Culture, Debates, Government

Withdraw police case against Prof Kancha Ilaiah and revoke the ban on Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle : People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism

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Public Statement issued by People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism (PADS) on 6 June, 2015

A case has been filed by the Hyderabad police against well known Dalit writer and academic Kancha Ilaiah on a complaint by Vishwa Hindu Parishad members for hurting their religious sentiments. The complaint was filed on the basis of Ilaiah’s article Devudu Prajasamya Vada Kada? (Is God a democrat?) published in a Telugu daily on May 9. In the said article Ilaiah had argued that the possibility of democracy, or its lack inside different religious groups depend on the conception of their God(s). The VHP activists have accused Prof Ilaiah of comparing Hindu gods with God in Christianity and Islam, and of ridiculing their worship. Police have filed a case under sections 153A and 295A which prescribe imprisonment upto three years for spreading enmity among groups of people and outraging religious feelings. The police action against Ilaiah has come around the same time that the IIT Madras has derecognised a student group Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle that organises discussions around socio-cultural and political issues. The group was derecognised after an anonymous complaint against it was filed with the central HRD ministry. While many political parties and groups have justifiably come out in support of the APSC, it is surprising that Prof Ilaiah has received little solidarity. Both these incidences are a proof of the aggressive intent of Hindutva forces to attack any discourse which publicly questions their castiest, Brahminical and majoritarian understanding of Indian society. Successes of Mr Narendra Modi in the recent elections have emboldened them further . Continue reading Withdraw police case against Prof Kancha Ilaiah and revoke the ban on Ambedkar Periyar Study Circle : People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism →

Culture, Debates, Everyday Life, Government

No To Ambedkar-Periyar in ‘Modern Day Agraharam’?

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Whether discussing issues of contemporary concern among students, raising debates around them on the campus – taking inspiration from the ideas of leading social revolutionaries of 20th century – should be construed as an act of creating ‘social disharmony’ or ‘spreading hatred’ ?

Any sane person would rather reject this weird proposal but it appears that the bureaucrats in the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) think otherwise. It was evident in the way they acted on an anonymous complaint regarding the activities of a group of students in IIT Madras which calls itself ‘Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle’ (APSC) – which comprises mainly of dalit, bahujan and adivasi students. Perhaps they were worried that the particular students group, has been critical about PM Modi’s policies and has been raising issues of caste, communalism as well as corporate loot of resources and challenging the ‘development’ narrative which is popular these days among a section of people. The impetuosity with which they acted when they wrote to the management of the Institute can also be gauged from the fact that in this process they violated the recommendations of the CVC (Central Vigilance Commission) itself which has ‘barred’ organisations from taking action on such (anonymous) complaints.

As of now the issue of ‘derecognition’ of APSC by the IITM management, has snowballed into a major controversy, with issues of curtailment of freedom of expression, infringement of autonomy of educational institutions and dominance of caste in higher education all coming to the fore. Continue reading No To Ambedkar-Periyar in ‘Modern Day Agraharam’? →

Bad ideas

अटाली और हम

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(यह ब्योरा पिछले शनिवार को दिल्ली के हरियाणा भवन के सामने अटाली की मुस्लिम विरोधी हिंसा पर रोष जाहिर करने को किए गए प्रदर्शन के बाद लिखा गया था.तब से अब तक स्थिति में काफी बदलाव आया है.कल ही खबर आ गई थी कि मुसलमान गाँव लौट गए हैं.शर्तें अभी बहुत साफ़ नहीं हैं.कहा जा रहा है कि हमलावरों पर कार्रवाई भी होगी और मस्जिद भी बनेगी. एक खबर यह है कि मुसलमानों को आश्वस्त किया गया है कि मस्जिद की चहारदीवारी प्रशासन बनवाएगा.यह भी कि हालात बेहतर होने पर दोषियों को पकड़ा जाएगा.गाँव में हिंदुओं का एक तबका है जो इस हिंसा से दुखी और शर्मिंदा है.लेकिन नौजवानों को लेकर आशंका है.फिर भी यह मुज़फ्फरनगर से ‘बेहतर’ तो है ही.

