Part of a email conversation on scientific temper

A part of a email conversation of the Google group Highschoolscience:

1. If I understand Hardy correctly, he is saying that 'there is nothing non-scientific about belief in God'. I do not agree with it. Science as an episteme has no notion, concept, observable, idea, hypothesis or theory called God. This does not mean that practising scientists may not be believers. Of course, till the middle of 20th century, most leading scientists were believers. This also does not mean that science negates the existence of God. The idea of God has nothing to do with science and vice versa. It is an irrelevant question in science.

Obviously the notion of God being what it is, it has occupied the mind of every thinking person, and scientists are no exception. So there are many expositions on science and God. I do not accept them. I am talking about the science I know, that I have learned and that I practise to some extent. Others may have different science(s).

2. Panchu mentioned spirituality as a necessity.

In my article for the newspaper (written in limited space and hence, with limited number of words):

I have mentioned that the masses believe in God. Everything else in religious lifestyle, the rituals or the 'books' and 'kathaas', exists because God exists in their belief-systems. For the ordinary person, all humans are equal in the eyes of God. I speculated that the box office success of the film 'PK' points to this.

I have mentioned that one person's rationality does not mean hurting someone else's sense of believing (one could also read an implied meaning that one's own rationality in some actions or inferences does not mean hurting their own sense of believing, if they do so occasionally).

I speculated that those who explain away conflicts based on religious differences as a matter of faith are wrong. I also mentioned that such commentators have made confusing statements occasionally.

I also speculated that the mention of 'scientific temper' in the constitution of India hurts the vested interests that exploit faith and wish to build a lumpen-society (I am using 'lumpen' with the  commonly perceived meaning, albeit incorrect :  'goonda').

And, Captain Bodas's reading of that junk paper and the science congress allowing him to read it, have contributed to the making of such a lumpen-society, which has been picking up speed since the eighties, and is right now going on at an intense build-speed in North India.

And I have also stated the point about science and technology that Anita mentioned in her mail (about S n T not evolving in parallel necessarily), though not with the examples she cites.

Oh yes, I also speculated that most scientists in India lack scientific temper. That most of them are unable to explain scientific ideas in their own languages  is an indication. This may also mean that their knowledge in science is poor.

comments on creativity, language and human existence

Some comments on creativity, language and human existence in a dialogue with a friend over email:


Q. Context, language is fine, but material conditions determine our language. Will you quibble here?

My response: I have always believed that art is not created in vacuum. Yes, there is an individual creative element and it is also true that unlike scientific observations, most sophisticated creative expressions are not reproducible, but there is a 'desh-kaal' (space-time) context of creativity. Whether it is entirely a product of material conditions, is difficult to ascertain, but I think it is not a worthwhile debate to get into, certainly not for the artist or the poet. Let the scientists worry about it.

It is now believed that the origin of all languages spoken by humans is a unique primitive source, but diversification must have been aided and perhaps made possible due to diverse material conditions.

To say that there is a unique origin does not mean that there is something called 'mother' of all languages (And with all linguists going for my neck, I would still not agree that Sanskrit is the 'mother' of most Indian languages).

Having said that, material conditions or otherwise, experience and emotion inscribed in a language are precious characteristics of human existence. They may evolve naturally, but imposing from outside is asking for a definite disaster.  Much of the apparent breakdown of social norms in our society may very well be related to how English has been arrogantly pushed down the throats of ordinary people. I say this without any scientific understanding, it is a gut feeling and I will not argue if one questions such formulations. But I have this intense feeling that imposition, rather than incorporation by natural assimilation, of English, has done an enormous damage to our lives.

intellectual khichdi of the great Indian soil

Dear All,

I am feeling disturbed by an article titled 'How Modi defeated liberalslike me'  by Prof Shiv Viswanathan, published in 'The Hindu' today. I have jotted down a few thoughts in response to his article. I will often refer to the author as Shiv with apologies to those who mind it. Shiv is a prominent personality of our times. I am aware that I do not have the scholarship in social sciences that he possesses. I am trying to articulate some serious problems I find in his article.

The article begins with a reference to the pooja performed by Narendra Modi at the Kashi Vishwanath temple followed by an aarti performed along the Ganga river. Shiv observes, 'As the event was relayed on TV, people messaged requesting that the event be shown in full, without commentary. Others claimed that this was the first time such a ritual was shown openly.' It is quite true that it was the first time Modi's performance at the Ganga was shown openly. But does anyone seriously think that such rituals are not shown openly on public media in this country? That National leaders have been performing religious rituals in public is not even a matter of debate. From Rajendra Prasad's pujas to Sonia Gandhi's visits to religious places, it is a common knowledge that religion, whether for private or public use, is an overwhelming presence in the lives of political personalities in India. Why is it that Prof Viswanathan makes such an issue of it then? One gets a glimpse of the possible reasons in the next sentence claiming that with Mr. Modi around, the message claimed “We don’t need to be ashamed of our religion. This could not have happened earlier.”

Who is ashamed of which religion? Was Modi merely practising a religious ritual? If so, a good question to ask is how many times before that day did he come to the Dashashwamedh ghat to do this act; after all, he is 63+ years old, a person with a lot of power and easy mobility, certainly it would have occurred to him some time earlier too that there is a necessary act to be performed according to his religion.

No, it was not a religious act. One could argue that every religious act is a political act. In this case it was a purely political act devoid of any religiosity. The message was not what Prof Viswanathan reads, the message is, “Behold, the Hindu dictator cometh.” The word 'Hindu' here is not a religious term (to begin with there is no religion called the Hindu religion).

Ironically, in another article published in 'The Hindu' a little more than a month ago, Shiv had written, 'Varanasi breaks the Bharat-India, Muslim-Hindu divide that Mr. Modi seeks to enforce.' Read that again, ' the Bharat-India, Muslim-Hindu divide that Mr. Modi seeks to enforce'. After Modi winning, he is saying 'We don’t need to be ashamed of our religion'. Interesting.

In the second para, the article hits the Bull's eye in quoting a friend, “You English speaking secularists have been utterly coercive, making the majority feel ashamed of what was natural.” That there is something pathological in the Englishwallahs in this country is felt by many of us. I pointed out a few aspects of this in a recent article titled 'फासीवादी उभार का भाषाई पहलू' published in Jansatta. In a poem titled 'टोनी मॉरिसन इंग्लिशवालों के खिलाफ लिखती है', published in the literary journal 'बनास जन', I expressed the irony differently. While the scholarship in my opinions does not even come close to that of the author I am reacting to, nonetheless I, another desi bugger around, have my take on it. The 'natural' as understood by Prof Viswanathan is very different from how I understand it.

Then Shiv moves on to describe the paranoi of leftists about ' positing a period of McCarthyism in India'. He may be quite right if we remind ourselves that only 31% of the voters have given BJP 'the majority'. This is not like an entire Nation has succumbed to authoritarianism. Not even a third of it. Given that not everyone comes to vote, perhaps not even a fifth of it. Indeed there is no need to be paranoid. But are we not aware of what happened when the last time BJP was in power with even less support than today? Is it unfair that some of us are getting paranoid remembering how the books were rewritten? Today we are 'some Leftists', what were we before Modi won, when we shared with Shiv the fear from 'the Muslim-Hindu divide that Mr. Modi seeks to enforce'? An interesting chapter in the NCERT History text book is written by my friend Prof Anil Sethi, on multiple narratives about partition of India in 1947. It is a widely lauded work – is it wrong to fear that this chapter is likely to be removed because it attempts to show the South Asians across the borders as equal vicitims of the hatred that flared?

