Home

Download Swaraj Visual Thesaurus

Mahatma Gandhi on Swaraj: 'Swaraj' is a sacred word, a Vedic word, meaning self-rule and self-restraint, and not freedom from all restraint which 'independence' often means. The Swaraj of my — our — dream recognises no race or religious distinctions. Nor it is to be the monopoly of the lettered persons or yet of moneyed men. Swaraj is to be for all, including the farmer, but emphatically including the maimed, the blind, the starving, toiling millions.

I have had the hardihood to say that Swaraj could not be granted even by God. We would have to earn it ourselves. Swaraj from very nature is not in the giving of anybody. Swaraj is the abandonment of the fear of death. A nation which allows itself to be influenced by the fear of death cannot attain Swaraj, and cannot retain it if somehow attained. Swaraj will be a fruit of incessant labour, suffering beyond measure. Surely Swaraj will not drop from the clouds. It will be the fruit of patience, perseverance, ceaseless toil, courage and intelligent appreciation of the environment.

Swaraj can be maintained only where there is a majority of loyal and patriotic people to whom the good of the nation is paramount above all other considerations whatever including their personal profit.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Design & People
'Open Design & Information'
Inspired by the energies of Swaraj, creativity and non-cooperative political activity, the open space created by Design & People function as an informed platform to make life better for the vulnerable communities all over the world. Encouraging the participation of professionals and the civil society to freely share knowledge and skills to creatively transform lives of the underprivileged has become the day's political action promoted by the 'Open Design & Information' of Design & People.

Today, all oppressed people in the world has the total right for the free information provided in this professional space to empower themselves in resolving their issues and ensuring sustainability in their solutions. 'Open Design & Information' is the process of free gathering of information from all corners of the world to bring people together and endorse solidarity for conscious eradication of all types of repression and guarantee the responsibility in making the future better for everyone.

The 'Open Design & Information' policy of Design & People grants users the freedom to copy, share, study, distribute, display, transform or even make derivative works based on Design & People artworks — both visual and written — for any non-commercial or academic purpose. We advise the user who creates a subsequent work based on the original artwork make no attempt to remove it from the Public Domain. By choosing to contribute to the evolution of the work of art, the user agrees to give others the very same rights.

Working Model:

Original Artwork --> Subsequent Artwork based on Original --> Communal Work

(The 'Open Design & Information Policy' of Design & People is inspired by the idea of 'Swaraj in Design' and developed over the years based on discussions, interactions and debates with individuals and institutions working and researching in these fields. These explanations based on the findings are written by Sethu Das, Ravindra Ranasinha and Bina Nayak of Design & People and Rajiv Vora and Dr Niru Vora of Global Gandhian Movement for Swaraj with inputs from Prof Kirti Trivedi of Indian Institute of Technology and Lawrence Liang of Alternative Law Forum. The views and ideas are not meant to be permanent and are open to suggestions and changes.)

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

August 9, 2003
Design & People: A Journey Begins
Cochin, Kerala: Design & People launched its own brand of 'Design Activism' through an exhibition titled 'Portrait of A Corporate Crime'. It was an exhibition of photographs of the Bhopal gas tragedy by Padmashri Raghu Rai. The eminent filmmaker, Shri Adoor Gopalakrishnan — who has continuously used his films to hold a mirror to the society, inaugurated the exhibition on August 9, 2003, at the Kerala Lalitha Kala Academy Gallery, Ernakulam. The people of Kerala got a chance to witness this five-day long exhibition consisting of 58 photographs due to the initiative taken by Design & People and Greenpeace. In a bold departure from typical ceremony protocol, a lamp was not lit to mark the inauguration of an event. Instead a 2-minute silence was observed in memory of those who died in the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, and also as a mark of protest against the collusion between a corrupt government and a corporate giant responsible for the tragedy.

Unlike other ceremonies, a lamp was lit by eminent filmmaker Shri Adoor Gopalakrishnan in memory of those who died in the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy. (L to R) Suku Dass and Sethu Das (Co-founders, Design & People); Shri Ganesh Nochur (Greenpeace), Shri KL Mohanavarma (Novelist) and Smt Leela Menon (Journalist).

