www.openthemagazine.com 50 7 DECEMBER / 2020

OPEN VOLUME 12 ISSUE 48 7 DECEMBER 2020

contents 7 december 2020

5 6 8 10 14 LOCOMOTIF INDRAPRASTHA MUMBAI NOTEBOOK IN MEMORIAM HISTORY OF THE PRESENT Black noise By Virendra Kapoor By Anil Dharker Ahmed Patel (1949-2020) The message from Seemanchal By S Prasannarajan By PR Ramesh By MJ Akbar

16 18 20 22 TOUCHSTONE SOFT POWER WHISPERER OPEN ESSAY History without humility The rebuke and after By Jayanta Ghosal Ode to an Orientalist By Keerthik Sasidharan Makarand R Paranjape By William Dalrymple

26 THE UNFINISHED AGENDA 26 OF MASOOD AZHAR Twenty years after his release from an Indian jail, the fountainhead of radical Islamism continues to send messengers of death to India By Rahul Pandita

34 THE LIMITS OF AUTONOMY POLITICS The district council elections may be the first step in disempowering Kashmir’s oligarchy By Siddharth Singh

38 BOTTLED UP IN BIHAR 22 Nitish Kumar and the weaponisation of prohibition By PR Ramesh

44 DOSES OF HOPE The progress made on Covid vaccines in ten months looks like a mad dash for protection against the virus, but the development of vaccines remains a marathon 38 By Pavan Srinath 48

48 BACK TO CLASS As schools reopen, India is grappling with the dilemma of just how to do it and whether it is even ethical By Lhendup G Bhutia

52

52 56 60 63 66 THE SARTORIAL MODERNIST THE QUESTIONING SELF STIRRED BY A SCAM THE IRON GRIP NOT PEOPLE LIKE US A glimpse into Bhanu Athaiya’s Autobiography has long Hansal Mehta on how he The enduring fascination with Managing multiple shoots aesthetic grasp of the female been Barack Obama’s way of created a show about the rise Margaret Thatcher for authors, By Rajeev Masand body and fashions explaining his way in the world and fall of Harshad Mehta filmmakers and musicians By Rosalyn D’Mello By Mini Kapoor By Divya Unny By Aditya Mani Jha

Cover by Rohit Chawla 7 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 3 open mail [email protected]

Editor S Prasannarajan letter of the week managing Editor PR Ramesh C executive Editor Ullekh NP The BJP juggernaut is rolling fast and furious (‘Why editor-at-large Siddharth Singh deputy editors Madhavankutty Pillai BJP Wins’ by Vinay Sitapati, November 30th, 2020). (Mumbai Bureau Chief), Winning the recent Bihar Assembly elections with Rahul Pandita, Amita Shah, V Shoba (Bangalore), Nandini Nair allies, including Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), has been creative director Rohit Chawla yet another achievement. For a party that has art director Jyoti K Singh Senior Editors Sudeep Paul, relentlessly injected politics with religious tropes, its Lhendup Gyatso Bhutia (Mumbai), campaign blitzkrieg of ‘Jai Shri Ram’ and ‘Bharat Mata Moinak Mitra, Nikita Doval Associate Editor Vijay K Soni (Web) Ki Jai’ have yielded some rich dividends, managing assistant editor Vipul Vivek to saffronise much of India. This bears even more chief of graphics Saurabh Singh significance as it has happened in a society modelled SENIOR DESIGNERs Anup Banerjee, Veer Pal Singh on Gandhi’s ‘sarvadharma sadbhava’ (equal treatment Photo editor Raul Irani of all faiths), with the Constitution mandating deputy Photo editor Ashish Sharma additionally that the state may intervene in religion National Head-Events and Initiatives in certain cases of fissures. Ascendant Hindutva, elections in this subcontinent Arpita Sachin Ahuja are won on the basis of AVP (ADVERTISING) however, has clearly trounced all that old school Rashmi Lata Swarup secularism stands for. This colossal victory of BJP manpower, moneypower GENERAL MANAGERs (ADVERTISING) Uma Srinivasan (South) couldn’t have been possible without inner-party and muscle power, not on discipline and unity. Victory bestows the winner with the basis of real issues. The National Head-Distribution and Sales Ajay Gupta a serious responsibility. The party that wins owes it to Reserve Bank of India’s regional heads-circulation D Charles (South), Melvin George the nation to be the voice of India. The ‘hum saath saath announcement that in (West), Basab Ghosh (East) hain’ (we’re in this together) dictum the party swears the second quarter the Head-production Maneesh Tyagi by is much like that of a Hindu undivided family that economy would shrink, senior manager (pre-press) Sharad Tailang stays together despite its divisions. again establishes that India MANAGER-MARKETING Sangeeta Kampani is officially and technically Priya Singh Chief Designer-marketing in a recession. India is among Champak Bhattacharjee the top nations by number of cfo & HEAD-IT Anil Bisht Covid-19 infected people and Chief ExecuTive & Publisher bjp ’s chariot they concede more space the number of people dead. Neeraja Chawla There are no easy answers and whenever they talk of The lockdown has failed to All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in any manner to why BJP wins (‘Why BJP privileging minorities, they curb the pandemic even as the is prohibited. Wins’ by Vinay Sitapati, further alienate themselves nation is clocking over 30,000 Editor: S Prasannarajan. Printed and published by Neeraja Chawla on behalf November 30th, 2020). Why from Hindus. BJP is now new cases every day. A vaccine of the owner, Open Media Network Pvt Ltd. Printed at Thomson Press India Ltd, BJP lost for so many years is trying to break fresh ground is still not in sight. 18-35 Milestone, Delhi Mathura Road, Faridabad-121007, (Haryana). key to finding their winning in Telangana, West Bengal Biju Cherian Published at 4, DDA Commercial formula, if any. BJP taking and Tamil Nadu. It has Complex, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi-110017. centrestage has everything successfully wooed centrist sport and cause Ph: (011) 48500500; Fax: (011) 48500599 to do with Congress losing its and undecided voters who Lewis Hamilton has To subscribe, WhatsApp ‘openmag’ to 9999800012 or log on to plot and leaving a vacuum. find no better alternative. By surpassed Michael www.openthemagazine.com or call our Toll Free Number BJP has been honest and refusing to introspect and Schumacher’s record 1800 102 7510 sincere about its rightist shooting all the messengers recently and without or email at: [email protected] commitments since Day that bring news of change any doubt he is one of the For alliances, email [email protected] 1. So why is it finding an in India’s politics, Congress greatest F1 drivers of all For advertising, email audience only now? BJP is digging its own grave and time (‘Success Formula’, [email protected] For any other queries/observations, has successfully occupied probably is the biggest factor November 30th, 2020). But email [email protected] the nationalist space in BJP’s rise. It is going to what really sets him apart besides claiming to be the be a walkover for BJP until from his German rival is Disclaimer ‘Open Avenues’ are advertiser-driven marketing champion of Hindus’ rights, opposition parties can find his support for sensitive initiatives and Open assumes no responsibility for content and the consequences of using much thanks to the stale the right ethos and a positive and critical issues. There are products or services advertised in the magazine politics of Congress and outlook to attract Indians. not many sportsmen who

Volume 12 Issue 48 other opposition parties. Ashok Goswami openly support a cause close For the week 1-7 December 2020 Whenever opposition to people’s heart due to the Total No. of pages 68 politicians question the BJP has won yet another sensitivity of the issue. Indian Army’s actions, election as a coalition. But Bal Govind

4 7 december 2020 LOCOMOTIF

by S PRASANNARAJAN BLACK NOISE

just 117 sparsely printed pages, the young Martin, a former student of Diane, is expected to speak book has the lightness of a muted sigh, smart. So he quotes from his most quotable source, Einstein’s 1912 or an aside in isolation. Every sentence is Manuscript on the Special Theory of Relativity. Diane talks of him and like a stirring in a still world, shrunken to their abruptly stalled situation: “In class you quoted footnotes. You the size of a middle-class drawing room vanished into footnotes. Einstein, Heisenberg, Godel. Relativity, in New York City. The talkers are trapped, uncertainty, incompleteness. I am foolishly trying to imagine between anticipation and denial, between all the rooms in all the cities where the game is being broadcast. realisation and surprise. They talk shop All the people watching intently or sitting as we are, puzzled, with the mock seriousness of playful philosophers, with some abandoned by science, technology, common sense.” Soon Jim and Einstein thrown in. We read it in our own confinement, our Tessa, who survived the crash-landing, will join them, and they all own entrapment, in a pandemic world, and our consolation become footnotes in a text of existential silence. nowadays comes from Netflix rather than Nietzsche. The book could have been called, to improvise one of Don DeLillo, the last of the greats in American fiction (along DeLillo’s previous titles, Black Noise. The noise comes from with Paul Auster), has been here before, but not with this kind of an abruptness, and it pervades the pages as disoriented and austere premonition of apocalypse. This is as if he has chiselled disconnected soliloquies from people punished by technological an entire world of excesses to a miniature dystopia suspended progress. They don’t know why they are trapped; they still in time. The Silence (Scribner, 128 pages, $22), DeLillo’s new don’t know what’s happening out there, whether it’s cyber- novel, begins mid-air, in a flight cabin. Jim and his wife Tessa are terrorism or foreign intrusion or some nameless digital voodoo flying back to New York from Paris. Their conversation is made or China. They create a fragile verbal alternative which holds of air-travel patois, of speed and altitudes and temperature. them together, keeps them alive, for the moment, in this space of They are looking forward to watching Super Bowl LVI—the “dark energy” and “phantom waves.” Martin keeps returning to year is 2022—in the flat of their friends later in the day. Then: Einstein, who also provides the novel’s epigraph: “I do not know “A massive knocking somewhere below them. The screen went with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World blank. Pilot speaking French, no English follow-up. Jim gripped War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” Martin carries the arms of his seat and then checked Tessa’s seatbelt and within his head what Einstein sees beyond the current retightened his. He imagined that every passenger was looking predicament. Are Martin and the four others in the room straight ahead into the six o’clock news, at home, on Channel representative prototypes of a post-technological noir? Is it the 4, waiting for word of their crashed airliner.” She says: “Are we pause before the end, the inevitable digital deep freeze? Is it that afraid?” He doesn’t answer, instead thinks of “tea and sweets, the Einsteinian “dependence of mass on energy” is having its tea and sweets.” moment of irony? Martin dreams of walking with the scientist Elsewhere, in an Upper East Side flat in New York City, a “across the Princeton campus. Saying nothing, silent.” couple, Max and Diane, and their guest, Martin, are waiting in Science doesn’t dazzle DeLillo. Science sets him on a journey front of a superscreen TV for the kick-off to begin. “Something to the future of imagination itself. In his last novel, Zero K, happened then. The image onscreen began to shake. It was cryogenics is used to suspend death and enter immortality not ordinary visual distortion, it had depth, it formed abstract in the backdrop of a world on fire (‘Cryo-Nirvana with Don patterns that dissolved into a rhythmic pulse, a series of DeLillo’, Open, June 20th, 2016). The Silence was written before elementary units that seemed to thrust forward and then the pandemic. We read it in the middle of a pandemic, and recede. Rectangles, triangles, squares.” What follows when Martin reminds us that “nobody wants to call it is total blackout. A digital suspension of life. In the World War III but this is what it is,” we realise that in stillness, in the electronic silence of dead algorithms, our unsolicited isolation we are as abandoned as he the only noise is the conversation of the three. The and his companions in that one-bedroom flat in New York are. This is Don DeLillo, like Albert Einstein, as Don DeLillo consolation and prophecy. n

7 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 5 INDRAPRASTHA virendra kapoor

e may be excited at the which has succeeded in containing Wdevelopment of the vaccine the virus far better than the national to fight Covid-19, but it is still months capital with all its super-duper private away from mass production. So tamp and public hospitals. Last but not down hope of an early normalisation. least, that which seems simple and Medical experts are still not sure if the commonsensical does not necessarily vaccine will prevent further spread have to be unsound in empirical of the virus or will merely heal those knowledge and reasoning. already infected. Though some of our state governments have been ust as I was finishing the most haphazard in handling the Jcolumn, the sad news came crisis—the Kejriwal government is a about Ahmed Patel’s death from prime example—overall, we do not complications arising from Covid-19. seem to have done badly in keeping foodstuff, etcetera prepare us from an Of the three Congress leaders I got the infections and fatalities under early age to take these things in our to know rather well in my 40-plus near control. This is particularly stride. Polluted air, terrible personal years as a media hack, he was the so considering the havoc the virus hygiene habits, lack of general last surviving member. First to go has wrought in some of the most health awareness are all part of the was Jag Pravesh Chandra. Though advanced countries. Trump’s America mix which goes to fortify us against nearly two decades older, the former offers itself as a test case for how not various viruses. Most Indians have Delhi chief executive councillor, a to handle a global health emergency. heard of the Delhi belly Westerners precursor of the present-day chief But even the well-administered often complain of after spending a minister, became a close friend. There nations, such as Germany, Sweden day or two in the capital or elsewhere was nothing we did not talk about, and Spain, are experiencing a belated in India. (On the other hand, Indians including the inner workings of the surge in infections. Which makes often have issues consuming clean faction-ridden Delhi Congress. Murli me wonder how we in India seem water, air, food in Western countries Deora, a former Central minister and to be getting away without paying since their digestive system is long chief of the Mumbai Congress, was a heavier price, especially given our inured to a wholly contaminated like a member of the family. Neither humongous population and the daily regimen of food and drink.) It is Chandra nor Murli allowed my strong woeful state of health infrastructure. because the Westerners are not used views of their party to come between Remember almost 18 million Indians to the water and food we consume us. And it was thanks to Murli that had perished under the British from daily. Small wonder then the I got to know Ahmed Bhai up close. the influenza pandemic in 1918- strongest of them have crumbled like His legendary clout in the UPA decade 1919. We don’t seem to be doing nine pins before the onslaught of the did not affect his genuine warmth badly in blunting the challenge of coronavirus. And we are so blasé that and courtesy. In the Central Hall of this once-in-a-century pandemic in even a Rs 2,000 penalty does not deter Parliament, often there were two 2019-2020. Therefore, I was happy to us from stirring out mask-less and parallel ‘durbars’, at one end Arun find endorsement of my amateurish without maintaining the mandatory Jaitley would hold court offering hypothesis that we Indians are hard- six-foot distance from fellow Indians his take on everything under the wired to fight all manner of viruses in the nation’s capital. Because we sun over cups of coffee. At the other from our very birth. The other day, a have higher immunity against the end, mostly over lunch, another set popular website of an international virus. Incidentally, the website that of journalists would try and extract media network published a paper put out the above paper cautioned ‘inside info’ from an easily accessible which suggested that as a people, we that it had not been peer reviewed. but invariably taciturn political enjoy greater immunity due to the But my point is, does it need a peer secretary to Sonia Gandhi. With two very factors which are commonly review if the analysts have accounted pillars of the Central Hall gone rather held against us. Contaminated for the infections and fatalities in prematurely, it matters little if the water with all manner of impurities, Bihar where even rudimentary nation’s hall of gossip survives the adulterated milk, medicines, health services are hard to find? And ongoing remaking of Lutyens’ Delhi. n

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fter missing an easy putt was in operation till recently and con- Aon the 46th (yes, even Donald trolled all our communications. So Trump’s golf courses are huuuge), updating a manual which is a mere 61 the president, soon to be ex-president, years old is frightening rocket speed. looked up and said, “I haven’t lost yet, When the new code comes into but maybe that loser, Joe Biden, may effect, an arrest will be made only in have won too.” cases where the offence is punish- Did you know that Biden was in able by a jail term of more than seven the Indian merchant navy and Biden years, and even here, arbitrary arrest is a full-time psychologist? That’s Ian the Gau in rites of healing, purifica- has to be avoided by what the manual and Sonia, respectively, Bidens of tion and penance and lays down the calls ‘due diligence’—a summons Nagpur, related to Joseph Robinette law regarding Panchagavya, the five for questioning where the accused is Biden Jr, Joe for short, through a mutu- products of the cow—milk, curd, given a chance to defend himself. If al great, great, great, great, great grand- butter, urine and dung. arrested, the family must be immedi- father. (And Trump thought only So now in Madhya Pradesh—and, ately informed and a medical exami- he was great.) Mercifully, like their of course, soon all over India—cow- nation carried out on the prisoner. illustrious distant relative in the US, dung cakes will fuel kitchen stoves and Handcuffing is to be used only if the the Nagpur Bidens are decent, modest replace chemical fertiliser in the fields; person is dangerous or a flight risk. people so their claim to relative fame cow urine will be used as pest control Other welcome steps are DNA was only accidentally discovered, and treatment, as well as in medicine; and profiling in rape cases and a section not, er, trumped about. cow milk will continue as always for on cybercrime, both unknown in So now, both president-elect and nourishment. These measures will 1959. The new manual also updates vice pesident-elect have an India be implemented by six departments the role of the police while enforcing connection. We have already claimed under five ministers, which will also the British-era Epidemic Diseases Act, Kamala Harris as our own and begun be responsible for erecting 4,000 cow 1897. It now omits police functions to call her LOTUS. Obviously, this has shelters. Incidentally, the holiness of such as issuing permits for tom-toms made BJP factotums very happy. The the cow straddles political ideologies, (defined as medium-sized cylindrical Bidens’ Nagpur link has made them as it should, with the previous drums, of which one to three may be ecstatic—after all, that city is RSS’ Congress government having an- used in a drum kit; derived from late headquarters. Don’t expect too many nounced the erection of 7,000 cow shel- 17th century Hindi tam-tam or Telugu celebrations on January 20th though; ters when it was in power. The founder- tama-tama). Policemen are now also not by then the party apparatchiks will editor of Gau Bharat Bharati, India’s first required to issue bicycle licences, or fine have read our almost-desi president’s weekly dedicated to cows, is sceptical. cyclists for riding without a light. and vice president’s policy papers. The Sanjay Amaan, who launched the The Maharashtra government is question being asked in some head- publication in 2014 and found that the obviously rushing headlong into the quarters in Nagpur is this: given their weekly quickly reached sales of 30,000 21st century. It recently reduced the Indian heritage, shouldn’t these ‘elects’ copies, in effect says, ‘I will believe the number of permissions and licences have consulted the Manusmriti before cow shelters when I see them.’ required to run a restaurant from finalising their manifesto? But we shouldn’t be impatient. 70 to a mere 10, and even those can What’s a decade here or there? After be submitted online. peaking of the cow, which we all, the Rig Veda is only 3,500 years old. Among the licences dropped are Sweren’t, it’s really impressive how one for a chimney under the Smoke very steeped our politicians are in peaking of old, which we Nuisance Act, a cold storage licence, a our ancient culture: why else would Swere, the Maharashtra Police has licence for boiler and generator, a li- Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s Madhya dusted off the Bombay Police Manual cence for bakery products and a licence Pradesh government institute a cow of 1959, which encodes investigative for running a mixer and grinder. cabinet and decide to officially desig- and enforcement procedures, and Incredibly, they have even done away nate the cow as ‘Holy Mother’? After updated it. This is incredible—and I with the municipal beer bar licence. all, the Rig Veda, that most ancient of am not being sarcastic, considering In the meantime, in Madhya texts, emphasises the importance of that the Indian Telegraph Act of 1885 Pradesh… n

8 7 december 2020 While Inside Look Outside For FREE With access visit www.openthemagazine.com openings

in memoriam Power behind the Power

AHMED PATEL (1949-2020)

getty images

hmed Patel’s residence at 23 Mother seamless flow of governance. Teresa Crescent Road in New Delhi was the most The late Sitaram Kesri, once the guardian of Congress’ coffers important address after 10 Janpath, the home of like Patel later, but eyed with suspicion by Sonia Gandhi, used to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, for the 10 long narrate how he had learnt the ways of political ‘mayanagari’ Delhi. yearsA of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government led The young Kesri would come from Danapur in Bihar, during the by Congress at the Centre. Here, Patel—who died on November late 1950s and early 1960s, when Parliament was in session. Prime 25th at the age of 71—political advisor to Sonia Gandhi and the Minister Jawaharlal Nehru would visit the Congress office in the go-to man for everything organisational and political in the Parliament complex every day. There were hordes of Congress- party, burnt the midnight oil pushing policy, managing allies men jostling to meet him. Kesri would join the throngs. After a and his own party leaders. ‘AP’ to most, he was the problem- mere glimpse of the Prime Minister, Kesri would hotfoot it next solver-in-chief, and his home became a place ministers and cor- door to the Press Trust of India office and persuade a young re- porate honchos could haul their problems to, confidentially. porter to put out a few lines about his ‘meeting’ with Nehru. Hard Patel was the solutions potentate, the ace strategist who made work in Congress was as important as being seen and known. the word ‘backroom’ a compliment, the lubricant ensuring a Little has changed since. How tall a leader one is in the party

