Farmland, shopping mall and a walk: A futuristic romance

There are avenues of escape even in the midst of concrete jungle. Its not that hard to imagine a mesmerised surrounding engulfing you slowly in a place where you tend to sit for a while, for some time, for eternity. Shopping malls are never thought of such a place where you can romanticise your imagination. These are the places where you are supposed to come, buy, consume the space that surrounds you, eat or get dressed and look beautiful. Once you have finished the cycle you can take a selfie.




That has become part of our late capital, postmodern everydayness. Suddenly the world seems to be unbearably hot for Kaleidoscope so as to compel him to do every meeting with friends at one of those spaces. Being in a shopping mall definitely makes you conscious about how you look, how you walk, how you dress, how you eat and how you talk to others. However, there is one that carries the legacy of its past nearby. Yes, City Centre II, of Kolkata happens to stay at a place close to an existing farmland. You can stand on one of those foot bridges that connects two massive constructions to have a glimpse of it.




Kaleidoscope, happens to be one of those consumers who happened to go to the place for quite some time now. His earlier thought was that the farmland will disappear soon to give rise to high rises. He also thought how ugly the place will become if the other side of the major arterial road consists of highrises. Wouldn't it be a jungle of concretes only? Kaleidoscope asked himself several times. However, as he walked towards Chinar Park there is another wonder. Between high rises plazas there stood a small tract of village life near No-Para. A couple of buildings, a bamboo garden and a peaceful graveyard. Kaleidoscope thought again, how long one can hold on against the land grab. Meanwhile, the greenery continued to add hints of past country feeling in the midst of cacophony, highrises, reflecting glasses.




However, even after all these years, they continue to live on. The bamboo garden, the farm land continue to invite Kaleidoscope to an imagined past, perhaps to an imagined future. What would happen if suddenly, City Centre II, nearby Spencers supermarket and the like disappears from there? Ambuja group or the Goenka group would certainly loose nothing. Afterall, they have effectively rented the space to the latecapital consumers at an "affordable" high cost. They wouldn't mind abandoning a pile of concrete structure and glass panels! Would they?


What would have happened next? Trees would definitely outgrow the fashionable gardens, the farmland will continue to be cultivated. Soon, the greenery will show its signs of invasion to the concretes. Kaleidoscope, nevertheless thinks concrete buildings awaits such moments. There seems to be a pause in that eternal lovemaking  -  the pause is anthropocentric - the source of most the pauses in this planet.  

Neoliberal Trickle Downs: FDI, Coalition Politics, and beyond

While the country is making sense of the Delhi rape case, Tendulkar's retirement, Christmas and approaching year, Kaleidoscope is finding more liberalisation in the name of reform. Interestingly, while the country makers are repeatedly assuring about the care for the women and weaker sections, a mass movement is getting even more momentum. Within this chaotic situation we are slowly entering to the era of even more aggressive neoliberal pursuits.

What is trickling down?

While neoliberalism is commonly perceived as a form of economy, viz. cross-border movement of capital, it ought to have political predisposition. Kaleidoscope finds two primary issues associated with political predisposition of neoliberalism, first, state's helplessness in striking the balance between corporation's welfare and people's welfare and second, and related to it is state's compulsion of retaining faith of the corporations to ensure continuation of capital investments. Quite often this results in overruling the interest of the people to which a state ought to be more accountable. In consequence, instead protesting the neoliberalism wholeheartedly, states tend to make institutional environment feasible for the neoliberal economy to flow. The promises are catchy, "more jobs", "more money", "more capital", "more development(trickle down effect)", "more advancement", "stronger democracy", "healthier and happier lives."

Kaleidoscope, like many others is looking forward to these promises. However his Indian experience is quite different from these promises.

Identity politics:

While there are promises of "more", why should there be more fragmentations? The identity based politics advocated by even so called secular political parties reflect on the everlasting struggle over ever shrinking means of livelihoods to the people and ever increasing demands. The generation of enormous inequality in income and increasing equality in markets is one of the primary indicator of much more fragmentation in near future. A situation is further deteriorated with multiple fragments of identities based on the regionalism. Some one might not get the job because s/he is a Bengali who prefers not to leave West Bengal, or may be a Bengali businessman is not allotted a project just because there are Marwaris working as a team. The use of such sentiments in election is also very common. There are multiple identities, being a women, being a dalit person, being a muslim person, being some body from Bihar or West Bengal and not from Gujrat, on which there is even more complex game of politics.

Corruptions:

With neoliberal pursuits, key players are important in a democracy, therefore Walmart releases the amount they have spent for lobbying and in every few months Kaleidoscope witnesses new revealing of scams. 

Coalition compulsions:

Politics of convenience is at its best. Regional as well mainstream parties are safeguarding their own issues often at the expense of public interest. All could be seen is a shadow boxing, BSP walking out in protest, SP boycotts the voting procedure to help the Government out. BSP's vote in favour of FDI in Rajya Sabha transcends all records.

