[Reader-list] the liberty of the networked

[Taha Mehmood]

Dear Angshukanta

Thank you for posting links to The liberty of the Networked essays by
Curzon. I think these essays sharply pin the debate around technology and
its complex relationship to freedom. However, I would like to think that in
the Indian context the debate around the idea of a database is yet to take a
serious root. Libero-phobic and libero-genic arguments apart, in the realm
of public, the discourse is still fluctuating between imagination of a
national id card as some sort of a cure to the logistical impossibility of
registering a billion Indians. Directly in contrast to China, for instance,
where a national identity card was possible maybe because of the linking of
housing database to communist party primary membership data.

I wonder how far can we take the help of arguments articulated by Curzon to
understand an ongoing mutation and replication of database discourse in
India, I do not know whether these arguments will fit the groove completely.


Regards

Taha