A Journal of the press Institute of India ISSN 0042-5303 October-December 2018 SEXUAL HARASSMENT Volume 10 Issue 4 Rs 60 Watch, report, complain, get justice — there is no other way
Politician and once journalist M.J. Akbar is in the centre of the #MeToo Movement in the Indian media. He isn’t the only man accused of misusing his power and position to sexually harass CONTENTS • More than having committees, and assault young female journalists in his employ, but he is the teach boys to respect girls / most well-known. He also has the highest number of complaints Sakuntala Narasimhan against him and a large number of former employees ready • Campaign against wrongdoers to stand witness. And after NPR editor Pallavi Gogoi’s heart- gathers steam / Suvobrata Ganguly wrenching account of what she went through at Akbar’s hands, • Please lend your child your ear / published in the Washington Post, rape is now added to the list Aditi Panda of accusations. Ranjona Banerji on newsrooms being tainted • Is journalism in India facing a crisis with scandals of credibility? / N.S. Venkatraman .J. Akbar is only the most glaring example of everything that is • ‘Compassion and communication skill are vital’ / Dr. V. Shanta wrong with newsrooms when it comes to gender and male privilege. Across India, across various media, we see horror stories emerging. • It is the will to use innovation that is M lacking / Ammu Joseph All India Radio, advertising, newspapers, magazines, the film and television industries have all been affected. • Media neglect adds to woes of rural landless workers / Bharat Dogra As women recount their experiences, one sees a formation of lines and a sense of fear developing. Both are counter-productive reactions. If we remember the • A nationalist and an editor who influenced public opinion / Mrinal details of the Tarun Tejpal case, he first admitted to his actions, wrote a florid Chatterjee note of apology to his victim and his organisation and dramatically announced a sabbatical from his own newsroom. But as lawyers entered the picture, since • Of treasured memories and a deep longing for home / Sashi Nair his victim wanted justice and not large words, his desire for penance vanished and he suddenly proclaimed his innocence. • The ravages of Partition continue to haunt / Sarita Bose Tejpal’s friends then jumped into the act and wrote long articles on how the victim did not look distressed enough for them to believe her when she exited • Indian cricket’s other Fab Four / Partab Ramchand an elevator and, indeed, we got long poetic discourses on the possibilities of what the elevator itself may or may not have seen. Did you ever have to write • Can’t we live in harmony with these dialogues in school, between inanimate objects? Yes, they all read like Class VI giants? / Rina Mukherji essays by the cleverest kid in class. But Class VI nonetheless. • Book Reviews Similarly, with Akbar, his friends and even his wife have jumped in to make • Remembering N.S.Ramaswami / liars out of 30 women at last count and some men as well. A former male Shoebullah Khan / Ramapada colleague from Akbar’s first job finds it hard to believe that a boring dour young Chowdhury / Kuldip Nayar
(Continued on page 3)
October-December 2018 VIDURA 1 From the Editor Yes, treat women with dignity, respect, but where are the honourable men?
e are all born with journalism. Soon, I came to know justice are vital, committees must vulnerabilities, aren’t we? of Akbar, editor first of The Sunday be formed within the guidelines WMen are probably born and then The Telegraph. I was quite of the law, and people need safe with more. They say a woman is in awe of a person I had never places where their problems will man’s greatest weakness. Such met – an extraordinary editor who be heard. After all, the newsroom is weakness has led to the fall made a success of his publications, not a playground for middle-aged of many men; they have been someone who was suave and men to play out their fantasies! knocked off their pedestals. Quite spoke well. In recent times, my However, proving sexual shockingly, M.J. Akbar now falls impressions of Akbar changed harassment is not easy. As veteran into such a league. He eventually after he joined the BJP and became writer Sakuntala Narasimhan quit as Union minister after several the party spokesman… wasn’t he says, the truth is that in cases of women (journalists) levelled the Congress spokesman several molestation and unacceptable allegations of sexual harassment years ago before he decided to quit behaviour towards a woman, the against him. All his hard work politics? Flash forward to today… perpetrators never resort to their to acquire a reputation as a first- you have one ‘sexual harassment tricks in the presence of witnesses, class editor now amounts to little. survivor’ after another speak up so there is never any ‘evidence’. The revelations that have come against him. What a fall! She strongly feels that what we thick and fast have blown his How did the revelations surface? need is ethics, but few schools repute to smithereens. He claims How did the horror stories begin? teach that now. I remember having he is innocent though, which most Perhaps, it was the Harvey Weinstein a subject called Moral Science in find hard to believe. At the time effect (Weinstein is an American class. Consigned to the bin now, I of this issue going to press, there film producer who fell into disgrace guess. So, how do we teach boys are reports of a senior journalist after dozens of women accused him good behaviour? defending him in court, saying "he of rape, sexual abuse and assault). It is disgusting and sad that is a thorough gentleman". There is But did it really require a Weinstein people (editors and journalists also the aspect of accusations made moment for women to speak up? included) in powerful positions on the Internet being admissable in As Ranjona Banerji says in the can do such horrendous things. the court. lead piece here, sexual harassment High time news organisations took During my younger days in and worse have been rampant in a far stronger stance than they have Calcutta, The Sunday was a weekly newsrooms forever and journalists so far against sexual harassment of magazine I’d hardly ever miss, who are happy to report on the any kind (a few organisations did much like The Illustrated Weekly. I misdoings of others have carefully act swiftly after accusations against remember walking half a kilometre ignored their own transgressions. various journalists surfaced). High or so from home to the newspaper She makes a pertinent point: women time they also taught editors and / magazine kiosk to buy a copy. In have internalised harassment to journalists (some of them who the early 1980s when I was in college such an extent that some are unable think they own the world) to treat in St Xavier’s, with the legendary to understand what they are actually women with dignity and respect. Father Paul Jorris still around, The complaining about. Telegraph made its appearance – As Ranjona says, there has the newspaper seemed like a whiff been a generational change in the Sashi Nair of fresh air after The Statesman behaviour, attitudes and tolerance- [email protected] (although I now really miss The levels in women today. What Statesman as it was then, with its seemed like normal, run-of-the-mill classifieds and personals). It was transgressions by men to women of probably during those years, after a generation gone by have become getting hooked to The Illustrated unacceptable to today’s far more Weekly of India, The Sunday and The independent and bolder women. Telegraph, that I got driven towards She says processes and paths to
2 VIDURA October-December 2018 (Continued from page 1) an extent that some are unable existent at all, now find ourselves to understand what women are feeling almost guilty. Were we man turned into such a predator, actually complaining about. Senior unaware? Did we ignore the signs? although he claims to be shocked at female journalists are asking Did we discourage those who the seriousness of the allegations. questions like, “Why did you visit came to us with their discomfort? Within the journalistic community, a hotel room when a man was in Do we need to relook at all our we hear that Akbar’s lawyers are his underwear”; little realising that present and former colleagues with contacting all his friends to try and none of the women knew this in suspicious eyes? Is the trust of the get character certificates for him. advance. And more importantly, past broken? Underlying all this drama is underwear is not the appropriate In these questions, there are some the problem itself: that sexual choice of attire when you’re value judgments as well. Trust harassment and worse have been conducting job interviews. Why is is clearly not enough. Processes rampant in newsrooms forever. the burden of good behaviour on and paths to justice are vital. That journalists who are happy to the women and not the men who Committees must be formed within report on the misdoings of others have crossed the line? the guidelines of the law. But more have carefully ignored their own Those of us who worked than that, people need safe places transgressions. That women have in newsrooms where sexual where their problems will be internalised harassment to such harassment was not overt or heard. We hear of instances where Illustration: Arun Ramkumar Illustration:
October-December 2018 VIDURA 3 the predator himself was on the newsroom is not a playground for our focus was on some other ‘bigger complaints committee. How would middle-aged men to play out their picture’. any woman complain and expect fantasies. The situation is not so broken to get justice in such cases? Worst At the end, we must be covered that it cannot be fixed. But, no more of all is that too many women who in shame. The Indian media opened whitewashing, no more wondering complained lost their jobs or were its doors to women in senior and why women went to visit a man side-lined, while the predators got important editorial positions long who was in his underwear, no promotions. before much of the Western world. more “what the elevator saw”. To their credit, such as it is, Women journalists have moved far Instead, let’s watch. And report.
organisations like The Times of beyond the ‘soft features’ slot that And complain. And, get justice. India, Hindustan Times, The Hindu was once all that was open to them. There’s no other way. < and Business Standard did get rid At this moment, the bravest and best of serial offenders once the #MeToo stories are being broken by women (The writer has worked in the movement broke across social journalists. media for more than 30 years in media in India last month. Some of Many of our most visible and various publications. She has been these men had complaints against most-watched news anchors are deputy editor of Mid-Day, deputy them before, which were ignored, women. And yet, at the core of resident editor of The Times of but the force of anger this time had our functioning, we are toxic and India's Ahmedabad edition and senior to be acknowledged. broken. However much we may editor with DNA. She is currently a There is also clearly a generational fool ourselves, we have allowed freelance columnist based in change in the behaviour and predators to destroy people because Dehra Dun.) attitudes and tolerance-levels in women in newsrooms today and so it must be. What seemed like normal, run-of-the-mill transgressions by IRS 2018 on track, says MRUC men to older women have become The Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2018 is expected to meet its unacceptable to younger women. deadline. Media Research User Council (MRUC) recently held a meeting The great bogey of newsrooms and appointed Vikram Sakhuja as the new chairman of the Technical full of young femme fatales out Committee (Tech-Com) that will set the plan for IRS 2018 rolling. The to trap poor vulnerable men now council is confident about closing the next IRS on time. sounds like the giant joke it is, as Sources in the MRUC claimed that the body, which until a few months more and more horror stories have ago faced a crash crunch due to non-payment by some media houses, emerged. What many who sound has finally got the required funds for IRS. MRUC needs Rs 20 crore for the surprised or even puzzled tend to survey, and is said to have already received close to 50 per cent of this forget is that most complaints are amount. Sources say that the setting up of the Tech-Com is a major step in about misuse of power. They are this direction and things will start moving faster now. Sources also claimed about men in senior and powerful that the council has an ambitious plan to increase the sample size from positions who have sexually 330000 to 360000. assaulted women who are younger When contacted for his plans as the Tech-Com chief, Sakhuja said his and junior in status. That in itself focus is on ensuring data validity, liability and integrity. “For publications makes any transgression, big or with local/regional presence, we want to enhance their ability to read their small, into unacceptable workplace publications at a smaller geographical aggregates. I will now be putting harassment. together the Tech-Com and hope to have a lot of faces from the old Tech- People argue that any stress- Com that did a brilliant job. You will see much of the old and a few new filled work place, like a newsroom, initiatives,” he told exchange4media. will have angry words, bad However, until last month, it was believed that MRUC was struggling language, high tempers and vo-
with funds and objections from publishers on the questionnaire, which had latile behaviour. But none of < delayed the process of survey. those sit-uations allow for sexual assault. That toxicity of thought (Courtesy: exchange4media.com) and behaviour which leads to sexual harassment is what has to be understood and ended. The
4 VIDURA October-December 2018 SEXUAL HARASSMENT More than having committees, teach boys to respect girls
In all the furore and ongoing debates over sexual harassment and the burgeoning #MeToo movement that saw a former editor-minister resign and other high-profile citizens (including film personalities, sportsmen and bestselling authors) accused, a few blank spots have been left unaddressed. Sakuntala Narasimhan focuses on some of the issues, based on her experience of five decades in journalism and six decades in the feminist movement
ill having committees to getting women in top positions in b*****d” as soon as his promotion investigate complaints of sufficient numbers. Secondly, the was announced, was the sole Wsexual harassment help? current furore has also seen some corroborator. But overhearing is Yes, but only to some extent. I have women exonerate the accused – not evidence. served on such committees and for various reasons. Why has the I carried out a small, random seen how these can be rendered movement not seen comments and survey as the #MeToo movement ineffective – in the case of one inputs from members of sexual gathered steam, and got some such complaint, the committee harassment committees, sharing interesting replies. One man said, found the accusation genuine, and their experiences, their successes “Look, if I have a male friend recommended that the accused and problems? and sit close to him and slap his person be suspended or dismissed. M.J. Akbar in his response has thigh, no one minds, but if I am The ‘big boss’ of the organisation, mentioned that the complaint has not conscious of the gender of the a very powerful man with lots of “no evidence” to back it up. The person I am talking to, and slap her clout in the corridors of power truth is that in cases of molestation thigh, why is it seen as offensive and the ministry, flatly refused and unacceptable behaviour by the woman?” This is how some to go by the recommendations of towards a female, the perpetrators men see it – from their comments it the committee, because the man never, ever resort to their tricks in was also obvious that they equate accused was his protégé and pet. the presence of witnesses, so there ‘modern’ (dress, sleeveless blouse, If the committee had gone to some is never any ‘evidence’. A man who short hair – remember the “katee higher authority, the members kisses a woman against her wish, baal aurat” comment made in of the committee (except for me, or puts his hand on her thigh after Parliament by a leading politician, the independent nominee and calling her up to his hotel room on during the debate on reservations ‘outsider’) would have faced the the pretext that he has ‘something’ for women, some years ago?) with prospect of an adverse confidential to show her in the context of the ‘loose morals’ and ‘easy game’. report, or loss of promotion, interview she is seeking, never The ‘proper bharat naari’ is or worse. The case was quietly imposes unwanted attention in the supposed to be demure, submissive, dropped. Had I gone ahead on my presence of a third party. Never. So not out at work expecting to be own too, I could have jeopardised what evidence does one look for? treated as an equal of her male the careers of the other members of I do recall the case of a woman colleagues. This popular conception the committee. who lost out to a male colleague does not realise that some of the It is a ‘power’ equation. Those in a promotion at the office, and most strongly assertive and feminist with power, or those in positions decided to ‘fix him’ by filing a women are from the poorest, of power and authority, can complaint about sexual harassment. illiterate tribal communities (I have bamboozle and get their way. After prolonged investigations, attended some of their meetings in So, will having more women in it was clear that the accusations the tribal belt, and felt amazed). positions of authority as directors/ against him were hard to believe. A On the other hand, when I was CEOs help? Again, only partially. woman colleague who happened to new at my job as a journalist and First of all, there is the question of overhear her mutter “I will fix the was being sent on an outstation
October-December 2018 VIDURA 5 Illustration: Arun Ramkumar Illustration: assignment to cover some event, mere friendly gesture and when it is home, he would give his son a it was a high-placed woman who unwanted overtures. thrashing he would not forget in a said to me, “If you find some It is not just the newsroom hurry. So, it is OK to tease girls, but interesting guy, go ahead and that has seen sleaze, others from not one’s own sister? Teach boys have fun…” What did that mean? different fields – cricketers, actors, to respect girls, see them as sisters, This woman knew I was married singers, TV personalities like Cosby, not sexual beings. That could help, and had teenage kids, but perhaps Weinstein, Ronaldo – have also been far more than having more rules or in her circles, ‘having fun’ meant accused of inappropriate behaviour committees. ‘being bold’, doing what men do. towards women. All over the world, And finally, as one woman That’s not my idea of feminism or and men of all ages (right into their commented, “If only science could equality (the right to break rules?). eighties too). find some way of turning every Such flippant comments send What we need is ethics. No school boy into a girl just for a week or wrong signals to males. teaches ethics (a former Lok Ayukta so, then they will understand the
Yes, some women, a small number, once said that when his generation terror, embarrassment and fear that may be making unwarranted was in school, there used to be females experience when males < accusations. The numbers tell their lessons on ‘morals’) – that has been stalk them.” own story – for every woman who ditched now. Teach boys good makes such accusations, there are a behaviour. I recall the story about (The writer, based in Bengaluru, is thousand men who paw or molest a group of boys on bicycles stalking a recipient of the Media Foundation’s a female. A woman can never a group of school girls and passing Chameli Devi Award for Outstanding make a man pregnant, a man can lewd comments. As the boys came Woman Journalist 1983. Her impregnate a woman. That’s the closer, one of the boys yelled “Arre, fortnightly columns on gender issues biological truth. bhaago (run)” and raced his bike in and consumer rights ran in the During the same sample survey, the other direction. His explanation Deccan Herald for 27 years. She had women said, “Yes, a hug can be just was that his sister was in the group earlier worked for The Times of India a ‘friendly’ gesture, but a woman of girls they were following, and Group in Mumbai.) instinctively knows when it is a if she complained to the father at
6 VIDURA October-December 2018 SEXUAL HARASSMENT Campaign against wrongdoers gathers steam
Journalism, they preach, is all about objectivity, about telling two sides of the story – no more, no less – with complete detachment, clinical accuracy and, of course, without biases. And of a journalist being the gentleman or the lady. However, the stories that have surfaced after the damning exposé of the the goings-on in newsrooms (triggered by the M.J. Akbar story) paint senior journalists in a totally different light, says Suvobrata Ganguly
hey, the ‘Brahmins of fiefdoms, they did not notice the (that includes the sexually harassed) Journalism’ had it easy world changing – change that gave now have a voice – a voice that Twhen the newspapers everyone with a mobile phone a cannot be silenced with sermons, as ruled supreme and they could slap voice, change that empowered redundant as they are. their collective backs even as they readers, even as editors were almost And it is this crumbling edifice sermonised from their cubicles, embalmed at the altar of what we that is now expected to stand celebrating being at their didactic now call social media. Clearly, the up against a gale that has been best. Remaining ensconced in what reader, the viewer, the oppressed, aptly named #MeToo. What is they considered their intellectual the ignored and the marginalised making things worse is the fact Illustration: Arun Ramkumar Illustration:
October-December 2018 VIDURA 7 that brushing a gale under the decades ago – why didn’t she identified. Indeed, the #MeToo carpet is a physical impossibility; complain then? Why now?” does movement is a curtain raiser of besides, women refuse to remain not hold water. A wrong does not sorts. For the men who have erred, floor mats anymore, trodden over cease to remain one due to the their time has come; they know it at anybody’s will. passage of time. And here, we all and they have a lot to be scared That is precisely why age-old know, which side is clearly in the about. invectives such as ‘woman of wrong. Having scores of lawyers We have seen journalists raising loose morals’ are not working. The on your side simply won’t work, for the flag. What about women from standard response to allegations of the time has come – for women to public relations and corporate sexual harassment in work places, voice their grievances and demand communication who surely must the media of course included – of their rights. have had to deal with lecherous casting aspersions on the ‘victim’ Many of the ‘victims’ were young, creatures on a regular basis? It’s (“oh, she’s this type, you know” hardly out of college, possibly time they came out with their or “she is trying hard to climb the in their first regular jobs, when stories as well. And no sympathy to ladder of success”) – has become incidents occurred. Naturally, they the men who have brought women
well-nigh redundant. Victims, were too scared to raise the alarm, misery and left them with scars for who were browbeaten into silence wondering if it was the right thing a lifetime. < earlier, now have found a voice, to do and cowered by frightful and may their tribe increase. thoughts – “what will people say?”. (The writer, based in Kolkata, is the Besides, even if we were to Today, with age and far more editor of Core Sector Communique, accept, for the sake of argument, maturity on their side, they can talk a monthly that provides a micro that the women were, with their and are indeed talking. view of the Indian economy. He also ‘provocative dresses and scarlet Yes, the times they have changed contributes to top English and Bengali lipsticks’ trudging a risky path, (beyond measure) and it is no dailies.) who, pray, gave the right to men to more about weeping in isolated treat them as commodities? confinements – the sobs are being This is also precisely why increasingly made public on social arguments such as “that was media and the predators are being
Editors Guild announces new executive committee The Editors Guild of India has announced its new executive committee with veteran editors and senior journalists on the panel. The panel includes The Hindu Editor Mukund Padmanabhan, PTI Editor-in-Chief Vijay Joshi, Hindustan Media Ventures Editor-in-Chief Shashi Shekhar and The Quint Editor-in-Chief Raghav Bahl. The others are Dainik Bhaskar Group Editor Prakash Dubey, Sakal Consulting Editor Vijay Naik, The Caravan Executive Director Anant Nath, Indian Express Consulting Editor Seema Chishti, NDTV Editorial Director Sonia Singh, Shillong Times Editor Patricia Mukim, Swarajya Editorial Director R. Jagannathan, Scroll.in Editor Naresh Fernandes, Malayala Manorama Executive Editor Jayant Mammen Mathew, Open Magazine Editor S. Prasannarajan, and former managing editor of India Today Dilip Mandal. The former presidents of the panel, including India Today Group Editorial Director Raj Chengappa, former The Hindu Editor-in-Chief N. Ravi; and TV Today Network Consulting Editor Rajdeep Sardesai were named ex officio members of the executive committee. Editor-in-Chief of Greater Kashmir Fayaz Ahmad Kaloo and Khabhar LahariyaDigital head Kavita Devi were named as special invitees. The president, the general secretary, and the treasurer are ex officio members of the executive committee.
The print Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta is the president of the Guild; A.K. Bhattacharya, editorial director, Business Standard, general secretary; and Sheela Bhatt, editor (News Affairs), NewsX, treasurer. <
(Courtesy: PTI / The Hindu)
8 VIDURA October-December 2018 SEXUAL HARASSMENT Please lend your child your ear
Even as the #MeToo campaign is sweeping the world, Aditi Panda explores the need to sensitise children from disadvantaged backgrounds about child sexual abuse, and empower them to talk about their issues
riya’s parents were away and both spouses working, more parents believed them and took the at work and she was alone and more children are either alone matter to the police. However, a Pat home when a neighbour for long hours after school or in the great number of children from the ‘uncle’ came to the house on the care of domestic help. underprivileged strata of society pretext of asking for a charger, and Says Meera Panda, a counselor: studying in government schools tried to hug her. “She pushed him “The percentage of families with are inured to violence, which they away and ran across to my house,” both parents working has increased see happening all around them, says Anisha, her best friend. “We and children go to empty homes and the illiteracy, poverty and lack were told about gender-based after school. TV or Internet are the of awareness of their parents is an violence in school, and Priya knew only company they have during that added disadvantage. what to do.” time and that is when they either Sasmita Routray, teaching in a Priya and Anisha reported the fall prey to violence perpetrated government school, says, “Earlier incident to their parents, who by people they trust, or indulge in NGOs visited our school to tell our immediately complained to the activities that they are not supposed children about health and good police. The ‘uncle’ took the stand to under peer influence. As elders hygiene practices, but of late they that what he had done was only we have dual responsibility – to talk have started including sessions on out of ‘affection’, but “the fact that to them and, most significantly, to gender-based violence and coping the orientation on gender-violence listen to what they have to say. It’s mechanisms, which is vital. The most in school had taught us how to very essential to tell children about important outcome is that children handle the situation saved Priya,” good touch and bad touch.” are being encouraged to speak about says Anisha. Adolescents today are also this and not feel shy or threatened. Child abuse has always existed susceptible to cyber crime and This will decrease mental health and young girls have always been substance abuse and therefore more problems and suicides. Parents easy targets, but today, with the are likely to get victimised. Priya welcome this training too, as they increasing trend of nuclear families and Anisha were fortunate that their are not empowered enough to talk to their children about these issues, bound by outdated taboos and stereotypes that persist in society”. More cases are being reported but even so, a large number of cases are hushed up because families do not believe the children or they are scared to start a controversy. Ten-year-old Sneha can’t hold back her tears as she says, “I tried several times to tell my mother and aunt that both my sister and I felt very uncomfortable when a close friend of the family hugged and kissed us. But instead of doing something about it, they lectured us and asked us not to speak about it.” Fortunately, the ‘uncle’ was
Illustration: Arun Ramkumar Illustration: transferred and stopped visiting
October-December 2018 VIDURA 9 the family. But Sneha says after the experience, both she and her sister Vikatan Group makes key appointments are apprehensive about even talking to any ‘uncles’. Ananda Vikatan, Tamil Nadu’s leading media group with its strong Adults trying to hug or touch presence in print, digital, activations, awards and TV content has amplified young children against their wish its regional team. is common practice in our society. Shankar M. has joined as the business head for Tamil Nadu and Kerala On the surface such gestures appear regions. He comes with a wealth of print experience from reputed publications as simple expressions of affection, such as The Hindu, The Times Group and Daily Thanthi. His last assignment but appearances are deceptive. was with Daily Thanthi where he was responsible for growing the print and Only if a child knows that she is digital footprint. being violated will she be able to Ganesh Murugan, who was leading the regional market in addition to his confide in the family. Many schools digital responsibilities has been elevated as national head – Digital Solutions are conducting gender violence & Branded Content. Murugan was instrumental in growing the digital awareness campaigns for children advertising pie for the Vikatan Group over the past two years. He was earlier from Standard 6 to sensitise them vested with the additional responsibility of growing the TN & Kerala markets about the issue, which will help for all verticals. them combat the situation. Jagadeesh, a long timer in Vikatan, is leading print-led growth through When children are on the thres- focussed initiatives. In order have a focussed approach for print verticals,
Jagadeesh has been assigned the national responsibility of driving revenue hold of adolescence, irrespective < of gender, they go through a lot growth for print through innovations and special projects. of emotional and psychological turmoil. With mounting work (Courtesy: exchange4media.com) pressure and addiction to social media, communication in the Ajit Mohan to head Facebook India family has become minimal. In many cases, situations get out of Facebook has announced that it has appointed Ajit Mohan as managing control. The bottom line is to build director and vice-president, Facebook India. In the newly created role of a rapport with children and listen managing director for India, a VP-level role, one of the most important to them. Once a bond of trust is responsibilities will be aligning teams and driving Facebook’s overall strategy developed with an adult, a child in India. This is a new structure for Facebook India of having a senior leader will reach out and confide. Instead reporting into Menlo Park and not Asia Pacific. of waiting for the government or a Mohan will be responsible for Facebook's India strategy and for driving the service organisation to take steps company's continued investment in India. He will lead a senior leadership team to check crime against children, in India that will strengthen Facebook's relationships with people, businesses, this is the simplest thing that we as and government and intensify the company's efforts to help people in India adults can do to protect our children connect with the people and things they care about most. from abuse and give them a happy Mohan joins Facebook from Hotstar, the streaming platform launched by
childhood. The emotional, mental Star India, where he was CEO. He launched and built Hotstar into India's and physical safety and stability of leading premium video streaming platform. He will join Facebook early next < a child is at all times more important year.
than the concern about “what will people say?” < (Courtesy: exchange4media.com)
(The writer, based in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, works freelance for the state government and several funding agencies. Her field of interest is disability, gender, child rights, child protection and accessibility.)
