Category Archives: Everyday Life

Centre watch, Debates, Everyday Life, Government, Identities, Politics

The gospel according to a divine identifier – An essay on the biblical origins of UID: Taha Mehmood

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Guest post by TAHA MEHMOOD

1.

Simon Bar Jona was a fisherman based in small town called Bethaida. They say one day Simon’s brother, Andrew, led him to a man who called himself Jesus. They say Simon and Andrew became disciples of Jesus.

One day Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do you think I am?”

His disciples looked at each other. They did not know anything about him. They did not know who he was. Some disciples said Jesus was actually John the Baptist: some said he was Elijah; and others though he was Jeremias. Jesus could have been any of these or none of these. But Jesus was not satisfied with the answer, so he asked again, “Who do you think I am?”

At that point Simon Bar Jona, the fisherman answered, “Are you not Christ, the Son of the living God?’“

Jesus was pleased, he replied, “Bless you, Simon Bar Jona: for flesh and blood has not revealed it to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” Continue reading The gospel according to a divine identifier – An essay on the biblical origins of UID: Taha Mehmood →

Everyday Life, Excavation, Frontiers, Identities, Mirror Worlds

Do I look painDoo?

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This post is dedicated to Nadeem F. Paracha.

Photo by 'Life Church Burnley' Flickr: "shoorkot road toba tek sing love this palce.but need much improvement"

[Photo by ‘Life Church Burnley’ on Flickr: “shoorkot road toba tek singh love this place but need much improvement”]

So on Facebook I saw a fellow Punjabi who lives in vilayat has listed his hometown as Toba Tek Singh, Pakistan, which I thought was very cool. Why didn’t I get this idea? Never mind, I thought, like all good ideas this must be stolen. My hometown on Facebook now is also Toba Tek Singh, Pakistan. It was only much after going mad over Manto’s story did I discover that Toba Tek Singh was a real place in west Punjab. Always wondered what its people thought about the story. Continue reading Do I look painDoo? →

Empire/ Imperialism, Everyday Life, Excavation, Identities, Mirror Worlds, Sports, Violence/Conflict

Cricket, Azadi and Pakistan: Mir Laieeq Ishtiyaq

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Guest post by MIR LAIEEQ ISHTIYAQ

As all of India celebrated the well-deserved Indian victory in the cricket world cup finals, the mood in the Kashmir valley was different. Their favourite team was ousted in the semi-final itself. On the eve of the semi-final between India and Pakistan at Mohali, a friend asked on Facebook: “That Kashmiris don’t support the Indian cricket team is well understood, but why is there so much support for Pakistan? Seems INDEPENDENCE IS JUST A MYTH…” There are no simple answers to this question.

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[Pictures taken in Kashmir during the India-Pakistan Mohali semi-final by ISHAN TANKHA for Open magazine.] Continue reading Cricket, Azadi and Pakistan: Mir Laieeq Ishtiyaq →

Everyday Life, Frontiers, Identities, Mirror Worlds

Still Bangali: Reflections on a New Year: Jyoti Rahman

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Guest post by JYOTI RAHMAN

Exactly ten years ago yesterday, upon arriving at a friend’s place, instead of ‘Shubho Nobo Borsho’ (Bangla new year greeting), I was greeted with: ‘Have you heard the news? Call home now. Hope family’s okay!’ Militant jihadis struck the new year’s dawn cultural events in Ramna, the major park at the heart of Dhaka, killing over half a dozen people. Since these events are attended by most of my family in Dhaka, and by most of my friends, we were worried. Frantic phone calls and MSN chats (or did we still do ICQ then, I forget) ensued. Fortunately, the families were safe. But this wouldn’t be the last time such phone calls were made.

