[Reader-list] Abstracts for 2007 Sarai-CSDS Independent Fellows

[Vivek Narayanan]

Here's a taste of what's to come!

This is a long text-- 11,000 words or about 23 printed pages long. It 
will also soon be available for browsing on the Sarai website. Note also 
that translations for the abstracts for some of the Hindi projects are 
not included here, but they will appear on deewan at sarai.net , where the 
postings for the Hindi projects will be sent.

Cheers
Vivek

ABSTRACTS FOR SELECTED SARAI-CSDS INDEPENDENT FELLOWSHIP PROPOSALS: 2007

(list is alphabetical by last name; please enable Unicode on your 
computer to read the Devanagiri fonts)


1. Priya Babu, Chennai. Performance and Worship in the Aravani 
(Transgender) Community in Tamilnadu

Aravanis, called Hijrahs in north India, have existed in Tamilnadu for 
several centuries. Though born biologically as males, they closely 
identify themselves as girl/woman. By doing so, they undergo a lot of 
suffering due to the great psychological pressure exerted by different 
social forces that prevail. Because of lack of understanding among the 
general public and the society, those who do not behave like boys are 
often discrimination and even face violence from their own family 
members. Hence they are forced to leave their family members and later 
join the Aravani community, which accepts them and provides support.

This research will study and document the Tamilnadu Aravani community’s 
varied musical (household, ceremonial, ritualistic and popular) 
performance forms as well as their theatrical (theru koothu) tradition. 
It will try to understand different sects and their hierarchies with a 
focus on interrelations during public celebrations and private 
gatherings. In the process, the project will also document their 
worshipping places, their relation with the god Aravan and the story of 
how they became linked with mainstream society.

Priya Babu is a Chennai-based researcher, journalist and coordinator of 
the theatre group, ‘Kannadi Kalai Kuzhu’. She is herself a member of the 
Aravani community.


2. Dwaipayan Banerjee, Delhi. Towards A Postcolonial Code

Science and technology studies is a growing inter-disciplinary field of 
research and within it, the sub-discipline of postcolonial technoscience 
studies is fast gaining currency. Within this discipline I hope to look 
at programs and programmers of cryptographic code in India. There has 
been lot of talk (both commonsensical and specialist) about information 
as trans-national flow, about the liberating qualities of cyberspace. To 
provide some balance to these claims, even a cursory glance at recent IT 
legislation on cryptography provides sobering insights into how 
completely the State enables itself to control flow by decrypting every 
kind of communication at will. Cryptographic code and its use is then a 
fertile area of study, as it emerges at the interstices of law, national 
security and citizen’s privacy.

Methodologically, one would hope to build on insights from science-tech 
studies and follow engineers (in case this programmers) and their 
products (cryptographic code) through a process of innovation, use and 
institutionalisation. It is hoped that the end product for the Sarai 
archive will be a well-researched paper on the cryptographic practices 
of programmers, the use of their code and governmental legislation.

Dwaipayan Banerjee is an MPhil student of sociology, with particular 
interests in the anthropology of science, political theory and literature.


3. Smita Banerjee, Delhi. Cinematic City: Kolkata, Modernity, Middle 
Class and the Urban Woman—A Study of 1950s and 1960s Popular Bangla Cinema

I propose to excavate a history of the relationship between popular 
cinema and the city through the narrative prism of some 1950s and 60s 
popular Bangla cinema. I would like to focus on the emergence of a 
specific urban middle class aesthetic that is spatially and 
cinematically articulated through its location in the city of Kolkata. 
Films such as Saptapadi (1961), Harano Sur (1951), Saat Pake Bandha 
(1963), Uttar Phalguni (1966), Abhoyar Biye (1957), Teen Bhuboner Paare 
(1969), Trijama (1956), Sagarika (1956), Pathey Holo Deri (1957), 
Agnipariksha (1954), Bipasha (1962), Chaoa Paoa (1959), Deya Neya 
(1963), Bicharak (1959), etc. negotiate a complex relationship of middle 
class characters to the city through a narrative investment in 
foregrounding the themes of work, profession, intercaste, interracial 
love, interpersonal conflicts, choice of career and new and different 
focus on the working woman and her identity.

I will attempt to show how this cinematic engagement with the urban city 
and modernity and the woman is not only a fashioning but a 
self–fashioning of the urban middle class Bengali identity. Through a 
foregrounding of the representation of the city in cinema, I will 
attempt to recover a history of the spatial negotiations that help these 
middle class characters to map, appropriate and articulate their lived 
experience in urban Kolkata of the 1950s and 60s. I will also attempt to 
historicise this cinematic articulation as a document/archive of the 
lived city which can be used to formulate (a) thesis of a specific self 
fashioning of the Bengali middle class, (b) to locate the imaginary of 
this of this cinema within the emergence of a new popular engaged in 
mapping a feminine subjectivity in the modern city.

Smita Banerjee is a senior lecturer in English at the Delhi College of 
Arts & Commerce, Delhi University.


4. Julius Basaiawmoit & Renee C. Lulam, Shillong. The Changing Faces of 
Democratic Spaces in Urban Cosmopolitan Shillong

What is ‘cosmopolitan’ about a small city, hub of the Northeast, with a 
layered history of having been a colonial capital, then that of 
undivided Assam in post-independent India, and later, in 1972, the 
capital of a hill state carved out of Assam?

With spurts of communal violence since 1979, the dynamics of public 
spaces within Shillong have subtly shifted. Violence has been targeted 
at specific communities, even as prejudices between and across 
communities continue.

Engagement with the past is intensely personal, and a resource for 
enhancing identity as well as explaining experience. Oral history’s 
potential for deeply evocative accounts creates innovative avenues for 
understanding personal events as profoundly social. This allows a 
broader perception of human interactions that have shaped the past and 
continue into the present.

With this backdrop, the project proposes to investigate if the urban 
spaces of Shillong truly express a cosmopolitan environment. Through 
audio-recordings and an interpretative paper of oral testimonies from 
individuals of various backgrounds, the project enquires into the 
central question of indigeneity versus the cosmopolitan in public spaces 
within the city of Shillong.

Julius specializes in sound for film and television. Renee works with 
independent research based projects. Both are from Shillong.


5. Mithun Narayan Bose, Kolkata. Tracing Life from the Stroke: 
Documenting the Rickshaw-Painting of Kolkata Streets

The paintings behind the rickshaws of the city of Calcutta are a unique 
example of an unnoticed urban folk-art, and the detailed study of the 
paintings can be an alternative way to know about the life of these 
people. As most of the Calcutta Rickshaw-pullers have migrated to the 
city from other places, the paintings’ style reflect the form/ style of 
art available at the rickshaw-puller’s place of origin. A unique 
heterogeneity is also observed due to its confluence with the urban 
style. Thematically, the rickshaw paintings of Calcutta-streets are of 
different types (e.g. religious, landscape, portrait of near and dear 
ones, film star etc.). In this proposed project, the painting behind the 
rickshaws will be documented with the help of both video recording and 
photography. The mode of presentation will be in the form of a 
documentary film. It will be supplemented by an academic paper (which 
will include the interviews with the rickshaw-pullers, owners and 
painters). Some photographs of the paintings will also be submitted as a 
part of the archive.

