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Sahmat statement on intimidation and threats to scholars and activists

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Guest Post : Sahmat statement on intimidation and threats to scholars and activists who investigated human rights abuses in Chhattisgarh

Date 24.5.2016

We strongly condemn the Chhattisgarh government and its police force for using intimidation and threats of a criminal case against academics and political activists investigating human rights abuses in the southern parts of the state, especially Bastar and Dantewada. A fact finding team consisting of Prof. Archana Prasad, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Prof. Nandini Sundar, Delhi University (DU) and Vineet Tiwari, researcher at CPI’s Joshi-Adhikari Institute recently visited the area for 5 days between 12-16 May 2016. They were accompanied by Sanjay Parate, Chhattisgarh State Secretary CPI-M.

After the visit the team was accused of spreading dissent against security agencies and supporting the ’Maoists’. The statement by the state home minister Ram Sewak Paikra in the Times of India reportedly calling the three reputed Delhi based academicians ‘anti-nationals’ and ‘Maoist’ is part of a recent and explicit trend to stifle the freedom of expression and movement through a state crackdown on political dissent. The threat of an FIR and further harassment looms large. The local contacts, escorts and villagers who hosted the team are being harassed and intimidated by the Police in order to fabricate evidence and ensure that they help no other study team in the future.

The Press Release by the team clearly indicts both the Chhattisgarh state and Maoist violence and reveals how ordinary Adivasis, struggling for a dignified existence and protesting against the violation of basic rights have little space to voice genuine grievances.

This is the latest in a long line of actions to criminalize dissent, free expression and movement, and stifle fair reportage of events which have become hallmarks of the Chhattisgarh government.

We appeal to all democrats to condemn this brazen attempt at intimidation by the State and its Security Agencies.

Bishnupriya Dutt, (JNU)
Ranjani Mazumdar, (JNU)
Surinder Jodhka, JNU)
Neeladri Bhattacharyya, (JNU)
Jaivir Singh, (JNU)
Vivek Kumar, (JNU)
Sachidanand Sinha, (JNU)

Continue reading Sahmat statement on intimidation and threats to scholars and activists →

Debates, Education, Everyday Life, Identities, Language, Mirror Worlds, Movements, Politics

सामाजिक न्याय ही इस दौर की स्टूडेंट पॉलिटिक्स का मुख्य एजेंडा होगा: अनन्त प्रकाश नारायण

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अतिथि पोस्ट: अनन्त प्रकाश नारायण

दिल्ली हाईकोर्ट के आदेश के बाद जे.एन.यू. में 16 दिन की एक भूख हड़ताल खत्म हुई. सभी तरह की सजाओ पर, जो जे.एन.यू. की उच्च स्तरीय जाँच कमिटी (HLEC) ने हम छात्र- छात्राओ पर लगा रखी थी, उन पर रोक लगा दी गई. इस आदेश को ले करके तमाम तरह की व्याख्याए/निर्वचन (Interpretation) है. इस भूख हड़ताल के दौरान कुछ ऐसी घटनाये घटी जिसे यह कैंपस हमेशा याद रखेगा जैसे एकेडेमिक कौंसिल को छोड़कर वाईस चांसलर द्वारा भाग जाना. एकेडेमिक कौंसिल में हमारी मांगे एकदम स्पष्ट थी. उच्च स्तरीय जाँच कमिटी को ख़ारिज करना, ओ.बी.सी. रिजर्वेशन को दोनों स्तर पर लागू करवाना, हॉस्टल में ओ.बी.सी. रिजर्वेशन और साक्षात्कार/ वाइवा के नंबर को कम करना इत्यादि. जब हम जे.एन.यू. की बात करते है तो हमे बिलकुल स्पष्ट हो जाना है कि जे.एन.यू. प्रशासन देश के किसी भी प्रशासन की ही तरह है और कई बार तो उससे भी बदतर. वह तो यहाँ का स्टूडेंट पॉलिटिक्स है जो कि इस कैंपस को समावेशी /इंक्लूसिव बनाने के लिए लड़ता है.
यह वही जे.एन.यू. प्रशासन है जिसने लगभग दस साल तक (1984-93) इस कैंपस से deprivation/ quartile पॉइंट्स को यह कहते हुए ख़त्म कर दिया था कि इस कैंपस में गाँवो से आने वाले स्टूडेंट्स के कारण यहाँ का अकादमिक स्तर ख़राब हो रहा है और कैंपस रेडिकलाईज़ हो रहा है. यह जे.एन.यू. का स्टूडेंटस मूवमेंट था जो की इसे जीत कर 1994 में वापस लाता है. हमने देखा इसी तर्ज़ पर किस तरह से प्रशासन ने ओ.बी.सी. रिजर्वेशन के मिनिमम ‘कट-ऑफ’/cut-off की गलत व्याख्या करके सैकड़ो पिछड़े वर्ग के छात्र- छात्राओ को 2008-2010 तीन वर्षो तक कैंपस से बाहर रखा. यह जे.एन.यू. स्टूडेंट्स मूवमेंट था जिसने कि एक लम्बे पोलिटिकल और लीगल बैटल के बाद एक सही व्याख्या को इस कैंपस में ही नही पूरे देश में लागू करवाया. मदरसा सर्टिफिकेट की लड़ाई हो या फिर अभी ओ.बी.सी. मिनिमम एलिजिबिलिटी का मामला हो, सारे मामले में प्रशासन हमारे खिलाफ ही खड़ा रहा है. आज जब हम ओ.बी.सी. रिजर्वेशन के उद्देश्य/स्पिरिट को इंश्योर कराने के लिए दोनों स्तर पर रिलैक्सेशन लागू कारवाने की कोशिश कर रहे है तब हम देखते है कि किस तरह से इस प्रशासन ने अपने सारी नैतिकता/ मर्यादा को एक तरफ रखते हुए पिछले वी.सी. के समय हुए स्टैंडिंग कमिटी के फैसले को बदल दिया और हद तो तब हुई जब जे.एन.यू. स्टूडेंट्स यूनियन के अध्यक्ष और महासचिव ने यह दावा किया कि इनविटेसन लेटर पर उनके हस्ताक्षर फर्जी किये गये है.