Over the following years, militants bombed cinema halls, killed progressive politicians, carried out suicide attacks against judges, and tried to enforce shariah rule in rural northern parts of the country. Things got so bad that when a friend called to tell me about Muhammad Yunus winning the Nobel Peace Prize, upon hearing, ‘Have you heard about Yunus?’, my first reaction was ‘Oh no, another assassination’. Continue reading Still Bangali: Reflections on a New Year: Jyoti Rahman →

Empire/ Imperialism, Everyday Life, Frontiers, Language, Violence/Conflict

A Lesson in Kashmiri: Hilal Mir

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Guest post by HILAL MIR

On a clear spring day in the year 2000, the first year of my masters in journalism at Kashmir university, the class was taken to Sogam for a field trip. Zafar Hyderi, our esteemed teacher much respected for his integrity than scholarship was keen on students having practical experience. We were supposed to visit areas where only radio works because the mountains girding these areas don’t allow television signals from Srinagar Doordarshan to enter the homes. Imagine the relief of not having to watch 24X7 the official propaganda. Since Zafar Sir taught radio, these places provided him a cathartic vindication of the superiority of his medium (though secretly he might have aspired to make a name in TV). Such places are aptly called Shadow Zones. These could well be called shadow zones for other reasons too, as much of the barbarity unleashed by the state in such areas remains buried under shadows, itching to be put into words or images. Continue reading A Lesson in Kashmiri: Hilal Mir →

Culture, Everyday Life, Government, Language, Movements

Dastan-e-Sedition

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Free Binayak Sen Campaign

Justice on Trial:
three days of cultural events
April 4 – 6, 2011
@ Alliance Francaise de Delhi
72, Lodhi Estate, New Delhi 110003

Justice on Trial (Facebookers RSVP here) is a collaborative programme put together by leading contemporary artists, photographers, film makers, musicians, performers, and activists to commemorate struggles for democracy, freedom and rights. An exhibition of photographs and art works, talks performances and screenings all are directed at drawing renewed attention to the trial of Dr. Binayak Sen, who has emerged in recent times as a symbol of courageous resistance, and a reminder of the many injustices that surround us. Our aim is to provoke a dialogue with the colours and sounds that emerge from the idea of what Dr. Sen represents.  Continue reading Dastan-e-Sedition →

Culture, Debates, Everyday Life, Identities, Left watch

Why so serious?: Anuj Bhuwania

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Guest post by ANUJ BHUWANIA

Cellphone videos of the celebrations at India Gate after India won the semi-final against Pakistan

 

So cricket is the opiate of the Indian masses, and India’s left-liberals (henceforth LLs) can’t deal with it. Or with popular cinema or religion, for that matter. All of which are things that these oh-so-serious people can’t quite seem to fathom. The only cinema you should enjoy are art house/multiplex films with the right ‘social message’, the only religion you can profess is Sufism and the only cricket you are allowed to enjoy is West Indies winning a test match, because CLR James has apparently said it’s ‘empowering’ or  ‘anti-imperialist’ or some such. These trivialities – cinema, religion, cricket – are just there to distract people from the really important issues. We should all only obsess about ‘important’ topics like nuclear energy, the 2G spectrum scam or the UID. Continue reading Why so serious?: Anuj Bhuwania →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Everyday Life, Government, Metropolis

Hundreds of lives reduced to rubble in Delhi: Paul Divakar

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Guest post by PAUL DIVAKAR

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This was written yesterday, 24 March 2011: Today we witnessed most humiliating, fascist nature of pulverising already vulnerable communities – most of whom are Dalits and backward castes in Gayatri colony near Faridpur of Baljit Nagar. Continue reading Hundreds of lives reduced to rubble in Delhi: Paul Divakar →

Everyday Life, Identities, Right watch

Bhagat Singh and the Hindu Rashtra: Mahtab Alam

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Guest post by MAHTAB ALAM

“The communists’ ideologues conveniently ignore the truth that the roots of Bhagat Singh’s ideology lie in the very concept of Hindu Rashtra,” claims an article by Dipin Damodharan, published on this day last year. Damodharan, as introduced at the end of the article, is a student pursuing Masters in Communication and Journalism (MCJ) at the Calicut University of Kerala. He argues: “To my knowledge, he sacrificed his precious life for a noble cause, for the liberation of Bharat from the invaders, for nationalism. Undoubtedly Bhagat’s legacy belongs to every Bharati. But for the communists (experts in transforming sheep to dog), he died for communism and not for nationalism. They are incessantly advocating Bhagat as their poster boy, for several years they have been using Goebalsian tricks to claim Bhagat’s legacy.” The author further argues, “They are injecting fake stories about Bhagat into the blood of youth who are ignorant about Bharat’s history. Discarding the historical facts, the communists become angry with the Sangh inspired organizations for propagating Bhagat’s ideals”. Continue reading Bhagat Singh and the Hindu Rashtra: Mahtab Alam →

Countryside, Everyday Life, Government, Law, Movements, Violence/Conflict

The Murder of Niyamat Ansari

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In the video above, Niyamat Ansari, NREGA/RTI activist in Jharkhand, speaks of the threats to his life. Ansari was murdered on 2 March 2011. You can watch more videos of him here.

