The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

PERSPECTIVE

The model Nikahnama: Beginning of reforms
by Virendra Kumar

THE initiation of model ‘Nikahnama’ by the All-India Muslim Personal Law Board is indeed a welcome step. It augurs well because in the matter of social reform in the realm of personal laws, if the initiative comes from within the community itself, the degree of its acceptance by the members of the community at large is relatively much higher.

Moreover, if renovation or reconstruction in the Muslim personal law is in consonance with the Sunnat, that is, traditions set up or/and duly approved by Prophet Muhammad, there is still more likelihood of breaking the traditional inertia.

One thing that needs to be borne in mind is that the significance of the initiative reflected in the projection of model ‘Nikahnama’ is to be seen, assessed and realised in terms of not what it does not but what it does provide especially for the benefit of Muslim women, whose status is in dire need of reforms.

Traditionally speaking, one of the counts on which reforms in Muslim personal law as practiced in India is highly desiderated is ‘how to control the husband’s absolute power of dissolving marriage?’ Any Mohammadan of sound mind, who has attained puberty, may divorce his wife whenever he desires without assigning any cause.

Such an unbridled power, described by A.A.A. Fyzee, one of the distinguished modern writers on Muhammadan Law in India, as “one-sided engine of oppression,” is customarily reflected in what is termed ‘talaq-ul-biddat or ‘talaq-i-badai’ — that is, pronouncing of divorce thrice in one go as ‘I divorce thee thrice’, or in three separate sentences, ‘I divorce thee, I divorce thee, I divorce thee’.

All this simply implies that marriage stands dissolved irrevocably the moment triple talaq is pronounced. The Prophet Muhammad attempted to reform this irrevocable form of talaq by replacing it by the revocable form, called ‘talaq-ul-Sunnat’, which literally means a talaq, which is based on the tradition of Prophet himself.

The strategy and justification for bringing about this shift was as under: principally, the Prophet considered talaq as an evil. If at all this evil was to take place, the best course according to him was the one in which there was possibility of revoking the effects of this evil. With this avowed objective, the Prophet recommended only the revocable talaq that is a form in which the evil consequences of talaq do not become instantly final and thus there is a possibility of compromise and reconciliation between the husband and wife.

Refinement of talaq-ul-Sunnat is further found in two forms — Talaq Hasan and Talaq Ahsan. The former, though regarded as proper and approved form of dissolving marriage, it is not considered the best mode because the evil words of ‘talaq’ are to be pronounced three times in successive tuhrs (the period of purity — period between two menstruation). If the husband resumes conjugal relations, say, after the first or even second pronouncement, the words of talaq become ineffective, as if no talaq was pronounced at all.

The second form, namely ‘talaq Ahsan’, was considered the most proper form of repudiation of marriage. In this form, husband is required to make only a single pronouncement of talaq during tuhr, and the wife is obliged to observe iddat for a period of three months (a period of continence imposed on woman on the termination of marriage in the interest of certainty of paternity).

If during this period there is resumption of cohabitation, the talaq is revoked, and it is presumed that the husband has reconciled with his wife. Since the model ‘Nikahnama’ tends to control the husband’s absolute power of divorce impliedly by invoking the Prophet’s own tradition, it should instantly gain credence and willing acceptability.

In other Islamic countries, including neighbouring Pakistan, even the practice of polygamy is virtually banned by re-interpreting the Quranic injunction that seems to permit a Muslim husband to have four regular or Sahi marriages. Such a provision is, however, subject to the proviso that all the four wives are to be treated equally. Nevertheless ‘equality’ means not only in ‘material respects’ but also emotional, which is nay impossible to achieve.

Following this proviso, in the Dissolution of Muslim Marriage Act, 1939, the Indian legislature does provide that if a Muslim husband who has more wives than one does not treat her equally in accordance with the injunctions of the Quran, it would amount to treating the wife with cruelty, and the same would entitle a woman to obtain a decree for the dissolution of her marriage.

