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Friday,
April 27, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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An
undebated budget BCCI's
bouncer hits target |
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By Hari Jaisingh
Globalisation
and culture
Online
curry delivery service
Oil
politics in West Asia The
changing face of Bollywood
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An undebated budget ANOTHER unhealthy precedent was set in the Lok Sabha when the general budget was passed without a discussion. Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha droned on his amendments and when he ended, the Speaker put it to a voice vote and declared it passed. Yet there was relief in all quarters that the budget was passed at all, even in an imperfect fashion. True, the main items had been discussed at the committee level during the three-week recess but a full-blooded debate in the House and carried live on television is the real stuff. All the more this year when the country is said to have introduced the second generation of reforms. Several questions remain unanswered and indeed several questions remain to be raised. The government should go far beyond presenting the annual accounts and weave the main features into medium-term plans. A regular debate would have generated the momentum for it; in the event, Mr Sinha read out a few official changes and that was that. All this on a day when the highly industrialised state of Maharashtra was shut down by a daylong strike called by several trade unions and the Shiv Sena. It was to protest against the fallout of the policy of liberalisation and dismantling of import restrictions, which have destroyed jobs by the thousands. A parliamentary debate could have acted as the first round of talks with the nervous people. The amendments are minor and half-hearted and are a response to populist impulses or intense pressure from interest groups. The marginal, almost insulting, income tax sops fall in the first group. The Finance Minister had been quite thoughtless in slashing and snipping tax exemptions in his budget. For instance, he reduced the exemption on interest payment to Rs 9000 from the original Rs 16,000. There was a howl of protest and he has now hiked it to Rs 12,000. Banks will now deduct tax on interest payment only beyond Rs 5000; the budget slashed the threshold to Rs 2500 from the old limit of Rs 10,000. He has offered a token relief to income tax payers by raising the standard reduction limit. One inference is that the middle class supporters of the BJP forced the government to come out with a psychological sop even if it is meaningless in money terms. The automobile industry is a big beneficiary, given its great clout. Effective import duty on cars has climbed to about 125 per cent, a rate at which the super cheap Chinese vehicles will pose no threat to the Japanese and South Korean models now assembled in India.. Several components of computers can enter the country by paying a nominal duty of 5 per cent; thus the duty differentials which existed before the budget will be maintained. It will hurt Mr Sinha, but the fact is that he does things in a hurry and rolls them back at leisure. With the passing of his budget, he gets, well, pass marks. |
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BCCI's bouncer hits target ON Tuesday the Board of Control for Cricket in India issued the threat of pulling out of tournaments in which Pakistan too would participate. The bouncer was not wasted. It found Sports Minister Uma Bharati duck right into it. Even seasoned players get a bit wobbly after being hit where it hurts most - their pride. That should explain Ms Bharati's angry out burst at the "temerity" of the BCCI to indirectly question her role in the matter of deciding India would play which team and where. Had she allowed the effect of the bouncer to wear off she would have realised that the BCCI had bowled a perfectly legal delivery. Ms Bharati has got it all wrong. The cricket board was not trying to dictate policy to her, but merely asking her to make it more explicit than it is today. It must be understood that all international sports events, including the Olympic Games, are organised by autonomous organisations. The government's role is limited to performing the formality of giving clearance. This helps the participants in meeting the prescribed visa and foreign exchange requirements. However, last year the infamous Cronje tapes allowed the holder of the usually low-profile office of the Union Minister of Sports to take more than routine interest in the state of health of domestic cricket. But Mr S. S. Dhindsa did not go beyond doing what was necessary for getting at the bottom of the match-fixing scam. Several heads did role as a result of the CBI enquiry. Ms Bharati, who replaced the soft-spoken Mr Dhindsa for reasons which were not clear, evidently believes that she has the right to crack the whip not just at the cricket board but other sports organisations. She wanted the schedule of the Afro-Asian Games to be pushed beyond November for the necessary infrastructure to be put into place. President of the Amateur Athletics Federation of India Suresh Kalamadi did what the BCCI has done now. The indirect threat to cancel the Afro-Asian Games worked. The Prime Minister had to issue a statement saying that the games would be held as scheduled. Instead of accusing the cricket board of trying to dictate policy, she should explain to the nation the glaring contradictions in her evidently personal stand on Indo-Pak sporting ties. India was refused permission to play in Sharjah because of Pakistan's participation. However, the Sports Ministry has cleared the participation of India in the World Junior Volleyball Championship to be held in Islamabad from May 10. And India will not only be playing in what Ms Bharati perceives to be "enemy" territory, but against the "enemy" itself on May 16. Just when Indian cricket has begun to look up, the voluble Sports Minister seems to have made it her primary concern to damage it. She must be stopped before it is too late. Will the Prime Minister once again do the needful? |
