I renounce my Indian identity.
In the last couple of days, the remains of over 25 children have been found in a house in Noida, near Delhi. Those of many more are expected to be found. Most of the children are from poor labourers' families, from Nithari, a migrant workers’ hamlet. Almost a hundred children have gone missing in the last couple of years from Nithari and other nearby places. Children whose parents had pleaded in abject misery to the police to help, only to be spat upon.
This is my India.
The killers will be hanged soon. But what of the whole society, its institutions, its ethos and its mores, its joys and comforts, its preoccupations - which enabled and allowed this to happen, to be condoned?
I wish I could be extinguished.
The mythic hero had only to kill the monstrous beast under whose shadow suffering folk lived in nightmare, delivering a virgin to be sacrificed every full moon. But we have to live with such a monster, and transform it peacefully.
I cannot think of a sadder day for India. I am haunted by the cries and grief of the parents of the children. I cannot stop weeping my gut out; unless I become a stone. Life has no meaning or purpose. To be alive is to be accursed. Why am I alive?
But as long as I am alive, I must stand apart.
If the USA were to walk into this country and wreak havoc, like they have done in Afghanistan and Iraq, then that assault on this nation's sovereignty would not matter a whit to me if this precious freedom means what happened in Noida can take place; if the anthem of the nation is the deafening silence to habitual inhumanity.
Sunday, December 31, 2006
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Touched by Saddam
I was at the Alipore court in Calcutta this morning. There was a hearing scheduled, on a case filed by our company, and I was to give evidence. As I was about to leave the lawyer's chamber to go to the court room, one of our lawyer's juniors received the news from his senior that Saddam Hussein had been hanged today morning, and a tv channel was interviewing him for his analysis of the subject. He is a senior criminal lawyer of the city. Hence he could not appear for the hearing. So a plea was made to the judge for a new date, which was granted.
I was struck by how something happening so far away, this event that is set to rock the world, had also touched me and our company.
Just before 2006 closes, what's in store for 2007 - strife - has been intimated.
I was struck by how something happening so far away, this event that is set to rock the world, had also touched me and our company.
Just before 2006 closes, what's in store for 2007 - strife - has been intimated.
Friday, December 29, 2006
The mockery that is Singur
Amitadyuti Kumar has written a detailed investigation of the Singur issue.
Singur is a 40 minutes' drive from the airport along the newly built expressway via the new Vivekananda Setu under construction. So the Tatas or their top brass flying from other metros will have to waste little time to reach their destination.
This control of the industrialists over the government, this 'as you said Sir' attitude of the government is potentially dangerous for democracy and democratic values. The question naturally arose - is the government being run by the Tatas or for that matter other industrialists and capitalists?
Read the full article here.
Little wonder then, that Mr Ratan Tata, has to create the bogey of competitors being behind the Singur opposition, to deflect attention from the fundamental question of the political and civic morality of the whole matter.
Mr Tata said, “Let me just say this: it is not just political because I happen to know that some of our competitors are also fuelling some of the ire and would be very happy if the project is delayed”.
The Singur Krishi Jami Raksha (Farmland Protection) Committee has said that they would file a defamation case against Mr Tata for suggesting that his competitors were patronising them. They said Mr Tata had been influenced by Left Front chairman Mr Biman Bose (who first floated this chestnut) and that his statement reeked of arrogance and disrespect for a people’s movement.
Having made the state govt his lapdog, Mr Tata is not without appreciation for this. "We chose West Bengal because we believe in the state’s current leadership... We find West Bengal under the leadership of Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee very investment-friendly.”
I have no doubt Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee is basking in the depths of his servitude to Tata.
And to indicate the wagging tail of this happy puppy state govt following the pat by the master, state industry minister Mr Nirupam Sen said: “I am happy that Mr Ratan Tata has reposed his confidence in the state government.”
Post script: Mr Tata's reference to his competition reminds me of the tv interview of Buddhadev Bhattacharjee a couple of years ago. He mentioned the advertisment for the Maruti car, "Mera sapna, mera Maruti" (My dream, my Maruti), and asked why his dreams should be limited to a Maruti. Now I understand what he meant.
Singur is a 40 minutes' drive from the airport along the newly built expressway via the new Vivekananda Setu under construction. So the Tatas or their top brass flying from other metros will have to waste little time to reach their destination.
This control of the industrialists over the government, this 'as you said Sir' attitude of the government is potentially dangerous for democracy and democratic values. The question naturally arose - is the government being run by the Tatas or for that matter other industrialists and capitalists?
Read the full article here.
Little wonder then, that Mr Ratan Tata, has to create the bogey of competitors being behind the Singur opposition, to deflect attention from the fundamental question of the political and civic morality of the whole matter.
Mr Tata said, “Let me just say this: it is not just political because I happen to know that some of our competitors are also fuelling some of the ire and would be very happy if the project is delayed”.
The Singur Krishi Jami Raksha (Farmland Protection) Committee has said that they would file a defamation case against Mr Tata for suggesting that his competitors were patronising them. They said Mr Tata had been influenced by Left Front chairman Mr Biman Bose (who first floated this chestnut) and that his statement reeked of arrogance and disrespect for a people’s movement.
Having made the state govt his lapdog, Mr Tata is not without appreciation for this. "We chose West Bengal because we believe in the state’s current leadership... We find West Bengal under the leadership of Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee very investment-friendly.”
I have no doubt Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee is basking in the depths of his servitude to Tata.
And to indicate the wagging tail of this happy puppy state govt following the pat by the master, state industry minister Mr Nirupam Sen said: “I am happy that Mr Ratan Tata has reposed his confidence in the state government.”
Post script: Mr Tata's reference to his competition reminds me of the tv interview of Buddhadev Bhattacharjee a couple of years ago. He mentioned the advertisment for the Maruti car, "Mera sapna, mera Maruti" (My dream, my Maruti), and asked why his dreams should be limited to a Maruti. Now I understand what he meant.
Sea change in West Bengal
It must have been some 4-5 years ago. West Bengal was in utter doldrums. It had dropped off the world map. It was simply one’s misfortune to be living here.
The state govt was in an especially pathetic plight. Deep in debt, plagued by its huge wage burden and accumulating losses from all the state-owned enterprises, completely incapable of doing anything substantive on any vital matter. Lurching along somehow, from month to month, borrowing money from here and there.
The question before the ruling party was: how to stay in power, but be rid of the sheer financial nightmare of the responsibility of governance, the immense, horrific mess made in 25 years of ruling the state?
After a chance encounter with a former colleague, I was chatting with him for a while. He is a civil servant. In the course of our conversation, it struck me that the only future I could see, was for the state govt to be picked up – like a small cherry to sample - say by an international financial agency – and bailed out. With conditions: so that, to the extent possible and useful, a base, a pad, for a kind of interest – capitalist, global-imperialist, trans-national corporations, US, financial capital, anti-left etc etc- could be created. A fiefdom. A govt in one’s command. This place could possibly be strategic in terms of location and neighbourhood, and within the changing political and geopolitical scenario in the world and region, through globalisation, post-9/11 etc.
After a long time, I remembered having thought along these lines – as I see the Singur-Tata-Buddhadev three-penny-opera unfolding…
Meanwhile, even I had become aware – in the last couple of years - that things have “changed” in Calcutta and West Bengal.
It’s a sea change.
I would like to see, even with a microscope if needed, the “good” in this change. But that eludes me. My yardsticks are quite simple. What does this mean for the poor, the vulnerable, the low-income, the disprivileged, the disenfranched, the downtrodden, the discriminated? In a society where such a concern relates to the substantial majority of the population, its not an unjustified concern. Where, as the investigation on Singur I referred to in my other post today says, many, many more livelihoods are wiped out than the new employment generated.
I believe in the capability of markets to perform useful functions in society, to be a means for creation of wealth, through which the quality of human life can be enriched. But more important or meaningful for me than markets is humanity. Hence economics, business, markets are all subsidiary, for me, to higher, normative, humane, social, ethical, moral, aesthetic, life-serving, life-enhancing concerns and goals.
The soil of West Bengal has become a womb for capital to assault and breed profit, to the exclusion of everything else. But before that this soil had been turned into an inhospitable swamp, full of poisonous serpents.
In the early 60s, the West Bengal Chief Minister, Dr BC Roy (a Congress-man), had written to the US President Kennedy, to do something for Calcutta and its slums or risk Communist takeover.
WHO undertook an evaluation of public health in Calcutta around the same time. Once again, the plight of Calcutta’s slums was highlighted.
Dr Roy’s letter to Kennedy did not go unheeded. The Ford Foundation entered the arena soon after.
Less than two decades later, led by a gentleman communist like Jyoti Basu, the communists inherited the mantle of govt. He was an assembly opposition man in Dr Roy’s time, and presided over Calcutta and West Bengal’s final blight, as Chief Minister from 1977-2000, after capital abandoned the city and state from the mid 60s.
Calcutta and especially its slums: the focus of attention of Ford Foundation. Of the Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organisation they set up. Of the Basic Development Plan they prepared. Of the Calcutta Urban Development Project the World Bank aided. Which the communists had to handle once they came into power in 1977.
Slums of Calcutta: break the backbone of the slumdwellers, who were the rump of the militant support base of the communists for long decades. Through the sheer grinding misery of day after day of living at the edge of survival. But living. So that they can do the bidding of their leaders. Then corrupt every communist, and make him a bloodsucking criminal. So that he eventually becomes your pawn.
40 odd years after Dr Roy’s distress appeal, the communists ruling from Calcutta have overseen the dominion and sovereignty, of anything that he foresaw being threatened then.
The proof of the pudding lies in the eating. Singur is the cherry on the cake.
The enemy at the gate, became the protector of the realm. Surely that's revolutionary!
The state govt was in an especially pathetic plight. Deep in debt, plagued by its huge wage burden and accumulating losses from all the state-owned enterprises, completely incapable of doing anything substantive on any vital matter. Lurching along somehow, from month to month, borrowing money from here and there.
The question before the ruling party was: how to stay in power, but be rid of the sheer financial nightmare of the responsibility of governance, the immense, horrific mess made in 25 years of ruling the state?
After a chance encounter with a former colleague, I was chatting with him for a while. He is a civil servant. In the course of our conversation, it struck me that the only future I could see, was for the state govt to be picked up – like a small cherry to sample - say by an international financial agency – and bailed out. With conditions: so that, to the extent possible and useful, a base, a pad, for a kind of interest – capitalist, global-imperialist, trans-national corporations, US, financial capital, anti-left etc etc- could be created. A fiefdom. A govt in one’s command. This place could possibly be strategic in terms of location and neighbourhood, and within the changing political and geopolitical scenario in the world and region, through globalisation, post-9/11 etc.
After a long time, I remembered having thought along these lines – as I see the Singur-Tata-Buddhadev three-penny-opera unfolding…
Meanwhile, even I had become aware – in the last couple of years - that things have “changed” in Calcutta and West Bengal.
It’s a sea change.
I would like to see, even with a microscope if needed, the “good” in this change. But that eludes me. My yardsticks are quite simple. What does this mean for the poor, the vulnerable, the low-income, the disprivileged, the disenfranched, the downtrodden, the discriminated? In a society where such a concern relates to the substantial majority of the population, its not an unjustified concern. Where, as the investigation on Singur I referred to in my other post today says, many, many more livelihoods are wiped out than the new employment generated.
I believe in the capability of markets to perform useful functions in society, to be a means for creation of wealth, through which the quality of human life can be enriched. But more important or meaningful for me than markets is humanity. Hence economics, business, markets are all subsidiary, for me, to higher, normative, humane, social, ethical, moral, aesthetic, life-serving, life-enhancing concerns and goals.
The soil of West Bengal has become a womb for capital to assault and breed profit, to the exclusion of everything else. But before that this soil had been turned into an inhospitable swamp, full of poisonous serpents.
In the early 60s, the West Bengal Chief Minister, Dr BC Roy (a Congress-man), had written to the US President Kennedy, to do something for Calcutta and its slums or risk Communist takeover.
WHO undertook an evaluation of public health in Calcutta around the same time. Once again, the plight of Calcutta’s slums was highlighted.
Dr Roy’s letter to Kennedy did not go unheeded. The Ford Foundation entered the arena soon after.
Less than two decades later, led by a gentleman communist like Jyoti Basu, the communists inherited the mantle of govt. He was an assembly opposition man in Dr Roy’s time, and presided over Calcutta and West Bengal’s final blight, as Chief Minister from 1977-2000, after capital abandoned the city and state from the mid 60s.
Calcutta and especially its slums: the focus of attention of Ford Foundation. Of the Calcutta Metropolitan Planning Organisation they set up. Of the Basic Development Plan they prepared. Of the Calcutta Urban Development Project the World Bank aided. Which the communists had to handle once they came into power in 1977.
Slums of Calcutta: break the backbone of the slumdwellers, who were the rump of the militant support base of the communists for long decades. Through the sheer grinding misery of day after day of living at the edge of survival. But living. So that they can do the bidding of their leaders. Then corrupt every communist, and make him a bloodsucking criminal. So that he eventually becomes your pawn.
40 odd years after Dr Roy’s distress appeal, the communists ruling from Calcutta have overseen the dominion and sovereignty, of anything that he foresaw being threatened then.
The proof of the pudding lies in the eating. Singur is the cherry on the cake.
The enemy at the gate, became the protector of the realm. Surely that's revolutionary!
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Tarnishing Bengal's image
Our perpetually pouting pusillanimous Chief Minister has said that the opposition to the forcible land acquisition in Singur by the West Bengal govt (on behalf of Tata Motors, for their small car plant) has tarnished Bengal’s image.
He had earlier spoken about sending wrong signals to investors.
“People could be thinking, ‘is this Bengal? What if I go there?’ The protests against land acquisition could make potential investors wary of projects in Bengal, he said.
Here is a classic illustration of the word “disingenuous”. Also a classic illustration of the expression “pot calling the kettle black”. Its also a case of image / delusion ousting reality!