Seemingly thus, husband taking a second wife is not in itself cruelty to the first, but it does provide a ground for legitimate grievance to the wife because, according to judicial construction, the burden of proof lies upon him to show that his taking a second wife involved no insult or cruelty to the first!

Looked from this functional perspective, the initiative taken by the All India Personal Law Board for making a move towards reforming Muslim law from within needs to be acclaimed and appreciated. It is just a beginning of the beginning of reforms.

The writer is Emeritus Fellow in Law, Panjab University, Chandigarh

Siachen has no strategic significance
by Gurmeet Kanwal

DOES Siachen have “immense” strategic significance? Obviously no. Participants at a recent seminar on “Demilitarisation of Siachen” organised by the ORF Institute of Security Studies, New Delhi, questioned the official line in this regard. They maintained that there was no significance other than the need to guard against Pakistan’s attempts to link up Karakoram Pass with the area in Shaksgam Valley that it illegally ceded to China in 1963 and through which the Karakoram Highway has been built.

Having agreed on demilitarisation, participants stressed the need to accurately delineate the present positions of both sides on ground and map as a start point for the subsequent demilitarisation process. Without delineation, it would not be possible to deal effectively with violations in future.

India’s talks with Pakistan in 1998 had broken down due to Pakistan’s intransigence on agreeing to exchange and jointly ratify the present positions on ground and map. Siachen is an emotive issue in Pakistan. A former diplomat said that the Pakistan army finds it difficult to publicly accept the present deployment position because they have told their nation that they are on the Saltoro Ridgeline and that the Indian army is at a position of disadvantage on the lower heights. When the truth comes out, it will amount to a loss of face for the Pakistan army.

A participant recommended that India should invite eminent map makers including those from National Geographic to publish maps and satellite photographs of the area to inform the international and Pakistani public better about the present military positions at Siachen.

There was a consensual view that despite the ongoing peace process and General Musharraf’s professed change of heart, it would not be prudent to trust the Pakistanis as yet due to their proclivity to launch Kargil-type intrusions across the LoC. Several former Indian army officers emphasised that the army cannot take back heights on the Saltoro Ridge if the Pakistan army was to surreptitiously occupy some positions after disengagement and demilitarisation as the terrain configuration, the super-high altitude (above 20,000 feet in most cases) and treacherous climatic conditions preclude successful offensive action.

The consensus was that unless the Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) is converted into a mutually agreed LoC, there should be no question of withdrawal from the present positions. It was felt that India should wait for the present ceasefire to hold on for a longer period and for greater trust to build up between the two nations. India must not rush into demilitarisation. A 5-10 year timeframe may perhaps be appropriate. The cease-fire should be followed by the process of delineation of present positions, then gradual disengagement by sectors and finally demilitarisation.

The writer is Senior Fellow, Observer Research Foundation, New Delhi

On Record
Let’s be elitist in approach: Nayyar
by Smrithi Kak Ramachandran

Prof Deepak Nayyar

BOUQUETS and brickbats in equal measure. Prof Deepak Nayyar’s tenure as the Vice-Chancellor of Delhi University ends today (May 15, 2005) was all this and more. For every step that he took, there were voices raised. While some called him autocratic, others alleged that he manipulated appointments. “God helps those who help themselves. I was here to do a job and I have done that and have learnt many things,” he tells The Sunday Tribune. Asked whether he wanted a second term, pat came the reply, “I have had a memorable decade, five years as a student and 33 years later as Vice-Chancellor. Besides, there is a time for arrival and departure.” He loves to return to teaching.

Excerpts:

Q: You said the university “is a miniature republic of India, difficult to govern and where expectations are awesome, but my sole objective is academic excellence”. Have you achieved that?”

