Conspiration Internationale D'art

New Isle of Wight monolith adds extra dimension to terrestrial trend

© Caroline Russell/Facebook A reflective monolith is shown on Compton Beach on the U.K.'s Isle of Wight Monday, Dec. 7, 2020.

Another day, another strange monolith showing up out of nowhere — except this one has a point.

A fourth metallic structure has been discovered under mysterious circumstances in the United Kingdom, amid a viral trend that's looking less alien with each copycat case.

The new metal monolith was spotted on Compton Beach on the Isle of Wight on Sunday, BBC News reports. The object appears similar to the three-sided monoliths previously found in Utah, Romania and California, though it's slightly shorter and has a dramatic point at the top.

Read more: Third metal monolith discovered in California

The new object stands about 2.2 metres tall, making it smaller than the others, which measured about three metres in height.

Social media posts show the object had been hastily planted in the sand and supported by rocks in a seemingly slapdash effort to secure it on the uneven beach.

Wooden feet were visible beneath it, and it appeared to be listing to one side within a few hours of its discovery.

Tom Dunford, 29, told Sky News that he discovered the monolith early Sunday while walking his dog on the beach.

"It's really reflective," he told the news outlet. Dunford added that the object has attracted a lot of attention on the small island south of the U.K. mainland. Yet he's not worried that it'll attract extraterrestrial or otherworldly forces any time soon.

"It's someone playing a practical joke. I don't believe any of these conspiracy theories," he said.

Local Alexia Fishwick said she was "dumbstruck" when she discovered the object on the beach. She told BBC that the mirror-like monolith was "really quite magical" to witness up close.

The U.K.'s National Trust, which owns the site, says it's investigating the incident.

The monoliths have become a sudden viral fad since the first one was discovered in the Utah desert last month. The objects have frequently been compared to the alien monoliths in 2001: A Space Odyssey, which were used to accelerate the progress of Earth's civilization.

Unlike the 2001 monoliths, the 2020 ones appear to be designed for capturing attention on social media.

Utah state officials spotted the first object during a helicopter flyover near Moab, where it had apparently been in place for years. The mysterious object sparked wild speculation that it had been built by artists or aliens, and has since spawned a number of copycats.

It was reportedly removed overnight on Nov. 27 by a group of people who wanted to destroy it.

A second monument briefly appeared in Romania in late November. That monolith was similar in general size and shape to the original, although its surface was covered in markings and marred by crude welding mistakes. It also disappeared after a few days.

Video: Mysterious monolith discovered in Romania after similar structure disappears in Utah desert

A third monolith cropped up on a hilltop in California last week, with a design similar to the first.

Pranksters toppled the California object within 24 hours of its discovery.

Video: Another mysterious monolith appears in California

A collective called The Most Famous Artist has claimed credit for the two U.S. monoliths, though their claims have not been verified. The group says it will not speak to anyone except podcaster Joe Rogan.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the Isle of Wight monolith.

The object was still in place Monday afternoon, according to users on a community Facebook group.

Mysterious monolith found on Isle of Wight beach

Monoliths: Why are mysterious monuments appearing across the globe?

Shiny pillars have been erected without explanation at sites across world

Zoe Tidman

Monoliths have popped up in surprising places over the past few weeks, with the most recent appearing on a beach on the Isle of Wight.

Several of these tall, shiny pillars have now been found at sites around the globe without warning or explanation since mid-November.

The first was discovered in the US, when a helicopter crew flying over a remote part of a Utah desert counting sheep spotted a strange statue below.

This metal monolith was found on 18 November and disappeared just as mysteriously as it appeared on 27 November.

Around the same time as the Utah one vanished, a shiny metal monolith appeared on the other side of the globe in the Romanian hillside.

Mysterious silver monolith disappears from Utah desert

California monolith emerges after Utah, Romania works exit

New mysterious monolith appears on top of mountain in California

The structure disappeared several days after it was first spotted near the Petrodava Dacian Fortress, a local archaeological landmark in the northern Neamt country.

Shortly afterwards, a new monolith was spotted at the top of a mountain trail in southern California before it also vanished.

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Then, over the first weekend in December, people stumbled across a tall shiny monolith on a beach on the Isle of Wight. The pillar was spotted on Compton Beach on the west side of the island.