As the Chief Minister is also the Home Minister for the state, and thus responsible for the rule of law, surely he is aware that, right here, in Calcutta:
No one can build a house without gratifying local extortionists, who are principally affiliated to his party (as his party colleague Biman Bose himself asserted)?
Large swathes of the city's pavements have been appropriated by hoodlums, principally associated with his party, who let out the space to vendors for a daily collection? In east Calcutta, a minister in the state cabinet is personally responsible for installing a number of illegal diesel generators to supply electricity to these street vendors.
Illegal building construction is undertaken flagrantly in the slum neighbourhoods of the city, and enabled principally by his party?
Large-scale electricity theft goes on in various parts of the city, again principally with the active involvement of people affiliated with his party. In some neighbourhoods, this is the only means by which the people can obtain electricity (obviously at a much higher rate); the illegal electricity supply operation is also an important source of livelihood for a good number of people.
The whole system of obtaining driving licenses is entirely based on paying bribes. Among other things, this is also responsible for the maniacal driving witnessed at large on the city's streets, resulting in daily deaths.
Tens of thousands of auto-rickshaws are entirely illegal, and owned principally by people affiliated to his party.
Public land in various places is illegally occupied by organisations affiliated to his party, and when authorities such as the KMDA try to take possession of the land they are ultimately asked to stand down and leave them be.
One could go on and on.
What impression does all this create dear Chief Minister? What signals does it give? If as Home Minister you have patently failed to even acknowledge the blatant, habitual violation of law and criminal extortion with which your party is associated, what impact does this have on those living, working and doing business here – let alone potential investors?
And if this is what you are, then what would one think about the nature of the nexus between you and the potential investors you are so concerned about disturbing?
He had earlier spoken about sending wrong signals to investors.
“People could be thinking, ‘is this Bengal? What if I go there?’ The protests against land acquisition could make potential investors wary of projects in Bengal, he said.
Here is a classic illustration of the word “disingenuous”. Also a classic illustration of the expression “pot calling the kettle black”. Its also a case of image / delusion ousting reality!
As the Chief Minister is also the Home Minister for the state, and thus responsible for the rule of law, surely he is aware that, right here, in Calcutta:
No one can build a house without gratifying local extortionists, who are principally affiliated to his party (as his party colleague Biman Bose himself asserted)?
Large swathes of the city's pavements have been appropriated by hoodlums, principally associated with his party, who let out the space to vendors for a daily collection? In east Calcutta, a minister in the state cabinet is personally responsible for installing a number of illegal diesel generators to supply electricity to these street vendors.
Illegal building construction is undertaken flagrantly in the slum neighbourhoods of the city, and enabled principally by his party?
Large-scale electricity theft goes on in various parts of the city, again principally with the active involvement of people affiliated with his party. In some neighbourhoods, this is the only means by which the people can obtain electricity (obviously at a much higher rate); the illegal electricity supply operation is also an important source of livelihood for a good number of people.
The whole system of obtaining driving licenses is entirely based on paying bribes. Among other things, this is also responsible for the maniacal driving witnessed at large on the city's streets, resulting in daily deaths.
Tens of thousands of auto-rickshaws are entirely illegal, and owned principally by people affiliated to his party.
Public land in various places is illegally occupied by organisations affiliated to his party, and when authorities such as the KMDA try to take possession of the land they are ultimately asked to stand down and leave them be.
One could go on and on.
What impression does all this create dear Chief Minister? What signals does it give? If as Home Minister you have patently failed to even acknowledge the blatant, habitual violation of law and criminal extortion with which your party is associated, what impact does this have on those living, working and doing business here – let alone potential investors?
And if this is what you are, then what would one think about the nature of the nexus between you and the potential investors you are so concerned about disturbing?
Business as philanthropy
The CPI(M) should be credited with a revolutionary achievement. It has been successful in transforming business into philanthropy, and businessmen into philanthropists.
The earliest instance of this revolutionary transformation that I can personally recall is the acquisition by the state govt, in the early 1990s, of a large plot of land on the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass in Calcutta, for handover to a private business group to build a “5-star” hospital. Obviously, this wonderful act of benevolence by the business group merits land acquisition and handover, its in the public interest. And in such good work, what does it matter that the business group eventually sold the hospital to its overseas collaborator and made a neat profit (for its efficient mediation using its access to people who matter)?
Some years later, we witnessed another remarkable revolutionary transformation, with a real estate development company undertaking a “social” mission, by way of constructing some apartments for the low-income population (in a segregated, and already squalid section) as part of a large project for which, once again, public land was made available to the developer. For this great act of benevolence, the developer went on to receive a national award. He also went on to receive further, and continuing, awards of public land for his private projects.
Having established his philanthropic credentials, the same developer also blessed the city with its first “heritage mall”, for which valuable public land was given by the state govt (no matter that the city is starved of open and recreational spaces). Here one must buy a ticket to enter, and patronise costumed “ethnic” vendors, selling “street foods”. The poets, painters and intelligentsia of the city are often to be found inaugurating and gracing splendid functions in this mall, unfettered by any notions of public space in the face of private joys.
In the last few years, a whole new philanthropic real estate sector has emerged, all of whom have merited gifts of land.
Perhaps the sector where the revolutionary transformation is best manifest is in public transport. Private bus owners are doing a great favour to the masses by ferrying them across the city. Hence this necessitates organising the city's public transport system around meeting the needs of bus owners, rather than meeting the transportation needs of the people.
This should help us see the Singur issue in perspective. The Tatas are keen to engage in an act of great benevolence and philanthropy towards the people of West Bengal, by starting a car plant. (This imperative is so compelling that they are compelled to ignore what even The Economist says: “With India's transport arteries already so badly clogged, a boom in sales of low-cost cars could bring about a seizure.”)
For this benevolence, surely the state govt is justified in enabling that by giving them a huge tract of land? Not for this new breed of "social" businesses anything like the stupid market principles. They help people, so the state helps them.
Business itself has become philanthropy. And where earlier there would have been a little bit of "corporate social responsibility” by business houses, now the philanthropic houses do a little bit of business activity, making a little bit of incidental profit.
It is unfair and unjust that this revolutionary achievement of the CPI(M) has not been widely recognised or acknowledged.
The earliest instance of this revolutionary transformation that I can personally recall is the acquisition by the state govt, in the early 1990s, of a large plot of land on the Eastern Metropolitan Bypass in Calcutta, for handover to a private business group to build a “5-star” hospital. Obviously, this wonderful act of benevolence by the business group merits land acquisition and handover, its in the public interest. And in such good work, what does it matter that the business group eventually sold the hospital to its overseas collaborator and made a neat profit (for its efficient mediation using its access to people who matter)?
Some years later, we witnessed another remarkable revolutionary transformation, with a real estate development company undertaking a “social” mission, by way of constructing some apartments for the low-income population (in a segregated, and already squalid section) as part of a large project for which, once again, public land was made available to the developer. For this great act of benevolence, the developer went on to receive a national award. He also went on to receive further, and continuing, awards of public land for his private projects.
Having established his philanthropic credentials, the same developer also blessed the city with its first “heritage mall”, for which valuable public land was given by the state govt (no matter that the city is starved of open and recreational spaces). Here one must buy a ticket to enter, and patronise costumed “ethnic” vendors, selling “street foods”. The poets, painters and intelligentsia of the city are often to be found inaugurating and gracing splendid functions in this mall, unfettered by any notions of public space in the face of private joys.
In the last few years, a whole new philanthropic real estate sector has emerged, all of whom have merited gifts of land.
Perhaps the sector where the revolutionary transformation is best manifest is in public transport. Private bus owners are doing a great favour to the masses by ferrying them across the city. Hence this necessitates organising the city's public transport system around meeting the needs of bus owners, rather than meeting the transportation needs of the people.
This should help us see the Singur issue in perspective. The Tatas are keen to engage in an act of great benevolence and philanthropy towards the people of West Bengal, by starting a car plant. (This imperative is so compelling that they are compelled to ignore what even The Economist says: “With India's transport arteries already so badly clogged, a boom in sales of low-cost cars could bring about a seizure.”)
For this benevolence, surely the state govt is justified in enabling that by giving them a huge tract of land? Not for this new breed of "social" businesses anything like the stupid market principles. They help people, so the state helps them.
Business itself has become philanthropy. And where earlier there would have been a little bit of "corporate social responsibility” by business houses, now the philanthropic houses do a little bit of business activity, making a little bit of incidental profit.
It is unfair and unjust that this revolutionary achievement of the CPI(M) has not been widely recognised or acknowledged.
The communal divide
Following the findings of the Sachar committee on the socio-economic and educational status of India’s Muslims, the Prime Minister had said that Muslims should have the first call on national resources.
To me this was exactly the same as Mahatma Gandhi’s talisman.
Sumanta Sen writes today in The Telegraph on this subject. He says the attempt to make Muslims beneficiaries of development seeks to promote sectional interests. I am reproducing extracts from his article.
The prime minister has issued a directive that minorities should constitute at least 15 per cent of the beneficiaries of any development project. As things stand, there can be no quarrel with this. Muslims are among the more economically backward in the country, and Manmohan Singh must have kept that in mind. Yet, the communal divide has become so deep that it is not easy to accept anything at face value.
The timing of the directive makes one suspicious. Among the states going to the polls early next year is Uttar Pradesh, where the communal factor is as important as caste. The Congress is desperate to make some sort of a comeback in the state where it once ruled the roost. One way in which it can make that happen is by cutting into ‘Maulana’ Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Muslim support base. Would it be too wrong to assume that together with the general issue of minority backwardness, the prime minister had this in mind as well? It is difficult to believe that this is not the case. Particularly as this is the season of minority-wooing.
There is concern for Dalit Muslims all of a sudden, though this is a contradiction in terms, for a person can either be a Dalit or a Muslim. But then, rational thinking has to be a casualty when the objective is to somehow please voters.
It may be argued that insisting that Muslims get a better deal does not offend the spirit of secularism, but it does. By specifically mentioning Muslims, the prime minister did create the impression that he was also being communal, albeit in a reverse order. It would have perhaps been more appropriate if he had insisted that the benefit of development went to all people, irrespective of caste or religion which, in any case, is what any government should aim for.
Strangely enough, the left parties have gone along with the prime minister on this, Buddhadev Bhattacharjee being one of the first chief ministers to issue instructions that the Centre’s directive will be implemented. Did it not strike him that this insistence on a particular religious group was not in keeping with secular principles? Indeed, this is playing into the hands of the Hindu communalists as it will only strengthen their campaign that all that the secular parties are up to is to ‘pamper’ Muslims.
Everybody talks of India being one nation. But leaders have to work towards building a single nation, instead of seeking to promote sectional interests. And that, too, in the name of secularism which should insist that the state takes no note of differences in terms of religious faith.
Also, in West Bengal, which Muslims did the chief minister have in mind? There are two distinct groups — the Urdu- or Hindi-speaking ones and those whose mother tongue is Bengali. The former are mostly to be found in the central districts of Calcutta and the waterfront areas. Like all citizens, they are more at the mercy of the municipal authority than that of the state government. There is no evidence to suggest that they are in any way discriminated against in the matter of providing drinking water or other civic amenities. Any complaint heard in Kidderpore or Entally is the same made in Kalighat or Ekdalia. The mayor or any other city father will be the first to protest at any suggestion that Muslims are not benefiting from their goodwill as much as the others.
It is the same in the districts where the overwhelming number of Muslims are Bengali. Actually, because of this common language, the ordinary Muslim in a village does not really feel he is different in any way from his Hindu neighbour and it goes to the credit of the state that no government has ever sought to see the communities as being different from one another. Instructions like the one under discussion can only be counter-productive. They will, instead, create in the mind a sense of difference which is actually not there. Who can guarantee that Muslim communalists would not grab this to create discontent by conjuring up cases of discrimination? And they do have their opposite numbers in the majority camp who are always eager to complicate things. Similarly, any special attention to the Urdu-speaking in Calcutta can only help further widen a gap that exists because of the language difference.
Muslims themselves are not pleased with such mindless attempts to keep them happy. For the most part, they want to be seen as members of the whole community. At times, the problems in that direction are created by leaders of their own community — for example, during times when they frown at madrassah education getting modernized or at polio immunization programmes. Any such obstacle towards integration can, however, be removed only through patient campaigning by political parties. Treating them as hothouse plants certainly does not help, and marking them out for social benefits does amount to such treatment.
The prime minister would have done better if he had taken all implementing agencies, both Central and state, to task for not ensuring that the fruits of well-intentioned projects reach the people. That is the main problem in this country. The people, whether Hindus, Muslims or of other religious faith, hear of things being planned for them but rarely get to see the efforts. It is the same with Dalits, tribals, everyone. Doesn’t the West Bengal chief minister know what has happened in his state with below-the-poverty-line cards? Can he say for certain that schemes such as pension for widows have been a total success? There are a whole lot of Centrally-funded welfare projects which regularly go haywire and it is not just the minorities who suffer.
Shedding tears for the minorities in public may be a good way of getting votes but it is bad politics, in the larger sense of the term. Also, are votes really got that way for all times to come?
I respect Sumanta Sen’s concern for a non-sectarian approach to development. But is his awareness and discernment of cynical political actions matched by his awareness of what the reality is for the low-income or poor Muslim citizen? Is his alacrity to decry sectarianism matched by his willingness to join his Muslim fellow citizens in ensuring their basic needs and dignity? Is his “intellectual” principle of “equality” more important than the real experience of inequality and deep-rooted discrimination faced by the average Muslim?
He should know that the Sachar committee report has also documented that West Bengal ranks very low as regards the status of Muslims. He should also know that while the state govt has accepted the Prime Minister’s directive, that at least 15% per cent of the beneficiaries of any development project must be Muslims, this is much less than the population proportion of Muslims in the state (over 25%).
For your information Mr Sen, a Dalit Muslim is someone who is a Muslim by faith, but belongs to a traditional caste occupation like Dalits and hence faces much the same discrimination that Dalits in the country face.