Continue reading सामाजिक न्याय ही इस दौर की स्टूडेंट पॉलिटिक्स का मुख्य एजेंडा होगा: अनन्त प्रकाश नारायण →

Bad ideas, Culture, Government, Identities, Politics, Religion, Right watch

कुल्हाडी की छाया में उम्मीद

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‘शब्द हिरासत में हैं और हत्यारे खुलेआम घुम रहे हैं’

( Photo Courtesy : freethinker.co.uk, Martyr Rajib Haider who was killed by the Islamists on 15 th February 2013)

आम दिनों में ऐसे बयानों पर कोई गौर नहीं करता, मगर एक ऐसे समय में जबकि आप के कई साथी इस्लामिस्टों के हाथों मारे गए हों और उनके द्वारा जारी हिट लिस्ट में आप का नाम भी शुमार हो और उधर अपने आप को सेक्युलर कहलानेवाली सरकार भी  इन आततायियों के खिलाफ सख्त कदम उठाएगी ऐसी कोई उम्मीद नहीं दिखती तो, उस पृष्ठ भूमि में तीन ब्लागर्स द्वारा अपना नाम लेकर जारी किया गया एक बयान विद्रोह की आवाज़ को नए सिरेसे बुलन्द करना है। (http://sacw.net/article12741.html)

‘कुल्हाडी की छाया में उम्मीद’ यही शीर्षक है उस पत्र का जो बांगलादेश के युवा ब्लॉगर और लेखक आरिफ जेबतिक ने लिखा है। सरकार की समझौतापरस्ती की आलोचना करते हुए वह लिखते हैं कि ‘जब किसी नागरिक की हत्या होती है और राज्य की प्राथमिकता होती है कि पहले यह पता किया जाए कि उसने लिखा क्या न कि हत्यारों को पकड़ा जाए, तब स्पष्ट होता है कि इन ब्लागर्स के हत्यारों को पकड़ने में सरकार की कितनी दिलचस्पी है।’ ‘मेरे विचार चुपचाप रोते हैं’ शीर्षक से एक अन्य पत्र मारूफ रोसूल ने भी लिखा है जो लेखक हैं और ‘मुक्तो मोना’ (Mukto Mona ) नामक ब्लॉग के लिए नियमित लिखते हैं। वह लिखते हैं कि बुनियादपरस्त लोग पूरी दुनिया में उत्पात मचाए हुए हैं, अभिव्यक्ति की स्वतंत्रता, मुक्त चिंतन सभी खतरे में है और इसलिए यह संघर्ष अनथक जारी रहना चाहिए, इसके पहले कि यह शैतानी ताकतें हमारी स्वतंत्रता में एक और कील न ठोंक दे।’ तीसरा पत्र जानेमाने ब्लागर एवं कार्यकर्ता इमरान सरकार ने लिखा है जो ‘बांगलादेश ब्लागर्स एण्ड आनलाइन एक्टिविस्ट नेटवर्क‘ के अग्रणी हैं तथा, ‘गणजागरण मंच‘ जैसे सेक्युलर आन्दोलन के प्रवक्ता हैं। इमरान सरकार लिखते हैं कि ‘शब्द हिरासत में हैं और हत्यारे खुलेआम घुम रहे हैं।’ ..हत्यारे मुक्त चिन्तन के रास्ते में एक के बाद एक बैरिकेड खड़े कर रहे हैं। एक एक सहयोद्धा की मौत के साथ उनके शोक में निकले जुलसों में लोगों की तादाद बढ़ रही है और सरकार हत्यारों को पकड़ने के बजाय ब्लागर्स के लेखन पर ही सवाल खड़ा कर रही है और सूचना एवं सम्प्रेषण टेक्नोलोजी की धारा 57 का इस्तेमाल करते हुए ब्लागर्स को ही गिरफतार कर रही है।’ Continue reading कुल्हाडी की छाया में उम्मीद →

