Category Archives: Culture

Culture, Feminism, Genders

Holding Kings to Ransom – Royal Women in Matrilineal Kerala: Manu Pillai

9 Comments

[Below is an edited excerpt from Manu S.Pillai’s forthcoming book from Harper Collins, The Ivory Throne: Chronicles of the House of Travancore. The book throws interesting light on gender and political power in the matrilineal royal houses, and offers tantalizing hints about the pre-colonial roots of brahminical patriarchy in the region. The exclusion of women from full political power seems to have begun here in the 18th century, from the time of the much-revered modernizer Marthanda Varma, and colonial power seems to have built its patriarchal structures on it. Nevertheless, the memory of women ruling as full potentates — Queens – and not as Queen-Mothers, remained in popular memory and indeed surfaced in the early twentieth century in Travancore. These were of course times in which modern politics was taking shape and modern gender was becoming a taken-for-granted truth.

Manu’s book retells the story of the transition of the female ruler in Travancore from Queen to merely the Queen-Mother in fascinating detail.]
Continue reading Holding Kings to Ransom – Royal Women in Matrilineal Kerala: Manu Pillai →

Culture

Chhota Bheem – Anachronisms, Prejudice & Xenophobia: Sivakumar Radhakrishnan

8 Comments

Guest Post by SIVAKUMAR RADHAKRISHNAN

download (1)

The Chhota Bheem television series, highly popular among the nation’s children and also among many adults, is telecast daily in many Indian languages. The program is a long running show of many years and has its viewership in millions. Its popularity is evident from the fact that other children’s programs and advertisements are churned out from it.

The series evokes interest mainly by its plot, which is almost similar for every episode.  Also the plot is a simple one, where a cute city-state is ruled by a king, with his daughter, a princess of tender years. The king resides in a citadel atop a pretty hill.  The citizens are generally good natured.  A group of kids is shown playing in the countryside, of which the most smart and attractive is Chhota Bheem. He is assisted by a few other kids and a little talking monkey. Suddenly, evil people with sinister designs will start disturbing the peaceful city state of Dholakpur. The king will be found helpless in dealing them. At the right juncture, will enter the little Chhota Bheem and with his might, he will clear the evil elements from Dholakpur. Thus, Chhota Bheem saves the kingdom and the king at the right time. The citizens will celebrate him and continue to be happy thereafter. What could possibly be wrong with such a simple, evil-defeating, goodness-forging narrative?

Continue reading Chhota Bheem – Anachronisms, Prejudice & Xenophobia: Sivakumar Radhakrishnan →

Bad ideas, Culture, Government, Identities

Silencing Caste, Sanitising Oppression – Understanding Swachh Bharat Abhiyan

4 Comments

The Hindu notions of purity and pollution, inextricably linked with the caste system and the practice of untouchability, underlie the unsanitary practices in Indian society. These beliefs perpetuate the oppression of the “polluted castes,” who are forced to undertake manual scavenging, unclog manholes and clean other people’s filth. The availability of cheap Dalit labour to do these dehumanising jobs can be cited as one of the reasons why development of toilet facilities and a modern garbage and sewage management system have been neglected so far. As long as the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan attempts to delink the relationship between caste and sanitation, its lofty goal of cleaning India will remain unachievable.

(Read the full text here http://www.epw.in/system/files/pdf/2015_50/44/Silencing_Caste_Sanitising_Oppression.pdf)

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Feminism, Identities

നഹാസ് മാളയ്ക്കു മറുപടി

Leave a comment

ആദരണീയ നഹാസ് മാള

താങ്കളുടെ മറുപടി വായിച്ചു, സന്തോഷമുണ്ട്. അത് കാഫിലയിൽ പോസ്റ്റ് ചെയ്യുന്നില്ല. മറിച്ച്, ആ കത്ത് ഉണർത്തിവിടുന്ന ചില ചിന്തകൾ പങ്കുവയ്ക്കാൻ ഈ ഇടം പ്രയോജനപ്പെടുത്തുന്നു. Continue reading നഹാസ് മാളയ്ക്കു മറുപടി →

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Feminism, Genders, Identities

