Monthly Archives: July 2012

Bad ideas, Left watch, Movements, Right watch

CPI(M)’s ‘July Crisis’ and Challenges for Rebuilding the Left

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In an unprecedented move ,  the JNU unit of the SFI (SFI-JNU) has been dissolved by the ‘Delhi State Committee of the Students’ Federation of India’ [SFI is the CPI(M) student wing]. What is interesting about the press statement issued by the ‘Delhi State Committee’ following this momentous decision, is that it is signed by the Acting President and the Acting Secretary. The state secretary Robert Rahman Raman has since resigned in protest against the decision and the state president, according to him happens to be among those expelled. The state secretary in his statement has protested against the SFI Delhi state committee’s decision, ‘taken with just 12 members present and without adequate consultation or effort to retain the unit.’  The matter then, is far bigger than that of an errant SFI unit.

Clearly, leading state functionaries of the organization too are involved in the heresy that has called forth this action by the high priests of the CPI(M). Anyone who knows the command structure of the CPI(M) and how it works, can see immediately that a decision as important and unprecedented as this cannot have been taken by something as inconsequential as the Delhi state committee of the SFI. Indeed, even the Delhi state committee of the CPI(M) could not have taken this decision without the concurrence of the highest leadership – in this case Prakash Karat, the general secretary, himself. Continue reading CPI(M)’s ‘July Crisis’ and Challenges for Rebuilding the Left →

Culture, Everyday Life, Identities

Discordant notes: A review of Sadia Dehalvi’s “The Sufi Courtyard: Dargahs of Delhi”

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The Sufi Courtyard: Dargahs of Delhi by Sadia Dehlvi; pp 252; Harper Collins Publishers, India, 2012

There is a sudden spurt of interest in Sufism among a section of our population that did not have such an interest a decade or two ago. Some were introduced to Sufism and its spiritual philosophical moorings through interactions with those who knew something about it, and realised that the ideas of Wahdat-ul-Wujood had parallels in the Adwait philosophy and it was this consonance that intrigued many to an extent that they got interested in exploring Sufism a little more. There were others who discovered Sufism through the west. Just as many had discovered Hindustani classical music when George Harrison began to learn the Sitar from Pandit Ravi Shankar in the ’60s, there are those who discovered Rumi when there was a spurt of interest in Jalal-ud-Din Rumi in the west, particularly in the US, with several translations appearing within a short span. Rumi has been known for centuries in our parts as Maulana Room; his poetry was quoted by Persian-knowing Indians till the 1950s and early 1960s, in conversations and writings, almost as often as Mir and Ghalib are quoted by the Urduwallas. An introduction to Rumi in the last decade or so has led eventually and inevitably to Sufism and a kindling of interest in our own indigenous Sufis. Continue reading Discordant notes: A review of Sadia Dehalvi’s “The Sufi Courtyard: Dargahs of Delhi” →

Culture, Debates, Identities, Language, Left watch, Theory

Satyashodhak: Brahminical Manoeuvre: Madhuri M. Dixit

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Guest post by MADHURI M. DIXIT

G. P. Deshpande’s play Satyshodhak is currently being performed in Maharashtra and Delhi and has received positive reviews in print and electronic media1 .It is praised for portraying Jotiba Phule’s life and work, its relevance for dalit emancipatory politics and also for the participation of the Pune Municipal Corporation’s workers as actors. There is a mood of celebration and a congratulatory back patting tone in the appraisal of a supposedly qualitatively different production. In addition to that, the writer has claimed that the production means a ‘successful and meaningful experiment of political education’ 2 of the workers/actors who are dalits. However, the flaunted success of the play and claims about its political import are belied by a performance that offers a very brahmanised Phule. It is very interesting to see that the author claims ‘a meaningful experiment’ of political education of the workers by offering them a pro-upper caste version of Phule. The very choice of producing a play about Phule in 2012 after a shelf life of twenty years 3, the writer’s articulated positions regarding it and the knowledge of Phule delivered through it, involve, I suggest, an upper caste cultural politics embodied in the brahman friendly figure of Phule.

