My teacher is no more. Professor Michael Gurevitch passed away this morning.

As I fight my tears in disbelief, I am also smiling at my various imaginings. In my little world of unbridled imaginations, Prof Gurevitch was Woody Allen’s Side Effects and head of McLuhan’s Global Village. He was the moderator of the noise in my world of blogs. He was the caricaturist of the planet myspace. Prof Gurevitch was the professor without the difficult words. He was the guide with the greatest wits. He was a scholar who knew his roots. A teacher ever willing to learn. He was the one who I always wanted to emulate. And I shall always do.

So what if he is no more in this world? Certainly, he will be missed terribly by his most loving family; he is going to be missed on the corridors of the College in Maryland by his colleagues. He is also going to be missed at the committee meetings and classrooms by the graduate students, no doubt.

But more importantly, it is his presence that will be felt forever as media studies will continue to be researched upon. It is his contributions to global comparative analysis that will help shape future perceptions as the world shrinks even further. It is Professor Gurevitch’s staunch refusal to limit to the dichotomies that will pave the way for eliminations of schools of thoughts in a deeply divided world of media theories.

And personally for me, he shall reside in my mind and heart, in my pen and keyboard, in my thoughts and actions, than he will ever likely to be missed.

Before I attended the very first class with him, it was my beloved professor, Dr John W Cordes who offered me an introduction. So deeply in love with Prof Cordes’ class that I was, I was slightly apprehensive of leaving the room for the next. Prof Cordes asked me, “Whose class is next?” I said, “Dr Gurevitch’s”. I remember very vividly the reply given by Prof Cordes: “Oh is it? I am so jealous and you are all so fortunate that you shall now be attending to a lecture by Michael!”.

Prof Cordes is always a man of very few words. Although intensely philosophical at heart, he is always concise, and although deeply theoretical, he spoke s a little. And yet, when he offered such a rich tribute to a living professor that one usually reserves for the legends and myths, I could not wait any longer to meet with Prof Gurevitch.

The professor at the Media Theory class was not visibly impressive. He was not dressed in a suit. He was not articulate in his words. He was not polite enough to be the quintessential gentleman. He was not elite enough to be a full professor of a research university. On the contrary, he was the most casual presence in the classroom. He was extremely sarcastic when it came to most thoughts. He was the one who would turn the student’s question upside down and then ask the student what is meant by turning a question upside down.

For Prof Gurevitch, asking the question was not enough. Asking the right questions was crucial. Watching the TV was not inducing violence. Getting afraid of the televised cops was. Presidential elections were not important enough to be in the media. Media were more important for the presidential candidates to continue the fanfare. Would violence stop if there were no video games? Would everyone be so obsessed with their presidents if the television attended to more important issues?

Is it the driver or the bus that’s saying hello to you when you step inside? Why are people so polite in their interactions? Is it because the society is so highly segmented so as to lead to instrumental relationships? Are we gossiping more about the celebrities than our neighbors? No, gossiping is not bad. We have just been overlooking the scene outside the windows, if at all we open it once in a while.

Prof Gurevitch was equally sarcastic of the ideologies. And no, the ideologies were not in the communist countries. When media focus on President Bush, they are doing the duty of presidential coverage. Why are media considered unfree when they focus on the presidents in a totalitarian regime in those countries?

If media are supposed to make us informed citizens, we can ask how well do they perform their role. Perhaps we can test the people if they are well informed, and the professor would chuckle to himself. Then he would be generous to the ambitious freethinking scholars and say that the level of information and level of informed people perhaps do not provide the required comparative scale, but they merely show there is a disconnect somewhere.

Does the disconnect start at the dining room? Why is it that in the American society, sanctity of privacy is so highly regarded that the public sphere almost goes amiss? Why should people discuss politics over food when they can rather watch television? How different is it in a country like Cuba where people watch televisions in communities? Is it a good thing that people cannot afford individual TV sets? What have we done to community radio? How do we know what the housewives feel as a collective experience? Is there a distinction between citizens and consumers? If the democracy needs citizens, do we have a democracy existing today? Have the media not turned us all into consumers? Why do students remain silent inside the libraries? Why is there a “Do not Talk” signboard at a place where debates must naturally should take place?

Prof Gurevitch was never short of questions. When he asked me what was my blog all about, I asked him to go through it. He stressed that he does not even have any interest to write emails to people. He does not believe cell phones are tools of liberation. And yet, the next time I saw him after that was at an informal gathering of bloggers. I walked upto him to pay him respect and give some company as he was the only old man conspicuous by his presence sitting by the corner leaving few empty benches ahead of him. He said he was there to feel the pulse of the blogs. “Can you lend me the video you took of the blog conference you said you had attended in Washington DC last month?”

Prof Gurevitch decided to remain in my committee. Yes the dissertation is about the blogs, but I shall address the issues of noise, he said. I was absolutely thrilled and remained grateful. I am yet to know if the blogs are the vehicles of some sort of liberation, or some sort of noise, but among many words of wisdom that I have learned from Prof Gurevitch, I ever so closely remember the most is his note of caution to me: “Do everything that you must, but take a pause once in a while in life’s journey and look back. Who knows, you might discover you were wrong in some ways. Then move forward again.”

Prof Gurevitch’s own life was a saga of pause and play. In an academic world of strict schools of thoughts, he had to choose his sides only to later disown them gracefully. Earning a doctoral degree through quantitative empirical analysis only to show merits of theoretical qualitative scholarship later. A Marxist scholar who would on more occasion than one publicly deny the allegation. As the Howard Zinn of the media studies in my view, Prof Gurevitch was deeply saddened by the orthodoxy and elitism pervading the Marxist scholarship today. To the classroom he would often digress from Marx and go beyond to Hegel, and as my good fortune, he would then think for a while and say, “hmm..Saswat would have a clue about Hegel, I am sure”.

He knew throughout of my spiritual and emotional love for Karl Marx and Marxist-Leninist philosophies. He was never the one to dismiss the merits of a system that many in American academia swear has failed. He was more concerned about the collective amnesia regarding the constant failure of the democracy that is being heralded as a success. Democracy was a failure in the US as glaringly as it was in India. Who are the ones researching about it? I brought to him texts that were apolitical in many ways to walk the safe lanes. He instead brought his notepad and wrote down the names of the scholars I had proposed. Gayatri Spivak was one of the many he would subsequently go to read about. Feminism was not the solution, and film studies he would stay clear of, but like the blogs, his initial resistance was not so much a denial of his want, as to test how well committed were the arguments in favor of various schools. Once convinced of the arguments, he would go one step further to provide support. I remember clearly how on the day of defense of my Comprehensive examination he asked me in the end, “I am going to ask you a question that I have not asked anyone before.” I was naturally most curious and very apprehensive. He then went on to say, “Frame a question yourself that you would like to answer because you think the question is important, and then answer it yourself.” I was stunned, and delighted at the same time. Was it not just the greatest compliment I had ever received in my life? Or was it perhaps the most difficult question I had ever faced? Either way, it was a lesson I shall always cherish in life, and a wisdom I shall pass along as I keep growing up.

Prof Gurevitch had a sarcasm towards the so-called free society that never really left him. He knew well that the free society was free depending on how much means of freedom one owns. Closer home, he knew how free he was in the classroom depended on how much was he going to be allowed to be. Even with his public shyness from academic radicalism, he often was branded in political terms. In the entire University of Maryland Systems, he was the most qualified of the professors to be offered the least compensation for his contributions. A couple of years back when I had checked into the public disclosure of annual salaries of the university community, most faculty members who were not even full Professors were being paid three times more the amount than Prof Gurevitch himself. Not that he ever discussed why it was so, but he certainly alluded to the fact that even the professors in the free society needed to buy themselves some grants as well. These are the times when there are way less grants for critical studies research, and lot more funding for administrative researches. In this world of unnecessarily positive fancies, where undergrad students would much rather hear of a beautiful career of television anchoring than learn about media monopolies and exploitations, it was only natural that critical media scholarship was about to slowly go defunct.

A former colleague of the legendary Stuart Hall, Prof Gurevitch relentlessly continued his scathing yet constructive attack on the corporate media and conclusively proved that “Media Studies” was not about studying media alone, it was about ripping apart the media as well. Media have always been active agents of the ruling classes everywhere in the world. It is time to honestly critique their roles and needs. Prof Gurevitch in his inimitable wit suggested a website in the classroom during the time none of us had an idea it existed. Nakednews.com is also a media, in fact it offers the very latest news, except that it is more candid about the fetishism surrounding television news. We laughed, but learned it to be true as well.

Amidst the laughter and learning processes, there are millions of words he spoke, and spoke well. Thousands of examples he offered that brought life to a field yet to be systematized. Evidences he suggested which brought to surface the reality that human beings are not scientific, how can the media be?

And beneath all his teachings, and erudite research, he was forever a simple man who had good words to say about different cultures, a winning way to speak with the students, a collegial comrade to his beloved college. And as I recollect the person who perhaps was closest to him in academia in his later years, Prof Kathy McAdams, saying to me, “Did you just take a class with Michael? Did you not simply love him?” I realize that not only have I been so fortunate as having attended his class, I have always and shall continue to love him as a human being I have been proud to have known in this life.

Tags: Saswat, Media, Academic, Activism

By Saswat Pattanayak

Did you know that there is no power in parts of the famed New York City for last 10 days?

Highly probable, you heard it here first. Some friends wrote to me saying it was unbelievable as well. How come no one seems to be discussing it? How come no media well worth its name appears to be highlighting this crisis (one of the biggest blackouts in NY history)? Is it because most affected parts houses working class immigrants or is it simply a case of mammoth inefficiency that plagues ConEd so much that it hides behind public relations veil?

Not that staying without power is the irrepressible gift only of the Third World to humanity. But 10 full days without power in any major city does seem like some natural catastrophe might have caused the havoc. Well, that’s also not the case here. No natural cataclysm dismantled New York last Sunday and in fact, the causes behind 10 days that shook New York are still largely unknown.

What is known, however is what NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg says. After a highly outrageous sense of irresponsibility that was demonstrated by America’s largest utility company ConEd for more than a week, Bloomberg has in fact lent support to the CEO Kevin Burke.

That Bloomberg would do such is no surprise. A billionaire and a Republican, the Mayor preferred to remain blissfully ignorant of the power crisis for the first three days. Upon demands by the affected residents for criminal investigations against Burke, and ConEd, the Mayor arrived in Queens finally and expressed his astonishment at the discovery. But just as the protesting residents assumed their problem was getting a sympathetic ear, we heard of the MayorSpeak about ConEd: “They’ve been open; they’ve been responsive; they’ve been working well with the city; they’ve accepted our help every time. We can’t ask for anything else. It is their company, their network. ….”

Quite justifiably, residents of New York City, from Astoria, Sunnyside, Woodside, Hunters Point are drawing parallels with aftermath to Hurricane Katrina, when President Bush was all praises for the former FEMA head Michael Brown. Mayor Bloomberg in fact topped Bush in this regard. “I think Kevin Burke deserves a thanks from this city. He’s worked as hard as he can every single day since then, as has everybody at ConEd,” Mayor said yesterday in response to ConEd’s efforts to restore power.

Fact Sheet:
Mayor Bloomberg might be well knowing about what his capitalist pal Burke did from day one, but since he did not know of the power crisis from its Day One, people have reasonable doubts over Burke’s knowledge of it as well.

In fact, Con Ed’s initial response to this latest blackout as Socialist Equality Party candidate Bill Van Auken says, “has not only been woefully slow, but reeks of incompetence. For the first three days, ConEd reported that only 1,200 to 2,100 “customers” were without power. It then emerged that in reality the crisis had blacked out more than 25,000 “customers,” meaning family homes, businesses and, in some cases, entire apartment buildings. In addition to the 100,000 people left without any power, several hundred thousand more had power reduced, meaning in many cases that elevators, air conditioners and refrigerators did not work.”