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FRANKLY SPEAKING DURING the past two years or so our political parties and politicians have virtually reduced Parliament to a theatre of the absurd. Perhaps even worse. No worthwhile work gets done there. More often than not the two Houses are adjourned amidst shouting and counter-shouting. Indeed, when the law-makers assemble, they do so at the well of the House to force another adjournment. In comparison to such rowdy scenes, the man-in-the-street looks more civilised and dignified. How long can the country allow this "lawlessness" to continue by those who are supposed to make law for the good of people? The idea is not to block any particular legislation, but to prevent Parliament from functioning. This is unheard of in a democracy. It denies the majority its right to rule. In short, this is an assault on democracy. The Railway Budget was passed this year without a debate — a development which makes Parliament truly redundant. If budgets can be passed without a meaningful debate, then Parliament ceases to play the role for which it was created — namely, to control the revenue and expenditure of the government. Why then should the country spend a huge amount on the upkeep of Parliament? It costs Rs 16,568 per minute (Rs 9.94 lakh per hour) to hold a parliamentary session. The total expenditure of Parliament was Rs 22.7 crore in 1990-91. It is Rs 107.3 crore in 2000-2001! Does the conscience of our MPs prick at this mind-boggling figure in a poor country like ours, especially when they compete among themselves to disrupt the proceedings? The problem, in a way, is constitutional — the way we drew up our Constitution. It is full of absurdities and contradictions. India is a country of the greatest diversity in the world. It, therefore, needed a special type of constitution. Instead, our founding fathers looked for models in countries which are homogenous! Both Britain and France have homogenous societies. The USA is multi-ethnic. It follows a policy of assimilation. This is far from the objective of our Constitution. Our founding fathers wanted every ethnic community, every religious or linguistic group to maintain its identity. But we also needed to unite the nation. So, we had two objectives: to respect the diversity but also strengthen unity. It won't be an exaggeration to suggest that the parliamentary system which we adopted from Britain is highly divisive in a country of extreme diversity. It so happens that nine-tenths of the present Constitution is based on the Government of India Act of 1935 which imposed a colonial order on this country. What is, therefore, surprising is that the "imperial-bureaucratic order" should have survived so long amidst complex and contradictory situations. In India, every election is fought and won along fault lines — that is, along the lines of one's religion, caste, region, language, etc. Today no election can be fought without caste consideration. Is this what our founding fathers wanted? Certainly not. All the same, the net result is before the nation. All our troubles — political, economic and social — can be traced to some faulty provisions in the Constitution. We are unable to get out of this system because powerful vested interests have grown around it. Several times a presidential form of government has been suggested. But the political parties and vested interests will not give up the power and pelf to which they are now used to. Fifty years is not a long time in the life of a nation, but it is long enough to make a judgement on the working of our Constitution. We have, therefore, done the right thing in calling for a review of the Constitution. This has no doubt alarmed certain interest groups. Unfortunately, even the President of India is opposed to a review of the Constitution. At present, power is concentrated in Parliament and the state legislatures. There is need for decentralisation of power at all levels. The panchayati raj was designed to achieve this objective. But vested interests have sabotaged the effort. The anarchy of the entire system is now beyond correction. Any radical reconstruction of the system will be fiercely resisted. So, what is needed is a step-by-step approach. It may begin with the reform of the election process and the functioning of the political parties. If changes can be brought about in these areas, much can be achieved. There are 545 members of the Lok Sabha, 250 members of the Rajya Sabha and nearly 4,500 members of state legislatures. What does this vast army of politicos do? What is their contribution to the country's development? Over the years, they have had only one interest: how to be in power and enjoy its privileges. Today, politics is the most profitable profession. One can make millions in much less time compared to what one can do in industry or trade. Which explains why there is a stampede for an entry into political parties and legislature. An MP gets a salary, daily allowance, office expenses, travelling allowance, a house, the medical facility, loans at a concessional rate, constituency allowance, income tax relief, a foreign exchange quota, funds for journey in India and aboard and so on. Most of these benefits separately run into lakhs of rupees a month. Besides these, every MP gets a pension as also constituency