As he says, indeed 'both Right and Left have appealed to the state to determine what was correct history'. Is he suggesting that the books being downloaded are written as the Left's version of the correct history? Interesting.

His statement 'With the advent of the Right, there is now a feeling that history will become another revolving door regime where the official and statist masquerade as the truth', is again right on the Bull's eye. But then he attempts to give his own explanation of 'why Left liberals failed to understand this election' by suggesting that there are anxieties that the middle class suffers from and that is what Mr. Modi understood 'more acutely than the intellectuals'. Consider this juxtaposed to his 50 days before the victory dictum '... Muslim-Hindu divide that Mr. Modi seeks to enforce'. No issues with the words, except that we need to explore the nature of 'anxieties'. Shiv seemed to share the understanding of these anxieties with the 'Left' earlier. Not now. Today, the Left is a 'club, snobbish about secularism, treating religion not as a way of life but as a superstition'. This is like going back to debates from 50 years ago – 'Marx called it the opium of the masses' versus 'no, he said it was the agony of the oppressed'. The least I can say is that for the first time I am thoroughly disappointed at such simplistic verbosity from a master that I have held in high esteem for long.

And after this, OMG, he blasts the Left for being the demon 'that tried to inject the idea of the scientific temper into the constitutions as if it would create immunity against religious fears and superstitions'.

Very interestingly, near the end of the article, Shiv calls Dalai Lama his 'favourite scientist'. Obviously, there is a contradiction. Or perhaps, 'the scientist' is one free of the evil called 'the scientific temper' which in his words, overemphasises secularism, creates 'an empty domain, a coercive milieu where ordinary people practising religion were seen as lesser orders of being'. It will be childish to claim that the idea of science does not come with a package of value judgments and power relations, but the suggestion that science creates that domain and the coercion referred to by Shiv, more than other social institutions like the stratifications based on caste, gender, etc., which are intricately related to and are reinforced by the institution of religion, is again very disappointing.

Then Shiv continues his tirade against secularism, a word lost in the quagmire of the intellectual khichdi of the great Indian soil. It is an 'invidious weapon'. Shiv tells us 'The regime used to placate minorities electorally, violating the majoritarian sense of fairness'. Pray, what are the placations? Oh yes, there is the old Shah Bano case, then we have the personal law, article 370 for Kashmiris, but presumably those are not the issues that Shiv is pointing out (though, these are the ones that Sangh parivar wants its supporters to be angry about), he is talking about the electoral placations. Now, even Shiv would agree that much of the Hindutva thought has to do with Brahmanical hegemony, to quote a 'Left' idiom, and if so what about the caste based reservations violating the sense of fairness of – no, not a majority, but a dominant minority! Electoral politics compels candidates to seek support by hook or by crook. There is a large scale corruption in the whole process. Money, liquor, drugs, violence, everything goes. Then there is casteism and communalism. The question is what are the bottomlines that must not be crossed. The Sangh ideology has successfully penetrated large sections of OBCs and Dalits, specially in North India, with what – by giving them a false majoritarian identity and then instilling in them the anger against the violation of their sense of fairness about relations between the so-called religious communities, the Hindus and the Muslims. Pray, is it wrong to care for the minorities? What are the principles in this regard in our great tradition, some features of which Shiv elaborates in his article? If it is not wrong to worry about minorities, and keeping in mind facts on the miserable condition of minorities as detailed for instance, by the Sachhar committee, then why is a great scholar so perturbed that some parties claim to be caring for the minorities? Interesting. In any case, is it not irresponsible to add to the rant of electoral placations without mentioning the details? Instead of contributing to false notions like minorities are given undue privileges, we should be concerned that the minorities in this country are insecure and it is this which makes them vulnerable to exploitation, electorally or otherwise. We should be concerned that the minorities still live with a low quality of life and poor educational standards and the progressive voices from within them have no power.

Shiv's interpretation that 'The majority felt coerced by secular correctness which they saw either as empty or meaningless' is one way of looking at it. The other is that the existential angst that continued suffering from poverty and exploitation causes in any human being, makes most of us vulnerable to the idea of a modern Nation-state linked with a majoritarian way of life that necessarily looks for an enemy within, Jews in Germany, Hindus in Bangaldesh or Pakistan and Muslims in India. It is this insecurity that Modi and the Sangh were able to consolidate. It has nothing to do with 'the cosmic way religion impregnated the everydayness of their lives'. No, the majority has no such fear of coercion by the 'secular correctness', they are hardly even touched by it. On the contrary, the basic human urge of love and altruism is constantly challenged by the bigotry all around cultivated by the Sangh Parivar and their cohorts.

Then Shiv gets back to what his scholarship is known for – the rediscovery of our religions and our sciences. But is it sufficient to say that ' Indian religions were perpetually dialogic' forgetting that in practice, they also reinforced with brutality the institutions that dehumanised large sections of society? While there are many good things about the dialogue of medical systems in our tradition, can we forget why the 'Guptasharmas' had to be 'gupta' (secret)? Indeed we are not like some of the European countries, where religion is just a small part of one's life, but that does not mean that the religion that we live with is all spiritual and uplifting. Any one waking up in the morning anywhere in India can see this, and hear this, from the loud blast, by the poor quality audio loudspeakers installed on varieties of places of worship, that destroys the morning serenity. It can be safely asserted that religion has mostly an oppressive presence in our lives, specially in the lives of the marginalised. That the 'Left' in this country has hardly been a champion of the separation of church and state is well-known; any one can dig up the numerous news items on CPIM ministers inaugurating Puja mandaps in West Bengal. What are we talking about? The bogey of 'Left' that exists only in the rhetoric of academic campuses? My God, from Shiv's article, one would think that we just got rid of the Stalin era from India!

Shiv's emphasis on ' Christianity that was continuously at odds with science' is presumably meant to remind us that secularism is a western idea. True, but is the idea of a modern Nation-state identified with Hindutva an Indian idea? Was Hitler, the source of inspiration for the Sanghis, an Indian?

It is true that some of us find it difficult to accept that practising scientists often mix their religious beliefs with there professional life activities. But to suggest that this has any impact on the larger societal dynamics is absurd. To start with, there are hardly any atheists among Indian scientists and by and large all scientific bodies are extremely conservative. Go to any National conference and see how much time the scientists spend talking about Modi and the Gujarat development.

I thought I write poetry, but I do not understand what Shiv means by 'There is a sense of snobbery and poetry'! And the illiteracy he mentions that 'religion, especially Christianity shaped the cosmologies of science' is not quite fitting. More than anyone else, he knows that the prevalence of flow of knowledge, that eventually became science, across cultures, was quite common and much wider in the last two millennia than the extent scholars believed it to be in the last century. Besides, if he is insisting on minding the distinction between Christianity and our religions, which anyway were not much different form pagan religions elsewhere in the world, then why should we worry about Indian scientists' being unaware of how Christianity shaped the cosmologies of science!