Photos by Saswat

The power crisis is not over yet for thousands of people, and yet New York City Mayor’s blatant support in favor of a deliberately misleading, and acutely indifferent private profiteering company opens up the debate of social irresponsibility of the capitalist system.

First, the issue was not highlighted in mainstream media, thanks to enormous reach of the ConEd’s PR wing (which must be dealing less with Public, more with Press). Television channels even went on to telecast how the “rowdy residents of Astoria” were behaving in power crisis. Second, they brought the Mayor in, not to empathize with the suffering residents (notwithstanding a report of death, and many old people falling sick), but to stand by ConEd.

Affected residents feel cheated and blindsided. They also feel like second class citizens of America. Not because they are Americans. Not because they demanded quicker relief. But because they do not live in Upper East Side or Wall Street. Because, like their counterparts in New Orleans, they comprise the minority communities, mostly working class, and mostly powerless.

And just like marginalized New Orleans residents were fighting the FEMA, the marginalized New York residents are fighting the largest utility company of America. It’s not just a temporary crisis owing to lack of electric power. It’s also a mass battle against the global corporate czars to regain peoples’ power.

Tags: Saswat, USA, Capitalism

By Saswat Pattanayak

May 1 has always been special to me. I am sure it is the same for many of my friends. More than 18 years ago on this day, we organized efforts to create an association of neighborhood children of Jayadev Vihar, Bhubaneswar. We must have been young and innocent then. Rakesh (Sabir Mohammad), Mituna (Mitrabhanu Mohanty), Jaji (Jayajit Dash), Munlu (Spandan Biswal) were few of the driving forces. Back then, world was not yet unipolar. Misha magazine printed at Soviet Union was widely adored. Beautiful cartoon narratives in this colorful magazine were always a big draw. Books like Situational Grammar and Eleven Stories for Boys and Girls formed part of the library we created over the years. Most households proudly and yet most unassumingly read great number of books for children and adults, published in the USSR.

The Children’s Library of Fancy Club indeed was a culminating collective. The collective had few rules. We would pay a minimum monthly due and spend it towards organizing quizzes, buying comic books, English classics, Soviet books and organizing some periodic events. Of course we would play Cricket and badminton and hockey and football and chess…!

Three years after, we changed the name to Pacific Club and expanded the base to include other fellow students from different neighborhoods. Pacific, to us, of course meant a change in direction. “Promote peace and reduce conflict.” This was in 1990-91. By this time, world was leaving us behind. We knew an essential component of our childhood—the association with Soviet literature—would no more be a visible part of daily life. Indeed with the ‘failure’ and ‘demise’ of the ideology, we would no more find similar books any longer at the book fairs. Where some stores would have the old copies, they would be sold at such dirt cheap prices that even purchasing them would seem burdensome. After all, if they are this throw-away, then they must indeed be.

Pacific Club, despite changes in the world political shiftings, started on a May 1 morning too! And we did not exactly know why, except that this was still the day we identified with as the dearest for us. Two years hence, when we again revisited how we were naming ourselves, we thought a transition from Fancy to Pacific was a necessity. And hence a transition from ‘Club’ to Aces would possibly be logical too. So we abandoned any remaining elitism to make ourselves (expanding membership bases still all the more) become more organized. By this time, computers started making their presence. Hand-written and typewritten membership forms were replaced by desktop publishing. Monthly dues increased slightly. We were in the high-schools already and needed to discipline ourselves more into maintaining catalogues, entries, monthly updates of magazines and books. The library continued to make impacts nevertheless. Weekly quizzes continued to happen.

Into colleges, and some of us still were in schools, other changes were promising to happen. Perestroika and Glasnost were two familiar words by now. For good or worse, the world was changing rapidly and a third-world country children were slightly feeling the tremors. Some amount of cooperativeness still prevailed. Suicides among students were still low. More children still smiled at Chacha Chowdhury than they did few years after.

When we all found ourselves in a hostile and oftentimes indifferent world, Tanjug helped conceptualize a Red Peace Movement while in Delhi, in 1998, and May 1 was still the date of its inception. When three years later, work on the Ego Magazine started as a collective editorial process, May 1 again launched the journal. Only last year when Whosemedia started to offer alternative tidbits, how could I not start on a May 1?

In one individual life, or in several of ours (Amarendra Paital, Ziauddin Ali, Biswanath Patnaik, Tanjug Singh, Hemant Rohella, M Ravi Kumar etc etc….), May 1 continued to impact. Just incidentally…Or intentionally as well..

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I am not sure if it was political. Or could it be at all political, when we were as young as 10 (and some of us were even younger!). But the only thing we could connect with May 1 was a word called ‘International’. It was the only international day of observance we ever knew. Among all the regional, religious and ethno-centric festivities that marked Indian society, May 1 was the single most international observation we could celebrate. And I guess, with the desire to know the world of Misha and Robinhood, we had somewhere fallen in love with the world itself. And May 1 stood out as the day of love.

With the resounding laughter of silent Charlie Chaplin, we were learning what an internationalist he was. With a Japanese-sole, British coat, a Russian hat, and an Indian heart, when Raj Kapoor died in 1989, we were too young to feel the loss. Or too international already to celebrate his legacy. Doordarshan (the Indian peoples TV) was not then corrupted by mythologies yet and it had great educational programs and solidarity serials. Biggest hit of the period was still Maine Pyar Kiya-one where the hero rejected his class society status and worked as a proletariat to prove his qualification as a worthy man. The 80’s India was a transitional period. One that killed Indira Gandhi, witnessed transfer of power in Soviet Union and one that paved the way for 90’s liberalization.

With globalization, one would have assumed that May 1 would become all the more celebrated. Ironically, the more liberalized we became, the less we felt passionate about international causes! African Fund or Non-Aligned Movement or SAARC—all lost relevance in the post-1991 era. Disarmament, Olympic Games or Parallel Cinema—all lost charm in the liberal age. The identification with worker’s movements in the local trade unions or in the larger understanding of 8-hour days were lost on us as we gradually entered the new era of free capital. And the sheer romanticism associated with peoples of the world was replaced by pragmatic failures of the utter money-market hardcore stoicism.

Today May 1 is a symbolism. Not a movement. In different parts, different strikes are being organized. Protest marches for variety of reasons. Just arbitrary dozens speaking-out and hundreds of people way scared to leave their workplace to come out. There is nothing international about the May 1 of 2006. Indeed the spirits are no more. Or are the spirits only there?

I don’t know about the future. For me, May 1 is a big day of introspection. May 1 spoke of the worldwide connection that we had. The Penpal friends we made out of intention. The postage stamps we collected to know the colors of the different lands. In the entire gamut of understanding how we were related to our families, our families to the society, the society to the state, the state to the country, the country to the continent, the continent to the world. May 1 connected us to possibilities of uniting with this world all the time, all the while. Not to connect superficially as hero-worshippers of western soaps or shopping malls. But to connect with other people “like us” who wanted peace and happiness for all.

May 1 helps me this year to think of what happened over the years. To connect the several associations and clubs and community organizations we formed while we were young, to the understanding of our global values. By recognizing ourselves more, we could identify with others all the more. The possibilities, and hopes for a better “world” was the mantra then. For a better world, we tried to learn of the world from the oppressed lenses. We never forgot we belonged to the third world. We never assumed the rest of the suffering population of the world as anything other than our dear friends.

What happened to the dreams of yesteryears when we all dreamt of equality of opportunities for all of us. When we talked of free housing, medical care and primary education. When we planned about free time to watch movies or read a folk story. When we thought of one world, one people, one public property sphere. When we envisioned there would not be some people too rich and too many people too poor. When working people will not live in fear of losing jobs, or getting underpaid or work as slaves in firms owned by slaveowners. When we dreamt we would respect each work with dignity, and not pay mental workers abnormally higher than we pay manual workers. When we thought we would not bomb countries endlessly, we would not destroy ecology mindlessly, and not make commodities off everything ceaselessly. We dreamt as much in the 80’s when we grew up in our early childhood and teens. With May 1 by our side!

Tags: Saswat, India, Orissa, Communism

The following article is authored by two of my dearest comrades.

In the quest for What Needs to be Done!

Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Media, Capitalism, Racism, USA

By Saswat Pattanayak

Hyderabad is always as good as one could get. Hustle bustle of a rural life felt across the atomized civic livelihoods, Hyderabad is the classic paradox in many senses. The celluloid dreams of the star-struck ones come into virtual slides through the millions of auto-rickshaws; the amazement of the erected few buildings get diluted via the hundreds of human scavengers amidst rubbles of abandoned dust bowls.

In my last visit to the city, under the dynamic leadership of a leader bent upon to convert the ancient city to Cyberabad, CM Naidu was busy ordering for the evacuation of street beggars from the city. Garibi Hatao (‘eradicate poverty&rsquo had started sounding stale. Maybe ‘Garib Hatao’ (eliminate the poor) sounded more promising since Mr Gates was scheduled to arrive!

Four years had passed in between and this time when I went to attend an international conference on technology and society, the whole gamut of social dimensions of technology could find no better platform of continued contradictions. The detachment of society from technology is never a natural outgrowth. It’s on the contrary a manufactured disconnect. Just like the life-saving drugs exuberantly priced, the IT avenues are also kept elitistically above reach. The technology is used to produce more technology. One program leads to another, one language needs the other. The whole spectrum of IT then becomes conditional upon success of IT itself. And with the growth of IT outpacing itself, as a self-serving panacea, focus on the usability of IT to further human causes gets diminished.

Amidst the angst that characterizes the world of capitalism today, I found two amazing friends with unbridled hopes—Vivek and Shaheen. Whereas Vivek could well teach the geek squads a few things or two as a software professional, Shaheen is a liberal arts student hoping to educate the needy someday soon. What struck me the most was their unequivocal pledges for social responsibility—neither of them adhering to the standards of neo-fascist order of selfish well-being nor growing ambitions of the individualistic Roarks.

After my brief stays in Delhi and Hyderabad, this is Bhubaneswar, my hometown. In many ways, the trip to India this winter will show some lights throughout the tunnel and I will shed some of that here.

Now, over to Tookie’s murder. Subseqent to some comments in the previous post, I got this message from a female reader:

Well I guess both David and Miguel are white guys….if not it is surprising and not a good surprise.

Tookie Williams was murdered by a system democratically elected by less than 25% of the country’s population. He had asked for forgiveness for the crimes he admitted to have committed and had turned his life around and given back to the society more than most law abiding citizens have (including David and Miguel I am sure). Correction facilities are meant for repentance and becoming a good citizen and Williams was a blazing example of that. And when it came to the matter of life and death don’t you think he would have accepted the alleged crime of killing four men, since that is what Governor Schwarzenegger wanted in order to grant him clemency?

If the four men had not been white, Williams would have had some chance of getting clemency……..just a thought. His defiance to admit to the alleged crime till the end proves that he was wrongly convicted. Conscientious citizens and young people around the world will suffer his loss.

Capital punishment, a.k.a. state sponsored murder, seems so fair when people in designer suits and professional attire decide that someone needs to be killed, it’s so class. Then we have well dressed people being witnesses to an execution and coming on live TV to express their feelings about an unfortunate yet just event. And then we have those people who enjoy the twisted vicarious pleasure of murdering people, who worship capital punishment.

Most poeple in the civilized world, the ones with the resources to live life as planned by the system have the liberty to judge others, who are less fortunate, for the crimes they do (or allegedly commit). Such people do not once take into consideration the prevailing conditions, sustained by the socio-politico-economic system of a given country, which foster youths to join gangs, do drugs, or commit so called crimes. If anyone is to be blamed for most of the crimes it is the system; a system that is unable to provide its youth the resources, opportunities, and hope in abundance to ensure they become responsible and productive individuals.

And please don't talk about Gandhi, King and Mandela...it does not suit guys who are in favor of capital punishment to use icons of peace to prove their despicable view points. And moreover no one is born great, prevailing conditions trigger the passion of some people to do things extraordinarily and then some gain the support of the masses in order to be revered as great.