development allowance — a bonus given by Mr Narasimha Rao. Certain things outrage the citizen— the taxpayer. This is the case with telephones. An MP is entitled to three phones and he can make free calls up to 50,000 every year. This means 1,50,000 calls from three phones each year. That is about 137 calls a day from each phone. This works out to be 411 calls per day! Perhaps, an MP cannot do this even if he tries it for the whole day! The constituency development fund is another case. At first it was Rs 1 crore. It was then increased to Rs 2 crore. The CAG has now come out with a stinging report about gross corruption in the system. In the first Lok Sabha 36 per cent of the MPs were lawyers. They earned their livelihood through legal practice, and political work was taken as an opportunity to serve the nation. Today an average MP does not take much interest in parliamentary work. He does little homework. He has no proper appreciation of the problems people are faced with. He merrily pursues his varied interests. No wonder, the quality of debate one could notice in the two Houses in the fifties and the sixties is sorely missing these days. As it is, the party system is facing a collapse in India. Coalition politics is the result of hunger for power and wealth. It is a device to be in power somehow. Is there a way out of the present mess? It is difficult to say anything. Most of the progressive steps proposed have been blocked by the same political class. They want exemption from the Prevention of Corruption Act on unacceptable grounds of not being public servants. (Whose servants are they, anyway?) They draw a salary and lifelong pension and yet they are not public servants? Similarly, they have opposed the Lok Pal Bill designed to attack corruption at the highest level. And look at the women's quota Bill — how it has been tossed about. The tragedy of this country is that it has now the most fragmented society. So, even criminals can get elected. What matters is the caste factor. And when such members "grace" our Parliament, what can we expect? Surely, not high debating standards! The quality of governmental functioning depends on enlightened legislators. As Aristotle put it: "As the physicians ought to be judged by their peers.... Now does not this same principle apply to elections? For a right decision can only be made by those who have knowledge." Instead of knowledge, we see mere pretension of being knowledgeable. In reality, persons at the helm are self-seekers and hollow within. It needs to be realised that any form of politico-bureaucratic feudalism has become untenable and hence unacceptable. The existing anomalies can be corrected by looking afresh at the whole gamut of power operations — from Parliament and beyond. The key element here is the quality of MPs and MLAs. Therein lies the challenge. It needs to be noted that so long as vacillation on the choice of the politico-constitutional system continues, we cannot hope to turn the economic tide in favour of the people instead of the entrenched vested interests. It is still possible to apply correctives and keep rogues and scoundrels under effective check, if not totally out of the power games. At stake is the rekindling of the common man's hope in democratic institutions, beyond the once-in-five-year voting privilege! |
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Globalisation
and culture GLOBALISATION has emerged as one of the most powerful and persuasive images of today’s world. There is talk of “the end of geography”, “the end of nation-state”, and “the end of culture”. It evokes the vision of a borderless world, dominated by multinationals and financial markets, and in the sweep of a homogenised culture shaped by western values. There’s the image of the globe becoming indistinguishable: people wearing the same jeans and sneakers, driving the same Toyotas, eating the same burgers and pizzas, drinking the same Colas, listening to the same pop music. Only one culture to be left, the materialist American culture. Little wonder, many people all over the world — and that includes a sizeable chunk of Indian public opinion — perceive globalisation more as a threat than promise. One such manifestation has been large anti-globalist rallies at the annual meetings of WTO and the World Bank, such as those at Seattle, Davos, Washington, and Prague. Protesters fear loss of jobs, environmental degradation, and the disappearance of indigenous cultures. What’s the challenge of globalisation to traditional values? Does economic development bring with it sweeping cultural change? Or, are cultural values enduring, exerting more influence than economic changes? In this context, the World Values Survey is relevant, the largest investigation ever conducted of attitudes, values and beliefs around the world. This survey — a continuing two-decade-long examination of the values of 65 societies — is being coordinated by the University of Michigan’s Institute of Social Research. Major goal of the survey is to study links between economic development and changes in values. The study now represents some 80% of the world’s population. It encompasses societies ranging from $300 per capita GNP to more than $30,000. And it includes societies across a wide spectrum of social, religious and political (from democracies to dictatorships) beliefs. Following are some of the broad conclusions reached in the survey. Economic development is associated with pervasive, and to an extent predictable, cultural changes. Industrialisation — the central element of modernisation process — promotes a shift from traditional (agricultural) to secular-rational (urban) values, while post-industrialisation promotes a shift towards more trust, tolerance, and emphasis on well-being. Economic collapse