| The voice that rebelled |
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Listening to Paul Robeson’s rare recordings of two very special concerts, during a recent visit to the US, was an emotional experience for us. The first concert was at the AME Zion Church in New York on June 1, 1958. It was also his last concert in the US before his passport was restored to him, after nine years of legal struggle and official attempts to erase his singing career. The second... |
| Single? Not ready to mingle |
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Anuradha Sengupta in Kolkata and Kiran in Ankleswar are two among the thousands of single women—with or without children, divorced or unmarried—who face rage, hatred and threats of violence on a daily basis from decent, educated middle class people like us. A letter sent to a friend by Anuradha came to me and the horror of it struck me like a bolt. A journalist with a 13-year-old son,... |
| Sepoys in Flanders |
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A photo from the time of World War I shows a pair of wounded, bandaged Indian soldiers advancing on crutches along the cobbled streets of Ypres, the Belgian city that was at the heart of some of the worst fighting of that terrible conflict. Last week, I watched a party of workers replacing cobbles on the same roads, a little way up from the Menin Gate, the enormous stone memorial to the British... |
| Jai Bhim! |
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Considering I seldom watch the telly, it was strange for me to go for a launch of the 829th channel. Long way to go before it can compete with the 828 that already exist. But here was a young team wanting to make a small difference in the lives of the people of Vidarbha, to start with, then all of Maharashtra and, finally, if it survived the test of time, to those of the entire nation. Awaaz... |
| Remarkable life, remarkable times |
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The remarkable life and times of Dr Vinayan have been brought to life in a publication Vinayan: Jeevan, Vichar, Sangharsh brought out by Govind Prasad Sharma and his colleagues on his fifth death anniversary on behalf of the trust created to commemorate the late doctor. The slim collection features some of Vinayan’s own writings—essays, letters, poems, interviews, accounts of his life... |
| Talking into hearts |
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She was a striking 78-year-old, toothless but with a merry grin and a hearty laugh, the sarpanch of a cluster of villages in Sabarkantha, Gujarat. We were at a wrap-up meeting of a seven-year project in a hundred villages in this tribal area, to empower women to control their reproductive health. The project, called Parivartan, involved a group of villagers auditioned as performers and trained... |
| Calcutta chromosome |
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There was a Twitter battle about Subhas Chandra Bose last week. The rumble began when I quoted the late Bengali polymath Nirad C. Chaudhuri, who said the glorification of Bose stemmed from “the emotional compulsion for the Bengali middle class to believe that through Subhas Bose they played a decisive role in gaining political independence for India.” Chaudhuri, an old-style... |
| Who are they? |
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They say if your ears and feet are covered, you will never catch a cold. They say this year will see the hottest summer ever. They say it is good luck if the crow shits on your head....You probably have heard all of these and many more. For a long time now, I have wondered who really consists of the constituency called ‘they’. Not just grandmothers and wise old men, but it seems... |
| Killer in a cement plant |
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Recent industrial accidents in the cement industry in Chhattisgarh should force us to look at the way rapid industrialisation is proceeding in total disregard of the safety of workers or democratic governance.The most recent accident occurred on January 31 at the Ambuja-Holcim cement plant near Raipur. Five workers were killed when the fly ash hopper situated on the fifth floor collapsed and... |
| Super-special underbelly |
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In the last four months, my colleagues and I at our institution, Darpana, have had a series of rude shocks. In late December we were in the midst of hectic and long rehearsals for our annual international arts festival, InterArt. One day at 4 a.m. we got a call. Our lead dancer and choreographer, Pappan, who had gone home around midnight, had suffered a brain haemorrhage and needed surgery... |
| Envoys to the Indian court |
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Like many a finance minister with an election looming, P. Chidambaram made some optimistic projections in his recent Budget. To attract voters of 2014 in advance, he promised to spend a lot of money on education and public health care, start a bank for the empowerment of women, and cut the fiscal deficit—all at the same time. For this eye-catching plan to succeed, GDP will need to grow... |
| Hang death penalty |
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There are only a few things for which I am willing to be pushed to taking definitive sides—for or against. Not because I do not have strong views, which I do on most matters, but because I feel even more strongly that real inquiry is not in defending one’s position, but in exploring beyond. Today, I want to share one such debate and I know which side I am on. I am surely and squarely... |
| Uniform tyranny |