Given below are facts of how and why Niyamat Ansari was killed, and the follow-up threafter. You can follow the campaign to get justice for Niyamat Ansari on this Facebook page set up in his memory and in pursuit of justice for him. Please share these links widely, because Your Channel will not organise a candle-light vigil at India Gate. See this statement calling for justice.

The struggle of the NREGA is regularly chronicled at Nrega.net.in. NREGA, the world’s largest rural employment guarantee scheme, recently completed five years.

Continue reading The Murder of Niyamat Ansari →

Bad ideas, Everyday Life, Genders, Mirror Worlds

Stop gendering children: Urooj Zia

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Image by Frank Baron / The Guardian

Guest post by UROOJ ZIA

A couple of months ago, I was given two books which I was asked to review. Published in India, both were compilations of abridged versions of popular children’s fairy tales and fables. One book, however, had a pink cover; the other was bound in blue. The former said clearly, on the cover, that it was meant for ‘little girls’, the latter was for ‘little boys’.

Having grown up surrounded by books, I wondered, when I saw these two copies, as to how one could tell which stories were meant for girls and which were meant for boys. As a child, I never saw the difference. Lo and behold, the tables of content in both books gave me my answer (and destroyed my peace of mind): the volume with the pink cover was full of stories about lost princesses and damsels in distress seeking saviours; the one with the blue cover had stories such as ‘the boy who cried wolf’. Continue reading Stop gendering children: Urooj Zia →

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Everyday Life, Identities, Law

You fill up my Census…

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…quipped my brother Dilip in response to the following mail from my sister Pramada:

So the bell rings this afternoon. desperate clanging. i open the door and there is a man with forms in his hand and a general irritated demeanor. figured that this was the census man. he comes in and settles down. starts by wanting to know who the head of the household is. i say there is no one. he insists. i continue to say no one.

Census of India 2011 mascot

He proceeds to explain that if the parents live in the house, then they are the head of the household, if married then the husband is. I proceed to ask for definition and say that all three of us who live in the house are head of the household since we all earn and take decisions. he promises to erase what he has written since he was sure my mother was head of household.

He seemed to find my gender a bit dubious so questioned my mother if i was a boy or a girl and then repeatedly said “ladki” to me. having established that i indeed was a woman, he wanted to know date of birth, which was not difficult, but place of birth he found extremely challenging. he could not get his spellings right, or did not know districts or states in the country so tattamangalam in palghat district in kerala was as baffling as mysore in karnataka. calcutta was easy to deal with and he said calcutta was in calcutta!!! mother tongue caused him more angst because he had to write malayalam and again the spelling eluded him.

Continue reading You fill up my Census… →

Countryside, Everyday Life, Government, Law, Mirror Worlds, Violence/Conflict

What do the Maoists want?

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The media has by and large focused on the Maoist demand of release of some of their own in exchange of the Malkangiri collector and junior engineer. The list of the total 8 of 14 demands of the Maoists that the Orissa government has agreed to makes for interesting reading:

(1) Orissa government will write to Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh to take action on the extremists demand for release of Maoist central committee members Sheela di (jailed in Jharkhand) and Padma (in Chhattisgarh) owing to their ill-health; (2) ST status for the Konda Reddy and Nukadora communities categorized as OBCs; (3) stopping the multi-purpose Polavaram project of Andhra Pradesh; (4) ‘pattas’ (record of rights) to tribals dispossessed of their land in Malkangiri and Koraput; (5) irrigation in Maribada and Maniamkonda villages in Malkangiri; (6) compensation based on HC order to Tadangi Gangulu and Ratanu Sirika who died of disease allegedly due to torture; (7) relevant laws for mining operations in Mali and Deomali bauxite mines; (8) minimum displacement of tribals and adequate compensation. [ToI]

Bad ideas, Culture, Everyday Life, Identities, Violence/Conflict

Teaching Harmony, Practicing Disharmony

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This was presented as a paper at a symposium on Peace Education organised as part of National Conference on Indian Psychology, on 6 February 2011 at the India International Centre.

