A definitive account of a Mumbai slum from one of the world’s best reporters

Published on January 28, 2012 in Books. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

In The Caravan, Girish Shahane reviews “Behind The Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity” by Katherine Boo [Penguin India]:

 Boo locates her book in Annawadi, a settlement established by Tamil labourers near the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport in 1991 when repairs were being made to a runway. The settlement’s character was altered by an influx of Marathi migrants, and is being reshaped again by a wave of North Indians. Its changing demographics and proximity to a recently privatised terminal make it an ideal site for exploring economic opportunity and gross inequality—the exacerbation as well as transcendence of social divisions that the metropolis engenders. Annawadi is hidden beyond a concrete wall painted with an advertisement for ceramic floor tiles that, if the repeated slogan is to be believed, remain “Beautiful Forever”. The effort to keep the shanties out of sight behind a high barrier is futile: once aloft, airline passengers are bound to notice slums spreading like eczema around the airport, alongside roads and railway tracks and across once-green hills. More than half the residents of Mumbai live in such settlements, which represent both the city’s capacity to offer jobs to millions of new migrants, and a catastrophic failure of urban planning.

More than half a century ago, the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss wrote in his book Tristes Tropiques, “Filth, chaos, promiscuity, congestion; ruins, huts, mud, dirt; dung, urine, pus, humors, secretions and running sores: all the things against which we expect urban life to give us organized protection, all the things we hate and guard against at such great cost, all these by-products of cohabitation do not set any limitation on it in India. They are more like a natural environment which the Indian town needs in order to prosper. To every individual, any street, footpath or alley affords a home, where he can sit, sleep, and even pick up his food straight from the glutinous filth.” Affluent Indians often suggest that eliminating the grime which so disgusted Lévi-Strauss demands a kind of delete button to erase squatter colonies from existence and memory. However, NGOs like the National Slum Dwellers Federation have led a salutary reimagining of shanty towns as centres of productive labour rather than the habitat of dispensable parasites. Foreign correspondents reporting on Mumbai’s emblematic slum, Dharavi, are now more likely to focus on textile exports than on poverty. More:

And here’s the link to Jonathan Shainin‘s review of the book

The defeated

Published on January 28, 2012 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Sri Lanka’s Tamils pick up the pieces after a war that defined—and shattered—the lives of a generation. By Anonymous in The Caravan:

On the afternoon of 19 May 2009, at around 1:20 pm, a ration shop accountant named Sivarajan ran to the front of the winding lunch queue in the Anandakumaraswami Zone 3 refugee camp to serve rice and sodhi, a watery concoction of chillies and coconut milk. Swarna, a former militant, sat in her tent nearby, yelling at her mother for having told an army man from the morning shift that their family belonged to Mullaitivu, on the northeastern coast, where the war between the Sri Lankan Army and the separatists—“Tigers,” she called them—was still raging.

At that moment, they got a text message on their mobile phones from the government’s information department. Addressed to all Sri Lankans, it proclaimed, in Sinhala—a language neither Sivarajan nor Swarna could read—that Velupillai Prabhakaran, the man who led a 26-year-long separatist battle for a Tamil Eelam (state), had been killed by the army in a lagoon just a two hours drive north of where they were. So when the news was announced in Tamil over a loudspeaker that evening, they did not believe it. When it finally sank in, they realised—neither with remorse nor relief, but mere wonder at its very possibility—that in an instant the war they had been born into had left their lives.

Nothing would ever be the same again. More

The Times vs The Hindu

Published on January 27, 2012 in Media. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

R. Sukumar in Mint:

Few ads I have seen in recent times have made me feel as good as the new ones for The Hindu, where the paper takes on The Times of India.

For those who haven’t seen the ads (there are three), they show an invisible questioner posing questions to some young people (executives and college students). None of them seem to know the full form of ATM, or the identity of Ratan Tata’s successor (one young man says: “His son… Mukesh Ambani”), or the name of Ram’s father ( “I haven’t seen Ramayan,” says a young lady). Yet, all know the nickname of actor Hrithik Roshan, the gender of Aishwarya’s baby, and the identity of the Bollywood actress with a size zero figure. The questioner then asks the young people which newspaper they read, and while their answers are beeped out, their lip movement leaves little to the imagination. Nor does the punch line: “Stay ahead of the times.”