Despite the fact that US has the largest prison system and highest number of inmates (mostly people of color), it still has a competitive crime rate compared to any other country. David and Miguel like people can best explain this situation I guess…….and I will not be surprised again if one reason they might give is the increase in the number of minorities and poor people in the country.

It is not always about ‘don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time’, because most often even if one does the time and turn his/her life around, one has a minimal chances of living a normal life if he/she is not white, rich and politically ignorant/right.

When we read history and call people in the bygone ears barbaric for the way they treated the culprits or fought war. Hopefully things will change for better in the next 200 or so years and our forthcoming generations will learn what opinions guys like David and Miguel held regarding capital punishment. Oh! Won’t they be proud of you guys?

For the rest of us who are experiencing the loss of Williams and likes will have little parts of us executed for the rest of our lives until things don’t change for better, socially, politically, and economically.

Tags: Saswat, Racism, Media, USA, Capitalism, India

And just to follow up on the previous post:

Organized students of the University of Maryland did not protest against any police department.
Students instead protested against systematic institutions of prejudices, bias and excessive violence. The three-points approach involved students to bring awareness about racial injustice within power structure of the school; to expose underlying racial tensions existing among community, student bodies and the country; to prevent future incidents of police brutality and further abuse of power and authority.

Listen to student protests live— and to the funkinest journalist Jared Ball sensitizing minds about what people should do when they are approached by the police. What are your rights? What are your stakes?

From the streets of College Park, the FreeMix Radio – out there to cover the systematic racism and violence at nation’s one of the top research institutions. Listen to it here, for the CNN will never bother.

Tags: Saswat, Media, Racism

National Communication Association conference at Boston this week.

Tags: Saswat, Academic, Media

I had a period of silence. And it was deafening.

The so-called natural disasters are no more within the control of the nature anymore. Not just do disasters of such scale continue to persist (despite the fact that there should be none, considering the “progress” we have made in terms of our understanding of nature) because of human interference in ecological balance (what with the high-rises, the nuclear underground/water tests, the unusual warming), but even the aftermaths of the disasters continue to ravage human lives (which are logically most extremely avoidable).

So the most recent (in)human disaster has a name: Katrina. In the few subsequent blog posts, I shall publish in entirety some reactions, responses and revolutionary stances that few people are taking everyday of their lives and which need to be emulated.

Personally speaking, I have few reservations about the donation-charity society. By going this way, we are absolving the government we elect of its role: which is to conduct itself in accordance to the demands of the social situation. I would be far better to see the anger than the gratitude in the face of victims. And my heart does not go out to them because they are in a state of dismay. My whole self goes, because they are angry. Agitated. This is the wake-up call.

Tags: Saswat, Environment, USA, Black Power, Racism

Well, the Undefined Tracks (and the regular features) will resume August 15.
Till then, A Quote of the Day, to thank readers who visit..: Saswat

Tags: Saswat, Quote

I am changing the content structure, starting today.

From this day on, Saswat Blog, apart from the "Undefined Tracks", shall feature six daily additions!:

"Blog of the Day"
“News to Muse”
“Maverick Movie”
“Book for Bibliophile”
“Site to Cite”
“Redemption Song”

Other major revisions (including availability of Archives and Critical Tracks) shall start from mid of August. Stay tuned!

Tags: Saswat

By Saswat Pattanayak

My New York tour this weekend was a well deserved one. The complexities and contradictions that map the country are so defined in this city of countercultures that it’s amazing to notice them visibly, despite the manufactured calmness.

The hungry and homeless in Manhattan scrounging for leftovers in trash, the piles of human defecation and unattended garbage in New York Central Park, and the street beggars singing different tunes have always characterized the city of the Trumps and Rockefellers.

Ground Zero, my cab driver laughed at us when we could not figure what to say about the venue my friend Biren Mohanty from Orissa wanted to check out. Obviously the driver was either a Muslim or a victim of post 9/11 racial outbursts. Or both. He did not even talk to us properly after we showed how much interested we were in visiting the site. “Do we have any other noteworthy place close by?” Silence.

The other cab driver, from Punjab, India, clearly took us to one Indian restaurant over another. “That’s great food, but too much money,” he pointed out to Jewel of India, “I will take you to Curry”. Off we went to the working class restaurant. The rich Indians and the Whites go to Jewel.

Apart from religion and class, the race equations were interesting as well. The cheapest bus tours are conducted by Chinese between DC and NY. And unfortunately this time, the bus had a mechanical problem for a couple of minutes. Three co-passengers who were African Americans burst out with all racial slurs they could in those 10 minutes of silent midnight to crack jokes. One passenger while excusing himself out was shouting “excuse me in English and every other language I don’t know so that you know.. hehe”. I was wondering if all of them were conscious of Ghettopoly vs Tsunami or it was just commonplace.

The crash moments of new york bare themselves everytime we have headed there. Yet that’s the best city of the country. The multiculturalism has not been normalized. The city sees the differences, understands the differences, even celebrates them, albeit some lacunae here and there. When in a Chinese restaurant I asked what curry was best for the dinner, the man answered, “Spicy Chicken Curry in Indian style”. That’s New York.

Two co-passengers were impressed by my invitation to them to share our cab in the wee hours of morning. I said if we all could share our stuffs, we would have a better community. Off the couple came up with a flyer to ask us to join them in protesting against Chinese govt for cracking down on individual liberties. Missing the whole point, that’s New York too.

The American political turmoils lend themselves to the awful representations that they manifest in. Amidst the billboards at Times square where companies smoke out billions of dollars every year just for exhibitions, do we need the poor trenchantly going hungry? With hundreds of skyscrapers inside the city, do the homeless need any place else to look for (incidentally they close down all the public toilets at 7pm)? Are these people who have tolerated the administrative indifferences thus far to let the world note NY as the biggest city ever devised, not the ones who have worked helluva lot to uphold the torch of human liberty for the humankind? In their silence lies the global presence of NY. The mute statue might just be symbolic!

Tags: Saswat, USA, Capitalism

By Saswat Pattanayak

Sunil Gavaskar turns 56 today. Happy Birthday, Sunny!

For the uninitiated and the ungrateful, Gavaskar brought Cricket alive.

The game of Cricket was not always a gentleman’s game. Nor it was always the greatest team game ever devised. It certainly was not such a delightfully artful game either.

Not very long ago, even at the turn of the 20th century, Cricket used to be utterly racist (now relatively racist), colonialist game played by the elites of two countries: England and Australia. These two countries not only did dominate it till well into the 1960’s, but also ensured by means of a series they called Ashes (the ashes of stumps in a cup as a running trophy), that Cricket remain their sole prerogative.

Not to say that they didn’t allow the Indian royal members to have a bite at the game. In fact, some of the better players in the 1930s and the yore included the Maharajahs: Duleepsinh, Ranjitsin, Fatehsinghrao Pratapsinghrao of Baroda, Krishnakumarsinh Gohil of Bhavnagar, Jitendra Narayan aka Maharaj Kumar Victor of Cooch Behar, Bhupendrasingh Rajindersingh of Patiala, Natwarsinh Bhavsinh of Porbandar, and Maharaja Kishan Razdan of Razdan.

By the time the game was generally played by the commoners in the post-British era in India, Cricket emerged as part of the colonial legacy, with Indians trying to play (not outdo) the British game. Of course the Lords at the Lord’s gave no two hoots. No one had predicted nor visualized that the mighty Blighty or the awesome Aussies would fall apart watching some brown skinners play their game. Until 1971.

It was then that a 5ft 5in opener without a helmet, Gavaskar got 774 off the very first series he played in. And it inspired a Calypso number “They could not out Sunny at all”. Stunning the world Cricket and announcing that India had arrived, he created almost a situation in India which went on to create millions of amateur cricketers over the next few years and making the underdogs the world champions.

Just after his retirement, and after being hailed as the cricketer with most runs, most tests, most innings, most centuries, most catches (some records are now broken), Gavaskar was inducted into the hall of fame by being conferred a membership by the Melbourne Cricket Club. Sunny refused it, much to the ire of world cricketers and many conservative Indians notably Bishen Singh Bedi and his ilk. His refusal ground clearly exposed the racism that existed in Cricket even after the game had earned decisively the largest fan following in the world, with help of teams like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Today Sunny is known not just as a legendary cricketer, but also a highly controversial one at that. But any undermining of his personality at the alter of controversy will wipe out the history chapter that need to be incorporated to feature the Indian captain who led the ship to major Indian post-British insurgence.

Tags: Saswat, Sports, India

Malik, Jared, Todd and I, the four usual suspects held our Sunday meeting. It went well, except that it turned out to be even more gleefully unmethodical than we had thought it would.

Crash had a sequel coming, called Trash. It was not Jackson who was being vied for, rather the magnitude of black innocent brothers who were being irresponsibly imprisoned that the issue found a channel through the MJ trial. Was Adorno alright about culture industry? And McLuhan more than the messages?

It was quite a journey. There are obviously gaps we need to bridge, journeys we have to pave a common path for, and ideas we have to look at their merits. But the struggle at understanding and getting educated over is one far from over.

Tags: Saswat, USA, Black Power

Baba,
Because the birthday wishes can never be expressed in entirity, people have invented a short-cut,"HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU".
But to me it is too short to say. Should I repeat this a million and more times to quench my thirst to say what I want to say?
Very difficult to stay away from one who is one's life. But I am living away from you, and still living! How it is possible?
Am I away from you? I put the question to myself thousand times every moment and someone from within emphatically says a 'No'. Then I know, we are not living away from each other.
You are in a mission. You were born with a mission. You will have to enrich our world with newer knowledge, newer understanding and to contribute your might to make a better world to live in. This is a 'Tapasya'. I am happy that I am witnessing this Tapasya.
Be successful in all the steps you take, this is my blessing on this happy day.
convey my love to maa.
lovingly yours
bapa

Tags: Saswat, India, Orissa

Well, the other reason for celebration of the day is of course Michael Jackson. After recording James Curtis show for all these days since two months now, watching all the re-enactments of the courtroom scenes, I was waiting for this day to hear of the decision. Amrita had asked me how would it feel when after all these days of suspense, the verdict is passed. Well, June 13 arrived. Came good. Real good.

In the classic case between Thomas Mesereau Jr. and Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon, the former won. After 72 days of suspense, it was agreed upon a by the jury that Michael Jackson was not guilty on any of the ten counts brought up against him.

The singer I grew up with in India: immersed in a dream of the impossible, the ecological diversity and the nullification of color lines, the challenges of the dance conventions and the benefits of doubt for the 'bad' outlaw. Jackson, one of the heroes who always adorned my room walls not only because of how he was as a performer, but also because who he was as a human being, today was finally declared innocent.

As he rightly says, "Children had not betrayed me. Adults have let me down." I guess the media obsession with the Jackson trials going on since a decade now will finally end, and as Liz Taylor said, the "people will leave him alone now."

Jackson is not just a performer. He has served as a ray of hope for a changing world since decades now. Defying the American hegemonies, transcending the borderlines of continents, gender, and race, MJ stood for issues bigger than the immediate. The most successful African-American entertainer of all times, he courted political lines because he could not have afforded to do otherwise.

We made enough mockery of this man. Now lets celebrate him and the words he lives by. Of late, haven't we had enough of the romantic longing blues and hitting baby toxications? More than mouthful of apple butts and hip-hop imageries? "Man in the Mirror" and "The Earth Song" will forever remain in our minds to remind of MJ legacy. But here is one lesser known song he wrote to celebrate the Planet Earth. For better hopes sake: Read More...

Tags: Saswat, Literature, Music

My birthday today.
Back home, family and friends in India are of course celebrating it, as every year! Miss being part of it.
Here, its business as usual. And a manic Monday.

Tags: Saswat, India, Orissa

Diptiman called from Moscow while I was watching this sight at the airport. Just took a pic for memory sake. Dont forget to notice the fountain.

