This is a guest post by SHIVNARAYAN RAJPUROHIT : A school teacher in Rayapuram village of Mehabubnagar district (Andhra Pradesh) summed up the sentiment of the village: “Without a sarpanch [an elected village-chief], this village is like a rudderless ship. The implementation of government schemes has gone from bad to worse. The government has appointed special officers, who hardly have any bonding with villagers in each panchayat.” Recently, the state government of Andhra Pradesh (AP) decided to conduct the panchayati elections in April-May 2013, which have been overdue since July-August 2011. What were the reasons for this postponement? Continue reading Making Mockery of Panchayati Elections : Shivnarayan Rajpurohit
All posts by J Devika
Class Feminism vs. Classy Feminism … Or, Everybody Loves the Governable Woman!
A few weeks ago, I mentioned on Kafila a certain gentleman who delivered a memorable address in Government Women’s College, Thiruvananthapuram, which contained sage advice on how to bring under control the unruly bodies of ungovernable women. After that I have been receiving unsigned letters from his admirers who feel that their innocent hero has been most unfairly criticized. Like the grumpy ground-lubber types who are either incapable of ascending or simply unable to climb coconut trees and do not appreciate the free services rendered by the chivalrous heroes high above, I have erred in judgment, they claim. Continue reading Class Feminism vs. Classy Feminism … Or, Everybody Loves the Governable Woman!
Raining Rape-Speech in Kerala
It is hardly news in Kerala by now that its been raining misogynists, rape-talkers, and swollen-rotten masculine egos in these early days of 2013. The PJ Kurien controversy has been a trigger of course. But I am astounded at the collective frenzy of Congress stalwarts. Kerala today is like a coconut garden taken over by a bunch of supremely drunken … well .. simians. Here we are, helplessly watching the tipsy horde ascend the fruit-laden coconut palms, pulling down ripe fruit and raw ones, tender leaves and drying ones, with nary a care for all of us down here! Everyone, from senior leaders, many insecure dumb ass-males on FB and Youtube, to minor lawyers in small-town courts with sadly dessicated minds but hugely swollen male-egos, to elected MLAs on the floor of the Kerala State Assembly, and judges whose guardian-angelic misogynist aura glints a bit more menacingly in private conversations,each of them seem to be up their own coconut tree throwing down various half-witted, asinine comments,venting their immense distrust of women who don’t fit into the homely-comely-motherly stereotype. Continue reading Raining Rape-Speech in Kerala
We, the Barbarians: Vipul Rikhi
Guest post by VIPUL RIKHI
We’re not a civilisation. We’re a horde. And baying for blood is the new flavour of the season.
Let us have a few more executions while we’re at it. Why stop the fun now? Let us distribute sweets and dance on the streets. Why hide these killings inside jails? Let’s bring them out into the open, so the whole populace can rejoice and the collective conscience of the people can be appeased.
If there’s not enough terrorists, there are rapists. There are enough people to round up and hang. As with the six who raped and murdered a girl on a bus in Delhi, our collective cry must be, ‘kill them all!’ There are clear villains in each piece, and we are the pure ones who are always getting outraged. Continue reading We, the Barbarians: Vipul Rikhi
Moditharam at IFFK 2012 : An Open Letter to the Young People Who Volunteered at IFFK
Dear Friends
Writing this to you to share the pain, the insult, the deep sense of deprivation that I feel at the end of IFFK 2012.
I am sure many of you would be surprised by this statement. I expect a barrage of irritated questions: didn’t the IFFK 2012 present a most delectable selection of films, and that too, of impeccable political correctness? Weren’t the passes delivered promptly? Weren’t the theaters all spruced up and respectable? Were the loos great this time? So what more do you want, you crude, loud-mouthed female, who was shouting and protesting most of the time? And in any case, why should you write at all to the volunteers, and not to the authorities if you plan to complain?