One reason why I like the ads (and I will be honest about this) is editorial hubris. I see The Hindu as a paper that, like Mint, is fighting the good fight. More:

Press Freedom Index 2011-12

Published on January 27, 2012 in Media. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Reporters Without Borders today released its 10th annual press freedom index.

Read the story here. Below, a section of the chart of 179 countries. India is ranked 131.

Download the full report here

Salman Rushdie to NDTV: I’m returning to India, deal with it

Published on January 26, 2012 in Books and Pakistan. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

After even his video address to the Jaipur Literary Festival was cancelled, writer Salman Rushdie, in an exclusive interview to NDTV’s Barkha Dutt, says he is coming to India and the politicians will just have to learn to deal with it.

Full interview here

Richard Dawkins at Jaipur Lit Fest

Published on January 26, 2012 in Science. 0 Comments Tags: , .

D4 FL 07 from Dreamcast on Vimeo.

Delhi’s food revolution: pizza with a caviar topping for £120 (about Rs 10,000)

Published on January 26, 2012 in Economy, Food and India. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Jason Burke in The Guardian:

Nair has created a pizza with a caviar topping costing £120 – named The High Life – specifically to appeal to customers more interested in conspicuous consumption than gastronomy. It has, she said, sold very well.

The Leela bar serves a spirit known as “the black pearl”, which is priced at 125,000 rupees (£1,600) a shot. The hotel has so far sold seven, of which four were drunk by the entourage of “an African king”. Cristal champagne is more popular.

The publicity for one New Delhi restaurant scheduled to open this year promises a fresh interpretation of traditional Indian ingredients by half a dozen three-Michelin-starred chefs.

A meal for two will cost about £1,000 including wine, heavy local taxes and a limousine to take diners home – making it the most expensive Indian restaurant in the world.

With Indian diners having only recently developed a taste for cuisines from around the world, some customisation of menus is often necessary. More:

The emptiness of literary protest

Published on January 26, 2012 in Books. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Shiv Visvanathan in The Asian Age:

Protest has a code, a system of norms. It demands conviction and courage. It demands clarity of messages. This protest did not follow a satayagrahic code. It was not an act of civil disobedience, which refuses to obey an unfair law and stands its ground, by challenging the law, confronting it and accepting the punishment. The protest would have meant something.

A Thoreau or a Gandhi or Solzhenitsyn would have gone to jail. If Kunzru and Amitav Kumar had done that, they would have won respect. Now they sound merely like attention-grabbing diasporics. Worse, they reinforce stereotypes between an English-speaking elite and the regional culture. Literature has to break stereotypes, not reinforce them.

There was something adolescent about the act; something weak-kneed about the way they left town hinting that the organisers had suggested it. Courage cannot be a mere capsule or byte on TV. What could have been an act of eloquence in defending free speech, a critique of fundamentalism, a challenge to the state turned out to be empty liberal rhetoric, mere sentiment without political substance. Instead of heroism, what we had was empty heroics.

Contrast the behaviour of a Kunzru or a Kumar with a Teesta Setalvad, an Aruna Roy or a Medha Patkar. More:

India’s political blasphemy

Published on January 26, 2012 in Books, India and Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Dan Morrison in IHT:

According to the Sachar Committee’s 2006 report, in Rajasthan state, of which Jaipur is the capital, 41 percent of urban Muslims live below the poverty line, compared with 27 percent of Hindus. In the state of Uttar Pradesh, where Darul Uloom is located, 44 percent of urban Muslims live in poverty, compared with 24 percent of Hindus.

Also from the report: 25 percent of Muslim children aged 6 to 14 had never attended school or had dropped out. Muslim-majority villages are less likely to be served by government schools, paved roads and bus stops. Muslims hold a tiny proportion of civil service jobs that are an important route to the middle class here.

More recently, a November 2011 report by Gallup found that 32 percent of India’s Muslims consider themselves to be “suffering,” compared with 23 percent of Hindus, who make up India’s majority. More:

The Bomb: Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan

Published on January 25, 2012 in Pakistan. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Pervez Hoodbhoy at The Express Tribune:

Once upon a time Iran was Pakistan’s close ally — probably its closest one. In 1947, Iran was the first to recognise the newly independent Pakistan. In the 1965 war with India, Pakistani fighter jets flew to Iranian bases in Zahedan and Mehrabad for protection and refuelling. Both countries were members of the US-led Seato and Cento defence pacts, Iran opened wide its universities to Pakistani students, and the Shah of Iran was considered Pakistan’s great friend and benefactor. Sometime around 1960, thousands of flag-waving school children lined the streets of Karachi to greet him. I was one of them.