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The Justice Verma Commission’s recommendations on the safety of women in areas of armed conflict have generated the worst controversy. Not only has the government of India not incorporated these in the Criminal Law Ordinance, 2013 on Sexual Assault, but members of the security establishment have made virulent attacks on the recommendations. A senior officer is reported to have indicated... |
| Kindness of strangers
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Tucked away near Kozhikode is the tiny village of Cherukulathoor. From the look of it, it is indistinguishable from any other similar-sized village in Kerala. Pucca houses, streets bustling with (mostly) men, traffic on narrow streets. But everything about this village is, in fact, unique.It was in the early 80s that two men named R. Velayudhan and P.T. Balakrishnan were in charge of the library... |
| The court of public opinion |
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In the great Japanese director Akira Kurosawa’s film Rashomon, four characters have differing recollections of the same event. Did the samurai stab himself with his wife’s dagger? Which of them, if any, is telling the truth?I felt like this after the session at last month’s Jaipur Literature Festival during which Ashis Nandy said, among other odd things, “It is a fact that... |
| Celebrating love |
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Love is an overused word and an under-lived experience. In a recent interview, a journalist asked me what love meant to me... in one word. How could I replace one word with another and yet mean the same! I remember reading a cheesy line during college, “love is what the lover makes you feel about yourself”. But it rings true! The other exists to reflect that emotion, to be the mirror,... |
| Our sons, our brutes |
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The televised images of the Babri Masjid demolition, the manic glee on the faces of the karsevaks, Uma Bharti and L.K. Advani, among many others, haunted me for many months. As an artiste I felt the need to do something, to start a debate about such violence and the pleasure it seemed to give people, about the breakdown of discussion spaces where a debate could take place. These events were... |
| Educate men, not women |
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I spent my first 20 years almost exclusively in rural England. Since then, I have had the opportunity to see countries and cultures utterly unlike the one in which I was raised, which has been one of the great privileges of my life.When I first came to India, it struck me how strong the women were—strong in that they needed to be resilient in order to survive in Indian society, and strong... |
| From another daughter |
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For the past 20 days, I was at a place that was quiet, green and secluded and with idealistic and environmentally and spiritually-conscious intentions—Auroville. Having no TV, poor network connectivity and isolation from the outside world was a bliss. Then, on December 16, calls and SMSes came pouring in from television channels to comment on the heinous crime. I thought to myself, one more... |
| Empowering villages |
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This year marked the 20th anniversary of the passing of the 73rd and 74th amendments to the Constitution, which brought about major institutional changes in the structures of rural and urban local self governance in India. The occasion was celebrated on December 22 at many places across the country, and we were fortunate to have been able to participate in the events organised by the Institute of... |
| The poor, and the poorer stats |
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Government poverty reduction measures in India are usually controversial. Everyone seems to have strong opinions about them, often based on what programmes they have personally seen to be either effective or ineffective. Speaking to people in Tamil Nadu about NREGA, I heard good things. But in Punjab, there was only negative comment.The debate about the role of government is becoming more intense... |
| At my own peril |
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On several occasions, in any given month, I want to write out of shock, anger, helplessness or even awe, but invariably life is too cluttered to do things that can wait for the monthly deadline. And then when I must, it seems all that I wanted to share has been said and also by then my impulses get tempered. Yet last November was different, as it marked the death of two individuals that left much... |
| The parallel force |
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A volume of Ashoka Gupta’s selected writings, titled A Fighting Spirit (Niyogi Books), was released recently in Kolkata and Delhi. The events were occasions to remember the fullness of her life as well as to bear witness of an eventful era. Most importantly, they served to acquaint the younger generation, which is perhaps not fully aware of the range and depth of her activities, with the... |
| Memories, recycled |
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I received an extraordinary email from the UK from a couple called William and Philippa Holland. Here is their story.About 25 years ago, William was fond of visiting junk shops. The merchandise here comes from the homes of deceased people with no inheritors.... |
| Bonding with Beijing |