10 7 december 2020 is still measured by access to the powerful, being known on he became the closest political aide and confidant to the longest a first-name basis by them, and then flaunting it. For a party serving party chief. These were crucial years when he proved his whose leadership came to life only at election time, that was the worth in political weight and as chief party strategist. In 2004, way things have always worked. when UPA came to power, he refused Cabinet posts to work Patel, however, was moulded from a different clay. He con- behind the scenes as a core power centre for the party chief. tested the Bharuch Lok Sabha seat and won it in 1977 when It wasn’t all a winning streak for Ahmed Patel though. His Lok the anti-Congress mood was at its peak. Much later, his repeat Sabha victories came to an abrupt halt in 1989 when he lost his victories from Bharuch would catch Rajiv Gandhi’s eye. Patel was Bharuch seat. Then began his long innings in Rajya Sabha. He a lone ranger in a party known for its groupism and stood out was re-elected four times from 1993. But it was in August 2017 as a troubleshooter who shunned the limelight while working that he fought his hardest battle to secure his seat. BJP proved overtime to quieten the rumbles in the party. He always dressed unforgiving in its attempts to thwart him. The party had already soberly and his house in the capital reflected his unassuming mod- nominated Amit Shah and Smriti Irani to the two other vacant esty. In Parliament’s Central Hall, surrounded by journalists, Patel seats. For the first time, Congress’ most formidable strategist man- shunned the greed for TV soundbites and almost always chose not aged to clinch the Rajya Sabha seat only by the skin of his teeth. It to be quoted on record despite his growing stature in the party. was Patel’s toughest combat. It was a sign, a forewarning. Sonia Gandhi reposed unflinching trust in Patel since she In tandem with the ascent of Rahul Gandhi to Congress took official charge of the party in 1998. Patel remained her president the same year, Patel was shown the door when the political secretary for 19 years till 2017. But he clearly didn’t earn scion of the family, with a posse of youngsters from manage- her complete confidence by being affable and obliging. He was ment and social work finishing schools to advise him, gave him known to be ruthless in dealing with the family’s political rivals. the cold shoulder. Without demur, he left the treasurer’s post. Many BJP leaders believe Patel played Unlike Sonia Gandhi, who relied on a key role in UPA’s plans to ‘fix’ Naren- Patel’s counsel for every decision, dra Modi and Amit Shah in legal cases. the younger Gandhi surrounded Every important bureaucrat and head Patel was a lone ranger himself with a group that convinced of law enforcement agency owed him that his family lineage made his his position to Patel. If he called in a in a party known for ascent to the post of prime minister favour, that was an edict. And officers its groupism. With his a no-brainer, even though the mood keen on plum posts and sinecures did of the nation was clearly against his his bidding without question, or so death, Sonia Gandhi has party. Barring a few, most sincerely the story goes. Most of them, except a lost the golden bridge believed Rahul Gandhi did not have it reluctant Ranjit Sinha. Sinha was ap- in him to occupy the top post. He not pointed director of the Central Bureau linking her family to the only ignored Patel’s advice and gentle of Investigation superseding others party. And it can get very remonstrance but resented his role in in November 2012. BJP opposed the the functioning of Congress. appointment. Sinha sensed a change lonely up there in a castle Patel took the mildest of hints in the political wind and refused to of melting wax seriously when it came to Congress’ play ball with Patel, thwarting his first family. He withdrew quietly ploy to get Amit Shah arrested before from active strategising and political the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The plan, counselling while the young Gandhi ostensibly, was to pick up Shah and thus target Modi, who had blundered on. Until, in August 2018, Sonia Gandhi, perhaps by then become politically invincible and would soon become realising there were few in the party she could trust, ensured his BJP’s prime ministerial nominee. return as treasurer to guard the party’s coffers prior to the 2019 Patel’s first big break came in 1985 when he was appointed Lok Sabha polls. Parliamentary Secretary to then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Destiny, meanwhile, had more plans for him before sunset. He made himself indispensable by serving as a crucial link In July 2019, Rahul Gandhi quit as party President. Sonia between the Prime Minister’s Office and the party. For Patel, it Gandhi took over as interim president. Once again, with was a crucial career springboard. The MP who had represented Congress lurching from crisis to crisis, it was her trusted top Bharuch thrice was catapulted to the key post of Pradesh Con- aide who became her troubleshooter. In Rajasthan, when the gress Committee President in 1985-1986. Congress, however, Ashok Gehlot government was on a slippery slope, it was Patel collapsed in Patel’s home state after 1990, notwithstanding his who got a revolting Sachin Pilot to retreat. More recently, when taking charge of it. Criticism mounted. In 1988, Rajiv Gandhi 23 Congressmen came out against the drift in the party and the appointed this family loyalist secretary of the Jawahar Bhawan vacuum in its leadership, it was Patel who intervened and got Trust, tasked with overseeing the swanky new office on Raisina the Congress Working Committee to avow its loyalty to the Road. He accomplished his assignment in a year. leadership. With his death, Sonia Gandhi has lost the golden Between 1992 and 2001, Patel was also the party treasurer. This bridge linking her family to the party. And it can get very lonely was when he is believed to have come into his own by tapping the up there in a castle of melting wax. n cross-corporate, cross-industry network he had cultivated over the years. When Sonia Gandhi took over as Congress president, By PR Ramesh

7 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 11 openings

portrait Diego Maradona (1960-2020) division. He gave the club its two league titles, in 1986- 87 and in 1989-90, and even a Uefa Cup in 1989. In between those years, at the international God’s player level, he cemented his status as one of the greatest players of all time. Most notably, when he led A flawed genius whose flaws Argentina to the 1986 World Cup. And especially only add to his immortality in that quarter-final match against England. We may quibble about who between Maradona here are great players who with the touch of genius transform and Pele was the greatest football player. But there Ta game and the passion of its followers forever, but even they don’t is little doubt who owned the most famous four always achieve immortality. Diego Maradona did. When the Dalai Lama minutes on a football field. Those four heart-stopping was once asked about Sachin Tendulkar, his response had been a ‘who’. I’d minutes—where he scored that infamous ‘Hand of like to wager he’d have something very different to say about Maradona. God’ goal and that great charge from the centre, past For all the excesses of his life, no one dazzled on any sporting ground five defenders and the goalkeeper; one of them, the quite like Maradona. There was magic realism every time the ball arrived worst pieces of cheating in football history and the at his feet. Even when he became a vulgar caricature of himself, even when other, its greatest goal—symbolised everything there his life was fuelled with drugs and alcohol and he humiliated himself again was to symbolise about Maradona. In one moment, and again, the memory of that touch never deserted him. he could be god-like, the creator of such sublimity. Maradona came from an exceptionally humble background. He was And in the other, he could be so foul and reckless. the fifth of eight children, raised in a Buenos Aires slum, with no running While Napoli gave him his greatest moments, it water or electricity in the house. His father once operated a boat that carried also took from him. His addiction to cocaine became cattle from village to village, and his mother worked as a domestic help. severe. He was serenaded by the mafia. The hands Maradona learnt his skills flicking oranges and rag balls as he ran errands, of adulation and worship were beginning to wring or playing the game on the small vacant lots in the slum. his neck. At one moment, he seemed incapable of He was already beginning to dazzle on the field as he rose up the ranks. But coping with all this glory, yet at another, he seemed the greatest moments came after he moved to Napoli in 1984. Before this, at unable to survive without it. He needed protection, Barcelona—where despite the world record fee of $7.6 million the club shelled both from fame and himself. But that wasn’t there. out for him—his stint had been unremarkable. Napoli broke its bank ($10.48 Maradona was banned for his cocaine addiction. million) to acquire him. One commentator said, “The poorest city in Italy, He failed drug tests. He ballooned. He had several maybe the poorest in Europe, buys the most expensive player in the world.” children from a string of relationships; he had Maradona transformed an unremarkable team to beat the giants of the top contentious tax issues. Every time one saw him in the audience box seats, it appeared he was having a getty images coronary attack. He nearly died several times. And then there were the stories, those many embellished tales that are hard to prove or disprove. How he evaded drugs testers by using a plastic penis and a fake bladder filled with someone else’s urine. How that fake penis was put on display in a museum and subsequently stolen. How the Spanish commentator who shouted ‘golazo’ after Maradona scored that great second goal in the 1986 World Cup quarter-final had to empty two litres of water to calm himself. We will mercifully not remember Maradona for what he became later. His name will always evoke that feeling he stirred in us, the thrill that ran up our spines, as this diminutive genius with the air of a street urchin peeled past one defender after another and as he approached the goalpost, achieved a truly transcendental moment in life. n

By Lhendup G Bhutia Also read ‘The Most Human of the Gods’ by Ullekh NP at Openthemagazine.com

12 7 december 2020 ANGLE ideas In Defence of Livelihood And the case against any further lockdowns, no matter how tempting they seem

By madhavankutty pillai

ndia is a great mimicker of alien ment, for instance, this week deliber- Censorship I ideas. So when the second wave ated on whether to impose a lockdown Censorship in publishing is not swept through Europe and as the coun- and decided against it. But already the an uncommon phenomenon. For tries there started going into lockdown grounds of one are being laid out as trav- years, publishers have had to deal again, the obvious possibility on the ellers from other states are screened at with censorious governments to get horizon here was politicians and bu- airports. The Centre, meanwhile, gave their books through. But the biggest reaucrats already deciding that at some permission for imposing night curfews threat to censorship in publishing point India would follow suit should to Union Territories if they wanted to. today seems to be coming from the second wave hit here. Increasingly, Delhi is in bigger trouble and to their within itself. Liberal institutions it looks like it is already on. And yet, a credit, they have been one of the states are increasingly filled with people lockdown would be a bad thing to do. which have resisted the easy political who identify themselves as For one, it is just plain fact that pull of shutting things up. Its Chief progressives, but who are unwilling Western developed nations have a Minister Arvind Kejriwal last week said to accommodate any dissenting much higher value to lives. Even if the that he was against lockdowns because viewpoint. The latest instance numbers are such that they are the every time it is lifted, cases spike. comes from Penguin Random usual norm in any Indian big city or But there is a limit to which politi- House Canada, where several state, people dying is a big deal for them. cians, even the better ones who under- staff members have confronted Plus, these are all wealthy nations with stand governance, can see their public management over its decision to a social security net. They can choose to relations eroding. It is in the nature of this publish a new book by Canadian not make an either-or decision when it disease to spread and as long as politicians psychologist Jordan Peterson, comes to livelihoods and lives. India just see in it an evaluation of their perfor- who has drawn a lot of liberal fire doesn’t have that luxury. Indians will mance, the lockdown will always be an in recent years. Earlier this year, tolerate just about anything but only up eventuality. And it will take only one ma- Hachette’s staffers reportedly to a point, as was evident in the migrant jor state to do it for others to toe the line. refused to work on JK Rowling’s labourers walking back thousands of ki- But first world solutions come new book over her opinion on lometres to native states when the first at a cost for India that it can’t afford. transgender issues, and before that, lockdown kept getting extended. They Already, the price for doing a lockdown Hachette dropped Woody Allen realised the Government had decided once even better than the first world after a staff walkout.n their opinion and plight were irrelevant is the economic collapse. Underneath, and decided to revolt with the silent but a mountain of bad news is waiting. It firm desperation that marks out this took just a few months of country’s ocean of poor. demonetisation to cripple the Indian Word’s Worth As states like Delhi and Maharash- economy. And that was only a problem tra see an increase in cases now, the of transactions not being facilitated. ‘To do evil, a human response of the Government, supported Imagine what months of economic being must first of all by what is happening in Europe, would standstill is going to do. There is no easy be to instinctively shut it all down. They ‘V’ shape recovery for India. Any further believe that what he’s aren’t spelling it out at the moment but lockdown only takes us further into a doing is good’ you can read it in between the lines of hole from where any sunlight is look- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn their actions. The Maharashtra govern- ing increasingly dim. n novelist

7 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 13 history of the present

By MJ Akbar

The Message from Seemanchal Congress’ last Muslim bastion in the north has collapsed

o much lightning, so little light. There is more to the What the existence of blocs means is that, given the right many outcomes of the recent Bihar Assembly circumstances and political impetus, they can become elector- elections than meets the media eye. ally homogenous. The blend happened in the Kishanganj belt. S In this Age of the Mighty Algorithm it is certain No statistic represents an even spread; it is merely a that someone will eventually do the precise mathematics, classified average rather than the more nuanced ground real- but it seems very likely that almost as much has been writ- ity. Seemanchal might have an overall Muslim proportion of ten about the five victories of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehad- 36 per cent, but the Kishanganj area has a Muslim population ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM, or All-India Council for the Unity of around 65 per cent, giving it far greater political and elec- of Muslims) in the northeast of Bihar as about the rest of the toral weight. AIMIM won five Assembly seats in constituen- state. This is perfectly understandable, for this was the one cies contiguous to Kishanganj. There was nothing accidental result that left traditional votebank politicians aghast and or incidental about these victories. It got 51.2 per cent of the professional pundits startled. votes in Amour, 49.8 per cent in Bahadurganj, 49.4 per cent Compared with this, the defeat of the Mahagathbandhan in Kochadhaman, 38.3 per cent in Baisi and 34.2 per cent in of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Left and Congress was merely Araria. It defeated Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal-United, or JD(U), partisan bewilderment encouraged by that self-lubricating in Amour and Kochadhaman, RJD in Jokihat, Vikassheel lobby of opinion-thrusters mistakenly called opinion poll- Insaan Party (a constituent of the National Democratic sters. But most analysts, from either the political class or the Alliance) in Bahadurganj and BJP in Baisi. media, missed the crucial message from Seemanchal: the last Congress got 29,818 votes against AIMIM’s 85,472 in Muslim bastion of the Congress in the north has collapsed. Bahadurganj; and 31,475 in Amour against AIMIM’s 94,108. The demography of what is known as Koshi-Seemanchal, Compare this with five years before. In 2015, Congress got the districts of Araria, Kishanganj, Katihar, Purnea, 53,533 votes in Bahadurganj and 1,00,135 votes in Amour. In Madhepura, Saharsa and Supaul in the riverine tracts south both Assembly battles Congress fought in alliance with a of Nepal and west of Bengal and Bangladesh, is unique. regional party; long gone is the era when Congress could Muslims constitute 36.4 per cent of the region’s population. compete on its own. But as is now inarguable, it is the The Economically Backward Classes (EBCs) form the next Congress core vote that collapsed in this election, as its per- largest bloc with 21.7 per cent. The Mahadalits and Scheduled formance elsewhere confirms. Congress won only 19 of the Tribes (STs) are 11.4 per cent; Yadavs 11.1 per cent; Other 70 seats it contested, or a strike rate of less than 14 per cent. Backward Classes (OBCs) 8.3 per cent; and the Sawarn Just a year before, this was the only Lok Sabha constituen- (or ‘forward’ castes) just 5.3 per cent. cy which Congress won, which must make the future seem This does not mean that these blocs are always unit- even bleaker for its diminishing votaries. ed, come election time. Muslims can easily split along dia- In fact, Kishanganj is the only Lok Sabha seat in Bihar and lect and ethnicity. They may agree on whom they will vote Uttar Pradesh which Congress won during the consecutive against, but not necessarily on whom they will vote for. The wipe-out debacles of 2014 and 2019, since Rahul Gandhi lost EBC, OBC and Sawarn are by definition conglomerates, as are Amethi in 2019. Congress has held Kishanganj since 2009. Mahadalits and STs. The Yadavs may be the only voting group This seems to be the final phase of a slow-motion evolution which displays substantial (but never unanimous) identity over the last three decades: wherever Muslims see a credible solidarity, which translates, as in the rest of the state, to a base alternative to Congress, they abandon the party they have vote for RJD. However, this can sometimes work to its disad- propped up electorally since 1952. vantage as when a Yadav candidate from a different party be- The departure of the Muslim vote from Congress began comes a more powerful magnet on the basis of caste identity. in 1967, and has continued, phase-wise, with variations. The

14 7 december 2020 Rahul Gandhi at a Congress rally in Kishanganj, Bihar This seems to be the final phase of a slow-motion evolution over the last three decades: wherever Muslims see a credible alternative to Congress, they abandon the party they have propped up electorally since 1952. The departure of the Muslim vote from Congress began in 1967, and has continued, phase-wise, with variations. The decisive shift in Kishanganj, Bihar is towards AIMIM

Courtesy Indian National Congress

CPM-led Left Front in Bengal was the first alliance which sep- wary of him than his opponents, since they know that giving arated the Muslim vote from Congress and then held it in its him political legitimacy means that the Muslim vote may go grasp for more than three decades, until Mamata Banerjee over to him for a lifetime. manoeuvred it into her fold. Mulayam Singh Yadav in Uttar In Maharashtra the Muslim mood is fluid, which Pradesh was the second political force to do so; his party can may be good news for Owaisi. He is also likely to test the still count on Muslim support. In Assam it went to a regional waters in certain urban constituencies in Madhya Pradesh leader, Badruddin Ajmal, an alumnus of Deoband who is the and Rajasthan, such as Bhopal and Jaipur. In Telangana, state president of the Jamiat-e-Ulema-i-Hind and now heads Owaisi has a deal with K Chandrashekar Rao’s Telangana the All India United Democratic Front. In the 2019 General Rashtra Samiti. Kerala is not an issue, since the Muslims Election, Ajmal transferred his votes to Congress, but dis- there are represented by the like-minded Muslim League. covered there was no payback. Either Congress had no votes The common factor is that Congress is being displaced which they could deliver, or did not want to. where it is still in some place, even if the space is increasing- The decisive shift in Kishanganj, propelled by the enthu- ly marginal. Congress might still be comparatively alive in siasm of young Muslims, is towards AIMIM. Muslim youth Kerala, but when Rahul Gandhi goes to Kerala to secure a have responded to a party that is as unapologetic about its place for himself in Lok Sabha, he does so at the mercy of Muslim identity as RJD is about its Yadav credentials. AIMIM the Muslim League. In Uttar Pradesh, Akhilesh Yadav has is what it says on the label, an Islamic party for Muslims. already clarified that he is not interested in sharing seats with Its roots lie in the pre-Partition princely state of Congress in the next Assembly elections, which is logical. Hyderabad, where it was founded in 1927 after a silent nod Congress brings nothing but the memory of a withered from the last Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan. In 1944, a lawyer legacy to the Uttar Pradesh table. In Bihar, there is now a good called Qasim Rizvi took over its leadership and launched an argument to be made for the proposition that RJD might activist, and soon violent, movement against the integration have got much closer to victory if it had fought on the 70 seats of Hyderabad into India, using the Razakars as its strike force. it surrendered to Congress. At the moment of writing, only Rizvi was imprisoned after 1948, and then left for Pakistan. the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu is still ready Rizvi’s successor was Abdul Owaisi. The Owaisis have fol- to play tag with Congress. lowed an Indian political tradition by converting the party There are many reasons for the unease and even anger of into a family fiefdom. Abdul Owaisi’s grandson Asaduddin, senior Congress leaders who feel that their party is being wearing the full conservative regalia of beard, sherwani and misled rather than being led. The Congress debacles in Bihar, skullcap, is the undisputed leader now. He has expanded Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have confirmed their ap- AIMIM’s footprint from Telangana, where it is a recognised prehensions about its prospects. If your only course is to sleep- state party, to Aurangabad and Mumbai in Maharashtra, and walk through nowhere land, crumble will turn into collapse. n Seemanchal in Bihar. He is planning to contest in next year’s Bengal Assembly elections, either alone or in alliance with MJ Akbar is an MP and the author of, most recently, those who will accept him as a partner. His allies are more Gandhi’s Hinduism: The Struggle Against Jinnah’s Islam

7 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 15 touchstone

By Keerthik Sasidharan

History without Humility Intellectuals and the Indian past

n 1528, Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria he begins), in the manner of a French existentialist: ‘I begin to commissioned paintings by an artist called Albrecht discern the profile of my death.’ Nearly 13 years later, the enfant Altdorfer, a founding member of the Danube School. terrible of mid-century American letters, Gore Vidal, wrote an- IA year later, Altdorfer presented to the Duke a other Roman novel, this time about the apostate emperor Julian, monumental canvas—one that is now generally considered the last of the pagan rulers of Rome. Only in Vidal’s Rome, the phi- Altdorfer’s greatest work titled Alexanderschlacht (The Battle losophers and praetors spoke as if they were consultants in Wash- of Alexander at Issus). The historic battle of Issus had taken ington DC think-tanks: gossipy, anxious, conspiratorial and yet place in 333 BCE—nearly 19 centuries before Altdorfer— happily dealmaking. In both these novels, written by writers at between the Greeks under Alexander the Great and the the peak of their imaginative prowess, the Romans were reborn Achaemenids under Darius III (not to be mistaken for the in accordance with widely held national understanding of what famous Darius the Great). The Persians had lost that battle constitutes political power: for the French, political power is and what followed thereafter is generally understood to an occasion for intellectualism and pedagogy, while for liberal be the beginning of the end of the Achaemenid Empire. Americans following the McCarthyite era, politics was a way to Altdorfer’s painting—a magnificent bottle blue swathe of keep the wolf of authoritarianism away. evening skies at the top and a detailed battle scene in the This problem of our own perspectives seeping into the lower half of the canvas—juxtaposes medieval Christian descriptions of the past is even more difficult to avoid when we knights as stand-ins for Alexander’s Graeco-Macedonian talk about Indian history as ordinary citizens and readers—a army and the turbaned janissaries of the Ottoman Empire subject that is awe-inspiringly behemoth in size. Since so much under Suleiman the Magnificent as a representative of is unknown and obscured, Indian history offers ample grounds Darius III’s Persian army. The Greeks of the Aegean had for an individual’s a priori ideas to smuggle themselves. Noboru been transmuted into Christians of northern Europe and Karashima, an influential Japanese historian of south India, the Persians who worshipped Zoroastrian and other deities writes about the legendary KS Nilakantha Sastri’s ‘excellent’ were now metamorphosed into Muslims of the Bosphorous. textbook on south India, ‘As a brahmin, however, his inclina- This painting implicitly also performed another role: it tion was to emphasize the role of north Indian and Sanskrit prophesised an apocalyptic vision—the battles between culture in the development of south Indian society.’ But lest one the armies of Christ and the anti-Christ. Reflecting on dunk on Sastri, Karashima also notes an opposing force that Alexandershclacht’s telescoping of various historical periods, was in play as well which retarded the possibilities of writing a German historian Reinhart Koselleck (1923-2006) wrote quality history textbook as well: ‘Any writing that the Tamil that ‘the present and the past were enclosed within a nationalists did not like, they attacked severely even if its common historical plane’. content was academically acceptable.’ This urge to describe the past or render the messianic visions To some extent, many of these problems about history can of the future recognisable to contemporary concerns is neither a be ameliorated if we train and fund scholars who can work medieval era habit nor is it something limited to the visual arts. In on epigraphical, copper plates and primary texts. But even fact, so often does our own contingent self-bleed into descriptions then, there remain open-ended questions on how to organise that even the most subtle writers of fiction who pay scrupulous evidence into a cogent explanation or model of the past. When attention to detail can’t remain inured to their own authorial faced with a seemingly simple question like ‘what is the history style and concerns. French novelist Marguerite Yourcenar, who of feudalism’ in India, the answers are not just difficult to parse wrote a fictionalised autobiography of Emperor Hadrian (ruler of for an average reader but even among experts there emerge Rome from 117 CE to 138 CE), has her protagonist writing to his fundamental disagreements. One merely needs to read the heir, the emperor-philosopher Marcus Aurelius (‘My dear Mark’, debates between DN Jha, Harbans Mukhia, RS Sharma and