A: I was touched by the warmth with which my appointment was received by academics, civil society and the media. I also found people expected miracles. But I told my colleagues that I am no magician. I set myself two objectives. One, to restore academic excellence in Delhi University. And two, to reclaim the university’s leadership role in higher education as a role model for others. When I took over as VC, I saw five domains that represented real challenges. First, the academic world of curricula, which did not change in decades and the teaching-learning process, lost its dynamism and reduced to learning by rote. Secondly, university departments in large numbers were bereft of faculty. Even the critical numbers were missing in some. Thirdly, the infrastructure was close to collapse. Fourthly, the milieu was not student and teacher friendly. And finally, resource constraint was becoming dominant. We could overcome these challenges.

Q: Has curriculum revision and reforms like internal assessment been the high points of your career?

A: The first challenge of curriculum revision, which we in a short span of five years turned into an opportunity, indeed brought about an academic renaissance. It is much more than my most optimistic expectations. We have at one level revised existing courses and introduced new courses. We have restructured programmes as a whole. The most striking example is the erstwhile BA pass course, which according to students, had become a crying shame. We have replaced that with a state-of-art programme with language, discipline, application and foundation courses which give students a contemporary exposure and the freedom of flexibility to do different courses. The biggest achievement has been the introduction of internal assessment.

Q: The process of selection and reappointment came under fire many a time with teachers alleging that it was not transparent.

A: There were departments without teachers and colleges without principals. Selection committees met intermittently, sparsely and randomly. We took upon ourselves this task in a systematic way. In the past five years, there were no visitor’s nominees for two years, so no appointments could be made. We conducted selection committee meetings for 450 faculty positions in university departments and 375 committees to consider people for promotion under the Career Advancement Scheme. No preferences, no prejudices. We didn’t fill vacancies if we didn’t find anyone good enough. Appointments are like marriages in our society: Till death or retirement do us part.

Q: What are your views on industry-universities linkage?

A: In a country with our level of income, the state should shoulder the main responsibility of supporting and financing education. But universities should start to mobilise resources. This is an important complement, not a substitute. Civil society has a role. Private sector is willing to run education as business. In higher education, public institutions are leaders. Even when private universities come, they cannot be substitutes. We have to become state of art.

Q: What about higher education in India? Are you happy with the progress or do you see a decline?

A: The gap between our universities and those abroad has widened. The state of the universities in India has been in decline because of their proliferation with no attention to minimum standards/ resources. What happened to the Republic of India happened to the universities as well. The work ethic declined, values dipped, institutions diluted and there was intrusion of political processes in universities. If primary education is the base, higher education is the cutting edge. Universities are the lifeline of higher education. The centres of excellence, IITs and IIMs cater to a few thousands, universities to people at large. We have to strengthen universities.

Q: Are we going to be world class?

A: Yes. The University of Delhi is not going to be Harvard but there are colleges that can be at par. We need to be elitist in higher education, which does not mean providing education to the affluent. We should provide opportunities to the most gifted. We should support universities as leaders in excellence.

OPED

Profile
Actress with poise and dignity
by Harihar Swarup

NANDITA Das is the second Indian actress, considered tall enough, to sit in judgement on the films in competition in the world’s premier film festival at Cannes. But in sharp contrast to the recognition she got at the prestigious film festival, not a single Indian film figures in the official selection of the Cannes festival. As if, in a sad repeat of last year, India went empty-handed at Cannes, but Nandita sits with Emir Kusturica, the Sarajevo filmmaker, who heads the nine-person jury. It’s best known members are actors Salma Hayek and Javier Bardem, director John Woo, and American Nobel-winning author Toni Morrison. Paradoxically, the world’s biggest film-producing nation does not have a single entry this year in competition while Sri Lanka and Iraq do. Nandita says being on the jury means serious work. Art is a subjective medium and it is not easy to judge films.

Having made her debut as the eye-catching second lead in the controversial film, “Fire”, she is known to be a very reluctant star and also outspoken about her contempt for Bollywood. Critics say she is bright, gusty and extremely articulate and yet firm in rejecting the role she would not like to do. She turned down outright the lead in Mira Nair’s “Kamasutra” and in Indra Kumar’s “Mann”. She did not feel confident enough to accept the role in “Kamasutra”. “I also felt a bit uncomfortable with the way some of the scenes had been conceptualised”, she says.

