THE MOST COMPLEX DIVORCE IN HISTORY: THE AFTERMATH - Ambuj Ojha

 

On the eve of Independence from a colonial power, citing irreconcilable religious differences, no less, a sizeable part of what had historically been considered the Indian subcontinent broke away , to create its own destiny, in the modern world. The tragic realization of a casual poetic dream of a recent convert to a new religion, a recreational fantasy flavoured by religious separatism, it inherited all the blood feuds and communal hatred aggravated by the riots and mayhem that followed the schism of the erstwhile British Raj. The Partition ,instead of bringing the two newly independent peoples together as had been hoped by some of its proponents and by others who had no choice left but to go with it, quite inevitably became the deepest scar in the memories of those who lived to witness it. Its dark shadow hangs like a spectre on the subcontinent, scarring relations between the two nations even now.

Since Independence, India and Pakistan have always been having an acrimonious relationship. Four times has the fuse of war blown off between them embroiling them into military feuds . Only one of these wars was a full-scale conflict which, ended decisively in India’s favor. The others however did make up in embitterment for what they lacked in scope.

The Bone of the Contention
Well, reams of paper and barrels of ink have been spent to throw insight on this issue by many .Some blame the possession of Kashmir by India (disputed by Pakistan) as the one seemingly insurmountable barrier to their reconciliation. But with the bogey of partition and a long history of Muslim-Hindu hostility, India and Pakistan would have been rivals in love and war even if Kashmir hadn’t existed. Supposedly liberal thinkers blame the British for fanning religious violence to serve their own ends which led to the partition of the country and all the subsequent trouble, but beyond a few isolated instances where the British purposefully derived benefit by exploiting the Hindu-Muslim divide, there isn’t much evidence to support it. While there wasn’t a

single opinion which held sway over the entire gamut of the British ruling class in India most, if not all, were in the favor of leaving behind a united country.

The Rival Forces
The British Indian army after Partition was broken up into Indian and Pakistani armies. This left two well trained, well armed professional armies facing each other when days earlier men belonging to both had fought side by side against the Axis forces in World War 2. The Indian army, as is well known, maintained its traditions of keeping away from politics and a firm chain of command with a civilian on the top was built up in India. The Pakistani army on the other hand, given the very weak and corrupt civilian institutions in Pakistan, soon fell pray to the temptation of political power and as early as 1956 General Ayub Khan became the ruler of the country.

A walk through the Battlefields

1947 Kashmir Conflict: The first war between the two countries was fought when Pathan tribesmen aided by Pakistan army regulars invaded Kashmir when the Hindu ruler of a majority Muslim state dilly-dallied when asked by Jinnah to accede to Pakistan. The ruler, Raja Hari Singh panicked and signed the document of accession to India allowing India to send its troops to repel the invaders. Providence came to the aid of the defense of Kashmir by Indian troops as instead of marching onto Srinagar the tribesmen engaged in pillaging
and rape in the border towns they had captured, allowing Indian troops to bring in reinforcements and strengthen defenses around Srinagar. When the dust settled Indian troops occupied 2/3 of the state and were on the offensive in all sectors. Nehru however, as advised by Lord Mountbatten, intervened and thought that the UNO would be the best place to resolve the conflict and the price of his gross myopia and unrealistic idealism is still being paid till date

.
1965 Indo-Pak War: The war started when Pakistan, miffed by a recent declaration in the Indian parliament making Kashmir an integral part of India ,sent in paratroopers to rouse the population of Kashmir against Indian rule. Needless to say the all the paratroopers who landed in India were caught very easily and handed to the Indian army with the population of Kashmir helping in their capture. India then went on the offensive and captured some key posts in Kashmir near Haji Pir pass but it had seriously miscalculated the next Pakistani move.

The only road linking India to Kashmir at the time passed very near to the Pakistani border at a town in Jammu called Akhnur. Pakistan launched a strong armored attack at exactly this place aiming to cut-off Indian
forces in Kashmir from the rest of India. Indian defenses near Akhnur were weak and in no position to hold off such a devastating attack and they rapidly fell back. Two things then stopped Pakistan from completing its objective which would have been disastrous for India. The Indian forces in order to decrease the pressure on their troops in Kashmir launched an attack in Punjab aiming to capture Lahore. This resulted in Pakistan moving some of its troop concentrations from Kashmir to defend the city of Lahore. Another thing which came to India’s rescue at Akhnoor was an inexplicable change of command of the Pakistani forces in Akhnur in the heat of the battle which delayed their offensive by 48 hours giving India vital time to beef up its defenses there. The war effectively ended in a stalemate with India on a higher plane having defied Pakistan’s objective to snatch Kashmir by waging war.

1971 Indo Pak War: The war began with Pakistan air force launching a preemptive strike against Indian air fields to knock out the Indian Air Force early in the battle. This objective wasn’t achieved because the Indians had prior intelligence of this raid and had dispersed their aircraft. In the West, Pakistan’s offensives at Longewala and Basantar were beaten back with the Pakistan army suffering heavily in men and equipment.
Even their offensive near Akhnur wasn’t successful because the Indian army having learnt from its mistakes had taken care to fortify that area. But in the east it was all over within days. The Indian army carried out a classic Blitzkrieg maneuver to strike at the heart of East Pakistan and managed to capture Dhaka in near about 2 weeks. India captured over 90,000 Pakistani troops which is a stupendous figure by any standards. The humiliating defeat in this war had an enormous amount of effect on the psyche of the Pakistani army. The ease of the Indian victory drove home the point that India was too strong militarily for Pakistan to take on. Never again in the future would they start a war with India relying instead on their penchant for irregular troops engaging in asymmetrical warfare.

1999 Kargil Conflict: Pakistani army learning a lesson from India’s occupation of the Siachen glacier in 1984, sent in irregulars supported by its own troops to occupy very high altitude Indian posts in an extended area along the Line of Control near the town of Kargil in Ladakh. They were able to do this because Indians routinely descended from the higher altitude posts in winter occupying them again in the summers. The Indian army, in trying to clear their land faced heavy reverses in the early battles demonstrating the extent of fortification achieved by the infiltrators. They then brought in long range artillery and air support with the help of which they slowly but surely started dislodging the entrenched Pakistani troops.

The Uncertain Future 

An analysis of the wars shows that except in the case of the 1971 war which was indeed provoked by India, Pakistan has always been the instigator. The Pakistani attacks were always planned well at a tactical level, surprising the Indians and making initial progress but they have always failed to take into account the complete geo-physical ramifications of their doings as well as failing to ensure that their actions are strategically sound. The Indian army on the other hand took the initiative in 1971 and planned and executed a victory Manstein would have been proud of, but in the after war Shimla agreement, failed to press home their advantage. In 1947 and 1965 we fought well at a tactical level but india too lacked good strategic planning combined with a lack of political will, to ensure complete annihilation of their antagonist. Now with India and Pakistan going nuclear, total war has been effectively banished from the Indian sub-continent as long as complete lunatics don’t take over control in any of the countries. The future is expected to throw up only asymmetrical warfare scenarios a la Pakistan’s proxy war in Punjab and Kashmir.

CHUCK DE: A STORY OF NATIONAL NEGLECT - Simy Dixon

Jaideep Sahni’s Chak de! India , though well received by the Indian Audience , has still not helped the nation realize the aspirations of many of the largely neglected Indian Sportspersons. Rather, on the contrary any other sport other than cricket has been chucked out of the public interest. This article is about yet another Mir Ranjan Negi, who stands tall in the Arena and speaks out about the colossal neglect that is pandemic in our nation.

Dr. Jose, born in the year 1931 in a little village in Manimala, Kerala attended St. Berchmans high school in Changanacherry. He vividly remembers his early athletic achievements. “I used to win prizes every year starting right from my first standard!” he brags. “But from the day I first saw the college students play hockey, I was hooked. I’d go every evening and sit on the college wall, watching them practice. Later on when I myself joined the S.B College I started practicing with great enthusiasm. In the second year I became a reserve player and in 1949 I got my position as the right-out..” Unable to secure a medical seat at Trivandrum.Medical.College, on sports quota as another tennis player replaced him. Dr. Jose crossed the state borders and joined Kasturba Medical College, Manipal. His determination evident, he continues,“I was very sure that I would under no circumstance stop playing hockey. So when I went to Kasturba, I took along my hockey stick..” He chuckles and says “you see no one else had come with a hockey stick, the main reason being that there was no hockey team in the college! Everyone found the Malayalee with the stick very amusing and our college founder Dr.Pai who was visiting that day, talked about me and my stick to the entire college in the first assembly through the micro phone. All the freshers noticed me and very soon I was approached by other students who also had a passion for the game.

All of us went together to the deans, talked to them and soon we were a team.. We were like a tin of assorted sweets, for there were good players from a lot of different states I took the place of team manager and was captain two times. We were a good team, aggressive and bold. We were always ready to go play anywhere. The farther the venue, the keener we were to go. We loved the game. Hockey was in our blood!”

However, the doctor is sober when he talks about the reception that the game got. “Not even the college students cared for the game or for the players who brought so many laurels to the college. Some people, especially the Anglo Indian professors did try to make the game popular and more competitions were also arranged. But nothing worked out. Nothing was stable in those early days and especially here in the south, people ridiculed the sport. Some people would even swear at us and abuse us for playing what they believed to be the ‘foreigner’s game’. The townspeople found it very amusing to see hockey players roaming the streets in the evening, after practice in their jerseys and with their sticks.” For someone who loved the game so much Dr. Jose never went beyond the district level games as ther was nothing more beyond this. Once, a
feeble attempt to form a Travancore state team involving the doctor ,was scotched by the tumultuous politics of the time of Partition.

After more exploits at Kasturba, the doctor,headed back to Changanacherry to set up his private practice. He contacted interested former college mates and former teachers and formed the ‘Old Boys Team’. They would play with any team, young or old that was willing to play against them. He formed hockey clubs wherever he could and became the district hockey federation secretary. He wrote countless articles to boost the sport in local magazines. But in spite of all their efforts, the sport did not kick off well. “By the time I came back from Manipal, even the existing earlier teams had been disbanded. Of course college boys still had hockey sticks, but those were for fighting not for playing. Most of the five colleges that did have teams back then later on stopped coaching completely. The government simply was not interested and the college authorities would not give much help. We bought our own equipment and handled most of the travel expenses on our own. And you have to remember, this was during the time when people did not even have enough to eat. No sport can survive without adequate aid. Hockey never got much government support.”

Though hockey is obviously a glaring example of a sport suffering from state disinterest, it is obviously not the only one. Locals who frequent the town stadium, lament the lack of amenities for any kind of decent sport. They point out parts of the structure which are in decay and which require urgent renovation. Sportspersons are never with labels on their foreheads. They become great athletes only through years of tireless practice and exercise. They require the encouragement and aid of the government.The Indian stars who have managed to break into the national and international scene, mostly do so thanks to their own efforts.None of the existing political parties have shown interests in nurturing sports and athletics. We have governments that give huge amounts as rewards to already established stars. But what they simply fail to see is that for more stars to come forth, an active contribution must be done to the training centers.

It is appalling to know that Olympian Chitra Soman had to train in broken down grounds which would often substitute also as the venue for fairs and festivals. While foreign athletes train on synthetic tracks and with advanced equipment our athletes run in maidans along with cows and with health conscious diabetics patients who just about manage to dawdle forward. It is no wonder then that our performance at international events like the Olympics simply fail to measure up. The Indian stars who have managed to break into the national and international scene, mostly do so thanks to their own efforts. None of the existing political parties have shown interests in nurturing sports and athletics. We have governments that give huge amounts as rewards to already
established stars. But what they simply fail to see is that for more stars to come forth, an active contribution must be done to the training centers.

Another unsung legend we have.. He was called ‘Rocket’ because his volley serve was so powerful that people were afraid to stand on the opposite side of the net. Playing volley ball was when Basheer was at his best. But since that would obviously not bring food on his table he would do odd jobs during the day, and play and teach volleyball the rest of his time. Six months back , he died an old man , reducing the passion of a lifetime to a mere title “Rocket Basheer” in the obituary coloum in the local newspaper . Many such stalwarts have lived unrecognized lives with withered dreams.

The world hockey games will soon be played in the Dhyan Chand National Stadium. For a team that used to be the best once upon a time, we are literally shaking with anxiety. Our players have not been given enough incentives, respect or encouragement by the authorities.They remain sidelined when juxtaposed with cricketers and tennis players. Art cannot thrive without patrons and sports cannot thrive without undying, relentless support. Aslam Sher Khan, a key hero of the1975 triumphant hockey team that won the world cup, played for a few more years, grew disillusioned, quit and penned a book titled ‘To Hell With Hockey’. Let us hope that the government learns to treat sportsmen of all fields with equal respect. But the fire has to be induced by those governed –us ! Let us all strive to give our Motherland’s neglected players a boost that they are craving for. 

Let us kindle the spark that will light up a billion minds and force a change on the Government policies. The
change has to begin from within.

THE IDEA WAS TO ENGINEER - Kunal Ray

A friend of mine once said that if you don’t look where you are spitting in a place like Bangalore, India’s very own Silicon Valley, there is an exceedingly high probability that you might end up doing so on an Engineer! No offence really meant to many of my good friends, who, I’m certain, are making lives simple for poor souls like us. But the fact remains that engineering in India has become more of a manifestation of the herd mentality that we all seem to suffer from and not a form of education that it really should be.

Sample these words, “Here in the place of that Hijli Detention camp stands this fine monument of India representing India’s urges; India’s future in the making”. Thus stated the Visionary Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru at the first convocation ceremony of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur. More than 50 years and 40000 engineering colleges later, those words, those dreams are yet to materialize to their true potential. Barring a few flagship institutions like the IITs and a handful other colleges, the quality of education imparted at the undergraduate level in engineering is extremely poor. Poor infrastructure, outdated syllabi, meager resources, sub – standard faculty, all have an equal role to play in this four year circus which ends with a Bachelors in Technology.

A vast majority of the private colleges which have mushroomed throughout the country (a small place like Allahabad alone has more than 10!) do not even have basic facilities like hostels, round the clock Internet
connectivity or even libraries, with a healthy books to students ratio. The other better institutions are gifted with broken windows, falling fans, smelly bathrooms and the bad food - things which every engineering aspirant eventually learns to live with. There is student vandalism alright, but the maintenance is virtually nonexistent, even though these engineering colleges charge an exorbitant fee.

In most of the institutions, the same syllabi are being taught since the time of their inception. Same dog-eared text books, redundant yellowing notes being passed from one batch to another form the study material, which everyone ultimately learns by heart because guess what, even the faculty is not really bothered about the technological changes happening in the world. Even the questions asked in the current examinations may be found verbatim in previous five years’ papers. In such a situation, the students spend their years like the proverbial frog that does not have any idea of the outside world and before they know it, their time is over and a new clan of tadpoles are already in place to learn “Engineering“ and make fools of themselves.

Copied assignments, lifted projects, specimen papers, hollow presentations and an inadequate grading system, one can go on and on. But what adds to the comedy is the expectation that such helplessly pseudo engineers can actually innovate and propel the country towards greater independence from borrowed technology. Now this idea is certainly not new; in fact its roots lie as far back as the 1950s but what was a
noble dream then has actually turned into an unrealizable reality today.

Pt. Nehru had a very plain and simple idea with which he started his famous drive towards boosting science and technology in the country. Along with his companion Homi Bhabha, he believed that if an item or equipment was imported from abroad, all one got was that particular instrument. But if one built it oneself, an all important lesson in expertise was learnt as well. Now that is undoubtedly a very splendid thought, but even after 50 years, far from reality.

