[Reader-list] Re: barbed wire and GATES

[mahmood farooqui]

Interesting to see Barbed wire figuring in this
discussion...I wrote a little piece on it a while
ago...it may interest you...





The revenge of the cows it would be, if only they had
some agency in bringing it about, the mad cow disease
I mean. All through the Primary years in the
Government School where I studied, we used to have to
write an essay on the virtues of the cow. The
sanctimoniousness of rote-learning, school children
cramming in their throat (as the Sanskrit word
kanthasth dictates) homilies that would grace and
validate the sacred foundation of the Nation. Withal,
there was never any reason, any possibility even, of
learning what we have done to the cow. As for the
opponents of this liturgical praise, all they could
tell us was how the cow was never sacred, how much of
it was eaten in Ancient India. Good, so we ate it, we
eat it still, and when we don’t eat it we yoke it, we
milk it and then we abandon it, for fearless
streetwallahs to shoo it this way and that. Same
difference really. 

In two simple steps, even for the best, the history of
the cow, all kine and cattle in fact, is over. Man
hunts and gathers, man domesticates and the plentiful
crops begin to ripen, almost as promised by God. How
exactly does one domesticate a bunch of wild animals
except by taming that wildness, by enclosing,
training, instilling fear of walls, pens, beams,
sticks, ropes, rods, yokes? Generation after
generation, century after century, the process goes on
and on, fear on a collective scale, fear evenly spread
out, fear communicated through various, technological,
devices before millions and millions of cattle
everywhere in the world are domesticated, made
subservient, become obedient to our call, our need,
our power and dominance. There is an invisible
violence, centuries and millennia of violence behind
every grain, every morsel we take. Is it possible to
inflict such violence and remain unsullied?

Yes, says a Nobel winner, in these very pages. “The
world is what it is, he announces, and men who are
nothing, who allow themselves to become nothing, have
no place in it.” Indeed if this is so of men, what of
cattle? How indeed does one separate them? A question
easily answered in Asia Minor and all the world
religions which have emerged from there. Man is
Ashraful Makhlooqaat in the Quran, the first among
created beings in the Bible, and so can partake of the
world as he sees fit. Yet, this is not about the
merits or demerits of this or that civilization. The
cow holding the earth on its horn, according to Hindu
mythology, goes round with it, implicating all. Before
one conquers other human beings, one conquers the
cattle. 

Take Barbed wire for instance, seemingly always
present, but in fact a discovery, an innovation
really, of the eighteenth century. Reviel Netz,
American historian and philosopher explored the
development of this controlling and pain-inducing
technology in an article in the London Review of Books
a few years ago. Netz’ account was searing as he
described the slow and protracted way by which the new
and scientific fence came to be perfected. He
estimated the numbers that would have died before cows
or horses or bulls began to be, collectively,
frightened of the barbed wire. 


>From controlling cattle to controlling humans is but a
short step. Netz describes how it was adapted to
control people in Nazi concentration camps and the
Russian Gulag. Physical control over space was no
longer symbolic after 1874. It is like being hurled
through a trap door, this merciless account of modern
history through the lens of motion being prevented,
after being brought up on a triumphant died of
histories of technology concentrating on ever faster
ever higher motion.

The history of human economic activity is also the
history of appropriation of space, but that conquest,
that colonization is not merely external, it is also
internal. Even as civilization and technology march
ahead, the underbelly of that technology, the upturned
soil of its path, has a story. Drawing together the
history of humans and animals, Netz delivers a
compelling new perspective on the issues of
colonialism, capitalism, warfare, globalization,
violence, and suffering that asks us to do nothing
short of revising almost all our ideals, progress,
modernity, development and most of all, civilization.
The essay, now expanded into a book called Barbed Wire
is out from the New England Press this year. 





--- iram at sarai.net wrote:

