All posts by Nivedita Menon

Debates, Violence/Conflict

Are We Heading towards a Nuclear Winter? A Theoretical Framework: Rameez Raja

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Guest post by RAMEEZ RAJA

The discovery of nuclear energy or radioactivity in 1930s and 1940s by the scientists in a sense murdered the true spirit of science. After the bombings by the United States over Japan in 1945, physicists and nuclear scientists practically got to know about the massive amount of energy a nuclear explosion can release. At around the same time, scientists started experimenting to harness nuclear energy for generating electricity as well. However, after the destruction caused by atomic explosions in Japan, Albert Einstein changed his stance towards using nuclear energy after witnessing the horrifying episode in human history. Along with him, many other nuclear scientists and bomb designers like Ted Taylor, John Gofman, Michio Kaku turned anti-nuclear activists after studying about the harmful effects nuclear radiation can cause.

Kennette Benedict, a senior advisor to Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists argued that the three communities which benefit by supporting nuclear warheads are “weapons scientists and engineers, private military contractors, and the government nuclear weapon bureaucracy.” Some realists and neo-realists like Hans Morgenthau (Politics Among Nations), Kenneth Waltz (Theory of International Politics) and John Mearsheimer (The Tragedy of Great Power Politics) championed the deterrence theory for avoiding major wars. Surprisingly, the nuclear hawks feel proud of their nuclear achievements and development, despite the fact that nukes failed to provide them with total security and also that nuclear energy is not a cheap source for generating electricity as reported by physicist, M. V. Ramana in his book The Power of Promise.  Continue reading Are We Heading towards a Nuclear Winter? A Theoretical Framework: Rameez Raja →

Culture

In the Forbidden Land of Iran – the past, survival and imperial nostalgia: Inshah Malik

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Guest post by Inshah Malik
Iran is politically and economically isolated and in that isolation, to call it an experiment of nation building is misleading, but nevertheless, it is an on-going exercise. Under the crippling sanctions, the party is still on!

I don’t have the usual agenda to visit Iran. I’m not an intrepid western traveler barging into the forbidden land, to explore my political other. My two year journey within Iran is a certain sojourn necessitated by my consistent desire to unravel the personal and political meaning of my existence. As a Kashmiri scholar burdened by a political inheritance of the prolonged Kashmir conflict, I seek to unearth the connection between Kashmir and Iran. This connection, as I understand now, is not simply political, in that both places are Muslim dominated, but more spiritual. It is in the erasure and random references to Kashmir in Farsi through which I attempt to understand the crisis of a Muslim consciousness entwined with the political domination of an imperial world order.

I encounter Kashmir as a meaningful reference in the poetry of Iran’s national poet, Hafiz Continue reading In the Forbidden Land of Iran – the past, survival and imperial nostalgia: Inshah Malik →

Capitalism, Everyday Life, Right watch

In Which Swaminathan Iyer McDonaldises the Tribals and Serves Other Junk Food : Shripad Dharmadhikary and Nandini Oza

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Guest Post by SHRIPAD DHARMADHIKARY AND NANDINI OZA

Reposted from Manthan

What can one expect when one is faced with a blog by “India’s leading economic journalist” which is titled “Most of the ousted tribals are flourishing and loving it”? That there will be a large helping of fries on the side? That it will taste great but is really junk? In all of these expectations, one is not disappointed.

First, a little background. The leading economic journalist is Swaminathan Iyer, who along with a colleague carried out a survey of some tribals ousted by the Sardar Sarovar Narmada dam, comparing their situation with those left behind in the hilly areas near the river, and others in the hilly areas but near a mining project. On 10th Sept 2017, Iyer wrote a blog titled “Why many tribals don’t mind being ousted” based on his study. In a matter of just two days, Iyer has come out with a second blog based on the same study on the same topic. One wonders why. But then, again, one may not wonder, for the Sardar Sarovar has become an important topic with the Prime Minister scheduled to dedicate to the nation the dam on 17th Sept 2017.