Tags: Saswat, USA

By Saswat Pattanayak

Of course the committee cannot come to any decisive conclusions. In a vibrant marketplace of ideas, its difficult to reach any.

Maybe we are looking for a larger consensus. But as I see it, in a democracy, any consensus is usually not reflective of the genius, rather indicative of a timely compromise.

On the brighter sides, with Ratnesh, Craig, and Gloria, the evenings are extremely memorable.

For the day, it was not without its own news (remember the maxim: no news is good news). Well the current debate is surrounding the curriculum. I am part of this eight-member committee here discussing what should stay, what should go and what should be added. Well, I don’t know what the results will be, but here was one compelling suggestion: if we are doing a diversity course, then why are we not including the conservative voices in the texts. Are folks not already criticizing us for the liberal bias?

I vehemently objected, of course to this thoughtful suggestion. While I respect the members’ wisdom, my argument is this: have we not always studied conservative readings anyway? How else did we know that George Washington was the most truthful human ever produced—I studied it even in India and here in US, I heard about the book on all the lies the history teacher told.

Moreover, is the idea about diversity studies not itself a political one? The notion that instead of “teaching”, one got to “facilitate”; the idea that students, and not faculty decide the flow of the theme; the picture around dialogic discourse than imposing instruction: are these not all progressively political?

Well, to be frank, even I do not know. I am sure these are political issues. But I am unsure of the flow as of now. What happens when folks include conservative literature to “balance” and with the predominant conservative population in the campuses, the texts then become “theirs” (remember the way “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”, Vivekananda and Bhagat Singh were converted into rightist propaganda materials in India)?

I wont be surprised. If multiculturalism is not meant to pacify and if pacification is not one way of spiritual forgiveness, then what it is. And I am not scared of the peace, for the records. I am scared of the murder of the peace. Because for a war-mongering capitalism to survive, the peace needs to become the covert casualty. But like democratic illusory manner, it needs to be swiftly dealt with. Unless the informed people think that the "dictatorship" is here and demanding their proletariat participation!

Historically, its been “we give and show, you take and see” approach. Freedom is not inherent in four-fifth of the world. It has been historically granted.

The salad bowl is now on the offing. And the Melting pot was too hot. The future looks interesting. And disturbing.

Tags: Saswat, Academic, Activism

Little more than two dozen people from eight universities are deliberating issues that affect the progress of the intergroup dialogue program. They have been further divided into three committees, and I am part of the Curriculum development committee.

The day had its ups and downs. Few members wondered what we do with the multiracial, since category-wise the dialogues traditionally focused on the binaries. Evidently there are many (a couple members gave examples of Asian Americans) who do not identify with the people of color. In fact in a series of communication between a student and I last year, the question had been raised. Although the issue was far from being agreed upon, it surely followed more feedbacks.

Of course, against the backdrop of research purity, rational judgments do not necessarily hold forte. Moreover, there is this obligation to act according to the funds which has consequently always been the means and ends of the studies.

On the brighter sides, great dinner at Prof Pat Gurin’s place. She is a wonderful human being, and that’s needless to state. I am enjoying company of all the researchers/professors at Ann Arbor participating at the conference, full of spirits and unbound, unbridled hopes for a brighter future.

More power to the dreams.

Tags: Saswat, Academic, Activism

Leaving for Michigan to be part of the Multiversity project on intergroup relations. Spearheaded by the IGR of University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, the project involves eight universities (Arizona State University, University of California-San Diego, University of Illinois, Lake Forest College, University of Maryland, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, University of Washington, Occidental College, Syracuse University and University of Texas-Austin).
University of Maryland resources on the program can be found here

Tags: Saswat, Academic, Activism

Todd introduced Jared and I to the journalist-activist and a wonderful human being Don Rojas.

Leading an extraordinary life with myriad blend of experiences which I shall detail in near future, doth not come easy. But what keeps him still way up there for all of us to emulate is his undying spirit to listen, articulate and educate us at the crossroads.

Thank you.

Tags: Saswat, Communism, Black Power, Media

Its not funny that I found 122,000 pages under Google by making a search for ["Mother's Day Sale"], 1,740,000 pages under Google by making a search for [Mothers Day Sale]. And 9,280,000 pages by making a search for [Mother's+Day+Sale].
Now thats whats called Consumerism at its peak. And mind you, not just that, its a global disease now too. Don't tell me it too spread from African monkeys. Its from our very own Yankees, this time around.
Well, I should be knowing. I started my mainstream journalistic career in 1999 with a Mother's Day story on the front page of Economic Times, Delhi.
Happy Mother's Day, dear Mamas! Just don't pamper yourselves too much if you haven't taught kids how no education is good enough if it does not teach why joining naval bases targetting innocent civilians is the greatest crime and why supporting profit bases of gift makers for Mother's Day is not gonna solve issues either.

Tags: Saswat, Capitalism, Media

The Tunnel of Oppression event at the school went great. It was heartening to see some young people showing interest, after all. Few who came through the tunnel were of course disgusted. On the resources table which I was managing, one could find people of various questions and inclinations, including wanderers who thought the graphics were too graphic.
Well, everyone volunteering were not supposed to air their views to the audience. The reason why I could not say if few pictures were ever telling the picture anyway. Some people are lucky to be reaping the benefits and remaining ungrateful still...
Congrats Team

Tags: Saswat, Academic, Activism

The blog has not changed. Just the way it looked.
It will take a while to transfer all posts. Apologies in advance.

Tags: Saswat, Technology

May 1 went past. And I hoped for some media coverage of the May 1 celebrations in the US. And why should I not? After all, this is the country where May 1 kicked off for the first time and the class divisions among peoples are most clearly evident here than anywhere else.

But guess what CNN, that liberal contestant of Fox, had to say: May 1 is celebrated in some parts of the world today as International Labor Day. And they went on to show the Soviet (of course), Germans and later on China.

Unless of course the assumption is that US is not part of that International world. Just look at the pending UN proposals...

In any case, Long Live May 1

and Yes, finally got the Whosemedia.com up and running. More to spirits of the peoples' media!

Tags: Saswat, Communism, Media

My blog is mine. Therefore yours.

My blogs, then become one of the outlets for both my frustrations and anger, because I need not take things for granted any longer and I want to connect with those who are on the similar path. For, I am not alone in this world where freedom is granted in installments by the ruling class. I am with the groups of people who seek freedom for all, or freedom for none—who believe that the limited freedom, that better than thou freedom in effect, should be reserved for none.

Read the entire article here.

Tags: Saswat, Media, Technology, Academic

I believe Personal is ALWAYS Political anyway...

With the world of things around me, I would not have opted for a life to begin with. What rightful a life is if my happiness is conditional upon some others’ discomforts? Not only was I brought to this world without my expressed permission, but each act of mine subsequently were determined by existing norms of an (in)human society which has resulted in mutual hatred among peoples, a society whose legitimacy I reject wholeheartedly.

This deep anguish of helplessness and implicit submission forms the core of what I call my life. This is a life that’s ceased to be personal for long. Since the time I violated the enforced norms purposively and refused to surrender, I joined ranks with the social misfits—whose life experiences have varied not in types, but in degrees. With that, my personal journey has somewhere down the roads got mingled with the social roads not often taken, but largely despised.

Read the entire article here

Tags: Saswat, Academic, Media

Is there anything new about my blogs?

Amidst hope, there is despair. Nothing astounding. But surely, not a matter of one exercising free will to carve out the hope and purge the despair.

Where I do exercise my free will, is where I blog.

I do not feel vulnerable as I blog. Indeed, I get empowered. There is no feeling as powerful as knowing that one is able to express the voice within. The medium well could be the message, but the message is what counts, after all.

Read the complete article here.

Tags: Saswat, Academic, Technology, Media

My rationale for why I blog:

I blog, therefore I am. Without blogging, I would surely have an essence, but no existence. Not only does existence precede the essence, but I am of the view that, to exist one carves a different path than to live off the essence.

To exist, I need to know that I do. To discover my essence I need only to see the outcomes of my participation in the social production process. My works at home, office or community mark my essence. The purpose that I have created of life, and conveniently amended from time to time in order to suit the societal circumstances, do bring out the essence. But I can have the existence, even sans the manufactured timeline, and without succumbing to the social infrastructure in place.

Read the complete article here.

Tags: Saswat, Academic, Technology, Media

There are times when one would suppose time stood still. And no matter what, yes, no matter what, it stood still. Because you long to be with the folks who have loved you selflessly, endlessly. Not an easy wish to be fulfilled. Well, I reached there. Stayed with parents for a couple of months. And for most part, it was in the same room that we shared the pleasure and the pain.
My trip to India had its highs and lows. But one could argue that it was eventful at every turn. And what more could be desired.

Tags: Saswat, India

The following is the abstract of the recent paper Bu and I are working on:

By employing framing theory and content analysis, this study identified the media frames in the leading Chinese and Indian newspapers and Websites in their coverage of 2004 U.S. presidential debates. The major findings include both Chinese and Indian media predominantly disclose preferences for John Kerry over George Bush in their news reports. The U.S. debates also generated media discussions of some other issues the debates did not cover extensively, such as U.S. policy towards Taiwan and North Korea nuclear issue for Chinese media, and Kashmir issue and India’s stand on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty for Indian media.

This study also discovers other media frames including media bias, poll prediction, online cynicism, and personality politics. The authors argue that studying these frames may broaden the understanding of the media effects of international reporting, which might be a valuable contribution to research about the construction of reality using media frames, and implicit ideology in political reporting.

Tags: Saswat, Academic, China, India, Media, USA

From my new comrade at the OrissaGroup.

Dear Saswat,

This shiny bright new year I wish you Faith ~
Faith that this world cannot dampen or cool,
Faith in your dreams when the facts overrule,

This shiny bright new year I wish you Joy ~
Joy that is untouched by earth's trials and fears,
Joy that is constant when sorrow appears,

Wish you a very happy and prosperous new year.
Its a special occasion to remember special people.

Love, and Regards !

Chinmaya ..

Tags: Saswat, Orissa, Literature

By Saswat Pattanayak

Today was the day for Social Justice from Classroom to Community. At least in my campus. Organized by the office I work with.
Click here for Complete Story
The event was meant to be the last of the sessions where a couple of hundred students went through what we call Intergroup Dialogue Programs. This was of course meant to demonstrate how to implement the learning in the community setting. Students had vindicated the findings in a short video film I had made to showcase the students interviews which was screened in the morning. So it was a good afternoon with good attendance with a good speaker and good three panelists.

What could have gone wrong?

The purpose itself. Was the name SJCC sounding too good to be true? Some were confident social justice was possible. But the dilemma remained: social justice for whom? For the marginalized is the obvious.

Now the next sword hanging: the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered) community is marginalized today and so also is the Jewish community. The Black people are still on the sideline and the women still face the wrath. The Muslims are a minority and the multiracials are the misunderstood. Immediately comes to mind well over a dozen marginalized groups. In the USA, that is. Elsewhere in the world the marginalized people have different characteristics. For example in India it takes a converted Christian to be marginalized. But the speaker of the day, a brilliant orator, a lawyer that he is, continued the trend of public debate in the country and ended with a thumping note: We must work together for social justice in the USA and make America the greatest country on earth. In spirit, the responsibilities of students did not entail them to think beyond the US of America. Isn’t it an irony that the people who can affect most to the world situation (mostly because the world situation has been aggravated by their country’s foreign policies) are always honed to be concerned about their country. That’s the beauty of both the democrats and republicans, of the speakers at the universities and the churches: God bless America. The rest of the world can go to hell.

