India Shows the World How to Move Beyond Vaccine Nationalism Even As It Confronts New Challenges at Home and Abroad by Siddharth Singh

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8 MARCH 2021 / `50 VOLUME 13 ISSUE 9 8 MARCH 2021

contents 8 march 2021

5 6 12 14 16 18 LO COMOTIF BENG AL DIARY INDI AN ACCENTS TOUH C STONE W HISPERER OPEN ESSAY The politburo of pieties By Swapan Dasgupta The theology of liberation An epic challenge By Jayanta Ghosal Hell is not the other By S Prasannarajan By Bibek Debroy By Keerthik Sasidharan By Kanchan Gupta

22 22 WHO’S AFRAID OF SOCIAL MEDIA? The interface between democracy and the digital noise By Madhavankutty Pillai

27 STANDING UP TO BIG TECH Why Australia is telling Google and Facebook they are not bigger than governments By Sudeep Paul

30 AKI TOOL T FOR THE POST-TRUTH WORLD If you care about democracy and liberty, stop distorting the undistorted By Rahul Pandita

34 KILLING THE SLOW BRAIN How social media feeds unreason By Nitin Pai

36 THE ALGORITHM OF FREEDOM We can either surrender to global tech giants or lead the way By Aprameya Radhakrishna 38 42

38 THE TRIUMPH OF VACCINE DIPLOMACY India shows the world how to move beyond vaccine nationalism even as it confronts new challenges at home and abroad By Siddharth Singh

42 IT’S A DATE, PERIOD A public calendar is breaking the silence around menstruation in rural Haryana 46 60 By Nikita Doval

46 CARTOGRAPHER’S DAY Liberalisation of map-making is a gamechanger for the economy—but with this freedom, too, comes a big responsibility By Sudeep Paul 50

50 54 56 58 60 62 65 66 T GHE PRO RESSIVE T HE ABANDONED FO RGED IN FIRE P AGE TURNER ALL ABOUT VERBATIM HOLLYWOOD STE ARGAZ R IN PARIS Holding institutions The violence in the Browsing alert MY MOTHER Who is the REPORTER By Kaveree Bamzai The pleasures to account formation of the By Mini Kapoor Modernity faces off parasite? Riz Ahmed on his and pains SH Raza By Rohit Chandra Indian nation-state tradition in an By Nandini Nair latest film faced in Europe By Siddharth Singh indie drama set in the Sound of Metal By Yashodhara Dalmia Himalayas By Noel de Souza By Prahlad Srihari Cover by Saurabh Singh 8 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 3 open mail [email protected]

Editor S Prasannarajan letter of the week managing Editor PR Ramesh C executive Editor Ullekh NP It is the first time in our political history that a prime editor-at-large Siddharth Singh d eputy editors M adhavankutty Pillai minister has openly advocated for the critical role (Mumbai Bureau Chief), private companies play in not only wealth creation R ahul Pandita, Amita Shah, V Shoba (Bangalore), Nandini Nair but development as well (‘Modi in the Marketplace’, cr eative director Rohit Chawla March 1st, 2021). Having said that, it would not be art director Jyoti K Singh Senior Editors Sudeep Paul, right to conclude that public enterprises are no Lhendup Gyatso Bhutia (Mumbai), good. It is the corporate performance and return Moinak Mitra, Nikita Doval senior Asst ocia e Editor to shareholders that should count the most at the Antara Raghavan end of the day. Maintaining corporate ethics is Asst ocia e Editor Vijay K Soni (Web) paramount and non-negotiable. With the prime a ssistant editor Vipul Vivek chief of graphics Saurabh Singh minister’s latest statement, the ball is now squarely SENIOR DESIGNERs A nup Banerjee, in the court of India Inc to do justice to the role people Veer Pal Singh expect it to play and provide sustainable growth Photo editor Raul Irani d eputy Photo editor Ashish Sharma and employment to our youth and accelerate the conditions of weather and pace of wealth creation. Last but not least, the Union civic life. There will be fewer National Head-Events and Initiatives A rpita Sachin Ahuja Government must also ensure that red tape and petty occasions for engagement AVV P (AD ERTISING) Rashmi Lata Swarup officials do not become hurdles for India Inc, slowing and disengagement. Army GENERAL MANAGERs (ADVERTISING) their growth which in turn slows economic growth. personnel can then be put U ma Srinivasan (South) The journey from investment proposal to clearances to better productive work. National Head-Distribution and Sales to conducting operations on the factory floor to Their families could live A jay Gupta regional heads-circulation expansion should not be smooth only happily with less fear. D Charles (South), Melvin George (West), Basab Ghosh (East) in committee reports. Nations too would have less Head-production Maneesh Tyagi Bal Govind tension on the borders. senior manager (pre-press) Padmavati PV Sharad Tailang MANAGER-MARKETING Priya Singh disruptive agenda Chief Designer-marketing C hampak Bhattacharjee overdue shift resonated with Indians When disruptive elements cfo & HEAD-IT A nil Bisht Prime Minister Narendra who are now fed up with first distorted the narrative Modi’s open embrace of asking governments that on the new citizenship law, Chief ExecuTive & Publisher Neeraja Chawla the private sector was a never completely fulfil the coronavirus put paid All rights reserved throughout the long overdue shift from the even their basic demands. to their schemes (‘Fixing world. Reproduction in any manner is prohibited. well-rehearsed apologetic Government-controlled the Narrative’ by Minhaz Editor: S Prasannarajan. Printed and published by Neeraja Chawla on behalf approach all governments in businesses have run out of Merchant, March 1st, 2021). of the owner, Open Media Network Pvt India have displayed so far steam and the aspirations of But they soon found a new Ltd. Printed at Thomson Press India Ltd, 18-35 Milestone, Delhi Mathura Road, (‘Modi in the Marketplace’, the crores of youth can only cause célèbre in the protests Faridabad-121007, (Haryana). Published at 4, DDA Commercial March 1st, 2021). The 2021 be met through the market. against the new farm Complex, Panchsheel Park, Union Budget has made a In a country where everyone legislation. And they would New Delhi-110017. Ph: (011) 48500500; Fax: (011) 48500599 strong pitch for privatisation wants to become rich, find something again even To subscribe, WhatsApp ‘openmag’ to of public assets. Banks and it’s amusing to see if the Government were to 9999800012 or log on to www.openthemagazine.com Life Insurance Corporation some politicians would take back the legislation. or call our Toll Free Number 1800 102 7510 are apparently on their way want to blame the rich for All these activities seem by or email at: to the market, rumour has it. India’s problems. design, not spontaneous. [email protected] For alliances, email Those who came up with Ashok Goswami As someone once said, that [email protected] For advertising, email the ‘suit-boot ki sarkar’ jibe we would need to invent [email protected] would never have expected satellites for borders god if he didn’t exist, these For any other queries/observations, email [email protected] that Modi would bite Satellites monitoring borders disruptive elements invent the bullet on lauding the is a saner way to go in this reasons to protest where D isclaimer ‘Open Avenues’ are advertiser-driven marketing private sector. In contrast modern era (‘Across the there aren’t any. Despite initiatives and Open assumes no responsibility for content and the consequences of using to the predictions about a Fence’, March 1st, 2021). This the Government’s promise products or services advertised in the magazine populist backlash that the will reduce the incidents of to delay implementation, opposition’s spin doctors encroachment, trespassing, protestors are refusing to V olume 13 Issue 9 F or the week 2-8 March 2021 were hoping for, Modi’s firings and the need for have a constructive dialogue. T otal No. of pages 68 support for businesses has soldiers to stay in inhuman Bholey Bhardwaj

4 8 march 2021 LOCOMOTIF

by S PRASANNARAJAN THE POLITBURO OF PIETIES

e seem to have exhausted our semantic Our complaints are selective, and we are hardly honest options to categorise the shifts in the history whenever we try to moralise our motives. The governments’ of freedom. The Cold War lasted longer, with paranoia is an old story: they all feel so fragile—and behave as a grander theme and a matching territorial if nations too are equally fragile—whenever some “seditious” division. After the hot war that ended with minds out there dare to tell a bad story. Is it that, after the reign Wthe world partitioned between ‘good’ and ‘evil’, the Cold War of the Book—of gods’ and men’s—technology is the ideal launched the clash of ideologies. Two versions of freedom liberator, the unifier? Forget the panopticon for a while; assume jostled for space in the global mind, each with its own set of that we can overcome the dark arts of hackers from Russia moral certainties. The inter-changeability of truths and lies, the and North Korea; and think that we have enough strength to real and the fantastical, was the chosen method for domination. survive the hypnotic powers of the machine. And see how we When the Wall finally came down, and when one part of the have become active citizens with more questions to ask, more world was proved to be the most comforting mythology man ideas to exchange, and more knowledge to share, in a world ever built, history did not end. It took a pause. What followed of interconnected destinies? Think of how we have become was equally divisive; the old ghosts of nationalism came to conscience-keepers and muckrakers, debunkers and storytellers, haunt the space just vacated by ideology. The new wars were liars and illuminators. How we have become the most audible fought along religious and ethnic lines, and the nationalist noisemakers of democracy. rearmed embarked on cleansing the swamp to make a point: Lost in this noise, we fail to recognise the divisions of the inherited blood is thicker than acquired ideologies. Soon, in the digital world, the power of pieties and the harshness of new name of an unforgiving god, revolutionaries armed with the taboos. Maybe we are even using the wrong nomenclature to Book and the sword would launch another freedom struggle. identify the world where our digital identities add to the passions The desert would become the new gulag. Angry gods have not and pathologies of democracy. It’s not the post-ideological world abandoned their war on sinners, and the search for a Divine at all. Ideology is back, but not with a Capital I, and technology Imperium is not over yet. Our divisions are as stark as ever. has become its enabler. The self-righteous zeal of this world is as Today, gods of a different kind are at play in a world where effective as the old Ideology in inventing enemies—though class the scripture of domination is written on silicon. The digital has been replaced by culture. In this world of digitally altered alternative that overwhelms our conversations on politics reality, a president’s tweet can drive a vast section of people to and society is as divisive as its ideological and theological reject an election, and the same president can be consigned to a predecessors in another time. Then, the imperatives of digital Siberia by the Big Tech commissariat. An ‘insensitive’ edit geography made the war easier to index—as convenient blocs. page article, a column that calls the insensitivity bogus, an old The new gods are hidden in the machine, and the way they slur couched in a joke—the transgressions are being monitored exercise their power and extend their spheres of influence is by the politburo of pieties. In the so-called marketplace of ideas, beyond the comprehension of their subjects. At one level, the everything is sacred; the art of propaganda—and the historical difference with the earlier systems is redeeming. Technology is necessity of proselytisation—is being legitimised by the not the new ideology, even though its target righteous majority. Even in journalism, old is the human mind. It’s not the enforcer of a monikers such as ‘newspapers of record’ new form of enslavement either, even though have been made redundant by the urgency of we are all obedient subjects in its kingdom. ideology; in the digital media space, it’s now We are the authors of our charter of freedom; all about feeding the base—and somehow we are the owners of our words. And we are keeping it intact. Pravda is being reinvented not sure whether we are what the machine digitally to sustain the new progressivism. thinks we are—or what the algorithm wants The partition of the global mind is purely us to be. It’s only now that some of us have ideological, once again. Freedom is a dispute, started complaining, and some of our elected the noise of which is amplified in digital governments have become paranoid. echo chambers. n

8 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 5 Bengal Diary Swapan Dasgupta

n February 22nd, Prime first national election fought byB JP OMinister Narendra Modi under Modi’s leadership, both Modi addressed a BJP rally on the Dunlop and BJP were relatively unknown “THE NATION grounds in the Hooghly district of entities. At that time, the appeal West Bengal. Although the of Modi was confined to northern campaign for the April Assembly and western India. By 2019, Prime election in the state hasn’t yet Minister Modi had secured national formally begun, the public meet- exposure. All Indians had formed IS EVOLVING AND ing was a part of electioneering and of the crowd was more interested in an impression of him based on his both BJP and the ruling Trinamool chanting “Modi, Modi”. record in office. This played a huge Congress knew it. In West Bengal, The full crowd may not have role in 2019, and continues to where politics is a passion, the elec- understood everything the prime play a role. SO ARE YOU" tion campaign extends to some six minister said or even the thrust of his Modi’s appeal transcends months—an inordinately long time. message to bring about wholesome language, as perhaps does Amit The space set aside for Modi’s political change in West Bengal, but Shah’s. Modi is today considered OPEN brings to you, your weekly public meeting could, by a rough that did not diminish the intensity much more than an ordinary politi- estimate, accommodate anywhere of their hero worship. In fact, they cian: he also encapsulates the thought stimulant between 70,000 to 80,000 people. probably returned home from the ‘saintly’ idiom of politics, as did On February 22nd, by the time the meeting, even more committed to Mahatma Gandhi during the prime minister’s helicopter touched Modi. Participation in big rallies freedom struggle. Shah, on the other down, it was totally house-full, with invariably has that effect. hand, is perceived to be a hardnosed another 20,000 or so people milling It is also possibly true that had politician, a tough guy who has put around the periphery of the meeting Modi spoken in the local language— firmness back in governance. ground. In my estimation, nearly a which happens to be Bangla—their However, the appeal of national Pick up and subscribe your copy today lakh of people attended the public comprehension of his message stars doesn’t diminish the appeal meeting addressed by the party’s would have been far, far greater. of language. Just because crowds main campaigner. It could be much When Chief Minister Mamata flock to see and hear Modi and more because beyond a point, count- Banerjee speaks at her rallies, her Shah doesn’t necessarily mean ing heads becomes an impossibility. language of communication is Ban- they will be similarly attracted to The large numbers are important gla. Her message is understood, if not other Hindi-belt politicians. Frankly because they raise questions that digested. Two questions, therefore, speaking, it is better to have a local Read have a bearing on the election cam- arise. First, does her ability to com- leader speaking in Bangla than have paign. Modi, as is his wont, spoke municate in the local language give an accomplished politician from in Hindi. In my rough estimate, not Mamata a clear advantage in com- another state during a campaign. more than 20 per cent of the crowd municating her message? Second, As a national party, BJP feels it can had a grasp over Hindi. The rest does it strengthen her message that draw from its national resources in a had either a fleeting knowledge or BJP is a party of ‘outsiders’ and that state election. A regional party, such none. Yet, despite the language bar, the people of Bengal should prefer a as the Trinamool Congress, has no they turned up in large numbers to daughter of Bengal to a son of India? resources from outside the state. Its [ No one makes an argument better than us ] merely see the prime minister, wave There are no easy answers to this entire campaign is in Bangla, with at him from a distance and partici- question. Modi has a huge fan fol- some Hindi reserved for select areas pate in the chant of “Modi, Modi”. lowing in Bengal, as much as in the of the state. That is why it feels it can I believe this is what happened be- rest of India. Their impression of the target ‘outsiders’. cause when the prime minister was man is not formed on the strength The trick in an election is to spelling out the importance of infra- of understanding his direct message balance the national appeal with www.openthemagazine.com To subscribe, ‘openmag’ to 9999800012 structure in the life of a region—a but on the strength of impressions local faces. Language matters, and serious issue—a boisterous section formed over the years. In 2014, the often doesn’t matter. n openthemagazine openthemag

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NOTEBOOK Can Metro Man Be Miracle Man? By TP Sreenivasan

etro Man E Sreedharan has built major changes took place on the national stage, Kerala remained many bridges across India, commanding unaffected. Even when the same party ruled at the Centre and in respect and admiration from all for honesty, the state, there have been problems about coordinating policies punctuality and efficiency.H e is steeped in and allocation of resources. The situation became acute when MKerala tradition, but he is comfortable with the rest of India. Kerala did not elect any Member of Parliament belonging to the He is in the mould of APJ Abdul Kalam, who was born and ruling party, making it difficult for the state to benefit from the brought up on the southern tip of India, but transcended many dramatic initiatives of the Central Government. Many barriers of all kinds and became a true Indian and an icon for people in Kerala are not even aware of the several projects and the common man. By joining politics, Sreedharan, who had concessions designed for the lower strata of society. To end this, settled in Kerala, has decided to join the national Kerala needs to have capable, reputed and efficient leaders who mainstream and dedicate his experience and wisdom to have access to Central leaders. Sreedharan will be able to provide the good of the whole nation. that link, whether he wins elections or not. Any political party would have welcomed him and, naturally, Sreedharan’s leadership of BJP and candidature may make the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) feels elated, and others will be a difference in the election to the legislature, perhaps not to envious of his choice. He may have felt comfortable with the the extent of him having majority support in the legislature. personality of Prime Minister Though politics in Kerala is highly Narendra Modi and thought polarised, Sreedharan could be that his leadership should be considered a consensus candidate. strengthened to take India His harsh criticism of the chief forward. Sreedharan said that he Many people in Kerala minister did not elicit a strong re- found BJP less selfish than the sponse. Instead, the chief minister others and more dedicated to the are not even aware of the avoided confrontation by wishing cause of the nation. According to several projects and Sreedharan all the best to fulfil his him, the other parties are swayed ambitions. He would have reacted by party considerations and are concessions designed for very differently if it were any other often dynastic and corrupt. But the the lower strata of person who criticised him. He impact of his decision is that he realised that an attack on Sreed- will be able to bridge the chasm of society. To end this, Kerala haran would not go down well in the north-south divide by bringing needs to have capable, the public space. a true national perspective into the Sreedharan has made it clear political domain. reputed and efficient in an interview with Barkha Dutt Kerala has always had an ‘ex- leaders who have access that he has no intention to enter ceptionalist’ approach in politics, into the political controversies. often different from the national to Central leaders. He did not comment on Hindutva trends. Though no one admits it, Sreedharan will be able to except to say that for him it meant it appears that the ghost of Sir CP “Loka samasta sukhino Bhavantu Ramaswami Iyer, who dreamt of provide that link, whether (May the entire world be happy an independent Travancore, is still he wins elections or not and well!)” He would focus on the haunting some people in Kerala. industrial development of the Even in 1977 and 2014, when state and see how to save the state

8 8 march 2021 E Sreedharan

times content from a debt trap. On ‘anti-nationals’, he said any act or propa- will be good for their growth. They may see Sreedharan’s effort to ganda which is injurious to the nation should be considered anti- reform the party and to rid it of corruption as going against their national. For him, BJP is only a conduit through which he could core interests. Kerala has seen many achievers entering politics channel development. He revealed that he had no understanding only to fall by the wayside, or join the bandwagon. Perhaps, if he with the central BJP leadership before taking his decision. As for had formed a new political party like the Aam Aadmi Party in Muslims, he said that they should be made comfortable and that Delhi with a new agenda, he would have been more successful. he would be able to steer clear of all the religious controversies A consensus in favour of Sreedharan is desirable, but not easily even as a member of BJP. He had no interest in issues such as love achievable in the present circumstances. jihad or eating habits, though he himself is a vegetarian. By his Although Sreedharan may not have desired it, the new devel- straight and frank replies, he disarmed even Barkha Dutt. opment may pave the way for him to be considered as the next On the farmers’ strike, Sreedharan is of the view that Modi has president of India. He may find it “retirement in luxury”, as he good intentions to improve the plight of the farmers, but he has characterised governorship, but the example of APJ Abdul Kalam been misunderstood. He expects that once the motivations are has shown that a president can make a difference to the nation. clear and the vested interests realise that they cannot succeed, the Though he had no real power, he captured the hearts and minds Bills will be implemented. of the people of India, young and old, and gave them a dream to The only question being raised is how realistic is Sreedharan’s aspire to. Perhaps he knew India would not be a superpower in expectation of a revolutionary change in favour of BJP as a result 2020, but the objective gave India a benchmark. Like him, the of his entry into the party. Kerala is too politically and communal- Metro Man may well become a Miracle Man in the future. n ly polarised to undergo a change in a short time. Even the hard- core BJP members may not feel that his honesty and uprightness TP Sreenivasan is a former diplomat

