[Reader-list] shiju first posting: Public Sphere as a Site of Knowledge Production: Negotiations over Tremors, Well Collapses and Coloured Rains in the Malayalam Press

[Abhishek Hazra]

sounds very interesting and looking forward to your paper (or early
drafts of it).
i would be interested to know how was the anti-superstition camp (with
its obvious left party affiliations) responding to and negotiating the
controversies that you have outlined.

on an entirely different context, i am also quite interested in the
malayali discourse around George Sudarshan and the tropes of 'lament'
and 'missed opportunity' (the nobel prize that was so tantalizingly
close) that recurr in discussions about Sudarshan.
and yes, i am obviously reminded of the J C Bose and Marconi
'controversy' about the wireless patent. in the preface to "Abyakto"
(the unsaid/un-expressed) his collection of popular essays in bengali
on science, Bose talks about setting up a special science court
(byagnanik adalat) in the country where deliberations on science can
happen in indian languages.
cheers,
abhishek



On 3/24/07, Shiju Sam Varughese <shijusam at gmail.com> wrote:
> Dear friends, I am Shiju Sam Varughese, currently doing PhD in Zakir Husain
> Centre for Educational Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. My
> research is on the role of the publics in democratizing modern science. This
> is my first posting to the SARAI reader-list.
>  My research project for Sarai independent fellowship is titled, "Public
> Sphere as a Site of Knowledge Production: Negotiations over Tremors, Well
> Collapses and Coloured Rains in the Malayalam Press". The objective of the
> proposed study is to understand the functioning of the public sphere as a
> site of knowledge production in Kerala in the context of scientific
> controversies. A scientific controversy is defined here as a polemic
> regarding any aspect of science, which is deliberated upon by the public.
> The scientific community loses its control over the issue while it erupts
> out into the public sphere and thereafter several players participate in the
> negotiation. A scientific controversy can therefore be considered as a
> special occasion that brings out the internal ambivalences of scientific
> knowledge production into full public view.
>
> The scientific controversy that will be analysed in the proposed study
> erupted out in the regional press when an earthquake of low intensity
> occurred in Kerala on 12th December 2000. Malayalam newspapers drew public
> attention into the contradictory explanations to the earthquake provided by
> scientists. Many tremors of lower intensity continued striking the region
> from then on and the controversy grew up into multiple dimensions. The issue
> became intensified after the Gujarat earthquake on 26th January 2001 when
> reports appeared in the press linking it with the tremors in Kerala.
> Questions on whether Kerala becomes prone to earth quakes and a serious
> criticism of scientists' incapability in providing convincing answers have
> been raised. The second episode of the controversy began when several
> extraordinary geophysical events appeared all over the state. Well
> collapses, oscillations and rise in water levels, changing colour of water
> in wells, cracks on buildings, appearance of ground fissures, leaf fall and
> so on have been reported from various parts of the region. Newspapers
> brought together similar incidents from the nuke and corner of the state and
> once again scientists failed to give satisfactory explanation. The third
> phase of the issue started followed by a report of red rain from
> Changanacherry on 26th July 2001, a major town near Kottayam. Incidents of
> coloured rain have been reported subsequently from other parts of Kerala
> also. Scientists from Centre for Earth Science Studies (Thiruvananthapuram)
> after studying the incident argued that it was due to a meteor explosion,
> and it triggered off a big controversy. Scientific explanations of a wide
> range were offered thereafter, and the controversy got a new lease of life
> when a group of microbiologists came out with evidences for the existence of
> large quantities of biological cells in coloured rainwater samples.
> Questions regarding the interconnectedness of different phenomena also have
> been raised in this context.
>
> Although I have separated out the deliberations into three consecutive
> phases, the inception of a new phase never stopped the controversies
> generated in the previous phases. In each phase the debate became
> multifaceted by the inclusion of more and more actors such as journalists,
> readers, members of civil society initiatives, political parties, policy
> makers and spokespersons of government and research institutes. Scientists
> from a wide array of disciplines and institutions all over India
> participated in the controversy, and the role of newspapers was crucial in
> preparing ground for negotiations about the content of science. The
> controversy continues in the regional press even today. The latest episode
> started in 2006 June, when two physicists claimed that the cells found in
> coloured rain was not fungal spores as suggested earlier, but 'cells of
> extraterrestrial origin'.
>
> The study involves empirical research on the scientific controversy. The
> news reports on the scientific controversy that appeared in five major
> newspapers of the region (Malayala Manorama, Mathrubhumi, Deshabhimani,
> Madhyamam and Kerala Kaumudi)  will be analysed. News reports, special
> science articles, editorials, letters to the editor, and visual images
> (photographs, maps and diagrams) appeared in them will be examined in
> detail. Also the key actors in the controversy including scientists and
> journalists will be interviewed in order to understand the process of
> negotiation.
>
> In a nutshell this is what I intend to do. The outcome of the research will
> be an academic article. Since the project is in its initial phase, your
> feedback is very much crucial for taking it further. Therefore I am eagerly
> waiting to hear from you all……
>
> With regards,
>
>  Shiju Sam.
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