In contrast I recollect lectures by so called Indian ‘nationalistic’ leaders ranging from Nehru to Vajpayee who have religiously left notes for how to make the ‘world a better place’. In all our morning lecture sessions at school we were praying for the world, for all religions in the world, for peace throughout the world. It seems a completely different set of narrations, as I clearly recall. Don’t know what India gained from it, except for the notion that the welfare of India was dependant on the peace for all people on the earth, not just one country or the other. The slogan ‘vasudeva kutumbakam’ has been used by many a corporate entities to imply that the entire world is one family. Of course in retrospect, one can assume that Indian companies also wanted to spread out to the world to do business (which they have failed to). But all in all, the third world population was more lectured on the social justice in the world whereas the American population (in EVERY single presidential debate, every state university addresses and every telecast speech by the political and business leaders) was lectured on how God should bless America.
The diversion in my line of comment was on purpose.
The important question of social justice has a radical component. Which is, to go back to the roots and understand what we have been. But that’s just a component. And unlike many view, this is not even the first component. There’s quite a bit of chaos needed in analyzing how to lead social justice movement. First component is not in recognizing what we are by our unique socio-cultural roots. This is an essential component in writing a history book, not in leading the future. Rather the first component in achieving social justice is to define social injustice itself.

Social injustice may be portrayed by definition, as a collective feeling that the movements/developments in the world are becoming counterproductive to the progress. Remember the word world in this context. The world as a big family in this case, of course. To take Thatcher out of context, it would translate thus: there is nothing called society. There are just families.
A highly individualistic conservative Thatcher factor can indeed be revisited if we want to understand the concept of ‘family’ vis-à-vis society. The Bush conservatism is no different from the Tina. And no matter how much we crave God to bless America and make America the best place, it will simply not happen. The reason being, the God in question is the Christian God here, not a Muslim or Hindu God. Because apparently elsewhere the Gods of other varieties are protesting through ‘their’ people’s violences.

No ma’am, no sir, the world is not composed of several different social justices. What of the lowest socio-economic status which indeed is representative of the majority of people in the world. They are not marginalized. They are just unheard. They just don’t own the media. No voluntary organizations. No non-profit sector. They don’t become members of the boards of directors of any organization meant for their welfare. There are no organizations for the poor. For, if there indeed will be, all other divisions will be obsolete.

For the real question here is economical existence, not a cultural identity. As I said going back to roots is not the first of the social justice components.

Defining the social injustice is the first.

The poor who will never get to read what I am writing here is still sans a home. For him/her the question of identity will come much later. Or it may never come. For teeming millions are starkly unaware of the identities and their intersectionalities. It sounds un-academic in spirit. It conveys an insincere tone in the politically incorrect sense. But the reality is millions more people suffer from social injustices from the fact that they are economically downtrodden. Their names dont have surnames and they event dont remember their dates of births, let alone any other identities.

Well said, but how about the other ‘complexities’. Is poverty a result by itself or is it induced by several other interactions? Such as race and gender and caste and sects and tribes and languages and nationalities and geographic locations?
Back to social justice.

Yes for sure, I agree that there are several intersections. There are layers of realities which constitute the poor. A minority poor lives harsher life than the majority poor.
But in an average of less than a hundred years that we all live on the planet (much less in many other locations of the world), we cannot do it all. We cannot study it all and act it all. We cannot let people grapple with their identities and wage a historical war with their other counterparts and still think of solving the life-death dilemma of countless others.
We have seen less than a hundred mass-scale revolution. Hundred is a good number to play with. Because it signifies, large but not large enough a number. Has every movement failed. Can’t say for sure. But has one succeeded in solving the misery? Can say for sure that none has.

There is a course for the future. Lets call it Future Course 101:
Let’s acknowledge that there is a divide. Call the divide by many names. But mostly lets call it economic. Why? Well, lets see. There are 48 more billionaires this year, according to the Forbes, which ironically quizzes its readers to see if they have got it what it takes to be billionaire (what it misses out on are traits like manipulation, muscle and motivation to be greedy!). Put the wealth of only the world billionaires together (only 467 people!!!) and their worth is $1.9 trillion, which is much more than the GDP of the entire United Kingdom. Of course the US alone has more than 60% of the billionaires of the world. And nay, the rest are not very well distributed over the world!

Interesting!

Well, the bottomline is what Forbes headlines its article in February 2004 issue as “The Rich Get Richer”. In its March issue, Tim Ferguson writes that “Here are 12 largest countries, by population, with no known private billionaires. We cheekily call them “deprived,” and in a sense they are: Any modern economy that does not produce at least one huge fortune is, almost by definition, not creating the kind of wealth that is the earmark of a prosperous society.”

Interestinger!

Prosperous “society”?
In Ferguson’s defamed list are countries like Sudan, Congo, Ethiopia, Egypt, Nigeria and of course Vietnam. He did not mention China, though. China is making private progress in collaboration, you see.

Another article titled “In praise of inequality”, says “a disparity of income and wealth is good for us, as long as people can move up the ladder”! Of course “us” must have been the “US” in the mind of Nigel Holloway, the author.

That’s the only family, remember. The American homogenous family. Some in the family are not Americans of course, they are either African-Americans, Asian-Americans, or the Hispanics and Latinos and, hold on, the Indian-American (who’s afraid of the natives anyway?). No one gets more correct politically than the sensitized American torchbearer of human identity. One that forgets to call its own race as European-American.

God bless America. Only the Americans.

Now before we diverge to another debate altogether one last proud quote from Holloway: “The income gap is greater in the US than in Japan, but its easier in America to amass a fortune.” I agree.

A country of celebrities, people who are respected because they have wealth! I remember in India we abhorred the landlords and moneylenders because they had wealth and respected our poor school teachers who came by bicycles because they had knowledge. Of course things are changing now, the American way. Now India has respect for criminals-industrialists just because they have ‘amassed wealth’ the American way. So that the rest of us can discuss why the late industrialists’ sons had a family squabble and how one bride owns an art gallery. Food for depraved thought.

Indians will soon have their People magazine (Hint! Hint! Time-Warner).

Now lets talk about the historical roots of the movements against social injustice. Of course we know of the Robin Hood. Lets focus on the last fifty years. Fifty is an interesting number. Not recent, but not much far away either.
Movements of social justice have its roots in peoples. Peoples of the world who have waged revolutions to overthrow existing forms of governments to bring in equitable distributions of wealth. The experiments have succeeded many a times. What perplexes me most is the usual debate over the failure of socialistic economies everywhere. I wonder when at least forty percent of the world embraced communism and let it run for at least ten years (most conservatively) to eliminate the private wealth and ensure equitable distributions of wealth, did we stand by the idea of social equality?

Did we ever try to locate solutions in the wealth distributions when such a process was in force? We sang in praise of ‘democracy’ and almost ‘installed’ democracy as though it were a licensed software even without recollecting to best of minds if there were ever a period of at least ‘ten years’ when democracy has been successful in any part of the world? With vote-scams, selective disenfranchisements, and snobbish ban on ‘immigrant’ (hello, who is this one?) rights to votes, we run a democracy. With a lack of political diversity, we talk of social diversity. To evade the real issue of economic inequality we are talking of a ballot democracy where people are so sensitized about their problems that all they think of is their own fatherland. Where folks have no idea that foreign relations are important enough because countries may be foreign, but issues of economics are not.

Social justice needs to meet a common ground in order to succeed. And that common ground today, as it was five hundred years back as well, is that of economic disparity. Once the economically backward people are organized to call an end to private amassment of wealth which rightfully belong to everyone in the planet on an equal level or none-at-all level, social justice will have well begun.

We have lost opportunities to stand by the people who have been in the struggles to put an end to inequality. Instead we gloat in favor of inequality. And to bring home the point, the social justice drumbeats in the US (which only focuses on the ‘national groups&rsquo are played by the institutional frameworks of private concerns. Ford Foundation comes to mind. Well played. Well played.

Before we all have been played out and enacted our last acts of pretensions that we are progressing where all we have been doing is moving in a myopic direction, before we all in the line of similar thinking act radically differently owing to our own preoccupations of identity crises, before we drop dead thinking that our life was worth living since we fought the entire life for our human dignity of being respected because we have a unique background than others, before we realize the reason why diversity might replace unity, before all that, we need to curb all differential thoughts and ask to ourselves what Gandhi had said long back in his talisman to the “world”: "I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away."

We got to watch our step. It has to be in direction of the world progress. Of international movement of the working class poor. The step which will proclaim that we can live happily only if we ALL can live happily. Lets call one denominator for the time being, my friend. That of economic equality. And stand by all the people who are trying at it. Lets stand by the striking workers of the world who demand higher wages. Stand by the rising teachers of the world who want permanent positions. Stand by the protesting students of the world who want no more tuition hikes. And stand by the resenting labor force in the third world who are tired of working in the sweat shops.

I am reminded of the wonderful speech made by the director of my office, where she quoted Marcos in the poem mentioned below-with context:
Some time ago, in an attempt to discredit one of the Zapatista leaders in southern Mexico, Sub-comandante Marcos, government officials there tried to put forth the idea that Marcos was gay. In a region where machismo still runs strong, it was hoped this would tarnish the leader’s credibility.

Marcos responded by writing a poem:
“Yes, Marcos is gay. Marcos is gay in San Francisco Black in South Africa an Asian in Europe, a Chicano in San Ysidro, an anarchist in Spain, a Palestinian in Israel, a Mayan Indian in the streets of San Cristobal, a Jew in Germany, a Gypsy in Poland, a Mohawk in Quebec, a pacifist in Bosnia, a single woman on the Metro at 10pm a peasant without land, a gang member in the slums, an unemployed worker, an unhappy student and, of course, a Zapatista in the mountains.
“Marcos is all the exploited, marginalised, oppressed minorities resisting and saying `Enough'. He is every minority who is now beginning to speak and every majority that must shut up and listen. He is every untolerated group searching for a way to speak. Everything that makes power and the good consciences of those in power uncomfortable – this is Marcos.”
[From Social Justice E-Zine #27.]

To stand by the social justice is to define it. To define it is to know that it has several layers. Almost as many as innumerable. An environment of family conservatism makes girls in India become victims to child sexual abuse which can be translated as social unjust stance. An environment of ‘sexual liberation’ makes the young in the US become victims of the largest pornography industry in the world. Yes Marcos, is right. Its marginalized all over.

But they are not in the minorities anymore. Add “every exploited, marginalized and oppressed minorities resisting” together and we have the majority in the world. Because most of us cannot afford to be decent enough to be called civilized anymore. The most of us who are poor and cannot afford to buy clothes and those of us who are otherwise minorities but know how to dress the rich have to find the connection. To look at the mirror and ask as MJ asks: I’ve Been A Victim Of/ A Selfish Kind Of Love/It’s Time That I Realize/That There Are Some With No Home, Not A Nickel To Loan/Could It Be Really Me/ Pretending That They’re Not Alone?

All of us are marginalized in some way. But lets not forget the privileges of the marginalized. And that is, to turn against the tide. And today’s tide is that of the capitalistic notion of development. Within that tide, some of us may be co-opted, used and abused. We better be careful and organize. That’s what they are afraid of. We are no more the minorities. United we stand and we are the majority in the world. Just a helping hand to end the mindless competition, just an empathizing mindset to know how the Congo lives (instead of ridiculing it for having failed to produce a billionaire!) and a firm step forward, without remorse, without attachment, without recollections of the selfish loves, to end the saga which exploits.
It has to begin with the mirror..

Tags: Saswat, USA, Activism, Academic, Economics, Communism

Well, I guess the debate around Hindu Seer will not cease. But it sparked a type of continuation that was amusing, to say the least. People got polarized, and fought and most importantly took a side.

It is important to take a side in matters of issues. Some of course said they left the forum in disgust. But in reality, they never did! For, the temptation to defend their side was just so huge.

I shall see when next shall we rejoin in such a conversation. I have some new friends now: Chinmaya and Vulcan for sure! Good to see people from Orissa, staying outside the land, contributing to the ongoing debates.

Tags: Saswat, Orissa, India, Hinduism

My reply to a previous post:

Dear Brother Sar
I wish you could have shown similar level of sensitivity to adjectives in mails
directed at fellow members of this group! There were many more crude languages
used to refer to many of us (just for one example we were "barking"!)