Mithun Narayan Bose is a language teacher at a Kolkata school. He 
contributes regularly to several Kolkata little magazines, and his 
interests include poetry, folklore, cultural anthropology, art and art 
criticism.


6. Pritham Chakravarty, Chennai. Urban Sabha Dramas

Theatre in Tamilnadu has a long and varied history, ever since 
Sankaradas Swamigal brought regularity into the running of professional 
theatre with the Boys Companies. The Dravidian movement had a deep 
impact on the growth of Tamil theatre, with C. N. Annadurai and M. 
Karunanidhi being its star writers. Sustaining these groups became 
financially nonviable after the late 50s with the emergence of cinema as 
the more popular medium of entertainment.

Family entertainment in Madras, now Chennai, in the 60s took a very 
interesting avatar. With the change in the local political scene and 
Tamil cinema audience itself largely divided between two loyalties —that 
of MGR and Sivaji Ganesan— the urban public created a new form of 
entertainment. In the 60s townships like T. Nagar, Mylapore, Triplicane, 
Nungambakkam and even the then suburb, Chromepet, with its very large 
middle-class population, sprang up with a number of Sabhas, which became 
the water-shed in the growth of art and culture.

By the early 70s, the audience had grown in other cities like Bombay, 
Delhi, and Calcutta. Late 70s television with its weekend quota of films 
and song-and-dance sequences lured the audience away from the sabhas. 
While for some time sabhas occupied themselves with bharathnatyam and 
carnatic music shows this could never promise the once regular members’ 
return to the halls. Post-Emergency also saw several contemporary 
theatre groups emerge in the city. Though these groups occasionally 
hired the sabhas for their performances, the audience was a niche group 
that could never fill the space. By the late 80s the sabhas were 
practically empty.

The research itself opts to concentrate on the growth of the sabhas and 
the amateur theatre groups, considering their impact on the larger 
theatre audience. Many of the agents are still alive and are active 
elsewhere. Scripts of a few have been published. The audio and DVD 
market for some of the plays have grown. But none of these have been 
archived. Reviews of most plays are non-existent. In fact many do not 
know their plays were reviewed at all. While theatre in Maharashtra and 
Kolkata receive plenty of state patronage, in Tamilnadu only 
contemporary forms are able to draw state or corporate support. Thus a 
form of theatre that even emerged because of the sheer nature of this 
urban space is today left to die a slow death.

Pritham Chakravarthy is a performer and writer based in Chennai.


7. Arnab Chatterjee, Kolkata. Beyond Private and Public: New 
Perspectives on Personal and Personalist Social Work

The key to understanding modernity is the public/private divide and a 
corresponding failure to find a way beyond the binary. A stream of 
discourses could be recalled which had proposed, in their desperate will 
to move beyond this liberal dilemma, alternative versions of the private 
and the public where the personal appeared as another version of the 
private. My work argues the personal as a beyond of private/public 
binary and distinguishes it from the private vis-à-vis the public. 
Having recuperated the personal as a suppressed narrative using 
historical and socio-theoretic tools, I interrupt it by thematizing the 
category ( though not limiting it) through the cultural self 
understanding of particular communities and deploy it by using the 
registers of personalist social work. [Deriving its force from social 
and psychotherapeutic case work, personalist social work denied to be 
absorbed in either the public (the governmental state) or the private ( 
resistance to publicity)].

This study will limit itself to exploring how the personal negotiates 
with the questions of publicity/mediation in the context of colonial 
Calcutta’s emerging civil society --energized by its claims to have 
generated modernity; a claim that continues to be examined even today. 
Embodying a will to become an academic research paper using secondary 
sources, the study will accumulate texts that range from the Calcutta 
Neo-Hegelian Hiralal Haldar’s debate with Mactaggart ( in the 1890’s) on 
whether the absolute or a school club has a personality (even if “the 
personality is a colony”) to how the personal or personalist social work 
may engender the first systematic critique of Partha Chatterjee’s 
revisionist notion of new Political Society ( in the wake of ‘welfare’ 
of the population) and whose examples are drawn from contemporary Calcutta.
Arnab Chatterjee is Doctoral Fellow at the department of Philosophy, 
Jadavpur University, Kolkata and on the visiting faculty of Ethics and 
Human Values at the Bengal Institute of Technology, Kolkata.


8. Neelima Chauhan, Delhi. ब्लॉगित हिन्दी जाति का लिंकित मन: ब्लॉगों में हिन्दी 
हायपरटेक्स्ट का अध्ययन (“The Linked Mind of the Blogged Hindi Jati: A 
Hypertextual Study of Hindi Blogs”)

This research proposes to do an online study of Hindi hyper text on 
Hindi blogs. It will be an attempt to make a critical appreciation of 
Language and style of hypertextual prose as it flows through the 
terminals of Hindi Bloggers. It will be an online study which will take 
in account the existing blogs, Hindi Networks, Blog Archives, Comments 
etc. Narratives from the Hindi Online community will be collected. The 
objective is to identify the construction of the grand narrative of 
'Hindi Jati' (Hindi nationality) as described in Hindi literary 
criticism, especially that by Ram Vilas Sharma. This construction of 
Hindi Jati where geographical space seemingly becomes meaningless (or 
less important, at least) will be explored.

As the research will be an online study, its progress will be available 
to all interested in real time. Findings of the work will be shared 
through a Weblog Publication and will be presented at the final workshop.

Neelima's doctoral and Post doctoral work is in Post colonial Hindi 
Prose. She teaches Hindi at Delhi University's Zakir Husain Post 
Graduate Evening College.


9. Raman Jit Singh Chima, Bangalore. The Regulation of the Internet by 
the Indian State through Legal Structures and Mechanisms

Though considerable work has been done on exploring how the Internet is 
capable of being regulated, not much has been done to chart out the 
exact shape of such regulation of expression on the Internet in India. 
More importantly, the exact manner in which the Indian State has 
regulated the Internet through all the structures and mechanisms at its 
disposal has not been studied, which is important since this affects the 
flow of speech and expression.

In order to attempt to chart out the empirical aspects of Internet 
regulation in India and its linkages with normative frameworks, the 
focus of this project is thus on the following two goals;
Firstly, to track out and study the manner in which the Indian State 
regulates the Internet through legal structures and connected mechanism 
(both through formal legal rules as well as through informal measure 
such as executive action)
Secondly, to analyze how this regulatory framework relates to the 
constitutional safeguards with respect to the limitations on state 
action viz. free speech and expression and whether it respects these 
constraints.

The findings obtained from the proposed field work (which will track the 
form, extent and purported rationale of such regulation) will be 
processed through the existing theoretical frameworks and the end result 
will be an paper which will present the manner in which the Indian State 
has regulated the Internet currently, along with a critical academic 
understanding of how this connects with constitutional safeguards with 
respect to freedom of speech and expression.

Raman Chima is pursuing the B.A.LL.B. (Hons) program at the National Law 
School of India University, Bangalore and is currently in the 3rd year 
of this course.


