Saurabh Das

Christ University, Bangalore, India, Media Studies, Faculty Member

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I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media Studies at Christ University, Bangalore. Earlier I worked at Manipal University Jaipur in the Dept of Journalism & Mass Communication. Further, I am a former Visiting Assistant Professor at Symbiosis School of Visual Arts & Photography, Pune. I am a former Visiting Research Fellow at Sciences Po, Paris, and have pursued my doctorate from MICA, Ahmedabad.

Besides, I am an interdisciplinary academic with expertise in the Political Economy of Communication, Visual Culture, Critical Discourse Analysis, and Social Change. One part of my research work explores discourses at the intersection of gender studies, culture, and technology, and another part delves into the discourses of Populism and Nationalism as depicted in films with a recent work published in a Taylor & Francis journal ‘National Identities’.

In addition, I have published in the ‘Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies’ and ‘Media Watch’, a SAGE publication. When my work was accepted and further published, all these were Scopus-indexed academic journals. My ORCiD is 0000-0002-4771-1980.

Further, I also contribute to writing social commentaries on contemporary discourses and my works have been published on platforms like 'Feminism in India', and 'Youth Ki Awaaz' - the latest publication on 'Feminism in India' - titled 'Beyond The Binary: Retrospecting The ‘Gendered’ Realities Of AI Voice Assistants'.
Supervisors: Santosh K Patra PhD

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Deakin University

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Muhammad Abdullah Fazi

Monash University (Malaysia)

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SOAS University of London

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Tahir Abbas

University of Leiden - Campus The Hague

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Dalhousie University

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Papers by Saurabh Das

Leveraging history to invoke nationalism: from the annals of history to social engineering of present and future in Hindi cinema

Nationalism calls for one's loyalty and affiliation towards their chosen nation. Various versions... more Nationalism calls for one's loyalty and affiliation towards their chosen nation. Various versions of nationalism emphasise that one must prioritise said nation above themselves and their personal ethics, hence, allowing the nation to overpower the nationalist's individuality. In this article, we use Critical Discourse Analysis to deconstruct the narratives of nationalism as portrayed in two popular films, viz. The Kashmir Files and Uri: The Surgical Strike, which are based on real historical events-the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus and the surgical strike by the Indian Army in retaliation to the Uri attack. Both films use narrative strategies to frame key historical events into certain ideological contexts, and hence they serve the populist purpose of swaying viewers' opinion in favour of the dominant socio-political class.

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Education suffering within structural inequalities: A Critical Discourse Analysis of a policy framework

by Saurabh Das and Urvashi Khandal

Education acts as an important catalyst for socioeconomic and democratic evolution in society and... more Education acts as an important catalyst for socioeconomic and democratic evolution in society and is a critical tool for building an equitable system. In our paper, we have historicized one of the most important educational policies, viz. Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SAMSA) in India that carries large expectations to minimize the educational divide. We have studied the policy through the lens of Political Economy and have further critiqued it through the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis. We find in our paper that the budget allocated to SAMSA was revised in 2022, from its preceding years with a 28 per cent slash. We critically reflect on the principles mentioned in the policy and find that although there has been an attempt to mitigate the hazards of banking education the 'Public-Private Partnership' initiative reinforces struggles for equitable education, and further, the privatization sets the government free from any accountability. Moreover, a constitutional right like the Right to Education (RTE) is not sufficient enough to meet the goals of universalisation of education. Besides, we analyse the principles such as 'Education for All', 'Equity', 'Equal Opportunity', 'Access', 'Gender Concern', 'Centrality of teacher', 'Moral Compulsion', and 'Convergent and integrated system of education management', and argue that Education suffering within structural inequalities: A Critical Discourse Analysis of a policy framework 244 | P a g e although some of the facets of societal structural inequalities are addressed, however, there exists hardly a proper roadmap that could be monitoring the process of creating an inclusive educational paradigm.

