[Reader-list] On Sarai postings
Shuddhabrata Sengupta
shuddha at sarai.net
Tue Sep 30 14:16:14 IST 2008
Dear Radhakrishan,
Many thanks for your mail, and apologies for the delay in responding
to you, as I have been travelling and unable to access mail for the
last week. This response (overdue) takes on board what you have said,
but is equally relevant, I hope to much of what others, especially
Nazneen Ahmed Shamsie and Iram Ghufran have raised in their recent
exchanges on list protocol and the general health of the list.
I am totally in agreement with all the points that you
(Radhakrishnan) have raised in your mail. I happen to be associated
with this list as just another ordinary subscriber since its
inception in the spring of 2001 and though I work at Sarai, like
anyone else with a sarai.net address, who posts on this list, I
cannot claim to have any 'ownership' of this list. This list is yours
as much as it is mine. No more, no less. And it will be shaped as
much by what you do, what others do, as it will be what I, or anyone
else from Sarai does. That is why, I am very happy (as an ordinary
fellow list member) that you, and some others (Nazneen, Iram, Aarti,
Inder, Kshmendra, Vivek, Monica and others) have recently voiced a
timely concern (in different ways and in different voices) at the
place this list finds itself in today. I would like to thank you all
for this. And I would like to thank you personally for in some ways
setting the ball rolling by pointing out the issues so succintly in
your recent post 'On Sarai Postings'.
Like you, I believe that there should be no hierarchy of 'issues' on
this list. I also believe that the discussions on the list do
unfortunately tend to get fixated on Kashmir, and on what is going on
in Delhi. (though both of these need to be spoken of, because
silence on these issues is much more lethal in the long run than an
occasional excess of speech, and we have been silent about Kashmir
for a far longer time than we have had an excess of speech about
Kashmir). In fact, I remember a time when I was asked (accusingly)
why we were so 'silent' on Kashmir on the Reader List. That question
was just as relevant then, as yours is today.
Having said that, I do believe, like you, that the reader list must
not become a 'Delhi-Centric' , 'Kashmir-Centric' or 'Anything-
Centric' list. It would be wonderful it the list were a living
example of the refusal to be 'centripetal' in any way. We do need to
hear a lot more from different parts of South Asia, and from the
world in general. We need to hear, as you rightly point out, voices
that come from and speak to the 'North East' (where, in my opinion,
an occupation as brutal as the one in Indian held Kashmir continues
unreflected upon), voices south of the Vindhyas, voices that embody
Dalit and Adivasi perspectives, voices that speak thoughtfully,
joyously and in celebration of queer experiences, voices that speak
of discriminations too banal or too complex to be neatly tagged with
any straightforward marker of identity. Then, even the discussion on
Kashmir on this list will be placed in a better and more complex
perspective than it is at present. And yes, then, the discussion on
issues to do with 'nations, nationalism, the state, etc.' will be
more nuanced and complex.
We do hear sometimes from Shambhu Rahmat and Naeem Mohaiemen in
Bangladesh, we do hear from Anivar Arvind on the situation in Kerala,
we have heard in recent days from Lawrence Liang of the courtroom
farce performed by the counsel for the Ministry of Home Affairs of
the Government of India in relation to the proceedings regarding the
criminalization of Homosexualiy under section 377 of the Indian Penal
Code and I am learning a lot from the recent discussions on the
financial crises in the United States from the postings that took
place yesterday (thanks Madhumita, Isaac, and others) .
And I wish that Yasir, who posts from Pakistan, would post more
often. And we actually need to actively canvas more subscribers from
other parts of the world, other parts of India, other parts of South
Asia, with other interests. If you are a list member who wants to
save this list from being monopolized by any one kind of discussion,
why not invite friends who might live in, or be concerned about, say,
the 'North East', to subscibe, to post, or to post more. Why not
invite a friend who is a musician, or an architect, or a scientist to
share their concerns. Why not post stuff that you might find
interesting about Iran, or China, or about Dalit poetry or about
Queer science? (this is just a random list of things and issues that
might be of interest, others will have other interests)
In the long history of this list (which is publicly archived) we
had discussions on Iraq, on free software, on piracy, on demolitions
in cities like Delhi, on town planning, on contemporary art
exhibitions, on surveillance, on poetry, on performance and on
censorship. I remember vividly, for instance, Yoginder Sikand's
postings from his travels in Iran, Aman Sethi's postings on the
working people of Delhi's streets, Zainab Bawa's postings from the
local trains of Mumbai and Rajesh Kamat's postings on Theyyam
performers in Kerala (and many more, particularly from the large body
of Sarai Independent Research Fellows). More recently, we have had
intense discussions on Nandigram, on Tibet, on software patents, and
the beginnings of discussions on whether or how to reclaim the
streets of our cities with 'critical mass' cycling. I particularly
enjoyed reading the forwards on the 'particle accelerator' experiment
in CERN. But we need more.