This piece seeks to underscore the cleavages that exist in our society, explore the foundations upon which the edifice of intolerance has risen and to look at the tools, like education for peace and harmony, with which we try to dismantle this citadel of intolerance.

Peace education, you would agree, cannot be confined merely to teaching the message of Love and brotherhood, our text books have been teaching this message for as long as I remember and my memories of our text books go back, at least to my senior school days in the mid sixties, almost 45 years ago.

If telling students in their classes that we should all love each other because we are all Indians and that we are all equal was enough then we would not have many of the problems that we are confronting today. Continue reading Teaching Harmony, Practicing Disharmony →

Debates, Everyday Life, Genders, Sex, Theory

The disappearing body and feminist thought

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Presented at conference organized by  Department of English (Delhi University)  February 14, 2011. The title of the  conference was “Postfeminist Postmortems?  Gender, Sexualities and Multiple  Modernities”.

Cross-posted on Critical Encounters

To paraphrase Anthony Appiah’s famous and oft-quoted question – Is the post of postfeminist the post of postmortem? That is, as in postmortem, does “post” mean definitively over, after, having transcended, gone beyond? To those who would answer “yes”, those privileged young women who float through their empowered lives in the wake of over a century of feminist struggles but disown their own heritage, to them I can only say – I’ll be a post-feminist in post-patriarchy. Or – not for a long time yet, baby.

But my answer to that question is “no”. I understand the post of postfeminism in the sense that Laclau and Mouffe understand their postmarxism. That is, post-feminist as indicating “having passed through” that body of thought; having lived through, experienced, feminist theory and politics in such a way that the terrain one now inhabits has been decisively transformed; but also post-feminist in the sense that in the course of this passage new objects have been configured that the old feminism could not have seen, or recognized.

It is in this kind of postfeminist moment that I locate my presentation today.

Continue reading The disappearing body and feminist thought →

Capitalism, Centre watch, Countryside, Ecology/Environment, Everyday Life, Movements, Politics

Anbulla kaadu (My beloved forest): Madhumita Dutta

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Thervoy Kandigai Industrial Complex. The Government issued orders alienating 1127 acres of poramboke land in favour of SIPCOT for formation of a new Industrial Complex in Thervoy Kandigai village of Gummidipoondi Taluk, Thiruvallur District. The land development work is in progress now.

From the website of Industries Department, Government of Tamil Nadu

What this “land development work” involves, and the price that will be paid in human and ecological costs is something that MADHUMITA DUTTA encountered recently.

“A forest that was once ours is now private, a land that was once green now stands barren, a forest where we played, where we wandered freely is now fenced, men in uniform now guard the forest which we protected for generations.”

Thervoy Kandigai. A small nondescript village in Gummidipoondi Taluk of Thiruvallur district, 50 kms north of Chennai.  Surrounded by dense shrubby forests, natural lakes, rice fields and undulating terrain with misty mountain range of Sathyavedu in Andhra as the back drop. This small dalit village of about 1000 families is in the eye of a storm.  A storm that can blow away the dreams of Tamil Nadu government to hand over hundreds of acres of land to French tyre company Michelin, a big ticketed investment worth Rs 4000 crore for the state.   Continue reading Anbulla kaadu (My beloved forest): Madhumita Dutta →

Countryside, Everyday Life, Government

The Virtues of Waiting Patiently: Arnav Das and Soumik Mukherjee

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Guest post by ARNAV DAS SHARMA and SOUMIK MUKHERJEE. Photographs by SOUMIK MUKHERJEE

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Peepalguda, Koraput, Odisha: “You see, for the bridge over that rivulet, forty thousand rupees were sanctioned”, the sarpanch of Mossigam gram panchayat starts off emphatically. It is only after a good amount of probing that he confesses that it was foolish of the Public Works Department (PWD) to sanction Rs 40,000 for a bridge when a similar bridge was built seven years ago in another village for Rs 43 lakh. In any case, a slight bureaucratic nudge resulted in even this amount to get diverted to another village in the Lima panchayat. Continue reading The Virtues of Waiting Patiently: Arnav Das and Soumik Mukherjee →

Everyday Life, Language, Law, Media politics, Violence/Conflict

Tragedy and Anguish: Can We Be True to Soumya?