8 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 9 openings

PORTRAIT Naomi Osaka taken the game by the scruff of its neck. Osaka broke into the scene in the 2018 season. Even while her game was formidable, she appeared Heir Apparent painfully shy. After her 2018I ndian Wells win, her first title, she rambled nervously through her speech Her latest Australian Open has made at the post-match ceremony, even remarking, “This women’s tennis exciting again is probably... the worst acceptance speech of all time.” A few months later, she was apologising and hen Novak Djokovic was asked before the Australian Open weeping after she had won the USO pen final, the W final what he thought of the chances of the younger generation boos raining down from the stands, because the of male tennis players at winning Grand Slams, he replied, “I’m not crowd favourite Williams had just lost. going to stand here and hand it over to them... I’m going to make them But there has been a transformation in Osaka work their ass off for it.” True to his words, he made light work of over the last one year, a period where she hasn’t just Daniil Medvedev just a few days later, taking his career tally to emerged as tennis’ new superstar on the court, but 18 Grand Slam titles—just two short of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal’s also discovered her voice off it. She was among the all-time lead in men’s singles tennis—and all but declaring that no most prominent athletes to register her support generational shift was happening in men’s tennis, at least not in the for the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, foreseeable future. encouraging people to join protest marches, What we do not often consider was that the Big Three was originally the famously wearing the names of Black people killed Big Four—the certainty of a Federer, Nadal or Djokovic victory as strong by policemen and civilians on her masks during as that of Serena Williams’ in the women’s circuit. But that is not the case the 2020 US Open tournament, and once even anymore. Williams’ reign appears to have come to an end. And Naomi getting a tournament (the Western & Southern Osaka—who beat Williams in the semi-finals of theA ustralian Open, and Open) to postpone its matches in support of the then the American Jennifer Brady 6-4, 6-3 at the finals—has emerged from BLM movement by threatening to pull out. This a somewhat crowded field, as women tennis’ heir apparent. was the kind of activism last seen when Williams, Since the start of 2017, when Williams collected her 23rd major title, and her sister Venus, dominated the court. there have been 12 winners of the 16 slams on offer.O saka, with her four, Race is of course central to Osaka’s identity, has won the most of them. even if not her perception of herself but in the way Osaka has been practically undefeated since the pandemic broke out, the world often engages with her. The daughter of going 21 matches without losing. She has never once lost a major final. a mixed-race marriage (a Japanese mother and a Even Serena Williams, Steffi Graf, MartinaN avratilova and Chris Evert Haitian father), who was born in Japan but raised had all finished as runners-up at least once before they reached four titles. in the US, there is an unfamiliarity and often Osaka hasn’t just filled the void left behind by Williams’ decline, she has insensitivity in the way this engagement happens. In Japan, it is reported, she is grudgingly accepted ap as ‘hafu’ or ‘half-Japanese’. There have been comic skits about her being ‘too sunburned’ in her home country. And once a noodle company even ran an ad featuring her with a lighter skin tone and hair before pulling it out due to complaints. In the US, her activism has drawn scepticism, and sometimes even insensitive remarks, such as the time when the Australian player-turned-analyst Rennae Stubbs asked her which mask she would wear at the next US Open match. There is still a long way to go for Osaka. She is arguably the best hard-court female player currently, but has so far never gone beyond the third round at either Wimbledon or Roland Garros. But with her growing stardom, and the manner in which she has used it to amplify issues outside her sport, she has presented tennis with an excitement not witnessed in some time. n

By Lhendup G Bhutia

10 8 march 2021 ANGLE ideas T he Inefficiency Principle What the delay in getting private sector into the vaccination drive says about government mindset ap

Sae f ty By madhavankutty pillai Sport carries with it an element of danger. Cricket is he area of Israel is around the time that is already lost. They could no different. But several recent T22,000 square kilometres. Its have negotiated and procured from instances of batsmen being hit population is only 90 lakh. vaccine manufacturers earlier. Even by fast bowlers, and a greater Maharashtra, just one state of India, is now, all of India has to rely on just two understanding of concussions 14 times the size of Israel and 12 times vaccines because the Government has in sport, has led the MCC its population. Even a small state like decided so. (Marylebone Cricket Club), Kerala beats Israel on both counts. The reason for such close-fistedness responsible for framing rules This comparison is necessary if one both towards states and the private governing cricket, to consider wants to understand why sector is because the Government outlawing the bouncer. The India is lagging in vaccinating its trusts no one except itself, whereas MCC has decided to conduct population. Israel has given vaccine it is often the most suspect agency a survey, after which the generated data will be debated doses to around 88 per cent of its to carry out anything with and a decision taken later this population. It had the foresight and competence. This simple lesson is year. The bouncer is an integral drive to negotiate with vaccine never learnt because the person who part of the sport. It may carry manufacturers and ensure supplies. needs to imbibe it is the Government an element of danger. But the If India looks at itself as one itself, and why would it take away reason so many get hit now enormously populated nation, then it its own power. It only does so when may not necessarily be because would have been impossible to the signs of failure become clear, more bouncers are being emulate Israel. That is why only and it is forced to outsource what it bowled, as often suggested, around 1 per cent have got vaccine was never equipped to do alone. This but because, with the advent shots here. But, with most states in happened a year earlier with Covid of T20Is, batsmen have poorer India as big as a small country, if the tests too. To keep a lid on the private techniques and there is an Centre had allowed them freedom market when the Government can inherent compulsion to score for their own vaccine procurement continue all that it is doing anyway off every ball, even a bouncer. strategies, then the more efficient is to refuse assistance that comes Dealing with this subject will ones would have clocked larger without cost. need care. n numbers than at present. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, in This insistence on control is not a recent Joe Rogan podcast, had an just when it comes to states alone. instructive reason for such an This week, the Government decided attitude—governments are tuned to to allow private hospitals to take part punish for doing things that go wrong W ord’s Worth in vaccinations. Just before that but the punishment for not doing the corporate leaders, in a meeting with right thing is never there. It is safe for ‘You don’t have to the finance minister, had suggested the machinery to get away with inertia bowl bouncers to that the private sector be included because there is no personal cost intimidate. Having in the vaccination drive. Wipro involved. But it comes at a public cost founder Azim Premji said just that in lives lost or livelihoods damaged. the potential is measure could get 50 crore people Every single day of delay in herd intimidation already’ vaccinated within 60 days. That private immunity postpones the return of life Michael Holding hospitals are only now to do it tells you as it once was. n former west indian bowler

8 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 11 indian accents

By Bibek Debroy

The Theology of Liberation The Shiva Purana is the key to saving the fallen

e are still left with Binduga.L et he has been born as a pishacha in the Vindhyas. Right now, me now complete the story of Binduga’s he is a pishacha, suffering from many kinds of miseries. He emancipation. suffers from miseries caused by vata. [In Ayurveda, the three W On one occasion, Chanchula approached doshas or humours in the body are vata, pitta and kapha and Devi Parvati and prostrated herself before her. Overwhelmed they are always striving against each other. These can be with great bliss, she joined her hands together and praised her. loosely translated as wind, bile and phlegm. Stated simply, Chanchula said, ‘O Girija! O Skanda’s mother! Men always Binduga was suffering from indigestion.] He always has worship you. You are the one who always bestows happiness. to bear hardships.’ Hearing Gauri’s words, Chanchula was You are Shambhu’s beloved. You are the form of the brahman. moved to tears. Because her husband was going through Vishnu, Brahma and others serve you. You possess gunas. You these sorrows, she too was extremely miserable. She steadied are also nirguna. You are the subtle and original Prakriti. Your her mind and prostrated herself before Maheshvari again. form is sachhidananda. You are the one who causes creation, With an anxious heart, the lady asked again. Chanchula preservation and dissolution. You possess the three gunas. You said, ‘O Maheshvari! O Mahadevi! Please show me your are the abode of the three divinities. You are the supreme one compassion. Though my husband is a deceiver and has who establishes Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesha.’ Chanchula, committed wicked deeds, please save him. My husband who had already obtained a virtuous end, addressed Maheshi is wicked, evil in intelligence. O Devi! I bow down before in this way and stopped. Her shoulders were bent down. Her you. Please tell me how he can swiftly attain a virtuous eyes were full of tears of love. end.’ Parvati is affectionate towards her devotees. Hearing Parvati, loved by Shankara, was filled with compassion her words, with a pleased mind, she spoke to her friend, for her. Full of great love, the one who loved her devotees Chanchula: ‘If your husband hears Shiva’s supreme and spoke to Chanchula. Parvati said, ‘O Chanchula! O friend! sacred account, he will overcome this hardship and attain a O beautiful one! I am extremely pleased with this praise. virtuous end.’ She lovingly heard these words of Gauri, with Please ask for the boon you desire. There is nothing that aksharas like amrita. cannot be given to you.’ Thus addressed by Girija, Chanchula She repeatedly joined her hands in salutation and prostrated herself before her. Asked in this way, she was bent her shoulders down. On hearing about his account, filled with great love. She joined her hands in salutation her husband would be cleansed of all sins. Therefore, she and bent her head down. Chanchula said, ‘I do not know prayed that he might obtain a virtuous end. She repeatedly where my husband is now. Nor do I know the destination beseeched Shiva’s beloved to ensure this. Maheshi Gauri he will go to. O Girija! O unblemished one! Please act so is affectionate towards her devotees and took pity on that I can be with him. O fortunate one! O one who shows her. Hence, she summoned Tumburu, the one who sang compassion towards those who are distressed! O Mahadevi! about Shiva’s account. The daughter of the mountain O Maheshani! My husband is the husband of a vrishali. He affectionately addressed the king of the gandharvas. Girija died before me. I do not know what has happened to that said, ‘O Tumburu! O one loved by Shiva! O fortunate one! Do sinner.’ Hearing Chanchula’s words, Parvati spoke to her. what is in my mind. With her, quickly go to Mount Vindhya. The affectionate Girija addressed her in extremely loving There is an extremely terrible and extremely fearful pishacha words: ‘O daughter! Your husband, Binduga, is foolish and a there. Listen to his account. I will tell you everything. In great sinner. The foolish one became attached to a courtesan. a former life, this pishacha used to be a Brāhmana named After death, he went to hell. For a large number of years, he Binduga. That wicked person used to be the husband of this underwent many kinds of hardships in hell. The one with lady, my friend. He was the husband of a vrishali. At the time evil in his atman still needed to exhaust his sins. Therefore, of sandhya, he did not bathe and perform the other rites of

12 8 march 2021 purification. He was angry and foolish in intelligence. He hear about Shiva Purana and it was a wonderful assembly. ate what should not be eaten. He hated virtuous people. He Bound in nooses, the pishacha was made to sit down. With took what should not be taken. He was violent and wielded a lute in his hand, Tumburu started to sing the account weapons. He ate with his left hand. He oppressed those about Gauri’s husband. He started with the first samhita who were afflicted. He was cruel and set fire to the homes of and ended with the seventh samhita. [Current texts of the others. He always associated with chandalas. He was a great Shiva Purana have seven ‘sahmitas’.] He clearly described deceiver and enjoyed courtesans. The sinner abandoned his the entire Shiva Purana, along with its greatness. Listening own wife and associated with those who were wicked. As lovingly to the Shiva Purana, with its seven samhitas, all the a result of that association with a courtesan, he completely listeners felt that they had accomplished their objectives. destroyed all his good merits. Desiring wealth, without any Hearing the extremely sacred account of Shiva Purana, fear, he made his wife accept paramours. He indulged in the pishacha was cleansed of all his sins and gave up his this wicked conduct until he died. In the course of time, he form as a pishacha. He swiftly assumed a divine form, fair died. He went to Yama’s city, the terrible place enjoyed by in complexion and attired in white garments. All his limbs those who are sinners. The evil- were adorned with dazzling souled one went through many ornaments. He resembled the kinds of hell there. Right now, that three-eyed Chandrashekhara. deceiver has become a pishacha Assuming a divine form, along in Mount Vindhya, enjoying with his own beloved, who wicked things. In front of him already possessed a divine attentively narrate the extremely form, he himself sang about the sacred and divine Shiva Purana, illustrious conduct of Parvati’s which destroys every kind of sin. husband. All the devas and rishis As soon as he hears the account of saw him, along with his wife. the Shiva Purana, his atman will They were amazed and were filled be purified and he will be cleansed with great happiness. Hearing of all sins. He will no longer be a about Mahesha’s extraordinary preta. Binduga will be freed from account, they achieved their his present hardships as a pishacha. objective and were pleased. After this, follow my command Praising Shankara’s fame, they and bring him before Shiva.’ returned to their own respective Saurabh Singh Saurabh by Illustration Thus addressed by Maheshani, abodes. Binduga, divine in his Tumburu, Indra among the atman, ascended an excellent gandharvas, was delighted. ‘As soon as Binduga hears vimana. With his beloved by He told himself that he was the account of the Shiva his side, he was stationed in extremely fortunate. Following the sky and looked extremely the command, Tumburu, loved Pur ana, his amt an will radiant. Singing about Mahesha’s by Narada, ascended an excellent be purified and he will be excellent and agreeable qualities, vimana, along with the beloved cleansed of all sins. He will along with his beloved and Chanchula. He went to Mount no longer be a preta. he will accompanied by Tumburu, Vindhya and saw the pishacha be freed from his present he reached Shankara’s abode. there, with a gigantic body and hardships as a p hishac a’ Mahesha and Parvati welcomed large jaws. He was malformed. Binduga. He was lovingly made Sometimes, he laughed. a gana and she became Girija’s Sometimes, he wept. Sometimes, friend. That world is full of he spoke excessively. Tumburu, who sang about Ishana’s supreme bliss. It is full of radiance and is eternal. He excellent account, was extremely strong. He forcibly seized obtained a sparkling residence there and became full of that extremely fearful pishacha and bound him up in nooses. supreme happiness. Tumburu did this so that he could narrate the Shiva Suta concluded, ‘I have thus narrated this sacred itihasa, Purana. Having decided this, he made arrangements for which destroys sins. It is unblemished and enhances great festivities. There was a great uproar in all the worlds. devotion. Shiva and Shivaa [Parvati, written in this way to ‘Having been commanded by Devi, Tumburu has gone to distinguish from Shiva] take great delight in it. If a person Mount Vindhya, so as to make the pishacha listen to Shiva controls himself, listens to this with devotion and chants Purana.’ So as to hear, all the devas and rishis hastened it, he enjoys extensive objects of pleasure and at the end, he and assembled there. All of them went there to lovingly obtains emancipation.’ n

8 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 13 touchstone

By Keerthik Sasidharan

An Epic Challenge The Mahabharata lives because of the questions it asks

arlier in February, I had the good fortune volved. This is a different way of saying that Mahabharata’s idea of spending some time with Bibek Debroy— of practicable dharma is not scale-invariant. What is dharma for economist, scholar and translator—at the Jaipur an individual need not be dharma for a family, what is dharma E Literature Festival. While our discussion was for a clan needn’t be dharma for a country. Thus the hermeneutic ostensibly about ‘Interpreting Dharma’, our conversation challenge that occupies every generation is to ascertain for drifted towards the Mahabharata—that great polysemic themselves not just the nature of dharma in the Mahabharata forest of meanings, intuitions, injunctions and drama as a supra-concept but also its source. In fact, if the Mahabharata through which each generation of Indians must hack a is alive in a philosophical sense—as a text that poses open path of their own. Despite this interpretive challenge, there questions—rather than as yet another sterile ancient text remain some permanent master-concepts around which the mandated as the word of God, it is precisely because of this Mahabharata ambulates, acquires a shape and ultimately interpretive challenge. throbs with meaning. Of these ‘dharma’ remains the most In our conversation, Debroy related the story of Bhishma and famous and pre-eminent of all. In fact, as Debroy writes Arjuna, both similar in their talents and committed to celibacy elsewhere, ‘The Mahabharata itself is Dharmaranya, as when the following events take place. Bhishma is threatened by individuals wander around in a mysterious forest, searching Amba that if he doesn’t break his vow of celibacy, she would im- for their meaning of dharma.’ For much of our history, molate herself. Similarly, Arjuna is threatened by Uloopi, a Naga ‘dharma’ has appeared as a horizon of idealised actions which princess, that if he didn’t break his vow of celibacy, she would are ethicised by norms, mandates and precedence. But the kill herself. In the Mahabharata, Bhishma chooses to stick to his Mahabharata is not a bland didactic text. Instead, it suggests commitments even if it resulted in the death of another human’s explicitly that even as individuals try to arrive into that state life while Arjuna prefers to save Uloopi rather than stick to his of dharma, there are other constraints that will impinge our commitments. The hard question is not who performs an act of efforts—constraints such as individual talents, ephemera dharma, but how dharma is born out of these diverse actions. from previous lives, social status, the era into which we are The answer to the latter question is less than obvious. As any born, the generosities of the gods or fortune or both. reader of the epics must have noticed, characters choose actions Like an astute psychoanalyst who draws out the contours of that mysteriously heighten the emotional demands of an evolv- the autobiographical narratives we carry in our head by letting ing larger narrative arc. The dharma of characters is intimately our self-descriptions travel far and wide, including into entangle- linked to emotional flavours that animate a scene, a subsection, ments and self-contradictions, the Mahabharata reveals our a chapter, a minor book and ultimately the epic itself. From this difficulties with interpreting dharma by forcing us into situa- perspective—one that is informed by the needs of drama and tions involving contexts and dilemmas. Should one lie to win? narrative, rather than some philosophical disquisition on ethi- Should one speak the truth and hurt one’s loved ones? What cality of actions or the litany of injunctions deemed appropriate are we to make of moral luck, when we perform actions that by the ‘varnashrama dharma’ ideology—dharma resides in its unbeknownst to us produce welfare in the world? Is love greater ability to evoke emotional responses that we associate with than any imperative of truth? Philosopher Bimal K Matilal, welfare and flourishing.I n contrast, according to this aestheti- while reflecting on an episode from the Mahabharata involving cally inspired view, adharma is all those actions which evoke two opposing actions as the sole choice, termed these ‘action- negative emotional responses in the audience. The advantage guide dilemmas’. To disentangle oneself from such dilemmas, of framing our understanding of dharma in this way—in the Mahabharata (or Krishna, more precisely) suggests that what contrast to subjecting every action to a litmus test of an external constitutes an ethical individual action may transform into criterion of ethical behaviour—is that it forces us to investigate something unethical when viewed in totality of all actions in- our emotional reactions to the text and thereafter actions we

14 8 march 2021 Illustration by Saurabh Singh

rasas linked. How do emotional states transmute into aesthetic experiences for audiences of theatre and readers of text? The great Kashmiri savant-sages, Anandavardhana and Abhinavagupta, offered theories on dhvani—or ‘poetic sugges- tion’—which they argued were means to universalise the experi- ence of a rasa without being bogged down in the contingent his- tory of individual selves. Their explanatory model dovetailed into the tectonic split that runs through Indian intellectual thought: how to reconcile the individuality of aspiration with the unity of collective experience? When dealing with an epic text like the Mahabharata—as we arrive into it today, divorced from history and tradition—we are faced with an old problem: how must we try to reconcile the polyvalent nature of dharma with the experi- ential unity of rasa? Is it possible to extract a dominant emotional experience as a reader of these epics? Anandavardhana argued that while the Ramayana was animated by karuna (compassion) as its archetypal emotion—starting from its opening scenes that involves the killing of krauncha birds which precipitates a despair-filled outpouring—when we speak of the Mahabharata, the supra-emotion is shantam (or tranquillity that arrives from liberation). This, of course, comports with the soteriological goals of Indian thought but it nevertheless poses the obvious question of how to understand an epic as being marked by tranquillity Should one lie to win? Should one speak the when its characters are often at their worst behaviours? truth and hurt one’s loved ones? What are we The answer to this question is complex and is a wider discus- sion; but from a practitioner’s point of view—as a performer to make of moral luck, when we perform or writer—a more immediate challenge manifests. How does actions that unbeknownst to us produce one ‘manufacture’ tranquillity on the page or on stage? Perhaps welfare in the world? Is love greater than any it is this impossibility of dramatising tranquillity—that inner imperative of truth? To disentangle oneself stillness—on stage or in a text that led Bharata’s Natyashastra to propose only eight rasas (rather than the now popular ‘navarasa’ from such dilemmas, the Mahabharata (or by excluding tranquillity). That said, this question of how to Krishna, more precisely) suggests that what evoke a rasa and sustain it through a scene finds its analogue constitutes an ethical individual action may in the question of how to discover one’s own dharma, one’s own ethical bearings with respect to oneself and others, and transform into something unethical when replicate it over the course of a life. What Indian tradition tells viewed in totality of all actions involved us is that emotional content and ethicised actions are fleeting and fast changing. Art and theoreticians of art may have found a workaround by producing stable rasas through technique and a grammar of aesthetics, but the question of how to ‘manufacture’ perform, whether it be in the name of tradition or rule or pre- dharma remains unresolveable. The conservative answer is to cedence. The individual and their emotional responses—con- critically relive the course of life and actions performed by one’s tingent on where they are in life—are suddenly elevated as the ancestors. Perhaps the real wisdom in Anandavardhana’s assess- locus of investigation. Instead of repressing one’s emotion and ment that tranquillity is the Mahabharata’s dominant emotional acquiescing in dharma, here we link our emotional health with archetype was his way of suggesting that the essence of the Ma- our understanding of righteous conduct. Viewed thus, instead habharata—that great forest of dharma—can never be produced of asking whether dharma is intimately tied to the conserva- on stage or in text except as an approximation and that too only tism of rituals and traditions or, for that matter, the rhetoric of fleetingly. We may experience this on a page or two; we may liberation and freedoms, we allow dharma to be understood as a arrive into tranquillity after hours of colour, song, emotion and function of an individual’s emotional response. drama on stage. For a moment, dharma and rasa converge, and For a millennium after Bharata’s Natyashastra devised in 1st- then like some fission experiment, they split again, fragmenting, 2nd century CE a taxonomy of 49 emotional states (bhavas) and scattering and pursuing their spectral paths, with us once again corresponding nine mimetic strategies to evoke them (rasas) on scrambling to reconcile the ethicised outer worlds with emo- stage or in print, there remained the question of how bhavas and tions that spraypaint the interior landscape. n

8 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 15 Whisperer Jayanta Ghosal

Making An Exception olitics may be riddled with animosity, Pbut there’s always scope for friendship. Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra recently showed up at the Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj for a holy dip (shahi snan) on Mauni Amavasya day. Afterwards, she wanted to visit the Mankameshwar temple and the ashram of Shankaracharya Swami Swaroopanand Saraswati. But since the temple falls under the Army Cantonment zone, the public is barred. It prompted Congress leader Pramod Tiwari to request Defence Minister Rajnath Singh for permission that was granted, it is believed, after Singh got the go-ahead from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Pilot Grounded ongress leader Sachin Pilot is getting restless again and may go the YS Jaganmohan Reddy way in Rajasthan. CWhen Rahul Gandhi was touring Rajasthan recently, Pilot was made to leave the dais. He had been counting on Priyanka Gandhi Vadra to intervene, but after Ahmed Patel’s death, he has only encountered more friction with Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Though the Assembly bypolls will be held in March, the names of the sons of the chief minister and Speaker CP Joshi are doing the rounds. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Gehlot’s son Vaibhav was trounced by Gajendra Singh Shekhawat in Jodhpur. This time, Vaibhav has zeroed in on the Rajsamand seat, while Joshi’s son Himanshu will contest from Bhilwara. Since Pilot is not in the loop, he is upset. Sonia Gandhi sent Congress General Secretary Ajay Maken recently to Jaipur to meet Pilot and Gehlot separately to reach a solution.