16 7 december 2020 quickly devolves into a litmus test to check for conformance with these internalised descriptions. The second major hurdle is that the narrative form of Indian history has often been written with an effort to impose a coherent, uniform structure that mimics the diplomatic histories of Europe in the 19th century as well as comports to demarcations of modern political ideologies—from liberalism to Marxism, from fascism to multiculturalism—which brooks no opposition to their main tenets. In contrast, Indian thought and thinkers have often happily borrowed from each other and were often methodologically bound to articulate another’s view with great fidelity. Ever since colonial education took root in India, the Western way of narrating history (Catholicism versus Protestantism, Crusaders versus Islam) which has typically laid Excavation at a premium on an oppositional nature has become dominant. Mohenjo Daro, c 1930 Thus, we have portrayals of our past as Buddhism versus Hindu- ism, Upanishads versus Nikayas, Samkhya versus Madhya- maka, ritualism versus atheism, etcetera. On this view, homog- The narrative form of Indian history has enous monoliths battle the other side with an intent to decimate and conquer. The reality of the Indian past and thought is more often been written with an effort to impose a complex, wherein someone as sacrosanct to Vedanta Hinduism coherent, uniform structure that mimics the as Sankara could be termed as ‘prachchana bauddha’ (the crypto- diplomatic histories of Europe in the 19th Buddhist). A history of Indian thought that takes dialogues, century as well as comports to demarcations borrowings and contestations seriously is still a rarity. Third, thanks to the transformation of history into an aca- of modern political ideologies—from demic discipline in late 19th century Germany and slowly else- liberalism to Marxism, from fascism to where, the need to imbue the Indian past with two characteris- multiculturalism—which brooks no tics—familiarity and assuredness—has been overwhelming. We need only hear present-day intellectuals and writers opine opposition to their main tenets on the Indian past that one would think all is well understood. The late David Pingree estimated that there are 30 million Indic manuscripts in public and government libraries and in private collections, often gathering dust and unread. The National others in 1980s on whether ‘feudalism’ was a relevant concept Mission for Manuscripts in New Delhi is more conservative and for India. The result is that any effort to write a history of ideas estimates seven million. Historian MD Srinivas writes, ‘10 mil- and phenomena which have governed Indian lives quickly run lion is indeed a reasonable estimate for the number of Indian aground on the reef of three distinct difficulties. manuscripts that are extant.’ It is safe to say that a substantial One, the story of the Indian past has been often told using portion of these manuscripts are untranslated, unannotated borrowed narrative styles and interpretive strategies. We have and, in most cases, unseen by human eyes for years, if not de- seen this when 19th century European scholars of the Bible cades. The reason for providing this brief accounting of manu- began to delve into the philology of Indian texts; in explicit scripts is to impress upon the fact that when talking about invocations of Marxist concepts to describe Indian society’s Indian intellectual traditions, we do not even know what we functioning with little use for the inner world of Indians; in do not know. Arthashastra’s text was discovered in 1905, Swami efforts to psychologise Indian mythology to construct recogni- Vivekananda died in 1902—the idea that a profound student of sable frameworks; in using anthropological studies done else- Indian thought as him died without reading a text that is now where to describe Indian institutions. None of this is to suggest widely seen as an anchorsheet of how we describe ancient India India is unique or the Indian past shouldn’t be read from diverse should give us all pause. Any historical retelling of the Indian viewpoints—anekantavada or the theory of non-one-sided-ness, past must, by necessity, be incomplete, contingent in its telling as our ancients called it. But the consequences of such grafting and circumspect in its claims, in its knowledge that 100 years of foreign lenses to see ourselves—through academia and elite from now, this story could be entirely different thanks to new production of acceptable knowledge—is an internalisation discoveries in our libraries that lay hidden in plain sight. When of self-description that rebels against everyday experiences writing and speaking about the history of Indian intellectual and intuitions of how Indians see the world. What should be a history, humility is not a virtue, it is a prerequisite. That is the collective aim to discern the many-coloured truths of the past only abiding lesson that time has taught us repeatedly. n

7 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 17 soft power

By Makarand R Paranjape

The Rebuke and After Vivekananda and the Himalayan connection—Part V

he summer of 1898 was immensely sessions’ (bit.ly/368BXYQ). The dream of ‘a friendly and beloved significant for Nivedita. Little did she realise, leader’ (ibid) was shattered. Instead, she found herself having to when the group set out on May 11th from Howrah reconcile to ‘one who would be at least indifferent, and possibly, T to Kathgodam, what she was submitting herself silently hostile’, (ibid). She did not, however, consider leaving to. After the long train journey of two nights and a day, the Vivekananda or retracting her offer of serving him. But, ‘as scenic treks on horseback or foot in the lower Himalayas, the days went by’, she came to realise that ‘there would be no not to mention the continuous commentary on Indian personal sweetness’ (ibid) in their relationship. history, mythology, philosophy, religion, culture, character, Lizelle Reymond, author of The Dedicated: A Biography of manners and customs delivered by Swami Vivekananda to Nivedita (1935) and her first biographer, is even more candid: his captive audience, what awaited Nivedita was nothing ‘Profoundly as she loved and trusted him, she reacted now short of the proverbial trial by fire. with obstinacy. She was annoyed because Swami Vivekananda Her hearty enthusiasm at the start is reflected in ‘Wander- seemed unaware of everything she did for him, because he paid ings in North India’, the fifth chapter of The Master as I Saw Him: no attention to anything she said to him, because he snubbed ‘The summer of 1898 stands out in my memory as a series of her. … She felt an increasing bitterness welling up within her. pictures, painted like old altar-pieces against a golden back- She was surprised by this, but she could not master it; and her ground of religious ardour and simplicity, and all alike glori- reproaches only aggravated the tension between her guru and fied by the presence of one who, to us in his immediate circle, herself’ (p 109). formed their central point’ (bit.ly/3pZRJNH). Prey to the tug of war of repressed emotions and obstinacy, But what actually transpired was far from idyllic. As Reba Nivedita retreated into herself bruised and bewildered. So aloof Som recounts in her recent biography, ‘This tour, which lasted was Vivekananda from her that she said, ‘In all that year of 1898 over several months through the summer of 1898, caused I can remember only one occasion when the Swami invited me ‘hidden emotional relationships’ to surface and brought into to walk alone with him for half an hour, and then our conversa- sharp focus how the individual equation of Nivedita with Vi- tion for it was towards the end of the summer’ (bit.ly/368BXYQ). vekananda gradually evolved’ (Margot: Sister Nivedita of Swami In addition, her fierce patriotism and national sentiment, Vivekananda, p 33). as well as her European upbringing and values, so much a part Margot was an argumentative, free-spirited woman, far from of her identity, were now called into question. Vivekananda the model Bengali Bhadra-mahila of her times. It was not easy seemed to trample upon both of them. As she confessed to her for her to turn into an unassertive, modest, acquiescent, agree- friend Nell Hammond, she was ‘the most loyal English woman able, and docile devotee of a Hindu sannyasin. What is more, that ever breathed’. Vivekananda chided her, ‘Really, patriotism she adored Vivekananda with a fierce passion. like yours is sin! … Ignorance so determined is wickedness!’ (bit. But the only relationship acceptable and respectable ly/36bTAHD). It is significant that later in her work in India, between an unmarried woman and a man in India was that Nivedita Indianised herself so much that she supported the of mother, daughter or sister. To add to the challenge of the revolutionaries who strove to overthrow the British empire. She unusual bond, Vivekananda was a sworn celibate as Nivedita, had to return to England to save herself from the wrath of the too, was soon to be. Later she occasionally began to call herself as colonial authorities. Unbeknownst to her, Vivekananda was Vivekananda’s daughter, but it must have been a hard transition preparing her for this role. to make since the age gap between them was less than five years. The Almora contretemps reached its climax when Nivedita Nivedita took the Swami’s distancing very badly. As she says was at her breaking point. Josephine and Sarah Bull were moved in The Master as I Saw Him: ‘I had been little prepared for that to intercede on her behalf. Vivekananda listened, retreated, then constant rebuke and attack upon all my most cherished prepos- returned in the evening to admit that the situation needed to be

18 7 december 2020 the moon was new, and a sudden exaltation came into his voice as he said, ‘See! the Mohammedans think much of the new moon. Let us also with the new moon begin a new life!’’ (ibid). So saying, he blessed his kneeling disciple: ‘It was assuredly a moment of wonderful sweetness of reconciliation’ (ibid). Yet, though the wound was healed, the hope of a deep personal bond with Vivekananda was never restored. As she herself put it, ‘Such a moment may heal a wound. It cannot restore an illusion that has been broken into fragments’ (ibid). But that evening, during her meditation, Nivedita, for the first time, had a glimpse of the beatitude she so longed for, ‘gazing deep into an Infinite Good’ (ibid). She wrote, ‘I understood for the first time that the greatest teachers may destroy in us a personal relation only in order to bestow the Impersonal Vision in its place’ (ibid). Was Vivekananda to blame for putting his foremost disciple, that too a Western woman, through such an exacting and unforgiving regimen? Probably not. Just the previous year, he had written to Nivedita, warning her not only of the dangers and disappointments of coming to India, but also the emotional and spiritual pitfalls in mixing per- sonal adoration with impersonal love. The letter, written from Almora itself where both master and disciple now were, was written on July 29th, 1897: ‘I am now convinced that you have a great future in the work for India. What was wanted was not a man, but a woman—a real lioness—to work for the Indians, women specially’ (bit.ly/37cjGJt). According to Vivekananda, India was not yet prepared to produce ‘great women’ but had to ‘borrow them from other nations’ (ibid). Nivedita’s ‘education, sincerity, purity, Was Vivekananda to blame for immense love, determination, and above all, the Celtic putting his foremost disciple, blood’ made her an ideal instrument to awaken and inspire Indian womanhood. that too a Western woman, But Vivekananda had not wished to give her a rosy and decep- through an exacting and tive picture of what lay in store should she wish to embark on unforgiving regimen? Probably such a mission. He did not mince his words when he warned her: ‘Yet the difficulties are many. You cannot form any idea of not. In 1897, he had written misery, the superstition, and the slavery that are here. You will be to Nivedita, warning her in the midst of a mass of half-naked men and women with quaint not only of the dangers and ideas of caste and isolation, shunning the white skin through fear or hatred and hated by them intensely. On the other hand, you disappointments of coming to will be looked upon by the white as a crank, and every one of your India, but also the emotional movements will be watched with suspicion’ (ibid). and spiritual pitfalls in mixing As if the dangers of social ostracism in a strange, poverty- stricken and colonised country were not enough. There was personal ador ation with the dreadful heat: ‘Then the climate is fearfully hot; our winter impersonal love in most places being like your summer, and in the south it is always blazing’ (ibid). The chances of Margot’s being comfortable in India were slim: ‘Not one European comfort is to be had in places out of the cities.’ rectified. He admitted ‘with the simplicity of a child, ‘You were Therefore, he said, ‘You must think well before you plunge in’ right. There must be a change. I am going away into the forests (ibid). Yet, he did not discourage her for the work that was destined to be alone, and when I come back I shall bring peace’’ (ibid). On of her was so immense: ‘If in spite of all this, you dare venture into that occasion too, we see Vivekananda’s invoking, once again, the work, you are welcome, a hundred times welcome’ (ibid). Muslim cultural symbols, ‘Then he turned and saw that above us (To be continued) n

7 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 19 Whisperer Jayanta Ghosal

AFter Patel, Who?

fter the death of Ahmed Patel on November 25th in AGurugram, Congress is faced with a dielmma: Who will be his replacement? Who will be Rahul Gandhi’s Ahmed Patel? There are some rumours already floating. One says it will be someone from the younger genera- tion, like Jitendra Singh or Milind Deora. Even the name of Kanishka Singh is being mentioned, but he is known to be closer to Priyanka. The other question facing the party is who will be the treasurer after Motilal Vora. Sonia Gandhi is in Goa to escape Delhi’s pollution but once she returns, the new committee will need to be finalised. Could Kamal Nath or P Chidambaram take over the role?

Media Matters Congress General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala is now its in-charge of Karnataka. Earlier, he was in-charge of Bihar. He also remains party spokesperson, although that might need to change since he has a full plate. And media in-charge in the Modi era is a 24x7 job. The buzz is Deepender Singh Dissident-IN-Chief Hooda could get the job. It may apil Sibal has become the most active member of the also mollify his father, former KCongress dissidents’ club. He and many other senior Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder leaders think fresh leadership is needed. They include Singh Hooda, who is still smarting at Ghulam Nabi Azad, Anand Sharma, Manish Tewari and not being projected as chief others. Recently, Sonia Gandhi formed three advisory ministerial candidate in the last committees under Manmohan Singh for party policy on the elections which the party lost. economy, foreign affairs and national security. While the Another name doing the rounds for other leaders are on board, Sibal has been kept out, media chief is that of Pawan Khera. possibly to isolate him and break up the ‘club’.

20 7 december 2020

Illustrations by Saurabh Singh

Second Son Open Seat aharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s elder fter Ram Vilas Paswan’s Mson Aaditya is in politics already but there is now Adeath, what happens the question whether younger son Tejas will follow him. to his Rajya Sabha seat is Tejas has shown completely different interests so far. He is being keenly watched. It’s a conservationist and wildlife photographer. He has been actually a BJP seat which was given to Paswan as a part of the discovery of new species of crabs in the Western political courtesy to cement Ghats. Will he now give all that up to enter the muddy the alliance. It was said waters of politics? It runs in the DNA of his family after all. his wife might join BJP He is only 25, so there is plenty of time. But some say there and get the seat. But Chief could be a big announcement on this front in 2021. Minister Nitish Kumar was against any favour to the Lok Janshakti Party since it had contested against the Janata Dal (United). Another rumour My Enemy’s Enemy says that BJP leader Sushil Modi, who was not made ongress has decided to open discussions for an deputy chief minister, could alliance with CPM in West Bengal for the coming C get the seat and be made a elections. Its leader Adhir Chowdhury went to the CPM Union Minister. headquarters, forgetting old rivalries. West Bengal Congress and CPM have always hated each other but now have a common adversary in Mamata Banerjee. Still, the dialogue is now running into rough weather because the Congress camp wants Chowdhury to be the chief Inside Resistance ministerial face of the alliance. Now that, the Left parties are not ready to accept. erala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan passing an Kordinance meting out draconian punishments for social media posts has created trouble inside CPM, especially its Kolkata wing, which complained to party general secretary Sitaram Covid Cordon Yechury. He took up the matter and is said to have efore the West Bengal pressured Vijayan to backtrack. Belections, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is particularly concerned that its leader Mamata Banerjee should be protected from Covid-19. While the main Chinese Whispers opposition Bharatiya Janata arack Obama’s autobiography has become a Party (BJP) has several leaders, Bglobal talking point. In India, too, it has become TMC is entirely dependent a hot potato because of Obama’s not-so-charitable on Mamata’s popularity. impression of Rahul Gandhi and his admiration for She has to tour districts Manmohan Singh. Among Indian diplomats, continuously, meeting a however, the main interest is his anecdotes on lot of people. Also, she China. How when Air Force One landed on his first is 65, which puts her in state visit, there was an instruction to leave all non- the vulnerable age group. government mobiles behind and that the Chinese Her security advisors are suggesting reducing interactions would be monitoring all communication. Obama with people, especially those also says how there were hidden cameras in their coming from big cities in other hotel suites and his colleagues used to shower after states. In her family, her sister-in- switching off the lights. Even the housekeeping staff law and the wife of her nephew would spy on their files and papers. The foreign got infected but recovered. Her ministry has made a note of all these revelations and cook, too, had tested positive. sent the book to the Prime Minister to read.

11 may 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 21 open essay

By William Dalrymple

ODE TO AN ORIENTALIST Bruce Wannell, the translator of Afghan epic poets, helped the British see themselves as others saw them

Bruce Wannell was one of the greatest translators, travellers and scholars of his generation. He lived in Iran through the 1979 revolution, worked for a decade in the North West Frontier during the wars in Afghanistan and could transcribe the most complex Arabic calligraphy by sight. Although he lived in the lands of Islam, he also knew all the artistic treasures of Christendom. His curious combination of talents—scholar, linguist, musician, translator and teacher—were duplicated by an international network of friendships with poets, spies, aid-workers, diplomats, artists and writers. Speaking Iranian and Afghan Persian with a dazzling, poetic fluency, he could also talk in Arabic, Amharic, Pashtu, Urdu, Swahili and could lecture fluently in French, Italian, English or German. In the last 15 years of his life he lived for a third of the year in Delhi with William Dalrymple, providing the author with translations of Persian documents. It was an extraordinarily successful double act, which pro- duced four revisionist South Asian histories that were also international bestsellers. The rest of the year was balanced by other travels, working as a dragoman-guide or pursuing his own esoteric researches, based in the modest footprint of a tiny attic in York, triple-lined with books. It was worthy of a medieval wandering scholar or a bare footed dervish. Wannell had a number of identities and led a remarkable and diverse life. He was a man who could quote Hafiz from memory, rustle up a lethal cocktail, lose himself in Brahms, open any door, organise a concert within days of arriving in a foreign city or walk across a mountain with just walnuts and dried mulberries in his pocket.

ruce arrived in October 2011, just as the monsoon was giving way to the first chills of the Delhi winter. We now lived on a farm on the outskirts of Mehrauli with a large vegetable garden. Here we had made ourselves pretty self-sufficient and kept chickens for eggs and a family of incestuous goats for milk, and had a beehive for honey. Bruce turned down the offer of one of the children’s bedrooms and chose to live instead in a large tent which he had erected just outside the back door. Slowly items of furniture began to migrate from the house into Bruce’s new Mughal encampment: first some Baluchi carpets, then, in swift succession, a charpoy, some murrah cane chairs, an electricity lead, a radiator, various vases of flowers, a desk and finally a bottle of malt whiskey. Once his nomad’s palace was fully equipped, he threw himself into the new sources. Some days we did not see him at all except when he appeared in a skimpy bathing towel to have a shower. Tales from the life of Bruce was working on the Afghan sources for the First Afghan War of 1839-42 when the East India Com- Bruce Wannell bpany attempted to invade the Kingdom of Kabul. There was the Naway Ma’arek [or Song of Battles] written Adventurer, Linguist, Orientalist by a tetchy Afghan scholar-official named Mirza Ata Muhammad. More important was perhaps the most revealing of all the Afghan accounts of the 1839 war: the Waqi’at-i-Shah Shuja, Shah Shuja’s own very colour- ful and sympathetic memoirs, written in exile in Ludhiana just before the war and brought up to date by one of his followers after his assassination in 1842. Shuja explains in his introduction that, as Bruce translated it, ‘to insightful scholars it is well known that great kings have always recorded the events of their reigns, some writing themselves, with their natural gifts, but most entrusting the writing to skilled historians, so that these pearl-like compositions would

22 7 december 2020 probably once a rich seam of epic poetry dedicated to the Afghan victory, much of it passed orally from singer to singer, bard to bard: after all, to the Afghans their victory was a miraculous deliverance, their Trafalgar, Waterloo and Battle of Britain rolled into one. Bruce loved the fact that both poems had as their

