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Politics over Bhullar
Governance on merit |
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The callous Indian
Decoding Pyongyang and Seoul
In the name of Ahmed Shah
Fusion of tangible heritage with the intangible
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Politics over Bhullar
It
is perfectly legitimate for the family members and supporters of Devinder Pal Singh Bhullar to explore all options available under the law to secure the commutation of his death sentence. A second mercy petition is being moved to the President. The government has announced a medical examination of Bhullar. All this is acceptable. What is not acceptable is the Chief Minister of Punjab playing politics over a legal battle between the State and a convicted terrorist. A backlash or a threat to law and order from a hanging is no excuse to stop it. Even if Bhullar gets relief on merit during the legal process, and there may be valid reasons for it, the inescapable conclusion would be the Home Ministry acted on the pleadings of Parkash Singh Badal and that the executive could be influenced to scuttle the judicial process. Badal's efforts could earn him and his party the goodwill or votes of a section of society, but it has exposed the head of government to the charge of appeasing convicted terrorists. He has already landed himself in an embarrassing situation. On the one hand, his government is defending police officers facing trial for excesses committed during the days of militancy; on the other, it is rushing to the rescue of terrorists. The affidavit filed by the Badal government in the Supreme Court in defence of DGP Sumedh Singh Saini, targeting Bhullar in particular, exposes Badal's double standards. The Chief Minister cannot run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. The BJP is a strong votary of death sentence for terrorists. But to stay in power in Punjab, it keeps either silent or offers a muted response when the state Chief Minister and Home Minister take up terrorists' cause. The state Congress is ambivalent even though Bhullar's target was its then Youth Congress chief. Public opinion against death penalty is growing in India and much of the civilised world. However, politicians seeking clemency for death row convicts in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Tamil Nadu have seldom seriously raised the issue of abolishing capital punishment in Parliament.
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Governance on merit
Himachal Pradesh
Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh has nixed all proposals of creating new districts in the state, a demand that was gaining currency especially during the latter part of the previous government headed by the BJP. On the face of it, it may seem a political decision aimed at snubbing the opposition party, but the fact is the move for new districts was also political. It suited certain leaders in Kangra to have their little territories declared districts. It is often such grounds that determine major administrative decisions that end up being non-productive liabilities. Yet in the early part of its tenure, the Congress can afford to take decisions based on merit, a luxury parties cannot afford when close to Assembly elections. Creation of a new district means the huge additional burden of creating an entire administrative set-up, Deputy Commissioner down. Often, police districts are also created. This would be justified if the population of a district had grown to an extent where it was beginning to affect the quality of administration. Kangra is indeed the district with the highest population in the state, but when compared to districts in non-hill states, it is not much. What requires smaller districts in hills is the fact that physical travel and communication is difficult. On that count, Kangra in area is much smaller than many other districts, and is relatively better developed. The size of the government in Himachal is already more than the small state can afford. Increasing liability on account of employees will only add to the salary bill, which already outstrips the state’s own revenues. Employees can do good for the people only if the government also has resources to spend on development projects and public services. Large-scale government employment may seem a benefit for the masses, but it is actually the least productive, and thus will end up making the state economy unsustainable in the long run. What Himachal has to focus on is quality education to make use of its large young population, which needs to be able to find high-paying jobs outside the state too.
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The callous Indian
The
national outrage over the brutal gangrape in Delhi made many of us believe that India had finally found a conscience and a heart that beats and bleeds for those in distress. However, before one could rejoice over our new-found sensitivity and concern for others, here comes a cruel reminder of deeply ingrained public apathy. The Jaipur incident in which an accident victim kept begging for help for his family after his vehicle was hit by a truck is a glaring and shameful example of our insular and uncaring mindset. Shirking it off as just another isolated incident would be ignoring a gnawing reality we all are familiar with and perhaps guilty of. As a society we are in throes of rapid transformation. Urbanisation has also led to a growing sense of alienation and distancing of the self from the other. The fact that none of the car owners cared to stop by to help out the man and his family, two of whose members died, and that ultimately only a staffer of the call booth alerted the police may not indict the entire middle class. It can’t be said with certainty that the lives of the victim’s wife and daughter could have been saved. Yet it can’t be denied that when it comes to the crunch, more often than not, the middle class turns a blind eye to the plight of others. However, it’s not as if all is lost. Be it the Jessica Lal case, the Nirbhaya incident or the Anna movement, the power of the middle class has come to the fore on several occasions. Only instead of galvanising into action every now and then the average Indian needs to look within. According to well-known sociologist Andre Beteille, the Indian middle class has played a leading role in the modernisation of Indian society. It’s about time it came on to the forefront in stirring the nation’s consciousness as well. As responsible citizens of this country, those of us who clamour for change need to remember that it begins with ‘I’ and not always by leading or participating in mass movements. In small but significant ways, each one of us can help make India a much better place to live in.
