22 MARCH 2021 / `50 www.openthemagazine.com

contents 22 march 2021

5 6 12 14 16 18 LOCOMOTIF DIARY INDIAN ACCENTS TOUCHSTONE WHISPERER OPEN ESSAY The new theology By Swapan Dasgupta The first translator The Eco chamber By Jayanta Ghosal Imperfect pitch of victimhood By Bibek Debroy By Keerthik Sasidharan By James Astill By S Prasannarajan

24 24 AN IN The 2021 struggle for power is shaped by history, geography, demography—and a miracle by the Mahatma By MJ Akbar

34 THE INDISCREET CHARM OF ABBAS SIDDIQUI Can the sinking Left expect a rainmaker in the brash cleric, its new ally? By Ullekh NP

38 A HERO’S WELCOME 40 46 Former Naxalite, king of B-grade films and hotel magnate Mithun Chakraborty has traversed the political spectrum to finally land a breakout role By Kaveree Bamzai

40 HARVESTING A PROTEST If there is trouble from a resurgent Khalistani politics in Punjab, it is unlikely to follow the 50 54 roadmap of the 1980s By Siddharth Singh

46 TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF The opportunities and pains of ’s tiny seaweed market By Lhendup G Bhutia 62

50 54 60 62 65 66 OWNING HER AGE THE VIOLENT INDIAN PAGE TURNER BRIDE, GROOM, ACTION HOLLYWOOD REPORTER STARGAZER Pooja Bhatt, feisty teen Thomas Blom Hansen The eternity of return The social realism of Viola Davis By Kaveree Bamzai idol and magazine cover on his new book By Mini Kapoor Indian wedding shows on her latest film magnet of the 1990s, is back The Law of Force: The Violent By Aditya Mani Jha Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom By Kaveree Bamzai Heart of Indian Politics By Noel de Souza By Ullekh NP

Cover by Saurabh Singh 22 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 The upcoming Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, editor-at-large Siddharth Singh deputy editors Madhavankutty Pillai West Bengal, , Kerala and Puducherry are ( Bureau Chief), crucial in their own ways for BJP (‘The Scorched-Earth Rahul Pandita, Amita Shah, V Shoba (), Nandini Nair Offensive’, March 15th, 2021). We are going to witness creative director Rohit Chawla a tough fight during the summer heat worsened by art director Jyoti K Singh Senior Editors Sudeep Paul, the emerging second wave of Covid-19. Trinamool Lhendup Gyatso Bhutia (Mumbai), chief is playing a game Moinak Mitra, Nikita Doval senior Associate Editor for survival in Nandigram, which first brought her to Antara Raghavan power. In Puducherry, BJP holds the trump card with Associate Editor Vijay K Soni (Web) All India NR Congress as the main partner. In Kerala, assistant editor Vipul Vivek chief of graphics Saurabh Singh opinion polls so far show that the Left Democratic SENIOR DESIGNERs Anup Banerjee, Front is ahead. However, the Congress-led United Veer Pal Singh Democratic Front has covered some lost ground in the Photo editor Raul Irani deputy Photo editor Ashish Sharma runup to the elections and the final tally might be a VK Sasikala have chosen close one. Tamil Nadu is witnessing a reconstruction wisely by deciding to stay out National Head-Events and Initiatives Arpita Sachin Ahuja of its electoral space after the loss of its larger-than- of politics (‘An All-Inclusive AVP (ADVERTISING) Rashmi Lata Swarup life politicians, giving BJP a chance to deepen its Deal’, March 15th, 2021). GENERAL MANAGERs (ADVERTISING) significance. In Assam, the opposition may be able To work for the welfare of Uma Srinivasan (South) to chip away at BJP’s victory margins but the saffron people you need a sound National Head-Distribution and Sales party is likely to return to power. It looks like the race mind and a kind heart, Ajay Gupta regional heads-circulation between the main rivals will be neck-and-neck not political power. D Charles (South), Melvin George (West), Basab Ghosh (East) in most of these states. Vasudeva Rao P Head-production Maneesh Tyagi CK Subramaniam senior manager (pre-press) private lag Sharad Tailang MANAGER-MARKETING Given the base effect owing Priya Singh to the fact that the economy Chief Designer-marketing Champak Bhattacharjee election season Bangla’ will remain elusive is just beginning to recover cfo & HEAD-IT Anil Bisht Though Marxist politics in till the state sees a change. from the pandemic-induced Bengal was about ‘equitable Bholey Bhardwaj lockdown, it is only natural Chief ExecuTive & Publisher Neeraja Chawla distribution of wealth’, the that economic indicators All rights reserved throughout the state has ended up with While BJP has a well-oiled are showing a jump in the world. Reproduction in any manner is prohibited. ‘equitable distribution of electioneering machine, past few quarters (‘The Editor: S Prasannarajan. Printed and published by Neeraja Chawla on behalf poverty’ (‘Demography Is ChiefMinister Mamata Restart’, March 15th, 2021). of the owner, Open Media Network Pvt Destiny’, March 15th, 2021). It Banerjee is also a strong But expecting annual Ltd. Printed at Thomson Press India Ltd, 18-35 Milestone, Delhi Mathura Road, has chased out industrialists campaigner (‘Demography economic growth to go Faridabad-121007, (Haryana). Published at 4, DDA Commercial and traders. And now the Is Destiny’, March 15th, back to 6.5-7 per cent soon is Complex, Panchsheel Park, new mantra is ‘demographic 2021). However, Assembly premature. Especially when -110017. Ph: (011) 48500500; Fax: (011) 48500599 divide’. In order to stay election campaigning in we know that it is still the To subscribe, WhatsApp ‘openmag’ to in power, ChiefMinister West Bengal has turned Government which is doing 9999800012 or log on to www.openthemagazine.com Mamata Banerjee has herself into a Centre-state spat. And most of the heavylifting or call our Toll Free Number 1800 102 7510 become the kind of politician Trinamool is playing into and the private sector is or email at: vowed to finish. the hands of BJP in a crucial yet to regain its animal [email protected] For alliances, email Intimidation has become election. The latter proved instincts, as is evident [email protected] For advertising, email the norm of the day, further it is a formidable political from the latter’s capital [email protected] denting the image of Bengal. force in the state in the 2019 expenditure figures. Till that For any other queries/observations, email [email protected] The quality of politics polls. While BJP happens, it is very difficult has fallen abysmally. The is only looking to become to sustain a 5 per cent-plus Disclaimer ‘Open Avenues’ are advertiser-driven marketing party’s is a continual battle relevant in the state by growth rate. Besides, the initiatives and Open assumes no responsibility for content and the consequences of using for power, not for people’s acquiring a better seat share, fear of a ballooning fiscal products or services advertised in the magazine empowerment. There is no TMC is battling to survive. deficit is also going to limit blueprint for growth, but MR Jayanthi government efforts to boost Volume 13 Issue 11 For the week 16-22 March 2021 only for the expansion of economic activity. Total No. of pages 68 its own footprint. A ‘Sonar Rajinikanth and Bal Govind

4 22 march 2021 LOCOMOTIF

by S PRASANNARAJAN

THE NEW THEOLOGY OF VICTIMHOOD

istory is written by the victim, certainly the relentlessness of complaints. When society is nothing but if we choose to read history as a humanising a collection of victim groups of race, gender, community or any reminder of the past. His fall, his martyrdom, other inherited or acquired identity, justice is a struggle against his involuntary submission, make yesterday’s history itself. Obvious example: in America today, racial memory liberation struggles a power play between is what defines political as well as social sensitivity, and it took Hthe winner and those who reject the dogma of winning. the death of a Black man under the knee of a white policeman to Revolutions are not remembered merely as dreams built on turn the behavioural shift in politics into a moral movement. It is the charisma and cruelties of the revolutionary alone. They the bad behaviour borrowed from history that keeps the victim are stories of those who gave up, those who were silenced and alive—and freezes the conscience of the living. Erasing injustice those who differed in a world of enforced uniformity. We still amounts to erasing history itself. And a few statues must fall. read their stories as narrative rejoinders to the oppressive When victimhood leads to the most definitive behavioural fallacies of freedom. We take a pilgrimage to their memorials shift in politics and culture, the Directorate of Sensitivity to remain modest about our journey of progress, to realise takes over. It may resemble the old models of ideological states that the rewards of memory are inadequate to pay back the where truth was what those who controlled it wanted it to be. remembered, that our indebtedness is eternal. The victim is Deviation is a punishable act—a loss of job; a denial of platform; kept alive by our quest for justice. or a mark of stigma imprinted on your CV. In the uniform Victimhood is an individual hurt and systemic injustice, code of social conduct, you are required to see the other—the and, always, power is the villain—the power of the state or the victim—through the prism of a dehumanising yesterday. You power of the privileged few. Every day, the individual story are required to respect the special status accorded to the victim of victimhood brings to us the familiar motifs of a heartless by the DS. The perpetuation of the cult of victim in politics system and an unequal society. In this story the victim is the mandates a constant revision of history—and, again borrowing permanent outsider. The victim, the unheeded spokesperson from the old book of ideology, a reinvention of the enemy. That of the land without justice, shows why power condones the is where the DS steps in. The enemy, we should know, makes immorality of domination. The individual sagas of victimhood the matrix of social justice complete. It is not that the enemy have ceased to break our conscience—or humanise the system. is always the old troglodyte from the Right; the enemy could We have accepted their inevitability. We even assume that be the liberal who doesn’t subscribe to the orthodoxies of the victimhood is a label worn by those who have been left behind Progressive Rearmed. The liberal edits his morality before he in a world defined by merit, competitiveness, and ambition, speaks lest he offend the DS. Between silence and submission, that the victim of the system wallows in his exceptionalism, in there is not much to choose. a false sense of existential nobility. We grant them such moral It is a political culture driven by victimhood that sustains superiority as a way of minimising our guilt. We have learned wokeism, which is fast assuming the characteristics of reverse to live with it. McCarthyism. You’re in it or you’re nowhere. We are made to Then there is victimhood as political movement. Or believe that it has changed the argument. That’s not true. It has victimhood as identity of the new wretched killed the argument, and in its place what class in which wretchedness is a badge we have in abundance is ventriloquism— of progressiveness. It is victimhood as and endless encore. In the performative the beating heart of identity politics. It art of identity politics, it is no longer is victimhood as the only viable social about winning an argument; it is all about address. A victim is more than a product constructing new arguments to validate of social or cultural oppression; a victim victimhood—and make the attempts of is the child of a cruel history. Victimhood counterarguments stake-worthy heresy. could be your choice even. It is the cult of The new theology of victimhood erases not the victim that makes identity politics just history. n

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

he headquarters of a brick-and-mortar. The biggest change Tpolitical party in the election in the state BJP is of people. At an season is often a good benchmark of all-India level, BJP is not only large— the prevailing mood. Ever since the with an imposing headquarters in West Bengal Bharatiya Delhi—but is well established. There (BJP) slowly expanded its facilities is an established network of political at its election office in ’s activists connected with each other Hastings—in a lane with the quaint the Bharatiya Jana Sangh in 1951, the through long association and a Gen- and unlikely name of St George’s saffron party is no longer fighting eral Election is normally the occasion Gate, just a stone’s throw from to popularise its election symbol. It for renewal of ties. There is, of course, where Warren Hastings’ tormentor is fighting to win and take control a small group in Kolkata who invoke Maharaja Nandakumar (or of , the new headquarters memories of earlier elections—ones Nuncoomar, if you prefer the of the West Bengal government, more marked by human associations way the English then spelt it) was just across the Vidyasagar Setu over than performance. In the main, how- hanged—the area has been bustling the Hooghly river. The state BJP had ever, BJP in West Bengal is a relatively with activity. In the old days, when always basked in the reflected glory new party—its electoral successes the party was a fringe player in the of the all-India party. Now, for the first date back to 2019 when it won 18 of state, the party headquarters was time, it is on the cusp of possibly creat- the 42 Lok Sabha seats from the state. far more modest—an old building ing history. Even the party’s worst The newness is enhanced by the fact in a tiny lane on the rear side of the detractors concede that West Bengal that while the accretion of strength in Calcutta Medical College. Even the could witness a dramatic political the localities has been organic, today’s visitors were markedly different. transformation. leadership has been created through Earlier, the average worker from the West Bengal has a history of politi- imports from other parties. districts usually travelled by train cal parties that outgrew their modest The imports have stretched across from either Howrah or Sealdah and beginnings. The CPM headquarters ideological boundaries. There are lacked any flash. Today, most of them on Alimuddin Street, off the car parts former communists in both the step out of SUVs that also operate as market in Mullick Bazar in central district and state-level leadership, and improvised mobile offices. Kolkata, witnessed a steady expan- many of them are well appreciated The stakes are much higher today. sion and got upgraded during the for their disciplined dedication. More In the old days, there were few takers three-decade rule of the . individualistic are those who crossed for a BJP ticket and the high point From makeshift offices in south over from Trinamool Congress. Their of excitement was when the office Kolkata, the party headed by Mamata main strength lies in their natural hosted a Central leader who had been Banerjee boasts a Trinamool Bhavan, orientation towards mass politics— despatched by Delhi to bolster the just off the Eastern Bypass. As for Con- their connect with people and social morale of a poor cousin. For many BJP gress, it has been a reverse journey. organisations. But this is often offset activists who had kept the flag flying The old Congress Bhavan, where the by a tendency towards aggressive in difficult circumstances, the im- likes of Atulya Ghosh and the young self-promotion, an attribute that was portant thing was not to win—only once held earlier anathema to a BJP leadership a handful ever scaled such heights— court, is now a distant memory. It has that was self-effacing—a function of but to secure the nomination. If a given way to a relatively less haloed the long association with the Rash- party nominee managed to save his office in Wellington Square, not far triya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). For security deposit, it was counted as from the erstwhile residence-cum- BJP, the political challenge is also in a phenomenal success. Under the chambers of the legendary Dr Bidhan creating a party that has been recently circumstances, it undoubtedly was. Chandra Roy, chief minister of the forged by the convergence of Today, for the first time since state from 1948 to 1962. different streams. I find this exercise Syama Prasad Mookerjee established The changes are not confined to utterly fascinating. n

6 22 march 2021 Avenues Living with end stage renal disease: Kidney transpLant is the answer

ur kidneys play a vital role in or complications involved for the donors the day to day functioning in the kidney transplant surgery are none. of the human body and are Kidney donors do not require any dietary O essential for our survival. The restrictions or long term medications Kidneys are essential for removal of toxins have normal life expectancy and live a and waste products from our body. They absolutely healthy life. not only regulate water and acid-base A kidney transplant has a huge balance in the body to keep it neutral positive impact on future life of end which is needed for normal function of stage kidney patients, with very few many processes but also play a major disadvantages. After a kidney transplant, role in regulating blood pressure and the patients would need to take lifelong secreting hormones which are essential immunosuppressant medications to for growth , bone health and production ensure that their body does not reject of red blood cells ( hemoglobin) which the transplanted kidney, this puts carry oxygen in our bodies. Dr. Anuja Porwal these patients at a slightly higher risk As kidneys become diseased, they of contracting infections ,however with lose their ability to function. When normal. This results in significantly newer immunosuppressant’s which are both the kidneys are functioning lesser improved health. A kidney transplant required to be given in very low dosages than 10%, condition is called end- also provides a better quality of life than this risk is minimal. stage renal disease (ESRD) or kidney dialysis. Patients lifestyle is no longer Besides this the overall quality of life failure. Treatments for kidney failure are restricted by dialysis sessions. Most remains vastly better post transplant and hemodialysis, a mechanical process kidney patients feel more energetic after indeed renal transplant could be the step to clean the blood of waste products a transplant. They can resume their that could transform the lives of millions through a machine; peritoneal dialysis, daily activities more easily. There are no of patients who are suffering from end in which toxins are removed by passing dietary restrictions as compare to dialysis stage renal failure which is a progressive chemical solutions through the abdomen; patients. Life expectancy increases after and debilitating disease with profound and kidney transplant. Dialysis is the a kidney transplant. psychological, social and financial most common modality that is chosen In short, life will offer you many more repercussions. On this World Kidney Day to support the failed kidney but is not the opportunities after a transplant. With I emphasize that timely discussion with best modality. Kidney transplant is often newer and advanced surgical techniques your nephrologist could help change the preferable to dialysis due to the various and better medications the success life of many.< advantages a functioning kidney can rates of transplant surgery have become provide over a machine. as high as 97%. The donor can resume Dr. Anuja Porwal On an average, Dialysis can only his normal lifestyle routine in 1-2 weeks Additional Director, Nephrology & achieve partial renal function. After a of the surgery and hospital stay for the Kidney Transplant Medicine transplant, the renal function are near donor is not more than 3-4 days. The risk Fortis Hospital Noida openings

NOTEBOOK Meghan and the Ghost of Diana

n Mike Bartlett’s stage play King Charles III, firm, it brought back memories of his mother’s triumphant adapted into a TV movie in 2017, Harry Windsor is tour in 1983 which proved her popularity and sowed the portrayed as a fun-loving singleton who unthinkingly seeds of jealousy and discord on the part of her husband. indulges in planes, palaces and trips to Las Vegas that The Remembrance of Diana Past is likely to continue well theI British public pays for. That is until he is saved by the into 2022 when the world will mark the 25th anniversary love of a Black woman, who makes him want to give it all up, of her tragic death in a Paris car crash while escaping the not be top of the heap in unearned privilege any longer. That paparazzi at The Ritz hotel. is until the end, when his father abdicates, Prince William Yet, Meghan is not Diana. Diana was young, inexperienced, becomes king and asks him to honour the commitment to abandoned by a husband who was clearly in love with an- each other their mother Diana made them undertake. other woman, and had no one to turn to. Meghan, as she says Fiction couldn’t be closer or farther from the truth. Harry during the interview, was a waitress and an actress, had been met Meghan Markle, the biracial actress made famous by the working since the age of 13, had always been independent, TV weekly soap Suits, in 2016. But unlike the fictional Harry, and had Harry to lean on. She may have been prevented by the he has broken free of what he called a trap in the now famous “institution”, as she refers to the royal family, from seeking interview with Oprah Winfrey on CBS. “She saved me,” he help and may have felt let down by not being protected from says at one point in the interview, gazing at his wife, while the feral beast that is the British tabloid press, but as Harry Oprah looks on approvingly. says in the interview, they “always had each other”. He didn’t want history repeating itself, says Harry to But what makes her case different is her race. At a time Oprah, referencing what happened to his mother and how of Black Lives Matter, even the mere suggestion that someone she was driven to despair. As in the fictional King Charles III, in the family could ask about how dark their son’s skin the ghost of Diana seems to hover over everything the royal could be was enough to set Oprah’s mouth in an amazed ‘o’, family does. In the TV movie, the ghost actually makes an a sound that reverberated across a much more conscious appearance, as Diana tells her and careful world. firstborn William: ‘Such pain But perhaps everyone is miss- my son such hurt/But now you’ll ing the real ghost at the table, that be glad you’ll be the greatest king of Wallis Simpson. It was his wish we ever had.’ Meghan, as she says during to marry her, a twice divorced Diana’s revenge is a long the interview, was a waitress American socialite, that caused running theme when it comes and an actress, had been King Edward VIII to give up the to the Windsors, not merely in throne. He had to abdicate in 1936 fiction, as in The Crown and the working since the age of 13, and his younger brother, Queen Channel 4 parody The Windsors. had always been independent, Elizabeth’s father, became King It is especially so this year in George VI. Edward and Wallis what would have been her 60th and had Harry to lean on. She Simpson were given royal titles, birthday. William and Harry were may have been prevented by Duke and Duchess of Windsor, expected to celebrate the birthday the ‘institution’, as she refers but were virtually banished to with a statue commissioned by the continent. It was described by them and placed in the garden to the royal family, from many as a great romance that be- of Kensington Palace on July 1st. seeking help and may have came a great tragedy, not helped Harry, who is no longer Duke of felt let down by not being by controversies such as meeting Sussex, refers to it when he talks Adolf Hitler before World War proudly about their 2018 tour of protected from the feral beast II and their odd assortment of Australia and how, for the family that is the British tabloid press fascist friends.