10. Burton Cleetus, Delhi. Urbanisation, Western Medicine and Modernity: 
The Rockefeller Foundation in Travancore

One of the most important interventions made by the “progressive” state 
of Travancore which later became part of the state of Kerala, was in the 
field of health care. The reorganization of the public health department 
with the aid of the Rockefeller Foundation of the United States was 
aimed at drafting a coherent health care policy for the state, primarily 
to cater to the needs of the emerging population in the urban centres. 
The study seeks to argue that the process of reconstituting the health 
care policy by the princely state in the early twentieth century was a 
political project of governance aimed at socio-cultural framing. A 
comparison between activities of the Rockefeller foundation in 
addressing the spread of Malaria and plague in the early twentieth 
century with the attempts made by the state of Kerala in tackling 
similar contagious diseases in recent times would enable to one 
understand the shifts in the frames of references of the nature of 
interventions of western medicine over the last century.

The study would fundamentally be based on the government documents from 
the Kerala state archives and on newspaper reports and clippings. The 
conclusions of the study would be presented as a research paper.

Burton Cleetus is a PhD scholar from the Center for Historical Studies, 
JNU. He did his post graduation and M Phil from JNU. His research on the 
institutionalization of indigenous medicine in Kerala is an attempt to 
explore as to how esoteric cultural practices and localized healing 
techniques were refashioned, revitalized and consequently 
institutionalized into the broad framework of Ayurveda.


11. Ajit Kr. Dvivedi, Delhi. मीडिया की नज़र में सीलिंग बनाम पुश्ते का विस्थापन 
("Media Study: Comparative Reporting on Ceilings and Displacement from 
Jamuna Pushta”)


12. Anuja Ghoshalkar, Mumbai. Papa Aajoba.

The project will chronicle the life of my grand father, who was a make 
up artist in the Hindi film industry from 1941 to 2000: from his early 
years at Raj Kamal studio with V. Shantaram (when they literally made 
their own make-up) to his 17 years spent at the Filmistan studio. There 
will be a sharper focus on the 1960’s - when he predominantly worked 
with Shammi Kapoor, Asha Parekh, Sadhana & Saira Banu. It will also 
document film history from the point of view of a technician who might 
lacquer it with his own stories. It is finally, a tribute to a 
grandfather who narrated stories of his everyday life, not knowing that 
stories often become history.

The research will primarily be through interviews, previously published 
books on the history of Indian cinema and material from magazines like 
Film India, Rangabhoomi, Screen, etc.

The presentation will be in an audio-visual form with a written essay.

Anuja Ghosalkar is a lecturer and researcher in film and has been 
involved with an experimental theatre group in Mumbai for over half a 
decade. She is currently working with Breakthrough – a globally active 
human rights organization.


13. Ranu Ghosh, Kolkata. The Changing Industrial Landscape of Kolkata: 
Jay Engineering Works

I have been following the transformation of a productive, half a century 
old Jay Engineering Works into Kolkata’s South City Project, “Eastern 
India's largest mixed use real estate development”. Jay Engineering, 
commonly called Usha Factory, started operations manufacturing 
electrical consumer durables in the 1950s. The labour force of this 
reasonably large manufacturing unit was mostly comprised of migrants 
from Bihar and UP, and refugees from East Pakistan. The Works was closed 
down, made defunct and the land was handed over to the real estate 
consortium of five major real estate “magnates” in 2003. The factory 
buildings were demolished and the construction of the South City 
Projects comprising three 35-storey and one 28-storey tower, a shopping 
mall, school, multiplex, club etc, started from February 2004, which 
included the illegal filling up of one of south Calcutta's largest 
natural water bodies. The workers of Jay were forced into retirement 
with little or no compensation and sent into limbo, except for Shambhu 
Prasad Singh. Shambhu has refused to opt for the meagre handouts and has 
instead taken his case to court. Against all odds, and withstanding the 
sustained pressure of the builders, he continues to live in his original 
quarters, surrounded and dwarfed on all sides by the construction in 
progress of South City. This brave stand taken by an individual is an 
example of how such “development” can be challenged.

Since the latter half of 2004 I have been documenting in video and still 
formats, the stages of development at the construction site as the work 
progressed and the displaced labour force, and out of that, Shambhu 
Prasad evolved as an outstanding example of the protest against this 
“development”. I began to follow his everyday life, his improvised 
strategies of survival in the face of difficult circumstances and his 
innate zeal to fight for his rights. He has transformed from a character 
in my film into that of a collaborator, adding a unique dimension to the 
project.

Ranu Ghosh has worked as a freelance camera person and director in the 
Indian industry for the past eight years.


14. Sukanya Ghosh, Kolkata. Animation and the Development Ideal: The 
Idea of Nation, the Socialist Impetus and Animation Film Design in India

This project seeks to trace the history of Animation film design within 
India and to find within it a parallel history of the developing nation 
state. It will look at institutions such as the Doordarshan, Films 
Division, Lok Seva Sanchar, and The National Institute of Design, meet 
and interview various people associated with this history, and gather 
and examine archival material that is available. The nature of this 
research will be to record, analyse and seek out a definitive historical 
path for Indian animation, and to locate it within a broader perspective 
of social and industrial change. The research will be compiled as a 
visual presentation which can be used as archival material as well as 
something that can be presented as an exhibit or presentation independently.


15. Rajeev Ranjan Giri, Delhi. सरस्वती की सार्वजनिक दुनिया (“The Public 
World of the Journal Saraswati, 1900-1920”)


16. M.S. Harilal, Thiruvananthapuram. Adopting Modernisation, 
Negotiating Modernisation: Modern and Traditional Ayurvedic Sectors in 
the Context of Transformation

The study endeavors to analyze responses of the larger transformation of 
a traditional medical system, namely Ayurveda, to a more affirmative 
institutional system and a well developed market. The modern forms of 
Ayurveda seem to be pulled by both pharmaceutical companies and modern 
practitioners in a direction that flaunts cultural authenticity and 
tradition as well as scientific efficacy and standardization for its 
products. It analyses how the stakeholders in this bifurcation - 
traditional and modern ayurvedic manufacturing, perceive and deal with 
modernization, which is two fold, both in form and content. The two 
specific questions that the study intends to explore, based on selected 
case analysis and necessary ethnographic works, are: one, How do we 
explain the recent gains made by many firms operating in the 'modern' 
sector? Two, what are the ways in which the traditional-informal sector 
has coped with the processes of transformation? To the gist, we are 
addressing the question of agential relation in the transformation and 
want to contrast and compare how the two sections deal with the 
challenge of globalization or negotiate to find their space in the 
global era. Three rationales may be given for this study: one, the 
traditional knowledge systems are increasingly become relevant, two, 
there is a universal concern to addressing community ownership of 
traditional knowledge and third, it will help us understand the struggle 
and revival of similarly placed traditional industries.

M.S. Harilal is, at present, a doctoral scholar in Economics at the 
Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram. His current areas of 
interests are the modernization of Indian systems of medicine, the 
medicinal plants sector, IPR and traditional knowledge.

17. Zaigham Imam, Delhi/Allahabad. सपनों की रेल (“Railways of Dreams”)


18. Santana Issar & Aditi Saraf, Delhi. Old Dog, New Tricks: Rethinking 
Animal Activism in an Urban Context

Human-animal relationships have been historically constituted in complex 
and intimate ways along the economic, the affective, the cultural and 
ritual, and the metaphoric. As these relationships have receded into an 
irretrievable past, it has been suggested that animals have been 
reconfigured in the urban imagination; as household pets, as objects of 
wonder in zoos and circuses, and as (Kentucky or not) fried chicken.

Our question is - does this driving of a wedge between human lives and 
those of animals inform dominant notions of 'animal welfare'?