Courtesy William Dalrymple villain the British Orientalist and spy, Alexander Burnes, who was usually seen as something of a hero in British accounts. In that sense they presented a mirror, which allowed us, in the words of Alexander Burnes’ cousin, Robbie Burns, ‘to see ourselves as others see us’. For according to Bruce’s rendition of the Afghan epic poets, Burnes far from being the romantic adventurer of Western accounts was instead the devilishly charm- ing deceiver, the master of flattery and treachery, who corrupted the nobles of Kabul: ‘On the outside he seems a man, but inside he is the very devil,’ one nobleman warns Dost Mohammad: But he of depraved nature and unholy creed Had mixed poison into the honey From London, he had requested much gold and silver So that this gold may render his own schemes golden With dark magic and deceit he dug a pit Many a man was seized by the throat and thrown in There remained not one amongst the Khāns of power Bruce Wannell (right) Whom he did not place thus on the devil’s path in Afghanistan When he had bound them in chains of gold They swore allegiance to him one and all Bruce wannell loved the fact that It is, moreover, a consistent complaint in the Afghan sources that the British have no respect for women, afghan heroic epic poems had as their raping and dishonouring wherever they went, and rid- villain the British Orientalist and spy, ing ‘the steed of their lust unbridled day and night’. The Alexander Burnes, who was usually British, in other words, are depicted in Bruce’s rendition seen as something of a hero in of the Afghan sources as treacherous and oppressive women-abusing terrorists. This is not the way we British accounts expect Afghans to look at us. The single known copy of the Jangnama turned up remain as a memorial on the pages of passing time. Thus it in Parwan in 1951 lacking its front and end pages and written on occurred to this humble petitioner at the court of the Merciful East India Company paper apparently looted from the British God, to record the battles of his reign so that the historians of headquarters. Akbarnama, which also resurfaced in 1951, this Khurasan should know the true account of these events, and time in Peshawar, recounted the deeds of Wazir Akbar Khan, thoughtful readers take heed from these examples.’ traditionally seen as the leading player in the uprising. When I In rendering these memoirs into English, Bruce was able to showed Bruce the printed copy he picked it up and translated the translate the hopes and fears of the principal player on the Afghan introduction straight off. ‘In this book,’ he read, ‘like Rustam the side of 1839—a vital addition to the literature. Yet astonishingly, Great, Akbar’s name will be remembered forever. Now this epic while all these sources are well known to Dari-speaking Afghan has reached completion, it will roam the countries of the world, historians, not one of these accounts ever seem to have been used and adorn the assemblies of the great. From Kabul, it will travel to in any English language history of the war, and none were avail- every gathering, like the spring breeze from garden to garden.’ able in English translation until Bruce made them so. There were In time, due in part to Bruce’s beautiful renditions of these also two remarkable heroic epic poems—Akbarnama, or The His- new Afghan voices, and partly because of the evermore topical tory of Wazir Akbar Khan, by Maulana Hamid Kashmiri and Jang- nature of its subject as the Taliban seized evermore of Afghani- nama, or History of the War, by Muhammad Kohistani Ghulami, stan, the Akbarnama’s prediction was realised: to our surprise, both of which were written in the 1840s to praise the leaders of the Bruce’s translations of the poems in Return of a King did indeed Afghan resistance. They seem to be the last survivors of what was roam the countries of the world and really did come to adorn

7 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 23 open essay

the assemblies of the great. Hillary Clinton discussed the book the fights but lost politically. This time I want to make sure we on an email that, thanks to WikiLeaks, ended up on the front win politically too.” page of the New York Times. Return of a King was also read both Karzai was however perhaps most animated when comparing in Obama’s White House and by Afghanistan President Hamid notes with Adam about going to school in India: “I fell in love with Karzai in Kabul, and I received invitations to brief both on the Simla when I was at college there,” he said. “There was a lovely lessons of the history of 1839. We were also encouraged to do an cinema called the Regal on the Mall by the iceskating rink. Every Afghan launch in Kabul in the winter of 2013. Friday I would go and see Peter O’Toole movies and Goodbye Mr By this stage, Bruce was already back in Afghanistan, Chips. That is where I began to develop a lot of respect for Britain.” transliterating and translating Timurid gravestones for the Aga We all looked at each other in surprise. Khan. As usual, Bruce fell on his feet. He was living in DAFA “Not forgetting what they have done to us,” he continued, “but (the French Archaeological Delegation in Afghanistan), as the the Raj has served India very well. I also fell in love with English lit- guest of the French archaeological mission, then run by the erature there: I read Thomas Hardy, but my favourite is of course ebullient and fantastically charming beret-wearing Phillipe Shelley. I like him verrrry much. I keep reading him, regularly, Marquis, who was famed in Afghanistan not just for his brav- regularly, once or twice a month. And I love John Betjeman: his ery and archaeological prowess, but also for keeping the best poetry and also his talk shows on life in rural Britain. Two lovely table, the best cheeses and the best wine cellar in the country. books: Butter Toast and Trains and Tennis Whites and Tea Cakes.” Olivia, my son Adam and I flew in on a chilly, bright No- That evening Bruce threw a small party to celebrate at vember day with high blue skies, just around the time the trees DAFA. Philippe opened a bottle of chilled Moet & Chandon, which we drank with gooey French brie, Afghan naan and a tin of Scottish short- Bruce’s translations of the poems in Return bread that we had brought for Philippe. of a King did indeed roam the countries The night ended at the foreign correspon- of the world and really did come to adorn dent’s hangout, the Gandamak Lodge. There we all had dinner with the historian Nancy the assemblies of the great. Hillary Clinton Dupree, who Bruce had got to know in his discussed the book. It was also read both in Peshawar days. Most of the other diners, and Barack Obama’s White House and by almost all those propping up the bar, were Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul shaven-headed, gym-going young men in their twenties and thirties: a scrum of adren- alin-surfing hacks and cameramen who had were beginning to turn. Bruce met us at the airport and later grown up watching movies such as Salvador and The Year of Living that day took us around the newly restored Bagh-i-Babur. We Dangerously and who now filled the bar room with their tales of wandered up to the marble Shah Jahan mosque at the top of the derring-do in Helmand and close shaves in Lashkar Gah. garden, through newly planted mulberry and apricot orchards, None of them, however, had half as good a seam of war dotted with the last of the yellow asphodels and ragged pink stories as the raffish silver fox sitting at the corner table in his hollyhocks. Adam was wide-eyed at the sight of a city which salvar with the bird-like 86-year old woman, both of them pick- resembled one of his beloved war movies, with its ubiquitous ing quietly at their steaks. Nancy and Bruce compared notes blast walls and gun-toting guards in APCs. But nothing im- about Masood and the Mujahedin of the ’80s, and Nancy talked pressed him quite so much as Bruce’s polylingualism, which about her current life commuting between her homes in Kabul coalition Kabul gave him ample chance to deploy. and Peshawar, sometimes driving herself down the Khyber The following day we were all escorted to the great Arg, the Pass in her little Renault 5, sometimes by Red Cross flights: citadel of Kabul, for our audience with Karzai. The book had “I am their only frequent flyer,” she told us. had particular resonance for him as he was a direct descendant At this point, bursts of automatic gunfire echoed from the of Shah Shuja and had found himself in much the same situa- street outside. Immediately, all the hardened correspondents tion as his forebear. The parallels were striking: Shah Shuja was dived for cover, ourselves among them. Only Nancy continued the chief of the Popalzai tribe in the mid-19th century; Hamid unfazed, announcing from her seat, “I think I’ll just finish Karzai was the chief of the same tribe today. Shah Shuja’s prin- my chips.” n cipal opponents were the Ghilzai tribe, who today make up the bulk of the Taliban’s foot soldiers. William Dalrymple is an essayist and a historian Karzai cross-questioned us about the lessons of the book and said that he thought the US was doing to him what the British This is an edited excerpt from his essay in Tales from the Life had done to Shuja. But he would not be anyone’s puppet. of Bruce Wannell: Adventurer, Linguist, Orientalist, edited by “America and Britain deal with us as if we also came through a Barnaby Rogerson and Rose Baring (Sickle Moon Books; 256 pages; colonial experience,” he said. “We did not. We always won in £15). Read the full essay at Openthemagazine.com

24 7 december 2020 The beauty of the written word; a story well told. The luxury of immersing myself in myriad lives; journeying to faraway lands. I am obsessed. And the Reviews in Open help me discover the best. A quiet corner. An interesting book. Life’s good!

Sanjay Malik, Dubai

Tell us why you read Open www.openthemagazine.com openthemagazine THE UNFINISHED AGENDA OF MASOOD AZHAR Twenty years after his release from an Indian jail, the fountainhead of radical Islamism continues to send messengers of death to India 26 1 october 2018 Cover Story

The intercepted truck carrying terrorists at the site of the encounter at Nagrota near Jammu, November 19

Photo AP

THE UNFINISHED AGENDA OF MASOOD AZHAR Twenty years after his release from an Indian jail, the fountainhead of radical Islamism continues to send messengers of death to India By Rahul Pandita 1 october 2018 www.openthemagazine.com 27 Cover Story

the early hours of November 19th, INsecurity forces in Jammu intercepted a truck at Nagrota on the city outskirts, carrying four terrorists of the Pakistan- based Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM). The police were ready for them; they had prior intelligence about their infiltra- tion through the International Border (IB) in Jammu and onward journey to the Kashmir Valley. In the ensuing encounter, all four terrorists, hiding in a specially created cavity in the truck, were killed. A huge cache of arms, including 11 AK-series ap rifles, 29 hand grenades, 6 UBGL (Under- walked a few miles before getting picked up by a local handler barrel Grenade Launcher) grenades, and on the Jammu-Pathankot National Highway. The infiltration of such terrorists trained in the best facilities RDX, was recovered from the truck. of Jaish camps in Pakistan has increased in the last few years. Since insurgency broke out in the Kashmir Valley in 1990, men From their mobile devices, the police trained in camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir found that the four terrorists were in touch (PoK) would be sent back through the 743-kilometre-long Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir, especially through with their handlers in Pakistan. Through sectors falling in North Kashmir. The LoC passes through the GPS found on them, the police could mountainous areas, making boundaries vague and hence infiltration easy. But now, JeM has set up a successful infiltra- retrace their journey to Samba on the IB tion route through the IB in Jammu. Here, the border is well in Jammu, which led to the discovery of a defined and there is proper fencing. But so far, JeM has managed well to send terrorists who have wreaked havoc on Indian soil. tunnel that the terrorists had used to enter The police had information about the coming of terrorists Indian territory. Once inside, the four had on November 19th, as they had about several other attempts

28 7 december 2020 Masood Azhar (centre) in Islamabad, January 27, 2000

in the past. But more often, reveal police sources in the Valley, terpreted as ‘Holy raid on India’), although Islamic scholars JeM has been able to send its men to Kashmir though this route, in India have debunked JeM for what they call the erroneous including top Jaish commander, Umar Farooq, the mastermind use (and interpretation) of Prophet Muhammad’s message. of the 2019 Pulwama suicide attack, which resulted in the kill- Be that as it may be, there is no doubt that Masood Azhar, ing of 40 members of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). more than 25 years after he first set foot in India, has not given All these operations of sending well-trained terrorists to up on his agenda. India are the handiwork of one man, and his band of broth- ers, who has had India in his crosshairs since the 1990s—the man India was forced to release in exchange for the hostages n January this year, at the same spot where of the hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC-814 in 1999, Masood the truck carrying Jaish men was intercepted on Azhar. After his release in Kandahar, it is Azhar who formed I November 19th, another truck bearing the num- JeM, sending its men to carry out some of the deadliest attacks ber JK03F 1478 was stopped by a police party dur- in India, including the 2001 Parliament Attack. He is the man ing a routine check. As they asked for documents, one of the who got arrested in South Kashmir in 1994 by chance; but after policemen used a stick to hit the walls of the cargo and realised his release five years later, continued to harbour ambitions that the space behind the driver’s seat was making a hollow of using Kashmir as a gateway to launch Ghazwa-e-Hind (in- sound. He alerted his colleagues upon which the driver and

7 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 29 Cover Story

two other men sitting with him in the front jumped off and ran two Pakistani handlers, Abu Hamza and Abu Bakar, by his away, taking advantage of the darkness. At that moment, three namesake Sameer Ahmed Dar, a JeM terrorist who is still active. JeM terrorists hiding in the cavity opened fire on the police, The Jaish leadership, Dar confessed, had asked him to hire causing serious injuries to a constable. other trustworthy people who could help him in his mission. While one of the terrorists was killed on the spot in retal- Accordingly, he chose Asif Ahmed Malik as his cleaner. The iatory fire, the two others who managed to escape were later JeM handlers also put him in touch with Suheel Javaid Lone, engaged in a nearby forest area and killed. The three Kashmiri a Kashmiri student pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in handlers, who had run away, were arrested as well. They were Chandigarh who, due to the internet and telephone restric- identified as the driver Sameer Ahmed Dar, Asif Ahmed Malik, tions in Kashmir after the August 2019 abrogation of Article and Sartaj Ahmed Mantoo. 370, used to act as a messenger between Dar and his Pakistani As Dar was interrogated, he revealed that he had been handlers (he was later arrested from his residence in Budgam recruited by JeM to ferry freshly infiltrated terrorists from the in Central Kashmir). Jammu-Pathankot highway. Dar’s elder brother, Manzoor On January 22nd, Dar and Malik began their journey to Ahmed Dar, was also a terrorist with another Pakistan-based Jodhpur in Rajasthan, carrying a consignment of apples. organisation, Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), and had been killed in an Sartaj Ahmed Mantoo was taken along as he was a driver too, encounter with security forces in the Valley in 2016. The police and was familiar with the routes. Once in Punjab, Dar contacted realised that Dar also happened to be the cousin of Adil Ah- Abu Bakar on WhatsApp; he was asked to turn back towards mad Dar, the 20-year-old man who had rammed his explosive- Jammu by end-January as a group would infiltrate then, and he laden Maruti Eeco car into the CRPF convoy in Pulwama on would have to transport them back to the Valley. February 14th, 2019. After unloading the apples in Jodhpur, the trio loaded pome- Dar told his interrogators that he had been introduced to granates on the truck and took them to Amritsar. On January

The LoC passes through mountainous areas, making boundaries vague and infiltration easy. But now, Jaish has set up a successful infiltration route through the International Border in Jammu. This border is well defined, with proper fencing. Yet Jaish has managed to send over terrorists who have wreaked havoc ges Damaged vehicles after the Pulwama attack,

February 14, 2019 getty im a Taliban fighters and the hijacked Indian Airlines flight IC-814 at Kandahar airport December 27, 1999

29th, Bakar asked Dar to download a Virtual Private Network (VPN) app on his mobile so that he could use the internet anonymously. Mobile internet had been restored in Kashmir four days earlier, but the use of WhatsApp was still banned. It could, how- ever, be used through the VPN. The same night, they reached Jammu and stayed inside their truck in the Narwal transport yard, outside Jammu city. The next day, Dar loaded S polyvinyl chloride bags from a Jammu locality and

created a cavity in the truck behind his seat for R E U TE the terrorists. Then they went to the market near Jammu’s main bus stand in the heart of the city and These operations of sending bought three tracksuits for the terrorists. On the night of January 30th-31st, Dar and his terrorists are the handiwork of two accomplices reached the predetermined lo- one man—the man India was forced to cation, the overhead railway bridge in Samba. At release in exchange for the hostages 3AM, Dar began to walk towards a dirt track and called out the code given to him: “Iqbal”. After a few of the hijacked Indian Airlines minutes, his call was responded to by one of the ter- flight IC-814 in 1999, Masood Azhar rorists hiding in a bush with his code word “Aijaz”. Then Mantoo took over the truck. One of the terrorists handed over Rs 50,000 to Dar. Now his task was to expert in improvised explosive devices and the use of drones. hand over the three terrorists to a Jaish commander in Kashmir, A few months earlier, when Farooq’s brother Usman Haider Saifullah. Before their journey towards Jodhpur, Saifullah had had come, the party was attended by Rauf Asghar Alvi, Masood’s met Dar in December 2019 and had asked him to contact him as other brother, and operational head of JeM. They call such soon as he crossed the Jawahar Tunnel on the Jammu-Srinagar departures Hijrat (migration), alluding to the Prophet’s journey highway, after which the Valley begins. from Mecca to Medina with his early followers in 622 CE. Both From that point, their onward journey was supposed to brothers were killed in separate encounters later. Masood’s other happen in a Maruti car, belonging to another JeM operative, nephew, Talha Rashid, who also infiltrated into Kashmir, was Zahoor Ahmed Khan. The house of another operative, Suhaib killed in 2017 in South Kashmir’s Pulwama district. Manzoor, was to be their hiding place. All these JeM commanders were ferried to Kashmir by a JeM Before this, Dar had successfully managed to place three operative, Aashiq Ahmed Nengroo. The National Investiga- other terrorists in a safe house in South Kashmir, reveal police tion Agency (NIA) believes Nengroo is the key person behind sources. Jaish’s revival in Kashmir in 2017-2018. Agency sources have Only this time, their luck ran out. revealed that between October 2017 and September 2018, Nengroo made seven trips to Punjab and Jammu in three trucks owned by him, transporting about three dozen JeM terrorists o enter through the Jammu sector, Jaish to the Kashmir Valley. They all used similar routes along the follows a pattern. The chosen men are made to IB in Jammu and Punjab to enter India. T practise with the weapons they are supposed to Nengroo’s younger brother, Mohammed Abbas, was also carry over with them. This, Indian intelligence a JeM terrorist and was killed in an encounter with security agencies have learnt, happens in Narowal in Pakistan’s Pun- forces in 2013. His other brother, Riaz, is under arrest for help- jab province that houses JeM launchpads and safe houses. The ing in ferrying terrorists in September 2018. Riaz was arrested Jammu sector, from where they finally infiltrate into India, on the outskirts of Jammu. It is believed that Nengroo was fol- falls to its north. lowing his brother’s truck in a car and managed to escape as The infiltration happens on a new moon night. The night soon as the truck was caught. before, a party of sorts is thrown for the outgoing terrorists. If Nengroo, according to the NIA, is a close friend of Ranjit someone important is in the group that is leaving, then senior Singh Neeta, a Khalistani terrorist who figures on India’s most leaders also attend. When Umar Farooq, the Pulwama master- wanted list. Originally from Jammu, Neeta is based in Pakistan mind, crossed over in 2018, his party was attended by senior and heads the Khalistan Zindabad Force. Jaish leaders, including his father and senior leader Ibrahim According to NIA sources, Nengroo has earlier helped Athar Alvi, who also happens to be one of the IC-814 hijack- security agencies with a little information about terrorist activi- ers. Farooq had been trained in an Al-Qaeda camp and was an ties in South Kashmir. “But we realised this was just a façade to

7 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 31 Cover Story S R E U TE Photos

(L) BSF men with the body of Shahbaz Khan, aka Ghazi Baba, in Srinagar, August 30, 2003; Arms recovered in the operation that led to the death of Ghazi Baba

With Jaish’s renewed focus on Kashmir and the successful opening up of the Jammu border as an infiltration route, security forces are worried. not only Pakistanis but many Kashmiris, too, now seem ready to receive the martyr’s ‘gift’ in heaven

carry on with his real work for Jaish,” revealed a senior NIA Investigators found that Khan had fought against the officer. By the time security agencies could get hold of him, Russians along with the Mujahideen led by the warlord Nengroo had managed to flee to Pakistan along with his wife. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. After his return to Pakistan in the early He is believed to be in a JeM camp now. 1990s, he met Masood Azhar and they quickly became friends. After Ansar was banned, it was Khan who changed its name to Al-Faran. fter his freedom from an Indian prison, It was a young medical student influenced by Azhar, the Azhar first went to meet Osama bin Laden and 17-year-old Afaq Ahmed Shah, who blew himself up outside A then arrived in Pakistan to a rousing welcome. the army headquarters in Srinagar, becoming the first Kash- There, in a Karachi mosque with thousands of miri suicide bomber. In 2001, JeM carried out an audacious sui- followers, Azhar announced the formation of Jaish-e-Moham- cide attack on the state Assembly in Srinagar, killing 38 people. med. Its first training camp was set up at Balakot. After his name came up in the Parliament Attack, Khan, Jaish did not stop at Kashmir. In December 2001, its cadre, aka Ghazi Baba, chose to stay in Kashmir, planning big attacks along with LeT, made an audacious attack on India’s Parlia- on vital targets and security forces. But he was killed in 2003 in ment, bringing India and Pakistan to the brink of war. downtown Srinagar in an intelligence-based operation carried The man who had planned that attack was from Bahawal- out by the Border Security Force. pur like Azhar. In his thirties, Shahbaz Khan was very fond In 2006, a Kashmiri woman operative of JeM, Yasmeena of tikkas and ate them for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Some Akhter died as the bomb she was carrying as a courier exploded, reports suggested that he even wore stones as he believed in blowing her into pieces. astrology. But like Azhar’s clan, he was a follower of the Deo- Since then, JeM has carried out several attacks in Kashmir bandi sect and was a believer in radical Islam. He had been sent and elsewhere. But with its renewed focus on Kashmir and to Kashmir as a commander of Harkat-ul-Ansar, which would the opening up, quite successfully, of the Jammu border as an kidnap foreign tourists to free Azhar. infiltration route, security forces are worried. “Jaish is look- In Kashmir, Khan went by the nom de guerre of Ghazi Baba. ing to carry out more ‘spectacular’ attacks on Indian soil and He did not trust Kashmiris much and relied only on his own that is why they are pushing more highly trained men with men from Pakistan to guard him round the clock. Till 2000, ammunition and deadly explosives like RDX,” says a senior Khan moved around in Bandipora in North Kashmir and then police officer in Kashmir. shifted base to Central Kashmir in Ganderbal. After Azhar was After his nephew was killed in Kashmir, Jaish released an freed, he was made the commander of JeM, while one of his audio clip of Masood Azhar, eulogising his death and claiming close associates, Shahid Guerrilla, also joined. In that way, they the usual imaginary 72 virgins as the ‘martyr’s gift in heaven’. became the first recruits of JeM. He had married a Kashmiri What is worrying is that not only Pakistanis but many woman from Bandipora and they had children. Kashmiris, too, now seem ready to receive this ‘gift’. n

32 7 december 2020 Joy of spreading knowledge

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The Limits of Autonomy Politics The District Council elections may be the first step in disem powering KAshmir’s oligarchy By Siddharth Singh

