Raminder Kaur - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Raminder Kaur
An accident in which six workers received burn injuries, three of them severely, occurred on 14 M... more An accident in which six workers received burn injuries, three of them severely, occurred on 14 May 2014 at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) which is under the last phase of commissioning in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, South India. The Press Information Bureau of the Government of India states that the reactor was on a maintenance shut down and that the workers were repairing a valve at the time of the accident at 12.10 on 14 May, 2014. According to the Southern Regional Load Distribution Centre (SRLDC), the reactor was on a forced shut down since 14.36 on 12 May due to tripping of the main feed-water pump. At the time of the accident, the reactor was critical, and hence no maintenance activity is possible. The incident on 14 May was in fact an accident in the feed-water pipeline. It is an irony of history that this accident began on 9 May 2014, a day after the Supreme Court of India "dismissed the petition to stall the commissioning of the plant, expressing s...
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2021
viXra, 2013
Counterfeit equipment is becoming a major threat to nuclear safety globally. The Kudankulam Nucle... more Counterfeit equipment is becoming a major threat to nuclear safety globally. The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) in India housing two VVER-1000 reactors, imported from Russia is being delayed because of counterfiet, substandard and obsolete equitpment. The polar crane, the limb of the reactor, is defective as its hoisting capacity is less than 80% of its nameplate capacity. The crane is used for installing the equipment inside the reactor building and also for removing spent fuel. The contract said that there will be no weld in the beltline of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV). The received vessels have two circumferential welds on the beltline. RPV, the heart of the reactor is irreplaceable and hence determines the life of the reactor. RPV and polar crane are safety grade equipment. The core-damage frequency (CDF) of the reactor in the contract was 10−7 reactor-years, while the supplied reactor has a CDF of 10−5 reactor-years. Two units of generator transformers were receive...
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2019
Adventure Comics and Youth Cultures in India, 2018
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2020
Two signal events have had a global impact during the time it has taken to produce this issue: th... more Two signal events have had a global impact during the time it has taken to produce this issue: the global COVID-19 pandemic that began spiking between late 2019 in China and early 2020 in Italy, and the spread of protests against state violence on black and brown bodies in the United States and elsewhere. The latter events were sparked by the May 25, 2020 videotaped killing of George Floyd inMinneapolis by a police officer casually kneeling on his neck and prone body for eight minutes and forty-six seconds. It echoed similar documented episodes of police violence and chokeholds before this event, and sparked the reporting of many other undocumented ones. Coming as it did on amajorAmerican holiday, and at a time in whichmedia consumption was heightened by COVID-19-related shelter-in-place orders in many states—and in which information was emerging about the health disparities in this disease’s impact—this event catalyzed a response that continues unabated at the time of this writing,...
Chapter 8 hones in on political explosions around the village of Idinthakarai that, from 2011, be... more Chapter 8 hones in on political explosions around the village of Idinthakarai that, from 2011, became the nucleus of the anti-nuclear movement in south India. Living only about a kilometre from the plant, village lives, livelihoods, and environments were irrevocably marred by the prospect of radiation burdens. We consider peoples’ role in jettisoning the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy as a force to be reckoned with that reached national and transnational circuits. As they waged non-violence from this village, on the one hand, a ‘university without walls’ was created, and on the other, an ‘open-air jail’ for many of the inhabitants who could not venture out for fear of arrest. Through their fast-track learning at the blunt end of nuclear politics, women rose to the challenge as ‘organic intellectuals’. Despite patriarchal convention, they became expert analysts and spokespersons on several subjects that enabled them to pierce the smokescreens of the nuclear state.
Chapter 11 reviews the history and legacy of the people’s movement around Kudankulam while provid... more Chapter 11 reviews the history and legacy of the people’s movement around Kudankulam while providing a summary of the book’s contents. It ends with a focus on People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) convenors’ entry into electoral politics in 2014. S.P. Udayakumar, Michael Pushparayan and Father Michael Pandian Jesuraj made a reluctant decision to partake in state elections as single-issue candidates for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Lok Sabha polls. AAP was an emergent power with the main aim to eradicate corruption in Indian politics, and was pitched against the mighty weight of Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. Key AAP figures Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan had earlier visited PMANE in Idinthakarai in 2012 to show their solidarity as well as enlist their support. The chapter considers why the electoral route was adopted, then exited, the risks the protagonists undertook once outside of Idinthakarai, and what remains of eco-friendly and demos-centric movem...
Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, 2020
When compared to the bombast of nuclear tests, nuclear submarines come with the relatively quiet ... more When compared to the bombast of nuclear tests, nuclear submarines come with the relatively quiet fantasy of victory-to-come against neighbouring nuclear adversaries. Such political expressions are making their mark in Indian popular culture that hitherto had little commentary to offer on submarines. Outlets such as film and digital media on submarines rest on an aporia that resonates across the pleats and folds of secrecy and publicity: there is a felt need to keep covert underwater vessels under wraps, yet also an irrepressible desire to glorify the technological achievement and political posturings enabled by thesecond strike capability of a nuclear armed and powered submarine. Highlighting the tensile allure of both stealth and spectacle, the article considers the ways submarines make a mark in Indian audio-visual and digital media alongside the affective resonance of submarines more widely. By understanding their hegemonic dynamics, we can begin to raise questions about the ongo...
Chapter 2 grounds the study in an exploration of the ecological, material, and social contours of... more Chapter 2 grounds the study in an exploration of the ecological, material, and social contours of the region. It focuses on the backstories of Kudankulam as the site for a nuclear plant and the spaces of criticality that were generated. The formidable presence of the nuclear plant, visual, material and discursive spawned a range of reactions that spanned from intrigue to ambivalence to resistance. With an overview of ‘hot spots’ in Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli Districts, the prospect of more radioactivity applies not just to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant but also to high levels of background radiation in peninsular India, and the mining of sand for atomic minerals particularly for alternative sources of nuclear fuel by way of thorium. Along the way, we assess the repercussions of new hierarchies with the migrant middle class of nuclear employees and the entrenchment of old ones along caste-communal lines.
For this Currents section, we have called upon anthropologists across the global South and North ... more For this Currents section, we have called upon anthropologists across the global South and North in the attempt to mainstream the long overdue issue of decolonizing ethnographies. On the one hand, movements for ethnic/racial equality across the world have made this task more and more pressing. On the other, reactionary forces have tried to suppress such moves alongside critical race theorization—an integral part of decolonizing—as unnecessary and even racist. Based in Brazil, Kenya, India, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States, contributors consider the decolonizing of ethnographies in terms of three overlapping areas: (i) ontologies and epistemologies that redress metanarratives and the history of ethnoracial occlusions and exclusions; (ii) social positions, approaches, and methods in terms of how we engage with other researchers, research participants, and students; and (iii) theoretical developments, representations, and effects in terms of how we present ethnograp...
Acknowledgments 1. Between Sedition and Seduction: Thinking Censorship in South Asia William Mazz... more Acknowledgments 1. Between Sedition and Seduction: Thinking Censorship in South Asia William Mazzarella and Raminder Kaur 2. Iatrogenic Religion and Politics Christopher Pinney 3. Making Sense of the Cinema in Late Colonial India William Mazzarella 4. The Limits of Decency and the Decency of Limits: Censorship and the Bombay Film Industry Tejaswini Ganti 5. Anxiety, Failure, and Censorship in Indian Advertising Angad Chowdhry 6. Nuclear Revelations Raminder Kaur 7. Specters of Macaulay: Blasphemy, the Indian Penal Code, and Pakistan's Postcolonial Predicament Asad Ali Ahmed 8. After the Massacre: Secrecy, Disbelief, and the Public Sphere in Nepal Genevieve Lakier List of Contributors Index
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory
The Currents section foregrounds the work of Indian scholars who examine the ramifications of sta... more The Currents section foregrounds the work of Indian scholars who examine the ramifications of state responses and counterresponses regarding the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in December 2019. This amendment to the Constitution of India granted citizenship to persecuted minorities from three nearby countries—namely, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan—but not to those who were Muslim. The act brought into question not just the issue of barring certain refugees to the country but also the relationship of India’s minorities with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party that is at the helm of a Hindu right-wing wave. The contributions focus on the implications of the amendments and the protests against them for minority and/or Muslim identities through a combination of historical, autoethnographic, ethnographic, media, and theoretical perspectives in the midst of growing religio-political communalization in the subcontinent.
