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29 MARCH 2021 / `50

contents 29 march 2021

5 6 7 8 14 20 22 24 LOCOMOTIF INDRAPRASTHA NOTEBOOK OPINION SOFT POWER THE RACHEL WHISPERER OPEN ESSAY Rahul dismisses By Virendra Kapoor By Anil Dharker Subservient After Amarnath PAPERS By Jayanta Ghosal The water wars Indian democracy minds By Makarand R Paranjape The Indian By Brahma Chellaney By S Prasannarajan By Minhaz Merchant pastoral By Rachel Dwyer

28 THE FUTURE OF WATER

28 MODI’S WATER MANTRA The Jal Jeevan Mission is fulfilling a promise to provide every rural household with drinking water and a tap. Its biggest challenge now is to ensure ’s water security By Amita Shah

38 ‘I am confident that we will achieve the Jal Jeevan Mission’s target of taking drinking water to every household’ Jal Shakti Minister in conversation By Amita Shah

42 A THIRST FOR CHANGE A sarpanch brings round-the-clock water supply to every household in his village By Nikita Doval

45 THE LOWER DEPTHS Bengaluru continues to be water-stressed despite citizen awareness and initiatives to conserve and recharge lakes By V Shoba

48 REMEMBERING IN THE RAIN 66 70 Mulshi, one of the wettest places on the planet, marks the centenary of the world’s first anti-dam movement By Nandini Nair

52 FLOWING FAR The benefits of river rejuvenation extend to water and food security, tourism and recreation By Abhaya K Agarwal & Maansi S Shah

55 WATER WARRIORS How India’s frontline fighters are making water scarcity a thing of the past By Kaveree Bamzai

58 THE HYDRATION REVOLUTION The reinvention of water as a wellness commodity By Lhendup G Bhutia

62 HOLY WATER From being gateways to gods to cleansing of sins, it has played a central role in religion and culture By Madhavankutty Pillai 74 79

66 TRADING IN DRAVIDIAN STOCK It is advantage DMK as the ruling AIADMK dilutes 74 79 82 Amma’s legacy and dabbles in appeasement politics By V Shoba THE FUTURE OF LOVE MEMORY’S DOOR STARGAZER The undiminished solar A group exhibition By Kaveree Bamzai 70 TRUTH AND FAITH power of Kazuo Ishiguro’s examines deletions and The Places of Worship Act stands in the way of imagination disappearances reclamation of religious sites of one community By Sanjay Sipahimalani By Prahlad Srihari allegedly occupied by another J Sai Deepak Cover by Rohit Chawla Photograph by Getty Images 29 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 West Bengal is set for an interesting battle between editor-at-large Siddharth Singh deputy editors Madhavankutty Pillai the incumbent Trinamool Congress (TMC) and BJP (Mumbai Bureau Chief), (‘An East Bengal in West Bengal’ by MJ Akbar, March Rahul Pandita, Amita Shah, V Shoba (), Nandini Nair 22nd, 2021). The defections from TMC and the war creative director Rohit Chawla of words between art director Jyoti K Singh Senior Editors Sudeep Paul, and Prime Minister have added so Lhendup Gyatso Bhutia (Mumbai), many twists to the upcoming Assembly election Moinak Mitra, Nikita Doval senior Associate Editor that a straight prediction has become difficult. In the Antara Raghavan wake of these developments, leaders remaining in the Associate Editor Vijay K Soni (Web) ruling party are trying to put on a brave face in front assistant editor Vipul Vivek chief of graphics Saurabh Singh of BJP even as they are confounded by the popular SENIOR DESIGNERs Anup Banerjee, narrative that TMC is now a sinking ship. This is Veer Pal Singh despite politicians such as Rashtriya ’s Photo editor Raul Irani deputy Photo editor Ashish Sharma Tejashwi Yadav and (SP)’s Akhilesh its prestige, hardly has the Yadav coming out in support of Banerjee. The former same pull for professional National Head-Events and Initiatives Arpita Sachin Ahuja chief minister went so far as to say SP footballers anymore. AVP (ADVERTISING) Rashmi Lata Swarup workers will rally behind TMC in the elections. But do The increasing supply of GENERAL MANAGERs (ADVERTISING) these ‘outsider’ parties, to use TMC’s characterisation, cricketers, especially from Uma Srinivasan (South) really have any traction in the state to counter BJP? Not India’s non-metropolitan National Head-Distribution and Sales if we go by the still steady rate of defections from TMC centres, has also forced the Ajay Gupta regional heads-circulation to BJP. We will find out very soon what the majority of cricket market to expand D Charles (South), Melvin George (West), Basab Ghosh (East) Bengal voters think. opportunities. The rise of the Head-production Maneesh Tyagi Krishnan S Maniam T20 format was inevitable. senior manager (pre-press) And the transformation of Sharad Tailang MANAGER-MARKETING cricket into entertainment, Priya Singh apart from the competition Chief Designer-marketing Champak Bhattacharjee which way bengal? like CPM to tie up with it was facing from the cfo & HEAD-IT Anil Bisht Four states and one Union the openly religious leader expanding league football, territory have Assembly Abbas Siddiqui’s Indian has only created more scope Chief ExecuTive & Publisher Neeraja Chawla elections due in the next few Secular Front. It is only going for cricket to become more All rights reserved throughout the weeks but only West Bengal to make the fight even more batting-friendly. It’s the world. Reproduction in any manner is prohibited. is on every commentator’s difficult for TMC, which is market, stupid. Editor: S Prasannarajan. Printed and Vasudevan TMC published by Neeraja Chawla on behalf mind (‘The Indiscreet Charm banking on a consolidation of the owner, Open Media Network Pvt of Abbas Siddiqui’, of Muslim votes. Ltd. Printed at Thomson Press India Ltd, 18-35 Milestone, Mathura Road, March 22nd, 2021). And Jaideep Mittra The third Test pitch at Faridabad-121007, (Haryana). Published at 4, DDA Commercial understandably so. The Motera, where the pink-ball Complex, Panchsheel Park, state’s political landscape pitch perfect Test was played between New Delhi-110017. Ph: (011) 48500500; Fax: (011) 48500599 has witnessed momentous James Astill’s take on India and England, has To subscribe, WhatsApp ‘openmag’ to changes since Chief Minister the recently concluded become a target for former 9999800012 or log on to www.openthemagazine.com Mamata Banerjee’s first India-England Test series England players as the or call our Toll Free Number 1800 102 7510 victory in 2011. BJP has was spot on (‘Imperfect match ended within two or email at: shown its determination to Pitch’, March 22nd, 2021). days with batsmen on both [email protected] For alliances, email grab mindspace and become Notwithstanding the sides unable to live up to [email protected] For advertising, email central to public discourse inherent merits of the Test expectations. But we need [email protected] in a state where it has little format, competition in all the to remember two things. For any other queries/observations, email [email protected] history of administration. formats of cricket has been First, even the International Capitalising on its dominant increasing rapidly. The sport Cricket Council had called Disclaimer ‘Open Avenues’ are advertiser-driven marketing national status, BJP has has become as exhausting this pitch average. Second, initiatives and Open assumes no responsibility for content and the consequences of using managed to punch above and cutting-edge as football most batsmen fell to products or services advertised in the magazine its weight in the state. The where the best players are straight deliveries when party’s consolidation of continually playing one or they had come prepared to Volume 13 Issue 12 For the week 23-29 March 2021 Hindu votes has pushed even the other tournament. The play spin. Total No. of pages 84 old-fashioned secularists FIFA World Cup, beyond Bal Govind

4 29 march 2021 LOCOMOTIF

by S PRASANNARAJAN RAHUL DISMISSES INDIAN DEMOCRACY

or a teller of scary stories about stifled liberal pieties—free speech, for instance—would have made life democracies, it was a perfect audience, steeped in the easier for so many heretics. The radicalised liberal, now proudly radical liberal sensitivity of post-Trump America. holding the banner of ‘progressivism’, has returned to the old And the story that Rahul Gandhi told them could nomenclature of evil to start a war on the idyll-breakers from have earned him a prisoner-of-conscience asylum. It the Right—and even from the Centre. With casual aggression, Fwas a story with metaphors borrowed from the fallen Republics they are being indexed and exiled. In politics, popularity can no of Fear, faux democracies presided over by decorated dictators, longer be an alibi; it is, in the progressive telling, a manipulated each with a legacy of starting a revolution and building a terror magic of electoral politics. The wisdom of the lofty few is more apparatus. As a storyteller of the horror genre, Rahul Gandhi rewarding—and necessary—than the superstition of the masses. chose his history for maximum chill. This is the gist of what he Americans may have had a horrible experience with the ugly, told his audience, the students of Brown University: India is an unhinged side of electoral popularity; India’s Saddam exists only elected dictatorship, like Iraq and Libya in another time, classic in the hallucinations of a leader in search of self-serving horror examples of sham elections in which the supreme leader won stories. The Book of Progressives came handy to Rahul Gandhi. with 99 per cent majority. So, don’t be fooled by Narendra Modi’s It didn’t earn him anything but another bizarre headline. By status as one of the most popular rulers in a democracy, he let questioning the electoral process that had made Modi one of the it be known. In the India story Rahul told them, Modi’s victory most powerful leaders today—so powerful that it forced Rahul was not much different from Saddam Hussein’s or Muammar to mouth bad history—in front of an international audience, Gaddafi’s. The only untold, and partially redeeming, part of the the Congress leader has, for the first time, invalidated India’s story was: the subversive storyteller from Modi’s monstrous constitutional democracy itself. He is out of power because, he Mesopotamia was still alive to tell the truth. conveyed to his audience, the highest political power in India is By the time the Indian storyteller, who also happens to be the the result of a subversion of democracy. The Rahul who spoke ‘free-thinking’ custodian of one of the longest family traditions to the Brown students was actually presenting Rahul Gandhi in politics, reached his American audience, they knew a few as a victim of the new Republic of Fear to the world. A victim of things about democracy and the grotesquerie of the elected illegitimate power, he made them believe. leader, and they must have been comfortable in their belief In his case, it doesn’t take much ingenuity to turn failure into that what they had experienced till January 19th marked the victimhood. It’s not just a failure in winning elections, which was limits of forbearance. Then, along came the storyteller from understandable considering his visible incomprehension about the other largest democracy, with a horror story scarier than the nature of political power itself, particularly so when pitted what America had lived through. And it was quite possible that against someone who believes that power is transformational and students of political history among the audience could have hence politics is not always a struggle against power but more a been under the impression that it was another Gandhi, the most struggle for power. He never looked interested. The bigger failure popular of them all, who embodied the totalitarian temptations was his refusal to make himself a practitioner of what he preaches of Indian democracy at one point. They were proved wrong about democracy to indulgent audiences abroad within his by the grandson Gandhi who had to borrow heavily from the own party, which is still waiting for him to get ready, though he glossary of liberal demonology to make the story darker. doesn’t realise that waiting is proving to be as good as atrophying. Then, those who were not in the audience should know: He alone can afford to play the party’s extra-constitutional Rahul’s comparative studies in political insider-outsider, the only privilege he is not science have ceased to boggle the mind. What bored with yet. And that’s why dissenters are he had done differently this time was to tap allowed a corner; he has the entire House to the rich vein of liberal pieties that pervade the himself to play the roles he chooses. For the public squares of the West. Maybe it’s wrong Congress today, what matters is not power but to use the adjective liberal before pieties for complaining about power. As Rahul Gandhi the simple reason that some doses of classical does with his misplaced comparative studies. n

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 5 INDRAPRASTHA virendra kapoor

ncouraged by the simply for members to play Erecent intervention of the card games and to luxuriate in Ministry of Corporate Affairs in spacious cottages. the management of the Delhi Gymkhana Club, a public interest fter a brief lull, the Centre litigation (PIL) was filed in the Aand the Delhi government may Delhi High Court seeking similar again be headed for a clash. This time, action against the Delhi Golf Club. over the proposed legislation meant The club is accused of indulging to empower the lieutenant governor in all manner of malpractices, to have a greater say in certain promoting nepotism, misusing matters. Whatever the trigger, the vast tracts of Government land Kejriwal government did not help in the heart of Lutyens’ Delhi, its cause by obstructing the Delhi leased out for pennies, violating viciously rant against politicians Police in performing its law and order environmental norms, etcetera, for every crime under the sun. An duties. It wilfully denied the use of besides other infringement of idea of the abuse of privilege that an empty sport stadium and, later, laws. It is also accused of violating comes with the membership of rejected the requisition of DTC buses. financial and labour norms. But the club can be had from the fact Keen to earn brownie points from the like the Gymkhana, the thrust of that someone who had become a protesting farmers, it pretended it had the case against the Golf Club, too, member of the Gymkhana Club not criminalised the burning of farm concerns its membership policy. in the early 1980s has now got his waste or had not already notified one It is so framed that dependents of entire family, including spouse, of the three farm reforms which they members virtually select themselves their two sons and their wives as wanted repealed. Anyone visiting for automatic admission, while well as dependant members, free to the capital will find that billboards others not so fortunate have to sit access the services of the club like are plastered with huge signs out for over 40 years to get a call any other regular member. Small screaming: ‘6 Saal—Tarakki,’ with for screening in what is called an wonder there is no sympathy when the mandatory mug shot of Kejriwal. ‘interview’. Like an Old Boys’ Club, members bemoan the heavy- However, were you to glean the truth membership is so tightly regulated handed Government intervention. from these boasts, aside from giving in favour of insiders that only a And that is not all. Look at the sheer ‘muft bijli-paani’ to the poor—and handful can expect to get in every arrogance. They insist on a deposit transferring the additional costs year in minuscule numbers after of nearly Rs 20 lakh for extending to the actual ratepayers—little has waiting for several decades, and on the courtesy of keeping you on a been done. How true is the claim payment of a non-refundable fee 40- year-long waiting list. Yet, instead about overnight improvement in of Rs 30 lakh, or so. However, this of looking themselves in the mirror education in schools can be had from business of members’ dependants and taking necessary corrective a recent video which went viral, getting fast-track admission is so action, they have decided to mount showing the director of education abused that the PIL mentions the a legal challenge to the appointment exhorting schoolchildren to answer case of an 80-year-old who enjoys of a Government administrator. Of all questions in the exam—‘even the use of the club’s services in, course, if it costs crores in legal fees, if you do not know the answer, hold your breath, the ‘dependant’ not a problem. The club is sitting on reproduce the question itself in the category. And, it should be noted, a huge pile of reserves, accumulated answer sheet… we will ensure you those who manage the affairs of the by turning almost every inch of get full marks… we have arranged club are supposed to be the crème de available space on the nearly 27-acre for it… .’ Need we say more about the la crème from diverse professions, land abutting the Prime Minister’s Aam Aadmi Party supremo who who, over the choicest single malt house into one big banquet hall, spends a disproportionately high whiskies in the well-appointed bars what with renting it out for wedding amount of taxpayers’ money on overlooking the vast acres of greens, receptions, birthday bashes, or self-promotion?n

6 29 march 2021 Mumbai Notebook Anil Dharker

he closing down of a Others in positions of authority Tbookstore is no longer news. But obviously agree. For example, the the opening of one certainly is, and in municipal corporation cut its budget today’s bleak times, an item news- for developing parks and gardens by worthy enough to go into Ripley’s 25 per cent this financial year. It took Believe It or Not! But Kitab Khana, a cue from the fact that 85 per cent the wonderful bookstore at Flora of last year’s budget for open spaces Fountain, did reopen a week ago, feet, occupying the ground floor of wasn’t even utilised, and will lapse rising like a phoenix from the ashes the 150-year old Somaiya Bhavan. In at the end of the month, a clear sign of the devastating fire that engulfed it the heart of the city, that’s valuable Mumbai has more open spaces than last year. The year 2020 was truly the real estate. When ‘monetising your it knows what to do with. annus horribilis of our lives, so if the assets’ is today’s mantra, one is grate- There are more cheerful facts to best bookstore in Mumbai caught ful that there are people like Samir bolster the Dream City tag: Mumbai fire before the year was out, it was and Amrita Somaiya to whom the now has 2,000 vehicles per kilometre, just one more parting kick from 2020 written word matters more. and its vehicular density has risen while we were down. over 40 per cent in the last six years. To state the obvious, a bookstore umbai 10th most In sheer numbers, the vehicle has books; a good bookstore has a lot ‘Mliveable major Indian city’, population has gone up from 20 lakh of good books; a warm and welcom- the front-page headline in a national to almost 40 lakh in less than a ing bookstore is all polished wood newspaper boasted. If I had been the decade. If you take glory in the fact panelling; and Kitab Khana was all paper’s editor, I would have buried that our country invented the zero, these. Disastrously, however, fire the news item on page 10, bottom- let me give you the figures another feasts on both paper and wood, and half, and used a more suitable head- way: 20,00,000 to 40,00,000 in less when you fight the fire with water, line like, ‘Bengaluru best Indian city; than 10 years. So we have so much you destroy what the fire has spared. Mumbai comes in a poor tenth’. more time now to think about our When I rang Samir Somaiya, Kitab Just look at which major cities Dream City while stuck in traffic; so Khana’s owner that evening, he told beat us in the ‘Ease of Living Index much more glorious carbon me, “The fire had a total blast: every 2020’ issued by the Central Ministry monoxide to breathe in at our leisure; one of our books was either burnt, of Housing and Urban Affairs: Ben- so much more lovely particulate drenched or smoked.” galuru, , Ahmedabad not only matter to line our lungs with. Most of Kitab Khana’s 45,000 did so, but were the top three. Guess That’s not all there is to the Dream volumes were destroyed: the few that which city was the worst: Srinagar! City. The ‘Water Quality Status of Ma- weren’t (the ones that were ‘smoked’, As you will no doubt remember, harashtra 2019-20’, published by the I suppose), are now on sale at half- that’s the place which has received Pollution Board, tells price. I can’t wait to go back when the special attention of the country’s two us that ‘faecal coliform count along world gets back its sanity—although most important men. We should, I the city coastline is 9 to 16 times I know that, as usual, I will spend far suppose, be grateful for their benign higher than the safety limit.’ In the too much time once I am there, lost neglect. A minister of the Maharash- seawater gently lapping the shore- in looking at one interesting book tra government is unfazed and has line at Mumbai’s best addresses like after another. I also know that each a rather nice take about the report: Malabar Hill, Juhu, Nariman Point time I make a move to leave, T Jagath, ‘In spite of what the report says’, he and Worli Sea Face, the FC count was Kitab Khana’s manager or one of the is quoted saying, ‘It’s not a hidden 1,600 colonies of coliform per 100 ml members of his staff, will point me fact that the ease and joy of living of water, as against the safe standards to another shelf where lie some more in Mumbai is actually the highest… of 100 colonies per 100 ml. Mumbai tempting treasures. Otherwise, so many people wouldn’t provides dreams to all kinds, from Kitab Khana takes up 5,000 square call it the City of Dreams.’ the, er, bottom-most, to the highest. n

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 7 opinion

Subservient Minds And their dominion stretches from politics to media By Minhaz Merchant

had an interesting exchange of emails that said in an interview with : “I don’t know stretched beyond midnight with a senior Congress leader the culture of India well enough but I don’t see those big I who is a member of the G23 rebel group. He will remain advances in tech companies. What is the biggest tech unnamed because the conversation was private. company here, Infosys maybe? I just don’t see that sort In short: I told him the Gandhis are a part of the of thing coming out of Infosys. The culture here is one of problem, not a part of the solution. Until the G23 ‘rebels’ success based upon academic excellence, studying, learning, say this openly instead of shadowboxing, they will remain practising and having a good job and a great life. Study, subservient to the Gandhis. study, work hard and you get an MBA, you will have a What about Modi, the erudite Congress leader countered? Mercedes but where is the creativity?” No one in BJP dares contradict him or says a word against him. Wozniak is an inventor, not a businessman. He left Agreed, I said. And that’s terrible. Subservient minds Apple in 1985 within a decade of cofounding it with Steve abound everywhere, I told him. Stop being Jobs in 1976. Wozniak established Apple’s Rahul Gandhi’s mouthpiece. I would say the The question is: why technological success with the Apple 1 and same to BJP leaders: stop flattering ‘Modiji’ such subservience? Apple 2 computers. Jobs did the marketing. every time you open your mouth. There are three A serial entrepreneur, Wozniak has spent After several rounds of emails that night, much of the last few decades dabbling in the erudite Congress leader agreed. principal reasons: creative pursuits. Some have worked out, Subservience does not pay. Unless you are rote learning some haven’t. looking for a different kind of reward. at school, family But the key point is this: India is set to Journalists in today’s febrile, polarised hierarchies and religion become the world’s third largest economy political environment take sides based on in the next decade—an inevitable outcome ideology, not—as they should—on issues. despite the political and economic self-goals Congress-leaning stenographer-journalists deflect attention it periodically scores. from the Congress’ devolution into a limited liability Indians need to open their minds. Rote learning has made partnership (LLP) with 3+1 shareholders: three principal India the world’s back office. But now those leading Tata Gandhis (Sonia, Rahul and Priyanka) and one Vadra (Robert). Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro must create the The 3+1 run the party like a private enterprise. Party next Google, Apple and Tencent: global brands. members are employees and expected to behave accordingly. Happily, buzzing startups by twentysomethings are When Rahul Gandhi publicly tore up an ordinance his proving that a new generation of Indian entrepreneurs can mother’s appointed Prime Minister had make groundbreaking products. But while entrepreneurs prepared, it was perfectly normal behaviour. Promoters of are transitioning from followers to leaders, from coders private companies regard it as their birthright to supersede to inventors, Indian politicians remain glued to old ways: appointed CEOs, even if it is in their absence (Prime Minister follow the leader, come what may. Singh was travelling overseas) and even if it involves The G23 rebels do not seek new thinking, merely humiliating them in public. a restoration of power for themselves in the Congress The question is: why such subservience? Don’t our mainstream. thought leaders have independent minds? Why do most BJP too is topheavy. The word of Prime Minister Narendra editors align themselves with the right or the left instead of Modi and Home Minister is final. Union treating every issue on merit? Ministers and Members of Parliament are too intimidated to There are three principal reasons: one, rote learning at challenge or question stated party policy. school that rewards memory, not independent thinking; two, Those who dismiss the G23 as a sideshow miss the family hierarchies that demand obedience, not questioning; point—quite deliberately. It suits the Congress LLP to and three, religion—Hinduism, Islam or Christianity—that treat the quasi-rebellion as a distraction. It ensures that encourages obeisance to a higher power. their followers don’t open their closed, Combine these three influences and you create followers, subservient minds. n not leaders; bureaucrats, not inventors. Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak hit a nerve when he Minhaz Merchant is an author, editor and publisher

8 29 march 2021

openings

NOTEBOOK Tracking the Trackers

rivacy and data protection laws in India are general high, even more than the US and UK news media. This not as stringent as those elsewhere, especially in is highly concerning. Our paper shows exactly how intense is the West. Indian citizens on the whole don’t appear the tracking of users. This needs to be factored in while framing too concerned about their data footprint being India’s forthcoming Personal Data Protection Bills which, Paccessed by those looking to make a profit from it. This collec- given India’s prominence as a major online market, has to not tive disregard is taken for granted by even social media and just reflect the global standards of privacy but set its own high messaging platforms, which treat data on Indian users as a or higher standards. Digital news readers will only grow, and property they have rights to use any way they wish. Examples therefore, privacy has to be ensured from the get-go.” The eight are too many and WhatsApp is the latest to modify its privacy authors of the study are Nicolas Kourtellis, Vibhor Agarwal, settings to give it greater control on user data in India. Yash Vekaria, Pushkal Agarwal, Sangeeta Mahapatra, Shounak A recent study by a team of global researchers is revelatory in Set, Sakthi Balan Muthiah and Nishanth Sastry. this context: It measures the intensity with which user tracking Of the top 10 third-party trackers, including the one owned happens on Indian news websites, and it turns out that we beat by Google, eight are from the US and two from Canada. News all other countries hands down. The overall Indian indifference organisations place these trackers on their portals to attract ads about data privacy also raises concerns about invasive tracking and know user behaviour. The researchers are mindful of such that these scholars say calls for the Government and industry to priorities: “Analytics help a website understand its demograph- work together to prevent misuse and abuse of user information. ics and how users go from one page to another, so some of these The study, titled ‘Under the Spotlight: Web Tracking in Indian analytics may also be translated into better website design for Partisan News Websites’, saw eight scholars based across India, the users. By far the largest source and driver of third-party (TP) the UK, Germany and Spain present their findings after a rigor- trackers, as well as consumers of their outputs, are ad net- ous study of 103 news websites in India. In this first of its kind works.” They add, “In order for ads to be targeted to individual study, they found that user tracking on news websites is perhaps users, these trackers create detailed profiles of users across the highest in India: ‘The 103 Indian news websites studied multiple visits to the same website, but also more dangerously have more than 100K cookies, for an average of over 100 cookies across different websites (for instance, if a user visits a news per website, but several websites have much higher numbers website and then a shopping website, a TP tracker present on of cookies. For example, 1,400 cookies are set on the first-party both websites can then identify the shopping interests of the Sandesh.com, by itself and its third-parties.’ The paper adds, ‘Left user and help an advertiser deliver more targeted ads to such and Centre-leaning websites serve more [median] cookies than user).” Incidentally, all studies have shown that news websites Right-leaning websites. Desktop versions of websites set more have the highest number of trackers, even more than social me- cookies than their mobile versions, dia platforms and ecommerce websites. with interesting exceptions. Third-party This paper has been chosen to be domain doubleclick.net is present in 86% presented at the high-level Interna- of news websites; such ubiquitous tional Conference on Web and Social presence allows the tracking of a huge A recent study by a team Media in June. proportion of users’ browsing histories.’ of global researchers The study shows that the partisan- Doubleclick.net is owned by Google. measures the intensity ship of the news website does not really In plain words, a handful of third- matter when it comes to invasion of user party trackers present in 103 Indian with which user tracking privacy. Then, the question is how can news websites are potentially tracking happens on Indian news users protect themselves? 77 per cent of India’s population. websites, and it turns “Indeed, what we find and show What exactly are the implications? with our study is that both sides of the These researchers tell Open in a joint out that we beat all other spectrum track users intensely with response to queries, “The tracking is in countries hands down varying tracking technologies. Some

