INDIA INTERNATIONAL CENTRE Volume XXIII
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Price Re. 1/- INDIA INTERNATIONAL CENTRE volume XXIII. No. 1 January-February, 2009 U.S. patent granted to two America-based Indians on Annual Lecture 2009 the use of turmeric powder for wound healing. This was strongly contested by India, leading to a revocation. LECTURE: Traditional Knowledge of Plants in India Plants are integral to the Indian way of life. The tulsi Illustrated Lecture: Professor H.Y. Mohan Ram plant offers a cure for coughs and colds, and the tulsi Chair: Professor M.G.K. Menon, January 14 syrup is effective against motion sickness and jet lag. Sarpagandha (Rauvolffia serpentina) cures hypertension, while The subject of this fascinating illustrated talk and the gum (guggul) can control obesity and lipid disorders. The erudition of the speaker, H.Y. Mohan Ram, former coconut is drink, food, source of oil, fibre, shell, Professor of Botany, University of Delhi and INSA shampoo, thatch, broom, charcoal, while the banana is a Honorary Scientist, made the annual Dr. C.D. Deshmukh most wholesome fruit. Not surprisingly, these plants are Memorial Lecture a special occasion. Mohan Ram traced deemed sacred. Our traditional knowledge about which India’s extraordinarily rich tradition of botanical wood is suitable for construction, boat-building and knowledge to the Vedas, specifically the Atharvaveda. He musical instruments, is also astonishing, he said. also stressed the need for the bio-diversity rich countries When concluding, he reminded his audience that what of Asia, Latin America and Africa to work closely to attracted the Europeans to India was not gold or silver, ensure that their enormous pool of traditional but its plant wealth in the form of spices. knowledge is recognized as innovation, not swamped by galloping globalization. He cited the example of a KIRAN SAHNI Professor H.Y. Mohan Ram delivering the Deshmukh Lecture media diary With reference to the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, Naqvi Television and the People said it was a common refrain that ‘we are under attack’. He posited the question: ‘Who are we?’ and ‘Who was DISCUSSION: The Terrorist and the Citizen – How attacked in Mumbai?’ In UP, for example, Maoism or Television Transforms Political Life terrorism is not an issue in politics, pointing to ‘a certain Panelists: Jawed Naqvi, Ashutosh, Harinder seamlessness in Indian society’. Baweja, Professor Dipankar Gupta Senior journalist Swapan Dasgupta drew attention to a Chair: Arindam Sengupta certain class bias in T.V. coverage. He felt that as far as Collaboration: Sociology Unit, Institute of the Mumbai terror attacks were concerned, there was Economic Growth, January 10 no evidence of any basis to the accusation. Ashutosh (Aaj Tak) defended his turf by saying the channels have The huge public outrage at the near-hysterical media brought a different kind of accountability in the country, coverage of the Mumbai incident triggered off this and this change is visible most in the Hindi channels. As interesting panel discussion. In his presentation, Jawed regards what happened in Bombay, he said T.V. channels Naqvi (Friday Times) said at the very outset that journalists were never late in responding to whatever instructions were a political people. Sitting in Delhi, one would not came from the authorities. Charges of elitism can easily know which journalist is close to the B.J.P., or who is be answered if one looks at the content of the T.V. close to the Congress. Naqvi made an additional point medium, though some parts of the country have a that T.V. is not a creature of democracy. Had it been so, predominance over others in what channels cover. Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan would have been the Senior journalist Sengupta summed up the discussion greatest democrat because most of the T.V. channels soberly by pointing out that since T.V. is an evolving mushroomed during his tenure. medium, it deserves to be treated with consideration. Rai and Devika Rani’s Bombay Talkies early ventures in silent black and white cinema, LECTURE: Devika Rani and Himansu Rai – A Throw of Dice and Light The Globalization of Early Indian Cinema of Asia, proved to be Illustrated lecture: Lady Kishwar Desai quite successful financially Chair: Urvashi Butalia, January 13 in the West, particularly in England and Germany in Based on her book on Devika Rani and Himansu Rai, the Weimar period. Kishwar Desai’s illustrated lecture on the early years of After their last successful Indian cinema was both informative and entertaining. silent film, Shiraz, they The footage accompanying the talk threw light on the found themselves being Devika Rani most glamorous, western-educated, upper-class couple forced to make films for in the history of Hindi, indeed Hindustani cinema. a predominantly Indian market. Bombay Talkies produced such hits as Jawani Ki Hawa and Achhut Kanya which Himansu Rai was the scion of a prominent feudal Bengali launched Ashok Kumar to stardom. Together Himansu family and married to an English stage actress when he met Rai and Devika Rani