सवाल कुछ हैं:

  • क्या जांच की जाएगी कि यह हिंसा कैसे हुई?क्या यह स्वतःस्फूर्त थी या इसके पीछे एक तैयारी थी?
  • क्या हरियाणा में,और जगहों की तरह ही, मुसलमानों के अत्यंत अल्पमत में होने के बावजूद मुस्लिम-विरोधी वातावरण का निर्माण किया जा रहा है?
  • अटाली में जो मुसलमान लौटे हैं, उनके नुकसान की भरपाई का पैमाना क्या होगा?
  • हमलावरों पर कार्रवाई होगी या लौटने दिए जाने और फिर गाँव में शांति से रहने के एवज़ में मुसलमानों को शिकायतें वापस लेनी होंगी या कमजोर करनी होंगी?
  • क्या आस-पास के विश्वविद्यालय, राजनीतिक और सामाजिक संगठन मुसलमानों के लौटने की इस प्रक्रिया के बाद समाज में  इस विषय पर विवेकपूर्ण संवाद की कोई पहल करेंगे?)

हम हरियाणा भवन के सामने हैं. एक ‘वाटर कैनन’ सामने खड़ी है.दिल्ली पुलिस के जवान लाठियों के साथ तैनात.महिला-पुलिस भी.मई की बेरहम धूप है जो जलती चादर की तरह हमें लपेटे हुए है.सामने किसी पुराने कार्यक्रम के फ्लेक्स-बैनर की दरी बना दी गई है.उस पर पचीस-तीस औरतें-मर्द सिकुड़कर एक दूसरे से सटे हुए बैठे हैं.एक छोटा बच्चा गोद में.ऐसे मौकों पर दीखनेवाले दिल्ली के पुराने पहचाने चेहरे.शबनम हाशमी देख रही हैं कि पानी का इंतजाम ठीक है कि नहीं.नासिरुद्दीन पीछे बैनर सीधा करवा रहे हैं.प्रेस-फोटोग्राफर जमा हो रहे हैं.दरी पर इकठ्ठा लोग धूप से बचने को चेहरा लपेट रहे हैं. एक ने कहा, “शुक्र है, नीम की छाँव है.” फिर सर उठाया, वृक्ष जैसे उसकी नाजानकारी पर सर हिला रहा था. “नहीं, नहीं, नीम नहीं है. कौन-सा पेड़ है?” कोई दिल्लीवाला बता नहीं पाता.सालों-साल छाया देने के बाद भी उसे न पहचानने पर पेड़ छाया समेट नहीं लेता. उदासीन इंसानों की इस जमात पर रहम का साया बनाए रखता है. फिर पेड़ से मुँह मोड़ हम घड़ी देखने लगते हैं. वृक्ष से अपरिचय से मनुष्यता की योग्यता में कमी तो नहीं आती, इसका आश्वासन हमें है. Continue reading अटाली और हम →

Bad ideas

Saffron Emergency on Campuses! Ban for those who critique and impunity for those who silence dissenting voices: Sucheta De

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This is a guest post by Sucheta De

ABVP Beating up AISA activists at Delhi University May 2015
ABVP Beating up AISA activists at Delhi University May 2015

The task of higher education in any era besides imparting professional skills should also be to encourage critical consciousness among youth whereby they can critically perceive the surrounding situations and critically reflect on their actions and thoughts and thus contribute to the betterment of the society. Unfortunately, the onslaughts on affordable quality higher education that could inculcate such a consciousness just seem to increase with every passing day under the saffron regime. Today what we face in campuses across the country is a saffron emergency that is being ably executed through two key instruments- On one hand we have the obedient Vice Chancellors and Directors inside University offices who mutely nod their heads to each and every diktat of the MHRD and on the other hand there are the rod-wielding saffron activists on campus streets, ready to violently shut down any sound of protest. In the week that just got over, these twin instruments able demonstrated their functioning!!