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If there is no struggle, there is no progress. —Frederick Douglass
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Decoding Pyongyang and Seoul North Korea’s brandishing of its nuclear deterrent over the last few weeks to consolidate Kim Il Un’s ascent to power in Pyongyang was bound to generate a violent reaction in South Korea. Seoul lies just 40 km south of the demilitarised zone dividing the two Koreas --- it also has an alliance relationship with the United States since the end of the Korean War in 1953, which has been anathema to the Kim dynasty. There is method in Pyongyang’s madness in flourishing its nuclear deterrent. It was one of the earliest objects of nuclear terror by the United States. This occurred during the Korean War (1950-53), when China had forced the American forces to retreat after reaching the Yalu river. At that juncture, President Truman addressed a Press conference on November 30, 1950, declaring that nuclear weapons had "always been (under) active consideration" with the control delegated to the local military commander. And to supplement words with actions, a planning exercise was held in Japan to launch a nuclear strike against North Korea in the event of certain scenarios unfolding. In 1951, nuclear weapons were assembled at Kadena air base for use in Korea that only required mating with their nuclear cores. US B-29 bombers then undertook bombing runs over North Korea armed with dummy nuclear warheads. These exercises simulated the activities involved in a nuclear attack like weapons assembly, loading onto aircraft, and ground control of air sorties. It is not surprising, therefore, that Pyongyang went berserk over the US over flights by B-52 and B-2 bombers over the Korean peninsula since they evoked memories of past intimidation. The action-reaction phenomenon has manifested itself starkly after Pyongyang exploded its third nuclear device in February this year. It is commonly believed that the recently anointed Kim Jong Un upped the ante to consolidate himself in power by stoking the North Korean paranoia against South Korea, Japan and the United States. China is the only country that claims to have some influence over Pyongyang, largely by providing food aid and economic largesse to North Korea that have blunted the sanctions imposed upon it by the international community. Beijing seems tired now of Jong Un’s intransigence, and has supported the latest international sanctions imposed on Pyongyang to punish it for conducting missile and nuclear weapon tests in defiance of express UN resolutions. But any deal to defuse this egregious situation will require Beijing’s intercession and a face-saving formula to help Kim Jong Un to get off the tiger he has mounted. In this surcharged atmosphere, an influential South Korean leader, M.J. Chung, seven-term member of the National Assembly, has advised that Seoul should “follow the India-Pakistan example or the case of Israel. Facing an extraordinary threat to national security, South Korea may exercise the right to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as stipulated in Article 10 of the treaty (NPT). South Korea would then match North Korea’s nuclear progress step by step while committing to stop if North Korea stops.” Such a proposal would have claimed attention at any time, but it stirred a huge debate with North Korea’s shenanigans hogging the headlines. More so, since Chung’s proposal was made in Washington during the annual conference of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, which is attended by media persons, scholars and practitioners from across the world. Ironically, the over-arching theme of these conferences is nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. Hence advancing the cause of proliferation by South Korea and its entry into the Nuclear Club was bound to stir controversy. And Chung was not disappointed. For good measure he had also suggested that the US should redeploy its tactical nuclear weapons and conventional forces in South Korea. The attack on him in the conference was from several directions. First, objections were raised as to why South Korea needed nuclear weapons while sheltering under the US nuclear umbrella. Chung’s rather unconvincing answer was that Seoul needed leverage to persuade North Korea to dismantle its nuclear arsenal, and did not wish to establish a deterrent relationship with Pyongyang. Second, tactical nuclear weapons are destabilising as they are basically battlefield weapons vulnerable to being overrun, and lead thereby to serious conflict escalation. Chung’s surprising explanation was that tactical nuclear weapons have the