> Hello,
> 
> Just thought that I should also add my two- bit to
> the discussions around
> security.
> 
> Being familiar with New Friends Colony and Zakir
> Nagar very well, I can
> vouch for the fact that yes, it is really
> inconvenient and annoying at
> times to face security guards and locked gates etc. 
> 
> For those on this list who are not familiar with
> this part of South Delhi,
> there are on the one hand these heavily gated/posh
> colonies like Friends
> Colony, New friends Colony and Maharani Bagh.  On
> the other hand, are
> pockets of localities/ mohallas and remnants of the
> earlier villages like
> Julena, Zakir Nagar, Bharat Nagar, and  Taimur
> Nagar.
> 
> These different worlds for those who are familiar,
> will know, do not exist
> in isolation, but through constant interaction/
> exchange. Even if it is
> something as banal as using a New Friends Colony
> road to get to Zakir
> Nagar.
> 
> I am not very familiar with Maslow’s hierarchy of
> needs but I’m sure
> security of sorts would figure there. It is human
> nature to want to be
> secure- physically, financially emotionally, etc. 
> It’s not just the
> State and the private security apparatus that would
> argue for the need for
> security,  but other social structures that play
> upon fear such as
> insurance, banking, health, education, real estate
> etc.
> 
> I know I’m really sticking my neck out with this
> but don’t we all live
> in a state of fear? Some people more so than others.
> 
> 
> Maybe in Zakir Nagar the gate is superfluous/ a mere
>  status symbol for
> Khadeeja’s  neighbour. But something alleviates
> fear here and  is
> fulfilling the need for security. I know of families
> who live in Zakir
> Nagar because they feel it is `safe’. So, I think
> some kind of security
> apparatus would be formally or informally
> operational there. 
> 
> In Maharani Bagh, the physical manifestation of
> security could be a gate, a
> security guard, a CCTV camera, in Zakir Nagar, it
> would be something else. 
> 
> Gates keep people out. They also keep people in- not
> necessarily the
> residents but also who the residents want to come to
> this `enclosure’ of
> sorts. FAmily, friends, acquaintances, and service
> providers. However the
> threshold of entry would be different for everyone.
> I guess depending on 
> how known is the unknown and how familiar is the
> stranger.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Iram
> 
>    
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 6:58:04 am 02/03/05 "khadeeja  arif"
> <khadeejaarif1 at rediffmail.com> wrote:
> >   
> > Yesterday I just happened to read a chapter from a
> fascinating book
> > called Barbed Wire. I found the book lying at a
> friend’s place. This
> > friend of mine is obsessed with the issue of
> Surveillance and Security
> > in the city (Actually that is his research
> project). Anyways, I just
> > quickly read the first chapter of the book. It is
> a fascinating account
> > of the history of the barbed wire, its use for the
> control of the space
> > based on the discourse of exclusion and inclusion.
> It led me think
> > about the various such controlling mechanisms in
> our everyday existence
> > and these very mechanism make us feel the need to
> have more security
> > than ever (Mainly physical security). Some of the
> agencies through
> > which we are made to be conscious of our own
> security are the TV news,
> > about abduction/ terror acts/; newspaper reports
> of killing/
> > abduction;/terror attacks; the announcements
> echoing in the air (in the
> > markets/parking places etc); the presence of the
> gates/ fences/
> > security guards and of courses the BARBED WIRES
> here and there.
> > We encounter the everydayness of the city through
> various purposes
> > like: work/meetings/college/ appointments/job
> hunts/ house hunt/leisure
> > activities or may be, sometime, just a surreal
> trip to a MAD world
> > where the ‘normal’ world seems to be turned
> upside down.
> > This constant mobility has become a hallmark of
> our existence within
> > a city. It may result in our situated-ness or may
> assure constant
> > movement in search of SITAUTEDNESS- desired by
> most of us.
> > The forces to keep us alert as to assure our
> ‘security’ are galore. 
> > We are made believed that how important our safety
> is we don’t know?
> > There is need for some one out there to tell us
> about that. This is
> made sure by creating a fear of the other (the
> outsiders/unknown/strange
> > r/ and somebody who is not there, but CAN be
> there. So JUST BE ALERT!!!
> >
> > I remember one-winter night during my college days
> at MCRC, when
> > venturing out in the night (going out to watch
> films, mainly at IHC, or
> > sometime, if we had enough money, to see the films
> on the hall) was
> > normal, rather most loved/cherished activity as it
> not only gave us a
> > great sense of freedom but also meant interacting
> with the city at a
> > different level all together (something’s which I
> never would have
> > done/experienced otherwise).  We had neither gone
> to see a film nor had
> > we gone to meet somebody, rather we were in the
> premise of our
> > locality. We were actually not able to decide
> whether we should stay at
> > Bharat Nagar (Where me, Pineneg and Tina stayed)
> or spend the night at
> > Rita’s place (Another batch mate of mine). Rita
> stayed in the A Block
> > of New Friends Colony. Rita was also with us. It
> was 11 in the night
> > when we had decided finally to stay at Rita’s
> place.  We decided to go
> > to Rita’s place via a short cut, from behind the
> Bharat Nagar, without
> > actually realizing that we were little too late to
> be eligible to cross
> > the well-gated New Friends Colony. We walked for
> fifteen minutes, and,
> > when we reached the A block, we were denied the
> permission to enter the
> > block by the guards as it was already time to shut
> the gates and in no
> > circumstances we could cross the gates. Though we
> pleaded to the
> > guard. Rita: Bhiya main tau yahin rahti Ho
> > Guard: tau madam aapko tau pata hona chahiye
> > Khadeeja: Bhiya abhi tau 11 hi baja hai…  ab ki
> baar khol dijiye..
> > phir kabhi aia nahi karengay… Guard: Madam yeh
> sab aapki suraksha ke
> > liye hi kiya hai… Rita: Bhiya, please!!!
> > Guard: Nahi madam….
> > Khadeeja: Fuck off!!!
> >
> > As the guard seemed really a tough nut to crack,
> we decided to go
> > back to the main road and come from the front side
> of the A block (or
> > the main road). This time again we walked for
> fifteen minutes and
> > decided to take a rickshaw once we reach the main
> road 
=== message truncated ===



		
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