political momentum that can topple powerful regimes. In Chief Justice, Iftekhar Chaudary, Pakistan today has a symbol of resistance, a David who decided to take on Goliath by refusing to step down.
Published by Guest Writer May 4th, 2007
in India diary and guest writer.
As promised, Joseph injects a sliver of seriousness into our poo debates. This article was originally published at Poda Poda.
The Curse of the Dry Latrine
Joseph Zeitlyn
Throughout India, a practice has condemned generations of a sub caste to the most humiliating and ritually degraded life imaginable; they are the Safai Karamchari and over the last ten years they have found a new champion. I recently met him; this is the story of his battle.
Safai Karamchari are described in sanitized English as ‘manual scavengers’ because their job entails the collecting and clearing of other people’s shit with their own hands. This is without doubt one of the least desirable jobs in the Indian economy or society and is thus prescribed for this Dalit sub caste. They work in what are termed ‘dry toilets’, little more than walled off outside areas or constructions, with no drainage or running water and in which people defecate. The Safai are then required to clear the facility during the night whilst the rest of society sleeps, like creatures of the night the Safai clear the community’s filth without troubling their minds.
Published by Guest Writer April 29th, 2007
in India diary, Theory and guest writer.
From our guest writer, a long piece of on shit.
Faecal Graffiti – Unheimlich Maneuver
This continues an interesting discussion about shit SMC was having a while back:
“As our cities grow, heave, push and collapse they hide many other invisible cities. And as we uncover these cities what we discover are nightmarish loads of shit.†Check the link if you haven’t read this already.
And here is the famous quote from Zizek on shit:
From our guest writer Ratnakar Tripathy.
Last week when the media and its supporters were busy defending the individual rights of a Hindu-Muslim couple, and the couple was concerned with sheer survival, our Hindu and Muslim community ‘leaders’ had a very different take on it. They were worried about the conversion of the couple into each other’s religions-logically a case of infinite regression. While the communities angrily campaigned against marriage outside the religion, some unrelated individuals in remote Mumbai decided that the local community in Bhopal was acting much too tamely. They decided to punish Star TV for broadcasting a story that may set an example for other couples. It became clear that love in its romantic splendour or even in its dull but determined versions is highly subversive of caste and religion.
It is quite likely that the couple in question wanted to become invisible instead of receiving the gift of publicity they did. However, they seemed very worried they may be done away with by goons hired by the girl’s clan. It has happened before in small towns and the metropolises. It is interesting that becoming news was the only way the couple could make their families retract their violence. Clearly, the families tend to react with violence only as long as they are able to suppress matters and ‘settle’ them in privacy and secrecy on their own terms. Such settling could range between incarceration to murder of the bride or groom or both.
From our indefatigable guest writer, unheimlich maneuver. Please do watch and hear the short video clip below, before reading the post.
Youtube and the Indian Hidden Camera: Voyeurism as Exhibitionism
This has to be one of the best Indian films of the year. Its no surprise to me that Sliver (1993) was a huge success in India (along with almost every other Sharon Stone film); Spy-cams are, in my opinion, designed for Indians. We have been waiting for them. If you ever have an Indian house-guest, be aware that she/he is likely to open your closets and inspect your clothes and any other item you have lying around. We are an extremely curious people. We listen at doors. We open drawers. If you notice, the guy who has filmed his maid, Sonal, doesn’t mention whether or not he bought the “small camera†AFTER the first theft. The fact that she actually DID steal from him retroactively justifies his cinematic venture. But for all we know, he has a shelf full of hidden cameras; one for each room in the house. I know I do. In ten years his maid will probably have one. I won’t be surprised if mine does. And if she threatened me with them I would have to promise her tenure if not my immortal soul.
From our guest writer, Unheimlich Maneuver:
Reality TV is a Gateway Drug…
(Click on Images above for full size)
You may have heard that Abhishwarya (media pet name for Abhishek Bachan and Aishwarya Rai) is getting married to itself. After long last the “most beautiful woman in the world†is marrying the son of the original Bollywood “Don†and no one really cares whether it is a huge publicity stunt to bolster the box office success of their three recent films together (as some critics claim), because it’s a massive Bollywood wedding, and no one does weddings quite like Bollywood. The media is going mad chasing them around and showing clips of them together at parties, at temples, with lots of praise being lavished upon Aishwarya by her future inlaws for being the “simple girl†they always wanted for their son. Their fans all get a chance to fantasize about how the affection they show one another as lovers in Guru and Umrao Jaan is authentic (not acting) and worry about whether they chose the most auspicious wedding date (Aishwarya has an unlucky zodiac sign [manglik] which could ruin everything).
Published by Guest Writer April 19th, 2007
in Latest news, guest writer and police.
It is with great pleasure that I introduce our new guest writer, Ashish Gupta. Ashish Gupta has been a technology geek since he wrote his first techno music program on the BBC microcomputer back in his childhood years. He has been passionate about Computer Science ever since. This eventually led him to get a B.Tech in CS from IIT Delhi and is presently pursuing a PhD at Northwestern University, Illinois. Interested in distributed computing, networking and algorithms, he has worked on various interesting projects at IBM Research, Intel Research and Google. His others interests are human behavior and psychology. One of his experimental programming projects, Doubletrust, received acclaim in Businessweek and ABC News. He plans to contribute articles relating to technology, computer science, and social issues.
And, I forgot to mention, Ashish Gupta and I have been friends since we were pre-pubescent 14 year old geeks who used to mess around on quick basic as well as create WADs for Doom. We made the imps wear diapers.
Long term questions from the VT incident
Ashish Gupta
(This is the first of a series of posts on the incident)
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