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Sethu Das: Graduated from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda with a Fine Arts Degree and went to Srinagar for a casual visit — and accidentally reached Dharamshala, the seat of the Tibetan Government-in-exile. There he was moved by the stories of Chinese atrocities in Tibet related to him by Tibetan political prisoners. He founded the Friends of Tibet (India) in 1999 with one member, an organisation he never registered officially till now. Within years, the organisation (www.friendsoftibet.org) turned into a people's movement with members worldwide. He is also the Executive Director of World Tibet Day Foundation. Among other things, Sethu has the rare distinction of dropping out from the Industrial Design Centre of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), one of the premier design institutes in India. He has worked with The Economic Times, a business newspaper and Netscribes India, a knowledge-consulting firm. He was also an International Observer during the Presidential Elections in Sri Lanka and to several other conflict regions.
In the year 2003, Sethu Das co-founded Design & People with the slogan — 'Design For People In Need'. Today Design & People is a global network of graphic and industrial designers and architects working towards social and humanitarian projects. He is one of the Design Curators for the International Symposium/Exhibition "Re-Designing the East: Political Design in Asia and Europe" currently touring the former Eastern European countries and South Korea in conjunction with the 30th anniversary of the Solidarity Movement of Poland. Titled 'Swaraj in Design: Opportunities for a Conscious Learning and Sharing', the Indian section of 'Re-Designing the East' focuses on the 'Open Design & Information' policy of Design & People and its initiatives to change the historical misconceptions on the function and purpose of Design. Sethu Das devotes his time and energy working on social and humanitarian projects of Design & People and campaigning for various causes in which he believes. From being a graphic designer, to starting a socially-conscious design movement, Sethu is a man of varied tastes and talents. You won't however find him enjoying a bottle of Coca-Cola! Sethu Das can be reached at: sethu.das@designandpeople.org
Writings by Sethu Das: http://www.designandpeople.org/sethudas/
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W R I T I N G S
In Conversation with Dr Ela Bhatt
"Social and Political Design" Open Electives team of the National Institute of Design (NID) meets with Dr Ela Bhatt, Founder of SEWA at her residence in Ahmedabad, Gujarat to seek her blessings and guidance. She discussed on a wide-variety of topics — ranging from Women Empowerment to the bureaucracy of the United Nations.
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Water Makes Money, Not Maxim
What happens when a cinema owner; a musician; a dancer cum film costume designer; a painter cum filmmaker and a designer-activist meet for a chat? Sethu Das, Co-founder of Design & People in conversation with Siegfried Daiber of The Maxim Kino and his close associates — HW Mueller, Alexander Devasia and Sylvie Bantle.
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Silent Majority: The Sri Lankan Catastrophe
In this paper, Ravindra Ranasinha of Design & People explores how the present regime in Sri Lanka utilises its ideological labels and the regime's machinery to gag Sri Lankan citizens and the sorrowful transformation undergone by the populace, turning them into silent spectators, by their own choice.
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"I Believe Violence is A Dead-End-Street": Dolkun Isa
Originally published in the April 2011 edition of Pachakuthira Magazine, this piece is based on a conversation between Design & People Co-founder Sethu Das and Dolkun Isa, Secretary General of World Uyghur Congress (WUC), formed under the leadership of a charismatic woman — Rebiya Kadeer.
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Nation Building of Rajapaksa: Rhetoric of a Power-Project
In this note, Ravindra Ranasinha tries to sum up the total impact of Rajapakse regime's power-project as an 'image building' effort which is proven through so-called 'developmental' plans. The efforts to attract the eye of Westerners has become an primary function of the regime to ensure that funding becomes possible for their construction plan.
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The Essential Youth
There is a Stuttgart 21 happening in every corner of our country in the name of progress. But not a single creative professional has ever marched to protect our falling monuments and to retain the aesthetic and historical values of our cities. Design & People Co-founder Sethu Das on Stuttgart 21 and the inertia of our generation.
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The Forward March of Mahinda
Sri Lankan journalist and educationist Ravindra Ranasinha writes about what is really going on in Sri Lanka after the LTTE rebels were wiped out from the island with the power of the gun and how the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajpakse is battling numerous legal charges leveled against his regime by the Tamil Diaspora.
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The Queen, Gandhi and Limited Editions
The political design edition of the popular European design magazine 'Springerin' carries the not-so discussed history of Montblanc International GmbH by Sethu Das and the Indian Creative Resistance against the usage of historic icons by Mont Blanc and Swisscom in order to generate funds.
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Sri Lanka: A State Minus Information
Ravindra Ranasinha investigates how the citizen is barred of right to information and the dictatorial practices of those who are in governance stifling the free flow of information through ruthless action against the media. The deterioration of democracy in Sri Lanka brings out the fact that State has determined to exist only with its own ideology.
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Mapping Creative Resistance of Tamils in Sri Lanka
Ravindra Ranasinha maps how journalism, creative writing, drama and painting survived among Tamils during the civil war and further elaborates the vitality of the creative resistance of Tamil artist as a source of inspiration for the population to endure hardships. He explores on how the Tamil identity was created through arts.
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The Invisible Hands Of Sri Lanka
Ravindra Ranasinha discusses the growth of totalitarianism in Sri Lanka through propaganda machines which has kept the population silent and infringed the right to information and the contribution of China in the acceleration of war and the Chinese strategic intervention in making Sri Lanka another Georgia.
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Politicising Citizen Thinking in Sri Lanka
Ravindra Ranasinha examines how the thinking patterns of a country functions in the political maneuvering of citizen's thinking. This investigation could be considered as an introduction to a deep study on the prevailing 'silence' in Sri Lanka. This new thinking will open doors for anyone who wishes to explore cultural politics of the world.
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A River Runs Through Him
He filed the fist complaint against a polluting factory on March 27, 1981. Ever since Right to Information Act came into existence, VJ Jose has filed 254 applications seeking information on pollution. Design & People Co-founder Sethu Das in conversation with Periyar Riverkeeper, who has been protecting the River Periyar for the last three decades.
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Children of Christopher Columbus
The 1492 voyage of Christopher Columbus in search of slaves and gold, and the subsequent genocide of Native Americans, is now being continued in third world countries. Columbus may be dead, but his children are alive and need to be thrown out from Asia's soil, says Sethu Das, Co-founder of Design & People.
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Newspapers As National Symbols
What are national symbols and what makes them national properties? Do all symbols that belong to a state become national symbols? Why do we think newspapers are national symbols that belong to us? Sethu Das of Design & People looks at some of the Indian national newspapers and the redesign industry.
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"Good Morning! This Was All India Radio!"
Most of us grew up listening to the radio at a time when subjects had to pay the state for the cautiously-edited news broadcasts under the radio receiver license system of 1928. Design & People Co-founder Sethu Das wonders why India wants to keep radio a state property while it tries to open up television so much.
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The Mountbatten Bomb
He belonged to a family that once symbolised the British Empire. And for many he was a dead child walking. Design & People Co-founder Sethu Das meets with Timothy Knatchbull, survivor of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) bomb that killed his high profile 'grandpapa' — Lord Louis Mountbatten.
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The Land Minds of Sri Lanka
Soon after the killing of Lasantha Wikramatunge, Editor of 'The Sunday Leader', by the Sri Lankan government forces, Design & People Co-Founder Sethu Das travelled to Sri Lanka to meet with Ravindra Ranasinha, one of Lasantha's close associates in journalism and a known Sinhalese theatre activist.
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Hind Swaraj and Common Sense
Even after years, two political pamphlets continue to inspire people all over the world. Sethu Das of Design & People looks at Mahatma Gandhi's 'Hind Swaraj' or 'Indian Home Rule' and Thomas Paine's 'Common Sense' — two historic Pamphlets that changed the fate of two colonies forever.
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When Mont Blanc Ink Runs Through Father Of A Nation
Not many designers understand that meanings and interpretations are meaningless if the sole purpose of design is only to empower the elite and the powerful section of a society, argues Sethu Das of Design & People while presenting the case of Mont Blanc Mahatma Gandhi Limited Edition 241.
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People's Own Fortune Tellers and Story Tellers
Sometimes unpredictable events lead to favorable outcomes. Sethu Das of Design & People tells us how fortunate he was to meet with Anubrotto Kumar Roy, popularly known as Dunu Roy — India's own story teller whose stories are centered around the wisdom of the ordinary people.
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The Plural Society in Modern Sri Lanka
Veteran Sri Lankan theatre activist Ravindra Ranasinha focuses on pluralism that is evident in the Sri Lankan society that proves of an untapped resource with immense potentiality. He feels that if properly understood, this multiculturalism could be made a focal point in bringing peace and harmony to the much damaged country.
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The Politics of Not-So Creative Billboards
From Alaska to Mumbai, concerned individuals and organisations fight not only for clean air and clean water, but also for a clean environment sans billboards. Sethu Das of Design & People looks at the politics of advertisement billboards and their impact on people and society.
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Laurie Baker — Poetry In Mud
With the passing away of Laurie Baker in 2007, Indian architecture has lost its breath of fresh air in a man who single-handedly gave Indian architecture and low-cost construction a new approach, a new meaning, a new dimension. Suku Dass of Design & People caught up with Laurie Baker in June 2006. Excerpts from the interview.
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Genden Choephel — the 'Mad Monk'
Shortly after the military occupation of Tibet, the unorthodox Tibetan monk Gendun Choephel passed away. He supposedly concluded on the political events in Tibet by saying: "Now we are fucked!". Sethu Das of Design & People pays tribute to the controversial but one of the most important Tibetan intellectuals of the 20th century.
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Multi-Culturalism or Mono-Culture: A Quest in Sri Lanka
Ravindra Ranasinha looks at the Sri Lankan society and shares the view that the war in the island would end up with crushing of the LTTE, thus expecting the rise of a dominant mono-culture of the Sinhala community. Soon after, the government declared the end of the civil war with the killing of Velupillai Prabhakaran.
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October 25, 1920: Remembering Terence MacSwiney
During the hunger strike a young MacSwiney said: "I am confident that my death will do more to smash the British Empire than my release." Sethu Das of Design & People remembers Terence MacSwiney (1879-1920), IRA Commanding Officer who died on the 74th day of his hunger strike in London's Brixton Prison — without giving up!
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"Newspapers are unable, seemingly to discriminate between a bicycle accident and the collapse of a civilisation."
George Bernard Shaw
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