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory
An accident in which six workers received burn injuries, three of them severely, occurred on 14 M... more An accident in which six workers received burn injuries, three of them severely, occurred on 14 May 2014 at the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) which is under the last phase of commissioning in Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu, South India. The Press Information Bureau of the Government of India states that the reactor was on a maintenance shut down and that the workers were repairing a valve at the time of the accident at 12.10 on 14 May, 2014. According to the Southern Regional Load Distribution Centre (SRLDC), the reactor was on a forced shut down since 14.36 on 12 May due to tripping of the main feed-water pump. At the time of the accident, the reactor was critical, and hence no maintenance activity is possible. The incident on 14 May was in fact an accident in the feed-water pipeline. It is an irony of history that this accident began on 9 May 2014, a day after the Supreme Court of India "dismissed the petition to stall the commissioning of the plant, expressing s...
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2021
viXra, 2013
Counterfeit equipment is becoming a major threat to nuclear safety globally. The Kudankulam Nucle... more Counterfeit equipment is becoming a major threat to nuclear safety globally. The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) in India housing two VVER-1000 reactors, imported from Russia is being delayed because of counterfiet, substandard and obsolete equitpment. The polar crane, the limb of the reactor, is defective as its hoisting capacity is less than 80% of its nameplate capacity. The crane is used for installing the equipment inside the reactor building and also for removing spent fuel. The contract said that there will be no weld in the beltline of the reactor pressure vessel (RPV). The received vessels have two circumferential welds on the beltline. RPV, the heart of the reactor is irreplaceable and hence determines the life of the reactor. RPV and polar crane are safety grade equipment. The core-damage frequency (CDF) of the reactor in the contract was 10−7 reactor-years, while the supplied reactor has a CDF of 10−5 reactor-years. Two units of generator transformers were receive...
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2019
Adventure Comics and Youth Cultures in India, 2018
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory, 2020
Two signal events have had a global impact during the time it has taken to produce this issue: th... more Two signal events have had a global impact during the time it has taken to produce this issue: the global COVID-19 pandemic that began spiking between late 2019 in China and early 2020 in Italy, and the spread of protests against state violence on black and brown bodies in the United States and elsewhere. The latter events were sparked by the May 25, 2020 videotaped killing of George Floyd inMinneapolis by a police officer casually kneeling on his neck and prone body for eight minutes and forty-six seconds. It echoed similar documented episodes of police violence and chokeholds before this event, and sparked the reporting of many other undocumented ones. Coming as it did on amajorAmerican holiday, and at a time in whichmedia consumption was heightened by COVID-19-related shelter-in-place orders in many states—and in which information was emerging about the health disparities in this disease’s impact—this event catalyzed a response that continues unabated at the time of this writing,...
Chapter 8 hones in on political explosions around the village of Idinthakarai that, from 2011, be... more Chapter 8 hones in on political explosions around the village of Idinthakarai that, from 2011, became the nucleus of the anti-nuclear movement in south India. Living only about a kilometre from the plant, village lives, livelihoods, and environments were irrevocably marred by the prospect of radiation burdens. We consider peoples’ role in jettisoning the People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy as a force to be reckoned with that reached national and transnational circuits. As they waged non-violence from this village, on the one hand, a ‘university without walls’ was created, and on the other, an ‘open-air jail’ for many of the inhabitants who could not venture out for fear of arrest. Through their fast-track learning at the blunt end of nuclear politics, women rose to the challenge as ‘organic intellectuals’. Despite patriarchal convention, they became expert analysts and spokespersons on several subjects that enabled them to pierce the smokescreens of the nuclear state.
Chapter 11 reviews the history and legacy of the people’s movement around Kudankulam while provid... more Chapter 11 reviews the history and legacy of the people’s movement around Kudankulam while providing a summary of the book’s contents. It ends with a focus on People’s Movement Against Nuclear Energy (PMANE) convenors’ entry into electoral politics in 2014. S.P. Udayakumar, Michael Pushparayan and Father Michael Pandian Jesuraj made a reluctant decision to partake in state elections as single-issue candidates for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the Lok Sabha polls. AAP was an emergent power with the main aim to eradicate corruption in Indian politics, and was pitched against the mighty weight of Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. Key AAP figures Arvind Kejriwal and Prashant Bhushan had earlier visited PMANE in Idinthakarai in 2012 to show their solidarity as well as enlist their support. The chapter considers why the electoral route was adopted, then exited, the risks the protagonists undertook once outside of Idinthakarai, and what remains of eco-friendly and demos-centric movem...
Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament, 2020
When compared to the bombast of nuclear tests, nuclear submarines come with the relatively quiet ... more When compared to the bombast of nuclear tests, nuclear submarines come with the relatively quiet fantasy of victory-to-come against neighbouring nuclear adversaries. Such political expressions are making their mark in Indian popular culture that hitherto had little commentary to offer on submarines. Outlets such as film and digital media on submarines rest on an aporia that resonates across the pleats and folds of secrecy and publicity: there is a felt need to keep covert underwater vessels under wraps, yet also an irrepressible desire to glorify the technological achievement and political posturings enabled by thesecond strike capability of a nuclear armed and powered submarine. Highlighting the tensile allure of both stealth and spectacle, the article considers the ways submarines make a mark in Indian audio-visual and digital media alongside the affective resonance of submarines more widely. By understanding their hegemonic dynamics, we can begin to raise questions about the ongo...
Chapter 2 grounds the study in an exploration of the ecological, material, and social contours of... more Chapter 2 grounds the study in an exploration of the ecological, material, and social contours of the region. It focuses on the backstories of Kudankulam as the site for a nuclear plant and the spaces of criticality that were generated. The formidable presence of the nuclear plant, visual, material and discursive spawned a range of reactions that spanned from intrigue to ambivalence to resistance. With an overview of ‘hot spots’ in Kanyakumari and Tirunelveli Districts, the prospect of more radioactivity applies not just to the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant but also to high levels of background radiation in peninsular India, and the mining of sand for atomic minerals particularly for alternative sources of nuclear fuel by way of thorium. Along the way, we assess the repercussions of new hierarchies with the migrant middle class of nuclear employees and the entrenchment of old ones along caste-communal lines.
For this Currents section, we have called upon anthropologists across the global South and North ... more For this Currents section, we have called upon anthropologists across the global South and North in the attempt to mainstream the long overdue issue of decolonizing ethnographies. On the one hand, movements for ethnic/racial equality across the world have made this task more and more pressing. On the other, reactionary forces have tried to suppress such moves alongside critical race theorization—an integral part of decolonizing—as unnecessary and even racist. Based in Brazil, Kenya, India, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States, contributors consider the decolonizing of ethnographies in terms of three overlapping areas: (i) ontologies and epistemologies that redress metanarratives and the history of ethnoracial occlusions and exclusions; (ii) social positions, approaches, and methods in terms of how we engage with other researchers, research participants, and students; and (iii) theoretical developments, representations, and effects in terms of how we present ethnograp...
Acknowledgments 1. Between Sedition and Seduction: Thinking Censorship in South Asia William Mazz... more Acknowledgments 1. Between Sedition and Seduction: Thinking Censorship in South Asia William Mazzarella and Raminder Kaur 2. Iatrogenic Religion and Politics Christopher Pinney 3. Making Sense of the Cinema in Late Colonial India William Mazzarella 4. The Limits of Decency and the Decency of Limits: Censorship and the Bombay Film Industry Tejaswini Ganti 5. Anxiety, Failure, and Censorship in Indian Advertising Angad Chowdhry 6. Nuclear Revelations Raminder Kaur 7. Specters of Macaulay: Blasphemy, the Indian Penal Code, and Pakistan's Postcolonial Predicament Asad Ali Ahmed 8. After the Massacre: Secrecy, Disbelief, and the Public Sphere in Nepal Genevieve Lakier List of Contributors Index
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory
The Currents section foregrounds the work of Indian scholars who examine the ramifications of sta... more The Currents section foregrounds the work of Indian scholars who examine the ramifications of state responses and counterresponses regarding the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in December 2019. This amendment to the Constitution of India granted citizenship to persecuted minorities from three nearby countries—namely, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan—but not to those who were Muslim. The act brought into question not just the issue of barring certain refugees to the country but also the relationship of India’s minorities with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party that is at the helm of a Hindu right-wing wave. The contributions focus on the implications of the amendments and the protests against them for minority and/or Muslim identities through a combination of historical, autoethnographic, ethnographic, media, and theoretical perspectives in the midst of growing religio-political communalization in the subcontinent.
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory