The germany imc had similar nazi post problems
(as does almost any political website in germany that allows free posting)

In the end they switched to a format that will not publish newswire items unless they have been cleared.

Sounds like something similar is needed here.

The reason is clearly seen if you find out
how many in India have internet access?
who can afford to browse through IMC news wire?

He answer lies along the line of the priviledged few in India have internet access even when the infrastructure reaches them.

It is the short sightedness of the IMC to be hasty and impose IMC everywhere globally.

One cannot simply compare Germany with India. In India there are people starving to death not in Germany.

Bottom line : IMC in its current model is suitable for economically develop countries to ensure balanced participation...sad but reality

Radio is by far the better medium. For the joberg earth summit there was the largest grass roots community radio project ever seen - utterly amazing and far better than a few webpages with NGO posts. It is certainly a relevant issue in terms of net access.

Thank you for your excellent advice. I am an Indian and live between the UK and India - next going to India in October for six months. Also, I have good internet access. I am willing to help in any way, but the entire India Indymedia organisation appears to have collapse and the void has been filled by fascists spreading violent hatred - death threats, incitement to murder Muslims, threats of rape against female individuals and anti-Pakistan rhetoric. This would not be tolerated in any other IMC.

I have tried to get in contact with India IMC to help support them, but have had no response. I have looked through the group's email archives and it appears there has been no activity since June and inquiries from those interested in getting involved have gone unanswered.

Is there anyone in the international IMC who could intervene and pull the organisation together? Reviving Indymedia in India - the world's second largest country - is surely an important priority, particularly with the march of religious extremist fascism. India needs Indymedia more than ever - will anyone listen?

India having been raped by the westerners for centuries and then partioned so artificially so that such internal feuding will occur itself is one reason for IMC not to get too entangled.
You see IMC has so much to do in the west where it originates and belongs.
The west as it stands now is the cause and sustainer of most of the world's evils.
Especially IMC-UK should stay out of its former colonies at a time when we have gone blatantly crazy once again.

Hopefully the time will come when there can be a better balanced world when IMC will not stand out in getting involved in Indian internals.
Hopefully indians will see the pathetic state of affairs and sort it out.

What is definitely clear is IMC should not and could not barge into India or similar situation dictating terms.

What will be nice is for indians to come over to IMC-UK in this well connected era and see for themselves what our mess is like and learn from our mistakes.

What is needed is greater editorial control. When a group like India Indymedia looks as if it has fallen apart and replaced by fascists, someone should intervene and put it right. Perhaps there is post-colonial guilt about appearing too intrusive into the affairs of a collective in the developing world. Perhaps foreigners don't understand the politics enough to identify the problems. However, India Indymedia is a potentially valuable resources for progressives. I do ot accept the idea that there are too few people with internet access in India to make India IMC viable. India is far more sophisticated than you think, particularly in cities such as Bangalore where internet access is very high. Indians don't all live up trees.

Ganesh,

So you think this is the post colonial era?

Bangalore's IT industry (80% of which is the backend to the capitalist system's needs in the west) induced scenario is a fair comparision with the rest of India?

The situation as it stands now is the not one Indic language is fully supported/implemented through Unbicode specs and any operating system leave alone input methods etc.
The need to use English itself should speak volumes for the pathetic state of equal IT access in India.
True India is progressing fast on these aspects but nowhere close to equal representation in electronic forums.

I do not think Indian lives in treees instead I am sure that they have a rich cultural heritage revolvign around a message of peace and harmony and it is not represented fairly by the english speaking minority leave alone the IT literate ones.

If I follow your logic, I should not write anything as I am in a minority of literate people in India. As for the English language, it remains the lingua franca in India, taught to poor children in missionary schools. There are scores of local languages and many prefer to use English instead of Hindi - certainly, you will not get a single Tamil willing to speak Hindi and Hindi speakers cannot understand Tamil. So English is the right medium for Indian media.