T amil Nadu Dilemma Royal Snub? ahul Gandhi visited Puducherry twice of late, but could not ajasthan royal Diya Kumari joined BJP a while ago. She Rsave the Congress government there. While in Puducherry, Rbecame an MLA, but now the Gujarat government he sought to visit Chennai to meet Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam has made her part of a seven-member committee for a (DMK) President MK Stalin but the latter said he would not be national museum of all royal families. This museum will be there. It set tongues wagging. Why? It is believed that Rahul built in Kevadia, Gujarat, near the statue of Sardar Patel. wants 50 of 234 seats in the upcoming Tamil Nadu Assembly Diya Kumari thanked Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani election, but Stalin is not ready to oblige. At another level, for the nomination, though the buzz is that another royal DMK has already communicated to Congress that it can and BJP leader Vasundhara Raje is not too happy with the spare 30-odd seats since the party has to make room for its move. She was absent from the party’s state meeting and remaining allies—Left parties, MDMK, IUML and others. said that her daughter-in-law was in hospital. But it’s been It has got Congress in a bind. learnt that she attended the next meeting.

16 8 march 2021

Illustrations by Saurabh Singh

Numbers over Dinner The Battle hen Pranab Mukherjee was finance minister, For Punjab he held pre-Budget interactions with senior W n Punjab, Navjot Singh editors at North Block, much like industry body Sidhu left the cabinet of interactions back then. That practice may have been I Amarinder Singh in 2019 discontinued, but the post-Budget dinner for journalists seems to usher in a new beginning. After lockdown, and virtually announced this was perhaps the first media dinner party thrown by his political retirement. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, and took place But in politics, there is no at a famous five-star hotel. All officials were present retirement. On the farmers’ though none gave any exclusive story. They were protests, Sidhu has now busy giving clarifications and interpretations of the become proactive, in support. Budget speech. Interim Congress President Sonia Gandhi, too, found him popular on social media. She advised Singh to make a truce as he can be useful before elec- The Bengali Flourish tions next year. So, the two met recently. Result: Sidhu now does rime Minister Narendra Modi is seriously learning not want to join the cabinet under Bengali and is believed to have worked on his P Singh, but prefers being the state accent too. Trinamool Congress has been criticising Modi’s Bengali pronunciation, as West Bengal Congress president. However, after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recently remarked the recent victory in municipal that the prime minister reads through teleprompters. elections, Singh has become more But far from reacting, Modi has delved deep powerful and is not ready to into the state’s language and culture. Maybe, accept Sidhu as party president. language is now emerging as a major poll plank. The battle continues.

Elevated Bonhomie Gaining the UPPER HOUSE ome Minister Amit Shah wants BJP to have a ormer Madhya Pradesh Hmajority in Rajya Sabha and the party is FChief Minister Kamal Nath gradually gaining strength in the Upper House. In and a few other Congress Gujarat, BJP has bagged two seats that had fallen leaders had a narrow escape vacant following the deaths of sitting MPs—Ahmed after an elevator at a private Patel of Congress and Abhay Bharadwaj of BJP. hospital in Indore, which they With this, BJP’s tally in the Upper House has inched were taking, malfunctioned up to 95 of 245 seats. and dropped a few feet from the ground floor. Stuck in the elevator for 20-odd minutes, all leaders were later rescued. But Nath, a Paying Homage Hanuman bhakt, tweeted that fter a long wait, the daughter of former Sankat Mochan (Hanuman) APrime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, Surabhi saved his life. Madhya Pradesh Vani Devi, is finally in politics. Telangana Chief Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has nominated her Chouhan not only wished Nath as a candidate to the legislative council, for which a long life but also dropped by elections will be held on March 14th. The Chief for a visit, much before BJP Minister told his party, the Telangana Rashtra leader Jyotiraditya Scindia Samithi, that he wanted to pay homage to could make it. Narasimha Rao through this nomination. The Congress never remembered the family.

18 January 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 17 open essay

By Kanchan Gupta

Hell Is not the Other Bengal’s traditions of inclusiveness are at stake

n the late 1960s, Bengali chauvinists floated a political party, starkly named Amra Bangali (We Are Bengalis), as a response to the rising tide of anti-Bengali sentiments in India’s Northeast, especially Assam. The party was founded on the ‘Progressive Utilisation Theory’, or ‘Prout’, propounded by its leader Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar. The ‘Proutists’, as the members of Amra Bangali called themselves, struggled to find mention in public discourse or in the popular Bengali press. But they stuck around and met Assam’s ‘Bongal Kheda’ (Chase out Bengalis) rhetoric with matching rhetoric extolling the virtues of Bengali culture and language, fighting what they believed was a righteous battle for the ‘Bengali Nation’. In the early 1980s, when we were in college, Amra Bangali graffiti would be noticeably prominent on Calcutta’s (Kolkata) walls, vying for attention with the lurid colours of Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) slogans calling for constant struggle against imperialist, capitalist and other such enemies of Jyoti Basu’s glorious revolution. For all their rhetoric aimed at unleashing Bengali nativism—they called for self-determination and the creation of ‘Bangalistan’—Amra Bangali could never put together a critical mass of Bengalis who subscribed to exclusivist Bengali chauvinism. This, despite the fact that a large Imass of Bengalis has long nursed the grievance that Bengal has always got a raw deal from the Union Government—the Marxists who ruled for 34 years called it the “Centre’s step-motherly treatment”—and pinned the discrimination to ‘anti-Bengali bias’. Amra Bangali still exists as a political entity but it’s doubtful anybody takes serious note of it; the candle, its electoral symbol, sputtered for a while and then was extinguished by Bengalis’ disdain for mindless nativism. Even as son-of-the-soil politics has gained traction in the east, West Bengal has remained free of ‘insider-outsider’ parochialism. The descendants of old and prominent Bengali families of Bhagalpur and other places in Bihar have felt compelled to relocate to West Bengal; Odisha has never been welcoming of Bengalis; Assam and other Northeastern states are openly hostile to the few Bengalis that remain there; and the once-large Bengali population of Jharkhand continues to dwindle with the passage of years. There has been no such migration by non-Bengalis from West Bengal—if anything, the number of immigrants has steadily increased and non-Bengalis can be now found across the state and not just in Kolkata or the rust belt of decaying or dead mills and factories. There are multiple Hindi-language newspapers published from Kolkata. The state’s capital city is barely, nominally Bengali. Decrepit economies tend to witness a siege mentality with people seeking refuge in rank nativism. So does the fear that im- migrants will grab a share of the pie that would otherwise have gone to the natives. The Shiv Sena built its politics on this fear of the ‘outsider’ and asserting the primacy of the ‘Marathi Manoos’. West Bengal never witnessed, nor did Bengalis ever countenance,

18 8 march 2021 Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay Rabindranath Tagore

How does one define ‘outsider’ and ‘insider’? Was the 15th century poet Krittibas Ojha who wrote the Krittivasi Ramayan— setting a tradition that was kept alive by Rabindranath Tagore and Ram others—an ‘outsider’? Must worshipping Durga, we then airbrush all that depicted for has been written on Sri Ram the first time in Krittivasi and the Ramayan by Ramayan Bengalis in Bengali? Is Tagore’s Kabuliwala an ‘outsider’ to be derided and shunned by the ‘insider’?

8 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 19 open essay

such exclusionary politics. We occasionally heard the words ‘Bengali pride’ as a cover. Its election slogan, “Bangla nijer meye ‘Khotta’ or ‘Hindustani’ when Bengalis referred to Hindi- kei chay” (Bengal wants its daughter), captures this. speaking Biharis or immigrants from Uttar Pradesh. But even Ironically, the ‘Bengal for Bengalis’ politics has little or noth- those casual references are no longer heard. ‘Mero’, a pejora- ing to show by way of what the government has done for West tive term for Marwaris, was restricted to a thin band of Amra Bengal’s resident Bengalis. True, the exodus of young Bengalis Bangali-types. No self-respecting Bengali would use it. The looking for jobs and livelihoods outside West Bengal began ‘Sardarji’ taxi driver commanded respect and received affec- during the twilight years of Left Front rule, by when India’s most tion. Bengal has had prominent non-Bengali legislators. The industrialised state had been stripped of its industrial assets and most well-known exponent of ‘Shyama Sangeet’, or devotional the economy inspired little hope and lesser confidence. That songs dedicated to Goddess Kali, was Amrik Singh Arora, a exodus was expected to end with the fall of the Marxists and Sikh. Some of the talented exponents of Rabindrasangeet the advent of TMC. Quite the contrary happened: Over the past today are non-Bengalis, including from southern states. decade, the exodus has gathered speed with ablebodied men and Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle would regularly record women from rural Bengal joining the young and educated from songs in Bengali. The examples are endless. urban Bengal in their search for jobs outside West Bengal. Yet, in a glaring departure from previous elections, and In other words, the ‘insider’, faced with a bleak future, marking a break with Bengal’s inclusivist socio-cultural became an ‘outsider’ as the government resorted to populism tradition, this time round we are witnessing an outburst of that delivered little but kept the underclasses distracted and, in provincialism with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) turning a strange way, even happy. Confident that West Bengal’s 30 per the contest into one between ‘insiders’ and ‘outsiders’, Bengalis cent Muslim population would stay with them, TMC did not and non-Bengalis, those of the soil and those from other care what happened to the rest. In this scheme of power politics, places. In large measure this is a response to Bharatiya Janata the ‘outsider’ from Bangladesh, tens of thousands of illegal im- Party (BJP) supporters chanting “Jai Shri Ram”—a slogan that migrants, became the ‘insider’, further consolidating the base. became popular as an expression of anger and disquiet over the Calcutta has historically been the entry point of India’s east- state government’s minorityism to pander to West Bengal’s ern hinterland. Over hundreds of years, people have come from large Muslim population at the expense of Hindu sensitivities. other regions, provinces and countries to settle in Bengal. Cal- Fighting a rearguard battle with BJP posing a serious challenge, cutta even had a Chinese community with thriving businesses. TMC has sought to incite nativism among the masses, using Lashkars reached Calcutta by ships they worked on, stayed back getty images P rime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP leaders in Hooghly, February 22

Fg i hting a rearguard battle with BJP posing a serious challenge, TMC has sought to incite nativism among the masses, using ‘Bengali pride’ as a cover. Ironically, the ‘Bengal for Bengalis’ politics has little or nothing to show by way of what has been done for West Bengal’s resident Bengalis

20 8 march 2021 in kolkata, Daily wage workers, September 2020 (left); A taxi driver, June 2020

ap getty images

D ecrepit economies tend to witness a siege mentality with people seeking refuge in rank nativism. So does the fear that immigrants will grab a share of the pie that would otherwise have gone to the natives

and became a part of the vast melting pot. Jews set up home in from Kusharis they became Thakurs, or priests. By the TMC Calcutta and built institutions, some of which still remain. So era’s reckoning, Rabindranath Tagore, as well as other notable did many other communities. Marwaris came looking for trade, Tagores, are also ‘outsiders’ in West Bengal. Who, then, is a became industrialists, turned into new-age entrepreneurs and true-blue Bengali? are now integrated in the larger Bengali identity. Many of them Elections come, elections go. But the damage that is inflicted speak better Bengali, have done more for Bengali culture and by thoughtless deeds like pitting ‘insiders’ versus ‘outsiders’ the arts, and invested more in West Bengal than Bengalis. with no other purpose than winning votes, lingers for a long How, then, does one define ‘outsider’ and ‘insider’? Was the time after the last vote has been counted. ‘Bengal for Bengalis’ is 15th century poet Krittibas Ojha who wrote the Krittivasi Rama- a wretched idea, one that deserves unequivocal opprobrium and yan—setting a tradition that was kept alive by Rabindranath should be rejected by Bengalis, not the least because it imperils Tagore and others—an ‘outsider’? Must we then airbrush all that the livelihoods of the many Bengalis who live and work outside has been written on Sri Ram and the Ramayan by Bengalis in West Bengal. What if the people of those states were to turn on Bengali? Is Tagore’s Kabuliwala an ‘outsider’ to be derided and immigrant Bengalis and tell them to pack up and leave as they shunned by the ‘insider’? Should the doors of Visva-Bharati, the were ‘outsiders’? only university of its kind in India, be shut to the world? West Bengal should learn from Bihar which has been An interesting tale is told about the Brahmins of Bengal, based historically intolerant of ‘outsiders’—‘Bihar for Biharis’ was on their kulapanjikas or genealogical chronicles. The story goes officially proposed by Rajendra Prasad and accepted by that during the Sena dynasty, learned Brahmins were brought Congress even before India became independent—and has to Bengal from the central Gangetic plains, a region that would consequently suffered hugely because of retaliatory ‘insider- now correspond with Uttar Pradesh, to impart their knowledge outsider’ politics in other states, most notably Maharashtra. of Hindu scripture, traditions and rituals. Five Brahmins, led by That lesson must not be lost on Bengalis, even if it is wasted a certain Bhatta Narayan, came to Bengal. Later, when they tried on West Bengal’s populist politicians who skilfully use the to return, they were not accepted by their communities as they weapon of divisive politics and polarisation in the garb of pro- had lost their caste by travelling to ‘bhinn desh’. So they settled in tecting regional pride. There is no pride in labelling the ‘other’. Bengal and their descendants are today’s Bengali Brahmins. That More so because in West Bengal, there is no ‘other’. n would make ‘Banerjees’, if we pause to think, ‘outsiders’ too, as it would also deny Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay his Bengali Kanchan Gupta is a political analyst and distinguished identity. The Tagore family descended from Bhatta Narayan, fellow at the Observer Research Foundation

8 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 21 COVER Story

Who’s Afraid o f Social Media? Empowering. Liberating. Polarising. Incendiary. The interface between democracy and the digital noise

By Madhavankutty Pillai

n February 20th, at the launch of his book, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ram Madhav spoke about what he perceived as one of the dangers to democracy in India—social media. It could “topple governments” and, worse, was difficult to regulate because it was “borderless”. “We require new rules and laws to tackle and manage. The government is already working in this direction,” a PTI report quoted him saying. In this, he was echoing what Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister of Electron- ics and Information Technology and Minister of Law and Justice, had said two weeks ago, first in Rajya Sabha and then in a tweet: ‘We have immense respect for social media as it has empowered the citizens but today I want to clearly state that be it Twitter,

O22 Illustration by Saurabh Singh COVER Story

Facebook, LinkedIn or WhatsApp they are free to work in India social media. This is the first election where social media has as- but they need to abide by the Constitution of India and laws of In- sumed an important role and the importance of this medium dia.’ It was in response to Twitter refusing to take down accounts will only increase in the years to come.’ He also added that it had that the Government had demanded. On February 25th, the first weeded out lies and disinformation. ‘More power to social media taste of it came when an Information Technology (Intermedi- in the days ahead,’ he wrote. ary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 was Modi and, probably because of him, BJP had been early pas- framed, making into law how social media companies should sengers on this train. As Martin Moore, in his book Democracy behave. Among other things, they will now need to remove infor- Hacked: How Technology Is Destabilising Global Politics observed: mation if the Government demands. These could be for reasons ‘The contrast between political communication in this Indian as wide ranging and nebulous as going against ‘the interest of the election and the previous one in 2009 was like the difference sovereignty and integrity of India, public order, friendly relations between the telephone and the loudhailer. In 2009, social me- with foreign countries etc.’ These companies now also need a dia was virtually irrelevant. There was one Indian politician on grievance redressal mechanism, which means it will not be easy Twitter—Shashi Tharoor—and he had only six thousand follow- to ban anyone unilaterally without being heard or an appeal. ers. During the 2014 campaign there were 227 million Facebook To appreciate the change that this attitude exhibits, we need interactions (posts, comments, shares and likes), and Modi had to go back seven years. After polling ended and before counting sixteen million Facebook followers by the time he was sworn began in the 2014 General Election, Narendra Modi, BJP’s prime in. As Facebook’s policy manager told the Times of India, “Face- ministerial face, wrote a blog post in which he thanked the elec- book is really the key place of the conversation that is happening.” torate, pointed out how the young had come to vote in surpris- Modi’s embrace of social media—his rival Rahul Gandhi, who led ingly large numbers. He then lauded social media for changing the Indian National Congress, did not have a Facebook or Twitter the electoral landscape permanently: ‘Throughout the campaign, account—galvanized the campaign, animated his supporters, I was able to connect with local people and local issues and this boosted his volunteer network and drove people out to vote. was something that I enjoyed very much. Connecting with local When the results of the election came in, to almost everyone’s sentiments in this manner would not have been possible without surprise, Modi’s BJP exceeded its target of 272, winning 282 seats

In 2014, Modi had lauded social media for changing the electoral landscape permanently. Barack Obama, a first-time Senator, had already become US president through its use. What Obama did with refinement, Donald Trump would emulate with abrasion

getty images ap

Barack Obama on the campaign A 3D projection of Narendra Modi at a trail in July 2008 rally in Ahmedabad in April 2014

24 8 march 2021 and more than doubling its votes from 2009.’ of earlier times. Even then, hundreds of millions of dollars were I t didn’t take political genius, just a cursory appreciation of raised by US presidential candidates and these were all spent in what was happening in other countries, to know how social me- advertising and organising propaganda against opponents. The dia was flipping the balance of politics. Barack Obama, a minor only argument then is that a foreign power, Russia, was behind first-time Senator, had already become US president through its the Facebook campaign because it had the tools to do so. In a 2017 use to gather vast amounts of campaign funds and create a mas- article titled ‘Social Media and Democracy’ in The American Inter- sive organisation of moon-eyed volunteers. In other countries, est, political scientist Francis Fukuyama, while speaking about outsider candidates had suddenly sprung up with astonishing the danger of social media’s influence on politics, also slipped popularity on the back of social media. In Italy, there was Beppe in that what was being done was not very different from earlier Grillo, a comedian, who, within four years of entering politics, got times, except for scale and reach. In his words: ‘There has always a quarter of the national votes in the 2013 election there. Moore been bad information, propaganda, and disinformation delib- also mentions, in that same year, Karel Schwarzenberg coming erately put out to affect political outcomes.T he traditional free second in the Czech Republic’s presidential election after being speech defense has been the marketplace of ideas: if there is bad initially considered something of a joke. What Obama did with information, the solution is not to censor or regulate it, but to refinement, Donald Trump would emulate with abrasion. He put out good information, which will eventually counter the took over the Republican Party riding on tweets that got him the bad. More information is always better. But it’s not clear that this backing of its fringe and then propelled him to the presidency as strategy works so well in the internet age, when thousands of bots the voice of the voiceless white majority. and trolls can amplify the bad messages without anyone know- That social media drives politics today seems self-evident ing.’ The culprit is therefore efficiency and not disinformation. but it was also something of a self-fulfilling prophecy.T ake for But you could rewind back in time and use the same reasoning example, the accusation that Facebook managed to not just influ- against the use of advertising in newspapers and television dur- ence the election that got Trump elected as the president of the US ing election campaigns. Underpinning the fear of social media to but was instrumental in doing so in an unwholesome manner. democracy is the fear of new technology. As long as the technol- H owever, it is not very clear how it is different from campaigns ogy helped an enterprising few, it was welcomed. When everyone

