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... This initial antagonism between the two Dewans grew. Travancore and Cochin shared rights and responsibilities in some temples, and dozens of their Nambudiri Brahmin citizens performed ceremonies in both states. When ...
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Singh reviews The Great Indian Phone Book: How the Cheap Cell Phone Changes Business, Politics, and Daily Life by Assa Doron and Robin Jeffrey
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The cheap mobile phone is arguably the most significant personal communications device in history. In India, where caste hierarchy has reinforced power for generations, the disruptive potential of the mobile phone is even more striking... more
The cheap mobile phone is arguably the most significant personal communications device in history. In India, where caste hierarchy has reinforced power for generations, the disruptive potential of the mobile phone is even more striking than elsewhere. In 2001, India had 35 million telephones, only four million of them mobiles. Ten years later, it had more than 800 million phone subscribers; more than 95 per cent were mobile phones. In a decade, communications in India have been transformed by a device that can be shared by fisherfolk in Kerala, boatmen in Banaras, great capitalists in Mumbai and powerwielding politicians and bureaucrats in New Delhi. Village councils banned unmarried girls from having mobile phones. Families debated whether new brides should surrender them. Cheap mobile phones became photo albums, music machines and radios. Religious images and uplifting messages flooded tens of millions of phones each day. Pornographers and criminals found a tantalising new tool. In politics, organisations with cadres of truebelievers exploited a resource infinitely more effective than telegrams, postcards and the printing press for carrying messages to workers, followers and voters. Jeffrey and Doron focus on three groups - controllers: the bureaucrats, politicians and capitalists who wrestle over control of radio frequency spectrum; servants: the marketers, agents, technicians, tower-builders, repairers and second-hand dealers who carry mobile phones to the masses; and users: the politicians, activists, businesses and households that adapt the mobile phone to their needs. The book probes the whole universe of the mobile phone - from the contests of great capitalists and governments to control radio frequency spectrum to the ways ordinary people build the troublesome, addictive device into their daily lives.
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The cheap mobile phone is arguably the most significant personal communications device in history. In India, where caste hierarchy has reinforced power for generations, the disruptive potential of the mobile phone is even more striking... more
The cheap mobile phone is arguably the most significant personal communications device in history. In India, where caste hierarchy has reinforced power for generations, the disruptive potential of the mobile phone is even more striking than elsewhere. In 2001, India had 35 million telephones, only four million of them mobiles. Ten years later, it had more than 800 million phone subscribers; more than 95 per cent were mobile phones. In a decade, communications in India have been transformed by a device that can be shared by fisherfolk in Kerala, boatmen in Banaras, great capitalists in Mumbai and power-wielding politicians and bureaucrats in New Delhi. Village councils banned unmarried girls from having mobile phones. Families debated whether new brides should surrender them. Cheap mobile phones became photo albums, music machines and radios. Religious images and uplifting messages flooded tens of millions of phones each day. Pornographers and criminals found a tantalising new tool. In politics, organisations with cadres of true believers exploited a resource infinitely more effective than telegrams, postcards and the printing press for carrying messages to workers, followers and voters. Jeffrey and Doron focus on three groups - controllers: the bureaucrats, politicians and capitalists who wrestle over control of radio frequency spectrum; servants: the marketers, agents, technicians, tower-builders, repairers and second-hand dealers who carry mobile phones to the masses; and users: the politicians, activists, businesses and households that adapt the mobile phone to their needs. The book probes the whole universe of the mobile phone - from the contests of great capitalists and governments to control radio frequency spectrum, to the ways ordinary people build the troublesome and addictive device into their daily lives.
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This study identifies 11 issues that have inhibited the spread of a comprehensive sanitation programme. It emphasises the complexity of issues and helps avoid the facile targeting of the poor as deficient citizens, whose latrine practices... more
This study identifies 11 issues that have inhibited the spread of a comprehensive sanitation programme. It emphasises the complexity of issues and helps avoid the facile targeting of the poor as deficient citizens, whose latrine practices are viewed as a "primitive" source of social disorder and disease. Recognition that many factors are involved and interrelated might also serve as a warning against patchwork policies that disregard local context in their haste to proclaim another district an "open defecation free zone".
