Media In India/elsewhere -2

[Capt M Kumar]

<!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo--> But look what is happening in your own home:
The Delhi High Court gave a deliberate death blow to the religious feelings, sentiments and susceptibilities of nearly one billion Hindus of India in absolute majority and several millions of Hindus abroad last week (19th of May 2008) when it dismissed a Writ Petition filed by Ms.Monica Arora on behalf of Shri Dina Nath Mishra, Dr.Ravindra Nath Pal,

Sri Vidya Sagar Verma, Sri Achraya Sohan Lal Ram Rang, Dr. Payal Mago, Shri Mahesh Chandra Sharma, Shri Ramgopal Agarwal and Shri Atul Rawat under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for issuing of writ or direction or order in the nature of Mandamus or any other Writ or Direction or order directing the respondents (University of Delhi represented by its Vice Chancellor, Members of its Academic Council, Dr.Upinder Singh, Reader in History, University of Delhi and others) to withdraw the derogatory, defamatory and offensive Article written by Mr. A.K.Ramanujam, compiled by Dr. Upinder Singh being taught in B.A.(Hons) II Year History course in Delhi University under the title – Culture in India: Ancient. The petitioners included eminent educationists, former Ambassador, former Pro-Vice Chancellor of University, Principal, Lecturer, Teacher, Journalist, Deputy Mayor of MCD and renowned socio-religious leaders. I AM QUOTING THE RELEVANT EXTRACTS FROM THEIR WRIT PETITION: The petitioners are deeply aggrieved by the course curriculum of B.A. (Hons.) II year History Course being taught in Delhi University. The aforesaid course consists of three articles in which the article under controversy is written by Shri A.K. Ramanujan titled, ‘300 Ramayanas: five examples and three thoughts on translation.’ ………….

That in the aforesaid article the revered figures of Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma) namely Lord Ram, Lakshman, Sita and Hanuman have been depicted in bad light. It uses derogatory, defamatory and offensive language, regarding Hindu Gods and Goddesses.

i. That the Article terms Lord Hanuman as henchman of Lord Ram and then again as a ‘Tiny monkey’.

ii. The Article states that Ravana became Pregnant, his month wise pregnancy has been described and that he gives birth to Sita through his sneeze.

iii. It is further stated that both Ravana and Laxman used to seduce Sita.

iv. Sita has been described as unfaithful to Ram.

v. That the King of Gods Indra has been described as a base and a perverse man.

vi. Revered Hindu Saintly mother Ahalya has been described as unfaithful to her husband –The Great Rishi Gautama.

vii. That the Great Rishi Gautama curses King Indra in such a manner that his Testicles fall down. Then on the request of the gods animal’s testicles are implanted on his body.

viii. That the body of God Indra gets covered with vaginas of thousands of women

4. The language of the article is so abusive, perverse and below the accepted standards that it will cause irreparable damage to the impressionable minds of the students studying in B.A. (Hons) II year History Course in Delhi University.

5. That there is growing concern and alarm among the public at large regarding the teaching of such a sacrilegious and perverse material being taught in Delhi University. That the said Article is not only derogatory, defamatory and hurtful to the Hindus but also is an offence under various provisions of Indian Penal Code.

6. That there has been considerable opposition to this syllabus and demand for removal of this Article by students, teachers, lecturers, academicians, historians, religious & political leaders and social activists. They have sent many representations, legal notices and Memorandums to the President of India, Minister of Human Resource & Development and Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University. There have also been signature campaigns and Demonstrations for the removal of the aforesaid Article. That many Newspapers have also carried out Articles against the aforesaid Article being taught in Delhi University and called for its removal.

7. That the aforesaid article is violative of Articles 14, 15, 19, 21, 25 and Article 15A of the Constitution of India. That it is an offence under Section 153,153(A), 295(A), 298,505(2), 292,293 and other provisions of Indian Penal Code. That it is also violative of the judgement of Hon’ble Supreme Court in Aruna Roy v. Union of India, W.P.© No.98/2002, 2002AIR (SC) 3176.

HENCE THE PRESENT WRIT PETITION.In their Writ Petition, the Petitioners had alleged that the respondent No.3 is Dr. Upinder Singh, Reader Department of History, University of Delhi. That she has compiled the course material for B.A. (Hons) II year History course being taught in Delhi University. All the educated Hindus of India have taken due note of the fact that Dr.Upinder Singh is the daughter of our de jure Prime Minister Dr. Man Mohan Singh (a surrogate non-entity!), who is nominally heading an Islam-embracing, Christianity-coveting, Hindu-hating, Hindu-baiting and Hinduism destroying UPA Government under the strangle hold of a de facto woman Prime Minister – a dictatorial imposter from Italy owing her allegiance to the Pope in Rome and not to the letter and spirit to the Indian Constitution. The Hindus of India are therefore not shocked that Sonia Gandhi and her anti-Hindu men operated through the surrogate Prime Minister to influence Delhi University to get A.K.Ramanujan’s anti-Rama and anti-Ramayana essay included in the syllabus of Delhi University in an effortless manner.

The Delhi High Court rejected the contention by the Petitioners that the Hindu Gods and Goddesses were referred to by A.K.Ramanujan in a ‘defamatory’ and ‘derogatory’ language by saying that these are folklore and interpreted in various ways. The High Court said that the Ramayan subject was part of a well-researched article done by noted scholar A.K.Ramanujan.

I reliably understand that the following conversation took place between Ms.Monica Arora, the Advocate for the Petitioners and the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, during the course of the judicial proceedings in open court.

Chief Justice: Have you read Periyar’s Keemaayana?Advocate: No, my Lord.Chief Justice: Do you know that Periyar’s Keemaayana is very popular in Tamilnadu? Are you aware of the fact that in Kamba Raamayana there are extensive references to Ahalya and her intimate overtures?Advocate: The language of A.K. Ramanujun is so abusive, perverse and below the accepted standards that it is causing irreparable damage to the impressionable minds of the students studying in B.A.(Hons) II year History Course in the University of Delhi.

Ms.Monica Arora invited the attention of the Chief Justice in open Court to the brutal fact as to how the University of Ranchi, on 1st of May 2008, had hurriedly cancelled its post-graduation history paper after thousands of Muslims took to the streets protesting against a reference to Prophet Mohammed in a history question paper which they said was derogatory. Ranchi University Vice Chancellor A.H. Khan, shortly after his meeting with Chief Minister Madhu Koda, announced: ‘a five-member committee has been constituted (to probe) the question paper. The examination has been cancelled’. Muslim organisations organised a march and ransacked the university office to protest against the offending question in the history paper. The police used force to control the mob. Finally Chief Minister Koda said:
‘We have asked the vice chancellor to probe the matter and take suitable action against the person who prepared the question. We appeal to people to maintain calm’.


Against this factual background, not belonging to superstitious ancient Hindu History but to Ranchi city of 1st of May 2008, Ms.Monica Arora posed these questions to the Chief Justice: ‘How can there be two different kinds of responses from Government, Courts of Law and other Public Organizations? One kind of paternal response towards the beloved Muslims and another kind of malignant response towards the hated and hunted Hindus? If Muslims go on a rampage, they would be heard with fear, kindness and reverence, whether they are right or wrong? If Hindus make a reasonable representation to the public authorities, their requests and entreaties would be treated with indifference, and insensitivity (particularly towards their long-cherished and sacred religious feelings and beliefs), in a manner bordering on supreme contempt?’

