Talk by Professor Salim Tamari, December 2006
Professor Salim Tamari, the Director of the Institute of Jerusalem Studies spent three days interacting with our Fellows in Anveshi in December, 2006. A public meeting was organized wherein Professor Tamari spoke on the subject The Arab Israeli Conflict and the Demise of the Two State Solution. He spoke extensively about the conflict between Palestine and Israel against the background of overpowering American presence and the complex internecine politics of various Arab countries.
The Pro Reservation Campaign, April – May 2006
The opposition to reservations resurfaced in May 2006 when the Human Resource Development Ministry announced its directive about implementation of OBC reservations in IITs, IIMs and Central Universities. The opposition was largely fuelled by the English language media, and reminded us that nothing had changed in the self-righteous mindset of the upper castes. This time round much of the hate campaign against the Dalits and OBCs was being carried out in the Internet.
Shocked by the intensity of the anti-reservation campaign Anveshi immediately collaborated with activists, students of Osmania University, Central Institute of English and foreign Languages and the Hyderabad Central University. A common platform called Forum for Reservations for a Better India was formed. Under the auspices of this forum a mass protest was organized in Indira Park on 21st may, 2006 at Indira Park in Hyderabad. A number of local activist groups, students and concerned individuals attended this protest despite the searing heat of summer. The protest was widely reported in the local and national print and visual media.
This was followed by a well-attended public meeting at Press Club on 26th May, 2006. As part of the public meeting we organized Dalit and OBC intellectuals in the city to express our protest against the campaigns carried out by the upper caste groups and also foregrounded the invisible reservations that they have enjoyed in accessing opportunities in both education and employment. Justice BSA Swamy ( Retired Judge of the AP High Court), Dr K.Nagaiah (Former Member, AP SC/ST Commission), Dr.V.G.R. Naragoni (BC Samakhya, Andhra Pradesh), Professor Kancha Ilaiah (Department of Political Science, Osmania University), Dr,. Krishna (Reader, Department of Hindi, University of Hyderabad) and Professor Susie Tharu (Secretary, Anveshi) spoke at the meeting. Anveshi brought out a booklet on the politics of reservations as part of this campaign called Reservations Now. This booklet was widely disseminated among student and activist groups. There was a symbolic walk of all the participants from Nizam College to Press Club with slogans and posters.
In a novel protest many of Anveshi members responded in the chat forums in the Internet. Sadly we do not have a document of all these writings, which ran into dozens of pages dialoging with ordinary students and lay people about the importance of reservations in a country like India where casteism and contemporary practices of untouchability continues to enjoy a significant currency.
Talk by Mr.Sitarama Rao, 29th April 2006
Mr. Sitaram Rao spoke on the issue of Micro Finance institutions (MFI) and their role in the economy. A guiding objective with which MFIs were set up was to provide access to basic financial services which can significantly increase economic opportunities for poor families and in turn help improve their lives. Sitaram will speak of the context in which Micro Finance Institutions have developed in India and the connections between commercial banking, MFIs and self help groups. The talk will also focus on the current controversy around the spate of suicides unearthed in Krishna district, committed by members who were unable to cope with the high interest rates on the loans taken by them.
Sitaram Rao, a Chartered Accountant by training, has held Chief Executive and senior advisory positions with several finance and international marketing companies including the DCL Group (India), Muscat Finance Company (Sultanate of Oman), Laila Group (India), and Paradigm Infotech (USA). He has also served as a visiting faculty member at Management Development Institute (Delhi), Industrial Finance Corporation of India, Computer Maintenance Corporation, and the State Bank of India.
Mr. Anant Mariganti, 9th December 2005
Mr.Anant Mariganti spoke on “The Place of the Poor in the Urban Imaginary of Hyderabad”. Anant Maringanti, PhD candidate in the Geography department of University of Minensota will be sharing the preliminary findings of his dissertation research. This research is part of a larger theme titled 'contested urban futures' in which a small number of critical social scientists across the world are engaged. The main premise of the research is that neoliberal globalization, the 'city' is the locus of an aggressive regime of transformations in the current phase of capitalist restructuring of time and space. Sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, economists and cultural studies schoalrs of a critical bent, have analysed these reforms and the new configurations of resistance from a variety of vantage points, geographers have been attempting to unravel the ways in which new spatiotemporal imaginations are being unleashed across the world trying to pinpoint possibilities for resistance and opposition. Anant's research examines the place of the poor and their homes within the urban imaginary of Hyderabad.
Dr.Vibhuti Patel, 8th November 2005
Dr.Vibhuti Patel a well-known feminist economist and activist of the women's movement spoke on Gender Auditing of Budgets. In 2003, she conducted a gender analysis of the Union Budget for the Centre for Women's Studies at Mumbai University. In the course of the study she examined three successive Union budgets, the declared policies of the Central Government during the Women's Empowerment Year 2001 and the Human Development Reports released by the Planning Commission. Dr.Vibhuti Patel is currently a Reader in Economics, and is associated with the Centre for Women's Studies, University of Mumbai. She is also Member-Secretary of the Women Development Cell, Universtiy of Mumbai.