8 22 march 2021 e s g ett y imag Harry Windsor and Meghan Markle being interviewed by Oprah Winfrey

So, is Meghan Diana 2.0 or Wallis 2.0? As Harry says in the may have seemed innocuous but they were clearly hurtful, CBS interview, the mix of race and social media has given whether it was the way Meghan cradled her baby bump (is it other dimensions to her story, something that he too was pride, vanity, acting—or a new-age bonding technique, asked clearly unaware of. Their interview with Oprah has shades of The Mail) or her eating avocados (Meghan Markle’s beloved Diana’s damning 1995 interview with Martin Bashir, where avocado linked to human rights abuse, drought and she famously said her marriage to Charles was a “bit crowded” millennial shame, said Daily Express). because there were three people in it. But Meghan is perhaps At the end of the day, perhaps it is just a clash of who Diana wanted to be in her later life, and there are reports civilisations that is playing out—a touchy-feely Californian that she was exploring a career in showbusiness in America way of life which is all about connecting with one’s once her divorce with Charles came through with a gorgeous emotions versus an old culture of keeping the upper lip Vanity Fair cover in 1997, shot by Mario Testino, just months stiff and standing one’s ground. Channel 4’s The Windsors before her death. It was not to be. mocks it with talk of wellness centres and Harry giving up But the Diana legend lives on, burnished almost every drinking. It also has Meghan announcing the separation of year by some screen adaptation, whether it is a season of the the House of Sussex from the House of Cambridge and long-running series The Crown, or movies such as the the end of the Fab Four (the brothers and their wives), forthcoming Spencer, starring Kristen Stewart as the at the instance of Camilla, portrayed here as a cunning princess, about the week at Sandringham that Diana decided and malevolent presence. she would leave Charles. Diana may have been targeted by the In choosing California over Kensington, will Harry lose his paparazzi who needed her pictures to make money—this was hard-won popularity or will he become a symbol of a before celebrities discovered the power of using social media new-age man in a world where pain is publicly to control their own narrative—but she was mostly adored. acknowledged, recognised and assimilated? Diana Meghan has seen little except criticism of the most would have endorsed the latter. n vicious kind from the tabloids, especially in contrast to her ever correct sister-in-law Kate Middleton. The stories By Kaveree Bamzai

22 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 9 openings

PO RTRAIT OTP Ephraimites (who pronounced it as ‘sibboleth’). We arrived upon the OTP only recently because the traditional system of relying on a single password secret Power wasn’t working in the computer age. As recently as 2014, the man who came up with the world’s first The recent SMS outage demonstrated how known computer password, Fernando J Corbató, was dependent we remain on the one-time key calling passwords a nightmare. Corbató, who ran a computing project at the Massachusetts Institute f you were among the many squinting at your phone, looking for of Technology, devised the first known computer ISMSes that never showed up on March 8th, you probably know what password in the 1960s for his researchers to have happened. A Telecom Regulatory Authority of India regulation issued in 2018 their own accounts on a computer mainframe. “I that attempts to weed out spam messages finally got enforced. This regula- don’t think anybody can possibly remember all tion puts in place a new system that requires (among other things) all entities the passwords that are issued or set up,” he told the which carry out telemarketing-related functions to register themselves and Washington Post in 2014. “That leaves people with two their templates in which they communicate their content. Since most compa- choices. Either you maintain a crib sheet... or you use nies hadn’t done so, all their messages simply got scrubbed out of the system. some sort of program as a password manager. Either According to reports, around 40 crore SMSes weren’t delivered on March one is a nuisance.” Corbató himself maintained a crib 8th. And although an extension of seven days was announced after the mass sheet of three typed pages for around 150 passwords. outage it caused, many continued to report disruptions in the SMS network. The traditional password is a nuisance because Nobody would have really missed those messages since a vast majority of you don’t just need to memorise multiple passwords those would no doubt have been the very thing these new regulations seek to for multiple accounts. You need to memorise curtail. Except that this breakdown caused an outage in the one thing all of us complicated ones. The password fatigue that has now entirely depend upon: the OTP. set in as a result, accompanied with sophisticated The OTP or the one-time password is now a crucial aspect of our life. We phishing attacks, made it imperative for a two-step depend on it for nearly everything, from making a purchase through our authentication process. Enter the OTP. banks, using money online to hail a cab or order a meal, logging in to new What the OTP does is provide a second layer of devices to even registering ourselves for the Covid-19 vaccine. Even though protection. A hacker now needs to get access to two it has been a part of our web culture for some time, the pandemic and the different pieces of information: your memorised ensuing lockdown has made us integrate it even further into the way we static password, along with the phone that carries navigate the world. your OTP. Since OTPs emerge from randomness, The OTP is, of course, just one type of password. And passwords have making any prediction of successor OTPs is difficult. probably been around since the time there was something of value whose And even if a hacker did get access to an OTP, no access needed to be restricted to a few. We have the word ‘shibboleth’ ‘replay attack’ of the nature seen with accounts derived from the Book of Judges (in the Old Testament and the Hebrew Bible), protected by just a single static password can occur, where in the battle between the tribes of Gilead and Ephraim, Gileadite since an OTP lasts for only a short period. soldiers used the word as a type of linguistic password using it to detect the But as ubiquitous as the OTP is in our lives, its

Illustration by Saurabh Singh days may still be numbered. It is far from a perfect system. Mobile phones can be compromised through malware and OTPs rerouted to the hacker. Or people can be conned into revealing their OTPs. The next jump that we take in authenticating our digital transactions may be one where we forego the password entirely. Several new methods—many of which are already being used in mobile phones, from fingerprint and face-detection technologies to iris recognition and retina-scanning features—are being looked into. The Economic Times reported last year that several telecom companies in India are looking to replace OTPs with a new type of mobile identity that will ensure secure transactions in one go. All this is still some time away. And for all its faults, as March 8th showed, OTPs remain very much a part of our lives. n

By Lhendup G Bhutia

22 march 2021 ANGLE ideas Bucking History On opinion polls showing that Kerala might not change its mind in this election alamy By madhavankutty pillai Impartiality wo opinion polls, the virtue of the very fact that voters Russia became yet another Times Now-C-Voter one that came always chose a different party, put country that is forcing T Twitter to do its bidding. The out recently, and Asianet-CFore in late faith in destiny. If all one had to do was government reduced the February, have predicted that the Left wait to win, then why bother fixing speed of the social networking Democratic Front will return to power anything—you could just leave it to platform after it refused to in Kerala with a majority. That would the eventual order from chaos that comply with demands to take be extraordinary in a state where emerges after the victory. down accounts that were two alliances have, with clockwork But, if the polls are true, then this is supposedly asking children to regularity, changed the reins in every the god of politics signalling no trend take part in protests. Twitter election since the late 1970s. Voters in lasts forever. And then there are many released a statement saying Kerala might have been clever in potential futures. BJP does not have this move was a threat to free keeping their politicians unsettled, enough grassroots organisation to be speech. But Twitter itself closes but are deciding otherwise now. a viable contender for power, but it is accounts and silences users it The primary reason is the decline inching ahead slowly and with deems unsavoury, usually from in Congress, which is part of a larger deliberation. A lot of the votes that the right. Politicians in power national phenomenon. Just a couple leave Congress, end up with them. in many parts of the world of days ago, the party got a shock And as West Bengal showed with the have therefore decided that if when one of its main state leaders, overnight decimation of the left, that Twitter is not impartial then it PC Chacko, left with bitter words. He once the limited pool that makes for is a political threat to them, and lamented on the absence of democracy political workers see the omens, therefore not fit to be treated as and factions ruining the state ideology is inconsequential. They just just a service provider without organisation. This might be the peeve take their wagon and hitch it to the skin in the game. n of someone side-lined, but you have train that is going to the promised land. to contrast it with what someone Chief Minister side-lined would do in earlier elections. will be feeling sanguine. He has Word’s Worth Coming to power is a good glue in been bedevilled with crises ever keeping people together. since taking office, from historic ‘There is no such thing The face that Congress relies upon floods to the fallout of the Supreme in Kerala is now Rahul Gandhi. His Court judgment allowing entry of as an impartial jury contesting from Wayanad in the women of all ages into Sabarimala. because there are no General Election had the effect of them He turned many of them into impartial people. There winning almost all Parliamentary seats opportunities, mobilising public in the state. But, just as the Narendra support, and also giving vast are people that argue on Modi effect does not always translate amounts of free relief materials the web for hours about into state elections, the Gandhi factor is that always sit well with voters. not a guarantee for repeat miracles. He And for an ideology that has long who their favourite is also the youngest face Congress has lost steam, he has kept Kerala character on Friends is’ in a state where the leadership going as the last outpost of Jon Stewart comprises ageing veterans who, by the communists. n american comedian

22 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 11 indian accents

By Bibek Debroy

The First Translator KM Ganguli awaits recognition for bringing the Mahabharata to English readers

n English, there have been three unabridged Let me quote at length about what P Lal wrote about translations of the Mahabharata from Sanskrit. (The Ganguli and Pratap Chandra Roy. P Lal one wasn’t quite a translation.) Most people know ‘This complete and faithful translation—the first of the Ithat two of these translations were done in the 19th two complete renderings into English of the epic and the only century, by Kisari Mohan Ganguli and Manmatha Nath edition now available—is the monumental accomplishment Dutt. Most people have an unfavourable view of Manmatha strangely referred to, by scholars and bibliographers alike, as Nath Dutt as a translator, compared with Kisari Mohan ‘the PC Roy translation.” Pratap Chandra Roy was born in the Ganguli. More often than not, they form their opinion on village of Shanko in the Burdwan district of Bengal on March the basis of what P Lal and Alf Hiltebeitel have written, 15th, 1842. When he grew up, he became a bookseller in not necessarily because they have compared the two Calcutta. By 1869 he had put by enough money to buy a small translations. For example, Hiltebeitel wrote, ‘The first, which printing press and start a publishing concern. By the end of I will focus on shortly, is the 1884-1896 translation by Kisari 1876 he had brought out a complete Bengali translation of Mohan Ganguli, who labored anonymously, leaving the the Mahabharata. Then a new idea fired him: the complete credit for the work to its patron, fund-raiser, publisher, and Mahabharata in English. His purpose was to unfold the spokesman Pratap Chandra Roy. The second, by Manmatha richness of the Indian heritage to the British rulers and to Nath Dutt (1895-1905), did little more than shamelessly foreigners in general; as his widow innocently explained in crib from the Ganguli-Roy translation. It changed nothing her epilogue, attached to the last book in 1896, ‘If a knowledge substantial, and, quite gratuitously, did no more than try of the mind of the people is of value to the administration to improve the English. Ganguli, Roy, and Dutt were all of the country, who will deny the utility of an English , and we may place their work in the setting of the translation of the Mahabharata to the British Government of so-called Bengal Renaissance, which occurred while the India?’ He knew his own English was not good enough; and capital of the British empire was still in Calcutta, that is, in press work kept him too busy anyway. Luck brought him Bengal.’ P Lal wrote, ‘This is the second complete translation, Babu Kisari Mohan Ganguli, a man with a brilliant academic in three volumes, of the Mahabharata, by the Rector of record in English; Ganguli was entrusted with the work Keshub Academy. It is the only one that gives a verse-by- of translating the epic while Roy went around collecting verse rendering. Dutt follows the Kisari Mohan Ganguli funds from ‘peasants and princes, Anglo-Indian officials version closely in many places, but is more prudish: Ganguli and English and American sympathisers to warrant him in Latinises, Dutt omits. In Book I (Adi Parva), LXIII, ‘slokas going forward’—for his ambition (in which he succeeded) 50 to 52 not translated for obvious reasons,’ he explains; in was to distribute the translated volumes free. His first wife the same book, CIV, slokas 14 to 20 are also ‘not translated died; he married again in 1886; in 1889 he was made by Queen for obvious reasons.’’ In case one has missed the point, Victoria, a Companion of the Order of the British Empire the Ganguli translation did not give specific verse (shloka) (the equivalent of today’s Padma awards); he died of an numbers. The Dutt translation had these verse numbers. undiagnosed illness on January 10th, 1895. His will directed Manmatha Nath Dutt didn’t quite plagiarise. But he that his property be sold and the money employed for three did paraphrase and borrow. When I wrote his biography purposes—the completion of the English Mahabharata, the (Manmatha Nath Dutt: Translator Extraordinaire, Rupa) erection of a temple to Siva in his village and the excavation with several gaps in the information available, I pointed of a tank there for the use of villagers. Babu Kisari Mohan out that Dutt was much more than a translator and even Ganguli, who ‘like a literary Atlas bore the heavy burden as a translator, he did much more than the Mahabharata. of the translation’, gets mentioned only in the last volume Unfortunately, he got tarred with the Mahabharata brush. of the English translation. Though he had no hand at all

12 22 march 2021 in the translation, Roy put his own name on the title page The entire translation is practically the work of one hand. of the first nine volumes. The ambiguity that transformed Charu Chandra Mookherjee helped with portions of the Adi a publisher into a translator and left KM Ganguli’s glory Parva and Sabha Parvas. About four forms of the Sabha Parva unsung has, to my knowledge, been spotted only by Ronald were done by Professor Krishna Kamal Bhattacharya’. Inden and Maureen Patterson, compilers of the University Lal quoted Ganguli from Ganguli’s translator’s preface. A of Chicago’s Bibliography to South Asian Studies; by KM little bit of the sentence is missing in what Lal quoted. ‘About Knott in the Janus Press edition of the first two books of four forms of the Sabha Parva were done by Professor Krishna the Mahabharata; and by AC Macdonnell in his A History of Kamal Bhattacharya, and about half a fasciculus during my Sanskrit Literature, where the translation has been listed in illness, was done by another hand. I should however state the bibliography as having published at ‘the expense of P.C. that before passing to the printer the copy received from Roy’ (it was surely at KM Ganguly’s expense!). The ‘utility’ these gentlemen I carefully compared every sentence with was quickly noticed. Lord Dufferin sanctioned a grant of Rs the original, making such alterations as were needed for 11,000 (whose purchasing power securing a uniformity of style with today would be around $20,000), the rest of the work.’ In addition, and Lord Ripon gave ‘a handsome ‘I should express my particular contribution’. Sir Rivers Thompson obligations to Pundit Ram Nath ‘was pleased to santion a grant of Tarkaratna, the author of ‘Vasudeva Rs. 5,000; Sir Auckland Colvin gave Vijayam’ and other poems, Pundit Rs. 2,000 when he was appointed Shyama Charan Kaviratna, the as Lieutenant-General of North learned editor of Kavyaprakasha West Provinces; Sir Alfred Croft with the commentary of Professor granted Rs. 5,000’. The official list is Mahesh Chandra Nyayaratna, and augmented with American scholars Babu Aghore Nath Banerjee, the and benefactors such as Professor manager of the Bharata Karyalaya. Lanman, and Professor Maurice All these scholars were my referees Bloomfield of Hopkins University. on all points of difficulty. Pundit KM Ganguli’s was entirely a labour Ram Nath’s solid scholarship is of love. ‘My husband scarcely known to them that have come in exaggerated the truth,’ wrote PC contact with him. I never referred Roy’s widow, ‘when he used to say Singh Saurabh by Illustration to him a difficulty that he could that… he was only the hand that did not clear up. Unfortunately, he the work while Babu Kisari Mohan KM Ganguli, who ‘like a was not always at hand to consult. was the head that directed it. While liter ary Atlas bore the heavy Pundit Shyama Charan Kaviratna, lying on his death bed, he earnestly burden of the tr anslation’, during my residence at Seebpore, appealed to Babu Kisari Mohan to gets mentioned only in the assisted me in going over the complete the undertaking. With last volume of the English Mokshadharma sections of the tears in his eyes, Babu Kisari Mohan tr anslation. Though Santi Parva. Unostentatious in readily gave the assurance that was he had no hand at all in the extreme, Kaviratna is truly solicited, saying that he would not, the tr anslation, publisher the type of a learned Brahman of on any account, give up the work.’ PC Roy put his own name ancient India. Babu Aghore Nath In his ‘Translator’s Postscript’, at the on the title page of the Banerjee also has from time to time, end of volume XI (1896), Ganguli first nine volumes rendered me valuable assistance explains that ‘Roy was against in clearing my difficulties.’ Hence, anonymity. I was for it.’ He was there was an outright grant from afraid no one person could finish the government, going beyond the ‘the whole of the gigantic work’. ‘It was, accordingly, resolved purchase of a limited number of copies. And the translation to withhold the name of the translator.’ But hardly a fourth wasn’t done by Ganguli alone. There was something like a of the work had been accomplished when ‘an influential board of scholars, though the buck stopped with Ganguli. Indian journal came down upon poor Pratap Chandra Roy There is almost a hagiographic tone to this, perhaps and accused him openly of being a party to a great literary inevitable for the first translator of the Mahabharata into imposture’—that of posing as ‘the translator of Vyasa’s work, English. For those who really delve into these matters, when, in fact, he was only the publisher’. Ganguli continues: this is known. But since I have discovered something, ‘Now that the translation has been completed, there can be no I wanted to revisit the issue. That discovery has to wait longer any reason for withholding the name of the translator. for the next column. n

22 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 13 touchstone

By Keerthik Sasidharan

The Eco Chamber Umberto Eco showed that behind the questions we pose are ones we dare not

n 1675, Isaac Newton wrote a letter to the great ‘Can you tell us about your process?’—which is a crystalline experimentalist Robert Hooke in which he famously moment of truth similar to when a priest at a confessional mentioned, ‘If I have seen further it is by standing on enquires about one’s latest tryst with sin. Few writers are Iye shoulders of Giants’—a line that has since then been asked, and fewer still, tell us about how they read. In recent deployed with sincerity and, on occasion, with cynicism years, Umberto Eco was a glorious exception who sought to by self-promoting hucksters. But thanks to American clarify, explicate and ultimately make art out of the very acts of sociologist Robert K Merton, we have come to learn that even reading, misreading and even dying in what would become a the luminous Newton borrowed that line, or some version mausoleum of unread books—an ‘anti-library’ if you will. It is of it, from those who came before him. If we go in search five years since Umberto Eco died at the age of 84, in February of the origins of that statement, we arrive at the doorstep 2016, after having done pretty much all one could imagine as of a 12th century French philosopher, Bernard of Chartres, a writer. He was a widely read and an influential columnist; who had said, “We are like dwarfs standing on the shoulders an essayist who wrote playful as well as penetrating pieces; a of giants.” This formulation spoke to the historic tension novelist who wrote his first book at the age of 48 about an im- between dwarfs and giants in the premodern imagination. probable subject—a murder mystery in a monastery—which (Ovid writes in The Metamorphoses, ‘My mind is bent to tell of went on to become an international bestseller and a film star- bodies changed to other forms.’) What is important to note ring Sean Connery (the idea of James Bond as a celibate monk here—as Umberto Eco tells us—is a deeper shift in semantics must not have escaped Eco); and he had a successful career as a and register in this statement. Sometime in the 11th-12th professor of semiotics at the University of Bologna in Italy. He centuries, the word ‘dwarf’ was replaced by ‘man’. By the time drew on a vast canvas ranging from medieval Europe to Mus- we get to Newton in the 17th century, the generic category solini’s fascism (under which he grew up) to present-day media of ‘man’ was put aside and Newton entered the statement and its metaphysics. His subject and style were as largehearted, as himself, as a subjective individual experiencing agent. intricate and filled with unexpected insights as his love for the Ironically, by our time today, we equate any act of ‘greatness’ medieval arcana. Like any self-respecting mid-20th century with doing something that our ancestors had never done intellectual who arrived on the European scene after Freud, before. To be called ’great’ now, it is not just important to deny he was fond of counterintuitive assertions: in an essay on the the supervening hand of our intellectual forebearers, we are nature of beauty and ugliness he writes, true to form, ‘Beauty is expected to ‘kill one’s father figures’. Greatness can only come detachment, absence of passion but ugliness, by contrast, is pas- from patricide (and increasingly, matricide). We have gone, sion’. But he did so to illuminate rather than out of some con- as Eco writes, from thinking of ourselves as dwarfs in relation trarian habit. In his essays, which are voracious in their quest to to the past to equal as humans to finally now as supermen know more and delightful in their willingness to traverse the in contrast to our ancestors. Perhaps nowhere do we see highminded as well as the profane, his style often involved him this cult of originality most vividly aspired for than in the inspecting a proverb, an idea, an event—something seemingly creative fields—especially amid writers, artists, sculptors— innocuous—out of which precipitates an elaborate set of reflec- with a great many who spend considerable energy to project tions on the human experience across millennia. themselves as solitary figures of genius. He borrowed freely from books and codices and wan- The consequence, especially following the rise of the dered widely, like a monk on route to collect his daily alms of ‘creative writing’ programmes in the post-World War II era, is knowledge, often returning to reflect fondly and wisely on his that writers have written aplenty on what writing means to permanent obsession: the source of the absolute in a world them and their craft. Any writer who has hawked his wares in a rendered unstable by the relative. Early in his novel Foucault’s public reading will attest to receiving a sacramental question— Pendulum, he writes:

14 22 march 2021 Illustration by Saurabh Singh

lective hallucinations such as QAnon arrived, Eco told us about their seductive powers, especially in the age of mass media. See- ing the world in this manner, all life is about uncovering a veil of dissimulation: Eco echoed his tryst with the Catholic church as a child in Mussolini’s Italy. Many went about uttering fascist cries, while privately doubting, laughing at, mocking the moronic claims made by Il Duce’s squarejawed vanities. Eco as a novelist was relentless in his efforts to steadily, patiently reveal that the world is more than what it is. Freud provocatively (and preposterously) wrote in ‘The Acquisition of Fire’ that ‘the control of Fire could be gained only after man had renounced the homosexually tinged pleasure of extin- guishing it with urine’. What matters is not the truth value of that assertion but that there were ideas—irrespective of whether they are wrong or right, foolish or wise—whose most important quality was their stickiness. There are some ideas that, like some venereal infections, you simply can’t get rid of. We can fight them, deny them, refute them—but they persist with singular stubbornness. Eco’s novel The Prague Cemetery is about one such infernal lie about Jewish world domination that has persisted in the European and Arab worlds. People who were wedded to such permanent inflictions of the mind— Before collective hallucinations such as QAnon paranoiacs, conspiracy theorists, schizophrenics—aroused arrived, Umberto Eco told us about their pity and compassion in him, but they also offered him a way to tell us stories where we realise that our ‘normal’ world is deeply seductive powers, especially in the age of abnormal under closer inspection. mass media. Seeing the world in this manner, all Despite this great efflorescence of ideas, provocations and life is about uncovering a veil of dissimulation: reflections in his writings, Eco’s world seemingly stopped at the edges of the Bosphorus (except for occasional medieval Europe- Eco echoed his tryst with the Catholic church an myths such as ‘Prester John’, a Christian king of India). This as a child in Mussolini’s Italy. Many went about is unlike his illustrious fellow-countryman Roberto Calasso, uttering fascist cries, while privately doubting, with whom Eco ostensibly had a happy rivalry to collect rare books. (Calasso writes, ‘It’s like two little boys showing off their laughing at, mocking the moronic claims made marbles.’) In our all-too-charged times, it is tempting to describe by Il Duce’s squarejawed vanities this Eurocentric literary worldview as a form of ethnocentrism. But to do so in the name of some misguided idea of mandated egalitarianism would be to miss something fundamental about how knowledge flourishes: by thinking intensively and ‘I knew the earth was rotating, and I with it, and Saint-Martin- speaking carefully about that which you know well. Once we des-Champs and all Paris with me, and that together we rotating sidestep questions regarding the politics of representation, beneath the Pendulum, whose own plane never changed direc- what Eco has left behind for us, irrespective of where we come tion, because up there, along the infinite extrapolation of its wire from, is a way of engaging with the world—a playful scepti- beyond the choir ceiling, up toward the most distant galaxies, lay cism that was dedicated to undermining any claims of religious the Only Fixed Point in the universe, eternally unmoving.’ dogmatism or political authoritarianism or secular righteous- The ‘relative’ is another name for half-truths, lies, evasions, ness. He teaches us, like his great detective-monk-hero William white lies—all that destabilise or deny the meaning between the of Baskerville in The Name of the Rose, that behind the questions signified and the signifier. But this destabilisation doesn’t come we publicly pose are often the real questions we dare not ask. solely from one person or a particular time in history; Eco’s nov- What Eco also teaches us is that there is no excuse not to write els and popular essays told us that we are never immune to the with a sense of lightness and a freedom to wander freely with- lure of the False at any point in history. From Ptolemy to George out the fear of appearing frivolous. Often upon rereading Eco’s W Bush in Iraq, the great truths about falsity are its indomitable writings—as the gurgle of his prose and the vividness of his instinct for survival and usefulness to the powerful. Eco’s ideas learning recedes—a realisation slowly arrives that all the while of the False were not simply a Noble Lie, but rather they were as a reader, I had been sitting on the shoulders of that rarest of deeply felt retellings of how the world ‘really’ works. Before col- beings: a giant of the mind. n

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

PM’s Bengal Advisors e know that Prime Minister Narendra WModi does a lot of homework for every election. He likes to get in tune with a state’s culture and ethos while campaigning. But it is not him alone. For West Bengal, which the (BJP) thinks is crucial, Modi is taking inputs from several sources. Debashree Mukherjee, joint secretary in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), who specialises in water sanitation, urban poverty and environ- ment issues, is one of those people who inform Modi on issues central to the states. There are also economist Bibek Debroy and Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament (MP) and columnist Swapan Dasgupta. Another such person is Bhaskar Khulbe, a retired West Bengal cadre IAS officer who is still advisor to the prime minister. Modi also takes inputs from people in Kolkata, not just the BJP state unit but also industrialists and even monks of the Ramakrishna Mission. While he listens to every opinion, the final call on what to say is, as usual, only Modi’s.