We will study the relationship between the theory of the human-animal 
interaction in a post-industrial urban context, and the practices of 
animal rescue and welfare, in order to understand how, and to what 
extent, each is shaped by the other. All this in the particular context 
of our very own urban jungle – Delhi.

Our research methodology and documentation will involve the textual as 
well as the visual. Research will be conducted through participant 
observation, interviews and questionnaires, and photographic and video 
documentation.

Both Santana and Aditi are graduates of St Stephen's College. Santana is 
a filmmaker, Aditi works as a research associate at the National 
Knowledge Commission.


19. Vivek Kumar Jain, Delhi दिल्ली विश्वविद्यालय के रेहड़ी खोमचेवालों का 
ज़िन्दगीनामा (“A Study of Social and Cultural Spaces on the DU Campus”)


20. Deepak Kadyan, Delhi. Popular Musical Traditions and the 
Configuration of Jat Identity in Haryana

This research seeks to examine the relationship between popular musical 
traditions and the forging of a jat identity in north India in general 
and in Haryana in particular. The processes of identity formation and 
self-perceived notions of community will be analyzed and discerned 
through the prism of popular culture and as to how a 'community' viewed 
itself, and what its aspirations have been over a period of time.

An important aspect of this study would be an analysis of the sites of 
performance and circulation of this oral tradition. One such site is the 
akharas (lit. a wrestling arena, but here, it refers to a space for 
rehearsals and practice), influential until the mid twentieth century. 
Another such site available to oral tradition for circulation was the 
colonial army and police. The history of oral tradition is intertwined 
with the history of prominent performers, and major structural and 
performative changes, whether in terms of musical instruments, rhythms, 
intonation, appropriation of symbols or content— in other words, the 
relationship between performers and performance. Interestingly, the 
social composition of oral tradition in Haryana is different, as it 
wasn't dominated by any particular community.

This study seeks to use a variety of sources ranging from archival 
material to oral traditions and personal interviews. This study intends 
to make use of all the documented oral tradition in the form of text and 
cassettes as well. A process of documentation of Sufi tradition, which 
is so strong in this region will be initiated. Amongst other textual 
sources, diaries, personal letters, memoirs and compositions of 
prominent political leaders like Chotu Ram, Chajju Ram and others merit 
analysis. This study also seeks to use the letters received from 
Pakistani soldiers kept at All India Radio, and a personal collection of 
correspondence between people who left Haryana and were constantly 
interacting through letters.



21. Ram Ganesh Kamatham, Bangalore. Vikram and Vetal: A Contemporary 
Urban Play

This research seeks to create a play script which is a modern retelling 
of the folktale of Vikram and Vetal. The main thrust of the research 
will seek to create a critical mass of information pertaining to the 
stories that will be exploited for dramaturgical ends, with a view to 
re-contextualising the stories within a modern urban space. It will 
involve gathering material that will eventually inform the creation of 
the play script – including comic books, photographs, clippings and a 
travelogue. The dramaturgical concept of polyvocality will permeate the 
research as well as drive the creative process that will frame the 
material dramatically.

Ram Ganesh Kamatham is a professional writer based in Bangalore. He has 
created work for stage, film, radio, and video games.


22. Shahnawaz Khan, Srinagar. Entertainment Ghosts in Srinagar: A Tale 
of Cinema Halls in the City

This study aims to analyse the impact of the closure of cinema halls in 
Srinagar after the outbreak of armed insurgency in early nineties. Most 
of the closed cinema halls are occupied by paramilitary troopers and 
have even functioned as torture centres in the nineties. Some others 
have changed business. Only one is functional, but not in good condition.

I will be talking to people associated with the trade, cine goers who 
have been to these halls when they functioned, and the youth today who 
do not find a place to go for a movie in the city.

The study will also look at the psychological impact of these structures 
in the city, which stand witness to the times they have gone through.

I am a journalist based in Srinagar, associated with the US based Free 
Speech Radio News. Along with some friends we launched Kashmirnewz.com 
in 2006.


23. Arvind Kumar, Delhi. Caste Violence in Urban Maharashtra: A Study of 
the 1974 Worli Riots, a Breaking Point in the Dalit Panthers Movement

The proposed study intends to analyse the Worli riots of 1974 when there 
was a violent clash between the Shiv Sena and the Dalit Panthers. In 
this riot the main target of communal wrath were dalits who opted out of 
the oppressive caste-hindu religion and converted to Neo-Buddhism. The 
riots and the agitation brought to the surface dissensions within the 
Dalit Panther movement, which ultimately led to its split in 1974.

There are enough sources available on Dalit Panther movement. The 
consciousness of revolt was also expressed in an outburst of poetry by 
new writers like Namdev Dhasal, Daya Powar, J V Pawar, Waman Nimbalkar, 
Arun Kamble and many others. The present study will locate the Worli 
riots in a historical perspective and will try and address new questions 
as and when they arise through the course of the study. Content analysis 
as a technique would be adopted whereby making inferences by 
systematically and objectively identifying specified characteristics of 
texts will be followed. The researcher would conduct interviews with the 
survivors of the riots and would record and transcribe them. Apart from 
this, internet sites would be scoured for photographs and assorted 
material.

Arvind Kumar is pursuing a PhD in American Studies at the School of 
International Studies, JNU on the topic 'Discrimination and Resistance - 
A Comparative Study of Black Movements in the U.S and Dalit Movements in 
India'.


24. Ramesh Kumar, Delhi. Film Exhibition Spaces in Delhi

My research would attempt to understand the dynamics of the film viewing 
experience offered by three different cinema halls belonging to the A, B 
and C segment each in the city of Delhi. Basing itself on the premise 
that our film viewing experience is greatly altered by the viewing 
conditions and other facilities offered by the screening space and its 
surroundings, the research would seek to understand what marks such 
difference between the three cinema halls. Through a series of 
interviews, empirical observation and photo documentation, I would 
investigate the unique spatial experience offered by each site, study 
the various facilities offered by them, compare the nature of films 
screened and the technology used in each hall, examine other mechanisms 
employed to offer the audience “a novel movie experience” and study the 
different promotional materials used by each cinema hall. In a final 
report/ academic paper, I would summarize these empirical findings and 
locate them in the larger field of cultural production and circulation 
amidst the heterogeneity of the city space.

I am currently enrolled for an MPhil in Film Studies from the School of 
Arts and Aesthetics, JNU.


25. Gyaltsen Lama, Gangtok, Sikkim. Shamans in the City

A four part graphic novel exploring the lives of four different shamans 
in Gangtok, Sikkim. 20 pages of each part with black and white 
illustrations. Each part is approached with different illustration and 
narrative styles.

ONE
This is more of an intimate/personal approach. The shaman, who is a 
housewife, is interviewed randomly over a period of time. The 
illustration is realistic. Story line consists of her history, views, 
aspirations and experiences.
TWO
This has a humorous approach story wise so the illustration is more free 
flowing and very much satirical. This is a shaman who has more misses 
than hits. This narrative will be interviews with the people who 
interact with him on a daily basis, their opinion of him.
THREE
This has an experimental approach illustration wise. This deals with 
more of the shamanistic rituals where the shaman describes them. A 
collage of illustrations and photographs with non linear inter panel flow.
FOUR
This is a background research of a shaman who is from a remote part of 
Sikkim and now resides in Gangtok city. This research includes visiting 
the village of the shaman and interviewing the village people and 
getting a better understanding of where the shaman comes from and how he 
is coping with the city.