Continue reading Saffron Emergency on Campuses! Ban for those who critique and impunity for those who silence dissenting voices: Sucheta De →

Centre watch, Government, Identities

The Modi Government’s First Year has been disappointing for Persons with Disabilities: Avinash Shahi

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Guest Post by AVINASH SHAHI 

Arguably, the Narendra Modi-led NDA II government in the country seems least interested in addressing the woes of disabled people. Such indifference is not surprising. When the campaigning for the 16th Lok Sabha elections was at its peak, Mr Modi thundered from the podium that the “country does not want a deaf and dumb handicapped government”. His irresponsible reference to disability could have potentially accentuateed negative attitudes against the disabled. Fearing such a possibility and upholding their right to dignity as disabled persons, this group strongly condemned his statement. Continue reading The Modi Government’s First Year has been disappointing for Persons with Disabilities: Avinash Shahi →

Bad ideas, Culture, Empire/ Imperialism

Imperial Ejaculations – Reflections on “Ten Books that Shaped Empire”: Dilip Menon

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Guest Post by Dilip M. Menon

Unlike Salman Rushdie, I did not grow up kissing books, I merely collected them. From provision stores, sidewalks, and from booksellers who were eccentric enough to try and survive by selling second hand books, in the small towns and yet-to-become cities of post independent India. The books came with a fine patina of dust that no amount of smacking against one’s thigh or the flat of one’s palm could get rid of. Kissing them was out of the question. In what was called the mofussil, or the provinces, the detritus of empire and the war that ended it gathered, as the collections of effects of the British who departed, as much as those who stayed on and died, gathered in the auction houses and bookstores.

It was on a summer afternoon in 1973 that I cycled down to the local provision store in Pune and saw beside the sacks of rice, wheat and spices, a pile of books, periodicals and rather lurid posters of European women with very long legs and few clothes on. I had always imagined Europe to be a cold place. In the pile were old Penguins; books by Enid Blyton, Anthony Buckeridge, Capt. WE Johns, Rider Haggard; periodicals like Boys Own Weekly, Gem, and Magnet; and of course the war comics (the staple reading of Allied troops posted in India and South East Asia), from which I learnt my German. At school, during the break, we were always running through the corridors shouting Schnell, Schnell and calling our Kamerads Schweinhunds. But on that summer day, I found two authors that I had not heard of: George Orwell and Frank Richards. The former had written a book about some fat pigs and the latter, one about a fat boy, and being rather plump myself, I was favourably disposed.

{AC8E3D54-0D18-423F-A888-DAE1A6C73C6C}Img400 Continue reading Imperial Ejaculations – Reflections on “Ten Books that Shaped Empire”: Dilip Menon →

Centre watch, Debates, Education, Government, Images, Media politics, Politics, Right watch, Scams

Bread and Circuses? No sir, circuses alone will do.

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Edited and updated version of the post.

I had the great fortune to be invited as an audience member to a live interaction with Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani last evening, televised live on Aaj Tak. I say “great fortune” because despite the fact that I walked out of this “interaction” in speechless disgust around an hour into the programme, I probably learned more about the state of politics and media in this country in one evening than I could have from years of academic study. And the irrelevance of academics was exactly what was on display last evening, never mind that the topic of the interaction was the state of higher education in the country.

I reached the venue – the auditorium of Khalsa College, Delhi University – at about 5.15 pm for a 5.30 pm programme. The mood was surprisingly charged, even electric for what I imagined would be a sober discussion on somewhat boring topics like syllabus formation, university infrastructure, promotions and pensions, the points system, and most importantly, the changes proposed under the Choice Based Credit System (CBCS). The auditorium was already packed – not so much with teachers and students – but with a large number of ABVP activists, BJP volunteers, and committed party supporters from within and outside the University. Nothing wrong with having a politically committed section dominating the audience of course. But if the resultant mix is innocently termed “the public” – the term the anchor used was “janta” – then that constitutes the first point of deception. I took a seat in the second row as instructed, surrounded by triumphant, pumped-up BJP supporters shaking hands with each other, suddenly feeling small and irrelevant, having come prepared with questions on Delhi University. At one point, turning to speak to the person next to me, I encountered a gentleman who introduced himself only as a “social worker” and asked me to elaborate on the problems with the university. As I began to list them however, he cut me short with a wave of a hand to say the government will prevail over all of them, and turned back to gaze admiringly at the life-sized posters of Modi all around us. I realised the person knew absolutely nothing about the University or teaching as a profession, and couldn’t care less.