Outside Support harkhand Chief Minister and leader Hemant Soren is an ally of Congress in his state, but he Jis now going to West Bengal to campaign for Congress’ rival Trinamool Congress (TMC). Before the announcement of the election dates, Soren had gone to Tribal areas in West Bengal and professed himself to be against both BJP and TMC. Later, he wanted to contest along with the latter but was not given the requisite number of seats. Soren then said he would campaign against BJP anyway to combat communalism. West Bengal has a significant Tribal population which Soren could influence. Rashtriya leader Tejashwi Yadav is also going to Kolkata to campaign and woo Biharis in West Bengal away from BJP. , too, is supporting Mamata Banerjee.

Replacement Captain Moving Base ith Sourav Ganguly declining to campaign in amata Banerjee is contesting from Nandigram WWest Bengal for BJP, another former captain of Mwhere the battle is heating up. Nandigram is the state’s IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders, Gautam 140 kilometres from Kolkata and Mamata has decided Gambhir, could step up. A BJP MP from Delhi, he has to temporarily shift base there. A two-storied building in the past never campaigned beyond his state and is functioning as her office and residence. She plans Haryana. This could be Gambhir’s first national to go to other districts to campaign from there. A outreach in politics. helipad has also been built for her.

16 22 march 2021

Illustrations by Saurabh Singh

Enemy Property Watch Indiscipline in fter the Assembly elections, the home Rajasthan Aministry under Amit Shah is all set to take ccording to highly over the enemy properties of Pakistan and China Aplaced sources, the BJP in West Bengal. While it is something that will top brass has taken a seri- be done across the country, the state will be ous note of the participa- especially impacted because it has almost 2,735 tion of almost two-and-a- Pakistani properties and 29 Chinese. A group of half dozen members of ministers (GoM) under Shah has been actively the Legislative planning on this front. Assembly (MLAs), 32 former district presidents and a host of public Finance Point representatives in former Rajasthan AS officer Tarun Bajaj is turning out to be a Chief Minister pointman for the prime minster in the finance I Vasundhara Raje’s ministry. A former additional secretary to religious tour and Modi, Bajaj became secretary, Department birthday celebrations. of Economic Affairs, some time back. When revenue secretary AB Pandey retired recently, The party’s state leaders Bajaj also got that additional charge. In the had been given an Prime Minister’s Office, Modi’s Principal advisory to maintain Secretary PK Mishra oversees the finance their distance. Before the ministry and Bajaj is said to be his man. Finance tour, Raje assured them that Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also has a good she would not give political speeches, but she working relationship with Bajaj. gave two in two days. Not just BJP, even RSS leaders are unhappy, and are seeing it as indis- cipline. What will the BJP central leadership do now? Will they take action or call a truce? Stalin vs Rahul n Tamil Nadu, Congress had Ito ultimately surrender to The Assam Job Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and settle for 25 seats. ne wonders when and if Himanta Biswa The party was demanding 48. OSarma will finally get the crown of Assam. But DMK leader MK Stalin said When he left Congress and joined BJP, his expectation was he could be the chief minister. he has had to share a lot of BJP got a large majority and the party chose its seats with a number of allies and own longstanding leader Sarbananda Sonowal couldn’t give more. Congress for the post. Sarma was reportedly upset insiders blame the fallout on and his reasoning was even Sonowal was not Rahul Gandhi. Senior party originally from BJP. Before the Assam elec- leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, tion, Sarma told the party that he was not keen Oommen Chandy and P on contesting. At the time, it was speculated Chidambaram were in talks that he might be joining the Union Cabinet or with Stalin when Rahul changed getting a Rajya Sabha seat. But BJP has gone the team with new and young ahead and announced that he will be contest- leaders. When Stalin was only ing. The party anticipates that if there is a willing to give 24, Sonia Gandhi fractured mandate, Sarma’s skill at reaching out intervened and he gave one more to opposition MLAs will be useful. It might even reportedly as a courtesy to her. propel him to the chief minister’s chair.

18 January 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 17 open essay

By James Astill

Imperfect Pitch There is more to cricket than winning, even deservedly

EORGE BERNARD SHAW, the great Irish playwright and friend of and Rabindranath Tagore, once quipped that baseball’s single great advantage over cricket was that the American game was “sooner ended”. There were times during the madcap Test series that India and England have just concluded in Ahmedabad when it seemed as if they were hellbent on proving that wisecrack wrong. It was one of the shortest four-Test series played, lasting just 14 days. India won the third Test,played in the cavernous new Narendra Modi Stadium, by 10 wickets in less than two days. The total number of runs scored in the game, after England were skittled for 112 in their first innings and just 81 in the second, was 387. That was 47 less than Australia and New Zealand bludgeoned in a T20 game played at the same time. Eight-hundred-and-forty-two balls were bowled in the Test—the lowest tally in a Test match since 1935. By way of contrast, the most pitches ever recorded in an organised baseball game, played between the Paw- tucket Red Sox and Rochester Red Wings in 1981,was 882. Bernard Shaw, it is interesting to note, once also claimed, “The longer I Glive, the more I realise that I am never wrong about anything.” At least his early support for Indian independence was well-judged. The India-England series was strange, given the Covid-19-induced circumstances in which it was played, even before the wickets started tumbling. Both sets of players met in Chennai elated by recent successes: India by their momentous series win in Australia and England by their more routine one in Sri Lanka. And yet they were drained by months of living in biosecure team bubbles, confined to a hotel room, a gym and a few odd trips to the nets. This seemed especially concerning given the jampacked cricket schedule in the coming months. India’s players are scheduled to play 14 Tests, 16 one-day internationals and at least 23 T20 internationals in 2021, including a T20 World Cup in India in October and November, and an Indian Premier League (IPL) season. England’s are down for a staggering 17 Tests; most will also play in the IPL. To lighten the load, the England management adopted a squad-based selection policy, allowing it to cycle players in and out of the bubble between breaks back home. It contributed to England’s embarrassing series defeat. The rotation policy ensured that England fielded its best team at no point during the series. Jonny Bairstow, one of England’s bet- ter players of spin, had looked in fine touch in Sri Lanka, then flew home to spend two weeks walking his dogs in wintry Yorkshire, only to re-emerge for the two Tests in Ahmedabad hopelessly out of form. Jos Buttler, perhaps the one English batsman able to change a game in the spectacular way Rishabh Pant did, with his swashbuck- ling hundred in the fourth Test, only played in the first game. He watched Pant’s century from the England team hotel, having also jetted in from a holiday back home. Clearly, every team must look after its players’ wellbeing. Yet this seemed like a case of priorities gone awry. An India Test series is now prized by England players and supporters above all else except the Ashes. And English cricket does not have the depths of talent, in batting and spin-bowling especially, to take on India’s with their B team. Even England’s best side has only one batsman, Joe Root, averaging above 40.

18 22 march 2021 India Captain Virat Kohli (extreme left) and teammates after winning the Test series against England at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, March 6

ap

Given their cricketing advantages, why did India’s cricket power not have the courage to prepare some spin-friendly Test-match pitches, that were nonetheless able to hold together for more than a day or two? India would most likely have won the series anyhow—even if joe Root had batted in every Test as he did in the first. They were too good for England

India’s has six batters with at least that average—if you ous new Modi stadium. But these arguments are to some degree assume the novice bowling all-rounder Washington Sundar moot. Because Indian cricket overseers did not need to go to such makes the team. That speaks to a more egregious demonstra- lengths to win this series. And it would have been much better, tion of wrongheadedness, the substandard state of the pitches for the game and its Indian chief custodian, if they had not. on which the series was played, which in turn explains why the The Indian team started the series only a few points ahead cricket was so manic and curtailed. of the English in the International Cricket Council rankings— Don’t get me wrong. There is obviously nothing wrong with yet manifestly far superior. In Indian conditions, Joe Root and a host country preparing pitches to suit its bowlers. It has ever Jimmy Anderson are the only England players who could be been thus—and the practice contributes to the great diversity of confident of making it into a combined India-England team. playing conditions that is one of Test cricket’s strengths. Some— Even in seaming English conditions, only Stuart Broad and Ben including Virat Kohli—have also argued that the strips of pow- Stokes would stand a decent chance of joining them. Not many ercake prepared in Chennai and Ahmedabad were all just about of the remaining Englishmen would sneak into a combined fit for Test cricket. There have been worse pitches; though, to be India-England second team. sure, not many or much worse than the crumbling no-man’s land In Ravichandran Ashwin, the Indians had the best spinner served up for the third Test, the inaugural game in the cavern- in the world and therefore the best bowler in Indian conditions.

22 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 19 open essay

Rishabh Pant in the fourth Test at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, March 5 England Captain Joe Root batting in the first Test at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, February 8

This was a Test series memorable, not unlike a T20 game, for searing flashes of individual brilliance, plus a general impression of batsmen, most of them English, being toppled like ninepins. It was unsatisfying and, for the millions of young Indians and British who need introducing to longform cricket’s greatness, no kind of an introduction at all

When he bagged Jofra Archer LBW, in the first England innings series, he made a game-saving 97 in Sydney and a sparkling of the third Test, he became the second fastest bowler to take 89 not out to lead India’s stupendous series-clinching win in 400 Test wickets after Muttiah Muralitharan. And yet he was Brisbane. And in Ahmedabad, the diminutive stroke-player arguably out-bowled in the series by the wondrous Axar Patel, did it again, by launching a magnificent assault on the English a 27-year-old debutant slow left-armer. He was drafted into the bowling which effectively sealed the game and series for India. team with no fanfare for the second Test, and proceeded to take He reverse-scooped Anderson for four over the top of the slips 27 wickets, including four five-wicket hauls, at an average of early on; he brought up his third century by sweeping Root for 10. He should savour that triumph, too. Because once six. His self-possession and conviction struck every commentator Ravindra Jadeja, a similar bowler, better batsman and as emphatically as the catlike agility that allowed him to change worldbeating fielder, returns from injury, Axar faces the axe. his stroke midshot. “I just see the ball and react to it, that’s the USP of my cricket,” he explained with a shrug after that innings. And yet he is much less of a talented dasher than that made him he gulf between the two sides’ batting was sound. In Ahmedabad, as in Brisbane, he showed a calm aware- Tequally stark. Rohit Sharma was the batsman of the ness of not only how but when to attack—factoring in the state of series. His cool, dashing 161 in the second Test in Chennai the game, the pitch and the bowlers. He seemed entirely unfazed was a masterclass in batting on a rank turner. Yet, as in the and in control. He seemed a veteran of high pressure—which, earlier India-Australia series, India’s batting down the order, having played 100 games in the IPL, of course he is. by less-heralded stars, was an even more powerful sign of the Right from the tournament’s start, it was clear that T20 would country’s rise to cricketing domination. boost India’s talent stocks and certain cricketing skills in particu- None shone brighter than Rishabh Pant, the 23-year-old lar. The quality of the tournament’s fielding and inventiveness of wicketkeeper-batsman from Haridwar. Still a relative new- its strokeplay got better and better year-on-year. Yet what I failed comer to international cricket, he showed up for the recent to anticipate, while researching a book on the tournament, The Australia series overweight and in bad odour with the team Great Tamasha: Cricket, Corruption and the Turbulent Rise of Modern management. Seven games later he is India’s next cricketing India, during its 2010 rendition, was how it would inculcate stage sensation. He has kept wicket securely and athletically, scored presence in the best young Indian stars and steel their nerves. more heavily than any other India batter—and played two of The step-up from domestic to international cricket is big the defining innings of the consecutive series in a flamboyant everywhere, and used to be especially so in India, given the rela- style which did as much to grind the Australians and English tive weakness of its first-class game. Yet the routine experience into the dust as the runs he put on the board. In the Australia of playing intense IPL cricket—before wild crowds in the sta-

20 22 march 2021 Axar Patel in the third Test at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, February 24 Rohit Sharma after scoring a hundred in the second Test at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, February 13

Photos ap This was a Test series memorable, not unlike a T20 game, for searing flashes of individual brilliance, plus a general impression of batsmen, most of them English, being toppled like ninepins. It was unsatisfying and, for the millions of young Indians and British who need introducing to longform cricket’s greatness, no kind of an introduction at all

diums and millions at home—is forging India’s young stars in the last three Tests of the England-India series had not much fire. It may not be too much of a stretch to say the Indian game more than a couple of days of the necessary grind between them. is become newly characterised by the chutzpah and confident The result was a series memorable, not unlike a T20 game, its young players are learning in the tournament. Or how else for searing flashes of individual brilliance, plus a general to explain Washington Sundar? impression of batsmen, most of them English, being toppled like ninepins. It was unsatisfying and, for the millions of young Indians and British who need introducing to longform cricket’s far more limited batsman than Pant, the 21-year- greatness, no kind of an introduction at all. A old off-spinner came into the Test side in Brisbane as ‘Finished in 2 days Not sure if that’s good for test cricket!!’ perhaps India’s fifth-choice spinner and with two first-class tweeted Yuvraj Singh in response to the two-day affair in Ahmed- centuries to his name. With utter assurance, he has since hit abad. ‘If @anilkumble1074 and @habhajan_singh bowled on three Test fifties, including an excellent 96 not out in Ahmed- these kind of wickets they would be sitting on a thousand and abad. It is no coincident that he made his IPL debut at 17 and 800?’ It got him into hot water with the Jai Hind brigade. But he has played over 50 games in the tournament. was merely stating the obvious, for the good of the game he loves, Then why, with such cricketing advantages, did India’s which is a service Indian cricket too often needs. cricket power not have the courage to prepare some spin- The writer Ramachandra Guha begins his new cricket friendly Test-match pitches, that were nonetheless able to hold memoir, The Commonwealth of Cricket: A Lifelong Love Affair with together for more than a day or two? India would most likely the Most Subtle and Sophisticated Game Known to Humankind, with have won the series anyhow—even if Root had batted in every a quote from Jack Fingleton imbued with that same spirit: ‘The Test as he did in the first. They were too good for England. To longer I live, I am pleased to say, the less nationalistic I become.’ appreciate what a missed opportunity this was, compare the To encourage India’s cricket authorities to accrue with their new magnificent afterglow of the Indians’ record-breaking and power over the game a proportionate sense of responsibility for historic success in Australia with the deflation many felt over it, more concerned lovers of the game need to show that spirit, as the fast and furious England series. Yuvraj did. It must also be said: Fingleton’s view of his ageing self Test cricket is the best game because, extended over five days, was a whole lot more appealing than Bernard Shaw’s. The latter it contains so many different dramas and emotional registers. was a sourfaced cricket philistine if ever there was one. n An extended period of struggle and grind is an essential part of that mix. It is the theme from which the later variations emerge, James Astill is the Washington bureau chief and Lexington columnist the springboard from which the game’s later dramas erupt. And for The Economist. He is a contributor to Open

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AN EAST BENGAL T he 2021 struggle for power is shaped by history, geography, demography— and a miracle by the M ah atm a, argues MJ AKBAR IN WEST BENGAL T he 2021 struggle for power is shaped by history, geography, demography— and a miracle by the M ah atm a, argues MJ AKBAR

Illustration by Saurabh Singh Assembly Elections 2021 Bengal

hree decisions made by the , and one miracle by a Mahatma immediately after freedom in August 1947, have shaped the contemporary political map and mind of Bengal. The seminal decisions were the Permanent Settlement secured by Lord Cornwallis, successor to Warren Hastings as Governor General, in 1793; the first Census of India in 1871; and Lord Curzon’s partition of Bengal in 1905. Together, they spawned a turbulent concoction of ideas, fears, claims and aspirations that made geography vulnerable to demography and affected, with disruptive force, the existing ethos of a unique land. A history of political infections is ancestor to the electoral shifts of 2021. TThe Permanent Settlement, which partially mirrored Europe’s serfdom, altered the hierar- chies of power and impoverished the landless cultivator by the terms of revenue collection

through a new class of Zemindars. ‘Zemindar’ is Persian for land- by managers while they lived in their Calcutta mansions, or in- lord; zemin means land. vested their enhanced capital in lucrative commerce. Many of The Settlement was essentially an agreement between the East them belonged to families which had traded with the East India India Company and its selected nominees, many of them former Company before it became a political power, and continued to agents (ghomosta) or trading associates, who bought land at low invest in the goodwill of the authorities. prices and received the ownership title from the British in return The English preference for allies within the Hindu elite in the for a fixed annual tax. The Zemindars, in turn, allotted small plots, first phase of their rule was perfectly comprehensible reason. Hav- known as pattas, to peasants, who cultivated it on an exploitative ing defeated the Nawabs to wrest Bengal, the British were wary of rent model. The peasant had no rights over the land, and could be the now displaced and sullen Muslim aristocracy. Hindu bankers ejected at will, leaving him at the mercy of the landlord. This two- and traders who had kept Company commerce humming were tier rentier system had no flexibility to accommodate pressures the logical beneficiaries of this distrust. such as drought or resultant famine, when the peasant, living The number of Muslim Zemindars in Bengal was minuscule; hand-to-mouth, was often literally starved to death. and had to prove its loyalty to the British before it could claim Under the Mughals, all land was owned by the crown. The Per- any favours. The largest Muslim Zemindari was given to the manent Settlement gave the Zemindar hereditary rights, but this Khwaja family in 1812, when they were allowed to purchase much-vaunted concession was a qualified asset. If any landlord around 44,000 acres for a pittance. But they were not Bengalis. was unable to pay the tax, set at a ratio of 89 per cent for the gov- They were Urdu-speaking traders of gold dust and skin from Kash- ernment and 11 per cent for the Zemindar, before sunset on the mir, who had settled in Sylhet around the 1750s, and moved to allotted day, either the whole or part of the land was auctioned off. for better prospects only after the British conquered Ben- The British took their money; gal. Their title of Nawab came landlords lapped up the sur- People of Dhaka waiting to welcome Sir Joseph Bampfylde in 1875, after many decades of plus, and the peasant lived in Fuller, the first lieutenant governor of the new province of service to the English cause. permanent impoverishment Eastern Bengal and Assam, October 1905 The Company mandarins as a consequence of this per- also felt that they needed some manent settlement. This has justification for the conquest often been described as the of Bengal to win some popu- lowest point for the peasantry. lar sympathy. Fake history In theory, landlords were was an effective mechanism, expected to invest in their which they would repeat with extensive properties and the Peshwa, the Rani of Jhansi improve general prosper- and the Nawab of Awadh in ity. In practice, many of them the 1850s. They introduced became absentee landlords the theory that British rule whose land was controlled represented a new dawn,

26 22 march 2021 because it had liberated Bengal from the dark age of medieval, being promoted by foreign rule: backward, ruthless and barbaric Muslim rule. The idea seeped The Moslem brings his turban’d band, into the consciousness of the 19th century, and found an indelible To win the peaceful, golden land, space in its literature. The crescent on his banner shines, It would be egregious to suggest that any feudal structure rest- The watchword’s “Alla” in his lines, ed on equality. But, exceptions apart, the pre-British Nawabs tried And on his blade the Koran verse to ease any resentment among Hindu elites with accommodation Bespeaks for every foe a curse. in the administrative structure, and assuage mass sentiment with The Hindoo courts the bloody broil, absorption into a common culture driven by the Bengali language To fight or fall for his parent soil, and local customs. And he must go forth in the battle to bleed But such was the persistence of the British narrative that their rule had swept away tyranny and ush- ered a new age of enlightenment Muslims in West Bengal that it became a familiar trope Darjeeling Population Share in Districts and Subdistricts among the Bengali intelligentsia of the 19th century. Even a radi- Jalpaiguri cal poet and teacher like the very young but astonishingly influential Kochbihar Henry Louis Vivian Derozio, whose students at Hindu College (now Presidency University) constituted Uttar Dinajpur the nucleus of the ‘Young Bengal’ movement, bought into this insidi- ous colonial twist. Derozio was born in Calcutta in 1809; his father Francis was Portu- Dakshin Dinajpur guese and his mother Sophia John- Maldah son an Englishwoman from Hamp- shire, but he identified himself as an Indian. His poetry and academic brilliance were quickly recognised. In 1826, at the age of just 17, he was appointed a teacher in English liter- ature at Hindu College; a year later he had set up an Academic Associa- Murshidabad tion on the campus which reflected the rising ferment in the intellectual air. For all his liberalism, Derozio, Birbhum in ‘The Enchantress of the Cave’, could hardly be more explicit in Bardhaman his endorsement of the new history Puruliya Bankura

North 24 Parganas While Punjab witnessed a total Hugli exchange of populations, Haora

Muslims of West Bengal living West Medinipur alongside the border of what is today remained in their South 24 Parganas East Medinipur own land. Seven decades later, the largest density of West is in these districts Source: CENTRE FOR POLICY STUDIES

22 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 27 Assembly Elections 2021 Bengal

For all that is dear—country, kindred, and creed; or 40.75 million. The other roughly 20 million were Tribals, But evil betide him and fair Hindoostan Buddhists, Jains, Christians, Jews, Parsis or Brahmos (the sect If ever he yield to the proud Mussulman! founded by Raja Rammohun Roy in Bengal, which believed By extension, Muslim rule also was diagnosed as an interrup- in monotheism). tion to the golden age of India, whose revival became the objective Bengal was, however, sharply divergent: Hindus were only of the intelligentsia. The Rozarians themselves soon became noth- 64.5 per cent of the population and Muslims over 30 per cent. ing more than a quirky memory, because while they extolled the Moreover, the latter had a double weight; they had a two-third virtues of forbidden meat in their war against ‘superstition’, and majority in the east of Bengal. These Muslims were also converts gatecrashed into the certainties of a rigid tradition, they forgot to from what were called the ‘lower castes’, which added another provide an Indian construct to fill the vacuum they had created. edge to their sense of social and economic deprivation. In a paradox hardly unknown to history, their option was imita- The population of the 43 districts of British Bengal (which then tion rather than an indigenous framework. Their movement, included much of Orissa and a section of Bihar) was measured sabotaged by excess, petered out, but the impact lingered and at 60,467,724. Only London had more than Calcutta’s 795,000 moulded, in tune with the natural inclinations of the urbane Bengali, into a cosmopolitan culture that thrives in Calcutta and what used to be called mofussil towns but now should be known as What the British did not say was that the university cities. destitution of the landless peasants could be The British scheme of partisan empowerment, directly attributed to the Permanent Settlement in cyclical spells, succeeded in establishing a sense of alienation between Hindus and Muslims even of 1793; instead, they suggested that Muslims as it encouraged sharp competition on the basis had lost out because they had lost power of religion. By the 1820s the British policy of an unfathom- able Great Divide had got off to a sprinting start.