Omar Abdullah (back to camera), Sajjad Gani Lone, Farooq Abdullah, Mehbooba Mufti and other Kashmiri leaders in Srinagar, October 24 The Limits of Autonomy Politics The District Council elections may be the first step in disem powering KAshmir’s oligarchy Photographs by ABID BHAT T here is a popular saying that what happens in Kashmir is not visible and what is visible is scarcely real. But the coming together of bitter political rivals to fight the state’s first elections after the constitutional changes of August 5th, 2019 was an anti-climax of sorts. After days of intense bickering with no sign of seat-sharing, the hastily cobbled together ‘People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration’ (PAGD), an amalgam of Kashmir’s ‘mainstream’ parties, finally agreed to a seat-sharing agreement. So far, PAGD has released lists of candidates for five out of eight phases for the District Development Council (DDC) elections to be held beginning November 28th. The days before the announcement of seats for the first phase were marked by inconclusive meetings stretched over days. Two days after the first list was released, on November 12th, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader and former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti decried in a tweet that, ‘PAGD was formed solely to safeguard the identity of people of J&K that’s been under constant attack since Aug 2019. To assume it was created for purely electoral gains or to further party interests is erroneous. We have a bigger cause to fight for than bicker over DDC elections.’ After Mufti’s tweet, Jammu & Kashmir People’s Conference (PC) chief Sajjad Gani Lone tweeted, ‘I agree with every word and would further add that the reality as it exists is that statesmanship and mag- nanimity is still a missing trait in our polity. And the absence is being felt more than any other time.’

he problem of Kashmir’s politics since the abrogation of Article 370 is one of too little scope T and too much competition at the same time for these parties. All the key leaders were under pre- ventive detention for a long period since August 5th last year. By the time they came out, the politics of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) had changed dramatically. J&K was no longer a state and a delimitation commission was appointed in March this year to delimit Assembly constituencies in the Union Territory (UT). As a result, there was little chance that Assembly elec- tions could be held before the commission submitted its report. The time given to the commission was one year. The Union Government, meanwhile, amended the Jammu and Kashmir

www.openthemagazine.com 35 Cover Story

Panchayati Raj Act, 1989 and provided for direct elections to Mehbooba Mufti after her release from detention in October DDCs that were earlier not elected bodies. In the absence of Assembly elections, pending delimitation, DDCs are the vehicle for political activity in the UT. This put the ‘mainstream’ parties in a quandary. The focus of PAGD’s politics was the restoration of Article 370 and statehood to J&K and these parties were loath to give up that pursuit. In her first press conference after her release, Mufti said: “My flag is this (pointing to the J&K flag on the table). When this flag comes back, we’ll raise that flag (Tricolour) too. Until we get our own flag back, we won’t raise any other flag…This flag forged our relationship with that flag.” Taking a slightly different tack, former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah wrote in an op-ed in July: ‘As for me, I am very clear that while J&K remains a Union Territory I will not be contesting any Assembly elections. Having been a member of the most empowered Assembly in the land and that, too, as the leader of that Assembly for six years, I simply cannot and will not be a member of a House that has been disempowered the way ours has.’ Come November, these positions changed dramatically. Both parties agreed to participate in DDC elections along with other parties such as PC, Awami National Conference (ANC) and Jammu and Kashmir People’s Movement (JKPM). These parties faced a stark choice: either participate in DDC elections By November, the hardline positions had changed dramatically. Both PDP or risk irrelevance. But a face saver had to be found after the lofty words of the first and second Gupkar Declarations, in and National Conference agreed to participate in DDC elections along August last year just before Article 370 was abrogated and in with other parties. They faced a stark choice: either participate in October this year after these leaders gathered under a single banner. The excuse was provided by Apni Party, a fledgling DDC elections or risk irrelevance. The real issue is that of political outfit led by a former PDP legislator, Altaf Bukhari. remaining politically solvent. Unless PDP and National Conference Derisively called a ‘King’s Party’—an allegation that Bukhari’s continue to engage in democratic politics, they risk getting outfit was ‘sponsored’ by BJP—PAGD now took the tack that it was important to check BJP’s ‘advance’ in Kashmir. As sidelined as new political formations emerge excuses go, this one is hardly believable. BJP remains confined to the Jammu region—which has a substantial presence of Hindus—and has little purchase in the Kashmir Valley, in spite one ignores the high-sounding rhetoric, their coming together of its efforts in the last one year to build a base there. in an alliance is an attempt to preserve the oligopolistic character The real issue is that of remaining politically solvent. Un- of Kashmir’s politics. The distribution of seats for DDC elections less PDP and National Conference (NC) continue to engage in reflects that. Of the 102 seats announced so far (until the fifth democratic politics, they risk getting sidelined as new political phase), NC has 47 candidates, PDP 32, PC 12 and the remain- formations emerge. The problem for them is that there is little ing seats have gone to small parties, including two to the CPM ‘product differentiation’ between the two parties. Writing in that has a pocket of influence in South Kashmir. The relative Greater Kashmir in August this year, Haseeb Drabu, a former geographic spread of these seats also reflects the scattered social finance minister of J&K, said: ‘Two decades back, only NC base of these parties: NC—because of its historical record of land had a political history and historical baggage. Now, with two reforms—has pockets of influence across the valley while PDP three-year stints in government, PDP has also acquired both has its base in South Kashmir. But the overall pattern is one of a rather quickly. Idiosyncrasies and individual preferences of classic two-party system where the parties have few differences their leadership apart, the real differences between the two are and are clustered around the median on a core issue. In Kashmir, personal, not political.’ He went on to describe, in comparative it is the politics of autonomy, reflecting an equilibrium of sorts. terms, the absence of any ideological and political differences It is interesting to note that, so far, PAGD has not announced between the two and concluded: ‘Indeed, now NC and PDP are any seat-sharing for the Jammu region where both NC and PDP to the political sphere of Kashmir, what Lux and Liril are to the vie with each other for the Muslim vote. This remains one of marketing world of soap; only packaging is different.’ the sticking points among members of the coalition. In the lists The result is a political competition that is almost vicious. If released so far, Congress has also been given three seats. While

36 7 december 2020 Omar Abdullah after his release in March parties never attracted negative attention. The blame for the mess in J&K was always laid at the Union Government’s door. Blaming ‘agencies’—a euphemism for Central intelligence agencies—was another favourite tactic to divert attention from the shortcomings of the state government. Governance prob- lems—including corruption—were never an issue, or were never allowed to become an issue, when emotive matters like ‘azaadi’ and Pakistan were always at hand. The reality was always more complex. In Kashmir, the weakest link in politics is the layer between legislators in the state Assembly and the ground level. At this level, the gun ruled the state. Any village, block or district panchayat-level politi- cal activity was not only discouraged but actively silenced by killing panchayat members and sarpanches over the years. It was not just terrorists who disliked local-level politics but the state-level elite in Srinagar as well. This symbiotic relationship of sorts served both very well: state leaders could always deflect the blame for anything to Delhi and grassroots political dis- empowerment fuelled that. For terrorists, it was of overriding importance that formal political activity gained no legitimacy as it hurt their separatist campaign. With the amendments made in October, the 73rd Amend- ment to the Constitution, which provides the architecture of By November, the hardline positions had changed dramatically. Both PDP panchayati raj at all three levels, will become functional for the first time in J&K. Predictably enough, this has not gone down and National Conference agreed to participate in DDC elections along well with the separatist constituency and its sympathisers in with other parties. They faced a stark choice: either participate in the state and elsewhere. Any empowerment at the village and sub-district level detracts from state-level politics when it is DDC elections or risk irrelevance. The real issue is that of viewed in a zero-sum game fashion. While village and local-lev- remaining politically solvent. Unless PDP and National Conference el devolution of politics, financial and other resources has been continue to engage in democratic politics, they risk getting uneven except in the most soundly run states in India, there is now a chance that anyone and everyone can compete at this sidelined as new political formations emerge level and fulfil local aspirations denied since Independence. It is fortuitous that there are no Assembly elections in the near future and this will allow local-level politics to take root its national spokespersons were at pains to maintain distance without being short-circuited from Srinagar. To expect that with PAGD, the party was allotted the Zaingeer (Baramulla), Kashmir’s manifold problems will be solved with a single set Tral (Pulwama) and Shangus (Anantnag) seats in the second of local elections is quixotic. But a right step has been taken to phase of the DDC elections. empower local politicians who have risked two very power- ful adversaries in carrying out their activities. Seen from this perspective, it is important that the Union Government not hen the amendments to the Jammu and rush to hold Assembly elections, whatever the critics may say Kashmir Panchayati Raj Act were announced in about Kashmir being ‘de-politicised’. It is equally important that W October, there was considerable scepticism from resources flow from the state government to these local institu- quarters used to ‘politics as usual’ in the erstwhile tions so that people can see that their choices are not illusory. state. The trend, at least from the late 1990s, was for either NC The creation of PAGD has been seen as only the second in- or PDP to ally with a national party, Congress or BJP, to form stance when all shades of Kashmir’s political opinion came to- a government. The national parties, while partners in these gether to challenge a threat to identity. That is one way of looking governments, had little influence beyond a point. The pres- at the situation. The other way is that it is high time Kashmir ence of terrorism in J&K was a useful lever in the hands of the and India moved away from the politics of autonomy that has parties in the state. The moment an issue went against the only led to separatism and bloodshed. The oligarchy in the state interests of these parties, a cry would go up that the Kashmir thrived in this ‘grey zone’ between integration with India and problem could be ‘solved’ only by negotiating with Pakistan. keeping insurgency alive. The first of a long series of steps away That this suggestion would come from impeccably ‘pro-India’ from that direction may be taken from this November. n

7 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 37 Politics

Bottled Up in bihar Nitish Kumar and the weaponisation of prohibition by PR Ramesh

he Bihari, the story goes, can dance to any tune, with the slogan “Taadi free, country free!” from passing Passi vot- even the national anthem. A Patiala peg, a heated ers. An unpopular Lalu Prasad had ensured that a djinn would socio-political debate and music to dance to—and indeed emerge from the ballot box as he had promised. ‘Munni Badnaam Hui’ can move over. Yesteryear’s Of Greco-Roman origin, nothing could be farther from Bihar chronicles have it that Bihari men swayed with and its men folk than Bacchus and bacchanals. That is, before abandon to Bacchanalian beats from the late they arrived on wings of glory. Through the 1980s till the mid- 1970s through the 1990s. Dance transmuted into 2000s, the Bihari bacchanalian dancer let out pent-up steam Tthe Bihari man’s customised rebellion against the prevailing and let his close-cropped hair down in public as he contorted social decree—unstated but set in stone—that alpha males do unabashedly at various fora. Weddings were the most preferred not indulge in exhibitionist gyrations. The Punjabi could do occasions. As the groom wound his way to the bride’s house, his it; so could the Coorgi; men in the Northeast could too; but the tipsy friends in their Sunday best would romp in the open to Bihari male did not succumb to his baser instincts outside his favourite numbers topped by ‘Aaj Mere Yaar ki Shaadi Hai’. It private space. Owning the rapturous act in public, however would be a wide range of popular nagin dances, from the 1986 momentarily, was at once a wondrous giving-in to soul-stirring Sridevi starrer Nagina (‘Main Teri Dushman’) to Vyjayanthimala’s yearnings and a revolt against gender-defined norms in a con- 1954 Nagin, with Hemant Kumar’s original clay violin song ‘Man servative society. It was their own ‘Candy is dandy, but liquor Dole, Mera Tan Dole’. Another, rather odd, favourite of the tipplers is quicker’ moment. would be ‘For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow’, perhaps in reference to the Of all Bihar’s politicians, Lalu Prasad understood the senti- colonial past or as commentary on their own worldview. Since ment best. In the 1990s, the posterboy of Bihar’s new-age social nobody had the forethought to patronise folk and classical danc- justice was able to politically harness the class-straddling senti- es like the Jhumer from Rajasthan or the Kathak in Lucknow, ment to the optimum when he quashed the nominal tax that the snake dance, embellished and popularised by Bihar’s closet toddy tappers paid to the government. Coming from the masses, braves, became the state’s unofficial folk romp. Lalu knew the hold of the potent desi taadi on the men of his Wedding bands mushroomed all over Patna, with banners homeland. The shadow of Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) and hoardings extolling their virtues at belting out popular had yet to fall fully over rural Bihar where toddy continued to rule tunes. Middles-class Bihari men, their friends and families the roost. Taadi was the flavour, the rage that manifested itself would dance to live band music while sprinkling banknotes in the men gathered around small vending shanties all over the like confetti on the garishly dressed musicians. The unwritten Bihar countryside beneath the toddy palm. Facing another state rule was that no one except the band members could lay claim to election in which his rout had been prophesied—in the light the lavish tips from the tirelessly tipsy. It was also an unscripted of every lantern in every dusty village—Lalu withdrew the tax. edict that liquor would flow at these events like Bihar’s great riv- The tax itself was less than five paise per tree. It dated back to the ers in spate. It was the golden age of live wedding bands in the cit- Raj and was meant to keep track of toddy palms on public land. ies, small towns and even villages. Top-notch ones like the Bach- According to reports from that period, for Lalu, it was smooth- cha Band, the Punjab Band and the Moosa Band in Patna had an sailing thereafter all the way to the hustings. overflowing ledger of bookings in the wedding season, for par- The calculated move unleashed the music and the elegant, or ties and in winter. If liberty were to be measured in those days ungainly, limb-shaking of the inebriated throughout the state. As by the incredible lightness of being induced by free-flowing a thousand hiccups rent the poll-eve air, it was often interjected liquor, the heated existential debates and general bonhomie

38 7 december 2020 Seized liquor bottles being destroyed in Danapur near Patna, May 2017

Photo BIHARPICTURES

The culture of dissent that the Bihari man had carved out for himself vanished overnight in 2016 when Nitish Kumar announced a total prohibition on alcohol, running up a loss of Rs 6,000 crore in excise. The idea was to create a separate and loyal vote bank among women

getty images

Nitish Kumar and JD(U) supporters in Patna, November 12

7 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 39 Politics

on these select occasions, Bihar then was the land of the free, of to villages and farming. The unstructured, liquor-lubricated the fearless and fun-loving. microcosm of dissent that the Bihari man had painstakingly In the late 1980s, the state capital Patna was a somnolent carved out for himself over decades, with all its appendages, town. It sported little by way of social entertainment for the vanished overnight. There were no more legit sundowners to Bihari man of modest means. Except that ephemeral tipple. be had, for love or money. The year was 2016. Shady, smoky bars like Mayur on Frazer Road were the quintes- That year, Chief Minister ‘Niteshey’ Kumar, or Sushasan sential hangouts for government employees, down-at-the-heels Babu, announced a total prohibition on the sale, distribution journalists and others with some money to spare as dusk fell. and consumption of alcohol in the state, running up a loss of Owned by Congress leader Baleshwar Ram, the Mayur Bar was a Rs 6,000 crore in excise for the state. It was the Janata Dal-United typical watering hole of the time. It had basic seating, vied for each leader’s grand scheme to create a separate and loyal vote bank evening by impatient and thirsty customers in jostling queues. among women while addressing alcohol-related and increasing Dark rum was the preferred poison, with spicy chana on the side. incidences of domestic violence and liquor outgoes from house- Each tippler had 10 brief minutes to drink it down and vacate the hold incomes. It was a promise Nitish had made to women in the space for the next one. Dour-faced waiters applied a greasy piece 2015 state elections. The ‘new’ Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, of cloth at lightning speed to the table top, often careful to leave 2016, promulgated on October 2nd that year, was stringent, even detritus behind to entice the next batch of boisterous patrons draconian, in its scope. It provided for seizure of property, house lost in a heated political argument. In the thick pall of cigarette and/or vehicle, if liquor was consumed at home. A non-bailable smoke there would manifest the maudlin melodies of Ghulam offence. If a single person in a family was caught consuming, Ali’s ‘Hungama kyon barpa/ thodi si to pee hai/ daka to nahin dala/ transporting or selling liquor, the whole family could face jail- chori to nahin ki hai’ and Pankaj Udhas’ lyrics that mirrored the time. For the Bihari man who had elevated his customised bac- sentiment of many of those present, such as ‘Huyi mehengi bahut chanal to dissent, this was a bolt from the blue of the worst kind. hi sharaab/ ke thodi thodi piya karo/ piyo lekin rakho hisab/ ki thodi If acute withdrawal symptoms, distress and dismay could be thodi piya karo’, or even the more atmospheric ‘Sharaab cheez hi bottled, this would be it. It all came for him. Petrified, liquor went aisi hai, na chhodi jaye/ yeh mere yaar ki jaisi hai/ na chhodi jaye’. underground. As did the legions of tipplers. Bottles began to be sold just across the Nepal border. Others drove to neighbouring Jharkhand and West Bengal where roadside vendors appeared t was the age of a rollicking and untrammelled sub- on the interstate highways. Bihar’s loss in excise was, three times culture of dissent against all things Establishment. Every and over, the gain of its neighbours. I Bihari man subscribed to it. Until Nitish Kumar rang in pro- As the weeks and months wore on, there seemed to be no hibition as a poll plank. Suddenly, the smoky little bars, the bare let-up in the terror unleashed by the law in both urban tables and the waiters, the music and the bands—including the and rural societies. Time, and human resourcefulness in top ones and the hoardings advertising their virtues—as well response to the law of demand and supply, crafted a fuzzy as the tipplers themselves evaporated into thin air. The waiters and flighty underground network for the sale of liquor. turned to menial labour. The bands disbanded to return home Its shape shifted rapidly when cornered by law enforce- ment. The fly-by-night operators began to eke out a dangerous living dodging the terrifying new law. Bihar had gone dry, bitter and brittle. The regime empowered certain police offi- cials to bulldoze property, strike fear and wreak havoc all over the state. These officials appeared to viscerally hate all things liquid and intoxicat- ing. A friend narrated a tale of how an uncle in Patna would procure liquor of dubious quality for the price of a bottle of Teacher’s, gulp it down alone in the privacy of his home, and then dis- pose of the container—glass to begin with, but later plastic for reasons of resilience, lightness and easy transportation—into the depths of the dry well in his backyard for fear of being charged under the law if it were to be found in his garbage. “At this rate, the bottles are going to spill out of Women celebrate the ban on liquor Sales in Patna, April 1, 2016 the well in a few weeks,” he confessed, tears in his alpha male eyes. Since the passage of the law, the

40 7 december 2020 Meanwhile, the numbers of those still subscribing to bootleggers and the sub- Of all Bihar’s politicians, Lalu Prasad understood terranean liquor trade, notwithstand- the sentiment best. He knew the hold of desi taadi. ing the higher expenses, continues to remain high. Facing an election rout, he withdrew the toddy tax. Experts point out that the IMFL in- It was smooth-sailing for him after that dustry contributes, overall, more than Rs 1 lakh crore in taxes every year, sup- ports the livelihood of 35 lakh farming families and employs lakhs of workers. There are hundreds of ancillary indus- tries that rely on alcohol, including tin, plastic, paper, etcetera, with a turnover of Rs 6,000-7,000 crore. Losses from all these sectors keep climbing on the list of ‘cons’ for Bihar, with continued prohibi- tion. The prevailing situation has meant more unemployment, a higher crime rate as well as a higher suicide rate.

ihar could learn some lessons from the history of prohibition B in the US in the first half of the 20th century. Apart from consolidat- ing organised crime (the likes of Al Ca- pone), studies say prohibition increased corruption in law enforcement agen- cies and created a flourishing liquor trade. The exchequer suffered huge Photos getty images losses in excise and consumers were forced to drink poor-quality alcohol at vending network has upgraded to plastic bottles and pouches, many times the price of legit alcohol. There are other caution- direct-to-home supply and express delivery. Disposal of the con- ary tales from closer home—from Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Rajast- tainer remains a glitch in the system though, always threatening han, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Kerala, Meghalaya, to give the timid tippler away. Mizoram, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Manipur, etcetera. Prohibi- Apart from the social costs of prohibition and the loss to the tion as policy failed almost everywhere and at multiple levels, exchequer, the impact was felt in other sectors too. Patna’s big not merely politically, exposing laws riven with double standards hotels wore a dreary look; the carpets began to smell musty that were confusing in their execution. and rooms remained empty or faced low occupancy for many Banning alcohol is a futile exercise on every count. In the late months. Gaya, once bustling and boasting state-of-the-art hotels 1990s, Haryana, under the anti- consumption zeal of Bansi Lal, for foreign tourists on the Buddhist circuit, also began to look is a prime example of how public policy on an alcohol ban can weathered and worn down. The absence of liquor meant parched go completely wrong. Unlike Kerala, Andhra and some other coffers for associated industries. states where consuming alcohol has, to a large extent, become Never high on the list for the private sector and entrepreneurs, socially accepted, Haryanvi society was rooted in austerity. Lal’s Bihar is now showing even less of an inclination to lure them to own community of Jats was frugal and vegetarian, influenced the state. The youth, both the better educated and the less, has by the Arya Samaj. There was no rivaz of liquor consumotion. been compelled to leave in search of decent employment. All that changed with the arrival of the ‘Gypsy Jat’. Studies on the impact of prohibition in the state have con- As real estate companies began charting Gurugram’s course cluded that families have more disposable incomes now, spend to become the industrial and business hub of the National Capi- a lot more on retail such as clothes and durables. And on chil- tal Region, the socio-economic profiles of Haryana’s villages be- dren’s education, as the hoardings marking the city’s skyline will gan to change. Rapid development meant largescale rural land testify. Despite severe odds, educated Bihari youth top several acquisition. Villages close to the capital became urbanised over- national career examinations but have little option to not leave. night. Farther away, villages transformed into semi-urban islets