The friendship has soured, replaced by low-level hostility and suspicion. In 1979, Ayatollah Khomenei’s Islamic revolution, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, set major realignments in motion. As Iran exited the US orbit, Pakistan joined the Americans to fight the Soviets. With Saudi money, they together created and armed the hyper-religious Pashtun mujahideen. Iran too supported the mujahideen — but those of the Tajik Northern Alliance. But as religion assumed centrality in matters of state in both Pakistan and Iran, doctrinal rifts widened. More:

Hari Kunzru: Why I read from The Satanic Verses

Published on January 25, 2012 in Books. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

On Friday, over lunch, I heard the news that Salman Rushdie would not be attending the Jaipur Literature Festival. His visit had been in doubt for some time. Initially, we had been scheduled to have a conversation on stage that afternoon, but since Maulana Abul Qasim Nomani, the head of the Darul Uloom seminary in Deoband, had called for him to be prevented from entering India, the festival organizers had been fighting a storm of manufactured controversy, not unconnected with the upcoming Uttar Pradesh state elections. Salman has been visiting India without incident for many years, and spoke at the JLF in 2007. Clearly, the sudden eruption of righteous indignation at his presence was not spontaneous. The manipulation of religious sentiment for political ends has a long history in India, and this was merely a particularly cynical example of a traditional election-time activity.

Initially, the directors of the JLF asked Salman to delay his arrival, while they worked with the authorities to provide security, and attempted to defuse a planned protest. Our Friday event was moved to Tuesday morning, and his name was removed from the festival program. Then came the news, apparently originating in police intelligence reports seen by the festival team, that three assassins had been despatched from Bombay with orders to murder him. Now there appears to be doubt about the veracity of these reports – Mumbai police deny that they communicated any such intelligence, and the Hindu newspaper has reported that the story of the assassins was concocted by the Rajasthani police. Whatever the truth of this, it was enough to prevent Salman from travelling to India. More:

 

India-Pakistan chefs fight for taste buds

Published on January 25, 2012 in Food. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

From BBC News:

It’s being billed as an “epic battle” between India and Pakistan.

But instead of being fought on the battleground, it’s being fought in the kitchen.

The armies comprise eight professional chefs from each country, fighting to conquer the taste buds of judges.

This is Foodistan – a new show that begins on Indian television channel NDTV Good Times on Monday night.

The programme-makers say it’s a cook-off between “highly talented chefs from Asia’s two most culturally rich countries”. More:

The politics of clothes: What Priyanka’s Amethi sari tells us

Published on January 22, 2012 in India and Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Sagarika Ghose at First Post:

Priyanka Gandhi / PTIPriyanka Gandhi is hardly ever seen in a sari in Delhi. For the July 2008 trust vote in parliament, she, in fact, showed up in trendy dark trousers and a white shirt, an outfit both stunning and honest about who she is.

The stately young mother is often seen picking up her children from school in casual jeans and T-shirt. She attends charity functions in western wear, steps out for Delhi dinners in western wear, is seen at restaurants in western wear. Then why, oh why, must the gorgeous Priyanka Gandhi get into ethnic costume every time she visits Amethi?

Will the voters be so turned off if, for example, she arrived in jeans and, say, a long kurta? Would such an outfit not be more honest, more real, more in tune with who she actually is, rather than staging a traditional masquerade in handloom? Sure, let’s always respect local sentiments when we dress, but transforming oneself into a costumed actor to fit the stereotypes of Incredible India seems such a condescension to the good people of Amethi!

Recent pictures show Priyanka in colourful saris doing a sort of Passage To India routine of “mingling easily with the natives”. Perhaps pant suits are not “suitable” for Amethi, but it does seem a little “off-to-meet-the-villagers-now-darling” to get into regulation handloom and chat with the rustics in the pursuit of feudal noblesse oblige.

Why does one’s identity have to undergo such a transformation from city to village? Priyanka’s handloom sari “dressing down” seems deeply condescending, particularly given the fact that she is never seen in such clothes in Delhi or Mumbai. Isn’t it an unthinking elitism to get into “typical ethnic” gear to go and meet one’s voters, rather like the princess wearing ordinary clothes to keep the peasants happy? Indira Gandhi wore the same elegant cotton saris to Delhi soirees and to the Dalit village in Belchi. More:

Ours is the most peaceful time in history: Steven Pinker at the Jaipur LitFest

Published on January 22, 2012 in Books. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Vikas Singh & Srijana Mitra Das in TOI:

We live in violent, turbulent times-perhaps the most dangerous in human history, right? Wrong. At least that’s what Steven Pinker would argue. Flying in the face of conventional wisdom, the Harvard professor of cognitive psychology and author of ‘The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined’ on Saturday held a packed audience at the Jaipur Literary Festival spellbound with his argument that, in fact, we have the good fortune to be living in the most peaceful period in human history.