Bad ideas, Debates, Everyday Life, Politics, Violence/Conflict

Seven Years After the End of Sri Lanka’s Civil War: Mahendran Thiruvarangan

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Guest post by MAHENDRAN THIRUVARANGAN

When the civil war came to an end in May 2009 I was still a final year undergraduate at the University of Peradeniya. Peradeniya was miles away from the war zone. The only venues that supplied us with details about the happenings in the war theatre were the television channels stationed in the South, self-censoring the civilian casualties incurred and feeding to the Sinhala nationalist jubilation of the times. And on the other side were websites like Tamilnet and Puthinam run by parties sympathetic to the LTTE releasing carefully filtered out reports singularly focusing on the deaths of civilians caused by the military leaving no trace about how the top leadership of the LTTE was recruiting children and adults, despite knowing so well they had already lost the battle or how the civilians who were trying to flee the war zone were shot down by the militants.

One had to work around these competing narratives to get at least a partial sense of the nature of the violence that the people ensnared in the No Fire Zone were exposed to. Some of us had friends whose relatives had been in the LTTE-controlled areas. When the guns breathed their last in Mullivaikal, some of them had already moved to hospitals and camps in Trincomalee and Vavuniya with their loved ones injured during the war. It was from these wounded men and women and their families that the harrowing experiences of the thousands of people inside the narrow battlefield trickled down to us in May 2009. The South erupted into celebrations when the re-unification of the island was announced via the media. As the former president in his televised address from Parliament was busy instructing the people of the country to annul the notions of ‘majority’ and ‘minority’ from their political discourses, fire crackers celebrating the military victory started to deafen the ears of those of us who were seated under the senate building of the University of Peradeniya—Tamils, Sinhalese, Muslims and Malays—pondering in groups what was awaiting us and the country in the days and years to come. Continue reading Seven Years After the End of Sri Lanka’s Civil War: Mahendran Thiruvarangan →

Culture, Debates, Everyday Life, Feminism, Politics, Right watch

माँ, तुझे सलाम! कविता कृष्णन

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अतिथि पोस्ट : कविता कृष्णन

“Scout,” said Atticus, “nigger-lover is just one of those terms that don’t mean anything—like snot-nose. It’s hard to explain—ignorant, trashy people use it when they think somebody’s favoring Negroes over and above themselves. It’s slipped into usage with some people like ourselves, when they want a common, ugly term to label somebody.”

“You aren’t really a nigger-lover, then, are you?”

“I certainly am. I do my best to love everybody… I’m hard put, sometimes—baby, it’s never an insult to be called what somebody thinks is a bad name. It just shows you how poor that person is, it doesn’t hurt you.” (To Kill A Mockingbird, Chapter 11)

‘Now, there is a long and honourable tradition in the gay community and it has stood us in good stead for a very long time. When somebody calls you a name – you take it. And you own it.’ (Pride, 2014)

‘टू किल अ मॉकिंगबर्ड’ उपन्यास 1950 के दशक के अमेरिका के दक्षिणी राज्यों में नस्लवाद की कहानी है. उसमें एक वकील जिनका नाम एटिकस है, एक काले नस्ल के आदमी की पैरवी करते हैं जिस पर बलात्कार का गलत आरोप लगाया गया है. एटिकस की 8 साल की बेटी स्कौट कहती है की गाँव के लोग कह रहे हैं कि मेरे पिताजी ‘हब्शी-प्रेमी’ है. वह पूछती है कि इसका क्या अर्थ है, सुनकर लगता है कोई गाली है, जैसे किसी ने मुझे ‘बन्दर’ कहा हो, पर इसका क्या मतलब है?