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War can look different in retrospect. If the US-led army that entered Iraq in 2003 had found a massive nuclear or chemical arsenal hidden by Saddam Hussein, it is safe to say that the invasion might be viewed now as a necessary evil. Instead—because the much-heralded weapons of mass destruction turned out not to exist—it is often seen, even in countries that backed the attack, as a... |
| Itching to shake a leg |
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This holiday season was an overdose of consumerism, traffic congestion and pollution of all kinds; water in particular, given the many immersions. I don’t intend to offend anybody’s religious sentiments or question the immersion of non-biodegradable deities or rant about the onslaught on our eardrums. What I want to share is an image that hasn’t left me since the time I saw it.... |
| Saluting a warrior |
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Last month, Mumbai mourned filmmaker Yash Chopra’s death from the deadly dengue. It seemed such an impossible end for someone who dreamed life on such a large canvas. Few people’s attention turned to the fact that another well-known Mumbaikar, Simpreet Singh, was battling for life following a severe attack of dengue and the ensuing hepatitis in a hospital in Navi... |
| Who cares for activists? |
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I myself am facing all sorts of serious but false criminal charges for dacoity, loot, attempt to murder, kidnapping, criminal trespassing and so on. I am implicated in all sorts of criminal offences, except rape. When the issue was presented in the High Court of Madhya Pradesh, the honourable Chief Justice could not stop smiling. The question is not whether I will be acquitted in all these cases,... |
| Hiding in plain sight |
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Once upon a time, wars were fought between rival armies. These days, in the age of asymmetrical warfare, it can be hard to know who your enemy is or what his aims might be. When the 26/11 attacks were launched in Mumbai in 2008, some commentators decided (in the absence of any clear statement by the militants) they were revenge for the US and Israeli foreign policy and the Indian... |
| Is blood always thicker than water? |
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As a little girl, I remember when I got into a playful brawl with a friend and ran to my father for sympathy, often I got a gentle scolding and my opponent a gentle apology. If that weren't the norm, I would not have felt bad then, and would not have remembered it now. As a child I often felt that my friends were fortunate to have more caring parents who took their side and made them feel... |
| The mirage of justice |
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A wave of government-sponsored illegality, directed at suppressing people’s voices and protests, is washing over the nation. To enable the latest phase of expropriation of resources, a new authoritarianism—what the Supreme Court called “Tax breaks for the rich and guns for the poor”—is active across the land. Combined with this is the targeting of identities and... |
| What’s your water footprint? |
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I had never heard anyone speak of virtual water before, and when architect Sanjay Prakash mentioned it at an Auroville conference last week, my mind jumped to mirages. I couldn’t have been further off the mark.Many of us today (or I certainly hope so) are aware of the world’s water crisis, and try in some way to economise water. I for one give dirty looks to people who waste water,... |
| A touching gesture |
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One Indian tradition that does not translate easily across cultures is the practice of touching feet. A little while back I was at a conference in Delhi with delegates from Europe, the United States and India. One of the Americans, who was on his first trip to South Asia, was unnerved by the degree of deference being shown by the hotel staff to the guests. “It’s how things are... |
| A relationship on trial |
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I always knew that I would do a project on gender equality, but didn’t think it would be a play about people like ‘us’. While I have been exposed to theatre from an early age, I have neither watched many plays, nor am I knowledgeable enough to take the plunge. But maybe this naivety and ignorance will free me from the medium’s grammar and its boundaries. I find it... |
| Justice delayed, but not denied |
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The judgment in the Naroda Patiya case has come a full 10 years after the events of February 28, 2002, that brutalised and claimed the lives of hundreds of men, women and children. The violent attack on the Muslim population of Naroda Patiya was led by the leaders of the Hindutva brigade and politicians of the ruling party in Gujarat, many of whom have been convicted and sentenced to harsh prison... |
| The power of imaginative sensitisation |
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SEVEN. Not the number but the play, the production, the experiment. It is the documentary drama created by American women playwrights to highlight violence against women across the world, by taking real life fighters and their lives. I first saw it at a women’s conference in Deauville, France, a few years ago, where many Indian women had been shepherded by the Alliance Française in... |
| Dynasty and the Deshmukhs |