Imagined Immunities: The Cure of Idinthakarai
The power of imagined communities was never so evident to us as on the other day, when a group of us — Malayalee people of different political affiliations — made our way to Idintakarai in southern Tamil Nadu. In many ways,we were representative of contemporary Malayalee society — we were from districts spanning the length and breadth of Kerala, had very vocally-expressed mutual differences of opinions and interests, and belonged to of different socioeconomic classes, faiths, and castes, were composed of local residents, NRIs, and Malayalees settled elsewhere in the country. Of course, we were also representative of the gender imbalances that characterize even the oppositional civil society here — there were just two women in a group of nearly thirty. We went there to express solidarity with the people of Idinthakarai who have been struggling valiantly against the monstrosity that the government of India is determined to foist on them — the Koodankulam nuclear power plant — and who have been described as traitors to the Nation by the very people who have ripped apart our sense of what a nation should mean to ordinary people. Continue reading Imagined Immunities: The Cure of Idinthakarai
Stuck Between Gandhi and Cultural Crap: Papilio Buddha Reveals Much
Sometimes a minor cut on the surface of the skin will do to reveal the rot beneath. This is precisely what the film Papilio Buddha, made by the New York-based Malayalee film-maker Jayan Cherian, which draws broadly upon contemporary caste politics in Kerala, has achieved for us. In fact, its achievement on this count is simply amazing. At a single stroke, it has brought to light several stinking sores above which Malayalees, especially many Malayalee intellectuals who occasionally don the garb of public intellectuals, strut. Continue reading Stuck Between Gandhi and Cultural Crap: Papilio Buddha Reveals Much
Are We Not Alive: Women’s Voices from Kudankulam
Guest post by ANITHA. S
As I sit here in my home village of Idinthikara watching the hot sun light up the waves rolling onto the shores, I think of the news that has hit the world today about the Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant. All of you must have seen the news that Madras High Court has given the go-ahead for the KKNPP.
When we carried the dead body of democracy and burnt it in the outskirts of our village on Aug15th, 2012, little did we realize that so soon we would witness the real death of democracy. As this last nail is being tightened on our lives, we realize how insignificant has been our voice. But this has only strengthened our vow to be together. Continue reading Are We Not Alive: Women’s Voices from Kudankulam
The Nightmare of the Chaavunilam and the Illusions of Well-Meaning Scholars
Chaavunilam (“Dead Land”)is the title of one of Sarah Joseph’s well-known short-stories in Malayalam. In it she relates a myth of devastation and revival — it describes a scene of terrible devastation through the eyes of the last woman left there, the Mother — who witnesses the terrible violence between her children which leaves the earth shattered, verdure destroyed, and which ends in the death of all the combatants. This is the tale of her immense suffering — she is torn apart by birthing-pains, at the same time as she is devastated by the death of all her children. Continue reading The Nightmare of the Chaavunilam and the Illusions of Well-Meaning Scholars
Report of Committee to Review NCERT Textbooks and Note of Dissent by MSS Pandian
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
The Anti-Politics of Murder
No, this post is not mainly about the ghastly murder of the rebel communist leader T P Chandrasekharan at Vatakara in Kerala early this month. It appears clear now that irrespective of whether the CPM leadership was directly involved or not, local CPM cadre were involved in the conspiracy. Certainly, it is an act gruesome enough to feed nightmares through many nights. And the way the gory details of the planning and execution of the murder continue to appear in the print and visual media, the Malayalee public is almost on its knees, holding on to their stomachs, racked by seemingly never-ending bouts of nausea. But I have my reasons for not wanting to focus on this incident here, reasons more than the sheer irritation felt with sections of the media that demand shrilly that ‘cultural leaders’ have not condemned the murder sufficiently. Continue reading The Anti-Politics of Murder
“Ideal Journalists” and a Woman’s Right to Dignity: Aswathy Senan
Guest post by ASWATHY SENAN
[The astoundingly misogynist representation of Aswathy Senan’s appointment as the Liaison Officer in Calicut University by the Deshabhimani newspaper was discussed earlier on Kafila in a guest post by APARNA ESWARAN]
Just as issues of gender and ethical journalism have been raised with regard to the Deshabhimani report on 30.04.2012 by C. Prajosh Kumar, a legal and ethical concern bothers any interested reader, who is beginning to feel involved. The reporter while correcting himself as a response to my letter stated it thus: “For a post that was advertised on 21-12-11, a bio-data was sent more than a month back, and a recommendation by VC was made on it: it is this irregularity in the procedure that the report tried to bring forth. And thus, the reporter has done the duty of an ideal journalist.” Continue reading “Ideal Journalists” and a Woman’s Right to Dignity: Aswathy Senan
Facts and Fiction – Creative Journalism and Real Consequences: Aparna Eswaran
Guest post by APARNA ESWARAN
Increasingly, a section of young unmarried Malayali women are choosing to leave the comforts and shackles of their homes in Kerala, to live independently in alien cities in an unapologetic pursuit of their particular dreams. The patriarchal society of Kerala negotiates this category of women with a strange ambivalence, and the Malayalam media tackles her in two convenient ways. Continue reading Facts and Fiction – Creative Journalism and Real Consequences: Aparna Eswaran
Condemn the Arrest of Advocate Shanavas by “Hi-tech Cell”!
