Conference on “Region Formation in Contemporary South Asia”
25-27 November 2009
Room No. 22, Arts Faculty, North Campus
The University of Delhi,
Delhi (India)
Day One, 25th November 2009
Inaugural Address: 9.00 am to 9.40 am
Dr. Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro : On Not Confusing Regions with the Product of Ideological Confrontations between Opposing Ruling Classes.
Requiem: 9.40 am to 10.10 am
Mr. N. Babaiah: K Balagopal: A Portrait of An Activist.
Tea Break: 10.10 am to 10.25 am
The ‘National Question’, Communist Party and South India: 10.25 am to 1.00 pm
Mr. Vijay Singh: THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA AND THE NATIONAL QUESTION 1942-1955.
Mr. A. Bhoomaiah: “STRUGGLE FOR TELANGANA STATE HOOD” AS A PART OF NATIONALITIES AND DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENTS.
Dr. V S Shreedara: Kannada Daughter and the Indian Mother: the question of Kannada Nationality.
Prof. A Marx: Tamil Nadu: The Inclusive Tradition.
Lunch Break: 1.00 pm to 1.30 pm
Constituents of a Region: The South Indian Case: 1.30 pm to 4.30 pm
Mr. Simon Chilvers: Social Formation and Articulation of Modes of Production in Karnataka.
Ms. Pranjali Bandhu: The Adivasi Situation in The Nilgiris With Special Focus On Their Educational Status.
Mr. Sachin N: Muthanga-Manvelimantam: A Dialectic between dystopic region in History and utopian space in Literature.
Ms. Yemuna Sunny: Kuttanada: The Making And Unmaking Of A Region.
Ms. Terah Sportel: Labour Market Change, Plucking Nuts: Exploring Regional Trajectories of the Kerala Coconut Sector, India.
Tea Break: 4.30 pm to 4.45 pm
SAARC 4.45 pm
Ms. Ipsita Sengupta: SAARC: Is human rights on the agenda?
Dr. Pawan Kumar Jha: Region Formation: The Perspective for New South Asia.
Mr. Sashi Kumar: Regional Protection of Rights: Emerging Concern.
Ms. Shveta Dhaliwal: Regional Human Rights Mechanism: A Pre- Requisite for Contemporary South Asia.
Day two, 26th November 2009.
Keynote Address: 9.00 am to 9.40 am
Prof. K M Shrimali: Title not submitted
Cultural/Ideological (Re)Production of Region: Northeast 9.40 to 11.30 am
Dr.Jae-Eun Shin: Pragjyotish – Kamrupa: Imagined Boundaries and Imposed Historicity.
Dr. Manjeet Baruah: Guerrilla Space as Literary Plot in Aulingar Zui (Spring of Ash): Space/Culture and Ideological Explorations.
Dr. Joy L. Pachuau: Death and locality in the creation of an identity: the Mizo case.
Tea break: 11.30 am to 11.45 am
Mapping the North east 11.45 am to 1.30 pm
Dr. Chandan Sharma: Reclaiming the Foothills from Colonial Discourse: Space, Settlement and Strategy in Northeast India.
Dr. Sarah Hilaly: Trajectory of Region Formation In The Margins: Arunachal Pradesh In Colonial and Post-Colonial Period.
Mr. Thingnam Sanjeev: Recasting Space: Strategies and Politics of Frontier Making.
Lunch Break: 1.30 pm to 2.00 pm
Situating Region and Politics in the North east: 2.00 pm to 3.45 pm.
Messrs. Asok Kr. Ray and Gorky Chakroborty: Contextualizing India’s North East vis-a-vis South Asia: The Realities and Imaginaries.
Mr. Kundan Hazarika: Uneven Development and Formation of Regionalism: A Study of The Assam Movement.
Mr. Pankaj Jyoti Gogoi: Nationalist Discourse and Regional Consciousness: The Retrospect and Prospect of Regional Uprising in North-East India With Special Reference to Assam.
Tea Break: 3.45 pm to 4.00 pm
Region and Politics in the North and Western India: 4.00 pm
Messrs. R. Venugopalan Nair and Varadrajan N: Defining a Region: Palimpsest of Identities and Politics of Dismemberment.
Dr. Vedpal Rana: Language or Geo-cultural zones? A case study of Partition of Punjab-1966.
Mr. Yogesh Snehi: Politics of Language, Identity or Ecology: Reorganisation, State and the Emergence of Himachal Pradesh.
Prof. Hameedah Naeem: (Title not submitted)
Day Three, 27th November 2009.
Morphogeny of a Region 9.00 am to 11.00 am
Dr. Ryosuke Furui: Sub-regional Identities and Cultural Hegemony in Early Medieval Bengal.
Mr. Kundan Kumar: Reconstructing The Historical Landscape of The Kosi River.
Mr. Pradeep Kumar Nath: The Identity of Western Orissa.
Tea Break: 11.00 am to 11.15 am
Imagining the Region/Regional Imagination: 11.15 am to 1.15 am
Ms. Radhika Borde: The Sarna Movement: Adivasi Religious Bioregionalism.