Just because someone (who is obviously not part of this group) is proclaimed
religious, even though the same person is accused of highest criminal charges,
that became so personal?

I am sorry if my calling a guy a guy hurt some people. I should have called him
an "accused" or a "suspect" instead. But why should one suspect be addressed
better than any other? The police calls all names when it comes to a
suspect--you know the swears. But when it comes to someone is an influential
person and most likely can misuse his/her power, why this "plain bias"?

By the way, I am not firing up anything. I guess the reports are out and the
prime suspect (aka sankaracharya) is in judicial custody. His bail application
has been adjourned. The news is out there on the wall. I am not instrumental in
firing up anything. Every person involved in any way in a case of murder ought
to be treated in the same way as any other. Clearly this accused is on a higher
platform now, unfortunately. The police will not be kicking his ass to get the
answers out. Wont be treating him with third degree methods, would not be
spitting on his face or burning his cheeks with cigarette butts and wont be
swearing in choicest abuses questioning the parentage or sexual impotencies.

Just for the records I have witnessed the police doing all this and much more
even in case of people who have dared to steal bicycles or not cooperated in
giving bribes when demanded. Clearly there is a "plain bias".
We know of this judiciary system where in name of Tada or Poto we have caged
thousands of innocent people for no charges at all. People who have not seen the
face of the court since the time they are in jail. Not allowed to appeal for a
public lawyer or request for release. This accused who HAS been charged with
murder already has been allowed to move court!!! Clearly there is a "plain
bias".

To be the devil's advocate, the dangerous communalists Singhals and Tagodias
have joined the fray. Singhal compares this arrest with Somnath Temple
destruction! Clearly the politics and religions are now mixed up to "fire up"
issues. and the violent crusaders of peace, the trishul-bearing kar sevaks are
already on the street- yes making us--people like Sanjib or me--ashamed of being
called Indian--to see that representation of our country in name of religious
intolerance of a superstitious supremacist group. the non-violent, peacenik,
internationalist India has been reduced to a communal violent playground for
religious fanatics.

And I am not the one to fire up anything.

Clearly its a vibrant case to debate on. Chinmaya did a favor on all of us by
bringing in the article to our attention (not that it would have eventually
escaped, but most us would may have preferred to ignore it...who knows? Going by
P babu's mail, three regular contributors have already left the group! I
did not leave the group when they were discussing religious texts--if it is out
of disgust that the religious seer has been arrested and they refuse to be
identified as religious anymore and have trouble in being treated so, its nice
and they are more than welcome to be back. All of us realize our fundamental
fallacies at many junctures of life, anyway). And we are merely discussing the
pros and cons of such treatments to 'seers'. We are not alone. The whole of
India is discussing. Media are editorializing. People are asking pertinent
questions.

One of the questions of course is if a goonda could be a sankaracharya. Bhai
Sar, if you can go so far as to guarantee that its impossible, I at least am
of some opinion that it could be true. In the past and present we have seen all
mob violences in the name of religion. All those thousands of people have given
up their lives under one instruction of religious leaders. When the whole of
Mumbai was burning (just to cite one example of event that happened during my
lifetime), and many parts were being 'fired up' many people were charged with
being goondas. And goondas they were. those preachers of religious goods.
including advani who later most ironically accepted to become home minister when
charges were piled up against him of inciting communal violence.

We all clearly know of this sankaracharya's connection with right-wing politics.
What is there to be so sacred about him?
Biased I am, Sar, because I cannot afford to be neutral or objective or
unbiased -whatever that means and if thats possible in any way. Its time to take
a side. To take side either of the exploiting politicians who use religions to
their advantage and even nurture chances of getting away with mass murders and
communal clashes, or to take side of the people who have been taken for a ride
and who have potentials to question the blind beliefs.

We all have been taken for rides throughout. Sometimes by the founding fathers
of the nation (look at that holy cow business in the directive principles of
state policy. will we have any more tolerance for chicken or goat or pig as we
have for cow? to respect whom? Hindu country or secular country --even after the
late 70's when we got ourselves the secular tag), sometimes by the families and
social institutions (look at the widespread same-caste marriages, and the whole
thread ceremony stuffs--to prove what--as national geographic talks of, to quote
San--that we are born unequal?) and all the lies that our teachers told us
through the history of peace and glory and the golden age of indian culture
(sic).

'Tis time we questioned. San has sent an extremely insightful mail drawing
from his caste experiences. That should do more than good for all of us to ask
our conscience to examine if we have asked the right questions? have we
questioned the systems of exploitation founded on religious beliefs? what do we
owe to the generations of indigenous people for having perpetuated the class and
caste war on them for centuries. what can we give back? to seek forgiveness?
instead we still enjoy the privilege of belonging to a mainstream religion to
address issues from our narrowed lenses. to still wonder why saswat thinks a
sankaracharya could be a goonda. instead of thinking of all the crimes that have
been committed in the land of ours in the name of our religion? millions dead so
far, certainly, not in quest to create something novel, or struggling in a
revolution to feed every hungry child. millions have been condemned to death by
religious preachers by causing communal riots since the last sixty years. and
what have we got here? the leader of the pack is still around. sounds crazy. but
we should have arrested all those spokesmen and women of right wing politics who
have been instrumental in everything communal much before. the charge of one
sole murder was much belated.

Dear brother Sar, I am not here to offend anyone's feelings. That's the
least of the goals. But it so happens that in airing one's own perspectives,
there will be many others who will stand a chance of being offended. I have
never taken offense at the religious discourses in this group despite having
strong feeling about the irrelevance of those talks in face of the fact that
Orissa faces problems and questions of different types. No one really can help
if a section of hindus felt bad that the seer was arrested. He will be released
of course. Because of his clout. And some hindus will be dancing once again.
Like they did in gujarat, like the way they do in ayodhya or nearer home when
they cheered for dara singh.
That dance sucks.
With due respect
Saswat
_____

Follows a right mail. And explains why Chinmaya did not need to have been polite. But good he was. Who wants a riot?

This one is from another one threatening to leave the forum.

UGLY TRICKS OF PREUDO-ATHEISTS
------------------------------

The above statement asking for pardon from Chinmay has been repeated
in past several times - to M Babu to Ma Babu, to
An... He writes absurd stuff, illogical arguments; and then he
writes "I am sorry; I should have understood it; I am happy to be
enlightened..."

Besides, he poses a question, "why do you take things so seriously
by heart?" as he questioned the same to me recently.

These "poor people" do NOT take anything seriously by heart; that is
why all the mess. If we are not serious about what we speak, what
are we going to achieve? If you have to make light amusement, do so
in your own circle at a Tea-shop; not to some serious discussions. I
am against use of harsh words, but these people forced me to do so.

Plainly, these people can do nothing but question some dogma without
understanding or without trying to understand. Thus, they do not get
any benefit, nor does the society. Besides, this apathy does no
benefit to people like M Babu or Ma Babu either!

These are "psuedo-atheists". Because, an atheist is rational, and
does huge contributions to the society. These crap-minded fellows
are nothing but burden on the society just because of their
irrational idiocy. that's it.

Sanjib, in past I have explained several rationales in religion;
read my postings before branding me as someone blindly following
religion.

Saswat, I called your group "poor" not in terms of economy; economy
playes no role in intellectual discussions. I called your group poor
simply because you are poor in rational, logical understanding. And,
you understood economy! What a disgrace are you to such forum!

I know that you pseudo-atheists have no ability to do anthing except
barking. That is why none of you came forward in proposing a roadmap
to eliminate religion. If you are so much against it, why not remove
it? Who does your barking benefit?

I know: You cannot propose a roadmap nor can you execute it because
(i) you have no ability to do so; and (ii) religion is just.

Good bye. I wish you all safe opportunity of relentless barking.
Good Bye,
AA

Tags: Saswat, Hinduism, Orissa, India

I reply to AA's previous hurlings:
"These poor people"--referring to me and Chinmaya!

I sure am a poor person. But in my defense, duplicate posting was not
intentional. If it hurts to see the same mail twice, solution is clear: one just
has the option to delete the mails than to ridicule my economic status.
For clarification, I am not in IIT Mumbai. Secondly, I was using the outlook
express to send the mail. It went straight to the outbox. Hence used the webmail
to send the same. It must have landed twice. I apologize for that.

And as for the other adjectives, they are interesting too. Not surprising,
again.

When thousands of poor folks serve inhuman and indefinite jail terms for
sometime stealing money or other times drinking and swearing, and tribal women
rising against the existing systems getting raped inside the prison walls, its a
sane judicial system. When a sankaracharya (by the way i never said this guy was
any magician--magic gurus have at least some amusement values- so that whole
thing about saswat has to "know" before pointing fingers etc does not hold
relevance) having says in politics (proven fact) and charged with MURDER (which
ordinary suspect is given that kind of publicity anyway? this man is clearly
treated above the rest of us ordinary folks for some serious charge as this) is
arrested, it becomes "behavioural discripancy and "andhatwa".

And the 'holier than thou' principle as mentioned in the last paragraph of mr
acharya's mail is interesting. is there some kind of a warranty that no goonda
can be a sankaracharya? that hindu stuff is unlike the western history. how
blindly deterministic can we still get???

___

Chinmaya in solidarity with Vulcan:

Vulcano Bhai,
Yeah, your logic seems true to certain extent.

"Enviornment" plays a dominant role in controlling ones behavarial pattern, apart from ones genetical make up, and food habbits.

All the emotional outbrusts are mere defense mechanisms because of ones deep love,tendentious approach towards a person/system/cause.Nothing_ unnatural_in_it.It's sometimes hard to digest the fact, even we understand the legal aspect of a problem.Our deep association with religion from the very childhood days have made us to think so. We have seen our mothers shedding their tears infront of the idols every dawn,and dusk for our well being.We are told hundreds/thousands of stories from Prahallad, Dhruva to Sudama etc by our parents/teachers, to give a first hand experience of religion,we are manytime forced to beleive the badtimes of our enemy is because of divine punishment. The influence of early childhood days experiences of religion/god has made an everlasting impression in our minds. Even today, the twilights reminds me the evening of village temple, the eye subconsciously goes on searching for a supreme soul to take to the realm of eternal peace and bliss. Fairs, festivals, gatherings, rituals with so much of things, we are associated with religions from the very day of our presence on the earth;Its not only difficult, but almost impossible to make oneself free from those *comfort* experiences.

The people who are born with sliver spoons, who has never confronted difficulties all alone in their life, or even never being privileged to be empathetic with the good/bad times of their fellow beings, a little interruption in their usual life lead them straightly near to GOD/god-man, religion etc.(I do not inlcude here those people who make mockery of religions,and exploits mass for their own benfits). We must understand, the support systems that religion has provided to them.
Discussing with the persons, who have killed their rationalities, logic being overpossesive of their thoughts, makes no sense really.

And yeah, whats the problem if some people are branded anti-religious ? My conscience says, there must be an anti-religious God to support them :=)

With Regards !

Chinmaya ...

___

Sanjib comes forward:
With due respect, you and others(which includes my father and mother
and other elders)just follow religion blindly. There is nothing
wrong to have faith in the superpower..But I have serious issues of
the way religion is practiced in India.

Still in India you decide the right to enter the temple based on
your caste and social status. If you have more money you get special
privileges in Jaganath temple..and our religion is still
exclusionary. Our old folks just DON'T get it. While trying to
respect our elders and not interested to rock the boat..we
youngsters still follow caste system in choosing our partners. We
talk about racism in US, but in India we have caste system that is
even worse. You might say why I am talking about caste system,
instead of religion. Dear friends that is engraved in the way our
religion is practiced.

National Geographic quotes " To be born Hindu in India is to enter
the caste system, one of the world's longest surviving forms of
social stratification. Embedded in Indian culture for past 1500
years, the caste system follows a basic precept:All men are created
unequal" I AM ASHAMED.