10 29 march 2021 Illustration by Saurabh Singh tech is used more intensely from the left-leaning websites, and ment that it will stop selling ads based on users’ browsing data other tech is used by the right-leaning websites,” the scholars across multiple websites by next year can be a gamechanger in assert. They emphasise that, with India being a mobile-first the digital advertising and tracking industry,” they say. country, users get most news links via message-sharing apps The paper points out that in the absence of structured laws, such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and so on. “So, users should be user data on news reading patterns can be used to generate very careful while clicking links from unknown domains. Also, in-depth, detailed profiles via data synchronisation through users can opt-in for using reliable, lightweight and frequently separate channels, which in turn can be exploited in numerous updated ad blockers and antivirus tools. Users should also cam- ways beyond just showing targeted ads. It says the differential paign for better privacy laws in India. Moreover, they can also tracking across websites of different political leanings, and the use privacy-focused browsers like Brave or Firefox Focus and opportunities offered by the above mechanics, can allow propa- can clean browsing history and cookies often,” they add. gation of user profiles to a large number of trackers over time. They say that regulation is the answer. The one to emulate The concomitant danger is that these profiles may be used by is the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation vested groups for targeting a user and invading the user’s privacy, (GDPR), which requires explicit and meaningful consent from with the potential to influence users visiting news websites. users before tracking them. Sadly, such regulation is lacking A recent rise in misinformation from online, hyper-partisan in most jurisdictions around the world, the researchers say, news websites serving fake news, coupled with tracking of users adding, “We also find that in jurisdictions that do offer such for better profiling and political ad delivery, erodes user trust in protection, websites are employing dark patterns to elicit the online news ecosystem, the paper says. It also adds that an user consent to be set in ways that are disadvantageous to in-depth study of hyper-partisan Indian news websites to assess their privacies.” how political websites violate their visitors’ privacy is called for. Laws can work alongside ensuring privacy built into the Yet, the most notable thing about this latest study, which design of news websites. However, the opt-in and opt-out clauses will not immediately strike a chord with the general public that are meant to give users control, are often complicated. being snooped upon, is the ubiquity of search engines and “There should be a rule to make news websites come out with trackers that mine user data for profit. They may be having privacy policies that are easy for the users to read and understand, a field day today in India but, in future, internet surfers may with a one-click option to opt-in/opt-out. Also, it is not just the wise up to the profit that a corporation makes from his or her Government but big tech companies who need to be brought on data and demand to be paid for reading the news! And that’s board to protect the privacy of people, as many of them host both definitely not good news for news producers. n information providing sites (for example, news media or social media platforms) as well as trackers. Google’s recent announce- By Ullekh NP

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 11 openings

POR TRAIT Beyoncé during a 2017 performance, as Chimamanda Adichie’s words from her TED Talks, ‘We Should All Be Feminists’, played out. Or the time in her primal voice 2016 music video ‘Formation’, where she sits atop a police car sinking in water, which many viewed How Queen Bae became a cultural icon and as a comment on police brutality towards African- the Grammy’s most decorated singer Americans. These are the types of images that Beyoncé invites us to project our political ideas. he first of the two arguably biggest moments to emerge from the A few years ago, during Beyoncé’s ‘Formation’ TGrammy Awards ceremony on March 15th came when the camera tour, the writer Zadie Smith remarked on the moving through the attendees spotted Beyoncé. The singer has had a some- military-like nature of her dance. In those what strained relationship with the award ceremony. It has showered her performances, Beyoncé would raise her right arm with nominations and wins, but rarely handed out any of its major awards. like a shotgun and the sound of a gunshot would Beyoncé even stopped attending the show ever since her album Lemonade ring out. ‘There is nothing intimate about this kind was snubbed for Album of the Year in 2017, the award ceremony having of dancing: like the military, it operates as a form found the album, as the allegation went, too political. of franchise, whereby a ruling idea—“America”, The next big moment came when Beyoncé picked up her fourth award “Beyoncé”—presides over many cells that span that night (all of those for the relatively lesser categories of music video, the world,’ she wrote. Yet, when she turned around R&B performance, rap song and rap performance). Beyoncé had just taken to look at the crowd gathered that day, she found her career Grammy tally to 28 wins, more than any singer in history. Only that they were for the most part not looking at the the late Hungarian-British conductor Georg Solti, with his 31 Grammys, stage at all, but instead had turned to their friends has won more than her. Even though one of pop culture’s biggest stages has and partners. ‘They didn’t need to watch Beyoncé allegedly failed to sufficiently recognise the force of an artist as impactful as any more than soldiers need to look fixedly at the Beyoncé, here she was becoming its most decorated singer in history. flag to perform their duties. Our queen was up But irrespective of the records she sets, at this moment in history, the there somewhere dancing—but the idea of her had pop phenomenon that is Beyoncé is far bigger than any stage she steps already been internalised. Friends from the gym on. Her music pieces are not songs in the ordinary sense of the term. They stood in circles and pumped their fists, girlfriends have become vast and ambitious audio-visual extravaganzas that seek to from hen nights turned inwards and did “Beyoncé” explore larger ideas of feminism and Black identity. She is taking some of to each other, and boys from the Beyhive screamed the biggest conversations around identity and race and creating instant every word into each other’s faces. They could have pop culture moments in the way perhaps even the celebrated musicians of done the same at home, but this was a public display the counterculture movement didn’t do. of allegiance,’ Smith wrote. It is not so much what she says, but the powerful images she generates. Beyoncé is now Queen Bae (before anyone else). Sometimes these are unsubtle creations, like the time she stood in She has been for some time. You do not listen to her silhouette in a Tom Ford bodysuit against the brightly-lit word ‘feminist’ songs. You listen to a royal decree. She has become getty images like a type of viral idea transmitting messages and commands through a pop song format. She has moved on from her earlier years as a musician, where she, like everyone else, tried to cater to everyone. Her focus is now centred on the Black experience. People may be welcome to watch, but they are really meant for Black audiences. She has used the launch of her management company, which has entered into various deals with studios—from HBO for Lemonade in 2016 and Netflix for 2019’s Homecoming to Disney Plus for last year’s Black Is King—to, as an article in the Washington Post puts it, purchase her freedom from the ‘prison of the mainstream.’ As a result, her album sales are not what they used to be. But she has made herself into a cultural icon, picking up a considerable number of Grammys on the way, in the way few others have. n

By Lhendup G Bhutia

29 march 2021 ANGLE ideas The Opposite End Reservations, once meant to uplift the weakest, are now demanded by the strongest

By madhavankutty pillai

eservations as a corrective on a case which would test the 50 per R to social discrimination seemed cent limit to overall reservations. This obvious and agreeable to most rational was a cap that another bench of the citizens at the time of Independence. court had laid down in 1992 when it Objectification Scheduled Castes and Tribes had been was becoming apparent that the , the new stigmatised for thousands of years. eagerness of the political class to chief minister of , They did the worst forms of labour dole out reservations would leave got off to a rough start when while forced to remain invisible and nothing for the general category. he professed to have a thing untouchable in every region of India. The current case is of the Maharashtra Drastic measures would be needed for government going over that limit against ripped jeans. Or rather, them to become socially uplifted fast to give the Maratha community women wearing ripped jeans and reservations were the answer. It reservations. which, he suggested in a talk was not just revisionism of history but The Marathas are the most powerful at an event, made them unfit what they were still experiencing in caste group in Maharashtra. They have to go out in public and had a the present, even if the law had made become chief ministers a majority of bad effect on their children. In them equal. Three-quarters of a times in the state. The Marathas decide this, he echoes an orthodoxy century of reservations in education, who come to power in the state and government jobs and political that is also the reason why when they that objectifies a woman’s positions has shown that the solution demand reservation, the political class, body as the property was right. There has, for instance, whether it be the former BJP government of men and whose attire must been a Dalit chief minister in Uttar or the Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance, be evaluated only by the effect Pradesh from a party that represented cannot refuse them. This is more or less that it has on men. That is their community, something that the trend all over India. From Haryana why there are never any would have been inconceivable half-a- to Tamil Nadu, every state has powerful comments about the effects century ago. caste groups trying to force governments on children of fathers But the very success of to give them reservations, and the only reservations in a desperately poor thing preventing it is the 50 per cent limit. who wear ripped jeans or country made it something to crave Should the Supreme Court now cargo trousers. n for by other caste groups. These had change it, it could have fallouts. A been backward at some point in feature of caste is competition with history, but their situation even other castes. Reservations that one then was nothing like the Scheduled dominant group gets, instead of Word’s Worth Castes and Tribes. In the present, removing social imbalances, they were far from a category that will add to them. Groups that haven’t ‘Feminism is the needed a crutch for uplift in relation got it yet will become agitated and to the rest of society. But they wanted united to become powerful enough radical notion that reservations because they could get it. to get their own demand passed. women are people’ The latest example of this is the But there is only so much of the cake to Marie Shear Supreme Court having daily hearings pass around. n american writer

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 13 soft power

By Makarand R Paranjape

After Amarnath Vivekananda and the Himalayan connection—Part XII

hile Swami Vivekananda had an wonder she felt certain that Swami had also dedicated her to extraordinary experience inside the icy grotto Shiva. But conflicting emotions gripped her’ (ibid). of Amarnath, Sister Nivedita was left alone, For Nivedita, the moment would have been opportune for W with her own feelings of abandonment and the Guru and disciple to be bound forever in a transforming confusion. Her high expectations of the transfiguration that relationship: awaited her at the pinnacle of her difficult Himalayan journey ‘She had longed for that moment to be supremely meaningful with her master were truly and comprehensively shattered. when he would impart to her, through a touch perhaps, a spiritual In addition, she reproached her master for denying what knowledge such as his Master had given him. That moment she believed was the special bond between them, that of master would then have glowed in her memory. Instead, she felt excluded and disciple. As her master, she expected Vivekananda ‘to carry from his defining moment of spiritual realization’ (ibid). her to the other side’. She didn’t think he had quite done that. Perhaps, the more appropriate analogy might be with Sri She felt he had not helped her sufficiently. On the other hand, Ramakrishna and the Holy Mother; or some 20 years later, Sri he never treated her as a woman either, paying no heed to her Aurobindo and Mirra Alfassa. While both Sri Ramakrishna special sensitivities or needs. and Sri Aurobindo anointed the Holy Mother and Mirra Cold, tired and lonely, Nivedita tried to hide her travails Alfassa respectively as their spiritual partners and successors, from her master, though he must have sensed her suffering Vivekananda did not do so with Nivedita. According to Som: and struggle. Vivekananda’s biographers, whether his Eastern ‘In vain did she plead with him to climb down from the and Western Disciples or Swami Nikhilananda, naturally, do position of Master and realise that “we were nothing more to not make much of the situation either. As Reba Som puts it each other than an ordinary man and woman”. Holding on to in Margot: Sister Nivedita of Swami Vivekananda (New Delhi: his uncompromising reserve, Vivekananda tried valiantly to Penguin, 2017), Nivedita kept her inner conflicts to herself: reason with her, but as she confessed later, she was inconsolable ‘Mentioning none of these in her book The Master as I Saw and “angry with him and would not listen to him when he was Him, she laid bare her soul in her letter to Mrs Eric Hammond going to talk”’ (ibid). on her return.Swearing her to secrecy and confidentiality, Vivekananda’s rejection hurt Nivedita deeply. Was his Nivedita confessed how left out she had felt at that moment ‘uncompromising reserve’ an outcome of his fear of deviating, of spiritual intensity and although “deeply and intensely even ever so mildly, from his adamantine vow of chastity? Or was glad” of the revelation that her guru had experienced, she felt it a consequence of Nivedita’s not yet being ripe for the expected, “terrible pain to come face to face with something which is all if not promised, initiation? Som places the responsibility for the inwardness to someone you worship, and for yourself to be able lost opportunity on the disciple, rather than the guru: to get little further than externals. Swami could have made it ‘In retrospect she realized with bitterness how wrong she live—but he was lost”’ (page 39). had been and lost a chance that would never come again. What Trying to enter Nivedita’s state of mind, Som offers us an she had perhaps sought was an initiation by Vivekananda account of what might have happened at Amarnath: at that auspicious moment into the divine knowledge and ‘Nothing could have prepared Nivedita for the sight of the transcendental experience that he seemed to have received’ (ibid). voluminous cave large enough to hold a cathedral, with a Was Vivekananda’s apparent insensitivity ‘his inability huge iced Shivalingam enthroned as it were on its own base. to achieve the paramahaṁsa’s total indifference to women Vivekananda entered the shrine, naked except for his loin cloth, and hence his personal anxiety about his vulnerability’ as body smeared in ashes, prostrating himself in adoration and Narasingh Sil claims? Or was the master well aware of how almost swooning with emotion. … Nivedita was the stupefied hurt and Nivedita was and tried to make it up to her? Lizelle observer of this scene. Caught in this moment of intensespiritual Reymond, her first biographer and author of The Dedicated: A

14 29 march 2021 Both master and disciple returned to Pahalgam where Mrs Bull and Josephine were waiting for them. The greatly anticipated Amarnath darshan had unfortunately turned out to be destabilising rather than unitive. Though the age gap between them was not even four years, Nivedita began to fashion herself as Vivekananda’s daughter. As Som puts it, ‘Nivedita, in turn, realised with time that Vivekananda who had attracted her initially as ‘King’ had to be viewed instead as the “Master” who guided her and, finally, in the last stage as the ‘Father’ for whom her devotion was complete as a daughter’ (op cit, page 15). Romain Rolland, too, felt that Vivekananda treated Nivedita in this manner to defend himself from her ‘worshipful passion’ (cited in Tantine: The Life of Josephine MacLeod by Pravrajika Prabuddhaprana, page 216).

Saurabh Singh Saurabh by Illustration Rolland believed that Nivedita’s feelings for Swamji ‘had always been one of absolute purity’ but perhaps The appropriate analogy might be with ‘Vivekananda understood the danger’. Som speculates, Sri R amakrishna and the Holy Mother; ‘Perhaps Nivedita had for Vivekananda a “lover’s or some 20 years later, Sri Aurobindo adoration” similar to what Madeleine Slade was to have and Mirr a Alfassa. While both for Gandhi; but the age difference between Gandhi and Miss Slade was thirty years as against the five years Sri R amakrishna and Sri Aurobindo between Vivekananda and Nivedita’ (op cit, page 35). anointed the Holy Mother and Mirr a Despite the readjustment that Nivedita tried so hard to Alfassa respectively as their spiritual effect in both her attitude and approach to Vivekananda, partners and successors, Vivekananda her love for him did not diminish. Even as she relished the did not do so with Nivedita privilege of travelling back with him to England, she was writing to Josephine on April 9th, 1899, ‘While he is alive and here, I will not stir out of reach of him—I could not bear it—I worship—idolize—love him—I dare not risk Biography of Sister Nivedita (New York: Dell, 1953), believes that his wanting me and not being there’ (Som op cit, pages 58-59). Vivekananda tried very hard to make it up to Nivedita: ‘he was The ‘love that she felt for her King’, as Som puts it, was all kindness and consideration’ to her: ‘irresistible’ (page 59). As Nivedita wrote to Josephine on June ‘He held her hands in sympathy. He looked after her with 15th, 1899 during her sea voyage with Vivekananda, ‘Blessed be infinite tenderness, as if she were a tired child. He tried to God for making it possible to love like this’ (Som op cit, page 60). In comfort her, to make her drink some tea thickened with butter. the same letter, she confessed, ‘that awful time at Almora, when He watched over her until, exhausted by her grief, she fell I thought he had put me out of his life contemptuously… I have asleep. And he kept close beside her as they set out in the icy grown infinitely more personal in my love’ (Som op cit, page 60). cold the next morning… ’ (page 128). The six weeks together on the ship, albeit also accompanied by Nivedita, however, was inconsolable: ‘She kept murmuring, Swami Turyananda, was the longest time Nivedita would spend “Why? But why? I don't understand”’ (ibid). with Vivekananda. They had set sail on June 30th, 1899 on the Vivekananda, quite sympathetic to her plight, ‘suffered SS Golconda, via Aden, Port Said and Naples, arriving at Tilsbury with her in deep humility, though he could no longer talk Dock, London on July 31, 1899. She considered it ‘as the greatest to her’. At the end of day, after marching 10 hours, he found occasion of my life… I missed no opportunity of the Swami’s her asking still, ‘“Why?” with tears in her eyes.’ He answered, society that presented itself… thus I received one long continuous quite simply, “Margot, I have not the power to give you what impression of his mind and personality, for which I can never be you want” (ibid). As she wrote to Nell Hammond afterward, sufficiently thankful’ (The Master as I Saw Him, pages 220-221). ‘The next morning, as we came home, he said, “Margot, I am Those who imagine or claim that Amarnath caused a rupture not Ramakrishna Paramahamsa”’ (ibid). This extraordinary between Nivedita and Vivekananda or irrevocably changed the admission was accompanied by ‘The most perfect, because the former’s personality are, evidently, mistaken. In fact, the Amarnath most unconscious, humility you ever saw.’ As Reymond puts it, experience culminated ‘on the great day of Rakhibandhan’, with ‘He would have liked to reply, “Peace, peace; the felicity lies only both Vivekananda’s and Nivedita’s wrists ‘tied with the red and in the gift of oneself.” But Nivedita, shut in by her despair, was yellow threads of that sacrament’ (ibid, pages 159-160). incapable of listening to him (ibid, pages 127-128). (To be continued) n

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 15

THE RACHEL PAPERS

By Rachel Dwyer

The Indian Pastoral The cinematic evolution of the countryside sends out a social message

know nothing about agriculture, even Bimal Roy’s 1955 adaptation of Sarat Chandra though my family were farmers three generations ago. Chattopadhyay’s Devdas showed the other side of rural I stayed on farms as a child and enjoyed milking a cow life, this time the zamindar, not the farmer, while his Iand the lambing season, but it was muddy and smelly. Madhumati (1958) revealed the tensions between the I’m far too sentimental about animals to pass muster in the timber estate manager, Anand (again Dilip Kumar) and country. I never ate rabbit after hearing that Mr McGregor Raja Ugra Narain (Pran), the landowner. There is a sharp put Peter Rabbit’s father in a pie. I am an urbanite, my life divide between the foresters and the Tribals, including tied to the seasons through the garden, not the farm. Madhumati (Vyjayanthimala) and her father, Pawan Raja Farming in the UK and India are very different.O ne of (Jayant), who are more in tune with nature. the surprises for a first-time visitor to India is that animals The theme of forestry was taken up by other greats of the are not seen in fields as much as on the streets. 1950s—in BR Chopra’s Naya Daur (1957), through a central I count forestry as part of farming, and in ancient India, character, a woodcutter working in a sawmill, whose there were many kinds of forests. The Arthashastra requires modernisation was the main tension in the drama, setting the king to maintain gajavanas, forests that would allow for the stage for the race between the tonga and the bus. a large population of elephants, while the ascetics lived in Pakeezah (1972) shows the hero, Salim (Raaj Kumar), as tapovanas, and there were plantations of sandalwood trees. a forest ranger, though one poetic enough to write the note Religion is closely tied to farming: Jesus was the Good he leaves between her toes –‘Aapke paon dekhe, bahut haseen Shepherd and the Fisher of Men, while grew up as hain. Inhein zameen par mat utariyega... maile ho jaayenge a cowherd in a land rich in butter and milk. Pastoral poetry (I saw your feet; they are very beautiful. Please don’t put evokes the world of farming, whether in Virgil’s Georgics or them on the ground…they will get dirty).’ Dayaram’s lyrics of Vrindavan. Rural novels have remained The great rural film of 1950s Hindi cinema, if not of all canonical texts from Thomas Hardy to Premchand. So, it is time, remains Mehboob Khan’s Mother India (1957), which not surprising that we find farmers in many Indian films. presents the nation as woman, but also the woman as Some of these were associated with leftist writers and nation. Mother India was a ‘secular’ goddess created by the filmmakers.Kisan Kanya (1937), said to be the first colour nationalist movement in the 19th century. Radha (Nargis) film, was scripted by Saadat Hasan Manto. It is a tale of is also associated with other goddesses and the film oppressed peasants, while Dharti Ke Lal (1946), written by abounds in mythological references to Krishna, Ram and KA Abbas and Bijon Bhattacharya, and produced by the other deities. Although many of those involved in the film Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA), concerns a were Muslim (including Nargis, Mehboob and Naushad), family during the Bengal famine of 1943. The first Hindi the film refers only to Hindus, the village notably not film that Bimal Roy and the team that migrated to Bombay having any Muslim residents. from New Theatres, Calcutta, made was Do Bigha Zamin The golden moments for the agricultural family are (1953), whose story Salil Chowdhury took from Tagore’s celebrated. A wonderful song ‘Dukh bhare din beete re poem, ‘Dui Bigha Jomi’. The beautifully made film about an bhaiya’ (a Nehruvian version of achhe din?) where the impoverished farmer (Balraj Sahni) working as a Calcutta harvest celebrations end with the village dancing among rickshaw-puller to earn enough to buy his eponymous two sheaves forming a map of undivided India. acres of land, is in the neo-realist style, after the makers The film has a deep ambivalence, which is never were inspired by seeing Vittorio de Sica’s Bicycle Thieves resolved. On one hand there is the traditional Indian (1948) at the first international film festival in Bombay in village, where life is grim. The main image is of a mud- 1952. It has great songs, including ‘Dharti kahe pukar ke’, caked Radha (Nargis) carrying a plough like an ox. based on one sung by the Red Army. However, this is lightened by moments of pleasure

20 29 march 2021 celebrated in song. On the other hand, there is a utopian It is surprising that two comedies engaged with the modern India of dams, machinery and the state itself, theme of farmer suicides. A satire on the media, Peepli Live where life’s needs are provided for but at the cost of (2010) was about the problems of village life, not least of enormous human sacrifice and misery. which is farmer suicides, but had the protagonist migrate The other major iconic film featuring farmers was to the city as a labourer as even urban poverty is better Upkar (1967), where Manoj Kumar plays Bharat, a than village life. The Marathi film,Gabhricha Paus, was farmer and soldier who promotes Lal Bahadur Shastri’s about a woman’s fear that her farmer husband would slogan “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan”. Upkar contrasts decadent commit suicide. Westernised lifestyles in nightclubs with the noble life Punjab is seen as the bread basket of India, its fertile of the farmer and the soldier. The heroine, a doctor (Asha land producing abundant crops, especially the fields of Parekh), negotiates the gap between these groups, as she bright yellow mustard so beloved of Yash Chopra and other filmmakers. Images of well-off farmers driving tractors and celebrating festivals feature in many films with major stars like Namastey London (2007), Rang De Basanti (2006) or Veer- Zaara (2004). However, in the last 10 years, in terms of its filmic depiction, Punjab is no longer the nice and wholesome centre of the Green Revolution, but a sinister place. NH10 (2015) has the village as a dystopia of ‘honour’ killings and murder, while Udta Punjab (2016) shows agriculture used as a front for heroin dealing in drug-ridden rural Punjab. Usually, the small-town setting is in Uttar Pradesh, more of a crime scene than a place to raise crops or livestock. Dabangg (2010) is not about farmers, but does have indisputably the best fight scene of all time using agricultural instruments. Chulbul Pandey (Salman Khan) and his enemy, Chedi Singh (Sonu Sood), battle it out, after Salman’s expanding muscles make his shirt rip and fly off. Two Marathi (and Kaikadi) films by Nagraj Manjule don’t look at farmers directly, but examine rural caste oppression in Fandry (2013), where the Kaikadi Manoj Kumar in Upkar (1967) community is responsible for the village pigs, and Sairat (2016), an intercaste love story. The village is seen as a place works in the village, arguing they are all social equals. of endless oppression, the farmers as wealthy landowners The patriotic song, ‘Mere desh ki dharti’ is pictured like a and the low-caste poor barely existing on its fringes. developmentalist documentary, where we see irrigation, OTT series deploy the violent small-town trope (for including Persian waterwheels, slings to drive off birds, example, Mirzapur), while the village is seen in more and crops in the field, with Bharat carrying the plough, all gentle settings such as Panchayat, where the locals are reinforcing his name, meaning ‘India’. not bumpkins but canny operators who outsmart the Rural themes are found in Shyam Benegal’s classic city-dwellers. films of the 1970s, such as Ankur (1974), where the wealthy I don’t know of a word in an Indian language that is Surya (Anant Nag) is a farmer while the poor characters are equivalent to the English ‘countryside’. potters. His Manthan (1976) is about the White Revolution Perhaps a new type of countryside is emerging in (dairy), inspired by Verghese Kurien and his dairy India with the elites desiring to live in more peaceful cooperative in Anand. The veterinarian Dr Rao (Girish rural settings (with good internet), sometimes taking up Karnad) challenges the local dairy owner Mishra (Amrish organic farming or flower growing. There is also much Puri), helping the local dairy farmers to form a cooperative. interest in farm stays with tea estate owners or coffee- Two films starring the top stars at the turn of the farmers in Coorg for urbanites in need of some ‘forest century had agricultural settings. Aamir Khan’s Lagaan bathing’. You live with the family, while the workers are (2001) has Indian villagers uniting to play cricket against seen only outside the house. the British in order to cancel the agricultural tax or lagaan, Zamindari has been abolished and wealth is not while Shah Rukh Khan’s Swades (2004) has very Gandhian focused on land but on industry, business and commerce. overtones, often focusing on caste issues as well as Perhaps, the major vestige is the ‘Delhi Farmhouse’, bringing irrigation to the village. famed more for its parties than its agriculture. n

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 21 Whisperer Jayanta Ghosal

The Other Sinha fter Yashwant Sinha, will it be AShatrughan Sinha who will join the Trinamool Congress (TMC)? Both are close and are Kayastha leaders of Bihar. They are former Bharatiya (BJP) veterans who couldn’t adjust to the Narendra Modi era. Shatrughan Sinha has been singing praises of TMC leader Mamata Banerjee of late. He is officially in Congress but did not figure on the list of star campaigners. Congress insiders say it’s due to Sinha’s extravagance. Short of cash, the party is apparently unable to afford his five-star lifestyle. Joining TMC could also lead to a Rajya Sabha ticket down the line.

Temporary or Permanent? It is something of a puzzle that Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was removed as the Congress leader in the . Some say it is because of his anti-Mamata Banerjee utterances. Congress needs TMC for the 2024 General Election and can’t afford to antagonise Banerjee. And then there is the question of why Ravneet Singh Bittu was given the post. His main qualification seems to be his proximity to Rahul Gandhi. On the other hand, it is said Chowdhury himself asked Bittu to take the post as a temporary arrangement. He is busy with the West Bengal election campaign and senior leaders were also tied up in other states.

Wheelchair Impact fter West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s accident, A‘wheelchair campaigning’ is the new political phenomenon in West Bengal. There are several precedents to popular leaders campaigning from the wheelchair, from US President Franklin D Roosevelt to DMK leader M Karunanidhi. The question on everyone’s mind is what its impact will be on voters. On social media, BJP calls it a drama while TMC supporters laud her as the wounded tigress.

22 29 march 2021

Illustrations by Saurabh Singh

Centre Force Mangalsutras JP has given tickets in West Bengal elections to five for Votes Bserving members of Parliament, including Union Minister Babul Supriyo. One speculation is that they wanted to send a message to the state that the party is serious about its prospects. These leaders would become part of the state cabinet if the party comes to power. And that having them there would mean a better relationship with the Centre, which would be very good for development in the state. Also, BJP doesn’t have many personalities and celebrity faces in the Bengal unit. Parachuting these leaders from Delhi could address that as well.