propels societies in the opposite direction. Economic development tends to push societies in a common direction, but rather than converging they seem to move along paths shaped by their cultural heritages. For instance, all four of the Confucian-influenced societies (China, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea) have relatively secular values, regardless of the proportion of their labour forces in the industrial sector. It, therefore, seems quite unlikely that the forces of globalisation and modernisation will produce a homogenised world culture in the foreseeable future. And it is rather misleading to view cultural change as “Americanisation”. Industrialised societies are not becoming like the United States. In fact, the USA seems to be a deviant case; its people hold much more traditional values and beliefs (attitudes towards abortion, one prime example) than do those in any other equally prosperous society. If any societies exemplify the cutting edge of cultural change, it would be the Nordic ones: Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish. McDonald’s restaurants are seen as a dominant symbol of globalisation and are often the target of the wrath of globalisation’s many opponents. But the impression that we are moving towards a uniform “McWorld” is partly an illusion. The seemingly identical McDonald’s restaurants actually have different social meanings and fulfil different social functions in different culture zones. Eating in a McDonald’s restaurant in India is a different social experience from eating in one in USA, or in Europe, Japan, or Hong Kong (the latter now boasting 160 outlets). As McDonald’s reaches a global market, it caters to local tastes and customs. The French can order beer with their meals, and in India it offers beefless burgers. While the original concept as it evolved in the USA is to eat your food rather quick in a McDonald’s and vacate your place for others waiting, in China many of the elderly sit for long over a coffee reading their paper. Local differences in incomes and tastes still matter a great deal in consumer behaviour and preferences. The heart of a culture involves language, religion, traditions, values and customs. Take the Chinese and the Indians: they will remain different people, howsoever strongly they are exposed to the forces of globalisation. Different societies follow different trajectories even when they are subjected to the same forces of economic development, in part because situation-specific factors, such as society’s cultural heritage, also shape how a particular society develops. Samuel Huntington, author or The Clash of Civilisations, has focussed on the role of religion in shaping the world’s major civilisations: Western Christianity, Islam, Confucian, Hindu. These zones were shaped by religious traditions that are still powerful today, despite the forces of modernisation and globalisation. Communism, with its emphasis on secularism and rationality, did loosen the hold of religion in countries it ruled for decades. However, the collapse of communism has given rise to pervasive insecurity — and a return to religious beliefs. Notwithstanding globalisation, the nation remains a key unit of shared experience, and its educational and cultural institutions shape the values of almost everyone in that society. In short, the survey concludes that economic development will cause shifts in the values of people in developing nations, but it will not produce a uniform global culture. The future may look similar, but it won’t feel like one. |
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Online curry delivery service A national online curry delivery will soon be launched in the UK. Joshi’s Kitchen aims to let people order their favourite dish with a single click, using internet technology and a network of 300 depots around the UK. The service has been developed by a partnership between new media company Majestic and Joshi’s Kitchen. The Joshi’s Kitchen website allows people to order the curry of their choice, along with drinks, online. The order is then routed to the nearest preparation centre for cooking. Delivery is usually made within 40 minutes. Investment in the project, which has already been successfully trialled in the Reading area, is in the region of £500,000 and includes two food preparation centres. Sanjeev Joshi, the managing director of Reading-based Joshi’s Kitchen, says: “Initially a series of feasibility studies were undertaken, which all indicated a huge potential market”. “The success witnessed so far in Reading has supported this further, and plans for the next centres are already under way. The aim is to develop around 300 centres all over the UK within the next five years.” Julien Balmforth, managing director of Majestic, which is based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, says: “The Joshi’s Kitchen site has taken hundreds of orders in the first six weeks without high-profile publicity. We’re looking forward to developing the site further as the project grows to a national level.” The service can be found at joshiskitchen.com. Reuters Be still my heart Using heart monitors, British sports physiologist Lee Ashworth did a study on a dozen men with an average age of 25 to see what leisure activity excited them the most. Bungee jumping didn’t come out on top. It produced a peak heart rate of just 118 beats per minute. How about shooting the men 100 feet in the air with a catapult? Nope. Watching a naked dancer cavort in front of them? Not even. “In the lap-dancing club it hovered around 88 beats per minute,” Ashworth said. So what got them to break a sweat? Bingo. “With only one number still to complete on their bingo card their heart rates soared to an average of 141 beats per minute.”