Save Yo Drama for Yo Mama :യഥാർത്ഥരക്ഷകർത്താക്കളോട് കലിപ്പ് തീർത്തുകൊള്ളുക

Leave a comment

എസ് ഐ ഒ നേതാവിനോട് ഒരു ചോദ്യം ചോദിച്ചതും, അതാ ‘നിങ്ങളുടെ രക്ഷാകർതൃത്വം ഞങ്ങൾക്കാവശ്യമില്ല‘ എന്ന ആക്രോശം മുസ്ലിം റാഡിക്കൽ സ്ത്രീപുരുഷ ആക്ടിവിസ്റ്റുകളിൽ നിന്നുമുണ്ടായിരുക്കുന്നു. അവരുടെ കൂക്കിവിളിക്ക് ആക്കം കൂട്ടാൻ ചില ദലിത് സിംഹങ്ങളും സട കുടഞ്ഞെഴുന്നേറ്റിരിക്കുന്നു. അവരുടെ തന്ത്രങ്ങൾ പരിചിതങ്ങളാണ് – മുൻപ് ചുംബനസമരം നടന്ന സമയത്ത് പയറ്റിയ ചില അടവുകളാണ് അവ. എന്നെ ‘അധികാരത്തെ മോശമായി പ്രയോഗിക്കുന്ന പവർഫുൾ സ്ത്രീ’ എന്നും, ഷാഹിനയെ ‘ചീത്ത മുസ്ലിം’ എന്നും, അരുന്ധതിയെ ‘സവർണ്ണസ്ത്രീശരീര’മെന്നുമൊക്കെ ആദ്യമായല്ല മുദ്രകുത്തുന്നത്. അങ്ങനെ ചെയ്താൽ ഞങ്ങൾ പറയുന്നതു മുഴുവൻ തെറ്റാണെന്ന് മറ്റുള്ളവർ ധരിച്ചുകൊള്ളുമെന്ന ശുദ്ധഗതി കലർന്ന പ്രത്യാശയിലാണ് ഇതു ചെയ്തു കൂട്ടുന്നത്. മുസ്ലിം സമുദായത്തെ ചില വാർപ്പു മാതൃകകളിലേക്കു ചുരുക്കുന്ന രീതി സ്വീകാര്യമല്ലെന്ന് വാതോരാതെ കരയുന്നവർ തന്നെയാണ് ഈ പണി ചെയ്യുന്നതെന്നത് തീർച്ചയായും കൌതുകകരം തന്നെ. Continue reading Save Yo Drama for Yo Mama :യഥാർത്ഥരക്ഷകർത്താക്കളോട് കലിപ്പ് തീർത്തുകൊള്ളുക →

Culture, Debates, Feminism, Identities

ചീത്തകളെ തള്ളിക്കള: നഹാസ് മാളയ്ക്ക് തുറന്ന കത്ത്

13 Comments

പ്രിയ നഹാസ് മാള

‘ഓൺലൈൻ പെൺവാണിഭം:  വിശദമായ അന്വേഷണം വേണം – എസ് ഐ ഒ’ എന്ന തലക്കെട്ടോടു കൂടി താങ്കളുടെ സംഘടന പുറത്തിറക്കിയ പ്രസ്താവന ഇന്നത്തെ മാദ്ധ്യമം പത്രത്തിൽ കണ്ടു.  അതിൽ പറയുന്നു:

“കേരളത്തിലെ ചുംബനസമരം അടക്കമുള്ള സമരങ്ങളിൽ മുഖ്യപങ്ക് വഹിച്ചിരുന്ന രാഹുൽ പശുപാലനും രശ്മി നായരുമാണ് റാക്കറ്റിൻെറ പിന്നിലെന്ന പോലീസ് ആരോപണം ഗൌരവമുള്ളതാണ്. കേരളത്തിലെ രാഷ്ട്രീയ മാധ്യമമേഖലയിലെ പ്രമുഖരുമായുള്ള ബന്ധങ്ങൾ ഇത്തരം റാക്കറ്റുകൾ മറയായി ഉപയോഗപ്പെടുത്തുന്നുണ്ട് … വിദ്യാർത്ഥികളെ അടക്കം സ്നേഹം നടിച്ചും പ്രലോഭിപ്പിച്ചും തങ്ങളുടെ വലയിൽ കുരുക്കി ഉഭയസമ്മതപ്രകാരമെന്ന് പറഞ്ഞ് ചൂഷണം ചെയ്യുന്ന ഇത്തരം റാക്കറ്റുകൾക്കെതിരെ സമൂഹം ജാഗ്രത പുലർത്തണം.”