As for the relevance of IT to Indian political activism, I understand your belief that only a minority access the internet. But many full-time political activists have internet access. I know as I have set up media projects for the most oppressed and impoverished people of India. The internet is a more democratic medium than the press and surely Indymedia, if properly organised, is the most democratic of all. The internet has had a great impact on Indian politics, with investigations by Tehelka.com revealing top-level corruption and Sabrang.com, backed by Booker Prize winner Arundhuti Roy, making waves in the fight against Hindutva fascism. Indymedia India could be up there at the forefront of the progressive movement, but instead it has been hijacked by fascists. I hope that the global indymedia assists in bringing India IMC back into the fold.

Please do not take things personally unless you are truly one under priviledged Indian who is sidelined from the decision making process.

The logic behind wha tI was pointing out is simple.
You are correct in saying that English is the lingua franca in current India especially as in the south Hindi is not taken up as much.
Now your argument that a Tamil has to talk to an Hindi speaker through english is flawed.
India has existed for centuries without the brutal colonisation by the English and may I ask how the different cultures got by developing such rich culture that we are all aware of?

Hegemony of english sidelines almost a quarter of a billion in India and it is a simple fact. This is so true when it comes tom higher education opportunities.

How many percent of the population is served by misonary or matriculation schools?
Is it not a sad case that these schools and colleges still revolve around colonial creation (ports to loot the colony (Bombay, Calcutta, Madras) or the 'winter retreats' and colonial provincial centres. The villager (remember the Mahatma and his village based economic theories) is ignored to the point that even the mother tongue is no more developed properly.

I would like to say that before the British there was no concept of an Indian nation state with a single language, currency or religion, although there was imperialism from the Muslim Moghul rulers. The nation state is a European invention that has spread with imperialism and it is what makes modern India the nation it is. English is a part of our culture and endures.

Who are we to impose Hindi on those from Tamil Nadu or Orissa, who do not even share the same script let alone the same language? Tamils, who are mostly indigenous Dravidians, regard Hindi with perhaps more bitterness than English. And what of Urdu, Punjabi and Tegelu?

I cannot understand these languages and if I wanted to communicate in all languages of India, I would spend all my time studying instead of doing useful things. The fact is that this is not an ideal world. English might not be from India, but whether you like it or not, English is widely spoken, even among the poor. This year, an attempt to enforce the Bengali language in Kolkata, a city which is mostly populated by non-Bengalis, and push out the English language has been a complete disaster as no-one can read the signs any more. What is the use of this?

If you have been to India then you would know how English pervades our lives, even though our nation has been free of the British for 56 years. Colonialism is part of our history and heritage and with it has come English - as well as chillis, tomatoes and potatoes, which came from Americas but are a part of our cuisine. Hence the need for an English language India IMC. Perhaps one day we will have an IMC in Telegu or Punjabi, but first we must build a properly organised IMC for all-India.

IMC in native languages will not solve anything.
You are missing my point here.
It is not just a superficial deed like the IMC geeks conjuring up some software code in localised form that is going to solve the problem here.
It has to be the case that equal opportunities exist for everyone in communicating their views.

English and IT/internet access are big hurdles for the *average* indian at the moment and if you did not know this I suggest you go to India and importantly travel around this largely rural country.
It is quite common for many so called priviledged indians to not leave the cities that they are accustomed to and pass judgements. I hope this explains your insistence that most indians can express themselves in English. Habving few words in the vocabulary is not knowing english for the task we are discussign about -- get the fascist out of IMC india.

Again this task should not be controlled by some IMC'ista form the west who has more than his/her fair amount of shit to handle.

No hard feelings just want to express myself clearly.

I would be very interested in bouncing ideas off you. It is always important to have a critical eye on things. Please contact me by email, so we can continue this discussion off-line - perhaps you can contribute something in terms of ideas. Need Indymedia simply be a privilege for the on-line few? Do you have ideas of how to expand democratic media in South Asia, where it is often impractical to start grassroots newspaper ventures? I am building up a critical mass of people in India and the diaspora to perhaps take over the administration of India IMC and it would be good to have some independent minds to focus us. I look forward to hearing from you.

Ganesh

 ganeshmukti@yahoo.ie