We need to return to that wide spectrum of issues, (and to make it
wider) so that those who seek to utilize this list for the
perpetuation of their narrowly political or ideological agendas or
pet personal peeves are overwhelmed by the vibrancy and depth of our
discussion. For this to happen, you, I, and everyone else on this
list will need to do a little bit of work now and then. We will need
to bring our worlds, the worlds that intrigue us, make us curious,
make us wonder, the things that make us interesting men and women,
come alive on this list. We need to forward and write things about
books we read, blogs we visit, places we discover, music we listen to
and about encounters with strangers in buses and trains. Let the
staged and hollow violence of police 'encounters' not govern all our
reflections on the randomness, unpredictability and uncertainty (all
of which can also be wonderful) of daily life.
And though I often find myself entangled in political discussions on
this list, I also personally feel the need for discussions that are
not solely about politics. And sometimes, I want to just listen, or
read. Our lives are much richer than the crises that are
manufactured on a daily basis by the state and its shadowy hirlings,
or by insurgents ready and waiting to promulgate repressive state
apparatuses of their own at the earliest opportunity. This list was
originally intended to be a forum for discussion, reflection,
speculation on a whole host of matters - from everday life in our
cities (and the recent postings from Jamia Nagar (by Shakeb, Ambarien
and Yusuf) in the wake of the so called 'encounter' are, in my view,
excellent examples of one kind of writing about 'everyday urban
life') , to software, to technology, contemporary culture and
contemporary art.
Politics, terrorism, the nation-state, nationalism - these are all
important issues, but it would be a great pity if they came to
represent a strangling of the imagination and discursive vigour of
this list. And yes, you are right, even these need to be discussed
from more than a set of easily binary vantage points. So please, (and
this is an appeal and a request to everyone on this list) please do
not let this list be monopolized by any one set of concerns, no
matter what they may be. If you see the 'Hindu Right' (or any other
political tendency inimical to liberty, it could be Muslim or
Christian Fundamentalism, or an authoritarian and paranoiac variety
of Maoism or Stalinism, or the dull conformity of neo-liberal thought
tomorrow just as easily as it is the Hindutva and Indian nationalist
agenda today making a concerted effort to monopolize this list, or to
intimidate others with their tone and the frequency of their
outpourings, then outwit and outsmart them with dispersed but
passionate energy, with lively discursive variety. If you (and I and
all of us) don't, this list, like so much else that is valuable in
our part of the world, will be poisoned, most of all, by the monotony
of one dimensional men (and they are, in the main, men with a capital
'M') of one kind or another.
Finally, I would like to share my feelings on the matter of tone,
language and registers of speech. I have maintained, and maintain,
that censoring speech is ultimately a sign of our weakness and
defeat. I accept, with sadness, that under certain circumstances,
when slander and attacks, especially of a personalized, misogynist
and racist nature are made, the overall consensus of the list may
seek to censor an individual, and that under these most exceptional
of circumstances, this may be necessary for the sake of the
discursive health of the list. And I hope that though we may have to,
on occasion, 'censure', we can avoid, as far as is possible,
'censoring' in the future.
This naturally means that when expressing (even antagonistic)
positions, the participants on the list maintain a degree of decorum
and restraint about the tone and language they use, without
compromising on the substance of their argument. Perhaps we can have
a 'three strikes and out' kind of system, when warnings and the final
exclusion can be decided upon by the administrator on the basis of
complaints regarding ad hominem, racist, misogynist, homophobic,
defamatory or libellious speech acts. I am not certain if this can be
a solution, but I would welcome us all to think carefully regarding
this question. All creative suggestions are more than welcome.
Perhaps there can be a better modus than what immediately springs to
mind, and hopefully, we will not have to censor anyone at all.