We live in violent, turbulent times-perhaps the most dangerous in human history, right? Wrong. At least that’s what Steven Pinker would argue. Flying in the face of conventional wisdom, the Harvard professor of cognitive psychology and author of ‘The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined’ on Saturday held a packed audience at the Jaipur Literary Festival spellbound with his argument that, in fact, we have the good fortune to be living in the most peaceful period in human history.

That claim may have seemed bizarre at first, but not once Pinker started listing one interesting statistic after another. He pointed out that death caused by violence as a percentage of all deaths has declined dramatically over the centuries. Tribal warfare was nine times as deadly as war and genocide in the 20th century. Similarly, the murder rate of medieval Europe was over 30 times what it is today. And there are more chances of Americans dying in a bathtub (one in 950,000) than in a terror attack (one in 3.5 million), according to a paper published by John Mueller and Mark Stewart. More:

The Priyanka Gandhi factor

Published on January 22, 2012 in India and Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , .

Smita Gupta in The Hindu:

Earlier this week when Priyanka Gandhi Vadra spent three days in Uttar Pradesh, drumming up support for the Congress in the 10 Assembly segments across the two parliamentary constituencies held by her mother Sonia Gandhi and brother Rahul Gandhi, there was the predictable speculation in the media: was the Gandhi-Nehru — acknowledged in the party as the most charismatic living member in the family — about to join active politics?

It wasn’t just the glamour quotient at work: Ms. Vadra triggered off some of the speculation herself when she was asked by journalists if she was planning to campaign outside the family stronghold, something she does in every election. “I have not decided yet… So far I am here in Amethi and Rae Bareli and my brother and I will talk to each other and decide on it,” she said, stressing, “I’ll do anything for my brother, whatever is required of me. I’ll do whatever he requires me to do.”

Pressed on whether she would join active politics if Mr. Gandhi asked her to, she was deliberately ambivalent: “He knows to what extent he can require me.”

Since then, while the Congress confirmed that Ms. Vadra would be back for a second foray into Rae Bareli and Amethi, closer to the elections there next month, all that senior U.P. leaders have been willing to say is the extent of her engagement will be decided by the family, as the campaign progresses. More:

Brand Priyanka

Shobha John in The Times of India:

 She’s called a ‘reluctant bride’, a ‘seasonal variation’ and a ‘media lovely’. For the swish set, Priyanka Gandhi is a fashion icon or a socialite. But when she goes to the rural hinterlands, she’s appears wrapped casually in a cotton sari, reminding one of her grandmother. And now, she’s campaigning in UP for her brother Rahul. UP is the acid test for Brand Rahul. But it’s Priyanka that people are talking about despite her campaigning in the ‘family’ constituencies. Will Brand Priyanka work for the party and her brother? “Priyanka’s presence may have marginal impact at the ground level. She has Indira Gandhi’s looks, has more charm than Rahul and can draw people, but in today’s caste-based politics, these factors may only garner more audience, not votes. Often, people come to see her out of sheer curiosity,” says Mithileshwar Jha, professor of marketing, IIM-Bangalore. “She’s like a reluctant bride but people want to see what she will deliver.”

While she is visually appealing with Indira’s aquiline nose and charisma, ad gurus say that a premium brand needs much more than just beautiful packaging. “The Congress has not been able to create a mass leader after Indira,” says Sajan Raj Kurup, founder and creative chairman of Creativeland Asia. “A brand needs sustained content and stature. I don’t know what the content here is. Rahul and Priyanka come across as tender newbies in front of hardened politicos like Mulayam and Mayawati.” More

 

Police invented plot to keep Rushdie away from Jaipur LitFest

Published on January 22, 2012 in Books and India. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

Praveen Swami in The Hindu:

Local intelligence officials in Rajasthan invented information that hit men were preparing to assassinate eminent author Salman Rushdie in a successful plot to deter him from attending the Jaipur Literature Festival, highly placed police sources have told The Hindu.