Ms.Monica Arora also invited the attention of the Chief Justice to the ruling given by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in Manzer Sayed Khan v. State of Maharashtra, Criminal Appeal No. 491 and 491/ 2007 (05/04/2007) in 2007 AIR (SC) 2074 that ‘intention has to be judged primarily by the language of the book and the circumstances in which the book was written and published’. Applying this judicial yardstick, she told the Chief Justice that A.K. Ramanujan has picked up anything negative found in different versions of Ramayan spread all over the world with malicious intention of defaming and denigrating the characters of Lord Ram, Hanuman, Laxman and Sita. The Article aims at projecting the entire epic of Ramayana and its characters as fallacious, capricious, imaginary and fake. She asserted as a practicing Hindu that this article is greatly humiliating and grossly offending to the religious belief and faith of the Hindu. Finally she said that A.K.Ramanujan is neither a historian nor an authority on such historical or religious texts. The Petition of Ms.Monica Arora, constitutes by itself, a great piece of legal literature.

Chief Justice Hidayatullah once observed that the Prime Minister of India couldn’t function like a great Mughal. The common Hindus of India would like to declare to all the anti-Hindu Judges of India that they too cannot function in a capricious manner like great Mughals. I would like to invite the kind attention of the Delhi High Court to the following irreplaceable words of American Justice Benamin Cardozo spoken in 1921: ‘My analysis of the Judicial process comes then to this, and little more: logic, and history, and custom and utility, and the accepted standards of right conduct, or the forces which singly or in combination shape the progress of the law’. 127 years earlier, another great British Justice Thomas Erskine, Lord Chancellor of England had declared in a similar manner in 1794: ‘The rules of evidence are founded in the charities of religion – in the philosophy of nature — in the truths of history, and in the experience of common life’. In short they are not based on the banalities and prejudices of political pseudo-secularism, career-oriented servile political opportunism, blatant philosophy of undeclared and unstated Hindu discrimination and in the private lives, prejudices and passions of transitory individual Judges, holding their briefs for the moment, in our Courts of Law. Individual and mortal Judges may come and go but eternal Hinduism will go on forever. No Court of Law in India can shake this deathless faith of the Hindus of India.


Even a cursory reading of the book `MANY RAMAYANAS', The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia, edited by Paula Richman, in which the controversial article of A.K. Ramanujan was included as the second lead article (Oxford University Press Publication of 1992) will show how prejudiced Paula Richman and her team of chosen anti-Hindu `intellectual' gangsters (A.K.Ramanujan included!) were even before they set out on this combined `criminal' intellectual assault on Lord Rama, Ramayana and Hinduism. The point I am making will be clear from Paragraph one (1) of Chapter One (1) of Paula Richman's article titled `Introduction: The Diversity of the Ramayana Tradition':


'In January 1987 viewers in India began to tune in, each Sunday morning for a Hindi television serial based on the Ramayana story. Observers estimate that over eighty million people watched the weekly broadcasts. In a land where most people do not own televisions and electricity remains in short supply, many gathered at the homes of relatives or at local tea shops to view the epic, while engineers worked overtime to supply adequate current. In some places entire villages joined together to rent a television set. It was not just that people watched the show: they became so involved in it that they were loath to see it end. Despite the fact that Doordarshan, the government-run network, had only contracted with the producer for a year's worth of episodes, the audience demanded more. In fact, sanitation workers in Jalandhar went on strike because the serial was due to end without depicting the events of the seventh, and final, book of the Ramayana. The strike spread among sanitation workers in many major cities in North India, compelling the government to sponsor the desired episodes in order to prevent a major health hazard. Quite apart from such militant enthusiasm, the manner in which viewers watched the serial was also striking. Many people responded to the image of Rama on the television screen as if it were an icon in a temple. They bathed before watching, garlanded the set like a shrine, and considered the viewing of Rama to be a religious experience'.


In the light of the above pompously supercilious and uncalled for observations of Paula Richman, any self respecting Hindu or Indian for that matter would be forced to ask the following simple questions in this context:

a. What are the credentials of Paula Richman to question the intellectual, cultural, social and religious rights of the Hindus in India to tune in each Sunday morning for a Hindi television serial based on the Ramayana Story?

b. Is she not talking like a typical Western Christian Missionary Racist of the 19th century? What does she mean by `militant enthusiasm' of the Hindus of India?

c. How does the `manner' in which the viewers watched the Ramayana serial affect her? What did she find `striking' in that `manner'?

d. Is Paula Richman a global turnkey contractor for the spiritual and social conscience of the heathenish and paganish Hindus of India or Asia? How does it matter to her as a Christian (We in India are not concerned with the Christian denomination to which she belongs nor are we interested in whether she is a Christian at all?) as to how many people in India and South East Asia responded to the image of Rama on the television screen as if it were an icon in a temple?

e. Would Paula Richman be interested in raising such questions relating to Christian viewers of a TV Serial on Jesus Christ in different parts of Europe, USA or Africa or Australia?

Paula Richman's anti-Hindu, anti-Rama and anti-Ramayana prejudice comes out into the open when she says `They (Hindus) bathed before watching, garlanded the TV set like a shrine, and considered the viewing of Rama to be a religious experience'. She is guilty of both calculated sanctimonious humbug on the one hand and unabashed anti-Hindu racism on the other.



Delhi University’s
Valmiki Ramayana!!
(Duly Approved by
Delhi HighCourt)





And then Paula Richman goes on to talk about the views of another kindred anti-Hindu spirit like Philip Lutgendorf regarding the size, response, and nature of the television Ramayana's audience. Let us hear Philip Lutgendorf `s learned views on this exciting and from their point of view, sexually titillating theme:


`The Ramayan serial had become the most popular programme ever shown on Indian television — and something more; an event, a phenomenon of such proportions that intellectuals and policy makers struggled to come to terms with its significance and long-range import. Never before had such a large percentage of South Asia's population been united in a single activity; never before had a single message instantaneously reached so enormous a regional audience'.
Paula Richman and Philip Lutgendorf would have gone into flights of divine ecstasy if only the single message of Jesus Christ had reached these millions in India and Asia.

The Ramayana TV serial of 1987 created a new cultural revolution in India. It united all the Hindus of India and South East Asia for the first time and made them feel that they were all part of one large and extended family. The anti-Hindu Congress Party under Rajiv Gandhi, and the Communist Party of India joined together and contacted the Missionary and Christian agencies in Europe and America and thought of an intellectual plot to counter the expanding new cultural impact of the Ramayana TV serial on India and South East Asia. I have no doubt that the book edited by Paula Richman titled `Many Ramayanas' was a direct outcome of such political initiatives of anti-Hindu groups and political parties in India.