The first blog was a classic case of misinterpretation of data, hiding the more important issues, and conclusions not supported by research findings, as we showed in our response. We showed that the tribals do mind being ousted. Now Iyer has written another blog on the matter, which skirts the issues we had raised in our response and omits some crucial survey findings given in the earlier blog, but still tries to show the Sardar Sarovar rehabilitation program as being successful.

Continue reading In Which Swaminathan Iyer McDonaldises the Tribals and Serves Other Junk Food : Shripad Dharmadhikary and Nandini Oza →

Capitalism, Ecology/Environment, Government

Why tribals do mind being ousted by dams: Shripad Dharmadhikary and Nandini Oza

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SHRIPAD DHARMADHIKARY and NANDINI OZA write a stinging response to Swaminathan Anklesaria Iyer’s unsupported claims in Times of India about how much tribals love being ousted for big dams. The newspaper did not care to publish this rebuttal so the authors posted this on Dharmadhikary’s blog and also in the comments section to Iyer’s article.

We reproduce Dharmadhikary and Oza’s original response in full below from Manthan.

However, here is an update from Shripad:

I put my comment in brief, within the allowed 3000 characters, yesterday in the Comments section. Today, it’s gone.

Then, a friend brought to my notice that Swaminathan has written a completely new version of the blog and put it out yesterday. Wonder if he is in the habit of writing different versions of the same blog within a matter of two days! https://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Swaminomics/most-of-the-ousted-tribals-are-flourishing-and-loving-it-thank-you-activists/

Have yet to read the new version of his bog properly (am out since early morning), but it appears that he has rewritten it in a way that tries to skirt the response we had given. Now I am planning to write another response to the new blog….but can only do it tomorrow as busy with meetings today.

And now, Dharmadhikary and Oza’s original response in Manthan:

SA Iyers’s piece in Times of India dated 10 Sept 2017, “Why many tribals don’t mind being ousted by dams”, examining the condition of some of the oustees of Sardar Sarovar Narmada dam is a classic case of misinterpretation of data, hiding the more important issues, and conclusions not supported by research findings. Indeed, a proper reading of the article itself shows that unlike Iyer’s assertion, his own figures show that tribals do mind being ousted. Some important points are given below.

Iyer claims that their “surveys showed, unambiguously, the resettled villagers were better off than their former neighbours in semi-evacuated villages.” In support, among the figures given from their survey, they point out that comparing the resettled with their former neighbours who remain in the original areas, the access to drinking water was 45% against 33%, to PHCs was 37% versus 12% and to hospitals 14% versus 3%. Given that the oustees were resettled between 25-30 years ago, and that the Sardar Sardar project has poured in hundreds of crores of rupees for resettlement, these figures don’t speak of oustees being better off, but indeed, point to the pathetic case of the oustees.

Continue reading Why tribals do mind being ousted by dams: Shripad Dharmadhikary and Nandini Oza →

Politics, Right watch

Take back our government – BJP’s Electoral Bonds and Corporate Control: Bharat Sarkar Bachao Committee

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Received from Bharat Sarkar Bachao Committee, Delhi

Sign Petition Against the BJP’s Electoral Bonds – An Open Door for Corporates to Control Our Government

Sign petition here

हिंदी के लिए नीचे देखें

In this year’s budget session of Parliament, the Modi government quietly introduced a new provision in the Finance Act that throws open the door for corporates to purchase our government – and for the BJP to get huge unaccounted funds.

The new instrument is called an “electoral bond.” An electoral bond is just a piece of paper, worth a certain amount of money, that can be purchased from a notified bank and given to a registered political party. The party can then cash the bond and get the money.

But – and this is the key – all laws and regulations have been changed to prevent anyone from knowing who purchased the bond and who encashed it. The Income Tax Act has been amended to state that the political party is not required to disclose who gave them the money. The Companies Act has been amended to say that a company can give any amount of money to political parties, and it does not have to disclose who it donated to (earlier, companies could only donate up to 7.5% of their profits and had to make the recipients public). The bank is not required to disclose who purchased the bond.

