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Pramod K Nayar

'I Sing the Body Biometric'

Surveillance and Biological Citizenship
Vol - XLVII No. 32, August 11, 2012 | Pramod K Nayar

The Aadhaar or Unique Identifi cation Numbers initiative of the Government of India presages a new model of biological citizenship as much as it announces the arrival of India as a technological society, one where social problems such as meagre public distribution systems and primary health services are solved through technical means. Through a series of propositions about the increased use of biometrics for identifi cation purposes, the cultures of surveillance that centre in and around the body are explored.

Subalternity and Translation: The Cultural Apparatus

Vol - XLVI No. 09, February 26, 2011 | Pramod K Nayar

What happens when we frame human rights within a cultural context and not just a juridicalpolitical one? This article argues that the cultural apparatus of human rights requires English and translation. This in no way undermines the mother tongue, the vernacular or the local; instead the language of the other enables us to engage with the other so that we reflect upon ourselves.

WikiLeaks, the New Information Cultures and Digital Parrhesia

Vol - XLV No. 52, December 25, 2010 | Pramod K Nayar

How does one understand WikiLeaks, which has not only redefined media ethics but has also redefined what we understand as media cultures?

Reluctant Yet Courageous Rebel

Vol - XLIV No. 10, March 07, 2009 | Pramod K Nayar

The contention that neo-religious selfassertion is not defined by society is surprising. The introduction to the photographs makes an unnecessary point about Kerala women not covering their heads and bodies unlike other parts of the country.

The Sublime Raj

Vol - XXXIX No. 34, August 21, 2004 | Pramod K Nayar

Early English descriptions of the Indian landscape are infused with aesthetics and the colonial ideology. Ideas of what was 'sublime' helped travellers articulate specific colonial themes. But in the period 1750-1820, there was a rhetorical transformation of the Indian landscape from a site of sublime desolation and danger to potential improvement. The negotiation of the landscape by the English traveller, as this article demonstrates by examining writings from various genre in this period, was marked by three 'moments' or phases, that of self-preservation, then affirmation and finally through acts of self-affirmation when the traveller moves from the threatened to the safe.