In 2014, Modi had lauded social media for changing the electoral landscape permanently. Barack Obama, a first-time Senator, had already become US president through its use. What Obama did with refinement, Donald Trump would emulate with abrasion

getty images

Donald Trump at a rally in Springfield, Ohio in October 2016

8 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 25 COVER Story Standing Up to Big Tech began to exploit it, no one was reaping the profits alone. Or, no was not hurting. By Sudeep Paul It is in the accusations against Facebook in 2016, that Twitter, in a frenzy of self-consciousness about its own prowess, went the opposite route. In trying to see that the elections were fair, it began to fact-check Trump in his re-election bid. If you were acebook, in flexing its muscles from Trump’s party, then the question ‘How is this not med- in Australia, goofed up. The social me- dling in politics?’ would be warranted. But it found no favour dia giant, in its role as a platform for with the undecided middle because of the character defects that news content, did not first draw up a Trump came with, such as serial lying and narcissism. Twitter list of news sites to block. Instead, Face- got away with it in the US but governments around the world book thought its algorithm would do were keeping an eye transfixed on how a private corporation had the job: isolating and restricting news aligned on one side as a political battle was waging. Twitter is publishers. The result, reportedly, was essentially a left-liberal company, if not openly in policy, then in emergency services, government sites, the ideology of its employees and management. This becomes etcetera, getting cut off.L ess than 5 per apparent in bans on right-wing supporters because their views cent of the platform’s content is report- are interpreted as flouting something in the maze that makes up F edly news or news-related, and thus, Twitter’s terms and conditions. Earlier this month, for instance, Facebook could diverge from Google in its response to Aus- it took down a tweet by Haryana BJP minister Anil Vij who wrote tralia’s Treasury Laws Amendment (News Media and Digital that anyone whose mind has seeds opposing the nation must be Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code) Bill 2020. destroyed, whether it’s Disha Ravi or someone else. And then, Australia’s ‘Bargaining Code’, as the proposed law is col- T witter put it back again, saying someone in Germany had made loquially called, is being keenly watched across the world a complaint and they had to act initially as per German law. But because, as a global first, it sets a precedent on the matter of there are numerous right-wing activists who have been removed tech giants having to pay for news content. From the me- or humiliated into withdrawing tweets. Twitter’s wariness with dia’s perspective, advertising revenue is being lost to the tech peremptory action might have something to do with the Indian platforms. The government claims the law, three years in Government bringing in the law to regulate social media. It is a signal to these companies not to think that, instead of being an inanimate service, they can enter the game without facing consequences. It is not just in India alone. Numerous governments are figur- ing out what to do about social media. There is a broad agreement that things cannot continue as they are, even from those who are not on the right of the political spectrum. Take French Presi- dent Emmanuel Macron, who last month, according to a Wall Street Journal report, ‘called for international regulation to curb the spread of ideological extremism in Western democracies, chiding tech companies and political correctness for allowing it to flourish. Speaking to a group of reporters inside the Élysée Palace, Mr. Macron said the storming of the U.S. Capitol was a sign of the West’s failure to rein in social media platforms, allow- ing them to become incubators of hate, moral relativism and conspiracy theories.’

n idea of warfare is that any new extraordinarily power- ful weapon is only useful for one battle. Because of the stakes A involved, the enemy will somehow get to it as soon as it can stand up on its feet again. In India, BJP pioneered the use of social media as a political tool but every other party now uses it. They hire the same kind of consultants and they too have an online army to shape narrative. The opposition’s social media presence Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a is not what BJP finds threatening because that is just a question video call with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, February 18 of resources being thrown into creating hashtags and Twitter

26 Why Australia is telling Google and Facebook Standing Up to Big Tech they are not bigger than governments

the making since an inquiry by the Australian Competition to have been the indispensability of its search engine and how and Consumer Commission (ACCC), is redress for the media’s not allowing users to click on news links could push them to apparent disadvantages against the tech companies and ‘levels its rivals. (Google had threatened to withdraw its search engine the playing field’. ACCC says Google pockets $53 for every $100 from Australia, but it’s doubtful the company ever took its own spent on online advertising while Facebook takes $28. After threat seriously, since even the Australian government thinks all parties in the chain are paid, little is left for media outlets. Google Search is too big to disappear.) So the code would allow publishers to bloc-bargain with tech But what would losing access to the platforms entail? Ac- platforms for a price for their content. cording to William Easton, managing director of Facebook in U nlike Facebook, Google began striking deals with Aus- Australia and New Zealand: ‘Publishers choose to share their tralian publishers, including Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp content on Facebook, and in return, receive free distribution with which it has signed a three-year agreement for sharing and the ability to better understand, develop and grow readers... advertising revenue, investment in video journalism and [This] helps them sell more subscriptions and bring in more ad- subscription models. Publishers signing such deals will get vertising revenue...between January and November last year, we their news content featured in Google News Showcase that sent 4.7 billion clicks from News Feed to Australian news web- provides content under licence. Analysts of Google’s deals say sites at no charge—a value exchange worth an estimated A$394 that such an outcome was built into the bargaining code which million to Australian publishers’ (‘Our response to Australia’s is tilted in favour of publishers who can approach the Austra- proposed news media laws’, australia.fb.com, January 21st). lian Communications and Media Authority for arbitration if That’s a lot of value to lose. However, the bargaining deals fall through or disputes remain unresolved. Thus, Google code is being studied by lawmakers in many countries, has chosen to avoid the arbitration process by making sepa- with the European Union and Canada working on simi- rate deals with media companies. Google’s reasoning seems lar frameworks. If more governments take a leaf out of Australia’s book, the regulation of social media across the world would change. This is also where India comes into the picture where the debate on social media and Big Tech platforms paying news media is still in its infancy. But in the longer run, it’s going to pick up steam since India already has upwards of 280 million unique consumers of news online (‘India’s Media & Entertainment sector’, FICCI-EY Report 2020). It was expected that Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s recent video conference with Prime Minister Na- rendra Modi would feature a discussion on the bargaining code, and it did, as publicised by Morrison. Morrison’s government has taken the battle to tech giants. In his own words: ‘They may be changing the world, but that doesn’t mean they should run it. We will not be intimidated by this act of bullying by BigTech’. Canberra is also diplomati- cally lobbying to explain its position. Much of it is a matter of perspective, of course, since critics of the bargaining code have decried the fracturing of the internet it has already caused given the diverse positions taken by Google and Facebook, with Microsoft all along backing the code. Big Tech, already circumscribed in data privacy-obsessed E urope, has come under increasing Congressional scrutiny in the US. India has just framed rules targeting social media content. But in the Australian case, about the monetary value of news content, it’s difficult to see Big Tech worried about pay- ing for content as much as losing control over what it pays and how. Google is settling individually to retain that control. And Facebook never really walked out of negotiations. n COVER Story

trends, and BJP has more of it all. What the party, and by exten- lation. The video, posted on the party’s officialT witter handle, sion, the Government, finds hard to control is the spontaneous has two young women in conversation, attempting to dispel the independent mass mobilisation now happening on tricky issues. “misconceptions” surrounding the Citizenship Amendment And it is seeing repeated instances of these. Act and the NRC. It particularly singles out Instagram influenc- When the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests gath- ers, accusing them of opposing the legislation to appear “cool ered momentum, Instagram, a medium of the young to upload and woke” without having adequate knowledge of it.’ Another photos, suddenly took on a political hue. It was a platform that BJP Economic Times article had noted: ‘Instagram’s prominence in this had ignored until then but got worried enough to start a counter- round of India’s digital protests is important for two reasons. First, campaign. As The Print had reported at the time: ‘It (BJP) released most users are presumed to be under the age of 25, and the young a video Wednesday accusing Instagram influencers and “urban have led protests. Second, BJP’s IT Cell is not as active on the plat- Naxals” of spreading misinformation on the controversial legis- form, despite Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s individual popu- larity with 33.2 million followers on the platform as of last count. getty images “We have very little presence on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok that are popular among the youth today. These issues were brought up at a recent meeting of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and BJP members who work on social media campaigns, in the last week of December,” a BJP member told ET on condition of anonymity.’ If Modi’s 2014 blog post had congratulated the youth for being participants in Indian democracy, these same youth had now become a danger because they were being swayed in other direc- tions by social media. This is the dilemma that all governments face. Technology creates unforeseen conditions. Earlier, one had to either be in active politics or sufficiently interested to harbour opinions. You had to go out and seek community. Social media brings it home with ease and creates tribes on call. You are bom- barded with memes, article links and shocking videos and then it is just a matter of picking a side and then being automatically Union Law and IT Minister committed to it to defending the position against strangers. Social Ravi Shankar Prasad media creates activists who don’t realise they have become activ- ists. Political parties like BJP exploited this phenomenon with deliberate strategy. But there were always vast numbers leaning Twitter’s wariness with towards opposing issues and now it needs just a trigger for them peremptory action might have to easily get together, like the farmers’ protests. Without any re- sources, an equally strong online movement gets going. something to do with the Governments are constantly on watch to spot the trigger and to try to temper it. It is why you see the extraordinary reaction to Government bringing in a law a tweet by the singer Rihanna, where people like Lata Mangesh- to regulate social media. It is kar and Sachin Tendulkar, who are apolitical, were convinced to suddenly start tweeting about the farmers’ protests. The idea is a signal to these companies not to prevent all potential snowballs because no one knows where these will come from. Meanwhile, the same tactics used by po- to think that, instead of being litical parties are used to organise farmers to lay siege to Delhi, an inanimate service, they can except that there is no central brain doing it, spinning out of the chaos of social media until real feet and tractors start hitting enter the game without facing the streets. Social media now makes governments bend. Or it consequences. It is not just changes history, as it did in the UK when it was used to impact the results of the referendum that led to them leaving the European in India alone. Numerous Union. It might not be always successful, as the fizzling out of the Arab Spring, which promised a tweet-fuelled democracy in governments are figuring out the Middle East, or back home the anti-CAA movement, shows. what to do about social media But the future is not deterred. It is an amorphous shape-shifting hydra relentlessly springing new heads and cutting off one does nothing to it. n

28 8 march 2021 While Inside Look Outside For FREE With access visit www.openthemagazine.com COVER Story A Toolkit for the Post-Truth World If you care about democracy and liberty, stop distorting the undistorted

Illustration by Saurabh Singh

The war on social media is a war against what does not suit your confirmation bias. An example is the narrative around the first anniversary of the Delhi riots. In the re-sharing of old pictures and re-plugging of articles, the systematic erasure of one part of the story becomes evident A Toolkit for the Post-Truth World If you care about democracy and liberty, stop distorting the undistorted By Rahul Pandita

et us accept a few things first. One man’s toolkit is anoth- er’s treason. Or enabler of fascism, depending on which social media echo chamber one is a permanent resident of. We have all turned into cheap label-makers. Social media was supposed to be this great har- binger of democracy, a platform that would give a voice to the voice- less, usher in our neighbourhood Arab Spring. The mobile phone camera was touted as the biggest political tool of the 21st century. You could shoot what the state or a state mouthpiece did not want L you to see and put it up on your Facebook or Twitter account, be- coming what professional journalists more than often could not: the demolishers of status quo. But somewhere down the line, something went awry. One doesn’t have to go far to see what we have done with this mod- ern razor in the hands of us modern monkeys. And it is not only about what one gets to see on family WhatsApp groups: the doc- tored videos, untruths like Nehru’s father being a Muslim, the hubris of the so-called greatness we have supposedly achieved in recent years. It is also largely about distorting the undistorted: the conspiracy theories about how the Government may have or- chestrated the 2019 Pulwama suicide attack for political mileage, the clean chits to those who emphatically said that the ‘war’ will continue till Bharat ki barbaadi, ignoring the religious leitmotif in protests just because there is also a Bhagat Singh poster around. T he war on social media is a war against what does not suit your confirmation bias. In the constantly shifting goalposts of morality and ethics, one thing is kosher today and could become a tool to berate individuals who have a different point of view, reducing them to the enemy of the day. At present, perhaps the most astute example of such selectiv- ism pertains to the narrative around the first anniversary of the The war on social media is a war against what does not suit your confirmation bias. An example riots in northeast Delhi. In the re-sharing of old pictures and re- plugging of archival articles, the systematic erasure of one part is the narrative around the first anniversary of the Delhi riots. In the re-sharing of old pictures of the story becomes evident. There have been multiple interviews of the controversial and re-plugging of articles, the systematic erasure of one part of the story becomes evident BJP leader Kapil Mishra who, in February last year, stood next to

www.openthemagazine.com 31 COVER Story Joy of the district police chief, asking him to clear the roads in the area quickly—round-the-clock langars, giant water filters, medical (of anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protestors), failing which and communication camps—raised suspicion among many spreading “we will not listen to anyone afterwards.” While some rue that of funding (by disgruntled Khalistani elements abroad), but no action has been taken against Mishra, the same people first this got sidelined in scenes of solidarity and how thousands had knowledge went into denial about the alleged role in the riots of the local come of their own volition as they felt the new farm laws would Aam Aadmi Party councillor Tahir Hussain. Last year, during harm them. the riots, as videos surfaced of his terrace being used by a mob But then the events on Republic Day changed everything. to launch attacks on the Hindu households in the vicinity, the deniers first said that Hussain was not present there. When video evidence established his presence, they said he was just acting hile some asked valid questions about how the Gov- in self-defence as he did not want to meet the same fate as Ehsan ernment allowed protestors to reach the Red Fort and unfurl a Jafri, a prominent victim of the 2002 Gujarat riots. It is on social W religious flag on its ramparts, many justified the breach of media only that some of these videos surfaced ultimately, tilting peaceful protest, saying ‘revolutions’ did not happen under the narrative in the other direction. laboratory conditions. In Shiv Vihar, one of the worst-affected localities in northeast But we know now how it opened faultlines which, in the light Delhi, the hacking and burning of a 20-year-old Hindu sweet shop of history, are difficult to fill. After January 26th, many on social worker at the hands of Muslim rioters was merely passed off as a media were seen posting things like ‘another 1984 is required’, footnote. There was absolutely no scrutiny on how, in the middle alluding to the anti-Sikh pogrom of that year. It is in the wake of of a ‘pogrom’ against them, a people managed to get inflammable such polarisation and the inability of the police top brass to offer liquid and tonnes of stones to burn down and destroy Hindu- directions to the force on the ground that situations arise when owned properties. When some pointed this out, they were im- they are seen walking with one group of rioters, attacking the mediately dubbed as cohorts of the BJP IT cell. other. State paranoia, as displayed in the case of Disha Ravi, does We see this play out repeatedly, manifesting in different not help things either. forms. Consider the case of the farmers’ protests on Delhi’s Now that a Delhi court has granted bail to Ravi in borders. For weeks, the farmer unions had been trying to proj- the toolkit case, it is pertinent to pay heed to what the judge ect a movement neutral of any religiosity. Many detractors had said: “Citizens cannot be put behind bars simply because they disagree with the government.” The judge in this case, Dharmender Rana, is right. Similarly, it is unfair to put individuals on social me- dia gallows simply because they it is unfair to put individuals on social hold different views. The cancella- Gift a subscription of media gallows simply because they hold tion of reputations, as attempted recently in the case of the metro leg- Open Magazine different views. The cancellation of end E Sreedharan, is a case in point. While it can be argued that the With its thought-provoking articles, unbiased re- SUBSCRIPTION OFFER reputations, as attempted recently in the merits of bail were paid heed to in ports and well-argued perspectives on current 1 year Disha Ravi’s case and not in the case affairs, OPEN is the weekly magazine of choice 51+51 (Print+Digital) issues case of E Sreedharan, is a case in point for discerning readers who expect more than of, say, Safoora Zargar (arrested in the just news and everyday views. Add to that an en- Delhi riots case), in the same way, we grossing, off-beat and balanced mix of features `3,825 `1,450 cannot have two ideas about what on a wide variety of subjects, and you have a constitutes justice and what does not. magazine that is the perfect gift for people with ALSO GET accused the leaders of playing into the hands of the Khalistani While it is okay to depend on police chargesheet in the Kathua an open mind. separatist elements. Though Sikh religious slogans became the rape case, it somehow becomes problematic in other cases where Swiss Military toiletries bag or Swiss leitmotif of the protest, the leaders took care to portray that their your idea of justice does not match that of the state. You believe Surprise someone you care for—a close friend or Military wallet worth `990 protest was a revolution of sorts, inspired by Bhagat Singh and the police when they say Rinku Sharma was killed in a brawl, a loved one—with a gift subscription today. The other revolutionaries of yore. If one walked through the city but disbelieve them when they say the lynching of Junaid in first issue of the subscription package will be built on Delhi’s border with tractors and other vehicles brought Faridabad in 2017 also happened due to a fight. delivered with a letter saying it is a special gift from you. Should you wish to enclose a personal FREE along by the farmers, it was not unusual to see stickers or post- The point is simple. In the post-truth world, the only way to message, kindly convey it to us and we will send ers of ‘Sant ji’, as many Khalistani sympathisers call the slain stay on the side of the truth is to cease being part of lynch mobs, it along with the magazine. Sikh extremist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale. But the overall whether they are on the road or on Twitter. Calling out what sentiment was that, a few elements apart, the movement was passes for truth is important, but what is perhaps more impor- To gift a subscription of OPEN magazine, OR one of farmers with genuine concerns about the Government’s tant is to stop blackballing facts that are unpalatable to your own Whatsapp ‘opengift’ to 9999800012 or log on to agricultural reforms. The infrastructure they were able to build belief system. n openthemagazine.com/subscribe or email at [email protected]

32 8 march 2021 * Gift may be sent to you and magazines to the person you want to gift the subscription. Joy of spreading knowledge

Gift a subscription of Open Magazine With its thought-provoking articles, unbiased re- SUBSCRIPTION OFFER ports and well-argued perspectives on current 1 year affairs, OPEN is the weekly magazine of choice 51+51 (Print+Digital) issues for discerning readers who expect more than just news and everyday views. Add to that an en- grossing, off-beat and balanced mix of features `3,825 `1,450 on a wide variety of subjects, and you have a magazine that is the perfect gift for people with ALSO GET an open mind. Swiss Military toiletries bag or Swiss Surprise someone you care for—a close friend or Military wallet worth `990 a loved one—with a gift subscription today. The first issue of the subscription package will be delivered with a letter saying it is a special gift from you. Should you wish to enclose a personal FREE message, kindly convey it to us and we will send it along with the magazine. To gift a subscription of OPEN magazine, OR Whatsapp ‘opengift’ to 9999800012 or log on to openthemagazine.com/subscribe or email at [email protected]

* Gift may be sent to you and magazines to the person you want to gift the subscription. COVER Opinion Story Killing the Slow Brain how social media feeds unreason