Continue reading माँ, तुझे सलाम! कविता कृष्णन →

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

Why exoneration of Sadhvi Pragya should worry everyone who stands for justice

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Why exoneration of Sadhvi Pragya should worry everyone who stands for justice

There are a few photographs which the bigwigs of the Hindutva Brigade/Sangh Parivar would like to be erased from public memory. One such photograph shows Sadhvi Pragya, an ex-member of the ABVP, sitting with Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Rajnath Singh and few others. As it was later revealed they had gathered to console the widow of a BJP leader from MP, who had just died.

Public memory is very short but one can stretch it a bit to recollect the tremendous consternation in BJP/RSS circles when Sadhvi Pragya was arrested by the Anti Terrorist Squad led by the legendary police office Hemant Karkare on 23 October, 2008 for her alleged role in the 2008 Malegaon bomb blast. This photograph had suddenly gone viral when there were denials by many leaders of the saffron brigade that they had never met her.

Now that the NIA, the federal agency established by the government to combat terror in India, has given a ‘clean chit’ to Sadhvi Pragya and few of her accomplices, should one expect that all those photographs showing her proximity to various leaders of the saffron establishment would be prominently exhibited? It must be remembered that leaders of BJP have even claimed that it was an act of “treason” to arrest her.

(Read the remaining article here : http://www.catchnews.com/politics-news/why-exoneration-of-sadhvi-pragya-should-worry-everyone-who-stands-for-justice-1463399413.html)

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Education, Feminism, Images, Language, Left watch, Mirror Worlds, Movements, Politics

Choice, Agency and the Naming of Names – The Trap of ‘Immediate Identities’ and the Vision of a Democratic Revolution: Chintu Kumari & Umar Khalid

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Paired Guest Posts by CHINTU KUMARI and UMAR KHALID

[ Every struggle goes through highs and lows. The students who are part of the  movements that are spreading out of universities in India – Hyderabad Central University, Jawaharlal Nehru University and Jadavpur University have had their share of internal debates and disagreements, even as they have found moments of significant victory. and solidarity

Students at JNU who have recently concluded their hunger strike to give time to the university authorities to respond reasonably to the High Court directives on the HLEC punishments are now being criticized for having ‘abandoned the struggle’ by some sections who claim to play a role within the broader students movement, when, in fact, nothing of that sort has actually happened.

The majority of the students who were on hunger strike (including several JNUSU office bearers, and others) have said that they have given up the hunger strike against the HLEC recommendations in keeping with the court order.  In doing so, they have never said that they are suspending the agitation against the attempts by the JNU administration to weaken OBC reservation in admissions, hostel seats and deprivation points for women and oppressed sections of society.

In fact it is not as if the HLEC punishments issue has taken precedence over the other issues. It is actually the other way round. The students have decided to give priority to the struggle for ’social justice’ within the campus, while simultaneously giving time to the university authorities to respond adequately to the court directive on the HLEC punishment question.The call for a demonstration against the University Authorities by the JNUSU to continue the struggle on the social justice issues on the 16th of May is indicative of this fact.

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The attacks and insinuations against the majority of the students at JNU who were on hunger strike have also featured a deliberate attempt to create divisions within the unified ‘Red-Blue’ / ‘Jai Bhim-Lal Salaam’ dynamics of the movement on the grounds of identity. Activists, such as Umar Khalid, on the left have been singled out for being ‘Savarna-Syed’, if they happen to bear a Muslim name, and for being ‘sold out to the Savarna left’ if they are Dalit, as happened with Chintu Kumari and Rama Naga. This attack has come primarily from individuals representing organizations like BAPSA that claim to speak from a ‘Dalit’ position, and it is given traction by several other individuals eager to flaunt their disdain for the ‘left’ students on Facebook and social media.  Continue reading Choice, Agency and the Naming of Names – The Trap of ‘Immediate Identities’ and the Vision of a Democratic Revolution: Chintu Kumari & Umar Khalid →

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Education, Empire/ Imperialism, Government, Law, Left watch, Metropolis, Politics, Right watch, Scams, Violence/Conflict

The HLEC and the Aporias of ‘Committeed’ Enquiries: Rina Ramdev and Debaditya Bhattacharya

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This is a guest post by Rina Ramdev and Debaditya Bhattacharya