I don’t have to endeavor much to prove my point. Just take anything which comes first into your mind. Right from the made in Taiwan keyboard, to the refrigerator, to your car! The products may have been assembled or even produced in India, but the technology is certainly not Indian. Maintenance, sales, trouble – shooting and the new buzzword consultancy; Yes Sir! We are the best; but innovation, what is that?

If the idea was to innovate, we have failed, if the idea was to create, we have failed, if the idea was to engineer, we have failed. But Outsourcing? Here we win, much to Obama’s ire…outsourcing jobs that are rightfully somebody else’s and boasting of cheap labour. That is what MNC’s thriving in India are all about. Many Engineers graduating in varied fields like Civil, Mechanical etc. flock behind the software companies, thronging placement centres to become IT engineers. The lure of the lucre besots young minds. They renounce four years of painful passionless undergraduate studies to transform into highly paid software engineers and enter the rat race, confused all the way. We are losing out on skills, our Nation still staggers and we are the most preferred “cheap technical manpower” in the world. But the sad thing is, oblivious of the erosion of our innovative engineering capabilities, we are still proud of our intellectual and technological prowess.

15 MINUTES - Abhishek Juneja

This one is about those last 15 minutes of alienation that one can possibly feel inside a cinema hall, when you know that the film has reached its climax and something must happen, either to bring a culmination to the proceedings, or to salvage all that had been happening over the past 90 odd minutes. If this were a regular British film surrounding matters such as lineage, ancestry and tradition, you would expect a letter to be found, or opened, or saved till the end to draw the curtains on the suspense. You'd be surprised if it were something different, but you wouldn't mind. Au contraire, you are waiting to be surprised.

If it were the regular American techno-drama, you'd expect lavishly laid-out buildings, all set to be annihilated by fire caused by a series of helicopters hell-bent on an apocalyptic ending. The actor and the actress look at each in a manner so disapproving and yet romantic, you are seized by the feeling they would never meet again. If it were one of the cult French films, where the magnum though visible throughout the film, and sparingly used, is now put away. But as the actors make passionate love, a gunshot is heard, the Seine is captured through a lily-tinted lens this time. As Paris broods, the misen- scene is engulfed with a sense of melancholy.

If it were an Indian film, you would be desperately hoping the cliché is spared. Hope takes a U-turn every few seconds and in the end you are left in a strong faculty of dissatisfaction and contempt. And then there are times when you do not have these 15 minutes of alienation to yourself. The film is demanding, it has you engrossed till the credits begin to roll out. This generally happens in the case of a climax with a high emotion-quotient, where you may not conform to all that you are being treated to, yet there is no time to think to yourself that this could be yet another mirage of ineptness.

On the contrast, there are times when during the last 15 minutes you are so detached, your mind wanders in every direction. You look at people, to see how they would react to that particular ending, now that you have already predicted it. Or at the ceilings, the roof, the edges of the screen, the dust on the aisle. Or think of the wretched life outside the theatre, where nothing else matters. However the hell the movie may end here, life is going to remain the same. You do not wish to return and this sends down a flurry of nausea down your nervous system.

But I like my 15 minutes of alienation towards the end, when I think to myself, whatever they show in the next 15 minutes, however the hell they this may end, this one is going down as a masterpiece. I prefer to not
become a slave to the events. Art must give you a moment to pause, recollect yourself, or to lose yourself in a dream where the film becomes as much as an outsider as the real world. And after the show is over, you're slightly embarrassed, and as the fluorescent lamp over the exit door lights up, you wish to appear composed, or to just disappear from the scene, not having to look into the eye of the onlooker, who is waiting to read up in your eye, your reactions on the film. So while you hide your emotion, your pupils dilate, and with them, your thoughts and emotions, invisibly.

Alfred Hitchcock once said that he could see the film frame by frame even before he had started to shoot it. I wonder how incredibly boring the process would become to him from that moment onward. Cinema inspires, it is uplifting, it can alter your state of mind alarmingly, but in the end, one is condemned to return to the lowly, mortal existences we have designed for ourselves back in the places we call home. Art may reflect life, but life surely has its issues over returning favors, forget paying back in kind.

ANDAMAN: THE MISSING AFRICAN LINK - Arushi Uniyal

The Anthropologists, all the world over, stand humbled before another baffling mystery of human evolution. Where did They come from? How long have They been there? Tucked away, in the lush green tropical rainforets of the Islands of Andaman ,are a very primitive group of people who have virtually blocked out the rest of the "civilized" world, for over 4000 years. ‘The cannibals’, as Marco Polo had once branded them are characterized by their short stature, dark skin, peppercorn hair, and steatopygia[heavy back]. Andamanese come very close to African pygmies and Asian Negritos in physical description.
 

All existing models of modern human evolution , each distinct in its approach , converge to claim that the earliest of the primates had originally evolved in Africa following which there were atleast two ‘great migrations’. After the migration of the homo erectus from Africa into Europe and Asia 1.8 million years ago, there were independent transitions of the species in regional populations from the Homo erectus to the Homo sapiens. Meanwhile, the intensity of the much talked about anthropological event ,the ‘Toba volcanic eruption’
of 73,000 years ago suggests that this eruption could have killed off most of the waves of early human migrants seeking their way out of Africa at the time and reducing further, their inherently low genetic variety, compared to the populations they left behind.
 

In genetics, the haplogroup study is used to track and approximately date the genetic history of a population, its mixing with or separation from other populations,its migrations and the likes. The haplogroups living outside Africa are merely a subset of those existing in Africa. What is being looked for is the ‘original African gene type’.When numerically small groups have lived in isolation for long periods, physical types tend to standardize throughout a population.