By Nitin Pai

he proliferation of social media to shape international and national narratives, to micro-target and presents a clear danger to liberal democ- influence human behaviour. But most serious of all is the third, racy, free markets, political order and, in- deepest level concerning the effect of social media on how we pro- deed, to human civilisation. The threat is cess information, how we think and how we make judgements. greater and more urgent than that pre- T oday, we are intensely caught up at the first level, amid pas- sented by climate change, ArtificialI ntel- sionate debates concerning online free speech. The debate here ligence, nuclear war, pandemics and ter- is about who should govern what is expressed on the platform; rorism. While we recognise many of the private corporations, national governments or civil societies. In the latter as constituting global threats and US, this debate centres around whether social media companies are aware of how to address them (even are publications that exercise editorial choice or platforms that do if we find it difficult to do so in practice), not. The companies have long enjoyed the protections of the latter public opinion around the world is yet and escaped legal responsibility for the content that is expressed to fully recognise that not only is social on their networks. After all, unlike newspapers or television com- media a threat to society, but also that the panies, they do not have editors deciding what gets published or T threat is existential in nature. broadcast. Yet, their claims to being mere platforms are question- To be sure, the rosetinted view of the internet and social media able because even if they do not have human editors making deci- that we entertained in the mid-2000s has given way to greater sions, they do employ computer algorithms that determine what scepticism as the downsides of global interpersonal connectivity users see. What you see on a Google search, Facebook feed or Twit- have come to fore. Technopessimism has grown as societies deal ter stream is neither random nor reverse-chronological. It is algo- with diverse problems ranging from cyberbullying to surveillance rithmic. So if lawmakers in the US want to review the statute that capitalism, from internet-enabled terrorism to foreign interference treats them as platforms, they have a case. Meanwhile, Europe has in electoral politics. If the threat from social media and transna- long had rules prohibiting hate speech, which it seeks to impose tional technology platforms over which they run were limited to more strongly on big tech companies that conveniently happen problems such as these, it would have been relatively easier for the to be mostly American. In India, governments have long taken world’s governments and societies to manage. The problem, unfor- an elastic view of the constitutional restrictions on free speech, tunately, is of a vastly different nature. succumbing either to competitive intolerance or political partisan- For now, let us set aside the economic challenges, such as tax- ship. Indeed, one of the grounds for demanding that content be ing digital transactions in a multi-crossborder setting and contro- taken down under the Information Technology Act, 2000 is the be- versial business models employed by global tech platforms. Let wildering offence of ‘blasphemy’ which is absurd in a secular state us focus on the sociopolitical ones as they are more important. and ought to be unconstitutional. Yet, it remains on the books. In We confront these challenges at three levels. First, while popu- other words, whether it is in the US, Europe or India, governments lar attention is mostly focused on controversies around free speech are attempting to seize greater control over gatekeeping content and privacy, these are actually superficial in nature. More serious from technology platforms. This is a battle that governments will is the underlying second level, involving political power that eventually win. They will also win the battle over privacy norms. technology platforms have come to wield through their ability The world’s more deliberative political systems are paying

34 8 march 2021 Illustration by Saurabh Singh ling them to open up their platforms to competing algorithm providers. Even so, the broader task of accommodating information power centres and rebalancing power among social institutions is a task that all countries face.

t is at the third and deepest level that we confront the most serious threat from social I media, because it hijacks our ability to think. A ddictive and relentless, social media interferes with our ability to use the reflective, rational part of the mind—what psychologist Daniel Kahne- man calls the ‘slow brain’—and instead makes us leap from one instinctive reaction to the other. Instead of making our own judgements, we rely on social proof, ‘what others say’, even if it contradicts our own lived experience. We do not reflect.I ndeed, we cannot reflect because the feed has refreshed and we must respond quickly. There is no time to reason. Yet, liberal democracy and free markets are based on the human capac- ity for reason. Take that away and the edifice of society stands on much weaker legs. It is not a Nationalists, conservatives and coincidence that liberal democracies around the world have seen a weakening of liberal norms, traditionalists must be concerned the rise of demagogues and ceaseless moral panics over the past decade. The Right is currently not too, for the whirlwind of unreason too concerned about this—and often celebrates will not spare any political or social it—as it is reaping the political benefits of the phenomenon. This is myopic. Nationalists, con- order. Liberal democratic order is servatives and traditionalists must be concerned too, for the whirlwind of unreason will not spare merely the first victim. Social media any political or social order. Liberal democratic undermines order itself and will not order is merely the first victim. Social media un- dermines order itself and will not distinguish one distinguish one form from the other form from the other. It is rapidly eating away at the cognitive machinery of humankind, at our capacity to think and use our better judgement. This is a path that leads to anarchy, authoritarian- greater attention to the second level issue: how to deal with the ism or both. So even authoritarians cannot rest easy. political power that tech platforms have come to acquire. Even if We have no idea how to stop this slide. The world is getting their ability to make or break political careers is overestimated, more connected, data is getting cheaper, video is replacing text their extraordinary ability to shape the public narrative is no and literacy is no longer a hurdle. But we do not know how to longer in doubt. The world’s nation-states, shaped as they were get off the smartphone, nor, indeed, how to get our kids off it. by the Industrial Age, lack effective mechanisms to deal with The world’s governments will find that it is easier to sort this new power centre. The old formula of separating legislative, out who gets to control free speech on the internet, and even judiciary, executive, monetary and religious authorities, and to accommodate tech platforms into democratic power struc- ensuring that the media is free and there is competition in the tures, than it is to unlock the stranglehold social economy, does not work satisfactorily in the Information Age. media has over the human mind. As individuals, Lacking suitable instruments, the world’s lawmakers are using we can start acting now. n what they have—anti-trust laws—to literally cut big technol- ogy firms down to size. A far more effective way would be to Nitin Pai is director of The Takshashila Institution curb the narrative dominance of tech companies by compel- in Bengaluru

8 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 35 COVER Opinion Story The Algorithm of Freedom By Aprameya Radhakrishna

uilding technology Vokal is an audio-based search platform that allows users to ask companies isn’t new in India. We questions in voice and returns answers in voice as well. Koo is an have gone through multiple phases I ndian microblogging app that allows every Indian to speak their of building technology; the only thing mind, irrespective of language. that has changed is who we have built it for. We first built technology for the mostly English-speaking global mar- hile building Vokal, some of our users who con- ket through companies like Infosys, tribute answers in Indian languages asked us why they TCS, Wipro and others. We then built W must only answer questions that are posted, and why they for the English-speaking Indian user couldn’t just talk about whatever they had in mind. This got us through Naukri, MakeMyTrip, Book- thinking. There were already enough apps to go and express one- MyShow, Flipkart and Swiggy. The last self. That is when we realised that the existing apps didn’t give five years have seen us building for the users the comfort of being themselves, the biggest discomfort Indian language-speaking audience being that the app was primarily in English. B as a pure consumer of content. We are We added a quick ‘express’ button to Vokal. That didn’t take now seeing a phase of empowerment products, like Vokal and off at all. We realised that one app can only stand for one thing. Koo, which allow Indian language users to not just consume but to ask questions and express themselves. There will be a future phase as well when India will build for the world once again, but this time we will be taking our own innovation to countries with a majority non-English-speaking population. It was back in 2012 that I had my first tryst with building an app for the Indian language speaking user. At TaxiForSure, we actually decided to build the driver app before the rider app. It was one of the first ever apps to be built in India. The first ver- sion made me think how difficult the drivers would find it to navigate in English on the app. Ever since, I have believed that to really empower new Indian users, it was essential to build apps in local languages. The English-knowing world takes the internet for granted. What we don’t realise is the fact that simple things enabled on the internet have changed our lives and accelerated our individual growth stories. What truly changed us is the fact that we could search for information and knowledge, seamlessly communicate with people across the globe, connect with people we knew and didn’t know, express freely what was on our minds. In the last few years, products developed for new internet us- ers were focused on increasing time spent on the app, and making India a big consumption market for video content. While that is important for the overall adoption of the internet, it is defi- nitely not enough to empower the new internet users of India. What will truly empower them is to allow them to search, con- nect and communicate like they never have. This is the thought with which we started working on our products, Vokal and Koo. Illustration by Saurabh Singh

36 8 march 2021 We can either surrender to global The Algorithm of FreedomTech giants or lead the way

Vokal was a question-answer app, and will always be. Expression sions around topics that are of importance to that particular com- needed a separate app. That’s when we decided to build Koo. munity. We have also made typing in local languages very easy. The reason to open an app is what we call the mood of an app. This concept of localising for Indian users is what will help us Instagram, for example, has the mood of lifestyle. Creators create innovate. Observing user behaviour is what will lead to building to express their lifestyle and users follow to consume lifestyle. unique features and products altogether. Who better than an Similarly, LinkedIn is a professional network and the mood is to Indian who lives in India to localise and build for the new inter- connect around work and career. Mixing two or more different net user? moods on a single app has never worked. One app-one mood is the mantra for social media apps. t is A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for India. We can either give away our digital independence on a plat- t Koo, we built features that localise expression. For I ter to the global giants or become part of the growing trend of example, one needs to enter a language-based community becoming digitally atmanirbhar. The unique opportunity to build A when using the app. This enables the app entirely in the cho- the Silicon Valley of the East and to lead the way by building for a sen language, putting the user at ease. Finding other users from billion-plus Indians with our deep understanding of the Indian the same linguistic community is easier, and it also leads to discus- user is in front of each one of us. We at Koo, a 10-month-old product, have chosen to play our role in making India digitally atmanirbhar. We truly believe that in the next three years, we will also be able to go global and an- nounce to the world the power of Indian technology. The startup ecosystem in India has the ability to dream, the talent to build, the funds to invest and the necessary support from Finding other the Government. The biggest support right now is and will con- users from the tinue to come from the users of India. There is at present a wave of emotion in favour of Indian apps. It is up to Indian entrepreneurs same linguistic to build products that earn the unconditional love that Indian users are willing to shower on us. community is Building for a digitally Atmanirbhar Bharat is almost like easier, and it playing a T20 international in front of a packed stadium. A lot of Indian entrepreneurs are building their products live in front of also leads to the whole country and at most times with super small teams tak- ing on some of the largest companies of the world. As in a cricket discussions match, there is commentary—both good and bad. There will be around topics moments of elation and dejection. For those who choose to be in the audience, here’s your chance to cheer like never before. Go that are of on, pick your team and cheer. For the entrepreneurs who want to be a part of this unique importance to moment in Indian history, dig deep, keep it simple and execute; that particular your product might just be the next big global community technology giant. n Aprameya Radhakrishna, an investor based in Bengaluru, is co-founder and CEO of Indian social media platform Koo

8 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 37 foreign policy Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar

Pib The Triumph of Vaccine Diplomacy India shows the world how to move beyond vaccine nationalism even as it confronts new challenges at home and abroad By Siddharth Singh

38 8 march 2021 ne of the most endearing political messages inoculated, the Government had promised that it would share of recent times was delivered by the Prime Min- vaccines, whenever they became available, with the world. It is ister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit, on receiving a promise that India has lived up to. a shipment of Covid-19 vaccines from India. In a India has always provided help and cooperated with other widely shared message, he said that he did not countries but it was limited by what was feasible. India has never expect a quick response from India to his coun- been an inward-looking nation in this respect. But the terms of its Otry’s request. More importantly, Skerrit said the gesture “recog- engagement are changing. Fears have been expressed that a rising nised the quality of our people.” tide of nationalism will turn India into a ‘difficult’ country. But as It was a message that India could understand and appreciate. its vaccine diplomacy shows, this is hardly the case. At the same For many decades after Independence, India was considered ‘less time, the challenges India confronts are increasingly difficult. On than equal’ in a world where size and economic heft meant every- the one hand, an aggressive and war-like China wants to nibble thing. It still does, but in the last year India has taken some more away at India’s borders and in handling China, India has to—by steps to change that. definition—act alone.O n the other hand, help is available in the When the pandemic hit India in February last year, it had little form of diplomatic support from its friends but it comes at the of the medical manufacturing infrastructure necessary to cope cost of India conforming to Western standards of ‘good behav- with the scale of the challenge. It is a well-known story how, in a iour’—and these include limiting nationalism to ‘manageable matter of months, India rigged up a system to manufacture ba- proportions’. These are at odds with each other and nationalism sic medical gear like personal protective equipment (PPE) kits as a political preference is not something that can be switched on and, in due course, equipment like ventilators. It was also a time and off at will by a prime minister, however powerful he may be. when countries—led by China—were busy cornering medical But what is clear is that India’s foreign policymaking is getting supplies and re-engineering supply chains to their own jurisdic- entangled in its defence policies and internal politics, something tions. India, too, did that but with a difference that became clear it has avoided for a long time. a year later. Trying to reach out to the world, India has not abandoned the In May last year, during a speech that sounded the start of the Atmanirb- har Bharat campaign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said: “The state of the world today teaches us that an Atmanirb- By February 23rd, India had shipped 33.59 har Bharat is the only path. It is said in our scriptures—Eshah Panthah—that is, self- million doses of vaccines. About half sufficient India.” In later commentary, was sent to neighbours and the rest to this was interpreted as a trend of inward- looking economic choices that had come countries as distant as El Salvador. About to characterise India in recent years. But what was ignored in such commentary 0.67 million doses were given as grants was the part of the speech wherein Modi said: “India does not advocate self-centric arrangements when it comes to self-reli- ance. India’s self-reliance is ingrained in the happiness, coopera- traditional tasks of preserving and furthering its national inter- tion and peace of the world.” ests. The last one year has shown the ever closer links between its T he full import of that message is only becoming evident now. defence and foreign policies. Last June, when Indian soldiers con- A year later, India is at the forefront of distributing Covid-19 vac- fronted Chinese troops who refused to withdraw after agreeing cines, a global public good in contemporary times, to the world. to do so, the encounter led to 20 Indian soldiers getting killed. It By February 23rd, India had shipped 33.59 million doses of vac- was a rude shock of a kind the country had not felt in a while. The cines across the world. Of this, roughly half was sent to India’s last time a soldier was killed in a face-off with China was decades extended neighbourhood (about 16.3 million doses) and the rest earlier. That was also a tricky time. to countries as distant as Argentina and El Salvador. About 0.67 With China, India always hedged its bets. In terms of ideas and million doses were given as grants. Critics were quick to point outlook, the country is much closer to the West but this affinity out that India was making a ‘diplomatic killing’, but they ignored was never allowed to develop into a closer military relationship. the fact that when vaccines became available some months ago, Chinese sensitivities were always kept in mind. On top of that, countries were engaged in ‘vaccine nationalism’ to begin with. there is a vocal lobby of diplomats, academics and think-tank Only when they had acquired sufficient amounts for their do- analysts who have always made a case for better relations with mestic consumption were these vaccines made available to other China, even if the returns on keeping Chinese concerns on board countries. In contrast, much before the first Indian had been were non-existent. The death of 20 soldiers at Galwan led to the

8 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 39 foreign policy

getty images Modi Government discarding such hedging. India’s approach to the Quad, where it was always considered the most hesitant partner, changed. India was no longer shy of adding military teeth to the grouping, something it had resisted right from the Quad’s formation. Things changed for the better after India occupied positions on the Kailash Range in late August last year. As subsequent events showed, this step was clearly meant to obtain the necessary bargaining chip when the time came to ask the Chinese to leave. This hap- pened in late January-early February, after the ninth round of commander-level talks between the two countries. Finally, after nearly 10 months of attempting to change the ground situation, China has left India alone, for the moment. The complications for India, however, will continue. It is not as if, with China resting for A cargo of vaccines from India arrives in Sao Paolo, Brazil, on January 22 the moment, the danger has passed. Chinese calculations in eastern Ladakh were always opaque. Speculation about these motives has centred on India again. As Comprehensive Strategic Partners, we can work togeth- building infrastructure in ‘contested areas’ and New Delhi being er on common challenges incl #COVID19, the circular economy a ‘lost cause’ for Beijing since the former is already in the Western & an open, secure and prosperous Indo-Pacific. We also discussed camp. Whatever be the reality of these claims, it is clear that India progress of our media platform bill.’ cannot go back to respecting Chinese ‘sensitivities’ again. If the The last line of Morrison’s tweet was more than a subtle hint alleged risk before the events of last summer was that India would about an issue that caused a storm in Australia. Facebook’s re- end up offending China if it went beyond a point in military rela- sponse to the News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory tions with Western countries, the hedging argument now works Bargaining Code Bill 2020 was to shut down pages of Australian in the other direction: India can no longer afford not to build a media and government entities. Ultimately, some of these pages partnership with Western countries. were restored and the two sides began renegotiating on the mat- ter. This may sound like a problem that is internal to Australia. But increasingly, social media platforms have the power to influence ligning with Western nations, however, is not a the politics of countries and that pits them against these giants. costless exercise. Till a decade or so earlier, national interests The problem is especially acute for countries like India where a A were calculated on a realistic basis. It was trade, economic toxic blend of activism fuelled by social media often threatens to advantage and what they could get from each other that deter- unleash unrest. The events of January 26th in New Delhi were mined how they behaved with each other. But that was then; the powered in no small measure by inflammatory social media posts world is a much more complicated place now. Interests matter that are now the subject of an extensive law enforcement inves- but increasingly these are coated in ideological gloss. Countries tigation. The response of Twitter to the Union Government’s that are not ‘democracies’, or are perceived not to be democracies, request to suspend accounts posting inflammatory messages often have to face pressure from global civil society and influen- was lukewarm. It responded only after a vocal protest by the Gov- tial actors in host countries that determine their bilateral ties. ernment. India and Australia are facing similar problems even if India is alleged to be ‘backsliding’ as a democracy by influential they appear to be different. voices in the West. This threatens to embroil what are purely do- When Modi spoke in Lok Sabha on February 10th, he hinted mestic political matters in India’s relations with other countries, that the world order would see changes after the Covid pandemic. especially those in the West. As of now, it is only a threat. But it is Modi sounded confident when he said that India could emerge something India has to watch. as a leader in that changed world. But it is also a world in which On February 18th, Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison the certainties of the past decades have disappeared. India cannot called Modi and discussed, among other things, a law for equi- become an isolated and self-contained country but it certainly has table sharing of revenues between technology giants like Google, to become self-reliant, from vaccines to defence manufacturing. Facebook and legacy media companies in Australia. Morrison T he events of the last year show that it is already taking steps in tweeted: ‘Great to talk to my good friend PM @narendramodi that direction. n

40 8 march 2021 Unparalleled Cutting edge

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It’s a date, period A public calendar is breaking the silence around menstruation in rural Haryana It’s a date, period A public calendar is breaking the silence around menstruation in rural Haryana

Adolescent girls in Jamalgarh village in Nuh district, Haryana, February 21

By Nikita Doval Photographs by Ashish Sharma

hen Muskan Saeed, 13, approached basic design with columns for names of family members and the Mubasshira Khan, 23, a few months ago, the months marked from November 2020 to May 2021. Two things former was on the verge of a nervous break- stand out: one is the phrase ‘periods chart’ in Hindi, emblazoned down. Her menstruation cycle had started in red against a stark white background on the top; the other is the two weeks ago and would not stop. Apart image of a sanitary towel that forms the background of the chart. Wfrom the sheer physical trauma, Muskan was at her wits’ end; she Ostensibly, the chart is for women to track their dates but actually didn’t know who to talk to and was hoping Khan would help her it helps start a conversation about menstruation, shrouded in out. “I have told the girls in the village that they can always come taboo and silence. Or so Sunil Jaglan hopes. and talk to me, no matter what the issue. And periods happen to Keen followers of social media campaigns may remember be a particularly sensitive subject. Girls don’t even discuss it with Jaglan, a former sarpanch of Bibipur village in Haryana’s Jind dis- their mothers, forget about each other,” Khan tells Open. We are trict, as the man behind the ‘selfie with daughter’ campaign, an standing in the courtyard of Maulana Iliyas Creative Girls Public initiative launched in 2015 which invited people to share photo- School, a private school Khan runs in her village of Jamalgarh graphs with their daughters. Jaglan had started the campaign to in the Nuh district in Haryana as she pursues her Bachelor of raise awareness about the girl child in his state, infamous for its Education at Jamia Millia Islamia in Delhi. Muskan is standing skewed sex ratio resulting from female foeticide. His campaign, with a group of girls, all crowded around a poster which at first which even caught the attention of Prime Minister Narendra glance looks like a calendar. It is is a ‘period chart’, for tracking Modi, became a nationwide craze. Over the years, Jaglan has one’s menstrual cycle. Done up in blue and white, the chart has a been working on several related issues from female foeticide to

8 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 43 Dispatch

representation in village governing bodies. And now he wants to house in Sakras village in Nuh is the period chart, pasted in the shift the focus to menstruation. “It’s not easy for me to talk about it. centre of the living room wall facing the entrance. Zipping around When I had first become the sarpanch around 2012, I had ordered on her scootie, Shahnaz, 26, is a familiar sight in the village now sanitary pad-making machines for my village but I could never but it has been an uphill battle of acceptance for her in an area bring myself to have a conversation about them. I just felt that where families pull girls out of school once they hit puberty and it really wasn’t my area.” Jaglan uses the commonplace Indian tightly control the latter’s use of mobile phones. “When I first put phrase, ‘ladies’ problem’, talking about his earlier attitude towards up the chart in the living room, a very deliberate move on my part, menstruation. Now, his conversation is peppered with terms like I was asked by a female visitor to remove it. No man dared to bring ‘periods’, ‘sanitary pads’ and ‘mensutral cups’ and is eager about it up directly but there were murmurs all over the village,” she women sharing their stories. The idea for a ‘period chart’ came af- says. Shahnaz was 16 when her periods began. She remembers ter he read a news report about today’s girls hitting puberty earlier. the censure that brought upon her: “Itni jaldi? [So early?]” asked a Jaglan had a long conversation with his wife to understand the hostelmate. “I was in a hostel then and no one was willing to tell nitty-gritties of the biological function and realised that whereas me what was happening. My warden explained, rather kindly, I the average age at which women start having periods in Haryana, now realise in hindsight.” till even a decade ago, was 15, it had since fallen to 13, such as in Menstruation remains an uneasy and stigmatised issue even the cases of Muskan and Mubasshira. While the latter’s periods in cities. Some younger girls are aware of it thanks to an older began at 15, Muskan’s started at 13. In the past Jaglan had organ- sister or a sister-in-law but most are taken by surprise when their ised village meetings to kickstart his campaigns and try and get a cycles begin. Anjali Kumari, 23, who works in Nuh with Jaglan’s conversation going but that approach was not feasible for men- Selfie WithD aughter Foundation, did not tell her mother for struation. And that is when he hit upon the idea of a period chart. months that her periods had started. She knew that cloth was The first thing that catches the eye upon entering Shahnaz’s a preferred option in her household because of her friends but

The narrow focus on providing pads to women overlooks M ubasshira Khan the larger behaviour that menstruation involves. That pastes a period chart in the girls’ school she would require building toilets, disposing waste and runs in her village talking about the impact on women’s health Jamalgarh, February 21

44 8 march 2021 Sunil Jaglan, founder of Selfie With Daughter Foundation, is aware of the irony of a women’s cause championed by a man but hopes his team of volunteers, all young girls who reached out after his ‘selfie with daughter’ campaign, will lay to rest any such question hesitated broaching the subject with her mother. Hers is not an for pads that make use of non-degradable plastic but women are isolated case. In the villages of Nuh Open visited, girls would go unable to wash or dry them properly owing to the culture of secre- into a huddle giggling or turn away their faces when asked about cy and shame that surrounds menstruation. “In most areas you menstruation. Shahnaz has been shushed by women she consid- will find that there is always a bigger fight, so menstrual health ers friends whenever she brings up the period chart. “What are takes a backseat. Even during elections, religion is an issue, as is you talking about?” and “Why will I discuss this with you?” are land or prohibition but never women’s health. These are often dis- two of the most common responses she hears. But she persists. missed under the garb of women’s problems,” says Chakraborty. And she along with two other activists, Poonam Bhujia and Zeen- Both Jaglan and Chakraborty realised early on that talking to at Khan, from the neighbouring village of Ferozepur Zikra have people about menstruation wasn’t going to work. Especially for had some success: they have managed to convince a handful of Jaglan. Chakraborty hit upon the idea of wall art to start a public girls to put up the charts in their rooms, even if it remained hidden conversation around the superstitions regarding menstruation behind clothes hung up on the wall. The final aim is to bring the to supplement Jaglan’s period chart. discussion out in the open. “Menstruation is very stigma-ridden in our society. The entire idea is to hide it,” says Srilekha Chakraborty, a menstrual health ni hear ng about the period chart, Mubasshira activist who works in Jharkhand. She is also the brain behind the got in touch with Jaglan and insisted he send her an popular campaign ‘#PeriodpeCharcha’ in Tribal villages in the O image on WhatsApp immediately so she could take state. “Women here earn Rs 120 for a day’s work, earnings that A4 printouts as soon as possible. One can these sheets put up in feed their entire family. Buying sanitary pads out of that amount several households in her village now, though getting girls to talk or skipping a day’s work because of backache or cramps are not about them or periods openly is still difficult. One exception is options for them.” In Nuh too, women talk about working in Shafiya, mother of three children with the youngest only a few the fields and not taking time off. “The girls stay emotionally months old. Among the women who gathered around her, some disturbed, but they don’t have the language to articulate what is giggle and most frown in disapproval as Shafiya talks about pe- wrong. Weepiness, irritation, pre-menstrual syndrome have a very riods. On being asked how they keep track of their cycles, they strong emotional component but if we are not even willing to ac- turn their heads away or laugh into their dupattas. Shafiya has knowledge the physical aspect of the situation, how do we address not had a cycle for over three months now but won’t go to a doc- the emotional part?” says Shahnaz who has had girls throw back tor, dismissing health concerns with a wave of her hand. “This sanitary towel packets at her saying what do they even need it for. happened even after the birth of my second child. We are tougher In 2011, an NGO report had revealed the worrying statistic than all this,” she says. that only 12 per cent of Indian women had access to sanitary pads. Are they? Cervical cancer is one of the largest contributors In rural India, women used either cloth (again a very small per- to women’s cancer deaths in India. The incidence of the disease, centage) or leaves, hay and even socks stuffed with socks. In the linked to poor menstrual health, in India is much higher than villages of Nuh, Open met women who conveyed that they don’t the global average. “The point is that we dismiss it as an issue of use anything to absorb the flow during their periods.S ince then concern for women but we don’t give women the space to talk strategies have been developed and schemes launched to pro- about it,” says Jaglan who hopes that seeing period charts in vide sanitary napkins to women. The 2015-2016 National Family their houses will at least sensitise the next generation of men. H ealth Survey reported that pad use had risen to 58 per cent across He started in Nuh rather than Jind, his own district, because the India. In his 2020 Independence Day speech, Modi became the former is among India’s most backward regions. first prime minister to talk about periods publicly when he spoke Jaglan is aware of the irony of a women’s cause being cham- about the ease of access to sanitary towels for women under the pioned by a man but he hopes that his team of volunteers spread Janaushadi Suvidha Sanitary Napkin scheme. extensively across Haryana, all young girls who reached out to But sometimes solutions create new problems. The narrow him after his ‘selfie with daughter’ campaign, will lay to rest any focus on providing pads to women overlooks the larger behaviour such question. “We are all in this together. We have to bring out that menstruation involves. That would require building toilets, menstruation from this dark corner we have shoved it into.” And disposing waste and talking about the impact on women’s health. the first step towards it may just be putting up a period chart in Cloth, for instance, is a sustainable and even hygienic substitute the open. n

8 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 45 Reforms CARTOGRAPHER’S DAY Liberalisation of map-making is a gamechanger for the economy— but with this freedom, too, comes a big responsibility

By Sudeep Paul

he map is the most ence and Technology’s announcement For instance, when you know Big Tech important empirical docu- on February 15th that it was liberalising is taking snapshots of your location and ment that our species came map-making, granting easy access to logging it, whether you turn off your loca- up with. However, despite geospatial data to private players outside tion on your mobile or not. Nevertheless, their awareness of the con- the labyrinths of bureaucracy. The Gov- we are still living in the midst of the Co- tours of the subcontinent ernment will, of course, safeguard sensi- vid-19 pandemic—and nothing that has and its maritime neigh- tive data and prohibit access to military been done in battling it would have been bourhood, ancient Indians installations, but the freedom to survey possible without geospatial data. World- didn’t display any particu- and map should be a gamechanger for wide, the pandemic has witnessed how larT interest in cartography. At least, little the Indian economy, industry, social wel- everyday geospatial data can be worked evidence exists that they did, unlike the fare, disease and disaster management, into epidemiological monitoring to track Greeks on the seas or the Arabs who, for and practically every resident. the path of the virus. This has also allowed a long while, were the geographers to the Geospatial technology has had the identification of vulnerable populations world. Mapping India and disseminating single-biggest impact on map-making through mobile tracing and designing of information about the seas around the in recent decades and revolutionised the precision responses. subcontinent was mostly the business of others. As European rivalries became full-bodied on Indian soil, the French soon emerged at the top of the league in their The geospatial digital divide cartographic accuracy. But the advent of between OECD countries and the William Lambton and the Great Trigono- rest of the world is widening. The metrical Survey of India—begun in 1802 and completed in the 1870s under James Government has now recognised Walker—is when the story of the modern that the benefits of a liberal Indian map begins. Lambton’s successor policy outweigh the risks George Everest, as the Surveyor General, had taken the trigonometrical survey un- der the aegis of the Survey of India, which remained inseparable from most things uses of maps. From the ability (and success The Government believes that the related to maps in India thereafter. via efficient routes) of food deliveries by liberalised guidelines will add a value of The map, a tool for traders and mer- aggregating services or groceries and du- Rs 1 lakh crore to the geospatial data sec- chants under sail, was also a military rables from retail giants or the local trad- tor and enable Indian players to compete instrument through most of its exis- er—all transacted on a smartphone—to globally while also creating jobs for more tence and the strategic ramifications deciding which village needs toilets or than two million people. On this change of map-making were acute in the great water before its neighbour, or in which of direction, Sanjeev Sanyal, Principal game rivalries played out by colonising city block a disease is spreading fast, life as Economic Advisor in the Ministry of armies and navies on the subcontinent we know it would be inconceivable with- Finance, tells Open: “The cartography and and its maritime rim. Independent India out the instant combination of static and geospatial sector is already very impor- didn’t shake off that legacy—not with- dynamic geospatial data. It has brought tant—almost everyone now uses Google out reason—till the Department of Sci- its own epoch-defining headaches too. Maps or some such application. However,

46 8 march 2021 CARTOGRAPHER’S DAY ingh S abh r au S by Illustration

9E DECEMB R 2019 www.openthemagazine.com 47 Reforms

Till this reform, we regulated the geospatial sector like a security threat rather than an economic opportunity. This was a colonial-era framework that saw cartographic information as something only government should possess” Sanjeev Sanyal Principal Economic Advisor, Ministry of Finance

till this reform, we regulated it like it was sensor technologies. Applications are management and treatment as well as a security threat rather than an economic many, and include the mapping of hard- facilities for renewables. Part of the reason opportunity. This is because of a colonial- to-access terrain and terrain features, infra projects take a long time to take off era framework that saw cartographic in- integrated water resource management, in India is the slow access to geospatial formation as something that only govern- water quality monitoring for agriculture data. Time lost is one of the biggest sub- ment should possess. Ironically, this only and other uses, and vector-borne disease tractions from success. Sethi says: “Pub- led to greater reliance on foreign providers mapping.” About the new policy, Sethi licly accessible earth science data stands to since there was no space for innovation by says: “At the outset, it is essential to es- benefit not just private sector entities India’s private sector. So, for the first time tablish a basic distinction in the context engaged in environmental services but since the East India Company, the reforms of the new geospatial data policy: Our also public sector institutions with a mean that India’s cartography sector is view is that earth science data needs to responsibility to the people of India. More open for investment and exploration.” be viewed as separate from personal geo- widely available data should also help to Government holds a lot of data. En- located data. As to the former category, the reduce the needless and costly duplication abling easier access would allow optimal Government’s new policy is irrefutably a of data collection and analysis that occurs utilisation of such data and more effective step in the right direction for multi-sector so often the world over.” socio-economic interventions. However, economic development, disaster risk and There is a global context too. Even as despite the overabundance of interactive natural resource management, and inno- the geospatial digital divide has been wid- digital maps and smartphones today, vation, to name but a few benefits.” ening, countries have been attempting to India remains data-poor and inadequate- Allowing the private sector to freely make their collection and management ly surveyed which, in turn, has led to conduct its own surveys—trusting it to of national geospatial data comprehen- the twin problem of reliance on foreign adhere to the guidelines instead of forc- sive. National Geodetic Frameworks are sources and the irony that while succes- ing it through endless red tape—collect, being integrated at the next higher level sive governments have held on to the disseminate and deploy data will drive of regional frameworks and, ultimately, data purse, much of what they—and the efficiencies in infrastructure-building to the International Terrestrial Reference Survey of India—sought to monopolise, (a must-go for India), agriculture (the Frame (ITRF) that is updated, and new became available in the public domain cynosure of all eyes) and emergency re- solutions incorporated, periodically. Inte- anyway. As Union Science and Technol- sponse capacities (Covid is seeing new grated data makes it easier to globally and ogy Minister Harsh Vardhan noted, pub- surges ). Precision agriculture is the heart nationally track, for instance, changes licly available geospatial services had long of technology-driven reform in the sector on the earth’s surface and sea levels, in- ago made the restrictions on geospatial and, beginning with quickly noting land- cluding tectonic shifts and fractures or data redundant. On the other hand, there use modifications through satellite data pressure build-ups that can trigger earth- is the growing geospatial digital divide to targeting irrigation at the right place, quakes and tsunamis. between OECD countries and the rest. it reduces costs, enables more efficient India, among other things, needs to energy use and resource deployment as better map its natural resource informa- well as mitigates the environmental fall- urope was fortunate that tion. Tushar Sethi, who heads UK-based out. Infrastructure must not only be at E Gerardus Mercator did not meet an geoinformatics company Margosa Envi- the right place but also at the right time, early death for heresy for his Lutheran ronmental Solutions Ltd, tells Open: “We taking into account need, utility, wear convictions after having been born a Cath- have repeatedly noted a desperate need and tear, terrain and environment. This olic in an age of upheaval. But sometime for India to exploit its natural resource includes roads and bridges and housing in the late 20th century, the geography- information using both remote and field for all as much as power plants, water obsessed European mind lost its sense of

48 8 march 2021 “Publicly accessible earth science data stands to benefit not just private sector entities but also public sector institutions. It should also reduce the needless and costly duplication of data collection and analysis Tushar Sethi Director, Margosa Environmental Solutions, UK

the planet’s surface, its natural boundar- lish who allowed a freer approach. The terrorists had used Google to recce the city. ies and man-made lines on the map. The Iberians had an initial advantage as they Again, digital map-makers in India had much less map-literate American mind had made the early discoveries of sea to use multi-cam vehicles since LiDAR never caught on to what had changed. “To routes to the Americas and the East, but (Light Detection and Ranging) mapping recover our sense of geography, we first the freewheeling private innovations of was not allowed. This, when it’s standard must fix the moment in recent history the Dutch and the English meant that across the world. when we most profoundly lost it, explain they soon had much better maps. This Sethi argues that for defence and why we lost it, and elucidate how that was a key factor in their success against security, there is neither cause for con- affected our assumptions about the Spanish and Portuguese competitors. In- cern on the new geospatial data policy world...the moment I have isolated, when terestingly, the British would retain this nor any justification for previous blan- that loss seemed most acute, was imme- open approach at home but would turn ket bans on the dissemination of such diately after the collapse of the Berlin cartography into a state monopoly in earth-science data. “After all, a restrictive Wall...For suddenly we were in a world colonial India so that they could control regulatory framework is not the toolkit to in which the dismantling of a man-made information. This colonial suspicion of stop adversarial state actors from access- boundary in Germany had led to the as- non-state native cartography continued ing whatever they seek. And surely, the sumption that all human divisions were to be embedded in our regulations long Government knows that the technologi- surmountable,” wrote Robert D Kaplan in after Independence and even after satel- cally competent among them already The Revenge of Geography (2012). Ignoring, lite photos made them irrelevant. The possess certain types of data until now or forgetting, the map was a terrible mis- new reforms have finally ended that re- withheld from the public domain,” take and the world is still paying the price gime and opened up a whole new world he says. for it. For, if the map is fate, we have to read of opportunities in this sector.” Where the state should stamp its au- it right. “A good place to understand the thority, and again from a public interest present, and to ask questions about the perspective, is privacy and uses of the future, is on the ground, travelling as t was the Kargil War that other type of geospatial data. “There are slowly as possible.” (ibid) I awakened India to the risks of depen- legitimate privacy rights and misuse con- India’s colonial masters who made dence on foreign data. It led to government cerns with respect to personal geo-located its modern maps were paranoid about investment in geodesy and geographic datasets (social media, telecom, census the security of Empire. The Indian state, information systems (GIS). Yet, it has tak- data, etcetera).” Sethi, while not com- post-Independence, remained obsessed en India this long to grant a competitive menting on the specific implications for with the map. So much so, it became edge to its private players who can hereaf- India, opines that regulatory frameworks schizophrenic about its security and ter export data and also bring investment like the EU’s GDPR (General Data Protec- the technological revolution unleashed into the sector. Foreign firms and foreign- tion Regulation 2016/679) “serve as a refer- around it. Worried about the future, it controlled/based Indian firms will have ence for providing wide-ranging protec- remained chained to history and did not to buy their data from their Indian coun- tions and upholding ethical standards.” really do the map justice. Sanyal, who is terparts. To illustrate the persistence of The Government recognised that the also a cartography enthusiast and col- swimming against the current, a petition benefits outweighed the risks and costs lector of old maps, says: “The history of filed in the Delhi High Court as recently as quite some time ago. The new policy map-making saw two models compete: July 2019 had sought to restrain Google only took its time finding its way out of one used by the Spanish and Portuguese from uploading India’s maps, given the the labyrinth. Its immediate beneficiaries in the 16th century who kept it a state sensitivity of the data. Part of the petition- should know that with this freedom, too, monopoly, and the Dutch and the Eng- er’s argument was that the Mumbai 26/11 come great responsibilities. n

8 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 49 books essay The Progressive in Paris n o sal

SH Raza at his studio in Delhi

SH R aza visited the museums in a systematic manner to look at the original works which he had wanted to, for so long. He stood transfixed before a portr ait of Vincent Van Gogh and tears came to his eyes The pleasures and pains SH Raza The Progressive in Paris faced while in Europe

By Yashodhara Dalmia Photograph by Rohit Chawla

t was an uninterrupted journey by sea, broken by the lapping waters, which was taken by SH Raza in Septem- ber 1950 and which finally brought him to Marseilles. He was accompanied by Akbar Padamsee who had also de- cided to live and work in Paris for a while. Raza recalled, ‘When the ship left, I looked at the shores of Bombay Iwith tremendous emotion in my heart. Slowly, the country receded and the boat took us over into the space of the ocean.’ Padamsee vividly remembers the journey which he under- took after speaking to Raza, N‘ o. I didn’t know anybody and I was in the School of Art, so there was no one—I was 18. Raza was six years older than me.’ He mentioned, ‘We went by the same boat—SS Stetenham —an English boat. It was a wonderful trip with him. You know I was reading a lot of books and Raza didn’t know English. His English was poor or nil. And he was trying to study. So the books I read, I talked to him about them. He said, ‘Wonderful, when did you read them?’ I said, my brother Nurud- din has a big library.’ According to Akbar he also learnt how to knot a tie on the ship and would practise it for hours. They reached Marseille eleven days later on October 2nd where a representative of the French Government met them and they were put up in a hotel. The next day they travelled by train to Paris and were received at Gare de Lyon by Ram Kumar at 8 am. A room had been fixed for Raza at Rue Delambre at Montpar- nasse where all the important painters, French and otherwise, lived and worked. Raza did not take long to freshen up and rush out to look at the city he had dreamt about for so long. ‘It was an extraordinary experience. I loved these boulevards and buildings and the look of the cafes and houses. I discovered at the crossroad of Boulevard Montparnasse and Raspail an enormous statue of the writer Balzac by the sculptor Rodin…Now, here was a great sculptor portraying a great writer. The city honouring these two artists was fantastic and the solidity and sculpturesque quality of the statue right in a public place was a revelation to me.’ On seeing a poster announcing an exhibition of Matisse at SH R aza visited the museums in a systematic manner to look at the Maison de la Pensee Francaise, Akbar and Raza went to see it and original works which he had wanted to, for so long. He stood transfixed this was the very first show that he saw in Paris. ‘It was extraordi- nary in the sense that it worked with two dimensions, nearer to before a portr ait of Vincent Van Gogh and tears came to his eyes the Indian concepts in which we were getting involved and

www.openthemagazine.com 51 books essay

interested. It was not the realism of the post-Renaissance period. It was solidly constructed, where colour prevailed…Around us there were beautiful men and women, well dressed. Musical concerts being announced, other art events. There was a poster which said in French, ‘Life begins tomorrow.’ I said, ‘No, Life begins today.’ Although Raza’s dream had come true and he was at last in Paris, the city after the war was a distilled place. It had been the metropolis of the 20th century where artists, writers and thinkers had congregated to realise their art and to lay the paradigms for modernity. As Gertrude Stein writes, ‘The reason why all of us naturally began to live in France is because France has scientific methods, machines and electricity, but does not really believe that these things have anything to do with the real business of living. ... And so in the beginning of the twentieth century when a new

way had to be found naturally they needed France… But really chive what they do is to respect art and letters, if you are a writer you Ar have privileges, if you are a painter you have privileges and it is pleasant having those privileges. … well that too is intelligent on

the part of France and unsentimental, because after all the way Courtesy Raza everything is remembered is by the writers and painters of the pe- riod, nobody really lives who has not been well written about and in realising that the French show their usual sense of reality… .’ R aza was working harder than ever and seemed barely to have any time on his hands. He was Despite the effervescence, the Paris that Raza saw had driven because it was a make-or- break situation. there was a sea change in his work as well changed from the early part of the century, and suffered from a sense of exhaustion. The haunts of the artists and writers, like Café de Flore, wore a deserted look and the masters were pres- ent by their absence. The Ecole de Paris had run its course, leav- ing behind the last remnants of abstract art with painters like day where he stood transfixed before a portrait of Vincent Pierre Soulage, Nicolas de Stael and Serge Poliakoff.T he scene Van Gogh and tears came to his eyes. Next to this was a highly had shifted toN ew York even as Paris harboured a melancholy orchestrated works of Cezanne and he studied these with great nostalgia for the masters of modern art. When one of the last of interest for they consisted of great depth and complexity. He them Nicolas de Stael, at the age of forty-one committed suicide also found Gaugin extraordinary and closer to the oriental on March 16, 1955 by leaping from his eleventh storey studio aesthetics he was familiar with. terrace in Antibes, Paris mourned. Raza was to join the Alliance Francaise to improve his French. Soon after he was to get admission to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and was allotted to the Atelier of Heuze, a fairly well- et Raza was fortunate to have his colleagues in Paris. known portrait painter. In the course of time he got to know YRam Kumar recalls, ‘When Raza first arrived in Paris in 1950, Edmond Heuzé who said to him, ‘Look, Raza, ultimately you I was there at the station to welcome him. I still remember how, have nothing to learn at this school. Of course, you can practise, even as he alighted from the train, he was infused with enthu- which is good. Art expression is practical work: paint and study. siasm for Paris, and how within minutes he was talking about I would give you every possible instruction ideas that you the Louvre and Picasso. I attempted to introduce him to other would like to know. Ask me questions, but work. At home you dimensions of the city—the place, the people, the weather, the are already a mature painter. You come from a great civilisation life—but he was lost in other dreams. He was already planning and culture. I will give you all the papers that would be neces- his schedule of study, when he would work and when he would sary but come and see me once a week at least.’ visit other exhibitions and museums in the city. He valued time Raza found that he was right and that the training did not immensely and wanted to use it for work and work alone. He felt happen in the school where the students were rather imma- he might never get such a chance again, and wanted to experi- ture but for three or four friends who had talent. But amongst ence this once in a lifetime opportunity to its fullest—little did he the students was a young girl who was not just very pretty but know at that time that he would be spending his life there.’ very talented and Raza became very friendly with her. This was The artist was to visit the museums in a systematic man- Janine Mongillat. ner to look at the original works which he had wanted to, for In these early years, life was very busy for Raza. As he wrote so long. He could hardly wait to go to Jeu de Paume the next to Mr. Journot, his friend and the French Councillor in Bombay

52 8 march 2021 ( L-R) Village with Church, 1958; Rajputana, 2003; Eglise, Calvaise-Breton, 1956 by SH Raza

R aza was working harder than ever and seemed barely to have any time on his hands. He was driven because it was a make-or- break situation. there was a sea change in his work as well

some years later, ‘Please forgive me for the delay in writing changed with me now. I have undergone a period of study and to you. Often and again I thought of doing so informing you evolution for which I had to pay with my blood and the realisa- about me and my work, my happiness and my problem…. My tion has cost me my life. This is no mystic statement—actually first attempt was to acquaint myself with the art treasures of I refer to the skeleton I am reduced to now—my physical being Paris and to have a general knowledge of the history of Art in which cannot now stand four hours work—my frail hands Europe—both ancient and modern….My approach has been, of which at the age of 30 tremble constantly. Nor do I wish that course like that of a student of ‘aesthetics’ rather than that of an the above statement should give impression of complaint. I archaeologist or a historian. The Ecole des Beaux-Arts opened am, on the contrary, happy indeed to have lived and lived fully in the middle of October and I joined it as ‘Etudiant Libre’ (that and my way, according to my own values and to have worked so because I am over-age). I have taken the painting course of for the sheer joy of working…Now some facts about my life. the morning and the drawing classes in the evening. As I told My work has completely changed. The pictorial conception I you in Bombay, I wanted to do a lot of drawing and painting am developing is totally different—which I will not deal with, from life and I am as convinced now as before of the impor- since it will take me pages to explain. I will only show one tance of drawing as the fundamental basis of a good painting. I difference which is very significant and which at the moment have of course, the afternoons and holidays for my experimen- concerns us. This is that I need now at least four to six weeks for tal work and for studies in museums and libraries.’ a painting—if I work regularly—whereas in Bombay I used to Raza was working harder than ever and seemed barely to leave home with six papers tucked under my arms—and by the have any time on his hands. He was driven because it was a evening I will come back with at least four paintings—some- make-or-break situation. But there was a sea change in his work times all the papers were covered. Now this one painting for as well. He mentions to his younger brother Mohsin who had which I give more than a month [of] hard work is sold for about asked for financial help, ‘It’s not asking too much from a broth- 300 rupees—which is hardly sufficient for a month’s expenses er (who himself feels morally bound to help you) for assistance. for one person in Paris. The only fortunate thing is I sell almost I even like the confident tone of your letter. But dear one, do everything I do and so far I haven’t starved.’ n you know that this one is not the healthy young man of 1940s, proud and confident who could work 16 hours a day and whose This is an edited excerpt from Sayed Haider Raza: The Journey of an work brought back money surer than the surest trade? All has Iconic Artist by Yashodhara Dalmia (HarperCollins; 264 pages; Rs 899)

8 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 53 books

the abandoned Holding institutions to account Rohit Chandra

Migrant workers walking back to their villages during the lockdown in New Delhi, March 26, 2020 reuters

t’s the poetry, not the of this divine poetry, the plumbing of gence and delayed intervention. A range plumbing’ is a pithy aphorism I India’s state is eroding at an alarming rate. of India’s most prominent public institu- have heard frequently in the last The former focuses on the immediate tions are held to account, and every one of decade, referring to India’s larger humanitarian fallout of Covid-19 and the them is judged to have fallen well short of ‘Iproblem of getting caught in the weeds subsequent lockdowns, the latter digs what was minimally expected of them. of implementation and struggling deep into the specific developmental fail- Mander’s book combines heartrending to form a broader narrative or grand ures of several Indian states, particularly anecdotes of those who were worst affect- strategy. If only we could get India’s over the last few decades. ed by the lockdowns with searing indict- story, its ambitions and its goals straight, Regardless of how well-travelled, ments of public functionaries’ responses incentives would align, motivation well-read and well-versed one is about and expert opinions to momentarily jolt would trickle down through the ranks, the realities of India’s poor, the fallout of the reader into the lives of India’s most domestic and foreign investors would Covid-19 was well beyond the imagina- vulnerable. In contrast to grand poetry, get the right signal, and the virtuous tion of most of this country’s elite. In the Locking Down the Poor would be more of cycle of growth and prosperity would post-Covid world, as many tried to ration a mournful lament, something Balraj commence. their intake of dystopic news, there was a Sahni might sing wistfully as he walks Two recently published books, Harsh parallel epidemic of starvation, lock- away from his dispossessed land in Do Mander’s Locking Down the Poor: The Pan- down-induced mental health problems, Bigha Zamin (1953). It asks the question, demic and India’s Moral Centre and domestic violence, and much more. Lock- ‘Can we use the moment of this unprec- M Rajshekhar’s Despite the State: Why In- ing Down the Poor is a deeply empathetic edented crisis to rebuild our broken dia Lets Its People Down and How They Cope, retelling of the humanitarian crises of the country into one which is more compas- make a strong case for how in the pursuit lockdown, aggravated by state negli- sionate, more just and more equal?’ The

54 8 march 2021 book is both devastating in its portrayal Among those studying India’s politi- since its inception, political groups have of reality, but also aspirational, in having cal economy, there has been much ink struggled to either maintain their state a clear vision of what basic standards our spilt debating the developmental nature patronage or become new recipients of public institutions should be held to. of the Indian state. While there is no state patronage; that the promises of a While Despite the State does not di- doubt that the presence of the Indian truly universal welfare state have always rectly answer Mander’s earlier question, it state looms large in many developmental been insincere because of a shortage of digs deep into the multiplying infirmities activities, it is not clear if the Indian state resources, or political envy and commu- of and incursions on India’s state institu- is actually able to accomplish its devel- nity rivalry, or because those in power tions. If Mander’s book holds institutions opmental goals without ceding large could not overcome their predilection to account in light of post-pandemic ground to vested interests who success- for hoarding, redistribution-as-politics, measures, Rajshekhar’s book digs deeper fully make their claims on state resources, or avoiding the appearance of waste and and asks, why are these institutions an idea political scientist Ronald Herring misuse. Even in the face of a once-in-a- in such bad shape to begin with? The refers to as ‘embedded particularism’. century pandemic. culmination of more than three years Economist Pranab Bardhan goes even fur- For the better part of the last decade, of detailed reporting, Despite the State ther to call out the ‘dominant coalition’ we have heard the poetry of national spans stories from six states (Mizoram, of industrialists, the professional class triumphalism far outpace accomplish- Odisha, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and and farmers (a particular wealthy subset) ments on the ground. As if moulding Gujarat) engaging with a dizzying array which has cornered most of these gains in reality to reflect the clickbait nature of the of topics from each. Whether it is the the last half-century. social media era, hoardings and full-page entry of South Korean soaps into the In light of these ideas, these books newspaper ads emerged announcing overly competitive Mizoram entertain- remind us that at best India’s approach the accomplishments of government ment market, the increasing consump- to welfare has been particularistic; that programmes, apps were launched to tion of macho south Indian films by the solve every social and developmental ill, frustrated Bihari youth, the meteoric rise and photo-ops providing documentary of mining contractors in Odisha or the proof of every new project were circu- co-evolution of politicians and religious lated using celebratory hashtags. What organisations in Punjab, Despite the State was lost in this promotional maelstrom brings some much-needed colour to the was Gandhi’s talisman: ‘Whenever you black-and-white failures of the Indian are in doubt, or when the self becomes state. In contrast to Mander’s lament, too much with you, apply the following Rajshekhar’s book is more of a slowly test. Recall the face of the poorest and the evolving ballad by a wandering monk, weakest man [or woman] whom you which mixes regional stories and cultural may have seen, and ask yourself, if the insight with philosophical reflection. Locking Down the Poor step you contemplate is going to be of any The Pandemic and Despite the State excels at connect- India’s Moral Centre use to him [or her].’ ing the local to the national. Many of Harsh Mander Both Mander and Rajshekhar deal the problems it highlights tend to be with some heavy, difficult material in replicated throughout India: Mizoram’s Speaking Tiger their books, a reflection of the grim real- 240 Pages | Rs 399 problems of timely payment of state ity that faces many Indians today. How- employees is a frequent grievance of ever, for any idealistic student who wants frontline workers throughout India; the to understand where they can make a politicisation of Gujarat’s dairy coopera- difference, for any C-suite executive who tives is reminiscent of the fate of many ag- wants to understand the bottom of the ricultural and banking cooperatives; the pyramid, for any bureaucrat who has way political power was used in Punjab not been out in the field for a while, these to help one family dominate economic books will reacquaint readers not only activity is a tendency we see among many with where the state falls short, but also state politicians, albeit somewhat less ef- where civic responsibility, reciprocity, fectively. The repeated theme here is that empathy and other primordial bonds various elites—political, business and Des pite the State much older than the nation-state and Why India Lets Its People bureaucratic—are successfully able to Down and How They Cope political parties fill the vacuum.R efur- corner gains, and redistribution and other M Rajshekhar bishing the plumbing of the Indian state state welfare functions are often done is a monumental task, but the first step is grudgingly as afterthoughts. Context admitting you have a problem. n 300 Pages | Rs 499

8 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 55 books

Forged in Fire The foundational violence that accompanied the formation of India as a modern nation-state Siddharth Singh

hen Hyderabad and then there was a leftist rebellion that The aftershocks of those events can be felt ceased to exist as an was brewing in the Telangana region. till today. It was but natural that princely independent state in While one problem was solved by late India and the ideological props that were W 1948, it was among the 1948, the rebellion continued until 1952. used to sustain it as a matter of British largest princely states in India. Once It would re-emerge later in the same re- control would create problems whenever the British left India, the lastN izam Mir gion in the 1980s and spread across other efforts were made to make a nation-state. Osman Ali Khan (1886-1967) tried hard nearby states where it continues until The fact that this process was not to ‘regain sovereignty’ that he thought now. The original repertoire of shifting pre-ordained and fluidity marked it is was rightfully his. In imagining this he forest-dwelling people into camps in a not often appreciated.A t each step, was encouraged in no small manner by bid to control territory has been a con- luck played an important role: the informal constitutionalism of the stant until recently. When the disloca- Hyderabad, Manipur, Goa and J&K are British as they went about forging their tion experienced by people in Punjab and prime examples. empire. Nor was he alone. Another large later, in fits and starts, inB engal is added, Purushotham has written a fine state, Jammu & Kashmir (J&K), tried the process acquires a violent colour. interpretative history, a kind that has not the same idea. While Hyderabad did not Purushotham writes, ‘An imperial been written for a while now. But one survive and was peacefully integrated regime of sovereignty with an uncodified can ask: Why should we remember the into India, Kashmir continued to be a constitution was reforged into a national events that took place in 1948? Another constitutional fester until recently. regime of sovereignty with a republican way to engage with them is through a Sunil Purushotham’s From Raj To constitution.’ This was not a simple pro- genealogy of ideas like federalism, liberal- Republic: Sovereignty, Violence, and Democ- cess where the British handed over power ism and difference, ideas that were lost in racy in India is an interpretative study to Indian leaders. It is forgotten that close the fire and haze of Independence. They of the events of those years that tries to to 40 per cent of India was princely India continue to have a contemporary ring as make sense of the foundational violence that through a deliberate process was debate continues on how India should that accompanied the formation of kept distinct from British India proper. be organised internally even today. The India as a modern nation-state. Until It was the latter part that was on offer to ghost of informal constitutionalism, he now, when one read about the violence nationalist leaders; they had to gain the writes, remains with us even today. of Partition, it was mainly about events ‘other India’ by persuasion, negotiation One reason why the British dissolu- in two states, Punjab and West Bengal, and, as Hyderabad showed, by violence. tion of native states came to a halt after that were divided between India and 1857 was the mix of caution and rethink- Pakistan. There is some mention about ing about organising India in the wake of raiders from Pakistan trying to forcibly the Mutiny. Before 1857, the ideological wrest J&K from India and some random foundations of British rule rested on accounting of violent incidents here the idea of providing good governance and there. Each of these events has been to India and Indians much like Europe. linked in some way or another by his- If Europe could have an enlightened torians. But Purushotham’s story is one government, there was no reason why of the few where these different strands India could not enjoy the fruits of such are stitched into one single piece where a government. Based on universalising contingency, violence and will are the ideas of Enlightenment, suitably linked together. From Raj To Republic interpreted for India, thinkers like James Sovereignty, Violence, Consider Hyderabad. What the new and Democracy in India Mill and the evangelist Charles Grant Government of India faced were two dif- Sunil Purushotham went about making a strong case for Brit- ferent problems. There was the attempt ish rule. Then came the Mutiny, an event by the Nizam to become independent Stanford University Press that violently shook confidence in these 345 Pages | $28

56 8 march 2021 have none of it. At that time, snuffing life out of his state was based on the impera- tive of giving a strong foundation to the Indian nation-state. One could not dream of a viable India with a hole in its heart. In recent years, however, the ideo- logical imperatives of a centralised state in India have given way to the idea of federalism. The interesting thing about this new debate is how closely it re- sembles the British ones in the aftermath of 1857. As then, the moving idea behind contemporary federalism is respecting the differences among Indian states and giving them powers that ought to belong to them and not the Union Government. It is another matter that the ‘economic’ ra- tionale for federalism rests on the distinc- tion between local and national public goods. Local public goods, for example, include education in local languages. The plural is only an afterthought; usually it is the language of the dominant linguistic group that gets imposed. One can’t think of a better example than that of the Gond people spread across Chhattisgarh, Ma- harashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Odisha. They have their own—dy- Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan ing—language but in the politics of of Hyderabad Indian federalism, they have to perforce

alamy learn another language, the dominant language of the states where they find Consider Hyderabad. What the new themselves marooned due to artificial government of India faced were two borders that have scattered them across different problems. There was the attempt different states. In their case, notions of particularity and traditional society are by the Nizam to become independent and not even considered relevant by the con- then there was a Leftist rebellion that was temporary champions of federalism. brewing in the Telangana region It is a strange twist of fate that when traced in this manner, the current defend- ers of a centralised state—based on an equal treatment of all states and equal ideas. Instead of universalism, particular- imposed with violence. With that the citizenship for all Indians, irrespective ism emerged as a better explanation for liberal experiment, championed by Mill, of caste, creed or religion—bear closer the workings of Indian society. Admin- Grant and others like Jeremy Bentham, resemblance to the original liberals, and istrators like Sir Henry Maine, the legal came to an end. Universalism gave way to the champions of federalism look like the member of the Viceroy’s Council, argued evolutionary thinking and uniformity late legatees of the British Empire who that Indian states were traditional societ- to difference. refurbished the ideological justification ies that had their own workings, which It will be a stretch to say that it is this for imperial rule. But who cares? India’s differed from the individual rationality of change in thinking that led to the sur- history, after all, is a political sport that modern societies. As such, the ideas that vival of the Nizam’s kingdom, but it did is subject to bouts of forgetting and re- had informed the working of British rule make it relatively safe right until 1947. membrance, whenever it suits the needs in India until then were not applicable When he began dreaming of an inde- of partisans. This book will help us think to these societies, unless they were to be pendent kingdom, Indian leaders would about the past carefully. n

8 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 57 page turner

Browsing Alert Memory and instinct in a bookshop

hen entering a Aladdin’s Cave feeling.’ bookshop, whether it But if the best bookshops are sites of potential transforma- W be a familiar refuge in tion, their owners and staff are among the most astute readers my hometown or an establish- of human character—as they necessarily must be, to enable ment in a city strange to me, my book discovery. In his new book, Seven Kinds of People You Find first instinct is to do a quick recce. in Bookshops, Shaun Bythell provides shockingly recogni- If it’s a store that’s new to me, sable glimpses of us browsers on our good days and bad ones. before I start browsing, I check out Bythell, who runs Scotland’s largest secondhand bookshop, the lay of the store, making a the Book Shop, in Wigtown, previously wrote The Diary of a By Mini Kapoor mental note of the organising Bookseller. It was an entertaining and enormously instructive principle behind the book display account of a year in his life; and by the end you understood how and of the demeanour of the folks secondhand bookselling required constant appraisal—while running it. If it’s a favourite haunt, and even if I am rushed and acquiring the books, stocking them, pricing them, figuring only stopping by to ask for a particular title, there remains a out customers. Reading it definitely put me on a new alert that sense that firstI must look around to find my browsing equilib- booksellers elsewhere too could be drawing a profile of me, and rium, touch base with the gentle folks who keep the business judgmentally so, based on my browsing habits, my purchases, going, and only then get on with the urgent task at hand. Book- my questions—really, just my manner. shops do that to you—or to me at least. In his new book Bythell categorises the seven A new, bracingly erudite collection of essays (mostly irritating) kinds of people to be found in about books, The Bookseller’s Tale, by Martin Latham bookshops thus: expert, young family, occultist, provides a clue why this may be so. Latham, a loiterer, bearded pensioner, the not-so-silent travel- long-time bookseller who has been running the ler, family historian. And then he freely abandons British chain Waterstones’ Canterbury store, the structural requirements of his book title, to add proposes the Latham’s Uncertainty Principle: more categories: staff and the perfect customer. ‘upon entering a bookshop, you cannot know (Among the last category: ‘I doubt whether there’s both who you are and who you might become, a single bookseller who will ever tell you that they because you are both memory and instinct’. have anything but the purest of love for the He adds, ‘If we are all a series sci-fi fan.’) of impersonations, and all the Bythell comes across as a kinder, world’s a stage, book-browsing is more largehearted soul than he a way of going backstage in our would likely have revealed himself minds. Chance finds free the mind, to be if he hadn’t been finishing unmoor the soul, still the windmill up his book during this pandemic brain. Suddenly the engineer looks year. As he writes about the book’s at a poetry book, or the poet reads intent, ‘It is about our customers: physics, the academic remembers those wretched creatures with the Beano annual, the accountant whom we’re forced to interact on a stumbles upon Vonnegut.’ And the daily basis, and who—as I write this best of booksellers assemble their under coronavirus lockdown—I books to enable these journeys miss like long-lost friends. From ‘backstage in our minds’. Latham the charming and interesting to the certainly would have got that sense rude and offensive,I miss them all. when he first, decades ago, put Apart from the fact that without together a collection for the store, them I have literally no income, only to have Tim Waterstone, the to my enormous surprise I have founder of the chain, say, ‘Hmm, discovered that I miss the human not quite… it just doesn’t have that interaction.’ n

