Bad ideas, Frontiers, Media politics

The Flea Market of the Indian Media: Dibyesh Anand on the Karmapa story

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Guest post by DIBYESH ANAND

India prides itself for having a free and vibrant media. A recent story around Tibetan exile leader Karmapa lama has exposed the Indian media scene as closely resembling a chor bazaar. One where uninformed assertions, distorted facts, libelous statements, ad hominem attacks, and lazy analysis are recycled again and again to create a sensation.

The remarkable convergence in how the different channels and newspapers covered the story of police raids and findings of unaccounted foreign currencies at Karmapa’s temporary establishment near Dharamsala is conspicuous. In the media, the unaccounted money is however presented in salacious and sensationalist manner. Money is not the focus, the Karmapa’s alleged China connection is. A possible financial irregularity of $1.6 million is a non-story in India where scams, schemes and scandals of billions erupt with the regularity of tides. The story becomes one of Karmapa as a probable Chinese spy. Continue reading The Flea Market of the Indian Media: Dibyesh Anand on the Karmapa story →

Bad ideas, Law, Media politics, Mirror Worlds

My friend in Thailand, may you be free

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‘Prachatai’ means “free people” in Thai. Prachatai calls itself an online newspaper, with Thai and English versions. You can see the English version here. Prachatai in the Thai internet universe is a bit like this website, Kafila, only a lot more popular. Prachatai’s webmaster, Chiranuch Premchaiporn, is facing trial for comments posted on the site that allegedly violated Thailand’s lese majeste (insulting the monarch) laws. While the lese majeste charges against the person who wrote that comment have been dropped, Chiranuch is still being charged under lese majeste and other laws, including ‘intermediary liability’ laws. Intermediary liability laws in relation to internet freedom mean that if you post a comment on my site that violates the law, I too will be charged as having abetted the crime. India’s cyber crime laws were amended some time ago to remove the intermediary clause, not because the Government of India was concerned about free speech, but because of Ebay India, whose head was charged and arrested when a user uploaded a pornographic ‘MMS’ on Ebay India that featured minors.

I first met Chiranuch at an social media workshop in Thailand, and then again last September in Budapest, Hungary, at a Google conference on internet freedom across the world. It is curcuial to note that upon her return from Budapest, she was arrested, given bail for a very high bail amount, and fresh new charges – and a lot of them – were added against her – clearly, they don’t like her talking about internet freedom. If convicted, she faces up to 50 years in jail! See here an article in The Economist. The trial began today, 4 February, a few hours ago.

Chiranuch could easily have escaped Thailand and taken asylum elsewhere by now. She hasn’t done that because she is consciously fighting a battle for freedom of expression in Thailand. She didn’t want to run away because it would have discouraged, rather than encouraged, that crucial fight.

One expresses solidarity with her, one hopes she is free, and that her case becomes the turning point in the fight from democracy and democratic rights in Thailand. Above all, one salutes her courage. For those who are interested in the details, given below are notes from the Thai Netizen Network.

Continue reading My friend in Thailand, may you be free →

Empire/ Imperialism, Excavation, Images, Movements, Politics

Tahrir at Midan Tahrir

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These six photos come to Kafila from an art collective in Cairo. Photographs by artist HR and other members. They do not want their identities revealed for their safety. Note how that gas canister says Made in USA!

Also see this video doing the rounds, perhaps its not the only effort that brought about the 25 January uprising in Egypt but may still be an important one.

Previously on Kafila: A Phone Call From Alexandria

Culture, Debates, Genders, Identities, Images, Mirror Worlds

Chitrasutram: Post-modern Cinema?

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Months ago, while watching what was in effect a docu-hagiography about a prominent literary icon in Malayalam and wondering about its structure, I was enlightened by a little voice that piped up from a few rows behind. “Nyoosh” (news), it said. On screen, the literary icon appeared and began to talk. A few minutes later, the little voice trilled again, “Parshyam” (commercial). And lo! The icon dissolved, followed by what looked exactly like a commercial, a sequence of visual tricks, visual hallelujah to the wisdom of the revered sage. The little voice thus revealed to me that the structural rhythm of the docu-hagiography was effective precisely through its prayer-like repetitiveness; it also alerted me to the fact that it was extraordinarily similar that to the visual strategy of television (Truth-dream-Truth-dream…), which again is perhaps vital to its sway over viewers. Continue reading Chitrasutram: Post-modern Cinema? →

Debates, Empire/ Imperialism, Violence/Conflict

Thus Sudan Splits, What’s Next for the Aspiring Rest?: Tanmoy Sharma

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Guest post by TANMOY SHARMA

Pro-separation activists hold signs and chant pro-independence slogans outside the Juba airport in southern Sudan, on Jan. 4, where Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir arrived. Photo credit: Pete Muller/AP/File