7 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 41 Politics

of high rises and MNCs over time. The speed at which all this happened, and the complete lack of long-term investment advice from either the state or elsewhere, Through the 1980s till the mid-2000s, meant the nouveau riche spent their wealth on van- the Bihari bacchanalian dancer vented ity trophies, acquiring sporty status symbols of that time like the Maruti Gypsy (thus the moniker ‘Gypsy pent-up steam as he contorted in Jat’) or even imported cars. With fissures appearing public. Weddings were the preferred in joint families, the young Haryanvi male spent a lot in Delhi’s snooty watering holes. Crime began to occasions and wedding bands skyrocket. Worried about his own community and the larger Haryanvi society, Bansi Lal imposed prohi- mushroomed all over Patna bition, only to drive the liquor sale into the waiting arms of the mafia. He was forced to abolish prohibition within two years. A 1998 news report of the day detailed how a red- faced state prohibition minister, Ganeshi Lal, an- nounced in public “Aaj se sharab bandhi khatam (Prohi- bition is abolished from today)” to loud cheers. ‘It was an obsession that lasted exactly 21 months—and cost both his government and the state dearly. While it left the state poorer by Rs 1,300 crore in lost excise revenue, for months to come the administration will be saddled with over 90,000 liquor-related cases in courts, 13 lakh seized bottles, not to mention 16 hooch tragedies, which left 60 people dead,’ the report said. Bansi Lal T UR ES rode to power in 1996 from a prohibition platform but after two years, prohibition cost both his Haryana Vikas B I H A RP C Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party dearly in terms of A wedding band performs in Patna Lok Sabha seats. From seven seats, the tally plummeted to two. It did not work even as a political gambit. In Gujarat, where prohibition has practically become a per- 10 lakh litres if liquor worth an estimated Rs 700 crore were manent guest, bootlegging is big business. The Union Territory seized. Thousands of vehicles and buildings were confiscated of Daman, a hop away for tipplers, has a per capita consumption as property. All of this was the result of a massive operation by the of 56 litres per annum against the national average of 4.3 litres. state police against bootleggers. At one point, there were 40,000 No prize for guessing why. It is estimated that Gujarat’s loss in bail applications pending in the courts. excise revenue is almost Rs 8,000 crore per year. Of late, though, the state has watered down prohibition to arrest losses in the tourism and the MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and adruddin Jamaluddin Kazi, aka Johnny Walker, exhibitions) sector. was a trailblazer. He was perhaps the first to adapt and B adopt the name of a popular Scotch brand on screen, the first to stop working on Sundays, the first to employ a secretary/ oisted to the chief minister’s chair again, manager, the first non-hero to have songs written especially for Nitish Kumar looks determined to keep prohibition go- him that broke the box office, and so on. Walker’s shadow loomed H ing despite, among other things, a roaring black economy a very long time over legions of comedians in Hindi cinema. The created by it. But widespread anger at how stern the law was, tipplers and Johnny Walkers of Bihar are now waiting for Nitish legal challenges and the other problems caused by it, includ- to learn the hard lessons of weaponising prohibition politically. ing the household outgoes on illicit liquor, forced a rethink in Referring to how public policy should encourage responsible his administration and a dilution of the law in 2018. It became drinking and not ban it, BH Khardekar, the MP from Kolhapur a bailable offence. First-time offenders could pay a penalty of in the first Lok Sabha, had told the Constituent Assembly in 1948: Rs 50,000 and stay out of jail. Whole families would not be ar- “It’s not alcohol but excessive and irresponsible intake of alcohol rested any more if one member was founding drinking at home. that is a matter of concern and should be addressed…you do not But the numbers are still mind-boggling. Since April 2016, cops know the essential difference between a drinker and a drunk- in Bihar have reportedly registered 1.58 lakh FIRs and arrested ard.” It was an argument that stopped prohibition from being some 2.12 lakh people, most by now released on bail. Some adopted as a national policy. Let’s raise a toast to that. n

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Doses of Hope The progress made on Covid vaccines in ten months looks like a mad dash for protection against the virus, but the development of vaccines remains a marathon

By Pavan Srinath

OVID-19 vaccines are all but here. November has ence and more. A significant number of them have shaped pub- renewed our optimism even as new waves of the lic policy, public health initiatives, the clinical management of pandemic continue to ravage many parts of the Covid-19, as well as vaccine and drug development. world. There is now a real chance of a path to recov- The Mumps vaccine was developed in a record time of four ery in 2021 and 2022. years in 1967, but it had remained an outlier since. The prelimi- Three vaccine candidates show promising nary success of not one but three vaccine candidates in 10 months interim results from their Phase 3 clinical trials. The for Covid-19 would not have been possible if not for the dramatic announcements have come in quick succession. scientific progress made in the biomedical sciences over the last Pfizer-BioNTech declared 90 per cent vaccine effi- several decades. This progress comes second only to global ad- cacy on November 9th; Moderna followed suit in a vancements in computing and information sciences. An array of week with an efficacy of 94.5 per cent; and Oxford- reliable, inexpensive and widely available biomedical techniques AstraZeneca came out a week later with results showing at least has been crucial in getting us here. C70 per cent efficacy, and possibly going up to 90 per cent with the Before 2020, it would not have been possible to isolate and right dosage. While these are early estimates and are subject to sequence a virus within weeks of discovering the first infection. It revision over time, they are wildly higher than expected. The US would not have been possible to track how the virus is mutating Food and Drug Administration (FDA), for example, had only set live during the course of an epidemic and take steps to address a 50 per cent efficacy bar before trials began. it. It is astounding that, as of November 24th, there are close to Competitive pressure from markets and from governments is 2.2 lakh SARS-CoV-2 genome sequences submitted to an open immense and not always healthy, and other vaccine developers database from around the world. It would not have been possible are racing to announce results and then get regulatory approv- to quickly characterise the structure, function and dynamics of all als. Vaccine nationalism is also real, with Russia, China and in parts of the novel coronavirus—from its distinctive spike protein some ways even India, vying to have homegrown vaccines out. that helps the virus infiltrate human cells, to its nucleocapsid Eight more vaccine candidates are already in Phase 3 trials and protein that protects the viral RNA from destruction within the the Gamaleya Centre in Russia has issued press releases about human body. It would have been unthinkable to develop and the success of their Sputnik V vaccine, but based on smaller and deploy the novel types of vaccines—based on mRNA technology, less reliable data. Competition is no reason to cut corners, and protein units, viral vectors and more. Many of these technologies vaccine developers, to employ a cliché, need to make haste slowly on seemed like moon shots even six months ago. Just as multiple vaccines. By and large, the leaders in vaccine development have nations have made it to the moon so far, multiple efforts are held themselves to high standards so far. becoming tangible vaccines today. It is a remarkable feat that within 10 months of the identi- The progress made on vaccines in 10 months can seem like fication and genome sequencing of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, we a sprint, a mad dash for protection against this deadly, unpre- have tangible evidence of effective vaccines against it. It is a testa- dictable virus. However, the development of vaccines remains a ment to ongoing scientific efforts across the world that transcend marathon. Being first is not as important as being effective, safe national borders and corporate interests that we have made it and inexpensive. It is also not a winner-takes-all market, where this far. The World Health Organization (WHO) lists over 1.25 one vaccine alone can triumph over the rest. A vaccine that may lakh publications in its Covid-19 database as of November 24th, be developed six months to even a year from now could end up and the research spans public health, clinical research, basic sci- having the most impact. Chronicles science

Ironically, it is the continuing spread of the pandemic which such as looking at the vaccine candidate’s ability to completely has become a perverse boon for how quickly we are getting the prevent infections, to reduce mortality, to reduce the severity, results of vaccine trials. Pfizer’s story illustrates this well. Af- to examine effectiveness among comorbid and older patients, ter promising data on the early safety, ideal dose and immune and more. The vaccine also needs to be safe, and that is why good responses from Phases 1 and 2 clinical trials, they completed en- trials can last as long as two-three years, incorporating data from rolling 30,000 people into their Phase 3 clinical trial in September tracking all vaccinated individuals over the period. While the before expanding the trial to 44,000 people. Covid-19 vaccines will start getting approvals and be used in pub- A vaccine efficacy trial is distinct in many ways from a drug lic vaccination programmes, all approvals remain conditional trial, and usually takes much longer. A drug efficacy trial needs to no new data coming out about potential harm and dire side- to recruit people suffering from an infection or an ailment to test effects that cannot be ignored. if the drug works. A vaccine trial needs to recruit large numbers The approved vaccines may still react differently in other of healthy people. Then they need to administer the vaccine can- countries and other populations. Countries often need to run didate to say half or two-thirds of them, and a placebo to the rest. smaller but important trials among their own populations be- Well-designed trials do this in a double-blind manner where the fore deployment. This is already happening in India, with Phase patient, the doctors and healthcare professionals, and the pharma 2/3 trials having commenced for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vac- company do not know more than they need to about who got cine adapted by the Serum Institute of India as COVISHIELD. the vaccine and who did not. Then comes the waiting. Trial par- Dr Reddy’s has started Indian trials of the Russian Gamaleya Cen- ticipants resume normal lives along with regular checkups, and tre’s Sputnik V. These trials are essential, whether they happen researchers observe as they catch and report infections. before vaccines are rolled out, or parallel to rollout. Typically, only a certain number of people in the study will end up catching the infection in a few months. A vaccine candi- date can be declared effective if you find that a lot more people he November vaccine developments also showcase from the placebo group got Covid-19 compared to those who the correct standards for scientific disclosure and open- received the treatment. To ensure that the vaccine owner and ness. The trials of all three successful vaccine candidates sponsor do not bias the results, a good trial design lays down in so far have been excellent in this regard. While detailed advance how many participants might get infected during the T reports and disclosures to national regulators are impor- trial period. It is only when the total cases among participants tant, it is also essential to release papers for open, global peer hits that number can the researchers open up and ‘unblind’ the reviews by researchers and free critique of the studies and their data and compare who among the infected received treatment limitations. Moderna, for example, has prioritised publishing and who got a placebo saline injection. the studies from their earlier clinical trials in the New England Pfizer’s trial design estimated that about 164—roughly 0.5 Journal of Medicine. They also released their detailed trial protocol per cent of participants—might get infected by Covid-19 during ahead of the trial rollout. This helps avoid cherry-picking the trial the trial period. This becomes a primary ‘end point’ of the study results and dilutions in the target objectives. They also enable in declaring the overall efficacy of the vaccine. Moderna had a independent scholars to point out flaws in study design. similar design. The bar set by them has been high, and other vaccine develop- With new Covid-19 cases emerging in the US at faster rates— ers need to match them. Many have not done so till date. Russia’s from 50,000-80,000 infections per day in October to over 150,000 Gamaleya Institute has only put out press releases and not shared a day in November—Pfizer and Moderna started seeing these any reports from their clinical trials with the public so far. In numbers being met rapidly. Pfizer and the regulator, the FDA, India, Bharat Biotech’s COVAXIN has entered Phase 3 trials, but had planned to open up the data from the interim results when the only research publicly available is on their pre-clinical vaccine they reached 62 Covid-19+ cases. That threshold was crossed early studies in animals like mice and monkeys. in November—and by the time they could analyse and present The combined successes so far have also underlined another the interim results by November 9th, Pfizer saw a whopping 94 important conclusion: that more vaccines are possible. All the positive cases in its trial. Within the next nine days, this number three vaccine candidates focus on the novel coronavirus’ most crossed the 164 target to touch 170. This led to Pfizer announc- striking physical feature: the spike protein. The spike proteins ing the headline results on November 18th, where they could give the coronavirus their distinctive coronas and are critical in confirm a 95 per cent efficacy, with only eight of the 170 Covid-19 helping the virus enter human cells. The proteins are also attrac- infections occurring among the vaccinated group. Ten of the 170 tive targets for sparking our immune systems into action. Covid-19 cases were severe, and only one among them was from As of a November 12th report by the WHO, there are 48 vac- the vaccinated group. If the US were more successful in reining in cine candidates at various stages of clinical trials around the the pandemic, we may have only seen these results by December world, and another 164 efforts in pre-clinical stages. Many of or January. these could be less expensive than Moderna or Pfizer’s mRNA The vaccine results are fantastic, but these are also just a begin- vaccines, and may also be easier to deploy in Indian conditions. ning. Phase 3 trials have other objectives beyond the primary, All the vaccine news might be great, but can they confer long-

46 7 december 2020 rapidly if they encounter the virus in future. In the best-case scenario, there are high levels of neutralising anti- bodies that continue to circulate in the blood months or years after the vaccine or the first infection. These antibodies can completely cover any incoming viruses and remove them from the body immediately. They perform a sterilising role— where the virus cannot even cause New York City, November 21 an asymptomatic infection. But reuters complete sterilising immunity is not the norm, it is simply the im- It is the continuing spread of the pandemic mune response vaccine develop- that has become a perverse boon for vaccine ers strive to achieve. In the University of San Di- trials. Pfizer’s story illustrates this well. ego study, researchers found that If the US were more successful in reining antibody levels did drop steadily over the course of months and in Covid-19, we may have only seen these may not be high enough to com- results by December or January pletely prevent re-infection. The antibody levels arising from vac- cines and their long-term levels are being actively studied in many of the ongoing Phase 3 clinical trials, term immunity? The trial results could be seen as the vaccines and we will learn more in 2021. working well weeks after taking them, but six months from now, Antibodies are one side of the story. Importantly, the study the data could look worse. Thankfully, we have better answers found that even after antibody levels drop, helper T cells, killer today about human immunity and Covid-19 than we did a few T cells and memory B cells stayed active and circulating in our months ago. blood for longer. Killer T cells are capable of immediately killing One pressing concern was whether the human body could any human cells that have been infected by the virus, therefore ever mount a robust immune response to a SARS-CoV-2 infection. stopping the virus from using our cells to proliferate and attack Many betacoronaviruses are responsible for the common cold in more cells. Helper T cells can detect low level infections and humans and immunity against them does not last long. Several recruit other parts of the immune system to stop the infection cases of re-infection by SARS-CoV-2 have also been confirmed quickly. Memory B cells can start producing the necessary anti- now as well. While re-infections remain rare, their likelihood bodies again after they detect a new infection. So even if antibod- and risk factors all remain unknown and are currently being ies are not there in large numbers the moment the coronavirus investigated around the world. infects us, they will be ready in a few days, hopefully in time to On November 16th, researchers from the University of San halt the progression of the infection to severe disease—which Diego published a preprint of an important study on the long- could be a week to 10 days after the initial incubation time of four term immunity against Covid-19. They found that overall, many to seven days, by when the symptoms usually begin to manifest. people have a robust immune response up to six months after an Together, this is great news. It means that a future exposure infection, even though there is a wide variation in the response. to the virus may result in an infection, but the body will be ready, Six months may not seem long, but this is great news given that and can beat it off with mild or even no systems. With good vac- the virus has only been infecting humans for less than a year. cines, Covid-19 may become yet another throat infection. This It is certainly possible that elements of this immunity can last may not hold true for everyone, but if it holds true for large num- well beyond the six months and continue for years. bers of people, then widespread vaccination can effectively rule So how may we gain immunity against this traumatic virus? out further epidemic-scale waves. n The adaptive immune system of the human body is formed by both antibodies and by white blood cells like T cells and B cells. Pavan Srinath is an independent public policy Together, they become our defence mechanism, they remem- researcher and a bilingual podcaster with a ber the first infection or the vaccine shots, and are ready to act background in the life sciences

7 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 47 Chronicles education back to class As schools reopen, India is grappling with the dilemma of just how to do it and whether it is even ethical By Lhendup G Bhutia

arlier in November, less than a fortnight after Haryana began to reopen its schools, a small government one in a distant part of the state began to report Covid-19 cases. Only between 120 to 160 students from Classes 9 and 12 had returned to the Government Senior Secondary School in Rewari’s Kund village, but of the 35 tested for Covid, as many as 19 results returned positive. The worst had come reuters true. But this was not the only case. More than 150 Estudents from Jhajjar, Jind and Rewari districts had tested positive, most of them asymptomatic, within a fortnight of these schools to remain closed elsewhere? Nearly nine months have passed being reopened, according to media reports. These affected since schools first shut down, but while much of everything else schools were understandably closed down. has been unlocked, very few parents, school administrators and Several states, such as Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Uttar Pradesh local governments seem willing to reopen them. and Goa, have reopened for the senior classes. Maharashtra earlier Is it time now to shift the conversation from the danger of planned to reopen schools across the state on November 23rd, but opening schools to the risk of continuing to keep them closed? some cities like Mumbai and Thane, just days before the dead- Can we begin to consider the notion of learning to live with the line, decided to stay shut till the end of the year. As various states virus, even inside our schools? Or do we just forego all risks and across the country begin to reopen schools—or at least consider keep our kids secure at home? the idea—instances like in Haryana, especially when safety mea- Lopamudra Achuthan, a mother of two sons in Mumbai, sures are lax, are expected to not be uncommon. Some cases will one in Class 6 and another in 8, received a questionnaire from inevitably rise. But should such news lead to schools continuing the school her sons go to a few days ago. Private schools across

48 7 december 2020 A government-run school in Gurugram after authorities asked schools to reopen voluntarily for classes 9 to 12, October 15

Indian cities have been sending out such surveys to seek parents’ starts, they just freeze.” According to her, while most parents views over how they should navigate through the pandemic. The are satisfied with the current online mode of education, noth- survey had a single question and three options. Should the school ing beats a classroom environment for children. “We have this reopen in the first week of January, the first week of February, or odd situation where the parents (of even children who will until a vaccine becomes available? Achuthan ticked the earliest appear for their board exams next year) are saying, they care option available—January. And although the survey’s results more for their children than their marks. They are willing to aren’t out yet, she knows, she says, that most parents chose to wait lose a (school) year if need be,” she says. She does not rule out a it out until a vaccine became available. time when there may be clashes between parents over when “I don’t understand it,” she says. “We must all learn to live schools should reopen. A vaccine, as she points out, is still a with the virus, even our kids. Most of the parents, I know, are long way off. Even when it becomes available, as some guess allowing their children to visit malls, to go on small vacations sometime next year, it will come in batches. Children, who here and there, but the moment the talk of reopening of schools have been known to be the least vulnerable, will probably not

7 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 49 Chronicles education

feature among the first few groups to receive it. Reopening schools in India will of course come with its own Achuthan is an outlier. The parents of most children going to challenges. Children may belong to the least vulnerable category, premier schools, one finds, do not want them to restart anytime but many of them live in large joint families in India, and a child soon. “I think the safety of children comes first. No doubt about can potentially carry the disease with him or her to their house it,” says Madhu Jain, the principal of Billabong High International where old grandparents and vulnerable relatives may live. School in Mumbai’s Malad area. “I think we have managed to be quite successful in moving to an online model. So we will wait for the guidelines of the government, whenever they come out, think as much as the students, many parents and always make children’s safety paramount.” long to have the kids sent back to school,” says Sudeshna Despite these concerns, most studies have found no link be- Chatterjee, the principal of EuroSchool in Navi Mumbai’s tween the reopening of schools and a surge in Covid-19 cases. IAiroli area, with a laugh. “But there is no need to hurry. We One study which looked at the reopening of schools in different have to wait for (the state’s) guidelines...Besides, we have been regions of Spain found that while in one region cases dropped very successful in moving classes online.” three weeks after schools reopened, in others they continued to Her school hasn’t just moved classes online but also most of rise at the same rate as before, and one stayed entirely flat. Spain its extra-curricular subjects. There are online yoga, music and was already going through a second wave of cases by the time the dance classes, an online library, apart from online clubs such schools reopened in September. Of the students and staff who did as astronomy. “We’ve been very efficient this way. Except for test positive, 87 per cent of them did not infect anyone else at the sport, which has suffered everywhere because of the pandemic, school. Enric Álvarez at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, everything else we’ve managed to take online,” she says. who authored the study, told NPR, ‘What we found is that the Chatterjee’s school of course represents the cream. It is part of a sliver school [being opened] makes absolutely no difference.’ of India’s unequal education system. And the pandemic has made Another research, conducted by the Insights for Education that system even more unequal. When some premier schools like foundation which analysed the reopening of schools and coro- EuroSchool began to put together plans for a reopening at some navirus trends from February to the end of September across 191 point—reimagining the classroom, putting just single desks for countries, also found no evidence to support the fear that restart- each child, stocking up the infirmary, keeping an isolation room ing schools leads to a surge in cases. Some countries, such as Viet- ready just in case, putting up sanitation booths, floor markings to nam and Gambia, saw cases rising during the summer break and ensure social distancing and signing up firms for the sanitation of dropping when they reopened. Others, like Japan, saw cases rise schools—other government schools in the same city struggled as and fall while schools stayed open. In some countries, like South teachers chipped in to procure just a few hand sanitisers. Africa and Thailand, where schools were opened when cases were “I think it’s time we looked at how we can go about reopening low, there was no impact on transmission. Some, like the UK, saw schools,” says Saurabh Taneja, the Pune-based CEO of Akanksha a strong upward trend around the time schools reopened. Accord- Foundation, a non-profit education organisation. Akanksha Foun- ing to this research paper, nearly half of the world’s primary and dation uses a public-private partnership model to run 21 schools secondary students will not attend school this year, an estimated across Pune and Mumbai. These are government schools using 84 per cent of whom will come from lower-income countries. pre-existing government facilities, but where the staff is trained

Except for We had to do sport, which has lessons at odd suffered everywhere hours, like at 5AM because of the before the parent pandemic, headed out, or everything else we’ve at 9PM, once managed to take online he had returned – sudeshna chatterjee – saurabh taneja director principal, EuroSchool Airoli CEO, Akanksha Foundation

50 7 december 2020 ap Reopening schools in India will come with its own challenges. Children may belong to the least vulnerable category, but many of them live in large joint families in India, and a child can potentially carry the disease with him or her to their house where old grandparents and vulnerable relatives may live