Outsiders’ Territory n the Tamil Nadu elections, BJP has got 20 seats Ito contest in its alliance with the All India Anna he promise of freebies in Tamil Nadu Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). But of those, is an old tradition since the late 18 candidates it has fielded are outsiders. The party’s T senior leader Subramanian Swamy himself tweeted MG Ramachandran’s reign in the 1980s. this. BJP, however, believes the decision was taken AIADMK leader, the late J Jayalalithaa, on the basis of winnability. In the state, AIADMK and was also an expert in using this tactic to DMK are strong among the masses. So, selection of win elections. She gave everything, from candidates was not an easy job for the party. household appliances to food, to woo voters. This election is no different. But DMK has added an interesting item to the list: mangalsutras for married women. It has No Confidence led to AIADMK also adding jewellery to he seat from which former Puducherry Chief its election promises. There are also TMinister V Narayanasamy of Congress was elected motorcycles and laptops on offer this time. last time has gone to ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (DMK) kitty now. It shows Congress’ lack of confidence. Come to think of it, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi should have used a similar facesaver in 2019 by allotting the Amethi seat to the Samajwadi Party. But on Happy Nitish the flip side, the Congress-DMK relationship is still going strong. ashtriya Lok Samta Party leader Upendra RKushwaha merged his party with Janata Dal (United) to return to the embrace of Bihar Chief Minister . It was a small news item in the national media but in Bihar, Threat especially for Nitish, it is a major political he National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), a development. Kushwaha was in JD(U) before Tmilitant Tribal organisation in the Northeastern splitting to form his own party. With his return, state, has suddenly become active and intelligence Nitish is trying to merge the Kurmi and Koiri agencies believe China is giving it covert support. votebanks. Koiris form a big chunk of the Earlier, another group, Tripura National Volunteers, state’s electorate and Kushwaha has a strong used to be active there and would keep crossing over base among them. But other senior JD (U) to Bangladesh to escape Indian security agencies. But leaders are said to be unhappy that Nitish has India got Bangladesh to help arrest them. It won’t be so made him chairman of the party’s national easy to get China to do something similar with NLFT. parliamentary board.

18 January 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 23 open essay

By Brahma Chellaney

The Water Wars India must elevate the increasingly scarce resource to a strategic level

he sharpening geopolitical competition over natural resources has turned some strategic resources into engines of power struggle. This is scarcely a surprise: Access to natural resources has historically been a major factor in peace and war. Resource considerations were a major driver of many armed interventions and wars, including the European colonial conquests and a number of the wars of the last century. Water is the most-critical resource for human well-being, sustainable livelihoods and biodiversity support. Yet, access to adequate supplies of freshwater poses a particularly difficult challenge in several parts of the world because of spreading water shortages. Hydropolitics has consequently become murkier. It might be a cliché but water is the new oil of the 21st century. Today, water resources shared between nations are at T the centre of increasing competition and conflict, triggering a dam-building race and prompting growing calls for the United Nations to make water a key security concern. China, which dominates Asia’s water map because of its 1951 annexation of the water-rich Tibetan Plateau, is driving the sharpening hydropolitics in Asia. Almost all of Asia’s major rivers originate on the Tibetan Plateau, and China is erecting an expansive hydro-infrastructure to make itself the upstream water controller. In recent days, its rubber-stamp parliament has ratified a controversial plan to build a mega-dam on the Brahmaputra (known as Yarlung Tsangpo to Tibetans) just before the world’s highest-altitude river crosses into India. This plan, which is likely to unleash environmental havoc in downstream regions, comes after one of the most pristine Himala- yan rivers mysteriously turned black when entering India from Tibet, highlighting how China’s upstream tunnelling, damming and mining activities might be causing major environmental contamination. The plight of the Siang, and the Brahmaputra mega- project, serve as a stark reminder that transboundary river water issues in Asia are no less important than the regional maritime issues of the South and East China seas and the Indian Ocean, which have attracted greater global attention. Freshwater is increasingly in short supply, with nearly two-thirds of the global population living in water-stressed conditions. Asia, home to 60 per cent of the world’s population, has less freshwater per capita than any other continent. Its annual freshwater availability per person is less than half the global average of 5,829 cubic metres. Yet Asia, the global economic locomotive, has experienced the world’s most rapid growth in water withdrawals from rivers, lakes and aquifers. Its dramatic economic rise has resulted in its water usage rate surpassing renewable stocks. By digging deeper wells, overexploiting river resources and maintaining generous irrigation subsidies, Asia is accelerating water-resource depletion and environmental degradation. To be sure, the water crisis extends beyond Asia. Even in the relatively water-rich US, water-sharing disputes are becoming rife. In fact, national paucity of water and arable land is driving some wealthier countries to produce food for their home markets on farmland acquired overseas, especially in sub-Saharan Africa. Such land grabs by outsiders are effectively water grabs because the farmland leases come with the right to harness local water resources for cultivation. According to a couple of studies, at least 20 states in sub-Saharan Africa have leased fertile land measuring more than Spain’s landmass to outside governments and agribusiness firms. One mammoth lease in the Indian Ocean island nation of

24 29 march 2021 Illustration by Saurabh Singh

Madagascar by the South Korean corpo- is also compounding adverse impacts rate giant Daewoo triggered a powerful As downstream on fragile ecosystems. grassroots backlash, which helped to Yet, more and more people are topple the country’s democratically droughts become more relying on bottled water even in those elected president in 2009. Western cities where tap water is safe A potent example of the world’s frequent due to China’s and highly regulated. This has created deepening water crisis is the dramatic dam network on the a strange paradox: While the prosper- rise of the bottled water industry over ous in the world now depend largely on the past two decades. Bottled water, Mekong River, China is bottled drinking water, the poor struggle in fact, has become a major source to get basic access to water for their daily of plastic waste, with plastic debris leveraging its upstream consumption and household chores. clogging up landfills, blocking drains, This month’s 10th anniversary of polluting waterways and contributing water control to the Fukushima disaster was a reminder to biodiversity loss. Such is the low re- influence policies of of another water-related paradox: Wa- cycling rate in many countries that, for ter is a life preserver but also becomes example, 80 per cent of all plastic water downstream states a life destroyer if it carries deadly bottles sold in the US become litter. bacteria or takes the form of tsunamis, Bottled water carries a large environ- flash floods, storms and hurricanes. mental footprint that extends beyond Fukushima’s triple nuclear meltdown plastic waste. Significant resources are needed to source, was triggered not by the earthquake that struck the area but process, bottle and transport such water, including 1.6 litres of by the tsunami that followed. water, on average, to package one litre of bottled water. Add to Global warming, for its part, is set to worsen the water crisis. the picture the carbon footprint from processing and trans- As oceans rise and the intensity and frequency of storms and porting bottled water. other extreme weather events increase due to global warming, Much of the bottled water sold across the world is extracted freshwater resources will come under increasing strain. groundwater that, before being bottled, has been subjected Jakarta demonstrates how human-induced changes in the to reverse osmosis or other treatment. Tapping subterranean hydrological cycle are helping to foster threats from global water reserves on a large scale for this purpose depletes not warming. The Indonesian capital, home to more than 10 mil- just aquifers but also rivers and streams that draw water from lion people, is sinking faster than any other major city in the aquifers. Premium bottled water, sourced from glaciers’ runoff, world because of stepped-up groundwater depletion. Tens of

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 25 open essay

thousands of wells across Jakarta are pumping out groundwa- accords, China withheld hydrological data from India on ter at such an alarming rate that as much as two-fifths of the city upstream river flows. This undermined India’s flood early- is now said to be below sea level. Groundwater depletion is also warning systems during the critical monsoon season. Many of aiding the rise of the Java Sea, thus worsening Jakarta’s plight. the deaths in , which suffered record flooding that year One study has estimated that groundwater depletion despite below-normal monsoon rainfall, were preventable. alone contributes 0.8 millimetre per year to the rise of ocean The data denial was apparently intended to punish India for levels globally, or about a quarter of the total rise of the oceans. boycotting China’s inaugural Belt and Road summit and for Groundwater depletion, by inviting seawater intrusion into the border standoff in Doklam. aquifers, is already compounding freshwater shortages in The India-Pakistan water dynamic is driven by different coastal Asian cities. Meanwhile, the plethora of upstream factors. When Pakistan was carved out of India in 1947 as the dams on rivers is causing a perceptible retreat of Asia’s heavily first Islamic republic of the post-colonial era, the partition left the populated deltas that are home to mega-cities like Bangkok, headwaters of the six-river Indus system on the Indian side of the Dhaka, Guangzhou, Kolkata, Shanghai and Tianjin. border but the basin’s larger segment in the newly created coun- The current freshwater shortages are clearly being exacer- try. This division armed India with tremendous water leverage bated by water pollution. Water contamination until now had over Pakistan. But India, without any quid pro quo, ceded that largely been a domestic issue, as highlighted by the pollution leverage by signing what still remains the world’s most generous problems affecting the Yellow River in China and the Ganges in water-sharing pact: The 1960 Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) has India and Bangladesh. But the contamination of the Siang has indefinitely reserved for Pakistan more than 80 per cent of the shown that this problem is becoming a transboundary issue. total Indus-system waters. Against this background, water wars in a political and Not content with securing the lion’s share of the Indus waters, economic sense are already being waged in several regions, Pakistan has continued to play the water card against India. including by building dams on international rivers and by From waging conventional wars against India in the past to resorting to coercive diplomacy or other sustaining a protracted proxy war by means to prevent such construction. terror since the 1980s, Pakistan has in One example of a silent water war has parallel started waging a water war. Its been Ethiopia’s dam building on the strategy has centred on repeatedly Blue Nile and the consequent Egyptian Premium invoking the IWT’s conflict-resolution threats of covert or overt reprisals. provisions to internationalise any per- A report reflecting the joint judg- bottled water, sourced ceived disagreement so as to keep India ment of US intelligence agencies under intense pressure. warned a few years ago that the use of from glaciers’ runoff, is Asia illustrates that once shared wa- water as a weapon of war or a tool of compounding adverse ter becomes a diplomatic battleground terrorism would become more likely in between countries, it begins to exact some regions. The InterAction Council, impacts on fragile geopolitical costs in ways not dissimilar comprising more than 30 former heads to the legacies of armed conflicts. The of state or government, has underscored ecosystems casualty usually is sub-regional stabil- the imperative for urgent action, saying ity and cooperation. The South Asian some countries battling severe water alamy shortages are at risk of failing. The risks of water conflicts are espe- cially pronounced in the world’s most water-stressed regions—North Africa, the Middle East, and much of Asia. Asia cannot continue to drive global eco- nomic growth without finding ways to sustainably alleviate its water crisis. Water discord, meanwhile, is fuelling China-India tensions. In recent years, Beijing increasingly has been employing its water leverage against India. In 2017, in breach of two bilateral

A half-frozen Yarlung Tsangpo river in Tibet

26 The Indonesian coastline in Jakarta

governments must initiate plans now to mitigate the effects. The imperative is to move from purely supply-side approaches to demand-side options that emphasise water conservation and quality as much as quantity. Even on the supply side, non-traditional measures, from recycling of water to rainwater capture, must be embraced. reuters Rainwater harvesting is an ancient technique that originated in Asia, Association for Regional Cooperation especially India. Rainwater capture is (SAARC), for example, has no future; it also the cheapest and most sustainable will remain a stunted initiative. Jakarta, home to more option to address water shortages and Asia also exemplifies another impor- than 10 million people, replenish groundwater. Prime Minister tant trend—that dams and democracy Narendra Modi’s ‘Catch the Rain’ initia- do not go well together. Dam building is sinking faster than tive, by achieving demonstrable results has run into major grassroots opposition on the ground, can serve as a model for in Asian democracies like India, Japan any other major city other countries. and South Korea, driving up project costs India must elevate water as a stra- and acting as a damper on hydropower in the world because tegic resource. The Modi-created new, expansion. But dam building remains of stepped-up unified water power ministry is seeking unconstrained in countries where grass- to rectify a splintered, piecemeal ap- roots empowerment is absent, such as groundwater depletion proach that has compounded India’s China, Pakistan, Myanmar and Laos. water challenges. But without institu- Activist non-governmental organisa- tionalised, integrated policymaking, it tions (NGOs)—many foreign-funded— will not be easy for India to develop a have made it difficult for India to build large dams. This has only holistic approach to an increasingly scarce resource or fashion compounded India’s energy conundrum. India’s inability to an effective hydro-diplomacy that advances the country’s long- stem disruptive NGO activism will continue to blight the term water interests. promise of hydropower in the country. Water increasingly will be a critical factor in regional develop- In contrast, China stands out as the global leader in dam ment. So, India needs to get its act together on transboundary building, boasting more large dams than the rest of the world water issues. It should, for example, build sustained pressure on combined. The focus of China’s dam frenzy has ominously China to abide by international norms on shared water resourc- shifted over the past decade from domestic rivers to trans- es. Indian diplomacy ought to promote multilateral cooperation boundary rivers. This carries serious implications for down- on water and hydropower resources in the Bangladesh-Bhutan- stream neighbours. For example, as downstream droughts India-Myanmar-Nepal growth corridor. Such collaboration will become more frequent due to China’s dam network on the also boost the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Techni- Mekong River, China is leveraging its upstream water control cal and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC). to influence policies of downstream states. More broadly, three interconnected crises—a water crisis, The environmental degradation on the world’s largest and an environmental crisis and a climate crisis—are threatening highest plateau, Tibet, due to Chinese damming and mining Asia’s economic, social and ecological future. Wasteful practices activities carries wide implications. With its height and other and mismanagement of water resources need to be addressed unique features, the Tibetan Plateau influences climatic and across Asia, or else the water crisis will worsen and spark raging rainfall patterns across Asia. conflicts. Cooperative institutional mechanisms and sustain- To be sure, other countries also are contributing to environ- able practices constitute the building blocks of water peace. mental degradation and thereby undermining Asia’s hydrologi- Water indeed is a key test of whether Asian leaders have the cal and climatic stability. In a number of countries, watersheds, political will and good sense to think and act long-term. n watercourses, coastal environment and other ecosystems are being degraded, resulting in shrinking wetlands and forests, Brahma Chellaney is a geostrategist and the author of two increased water pollution and other ecological problems. award-winning books on water: Water, Peace, and War Given that Asia is likely to face a hotter, drier future, and Water: Asia’s New Battleground

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 27 THE FUTURE OF WATER

Photo alamy THE FUTURE OF WATER

The world faces its biggest challenge in replenishing sources of freshwater. water scarcity could one day drive conflict. As a heavy user of groundwater, India has to be attentive to likely crises. With Many of its rural households still without clean drinking water, The Jal Jeevan Mission seeks to give every home a tap and running water. An equal goal remains the preservation of this scarce resource. an Open special report On the eve of World Water Day on March 22nd

www.openthemagazine.com 29 THE FUTURE OF WATER The Mission Modi’s water mantra The Jal Jeevan Mission is fulfilling a promise to provide every rural household with drinking water and a tap, a grand plan that began with the govern ment integrating its disparate arms dealing with water under one ministry. Its biggest challenge now is to sustain groundwater and ensure India’s water security By Amita Shah

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launches the Atal Bhujal Yojana in New Delhi on December 25, 2019 Modi’s water mantra The Jal Jeevan Mission is fulfilling a promise to provide every rural household with drinking water and a tap, a grand plan that began with the govern ment integrating its disparate arms dealing with water under one ministry. Its biggest challenge now is to sustain groundwater and ensure India’s water security

t was raining hard on a July day last year when a truck carrying High-Density Polyethylene Pipes (HDPP) left Solan in for a 450-kilometre uphill journey to Spiti, a cold desert valley high in the . When it reached Kinnaur on National Highway 505, an old bridge over the Sutlej river was found to be damaged in the monsoon rains. The truck remained stranded there for six days. In Spiti, the engineers were getting impatient. Time was running out. They had an August deadline to connect every rural house- hold with pipes and a tap running with drinking water. The December timeframe had been advanced to August as by October, when temperatures start falling below zero in the region, all concrete and cement-related work comes to a halt. The truck was directed to take the longer Manali-Rohtang route to reach Spiti. It took another three-four days for it to reach Spiti but the target was met on time. All 2,635 households of 98 villages, including Tashigang, the highest polling station in the world at a height of 15,256 feet, were connected with taps running with potable water by mid- August. At Tashigang, a tiny hamlet of six households, and other villages in the bewitching barren mountains of Spiti along the old Hindustan-Tibet Road, melting glaciers and receding waters in ponds and lakes had made water scarce. Walking through the snow in the mountainous terrain, the villagers

used to fill water in plastic cans from public taps. ruary this year, the authorities had to rely entirely on community They celebrated the day water reached their homes— participation. Local contractors were hired and asked to get their women draped white khatags, the Tibetan Buddhist ceremo- own labour. College students, who had returned home during the Inial scarves symbolising celebration, purity and greetings, lockdown, were engaged in the work to lay pipes. around the taps in the villages, where a majority of inhabit- “Here, everything is a struggle. Temperatures fall to minus 35 ants practise Vajrayana Buddhism. Tashigang became the degrees Celsius in winter. In November, we drain out the pipes highest point where a functional household tap connection and stop supply as the water freezes. We lay open pipes and after (FHTC) was installed under the Jal Jeevan Mission (JJM), the the sun comes out we start supply for a couple of hours. This year, Narendra Modi Government’s ambitious flagship har‘ ghar nal water will give a boost to tourism also,” says Manoj Negi, execu- se jal’ scheme, promising drinking water from taps in every rural tive engineer in-charge of the area under the Jal Shakti division. household by 2024. The biggest challenge in Spiti was thrown up With the Atal Tunnel over the now connecting by the lockdown in the wake of Covid-19. With outsiders barred Lahaul-Spiti through the year, he is expecting increased tourism from entering Spiti, which opened up to tourists only in mid-Feb- for winter sports—ice hockey and ice-skating. Last year in Kaza,

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 31 THE FUTURE OF WATER The Mission

a town in Spiti, ice-hockey broke the stillness of winter, when deputy prime minister. At least once a month Vajpayee would call everything would come to a halt as Lahaul-Spiti got cut off from Prabhu to discuss the issue. The taskforce held 5,000 meetings and the rest of the world for nearly six months. submitted a report to the Supreme Court. “The biggest challenge Negi recalls that there was an earlier scheme, the National Ru- with water is that there is no alternative to it. It can neither be ral Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP), brought in by the manufactured nor imported. The only thing that can be done is Manmohan Singh Government in 2009, providing financial and management of existing water,” says Prabhu, at present India’s technical assistance to state governments to install rural drinking Sherpa to G7 and G20. In 2013, at a time when Vajpayee, by then water connections. But JJM is not targeted just at giving access to in the opposition, had left it to Advani to take on the Manmohan safe drinking water. It is aimed at a functional tap in every rural Singh Government for its performance, the only issue that moved household, assuring 55 litres per capita per day (lpcd) of drinking him to break his silence was water. ‘Oil is called the liquid gold of water, in a country where mostly the rich and influential in a vil- the modern age; water is the true liquid gold now. Some people lage have had taps in their homes. say in 20 years time, wars will be Singh’s predecessor, Atal Bihari fought in the world over water, not Vajpayee, had often passionately oil. In our country, we have always underscored the gravity of the water considered water holy,’ Vajpayee situation, in a way that made envi- Vajpayee had touched on wrote in a letter to Singh. He made ronmentalist Sunita Narain once say apparent his resentment at the “You spoke our language.” Deliver- all the core water-related Congress disbanding the taskforce ing his speech at the fifth meeting issues. A lot of what he had and sought an all-party meeting to of the National Water Resources discuss river water sharing among Council in April 2002, Vajpayee had said is reflected in the states. said: “The cornerstone of the new It was on Vajpayee’s birth an- National Water Policy should be Modi Government’s Jal niversary, December 25th, 2019, an explicit recognition that water that Modi released the operational is a National resource and access to Jeevan Mission guidelines, launching JJM. By then, safe, adequate and affordable water the various arms of government, at is a basic need of every citizen. In one time 13, dealing with water had particular, right to drinking water been brought under a single umbrel- should be accorded a priority over la of the Ministry of Jal Shakti. The every other alternative use.” He had person given charge of it, Jodhpur touched on all the core water-related MP Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, is issues—depletion of groundwater, himself from the water-stressed arid management of water resources, western . “In western Raj- community as custodian of water, asthan, when a girl turns 10-12 years harvesting rain water, treating waste of age, she keeps a small pot on her water and saving every drop of wa- head and along with her mother, el- ter. A lot of what Vajpayee had said in der sisters and other women, starts that speech is reflected in the Modi her journey to fetch water. And till Government’s Jal Jeevan Mission. getty images she is 60-70, when she is bent and In an open letter to Vajpayee weak, she continues to fetch water in September 2002, Narain, who in the urn each day. She may walk had written Making Water Everybody’s Business with Anil two kilometres or even 10 km. To get freedom from this is a huge Agarwal and Indira Khurana, had said it was time to go beyond blessing. In 72,000 villages now, not a single woman needs to go words and take effective action: ‘It makes me want to believe out to fetch water. In 3.7 crore homes they have been freed from that you care and believe in this issue. I realise how difficult it is this chore,” he tells Open. to change governmental policy. The vested interests, and more When JJM was launched, about 3.23 crore rural households, importantly, mindsets are entrenched. To ask the water resources which accounted for 16.86 per cent, had tap connections. The ministry to take serious note of what you have advocated is easier task before the Government was to connect the remaining 83.14 said than done. So what if you are the prime minister. Your of- per cent in five years. The target looked daunting. Of this, 3.85 ficials will agree—to do nothing.’ crore (20 per cent) households have been connected with piped , a minister in the Vajpayee Government who water, taking the total number to 7.08 crore, as per the official headed a taskforce on inter-linking of rivers, recalls how keen dashboard that is regularly updated, giving every detail of the the former prime minister was on solving the water problem. status of JJM in each village. Going by simple arithmetic, if this The taskforce was to be headed by LK Advani, but he became the pace is maintained, then the Government could achieve its target

32 29 march 2021 of connecting all of the over 19 crore households the peak of summer before the monsoon. In 2019, with a functional tap by 2024, the year India goes despite less than usual rainfall, there was more wa- for its next parliamentary election. The biggest ter in the lake and the groundwater got recharged. “Broadly speaking, it’s an empowerment challenge with Babita’s efforts came in for praise from the prime exercise which will improve quality of life, narrow water is that minister in a recent Mann ki Baat address, when he the urban-rural divide, bridge the rich-poor gap, asked people to draw inspiration from her. In Pach- ensure better hygiene and sanitation. It is not mere there is no khura Bujurg village of Hamirpur district in UP’s infrastructure development but about long-term alternative to side of Bundelkhand, 60-year-old Swami Krishnand water security, improving life of people, particu- has been dedicating his days over the past decade larly women and children, assuring better health. it. The only in rejuvenating an old 2.7-acre local pond, Kalar- The overall thinking is that lack of water should thing that can indai Talaab, the only one which does not run dry, not be a hurdle in our quest for fast-paced socio- de-silting it to harvest rainwater. “During the day I economic development,” says Bharat Lal, Mission be done is remove soil, clean, water trees and at night I study Director and Additional Secretary in the Jal Shakti management English,” says Krishnand, who trusts neither con- ministry. The JJM dashboard is open on his com- of existing tractors nor politicians. puter screen. He just has to click on a state on the There are many more such water warriors Indian map to check the statistics. An Indian Forest water” across the country. Both government and experts Service (IFS) officer of , it was Lal who had Suresh Prabhu are aware that the community’s role was intrinsic set up and spearheaded the Water and Sanitation Indian emissary to G7 to any policy on water. On the lines of the Swachh Management Organisation (WASMO) in Gujarat and G20 Bharat Mission, aimed at building toilets in every to empower people and involve them in planning household, Modi has said JJM too should be a “jan and implementation of water supply in villages. andolan”, a people’s movement, but this time on Tankers became a thing of the past in the state as water. Over the next five years, integrated village its piped water supply increased from 20 per cent action plans will be laid out. Each village will have in the early 2000s to 80 per cent in 2019. an ‘enlightened’ water and sanitation committee. It As per the dashboard, Gujarat now has nearly will identify sources of water, use funds at the village 83 per cent rural households with potable water level, carry out maintenance and make projects for supply through taps, sixth on the list with Telan- long-term sustainability with public health engi- gana and topping with 100 per cent coverage. “It’s an neers, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), Meanwhile, Assam (7.58 per cent), West Bengal empowerment self-help groups (SHGs) and villagers all working in (7.89 per cent) and Uttar Pradesh (UP, 10.3 per cent) unison. A ‘Pani Samiti (Water Committee)’ will have are at the bottom of the ladder, as far as the total exercise which 50 per cent women, a section of society the scheme number of rural households with tap water sup- will improve zooms in on as another step in improving their lives, ply is concerned. In UP, the most populous Indian after Swachh Bharat and LPG gas connections. To state with a population of over 20 crore, less than quality of life, further ensure that women, who have been carrying 7 per cent households had access to drinking water narrow the the burden of fetching water from sources, distant from taps before JJM took off. or near, take ownership of the scheme, five women urban-rural will be trained in every village to test the quality of divide, bridge water. A potable testing device is being developed to n Bundelkhand, one of the country’s most the rich-poor enable households to test the quality of water. “In- water-deprived regions which falls in UP and stead of focusing merely on infrastructure, the focus (MP), pushed to the edge as gap, ensure is on assured and regular water delivery and services. I promises of drinking water by various regimes better hygiene The tap has to be functional in terms of quantity of lay shattered, there are stories of villagers taking water, with a prescribed quality and regularity of things into their own hands to address the water and sanitation. supply on a long-term basis,” says Lal. Under JJM, crisis in their villages. A 19-year-old undergradu- It is not mere an online Drinking Water Quality Monitoring & ate, Babita Rajput from MP’s Agroutha village of Surveillance system with its app has been launched. Chhatarpur district, inspired about 200 women infrastructure With 2,200 laboratories opened to the public, any- to dig a 12x350 feet trench near a hill to make way development” one can now give a water sample and get a report for rain water in 2018. Though the village had a Bharat Lal on its quality online. “We are trying to reform the 70-acre lake, the water body was dry because, from mission director and drinking water sector and enable our water utilities whatever little rain it received, the water drained additional to be counted among the best in world,” says Lal. off to the Bachheri river. The women, who faced the secretary, Ministry The Government and experts admit the brunt of the water shortage, finished the work in of Jal Shakti challenge is big. The former is confident of