His comments on Muslims in Calcutta and West Bengal betray an abject lack of familiarity with the subject he writes about. But that has not prevented him from expressing his opinions. I wonder whether he would agree to having a Muslim tenant on his property? Or living with a Muslim neighbour?
I would suggest that he try to talk to people like Dr MKA Siddiqui, the eminent anthropologist, and Dr Mohd Refatullah, the senior educationist and now member of the state assembly, to get an idea of the reality ordinary Muslims live within.
But that presumes he is really interested in knowing about the plight of his fellow citizens (rather than relying on hearsay and baseless opinion), and is really committed to the rights and development of all, including Muslims. Let him begin his investigations by looking at the number of Muslims in the most lowly, menial positions within govt.
His view of the Muslim as someone who is merely a mute member of a vote-bank, as someone to be appeased, a hothouse plant, does injustice to his Muslim fellow citizens. They are human beings too, with minds and hearts and dreams and feelings. His scorn for vote-bank politics, as a concerned citizen is laudable. But it should also be matched by a demonstration of respect and compassion for the deprived.
Prejudice and discrimination is very real. I am reminded of an article called “Palestinian like me” by an Israeli journalist, who assumed the identity of a Palestinian and explored the meaning of being a Palestinian. I wait for a Hindu journalist to assume a Muslim identity, and investigate first-hand what being Muslim in Calcutta or West Bengal entails.
The vision of an India that gives equal and fair treatment to its minorities is a vision for a secular democratic India.
To me this was exactly the same as Mahatma Gandhi’s talisman.
Sumanta Sen writes today in The Telegraph on this subject. He says the attempt to make Muslims beneficiaries of development seeks to promote sectional interests. I am reproducing extracts from his article.
The prime minister has issued a directive that minorities should constitute at least 15 per cent of the beneficiaries of any development project. As things stand, there can be no quarrel with this. Muslims are among the more economically backward in the country, and Manmohan Singh must have kept that in mind. Yet, the communal divide has become so deep that it is not easy to accept anything at face value.
The timing of the directive makes one suspicious. Among the states going to the polls early next year is Uttar Pradesh, where the communal factor is as important as caste. The Congress is desperate to make some sort of a comeback in the state where it once ruled the roost. One way in which it can make that happen is by cutting into ‘Maulana’ Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Muslim support base. Would it be too wrong to assume that together with the general issue of minority backwardness, the prime minister had this in mind as well? It is difficult to believe that this is not the case. Particularly as this is the season of minority-wooing.
There is concern for Dalit Muslims all of a sudden, though this is a contradiction in terms, for a person can either be a Dalit or a Muslim. But then, rational thinking has to be a casualty when the objective is to somehow please voters.
It may be argued that insisting that Muslims get a better deal does not offend the spirit of secularism, but it does. By specifically mentioning Muslims, the prime minister did create the impression that he was also being communal, albeit in a reverse order. It would have perhaps been more appropriate if he had insisted that the benefit of development went to all people, irrespective of caste or religion which, in any case, is what any government should aim for.
Strangely enough, the left parties have gone along with the prime minister on this, Buddhadev Bhattacharjee being one of the first chief ministers to issue instructions that the Centre’s directive will be implemented. Did it not strike him that this insistence on a particular religious group was not in keeping with secular principles? Indeed, this is playing into the hands of the Hindu communalists as it will only strengthen their campaign that all that the secular parties are up to is to ‘pamper’ Muslims.
Everybody talks of India being one nation. But leaders have to work towards building a single nation, instead of seeking to promote sectional interests. And that, too, in the name of secularism which should insist that the state takes no note of differences in terms of religious faith.
Also, in West Bengal, which Muslims did the chief minister have in mind? There are two distinct groups — the Urdu- or Hindi-speaking ones and those whose mother tongue is Bengali. The former are mostly to be found in the central districts of Calcutta and the waterfront areas. Like all citizens, they are more at the mercy of the municipal authority than that of the state government. There is no evidence to suggest that they are in any way discriminated against in the matter of providing drinking water or other civic amenities. Any complaint heard in Kidderpore or Entally is the same made in Kalighat or Ekdalia. The mayor or any other city father will be the first to protest at any suggestion that Muslims are not benefiting from their goodwill as much as the others.
It is the same in the districts where the overwhelming number of Muslims are Bengali. Actually, because of this common language, the ordinary Muslim in a village does not really feel he is different in any way from his Hindu neighbour and it goes to the credit of the state that no government has ever sought to see the communities as being different from one another. Instructions like the one under discussion can only be counter-productive. They will, instead, create in the mind a sense of difference which is actually not there. Who can guarantee that Muslim communalists would not grab this to create discontent by conjuring up cases of discrimination? And they do have their opposite numbers in the majority camp who are always eager to complicate things. Similarly, any special attention to the Urdu-speaking in Calcutta can only help further widen a gap that exists because of the language difference.
Muslims themselves are not pleased with such mindless attempts to keep them happy. For the most part, they want to be seen as members of the whole community. At times, the problems in that direction are created by leaders of their own community — for example, during times when they frown at madrassah education getting modernized or at polio immunization programmes. Any such obstacle towards integration can, however, be removed only through patient campaigning by political parties. Treating them as hothouse plants certainly does not help, and marking them out for social benefits does amount to such treatment.
The prime minister would have done better if he had taken all implementing agencies, both Central and state, to task for not ensuring that the fruits of well-intentioned projects reach the people. That is the main problem in this country. The people, whether Hindus, Muslims or of other religious faith, hear of things being planned for them but rarely get to see the efforts. It is the same with Dalits, tribals, everyone. Doesn’t the West Bengal chief minister know what has happened in his state with below-the-poverty-line cards? Can he say for certain that schemes such as pension for widows have been a total success? There are a whole lot of Centrally-funded welfare projects which regularly go haywire and it is not just the minorities who suffer.
Shedding tears for the minorities in public may be a good way of getting votes but it is bad politics, in the larger sense of the term. Also, are votes really got that way for all times to come?
I respect Sumanta Sen’s concern for a non-sectarian approach to development. But is his awareness and discernment of cynical political actions matched by his awareness of what the reality is for the low-income or poor Muslim citizen? Is his alacrity to decry sectarianism matched by his willingness to join his Muslim fellow citizens in ensuring their basic needs and dignity? Is his “intellectual” principle of “equality” more important than the real experience of inequality and deep-rooted discrimination faced by the average Muslim?
He should know that the Sachar committee report has also documented that West Bengal ranks very low as regards the status of Muslims. He should also know that while the state govt has accepted the Prime Minister’s directive, that at least 15% per cent of the beneficiaries of any development project must be Muslims, this is much less than the population proportion of Muslims in the state (over 25%).
For your information Mr Sen, a Dalit Muslim is someone who is a Muslim by faith, but belongs to a traditional caste occupation like Dalits and hence faces much the same discrimination that Dalits in the country face.
His comments on Muslims in Calcutta and West Bengal betray an abject lack of familiarity with the subject he writes about. But that has not prevented him from expressing his opinions. I wonder whether he would agree to having a Muslim tenant on his property? Or living with a Muslim neighbour?
I would suggest that he try to talk to people like Dr MKA Siddiqui, the eminent anthropologist, and Dr Mohd Refatullah, the senior educationist and now member of the state assembly, to get an idea of the reality ordinary Muslims live within.
But that presumes he is really interested in knowing about the plight of his fellow citizens (rather than relying on hearsay and baseless opinion), and is really committed to the rights and development of all, including Muslims. Let him begin his investigations by looking at the number of Muslims in the most lowly, menial positions within govt.
His view of the Muslim as someone who is merely a mute member of a vote-bank, as someone to be appeased, a hothouse plant, does injustice to his Muslim fellow citizens. They are human beings too, with minds and hearts and dreams and feelings. His scorn for vote-bank politics, as a concerned citizen is laudable. But it should also be matched by a demonstration of respect and compassion for the deprived.
Prejudice and discrimination is very real. I am reminded of an article called “Palestinian like me” by an Israeli journalist, who assumed the identity of a Palestinian and explored the meaning of being a Palestinian. I wait for a Hindu journalist to assume a Muslim identity, and investigate first-hand what being Muslim in Calcutta or West Bengal entails.
The vision of an India that gives equal and fair treatment to its minorities is a vision for a secular democratic India.
Singur project will harm agriculture
by Tarun Goswami
Agriculture in fertile Hooghly district will be adversely affected owing to non-functioning of irrigation canals in Singur if the proposed Tata Motors small car factory comes up. This is the opinion of several agricultural experts.
According to their studies, the following profile emerged:
Total area of cultivated land in Singur:10,526 hectares
Irrigated: 8830 hectares.
Singur receives 1475 mm rainfall annually.
Three varieties of rice ~ Aman, Boro and Ayush ~ are cultivated here on 7,340 hectares, 1,800 hectares and 350 hectares respectively.
Jute cultivation: 2,025 hectares
Orchards 2,080 hectares.
Potato cultivation 4,050 hectares
Winter vegetables 2,450 hectares,
Summer vegetables 650 hectares
Monsoon vegetables 600 hectares
There are 15 agricultural cooperatives in Singur.
59 seed outlets
139 fertilisers outlets.
Organic manure to the tune of 3,000 metric tons and chemical fertilisers to the tune of 7,000 chemical fertilisers are sold annually in Singur.
The annual sale of seed potatoes is around 400 metric tons.
There are four deep tubewells run by the state Irrigation and Waterways department in Singur, while there are 27 deep tubewells owned by individuals. There are 42 power tillers in Singur.
Because of development of an irrigation system, a majority of the land in and around Singur has become multi-cropped. If irrigation canals in Singur dry up due to non use, agricultural production in areas adjoining Singur like Haripal, Dhaniakhali, Srirampur and Jangipara are likely to be badly affected.
The cost of construction of new irrigation canals to feed these areas will be huge. The state government should have constructed an alternative route to carry water to the adjoining areas but till date nothing has been done. Senior officials of the state Irrigation and Waterways department said Singur falls within the Damodar Irrigation canal division which is the most densely-laid irrigation network in Hooghly district.
Agriculture in fertile Hooghly district will be adversely affected owing to non-functioning of irrigation canals in Singur if the proposed Tata Motors small car factory comes up. This is the opinion of several agricultural experts.
According to their studies, the following profile emerged:
Total area of cultivated land in Singur:10,526 hectares
Irrigated: 8830 hectares.
Singur receives 1475 mm rainfall annually.
Three varieties of rice ~ Aman, Boro and Ayush ~ are cultivated here on 7,340 hectares, 1,800 hectares and 350 hectares respectively.
Jute cultivation: 2,025 hectares
Orchards 2,080 hectares.
Potato cultivation 4,050 hectares
Winter vegetables 2,450 hectares,
Summer vegetables 650 hectares
Monsoon vegetables 600 hectares
There are 15 agricultural cooperatives in Singur.
59 seed outlets
139 fertilisers outlets.
Organic manure to the tune of 3,000 metric tons and chemical fertilisers to the tune of 7,000 chemical fertilisers are sold annually in Singur.
The annual sale of seed potatoes is around 400 metric tons.
There are four deep tubewells run by the state Irrigation and Waterways department in Singur, while there are 27 deep tubewells owned by individuals. There are 42 power tillers in Singur.
Because of development of an irrigation system, a majority of the land in and around Singur has become multi-cropped. If irrigation canals in Singur dry up due to non use, agricultural production in areas adjoining Singur like Haripal, Dhaniakhali, Srirampur and Jangipara are likely to be badly affected.
The cost of construction of new irrigation canals to feed these areas will be huge. The state government should have constructed an alternative route to carry water to the adjoining areas but till date nothing has been done. Senior officials of the state Irrigation and Waterways department said Singur falls within the Damodar Irrigation canal division which is the most densely-laid irrigation network in Hooghly district.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Breaking the Singur impasse
Editorial in today's The Statesman
The Singur impasse must be broken.
It has been more than three weeks since Miss Banerjee commenced her fast. Reports say her health is failing. The Governor, Mr. Gopalkrishna Gandhi, has made several honourable efforts to make her change her mind. It is not, however, within his powers to concede what she wants ~ an assurance from the government that those who do not wish to be dispossessed of their lands in Singur will be kept outside the ambit of acquisition. According to her, owners of nearly half the land in question fall into this category. But to segregate them may be impractical, for it cannot be assumed that tracts owned by those who don’t want to sell are contiguous. To scrap the process, and to invite the Tatas to choose an alternate site is equally impractical. Besides the obvious embarrassment that Mr. Bhattacharjee would face in not being able to deliver on a promise, what would happen to those who have sold their lands willingly? How then is the impasse to be broken?
The facts suggest that the government has been hasty, arrogant and even disingenuous with the truth. It would seem that mis-statements have been made, in the Assembly and outside. Mr. Gandhi has offered an eminently sane and reasonable suggestion ~ that the entire issue of land use be brought into the open, for a dialogue involving various stake holders and with the intention of evolving long-term norms to avoid needless displacement and human distress. The problem at Singur, though, is that it may now be too late to unscramble the omelette, which perhaps explains why the Tatas ~ who ought to know just how much of the acquisition was voluntary ~ are keeping mum.
As suggestions, we can offer the following. First, all parties agree that where no consent has been obtained from Singur’s land-owners, but only where contiguity of holding can be maintained, the process be reversed. This will ensure that the Tatas are able to get 500 or 600 acres of contiguous lands. Such acquisition may involve some of those who do not wish to sell, but this cannot be avoided and the government must immediately relocate them on alternate plots. Second, and simultaneously, government agree to set up a committee, with equal representation from the ruling party on the one hand, and from civil society, including the Opposition, on the other, to discuss and evolve methodology for determining use of land, and modalities for future acquisitions. Mr Bhattacharjee and Miss Banerjee should both join this committee. Third, and following the recommendations of this committee, alternate land be identified in the Dankuni belt, not so far from Singur, and given over for the purpose of locating ancillary industries.