capability to prevent wars. The imperatives of deterrence are different, in any case, from the need to win wars. Third, how could Seoul achieve regime change in Pyongyang by replacing the Kim dynasty with a more equable regime? Chung argued that such regime change would not be violent, but would effect a peaceful transition like what occurred in China when Deng Xiao-ping replaced Mao Zedong. How was this to be achieved? Chung had no clear ideas in this regard. Washington has strongly disapproved all these ideas. It could hardly welcome South Korea becoming the tenth nuclear weapons state to curb the antics of North Korea. Indeed, Seoul’s ambitions had been squashed some four decades back in the early seventies, when it tried to secretly enrich uranium, ostensibly to fuel its atomic power plants. That attempt was nipped in the bud by the United States, which forced Seoul to dismantle its relevant facilities that could be used to make nuclear weapons. Probably, Chung was indulging in kite-flying to focus the minds of decision makers in East Asia and the United States on the dangers inherent in North Korea deploying its nuclear weapons. Besides, Pyongyang’s moves could have a nuclear domino effect in East Asia with South Korea, Japan and Taiwan also pursuing their own nuclear options. Most South Koreans favour acquiring nuclear weapons and the US deploying tactical nuclear weapons to support Seoul. There is fair agreement, however, that North Korea would use its nuclear weapons if they were in danger of physical destruction. Security and foreign policy analysts have shown great capacity to identify the unthinkable. It is time they also began thinking about dealing with the unthinkable of an impending proliferation chain in East
Asia.
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In the name of Ahmed Shah Talk about Punjab’s demonstrative culture and the most likely justification that one comes across for the ostentatious aspect of it is this: "Khata pita lahe da, baqi Ahmed Shahe da" (what you spend on food and drinks is yours; the rest of your wealth goes to Ahmed Shah). This refers to Afghan invader Ahmed Shah Abdali, who plundered Punjab a number of times in the mid-18th century. People who suffered believed in spending everything they earned. For, the rest would inevitably be taken away by Shah and his soldiers. The plundering had stopped long ago but the fear seems to be deeply etched in the Punjabi psyche. So, it comes as no surprise that every neighbourhood in Punjab has more "thekas" (tavern) than kirana shops. Of course, if Shah were to invade now he would take away everything except for the liquor bottles, presuming that he was a staunch Muslim. So, liquor found a pride of place, not just in the physical sense of it but in the literary sense too, especially with regard to the music scene. Lyrics without "daru" or the Patiala peg are simply unheard of. After long years of
stay in Punjab, I thought I was beyond any kind of cultural shock,
especially when it came to eulogising liquor in every-day life. Well,
I On a recent trip to Delhi, my husband and I had the pleasure of shopping in one of the posh resorts that dot the Delhi-Ambala highway. My husband selected two T-shirts at a shop which looked Punjabi every inch. The ‘T’s came with some funky lines like "Bachke! Current laga dewanga je hor padhai di galan kitiya"; "Stay back practical class -- pehle jaljira piyange, pher master de salah lawange" written in a mix of Punjabi and English. The sentences may be grammatically incorrect but, then, who cares as long as they capture the Punjabi spirit? But what I saw next just took my breath away. In the place where a price tag should have been hanging, there was a bottle opener! What has a bottle opener to do with a T-shirt? What went on in the enterprising shop owner's mind when he decided to gift a bottle opener with every T-shirt? Was he or she trying to lessen the burden of those who carry alcohol in their cars by providing them with an opener and thus reducing the Ahmed Shah-induced, live-for-today philosophy to "live for now"? Looks like Shah's invasions had a lot more impact on Punjab’s culture than their spending spree!
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Fusion of tangible heritage with the intangible In
India one must move away from the monument centered model of heritage valorization and expand the scope of cultural heritage concerns to include lived and living heritage. Thus language, songs, traditional knowledge, folklore, cuisine, costume and jewellery, social and religious practices are all examples of the intangible cultural wealth of communities, which often imbricates well with tangible and built heritage.