The only institution who will know which company gave money to which political party is the bank – and, therefore, the party in charge of the Finance Ministry, namely the BJP. The government claims they want to “protect donors from harassment”. But, of course, the ruling party at the Centre will know about donors using electoral bonds, and it can and will harass them if they donate to the opposition.

In short, electoral bonds are just a giant, open funding channel for corporate cash to flow to the BJP.

They are also a perfect route for money laundering. Once money is put into an electoral bond it is untraceable. Sources that preferred to remain anonymous in the RBI have effectively pointed this out – noting that bearer bonds are just another form of cash.

Multiple institutions have already opposed the bonds. The opposition in the Rajya Sabha voted to reject money bonds, but using the ‘money bill’ provisions of the Constitution, the BJP overruled them by a vote of the majority in the Lok Sabha. The Election Commission has called electoral bonds a “retrograde step”. The outgoing Chief Election Commissioner, Naseem Zaidi, has said the “public has a right to know who is making donations” and that “electoral bonds will rob poll funding of transparency.”

In 2002, when directing candidates to disclose their assets when standing for elections, the Supreme Court had said that voters’ right to know is “fundamental and basic for the survival of democracy”. Electoral bonds are not just one more bad policy. They are a direct threat to the foundations of Indian democracy. We face the prospect of corporates not only influencing policy through the back door, but of effectively purchasing the government through the front door. It is vital for people to raise voices against this ‘reform’ before it is too late.

Hindi petition follows.

Continue reading Take back our government – BJP’s Electoral Bonds and Corporate Control: Bharat Sarkar Bachao Committee →

Debates, Education

The Need to Integrate the Sciences for an Integral Society: Vikas Bajpai

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Guest post by VIKAS BAJPAI

There couldn’t be a more opportune time than the present moment in India’s history for an impassioned cry for science to arise from the scientific community in the country. On the 9th of August 2017 scientists from across India carried out the ‘March for Science’ in twenty six cities with the plea addressed to the Prime Minister of the country demanding that:

the Government to uphold Article 51A of the Constitution and to restrain the attempts that run counter to the development of scientific temper, human values and spirit of inquiry enshrined in the Constitution (Organizing Committees of the India March for Science in different cities, 2017).

It was further stated:

Science is not a set of beliefs. Science tries to understand the laws governing the material world and society following a well-established methodology where nothing is accepted without evidence. Thus science has created a body of knowledge that has been tested by practice, which provides the basis for advancement of society. That is why it is now an established canon of governance that all decisions that impact people’s lives should be based, not on personal beliefs, but on scientific evidence (ibid).

Within days, Avijit Pathak, a sociologist teaching at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University wrote his piece, the ‘Hubris of Science’ in The Indian Express as a rejoinder to this ‘March for Science’.

Continue reading The Need to Integrate the Sciences for an Integral Society: Vikas Bajpai →

Culture, Law, Right watch

Free Hadiya – An apeal to the Chief Justice of India from Pinjra Tod

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Guest post by PINJRA TOD, a Delhi-based collective of students fighting to “Break the Cages” of women denied the rights of adult citizens by the restrictive and patriarchal rules of women’s hostels.

Your Lordship,

We write to you, to bring to your notice a recent judgement of the Kerala High Court which has annulled a consensual marriage of an adult Muslim woman. The judgement also makes many other remarks which can completely undermine any claim for equal citizenship for women and are violative of their fundamental and constitutional rights. Hadiya is a young woman, 24 years of age who has went on record to say that she willingly converted to Islam. Her parents have since approached the court twice asserting that she has converted to Islam under external force, demanding that she return to living with them. In their second petition to the Kerala High Court they also raised the allegation that she would be transported outside the country and demanded the court’s intervention.

During the proceedings of the second petition, Hadiya contracted a marriage with a Muslim man according to Islamic rites and rituals and stated her full consent in the marriage. The Kerala High Court has finally annulled the marriage and forced Hadiya into the custody of her father. She has not even been allowed a phone and has been denied any contact with the rest of the world beside her parents, in effect putting her under house arrest for no proven crime committed by her. Policemen guard her every day and just beyond stand RSS cadre further ensuring that their prize catch finds no exit from the situation.

