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#EPWConversations

Our #RepublicDay #TwitterTakeover with @glorious_gluten has begun!

For the next hour, she will be discussing the relationship between the #police, #State and the #law.

Join the conversation and send us your questions in the comments section.

 On #26January, 2021, the Indian republic completes 71 years since its formation; against the background of a global pandemic that has starkly exposed its fault lines. | @glorious_gluten
The 299 member #ConstituentAssembly was unique for there were 15 women (including a #Dalit woman Dakshini Velayudhan) who were voted to be a part of the
Committee and make their contribution to the building of the republic. #RepublicDay | @glorious_gluten
The #Constitution has also been described as an elite document borrowing heavily from the
Government of India Act, 1935 and heralded by the upper echelons of the country.

The judiciary, army, the police are repositories of this colonial legislation. @glorious_gluten
Those living on the margins have mediated the everyday life of Constitutionalism in the country bringing the document to life as during the Pathalgadi movement led by Adivasis in Jharkhand. | @glorious_gluten
The Indian #SupremeCourt once known as an activist Court given its liberal usage of the power of judicial review has increasingly evolved into an institution that has honoured the #Constitution only in the breach. | @glorious_gluten
The role of the police in Indian #democracy needs to be located within this context.

Over the last year, the omnipresence of the police in the functioning of the Indian democracy particularly in its response to the #COVID19 pandemic has become prominent. | @glorious_gluten
While being made the first point of response of the Indian State to the pandemic, this response has also been marred with instances of violence most notably the deaths of #JeyarajandBennix in police custody. | @glorious_gluten
Understanding the nature and structure of policing is key to examining the relationship between State, and the law in the world’s largest constitutional democracy.

I will examine two aspects of #policing: maintenance of law and order and surveillance. @glorious_gluten
It is crucial to examine and trace the trajectory of such an institution of policing, from its colonial roots of maintaining social control to its current role as an arbiter of law and order maintenance. |@glorious_gluten
India’s police force was set up by the #EastIndiaCompany to control and surveil over-colonised populations for political exploitation and economic appropriation. | @glorious_gluten
It is modelled after the Irish colonial paramilitary police.

The colonial state maintained ‘public order’ by policing populations whose behaviours it deemed unnatural and using vast surveillance powers to quell independence, labour and communist movements. | @glorious_gluten
Against a failure to control the population as a whole, the British government proceeded selectively against some social groups within the working class, who were identified as the ‘proper objects of policing’ upon a consensus built to make its job easier. | @glorious_gluten
This determination by the police regarding which communities are proper objects of policing derives its rationale from the #CasteSystem.

The #police have evolved into a system of casteist social control targeted at people from #Dalit, #Adivasi, #Bahujan and minority communities.
Under the #Constitution, police is a subject on the State list.

Therefore, each of the 29 states have their own police forces. The centre is also allowed to maintain its own police forces to assist the states with ensuring law and order. @glorious_gluten
It maintains seven central police forces and some other police organisations for specialised tasks such as intelligence gathering, investigation, research and record-keeping, and training. | @glorious_gluten
Some states have modelled their laws on the basis of a central law, the #PoliceAct, 1861.

States also have their police manuals detailing how #police of the state are organised, their roles and responsibilities, records that must be maintained, etc. @glorious_gluten
The #CriminalTribesAct (CTA), 1870 is a stark example of this.

This legislation characterised several nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes as hereditary criminals. | @glorious_gluten
This law was amended in 1911 further empowering the police reason to believe that the community is addicted to crime registration, taking fingerprints, report to headmen, police. @glorious_gluten
Ameya Bokil and I have argued about the oppressive nature of substantive criminal laws such as the WPA, the Indian Forest Act, 1927 (IFA), the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960 (PCA), excise acts, and anti-beggary laws.

This has now includes #CowSlaughter laws.
It is argued that the disparate impact of these laws on certain classes of people -- in particular on their freedom of trade and right to preferences of food -- are disproportionate and unconstitutional. | @glorious_gluten
Determining who deserves to be “policed” is a consequence of the discretionary function of policing.

Discretionary power within the police force is higher within the lower ranks of the police force given their proximity to the public. | @glorios_gluten
The #CriminalJusticeandPoliceAccountabilityProject (CPA Project) studied 34,000 arrest records and 500 FIRs filed in #MadhyaPradesh, India to understand the patterns of pandemic policing and locate the socio-economic profiles of the individuals policed. | @glorious_gluten
The consequent report Countermapping Pandemic Policing – Sanctioned Violence in Madhya Pradesh notes that the police exercised the wide discretionary powers arbitrarily and disproportionately criminalised #marginalisedcommunities. | @glorious_gluten
In the dataset studied, over 6,000 individuals were arrested solely for violating lockdown regulations.