Although it is has not been confirmed exactly who is responsible for the monoliths, an anonymous collective called The Most Famous Artist has taken credit for the Utah and California statues, and is selling three replicas for $45,000 (£34,000) each

A shiny monolith has appeared on an Isle of Wight beach
(@AlexiaRFishwick via REUTERS)

However, when asked about the Isle of Wight structure, it said: “The monolith is out of my control at this point. Godspeed to all the aliens working hard around the globe to propagate the myth.”

The structures have sparked comparisons with the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, where an alien monolith is a recurring symbol that appears to play a role in the development of human evolution.

Bret Hutchings, a helicopter pilot who first spotted the Utah monolith, told local news station KSLTV he thought the structures could be from “a new wave artist” or someone who was a fan of the Stanley Kubrick film.

A monolith appeared in and disappeared from a Utah desert in November
(AP)

No one has claimed responsibility for the European monoliths.

Speaking about the Romanian monolith, the Piatra Neamt mayor Andrei Carabelea wrote on Facebook: “There is no reason to panic for those who think there is still life in the universe.”

“My guess is that some alien, cheeky and terrible teenagers left home with their parents' UFO and started planting metal monoliths around the world,” the mayor said. “First in Utah and then at Piatra Neamt. I am honoured that they chose our city.”

Speculation has also followed the disappearance of the US and Romanian monoliths.

A Colorado photographer told KSTU-TV that he saw four men come to the remote Utah site one night and push over the hollow, stainless steel object, saying “leave no trace” as they walked away.

Two extreme-sports athletes have claimed they were part of a group that tore down the hollow metal structure because they were worried about the damage the droves of visitors were causing to the relatively untouched spot.

A monolith stands on a Stadium Park hillside in Atascadero in California
(AP)

Officials said the visitors flattened plants with their cars and left behind human waste.

Meanwhile, authorities in the Californian city of Atascadero said its monolith had been torn down by a group of young men that traveled five hours in the middle of the night to remove it.

“We are upset that these young men felt the need to drive five hours to come into our community and vandalise the monolith,” Heather Moreno, the local mayor, said. “The monolith was something unique and fun in an otherwise stressful time.”

Additional reporting by agencies

ASTEROID SHINES ‘TEN TIMES BRIGHTER THAN MOON’ IN ASTOUNDING FOOTAGE



The flash was approximately 10 times brighter than a full moon
Adam Smith@adamndsmith
3 days ago

A meteor crashed and burned in Earth’s atmosphere over the US and Canada, with astonishing footage by a 24-hour streaming camera.

Footage picked up by the live webcam service EarthCam shows an object passing by the CN tower in Toronto.

EarthCam

@EarthCam

Is it a bird?

Is it a plane?

Is it a meteor?

At the same moment in time, our cameras that face the CN tower in Toronto caught this object. We're not sure what it is or whether it is related. Follow the red circle and you tell us! Comment below! @TourCNTower

3:38 PM · Dec 2, 2020

162

101 people are Tweeting about this

The website tweeted a GIF of the fireball, which appeared with a huge flash of light, at the same moment as a bird flies past the tower. It is unclear if the two events are related.

“The flash was probably about 10 times brighter than the moer of Toronto residents saw the meteor at approximately noon local time on Wednesday, according to CTV News.
on, the full moon,” Dr Denis Vida, from the University of Western Ontario’s physics and astronomy department, said.

“At that moment the body either completely disintegrated or lost a lot of mass.”

At the same time, over 150 reports were made about a fireball seen at that time – although the average time of those sightings was in the evening, rather than in the middle of the day.

It is estimated that the meteror was the size of a basketball, entering the atmosphere at a 45-degree angle approximately 50 kilometres (31 miles) north of New York.

It was travelling at an estimated 100,000 kilometers (62,000 miles) an hour, but scientists are still unsure whether the rock made it to Earth.

A sonic boom was also heard across New York; For meteors, however, that’s comparatively slow. Bill Cooke, who leads NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office, told NBC that its slow entry speed suggests that it could have come from a larger asteroid.

“To have something so close to a major city, that's pretty rare,” Robert Lunsford, of the American Meteor Society, said.

Two weeks ago, another huge meteor was seen over the southern coast of Tasmania. The incredible footage shows its bright green debris, which shot over the research vessel Investigator.

A fireball that fell to Earth in 2018 was recently found to be containing “pristine extraterrestrial organic compounds” that could help tell us how life formed, according to scientists. 