My suspicion in this regard has been confirmed by the bumptious reference made by Paula Richman to the Ramayana of Periyar in her preface. To quote her own words, `This book began owing to my puzzlement. For years I had heard people refer to E.V.Ramasami's interpretation of the Ramayana in a mocking and dismissive way. When I actually analyzed his reading of the story of Rama, however, I found much of it strikingly compelling and coherent if viewed in light of his anti-North Indian ideology. While I was talking one day with A.K.Ramanujan about my attempts to make sense of this particular reading of the Rama story, he gave me a copy of a paper he had presented entitled `Three Hundred Ramayanas'. I read this piece again and again because it challenges us to look at the Ramayana tradition in a new way. Each contributor to the volume also read Ramanujan's essay, which now comprises Chapter 2 of this volume. Every other chapter can be seen, in some way, as a response to some of the questions that Ramanujan raises'. Paula Richman is the ringleader of this conspiracy against Lord Rama, Ramayana and Hinduism.

In order to gain the political acceptance of pseudo-secular anti-Hindu intellectuals in India, she has roped in A.K.Ramanujan and included his article in her book of anti-Hindu propaganda. By declaring that all the other articles in her volume by writers like Frank E.Reynolds, Kathleen M. Erndl, David Shulman, Velcheru Narayana Rao, Clinton Seely, Stuart H. Blackburn, Patricia Y.Mumme, Philip Lugendorf and Ramdass Lamb etc. etc. can be seen, in some way, as a response to some of the questions that A.K.Ramanujan raises, Paula Richman has made it very clear that her whole book has been designed, planned, organized and launched as a new Bible of this anti-Rama and anti-Ramayana Brigade.

It ought to be a matter of great concern that the Delhi High Court has failed to take note of the simple fact that Paula Richman's book is nothing but a cheap and crude book with complete focus only on anti-Rama and anti-Ramayana (and of course anti-Hindu) propaganda. Our Courts of Law have no business to function as Marketing Managers of such dirty tricksters and anti-Hindu intellectual gangsters and paid mercenaries. To quote the brilliant words of Dr. Kalyanaraman, an international authority on Saraswathi Civilization and Culture: `Whether it is A.K. Ramanujam's perverted view of some anecdotes in the journey of Rama ignoring the fact that Rama was the embodiment of dharma (vigrahavaan dharma), or Paul Courtright's perception of Ganesha's trunk as a limp phallus or Wendy Doniger's critique of Bhagavad Gita as a dishonest book — all these pseudo-scholarship accounts belong to the same genre _ that of Gutter Inspectors' Sexist Reports. Sex in Sanskrit texts seem to hold a special fascination for some of these, possibly sex-starved, academics, ignoring the sublime aadhyaatmika message sought to be conveyed by many Hindu religious traditions governed by twin precepts of dharma _ nihs'reyas (bliss) and abhyudayam (welfare). The texts, which are held sacred by millions of Hindus, are sought to be smudged. The messages of global, eternal ethic of Dharma, which constitute the essence of the texts, are sought to be distorted. This gutter inspection continues to be indulged in, in the name of `academic freedom'. The phrase, `gutter inspectors' report' was made popular by Gandhi's description of Katherine Mayo's book, `Mother India' in 1927'.

What is most shocking and repulsive to the Hindus of India is the fact that many of our Supreme Court and High Court Judges today seem to be consciously joining this anti-Rama, anti-Ramayana and anti-Hindu intellectual brigade with tremendous judicial and secular enthusiasm in so unconscionable a manner.

[Guest]

Best quote from yesterday's Steven Colbert Report :

I am Hindu, we don't do Jihad - <i>Neal Katyal</i>
<!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

[Bharatvarsh]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Raje Govt funds saffron play

KS Tomar, Hindustan Times
Jaipur, June 27, 2008
First Published: 00:10 IST(27/6/2008)
Last Updated: 00:16 IST(27/6/2008)   
  
The BJP government in Rajasthan financing a troupe from Pune to stage a play in Jaipur that is certain to please the RSS has drawn flak from Congress corporators and intellectuals here.

The Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) has sanctioned Rs 68 lakh to the Maharaja Shivchhatrapati Pratishthan Trust which is staging the play, Jaanta Raja (King Who Knows Everything), in the city for five days from Thursday.  

The play, which has already been staged in other BJP-ruled states such as Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, projects Shivaji as an ardent protector of a Hindu Rashtra.

JMC mayor Ashok Parnami justified the release of funds to the troupe but denied that it aimed to please the RSS bosses.

He said the JMC earmarks Rs 2 crore to encourage and promote culture, traditions and the importance of our history and that “Rs 68 lakh was sanctioned from this budget to organise staging of the play”. 

"The youths do not know about their past and this play will fill the void," the mayor said.

Renowned playwright Ranbir Singh said, “The play is an instrument of RSS propaganda and has nothing to do with encouraging art.”

Congress chief whip in the corporation Giri Raj Khandelwal said, “It is a sheer wastage of public funds. The corporation's decision to spend such a large amount to promote RSS activities is illegal and unjustified.”

Khandelwal and other Congress corporators said they would oppose the “misuse of funds by the corporation that is unable to create adequate civic amenities”.

Gahi Sas, coordinator of the Pune trust, however, said, “It is wrong to say that we are publicising the RSS ideology. Shivaji Maharaj can be an icon for the current rulers and we have organised shows in different states such as Gujarat, Goa, Delhi and Maharashtra.”

He said private institutions had financed the shows in Maharashtra, Delhi and Goa but state governments had provided funds in Gujarat and Chhattisgarh.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/St...ds+saffron+play<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Now even a play on Shivaji becomes "saffron".

But its ok for congress scum to spend money on madrasas.

[dhu]

New Mbh serial trailer. producer Ekta Kapoor (serial fame)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ8sGbE7PnA

Annoying bollywoodish "Chakravyu" and "Om" dittis; trivial characterization similar to Ravana
western orchestra, trivializing of verses
topknots missing, as in 'Ravana'
hopefully there will be a bhakti and dharmik aspect and not too much serial-type tamasha
Arjun in kale vastra
krishna in blue, not saffron
krishna's mukut missing, replaced by pagri
LOTR type headbands, as in Ravana
bhishma without mukut, without shweta vastra
300 type arrow blotting sun scene
american western tumbleweed!!
hopefully they will at least keep the urdu out

[dhu]

It's amazing how such transparent orientalist caricaturing comes out of the secular liberal circles...

Hindu boycott call contributed to "The Love Guru" failure at box office

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Nevada (USA): The boycott call of Hindus against Hollywood movie "The Love Guru" for lampooning Hinduism has been very effective, contributing to its blunt failure at the box office, Rajan Zed, acclaimed Hindu leader, announced this week.

Zed, who spearheaded the protest movement against "The Love Guru" starting in March, stated that although various issues contributed to its failure, but the boycott was one of the major factors. Zed, who issued the boycott call after seeing the film on its release, said that according to reports, many Hindus as well as non-Hindus have been shunning this movie in USA and Canada, where it was released on June 20.

It will reportedly face boycotts and protests in various countries where it will be released in the near future. Protests are reportedly being planned in India and Australia on its release there by various organizations including Hindu Alliance of India, Shri Ramayan Pracharini Sabha, India Heritage Panel, etc. Hindu Janajagruti Samiti has launched a worldwide protest drive. A Canadian Hindu group is also promoting the worldwide boycott. A prominent Jewish Rabbi, Elizabeth W. Beyer of Nevada, has already called for boycott of "The Love Guru" because it "…lampoons Hinduism, mocks Ashram life and Hindu philosophy…"

Rajan Zed argued that it was pure and blatant ridiculing of Hinduism, the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about one billion followers and a rich philosophical thought, and it should not be taken lightly. No faith, larger or smaller, should be ridiculed at. Today it was Hinduism, tomorrow Hollywood might attempt to denigrate another religion/denomination, he said while urging other people of faith (besides Hindus) also to boycott the movie.