Over 4,000 individuals were arrested for allegedly committing minor, bailable offences such as gambling, hurt and alcohol possession all victimless offences. @glorious_gluten
Another key aspect of #policing is #surveillance.

Much like its law and order function, bodies of marginalised communities are subjected to surveillance in different ways. @glorious_gluten
In MP, being considered a habitual offender is not contingent upon prior conviction for an offence if the police station house officer has “reasonable suspicion”. @glorious_gluten
Rule 411(4) of the MP Prison Manual defines a #habitualoffender as also being, “A member of #ScheduledTribes in the jurisdiction of the state government according to their discretion.” @glorious_gluten
Several bastis of Bhopal where DNT, Muslims and other marginalised communities reside in are routinely required to submit their fingerprints, and other biometric data.

This record is also utilized by the district administration to extern members of these communities.
Surveillance extends up to being required to submit an application for organizing a wedding along with the guest list.

In Ehsaan Nagar, a Pardhi basti, in Bhopal an entire wedding party including the bride and groom were detained on their wedding day for failing to do so.
These actions of the police have impinged the movement, trade, livelihood etc of these communities and the effect of thereby infringing upon the constitutional guarantee of #FundamentalRights. | @glorious_gluten
#CustodialRape was recognised by an Amendment to the IPC in 1983 following the #Mathura gangrape, an Adivasi woman by two policemen in custody.

The accused policemen were acquitted by the SC amidst much uproar by terming it an act of "passive submission and a peaceful affair."
In Bhopal, Indramal Bai, a Pardhi woman, immolated herself due to police harassment.

The Brahminical patriarchal nature of policing forms the undercurrent of the violence inflicted against DBA women. @glorious_gluten
There have been several attempts made to reform the #police.
In 2006, a senior police official, Prakash Singh, moved the #SupremeCourt through a public interest litigation. | @glorious_gluten
Over the last few years particularly #BlackLivesMatter movement has drawn attention to the racial inequality embedded within the American #CriminalJustice system which has propelled the discourse away from reform toward decarceration, defunding and abolition. @glorious_gluten
It is imperative to ask how far our quest for reforming the institution of policing will take us given its structural design to target #Bahujans. | @glorious_gluten
Moreover, it is necessary to interrogate if and where these ideas of carcerality lie along the spectrum of Constitutional morality. | @glorious_gluten

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Srinivasa Subramanian G
Srinivasa Subramanian ...
@saisrini129
Sharing one incident... After Modi's Trichy youth conference, the very next morning when police were clearing up their mini-control room, they found 5 strange boys who were roaming there with bags. When police enquired them "sir, we are from Subramaniapuram in Trichy.

Whatever political meeting or conference is held in this ground, we come here on the same night or morning hours to collect the Liquor bottles to sell in the scrap shop for 50 paisa to 1 rupee per bottle and we used to earn Rs 200 to Rs 400 on each such event.

Even in the last DMK meeting the very next day we collected around 1500 bottles. But for Modi's BJP meeting, we could not find even a single bottle in the whole ground. We are coming around and around and not a single bottle in any corner of the G Corner ground in Trichy,

we are much disappointed, sir!". Police seem were stunned and pleasantly surprised. This is what Modi magic does in this nation. Modi is the one who can lead our nation and make everyone prosper with hardwork in right direction and proper approach.

This funny but interesting anecdote was published by a statewide local daily Dinamalar. I have just translated and posting it here for rest of the nation; We should realise Modi is liked by every patriotic person in this nation especially by well educated,
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Why @BJP4Bengal Will Win #WestBengalElection2021
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This road is maintained by PWD, Government of West Bengal” is an omnipresent signboard that greets travellers in almost every nook and corner of the state.The region may change from Cooch Behar & Darjeeling in North Bengal

To Jhargram in Junglemahal and Kultali in Sunderban, but the signboard remains the same. After having travelled for almost 13,000 km in the state from October 2020 to Decem maber ority of the places the roads, especially in the interiors, are in bad shape.

This state of affairs is unfortunately true for the incumbent party too. It’s everywhere in the state, but mostly in pretty bad shape. Barring rare exceptions, the people’s impression of the local Trinamool leadership

everywhere falls in the same template. corrupt, rowdy and arrogant. On top of that, the fear of retribution by the incumbents is so strong that the line between the people’s dislike and their hate against the ruling party often gets blurred.