 

The Andamanese are one of the few (and possibly the best) examples of such a situation. All lines of evidencesocial, cultural, historical, archaeological, linguistic, phenotypic, and genetic—support the conclusion that the Andaman Islanders have been isolated for a substantial period of time. Mitochondrial sequences were retrieved from museum specimens of the enigmatic Andaman islanders to analyse their evolutionary history. D-loop and protein-coding data reveal that phenotypic similarities with African pygmoid groups are covergent. The possibility of Adamanese still preserving the ‘original African code’cannot be negated. For centuries people have speculated over the origin of ‘human language’. The first scientific attempts were made at the end of the 18th century. Scholars began to compare groups of languages in detailed and systematic ways, to see whether there were correspondences between them. If these could be demonstrated, it could be assumed that the languages were related, in other words that they developed from a common source. In historical linguistics, the ‘comparative method’is a way of systematically comparing a series of languages in order to prove a historical relationship between them. Scholars began by identifying a set of formal similarities and differences between the languages and trying to painstakingly reconstruct the previous stages of development from which all forms could have been derived.

The view that all languages have diverged from a common source as a result of cultural evolution is known as ‘monogenesis’ in linguistic jargon. The existence of differences between languages is then explained as a consequence of people moving apart, in waves of migration around the world. Most of the world’s languages can be grouped into families but occasionally one encounters a language where resemblances to other languages are few or non existent. Andamanese is one such language (a very recent proposition). A developing hypothesis within the linguistic circles is that the ‘fossil island’ of Andaman [surviving the ‘Toba
volcanic eruption’] could be carrying the morphological [language specific] remains of the last "unchanged" survivors of the first migration of Homo sapiens out of Africa.The Andamanese languages might be the last representative of those languages whose origins date back to pre-neolithic times.

With the rapid technological developments in the study of the human genome, the entire living human (and extinct) populations can be analysed and compared , hence such "remnant populations" are of acute importance in tracing and dating the earliest migration of anatomically modern Homo sapiens out of Africa.[though ancient human DNA studies are extremely problematic because of the extreme risk of contamination of samples and laboratories with modern human material] The Insular Andamanese Negritos are one of the most important subjects of this new science.
 

Andaman tribes remain a major scientific enigma and interacting with them is essential to understand the human jigsaw puzzle that is the story of the Great Human Migration out of Africa and the development of the modern human race. Linguistic and genetic research still seems to be in an early stage of infancy, but the collaboration would be immensly helpful to explore the mysteries of human origin, for after all, the absence of evidence certainly does not mean the evidence of absence.

LOVE AND LIFE IN THE TIME OF PARANOIA - Nandini Thilak

A man and a woman, approaching middle age are traveling together in a car. They stop at an empty house and go in together, closing the door behind them. I’m sure you’re getting suspicious already but let’s go on. Say it’s nearing midnight, a residential area, and the two individuals are not joined together in ‘holy matrimony’. They spent a fair amount of time inside in this house. Does that make you uncomfortable? Not something you care for particularly?

Chances are your liberal mind is wriggling a bit. Chances are that you think you have a right to be uncomfortable with the above described rendezvous. Because that seems to the immediate reaction of large sections of society, self described young ‘liberals’ included. Most of us rejoiced when the notorious section 377 of the Indian penal code was repealed. But as always realities have changed very little; social attitudes remain, punishing those let off by law and the state. Last week an AMU professor was suspended for having consensual sexual relations with another man; rewarding those sick minds who took pleasure in filming this individual’s private acts secretly to present as evidence of his ‘crime’. The same people who frown at girls and boys chatting in cafes or walking down the street together, nodded in approval. “Sure, he’s done nothing illegal but he’s supposed to be a respectable man, it’s not right…” is the cowardly argument.

What constitutes respectability? Doesn’t excelling in one profession or being a law abiding citizen make one respectable? Aren’t romantic involvements and sexuality in private domain; part of an individual’s personal freedom? What authority does the society have over the private lives of its members? Who constitutes ‘society’?

Lets go back now to where we began. The man and the woman are alone in the house. A crowd of ‘citizens’, concerned over the immorality of it all, surround the house, holding the two individuals hostage. The police are summoned, the media rush to the spot to revel in the ‘sex scandal’. The man and the woman are led out into
jeeps handcuffed as champions cheer and jeer. Two unsuspecting individuals, respectable citizens until that night, are ordered to take a medical test to prove that they did not have sex and hence are innocent of a non-crime. No one asks “so what if they did do it? Is that a crime?”

Writers and intellectuals cower in front of hooligans who criminally invaded the privacy of two people, the ‘educated’ youth jeer at how low and vulgar the older generation has stooped. Lone voices which hinted at
the ridiculousness and gross evil of the situation are beaten down; gheraoed and man handled. Two lives destroyed in the name of social facades of morality.
 

And this happened in ‘modern’ India, not in some remote pocket of Uttar Pradesh or Bihar, but in one of the most advanced states in terms of education, political awareness and standard of living. Situation is no different else where. Personal freedom of all kind is trampled upon in the name of social norms. A couple can be forcible married off by saffron painted goons if found talking by themselves at a public place. And they will do it with the support of many who pretend modesty has been out raged by free expression. The same men who go home and rape their wives and maids are given the authority to abuse and beat up women who dress against ‘Indian culture’ and go out at night, all in the name of enforcing social rules and protecting the fast degrading moral fabric of oursociety.
 