Two anchors from Aaj Tak – Anjana Om Kashyap and Ashok Singhal – were on stage, interacting intermittently with the audience. At one point, Kashyap turned to the audience and said she was aware that there were many eminent professors in the first two rows who had been invited by Aaj Tak, but that she would begin the interaction with the Minister first with general questions on politics, and then move on to the topic of the evening – higher education. Nobody seemed happy with this, but having little choice, we vaguely nodded our assent. In walked Irani, striding up confidently on to the stage. Without so much as acknowledging the audience or making eye contact, she began to banter with the anchors, saying she only had half an hour and had not agreed to two hours, etc. While this time bargaining was going on, the crowd began to settle down somewhat, and the cameras began to roll. As planned and announced, Kashyap began with politics, asking Irani about her Twitter war with Rahul Gandhi and with her frequent visits to Amethi. As far as I or anybody who cares deeply about what is happening to Delhi University and other universities in the country was concerned, THAT WAS THE END OF THE EVENING.

Continue reading Bread and Circuses? No sir, circuses alone will do. →

Bad ideas

Telangana Politics: A Saga of Promises and Betrayals : Gaurav J Pathania

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This is a Guest Post by GAURAV J PATHANIA

As the twenty-ninth Indian state, Telangana owes its formation to the half-a-century-long mass movement and countless sacrifices by its people. In the movement for separate statehood, thousands of university students lost their lives, families and careers.

After the initial upheaval in 1969, the movement peaked again in 2009, thanks to Osmania University students who spearheaded fresh activism, and rising to become the real heroes of the movement. Throughout these trying times, hundreds of students were arrested and jailed, yet the government could not break the spirit of the movement. And so, just before he took oath of office on June 2, 2014 as the first Chief Minister of the new Telangana state, K. Chandrashekar Rao (KCR), the head of the ruling party Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS), promised to rescind the police cases lodged against Telangana activists during the movement, as well as create one lakh jobs for the new state’s youth. Continue reading Telangana Politics: A Saga of Promises and Betrayals : Gaurav J Pathania →

Capitalism, Culture, Feminism, Genders

“New India’s’’ Inflexible Workforce – Caring is but Women’s Work: Shalini Grover, Ellina Samantroy, Nupur Dhingra Paiva

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Guest post by SHALINI GROVER, ELLINA SAMANTROY and NUPUR DHINGRA PAIVA

A recent BBC article, ‘Why Motherhood Makes Indian Women Quit Their Jobs’ (http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-32377275), examines the factors that prompt large numbers of women to drop out of India’s workforce. Despite the country’s growing international reputation as the “new India,” with its allure of economic prosperity, globalized cities, and modern lifestyles, it is not clear how much of the female labour force is contributing to paid employment. Liberalization has indeed opened up opportunities for an entire cohort of young urban women who work in IT, outsourcing, hospitality, media, beauty parlours, cafes, and malls. Ironically, in a period of high growth and open markets, labour surveys such as those conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) reveal an overall declining rate of female labour force participation, an issue that has become a serious concern for policy makers. A World Bank study (2013) found that only 27 per cent of Indian women over the age of 15 work outside the home. While such surveys have their limitations in that they often do not take into account informal employment, the World Bank study is significant because it indicates that India has the lowest rate of female participation in the workforce among the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) countries.

What makes the labour force in India so male dominated? And what makes the workplace so hostile to working mothers?

Continue reading “New India’s’’ Inflexible Workforce – Caring is but Women’s Work: Shalini Grover, Ellina Samantroy, Nupur Dhingra Paiva →