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There are no words to express the terrible anguish into which many of us have been plunged at the entirely-preventable fate of 23-year-old Soumya, raped and brutally murdered on her journey back home from work a week back. A criminal kicked her out of a slow-moving train between Shornur and Vallathol Nagar, robbed her, dragged her into the bushes, where he raped and wounded her fatally. After five days in hospital, she died. There were other passengers, men, who heard her cries. But none of them bothered to pull the chain, which would have saved her from both rape and murder.There are no words for anguish anymore in the Malayalam media. It has plenty of words to convey, to inspire craven fear and rancid sentimentalism, but none to express and pass on anguish. Continue reading Tragedy and Anguish: Can We Be True to Soumya? →

Everyday Life, Politics, Violence/Conflict

A Photo Album of Women of the Egyptian Revolution: Leil-Zahra Mortada

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A photo collection by various photographers, compiled by Leil-Zahra Mortada

This is a homage to all those women out there fighting on the streets of Egypt, to those whose voices and faces were hidden from the public eye during the first days of the revolution! The album by now has traveled the world back and forth via online social networks, blogs and websites.
First and foremost the credit for this album goes to the courageous people of Egypt who are teaching us that freedom is taken and not given.
Second, to the women who by their courage, determination and strength are inspiring millions of us around the world.
Third to the photographers who took these photos and especially to those who have caused absolutely no problems when it came to copyright issues.

 

See the album and read more here

Debates, Everyday Life, Excavation, Frontiers, Mirror Worlds, Movements

‘How Leaving the Internet Fueled Our Revolution’

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For those who worry themselves sick about laptop radicalism, this is essential reading:

The web is in many ways a more modern, much larger version of the kinds of public spaces and forums that have made citizenship possible throughout history. Losing it for a week didn’t stop Egyptians from protesting or airing their frustrations; we still know how to use physical public spaces, after all. But it did remind us that a forum for the open exchange of words and ideas is central to any sustainable democracy; alternatively, we end up in a perilous cycle of control and chaos. Instead of expressing pent-up opinions with fists and bullets, as is happening now in the streets of Cairo, people who can express them freely in conversation, even in a virtual one, have a chance to hear one another and deliberate together about the future. Never mind the vacant symbolism of “Twitter revolutions” and Youtube activism: losing the Internet at the hand of our own government simply offers us a powerful reminder of why we actually want the Internet to begin with, and why we’re doing any of this. [Read the full article by Haisam Abu-Samra]

Excellent as the al-Jazeera coverage is, if you’re tired of it, see videos from Egypt on YouTube, created and uploaded by the people whose revolution it is. It will give you the closest possible feel of what it’s like to be there. Not even al-Jazeera can manage that!

And if you’ve been watching the events in the Arab world and consoling yourself that it’s not that bad in India, consider this: India recently gave Hosni Mubarak an award in Nehru’s name for ‘international understanding’ and Vice President Hamid Ansari addressed him thus:

Your support for regional and international efforts to promote and maintain peace in the West Asian region is eloquent testimony to your commitment to the promotion of international peace and goodwill. I feel deeply privileged to convey my warmest greetings to you. [Press Information Bureau]

Bad ideas, Ecology/Environment, Everyday Life, Excavation, Government, Metropolis

Death of a River

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This was first presented as a paper in a seminar on “The River” organised by the Max Muller Bhawan on 11 and 12 December 2010. Photo credits: Gigi Mon Scaria, Himanshu Joshi and Sohail Hashmi. Maps: The coloured map of Delhi is the restored version of an 1850 map; restoration is by E Ehlers and T Krafft. The black and white map is based on an 1807 map of the draingage of Delhi, made by a British cartographer. The three current three maps have been drawn by Shela Hashmi Grewal. You can stop at any image in the silde show above, by using the controls that you will discover once you hover the cursor over the slideshow.

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The Final scene in the epic tragedy of the Jamna is being enacted at these very moments and the agencies that have wrought this havoc continue to initiate decisions that will permanently erase all signs of the river that has sustained the city that you and I call Hamari Dilli.

Before coming to my understanding of what needs to be done to save the Jamna, instead of what is being done to destroy it. I would like to draw your attention to certain geographical features of the land around Delhi, in order to better understand the factors that contributed to the location of the several Delhis and their relationship to the river. Continue reading Death of a River →