Delivering the inaugural address, Shri Adoor Gopalakrishnan remarked that it has become a crime to take birth in underdeveloped countries. "The multinationals attach little value to the lives of those who inhabit in the third world. Living in a third world is only a 'claim' and in reality, we are heading towards a fourth world." Shri Thomas Jacob (Chairman, Press Academy and Associate Editor, Malayala Manorama), Smt Leela Menon (Journalist), Shri KL Mohana Varma (Novelist), Shri Ganesh Nochur (Greenpeace), Shri Sethu Das and Shri Suku Dass (Co-founders, Design & People) also spoke on the event. The 5-day long exhibition had several activities planned for each day. 'Creative Resistance' — a collection of writings published by Design & People, was released by Shri Thomas Jacob. Shri Adoor Gopalakrishnan released an audio CD produced by Design & People titled 'Talk Sense Series', containing a speech by Dr Vandana Shiva titled 'Towards Compassionate Economy and Technology' with an introduction by Prof Samdhong Rinpoche. 'Miles to Go', a 58-minute film documenting '1000 Bhopals Jathra', a 60-day journey by Greenpeace India activists made by Nina Subramnani, a Chennai-based filmmaker premiered at Cochin at the Kerala Lalitha Kala Academy Gallery on August 13, 2003.

About 'Portrait of A Corporate Crime': The world-renowned photographer, Raghu Rai, arrived in Bhopal hours after the gas leak to find chaos. The dead were being buried and cremated, the hospitals were overflowing with thousands of patients and the doctors had no idea on how to treat them as there were no guidelines from Union Carbide on what needed to be done in such an eventuality. It soon dawned on Rai that he was documenting a massive disaster and the beginning of a never-ending nightmare for the gas-exposed survivors. "What I saw was to change my life. It was an unprecedented scene of chaos. What startled me most was the silence of death. Thousands of people had already died, thousands more than those who died in the September 11 attack on the World Trade Centre. I vowed then and there to continue my work, to do all I could to show the world what happens to people when corporations are not held liable for their operations, when they are allowed to cut costs and safety standards when they operate abroad." To date, 20,000 have died from gas exposure and the effects are now extending into the next generation. 150,000 of the survivors are chronically ill and communities are drinking contaminated groundwater because Dow has still not cleaned up the dangerous chemicals Union Carbide left behind. After almost 18 years, what this exhibition clearly shows is that the people of Bhopal need action not mere words.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

By Lawrence Liang
The Origin of Copyright Laws
In a broad historical and cultural view, copyright is a recent and by no means universal concept. Copyrights laws originated in Western society in the 18th century. During the Renaissance, printers throughout Europe would reprint popular books without obtaining permissions or paying royalties and copyright was created as a way to regulate the printing industry. With the emergence of the concept of artistic genius, copyright became enmeshed with the general cultural understanding of authorship. Before the normal institutionalisation of ideas of authorship and creativity, copying was even seen to be a noble act. Confucius for instance is reported to have stated after completing a book: "I have finally finished my greatest work and I am proud to say that not a single idea in it is mine".

Later, with globalised capitalism, control over copyrighted works became centered in the hands of the media corporations instead of authors and artists. Even as the internet and digital media rendered distinctions between original and copies largely obsolete, changes in the law tried to artificially maintain them. As a result, copyright laws over time have been transformed from their original purpose of regulating the publishing industry to instead regulating its customers, artists and audiences.

Traditionally, copyright was of little relevance to cultural and artistic practice except in the realm of commercial print publishing.

(Lawrence Liang is the author of 'Guide to Open Content Licenses' published by Piet Zwart Institute with support from Creative Commons. He works with the Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore as a Legal Researcher).

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

G L O S S A R Y

Author/Creator
The author of a work is the person, company or other entity which is deemed to have produced it. The author of a book is the person who wrote it. The author of a website might be one or several people.

Copyleft
Copyleft is phrase first used by artist Ray Johnson to describe the way he mixed images together from various media sources and then made them available by ephemeral means such as mail art or as gifts. The phrase has since been used by Free Software developers to name their variant use of copyright law.

Copyright
A set of laws, originally designed to protect publishing monopolies, which give those who purchase or otherwise obtain a license from authors to have rights over their work's publication.

Derivative Work
A derivative work is something that uses as an element in its composition a part or even the whole of another work. Sample-based music is often derivative for instance. The theory of derivation requires that there be a fixed and unmoving point of origination. A theory of culture which sees it as a matter of flows, change and emergent collaboration would claim that all work is derivative.

Public Domain
Something in the public domain is available for anyone to use regardless of copyright.

Swaraj
'Swaraj' is a sacred word, a Vedic word, meaning self-rule and self-restraint, and not freedom from all restraint which 'independence' often means.