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 33 THE FUTURE OF WATER The Mission

succeeding in meeting its target but the latter are ran dry. The existing scheme then was supplying treading cautiously with their response, given the limited water, that too once in four days. history of schemes and programmes on water over The Congress, blaming the Bharatiya Janata seven decades. While water policies have been draft- Party (BJP) for “neglecting” NRDWP, pledged to in- ed by every regime, this basic livelihood element has crease allocation for it in 2019. The NRDWP, a Cen- not been prioritised as a political agenda, as is also trally sponsored scheme aimed at providing every reflected in the sequence of the “bijli, sadak, paani” slo- “The tap, person in rural India ‘adequate, safe water’ for drink- gan. Every party’s manifesto has made promises on ing, cooking and other domestic basic needs in a sparing no effort in providing drinking water. There pipeline, tanks ‘sustainable manner’, had in 2009 replaced the Indi- have been three national policies on water since and sources of ra Gandhi Government’s Accelerated Rural Water 1987, two drinking water missions before JJM since Supply Programme (ARWSP), a decentralised, de- 1986, and over half-a-dozen schemes since 1969. water are often mand-driven, community-managed scheme in 39 India’s water quagmire goes back to pre-Inde- only about districts, giving gram panchayats a major role in the pendence days. Arthur Cotton, a 19th century Brit- engineering village water supply’s management, operation and ish general and irrigation engineer, is known to maintenance. In 2017, NRDWP was restructured by have taken on his own government for giving India solutions. the Modi Government, with a focus on sustainabil- “more iron than water”, openly criticising the large These remain ity of the schemes. The feebleness in implementa- amounts spent on railways in comparison with that tion of NRDWP on the ground over the years was allotted for irrigational facilities. Cotton, who built incomplete reflected in a CAG performance audit which said barrages and canals, particularly in southern India, unless the ‘coverage of rural habitations increased by only 8% has a museum dedicated to him in Rajamahendra- at 40 lpcd per day and 5.5% on the basis of 55 lpcd varam in . Indian policymaker sources are during 2012-17 despite the expenditure of Rs 81,168 Gautam Pingle has been quoted as saying that Cot- sustainable” crore.’ It also said 4.76 lakh habitations had slipped ton had back then envisioned interlinking of riv- Himanshu Kulkarni ers and forming a national water grid. Years later, executive director, KL Rao, irrigation minister in the Governments ACWADAM of Jawaharlal Nehru in the early 1960s and then of Indira Gandhi in the 1970s, had said that had Arthur Cotton’s suggestion for a water grid been implemented, India would not have to face its water woes. Water had figured in Indira Gandhi’s 20-point programme, a pro-poor agenda that was a bid to di- lute her image as an autocrat and project her as a socialist, in 1975, the year she imposed Emergency. ‘Better use of irrigation water’ was the third point and ‘Clean drinking water’ was placed seventh. “Consumption Nehru, it is said, liked water from Srinagar’s is growing but Chashme Shahi spring, which is sweet and has me- dicinal properties. In 1949, two years after Nehru the ground took charge as the first prime minister of indepen- water is being dent India, the Environmental Hygiene Committee (1949) recommended the provision of safe water reduced. How supply to cover 90 per cent of India’s population in long will a tap 40 years. A year later, the Constitution conferred ownership of all water resources on government, run 55 litres? specifying it as a state subject, giving citizens the There’s a right to potable water. Over seven decades after political that, not even 50 per cent of the country has access to safe drinking water, as per UNICEF India data. So economy of unquenched have been promises on water across water which India that in 2004 there were reports that former Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao’s village Vangara will come in ’s Karimnagar district was facing an into play” acute water crisis after one of the two borewells Suresh Rohilla senior director, CSE 34 29 march 2021 from ‘fully covered’ to ‘partially covered’. “The access to sustainable and safe drinking wa- The statistics being cited are mindboggling. The ter for India’s large population has become impor- dependence on ground water for all water use in In- tant, a focus that JJM is trying to address through the dia is 65 per cent. Chemical contamination of water, reach of water supplies to every household. A tap mainly through fluoride and arsenic, is present in in every household is the goal of the programme. 19.6 lakh dwellings. Waterborne diseases have an However, the tap, the water pipeline, the tanks and economic burden of approximately $600 million a even the sources of water, such as wells and springs, year. Waterborne diseases such as cholera, acute di- are often only about engineering solutions. These arrhoea, typhoid and viral hepatitis continue to be solutions remain incomplete unless the sources prevalent in India causing 10,738 deaths since 2017. are sustainable. Source sustainability depends UP has recorded the highest deaths due to diarrhoea not only on how these sources are maintained but followed by West Bengal, Assam, Odisha and MP. largely upon the status of the resources feeding India captures only 8 per cent of its annual rainfall, such sources. For instance, if aquifers are not sus- among the lowest in the world. tainably managed, the infrastructure, as good as it While experts appreciate the Modi Govern- may seem, will remain an incomplete solution. So, ment’s intervention in the form of JJM, the ques- prioritisation of supply systems and resource man- tion baffling them is how long the water will flow agement on an equal footing becomes necessary,” from the taps. They express concerns about the A farmer on his says hydrogeologist Himanshu Kulkarni, Founder sustainability of water sources, rising pressure on parched field Trustee and Executive Director, Advanced Centre in Patharkhera the depleting ground water and inadequate efforts village in Madhya for Water Resources Development and Manage- to capture the rain. The Government claims never Pradesh’s ment (ACWADAM), who has been working on before has so much emphasis been laid on water Tikamgarh district aquifers and groundwater for over 35 years. sustainability. Acknowledging the ‘good’ intention behind JJM, Suresh Rohilla, Senior Director, Water Pro- getty images gramme at the Centre for Science and Environ- ment (CSE), says the translation on the ground is difficult, though not impossible. “There are several questions. How are surface and ground waters in- tegrated? In UP, there’s 80 per cent dependence on ground water for domestic use. We need to ensure rejuvenation. In a city like Delhi, right in Hauz Khas, the water bodies have disappeared. The con- sumption is growing, but the ground water is being reduced. How long will a tap run 55 litres, which is the lpcd in rural households? There’s a political economy of water which will come into play.” The Government is exploring state-of-the-art technology to monitor details of water supply in every village. JJM, in partnership with Tata Trust, is running pilot projects demonstrating ‘sensor-based IoT system to measure and monitor water supply in these villages’. It collects data related to timing of the supply, pressure at the tail-end, quantity and quality parameters, transmitting them into a cen- tral database. With fibre optic network reaching all villages by 2022, water supply will be monitored on real-time basis and will show on the JJM dashboard. Water expert Himanshu Thakkar, coordinator for the South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People (SANDRP), says that although ground water has been the lifeline over the past four decades, it has not been recognised in policies, programmes or practices. “That lifeline is unsustainable now, we need to sustain it, protect and recharge. The prime

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 35 THE FUTURE OF WATER The Mission

minister spoke of rain water harvesting. But we Bihar under Nitish Kumar. “There are of course have been paying lip service to it for decades. Gov- implementation-level challenges that need to ernment owns maximum land area and number be addressed to ensure effective last-mile delivery. of buildings. What percentage does rain water har- The high dependence on ground water sources vesting? It’s minuscule. It’s difficult for individuals is likely to cause tremendous pressure on it. Sec- to create infrastructure for it if they don’t own large ond, providing water is not just an engineering land area or large building space. Urban areas have solution but involves social aspects too. It requires a huge water footprint and they release most of people to own it. Though the JJM guidelines have the polluted water. But we have no national Urban elaborated every aspect, implementation would re- Water Policy that would also define a water smart quire greater emphasis on community engagement city. How can you have a smart city without it being and ownership.” water smart or without water?” The Government admits sustainability of water sources poses the biggest challenge, especially in wa- ter-stressed arid and semi-arid regions of western and escribing JJM as a welcome step southern India, but is banking on the systems built in line with the global commitment into the decentralised scheme itself to address the to Sustainable Development Goal 6, issue. Bharat Lal says this time there is an unprece- Farrukh Rahman Khan, Regional Manager, dented focus on water conservation, source strength- D A village at an WaterAid India, says the focus of earlier govern- ening and ensuring sustainable use of water under altitude of ments has been mainly on community hand 14,000 feet in JJM, which is being implemented as a decentralised, pumps and tube wells. He also appreciates that Spiti Valley in demand-driven, community-managed programme. the scheme is decentralised—a model followed Himachal Pradesh “Further, Atal Bhujal Yojana and Jal Shakti Abhiyan by Gujarat when Modi was chief minister and in are all about water conservation— strengthen-

Photos alamy

36 29 march 2021 ing of water sources, rain water evant it is in today’s world when harvesting and artificial aquifer there are so many holes in the recharge in a participative manner, Arthur Cotton, a 19th ground—dug wells, bore wells, as a people’s movement. The focus century British general tube wells—which one can ob- on treatment and reuse of grey wa- serve and deduce from.” ter is aimed at ensuring availability and irrigation engineer, had The search for water is only of clean water.” As much as 60 per brimming with more challeng- cent of MGNREGA funds is ear- back then envisioned es now. Lal says the challenge marked for water conservation. in JJM is big because the scale is Focus on micro-irrigation is expect- interlinking of rivers and huge: “There are drought-prone ed to cut down consumption of wa- forming a national and desert areas where finding ter in the agriculture sector, which dependable sources of clean consumes almost 85 per cent of water grid drinking water for the next 30- total water. Besides, Lal points out, 40 years is a challenge. Similarly, the formation of the Ministry of in about 48,000 habitations, the Jal Shakti itself is aimed at “holis- quality of ground water source tic and integrated” management of is a problem. In such areas, for water so that the country becomes bulk water transfer, distribu- water secure. tion networks along with treat- In water-stressed areas, the ment plants need to be built. Our Government is planning cut- public health engineers have to ting-edge technology to identify work as public utility manag- aquifers through advanced heli- ers ensuring service delivery—a borne geophysical technology, in very critical and essential ser- which a helicopter is fitted with vice—of clean water supply in instruments to measure the elec- every home. It requires a change tro-magnetic signals from the in mindset.” earth, under an agreement with Against a budgetary support CSIR-NGRI (Council of Scientific of Rs 11,000 crore for JJM in 2020- and Industrial Research-Nation- 2021, the total budget allocated al Geophysical Research Insti- for water and sanitation is Rs tute). There was a time when 60,000 crore for 2021-2022. Of water diviners—people who this, Rs 50,000 crore is for drink- claimed they could find water ing water alone. With states underground using a dowsing providing funds and Rs 26,940 rod—were used, not just in India, but in several parts of the crore tied as funds for water and sanitation under the 15th Fi- world. Although largely considered an irrational practice, they nance Commission grants to panchayati raj institutions for still operate in certain places where people find themselves the next three years, more than Rs 1 lakh crore is going to be over a barrel because their village or city is going dry. According invested in drinking water in rural areas annually. If 2019 to Kulkarni, water divining was a multi-disciplinarian skill was about LPG connections and toilets, in 2024, water is likely which may have been more relevant when there were fewer to dominate the narrative on the Government’s inclusive wells and water shortages were a consequence of limited access growth matrix. to groundwater. In the groundwater over-exploited regions, The one paradigm everyone agrees on is participation most new (divined) wells will end up failing, with the blame of the community, without which the best of policies could of the failure being put squarely on the diviner’s head. “Wa- fizzle out. Yet, environmentalists see no justification for ter divining is mainly about exceptional observation skills, half-hearted policies and promises not kept on safe drink- although we tend to focus only on the remarkable aspects of ing water, a fundamental right in the human rights index. water divining such as a coconut turning on its head, or a cop- So poignant has been the story of drinking water that a village per pendulum swinging this way or that and so on. However, in MP celebrated ‘jal utsav’ the day they got connections in their a diviner also observes many seemingly mundane but impor- houses in January. The women of Damhedi village in Anup- tant aspects of the ecosystem—rocks, vegetation, flow of water pur district adorned themselves in their tribal jewellery, made in streams, slope of the land, etcetera. The diviner’s final site rangoli, sang and danced, welcoming the water of the Narmada. selection is based on the less remarkable observations than on It’s a dream many villages are waiting to see turn to reality, not the more ‘divine’ aspects of his toolkit. I don’t know how rel- just for themselves but for generations to come. n

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 37 THE FUTURE OF WATER Interview

Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat I Am Confident That We Will Achieve the Jal Jeevan Mission’s Target of Taking Drinking Water to Every Household

hen BJP’s Member of Parliament from Jodhpur was given charge of the Ministry of Jal Shakti, it looked like a big challenge. But for a man from arid western Rajasthan, water is a subject close to his heart. Shuttling between his hectic schedule with the Jal Jeevan Mission and West Bengal, Wwhere he is in-charge of 35 Assembly segments for the upcoming election, the Jal Shakti Minister takes time out to talk to AMITA SHAH about the achievements of the mission, the challenges it faces and how it is likely express archives to change people’s lives. Excerpts:

At present, your ministry oversees the implementation of two key schemes: Swachh Bharat Mission and the drinking water mis- sion. Can you share the milestones of both? When the country chose Narendra Modi as prime minister in 2014 and he announced the Swachh Bharat Mission from the Red Fort, only 32 per cent households had their own toilets, which means 68 per cent did not. Women had to wait for it to get dark, or make sure they woke up before sunrise. They had to compromise with their self-esteem. The prime minister understood their pain and kept a target of five years for building toilets. At that time nobody believed this could be pos- sible. But the way he took it in his own hands and made it a jan andolan (people’s movement), chose celebrities, involved the Centre and states, etcetera, the mission was completed by 2019. The United Nations

29 March 2021 I Am Confident That We Will Achieve the Jal Jeevan Mission’s Target of Taking Drinking Water to Every Household

had expected it to be done by 2030. We didn’t con- 52 districts and 42,000 gram panchayats. In 72,000 sider this the last step. We said “no one left behind villages, not a single woman needs to go out to fetch (NOLB)”. We built 11 crore toilets. On October 2nd, water. It was a chore for women. In 3.7 crore homes, 2019, when the prime minister declared India open- they have been freed from it. defecation-free from Gandhinagar, he said a target has been achieved but that this is just a landing and You are from Rajasthan, where women had we have to move towards complete sanitation. We to travel long distances to get water. Is it a are working in that direction. In rural India, we subject close to your heart? have started liquid and solid waste management. Definitely. I belong to western Rajasthan. My fa- As far as the drinking water mission is con- In 72,000 ther was an engineer heading the public health cerned, it was in line with schemes launched for engineering department and I saw the problems ordinary people, all aimed at ease of living so that villages, related to water very closely. In western Rajasthan, they can think beyond basic amenities. After all no woman when a girl turns 10-12 years of age, she keeps a this, one thing which had been left out was pota- small pot on her head and along with her mother, ble water. Of the 19 crore households in rural India, needs to go elder sisters and other women, starts her journey to only 3.33 crore got drinking water from taps. This fetch water. And till she is 60-70, when she is bent was 16 per cent. The prime minister set a target out to fetch and weak, she continues to fetch water in the urn that by 2024 we would take drinking water to ev- each day. She may walk two kilometres or even 10 ery household. For this, a Rs 3.60 lakh crore invest- water. In 3.7 km. To get freedom from this is a huge blessing. ment was earmarked. Water being a state subject crore homes, People from western Rajasthan and arid places and each state having different issues, we held con- alone can understand the value of water. This is sultations with the states and made guidelines. On women have not just about getting water but ensuring its qual- December 25th, 2019, former Prime Minister Atal ity and quantity. A woman who fetched water from Bihari Vajpayee’s birth anniversary, Prime Minister been freed far away was aware of its poor quality, yet she had Modi launched the Jal Jeevan Mission. Since then, from this to give that impure water to her family. One cannot I am proud to say, despite the situation in the wake imagine how happy she must feel now in serving of Covid-19, we have managed to give drinking chore” them clean water. water to 3.7 crore houses, which means 35 per cent more households have been covered. We are work- This year’s Budget has included drinking ing at a pace of giving connections to three crore water as a key element of a repurposed households a year. I am confident that given the approach to health by calling it wellness. Will cooperation of the states, we will be successful in this help in accelerating your programme? meeting our target. Goa and Telangana have already When the sanitation mission started, the prime declared themselves 100 per cent complete, besides minister had said it was not about toilets. He had

29 March 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 39 THE FUTURE OF WATER Interview

said it’s a krantikari (revolutionary) step. Today, mulate their plans. Whatever work could be done there are reports that if expenses, time, etcetera on the table was completed. Designing of house wa- for waterborne diseases are monetised, it would ter connections was done. We spoke to state govern- amount to Rs 50,000 per family. Considering the ments and officials, motivating them. By the time investment, it means a 400 per cent rate of return. Sustainability there were relaxations in the lockdown, we were There cannot be a smarter investment than this. It prepared to start work on the ground. It’s because will take the health index up. It will give GDP a big of water of all that we are able to give two lakh connections boost, contributing to India becoming a $5 trillion sources a day and 3.7 crore have already been given. economy. is a big Is the plan to provide drinking water for all a There are concerns that with increasing resource challenge to the Government? numbers of toilets, grey water management challenge. If you see this year’s budget, it has scotched all has become a big challenge. How do you speculation about resource challenge. Last year, we propose to tackle that? This is left had Rs 11,000 crore of budgetary allocation. This Of the 11 crore toilets built, most are twin-pit ones, to the time, the total budget for my ministry is Rs 60,000 where faecal water is addressed. In some states, vi- crore. Of this, Rs 50,000 crore is for drinking wa- olating the guidelines, single-pit toilets have also village, ter alone. This amounts to a 450 per cent growth, been made. Faecal waste problem has mostly been pushing us to work at greater speed. Besides, the addressed. Now there’s a problem of grey water— based on the demand for certain industry, like pipe-making, which emanates from bathing areas and kitchens. availability etcetera, goes up. In core industry there is demand This water can be treated. The liquid waste manage- growth and this creates employment on a large ment programme under the Swachh Bharat Mis- of water. scale. Along with that, other related skilled labour sion is being supported by the 15th Finance Com- and villagers also get work. So this drinking water mission. We are starting the kranti (movement) in We have infrastructure opens a large window of employ- every village to recycle used water, whether for ag- decentralised ment opportunities. riculture, industry or ground water. We have begun with financial and technological assistance to states it” There is the larger challenge of the impending to treat and recycle grey water. Similarly, on solid water scarcity crisis. How is the Government and plastic waste disposal, we are creating a system in a cluster of villages. We are working on grey wa- ter, black water, faecal waste and solid waste. This A woman collects is the second level of sanitation. water in Khuri in the Thar Desert, Can you share the progress report for tap Rajasthan connections in Uttar Pradesh? It’s now picking up in Uttar Pradesh. The government decided to start with the most critical area in the state, which is the Bun- delkhand region, known for being arid. We have held several meetings with the state government and I am happy to say that work is moving fast. Till now, 30 lakh connections have been given but the scale is so large there. The state government is plan- ning to target taking water to households in 10,000 villages every three months.

Did the onset of the pandemic disrupt your campaign to provide potable tap water? Of course. When the Covid-19 pandemic began, we got worried. We had a targeted mission. It was launched on December 25th and in three months the lockdown came. But we did not waste even the initial days of the lockdown, when everything was at a standstill. We asked state governments to for- alamy

40 29 march 2021 approaching this problem? people will be given an opportunity to imple- It’s a fact that there is just a third of the per capita ment it. We have piloted existing technologies water availability as compared to 50 years ago. The in this regard in several villages. All stakehold- reason is not lack of water but population growth. ers, whether engineers or political bosses, should Our dependability on ground water is huge. We be aware how much water is reaching whom use the largest amount of underground water in in a village. Along with that, 12 basic param- the world. After us, there’s China and then the US, eters can be tested by the same sensor so that but if you put them together, we use more. The way quantity and quality both get mapped. So far in our underground water is getting stressed, with 65 India, there was no systematic infrastructure to per cent dependability for all our water use on it, assess water quality. In water quality assessment, the challenge is big. We have started working at “For every block will have an organised National Ac- a fast pace on underground water recharge. For creditation Board for Testing and Calibration Labo- this, we have to identify aquifers, bodies of rocks underground ratories (NABL) accredited laboratory to test water or sediments holding groundwater. We have come quality. Besides, in every village, five women will to an agreement with CSIR-NGRI (Council of Scien- water be trained and given a kit to be able to assess basic tific and Industrial Research-National Geophysi- recharge, we quality of water at the field level. cal Research Institute) to carry out high-resolution aquifer-mapping through advanced heliborne geo- have come One key aspect has been the move to physical technology, in which a helicopter is fitted effect behavioural change. Could you walk with instruments to measure the electro-magnetic to an us through this experience? signals from the earth in water-stressed areas. We When water reaches a home, it changes everything. are exploring ways trying to ensure underground agreement As far as the sanitation mission was concerned, it water remains healthy. If industry withdraws wa- with was not just infrastructure creation. More than that, ter from certain zones, we will enforce charges on it was about behavioural change, involving 60 crore it and the more water-stressed the area, the more CSIR-NGRI people. There were several social taboos attached will be the charges. All that money will be used for to it. But when it became a jan andolan and village recharge of ground water. to carry out women and children worked as swachhata doot high- (messenger), pushing people towards behavioural What is the biggest challenge for the Jal change, then that became the basis of its success. Jeevan Mission? resolution I do not have even 1 per cent doubt in my mind From when you were given charge of the about its success. But sustainability of water sources aquifer- Jal Jeevan Mission till now, how has the is a big challenge. We have created a system so that mapping journey been for you? this responsibility is left to the village, based on the When the prime minister explained the concept availability of water and needs. We have decentral- through of the Jal Shakti ministry in his election speech, he ised it. Villagers should form their committees, own said that the topic of water has become important its operation and maintenance, and work on en- advanced for the world and particularly for India, and that suring sustainability of sources. The 15th Finance there will be a single ministry to deal with water. Commission has directed that 30 per cent of PRI heliborne As soon as the Government was formed, when he (panchayat raj institution) grants should be spent geophysical gave me the responsibility, it looked like a big chal- on water-related activities. lenge. Later, when from the Red Fort he announced technology that every household would get drinking water, it Under the mission, each person in a rural felt like a huge weight on my shoulders. But under household gets 55 litres of water from the tap his leadership, our work picked up speed over the a day. Questions have been raised about what past 15 months and, given the way we have got the happens once the 55 litres are used up. cooperation of state governments, now I am confi- It’s not like that. In a household there’s an aver- dent that we will be able to achieve the target of 100 age of five people. We are talking of equitable per cent. Some states have set a 2021 target, some water supply for everyone and ensuring that we of 2022, some 2023 and 2024, depending on their are bringing sensor-based technologies through resources. There is a healthy competition among Artificial Intelligence. Along with the Ministry states and districts. I feel convinced that we will of Electronics and Information Technology, we succeed in this and change people’s lives. I feel for- conducted a drive in which youngsters who can tunate that the prime minister gave me a chance to develop such a sensor participated. Finally, two work on this historic mission. n

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 41 THE FUTURE OF WATER DISPATCH

a thirst for change A sarpanch brings round-the-clock water supply to every household in his Haryana village By NIKITA DOVAL

Photographs by ashish sharma

new sign outside the house of Paramjeet, who curious mix of pride, determination and shame. He had pledged only uses a first name, identifies it as the residence it would go up only once he had managed to change the face of of the sarpanch of Kothal Khurd, a village in Ma- the village, sinking as it was under the weight of its own leaking hendragarh district in Haryana. The newness of pipes and garbage mounds. Today Kothal Khurd boasts paved the sign is a little strange considering that Param- pathways better than even some urban centres, clean drains, solar jeet was elected sarpanch in 2016 and is gearing lights, well-developed common areas and a thriving community up for re-election, scheduled to be held sometime spirit. It was only after he had achieved all this that Paramjeet A this summer. But for Paramjeet, the sign signifies a believed he had earned his post and finally put up the sign in 2019. 42 29 march 2021 an issue of great importance to me,” he tells Open. Though rich incomewise, Kothal Khurd’s qual- ity of life had remained poor. The reason behind this paradox was the underground waterpipes that were constantly leaking owing to wear and tear. “This meant that there was always slush in the vil- lage. People built kothis [bungalows] but there was no way to reach them. Only a camel cart could reach the gates. We used to walk by following in the foot- steps of those who had gone before us, literally,” says Omkar Yadav, a 54-year-old farmer. Stagnant water and slush also meant the constant fear of dengue and other waterborne diseases. Yadav says his wife was regularly unwell. “Even then we did not fear the mosquitoes as much as we feared the slush,” he says. The women of the village still wear veils in the presence of other men. Many a time, in a bid to cover their faces while returning from the fields or after filling water from the community taps, they Water would slip and fall in the slush, spilling the water connections from an overground and hurting themselves. pipe going to Paramjeet started by disabling the underground individual houses pipes. Illegal water connections were another issue (left); that he had to grapple with. Kothal Khurd is located a woman at a in Haryana but its topography has far more in com- 24X7 water tank in mon with its neighbouring state Rajasthan. An un- Kothal Khurd dulating landscape means that the houses of the village in Mahendragarh village are situated at different heights. While the district, Haryana, houses at the lower level got water easily, the ones at March 3 a height were often left struggling. Paramjeet joined hands with the Public Health and Engineering De- partment to enable his mission of improving the health of the village by tapping JJM. Overhead galvanised iron pipes were installed for the water supply. Convincing the villagers to “Who would want to put up their name amidst break the stoop of their homes to allow the passage muck?” he asks. of overhead pipes was just one small part of the Today Paramjeet’s name features prominently mammoth community outreach he had to under- not only outside his own house but also in press take. Along with a local mason, Paramjeet would releases issued by the Union Ministry of Jal Shakti leave his house by 5 every morning to measure the as a shining example of success under the Jal Jeevan heights at which the overground pipes had to be Mission (JJM). Launched in 2019, JJM aims to bring located to ensure that the water reached all house- potable tap water to every rural household by 2024. holds equally. There are taps on raised segments of Kothal Khurd is one of the villages which has al- the overground pipes that cater to the number of ready achieved this goal for its 342 households. households in a particular stretch. There are three In his previous avatar as an Indian Army soldier, borewells that provide water to the village. Each Paramjeet had served in almost all corners of the borewell services eight lines. Two of these are run country by the time he retired. In Rajasthan he had on solar energy. In less three hours, every household observed how locals harvested rainwater, while in in the village gets enough water for its daily needs Odisha he witnessed locals struggle for drinking wa- and storage. The aim, Paramjeet says, is to minimise ter. In Kashmir he had even melted snow for drink- waste. A spare motor is always at hand in case there ing water, while Maharashtra introduced him to the are accidents like a burnt motor halting the water looming dangers of drought. “Long story short, by supply. Four water tanks have been constructed in the time I came back, water conservation was already the village, each with a capacity of 12,000-14,000

