[Urbanstudy] Re: Nangla Machi

[Sanjay Srivastava]

Dear Shveta and Anant
I don't quite know how to respond since I am not very clear about the term
'communicative despair', and, how we got from what we were discussing to
Nietzsche. Though, in as much I understand what is being said in relation to
the latter, I wonder if Nietzsche thinking is a good guide to how one should
regard 'others': his own attitudes towards non-Europeans might bear close
reading. Anyway, since I might be completely wrong about what is being said,
and why Nietzsche (and not, for example, Rahul Sankrityayan...) is appropriate
here, I will have to leave it as is, and think about it some more.

Re. the 'speechless subject', the points Anant makes about 'speech' and
'speechlessness, seem, in as much they touch upon an area where 'politics'
isn't as black and white as we might assume, important. Though, on a connected
issue,  I guess 'messiness' as a strategy of dealing with, say, a very powerful
state, has both plusses and minuses for the poor: so while getting enumerated by
state agencies has its problems, sometimes it can also be a powerful strategy of
making claims upon it, particularly for the poor.

I can only say that a number of different things are happening in Nangla, and I
am certainly not equipped to deal with all aspects. Different people come with
different ways of dealing with the issue, and what might make for a complex
picture of 'what's happening' are the different accounts.  I don't , for
example, view accounts of violence as competing (or, displacing) others that
might cover another aspect.  Regards,
Sanjay

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>    1. Re: Re:Nangla Machi (anant m)
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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> Message: 1
> Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 04:18:25 +0100 (BST)
> From: anant m <anant_umn at yahoo.co.uk>
> Subject: Re: [Urbanstudy] Re:Nangla Machi
> To: shveta at sarai.net, Sanjay Srivastava <sanjays at deakin.edu.au>
> Cc: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net
> Message-ID: <20060410031826.51856.qmail at web25702.mail.ukl.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> 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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