This is reflected via many old temples that continue to be living centres of worship and artistic practices. In 2010, the magnificent Brihadeeshwara temple, built in the year 1010 by king Raja Raja Chola- I, turned 1000 years old. Many inscriptions on the temple walls, testify to the fact that the temple served as a platform for the dancers and musicians. It was not surprising then that the temples millennium celebration included a full and elaborate year- long offerings of dance, not just in the temple but also around the world, in a wonderful celebration of the tangible heritage of the temple and the intangible heritage of the dance. Dance as an offering Many other temples in various parts of India have been strong repositories of elements of intangible heritage, or what can be loosely described as performance practices of worship. The 18th century Govind Devji temple in Imphal, resounds with the high pitched singing that accompanies the performance of Raas. During Holi, in the courtyard of the temple, dancer worshippers perform pung and dhol cholom, the fascinating acrobatic drum dancing, for which Manipuri dance is famed. Even the Govind Devji temple that is located in the City Palace complex of Jaipur, at the time of Holi, offers dance as a part of worship. Common people sway to the music, while dances like kalbeliya, ghoomar and even kathak are performed as offering. The temples of Odisha, had the maharis or sacred dancing girls, dance as part of temple ceremonies. Depending on what they did and where they performed in respect to the main idol, the Mahari dancers were called "Nachunis', Bahara gaunis, Bhitara gaunis and gaudasanis. The temples institutionalised sacred dancing, and temple architecture, usually included a dancing hall (nata mandir) replete with a profusion of dancing images. In fact, these images, chiselled on the walls of the Konark temple, served as cogent evidence testifying to the antiquity of the dance of Odisha, that eventually got recognition as the classical dance Odissi. In the value attached to classical dance in India the image of Shiva Nataraj became a central motif. It was first picked up by Rukmini Devi Arundale, the first lady of modern Bharatanatyam, and the theosophist circle that was in the fore front of the revival of the dance of the Devadasis. Several decades after independence, the close association between the temple and dance, was explored again with the start of dance festivals at temples. Here too the image of Nataraj was too strong a draw. One of the popular temples where dance came to be practiced as part of a festival of dance, was the Natyanjali Dance festival in Chidambaram, the city of the cosmic dancer, Nataraj, where he is believed to have danced the Ananda tandava in the golden hall of the temple. The dance has been captured in the 108 sculpted poses called Karanas, on the soaring walls of the temple towers. Every year, for five days commencing with Maha Shivratri, the Natyanjali festival, is celebrated in the temple premises. The success of the Natyanjali festival, jointly organised by the Department of Tourism, Government of Tamil Nadu, the Ministry Of Tourism, Government of India and the Natyanjali Trust, Chidambaram, has resulted in clones being spawned in other temples like Thanjavur (Sri Brihadeswarar temple), Thiruvarur, Thirunallur, Kumbakonam (Sri Adhikumbeshwarar temple) Nagapattinam, Tiruchi, Mylapore (Sri Kapaleeswarar Temple) etc. But all this could happen only many years after independence, when we were more comfortable as a nation with a secular constitution and sacred practices. It called for some interesting tweaking of our performance heritage, such that even though they claim unbroken millennial histories, they reflect definite and conscious historical fractures. The disappearing temples However, the fractures in history resulted in twists in the fate of some tangible heritage structures as well. Several historical temples suffered so much neglect, as a result of the disappearance of patronage, that worship ceased, and with it the entire plexus of performance and creative practices. Some of these temples virtually disappeared from people's view, as jungles took a toll on the monuments. The temples of Khajuraho were among them. Built by the Chandela kings ( 10th - 13th century AD), the temples hailed as "one of the seven wonders of India" are illustrated with a profusion of images including erotic images, the reason why they make it to must see parts of travel itineraries. However, historically, as Chandela power diminished, the importance of their one time capital also waned. The temples were never, really lost, for villagers and tribal inhabitants of the region were familiar with them; they continued to worship one temple in particular, especially on the occasion of Shivratri - the Kandariya Mahadev temple. While early travellers such as Alberuni and lbn Batuta had reported the presence of the temples, they were not treated in detail, possibly because of their being abandoned and overgrown by bushes and weeds. This was probably good for their continued existence, because these erotic images, though less than 10% of all the carvings, may have resulted in the temples being vandalised by offended invading Muslim armies. The British engineer T.S. Burt, was credited with their 'discovery' in the mid-19th century, but Alexander Cunningham put Khajuraho on the world map when he explored the site on behalf of the Archaeological Survey of India and waxed eloquent