Students of JNU have been on an indefinite hunger-strike for over 15 days now, and the administration’s only official response so far had been the Vice Chancellor’s May 4 statement invoking the vocabulary of the ‘lawful’ and the ‘constitutional’ — in ambivalences closer to threat than appeal. The subsequent May 10 Academic Council meeting has been historic, both for its 53 members’ overwhelming denunciation of the HLEC report, as also for the indelible image of a fleeing VC now forever etched in campus folklore. Further, the Delhi High Court’s stay on the fine imposed upon one of the students lends hope for similar stays with the remaining beleaguered students’ cases. The VC has consequently been referring to the enquiry mandate as being sub-judice, only to grant it an interim legitimacy that may symbolically defeat the stridency of student resistance. Letters have been sent out to the parents of striking students, in an attempt to re-route intimidation and pressure through other non-official means of paternalism. Given the conditions of duress being thus created, until the HLEC’s report is revoked in entirety, there is every reason to believe that the administration’s vindictive punitive designs will leech into the future of university freedoms and campus democracy irreversibly.

Continue reading The HLEC and the Aporias of ‘Committeed’ Enquiries: Rina Ramdev and Debaditya Bhattacharya →

Bad ideas, Countryside, Education, Politics, Theory

Reading Foucault in Mahendragarh

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history_of_sexuality2c_french_edition2c_volume_one

In March this year in a rural hamlet 3 hours by train from New Delhi, the local edition of Hari Bhoomi carried an unusual piece of news: Central University of Haryana (CUH) at Mahendragarh, had filed a police complaint against a Facebook page.

The story was short on specifics, but an email to the university registrar, Ram Dutt, elicited a reply:

“Yes, University has filed a complaint against the CUH Media page (anonymously administered unlawfully using acronym of the University) to trace the identity of the page. As the University is Autonomous Body and has the right to continuous vigil to maintain the reputation of the University on the Internet World …”

What was this page, “anonymously administered”, that had the administration so upset? Who were these students “unlawfully using the acronym of the university” to besmirch the university’s reputation “on the Internet World”?

At first glance, the CUH Media page was just like the millions of pages on Facebook visited by a small band of followers – at last count it had just 174 “Likes” – who trolled each other. But a closer look at the posts, the comments they attracted, and their ripples offline, since the page was started in September 2015, suggested the gradual emergence of a spiky student politics in one of India’s newest central universities. Read More

 

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Countryside, Culture, Debates, Education, Everyday Life, Feminism, Genders, Government, Identities, Images, Law, Left watch, Media politics, Politics, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

But She was a Law Student …

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In a way that is perhaps unprecedented, today, a very large number of Malayalis feel connected to each other by a veritable tsunami of pain. No wonder perhaps, because the veils of our complacency have been ripped off too thoroughly. The immediate context is the gruesome murder of a young Dalit student in central Kerala, in the tiny, rickety squatter-shack that was her home, in full daylight.

At a single stroke, the incident fully exposed the dimensions of social exclusion in contemporary Kerala. Hers was an all-woman family among families deemed ‘properly gendered’, they were lower caste people trapped and isolated among upper and middle caste families, they were the working-class poor without property in an area full of propertied domestic-oriented bourgeois and petty-bourgeois families. Oppressed in all these ways, they were invisible to the state and the political parties. They possessed no form of capital that would have allowed them upward mobility. Yet, the young woman struggled on and reached the law college.

‘But she went to college’, some ask, ‘how could she have been so helpless?’

Read the rest of the article here 

 

 

 

Debates, Education, Everyday Life, Images, Mirror Worlds, Movements, Politics

Run Jaggu Run — The JNU VC Runs Away from the Academic Council Meeting

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The 10th of May, the 13th Day of the Hunger Strike by JNU Students in protest against the HLEC Report was also the day scheduled for a meeting of the Academic Council of JNU. Students and faculty had resolved to stage a massive protest. Student and Faculty members of the Academic Council had also resolved to forcefully present issues related to the current crisis in the university at the AC Meeting. The events of the day are presented here through a series of videos and photographs uploaded by different people from JNU.

[ Video by Samim Asgor Ali, taken from his Youtube Channel ]

They tell the story of how students were generous with their tormentor, the VC, Jagadeesh Kumar, and how he ran away.

One day, his backers, Smriti Irani, Rajnath Singh and even Narendra Modi, and all the goons in the RSS headquarters at Mahal, Nagpur and Jhandewalan, Delhi will have to run for cover in a similar fashion when faced with the ‘gift’ of the fruits of their actions.