COLONIAL NUMEROLOGY The results of the 1871 Census should have been boring. Instead, they were startling. Till then, no one knew what the precise Hindu and Muslim populations of Bengal were, and power was measured in terms of Nawabs and Mahara- jas, not along the dimensions of majority and mi- nority. The first census of British Bengal revealed that Muslims were in a majority; their numerical advantage was overwhelming in the eastern dis- tricts; and that most of them were peasants under Hindu Zemindars. It was an economic problem which demanded an economic answer. Instead, the British used these revelations to inject the spark of religion into the brushwood of nascent politics. They recognised s getty image

the implications, and with colonial speed institu- Photos tionalised schism, diverting Bengal’s sentiments Governor General Charles Cornwallis (left) and Viceroy George Nathaniel Curzon away from nationalism towards identity assertion. It was a masterclass of tactical seesaw manipula- tion which could not, in the long run, prevent India’s indepen- citizens. What interested the authorities was the religious mix dence, but certainly ensured India’s partition in 1947. If Bengal in districts like Furreedpoor, Dacca, Rungpoor, Pubna, Rajshahye, had refused to join ’s partition project, the Tipperah, Burdwan, Jessore, Nuddea, Moorshedabad, Midnapoor division of India would never have taken place. (to use British spellings); Hooghly (with Howrah); and 24 Par- The Census of British India and its Feudatory States in 1871- ganas, a district extending from Calcutta to the Bay of Bengal. 1872 found that Hindus and Sikhs added up to 140.5 million, The Memorandum on the Census of British India 1871-72, presented or 73.5 per cent of the population; Muslims were 21.5 per cent, to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty (Queen

28 22 march 2021 Victoria) emphasised, without hesitation, the ‘remarkable’ nature Nawab Khwaja Salimullah in 1904 of these statistics. ‘It is remarkable that, of the 20.5 millions of Mussulmans in Bengal and Assam (forming the larger moiety of the Mahomedan population of British India), 17.5 millions are found in Eastern Bengal and the adjoining Districts of Sylhet and Cachar, where they amount to 49 per cent of the total population; and in two districts, those of Bogra and Rajshahye, to about 80 per cent. In that part of the country they comprise the bulk of the cultivating and labouring class, while in and Noscully [Noakhali], they follow a seafaring life; and it seems probable that their pre- ponderance is due to the conversion of the lower orders from the old Hindoo religion under which they held position of out-castes,’ says the report placed in the British Parliament. In Bihar by com- parison, ‘the comparatively few Mahomedans, some 13 per cent, belong to the upper classes as a rule’. Orissa was overwhelmingly Hindu. The politics of Bihar and Orissa, consequently, evolved on a different trajectory. The key to British intentions in Bengal lay in the phrase, the ‘bulk of the cultivating and labouring classes’. What they did not add was that the destitution of these landless peasants and agricul- tural labour could be directly attributed to the Permanent Settle- alamy ment; instead, they suggested that Muslims had lost out because they had lost power. It was a transparent attempt to convert peas- Partition done, the pre-eminent ant disaffection against Hindu landlords into a political weapon Muslim acolyte of the British in that would serve a foreign master’s interests. The 1871 Census fed directly into the most pernicious instincts of divisive colonial rule. Bengal, Nawab Khwaja Salimullah in The British took three interconnected steps between 1905 Dhaka, founded the All-India Muslim and 1909 to create a template for a Muslim minority phobia League on December 30th, 1906 and embed dual communalism into the pseudo-democracy of British India. In July 1905 they formed a new ‘Eastern Bengal’ province, with a two-third Muslim majority. This simultaneously created Partition done, the pre-eminent Muslim acolyte of the Brit- a ‘West Bengal’ with a Hindu majority. Population was equated ish in Bengal, Nawab Khwaja Salimullah in Dhaka, founded the with power. This explosive brew of colonial numerology and All-India Muslim League on December 30th, 1906. The third step economic frustration was supervised by the fractious and forbid- was a carefully orchestrated stride, propped by pre-arranged peti- ding imperialist, Lord George Nathaniel Curzon, Viceroy from tions and demands. The Indian Councils Act of 1909 (also called 1899 to 1905. the Morley-Minto Reforms) established separate electorates in a On October 16th, 1905, Dhaka became capital of Eastern Ben- limited franchise system where only the top 10-11 per cent had gal, with an arch imperialist, Sir Joseph Bampfylde Fuller, ICS, as the vote. By this law, based on the pernicious assumption that Lieutenant Governor. Hindus, enraged at the mutilation of united neither Hindu nor Muslim could be entrusted with the other’s Bengal, refused to accord the usual address of welcome. Many welfare, only Muslims could vote for Muslim candidates in Muslim opinion leaders also felt that this was a ruse rather than specified constituencies. Politics became firmly entrenched in a remedy, but there were vehement voices who argued that Brit- religious grooves. ish power would guarantee the physical and economic security The 1905 partition, depicted in an iconic image of the severed of Bengali Muslims. body of Mother Bengal, provoked violent protests and a boycott of The Great Divide deepened. British goods which some Raj officials airily attributed to Bengali Fuller stoked the fire with colonial tongs; he promised Bengali ‘Hindu superstition’. Wiser men in government realised soon Muslims a revival of the Mughal era. When Fuller resigned in enough that such fallacy would not hold. In 1911, the partition 1906, pro-partition Muslim organisations held mass meetings was rescinded. But it left a scar, and the scar bled easily. in his support, while described it as one of the For more than three decades the scar festered in Bengal, some- gravest blunders in the history of British rule. (Fuller later became times dormant, sometimes active, with the Muslim League as famous as the inventor of an alarm against gas attacks during champion of separatism. In the 1946 provincial elections, the last .) held under British rule, the Muslim League won 113 out of 119

22 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 29 Assembly Elections 2021 Bengal

Muslim seats in Bengal, and Congress swept up 86 ‘general’, or When the was announced in June 1947, a Hindu-vote, seats. Any hope of unity vanished with the violence heavy pall fell over Bengal. Calcutta divided into war zones. Ru- of riots that contaminated Calcutta and Bengal after the Muslim mour wrought as much dread as death. Mahatma Gandhi decided League formed a government in 1946. that his place on August 15th, 1947 was not in celebratory Delhi The Great Divide had become visceral. but in nerve-wracked Calcutta. If he could ensure peace in Bengal, exploding with horror stories, he would have prevented slaughter and refugee caravans on an unprecedented scale. THE MIRACLE The Mahatma took his place in the middle of the maelstrom 1947 was an epic year in the world’s history; the age of colonial- that had erupted, turning an abandoned house in the midst of ism, which had begun in India, began its retreat on August 15th a crowded bustee into a temporary home. He asked for calm, with India’s freedom. But the true miracle of 1947 was the heroic and there was no response. When every appeal to sense failed, conviction and the moral power of one man, a true Mahatma, Mahatma Gandhi had only one thing left to offer: his own life. He who prevented the horrific blood-letting that hovered on the ho- went on a fast till death, with the promise that he would break rizon as another partition ran its scalpel over the heart of Bengal. that fast only when there was complete peace. Bengal broke The bloodshed that consumed the final year of British rule down, but this time in tears. The killing stopped. A British-owned started in Calcutta on Friday, August 16th, 1946 with the ‘Great newspaper, the Statesman, described this as a miracle. Calcutta Killings’ instigated by the Muslim League government The last Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, wrote to the Mahatma then in office. The flames travelled furiously, and far. They rav- saying that he had a force of 55,000 in Punjab which could not pre- aged Noakhali in the east, and sped to Bihar to the north. When vent massacres. All Bengal had was one man, and there was peace. the army and police brought largescale violence under some Gandhi’s moral triumph had a significant consequence on control, sporadic killing continued. Calcutta became a city of Bengal’s demographics, and thereby on the future electoral map of the dead. the state. While Punjab, the other province to be partitioned, wit-

The 1905 partition provoked violent protests and a boycott of British goods. Wiser men in government realised soon enough that such fallacy would not hold. In 1911, the partition was rescinded. But it left a scar, and the scar bled easily

Rabindranath Tagore’s Hindu-Muslim Rakhi (Raksha) Bandhan initiative in progress in Calcutta, October 1909

30 22 march 2021 nessed a total exchange of populations, Policemen in action during the riots of August 1946 in Calcutta Muslims of West Bengal living alongside the border of what is today Bangladesh re- mained in their own land. Seven decades later, the largest density of West Bengali Muslims is in these districts. There is now an East Bengal in West Bengal.

PERCENTAGE PLAY There are over 100 seats in Bengal’s 294-member Assembly where the Mus- lim population can become the determi- nant of who wins; and their percentage rises sharply in the eastern districts from North 24 Parganas to Dinajpur. Here are a few representative examples. In Na- dia’s Kaliganj Assembly seat, Muslims constitute 58.51 per cent of the popula- tion; in Nabashipar 53.06 per cent; in

Chapra, 59.72 per cent; in Tehata 29.21 s getty image per cent; in Karimpur 31.95 per cent; and in Haringhata 28.19 per cent. Mal- Photos da’s figures are similar: 69.48 per cent in Chanchal; 72.61 per cent in Harish- For more than three decades the scar festered in chandrapur; 71.89 per cent in Malatipur; Bengal, sometimes dormant, sometimes active. Any 49.53 per cent in English Bazar; 47.70 per hope of unity vanished with the violence of riots cent in Baishnabnagar. Even in Gazole, that contaminated Calcutta and Bengal after the a constituency where the pattern shifts, Muslim League formed a government in 1946 Muslims are 23.6 per cent. Murshidabad’s constituencies reflect this pattern: Bhagabangola has 85.67 per cent Muslims; Domkal 89.69 per cent; Farakka 67.15 per cent; Hari- which came in the glow of the birth of Bangladesh in 1971. By harpara 80.70 per cent; Jalangi 73.27 per cent; Jangipara 61.78 per 1977, Congress had cracked, and is now being pushed into single- cent; Raghunathganj 81.97 per cent; Ramnagar 81.69 per cent; digit space. After 2014, it has slipped in its last bastions. Sagardighi 64.68 per cent; Samserganj 83.48 per cent; Suti 58.15 Two examples illustrate the point. Congress got 65,559 votes per cent. In North Dinajpur, Chopra has 64 per cent; Goalpokhar in the Islampur Assembly constituency in 2016; in the 2019 Lok 77.26 per cent, Islampur 72.13 per cent. Karandighi and Hemtabad Sabha polls, this crashed to only 6,439 votes. In contrast, the have 50.14 per cent and 53.71 per cent, while the ratio drops in Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) got 18,668 votes in 2016 and 56,531 Kaliaganj to 20.55 per cent. in 2019. Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) held its The Muslim presence remains formidable in North 24 Parga- vote share. Congress won the Kaliaganj seat with 112,868 votes nas on the southern border: 58.48 per cent in Amdanga, 65.48 per in 2016, and plunged to 18,561 in 2019; the BJP vote catapulted cent in Baduria, 65.58 per cent in Basirhat Uttar, 70.92 per cent in from 27,252 to 118,895. Deganga, 61.12 per cent in Haroa, 47.58 per cent in Swarupnagar, A vote transfer is leaving the Left in the lurch as well. In Hem- 51.60 per cent in Minakhan, before coming down to 30.42 per tabad the -Marxist (CPM) slumped cent in Sandeshkhali, 25.81 per cent in Habra, 26.89 per cent in from 80,419 votes in 2016 to 19,248 in 2019. Basirhat Uttar was Kamarhati, and 11 per cent in Hingalganj as the landscape moves won by CPM in 2016 with 97,828 votes; support collapsed in 2019 out of the frontier hinterland. to 30,408. In Amdanga, CPM got 73,228 votes in 2016 and only In past elections these figures did not matter too much, for the 25,352 in 2019. In Palashipara, the CPM vote dropped from 76,568 Muslim vote followed the general electoral flow, whether it was in 2016 to 20,605 in 2019, while the BJP share rose from 14,028 to to re-elect a government or defeat it. When change came in 1967 59,135 and TMC went up from 82,127 to 95,195. In Nadia’s Krish- and 2011, it came because both Hindus and Muslims changed naganj, the Marxists collapsed from 70,698 to 10,131, while BJP their mind. Voters united to unhinge Congress in 1967; since then, shot up from 17,741 to 121,236. the party has been in decline, barring the pyrrhic victory of 1972 There is a growing and perceptible consolidation of votes

22 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 31 Assembly Elections 2021 Bengal Avenues

Mahatma Gandhi fasting in Calcutta, August-September 1947 normalcy returned. Shibboleths were honoured. Ox- ICAI ElECts NEw torChbEArErs bridge-educated Marxists like iconic Chief Minister took care to for thE yEAr 2021-22

s getty image dress in a Bengali dhoti. Their peasant lead- ers like Harekrishna Konar had of course he Council of the Institute of slept on a rural charpoy with the ease that Chartered Accountants of India patricians find only on a four-poster with (ICAI) elected its new President fluffy bed linen. The Marxists knew all T & Vice-President for the term 2021- about economic disenchantment from their textbooks; they learnt about cultur- 2022. CA. Nihar N Jambusaria has al consonance from experience. The last been elected as the President and Marxist chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhat- CA. (Dr.) Debashis Mitra has been tacharjee, catered to the urban bhadralok elected as the Vice-President of ICAI. by spreading word about his love for art With over 3.15 lakh members and more cinema and the government nursed the than 6.50 lakh active students, ICAI affections of the finest Bengali writers, ranks amongst the largest accounting like Sunil Gangopadhyay. CPM would not have been obliterated bodies in the world. in 2011 without an electoral grassroots al- CA. Nihar N Jambusaria, a man of liance across identity differences. If any- professional wisdom, vision and strong thing, Muslim antagonism towards the organisational skills with a firm belief Marxists was sharper, for Chief Minister in all round inclusive growth of Indian CA. Nihar N Jambusaria CA. (Dr.) Debashis Mitra Mahatma Gandhi decided that his place on August Bhattacharjee had proposed a ban on the Chartered Accountancy profession, is President, ICAI Vice President, ICAI 15th, 1947 was not in celebratory Delhi but in use of loudspeakers between 10PM and a Fellow Chartered Accountant from 6AM, which enraged the mosques and Mumbai. He is currently serving ICAI Insurance Advisory Committee holds a Master Degree in Commerce, nerve-wracked Calcutta. His moral triumph had a madrassas: they felt it was a sly attempt significant consequence on Bengal’s demographics, to stop the morning azaan. The govern- for third consecutive term i.e. 2013-16, and Apex Committee of IRDA, and is a Law graduate and a qualified and thereby on the future electoral map of the state ment withdrew the suggestion, but once 2016-19 and 2019-22. CA. Jambusaria Member of SEBI’s Primary Market Information Systems Auditor. With keen suspicion rises it can be hard to quell. qualified as a Chartered Accountant in Advisory Committee. He has also been interest in academic research, he is a Perhaps the only section of Bengal’s 1984 and was in practice for nearly 27 nominated on the Review Committee doctorate in the complex and intrigue electorate which lives a bit askance of its years. He has been a prolific speaker for the B.Com (Hons) and B.Com area of Accounting Standards and has around TMC and BJP making the elections of 2021 a straight two- linguistic culture is the ‘Bihari’ who speaks Bhojpuri or Hindi at national and international forum. New Syllabus for all Universities in been awarded Ph.D. on the topic ‘A party race. The alliance between Congress and the Left could well or Urdu. This community, yet another byproduct of British rule, As an academician and an orator the Country by the University Grants Critical Study of Select Indian GAAP, turn out to be a vacuous arrangement. Nothing plus nothing can arrived from the middle of the 19th century as labour for British par excellence, he has attended and Commission(UGC). He was a Member US GAAP & IAS / IFRS.’ only equal nothing. plantations from Fiji to Mauritius to Latin America. One part of There were good reasons why the Left seemed impregnable for the flow stopped on the shores of the Hooghly, to work in the new contributed to numerous national of the e – Commerce Committee A persuasive and intense trainer, he is three-and-a-half decades. The most important was the goodwill it jute mills and iron factories that the British were creating in their and international seminars. He has formed by the Ministry of Finance and renowned for his interactive deliberations earned among the peasantry when it first came to power as part of Indian Manchesters. This vote has some impact in Calcutta and its addressed more than 900 seminars, Peer Review Committee of the Central in International Financial Reporting a and then Left Front, and ensured that the landless long river-shore suburbs to the north and south of the city, but it conferences so far covering various Board of Direct Taxes. Standards (IFRS) and Corporate Laws. of the Permanent Settlement got the land they were cultivating cannot by itself affect decisively the final tally which will emerge subjects of professional interest like CA. (Dr.) Debashis Mitra, with his He has trained several officials of many as sharecroppers. They did this forcefully, for peasants of all com- after the results of the present Assembly elections are counted. Direct Tax, Accounting Standards, unequivocal commitment has been corporate and non-corporate entities as munities. But the Marxist phase also underscores an exhilarating Our democracy has gone through more than one transition; International Tax and Professional elected as the Vice-President for the well as Central and State governmental aspect of the Bengali cultural mindset. there was an age of status quo, and then of doubt. Election results year 2021-22. After being part of the organisations. An avid speaker, he It did not bother the Bengali Hindu or Muslim what the may still occasionally suffer from the warp and woof of local Development and alike. avowed faith of its ruling party was, as long as the people were variations, but the results are generally decisive. CA. Jambusaria is member of very Central Council of ICAI for the period passionately shares his deep and left free to celebrate and Eid. Bengal enjoys the annual Once again, in the 2021 election, Bengal is at a turning point. important committees constituted 2016-19, Dr. Mitra is serving his second incisive knowledge in India & abroad at 10-day Puja festival with passionate joie de vivre, as a philosophy It will be fascinating to watch on May 2nd, when results are an- by the Government and Regulators consecutive term in the Council for the various events organised by the ICAI, of life. The Marxists were self-avowed atheists. For a brief while nounced, what the churn, driven by past angst, present judge- relating to policy formation that include period 2019-22. With great vigour and trade organisations and other reputed they flirted with ideological consistency and turned their back ment and future expectations, throws up this time. n Government Accounting Standards enthusiasm, he has been serving the Institutes. A seasoned strategist and on religion, famously described as the opium of the masses. Advisory Board (GASAB) and Audit accounting profession for last more leader to the core, he is the President Very soon they realised that this was political suicide. The pre- MJ Akbar is an MP and the author of, most Advisory Board- both constituted than 34 years. of Rotary Club of Calcutta, the oldest Marxist arrangement was restored. A party apparatchik was recently, Gandhi’s Hinduism: The Struggle given the responsibility of organising funds for Puja pandals, and against Jinnah’s Islam by the C&AG of India. He is also a Academically erudite Dr. Mitra, a running Rotary Club in Asia, as well as Board Member, Insurance Regulatory senior practising member, is also a former National President of The Institute & Development Authority (IRDA), Cost Accountant, Company Secretary, of Internal Auditors (India).< 32 22 march 2021 Avenues

ICAI ElECts NEw torChbEArErs for thE yEAr 2021-22

he Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India T (ICAI) elected its new President & Vice-President for the term 2021- 2022. CA. Nihar N Jambusaria has been elected as the President and CA. (Dr.) Debashis Mitra has been elected as the Vice-President of ICAI. With over 3.15 lakh members and more than 6.50 lakh active students, ICAI ranks amongst the largest accounting bodies in the world. CA. Nihar N Jambusaria, a man of professional wisdom, vision and strong organisational skills with a firm belief in all round inclusive growth of Indian CA. Nihar N Jambusaria CA. (Dr.) Debashis Mitra Chartered Accountancy profession, is President, ICAI Vice President, ICAI a Fellow Chartered Accountant from Mumbai. He is currently serving ICAI Insurance Advisory Committee holds a Master Degree in Commerce, for third consecutive term i.e. 2013-16, and Apex Committee of IRDA, and is a Law graduate and a qualified 2016-19 and 2019-22. CA. Jambusaria Member of SEBI’s Primary Market Information Systems Auditor. With keen qualified as a Chartered Accountant in Advisory Committee. He has also been interest in academic research, he is a 1984 and was in practice for nearly 27 nominated on the Review Committee doctorate in the complex and intrigue years. He has been a prolific speaker for the B.Com (Hons) and B.Com area of Accounting Standards and has at national and international forum. New Syllabus for all Universities in been awarded Ph.D. on the topic ‘A As an academician and an orator the Country by the University Grants Critical Study of Select Indian GAAP, par excellence, he has attended and Commission(UGC). He was a Member US GAAP & IAS / IFRS.’ contributed to numerous national of the e – Commerce Committee A persuasive and intense trainer, he is and international seminars. He has formed by the Ministry of Finance and renowned for his interactive deliberations addressed more than 900 seminars, Peer Review Committee of the Central in International Financial Reporting conferences so far covering various Board of Direct Taxes. Standards (IFRS) and Corporate Laws. subjects of professional interest like CA. (Dr.) Debashis Mitra, with his He has trained several officials of many Direct Tax, Accounting Standards, unequivocal commitment has been corporate and non-corporate entities as International Tax and Professional elected as the Vice-President for the well as Central and State governmental Development and alike. year 2021-22. After being part of the organisations. An avid speaker, he CA. Jambusaria is member of very Central Council of ICAI for the period passionately shares his deep and important committees constituted 2016-19, Dr. Mitra is serving his second incisive knowledge in India & abroad at by the Government and Regulators consecutive term in the Council for the various events organised by the ICAI, relating to policy formation that include period 2019-22. With great vigour and trade organisations and other reputed Government Accounting Standards enthusiasm, he has been serving the Institutes. A seasoned strategist and Advisory Board (GASAB) and Audit accounting profession for last more leader to the core, he is the President Advisory Board- both constituted than 34 years. of Rotary Club of Calcutta, the oldest by the C&AG of India. He is also a Academically erudite Dr. Mitra, a running Rotary Club in Asia, as well as Board Member, Insurance Regulatory senior practising member, is also a former National President of The Institute & Development Authority (IRDA), Cost Accountant, Company Secretary, of Internal Auditors (India).< Assembly Elections 2021 Bengal