Shiv's attempt to portray secularism as the demon that the poor middle-classes were waiting to be overthrown, is utter nonsense. What kind of lie is this that ' The activism of Hindutva groups was treated as sinister but the fundamentalism of other religions was often treated as benign and as a minoritarian privilege.'? The words speak of a sinister design. The fact is that there is a Narendra Modi in each of us. There is a communal orientation of our minds, that is vulnerable to exploitation. Modi and the Sanghis were able to consolidate this with most of the 31% of voters - the rest of the work was done by the ten thousand crores of capital poured in to buy the media. With as overwhelming a majority in population, that the political entity called 'Hindu' has‌ in India, it is only natural that Hindutva will be more noticed here, just like the fundamentalism in Islam is more noticed by liberals in Pakistan and Bangldesh or Iran.

It is very interesting that Shiv refers to the incidents of Ganesha statues drinking milk. I was at that time the convener of a science forum in Chandigarh. Responding to a lot of pressure from friends, I sent a letter to the press (it was published as a letter to the editor in 'The Tribune'). It had three itemised statements. I pointed out that the idea of a religious idol drinking milk is in not a subject of scientific investigation. For whatever we do following a scientific method will not be acceptable in the domain of faith. We requested those indulging in feeding milk to Lord Ganesha that they should try not to waste milk and remember that their faith will be noticed even if they use a spoon of milk with some water. We asked people to be concerned about children and patients in hospitals who need milk. Notice how different it was from the cynic reaction that Shiv points out in his article. Here I am, a believer in science and secularism. Interesting.

It is sad that today intellectuals like Shiv are equating opposing Modi with science and modernity. In a way, they are doing a great service to science. After all, much of what Modi used to say before 2002 will not be erased. His reference to Muslims inevitably used to be in derogatory and often threatening terms – 'Ham paanch hamaare pachees' was a rant we do not forget. After he became the chief minister, he was careful, but not without a loose end every once in a while. There is enough evidence available, that surely Shiv cannot be oblivious of. If science gives us the courage to resist such bigotry, good for us and good for science.

- Laltu

we have no clothes on

A poet friend on FB has asked -

'If 2002 hadn't happened, would Modi still be the PM-in-waiting? Did undue emphasis on 2002 help his becoming PM a self-fulfilling prophecy?'

Here is my response -

  There can never be an 'undue' emphasis on killings motivated by hatred - any emphasis is less than desired.  As a poet, you should understand this.

Modi is  the PM-in-waiting for a single reason. The entire South Asia has remained a primitive civilisation. There is hardly any one who is not communally oriented. When we say 'undue' emphasis on 1984 or 2002 or any hatred motivated killing small or big, it is a deep rooted insensitivity to the 'wo log' that shows. When the majority communalism is consolidated, it grows into a behemoth, as we have seen at times in Pakistan and Bangladesh and are witnessing in the rise of the Sangh parivar today.

Modi has been able to consolidate the communal nature of our thinking and the hypocritical pretence of development (does it take more than a few seconds of moving fingers on the keyboard to find out the facts on social and human development indices instead of falling into obvious fallacy of 'I have seen the roads in Gujarat'? Social development is not measured by a Nizam or an Ambani's wealth, it is measured by economic and development data that deal with millions) has worked well to cover our insensitivity.

It is because we have remained not sufficiently sensitive to atrocities by the powerful - be it Hitler, Stalin, the American imperialists, or their seemingly smaller equivalents in Indian history, that such atrocities occur again. Ironically, we claim to be the most tolerant and spiritually advanced civilisation on earth and yet in practice, we are blind to the rise of forces that are so hateful. It is not Modi the person, it is the power behind him, the parivar, whose members will not hesitate to indulge in violence of all kinds - physical or verbal, that is the issue. Like the Germans today, someday future generations in South Asia will wonder what really went wrong with their forefathers. It is not for nothing that a small incident in Mujaffarnagar grows into a full fledged riot. I have been told by editors that their colleagues spend a lot of time deleting the vulgar comments that come in response. Women  writing against Modi and the sangh are sent comments like 'f..ing bitch' and 'muslim cocksucker'. All this is routine affair. Can anyone with minimal sensitivity remain impervious to this? The typical bajrangi is not just on the road out there; when we forget how Ishrat was killed, that for the first time in the history of India, a minister in Modi's cabinet was almost awarded with capital punishment for leading crowds to rape and burn innocent women and children, that senior police officers of his state are either in jail for wrongdoings like murdering innocents or there are other officers protesting the Government's communal high-handedness meeting incessant wrath of the state, when we forget all this, we really are identifying with the Bajrangis like those hooligans in Mangalore beating up young people for simply doing what young people do, partying and romancing.

So that is what it is. Modi is there because we have found ways to express our communalism in a manner that is blatant and naked, except that unlike what happened to the proverbial king, there is no innocent child on the street to point out that we have no clothes on.

The minority vote bank myth

A younger colleague got worked up after reading yet another article on how Congress has for the last 67 years exploited the Muslim vote bank. The writer of the article is a Muslim (Shahid Siddiqui) and an ex-editor of Nai Duniya. Normally, I would provide the link, but I find the article so bad that I will not do it.

Here is how I responded to my colleague:

Dear ...,

This guy is from MP and probably bought over by RSS.
It is not true that for 67 years, the game is going on. It is only in the last 30 years that a Muslim vote back has taken shape. Immediately after independence, the rightists were not non-entities, but many of them were in the Congress. Others who were distributed in formations like the Swatantra parties were non-entities and the fight was between Congress and socialists of all hue (communists, Lohiaites).

Incidentally, the idea of a Muslim vote bank can make sense in UP, Bihar or Kerala - it is absurd to think of it in the National context - after all, they are no more than 18% of total population. Does it require much thinking?

The reality is the other way around. BJP survives on the Hindu vote bank. Too bad for them that the majority has had other interests.

Congress also willy-nilly played into Hindu vote bank - there are many instances of this - indecision on Babri mosque/temple beginning 1949, the Punjab politics in the eighties, etc. Nehru was less concerned with going to temples, but Indira made it a rule that she visited certain Hindu temples regularly. This was done not just because she was a believer. She married a Parsi (an atheist actually) against family wishes. She visited temples to cater to the Hindu psyche.

It is true that now Muslims are wooed by parties, but earlier Congress was not the only party they voted for and wherever they did it, it was for a variety of reasons. The Bihari and other Hindi speaking Muslims in Kolkata voted for Congress in the sixties and even seventies because they identified with leaders in the states they came from. This changed as the left culture took roots. Muslims started voting for left from late seventies onwards until the TMC took them away in the last ten years.

So, Shahid Siddiqui's analysis is biased and incorrect. There are many such self-proclaimed experts, who are prejudiced one way or other and they keep mis-informing people.

The real nature of democracy and electoral politics became apparent to parties only in the last thirties. There is not just a Muslim vote bank, there is the caste bank, the gender bank. Parties work on these equations very carefully because of electoral compulsions and that is all that one should see in it.

A literature festival and a call for a postnational South Asia

[A final version of this is published as 'Talking Literature' in EPW, 28 Dec 2013, p.142)

For years now, many of us including this writer have written opinion articles pleading for a federation or a EU like structure in South Asia with open borders across India and Pakistan. It was nice to be reinforced on these lines being in the audience for the Hri Research Institute for Southasian Research and Exchange, a unit of the Kathmandu-based Himal Sothasian magazine, session on trans-National writings across South Asia in Bangalore Literature Festival (BLF). The session hosted Kanak Dixit, editor of Himal, Babar Ayaz and Mira Hashmi from Pakistan, Farrah Ghuznavi from Bangladaesh and Ashok Ferry from Sri Lanka. There were other sessions hosting writers from the different countries of South Asia, including one with Nighat Gandhi, who claims a multi-National identity.