Fascism and cash transfer: furthering neoliberals 

Recent review of patterns of state's actions are quite alarming. There are examples of University professors being arrested because of circulating a cartoon, a man being arrested for asking a question at a public meeting, two innocent girls being arrested for making comments in facebook, entire city gets shut down in fear of unrest centring around the death of a local politician and so on. The lack of sensitivity (some say sense of humor) from the states also reflect the restlessness and mounting pressure on the states and regional powers because of the consequences of neoliberalism. To further such endeavour which might lead to further downsizing the state's role development is Direct Cash Transfer (DCT). Although Kaleidoscope like many knows the black marketing of government subsidy for poor, Kaleidoscope also knows the effect of cash and how it gets spend in real situation... more about that in some other day!!

 

  

Neoliberal loot in mining: the self and governance

We do have an utility maximising self. Governing mechanism or state in other words is the only outlet (apart from self morality) to protect resources from this inherent greed. The morality mechanism is already paralyzed, since we have stepped into Durkheimian Organic Solidarity, that has installed impersonal, contractual relationships.

The case:

We live in a world filled with resources, and our country is exceptionally rich in some regions. An estimate by Ramakrishnan (2010) suggests that 1.64 lakh hectares of forest land has been diverted for mining in India. Only Iron-ore mining used up 77 million tonnes of water in 2005-06. States like Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Nocobar Islands, etc. are the major share holders of this diversion.

The liberalised loot:

India is investing $300 billion in 2009 (statistics by Indian Institute of Metals), six times of the total investment made since independence. Orissa sites one of the worst examples. Here, an in other states illegal mining occurs at places inhabited by tribal people. They are working as labourers and no benefit is redistributed to the locality. With the change in mining policy which encourages private sector intervention in the sector initiates displacements, and environmental degradation manifold. As a result a few people and corporations get benefitted at the cost of enormous environmental, social and human cost. Ramakrishnan (2010) focuses on expert's argument that regulatory mechanisms are paralysed or near absent.

Disasters and displacements:

A study by Amnesty International on Vedanta's operations in Orissa focuses on violation of environmental laws that prevents contamination of air, water and human condition. The history of mining reflects displacement of 2.5 crore people and not even 25% of them gets replacement.

State: politico-corporate nexus

Now coming back to the larger issue, its about the self's interest maxmisation and the control over that pursuit. It is only state and civil society that can and should work as a filter to control the unlimited maximising pursuit of a few individuals and corporations. However, these mechanisms are not working in the way it should work as the state is promoting corporations. The civil is voiceless. Even, states are using Maoist tag for legitimising their intervention in these tribal inhabited regions.

Taking the picture as a whole, it is found that miners operate with support from politicians. There are instances where they enter into active politics and run businesses while being part of the government (Das 2010, Menon 2010).

Interestingly, the rationality of state, as reflected historically: "doing for others", "controling subjects for better ends", "optimal use of resources", etc. are all engulfed or eclipsed in the deep blue sea of capitalism.

May be the civil, may be the subaltern keep looking for an alternative, however, we don't know who is wearing what mask? what lies behind the mask? and whether, the mask has anything real, i.e., really different from the mask?

Sacred mountain, corporates and mao: the case from Niyamgiri hills

Parallel to kaleidoscope's skepticism regarding corporate promotion as we see in the annual budget, Orissa is siting example of the darker side of neoliberal dreams and an "effective" strategy of corporate promotion.

The background:

This is the case of a state where two-thirds of rural families live below poverty line with other dismal social indicators. While straightway industrialisation is seen as a ray of hope for the people of Orissa, however, the reverse is the true, at least, in local people's versions. Recent cases with Posco, Tata Steel and Vedanta Aluminium Limited show strong opposition from people, as they are threatened to snatch off their fertile lands. Lands which fall within scheduled areas!

Government and people:

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's voice is for peaceful industrialisation process. However, the protests from people stays unheard and state armed forces are in operation which results in killing of 14 tribal people at Kalinganagar near proposed Tata steel plant on January 2, 2006. More than 700 armed policeman are deployed to facilitate industrialisation. The construction of road for Tata steel is harshly protested as a result hundreds of policemen fired rubber bullet injuring people and on May 12 a policeman open fire to kill a tribesman.

The government is alleged of taking unfair benefits from the corporations.

Sacred mountain and their inhabitants:

Vedanta finds Bauxite in and arround Niyamgiri mountains inhabited by Dongria Kondhs, a denotified Premitive Tribal Group (PTG) who believe Niyamgiri mountain to be their king and God. Once the company gets clearance to mine the hills, they will be thoroughly displaced. This will not only ruin the entire mountain, but also thousands of inhabitants will be homeless, thereby seriously affecting their culture, peaceful living and basic amenities.