PA |
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Oil politics in West Asia OIL is still at the centre of global politics and economics. And the Middle East, the largest producer of oil, is still the most explosive region in the world. Not South Asia. Oil gives great strength to a country. But the buyers are mostly the powerful and advanced countries of Europe and America. They dictate the terms. And they are united to keep the oil producers in disarray. That leaves the Middle East wealthy, but weak. Can it ever overcome this? Never. The buyers will never allow that to happen. The Middle East is what it is because of British colonial policy. After the Ottomans were defeated in World War I, Britain and France divided the region into two spheres of influence-British and French. And after World War II, the whole region fell under the American sphere of influence. Moscow had a tenuous hold on Iraq and Syria. Thus, the region has never been free from foreign dominance in the past few centuries. Can it ever be free? I do not think so unless they confederate and follow a common foreign and defence policy. But that is asking for the moon, for the need to sell oil for their mere existence will compel the Arabs to accept a measure of subservience to the West. Challenge to western dominance over the region can come only from three sources-Iran, Iraq and Egypt, all old countries with ancient civilisations. Egypt is in no position today to challenge the West. It tried under Nasser, but failed. Iran threatened to nationalise British oil company. In turn, it could have adversely affected the American position in the Gulf. In the event, Iran failed. The USA tried to strengthen the Iranian monarchy. It ended in disaster. Iran, however, became a real threat to western interests after the 1979 revolution. It was mainly directed at the monarchies of the Gulf, which formed the basis of American influence in the region. This explains why America nourished Iraq as a counter-force against Iran. It is often forgotten that Saddam Hussein was for years the protege of America in the Middle East. (Reminds one of how America propped up the Taliban and other fundamentalist forces in Afghanistan.) A weak Iran naturally emboldened Saddam to attack it. Washington encouraged it, but Saddam’s attack on Kuwait was a different matter. The eight-year war between Iran and Iraq devastated both. Iran is yet to recover from the enormous disruption of its economy. Which is why the revolution has lost its appeal among Iranians. What is more, Iran knows now that the “Great Satan” will not go away from the region whatever it may do. Today Saddam Hussein is America’s enemy number one. How is one to explain this animus and obsession? My guess is: America is more afraid of Saddam, for being an Arab and head of a highly resourceful country, he can lead the Arabs against the USA. This is, however, unlikely. Iraq cannot recover for years. As for Shia Iran, a country of another race, it cannot mobilise the Arabs against the USA. Thus, to conclude that the West has no serious challenge in the Middle East will not be wrong. Once Saddam is out of the way (he is getting old), it will be business as usual. After all, Iraq has to sell its oil. Iraq’s importance to America is growing. It has more oil reserves than Saudi Arabia. (It is put at 250 billion barrels). This factor is not lost on the US oil cartels. They are eager to gain entry into Iraq. Hence the unabating crusade against Saddam. A decade has passed since the Gulf war. Much has happened during this period. The people of Iran have largely rejected the 1979 revolution and have elected a liberal leader. And President Khatami is for reconciliation with all, including Iraq, Saudi Arabia and even the USA. Saudi Arabia remains an ideological rival of Iran. Its support to the Taliban has been a great irritant to Iran. But there is no desire today to carry on the feud. The USA, however, has not changed its policies. It is still for the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. But every US action against Saddam makes him more popular. Yet another foreign policy blunder? We saw one in the Vietnam war, when the USA refused to recognise the nationalism of the Vietnamese. As for Iran, the USA would like to see a more pliant Iran. Its eyes are on Central Asia, the major source of oil and gas for the 21st century. It will also emerge as a hot spot. There is little