10 VIDURA October-December 2018 Where does investigation end and snooping begin?
Rushing to press in reportage can cause distress to the families involved, as the Karnataka High Court has conceded. The right to privacy gets eroded. So where does a reporter draw the line? Are there guidelines? Are these discussed and taught as part of training for media persons? Over to Sakuntala Narasimhan
small, six line, single- media revel in giving updates in the interests of justice, social stability column item that appeared the name of ‘breaking news’ (and and peace. Fake news, that has been Arecently in the newspapers, garnering viewership ratings), and so much in the news in the past tucked inside a metro supplement, often overdo it (including ‘sting’ two years, comes into the picture ought to have raised a debate among operations, not all of them legal too – in the rush to grab ‘scoops’, media persons. Doesn’t look like it and ethical) – but should the public if reporters resort to manufacturing did, though. The item was in the know what our anti-terrorist squads ‘developments, that becomes fake context of a report on ‘techie’ Kumar are planning, what equipment they news (which can be rebutted, Ajitabh who has been missing from use, what leads they have, and denied, and proved false, but the his house in Whitefield in Bengaluru where they are poised in hiding? harm done cannot be reversed). since December 2017, with no clue I have seen pictures of commandos In both fake news and snooping on what happened to him despite in fatigues, poised behind bushes, into secret manoeuvres that are prolonged investigations by the waiting to apprehend armed best kept under wraps till they are police. It said that the Karnataka insurgents. Surely, this amounts carried out, ethics come into play – High Court was informed by the to giving away strategies that the and ethics are as much a vital part police that they (the police) would insurgents could use to get away? of journalism as they are in other like to keep the investigations secret Reporting on plans that the police areas of endeavours. In fact, more for the moment. The court agreed or army have drawn up for solving so, because the media can mould that confidentiality was best “in the a case erodes the chances of success public opinion and influence a interest of Ajitabh’s family”. for those plans, by warning the large number of reader, listeners Does the public have a right to know criminals that the authorities are and viewers. The more powerful about every single development getting closer; this could lead the medium and the wider / higher in the on-going investigations, to destruction of evidence by its reach, the more important it including planned moves to come? the perpetrators, and harm the becomes to stick to ethical norms in I believe, strongly, in citizens’ right resolution of the criminal cases. reporting. to know what is going on, whether It is one thing to report on progress Concerns of safety, for the nation it is decision-making in the corridors made in solving a murder case, and and its people, rightly dictate the of power, social and community quite another to report on what need for restraint in reporting on developments, civic affairs, or the police or other investigating defence strategies. Revealing what a trends in crime , but is there a line authorities are planning next, to ‘surgical strike’ is going to be, where separating the right to know from nab the guilty. We cannot deny and when, would be a shocking what is best for the resolution of a that media persons today often get breach of national safety norms. The mysterious disappearance and the carried away beyond ethical limits, media cannot be a party to ongoing promotion of safety in society? and ‘snoop’ into ongoing probes, for tactics pertaining to national The media have been reporting no reason other than that they want defence. Of course, in the name of on investigations of criminal cases to be ‘the first to break the news’. ‘safeguarding’ the interests of the (the Gowri Lankesh and Dabholkar What if it ‘breaks’ the chances of country, officials and politicians murders, for instance). Which is fine success in the investigations? often bar access to the media, even – the public needs to know what is Report on a case after it is resolved, when no national danger exists, being done to identify and punish by all means, but revealing ongoing but here again, if ethics dictated the criminals. However, the visual strategies is sometimes a no-no, in the responses of politicians and
October-December 2018 VIDURA 11 Illustration: Arun Ramkumar Illustration: officials, we could satisfy both the reporting in the media, but does one that ignored the sentiments need for the public to know and the that absolve us, the ‘consumers of of a woman who was bereaved. need for protecting the interests of the media’, from voicing our views Abandon ethics, common decency, the nation state. and promoting such vigilance? and an individual’s right to The crux, then, is ethics in decision- I have written earlier about privacy, and all your TRP ratings, making (by the media as well as by how, during a visit by a batch of breaking news or chest-thumping
administrators and media persons) reporters to Latur in Maharashtra, leadership in reportage, become and ‘fair play’. In a democracy, then, on the anniversary of the infamous meaningless. < we the people, need to ask why earthquake that devastated that ethics, immorality, and personal area, one young reporter thrust a biases (or the hankering for ratings) microphone before an old woman take precedence in so many areas of sitting in a dilapidated hut, and public life. It is not just media persons asked her, “Aapko kaise lagaa? (how who are at fault in breaking bounds, did you feel)”. Her whole family, we are also at fault in failing to including her husband and sons, monitor the goings-on and maintain had perished in the quake. What vigilance over the media. There are does one expect her to say? official committees and bodies that That was clearly, a terrible case of are meant to monitor unethical insensitivity and breach of ethics,
12 VIDURA October-December 2018 Is journalism in India facing a crisis of credibility?
The editor of a Tamil journal was arrested recently on the basis of a complaint from the office of the Tamil Nadu Governor regarding an article he had written associating the governor’s name with a discredited woman professor of a college, thus damaging the former’s reputation. Subsequently, the court ordered the editor’s release. Based on the incident, N.S. Venkatraman provides his point of view going so far as to say that the distinction between politicians and journalists is blurring in India
ournalists’ associations criticised investigation or the information questioned by her male superior on the police and praised the judge thus revealed. any official matter, and make false Jwho ordered the release of the The question is whether a journalist charges against him in retaliation. If editor of a Tamil journal who has the right to write anything about she gets the backing of the media, had written an article associating anybody and damage reputations. the superior’s reputation would be the governor’s name with a If that is the case, no one is safe. tarnished. discredited woman professor of a Journalists will have the freedom In the recent past, the Me Too college. Though the journalist has to harass and even blackmail campaign has been sweeping across said that he had written the article individuals. In fact, this is already the world and, in India, the television only after investigation, there is happening. In an office situation, a media in particular is devoting a lot no clarity about the method of the woman could take offence at being of space to women accusing men Illustration: Arun Ramkumar Illustration:
October-December 2018 VIDURA 13 of having abused them many years The reputations of the men indirect political leanings. Indeed,
ago. In many cases, the accusations involved are getting irreparably today, journalism in India is facing have been made without offering damaged. a crisis of credibility. < any conclusive proof, and the Journalism in India seems to be men in question have denied the going astray. It appears that the (The writer resides in Chennai and accusations. distinction between politicians and is founder-trustee, Nandini Voice for However, the media has been pre- journalists is blurring in India. It is the Deprived.) judging such issues and conducting well-known that several newspapers, ‘trials’ of its own, with no emphasis journals and TV media houses in the on accountability, either for the country are owned by politicians and media house or the journalists businessmen. Many journalists involved in the ‘trials’. are suspected of having direct or
Ram Mohan Roy award for N. Ram Veteran journalist and The Hindu Publishing Group Chairman N. Ram has been chosen for the prestigious Raja Ram Mohan Roy Award, presented by the Press Council of India (PCI), for his outstanding contribution towards journalism, the Council has announced. The award will be presented on November 16 on the occasion of National Press Day. In a statement, the PCI also announced National Awards for Excellence in Journalism for 2018. Ruby Sarkar, chief correspondent of Deshbandhu, Bhopal, and Rajesh Parshuram Joshte of Daily Pudhari, Ratnagiri, have been named joint winners for Rural Journalism. V.S. Rajesh, deputy editor, Kerala Kaumudhi, has been selected under the award category of Developmental Reporting, the PCI said in a statement. Subhash Paul, Rashtriya Sahara, Delhi, was named as a winner of the award in the Photo Journalism-Single News category, while Mihir Singh of the Punjab Kesari, Delhi has been selected in the category of Photo Journalism-Photo Feature, the statement said. Under the category of ‘Best Newspaper Art: covering cartoons, caricature and illustrations’, P. Narasimha, cartoon editor, Nava Telangana, Hyderabad, was selected for the award. No entry qualified in the newly introduced category of Sports Reporting. The selection of awardees was
carried out by a jury comprising eminent working journalists, senior editors, owners and managers representing print media. <
(Courtesy: The Hindu)
Yatish Rajawat is DNA editor-in-chief
K. Yatish Rajawat has been appointed as editor-in-chief of DNA, an English daily owned by Zee Media Group. Rajawat’s appointment comes months after Dwaipayan Bose quit DNA as editor-in-chief and joined Mail Today. As Chief Strategy Officer, LocalCircles, Yatish Rajawat was part of the founding team at LocalCircles responsible for strategic revenue alliances and partnership with media and broadcast platforms. Previously Rajawat had written as a columnist for various media entities, such as www.firstpost.com, Businessworld magazine and public broadcaster Rajya Sabha TV. He has been associated with Dainik Bhaskar Group and had launched the first Hindi business newspaper in India -Business Bhaskar. He was then elevated to group managing editor of
Bhaskar Group in July 2009 to handle all the group publications and newspapers across multiple languages. <
(Courtesy: exchange4media.com)
14 VIDURA October-December 2018 Is ‘activism’ becoming a misused term? Activism and activists come in all hues. N.S. Venkataraman explores the boundaries of these terms in the context of the larger national interests. While everyone is free to hold his or her own views, no one can impose their views on others in violation of the laws of the land, he says
nvironmentalists, freedom the activists have been promoting fighters, people who pro- separatist tendencies and even Epagate a particular set of violent activities that destabilise religious beliefs – they all describe society. themselves as ‘activists’. And their Most of the activists seem to be numbers are increasing all over the of the view that they are serving a world. Some also use the term as cause dear to their heart and that a shield for questionable activities. there is nothing wrong in trying to ‘Activism’ is good if it is promote the ideas that they cherish practised with total transparency in a clandestine manner. Recently, a in speech, activities and outlook. few activists were held on the charge Unfortunately, some ‘activists’ that they were funding, supporting these days indulge in spreading and motivating Maoists who believe hatred and carrying out malicious in violence and in breaking the law propaganda with the objective of to achieve objectives which they see
forcing the suspension of projects as contributing to the promotion of Arun Ramkumar Illustration: and government programmes which an egalitarian society, among other they believe to be wrong or harmful. things. of the country vested in it by the In the course of their activities, the When the houses of the activists electorate? existing order of society is disrupted were raided by police, the media and India is a democratic society causing difficulties for large sections many opposition parties accused the and everyone has the liberty to of people. government of curtailing freedom criticise or protest. However, A recent trend in India is the and using draconian measures to if such activities are done in a mushrooming of non-governmental suppress the liberty of individuals clandestine manner with the aim of organisations founded and run by and groups. The arrested activists ushering in a so-called revolution, activists, who receive money from were portrayed as well-educated the government must act. Inaction within the country and outside persons, scholars, profound will lead to serious adverse under the guise of donations for thinkers, writers etc, which may all consequences for the stability of the social causes like helping deprived be true. country. The arrested activists have people etc, but put the funds to use However, when government the option of legal recourse. Let for activities very different from the has information that the ‘scholar the judiciary decide on the merits intended purpose of the donations, activists’ have indulged in or otherwise of the government’s sometimes even with the knowledge objectionable practices that could action. of the donors. cause a serious law and order Activists of all hues need to be situation and disrupt the peace, The Government of India has aware that liberty is not a personal how can it keep quiet? Should the privilege but a social contract. While deregistered a number of NGOs government allow such activities to everyone is free to hold his or her which do not publish details of fund go on? If the government did not act receipts and expenditure and do on information, fearing media trial own views, no one can impose their not submit annual reports as per and criticism, would it not amount views on others in violation of the
laws of the land. The term ‘activism’ statutory requirements. There have to abdication of the responsibility to < been a number of complaints that protect the integrity and sovereignty should not be misused or abused.
October-December 2018 VIDURA 15 CANCER CARE ‘Compassion and communication skill are vital’ Chennai’s Cancer Institute (WIA) is a pioneer in many areas of cancer care. The milestones have included the establishment of Medical Oncology as an integral part of cancer management in 1970, introduction of the concept of oncology as a super speciality in 1982, and the founding of the first super specialty College of Oncologic Sciences in India in 1982. Dr V. Shanta, chairman of the institute, who has devoted the past six decades of her life to cancer care and cure, was speaking recently at Teenage and Young Adult Cancer Conference (TYACON) 2018. Here is what she said
he era of super specialty groups. The age of puberty among pulmonary morbidities following started in 1982-84 with the girls varies in different countries anti cancer drug use, etc need Tintroduction of DM (Medical and is a distinct age. But not so in careful consideration in case of Oncology) and MCH (Surgical the boys. teen age and young adults when Oncology). MD (Radiation It is felt that it is period of many you are planning treatment with Oncology) as specialty existed physical changes like growing in possible long time survival. already. The very concept of height, physical growth, change in Yet another major risk is second oncology as a super specialty, the voice in the male, breast development malignancies. As oncologist, we introduction of MCH and DM and in girls, other hormonal changes should decide on how much we the first super specialty College in addition to biological changes, tell the patient, and the way it of Oncologic Sciences was the a period when one starts making is communicated. Compassion pioneering effort of the Cancer future plans in education and career, and communication skill are Institute (WIA). Our curriculum is attitude, likes and dislikes, etc. vital. There are institutions and unique and has a comprehensive Pediatric cancers have been a professionals who believe in being coverage of not only medicine and success story especially in lympho cut and dry and not hiding facts. medical oncology but surgery, proliferative disorders. With But I think it is cruel and a negative radiotherapy, radio biology, bio introduction of technologies like approach. They will not do the chemistry, molecular oncology and risk-adapted therapy and many same to their own relatives. My more. more, quality care is improving. repeated advice: “Do what you do Ever since, from specialty to There is however a difference to your own relatives – child, son, super specialty, there has been a between boys and girls survival. daughter, wife, etc. You will never proliferation of super specialties, It is claimed that pediatric pro- be wrong because you would have in addition to sub-super specialties. tocols although show improved done the best.” These have no doubt added to survival in the TYACON group, there I would just like to highlight a survival and quality survival but is increased toxicity. Adult protocols major issue in oncologic practice, have also unfortunately resulted in do not seem suitable. Use of certain which becomes extremely relevant unexpected scatter effects including anti-cancer drugs like alkylating in this group of TYACON patients unethical practices. agents,anthracyclines,platinum – doctor-patient relationship. Today, we are discussing a new radiation therapy, all have potential Individualised care is a vital group of patients, TYACON. The long term morbidities and therefore component of oncologic care term TYACON refers to teenage have to be considered very carefully in general and specifically very and young adults (TYA) being prior to their use. Long-term survival relevant and more important in studied as a separate group and with morbidity must be avoided / this group. is considered different from the prevented and has to be accepted as A patient with a diagnosis pediatric group (above 15 years). the responsibility of the oncologist of cancer is already in a state The definition of the group is not treating the patient. of extreme fear – almost panic. very clear and includes 15-35, 15- Fertility preservation, psychosocial This group 15-24 is already in a 39, 15-29 (ages) by different study support, prevention of cardiac and changing transition phase of life
16 VIDURA October-December 2018 – growing, attaining puberty and one of trust and confidence. You either in response or recurrence hormonal changes, period for have to be worthy of the trust. despite all prognostication markers. decision on their future and many In planning treatment, always Prognostication in cancer has more. A diagnosis of cancer in this pause and ponder. Am I doing evaded us till today. period causes significant mental the right thing, can I do better? In Our ethos in the pediatric disturbance and needs compassion, planning the treatment, you are ward has always been: ‘They consideration and personalised virtually writing a verdict on the shall always have a tomorrow. management – both by the treating life of the patient. You must make It continues. No patient can be physician and the family. sure that you are giving your best. turned away for lack of money. It The oncologist’s skill in It should never be less. is our pledge, the six facets of the communication and listening are Evidence-based medicine based diamond — Commitment, Cure,
vital and can make all the difference on well-conducted clinical trials Care, Compassion, Challenge and in piloting the patient through the may be the best but experience is as Change. < different phases of treatment. Doctor important, probably more, in many patient relationship is a sacred one, instances. No two patients are alike
Onus on journalists to be committed and pursue excellence Alternate media may be growing in India, but the conventional and mainstream medium including newspapers still have future here. India has emerged as a land of millions of smartphone users and millions on the Internet. However, there is a sizable population which lacks access to the digital space and continues to depend on print. Nava Thakuria sent us this report Alan Gray, editor and proprietor of the news portal, Newsblaze.com, interacted with scribes at the Guwahati Press Club via video conferencing from Jerrabomberra in South Australia on October 12. He pointed out that the Indian newspapers in various languages would continue to serve a huge population with news, views and analytical pieces. Gray asserted that the basics of journalism across media forms remained the same. Aspiring journalists must do proper groundwork before writing a story, whatever the format, else they might lose themselves in the crowd, he said. Gray said that journalists in Australia strove to maintain high professional standards and Alan Gray. enjoyed a fair degree of job security and a good pay package. He pointed out that the Australian press was quite nationalistic, but it was issue-based and scribes did not shrink from constructive criticism. Various media forms in Australia coexisted in a dynamic media landscape. Gary, for many years now based in Australia after shifting from the United States, said India was given due coverage by Australian media. Responding to queries from the audience, he admitted he had not come across any journalist of Indian origin active in Australia. “We do receive a good amount of write-ups from Indian contributors, though the quality is sometimes uneven. A considerable number of unskilled and inexperienced people are entering this field,” Gray said, adding that many media-house managements in India seemed to prefer raw recruits rather than experienced journalists, to cut down on expenses.
Agreeing that fake news was emerging as a major threat to both alternate as well as mainstream media, Gray said it put greater responsibility on working journalists. To maintain credibility and retain the trust of readers or < viewers, he reminded, editor-journalists had all the more reason to be committed and pursue excellence.
(The author is a senior journalist and secretary, Guwahati Press Club.)
October-December 2018 VIDURA 17 HEALTH AND SANITATION It is the will to use innovation that is lacking Serving on the jury for this year’s PII-ICRC Awards and joining the panel discussion was Ammu Joseph. She shared her thoughts about some of the entries received, media coverage of health-related news, and the abominable practice of manual scavenging
ome years ago I used to write really encouraging was the fact that much of the media has little time or a regular column on media they were actually not exceptions, at space for those at the bottom of the Scoverage of various subjects. least in terms of focus. economic and social pyramid. At least two of these examined To come across 40+ journalists So I would like to sincerely thank media coverage of health in who have opted to highlight all the writers and photographers general and health-related news in relatively simple - not super hi-tech who shared their work with us particular. One of my observations - innovations aiming to improve and commend them for really at the time was the skewed nature the health status and / or access to swimming against the tide, as of a lot of health coverage. As I healthcare of poor or otherwise it were, to bring these stories to asked in a 2009 piece, “Why is it marginalised fellow citizens is us and, most importantly, to the that swine flu makes major national particularly gratifying at a time when public. headlines while encephalitis, which has claimed many more lives this year (not to mention malaria, tuberculosis, gastro-enteritis, etc), does not?” I’m sure all of us can think of other, more recent instances of ‘sexy’ diseases and ailments grabbing media attention while many health issues that are often more widespread and life- threatening, especially those that affect large numbers of socially and economically disadvantaged people, including children, receive far less attention, if any at all. While reading the entries received for this award, what gave me more hope than I have felt for a long time about trends in the media was the fact that almost all the writers had chosen to focus on innovations in health and sanitation that have the potential to benefit people from traditionally deprived sections of society. This is, of course, reflected in the outstanding articles by the award- winners and others receiving special recognition. But what was A story that highlighted the dire situation of a paraplegic person.
18 VIDURA October-December 2018
Photos: PII-ICRC
A story that focused not just on manual scavenging, but also on the persistence of the caste system.