To be honest, I have always wondered why the lit-fests are not called the city-English-lit-fests. Typically, these have a couple of sessions in what is now called 'Bhasha' (BLF was pleasantly better than the typical with several sessions on Kannada poetry, literaure and also other languages like Tulu, etc.) and otherwise mostly it is a show by the Englishwallahs for the Englishwallahs, the ones with the burden of looking modern and yet carrying the remnant provincial feudal values on their shoulders and living under the illusion that just because they share the English language with so many others across the globe, they have a global character. But then being only marginally away from them, I go to these melas and end up finding something or other that makes me feel good. The HRI session conducted by Laxmi Murthy was one such thing. Kanak started with referring to the post-national South Asia (Shivam Vij recently wrote an article on the idea at http://www.thefridaytimes.com/beta3/tft/article.php?issue=20130927&page=9d, wondering if it should be called pre-nationalism), and he strongly argued that we need to look beyond the lived half-century of Nationalism in South Asia. The session was mostly on writing, focussing more on the increasing set of names from the non-India parts of South Asia, as Laxmi put it. Then as usual there was some talk about writing in Bhasha and about translations (Navanita Dev Sen from the audience pleaded for awards for translators). The day before, the well-known poets and critics Ashok Vajpeyi, K. Satchidanandan and others had nearly exhausted the Bhasha issue. I wondered if these were enough to take us to post-national South Asia scenario.

There is a measured silence in most discourses on development and politics in South Asia on the impact of military expenditure in subverting development efforts. In India, there are the usual arguments, with Pakistan and China around you, how can you cut down on defense. Similar arguments prevail in Pakistan and China. In a recent analysis, published in this magazine, of the National budget and military expenditure, Gautam Navlakha points out that 19% of the budget is spent on defense. This is, of course, what is revealed. There are expenses like maintaining the intelligence agencies, the production and maintenance of nuclear weapons and secret purchase deals of highly expensive modern conventional weaponry, etc., which are not subject to audit and are not revealed to public eyes. Compare that with the near 10% on education and similar amount on health-care. Is it really possible to have any meaningful development without diverting funds from the military? And without an educated aware people, is it possible to counter elements of jingoism? The answer to both these questions is no and hence 'post-National South Asia' remains an unfulfilled dream. The writers can only do their bit but the material realities of an insane world are far too overwhelming.

So the writers told us about realities that are common to the entire subcontinent. Kanak Dixit asked for 'the courage to critique one's own state and ... to have empathy for the other states'. Farah Ghuznavi, while talking of difficulties in publishing a book in the USA, mentioned the family as the only social service agency available to deal with mental health patients. The context was about the pressures from publishers to change her writing – one publisher wanted her to talk about mental health services in villages in her novel, and she refused because none exist, and the publisher then refused to publish her book. Babar Ayaz's book 'What is wrong with Pakistan' was released during the HRI session, and talking of the defects of the Nation-state Pakistan and the terrorism in and beyond Pakistan, he also mentioned the Hindutva and the Sinhalese chauvinism. Laxmi Murthy rightly asked when will we write a book titled 'What is wrong with India'. Mira Hashmi, in words full of wit and humour talked of the love for Hindi cinema. There was a lot of cinema talk in the fest including the presence of the great Gulzar himself.

To meaningfully talk of a post-National South Asia, we need to raise our voices against expenses in South Asia on external and internal security heads. Our arguments are simple. The territorial disputes have to be resolved by negotaitions. We can use the international bodies, the United Nations and the international courts and agree to come to terms. Once settled, with GPS and what not, there could be a permanent open border surface trade between India and China all the ensuing benefits. Perhaps the situation with Pakistan is more difficult. And yet, there are multiple solutions, if only there is a desire to seek them. For instance, consider a twenty-five year moratorium on arms in Kashmir followed by a referendum for a free Kashmir. In the mean time, a UN peace-keeping force can monitor the situation. Perhaps with open borders the Kashmiris will agree to live the way they are today, a part in India and a part in Pakistan. Perhaps they will seek a unification of the severed body and independence. In any case, with open borders like acoss the several countries in EU, it hardly matters how the administration is managed. Living within a 'National' paradgm, this will never make sense. But then how do we counter the jingoism, the 'Kashmir hamara avichhinn ang hai' rant! One way to do that is to demand significantly higher levels of investment in quality education and a far greater emphasis in education on theory of knowledge acquisition, and the ability to distinguish prejudiced beliefs from justified true beliefs. Granted that education per se is no guarantee that jingoism will disappear but education is certainly a requirement. Not sufficient but a necessary condition. Where will the money for such investments come from? There is no alternative to reclaiming what is lost to militarism. An often asked question is 'does China spend any less on military?' No, they spend more, but that is for the Chinese people to fight against. And is there any reason to doubt that there are as many pacifists in China as anywhere else on the planet! Besides, the human development indices for China are more than a few decades away for us to catch up with.

Back to the question of English, I wonder what would be the probability of Babar Ayaz turning up here if his book was written in a Pakistani zubaan? Very little, really. Such is the nature of these fests. Living in times when translations sell in no less numbers than the original, it is a shame that there are so few translations available. Aiyaz Sahib was very happy to learn from me that for more than my life time, transliterated versions in Devnagari of the likes of Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Firaq Gorakhpuri have been available for us to read. It was nice to see that in spite of speaking in fluent Hindustani, Gulzar probably drew the largest audience. But then it is not literature alone, but much more the cinema connection that brings people to him.

Shabnam Virmani and her co-performer Vipul of the Kabir project fame ended the festival and that indeed was a gala event. A soulful evening in the open space of that otherwise far from literary Crowne Plaza warmed up the Deccan chill.

comment on article on Shahbag

Comment on 'The Divide over Shahbag: An Effort to Engage the ‘Enemy’by Biswajit Roy published in the latest issue of Frontier

The confusion about left and its position on religious communities aside, what should be clear is that in spite of a clear pro-liberation sentiment in Bengal, the mainstream political parties have passively, if not actively, encouraged the islamists by allowing the anti-Shahbag rallies uncontested. A clear statement from them asserting that democratic, just, trials of war criminals must be pursued and that Shahbag sans the demand for capital punishment, represents a legitimate sentiment, would not have hurt any electoral prospects. In this sense, Biman Bose's pro-Shahbag statement should be welcome. What the general reticence towards speaking against the islamists has done is that it has strengthened both them as well the Hindutwa forces. 

Anyone claiming to have grown up in Bengal for a number of years, getting educated there, and claiming to have not much information or knowledge about the Bangladesh liberation war and the war crimes, is obviously lying. One does not have to accept lies in taking up the cause for the minorities. Such an attitude does more harm to the minorities than good.

proudly there

Hesitantly went up to the stage when Rajiv (next to me in the picture) called my name to join them. Now I feel proud that I was there in the corner. This was the first appearance of Jiten Marandi in an academic setting (University of Hyderabad) after he was released from jail. He spoke well, sang songs. His wife and child have been arrested and jailed as soon as he was released. He sang a song about the child seeking the father's love. Meeting Varavara again with a huge hug from him was another gift of the day. Most of the students are from the tribal students forum in the campus. Rajiv is an AISA activist.

