This post is no way condoning any acts of violence against any community anywhere in the world. However, I do wish to point out that the imagination of violence by some political parties is different when the causality is driven by Xenophobia.

 Of course in every case of xenophobic violence and social chauvinism, there is a claim of one (often minority) group or community “harming” or “imposing itself” on another (often majority) group, and this is supposed to justify the violence by the majority group. This violence is very real, and translates into both violent physical acts and constant psychological acts like threats and pressure tactics.

 Xenophobia is a recurring theme in the politics of Mumbai, and perhaps in Maharashtra since the early 1960s when the Shiv Sena launched its campaign against the “South Indians” in Mumbai, acting on the imagination that they were cornering all the jobs in the city. As I already said, the strategy was physical violence. However, there has been a constant tactic of ridiculing the “outsider” that is consistent in this violence. For instance, Bal Thackeray ran several cartoons ridiculing the South Indians. I have been unable to explain or understand the relationship of this “humour” within this story.

 As I write this, there is a huge ongoing violence against immigrants in Johannesburg and other cities in South Africa. The story of post-industrial xenophobia is nearly identical everywhere: the “locals” claim that the “outsiders” are cornering all the economic opportunities for themselves. In South Africa, as in everywhere else, legal residents who migrated decades ago and have been running businesses for as long, have been attacked by their neighbours. As riots tend to behave, the line between xenophobia and outright looting of everything in sight is fuzzy. And of course all these things occur in Mumbai as well. However, there is still this inexplicable sense of humour that creeps in. The belief that ridiculing the “outsider”, humiliating him (for the most part, migrants to Mumbai are men) is critical to the offensive is a phenomenon that I haven’t been able to comprehend completely.

This is in no way a new thesis, but I think it still hasn’t been completely explained, and it is interesting to see yet another manifestation of the phenomenon. The one explanation that has been offered is the appeasement of the masses agrument. The Shiv Sena has always had the lumpen masses as its support base, and have been largely successful due to the larger than life figure of its leader, Bal Thackeray. The humour - often “vulgar” is an important part of his speeches, and perhaps offers instant pleasure to his audience.

Raj Thackeray, under the banner of his MNS, is continuing on the footsteps of his uncle Bal Thackeray. Consider this story in the news today (from the DNA):

MNS plans `Hatt Puja’ to counter Bihar’s Chhath Puja

Tuesday, May 20, 2008  19:55 IST

MUMBAI: Continuing its campaign against north Indian migrants in the state, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) said it will start a 364-day ‘Hatt Puja’ campaign June 14 to counter the ‘Chhath Puja’ celebrated widely by Biharis.

This campaign (to remove migrants), which is to begin on the birthday of MNS chief Raj Thackeray, is to “oppose” Bihar’s one-day ‘Chhath Puja’ festival, the party said.

Haji Arafat Sheikh, party vice president, said: “They can perform Chhath Puja for one day and the remaining days we will conduct Hatt Puja. Through this campaign we will get justice for Maharashtra.”

The Chhath Puja (छठ्) is celebrated publicly all over North India, and due to the increased number of migrants from North India in Mumbai, is now big in Mumbai as well. Like all public festivals in India tend to be, it is loud, bawdy, generates a lot of filth, and the occasional act of violence. However, it is also a great organizing and unifying factor for people from different castes when seen in its political/social implications - the North Indian society, especially in Bihar is very fragmented along caste lines, and one of my theses is that migration, combined with isolation within another context allows people to reconstruct their political/social identities along lines that counter the present threat rather than continue with previous caste segregation.

Now to talk about the sense of humour of the MNS: in Marathi (the official language of Maharashtra) but also in Hindi (the National language, also the language spoken in North India), Hattna means to move, often used in the imperative, Hatt, (हट्) meaning move away, or more appropriately, get out. Thus, Hatt is what you would say to a dog or a beggar on the street. Hatt Puja therefore translates into the absurd “Get Out Prayer” or - to make more sense, implies that both the festival and the celebrators are unwanted in Mumbai. This humour contained within this play on the name of the Chhath Puja is something that continues to be unique to the politics of the Shiv Sena and its derivatives.

If you are one of those 3 bazillion people who have at some point been confused by the problem of all bags looking alike on the airport beltway, get ready for more confusion.

Not only the bags, now the dogs sniffing at the bags are also set to look alike in Korea.

Cloned sniffer dogs

Apr. 24 - Cloned Labrador puppies are training to become sniffer dogs in South Korea’s customs service.

The seven pups were cloned from one of the country’s top drug-sniffer dogs. The experiment is the first of its kind and if successful, could pave the way for cloned working dogs to be mass produced. Training dogs for such specialised work is currently a lottery, with many falling short of the standard required to go into service.

It is that time of the day when I am at my left-best, threatening revolution to random person sitting next to me on the bus, and yelling at packets of chips. In the spirit of that revolutionary fervour, I make random posts on “Planning from the Bottom Left” etc. on the MIT-DUSP community page, and of course boot into Ubuntu.

Continuing in that vein,  I now present two images: the first, a poster for the “Industrial Worker” published from Spokane, Washington:

And another, a photoshopped (or perhaps GIMPed) one, from an as-yet unknown Naxalite blog Naxal Revolution (Link below)- the localised version of this image.

I contend thatthe Naxalite version is funnier, and more appropriate. It is awesome that besides the relevance of the image itself, such an amazing reference is made to the Industrial Workers of the World Union.

Thanks Sonal for the images. Original image from http://www.spunk.org and modded image http://naxalrevolution.blogspot.com/2006/10/pyramid-of-capitalist-system.html (Link “unsafe” for the Indian police state, as some may know.)

Think the economy is doing badly? Worried that the $9.83 Billion loss posted by Citibank will bring you down? Concerned about rising prices? Your case might not be as bad as the Financial Analysts in New York. Repeated errors in their analysis has resulted in a major reduction in their competitive advantage - and hence their economic rent. Their advice can now be sought at prices marginally higher than mine and yours.

From the Onion (America’s Finest News Source)

 

Financial Analysts Offer To Talk About Recession For $5

NEW YORK—With the nation almost certainly headed toward a recession, a coalition of top financial analysts announced Monday that they would be willing to discuss the economic future of the U.S. at any time for a negotiable fee of $5. “There are many complicated factors that will dictate the direction the economy will take in the coming months,” said commodity trading adviser Lucas Brockton, who repeatedly urged reporters at the press conference to leave any empty soda cans with him before they left. “We are more than happy to talk about these factors at length just as soon as we can get a wink from Mr. Lincoln, if you catch my drift.” As of press time, the analysts were considering an offer of $3.50 and half a turkey sandwich.

A last minute invitation to a conference has meant that Ninad’s first public appearance in the US will be *tomorrow*, at the “Mumbai in a World of Cities” Panel at the Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) on Friday 18 April 2008 from 4:40 to 6:20 p.m. in Great Republic #7 at the Westin Copley Place Hotel, 10 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts.Further details can be found here. The sudden nature of this invitation can be confirmed by the fact that Ninad’s name doesn’t appear on the AAG website. Ninad will be talking about his work in Dharavi, Mumbai. He is still flogging that undead horse.