Founder: Vishva Nath (1917-2002) VOLUME 10 • ISSUE 2 Editor-in-Chief, Publisher & Printer: Paresh Nath FEBRUARY 2018 cover story / politics 26 Model Minority The hard questions facing the poster boy of Canadian multiculturalism daniel block The young and stylish Jagmeet Singh is the first non- white person ever to be elected the leader of a major Canadian political party. While his impressive rise is a testament to Canada’s multicultural ethos, Jagmeet is controversial within India and has a testy relationship with its government. His activism around India’s 1984 anti- Sikh pogroms has exposed tensions between Punjabi and diaspora Sikhs, and within the Sikh diaspora itself. In his quest to become the Canadian prime minister, Jagmeet will have to contend with his country’s turbulent relationship with religious minorities, his party’s inconsistent electoral fortunes and certain violent elements of Sikh politics. perspectives 26 18 politics 18 Temple Run Will Karnataka’s real, devout Hindus please stand up? narayana a 50 satire 22 A Modest Proposal For preventing the children of poor people in religion India from being a burden to their parents or 50 Bearing The Cross the economy, and for making them beneficial Pakistan’s Christians struggle to keep the faith to the public sarah eleazar kushanava choudhury FEBRUARY 2018 3 the lede 8 communities 8 A Pack of Troubles 64 How Spiti is coping with its stray-dog problem bhanu sridharan agriculture 12 Barren Land A saffron farmer’s take on crop photo essay / environment failure in Kashmir 64 The Great qazi wasif Outdoors The picnicking subculture communities in eastern India 14 Shifting Impressions arko datto What the preservation of a Roma identity entails alexander hurst books 94 arts 78 Out of Focus What Raghubir Singh did not see ratik asokan 78 the bookshelf 92 showcase 94 NOTE TO READERS: THE “SPONSORED FEATURES” ON PAGES 48–49 AND 62–63 editor’s pick 98 ARE PAID ADVERTISING CONTENT. 4 THE CARAVAN editor Anant Nath executive editor Vinod K Jose political editor Hartosh Singh Bal associate editor Roman Gautam books editor Kushanava Choudhury senior assistant editors contributors Martand Kaushik and Puja Sen copy editors Aria Thaker 8 Bhanu Sridharan is an independent journalist interested in writing about ecology and the THE LEDE and Maya Palit environment. web editor Nikita Saxena 12 Qazi Wasif is a freelance journalist, based in Kashmir. He is interested in digital storytelling. assistant editors (web) His work has been published in various local and national organisations. Surabhi Kanga and Arshu John 14 Alexander Hurst is a journalist based in Paris. He has previously written for the New contributing editors Republic, The Daily Beast and France 24. Deborah Baker, Fatima Bhutto, Chandrahas Choudhury, PERSPECTIVES 18 Narayana A is an associate professor with the school of policy and governance at Azim Premji Siddhartha Deb, Sadanand Dhume, University, Bengaluru. He writes on issues of politics and governance in both Kannada and Siddharth Dube, Christophe English. Jaffrelot, Mira Kamdar, Miranda 22 Kushanava Choudhury is the books editor at The Caravan, and the author of Epic City: The Kennedy, Amitava Kumar, Basharat World on the Streets of Calcutta. Peer, Samanth Subramanian and Salil Tripathi REPORTAGE 26 Daniel Block is a Delhi-based 2017-2018 Luce scholar working for The Caravan. staff writers Praveen Donthi AND ESSAYS 50 Sarah Eleazar is a Lahore-based journalist. and Atul Dev web reporters Sagar and PHOTO ESSAY 64 Arko Datto is a photographer based in Kolkata. He won the Arles Prix Voies Off in 2017 and Kedar Nagarajan the Gomma Grant in 2016. He works on visual projects of his own and also curates the works editorial manager of others. His interests include surveillance in the digital era, forced migration, techno-fascism Haripriya KM and disappearing islands. fact checker Nileena MS photo editor Tanvi Mishra Tanvi Mishra is the photo editor at The Caravan. photo coordinator Shahid Tantray BOOKS 78 Ratik Asokan is an assistant editor at Art in America. graphic designers Paramjeet Singh and COVER Photo: Mark Blinch / Reuters Sandhya Visvanathan luce scholar Daniel Block editorial interns Abhinaya Harigovind, Gena Fazel and Sneha Corrections: Nikita Saxena and Atul Dev’s “No Land’s Man,” published in December 2017, mistakenly stated that PV Kalyanasundaram, the owner of the news channel Polimer News, is a former leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. While a PV Kalyanasundaram was earlier an organising secretary of the DMK, he is not the same individual as the owner of Polimer News, and does not have any connection with the channel. The story also mistakenly identified Partho Dasgupta, the CEO of the Broadcast Audience Research Council, as the author of an [email protected] email to the television journalist Rahul Shivshankar that was sent by Asti Misra, the vice president of business development at the organisation. The story also misspelt the first name of Shweta Kothari, a former reporter with Republic TV, as “Shwetha.” Gopu Mohan’s “The ‘p’ word” misspelt the academic Rupa Viswanath’s last name as “Vishwanath.” facebook.com/TheCaravanMagazine The Caravan regrets the errors. subscribe [email protected] website www.caravanmagazine.in @thecaravanindia edited, printed & published by mumbai: A 4, Shriram Industrial Estate, Rates article, photographs, images, illustrations Paresh Nath on behalf of Delhi Press Patra Wadala, Mumbai - 400031 inland One copy R100, Discounted price also known as the “Content”) are protected Prakashan Pvt. Ltd. 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All materials published in this magazine as a result of his/her accepting or offering Exhibition Road, Patna - 800001, (including, but not limited to articles, to accept an invitation contained in any Phone: 0612- 2323840 ISSN 0971-0639 quotations, extracts, or any parts of the advertisement published in The Caravan. 6 THE CARAVAN THE LEDE Thinley returned to his home in Kibber, A Pack of Troubles I asked him how many dogs were ster- How Spiti is coping with its stray-dog problem ilised in Kaza this year. “A hundred,” / Communities he said, and the other NCF staff burst into laughter. “Actually it was 12,” he admitted with a small smile. “Nobody brought any dogs on the second day.” / bhanu sridharan done systematically and in a humane The first sterilisation camp took manner.” place in 2013. In preparation for it, the On a windy afternoon in July, Mool- On 14 and 15 July, the animal hus- village council in Kaza instructed every chand walked into Kibber, a village in bandry department and veterinary household to catch at least one dog, or the Spiti Valley in northeastern Him- hospital in Kaza—the subdivisional pay a fine of R500 if they failed to do achal Pradesh, following closely at the headquarters of the Spiti Valley—host- so. Ajay Bijoor, who manages NCF’s heels of a foreign tourist. “Moolchand ed an animal birth-control programme, conservation projects in Spiti, told ji,” a passerby called out. “Izzat toh an annual camp arranged to sterilise me over the phone that 102 dogs were deni chahiye”—you should show some some dogs in the town, where the ca- sterilised during the first camp and respect. A group of people, waiting for nine population was growing rapidly.