What a pleasant break from an otherwise mundane existence.

Daughters of our Earth, Zindabad

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Let us fight

This is a historic moment.

The violence that happened with the 23 year old was nothing new. What is historic is what it has done to us. The battle between us and those who want darkness to engulf our lives is out in the open.

No space to the obscurantists. 

We will fight. 

Women WILL wear what they want, 

Women WILL go wherever they want, wnenever they wish. 

Let the messengers of the dark God keep their 'Bharat' to themselves. We live in our Bharat, not theirs. This Earth is not owned by them. It is ours.

Daughters of our Earth, Zindabad. Women, Zindabad.

Three comments on affirmative action

In a recent discussion in a highschoolscience Google group on under-representation of underprivileged castes in the civil society institutions (initiated by an article written by Jean Dreze), I posted a few comments.

1.  Over the years, I have always found it amusing and at the same time agonising how we non-Dalits discuss the issue of reservation.

First, it is always as if we have a choice in the matter. In some ways, it is justified because we keep on finding ways to counter reservation (by greater privatisation in education sector, for instance). But the fact is that the issue is not something that we can decide. I am not so sure about the OBC, but the Dalit context is and will be determined by Dalits. We happen to control the apparent discourse on it - for now. We were able to keep reservations effectively non-operative (except in states like TN) until about fifteen years ago when the courts started intervening in the matter.

Second, in spite of enough data available (now even on Wiki) on how reservation has changed the percentages of Dalits (and OBCs) in different category of professions (in Govt. jobs - albeit at a slow rate), we keep on wondering if reservation has helped at all.  Enlightened commentaries do not indulge in the more widely prevalent 'in my uncle's office that fellow owning so many houses in the city is taking advantage of reservation' kind of dialogue, but we carry doubts in the deepest corners of our minds. This in spite of the new provisions to weed out the creamy layer.

And the issue of the poor among the forward caste -  Many of them are willing to take up menial jobs far away from their native place, but are they willing to take up the same jobs as what Dalits do in their own villages - NO and that is why reservation for poor among the forward caste is less justified than for Dalits. Nonetheless, there should be reservation for them.

This is not to undermine the serious issues that we should worry about - the gender issues, the extremely neglected groups like nomadic communities, etc.

Finally because of the essentially feudal nature of our society, we remain casteist by default with unwritten reservation for forward castes (taking care of our kin and friends is a mandatory value that we learn from childhood and practice all our lives). Anyone with an open mind can see the effectively large scale reservation for forward castes that is operative in our institutions.

It is useful to compare the situation with African Americans in USA. No average white believes that the average black may be equal to them - there is no quota and yet there is a wide acceptance of the idea that the world has to change. We are so deeply feudal that in spite of quotas and constant talk about the issue, we have kept ourselves an exclusive structure. As a friend used to say - there is one phrase that describes us - khandani badtameezi.

2. comment by Anshumala:

Reservation and the overlap of caste and class is an extremely complex issue for Indian society, requiring very rigorous analysis. i wonder if this has been done in terms of a larger theory of caste by sociologists. Can anyone throw light on such work?

Uma Chakravorty, in a lecture on the matter, gave a very deep insight, which struck me as very perceptive. The question to her was- 'All other social inequalities across the world have been seriously challenged by the oppressed and even been countered to a considerable extent. Why is caste inequality so persistent?'

She said- 'The caste hierarchy is a multi-layered hierarchy and has been designed in such a way that every single layer is below some layers, and above some others (other than the lowest of the low, the untouchables). Since every layer derives some power over those below it, they are loathe to challenge it. It is easier for a two-layered system to be challenged (like gender, like colored/non-colored)  by the disadvantaged. The caste hierarchy can only be seriously questioned by the lowest layer, but they have never been able to gather social strength enough to topple the system. (Of course, Mayawati, using the game of upper castes herself, coming to power is a significant social/historical event, but will it actually challenge the caste hierarchy? Let sociologists and historians comment

My response: If any one is seriously interested in the sociology of caste issues, is this the way to pursue it? Look, do a Google search on caste studies experts and you will find a host of them. In spite of severe neglect of Ambedkar over many decades, there are now several Ambedkar studies centers across the country. All of them pursue Dalit/caste issues in addition to all other visions of the great man. Go to them and seek the answers. In Delhi, where you are located, I can name at least a dozen experts on caste issues, my friend Surinder Jodhka in JNU, for instance. EPW has been publishing articles for aeons for those who really want to read them. I mentioned in my previous mail that even Wiki has some data available now.

I would seriously work on providing links for commentaries and data had I not been convinced that most of us are actually pathologically prejudiced and happily ignorant of this state of mind we possess.

BTW, Uma is right in her arguments in a macro sense. But there is really no contradiction that is two-layered. Certainly, the race is not such a context, the gender is not such a context. Yes, the complexity of the caste layers in South Asia is of a high order, and all that Uma said is correct. But all that only means is that we need to tune the reservations even finer and ensure that the provision is implemented fully (which was not done until the mid-nineties).

And as for the eradication, it is happening and it will be done not by us debating reservations, but by Dalits forcing us to accept the change. The sooner we realise this, the better.

3.  Vijaya's comment-

When I was a young and still in college, I remember telling my father that there was one surefire way to destroy the caste system in just one generation. All that was required was for the government to enact a law that would ban same-caste marriages. You could marry any one you wanted provided your partner was not of the same caste. He just laughed at my naivety. 

I am still not sure that anything less crazy or less drastic has a chance of succeding.

 

Subbu's comment:

 i would like to relate an experience with resource teachers in Hyderabad. these were among the best teachers from schools and DIETs called for a social science book writing workshop.

As a part of a discussion i threw a question on caste - it was a somewhat ambiguously worded question, so that it was not easy to judge my opinion on the matter.

I was shocked to find that almost all participants thought that caste was a good thing - it gave protection to people, gave them support in need, gave them culture and tradition, and if you marry outside caste you are likely to suffer as you wont understand the culture and traditions of the spouse, etc etc. So caste was seen by them as a community and a cultural vehicle. When i questioned them about possible problems in the caste system, they agreed that this idea of high and low was not good - we should treat all as equals. 

I was too shocked to take in the full meaning of this grand and innocent defence of caste system having all along treated it as a bad word. 

Actually, we seldom understand the working of caste in these terms - as a way of integrating diverse communities within a heirarchical framework while allowing them a degree of social and cultural autonomy. Marriage is a part of this system and reinforces it. 

the question of integration today is more complex. If we want to further integrate all these diverse communities by dissolving their individual identities what are we integrating them into. It turns out to be essentially an upper caste/class elite cosmopolitan culture which takes the garb of democracy and equality. To what extent will the future culture be inclusive and give space for the diversity will determine the outcome and not magic solutions.

A second issue is social protection. Our social security systems and civic administrations are so weak and police protection so partial that people resort to caste community protection in times of need. the need for this has actually increased as traditional livelihoods have been eroded and people have entered unstable markets with little skill back up.

Surprisingly this seems true not just of 'socially backward' communities but also very forward communities like Brahmins, Thakurs, Banias and such like.

I dont really understand how reservation and other such mechanism work in this context. They may certainly ensure a more physically inclusive atmosphere in the educational institutions and administration. By physical i mean they accomodate people from diverse communities. However, i dont see a cultural inclusiveness and in fact a cultural cleansing  eliminating  subaltern caste cultures. To some extent we can hold the example of Tamilnadu as scale - the one state which successfully challenged the hegemony of the Brahmins (who fortunately were not supported by an equivalent of Thakurs in the south). The nearest we have to a more inclusive culture and it is rich in problems.