In this context I would like to from a hamlet in a hilly tribal area because many of us, cocooned in also point out the importance of after falling off a tree and damaging many ways thanks to the wide range drawing attention to the need for her spine. of privileges we enjoy as a matter innovation in certain neglected Who would have thought, for of course, cannot even imagine areas and aspects of health and example, that a wheelchair, donated the dire situation of a paraplegic sanitation which barely make it to in good faith by a well-meaning person in such circumstances. I the media radar much of the time. organisation in the expectation that am grateful to have had a chance to A few articles among those received it would make the paralysed child’s read it (it appeared in a newspaper are particularly notable for doing life a little more bearable, would that is not available except online in this very effectively. be more or less useless back home, Bangalore, where I live). I’m sure I will mention just a couple thanks to the topography of her I will remember it for a long, long of them. One was an amazingly village? time to come. detailed inquiry into a low-profile Almost everything reported in The topic of another exceptional disease that manifests itself mainly in not just rural areas in general but the story (‘Tracing an 8-year-old’s article has been in the news over the even more remote forest areas 467-km journey to undergo spinal the past few days, due largely to of the Western Ghats in particular, surgery in Maharashtra’) was a the recent deaths of five young the other was areally eye-opening revelation to me – not because any men who were employed to clean account of the ordeal of a young girl of it is so very extraordinary but a septic tank in an upmarket
October-December 2018 VIDURA 19 editorial says, “India’s sanitation problem is complex, and the absence of adequate toilets is only one lacuna.” The article that was one of the entries for this award quotes an occupational health expert who has documented the high mortality and morbidity rates of sewer and septic tank workers. According to him, the life expectancy of sewerage workers is 10 years less than the national average. Most workers die from chronic illnesses, top amongst which are respiratory diseases. A medical examination of 200 such workers pointed to the “irreversible damage such hazardous exposure does to the organ systems”. Besides the obvious effects of their work on their skin and respiratory system, their bodies were constantly fighting infections and very few reached the retirement age of 60. Surely, it does not take a great deal of innovation to tackle this outrageous, unacceptable situation in terms of both sanitation and health? What is lacking is not innovation but the will to use innovation to eliminate such practices that certainly don’t belong in the 21st Century. Before I stop I would like to call attention to the fact that 25th September is being observed as a ‘Beware the ticks of Kyasanur’ was an outstanding attempt at bringing to the fore day when the nation unites against a disease not in many had heard of. sewer deaths – or ought to. I know there is to be a public event at residential community in New Rehabilitation Act, 2013, prescribes Jantar Mantar in Delhi but I hope Delhi. According to an editorial in mechanised cleaning of septic tanks. there will be similar events in other The Hindu, around the same time But despite a well-funded, Central parts of the country as well. It is as the Delhi incident, five workers government-promoted programme high time the abominable practice died in a septic tank in Odisha. such as the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan of manual scavenging – which
The article I am referring to is not being in operation, little attention is includes sending unprotected just a sanitation story but a health devoted to this aspect of sanitation. human beings into sewers – is not < story as well – besides, of course, The Ministry of Drinking Water just abolished but eradicated. being a story about the persistence and Sanitation, which brought out of the pernicious caste system. As a manual on toilet design in 2016, (The writer is a senior journalist The Hindu editorial points out, acknowledges that in rural areas and author based in Bengaluru.) the Prohibition of Employment mechanical pumps to clear septic as Manual Scavengers and their tanks are not available. As the
20 VIDURA October-December 2018 Media neglect adds to woes of rural landless workers Rural landless people are a neglected lot in India. If the problems and issues of this segment had been covered by the media more regularly and adequately, several problems would have become apparent at an early stage and remedial action could have been taken at the level of policy and planning, says Bharat Dogra
ural landless people Another very visible change in how he had been able to correctly constitute the poorest and several villages is the much greater pick them out without consulting Rone of the most vulnerable extent to which the landless people other villagers. After a moment of groups in India. Their number are migrating. In some cases, this silence, he said with a deep sigh, “I has been increasing as also their has brought in more cash earnings know from the look of sadness and problems. and one can see the impact of this loneliness on their faces.” Despite this, the segment is in the hamlets of the landless in The way in which people who very badly neglected in India. terms of consumer goods and city- are themselves very poor look after While the coverage of farmers and type clothes. There are numerous children and elderly relatives of their their problems leaves much to be cases of migrating workers being neighbours who have migrated for desired, attention to the sector has exploited, falling seriously ill or work is also something that needs to been increasing at least to some getting injured due to being forced be written about. Sometimes, I go to extent, but the coverage of landless to take up high risk jobs, and of a village only to find it near empty, rural workers remains glaringly not receiving any payment or a and I am told that most people have inadequate. significant part of their dues. If just left on a bus which a labour In recent years, harvesting work there is more regular reporting of contractor had arranged. has become heavily mechanised in such cases, some remedial action What had been discussed before several parts of the country. Earlier, can be expected, but unfortunately they left? What arrangements the harvest season was the time such issues are under-reported. were made for those whom they when farm workers were most in When dependence on migrant were leaving behind? Where were demand and so it was possible to labour is high, and in times of they headed and what prospects get a higher wage. In some parts of serious drought and other distress awaited them there? There are the country, a portion of the wages situations, most of the younger men several households which had once would be paid in kind, and so food and women leave to work in distant owned land, but are now more or security was ensured at least for areas and only children and elderly less landless. How did this happen some months even for landless people are left behind in their and how do these families cope? families. traditional homelands. How do they On the other hand, there However, with the advent of manage? All these are important are erstwhile landless worker combine harvesters, farm workers aspects of rural life that should be households who received small have lost the advantage. The studied and reported. plots under the land distribution harvesters also destroyed all or part When I was talking to a group of programme some years ago. Were of the fodder component of the crop villagers, including children, at the they able to cultivate the plots – the stalks left in the field. time of a very severe drought, I told successfully? Did they face problems If such problems had been written my local contact person that I need from any quarter? These are some about and discussed at an early to speak specifically with children of the many important aspects that stage, then perhaps the rapid spread who were living more or less alone can be explored. of combine harvesters could have or with very old people because The special problems of women been checked both at the policy the parents had migrated. He was workers and the vulnerability of level and also by arrangements immediately able to identify a few these women in some contexts within rural communities. such children. Later, I asked him deserve attention too. How do
October-December 2018 VIDURA 21 Illustration: Arun Ramkumar Illustration: their wages compare with those of has been steadily marginalised. (The writer is a freelance journalist male workers? Has some of their What were the factors which led based in Delhi who has been associated traditional jobs, such as weeding, to the increasing neglect of land with several social movements and been lost because of the advent reforms? What can be done to revise initiatives.) of chemical herbicides? And, as a land reforms and who can help in follow-on from this, what is the this? The impact of other welfare
impact of dangerous chemicals on programmes on rural landless workers, men as well as women? people need to be explored as well. < In several contexts, farm work has become more hazardous than before. How are workers coping with such hazards? Have necessary protective steps been taken? If there is adequate discussion on such issues based on adequate media coverage, precious lives can be saved. At the policy level, an important aspect to explore is how the land reform effort and, in particular, the component of ‘land for the landless’
22 VIDURA October-December 2018 When will this farmer-scientist get justice?
Apart from reducing the irrigation costs of farmers, the Mangal Turbine can help significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Then why is its innovator Mangal Singh a victim of neglect and injustice? Bharat Dogra speaks to Singh to find out more.
hough much is said about the Initially, several government and need to encourage grassroots non-government organisations Tinnovators, the reality is that wanted me to work exclusively there are too many hurdles in their through them, but when I persisted path. No one knows this better than in being independent, they were Mangal Singh, an innovator from unwilling to help me. CAPART Lalitpur District (Bundelkhand (Council for Advancement Region) of Uttar Pradesh. of People’s Action and Rural
It was around 1987 that Mangal Technology) sanctioned some very Photos: BD Singh successfully demonstrated low amounts for me to continue The Mangal Turbine. the Mangal Turbine in his native Bhailoni Lodh Village. The turbine lifts water from a river without What is the Mangal Turbine? using either diesel or electricity. Mangal Singh realised that that small farmers with Senior officials, technocrats and low resources find it difficult to buy diesel for pumps researchers showered well- to lift water from streams and rivulets. He started deserved praise on the innovation thinking of ways to do so without having to depend and the innovator. A study by on diesel or electricity. After a lot of experimentation, IIT Delhi and Vigyan Shiksha he came up with a device that could achieve this. The Kendra found it very useful and invention was named the Mangal Turbine. It was Mangal Singh. cost effective, helpful not only in first demonstrated in 1987. Mangal Singh was 40 at agriculture but also for small-scale the time. It was subsequently patented as the Mangal industries. Later, other scholars Water Wheel Turbine Machine. affirmed impressive reduction in The design of the water wheel turbine is simple. It consists of a water greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions wheel which is firmly mounted on a steel shaft which in turn is coupled achieved by the Mangal Turbine. with a suitable gearbox for stepping up speed of rotation. The output Despite obtaining a patent and shaft of the gear box is coupled on one end with a centrifugal pump for a bagful of endorsements at a relatively early age, Mangal Singh lifting water and the other end is mounted with a suitable pulley for and his innovation have been deriving power. It operates on flow of water, which can be controlled victims of apathy and neglect over using a wooden or steel gate valve. It is very easy to use and is available the last three decades. Although in various sizes to suit varying requirements. he has worked to spread the word Apart from lifting water the Mangal Turbine can also be used for other about his innovation, visiting several tasks. Mangal Singh says it can be used to execute farm-based tasks states, age and discouragement “such as operating the atta chakki (flour milling machine), sugarcane have taken a toll on his health, he crushing, threshing and winnowing, oil expelling, chaffing, etc. “The says. machine provides a clean alternative (non-conventional) source of energy in remote rural areas for increasing agricultural productivity, Tell us about your experiences income and employment," says the inventor. By linking it to a generator, after demonstrating the efficacy of the machine can also provide electricity. the Mangal Turbine.
October-December 2018 VIDURA 23 work, but when I completed various in Parliament. Finally, the secretary, stages, sometimes using my own Department of Rural Development, Well-deserved praise resources, their monitoring teams appointed an expert, Dr B.P. would pick holes in my accounting. Maithani, to inquire into this issue I told them I am an innovator, not and make recommendations. He an accountant. prepared a detailed report which Local influential people were also I have accessed under the RTI Act. upset with my sudden fame and It clearly states that all charges tried to harm me. Organisations against me are unjustified and that which had first wanted me to work several officials harassed me. It exclusively for them tied up with also recommended that the Mangal these hostile people to wean away Turbine should be widely used and people I had trained and damage the injustice done to me should be my work. Pipes at my main worksite corrected. were broken. Work at some sites had to be abandoned. This forced Did the government initiate me to knock on several doors to get suitable action on the Maithani justice and the quest continues. Report? Several highly placed officials Its recommendations were who examined the Mangal Did government agencies distorted in a letter sent to me Turbine carefully have confirmed respond to your appeal for and a very meagre compensatory its value and utility. At least two justice? payment was offered. I refused the former secretaries of the Rural I made several appeals and offer and continued my efforts to Development Ministry (B.K. several MPs also raised this issue get justice. I find it really shocking Sinha and S.R. Sankaran) have appreciated Mangal Singh’s work. Others who have praised the The Maithani Report Mangal Turbine include officials Referring to harassment faced by Mangal Singh, the Maithani Report at the Alternate Hydro Energy says, "Shri Mangal Singh, who had been acclaimed as an inventor and Centre, IIT Roorkee, and the innovator of rural technology was placed under FAS (further assistance Energy Research Institute (TERI), stopped) category by CAPART in 1996 on a trivial issue of not submitting New Delhi. B.K. Saha, former proper utilisation report of the paltry sum of Rs. 6400 released to him chief secretary, Government of for a project in 1990. The DM Jhansi got his bank accounts seized in 1997 Madhya Pradesh, has gone on for allegedly not submitting the feasibility report of Mangal Turbine record to say that the system along with the units supplied to Jhansi. Subsequently, the district is extremely cost effective and administration Lalitpur also attached and auctioned his agricultural land that it is ecologically completely allegedly for not completing the projects sanctioned by the DRDA." benign. The Maithani Committee has noted how time and again positive T.P. Ojha, former deputy features of the work done under the project given to Mangal Singh director general (Engineering) of were ignored and instead some flaw was always somehow found to the Indian Council of Agricultural unleash harassment. Monitors and evaluators were sent repeatedly, Research wrote that “the water not to help Mangal Singh in better preparation of accounts, but only head created by putting a check to find some fault for which he could be harassed further. Even when dam across the river or perennial the director-general sympathised with him and issued orders to stop water course generates enough victimisation, the harassment continued. force to rotate the water wheels The Maithani report concludes, "There is no case against Shri to operate one or two centrifugal Mangal Singh who needs to be compensated for the loses suffered due pumps in series... the designer to advisory role played by CAPART in all the projects sanctioned to of the system, Mangal Singh, him simply because he did not 'please' them. Or because he was from deserves appreciation and humble background and rural area or because he was an anti-corruption support to install a few more units activist." in different parts of the country for demonstration purposes."
24 VIDURA October-December 2018 that at a time when there is so much a limit because of the very limited provide overall guidance and train talk of reducing the expenses of resources available. It is for the villagers at these sites. I am over farmers and reducing greenhouse government to scale-up this work 70 now and constant tension and gas emissions, the Mangal Turbine and reap its benefits on a much wider travel have taken a toll on me. In which is capable of reducing costs scale. Voluntary organisations can my student days, I used to be called as well as emissions, is still being also help in this. Tarzan due to my strong physique neglected. and good health, but in recent years If the government wakes up to my health has been deteriorating. What should the government do the importance of popularising the There should be no further delay to popularise the Mangal Turbine? Mangal Turbine, how will you be in utilising my services in the What can be done to scale up your able to help? larger national interest and for the work so that more people can Despite several problems and benefit of people and environment benefit from it? difficulties, I have continued to take protection. The government should take the message of Mangal Turbine The injustice done to me should immediate steps to give the Mangal to various parts of the country. also be rectified simultane- Turbine importance in programmes From Rajasthan and Gujarat to ously, and I should be given relating to irrigation, drinking water Uttarakhand and Jammu and adequate compensation. The and renewable energy. Several lift Kashmir, from Madhya Pradesh to recommendations of the Maithani
irrigation projects in the country are West Bengal, I have visited many Committee should be implemented non-functional today for a number places without any resources and in the right spirit. < of reasons. The Mangal Turbine can so I am aware of several suitable be used at suitable sites to give a sites. new lease of life to these projects. If the government realises the A small farmer-innovator can importance of this effort, work take forward such work only up to can be started at several sites. I can
Kolkata library that celebrates parallel literature turns 40 Nestled in Temar Lane, off College Street, Little Magazine Library is a bright yellow building. The small entrance to the home-turned-library in Kolkata opens up to wall-after-wall of books. Seated in the midst of these mountains is founder Sandip Dutta, the owner of the library that turned 40 recently. His quest to open a library of this kind, which would eventually host poet Mahasweta Devi and other literary figures, began on one of his many trips to the National Library in 1972, when he was 21. “When I walked into the National Library, I saw the little magazines thrown on the floor. Dust and worms had wrecked most of them,” he said. Dutta launched his archive when the country was taken up by the little magazine movement in the 1970s. It made its way across Maharashtra, Kerala and West Bengal, nurturing marginalised, less-known writers. In Bengal, the movement gathered steam through post-modernist Bengali literature. The coming of the Hungry Generation writers popularised periodicals like Krittibash (edited by Sunil Gangopadhyay and Dipak Majumdar), Sabuj Patra, Kali Kalam, Kobita Saptahiki (edited by Shakti Chattopadhyay) and Kallol. Initially, Dutta organised an exhibition, which showcased about 750 little magazines from his collection. By 1978, he had set it up, and was working to clear the confusion about what the magazines meant: “People often take ‘little’ in this case to mean ‘for children,’ but few realise it is a non-commercial, parallel establishment that celebrates artistic voices.” The venture started off with 1500 magazines and was known as Library and Laboratory for Bengali Little Magazines. It later became the Kolkata Little Magazine Library and Research Centre, housing about 60000 periodicals, 1600 of them digitised. It also houses research material on 60 topics: from film, music, politics and feminist theory to subaltern studies.
Mahasweta Devi was a regular patron. When she lost the manuscripts and a few publications, Dutta was given the task of retrieving them. < (Courtesy: The Hindu)
October-December 2018 VIDURA 25 Are farmers really justified in agitating?
The Indian agriculture sector employs more than 50 per cent of the total workforce in India and contributes 17 to 18 per cent of country’s GDP. Seventy per cent of its rural households still depend primarily on agriculture for their survival. India has been witnessing repeated scenes of thousands of farmers organising themselves and marching in the streets protesting against the ‘injustice meted out to them’ and sometimes indulging in violent activities demanding loan waivers, rise in the level of minimum support price, etc. N.S. Venkataraman wonders whether this is justified
raditionally, farmers are all forms of protest such as pouring The fact is that governments held in high esteem in thousands of litres of milk on the during the past several years have TIndia, though it has not be- streets, throwing tons of potatoes been striving to implement various nefited the farming community and tomatoes on the road, it is high meaningful measures to strengthen economically. When the farmers time to introspect as to whether the the agriculture sector. Most of the protest, a large section of farmers’ protests are justified and proactive measures initiated by countrymen tend to support their agitation is justified. the governments broadly follow them emotionally, as farming is the recommendations made by considered a noble profession Government’s response Swaminathan Commission. here. No government in India can During the farmers’ agitation, Many schemes implemented by afford to displease the farming it is now common to hear that the the governments to support the community when the demands are recommendations of Swaminathan farming community include the raised, as agriculture is considered Commission on agricultural issue of the kisan (farmer) card, the soul of India. Whatever the reforms, which was submitted crop insurance, free electricity for agitation or approach adopted by in the form of five reports conducting agricultural operations, farmers, if any government were to between 2004 and 2006, should be promotion of e-commerce to criticise them, the government was implemented in letter and spirit. enable smooth agri-products likely to be voted out of power. The commission had made many marketing and eliminate middle However, as the farmers’ suggestions relating to land reform, men, providing fund support for agitations have become too irrigation reform, productivity agri-related diversified activities frequent and farmers indulge in growth, etc. such as goat rearing. In a vast Photos: MSSRF Scenes from India’s heartland — farmers working hard in the fields.
26 VIDURA October-December 2018 country like India where there are The most depressed section of analysing the financial implications millions of farmers, it takes time to farming community are the tillers for the government and national implement proactive measures to and not the agri-land owners. These economy. Of course, the farmers the satisfaction of all concerned. tillers are certainly not in significant are adopting the same strategies Certainly, it is work in progress number amongst the crowd of and tactics adopted by the Central with benefits steadily reaching the protesting farmers and such tillers and state government employees, farmers, though not with the speed are millions in number and no one bank staff and others and even that the farmers expect. talks about their grievances during government teachers who agitate Of course, there are some the farmers’ agitation. frequently. suggestions relating to land reforms, where the Swaminathan Why farmers’ suicides? Need fundamental solutions Commission has said that the top Indians writhe in agony when No doubt, the farming community 10 per cent of the farmers hold news spreads about farmer suicides. is vulnerable to several factors 54 per cent of the land ownership Many investigations have led to the beyond their control such as excess and the commission wanted land conclusion that farmers are led to rain fall or drought conditions, ownership in the country to be commit suicides mostly due to debt pest attacks, etc. Farmers do have redistributed in favour of the poor burden and harassment by private genuine grievances, unlike the farmers. Such suggestions are hard moneylenders. much pampered government to implement in practice. The fact is that there are many employees, bank staff and other A few decades ago, when the government schemes to provide organised employees who have Kerala Government tried to loans to the farmers for agricultural assured income and regular implement land reforms to shift the operations at very low interest rate. increments irrespective of efficiency ownership pattern in favour of the In most cases, farmers take loans and performance. agricultural workers by adopting from private moneylenders at Realising the importance of coercive methods, when E.M.S. exorbitant interest rates not to meet agriculture sector, Prime Minister Namboodripad was the chief their need of money for farming Narendra Modi has announced minister, it only resulted in violence operations but for other reasons that the government would strive and heartburn, leading to further –medical treatment, education for to double the income of the farmers class conflicts and bitterness in their children, expenses for social by 2022. While Modi has taken the agricultural farms and in functions, etc, for which loans are several initiatives, farmers seem society. not available from commercial skeptical. Several suggestions made banks. by Swaminathan Commission Who are the farmers? While farmers’ suicides are are appropriate and a number of While discussing the farmers regrettable and shake the conscience suggestions have been implemented protests, one has to think as to of the nation, the fact is that hund- earnestly by governments. Of which segment of the farmers are reds of suicides from those who course, there are pitfalls due to protesting and agitating. Today, are not associated with in farming poor efficiency and corruption in the farmers can be divided into activity have also been taking place the government machinery and three segments, namely absentee across India. If economic distress exploitation of the middle-men. land owners who are employed could be considered as adequate Perhaps Prof M.S. Swaminathan elsewhere and give their agriculture justification for committing suicides, can revisit the recommendations of land on lease; the other type of then not only farmers but hundreds Swaminathan Commission, review farmers who employ labour and of other people belonging to other the progress and provide new never physically work themselves areas of activities can be included in recommendations in tune with
on the field and the third segment of the category. present day trends and rising agricultural workers who are expectations. < known as the tillers and mostly Kneejerk reaction unskilled and consist of both men When farmers protest, and women who physically work governments panic and concede in the agri field getting daily wages several of their demands, including and without job security or any massive loan waivers, increasing the long term benefits. minimum support price, etc without
October-December 2018 VIDURA 27 Fossil fuel crisis: Are sun and wind enough to tide us over?
While the government seems to be going full steam ahead in exploring renewable sources of energy such as wind and solar power, N.S. Venkataraman feels the country is missing the bus regarding another easily harvestable source of bio-fuel
nion Ministers have future and so imports will go up boosting power generation based been repeatedly stating too. on renewable resources such as Uthat reducing India’s Import of fossil fuel now accounts wind and solar energy. In the past dependence on fossil fuel (coal, for around 70 per cent of Indian four-and-a-half years, installed natural gas, petrol, diesel) is the foreign exchange earnings. With capacity of solar power in the prime focus of the government’s the increase in the price of crude country has increased from 1500 policy and initiatives. During the oil in the global, the balance of MW to around 25000 MW and wind Paris Climate Conference, Prime payment position is shaky. It needs power capacity is around 32500 Minister Narendra Modi had to be recognized that the country MW. Power generation capacity announced a target of 175000 MW is heading towards a fossil fuel from other renewable sources such of capacity based on renewable crisis. Obviously, there is urgent as biomass and small hydropower resources. need to reduce the consumption of has also been stepped up to around India’s present installed fossil fuel and explore an alternate 15000 MW. capacity for power is around energy source appropriate to Indian However, it appears unlikely 345000 MW from all sources and conditions. that such rapid build-up of power the requirement at the time of peak capacity based on renewable demand is around 171000 MW. More Solar and wind power resources will provide significant than 80 per cent of India’s power There is no doubt that the relief and help tackle the impending requirement is now generated from government has been earnest in fossil fuel crisis. coal, natural gas and liquid fuel. The power requirement is steadily going up at the rate of around 6.5 per cent per year due to the economic and industrial progress. In view of the heavy dependence on fossil fuel for power generation and transportation, India’s crude oil imports are steadily increasing and now stand at around 220 million tonnes per annum. The country produces only around 32 to 33 million tonnes of crude oil per annum and the figure is virtually stagnant. India produces around 32 billion cubic metres of natural gas per annum and imports around 25 billion cubic metres. The production of natural gas and crude oil from domestic sources is unlikely to
increase significantly in the near Arun Ramkumar Illustration:
28 VIDURA October-December 2018 Only 15 per cent of the installed Since India is a tropical country, generate significant employment capacity of solar power projects in climatic conditions are appropriate opportunities. India is utilised. In the case of wind for the cultivation of algae. Algae Various study groups have power, the capacity utilisation is contains around 25 to 30 per cent submitted reports to the Central only around 30 per cent. Thus, of of oil depending on the species and state governments, pointing a 25000 MW capacity, the actual and the crop cycle takes as little as out the algae bio-fuel opportunity. generation of solar power would 30 to 45 days. Only sunshine and It is surprising that the authorities be only around 3750 MW and only carbon dioxide, both of which are are not looking at such an obvious around 9750 MW of wind power is abundantly available in India, are option even in the face of a fuel generated as against an installed needed, apart from some minor crisis. India ought to have joined capacity of around 32500 MW. In ingredients. Good quality water is the international technology race comparison, the capacity utilisation not needed for algae cultivation, for optimising algae cultivation of coal power projects in India brackish or even sewage water and production of bio-fuel from it. is around 60 per cent and that of will do. From algae, fuel oil can be Proven technologies can be availed hydropower is around 50 per cent. extracted and from the residual bio of from abroad. The country has Even if India builds 175000 MW of mass ethanol can be produced by already lost valuable time, and
power capacity based on renewable the fermentation process. should take steps in this regard at sources as targeted by Prime Hundreds of medium least now. < Minister Modi, the actual power scale integrated facilities for generated would be only around cultivating algae, extracting fuel oil 35000 MW. and producing ethanol can be set up The government is betting big all over the country. It would be a on promoting electric cars. There win-win situation, as it would also is also a proposal to electrify the entire railway network. While these ideas are impressive, the fact is that electric cars need lithium ion N.P. Singh elected IBF President batteries, which have to be charged. Where will the power come from? NP Singh, CEO & MD of Sony Pictures Networks, has been elected Using the power generated from the new president of the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), at their fossil fuel to charge batteries to run 19th Annual General Meeting. He will succeed Punit Goenka, managing electric cars and trains seems to be director, Zee Entertainment Enterprises. Goenka's term has come to an a defeat of the purpose. end. Algae bio fuel – a viable Also, Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati has been elected alternative director of IBF Board. All other office-bearers of the Foundation have Even while investing rapidly in been re-elected. However, appointed member Girish Srivastava, secretary solar and wind power projects, general, IBF, has stepped down from his position. India has to look for viable Singh has over 30 years of rich and varied professional alternate energy sources. One such experience. He joined the Sony Group (then MSM) in June alternative is to build massive 1999 as its chief financial officer and was promoted as its chief
capacity for producing algae bio- operating officer in 2004. In 2014, he was appointed as the CEO. fuel. Internationally, enormous < and creditable efforts have been (Courtesy: exchange4media.com) made by developed countries, particularly USA, to generate algae- based fuel, and these have met reasonable success. Technologies have been developed to cultivate and use algae to produce bio fuel. Commercial plants are in operation. Unfortunately, little has been done so far in India.