കഴിഞ്ഞ ദിവസം മനോരമ ചാനലിൽ യുവ മോർച്ചാ നേതാവ് രാജേഷ് ചുംബനസമരത്തിനെതിരെ തൊടുത്തുവിട്ട പൊട്ടശ്ശരങ്ങളോട് നിങ്ങളുടെ പ്രസ്താവന അടുത്തസാമ്യം പുലർത്തുന്നു എന്നു കണ്ടതുകൊണ്ടാണ് നിങ്ങൾക്ക് കത്തെഴുതാൻ തീരുമാനിച്ചത്.

Continue reading ചീത്തകളെ തള്ളിക്കള: നഹാസ് മാളയ്ക്ക് തുറന്ന കത്ത് →

Culture, Identities, Politics

Jain Tandoori – When the State Chickens Out: Gita Jayaraj

3 Comments

Guest post by GITA JAYARAJ

New shocks seem to await non-vegetarians almost daily, now. At a popular supermarket chain in Besant Nagar, one of the go-to places in namma Chennai, there seems nothing unusual on the evening of November 11. The floor is littered with stuff as the young shop assistants squat in the narrow aisles trying to stack the packets on the shelves; or laze in small clusters discussing workplace politics, oblivious of the customers milling around.

Seems like a normal evening. Heading towards the billing counter, I decide at the last minute to pick up some chicken. The young girl at the fresh-ground coffee counter, next to the fresh chicken refrigerator, giggles nervously as I open it. “Sale of chicken not permitted today madam”, she tells me hesitantly in Tamil. I am puzzled, has the beef ban in some states been extended to cover chicken as well in all states? Continue reading Jain Tandoori – When the State Chickens Out: Gita Jayaraj →

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Culture, Government

Com Kislay and Shubham Arrested by Goa Police – Glory to the Struggle of FTII students

4 Comments

big_ftii_2students

(Photo : Courtesy – goanews.com)

Ultimately the roaring voice of the FTII students reached the IFFI (International Film Festival of India) inaugural held at Panaji, Goa.

Just when the inaugural had formally ended, chief guest had spoken and the administration was on the cusp of heaving a sigh of relief for a ‘trouble free beginning’ and was contemplating to ‘pat its own back’ for managing to save its ‘image’ the precints of the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium reverberated with slogans in favour of the historic FTII struggle.

This struggle, which had continued for around five months since 12 th June , a struggle against political appointments at one of the most prestigious institutions of India which was also a wake up call at the systematic attempts underway since the ascendance of the Modi regime at centre to undermine the academic autonomy of universities and educational institutions, as everybody knows has received tremendous national-international support.

Slogans were loud enough that all the celebrities and dignitaries who had gathered there heard them.

‘It was heard by Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley, his state minister Rajyawardhan Rathore, defence minister Manohar Parrikar and all the I&B ministry officials.

The two students found an empty block on top, where they were seated silently till the whole inaugural ceremony ended.’

(http://www.goanews.com/news_disp.php?newsid=6374)

Security people who were present there in large numbers pounced on the two of them – Com Kislay, a young film director, an alumni of FTII, who has received critical acclaim for his very first film and Shubham, another alumni of FTII – and according to a facebook post (https://www.facebook.com/FTII-Wisdom-Tree-1607915209448356/?fref=ts)

both of them have been badly beaten by the Goan police for showing the placards and shouting slogans… They are still under the police custody and being interrogated.

As of now they have been detained in Agassaim Police Station  and would be presented before the magistrate. It is also learnt that they are being ‘charged with serious offences’

It is important to note that the authorities at various levels went out of way just to ensure that the voice of FTII students does not reach the IFFI. It ‘ensured’ that this year the festival would not screen a single film by students of the prestigious FTII whereas in recent years, at least five FTII entries could make it to the screening of this annual fest.