Rules and the ministry:

Traditional Forest Dwellers Act, scheduled tribal area act (5th and 6th schedule), protects tribal rights on forest and land. Union minister Jairam Ramesh declared that ministry is not in a hurry to give clearance which shows a ray of hope for the people after sacrificing a lot.

Escape from the rules: Mao smell

Dongria Kondh movements backed by Communist Party of India (CPI) maintains absolute secrecy. They do it because of the fear of being tagged as having Communist Party of India Maoist connection. The chief leaders of the movement are ready to confront the being tagged as maoist and killed by Central Reserved Police Forces (CRPF).

The scenario:

If Mao connection is established and CRPFs are deployed to help corporations getting clearance - it is highly likely that this would be standard strategy with three steps:

1. identify an area suitable for corporates and initiate acquisition.

2. use state machinery to help the corporation.

3. when all else fails declare it as Maoist inhabited area and deploy CRPF troops to initiate "Clear, Hold and Build" strategy!!!!!

The VAL chief operations officer Mukesh Kumar argues that mining area does not have a settlement therefore, it does not involve displacement. It indicates serious lack of understanding of tribal life, as they depend of natural resources for three Fs - Food, fodder and fuel along with other requirements like medicine and also emotional attachments.

See yourself:

http://www.mynews.in/Blog/Vedanta_rebuts_Amnesty_report_on_mining_project_impact_B558.html

http://www.flonnet.com/stories/20100618271203700.htm

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-05-17/police-firing-at-posco-s-india-site-triggers-protests-rallies.html

http://www.mynews.in/News/The_ugly_side_of_land_acquisition_in_India_N59322.html

http://www.survivalinternational.org/films/mine

IPLism: the commodification and neoliberal dreams

When Kaleidoscope grows up, "oneday matches" are the most prominent mode of India's cricketing self. While he travels he often finds "If cricket is our religion/ then Sachin is our God" written on local trains. When he types the phrase in google in Quote unquote he finds 19000 results!!

THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF IPL:

But this is not enough for gaining capital. Kaleidoscope sees a new game begins, steered by something the country never seen before, Indian Premier League: Twenty twenty which speeds up the game perhaps a million times.

The game imports the following:

THE MAESTRO: Music

PEOPLE AND PLACES: cultural performances

MINIMISES THE US THEM DICHOTOMY: GLAMOUR ON GROUND

FLESH AND MOVEMENTS

Does Kaleidoscope miss something?

Yes of course

THE GAME

IPL IN A NUTSHELL:

Cheerleaders: Fantasy revised

City based teams staffed with international stars, and players: Regionalism at global scale

Private ownership of teams: Free market strategy

Player auction: Commodification of human talent

THEORETICAL CONCERNS :

Kaleidoscope's reading of the entire narratives bounds him to see some of the theoretical concerns. It makes him think IPL as a mixed bag of profit maximisation at unthinkable rate.

Selective application of neoliberal principal:

The local quotas, annual player auction show a selective strategy. However, the franchises are given exclusive right to exploit a designated market. It means while one has to secure resources in the beginning, but one can exploit the market with that limited resources (which also means limited investment) indefinitely.

Constructions of identities:

Kaleidoscope watches that M.S.Dhoni, originally from Jharkhand speaks for Chennai and wears a lungi. When the name bears a city name (like Kolkata or Delhi) and then adds a subtitle of aggression (Knight or daredevils) it creates a different form of fragmented identity within the country which is historically fragmented. Kaleidoscope finds that the national sentiment is also used while his country bans auction of Pakistani players.

Commodification:

IPL commodifies everything nakedly.

Player auction: commodification of human talent

Cheerleaders: commodification of body

Bollywood celebrity presence: Commodification of Indian glamour and everyday dreams

Advertisements: Commodification of everything, i.e. identities, players, bodies and material products.

Dependency, power and accountability:

While money flows, even one of worst performing teams like Kolkata Knight Riders makes huge profit. Everyone pats Modi! Board takes it for granted and believes that Modi will do things fairly and responsibly until he is suspended for rigging bids, receiving kickback from television deals, more recent addition to this is his indulgence to activities which is detrimental to world cricket.

This shows dependency, corruption and lack of accountability which stigmatises the nation as a whole.

THE QUESTION:

Kaleidoscope believe that he lives in a world which is finite in every respect and he compartmentalises himself from the people who fosters unlimited economic growth. Those who foster unlimited growth are either economists or are fools (as Kenneth Boulding comments)

The question is while India moves towards neoliberal pursuits in its budget (see my posts on Neoliberalism Unplugged? Pretty Confused and Deferred food security is denial of food grains, and also From bread to being: mcdonaldization) IPL mirrored the dark side of neoliberal dreams and cost of unleashing the private sector.

Would we learn anything from this?