Continue reading Free Hadiya – An apeal to the Chief Justice of India from Pinjra Tod →

Debates, Feminism, Government, Law

Women’s groups & concerned individuals welcome Supreme Court judgement on triple talaq

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Endorsements are still pouring in for this statement, but we are posting it here with just the first names with which it was sent out.

22 august 2017

We wholeheartedly welcome the judgment of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the matter of Triple Talaq brought before it by a number of Muslim women and Muslim women’s rights groups. In arguing that the practice of Triple Talaq is both, un-Quranic and Un-Constitutional, it is an important departure from earlier judgments on all women’s rights, because it is based on the tenets of equality, dignity and secularism as enshrined in the Constitution.

As women’s groups and individuals we recognise that the current political climate of communalisation and violence, when the entire Muslim community is under attack in India and much of the Islamophobic world today, makes the fight for minority and gender rights an even more uphill task. Hence we extend our solidarity and salute the courage of the Muslim women who have fought everyday patriarchy within, religious institutions and the family, as well as communal forces to seek justice and equality from the courts.

Even as we celebrate this victory as one that strengthens the fight for secular rights, we are aware that this is but one step in our continued battle against all kinds of patriarchal power and the prevailing political order that seeks to convert this into a majority-minority issue.

In our joint struggles for gender justice in all laws relating to marriage and family, beyond the religious framework, we believe that the Supreme Court judgment on Triple Talaq is an important affirmation of Constitutional values of equality, secularism, pluralism and dignity for all citizens. We hope that this will be the framework in all matters of justice for gender and minority rights.

Hasina Khan, Bebaak Collective
Awaz-e-Niswaan, Mumbai
Saba Khan, Parcham, Mumbai
Parwaaz, Amedabad
Sahiyar, Baroda
Janvikas, Ahmedabad
Hameeda, Sadbhavna Trust, UP
Shabina, Vanangana, UP
Muslim Mahila Manch, Nagpur
Sandhya Gokhale, Forum against Oppression of Women, Mumbai
Chayanika Shah, Labia – A Queer Feminist LBT Collective, Mumbai
Vani Subramanian, Saheli Women’s Resource Centre, New Delhi
Renu Mishra, Association For Advocacy and Legal Initiatives, Lucknow
Kavita Srivastav, Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberties, Jaipur
Rahana Adib, Astitva, UP
Razia Patel, Indian Institute of Minority Education, Pune
Meena Seshu, SANGRAM/Nazariya, Sangli
Swati Sanyal, Swayam, Kolkata
Malobika, Sappho for Equality, A queer feminist activist group, Kolkata
Shyamala Natraj, South India Aids Action Programme, Chennai
Arundhati Dhuru, National Alliance of People’s Movements
Mamata, Humsafar Trust, Lucknow

Bad ideas

In JNU, the Struggle to Define the University: Kartik Maini

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Guest post by KARTIK MAINI

One day, the war will end, and I will return to my poetry

Contemporary India loves its army. For a civilisation that defines itself as intrinsically nonviolent, we do also love our wars.

On 23 July, 2017, Vice Chancellor Jagadesh Kumar, students of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, and members of Veterans India – a collective of ex-servicemen, gathered to commemorate the Kargil Vijay Diwas. The impulse of the commemoration is two-fold – it is a celebration of the Indian army’s reclamation of Kargil from Pakistani encroachment, as also an occasion to mourn the war’s martyrs who sacrificed their lives in service of the nation. For a university, commemoration should involve a quiet moment of reflection on the enormous human costs of war.

Continue reading In JNU, the Struggle to Define the University: Kartik Maini →

Education, Politics, Right watch

The Modi regime, its minions in the JNU administration and the brave struggle of whistle blower Prof Rajeev Kumar

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The prime minister of India Narendra Modi’s cheap hindutvavaadi jibes in his farewell address to vice president Hamid Ansari were better suited to Republic TV or The Organiser, but under Modi’s regime, parliament is pretty much run like an RSS shakha, and Modi himself seems no different from Arnab Goswami.

