Mohan Dutta: Culture-Centered Approach

Sen's conviction a ridiculous use of laws: Amartya - Hindustan Times In thinking about the systematic and more recent attacks of the state apparatus on voices that seek to critique the structure, one thing becomes apparent: there is very little space for critique and debate in a national public sphere that is dedicated to serving the corporate interests and the interests of the power structures. The arrest of Dr. Binayak Sen is not only a smack in the face of the rhetoric of Indian democracy, but it also is a powerful demonstration of the role of the state in subverting voices of dissent. The framing of an individual or a group as threat to the State operates as a justifier for the enactment of violence and for the use of violence to minimize alternative narratives. Policies and laws take on the languages of "terrorism," "crime," and "national security threat" to minimize the spaces for debate and to erase the opportunities for critique. The message o

Professor Devika Chawla from Ohio University graciously sent me an email after having read my blog on "Eurocentric Disciplining," citing the piece that she and Professor Amardo Rodriguez co-authored, titled "Locating Diversity in Communication Studies" (Amardo was an assistant professor at Purdue and had left the department right before I joined the department here). Chawla & Rodriguez put forth the notion that the lack of diversity in Communication is fundamentally epistemological and ontological, privileging certain ways of knowing the world, and simultaneously foreclosing alternative visions of Communication that begin with worldviews that seek to de-center the status quo. They take to task what they identify as the paradigm of "inclusion, toleration, and accomodation, " and istead propose a new paradigm of "evolution, innovation, and confrontation." I found this piece both thought provoking and inspiring...something I would like to use

In working with one of my graduate students on the history of communication theory, we were going through some of the seminal texts (Delia, Rogers, Glasser) that narrate the story of the discipline. When these texts are interrogated to examine the ideological assumptions, it becomes fairly clear that explicit in the narratives of these texts is the articulation of the superiority of Western American thought as the savior of the world. That America will lead the world into development and Enlightenment becomes the key thread in the early strands of the discipline, and somehow gets ingrained in the key thoughts of the discipline. So when one goes back to Lerner and Schramm and Rogers (and the list goes on), one learns about the fundamental assumptions they made in their understanding of communication in terms of rational processes and frameworks of persuasion (as defined by Ameri-centric criteria) that would remove darkness in the Third World. Of course, during the times when these aut

I was really surprised the other day when I heard one of these self-described Indian yuppie friends describe her political views as "fiscally conservative, socially liberal." Now at least this is a step forward from the typical Indian opportunism that you see among middle class children of trade liberalization (serving one of these global banks, hedge funds, or knowledge production houses), who usually describe themselves as "apolitical." But, what really is this "fiscally conservative, social liberal" label and what purposes does it serve? So let's begin with the classification "fiscally conservative." In simple words, a fiscally conervative worldview is one that favors privatization, trade liberalization, minimization of subsidies for the poor, and removal of social securities. Its proponents ranging from Ayn Rand to Milton Friedman, fiscal conservatism is rooted in the worldview that offering social securities to the poor makes them lazy

The narrative of "Shining India" is a fairly straightforward narrative. It is a story of growth and development, a story of high rises, start ups, call centers, IT hubs, and tremendous development accomplished through trade liberalization. Development is storied in the form of infrastructures, roads, hopitals for NRIs, and the multiplexes that are continually being targeted at the NRIs living abroad (look for instance at the most recent narratives of development being articulated in the context of Gujarat). India has progressed so much that going back to India is no longer a dream, but rather a reality, where you can combine the lifestyle of neoliberal capitalism with the spices of the local culture, filled with the colors, tastes, and thrills of the spaces NRIs nostalgically think of as home. For the NRI, it is once again an opportunity to re-invent one's home that is now devoid of the problems of poor infrastructure that once plagued India. It is precisely however i

A subaltern song that embodies the spirit of subaltern resistance to dominant narratives of development. The voices at the margins of contemporary development politics of India draw attention to the strategic erasure of subaltern voices to carry out the agendas of dominant structures. As a communication scholar, I am increasingly amazed at the creative and transformative capacity of subaltern narratives in disrupting the discourses of modernist structures by rendering explicit the hypocrisies and paradoxes that underlie the mainstream stories of development.

The agency of local communities in resisting structural oppressions imposed by the state-TNC nexus is well illustrated in the indigenous protests in Niyamgiri. The mining company Vedanta, enjoying strong relationships with the Indian government, worked through the military-political apparatus to set up mining operations in the Niyamgiri Hills that would displace the indigenous people from the sacred forests that belong to them and their ancestors. The global oppression of indigenous tribes is situated amidst the political economic gains of the neoliberal configuration in setting up projects of industrialization and development that inequitably benefit the rich and further subalternize indigenous populations. The Niyamgiri example provides an invaluable lesson on the strength of grassroots solidarity at the margins as an entry point to structural transformation.

When you Right Over my Body Your Writings Soaked in the privilege Of your Whiteness That tames my savage maleness And teaches it The lessons of civilization I sit here In Silence As I think about The words I would use And the phrases And metaphors That would bring your Empire down!

Recently, I heard an articulation where a colleague made an evaluative statement about how international scholars present their research in such and such way, and how as an American, this scholar thought that this was an inferior way to present research compared to the American way, with the implied assumption that the American way is the "correct" way. This statement was followed by a qualifier about ethnocentrism. As somebody who often has had to deal with the international label (although I do have a US citizenship) in the past, I remember often having to just put up with arrogant and demeaning comments such as this from colleagues. However, the timing of this statement is appalling, given the growing presence of international scholars in the communication discipline, the increasing calls for internationalization, the fall of the US empire precisely because of this arrogance, and as exemplified in most recent years, the global criticism of this sort of US ethnocentrism.

In a recent piece co-authored with an advisee, we decided to not present effectiveness data in critiquing an intervention. The choice to not present the effectiveness data was a strategic choice situated in the critical impetus of CCA, based on the argument that the mainstream articulations of campaigns narrowly focus on effectiveness without attending to the dimensions of power, co-optation, and oppression that are often played out by the very same campaigns. Therefore, in our piece, we issued a call for the foregrounding of alternative criteria that question the very paradigm of effectiveness, the ways in which it is measured and reported etc. In one of our reviewers, a reviewer insisted that this was an unethical choice because the manuscript did not present the evidence that was available. What intrigues me about this argument made by the reviewer is how situated amidst ideology this specific evaluation of ethics is. Why is it that discussions of oppressive ideologies perpetrated b

He comes With his interview protocols And questions About cultural practices, magic, and ritual. He Comes Because he has the tools Of this thing He calls Ethnography. Through which he says he can Figure out our culture And explain our weird customs. He comes To conquer Disguised as a friend Lives amidst us, eats our food, And dances in our pagan dances Only to write back To his other White friends About our primitive stories.