Should these suggestions be accepted, Miss Banerjee ought to relent and call off her fast. Bengal will need to confront many more challenges as it travels on the road from whimsical Communism to pragmatic industrialization. And one thing that Mr. Bhattacharjee’s conduct in recent times has made abundantly clear is that the state needs a potent Opposition, and not only in the Assembly.
The Singur impasse must be broken.
It has been more than three weeks since Miss Banerjee commenced her fast. Reports say her health is failing. The Governor, Mr. Gopalkrishna Gandhi, has made several honourable efforts to make her change her mind. It is not, however, within his powers to concede what she wants ~ an assurance from the government that those who do not wish to be dispossessed of their lands in Singur will be kept outside the ambit of acquisition. According to her, owners of nearly half the land in question fall into this category. But to segregate them may be impractical, for it cannot be assumed that tracts owned by those who don’t want to sell are contiguous. To scrap the process, and to invite the Tatas to choose an alternate site is equally impractical. Besides the obvious embarrassment that Mr. Bhattacharjee would face in not being able to deliver on a promise, what would happen to those who have sold their lands willingly? How then is the impasse to be broken?
The facts suggest that the government has been hasty, arrogant and even disingenuous with the truth. It would seem that mis-statements have been made, in the Assembly and outside. Mr. Gandhi has offered an eminently sane and reasonable suggestion ~ that the entire issue of land use be brought into the open, for a dialogue involving various stake holders and with the intention of evolving long-term norms to avoid needless displacement and human distress. The problem at Singur, though, is that it may now be too late to unscramble the omelette, which perhaps explains why the Tatas ~ who ought to know just how much of the acquisition was voluntary ~ are keeping mum.
As suggestions, we can offer the following. First, all parties agree that where no consent has been obtained from Singur’s land-owners, but only where contiguity of holding can be maintained, the process be reversed. This will ensure that the Tatas are able to get 500 or 600 acres of contiguous lands. Such acquisition may involve some of those who do not wish to sell, but this cannot be avoided and the government must immediately relocate them on alternate plots. Second, and simultaneously, government agree to set up a committee, with equal representation from the ruling party on the one hand, and from civil society, including the Opposition, on the other, to discuss and evolve methodology for determining use of land, and modalities for future acquisitions. Mr Bhattacharjee and Miss Banerjee should both join this committee. Third, and following the recommendations of this committee, alternate land be identified in the Dankuni belt, not so far from Singur, and given over for the purpose of locating ancillary industries.
Should these suggestions be accepted, Miss Banerjee ought to relent and call off her fast. Bengal will need to confront many more challenges as it travels on the road from whimsical Communism to pragmatic industrialization. And one thing that Mr. Bhattacharjee’s conduct in recent times has made abundantly clear is that the state needs a potent Opposition, and not only in the Assembly.
Khilji-style
Even as Mr Buddhadev Bhattacharjee insisted there was no way the state could backtrack on Singur, his land and land reforms minister made clear what he thought about the way the government was going about the business of acquiring land.
Mr Abdur Razzak Molla seemingly had the chief minister and commerce and industries minister Mr Nirupam Sen in mind when he said that land acquisition could not be done in “Khilji style” by steamrolling opposition from land owners. “Some of us seem to think that plots of land can be acquired in the medieval manner of Alauddin Khilji (a 13th-14th century ruler of Delhi). Even the ryots (tenants) have rights. We cannot afford to be so arrogant. We have to convince people first before going about procuring land,” he said while speaking about land acquisition in the South 24-Parganas district of West Bengal.
Mr Abdur Razzak Molla seemingly had the chief minister and commerce and industries minister Mr Nirupam Sen in mind when he said that land acquisition could not be done in “Khilji style” by steamrolling opposition from land owners. “Some of us seem to think that plots of land can be acquired in the medieval manner of Alauddin Khilji (a 13th-14th century ruler of Delhi). Even the ryots (tenants) have rights. We cannot afford to be so arrogant. We have to convince people first before going about procuring land,” he said while speaking about land acquisition in the South 24-Parganas district of West Bengal.
2 years after the Tsunami
I had written on the subject of post-disaster rehabilitation, in the context of the super-cyclone in Orissa in late 1999. A number of important lessons had been highlighted. But it seems we are condemned to commit the same hideous errors again and again.
On the occasion of the 2nd anniversary of the Tsunami of 26 December 2004, a number of articles have dwelt on the insensitivity of the rehabilitation operations.
Read:
Swamped by deceit
Insensitive rehabilitation
Dreams die first
On the occasion of the 2nd anniversary of the Tsunami of 26 December 2004, a number of articles have dwelt on the insensitivity of the rehabilitation operations.
Read:
Swamped by deceit
Insensitive rehabilitation
Dreams die first
Domestic workers contest elections
by Samyabrata Ray Goswami
As Mumbai gets ready for the elections to the country’s richest municipal corporation, domestic workers have thrown their hats in the ring. Other than a slice of the Greater Mumbai Municipal Corporation’s yearly pie of Rs 80,000 million to improve their lot, they are seeking a say in its working.
This is a first in the country, but not surprising in a city where the poorer classes have grown more and more aware of political empowerment since the drive to erase urban slums began in Mumbai’s chase of the Shanghai dream.
“I am what they call a migrant. But who is not? Even Sonia Gandhi is a migrant,” said 40-year-old Malan Sonawane, a domestic help contesting the polls from ward 87 in low-income Golibar.
“All working-class people are migrants at some level or the other. Does it mean they will have no rights where they work? As a domestic worker, I also represent the pain and helplessness of other poor people whom this city would use but not claim as its own.”
Sonawane is a member of the domestic workers’ union Ghar Kamghar Mulkarni Sanghatana, which is putting up candidates in 20 of the 227 poll-bound wards. With its 25,000 members, the Sanghatana is the largest domestic workers’ union in the state and has the backing of the CPI labour arm, Aituc.
The Sanghatana is part of a Left-led front of affiliates of the CPI, CPM and Prakash Ambedkar’s Bharatiya Republican Party, which is fielding 75 candidates. They are expected to win only four seats or so.
Sonawane is one of the few Sanghatana candidates expected to win, and shoulders the challenge of scripting a Left presence in Mumbai’s elected bodies after years.
“We are not expecting much. But in this city, where the Left hasn’t won a single seat in any kind of election for years, it certainly matters even if we win just two or three seats,” said Dhruv Redkar of Aituc.
Sitting in her kitchen, rustling up a family meal before she has to rush to her job at a nearby high-rise, Sonawane is unaware of her role in the Left movement.
“I don’t know about these big things. If I win, we can bargain hard as a group in the area. The police trouble us; the landlords trouble us; the employers trouble us. We are at other people’s mercy — if they don’t like our face, we are done for. There are no guarantees. I hope to ensure some guarantees if I am elected,” she said.
Vengeance against “difference”
A 19-year-old girl, whose alleged faults included dressing like a boy, riding a cycle and cutting her hair short, was tonsured, stripped and paraded in a village in West Bengal's Nadia district village on Sunday for refusing to snap relations with her childhood friend, who got married recently.
Tapati Biswas (name changed) was also beaten up and photographed, minus her clothes, by Ramkrishna Maitra and his family, who invited the village to “check whether she is a girl at all”.
Tapati and Maitra’s daughter lived a few houses away from each other at Garapota village in Hanskhali, about 70 km from Calcutta, till Parvati got married in a neighbouring locality.
They had studied in the same local school till Class XII, after which Tapati quit studies and Parvati became a housewife.
Maitra, who was picked up by the police from his house today, said pressure from his daughter’s in-laws had forced him to ask Tapati to stop visiting her new home. But she had refused to listen to him.
His wife Shephali, 35, brother Tarak, 30, and mother Kusum, 70, who were part of the gang, have fled the village.
“Tapati looks like a boy and that made Parvati’s husband and in-laws angry. They vented their ire on Parvati’s father Ramkrishna a couple of days ago,” said Nadia additional superintendent of police Subrata Maitra.
Villagers said she “led a boy’s life”. She has “very short hair and wore pants”, the police said. Tapati was often seen at the village tea stall or speeding in her bicycle.
Last week, Parvati’s husband Gurupada and his father Nirapada beat up Tapati for trying to meet her. “They asked Ramkrishna to either prevent the girl from coming there or take back Parvati,” Maitra added.
Ramkrishna, a building contractor, called Tapati to his house yesterday. When she tried to reason with him and asked why she should be prevented from meeting her best friend, Ramkrishna told her she was “not a girl”.
“Tapati snapped back, saying she would not follow his diktat,” said an officer of the Hanskhali police station.
Then the Maitras pounced on her. Tapati was dragged to the village square and humiliated. There were scores of onlookers but none of them came to her aid.
Aparesh Das, the deputy chief of the CPM-controlled Garapota village panchayat, said he was away on party work. “Many villagers were shocked. But they did not want to be dragged into controversy,” he added.
Tapati, who was tied to a post, was released over two hours later when the Maitras probably thought she had suffered enough.
The girl who lost her father five years ago ran home to her mother without clothes. Unnati, a farm hand, was far from the heart of the village when her daughter was being tortured.
Tapati Biswas (name changed) was also beaten up and photographed, minus her clothes, by Ramkrishna Maitra and his family, who invited the village to “check whether she is a girl at all”.
Tapati and Maitra’s daughter lived a few houses away from each other at Garapota village in Hanskhali, about 70 km from Calcutta, till Parvati got married in a neighbouring locality.
They had studied in the same local school till Class XII, after which Tapati quit studies and Parvati became a housewife.
Maitra, who was picked up by the police from his house today, said pressure from his daughter’s in-laws had forced him to ask Tapati to stop visiting her new home. But she had refused to listen to him.
His wife Shephali, 35, brother Tarak, 30, and mother Kusum, 70, who were part of the gang, have fled the village.
“Tapati looks like a boy and that made Parvati’s husband and in-laws angry. They vented their ire on Parvati’s father Ramkrishna a couple of days ago,” said Nadia additional superintendent of police Subrata Maitra.
Villagers said she “led a boy’s life”. She has “very short hair and wore pants”, the police said. Tapati was often seen at the village tea stall or speeding in her bicycle.
Last week, Parvati’s husband Gurupada and his father Nirapada beat up Tapati for trying to meet her. “They asked Ramkrishna to either prevent the girl from coming there or take back Parvati,” Maitra added.
Ramkrishna, a building contractor, called Tapati to his house yesterday. When she tried to reason with him and asked why she should be prevented from meeting her best friend, Ramkrishna told her she was “not a girl”.
“Tapati snapped back, saying she would not follow his diktat,” said an officer of the Hanskhali police station.
Then the Maitras pounced on her. Tapati was dragged to the village square and humiliated. There were scores of onlookers but none of them came to her aid.
Aparesh Das, the deputy chief of the CPM-controlled Garapota village panchayat, said he was away on party work. “Many villagers were shocked. But they did not want to be dragged into controversy,” he added.
Tapati, who was tied to a post, was released over two hours later when the Maitras probably thought she had suffered enough.
The girl who lost her father five years ago ran home to her mother without clothes. Unnati, a farm hand, was far from the heart of the village when her daughter was being tortured.
Why?
From The Telegraph's Editorial
The irony of her mother — a widowed farm hand in a Bengali village — being called Unnati, or Progress, is perhaps the least brutal thing in the life of Tapati Biswas.
The police, the local party office and the panchayat could do nothing while all this was going on.
Why was Tapati beaten up? Was it because the neighbours took her for a man when she kept visiting her married friend? Was it because she generally refused to behave like a girl even if she was known to be one? Were the men reacting to something more unspeakable: an intense, possibly ambiguous, friendship between two women? Or does the collective brutality confound all three responses to transgression and ‘difference’? Krishnagar and its villages form that grey zone between the rural and the suburban where other forms of gender-transgressive behaviour are not similarly brutalized. There are assigned and more-or-less tolerant spaces, however marginal and precarious, for hijras (eunuchs) and kothis (effeminate homosexual men) for instance. It is only when women break the sex-laws that this collective violence — versions of which also exist in the cities and towns — is publicly unleashed.
The irony of her mother — a widowed farm hand in a Bengali village — being called Unnati, or Progress, is perhaps the least brutal thing in the life of Tapati Biswas.
The police, the local party office and the panchayat could do nothing while all this was going on.
Why was Tapati beaten up? Was it because the neighbours took her for a man when she kept visiting her married friend? Was it because she generally refused to behave like a girl even if she was known to be one? Were the men reacting to something more unspeakable: an intense, possibly ambiguous, friendship between two women? Or does the collective brutality confound all three responses to transgression and ‘difference’? Krishnagar and its villages form that grey zone between the rural and the suburban where other forms of gender-transgressive behaviour are not similarly brutalized. There are assigned and more-or-less tolerant spaces, however marginal and precarious, for hijras (eunuchs) and kothis (effeminate homosexual men) for instance. It is only when women break the sex-laws that this collective violence — versions of which also exist in the cities and towns — is publicly unleashed.
Dowry
A Letter to the Editor in yesterday's The Statesman
Recently, I happened to visit a remote village, Simlapal, in the Bankura district of West Bengal, where I stayed with my relatives for a few days. My relative attended a marriage ceremony there. I was stunned to learn that scads of money are still paid as dowry by the bride’s parents. At the said ceremony, the bride’s parents reportedly paid a whopping Rs 300,000 as dowry for the groom who is a petty government employee. The rate of dowry is said to vary between Rs 300,000 and Rs 1 million or more according to the social status of the groom. The dowry system and child marriage are two gargantuan evils which are acting as pestering sores and eroding our social fabric stealthily. Social activists should come forward to disabuse such superstitious people of their atavistic mindset and infuse a spirit of broadness and liberalism.
