Description

This year, the annual Sarai Reader looks at ‘Acts’ – at instruments of legislation, at things within and
outside the law, and at ‘acts’ – as different ways of ‘doing’ things in society and culture.
Several essays echo and complement themes that have emerged in earlier readers. Piracy,
borders, surveillance, claims to authority and entitlement, the language of expertise, the
legal regulation of sexual behaviour and trespasses of various kinds have featured
prominently in previous Readers. This collection foregrounds these issues in a way we hope
can make a series of coherent but autonomous and interrelated arguments.Produced and Designed at the Sarai Media Lab, Delhi, India

Editors: Monica Narula, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Jeebesh Bagchi + Geert Lovink
Guest Editor: Lawrence Liang
Associate Editor: Smriti Vohra
Translations: Shveta Sarda

Editorial Collective: Monica Narula, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Ravi Sundaram,
Ravi S. Vasudevan, Awadhendra Sharan, Jeebesh Bagchi + Geert Lovink

Design: Mrityunjay Chatterjee
Associate Design: Gauri Bajaj
Design Coordinator: Monica Narula
Cover Design: Gauri BajajPREFACE – vi

ARGUMENTS – 1
Invitation – Sarai Reader Editorial Collective – 2
Porous Legalities and Avenues of Participation – Lawrence Liang – 6
“…Bolti Band (SILENCED)!” – Clifton D’ Rozario – 18
Lepers, Witches and Infidels & It’s a Bug’s Life – Francesca da Rimini – 26
Rested – Colette Mazabrard – 39

DISPUTATIONS – 45
Of Butchers and Policemen: Law, Justice and Economies of Anxiety –
Gunalan Nadarajan – 46
Down by Law: A Critique for the 21st Century – Alexander Karschnia – 57
‘New’ Delhi: Fashioning an Urban Environment through Science and Law –
Awadhendra Sharan – 69
Improbablevoices.net: An Improbable Monument to Witnessing and the Ethics of Trespass –
Sharon Daniel – 78

TRESPASSES – 95
The Discovery of the Fifth World: Stealth Countries and Logo Nations –
Daniel van der Velden, Tina Clausmeyer, Vinca Kruk, Adriaan Mellegers
(Meta Haven Project) – 96
Transcoding Sovereignty: Naked Bandit/Here, Not Here/White Sovereign – KR + CF – 111
SMS to Passport – Vishwajyoti Ghosh – 115
The Strange Case of Qays Al Kareem – Tripta Wahi – 123
Marginalia – Kai Friese – 129
On Smugglers, Pirates and Aroma Makers – Ursula Biemann – 145
Sponge Borders – Guido Cimadomo + Pilar Martínez Ponce – 150
Notes on the Disappeared: Towards a Visual Language of Resistance –
Chitra Ganesh + Mariam Ghani – 154
Dreams and Disguises, As Usual – Raqs Media Collective – 162

HACKS – 176
Trespasses of the State: Ministering to Theological Dilemmas through the Copyright/Trademark – Naveeda Khan – 178
Harmony or Discord? TRIPS, China, and Overlapping Sovereignties – Shujen Wang – 189
Innovating Piracy: The Bare Act of Stealing, and Shaping the Future – Menso Heus – 202
Is Hacking Illegal? – Yuwei Lin + David Beer – 205
Three Proposals for a Real Democracy: Information-Sharing to a Different Tune –
Brian Holmes – 215
Roots Culture: Free Software Vibrations “inna Babylon” – Armin Medosch – 222

ENCROACHMENTS – 241
Touts, Pirates and Ghosts – Solomon Benjamin – 242
Daily Journey – Satyajit Pande – 255
Complicating the City: Media Itineraries – Media Researchers @ Sarai – 258
Begum Samru and the Security Guard – Anand Vivek Taneja – 287
My Driving Master: A Story of Everyday Trespasses – Zainab Bawa – 297
Naye Qanoon (New Laws) – 301

ANNOTATIONS – 305
Vis-à-Visage – I. Helen Jilavu – 306
Cybermohalla Logs/Acts/Texts – CM Labs @ LNJP-DP-NM – 308

NEGOTIATIONS – 323
The Act of Leisure – Iram Ghufran + Taha Mehmood – 325
Surveillance, Performance, Self-Surveillance: Interview with Jill Magid –
Geert Lovink – 339
Living Between Laws – Ninad Pandit – 348
Negotiating Territory – Ateya Khorakiwala – 354

RECORDS – 359
Tis Hazari Diaries – Chander Nigam – 360
Bare Acts and Collective Explorations: The MKSS Experience with the Right to Information – Preeti Sampat + Nikhil Dey – 385

TRIALS – 397
Zimbabwe’s ‘New Clothes’: Identity and Power Among Displaced Farm Workers – Amy R. West + Blair Rutherford – 398
Standardised, Packaged, Ready for Consumption – Ravi Agarwal – 412
The Act of Instruction – Jan Ritsema – 420

VIOLATIONS – 427
Womanhood Laid Bare: How Katherine Mayo and Manoda Devi Challenged Indian Public Morality – Alice Albinia – 428
Literature and the Limits of Law: Crime, Guilt and Agency in Premchand’s Ghaban –
Ulka S. Anjaria – 437
The Honourable Murder: The Trial of Kawas Maneckshaw Nanavati – Aarti Sethi – 444
Judicial Extract – 454
Representing a Woman’s Story: Explicit Film and the Efficacy of Censorship in Japan – Hikari Hori – 457
The Queer Case of Section 377 – Siddharth Narrain – 466

ASSAULTS – 471
“For God’s Sake, Be Objective!” – Somnath Batabyal – 472
Another 9/11, Another Act of Terror: The ‘Embedded Disorder’ of the AFSPA –
A. Bimol Akoijam – 481
Warporn Warpunk! Autonomous Videopoesis in Wartime – Matteo Pasquinelli – 492
‘First, Do No Harm…’: Ensuring Humanitarian Military Interventions –
Bikram Jeet Batra – 500
War Cake – Linda F. Beekman – 511

DISSENSIONS – 515
The Law of the Mother: Soldiers’ Mothers and the Post-Soviet Army –
Irina Aristarkhova – 516
Naked Protest and the Politics of Personalism – Isaac Souweine – 526
Analytical World Statistics Wall Chart, 2003 – Louise Kolff – 537
A Comparative Anatomy of Post-Mortem Acts – Smriti Vohra – 540

ALT/OPTION – 551
The Accidental Activist – Fredrik Svensk + Kristoffer Gansing – 552
‘Our’chitecture – Jayson Claude – 559
Sex Workers’ Manifesto – Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee, Kolkata – 564
Bare Wiring – Sophea Lerner – 572

Notes on Contributors – 574
Image and Photo Credits – 581