The Indiscreet Charm of Abbas Siddiqui Can the sinking Left expect a rainmaker in the brash cleric, its new ally?

bbas Siddiqui has changed. Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) politburo mem- Abbas Siddiqui is changing. Abbas ber Mohammed Salim—once a firebrand who in 2019 contested Siddiqui will change. from the Raiganj Lok Sabha seat and lost his security deposit— These are the unlikely but general goes a step further. “Till now they have been calling me an anti- statements churned out by Left leaders national and asking me to go to Pakistan. The corporate media in West Bengal, mostly privately, jus- is now after Siddiqui, calling him a fanatic. His new party is not tifying their collaboration with a new created to fight for Muslim rights alone, but also for Tribals and and untested party floated on January lower castes in the state,” the former lawmaker argues. That is 21st by this 34-year-old pirzada, a cleric, of the shrine of Furfura an uncharacteristic statement from a leader of CPM, which has ASharif in West Bengal’s . Siddiqui was known vowed not only to keep equidistance from so-called communal in the past for his aggressive speeches, pugnacious political pos- parties of all hues, but also has in the past decades taken decisions turing and toxic masculinity. And therefore, to suggest that he in various pockets of its influence to stick to its ideological posi- has changed his ways becomes a burden on anyone who aligns tion even at the cost of risking splits within the Marxist fold. Such with him. a tactic was considered inviolable and any capitulation of values

34 22 march 2021 ISF leader Abbas Siddiqui to take on the might of the ruling TMC. According to those who addressing a rally in were at the rally, it was Siddiqui who was the biggest mobiliser of Kolkata, February 28 people there, and not CPM, which had, during its uninterrupted reign of 34 years in the state, organised many bigger events. Rest- ing on past laurels doesn’t click in politics, yet the fact that CPM had to lean on Siddiqui, an ambitious young man with no expe- rience in politics and who mouths expletives and misogynistic remarks with no sense of foreboding, is a telling statement on the predicament of a party that had presided over the destiny of the millions of people of this fourth most-populous state in the country till just a decade ago. More importantly, as professor Sumantra Bose of the London School of Economics says of the Congress-Left alliance, “Drown- ing men may clutch at each other for dear life as they go down, but that makes no difference to their fate.” So, is the Left alliance looking at Siddiqui as a rainmaker out of sheer desperation? Let’s not forget that alliance-building in West Bengal has not been to CPM’s advantage: it was Congress that gained relatively from the alliance arithmetic while the biggest loser in the 2016 Assembly election was CPM. Congress got CPM votes, but the reverse trans- fer of votes did not happen. Amid strong rumours of CPM’s excessive dependence on Siddiqui, some Marxist leaders, including Salim, have denied anything more than an equal alliance. But he added that with Siddiqui on their side, the alliance will do well in south Bengal and make an impact. Certainly, his focus is on pulling in Muslim votes that he expects the seemingly popular Siddiqui can manage, but experts are divided on whether popular appeal can actually translate into votes. Indications of the Left’s reliance on Siddiqui were perhaps ob- vious from the latter’s demeanour at the Brigade rally where the ISF leader arrived late to a hero’s welcome, and Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had to halt his speech as the crowds erupted in shouts and craned their necks to get a view of the young leader. It is said that Chowdhury had to be persuaded by

ap Left leaders to continue his speech because he was visibly upset Can the sinking Left expect a rainmaker in the brash cleric, its new ally? by Ullekh NP with the loud cheering that disrupted him midway. Siddiqui, who spoke soon afterwards, launched into an attack on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee while appealing to the people to vote for Left candidates. He also indirectly attacked Congress, saying he wasn’t on that front was considered unpardonable and attracted punish- there as a beggar or to massage anyone’s ego, but as an equal part- ment, with extreme bias. ner. According to reports, many ISF youth dispersed after Siddiqui’s But times are changing. speech. The other two constituents had to stomach all this with a Siddiqui’s Indian Secular Front (ISF) made its entry into what grin, apparently anticipating that they will gain Muslim votes. was otherwise an opportunistic alliance, a distant of Notably, Siddiqui targeted the incumbent state government sorts, between the CPM-led Left Front and Congress in the most at the rally for not doing enough to secure the safety of women. dramatic of ways. It almost suggests that CPM was ready to ac- “His ideas were very regressive to start with. His comments ap- commodate this new political outfit as if there was no alternative peal only to a certain section of people because they are not politi- in this election, considered a battle for supremacy between the cally correct,” notes Maidul Islam, political science professor at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the incumbent Mamata Banerjee- Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata. Abrasive political led Trinamool Congress (TMC) government. statements are par for the course in Indian politics, and yet some The February 28th Brigade Parade Ground rally in Kolkata was of Siddiqui’s outbursts stand out. According to Islam, it could unique on many counts: it was the first joint rally by Congress be that the Left is aware of its shrinking base among young and CPM although they had joined hands to contest polls before voters who appear keen to vote for either TMC or BJP. “Siddiqui is

22 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 35 Assembly Elections 2021 Bengal

attracting a lot of crowds, especially among the most disadvan- belongs to a new crop of leaders using their religious influence taged and partially literate and illiterate groups. ‘Let’s take a chance. to do well in politics. An example both cite is that of TMC leader We will experiment considering the dwindling support’—that Siddiqullah Chowdhury who is associated with the Jamiat Ulema- may be the thinking on the part of the Left,” he suggests. e-Hind and was at the forefront of the Nandigram agitation. They Siddiqui, Islam informs, is the descendant of a much-respected say there are similar figures now from other religions as well who mystique, Hazrat Abu Baqar Siddique, who is believed to be the could have influenced people like Siddiqui. 31st descendant of Khalifa Aboobacker, first Caliph of the Rash- Finally, it all boils down to the Muslim vote in a state which, idun Caliphate and the leader of the Muslim community after the according to numbers from the 2011 Census, is home to close death of Prophet Muhammad. Furfura Sharif is a Sufi pilgrimage to 25 million Muslims who account for 28 per cent of the state’s site and, therefore, Siddiqui is facing opposition from within his population. Close to 70 per cent are Hindus and the rest, ‘Oth- family for joining active politics. His uncle Toha Siddiqui, pirzada ers’. Over the one decade before the Census was carried out, there of Furfura Sharif, has called Abbas a “kid”. In an interview to a TV was a 14 per cent growth in the state’s population compared with channel, Toha Siddiqui said that his nephew has associated him- 18 per cent a decade earlier. Some politicians have selectively self with a front that said madrassas were a haven of terrorist ac- used these numbers to argue that migration from Bangladesh, tivity. He poked fun at him, calling him a “comrade”. For his part, through porous borders, and a rapid rise in the Muslim popula- Abbas Siddiqui has said that such statements don’t deserve any tion had contributed to this growth. Others argue that the Muslim response, adding that he was working for the good of the state and population in the state is much more than the official figure. In to fight BJP, which, according to him, is not good for West Bengal. West Bengal, which has the second highest Muslim population in India, TMC won 70 per cent of the votes in the last Assembly election, according to the Centre for the Study of Developing or all his lineage, the ISF leader displays what Societies (CSDS). With BJP expected to attract Hindu votes in large Islam scholar Zeenat calls “madrassa cul- ture”, which she says is rampant among a large section of believers. She had said earlier in an interview to Open Fthat Islam is living in the world of medievalism. The madrassa- The fact that CPM has to lean on Siddiqui, an ambitious young man with no experience culture statement comes in response to Siddiqui’s intemperate in politics and who often makes misogynistic remarks, is a telling statement on the and abusive language on women. predicament of a party that once believed it was meant to rule West Bengal forever Siddiqui had earned notoriety for abusing Member of Parlia- ment and actor Nusrat Jahan, who is a TMC member and rep- resents the Basirhat constituency in Lok Sabha. A video of him hollering says: “Today, the Basirhat MP has to answer us. If she enters this neighbourhood, you have the duty to ask that we voted for you and made you win with the aim that if there are any troubles, you will tackle them on our behalf. You will go to Lok Sabha and shout about it. But what were you doing? What were you doing? Shameless!” His tirade didn’t end with asking Jahan to raise her voice for Muslims in Parliament. He went on, “Those who sell their body to make money...But what were you doing? What were you do- ing? Were you making films? Those who earn money by selling their body...you have made them MPs? Those who sell their body... it means they can also sell the country.” Neither Siddiqui nor Jahan responded to queries from Open about this remark. For her part, Zeenat Shaukat Ali, who has taught Islamic history at St Xavier’s College, says, “In Islam there is no role for clerics. Such positions are un-Islamic and worse is the use of such positions for political control.” Golam Rabbani, a doctoral student at Sikkim University, who is originally a resident of South Dinajpur and belongs to a political family, agrees with Maidul Islam’s suggestion that maybe Siddiqui

(L-R) Abbas Siddiqui, CPM leaders Biman Bose and , Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, CPI leader D Raja and Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in Kolkata, February 28

36 22 march 2021 numbers, including those of the lower castes, such as Namasu- Javed Iqbal Wani, Assistant Professor, School of Law, Gover- dras, TMC hopes to attract more Muslim votes to be able to stop nance and Citizenship at Dr BR Ambedkar University, Delhi, tries the BJP juggernaut which is expected to cash in on what some to put the idea of secularism in focus. He notes that as someone pundits call a Hindu resurgence and anti-incumbency against who has often made dogmatic statements despite being attached the TMC government in power since 2011. to a Sufi shrine and using religion in politics, Siddiqui is not sec- TMC has had a good run so far: in 2016, it had a great sway over ular by normal standards. His credentials, therefore, are “ques- minority-dominated Assembly segments. According to various tionable”, says the academic. Wani argues Siddiqui is a political reports, in Assembly seats where Muslims accounted for over 40 performer and a crowd-puller who may not be proportionately per cent of the electorate, TMC secured 60 out of 65 seats. successful in attracting votes. He points out that Siddiqui faces Perceptions and forecasts about the impact of Siddiqui cut opposition from within his shrine and that the electorate is get- both ways. ting increasingly alienated from the Left-Congress alliance. He, Rabbani surmises that Siddiqui, who is “intellectually backed” like Islam, avers that there is a huge misconception among a lot of by some university professors in south Bengal, is a performer and people about how Muslims vote. In an election where TMC and a young leader who attracts people of the age group of 18-27 in BJP are the main contenders, the influence of a certain sect may some pockets such as Hooghly and South 24 Parganas and so on. be marginal. Islam emphasises: “In India, Muslims are the most “But it is not easy to say that he may have a sway in Murshidabad strategic voters and therefore to think that Siddiqui may split the or Malda. His position as a cleric may not be enough to attract Muslim vote to the disadvantage of TMC and in BJP’s favour is not votes in those areas, although this is a premature observation. very sensible.” Both, however, regret that there is a minority tag Wonders can happen in elections,” he says with a caveat. Rabbani hung on Muslim clerics entering politics while those from other notes that Siddiqui is new to politics and his public quarrels with religions do not get classified similarly. Hanafis and others are well-known. The entry of ISF has emboldened the Left that has been looking for an opportunity to cling to life in the rough and tumble of West Bengal politics which has seen a massive churning since 2016. Fol- lowing the violence during local polls in 2018 in the state, the rules The fact that CPM has to lean on Siddiqui, an ambitious young man with no experience of engagement have changed enormously. A study by political in politics and who often makes misogynistic remarks, is a telling statement on the analyst Sajjan Kumar, who visited all 294 seats in the state, offers predicament of a party that once believed it was meant to rule West Bengal forever remarkable conclusions about the latest coordinates and trends ahead of one of India’s most crucial elections. Titled ‘Mood for Poriborton: West Bengal 2021’, it makes meaningful observations about various contenders across regions. It could be summed up thus: ‘BJP: Lack of an impressive profile of the local leadership. Yet, huge traction on account of the anti-TMC sentiment; TMC: Most unpopular party on account of corruption, unemployment...and political violence against the party’s rivals; CPM: The contradic- tion that their image has improved, but…aren’t considered elector- ally relevant; Congress: electorally insignificant.’ In this do-or-die battle to boost its sagging fortunes, the Left roping in Siddiqui to its fold is reflective of a typical last-ditch fight for survival. Dipankar Bhattacharya, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, or CPI(ML) Liberation, also called the Liberation group, tells Open that he is surprised at the scale and size of the alliance in which ISF has been given a large share of seats (more than 30): “I see this ISF as a party that celebrates identity politics. I won’t run into a conclusion that they are communal. This party is a product of this juncture in the state and in India where there is a lot of polarisation along religious lines. I hope its entry doesn’t help BJP eventually.” Bhattacharya insists that he is shocked by the number of seats given to ISF. “I am a bit intrigued,” he avers. Yet, the leaders of the resource-starved CPM Open spoke to find nothing wrong with the arrangement. We have to wake up to new realities, one of them says softly. That’s indeed an echoing statement from a leader of a party that once believed it was meant

getty images to rule the state forever. n

22 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 37 Assembly Elections 2021 BENGAL a h ero’s welcome Former Naxalite, king of B-grade films and hotel magnate Mithun Chakraborty has traversed the political spectrum to finally land a breakout role

by Kaveree Bamzai

getty images

ince its formation in 1998, the registered his return to politics with a dialogue from his film M.L.A. Trinamool Congress (TMC) has been Fatakeshto (2006) about being a genuine cobra that can kill in changing its composition so quickly that one bite. a veteran Congress leader, who had joined His appearance, complete with a beard and a beanie, might not and left the party in a huff, had described it indicate the extent of his real draw. The 70-year-old became a star as West Bengal’s fourth football club. Hav- when he won a National Award for Mrinal Sen’s Mrigayaa (1976). ing traversed the entire political spectrum, didn’t necessarily welcome him with open arms. That Mithun Chakraborty could well form a he arrived on the scene at the peak of Amitabh Bachchan’s ca- fifth football club entirely on his own. Beginning as a Naxalite reer didn’t help either. Steering clear of the race to compete with Sin his youth, he briefly joined TMC in 2011, and became a Rajya Bachchan, Mithunda, as he is known popularly, made himself Sabha member in 2014 and brand ambassador of the Saradha the centre of an alternative to the Mumbai film industry. Eventu- Group till he quit in 2016, citing ill-health. After being interro- ally, he moved to Ooty to set up The Monarch under the aegis of gated by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) during the investi- Mithun Group of Hotels. Directors from Mumbai saved on costs gation into a chit fund scam in which Saradha was implicated, of their low-budget movies by staying at his hotels, usually with Mithun had to hand over Rs 1.19 crore (after tax) to ED from the a heroine from south India, and completing the shoot. Rs 2 crore he had received in fees from the company. Having Throughout the cinematic wasteland of the 1980s and the joined BJP recently, his star is rising again. In his first campaign, he transformative 1990s, Mithun was known as the king of B-grade

38 22 march 2021 movies. A magazine once quoted him as saying: ‘‘‘Other stars give cultural roots in West Bengal, BJP sensed the Mamata advantage the starting date of a film,” he says proudly. “I give the comple- and have been competing since then. They view singer Babul tion date. Distributors are 101 per cent sure that the film will be Supriyo a prize catch. The imagery of powerful and emancipated completed, producers make a profit even before release. In the women like Rupa Ganguly has given them the hope to do better film industry, everybody is gambling. But if you do business, you on the gender quotient but the competition is tough as Mamata don’t gamble.”’ has a better following among female voters. Can she hold on till But even that business wisdom doesn’t capture his appeal. May 2nd is the question.” He was the icon of working-class India—auto drivers, factory Whether or not he was beloved by the critics or the upper workers, store keepers—before they discovered Salman Khan. He class, Mithun was always a tabloid staple. A quick read of the might have been called the poor man’s Bachchan but he resisted film magazines from his younger days paints him as a playboy. playing second fiddle to the Hindi film superstar, except famously A magazine of that era, Film Mirror, tries to analyse his lack of suc- in Agneepath (1990). Those in the Mumbai film industry who grew cess, attributing it to his entry into the industry through an ‘art’ up in the small forgotten towns of India have made him a cult film, his thick Bengali accent, his flirtations with B and C-grade hero—and rightly so. He finds himself referenced in movies ever actresses such as Sarika and Ranjita, and his impoverished begin- so often, whether it is the Mithun impersonator accompanying nings which saw his being satisfied with less rather than more. Manoj Bajpayee in Gangs of Wasseypur (2012) breaking into crazy It is ironic now that his career has lasted 45 years with over 300 dance moves, or more recently Rajkummar Rao going the whole Bengali and Hindi films in a sector known to be unrelenting to hog—with hairstyle and bell-bottoms—to play his luckless char- age. Amal Mukhopadhyay, former principal of erstwhile Presi- acter in Anurag Basu’s Ludo (2020). dency College, says if Mithun is given a nomination and made the He’s also the subject of writer and comedian Anuvab Pal’s Disco chief ministerial candidate, it will create havoc, even though he Dancer: A Comedy in Five Acts, in praise of the 1982 film from which is very popular because of his movies. In the New India of merit the book gets its title and which has become a cult classic. The film’s over inheritance, Mithun’s triumph is seen as even sweeter and USP was that its hero, played by Mithunda, had guitarphobia. Its appropriate. As he said in a 1982 inteview to Stardust: “I am a self- music, by another king of the B-list who is undergoing his own made man. I’ve struggled to achieve something. And I have got it. revival, Bappi Lahiri, is still entirely hummable in a campy way. And I am still aspiring and striving for more. I will not be satisfied Another favourite among fans is Gunmaster-G9: Surakksha until I have made enough money. To do roles one cannot afford to (1979) in which he played Officer Gopi, a James Bond clone. Admirers include director Sriram Raghavan whose Agent Vinod (2012) was a hom- A magazine once quoted Mithun Chakraborty age to it. Its pop-up guns and toy boats have in- spired much online chatter as younger viewers as saying: ‘Other stars give the starting date rediscover its unusual charms. Yet it isn’t as if of a film,’ he says proudly. ‘I give the Mithun is a joke, though Pal tells Open that the completion date. Distributors are 101 per cent way both BJP and TMC are hiring actors, there sure that the film will be completed, will be no actors left. “Politicians will have to become actors,” he says. Mithun has won three producers make a profit even before release’ National Awards, two for Best Actor in Mrigayaa and Tahader Katha (1992) and one for Best Supporting Actor in be lazy, so I’m not. The three-shift system just shows what great Swami Vivekananda (1995). He has a huge following abroad, es- human beings we actors are. I work for 17 hours a day. So you can pecially for his dancing, and his latest reincarnation as character imagine the working capacity I have.” actor has won him even more admirers in Hindi and Bengali cin- Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, who has worked with Mithun ema, both serious and mainstream. Younger directors, who grew on two films, says few in the Mumbai film industry can match up on his movies, are writing movies especially for him, much as his knowledge of Indian politics and history. What’s more im- they do for Bachchan. Younger actors pay homage to him. portant, he says, Mithun believes in India. His heart bleeds for Like Govinda, once the hero of the street, Mithun has also be- the poor and exploited—and this isn’t mere rhetoric, he says, but come cool, enacting powerful roles such as that of a newspaper something Mithun actually practises. For two decades Mithun tycoon, modelled on the Express group’s Ramnath Goenka, in was chairperson of the Film Studios Setting and Allied Mazdoor Mani Ratnam’s Guru (2007) and a retired disco dancer in Golmaal Union. He also helped create the Cine & T.V. Artistes Association. 3 (2010). He is even a judge on the reality show Dance India Dance. “If he has decided to be in politics,” Agnihotri says, “he will play Political anayst Rasheed Kidwai says the inclusion of artists, writ- a long innings.” ers and actors in West Bengal is a Left legacy. Mamata Banerjee Mithun’s journey from a tiny house in Jorabagan in north Kol- sensed its advanges early and picked it up. She enjoys being in kata to a 46-acre farmhouse on Madh Island is the stuff dreams are the company of cerebral personalities and at one time told Shah made of. Will ‘Banglar chele’ (Bengal’s son) transfer that magic to Rukh Khan to consider Kolkata his home. Says Kidwai: “Lacking the party he has just joined? BJP certainly believes so. n

22 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 39 dispatch HARVESTING A PROTEST

40 22 march 2021 If there is trouble from a resurgent Khalistani politics, it is unlikely to follow the roadmap of the 1980s. Siddharth Singh travels across Punjab to find out what has changed

T the southern edge of the Shakargarh Bulge, an area of Pakistan that abuts Indian A portrait of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale at the Damdami territory, lies a stretch of land across the river Taksal seminary in Mehta Chowk near Amritsar Ravi. Surrounded on three sides by Pakistan and with Ravi to its back, this is the ideal ter- ritory for a smuggler or, of late, for someone trying to send weapons across to India. With a meandering river, grasslands, open spaces and a geographically difficult area to access, this is a sensitive zone. “We have devoted considerable manpower to keep an eye on this region and are effectively the second line of defence for the country. But once in a while someone does man- Aage to sneak in weapons and drugs,” says Gurpreet Singh Gill, the senior superintendent of police (headquarters) for the Batala police district in north Punjab. “The number of policemen in that area may number just 200 but that area occupies more than a third of our mind,” he says, emphasising the problem for the local police. Gill is not alone in worrying about the problem of drones be- ing used to smuggle weapons into India via Punjab, a state that has seen its farmers camp on the outskirts of Delhi in a protest that has lasted more than four months. On different occasions, Amarinder Singh, the chief minister of Punjab, has said that a “lot of weapons” have been sent to Punjab. He said that the Union home ministry has been apprised of the situation. What many observers, in Punjab and elsewhere, fear is the abuse of the protest for separatist and political motives. The extensive foreign support—for example from Canada and Britain, where the ‘issue’ was debated in Parliament recent- ly—has had an effect on the dynamics of the protest. There is now, clearly, a pro-Khalistani faction within the ranks of the protestors even if the ground in Punjab is not ready for another misadventure of the kind seen in the 1980s. It is a testing time for Punjab. In a village not far from Phagwara town, a key activist of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, the apex body of protesting farmer unions, gives Open a very different account of the proceedings in that body—different from headlines about an obdurate Government not listening to farmers. He also hinted at a disturbing change in farmers’ politics in recent months. “There have been feelers from the Government that they are willing to extend the period of suspension of the three laws further and, if we negotiate, this can even go up to three years. But this is very unlikely,” he says while requesting anonymity. “Originally, it was difficult to get a coordinated response as there were 30-40 jathe bandis (different groups), each with its own followers. The noise and cacophony made agreement tough.” The situation is now dif- ferent. There are some groups which understand that this protest cannot go on for a long time but they are prisoners of their original stand: where they were unbending to begin with, now they find it