Nripen Basu, Calcutta
Recently, I happened to visit a remote village, Simlapal, in the Bankura district of West Bengal, where I stayed with my relatives for a few days. My relative attended a marriage ceremony there. I was stunned to learn that scads of money are still paid as dowry by the bride’s parents. At the said ceremony, the bride’s parents reportedly paid a whopping Rs 300,000 as dowry for the groom who is a petty government employee. The rate of dowry is said to vary between Rs 300,000 and Rs 1 million or more according to the social status of the groom. The dowry system and child marriage are two gargantuan evils which are acting as pestering sores and eroding our social fabric stealthily. Social activists should come forward to disabuse such superstitious people of their atavistic mindset and infuse a spirit of broadness and liberalism.
Nripen Basu, Calcutta
More on dowry
by Bhaswati Chakravorty
There is a joy in clichés: every train ride (if you are not a ‘daily passenger’) is a journey through the heartland. It depends on where you locate that heart — outside the window, inside the crowded compartment, or both if you like.
I am a frequent passenger on an evening ride to Birbhum district that takes me two stations beyond Bolpur/Santiniketan in a train that goes up to Malda town. On it, I have discovered with unbelieving eyes how much, for example, a 21-strong contingent of determinedly cheerful Bengalis, of all ages and sizes, can eat in three hours. And have been forced to hear, with ears equally unbelieving, how incessantly and deafeningly they can talk about food. There the tastes are laudably eclectic: their favourite foods can be anything from luchi-mangsho and kachki maachh to pizzas and momos. The attitude, too, I must call catholic: food is the earthly attraction on a spiritual journey to Tarapith.
But that experience was simple. I saw nothing but food, and heard nothing but chomping mandibles, sucking noises and menus remembered or anticipated. I had a more complicated experience recently. I was gazing comfortably out at the darkening sky when I became aware of two young men who settled down next to me after the train left Bardhaman. I noticed them only because one of them was displaying a vocal interest in two American girls two rows away from us. The other asked why he was staring. “Why shouldn’t I look?” was the reply. “It’s a thing to see (dekhar jinish) so I’m looking.” Try as I might, I couldn’t tune out any more.
I gathered that they were from Rampurhat, and had a friend sitting somewhere behind us. He was somehow special. The boys referred to him with mocking respect as “Mashtar”, punching the senses of teacher and master together by pronunciation and tone. As the train slowed for Bolpur, the two girls, along with many others, got ready to alight. The first young man resettled himself to stare his eyes out while the other remarked, “I told you they’re going to Santiniketan.” Unbidden, the face of the old bearded man with the unforgettable eyes flashed across my mind — a homeless image, a face with nowhere to go. As I struggled to put him down gently somewhere in the swirling confusion of my thoughts, the second young man called out to their friend, “Come and sit here Mashtar, give us a little of your touch. Seven hundred thousand with a 50,000 hike every year — just to see you is lucky.”
He appeared, more expensively dressed than his companions. He sat down diagonally opposite me, leaned back, put up his well-shod feet each between the knees of each of his two friends, spread his knees out wide, and put his hand where I had been unforgivably trained not to look. Respectability is blinding, I decided. I did look, with great care, taking my time, so that I could make no mistake. And all the while I was thinking, in slow motion, what are they talking about? Not dowry, surely. Of course not. People take dowry, but they don’t yell about it in public spaces.
It was dowry though, as the teasing exchange made evident. It’s a joke, I comforted myself. I had gathered by then that the third man was from Rampurhat too, and had bagged a job as a schoolteacher in Bardhaman. I was aware that you have to pay heavily for a teacher’s post. I know a boy who couldn’t pay, so could not join the teacher’s post for which he had been selected in a village. I also gathered that this teacher was about to get married.
My station was getting closer. “Most of us ask for houses,” said one of his companions. “Why don’t you ask your father-in-law for a house in Bardhaman? That’ll be less than 8 hundred thousand anyway.” The bridegroom-to-be said little. “So, what have you decided, house or cash?” persisted his friend. “Cash,” said Mashtar at last, “the wife can stay in Rampurhat.” “That’s clever,” said his admiring friends, “you have the cash and she stays at home. No wonder you’re our guru!”
I got off. Was I some affected nincompoop? Didn’t I know how real dowry was? I asked the men in the village I was visiting what the rates were. A man with family land, no job, no education, is worth 5 hundred thousand , they said. So the new father-in-law was getting the schoolteacher cheap, perhaps? Why was I so rattled? That they talked about it publicly? Then I was the hypocrite. That this young man was going to teach children? Whatever it was, I can’t forget him, his sliding eyes, his feet on his friend’s bodies, his hand on his expensive crotch.
Travelling through the heartland, the landscape is calming.
There is a joy in clichés: every train ride (if you are not a ‘daily passenger’) is a journey through the heartland. It depends on where you locate that heart — outside the window, inside the crowded compartment, or both if you like.
I am a frequent passenger on an evening ride to Birbhum district that takes me two stations beyond Bolpur/Santiniketan in a train that goes up to Malda town. On it, I have discovered with unbelieving eyes how much, for example, a 21-strong contingent of determinedly cheerful Bengalis, of all ages and sizes, can eat in three hours. And have been forced to hear, with ears equally unbelieving, how incessantly and deafeningly they can talk about food. There the tastes are laudably eclectic: their favourite foods can be anything from luchi-mangsho and kachki maachh to pizzas and momos. The attitude, too, I must call catholic: food is the earthly attraction on a spiritual journey to Tarapith.
But that experience was simple. I saw nothing but food, and heard nothing but chomping mandibles, sucking noises and menus remembered or anticipated. I had a more complicated experience recently. I was gazing comfortably out at the darkening sky when I became aware of two young men who settled down next to me after the train left Bardhaman. I noticed them only because one of them was displaying a vocal interest in two American girls two rows away from us. The other asked why he was staring. “Why shouldn’t I look?” was the reply. “It’s a thing to see (dekhar jinish) so I’m looking.” Try as I might, I couldn’t tune out any more.
I gathered that they were from Rampurhat, and had a friend sitting somewhere behind us. He was somehow special. The boys referred to him with mocking respect as “Mashtar”, punching the senses of teacher and master together by pronunciation and tone. As the train slowed for Bolpur, the two girls, along with many others, got ready to alight. The first young man resettled himself to stare his eyes out while the other remarked, “I told you they’re going to Santiniketan.” Unbidden, the face of the old bearded man with the unforgettable eyes flashed across my mind — a homeless image, a face with nowhere to go. As I struggled to put him down gently somewhere in the swirling confusion of my thoughts, the second young man called out to their friend, “Come and sit here Mashtar, give us a little of your touch. Seven hundred thousand with a 50,000 hike every year — just to see you is lucky.”
He appeared, more expensively dressed than his companions. He sat down diagonally opposite me, leaned back, put up his well-shod feet each between the knees of each of his two friends, spread his knees out wide, and put his hand where I had been unforgivably trained not to look. Respectability is blinding, I decided. I did look, with great care, taking my time, so that I could make no mistake. And all the while I was thinking, in slow motion, what are they talking about? Not dowry, surely. Of course not. People take dowry, but they don’t yell about it in public spaces.
It was dowry though, as the teasing exchange made evident. It’s a joke, I comforted myself. I had gathered by then that the third man was from Rampurhat too, and had bagged a job as a schoolteacher in Bardhaman. I was aware that you have to pay heavily for a teacher’s post. I know a boy who couldn’t pay, so could not join the teacher’s post for which he had been selected in a village. I also gathered that this teacher was about to get married.
My station was getting closer. “Most of us ask for houses,” said one of his companions. “Why don’t you ask your father-in-law for a house in Bardhaman? That’ll be less than 8 hundred thousand anyway.” The bridegroom-to-be said little. “So, what have you decided, house or cash?” persisted his friend. “Cash,” said Mashtar at last, “the wife can stay in Rampurhat.” “That’s clever,” said his admiring friends, “you have the cash and she stays at home. No wonder you’re our guru!”
I got off. Was I some affected nincompoop? Didn’t I know how real dowry was? I asked the men in the village I was visiting what the rates were. A man with family land, no job, no education, is worth 5 hundred thousand , they said. So the new father-in-law was getting the schoolteacher cheap, perhaps? Why was I so rattled? That they talked about it publicly? Then I was the hypocrite. That this young man was going to teach children? Whatever it was, I can’t forget him, his sliding eyes, his feet on his friend’s bodies, his hand on his expensive crotch.
Travelling through the heartland, the landscape is calming.
Affirming democracy
Press Trust of India
Even as the movement by the Opposition in Pakistan to oust the military regime is gathering steam, a recent study claims a majority of Pakistanis back Army rule, with Bangladesh being the only other South Asian country to follow the trend.
“The idea that the country should be governed by the Army was endorsed by six out of every 10 responses in Pakistan and Bangladesh,” said the State of Democracy in South Asia report, adding that about half the Pakistanis said both the democratic or non-democratic forms of government made no difference to them.
The least support for Army rule is in India, the report said, adding the support for the Army rule diminishes in the countries which are educationally in the forefront.
But overall, the South Asians overwhelmingly support democracy with Sri Lanka emerging as the country where democracy was most popular, while India was placed third in terms of the percentage of people expressing support for the democratic system, the study said.
“The people not only approve of democratic arrangements, they find it suitable for their own contexts. Seven out of eight responses in the region, higher than in East Asia, held that democracy was ‘suitable’ or ‘very suitable’ for their own country,” the report said.
The study found that the citizens of South Asia do not simply like democracy; they prefer it to authoritarian rule.
“With the exception of Pakistan, about two-thirds of those who responded preferred democracy to any other form of government,” the report added.
Even as the movement by the Opposition in Pakistan to oust the military regime is gathering steam, a recent study claims a majority of Pakistanis back Army rule, with Bangladesh being the only other South Asian country to follow the trend.
“The idea that the country should be governed by the Army was endorsed by six out of every 10 responses in Pakistan and Bangladesh,” said the State of Democracy in South Asia report, adding that about half the Pakistanis said both the democratic or non-democratic forms of government made no difference to them.
The least support for Army rule is in India, the report said, adding the support for the Army rule diminishes in the countries which are educationally in the forefront.
But overall, the South Asians overwhelmingly support democracy with Sri Lanka emerging as the country where democracy was most popular, while India was placed third in terms of the percentage of people expressing support for the democratic system, the study said.
“The people not only approve of democratic arrangements, they find it suitable for their own contexts. Seven out of eight responses in the region, higher than in East Asia, held that democracy was ‘suitable’ or ‘very suitable’ for their own country,” the report said.
The study found that the citizens of South Asia do not simply like democracy; they prefer it to authoritarian rule.
“With the exception of Pakistan, about two-thirds of those who responded preferred democracy to any other form of government,” the report added.
Stressed out
According to a report in The Independent, Germans are the most regularly stressed-out people in the world, while the British are most likely to say their high-pressured lifestyle makes them feel they are losing control, according to a new international poll released on Sunday.
Pollsters asked one thousand people in nine separate industrialised nations ~ Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Mexico, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom and the USA ~ to rate the levels of stress they feel they suffer from.
The survey, conducted by international polling company Ipsos on behalf of the Associated Press, found that just over half of Germans said they “frequently” felt stressed, the highest percentage of any of the countries polled.
Thirty seven percent said the principal cause for feeling stressed-out was their job. While people in Britain reported having experienced less frequent bouts of stress than Germans, the UK had the highest percentage of citizens claiming the levels of stress made them feel life was “beyond control.”
Pollsters asked one thousand people in nine separate industrialised nations ~ Australia, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Mexico, South Korea, Spain, the United Kingdom and the USA ~ to rate the levels of stress they feel they suffer from.
The survey, conducted by international polling company Ipsos on behalf of the Associated Press, found that just over half of Germans said they “frequently” felt stressed, the highest percentage of any of the countries polled.
Thirty seven percent said the principal cause for feeling stressed-out was their job. While people in Britain reported having experienced less frequent bouts of stress than Germans, the UK had the highest percentage of citizens claiming the levels of stress made them feel life was “beyond control.”
A little kindness
by Girish Bhandari
When I last visited Calcutta, the thing that struck me was the sartorial preference of the city. Almost all the girls were in salwar kameez and the men in trousers! Unbelievable in a city where the predominant dress was the graceful sari and the milk white dhoti, which was elegantly held in one end. Despite the dhoti not being the ideally suited apparel when running was involved, the bhadralok showed amazing elan and nimblefootedness when it came to boarding the buses, as the evening approached and the great Calcutta offices disgorged their vast masses of babus.
They saw their buses a good 100 yards away, made a dash for them and with dexterity, perfected with years of practice, boarded them, leaving us ~ much younger folk stunned and even, applauding. Then there were feats of crossing the roads, Calcutta-style. One just joined the human torrent and, with it, crossed to the other side of Chowringhee. Try to do it on your own and you would risk losing a limb, if nothing more!
A green horn, I landed in the great city one evening. In the foolish confidence, that is part of youth, I had not booked any accommodation, and had to get one before night fell. I engaged a taxi, driven by an old Sikh gentleman. We went from one hotel to another, from one guest house to another. I was stumped by the charges. We had driven about 50 km and nothing seemed to suit my pocket. I had to stay in the city for about three months, and, what a fool I was, not to have planned my stay. Seeing my plight, the gentle driver suggested that, as the night was rapidly approaching, his house was welcome.
I could not believe my ears but then he was sincere. But I tried to make another and last attempt before I accepted. Fortunately, I got a place in a hotel near the Howrah railway station. Noisy, but clean and modest in charges. After me luggage was unloaded, I asked the taxi fare. The meter had registered 90 km by now. The answer I got, floored me. He said that as I was new to the city and, therefore, a guest of Calcutta, he would not charge anything! I rubbed my eyes in disbelief.
Taxi drivers generally have a notoriety attached to them, specially when they encounter someone like me, new to a big city. I tried to argue with him, but to no avail.
He said the city had been so kind to him when he came to it 50 years back and had consistently been so, that it was time to pay back a bit of his heartfelt gratitude, and there was no better way than to show a little kindness to a distressed first-time visitor to the city. Let the first impression be good. I asked him how could I ever pay back his kindness. He said there was no need. The only thing I ought to do is help anyone in genuine distress and difficulty and I would be paid back more than fully.