 

 

My comment:
Vijaya's note reminded me how as a young man once I wrote a bunch of postcards (never posted after a couple of friends looking at it ridiculed me) asking friends to commit to a intercaste marriage, adoption of an orphan, etc.

On a more serious note, caste identity is one thing - and inequality based on the identity is another. It is interesting how we mix these two things - why, I wonder.

As concerned citizens, we put serious efforts in countering many social ills, but reservation is something we accept only because laws force us to do so. Let me give an example. I work in an institution where they do not have reservation. There is a lot of emphasis on human values. All students have to take 'human values' courses, which are basically discussions between a couple of elders (teachers/mentors) and a group of students. Responding to sceptics questioning how this may considered a humanities course, a formal syllabus was designed, assignments are given regularly, all kinds of sophisticated material is used as resources, etc. There are Jeevan Vidya shivirs that every student has to go through. Most young students hate the whole thing, but a large amount of manpower and other efforts are used for this. The reason is an awareness that there is a crisis of values and a commitment to a certain perspective on human values.

When it comes to reservation based on caste or religious identities, the clever argument against it is that dont you see what happens to these poor kids in IITs, they have to live with everyone looking down upon them, there are suicides, etc. There is no question of using resources similar to that used in the 'human values' project to address the vulnerability of potential underprivileged entrants.  Not a surprise, we are largely a upper caste Hindu majority institution.  Seen this way, privatisation in education is partly an agenda of the upper castes to counter reservation.

Identity and marriage are not the issues - it is discrimination that reservation aims to counter.  TN is an example where reservation has worked. That there are complications is true, but it has served the purpose and today even in the general category, a large number of OBC and SC/ST candidates (who are not using the reservation provision) are performing as good as forward caste candidates. Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala of IIT-M talked to us on this a couple of years back.

Other than the laws, what we need is a firm response of rejection to discriminatory casteist and communal mores. And we do not usually have this - far from it. Going around campaigning as a teacher activist in Panjab University a decade ago, I have heard openly derogatory remarks against SC teachers in broad daylight in the middle of public streets. We need laws to prosecute individuals who exhibit such arrogance on caste, communal and gender lines, but we also need the conviction and courage to develop a culture that rejects it. I am not sure we 'liberals' possess such conviction and courage - if anything, my conviction is that we are indifferent to it in practice.  I have the suspicion that not all of the 'identity' discourse is really innocent and devoid of parochial motivations.  The lack of faith in the apparently less cultivated coming from the underprivileged is all around us - all we need to see is the extent of their representation in the bodies that we belong to (as pointed out by Dreze in the article that Anjali posted and many such articles keep appearing). It is a pathology that needs to be addressed head on and reservation is one such approach.

Obama

I will never be able to explain to my daughter why I felt sad when I saw the lead by Romney in the early results of US presidential elections. And the joy of seeing Obama re-elected. When the first black mayor of NY city, David Dinkins, was elected in 1989, we were in a small town, Harda, and we celebrated it. My daughter, born in 1990, does not like Obama for good reasons (she dislikes Romney even more).

I saw on TV how so many people cried when Obama won in 2008. Oh to imagine a man of colour as the president of the USA! Its funny how we felt part of those crowds, even though we are not citizens of their country. Our hopes from him may not have been fulfilled, but we still want him to be there, certainly more so than Romney. A silly desire may be, but still so.

So much has changed in the world. And yet, so much suffering remains. It is only when we think of the past, we realise that things have changed for the better in some areas. And it has been a hard struggle by millions of people to achieve whatever little has been achieved. The bad news is that the struggle must continue. La Luca continua.

ping commentary

The students magazine 'Ping' asked me to write something for them - in 400 words. That was a challenge, to write something in so few words; finally made it in about  600 words. The issue came out a week ago.

**********

Some days back, Rajeev Rajeshuni and Harish Reddy, two UG4 students, presented their experiences of summer internships with culturally/socially active groups sponsored by SPICMACAY. Rajeev spent a month with Tibetan monks in Dharmashala and Harish was with Aruna Roy's MKSS in Rajasthan.

Rajeev's talk was about the serenity of Tibetan Buddhist monks and moments spent with The Dalai Lama. Harish was an angry young man telling us about how miserable the caste, gender and class realities are in rural India.

Both talked about people who are not free and who are struggling for freedom. In one case, the Tibetans, they could run away to India and were provided shelter. In the other case, the people have nowhere to go.

In both the cases, there is a logic that the oppressors present to perpetuate the atrocities. The oppressors do not believe that they are doing anything wrong and they do not accept the logic of the oppressed,who seek freedom and dignity. It is easy for us who are distant from the China-Tibet issue to understand why China is wrong in its logic. But it is not easy for us to see how wrong we are in dealing with our own oppressed.

China has made schools, hospitals, roads, etc., and provided a better quality of life in the modern sense, in Tibet, that may not have happened if it was not under Chinese occupation. The Tibetan society was feudal to the core and most of the pepole lived like slaves, serving the monks or the traders who form the majority of those who escaped. Not everything about the Tibetan society in India is laudable. But this does not make China right in doing what it did. China is an imperial power that has colonised Tibet. We must raise our voice in support of the Tibetan people, who have been fighting a non-violent struggle against the military might of China.

The struggle of the oppressed castes in India is also non-violent. This is surprising, because the intensity of oppression remains high and wide. The constitutional path has provided a solution, not necessarily the best, but one well supported by those who have studied the problem for years. This is the idea of reservation for access to quality education, in employment, etc. For a long time, the policy was not even implemented to an extent that could be called significant. When finally it started looking like a reality and the percentages in jobs started showing, the country went for massive privatisation. In a private educational insititute, there is no reservation policy. It is apparent that privatisation of education is a policy that makes quality education inaccessible to disadvantaged sections.

Ordinarily one expects the youth to question the structure of lies and disinformation that sustains the otherwise untenable institutions of oppression. Our institute provides mechanisms for students to study and question the present. Counterculture is promoted and yet we remain content with extreme underepresentation of large sections of our people in our community. Naturally, the feeling of being a hypocrite is intense in me. In six years of being here, I have motivated only a small number of students to look at real data published in credible journals and inevitably their opinions have changed after a thorough reading. But most of us choose to remain happily gullible because it serves our interests. The arrogance that goes with it is notable. In a more equal society, most if us will not be where we are. With such undeserving power and privileges, how can we be so arrogant?

Insensitivity to issues of social justice indicates a severe crisis of values. The pain of exclusion that a large majority experiences in our country is not going to subside. It will, as Langston Hughes said in his poem 'What happens to a dream deferred', explode one day.

The cartoon yes and no

It all started with a simple insignificant cartoon in the secondary school text book. The great tamasha that Indian parliamentary politics has unfortunately evolved into made it a complicated issue for intellectuals. If you say no to the cartoon, to many it appeared playing into the hands of the opportunist politicians.  What followed at first was pure intimidation from the academic elite. Dont you dare say no - if you do, you are part of the crowd deifying Ambedkar. If you point out the possibility that the otherwise useless cartoon could be used as yet another tool by upper caste kids to harass the dalit children in the school, then you are an age-ist not allowing the adolescents the intelligence due to them. The Hindu published an editorial basically calling all opposition foolish.