(Gyaltsen Lama: I received my bachelor of fine arts degree (year 2000) 
from Sir JJ School of Art, Mumbai. I am currently the fine art teacher 
at Tashi Namgyal Academy, Gangtok. I am working on an art installation; 
one part of it is a 13 ft sculpture in concrete. The project is in its 
final stages. I am also a tattoo artist and have been working on tattoos 
for the last 7 years. I also have a passion for cel animation.)


26. Madhura Lokohare, Pune. Exploring the ‘Vartaphalak’ Culture in Pune City

The aim of the study is to explore the role played by notice boards 
(popularly known as vartaphalak) in formation and articulation of 
identity in four areas of Pune city, viz. Sadashiv Peth, Narayan Peth, 
Guruwar Peth and Ghorpade Peth. The study tries to investigate how 
local, communal and regional identity is constructed and consolidated 
through these spaces, by looking at the visual organization of these 
spaces and content and rhetoric used in the notice boards. It also aims 
at understanding the profile of population whom these spaces are aimed 
at as well as community perceptions towards these spaces. Whether the 
spaces reflect a gender-based and caste-based differences would be 
another point of exploration. Fieldwork would be done through three 
qualitative methods: photo documentation, interviews and FGDs, and 
non-participant observation. These methods would focus on specific 
themes outlined in the objectives.

The outcome of the study would be in the form of a photo-essay 
comprising of maximum 35 photographs, covering the above issues and an 
essay exploring these issues based upon fieldwork as well as a brief 
review of literature in the area of public spaces and visual culture.

Madhura Lokhare is currently working as a Research Co-ordinator in a 
mental health research, services and advocacy organization, Bapu Trust, 
Pune; there she is working on a research project exploring the role of 
indigenous healing practices in mental health.


27. Nalin Mathur, Delhi. B-Grade Engineering College Culture

Being subjected with the experience of studying at an engineering 
college, I happened to witness the living experiences, aspirations and 
values that make an 'engineer' beyond all the techy stuff he learns in 
the classroom. Add to it the different background and identity of 
students and the acute realization that "This – is- not – IIT", which 
more often then not looms large in everyone's conscience. Hence, 
engineering colleges constitute of interesting and fantastical cultural 
dynamics wherein a mix of identities, cultures and aspirations are 
played out in non-metropolitan spaces to get an amalgamation of 
different worlds in one campus. Through this project I aim to study the 
phase of social and emotional renaissance which unavoidably crops up 
during one's stay away from his natural locale.

The end-product of the research will be in form of a series of essays 
with illustrations and will cover the following:

1. An ethnographic description of B Grade Engineering college culture 
and student experience.
2. Mapping out the changing dynamics of this space along with that of 
its physical location and how the latter contributes to receives and 
experiences this culture.
3. Hypothetical possibilities of how these might affect the physical and 
cultural space.
4. How these aspects affect one’s politics, conscience, personhood.
5. How these experiences influence and form the outlook towards the 
world at large or view points nurtured here during the four years of a 
students stay.

The research methodology shall be qualitative and informal in nature. It 
will include:

- Participant Observation
- Photography
- Ethnography
- Sociometry
- Historiography

I am Nalin Narain Mathur, working as an Analyst – Systems, with HCL 
Technologies – Remote Infrastructure Division and have a Bachelors 
Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Uttar Pradesh Technical 
University, Lucknow.


28. Meena Menon, Mumbai. Recovering Lost Histories: Riot Victims and 
Communal Polarisation in Mumbai

Is Mumbai the unbreakable city it is touted to be? As a city, it has 
changed in obvious and not so obvious ways since the post Babri Masjid 
demolition riots of December 1992 and January 1993. The main focus of 
the research will be the families of the riot victims and their lives 
after more than a decade since the violence.

The high profile trial of the 1993 serial blasts case has come to an end 
and the verdict is being handed out while the Srikrishna commission, 
which did a detailed report on the riots, has been shelved. The riots 
clearly intensified the divide between two communities and created a 
process of further ghettoisation. Many people went to live in extended 
suburbs and even outside the cities, creating extruded ghettos. The 
scars over the years have created deeper divisions and tracing the 
complexities involved may allow some
truths to emerge.

The research method will be based on interviews first hand visits to 
places and talking to as wide a spectrum of people as possible— 
including researchers, journalists, riot affected families, government, 
police officials, apart from political parties. At the end of the 
research I would like to use the material for a book.

At the moment I am special correspondent with The Hindu. I have been a 
journalist for 22 years and have worked with The Times of India, Mid-day 
and the United of News of India.


29. Yateendra Mishra, Allahabad. आत्मीयता के इर्द - गिर्द अयोध्या ("The 
Intimate Ayodhya”)


30. Sayandeb Mukherjee, Hyderabad. Corridors: The Psycho-Acoustics of 
Corridor-Like Spaces

This project delves into the emotional and acoustic contours of 
corridors. This contemporary architectural design which may appear 
simple structurally possesses a complicated and sometimes convoluted 
auditory space due to reflective and diffractive properties of sound. 
The project attempts to enlighten the variability of these acoustic 
qualities/characterestics of corridors integrated in different urban 
spaces like – hospitals, prisons, libraries, educational institution, 
courts and many other public spaces which are vibrant in terms of 
psycho-acoustics. The research would also borrow references from ancient 
mythological texts, films, paintings and literature to discern the 
mystic and seemingly improbable destination of corridors and like spaces.

The process of research includes a vivid physical involvement and 
exploration in the corridor like spaces, taking notes in a descriptive 
way in the spot itself, acquiring photographs and live recordings of the 
acoustic environments at different spots of the same space. The 
recording process may also involve time stamps (i.e. recordings of the 
same space over the different parts of a day) for the analysis of the 
soundscape in a particular space. The process also includes the 
collection of films, texts or any other form of art, where one can 
notice a conscious application of such corridor-like spaces.

Sayandeb Mukherjee is a graduate of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television 
Institute in Kolkata who now works as a professional sound recordist in 
Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad.


31. Shubhra Nagalia, Allahabad. Representation of Communal Riots in the 
Hindi Media: The Case of the Mau Riots

The proposed research will investigate the reportage of Mau riots by 
electronic and print media. While there has been extensive documentation 
and studies on the ‘communalisation’ of media and its role in riot 
situations, the small town manifestation of this phenomenon in Mau and 
its resultant repercussions on hegemonic discourses and construction of 
religious identity will be one of the areas of our study. The images, 
slogans, language and presentation of Mau riots through the lens of 
Hindi media; linkages between political influences, capital and 
communities that shapes the contours of media in general and local news 
in particular will also be subjects of our research.
Mau also has had a history of intermittent riots which have shaped the 
economy and contours of trade, in particular of the weaving sector. 
Studying this history and its linkages with the changing fortunes and 
balance of power of different communities before, after and during the 
riots will also be an aspect of this research.

Another significant aspect of Mau riots is the pre-riot history of 
mutual ‘pacts’ between both Hindus and Muslims on usage of town space. 
The changing landscape has participatory histories and is an important 
register of change and manipulations.

Shubhra Nagalia is based in Allahabad and is currently finishing her 
final year of M.A. (Political Science) from Allahabad University. She 
has done M.Phil in Russian from JNU and Women’s Studies from Sri Lanka.