ASTEROID SKIMMED PAST EARTH ON FRIDAY 13TH BUT WASN’T SPOTTED UNTIL NEXT DAY

Asteroid 2020 VT4 passed by the Earth as close as the International Space Station

Adam Smith@adamndsmith
3 days ago

A low-flying asteroid missed the Earth by only a few hundred miles on Friday the 13th – and was not noticed until the next day.

The asteroid, called 2020 VT4, was spotted 15 hours later by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System survey at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii.

It passed by our planet under 400 kilometers (240 miles) away, which is approximately the same distance that the International Space Station orbits Earth.

As such, asteroid- 2020 VT4 sets the record for the closest recorded non-meteroric asteroid pass of the Earth.

It was approximately six meters in diameter, flying over the South Pacific Ocean. Its encounter with the Earth “shortened its orbit, ensuring that this Earth-crosser will make more frequent close approaches”, Tony Dunn, who runs the website Orbit Simulator, tweeted. 

Should the asteroid have stuck the Earth, it would have burned up in its atmosphere leaving a meteoric trail behind it. Nasa says that it would require an asteroid larger than 25 meters but smaller than one kilometre to do local damage to the Earth.

However, an asteroid larger than one to two kilometres could have worldwide effects.

The record for an asteroid passing closest to the Earth was already broken once this year.

Asteroid 2020 QG came just 1,830 miles over the southern Indian Ocean on Sunday, according to Zwicky Transient Facility, a robotic camera that scans the sky in search of space phenomena.

That asteroid was also particularly small – approximately three to six meters across, which is roughly the size of a large car.

An object of that size passes close by the Earth approximately every year, but spotting them is challenging. Space agencies such as Nasa need to track these objects in case they come close enough to put the Earth in danger.

Asteroid- 2020 VT4 is also not the only space debris to pass by the Earth on a particularly unlucky day.

One asteroid, called Apophis, is approximately 300 meters in size making it comparable to the Eiffel Tower.

It is expected to pass close by the Earth on Friday the 13th, 2029, before returning again in 2068.

EU trade unions worried that Barnier is letting UK slash workers’ rights too far in Brexit deal

‘Ratchet clauses’ on labour standards could be dropped at UK insistence 

Jon Stone Policy Correspondent @joncstone 2 Hours Ago

BELGIUM-EU-BRITAIN-BREXIT-DIPLOMACY
(POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

European trade unions are worried that the UK will be able to undercut EU workers' rights under Brexit concessions being considered by Michel Barnier, The Independent has learned.

A letter from the general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) to Michel Barnier warns of "concern" that compromises on the so-called "level playing field" mean they are not "sufficiently robust" to protect workers.

The warning comes just 48 hours before the end of talks, with the possibility of a deal still unclear but both sides closing in on a common text.

Trade union officials in Brussels with their ear to the ground believe Mr Barnier's team has dropped insistence on a so-called "ratchet clause" that would ensure the UK keeps its labour, product, and environmental standards at the same level as the EU.

ThE EU had insisted on these clauses to prevent the UK from being able to undercut the EU in the future, but is now reportedly open to a simple "non-regression" clause that would provide less protection.

"We have learned with concern that of late the conversation around the level playing field (LPF) seem to have focused mainly on the issue of state aid regulation," Luca Visentini, the general secretary of the ETUC said in the 7 December letter, seen by The Independent.

"As for avoiding giving the UK an unfair competitive advantage on labour rights, there seems to be talks around a non-regression clause but not much around the concept of a ratchet clause to ensure the parties – and the UK in particular – continue in their path of upward convergence and uphold the highest standards."

He added: "If this is indeed the case, the ETUC shares the concern of those member states that do not believe the LPF guarantees are sufficiently robust to protect their business and workers from unfair competition.

"Equally, if the enforcement of the labour provisions consists exclusively of UK domestic enforcement of labour rights, workers in Europe would not be protected against the risk of downward pressure.

"The UK government has made no mystery of its intention to use regulatory sovereignty to regain competitiveness. As a result, workers in the EU would become vulnerable to undercutting."

Under the weaker "non-regression clause" model, both parties would simply agree to not reduce their workers' rights below their current level at the end of the transition period.

But a more powerful ratchet clause, which the EU was originally insisting on, would take into account future improvements in standards, and would see both sides pledge to upgrade theirs in tandem, albeit independently.