Continue reading Satyashodhak: Brahminical Manoeuvre: Madhuri M. Dixit →

Debates, Government, Movements

Can University Teachers Bend the Sri Lankan State?

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The major strike launched by university teachers in Sri Lanka on July 4th is gaining momentum. Their struggles are proving to be the single most sustained and nationally organised movement in Sri Lanka’s post-war years. This strike follows previous trade union action taken last year where the Heads of Departments of state universities resigned from their positions for several months. With the Government unheeding of their demands, the Federation of University Teachers Associations (FUTA) has reinitiated a full blown strike that is national in character with state universities from all regions of the country participating. Continue reading Can University Teachers Bend the Sri Lankan State? →

Bad ideas, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Once There Was Hindutva Terror ..?

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Bomb blasts have taken place near the Delhi High Court, in Bombay, Bangalore etc. Within a few hours of such bomb blasts many T V channels started showing news item that Indian Mujahidin or Jaish-e-Mohammed or Harkatul-jihad-e-islam have sent e-mails or SMS claiming responsibility. The names of such alleged organizations will always be Muslim names. Now an e-mail can be sent by any mischievous person, but by showing this on TV channels and next day in the newspapers the tendency is to brand all Muslims in the country as terrorists and bomb throwers…Should the media, wittingly or unwittingly, become part of this policy of divide and rule?

(Justice (retired) Markandey Katju, Chairman of the Press Council of India, October 10, 2011 at a get-together with mediapersons)

1.
Introduction

What is common between the murder of the leader of a private army of landlords at the hands of his own gang members in faraway Bihar over distribution of booty, the felicitation of a terrorist lodged in jail as ‘living martyr’ (zinda Shaheed) in Punjab or the anointment of a hatemonger as the poster boy of the main opposition party ? Formally speaking there are no connections but if one tries to dig further few subterranean linkages become clear. Whether one agrees or not they exhibit the growing legitimacy of authoritarian, fanatic, exclucivist politics in this part of the subcontinent . Continue reading Once There Was Hindutva Terror ..? →

Debates, Politics

Report of Committee to Review NCERT Textbooks and Note of Dissent by MSS Pandian

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Clarification: These documents did not reach us through any member of the Committee.

We have re-ordered the first document to place the Executive Summary at the beginning. Otherwise, no changes have been made. We have also linked to the sites from which you can download the actual text-books so that you can see what has been recommended for deletion/change.

MSS Pandian’s Note of Dissent follows the report of the Committee.

A Report of the Committee constituted for Reviewing the Textbooks of Social Sciences / Political sciences, for Classes IX-XII constituted by NCERT

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY     

 a)       The Committee’s terms of reference were to identify the educationally     inappropriate materials and provide alternative suggestions for the six        textbooks in Political Science.

b)       Since six textbooks covered different themes such as Political Theory,     Indian Constitutions, Indian Politics and World Politics, the    Committee requested the subject experts from Political Science, to      give their opinion using the NCERT guidelines for the textbooks    preparation.  The opinion expressed by the experts was used as   resource material to arrive at the final view by the Committee .The      Committee also made use of some literature, particularly on the use   of cartoons in teaching.

c)      The Committee used the guidelines developed by the NCERT to prepare the textbooks for the review of educational material        including the cartoons. Since the NCERT did not provide specific guidelines for the inclusion of cartoons (and used the general NCF           guidelines for selection and use of cartoon), the Committee made use of general guidelines and also suggestions of some eminent researchers who have worked on the use of cartoons in teaching, to review the inclusion of cartoons in six textbooks on Political Science.

d)       The Committee has made recommendations for each of the six textbooks          for changes in the current year. The Committee recommended (a)       removal of    some cartoons, (b) change in the “Note “below the        cartoons Unni and Munni to bring  clarity and improvement in the message and (c) removal        of       some cartoons on Unni and Munni.

e)      The Committee has also made suggestions for modification in material    which can be considered at the time of the general review of the       textbooks in future. Continue reading Report of Committee to Review NCERT Textbooks and Note of Dissent by MSS Pandian →

Government, Politics, Violence/Conflict

जेल डायरी: अरुण फेरेरा

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Guest post by ARUN FERREIRA

Translated from English by Anil Mishra

नागपुर जेल की उच्च–सुरक्षित परिसीमा में स्थित अंडा बैरक बग़ैर खिड़कियों वाली कोठरियों का एक समूह है। अंडा के प्रवेश–द्वार से दूसरी अधिकतर अन्य कोठरियों में जाने के लिए लोहे के पाँच दरवाज़ों, [और पैदल] एक संकरा गलियारा पार करना होता है। अंडा के भीतर कई अलग अहाते हैं। हरेक अहाते में कुछ कोठरियाँ हैं, और हर पहली कोठरी दूसरी से सावधानीपूर्वक अलगाई गई है। कोठरियों में बहुत कम रोशनी होती है और आप यहाँ कोई पेड़ नहीं देख सकते। आप यहाँ से आसमान तक नहीं देख सकते हैं। मुख्य निगरानी टॉवर के ठीक ऊपर से अहाते में एक बड़ा भारी, ठोस अंडा हवा में लटकता रहता है। लेकिन इसमें (और अन्य अडों में) एक बड़ा फ़र्क़ है। इसे तोड़कर खोलना असंभव है। बल्कि, यह क़ैदियों (के हौसलों) को तोड़ने के लिए बनाया गया है।

 अंडा वो जगह है जहाँ सबसे ज़्यादा बेलगाम क़ैदियों को, अनुशासनात्मक क़ायदों के उल्लंघन करने की सज़ा के लिए क़ैद किया जाता है। नागपुर जेल के अन्य हिस्से इतने ज़्यादा सख़्त नहीं है। अधिकतर क़ैदी पंखे और टीवी वाली बैरकों में रखे जाते हैं। बैरकों में, दिन के पहर काफ़ी इत्मिनान वाले, यहाँ तक कि आरामतलब भी हो सकते हैं। लेकिन अंडा में, कोठरी के दरवाज़े ही हवा के आने जाने का एकमात्र ज़रिया है, और ये भी कुछ ख़ास आरामदायक नहीं, क्योंकि ये किसी खुले प्रांगण में नहीं, एक ढंके–मुंदे गलियारे में खुलता है। Continue reading जेल डायरी: अरुण फेरेरा →

Capitalism, Debates, Excavation, Metropolis

Olympics, Art and the Orbit of Capital : Anirban Gupta Nigam

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Guest post by ANIRBAN GUPTA NIGAM

The facts:

In 1992,  Prijedor – a mine in a place called Omarska in Bosnia – was transformed into a concentration camp by Bosnian Serb forces. The number of Bosnian and Croat people held in the camp varies between at least 3,334 and 5000-7000. Many of them – around 700-800 by some accounts, many thousands by others – were murdered.

A little over a decade later, in 2004, the world’s largest steel producing company, ArcelorMittal took control of 51% of the Ljubija mining complex, of which the mine of Omarska is a part. In the former concentration camp where thousands had been detained and many brutally killed, mining activity has now resumed. A year later – 2005 – ArcelorMittal promised it would financially back and oversee the construction of a memorial for the victims at Omarska. They never did. Not only that, according to some reports ArcelorMittal recently enclosed the space around the mine, denying people entrance and effectively privatising a place of great trauma and violence for exclusive reasons of commerce.

Meanwhile the company, through the artistic prowess of Anish Kapoor, spearheaded the construction of a massive public art monument meant to become one of the symbols of the forthcoming London Olympics. The Olympic Tower – also known as the ArcelorMittal Orbit – has, from its very beginning, been subject to both massive criticism and support. The back and forth over its status as genuinely “great art” or “fascistic gigantism” and a “waste of public money,” has centred on how people respond to the physical structure, as well as on the merits and demerits of having a large corporate house direct a public art initiative of this kind. On the 14th of April this year, Mladen Jelača, Director of ArcelorMittal in Prijedor, verified to Milica Tomic (from the Monument Group in Belgrade) and Eyal Weizman (professor in Goldsmiths, University of London) that iron from the same ore that was mined in Omarska had indeed been used in the construction of the ArcelorMittal Orbit.

Continue reading Olympics, Art and the Orbit of Capital : Anirban Gupta Nigam →