Rajan Zed thanked the USA and Canadian filmgoers for having a feel for the pain of Hindu brothers-sisters by rebuffing "The Love Guru".

Meanwhile, signature campaign launched by Hindu groups against "The Love Guru" has crossed the 6,600 mark. Various Hindu, Catholic, Presbyterian, Jewish, Native American, Methodist, Buddhist, youth, film, spiritual/religious, music, yoga, civil rights, etc., leaders have already issued statements in support of this cause espoused by Rajan Zed.

Zed lauded various non-Hindu groups for their support gestures. Nevada Clergy Association has been supportive to the cause and has said, "Hollywood should be more conscious while handling faith related subjects." Daisy Khan, Executive Director of American Society for Muslim Advancement, commented, "I stand with many of my Hindu brothers and sisters. I will not watch this movie." Dwight N. Hopkins, Professor of Theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School, has said about the movie, "It exhibits the bodacious, repulsive, iconoclastic, sophomoric, insulting, stereotyping, and illogicality…"

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has declared "The Love Guru" "morally offensive" and slapped it with its highest rating "O". "Preview Online", which calls itself "informative tool for Christian parents and moviegoers", gave it Morality Rating of –4 (Dangerous), which is lowest of five categories, highest being +4. "Christian Spotlight on Entertainment" gave it a Moral Rating of "Very Offensive". Crosswalk, a Christ-centered corporation, wrote in the movie review, "…slew of seriously wince-inducing jabs at India's culture (horrible, even when meant in fun)…"<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Bodhi]

<!--QuoteBegin-Mudy+Jun 18 2008, 08:54 PM-->QUOTE(Mudy @ Jun 18 2008, 08:54 PM)<!--QuoteEBegin-->Best quote from yesterday's Steven Colbert Report :

I am Hindu, we don't do Jihad  - <i>Neal Katyal</i>
<!--emo&--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->
[right][snapback]82992[/snapback][/right]
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

In yesterday's Steven Colbert Report, there was a funny section of why Obama should become a Hindu. Although some may find the coverage offending, but it was really good. Especially the Hindu Lady (did not get the name - Maisurkar?) whom he interviewed was very firm yet funny in answering all the loaded questions with point blank answers.

[dhu]

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>TV serial on Mohenjodaro civilization in the making</b>

Tired of watching endless 'saas bahu' dramas on television? A new serial on the ancient Mohenjodaro civilization would now take viewers back in time to show how those highly evolved people lived and dressed and their culture.

To be made on the lines of widely-appreciated serials like 'Discovery of India' and 'Chanakya', the serial titled 'Sambhav' will depict the life style of people of the ancient civilization with various dramatic elements.

'The serial is not purely historical but set in the backdrop of the Mohenjodaro civilization. It is a period drama based on the actual facts from that time,' said Anoop Wadhwa, of Reasonable Advertising Private Limited (RAPL).

'The production value will be high and the look of the serial will remind one of yesteryear's block buster 'Chanakya',' said Wadhwa, whose daily family drama 'Kashmakash Zindagi Ki' has completed 300 episodes on Doordarshan.

The script for 'Sambhav' has been penned by Pradyot Pandit, who has written more than 16 shows (fiction and non-fiction) for various channels.

Pandit, a graduate in dramatics from Bharat Bhawan, Bhopal, said: 'It took me more than a year to write the first episode because it needed a lot of research.'

Pandit said he used the resources from the Archaeological Survey of India and books and documents available for his research.

'Since very little information is available about the ancient civilization, it was not easy to research,' said Pandit, who has assisted renowned writers like Anees Bazmee, Sudhanshu Mishra and Anil Choudhury of serials like 'Kabir' and 'Phatichar'.

Pandit told IANS: 'The story of 'Sambhav' also deals with the Aryan age which is known to be the oldest civilization of India. Though we have incorporated dramatic elements, the flavour of the story is of that age and is backed by historical evidence.'

With the script ready, shooting for the pilot will begin shortly, said Wadhwa, adding that he hoped to start airing the serial from the year-end.
..

On the channel on which 'Sambhav' is to be telecast, Wadhwa said, 'Talks are on with various satellite channels. Let's see who gives us the best deal.'

The Mohenjodaro civilization was built around 2,600 BC in what is now Sind in Pakistan. The city was one of the early urban settlements in the world, existing at the same time as the civilisations of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia and Greece.

..<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[acharya]

<b>The Jaundiced Eye of the Western Media</b>

S. Shankar looks for the reasons behind the negative attitude of the Western media toward India

In the last two decades India has emerged as the world’s top-most victim of international terrorism but if you evaluate the media coverage and analysis of the academic bodies of America and Europe about the problem, you will hardly find any positive or sympathetic mention of our country.

So much so that now they have started counting Pakistan – where a huge number of terrorist camps and their sympathizers exist – as a victim of terrorism but the name of India remains missing from the list.

In the last seven to eight years, there is hardly any terrorist incident in the world whose links cannot be traced back to Pakistan. This kind of country is declared suffering from terrorism by the Western analysts and reporters, but all the endless terrorist violence and mass killings of Hindus in all corners of India are said to be “allegedly due to terrorist activity” implying that the real reasons may lie elsewhere.

When Jaipur blasts occurred, CNN covered these in a way that implied that Indian government was merely alleging that these were due to terrorist activity. With this type of attitude, CNN projected to the whole world that, first, it had no idea about the nature of the blasts and, second, that Indian government’s stance that the blasts were because of some terrorist activity did not look very convincing to its reporters. CNN throughout pretended to be confused about the nature of the blasts in Jaipur and what may have triggered them.

This kind of behavior is neither an exception nor limited to only one Western news channel. Indians of today remain buried neck-deep in cheap entertainment, Bollywood and circket. If they can spare some time from these fantastic pursuits to pay some attention to how Western media and commentators portray their country, they will find the scenario quite worrisomea and irritating.

Western journalists not only show indifference and unconcern to the terrorist incidents occurring within India. In their analysis of international terrorism, they only worry about organizations such as Al Quaida, Hamas and Taliban. There is almost no discussion about Jaish-e-Mohammad, Harkat Ul Mujahadeen, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Huji, Simi and so on, despite the fact that these organizations have many times shown to have deep international links.

Even huge terrorist attacks in India are either not registered by the Western media or they get buried in the inside pages of its newspapers. People who keep a track of Western media such as CNN, BBC, Time and Newsweek find that the kind of news chosen to be published about India and how these are presented to the audience reek of rampant hostility and arrogance of their editors.

These Western media outlets regularly publish sympathetic and soft articles full of goodwill for even absolute dictatorships such as China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. On the other hand, it is almost impossible to find an article or commentary about India that can be termed as positive.