To add to the tumultuous political dynamics of Africa, the world is most likely to see a new country adorning its map by the middle of this year with the two-way split of the continent’s largest country, Sudan.  For Africa, which has again hit the international headlines for fresh troubles in Ivory Coast, Tunisia and most recently in Egypt, civil wars based on identity and protests against despotic governments are nothing new. However the larger question that has kept many wondering is whether the world is going to see a new era of a large-scale statebirth with the formation of South Sudan, a process that almost stopped barring the examples of Kosovo two years back or East Timor ten years back. As millions of jubilant south Sudanese in the city of Juba, went to vote in a long awaited independence referendum in the second week of January to see their war torn region emerge as a new nation, it will be important to revisit the troubling status quo of other regions of the world demanding secession. Continue reading Thus Sudan Splits, What’s Next for the Aspiring Rest?: Tanmoy Sharma →

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Countryside, Ecology/Environment

A “Green Signal” for The Rape of Justice and the People: POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti

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The following is the statement issued by the POSCO PRATIRODH SANGRAM SAMITI on the latest decision of the Environment Ministry on POSCO. The image below from an earlier round of land acquisition attempt is a telling illustration of how the ‘free market’ functions. Received via Shankar Gopalakrishnan.

Courtesy The Hindu
Land being acquired for POSCO. Image courtesy The Hindu

Jairam Ramesh and the UPA government have shown their true colours with their decision today on the POSCO project. Ignoring the reports of its own advisory bodies and enquiry committees, violating its own orders and the laws of the land, this Ministry has shown that the naked face of corporate greed – it is not the “rule of law”, the “aam aadmi”, “inclusive growth” or any of these other lies – that rules this country. The decision today can be summarised in one sentence:”Repeat your lies, give us promises that we all know are false, and then loot at will.”

We repeat: we will not give up our lands, our forests and our homes to this company. It is not the meaningless orders of a mercenary government that will decide this project’s fate, but the tears and blood of our people. Through the road of peaceful demonstrations and people’s resistance we have fought this project, in the face of torture, jail, firings and killings. If this project comes it will come over our dead bodies.
Continue reading A “Green Signal” for The Rape of Justice and the People: POSCO Pratirodh Sangram Samiti →

Centre watch, Images, Movements

More photos from the Free Binayak Sen rally, Delhi, 30 January 2011

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Photographs by Koyel Lahiri, Antara Rai Chowdhury, Anil Tharayath, Joe Athialy and Amrita.

Some photographs post here, earlier.

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Centre watch, Countryside, Ecology/Environment, Empire/ Imperialism, Movements

Niyamgiri, You Are Still Alive

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This 17 minutes long film won the Vasudha, Environment Award at the International Film Festival of India in Goa, 2010.

Movements, Politics

Release Binayak Sen! Repeal Section 124 A!

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Pictures of the rally in Delhi yesterday, January 30th, by PRASHANT TALWAR

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Culture, Identities, Language

‘i swear…i have my hopes’: Agha Shahid Ali’s Delhi Years: Akhil Katyal

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This is a guest post by AKHIL KATYAL

Born on 4th February, 1949, Agha Shahid Ali would have been 62 next month. The Kashmiri-American poet who spent the last half of his life in the States (he migrated to Pennsylvania in the mid 70s) died in the winter of 2001 due to brain tumour. The next year had begun with papers and journals in the States, and in Kashmir and India, remembering Shahid. ‘Your death in every paper,’ Shahid had written for his own idol the singer Begum Akhtar after she passed away in 1974, ‘boxed in the black and white / of photographs, obituaries.’ In his new absence, he similarly reappeared in the words of his friends as an insurmountably beautiful poet, a gregarious Brooklyner, a near perfect cook, an impossibly good teacher and a lasting friend. Apocrypha started building around him very soon after his death. One could say this was the final proof that Shahid’s name would abide – that stories began to be spun around him as soon as he was not around. The Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie, Shahid’s creative writing student at Hamilton College in New York and then at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst in the 90’s, and someone who always recounts his indelible influence on her writings (he coloured her drafts red), was one of the first to add to the stories that have multiplied since in this decade after Shahid’s death. Kamila’s friend, also a student of Shahid, had told her that some months after he was diagnosed with brain cancer, Shahid was riding the subway going to teach his class at NYU when he started to feel faint and began to black out. ‘For a moment,’ her friend told her, ‘he thought, “I’m dying,” and then he told himself, “No. First I’ll teach my class, then I’ll die.”’

Continue reading ‘i swear…i have my hopes’: Agha Shahid Ali’s Delhi Years: Akhil Katyal →

Culture, Excavation, Language

The Birth of God: Siddhartha Gigoo on Pt Bhimsen Joshi (1922-2011)

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Guest post by SIDDHARTHA GIGOO

It was on a nice summer evening in the year 1996 that I first got to attend Pandit Bhimsen Joshi’s concert.