Mr. Sachida Nand Jha: Rethinking the representations of Maithili Identity in print.
Mr. Sadan Jha: Representing a Region: History, Memory and Literature in the Construction of Purnea (North Bihar) as a Cul De Sac.
Lunch Break: 1.15 pm to 1.45 pm
Prometheus Bound: Region and/in the Nation States: 1.45 pm to 4.15 pm
Mr. Swatahsiddha Sarkar: Formation of Region and Regional Identity in Darjeeling Hills.
Mr. Delwar Hussain: Re- arranging the regions- The coal villages on Bangladesh/India Border.
Dr. Nasir Uddin: Between Peace and Conflict: A Study on Conflict Management and Peace Building in Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.
Mr. Fraser Sugden: Understanding spatial subordination: the evolution of modes of production on the Nepal terai.
Tea Break: 4.15 pm to 4.30 pm
Region and Politics in Central India: 4.30 pm to 5.45 pm
Mr. Yogesh Diwan: Adivasi Identity and Regional Politics.
Mr. Kumar Sanjay Singh: Madhya Pradesh: A Geographical Entity With Split Personalities.
Valedictory Session 5.45 pm to 6.30 pm
Prof. James Petras: Separatism and Class Politics in Latin America.
Public Meeting Against War on Citizens
Date: 13th November 2009
Venue: Vivekananda Statue, Arts Faculty, North Campus, Delhi University
Time: 12.00 pm onward
Tens of thousands soldiers of paramilitary and special police forces are directed towards central and eatern parts of India, including Chattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkand, areas of Maharastra and Western Bengal. Previously too, the state has deployed armed forces against civilians and within civilian areas with disastrous consequences. Kashmir and North-Eastern states have been facing this onslaught for decades now.
The Campaign against War on People is organizing a Public Meeting on Friday 13th November on this issue. The meeting will address the current state offensive against citizens in Eastern and Central India, and the larger issue of the use of armed forces in civilian areas.
We invite all organisations and individuals who are concerned about the use of armed forces in civilian areas to attend and participate in this Meeting.
Speakers:
Madan Kashyap, Journalist
Prashant Bhushan, Civil liberties lawyer
Saroj Giri, Department of Political Science, University of Delhi
Gautam Navlakha, Civil liberties activist
Harish Dhawan, PUDR
Poonam, Pragatisheel Mahila Sangathan
Representative of Peoples organisations form North Eastern states
Representative of New Socialist Initiative,
Representative of Progressive Students’ Union,
Dr. N. Bhattacharya, Jan Hastakshep
Representative of JNU Forum Against War on People
Abhinav, Disha
Sandeep Singh, AISA
Banjyotsna, DSU
Campaign Against War on People
Contact: opposethehunters@gmail.com, stopwaroncitizens@gmail.com
Ph: 9899523722, 9910455993, 9718259201, 9818728298
Discussion: “No to use of army and air force against naxalites”
Dear Friend,
Branding ‘left wing extremism’ as the most serious threat to internal security, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress led UPA Govt. is unleashing serious onslaught on certain areas of the country where such forces are strong. Armed forces of the country are being pressed into this attack. Over 65,000 Special Forces are being trained by the Army for the purpose. While Govt. spokesmen are obfuscating the role of the Army in this offensive, armymen of Rashtriya Rifles and closely aligned ITBP are being thrown in. Air Force has been given permission for firing in “self-defense”. This last word is being added only to confuse the people. Where is the question of “self-defense” when Air Force is being asked to take part in offensive action? Air Force helicopters are being readied for attack and Air Force personnel “Garuds” are being given combat role.
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who has been an advocate for Enron and a director of Vedanta, is articulating the strategy of “capture, hold, develop” against areas where Naxalites, to begin with CPI (Maoist), are strong. He is echoing US Gen. McChrystal’s Afghanistan strategy, essentially a strategy of occupation. In this vision development comes last and it has not come for last over 62 years. And it is even now being used to camouflage what is essentially a move to deprive the people of their rights to livelihood.
Along with this Army action goes enactment of black laws, indiscriminate arrests, torture, intimidation and fake encounters.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had underscored the need for this offensive in his speech in Parliament on 18.6.2009, “If left wing extremism continues to flourish in parts which have natural resources of minerals, the climate for investment would certainly be affected.” Thus he made clear that “left wing extremism” is the main stumbling block in his govt.’s vision for development i.e. for exploitation of mineral resources by foreign MNCs and big corporate houses of the country.
But these areas are inhabited by people, living and desiring to live with dignity. These are among the most oppressed people of the country. Their land is taken, livelihood destroyed and they are thrown into the wilderness of destitution, despair and hunger.
While the callous and criminal disregard of their concerns is glaring, the most appalling aspect is the use of Army and Air Force against citizens of the country. These should not be the forces used for the whims of those in power. They must not in any case be used against the people of the country. They are supposed to defend the borders of the country and not to kill, maim, intimidate and subjugate its own people. The action of the Govt. is bound to redefine the role of the Army and Air Force in the eyes of the people and the present Govt. has no right to do so. Progressive, democratic and peace loving people of the country reject this role to be assigned to the Army and Air Force.