As opposed to its regular practice of paying for the conveyanc and accomodation of its students who had enrolled for the same, the FTII administration took an adhoc decision and told the students to bear their own expenses.

But despite all their attempts to intimidate the students into silence the voice did reach IFFI. It is definitely a victory of sorts – albeit of a symbolic kind.

There is no doubt that this struggle of the FTII students would continue to receive the support which it has received from artists, intellectuals, film personalities and all those people who believe are opposed to the dumbing down of society under all pretexts.

If possible contact the Goa police – especially its higher officials – and ensure that the two are not further harmed and released immediately without any charges.

Glory to the struggle of FTII students.

Culture, Debates, Feminism, Law, Sex

Two Trees Don’t Make a Forest: Leave KOL Alone

6 Comments

The latest assault on the Kiss Of Love movement, the last in the long list of assaults against its activists over the past one year in Kerala, involves the arrest of two former KOL activists, Rahul Pasupalan and Resmi Nair, over sex trafficking charges. While the media has been mixing up this case with that of a pedophilia FB page in a rather unwarranted way , the media has been screaming about the pair’s connection with KOL and some reports almost imply that their actions were because of their associations with KOL. Others, including the arch-conservative newspapers, have asked whether the KOL was a cover for sex work markets! Continue reading Two Trees Don’t Make a Forest: Leave KOL Alone →

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Education, Genders

New Epidemics in Kerala – Ephebiphobia and Losing-Control Anxiety

2 Comments

“Torture isn’t  new to us, ” quipped my seventeen-year-old daughter. We were discussing the future of Indian democracy.She had just quit regular school and got herself enrolled in the Kerala State Open School.

I turned to look at her, surprised. She held me in her gaze, questioning that surprise. “In school, we were watched constantly through CCTV cameras … We were summoned to the Principal’s room whenever they thought they saw or heard something wrong. My friend was questioned by nine people, teachers and non-teaching staff. They sat in a circle with her standing in the middle. The more she denied their accusations, the more they pressed charges, threatening and insulting her… So why should we feel illegal interrogation to be abnormal? It is utterly normal to us!”  I could only stare blankly. “And the punishments … do you know how humiliating they are? They even maintain ‘reports’ – gossip by teachers – which they pass on to the next school you’d join.” Continue reading New Epidemics in Kerala – Ephebiphobia and Losing-Control Anxiety →

Culture, Images

Nehru: Inconsistent without discrepancy

5 Comments

“You are able to discard your halo occasionally. You are capable of saying, ‘when I saw the sea for the first time’ when others would say ‘when the sea saw me for the first time…’. I should like to have known you better. I am always attracted to people who are integral enough to be inconsistent without discrepancy and don’t trail vicious threads of regret behind them. You are not hard. You have got a mellow face. I like your face, it is sensitive, sensual and detached at the same time.”  Amrita Shergill

It is heart-warming to see that “mellow, sensual and detached” face on posters on the streets of Delhi after a long time. There is something soothing about it replacing that boastful, nationalist gaze that had been looking down on us for the last two years. Bihar could not stand that image. India would do well to follow Bihar’s lead.

2015 could well be the year of Nehru’s return. Just when the final death of Nehru was being announced in India’s political and intellectual circles, the nation seems to have turned back to him, reposing faith in the secular politics of anti-majoritarianism. Just when secularism was thought to be replaced by development, it became the fulcrum of the electoral discourse in Bihar. Continue reading Nehru: Inconsistent without discrepancy →

Culture, Feminism, Genders, Government, Identities, Law, Politics

So that the Beating of Your Heart Kills No One: Statement of the First ICGE, Thiruvananthapuram

1 Comment

Below is the joint statement issued by the International Conference on Gender Equality that concluded today at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, organised by the Gender Park,  supported by the Department of Social Justice, Government of Kerala. The Gender Park represents a unique attempt to address gender inequality — understood in non-binary, inclusive terms — through skill-building and entrepreneurial innovation. It is refreshingly free from the burden of cultural ageing that is ubiquitous in Kerala now, and has a very young, dynamic team. The theme of the conference was ‘Gender, Governance, and Inclusion’, and that was not lip-service, as the statement clearly shows. The Statement embodies a vision that seeks to bring back questions of gender freedom and equality back into the heart of development interventions, but speaks of all marginalized genders, and not just women.

