CACIM attempts to carry forward the work of building a network among activists and thinkers in different parts of the world and in different fields who are at – or who are moving towards – a stage of critical reflection in their work, and of supporting activists or advisors that most movements around the world have associated with them (those whom Gramsci termed ‘organic intellectuals’), and others involved in the theory and practice of other modes of movement, such as in dance, film, music, and science. We expect these constituencies to be both the primary contributors to such a network and process and also the primary users and interpreters of what it has to offer. As envisaged, the combination of production / contribution, use, and interpretation will lead to the progressive construction of open-ended, multidirectional bridges between participants – and where these bridges will themselves progressively become platforms and networks for critical action, in each of these fields. These are the present Associate members of CACIM. Sanjib Baruah is Professor, Department of Political Studies, at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York State, USA. Till recently, he was Visiting Professor, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, and before that, Senior Fellow and Head Centre for North-east India, South Asia and South-east Asia Studies, Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and Development, Guwahati. He has published widely on the north-east, most recently Durable Disorder : Understanding the Politics of Northeast India (Oxford University Press, Delhi), and before that, India Against Itself: Assam and the Politics of Nationality (University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia). [email protected][email protected] Sundar Chaterji took his Master’s degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, University of Delhi. He works as a communicator, actor, and film and television director/producer. He was Creative Director of the Calcutta office of Hindustan Thompson Associates Ltd for 13 years before starting his own unit for communications and film work. His documentary film on spastic children was shown in the Indian Panorama section of the XIIIth International film Festival of India. He has also scripted, directed, and presented a number of documentary films, including a series for the Countrywide Classroom Programme of the University Grants Commission. He anchors discussion programmes on TV. The travel programme from Gomukh to Ganga Sagar, Pradakshina, which he presented, is still well-remembered. Chaterji has been consultant to UNICEF for the National Literacy Mission Project in West Bengal and communications consultant with UNICEF, Bangladesh, on issues relating to violence against women. He has lectured as visiting faculty member at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad and the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He is a member of the CA (Critical Action) network that led to the formation of CACIM Chaterji is also known, under the name Dhritiman, for his acting work in films with filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, and Aparna Sen, and lately with younger directors like Ashoke Viswanathan and Malay Bhattacharya. [email protected] T B Dinesh : A significant tool set can provide for networking and knowledge sharing in a diverse set of communities like schools, apartment complexes, NGOs, SMEs, government offices and online community managed databases. Dinesh has been directing a local team to develop one such tool called Pantoto, by being excited at the possibility that various communities can manage their community knowledge and develop effective online networks that encourage participation. Information technology has to reach the common non IT-savvy person, to enable them to not only create indigenous information but also provide tools to help them help their communities. Dinesh works with the groups at Janastu (http://janastu.org) and Servelots (http://servelots.com) who continuously explore tools for the needs of NGOs and SMEs. Dinesh has a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Iowa, US. He has been in academia, research, and industry in the USA and the Netherlands. He has worked on object-oriented programming, generation of software from specifications, and structuring information for its multi-faceted use on the Internet. He is now mostly engaged in issues, projects and IT related solutions of communities. [email protected][email protected] Kishan Kaljayee, Senior Publication Officer, Bharatiya Gyanpeeth, New Delhi, is an experienced writer, journalist, editor, dramatist, and social activist who is closely associated with movements in Hindi-speaking India. At presented he is the. Together with Madhuresh Kumar, he coordinates CACIM’s ‘Hindi Heartland Project’, which includes the preparation of a four-volume Hindi edition of World Social Forum : Challenging Empires (edited by Jai Sen, Anita Anand, Arturo Escobar, and Peter Waterman, 2004). [email protected] Madhuresh Kumar is a researcher and social activist. Now Programmes Coordinator with CACIM, till February 2005 he was with the Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group (MCRG) in Kolkata (India), working on issues of globalisation and human rights. He is also Secretary, Unnayan, a civil organisation based in Kolkata. A student of history at Ramjas College at the University of Delhi, he then worked with Jai Sen in New Delhi and collaborated with him in the preparation of two edited books on the World Social Forum (World Social Forum : Challenging Empires (Viveka, New Delhi, 2004) and Are Other Worlds Possible ?Talking New Politics (Zubaan, New Delhi, 2005). He is now working with Kishan Kaljayee on the Hindi edition of World Social Forum : Challenging Empires and on CACIM’s Hindi Heartland Project, centred