22 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 41 dispatch

hard to explain to their followers why a compromise is necessary. They would like to leave. “They would have left were it not for the If this is one dynamic within the Morcha, the other—more mattas (resolutions) passed by their village panchayats pledging disturbing—aspect is the tussle between Khalistani-oriented and support to the protest. The villages only have a sketchy idea of Left-backed unions. When questioned if the Khalistani influence what is going on in Delhi.” was for real, the activist responded in the affirmative. I ask the activist why he is going back to the protest site if such “The issue is not just one of money but of a vast number of so- is the situation. (He had briefly returned home for some work). cial media supporters for that kind of politics. Do you see anyone “We are against the three laws; we are not against the country. If talking just in terms of farmers’ issues without divisive politics?” I leave and come back, that will mean one less person to confront the activist—who comes from a well-known village of Ghadar the radicals.” Party pioneers—asked. The Jalandhar division of Punjab was home to the Ghadar activists who resisted the British Raj much before the freedom struggle was waged in a systematic manner. atala, a town in Gurdaspur district that is half-way “The best example of this situation is Balbir Singh Rajewal between Amritsar and the district headquarters, is in many (leader of a Bharatiya Kisan Union). He knows that some flex- B ways a typical Punjab town. Local industry centred around ibility is necessary but when he is confronted with these two very agriculture and trading mixes with something more interesting, different pressures, he goes ahead with the Left unions,” he says. politically speaking. The town is also at the crossroads of a region The activist is critical of the so-called leaders whom he de- of Punjab that has seen a mix of religious piety and political mo- scribes as “failed politicians” who had tried their luck at electoral bilisation, leading to an outcome from which the state suffered politics and had not succeeded. “A leader is able to take bold deci- for nearly two decades. Damdami Taksal, a religious seminary sions and face his followers, however difficult that may be. These with a troubled past, and Sri Hargobindpur, another town with union leaders first gathered their followers and gave commands; a history of terrorist violence, are not far off. In all, Batala is an now they are prisoners of their followers. If they agree with the interesting place to observe. Government, they fear accusations of selling-out.” Tucked in a corner of Zaffarwal village, just off the highway An impasse stares at the protest that began in November from Batala to Gurdaspur, is a cluster of nondescript houses. 2020. At the apex of the protest organisation, some leaders are But the person who lives there—locally known as the “German willing to come to terms with the Government even as Left and returned”—is anything but ordinary. From the early 1980s and Khalistani unions jostle each other for influence. At the bottom, well into the 1990s, Wassan Singh Zaffarwal spelled terror not a large number of farmers are despondent and don’t see a way out. just in Punjab but in neighbouring states as well. Today, many

A CRPF drill in Chandigarh, March 5

The idea is simple: don’t talk about Khalistan but let it brew quietly. Police say places where religious awareness is high and understanding of political processes is poor are likely spots for trouble

getty images

42 22 march 2021 years after his ‘surrender’, the former chief of the dreaded Kha- listan Commando Force sports the honorific Bhai as a prefix, a title normally reserved for religious and community leaders. The danger is not from an Age and his years on the run have not affected him adversely. When Open catches up with him at his ‘dera’ in Zaffarwal, he organised Khalistani party is equanimity itself. “If at all there is turmoil in Punjab, it will not take the form it backed with money from abroad did before,” he says while comparing the present with the ear- but from an unpredictable lier separatist insurgency. “We should support farmers and we should follow the programme set by farmers’ unions. This is chain of events.Local Police not a movement for Khalistan. We should not go on that path,” are wary of the events in he tells Open when questioned about the political moorings of the farmers’ agitation. Singhu and elsewhere It is a crafty answer coming from a man who has not stopped dabbling in identity politics since his return to India. It makes sense for him to deny any scope for Sikh separatism, knowing well that such sentiment exists on the ground and is very much represented in the farmers’ agitation. To another question on the reasons for the failure of separatists to gain Khalistan, Zaffarwal gives an interesting answer: “Worldwide, freedom struggles have only succeeded when armed action is backed by a political party that represents the voice of the people. In Punjab, all we had were corrupt and opportunistic politicians and not a party that gave voice to independence.” In the worldview of people like Zaffar- wal, the farmers’ agitation is something that will lead to the same kind of politics that led to turmoil in Punjab, if it is steered deftly. The idea is simple: don’t talk about Khalistan but let it brew qui- etly at the forum where it is strong.

If Zaffarwal’s arguments have a chess-like quality, the fam- alamy ily of a political activist who resisted terrorism and continues to A Punjab Police patrol in Amritsar pay a price for its ideals, has a totally different perspective. “How can anyone deny the presence of Khalistani terrorists in Punjab today?” asks Jagdish Kaur, wife of Balwinder Singh Sandhu, a answers of a terrorist, a scared and inconsolable family, obdurate Shaurya Chakra winner who was gunned down last October at farmers and a harried district police force. A median is also use- the school run by his family. less analytically: any insurgency may have tell-tale signs before Sandhu, a Left activist well-known for resisting terrorists in it bursts into the open, but one cannot simply make observations the Bhikhiwind area of Amritsar, the hotbed of insurgency in the that say “X will lead to Y.” The tell-tale signs are all there: the post- 1990s, was killed by two motorcycle-borne men on October 16th ers of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale; the mix of farmers’ protest last year just a week after his family had urged the state govern- with religious motifs on the roads of Batala; the songs praying ment to restore his security detail. The police protection given to for religious intercession against the Union Government at a Sandhu was withdrawn in March due to the Covid-19 pandemic. chabeel—a wayside offering of cool water by the devout—on the The case is controversial, with the local police also investigating an way to Dera Baba Nanak. The trouble is that if you are from Pun- alleged angle of personal rivalry. The family, however, denies this. jab, you can dismiss these as ‘normal’ things. But if one is from More important is the political perspective that lies behind the Punjab and keeps its history of troubled times in mind, perhaps family’s fears. For example, what makes it think that Khalistani some extra attention is also normal. activists, if not terrorists, are back in Punjab? “If you care to look Yet, one can safely say that if there is an answer to what is going at the events of the last year, such as the planting of the Khalistani on and what could unfold, the closest one can get is what officers flag at the deputy commissioner’s office in Moga, the pasting of of Batala police say. But in one sense, what Zaffarwal says is true: Khalistani posters in Batala town and other such incidents, they this time, if there is trouble, the form taken will be very different clearly indicated to us that this (Khalistani agitation) was not over. from what was seen in the 1980s. We knew we could become targets and we did,” Kaur tells Open at Back then, it was political competition between the two politi- her home, located within the school compound in Bhikhiwind cal parties of the state—Congress and the Akali Dal—that went town of Tarn Taran district. on a ruinous path. Punjab was suffused with religiosity that pro- It is futile to look for a median perspective among the devious vided the inflammable material necessary for an insurgency.

22 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 43 dispatch

A tractor rally against the farm laws in Chandigarh, January 23 getty images

The tell-tale signs are all there: the posters of Bhindranwale; the mix of farmers’ protest with religious motifs; the songs praying for religious intercession against the Union Government. The trouble is that if you are from Punjab, you can dismiss these as ‘normal’ things

The better-off Jat Sikh farmers thought that a political adventure trouble. Giving names is invidious but anyone who has observed could yield benefits for them. But that was then. Today, the can- this part of Punjab knows that there are many such places. The non fodder is different: a large and young population that has Mehta-Sri Hargobindpur stretch, the area adjoining Dera Baba few economic prospects. In that context, the northern districts Nanak, comes to mind immediately. But it will be unfair to single (the old Amritsar district along with Gurdaspur) are a cause for out these places. There are others as well. concern as they have a history of religion-based mobilisation. Nearly everyone Open talks to agrees that the farmers’ agi- Local police officers are wary of the events in Singhu and else- tation should not be allowed to carry on any further. In Delhi, where. “There won’t be terrorism of the kind that was seen last Surinder Jodhka, a long-time observer of Punjab politics who has time but what will happen is that gangsters like Lakha Sidhana written about the politics of Khalistan, downplays immediate will be used to create trouble here (in Batala). Religion always threats but says, “The longer the farmers’ agitation goes on, the comes in handy,” says a superintendent of police. When asked more chances it will give to elements who are fishing for trouble. about the possible problem of youth mobilisation—and why this Whatever be the mechanics of getting to a solution, efforts should is a problem now since the youth bulge was always an issue—the be made to end it quickly.” The danger is not from an organised officer says, “Earlier, drug use was rampant and a way out of a dim Khalistani party backed with money from abroad but from an existence with no prospects. Now things have changed. Today, if unpredictable chain of events that no one can anticipate. you want to mobilise a large number, all you have to do is give a This, however, is easier said than done. As the Samyukt Kisan charged speech.” Morcha activist says, the agitation is no longer about farmers’ “The josh in the agitation fell a bit after January 26th but is now interests and has now acquired a different political dynamic. Pub- rising once again. The next six months will be critical as elections licly, in terms of what activists, intellectuals and others say, the are nearing and that is the time when the potential for some mis- debate remains centred on farmers’ livelihoods. But in reality the adventure will be high,” he adds. inability to reach a solution with the Government—in fact, an un- Are there specific places where things can get out of hand? willingness to do so—points to a disturbing direction of politics. Here, police officers shy away from citing particular examples Anyone who has observed Punjab’s politics and those tasked with but say that those places where religious awareness is high and keeping the state in order know this is a disquieting moment. To understanding of political processes is poor are likely spots for view the agitation as a battle of attrition will be a mistake. n

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Available as an e-magazine for tablets, mobiles and desktops via Magzter BUSINESS Turning over a New Leaf The opportunities and pains of India’s tiny seaweed market By Lhendup G Bhutia

ack in 2008, when when PepsiCo, having got together a com- But what Seth heard when he asked Abhiram Seth, the then munity of fishermen and women in Tamil about the future of the project did not director in-charge of Nadu and taking the knowhow from In- seem uplifting. He was told that the pro- PepsiCo’s exports in agri- dian scientists working on growing sea- gramme would be shut down, he recalls, culture, was leaving the weed, established a seaweed cultivation unless his successor chose to continue company, he decided to programme as part of its CSR activities. with it. “They were frank about it. The pro- check upon what plans PepsiCo extracted carrageenan from gramme wasn’t really a part of their core his firm held for its sea- the seaweed, a product used in a host of agenda,” he recalls. So Seth decided to buy weed cultivation project. industries. And the entire programme, this division from the multinational. “It Seth had been deeply although relatively small, began to do looked like a good semi-retirement busi- involved in it. He was at well, with over 700 locals from fishing ness to do. Even if it failed, you wouldn’t theB meeting when a client suggested ex- communities in Tamil Nadu, a majority make a big loss. Plus, I had become a bit ploring India’s long coastline for cultivat- of them women, becoming involved in attached to it,” he says. ing seaweed. And he was placed in charge, harvesting seaweed. Seth established AquAgri, a company

46 22 march 2021 at the potential of this type of plant, with types of compounds found in the cell some estimates claiming the market walls of seaweed and used in the pro- was worth $10.6 billion in 2016 and will duction of a vast number of everyday reach $26.1 billion by the end of 2025. products like toothpastes, ice-creams, Seaweed cultivation But India, despite its vast coastline and shampoos, skin creams, and many other in the Gulf of Mannar, the large variety of seaweed that grows such products. Seaweed is also used in the Tamil Nadu wild by its shore, has remained an development of biofertilisers which can insignificant player. help boost crop yields. This could change now with the But seaweed’s proponents believe this Government actively looking to push humble aquatic plant has a tremendous this new form of aqua-cultivation. It amount of untapped potential. Accord- allocated about Rs 640 crore for devel- ing to them, it can transform the way we oping the seaweed industry last year. humans live. In it, they say, could lie the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, answers to some of the most pressing is- in her Union Budget earlier in 2021, sues of our times, from combating food announced that the Government would shortages and rehabilitating our oceans to be setting up a multipurpose seaweed mitigating the effects of climate change. park in Tamil Nadu. Dinabandhu Sahoo, a professor of During a recent webinar on the devel- botany at the University of Delhi and vice opment of the seaweed industry organ- chancellor of Fakir Mohan University in ised by the National Co-operative Devel- Balasore in Odisha, says land-based agri- opment Corporation, Rajeev Ranjan, the culture has become increasingly unten- secretary of the Department of Fisheries at able. It is not just that agriculture is vulner- the Centre, revealed that the Government able to drought and inclement weather, wanted to increase seaweed production he says, but it is also environmentally in the country from 2,500 tonnes now to destructive. “Why not look at seaweed as

This is one of the remarkable things about the cultivation of seaweed in India: the kind of opportunities it has provided to these poor coastal families ” abhiram seth managing director, AquAgri

alamy that over time would not just extract car- 11.5 lakh tonnes in the next five years. This, a source of food?” he asks. rageenan from the seaweed sold to them, he said, could be achieved by using just 1 Seaweed, as he points out, has been but also use it to develop what it calls per cent of the country’s approximately found to be rich in proteins, vitamins and biostimulant products that can be used 8,000-km-long coastline. “Even if India iodine. And yet, apart from countries in in agriculture for better yields. Although aims only for the lowhanging fruit in the the Far East and Southeast Asia, very few his company has been growing fairly sector, it can easily achieve the target,” he have looked at it seriously as a form of rapidly—locals from some 25 to 30 sites was reported as saying. food. Seaweed is one of the world’s most across Tamil Nadu’s coastline now cater Seth is excited by this newfound focus sustainable and nutritious crops since it to its needs—seaweed cultivation has on seaweed from the Government. “With requires neither fresh water nor fertiliser. continued to remain overall a small and the Government’s help, the seaweed in- It is also sturdy and grows at a terrific rate, somewhat obscure business in the coun- dustry could take off here,” he says. with farmers in India harvesting seaweed try. This, at a time when the seaweed mar- For the most part, seaweed is used in crops in just 45-day cycles. “Turning to ket is expanding rapidly globally, as more several parts of the world for the extrac- seaweed as a food source ensures you and more businesses begin to look closely tion of carrageenan and agars, which are aren’t just getting nutrition. You are also

22 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 47 BUSINESS

contributing to environmental conserva- control carbon emissions, some will one from NGOs and researchers, have come tion,” says Sahoo. day pick upon his idea. together to form small local self-help Sahoo has been pushing for a greater groups. These women, who previously use of seaweed in India for several de- were unemployed or helped out their cades. One of the leading researchers in ver 800 species of seaweed fishermen husbands, now form the big algae, he’s worked in several coastal areas have so far been found in India. chunk of the workforce, going through to promote seaweed farming in India. A They grow abundantly along the the whole procedure of tying seaweed few years ago, he even led a large all-India O coast of Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Lak- seedlings to ropes or rafts, preparing the network project where researchers sup- shadweep and the Andaman and Nicobar planting material and, usually 45 days af- ported fishing communities to take up Islands. Rich seaweed beds have also been ter first planting the seaweed in relatively this form of cultivation. found in other places, such as Ratnagiri in shallow water, harvesting the crop, and He traces his fascination with sea- Maharashtra, Goa, Karwar in Karnataka, then cleaning and drying it. “This is one of weed to the time when, while interact- Varkala and Vizhinjam in Kerala, and the remarkable things about the cultiva- ing with a Japanese student (living in Chilika Lake in Odisha. tion in India: the kind of opportunities it the same Delhi hostel as Sahoo was as The most commercially important has provided to these poor coastal fami- part of a student exchange programme), among them, the red seaweed species lies,” Seth says. noticed him consuming seaweed. “I was known as Kappaphycus alvarezii, however, But the last four years have not been born and raised by the coast in Puri (Odi- is a species originally native to the Philip- good for seaweed cultivation. The increase sha) and was familiar with seaweed,” he pines’ coastline. According to a scientist, in ocean temperatures because of global says. But Sahoo, then a young botanist, who requested anonymity since he is not warming, Seth says, has led to a sharp didn’t know this humble aquatic plant could be consumed or had so many properties. Since then, Sahoo has travelled to various Far Eastern Turning to seaweed as a food and Southeast Asian coun- source ensures you aren’t just getting tries to learn more about these aquatic plants and the nutrition. You are also contributing to ways in which they can be environmental conservation” cultivated, before pushing for dinabANDHU sahoo their adoption in India. botanist, University of Delhi Some years ago, to demon- strate the ability of seaweed in con- trolling carbon emissions, he strapped a water tank filled with seaweed immersed authorised to speak, the Central Salt and decline in crop yields. The vigour of the in water upon his Maruti 800 car, and had Marine Chemicals Research Institute planting material has also come down. the car’s tailpipe connected to the tank (CSMCRI) which is affiliated to the Coun- “There is a great need for fresh planting through a tube. It was a carbon-neutral cil of Scientific and Industrial Research, material to be introduced,” he says. car, he says. The seaweed in the tank, acquired this species and began to first This reduction in crop yield has also which he had grown in his lab, was try to grow it on Indian shores in the late led to many of these farmers forsaking capturing the carbon dioxide from the 1980s. The researchers were hoping to tap their profession. AquAgri once had over emissions and converting it into oxygen. into the increasing need for carrageenan 1,200 fishermen and women supplying “One kg of algae can capture about 1.8 kg and agar by industries. seaweed to them. Now, less than 400 do. of carbon dioxide and produce 1.6 kg of The field got a boost when PepsiCo, Its peak of processing about 2,000 tonnes oxygen,” he says. licensing the technology from CSMCRI, of dry seaweed annually has also come It wasn’t the most convenient way began to cultivate seaweed commercially. down to about 400 tonnes. To deal with to get around in Delhi—the professor “CSMCRI had started with just 5 grams the shortage, Seth says, the company has squinting in concentration, the water of plant (seaweed) material brought from in fact had to import carrageenan. jostling in the tank above him—but it a lab in Japan. We (at PepsiCo) waited for “We are still growing well. In fact, we was a good way to capture attention, he about two years for seed multiplication see major growth possibilities in the bio- says. He eventually stopped using the before we began planting it,” Seth says. stimulant market, which can be used tank once he began travelling away from A large proportion of seaweed farm- (to increase crop yields),” Seth says. “The Delhi more frequently. But he hopes that ers in India tends to be women. Many of Government interest has come at a good with many automobile companies now them, with the support of corporates such time. There is tremendous potential. It increasingly in the lookout for ways to as PepsiCo before and AquAgri now, apart just needs a little attention.” n

48 22 march 2021 While Inside Look Outside For FREE With access visit www.openthemagazine.com cinema Owning Her Age At 49, she considers it a great privilege to be asked to play her age onscreen. Pooja Bhatt, feisty teen idol and magazine cover magnet of the 1990s, is back, headlining one of this summer’s n biggest streaming series By Kaveree Bamzai o sal

getty images

50 22 MARCH 2021 n 1989, in Daddy, she played a young woman who helps her father battle alcoholism. At 45, she announced that she too was an alcoholic. Now with the alcohol abuse behind her, she says, “I wonder whether the movie would have worked if it had been called Mummy? Even addiction is a male privilege.” IThat’s Pooja Bhatt for you. A one-time teen idol, sometime hands-on director and now comeback queen. She first stepped in front of a camera after submitting to her father’s direction who won over her reluctance by pretending to offer the role to Twinkle Khanna. Now 20 years after her last major role in Everybody Says I’m Fine!, Bhatt is back in the spotlight. And unlike the character she plays in the Netflix miniseries, Bombay Begums, who is ever conscious of the bags under her eyes and the hot flashes she suf- fers from, Bhatt is proud of every wrinkle and every fold of her body. It has informed her work and allowed her to let the “floodgates open”. “Be- ing back in front of the camera is so liberating and cathartic,” she says. The result is a compelling Rani Singh Irani, who negotiates her new role as CEO of a pri- vate bank, even as she tries her best to win over

I realised there is no happily ever after. It took me time to realise that. I would keep asking,‘Why me?’ But I finally understood, ‘Why not me?’” Pooja Bhatt actor and director