Photo by Samim Asgor Ali
Photo by Samim Asgor Ali

The students gathered on hunger strike collected their meals from their hotel messes and placed them in front of the AC meeting venue as a ‘gift’ to the Vice Chancellor, JNU and the university administration. Continue reading Run Jaggu Run — The JNU VC Runs Away from the Academic Council Meeting →

Bad ideas, Debates, Education, Everyday Life, Images, Metropolis, Mirror Worlds, Movements, Politics, Scams

JNU Hunger Strike Day 12 : Game On – Students 1, Media, Authorities 0

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The JNU Students’ Hunger Strike Enters Day 12. Ketone counts go up, Weight goes down, Morale stays miles high. Media fatigue shows that crusading news anchors are no match to hunger striking students when it comes to stamina, and, may we say, courage. The university authorities, the JNU VC and his gang, the government, the RSS-ABVP, remain what they are – losers.

(Images taken, with thanks, from the ‘We are JNU‘ Facebook Page, and the ‘Mothers Stand with JNU‘ Facebook Page.)

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MEANWHILE, RADIOSILENCE CONTINUES (BESIDES RAVISH KUMAR’S SHOW) ON MAINSTREAM MEDIA

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Education, Politics, Right watch

North East Students’ Forum JNU Protests the defamation of JNU by “Dossier”

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North East Students’ Forum JNU organized a protest march on May 4, demanding strong action against teachers who are involved in preparing the “internal dossier”. The dossier was also burnt by NESF at Administration Block – Freedom Square – JNU.

Some images from the march

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NESF 8

Debates, Education, Empire/ Imperialism, Everyday Life, Excavation, Feminism, Genders, Government, Identities, Law, Mirror Worlds, Movements, Politics, Violence/Conflict

जिशा, मेरी दोस्त, दलितों की जान इतनी सस्ती क्यों है? चिंटू

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अतिथि पोस्ट : चिंटू

Josh
जिशा

जिशा, मेरी दोस्त मेरी यार, क्या कहूँ यार तुम्हारे साथ जो दंविये बर्बरता हुई उसके लिए मुझे  शब्द नहीं मिल रहे हैं कुछ कहने को. ये देश ये समाज हर रोज़ ऐसे झटके  देता रहता है और इतना देता है, इतना देता है, की हमारे लिए वीभत्स से वीभत्स घटना क्रूरतम से क्रूरतम घटना साधरण बन गई है और इन घटनाओं को पचाने की क्षमता में भी हम माहीर हो गए है. देखो न दोस्त, असाधारण कहाँ कुछ रह गया है. बचपन से आज तक तो यही सब देख- देख कर पले बढे हैं हम सब की, जो कुछ हो अपना हक़ मत मांगना, पढने लिखने की बात मत करना , बाप या भाई लात घूंसे  मार- मार कर तुम्हे अधमरा कर दे लेकिन एक शब्द भी उनके खिलाफ बोलने की गुस्ताखी मत करना, गाँव के उच्च जाति वर्ग के सामंती तुम्हे अगर छेड़े तुम्हारा बलात्कार करे तो उसका बहिष्कार मत करना कियोंकि ये तो उनका जन्म सिद्ध अधिकार है.

तुम्हारे लिए जो लक्ष्मण रेखा खिंची गई है उससे बाहर जाने की कोशिश की तो तुम्हारी शामत आना पक्की है. और शादी? ये तो दूसरी जात में तो दूर की बात अपनी जाति  में भी करने का अधिकार या आजादी की बात मत करना ये तय करना घर के बड़े पुरुषों के कंधे पर छोड़ो. सती सावित्री बनो, एक सद्गुणी बेटी, बहु और पत्नी बनो इसी में तुम्हारी भलाई है.

 

Continue reading जिशा, मेरी दोस्त, दलितों की जान इतनी सस्ती क्यों है? चिंटू →

Bad ideas, Debates, Education, Everyday Life, Identities, Images, Movements, Politics

17 Faces of Hunger for Justice – Day 6 of the Indefinite Hunger Strike at JNU: ‘We Are JNU’

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Guest Post by ‘We Are JNU‘

At the end of the 6th day of the Indefinite Hunger Strike by JNU Students, the ‘We Are JNU‘ Facebook Page uploaded a gallery of portraits of the 17 students on Hunger Strike, together with details of their medical conditions. We are sharing this post on Kafila in solidarity

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Capitalism, Debates, Education, Everyday Life, Identities, Images, Mirror Worlds, Movements, Politics

Workers and Students Unite on May Day in JNU: Aswathi Nair & Umar Khalid

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Guest Post by Aswathi Nair and Umar Khalid (With Photographs and Videos by K. Fayaz Ahmed, Azhar Amim, Samim Asgor Ali, Reyazul Haque and Agnitra Ghosh)

Exactly nine years back, in 2007, ten students were rusticated (again) in the month of May for their “crime” of agitating along with workers to ensure the legally mandatory minimum wages for the workers here in JNU. It was the peak of summer, the time of holidays, and the administration (like this time, like every time) thought that they could break the unity of the workers and students with crackdown timed to coincide with what was thought to be the ‘weakest’ time for mobilization on campus. The administration’s plans did not bear fruit then, they will not work now either.