There would be a common forum for coordinating upgrades, and a dispute resolution mechanism if one side was seen to be dragging its feet.
The letter to Michel Barnier
(The Independent) CLICK ON TO ENLARGE

The "level playing field" for regulations and standards is one of the three remaining issues in regulations, alongside fishing rights and dispute resolution.

The ETUC is the largest European-level representative of trade unions and covers 89 trade union confederations in 39 different European countries. It is the European counterpart of the British TUC, which is a constituent member.

Mr Barnier told MEPs earlier on Monday that struggling trade negotiations will not continue past Wednesday, painting a gloomy picture of the "endgame" of talks

The deadline comes ahead of a summit of the 27 EU prime ministers and presidents in Brussels on Thursday. The meeting is widely seen as the last formal opportunity for the EU leaders to sign off an agreement.

Diplomats from EU member states say Mr Barnier was downbeat when he updated them earlier on Monday morning, dismissing reports that there had been a breakthrough on the issue of fishing.

He is said to have warned that the two sides were also still apart on the questions of governance, and of fair competition for British businesses – the two other longstanding sticking points.

The chief negotiator is said to have given the impression that the latter issue will be the hardest to overcome.

Irish foreign minister Simon Coveney told Irish public broadcaster RTE that Mr Barnier had given a “very gloomy" and "downbeat” assessment of the prospects of a deal.

“Having heard from Michel Barnier this morning, really the news is very downbeat. I would say he is very gloomy, and obviously very cautious about the ability to make progress today," he said.

"There was news last night on some media sources that there was a breakthrough on fishing. That is absolutely not the case from what we’re hearing this morning.

“There really was no progress made yesterday, that’s our understanding and so we’ve got to try to make a breakthrough at some point today, before the two principals, the Commission president and the prime minister speak later on this evening.

“Unfortunately, I’d like to be giving more positive news, but at the moment these negotiations seem stalled, and the barriers to progress are still very much in place."

Back in Westminster, Foreign Office minister James Cleverly insisted that a trade agreement was "nearly there" but warned that negotiators may not be successful in time.

Brexit day: UK says goodbye to EU  Show all 66



"The vast majority of the elements of this agreement have been resolved and we're now hanging on a small number of important areas where we don't have agreement," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

The lack of progress at the weekend is bad news for the prospects of avoiding a no-deal exit from the single market, which will happen automatically on 31 December if nothing is agreed by then.

Boris Johnson and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen are set to talk again this evening over the telephone to take stock of whether negotiators have made any ground today.

A Downing Street spokesperson appeared to dispute the deadline, telling reporters in Westminster: “Time is obviously now in very short supply, and we are in the final stages, but we are prepared to negotiate for as long as we have time available if we think an agreement is still possible."

Pakistan asks India to ensure protection of Muslims

The Newspaper's Staff Reporter Updated 07 Dec 2020

Pakistan has urged the Indian government to ensure safety, security and protection of minorities, particularly Muslims and their places of worship. — File photo

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has urged the Indian government to ensure safety, security and protection of minorities, particularly Muslims and their places of worship, and fulfil its responsibilities under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international instruments, including the recommendations of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

“Today is a sad reminder of the demolition of the historic Babri Masjid in India. On this day, 28 years ago, Hindu zealots of the RSS-inspired BJP, backed by the state apparatus, demolished the centuries-old mosque in Ayodhya in an abominable act of anti-Muslim frenzy and blatant violation of religious and international norms,” the Foreign Office (FO) said in a statement on Sunday.

Pakistan also called upon the international community, the United Nations and relevant international organisations to play their role in preserving the Islamic heritage sites in India from the extremist ‘Hindutva’ regime and ensure protection of minorities in India.

The FO said that painful scenes of the demolition of Babri Mosque in 1992 still remained fresh in the minds of not only Muslims but all conscionable persons in the world.

Slams acquittal of criminals responsible for demolition of Babri Mosque

“The new illegitimate structure, which the Hindutva-driven BJP has campaigned for and is bent upon constructing as part of its agenda of converting India into a ‘Hindu Rashtra’, is a scar on the face of so-called ‘largest democracy’ in the world,” it added.

The statement said that flawed judgment of the Indian Supreme Court in the Babri Mosque case in November 2019 not only reflected the preponderance of faith over justice but also the growing majoritarianism in today’s India, where minorities, particularly Muslims and their places of worship, were increasingly under attack.