32. Sugata Nandi, Kolkata. Eventful Adolescence, Memorable Youth: The 
Politics of Personal Reminiscences in Kolkata, 1947-67

The first twenty years after Independence and Partition was an extremely 
eventful phase in the urban history of Calcutta. At the stroke of 
midnight on August 15, 1947 the city lost its status of Second City of 
the British Empire and turned into a third world metropolis seeking a 
new identity being overburdened with problems of overpopulation, refugee 
influx, steady economic decline and political upheavals. Two decades 
later Calcutta witnessed the beginning of Non Congress rule by an 
coalition of Bangla Congress, a regional political outfit constituted by 
a break away Congress clique and the Communist Party of India (Marxist). 
Between these two moments a vast number of events had given Calcutta the 
new character that it retains till this day. This study will take up 
fifteen landmark events of the 1947-67 period that will include among 
others the turbulence of the Food Movement, the hardships caused by the 
rice crisis of the 1950s and the ‘60s, the growing radicalization 
manifest in the general strikes of the period, the beginning of the 
Naxal Movement in the mid sixties as well as the short-lived instances 
of celebration like the visit by foreign dignitaries like Queen 
Elizabeth and the Soviet statesmen Nikita Khrushchev and Bulganin.

Personal reminisces of the adolescents and youths of the 1950s and 
1960s, of the incidents listed above will be gathered through interviews 
with them. The oral data thus gathered will constitute the primary 
source for constructing a collage of remembered experiences. The project 
will treat the same as texts authored by individuals who endeavour to 
locate and to interpret through the emotional performance of remembering 
what may be termed as significant episodes in the recent history of the 
city.

The project, on completion of research, will be given the shape of a 
academic history paper. At the moment I have fixed the target of writing 
the paper in about 15 thousand words, which might have to be increased 
if required. As of now I have planned to record (in audio cassettes) the 
interviews that will constitute the archival text for the work, if 
resources permit then I would try to make audio-visual record of the 
interviews.

Sugata Nandi is Lecturer in History, Krishnagar Government College, West 
Bengal


33. Gauri Paliwal, Indirapuram. क्योंकि हर ब्लॉग कुछ कहता है (“Because Every 
Blog Has Something to Say”)


34. Bipul Pande, Delhi. Delhi. रेज़ीडेंस प्रूफ (“Proof Of Residence”)


35. Vijay Kumar Pandey, Meerut. मेरठ का प्रकाशन उद्योग (“The Publishing 
Industry of Meerut”)

The publication industry of Meerut is almost 200 years old. During this 
period the industry has evolved with time and flourished. The present 
turnover of the industry is nearly Rs. 200 crore per annum and provides 
employment to approximately one lakh people.

The study aims at identifying the factors contributing to the rapid 
growth and evolution of this industry in Meerut during past 200 years as 
well as the problems and challenges before it. It will also look into 
how the industry has changed with time.

Research methodology will include interaction with the people associated 
with the industry. It will also include interviews as well as 
exploration of old records and manuscripts.

The end product will be an academic research paper including photographs 
& other documents.

I would like to introduce myself as a journalist with more than four 
years of experience. I have worked with SAHARA SAMAY (Hindi weekly) & am 
at present working with
Dainik Jagran Meerut as a sub editor.


36. Zubin Pastakia, Mumbai. A Photographic Study of Bombay’s Cinema 
Halls as a Cultural Experience of Space

The project seeks to photographically examine the cultural experience of 
different types of cinema halls in Bombay city.

In part, this is a meditation on different urban spaces. The photographs 
will illuminate the inherent sign language of the architecture, posters 
and signage, hall seats, film reels, tickets, toilets, snack counters, 
workers' uniforms, patron's clothing, gender break-up etc. of these spaces.

More importantly, this is an attempt to illustrate the subjective nature 
of the film-going experience. From the designer shop - to cinema hall - 
to chain restaurant mall/multiplex experience, to the still-standing 
single-screen bastions of the art-deco era, to the musty largely 
male-dominated "c-grade" halls, the photographs will evoke the unique 
experience of these different spaces.

By examining these spaces photographically, the project aims to provide 
a rich and detailed socio-visual context to the ever-changing urban 
cinematic experience -- thus situating film texts within various 
cultural spaces. The intention is to eventually produce a monograph on 
Bombay's cinema halls as well as to exhibit the photographs publicly.

Zubin Pastakia is a photographer and filmmaker living in Bombay.


37. Gopaljee Pradhan, Silchar, Assam. हिन्दी साहित्य में उत्तर -पूर्व (“The 
North-East in Hindi Literature”)


38. Alok Puranik, Delhi. बाज़ार -भाव रिपोर्टिंग उर्फ़ मिर्ची भड़की और सुस्त टाटा 
स्टील (“A Historical Study of Bazaar Reporting in Hindi Newspapers”)


39. Mohit Kumar Ray & Soma Ghosh, Kolkata. Heritage Ponds of Kolkata: A 
Contemporary History

Kolkata is a city of ponds. Job Charnok, the first well-known British 
merchant, set up his office by the side of a pond called Lal Dighi, 
which still exists to remind of this city’s colonial past. There are 
many ponds like this with rich historical linkages. Many streets and 
places of Kolkata are named after ponds. Even after the onslaught of the 
real estate sector, the city has more than 3500 ponds. The significance 
of these urban waterbodies as water resources is being appreciated now 
as never before. These ponds form a part of the cultural history of the 
city. Once, it was the place where community people met during bathing; 
Bengali literature has so many narratives about the ghats of these 
ponds. The fields by the side of some ponds provide space to hold fairs. 
However, there is still no proper documentation of such an important 
city heritage. This study will add to the urban cultural history where 
the city ponds are not mere past heroes, but active agents of a thriving 
present. The study will be carried out through field study, oral history 
and secondary sources. It will produce a report on the history of 
heritage ponds with photos of the ponds and interviews.

Mohit Ray, the principal researcher, is an environmental professional 
who has a PhD in Chemical Engineering and works for environmental rights.


40. P. Jenny Rowena & Carmel Christy, Hyderabad. ‘Where Some 
Autorickshaws Run, Others Burn’: Caste, Class and Gender in the Urban 
Space of Keralam.

This proposal is about a Dalit woman married to a Backward Caste man and 
their struggle to move above caste and gender structures in a moffusil 
town in Keralam.

The story begins when the couple buys an autorickshaw in Chithra Lekha's 
name and she decides to drive it herself. However, Chithra Lekha's caste 
and gender identity makes it impossible for her to step into the public 
sphere of this liberated moffusil town. The leftist trade union (mainly 
consisting of a dominant BC caste) already angered by her caste 
violation of marrying above her caste, acts against her by delaying her 
membership card and continues to harass her till at last her 
autorickshaw is burned to ashes.

In this project we propose to collect and document each and every aspect 
of this (true) incident by conducting thorough interviews with all the 
people concerned. Along with this we would also like to produce a 
theoretical paper which tries to understand how caste, class, gender 
relations constitute the urban space in Keralam. Here we would examine:

 > how the dominant Marxist party works to reproduce the caste and 
gender structure in Keralam;

 > the important tools of sexual morality which are used against the 
progress of Dalit and "other"
women;

 > the intricacies of the OBC-Dalit relationship and the reasons that 
triggers violence between them;

 > the role of subaltern masculinities in the entire incident.