Said Modi in parliament to the distinguished out-going vice president:

Aapke karyakaal ka bahut saara hissa West Asia se juda raha hai. Usi dayere mein zindagi ke bahut varsh aapke gaye, usi mahaul mein, usi soch mein, aise logon ke beech mein rahe. Wahan se retire hone ke baad bhi jyadatar kaam wohi raha aapka; Minorities Commission ho yah Aligarh Muslim University ho, zyadatar dayara aapka wohi raha.

Lekin yeh 10 saal puri tarah ek alaga zimma aapka sar mein aaya. Puri tarah ek ek pal samvidhan samvidhan samvidhan ke hi dayere mein chalana. Aur aapne usko bakhubi nibhaane ka bharpur prayaas kiya. Ho sakta hai kuch chatpatahat rahi hogi bhitar aapke andar bhi. Magar aaj ke baad shayad woh sankat bhi nahin rahega. Mukti ka anand bhi rahega aur apni mulbhut jo soch rahi hogi uske anusaar aapko karya karne ka, sochne ka, baat batane ka awsar bhi milega.

Continue reading The Modi regime, its minions in the JNU administration and the brave struggle of whistle blower Prof Rajeev Kumar →

Culture

Baiting Desire – The Politics of Women’s Sexualities in Popular and Other Indian Cinemas: Brinda Bose

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Guest Post by BRINDA BOSE

To return to questions about women’s imperiled sexual desires and freedoms that have been spilling around us in recent weeks – with a middle-aged ‘Rosie’ emerging as a blissful mascot of women’s ageless pleasures in a multiplex film – I had unexpected occasion on a long-haul flight recently, to watch a film in a completely different register, Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Tope (‘The Bait’, 2016, Bengali with English subtitles).

Tope had done the round of international film festivals last year, and I believe released in Indian theatres (mostly if not only in Bengal, I would think) in the early summer of 2017.

Continue reading Baiting Desire – The Politics of Women’s Sexualities in Popular and Other Indian Cinemas: Brinda Bose →

Culture, Feminism, Government

हरियाणा की औरतें घूंघट को शान नहीं मानती: कशिश बदर

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Guest post by KASHISH BADAR

हरियाणा सरकार को घू़ंघट पर कुछ बोलने से पहले इन महिलाओं की बात सुन लेनी चाहिए थी.

जब हरियाणा सरकार ने अपनी मासिक पत्रिका में एक घूँघट काढ़ी हुई औरत को राज्य की आन, बान और पहचान कहा तो मीडिया में इसका काफ़ी विरोध हुआ. फ़ेस्बुक पर लोगों का यह कहना था कि जब साक्षी मालिक, गीता फोगत, संतोष यादव और कल्पना चावला जैसी औरतें हरियाणा का नाम दुनिया भर में रौशन कर रही हैं, तब भी हरियाणा सरकार क्यूँ घूँघट वाली औरतों को ही अपनी शान समझती है. क्या उन औरतों की मेहनत, लगन और सफलता राज्य की शान नहीं है? क्या सिर्फ़ पुरुष खिलाड़ी ही राज्य को गर्व महसूस करवा सकते हैं?

स्वयं हरियाणा की औरतों के इस विषय पर विचार लेने मैं रेवाड़ी ज़िला गयी. वहाँ कुछ औरतों से घूँघट के और उनकी शान के विषय में बात की.

 

ममता यादव, सेंतिस साल की शादी शुदा औरत हैं.

Continue reading हरियाणा की औरतें घूंघट को शान नहीं मानती: कशिश बदर →

Capitalism, Politics, Right watch

And THIS is how you deal with threats of defamation charges! The strange case(s) of Red FM and EPW

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Red FM’s RJ Malishka features in a peppy video that went viral, mocking Mumbai’s Municipal Corporation (BMC) for the dismal lack of civic amenities and the havoc the rains can wreak in the city. In a lively parody of the popular Marathi folk song Sonu Tuza Mazyavar Bharosa Nahi Kay (Sonu, Don’t you Trust me?), she sang cheekily, Sonu, don’t you trust BMC?