He explained that the great gurus had enjoined as much time and again in their teachings and all of them made great sacrifices in the spirit of true service to humanity, without any distinction of religion, belief or caste. I was deeply touched.
Apart from the formal lessons I learnt in Calcutta, this was the greatest lesson of my life that I learnt from a true practitioner
When I last visited Calcutta, the thing that struck me was the sartorial preference of the city. Almost all the girls were in salwar kameez and the men in trousers! Unbelievable in a city where the predominant dress was the graceful sari and the milk white dhoti, which was elegantly held in one end. Despite the dhoti not being the ideally suited apparel when running was involved, the bhadralok showed amazing elan and nimblefootedness when it came to boarding the buses, as the evening approached and the great Calcutta offices disgorged their vast masses of babus.
They saw their buses a good 100 yards away, made a dash for them and with dexterity, perfected with years of practice, boarded them, leaving us ~ much younger folk stunned and even, applauding. Then there were feats of crossing the roads, Calcutta-style. One just joined the human torrent and, with it, crossed to the other side of Chowringhee. Try to do it on your own and you would risk losing a limb, if nothing more!
A green horn, I landed in the great city one evening. In the foolish confidence, that is part of youth, I had not booked any accommodation, and had to get one before night fell. I engaged a taxi, driven by an old Sikh gentleman. We went from one hotel to another, from one guest house to another. I was stumped by the charges. We had driven about 50 km and nothing seemed to suit my pocket. I had to stay in the city for about three months, and, what a fool I was, not to have planned my stay. Seeing my plight, the gentle driver suggested that, as the night was rapidly approaching, his house was welcome.
I could not believe my ears but then he was sincere. But I tried to make another and last attempt before I accepted. Fortunately, I got a place in a hotel near the Howrah railway station. Noisy, but clean and modest in charges. After me luggage was unloaded, I asked the taxi fare. The meter had registered 90 km by now. The answer I got, floored me. He said that as I was new to the city and, therefore, a guest of Calcutta, he would not charge anything! I rubbed my eyes in disbelief.
Taxi drivers generally have a notoriety attached to them, specially when they encounter someone like me, new to a big city. I tried to argue with him, but to no avail.
He said the city had been so kind to him when he came to it 50 years back and had consistently been so, that it was time to pay back a bit of his heartfelt gratitude, and there was no better way than to show a little kindness to a distressed first-time visitor to the city. Let the first impression be good. I asked him how could I ever pay back his kindness. He said there was no need. The only thing I ought to do is help anyone in genuine distress and difficulty and I would be paid back more than fully.
He explained that the great gurus had enjoined as much time and again in their teachings and all of them made great sacrifices in the spirit of true service to humanity, without any distinction of religion, belief or caste. I was deeply touched.
Apart from the formal lessons I learnt in Calcutta, this was the greatest lesson of my life that I learnt from a true practitioner
Robbers turn benefactors
by Alamgir Hossain
Robbers who once terrorised a stretch of a national highway in Murshidabad district of West Bengal, first became its protectors and now want to use the money they collect from passing trucks to build a girls’ school in the area.
The former criminals have collected about Rs 700,000 over the past six years, charging trucks plying through the 10-km stretch of NH 34 a sort of protection fee. Receipts for Rs 5, 10 or 20 are given to drivers in the name of the Paribahan Suraksha (transport security) Committee.
In 1999, Shamsergunj police had set up the “resistance group” mostly with local criminals to control rising incidents of robbery and snatching along the highway.
The drive proved very effective as no crime has been reported from the stretch, about 300 km from Calcutta, in all these years.
The police said there is “nothing illegal” in the fees they collect. “They are doing a good job,” said superintendent Rahul Srivastava.
Nurul Biswas, whose five trucks could at best make two trips a day to Pakur — 30 km away — with sand or stone chips, said: “I’m very happy. Now my trucks can make five trips.”
Abbas Sheikh, 30, who is facing trial in connection with several robberies and is on bail, is also very happy. “Six years ago, we were all on the run,” he said.
The committee has already bought an ambulance and a breakdown van with the money it has saved. But the school is the former robbers’ ultimate aspiration. Like Abbas, Jaga Sheikh and Kota Sheikh are excited about it.
Children from a dozen villages now have one school to go to — Bhasai Paikar Co-educational School. Many girls in this Muslim-dominated area drop out after a certain age because the school is co-ed.
“Parents are not always willing to let their daughters study with boys,” said Mansur Ali, a teacher who is also the secretary of the committee of former criminals.
The district police chief said he would personally help the committee set up the school.
Ali said the money was collected with the objective of doing “some good work” later. “We earn about Rs 7,500 every day and we save a lot even after paying the 75 guards. The school is our dream,” said Ali.
Robbers who once terrorised a stretch of a national highway in Murshidabad district of West Bengal, first became its protectors and now want to use the money they collect from passing trucks to build a girls’ school in the area.
The former criminals have collected about Rs 700,000 over the past six years, charging trucks plying through the 10-km stretch of NH 34 a sort of protection fee. Receipts for Rs 5, 10 or 20 are given to drivers in the name of the Paribahan Suraksha (transport security) Committee.
In 1999, Shamsergunj police had set up the “resistance group” mostly with local criminals to control rising incidents of robbery and snatching along the highway.
The drive proved very effective as no crime has been reported from the stretch, about 300 km from Calcutta, in all these years.
The police said there is “nothing illegal” in the fees they collect. “They are doing a good job,” said superintendent Rahul Srivastava.
Nurul Biswas, whose five trucks could at best make two trips a day to Pakur — 30 km away — with sand or stone chips, said: “I’m very happy. Now my trucks can make five trips.”
Abbas Sheikh, 30, who is facing trial in connection with several robberies and is on bail, is also very happy. “Six years ago, we were all on the run,” he said.
The committee has already bought an ambulance and a breakdown van with the money it has saved. But the school is the former robbers’ ultimate aspiration. Like Abbas, Jaga Sheikh and Kota Sheikh are excited about it.
Children from a dozen villages now have one school to go to — Bhasai Paikar Co-educational School. Many girls in this Muslim-dominated area drop out after a certain age because the school is co-ed.
“Parents are not always willing to let their daughters study with boys,” said Mansur Ali, a teacher who is also the secretary of the committee of former criminals.
The district police chief said he would personally help the committee set up the school.
Ali said the money was collected with the objective of doing “some good work” later. “We earn about Rs 7,500 every day and we save a lot even after paying the 75 guards. The school is our dream,” said Ali.
Illiterate, not uneducated
by Haridas Mukherjee
Like the versatility of his genius, the social vision of Prof Benoy Kumar Sarkar (1887- 1949) was all-embracing and creative. The study of man and his reactions to Nature and society was the principal theme of Sarkar's life-long investigations.
An important aspect of Sarkar’s social thought was his eloquent advocacy of the rights of the illiterate or unlettered whom he did not consider in any way inferior to the literate or the elite in common sense, intelligence and morality.
On the contrary, his social thought treated the illiterate as “educated persons”. He maintains that the cultivators, mistris (artisans), and other manual workers, though by and large illiterate, are not less intelligent in understanding “the problems of their daily life, their family requirements, their village surroundings” than the socalled educated persons, that is, school masters, lawyers, professors, doctors, engineers and magistrates.
He argues further that “a schoolmaster, a lawyer or a doctor is after all an expert in one, two or three things of life. These alleged ‘educated’ persons can claim proficiency only in a limited sphere of interests. The doctor is not an authority in problems connected with engineering, the engineer in questions involving a knowledge of botany, the chemist in questions, of astronomy, and so on ... The men and women, therefore, who are experts in agriculture, that is, the illiterate cultivators, deserve the same consideration from the other members of the community as a lawyer does from the engineer and an astronomer from the chemist. Professions are to be respected as profession”.
Sarkar’s social thought went a step further and asserted on the strength of his objective findings that as a “moral person”, the doctor or the professor “is not necessarily superior to the chashi (cultivator), coolie (labourer), majur (worker), mistri (artisan) and all other manual workers”. “Our observations”, wrote Prof Sarkar, “entitle us to the creed that political suffrage should have nothing to do with literacy”. Long before the promulgation of the Constitution in 1950 (mainly the handiwork of Dr Ambedkar), Sarkar advocated the rights of the illiterate, including, of course, their right to political suffrage.
Like the versatility of his genius, the social vision of Prof Benoy Kumar Sarkar (1887- 1949) was all-embracing and creative. The study of man and his reactions to Nature and society was the principal theme of Sarkar's life-long investigations.
An important aspect of Sarkar’s social thought was his eloquent advocacy of the rights of the illiterate or unlettered whom he did not consider in any way inferior to the literate or the elite in common sense, intelligence and morality.
On the contrary, his social thought treated the illiterate as “educated persons”. He maintains that the cultivators, mistris (artisans), and other manual workers, though by and large illiterate, are not less intelligent in understanding “the problems of their daily life, their family requirements, their village surroundings” than the socalled educated persons, that is, school masters, lawyers, professors, doctors, engineers and magistrates.
He argues further that “a schoolmaster, a lawyer or a doctor is after all an expert in one, two or three things of life. These alleged ‘educated’ persons can claim proficiency only in a limited sphere of interests. The doctor is not an authority in problems connected with engineering, the engineer in questions involving a knowledge of botany, the chemist in questions, of astronomy, and so on ... The men and women, therefore, who are experts in agriculture, that is, the illiterate cultivators, deserve the same consideration from the other members of the community as a lawyer does from the engineer and an astronomer from the chemist. Professions are to be respected as profession”.
Sarkar’s social thought went a step further and asserted on the strength of his objective findings that as a “moral person”, the doctor or the professor “is not necessarily superior to the chashi (cultivator), coolie (labourer), majur (worker), mistri (artisan) and all other manual workers”. “Our observations”, wrote Prof Sarkar, “entitle us to the creed that political suffrage should have nothing to do with literacy”. Long before the promulgation of the Constitution in 1950 (mainly the handiwork of Dr Ambedkar), Sarkar advocated the rights of the illiterate, including, of course, their right to political suffrage.
Monday, December 25, 2006
Astounding!
I read with astonishment yesterday an editorial in The Telegraph on the subject of forcible land acquisition in Singur by the CPI(M)-led West Bengal state govt, for handover to the Tatas for their small car project.
In a nutshell:
"The govt of West Bengal must do what it thinks is best for the economy. It is not obliged to obtain consent."
Ironically, even that hideously oppressive relic of British colonialism, the Land Acquisition Act, gives allowance for natural justice by requiring hearing prior to acquisition. But evidently justice is very far from the concerns and desires of India's elite. If our precious democracy depends on this media and on this class - God help us!
I was immediately reminded of the words used to describe the behaviour of the Indian media during Indira Gandhi's Emergency (1975-77):
"They crawled when they had only been asked to bend."
In his book Being Indian, Pavan Varma writes:
"A concern for democracy was, in any case, conspicuously absent in most educated Indians when she imposed the Emergency. There was not even a semblance of credible protest anywhere in the country when almost the entire opposition was put in jail. The bureaucracy quietly accepted the new regimen. The corporate world welcomed it. The most spectacular capitulation was among the so-called guardians of the right of free dissent and free expression — the media. They crawled when they had only been asked to bend, with many top editors assuming the 'traditional Indian posture of respectful subservience (in which) they remained —not looking particularly dignified until the Emergency was over'. A dominant image of that time was a much publicised triptych in oils of Mrs. Gandhi by the colourful artist M.F. Husain, representing her as the goddess Durga triumphantly vanquishing her foes. The poor bore the brunt of the excesses of the Emergency, and ultimately, when elections were called, it was their hostility that defeated Indira. But the significant thing is the extent to which most Indians — poor and rich alike — were willing to quietly acquiesce in the abuse of power when in the first instance it seemed undefeatable ..."
If ever an example was needed to prove the utter ignorance, bankruptcy, and self-centred character of the Indian mainstream media and India's privileged classes - then yesterday's editorial in The Telegraph is it.
In a blog called Caracas Chronicles, I read a post titled "Utterly Spineless, Fantastically Debased, Prostrated, Grovelling, Bootlicking Sycophancy Chronicles". I think its high time someone started chronicling the fetid carcass of Calcutta.
Our valiant knight in shining armour
In a couple of early posts (here and here) I had expressed some hope about the new beginning apparently being attempted by Buddhadev Bhattacharjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal.
Today I can say quite unequivocally that this man is an enemy of the people of West Bengal.
How incredible that by doing nothing, someone can become a hero, a knight in shining armour! Lucky Buddhadev Bhattacharjee! Given all the immense problems of the state, and the degradation and destitution of Bengal wrought by the CPI(M) - he has made a new beginning alright, and is in a terrific hurry too: to abandon public policy; to keep well ensconced the criminal extortionary CPI(M) which controls the state of which he is notionally the CM; to make happy deals with land-sharks, promoters and contractors; and to hand out public assets to capitalists.
Economic growth is all very well. But today, in the beginning of the 21st century, it is ridiculous to pursue growth for growth’s sake, without any consideration whatsoever for the social and environmental consequences, or for poverty eradication. All he is doing is acting as a lap-dog of quick buck makers, while appearing to inaugurate a brave new Bengal where educated middle-class youth will find all the avenues they need for their self-realisation.
Today one is no longer confronted with the question of market economics versus public policy. Today it is market economics for public policy that must be the imperative. But with an utterly bankrupt and corrupt ruling party at the helm, how can one expect anything meaningful or substantive to happen?
The virulence and vehemence with which the local reactionary, supercilious bhadralok elite lauds Buddhadev! How easy it is to hoodwink and hypnotise our cultured class, and make them believe in fairy tales!
How much lower must Bengal sink?
Who will understand the true nature of the socio-economic situation prevailing here? Who will empathise with the despair of the vulnerable? Who will envision and execute a better future, one that is inclusive and achievable?