Severl respondents across the state narrated the way dissidents, opponents and anyone daring to question the prevailing corruption and upmanship on the ground are hounded systematically, which includes measures like physical attacks, filing of false cases and depriving them of
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हठयोगी...
@hathyogi31
#Thread on "Kashi (Varanasi), From Birth to Death and Death to Moksha."

Located on the left bank of the Ganga, Varanasi is one of the 7 holy cities of the Hindus. According to the Vamana Purana, two rivers named Varuna and Assi originated since the beginning of the timei

The name Varanasi originates from the two tributaries of the Ganges, the Varuna &the Assi, which flows at its northern & southern boundaries. The land lying between them was named 'Varanasi'. Its original name was derived from the word 'Kashi', 'Kaasha', which means brightness.

By the way, kashi is mentioned in many Vedic literatures. Kaushitaki Upanishad mentioned about the places like Kashyas and Videhas. Ajatashatru has been declared as the ruler of Kashi or Videha in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. Apart from this, Kashi &Videha are also mentioned in

Shankhayan & Boudhayan Srotasutra.

It also mentions about Kashi joining the Kosala after the independent state got destroyed. It is often referred as adjectives such as 'city of temples', 'religious capital of India', 'city of Shiva', 'city of lamps', 'city of knowledge' etc.

Famous American writer Mark Twain writes: " banaras is older than history, older than tradition, older even than legend and looks twice as old as all of them put together.”

In the Middle Ages it was a part of the Kannauj kingdom and later it was ruled by Pala kings of Bengal.
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Raghu Karnad
Raghu Karnad
@rkarnad
Since tweets by @rihanna and @miakhalifa are now considered 'external forces' and 'foreign interference', a small reminder... During the first Emergency, the Sangh's main line of dissent was through foreign press, governments, activists, and funding.
A short thread.

(2) The RSS has a fanciful mythology of its resistance within India, but there's not much evidence of it. @Swamy39 wrote in the year 2000 that ‘most of the leaders of the BJP/RSS had betrayed the struggle against the Emergency,’ offering ‘to work for the nation’s tormentors’...

(3) Instead it was overseas intelligentsia (from the Left) who gave the anti-Emergency movement early moral support. But Sangh leaders like Makarand Desai also lobbied @nytimes & other Western papers to editorialise on the silencing of dissent & capture of the judiciary in India.


(4) Following this, the US Congressional Committee on International Relations held hearings about human rights in India. Witnesses included Ram Jethmalani; Jagjit Singh Chohan, of the Int'l Council of Sikhs; and Leila Kabir Fernandes, married to union leader George Fernandes.


(5) Questions were also asked in the UK House of Commons – just as they were last year, in the US Congress, in the House of Commons, and in the European Parliament, in support of the anti-CAA Citizenship movement.
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Manu Sebastian
Manu Sebastian
@manuvichar
Many are upset at the bus attacks & Red Fort events during #FarmersProtest.
But have you paused to think what has brought about this situation? While magnifying impulsive actions by some protesters, do you miss to see State's systematic violence and erosion of rule of law?


If you are a believer in Constitution and legitimate processes, then the manner in which the Centre pushed the #FarmLaws & handled the #FarmersProstests should leave you distressed.

First, Centre brings these laws as Ordinances on subjects which are apparently in state list, through a colorable use of concurrent list. Principle of federalism negated, at least in spirit, if not in letter.

Then, bills are passed in Parliament without effective discussions.

No one can say for sure if the bills were actually passed in vote in Rajya Sabha. The whole process was brazenly dubious. The live telecast was stopped amid protests. Really shameful events.

So, lawful processes to address dissent undermined.
#FarmersProtest
#FarmLaws

Then some farm groups approach the Supreme Court raising some pertinent questions on constitutionality. Instead of considering legality, court ventures into political thicket by attempting mediation, that too with a hand-picked committee having only members supporting #FarmLaws .
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The ancient Indian kings called a head crown as a Mukut and it would mostly constitute of a golden ornamental headgear like an oval cap with gems.

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As it was considered that kings were appointment by the gods themselves. Example the kings of mewar considered themselves to be the ‘Diwan of eklingji')

But in most cases very few Mukut with halo effect have been found.

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Samudragupta in the gupta era coin. You can see the helmet like headwear on him.

Till gupta era the solid golden head wear was used in most days of the monarch.

But since the onset of 8th century it reduced in usage and was now used only as a ceremonial headwear.

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Whereas earlier the Maharaja had to wear the mukut whenever his court was in session.