It said that the recent shameful acquittal of the criminals responsible for demolishing the Babri Mosque in 1992 represented another egregious travesty of justice.

The FO said the extreme haste in starting construction of a temple at the Babri Mosque site amidst the ravaging Covid-19 pandemic, anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act, the looming National Register of Citizens to disenfranchise Muslims, the targeted killings of Muslims in Delhi with state complicity in February 2020, and other anti-Muslim measures pointed to the fact how Muslims in India were being systematically demonised, dispossessed, marginalised and subjected to targeted violence.

It said that the OIC had passed numerous resolutions, condemning the odious act of demolishing the historic Mosque. “Recently, at the 47th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers held at Niamey, the OIC called upon the Indian government to take immediate steps to implement its commitment to reconstruct the Babri Mosque on its original site and to punish those responsible for its demolition, prevent the construction of temple on its site, take immediate steps to ensure the protection of the other 3,000 mosques, and ensure the safety and protection of the Muslims and Islamic holy sites throughout India,” read the statement.

Published in Dawn, December 7th, 2020

What PM Imran Khan and Hamza Ali Abbasi got wrong about family values in Pakistan
Women are routinely abused and silenced within 

our so called "family system".

So why is the PM calling it our strength?

Hamza Ali Abbasi's always been a big PM Imran Khan fan, so you can imagine the actor was over the moon when he got to sit down with the prime minister and pick his brain.

In the hour long interview, the duo's conversation was a little all over the place yet going around in circles as they spoke about the lasting effects of colonisation, the role of media in shaping the nation and accountability, among other things. But what grabbed our attention was the PTI chairman reiterating multiple times how Pakistan's strength is our family system.




"When I was growing up, Pakistan was heavily influenced by colonisation and the west. Previously, this strong hold was in the form of slavery but today, it is in the form of mental slavery," he said. "While you despise those who control you, in a way you also get influenced by them, looking up to them and wanting to be like them."

"Previously, the divorce rate abroad was 1 in 14, and 30 years later, it increased to 70%," he added a little later.

Speaking about a rising divorce rate in South Asian communities, Khan said the more we look towards the west and adopt their "immoral mannerisms", the more we'll see a ripple effect of that in our own society, chipping away at our traditional familial values and norms, which are supposedly so great.

Read: Imran Khan knows nothing about motherhood and feminism, so we wrote him a cheat sheet

Also read: PM Imran Khan says Aurat March is a result of cultural differences like it's a bad thing

While we as a country love pride themselves on our culture and the respect we have for the sanctity of marriage, we are often quick to forget that the entire arrangement is largely based on the sacrifices of women, who because of the stigma surrounding divorce, chose to suffer in silence for decades on end.

Twitter user Sundus Saleemi hit the nail on the head with this thread:










Many others chimed in, reminding Khan about all those marginalised by our so-called family system:













Here's hoping that those in charge of policy making, such as Khan, stop living in denial about what our culture has come to entail and start calling a spade a spade. Blaming the west for everything wrong in our own backyard won't do us any favours.

REIFICATION TIMES

“Capitalist Dreams and Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First-Century India”: A conversation with Dr. Ravinder Kaur

INDIA AS COMMODITY FETISH



In this conversation, The Polis Project’s Suchitra Vijayan and Vasundhara Sirnate, discuss Prof. Ravinder Kaur’s new book Brand New Nation: Capitalist Dreams and Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First-Century India. Prof Kaur walks us through the transformation of the Indian nation-state into a neoliberal business enterprise and theorizes the process of branding the nation-state through a rich visual archive of posters and advertising material. She articulates the connection between those early years of “India rising” rhetoric and aggressive push for globalization is largely responsible for the emergence of authoritarian populism under Modi. We explore the unintended political consequences of the corporatization of the State, what this means for the future.

By Suchitra Vijayan
23 September 2020

Branding India as an investment destination

In Brand New Nation: Capitalist Dreams and the Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First-Century India, Ravinder Kaur explores how national identity and brand identities of nations have consolidated into a newer conception of the nation-state. In a seminal case study of India, Kaur’s book explores the emergent idea of India as an investment destination and how this image is a carefully crafted product of a sustained brand-building campaign which does not always reflect the complexities of politics on the ground in India.  

Excerpted from Brand New Nation: Capitalist Dreams and the Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First-Century India by Ravinder Kaur, published by Stanford University Press, ©2020 by the Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University. All Rights Reserved.