The Kerala Government’s Transgender Policy, pioneered by the Department of Social Justice was released the conference and transgender people were a major presence at all sessions. Speaking at the occasion, Kerala’s Minister for Social Justice, M K Muneer, declared that he would monitor the implementation of the policy personally and also fight to end Section 377 on all platforms of the government and outside, at state and national levels. 

Their remarkable interventions worked magic: if the pressure of neoliberal discourse is to continuously tie all development to the imperatives of market-led growth and gesture to its Promised Never-Never Land, transgender people’s questions cut through such instrumentalism to join it again with freedom and equality … and the  aesthetic in the fullest sense of the world. For the aesthetic does involve a heightened attention to the sensuous and to rhythm, to difference and to fit, to the entire range of kaleidoscopic formations! 

And it brought back into the heart of development, Love. Love as understood and celebrated by Alice Walker: 

love is not concerned/with who you pray to/or where you slept/the night you ran away/from home/love is concerned/that the beating of your heart/should kill no one.

Continue reading So that the Beating of Your Heart Kills No One: Statement of the First ICGE, Thiruvananthapuram →

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Government, Politics, Right watch

How the Hindutva Propaganda Machine Manufactures Lies

18 Comments

Did you know that the return of awards by writers, film-makers and scientists was a plot hatched jointly by the United States of America, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan? Well, if you did not, you will probably not ever understand why the ‘tolerant’ multitude that turned out at Anupam Kher’s March for India rally today, could so vilely abuse and attack NDTV’s Bhairavi Singh and Aaj Tak’s Mousmi Singh. After all, it is one thing for the netas to simulate their anger and laughter on TV channels and elsewhere, but how do you actually get ordinary people to go crazy? How and why does the ordinary Hindutva footsoldier act the way he or she does? Basically, he (and occasionally, she) is made to believe things that most people would know to be false. So why does as innocuous an act as the returning of awards by writers become such a big threat to India’s position in the world and to the very existence of the government of the day? Well, because, it is not a simple matter of some writers acting out of their conscience but already a part of an international conspiracy plotted by the US-Saudi Arabia-Pakistan nexus!

Defenders of the great tradition of tolerance, image courtesy Saikat Datta
Defenders of the great tradition of tolerance, image courtesy Saikat Datta

Published below is the text of a note that has been circulating over different social media platforms. We have left the typographical and printing errors as they are in the original. Paranoid in its content, it is also illustrative of the way the RSS ‘rumour-machine’ works to produce lies. In earlier days, it used to start circulating from the morning shakhas via the shakha participants. Nowadays it moves from one social media platform to another, with lightning speed. Continue reading How the Hindutva Propaganda Machine Manufactures Lies →

Countryside, Culture, Debates, Ecology/Environment, Images

A Memory from the 1970s

12 Comments

This is from a long time back.

I was eight or nine, a child obsessed with day-dreaming and playing alone with the tiny grass-flowers that grew abundantly in our yard. Memories of those times are coloured a brilliant green because that was the colour that overwhelmed all the seasons of the year. Our home at Muthukulam in Kerala comes back to the mind’s eye in greens of all shades, browns, rich reds, bright blues, silver of the ponds,canals, and the lake, the  bright yellow of the mangoes and jackfruit, and innumerable flower- and fruit-hues. Continue reading A Memory from the 1970s →

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Education, Identities, Images, Mirror Worlds

An ‘Anti National’ Response from JNU to the ‘Nationalist’ RSS: Pratim, Gargi and Lenin

17 Comments

Guest Post by Pratim, Gargi and Lenin.