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 43 THE FUTURE OF WATER DISPATCH

litres and fitted with twist taps to ensure that there ing and making JJM successful: groundwater con- is a 24-hour supply. servation and pollution. Water sources free from Paramjeet faced a lot of opposition. No one want- Elected in 2016, contamination are integral to the scheme; to tap ed to pay the one-time fee of Rs 500 for a legal connec- Paramjeet these, extensive mapping on the ground, literally, tion, especially those who already had an illegal or a will be needed. private connection. JJM’s emphasis on information, pledged he In Kothal Khurd the water table has been around education and communication, which relies heav- 290 ft for some time now though the village is blessed ily on the volunteer work of local youth, was effec- would put a with four seasonal ponds. The work for the laying of tive here. “I had people shut doors in my face when sarpanch sign the pipelines was accompanied by the building of I asked them to upgrade their connections. People a groundwater surface recharge pond—which is a were content with their private connection because outside his source of pride and joy for Paramjeet. Located some they knew that even though the supply timing was house only distance away from the main village, the recharge erratic, they would get water,” said a local volunteer. pond is abutted with a walking track and a few exer- At present, more than 5 crore rural households in after getting cise options such as a chin-up bar and ropeclimbing. India have tap water, of which 2 crore have been add- “During monsoons the pond fills up and we have ed under the scheme. However, the country has more water supply seen a direct impact on the water table which has than 19 crore rural households. JJM has been lauded to each house now risen by over 40 ft to 250 ft,” says Paramjeet. for its aspiration but tap water in houses has been a But the biggest success story in this village is longstanding promise of several governments at the in his village. not that of the connections or the improved water Centre and states in the past. Last year, Prime Minister table but rather of the women whose lives have Narendra Modi himself said, “In the ’70s, Ram Mano- Today his taken a turn for the better since the water started har Lohia had said women faced two problems—toi- name features coming straight into their kitchens. Usha Bhatti, lets and water. Governments have come and gone. 60, talks about waking up every morning at 4 to But we decided to fulfil Lohia’s dream.” prominently stand in a queue at the community taps in the vil- What made the Swachh Bharat Mission such lage to stock up water for the daily needs. She and a success was its multipronged approach with not only outside daughter-in-law Sanju would make multiple trips, emphasis on community involvement. A similar his own house balancing several utensils, and on some days even approach would be needed for JJM, say experts. drag their buffalo along to allow it to drink water at “There will have to be location-specific approach- but also in the source itself. “Our entire lives revolved around es that take into account the climate conditions, water: when to wake up for it, how long to wait for topography, water endowments, etcetera,” says Union ministry it, bringing it back. I feel as if I am sleeping properly Sayanangshu Modak, a water expert at Observer releases for the first time in my life,” Bhatti says. At the other Research Foundation Kolkata. Ultimately whatev- end of the village, sisters-in-law Urmila and Sangita er solutions the state comes up with have to be run Devi are proud of a small stretch of green they have by the locals, says Modak, and hence community now cultivated in their backyard. Water collection involvement is key. A bottom-up, participatory Kothal Khurd earlier meant that every drop was precious and approach that starts right from the planning stage Sarpanch gardening was not an activity they could afford. In will be vital to making JJM work. Paramjeet India it is women and girls who struggle the most Two other concerns are crucial to understand- (third from left), with water scarcity and tap water supply at home March 3 frees up hours for them, not to mention reducing physical labour immensely. In January 2020, the Commissioner of Mahendargarh felicitated Kothal Khurd under the Mera Gaon Swachh Gaon campaign. In the vil- lage, Paramjeet and other panchayat members have listed out the works carried out by them, 50 in all, on two brightly painted walls. It includes everything from the borewells, the tanks built to the pathways. He is not sure what his chances are in the upcoming elections but he hopes that whoever comes next carries forward the work of water management he has started because “water is a resource we cannot create. We have to respect nature in order to keep taking from it.” n

44 29 march 2021 THE FUTURE OF WATER DISPATCH Jakkur lake, Bengaluru

The Lower Depths Bengaluru continues to be water-stressed despite citizen awareness and initiatives to conserve and recharge lakes By V Shoba

arlier this month, on the day that from the city of startup dreams that Bengaluru was Bengaluru was adjudged the most live- supposed to be. “When the society’s RWA What- able city in India—up from the 58th sApp group raised an alarm, we thought it was an- position in 2018—a fire erupted at Bel- other case of methane or floating debris catching landur Lake. When she heard the news, fire,” Dhanapal says. It turned out to be garbage in civil engineer Deepti Dhanapal, 39, ran the buffer zone that had been set afire—and it was to the balcony of her waterside highrise put out before it got out of hand—but the incident residence with a familiar dread. One of reminded Bengaluru of its paradoxical status as a EBengaluru’s largest lakes, Bellandur is covered in hospitable city that had failed to save its lakes even layers of noxious, combustible liquids and gases— as it was running out of water. The fumes, flames it is these that had burned for 30 hours straight in and mountains of froth churned from industrial early 2019, spewing ash on the lower floors of the and domestic effluents draining into the Bellandur apartment buildings in the vicinity. Beamed live and Varthur lakes, spread over 1,200 acres at the to the nation, this flaming, rotten hell was a far cry southern end of the Koramangala-Challaghatta

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 45 THE FUTURE OF WATER DISPATCH

(KC) valley, no longer make headlines, but resident activists call attention to the extremely slow pace of the ongoing one-time rejuvenation project by While the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA), and the collective failure of the other government bod- lakes are ies tasked with cleaning up and protecting them. not a “The BDA has used the pandemic year to dredge up some sludge but has left it to rot without any plan direct for disposal—the proposal to transport it to a quarry 25 km away is ridiculous,” says Dhanapal. Locals source of continue to report cases of illicit discharge into the lake by the KC valley sewage treatment plant (STP). drinking With the STP not functioning at capacity, they ac- water for cuse the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) of wilfully dumping raw waste Bengaluru, into these last two lakes in the KC valley catchment. An estimated 40 per cent of the city’s sewage flows over through the area before landing up in the Dakshina Pinakini river. “The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara 50 per cent Palike (BBMP), too, has failed by not acting against of the city encroachments or cleaning up solid waste,” Dhana- pal says. Many apartment complexes have sworn depends on off phosphate-laden household detergents and set up their own mini STPs, but citizen-driven efforts groundwater alone cannot rid the lakes of the heavy metals, en- teric pathogens and antibiotic-resistant superbugs that have been detected in the water. Photos ap “Citizen movements based on academic reports on pollutants in lakes and wells in the city have Justice Santosh Hegde-led National Green Tribunal added to the pressure on civic bodies to get their act committee to monitor Bellandur and Varthur lakes. together, but there is a long way to go,” says Profes- Residents protest Over the years, his research group has published by the bank of the sor TV Ramachandra, coordinator, Energy & Wet- polluted Bellandur several eye-opening studies on the quality of water lands Group, Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian lake in Bengaluru in Bengaluru’s lakes, including one last year that Institute of Science, Bengaluru, and a member of the found 24 restored water bodies including Herohalli, JP Park and Puttenahalli lakes to have ‘very poor wa- ter quality’ due to the continued inflow of sewage. “At Varthur, we have shown that plants grown us- ing the silt as manure are free from heavy metals, and talked to farmers cultivating over 5,000 acres within a 25 km radius of Varthur about putting it to use on their lands. On all fronts, there is a push for better water and waste management, but a sec- tion of the bureaucracy and politicians, who receive kickbacks from pipeline laying and development works in catchment zones, is holding Bengaluru to ransom.” In his Budget speech earlier this month, Karna- taka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, who also holds the finance portfolio, announced an allocation of about Rs 130 crore towards rejuvenating 25 lakes in the city as part of his Bengaluru Mission 2022, the BBMP budget and other schemes. A Rs 169-crore Koramangala Valley Development Project, which includes the rejuvenation of a 28 km stormwater

46 29 march 2021 needs in the years to come. The city relies on the Cauvery, from which the BWSSB currently pumps 1,450 million litres per day (MLD) to the city. A Rs 5,500 crore Cauvery Water Supply Scheme Stage V project is underway to supply an additional 775 MLD to Greater Bengaluru by March 2023. Plans to redirect river water from other regions—Yettina- hole and Sharavathi—at great cost, have created a sense of false security, says a senior BWSSB officer. “Three years after theBBC put Bengaluru on a list of 11 major cities likely to run out of drinking water, politicians have proved their mettle in perception management, but not water management. We have not plugged major pipeline leaks, which lead to 37 per cent of the water being wasted. We have not cracked down on the tens of thousands of illegal borewells in the city that supply tankers. And even when capacity expands, it is the core city areas that will get most of the river water even as piped water remains a pipe dream for those living a peri-urban existence,” he says. Bengaluru is one of 27 cities in identified under the Atal Mission for Re- juvenation and Urban Transformation (AMRUT) which envisages, among other things, universal wa- ter supply through the Jal Jeevan Mission (Urban). The Union Budget for 2021-2022 has set aside Rs 2.8 lakh crore to implement the scheme in five years’ time, covering 2.4 crore tap connections across 4,378 drain from Majestic to Bellandur lake, has also been urban local bodies. About 70 lakh people in Karna- announced. While lakes are not a direct source of Industrial waste taka are set to benefit from the programme. drinking water for Bengaluru, over 50 per cent of floats on Bellandur A committee headed by former BWSSB chair- lake in Bengaluru the city depends on groundwater. A healthy lake man BN Thyagaraj had, in 2014, suggested that catchment area is the best way to recharge the 30 TMC feet of water could be drawn between 2021 water table, says Ramachandra. “Around Sarakki and 2051 from the Sharavathi for Bengaluru’s water lake, for instance, we observed a 120 ft increase in needs. The proposal to bring water from the Lin- the groundwater table within a year of lake reju- ganamakki reservoir on the Sharavathi, about 400 venation.” From a city of 1,800 lakes, Bengaluru is km from Bengaluru, via the Yagachi Reservoir in now home to just 193 lakes. “Still, pretty much ev- Hassan or the in , ery ward has a lake and if these are all rejuvenated, is said to be close to Yediyurappa’s heart. Riparian the 15 thousand million cubic (TMC) feet of rain communities whose livelihoods are connected to we get every year could be better channelled to the river and ecologists, including the team at IISc, recharge groundwater,” says Ramachandra, who have decried the move that is expected to wreak developed the rejuvenation model for Jakkur lake, havoc on the fragile and diverse ecosystems of the which is sprawled over 160 acres in north Bengalu- . There is a sense among bureau- ru today and maintained by Jalaposhana, a citizens’ crats, however, that a similar script to the one sur- collective. With a secondary STP and a constructed rounding the proposed Yettinahole project on the wetland integrated into the lake, the birds have re- Netravati, to bring 24.01 TMC feet of water to 68.35 turned and there is no trace of the nitrate reported lakh people in Bengaluru Rural and surrounding from the wells around it in 2015. districts, is playing out. “Our researchers have re- A rapidly expanding city of 13.6 million spread ported that a frog species from the Western Ghats over 800 km, Bengaluru also has the second larg- that no longer had access to water throughout the est number of rainwater harvesting structures in- year has evolved to bypass the tadpole stage,” says stalled in any Indian city. Yet, it is not these model Ramachandra. “Can urban citizens learn to survive successes alone that can secure Bengaluru’s water in a city without enough water?” n

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 47 THE FUTURE OF WATER DISPATCH

Remembering in the rain Mulshi, one of the wettest places on the Planet, marks the centenary of the world’s first anti-dam movement By Nandini Nair

alamy

thick canopied jackfruit tree stands just off and present of the Mulshi taluka. It would tell how the two riv- the dusty road. Far from human reach, its enormous ers of the area, Mula and Nila, were dammed 100 years ago, and fruit loom from branches. Its view is the Mulshi lake how this taluka saw the world’s first anti-dam movement. While and the , located around two hours the Narmada Bachao Andolan is one of the best known anti-dam out from Pune, if one drives westward towards the movements in India, its roots can be traced to this village block coast. The tree’s companion is a semal tree whose in western Maharashtra. The jackfruit tree has been witness to buxom red flowers dazzle against a blue sky. Vil- the satyagraha against the dam, the building of the dam, the sub- lagers, sitting in the shade of the jackfruit tree, as- mergence of villages, the forgetting of the locals and leaders who sumeA it is around 100 years old. They say that if the jackfruit tree helmed the movement, and it now watches on as a new genera- could speak, the stories it would tell. It would reveal the history tion of residents tries to raise awareness about the unique history

48 29 march 2021 Peta is a part) realised that 48 of their villages were to be submerged by the proposed reservoir, they joined hands with leaders of the and fought against the dam from 1920 to 1924. At the time it was feared that close to 8,000 people would be displaced by the dam and 10,000 acres from 54 villages of the Mulshi Peta would be acquired. An online search will tell you that ensconced in the Sahyadri, Mulshi is today known as an ecotour-

Photos courtesy A noop M ahajan ism hotspot. With majestic forts, such as Tailabaila, brooding over and home to a route that passes from Mulshi through the Western Ghats to , the area is ideal for the intrepid traveller. To visit during the monsoons is to be immersed in a lush wonder- land, where the hillsides heave with life and every leaf, every stalk flaunts a shade of life. The ghats turn into a Narniascape of mists and waterfalls. When we travel to Mulshi in mid-March, the summer sun has extracted all green, leaving be- hind a tinderbox of brown, against which only the semal flower blazes. The rains are still a good three months away. Walking these paths today it is diffi- cult to fathom that this taluka is actually one of the world’s wettest spots, and in the last few years has even overtaken Cherrapunji in Meghalaya. Milind Mujumdar, a scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune, explains that the record rainfall at the Tamhini Ghat station (a pass located between Mulshi and Tamhini) is par- ticularly unusual as it is located on the leeward side (Clockwise from of the Western Ghats, whereas heavy rain tends to left) A monsoon fall on the windward side. The mean monsoon rain- landscape near fall between 1995 and 2013 was 6,498.4 mm but in the Mulshi dam; 2019 it crossed a record 10,000 mm. Mujumdar says Subhash Wagh, the mukhiya of the recent high rainfall here can be attributed to the Vadgaon village in cloud structure and low pressure troughs, where Mulshi; residents heavy rainfall extends for spells of 10-12 days. of the village, Mulshi’s monsoon majesty and its historical Sundar Maruti significance will lure any outsider. But within its Wagh with son villages a discontent has been brewing for over a Vishwas Wagh century. While the majority of the villagers contin- ue to struggle socially and economically, a group of people originally from the area have taken it upon and geography of this area. themselves to get Mulshi on the map. By highlight- Back in the 1920s, the farmers of Mulshi Peta had ing the region’s historical significance and natural protested against the construction of the dam that beauty, they wish to bring in tourists who might was to be built with government support by the in- bolster the local economy. They realise that the first dustrial house of the Tatas. One of the main leaders step towards change is knowledge. They’ve taken of the movement was the socialist and nationalist it upon themselves to know their 1,029 km2 taluka Pandurang Mahadev (Senapati) Bapat. The electric- better—by traversing its hills and dales—on foot. ity from the dam was to be supplied to the railways A group that has taken a pivotal role in this and textile mills in Bombay. When the Mawalas endeavour is the Western Ghats Running Founda- (residents of the Maval region, of which Mulshi tion, led by Dighvijay Jedhe. Jedhe is a mountain and

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trail-running enthusiast, a ‘farmer for lifetime’ with deeprooted connections with the Sahyadri ranges. Along with a group of other runners and nature lovers they create social awareness by hosting trail and mountain-running marathons. The races are their way of familiarising people with the literal and metaphorical ups and downs of the ghats. Advocate Rajesh Satpute of Male village is a young and intrepid runner and explorer. He enjoys doing recces of the ghats, walking up to 50 km a day. During the lockdown, while the coun- try was shut, he did what he does best: he donned his Hoka shoes and took off on a run. In two days, he traversed 100 km in the ghats. Jedhe says that just before the onslaught of the monsoon, the en- tire catchment area of the dam shrinks, allowing for enough space to walk. Following Satpute’s lead, Jedhe and eight others decided to do a similar pari- krama of 110 km around the lake, over three days. The walkabout showed them what they had long known, as Jedhe says, “I don’t think there is a more beautiful area in Maharashtra.” But in this beauty they also saw the kachcha houses of villagers and World’s First Anti-Dam Movement: The Mulshi Satya- armoured guards. He adds, “The villagers there can graha 1920-1924 by Rajendra Vora. A professor of only see ‘Owned by Tata’ signs. That is how he’s politics, Vora had written a historical account, us- spending his life.” ing primary sources, of the Mulshi Satyagraha in As the centenary of the satyagraha approaches, the 1990s in Marathi. On the insistence of ecolo- those like Jedhe and Pawar are trying to decide how gist Madhav Gadgil, Vora translated the book into best to commemorate it. Traversing the area on foot, English. However he died a year before the English speaking to the locals, listening to their problems The Mulshi translation, published by Permanent Black and and documenting their hardships is their way of with a foreword by Ramachandra Guha and Sunil contributing to Mulshi’s present and future. dam Khilnani, was released. They write in the introduc- powers south tion, ‘The Mulshi dispute was the first intimation of the conflicts that arise when a densely populated e meet a group of the residents at Mumbai. and ancient agrarian civilisation begins the long Anil Pawar’s house, an agriculturalist who and sometimes very painful march to industrialisa- lives just off the highway between Pune The locals tion. The Mulshi Satyagraha was not merely a pre- W and Mulshi. Pawar shows us around his though have cursor to the Narmada Bachao Andolan; it anticipat- library filled with Marathi books, which he built ed the protests in Singur, Nandigram, and a dozen for his young daughter’s birthday. Over tea and neither land other places where the state likewise intended to poha, a group of village mukhiyas from Mulshi ta- transfer land owned by many small peasants to a luka discuss their concerns. The discontent of the nor work. single, privately owned company. Like those other group is palpable, especially since 2021 marks the disputes, Mulshi opposed country to city, subsis- centenary of the Mulshi Satyagraha. Today, speak- Their tence to commerce, farmers to factory-owners, the ing to the mukhiyas Govind Saruse, Anil Mapari aam admi to the fat cat.’ and Hanumant Surve, one can still hear the echoes stories once The mukhiyas and villagers we speak to reiterate of those who first opposed the dam back in 1921. again raise the sentiment of Vora’s book. A century ago, their The Mulshi Satyagraha has faded from much of land was taken and their villages submerged in or- English language history of the freedom struggle. the question: der to power the mills of Bombay. Today, they are However, it is still remembered in Maharashtra be- left with ghost villages occupied only by the elderly cause it gave rise to leaders such as Senapati Bapat who as the young have had to leave for Pune and Mum- and VM Bhuskute. In English, the most compre- bai for employment. They watch as posh resorts hensive account of the Mulshi Satyagraha can be benefits? emerge in their area, draining the resources, which found in the well-written and accessible book The they should have first access to. Beyond the sum-

50 29 march 2021 in agreement. Subhash Wagh, the Vadgaon village mukhiya, says that many young men he knows have left this area and gone to Pune and Mumbai, and have become either beggars or thugs. With only a pri- mary school available, most of the residents have studied only till Class 4. The closest middle school is 40 km away in Male. Subhash completed his school- ing by taking a boat to Male. The boat option no longer exists. Those in the village realise that the dam might even have been a necessity, what they want today is a way to earn a sustainable livelihood and rights to their own land. Speaking to the Mawalas of the area brings the many arguments in Vora’s book to life. The Mulshi Satyagraha was officially launched on April 16th, 1921, on Ramnavami. The protestors ran a notice in the Kesari newspaper that the dam was being built for ‘wealthy people of Bombay’, and as it was going to ‘submerge our land and homes’, it was ‘not accept- able to us’. At the time, leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Sarojini Naidu came out in support of the satya- mer months, this might be one of the most glorious graha. They too saw it as a way of reaching amenities regions of India, but for those living by the dam, life Vadgaon village to Bombay at the cost of those living in Mulshi. has been a struggle. which overlooks Suhas Palshikar, a political scientist, adds, “The the Mulshi lake Praveer Sinha, CEO and managing director, Mulshi struggle was not just an anti-dam move- Tata Power, contests these allegations. He says, ment, it was also a struggle that combined anti-colo- “Hundred years back, when Jamsetji thought of nialism with anti-capitalism.” Even now the locals producing power, he talked about clean power, af- feel that they have borne the brunt of both. They say fordable power, abundant power, and that contin- they have neither land nor work nor basic ameni- ues even now. Hundred years later the relevance is ties like schools or hospitals in their village. Their even more. For us it is very important that we con- story and the stories of their parents and grandpar- tinue the legacy that was started with the Mulshi ents once again raise the question of who benefits hydro power plant which provides power to the and who loses out in ‘development’ projects. city of Mumbai and provides water downstream to The Mulshi dam provides power to much of farmers, civilians, industry and commercial estab- south Mumbai, a commercial and business hub for lishments. The purpose for which it was set up has the country. For those of us enjoying uninterrupted been amply demonstrated and has proven that the power, its source or the repercussions of it barely right thing has been done. It is in the larger interest register. Sinha adds, “The amount of economic of the people and community who’ve benefitted activity that has happened because of the dam has from this.” helped the local people. The biggest thing that has In Vadgaon village, where we stop for a tradition- happened over there is that the area has been pro- al meal of pithla and bhakri, we speak to 60-year-old tected. Had it not been for the dam, the area would Sundar Maruti Wagh. She has lived in this village have been encroached on and exploited badly. The for about 40 years, having moved from the adjacent dam over the last 100 years has kept the area pristine one where her parents were based. She has two sons and has ensured that no one comes and disturbs the and a daughter, none of whom has studied beyond natural habitat. No one exploits water, or takes over Class 7. Her children make a living in Pune doing the natural flora and fauna. So the dam has been “labour”. She says the only time there is work in able to protect the integrity of the place.” the village is the four months during the monsoons While the industry’s narrative and that of the when rice is sown and cultivated. For the other eight locals will forever be at odds, solace can only be months she says there is no work in the village. Her found in the enterprising locals trying to resurrect 33-year-old son, who is visiting from Pune to take Mulshi taluka from decades of state apathy and care of her after she had a paralysis attack, nods history’s amnesia. n

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 51 THE FUTURE OF WATER Opinion Flowing Far The benefits of river rejuvenation extend to water and food security, tourism and recreation By Abhaya K Agarwal & Maansi S Shah

ivers are a rather complex and freshwater from the river basins, the encroachment dynamic ecosystem of surface and of the floodplains, disposal of untreated sewage and subsurface flows, flora, fauna and other non-point sources of pollutants, including abiotic components which perform agricultural runoff and solid waste, construction various functions like recharge of of large dams, etcetera, have led to a significant de- groundwater in the floodplains, cline in the health of rivers globally. Reduction in fertile sediment transport and the water-holding capacities of the river channels and The Ganga provision of various ecological ser- replenishment rates of aquifers can be attributed to flowing past Rvices. They are the mediators between aquatic the degradation of forests and wetlands. Varanasi’s ghats and terrestrial ecosystems and are characterised Apart from these anthropogenic activities, by flowing water. Throughout history, rivers have been the anchors of civilisations. Some of the earli- est civilisations were formed in river valleys, and thus rivers have been venerated in many traditions. Particularly in India, rivers are revered as goddesses. However, this veneration did not spare them pollu- tion and exploitation, making them one of the most threatened ecosystems. Water management policies and strategies were created in an era of economic control of rivers. Thus, the current approaches may be inadequate in the face of increased urbanisation and climate change impacts. The emerging paradigm is that the eco- logical health of the river is significant for its sus- tenance. Therefore, revitalisation initiatives have been taken up all over the world through the last few decades. River rejuvenation may be defined as the res- toration of the health of river systems to an earlier state characterised by achieving optimal quality and quantity of freshwater flow through the river during varied seasons. Rejuvenation is a complex process and requires a thorough understanding of the historical trajectory of the river along with the hydrological and geological components. With time, these interventions have evolved from a uni- dimensional approach to improve quality, modify the river regime, etcetera, to a more sophisticated approach blending process-based active interven- tions with passive interventions, such as policy and regulatory reforms. Anthropogenic activities like over-withdrawal of

52 29 march 2021 climate change too is impacting riverine systems. According to the Central Pollution Control Board The annual average water availability and river (CPCB), 302 of 351 river stretches monitored were discharge is projected to increase by 10-40 per cent Efforts have found polluted and the water of many is considered at high altitudes and in some parts of the wet tropi- unfit for consumption. cal areas, while on the other hand, it is expected to been made In India, the river rejuvenation activities started decrease by 10-30 per cent in some dry regions by with the Ganga Action Plan (GAP) in 1985, which 2050, according to the Intergovernmental Panel for to increase was launched with the objective of pollution con- Climate Change (IPCC). In the cities, rapid urbanisa- trol. It has now become the Namami Gange Pro- tion and intense land-use change with built environ- stewardship gramme for the Ganga and its tributaries, which fo- ment encroaching the floodplain tend to alter the of the river cuses not only on restoring the water quality but also urban water cycle and the river systems’ responses places an emphasis on environmental flows crucial and, in turn, lead to the degradation of rivers. and engage to sustaining the river ecosystem—its biodiversity The Indian subcontinent is home to 20 river and aquatic life. Over 80 per cent of the pollution load basins with more than 400 rivers. It has been esti- communities in these rivers comes from untreated domestic and mated that the basin-wise average annual flow in in river- industrial wastewater from towns and cities along Indian river systems is 1,953 billion cubic metres the river and its tributaries. Apart from interception, (BCM), of which the utilisable annual surface water related diversion and treatment of sewage, the programme is 690 BCM. Eighty per cent of India’s population also gives impetus to sustainable agriculture and ir- is dependent on 14 major rivers for food and live- projects rigation-use efficiency along the rivers, afforestation lihood. Water levels in India’s major river basins to improve water-holding capacity in the catchment have fallen to 21 per cent of their average for the area, decrease soil erosion and, thereby, siltation, last 10 years as most of them are over-exploited. demand-side management initiatives, biodiversity

getty images conservation, wetland conservation, floodplain pro- tection, etcetera. Efforts have been made to increase stewardship of the river and engage communities in river-related projects. Projects worth more than Rs 25,000 crore have been sanctioned under the National Mission for Clean Ganga. The GAP also stirred the National River Conser- vation Plan that now extends to 38 rivers, and in a recent development, under the direction of the National Green Tribunal, all states must establish River Rejuvenation Committees with an objective of framing a detailed action plan and strategy for re- juvenation of all the rivers in the country, especially the peninsular rivers that are drying up. The Gov- ernment has thus shaped an enabling environment for river rejuvenation projects in terms of funding and institutional arrangements. Numerous hurdles deter the river rejuvenation processes, primarily the huge deficit in wastewater treatment capacity and diminishing flows due to increasing demand and climate change impact. Ur- ban river restoration faces even more bottlenecks due to the large land-use changes in the catchment, and cannot be undertaken in isolation without giv- ing due consideration to watershed management activities. Thus, the strategy for river rejuvenation ought to be devised around the basin level and can- not be constrained by civic boundaries. Urban plan- ning and development must, therefore, consider river management as an integral part. River rejuvenation initiatives must be driven by a participatory approach with the involvement