By Ravinder Kaur

14 October 2020

The path uphill from the WEF Convention Center toward the Promenade is dotted with landmarks such as the exclusive Hotel Belvedere, the Kirchner Museum, upmarket boutiques, and busy cafes. On this lively street, Cafè Schneider is ensconced to the left overlooking the mountain peaks. India Adda assembles annually in a specially marked area of Cafè Schneider, a nearly century-old cafe that ostentatiously describes itself as “die grand dame” of Davos coffeehouses, the old haunt of global celebrities and visitors in search of an authentic European coffeehouse experience.[i] Visitors to the India Adda can enter directly from the main street through a glass door decorated with giveaway signs of India—phool booti (flower) motifs in earthy deep-red hues framing the silhouettes of elephants dressed in ceremonial gear. A wooden sign at the entrance displays a graphic image of people holding hands in an ever-widening infinite circular loop. The inscription beneath the signboard reads “Adda—Join in the conversations on India, Widen your circle.”

 Listen: “Capitalist Dreams and Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First-Century India”: A conversation with Dr. Ravinder Kaur

That the idea of adda is meant to invoke an open, harmonious, and level playing field is evident at the entrance itself. The graphic image of human figures at the door joined together in a circle of friendship in a seemingly infinite loop signals unlimited possibilities and potentialities. This sense of openness was reinforced when I stepped inside the adda. Only later would I discover that the adda was actually split into two zones—andar (inside) and bahar (outside). The inside was the private space in which the minister of commerce or high-ranking bureaucrats from the Ministry of Commerce would meet potential investors. The outside was the public space in which the act of seeing and showing India would be rehearsed. I was in this public space where all visitors were invited to experience India. The  pièce de résistance in this spacious sitting area is a wall plastered with colorful imagery of New India on the ascent. The cheerful images, I was told by one of the organizers, were of ordinary Indians who have tasted the fruits of liberalization. To the left was an image of a young woman in what seemed like a university setting holding a smart tablet, Aakash ($35 only), developed and manufactured indigenously in India.[ii] And to the right was the image of a cheerful farmer atop a tractor in a mustard field, his arms suggestively stretched heavenward as if in the embrace of progress. The inscription beside him indicated that he was the beneficiary of an indigenously developed drip-irrigation kit for farmers ($160 only) that weaned him off his dependence on unreliable seasonal rains. In between these two images appeared a stylistically arranged bold sign announcing “India Adda” followed by this inscription:

The “adda” is the quintessential Indian hangout intricately woven into the country’s social fabric. This is where bonds are built, games are played and dreams are dreamt and shared.

Prior to its nineteenth-century recovery as a literary endeavor, the adda was associated with noisy, disruptive behavior of young men in the urban neighborhoods of Calcutta. The young men who gathered on rowak, the raised platforms built around houses, to hold their boisterous adda often caused discontent in the neighborhood, as middle-class residents viewed these gatherings as a threat to their respectability.[iii] The perceived negative consequences of adda … also extended to supposed idleness and useless talk among the young men. Dipesh Chakrabarty has shown how critical attitudes to adda were built not only on the capitalist colonial theme of the lazy native but also on preexisting notions of what work and idleness constituted.

In Davos, the adda is fully recovered from negative associations. Instead, it is pitched as “a cool way to project that we [Indians] are people who do business in a friendly, peaceful and non-threatening way,” which was an obvious allusion to its rival and neighbor, China.[iv] Aparna Dutta Sharma, the CEO of IBEF, told me that “adda offers a unique Indian experience of networking, making new friends, and creating new ideas.” The practice of adda was thus rearranged in a different species of global practice— of corporate networking, albeit with an Indian difference—considered fundamental and indispensable to business transactions. This unique Indian experience of networking is what the practice of adda was now mobilized toward. Consider this promotional invitation:

The Indian Adda at the World Economic Forum takes this concept of idea exchange and conversations to a different level. The Indian Adda is more than a physical space, it is a concept of sharing and communications—an ambience that encourages the free and frank exchange of views. It is meant for sharing. For networking. Or just for soaking in the atmosphere and enjoying Indian hospitality. Hope to see you there.[v]

Central to this shift is the art of conversation, which is now assigned a dramatically different function to perform.

Instead of being a sign of idleness or a waste of precious time, it has been transformed into a productive mode of labor as innovative ideation or even corporate- style brainstorming. To engage in conversations at the India Adda now is to engage in the profitable task of generating value for the nation.