The violation of personal freedom goes beyond issues of sexuality or women’s rights. The attitude that representatives of ‘society’ have the right to censor personal acts of individuals who are part of it, the right to
take offense and punish those who go against pretenses of morality, decency and respectability pervades across all sections of the population.
 

It’s always the crowd against one or two, moral wrongs against rights and freedom, what’s decent and the done thing against what’s not. Sure, being a part of society means following some rules, but at some point the
social being ends and the private individual begins and he/she’s got a right to private life; to free expression and love and vices and ‘immorality’, as long as he/she doesn’t intentionally or other wise harm another being.
Is individual freedom to live life as one chooses in relative peace to be considered secondary to the hypocritical whims of society? Let’s hope not.

LIPSTICK FEMINISM - Deepti Sharma

Blame it on globalization but does a saucy tattoo on the arm of a young Indian woman mean she is standing up for her rights and those of the sisterhood? Yes, say India's New Age feminists, who see the tattoo as proof of rebellion against a society that insists women be demure.
But it is a superficial badge for a superficial ideological struggle, laments Anuradha Marwah, who has written three novels on gender equations."This new movement of pop feminism feeds into liberalism but unfortunately, is, itself contained by it. Just because a group of women feel empowered through tokens of fashion and sex, the world isn't going to change at large".

Even so, Marwah concedes that fashion can empower some women. "It (the new feminism) has given these young women the power to assert themselves. The case of Pooja Chopra, Miss India, 2009, whose father left the family just because a girl was born, highlights the potential of this movement to make things happen. But then, how many such cases you would see?" Old-fashioned feminists such as gender sociologist Mala Kapur Shankardass believes the new feminism isn't feminism at all. "For a movement like feminism to work, things have to be done at a more social and grassroot level. This requires making policies that will help unprivileged women to break the glass ceiling. That is feminism in the real sense," she says. Some say lipstick feminism started in the 1990's when women in the West began to feel empowered by fashion and sex.

Others, including Teresa Riordan, author of 'Inventing Beauty', insist it is much older, going right back to Victorian corsets and bustles and Marilyn Monroe's breast implants. Riordan wrote that "when successful, the artifice of beauty is a great leveller. It puts the resourceful and the imaginative on an even playing field with the
congenitally beautiful". However old it is, lipstick feminism was a massive break with traditional feminism, which condemned the fashion industry for sexualizing women in order to feed into society's patriarchal mindset.

Media professional Isha Manchanda says Indian lipstick feminists eventually betray the greater cause of gender justice by betraying themselves. "There are young women who are blatantly self-indulgent and feel liberated by going to parties, but at some point in their lives they end up conforming to the social and cultural norms of society. So, that will be temporary liberation. At the end of the day, it's what in the head that counts".
The Indian debate may almost be a re-run of an 11-year-old one in the US, where lipstick feminists hailed Monica Lewinsky's exploits with President Clinton as a powerless woman's way of using her "sexual attractiveness or a personal relationship with a person of greater power to get ahead". At the time, a New York Times columnist said Lewinsky's behaviour was "a time-honoured female tradition to use sexual power as a way to try to improve one's position in the world...."

But the Lewinsky-as-feminist argument drew a fierce response with some American women insisting that "sexual power is a pistol loaded with only one bullet" and it would be better for women to seek "real power" instead. The Indian debate looks set to be equally noisy.

PUNJAB: RECAPITULATING A CONFLICT - Surinderjeet Singh

After the independence from British Empire, the Sikhs being too
insignificant to be party to the decision of partition of the country decided
to side with the secular of the two available options which was India. The
best that the Sikh leaders could muster were vague promises from the INC
top brass including Nehru and Gandhi regarding the safe guarding of their
rights in the new India and their right to self-determination. But when the
new administration in Delhi came to power it did not acknowledge any
such demands by the Sikhs citing that it had too many a people to please
to be found appeasing a minority.
The Sikhs felt too insignificant in such large a nation for their religious or
cultural demands to be met. The split which started with Sikhs, along with
Buddhists and Jains, being clubbed into the Hindu group in the constitution
soon became a fight for a separate identity. The rendering in the constitution
meant that Sikhs were Hindus for all legal purposes. Such signs from
the government and a resurgent Hindu nationalism didn’t help to allay the
fears of common Sikhs who felt that their religion will be absorbed into the
Hindu majority.
The problem which was specific to Sikhs was that any movement initiated
by them automatically took the tenor of religion and seemed as such
secessionist to the largely secular central government under Nehru and
Shastri. So even when new states in India were being carved out based on
linguistic lines, such a movement by Sikhs for a Punjabi state was seen as
separatist. Even to the extent that when a consensus took place in 1961
most of the Punjabi Hindus claimed their mother tongue to be Hindi which
didn’t at all help to bridge the growing gap between the two communities.
What resulted were a series of agitations led by the Akali Leaders to the
parliament, which although were intended peaceful many a times ended
violently with security forces opening fire and Sikhs brandishing their
unsheathed swords. Many a deaths took place, even more arrests. What
was to be a political cause, became a religious one.

