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B Ravichandran
 Paul McCarthy's sculpture "Complex Shit" (2008) After this news was carried by mainstream newspapers, the state government and the municipal authority have been questioned for allowing such practices (scavenging) in their state (Karnataka). Still the government has not been questioned on why they were thrown out of their homes, instead the anxieties of civil society seems to focus more on ‘why they were allowed to pour human excreta on their body’! Here I quote Justice Nayak, the Chairman of The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) — “The state government is undeniably guilty of continuing the system of manual scavenging despite reminders by the National Human Rights Commission and State Human Rights Commission”. ….More More… A S Ajith Kumar
Amidst all the opulence and glitter caste has always been there in most of the reality shows in Malayalam television channels. It was always-already present, difficult to render invisible. But, till the grand finale of the Star Singer show’s season four in Asianet, it hadn’t showed up in such proportions in public forums. Both, who celebrated Joby John’s victory and the others who considered it as `unfair’ had to address caste. The aggressive responses in the cyberspace talks about caste, in one way or other. Even `reservation’ and `merit ‘have been mentioned in some of the responses. The main arguments against Joby’s victory are that he was not the `real’ winner, sms helped him win and that a `sympathy’ wave had worked in his favor. Did this happen? If so could this sympathy wave be of `caste’? Two remarks, one made by MG Sreekumar , one of the show judges and another by Ranjini Haridas, the anchor, give us some clues. Ranjini told the audience“all of you know Joby’s background”. M G Sreekumar stated that the results have once again proved that the star singer show is a ‘transparent’ program. ….More More… Aryakrishnan
This July 2nd we celebrated queer pride keralam and walked the streets of Thrissur with joyfulness. There were placards, balloons, rain bow flags, color masks, slogans; more over there was an enthusiasm among the community like never before. As Anil, a fellow activist put it “I am wearing a mask today. But I am no longer going to use this. I am throwing my mask away, and I hope you do too. Come out of your masks and come together”. This statement was reflected in the march though many in the LGBT community here still prefer to live in closet. When I write this it brings back memories of Kerala. Manju and Ragini the two queer women, who had to end their lives because of constant pressure, stigma and physical violence for being queer. They had campaigned in their neighborhood, house to house, with a popular Malayalam magazine’s medical advice column that mentioned in passing that ‘homosexuality is okay’. They were desperately trying to have some ‘legitimate’ proof for their right to existence, they were showing that it is not only them but there are others, using such material from everyday life to campaign for their rights. Did they succeed? Yes, they did. Kerala’s queer community remembers them and is in the path of a struggle, a movement for no discrimination and rights to all. It is not without sacrifices that queer movement in Keralam has reached this juncture. People paid for being different and asserting the right to be different. Many become silent, many went abroad or to other Indian cities, many lead the double life of heterosexual marriage and denial. Nizar Ahmed
The notion of state is internally vague. This vagueness is carried over to political theory which reproduces it. To treat state as an entity that can be talked about is to participate in a mythology which reproduces the myth of state that enmeshes people in a misrecognized relation of power. A statist view is one that already legitimates it by recognizing it. Our ontological commitment to state is not preceded by a cognitive act, but vice versa. On the other hand, this commitment is an expression of the ways in which we come to terms with the experience of power, an intricate, complex relation of power, in our social existence. In this section I propose to provide an analytic frame work that locates the phenomenon of state in a grid formed by the three major imperatives in the life-world of people: territory, project and mentality. Territory is the condition for the possession of natural resources. Projects cover both the production of resources for material life and the production of material life itself. Mentality refers to the whole of software (mental programming) which renders all projects and activities ensuing from them meaningful. Territory Control over territory is a pre-requisite for uninterrupted access to natural resources and making them available for projects. State is said to be partly identified in terms of territorial control made possible by brute force. There is no reason, other than the military power, for the continuous existence of marked territories all over the globe. This therefore also marks territorial control systems as distinct states. ….More More… Anivar Aravind
We, representatives of people’ movements, mass organizations, institutions and concerned individuals including all the undersigned strongly oppose the potential tracking and profiling based techno-governance tools such as the Unique Identification number (UID) by the Government of India and the manner in which legitimate democratic processes have been undermined through this. The proposed UID project seems to be perched on an anti-people perspective and violates a number of basic rights guaranteed under Part III of the Constitution of India including Articles 14, 15, 17, 19 and 21 viz., the Rights to equality, dignity, privacy, expression and the right not to be discriminated against, The project seems to be aimed at profiling people by pooling in biometric and retinal data pertaining to an individual and could be potentially discriminatory in a country where caste identity is the most predominant socio-political marker. Further, it is a travesty on the dignity and privacy of individuals. At another level, given the fact that more than one third of our population live below the substantial level called “poverty line” and without literacy & numeracy, a large section of our population would find itself unable to handle this number in a meaningful way and thus face the danger of virtually stripped of their citizenship and thereby the very legitimacy of their existence on the land of this country. This project which has been launched at a budgeted cost of INR 1900 Crores for the year 2010-2011 in a country where the Government has officially declared that 400 million of its citizens are living below poverty line is , thus an insult to the dignity of the Peoples of India. The project headed by a person of the rank of the Union Cabinet Minister, whose appointment was not transparent and a staff overhead of more than 100 is also working under the most non-transparent processes and we fear that the decisions are made and influenced by vested private and corporate interests who have had a record of anti-people and anti-democratic activities. There is no wide public discussion on the feasibility or desirability of the project. April 28th, 2010 | Category: governmentality, movements |
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