In fact, the very capitalist notions of efficiency, production, and “time is money” are turned on their heads. The adda invites the captains of industry and top policy makers, highly esteemed individuals who barely have a minute to spare, to take time out and let go. In a 24-7 world constantly on the move, the most precious gift one can offer is the time to relax, to take a rare pause that promises to replenish one’s energy. Adda represents this global space of rejuvenation, and India is the large-hearted sponsor of such luxury. India, as the host of adda, positions itself as the chief patron of important exchanges in the global arena.

In this global translation, the adda was always carefully framed as more than a utilitarian tool for corporate networking. It was an authentic sign of Indianness, of its unique commercial culture. That the adda was a matter of the heart, an exclusive marker of Indian difference, and that India itself was a large-hearted nation were sentiments that were frequently articulated during my visit. For this claim to be effective, adda had to be reconceptualized as a metaphysical identity widely shared by Indians. Aparna Dutta Sharma cited the indelible “romance” of adda as the existential core of being Indian and, therefore, the perfect cultural frame to display India abroad.

The idea of adda is exactly the way it is, every nook and corner of India has an adda. Typically you see in a city like Bombay people pull out benches and sit down. It is like a nukkad [street corner] thing. Every nukkad will be dotted with benches and chairs. Invariably for all you may say, whether you are urbane or not urbane, an Indian is an Indian at heart. There are some things that are very close to you, things that are common—like spontaneity in India. India is innately about adda, chairs, and conversations. Adda provides an ambience and makes people comfortable.[vi]

In this reconceptualization, adda was taken very broadly to indicate any gathering in a public space—from a street corner or park to an open space in an urban neighborhood—that might potentially result in social interaction. Although comparisons with similar forms of socialization in the West—for example, salons and coffeehouse gatherings—are not explicitly made, it is quite clear that a relational Indian difference seeks to be created through the rhetorical deployment of emotions and spontaneity that places adda in the metaphysical domain and invests it with a greater emotive depth and substance. This notion of adda seems to invoke the idea of an ancient art of conversation in which even the unlettered are accomplished masters. The visions of chairs and benches being drawn to fill up street corners and of an unceasing public conversation conjure a sense of civic orderliness and passionate civility as naturally occurring features of India. Adda was thus positioned as a quintessential feature of India that is not only inextricably enmeshed in the social structure but also deeply inculcated with the very sense of being Indian. The key lay in the articulation of adda as a hangout, an easy and globally accessible term that instantly strikes a chord. It is defined as an open, playful space in which unrestricted imagination, ideas, and innovations take shape. This aspect of adda as an enabler of visionary ideas is crucial, as it helps establish innovation and imagination as natural parts of a playful Indian lifestyle. Implicit in this description is the nature of adda as an uncomplicated, democratic space in which people gather and partake in conversations.

This emphasis on openness, freedom, and a democratic ethos is entangled in the evolving narrative of New India as the “world’s fastest growing free market democracy.” To this end, the adda offered a theatrical performance of democracy…in a setting that is not the chaotic, dusty, noisy, and crowded space of India’s actual democracy.

Consider this official description:

Amongst the hubbub of conversations sparked by minds meeting across continents, relationships were renewed, fresh bonds were built, and the awareness spread that India means business. . . . And everyone who visited the India Adda went away with India’s message firmly etched in their minds. And in their hearts.[vii]

Note how the success of the adda is linked not only to its capacity to enhance India’s commercial value but also to its capacity to build affective connections. The invocation of “hearts” here raises the stakes…the adda is expected to activate a deeper sentimental commitment among foreign investors rather than a purely rational economic engagement prone to cycles of boom and bust. Brand India not only seeks global capital flows but also wants to be loved by its consumers.