Sometimes even in news stories related to India’s impressive economic development or scientific achievements, there is such an undercurrent of negativity and hostility shown by the Western reporters that the readers and viewers end up sympathizing with India’s supposed plight!

“Times” projected the dreaded terrorist Mohammad Sheikh who killed Daniel Pearl and who was involved in 9 / 11 attacks in a very positive manner, labeling him as “nice,” “helpful” and a “soft-talker.” To adorn his personality with such wonderful traits, the testimony of his brother was considered sufficient and irrefutable proof by the Times journalists.

What a touching and honest faith in the words of a terrorist’s brother! These people couldn’t comprehend that even if the said terrorist had these sterling personal qualities, they have absolutely no relevance to the issue at hand and it is stupid to drum these up to their readers.

When the Western media portrays Islamic terrorists, one can easily discern a very sincere and respectful attitude in the tone of the reporters. Even if one reviews everything that has been written and shown about Osama Bin Laden in the last ten years by the Western press, the personality that emerges of his is that of a respect-worthy man who has an air of authority around him.

The Nexus and Abrupt U-turns

There is an absolute and perfect match between the editorial policy of the American newspapers and TV channels and the foreign policy of the American State Department, both of whom seem to work as players of a single team with a single objective.

For example, when Pervez Musharraf captured power in Pakistan, “Newsweek” ran a caustic story that highlighted how Pakistan had been in the grip of military dictators for much of its history and how these leaders have been suppressing the Pakistani people. Surprisingly, its tone abruptly changed in the very next issue. That issue carried a story about the “Gentle General” and projected such a golden image of Pakistan’s future with him at the wheel, that one could only stare in amazement at the U-turn. It was a delicious irony that the reporter and editor of both the stories were exactly the same!

Communist China was till 1979 projected as the mortal enemy of the Western countries by their newspapers. But when Richard Nixon attempted to pull China into the American camp against the Soviet Union and gave it the “most favoured nation” status, the Western media again made an abrupt U-turn. The American reporters developed a permanent goodwill for China.

Even today, China is treated with utmost respect by American reporters despite that fact that it is still the same country where the same Maoist leadership still rules which executed tens of millions of ordinary citizens, where there is a one-party dictatorship, where free press is banned, where there is a brutal repression going on in Tibet, where nuclear arms are proliferated to rogue states with impunity, where the Christian missionaries are strictly controlled and where the Pope is not allowed to set foot within its borders.

The Reason

The same Western media leaves no stone unturned in showing India in a bad light, ridicule and mock it and criticize it for various real and imagined failings. What is the reason for this attitude of the White journalists toward our country which is a free democracy with rights guaranteed to the citizens? Why do these people behave like this regarding India while they grovel in front of banana republics and absolute dictatorships?

The answer to this is quite sad. When the Delhi-based foreign journalists are questioned about their deliberately negative and hostile coverage about India, they say without hesitation that they write and show exactly the same things that our own intellectuals, journalists and commentators say about India. Then they start recounting the names of some well-known Indian “liberal and secular” as well as communist propagandists and media men.

This means that it is our own so-called “secular and liberal” or communist Indians who provide the Western journalists with hateful propaganda about India that the latter then expertly use to badmouth our country and blacken our faces in front of international audience.

[Guest]

Liberation? Or Lost Cause?
Given the crucial role Sam Maneckshaw played in the birth of Bangladesh, I feel Dhaka ought to have paid a more heart-felt homage to the late field marshal. It was only his military triumph that led to the country’s formation. One wonders now if Indira Gandhi was right in going to war in 1971. Political divisions between east and west Pakistan were so aggravated by ’70 that they would have anyway split soon, India’s intervention was not needed. By supporting the Mukti Bahini, we ended up worsening the refugee crisis. Sadly, we even failed to gain the loyalty of the Bangladeshi people. The cost of the war itself was a principal reason behind the turmoil in India during 1973-75, finally leading to the disastrous Emergency. And the war generated deep hatred towards India, made normalisation of relations almost impossible. To exact revenge, every Pakistani leader has supported the low-intensity war in Kashmir—another costly affair for us. It’s a bitter truth that after 1971, no country in South Asia, including Nepal, really trusts India. Indira Gandhi’s heavy-handed approach backfired badly.
J.S. Bandukwala, Vadodara

[Guest]

Boycott CNN-IBN
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Offstumped Bottomline: That CNN-IBN has always been biased is not news. That CNN-IBN does not even care for a pretense of objectivity is not news. That CNN-IBN does not even believe in performance ethics or journalistic standards is not news. What is however news is that CNN-IBN thinks it can still survive as a viable business with this suicidal stance.This is an unprecedented stance by the principal Opposition against a media house in post emegency democratic India. It is unfathomable how CNN-IBN expects to survive if it doesnt dig itself out of the hole it finds itself in. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[Guest]

http://www.whatanidea.co.in/

[Guest]

what's going on in Asaram Bapu's Ashram? Anyone has some insight? NDTV ofcourse is just repeating "Unnatural Deaths" in the aashram, but nothing more.

[acharya]

<b>Indian Conservatives Struggle to Build Alternate Media</b>
Dr. Richard L. Benkin
02 Aug 2008

Amitabh Tripathi is convinced his nation of India is under attack; so he did something few people are willing to do. He abandoned a promising freelance career with India's mainstream media (MSM), so he could he could write openly as a conservative about Indian leftists, Islamists, and government policies that play into their hands.

"You cannot write about the leftists," he told me, "because the Congress [Party] government is dependent on them"; and if you identify the terrorist threat as Islamist, "you are called anti-Muslim and a racist." But, Tripathi said, that is not what worries him the most. "The major threat to Indian sovereignty is government policies that are based on pseudo-secularism and Muslim appeasement." For journalists, that translates into a rigid political correctness that forces them to adhere to the MSM's left-wing bias or look for employment elsewhere.

"After meeting Dr. Daniel Pipes and Dr. Richard Benkin," Tripathi said, "I came to know the gravity of the Islamic threat, what the whole world is facing, and the ignorance people have about the Israel-Palestine struggle. India is entering the most critical period in its history and that the current government and other elites are handing our enemies a victory." Since most of what we hear about the world's largest democracy centers on its new role as an economic giant, its nuclear status, and perhaps its ties with Israel, we might think Tripathi is exaggerating; but there is a great deal that our own MSM does not report.

I was in India for the better part of February this year, when almost every day saw radical action: "road strikes" where separatists and other protesting radicals closed major thoroughfares; a thwarted cyber-terrorist attack by Islamists; communist agitation and demonstrations against India's proposed nuclear deal with the United States; and a military operation by Maoist terrorists against a police station that killed dozens.

Islamic radicals are flexing their muscles, too, building radical madrassas (or Islamic schools) throughout the country, especially in Muslim-dominated villages. Darul Uloom Deoband, the seminary that produced the Taliban's Mullah Omar, is located less than 100 miles from the capital and continues to issue regular fatwas. Muslims are demanding autonomy in several areas; and three Indian states have communist governments. The most entrenched of them, West Bengal, sits less than 15 miles from a barely-patrolled border with China.