22 MARCH 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 51 cinema

her stepchildren. Bhatt portrays Rani’s Just when you think you’ve understood hunger for love with a desperation and her, you realise there is more to her. I rawness rarely seen on screen, and when wanted somebody who you could look she finally breaks down, urging her at and feel like, ‘Yes, she is the boss, she stepdaughter to risk her life for her art, owns the room.’ And yet behind that not for some callow boy, she may as well confident facade is a life of battles lost have been talking to her younger self. and won.” “I remember I wanted to play the girl in Shrivastava had been a Pooja Bhatt Aashiqui [directed by her father, the 1990 fangirl in her childhood and remem- musical starring Rahul Roy and Anu bers watching Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin Aggarwal was a blockbuster hit and its with her sister 21 times. It became their music is popular even today]. But my favourite summer holiday occupation. boyfriend at the time refused to let me do “Pooja was so refreshing, feisty and mod- it. And I, so in love, said no. Many years ern, and ahead of her times,” she recalls. later when I reminded the boy, now a Indeed, Bhatt’s magazine covers and man, about it, he didn’t even remember.” bikini shoots for advertisements were Bhatt may have been a star child, with often red flags to arch conservatives. She all the attendant benefits of nepotism, kissed her father Mahesh on the cover including tailormade roles in movies of Stardust magazine in 1994 and then such as Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin (1991) appeared in a bodypainted tuxedo for and Sir (1993), but she says she lost the cover of Movie magazine in 1995. As if herself at some point. “The expectation that was not enough, Stardust, in order to in the nineties was that women were to ostensibly highlight the issue of mor- be seen and not heard. Every pore of my phed photographs, used one of an almost body rebelled against that,” she now says. naked Bhatt on its cover. It was enough At 25, she turned producer with Tamanna to anger the Akhil Bhartiya Agnishikha (1998), written by her father which she Manch, an organisation which claimed it wanted to produce, and that led her to was devoted to the preservation of Indian a different path. But four films down, values, which moved the office of the she was still not fulfilled, even though then Maharashtra Minister of Culture she launched new talents such as John Pramod Navalkar to get copies of the of- Abraham and Udita Goswami. Bhatt fending issue removed from the stalls. drifted along in a marriage for 10 years “The expectation in the Nineties was that women were to be seen and [with former Channel V veejay Manish not heard. Every pore of my body rebelled against that” Pooja Bhatt Makhija] because “I wanted to prove that ll of this has been part of I could make a marriage work for a dec- her journey, and Bhatt is proud ade,” but left when she realised she had of every stumble. It has made ing talent and you have someone who is forgotten the woman she was. “Luckily I Aher tougher but also allowed her to more than a joy to work with. “She has didn’t have children,” she adds. retain her vulnerability. In fact, she had always been an evolved soul so I don’t “You know, when I was very young, a cancer scare in the period leading up to think there have been any evolutionary Helen Aunty [the actress] gave me a Bombay Begums, while she was doing her leaps she has needed to take in the last collection of Grimms’ Fairy Tales but I make-up and costume tests, but insisted 20 years. We picked up exactly where realised there is no happily ever after. on going ahead. It was only much later we left off during Everybody Says I’m It took me time to realise that. I would that it was diagnosed as thyroiditis, says Fine! On the sets of Bombay Begums there keep asking, ‘Why me?’ But I finally father Mahesh. was ease, laughter, merciless teasing [on understood, ‘Why not me?’’ she says. Rahul Bose, her co-star in Bombay Be- her end] and enormous affection. She The ability to take the blows head-on gums and director of the film she last ap- remains one of my favourite people,” is what motivated Bombay Begums’ peared in in a major role, Everybody Says adds Bose, who is enjoying something of creator Alankrita Shrivastava to pursue I’m Fine! (2001), says she has always been a renaissance himself with fine perfor- Bhatt. Shrivastava says, “For Rani, I an authentic human being with a clear mances in Netflix’s Bulbbul and Bombay definitely wanted an actor who had a perception about herself, something one Begums. combination of strength and vulner- cannot say for many people today. That Bhatt lives away from Mumbai’s hul- ability. I wanted somebody who looked makes her fearless, he says. Couple that laballoo now, in a state her father like there are many layers to who she is. with her emotional intelligence and act- describes as “single blessedness” at a

52 22 MARCH 2021 pooja bhatt in bombay begums

too many opportunities to display their acting skills; most were reduced to being arm candy of the heroes. They now have an opportunity to parlay their life experiences into their work, and it is a joy to watch. They’ve walked, they’ve stumbled, they’ve gotten up, on their own two shaky feet, not assisted by their husbands or their fathers. They’re will- ing now to dig deeper into their souls and wear their hearts on their sleeves. The burden of beauty is the most difficult one to shed, says Mahesh. He adds, “It’s the last vanity, but in doing that, in radiating authenticity, you draw people in. It is as exhilarating for me as when, with trembling hands and a concerned heart, I saw Pooja going off on her bicycle by herself.” He witnessed with great distress her battle with alcohol, but he did not play counsellor. “I had no moral right to lecture her,” he says. He wanted her to take the reins of her life herself. “It’s not easy for a woman who is suddenly put in the ‘has-been’ category by society, who has no nourishment from a relationship or anything enduring or meaningful in her life to deal with ageing,” he says. “The expectation in the Nineties was that women were to be seen and But there came a day when he was at the not heard. Every pore of my body rebelled against that” Pooja Bhatt Bengaluru airport waiting to take off to the Maldives with wife Soni Razdan and daughters Shaheen and Alia, and he farm in Kalote near Lonavala in Maha- lovely for me to work closely with her texted Pooja, ‘If you love me love your- rashtra. The only man in her life is her to help create what I think is one of self because I live in you.’ She got the 14-year-old dhartiputra dog, Gingeroo. her most memorable performances. message. She has been sober for over a Her proud father says, “The other day It was vulnerable, it was strong, it was year now, and collaborated closely with I was driving away after meeting her emotionally intense and it was deeply her father on the 53-day shoot of Sadak 2 at her farm, and I saw in her someone affectionate. I remember so clearly, a (2020) starring Sanjay Dutt and Alia. walking towards life, not away from day when we were shooting a song in Bhatt has fought her own demons, life.” She has created her own world, “a which she had to lie in her bed for one reclaimed her life, and is now finally al- pearl” says Mahesh, and she now even of the verses—Pooja didn’t leave the lowing herself to revel in the praise that works closely with the tribals of the vil- bed for hours because she wanted to is coming her way for Bombay Begums. lage. But she has no intention of staying stay in that moment. So, between shots “I was an accidental star,” she says, refer- away from acting now, although as she even as lighting would go on, she’d wait ring to her first stint as an actor. “Success puts it, “after such a fine meal you can’t patiently in that same spot, not moving was something someone else defined settle for junk food”. away, so that she would remain ‘in the for me. I was not terribly ambitious and Her friends and allies are delighted zone’. She’s one of the most responsive kept asking myself, is this what I want?” to have her back. Tanuja Chandra, who and open actors I’ve worked with.” Direction was her salvation then. It may was associate director on Zakhm (1998), Indeed, the tragedy of many women well be acting and living—entirely on says she was a joy to work with. “It was stars of the ’90s is that they didn’t get her own terms—now. n

22 MARCH 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 53 books

The Violent Indian Thomas Blom Hansen’s new book studies the widening gap between the goals of those at the helm and the rights enshrined in the Constitution. The author in conversation with Ullekh NP

homas Blom Hansen is one of the world’s Christophe Jaffrelot and Angana Chatterji. His previous foremost scholars of . Which is works on India include The Saffron Wave: Democracy and Hindu why his books continue to generate tremendous Nationalism in Modern India (1999), Wages of Violence: Naming and interest among academics and non-academics Identity in Postcolonial Bombay (2001) and Urban Violence in alike. His latest one, The Law of Force: The Violent India (2005). THeart of Indian Politics (Aleph; 176 pages; Rs 499), which released This new book argues that Partition was not a ‘catastrophic recently and traces the chequered history of political violence aberration’, but ‘the eruption’ of the ‘ghastly truth’ of Indian in India, argues that the current fissures and tensions in the political life: public violence. He hastens to add that he is not country are nothing new, but a manifestation of what is exonerating the colonial rulers of British India over driving embedded within. Simply put, the arguments in the book are as implosive as they are revelatory. This work is a sharp study of What the rise and dominance the widening gap between the of the BJP demonstrate is that goals of what Hansen calls the illiberal forces at the helm and Partition was a foundational the rights enshrined in the event in the life of the Indian Constitution. His critique is also a blistering attack on the nation state, an event that still Government, which the Stanford reverberates through everyday University professor describes as politics and social relations” “a regime of low-intensity terror”. “No. That is not an exaggeration. Thomas Blom Hansen anthropologist The attacks on Muslim neighbourhoods in Delhi in 2020, the incredibly violent harassment of Muslims in Uttar Pradesh by police and self-styled vigilantes deeper wedges in Indian society along religious lines. “I and similar incidents show the active complicity of state completely agree that British colonialism created conditions authorities in creating a climate of fear among minority groups that allowed for a re-imagining and consolidation of religious and an atmosphere of impunity among Hindu vigilantes,” the affiliation into larger and ‘simplified’ entities that became 63-year-old anthropologist tells Open. pitted against each other as mortal enemies in a way that He adds, “That is very dangerous and it reflects the fact was not the case before the 19th century. The British actively that many people in the BJP and RSS believe in power, not in encouraged organisation along community lines, and they democracy. In the years before the Nazis seized power (by the played communities against each other, yes. That is well ballot, don’t forget), their vigilantes and stormtroopers had been established by scholarship in the past many decades.” At the allowed to roam the streets and terrorise socialists, communists, same time, he adds, “I follow my friend [and academic] Shruti Jews and anyone opposed to their agenda. They created a sense of Kapila’s argument that we need to rethink the significance of chaos, an atmosphere of fear of ‘hidden conspiracies’ threatening Partition in the political life of India.” ordinary Germans that Hitler then seized on when imposing “What the rise and dominance of the BJP demonstrate is draconian measures to ‘restore order’.” that Partition was a foundational event in the life of the Indian Notably, over the decades, Hansen has done extensive field nation state, an event that still reverberates through everyday studies in western India, especially and Aurangabad, politics and social relations. Not just as deep and injurious and has collaborated with other experts in the field, including memories of violence as has been explored in admirable ways

54 22 march 2021 (which has connotations of strategy/ trickery) and ‘politics karna’ (to do politics). How did he reach this conclusion? “The short answer is spending a lot of time with political activists and ordinary people. In Maharashtra, where I have done most of my work, terms like rajkaaran and rajniti are used (often negatively) for the world of politics, for political life and activity as such. However, I have found that political activity and activism were often described by the term ‘politics karna’, a terminology that really has become a part of the vernacular. Siyaasat is also widely used as a colloquial term by Urdu and Hindi speakers,” he says. Hansen uses fictitious names to protect the identities of many of those interviewed because, he says, the respondents had expressed their fear of being identified. He points out, “That has been the case with most of the people I have met over the years who belong to social or religious minorities, especially Dalits and Muslims. Some of these individuals have less fear because they belong to political parties or movements that have some standing and that they hope can shield them to some extent.” He adds, however, that in situations of heightened conflict, during riots or draconian police action, individual status matters less than your social category and everybody belonging to these Thomas Blom Hansen communities can become a target. The Law of Force dwells on democratic deepening in India in the 1980s and the 1990s thanks to those who weren’t in power in the past decades, but by providing a matrix for political before getting an opportunity to do so, and yet it looks at the flip enmity, a ‘violent fraternity’ as Kapila calls it,” says Hansen. His side: what he calls ‘substantialisation’ of communities. It is here view is that Partition and the decades of strife that preceded it that he talks about the process whereby communities became provide an incredibly stable repertoire of myths of ‘the other’, less concerned about recognition of their own standing vis-à- and horrible rituals of killing and abuse that are repeated each vis those above or below them in the caste hierarchy and were time there is a communal clash anywhere in the country. more focused on developing a story of their own community as Hansen adds, “The BJP was the first political formation unique, founded around certain myths, virtues, heroes, certain to actively and aggressively tap this vein of memories and ways of being, eating, speaking, etcetera. “That is, turning one’s structure of enmity that had been actively played down by community into a more bounded and horizontally integrated Congress for many years in order to build the nation. But whole, like an ethnic community, you might say. One clear trauma and emotion on that scale cannot easily be tucked away. example is the evolution of Yadav identity across north India It will return as we know from many other parts of the world.” as documented by Lucia Michelutti and others,” he says, Although brief at 176 pages, The Law of Force makes for a emphasising that violence still remains at the core of Indian fascinating read. Besides the rigour behind this work, its clarity public life. As with the latest trends, he quotes Freud on fascism is unmistakably profound. It says that for the majority of to hint that in India most rioters are emboldened by a certain Indians, rajniti is a less familiar word used to denote politics, and permission to act without constraints and moral injunctions. He that they are more aligned with the expressions such as siyaasat says most streetfighters are not essentially destitute, but those

22 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 55 books

who relish the freedom to get a thrill from assaulting others. perpetrated in 2013 is potentially significant and points to the Denmark-born Hansen, who has previously taught at Yale possibility of alignments and forms of political friendships that University, also rues the routine banalisation of the Gandhian reached beyond community sentiments.” language of self-sacrifice. “Whatever you think of the man, he The book calls for police reforms in India, which, took personal risks, his body was an active part of political life, according to Hansen, is long “overdue”. The author notes that as it were. Not so today where the Gandhi gesture is largely since 1980 there has been a steady stream of commissions rhetorical. It is interesting that the whole demonetisation recommending thorough reform of policing, the training affair was framed as a national sacrifice and that people were of recruits, the organisation of the forces, the strengthening asked to endure hardship. In my view, demonetisation is as of relationships with the communities that are policed, much about a certain conservative dog-whistle politics that reduction of the high number of custodial deaths and the was fundamentally protecting the rich and the powerful by routine violence and abuse by police. He regrets that no conjuring up a target of the small-time corrupt bureaucrats, action has been taken and it is a true mystery that none of business people and dalal [middle men] figures who would the political forces that fight for the protection of the poorer now lose ill-gotten wealth,” he says. sections and minorities have made this a key demand. “The The book looks into the elation experienced by many number of Muslims in the police is negligible but Dalits are middle-class Hindus when members of minority groups gradually having a larger footprint in policing in the states die or are imprisoned. Hansen says that he is quite worried where Dalits are socially upwardly mobile. However, a single about the shrinking space for dissent and violation of civil Dalit policeman cannot change the culture of policing, which remains excessively violent and in daily violation of the spirit of the Constitution,” Hansen explains. Not all lives have the same Talking about the force of law being rarely value in India and the lives of applied equally or impartially in India, he says, Dalits, tribals or Muslims are not “Not all lives have the same value in India and the lives of Dalits, Tribals or Muslims are not considered grievable in the way that considered grievable in the way that an upper- an upper-caste Hindu life would be” caste Hindu life would be. As I mention in the book, when members of minority groups die or Thomas Blom Hansen are imprisoned the reaction from many middle- class Hindus is often approving and one finds common remarks like ‘someone needs to teach these people a lesson’, or ‘they only understand liberties. He is also anxious of “the easy political conformism force’, or ‘these people are goondas and criminals’.” of large sections of the middle class (and the majority of the The book also puts the blame on the Left in conniving press) seemingly content with a constant flow of material at largescale and perpetual human-rights violations in the improvements and an official vindication of widespread name of national sovereignty. “I am not entirely sure what the prejudices regarding Muslims, Dalits and that new peculiar position of the parliamentary Left is on the future of Kashmir, and shapeshifting threat: the urban Naxal—a label that can be or the many decades of the Armed Forces Special Powers affixed to anyone disagreeing with the government or critical Act that has given the security forces a free hand to act with of aspects of the social order.” impunity in the Northeast, in Kashmir and in other ‘disturbed On the farmers’ protests he says: “On the one hand, these areas’. As you may know, India has a very long history of protests are in line with a very long tradition of protests in India, dismissing any critique of its human-rights record as undue of asserting one’s right to speak up and dissent. That is a deeply interference in the Indian sovereign sphere,” Hansen says. entrenched sensibility, entirely in line with the Constitution, The Law of Force also discusses the media onslaught on still the heart of ordinary political life in India and not easily Tablighis in Delhi at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic as curbed or delegitimised as the BJP is now learning the hard way.” a dangerous ‘episode’ in the long history of ‘violence at the He adds, “However, it is one thing to defend one’s livelihood and heart of Indian public life’. “If a community is portrayed as economic interests, and another to defend broader principles, physically endangering the majority by being vectors of disease such as ‘the right to have rights’, a right that would also apply to or contagion, that creates a whole new level of enmity and communities that you in everyday life have a more antagonistic potential justifications for the removal of this community relationship with. Here the recent spectacle of farmer leader from mainstream society. This was what happened to Jews in Rakesh Tikait from western Uttar Pradesh and his followers Germany who were accused of spreading disease and of being a apologising to the Muslim community [and fellow farmers] in burden on the German nation,” Hansen says. This book is sure Muzaffarnagar for the violence that Jat farmers and other Hindus to kick up a storm—and maybe, debate, too. n

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The Road to Redemption The Rock Babas and Other Stories A debut collection about characters at crossroads Ameya Prabhu

By Antara Raghavan Westland 302 Pages | Rs 399

leopard doesn’t change monks play their divine songs to the its spots.’ This is an assump- tune of rock songs like ‘Highway adds how his grandfather was never ‘A tion shared by most people. to Hell’. punished and lived to a ripe old age. Another common belief is that short Prabhu’s stories here do not always ‘Good men die early and evil men live stories seldom do their authors justice. reflect these themes of atonement and to grow old,’ the dictator adds bitterly. It It is impossible for a reader to properly closure. In ‘The Man with a Beard’ an then slowly becomes apparent that the immerse themselves in a short story, idealistic journalist is aghast when he phrase could describe him as well. or get a sense of the author’s intent. realises that the inspiring article he Other stories allude heavily to the In his debut work of fiction, Ameya is to write on the titular character is realities of the past year. In ‘Agent Prabhu successfully defies both these meant to be the man’s swan song, and Holder’, a gifted and tenacious Geor- notions. All the tales in his collection that he had been hired to write it by gia Bureau of Investigation agent The Rock Babas and Other Stories portray those who plan to remove him from his investigates a hate crime. The fact that characters who are at a crossroads in position. The author again shows how Holder himself is African American is their lives, and who end up making the reader can be fooled in ‘Memoirs of not a large part of his investigation, as transformative decisions. These nine a Dictator’, by conflicting perspectives. Prabhu constantly describes him in a stories show the range, empathy and The dictator in the story is writing his ‘Zen state of mind’. However, Holder talent of the writer. autobiography in a prison cell, and his internally reflects on the injustices that There are strong themes of redemp- account beguiles the reader into feeling ethnic minorities have to endure in the tion and second chances in this collec- sympathy for him, especially when American legal system and he always tion. ‘The Accidental Philanthropist’ is he describes how his abusive grandfa- reminds the reader of the staggeringly centred around the ageing Japanese mo- ther had caused the narrator’s mother high numbers to support the fact. The gul Takahashi Watanabe who donates to have two miscarriages. One can’t author’s use of statistics, as well as the his wealth to charity after receiving help but be moved when the narrator detailed and exhaustive account of the news about his impending death, all investigation, show the depth of rigour in an attempt to mend fences with and research invested in this story. his long-estranged daughter. How- One more instance when current ever, the flip side is revealed when affairs are referred to is when an actor the story explores how the choices is asked to prepare for a movie where a one makes when one is faced with contagious global virus is synthesised death are drastically different from and released, starting a pandemic, caus- when the news of impending doom ing millions of deaths and resulting in is lifted. Even then, the theme of economic crises. These stories mirror forgiveness prevails. the sense of optimism and rebuilding Similarly, in ‘The Manifestations that the real world is seeking. of Anpao’, when the dangers of an All these stories, whether they occur actor losing himself in method acting in Japan, Africa, or in the US, or whether as well as experimenting in dubious they centre around actors, musicians, medicine are revealed, Prabhu conveys or businessmen, are how one ultimately can return to introspective, and can one’s self. Additionally, in cause readers to lose the story ‘The Rock Babas’, themselves in the an arrogant Swiss ho- author’s imagin- telier’s attitude shifts ings. This is a while at a monastery promising debut in the Himalayas from an exciting where the devout Ameya Prabhu writer. n

Illustration by Saurabh Singh 22 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 57 books

Parched Earth Farmer protests told through one of India’s most distressed regions By Lhendup G Bhutia getty images A drought-hit farm in Maharashtra

hy are the farmers at a water train arrives. There are suicides sexual assault; into their migration to Delhi’s borders? We know the and reports of depleting groundwater cities; into addiction and depression; and W simple answer to that question. levels. There is a horrifying sameness to into the stories of their children, who They are there because of the three new the story, a kind of slow-drip of unrelent- would much rather drop their studies to farm laws, which, depending upon one’s ing tragedy to the point that it— work, or get married quickly so they can ideological slant, will reform or destroy awfully—desensitises and benumbs. earn more money as a couple working on Indian agriculture. But such a political But Iyer, who has been reporting from a sugarcane plantation. lens can only obscure, not clarify. it for several years, takes the reader much The drought in Marathwada, as What is needed is a way to under- deeper to ask us crucial questions. Why is the book shows, is a result as much of stand what lies beneath the foment. it that one never hears of female farmers climate change as that of a disinterested Landscapes of Loss: The Story of an who kill themselves? Is it because they political leadership. Ironically, such a Indian Drought, written by the journal- rarely have land titles to their names drought-prone zone has large sugarcane ist Kavitha Iyer, tries to do that, taking and because, while a large majority of plantations—through whose sugar- you deep into the countryside to show them work in the fields, they are not cane factories and co-operatives some you what animates their concerns and recognised as farmers? What happens of the state’s biggest leaders derive their makes them so wary of deceit. to a family after a farmer kills himself? strength—and other water-intense This work looks at the area of Marath- Iyer takes us to the caste struggle going businesses such as alcohol and paper wada that lies on the western side of on for several decades where lower castes manufacturing units. Every time there Maharashtra and is probably among the have occupied barren farm lands in these is a drought, politicians come out with a most distressed agricultural regions in regions, but who, even while they agitate host of initiatives that do little but look the country. Iyer provides a clear-eyed for the government to officially declare good on paper. Even now, the govern- view on agriculture in India that is these lands as theirs, now find their chil- ment is working on an ambitious plan of otherwise absent. dren migrating elsewhere because these linking rivers and dams across the state. The farmer has become a mythical plots are not worth it. And she follows But such steps are unlikely to be enough, creature, Iyer writes, one that may visit cit- the farmers into the indignities caused and fail to answer the larger questions of ies occasionally with his calloused feet in by a drought, into sugarcane fields where how water demand can be reduced and chappals and cataract-clouded eyes look- women will work as labourers through how groundwater levels can be raised. ing skywards for signs of rain, but who childbirth, sometimes at the risk of Whatever solutions may come will returns to his village to produce a bumper probably emerge from the locals them- crop, and perform his twin roles of keep- selves. A small movement of women’s ing prices low and staying out of sight. self-help groups, Iyer reports, has been But, as the book makes clear, farmers have bringing radical changes in those villages been coming to cities across the country simply because women have begun tak- to protest, in the last few years, refusing to ing a more central role in their family’s stay out of sight, and telling us that even decisions, from launching side busi- amidst the usual stories of farmer distress, nesses and getting into organic farming, something much worse is unfolding. to reducing their family’s dependence on The plight of Marathwada itself isn’t private moneylenders. Elsewhere, Iyer Landscapes of Loss entirely unknown. Every few years, this The Story of An Indian Drought writes of a promising watershed manage- region undergoes intense periods of Kavitha Iyer ment model in a village. What will be drought. Compensations are then an- required is a little more political imagina- nounced, water tankers and sometimes HarperCollins tion to help them get there. n 230 Pages | Rs 599