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List of Tables and Maps - Abbreviations - Preface - Preface to the Second Edition - Glossary - What Happened to India, 1985-92? - Introduction to the Second Edition - Secularism: What Sort of a State? - Punjab: What Sort of Democracy? -... more
List of Tables and Maps - Abbreviations - Preface - Preface to the Second Edition - Glossary - What Happened to India, 1985-92? - Introduction to the Second Edition - Secularism: What Sort of a State? - Punjab: What Sort of Democracy? - Socialism: What Sort of Economy? - Non-Alignment: What Sort of a World? - The Poor and the Polity: What Sort of a Future? - PART 1 ETHNICITY - Ethnicity - Choice - The Anti-Sikh Riots, November 1984 - Elections, Communications, Ethnicity - The Case for Federalism - PART 2 PUNJAB - Some People's Statistics: The Most Prosperous State - Revolutions: Green - Revolutions: Red - Revolutions: Industrial? - Two-and-a-half Rivers - Partition - Images and Categories - PART 3 SIKHS - Jats - Sikhism: 'We are neither Hindus nor Mussulmans' - Sacrifice - The Misl - Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1780-1839) - A Queer Position: The Sikhs and the British - The Akali Dal and the SGPC - Leadership and Partition - PART 4 INNOVATIONS - Underpinnings and Infrastructures - Education: The Cow is a Useful Animal - Reading the News and Making it - History-Making - Weapons: A Cottage Industry - Innovations and Values PART 5 POLITICS, 1947-77 - National Rules: Religion and Language - Nationalist Spirit: The Decline of the Fast - Sant Fateh Singh and the Rise of the Jats - Party and Faction - Emergency and Enforced Tranquility - PART 6 FACTION - Factions: Reliable Relatives - Punjab: Questions of Prestige - Resolutions from Anandpur Sahib - Bhindranwale: A University on the Move - SGPC: The Only Sure Stepping Stone - Politics: New-Style Sants, Old-Time Film Stars - Romantics Overseas: Are Sikhs a Nation? - PART 7 EXPLOSION - Foreign Hands - Indian Talks - Symbols and Violence - Slippery Slopes - Destroying an Institution: The Police - Who are the Extremists? - Storming the Golden Temple - PART 8 WHAT'S HAPPENING TO INDIA? THE TEST FOR FEDERALISM - Centralization: Pressures and Appearances - Centralization: The Needs of Party - President's Rule and the Constitution - The Decline of the Chief Minister - The Need for Federalism - New Rules? - Reasons for Hope - Notes - Select Bibliography - Index
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The mobile phone has been one of the most disruptive factors to come to India in modern times. This article aims to chalk out a framework for understanding the cell phone's all-encompassing social impact. The extent... more
The mobile phone has been one of the most disruptive factors to come to India in modern times. This article aims to chalk out a framework for understanding the cell phone's all-encompassing social impact. The extent of the change is huge. In 1987, India had 2.3 million phone connections (0.3% of its population). By January 2010, that number had gone
Research Interests: Business, Cultural History, Media Studies, New Media, Telecommunications, and 13 morePolitics, Media and Democracy, Political Economics, Social impact, India, Mobile telephony, History and archaeology, Radio Frequency, Language Culture and Communication, Mobile phone, Spectrum, Cell Phone, and Human Activity
Over the last decade India and Brazil implemented waste policy reforms to tackle the constraints of their waste management. This study compares those reforms using the methodological framework proposed by Wilson where waste policy evolves... more
Over the last decade India and Brazil implemented waste policy reforms to tackle the constraints of their waste management. This study compares those reforms using the methodological framework proposed by Wilson where waste policy evolves through a series of subsequent stages, depending on two aspects: local circumstances; and stakeholders’ groups. The current research is exploratory in its scope, adopting this method to describe, compare and evaluate both Indian and Brazilian cases, and also verifying how the model performs when applied to developing countries. The paper confirms Wilson’s conclusions, and adds a perception that in developing economies a special local circumstance is to be considered the point of departure, that is, the particular starting point of Wilson’s evolution. In addition, the research concludes that participation of diverse stakeholder groups throughout the political process is fundamental, and could be key to overcoming the risks of policy setbacks.
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This study identifies 11 issues that have inhibited the spread of a comprehensive sanitation programme. It emphasises the complexity of issues and helps avoid the facile targeting of the poor as deficient citizens, whose latrine practices... more
This study identifies 11 issues that have inhibited the spread of a comprehensive sanitation programme. It emphasises the complexity of issues and helps avoid the facile targeting of the poor as deficient citizens, whose latrine practices are viewed as a "primitive" source of social disorder and disease. Recognition that many factors are involved and interrelated might also serve as a warning against patchwork policies that disregard local context in their haste to proclaim another district an "open defecation free zone".
Research Interests:
The mobile phone has been one of the most disruptive factors to come to India in modern times. This article aims to chalk out a framework for understanding the cell phone's all-encompassing social impact. The extent... more
The mobile phone has been one of the most disruptive factors to come to India in modern times. This article aims to chalk out a framework for understanding the cell phone's all-encompassing social impact. The extent of the change is huge. In 1987, India had 2.3 million phone connections (0.3% of its population). By January 2010, that number had gone
Research Interests: Business, Cultural History, Media Studies, New Media, Telecommunications, and 13 morePolitics, Media and Democracy, Political Economics, Social impact, India, Mobile telephony, History and archaeology, Radio Frequency, Language Culture and Communication, Mobile phone, Spectrum, Cell Phone, and Human Activity
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We argue that the 2007 state elections in Uttar Pradesh (UP), India's largest state, were the first “mass mobile phone” elections in India. The paper charts the spectacular growth of the cheap cell phone in India and in Uttar Pradesh,... more
We argue that the 2007 state elections in Uttar Pradesh (UP), India's largest state, were the first “mass mobile phone” elections in India. The paper charts the spectacular growth of the cheap cell phone in India and in Uttar Pradesh, documents the organizational strengths of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and explains how a party once based on Dalit (ex-Untouchable, or Scheduled Caste) support was able to cooperate with Brahmins. In these processes the mobile phone acted as a remarkable “force multiplier” to the existing BSP organization and helped party workers to circumvent the general hostility of mainstream media. The paper does not contend that the mobile phone won the 2007 elections; rather, it argues that the BSP was able to exploit a potent new tool, ideally suited to poor people who often were limited in their ability to travel. The paper points to similarities with the Obama campaigns of 2008 and notes that though other political groups in India attempt to imitate the...