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All about My Mother Modernity and tradition face off in an indie drama set in the himalayas By Prahlad Srihari

undance is like sunrise will make her life a little easier is a road Punjab, where his unwell cousin sister for me. Suddenly, your life so that she doesn’t have to carry her died after her husband refused to take S becomes bright and sunny, wheelchair-bound son up and down her to the hospital, believing she was and everybody starts taking from their mountain home. She is the possessed by a ghost. It compelled him notice,” says Ajitpal Singh, whose debut family’s sole meal ticket because her to tell a story of how tradition has been feature Fire in the Mountains was the sole husband Dharam (Chandan Bisht) is a used as a tenable foundation to subor- Indian selection in the World Cinema devout drunk, a most unpleasant combi- dinate women, and how a woman chal- Dramatic category of the film festival nation. He believes the cure to their son’s lenges that status quo. this year. Every year, filmmakers and disability lies not in medical treatment, Chandra climbing up and down the film lovers alike converge on the snow- but a shaman ceremony called jagar. hill with her son on her back every day capped mountain enclave of Park City Modernity and tradition have faced serves to illustrate just how the roads to to celebrate the independent voices of off in many a memorable conflict in progress were built on the backs of wom- cinema. One of the emerging voices Indian cinema. It’s a defining post-co- en and their thankless toil. The Hima- from Sundance 2021 was Singh. What lonial theme in the movies of Satyajit layas literalise the mountains women began at 33 as a dalliance with filmmak- Ray to more recent festival favourites must scale to be treated with equality. ing turned into a full-fledged love affair like Masaan (2015). Singh ascribes the “Chandra is strong, knows how to stand after his first screenplay won a grant at enduring appeal to the fertile ground up to men, and she finds ways to demand Sundance Screenwriters Lab in 2012. It for storytelling that these contrarian her place in the world,” Singh says. It’s is indeed fitting that his first feature, an values still offer. “The push and pull why he insists his protagonist Chandra indie drama set against an idyllic moun- between modernity and tradition isn’t just inspired by his cousin sister, tain backdrop, debuted at Sundance. offers a space between life and death,” but also his mother and his wife Mauli. Fire in the Mountains finds a husband he says. “The old must die for the new Singh calls Mauli, who co-produced the and wife in a crisis in the Uttarakhand to be born, whether right or wrong. But movie, his “first and harshest critic”. village of Sarmoli. The Himalayan range old values will not go down without a Fire in the Mountains establishes all the becomes the backdrop for a couple at fight, and that’s what makes it an excit- extrinsic factors at play in the tradition odds over how to deal with their son’s dis- ing theme to explore.” versus modernity conflict through cor- ability. Chandra (Vinamrata Rai) works The idea for Fire in the Mountains responding radio and TV news reports as a farmhand and runs a homestay to was born out of such a conflict.S ingh about Prime Minister Narendra Modi save money for her son’s therapy. What relates a family tragedy in a village in inaugurating the Ram Mandir versus

60 8 march 2021 a scene from fire in of art to ask questions, not to provide or did not have those outlets to express the mountains answers”), he elaborates: “If you’re an ac- herself,” he says.“But that’s what makes tivist, or a journalist, then politics will be a family a well-functioning machine as at the forefront. I’m an artist. My job is to the dynamics are always such that when explore the complexities of the relation- one parent devotes her attention to one ship and how the politics, psychology, child, the second parent compensates it philosophy, sociology, and more affect with the other.” the relationship. But the primary focus is always the relationship itself.” DoP Dominique Colin’s handheld f Singh spent two months camera movements too echo a coun- location scouting across the try and culture in flux.D espite some IKumaon region in his Maruti Alto, initial reluctance, Singh believes it his casting director Taran Bajaj spent was ultimately a wise decision to two months to round up the perfect go handheld because it reduces the cast. The choice to pick two relatively distance between the audience and unknown actors as the two leads brings Chandra. “I wanted the audience to an authenticity to the story. Vinamrata experience the movie as if they’re next Rai, who had worked with Singh on his to Chandra, if they aren’t Chandra. short film Hummingbird, spent a whole Handheld brings you closer to her, month in the hamlet of Munsiyari to and makes you ask all the questions acclimate to pastoral life before produc- she is asking,” he says. What he also tion began. “She was living in one of the wished to bring to the movie is a simi- homestays, milking the cows, cutting lar ethos as Iranian auteur Asghar grass and cooking with the local wom- Farhadi captured in films like About en,” Singh says. Unlike the Delhi-born Elly and A Separation. “What I really Rai, Chandan Bisht, Harshita Tiwari “The old must like about his films is that he tells a and Mayank Singh Jaira didn’t have to die for the new to family story but they unfold almost immerse themselves as much because be born, whether like a thriller,” he says. “He does it by they are from Uttarakhand. They right or wrong. putting his characters in a pressure joined the rest of the cast in a seven-day But old values will cooker on a full flame, and then you workshop before the shoot. watch these characters wither apart Singh has a busy 2021 ahead. He not go down and reveal their true selves.” is directing a web series set in Punjab without a fight, The heart of the movie is the relation- that he hopes will be completed by July. and that’s what ship between Chandra and her son, He is also working on three scripts: “a makes it an Prakash (Mayank Singh Jaira), which musical, a thriller and one based on my exciting theme to Singh builds in loving details. Each childhood.”Mauli describes how ex- explore” morning as Chandra carries Prakash cited her husband was about having his down the hill, she stops to let him pluck first film premiere atS undance, only to A jitpal Singh director a flower to adorn her hair. Similarly, not have the time to relish the mile- the older teenage daughter Kanchan stone on account of being swamped branding India a ‘space superpower’ (Harshita Tewari) shares a special bond with pre-production of his web series. with the launch of Chandrayaan-2. with her father, reminding him just how Following Fire in the Mountains, Singh Watching Chandra labour and hustle sweet he can be when he isn’t drunk. A hopes to take his forthcoming films to get a road constructed, it is impossible straight-A student with an extra-curric- to Cannes, Venice and Berlinale. But not to see the film as a comment on sys- ular passion for Tik Tok videos, Kanchan he insists Sundance will always have tems, which can’t provide its people with faces the brunt of her parents’ dispute, “a special place in my heart,” before the infrastructure and tools to empower in particular her mother’s aggressively adding, “Not because my film was their own future. Though Singh admits punitive discipline. Singh attributes selected. Not because my screenplay we’re currently living in one of the Chandra’s double standards to the self- was part of the Sundance Screenwrit- most turbulent periods in the history contradictions that make us human. He ers lab. It’s mainly because of how they of modern India, he steers away from admits there’s also a jealousy aspect at value independent voices. It’s one of the foregrounding political commentary. play. “Chandra, when she was growing only festivals that really spends money Quoting Michael Haneke (“It’s the duty up, did not have Kanchan’s freedoms, where it matters.” n

8 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 61 verbatim By NANDINI NAIR

Who Is the Parasite? Parasitism is the commonest way of life on earth

n organism that was once residing in a Mr Theo a social organisation. Parasites can efficiently spread among Blossom can now be found at the Darwin Centre of the social organisms compared with solitary ones (think of the lice A Natural History Museum in London, which houses outbreak in school!). In a paper titled ‘Parasites and the everything from the smallest insects to the largest mammals. Evolution of Host Social Behavior’, the scientists note: Since 2012, it has dwelled in a specimen jar, which reads, ‘Ex ‘Efficient spread of parasites and diseases among highly social Homo sapiens (Theo Blossom)’. As a photographer and urban individuals may cause rapid evolutionary responses by hosts to nature professional at the Natural History Museum, Blossom parasites, and this in turn should select for similarly rapid coun- brings to life the environment that surrounds us within the teradaptations among parasites.’ city. A few years ago he found a nine-inch-long creature Ascaris To be a parasite is to continuously respond and evolve as the lumbricoides, a roundworm species lurking inside his body. host environment creates new ways of resistance. Today, one While some infected people will show symptoms like unusual can hardly say or Google the word ‘parasite’ without falling into coughing and abdominal pain, Blossom suffered none of these filmmaker Bong Joon-ho’s world.A nd truth be told, there is no travails. Instead he christened the roundworm, calling “her” better ode to a parasite than the South Korean director’s Oscar- Judas. While roundworms tend to be looked down upon, Blos- winning eponymous film. Parasite is a masterpiece because it som saw Judas as an “ecosystem service”—where ‘humans gain unpicks the simplistic binaries between ‘host’ and ‘invader’. from resources and processes found in the ecosystem’. Thanks Bong brings to screen what scientists have revealed in their to Judas, Blossom’s immune system chugged along and success- research; we are all parasites, we all serve as ‘host’ and ‘invader’, fully fought off foreign bodies and harmful bacteria. and in the process we must evolve, or we shall perish. Blossom had the good sense to see the parasite within him The opening scene in Parasite takes viewers into the half not as a lazy lout feeding off his large intestines, but rather above ground, half underground house of a poor family. From as an intrinsic part of his gut. Recently while speaking in the their basement apartment they can see the street, from the Rajya Sabha, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “Saare drunk peeing by the side to the approach of the pizza van. In andolanjivi parjivi hai [Those who feed off protests are the first scene the family is struggling to get WiFi as the system parasites].” He was referring to the numerous protests that they usually access has suddenly become password-protected. have rocked the country, and he meant to use ‘parasite’ The only spot in the house where they get internet signal is derisively. The choice of word had the desired effect: those when they snuggle up to the commode. In literally the first on his side in Parliament tittered in approval; opposition three minutes of the film, Bong establishes an unequal world. members and those in the streets got hot and bothered as they It is a world where some people have easy access to the World considered it a slur not just against their work but also their Wide Web and most don’t; it is a world where some people have character. The reaction to the statement convinced me that the benefits of privacy, while most don’t. the word for February had to be ‘parasite’. When the neighbourhood is being fumigated, the family at If only the enraged had Blossom’s insight, they would have first rush to shut the windows, but the father tells them to leave embraced parasite as a merit badge. A parasite is not the other, it open, ‘We’ll get free extermination… kill the stink bugs.’ A instead it is all of us. The question isn’t, ‘Who is a parasite?’, cloud of fumes blows into their house rendering them invisible rather it is, ‘Who is not a parasite?’ While Blossom slotted as they cough and sputter. Even as the miasma envelopes them, Judas into the ecosystem, we are all part of a socio-system, each the father does not stop folding the pizza boxes. The scene hints of us feeding off the other in an endless loop of survival and at a cleansing and purification.A n extermination is required sustenance. to kill the bugs. The fumes stink, but the bugs survive. This is a In a scientific journal article titled T‘ he Parasitic Way of family of those who can adapt, they will not be cowed down by Life’, I come across this statement: ‘Parasitism is perhaps the fumes, instead they will emerge the stronger of it. commonest way of life on Earth.’ And suddenly it all makes so The first half of the film sets up Driver Kim and his family much sense. We each feed on another. We need to see parasit- as ‘invaders’. They infiltrate the opulent Park household. Bong ism not merely as a physiological process, but also as a social shows the Kim family, with father Ki-taek (Song Kang-ho), system. The privileged feed off the services of the less privi- mother Chung-sook (Chang Hyae-jin), son Ki-woo (Choi Woo- leged, in exchange for resources. shik) and sister Ki-jung (Park So-dam) as true innovators. They A parasitic way of life cannot happen in isolation, it requires will succeed in conjuring up and carrying out schemes that

62 8 march 2021 a scene from parasite

Par asite unpicks the simplistic binaries between ‘host’ and ‘invader’. Bong Joon-Ho brings to screen what scientists have unearthed; we are all par asites, we all serve as ‘host’ and ‘invader’, and in the process we must evolve, or we shall perish

will obliterate their competition, to ensure that they can take son himself is stuck in a half-basement house. In the interview hold of the host family. But Bong’s genius lies in the fact that to The Atlantic, Bong said, “As a filmmaker,I always try to shoot while showing us the Kim family’s wiliness and ruthlessness, with sympathy. We don’t have any villains in Parasite, but in he also reveals his own distrust of wealth and authority. The the end, with all these misunderstandings, they end up hurting rich are not necessarily morally or intellectually superior to the each other.” poor. They are, perhaps, simply more lucky. Parasite might be This misunderstanding isn’t merely between two isolated classified as a comedy, a thriller, but at its core, it is a moral story individuals, it is a misunderstanding between entire social about the gap between the rich and poor. strata. It’s not the inability, but rather the impossibility of the In an interview to The Atlantic, Bong mentions how the idea rich understanding the poor, and the poor comprehending the for Parasite first germinated. I“ was fascinated with this idea of life of the rich. When reconciliation is out of reach, only the infiltration. WhenI was in college, I tutored for a rich family, knife is at hand. and I got this feeling that I was infiltrating the private lives of But the destruction of the ‘host’ doesn’t serve the purpose complete strangers. Every week I would go into their house, of the ‘invader’. The parasite must keep its host alive in order and I thought how fun it would be if I could get all my friends to to survive itself. In immunology it is often more beneficial infiltrate the house one by one.” for the host to tolerate a moderate number of parasites that Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger shares many similarities do little harm than to strive after a parasite-free state, which with Parasite. In The White Tiger as well we have a poor man would demand a disproportional immunological effort. turned driver turned entrepreneur. While both drivers might The Kim family needs the Park family, just as the Parks need have blood on their hands by the end of the stories, their the Kims. In the absence of equilibrium, there will be destruc- creators’ sympathies clearly lie with the murderer rather than tion. To be a parasite is no slur. Life often mimics Parasite, the murdered. The White Tiger is a rags-to-riches story, where which its creator best described as “a comedy without clowns, a only bloodshed permits the transition from being inside the tragedy without villains”. n chicken coop to outside of it. Parasite hints at the possibility that the son might be prosperous one day, and that he will find (This column profiles a different word every month, through a a way to let his father out from the basement, but for now the cultural, political and personal lens)

8 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 63 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 Hollywood reporter Noel de Souza

‘You Don’t Play the Drums, You Let the Drums Play You’

ound of Metal experience it is. Guy Licata, my stars Riz Ahmed who drum teacher, was incredibly Splays the role of Ruben, patient with me. I’m left-handed a heavy-metal drummer who is and it can be awkward to work going deaf. Ahmed portrays the out exactly how you’re going to emotional frustrations of losing play instruments designed for touch with the world around right-handed people. So I started him, no matter how much he off playing right handed, then I fights to hold onto it. Ahmed ended up playing crossover. had been nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actor in Did you lose a part of yourself a Motion Picture Drama. during this arduous journey? What I decided I would like Have you ever been in a situation to do is to try and respect the where you felt that your whole experience of hearing loss and world is slowly being taken away experience it as best as I could. from you? Is that why you were I got these hearing aids that attracted to the subject? were modified and placed deep In many ways Ruben is different inside my ear canal and switched from any character I’ve ever into a white noise setting so I played before, that was truly couldn’t hear anything. And what attracted me to the honestly, it did heighten my role. There was also a kind of Riz Ahmed awareness, you do listen more emotional entry point, which is with the rest of your body. What that I have actually been in that I would like to talk about rather position a couple of times in different you define yourself as true. It required than just the loss of hearing, is the ways. At certain points I wondered the most prep, but it was one of the gain as well. Because I think maybe whether I’d be able to continue doing most personal things I’ve done. deaf people don’t think of deafness as back-to-back indie films that might a disability and rightly so, it’s a very be well received critically but don’t What has your relationship been rich culture and identity. One of the necessarily make ends meet. Also from with drums? big things I gained communicating a health perspective, around the time I could speak endlessly just about my through American Sign Language of doing Jason Bourne (2016), Rogue journey with the drums because it’s was to communicate through the One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Venom an incredibly primal and spiritual body. There’s this trope in the deaf (2018), and the Emmy (in 2017), and instrument. The drums taught me community that hearing people are releasing a couple of albums I kind more about acting than almost emotionally repressed because they of hit a wall of exhaustion and was anything ever has. You don’t play the hide behind words whereas the deaf almost incapacitated. I wondered drums; you let the drums play you. community communicate with their whether I would fully recover. So It’s something that you have to put body. My signing instructor Jeremy when this script came to me it was in your body and you have to trust Stone, who I named the character both the fact that this character felt your body and turn off your brain. My Ruben Stone partly after said, when so different to me and I knew I’d have relationship with the drums at the you communicate in sign you to learn all these skills, but there was start was to smash these things into communicate with your whole body. this emotional entry point, this fear of submission and conquer them. My So yes, I did lose some things from that losing the very thing that gets you up relationship with them afterwards experience, assimilating it, but I gained in the morning, losing the thing that was realising what kind of meditative so much more. n

8 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 65 STARGAZER Kaveree Bamzai

Snap a Moti Adil HusSAin Bhavnani A amir Khan

➲ Skimming the Cream Southall like her sister Neetha, who website. Now, they’ve done the same When Covid restrictions ease, wrote the script. Hussain, a graduate to the film festival. “And that is exactly will ribbon cutting of stores and of the National School of Drama, the stereotype we are trying to break,” in-person product launches Delhi and Drama Studio London, says Bhavnani. Did anyone say social return? And if they do, what was a late bloomer in movies but is media was a space to celebrate liberty? happens to the alternative rapidly making up for lost time with revenue stream that Mumbai memorable performances in riveting film stars developed during the stories told by a mix of young and ➲ Aamir’s Item Song lockdown? With a solitary veteran filmmakers. Much like the The last two item songs Aamir Khan shoutout on Instagram costing late Irrfan Khan, he is developing a did were for his home productions as much as Rs 40 lakh, top stars career globally, in mainstream Hindi Secret Superstar (2017) and Jaane Tu... made money in their version of cinema and in Indie movies as well. Ya Jaane Na (2008). Now he has shot work from home. From Shraddha Seen most recently in Season 3 of one for close friend Amin Hajee’s Kapoor who promoted the Star Trek: Discovery on Netflix, directorial debut. A thriller starring zero-calorie drink Shunya to Hussain wrapped up shooting for Kunal Kapoor and Amyra Dastur. Hrithik Roshan who treated his Bell Bottom with Akshay Kumar in Hajee’s relationship with Aamir dates Instagram family to various stages of Glasgow and was set to shoot a Jahnu back to 1998 when the latter shot facial hair to promote hair product Barua movie in April in his home state Ghulam, and it was solidified when Beardo, stars kept themselves busy of Assam. Now that it is postponed, he they filmed Lagaan (2001). Aamir even as shoots were slow to take is looking at options, all this while was best man at Hajee’s wedding and off. Oddly though, these sponsored also keeping his ear to the ground the latter got the honour at Aamir’s endorsements usually end up and encouraging Guwahati’s mayor wedding to Kiran Rao. Hajee was also performing much worse than organic to make it the first bicycle city in Aamir’s confidant during the period news. Also, this is one area where the country. the latter was recovering from his women do better than men divorce from first wife Reena Dutta because there are many more and infamously drank one bottle of products for them to use and ➲ Women’s Special Bacardi a day, by his own admission. endorse, from hair removal creams Sapna Moti Bhavnani, the eclectic to fast fashion brands. Films, hairdresser and filmmaker, has though, are another matter planned a women’s film festival ➲ Did You Know? with inequality in pay continuing with a difference, one that celebrates The Ranbir Kapoor-Alia Bhatt to be an issue. them as they are rather than what wedding will happen by the end of they ought to be. With the eminent 2021. That is when they are expecting Uma da Cunha as mentor, she has the reconstruction of Rishi and Neetu ➲ Indie Star called for women’s shorts, films Kapoor’s iconic bungalow Krishna Adil Hussain is quickly becoming and documentaries to be shown Raj. The multi-storeyed building is the go-to star for every independent online coinciding with Women’s expected to house the newly weds filmmaker in the country. Currently, Day. The only problem? She’s called and Ranbir’s mother Neetu Kapoor. he is in Kerala completing Footprints it the Wench Film Festival. When It will have a swimming pool and a on Water, an English-Malayalam she started Wench Films last year, mini theatre. And who will move into movie about illegal immigrants in Instagram immediately restricted the house opposite them on what was the UK, directed by Nathalia Syam, her account, and on Facebook, they once BSES land? By all accounts, Anil who is from Kollam, but grew up in restricted everyone from going to her Ambani and family. n

66 8 march 2021