[Urbanstudy] Re:Nangla Machi

[anant m]

hi all
  I am a little puzzled by this debate. at first i thought the issue was just that the word 'state'  in sanjay's posting could be read in two different registers (as he himself clarified) state as an ensemble of institutions, hierarchies, spatiotemporal fixities. i am not sure that the such a state could still be said to be responsible for the eviction of nangla machi and for the mine disaster in seby's home town in exactly the same way. but, then perhaps yes. the second register which was the intended one when sanjay said 'we are all the state' is the one in which the state is a disposition towards certain micro practices of seeing, of annunciation, of exercising everyday power, etc. 
  but as these exchanges continue, i am beginning to wonder if after all neither of these is adequate to understand what is going on in 'our' nangla machi.  if i were to be there, like many of us, i would take an unambiguous stand against the 'state' (as in the first register), i would be self reflexive as it would seem necessary from the second register  but still, there is something that remains elusive here. how and why are we assuming that 'speechlessness' and 'lack of illumination' are positions of powerlessness ? those tropes seem to go hand in hand with the tropes of 'outsiders' and 'insiders'. there isnt anything transparent and obvious about these metaphors is there ? speechlessness can be as much a tactical move as the desire to keep something concealed from the probing light. if our deployment of these images is not innocent of power, as we all seem to be constantly reminding ourselves,  then doesnt it beg the question: what sort of politics are we desiring to
 engage in here by assigning power to speech and perhaps by extension to writing ? 
  anant
  
shveta at sarai.net wrote:
  Dear Sanjay,

The mode of address of the posting reminded me of a quote from
Friedrich Nietzche - "The truth is that there is nothing noble in
being superior to somebody else. The only real nobility is in being
superior to your own former self and realizing that there are others"

Still trying to work out the possible communicative despair produced
by the oscillating position between suffering speechless subjects
(some are disappearing) and the world of total complicity of "we are
all state".

bestest

		
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