Carmel Christy is at present doing her PhD in Media and Commmunications 
from the Central University of Hyderabad, Andhra Pradhesh.

Jenny Rowena P already has a PhD on Malayalam Cinema, from the Central 
Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh.


41. Inder Salim, Delhi. Towards Maha-Performances

Maha Performance: a big festival of performance art. But before this 
dream festival takes shape, I aim to collect the moods of aspiring 
performance artists in India. Knowing this genre is new, ( in 
contemporary sense ) and not market friendly, the challenges are 
immense. As we know, the mould of an artist in the present is already 
contemporary, and is hardly unaffected by the issues around. So the task 
is to approach the young from the art colleges, colleges, universities, 
NSD and other such non conventional arenas. My role is to identify a 
potential performance artist and try to do a performance independently 
along with her/him, or collaborate. I aim to provide a documented file 
to the participant in the least. I need to enter the marked and unmarked 
spaces/venues for a good start. I aim to arrange to invite an 
internationally famous artist to create an ambience for the popularity 
of this genre. There are already few of us in Delhi and elsewhere who I 
am sure would support the cause.

About the theory of performance art and its significance, I quickly 
quote Leslie Hill, a noted feminist writer- who begins her essay on 
performance art, by saying " The genesis of Performance Art is 
Feminism,". So more than that, I believe, it has a history of politics 
of defiance and is loaded with history of minds that yearned for a new 
thinking for a new possible world, besides a floating signifier of a 
queer/heretic/eccentric/poetic within the form of it.

Inder Salim is a performance artist based in Delhi.


42. Abhik Samanta, Kolkata. The Visual Art of the Gita Press

The notion of visual art here is indicative of pictographic 
representation which includes line drawings, watercolour or oil 
paintings or lithographs. These images can be found in all tracts 
published by the Gita press as also in the monthly Kalyan and the poster 
publications. The gamut of these illustrations can be seen as the 
harbinger of a particular style among other publications of the 
extensive calendar art industry. The delineation of a style thus 
constitutes a broad frame in which the work is conceived. However the 
primary aim is to explore the constitution of this style. Its 
constitution implies the way in which meanings of these images are 
conveyed in course of their location in the discursive textual printing 
done, in the yet emergent language of the nation, Hindi.

These images are characterized by the influence of Hanumanprasad Poddar 
who was one of the two founders and the leading light of the Gita Press 
Gorakhpur. Hanumanprasad became involved with the discursive mission of 
the Press owing to a divine vision in which God appeared before him and 
instructed him to propagate belief in God which had to be expressed 
through practices like the utterance of God’s name. He saw Him in a 
series of graphic visions that he had throughout his life and instructed 
painters to depict accordingly. In the proposed work the national 
paradigm of ideal existence as embodied in the discursive writings of 
Hanumanprasad is sought to be understood in juxtaposition between text 
and image. The renunciating body of the reader as described by the creed 
of ‘action without desire’ is sought to be reconciled to the apparently 
contrasting, voluptuous or highly muscular body that occurs in the 
visual depiction.

Abhik Samanta is currently doing independent research on middle class 
lifestyle and ethics, and is interested in doing future research on 
medieval ethical economies.


43. Surojit Sen, Chandannagar, Hooghly. Chandannagar and the 
Displacement of Prostitutes

The meta- narrative of the 19th century social history conceals many 
tales of dispossession and displacement of the marginalized, sometimes 
with the active agency of the colonial power. One such incident that 
deserves attention is the exodus of prostitutes from Calcutta to 
Chandannagar.

To go beneath the meta-narrative means that we have to look for new 
subtexts mostly obscure and now relegated to oblivion. One such 
forgotten text is Bodmaish Jobdo or Wicked Punished by Prankrishna 
Dutta. The text is full of authentic details about the trade which 
flourished along Chitpur Road, which, interestingly, enough not far from 
the seat Bengali Renaissance. The sprawling. quarters were known as the 
Sonagachi area extending from Nutanbazar to Fauzdari Balakhana (criminal 
court ) . The present day crossing of Chitpur Road and Kolutolla marked 
the lower extreme of the red light area. Another skit writer Hootom ( 
literally the barn owl) provides us with more information related to the 
area, the prostitutes, pimps and their clients.

The story of the dispossession of the marginalized continues in 
different form and with a different rationale in Chandannagar in the 
post colonial period. Ironically here again we find the repetition of 
the health regime of 1868, though this time in the name of ‘moral garb’!

My project will explore the following:

A. Impact of Contagious Disease Act 14 on society (both Calcutta and 
Chandannagar) and contemporary literature at that time.

B. Outline history of brothels in Chandannagar and Calcutta( Sonagachi)

C. Proposed law on prostitution by Ministry of Women and Child Welfare 
of government of India and its probable implications as they reflect 
state regimentation.

I will do still-photo documentation of the specific locations at 
Chandannagar in its current state, which used to be brothels before mid 
eighties of twentieth century.

I will also document (photograph) Chitpur Road, from Nutanbazar to 
Kolutolla – Chitpur crossing (the red-light area stretched upto this 
point in 1868).

I will translate the text, Bodmaish Jobdo from Bengali to English.

Surojit Sen does research for documentary films, writes script for 
telefilms ( Bengali ), reviews books ( Bengali ), renders editorial 
service ( Bengali ), writes short prose on literature ( Bengali )and is 
now working on his first novel named CITY EDITION (Bengali).


44. Yoginder Sikand and Naseemur Rahman, Delhi. The Shaping of Muslim 
Identities and the Role of Muslim Publishing Houses in Delhi

This research project focuses on the Muslim publishing industry in 
Delhi. It examines various aspects of this industry, including content 
of publications and linkages between authors, publishers and consumers 
of the literature produced by these publishing houses. It also looks at 
how the Muslim publishing industry is responding to the various 
challenges that Muslims in India today see themselves faced with.

The research project will involve interviews with authors and publishers 
and content analysis of the publications through a survey of catalogues 
of a representative sample of Muslim publishing houses located in Delhi.

The end product of the research project will be a series of articles and 
interviews, which will be sent to various newspapers and magazines, as 
well as an academic research paper.

The research project is being conducted by two people: Naseem ur Rahman, 
a Ph.D. student at the Jamia Millia Islamia and presently working with 
the Markazi Maktaba Islami, a leading Muslim publishing house in Delhi; 
and Yoginder Sikand, Professor at the Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru 
Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.


45. Surya Prakash Upadhyay, Mumbai. Guru on the Air: Televised Hinduism 
in Contemporary India

The project proposes to look at the instrumentality of audio-visual 
media in the construction and maintenance of the religio-spiritual world 
in contemporary Hinduism and in the mobilization of people towards 
“tele-gurus”. The project attempts to look into a recent and interesting 
addition in the religious sphere, especially in present-day Hinduism, 
catered to the people by cable television in the urban spaces. It looks 
at a new-age guru named Asharam Bapu, and at the phenomenon of media 
playing a vital part in the growth of his organization, in increasing 
the numbers of followers and devotees, and in propagation as well as 
spread of religiosity and spirituality among people. There are several 
gurus and also several devotional channels that are highly influential 
in urban spaces, transmitting their programmes through television and 
providing an opportunity for people to listen and watch their favorite 
guru. It is a matter of great interest and investigation to find out the 
relationship between religion and media and consequently, its various 
implications for society.