A school principal distributes masks to students in Guwahati, November 2 and provided by the foundation. According to Taneja, the pan- and gave the schools very little time to prepare, he was planning demic has struck a terrifying blow to education in government for a reopening sometime in the first week of December. Some- schools. While premier schools have had a smooth transition to where between 80 to 95 per cent of parents in the schools they run this new model of education, in many government schools, such a too, he claims, were in favour of such a reopening. transition has simply not taken place. He points to reports, in other “When you look at the evidence around the world, you can government schools, where students appear to have vanished see that closing schools down doesn’t help in any way,” he says. since they aren’t in touch with their schools anymore. Far away from Maharashtra, in the area in and around Darjeel- During the early months of the lockdown, about 89 per cent ing in West Bengal, elite boarding schools that attracted students of the Akanksha school students had a smartphone or some from distant places in India and nearby countries now stand device by which they could participate in lessons. But this in isolated silence. Most classes have moved online, but many changed once the lockdown was lifted, and the parents, to whom schools are struggling. One school, Dr. Graham’s Homes, set up these devices belonged, had to venture out. “So we had to do les- over 200 years ago and which stretches over 100 acres of land, is sons at odd hours, like at 5AM before the parent headed out, or in a financial mess, according to local news, especially after the at 9PM, once he had returned,” Taneja says. The foundation has pandemic, with many students not having cleared their dues. since procured around 1,500 tablets for its students in senior Elsewhere in the same area, a woman in a government school classes, and are in the process of procuring another 1,000. “We in this area sits in front of an electric heater, preparing a question have been getting better responses with these,” he says. paper for the final examination before winter. In another time, rows Every class is also a humbling experience. Every time the mike is of students would have been hunching over their desks, preparing unmuted for a child to speak, a rush of noise—of TVs and radio sets for these exams. But this year has been different. The only activity blaring, of people crammed into a single room, and people walking the school has seen in the last few months is when parents show in and out—reminds the teacher just how difficult education has up to collect the allotted foodgrains in the children’s midday meals. become in this period. The dedicated are slogging through, but for The teacher shows a WhatsApp group message, where she the less self-driven, who have already begun to step out to help their has been recording audio lessons for a small group of students. parents in their jobs, it is very easy to fall off the radar. Months have passed without any response. “I don’t know if they Some public schools, such as the ones run by Akanksha Foun- even listen to it,” she says. dation, had already begun to prepare for a reopening. Taneja The examination paper in front of her is scribbled with ques- describes how they set up a taskforce preparing a plan for how tions for students in junior classes. “Parents are supposed to pick schools could be made to operate in a safe manner. Although he up these question papers and have their children fill them in. God found the November 23rd deadline set by Maharashtra as unrea- knows if the kids are going to do it seriously, or if the parents will sonable, given as it came right after Diwali and a possible surge even show up,” she says. n

7 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 51 art

The Sartorial Modernist A glimpse into Bhanu Athaiya’s aesthetic grasp of the female body and fashions By Rosalyn D’Mello

f we dare to look Femmage, a genre of women’s art that beyond the official narra- remains under-studied worldwide, an n tives of Indian modern- umbrella-term, really, for all the crafts ist art history, we might that were essentialised as womanly finally begin to uncover the hobbies, rarely validated as legitimate vast range of speculative, art forms? o non-canonical accounts As a selection of 100 objects from that have always run parallel. The the estate of Bhanu Rajopadhye dangerI lies in the possibility that Athaiya, who died in October, aged 91, what we unearth, were we to recon- is set to be auctioned by Prinseps on sider the past through less gender December 2nd, we have little excuse and caste-biased eyes, runs the not to reconsider the uniqueness of her risk of forcing a reconfiguration of contribution to modernist Indian art. existing value. Pitifully, in the case For Prinseps founder Indrajit of modern Indian art, art-historical Chatterjee, the auction is the result of

sal significance has been configured and an ‘aha’ moment that transpired when reimagined not through scholarship the company was called in to evaluate so much as through the diktats of the Athaiya’s collection of books, given market. Given this fact, what do we their expertise in this domain. “We do, for instance, with the immense felt an instinctive draw—the kind of art-historical vacuum in the case of adrenaline rush one feels when one female students who earned degrees comes across some truly special art and from art schools around India in pre sense that a discovery is being made,” and post-Independence times whose he says. The lots are all direct from the careers were either subsumed by their estate, he emphasises. practice of housewifely vocations or Athaiya’s paintings are making their decisions to follow other better- their way belatedly into art-historical paying, professional paths? Did they discourse not because scholarship has continue to make art in private? Did demanded we re-examine them, but their kitchens serve as studios? Did in the event of her recent demise and they pass on their skills to their chil- on the back of her ragingly successful dren or the neighbourhood kids, as career as a pioneering, internationally either craft tutors or drawing teachers, acclaimed costume designer. In the and in doing so, did they not maintain accompanying essay in the digital cata- a form of practice? Did they inadver- logue, titled ‘The Legacy of a Long Hid- tently function within the realm of den Sun’, art historian and poet Ranjit

52 7 december 2020 (clockwise from below) Prayers; an undated photo of bhanu athaiya; rang mahotsav (1950) by bhanu athaiya one gleans how her having chosen fashion over traditional painting was not just the more viable choice but was indeed bhanu athaiya’s calling

Hoskote begins by admitting to his igno- an Oscar for Best Costume Design for because of her class mobility. Athaiya rance about Athaiya’s art background. It Richard Attenborough’s 1982 master- came to Bombay from Kolhapur because was art critic DG Nadkarni in the early work, Gandhi,’ he writes. she was awarded a fellowship to study 1990s, followed by Shaila Parikh, founder Hoskote was not alone in his at the JJ School of Arts, then a hub for the of Mohile Parikh Center for the Visual ignorance. At some level, Athaiya’s European academic realist style. She won Arts, and later artist Prafulla Dahanukar impressive career as a pioneering several awards for her paintings, which who educated him about Athaiya being costume designer perhaps eclipsed any drew the attention of the primarily male a JJ School of Art alumnus. ‘Until then, I painterly aspirations she might have artist collective that had banded together had known of Athaiya as a sophisticated entertained. She was privileged enough under the aegis of the Progressive Artist and celebrated designer of costumes for for her talents to be nurtured from an ear- Group (PAG), which invited her to show the popular Hindi cinema; she had won ly age, having had access to opportunities along with them. Soon enough she found

7 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 53 art

herself as part of an artistic and intellec- sidered an artist because the staggering tual milieu, contact with which helped work she did do was not regarded as lofty her interrogate more profoundly what it enough to be received as art. meant to go beyond the stylistic conven- While several of her paintings are tions she inherited from art school. ‘I, part of the auction, in a less snobbish along with other upcoming artists such world the truly coveted lots would as MF Husain, Krishen Khanna, Raza, unarguably be her sketches and fashion Ara, Souza, Gade, and others would illustrations. In an ideal world, all the meet and hear talks and accounts of the lots would be part of the archives of changing scene in art from other parts a meticulously maintained art and of the world,’ she has written in her design museum. Viewed as a collective, notes. She has recounted in her memoir the 100 lots offer a wondrous glimpse social gatherings at Mulk Raj Anand’s into Athaiya’s fundamental grasp of the apartment in Colaba, which included female body and how she seemed con- guests such as Ibrahim Alkazi. tinually drawn towards aesthetics that Hoskote’s essay elaborates on this were non-seminal—in that they liter- Bhanu Athaiya’s designs for Eve’s Weekly are spectacular and still feel audaciously amorphous circle that constituted ally didn’t originate from a male body. Bombay’s cognoscenti to arrive at an These, coupled with her notes, offer a fresh all these decades later. One could write whole essays about each elegant design important point: that ‘members of the picture of a woman artist who derived Bombay art world’s older circles—in from the work of other women—from whose lives the visual arts, cinema, mu- Amrita Sher-Gil’s burnished palette to sic, architecture, and theatre intersected the penitent form of nuns at the con- her wing and roof when she moved to closely—were perfectly aware of Bhanu vent in which she lived during her art Bombay. When Devi’s mother, Meera Athaiya’s work as an artist before she left student years to a recollection of how Devi, who was Assistant Editor at it behind to achieve excellence and fame colour appeared on widowed bodies. Fashion and Beauty, took Athaiya one as a costume designer for film’. Her studies of temple sculptures and day to meet the editor, Kishan Jangiani, busts can be read retrospectively as pre- Athaiya secured for herself a working scient forays into design and draughts- position as an illustrator, given the oskote contends that to manship, and the scholarly rigour that figurative nature of her drawing and the younger generation that marked her research that was driven by her contouring of the female body. Hhas only recently discovered a quest for authenticity, but combined She began work the very next day. ‘I Athaiya this comes as news, which with a sartorial inventiveness that was grabbed the opportunity,’ she recounts. explains why, in his opinion, she is entirely the result of her innate talent. She would eventually move to the presented to the public ‘as a Progressive As you survey the 100 lots on offer, one newly launched Eve’s Weekly (1940s) long lost to view; indeed as the only is remorseful that they were never dis- and to actually designing clothes when woman Progressive’. Such a facetious played as part of an exhibition, or were the magazine opened its own boutique. summary does little to address art never used to contextualise her work. ‘Unfortunately, the members of PAG history’s very real propensity to erase On a more positive note, though, one including KH Ara felt that I should either the contributions made by gleans how her having chosen fashion concentrate on painting and thought women, or the simple fact of their pres- over traditional painting was not just that I was degrading myself by moving ence at pivotal evolutionary moments. the more viable choice but was indeed to cinema.’ ‘Had Bhanu Rajopadhye Athaiya con- her calling. In the mid-1960s, while many of the tinued to practise as a painter, she would In her notes, she reflects on what members of the by-then defunct PAG certainly have been a major presence in it really meant to have to choose were trying to secure funding to either her pioneering generation of cultural between two equally serious pursuits go to Europe or continue to live there, practitioners in newly independent of creativity, even though her peers Athaiya received a six-month scholar- India,’ he declares. didn’t quite see it that way. She wanted, ship from the French government to He is perhaps totally on point, but quite simply, to be self-sufficient and study fashion design in Paris. In the only if one subscribes to an understand- independent, capable of supporting Netflix mini-series that I wish existed, ing of art whose purview excludes her widowed mother rather than being this chapter of her life would perhaps Femmage. The real art-historical tragedy a burden. In her writing, she seems to take up one or two hour-long episodes, was never that Athaiya didn’t pursue allude to thespian Hima Devi as her beginning from when she was called in painting, but that she stopped being con- mentor. Devi had taken Athaiya under last for the funding interview because

54 7 december 2020 (left) illustrations for eve’s weekly; bathers by bhanu athaiya

Bhanu Athaiya’s designs for Eve’s Weekly are spectacular and still feel audaciously fresh all these decades later. One could write whole essays about each elegant design

her résumé was the longest. At the time line onto a pale pink sari.’ ther’s eagerness to intellectually nour- she had just finished work on the film Athaiya’s ingenious articulations of ish his wife and their six daughters. Amrapali and would have been credited sartorial modernity by adapting old tra- ‘He took my mother under his wings as a dress designer. ‘Being a student of ditions and reimagining textile legacies and tutored her in embroidery, sewing Art, visiting the European museums is wonderfully manifest in Lot 30, Eve’s and pastel drawing. In her free time she gave me the biggest ‘high’,’ she says. She Weekly Spread Pages, a set of 14 prints, would develop these skills and soon seized the opportunity to travel every sized 17x26 inches, dated from her work won her many awards in local weekend to absorb cultural landmarks. February to June 1952, estimated at competitions,’ Athaiya recounts. Her ‘As students, we were given a lot of Rs 30,000-50,000, with a starting bid of own artistic legacy hovers around each opportunities to visit fashion houses Rs 3,000, unlike her oil on canvas Prayer, sketch. Revisiting them reminds us of and see the big names in the couture estimated at Rs 1-1.5 crore. One wonders the fact of their reproducibility, which world at work. We were constantly ex- whether the original illustrations the art world perceives as a signal for changing ideas—I got a lot of requests have survived. their non-value, when coded into their to teach them how to drape the sari!’ The designs are spectacular and still being is the idea of their dissemination, Which brings us to the real gems in feel audaciously fresh all these decades from the page to being part of one’s the Prinseps auction: her sketches for later. Looking at them closely inspires wardrobe, using a circular economy sari ensembles. Former model, designer you to make a dash for a fabric shop and that remains still at women’s disposal and fashion writer Meher Castelino tailor, so they can be reinstated into our in India, making them so much a part writes passionately about Athaiya’s contemporary wardrobes. One could of our lived experience and visual brilliance with sari designs. ‘In the 1948 write whole essays about each elegant culture, it’s easy to forget they were issues of Eve’s Weekly, Bhanu’s grace- design, what it borrows from, which engineered by someone. These illustra- ful sketches introduced the fashion stylistic features are wholly derived and tive sketches serve to remind us that the connoisseurs to the traditional sari but which are wholly invented. Two other real pity isn’t that Athaiya didn’t pursue with elegant touches. The chiffon saris exciting lots are Eve’s Weekly Collection painting, it’s that despite her immense with delicate embroidery for a ‘Saks’ 1, which features another brilliant set contributions to the Indian experience feature highlighted the western influ- of 23 prints, while Collection 2 has a set of modernity, she was never considered ence, while the drawing titled ‘Repeat of 24 prints that are more obviously and an artist. The loss was always ours. n Performance’ was all about Maharash- intelligently dialoguing with dance trian jewellery to accessorise the sari. traditions such as Bharatanatyam and The auction of artworks from the estate Bhanu’s feature ‘Roses spell Romance’ Kathakali. The sketches seem to refer of Bhanu Rajopadhye Athaiya, hosted by the gave the choli a longer length, with a to the sartorial world that Athaiya’s online auction house Prinseps, will take cascade of roses flowing from the hem- mother inhabited, nurtured by her fa- place on December 2nd, 2020

7 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 55 books

The Questioning Self The form of autobiography has long been Barack Obama’s way of explaining his way in the world By Mini Kapoor

spirit of inquiry, self-questioning and debate binds the first volume of A Barack Obama’s presidential getty images memoir. A Promised Land takes the Obama story from his birth in Hawaii up to May 2011, when American forces killed Osama bin Laden in his hideaway in Pakistan’s Abbottabad. The timeline also neatly bookends aspects of identity that have been integral to Obama’s personal life and politics—it starts with his birth to an American woman and a Kenyan man, and carries right to the annual White House Correspondents’ dinner, the night before the bin Laden operation, when ‘the audience howled’ at his public ‘ribbing’ of Donald Trump, then already seen to be considering a run for president having attracted media attention with his vile and racist questioning about Obama’s birth certificate. Obama has spent his adult life talking about, and having others write about, the specifics of family circumstances that informed his politics and public aspiration, and, as he writes in the preface here, it propelled the ambitions behind A Promised Land too. He wanted, he writes, ‘to tell a more personal story that might inspire young people considering a life of Barack Obama public service: how my career in politics really started with a search for a place to fit in, a way to explain the different strands of my mixed-up heritage, and stood for had been chosen as my succes- in the rise of Trumpism in the US, but how it was only by hitching my wagon to sor [as President of the US]’. in diverse variants worldwide—that something larger than myself that I was The form of autobiography has long gives the Obama template of embracing ultimately able to locate a community been Obama’s way of explaining his way mixed-up heritages on a capacious politi- and purpose for my life’. In addition, as in the world and equally the frame for cal platform an urgent salience. he says in the preface, this memoir was him to articulate ways to understand That, suggests Obama in A Promised being written at a time when ‘someone issues and explain them. But it is the rise Land, means striving to see every situa- diametrically opposed to everything we of a majoritarian politics—seen not just tion from the other person’s perspective

56 7 december 2020 and to constantly question one’s own I’d tell him to relax, go meet some people, issues of race raised by a sermon by his perspective. Early lessons came from and enjoy the pleasures that life reserves pastor Jeremiah Wright. Or the time a his mother, a feminist and civil rights for those in their twenties.’ Black Harvard professor was handcuffed activist who worked on microlending But the tide of self-improvement and and booked by the police while trying programmes in Southeast Asia, when finding community had its own momen- to force open the jammed front door of she pulled him aside after he had been tum, as he shifted to Chicago, taught law, his own house, prompting Obama to part of a group who’d teased a fellow ran for office—first in the state legisla- ‘almost involuntarily [conduct] a quick student. He recalls the conversation ture and then the US Senate, and finally inventory of my own experiences’. that’s stayed with him: “You know, Barry, in no time, with little experience at the And the time he caught a moment of there are people in the world who think national level and really just his life story, kinship at a state dinner in Delhi with only about themselves. They don’t care for the White House. Each step appeared the then Prime Minister Manmohan what happens to other people so long as to nominate him, double time, for the Singh, whom he describes elsewhere as they get what they want. They put other next bid. ‘It’s like you have a hole to fill,’ ‘a thoughtful and uncommonly decent people down to make themselves feel his wife Michelle had told him early on. man’. ‘In uncertain times, Mr. President,’ important. Then there are people who ‘That’s why you can’t slow down.’ said Singh, ‘the call of religious and do the opposite, who are able to imagine The constant self-interrogation ethnic solidarity can be intoxicating. And how others must feel, and make sure that gives the reader vantage points to view it’s not so hard for politicians to exploit they don’t do things that hurt people. So, Obama’s domestic and international that, in India or anywhere else.’ Writes which kind of person do you want to be?” record as president. But the memoir is Obama: ‘I nodded, recalling the conversa- The answers to that question have made more powerful by the quieter mo- tion I’d had with Václav Havel during my many aspects—of race, as the son of a ments it captures—the time he finally visit to Prague and his warning about the Kenyan father he hardly knew and ‘allowed’ himself to cry after clarifying rising tide of illiberalism in Europe.’ brought up by his white Midwesterner That rising tide was evident in the maternal grandparents; of class, especially US too. On the eve of Obama’s inaugura- during his years in Indonesia when his tion as America’s first Black president mother married an Indonesian; of in January 2009, John Lewis had said: ambition, as he threw himself amid “Barack Obama is what comes at the end books, working his way to Columbia of that bridge in Selma [where a civil- University and later Harvard Law School; rights march in 1965 had been brutally of fraternity, as he spent the rest of his life attacked by state troopers].” But a couple finding anchors in public purpose, in of years later, in Obama’s words, ‘more community work in Chicago and later in and more, I’d noticed how the mood we’d bids for high office. first witnessed in the fading days of Sarah A Promised Land In a passage that is particularly Palin’s campaign rallies and on through Barack Obama poignant for its hint of the loneliness the Tea Party summer had migrated from that may have sometimes held together Viking the fringe of GOP politics to the center— this life story, he speaks to his younger 768 Pages | Rs 1,999 an emotional, almost visceral, reaction to self at Columbia in New York City in the my presidency, distinct from any differ- early 1980s, living a monk’s existence, ences in policy or ideology. It was as if my reading, writing and thinking of how The constant very presence in the White House had social movements succeed or don’t, self-interrogation triggered a deep-seated panic, a sense that not blinking away from a ‘regimen of the natural order had been disrupted.’ self-improvement’. He writes: ‘When I gives the reader Obama writes that the plan for the look back on my journal entries from vantage points memoir was for it to be ‘maybe five this time, I feel a great affection for the hundred pages’ and ‘be done in a year’ young man that I was, aching to make to view after he left office. The delay allowed him a mark on the world, wanting to be a bar ack Obama’s to situate the first volume amid the raging part of something grand and idealistic, domestic and pandemic whose transformative effect, if which evidence seemed to indicate did any, is not yet clear; and the length means not exist… If I were to travel back in time, international the final appraisal of A Promised Land I might urge the young man I was to set record must necessarily await the publication of the books aside for a minute, open the as president the second and closing volume, that will windows, and let in some fresh air (my cover the greater part of his presidency, smoking habit was then in full bloom). and hopefully the years after too. n

7 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 57 books CHOOSE HOW YOU WANT TO EXPERIENCE