Nandita likes to work in films in which she feels comfortable and has a disdain for the films in which stereotype women have been portrayed as weak and stupid. She prefers to live in Delhi. “Here I am comfortable with my old friends, who will bring me back to reality the moment they think I’m flying too high”, she has been quoted as saying.

As the daughter of noted painter Jatin Das, Nandita has inherited the artistic streak in her personality. She too paints in her spare time. She started acting when she was barely out of school and worked with a street-theatre in Delhi known as “Jan Natya Manch”. She staged plays about social problems like illiteracy, communalism and worked with the Natya Manch for about six years. Her association with the organisation was voluntary. More than acting, ideas and the issues raised were important to her.

She switched over to small theatre projects. During this period, she completed her bachelor’s degree in Geography from Delhi University. She then took to teaching at the Rishi Valley School down south, did her Master’s in Social Work, started working with children from underprivileged homes and held workshops for them. She needed money for survival and had to take up projects to make both ends meet. Strangely, acting was not her career option during those formative years. “I never considered it as my profession. It is an interest, and I think that, to a large extent, it is still more an interest”, she reportedly said in interviews.

Initially, she worked in two films a year, never went to a Director or producer or sat in Mumbai lobbying. As the release of “Fire” was getting delayed, she did one Hindi film, Govind Nihlani’s “Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa”. It turned out to be a hit. Her film, “1947: Earth”, with Deepa Mehta enabled her form a special relationship with Deepa. It is the story of a small group of people whose world was changed by Partition. There is a little Parsi girl and Nandita plays her ‘ayah’. Her character is that of a sensuous but innocent women, in the middle of a love triangle. As events of 1947 unfold, with independence and partition, she sees her small world collapsing. It is all about how decisions taken by a few men at the top changed everything for these people.

The film “Water” brought Nandita and Deepa quite close. “She is a wonderful Director who allows her actors to think for themselves”, says Nandita. For the filming of 1947, she was constantly taking inputs from her. Even when Deepa was giving finishing touches to the screenplay of “Water”, she would call Nandita up and read the scenes for her reaction. Nandita feels that the lines between the so-called ‘art’ cinema and ‘commercial cinema’ have got blurred. Nowadays there is good cinema and bad cinema. “I would rather work in films, I feel comfortable”, she says. Nandita also believes that the row kicked up by Shiv Sena over “Fire” was a politically motivated campaign by a handful of people.

Seen as a possible contender to Smita Patil, Nandita portrays her characters with self-confidence. Caught in limelight and controversies, she swaps between off beat and glamorous roles with ease.

Baglihar: Pak fears unfounded
by R.N. Malik

THE Baglihar dam has become a project of controversy. The story of this project will unfold follies on both sides with extra dose of obscurantism from Pakistan. India has rightly rejected Pakistan’s offer to start a dialogue on this issue, provided work is stopped.

The issue will now be adjudicated by arbitrators to be appointed by the World Bank once and for all. The decision on this project should be made binding on all future projects as well to help India execute them in a hassle-free and conducive environment.

The Baglihar project consists of construction of a 135 M or 450 ft (from river bed) high concrete dam across the Chenab river near village Baglihar in Doaba district of Jammu and Kashmir. It is 15 km away from Batot township and 140 km from Jammu. It is a run-of-the-river project and will generate 900 MW of power in two phases. Phase I of 450 MW is likely to be commissioned by September 2006. Till now the dam has been constructed to a height of 80 meters. Because of the narrow valley, the dam will create a live storage of 15 million cubic meter which is equal to a discharge of 6,500 cusecs for one day.

However, the turbines require a discharge of 35,000 cusecs to generate 900 MW of power which will be available during three months of the monsoon season only. The lowest discharge during the winter months of December to February is 5,000 cusecs and average generation over the year would be 65 per cent of the installed capacity as against 43 per cent in case of the Nathpa-Zhakri project. The live storage capacity or pondage is needed to regulate the daily inflows to generate power at rated capacity during peak demand hours.