So Tripathi started Lokmanch, a Hindi-language web site that features frank criticism of what he and others call the government's "ostrich-like behavior." He also has translated articles on Israel, the US war against Islamist terror and extremism, Barack Obama, and other topics. They provide Indians with information that their media simply does not report. Quietly, Tripathi is attracting more and more Indian journalists, including bona fide members of the MSM. Several of them offered me their candid opinions about the media's leftist bias, the center-left government, and the severity of the Islamist threat facing their country. They work for major newspapers and broadcast channels; English and Hindi-language outlets, purely Indian companies, and some with an international reach. Their concern was genuine; their passion intense.

But because, they told me, they "would surely be sacked" if their editors or colleagues heard those candid opinions, we met in out of the way hotels, coffee shops, and other inconspicuous places. So concerned were they that only some agreed to let me tape our conversations. And all of them-with the exception of Amitabh Tripathi-agreed to speak openly only so long as they remained anonymous. They hoped our interviews would garner support for their cause, especially in the United States. "At the very least," one told me, "perhaps it will help people know just how dangerous things here are."



"India is regarded as a very soft state."



Every journalist echoed the sentiments expressed by this one. "The US and India are two great democracies. We [India] must support the US War on Terror. It is the only thing we should do!" They are frustrated and concerned, however, at India's reticence to do so whole heartedly. The ruling parties "fear a negative response from Muslims [and a loss of votes even though] more people believe India should openly ally itself with the US in the war on terror...the politicians are afraid to be seen as anti-Muslim."

Muslims make up about 20 percent of the Indian population, and their interest groups and organizations are united and vocal. In the media, reports must adhere to a certain formula "because they feel that these kinds of [anti-terror] reports will build up feelings against Muslims." Thus, they attribute things to generic "terrorists, but they are not terrorists. They are Indian Muslim institutions getting money from the Saudis...to create mosques that look like five-star hotels."



In the lead up to this year's Indian budget, Muslim groups rolled out statistics showing their constituents lagging behind in education and income and demanded subsidies and government commitments. No one challenged their assumption that the lag was due to prejudice or that the Indian taxpayers had to shoulder the burden. They simply caved and acceded to most of the demands. Hence, the budget contains large sums for Muslim pilgrimages to Jerusalem's Al Aqsa, but not a penny for stateless Hindu refugees from Islamist terror in Bangladesh. "If you are pro-Hindu, you are called a racist."



India's parliamentary system also complicates things. The ruling Congress Party had to ally itself with Indian Communists (CPIM) to oust the right wing Bhatariya Janata Party (BJP). The CPIM is part of the ruling coalition and holds the balance of power. "If they believe their demands are not being met, they can bring down the government. This is why India still has not ratified the nuclear deal with the US." Many Congress leaders recognize its critical security role and want to sign it, but their communist partners have made the deal's rejection key to their remaining in the coalition. This also helps explain India's puzzling reaction to the recent Maoist takeover in neighboring Nepal. Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukharjee hailed the communist victory as a new era in South Asian politics even after the new Nepalese commissars vowed to end "Indian dominance" in Nepal. "He comes from West Bengal...and cannot represent his state without support of communists," which drives Indian foreign policy.

"Israel is our role model; America is our ally."



The wedge issue separating the Old Left elites from today's Indian conservatives is Israel. The MSM reports Israel as the villain in the Middle East and the Palestinians as victims. For the first half century of their existence, India and Israel did not even have diplomatic relations. It was not until the 1990s that common security concerns prompted a thaw; and relations did not really take off until 2003 with a visit by then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Previous Indian politics built on the late Jawaharlal Nehru's union with Yugoslavia's Josip Broz Tito and Egypt's Gamal Nasser to form the non-aligned bloc of nations. The anti-US and anti-Israel course they charted set the basis for the UN's endemic hatred of both nations and dominated Indian policy for decades. That is why, one journalist told me, "there is something of a generation gap between the [established and generally older] editors and publishers" and people today.



Media coverage remains biased, which is why, according to Tripathi, it came as a tremendous surprise to many Indians when they saw evidence that Israelis were the victims of Arab terror. They began wondering at MSM condemnation of actions that were no less self-defense than their own. "We must give people the real picture of Israel-Palestine struggle" as parallel to our own struggle for existence. "The network of madrassas and imams in India, holds that the entire subcontinent was once under Muslim rule and still would be were it not for the British. That is how they look at Israel, as darul Islam"; that is, as a land once under Muslim hegemony and so by rights always under it. They opposed Indian partition in 1947 and the partition of Palestine in 1948, because it would recognize the legitimacy of the non-Muslim state on land they consider their own.



Many Indians "are enraged" by their nation's "soft policy" and have begun holding up Israel as a role model publicly. They also point to Israel's development in areas like agriculture and defense. "Despite adversities, Israel progressed a lot but we Indians were far lagging behind." "Without a doubt," another said, "if Israel did not say to hell with those who wanted it to be soft, it would be gone. And if India does not do the same thing, it will be gone because the official philosophy of the [Muslims] is the same."



A couple days after Tripathi and I parted, I found myself addressing a journalism class at the University of Lucknow in Upper Pradesh province. I spoke about the role of journalists, the war against Islamist terror, and about Bangladeshi Hindus living in India-victims of ethnic cleansing. The students were lively and engaged on a variety of topics, but their eyes really lit up when I mentioned that I am a Zionist and had been to Israel. Their thirst for knowledge and analysis seemed unquenchable; their questions non- stop. "How has such a small country like Israel been able to defeat all of the Arabs and their terrorists?" "How can we [India] be more like Israel?" Even the one student who took a vocal, anti-Israel position addressed admitted to the class that "I have to do more work to check my information."



"Axis of evil and axis of terror in this world are Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran"



"There is not a single democracy between Tel Aviv and New Delhi, and if we keep taking the road of weakness, our enemies could easily defeat us...Our foreign policy is to have friendly relations with our neighbors. But our neighbors are all radical Islamists and dictators." These journalists freely admit that they are not "completely objective, but at least we say so" in contrast to the MSM. They believe that the vast majority of India's 1.1 billion people see things the way they do but that their nation has been hi-jacked by "leftists, weaklings, and corrupt people." For instance, one said, "it's a crime that the communists are still in power. They use intimidation and voter fraud, but Congress lets them because they want to stay in power. If BJP and Congress would come together and force a fair election, the Communists will lose."



Providing Indians with good information, uncensored by a fearful and rigid MSM is what Amitabh Tripathi hopes to accomplish with Lokmanch. "The web site is only the first step," he said. "Small, local papers publish in huge numbers and they are not part of the mainstream media. They are just as frustrated with things as we are. We want to channelize (sic) them to become an alternative media." He estimates it will take "two to three years perhaps" to build a news network and mobilize opinion makers in India. Several small papers already have joined Tripathi's network. We can help by providing them with access to news and opinion and original articles (much as I did with Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury in Bangladesh). And like all such endeavors, this one is struggling to find funds, as well.