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In traditional societies where the monarch is absolute, the ruler’s death is marked by the cry: “The King is dead. Long live the King.” The message is that sovereignty has transferred instantly between generations and the stability of the governing power has not been interrupted. As a concept, it is as far as you can get from democracy, where the retirement or passing away of a... |
| A noble identity |
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August is the month when our national pride wakes up. The usual analysis and reflections on the year gone by also briefly occupy public discourse. But today I am tempted to question the very relevance of nationalism as a noble identity. This ‘ism’ seems to be the most legitimised form of narrowness. Its significance further diminishes in times when we are forming all kinds of global... |
| On the rights path |
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The Black Portraits is a unique human rights project and is still in the process of being put in place by its creator, British artist Paul Piercy. When completed, it will be a travelling exhibition of 20 large oil paintings of human rights defenders, who have faced persecution for their work in their own contexts. Their heads, in the final portrait, are in black impasto, while their contexts are... |
| Cat with a nose ring |
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It happened yet again. I was speaking at an event, and as the main speaker, was invited to light a lamp. They were conscious enough to call it by its proper southern name, vilakku. And then a series of dignitaries proceeded to “light the lamp of knowledge” with their shoes on. The lighting of the lamp is a ritual from Hindu shastras. Do we wear shoes in our pujas, however modern we... |
| The great Indian slap |
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Christos Tsiolkas’s novel The Slap revolves around the question of how an adult should react to the misbehaviour of a very annoying child. When a father witnesses his son being bullied at a family barbecue in Australia, he slaps the offending boy—only to find himself in trouble with the law. Like The Help—a redemptive novel about the mistreatment of African-American servants by... |
| The elevator story |
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Elevators have always been an amusing space for me to observe how people react to each other. The forced silence, the smile that comes and goes abruptly, and the looks people give each other, often from the corner of their eyes, are all too interesting to miss. They are basically checking each other out!It is not a long trip, just a few floors up or down and yet so telling. I have often noticed... |
| From torture to target practice |
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We recently observed the 37th anniversary of the Emergency. June 26, the day on which the people of India lost their basic freedom as citizens, was also the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture—an unhappy coincidence! The day was marked this year by several meetings, including one in Delhi in which Justice A.P. Shah appeared before a select committee in the Rajya Sabha to help... |
| A concern for the common good |
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His was a privileged childhood in Switzerland, a wealthy one. After a good education he joined his father’s business and was sailing through life. Four children and a bad marriage brought angst and sadness, but life was generally good. Till one day in 1991. There was an attack on his home. He was kidnapped. He thought he knew who the kidnappers were—business rivals. He was thrown into... |
| What other people are thinking? |
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It is sometimes claimed by righteous folk in India that people who have migrated to rich countries are bigoted. Social theorist Ashis Nandy has written that, “Among NRIs in the First World, I shall not be surprised if some survey finds that the support base of Hindu nationalism is more than 90 per cent.” In Martha Nussbaum’s view, the anti-Muslim pogroms in Gujarat in 2002 were encouraged from... |
| Browsing life with gadgets |
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Seeing a small child, as small as a two-year-old, playing with a cell phone or an iPad is no longer a rarity. Sensing my anxiety, a friend explained, “We are immigrant ‘gadgeteers’, while the children are the natives!” I wonder if I am being an old romantic when I feel they ought to be turning pages of a book, or playing with toys or better still playing outdoors in the... |
| It's time for Africa! |
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It is 1991 and we are in South Africa. President Frederik Willem de Klerk has recently let Nelson Mandela out of jail after 27 years, and has declared that a passing of power from white to black hands is on the cards. Many political parties have come into the open, some married to violence (One Settler One Bullet is the slogan of the Pan Africanist Congress), most determined to negotiate a... |
| Turning people into statues |
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When I first studied the history of India’s freedom movement, I found Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar a baffling figure. He didn’t seem to fit alongside leaders whose agenda was more obvious, like Gandhi, Patel or Nehru. It was only more recently, after reading his writings, that I came to see him as one of the greatest political and social reformers of the last century. He broke new ground for a community... |
| Our juggling act |
