[Reader-list] On acrimonious encounters in Sarai postings

[Radhakrishnan]

Dear Monica,

I won't plead nor question your judgment about removing an individual from the mailing list but would like to state the inherent problems with the postings, which I have been witnessing over the last 2-3 years. So I would rather request to kindly take some of observation into consideration.

Firstly sporadic outbursts and expression of outrage either in a lopsided manner or expression of one’s pathological bias, formed by taking stray examples of any incident in two of the contending groups, for arguing one’s case. This certainly doesn’t augur well as has been the case of some people, who in their quest to argue had crossed the limits. This not only creates ill will and disharmony given the present scenario of communal riots, blasts, terror and counter terror measures, but also could generate disastrous consequences, in the name of a free for all discussion.

Secondly in a heterogeneous nation like India, which is witnessing a strange concoction of abject poverty and development of infrastructure and IT, sector, it’s rather ridiculous to cite particular state or region as a yardstick. We need to take a holistic view about development, the cost of development and the movement against the overarching power of the state as witnessed in movements against SEZ or movements seeking suitable policies and allocation of resources from the states as was the case of Gujjar strike and so on.  Unfortunately most of the posting come from a high vantage point, an attempt to pontificate in the garb of response, inflicting the readers with a preconceived bias and opinions. To put it more accurately, it’s projects an upper caste/class bias irrespective of the religious or cultural denomination of the writer and remains entrenched about issues, which are north centric and Delhi centric. It has been a classic case of sanskritisation in social and cultural, public space discourse. 

Thirdly there has been a consistent mode of presenting and drawing analogy on one’s or one’s community’s plight in these discussions. While I don’t want to undermine one’s right to represent or reflect upon such issues, more so when one had encountered unfortunate developments recently or in their past. What has to be noted is that it doesn’t result in the individual respondent or commentator slipping into self-definition or self-image of his/her own community for that would generate similar postings from all sides. 

Fourthly when many people have raised the issue of a set of protocol, its prudent that at least an attempt should be made to have a minimal understanding and consensus. Unfortunately in spite of so many developments there hasn’t been even reflection in an informal sense to highlight and respond to various issues, like plight of women, the situation of Dalits and tribals as an agent for themselves, SEZ and the resultant displacement of marginalized sections, spurt in crime and alienation, linguistic politics in urban areas, the prevalence of an unequal social order, hegemony of the globalized class and the growth of IT sector etc. Most of the postings are obsessed with Hindu-Muslim mutual admiration groups with an enormous garnishing of Kashmiri Muslims and Hindu’s contestations on democracy and equality. This is not to demean their plight but also urge them to broaden the scope of discussion, after all the idea of India is not confined to select region or groups.

Finally the question of content,hegemony and attempts to monopolize the forum has already been raised, responded to, and discussed by Tapas, Nazneen and some others through their earlier postings.

Regards
Radhakrishnan