The media ecology, through its various inputs, compositely works for 
their organizational development. Audio-visual aids such as audio 
cassettes, MP3, VCDs, DVDs, websites play a major role, but print media 
also plays a lasting role in such religious mobilization processes. 
However, if audio aids help in making a long distance contact and visual 
aids help in transcendence of physicality and facilitate darsan of these 
gurus before their followers, it is print media that, through booklets 
and printed material, helps in internalizing the subjects. The 
visualization of gurus on television gives a sense of attachment and 
shortens the spatial distance between the guru and his devotee. On the 
one hand, the televised transmission of religious and spiritual 
discourses gives a feeling of personal advice and guidance to the 
devotee (when watching alone); on the other hand when the same thing 
occurs at the ashram or at some congregation it gives a feeling of group 
lecture and sense of live sermon in a congregation. This development in 
the media sector has filled the gap of physical absence of guru and 
communication between him and his followers.

The aim of the research is to give a ‘thick description’ of the whole 
phenomenon. The proposed research is a qualitative and interpretative. 
The methods that would be applied to collect data will be interviews 
with the devotees of the guru. Also a questionnaire will be executed to 
collect more and varied information. The literature, printed and 
electronic both, will be analyzed following the content analysis method. 
Also, focused group discussion would be performed through participation 
in satsangs and other meetings of the group. A few interviews of the 
cable networks will also be performed.

I am a Research Scholar in Dept of Humanities and Social Sciences, 
Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. I am planning to develop a 
documentary of the work but I need some guidance and also sufficient 
amount of money to carry out the task.


46. Shiju Sam Varughese, Delhi. The Public Sphere as a Site of Knowledge 
Production: Negotiations Over Tremors, Well Collapses and Coloured Rains 
in the Malayalam Press

The proposed study attempts to understand the functioning of the public 
sphere, constituted through the regional press in Keralam, as a site of 
knowledge production in the context of scientific controversies. This 
will be studied by taking a specific scientific controversy as case. In 
the wake of an earthquake on 12th December 2000, several unusual 
geophysical incidents including well collapses, coloured rains and micro 
tremors began appearing in Keralam. These phenomena have been reported 
in the regional press from every nook and cranny of the region and the 
deliberations over it continued for almost one year in the regional 
press, involving a wide range of issues and actors. This case will be 
studied in detail based on content analysis of five major Malayalam 
newspapers (Malayala Manorama, Mathrubhumi, Deshabhimani, Madhyamam, and 
Keralam Kaumudi) as well as interviews with key actors involved in the 
controversy. This is to demonstrate how the public sphere acts as a site 
of knowledge production in the context of a scientific controversy.

Shiju Sam Varughese is a doctoral candidate at the Zakir Husain Centre 
for Educational Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. My 
research is on public understanding of science in Keralam.


47. T. Venkat, Chennai. Building the Indian Dream: Living and Working 
Conditions of Migrant Workers on Chennai’s IT Corridor

My project proposes to study the lives of migrant workers on Chennai’s 
‘IT corridor’. The project will be a multi-media exploration of the 
living and working conditions, the past histories and the dreams of 
migrant workers and their families who are building the grandiose 
infrastructure project in the southern suburb of Chennai.

The construction activity on the IT corridor which is a 45 km long, 
six-lane express highway and with numerous, residential, commercial and 
industrial complexes coming up along side has brought flows of 
construction workers from Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. This project then, 
aims to explore and depict the work conditions as well as the hopes and 
dreams that underpin the building of the large new infrastructure 
projects that are the fantasies of resurgent modern India. It will use 
ethnographic methods and video documentation to elicit and depict the 
narratives, oral histories and future aspirations of workers in this 
labor camp, juxtaposed against their living conditions as well as 
against the backdrop of the glamorous corridor they are here to build.

This project will be collaborative in nature and includes a trade union 
organizer, an activist involved in occupational health issues among 
industrial workers, a filmmaker, an academic specializing in urban 
anthropology and myself. We propose to focus on one such camp which 
houses about 5000 families in Chemencheri, a village on the IT corridor. 
The final presentation would be an audio visual presentation of the 
material collected in the event the documentary is not complete by then.

I am currently engaged in an ethnographic study of collective action in 
Chennai, through which I am gaining valuable experience in ethnographic 
methods and documentation.


48. Chitra Venkataramani, Mumbai. Hygiene and the City: A Graphic Novel

The fellowship project will look at the way the notion of cleanliness 
and order operates in the city. In our urban environment, the ideas of 
disease, personal space, and proximity are changing the way we construct 
and view our environment. The project will look at these ideas through 
certain forms in the city such as the transport system where many people 
travel in a tightly packed condition, the new semi-private gardens where 
people queue to enter, the naala that cuts across varied landscapes and 
the slum rehabilitation schemes. These stories will look at our fear of 
touch and disease, of who inhabits these gardens and how characters 
within these stories see and draw maps of the city.

These are told as stories that connect these forms together. Each story 
may have a different structure; for example while stories in the trains 
are collected from personal narratives, the naala cuts through the city 
in a series of episodic drawings that allow the reader to start at any 
page in parts of the book.


49. Shafia Wani, Srinagar. Aesthetics of Resistance and Women in Kashmir

The central theme of the research is to elaborate the presence of new 
spaces and initiatives that women in contemporary Kashmir are engaging 
with. These range from initiatives that are social /civil or just 
individual/personal. Furthermore to elaborate the productive possibility 
that these engagements engender for women and the kind of agency that is 
created in the process. This kind of elaboration will be explored within 
the historico cultural ethos of Kashmir which has within its history 
engendered the creative expression of women. This has over centuries, 
enabled a space of renegotiation and a creative, productive agency that 
is culturally recognized.

The method that will be mainly relied upon for purpose of research will 
be in-depth and over-time interviews with the main actors of the 
proposed inquiry. In addition certain useful, common narratives will 
also be collected from the peripheral areas of the field of inquiry.

The proposed end product will be in the form of an academic research paper.

Shafia Wani is a development professional and is currently associated 
with Save the Children UK, an international developmental organization 
that works for the rights of children worldwide.


50. Ranjan Yumnam, Imphal. Imphalwood: Digital Revolution and the Death 
of Celluloid

The study seeks to trace the transformation of the slow celluloid world 
of Manipur film industry into a fast-paced, almost assembly-line, center 
of digital film production. From pre-production planning to exhibition, 
today, the entire cycle of film production in Manipur rolls in the 
digital mode, making celluloid history. Probably the first state to 
achieve this feat, it is debatable whether the medium has co-opted the 
Manipuri filmmakers, or whether circumstances unique to the trouble-torn 
state have made the Imphalwood’s dream merchants embrace the digital 
technology. The industry, however, has been growing phenomenally after 
the valley-based insurgents banned Hindi films and satellite channels in 
the state since 2000. It is in this context that the political-economy, 
demographics and geography of Manipur need to be understood.

Extensive interviews with Manipur film fraternity and insurgents (if 
possible) will form the main basis of the research, supplemented by 
survey methods. The study will culminate in a series of essays, a 
PowerPoint presentation, pictures, posters and video clips of archival 
value.

Ranjan Yumnam, formerly a correspondent of the Times of India in New 
Delhi, is an Imphal-based freelance journalist.