October-December 2018 VIDURA 29 GREAT INDIAN EDITORS A nationalist and an editor who influenced public opinion One of the most prominent political leaders during British Era, Surendranath Banerjee, was the founder of Indian National Association, one of the first pan-Indian organisations to work for the interest of the Indians. Banerjee played an important role in formation of Indian National Congress. He edited The Bengalee, an English language newspaper for more than 40 years and used it to articulate his ideas of nationalism and to protest against the discriminatory practices of the British rulers. Mrinal Chatterjee on his life and times
urendranath Banerjee discrimination was responsible was born in Calcutta on for his dismissal. Banerjee moved S10th November 1848 to a to London to protest against the traditional Bengali Brahmin family. decision and stayed there for a His father, Durga Charan Banerjee, year. Unfortunately, his efforts at a renowned medical practitioner reinstatement were unsuccessful and progressive thinker, played a and he returned to India to embark key role in nurturing the qualities upon a political journey. However, of liberal and progressive values during his stay in England from 1874 in Banerjee from an early age. to 1875, Banerjee studied works of Surendranath kept fighting for liberal philosophers like Edmund Photo: MC these values for the rest of his life Burke, which helped him in his A postage stamp issued in his name. and earned a special position in the political crusade later. world of politics and journalism. Banerjee returned to India in The Bengalee started as a daily Surendranath received his 1875 and started teaching English English newspaper from Calcutta education from the Parental Literature at Metropolitan Institution in 1862. Later, it became a weekly. Academic Institution and the Hindu and Free Church Institution. He Since its inception, the newspaper College and travelled to England subsequently (1884) founded and had been serving as an important in 1868 after graduating from the taught at Ripon College, now known organ of the Indian nationalist University of Calcutta, along with as Surendranath College. During his movement. Its articulate views Behari Lal Gupta and Romesh teaching days, he began delivering about the excesses of the Anglo- Chunder Dutt to compete in Indian public speeches on nationalist and Indian community, the Ilbert Bill, Civil Service (ICS) examinations. liberal political subjects. Being an protecting the rights of ethnic After clearing the examination in excellent orator, he had a profound communities, agrarian relations, 1869, Banerjee was debarred due impact on young minds evoking in famines and contemporary social to a dispute over his exact age. them the spirit of nationalism. movements had considerable However, he cleared the exam again Banerjee is known to be one of the influence on public opinion. Among in 1871 after settling the matter in earliest flag bearers of freedom of the the distinguished editors of the court, becoming the second Indian press in India. In 1879, he purchased publication was Girish Chandra to succeed in the examination. The Bengalee newspaper and edited Ghose. Banerjee’s service period was not it for more than 40 years. He used However, it was under the free of controversies, though. While it for bringing liberal reforms in the editorship of Banerjee that The working as assistant magistrate country. Bengalee grew to become one of in Sylhet (now in Bangladesh), The Bengalee under his editorship the largest circulated weeklies in he was dismissed from the kept advocating a nationalist point of the late 19th and 20th Centuries. It position following charges of view from his perspective on almost occupied a high place in journalism procedural irregularities. He kept all the major social and political and made a significant contribution defending himself, claiming racial developments. to the growth of nationalism in
30 VIDURA October-December 2018 India. After the Surat Rift (1907) the Indian language (non-English) united moderate leaders to stand in the Congress, the paper became press. Banerjee wrote several against the decision partitioning the mouthpiece of the minority articles against the legislation in his Bengal, and supported upcoming moderate group of the divided journal. Indian leaders like Gokhale. The Congress. The moderate policy Banerjee founded the Indian British had to reverse the decision adopted by the paper and the National Association with Ananda of bifurcation in 1912. It was during extremist politics of the Congress Mohan Bose on July 26, 1876. The this time that Banerjee was in full considerably diminished its forum addressed issues concerning flow as an editor. popularity. The death of Banerjee native Indians, including age-limit In 1921, Sir Bannerjee was elected (1925) further weakened the paper. for Indian students appearing to the newly formed Legislative In 1931, an evening town edition, in ICS examination and racial Council and received knighthood known as the Calcutta Evening News, discrimination perpetrated by British the same year for his “political was launched and the sub-urban Administration in India. He merged support” to the empire. However, edition continued to be known as the Indian National Association he was fiercely criticised by the The Bengalee. The two editions were with the Indian National Congress nationalists for accepting the role of amalgamated in 1932 and renamed after its formation in 1885 as he minister in the Bengal Government. Star of India. believed that both organisations His political career went downhill Banerjee played a key role in shared a common objective and thereafter. The declining popularity the campaign in support of the raising voices from two different of moderate Indian politicians was Ilbert Bill of 1883, which sought forums would weaken the cause. evident. Banerjee even supported the to remove racial discrimination Banerjee was one of the most Minto-Morley Reforms, which were in administration and justice. By voluble voices speaking against the considered insufficient by Indian the time, the Criminal Procedure partition of Bengal Province. Widow nationalists. He strongly criticised Code had limited jurisdiction over Remarriage and abolition of child civil disobedience proposed by European British subjects. The marriage were the key areas where Mahatma Gandhi, the paramount bill, proposed by Sir Courtney he advocated bringing reforms in leader of Indian nationalists then. Ilbert, sought removal of the society. His extraordinary command Eventually, his political career came distinction. However, considering over the English language and to an end as he lost the election to the growing dissent among the excellent oratory skills made him Bengal Legislative Assembly. As his English community, the bill was quite popular across Bengal and political career came to an end, so later diluted. According the new one of the most influential political did the fortune of The Bengalee. proposal, district magistrates figures in India. After quitting the political arena, (who included Indians) would be Banerjee was elected president of Banerjee turned his attention empowered to try European British Indian National Congress in 1898 towards writing and penned his subjects but by a jury of which at and served till 1904. Under his autobiography A Nation in the least half the number was to be leadership, the party continued to Making. Surendranath Banerjee European. advocate greater participation of the breathed his last on 6th August,
Banerjee severely criticised the native citizen in governance, laying 1925, in Barrackpore. The Bengalee move. In 1883, he was arrested on the foundation for the nationwide closed down in six years. < charges of contempt of court for the Independence Movement. By 1905, remarks published against Chief however, differences between the (The author heads the Eastern India Justice of Calcutta High Court for two major factions of the party campus of the Indian Institute of ordering a Hindu to produce the surfaced. Moderates led by Gokhale Mass Communication in Dhenkanal, image of his household deity in the downplayed public agitation while Odisha. This is the seventh in a series court. Wild outbursts erupted across the new ‘extremists’ advocated of profiles of great Indian newspaper the country following his arrest, agitation. The extremists believed editors who have, through the course demonstrating his popularity. that the pursuit of social reform of their work and career, made a signal Banerjee also took a leading part was merely a distraction from contribution to India's Freedom in the protest against infamous nationalism. Movement, to the development of Vernacular Press Act. The act, Banerjee also played a key role in society and to the development of proposed by the then viceroy of the Swadeshi Movement, advocating Journalism. This article was written in India, Lord Lytton, was enacted usage of goods manufactured in association with Hrusikesh Mishra.) in 1878 to curtail the freedom of India against foreign goods. He
October-December 2018 VIDURA 31 An outstanding documentary on a communist revolutionary
Two young activists with a political ideology bent on fighting every kind of violation of human rights have just made a feature length documentary called Saroj Dutta and His Times. The two young women were not even born when Saroj Dutta went missing in 1971. What made them embark on such a historic and controversial project? They got together to share their thoughts with Shoma A. Chatterji
In 1971, Saroj Dutta, communist the politics of Naxalbari through revolutionary and poet, and a hard- various angles, political, cultural, hitting journalist who used his pen like and social, in our work as activists. a sword, disappeared from the city of Calcutta. His was a copybook case of What was the trigger that drove forced disappearance amidst widespread you to record Saroj Dutta on film? state repression on communist rebels. What intrigued us the most A secret killing that since became part was the complete absence of of the urban folklore, a crime the state (non-fiction) moving images that denies till date. His virulent pen that recorded this very important period refused to listen to any warning turned in our history. No documentation, to be the cause of his disappearance. no raw footage, except a bit in The film, Saroj Dutta and His Times, Louis Malle’s Calcutta 1969 exists is jointly directed by Kasturi Basu and A young, pensive Saroj Dutta. in public domain covering this Mitali Biswas. Kasturi Basu is a film period in history. This is strange maker, social activist, science researcher, documentary Naam Poribortito (Identity because cameras were prolifically occasional writer and editor based Undisclosed) in 2015 questioning why used to cover incidents and events. in Kolkata. She is a founder-member victims of rape should keep their identity Fiction films had many references and activist with the People’s Film a secret when they are victims and not to the Naxalbari uprising but Collective, and co-editor of Pratirodher violators. She is presently on the editorial they were almost centered on a Cinema, a magazine on cinema and board of Protibidhan, a magazine romanticised version of urban, counterculture. Saroj Dutta and His dedicated to women’s movements. educated youngsters from elite Times is her first documentary. colleges of Kolkata or New Delhi, Mitali Biswas is a social activist You were born many years after as if the Naxalbari Movement was and worked as a freelance journalist, the period that your film covers. an urban adventure. 1998-99. She produced and directed a What then, motivated you to dig None of these films even tried to into this misrepresented 'history' get into the rural roots of Naxalbari, and seek the truth? the long-standing agrarian question Though we were born into the and the peasants’ heroic rebellion post-Naxalbari generation, we that evolved into a powerful grew up hearing oral histories and political movement questioning anecdotes about the Naxalbari an exploitative state and society in period. As adults, all three of us in the radical ways. Not one film depicts directorial and research team (me, how the Naxalbari Movement Mitali and Dwaipayan) have been critiqued middle-class icons and in our various capacities seriously talked about bringing underlying involved in radical left politics which issues and peasant icons to the goes back to the Naxalbari legacy. forefront. Our film is aimed at Saroj Dutta with wife Bela. We have read and felt the impact of filling in these yawning blanks in
32 VIDURA October-December 2018 hat around to over 50 friends who chipped in with contributions. When funds ran out, we would stop shooting and begin again when we more money. The making of the film has been a long struggle but also a learning experience that has enriched us as human beings.
The film and the unravelling of the story are beautifully conceived. How and why did you conceive of this structure? The structure and script evolved while working with our editor, going through several cuts, which Filmmakers in conversation with Mihir Sengupta, colleague of Saroj Dutta at we tried and tested, to arrive at the Swadhinata. final version. We also wanted to braid the three narratives together – a segment of the history of West story and becomes the story of a Saroj Dutta’s personal journey with Bengal through this film. historical period of which SD was a his evolution leading to his killing, passionate chronicler. the peasant uprising in Naxalbari There were many rebellious and and the urban uprising of students renaissance thinkers alongside How long did the research take? and youth in Kolkata. Saroj Dutta. Why choose Dutta About a year of research, looking We stitched these narratives over the others also mentioned around and informal interviews, together and contextualised them and interviewed in your film? followed by three years of parallel using excerpts from Saroj Dutta’s Saroj Dutta was unique in the sense shooting, research, scripting, poetry and editorial writings that he was a multifaceted activist. editing. We shot the film in Kolkata superimposed over the interview He wore many hats – journalist, and Naxalbari off and on over shots, songs of the peasants of poet, ideologue, organiser and three years. One big reason why Tebhaga, Telengana and Naxalbari martyr. His killing was spectacular the shooting took this long was movements and archived newspaper in its brutality, with Uttam Kumar lack of funds. We three – Kasturi, clippings and newsreels of world as witness. Other than Charu Mitali and Dwaipayan – produced events drawn from China, Vietnam, Majumdar, he was the only top-tier the film jointly. And we passed the France and the Congo that impacted leader of the Naxalbari movement who was directly abducted, killed, and declared ‘missing’. Here was a man who took bullets for wielding his only weapon – the pen. In that sense he is in the league of revolutionary poets / journalists like Victor Jara, Federico Garcia Lorca and Julius Fučík who were well- known intellectuals assassinated for their communist beliefs. So, SD’s story is an intriguing one to tell. Secondly, our film, through SD’s narrative, tries to tell a complex story of his times, of more than
three decades of history of peasant Photos: Kasturi Basu and Mitall Biswas struggle and urban uprising. So, It was a farmers' rebellion that evolved into the Naxalbari Movement, which in a way, it goes beyond one man’s soon captured the headlines.
October-December 2018 VIDURA 33 and resonated with the Naxalbari movement in India. World Press Trends 2018 report:
There’s a political context to Measuring the value of trust your choice of songs in the film. The impact of trust on the performance of news and the revenues of news Can you elaborate? media companies worldwide is undeniable, according to the findings of When we think of songs inspired WAN-IFRA’s annual World Press Trends report. The report analyses the by the Naxalbari peasant uprising data collected from WAN-IFRA’s annual survey of more than 70 countries, of 1967, what comes immediately in addition to the insights and data from its global partners, including to mind are the immortal songs Zenith Optimedia, IPSOS, PwC, and Chartbeat. composed by cultural activists “For the press, securing a trusted relationship with its audience is not like Ajit Pandey, Dilip Bagchi, only an economic imperative but also a social and democratic obligation,” Pratul Mukhopadhyay, Subbarao said Vincent Peyrègne, CEO of WAN-IFRA. “This year’s World Press Panigrahi and others. What most Trends analysis shows that a lack of trust can cost publishers where it hurts of us don’t know is that peasant most – with their audiences and advertisers, therefore impacting revenues. activists of Naxalbari wrote and And, perhaps more profoundly, it is potentially costing them a central and composed their own songs. Some pivotal role in their communities and society at large.” of them, like Shiril Oraon, are living This year's analysis was conducted by François Nel, reader in Media oral archives of these songs. When Innovation at the Media Innovation Studio, University of Central Lancashire, we were shooting the film, Shiril Dr. Coral Milburn-Curtis, Associate Fellow at Green Templeton College, was semi-paralysed and ageing University of Oxford, and Prof Castulus Kolo, Macromedia University of but was politically active and sang Applied Sciences, Munich (Germany). several songs when we interviewed In addition to the significant statistical evidence that trust impacts revenues, him in languages as diverse as World Press Trends reports on the key performance indicators from 2017. Bangla, Hindi, Nepali, Sadri and Here are some of the findings: Jharkhandi. • Trust in media may be at an all-time low but trust in journalists and We also found two songs of quality journalism is on the rise, particularly compared to platforms Rongili Biswas that the late Uptal • Publishers’ primary revenue streams face increasing pressure, Dutt had used in his play Teer (The while digital reader revenue continues to grow. Arrow) on the Naxalbari uprising. • Industry overall revenue (primary revenue streams) contracted by These were written by Kalu Singh 1.8 per cent (YoY 2016-2017), in large part due to the continued decline who was an IPTA activist living in print revenues which still make up about 90 pc of publishers’ revenues. in the Darjeeling-Dooars region • Publishers continue to turn their focus to a more user-, consumer- and Sukra Oraon who worked in centric business model, as evidenced by audience revenues of $87 billion a tea plantation in the Naxalbari compared to $63 billion from advertising. region. We made select use of these • While print advertising continues to tumble (double digits in many politically powerful and indigenous western countries) and digital advertising growth remains slow, those songs in the film alongside a couple revenues still make up nearly 42 pc of publishers overall revenue. of well-known songs. This was done • Despite the turmoil in digital advertising, total global ad by deliberately, in keeping with the spend continues to grow and to compete with tech giants (and pool politics of iconoclasm and also in a resources and brand prestige), publishers are increasingly forming ad way, to reclaim people’s icons – a alliances all over the world.
• Users are more likely to land directly on publishers sites (primarily motif that recurs right through the < film. from mobile) than they are to arrive there from social. But dark social (newsletters, etc.) are helping this direct relationship. (The writer is a senior journalist • Despite print’s struggles through much of the world, recent research and film historian based in Kolkata. shows that time spent with print vs. digital is a different story. She has won the National Award for • Publishers have indeed accelerated innovation in the pursuit of Best Writing on Cinema twice, the digital transformation, but the lingering question is: Is it quickly enough?
• A publisher’s ability to transform in this light depends on a number Bengal Film Journalists Association < Award, and a Lifetime Achievement of regional, national, social, political factors, our research finds. Award from Laadly-UNFPA.) (Courtesy: WAN-IFRA)
34 VIDURA October-December 2018 NOSTALGIA Of treasured memories and a deep longing for home
Journalism, they say, records the first draft of history. It requires skill to record events as they pass by on stage. Good journalists are storytellers; they make you read every line. Storytelling is an art and not many have it in them. Now, here is a young storyteller who not only has images of the past engraved in her mind’s eye and can recall them almost at will but is also able to provide a far more vivid picture with her illustrations. Devi Menon, now in London, has just produced her first book, Amla Mater, targeted at 16-plus-year-olds. About 150 pages, it is full of nostalgia, of the yearning for her home in India, and makes for a fascinating read. Sashi Nair spoke to Menon about the making of her book
Brief synopsis: In the stillness The book is based on your life to the storytelling. The idea of a of autumn, I feel I can almost hear experiences, isn’t it? How does story about two long-lost friends someone hum Lokame tharavadu (the it feel sometimes to be far away who re-unite over a pickle jar, was world is my home)... In her tiny flat from your home in India, a place something that came to me when in East London, as Mili waits for her that offers you so many memories, I was pregnant with my daughter. baby to arrive, little things remind especially of childhood? I had cravings for pickles and that her of her life in India — the scent of The very first time I went abroad, lead to Amla Mater. I could only jasmine flowers, a heavy downpour, I found it a bit difficult. What I see this story as a graphic novel, a late-night cup of coffee, an amla or missed most was the sound of the and eventually it all took shape. gooseberry — and she is overcome with everyday hustle and bustle. Cycle a deep desire to recreate the flavours of bells, horns, rickshaws, crowds, For someone who had no training her childhood. Can a jar of amla pickle temple bells and so on. It felt all as such in making illustrations or help her travel back to that safe haven too sanitised. Having said that, I drawings, how did you find the she once called home? In this sweetly love where I am now and I love the confidence in going ahead and nostalgic graphic novel, the narrator fact that I had a childhood that was being your own illustrator? recounts her meandering journey from nothing short of magical in a place I have to thank my publisher, Yali her ancestral village in South India to like Kunissery, my little village in Books, and, especially, Ambika at the United Kingdom, capturing the deep Palakkad, Kerala. Yali. I feel there is a note of honesty feeling of longing for home that shapes that comes through when you the lives of emigrants everywhere. There are more illustrations self-illustrate your own story. But than words in the book – your yes, attempting a graphic novel illustrations tell the story, which with absolutely no background in makes it quite an extraordinary drawing was madness and at one piece of work. Did you plan it that point I almost gave up. It has been way, and when did the idea of an exhilarating and exhausting writing such a book really occur? experience for me. I made three I love graphic novels. I came rough drafts of the entire book. By across them rather late though – in the time I started on the final art 2009. Amruta Patil's Kari was the work, I felt a lot more confident. first graphic novel I read. I soon came across books by Guy Delisle, Did you, before starting, plan
Photos: DM Michel Rabagliati, Marjane Satrapi how the book would take shape The writer some time in 2014, at and quite a few others. In all these or did the book develop along the the Jardin Des Champs Elysées, works, the graphical format of way? a park in Paris, a year before an autobiographical narration I had written down the story in daughter Uma was born. seemed to add another dimension text initially, but when I started
October-December 2018 VIDURA 35 stories of the Bhagavathy, the local deity. She would often say that at night, when all was quiet, if you concentrated really hard, you could hear the anklets of the Devi walking around safeguarding the village, our very own sentry. Enveloped in that blanket of darkness, listening to her stories, it was rather soothing to know we were under divine protection.
You dwell on folklore in the book as well, perhaps influenced by some of the stories you have heard. Tell us something about the impact such stories created in your mind then, especially of the mysterious Odayans. The front and back covers of the book — refreshingly different. When we were kids, the house was forever bustling with aunts, drawing, the flow of the story household. But unlike Maya's grand-aunts, uncles, cousins, seemed to change. In a way, the grandmother, my grandmother was second-cousins... and sometimes book developed along the way. conditioned to observe caste and we would overhear a thread of a class distinctions. As a child, this story before we were shooed out of What’s so special about amla just didn't seem right, and somehow the room. The Odayans story was pickle, such that a longing for most folks (I would like to believe) one such. Apparently, someone it triggered a “strong wave of in my generation have escaped this from the older generation had an nostalgia” leading to the book? 'conditioning of thought'. Hence, encounter with an Odayan. He was My grandmother used to make Maya's grandmother was made to on his way for his morning bath at amla pickles in brine. She used a be a character who saw all as her the temple pond. It was still dark large bharani (ceramic pot) for this equal. For her (Maya's grandmother) and sunrise a couple of hours away. and we were allowed to eat not more alone, it was one common entrance Apparently he could hear hurried than two a day. My grandmother for all. footsteps behind him and when passed away years ago, but she will he glanced back all he saw was a always be in my thoughts. I guess There is mention of Mili’s three-legged dog. The dog chased when I was pregnant, in some way friend’s great aunt who narrates him all the way to the temple pond I wanted to reach out to her. stories. Who is the character based and when it reached there, it dived on? Also, you must have listened to straight into the middle of the pond In the book, is Maya’s many such stories as a child. What and just vanished. This story really grandmother who makes amla was that experience like and who stuck, we weren't meant to hear pickles based on memories of usually narrated them? Can you it; I guess that made it even more your grandmother? If so, tell us portray a vivid scene of such an memorable. something about her and how she afternoon or evening? must have influenced you. My grandmother was a great There is also the aspect of rain My own grandmother was a lot storyteller. Most nights, the electri- and the monsoon playing an like Maya's grandmother. She was city would go off for an hour. With all important part in your book –the forever busy with some chore or the activities at a standstill, sometimes Odayans seem to come alive when other. She loved reading and would a story or two would be told by it rains; the raindrops fall into help me with my essays when I was Ammama (grandmother). Once or the Thames, a sort of political in school. She was the matriarch who twice she’s brought up the story of allegory. The monsoon holds oversaw the running of a massive the Odayans. She would also tell us special meaning for you then?
36 VIDURA October-December 2018 Menon’s wonderful illustrations provide a special flavor to the book – (l-r) amla plucking, bharani, monsoon tales, folklore, and rain.