Whenever this (censorship) happens, wherever it happens, I am
personally saddened. I am saddened because it is an indication of the
fact that no matter how hard we may try to maintain and secure a
space for freedom of expression, all it takes is one callous,
thoughtless, selfish outburst to destroy, what is, frankly, for some
of us, many years of work. We are not here to indulge in our personal
fantasies of self aggrandisement, we are here because we take the
matter and business of a democratic space for discourse very
seriously. We are here, because we live in societies where freedom of
expression is under daily assault by self appointed busybodies who
impose their all too quickly hurt sentiments with great aggression on
sensible discursive practices. We are here because over time, this
list has acquired a character that would be a pity to sacrifice to
the narcissism of a few.
It hurts me that we have to resort to the extremity of exclusion and
banning to maintain the health of a list, but it also hurts me that
the person who has been censored, or censured, brought the list to a
situation, by their needlessly provocative and personalized form of
speech, despite repeated prior warnings that misogyny (hateful speech
against women on account of their sex) and enraged communal speech is
not acceptable, and that it does not help any argument, or any cause.
I find it especially intriguing that those who take great pride in
their culture, in their civilizational ethos, in their 'national
identity' are often the first to fling the lowest of blows. As if all
their hallowed 'values' were bought at a discount in some jumble sale
of sham and counterfeit goods. When faced by a depleting stock of
reason, or of simple citable facts, some of our proud patriots do
what comes easiest in a street corner brawl, bring out a long and
monotonous line of abuse, ad-hominem remarks and usually,
unadulterated misogyny. Nine times out of ten, I am sorry to say, the
face of the pervert lurks uncomfortably close to the mask of the
patriot, exposing by default, the pathological inner core of so much
that seeks to flaunt itself in the name of Indian nationalism . I
really wish it were otherwise. I would have enjoyed a better class of
adversary to joust with.
And so, we are subjected to accusations and insinuations. To slander
and unwanted, unwarranted speculation about our personal lives,
political motivations and sexual preferences. I have been called a
terrorist and a procurer on this list, and others have been called
worse, and though I have nothing against procuring, I do have a great
deal against terrorism of any kind, including the one that displays
its machismo on a keyboard with as much sick intensity as other kinds
do in throwing bombs at crowded marketplaces. Destroying, or
attempting to destroy a carefully, diligently cultivated democratic
and open form of free expression is as heinous an act of terror as
throwing bombs at people. I see little difference in principle,
between the masked bomb thrower on a motorcycle, the policeman who
pumps bullets into an unarmed individual at their mercy and a person
who terrorizes an online community such as ours with misogyny or
unsubstantiated and unsubstantiable accusations of 'terrorism'. If
the earlier two forms of violence are instances of the terrorism of
the deed, than the last is an example of terrorism of discourse. I
say this with reluctance, with some thought, and with some
deliberation, especially because I hate the loose, casual and
cavalier usage of words like 'terrorism' in our public life.
I believe, that in the end, it is only an open, deeply public,
profoundly diverse form of imaginative, engaged everyday politics
that can defeat terrorism and state terror. For the same reasons I
believe that this list needs your active engagement, and the active
engagement of every sensible list member, with a variety of postings,
on different subjects, on a regular basis, and not only in times of
perceived 'crisis', so that those who want to hold our minds and
attention hostage on this list are not allowed to prevail. Let's all
make sure that this list is not 'hijacked' by anyone. So make a
beginning Radhakrishan, (and everyone else), post something on an
issue completely unrelated to the shadows that have hung over this
list for so long. Dazzle us and surprise us with ordinary words,
extra-ordinary thoughts and the pleasant hum of a good conversation.
Let us not forget, evade or gloss over anything, no matter how
painful, but let us not be ruled and be tyrannized by the things that
cause us pain.
thanks for your post, once again,
yours
Shuddha
On 24-Sep-08, at 10:18 PM, Radhakrishnan wrote:
> Dear Folks!
> I want to express my anguish about the level of debate and
> unwarranted personal attacks and slander. in fact I had raised
> similar issues through an email to Shuddha. I am making these
> observations with with deep regret, since I have high regard for
> Sarai as a platform for raising and debating significant issues.
> But since some months there has been a tendency to mock, and even
> write responses which at times very patronizing and condescending.
> They are not only Delhi centric but remain impervious towards the
> site of conflict – perhaps it’s an urban centric perspective which
> doesn’t take the real India in account while pontificating on such
> issues. So there is a greater need to exercise caution and as well
> display sensitivity while debating issues significant to our day to
> day existence.
>
>
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