Bad ideas

विवादास्पद के पक्ष में:आई आई टी मद्रास के निर्णय के बहाने कुछ विचार

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आई आई टी मद्रास में आंबेडकर-पेरियार स्टडी सर्किल(एपीसीएस) की मान्यता रद्द करने के प्रशासन के निर्णय पर बहस हो रही है. मानव संसाधन विकास मंत्रालय ने इस समूह पर घृणा प्रचार का आरोप लगाती एक बेनामी शिकायत संस्थान को इस अनाम टिप्पणी के साथ भेजी कि यह दुर्भाग्यपूर्ण है कि आई.आई.टी.का ऐसा इस्तेमाल हो रहा है. प्रशासन ने आव देखा न ताव, एपीसीएस की मान्यता रद्द कर दी, हालाँकि बाद में उसने कहा कि यह एक अस्थायी कार्रवाई है और समूह का पक्ष सुनकर ही अंतिम निर्णय लिया जाएगा.वैसे यह किसी ने न पूछा कि एपीसीएस  की मान्यता रद्द करने का क्या मतलब!वह कोई आईआईटी की बनाई संस्था तो है नहीं, वहाँ के कुछ छात्रों का स्वैच्छिक संगठन है .उसका जीवन आई आई टी प्रशासन के प्रसाद पर निर्भर नहीं.प्रशासन संभवतः उसे कोइ कार्यक्रम करने के लिए संस्थान की कोई सुविधा इस्तेमाल नहीं करने देगा. उसके नाम में ही जो दो नाम लगे हैं, उनसे उसके राजनीतिक ही नहीं समरस समाज में विभेद पैदा करने का इरादा साफ़ है!  यह अलग बात है, जो टेलीग्राफ ने बताई कि केन्द्रीय सतर्कता आयोग का निर्देश है कि किसी भी बेनामी शिकायत का मंत्रालय या विभाग संज्ञान न लें. तो मंत्रालय का यह कदम ही नियमविरुद्ध था. दूसरे, मंत्रालय के पत्र पर बिना किसी स्थानीय जाँच की प्रक्रिया के आई आई टी, मद्रास का यह अति उत्साहपूर्ण अनुशासनात्मक कदम दरअसल रघुवीर सहाय की याद दिलाता है जिन्होंने ऐसा दिमाग खोज लाने को कहा था जो आदतन खुशामद न करता हो. Continue reading विवादास्पद के पक्ष में:आई आई टी मद्रास के निर्णय के बहाने कुछ विचार →

Right watch, Violence/Conflict

What’s wrong with these headlines? (Answer – It’s Election time, Stupid)

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“Another disputed mosque sparks Ballabgarh riots” (The Hindu)

“Ballabhgarh Communal tension: At heart of dispute lie a temple and half-built mosque” (The Indian Express)

ballabgarh

Muslim families at Ballabhgarh city police station on Wednesday night after fleeing riots in their village.(Express Photo by: Gajendra Yadav)

This one image should be issued as a ceremonial postage stamp to commemorate one year of Modi’s rule. We have said it many times already, but here it is, once more, with feeling – this is a bloody, violent Hindutvavaadi regime, with a cool headed, coldly vicious master-mind at its head – he of the Swarovski eye glasses, the 10 Lakh Rupee Suit, the diamond Movado watch – he of the infinite silences on All That Matters.

Continue reading What’s wrong with these headlines? (Answer – It’s Election time, Stupid) →

Bad ideas

Press Release: Ambedkar-Periyar study circle IIT Madras

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These are two press releases from the Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle – An initiative by IITM students. The first one was in protest against the ban on the APSC, and the second one dated 8 June 2015 – APSC Press Release 8.6.15 – explains the position of the students’ organisation after the ban was lifted. It argues that it is important that the controversy about the ban and the subsequent lifting of the ban not be allowed to obscure the fundamental reason for the ban which remains as urgent as ever – the drastically shrinking space for critique under the Modi government and Hindutva forces.

apsc ambedkar logo

PRESS RELEASE

Ambedkar – Periyar Study Circle was created as an independent student body on 14th April 2014, by a group of students from IITM to promote Ambedkar – Periyar thoughts and to initiate debates on socio-economic-political and cultural impacts which affects common mass within academic fraternity. The student of IITM has a dictum of using APSC as a platform for the above mentioned issues. As IITM has a long history of being a platform for right wing groups alone to propagate their own ideology and train young minds for their intellectual wings through Vivekananda Study Circle, RSS Shakha, Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Vande Matram, Dhurva etc… With this motto, in the past one year, we organized Hall meets, Movie Screening and pamphlet distribution among students and ignited debates on issues like: Agriculture under threat – Coal bed Methane project, GM Crops – Impact on Agriculture, Factory disputes Act 1947 (Amendment) and creating devastating effect on the labor conditions, Language Politics in India: past and present based on Sanskrit week celebrations, MHRD’s overt attempt to have separate vegetarian mess halls in IITs and IIMs and IITM administration’s move in replacing the name board of the faculties and laboratories with Sanskritized Hindi. We celebrated the birthdays of Bhagat Singh and Ambedkar and organized talks on ‘Understanding Bhagat Singh’ and Contemporary relevance of Dr. Ambedkar’. (For more information check our facebook page -Ambedkar periyar study circle IITmadras) Though the platform created a space for the students of IITM to discuss and debate on issues directly affecting the peasants, labours and the common mass, APSC continuously faced threats from rightwing groups inside IITM. Even the administration tried to curtail the activities of APSC, in June 2014, the DoS Dr.M.S.Sivakumar directed us to change name stating that the names ‘Ambedkar and Periyar’ are politically motivated and thus the study circle should be renamed with some apolitical titles without any personolity’s name.