Under the Indus Water Treaty, India has the right to use the water of these two rivers only for generation of hydro power by seeking the concurrence of Pakistan on a project-to-project basis. Pakistan wants that the project to be constructed with ungated spillway to allay its two imaginary fears — (i) India may release the stored water to cause floods in Pakistan during war or hostilities; (ii) India may not release water when it is needed most for irrigation of crops in Pakistan. Both fears are unfounded because the release of 15 million meter of water cannot cause floods by any stretch of imagination, particularly when the dam site is 120 km upstream of Pakistan territory.

Secondly, the live storage capacity can withhold the water inflows during the leanest period only for 36 hours. So both the fears of Pakistan are unfounded, imaginary and part of its obscurantist designs against India. It appears that Pakistan President General Musharraf has not been advised properly on this issue. On the other hand, India cannot agree to a dam with ungated spillway because the reservoir will be filled with silt in just 3-4 years and the provision of gated spillway and silt excluders is an inescapable part of the dam design.

Both the Jhelum and the Chenab rivers are notorious for transporting high load of silt because of the erosion of this mattle of sand or the hills in the entire catchment area during the rains. Pakistan knows this very well because the Mangla dam reservoir across the Jhelum river in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir has been heavily silted. Indian engineers too know this very well because the 690-MW Salad project, the first on the Chenab river, got silted within four years of its commissioning as India had to agree to close the lower sluice gates on Pakistan’s insistence.

Now the turbines have to be run against the silt laden water during the rainy season and have to be replaced after a period of 3-4 years. The live storage capacity too has been lost which can be restored only by construction of a 100 ft barrage in the upstream.

The Baglihar project will also meet the same fate sooner than later even if India wins the case and gates are provided at different levels. The stretch of the lake is about 27 km and silt excluders cannot take out the entire silt. The basic mistake is that run-off-the-river projects are successful only where silt concentration during floods is less than 5000 ppm. Otherwise, storage dam of adequate heights will have to be provided in series along the entire length of the river to entrap silt uniformly with equal distribution in each reservoir. The Salal project was taken up on the downstream end and had to bear the silt load of 80 per cent of the river length.

The turbines at Natpha-Zhakri project too suffer damage due to higher silt concentration (as reported in The Tribune) because the height of the diversion dam is only 200 ft and the small lake cannot entrap silt during flood season. The de-silting chambers work only when silt load is normal, i.e. less than 5000 ppm. The plant load factor is only 43 per cent and the project can be saved only if a storage dam with a live storage of 1.5 bm capacity is built in the upstream at Wangtu.

The proposed dam will also improve the plant load factor by 15 per cent for all the downstream projects including the Kol dam (under construction). That Pakistan will not allow construction of big storage dams across the Chenab and the Jhelum rivers for the aforesaid reasons should have been realised by India before signing the Indus Water Treaty.

In foreign countries, there is always a river valley authority for each river which is responsible for complete planning of the entire stretch of the river for optimum use of water for irrigation and power generation. There is no such authority in India and multiple authorities work on a single river. Take the case of the Satluj river. The Bhakhra is under the Bhakra-Beas Management Board, the Kol Dam under the NTPC, the Natpha-Zhakri under the SVJN and the Baspa project under Jai Parkash Industries. In case of the Chenab, the Salal project was executed by the NHPC and the Baglihar project is under execution with the J&K Hydro Power Development Corporation.

Pakistan is striking axe on its feet by not allowing the construction of the storage dam along the entire stretch of the two rivers. The Mangla dam had already been silted up substantially and cannot hold water for irrigation and power generation round the year. The flood waters of the Chenab are flowing into the sea as Pakistan cannot build a storage dam across this river because hilly areas lie within Indian territory. As a result, Pakistan is facing acute shortage of irrigation water unnecessarily.