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The expansion of newspapers in Indian languages over the past 20 years is unique in history. This paper seeks to examine the potential social and political consequences of that growth by focusing on two Hindi-language newspapers and their... more
The expansion of newspapers in Indian languages over the past 20 years is unique in history. This paper seeks to examine the potential social and political consequences of that growth by focusing on two Hindi-language newspapers and their treatment of a few items of news and comment. Through such close analysis, the essay aims to show how McLuhan's ‘subliminal charge’ — the unconscious but overpowering effect of daily newspaper consumption — might work in practice. The essay illuminates the role of newspapers in shaping language, identity and a ‘public sphere’ in small-town and rural India —processes that have great consequences for India's political future.
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... by Robin Jeffrey ... In Kerala, the Catholic Church was outraged at interference with its power over its teachers and schools; Mannath Padmanabhan and the Nair Service Society were angered at not getting the concessions they expected... more
... by Robin Jeffrey ... In Kerala, the Catholic Church was outraged at interference with its power over its teachers and schools; Mannath Padmanabhan and the Nair Service Society were angered at not getting the concessions they expected from the government; and landowners ...
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... DAVID ARNOLD Flinders University of South Australia ROBIN JEFFREY Australian National University JAMES MANOR Yale University ... The background of Mannath Padmanabha Pillai, founder and for 40 years general secretary of the NSS,... more
... DAVID ARNOLD Flinders University of South Australia ROBIN JEFFREY Australian National University JAMES MANOR Yale University ... The background of Mannath Padmanabha Pillai, founder and for 40 years general secretary of the NSS, illustrates the problems which the ...
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The cheap mobile phone is arguably the most significant personal communications device in history. In India, where caste hierarchy has reinforced power for generations, the disruptive potential of the mobile phone is even more striking... more
The cheap mobile phone is arguably the most significant personal communications device in history. In India, where caste hierarchy has reinforced power for generations, the disruptive potential of the mobile phone is even more striking than elsewhere. The book probes the whole universe of the mobile phone from the contests of great capitalists and governments to control radio frequency spectrum to the ways ordinary people build the troublesome, addictive device into their daily lives. Matt Birkinshaw hopes the broad scope and rich empirical detail found in this book will prompt a range of further, narrower, investigations in its wake.
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The cheap mobile phone is probably the most significant personal communications device in history, and in India, where caste prejudice has reinforced power for generations, the mobile has proved even more disruptive than elsewhere. India... more
The cheap mobile phone is probably the most significant personal communications device in history, and in India, where caste prejudice has reinforced power for generations, the mobile has proved even more disruptive than elsewhere.
India had 35 million telephones in 2001, and only 4 million of them were mobiles. Ten years later, it had more than 800 million phone subscribers and more than 95 per cent were mobiles. In a decade, communications were transformed by a device that can be shared by fisherfolk in Kerala, boatmen in Banaras, great capitalists in Mumbai and power-wielding politicians and bureaucrats in New Delhi.
Village councils ban unmarried girls from having mobile phones. Families debate whether new brides should surrender them. Cheap mobile phones have become photo albums, music machines, data bases, radios and flashlights. Religious images and uplifting messages flood tens of millions of phones each day. Pornographers and criminals have found a tantalising new tool. In politics, organisations with cadres of true-believers exploit a resource infinitely more effective than telegrams, postcards and the printing press for carrying messages to workers, followers and voters.
The book probes the whole universe of the mobile phone — from the contests of great capitalists and governments to control radio frequency spectrum to the ways ordinary people build the troublesome, addictive device into their daily lives.
India had 35 million telephones in 2001, and only 4 million of them were mobiles. Ten years later, it had more than 800 million phone subscribers and more than 95 per cent were mobiles. In a decade, communications were transformed by a device that can be shared by fisherfolk in Kerala, boatmen in Banaras, great capitalists in Mumbai and power-wielding politicians and bureaucrats in New Delhi.
Village councils ban unmarried girls from having mobile phones. Families debate whether new brides should surrender them. Cheap mobile phones have become photo albums, music machines, data bases, radios and flashlights. Religious images and uplifting messages flood tens of millions of phones each day. Pornographers and criminals have found a tantalising new tool. In politics, organisations with cadres of true-believers exploit a resource infinitely more effective than telegrams, postcards and the printing press for carrying messages to workers, followers and voters.
The book probes the whole universe of the mobile phone — from the contests of great capitalists and governments to control radio frequency spectrum to the ways ordinary people build the troublesome, addictive device into their daily lives.