Sources in the festival administration told The Hindu that Rajasthan Police intelligence officials had claimed that the threat to Mr. Rushdie came from two underworld hit men who they identified as “Altaf Batli” and “Aslam Kongo.” The intelligence officials also said an Islamist terrorist, Saqib Hamid Nachan, was suspected of financing the plot to assassinate Mr. Rushdie.

“I received a call from one of Mr. Rushdie’s friends on Friday, asking about these names,” said a senior officer of the Mumbai Police, who deals with organised crime. “I thanked him for giving me something to laugh about.”

The officer said the Mumbai Police’s dossiers on organised crime figures had no reference to individuals who might be using “Altaf Batli” and “Aslam Kongo.” “We’ve had a Salim Langda [‘the lame'], a Salim Kutta [‘the dog'], a Salim Tempo [‘truck'] and a Javed Fawda [‘the spade'] — but no ‘Kongo.’ Lots of Batlis [‘bottles'], but no Kongos.” More:

Rushdie Tweet: “Rajasthan police invented plot to keep away Rushdie’ I’ve investigated, & believe that I was indeed lied to. I am outraged and very angry.”

Four writers who read from The Satanic Verses leave Jaipur to avoid arrest

In The Hindu:

The four writers who read extracts from Salman Rushdie’s banned novel The Satanic Verses — Hari Kunzru, Ruchir Joshi, Amitava Kumar and Jeet Thayil have all left the Rajasthan capital on the advice of a lawyer, William Dalrymple, the co-Director of the Jaipur Literature Festival told The Hindu here. They would otherwise have risked arrest in the State.

A source close to the festival said the police had gone to Hari Kunzru’s room to question him. But that information could not be independently verified, especially since Mr. Kunzru had already hurriedly left town.

“What a lot of people don’t realise is that even reading from a banned book is against the law. This is part of a piece of absurd and draconian legislation going back to 1867 or thereabouts. I am convinced that the writers who did the readings were not aware that this is a punishable offence and could carry a fairly long prison sentence. You can discuss a book, read from other writings by the author, have conversations with him, invite him, but you cannot either possess a copy or publicly read from a book that is banned. That is a punishable offence,” Mr. Dalrymple said. More:

 

On Rushdie visit and free speech

Published on January 21, 2012 in Books. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .

For a moment of statesmanship

Manu Joseph in Open:

The Indian government, on the other hand, is a direct beneficiary of not only electoral politics but of the powerful values on which this country was built. If the Indian government enjoys far greater dignity than the Pakistani government, if the Indian Army general has to plead his case with the government or fight in the Supreme Court against it for a one-year extension of his term while, historically, the situation has been the reverse in Pakistan, it is because of the philosophical foundation of modern India. But the government has often chosen the cowardice of practicality over the courage of morality. And it has, once again, failed to stand up against religious thugs because it is afraid that it will lose Muslim voters in UP and elsewhere, who are crying hoarse anyway saying that they are not so stupid. It is atrocious that a representative of such a government will allow himself to be a guest speaker at the Jaipur Literature Festival when his government has not guaranteed the security of Salman Rushdie. More:

It’s a two-way street

Namita Bhandare in Hindustan Times:

Three parables from modern India. A man writes a book that offends some people enough to ban it and, for good measure, demand his head. Salman Rushdie goes underground, in time the fatwa is forgotten, he emerges from hiding and continues writing and travelling.

Then, a curious thing happens. He is invited, again, to attend the Jaipur Literature Festival. His name appears on the programme, again. Out pops seminary Darul Uloom Deoband demanding his visa be revoked (in fact, as Rushdie tweets, he does not require a visa). It is no coincidence that a state election where Muslims are a sizeable presence, is around the corner. It does not matter that most have not read the still-banned Satanic Verses. Yet, a Congress spokesman replies cautiously that the government is ‘considering’ the request; others hint at law and order problems and Rushdie cancels his visit. More

Salman Rushdie and India’s new theocracy

Praveen Swami in The Hindu:

Salman Rushdie’s censoring-out from the ongoing literary festival in Jaipur will be remembered as a milestone that marked the slow motion disintegration of India’s secular state. Islamist clerics first pressured the state to stop Mr. Rushdie from entering India; on realising he could not stop, he was scared off with a dubious assassination threat. Fear is an effective censor: the writers Hari Kunzru and Amitava Kumar, who sought to read out passages from The Satanic Verses as a gesture of solidarity, were stopped from doing so by the festival’s organisers. More:

Vikas Bajaj in NYT:

Mr. Rushdie’s cancellation is the latest in a series of blows to free speech in India that have included a court challenge to Google and Facebook for what a petitioner claimed was content that is offensive to various religious groups, and a proposal by a senior Indian minister to prescreen content posted on social networking sites.