As writers, historians, scientists, film makers, poets, actors and others return their awards in protest against the rising intolerance and anti-rational climate in this country, we in JNU keep stocking up accolades of a different kind. These accolades are ones which are very generously gifted to us from the RSS and its affiliates. These accolades come in more than fifty shades, only highlighting the deep seated trouble that these folks have in seeing this University up to them, despite their attempts to tarnish it. A few days back the ever-so-absurd/islamophobic/irrational Subramaniam Swamy endowed JNU students with the honours of being ‘Jehadis’, ‘Naxal’ and ‘Anti-National’.

Continue reading An ‘Anti National’ Response from JNU to the ‘Nationalist’ RSS: Pratim, Gargi and Lenin →

Centre watch, Culture, Debates, Identities, Law

Statement by Academics Against Intolerance

8 Comments

In light of the recent spate of killings of noted writers and intellectuals M M Kalburgi, Govind Pansare, and Narendra Dabholkar, and the Dadri lynching incident followed by forced nation-wide attempts at cultural policing, we feel that the current political dispensation headed by the Prime Minister is mandating an atmosphere of violence and fear. Continue reading Statement by Academics Against Intolerance →

Culture, Debates, Right watch

जो पहले नहीं हुआ: किशोर कुमार

2 Comments

Guest Post by KISHORE KUMAR

लगभग चालीस लेखकों के पुरुस्कार लौटाने के बाद अब फिल्म निर्देशकों ने भी पुरुस्कार लौटने शुरू कर दिए. यह पुरुस्कार बढती असहनशीलता और अभिव्यक्ति की स्वंत्रता के दमन के विरोध में लौटाए जा रहे हैं.

बी.जे.पी की राय में यह राजनीति से प्रेरित कदम है और यह सब बी.जे.पी के खिलाफ हो रही साजिश का हिस्सा है. बी.जे.पी के अनुसार आज कुछ ऐसा नया नहीं हुआ जो पहले ना हुआ हो और इन लोगों ने उस समय यह पुरूस्कार वापस क्यों नहीं लौटाए? बी.जे.पी. के अनुसार पुरुस्कार लौटना छदम धर्मनिरपेक्ष लोगों का नाटक है और  असहनशीलता इतनी नहीं बढ़ी और माहौल इतना ख़राब नहीं हुआ कि इतना शोर मचाया जाए. Continue reading जो पहले नहीं हुआ: किशोर कुमार →

Culture, Everyday Life, Identities, Scams

A Dalit Employee’s Death and Its Aftermath – in a Central University: Solidarity for Amar Singh

3 Comments

The following is a guest post by SOLIDARITY FOR AMAR SINGH

We are writing this quite late. On 27 July 2015, a Monday, a young person named Amar Singh passed away in Lucknow. We came to know it very late, only on the other day, since we no longer reside in the city and, to confess, do not remain in regular touch with the happenings there. A leading Hindi daily’s Lucknow edition had reported this death two days later in a small column which we have just recovered. The report provided information about his father as well as about his native place, Faizabad. Though the daily did not state his caste in its description of what could be discerned like an accident, it made a note of his name, his age, his father’s name, and the job he was doing. But we knew Amar’s background. Amar was a dalit. He was Hela by caste and hailed from a poor family. His death could well be an accident, though what exactly happened remains mysterious. People who know a little about the incident are however emphatic that it was not suicide. But what appeared very intricate is how his death was reported and how the whole incident was handled since then, in the well-known public spheres—not only of Lucknow but also of other places.

The daily, Dainik Jagran, indeed reported it on 29 July 2015, stating that on Monday night at Nishatganj, a young man passed away under mysterious circumstances, and that he was a sanitation worker at the Moti Mahal lawns. It also informs that his relatives had asked for an investigation by the police. The report reads further like this: “Originally from Faizabad, the son of Ram Ratan, Amar Singh (23) had gone to his employer’s house at Nishatganj on Monday. Soon after leaving the premise there, he was found on the road in a state of unconsciousness. The passersby took him to a private hospital where he passed away.” The report ends there. It had appeared as an insignificant column at the left bottom of page 9 of the daily, with one of the most common headings one can come across, “a young man dies under suspicious circumstances”. But who was this employer here? Who were the passersby? Continue reading A Dalit Employee’s Death and Its Aftermath – in a Central University: Solidarity for Amar Singh →

Culture, Politics

Sursuri: Swaang

Leave a comment

SWAANG is a Mumbai based cultural group, whose members include actors, writers, directors, singers and composers primarily working with the Hindi Film Industry in Mumbai. The members come from different parts of India and have been associated with progressive arts in the past.

