Bombay Post Apocalypse 003 : The Surveillance Society

#3 BOMBAY

POST

APOCALYPSE SURVEILLANCE society

The Virus has subsided.

People are back at work.

We eventually won the fight by deploying extreme mass surveillance and autocratic regulations.

But using the scary probability of future more severe pandemics, the Indian State decided to continue monitoring its people.

Laws employed for a state of pandemic emergency have now been made part of daily life.

Systems deployed to control a national emergency have now turned into authoritarian hegemony.

What is our

plan of action ?

How do we evade Mass Surveillance ?

How do we Resist when Congregations are banned ?

How do we Resist the rise of an Authoritarian Dictatorship after the State has tasted the power that comes with Martial Law?

Do not Lose hope.

There have been recent reports suggesting the formation of a coalition of diverse Indian activist groups.

They call themselves The Indian Rebel Alliance.

They are serious.

The ongoing rise of brutal law enforcement over freedom of speech, right to information, inter community interaction & under the skin surveillance, led to huge civil unrest and massive protests all over the country.

In the heightened surveillance environment, various groups starting adopting trademark covert mechanisms to escape detection, scramble face recognition and confuse government data sets.

Eventually these signature strategies formed basis for the Tribes of the India Rebel Alliance.

In order to evade the omnipresent mass surveillance and brutality on the streets, The Indian Rebel Alliance deployed some unique hacks and techniques.

Readily available local and waste materials were turned into protective self defence gear during protests. A variety of subversive garments and personal effects were created by chapters around the country.

Congregations were discreet, watched over by counter-surveillance Drones and digital sentries.

Their goal is to use every available Technology to bring about citizen empowerment and community welfare.

They aim to bring down all existing efforts of mass surveillance, by scrambling data collection and opposing all forms of totalitarian regulation.

THE TRIBES &

Their detritus

Indian Rebel Alliance Bombay Chapter

Scarf Patterns / Scramblers

Indian Rebel Alliance Kolkata Chapter : Scarf Detail

Indian Rebel Alliance Assam Chapter : Scarf Detail

Propoganda poster : IRA Bombay

Face Recognition Scrambling Jewelry, IRA Delhi Chapter

Face Recognition Scrambler Tests, IRA Delhi Chapter

Face Recognition Scrambler Tests, IRA Delhi Chapter

DIY Protection infographic Flier : IRA Bombay

DIY Heat signature Deflector Shawls : IRA Delhi Chapter

DIY Shawl + Aluminium inlay Heat signature deflector

DIY Face Recognition Scrambler for Emergency exits

Resistance Pavilion : Heat signature and signal jamming

Emergency meeting : IRA Delhi Chapter with Heat scrambling shawls and Drone counter-surveillance

“Many short-term emergency measures will become a fixture of life.

That is the nature of emergencies.

They fast-forward historical processes.

Decisions that in normal times could take years of deliberation are passed in a matter of hours. Immature and even dangerous technologies are pressed into service, because the risks of doing nothing are bigger.

Entire countries serve as guinea-pigs in large-scale social experiments.�

Yuval Noah Harari, The World after Coronavirus

The coronavirus epidemic is thus a major test of citizenship. In the days ahead, each one of us should choose to trust scientific data and healthcare experts over unfounded conspiracy theories and self-serving politicians.

If we fail to make the right choice, we might find ourselves signing away our most precious freedoms, thinking that this is the only way to safeguard our health.

Yuval Noah Harari, The World after Coronavirus