The Indian Constitution offers its citizens only a qualified right to free speech and allows the government to restrict speech if it deems it offensive or unacceptable to community sentiments. Moreover, the national government has often done little to protect artists, authors and others who have been singled out for violent protests by religious, ethnic and other groups. Maqbool Fida Husain, one of modern India’s greatest painters, died last year in London after living in self-imposed exile for the last several years because the government could not guarantee his safety from right-wing Hindu groups that criticized his paintings of Hindu goddesses. More:

At Jaipur LitFest, writers read excerpts from The Satanic Verses in support of Rushdie

Imran Khan interview

Published on January 21, 2012 in Pakistan. 0 Comments Tags: .

Bangladesh army foils coup attempt

Published on January 20, 2012 in Bangladesh. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

From The Daily Star, Dhaka:

The army has foiled a “coup attempt to overthrow the present democratic government”, an army spokesman said yesterday.

A band of religious fanatics, comprising mid-ranking officers and their retired colleagues, was involved in the failed putsch.

At the instigation of some non-resident Bangladeshis, they sought to “disrupt democracy by creating anarchy in the army, cashing in on the fanaticism of others”.

Brigadier General Muhammad Mashud Razzaq, director of Personnel Services Directorate, disclosed the information at an unprecedented press briefing at the Army Officers Club in Dhaka cantonment. He was accompanied on the dais by Lieutenant Colonel Muhammad Sazzad Siddique, acting judge advocate general of the army.

Also present were Lt Gen Md Mainul Islam, chief of general staff, and Brig Gen Ridwan-Al-Mahmud, director of Military Intelligence. More:

Remembering Anthony Gonsalves

Published on January 20, 2012 in India, Movies, Music and Obituaries. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

By Naresh Fernandes

Midway through Manmohan Desai’s classic 1977 film about three brothers separated at birth, a man in a top hat and a Saturday Night Fever suit leaps out of a giant Easter egg to inform the assemblage, ‘My name is Anthony Gonsalves.’

The significance of the announcement was lost under the impact of Amitabh Bachchan’s sartorial exuberance. But decades later, the memory of that moment still sends shivers down the spines of scores of ageing men scattered across Bombay and Goa. By invoking the name of his violin teacher in that tune in Amar Akbar Anthony, the composer Pyarelal had finally validated the lives of scores of Goan Catholic musicians whose working years had been illuminated by the flicker of images dancing across white screens in airless sound studios, even as acknowledgement of their talent whizzed by in the flash of small-type credit titles.

The arc of their stories – determined by the intersection of passion and pragmatism, of empire and exigency – originated in church-run schools in Portuguese Goa and darted through royal courts in Rajasthan, jazz clubs in Calcutta and army cantonments in Muree. Those lines eventually converged on Bombay’s film studios, where the Goan Catholic arrangers worked with Hindu music composers and Muslim lyricists in an era of intense creativity that would soon come to be recognised as the golden age of Hindi film song. More:

The state of Indian rural education 2011

Published on January 20, 2012 in Education. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Aatish Bhatia at Empirical Zeal:

A friend of mine recently pointed me towards an incredible resource. It’s called the Annual Status of Education Report (or ASER, which means impact in Hindi). ASER is an ambitious survey of the state of Indian rural education, conducted yearly since 2005, and their 2011 report came out a few days ago.

The level of organization here is truly impressive. It’s the largest survey conducted outside the government, combining the efforts of over 25,000 young volunteers from local organizations. Together, they survey nearly 300,000 households in over 16,000 villages in all states of India, and conduct basic level reading and numeracy tests on over 700,000 children.

Behind this coordinated effort is a simple and powerful idea, that effective policy needs to be based on evidence. The report takes a refreshingly no-nonsense approach. Rather than starting off with a long list of dignitaries to thank and lofty goals to implement, ASER gets right down to the point, with figures and tables. They focus on two basic goals. How many children are enrolled in schools (and what kind of school)? And are these children learning the very basics of reading and numeracy? By comparing trends of schooling and learning in different states, they have put together the most detailed picture so far of what’s working and what isn’t in rural education. The general picture that is emerging is one of rising enrollment but declining learning outcomes, from levels that were already low. More:

India faces new front in battle against TB

Published on January 19, 2012 in Health and India. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Geeta Anand in WSJ:

A top Mumbai pulmonologist has told the Indian government he has seen 12 cases of tuberculosis in this city that are totally resistant to all of the current treatments, forcing India to confront weaknesses in its programs to combat this contagious, potentially fatal lung disease.