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Need for Personal Space: Legalizing Pornography in India

Journal of Communication Media Watch, 2017

First author: Satyaki Datta, Second author: Rasananda Panda India though being the birthplace of... more First author: Satyaki Datta, Second author: Rasananda Panda

India though being the birthplace of the ancient science of sex, it is really a matter of shame that the post British India, considers it a taboo, to talk and discuss it in the public. Like many other ancient scriptures and technologies that were all initiated by India, but are now used and further developed by the western world, India, in this case too only boasts itself of having just invented this, but, with little implications in their modern life. Like the Vedas, Upansihadas, Ayurveda, Yoga, Mathematics, Kamasutra or the science of sex, had also developed in this part of the world first, but, is considered obscene in present day India. What is even more insane is that there are numerous, monuments, buildings of the ancient and medieval history still present in this country, which openly depicts sex in the form of sculptures and paintings, and are popular tourist destinations, but watching the same over electronic media has been labelled illicit.

The Tale Of Two Quasi States: India-Pakistan And Their Never Ending Saga (Article)

Media acting as a watchdog: The desired role to be played in enhancing the possibilities of a democratic space in Kashmir (Conference Paper)

Role of family in mitigating school dropouts: a grounded theory approach (Working Paper)

Exploring the various facets of Political Cinema: A conceptual overview (Conference Paper)

It is argued that all films are political, even though they are highly entertaining by nature. Th... more It is argued that all films are political, even though they are highly entertaining by nature. They are political because the messages they disseminate express various identities. Further, they also depict the inhabited roles we play in society and thus give us a comprehensive understanding of the world we live in. In this paper, the first aim has been to explore the various facets of political cinema through the framework of ‘Social Inquiry’. As the idea of a political cinema rests on the notion that its form and content will challenge the dominant discourses and often giving voice to the voiceless through raising various social and political questions, this paper explores how some filmmakers, writers and academicians in the context of current economic and political milieu have fathomed the concept of this medium. It is also found that in the making and distribution of political films there are certain obstacles, viz. political and economic. So, another aim of this paper is to understand those obstacles through the framework of ‘Power’ as discussed by Michel Foucault (Foucault, 2002). Lastly this paper explores the prevailing aesthetics in political cinema and investigates the various kinds of filmmaking which engages its audience. As this paper brings anecdotes and suggestions from various writers, academicians and filmmakers in addressing the complex issues derived out of embedded political messages in films, it becomes quintessentially important to address and understand them.
Keywords: Political Cinema, Capital, Power, Social Inquiry, Production and Distribution

With Technology Ruling Our Lives, Are Hackers The New Agents Of Change? (Article)

Working Paper on 'Understanding a political revolution as explained by Deleuze with contrast to Marxism: A Case Study on Blog Posts during Delhi Legislative Assembly Election 2015'

REPRESENTATION OF CLASS STRUGGLE AND CLASS CONFLICT IN FILMS: A MARXIST ANALYSIS

Films represent society and in a society there is a struggle between people and classes made by t... more Films represent society and in a society there is a struggle between people and classes made by the people. In any type of film there is an underlying philosophy. Marxist philosophy or Marxism came out of classical German philosophy and it has a strong presence in countries like Russia and India. Marxism deals with various ideologies like capitalism, class struggle, class conflict and economy struggle. The study aims to analyze the portrayal of those ideologies through two Russian and two Indian films by applying qualitative (content analysis and in depth interview) methodology.

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ANALYSIS OF PROGRAMS BASED ON DEVELOPMENTAL ISSUES – CASE STUDY OF FIVE COMMUNITY RADIO STATIONS IN BANGALORE

Radio is an important and effective tool of communication. Community radio caters to various inte... more Radio is an important and effective tool of communication. Community radio caters to various interests of the society. One important feature of community radio is that they serve the community for a cause through their program content. The impact of its content has been proved time and again by various scholars and researchers. This paper looks at five community radio channels in Bangalore as case study and tries to investigate the content of these radio channels, especially the developmental issues covered by them.

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