I was talking to a friend yesterday about the Indian inequality gene: we need to be and feel superior to others, there must be others who are subservient to us and at our feet. Hence the misery of the masses is not really a matter of concern for affluent Indians. Consequently, what the true nature of social reality is - will forever elude India's rich and powerful. Their analysis of problems and their solutions are therefore inevitably fundamentally hollow. And if India's destiny is in their hands, it will be genocidal.
Indian Politics
I reproduce below a very interesting news report from the state of Gujarat in western India. Some explanations: the Bajrang Dal is a Hindu hooligan squad. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP, World Hindu Council) is a fascist body funded by rootless non-resident Indians to spread religious hatred and bigotry and annihilate minorities. These bodies, together with the Hindu brown-shirt brigade known as the RSS and the BJP political party, are collectively known as the Sangh Parivar, i.e. organisation family.
At 19, Nilesh Lohar was a rising saffron star, leading Bajrang Dal assaults on churches and missionary schools in Gujarat’s Dangs district.
It’s partly because of his Muslim neighbours that eight years later, he is full of remorse.
“I wish I hadn’t done what I did. It was a criminal act. I did not realise it then. I was misled,” says the 27-year-old burly six-footer from Vyara, a town near Surat.
Lohar, who had become chief of the Bajrang Dal’s Vyara unit at 16, was the outfit’s Surat president when he was assigned the “mission” to attack Christian institutions in neighbouring Dangs in 1998.
Leading a core group of heavily indoctrinated youths, he put Dangs in international headlines, winning applause from Sangh parivar bigwigs like his mentor Praveen Togadia.
“I used to imitate Togadia (a Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader) so much that I came to be known as ‘Chhote (junior) Togadia’ in south Gujarat,” recalls Lohar, who underwent VHP training in firearms, martial arts and the use of the stone as a weapon.
It all changed with one incident about two years ago, when the Vyara municipality served notice saying Lohar Falia, the slum where Nilesh was born and brought up, was to be demolished to make room for a dental college.
As Lohar was a sangh parivar star, neighbours expected him to use his clout to save their homes. But his meetings with chief minister Narendra Modi and Togadia didn’t follow script.
“I was told they would not like to intervene as a sizeable population in Lohar Falia is Muslim. I was shocked,” Lohar recalls.
He approached rights activists Girish Patel and Mukul Sinha who petitioned the high court and got the demolition stayed.
Lohar resigned from the Bajrang Dal. His defection badly hurt the BJP in the municipal elections last year, annoying the sangh leadership.
“Some of them have threatened me, saying they would implicate me in false cases. Others have been decent and have tried to cajole me. But I told them I do not care any more. I’m my own man now.”
Lohar regrets his role in setting off communal clashes in neighbouring Bardoli town after a Muslim youth married a Hindu girl.
“I had been at the forefront, engineering trouble in the town. But today I feel I was just a pawn in the game.”
Lohar recently joined the Youth Congress as its Surat district vice-president and is tipped to become a state-level office-bearer. He says he feels at home in his new organisation. “The Congress, unlike the sangh parivar, does not discriminate.”
At 19, Nilesh Lohar was a rising saffron star, leading Bajrang Dal assaults on churches and missionary schools in Gujarat’s Dangs district.
It’s partly because of his Muslim neighbours that eight years later, he is full of remorse.
“I wish I hadn’t done what I did. It was a criminal act. I did not realise it then. I was misled,” says the 27-year-old burly six-footer from Vyara, a town near Surat.
Lohar, who had become chief of the Bajrang Dal’s Vyara unit at 16, was the outfit’s Surat president when he was assigned the “mission” to attack Christian institutions in neighbouring Dangs in 1998.
Leading a core group of heavily indoctrinated youths, he put Dangs in international headlines, winning applause from Sangh parivar bigwigs like his mentor Praveen Togadia.
“I used to imitate Togadia (a Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader) so much that I came to be known as ‘Chhote (junior) Togadia’ in south Gujarat,” recalls Lohar, who underwent VHP training in firearms, martial arts and the use of the stone as a weapon.
It all changed with one incident about two years ago, when the Vyara municipality served notice saying Lohar Falia, the slum where Nilesh was born and brought up, was to be demolished to make room for a dental college.
As Lohar was a sangh parivar star, neighbours expected him to use his clout to save their homes. But his meetings with chief minister Narendra Modi and Togadia didn’t follow script.
“I was told they would not like to intervene as a sizeable population in Lohar Falia is Muslim. I was shocked,” Lohar recalls.
He approached rights activists Girish Patel and Mukul Sinha who petitioned the high court and got the demolition stayed.
Lohar resigned from the Bajrang Dal. His defection badly hurt the BJP in the municipal elections last year, annoying the sangh leadership.
“Some of them have threatened me, saying they would implicate me in false cases. Others have been decent and have tried to cajole me. But I told them I do not care any more. I’m my own man now.”
Lohar regrets his role in setting off communal clashes in neighbouring Bardoli town after a Muslim youth married a Hindu girl.
“I had been at the forefront, engineering trouble in the town. But today I feel I was just a pawn in the game.”
Lohar recently joined the Youth Congress as its Surat district vice-president and is tipped to become a state-level office-bearer. He says he feels at home in his new organisation. “The Congress, unlike the sangh parivar, does not discriminate.”
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Wishing you a Merry Christmas!
I remembered hearing (in London, around Christmas 1982) from my friend James Aboud's music collection, Bing Crosby and David Bowie's Christmas Special, featuring "The Little Drummer Boy" and "Peace on Earth". This was recorded in September 1977, a month before Bing Crosby passed away. I just found this on YouTube.
Enjoy!
Thank you James, and thank you YouTube!
"We can create a poverty-free world"
Professor Muhammad Yunus with Grameen Bank
loan holders, mostly women.
Here's an extract from the Nobel Lecture delivered in Oslo on 10 December 2006 by Muhammad Yunus, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006.
The full text of the lecture is available here.
The video version is available here. Professor Yunus starts his Nobel Lecture with a few words in Bangla.
We get what we want, or what we don't refuse. We accept the fact that we will always have poor people around us, and that poverty is part of human destiny. This is precisely why we continue to have poor people around us. If we firmly believe that poverty is unacceptable to us, and that it should not belong to a civilized society, we would have built appropriate institutions and policies to create a poverty-free world.
We wanted to go to the moon, so we went there. We achieve what we want to achieve. If we are not achieving something, it is because we have not put our minds to it. We create what we want.
What we want and how we get to it depends on our mindsets. It is extremely difficult to change mindsets once they are formed. We create the world in accordance with our mindset. We need to invent ways to change our perspective continually and reconfigure our mindset quickly as new knowledge emerges. We can reconfigure our world if we can reconfigure our mindset.
We Can Put Poverty in the Museums
I believe that we can create a poverty-free world because poverty is not created by poor people. It has been created and sustained by the economic and social system that we have designed for ourselves; the institutions and concepts that make up that system; the policies that we pursue.
Poverty is created because we built our theoretical framework on assumptions which under-estimates human capacity, by designing concepts, which are too narrow (such as concept of business, credit-worthiness, entrepreneurship, employment) or developing institutions, which remain half-done (such as financial institutions, where poor are left out). Poverty is caused by the failure at the conceptual level, rather than any lack of capability on the part of people.
I firmly believe that we can create a poverty-free world if we collectively believe in it. In a poverty-free world, the only place you would be able to see poverty is in the poverty museums. When school children take a tour of the poverty museums, they would be horrified to see the misery and indignity that some human beings had to go through. They would blame their forefathers for tolerating this inhuman condition, which existed for so long, for so many people. A human being is born into this world fully equipped not only to take care of him or herself, but also to contribute to enlarging the well being of the world as a whole. Some get the chance to explore their potential to some degree, but many others never get any opportunity, during their lifetime, to unwrap the wonderful gift they were born with. They die unexplored and the world remains deprived of their creativity, and their contribution.
Photo: © Grameen Bank Audio Visual Unit, 2006.
Muslims in Europe
Julaybib has reported on the recently published report Muslims in the European Union: Discrimination and Islamophobia, by the European Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia.
It is very educative to read this in the context of the recently released report of the Sachar Committee on socio-economic and education backwardness of Indian Muslims.
I reproduce below some of the key findings of the report on Europe.
Muslims, like other religious groups, remain inadequately recorded statistically and even demographic data relies often on unofficial estimates that vary, sometimes substantially. More international survey research is therefore essential particularly in order to record attitudes and the extent of Muslims’ victimisation.
Muslims are often victims of negative stereotyping, at times reinforced through negative or selective reporting in the media. In addition, they are vulnerable to manifestations of prejudice and hatred in the form of anything from verbal threats through to physical attacks on people and property.
Many Muslims, particularly young people, face limited opportunities for social advancement, social exclusion and discrimination which could give rise to hopelessness and alienation.
Research and statistical data – mostly ‘proxy’ data, referring to nationality and ethnicity – show that Muslims are often disproportionately represented in areas with poor housing conditions, while their educational achievement falls below average and their unemployment rates are higher than average. Muslims are often employed in jobs that require lower qualifications and as a group they are over-represented in low-paying sectors of the economy.
It is very educative to read this in the context of the recently released report of the Sachar Committee on socio-economic and education backwardness of Indian Muslims.
I reproduce below some of the key findings of the report on Europe.
Muslims, like other religious groups, remain inadequately recorded statistically and even demographic data relies often on unofficial estimates that vary, sometimes substantially. More international survey research is therefore essential particularly in order to record attitudes and the extent of Muslims’ victimisation.
Muslims are often victims of negative stereotyping, at times reinforced through negative or selective reporting in the media. In addition, they are vulnerable to manifestations of prejudice and hatred in the form of anything from verbal threats through to physical attacks on people and property.
Many Muslims, particularly young people, face limited opportunities for social advancement, social exclusion and discrimination which could give rise to hopelessness and alienation.
Research and statistical data – mostly ‘proxy’ data, referring to nationality and ethnicity – show that Muslims are often disproportionately represented in areas with poor housing conditions, while their educational achievement falls below average and their unemployment rates are higher than average. Muslims are often employed in jobs that require lower qualifications and as a group they are over-represented in low-paying sectors of the economy.
Medha Patkar on Singur
Friday, December 22, 2006
Salt
In an early post, I had referred to Mahatma Gandhi’s Dandi March (1930). The great Salt March is an event that shook the British Empire. On the 5th of April 1930, Gandhi wrote in a message:
“I want world sympathy in this battle of Right against might."
I remembered these words this morning, as I concluded my discussion with Eeva Puumala, a student of international relations from Finland. She is in Calcutta, trying to understand the life of migrant workers in the city.
Gandhi’s words would be an apt description for what I have been doing over the last few days. I have been communicating with, meeting, talking to and showing around several visitors to my city (foreign as well as Indian). Some of them also came in contact with me through this blog.
Remembering Mahatma Gandhi’s salt march, also brought to mind the words of Jesus Christ, from the Sermon on the Mount:
"Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men."
In my personal long march against the might of deeply entrenched social and institutional apathy, which I began exactly 10 years ago, I suppose I have been trying to find “my salt”, and also my “community of salt”. In India, there is also a conception of honour and loyalty which is associated with “salt”: to be true to one whose salt one has eaten. So I have also implicitly been trying to be true to the labouring poor of my city.
I briefly saw some images on tv at the time of the carnage in Rwanda in 1994. The world is aware of that. I would like to think something like that will never happen again, that the international community will ensure that. But what you see in Calcutta – is not as dramatic, or sudden. Here there is an ongoing, relentless process of systemic consignment of hundreds of thousands of people, to a life of acute hardship, misery, deprivation. Thousands of poor infants and women die needlessly. So Calcutta is like another kind of Rwanda, one where something terrible happens imperceptibly, as part of normal daily life. And even as the horrific tragedy happens, life goes on, for people in Calcutta and everywhere else in the world.
What I see around me in Calcutta – makes me want to scream, an act of earth-shattering, as well as self-annihilation. I have seen Edvard Munch’s painting, “The Scream”, at the Munch Museum in Oslo (before it was stolen). I can understand and identify with Munch’s image.
Meeting Eeva, reminded me of another visitor to Calcutta, last year: Fritzi, from Germany. Accompanying a post in this blog on Mike Davis' article "Planet of Slums", I had put up an image of Fritzi with a family in Priya Manna Basti, Howrah, bearing a caption taken from Davis' question:
"Can disincorporated labour be reincorporated in a global emancipatory project?"
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Example of transparency
The general secretary of the State Government Employees’ Federation, Mr Partha Chatterjee, sought information, under the Right to Information Act, from the commerce and industry department of the West Bengal state govt, regarding the terms and conditions of the deal between the govt and Tata Motors for the latter’s proposed small car factory at Singur.
Mr Panchanan Banerjee, public information officer of the commerce and industry department, in his reply said there was some information which could not be given to Mr Chatterjee.
Information regarding stamp duty exemption given by the state govt to the Tatas could not be divulged. Nothing could be revealed on the exemption of water tax, VAT and other duties granted to the Tatas. No information was provided on the understanding signed between the state govt and the Tatas either. The state govt declined to say anything on the steps it is going to take against the Tatas if the proposed project gets delayed. The govt was also unable to reveal the exact amount of money which the Tatas had paid to the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation for the land at Singur.
School students for Singur
Singur’s school students have been fighting against forcible acquisition of land since July.
The numerical strength of the Singur Krishi Jomi Raksha Sahayak Chhatra Committee (Farmland Protection Assisting Students’ Committee), affiliated to the Singur Krishi Jomi Raksha Committee (Farmland Protection Committee), has gone up from 35 in July to 600 this month. About 400 girls and 200 boys from schools in the affected villages have joined the Committee, said Prakash Hambir, a Class VI student of Beraberi Suryanarayan Memorial School.
The SKJSCC’s chief advisor, Mr Dipak Singha, said girls from Beraberi Suryanarayan Memorial High School, Daulatpur-Doluigacha School, Gopalnagar Harharia High School and Gopalnagar Kumud Ranjan High School, were all separately organising rallies. Students of the primary schools in the villages too are active, he said.