Giving and Growing Azim Premji The Man Beyond Azim Premji is a philanthropist the Billions OPEN MAGAZINE at heart and a businessman by choice Sundeep Khanna and Varun Sood HarperBusiness By Lov Verma 248 Pages | Rs 699 Upto Cover Offer Period No of Issues Price Price Your Free Gift iographers are akin to developed into a deep appreciation of trapeze artists. They have to his true worth.’ It is an apt summary of Society for Rehabilitation of Crippled 2 year 102+102 ` 7,650 ` 2,650 Swiss Military multifunc- 65% OFF (Print+Digital) tional desk lamp or Swiss maintain, as the title of one the book’s trajectory. Children. As a young boy Premji often B Military touch lamp with Rohinton Mistry novels goes, ‘a fine Charting the life of Azim Hasham accompanied her on her rounds. The on ( Print+Digital) speaker worth ` 2190 balance’. On the one hand, they have to Premji, the authors take us on a roller- book provides details about his Subscription avoid the perils of slipping into coaster ride. The book opens with a personal life. His wife, Yasmeen, is 1 Year 51+51 ` 3,825 ` 1,450 Swiss Military toiletries hagiography. On the other, they have to dramatic recapitulation of a fall suffered an accomplished author and his two + (Print+Digital) bag or Swiss Military be careful of painting a not-too- by Premji in May 2019, which slowed sons, Rishad and Tariq, have had a Attractive gifts wallet worth ` 990 unflattering portrait of their subject. down his life. It then flashbacks to gentlemanly upbringing. The chances of the first happening March 13th, 2019, when he gifted shares The narrative takes a slightly techni- far outweigh the latter. The business worth $7.5 billion to his philanthropic cal turn here as the CEO conundrum journalist duo, Sundeep Khanna and foundation, which was ranked by Forbes comes under the spotlight. The focus Varun Sood, co-authors of Azim Premji: magazine as the biggest donation of the is on two failures: Premji’s stint as the FREE With 2 year FREE With 1 year The Man Beyond the Billions, seem aware year. There is also a fascinating peek into CEO, followed by a joint CEO mecha- subscription subscription of the challenge. In the preface to what the man’s punishing daily routine and nism, which came a spectacular crop- is proclaimed as the first authoritative his love for movies. per. The book ends with some crystal biography of the reclusive billionaire, Three chapters are devoted to the gazing into Wipro’s future under the Toiletries bag they declare: ‘What started out as origins and early efforts of the Premji new team of Rishad Premji as Chair- Multifunctional Desk lamp Features: two journalists’ cynical attempt family, stretching from 1948, when man and Thierry Delaporte as CEO. Features: =Water resistant =Multiple pockets for storage to explore an icon’s hidden warts Western India Vegetable Products The biography has a lot going for it. It =360° Rotatable neck =Supports built-in convenience (Wipro) was incorporated, through its offers fascinating insights into the man microphone and hands-free function =Play =Material: Rhombus pattern transformation to an IT behemoth, to who is a philanthropist at heart and a Mp3/ WMA, WAV audio formats =Micro USB polyester October 19th, 2000, when Wipro listed businessman by choice. He emerges as charging port =Supports USB drive playback its American depositary shares on the a man of integrity, famously averse to Worth ` 990 Worth ` 1,890 New York Stock Exchange—a first for giving bribes, somewhat parsimonious, the Indian IT sector. The company’s with a keen eye for detail, given to strong early links with Amalner, a city in Jal- likes and dislikes, described as a ‘walk- gaon district in Maharashtra, to whose ing encyclopaedia’ and seemingly aloof Or Or people its first shares were sold, are lov- but warm at heart. There are charming ingly traced. In 1971, Premji formulated vignettes which throw a light on his the Wipro values: integrity, respect for personality such as when he hosted Touch Lamp with speaker Wallet people and customer-centricity. It was Aamir Khan, forgetting the names of his in 1978 that the company took a leap of movies but remembering their themes. Features: Features: faith into the nascent computer busi- On the debit side, the book does veer =Bluetooth speaker with touch- =PU leather controlled LED light=Wirelessly listen to ness. The rest, as they say, is history. into hagiography, and Premji’s missteps, =Total 16 pockets for card storage, and control music =Portable desk light ID card, paper currency etc. The book also traces the strong though elucidated, merit only a gentle =6 Colour dancing lights

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* For terms and conditions, visit http://www.openthemagazine.com television stirred by a scam Hansal Mehta tells Divya Unny how he created a show about the rise and fall of Harshad Mehta whom he sees as neither crook nor hero

Hansal Mehta

60 7 december 2020 Photograph by ashish sharma stirred by a scam Hansal Mehta tells Divya Unny how he created a show about the rise and fall of Harshad Mehta whom he sees as neither crook nor hero

pending quiet family of the struggling middle class who an IT professional or engineer, he time in a tiny village in Uttara- were expected to put their head down broke the mould and walked into khand, Hansal Mehta sounds and work without dreaming too big. an industry that was far more closed content and contemplative. In Here’s also a man who didn’t speak the to outsiders than it is now. “When Sthe last two months, Mehta has resur- language of money because he had I came in, I went against everyone faced after his last feature film Simran never seen money growing up. We who warned me of the uncertainty (2017). The much awaited Simran cre- have seen it with Dhirubhai Ambani of the film industry. All I knew was I ated little impact. However, today with who was the classic underdog and wanted to tell stories. When, where, the success of his web series Scam 1992: then epitomised the big Indian dream. how, what stories, I had no idea. And The Harshad Mehta Story on SonyLiv, The people who are already part of the then I saw the divide that was around Mehta is back doing what he does best. system trick the system. But when an me all through my childhood. The “I have never seen this kind of success upstart does it, he succeeds in a bigger divide between a guy who belonged in 10 years, the kind I am experienc- way. What Harshad had going for him and one who didn’t. That’s when I ing with Scam, and it also makes me is his aspirations to rise above the knew how tough it was for anyone to think about the power of the online situations and I connect with that,” allow a new guy who didn’t belong. medium,” says Mehta who, weeks after says Mehta who sees a lot of himself in I didn’t grudge it. That’s the nature the release, is still receiving adulatory the protagonist. of the jungle. If you have to survive, messages for the show. Mehta, who broke into the indus- you create your own habitat. That’s Scam has garnered acclaim in India try with no connections, sees himself what Harshad Mehta did. He cre- and abroad. The show recreates the as a classic dreamer who took the leap ated a parallel ecosystem which was rise and fall of India’s most infamous without any safety nets. A simple uncomfortable for many. That’s what stockbroker Harshad Mehta and is ar- Gujarati boy who was expected to I did, created my own ecosystem. guably among the best long-form non- follow his contemporaries to become That’s what so many others do in the fiction shows to come out of India. course of chasing their dreams. Just With a taut screenplay, impeccable that all their stories are not known to re-creation of India during the 1980s- the world,” adds Mehta. 1990s, an authentic cast and subtle The story is It’s perhaps why you appreci- storytelling that steers clear of un- very personal to me ate Harshad Mehta’s journey even necessary dramatisation, Scam draws because it talks though you may not agree with his you into its nitty-gritty irrespective about the class ways. Honesty wasn’t his best trait, of your interest in the stock markets divide that I have and the show doesn’t try to paint him and its workings. It tells of the biggest grown up with. Here’s as a man of integrity. Even so, the money scam India has ever seen. But it a man who didn’t empathy that actor Pratik Gandhi also celebrates the underdog who may belong to the club of generates for this much conflicted have hoodwinked the system but also moneymakers who character is commendable. Hansal dared to dream big. ruled the market. Mehta and Gandhi have created such “The story is very personal to me a gripping narrative of Harshad’s Here’s a man who was because it talks about the class divide evolution, his arrogance, his ambi- that I have grown up with. Here’s a the epitome of the tion and his breakdown that you man who didn’t belong to the club of struggling cheer on his courage. “As creators, moneymakers who ruled the market. middle class what else do we thrive on, if not Here’s a man who was the epitome Hansal Mehta director courage?” Mehta asks.

7 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 61 television

My transformation was to create work that encourages one to live life on one’s own terms. To have a point of view. That shows in my characters and my stories. I don’t see a film with an ideal hero who can do no wrong. As long as I am able to do that with my cinema, I will keep making movies Hansal Mehta

Pratik Gandhi in Scam 1992

While there’s the cutting-edge Scam Simran. For the first time Mehta was my grandfather who was a doctor was on one hand, for Mehta there’s also telling the story of a flawed female somebody who served his patients the super commercial Chhalaang on protagonist, but he admits having free of cost. He would treat almost 300 the other, which is his latest feature on made many mistakes, including patients every day. That was the bench- Netflix. By his own admission, he says clinging to the rules of commercial mark. Friends around me were all mak- it was made to entertain and he did it so movie-making with that film. “I am ing a lot of money. That was the norm he could continue to make films that constantly on the journey of proving for success. But I fell into neither of this. matter. “When Luv Ranjan met me for myself to myself. Not to others. The I wanted to let my journey be different, the narration of Chhalaang, he said I migrant story has been an obsession and my own. My transformation was must do this film so that I can make 10 for me. Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar!! (2000) was to break out of this very conventional more Aligarhs. I’m also a practical man about migrants, so was City Lights set up and create work that encourages and there was a reality check for me (2014) and Aligarh (2015). Simran one to live life on one’s own terms. To in that offer. I want to make films that was also about a Gujarati girl living have a point of view. That shows in my reach a larger audience so I can further in America trying to break out of the characters and my stories. I don’t see a empower myself to make the films I shackles of the Indian diaspora there film with an ideal hero who can do no really want to. Like when I discussed and becoming one among the Ameri- wrong. As long as I am able to do that releasing a film like Omerta (2017) on cans. However, a lot of the subtext with my cinema, I will keep making one of the OTT platforms my then got lost in the attempt to be funny, movies,” he adds. producer never took to the idea. Few attempt to be popular, pandering to His stories are as political as they people watched it. Now the meaning an imaginary audience,” he says. are personal and his next project he and the power of online platforms Just like his characters who often hopes will highlight the polarising have changed and for a filmmaker fight their own demons, he says he India we are currently living in. “We like me, who would prefer an does too. For Mehta, there’s no story un- will have to look back at this time audience that judged the film beyond less there’s transformation; be it Profes- because we are still living it. We still that single Friday, it’s a big win,” sor Siras from Aligarh who fought for have to absorb it. The good thing is says Mehta. love, Shahid the Muslim lawyer who it makes me restless and the restless- His work on OTT platforms is fought for his community or Deepak ness is my drug. It keeps me going. almost like a new lease after the emo- Singh from City Lights who fought for Because I am restless, I create. Because tional collapse post the response to survival. “I grew up in a house where I am restless I tell stories,” he says. n

62 7 december 2020 culture

The Iron Grip The enduring fascination with Margaret Thatcher for authors, filmmakers and musicians By Aditya Mani Jha

cottish author protagonist’s parents have to move gillian anderson as Douglas Stuart’s debut out of their city flat and into a margaret thatcher in the crown novel Shuggie Bain, a rundown neighbourhood called coming-of-ageS story about a young, Sighthill. And because the protago- writers and artists. Notable examples queer boy and his alcoholic mother, nist’s father, Hugh ‘Big Shug’ Bain, is a include Pink Floyd’s 1983 album The won the Booker Prize last week. The taxi driver, we see evidence of a town’s Final Cut, Jorge Luis Borges’ poem ‘Juan book is set in Glasgow in 1981, and so economic collapse through his eyes: Lopez and John Ward’, the Denzel our titular hero grows up during Prime droves of people out of work, buildings Washington film For Queen and Country Minister Margaret Thatcher’s tenure. falling into disrepair, rampant drug and David Mitchell’s coming-of-age Throughout the narrative, we see how abuse and alcoholism. novel Black Swan Green. Recently, Thatcher’s economic policies have af- Thatcher’s time as Prime Minister Gillian Anderson played Thatcher in fected the lives of working-class people (1979-1990)—especially during the the fourth season of Peter Morgan’s Net- in the region. Early in the novel, the Falklands War—has inspired many flix series The Crown. Thirty years after

7 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 63 culture

she was voted out of office, Thatcher lets loose a volley of abuse directed at ‘She imitated masculine qualities to continues to evoke impassioned, vis- the government. She says: ‘Go all the the extent that she had to get herself a ceral responses from fans, detractors— way to South Africa so they can build good war… The idea that women must and creators such as Morgan and Stuart. cheap boats there and send them home imitate men to succeed is anti-feminist. Her devotees, mostly older, wealthier to put more of our boys out of work? She was not of woman born. She was a commentators, see her as the strong- The shower of swine.’ psychological transvestite.’ willed leader who rescued the British The South Africa bit is a reference economy from its post-war stagnation. to one of the scandals Thatcher had Her detractors point towards the high to contend with while in office. After n the titular story from social cost of this enterprise: unemploy- it became clear that she was not in IMantel’s collection, a would-be ment doubled in her first three years in favour of imposing economic sanc- Thatcher assassin from the Irish Repub- office, while other social benefits were tions on apartheid-era South Africa, lican Army (IRA) enters the unnamed slashed, too. Thatcher, quite simply, was there were accusations that her stance female protagonist’s flat because it responsible for infusing ruthlessness was influenced by her son Mark’s offers the best possible shot at the Prime and a cult of personality into British business dealings in the country. In Minister, who’s scheduled to pass by politics and society. 2005, Mark was given a four-year the neighbourhood shortly. Initially Stuart, on the evidence of Shuggie suspended sentence for funding a coup fearful, even dismissive of the young Bain, a firm believer in man’s motives, the protago- ‘show, don’t tell’, never nist eventually warms up critiques Thatcherite eco- to the young man with a nomics explicitly. Instead, Thirty years working-class Liverpool we see out-of-work miners after she was accent. His sardonic jokes hanging around their old voted out of office, about the Prime Minister workplace. The overgrown Margaret Thatcher make her understand just ‘weedy grass’, the decrepit how much Thatcherite continues to iron gate and, of course, economics hurt working- the profanity against the evoke visceral class families. Tories. Stuart says what he responses from Indeed, in most works has to say with minimum fans, detractors— of art that reference fuss and no expository and creators like Thatcher, the working- dialogue. ‘At the back of the peter Morgan and class hero’s lament is a car park sat a high brick douglas Stuart formal feature. The societal wall with an old iron gate conflict and resentment set into it, held tight with a that grew out of Thatcher’s heavy padlock and chain. preference for ‘cutting- The guard’s booth at the side was tilting d’état attempt in Equatorial Guinea edge’ industries like technology at a funny angle, and a thick layer of (while he was living in South Africa). and finance, and her open scorn for weedy grass grew on its roof. The mine Thatcher’s misguided and convolut- millworkers, miners and so on, is also was shut. Someone had painted ‘Fuck ed opinions about gender turn up fre- depicted beautifully in Shuggie Bain. the Tories’ on the plywood barrier. It quently in pop culture depictions. Her Towards the end of a hard day of taxi looked like it was closed for good… public persona was a curious mixture: driving, ‘Big Shug’ thinks about all the They all wore the same black donkey the words and the actions themselves things he had heard from disgruntled, jackets and were holding large amber were modelled after male authoritar- often unemployed passengers. pints and sucking on stubby doubts. ian leaders, whereas the voice, the ‘Glasgow was losing its purpose, and The miners had scrubbed faces and diction and the mannerisms, even her he could see it all clearly from behind pink hands that looked free of work. signature purse, were all part of a self- the glass. He could feel it in his takings. It seemed wrong, these men being the consciously ‘feminine performance’. He had heard them say that Thatcher only clean thing for miles.’ Hilary Mantel, the British author and didn’t want honest workers anymore; One of the few outright jokes at the two-time winner of the Booker Prize, her future was technology and nuclear former Prime Minister’s expense had made the same remark about power and private health. Industrial happens when an unemployed man’s Thatcher in a 2014 interview with The days were over, and the bones of the mother tells ‘Big Shug’ about being Guardian, published shortly after the Clyde Shipworks and the Springburn asked to ‘try South Africa’ if her son’s release of her short story collection Railworks lay about the city like rotted looking for work. The angry woman The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher. dinosaurs. Whole housing estates of

64 7 december 2020 young men who were promised the place—because of these happenings, cally Waters’ elaborate way of telling off working trades of their fathers had no young Jason’s hitherto respectful a certain leader in power. After decades future now. Men were losing their attitude towards Thatcher changes. of teasing fans, in a 2019 interview Wa- very masculinity.’ At the beginning of the book, he ters stated for the record that these lines In 1988 (while Thatcher was still in imagines meeting Thatcher alongside were about Thatcher: office), British writer Jamie Delano and Ronald Reagan one day but by the artist John Ridgway’s run on the DC end he understands the basics of how ‘Bus stop rat bag Comics horror series Hellblazer (featur- the prime minister is indirectly Ha ha charade you are ing John Constantine as protagonist) responsible for Tom’s death and Jason’s You fucked up old hag included several storylines revolving father getting laid off. Ha ha charade you are around the plight of the working-class The real-life Thatcher changed her You radiate cold shafts of broken glass Englishman. A multi-issue story arc, voice and tonality significantly after be- You’re nearly a good laugh for example, sees Constantine inves- coming Prime Minister. The aim was to Almost worth a quick grin tigating a string of gruesome murders make her sound less of a shopkeeper’s You like the feel of steel’ where the victims are all London daughter, and to add gravitas. Because yuppies working in the financial of this, there was a higher-than-usual The ‘bus stop rat bag’ refers to a sector—they are killed via ‘their own (this is politics, after all) degree of con- statement popularly attributed to excesses’, we are told. Thatcher (though there’s The cover for issue #3 no proof that she said this): even features Constantine “Anybody over the age of walking past a defaced The cover of a 25 who continues to ride Thatcher poster, with ‘Vot- hellblazer issue the bus is a failure.” It’s the ing Tory can damage your even features kind of thing that fits very health’ scribbled under- well with Thatcherism’s neath. For good measure, Constantine innately cruel, each-man- we are also introduced to walking past a for-himself philosophy (in Blathoxi, a ‘financial de- defaced Thatcher The Crown, we see Thatch- mon and lord of flatulence’, poster, with er claiming that a sense of who informs Constantine ‘Voting Tory can collective duty was an an- that Thatcher’s tenure has damage your tiquated idea and ‘holding resulted in a giant spike in health’ scribbled England back’). The ‘feel of greed—always great news underneath steel’ refers both to for the soul-harvesting Thatcher’s warmongering business. ‘The haves are so and her nickname ‘the terrified of becoming have- Iron Lady’. nots that it’s a dog eat dog out there. trivance in her public speeches—the The Crown’s fourth season ends We will corner the UK soul market effort it took to literally change the way with the final months of the Thatcher now,’Blathoxi informs Constantine she spoke showed in every sentence. era. As per usual for the show, a few gleefully. Mantel diagnosed Thatcher’s compli- liberties are taken with history in the David Mitchell’s novel Black Swan cated relationship with class succinctly: name of narrative elegance. In real life, Green (2006) is narrated by its sweet- ‘She couldn’t turn herself into a posh Thatcher offered the queen her letter natured, stammering 13-year-old girl with the right vowels. If you’re that of resignation in person, with mini- protagonist Jason, and therefore its pre- dissatisfied with yourself you try to fix mal fuss. Here, Anderson-as-Thatcher ferred mode of critique could not have other people, and if they won’t be fixed champs at the bit, refusing to accept been sarcastic one-liners of the sort we you become punitive.’ the writing on the wall, refusing to aid see in Hellblazer or The Assassination of a peaceful transition of power. “My Margaret Thatcher. job is being stolen from me,” she says, Instead, the revelations are slow and ut these moments are few and once again bypassing irony. She tells gradual at first—we see Tom Yew, a boy Bfar between. For the most part, the queen that she’s dissolving parlia- from Jason’s village, going off to fight British artists have made no secret of ment and that she won’t go down the Falklands War, a war that he doesn’t their hatred of Thatcher. Roger Waters, without a fight. survive. We also see Jason’s father for example, wrote the song Pigs: Three In November 2020, doesn’t losing his managerial job amidst Different Ones on Pink Floyd’s 1977 that pattern of behaviour sound cost-cutting measures at his work- album Animals. The second verse is basi- awfully familiar? n

7 december 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 65 NOT PEOPLE LIKE US

RAJEEV MASAND

Managing Multiple Shoots in excitement, then they can change the name of the team,” Gone are the days when busy movie stars shot for two, three, he reveals. “I’ve had many friends attend our matches, and it’s and sometimes more films at the same time. AskGovinda , been seven years now and our team’s name is still the same.” Raveena Tandon, Karisma Kapoor or any top 1990s star and In the sports documentary series Sons of the Soil: Jaipur Pink they’ll tell you it wasn’t unusual to have a handful of films in Panthers that will begin streaming from December, you get production at the same time, and frequently they’d do two a sense of what Abhishek is talking about. There are various shifts a day, each on a different set. Some will tell you how moments of his wife Aishwarya Rai Bachchan leaping up from they’d shoot one shift in Film City, then jet off to Hyderabad her seat during a thrilling moment. There’s even a shot of Aamir for a second shift, and back the next morning to return to Khan jumping out of his seat, unable to control his excitement. the first set; the only rest and sleep they’d manage would be “One time, I had my friend Ajay [Devgn] come to one of on flights and drives to the studio. It isAamir Khan who is our matches,” Abhishek recounts. “Now anyone who knows credited with introducing the one-film-at-a-time approach Ajay will tell you he’s cool, not prone to excitement, and quite because he decided it would benefit his performance (and his unshakeable. That’s the only time I thought we might be in films) if he focused on one character at a time. That approach trouble. But at one point, even he gave into the moment and quickly became the norm, and today practically every actor jumped up.” works the same way—unless unexpected delays cause overlaps in schedules. A Baffling Tenet Which is what appears to have happened with Deepika Akshay Kumar watched Christopher Nolan’s Tenet in Padukone, who is currently shooting two films. She London while he was shooting there for Bell Bottom began work on Kapoor & Sons director Shakun with Lara Dutta, Huma Qureshi and Vaani Batra’s ‘infidelity drama’ some weeks ago in Goa, Kapoor. It was on a day off from the set that but that shoot is reportedly running behind he accompanied his wife Twinkle and son schedule. Even as she’s finishing the Mumbai leg Aarav to a cinema that was playing the master of the shoot currently, she’s had to report to set for filmmaker’s latest mindbender in which his War director Sidharth Anand’s new film Pathan, mother-in-law Dimple Kapadia has a key role. which kicked off (thankfully) in Mumbai last Asked if he enjoyed the film, he told me he week. Deepika joined the unit on November 23rd. did. “But I was confused,” he admitted. “So I asked Pathan will be Shah Rukh Khan’s first film my wife, who gave me an entirely different since 2018’s Zero; he returned to a movie set explanation from what I had made of the after a full two-year sabbatical. The film plot.” To be sure he had finally grasped it, is believed to be an actioner, so chances he said he asked Dimple to corroborate are that it might require less in terms of what he’d now understood from his histrionics from Deepika, who could be wife. “Her explanation was totally saving the waterworks for Shakun. different from my wife’s.” Akshay realised it was going The Kabaddi Jump to take at least a second viewing Abhishek Bachchan, who bought the of the film—not to mention the Jaipur Pink Panthers team in the Pro deepest concentration—if he Kabaddi League six years ago, says he has hoped to follow what Nolan is a standing wager with any guest that he trying to say in the film. “But invites to one of the team’s matches. “I my mother-in-law is very bet them that if at least once during the good in the film, and it’s a very match they don’t jump out of their seat important role,” he added. n

66 7 december 2020