Finally after the 1965 Indo-Pak war, when some
of the fears of the central government about the Sikhs
were obviated by the patriotism shown by the Sikh
soldiers, it was Indira Gandhi whose government in 1966
signed the modern Punjab state into existence. Although
the state being not as big as expected, after carving out
Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, it still gave Akal Dal its
first success since the passing of Gurudwara Act under
the British. But while the moment was opportune and
ripe all matters like the distribution of water and the
status of Chandigarh weren’t settled but just postponed.
After the Green revolution, the issue of water became a
dominant one along with demands for a greater
autonomy escalated during time of Emergency. The time
also saw the rise of a certain preacher named Jarnail
Singh Bhindrawale of Damdami Taksal, who used to
count tales of atrocities on Sikhs in his gatherings in
which he would often defy even the Central Government.
The Government both, central and state, did little to
control him and soon his followers were carrying out
executions in the name of justice. Indifference might
have continued to characterize popular attitudes, but
with the government’s indiscriminate punishments for
Sikh militancy, including stopping all Sikhs traveling to
New Delhi for the Asian Games in 1982, sympathies
began to shift.
Meanwhile the central government declined to indulge in
any kind of meaningful discussion with the Akali Dal as
they did not want to be appearing to give in to the
demands of a small group when the cost might be a
serious loss of electoral support in the Hindi-speaking
heartland of northern India. The Akalis tended to respond
in turn by becoming increasingly strident to avoid being
completely side-lined by Bhindranwale, who went on to
fortify the Golden Temple in Amritsar and shifted his base
there.

Indira Gandhi would go on to use armed forces to
kill him and his aides inside the Golden Temple. A controversial
Army Operation from its commencement, the
Army attacked the Golden Temple in the presence of
thousands of devotees who were there on the occasion of
the martyrdom of the very Guru who built the place, Guru
Arjan Dev. The operation, which began in the wee hours
of June 6, 1984, was like a dagger through the heart for
Sikhs everywhere. Thousands railed against the Indian
State, the army, and all those who were connected in any
way with the operation. A large number of Sikh soldiers,
enraged by rumours that the Golden Temple had been
damaged deserted the armed forces. Author Khushwant
Singh famously returned his Padma Bhushan award in
protest. Captain Amarinder Singh, the ex-chief minister
of Punjab, resigned from the Congress party. Four
months and three weeks later, Indira Gandhi paid the
ultimate price for ordering Operation Bluestar

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF CRIME CAPERS FROM INDIAN TELEVISION - Meenakshi Pandey

 

The timeline of Indian television can be divided distinctly

into two periods, before Ekta Kapoor and after Ekta Kapoor. Prior
to the deluge of the daily K-serials, all produced by Ekta Kapoor,
there was some variety in terms of genres. Following the success
of the K-serials, all others joined the bandwagon in making family
soaps. Crime investigation is one such genre, which has all but
disappeared from the telly. This is a little strange considering the
fact that detective shows tend to have a very dedicated fan
following.
When Pankaj Kapur donned the hat of Karamchand, the carrot
nibbling detective, in 1985, he was the first on the scene. He
along with his assistant Kitty, played by Sushmita Mukherjee,
helped the local police solve cases. But perhaps the best offering
in the genre so far was made in 1993, when Bengali novelist
Sharadindu Bandyopadhyay’s creation was adapted for television
in a series called ‘Byomkesh Bakshi’ about a sleuth by the same
name, played by Rajit Kapur. Byomkesh Bakshi was helped by his
friend Ajit in solving cases. Byomkesh Bakshi is often hailed as the
desi Sherlock Holmes. The series was quite impeccable in terms
of acting and detailing. ‘Tehkikaat’ was another popular series
where actors Vijay Anand and Saurabh Shukla played the crime
solving duo of Sam and Gopi. Anita Kanwar as the clumsy and
disheveled Inspector KC in the series ’Saboot’ has been the only
woman crime investigator on Indian television. But now, ‘C.I.D’,
the longest running crime investigation series is probably the only
one left in the genre which is still on air. The character of ACP
Pradyuman, played by actor Shivaji Satam, has an entire generation
of fans who have grown up watching his overacting and hilariously
bizarre crime investigation methods.
The prime reason for the disappearance of crime capers
from television is that the quality of such shows has dipped
greatly leading to a lack of interest of the T.V watching masses.
The present crop of shows compromise greatly quality in terms of
both the content and its execution. Infact, the very popular show
C.I.D owes its fan following to the fact that the viewers see it as
comedy show and not a detective show. Good detective series
have an inherent interactive pull about them.

Watching it requires you to apply your mind in following the sequence
of events, putting pieces together, trying to pick up clues and solve the
case before the sleuth, which is why most people may not like to watch
it. They would rather settle for something sappy which doesn’t tax their
brains. This makes the followers of crime investigation shows a very
niche audience. And since the powers that be of the telly world, are only
interested in making money by serving to the taste of the lowest
common denominator, the popular belief is that the howdunits may
have had their heydays in the past with little possibility of them making
a comeback. But there are others who do not believe that crime investigation
as a genre is dead. Adapting popular crime fiction for the television
can work very well. Pulp fiction has often been proved to adapt
beautifully to the electronic medium. Works of crime fiction authors like
Ibn-e-Safi or Surinder Mohan Pathak whose writings enjoyed a cult
following amongst their readers can be serialized so the present
generation can get a taste of the popular vernacular fiction of the yore.