I was studying literature at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. Those were terrible times for me. I struggled with my studies. Good grades evaded me. Failure stared at my face and the world mocked me. It was difficult to trudge through the endless days and the nights. Reading books became a cumbersome task because one had to present seminars and write the boring term papers at the end of the semesters. Some of us slept during the days and idled during the nights. There seemed to be no respite in sight. Life, what atrophy? I laboured somehow from one book to another, sometimes seeking enjoyment and sometimes to broaden my experience and understanding of life and the world. I had heard somewhere that one must not seek knowledge. Some said knowledge didn’t exist, while others argued that knowledge was a perilous trap from which there was no escape. I was perhaps frantically looking for a reprieve from my fears and imperfections. Continue reading The Birth of God: Siddhartha Gigoo on Pt Bhimsen Joshi (1922-2011) →

Bad ideas

No Idiocy Day

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Apparently today is ‘No TV Day’. According to whom? According to Hindustan Times. I’m not sure if this is happening around the country, but here in Mumbai, according to Hindustan Times this means that we have to switch off our televisions and get in touch with the city, with ourselves, with our partners, families, friends, whoever. To help us in this undoubtedly difficult task, Hindustan Times has been providing little tips all week on what to do on the 29th of Jan, culminating in a glossy supplement on the 28th called “No TV Day: Things To Do”.

Continue reading No Idiocy Day →

Empire/ Imperialism, Frontiers, Movements, Politics

Egypt today: A first hand account.

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Transcript of a land line phone conversation between my friend NAHED MANCYP (based in Toronto) and her mother a (a blogger herself) and grandmother (both currently in Alexandria). Her mother will write a piece soon which can get to Nahed only after the ban on the internet is lifted in Egypt. Thank you Nahed.

My mom:

We arrived in Alexandria from Cairo right after Friday prayers. The streets where completely empty. I actually made a bet with dad. Dad said, I don’t think anything is going to happen. I said, no something will. Half an hour later I began feeling really embarrassed because it looked like nothing would happen. The streets where deserted, there were no officers or cars. Continue reading Egypt today: A first hand account. →

Bad ideas

ATS Chief concedes “burst of over-enthusiasm” on part of Nagpur ATS: IAWS press release

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A small victory, but heartening in these times to see what solidarity and concerted political action can achieve…
But still worrying given that ATS Chief Rakesh Maria seems to be back-tracking, if he is correctly quoted in the Mumbai Mirror yesterday (see below), which is why the IAWS has issued this press release.

(Clarification – This is a random image and not from the IAWS National Conference! But if anybody can send us some pix from the Wardha Conference, that would be great.)

Press Release dated 28 January 2011 by IAWS Continue reading ATS Chief concedes “burst of over-enthusiasm” on part of Nagpur ATS: IAWS press release →

Bad ideas

Women Struggling Against Rape in India Find the Assange Case Hard to Digest: Kavita Krishnan

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Kavita Krishnan expresses the irritation and anger of many feminists at the attempt to distract attention from the damage Wikileaks has managed to inflict on the powerful, by doubtful charges of sexual harassment against Assange, its architect:

…Certainly, from the perspective of all those women in India who find the most brutal of rapists going free, protected by the police and the state, and their most serious charges of rape trivialized or even suppressed by force, the idea of a man being hunted down by Interpol on charges which are as complex and ambiguous as those in the Assange case is disturbing…. [Full article here]

Government, Politics

Open Letter to the Home Minister: Indian Association for Women’s Studies

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Dear Mr.  Chidambaram,

We, the members of the Executive Committee of the Indian Association for Women’s Studies (IAWS), write to you in shock in the face of our recent experiences of intimidation and harassment at the hands of the Anti Terrorism Squad during the XIII National Conference of the IAWS in Wardha at the Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya (MGAHV), from January 20-24th 2011. The IAWS (established in 1982) is an academic and professional association of nearly two thousand Women’s Studies scholars, teachers, students and activists. A National Conference is held once in three years, which deliberates on various scholarly and social concerns focussing on women’s lives in the country.  The programme included 5 plenary sessions and 10 subtheme sessions, totalling over 300 submitted papers and 19 plenary speakers.  The highest standards of excellence were demonstrated over the course of the conference. There were 750 participants from different parts of the country, including a few South Asian and other participants who had come to understand gender issues in an atmosphere of intellectual exchange and learning.  A South Asia plenary is an old practice of the IAWS—this time eminent writers and poets from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan spoke, for whom full clearance had been obtained from the respective Ministries.  The university authorities supported the conference throughout, including dedicated volunteers and enthusiastic students and staff. Continue reading Open Letter to the Home Minister: Indian Association for Women’s Studies →

Bad ideas

Letter from Dr. Ilina Sen to all the supporters of Dr. Binayak Sen

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Dear Friends,

As we celebrate 61 years of India becoming a Socialist Democratic Republic we are shocked to witness that the spirit of our Constitution stands violated every so often today, sacrificing people’s democratic rights and throttling the socialist dream of our Constitution makers.