Workers and Students Unite in JNU on May 1, 2016, International Labour Day
Workers and Students Unite in JNU on May 1, 2016, International Labour Day

We are in that strange time again. The summer of 2016 has witnessed a May Day wherein the workers in JNU not only took out their own rally, but also rallied with us students sitting on the 4th Day of their Indefinite Hunger Strike against administrative crackdown on our democratic spaces. Continue reading Workers and Students Unite on May Day in JNU: Aswathi Nair & Umar Khalid →

Culture, Education, Everyday Life, Identities, Images, Language, Mirror Worlds, Movements, Politics

Diary of a JNU Student on Hunger Strike: Pankhuri Zaheer

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Guest Post by Pankhuri Zaheer

Water - A Gift for Hunger Strikers. Photo Courtesy, Azhar Amim
Water – A Gift for Hunger Strikers. Photo Courtesy, K. Fayaz Ahmed

“I wanted to bring you something but I didn’t know what to get you so I got you a bottle of water,” says a friend who would perhaps never identify herself as a student activist but since 9th February, like many like her, has been an integral part of the stand with JNU movement.

19 of us have decided to sit on an indefinite hunger strike till the time the farcical report of the High Level Enquiry is not rolled backed in its entirety. Today, April 30th, is the third day of our hunger strike.

Continue reading Diary of a JNU Student on Hunger Strike: Pankhuri Zaheer →

Bad ideas, Identities, Images, Movements, Politics, Religion, Sex

‘Radical’ Critics and KaBodyscapes

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What does it mean to dissent in a world in which everyone claims to be a dissenter? What does it take to build a critical vantage-point, one that is not merely the easy pastime of fault-finding, when we all seem to already know what will be truly critical? Ever since the oppositional energy generated against Hindutva fascism in and through the Kiss of Love campaigns dissipated into the rival folds of the Human and the Anti-Human in Kerala, these questions have troubled me. The prospect of being sucked into one side of such a binary formation is terrifying enough to scare one away from  engaging with either side; but worse is the pain that follows the realization that the unique moment of hope – the hope that the diverse groups that populate the anti-Hindutva civil society may well be able to form a bond of trust, however tentative and fragile, more than merely strategic connections – is well and truly in the past. Both sides have indulged in belligerent and damaging caricaturing of each other’s positions, as if the annihilation of the other was the very condition of the survival of the one. Continue reading ‘Radical’ Critics and KaBodyscapes →

Bad ideas, Debates, Education, Everyday Life, Government, Images, Language, Law, Metropolis, Mirror Worlds, Movements, Politics

Summer of Rage: JNU Students Begin Fast Unto Death against HLEC Report

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Spring has given way to the beginning of a turbulent summer. April, is a cruel month. Temperatures have risen, and so has the level of rage in university campuses. The JNU University Authorities (and their masters – in the Ministry of Human Resources Development, the Prime Minister’s Office and the RSS Citadels in Mahal, Nagpur and Jhandewalan, Delhi) thought that they could break the resolve of the students by enacting a series of harsh measures against them just before exams begin and the university term ends in summer vacations.

Chintu Kumari, Anirban Bhattacharya and other students give the call to protest against the HLEC and call for a Hunger Strike. Photo, Courtesy, Azhar Amim
Chintu Kumari, Anirban Bhattacharya and other students give the call to protest against the HLEC and call for a Hunger Strike. Photo, Courtesy, Azhar Amim

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This is a time, they must have thought, when students will be busy with preparations, and the rising heat will discourage the kind of mass mobilizations that the campus has seen since February. Students in JNU resolved a few hours ago to prove them wrong, and decided to fight back . A massive gathering stood its ground at the Administrative Block, aptly re-christened, ‘Freedom Square’.