produced two other interesting films, Devika Rani in London in the early 1920s. Devika Rani was Jeevan Naiyya and Janambhoomi, both in 1936. The talkies herself from a similar background, being a grand-niece of they made together were more substantial in theme and poet Rabindranath Tagore. Himansu Rai fell head over content than their exotic silent films. An animated heels in love with her, ditched his wife and daughter, and discussion followed the lecture. the two embarked on what seemed at that time a reckless 2 adventure: to make Indian films for an international market. PARTHA CHATTERJEE diary lectures reflected on the intertwined character of demos and ethnos— Democracy and Violence a fact that sometimes resulted in violence. Often, the process of democratization itself generated considerable PANEL DISCUSSION: Democracy, Violence and Voice violence and, as Professor Taylor suggested, certain kinds Panelists: Professor Charles Taylor, Professor of violence were inherent in some democracies. Ashish Nandy, Dilip Gaonkar, Professor Akhil Bilgrami, Professor Mahmood Mamdani, and According to Mahmood Mamdani, one alternate approach would be to understand the way violence can Professor Gananath Obeyesekere be addressed within a democratic framework by taking Moderator: Professor Rajeev Bhargava the lead from some African countries. A long-term Collaboration: Centre for the Study of response to the problem of violence and terror was Developing Societies, January 2 possible only when those who addressed it did not lose sight of the issues, and de-globalized the issues by The idea behind the panel discussion, as Professor Taylor suggested, was to try and understand why terrorism was situating them within a particular context. Another key considered by some scholars as a legitimate act of violence argument that emerged from the discussion, particularly in the present times, was the problem within democracy within a democratic process. It also considered how to construct an alternate vocabulary to understand those to give terrorism a legitimate status. present acts of terror that had moved beyond the For the most part, the discussion was centered on terror understanding of a ‘war on terror’. and terrorism as particular acts of violence in The discussion began by focusing on the complex a democracy. relationship between democracy and violence. The panelists RAJESHWARI BALASUBRAMANIAN emerged as an alternate ‘religion’ with ‘secularists’ on one Competing Perspectives side, and ‘believers’ on the other. Professor Gole discussed the evolution of secularism DISCUSSION: Religion, Secularism and within Turkey, linking it with the larger issue of European Democracy identity. The secular model that developed in Turkey was Panelists: Professor Charles Taylor, Professor different from India in that the nation-building process Linell Cady, and Professor Niloufer Gole was accompanied by a cultural homogenization. In India, Moderator: Professor T.N. Madan on the other hand, pluralism was respected. She Collaboration: Centre for the Study of highlighted that the headscarf issue and the controversy Developing Societies, January 8 over Turkish membership of the E.U. shows how Europeans define themselves in relation to Islam. Turkish candidacy is perceived as a threat to the The main focus of this timely discussion was examining European identity. the competing perspectives on secularism, and mapping their different trajectories. Earlier, people were not In conclusion, it can be said that there are western and concerned with the complexities involved in multi-cultural non-western models of secularism, and it would be liberal societies as it was believed that religion had ceased inappropriate to consider the western model as the to exert much influence in modern polities. standard, because then the non-western countries would be seen as always lagging behind. There are many Reflecting on the notion of secularism in the United ‘secularisms’ as shown in the case of the U.S. and Turkey. States, Professor Cady discussed the separation of the Thus, it would be interesting to understand the nuances state from the church. However, on deeper analysis, it of individual countries before we tackle the problem becomes clear that this strict separation has become a of dealing with conflicts in multi-cultural societies. complex issue because religion has come to dominate the public sphere rather strongly. In fact, secularism has SRUTHI MURALEEDHARAN 3 polity diary of pluralism of values is a powerful philosophical Beware of Utopias weapon against fanaticism of all kinds. While explicitly rejecting relativism, Berlin held up pluralism as the beacon of wisdom. As a concept, PANEL DISCUSSION: Isaiah Berlin’s Vision of pluralism is far more subtle and profounder than strategic Pluralism and Dialogue of Cultures tolerance of other cultures. This is why Berlin’s ‘value Speaker: Dr. Ramin Jahanbegloo pluralism’, as basic to the human condition, is of intrinsic Chair: Dr. Kapila Vatsyayan, January 7 rather than instrumental worth. For us, as human beings, choice is a necessity—even a ‘tragic necessity’—but moral anarchy is unacceptable.