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Motherhood has changed many things in my life and me. One of the less significant but amusing things is the kind of questions I get asked these days. “Will you get back to acting?” “How will you juggle between mothering and work?” Simple answers—“Yes, I will get back to acting, and I will juggle like all jugglers, I mean, all women!” Despite often feeling... |
| For a healthy system |
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One of the most distressing features of poverty and inequity in India is the inability of the vast majority of the people to easily access appropriate, accountable and adequate health care. Instead, the so-called ‘catastrophic health expenditure'—unexpected major illness and its attendant costs—is the most common cause of impoverishment of families across the country. The... |
| Art for diplomacy |
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Over the years, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations has sent me to many countries to perform. Unlike professional engagements, where a festival or an impresario contracts you for x number of shows over x length of time in xx theatres, the ICCR tours usually put you directly in the hands of Indian ambassadors in various countries, who then use you as best they think, besides having certain... |
| Father, son and unholy politics |
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After the 2009 general election, I became interested in the social make-up of the Lok Sabha: most of the new MPs seemed to be the children of existing politicians, and not just from the big-name families. When I did a survey to discover how each of the 545 MPs had entered Parliament, the results were remarkable. The headline results showed that two-thirds of MPs under the age of 40 already had a... |
| Stories beyond fiction |
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Sadly for many Indians, a documentary means a boring, slow film that is meant to teach you something you don’t really want to learn. Probably, the association goes back to the memory of the documentaries one was forced to watch before a feature film in a theatre. Once when a perception is formed, it is tough to wipe the slate clean to form a new one. This is despite the fact that... |
| Gladson’s burden |
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Gladson is an Adivasi living in the war-torn Jharkhand. When he was a year old, his family—farmers owning 20 acres of fertile land—became homeless. Their ancestral land disappeared when a dam was built on the Chinda river. As compensation, the family was paid ∃11,000. When their neighbours and they protested they were sent to Hazaribagh Jail. Could a family of six ensure food,... |
| Call of the wild. |
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Our friend M.A. Iqbal passed away at his village home at Asna near Jagdalpur on March 27. With his passing, one of the last members of a vanishing breed who loved the tribal way of life so much that they wanted to adopt it, faded into history.Iqbal’s was a long journey from a conservative Muslim family in Nagpur, through college there, working in the Indian Audit and Accounts Service, to... |
| We need big ideas |
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I remember being in England when The Big Issue magazine made its debut. One morning, walking to the Tube, I passed several, somewhat scruffy individuals trying to sell a tabloid. I stopped at the third. I asked whether it was a new launch. Yes, said the elderly man, and it was to help the homeless. My curiosity piqued, I asked him what he meant and he asked me to buy the first issue to... |
| Daddy with mates |
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So this is it, then. My last Last Word. I have been writing it since 2003, which is long enough for anyone—you, me and my patient editors.I started writing a column for THE WEEK back in 1996, after working in Kerala for six months. We had fallen in love with south India and wanted a bond, a way of staying in touch with a part of the world that was unlike any other place we knew. This... |
| A journey worth taking |
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What is it that most human beings want in life? Happiness. Peace of mind. However, when asked, most are likely to name intermediate steps to the ultimate goal of happiness, steps to the summit, mistaking the steps for the summit. Money, a new car, getting children admitted to prestigious schools, health, a new dress or suit, a fancy home…. But if pushed, if asked, “What next? What... |
| Ending up in India |
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Last week, at 11.15 a.m., I settled down in an empty cinema to watch a film with my wife. We felt like naughty schoolchildren bunking off school. Ah, the joys of finishing a book. When you have been tied to your desk for the past year, writing in solitary confinement, it is nice to get out and do something that normal office workers can’t do. I thought we would celebrate with a daytime trip... |
| Embracing Kabir |
| Since the 27th of February, 10 years ago, Gujarat’s divide on religious lines has deepened like never before. My cathartic response to the madness was my directorial debut film Firaaq, which explored relationships after the obvious violence was over but anger, prejudice and fear lingered on. I refrained from pointing fingers and tried to evoke empathy for the victims of such hatred. I... |
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Columns 
The brouhaha over the Supreme Court description of the CBI as a “caged parrot” has led to the formation of a group of ministers to consider granting autonomy to the agency. The GoM, led by Finance Minister ... 