Zarir Udwadia, one of Mumbai’s leading private pulmonologists, reported the first four cases in a letter in December to the Clinical Infectious Diseases magazine, a publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. He said in an interview that he has now seen and tested a total of 12 patients at Mumbai’s Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Center since late last year who are resistant to all forms of treatment. Three of the patients have died, he said.

“While this handful of cases is worrying, it’s just the tip of the iceberg,” said Soumya Swaminathan, senior deputy director of the National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis, part of the Indian Council of Medical Research, the government’s network of biomedical research institutions. “The bottom line is we need to take TB much more seriously.” More:

Also read Wired

Ukraine women go topless in anti-India visa protest

Published on January 19, 2012 in Women. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

From The Telegraph:

Four young Ukrainian women braved sub-zero temperatures today to go topless and climb the balcony of the Indian envoy’s residence in Kiev with placards pronouncing “Ukraine is not a bordello” and “We are not prostitutes”.

The quartet from Femen, a group famous for topless protests against everything from sex tourism to Silvio Berlusconi’s peccadilloes, were protesting the alleged tightening of visa rules by the Indian mission in Kiev for Ukrainian women in the 15-40 age group.

The women cited an Indian newspaper report published last week as proof that the mission had branded all Ukrainian women in the 15-40 age group as prostitutes. More:

Sheldon Pollock on the study of classics in India

Published on January 18, 2012 in Culture. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Via Shunya’s Notes

 

Will Nikky Haley be the first female President of US?

Published on January 17, 2012 in Leaders and Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Marie Claire interviews the Republican governor of South Carolina:

Welcome to the world of Nikki Haley, who, at the age of 40, is currently the youngest-serving U.S. governor; South Carolina’s first female chief executive; and one of a tiny sorority (six out of 50) of current U.S. women governors. Aside from Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal, she is only the nation’s second governor of Indian extraction–no small thing in a state where the Confederate flag still waves in the capital.

Yet Haley—born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa to Punjabi immigrants who settled in Bamberg, South Carolina (population: 3,300)—is emblematic of a new, diverse generation of Southern politicians. Though she endured discrimination as a child (she was even disqualified from a local beauty pageant on racial grounds), she overcame bigotry to get elected, at age 32, to the South Carolina state legislature. A Tea Party favorite, she’s already being name-checked as a possible presidential contender come 2016. More:

Salman Rushdie persuaded to stay away from Jaipur Lit Fest

Published on January 17, 2012 in Books, India and Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

From The Times of India:

A major flashpoint ahead of the Jaipur Literary Festival has been avoided with a jittery Rajasthan government on Monday persuading organizers to ask Salman Rushdie, the main draw at the book-lovers’ jamboree, to call off his visit.

Rajasthan chief secretary Salauddin Ahmed is learnt to have called the organizers to discuss Rushdie’s presence that, sources in the state government said, would have created a huge security risk, given the threat of protests by Muslim groups.

“Rushdie’s trip has been cancelled. We have been informed,” said a senior Rajasthan police officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The organizers, however, didn’t confirm the cancellation but the Booker Prize-winning author’s events on the January 20-24 programme were purged from the JLF website. More:

The slimy cowardice of the soft state

The shallow middle-class contempt for Manmohan Singh

Published on January 17, 2012 in India and Politics. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Aakar Patel in Mint Lounge:

Historian Ramachandra Guha has sent down his pronouncement on Manmohan Singh. Writing in The Telegraph, he dismisses Khushwant Singh’s view that Singh is the best prime minister we’ve ever had. Khushwant Singh, Guha observes, is not the best judge of leaders. He thought Sanjay Gandhi would save India.

For Guha, Manmohan Singh has been a disappointment and even, this is in the headline and may not be Guha’s view, a failure. Singh has never been a popular leader because he lacks charisma. The middle class’s SMSes laugh at him because he’s seen as weak. However, most academics think highly of Singh. Guha also did once, as he suggests. He then tells us the reasons why he no longer does, and we should look at them.

Four things about Singh disappoint Guha.