Still mukut was being used prominently for ceremonial activities till recent times.

Maharaj Dahir of Sindh👇

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But as times past the style of headwear also changed.

The kings mostly wore turbans ordained with pearls and gems while rarely anyone wore a true Mukut after 16th century.

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This is a pretty valiant attempt to defend the "Feminist Glaciology" article, which says conventional wisdom is wrong, and this is a solid piece of scholarship. I'll beg to differ, because I think Jeffery, here, is confusing scholarship with "saying things that seem right".


The article is, at heart, deeply weird, even essentialist. Here, for example, is the claim that proposing climate engineering is a "man" thing. Also a "man" thing: attempting to get distance from a topic, approaching it in a disinterested fashion.


Also a "man" thing—physical courage. (I guess, not quite: physical courage "co-constitutes" masculinist glaciology along with nationalism and colonialism.)


There's criticism of a New York Times article that talks about glaciology adventures, which makes a similar point.


At the heart of this chunk is the claim that glaciology excludes women because of a narrative of scientific objectivity and physical adventure. This is a strong claim! It's not enough to say, hey, sure, sounds good. Is it true?
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Right, screw it. Here's a thread on *that* FBLive by Alex Cairnie about #Govanhill. Lets do a watch-through shall we? (Mind, I'm a resident of Govanhill, and a sociologist. I'm also 5'3, and a visibly queer woman so if half his claims are true I should be living in terror)

00:30: Welcomes viewers and uses points out that his videos are only getting attention b/c they're 'horrific'. Directs folk to his Youtube page. So already clout hunting.

1:08: "I've been warned to stay out of Govanhill. I'm a marked man" (proceeds to use a beanie as a disguise)

1:30 "Laughing and joking aside, here's somebodys front garden." Proceeds to show litter and claim its thrown from windows and this is 'common'. I know a handful of streets with litter issues like this, but its neither common nor unique to #govanhill and other deprived areas.

2:10 "Don't be under any illusion I'm only showing you the bad bits" - only shows you the bad bits.

3:45: He's had offers of help, but hes said no because hes not responsible for 'anybody elses safety' Good lord.

5:01: "Its not that bad. But its not all good either" -Correct

6:00: TW: child abuse - He starts claiming to have been contacted by a health professional and told about child abuse 'in the area'. Huge ethical issues here as the 'professional' who has 'been in the game a long time' is reporting to Facebook Dude and not authorities.
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Seth Abramson
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(MAJOR NOTE) The reason Manafort took over Trump's campaign in just 3 weeks despite being hired as a mere delegate counter is that ROGER STONE initiated a whisper campaign against Corey Lewandowski. That campaign started...days after Manafort returned from meeting with WikiLeaks.

2/ Stone and Manafort are longtime business partners; we'd expect Manafort to tell Stone what Assange told him, and for him to expect Stone to then pressure the campaign not only to hire him but quickly elevate him.

And who was Stone in touch with at the campaign? Trump himself.

3/ I bet you Manafort's late March emails are very interesting and that some of them are to/from his longtime business associate Roger Stone. And I bet Roger Stone's late March phone calls are very interesting and that some of them are to/from his longtime friend Donald Trump.

4/ At the end of March 2016, Trump suddenly convenes a NatSec meeting. At that meeting he directs his NatSec team to change the RNC platform in July to benefit Putin. Who later takes credit for that change?

Paul Manafort's business associate, Kremlin agent Konstantin Kilimnick.

5/ Why did Donald Trump suddenly convene a NatSec meeting 3 days after he finally hired Manafort? Why did he issue a pro-Kremlin directive at that meeting that Manafort's camp would later take credit for? What did Manafort tell Trump in the days leading up to that NatSec meeting?
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Strange things are afoot at the Circle K. Let’s sort it out.

[THREAD]


1/ Two nights ago, Rupert Murdoch called on Mitch McConnell, after hours. Since then, two Fox News-related Twitter accounts have not tweeted.

2/ Trump fired Sessions on Wednesday, replacing him with human dildo/Putin collaborator Matt Whitaker. Sessions had asked to stay until Friday and was told to leave immediately. So there was clearly some urgency to install the dildo...er, puppet.

3/ The Democrats won the SHIT out of the Midterms. Come January, the House check on Trump will leave him so hobbled, he’ll be like the dude from Misery.

4/ Trump went to Paris, ostensibly for an Armistice Day centennial event. He skipped the event, and much of the dinner tonight, because of “weather,” which everyone seems to agree is a bullshit excuse.
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