Monsoon in Kerala is both my aunts, great-aunts have all tell her. I assume you have started beautiful and terrible. Sometimes, inspired and influenced us in many already? in the evenings, the rain would ways. Growing up in a matrilineal She has been to Kunissery twice. lash around with such fury that all society with a patriarchal mindset I've shown her my favourite spots we would want to do would be to can be confusing and frustrating in the garden. It filled my heart snuggle up next to Ammama on and am thankful for the upbringing with joy to see her wandering the big sofa with a thick blanket that I've had. It has always allowed amongst the trees, collecting leaves covering us all. When the rains us to voice our opinion and question and making her own games with it. would stop, a cacophony of sounds things. Whether anyone agreed The banyan, mango and jackfruit – from crickets, frogs would start. with us is another point altogether. trees figured a lot in my childhood; All this seemed to happen behind for my daughter it is the oak, the a dark curtain of rain. So in a You have a three-year-old elm and birch. Nevertheless, I wish way, monsoon evenings did hold daughter, Uma. In a way, she was her and every child this wealth of
an element of terror in them I the trigger for Amla Mater. What joy in leaves, trees and the flowing suppose. stories of home are you waiting to breeze. <
Do you still long for home? Your ancestral home in Kerala, that is… The Hindu Group appoints chief revenue officer I treasure the memories. A windy Suresh Balakrishna has joined The Hindu Group as chief revenue day in London still reminds me officer effective November 1. 2018. He will report to MD and CEO Rajiv of the swaying paddy fields of C. Lochan. He has been brought on board at a time when The Hindu Kunissery in the month of January Group is celebrating 140 years of being in business and is looking to focus when the wind blows across the on its advertising revenue. Balakrishna shall be accountable for all India Western Ghats. Am lucky I was print advertisement sales (National accounts and South accounts), THEME able to live my childhood there, but (Events & Activations), and Brand Marketing & Solutions. I also love where I am now, in this Balakrishna will be based in Mumbai. His mandate is to build a sustainable, phase of my life. future-oriented high-performance sales and marketing team that delivers performance with purpose on the advertising front. He shall be accountable Your book in a sense is about for revenue generation through Print – National and South accounts, Events everlasting bonds, about healthy & Activations and Brand Marketing & Solutions, and make The Hindu Group relationships. What do such bonds a more competitive and sustainably growing organisation. mean to you and how important Prior to joining The Hindu Group, Balakrishna was Chief Executive Officer, are they during a child's formative South Asia and Middle East, Kinetic Advertising India Private Limited, part years? of the WPP Group. In his 31 years of professional journey, he has deep
Maya in the book is based on experience and expertise in all forms of media (print, television, outdoor) as my sister, Mala. We both grew up well as the agency side of the business. < in a household which had strong women. My grandmother, mother, (Courtesy: exchange4media.com)
October-December 2018 VIDURA 37 NOSTALGIA The ravages of Partition continue to haunt While she set out on her journey of collecting oral narratives of Partition in and around Kolkata, Sarita Bose came across many stories. Most people she met were speaking for the first time about their experiences of Partition, emerging from “self imposed amnesia and an effort to forget the harrowing past. Some got emotional, breaking down while talking. Some had lost families forever. None had returned to their roots, their villages; their new struggles kept them busy. Bose says the experience has opened her eyes about social history. It provided her a new way of looking at history and also knowing an alternative narrative of Partition
s I entered the weathered from scratch to rebuild their lives. one-storey house of Roma Acharya has survived to tell the tale AAcharya, an 86-year old of the harrowing experience of the woman who migrated to Calcutta times of Partition. during Partition, I could barely Every year on August 15, we sense what was about to unfurl. I celebrate Independence Day. This was there as part of 1947 Partition day also marks the partition of Archive, an organisation which India and Pakistan – two countries collects oral narratives of Partition cut from the umbilical cord of a across the world. I was collecting common motherland. Even after 71 Radha Ghosh Roy. such stories in and around Kolkata. years, the number of people killed, At age 13, Roma Acharya displaced and dispossessed during became one of the worst riot-hit migrated to Calcutta from Suvidya the time is unknown. It is estimated places. Overnight, things changed. Village, Dhaka. It took her five days that around 200000 to three million They stayed long enough to by steamer. She was one of the might have lost their lives and witness riots and acts of violence three to four thousand people who some nine million people crossed in nearby villages. People being thus migrated. Acharya carried over to India and about six million killed or being burnt in the open with her only asset – a pair of gold to Pakistan, numbers that are was becoming common, especially bangles made from the money significant in South Asian history. when Radcliff Line was marked (a by selling her acre-long property. Unfortunately, not a single lesser known fact of Partition is that Along the journey, the migrants ate piece of memorial exists in India the Radcliff Lines were redrawn food made out of salty sea water, to remember those who lost and declared on August 18) and practically inedible, and stayed in a their lives during Partition. The announcements were about which refugee camp for about a fortnight. pain is lost in the celebration of village was to go to which country. Without a place to go and without Independence. There are still people With Barishal now going to a family income, they had to start to whom Independence Day comes Pakistan, Roy and others eventually with haunting memories of loss, migrated to Calcutta. She recalls displacement, of being uprooted. having met the landlord later in At the stroke of midnight, adjacent life, who had lost every inch of villages had become two separate land and was now a tenant himself, countries. eking out a living on a day-to-day Radha Ghosh Roy, 82, talks about basis. her life in Gurap, a small village Dilip Kumar Chanda, 86, recalls in Barishal. They lived as tenants. an incident that occurred in the The landlord never believed that morning of August 18, 1947. He was Partition would ever happen, so born in Kumilla District in Assam Roma Acharya. did her father. Later on, Barishal and the village where he lived was
38 VIDURA October-December 2018 stopped and there was a hint of disapproval in the air. On August 15, 1947, as a six-year old, Bose saw a cavalcade passing by as people cheered. Seated In the horse carriage were a beautiful British woman and two men. The men were Lord Mountbatten and Mohammad Ali Jinnah and the woman, Lady Mountbatten. The cavalcade passed down the street Dilip Kumar Chanda. Renuka Choudhury. celebrating the new country as people cheered. declared a part of Pakistan. That associated with Anant Singh and Bose says she can never forget morning, groups of men arrived at Surya Sen. She recalls how as a how they fled the country. One the village to take over their houses child she used to smuggle books morning, before the sun rose and and wrecked everything. Names of and send information along. Being people woke up, they fled without villages that would remain in India a child, she was never searched but making a noise, packing just the were being announced on radio. British officers regularly came to essentials. They came to the Karachi Chanda’s was one such village. He their house in search of her brothers Port from where they took a ship recalled the entire announcement and wrecked the house in a rage to Bombay. Her father wanted to verbatim. The intruders then ran when they couldn’t find them. This rejoin work after they had settled away. continued till she moved to Calcutta down but as they reached Calcutta That day, Independence Day was where she started helping refugees they got the news that their house celebrated in Chanda’s village. He with food and medicines. She was looted and ravaged the day thus celebrated Independence twice almost broke down while narrating they left. – on August 15 in Silchar Town some ghastly stories of the time. In the twilight of their lives now, where his uncle lived and again on The story of Kakoli Bose, 76, is the people I met have add so much August 18, in his own village. Few somewhat different. She was born to our Partition narrative. Women villages in Nadia District of West in Karachi; her father worked in faced other hardships – most had Bengal, too, underwent the same the National History Museum to leave school due to riots or the surgery. The villages even today there. She recalls the beautiful WWII bombings. Post-Partition, celebrate Independence Day on weekends spent riding camels on they could no longer go back to August 18. beaches. With hardly any Bengalis school or college due to lack of During Partition, Railway stations in Karachi, they lived a close-knit money, or they were married off. like Sealdah swarmed with people. life along with their Muslim friends It is regrettable that not much Refugee colonies sprouted; here, and neighbours. However, as talks work has gone into collecting oral people lived in unhygienic and about Partition began, they felt narratives of Partition survivors. almost inhuman conditions. Many unwelcome and known people Today, very few of them are alive.
parts of Kolkata still carry the tag, suddenly turned hostile. Exchange So many stories are already lost. ‘refugee colony’, even though you of gifts and food during festivals It’s time we did something, at least < see high-rises there – areas once now. home to refugees. Renuka Choudhury, 85, (The writer is a lecturer in the remembers how she along with Department of Mass Communication few of her friends collected rice & Videography, Rabindra Bharati and pulses from people’s homes University, Kolkata. She recently and donated them to refugee worked as an oral history apprentice camps. She was born in Rangoon, at the 1947 Partition Archive, a non- and before migrating to Calcutta profit based in California, as part of lived with her maternal uncle in a six-month programme collecting Photos: SB Chittagong. Her brothers were stories of the Bengal Region). freedom fighters and were closely Kakoli Bose.
October-December 2018 VIDURA 39 NOSTALGIA Missing the stalwarts – where are those advertisements? Advertisements in Bengali have gone from creative, catchy and original to translations of campaigns in other languages. Mou Mukherjee Das remembers geniuses like Satyajit Ray, Premendra Mitra, Shibram Chakroborty, and more recently, Rituporno Ghosh, who caught the imagination of Bengalis with inspired copy
atyajit Ray evokes feelings over the world. The advertisements of awe and reverence among were based on detailed research into Sthe people of India, especially the culture, literature and history Bengalis. He is known for his films, of the community and sought to which have won him an Oscar take people back to their roots and and worldwide recognition. But provide a glimpse of the lifestyle in very few know that he began his the region during a bygone period. career in April 1943 as an ad man Advertising stalwarts like Satyajit in a British-run advertising agency, Ray, Premendra Mitra and Shibram DJ Keymer, now Clarion. Told to Chakroborty, through their creative visualise a series of six ads for an skills, gave the advertising industry imaginary product, Ray framed in Bengal some of its best years. advertisements for a perfume Shibram Chakroborty for instance, brand and illustrated them with was known for his use of puns. A drawings to land his first job as a classic example is copy he wrote for graphic designer and visualiser for a brand of ghee -- Bajaare du-rakam a monthly salary of Rs 65. He spent ghee paoa jay, Shree ebong Bishree. the next 13 years of his life in the Apnar konta pochondo? (There are company before he made his first two types of ghee available in the film, Pather Panchali. market, good and bad. Which one Bengalis are best known for their do you like?) — punning on shree culture and tradition, and their love and bishree. for food, fun and entertainment. Ray had an uncanny ability with Only a decade ago, Bengali the brush. His love for creative Hair Oil for women, by Satyajit Ray. advertisements combined literature expression took him to Shantiniketan with fun and emotions and strived where he studied Oriental Arts for He won awards for Ray Roman to create a bond with Bengalis all two years. An artist par excellence, and Ray Bizarre, two typefaces his work promoting an anti-malaria he designed, at an international drug and popularising the Tea competition in 1971. His love for Board are among the advertisement typography is also seen in many of campaigns still recalled by the older his films. generation of Bengalis. At a time when there was no Ray was a master at portraying software like Photoshop, the work hidden emotions. Advertisements of an illustrator was challenging, he created for hair oil and shampoos and creative geniuses put effort brought out feminine emotions in into coming out with catchy one- a much stronger way than usual. liners, puns and illustrations His contribution in introducing rather than relying on technology. Paludrine Day, by ICI paint calligraphic elements and Indian But gradually, advertisements manufacturing company, designed by motifs cannot be ignored either. Satyajit Ray. in Bengali came to be translated
40 VIDURA October-December 2018 Photos: MM Advertisements for Tea Board by Copy (above and below) written by Rituporno Ghosh for Boroline. Satyajit Ray. advertisements in pure Bengali, a mango drink, Frooti, won him 18 from other languages. Modern skill which had been lost under the national awards. His famous one- day Bengali advertisements lack onslaught of the translation trend. liner Dekhte kharab, makhte bhalo originality. Ghosh is known for his creativity (looks bad but good when used) for One person who has bucked the not only in Bengal but all over the Margo soap helped the re-launch of trend is Rituporno Ghosh. When world. He started his career at the the brand and became a landmark. the Bengali advertising industry Response India advertising agency Ghosh’s talent for writing rhymes was going through a phase where in Kolkata as a copywriter and was and poems instantly on any topic English or Hindi advertisements known for his one-liners and catchy was noteworthy; his visualisation were only translated and there advertising slogans. Campaigns was both textual and pictorial; he was a serious dearth of talent and such as Bongo jiboner ongo (a part had a keen eye for the finest details creativity, Ghosh’s entry brought of the Bengali’s life) and Sharad – the colours, the lighting and in a fresh breath of life. He initiated samman for Boroline, an antiseptic accessories. His elaborate style of a revival of writing original cream, and others for the popular copywriting, drawing on history, and his persuasive abilities to get customers to buy the product being advertised were what made him a successful ad man. While talking of the present status
of Bengali advertisements, one can only say that creative giants like < Ray and Ghosh are sorely missed.
(The writer is an educator who is presently engaged in research work on cartoons and media literacy of children and their impact. Her areas of interest include media studies and new media.)
October-December 2018 VIDURA 41 Of recovering addicts – a universal story
Taala te Kunjee or Lock and Key is the intriguing title of a documentary film that explores the lives of rehabilitated drug addicts leading normal lives along with their families who were wonderful pillars of support. The film is directed by Shilpi Gulati, a young Fulbright scholar who is currently doing her PhD at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. She is known as a documentary filmmaker with a mission. Shoma A. Chatterji was in conversation with Gulati
Tell us about your films before Taala te Kunji. In the last eight years of making documentaries, I have been attracted to social issues related to different regional communities in India. My first film Dere tun Dilli (2012) was on Partition refugees from Dere Ismail Khan (present-day Pakistan) in Delhi. Subsequently, I worked in Maharashtra and Gujarat with the Parsi community. My documentary Qissa-e Parsi (2014) won the National Award for the Best Ethnographic Film and my other works, Inside Out (2010), Tejinder Walia, the senior-most subject, in a scene from the film. Dere to Delhi (2012) and Naach Bhikhari Naach (2018) have been folk theatre tradition of Bihar. I have I was born and brought up in screened at various festivals in Asia, entered each of these spaces through Delhi and have no association Europe and the US. Naach Bhikhari themes around gender, performance with Punjab. As far as the film is Naach is about Launda Naach, the and oral narratives. concerned, I feel close to the subject because of the realities of addiction How did Taala Te Kunjee itself. It is a story of every household happen? and the physical and mental abuse I was invited by Hermitage Rehab is something that every addict and Home in Amritsar to collaborate on his / her family go through. In that a film project. This was in September way, I feel it is a universal story and of 2015. At that time we were not not limited to Punjab. sure if it was going to be a feature documentary but there was clarity How did you persuade your that we didn't want to repeat the subjects to agree to be interviewed narrative of the drug epidemic in for a documentary film which Punjab. We spoke about focussing would take them into the public on stories of recovery, of giving a domain? new perspective to understanding I spent a lot of time at Hermitage the issue. with recovering addicts and The film reveals your close their families. I met Gurpratap ties with Amritsar and also with Singh who had an amazing story the subject of your film. Please of recovery and was a young Shilpi Gulati – director. elaborate. counsellor and an inspirational
42 VIDURA October-December 2018 while to understand the philosophy charitable trust. I guess the treatment of a process that comes with its and counselling are expensive own share of struggles, bittersweet and that is why only the upper- moments, hope and regret. class and the affluent can afford There is a moment in the film the treatment. I had no problems when 63-year-old Satpal Kaur with that. The protagonists come shows us her wedding album from from a specific background. This 1977. She points to her favourite is precisely the point of the film – photograph where she is a young to focus on the dark realities of a bride with tears on her face. This certain segment of the landed class film made me see the spirit of of our society. the women who can laugh while Have you shown this film to sharing stories of struggle. It made your subjects? If yes, what was me realise that it is because of them their reaction? that their husbands are alive today Yes. They have all seen the film. and leading better lives. In that way, As counsellors, they are quite used
Photos: SG these are ordinary women with to sharing their experiences in extraordinary courage. For me, The film poster. public space, so for them, the film more than the recovering addicts, was not a big surprise. They have Taala te Kunjee is about the wives. figure for several young boys at also participated in a few public the rehab. It fascinated me to see screenings where I feel, they have I didn’t find any reference to
how a recovering addict could enjoyed their interactions with the middle-class and lower middle- < draw from his own experiences audience. class addicts. Why? to counsel others. After a while, I The Hermitage rehab home is realised that the other four family a privately-run centre. It is not a counsellors at the rehab, Nitin Gupta, Aman Pannu, Jasbir Singh and Tejinder Walia, were recovering addicts as well. Each of them was Jayant Mammen Mathew elected at a different stage of recovery and offered a new way of looking at life. president of INS I soon decided to not restrict the Jayant Mammen Mathew, executive editor of Malayala Manorama, was film to a single person and explore on Friday elected as the president of the prestigious Indian Newspaper the various nuances of recovery Society, an apex body of the country’s print media industry. He was elected through multiple experiences. to the top post for 2018-19 at the organisation’s general body meeting held here. He succeeds Akila Urankar of Business Standard, the INS said in a What is your directorial statement. statement about this film? Lav Saksena will serve as the secretary general, while Shailesh Gupta At one level, the story of every of Mid Day newspaper will be the deputy president and L. Adimoolam drug or alcohol addict is the same. of Health and The Antiseptic, the vice-president. Apart from the physical and mental Sharad Saxena of the Patna edition of Hindustan Times has been made abuse, there is almost always a the organisation’s honorary treasurer. complete breakdown of familial The 41-member executive committee of the society includes Viveck Goenka and social structures of support. of The Indian Express, Mahendra Mohan Gupta of Dainik Jagran, Mohit While making Taala te Kunjee, we Jain of Economic Times, Vijay Jawaharlal Darda of Lokmat, Vijay Kumar were sure that we did not want to Chopra of Punjab Kesari, Rajiv Verma of Hindustan Times, Sumanta Pal sensationalise substance abuse or of Amar Ujala and Atideb Sarkar of The Telegraph. the larger problem of addiction in Indian Newspaper Society acts as a central organisation of the print media
Punjab like it is done in mainstream industry in India and promotes and safeguards the interests of the industry. < cinema and news. Instead, we wanted to concentrate on the (Courtesy: The Hindu) process of recovery. It took us a
October-December 2018 VIDURA 43 SPORT Two success stories – now, let’s look ahead to Tokyo
India’s sportsmen and women gave us plenty to cheer at the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games during the year. Partab Ramchand is of the view that it is imperative to build upon the twin successes so that the Indian contingent can do well at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo
ndia’s record in the Olympics only hosts Australia and England country’s flag flying high. Based on may be abysmal but the and ahead of such Commonwealth what one saw at the Commonwealth Icompetitors have always powerhouses as Canada and New Games one expected an impressive performed admirably when it comes Zealand. In the process, they showing by the Indian contingent to the next rung on the international breached their medal tally from at the Asian Games and it must be ladder – the Commonwealth Games the previous games at Glasgow in said that they performed well above and the Asian Games. And this year, 2014. Four years ago, India won 64 expectations. The twin triumphs there was plenty to cheer for Indian medals – 15 gold, 30 silver and 19 seem to suggest that finally there sportsmen and women covered bronze. The maximum medals India seems to be in place some system themselves with glory at both the has at the Games was in New Delhi and infrastructure to produce events. First, in the Commonwealth in 2010 when a massive 600-plus champions whereas in the past Games in Gold Coast in Australia strong squad bagged 101 medals. the occasional champions were a in April, India finished with a tally In many ways, the competition product of their own hard work and of 66 medals, the break-up being 26 in the Asian Games is tougher than sacrifices. The encouraging results gold, 20 silver and 20 bronze. at the Commonwealth Games, in both the events also augurs well India’s haul saw them finish third but in August in Jakarta, India’s for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. in the final medals tally behind representatives again kept the India is one of the five founding members of the Asian Games Federation (since renamed the Olympic Council of Asia) in New Delhi in 1949. And though there have been a few occasions when India have not participated in the Commonwealth Games, the country has been represented in every Asiad since the inaugural edition in 1951. It is among only seven nations that have participated in all the Asian Games. India has played hosts twice – in 1951 and 1982 both in New Delhi. India has won at least one gold medal at every Asian Games and has always been ranked within the top ten in the medals table except in the 1990 meet at Beijing when it finished Illustration: Arun Ramkumar Illustration: eleventh. India peaked at the Asian Games at Guangzhou (China) in 2010 when it won a total of 65 medals. But hopes were justifiably high
44 VIDURA October-December 2018 on the eve of the Jakarta Games This underlined a stout heart and medals were won in athletics, that India would better their tally a hunger for success that is quite archery, boxing, badminton, bridge, of 57 medals won at Incheon four unparalleled. Also, many of them hockey, weightlifting, kabaddi, years ago. However, even the most came from far flung regions in the rowing, sailing, equestrian, optimistic Indian sports follower country and not from the big cities shooting, wrestling, tennis, table could not have bargained for what which have generally produced tennis and squash and by men and finally happened. The bottom line the greats. But, perhaps, the most women. is the medals tally and the fact that heartening aspect that many of What is of paramount importance it is an all-time record illustrates the medal winners were young – now is to build on the gains the that things are looking up for India teenagers even – and this is what sportsmen and women have in the sporting arena. There were a makes one feel that the future of come up with in Australia and total of 69 medals, with the breakup Indian sport is very bright. Indonesia. It is imperative for being 15 gold, 24 silver and 30 It must also not be forgotten that the Union Sports Ministry, the bronze, and the overall eighth place in a couple of cases the victories various sports associations and the meant that India had again finished were notched up against Olympic players themselves to see to it that in the top ten. champions proving that Indians the success story does not grind What was particularly heartening are not overawed by the reputation to a halt and that the gains are
about the Indian showing in both of the opponents. What was also consolidated to the point where the events was the fact that many of gratifying to note was that the Indian contingent can come good at< the medal-winning sportsmen medal count ran across genders and Tokyo two years hence. and women came from humble through various disciplines some backgrounds and they had to of not exactly India’s traditional (The writer is a senior sports really struggle first to make it to strongholds. In the past, Indian journalist based in Chennai.) the Indian squad and then win a medals have been won courtesy medal after facing various kinds of three or four sports and by either obstacles, hurdles and hardships. men or women. This time, the
N. Ravi elected PTI Chairman N. Ravi, publisher and former editor-in-chief of The Hindu, was unanimously elected chairman of the Press Trust ofIndia (PTI). Vijay Kumar Chopra, chief editor of the Punjab Kesari Group of newspapers, was elected vice- chairman. Ravi succeeds Viveck Goenka, chairman and managing director of the Express Group. The elections took place at a meeting of the Board of Directors of the news agency following the company’s 70th annual general meeting. Ravi has been the chairman of the India Chapter of the International Press Institute and a member of the executive board of the International Press Institute, Vienna. He was president of the Editors’ Guild of India and had been a member of the National Integration Council from 2006 to 2008. Ravi has won several academic awards, including a gold medal in constitutional and international law. He was a Fellow at the Harvard Law School in 2000 and the Shorenstein Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, in 2004. In 2013, he was a Visiting Fellow at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, and St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University. Ravi joined The Hindu in 1972, where he served as a reporter, a leader writer, the Washington correspondent, a deputy editor and an associate editor. He was editor from 1991 to 2011 and editor-in-chief from October 2013 to January 2015. He has covered several international conferences and travelled with prime ministers and presidents to cover international summits. His areas of interest include constitutional and political issues, economic policy, international economy, free speech and human rights, and India-U.S. relations. The other PTI Board members are Mahendra Mohan Gupta (Dainik Jagran), K.N. Shanth Kumar (Deccan Herald), Vineet Jain (Times of India), Riyad Mathew (Malayala Manorama), Aveek Kumar Sarkar (Anand
Bazar Patrika), M.P. Veerendra Kumar (Mathrubhumi), R. Lakshmipathy (Dinamalar), Hormusji N. Cama (Bombay Samachar), Justice R.C. Lahoti, Deepak Nayyar, Shyam Saran and J.F. Pochkhanawalla. < (Courtesy: The Hindu/ PTI)
October-December 2018 VIDURA 45 SPORT Indian cricket’s other Fab Four Indian cricket’s famed spin quartet of the 1960s and 70s was truly great as they shaped notable victories despite facing the dual pressure of a new ball attack that was a joke, and inconsistent batting, says Partab Ramchand. For old timers who were lucky to see them in action, the mere mention of the spin quartet is enough to make their eyes sparkle with delight, he says
or cricket fans of today’s against the same opponents, generation the Fab Four will Chandra played his first Test in Falways be Rahul Dravid, Bombay. In February 1965, Venkat Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly made his debut against New and V.V.S. Laxman. The quartet, Zealand in Madras and Bedi joined undoubtedly the most lustrous the ranks against West Indies at batting line-up in the game, scripted Calcutta on the last day of 1966. For one famous triumph after another well over a decade, the quartet was making the first decade of the New Indian cricket’s potent force. Millennium the greatest ever in As Scyld Berry notes in his book, Indian Test cricket. Cricketwalah, which covered the But for cricket fans of an earlier England tour of India in 1981- generation the Fab Four can only 82: “There occurred one of the mean the famed spin quartet who Photos: Internet strangest coincidences in cricket. ruled the roost from the mid- Bishen Bedi. A quartet of spinners who were 1960s to the late 1970s and shaped to turn India from a second-rate innumerable notable victories at as the second over of the innings was cricket power into a world force home and abroad. In their own way being bowled. After all, he would be emerged simultaneously in the they terrorised batsmen as much as bowling the next! sixties.” In 1971, when the quartet Andy Roberts and Michael Holding, Prasanna made his Test debut enjoyed a glorious phase scripting Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson. against England in Madras in series victories in West Indies Ian Chappell, one of the best January 1962 and, two years later and England, John Arlott paid a players of spin bowling, reckoned handsome tribute when he wrote: that his cricketing education was “The Indian spinners are the completed on the 1969-70 tour of finest slow bowling combination, India as he had to take on the spin perhaps the most dangerous attack bowlers at their peak. He said that in the contemporary game.” if the body had to show tremendous In India, the spin quartet shaped reflexes in trying to negotiate a fast one notable victory after another. bowler, the brain was working But more outstanding was the overtime in trying to tackle the manner in which they shaped famed Indian spinners. They had triumphs abroad. In their time so many ideas, so many variations, together, India won Tests in New that the batsman was at his wit’s Zealand, West Indies, England end in trying to just negotiate an and Australia, something quite over successfully. unthinkable before. In almost Bishen Bedi, Erapalli Prasanna, every victory – even the historic Bhagwat Chandrasekhar and series triumphs in West Indies and Srinivas Venkatraghavan took 853 England in 1971 – the spin quartet wickets between them. For most of had a major role to play. the time they played for India, the Such was the mastery over the new ball attack was a farce and it art and craft that their long reign was not uncommon to see Bedi start is hailed as the apotheosis of warm-up exercises in the field even Erapalli Prasanna. Indian spin bowling. The Indian
46 VIDURA October-December 2018 Bedi 32. They were still respected as bowlers with rich experience and a varied repertoire of tricks. There was nothing to indicate that the tour would mark the break- up of the longest-serving band of spin bowlers the cricketing world has ever known. And yet this was precisely what happened. The Pakistan authorities aware that the quartet would pose the main problems prepared pitches that would finish them off as a threat. Placid wickets perfect for batting were placed before them. Bhagwat Chandrasekhar. On such true surfaces even the vast experience and incomparable skill cricket fans’ faith in them was of the spinners came to nothing. For Srinivas Venkatraghavan. total, complete and absolute for the first time since the spin quartet they knew that whatever the crisis came together 12 years before, India last Tests in England – quite — brought about by a woefully could not bowl out the opposition unsuccessfully – and that was inadequate new ball attack or a even once in the three Tests. At the effectively the end of the quartet. fragile batting line-up – the Fab Four end of the series, Chandra had taken During the transition period, Venkat would not only rescue the team but eight wickets at 48 each while Bedi’s played three Tests against Australia also go on to script another victory. six wickets cost an astronomical 75 at home in 1979-80 and then the For well over a decade, the cricket each. Prasanna played in two Tests phasing out was completed with world was fascinated by the left- and took just two wickets at the Shivlal Yadav replacing Venkat arm spin of Bedi, the unorthodox horrendous cost of 125 each. even as Dilip Doshi finally stepped leg spinners of Chandra and the Worse the series was lost 2-0 and into Bedi’s shoes. off-breaks of Prasanna and Venkat. the inquests started. Venkat did not Venkat made a comeback playing Bedi was the best bowler of his play in any Test but the three others seven Tests in 1983 but by now he type in the game while Chandra came under the scanner. Was their was well past his best and, when was a match-winner and so these time finally up? Was the quartet he played what proved to be his two were almost certainties in the well over the hill? Perhaps the last Test in September that year, it team. It was a pity that there had time had come for the unthinkable was time to recall the memorable to be a game of musical chairs – replace one of the quartet with a deeds that the spin quartet had between Prasanna and Venkat since young, untested spinner. performed. Besides the fact that only three could be fielded in the During the home series against the new ball attack was a joke, they playing eleven. But in a way that the West Indies that followed, the faced increased pressure because of illustrated the high quality of the selectors finally broke up the quartet the inconsistent batting. Unlike in four bowlers. by bringing in Narasimha Rao and the New Millennium when India At the start of the 1978-79 season, Dhiraj Parsanna to replace Chandra ran up totals of 700-plus, the batting there was still no challenge to the and Bedi. Prasanna did not play Test was largely brittle during the time spin quartet. Obviously, they were cricket after the Pakistan tour and of the quartet. Frequently, they had all getting on in years but could take Venkat was now the fulcrum of the to defend totals of 200 and 250 and comfort from the cricketing adage spin attack. However, neither Rao this they did successfully on many
that spinners mature with age. The nor Parsana was up to the mark and occasions rising to the occasion < four were still in their rightful place the selectors fell back on Bedi and manfully. when the Indian team took off for Chandra for the tour of England in Pakistan for a barrier-breaking 1979. But the pressure was already tour with the teams meeting after on the quartet that had now become more than 17 years. Prasanna was a trio. 38, Venkat and Chandra 33, and Chandra and Bedi played their
October-December 2018 VIDURA 47 CONSERVATION Can’t we live in harmony with these giants?