on discussion based on a four-volume Hindi version of the original English edition. In 2005, he published Globalisation, State Policies, and Sustainability of Rights (Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata). [email protected] Manju Menon is a member of Kalpavriksh, an environmental action group based in Delhi and Pune. With them she works on environment and biodiversity conservation issues. The philosophy of the group is to view local communities as central to the imperative of conservation and to popularise and support the centuries of work that several local communities have already put into biodiversity conservation through their cultural, social, and spiritual practices. She also carries out research and investigations on the impacts of large development projects such as dams and mines on the environment and local communities, and on policies and laws that govern environment decision-making in the country. She has investigated several large dam projects in Northeast India since 2001 and has been part of a network that has been advocating for relevant changes in the Environment Impact Assessment Notification. Her writings on these issues have been published in reports, journals, and newspapers. [email protected] Arvind Nair, who qualified in 1984 and has been practicing the profession of accountancy since then, is Fellow Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He has wide experience in the field of taxation, auditing with specialisation in management audits, internal audits, and systems consultancy, company law matters, and statutory audits. In the NGO field, he has done audits/assignments for the Nuclear Science Centre, the Consortium for Educational Communication, the Ramjas Foundation, the Goodearth Education Foundation, CORD – the Chinmaya Organisation for Rural Development, Agewell Foundation, and the Om Satya Mehra Public Charitable Trust. [email protected] Leo Saldanha has a background in Environmental Science from Bangalore University. He has gained experience in the areas of Environmental Law and Policy, Decentralisation, Urban Planning and a variety of Human Rights and Development related issues. He has over a decade’s experience with social and environmental justice action in India and is full-time Coordinator of ESG (Environmental Services Group), an organisation he helped initiate. He is a trainer for the National Law School of India University on environmental law issues, and facilitates various NGO training programmes. In recognition of his work, AID (the Association for India’s Development, USA) nominated him under their AID Saathi programme for a period of three years starting 2001. [email protected] Subramanya Sastry (or ‘Subbu’, as he is known) wears several hats. He works as an independent software developer, works as an IT consultant for NGOs, volunteers with non-profit organizations, and currently works as an employee of Environment Support Group (http://www.esgindia.org). He has a PhD in Computer Science from University of Wisconsin-Madison (2003), and has spent considerable time in the last six years with several volunteer/NPO/NGOs in various capacities as the organization/situation demanded. His interests include issues of social justice, with an emphasis on deeper understanding vis-à-vis cultural, societal values, and individual lifestyle choices. In the past, Subbu maintained the Friends of Narmada site (http://www.narmada.org). He also volunteered with ASHA-Madison (http://www.ashanet.org/madison) and co-ordinated the Madison chapter in 1999-2000.

In Bangalore, he is currently working with Environment Support Group helping with their project work, campaigns, and IT setup. He has also been associated with CACIM since 2004, helping develop proposals in the cyber and information-documentation field and in starting up the CACIM webspace (http://www.cacim.net) and the OpenSpaceForum? webspace (http://www.openspaceforum.net).

In the realm of IT, he is currently working on an automated news monitoring tool which is of interest to NGOs, researchers, and social scientists (http://newsrack.in) and is more broadly interested in the technology-society interface and on projects relevant to the needs of social justice groups and marginalised sections of society. [email protected] Jai Sen, an architect by training and earlier an activist on dwelling, labour, and rights-related issues based in Calcutta (now Kolkata), India, is now a researcher, writer, and installation architect living in New Delhi. Till recently independent and during 2004-6 a Nehru Fellow, he is now Director of CACIM (India Institute for Critical Action : Centre in Movement), New Delhi, and also of Unnayan, based in Kolkata. He writes, publishes, and creates events on and around the history and dynamics of popular movement in India and on the globalisation of civil movement. He has published widely. Among other things, he has edited, together with Anita Anand, Arturo Escobar, and Peter Waterman, World Social Forum : Challenging Empires (New Delhi : The Viveka Foundation, 2004); ‘Explorations in Open Space : The World Social Forum and Cultures of Politics’, special issue 182 of the International Social Science Journal, together with Chloé Keraghel (UNESCO and Blackwell’s, December 2004); and Are Other Worlds Possible ? Talking New Politics with Mayuri Saini (New Delhi : Zubaan Books, 2005). He has also written ‘A World to Win – But whose world is it, anyway ?’ in Whose World Is It Anyway ? Civil Society, the United Nations, and the Multilateral Future, edited by John W Foster with Anita Anand (Ottawa : United Nations Association of Canada, 1999) and ‘Are other globalisations possible ? The World Social Forum as an instrument of global democratisation’, in From a Global Market Place to Political Spaces, edited by Leena Rikkilä and Katarina Sehm Patomäki (NIGD, 2002). [email protected]