support among Arab states for US policies today. But the Gulf states want the US presence to continue, for they have no trust in either Iraq or Iran. They fear that Iran will manipulate the Shia population to its advantage. They also fear Iran’s growing militarisation. It is this fear which has encouraged the USA to launch its Cooperative Defence Initiative (CDI) policy. This is actually designed to protect and promote the US strategic interests, particularly in the Gulf and Central Asia. The UN sanctions are becoming less popular. In fact, three out of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (Russia, China and France) were opposed to US bombing of Iraq. And not one Arab country supported the US action. But they chose to remain silent. Interestingly, it was Iran which led the opposition to the USA. The US sanctions against Iraq have hurt the Iraqi people, especially the children. Arab states have, therefore, been less supportive of Kuwait of late. And Arabs cannot ignore the fact that Saddam is a strong opponent of Israel. Even Egypt and Syria are less hostile to Iraq. In fact, they signed a free trade agreement with Iraq recently. Today Arabs are the greatest beneficiaries of the UN sanctions and the oil-for-food programme. This year Egypt will be exporting goods worth one billion dollars to Iraq. And Syria is planning to reopen the pipeline carrying Iraqi oil to the Mediterranean. It is hoping to derive a substantial fee for this. Only the Saudis are holding on. That is because of US pressure. And, in turn, Saudi Arabia is putting pressure on other Gulf states. It is interesting that the Gulf states maintained an embarrassing silence after the US bombing of Iraq recently. They thought that their own security was more important. Iraq has put up with the sanctions for 10 years. This has no doubt made it weak, the country mutilated and its economy savaged. The people have been reduced to poverty. The calamity can be gauged from the fact that the GDP per capita which was $3100 in 1989 has fallen to $250 (UN figure)! Vast numbers of children remain under-nourished and the education system has broken down. The UN aid chief resigned in protest against the devastation caused by the sanctions. The average monthly wage of a worker has come down to $5! Tragedy has perhaps stirred Iraq to desperate remedies. It is united today than ever before. US reports show that Iraq has moved well along the road to make nuclear weapons. If this is true, one cannot blame Iraq, for the USA has given it enough provocation. |
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The changing face of Bollywood EVER thought about craziness in Indian films? Literally! The depiction of madness in Hindi films has changed, sometimes reflecting the times, says an Indian psychiatrist who has researched the portrayal of madness in Bollywood cinema. “Sholay” launched Gabbar Singh, the best-known psychopath of Indian cinema, Dr. Dinesh Bhugra said at a talk at Nehru Centre in London. “Gabbar was clearly a psychopath.” “He was driven by greed, and had no shame or guilt, and no redeeming features whatever.” And the success of “Sholay” brought many other films featuring the psychopath. No, Gabbar is not dead. He led to more than just a new kind of villain. “From the 1970s onward, you begin more and more to have the psychopath cast as the hero rather than the villain.” Take even Amitabh Bachchan in “Deewar.” “Very clearly he took on a role in which he took on a system,” Dr Bhugra said. The trend picked up in the late 1980s. “You begin to get in the hero a sense of ‘I want it, and I want it now’.” A clear change where the hero has in a sense become the villain, Dr Bhugra said. “It all gets more and more gory and bloody. And the hero just gets away with it.” In the style of Gabbar, there are now no regrets. The hero-villain psychopath was developed at length in box-office hits “Darr” and “Baazigar.” “The hero in both these films is a psychopath,” said Dr Bhugra. “Gone is any sense of morality or of concern and respect for the other. And these are ways associated with the hero of the films.” This relates to the society of the time. “As there was a move to liberalisation, there was a change in ideas,” said Dr Bhugra. With the craze for owning goods through the 1980s and 1990s comes the craze to own women. “Women become possessions,” says Dr Bhugra. “The hero becomes very possessive and develops morbid jealousies over the woman. ‘Anjaam’ and ‘Agni Sakshi’ typify such roles. And you now begin to get the woman psychopath, as in ‘Gupt’ and ‘Kaun.’ A long way from the 1950s and films like ‘Fantoosh,’ which was a story of a man (Dev Anand) released from an asylum who decides to commit suicide. K.N. Singh finds him in time, and tries to persuade him to take out insurance in his name before he can kill himself. But madness here is a part of a story and a plot, it’s little explored as a condition.” That exploration comes in two films in the late 1960s, “Khamoshi” and “Raat Aur Din.” And to an extent in “Khilona”. Psychiatry becomes a central theme in “Khilona” and “Raat Aur Din.” The shrink in “Khamoshi” played by Nasser Hussain speaks of the Oedipus complex. He might just have been right, because “the Indian sense of the Oedipus complex is quite different from the Greek Oedipus complex,” said Dr Bhugra. “Children in India are breast-fed for longer. Sons often share the mother’s bed until quite late.” There is a good deal of an unresolved Oedipus complex about, of a uniquely Indian variety. “Khamoshi” is the first film where psychoanalysis appears as a theme. The love of a good woman cures the man, but the woman cracks up in the end. “Raat Aur Din” shows a Nargis who becomes “Westernised” when she is possessed — to be Western here is to be like her friend Peggy who has the freedom she cannot have. Her schizophrenia invites drastic remedies. That says something about the social values of the time and about the kind of treatment a schizophrenic condition would invite. Shrinks got fairly big roles in both these films, Dr Bhugra said. But after “Khamoshi” and “Raat Aur Din,” the tribe of shrinks seems to have retreated from any significant role in Hindi cinema, he said.
IANS |
Friendly Relations Committee
The “Committee on Friendly Relations” among Foreign Students, having its headquarters at 347, Medison Avenue, New York City, and branches all over the country and in various ports of entry of the United States of America is a branch of the YMCA which seeks to serve students coming to the USA from other lands. The Committee wants it to be made known to all Indian young men, of whatever creed or caste, intending to go over to that country for studies, that the organisation is prepared to meet students at ports of entry and through correspondence to answer questions regarding study in that country. Except for New York City, the General Secretary of the YMCA of the port of entry should be intimated the following particulars about the students starting out — name of the student, the ship on which he will arrive, the date of arrival, and, if possible, the class he will travel. For New York the same particulars should be sent to the Committee on Friendly Relations itself. |
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SPIRITUAL NUGGETS In love no longer 'thou' and 'I' exist, For self has passed away in the beloved... He who would know the secret of both worlds, will find the secret of them both is love. —
Attar, Mystic of Nishapur. From M. Smith, The Persian Mystics
*** I cannot live without you, the night passes with difficulty; I long for you and get no sleep. Listen to my prayer; Without you, O beloved, none takes care of me, And I weep in my loneliness. Nanak the bride is in anguish without her spouse only union will relieve her of her pain. —
Guru Nanak Dev Ji, Adi Granth, (24)
*** I have loved thee with two loves, a selfish love and a love that is worthy, As for the love which is selfish, I occupy myself therein with remembrance of thee to the exclusion of all others, As for that which is worthy of thee, therein thou raisest the veil that I may see thee. —
Rabia, female Sufi saint of Basra. From M. Smith, Rabia, the Mystic.
*** Bliss quiets the senses. It is the natural state of the mind when unperturbed by previous desires unfulfilled, desires yet to be fulfilled and the desires known to be fulfillable. —
Satguru Sivaya Subramuniyaswami, Merging with Shiva: The final Conclusions for all mankind
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Shower on us Thy torrential bliss, O Lord, Save us by sending us the deluge of Thy benedictions; Thou givest without asking. We can only pray to Thee; Thou returnest our helplessness and ingratitude with nothing but a rainbow of Thy compassion; Bless us Master, bless us. —
Rigveda, 1.7.7 |
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