Many hundred years ago when galileo said earth goes around the sun,
he was ostracized..But the Protestant sect of Christianity was born.
I can speak of myself..I am not anti-religion..But I am certainly
against the way religion is practiced in India. The first thing we
need to be doing is challenging the caste system by marrying
someone who is from a higher/lower caste. Then boycotting temples,
who do not allow admissions based on birth. I have boycotted
Jagannath temple in Puri. The first step is to incorporate modern
outlook and values in your own life. Then influencing others.

Caste system and the distorted form of practice of Hinduism is more
than couple of thousands years old. The first thing we can do is
change ourselves. Then we try to influence school teachers and
others. Realistically speaking it won't be eradicated in my
lifetime.But it is certainly worth a try.
Thanks,
Sanjib

Tags: Saswat, Hinduism, Orissa, India

The arrest of Sankaracharya of Kanchi came as a big surprise to most people. Of course one quarter asked if anyone would dare arrest Pope if he were alleged to have a hand in murder!
Hindus, I hear, are followers of extremely kind and accommodating religion. Well over a hundred Americans have already informed this to me. Of course they dont consider my being born in a family of Hindus make me Hindu. They know for sure, I dont agree we have to be part of any religion to be called human.
ut incidentally, I explain them back, that in India, being born makes all the difference. As our friend Vulcan Jena (in a recent posting at yahoogroup) made an excellent point recently, which I quote:
"What Manu did five thousand years ago, preachers of GOD still trying to continue & maintain it. Manu made Hindu society into four classes. There is no mobility. You are born a brahmin, that is the only way to be a brahmin. And that is the highest society, the topmost class. Then number two is the warriors, the kings: the Khyatriyas. But you are born in that caste, it is not a question that you can move. Then third is the class of the vaishyas, the business people; you are born in it. And the fourth is the sudras, the untouchables. All are born into their caste. That’s why, until Christianity started converting so many Hindus, particularly the sudras, who were ready, very willing to become Christians, because at least they would be touchable. Amongst Hindus, sudras are untouchable, and there is no way to get out of the structure.For your whole life you have to remain the same as your forefathers remained for five thousand years. For five thousand years there has been a stratified society. Hindus were not a converting religion, because the great question was, if you convert somebody, in what class are you going to put the person? Brahmins won’t allow you, and you would not like to be put with the sudras, the untouchables."
Well, not to say that one is better than the others. And if Pope can indeed not get arrested even after a murder case against him, then its a shame indeed. If not, lets investigate further and see why we have not made so many arrests so far.
But then people like you and me get arrested on daily basis. Laws like TADA or POTA or Patriot Act are already in place. See what they did in the post-riot Bombay or Gujarat or the fifty years of Kashmir.
Asian Age in 1999 came out with a flyer story on how Indian army officers raided the house of a Kashmiri family and killed their dog. Reason: it was barking. And so the conclusion was simple: A dog that barks at Hindu army must be a pakistani dog!
India never had so much conflict with any other land on this planet as poor (economically at least) Pakistan because of religious differences. And common people and domestic dogs have been paying the prices. Whereas the ones like religious ‘seers’ and ‘imams’ (he has now come forward to support the sankaracharya...who knows the Muslim preacher might be having a pandora’s box too) call the shots...

Tags: Saswat, Hinduism, Orissa, India, Philosophy

Another right brother pitches in:

One must trust the "fundamental information" that one is served,
and acquire some knowledge thereupon before raising any question.
For example, if a child revolts against why the alphabet "A" is
written the way it is and why not otherwise, and sticks to not
believing the current form of "A", that child can never learn the
language as long as he keeps his revolt alive! Thus, the primary
thing is a "faith". As far as religion or spirituality are
concerned, Chinmaya or Saswat do not have that faith - at least that
is my reading of them! I know they must have trusted the initial
concepts in physics and chemistry before raising any question in
their minds. Only that they follow a different option while talking
religion and spirituality.
__

Our friend Chinmaya replies:
I must apologize before going to write a further word.I am shocked. I have never bothered of your profession, and how do you deal with your students.I have never focussed anything regarding indian/USA education system,secrets codes in the cut throats comptt to publish papers, and the expected interaction between faculties and students in either of the countries.Thats all out of context here.I know,I can not reach to your level of understanding, in terms of studying physical, metaphysical phenomena.Excuse me,and my opinions as the outbrusts of an insane towards religion. Playing with words is not my cup of tea either, and where the winning of word war will lead me to ? .Neither me, Saswat, subhendu bhai was attacking the view points baselessly, rather they were sharing it in their own way owing to their own understandings of matters.

I sincerely feel, your post is never devoided of ratioanlity and a proper sequence ,and you have never digressed of the main topic. All I opined, whoever is speaking of religion must be very concise and focussed with out aggrandsizement of the facts and figures, and fooling around the people. And, you mean the same anyway.The only difference is your acceptance of everything on religious matter thinking it might be conatining some worth, whereas I feel things, unless confirmed/properly understood must not be reproduced.That creates lots of misunderstanding/chaos, and another fraction of people take undue adavantage of it.

Tags: Saswat, Hinduism, India, Orissa

In the group, a brother advocates something like the following:

I am against the notion that those
> who know should keep teaching despite being challenged and
> ridiculed. Chinmaya or Saswat may feel hurt; but all questions
> raised by them symbolise a level of arrogance and challenge. This is
> not a right frame of mind to learn - as far as I have practised and
> understood. My opinion on Chinmaya or Saswat is my personal, and I
> am not bound to give any explanation. You are free to call me a
> hypocrite or any term that you think suits me. SB may also
> call me an "OSAite" (he recently termed A's views typical OSA-
> type). I dont mind.

Ashrujit, my friend replies:
If Saswat and Chinmaya's views are considered arrogant and a mindset
without the desire to learn, then may be we can brand "believers"
views are religious fanatics.

Why do we always find the people on the other side bad? I think
Chinmaya, Saswat and all others who are asking the questions are
simply because "they want to learn". If they had an air of arrogance
or were not willing to learn anything they would be only ridiculed
here and there and stayed away from any serious discussion, arguments.
___

Tags: Saswat, Hinduism, Orissa, India

How do I feel about the business of blogs, now that I am into it?

Famously described as the free forum for virtual communities, blogs have been of late developing the vibrant industry traits of attracting revenues. Despite being acclaimed as an outcry against big media monopoly and providing for scopes of a participatory democracy where the aim is ideally to live life online with fellow members of the community without having to worry about the rents and the lease, some vastly inhibited changes in the economics of blogs have prompted this research.

To read the entire article, click here.

Tags: Saswat, Academic, Technology, Media, Capitalism

By Saswat Pattanayak

My post to the Oriya group:

My friends,
And to all, especially involved in the religious discourses (and the lack of it),
Just as everyone else, I have an opinion to air. So here it is:

I read Chinmaya’s mail and feel this had more validity than any other mail on the subject of religion. He drew from a personal narrative to share what relevance did religion still hold for him and did generalize it to some extent. I appreciate the fact that he debated the contents of texts (“If you do believe in the first place that you are germinated from super soul *PARAMATMA*, it must have its own outlook in directing you.&rdquo and put up a contemporary challenge (“Can you, the advocates of religion, give a guarantee that, you are born with efficacious grace, and other are destined to eternal damnation ?&rdquo only after sharing with us what had happened to him in terms of beliefs in god and godmen.

We need not be intolerant towards opposing views. Especially when they attack the core of beliefs shaped by external factors and normalized by imagined circumstances. My friend, referring to your mail, do we have to ask Chinmaya to quit the thread of Mahabakya, because he challenges them? Since when the so-called ‘great’ verses become so indefensible? If there can be a positive discussion, there can be a criticism piece also. Lets be more democratic than shoving contrary thoughts to obscurity by force. Religious people, historically have been the most intolerant (any standard book or mass experience would show that). But by spirit of the age, we need to raise newer questions.

Who does religions benefit? Which class of people? Where does the discourses on religions lead to? Issues or non-issues? You say no one forces Hinduism on another. Lets not even talk of the array of conversions, the Dara Singh, the Sangh Parivar? Why even discussion of Mahabakyas in a group pertaining to development of the Oriyas in general? If we do so, what happened to other religious texts too? Do we need a Muslim to talk about Koran? By that assumption, are we becoming exclusive a club within the Oriyas? Why does one need to hear black metal (which is not a bad idea at all, anyway) when one starts an anti-religious discussion?

If there can be a fare share for the Oriyas who believe discussing the ‘great’ verses is alright, lets be democratic enough, if not progressive, to allow for discussions by other Oriyas who think little differently.

One thought about “religious jargons”. It thrived historically in order to exclude a mass section of society from practicing. In course of actions, the preachers have not only neglected a section of downtrodden people, they have also systematically exploited them in the name of religion. If not for other religions trying to ‘convert’ and what-nots, the mainstream religion in India would not have given two hoots to those people it subjugated through centuries---our own indigenous people. Its their land, after all. ‘Those’ Adivasis. Their It’s a shame that we still talk the talk of hindu supremacists while we don’t walk the walk of the civilized. High time not only we repented over what we did with the instrument of religion, to completely obliterate sections of people, we got to realize that we still dare to preach the same elitist texts that have always marked distinction among peoples and need “authorized” explanations from only a certain class of folks.

Must we wake up only too late, in our attempt at carrying the legacy of the forefathers who had gone blind to recognize their deadly fallacies? We are all offshoots of a racist, sexist, fanatically war chauvinist world, proudly claiming itself to be a thousands of years old civilization! Whose civilization has it been anyway? One where we relied on our religions to oppress the landless, and rule over women in our hypocritical houses? Shut our children up from asking critical questions, instead urged the child to surrender to the almighty who we had never anyway experienced of being of any use? The older generation never asked the pertinent questions. The younger ones grew up with complexes of identities revolving around families and personal gods. The legacy of rich and privileged continued and the state of the poor remained at the mercy of the manufactured god.

These don’t need any different thread. Or any different group. Or any different situations. Lets be democratic within, even without a phony political system. Lets be aware that not only different questions be welcome to be addressed within the parameters of what we are discussing, but also be properly addressed to and respected as much.

Regarding freedom of choices to make, and emanating frustrations, all I think of right now is between the bushes and kerrys of the worlds, we have not been given the choices, dear. We got to be the choices ourselves. And no freedom is granted by others. It has to be fought for because most times, its suppressed by the environment.

Like you, I have been leading life from the seat of privilege. We must not be blind to the oppression we cause in name of voluntary freedom. We don’t realize that freedom is freedom only when its freedom for all, or its freedom for none. When the parents are in shackle of superstitions, to assume that the child would not have utilized the freedom properly would be erroneous. Its not just freedom to think, which is needed, but also freedom how to think. We will be parents one day and must keep in mind that by going with age-old beliefs, there are more rigidity than flexibility to think around certain texts. And a traditional family does not go beyond providing the authoritative answers, not encouraging critical questions. What results is another generation, content with self, to afford the luxury of discussing religious codes at the time when we know majority are still sans basic necessities. In the US alone, 35 million people are homeless and will seek winter shelter. Orissa is another story. Lets talk about Orissa in a NEW thread.

Friend, in our long roads to progress in life, there will come several junctures in time when we got to stop for awhile and ask a question, “Could I have been wrong all throughout in my core beliefs? Is there a probability of such having happened?”

I have been wrong many times in my ‘core’ perceptions about people, events, places, ideologies and beliefs. May you not be as unfortunate like me in coming to terms with the radically opposing truths.

But may you ask the questions, nevertheless.
Peace.
In struggle,
saswat pattanayak

Tags: Saswat, Orissa, Hinduism, India

Albeit differences, what Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Schopenhauer and Mill were indulged in had to do with a component of ‘understanding’. However, said Marx, the problem of the age was that philosophers only interpreted the world whereas the issue, was to change it. Nietzsche and Kierkegaard or Du Bois followed closely with the ‘change’ component too.
What we need now, is changes, with understanding.