Bajemelia Dakshinpara’s Tushar Ghosh, a Class VIII student of Beraberi Suryanarayan Memorial High School, said: “We are fighting as our parents’ livelihood is in danger and in spite of our teachers’ stiff resistance.
A Class VIII student of the same school, Mintu Bag, said: “Leaders of the agitation supply us with information about land in the affected villages. We pass it on to those hesitant about joining us.”
Prakash Hambir said: “Some of our teachers told us not to attend rallies as doing so would affect our studies. But how shall we study if we are driven out of our own land?” He added that some teachers went to the extent of saying they wouldn’t be promoted to the next class if they didn’t quit the movement.
Mr Dudhkumar Dhara, a private tutor in Bajemelia Dakshinpara, said: “I teach 53 students belonging to five schools. Some of them say they have been queried by their school teachers about their involvement in the agitation.”
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Clifford Geertz
I learnt from an obituary in today's The Telegraph that Clifford Geetz, the acclaimed American anthropologist and writer has passed away on 30 October 2006, aged 80. Geertz was Professor Emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study, at Princeton, USA.
Through my years of self-education, I had read some of his writings, the last being Works and Lives: The Anthropologist As Author (1988).
I reproduce below an extract from the obituary written by sociologist Andre Beteille.
Geertz was admired as much for the insights he brought to the study of culture as for the quality of his prose. As his writing came to receive increasing attention from authors in a variety of fields, Geertz became interested in what anthropologists do as authors.
Geertz’s style was deceptively simple but it was also artful. Those who were captivated by his prose tended to forget that what is easy to read had often been difficult to write. He was, in fact, a highly disciplined scholar and writer, particularly in the early phase of his professional career when he consolidated his intellectual capital. He has had many imitators, including some in this country, but the imitations almost always lack the discipline and rigour that underlie his elegant prose. The wide literary appeal of Geertz’s later essays has led to the neglect of his earlier ethnographic work. Yet it is the ethnography that provided the basis of his well-deserved reputation as an anthropologist. Geertz was a superb ethnographer.
Geertz began his research at a time when anthropologists studied religion in small, homogeneous and self-contained tribal communities: the Nuer, the Dinka, or the Navaho. It is true that M.N. Srinivas had already made a new departure by undertaking a field study of religion in a community embedded in a larger society. But no matter how complex the traditions of Hinduism, it is a single world religion, and Srinivas did not depart from the prevalent functionalist mode in presenting his findings. Here Geertz broke new ground, at least within his discipline, by pointing out that religion was not only integrative, it could also be deeply divisive.
The Religion of Java, based on his research in Indonesia, is a masterly account of the co-existence and interpenetration of three different religious streams within a single social system. These three streams are described as the abangan, the santri and the prijaji variants. The abangan and the prijaji represent old patterns of life in Java, the former embedded in the animistic practices of peasants and tribesmen and the latter developed through the more elaborate Hinduistic practices of the court and the upper strata. The santri variant derived its beliefs and practices from Islam, and it was the most recent, the most assertive and the most expansionist of the three.
Geertz makes it clear that “the three groups are all enclosed in the same social structure, share many values, and are, in any case, not nearly so definable as social entities as a simple descriptive discussion of their religious practices would indicate.” At the same time, the social structure of the Javanese town of Modjokuto was not free from the strains and tensions of the co-existence of three groups, one of which was clearly expansionist in its orientation. “Antagonism between the three groups is easily enough documented. The strain is clearly the greatest between santris and the other two groups, but significant tension between prijaji and abangan also exists.”
Geertz took great pains to strike a proper balance between the divisive and the integrative roles of religion, keeping always in mind the changes taking place in both religion and society.
Geertz retained his interest in Islam, and later moved to Morocco to study it in a very different social and cultural setting. In 1968, he published Islam Observed, a brief but elegant comparison of Islam in the two countries, underlining with all the skills of an accomplished anthropologist the fact that Islamic beliefs and practices are not all much the same thing wherever you go.
Geertz has been widely and justly acclaimed for advancing our understanding and interpretation of culture. But he has always kept a firm hold on the structure and stratification of the societies whose symbolic systems he has studied.
Read the Wikipedia entry on Clifford Geertz here.
On untouchability
Untouchability in Rural India, by Ghanashyam Shah, Harsh Mander, Sukhadeo Thorat, Satish Deshpande and Amita Baviskar is an important text for the times, particularly in the light of the recent violence involving Dalits.
The introduction sets out the primary concerns in straight, precise terms. The observations are acute: the caste-class correlation has remained remarkably stable, while those between caste and economic status, and caste and occupation have become less rigid or weaker.
The three main dimensions of untouchability — exclusion, humiliation-subordination and exploitation — are covered adequately, often through statistics, although the most recent figures date back to 1999-2000. Updating the statistics might make room for new insights and observations. Extracts from works of fiction and poetry are a bonus for the reader.
A couplet by Chandrashekhar Gokhale goes:
“Outside every village is a small Dalit hamlet
Yet the fourth standard textbook includes a lesson on equality.”
Read Sandip Bandopadhyay's article on caste in West Bengal here.
Sanity on Singur
I reproduce below an extract from today's The Statesman.
The lament that Bengal’s newly acquired reputation as an investment destination will take a beating because of the shut down, or the threat of one, is misplaced only because the state does not deserve to be such a destination until it resolves all issues related to industrialization, including social ones. In order to do so, policy-makers will need to be transparent and inclusive in their approach, not arrogant and high-handed as the Chief Minister and his coterie has been.
The problem with the CPI-M is that it has never sought to engage political opponents and civil society in discussions on the way forward for the state. Mr. Buddhadev Bhattacharjee may well be a focused individual, but he bristles at even well-intentioned criticism. The CPI-M believes that because it won so many seats in the last election, people will accept everything it does and that no one has the right to criticize it. Mr. Bhattacharjee compounds his problems by dubbing all critics as reactionaries and enemies of the people. He is surrounded by sycophants, who privately and in print tell him what a great job he is doing, and then quietly ask him for parcels of land at throwaway prices.
Bengal needs sage minds to resolve the many issues that are linked to Singur; to attempt to wish them away with a lament that Bengalis have a death wish when it comes to matters linked with industrial progress, as at least one apologist for the establishment has done, is farcical.
It is not perhaps too late yet for Singur, or indeed to address questions relating to land-use in a mature, sensible fashion. This issue is not about individuals ~ not even bull-headed ones like Mr. Bhattacharjee and Miss Banerjee. It is about prescriptions for growth and progress that must be palatable to the people of the state.
The lament that Bengal’s newly acquired reputation as an investment destination will take a beating because of the shut down, or the threat of one, is misplaced only because the state does not deserve to be such a destination until it resolves all issues related to industrialization, including social ones. In order to do so, policy-makers will need to be transparent and inclusive in their approach, not arrogant and high-handed as the Chief Minister and his coterie has been.
The problem with the CPI-M is that it has never sought to engage political opponents and civil society in discussions on the way forward for the state. Mr. Buddhadev Bhattacharjee may well be a focused individual, but he bristles at even well-intentioned criticism. The CPI-M believes that because it won so many seats in the last election, people will accept everything it does and that no one has the right to criticize it. Mr. Bhattacharjee compounds his problems by dubbing all critics as reactionaries and enemies of the people. He is surrounded by sycophants, who privately and in print tell him what a great job he is doing, and then quietly ask him for parcels of land at throwaway prices.
Bengal needs sage minds to resolve the many issues that are linked to Singur; to attempt to wish them away with a lament that Bengalis have a death wish when it comes to matters linked with industrial progress, as at least one apologist for the establishment has done, is farcical.
It is not perhaps too late yet for Singur, or indeed to address questions relating to land-use in a mature, sensible fashion. This issue is not about individuals ~ not even bull-headed ones like Mr. Bhattacharjee and Miss Banerjee. It is about prescriptions for growth and progress that must be palatable to the people of the state.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Ills of stress
According to a new study, stress can have repercussions later in life in the form of chronic fatigue. People who considered their lives to be stressful at the start of the 1970s today suffer more often from chronic fatigue than others.
Chronic fatigue is a condition characterised by long-lasting and abnormal exhaustion, often accompanied by concentration impairment, mood swings, insomnia and pain in the muscles and joints. Despite extensive research, no root causes have been identified; all that scientists know so far is that it seems to appear across all ages and social classes in many different countries.
A research group from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden has now been able to show that one of the direct causes of chronic fatigue is stress. Using the results from a health survey conducted among almost 20,000 twins from the Swedish Twin registry in 1973 and of a repeat survey of the same population in 1998 (which contained questions about chronic fatigue), the researchers found that the group who claimed to have stressful lives 25 years previously, ran a 65% greater chance of developing chronic fatigue than those who did not.
Meanwhile, senior gynaecologists and members of Bengal Obstetric and Gynaecological Society have observed that with the rapid change in lifestyle in the urban areas of the state, and particularly in Calcutta, and consequent excessive stress, infertility among men was increasing at a pretty fast rate. Infertility is now a problem for both women and men.
Bengal lags behind
Though the West Bengal health department paints a rosy picture of the reproductive and child health scenario in the state, doctors in the Bengal Obstetric and Gynaecological Society feel that the state is “lagging far behind the developed states like Kerala” in indicators like birth rate, infant mortality rate, female literacy rate and mean age of marriage among girls.
Dr Gita Ganguly Mukherjee, former head of the Obstetric and Gynaecology department at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, said West Bengal was still lagging behind in all aspects of reproductive and child health in comparison with developed states like Kerela.
In maternal mortality rate, the state fared better than only some of the backward states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. 40% childbirths are unsafe in the rural areas of the state as people there are unable to access medial institutions. In the urban areas, 10% of childbirths take place without the help of trained nurses, which is a major cause of the high maternal mortality rate. Lesser number of institutional deliveries, mental stigma attached to the use of contraceptives ~ both in rural and urban areas ~ coupled with unsafe abortion have sent the maternal death rate soaring. Almost 70% of rural women and 76% of urban women do not use contraceptives, leading to unwanted pregnancy. A large number of these women face fatal consequences when they go for illegal abortion.
Read about India's distinction in murdering 10 million female infants in the last 2 decades here.
Dr Gita Ganguly Mukherjee, former head of the Obstetric and Gynaecology department at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, said West Bengal was still lagging behind in all aspects of reproductive and child health in comparison with developed states like Kerela.
In maternal mortality rate, the state fared better than only some of the backward states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. 40% childbirths are unsafe in the rural areas of the state as people there are unable to access medial institutions. In the urban areas, 10% of childbirths take place without the help of trained nurses, which is a major cause of the high maternal mortality rate. Lesser number of institutional deliveries, mental stigma attached to the use of contraceptives ~ both in rural and urban areas ~ coupled with unsafe abortion have sent the maternal death rate soaring. Almost 70% of rural women and 76% of urban women do not use contraceptives, leading to unwanted pregnancy. A large number of these women face fatal consequences when they go for illegal abortion.
Read about India's distinction in murdering 10 million female infants in the last 2 decades here.
Contraception and birth control
A vast section of India's population does not practice any form of birth control or contraception. Hence the high birth rate in the country.
Birth control in India, where practiced, is still predominantly and overwhelmingly female-based (i.e. intra-uterine devices & pills) and terminal means-based (i.e. either abortion or ligation).
Bringing about male responsibility and contraception among the poor and low-income is one of the most acute challenges.
Change in this scenario, in terms of enabling reproductive health choices of women, improving family welfare, greater responsibility taking by men - cannot come by fiat. It will be achieved by reaching out to the people, and especially the women, in their micro-environments. Where this has been done, positive improvements have followed. The most celebrated example is of course Kerala.
In poor and low-income environments, one can see dramatic change in reproductive behaviour within one generation - when the woman is question enjoys education.
Literacy, education, social, health and reproductive health awareness, vocational skills and livelihood opportunities for women - it is in this nexus that it is strategically most important to intervene. And the most crucial group to focus on - are adolescent girls.
Similarly, in order to change the behaviour of males, it is vital to reach out to them when they are children, when they are teenagers, and thus plant seeds in them of a different being.
This will have a transformative impact on the society.
In this context, it is pertinent to point to the impressive performance of Bangladesh. Successive UNDP Human Development Reports, assessments by the World Bank, and scholars such as Jean Dreze, all corroborate the general trend that Bangladesh is outperforming India as a whole and West Bengal in particular, in a whole range of social indicators in health, education and gender equality.
Its a shame that all the talk of "Bengal's revival" by Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee and the obsequious media - does not dwell on such things.
So, looking at the future of South Asia - it is Bangladesh one should bet on.
Birth control in India, where practiced, is still predominantly and overwhelmingly female-based (i.e. intra-uterine devices & pills) and terminal means-based (i.e. either abortion or ligation).
Bringing about male responsibility and contraception among the poor and low-income is one of the most acute challenges.
Change in this scenario, in terms of enabling reproductive health choices of women, improving family welfare, greater responsibility taking by men - cannot come by fiat. It will be achieved by reaching out to the people, and especially the women, in their micro-environments. Where this has been done, positive improvements have followed. The most celebrated example is of course Kerala.
In poor and low-income environments, one can see dramatic change in reproductive behaviour within one generation - when the woman is question enjoys education.
Literacy, education, social, health and reproductive health awareness, vocational skills and livelihood opportunities for women - it is in this nexus that it is strategically most important to intervene. And the most crucial group to focus on - are adolescent girls.
Similarly, in order to change the behaviour of males, it is vital to reach out to them when they are children, when they are teenagers, and thus plant seeds in them of a different being.
This will have a transformative impact on the society.
In this context, it is pertinent to point to the impressive performance of Bangladesh. Successive UNDP Human Development Reports, assessments by the World Bank, and scholars such as Jean Dreze, all corroborate the general trend that Bangladesh is outperforming India as a whole and West Bengal in particular, in a whole range of social indicators in health, education and gender equality.
Its a shame that all the talk of "Bengal's revival" by Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee and the obsequious media - does not dwell on such things.
So, looking at the future of South Asia - it is Bangladesh one should bet on.
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