WE SAY AN UNEQUIVOCAL NO TO THE USE OF ARMY AND AIR FORCE AGAINST THE PEOPLE OF THE COUNTRY IN ANY NAME AND UNDER ANY PRETEXT.
WE CALL UPON YOU TO SAY NO TO SUCH USE OF ARMY AND AIR FORCE.
LET US JOIN HANDS TO PROTEST AGAINST THE PLAN OF THE GOVT. TO SUCH USE OF ARMY AND AIR FORCE. LET US RAISE OUR VOICE AND BUILD A STRONG PROTEST TO DETER THE GOVT. FROM SUCH CALLLOUS DISREGARD FOR THE PEOPLE AND ARMED FORCES.
We are organizing a meeting on 24th October, 2009 (Saturday) in the Speaker’s Hall, Constitution Club, New Delhi. We request you to participate in the meeting and help build a movement to prevent misuse of Army and Air Force.
Speakers:
* A. B. Bardhan
* Surendra Mohan
* Justice (Retd) Rajendra Sachar
* Prof. (Retd) Randhir Singh
* Admiral (Retd) R. H. Tahiliani
* Arundhati Roy
* Prashant Bhushan
* Gautam Navlakha
* G. N. Saibaba
* Aparna
PUCL
Jan Hastakshep
PUDR
Seminar on Socialism For the Twenty First Century
New Socialist Initiative: a collective committed to the regeneration of revolutionary socialist politics invites you for a Seminar on Socialism For the Twenty First Century on Sunday 30th Nov at 4 P.M. Venue: Conference Hall, Rajendra Bhavan, 210 Deendayal Upadhyaya Marg, New Delhi – 110002
Humanity stands at the threshold of new crises and new possibilities. As global capitalism takes humanity through another round of economic crisis, increasing unemployment, and poverty, a simple and stark question raises its head. Is humanity condemned to live with exploitation, oppression, dehumanising working conditions, wars and a looming ecological catastrophe, or is it capable of building a society without class, caste, and gender injustices, a society where the path to growth is not paved with poverty, hunger and overworked human bodies, where competitive greed is not the most rewarded human emotion. Rulers of the world since times immemorial, form Egyptian Pharaohs to Greek slave owners to Chinese Emperors to the current capitalist breed have always believed that they rule over the best of the world. The question raised above would scare them. For the people on the other hand, this question offers a stark choice. Either they succumb to ruling class ideologies, their obfuscations, allurements and sedation, and remain blind to it. Or, they doubt, critique and ask questions; if humanity is to make a better world, how should it go about it? What lessons does history teach in this regard?
Ever since capitalism became the dominant social system, socialism has been integral to humanity’s endeavours to imagine and achieve a better social world. Against the private profit greed of capitalism, socialism pitted the ideal of collective well-being; against a discouraged and alienated mass of humans created by capitalist profit machines, socialism envisioned an active and organized humanity that is fully aware of historic capabilities and tasks; against the freedom to make profit by one that leads to the misery of many, socialism raised the banner of a society in which the ‘the free development of each is a condition for the free development of all.’ To imagine socialism will become irrelevant even while capitalist injustices continue, is to believe humanity to be a condemned species. On the other hand to imagine that specific answers to the above questions provided by socialist visionaries like Saint Simon, Fourier and Owen, or by Marx and Engels, who put socialist theory on a firm scientific basis, or by practitioners of socialism like Lenin and Mao, will be correct in every aspect in the context of current too will be incorrect. For, capitalism has changed. It has changed, through trial and errors while dealing with its own crises, and by its efforts to counter and deflect mass movements against its rule. The most significant changes have occurred in the political and ideological domain. Liberal bourgeois democracy has become the norm of state rule, not just in economically advanced countries, but in underdeveloped countries like India too. Feudal ideologies based on ideas of natural hierarchy and blind faith in the super natural have been replaced by individualism and consumerism of a mass society, which while freeing humans of hierarchical constraints also dis-empower them by obfuscating the social context of their life.
Revolutions of the twentieth century, the Russian, the Chinese, the Vietnamese, or the Cuban, managed to rid a segment of humanity from direct capitalism. History has shown that their success was only partial. While they succeeded in saving their societies from the crises they were in, they failed to put them irreversibly on the path to socialism. Our current context in the twenty first century demands a critical engagement with the history and legacy of these revolutions. Interestingly, it is also in the current context, at a stage of history already shaped by two centuries of capitalist rule and at a time when capitalism as a social system reigns unopposed for the first time globally, that one also hears renewed stirrings for socialism in settings as diverse as hills of Nepal in South Asia, and favelas of Venezuela in Latin America. What do experiences of these countries tell us about prospects of socialism?
We feel that it is time that we revisit these ongoing stirrings for socialism and also start the process of reenvisioning socialism for our times. To start a meaningful discussion New Socialist Initiative, which is a collective committed to the regeneration of revolutionary socialist politics has invited eminent journalist Anand Swaroop Verma, scholar-activist Achin Vanaik and thinker Ravi Sinha to share their ideas on the theme.
Radical Notes 