Potholes, traffic jams, slow trains, all the woes of the Mumbaikar in the fabled rains of Western India.

But Shiv Sena which runs the BMC was not amused.  Continue reading And THIS is how you deal with threats of defamation charges! The strange case(s) of Red FM and EPW →

Culture, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

#BreakTheSilence – Chennai against mob lynching: Madhura Balasubramaniam and Padmapriya Govindarajan

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Guest Post by Madhura Balasubramaniam and Padmapriya Govindarajan 

On July 1, 2017 a gathering of citizens congregated at the Valluvar Kottam monument in Chennai, India, in solidarity with the spate of demonstrations across the nation condemning the rise in instances of mob lynching and violence that disproportionately targeted Dalit and Muslim citizens for beef consumption. The protests were triggered by the murder of 16 year old Junaid Khan by a train mob. Since July 28, peaceful citizen gatherings have joined a wave that attempts to call out government silence, and thereby perceived tacit complicity, regarding the actions ofGau Rakshaks and other vigilante mobs that engage in lynching with a strongly communal or casteist skew. They have been collectively termed as #NotInMyName protests, alluding to the argument that these murders occurred in the name of the cow and in the name of Hinduism. Continue reading #BreakTheSilence – Chennai against mob lynching: Madhura Balasubramaniam and Padmapriya Govindarajan →

Culture, Debates, Feminism, Religion

Bharat Mata and her unruly daughters

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Bharat Mata’s daughter? But the Hindutvavadi motherland produces only sons – Hindu, savarna sons – to protect their mother’s ever fragile honour.

Let us begin these reflections with a moment from Nisha Pahuja’s disturbing film the World Before Her, which tracks two young women – Ruhi, a beauty pageant contestant and Prachi, a trainer with the Durga Vahini, women’s wing of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

While Ruhi and her fellow participants emerge as conventional and pallid, Prachi is fierce and questioning, independent minded. But towards the end of the film, you realize that for both women (and not for Ruhi alone), this period of training was only a small window that gave them a brief glimpse of broader horizons. It was only a brief moment of excitement and hope, and what seemed like freedom, before real life – the real lives of real women – closed in on them.

Throughout the film, Prachi has been telling the film-maker that she will never get married, she will live her life as a Hindutva activist. She emphatically rejects the ordinary life of a wife and mother. But towards the end, her father declares quite explicitly that this is out of the question. She can never be a full time activist. Of course she must get married. She has a womb, do men have wombs? Her responsibility then, is to bring up children. Initially in this sequence, Prachi argues against him vehemently, verges on the insolent, but gradually she falls silent. Her expression, still rebellious, but devastated, resigned, signals to us her recognition that the daughter of the Hindu nation is only in training to be a mother. That is the highest ambition she can have.

Continue reading Bharat Mata and her unruly daughters →

Identities, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

Eid in solidarity, united against Hindu Rashtra

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At some point during the Khalistan movement, I came across a brief news item about a constable of the Punjab Police killed by Delhi Police personnel. The two teams had completed their interrogation of a suspected militant. Whose job was it to clean up the blood? Disagreement, a scuffle, a killing.

Legitimized brutality; the stench of blood inflaming the senses; the knowledge of absolute power and absolute impunity.

All of India is that interrogation room now.

Hindu Rashtra is here.

Has there not been violence earlier in this land? Yes of course there has been. A full seven decades of an independent state’s violence against the people of the land declared to be India – against dispossessed peasants and tribal people, against industrial workers, against the people of Kashmir, and of the states of the North East; centuries of violence by savarna Hindu society against the Dalit-bahujan; misogynist, sexist violence against women, up to and including female foetuses in the womb; decades of coldly planned and executed communal violence by institutionalized systems of riot production coordinated by the organizations of the RSS – against Muslims, against Christians, and as a secondary force, against Sikhs in 1984.