This frequent weaving of affective language—of hearts, friendships, relationships, and hospitality—in the quest for foreign investments sometimes seems innocuous, inconsequential, or even misplaced. Yet it hints at a deliberate ambivalence, camouflage, or perhaps plain discomfort in the project of selling India to foreign investors. The reluctance to present adda as a purely instrumental space and yet being unable to fully integrate its non-instrumental implications is apparent. This probably stems from the ambiguities and splits inherent in the Indian difference that the adda is meant to signify in which soaring Indian culture seems to be constructed in opposition to Western materialism. In the ideal version of Indian hospitality—atithi devo bhave, the guest is akin to God—the presence of a guest is considered the true test of the host’s generosity and may even involve a degree of sacrifice, as the needs of the guest must assume priority.[viii] The very notion of atithi is derived from the negation of the Sanskrit word tithi, which literally means “time/date or some form of certainty.” This means that atithi by definition is someone whose arrival and departure is not predetermined and whose very presence may test the limits of the host’s benevolence. Thus, true hospitality is deemed to be that which does not enter the cycle of exchange and reciprocity and is offered without creating a sense of obligation.[ix] This idealized version of Indian hospitality, incidentally, underpins the internal marketing campaign within India— atithi devo bhave, launched by the Ministry of Tourism—that seeks to retrain the Indian opinion and reception of foreign tourists.[x] The performance of hospitality in India Adda is fraught with these inherent contradictions. The very objective of India Adda, to market India to a global audience, means that hospitality is offered in the distinct hope of getting profitable returns in the form of investments.[xi] The conflict in this project is inevitable—how does one perform the idealized version of Indian large-heartedness while pitching India as a commodity in the global marketplace?

[i] Already evident here is the language of commodity tradition that locates Café Schneider as Erlebnis rather than mere Erfahrung, to invoke the distinction made by Walter Benjamin. See Walter Benjamin, Lloyd Spencer, and Mark Harrington, “Central Park,” New German Critique 34 (Winter 1985): 49 ; and Schneider’s Davos, “ Das Schneider’s: Portrait,” accessed November 21, 2018, http://www.schneiders-davos.ch/schneiders/portrait.html

[ii] The images of Aakash were prominently displayed and circulated in Davos in 2012, creating a significant interest. Many visitors to the adda would ask to see a sample tablet, except that the tablet was unavailable. The tablet turned out to be a source of huge embarrassment for the human resources ministry, which had funded the project. Not only was the design found to be below par, but the capacity was too low for different functions to work. Moreover, the controversy around the manufacturing process has almost doomed the project of making low-cost tablets for schoolchildren in India.

[iii] Chakrabarty, “Adda, Calcutta,” 118.

[iv] Chandrajit Banerjee, director-general of the Confederation of Indian Industries, quoted in Harish Damodaran, “‘Cool’ India Offers Inclusive Growth for All,” Hindu Business Line, Davos, January 26, 2011.

[v] IBEF, “India Davos,” India Brand Equity Foundation, accessed October 2, 2018, http://www.india-davos-blogs.ibef.org/India—Innovates

[vi] Aparna Dutta Sharma, interview by author, January 28, 2012. India Adda, Davos.

[vii] IBEF, “Brand India: At the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Meeting ” (Davos, January 27 – 30, 2013), 4, 16.

[viii] Government of India, Ministry of Tourism, Atithi Devo Bhave (Guest is God) campaign, 2010. See also the Incredible India video, accessed November 21, 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMydmkiafTE

[ix] The discussion on dan (or the gift) here is instructive. For a true act of giving to take place, it must not entail return, exchange, or reciprocity. Otherwise the gift enters a cycle of commodity exchange and can no longer be deemed to be a pure gift. Derrida has dwelt on this impossibility of the gift at length. Similarly, Jonathan Parry and James Laidlaw have shown how the gift need not be reciprocal or nonalienated. See Jacques Derrida, Given Time 1: Counterfeit Money (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992); Jonathan Parry, “The Gift, the Indian Gift and ‘the Indian Gift,’” Man, New Series 21, no. 3 (1986): 453 – 73; James Laidlaw, “A Free Gift Makes No Friends,” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 6, no. 4 (2000): 617 – 34.

[x] This campaign was launched especially in anticipation of a major tourist influx during the Commonwealth Games in 2010. The idea was to professionalize the Indian tourist industry by training guides, drivers, hotel staff, and so on, on the ideals of Indian hospitality.

[xi] Pitching hospitality as a key cultural trait in tourism is indeed not unique to India. For a comparative perspective, see Andrew Shryock, “The New Jordanian Hospitality: House, Host and Guest in the Culture of Public Display,” Comparative Studies in Society and History 46, no. 1 (2004): 35 – 62.

Ravinder Kaur is Associate Professor of Modern South Asian Studies at the University of Copenhagen.

"Capitalist Dreams and Nationalist Designs in Twenty-First-Century India": A conversation with Dr. Ravinder Kaur - The Polis Project, Inc