India’s developmental imperatives are pushing the elephant – a significant component of our national heritage – into danger. Rina Mukherji takes a look at the situation and says that mitigating human- elephant conflict can only be possible if a humane approach is adopted towards conservation
n a significant judgement, the Supreme Court recently directed Ithe Tamil Nadu Government to close down resorts within the designated ‘elephant corridor’ in the Nilgiris, in a bid to protect the pachyderms and prevent human- elephant conflict (HEC). The Court was hearing a public interest litigation and described elephants as part of India’s national heritage. HEC, as defined by the Elephant Task Force, is the adverse impact people and elephants have on each other. Conflict of this nature entails Commons Photos: Wikimedia suffering for both humans and Elephants on a road at the edge of a forest. elephants. The Supreme Court has already corridors, and how important are central India, extending up to the instructed the Centre to consider they in preventing elephant deaths? north-eastern states of Assam, the suggestions to make a certain For this, it is imperative to examine Meghalaya and Tripura, and number of elephant corridors safe some pertinent facts. southwards into Maharashtra, for elephants, and prevent loss of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil both elephant and human lives by The Asian elephant, its dwindling Nadu, made it easy for herds to avoiding HEC. However, only three habitat` move around. However, India’s states – West Bengal, Meghalaya The Asian or Asiatic elephant is developmental imperatives and and Kerala – have responded so the only living species of the genus, extensive network of highways far. What exactly are elephant Elephas. The Indian elephant or and railway routes, along with a Elephas Maximus Indicus is a sub- rising human population hungry species. A large animal like the for agricultural land, has resulted elephant needs an unfragmented in increasingly fragmented habitat to survive in the wild. landscapes. This drives elephants Elephant herds are known to migrate more frequently into human- across 350-500 sq km annually in dominated areas, giving rise to normal circumstances. Climate man-animal conflicts. change is rendering the environment Elephant corridors are safe routes increasingly dry and they now have maintained so as to allow herds to to migrate more often in search of migrate from one large wildlife food and water. habitat to another. This is of crucial In the past, the vast expanses of importance to both elephants and An elephant herd crossing a highway. forest across north-western and humans.
48 VIDURA October-December 2018 corridor for every 150 sq km of elephant habitat, as compared to Northeastern India, which has one corridor for every 1565 sq km of elephant habitat. Among the states, West Bengal has the highest number of corridors (14), followed by Tamil Nadu (13) and Uttarakhand (11). The WTI had mapped and listed 88 elephant corridors earlier in 2005. Of these, seven were impaired due to alterations to natural landscapes and heightened development. Hence, 20 new corridors were added, bringing the total to 101 An elephant cub with its tail set on fire by an irate mob. corridors in the 2017 study. When one looks at facts and figures from In India, and especially in north Mapping elephant corridors 2005 and 2017, the picture is quite Bengal, train accidents account for In August 2017, the Wildlife dismal. a large number of elephant deaths. Trust of India (WTI) released its The 2017 report notes that about Since 1987, the country has lost 183 report Right of Passage, written in 74 per cent of the corridors are elephants due to train hits. Nearly collaboration with Project Elephant one kilometre or less wide today, 85 per cent of these deaths are from and the Elephant Family, UK, compared with 45.5 per cent in 2005, Assam, West Bengal, Uttarakhand which identified and described 101 and only 22 per cent corridors are and Jharkhand. Of the rest, six elephant corridors. According to one to three kilometres wide now, per cent is from Tamil Nadu, two the report, 28 of the corridors are compared with 41 per cent in 2005. per cent from Uttar Pradesh, four located in South India, 25 in Central Also, only 21.8 per cent of corridors per cent from Kerala, two per cent India, 23 in Northeastern India, 14 were free of human settlements in from Odisha and one per cent in northern West Bengal and 11 in 2017 as compared to 22.8 per cent in from Tripura. For an animal listed Northwestern India. Almost 70 per 2005. In terms of land use, only 12.9 as an endangered species by the cent of the 101 corridors is regularly per cent of the corridors were under International Union of Conservation used, 25 per cent occasionally, and total forest cover in 2017 compared of Nature and Natural Resources six per cent rarely. to 24 per cent in 2005. (IUCN) since 1986, this is indeed The study noted an inverse Moreover, two in every three sad news. relationship between the available elephant corridors in the country The East-Central landscape forest cover and the number of were found to be affected by contains only 10 per cent of the corridors in each region. In other agricultural activities, with 58.4 country's elephant population, but words, the more fragmented the per cent of them under settled the region contributes about 70 per forest cover, the more the elephant cultivation and 10.9 per cent under cent of human mortality due to HEC. corridors. Thus, northern West jhum (slash and burn) cultivation. More than half the expenditure Bengal has the highest number All corridors in West Bengal, and incurred by Project Elephant under of elephant corridors; that is, one almost all (96 per cent) in Central the Centre’s 11th Five Year Plan was India were found to be under for HEC mitigation. Another 15-20 settled cultivation, as against 32 per per cent was spent on ex-gratia and cent of the corridors in southern compensation for loss of property India. Predictably, HEC is a major or crops. Widespread HEC is an problem in the former. index of failure to protect forest Further, 20 corridors had railway cover or reverse their fragmentation lines passing through them, and and degradation, with nearly 400 almost two-thirds had a national or people being killed annually by state highway cutting across, thus elephants and about 100 elephants fragmenting habitats and hindering being killed by people. A scene that has become common now. elephant movement. Therefore,
October-December 2018 VIDURA 49 the Supreme Court had suggested acquisition has to be a voluntary systems that alert engine drivers that nine states acquire land across and rewarding process.” The WTI of (elephant) herd movement, 27 high-priority corridors for safe and its partners have already shown solar fences and playing tapes
movement of elephants. the way in this regard by acquiring of loud humming of bees along village land to secure six significant railway tracks to prevent elephants< Securing corridors: best practices corridors for the seamless movement approaching them. Securing of corridors can never be of herds. Rather than evict people, done in a manner that is antagonistic local communities were persuaded (The writer is a senior journalist to local people. This could instigate to avoid using critical elephant based in Pune.) people to hurt the elephants. As migratory routes for conservation. Prof Raman Sukumar of the Wildlife In addition, elephant lives can Trust of India (WTI) asserts, “Land be protected by the use of warning
Workshop focuses on tackling fake health news The Press Institute of India in partnership with Global health Strategies and The News Minute conducted in September a ‘media training workshop’ focused on Fake Health News. Dr J. Radhakrishnan, principal secretary, Health and Family Welfare, Government of Tamil Nadu, while delivering the keynote address, touched on the aspects of public health and the media, the impact of inaccurate news on health systems and initiatives, and partnerships and exchanges that can mitigate fake health news crises. A.S. Panneerselvan, readers’ editor, The Hindu, explaining the role of the media in the time of fake news, drew up an essential checklist for health Radhakrishnan responding to a question from a journalist. reporters. Providing example, he spoke about due diligence in reporting and how to embrace social media with responsibility. Jency Jacob, fact checker and managing editor, Boom, a fact-checking website, dwelt on facing the challenges posed by fake health news, the effect on content on the consumer, ways to identify and counter fake news, and increasing news literacy. Keshav Desiraju, former Union health secretary, spoke about the reluctance of senior officials to speak to the media, the need for journalists to keep opinion away from news stories, and how important it was for journalists to establish credibility. He also exhorted reporters present to visit primary health centres, study and analyse various government schemes
Photos: PII-RIND and report critically. Journalists soaking in all that is being said. Earlier, Sashi Nair, director and editor, Press Institute of India, and
Nandita Suneja, director, Global Health Strategies, welcomed the gathering and set the tone for the workshop. Ramanathan Subramaniam, partner, The News Minute, proposed the vote of thanks. <
50 VIDURA October-December 2018
Winners of 12th edition of PII-ICRC Awards announced inners of the 12th edition the first prize for her article that Patrika, won the first prize. His of the PII-ICRC Annual appeared on the Village Square picture captured people employing Awards for best articles website, ‘Kanas villagers make water innovative ways of reusing and W safe through simple interventions’. and photographs on a humanitarian recycling water in a small village, subject, jointly organised by Press The story showed how simple Manpura, in Rajasthan, which faces Institute of India (PII) and the interventions by residents of a water scarcity in summer. International Committee of the Red coastal village in Odisha had made Special awards were presented Cross (ICRC) New Delhi Regional water from ponds and tube-wells in the best article category to Delegation, were announced safe for consumption. Tabassum Barnagarwala, Indian recently. This year, the awards Sarita Santoshini, based in Express, Mumbai; Vikhar Ahmed focused on the theme, ‘Changing Guwahati, writing for IndiaSpend, Sayeed, Frontline, Bengaluru; and lives through innovation in health bagged the second prize for best Rakhee Roytalukdar, Grassroots, and sanitation’. article, ‘Text messages save lives in Jaipur; and in the best photograph Rakhi Ghosh, an independent state with highest maternal deaths’ category to Indranil Mukherjee, journalist working in Odisha, won The third winner in the same Agence France-Presse, Mumbai. category, Maitri- Chief guest Dr J. Radhakrishnan, Porecha, was Principal Secretary, Health and awarded for her Family Welfare Department, insightful article Government of Tamil Nadu, ‘Mobile phones stressed the role of the media in h a n d h o l d changing lives through innovation. mothers through He pointed out that the media has p r e g n a n c y ’ , the power to create awareness. One published in photograph or article can change Daily News and the focus and draw the attention Analysis (DNA). of the public and policy makers In the best to what was hitherto neglected. p h o t o g r a p h The ICRC-PII Annual Awards category, Neeraj encourage journalists to facilitate Gautam, senior Usha Rai lights the traditional lamp as J. Radhakrishnan, refocus, reshape thought and bring Sashi Nair (director, PII) and jury members Usha Kris and photojournalist about developmental change, he Ammu Joseph look on. with Rajasthan said. Photos: PII-ICRC The winners pose for a group picture.
52 VIDURA October-December 2018 <
J. Radhakrishnan, principal secretary, Health and Family Usha Kris makes a point as Surinder Singh Oberoi, Welfare Department, Government of Tamil Nadu, speaking political advisor, ICRC, who moderated the panel about the power of the media in creating awareness. discussion based on the theme, Changing Lives through Innovation in Health and Sanitation, and others look on.
A view of the audience. Deepti Soni, ICRC communications head, is seen, extreme right.
Jeremy England, head of the The Awards saw many interesting The Himalayan Times, Kathmandu. ICRC Regional Delegation said, entries from across national and Surinder Oberoi, Political Adviser, “For over a decade now the Press regional publications covering ICRC New Delhi, moderated. Institute of India and the ICRC innovation in health and sanitation. The awards, instituted by the have been recognising exceptional The first, second and third place PII and the ICRC are designed work by Indian media professionals winners received Rs 100,000, Rs to promote and recognise the
who use their words and 70,000 and Rs 40,000, respectively. outstanding work of journalists in photographs to keep our attention Special awardees received Rs 20,000. the field of humanitarian reporting.< on not just human suffering but the For the first time, entries were extraordinary resilience of people invited from journalists working in in the face of emergencies and Nepal, Bhutan and the Maldives. disasters worldwide.” A panel discussion was also held Sashi Nair, director-editor, PII- based on the theme, Changing RIND, said that at a time when Lives through Innovation in journalists were facing immense Health and Sanitation. Senior pressures and challenges, it was journalists and jury members Usha heartening to see them work hard Rai, Ammu Joseph and Usha Kris and with passion to produce some shared perspectives along with outstanding work. Sanjeev Satgainya, Assistant Editor,
October-December 2018 VIDURA 53 Why authors need reviews now than ever before There is a symbiotic relationship between author and reviewer because they thrive upon each other. But a word of caution to potential reviewers from writer Kurt Vonnegut might be useful, says Col R. Hariharan – "We're what we pretend to be. So we must be careful what we pretend to be."
don't know how many read clear, whenever he could round up a of book reviews. I also reviewed book reviews that usually form few of us as audience. His collection books occasionally. They included a Ipart of newspaper Sunday was mostly of Tamil classics. Books wide range – management studies, supplements. Probably there are on Indian philosophy and Sir Walter military history, memoirs, etc. not too many, but I am one of them. Scott’s novels were also there. I was reminded of my It was an early habit I picked up I was drawn to reviews of grandfather's no-holds-barred probably from my grandfather, a books, thanks to my grandfather's style of criticism, when I read police sub-inspector by profession. compulsive and, at times, highly Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's book, He was not only a collector of critical reviews, dished out The Full Circle. Even though he books, but also a critical reviewer sometimes with pungent humour. never completed reading The Count of whatever he read. His reviews In addition to being an avid reader of Monte Cristo, the Nobel Laureate were oral, coming out loud and of books, I became a selective reader for Literature was scathing in his Illustration: Arun Ramkumar Illustration:
54 VIDURA October-December 2018 criticism of the author, Alexandre had only read the blurb on the book handsome' has become a cliché, Dumas. The terrible memories of jacket, and not the book. Of course how does an author make his or her his imprisonment during his exile, blurb-writing itself has become mark writing yet another romance? immortalised in Solzhenitsyn's an art – a good blurb, though less The experienced editor may book, The Gulag Archipelago, laudable in its purpose than a suggest introducing a steamy sex probably made him so critical of bikini, does the same job: covering encounter in page 20, and ever Dumas. He mocked at Dumas’s essential parts while creating ten pages thereafter. This might ignorance about the horrors of interest. have worked in the days of D.H. prison life for writing about a Do authors need critics? Somerset Lawrence, but not anymore. I can “benevolent prison”. Poor Dumas's Maugham, one of the most popular hear some young voices asking the Château d'If was a product of his storytellers of all times, was never question "DH... who?" Actually, imagination of another era, when a favourite of critics. In fact, the their ignorance of the yore provide writing about prisoners carrying Bloomsbury literary elite never the answer. We are living in the era latrine buckets was just not done, showed any interest in him. He was of live streaming sex scenes on call as Solzhnetsyn had wanted. fiercely self-critical as a writer with in the ether. Commonsense tells us When I read this, I realised how small vocabulary, with little gift of that not many will be thrilled with judgemental reviewers can be. Most metaphor and the "striking simile sex on page 20. of the reviewers end up analysing seldom occurred" to him. But the This is where a review on the book and the author based upon great storyteller did not need critics multimedia format comes in handy, their own life experience. Perhaps to make him popular, but his media because whether the book is good this is what adds colour to reviews, reviews did it. or a goof up, a review provides provided the reviewer fulfilled All authors do not have exposure, even if it is negative.
two conditions: he had read the Maugham's gift of storytelling. In So a review has become more book and feels strongly about it. the electronic era, authors need important now than ever before for < Otherwise, the review will be bland, critical acclaim to gain attention; an author. placid and quickly forgotten. even some notoriety comes handy Well-known American post- at times. So, they need a reviewer. (The writer is a retired colonel of modern novelist and novelist Kurt Secondly, the Internet seems to the Intelligence Corps. He writes Vonnegut once said, "Any reviewer have made everyone an author; and speaks on South Asia and its who expresses rage and loathing some of them are budding, but neighbourhood as well as terrorism, for a novel is preposterous. He or many are blooming authors. Even the areas of his specialties during his she is like a person who has put the world of pulp romances has service.) on full armour and attacked hot become congested. When 'tall dark fudge sundae." Probably Vonnegut was expressing his dismay at the unfairness of author-bashing, like a father who cannot stand to see his son bullied by armed ruffians. However, some authors take too badly to critics. Oliver Markus Malloy, author of some 'comic' writing (as he describes his books) is caustic about critics. He says "It is the Yelp effect. Every half-wit who eats food thinks he's a food critic. Don't get me started on people 'reviewing' books they didn't even read. Who needs information when you can have an uninformed opinion?" Sometimes, when I read a book review, like Oliver, I also get the uncanny feeling that the reviewer
October-December 2018 VIDURA 55 Book Review
The thinker’s philosophy of Advaita in a simple narrative
describes his journey from Kaladi to Kedarnath, visiting Kashi, Srinagar and all the other places the Shankara had been to, and established either a mutt or a temple. He records where Adi Shankaracharya stayed, worked and learnt from Govindapada and his father Gaudapada. Why, as a diplomat and Janata Dal (U) politician, did Pavan K. Varma write this book? “Jagad Guru Adi Shankaracharya was undoubtedly one of the greatest minds in Hinduism’s unrelenting quest for the ultimate truth. Hinduism as a religion is inseparable from Hinduism as a philosophy,” he asserts. At Kaladi, when the research team entered the house where Shankaracharya had lived, they found a group of women lighting a lamp on a stone pillar in a corner. They explained that it was the spot where Aryamba, Shankara’s mother was cremated. Shankara’s views on the caste system have been discussed in greater detail in the chapter on Philosophy. Shankara who believed in the gnanamarga disagreed with emphasis on ritual. What needs to be mentioned here is that some biographers have tried to reassert the validity of the ADI SHANKARACHARYA – HINDUISM’S GREATEST rigid and discriminatory social system by underplaying THINKER the wisdom of the chandala. Author: Pavan K. Varma After his fame spread far and wide following a great Publisher: Tranquebar Press, an imprint of Westland debate, Shankara travelled southwards preaching Publications the doctrine of Advaita. There was an attempt made Price: Rs. 699 on his life, but his disciple Padmapada saved him. Under Shakaracharya’s direction, Padmapada One of the preceptors of Hindu religion, Adi wrote a commentary and took it along on a tour to Shankaracharya (788-820) occupies a unique place Rameswaram. At Srirangam, he left the manuscript among the Acharyas and the author has tried to give with his uncle, who was a believer in the karmakanda, a glimpse of his life and times in a manner that even which was opposed to advaita. He read Padmapada’s those who are unfamiliar with the subject would find commentary on Vedanta, and, angered by it, he burnt enjoyable. Pavan K.Varma has presented the thinker’s the work. Shankaracharya pacified his distraught philosophy of Advaita, or non-dual supremacy of the disciple, and, before leaving for Rameswaram, dictated atman, in a simple narrative. the commentary to Pamapada from memory. Varma delves deep and perceptively into the The episode of Shankaracharya meeting his mother philosophy of Adi Shankara and his teachings. He has when she was close to death is a moving one. “The provided enough material to satisfy a thinking reader, reunion of Shankara and his mother, whom he had left but it is still tough to comprehend the philosophy. as a child, must have been one of the most emotional The book is divided into four chapters, besides the moments in his life especially since she was now Epilogue and A Select Anthology. terminally ill and her mortal life was about to end. The first chapter, titled A Personal Journey, is Shankara sang to her one of his most evocative hymns full of interesting anecdotes. Following in Adi to Siva and then one on Vishnu, and in this devotional Shankaracharya’s footsteps, Varma graphically mood, she breathed her last.”