In my comments on some FB posts, I  argued - to me, the issue was very simple. I do something, and a large number of people object to it. I will think - is my action really significant that the objection from a large number of persons should be ignored - if yes, I will stick to it. If not, I will erase the marks of my action. Removing the cartoon from the text book did not seem to have any impact on the chapter at all. It does not matter whether or not the demand to remove is justified or not - if it is not greatly significant, we should remove it - just a matter of plain simple decency.

Actually there was a lot of merit in the demand for removing the cartoon.

I wrote an article in a Hindi newspaper- perhaps that was the first such article - seeking a dialogue with nondalit intellectuals, reminding them by quoting examples from African American history, the seemingly bizarre consequences of the pain of sustained exclusion. I argued that we need not respond to the politicians, we must respond to our own sense of empathy for the other. Then there were more elaborate articles in English by Dalit intellectuals. Soon the environment changed a bit. But you could bend only so far. Petitions and counter petitions followed. The Hindu continued a debate by leading social scientists.

The arguments for yes were mainly academic and the arguments for no were cries seeking justice. I was reminded of this American saying in Howard Zinn's masterpiece work on people's history of the united states: 'The cry of the poor may not be always just, but if you do not listen to it, you will never know what justice is.' (I am quoting from memory - the words may be a little different).

Now that intimidation will not work any more, adjectives and a bit of emotional blackmail remain.  I am as puzzled today as when it all started - what is it behind all the academic arguments, the thoughtlessly used adjectives; surely it is not prejudices - these are intellectuals with impeccable progressive credentials. I do not know, is it just the way academic activism is done in social sciences today? The little I know about post-modern thought, the yes part of the cartoon debate was a post-modern defence and the opposition appeared more rooted in reality.  Ironically, the beginnings of post-modernism were in the counterculture, in taking sides against the mainstream, in being with the marginalised.

A comment

I was disappointed that Laal Band of Pakistan could not come for their scheduled performance in Hyderabad. It was one of those rare occasions that I had made up my mind to shell out Rs 1200/- for my ticket – I had even settled with the thought of having to pay for a student who would accompany me to the show. But it was cancelled.
Then I read articles critical of ‘Vakratunda Mahakaya..’ sung prior to their performance in JNU – the posts were from Reyazul Haque on behalf of DSU, a radical left student organisation, a rival of AISA that won the JNU students’ body elections recently. As a nearly elderly anarchist with sympathies towards left anywhere in the world, I felt sorry for AISA that they had to take this heat from DSU. I wished these guys could work together instead of fighting on trivia. Specially because the articles mentioned somewhere that someone had actually stopped the singer from continuing to sing the song.
Then there were posts by AISA sympathisers on how JNU turned all ‘Laal’ on 1st May.
And finally these two articles by Apoorvananda and Meera Vishwanathan )intensely critical of JNUSU for stopping Tritha from singing ‘Vakratunda Mahakaya..’ .
I have listened to Tritha on Youtube. And like most privileged people of my kind, exposed to Jazz and Blues to contemporary hip-hop, I like her – I am madly in love with her music. But I started thinking, if I was one of the audience that day, a 25 year old, on May day waiting for Laal, how would I feel listening to Ganapati from Tritha. Specially, if I was a North Indian student, not cultured in listening to South Indian classical temple music, what would I make of that song. I probably would have wondered why was she singing the Sanskrit devotional stuff there. I can very well imagine that I would have done the same mistake that AISA or other left students did that day. It was a mistake on several counts. First and foremost, once on the stage, Tritha should have been respected and she should have been allowed to finish the song. It would have made the DSU kids a little noisier over the next few days, but left can survive this much of a liberal and tolerant behaviour. After all, she had sung the same piece a few days back at Habitat Centre.
Meera Vishwanathan in her post makes a point that Ganesha is a ‘people’s God’ appropriated by the Brahamanical culture’ She translates the words in the song to explain this. But do all the students in JNU know this? Honestly, even I, in spite of a fair amount of understanding of Sanskrit words, did not think of this until I read her post. After reading her post, and then with the general theme of Dravidian and tribal cultures appropriated by the Sanskritic tradition in the back of my mind, it kind of made sense. Do members of the Tritha band know this? Perhaps someone amongst the organisers should have explained this to the audience before she started her song?
Someone among the organisers should have known that her music has no political content. Here is the biggest mistake – knowing that this is what Tritha is, why not discuss the content beforehand and take appropriate cautions – like may be an enlightened MV or some friend like that could have been asked to explain the political aspect of the song.
A good question is – should everything be political, can’t people enjoy music for what it is? This is where I wonder if we are being too naive to think that an event featuring the Laal band on May day is a purely musical event. I also wonder if we are being naive to think that everyone should look at Sanskrit and Sanskritic tradition as apolitical and accept all interpretations as innocent. Since the readers of this comment are likely to be more educated in such matters than I am, let me just say things are more complicated than they seem. Post facto claims that ‘Ganapati’ is as political as Sufi or Bulle Shah is silly. It is like saying that no, they do not symbolise apparently different political values. Well, I wish it was so.
Finally, often I feel upset by overwhelming prevalence of revivalist tendencies at the institution where I work. I can imagine that others elsewhere may similarly feel upset when overwhemed by rhetoric from the left. We see with glasses that are tainted by our location. And in reaction, we often make statements that on later thinking may seem a little excessive in, ahem, rhetoric. Apoorvanand is a friend I respect a lot. But isn’t comparing this case with Sati immolating herself after being humiliated by Daksha a little too much? Tritha is hardly going to be affected by what happened on 1st May and we are going to enjoy her music forever. It was a case of intolerance of a kind that needs to be debated alright, but I would not judge it as harshly as Apoorvanand and MV have done.
An irony is that – Ragtime/Jazz/Blues…– in a way the precursor to most of the interesting fusion music of today and certainly of the kind of fusion that Tritha has – unlike where it all originated, in countries like ours it is the music of the privileged. It is a music that we enjoy while sipping our screwdrivers and bloody Marys, with no feeling of pickin’ cotton on a God damn Sunday in a God damn Southern plantation. It shuns the political space that it came from. Not that this is always true. There are exceptions. And even if there weren’t any, music should be appreciated for what it is.

Have you heard of a name called Panini?

So here was an expert. He is not a scientist. Arrogance is a quality that scientists are often accused of. This guy was supposed to talk on an Indian classic written in Sanskrit. Three talks, I went to listen to him with great expectations.
In his first talk, he probably did talk about the subject text for a couple of minutes scattered through the one and a half hour he spoke. He began with the typical 'I hate lecturing - let us be interactive..' And once he began, he was still going on unstopped when I left after about one and a half hour.  No sign of being interactive until then. So what did he talk on? He talked on things he did not seem to know much - history, consciousness, a whole lot of things with mostly mumbo-jumbo interpretations. Among other things, he said the Moghuls came to India in the ninth century. And the Indian sages had to hide the classic texts - so they went to far away places like Burma and Nepal to save them. And then some scholars (including his own forefathers) in nineteenth century discovered these holy texts back.
The pinnacle was his question - in an institute that prides itself on language technology research - he suddenly asked: Have you heard of a name called Panini?

OMG, did I say arrogance is a quality that scientists are accused of. Needless to say, I chose to remain unenlightened and made better use of the time when he spoke again for the other two talks.