Continue reading Press Release: Ambedkar-Periyar study circle IIT Madras →

Bad ideas, Everyday Life

A Hindu View of Sanitation: Ardhendu Sen

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Guest Post by ARDHENDU SEN

The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has many components but the main thrust is on the building of new toilets, both public and private. Why is it that we have so few toilets so many decades after independence? Many would blame the policy paralysis of the UPA II government and there is no denying the truth in that charge. Many others would go back decades and ask if any government before the present one ever paid adequate attention to such important social problems. Looking back into our hoary past, we come across an important ancient cause of our present misfortune.

It is now a well-known fact that India had aircrafts and spacecrafts long before other nations could even conceive of flying. The western educated, liberal (meaning Nehruvian) sceptic has only to visit the official website of the Indian Science Congress to convince herself of this. We know about one of these crafts in some detail because the 1903 edition of an old paper by one Rishi Bhardwaj has survived. The paper describes a fairly large craft, sixty feet by sixty feet that could not only fly in air but was suitable for interplanetary travel. This huge flying machine like that must have carried hundreds of people.

It is logical to assume that these crafts were fitted with chemical toilets. An aeroplane may do without one for a while but a spacecraft cannot because there is no force of gravity to help us get rid of the stuff. Ask Sunita Williams and she would be happy to explain it to you.  Continue reading A Hindu View of Sanitation: Ardhendu Sen →

Capitalism, Countryside, Everyday Life, Feminism

Branding Mother India: Sarojini N, Anindita Majumdar, Veena Johari and Priya Ranjan

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Guest post by SAROJINI N, ANINDITA MAJUMDAR, VEENA JOHARI AND PRIYA RANJAN

Indian motherhood is finally, officially being advertised. Recent news reports regarding the launch of the Japanese advertising conglomerate Dentsu Mama Labs in India, have left many of us working on women’s reproductive lives in a serious quandary. How does one explain the unthinking coverage that the firm has received?

This is their pitch (or ‘branding’, as the Corporation puts it):

Dentsu Mama Lab aims to be a thought leader on mothers, motherhood and mothering.

The beautifully shot launch advertisement of pregnant women in a scenic desert village in India, using Japanese products and living in evident prosperity belies the true nature of what Mama Labs is representing, or rather misrepresenting.

Continue reading Branding Mother India: Sarojini N, Anindita Majumdar, Veena Johari and Priya Ranjan →

Capitalism, Culture, Left watch, Politics

Remembering People’s Historian Amalendu Guha (1924-2015): Bonojit Hussain and Mayur Chetia

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Guest post by BONOJIT HUSSAIN and MAYUR CHETIA

A Tribute and a Bibliography

স্বৰ্গত ৰুচি নাই, যাওঁ মই ভাটিখানালৈ

জুৱাৰী-মদপী-বেশ্যা-সিহঁতকো মেলত গোটাই

মনৰ চিতাৰ ছাই উৰুৱাই গাওঁ আশাবৰী :

আকাশত উৰা মাৰে জাকে জাকে ফিনিক্স চৰাই !

Amalendu Guha
Amalendu Guha

I have no desire for heaven,

Instead I go to the brewhouse,

Gamblers, drunkards, prostitutes – bringing them together

I sing of hope, sprinkling ashes from my soul’s pyre:

In flocks the phoenix flies to the sky.

  • “মোৰ কবিতা / My Poetry” Amalendu Guha 1960

Continue reading Remembering People’s Historian Amalendu Guha (1924-2015): Bonojit Hussain and Mayur Chetia →

Bad ideas, Government, Law, Politics

The Arrest of G. N. Sai Baba – Insane, Inhuman: Nirmalangshu Mukherji

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Guest post by NIRMALANGSHU MUKHERJI

N. Sai Baba, an Assistant Professor of English in Ramlal Anand College of Delhi University was arrested by Maharashtra Police in opaque circumstances in May 2014. For the past year, there has been a small but sustained protest against Sai Baba’s arrest. Most recently, a day-long fast was held by some activists and university teachers in front of the Art’s Faculty in Delhi University. Despite impressive campaign in the social media by a group of dedicated individuals, just a few dozen well-known protestors showed up for the fast. The event was barely reported in the mainstream. In staying away from the event, the wider left-liberal fraternity in Delhi, and the rest of the country, has once again failed a vital democratic cause.