What is unique about this conjuncture, then? Continue reading Eid in solidarity, united against Hindu Rashtra →

Bad ideas, Media politics, Right watch

Boycott Republic TV – the hounding of S. P. Udayakumar

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Is it not time for this channel that sets new lows with each programme, to be totally boycotted by all right-thinking people?

Don’t watch Republic TV, don’t participate in its programmes.

Dr SP Udayakumar’s complaint to the Press Council of India follows. He is
Coordinator, People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) and
Pachai Tamizhagam Katchi (Green Tamil Nadu Party)

June 21, 2017

Hon’ble Mr. Justice Chandramauli Kumar Prasad
The Chairman, Press Council of India

Dear Sir:

Greetings! I write to bring your kind attention to the ongoing deceit and harassment of me and my family by Mr. Arnab Ranjan Goswami and a few of his colleagues such as Shweta and Sanjeev from the Republic TV.

On April 8, 2017, one “Shweta Sharma” (I later found out that her real name was Shweta Kothari) came to my home at Nagercoil and introduced herself as a “research scholar” from the Cardiff University in the UK. She asked for my help with her dissertation research. She had been accompanied by her “local friend” Sanjeev. I gave her several books and answered her questions.

On April 9, 2017 she requested me to stop by her hotel room as she had a few more questions. There she told me that “one of her British professors” was very keen on supporting our struggle against the Koodankulam nuclear power plant. I told her that we did not accept money from foreigners and our movement had no bank account also. She then asked me if there was any other way of donating money to us. I told her that my personal account was frozen and that even our party account could not receive foreign funds.

Mirror Worlds, Politics, Right watch

X ways in which Modi is different from Trump: Rama Srinivasan

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Guest post by RAMA SRINIVASAN

Prime Minister Modi is set to meet President Trump on June 26 and we can anticipate an exciting contest between bear hugs and crushing handshakes. We indeed live in interesting times where symbols rather than spoken words determine the fate of nations (Trump is rumoured to have partly pulled out of the Paris Agreement after losing a handshake duel with the new French President). Both Modi and Trump deploy symbols effectively to further a conservative agenda that is in many ways self-serving rather than ideologically dogmatic. I wondered if a list of ways in which they are different despite being strikingly similar in many ways might be an interesting experiment but all my points could be bracketed under one larger word: privilege. Everything that follows in this article are ways in which this privilege operates in the case of Trump and how the lack of the same has shaped much of Modi’s career.

Continue reading X ways in which Modi is different from Trump: Rama Srinivasan →

Capitalism, Education, Right watch

और इस बार नंबर आईआईएमसी का था : Rohin Kumar

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Guest Post by ROHIN KUMAR

संस्थान के गेट पर सरस्वती की प्रतिमा थी ही. नारद पहले पत्रकार बताए जाते रहे हैं. अब बचा था हवन वो भी होने ही वाला है. आईआईएमसी मीडिया स्कैन नामक संस्था के साथ मिलकर ‘वर्तमान परिदृश्य में राष्ट्रीय पत्रकारिता’ पर सेमिनार आयोजित करने जा रहा है. इसकी शुरुआत हवन से होनी है. उसमें पांचजन्य के संपादक और बस्तर का खूंखार आईजी कल्लूरी आमंत्रित है. चौंकाने वाली बात है कि कल्लूरी जिसने सबसे ज्यादा आदिवासियों, पत्रकारों, सामाजिक कार्यकर्ताओं को तंग किया, उनपर फर्जी केस डाले वो ‘वंचित समाज के सवाल’ पर बोलने आ रहा है.

हमें इसकी सूचना दो दिन पहले मिली. सोशल मीडिया पर इसके पोस्टर रिलीज़ किये गए थे.

सबसे पहले हम छात्रों ने इसका सोशल मीडिया पर विरोध दर्ज किया. इसमें कई पूर्व छात्रों का हमें समर्थन भी प्राप्त हुआ. संस्थान में पढ़़ाने वाले शिक्षकों को फ़ोन किया, उनसे जानना चाहा कि आखिर उनकी इसपर कोई राय है?