Mandhol Kalan is a small village about 50 miles from Delhi where Deoband imams banned television, radio, photography, even singing. One Hindi TV network did a story exposing it, which forced the government to react. But instead of addressing the issue it raised, the Ministry responded by distributing new television sets. Not surprisingly, the Deobandis returned, confiscated the TVs, and re-instituted the ban. <b>But now, the government does not return calls, and networks have not returned to Mandhol Kalan. Thus, just outside the Indian capital is a village that makes Afghanistan look like Las Vegas. Worse, said one of the journalists involved in the original report, the media's silence "allows [the Islamists] to impose their views exclusively and produce more terrorists."</b>

http://www.analyst-network.com/article.php?art_id=2308

[Guest]

Lalooji and Mulayamji have now released new CDs of their own. Congies are quite. BJP is left to roll in mud with commies + lalu/mulayam.

http://www.rediff.com/news/2008/aug/04upavote.htm

received the foll in email. no URL.

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sting telecast under a cloud

Statesman News Service

NEW DELHI, Aug. 2: It is more than ten days since people across the country watched the sight of three BJP MPs flaunting wads of Rs 1000 notes in the Lok Sabha allegedly given to them by the ruling UPA to abstain during the 22 July trust vote, but it is becoming curiouser by the day why the CNN-IBN channel which secretly filmed the “notes for votes” scandal is now reluctant to telecast it.

On 22 July even as the debate on the trust vote was going on, the currency notes were sneaked into the Lok Sabha in two bags by the BJP MPs. Apparently the MPs had the permission of the party’s top leadership to bring in the “bribe” money to “expose” the UPA government’s efforts to allegedly buy MPs over to win the crucial trust vote. The BJP was understandably banking heavily on the sting operation by CNN-IBN to nail the government. But much to its chagrin the channel is yet to telecast the tapes in spite of what the BJP terms a “promise” made by it.

Even as the BJP has declared it was “compelled” to take a decision to boycott CNN-IBN in view of its decision against telecasting the tapes, the channel’s steadfast resistance to telecast the ‘sting’ operation raises many questions. Is the TV channel under some kind of political or corporate pressure not to telecast the tapes? Do the tapes contain any incriminating evidence against the ruling Congress or its new ally, the Samajwadi Party, which played a crucial role in the survival of the government during the trust vote? Is the channel afraid of facing retribution from unknown political quarters or is it under threat?

In a letter to the Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, about a week after the two-day secret filming of the sting operation by a team of CNN-IBN spanning the night of 21 July and till 22 July afternoon, the BJP leader of the Opposition in the House, Mr LK Advani, wrote, “The channel had assured the whistle-blowers (three BJP MPs) that the recorded tape would be telecast ‘soon’. However, this was not done. In any democracy, it would be the grossest impropriety if whistle-blowers are let down by the media organisation that conducted the investigation.” He added, “Although the channel has stated that it retains a copy of the tape and reserves the right to telecast it at a future date, the long delay between the recording of the tape and its telecast (if and when it happens) would naturally raise grave doubts as to whether the tape is authentic or doctored.”

Responding to the letter, the Speaker on 28 July said it was up to the parliamentary committee probing the matter to take a decision on the telecast of the tapes. Sources in the Parliament secretariat told The Statesman that there was no embargo on the tapes’ telecast from the committee.
Investigations by The Statesman reveal that contrary to claims by some people that the tapes are difficult to decipher, they have good picture clarity.

The contents of the tapes, if sources are to be believed, also contradict the argument forwarded by the Editor-in-Chief of CNN-IBN, Mr Rajdeep Sardesai: “Investigation by the channel was not ready for telecast in the sense to be a cast iron story (which such stories should be), it did require some more inquiry into certain matters, which could have been done but was rendered impossible by the fact that on the afternoon of 22 July itself, the three MPs raised this issue in Parliament and then went on to make public the fact that this has been recorded by the CNN-IBN.”

Sources said those caught in the tapes and movement of vehicles along with their number plates were clearly visible.

On 11 August when the sting team of CNN-IBN faces the inquiry committee the truth behind the entire episode may be out and the contents of the controversial film might also see the light of day. Sources said the Lok Sabha secretariat which is investigating the authenticity of the tapes (in all around 6-7 digital tapes have been submitted by the channel) is leaving nothing to chance.

The main thing to watch is if the contents of the tapes match the total amount of the money which the BJP MPs alleged was offered to them by the Congress and SP, sources added.

A former official of the Lok Sabha secretariat in the know of parliamentary procedure said even if the committee managed to establish the identity of the people who gave the money to the three BJP MPs the guilty could not be prosecuted on the basis of the committee report.

The report could at best form the basis for filing cases against the guilty persons, he pointed out. But with the nearly hour-long recording in the secret sting tapes increasingly becoming a hot potato, it appears that it will be long before the public gets to see them.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

[acharya]

Indian Conservatives Struggle to Build Alternate Media

They are watching the Indian media which they have screwed up without even Indians figuring it out.

http://www.marshallmcluhan.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->McLuhan's work is viewed as one of the cornerstones of the study of media theory. McLuhan is known for coining the expressions "the medium is the message" and the "global village."

McLuhan was a fixture in media discourse from the late 1960s to his death and he continues to be an influential and controversial figure. More than ten years after his death he was named the "patron saint" of Wired magazine.
Major works

During his years at Saint Louis University (1937-1944), McLuhan worked concurrently on two projects: his doctoral dissertation and the manuscript that was eventually published in 1951 as the book The Mechanical Bride, which included only a representative selection of the materials that McLuhan had prepared for it.

McLuhan's 1942 Cambridge University doctoral dissertation surveys the history of the verbal arts (grammar, dialectic and logic, and rhetoric -- collectively known as the trivium from the time of Cicero down to the time of Thomas Nashe.[21] In his later publications, McLuhan at times uses the Latin concept of the trivium to outline an orderly and systematic picture of certain periods in the history of Western culture. <b>McLuhan suggests that the Middle Ages, for instance, was characterized by the heavy emphasis on the formal study of logic. The key development that led to the Renaissance was not the rediscovery of ancient texts but a shift in emphasis from the formal study of logic to rhetoric and language. Modern life is characterized by the reemergence of grammar as its most salient feature -- a trend McLuhan felt was exemplified by the New Criticism of Richards and Leavis.[22]</b>

In The Mechanical Bride, McLuhan turned his attention to analyzing and commenting on numerous examples of persuasion in contemporary popular culture. This followed naturally from his earlier work as both dialectic and rhetoric in the classical trivium aimed at persuasion. At this point his focus shifted dramatically, turning inward to study the influence of communication media independent of their content. His famous slogan, "the medium is the message" (elaborated in his 1964 book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man) calls attention to this intrinsic effect of communications media. [23]

Understanding Media (1964)