Sai Baba is one of those rare individuals in the current Indian academia—otherwise marked by its unconcealed opportunism and abject surrender to the establishment—who is at once a serious scholar, a dedicated and widely-popular teacher, and a death-defying political activist.

Sai Baba believes that Indian society must undergo an armed proletarian revolution along Maoist lines to usher in a new democratic republic as a step toward a classless egalitarian society. He has strengthened his beliefs with a deep study of Marxism-Leninism-Maoism and has advocated them in a variety of public forums. Continue reading The Arrest of G. N. Sai Baba – Insane, Inhuman: Nirmalangshu Mukherji →

Bad ideas, Ecology/Environment, Government, Media politics

Nepal – An Earthquake Diary : Mallika Shakya

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This is a guest post by MALLIKA SHAKYA

The earthquake in Nepal had been overdue for a while. At one level everyone knew that the 7.9 Richter scale jolt came from the continuing collision between the Indian and Himalayan plates. At another level, Nepalis internalized this seismic science by counterposing 2015 with personal memories of the 1934 earthquake which was the last big one in a seismic belt that shuddered every seventy or so years. Every family had stories about how some or other grand old person in the family perished under the rubble while someone else had a narrow escape, how a particular house needed to be rebuilt from scratch while another could be just mended in parts, or how one brave grand uncle mustered the courage to walk into the rubble to pull out a sack of rice so that the family could eat, so on and so forth Continue reading Nepal – An Earthquake Diary : Mallika Shakya →

Bad ideas, Culture, Debates, Everyday Life

A Short Guide to Appropriate Behaviour in the Wake of A Judgement on Historically Respectable Personalities

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[ This short guide is being released to the general public which is liable to fall into error and confusion in the wake of the recent Supreme Court judgement in Devidas Ramachandra Tuljapurkar vs. State of Maharashtra restricting freedom of speech and expression pertaining to what the Honourable Justices who have looked at this case call ‘historically respectable personalities’.]

1. Petition all history departments to start courses in historical respectability so that you know who is who and what is what.

2. Having carefully studied the history of respectability, separate out all historically respectable personalities. Genuflect.

3. Then, from those that remain, make a list of historically disrespectable personalities, starting with yourself.

4. Refer to a historically respectable dictionary of slang – for instance, ‘Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang’ by Jonathan Green, the works of William Shakespeare, or a set of curses of the historically respectable Muni Durvasa

5. Choose at least ten colorful insults, curses and terms of abuse, from the above. and construct a poem, written in the ‘voice’ of a historically disrespectable person.

6. Print in large characters, along with an image of a historically disrespectable personality.

7. Stand singly, or in groups, with the large character posters with the poems in the ‘voice’ of  historically disreputable personalities in meditative silence in front of the honorable Supreme Court of India, and in other public spaces, while considering the sagacious wisdom of our historically respectable judiciary.

8. Be ever grateful that you know now that you can always protect your constitutionally guaranteed and judicially protected freedom of speech by ventriloquizing to your hearts content in the abusive voice of a historically disrespectable personality.

9. And learn this formula by heart – “The dignity of historically respectable personalities cannot be protected without the self-flagellation and abuse of historically disrespectable personalities, which includes the majority of all populations, in all societies, in all times.”
10.  Never disobey a law, or a judgement. Only take obedience to its logical conclusion.

