[Reader-list] fatima's response

[Vivek Narayanan]

Dear Fatima,

Thank you for your nuanced and considered note.  Please note again that 
I am not speaking for anyone else but myself, certainly not as a "voice 
of Sarai".  I don't think nuance is the privilege or preserve of any 
group, nor does it depend on education or decorum.  Instead, it's a 
certain warmth and hospitality, and a willingness to listen carefully, 
and to be considered in one's responses.  Essentially, it is about 
coming to the conversation in good faith, with love and with 
thoughtfulness-- not with the intention to sabotage dialogue or shout 
down others. Most of all, if it becomes obvious that a reply has been 
dashed off in a couple of seconds and, moreover, five or seven of those 
replies are sent in the course of a single day, then I feel that this 
wastes my time and makes it difficult to find the mails on the list that 
are more carefully thought out.

So I disagree with you *completely* that such qualities would be found 
only among "elites at Sarai".  These are protocols that one finds with 
many people on the street, regardless of their background and access to 
privilege.  In fact, as you well know, on the Indian street, it is often 
the rich and privileged who tend to shout louder, for they fear no 
reprisal.  Right wing nationalists can feel secure in the knowledge that 
they have the support of the state behind them.  I would not be 
surprised if, in monitoring this list, there would be members who would 
not hesitate to report anyone they considered to be "anti-national" to 
the authorities.  This is the kind of insecurity that shadows our 
conversations here--the question of what kinds of statements might 
involve violent reprisals or legal censure, and so on; this is the 
fragility of the discussions that have been built up on this list over 
the course of five or so short years.

Yes indeed, one is dedicated here to the vibrancy, variousness and 
quirkiness of the street--with the caveat that all our members are at 
least privileged enough to have access to the internet.  (Some write so 
often that they must almost certainly have their own full-time dedicated 
broadband.)   Yet, it only takes a few goondas to suppress and drown out 
all the many conversations, trying to fill the space with only their own 
voices.  In such instances, to renew our conversations, our whispering 
faith in each other, it may be necessary to shut out the bullies for a 
while.  This would not be to pretend that those bullies don't exist; 
merely it would be to acknowledge that they don't have anything new to 
say.  We have heard that shtick before.

But again: my mail was addressed only to those who already felt the same 
way as me, and who wanted a practical and efficient solution.   We have 
very different positions on this question even at Sarai; some agree with 
me, some most certainly don't.  Those who have the time and energy to 
stay tuned to the bullying and the threatening and the chanting of 
shlokas and spells must please do so.  I can even say I admire your 
Gandhian equanimity.  I, on the other hand, have other things to do, and 
I can't afford to spend my time fighting an endless war of attrition, in 
the trenches, with little or no gain from day to day, on the Line of 
Discursive Control (LODC), here on the reader list.

Warmly,
Vivek