McLuhan's most widely known work, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964), is also a pioneering study in media ecology. In it McLuhan proposed that media themselves, not the content they carry, should be the focus of study –- popularly quoted as "the medium is the message." <span style='color:#800080'>McLuhan's theory was that a medium affects the society in which it plays a role not by the content delivered over the medium, but by the characteristics of the medium itself.</span> McLuhan pointed to the light bulb as a clear demonstration of this concept. A light bulb does not have content in the way that a newspaper has articles or a television has programs, yet it is a medium that has a social effect; that is, a light bulb enables people to create spaces during nighttime that would otherwise be enveloped by darkness. He describes the light bulb as a medium without any content. McLuhan states that "a light bulb creates an environment by its mere presence."[38] More controversially, he postulated that content had little effect on society –- in other words, it did not matter if television broadcasts children's shows or violent programming, to illustrate one example -– the effect of television on society would be identical. He noted that all media have characteristics that engage the viewer in different ways; for instance, a passage in a book could be reread at will, but a movie had to be screened again in its entirety to study any individual part of it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understanding_Media
<b>
McLuhan argues that media are languages, with their own structures and systems of grammar, and that they can be studied as such. He believed that media have effects in that they continually shape and re-shape the ways in which individuals, societies, and cultures perceive and understand the world. </b>In his view, the purpose of media studies is to make visible what is invisible: the effects of media technologies themselves, rather than simply the messages they convey. Media studies therefore, ideally, seeks to identify patterns within a medium and in its interactions with other media. Based on his studies in New Criticism, McLuhan argued that technologies are to words as the surrounding culture is to a poem: the former derive their meaning from the context formed by the latter. Like Harold Innis, McLuhan looked to the broader culture and society within which a medium conveys its messages to identify patterns of the medium's effects.[7]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_Academy..._%26_Television

Political communication and political economy

From the beginning, media studies are closely related to politics and wars (Guo & Wu, 2005, p. 276) such as campaign research and war propaganda. Political communication mainly studies the connections among politicians, voters and media. It focused on the media effects. There are four main media effects theories: magic bullet, two-step flow of communications (Lazarsfeld, 1948), limited effects (Lang & Lang, 1953), and the spiral of silence (Noelle-Neumann, 1984). Also, many scholars studied the technique of political communication such as rhetoric, symbolism and etc. Much of this research has been developed in journals of mass communication and public opinion scholarship.

In the last quarter century, political economy has played a major part in media studies literature. The theory gained notoriety in media studies particularly with the publication of Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky’s Manufacturing Consent, published in 1988. In the book, the authors discuss a theory of how the United States’ media industry operates, which they term a “propaganda model.” The model describes a “decentralized and non-conspiratorial market system of control and processing, although at times the government or one or more private actors may take initiatives and mobilize co-ordinated elite handling of an issue." [2]
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Communication technology impact on Western Culture. Print Culture generates the most socially revolutionary and eversive forces, while electric media makes people more reactionary
<img src='http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/95/SummaryDiagramVertical.png' border='0' alt='user posted image' />


http://www.apa.org/divisions/div46/
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Media Psychology

Division 46 - Media Psychology focuses on the roles psychologists play in various aspects of the media, including, but not limited to, radio, television, film, video, newsprint, magazines, and newer technologies. It seeks to promote research into the impact of media on human behavior; to facilitate interaction between psychology and media representatives; to enrich the teaching, training, and practice of media psychology; and to prepare psychologists to interpret psychological research to the lay public and to other professionals. The Division has liaisons with the APA Education, Practice, Science, and Public Interest Directorates.

The purpose of our site is to disseminate accurate and research-based information to professionals and the public regarding psychological issues in mass media. The objectives of Division 46 are to:

Assist psychologists to use the media more effectively for informing the public about the science and profession of psychology.

Develop a set of theoretical frameworks for the study and practice of media psychology.

Support research on the effects of media on the public, and the effectiveness of media in transmitting psychological information.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

http://www.apa.org/divisions/div46/images/MEDIADEF.pdf
<b>
Arguably, the field of media psychology may be the study of a religion. The forces of
media create the celebrity gods we both adore and hate. They create the means by which we
come to understand ourselves and evaluate others. They provide the intellectual, spiritual and
hedonic manna that fills our senses and alternately crystallize or cloud our thoughts. They
inspire the dreams of our ambitions and the demons of our nightmares.</b>
The media business and creative elements, whether they fully appreciate it or not,
constitute a priest class that has the power to move us and to shake us. They create the songs to
be sung, the instruments on which they are composed and performed, and designate who are to
be the performer demigods of the moment.

[dhu]

McLuhan is a reactionary who is mostly known for his sensationalist statement "the media is the message". The real ideologue of the anti-technique narrative is Ellul. In Ellul, the christian roots of this anti-technique discourse are clearly visible, though not in his main three works about technique. McLuhan represents the American viewpoint which has been integrated into the corporate and alternative discourse. Ellul is the old continental Euro opinion with old Anarchist sensibility.

There is one very clear link with Indian Sajaists- Vijay Prasad's unambiguous endorsement and childish fascination with Kaczynski's ramblings. Kaczynski had been brooding over Ellul but gave his "manifesto" a peculiarly American twist by bringing in a major rant against liberals and how they subvert the normal impulses of self-survival. Ellul himslef would never generalize about supposed liberal and conservative divisions but would see them as faces of the same "system" aka technique. I suspect that many Sajaists deem these lines of anti-technique works to be the most revolutionary. I think these guys like Prasad project the type of technical "system" described in Ellul (western system of racism for the less technically inclined) to the "brahminical" "caste" "Hinduism" "oppressive" "fedal" "systems" in India. This is western "manifesto" culture which we are dealing with and will have to cope with. Manifesto culture was clearly visible in luther's antics.

[dhu]

McLuhan is the prophet of the post-industrial world, just as Marx was the same for industrial world. Ellul actually considered Communism to be the perfect manifestation of technique since it poises full faith in the ability of technique to deliver from the void of social relations engendered by the "wage slave" character of modernity -where people are situated in relation to the impersonal "System" rather than in "moral" relation to their "fellow man" (another christian problem set)-. Communism perfects the psychological techniques of integration of the disjointed individual into the technical "system". The American (ie capitalist) system differs in only the amount of subjectivity allowed to the decontextualized individual. It's possible that Ellul's allergy to psychological technique was a reaction to the palpable Eastern origins of 19th century Psychology- which was transformed into christianized categories (Buddha's Dukkha became "alienation"). It is also possible that the Decontextualization decried by the postmodern critics is actually the same type of universalization dynamic found in godfearing religion where the individual's relations to family, work, etc are problematized in favor of the religion (or state) But in India there is no such "alienation" dynamic and I think that Ellul recognized this in 'Technological Society'; that is why he refers to India as a third plane of civilization on par with Europe and America. .

The prophets always poise themsleves as liberators against the "system" and thus can command the raw material of youth. Liberator rhetoric is as old as Roman engineering of Christianity.

[acharya]

Great
Can you give some links here.

[dhu]

http://www.jesusradicals.com/library/ellul.php

see "the technological system" (system pdf) and "the technological bluff" pdf. the first one is the classic one. translation is lacking, the one by John Wilkinson is more thorough to the original french. Marx is dated now, these are new generation of ideologues, all poised as contrarians to the post-industrial landscape (just as Marx previously). I will give more relevant links.


page 193 of 'system'

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>At bottom, the veering towards technicization has already begun, and all nations (except India) are basically convinced of the unique value of this route.</b> Hence, the principle cause now of technological universalism is that conviction, which has won out, from the Western countries to the entire world.14 Therefore universalism rests on two complementary givens.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->

This is a weighty endorsement of Indian viewpoint, coming from the anti-technique Ellul.

[acharya]

http://www.jesusmanifesto.com/wp-content/u.../2007/08/ellul/

http://www.jesusmanifesto.com/wp-content/u...ellul/bluff.pdf

http://www.jesusmanifesto.com/wp-content/u.../2007/08/ellul/