जानकर हैरानी हुई कि उन्होंने छात्रों से बिलकुल डरे सहमे अंदाज़ में बात किया. इस बाबत जानकारी से इनकार कर दिया. फिर डिप्लोमेटिक जवाब देने शुरू किये- “चुंकि हमें कोई आधिकारिक सूचना इस कार्यक्रम के बारे में नहीं मिली है इसलिए मैं इसे फेक न्यूज़ मान रहा हूं.” इतना कहकर मीडिया एथिक्स पढ़ाने वाले टीचर ने कन्नी काट लिया.

Continue reading और इस बार नंबर आईआईएमसी का था : Rohin Kumar →

Education, Right watch

JNU Teachers on allegations of motive behind car vandalism

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STATEMENT FROM JNU TEACHERS

We, members of the JNU faculty, are deeply shocked at the kinds of allegations and speculations being made because a faculty member’s car was vandalised a couple of nights ago. Obviously the incident in which the windshield of the car was found shattered in the morning,  is worrisome, and cause for concern – yet this is not an isolated incident on an otherwise safe campus. In past months other faculty members living on campus have had similar experiences, where random acts of vandalism have occurred, in different parts of the university. However, no one, until now, has made either baseless allegations or blamed students’ groups, or levelled charges against any particular political ideology.

This is the first time that such quick, and hasty conclusions have been drawn. Instead of investigating a matter of vandalism, this is being recast as some kind of political conspiracy and vendetta. This does not reflect the spirit of JNU – which has always been collegial despite its many differences. It is only since early 2016 that we are seeing this sense of reflective engagement fraying – which ought to be a cause of concern for us all.

We would also wish to state that the untimely loss of every life is, and should be, one of great sorrow. And it is particularly so in the cases of ordinary jawans, most of whom come from impoverished families and have few opportunities, especially to study, and to make a better life for themselves. Who knows – had their families had the wherewithal for educating their children – they too could have been university professors. The baseless allegations against JNU being levelled at the moment, purportedly in support of the killing of jawans in Sukma, neither respects their lives and immense challenges, nor does it show any concern for the university and its community.

At a time when the JNU community is facing grave challenges, and its excellent academic environment is at risk, it is the duty of the faculty to maintain calm. Instead, such baseless allegations are adding to a situation of anxiety and distress, especially for students who are in the midst of examinations, other than facing an uncertain future.  An attack on JNU at this moment not merely adds to existing conditions of worry, but is, in the last instance, an attack on public universities and the values they stand for. As B.R. Ambedkar famously said, “Education is something which ought to be brought within the reach of everyone… the policy therefore ought to be to make higher education as cheap to the lower classes as it can possibly be made.” JNU is one of those universities in India that has enabled students from socially and economically deprived backgrounds to achieve their dreams. No retroactive condolences will absolve us of the responsibility of killing those dreams and futures.   Continue reading JNU Teachers on allegations of motive behind car vandalism →

Debates, Education, Right watch

It could have been me: Rajamathangi S

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Guest Post by RAJAMATHANGI S

I am one of the fortunate PhD scholars lucky enough to study in JNU. I am a Dalit woman.  My mother is my family’s main breadwinner and my father struggles as a daily wager. I have two siblings who are younger than me. My mother is a low paid private school teacher today because of the education, which her single mother provided to her. My maternal grandmother who became a widow at a young age, didn’t sit inside the house after her husband passed away, she works as a sanitation worker even today, a profession that is considered a taboo by her community people. It is the hard work of these two women that has helped me reach this position.

Because of my family situation my school education was scattered all over Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry. I never studied in one school for more than two years. So one can understand how many types of schools and people I have experienced with. I started my schooling in a convent in Pondicherry. Then I went to three matriculation schools before I completed my 6th standard; after that because of my family’s economic condition I was put in Government and aided schools from class 7 till the completion of class 12. Irrespective of changing schools every alternate year I was good at my studies, I was always encouraged and motivated by my friends and by my teachers. I was always fortunate when it came to teachers: teachers stood by me in all my obstacles throughout my education wherever I went and JNU has been no exception to this.

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