My first dissertation committee meets today. I am going to discuss blogs! In a way, it’s also a comeback of my own official blog. I shall, with time, post the archives soon.

Tags: Saswat, Media, Academic, Philosophy

Following was my screening of a movie and contextualization of it in the class of Prof. Nirupama Prakash. Dr McAdams too came by to attend the class.

Tracing the utility values of films in understanding society and predicting social characters to inspire movies have been the preoccupation of post-colonial discourses. In addition, there is a need of subjective positioning of the audience since societal study involves the historical frameworks of human sufferings as well as living patterns emanating from this specific background.

Any attempt to understand women in a uniquely complex Indian society requires for subtler examination of core issues that the present film Mrityudand (Death Penalty) raises. Any apparent problem we are about to witness in the movie directs to multiple layers of societal adjustments. At the base, they will appear rudimentary and reflexive. But as we have studied in the earlier classes already, there are historical factors behind the reinforcement of certain values in any economically backward region.

Mrityudand chiefly raises the following questions:
Religious fanaticism: Is communalism a prevailing threat to the world order now or is it a historically existing order that is increasingly being challenged by empowered women?

Caste conflicts: Lower caste people are the ‘other’ in any society. They are pronounced as racially inferior. Who dictates the terms and defines the caste levels?

Caste politics: Why does the lower caste ‘play the card’? What is the histiography of caste politics? Is caste politics (especially when almost half of India is ruled via caste politics) a necessary evil?

Gender: Why doesn’t the ‘other’ gender unite, despite needs? Is it a family concern or a societal issue? Is there a need to distinguish family from society?

Culture: Is culture all pervading or differentiable? Is there anything such as a low culture and high culture?

Class issue: Are every other type of distinctions going to dissolve with distinct socio-economic class formations? Does radical uprising of the oppressed provide any solution? Or is it the only solution?

Information:
Duration of Hindi film Mrityudand is 2 hours 34 minutes. Released in 1997, it is directed by Prakash Jha.
Jha, an alternative cinema maker, has to his credit other ‘social’ theme based films like Hip Hip Hurray (1984), Damul (1985), Bandish (1996), (1996), Rahul (2001) and Gangaajal (2003).

Other films that might interest you:
Damini (1993), Tejasvini (1994), Astitva (2000) and Lajja (2001)

Tags: Saswat, Academic, Feminism, Film, Bollywood

Jared sends some pictures on the Hip Hop Political Convention.

The rest of the pictures can be accessed here.

Tags: Saswat, Music, Black Power, Activism

Prof (Dr) Nirupama Prakash of BITS, Pilani, India is holding a Summer course here in Maryland. The course (WMST 498A/SLCC 498I) is titled “Culture, Caste and Women in Indian Society”. For the ones to be more interested, “this course is intended to examine the status of women in Indian society and explore the issues & challenges in process of empowerment. Uniqueness of Indian women stem from the social location which apart from being post-colonial also represents the global character of modern achievers.

I am assisting the professor in some minor ways and preparing to show a movie or two to encourage a class discussion. The course will explicate the inherent complexities in progression of Indian women from being rendered a subject status by a patriarchal society dominated by male rulers, to the subjugated women’s struggle to reclaim centrality in modern India.

Women’s status in India is bound with social, cultural and economic factors that influence all aspects of their lives. There are strong cultural influences on fertility, preference for sons, education of the girl child, age at marriage, dowry system, widowhood, decision-making, child-bearing practices, nutritional status, access to health care and degree of access to the outside world. All these factors have profound implications on the status of women in India. The course also reflects on various facets of Indian culture, viz., institutions of caste, tribes, family, marriage and also highlights the policy issues for development of Indian society with focus on gender issues.

Tags: Saswat, Academic, Feminism, India

By Saswat Pattanayak

Watching Bob Dylan at Warren Theatre (with Gloria) today was a unique opportunity: one could almost come to terms with how resigned life can be at times. The voice that once commanded, spoke with confidence; the words that were written with optimism and sung with amazing vigor; the celebrity that refused interview to Time magazine because it was elitist and the worker who sung paying tribute to Woody Guthrie when what Woody stood for had almost been forgotten.

Now, Bob Dylan could be the antithesis to all that he once used to be. Is he plain retired? Or is he mocking at the cynical past and contented present and predicting a gloomy future? Is he just singing for the sake of it?

Classical argument is all about it. A singer, after all, is a singer and can aspire to be a better singer. Arundhati Ray is a good writer and need not be an activist. She vehemently protests. But Dylan has been silent. Almost stoic.

Rolling Stone magazine would agree in its recent write up on him, when Dylan is said to be merely a songwriter doing his job of thinking what’s the next good song going to be. A singer who is just waiting to churn out another album.
What next? An entertainer hiring a band of secretaries to keep track of album sales and advertisement deals? To own a Dylan Mansion perhaps and call it Tambourine Land? Or to model for Victoria’s Secret?

I don’t know what he thinks, but it’s a fact that he was a voice of the spirited 60’s that went unbridled and sang unchained and attacked the establishment unabashedly. Dylan is no Dylan without “Time’s they are a changing.” The argument behind who should be the interpreter of the author’s work is still a Gordian knot to crack. But to say that the creator of the work alone is the sole authority would be a naivety. Worse still, to underrate the role of the audience/readers in catapulting the creator where he/she is now. When the matter is about glory, the audience are active participants in acquiring the said position for the celebrated. As participant, I have a role. And a question.

What has changed Dylan?

Tags: Saswat, Music, Communism

Memphis tour was a success. Great fun. Moments to cherish.

Civil Rights Museum. Blues of Handy and King. Neverland of Elvis. And most importantly, the railroad museum.

Very educational. Very insightful. Deeply disturbing. And plain delightful.

Well, the only thing that struck was that he hero-worshipping saga had left Robeson out. And the resentments against racism had simmered down.
Part of the larger reality, though.

Tags: Saswat, History, Black Power, USA

By Saswat Pattanayak

My proposed syllabus for a class on Radical Alternative Media:

Media have often been depicted as part of the fourth estate in a democracy, the other three wings being the legislature, the executive and the judiciary. Role of the media, their representations of “social reality”, as well as biases in their reflections have often held center stage of public concern.

But, on counts of content and the context, the bouquet and the brickbats, and the cultural as well as political-economic approaches, it is often the mainstream media, which get the attention. Either some television programs are portrayed as too violent, or few mainstream newspapers are cited as truly neutral. In either cases of extremes, the debate surrounds the media that are akin to big corporate organizations. They are the media that represent the focus and are widely circulated. Plausibly, the assumptions being that those media organizations are worth studying which have the reach. No wonder, most critical media theories actually surround the impacts of big business conglomerates in the political-economic tradition or negotiations within dominant messages in the cultural studies tradition. Most administrative researches too, focus on role of mainstream media because they are well documented and appear more convenient for the purpose, at times because of being supportive of the researches themselves.

Check the full syllabus here.

Tags: Saswat, Academic, Communism, Media

Doing an internship with the Office of Human Relations Programs. This is the President's Office for Equity and Diversity.

Currently producing materials for a program called Social Justice from Classroom to Community!
Whoa...thats a useful name for a university program.

Tags: Saswat, Academic

Congratulations, Todd!
My friend Todd S Burroughs will be reading out portions of his new chapter in the new most relevant book!

The Book Launch for Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching is taking place on the Wednesday, March 31, 2004, 6:30–8:30 p.m at the National Council of Negro Women, Inc. 633 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20004.


Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching, is a new publication from Teaching for Change and PRRAC (Poverty and Race Research Action Council). The event will be joined by editors, contributors, and Movement activists to celebrate this book that will help students find their connection to the Civil Rights Movement and discover the roles they can play in fighting injustice today!

Dr. Dorothy Height, Chair and President Emerita of the National Council of Negro Women, will grace the occasion as welcoming speaker.

More information on Putting the Movement Back into Civil Rights Teaching can be found on its companion website. For directions and information about the venue, visit here.

Tags: Saswat, History, Black Power, Academic, Literature

Well this was my Survey tool, in course of my research, during the first semester.

Prof John W Cordes, that incredibly wonderful human being and teacher, helped me finish it in time!

Tags: Saswat, Academic

I call myself a Peoples Poet. Representing the peoples. Our aspirations and despairs. Which are mine, too. Our anguish and anger. Again shared. Our loves and sorrows. It’s all here in my poems. The words are mine. But the feelings are shared. I owe it to all of us and all those who cant understand this language. Because the feelings are shared, anyway.

I write because I have to write. I give back what the world has given me. I share with you what I have experienced being myself. Because I am our product. Of our world. Hence the words are mine, but the work is ours. It’s a collective product. Use without searching for copyrights. I am not copyrighted. There is no privacy law. No secret code to the feelings. No passwords to hide. No exclusivity in feelings. We are not sailing in different boats.

Tags: Saswat, Poem, Activism

Why Paul Robeson matters? Because he loved humanity. Because he said he loved humanity. Because he made efforts to show that the world can be loved, no matter what color or race, ethnicity or religious orientations. Because he added another component to the discourse of diversity: political conscience.

Robeson matters because politics matters. Because political diversity is the mainstay of democracy. “What do you mean by the Communist Party? As far as I know it is a legal party like the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. Do you mean a party of people who have sacrificed for my people, and for all Americans and workers, that they can live in dignity? Do you mean that party?”

Tags: Saswat, History, Black Power, Communism

What happens in the least ‘developed’ state of India? Does it hurt to see? Is it time to change the posters on the wall? To remind self of the fact that people actually died of starvation every year I have lived. Even this year in a “democracy” (sorry, welfare economists/Nobel laureates). And is the world very different in Orissa? Or is it just us? Is corruption alien to the American democracy? Or homelessness not the order of the day for 35 million Americans?

Maybe we relish political satires at home too much (sorry, documentary directors) to realize that there is a world beyond the pepsi-coke US, as much as there are people beyond the victims of Kerry-Bush dilemma. People like us with commonalities, living in our world. ‘They’ must be ‘us’. Just to remind, here’s to Orissamatters…

Tags: Saswat, Orissa, India, Media

I am now a member of the University of Maryland Senate. In the Student Affairs Committee, I am drafting proposal for Online Syllabi.

The idea is that faculty members will compulsorily work on this. But knowing them, I have huge doubts!

Excerpts from a draft I am working with now:
"Every academic course will have an online syllabus" is a directive
principle.
I propose five broad divisions based on a modular approach with links to
other pages on top of the home page (as opposed to linear approach which is
posting everything on one page):
Goals, Schedules, Assignments, Readings and Notes
within them,
Goals: Objective, Course Outcomes, Expectations (pre-requisites, readings,
class listserv, attendance, behavior, academic honesty), and Grading policy.
Schedules: Week-wise, topics, readings, assignment/lab
Assignments: Mini exercises (depends on the course), final examinations, any
paper presentation suggestions.
Readings: Suggested Weekly readings for individual or groups. sources must
be mentioned.
Notes: Additional readings, links to sources, copies of class slides and
other information pertinent to class.".........

Tags: Saswat, Academic

Journalism is a business, where the newsroom comes last (space for the ads have to be allocated first). In the news coverage activities, the people hardly are worthy of the news (unless one of ‘em bites the dog, as the professor will love to cite). No surprises here. Because the business has to run. The investor has to make money. Hence one class of people (stars, politicians, and the experts) creates the news for another class, which has to consume it all. How about tracing the smaller fish outside the net? Here are few of my articles…..

Tags: Saswat, India, Media

As I await in an empty Summer at a blank apartment......

without you
feelings are nothingness
differences are in the sublime change of weather
days and nights are synonymous
life is a plain glass of water
and i quench the tastelessness
without you

Tags: Poem, Saswat

“If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation are people who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. That struggle might be a moral one; it might be a physical one; it might be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will. People might not get all that they work for in this world, but they must certainly work for all they get.” —Frederick Douglass

Tags: Saswat, Activism, Black Power