The first is that he is timid towards Sonia Gandhi. He yields to her on the appointment of ministers and legislating of laws.

Yet this is how cabinets are put together. There are ministers that must repel Singh, certainly. But they are probably also the ones that repel Sonia—the men nominated by the Congress allies. But as for the Congressmen in key positions, it’s likely that Singh has no problem with most. It’s true Singh has no free hand. For instance, it is believed that he wanted Montek Singh Ahluwalia as finance minister, but got Pranab Mukherjee instead. But no prime minister has a free hand, especially one whose source of power comes not from his popularity, but that of his underwriter. More:

Baroness of the Punjab

Published on January 16, 2012 in Leaders and Women. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

She may be Conservative Party chairman, but Sayeeda Warsi has never forgotten her roots. Peter Oborne joined the mill worker’s daughter on her mission to help preserve democracy in Pakistan. In The Telegraph, UK:

 As the traumatic events of the weekend show all too vividly, Pakistan is one of the most turbulent and unstable countries in the world, and a diplomatic nightmare.

But Britain has a secret weapon – Sayeeda Warsi. With her Punjabi heritage, local languages and easy manner, the Conservative Party chairman can reach parts of the Pakistan political system that other government ministers cannot.

As I witnessed at first hand last week, David Cameron has licensed Baroness Warsi to operate as Britain’s unofficial envoy. The Tory chairman flew into a first-rate crisis set off by the potentially deadly stand-off between government and military. The defence secretary had just been fired. More:

Satyadev Dubey: 1936-2011

Published on January 16, 2012 in Art and Culture. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Girish Karnad in Outlook:

But as a theatre director, he was supreme. He loved the stage, made it his home, and became as much a legend on the Marathi stage as on the Hindi one. He presented Tendulkar’s Marathi and Adya Rangacharya’s Kannada plays in Hindi, Mohan Rakesh’s Hindi and Badal Sircar’s Bengali plays in Marathi. He discovered new plays (Andha Yug, Yayati). He brought Marathi actresses like Sulabha Deshpande and her sisters to Hindi theatre, trained new actors (Amrish Puri, Sunila Pradhan, Sonali Kulkarni, Harish Patel) and new directors (Chetan Datar, Sunil Shanbhag), nagging them, berating them, testing whether their love of theatre was strong enough to bear his insults. When Vinod Doshi gave him the entire ground floor of Walchand Terrace in Tardeo, for four years it turned into the crucible of Marathi/ Hindi theatre in Bombay. In recent years, despite his poor health, he turned Prithvi Theatre into a non-stop workshop for aspiring actors, with the patient approval of Sanjna Kapoor.

Although he ultimately managed to buy himself a flat, he was happier sleeping on the drawing-room carpets of Nira Benegal, Saryu Doshi, Sunila Pradhan and Rani Burra in Bombay, Chetna Jalan in Calcutta, and Sunita Paul in Delhi. He had a soft corner for the wives of his closest friends and was, in turn, pampered by them. I have seen him being thrown out of parties at midnight for becoming too loud or vituperative, but welcomed back again with the same warmth. More:

Role models can reduce the gender gap: an experiment in rural India

Published on January 15, 2012 in India. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Aatish Bhatia at his blog Empirical Zeal on an interesting study:

I’m back at home in India, and visited my local toy store today, looking for a science kit for a wide-eyed young friend. A woman walks in, seeking a toy for a one-year-old child. “A boy, not a girl”, she hastens to add. The shopkeeper smiles, and says that at one year of age there isn’t really a difference. “I know”, replies the woman, “but I don’t want you to pick out a doll.”

This is a small example, but I find it sad how we impose these gender roles onto infants. You don’t need to be a sociologist to realize that much of one’s gender identity depends on society. If you ask an adolescent girl growing up in the United States what she wants to be when she grows up, her answer will be quite different from that of a girl in India or Afghanistan. Every society creates certain expectations for its children, and this affects the kinds of educational opportunities and careers they aspire towards. Crucially, study after study has shown that these ambitions really matter. What a child believes about their capabilities has a strong bearing on what they will actually achieve.

In the developing world, girls are routinely subject to lower expectations than boys. This bias creates an inequality in educational and societal opportunities. This raises an important question. Is it possible to reduce the gender gap in a society, by changing the beliefs of individuals? A clever new study published in Science argues that in rural India, the answer is yes. The authors argue that the presence of a prominent female role model in an Indian village reduces the gender gap in that village. More:

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