Rama Naga, Gen.Sec. JNUSU, (Centre) and JNU Students Calling for Indefinite Hunger Strike on April 27, 2016. Photo, Courtesy, Azhar Amim
Rama Naga, Gen.Sec. JNUSU, (Centre) and JNU Students Calling for Indefinite Hunger Strike on April 27, 2016. Photo, Courtesy, Azhar Amim

They have decided that a batch of students will sit on indefinite hunger strike – a ‘fast unto death’ – until the JNU authorities roll back the draconian measures listed in the HLEC Report.

The 20 students who will be sitting in indefinite hunger strike at JNU.

There’s no looking back now. Whatever happens from now on wards, will be seen as a consequence of the cruel, evil mindset of the current regime, which truly treats the lives of the young as dispensable ballast. Its time to prove them wrong. This is a call that goes out to all students and teachers, and sensible individuals, not just in JNU, not just in Universities and Colleges all across India and all the territories administered by the Indian republic, but to everyone reading this post anywhere in the world, to stand by the courageous students of JNU. It is our responsibility to see that the JNU Authorities see reason and back down. If anything untoward happens to any student, the university authorities, and the regime backing them, will be clearly culpable.

Here is Umar Khalid, speaking just before commencing his Hunger Strike

Here is Chintu, former Gen. Sec. JNUSU, speaking at the Mashaal Juloos, (Torchlight Procession) just before beginning the Hunger Strike.

Listen to Kanhaiya Kumar, President of the JNUSU – restating the reasons for the continuation of the movement.

Thanks to the ‘We are JNU Media Group’ and the AISA Youtube Channel, for the videos.

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Education, Everyday Life, Images, Language, Metropolis, Mirror Worlds, Movements, Politics, Sex

Sanghis, Sex and University Students – What is it Really All About? Ayesha Kidwai

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Guest Post by Ayesha Kidwai

[ The prurient fantasies contained in the ‘JNU Dossier’, produced by some right wing faculty members of JNU in or around October 2015, have been ‘outed’ by an excellent report by Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta in Wire.org. This comes exactly at the time when the JNU administration has shown its fangs by delivering a low blow by way of the measures outlined in the report of the ‘High Level Enquiry Committee’ appointed by the Vice Chancellor. An impartial examination of the HLEC document and the ‘Dossier’ in will reveal some startlingly resonant patterns. Clearly, the ‘Dossier’, which had been dismissed by the former Vice-Chanceller, Prof. Sopory, has been reincarnated at the express orders of the Nagpuri masters of the present dispensation. We are sharing below an excellent response to the ‘Dossier’ by Ayesha Kidwai, one of the professors – ‘named’ in the dossier. This is taken from Ayesha Kidwai’s status update on her Facebook Page.

For another take down of the ‘Dossier’ – see also – “Sex and sedition: What the JNU dossier tells us about the right-wing imagination” – in Scroll.in by Kavita Krishnan. Meanwhile, JNU Students have commenced on a ‘fast unto death’ in protest against the university administration’s senseless measures. Kafila]

Sanghi smut is in season again! For the authors of the Dirty Dossier, JNU nights are forever scented with musk, with couples draped on every bush, suitably fortified by free alcohol, thoughts of secession, and cash payments supplied by the Awesome Foursome. At its peak, the party can practically involve the whole university, because as per Shri Gyan Dev Ahuja’s estimates, the number of students frolicking this will be 7000 (3000 condom users X 2, plus 500 injectable walas X 2). (Assuming of course that the few hundred left over have gone to fieldwork, have exams, or are abstemious and/or abstinent in nature.)

Laugh as we may (and must) at these feverish imaginings, it’s also important to understand that the very notion of a free university challenges not only misogyny, but also the social apartheid produced by caste and exclusionary religion.

Continue reading Sanghis, Sex and University Students – What is it Really All About? Ayesha Kidwai →

Debates, Education, Everyday Life, Government, Identities, Images, Language, Metropolis, Mirror Worlds, Movements, Politics

Rise Up against the Proxy War on Students by the Modi Regime: Shehla Rashid

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Guest Post by Shehla Rashid, (Vice President, Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union)

Rise up against the proxy war on students by the Modi regime.

Cartoon by V. Arun Kumar
Cartoon by V. Arun Kumar

JNUSU rejects the report of the enquiry committee constituted by the Vice-Chancellor to look into the 9th of February incident. JNUSU also rejects its reports and any punishment handed out by it. The JNUSU and JNUTA had repeatedly asked the administration to democratise the enquiry committee, but this was not done.  Now, when the holidays are here, the VC has made public the punishments, after one and a half months of submission of the HLEC (High Level Enquiry Committee) report. Continue reading Rise Up against the Proxy War on Students by the Modi Regime: Shehla Rashid →