about the temples. In 1986, the Khajuraho Group of Monuments, were in scripted as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. However, almost seven years before that happened, Khajuraho became a laboratory for a very unusual experiment, spearheaded by Ashok Vajpeyi, one of the rare culturally aligned bureaucrats. Believing that "in the north temples and dances had parted company it would be a good idea to put them together, even if for a week". To start this experiment, the living worshipped temple of Kandariya Mahadeva was chosen as the venue for the dances, and in the initial years, the dancers, like Sanjukta Panigrahi and Yamini Krishnamurthy emerged from inside and danced before the audience sitting on the plinth of the temple, re-establishing the evocative and interesting ethos of the relationship of the tangible temple and the intangible dance. Subsequently as the festival audiences grew, the Archaeological Survey of India's point of an impending threat to the temples was heeded to, and the festival shifted outside and was presented against the silhouette of the temple, where it continues to charm visitors more than three decades later. The Khajuraho Festival served as the mother of heritage site specific festivals, where the sites are ancient temples. The Konark Dance Festival, is another such success story, inspired by Khajuraho's success. This festival drew on Khajuraho's experience. First organised in 1989, five years after receiving its World Heritage Monument status, the grand Sun Temple of Konark serves as the backdrop of the dance festival that is organised in an amphitheatre outside. Re-establishing the missing link However, in all these cases the monument served as a backdrop for a dance festival, carefully curated from among the pantheon of Indian classical dances, to reflect the diversity of India, rather than reflect any organic relationship between dance and the temple or dance and worship in that specific temple, as was happening in the Agamic dance (temple dance) tradition of India. This practice was revived in 1996 by dancer Swapnasundari, recipient of the Padma Bhushan, in the 400 year old, living, Ranganath Swamy temple of Hyderabad, where all ceremonies, whether nitya (daily) or naimitya ( occasional), happen. Here, every year since 1996, Swapnasundari has been dancing Vilasini Natyam rituals as annual naimitya sewa, during the Brahmotsavam. A temple named after its sculptor What makes this occasion even more important is that according to an inscription found in the temple, it was on 18th April, 800 years ago, that the Ramappa temple, a Shivalaya, was established, in the reign of Kakatiya king Ganpati Deva. This temple has the unique distinction of being named after its sculptor Ramappa, a sthapathi, and not the chief deity or its location. The Ramappa temple is built on the classical pattern of being held aloft on a high star-shaped platform, resulting in being called the "brightest star in the galaxy of medieval temples in the Deccan". The temple uses the unique sandbox foundation technology that keepst it cool in the long hot summer. The roof of the temple is built with bricks, which are so light that they are able to float on water. Intricate carvings line the walls and cover the pillars and ceilings, with carvings, so fine that only a needle and thread can pass through the gaps of the wall and the friezes. This temple has many close associations with dance as is evidenced by historical references to dancers and dance being closely associated with the temple. It also boasts of a Natamandap with a profusion of dance carvings. Dr. Nataraja Ramakrishna revived the Perini Shivatandav (Perini Dance), by seeing the sculptures in this temple. The dance poses written in the eight century old text, "Nritta Rathnavali" by Jayapa Senapati, one of the Kakatiya Generals, also appear in these sculptures. An English translation of Nritta Ratnavali was released in March this year, by the Kakatiya Heritage Trust. So on World Heritage Day this year, in a unique coincidence of two anniversaries, a world class heritage monument, reflective of an integrated cultural tradition will be framed, for celebration, by the world at large. Can this temple go beyond the Khajuraho format and set new and creative standards for dovetailing the tangible and intangible heritage, and in bringing together dance and temple monuments? Only time will tell. The writer is an arts administrator, scholar and commentator, and a heritage activist.
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Swapnasundari has been recently approached by the Kakateeya Heritage Trust to present a Vilasini Natyam temple- dance performance at the Ramappa temple in Palampet village of Warrangal district in Andhra Pradesh, on 18th of April 2013. "Having become the first present-day classical dancer to restore agamic sewa, it occurred to me that once again I would probably be the first present-day dancer to also have the unique honour of dancing in the Ramappa temple- not only on a constructed stage which would just use the dramatic temple as a back-drop" says Swapnasundari. "As the choreographer , I see the exciting choreographic possibilities offered by the stunning setting of this historic temple . For instance, I can imagine the Ashta -Dikpalaka Ritual dance in which my troupe of dancers and myself would move rhythmically around the temple , wrapping it in our dance-prayers and seeking protection of the directional deities for it" she adds.