Bad ideas, Centre watch, Education, Government, Law, Movements, Politics, Right watch, Technology

Position Paper on Higher Education: Academics for Creative Reform

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“The manner in which the state is intervening in higher education is causing concern and even alarm in the academic community. Both the unlamented UPA—II regime and the current NDA government have been remarkably similar in their authoritarian impatience to introduce wholesale changes without adequate or careful preparation. This position paper is the collective product of roughly six months of discussion among teachers of several central universities in Delhi. It is an attempt to participate in the process of critical self evaluation of the university system as it is today. It is also our considered response to the many policy statements and directives issued by the MHRD and the UGC recently”

Please click on the link below for the complete position paper on proposed reforms in higher education, prepared by Delhi-based Academics for Creative Reform and released at a press conference today:

PositionPaper12May2015

Capitalism, Debates, Education

बाल श्रम कानून में बदलाव का औचित्य :किशोर

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Guest Post by Kishore

Photo courtesy : newznew.com

संसदीय कैबिनेट ने १३ मई को बाल श्रम प्रतिबंधन एवं नियमन कानून (CLPRA act) में संशोधन को मंजूरी दे दी. मुख्य सकारात्मक बदलावों में १४ वर्ष की आयु तक किसी भी व्यवसाय अथवा प्रक्रिया में बाल श्रम पर पूर्ण प्रतिबन्ध का प्रावधान किया गया है जो स्वागत योग्य है. साथ ही ज्यादा कठोर सजा एवं जुर्माने का प्रावधान भी किया गया है जो कि सकारात्मक है. हालाँकि अभी भी यह बाल अधिकार समझौते की कसौटी पर खरा नहीं उतरता क्योंकि इसमें १४ से १८ साल के बच्चों को गैर खतरनाक उद्योगों में काम करने की अनुमति दी है पर फिर भी चौदह वर्ष तक पूर्ण प्रतिबन्ध एक प्रगतिशील कदम है.

चौदह वर्ष तक पूर्ण प्रतिबन्ध के बावजूद पारिवारिक व्यवसायों में बच्चों के काम करने को छूट दी गयी है .बच्चे पारिवारिक व्यवसायों में काम कर सकते हैं बशर्ते यह काम बच्चे स्कूल जाने के बाद करते हों. सरकार इस छूट का मुख्य कारण यह बता रही है कि इससे बच्चों को अपने पारंपरिक काम सीखने का मौके मिलेगा.

आइये इस बात की समीक्षा की जाये कि यह कारण कहाँ तक तार्किक है. सरकार पारंपरिक कौशल को लेकर कितनी चिंतित है यह तो पिछले बीस साल में हथकरघा और अन्य पारम्परिक पेशों के लिए बनाई गई नीतियों से स्पष्ट है. कोई उनसे पूछे की पिछले बीस सालो में घरेलू उत्पाद में पारंपरिक व्यवसायों का योगदान किस दर से बड़ा है? अगर सरकार को पारंपरिक कौशल के लुप्त होने का इतना ही डर है तो क्यों नहीं इसे स्कूली पाठ्यक्रम में शामिल करती ? अगर इसे पाठ्यक्रम में शामिल किया जाये तो बच्चे पढाई के साथ साथ व्यावसायिक कौशल भी सीखेंगे जो उनके जीवन में काम आयेगा. साथ ही पढाई के साथ काम सीखने से पढ़े लिखे लोगों में श्रम को नीची नज़र से देखने के नज़रिए पर भी लगाम लगेगी और शिक्षा और शारीरिक श्रम के बीच का फासला घटेगा. Continue reading बाल श्रम कानून में बदलाव का औचित्य :किशोर →

Capitalism, Right watch

Statement from Gulflabor.org in solidarity with artists denied entry into UAE for involvement with labour rights

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Solidarity Statement
This week, Mumbai-based artist Ashok Sukumaran was denied a UAE visa to travel as an invited speaker and moderator at the March Meeting, an annual gathering of artists in Sharjah. Sukumaran has a long history of artistic work and commitments in the region including at the Sharjah Biennials (2009, 2011, 2013) and at events including Art Dubai and several prior editions of the March Meetings. His visa application by the hosts of this year’s March Meeting, to be held mid-May, was denied three times.While the official reason was given only as “security”, we believe this denial of entry is due to his association with Gulf Labor, a group of artists who have been boycotting the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi and asking for better conditions for the workers building museums on Saaidyat Island. Last month, another Gulf Labor associate NYU professor Andrew Ross was denied entry to the UAE for “security” reasons. We believe this is a negative and cynical trajectory in which artists and academics who have a stake in and long-standing concerns for the region, are being excluded from it.

Continue reading Statement from Gulflabor.org in solidarity with artists denied entry into UAE for involvement with labour rights →

DISSENT, DEBATE, CREATE