This statement has been released by Manisha Sethi, Adeel Mehdi, Ahmed Sohaib, Sanghamitra Misra and others for JAMIA TEACHERS’ SOLIDARITY ASSOCIATION
Demand his immediate release!
The undersigned condemn in strongest terms the arrest of Advocate Shanavas, a leading human rights activist of Kerala. Advocate Shanavas, who lives and practices in Trivandrum, was arrested on 1st May 2012, and his office raided and his files seized by the Crime Branch of the state. Ostensibly, his arrest has been made by the “Hi-tech Cell” of the Kerala Crime Branch for conspiring to leak intelligence communication in the infamous Email surveillance scandal that rocked the state a few months ago—where a leading daily of the state has alleged that the Hi-tech Cell was snooping on the emails of nearly 250 Muslim individuals and institutions. Continue reading Condemn the Arrest of Advocate Shanavas by “Hi-tech Cell”!
Forget Hair-Oil-Powered Indulekha, Remember the Muditheyyam
Well, the truth is that I care two hoots for Indulekha Hair Oil, their stupid ads, and the wide-eyed chubby-cheeked teenage girls who they usually cast as epitomes of Malayalee feminine grace. All of Mallu FB world is agog with discussion about a brainless ad for the Indulekha Hair Oil, in which a fiery-looking woman whose dress-style follows the dress conventions of our Malayalee AIDWA Stars, bursts with indignation over the terrible harassment that women with long hair face on buses, how we are all forced to cut off “the hair that we have” (‘Ulla mudi’) and go about with short hair “like men” because of this horrible injustice, and finally, how we all ought to grow our hair long (and let it down, possibly) and hit back at such harassers. This stupid ad is actually only one among other stupid ads for this hair-oil which uses currently-common ideas like ‘women’s collectives’ (stree koottaimakal). All of them are jarring since the concepts they use, and what they aim at, simply don’t mix.Part of the outrage has been fueled by the fact that the ad uses as a model Sajitha Madathil, who is well-known as a feminist theatre activist in Kerala. Continue reading Forget Hair-Oil-Powered Indulekha, Remember the Muditheyyam
Kerala and Kudankulam: The Media Sleeps
It is amazing how the very same Malayalees and their media, which made Mount Everest out of that molehill of Mullaperiyar, remain sweetly calm in comparison at the events unfolding in Kudankulam. In fact the amnesia is so complete that it is as if few remember (except the anti-nuclear activists in Kerala who have been consistently supporting the struggles of the local people) that it was common knowledge in the late 1980s that the plant would affect both Tamil Nadu and Kerala.There was far greater awareness of the special problems of locating the plant in Kudankulam for Kerala, where natural radiation levels are already very high. The violence too had an early start, with the police firing on a people’s rally against the plant in 1989, which killed one person.
Letter from the Stinkcity of Thiruvananthapuram
Respected development tourists, leftists and scholars from the West who have been coming here seeking your heterotopia, welcome to the city of Thiruvananthapuram.