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According to the author, the importance Sutra and the Bhagavad Gita, and wrote extensive Shankaracharya gave to the mother goddess in the and definitive commentaries on each of them. Then form of Shakti or Devi can be traced to the attachment there were the philosophical doctrines of Buddhisim to his mother. His decision to perform his mother’s and Jainism. All of these contributed to in substantial last rites was met with hostility by his Nambudiri ways to Shankara’s thought process. “The depth and clansmen who decided to boycott the ceremonies and range of philosophical churning” says the author, did not even assist him to prepare the funeral pyre. “that marked the growth and evolution of Indic But Shankaracharya was not one to be shaken from thought in its formative years must have few parallels his resolve, notes the author. anywhere in the world, including Greece.” He goes on Shankaracharya set out again on his travels across to say that the sages who founded these systems did India, after collecting his disciples from Sringeri. not grapple so much with faith and godhood. In fact, Passing through Central India through Ujjain towards most of the six systems, including Vedanta, were at Puri on the western coast (here the author slips – on the level of pure philosophy, atheistic in tone, seeking Eastern coast) where he set up the Govardhan Mutt, to carry out a penetrating enquiry into the ultimate he went on to Dwarka on the western coast to establish nature of substance and spirit. a mutt there. The author says that he went to Bengal Varma asserts that the important thing was and Assam and held discussions with the tantric and that debates were not confined to hermitages or representatives of the Shakta school, including its monasteries or to a handful of disciples, but acquired most famous exponent, Abhinava Gupta. There are a larger momentum and popularity that permeated to comments about Kanchi mutt, and the author records people at large, who, even if not involved in the finer the statement that Shankaracharya attained mukti in metaphysical nuances, were more than aware of the Kanchi. broad contours. The famous Shankaracharya temple in Srinagar is The third chapter The Audacity of Thought located on the Gopadir Hills, 1000 ft above the valley. talks about Shankaracharya’s philosophy that In fact, two Muslim rulers in later times – Zain-ul conceptualised Brahman as the all-pervasive and Abideen in the15th Century and Sheikh Mohinuddin only absolute force in the universe. He asserted that who was governor of the region when Kashmir was Brahman and Atman are the same. Human beings, who under Sikh rule – renovated the temple. All this is have the faculty of reflection and will, are more than evidence of the great sanctity of the temple and of the the sum of their body and mind. fact that this was the place Shankaracharya chose to At the philosophical level, the author notes, stay at when in Srinagar. Shankaracharya was categorical that social inequality Varma’s meeting with Maroof Shah in Kashmir is was unacceptable. In Shankara Bhashya, he profiles interesting. Shankaracharya’s Advaita and Kashmir one who has attained Brahman jnana: ‘Who is neither Shaivism have more similarities than differences, says high nor lowly born, Or is considered erudite, or Maroof. Both are non-dualistic. Both accept the world non-erudite, Or is credited with good deeds or of evil is real at one level but illusory and impermanent at deeds, He is veritably a true Brahmin.’ another, while both agree that ignorance is the cause The fact that Shankaracharya could adopt such a of our mistaking the ephemeral for the real. radical stand at a time when caste discriminations “Maroof said ruefully that very little work is being were deep-rooted should not be underestimated. done now on Kashmir Shaivism within Kashmir. Varma says Shankaracharya was willing to risk The interest in this aspect of Hindu philosophy is far alienating large sections of conservative Hindu greater abroad. Not even Kashmiri pundits, with the opinion. He adds that Shankaracharya was categoric exception of the great scholar Laxman Joo in the 20th that social inequality was unacceptable. He refers to Century, are aware of the greatness of this tradition, Dr Radhakrishnan saying, “Shankara ignored caste or of its link with Shankaracharya”, the author points distinctions in the monastic order he founded.” out. The Shankaracharya temple is a tourist spot and This is a different kind of book from the run-of-the- Kashmir’s sole integral link with Hindu philosophy. mill one. It brings to its readers the philosophy and
“The irony of a devout Kashmiri Muslim who tenets of Shankaracharya and successfully conveys happened to be keeping the Ramzan fast when we the essence of the Advaita doctrine. < met, making this point was not lost on me,” writes Varma. (Reviewed by Charukesi, veteran freelance writer in Shankara was deeply influenced by three basic texts English and Tamil, based in Chennai.) of Hindu philosophy, the Upanishads, the Brahma
October-December 2018 VIDURA 57 Book Review
An authentic, readable and racy thriller
For Kumar, it was a risky job, but he was determined, and got to the root of the gang with the help of a couple of dedicated friends and police officers. To his surprise, he found the kingpin was a New York- based art dealer whose collections were found in all the leading museums. This non-fiction work records in highly readable and racy language the story of the idol thieves. It beats many a thriller on the best-seller list. Throughout the book, the reader is kept on the edge of the seat. The outcome of it was remarkable – when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Australia, his counterpart there returned a rare piece to India. The book starts with an account of the plundering by Khilji’s men of Indian Temples. Kumar starts with a question: “Did this really happen? I am not sure. But it is how I imagine the histories of our idols.” The preface makes one sit up and read the rest. THE IDOL THIEF - THE TRUE STORY OF THE LOOTING With concise technical details, Kumar narrates the OF INDIA’S TEMPLES story of one of the world’s best-known art dealers, Author: S. Vijay Kumar Subash Kapoor, whose family moved from Lahore to Publisher: Juggernaut Jalandhar before Partition. There, his father found an Pages: 224 opportunity to sell the rare books and manuscripts left Price: Rs. 499 behind by fleeing citizens that he had collected. Thus, a business opportunity was built up by the family and Vijay Kumar, a Singapore-based shipping the senior Kapoor started a gallery that specialised in professional, started taking an interest in the sculp- selling Pahari paintings. tures of India early in his life. He started a blog (2007- Subash Kapoor moved to USA in 1974 and continued 08) titled Poetry in Stone and gathered information on the family business. He was joined by his brother and the subject. He got to understand various sculptural sister. Kapoor opened a gallery on Madison Avenue, genres down the ages, and developed a keen eye and named it Art of the Past. He projected himself for historic pieces. However, he learnt to his dismay as a respectable art dealer to museum authorities in that many of the remarkable idols from South Indian the US, where he knew rare art pieces are in demand. temples had vanished and found new homes in One of the best dressed men in the trade circuit, he celebrated museums all over the world which bought developed a taste for the best of everything in life and them for huge sums of money from unscrupulous rubbed shoulders with the upper crust of society. persons who transported them out of the country Establishing himself as an expert in rare art pieces illegally, making huge profits in the bargain. from India, he even gifted valuable items such as a Kumar, who was awestruck by the beauty of the pot from the Shunga period (200 BCE-2CE), which is sculpture of Goddess Uma in the Singapore museum, exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art with a morphed into a sleuth, tracking the idols from India tag saying ‘Subash Kapoor in honour of his daughter ignobly removed from their original abodes by Mamta Kapoor’. Having gained recognition in the racketeers of the art trade. museum circuit, he was able to get exorbitant prices The blog attracted many likeminded people and for the pieces he smuggled out from India. grew to be a platform for deep study and blossomed Kumar takes the readers through the path that into a movement. Spearheaded by Kumar, the Kapur took to avoid legal tangles and convince the movement brought to light several cases of stolen museums that the stolen art pieces smuggled out idols and their journey to various museums. His of India were legitimately acquired and could be casual search revealed a sinister organised group with safely purchased. In the art world, particularly with high-profile idol thieves shepherding the operations. reference to rare artifacts, there are two main crimes
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– selling forgeries and selling unique pieces without By 2010, Kumar got involved with both Indian proper provenance. and US law enforcement agencies investigating idol Under Indian law, “any antiquity older than 100 thefts and smuggling, and used the information that years cannot be taken out of the country… under the he received from others in the circuit to create this terms of UN convention the recipient country has to narrative, which is both authentic and commendable.
forfeit it without compensation,” says Kumar. There The 220-plus pages between the elegantly designed is a clause which says provenance – the history of wrapper contain vital information that should not be< ownership of an object – should be established to missed, especially by heritage enthusiasts. show that the piece has been brought legally with proper documents authenticating the transaction. For (Reviewed by K.R.A.Narasiah a former marine Kapur this was easy. He had established methods by engineer and now a historian.) which the museums were convinced of the provenance of the artifacts.
A success with the one-horned rhino, but…
However, much of the writings are scattered – confined to scientific journals, newspaper supplements or publications of general interest. It is in this context that the well-researched book, The Story of India’s Unicorns, gains importance. The profusely illustrated, coffee-table-size book covers the entire story of the rhinoceros, from legends associated with it to dangers it faces from poaching, the conservation success story it represents and its future. The book is co-authored by three experts: Divyabhanusinh, a wildlife conservator, Asok Kumar Das, an art-historian, and scholar Shibani Bose. In the opening chapter, Divyabhanusinh chronicles the evolution of the one-horned rhinoceros saying “[It] is an animal which to a general observer looks like a creature left over from a long bygone era.” It is called gandar in Bengali, garh inAssamese, khadga in Sanskrit. All names allude to its horn, the target of poachers who cater to those who believe in Chinese traditional medicine which considers it an aphrodisiac, no matter THE STORY OF INDIA’S UNICORNS that the horn is composed only of tightly packed hair. Authors: Divyabhanusinh, Asok Kumar Das, Shibani Along with the Great Indian Rhinoceros, India once Bose had the two other Asian species too – the Javan and Publisher: MARG the Sumatran rhino. It is common knowledge that the Price: Rs 2000 rhinoceros inhabits alluvial grasslands and riverine floodplains, scholar Shibani Bose points out. The fact Much has been written about the famous one-horned that it is now only found in the eastern part of the country rhino and the Kaziranga National Park of Assam, its is in a way a good indicator of landscape changes that natural habitat. The animal is often compared to the have taken place in the country. mythical unicorn, its descriptions and peculiarities Besides the Gangetic plains, the fact that the animal occurring in writings across continents from ancient was even present at prehistoric as well as proto-historic times. Wildlife enthusiasts come from all over the sites in semi-arid and arid states like Gujarat and world to watch the ‘armour-plated’ animal graze Rajasthan “suggests terrains which must have been able placidly in Kaziranga. to carry marshy-swampy patches for a moisture-loving
October-December 2018 VIDURA 59 Book Review
species like the rhinoceros. As landscapes changed, the at first were hunters, were later the ones to initiate animal retreated,” Bose writes. conservation efforts. The story goes that Lady Mary Bose’s chapter titled A Search through Antiquity Curzon, wife of then Viceroy Lord Curzon, visited is a riveting description of the rhino’s journey from Kaziranga in early 20th Century specifically to see the Indus Valley civilisation to later periods. The the fabulous animal but was disappointed that she rhino horn also figured as an item in trade mentioned couldn’t spot even one; such was the depletion in in The Periplus of the ErythraeanSea attributed to an its numbers. So she suggested to her husband that anonymous writer of the 1st Century CE. Kaziranga be made a reserved forest to protect the Looking back, the story of the rhino in India is also animal. that of relentless hunting by the rajahs, Mughal kings Some experts today dispute it, but the fact remains and, later, the first inflow of British colonialists. Asok that it was the beginning of efforts to save the rhino. K. Das, in the chapter, The Unicorn and the Great It is estimated that there are about 3500 one-horned Mughals, writes: “The rulers of this [Mughal] dynasty rhinos today, up from the mere 200 in 1900. Indeed, were inveterate hunters,” and several paintings of that Kaziranaga is showcased as a success story despite era illustrate their interest in the animal. They also the poachers, annual flooding, etc. It also owes a lot to reflect that at one time the rhino inhabited the land as the people, the forest guards and officials who have far as to the west of the Indus Valley [Baburnama]. made this happen. Travelogues by Al-Biruni who had accompanied However, Divyabhanusinh sounds a note of caution Mahmud of Ghazni to India around 1030 AD and, when he says that history should not be forgotten, and later, Muhammad Ibn-Battuta who visited the country neither should the reality of the growing demand for during the Mughal period in the 14th Century, also the rhino’s horn if the success story should continue. talk about this strange animal. “When the population of a species reduces to such
From hunting to conservation has indeed been a an extent that it becomes necessary to count its huge step. That is why the study of animals historically individuals, it is a warning bell, loud and clear.” < is important, according to Bose. Mega-fauna species like rhinos and elephants are crucial if not always (Reviewed by Ranjita Biswas, a senior journalist adequate indices of environmental quality. Historically based in Kolkata.) trailing the animal not only helps map past ecologies, but also facilitates an understanding of how human interactions with the species have gone a long way in determining its fate. Awareness regarding the animal’s past is critical when considering its future. In a twist to the story, the British colonists who
Forgotten icons of the IT revolution The very mention of India’s success in information and V. Rajaraman in the 1960s and 1970s, under technology throws back familiar names of leading the guidance of H.K. Kesavan, or the pioneering IT companies with billions of dollars of turnover. work done by R. Narasimhan at the Tata Institute of Forgotten are scores of scientists, academics, Fundamental Research (TIFR). bureaucrats and entrepreneurs who did pioneering After initiating computer education in Kanpur, work decades ago to make India a formidable name Mahabala established the computer centre at IIT in the technology business. Madras and Rajaraman wrote a series of computer A new book by technology writers Anand science text books. IIT Kanpur also forged partnership Parthasarathy and S. Sadagopan is an attempt to fill with industry, particularly Tata Locomotives and TCS. this gap in understanding of the Indian IT industry. Rajiv Sangal initiated the work on natural language The book, Icons of Indian IT, as the name indicates, processing and machine translation at IIT Kanpur. profiles 25 of India’s technology pioneers from The teaching of computer science and engineering academics, government and industry. Few today slowly spread to other institutions, creating a pool of would know about the early work in computer trained manpower which eventually helped private education and programming done at the Indian industry. Institute of Technology, Kanpur by H.N. Mahabala In addition to those in academic institutions,
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grand success, as secretary of the DoE and later secretary of the Department of Telecommunications. The book also recalls the work of Sam Pitroda in the 1980s as technology advisor to the prime minister and head of the Centre for Development of Telematics, which developed India’s first digital rural telephone exchange. Among the entrepreneurs featured in the book are Ajai Chowdhry (co-founder of HCL), Ajit Balakrishnan (founder of Rediff.com), Vinay Deshpande (who developed Simputer), besides Arun Jain, Bhaskar Enaganti, Pradeep Kar, Rajendra Pawar, Jay and Vijay Pullur, Hemant Sonawala, Raj Sarf and Srini Rajam. The contributions of Faqir Chand Kohli, the patriarch of TCS, have been recalled in detail. Kohli emphasises the need for Indian language computing. “All computer companies are making good money abroad including ICONS OF INDIAN IT my own and they do not have the time that needs Authors: Anand Parthasarathy, S. Sadagopan to be devoted to make a change at home,” laments Kohli. Another important personality featured in the scientists and technocrats working in government book is Biswadip Mitra of Texas Instruments which institutions contributed further to the spread of pioneered silicon design in India in the 1980s, and on computer culture and computerisation in the the hardware manufacturing side, Gopal Srinivasan country, the book says. S. Ramakrishnan, for instance, of TVS which played a key role in dissemination of implemented the rollout of the Education and technology through hardware like dot matrix printers Research Network (ERNET) under the Department of and point of sale machines. Electronics (DoE). Although not a chronological or thematic overview The book describes N. Seshagiri, who was founder of the Indian information technology sector, the of the National Informatics Centre (NIC), as ‘India’s book provides a handy compilation of tech leaders true IT visionary’. Seshagiri was instrumental in and entrepreneurs for the uninitiated. Since many introduction of computers in the government through of personalities featured worked in the same time rapid spread of NICNET all over the country. His period, there is a lot of overlapping information.
Nevertheless, it is a welcome addition to the growing most significant contribution was conceptualisation < and implementation of the Software Technology Park body of literature on the Indian technology sector. (STP) scheme which led to exponential growth of software exports in the 1990s. (Reviewed by Dinesh C. Sharma, editor, India Science Bureaucrat N. Vittal played a critical role in Wire. Courtesy: ISW) clearing the hurdles in the way of making STP a How an Irishman took on the British in Calcutta It was 1780. Great events were shaping and shaking all of Asia. As free thought and freedom of expression the world. Four years earlier, in 1776, Britain had lost swept across the world, an Irishman called James its first colony; a new nation was born, namely, the Augustus Hicky gave Calcutta and India its first United States of America. And nine years, later, in printed newspaper in 1780. 1789, the French revolution ushered in a new era of Hicky’s Bengal Gazette, according to the young freedom and hope in Europe. American scholar Andrew Otis, was a four-page At a time when the Western world was changing weekly newspaper priced at Re 1. And it took on the rapidly, a new spirit was also taking shape in one of rich and mighty of British Calcutta. What did Hicky Britain’s eastern colonies. Calcutta, then capital of publish in the pages of his newspaper? “He tried to British India, though the East India Company ruled cover everything that might be important to Calcutta, only a small part of India at the time, was witnessing devoting many sections to politics, world news and developments that were new not only in India, but in events in India.” Topics that featured regularly
October-December 2018 VIDURA 61 Book Review
every possible way. The two papers represented two sides of the political spectrum. Hicky emphasised independence while the India Gazette made no secret that they had the support of Governor Warren Hastings. So much so that Hastings had given the facility of free postage to India Gazette. There were hardly any opinion columns in it, a clear sign of their obeisance to Hastings’s authority. And they did so for a good cause, that was monetary rewards. India Gazette became the Company’s de facto mouthpiece; the Company’s departments placed advertisements and notices in that paper. But Hicky took on the might of the establishment. He alleged through his pieces in the paper how one Simeon Droz had sought a bribe from him and wanted to get favours for him from Marian Hastings, wife of Warren Hastings, in lieu of the bribe. Hastings fumed HICKY’S BENGAL GAZETTE: THE UNTOLD STORY OF that someone could show such imprudence. He passed INDIA’S FIRST NEWSPAPER an order that the Post Office would no longer extend Author: Andrew Otis its facility to the Bengal Gazette. Publisher: Westland / Tranquehar Hicky fought back. He hired 20 hircirrahs (courier Price: Rs 899 men) to deliver his newspaper, and his newspaper’s popularity soared. He continued his fight against the were poor quality of sanitation and lack of road most powerful man of the day and his entourage. maintenance. Houses of poor Indians had thatched Hastings hit back and Chief Justice Elijah Impey roofs, prone to catching fire. The outbreak of fires decreed that Hicky be imprisoned on charges of libel. was frequently reported in Hicky’s paper. Through A grand jury sat to decide the fate of Hicky. After a the letters he solicited and published, the editor gave fierce courtroom battle, the jury acquitted him. Hicky voice to Calcutta’s poor. won, Hastings lost. As Otis tells us, “He had proven Hicky attacked corruption in the East India that it was possible to protect the press against the Company and in high echelons of society. The Bengal most powerful people in British India.” Gazette reported that Governor of Madras Sir Thomas There were still three more trials to come that tried Rumbold had been recalled to England to answer to muffle the voice of Hicky. What happened; did
charges of corruption in front of Parliament. “Hicky freedom of the press triumph? For that you must turn sarcastically wrote,” Otis tells us, “Rumbold was to Otis’s book, as he sketches a riveting tale of the < a great man for only amassing a fortune of about struggle of India’s first newspaper editor. 600000 pounds while in India, much of it from bribes and extortion.” (Reviewed by Sunandan Roy Chowdhury. Courtesy: Hicky did not spare any institution. He exposed The Hindu.) the problems of low pay for soldiers in the subaltern ranks of the Company’s army. Failed wars of the Company also came under its gaze. The Company’s army suffered a crushing defeat in the Battle of Pollilur at the hands of Hyder Ali, then ruler of Mysore. As the news of the disaster trickled in, Hicky questioned why the British were fighting in India. He accused the Company of squandering the lives of its soldiers. He even praised the noble actions of Hyder Ali in his treatment of the captured soldiers of the Company. But as Hicky continued his fearless mission against corruption, the powers of the day did not sit idle. A rival newspaper was born in Calcutta. The India Gazette of Messink and Reed differed from Hicky in
62 VIDURA October-December 2018 REMEMBERING N.S. RAMASWAMI A sports writer of repute and a thorough gentleman
2018 marks the centenary of Nallathagudi Srinivasa Ramaswami popularly known in journalistic circles simply by his initials, NSR. Of course, he was also known as The Cardusian, as his writing style resembled that of Neville Cardus. This was no idle praise for NSR’s writing did bring back memories of Cardus who was clearly his hero. On the occasion of the birth centenary of eminent journalist N.S. Ramaswami, Partab Ramchand pays a handsome tribute
n the 1960s, when he was with would not please him, for he was Like Cardus, NSR too had more the Indian Express as assistant by nature the gentlest and kindest than one string to his bow. His other Ieditor, he wrote a highly popular person one could come across. area of interest was history and weekly column, ‘In the pavilion’, Nominally, he was the sports editor archeology. He loved visiting places using the nom de plume, The too, though there was a head of the of historical interest and furthering Cardusian, in an obvious tribute to department who looked after its his knowledge. I well remember the venerable English cricket and day-to-day functioning. But he did the historic tour of Pakistan in music critic. It was a column which come up with ideas and suggestions 1978 with the Indian cricket team. was about lower division league and I was lucky that he took a Cricketing ties between the two cricket matches played on matting personal interest in my writing as nations were resumed for the first wickets and in fairly primitive both of us wrote on cricket. time since 1961 and there was conditions. I benefited from his words of tremendous interest in the three- NSR would sit in some wisdom and I always felt that he Test series. While sending his daily nondescript corner of the ground, did not get his due despite being a match reports to The Indian Express, would memorise what he saw highly scholarly writer whose prose he never failed to visit monuments without taking notes and the was exemplary though he could steeped in history like Mohenjodaro following morning churn out his frequently be poetic when writing and Harappa and sent a tour diary column in a matter of minutes. Full about an innings by Gundappa detailing his trip to these places. of wit and evocative prose and with Viswanath or describing the These were as fascinating as his a turn of phrase that held the reader bowling of B.S. Chandrasekhar. cricket dispatches. spellbound, it was writing that Who can forget his description of NSR’s journalistic career spanned even those not interested in cricket Viswanath’s immortal 97 not out four decades. He started with The would go through avidly. against West Indies at Chepauk in Hindu, then switched over to The Not only that, much of it would January 1975? Through his virtuoso Mail, a well-known evening daily be stored in memory for some style he brought out the greatness from Madras before settling down of the descriptions made for an of the knock. But that was not a for a long and eventful stint with unforgettable experience and make one-off. His writings made for The Indian Express. He was assistant the reader yearn for being on the compulsive reading because he had editor for all these newspapers, his spot even if they were not matches a deep feeling for the game. This was functions including looking after of great importance and the players brought home by the introduction to the edit pages besides being leader involved were not the best players his book, Indian Willow, brought out writer. All the same he never missed in the state or country. But they in 1970 (He said; “My credentials covering a cricket match and wrote were the game’s characters and NSR in writing this book are a lifelong with enthusiasm whether it was a brought this aspect out vividly. devotion to the game of cricket.”) lower division league match, a Ranji I was fortunate to have NSR as That quality is paramount when it Trophy game or a Test. Besides my ‘boss’ for the first decade in the comes to a high quality of cricket Indian Willow, he wrote three other profession. Only the word ‘boss’ writing and NSR symbolised it. books on cricket, besides two books
October-December 2018 VIDURA 63 on history and art. NSR was born in readable and carried the stamp He passed away the following day. Cuddalore in South Arcot District of authority and class. He played He is remembered fondly even in Tamil Nadu. He studied at the cricket for YMCA Royapettah in today as a writer of repute and a P S High School and Loyola College local league matches as a right arm thorough gentleman. On a personal
in Madras before graduating off-spinner before turning to writing level I shall always remember him with a BA (Honours) degree in as a full-time profession in the as a person who touched my life in < English Literature from the Madras 19540s. In retirement he did some many ways. Christian College. Little wonder freelance writing before suffering a then that his English was eminently heart attack on February 19, 1987.
