Sarai I-Fellowship 1st Posting

Here's a copy of my first Sarai Independent Fellowship Posting on Regulation of the Internet by the Indian State. This was posted to the Sarai Readers List (reader-list@sarai.net) on May 28th 2007:

"Hello all,

I'm Raman Jit Singh Chima, and I'm currently a B.A.LL.B. (Hons) student at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore. This my first post regarding the Sarai Independent Fellowship project that I'm working on this year, which deals with the subject of the regulation of the Internet by the Indian State through legal structures and mechanisms.

I've attempted to chart out below a rough outline of my project in terms of its objectives and methodology along with its current status. (I'll tried to keep it a bit short here in this post; if anyone wants a detailed look at my project outiline I'll be more than happy to mail it to you at your request):-

The Internet may seem to be a rather radically free and chaotic space/medium of expression, but what most scholars (and indeed recent experiences) have shown that is far from immune to regulation. While there are indeed many forms of regulation and by different actors, its the role of the State that I want to examine here. The main reason behind that is that the regulation of areas connected with speech and expression by authority in the form of the State is supposed to be restricted so as to protect the right of freedom of speech and expression. In order to protect anything though, you need to clearly establish the manner in which the State is engaging with it currently and it this point that underscores my project.

I'm trying to to chart out the empirical aspects of Internet regulation in India and its linkages with normative frameworks. The focus of this project is thus on the following two goals;

Firstly, to track out and study the manner in which the Indian State regulates the Internet through legal structures and connected mechanism (both through formal legal rules as well as through informal measure such as police regulation of cyber-cafes, control over Internet Service Providers etc).

Secondly, to analyze how this regulatory framework relates to the constitutional safeguards with respect to the limitations on state action viz. free speech and expression and whether it respects these constraints.

I'm currently in the stage of examining textual sources for information about censorship law and practice in general in India as well as information about Internet regulation overall. I'd be really interested in comments and ideas, especially with regards sources of information that any of you might think may be useful. I'm specifically interested in knowing about instances of regulation of the Internet by the Indian State which any of you might have instanced happening at a lower level (like in terms of cyber-cafes, city police notices and raids etc) and not only nation wide censorship instances such as the blocking of blogs and yahoogroups (though if you know of instances other than the most recent blog ban and the earlier Kyunhun group case it would be of tremendous use).

Also, I planned out my project with the idea of basing any findings and analysis on clear evidence about actual instances of the Indian State regulating or at least seeking to regulate the Internet in everyday life in a manner prejudicial to freedom of speech. Thus suggestions as to people who would be good to interview in this regard would be really useful, though I'm currently limited to physical meetings/field work being possible only in Bangalore (or in Delhi during June or October)."