Sursuri, their melodious new song, its melody in stark contrast to the bitterness of the lyrics, reflects on the indifference to growing injustice and intolerance in our country. It asks – What do you do when freedom, pluralism and rationalism are under relentless attack? Relax, don’t speak up, slurp up that hot tingling tea…and fall asleep.

Bad ideas, Culture, Feminism, Identities, Media politics

Girl, Get Back your Dignity NOW: Indulekha Writes to Sumathikkuttyamma

1 Comment

Dear great-great granddaughter Sumathikutty

I am sure you never expected this missive. Yes, you may even think it impossible. But here am I, writing to you, from the other side of J Devika’s computer screen at which she is staring now, mouth open and goggle-eyed, right now. I don’t have to introduce myself – most Malayalees know me as Chandu Menon’s Soul-Daughter, and the Grand (Old) Lady of Modern Kerala (alas, some of the youngest know of Indulekha hair oil only!). Continue reading Girl, Get Back your Dignity NOW: Indulekha Writes to Sumathikkuttyamma →

Culture, Debates, Identities, Images, Language

Statement by Artists, Curators and Critics Against Rising Intolerance in India

9 Comments

Text of a Statement by Artists, Curators and Critics in India against a Climate of Rising Intolerance in India

(Followed by Names of the 300 + Signatories, in Alphabetical Order)

The artist community of India stands in firm solidarity with the actions of our writers who have relinquished awards and positions, and spoken up in protest against the alarming rise of intolerance in the country. We condemn and mourn the murders of MM Kalburgi, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, rationalists and free thinkers whose voices have been silenced by rightwing dogmatists but whose ‘presence’ must ignite our resistance to the conditions of hate being generated around us.

We will never forget the battle we fought for our pre-eminent artist M.F. Husain who was hounded out of the country and died in exile. We remember the rightwing invasion and dismantling of freedoms in one of the country’s best known art schools in Baroda. We witness the present government’s appointment of grossly unqualified persons to the FTII Society and its disregard of the ongoing strike by the students of this leading Institute. We see a writer like Perumal Murugan being intimidated into declaring his death as a writer, a matter of dire shame in any society.

While the Prime Minister of the country has been conspicuously reticent in his response to the recent events, the reactions of BJP ministers in his government reveal their ignorance and prejudice. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State for Culture, has made abhorrent comments about mob lynching and murder. His remarks suggesting that writers should stop writing to prove their point are alarming – empowered as he is to take policy decisions in the domain of culture. Arun Jaitley, Minister of Finance, Information & Broadcasting, has mocked the actions of our respected writers as a manufactured ‘paper rebellion’. He asks for scrutiny of the political and ideological affiliations of those who are protesting.

To these and other such provocations there is a clear answer: while the actual affiliations of the protesting writers and artists, scholars and journalists may be many and varied, their individual and collective voices are gaining cumulative strength. It is this that the ruling party will have to reckon with: the protestors’ declared disaffiliation from a government that encourages marauding outfits to enforce a series of regressive commands in this culturally diverse country.

The scale of social violence and fatal assaults on ordinary citizens (as in Dadri, Uttar Pradesh; Udhampur, Jammu and Kashmir; Faridabad, Harayana) is escalating. The contemptuous comments about the religious minorities and Dalits made by those within the government confirm that there is little difference between the RSS-BJP mainstream and supposed ‘fringe’ elements. The perfunctory warnings and regrets issued by ruling party ideologues – to defend the agendas of ‘development’ and ‘governance’ advanced by Mr Narendra Modi – are merely expedient. The Sangh Parivar and its Hindutva forces operating through their goon brigades form the support base of this government; they are all complicit in the attempts to impose conformity of thought, belief and practice. Continue reading Statement by Artists, Curators and Critics Against Rising Intolerance in India →