Yes, you are here to see that Kerala which gives you relief from the relentless decline of the left in your part of the world.You have been honouring us with such visits since the 1970s. We have been happy to oblige, cast and recast to suit your projections. When ‘social development’ was fashionable in the UN circles, Kerala was indeed the space where you found ‘social development’ thriving. But when ‘human development’, the theoretical and political provenances of which are quite different from those of ‘social development, became your preference, Kerala transmogrified itself most willingly into the paradise of ‘human development’. And then you came to be fascinated by ‘participatory development’, we diligently turned into the very fount of ‘participatory development’. Thank you very much for keeping us afloat in the imagination of Western left developmentalist intellectuals (though I do see that the oodles of ‘agency’ showered upon us by you may actually be your way of compensating for the shrinking of your own agency in the face of the triumphant march of neoliberal capitalism in your homelands) Continue reading Letter from the Stinkcity of Thiruvananthapuram
Confuse and deceive – Email interception in Kerala and the formula for political survival: Yaseen Ashraf
Guest post by YASEEN ASHRAF, associate editor of the Malayalam weekly, Madhyamam
An article by Viju V Nair in Madhyamam Weekly (issue 727, 23 January 2011) has raised the hackles of the Kerala Government and its political allies. Strange, because the report was about the excesses of the police intelligence, something which can be – and should be – investigated and corrected. The investigative report claimed that 268 email accounts were ordered by the Kerala state intelligence to be tapped, out of which a huge majority belong to Muslims. None of these persons has any previous criminal history. So it is not clear why they are put under the cyber scanner. Continue reading Confuse and deceive – Email interception in Kerala and the formula for political survival: Yaseen Ashraf
Fear, Safety and Livelihood: The Biopolitics of Mullaperiyar: T. T. Sreekumar
Guest post by T. T. SREEKUMAR
The Mullaperiyar Dam controversy embodies a concrete and complex example of the imperial matrix of biopolitical legacy that post-colonial societies continually encounter even after decades of political independence. More than a century ago, the British colonial Government administering Madras Presidency, which included parts of Tamil Nadu State, directed the erstwhile princely state of Travancore (which forms the southern districts of Kerala) to sign an agreement to divert water from the Periyar river in Travancore to the relatively arid zones adjoining the Western Ghats within the presidency, and to lease out a large tract of its territory for the construction of a Dam for a time span of 999 years. In the post-independence period, two supplemental agreements to the original Lease Deed of 1886 have been signed between the Madras government and the Government of Kerala regarding fishing rights and generation of hydroelectric power, the former in favour of Kerala and latter favouring Tamil Nadu. The supplementary agreements negotiated and enhanced the annual lease rent and the rate of pay for the electrical energy generated.
Continue reading Fear, Safety and Livelihood: The Biopolitics of Mullaperiyar: T. T. Sreekumar
Kerala’s Lost and Found Object of Cinema: Bindu Menon M
Guest post by BINDU MENON M
The fascination for films by Kim Ki Duk, the iconoclast South Korean film maker, and his hold over cinematic imagination in Kerala has generated many anecdotal and apocryphal stories in the film festival circuit in Kerala. Given his popularity, its not surprising at all that Kim Ki Duk films are available in the original and pirated forms in electronic markets in major towns i the State. A recent Malayalam short film titled ‘Dear Kim’ is a letter written to Kim Di Duk by his fans from a remote village in the High Ranges of the Western Ghats. Against all odds, a small group of young men who are laborers set out to watch a Kim Ki Duk opening film in the city , but couldn’t make the journey. The CD that they procure of his film ‘Wild Animals’ turns out to be a pornographic film of the same name! They finally manage to send an email to Kim Ki Duk requesting for his original DVDs. The Korean wave , has taken distinct turns influencing mainstream Malayalam film production as well, prompting a wry and satirical remark from a popular internet portal film critic that at this rate Cochin might soon be declared as the capital of South Korea! Parodying another joke that pronounces Gabriel Garcia Marquez as the most popular Malayalam novelist, it is often said that Kim Ki Duk is the most popular contemporary Malayalam film maker!Kim Ki Duk wouldn’t have been a household name without the International Film festival of Kerala,the large number of film festivals that mushroomed all over the state in the last decade and the pirate DVD market.
Continue reading Kerala’s Lost and Found Object of Cinema: Bindu Menon M
High theory, Low ‘Kolaveri Di’: Why I am a Fan of this Flop Song: AS Ajith Kumar
Guest post by AS AJITH KUMAR
YouTube’s search results for the `Kolaveri di ’ song are amazing. It is hard to pick the `original’ from the plethora of `kolaveri di ’ songs -the `reply cover version’, kids version by Naveen Nigam, the damn version, and many more. I was very excited to find this possibility-a song has initiated a dialogue, and that too a musical engagement. This I think are the new possibilities that the new media has brought into the field of music. Here is not the two- way process that we are familiar with, between the music and the listener, but a number of activities in multiple tracks.
The ‘listener’ is more visible now, and has more powers. He/she shares, likes, comments, makes his/her own videos and broadcasts them by herself/himself. I am not trying to jump into a sort of technological determinism, but approaching the shifts in the music field – in the making, listening, broadcasting and sharing of music. I would say that it is within this context that we have to reflect on the popularity of the `kolaveri di ’ song.
Continue reading High theory, Low ‘Kolaveri Di’: Why I am a Fan of this Flop Song: AS Ajith Kumar
KAFILA - COLLECTIVE EXPLORATIONS SINCE 2006 