58 22 march 2021 Does Fate Exist? Principles of Prediction Stories shaped by bereavement, Anushka Jasraj loss and abandonment Context 185 Pages | Rs 499 By Sharanya Manivannan

n Principles of Prediction, boyfriend’s new girlfriend’s salon mirror. convincingly: a divination teacher and Anushka Jasraj’s debut collection of Jasraj etches out characters in quick, lucid the student he’s in love with first meet I 13 short stories, some kind of subter- strokes like: ‘I have a master’s in English as fellow traders attending to the throng ranean despair connects its varied literature and mine is a love marriage, that congregates around Amitabh characters, as far removed as they may which means visiting astrologers is not Bachchan’s house on weekends (he sells be from each other in circumstance, something I’ve always done.’ palmistry sessions, she sells shoulder location or time. They are often in Astrology, meteorology and other massages); the Vodafone pug, Rocky, be- post-traumatic stages, or else drifting in ways to foretell the future here are comes the object of a lovingly committed some sort of ennui. shown as attempts to control life’s crime; and Sigmund Freud corresponds Unhappy marriages, bereavements, capriciousness, and pursuits of hope. with an Indian psychotherapist, whose disappearances and abandonments In ‘Numerology’, bibliomancy makes daughter later visits him in Vienna. (in other words, facets of ordinary life) a fleeting, bittersweet appearance: a The Freud cameo turns out to be a shape their sentiments and personali- teenager who loses her mother rereads red herring. He makes an appearance in ties. Their narratives are poignant, but the pages of the book between which ‘Westwards’, a story that at first glance also wry and funny. the latter had stored a letter for her, but seems to have been included mainly This collection is peppered with not the letter. Then in ‘Smile, Please’, one to offer a balance to ‘Radio Hour’, also sparkling observations on human kin- of many stories of irresistible attrac- from that era. Then, another reference ship, emotion and personality: a boy feels tion in this collection, the coincidences to Freud appears in the haunting closing hungry when a girl cries in front of him pile up in such a way as to suggest that story, ‘Luminous’, in which a new form because he only ever sees tears otherwise perhaps life has a blueprint after all. This of light slowly erodes the viability of hu- when his mother chops onions; a woman charming ambiguity—does fate exist, man life on the planet. Then, the earlier who lost her mother young understands and how far does personal will go even if hat-tip makes sense—as it comes to a that she had spent most of her life imitat- it doesn’t?—gives Principles of Prediction a close, the collection’s undercurrent, the ing the decisions of girls who had theirs, lovely lightness of touch. No matter how theme of hidden motivations, is squarely but ‘These days I pay more attention to intense the lives of her characters, Jasraj revealed. The stories in Principles of Predic- what I really desire’; a student observes has a delicate, deft craft. The stories work tions suggest that the human aspiration the psychological concepts of cruel opti- well together, like cowrie shells that to accurately forecast what’s coming is mism and mimetic desire play out in her speak most clearly in tandem. often at odds with our lack of prescience own life, as she watches herself in her ex- Public figures blur into the fiction into our own actions and choices. Sex is, naturally, a part of this. More Illustration by Saurabh Singh than one character makes a physical overture that is unexpected by the read- er, if not by the character themselves: one woman makes another feel her breasts without preamble but claim- ing non-erotic reasons, another tries to land a kiss on a co-worker in a moment of unrelated desperation, asking the question, ‘Do you think it is easier when someone dies than when they disappear?’ In ‘Feline’, a detective with a sexual trauma in her past violates client ethics, spilling her own secrets and oth- ers’. Ultimately, the collection seems to say: all the caprice is only within us. n

22 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 59 page turner

The Eternity of Return The pleasures of rereading books Unparalleled n a recent , a experience that re-reading a book that was important to me at books editor mentioned her earlier times in my life is something like lying on the analyst’s I “recent Covid-specific behav- couch.’ It’s a way of being connected to yourself, present and iour” of “reading multiple books past. Gornick explains the essentialness of it when she says: at the same time”. Pamela Paul, ‘…it was to the books that had bsecome my intimates that I editor of Book would turn and turn again, not only for the transporting plea- Review, wondered why it took her sure of the story itself but also to understand what I was living decades to realise it was “allowed” through, and what I was to make of it.’ to read more than one volume Gornick goes back to select writers, including Marguerite Cutting edge By Mini Kapoor for pleasure, but said that having Duras and Thomas Hardy, and provides the reader a template stumbled upon it, she found it for how to trace re-readings of beloved novels and her evolv- “very pleasurable” and loved it. ing self. If this provides an impression of a slim bookshelf, Listening, I did a double take. As someone who is routinely at the American critic Michiko Kakutani embeds the rereading different points in four-five (sometimes fewer, but often more) exercise in greater abundance. In Ex Libris: 100+ Books to Read books simultaneously, I had never thought that my reading and Reread, also published in 2020, Kakutani expands the (per- habit could have seemed to be taboo to fellow readers. Equally, haps) self-imposed limit of 100 books by clubbing collections I have always been fascinated by readers (most of them surely as single entries (for instance, ‘Books by Salman Rushdie’, more thoughtful than me) who can contentedly ‘Books About Democracy and Tyranny’, ‘Muham- work their way through one book before picking mad Ali Books’ or simply ‘The Plays of William up the next. Shakespeare’). It’s a personal list, but it’s also a list Strangely, my reflexive C“ ovid-specific be- that makes space for different sorts of books (fic- haviour”, though just in the initial weeks of the tion, non-fiction, memoirs, plays, poetry), which, lockdown last spring, was to read just a single book put together, she encourages the reader to ‘read or through, finding myself suddenly unable to shuffle reread…because they deserve as wide an audience between multiple volumes. I cannot say I found it as possible. Because they are affecting or timely satisfying. It felt as if I had been stranded in a bound or beautifully written. Because they teach us space, and thankfully, as the days rolled along, I fell something about the world or other people or our Open the most sought back to my old habit of reading own emotional lives. Or simply many books at one time. When because they remind us why we this pandemic is past, we readers fell in love with reading in the will likely get a fuller sense of how first place.’ our individual reading patterns after weekly magazine Books, emphasises Kakutani, shifted or changed—but for me, ‘can catalyze empathy—some- that unnerving period of linearly thing more and more precious in Read reading through just one book at our increasingly polarized and a time has got me thinking about tribal world’. And to this end, she the processes by which I gather encourages the reader to read together my reading menus for as widely as she can. Reading the next few days or weeks. Kakutani’s short write-ups, you For instance, part of my mix in- could pick an argument about evitably is a previously read book. her selection—why, for example, [ No one makes an argument better than us ] It’s compulsive. And therapeutic she chose Jhumpa Lahiri’s The too. As the American writer Namesake, and not The Lowland. Vivian Gornick writes in her early But then, the nudge to the reader 2020 collection of essays, Unfin- to curate her own selection, to www.openthemagazine.com To subscribe, ‘openmag’ to 9999800012 ished Business: Notes of a Chronic draw up lists of books to read and Re-Reader, ‘It has often been my reread, is part of the design. n openthemagazine openthemag

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a scene from the big day

Bride, Groom, action the social realism of Indian wedding shows By Aditya Mani Jha

A llow me to express a very Delhi we see a half-finished image of a face, Burnett’s 1911 children’s novel, plus a sentiment: I spotted several acquain- we ‘complete’ the drawing inside our section resembling a movie set from tances in Netflix’s The Big Day, a six-part heads, a ‘like-me’ object emerges from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. documentary series which released the ‘not-me’ world. Elsewhere, Terence Lewis (veteran Bol- in February. Produced by Condé Nast For the overwhelming majority lywood choreographer) and his troupe India, the first three episodes (the other of viewers, therefore, The Big Day will dance to the title track of Dhoom and a half hasn’t been released yet) featured play a bit like a nature documentary white guest squeals: ‘‘It’s like I’m living three Indian or NRI couples as they where David Attenborough is tak- a Bollywood movie from the inside!” planned and realised their dream wed- ing us through the idiosyncrasies of After scoring a massive hit last year dings. This isn’t unworthy of attention the super-rich. (I imagine it as, ‘The with its reality series Indian Matchmak- by itself—amidst a sea of people dressed male of the species is saying he wants ing, Netflix is clearly placing a large to the nines, amidst the obvious, never- Bollywood impersonators to perform bet on Indian wedding programming. ending opulence why did these particu- at the mehendi; the female grunts her ap- Stands to reason, for many Bollywood lar wedding guests (none of whom have proval.’) An NRI bride named Nikhita stars today have a recent ‘wedding speaking parts in The Big Day) catch my Iyar, wanting a ‘Buddha Bar’ theme, has film’ on their resumes. Think of Veere eye, even if I had met them only a couple a larger-than-life-size Buddha statue Di Wedding (2018) or in the OTT space, of times? The answer was, of course, erected at the venue’s entrance. In an shows like Made in Heaven (2019) and because I had literally nothing in com- elaborate outdoorsy mehendi, Iyar also Bang Baaja Baaraat (2015). Reality shows mon with anybody else on display. The commissions decorations modelled like Indian Matchmaking and The Big Day mind’s eye leaps at connections. When on The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson represent the next stage in this trend:

The Big Day and Indian Matchmaking represent a trend where audiences live vicariously through real-life ‘dream weddings’

62 22 march 2021 a scene from indian matchmaking

Bride, Groom, action

no longer content with make-believe Shewakramani (34), New Jersey-based choices’ (and the size/location of his weddings featuring marquee movie Guyanese event planner Nadia Jagessar Mumbai flat) after just a few cursory stars, audiences are now looking to live (33) and Akshay Jakhete (25), a Mumbai- exchanges, or the ability to persuade the vicariously through real-life ‘dream based businessman. And for all the most progressive families that ‘a little weddings’. ‘Aparna vs Nadia’ tweets and memes, compromise’ is essential for marital Indian Matchmaking, one of the most Taparia is the showstopper as far as bliss. The benevolent dictator of Indian talked-about Netflix shows of 2020 (it Indian Matchmaking is concerned, as Matchmaking, Taparia dispenses nug- hit the top 10 in both India and Ameri- the gregarious, flawed, judgmental, gets of wisdom that steer her clients ca), was timed well. Created by Indian- endlessly fascinating character. Shortly towards their fates—this one’s not fair American filmmaker Smriti Mundhra after the show’s release, even Shaadi.com enough, that one’s a loser (a writer), her (who also served as executive producer), honoured her with an advertisement family belongs to the wrong caste and this eight-part docu-series was released that claimed, ‘Hamaare paas profileski so on. These biases aren’t investigated on July 16, 2020, when large parts of koi ‘Sima’ nahi hai’ or ‘We have a limitless because Indian Matchmaking is not that India were still under lockdown. supply of profiles’ (‘sima’ means ‘limit’ kind of show — like The Big Day, it is Indian Matchmaking followed the in Hindi). interested in relentless voyeurism Mumbai-based professional match- Imagine a formidable Wodehou- above all else. maker Sima Taparia as she sets about sian aunt (like Bertie Wooster’s Aunt Throughout the show, I got the nag- finding matches for a largely NRI clien- Dahlia) with additional, typically ging sense that at some level Taparia tele: some of the most popular ones one Indian super powers. Like being able to was in on the joke, that she understood were Houston-based lawyer Aparna describe a prospective groom’s ‘lifestyle the over-the-top tonality Mundhra

The Big Day and Indian Matchmaking represent a trend where audiences live vicariously through real-life ‘dream weddings’

22 march 2021 www.openthemagazine.com 63 television

a scene from a suitable girl

The crux of the sombre A Suitable Girl is the curtailing of young women’s freedoms after marriage wanted with Indian Matchmaking, the at all (a side effect of living with her about her is presented to us in the ‘girl- stuff of the ‘hate-watch’, the ‘so-bad-it’s- matchmaking mother, perchance?) but boss’ aesthetic. ‘Girlboss’, popularised good’ subgenre of TV. agrees to an arranged marriage out of a by Nasty Gal founder Sophia Amoruso, This suspicion is further strength- sense of duty and pragmatism (“I know used to mean a confident, self-made ened when you watch A Suitable Girl, what I’m supposed to do,” she keeps say- woman, especially in the corporate a 2017 documentary directed by ing at one point, as though she needed world. However, after non-white com- Mundhra (also on Netflix), where the reminder more than the audience). mentators realised that this corporate Taparia is in a bit of a ‘supporting role’; brand of feminism translates to ‘more she’s the mother of one of the three white women’, ‘girlboss’ became more of about-to-be-married young women t he Big Day works best when it an insult and less of a compliment. being profiled. The crux of this no- sticks to its lane—being a glitzy, And so we have Pandya, whose nonsense, almost sombre documentary tastefully shot, well-edited advertise- friends describe her again and again as is the curtailing of young women’s ment for India’s billion-dollar wedding a “Type A” person. Corporate references freedoms after marriage. Taparia’s industry. Condé Nast, after all, pub- are dropped ad nauseam. “She will not exaggerated mannerisms and accent lishes glossy magazines whose business talk to you if you don’t send her an Excel etcetera are noticeably toned down here, model is designed to solicit ad revenues sheet,” her wedding planner says while to match the tone of the film. She is not from luxury brands. The Big Day is the gushing. “She is very anal” (exactly nearly as loud or as brusque or as quick video equivalent of this phenomenon. what is so desirable about this trait is to dismiss potential matches as she is in The first episode fits this bill perfectly. unclear). A little later, on the day of the Indian Matchmaking. But for some reason, the second and wedding itself, Pandya sends her family One of the big reasons why A Suitable third episodes try painfully (some into a panic by announcing that her Girl works as a documentary is that the might say, laughably) hard to charac- makeup is done and she’s ready for her three women profiled belong to very terise the couples therein as crusaders grand entrance— about 90 minutes different worlds. Dipti, a lower-middle- for social justice. But social justice is not before she was actually ready. “It’s just class teacher who lives with her parents what they are batting for; they simply to create the stress,” Ami explains. “So in Bhayandar (a suburb to the north of want a wedding of their choice. that the team creates perfection. And Mumbai) is being rejected by one boy When a super-rich Hindu woman when you walk in, it’s just like, ‘Fuck after another—she happens to be dark- marries a super-rich Hindu man, it everything, let’s just have fun.’ But that skinned and not “slim, trim and fair”, doesn’t really matter if they’re subvert- pressure creates an environment where Taparia’s go-to line to describe the ideal ing the ‘kanyadaan’ ritual or not. In they deliver better. When I called my bride’s physicality. The Delhi-based the larger scheme of things, this ‘elite Dad I hadn’t even started my make-up, Amrita, the first person in her family union’ will do nothing to challenge actually. I’m building pressure so that to get a corporate job, is about to give class or caste endogamy; you don’t need the deliverable is ready.” up her career and her city to marry her to be a sociologist to understand this ‘Team’, ‘pressure’ and ‘deliverable’ high school sweetheart. She knows that self-evident truth. And yet, the show would be part of most corporate word her in-laws (who live in Nokha, treats Pallavi and Rajat (through no clouds, but it’s odd to see this vocabu- Rajasthan) won’t allow her to work in fault of theirs) like heroic reformers, for lary being deployed, sans irony, in the an office after marriage—at best, she some reason, because they matched the context of an Indian wedding. To me can join them in their family business ‘kanyadaan’ with a reciprocal ceremony it seems like tone-deafness, even if the but as the film progresses, we realise where the groom was ‘given’ away by fact that the dulhan is (finally) calling that even this is a far-fetched suggestion his parents. the shots, is a pleasant change. But by this family’s standards. And finally, Consider, also, how we’re introduced clearly the proliferation of wedding re- we have Taparia’s own daughter Ritu, to Ami Pandya, one of the brides fea- ality shows proves that the fetishisation who doesn’t get the fuss about marriage tured in the second episode. Everything of the Indian wedding is here to stay. n

64 22 march 2021 Hollywood reporter Noel de Souza

‘I Had to Draw on a Person, a Persona That Had Its Own Agency’

iola Davis stars in a part of me. It’s like when my the film Ma Rainey’s fight or flight kicks in and I have V Black Bottom, set in small- anxiety, it could be anything. town Georgia in 1927. It is based I know it’s provoked by my on the true story of blues singer childhood and I have to say, Ma Rainey and depicts the deep ‘Viola, you have a big refrigerator scars that racism left on the now, you have working toilets, African American community. you are a different woman’, and This adaptation of August then it relaxes me. The 55-year- Wilson’s play is a commentary old has to talk to the five-year-old. on the tragic realities faced We have to negotiate and have by Black musicians. Viola a conversation. Davis received a Golden Globe nomination for the role. Davis’ Who would you say are the co-star, the late Chadwick strong women in your life that Boseman, has posthumously inspired you to play the part of been awarded the Golden Globe Ma Rainey? Award for his role as trumpet Well, I am always hesitant to use player Levee Green. the word ‘strong’ or ‘Black girl magic’, because strong is relative. How much of Ma Rainey is in They were women who certainly Viola Davis? were not moulded in the same Within the context of Black Viola Davis way you see them moulded on America, I grew up with a screen. My Aunt Joyce, besides number of people who felt my mom, is another woman confident about themselves, confident about history. Like that famous saying, who I thought was beautiful. My Aunt about their bodies, confident about ‘I’m not who you think I am, you are Joyce was big, she was definitely close their abilities, and who would cuss who you think I am.’ to over 250 pounds, but absolutely somebody out if they crossed the beautiful. And you could tell she could boundary with them. So it was great You had an exceedingly difficult get any man. And I did not feel or see to be in an August Wilson written childhood. How do you distance any sense of someone who should production, where he actually wrote yourself from your past where you had apologise for her body, apologise for us as we are, in the context of our own to deal with a lot of vulnerabilities? her presence, or apologise for herself life. And that’s what I thought was so The hunger, domestic violence, the to anybody, she was who she was. And liberating about playing someone like alcoholism, the poverty, they all were that’s what I had to draw on. I had to her. She knew what her worth was. sort of attached. What provokes draw on a person, a persona that had It was a joy to play someone who has them now, could be anything. It could its own agency that wasn’t defined their own agency and autonomy. It be eating fruit in the morning, or it by anybody else, by the oppressor, was so awesome as so many times as a could be a transgression by a friend. by the white gaze. Because if I did, I person of colour you are seen through Anything that sparks something to would have tried to cover my breasts, I the context and the gaze of white where I am back where I started, at a wouldn’t have swished my hips when society. And so our lives are up for you moment where you felt so vulnerable I was in that tent. But in our culture, we to interpret. A lot of times if the writer and helpless and all of that. Fifty years define ourselves for ourselves and we has no sort of relationship with that later, what grounds me is, I am not are alone, we are together, that is not Black character, then the only way they that girl anymore. I don’t live in that who we are, we are not apologetic, we can approach it is by maybe thinking environment anymore. But she is still understand a sense of our worth. n

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

Shah Rukh Khan Saba Azad Sonu Nigam

➲ You Khan’t Touch Them Eternal Sunshine, Darlings. India in Pune and, like the latter, Anyone who thinks the three Khans Covid-19 came as a fortunate, his career is on the rise. After playing are slowing down, well, think though unintended, break for a series of second leads, the again. Sure, Aamir Khan’s Laal Singh Salman Khan. Salman has Hyderabad-born Vijay Varma has Chaddha has been delayed, partly been working non-stop now finally landed leading man roles. because of the social media outcry for three years with a lot of wear Four of them, in fact. There’s Darlings around the actor’s location search in and tear on his body. Having with Alia Bhatt, a Disney+ Hotstar Turkey, even though it was with the completed hosting Bigg Boss, now series OK Computer with Radhika permission of the government. produced by his own company, he is Apte, an Amazon Prime Video series Sure, he’s had to wait for the snow wrapping up his extended cameo in Fallen with Sonakshi Sinha, which is to melt to shoot the last portion of Pathan at YRF Studios in Mumbai, directed by Reema Kagti, and Hurdang the film in Kargil. But director and is getting ready for the third with Sunny Kaushal and Nushrratt Advait Chandan has been editing iteration of Ek Tha Tiger. He also Bharuccha. Expect to see a lot more of as he shoots and much of the film is had to face many delegations of him this year. ready for a December release this desperate exhibitors who want him year. Aamir is using this time to to stick to the Eid theatrical release listen to scripts—he may well be date for Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai ➲ 88 and Not Done doing Subhash Kapoor’s Mogul, this year—despite the considerable Farrukh Jaffar was the querulous and based on the life of music king blandishments offered by clever begum in Gulabo Sitabo (2020) Gulshan Kumar. He is also re- streaming services. Scripts for who outfoxed Amitabh Bachchan’s connecting with his vast extended Kabhi Eid Kabhi Diwali and the Mirza. She is back with her favourite family. So much so that he has given sequel to Kick are also being worked co-star Nawazuddin Siddiqui in their up his mobile phone, which had on. The three Khans may be fourth film together, Jogira Sara Ra started to consume much of his turning 56 this year, but they don’t Ra, currently being shot outside downtime. Now anyone who needs seem done yet. Lucknow, where she lives. Jaffar was to get in touch with him has to with Siddiqui in Peepli [Live] (2010), call his new manager, daughter Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Anwar Ka Ira. Shah Rukh Khan has also used ➲ Lesbian Love Ajab Kissa (2013) and Ritesh Batra’s this time to revel in the company of Netflix is walking the talk on gender soulful Photograph (2019). Their his children, the two older ones, and sexual diversity in the stories it scenes usually end up bringing down Aryan and Suhana, who were tells. In the forthcoming anthology the house. Expect more of the same in returning home after eight years of young love Feels Like Ishq, Kushan Nandy’s Jogira. spent abroad studying, and his musicians Saba Azad and Sanjeeta youngest, AbRam. He used the time to Bhattacharya play two women read several scripts thoroughly as who fall in love with each other. ➲ Did You Know? well and will be doing two or For the executive producer Shivani Sonu Nigam has decided to join three movies on the trot after he Saran, it is particularly great given the ranks of memoir writers. To completes Pathan. Rajkumar Hirani’s she is queer too. be published by Bloomsbury, the immigration drama is probably next singer promises to revisit the lane in line but he is also signing off on Red and bylanes of “ever-so-personal and Chillies’ movies that don’t star him, ➲ The Rise of Vijay Varma undisclosed details of one’s glorious the latest being his co-production He was Jaideep Ahlawat’s batchmate life”. Ah. Sounds like he’s already with Alia Bhatt’s new company at the Film and Television Institute of written his own review. n

66 22 march 2021