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 53 THE FUTURE OF WATER Opinion

of all relevant stakeholders, understanding their temperature as a result of shading. priorities and demands along with comprehension Even after implementing expensive salvage of the historical trajectory of the river. A clean-up operations, tangible impact in river health has not programme for rivers also requires a rigorous ap- been observed. But it is also justified that without plication of the ‘polluter pays’ principle. Sustainable these efforts, the state of the rivers could have been urban drainage is another key principle and enables worse. Accountability and transparency are key reduction of runoff pollution by passive treatment, in this regard and monitoring against defined and lowering of the peak discharge, thereby controlling measurable objectives is critical for assessing the urban floods, and the facilitation of groundwa- effectiveness of river rejuvenation measures. The ter recharge in the floodplains to help maintain efficacy of the outcomes may be evaluated in environmental flows in the lean season. Rejuvena- terms of restored environmental flows or damp- ened floods, improved water quality, diversity or improvement in the local biota. The use of digital monitoring tools and decision support systems based on credible databases holds the answer. Sustainability necessitates that future activi- ties within the catchment do not undermine the gains from interventions for rejuvenation. This requires that appropriate regulatory and monitor- ing systems are in place. We must also project the impact of climate change on the river environment to plan for future risks. It is also imperative that the limitations of the rejuvenation process based on a particular context be recognised so that impractical and unsustainable interventions may be avoided. We are aware of the epiphany that the Covid-19 ap lockdown brought upon us—about nature’s power A polluted canal to restore itself. Rivers, in particular, with only a few tion of lakes and wetlands along the river basin, in Mumbai that days of restrictions on human activity, were show- bank stabilisation, protection of floodplains from connects with the casing such enhanced health with their evidently encroachment, creation of check dams, making Mithi river high self-cleaning capacity that it is imperative we use of public parks for detention, retention and recognise the causes of damage to the river ecology recharge structures, protecting and promoting and make efforts to mitigate these. An effective healthy riparian vegetation and removal of inva- and integrated approach to rejuvenation implies sive species, etcetera, are the measures that can be a blend of conservation and restoration measures undertaken for rejuvenation. Emphasis must be put characterised by broader social values and drivers. on maintaining environmental flow in the river. It may seem that the benefits of river rejuvena- Several studies have found that no ecological im- tion are mainly in an environmental sphere, but provement occurred from structural interventions, the result of ecological health improvement also such as channel confining, dredging, etcetera, and means there will be a return of ecological services, in some cases, there was evidence of unfavourable thereby leading to socio-economic benefits, such outcomes for the river environment. Therefore, as water security, food security, aesthetic value for the approach to river rejuvenation should focus tourism and recreation, etcetera. River rejuvenation on scientific and process-based approaches like has the potential to act as a catalyst for urban rejuve- catchment restoration, land-use management, nation and to ensure the long-term sustainability of wetland management, etcetera, rather than struc- communities dependent on the river system. Isn’t tural approaches, even though it may take years or it time for the Government and communities to be even decades to result in measurable outcomes and stewards of river rejuvenation? n deliver tangible benefits. Afforestation along the river and in the catchment is vital to restrict erosion and stabilise river banks. It also helps to trap sedi- Abhaya K Agarwal is Partner-Strategy and ment and organic matter and prevent those from Transaction, Infrastructure & Government and entering the river channel, affecting both habitat Public Sector, Ernst & Young India. and water quality. This may also influence water Maansi S Shah is Senior Associate, EY India

54 29 march 2021 THE FUTURE OF WATER Profile WATER WARRIORS From working to make Kutch villages self-sufficient to investing in traditional practices in the Himalayas to digging wells in Bengaluru, India’s frontline fighters are making water scarcity a thing of the past By Kaveree Bamzai

Illustrations by Saurabh Singh

Gazala Paul, 56 Ahmedabad Shubha Ramachandran, 47 Bengaluru MAKING VILLAGES SELF-SUFFICIENT DIGGING A MILLION WELLS “If I can save water at the individual level by using water In 2007, when IIT Bombay-trained civil engineer sparingly and not allowing others to waste, that is the Shubha Ramachandran moved into her own house beginning,” says Gazala Paul. But she has been doing in Bengaluru, an apartment not serviced by munici- much more than that. Since establishing Samerth Trust pal water supply, and had to buy tankers, rainwater 20 years ago, she has built an organisation of 65 people harvesting seemed a simple solution. That led to that now works in Kutch and Ahmedabad in Gujarat and meeting the Rainwater Club, started by S Vishwanath, . Based in Ahmedabad, she has a Master’s in known on social media as Zenrainman. She has stayed conflict resolution and coexistence from with the club since then, working with Brandeis University, Massachusetts, communities to conserve water US and has dedicated herself to in and around the city. They the conservation of rainwater provide services related to by supporting construction design and implementation of ponds, wells and rain roof- of rainwater harvesting water harvesting structures. systems and small greywater The salinity in the ground treatment systems. They in Kutch makes the water also run a campaign called a undrinkable and harnessing Million Wells for Bengaluru the rainwater is the only option. to improve the groundwater in This results in distress migration to the city and raise awareness about cities and towns to work in hazardous open wells. Her mantra: “Know where situations and also affects the education of children. your water comes from. Use less. Treat and reuse as ACHIEVEMENT The villages where Samerth has sup- much as possible.” ported water conservation work are now able to grow two ONE BIG STEP She believes one of the greatest achieve- crops a year. More than 80,000 people have benefited in ments of BIOME Environmental Trust, as the Rainwater Kutch and Chhattisgarh over the last 20 years. Of particular Club is now known, is to have revived interest in open satisfaction to Paul is when girls do not have to miss school wells. As a result, many old open wells have been rejuve- due to shortage of water and toilet facilities and when vil- nated and new wells dug. “Each home-owner who calls lage after village says that due to the regular water supply us after a spell of rain to say how the sump filled up and now families can buy tractors and motorcycles and their how clean the water is and how blessed they feel makes children can be educated. us extremely thrilled,” she says. THE WAY FORWARD Water management needs com- WHAT NEXT? Lot more needs to be done, she says, “to munity participation. Development projects require a make the country water-abundant” given the magni- combination of hydrogeology and local knowledge. tude of the problem.

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 55 THE FUTURE OF WATER Profile

DEBASHISH SEN, 56 Manisha Shah, 30 Bengaluru INVESTING IN TRADITION SMALL SIZE, BIG HEART Debashish Sen joined People’s Arghyam is a small organisation with 19 people but Science Institute (PSI) in 1988, has a much wider footprint. They look at water as a just after completing his complex problem which requires collaborations among graduation in agricultural samaj, sarkar and bazaar given the scale of the problem. engineering. It was the Currently, their focus is capacity building of water pro- third straight year of grammes across the country. Manager (Advocacy) Mani- drought in most of India. sha Shah is the person for all information on organisa- His first task was to gauge tions working in this area. An MBA from the Institute the impact of drought on of Rural Management, Anand, Shah has access to basic needs, includ- been in the sector since 2017. ing water. He hasn’t looked ACCOMPLISHMENT Ampli- back since, becoming PSI’s director fying the voice of a frontline in 2015, taking over from founder Ravi Chopra. Sen’s man- worker from Odisha, Kalyani tra: “We should remember women in rural areas still have Dash, working as a Krishi Mitra to walk for 6-20 km daily to get clean drinking water.” for the last three years in Koroda THE BIG LEAP BACK PSI’s great achievement has been village. Dash works with 150 to recognise water resources management practices across households and trains them in communities and integrating modern technologies with chemical-free farming, water-secure local knowledge, especially in the marginalised regions crop production, efficient water use in of the Himalayas and poverty-stricken Bundelkhand. agriculture, and kitchen and nutrition gardening. They have been able to supply fluoride-free water to about THE WAY FORWARD The National Water Policy 1,500 households in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh, needs to enable states to manage demand and supply of revive more than 500 springs in the Himalayan region and water across uses. Water being a transboundary issue promote water-efficient agriculture among 50,000 small also requires regional collaboration. “We are already at and marginal farmers. They currently work in 270 villages the brink of water shortage. Access, quality, quantity across 12 states (37 districts). and equity, all these aspects are cropping up in one or the THE ROAD AHEAD Per capita water availability in India other geography. Behaviour change is key to making a has decreased by 71 per cent between 1951 and now. Sixty permanent shift for sustainability and universal water crore people are already facing high to extreme water security but it is hard, especially if we have not been in stress. Thirty-six per cent of India’s districts are fluoride- the habit of paying for water or giving much thought affected. Groundwater level declined by 61 per cent in 2007- to it at all. It requires viewing water as a common-pool 2017. River flows are likely to drop by 20 per cent by 2050. resource rather than a private resource,” she says.

EKLAVYA PRASAD, 51 Delhi/Dhanbad CREATING ABUNDANCE IN SCARCITY There is scarcity amid abundance when it comes to floodprone areas in the Kosi-Bagmati-Kamla-Gandak belt of north Bihar. There is plenty of water, particularly during floods, but it is not fit for drinking. This is where Megh Pyne Abhiyan (MPA) comes in. Since its inception as an informal network in 2005 in north Bihar (it was later registered as a public charitable trust in Delhi), MPA has been working with local NGOs and supported by villagers, resource institutions, professionals and volunteers in rural north Bihar, rural and urban Dhanbad in , and rural West Bengal. A graduate of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Eklavya Prasad has been with MPA since the beginning. He’s helped in forming a collective comprising inhabitants and footsoldiers from the area, using temporary rainwater harvesting as a decentralised, affordable and customised technique that was calibrated, refined and disseminated in a few panchayats across Supaul, Saharsa, Khagaria, Madhubani and Pashchim Champaran districts in Bihar. BIGGEST DISCOVERIES ‘Changing mindsets’, its motto, when people are increasingly relying on external support for survival. WHAT NEXT? The Jan-Jal Tarang movement which will focus on mitigation measures with much broader scope and impact than ensuring water supply to make habitations free from bacteria, arsenic and iron.

56 29 march 2021 Lasya Gopal, early 40s Bengaluru CLEANER, GREENER WORLD Lasya Gopal has been working in the field of water and livelihoods for 17 years now, and of those at The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) for the past 13 years. TERI’s aim, over its 47-year history, has been to usher transitions to a sustainable future through conservation and efficiency. Gopal has mostly led projects on monitoring, evaluation, learning and documentation of large inte- grated watershed management projects across the country. Such projects typically work on four pillars of sustainability: natural resource management, food security, livelihoods and capacity building. A native of Bengaluru (“an endangered species”, she says laughingly), she is a firm believer in participatory and multidimensional development. GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT Ensuring the rural voice and lessons from the grassroots reach policymakers and funders. THE ROAD AHEAD Penalties for people misusing water. “The onus of this level of protection is on each one of us,” she says. “If you notice, all creations in nature fit very well like a jigsaw. It is us humans who have become odd pieces and disturbed the amazing bal- ance of nature. I used to wonder if humans were necessary on this planet. Then came the pandemic, and I got my answer.”

LIBY T JOHNSON, 49 Odisha DIVYANG WAGHELA, 42 mumbai SPRINGING TO SUCCESS POWERING PARTNERSHIPS The executive director of Gram Vikas Odisha since 2017, Divyang Waghela joined the Tata Trusts in 2008 and Liby T Johnson has been working with nearly 1,500 vil- currently heads the Tata Water Mission (drinking lages, supporting them to build and manage their own water, sanitation and hygiene portfolio) which works water and sanitation systems. Of the drinking water in 5,000 villages, benefiting 35 lakh people, sources that their partner villages have, one-third are in 12 states to improve water quality mountain springs, half are borewells, and the rest shal- through affordable and innova- low wells. Their work is to ensure communities adjust tive technology interventions water use according to availability. At the moment, at the community as well as their focus is on developing springsheds (protecting/ household levels, ensure access developing the land and forests in the catchment of the to water and promote conser- springs) to make them more productive and sustain- vation, encourage improved able. This involves training of young volunteers in the sanitation and hygiene, and villages in hydrogeology, GIS mapping, and land and build institutions. forest development techniques so that they support ACHIEVEMENTS Over five their own communities to plan and undertake necessary years, the Trusts have successfully tasks. They also work on ensuring the safety of drinking built partnerships with likeminded foun- water—building village-level capabilities to test for con- dations and organisations to create synergies and tamination (nitrate, fluoride and bacteria) and take up to achieve scale. Some of the key resource partners corrective measures on their own to the extent possible. are Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Arghyam, ONE BIG STEP Gram Vikas has taken up, from 2020 One Drop Foundation, HT Parekh Foundation and onwards, the task of creating 1,000 water-secure gram the World Bank; academic institutions such as IIT- panchayats. They believe that the triangle of water, Bombay, University of New South Wales and Massa- communities and governance needs chusetts Institute of Technology, and the Union and to constructed in a way that puts several state governments. water users are at its centre. THE WAY FORWARD The Tata Water Mission WHAT COULD GO would look at the One Water approach now: how WRONG? “I believe there much water is needed by communities and what will be many water battles. the water is needed for; how much water is available From where I come, it is and in what forms it is available; and how the gap these battles that we need between requirement and availability can be bridged to prepare for. Talking in the most effective, efficient and sustainable man- about the bigger wars will ner and ensure that all communities and villages are only divert attention from the self-reliant for their drinking, domestic, irrigation smaller conflicts,” he says. and ecological water needs.

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 57 THE FUTURE OF WATER health The Hydration revolution

the reinvention of water as a wellness commodity

By Lhendup G Bhutia

ater stands at the forefront a wellness commodity. of much of the world’s burning The neurosis of this cult of perfect water drink- concerns. We fret over climate ers—a trend known as hydrating—is visible every- change and what fast-melting where. You would have seen, in the pre-Covid world, glaciers are doing to our rivers and the colourful Post-it notes some of your colleagues geography; we fear for our deplet- stuck on their computers to remind themselves to ing groundwater tables; and we drink some water; or perhaps, you may know of worry, with good reason, about those who set these as alarms on their phones and Wequitable distribution of water. activity trackers. You may know of those who carry But water stands at the forefront of another of large water tumblers on car journeys that will be the modern world’s big preoccupations—wellness. over in minutes. And you may have seen, in case Water isn’t just plain water now. We increas- you happen to be on the stretch between Juhu and ingly drink not to quench our thirst, but to hydrate Bandra, a celebrity braving the streets as she makes ourselves. We fuss over it, lug heavy water bottles her way to her yoga studio, a rolled yoga mat under everywhere, set daily quotas and chastise ourselves one arm, a phone and a water bottle in the other. for failing to meet them. The wellness movement Hydration is the latest lucrative frontier in the having cast its eye over many of our mundane ac- wellness boom. And the markets are increasingly tivities over the years—so that we are now eating being seized by its commodities, from bottles made and breathing mindfully, counting our daily steps, of different materials to hydration products such and tracking our sleep—is transforming water into as water drops and electrolyte packets (in the US)

58 29 march 2021 The Hydration revolution

the reinvention of water as a wellness commodity Saurabh Singh Saurabh by Illustration

that claim to increase people’s hydration. The is making an impression. New York Times reported earlier this year how the In India, one can see a lot of interest in water in popularity of a simple concoction of water with the premium mineral water category. In the last few lemon squeezed into it—its endorsers ranging years, a number of natural mineral water compa- from Gwyneth Paltrow and Jennifer Aniston to nies have emerged. This category is different from Gisele Bündchen—has reached a fever pitch in the the more common varieties of bottled drinking US, with Google searches for ‘lemon and water’ up water. Unlike packaged drinking water, which is nearly 25 per cent since this time last year. simply water taken from borewells and treated Hydration is often marketed as a cure for nearly through a reverse osmosis process—explains all of life’s woes. Water has become the latest item Ganesh Iyer, head of operations, India and the In- in a celebrity’s skincare secret. Drinking litres of it dian subcontinent for the natural mineral water every day, we are told, is the secret to good health, company Veen—natural mineral water sources its weight loss, more energy and great complexion, water from a single natural source, such as a spring and that it may even help us avoid cancer. The or artesian well. maxim of this new trend is perhaps best captured “Each mineral water has a distinct story to tell,” in the tweet by the Twitter company’s own account he says. Iyer is also a water sommelier. The first of (on the first day of 2020): ‘New decade, drink water’. his kind in India who underwent a course in Ger- Like many other things, Covid-19 is accelerating many that trains individuals in appreciating and this trend of hydration. There is a general fear for developing their sensory skills in fine water. The your health. And wellness, with its ideas on water, taste of water is different from one another, he says,

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 59 THE FUTURE OF WATER health

because of every water’s different characteristics, to reports, the company is working on a few more from the ‘minerality’ and the TDS (total dissolved such drinks. solid) levels to its carbonation, ‘virginality’ and One of the core ideas in the hydration trend which region the water is sourced from. is the need to drink more water. We are told constantly that we aren’t drinking enough water. That every time you feel thirsty, it means we are n India, till the early 2000s, packaged already dangerously dehydrated. There is also the water brands routinely claimed to be mineral so-called ‘8x8’ rule, where we are told to drink eight water. It was only after a sustained campaign glasses of water per day totalling around two litres I with the government by the likes of Iyer that of water. a standard differentiating the two types—that But much of this has no real scientific basis. of natural mineral waters and bottled water— According to an article on BBC, this advice came about. probably stems from two pieces of guidance: the US Veen’s original water—sourced from a remote Hydration is Food and Nutrition Board of the National Research water source in the Finnish Lapland—is considered the latest Council advising adults to consume one millilitre one of the smoothest waters in the world. The water of liquid for every recommended calorie of food in comes in glass bottles, which Iyer claims is better lucrative 1945, which equates to two litres for women on a than plastic bottles, since plastic bottles can harm 2,000-calorie diet and two-and-a-half litres for men both people’s health and the environment. When frontier in the eating 2,500 calories; and a 1974 book, Nutrition for the brand was launched, the company searched Good Health, which recommends an average adult for a good water source across the country— wellness consume between six to eight glasses of water a briefly tapping into a water source in a forest area in boom. And the day. But what is often forgotten is that both these Tamil Nadu’s Kotagiri, which eventually had to be pieces of advice also state that this quota of water abandoned because seeking permissions to markets are can be met through other sources such as fruits and expand their facility was going to be cumbersome— vegetables, and other types of drinks. before they finally settled on a spring water source in increasingly There is also no real need to stick Post-its or set a remote part of Bhutan. “The ironical thing of find- reminders on our phones to drink more water. Our ing a good source for mineral water is you are really being seized body already has a sophisticated technique to do so. looking for god-forsaken places. You want to be as far by its It is called thirst. According to the BBC article, ‘In a from civilisation as possible. You might think water healthy body, the brain detects when the body is from Himachal Pradesh is going to be great because commodities, becoming dehydrated and initiates thirst to it is pristine and there is going to be water from the stimulate drinking. It also releases a hormone Himalayas. But it is such a polluted state with around from bottles which signals to the kidneys to conserve water by two dozen pharma factories polluting the area with concentrating the urine.’ hazardous waste,” Iyer says. “In our Bhutan source, made of different Over-hydrating may not really harm an which is in a remote forest, we have somewhere materials to individual. We would simply pee out all the excess between 10 to 18 kilometres without any water. Although in rare conditions, it can lead to civilisation nearby.” hydration a condition known as hyponatremia, and result Iyer speaks enthusiastically about the way water in hospitalisation. Many of our fears of becoming can enhance fine dining experience. According to products such dehydrated comes from studies of athletes who him, a meal or alcohol must be paired with the right lose fluid rapidly during intense workouts. But water to enhance the experience, a seafood salad as water drops an average person, spending most of his day at a or sushi which has subtle flavours, for instance, and electrolyte desk or a 20-minute pilates session, is hardly at risk he says, must be accompanied with water with of dehydration. Besides, even in high endurance low carbonisation. “You cannot have water which packets activities such as marathon running, there is now a overpowers, say, sushi. No point spending so much larger discussion on whether people really need to money on a meal but then dampen that experience drink as much water as is often prescribed. by drinking any water,” he says. Meanwhile, Iyer sees a growing interest in Every few years, a new type of water brand is re- fine waters in the food and beverage space. He leased in India. One such is an alkaline water brand believes at some point in the distant future, we may Evocus by the Indian startup, AV Organics, whose perhaps see Indian fine dining establishments water is black in appearance. They source and refine coming out with a water menu, along with its food minerals from a facility in the US, which is then in- and bar menus, and there may even be water-tasting fused in the water at a plant in Gujarat. According sessions. “But that is a long time away,” he says. n

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Available as an e-magazine for tablets, mobiles and desktops via Magzter Holy Water From being gateways to gods to cleansing of sins, it has played a central role in religion and culture By Madhavankutty Pillai

he Kumbh Mela is arguably the biggest spectacle of Hinduism, a religion so loose and disconnected that it was hard to bring it under a common roof. The Mela, or Melas, was said to be incorporated as a tradition by Shankaracharya, perhaps in the 8th century CE. It is held on the banks of rivers every 12 years and the primary feature of it is the holy dip. This is not just for individual pilgrims alone who come to collect divine merits but also for the akharas, monastic groups, for whom the manic rush into the waters is also an exhibition of stature. James G Lochtefeld, in his essay ‘Getting in Line: The Kumbha Mela Festival Processions’ (which is a chap- ter in South Asian Religions on Display: Religious Processions in South Asia and in the Diaspora), rues the absence of any historical records of the festival that date to antiquity. However, he adds, there are records for different bathing 62 T 29 march 2021 THE FUTURE OF WATER Religion

Photograph by ashish sharma

The Kumbh Mela in Ujjain, 2016

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 63 THE FUTURE OF WATER Religion

festivals as a phenomenon in India. He writes: ‘Some of life itself, the flowing course of nature and the were annual, such as Hardwar’s Baisakhi Mela and universe. Like the Tao, water has the character of Prayag’s Magh Mela. Others were determined by quiet effortlessness and calm or agitated.’ Jupiter’s twelve-year cycle—Hardwar’s Kumbha In the book Bradley makes an analysis of all the Mela and Nasik’s Sinhastha Mela, whose differing ways in which water has been appropriated by charter myths clearly point to independent origins. religions. These include: Such festivals would have attracted ascetics as im- ● Water as where god stays. Among the examples portant religious occasions, but also as opportunities he gives is the Koran which has a Surah that talks to display status, seek patronage, and conduct trade.’ about Allah’s throne residing upon the waters, a The Kumbh is thus a clever attempt to bring a com- conception based on waters in heaven above. mon thread to numerous similar festivals in further- ● Water as a medium for human encounter with ance of a larger plan—to turn disparate schools of the divine. Because if gods stay on waters, then it Hinduism into a unified entity. That it has water as is also a gateway to them. He writes: ‘For the Ro- its central motif is not surprising. mans and Greeks, hot springs with their presiding deities were particularly appealing for this reason. Celtic mythology included lakes and rivers as be- ing among the watery places where humans could commune with deities and as a result they became favourite sites along with wells and springs for vo- tive offerings and sacrifices.’ ● Water as source of life which is why many reli- gions have mythologies of fountains of youth and bestowments of immortality through water. ● Water, also, as symbol of death. He gives the ex- ample of Greek mythology in which the newly dead are taken by the ferryman Charon ‘across a river that encircles the underworld and forms the boundary between Earth and Hades.’ The ferryman makes an appearance in Buddhism too where the Buddha himself is alluded to as such in taking peo- ple through the chain of life and death. ● Water is also, writes Bradley, a feature of Paradise alamy in many religions, a manifestation of the feminine, A Taoist a mirror of life and afterlife, healing, cleansing and Water is intimately connected to religion. There purification ritual purifying, and more. is, for example, the ritual of baptism in Christianity. with water in In India, the role of water goes step in step with But it hardly begins with Jesus Christ because he Macau, China stages of its religious development. The oldest lit- himself, as the New Testament says, was baptised erature of India is the Rig Veda and within it, of the by John the Baptist by immersion in the waters of 10 Mandalas, the seventh is one of the earliest. The the river Jordan. And that tradition itself might 49th hymn of this Mandala, as translated lyrically by have a forerunner in Jewish practices. Ritual im- Ralph TH Griffith, goes thus: ‘Forth from the middle of mersion is even now part of the ritual for anyone the flood the Waters—their chief the Sea—flow cleansing, converting to be a Jew. In Water: A Spiritual History, never sleeping. Indra, the Bull, the Thunderer, dug their Ian Bradley talks about how Taosim is the religion channels: here let those Waters, Goddesses, protect me./ with the strongest attachment to water. He writes: Waters which come from heaven, or those that wander ‘Here it is primarily valued for its symbolism and dug from the earth, or flowing free by nature, Bright, metaphorical message. Alan Watts, a leading 20th purifying, speeding to the Ocean, here let those Waters. century expert on Chinese religion and philosophy, Goddesses, protect me./ Those amid whom goes Varuna has called Taoism ‘the Watercourse Way’ because the Sovran, he who discriminates men’s truth and false- its two original exponents, Lao-tzu and Chuang-tzu, hood—Distilling meath, the bright, the purifying, here let used the flow of water as its principal metaphor. In those Waters, Goddesses, protect me./ They from whom Taoism, water is seen not just as the source of life, Varuna the King, and Soma, and all the Deities drink the mysterious female base from which heaven and strength and vigour, They into whom Vaisvanara Agni earth sprang, but as a metaphor for the Tao, or way entered, here let those Waters, Goddesses, protect Me.’