Speaking out against the conviction and incarceration of Dr. Binayak Sen’s case has to be seen in that larger context of lending our voice against the gross injustice that  we witness as a daily happening in India day after day. Continue reading Letter from Dr. Ilina Sen to all the supporters of Dr. Binayak Sen →

Politics, Violence/Conflict

Branding Binayak: Balmurli Natrajan

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Guest post by BALMURLI NATARAJAN

Writing on the history of insanity in the age of reason in seventeenth century Europe, French philosopher Michel Foucault notes: “People know what they do; frequently they know why they do what they do; but what they don’t know is what what they do does.” Foucault’s insight into the workings of power is an incitement for us to think boldly in public, sadly an endangered species in today’s India.

The recent judgment on the Guha-Sen-Sanyal case prompts one to wonder: Could state functionaries know what what they do does? Could ruling elites who watch silently or goad and guide the guardians of law and order to perform at their bidding know what what they do does? Could the state’s branding of Binayak and thousands of others as Naxalites, Maoists, terrorists or seditionists (terms that it conflates but without scholarly or legal basis) allow civil-liberties activists to create a brand Binayak? Continue reading Branding Binayak: Balmurli Natrajan →

Bad ideas, Capitalism, Ecology/Environment, Everyday Life, Media politics, Metropolis, Movements, Politics, Violence/Conflict

The Republic of Exploitation

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On this Republic Day, while armoured tanks muscle across Rajpath in New Delhi, little ossified museums of culture called tableaux charm the assembled pass-holding citizenry and the Prime Minister sits like a barely-sentient caricature of himself behind a bullet-proof screen, it may do well to think about the other republic that remains hidden within the bosom of Superpower India – the republic of unfree labour.

This is a world where the laws of the upside world are inverted – where the more you work, the less you are paid, the more your company profits, the poorer you end up and if you find yourself the victim of an injustice and god forbid complain about it, the police put your family in jail. It’s a great irony of our times that we believe the choice before us is between loving the Nation and loving the Corporation, not realising that most of the time its the same person wearing two grotesque masks.  All those who believe that the world begins with their newspapers and television sets and ends at their white picket fences (and all those who don’t), please take a minute to go through the excellent documentation of the war that is raging for workers in this country, put together by the Gurgaon Workers’ Solidarity Group, the Faridabad Mazdoor Sangathan and several other exemplary organisations.

GurgaonWorkersNews – Newsletter 35 (February 2011)

Continue reading The Republic of Exploitation →

Government, Politics

Ilina Sen harassed again. Long live the Republic!

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FINAL UPDATE: Over a hundred names (113) that were received by 9 am on 27th morning have now been added. Apart from the press, the statement will be sent also to the Union Home Minister, Chief Minister of Maharashtra and Chairpersons NHRC and NCW. Final list of names now posted here.

UPDATE: Close to a hundred endorsements from all over the country have been received from academics, social activists, lawyers, film-makers, theatre persons, students, journalists and office bearers of PUCL and IAWS . This will now be sent to the press, and may be circulated widely. All names received by  3 pm are now listed at the end of the statement.


Below is a statement being circulated by some of us for endorsement. Please endorse by 3 pm tomorrow (26th January)

Continue reading Ilina Sen harassed again. Long live the Republic! →

Empire/ Imperialism, Excavation, Frontiers, Identities, Right watch, Violence/Conflict

‘As followers pushed to get close, the pole broke in several places and the flag tumbled down onto Mr. Joshi’

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History repeats itself, and we learn so little from it. Or rather, we learn too much from it. I am excerpting below about half the text of a report dated 27 January 1992, written by EDWARD A. GARGAN in The New York Times, describing in detail Murli Manohar Joshi’s hoisting of the Indian flag in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk. Wish I had a picture!

He [Murli Manohar Joshi] had begun his trek, which he named Pilgrimage for Unity, 44 days before at India’s southernmost point. But the inability of the security forces to protect even their highest officials made it clear that there was no way, despite the presence of several hundred thousand troops in the Vale of Kashmir, to protect a convoy of cars and buses filled with zealous Hindus. So Mr. Joshi and a small contingent of his closest supporters were flown here on Saturday night. Continue reading ‘As followers pushed to get close, the pole broke in several places and the flag tumbled down onto Mr. Joshi’ →

DISSENT, DEBATE, CREATE