REMEMBERING SHOEBULLAH KHAN Call to mark centenary of a 'martyr journalist'
He was a young journalist who sacrificed his life for the cause of the unity of the nation.B. Someswar Rao wonders whether his centenary could be an opportunity to promote professional excellence and instill a sense of responsibility in the media
n journalism classes, it is hands and killed him brutally. In Journalism Department has an stressed that public memory is my book, A Town Called Penury - the annual prize named after him. Iphenomenally short and so the Changing Culture of Indian Journalism, But there should be a national- background and context must I recount how the Congress Party, level journalism prize in his always be given. Some politicians' in pursuance of communal politics, name, which students all over the memories are conveniently short ignored Shoebullah Khan in order country can compete for. We hear and they deny their own statements to placate Owaisi and his party. No of IAS toppers. Why not journalism just hours after making them. Many textbook mentions him. No annual toppers? great citizens are also forgotten only tributes are paid to him. It is no The electronic media is badly because it suits the political bosses. wonder that few even in Telangana entangled in the TRP rat race, While the centenaries of lesser know of Khan today. resulting in sensationalism and lack men and women are celebrated, a Though the Congress ignored of social responsibility. The role of journalist who laid down his life Khan, tributes were paid to him a TV channel in helping the Kasab- at a very young age for the cause by the Bhartiya Janata Party's L.K. led terrorists in the 26/11 Mumbai of unifying the country is being Advani in 2003. A gate at Prime attack is a case in point, as also the ignored. Minister Narendra Modi's election frivolity dominating all media at October 27, 2020 is the centenary rally at Hyderabad’s Nizam College the cost of significant news. Kailash of Shoebullah Khan, who at the grounds in 2014 was also named Satyarthi was unheard of till he got age of 20 was editor of an Urdu after Shoebullah Khan. The intention Nobel Prize, but Taimur Ali Khan’s daily, Imroze, in Hyderabad State may have been just to embarrass the diaper changes are big news on TV under the Nizam. He courageously Congress Party, which deliberately channels. opposed the plans of the Nizam ignored him thinking that it would Journalism is supposed to ‘inform, and the Razakar party of Owaisi appease the Muslim community educate and entertain’, but has (now MIM party) for the state to without realising that it would reversed the order of its objectives, join Pakistan or be an independent appease only the fundamentalist sometimes even resorting to State. For his stand, the Razakars, elements and not the entire titillation instead of entertainment. following the instructions of their community. Mass communication departments leader Kasim Rizwi, cut off his The Osmania University have mushroomed all over the
64 VIDURA October-December 2018 country since Hislop College engineering education in the which has been plaguing the world in Nagpur started the first one country but there is no such body from the start of this century. An post-Independence in 1952 in for mass communication courses. initiative in the direction could collaboration with Syracuse Why not have a similar body for be taken during the centenary University, New York. (Punjab journalism education? celebration. University in Lahore in undivided An appeal was sent to several The media, especially the print India had a journalism department journalists, nationalists, the prime media to which Shoebullah Khan earlier, and it subsequently shifted minister and chief ministers of (and I) belong, is going through a to Chandigarh.) Telangana and Andhra Pradesh to crisis of existence all over the world. Most of the departments are ill observe the centenary of Shoebullah The committee could consider
equipped now; they are headed by Khan and to set up a Shoebullah and implement plans during the people with little experience in the Khan Centenary Committee to centenary is to revive it or reform < media and the syllabi are outdated. formulate a national programme it. Most churn out personnel for to promote excellence in the advertising or public relations set- profession and instill a sense of (The writer has been a journalist ups rather than the media. A body social responsibility. Sadly, no one since 1958. He retired in 2000 is needed to regulate and improve has responded. from PTI, is editorial advisor journalism education in India. Such a committee could be for a magazine and blogs at The All India Council of Technical tasked with coming up with a way UnstoppableAfterSeventy.WordPress. Education (AICTE) regulates to counter the fake news problem com)
TRIBUTE TO RAMAPADA CHOWDHURY (1922-2018) He believed in allowing his writing do all the talking
Having lived through several decades witnessing the changes taking place around him – political, social, filial, financial and cultural – Ramapada Chowdhury presented through his writings his individual perceptions on values, on change, on the volatile nature of relationships. On his passing, few national newspapers cared to give noticeable space for a tribute for him and his rich contributions, says Shoma A. Chatterji, adding that the man that he was, he would not have minded at all
o stop is also an The film unfolds the story of his art,” said Ramapada life as a writer and explains why he “TChoudury, one of the stopped writing at 90. “I felt I had most outstanding litterateurs in written all I had in me to write and Post-Tagorean Bengali Literature there came a time when one needed who stopped writing and related to stop.” he said. His last published activities when he turned 90. work, Harano Khata (The Lost He passed away at his Kolkata Notebook) hit the shelves in 2015. residence on July 29 this year. Unlike the present, when media Photo: SC/Internet Ramapada Choudury. In an engaging, 15-minute hype arrives much before the actual documentary produced by the book does, Ramapada Chowdhury seminars, giving interviews or Sahitya Akademi and directed by believed in allowing his writing do appearing for discussions and Raja Mitra, the writer comes across all the talking needed. He avoided debates on television. He was as someone who remains rooted. attending functions and literary extremely low-profile and publicity
October-December 2018 VIDURA 65 shy, which cannot be said for memories remained archived in my Tapan Sinha, won the National most of his peers in the world of mind forever and, perhaps, became Award for the Best Feature Film contemporary Bengali Literature. a springboard later for my writing in Hindi in 1991. Pankaj Kapoor as For a man who wrote 45 novels, though my writing rarely deals with the scientist and Shabana Azmi as 135 short stories and won all the railway stations,” he said. his supportive wife gave sterling major literary awards, Chowdhury Chowdhury’s most active years performances. The film, however, led a quiet life with his wife and two were between the 1950s and ’80s. ended on an optimistic note unlike daughters. This is quite unusual for After schooling, he migrated to the real life of Dr Mukhopadhyay. a man who also worked as editor of Calcutta and got his master’s Kharij narrated the shocking the Sunday supplement of Ananda degree in English Literature from story of a servant boy who dies of Bazar Patrika for many years. Presidency College. He said that he monoxide poisoning in the urban His writing career, including his was thrilled and could not believe it home of a middle-class Bengali creative work, began during World when the great litterateur, Tarasankar family in Calcutta because he War II. Bandopadhyay, contacted him to sleeps in the kitchen with doors and For his novel, Bari Badle Jaye praise one of his stories. windows closed tight. Was his death (The House Changes), he received Many of Chowdhury’s works an accident? Or was it negligence the Sahitya Akademi Award in have been adapted into films, by his employers who took great 1988. He was a recipient of the including the multiple-award- care of their own little son but did Rabindra Puraskar and several other winning Kharij, directed by Mrinal not bother about the consequences awards. His Bonpolashir Padabali won Sen. Sen’s Ek Din Achanak was also of a boy sleeping in the kitchen the Rabindranath Tagore Memorial based on his novel, Beej. “For Beej, breathing in the residual smoke International Prize in its inaugural which dealt with a research-centric from the earthen oven? The trap of year – the award comprised a purse professor who walks out of his guilt and the fear of being accused of Rs one crore. The novel was later home with an umbrella and never by the boy's father becomes an made into a film directed by Uttam comes back, why he went, where anti-climax when the father comes Kumar. He was also bestowed the he went and why he did not come to cremate his son and goes away D Litt for his writings. back were not important at all. I was without any accusations. “My stories and novels carry trying to focus on my philosophy of Filmmaker Gulbahar Singh made layers beneath the surface of everything fading away with time Sundari, based on Chowdhury’s what the story says,” Chowdhury and the professor was perhaps a story. Sundari is a beautiful baby explains in the long interview for metaphor for that belief of mine.” deer which romps about in the the film. “For example, the novel, The role of the professor was played forest and befriends a little boy Badi Bodle Jaye, is more about change by Shreeram Lagu with Shabana who lives there. How the lives of than about a house. I believe that Azmi, Roopa Ganguly and Arjun the little boy, his sister, their father everything in life is temporary and Chakraborty playing his adult and a hunter change in subtle but will fade away with time. Nothing children and Uttara Baokar his different ways when Sundari enters is permanent. In my novel, the wife. their lives makes the story. The house is a physical reality as well Banpalashir Padabali appeared film, following the story closely, as a metaphor of things, persons in serial form in the well-known upholds the beauty of forest and and incidents that keep changing to literary magazine, Desh. He was forest life. The naivety of the people finally fade away and make place awarded the Rabindra Puraskar in who live there, distanced from the for something new.” 1971 for his novel, Ekhoni. Among noise and bustle of urban life, is Chowdhury was born and all the films made on his writings, sustained by the innocence of their brought up in Kharagpur. “The the most memorable is Ek Doctor surroundings. Modernization here coming of the railways and the Ki Maut adapted from his novel, would be more than an intrusion setting up of the Kharagpur Station Abhimanyu, inspired by the real- – it would be a violation of things
was a kind of revolution for the lives life story of the life and work of Dr good and beautiful and the film of the common people, influencing Subhash Mukhopadhyay who, in effectively bring this across. < their day-to-day existence in a big 1978, created India’s first and the way. The station opened in 1898- world’s second test tube baby and 99 before I was born. But as I grew later committed suicide because up, I found it growing at a rapid he was humiliated and victimised pace with every passing day. Those by his peers. The film, directed by
66 VIDURA October-December 2018 TRIBUTE TO KULDIP NAYAR (1923-2018) A titan among journalists, a role model Sometimes a chance encounter or a stray comment can make a big impact and change the course of your life. That is what happened to Sakuntala Narasimhan after her meeting with Kuldip Nayar who passed away in Delhi in August at the age of 95
ay back in 1983, when I the offer – and, thereafter, steadily was in Delhi to receive went on to write nine more books, Wthe Chameli Devi Jain some of them requiring a lot of award for Outstanding Woman travel and hard research. I now Journalist, I found myself sitting have at least four more book drafts next to Kuldip Nayar at the awards waiting to be completed. I know function organised by the Media now no joy greater than sinking my Foundation. I was familiar with teeth into a book idea. his by-line but had not met him. All because of Kuldip Nayar’s Photo: BL Kuldip Nayar. At the time, I was working for the advice that I should move on from Times of India Group in Mumbai writing articles and go on to write and, although I enjoyed writing, books. While he was India’s High saw and experienced it all at close had no grand plans of becoming Commissioner in London, I had quarters. Given his rich experience an author – writing books was not occasion to write to him seeking as a journalist, and his familiarity a goal. I was quite happy churning advice, and he promptly sent me a with a large number of VIPs in the out investigative stories, fiction and reply. I don’t think I ever got round corridors of power (under different sundry reports assigned by my to thanking him for the professional political parties), he wrote about his editor, and getting paid for it. I was ‘push’ that his casual advice had reminiscences, and these writings dividing my time between my other given me, but I owe my growth as are now a valuable addition to obligations as a housewife bringing an author to him. He also became our corpus of post-Independence up two children, and a performing a role model to emulate, with history. musician, while I held my job at the his fiercely honest and forthright They describe developments and Times. comments. conversations that did not go into During the awards ceremony, In spite of his stature as a titan official records – about how last Nayar leaned towards me and said, among journalists, Nayar never put Viceroy Lord Mountbatten and “Now you must write a book.” A on airs, never strutted, and that is a Sir Cyril Radcliffe (chairman of book? I had never thought about lesson many in the media need to the Boundary Commission which that, but the way he said it, somehow learn in today’s milieu where ‘see decided the details of the partition it sounded like a strong command. how great I am’ is the preferred of the country) drew up the contours I mulled over it from time to time, attitude. He was down to earth, but of the geographical division into and slowly got hooked to the idea. that did not mean he hesitated to Pakistan and India and much else My first book was a collection of say what he felt needed to be said; that he was witness to. He was in short stories (that had already he never minced words, even if he addition a peace activist and has appeared in various publications), was aware that his comments and been described as “India’s greatest so it did not count as “working on criticism would not go down well scoop man”. a book”. with the powers-that-be. Nayar has also written about Shortly thereafter, however, Mulk Most of Nayar’s writings were how he was incarcerated during Raj Anand invited me to lunch and on political developments – the Emergency that Indira Gandhi introduced me to a publisher who lacunae in governance, bungling as prime minister imposed in 1975, was looking for someone to do a in decision-making, social trends as part of her move to muzzle and book on Indian music. I jumped at and political shenanigans. He intimidate the press and punish
October-December 2018 VIDURA 67 journalists who did not tow her line. was taken to hospital) were cogent, that sounds like a cliché. Come This at a time when, as a famous exemplified good writing, and were to think of it, it was, indeed and, comment puts it, “Some journalists very readable. They were among my truly, the end of an era, among were willing to crawl when she favourite reads. As former Prime chroniclers of our history over the asked them to bend.” He refused Minister Manmohan Singh and the past seven decades and more. What to and, therefore, stood out for his president of India have said in their is more, he has recorded details courage and staunch principles. messages of condolence, Nayar meticulously, complete with dates, Nayar’s editorial page articles, wore many hats in his distinguished of happenings before, during and which he was writing right till the and long career, as diplomat after Independence, having had a end, even after crossing 90 (reports (India’s High Commissioner in ringside seat, during momentous say his last column appeared hours London), parliamentarian (he was occasions in the history of the
after his passing way, and that he nominated to the Rajya Sabha) and subcontinent. had been working on an obituary as author; his passing away marks The print media will miss you, < of Atal Behari Vajpayee when he truly the “end of an era”, even if Mr Nayar. RIP.
TRIBUTE TO KULDIP NAYAR India’s greatest ‘scoop-man’ Kuldip Nayar’s presence in the newsroom was electric and his network of contacts the stuff of legend, says Shekhar Gupta
arlier this week, The New York He was Indian journalism’s first caved in, but some had shown that Times surprised its readers, rock star in an era when any editor a fight-back was possible. After all, Eand shocked us reporters’ would have taken umbrage at Nayar had even gone to jail. community, by dropping its being described as such. Nayar’s reporters’ bylines on stories featured rise as India’s pre-eminent byline A golden era on its home page. The following came when there was no news TV After the end of the Emergency day, its editors came up with the or glossy magazine profiles and began the first golden era of Indian reasoning: many more readers decades before Twitter. And for my journalism. Pre-censorship had now access the newspaper on their journalism school, in prison and sensitised the people to how much mobiles than the desktop; we adore out of it that year, Nayar’s was the a free press mattered to them. If The our reporters, but their bylines on most inspirational story ever. More Indian Express was the Emergency’s top of the summary isn’t the best stirring than even the then recent shining star, Nayar was its face. way to display a story digitally. Bob Woodward-Carl Bernstein Never mind that in the Express’s Good point, you might have said. Watergate exposé. formidable editorial star-cast, he But only if you missed the fact that He is India’s greatest “scoop-man” featured third, after editor-in- the op-ed writers’ bylines are there ever, our teacher, B.S Thakur, would chief S. Mulgaonkar and editor as before. say to his pupils, most of whom had Ajit Bhattacharjea. Nayar was We bring this up in this tribute to strayed into his journalism class editor, Express News Service. But Kuldip Nayar because reporters / after failing to get into something he was the paper’s real masthead. newsgatherers versus editorialists more worthwhile, to teach them His earlier books, Between The is the oldest power tussle in that ‘scoop’ also meant something Lines, India: The Critical Years, Distant the newsroom. The latter, with sweeter than a mere dollop of ice Neighbours, had also brought him their superior intellect, weighty cream. There were classroom debates greater intellectual heft than those arguments and fine turn of on what the Emergency meant for above him, “in spite of being a phrase, have mostly won it. Their the press (nobody said ‘media’ then) mere reporter”. domination was total in India, until and especially for our employment His presence in the newsroom Nayar broke it in 1970-80. prospects. The Indian press had was electric and his network of
68 VIDURA October-December 2018 contacts the stuff of legend. Shourie as well and dismissed him his commitment to India-Pakistan “Arrey kya, George (Fernandes), peremptorily. Several of us reporters rapprochement. This peacemaking why are you bent on breaking the too left in Shourie’s wake. became his new calling and took (Janata) Party,” you’d overhear him him away too early in his career admonishing the great socialist. With regrets from the kind of journalism he was Or, “hello, Idris (Air Chief Marshal Nayar returned to the Express best at. He was indeed never offered Idris Hassan Latif), I hope you newsroom in the summer of 2014 a job after 1980, but it isn’t because and Bilkees know Chandigarh is “for the first time after 1980” (1981, he had become unemployable. He such a boring place.” Later, around actually) for a conversation with had chosen a more varied life, and midnight, he walked in to give her a the editorial team while promoting excelled in it. post-prandial tour of the newsroom his memoir, Beyond The Lines. He From the parochial point of view and its hot-metal press underneath. began that conversation by ruing of us reporters, it is a loss that he His human rights / civil liberties that he had been fired by Goenka gave up so soon. Or he would have phase also began in these heady because Indira Gandhi returned to risen as India’s finest reporter- post-Emergency months. He was power in 1980 and he wanted to editor and its most influential and a key member of the Justice V.M. make peace with her by sacrificing insightful columnist, too. Today’s Tarkunde Committee probing him. This part of the recording has generation of reporters could’ve the killings of Naxalites in fake been re-published by the paper done with a figure like him, just encounters in Punjab. with its report on his passing away. when the trend of reporter-editors The best and the fairest tribute to This was untrue. It simply isn’t in that he pioneered is being reversed Nayar would be that he made the that paper’s DNA to fire editors to in India, with owners either reporter the prince of the Indian please governments. Some of us becoming editors themselves, or newsroom. The Indian Express itself did, respectfully, say this to Nayar. preferring diligent, sharp but non- produced a stellar team of young Nayar also said, in the same threatening back-room choices. reporters under him, many of recorded chat, that he regretted that Or when the venerable New York whom rose to editorships later. “nobody offered me any job after Times junks its reporters’ bylines Three other young editors who 1980”. It rankled with him. As did from its home page, while retaining emerged in that era, Arun Shourie, the fact that many who worked at the columnists’. As that eternal Aroon Purie and M.J. Akbar, then entry levels under him, and who he newsroom tussle is again being lost made Nayar’s reporter-prince the believed were way lesser journalists by us, we will greatly miss Nayar
king. than him, rose to be editors of for the reporter-editor he was and Ramnath Goenka had a great newspapers, a title that eluded him. equally rue that he was denied < eye for editorial talent. He brought He had the innocence and honesty what he could have been. Arun Shourie into journalism from to say this often to many of us. He scholarly activism as executive later became high commissioner in (Courtesy: The Hindu. The writer editor in 1979. Suddenly, from London, a Rajya Sabha member, is a veteran journalist, and founder number 3, Nayar was 4, despite but all this new eminence wouldn’t and editor-in-chief of The Print.) his stardom. More importantly, compensate for the title he had Shourie was more accessible, less missed. The Express did make it up distracted, brimming with ideas to him, at least symbolically, by and energy. Younger reporters conferring the Ramnath Goenka gravitated towards him. Goenka Lifetime Achievement Award to wanted to modernise his paper. He him in 2015. saw Shourie, 37, as the man for it, not What he missed by way of an Nayar at 55. Plus, as is often the case editorial title, Nayar more than with owners, he wasn’t particularly made up in fame, as a columnist dazzled, but impatient with Nayar’s and a subcontinental peace activist. new fame. Soon enough, all of the Critics joked about him being the editors were sidelined and some, neta (leader) of the mombatti gang including Nayar, were let go. It’s (candle-light marchers at the a different matter that within three Wagah India-Pakistan border years Goenka grew insecure with crossing). But he was unfazed in
October-December 2018 VIDURA 69 OTHER NEWS
Kuldip Nayar passes away Africa, Latin America, Asia and North America, the coalition set out the case for a new UN Convention with Eminent writer and journalist the objective to rectify a gap in international law for Kuldip Nayar passed away in New binding norms establishing safeguards for journalists Delhi recently following a brief ill- and media professionals including cameramen, ness. He was 95. Nayar, a Punjabi, photographers, technical supporting staff, drivers was born in Sialkot in 1923. When and interpreters, editors, translators, publishers, Kuldip Nayar Emergency was declared, he was broadcasters, printers and distributors one of the first journalists to be put The initiative was launched by the International in jail. In his long journalism career, Nayar worked Federation of Journalists. IFJ President Philippe with various media houses. Leruth said: “A journalist’s murder simply because of While he started his career with an Urdu newspaper his or her activity is a scandal, but a far bigger scandal called Anjam, he later worked a correspondent with is that nine out of every 10 journalists' murders remain The Times, London, for over two decades. In 2015, unpunished. The Khashoggi case, like all the others, Nayar was awarded with the Lifetime Achievement illustrate that journalists are singled out as a target Award at the eighth edition of the Ramnath Goenka and as such they need dedicated protection”. Excellence Award for his contribution to journalism. Elena Perotti, executive director, Public Affairs Nayar was also the High Commissioner of India and Media Policy at WAN-IFRA said, “In the to the UK and nominated to the Rajya Sabha. Nayar current international legal framework there are no also served as the Press Information Officer to for- binding norms establishing safeguards for media mer Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shashtri and former workers specifically. This undeniably contributes Union Home Minister Govind Ballabh Pant. to the phenomenon of the accountability bar being Nayar was deeply interested in peaceful relations reset to the lowest level by States getting away with between India and Pakistan. In his autobiography, Be- the normalisation of a culture of violence against yond The Lines, he wrote about his interview with Pak- journalists.” istan’s nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, during which the latter revealed that Pakistan had a nuclear Suresh Nambath is next editor device well before it was thought to have had it. As a journalist, he had documented in detail, human rights of The Hindu violations by the State. An announcement made by The Hindu states that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Union Home Min- the Board of Directors of The Hindu Publishing ister Rajnath Singh and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Group has unanimously appointed Suresh Nambath Kejriwal paid tributes to Nayar. The Editors Guild of as editor of the newspaper with effect from March 1, India also expressed condolences on Nayar’s sad de- 2019. He will succeed Mukund Padmanabhan, who mise. Paying its tributes to Nayar, the Guild, in a state- has been editor from March 2016 and will retire on ment, said that “his many legendary news scoops will February 28, 2019. continue to inspire generations of young journalists Over the past 22 years, the release says, Nambath for their sharpness, credibility, speed and standards has engaged himself in various aspects of bringing out of due diligence.” an iconic newspaper, which is now 140 years old. He (Courtesy: The Hindu) has played a coordinating and leadership role on the news as well as editorial and opinion sides. Nambath joined The Hindu as principal correspondent Call for protection of media covering Tamil Nadu politics in October 1996; served professionals as Tamil Nadu Bureau chief between July 2006 and February 2012; and was promoted to senior associate WAN-IFRA joins forces with a coalition of editor and coordinating editor in March 2014. He has international organisations to campaign for the been the national editor of The Hindu since October adoption of a new UN Convention dedicated to the 2015, and deputising for the editor in his absence. protection of media professionals. The consortium includes representatives of journalists, media (Courtesy: exchange4media.com) workers, broadcasters and newspapers from around the world. Meeting at the UN headquarters in New York with state representatives from Europe, West Asia, North
70 VIDURA October-December 2018 Registered with The Registrar of Newspapers for India under TNENG/2009/27484
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Senior Manager - Accounts A journal that looks at social & Administration N. Subramanian development issues in India, [email protected] human interest stories and people who defy the odds Office Assistant B. Rajendran Published by the Press Institute of India The Press Institute of India does not take responsibility for returning unsolicited material. It may not always be possible to reply to senders of unsolicited material. Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the editor or publisher. Annual Subscription Advertisement Tariff for Grassroots for Grassroots Every effort has been taken to assure that the accuracy 12 Issues Rs. 240 of information contained in this publication is based on Full Page: B&W: Rs. 5,000 36 Issues Rs. 680 reliable sources. All trademark and trade names mentioned Colour Rs. 10,000 in this magazine belong to their respective owners. In case Please note that the cheque of error editor / publisher shall not be liable for any loss or demand draft or at par Half Page: B&W: Rs. 3,000 or prejudice caused to the reader. The publisher reserves cheque payable in Chennai, Colour Rs. 5,000 the copyright of the materials published in the magazine. for the subscription amount No part of the articles or photographs can be reproduced should be drawn in the (Plus 5% GST) without the prior permission of the publisher. All disputes name of Press Institute of will be subjected to the jurisdiction of Chennai only. India ONLY and NOT in the name of the magazine. Material can be sent to Published by Sashi Nair on behalf of Press Institute of India - Research Mechanical Details [email protected] Institute for Newspaper Development (PII-RIND), Second Main Road, CPT Campus, Taramani, Chennai 600 113 and printed by Sashi Nair at Lokavani Bleed: 275 mm x 350 mm or by CD to our address Southern Printers Pvt Ltd, 122 Greams Road, Chennai 600 006. Editor: Sashi Nair
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