But why are the Indian revivalists so full of it? Great expectations and what a let down!

My rare commnet on FB

A friend posted a Guardian article on the arrogance of the West in not recognising the rise of China. I have recently been talking to friends about the arrogance of the privileged classes in India, one feature of which is the attitude that China is just another country across the border that may have a war with us any day.
Here is a comment I posted on my friend's wall:

The West can afford to do this at least for a century more. How about India? The complete lack of knowledge on China that an average educated Indian exhibits is an indication of the arrogance and stupidity inherent in the casteist and racist Indian privileged classes. Almost all educated Indians are not able to answer a simple question like who is the equivalent of Manmohan Singh in China, let alone any question on history. There are very few China studies department in Indian universities and a miniscule number of students interested in Chinese language & culture. All that we know is whenever there is a talk on spending more money for the already overbudgeted defense sector in India, China suddenly gets in the news as the monster that may gobble us up.
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Indeed the military Industrialist complex is growing rapidly in India. The defense expenditure is about 45% of the National budget (as compared to education budget of about 11%). It is not easy to find all the data on it. If you look up data, you can find figures anywhere from 30 to 35%, the rest are hidden expenses. Needless to say that most problems of Indian economy arise from here. The privileged in South Asia (both India and Pakistan) have been plundering the common people's toil and the natural resources to build up military. A large amount of the money eventually goes to the West in arms deals. A small but significant amount goes in corruption.

Two events.

The first was a sit up comedy show 'Make chai not war' by three ABCDs - America born confused Desis at Rabindra Bharati a week ago. Kind of like the Peter Russel show. Lots of laugh but not much substance really. The third guy Usman Azhar had something good to say, specially to the young. He used a traditional eastern metaphor - we are all in cages and we take the cage to be the real thing and forget ourselves. He was good. I was there with friends Giri and Rekha after a hectic drive through the rush traffic. Later, relaxing over dinner at their place, the usual chat and the day ended.

The second was on Sunday at Taramati Baradari - a dance performance by Astad Deboo and his troupe of young boys from the Balak Trust set up my Meera Nair. These boys were runaways from home, picked up by the NGO workers and trained into creative performers, now globe trotters. This was probably the best dance performance I have seen in Hyderabad. The show was called 'Interpreting Tagore' and it was a revised version of what Deboo conceived several years ago and is now performing since Nov 2009. There were four pieces with readings of Tagore poems in translation. Astad himself, now obviously a fairly aged man, danced as the main performer. The dances had nothing to do with Tagore's dance dramas, except the spirit of seeking creative ingenuity in modern forms. Deboo's dances are modern western dances in form with an Eastern flavour. In the piece 'Devi' four masked and blood-red tongued 'Kali's come from the middle of the audience on to the stage and are part of the choreography. The last piece 'awakening' was a Darvesh swirl dance by Astad himself to a Jazz piano recital. Great stuff.

But, of course, twice Astad had to stop the performance becuase of camera flashes. Of course, there was the usual commentaries from behind my seat that began before the show started and never ended. What began as 'see that lady, she is the keep of that man over there' grew into a free interpretation of 'iterpreting Tagore'. The guy next to me was nice enough to have taken seriously my request to not let his camera light bug me. But then could you stop a few citizens of the great Indian civilisation talking on the cell phone in the middle of the performance! How dare you even think of such a thing!


Yet, it was good. I was very happy to have put myself together for a lone scooter ride of about 15 kms each way. Even the ride was worth it - the light chill of breeze blowing by the Deccan rocks of the outer ring road, it felt good.

Modernity, Nation-state and questions from a talk

Listened to Akeel Bilgrami live for the first time on Friday night.
It was good to listen to a renowned philosopher talking what seemed like my tongue. Formally the talk was on clash of civilizations, but he commented on notions of Nation-state and Nationalism among other things. An interesting point he made is that the modern Nation-state came into being with the ruling classes creating a feeling among populace that included hatred for an enemy within. And to him, Gandhi rejected this kind of Nation building while Savarkar owned it. And in India Savarkar won the battle against Gandhi.
I asked him at the end why Savarkar, the modernist, could not go Lala Hardayal way. Lala Hardayal became a theoretician for the radical inclusive Nationalism. I could have asked him on Subhash also. Subhash took help from the Nazis, but his Nationalism did not require hatred for an enemy within.

Is a pathological situation over and beyond the modernity project not necessary for one to become a Savarkar or a Hitler? After all, modernity has an inbuilt avant-garde-ism as we can see the strongest critique of modernity coming from within modernity, namely by Marx.
European modernity has ways of rectifying its weaknesses, as can be seen in the human rights charters of UN and later of European Union.

The talk made me think a lot about my scattered ideas on Nationalism, on Gandhi and related issues. May be some day I will get enough time to work on these. 

The ink spreads

Ishrat

1
Ishrat!
The arteries of the highway spat fire in early dark morning
What were you up to pagli!

You must have come out
knowing that love will be pouring out there for you
Our hearts, millions of us will be beating for you
you will drown in a flood of love
Go to sleep
Now go to sleep pagli!

2
I wait for the heat to subside
There will come rains
Winds will blow

Fingers will move
My mind will move

I wait
my pain will be inscribed on papers
stories will get written

We will dream
You will live, Ishrat!

The heat works for the Government.

3
Many ways walk together
Ways carry stories
Stories carry miseries
a nervous system of miseries
a milky way of miseries
flowing forever

How do I live with so much pain?
blank sheets flying
the ink spreads
where are the words? Ishrat re!

- translated from original in Hindi

Different youth

When I was young, we were a angry lot. Nothing different from today really. I see angry youth everywhere. The difference is that living in a campus that provides a highly specialised education to young people of socially privileged background, I mostly see youth angry for reasons different from the ones that youth elsewhere have or the ones that we had to be angry about.

So, do I hear young friends unhappy about not implementing the constitutionally mandatory provisions of opportunities reserved for less privileged - No, not here. Are they unhappy about the gender ratio in the campus that remains skewed forever, nope. Are they concerned that there is no effort in moving towards a fair share of minority population in campus - no Sir! Or that there are majority biased rituals in official functions ignoring others, no. What are they angry about - they are upset that they have been asked to park motor-vehicles 500 m away from their dorms. And these are young people many of who keep dreaming of going to Western countries some day, where parking at large distances away from residential or office quarters is common. To be fair, there are more reasons, but nothing qualitatively different from the parking issue.

Someone posted on the FB a link to a movie on Calcutta (now Kolkata) made by Louis Malle that shows the student movement of 1968. Not that everything the young people wanted then was correctly formulated. Different times, and we who came to college in the seventies were also different. There were few campuses like ours then. Now there are many more accommodating the slightly larger middle class youth compared to then. Today there are young people in many areas of the country talking about real issues confronting this country. Issues like what Amartya Sen and Jean Dreze have indicated in their latest article in the Outlook magazine - a rising India with a proportion of underweight children population like in no other country of the world. There are events bringing young people to streets across the country - academic bigotry of removing reputed works from syllabi like the one by Ramanujan talking of multiple stories of Ramayana removed from postgraduate studies in Delhi university, or ongoing struggle by Irom Sharmila in Manipur against the presence of armed forces in the state and so on.

Well, I live with youth more concerned about things like right to drive bikes without wearing helmet and often on the wrong side of the road. Different youth, definitely.