64 29 march 2021 ibm a role. Like the rites after death where ashes have to be drifted into flowing waters and, before that, while the rituals are being performed, water being used while making oblations to ancestors and gods. Or, the sprinkling of water to the chant of mantras to sanctify an object. Water also had an unsalutary role because of its association with purity. In a 2001 paper, ‘Hindu Mythology and an Unequal Social Order in India’, Deepa Joshi and Ben Fawcett looked at how it is still used to stratify caste inequalities. For their study, they looked at a remote village called Chinu in the Kumaon hills and observed the water behaviour of caste groups there. Their paper noted: ‘The concept of purity exists as a theme, which is central to local life, almost in the same way as defined by Manu. This concept is used to exclude the polluted from water sources, which are considered sacred. In death and birth for the family, and menstruation A baptism A later Mandala, the 10th one, has perhaps one of the performed by a and childbirth for women, water from the Naulas most popular hymns of the Rig Veda, the Nasadiya rural pastor near is mixed with water from the holy river Ganga, if Sukta, or the Creation Hymn. It speaks of the world Bengaluru available, and is sprinkled on the polluted to purify being nothing but water in which rested existence them before they are re-integrated into the social only as potential. As AL Basham’s translation says: system and also before they can actually access ‘At first there was only darkness wrapped in dark- the Naulas themselves. Dalits, here as elsewhere, ness. All this was only unillumined water. That One are considered polluted and capable of polluting. which came to be, enclosed in nothing, arose at last, When the ‘upper castes’ come in close contact with born of the power of heat.’ Dalits they are purified by the sprinkling of Naula Such early toying of water’s relationship with water, a practice known locally as Chod. After Dalits existence and manipulating it to curry divine fa- leave an ‘upper caste’ household, the place where vours would seep through time to the present. The they sat in the courtyard is washed or sprinkled Rig Veda is mainly a culture that looked at gods as with water, or sometimes with a mixture of cow- limbs of nature to be appeased through hymns. The dung, also identified as pure, and water.’ next stages of India’s spiritual consciousness, like Caste discrimination is fading away in the mod- the Upanishads, address water in different ways. ern age but Chinu’s example is representative of wa- The Chandogya Upanishad, for instance, exhorts ter’s use and access to foment caste subjugation for the worship of water because it is everything that thousands of years in India. Such practices have be- exists, even gods. The verse, as translated by Swami The come exceptions now but the role of water contin- Lokeswarananda, says: ‘Water is certainly superior ues to remain central in other cultural and religious to food. That is why if there is no rain, people worry Chandogya forms. In festivals, which have become very popular and think, ‘There will not be enough food.’ But if and publicly celebrated in recent times, like Ganesh there is a good rainfall, they are happy, thinking, Upanishad Chaturthi and Durga Puja, it is in the waters that ‘There will be plenty of food.’ All these are water in exhorts the the God and Goddess are immersed. It signifies the different forms: the earth, the interspace, heaven, deities being invited, staying for a brief period and the mountains, gods and human beings, cattle and worship then returning to their abode. Water is the medium birds, creepers and trees, animals of prey, worms, through which the departure happens. The Ganges insects, and ants. All these are water in different of water continues to be venerated as having the power to forms. Therefore worship water.’ In the Puranic age, cleanse sins following a dip in her waters. It is from the storytellers come up with fantastic metaphors because it is the auspiciousness of its waters that Kashi, India’s about water’s influence. Such as, the Ganges get- everything oldest city, also gets its halo as a portal through ting trapped in the hair of Shiva who then deigns which the dead can get rid of the chains that keep to open it a little allowing it to flow gently into the that exists them making repeated births. The waters there are earth. Or, the Matsya avatar of Vishnu who lives in polluted beyond measure now but it has not made a water. Almost every Hindu ritual has water playing dent to the faith that remains crystal clear. n

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 65 Assembly Elections 2021 Tamil Nadu

Trading in Dravidian Stock It is advantage DMK as the ruling AIADMK dilutes Amma’s legacy and dabbles in appeasement politics

by V Shoba and drafting a manifesto with restraint. C“ andidates were ranked by metrics of winnability, social justice and representation, famil- he countdown has begun iarity and connect with the people; age and professional qualifica- at Arivalayam, the Dravida Munne- tions were considered value-adds,” says party spokesperson and tra Kazhagam (DMK) headquarters Rajya Sabha MP TKS Elangovan. Besides fielding veterans, sitting in Chennai, heralding in red LED MLAs and sons of party leaders, including Udhayanidhi Stalin signage the arrival of MK Stalin and from Chepauk-Triplicane in Chennai, DMK has also rewarded the Rising Sun. As Tamil Nadu inches politicians who have switched over from the opposite camp— closer to the date of polling, the op- notably three-time MLA from Vedaranyam, SK Vedharathinam, position front led by DMK reigns as- who lost from the constituency in 2016 after joining the Bharati- cendant in opinion polls and surveys ya Janata Party (BJP), and Thanga Tamil Selvan, former Amma despite the All India Anna Dravida Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (AMMK) leader who was the losing MunnetraT Kazhagam’s (AIADMK) populist schemes and slick candidate from the Theni Lok Sabha constituency in 2019. This promises of free washing machines, solar-powered cooking stoves election, Tamil Selvan will lock horns with incumbent Deputy and cable TV. A confident DMK has made safe bets from a vantage Chief Minister O Panneerselvam (OPS) in Bodinayakanur, while point: from running a campaign focused on Stalin’s leadership Vedharathinam will once again try his luck from Vedaranyam, with help from—and despite—Prashant Kishor’s IPAC, to choos- where AIADMK has fielded sitting MLA OS Manian. ing worthy candidates for the 174 seats it is contesting out of 234 Bodinayakanur in the southern district of Theni is the former and convincing its alliance partners to acquiesce in fewer seats, chief minister’s home ground, but this time round, it presents an

66 29 march 2021 unusual wrinkle. Not only is there concern in the constituency over rising land prices and OPS’ flagging control over the party, even the caste equations don’t quite balance. The town is a Babel of languages and communities, and even the Mukkulathor (Kallar, Maravar, Agamudaiyar) vote is likely to split between OPS, a Mara- var, and Tamil Selvan, a Piramalai Kallar. Consolidating their votes is not easy for OPS, who must bear the cross of the AIADMK gov- ernment’s controversial decision to introduce 10.5 per cent inter- nal reservation for Vanniyars within the existing 20 per cent res- ervation for MBCs and De-Notified Communities. “If OPS cannot retain his seat, his influence within AIADMK will shrink further,” says political journalist and writer Tharasu Shyam. “AIADMK’s list is an outcome of a quota system agreed upon between Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami (EPS), who chose a majority of the candidates, and OPS. By looking after their respective interests, they have played right into DMK’s hands,” Shyam says. DMK, Congress and BJP have each fielded some of their best prospects, especially in Chennai and in the western and southern districts. An election predicted to be nail-biting, with the score shifting this way and that as in a good basketball game, is increasingly get- ting harnessed to the failures of the ruling party. AIADMK’s choice DMK leader MK Stalin of candidates and appeasement politics betray a dwindling morale campaigning in Salem and desperation to keep the party afloat in case of an unfavourable district, March 16 electoral outcome. While the party may have lost track of its Dra- vidian ideals a while ago, it has now watered down the legacy of former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa. Besides making compromises in policies, settling into an alliance with BJP, and playing divisive caste politics, AIADMK has awarded tickets to old-timers like Mad- havaram V Moorthy, TKM Chinnaiah, Agri SS Trading in Dravidian Stock Krishnamoorthy and Natham R Viswanathan who had been sidelined by Jayalalithaa. Like a surfer catching the wind in whichever direction it blows, the party’s election manifesto revisits its support for the Citizenship Amendment Act, promising to ‘urge’ BJP to scrap the legislation. It also matches and raises DMK’s promise of a monthly allowance for stay-at-home women to help run their households—originally actor-politician Kamal Haasan’s idea—and co- opts other popular narratives in its 163-point agenda, such as housing for all and one govern- ment job for every household. “It is the longest manifesto in the history of the party,” says se- nior AIADMK leader and former minister C Ponnaiyan. “It directly follows from Amma’s policies and sends the message that AIADMK will always be for the people.” Rhetoric aside, can welfare schemes clinch the deal for the ruling party when DMK is not far behind with its promises? Doles are almost a postulate of the electoral process and this time, the EPS government has cited the dam- age caused by the pandemic as the reason for its DMK’s Udhayanidhi Stalin on his way to file his nomination in Chennai, March 15 generous farm loan waiver of Rs 12,110 crore.

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 67 Assembly Naam Tamilar Katchi leader Elections 2021 Tamil Nadu Senthamizhan Seeman at a rally on March 12

Another waiver in the works—of gold loans of up to six sovereigns given by cooperative banks to farmers and the poor—is matched by Stalin’s promise to strike off loans taken by self-help groups and students. While AIADMK has announced a 7.5 per cent reserva- tion in medical colleges in the state allotting government school students over 400 seats, other parties have seized by the horns the issue of unemployment, which they attribute not just to the lack of jobs and the state of the economy but also to the fact that there is no law giving locals a share in jobs created in Tamil Nadu. With one of the highest Gross Enrolment Ratios in higher educa- tion in India (49.2 per cent in 2018-2019), Tamil Nadu is making a case for employing its youth. The Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK), which is contesting six seats as part of the DMK alliance, was among the first to bring up the issue, notes party MP from Villupuram, D Ravikumar. The DMK manifesto promises 75 per cent reservation for locals across all jobs generated in Tamil Nadu. It also proposes increasing maternity benefits, a cut in fuel prices, banning NEET and an assistance of Rs 25,000 to one lakh Hindu pilgrims, among other things. “I was the first to say jobs in Tamil Nadu should be reserved for Tamils. Now everyone has followed suit,” says Senthamizhan Seeman, the 54-year-old Tamil nationalist ideologue who hopes With EPS now relying on Vanniyars to back him in his home district Salem and OPS favouring to turn a corner in his political career this year. His party Naam Maravar candidates in the southern districts, any claims to caste neutrality in AIADMK are moot Tamilar Katchi’s vote share jumped from 1.1 per cent in 2016 to 3.9 per cent in the 2019 General Election. If it doubles in the coming Assembly polls, Seeman would have crossed into the mainstream. His manifesto is short and includes prohibition, a subject that the smaller urban constituency would be more convenient for run- major Dravidian parties can only play softball with. He steers ning a state-wide campaign, and our party did secure almost as clear of poll alliances with other parties and has fielded as many many votes in Tiruvottiyur (17,000) in the last elections (out of women as men across 234 constituencies. So, if indeed the people a total of about 17 lakh votes) as in Karaikkudi. Besides, I am a are looking for an alternative to the Dravidian parties, as he claims, boy from the south, and if I contest there they will reduce me to a he is it. “I have mellowed with experience. I am practical but I still caste leader.” In Tiruvottiyur, where he is pitted against KP Sankar, won’t descend to coalition politics. Look at the VCK’s Thol Thiru- brother of the late DMK MLA KPP Samy, and K Kuppan of AIAD- mavalavan. Since he leads a Dalit party, he is a victim of social cir- MK, he is campaigning against a proposed extension of Adani’s cumstance and has to necessarily ally with a party with a broader Kattupalli Port at Ennore, and industrial pollution. Seeman’s ec- base. But in the process, he has lost his individuality,” he says, over centricities include a fascination for unworkable green energy idli-chutney at his residence in Chennai, which is bustling not just prototypes, combing his hair each time before stepping out of the with visitors and staff but also chickens, ducks and pet cats and campaign car, and referring to himself as ‘annan’ (brother) with dogs. He denies allegations of a secret pact with BJP or AIADMK. the swagger of a mafioso. He makes two valid points, however. A “If I become chief minister, I will be endless trouble to BJP. Unlike key reason for Seeman’s popularity among youth is his refusal to AIADMK, I won’t shamelessly toe their line in the name of good embrace a caste identity. Second, the nippings and gnawings of Centre-state relations. I will not allow their and Hindu coalition politics are not slight, as DMK knows from its experi- imposition, and I’ll be the first to question their collusion with ence running a “minority government” in the past with the sup- large business houses,” he says, in a not-too-subtle reminder that port of Anbumani Ramadoss’ Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK). In he is a chief ministerial candidate. “It is because I am not part of a the upcoming Assembly elections, PMK is contesting 23 seats as coalition that I can freely say that Stalin, if he comes to power, will the second-largest party in the AIADMK-led alliance—the Van- be the most inept chief minister in all of India. He cannot even read niyar internal reservation bill having been a prerequisite for this out a speech without mistakes. In a state where even BJP does not arrangement, as evident from the viral clip of Ramadoss’ tears at have the guts to contest alone, I believe I will stand out.” finally getting ‘justice’ for his people. With the passing of the Spe- For all his talk of reviving the rural economy and promoting cial Reservation Act of 2021, the remaining 9.5 per cent reservation animal husbandry, Seeman is contesting from Tiruvottiyur in within the MBC and DNC category will now be shared by over a north Chennai. “I’ll be honest. I wanted to contest from Karai- hundred other communities. In the absence of caste-wise popula- kkudi (in Sivaganga district), where I have my roots, but I have tion data, it is anybody’s guess if internal reservations are fair to had reason to reconsider—as the chief coordinator of the party, a all communities. In December 2020, the AIADMK government

68 29 march 2021 Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami campaigning in Salem district, March 17

cannot agree about staying in the SC list ver- sus asserting their status in society, and may swing either way in the polls. The Mukkulathor, who call the shots in 50-60 constituencies from Thanjavur to Tirunelveli, are reportedly unhappy with AIADMK’s preferential treatment of Vanni- yars. Another group who feel cheated are the Mutharaiyars, who, according to Duraisamy, constitute 3 per cent of the state’s popula- tion (the community claims a population of 1 crore across Tamil Nadu). A group of 29 castes, including Valaiyars who are freshwa- ter fishermen, they can influence outcomes in the delta districts. The Veera Mutharaiyar Munnetra Sangam’s KK Selvakumar, who had organised a massive event in Madurai in support of AIADMK and BJP in the hope that all Mutharaiyar communities would get DNT status and special reservations—right now, many are classified as MBCs—in addi- With EPS now relying on Vanniyars to back him in his home district Salem and OPS favouring tion to representation in the coalition, is a dis- Maravar candidates in the southern districts, any claims to caste neutrality in AIADMK are moot appointed man. “We are pious Hindus. We haven’t converted and we trace our lineage to Kannappa Nayanar and Thirumangai Al- war. Yet, BJP and AIADMK have not fulfilled constituted a commission headed by retired judge, A Kulasekaran, our demands. We have always voted for AIADMK, but now we to collect caste-wise data in Tamil Nadu, but this is seen as an ex- are waiting for an assurance that it will fulfil its promise of set- ercise in deferring blame. ting up a Valaiyar Reclamation Board,” says S Panneerselvam, a Tiruchirappalli-based Mutharaiyar community leader. While caste consciousness continues to penetrate far below aste appeasement is a blade that bears the plane of conscious thought even in a state with a history of the maker’s name, and often cuts straight to the movements to uphold social justice, voters this time are also bone. On the several occasions that Jayalalithaa and likely to weigh other factors. No longer blindly hitched to the M Karunanidhi, both wildly popular leaders from Jayalalithaa or Karunanidhi bandwagon, they will think for Csmall, non-dominant communities, attempted it, they were re- themselves and hopefully choose candidates with a clean repu- warded or reproached, but they could not be accused of being tation, an impressive report card in the constituency (for sitting daft. With EPS now relying on Vanniyars to back him in his home and past MLAs), and an education. “It is unfortunate that as polls district Salem, and OPS compensating for the loss of Kallar votes draw near, DMK has stopped talking about the many scams the to AMMK by favouring Maravar candidates in the southern dis- ruling party has been involved in,” says Jayaram Venkatesan of tricts, any claims to caste neutrality in AIADMK are moot. Under Arappor Iyakkam, a Chennai-based independent organisation Jayalalithaa, VK Sasikala’s prominence in the party had ensured working towards transparency in governance. Earlier this year, the support of the Mukkulathor communities but this came at a Arappor Iyakkam called attention to massive irregularities in the cost: castes such as the Yadavas and the Mutharaiyars went under- Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation’s tender represented. These half-concealed fissures have now broken open process, and alleged, in a complaint to the Directorate of Vigilance thanks to the AIADMK-BJP front’s attempts at social engineering. and Anti-Corruption, that its power purchase agreements with If AIADMK fears special reservation for Vanniyars may backfire, private producers have cost the state Rs 1 lakh crore in the past 15 it is also worried about the consequences of BJP wooing Deven- years. “Though widely reported in the media as a major scam, nei- dra Kula Vellalars in the southern districts, says political analyst ther DMK nor AIADMK has offered to cancel these agreements Raveendran Duraisamy. The Narendra Modi Government had in an attempt to win the confidence of voters,” says Venkatesan. moved a Bill in Parliament recommending bringing all seven Has weeding out corruption become a Gradgrindian pursuit in sub-castes of Pallars, who are classified as SCs, under one name: Tamil Nadu? Or will the people vote out leaders implicated in Devendra Kula Vellalar. It has been a longstanding demand of scams, including ministers P Thangamani, SP Velumani and the community to be identified by this dignified name, but they R Kamaraj? We will know on May 2nd. n

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 69 LAW comment Truth and Faith the Places of Worship Act stands in the way of reclamation of religious sites of one community allegedly occupied by another. Its constitutional validity was waiting to be challenged By J Sai Deepak

n Friday, March 12th, after a Petition filed before the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of the Places of Worship Act 1991, aptly acronymised as the PoW Act, the Apex Court issued notice to the Centre directing it to respond to the Petition. A brief overview of the backdrop to the PoW OAct and its framework is necessary in order to understand the nature of the challenge to it in the Petition. The legislation was enacted by the Narasimha Rao-led Congress Government and its central provisions came into force on September 18th, 1991. The Act is designed, as its Preamble states, to ‘prohibit conversion of any place of worship and to provide for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on the 15th day of August, 1947…’ This object is further codified in Sections 3 and 4 of the Act subject to certain exceptions identified in Section 4. Broadly speaking, this legislation stands in the way of reclama- tion of religious sites of any community which, it believes, are occupied by another. While the statute does appear to be neutrally worded on the face of it, the backdrop of its passing and the exception it carves out make it clear that it forcibly forecloses the fundamental rights of Indic communities at the altar of ‘secularism’. The statute was enacted by the Congress Government in the backdrop of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Movement which had a clear bearing on the scheme of the Act. This is because the only exception to the ap- plication of the statute is expressly identified in Section 5, namely the hitherto pending legal dispute surrounding the ownership of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi in Ayodhya. In other words, other than the then-pending legal proceedings in relation to the birth- place of Shri Ram at Ayodhya, all other similar proceedings, either pending or prospective, are barred by the Act. Naturally, this raises the following questions in relation to the Act and its passing by the dispensation in 1991: ● How does creating an exception in favour of the Shri Ram Jan- mabhoomi alone pass muster on the anvils of Articles 14, 25, 26 and 29 at the very least? Can it be constitutionally sustained that the rights of the parties involved in the Ayodhya dispute were more equal than the rights of similarly situated parties in rela- tion to other sites? ● What was the factual basis for barring or terminating legal pro- ceedings for reclamation of other holy sites over which two or more parties have competing claims of ownership? Given that consultation with affected parties appears to be the flavour of the season in the context of the farm laws, what kind of consultations

70 29 march 2021 Truth and Faith the Places of Worship Act stands in the way of reclamation of religious sites of one community allegedly occupied by another. Its constitutional validity was waiting to be challenged By J Sai Deepak

were undertaken by the Government in 1991 with members of Indic communities and claimants of Temple property before the PoW Act was passed? ● As a corollary to the above question, did the dispensation of the day at least undertake a baseline study of the number of contested sites across the country to understand the broad nature of the claims involved? After all, to presume that such claims for recla- mation were/are limited only to Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura, is to turn a blind eye to thousands of similarly credible, reasonable and justiciable claims which are spread across the country. None of the above questions was answered with any degree of specificity during the course of the cursory parliamentary de- bates held on the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Bill. The Bill, which was introduced in Lok Sabha on August 23rd, 1991, was passed on September 10th, 1991 with the debates being held only on August 23rd, 1991, September 9th, 1991 and September 10th, 1991. In fact, the surreptitious manner in which the Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha without following rules of notice and the haste with which it was passed were criticised by of the (BJP) who called it “the blackest Bill in the Indian Parliament”. In addition to the above issues which demand clear and cogent answers over and above party politics, the following presump- tions/myths too need to be busted: ● What is the basis of the presumption that only Islamic places of prayer/congregation would be the most affected if the Act were to be struck down or repealed? After all, there is enough historical evidence of several Churches having been built after the destruc- tion of Hindu Temples. For instance, history suggests that the well-known St Thomas Cathedral Basilica in Chennai was built by the Portuguese after destroying the original Shri Kapaleesh- warar Temple which had to be moved to Mylapore to protect the Deities from the marauding Portuguese Christians. Similarly, AK Priolkar’s book on the Portuguese Inquisition in Goa, also known as the Goan Inquisition, and several other scholarly works credibly support the claim that several Churches in Goa and across the Konkan were built after razing Hindu places of worship to the ground. ● Importantly, since the PoW Act is neutrally worded, in the sense that it does not ostensibly target or foreclose the rights of any particular community, why don’t we apprehend claims by ur a bh Singh non-Hindus, in particular Muslims and Christians, on Hindu places of worship if the Act were to be struck down or repealed? Doesn’t this mean that the opponents of Hindu reclamation of

S a by Illustration sites are aware of historical realities?

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 71 LAW comment

● If Jains and Buddhists too have claims over Hindu Temples or legal principles that applied to property disputes. And yet, the Mosques or Churches, why should the Act come in the way of Court discussed the Act in over 10 pages with the central thrust their right to prove their claims with evidence along the same being the Constitution’s commitment to ‘secularism’. lines as the Ayodhya case? At least this will settle the question of Perhaps, the intention behind the Court’s legally unnecessary destruction of Jain and Buddhist places of worship by ‘Brahmini- discussion on the Act was to dissuade any future constitutional cal Hindus’ which is constantly raised each time a claim is made challenge to the PoW Act so as to prevent Ayodhya-like claims by Hindus on occupied religious sites. from being revived or initiated. However, as demonstrated by The catch-all response to all the questions raised above is this author in an article published in on typically and predictably ‘Secu- June 3rd, 2020, the Court’s dis- larism’, which is offered as a cussion of the statute and secu- justification for the PoW Act to larism were both superfluous keep ‘communal politics’ at bay. and irrelevant to the Ayodhya This is perhaps the most superfi- dispute, apart from the trigger cial, insensitive and ahistorical What is the basis of the for the said discussion in the response to issues raised by the presumption that only judgment being factually mis- challenge to the PoW Act since placed and incorrect. Therefore, the reality of Indian politics has Islamic places of legally speaking, the Court’s ob- been communal politics ever servations in relation to the Act since the Two-Nation Theory congregation would be in the Ayodhya judgment have led to the Partition of Bharat. Of affected if the Act were no precedential value and do course, the Supreme Court’s in- not have the force of law under adequate, legally untenable and repealed? several Article 141 of the Constitution. inconsequential attempt to lend This position is supported by its seal of approval to the PoW Act Churches, including the law laid down by the Court in its Ayodhya Verdict of Novem- Chennai’s St Thomas itself in several judgments. Illus- ber 9th, 2019 can be expected to tratively, in Jagdish Lal vs State of be marshalled in support of the Cathedral Basilica, were Haryana (1997) and Director of secularism defence. The judg- built after the destruction Settlements, A.P. & Ors vs M.R. ment may even be cited by the Apparao & Anr (2002), the Court proponents of the PoW Act to of Hindu Temples had categorically held that only question the very maintainabil- those of its adjudicatory obser- ity of the Petition challenging vations in a given judgment, the Act. Unfortunately for them, which related to issues that the Ayodhya judgment does not arose for its consideration in a remotely come in the way of the given case, would have a legally challenge to the PoW Act for rea- binding character under Article sons explained below. 141. The logic underlying the In the said verdict, curiously said position is that a Court of the Supreme Court deemed it fit law, not being an academic fo- to discuss the provisions of the rum, is not expected to answer PoW Act despite the non-appli- questions which do not arise cation of the Act to the Shri Ram before it for its adjudication. Ap- Janmabhoomi dispute. In fact, plying the said principle to the the Court took express note of the Court’s discussion on the PoW non-application of the Act to the Act in the Ayodhya verdict, since Ayodhya dispute in Paragraph 80 such discussion was neither rel- of its judgment. This means the Court was clearly aware of the evant for adjudication of the title dispute in the facts of that case legal consequence of the exception under Section 5, which was to nor would its absence have made a difference to the outcome in leave the then pending legal proceedings with respect to the site any manner, the discussion does not have a legally binding char- in Ayodhya untouched and uninfluenced by the express provi- acter under Article 141. sions of the PoW Act or its purported ‘secular’ import. Therefore, Apart from the legal and constitutional perspectives, the other there was no need, legal or otherwise, for the Supreme Court to perspective that warrants application in the context of the chal- discuss the Act in the context of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi case lenge to the PoW Act is the decolonial perspective. It is easy to which was meant to be adjudicated on the basis of established succumb to the temptation of viewing the entire issue through

72 29 march 2021 the jaded lens of ‘communal politics’, especially by those who con- legislation passed by a colonialised Indian State against the tinue to have a problem with the reconstruction of the Shri Ram fundamental rights of adherents of indigenous faith systems. Temple in Ayodhya despite the Supreme Court upholding the Simply put, the embargo under the PoW Act on one’s exercise claim of the Temple side. Unfortunately, the meta issue has either of rights to reclaim one’s place of worship is directly at logger- never been adequately understood or clearly articulated from the heads with rights guaranteed under Articles 25 and 26. Even if perspective of indigeneity and through the framework of decolo- a lone individual asserts the right of reclamation and the rest of niality in most circles which have an opinion on such issues and the community has either forgiven, or worse, forgotten, no canon their history. Seldom has one come across a nuanced perspective of secularism or principle of fairness or justice in any civilised from the opponents of Temple jurisdiction can mandate that an reclamation which strikes a bal- individual or a community must ance between indigenous civili- sacrifice her or its right to legally sational rights on the one hand reclaim the nerve centres of civili- and the legitimate interest in sational identity. After all, this has preserving communal harmony The Act was enacted been the position of the Supreme on the other. Instead, invariably by the Congress Court in relation to individual the approach has been to either rights and their importance in question the very legitimacy of Government in the the constellation of fundamental the claims of indigenous claim- rights in matters relating to entry ants, or to adopt a patronising backdrop of the Ram into places of worship. approach towards them which Janmabhoomi Movement At the very least, members of categorically expects them to the community must have the sacrifice their beliefs and rights and Babri Masjid dispute. right to prove their case in a Court at the altar of an uneasy ‘peace’ of law. To deprive that legal rem- even if their claims are supported It forcibly forecloses edy through legislation passed by history. In both instances, it is the fundamental rights without any consultation with a case of ‘talking down’ to the na- members of affected indigenous tive, which is textbook colonial- of Indic communities communities is to add insult to ity at work. at the altar of injury. Decoloniality demands The stark irony in the attitude that no one other than a victim of the colonialised opponents of ‘secularism’ has the right to forgive on behalf Temple Reclamation is the con- of the victim, or presume that venience in their application of the victim has either forgiven or moral standards and use of his- forgotten. To do otherwise is to be tory. While colonial interpreta- insensitive to historical injustice. tions of indigenous sources of Since neither Parliament nor the history are typically treated as Apex Court has considered these reliable to address issues relat- aspects, the PoW Act remains as ing to caste to further the goal of vulnerable to a constitutional social justice which is again de- challenge as it was before the fined unilaterally by a select few, Ayodhya verdict, and is waiting sources of history which attest to to be struck down or, better, re- the existence of indigenous reli- pealed by the Legislature. gious sites and their occupation Finally, in the backdrop of the are rejected as unreliable, apocry- ongoing movement against Euro- phal and even fabricated. The ex- pean coloniality in various parts pedient reliance on or rejection of the world, it must not be forgot- of indigenous epistemology and voices depending on what fits ten that both the Indian Constitution and decoloniality put a pre- the worldview and narrative of the colonialised elites has been mium on social justice and there can be no social justice at the the story of the better part of independent India, which negates expense of the truth, nor is lasting peace possible until the truth the idea of Bharat. Unfortunately, such an attitude is not limited is demonstrably established, acknowledged and accounted for. n to thought or expression of thought but has also translated to legislative action and judicial treatment of indigenous rights and J Sai Deepak is an advocate practising as an expectations. arguing counsel before the Supreme Court of The PoW Act is one such example of a manifestly unjust India and the High Court of Delhi