Pakistan should allow India to build storage dams all along the stretch so that India is able to generate maximum hydro power and Pakistan gets irrigation water and additional power at the Mangla dam and other downstream projects. Pakistan can enter into a new treaty with India to guard against the use of storage reservoirs as defence weapons during war or hostilities.

A rational and futuristic cooperation between the two countries on harnessing the run-off of these two mighty rivers with total annual flow of 50 MAF for optimum use for irrigation and power generation will be a great boon for economic development of both countries and a real confidence building measure (CBM) after the initial bonhomie.

****

The writer is former Engineer-in-Chief, Public Health, Haryana

Diversities — Delhi Letter
Ruskin Bond’s ‘Road to Mussoorie’
by Humra Quraishi

Ruskin Bond

WHAT'S Ruskin Bond doing here in the heat of May? This is exactly what I asked him, in our very first meeting, this week. Though I have been reading him for years, I never got to meet him. And when I finally did, the conversation between us simply flowed. I think popular and ‘ongoing’ writers (he has been writing for over half a century) like him have certain basics and that’s what attributes to their success besides good writing of course.

The contributing factors are being absolutely down to earth, no shying away from talking about the twists and turns of their lives and more in none of those trumpeted ways but just about as conversation bits.

Anyway, getting back to the basic question, why did he leave Mussoorie and land here now, he said: “For one, I had to interact with children from three schools — two Delhi schools and one in Karnal and then one of my new books gets launched.”

Yes, as Ruskin Bond turns 71 on May 19, his latest is ‘Road to Mussoorie’ (Rupa) gets launched here and he has this to say right at its start, “Instead of a Foreward I am writing a Backward, because that’s the kind of person I have always been. Very backward. I write by hand instead of working on a computer. I listen to the radio instead of watching the television. I don’t know how to operate a cell phone”.

He says, “Sometimes, I read books upside down. If I have to read a modern novel, I will read the last chapter first, usually that’s enough. Sometimes, I walk backwards. In this book, I take a backward look at people I have known and interesting and funny things that have happened to me on the way up to the hills or down from the hills”.

Focusing his attention to the present-day situation in Delhi, I asked him about the spurt in rape cases. He said, “could be the sexually explicit films being screened on the television, affecting young minds. Then, they are never told that romantic love is one thing and sexual anarchy is different. Our society is too repressed, so people try to break free and go on a rampage. Crime is worsening here, the situation wasn’t so in the 60s when I had lived here with my father who was an Air Force officer.”

It’s all in the mind!

Getting on, with the worsening crime situation vis-a-vis women, I have to write about a debate held at the Mater Dei Convent. This debate focused along the strain, ‘Do boys and girls have equal rights in our society?’. A young public school student spoke of our mindsets. He stressed that till there is a change in our thought process, little can be expected .

This alone holds true, for you can have any number of laws but till the mindset doesn’t change, girls will continue to be viewed as objects of sex and desire and lust. For wearing trousers doesn’t make you progressive. Earlier, when our men wore dhotis or shervanis or kurta-pyjamas, they had a healthier attitude towards women than the youth of today, going about in jeans and shorts.

Something has definitely gone haywire. Either the films and TV serials have had an ill-effect or sheer negligence in homes. This change has to begin from homes and from women themselves — mothers, grandmothers, aunts and sisters have to play a role in the upbringing of their men.

On May 10 evening, IIC’s main auditorium was more than packed. Rows of chairs were placed outside as people continued to come even well past the opening time. The evening was dedicated to Pankaj Mullick. I had written about it last week. I would like to bring home the point that people still crave for the traditional.

We should take the trouble of giving it to them. Pran Nevile did exactly this and succeeded. He focussed attention on one of our best known singers and composers, Pankaj Mullick.

Monk’s shadow

May 16 will see the release of Mishi Saran’s book ‘Chasing the Monk’s Shadow (Penguin). This will be followed by a panel discussion.