SMITTEN BY MASCOTS - Apurva Kumar

2009 was a remarkable year for the two greatest

democracies on the planet - India and The United States of

America. The year when both nations went for the most competitive

polls the world had ever witnessed, with fierce campaigns

exploiting the media and swaying popular sentiments

by the minute. In the beginning, 2009 was a year with bleak

prospects for both US and India. The Great Economic Recession

which could trace its epicentre to the reckless and unsustainable

lending practices resulting from the deregulation and

securitization of real estate mortgages in the US, when

millions plunged into massive unemployment, left the people

uncertain and panic-stricken. India was shaken by the

horrendous terror attacks in Mumbai.

We watched with bated breath, till the election results were

announced. Citizens longed for leaders who would deliver the

biggest democracies from the instability of the time. But

little known is this fact that the outcomes of two elections

were determined by two mascots.

Barack Obama was the mascot of hope not only for US but

also for the world. Back home, Kalavati - the Vidarbha widow

whose sorry plight moved Rahul Gandhi to such an extent

that he mentioned her in his reply during the no confidence

motion passed against the Indo - US nuke deal, changed the

fate of this country. The blueprints of Obama’s victory were

drafted two years before 2009.The two Davids - David Axelrod

and David Plouffe were the campaign managers of

Obama. They made sure that the image of this Illinois Senator

should be entrenched into the minds of the people, as

their saviour during that grim period. And guess what! Barack

Obama was the most viewed political icon on YouTube. His

name became a synonym for hope as he was on every social

networking site, be it Facebook or Orkut. His debates and

rallies captured a major media attention. In short it was in the

boardrooms of these two brilliant campaigners, that Obama’s

victory was scripted.

Talking about India, it was Kalavati who was the mascot of

helplessness of Vidarbha farmers who were committing

suicides every 16 hours .It was the sorry state of this woman

who lives with her 7 daughters and a son that resonated in

the famous speech by Rahul Gandhi.

The term mascot has a very strange origin. At the turn of the

century a French composer named Edmond Audran (1842-

1901) wrote a series of operettas, the most famous being La

Mascotte. This was a light hearted story of a virgin farm girl

who brought good luck to whoever employed her. The English

translation was called ‘Mascot’ and it could be anything – a

person, an animal or a fictitious character, provided it brings

good luck for that company.

Mascots are used as communication channels between the

consumer and the product. It is the mascot that enters your

living room to inform you which brand of cornflakes is the

healthiest and the tastiest or which airline you should trust to

ensure a safe and comfortable journey across the skies.

 

The success stories of Indian mascots date back to

1946 when Air India’s Bobby Kooka along with JWT’s Umesh

Rao created our own hospitable Maharaja. The Maharaja was

a suave, moustachioed man , donning red imperial robes, a

striped turban and pointed shoes. Maharaja became the face

of the public sector aviation giant for many years until Air

India and Indian Airlines were merged and our cherubic

Maharaja faded into oblivion.

How can I forget to mention the little dusky ,plumpy girl in a

white frock with cherry red polka dots and a ribbon, who was

recently listed in The Guinness Book of World Records for the

longest running ad campaign of the world. In 1967, even

Sylvester da Cunha would never have imagined in his wildest

dreams that his creation would make such an impact on the

psyche of Indian mothers in the years to come .His "utterly

butterly Amul" girl had replaced the Polson butter girl to

make her way into every Indian kitchen .Every Friday the

Amul girl with her innocent smile could be seen flaunting her

favourite butter in her hands on the billboards which were

deliberately placed at strategic locations.

Emulating the Amul example, Asian Paints came up with

Gattu designed by RK Laxman, The Little Boy with a paint

brush in one hand and a bucket of paint in the other sent this

message to Indian customers that it is only Asian Paints

which can help them preserve their home sweet homes.

No one can deny that 1970s and 80s were the golden period

for Indian ad fraternity. Lalitaji became a household name

when she urged every Indian woman to trust only Surf with

“Surf ki kharidari me hi samajhdari hai”. This confident

homemaker created by Alyque Padamsee went on to

become a household advisor of all mummies and chachis.

The Bunny of Lijjat Pappad , was a puppet designed by the

famous ventriloquist Ramdas Padhye. Shri Mahila Griha

Udyog promoted this adorable mascot , which easily secured

a place in every child's heart.

 

Not all mascots were gentle, cute and adorable. Creative

minds have also spawned stygian mascots whose devilish

looks helped many brands regain their lost market share.

The green tailed horned Onida devil took the onus of carrying

forward the Rs.1500 crore company Mirc. Electronics brand

Onida on his strong shoulders.

One of the most resplendent mascots was the black & white

“Common Man” of Times of India. Designed by RK Laxman in

1951 this man, in his simplicity, exhibited the follies and

frailties of a common man.TOI may have changed its format

and features but the Common Man is more than a mascot

today , turning out to be a powerful meme etched into every

Indian’s mind.

The list is incomplete if I don’t mention the cool guy Fido

Dido of 7up, the egg shaped Zoo Zoos of Vodafone and the

Hutch Pug , the impressive muscleman of MRF who extolls

longevity and durability of MRF tyres, Ronald McDonalds

who, with his orange coloured hair is always ready to serve

scrumptious burgers, smiling Colonel Sanders who assures

you of the lip smacking KFC chicken delights.

From Chintamoney of ICICI to the Cherry Charlie of Cherry

Blossom, mascots control your choice, and in effect the

market.