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 73 books The Future of Love ap n o sal The undiminished solar power of Kazuo Ishiguro’s imagination By Sanjay Sipahimalani

owards the end of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go (2005), one of the characters Kazuo Ishiguro mentions a scientist who wanted to offer people the possibility of having children with enhanced characteristics: ‘Superior intelligence, superior athleticism, that sort of Tthing… far beyond legal boundaries.’ His work, we’re told, was frowned upon and prohibited: ‘A generation of created children who’d take their place in society? Children demonstrably superior to the rest of us? Oh no. That frightened people. They recoiled from that.’ Such a scientist would have been welcomed into the world of Klara and the Sun, Ishiguro’s first novel since winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017. Where Never Let Me Go revolved around the consequences of cloning for organ dona- tion, Klara and the Sun deals with how artificial intelligence (AI) and genetic editing have changed the world. Over the years, this is a subject that writers of science fiction have developed in many rewarding ways. Of late, it seems to be occupying the minds of so-called literary fiction authors, too. Ian McEwan’s 2019 novel Machines like Me, for example, imagines 1980s’ Britain as a place where the ‘first truly viable manufactured human with plausible intelligence and looks, believable motion and shifts of expression went on sale.’ And one of the storylines in Jeanette Winterson’s Frankissstein, a recent interpretation of Mary Shelley’s Klara and the Sun classic, involves a doctor who tries Kazuo Ishiguro to blend smart medicine with Knopf machine learning. 320 Pages | Rs 699 Ishiguro’s take on the subject is quite different because, deep down, his concerns aren’t really to do with the ethics of scientific progress. The Klara of his novel’s title is called an AF: an ‘artificial friend’. One could argue that the characters in all his other novels are similarly aware of their own artificiality. It’s a trait they grapple with as they navigate the shape- shifting nature of memory, searching for what it means to be an individual seeking connection with others. Many of his novels use familiar literary conventions as ways of examining these abiding interests. It can be said that Ishiguro’s fiction enacts the same search for authenticity carried out by his unreliable narrators. Take Stevens, in the 1989 Booker prize-winning The

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Remains of the Day, forever trying to don the mantle of a digni- and while walking in the streets, while students get lessons fied butler while also wondering ‘if it is the case that in banter- from ‘oblong tutors’. It is also a time when children are ‘lifted’, ing lies the key to human warmth’. In A Pale View of Hills (1982), that is, genetically modified for increased abilities. which combines tropes of horror with domesticity, Etsuko AI has created other social divisions, which come to light confesses that her memories are often ‘heavily coloured by the in the course of the novel’s unhurried release of information. circumstances in which one remembers’. And Christopher Scientists such as Josie’s father and other professionals Banks, the hapless detective of When We Were Orphans (2000), have lost their jobs because of ‘the substitutions’, and many recalls that in school, he ‘rapidly absorbed the other gestures, have banded together in groups. Even among children, turns of phrase and exclamations popular among my peers.’ there are class differences between the ‘lifted’ and the All of them are uneasy with such negotiations between ‘unlifted’, evident from a scene during which many are wary past and present. At times, this takes the form of melancholic of Josie’s boyfriend Rick. drifting and denial, as with Masuji Ono in An Artist of the As the nature of Josie’s ailment becomes clear, the reason Floating World (1986). With Axl from The Buried Giant (2015), ‘a for Klara being chosen as her companion becomes darkly sense of some unnamed loss would gnaw at his heart.’ apparent, too. This is hinted at, for example, during a trip Klara is different from such characters because she is con- taken by Klara and Josie’s mother to a nearby waterfall, eerily tent with her constructed nature from the start. At the novel’s reminiscent of the cablecar ride in A Pale View of Hills. It is now opening, she is standing in a shop window, one of many up to Klara and her beloved sun to try and sort things out. Many of Ishiguro’s novels also gain their power from the claustrophobic backgrounds against which his The Klara of Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel’s title is called an AF: disordered narrators roam. Think of war-torn Shanghai and postwar an ‘artificial friend’. One could argue that the characters Nagasaki in When We Were Orphans and in all his other novels are similarly aware of their own in An Artist of the Floating World; Hailsham artificiality. It’s a trait they grapple with as they navigate boarding school and Darlington Hall in Never Let Me Go and The Remains of the Day; the shapeshifting nature of memory, searching for what Kafkaesque town streets and foggy, it means to be an individual seeking connection post-Arthurian Britain in The Unconsoled and The Buried Giant. In contrast, the sense of place in Klara and the Sun is out of necessity more AI-powered humanoids who have been designed to serve as banal. It’s largely set in the interiors of modern-day homes companions for children. Klara and her ilk are solar-powered, and everyday city streets that are occasionally polluted by and her relationship with the sun is that of devotion and even road construction equipment. However, this is enlivened by supplication to a lifegiving deity. Klara’s descriptions of the way they are reconfigured by the For the shop’s manager, Klara has an amazing ‘ability to sun’s rosy-coloured rays. absorb and blend everything she sees around her’. The more If the novel is not as haunting as much of Ishiguro’s other she observes, the more she processes. work, it’s largely because the theme of memory’s deceits Soon enough, she is taken home by a delighted 14-year-old isn’t delved into as deeply. There’s also less tension between Josie and her mother. Klara is lucky to be with Josie—in a the way characters behave and the way they feel. For all that, later scene, other children view their AFs as performers and Klara’s sweetness and sacrificial efforts are portrayed in a entertainers, little more than insensate robots. Because of an manner that is quietly moving and affecting. Above all, there unspecified ailment, however, Josie is often too tired to get out is an endearing sense of hopefulness. of bed, and Klara has to serve as both companion and carer. Klara and the Sun is to Never Let Me Go as Klara is to Josie: Little by little, aspects of this society are made clear a companion and oblique reflection. In the latter novel, through the eyes of Klara, the first-person narrator. Here there are debates over whether the creation of art is a and elsewhere, Ishiguro uses defamiliarisation, as Russian fundamental quality of being human; in this one, Klara theorist Viktor Shklovsky once put it, ‘to impart the sensation feels that what is most special about Josie is ‘inside those of things as they are perceived and not as they are known.’ who loved her’. Ishiguro’s affectless prose style is well-suited to this approach. Philip K Dick, a writer vastly different in style and intent In particular, Klara’s visual sense is often dwelt on, with from Ishiguro, once said that the topics which fascinated him patterns of cones, squares and boxes. were “what is reality?” and “what constitutes the authentic This is a world of the near future that blends the familiar human being?” In his own understated yet formidable novels, with the unfamiliar. People stare at their ‘oblongs’ at breakfast Ishiguro has continued to ask these questions, too. n

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Into the Wild Wild and Wilful Tales of 15 Iconic A world between man and beast Indian Species By Ranjit Lal Neha Sinha HarperCollins 232 Pages | Rs 599 he book Wild and Wilful: 15 animals. Elephants, cobras, tigers and Iconic Species of Animals covers our Rhesus macaques are revered and wor- T relationship with these species. shipped by millions, while at the same don’t know how to fend for themselves. Some of them, like the beautiful leop- time killed ruthlessly when they stray And in all these cases, conflict with us, ard, are reviled; some, like the striped or demand the rights we have snatched often violent, is inevitable. The way out, tiger butterfly, we hardly notice; some, from them. Elephants are mowed down as Sinha maintains, is to live along with like the magnificent Great Indian Bus- by trains; when they wander into tea these animals: if we don’t get up their tard, we seemed indifferent to—until plantations where their traditional mi- noses, they won’t get up ours. now, that is, when there are probably gratory routes once ran, they face fire- She has met a plethora of people less than 100 left; and with most oth- bombs and electrocution. Cobras are who have more or less given their lives ers, including the tiger, the cobra, the offered milk (which they do not drink) to the cause of these animals. From a elephant and the Rhesus macaque, we and yet defanged and bludgeoned; surrogate mother of the Great Indian have a volatile relationship that ranges tigers are thought of as ‘mothers of Bustard to a venerable old baba who from veneration to lynching. There is men and tigers’ and yet lynched when protects ruthless mugger crocodiles one story though with a so far happy they stray. The canniest of them all, the in his local waterbody to a researcher ending— that of the intrepid little leopard, is sneaking back into areas who delights in discovering the rare Amur falcon. around cities (like Mumbai) to reclaim fluffy tit butterfly in a Naxal hotbed in First and foremost, the author Neha what we took from it, cleverly adapt- Chhattisgarh. Sinha writes from the heart. She has ing its behaviour. Rhesus macaques Sinha writes with emotion: some- done tireless legwork, covering each of are thrown parties every Tuesday and times her prose sings (‘the air was clear, these species, from Rajasthan to Bastar Saturday; then banished to wild areas like cut-glass’); sometimes the meta- and the Northeast, and meeting a around cities (like Asola in New Delhi) phors don’t quite ring right (‘the beat up medley of people who in some way where they go berserk and starve be- car chortled occasionally’). have been involved with these cause—thanks to our handouts—they Happily, it’s not all gloom and doom: animals. In all these cases, one there’s the wonderful turn- fact emerges all too starkly: Illustration by Saurabh Singh around story of the endangered we are the ones who have Amur falcon—a tiny insect- completely upset these hunting raptor that migrates animals’ way of life. We have every winter from Siberia to intruded on their territories, Nagaland enroute to South disrupted their migratory Africa. In Nagaland (Pangti vil- routes and (while thinking lage), they were massacred en we’re doing the ‘green’ thing) masse—1 lakh birds killed in put up huge windmills, whose 10 days—for their meat, feath- blades slice up the rare Great ers and just for the heck of it. Indian Bustard and any other The world was horrified; seeing bird that flies into their path. their reputation destroyed, the The endangered Ganges river villagers changed their ways dolphin does not need gigantic (with help from conservation- ships in its rivers. Yet, we bull- ists) and turned the migration doze on, often ignoring the very into a tourist attraction. laws we put down to protect If you are the slightest bit these precious species. curious about the natural Sinha points out the almost world—which should be conflicting relationship we mandatory now—and what have with many of these we’re doing to it, get this book. n

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 77 books

Ocean of Stories The magical realism of a Sanskrit classic retold By Arshia Sattar

Illustration by Saurabh Singh

he Kathasaritsagara, a tesan falls in love with an impoverished and mellifluous, it is easy to read and mighty compendium of tales from Brahmin, much to her mother’s dismay. captures the exuberant universe that T the subcontinent, seems to be un- The mother persuades a prince to get rid the Sagara so delights in. For those dergoing a resurgence of sorts. I recently of her daughter’s lover. The prince has who are interested, her introduction reviewed a retelling for young readers by the Brahmin beaten up and through an is thorough, culled from scholarly Rohini Chowdhury (Puffin Books, 2020) entirely wondrous set of circumstances sources that have previously examined and now, I have in my hands Meena that involve a shrinking elephant hide, the extant Sanskrit text closely. Arora Nayak’s splendidly produced a flood, Garuda and a trip to the island I must confess, however, that I volume which mines the great Sanskrit of Lanka which is now ruled by Vibhis- was disturbed by her use of the word text from the 11th century for stories full hana, the young man returns to reclaim ‘prostitute’ for the remarkable wom- of vigour and vitality, magic and dreams, his beloved and take revenge on her en—worldly, beautiful, skilled in the adventure and, often, failure. Along with mother. The story has a laugh-out-loud arts and learned in the classics—who The Blue Lotus: Myths and Folktales of India climax, which involves the Brahmin inhabit the heart of the Sagara’s cos- (Aleph, 2018), Arora Nayak is settling disguising himself as Vishnu and the mopolis. The Sanskrit word for them into a comfortable space where she old bawd stranded, naked and painted is ‘ganika’, and in the social scheme of fluently retells ancient stories for in many colours, atop a temple flagpole. the times, they were neither reviled nor modern readers. She becomes the laughing stock of the ostracised. Rather, they were considered The Sagara has many lost anteced- town, and the lovers are reunited and appropriate companions for wealthy ents, but it also contains within itself live happily ever after. patrons, often engaged to help young stories that we know as independent Arora Nayak modestly claims her men become desirable, urbane sophis- cycles of tales from elsewhere. No sampling of the Sagara is a retelling ticates. It is possible that the Hindi text matter what has been erased and what because she has chiselled away at this Arora Nayak works from uses the word has been borrowed, the charms of the all too commodious text. But she has, ‘veishya’, which is a common deroga- Sagara are entirely its own. Fantastic in fact, translated and abridged a Hindi tory word for ‘prostitute’ in modern tales of supernatural beings, merchants, version of the Sagara which appears Indian languages. But if Arora Nayak sailors, scholars, courtesans, to closely replicate the original is going to present the Sanskrit text in housewives and thieves nestle within Sanskrit text. Her translation is light English (which she does, despite using the frame story of the Vidyadhara a Hindi version), I believe she should prince Naravahanadatta’s conquests have been more diligent in seeking out and marital alliances. That is itself the nuances of the 11th century text. It framed within a story of an becomes particularly important in this altercation between Shiva and Parvati. case because the Sagara provides a criti- These frames hold within themselves cal counterpoint to the way women are a multitude of stories told to those who depicted in earlier and contemporane- need succour or advice, stories not ous Sanskrit stories. bound by earth or sky or ocean, nor Nonetheless, the Sagara remains, as by the courageous or foolish deeds of always, bright, joyous and fundamental- The Kathasaritsagara their denizens, stories that revel in the of Somadeva ly subversive, and there is much to enjoy trials and triumphs of divine and Meena Arora Nayak in Arora Nayak’s book as she invites a human beings. new set of readers to frolic in the waves Here’s one of my favourites. A cour- Aleph of this ocean of plenitude. n 492 Pages | Rs 999

78 29 march 2021 art memory’s door A group exhibition examines deletions and disappearances

By Prahlad Srihari

anju dodiya’s work at erasure

ow is ideology tied to the creative process of an Mandal. “It’s applicable in any timeframe and in any context. artist? If the process is akin to self-editing, how are Somehow, at each and every moment, we all are part of its ideas blended and filtered, assimilated and erased? process. That is why I thought we could explore its complexi- These are questions worth mulling over when ties through an exhibition where artists could pour out their H confronting Erasure, the new show at New Delhi’s thoughts through their works.” Vadehra Art Gallery. Featuring 19 works curated to explore ‘eras- Erasure concretises the psychological aspects of the creative ure as an act of thinking’, the installation is Kolkata-born artist process by looking at it from multiple points of view rather Susanta Mandal’s response to a wider debate about how history than through a single prism. Mandal invited artists from has been used as an ideological eraser to rewrite the past. across genres and from among those who had experimented Consider Narendra Modi Stadium, formerly known as in across mediums. A curatorial note was sent a year ago to the Motera. Or Binoy Badal Dinesh Bagh, which was once Dalhou- participants, prompting them to contextualise their influences sie Square. Even if almost no Delhiite refers to Connaught Place and processes into new works in response. Besides Mandal’s, as Rajiv Chowk, it still proves Mandal’s point of how our past is Erasure showcases work from eight other artists. Photographs, being erased and rewritten for political points. “Erasure is a vast projections and paintings (acrylic, oil and watercolour) create a theme and one could include many diverse aspects in it,” says patchwork of memories that offer a multidisciplinary glimpse

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 79 art

A(POLITICALLY) BLACK by Mithu Sen (left); Distant City by Sudhir Patwardhan into their processes. “In their drawings, paintings or videos, these mediums do not hold their traditional identities, they cross the limits of the medium and become a new expression, a fresh work of art,” he says. Balancing the roles of curator and artist, Mandal says, was an entirely smooth process because he was surrounded by efficient peers and a supportive gallery. The show doesn’t command a formal uniformity. Individuality still underpins the artists and their preferred mediums. Because only with multiple points of view can we arrive at the true essence of the idea of ‘erasure’. Arguing the “ Erasure is a vast theme and one could include many diverse aspects in it. It’s case for process over product, Mandal says, “In a way, an act of thinking is itself a creative process. When we are all thinking applicable in any time frame and in any context” Susanta Mandal artist and curator together in and around a theme and its multiple probabilities, the end result is an exhibition.” For Anju Dodiya, the exhibition offered her a chance to look at her past work in a new light. The Mumbai-based con- ne of the benefits of a virtual exhibition is it encourag- temporary artist showcases eight of her archival prints, which Oes viewers to engage with an artwork in a more intimate find new meaning in this updated context. For Dodiya, the study. It allows them to zoom in on details that might have idea of erasure evoked the “disfigurement or defacement of otherwise gone unnoticed and gives them a chance to discover history” as illustrated in the case of the Buddhas of Bamiyan. something new on each visit. Look hard enough, and there are The 6th century relics in Afghanistan were destroyed by the breadcrumbs which provide insight into its trajectory. Visible Taliban in 2001. “While examining her own work in the cur- brushmarks help us trace the decisions and emotions that rent pandemic, she re-discovered the bleeding colours in some went into painting it. There is something intimate, perhaps of her own earlier images,” says Mandal. “The unexpected invasive too, about seeing the process of an artist rendered vul- poetry of stains and the unpredictable blurring or deletion nerable. Of course, even with installation views and 360-degree of a face or body gave her a new perspective on the concept of walkthrough tours, examining art on a screen can never substi- erasures. A glowing light, a playfulness replaces the notion tute the real thing. It often renders art impersonal, the colours of disappearance or cancellation. In the dark times we live in, overcorrected, the scope and context unambiguous. this process of re-invention and revival of her older paintings Dayanita Singh displays two black-and-white photos titled was Dodiya’s joyous interlude.” Ash Grey 2 and Ash Grey 3, both mounted onto aluminium with Mithu Sen took on a similar line of aesthetic inquiry in a thin coating of ash-grey paint. This isn’t photography captur- (A)POLITICALLY BLACK. Confronting ‘erasure’ as an aesthetic ing a singular truth or preserving a moment in time for eternity. as well as a political statement, Sen repurposes or, as she puts it, Exposing photography’s mutable relationship to truth and the ‘defaces’ three of her old drawings to examine how the value of an past, Singh’s images explore how history and memory can be artwork is reinforced or erased based on which way the political easily erased and reconstructed. Gulammohammed Sheikh wind is blowing. Blackening her own work with graphite, pastel, encompasses larger sociocultural erasures into the exhibition’s twigs, scratches and decorative motifs becomes an act of self- scope as he engages with history and iconography in his mappa censorship. It doubles as a performative gesture in protest against mundi-inspired works. Gandhi’s civil disobedience and Auguste India’s increasingly ethnonationalist climate. Rodin’s The Thinker are two of the many recognisable images The writing is on the wall, literally, in Atul Dodiya’s oil overlaying the map of the world in Unresolved Erasures. Sheikh painting titled Mystic/River. A surreality, perhaps even a captures the heart of India’s migrant crisis during the ongoing shadow of the past, informs his sole piece in the exhibition. pandemic in his other painting, Undying Erasures. The expressionist grammar and the nocturnal palette attests Also offering commentary on the crisis is Ranbir Kaleka’s to a haunting fragmentation of dreams and memories, col- Ripped Base and the Insuperable Span, which animates the magic oured in greys, blacks and browns. It seems straightforward of touch in isolation. A man and a small girl, both of whom in- enough but the longer you pore over its details, there is a habit their own canvases, are divided by a street in the middle. strange prophetic quality that emerges. The words scribbled When the girl attempts to walk across to embrace the man, he on the wall (‘A voice comes from behind, Imagine’) happen fades out before disappearing altogether. The man suffers the to be an English translation of a poem by Gujarati poet Labh- same fate as he attempts to meet her at the intersection. It not shankar Thakar. only captures our own anxiety compounded by isolation in the

80 29 march 2021 rt Gallery, D elhi, and artists Gallery, A rt Courtesy Vadehra “ Erasure is a vast theme and one could include many diverse aspects in it. It’s applicable in any time frame and in any context” Susanta Mandal artist and curator

lockdown, but the anxiety of the many children separated from Ayisha Abraham’s Enroute or of a Thousand Moons. It is an 8mm their parents on account of the migrant crisis. reel of a mid-20th century traveller in postcolonial India who Sudhir Patwardhan’s Distant City paints a familiar story of en- filmed his experiences in unfamiliar cultural settings abroad. tire families packed up and on foot due to the pandemic-induced In the deterioration of the reel over time, the gelatin emulsion exodus of migrants. It makes their stories visible, highlighting coating has allowed the growth of a layer of mould. This fungus the erasure of communities vying for visibility. Watching them adds a contingent layer of its own to the narrative, one which is leave behind the city, its skyscrapers, its smouldering sun and outside of human social history. It’s art literally taking a life of its heavy rain clouds, it is hard not to consider how the state has its own, a living organism of components and systems working failed them. There’s still a modesty to Patwardhan’s together to create meaning. Abraham says, “The fungus can be approach, which doesn’t aestheticise the migrant’s plight as said to be an agent in the final erasure of memory and a marker much as shed light on the erasure of their individual stories. As of time that has passed.” always, Patwardhan’s paintings have a slice-of-life quality to Trying to gauge the inner workings of these works is half the them. In Eviction, he imagines a man packing up to move houses. pleasure. When Abraham strips the creative process to its bare- He turns a typical routine of doublechecking into something bones, we get a palpable sense of how ideas form in the mind with far more critical implications, when set against the back- of the artist, and how that plays into the composition and the drop of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National materiality. So, the process becomes art in itself, and vice-versa. Register of Citizens. Perhaps, the man is looking for papers to The work is a sum of the medium, the message, the material prove his citizenship. and all the decisions that went into its creation. It’s partly why Abraham says her work can be described as “unfinished” by design or “in the process of being finished”. esides history being used as a tool to selectively Like many artists, she delights in open-endedness, and her Bstructure the past, Mandal says, there was another trigger work demands our creative and emotional investment. She he considered before conceptualising the exhibit. “It was the believes it depends on how the viewer looks at it, and that this more clinical and pathological process of dementia, where the innate ambivalence becomes a part of the work too. Mandal memory of the affected individual is tragically wiped out. For echoes her sentiment, saying, “It’s entirely an artist’s call instance, the diary entries by British musician and composer where to stop, what to bring in, and in the end, how to put Clive Wearing, whose short-term memory, owing to an illness, things together for the viewers so they do hold the individual’s was reduced to under 27 seconds.” This is visible in Mandal’s unique ideas.” own work, Even If I Forget..., with its emphasis on the mutability Examining such art which illustrates all that goes into mak- of memories. Mandal’s multimedia installation brings together ing it ultimately prompts another question worth considering: a theatre stage and a projector to recreate scripts and notes from When is an artwork truly complete? Is it in its creation, sequences of films he watched online over the last year. In the exhibition or interpretation? n process, dualities emerge, neither purely natural nor mechani- cal, neither overtly cerebral nor emotional. Erasure, curated by Susanta Mandal, runs till April 2nd, 2021 at Some of the works boast a certain self-consciousness. Take Vadehra Art Gallery, Delhi

29 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 81 STARGAZER Kaveree Bamzai

Prabhas Pooja Hegde SikandAr Kher

➲ Prabhas Power Alia Bhatt. offers a ➲ Kher 2.0 The Mumbai film industry has been complete destination perfect for these Sikandar Kher has been working so insular of late that it has not noticed Covid-19 times for any filmmaker— steadily over the last few years, the Telugu film industry has almost with studios, technicians and actors as building an interesting array of caught up with it. Whether it is the well. Besides, the two states, Telangana characters, from Daulat Singh in Ram latter’s directors, stars or technicians, and Andhra Pradesh, together Madhvani’s outstanding Aarya to the industry looks all set to race ahead have 2,800 screens and a vibrant Shetty in Mum Bhai. So, it’s great of Mumbai in quality. No wonder then filmwatching culture. to see him go global, like his father, that Mumbai actors and producers What explains the appeal of with Dev Patel’s directorial debut are chasing Hyderabad directors and Prabhas? In a sea of men-children Monkey Man, which takes inspiration actors. Much of the change happened in Mumbai films, he stands out as a from the legend of Hanuman and when Baahubali 1 (2015) and Baahubali throwback to the ’80s man, all raw and updates it for corporate Mumbai. 2 (2017) became national phenomena untempered masculinity. His appeal is This is the second time Patel is acting with a cumulative box-office especially high in states such as Uttar opposite a Kher. He played a young collection of over Rs 600 crore. The Pradesh and Bihar, not surprising waiter in Hotel Mumbai (2018), a movie made pan-India stars of Prabhas given that Zee Cinema and Star Gold chilling recreation of the 26/11 attacks and director SS Rajamouli. So much have been showing southern films for on the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel in so that even Prabhas’ underwhelming at least a decade, making south Indian Mumbai. Anupam Kher played the Saaho (2019) made Rs 150 crore at actors a lot more familiar. much-lauded chef, Hemant Oberoi, the Hindi box office; the actor now in a fine performance. Sikandar, who charges Rs 100 crore a film. ➲ Not So Social found the experience of being directed Bollywood has always looked at First, it was his phone. Now, by Patel “really special”, has big shoes the south, especially Tamil and Telugu Aamir Khan has quit social media, to fill. films, for remakes. But what has announcing it on Twitter, where his changed since the days of Jeetendra account has since been deleted. Aamir ➲ Did You Know? is the interest of A-listers. Whether it has been feeling for some time that his One of the roles that set Riz Ahmed is or Ranbir Kapoor, attention is being divided and he has on his road to global stardom was in the big boys of Mumbai now look at not been able to do as much reading Mira Nair’s adaptation of Mohsin Telugu movies for inspiration. as he used to. Wife Kiran Rao has Hamid’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist Shahid Kapoor is remaking Telugu hit also been grumbling about it (2012). The British-Pakistani actor, Jersey (2019) in Hindi, with the same good-naturedly, calling the phone a nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor director Gowtam Tinnanuri. “black hole of time”. The negativity for his 2019 film Sound of Metal (where Sandeep Reddy Vanga, after the he gets on Twitter, most recently he plays a punk metal drummer amazing success of (2017) when he went to Turkey to pick a who loses his hearing), faced some and (2019), is making locale to complete the last leg of competition in the audition for Animal with Ranbir. This means a lot Laal Singh Chaddha, has not helped. the leading role in The Reluctant more cross-cultural collaboration. As someone said to me recently, being Fundamentalist. Who was his closest Prabhas’ Radhe Shyam, a romance set an artist requires you to have a thin rival? Fawad Khan, who was very keen in the Europe of the 1970s, stars Pooja skin so you can feel more, experience to do the role and deeply disappointed Hegde, while his even bigger budget more, and yet on social media, the at losing out. Incidentally, Ahmed Adipurush has Saif Ali Khan as Ravana thicker your skin, the better. is returning to British-Pakistani and Kriti Sanon as Sita. Rajamouli’s Perhaps quitting it altogether is author Hamid in his next movie, an next, RRR, with Ram Charan, stars the best option. adaptation of Exit West. n

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