The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Acute power crisis
Time for durable, long-term solutions

The acute power shortage in parts of the country, especially in Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra, Karnataka and West Bengal, is cause for serious concern at a time when the economy is showing perceptible signs of slowing up. Not only are domestic consumers having to sweat it out, industry and trade are being dealt a crippling blow. The real crunch is in the availability of coal, with five plants of the National Thermal Power Corporation reportedly having coal for just one or two days in stock. Nature has combined with maladministration to precipitate the crisis. While there has been heavy rain in mining areas in the eastern belt, the disruption of mining in Andhra Pradesh due to a strike to press for a separate state of Telangana has aggravated the situation considerably. With the Centre continuing to drag its feet on the Telangana issue, the portents are indeed grim. Added to these was the two-day strike in Coal India which heightened the disruption of supplies to the thermal plants.

To make matters worse, import prices of coal are also ruling very high. Last year this was attributed to heavy rain and floods in Australia’s coal mines and this year is no better. Therefore, the option of large-scale coal imports to keep the power situation from worsening has its own pitfalls. Since much of the promised new capacity has already been contracted to state power boards at relatively low prices, there is a question mark over the viability of these plants also.

Significantly, the demand for coal is increasing by 7 per cent annually but coal production is growing at only by 2.2 per cent. With the country’s diversification into non-conventional energy sources going at a slow pace, the dependence on coal as an energy source continues to be considerable. It is indeed time the government worked at augmenting power supply through non-conventional sources. Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde has been promising an easing of the current power crisis merely by transferring coal to deficient thermal units. But that would at best be a patchwork solution.

Maya’s parks and pride
Not the way to ensure Dalit emancipation

UP Chief Minister Mayawati’s penchant for memorials and parks dedicated to Dalit icons like B. R. Ambedkar and Kanshi Ram has led to her poverty-stricken state spending crores of rupees on such populist projects. She has revived the controversy over UP’s 10 parks — nine in Lucknow and one in Noida — by inaugurating the one in Noida on Friday with much fanfare. She has wasted taxpayers’ money — Rs 685 crore — which could have been spent on better projects aimed at Dalit emancipation. A BIMARU state like UP cannot afford to spare even 1 per cent of its annual budget — the amount she claims has been spent on the Noida park — for non-productive expenditure. The parks, having Ms Mayawati’s own statues and those of her parents besides Dalit icons and her party BSP’s election symbol — the elephant — cannot help in the amelioration of the condition of UP’s poor, most of whom are Dalits. Interestingly, a 1000-strong police task force for the protection of these parks has been created. Though there is a ticket-based entry system, this is unlikely to generate as much funds as will be needed for their maintenance.

Ms Mayawati is not the least bothered about the criticism that her parks and memorials have evoked. Even the Supreme Court’s strictures have failed to make her see reason — that raising memorials on a grand scale is no way to spend public money. She said while inaugurating the Noida park — Rashtriya Dalit Prerna Sthal — that her parks were the symbols of Dalit power. Noida, in her opinion, needed such a park on the eastern bank of the Yamuna to remind the Dalits in Delhi and the surrounding areas that the times have changed; they are Dalits only in name.

But the truth is hidden behind these unwanted parks. The Dalits of UP need employment opportunities more than anything else. She should visit the Bundelkhand region in the state particularly to see the appalling condition in which the Dalits live there. The situation is no better elsewhere too. But Ms Mayawati believes that the psychological boosting of the poor is more important than their educational and economic empowerment! A strange logic, indeed.

Thought for the Day

Aggressive conduct, if allowed to go unchecked and unchallenged, ultimately leads to war. — John F. Kennedy

ARTICLE

Lashkar-e-Toiba’s end-game
Building proxies, indigenous terror network
by D. Suba Chandran

Three years after the horrible terrorist attacks in Mumbai, the Lashkar-e-Toiba, the primary perpetrator of terrorism in India, has been keeping a low profile. During the last three years, there have been no spectacular terrorist attacks in India led by the Lashkar. What is likely to be Lashkar’s game plan?

Besides examining the Lashkar’s likely strategy, it is also essential to look into four specific questions: What would be the Lashkar’s larger game plan vis-à-vis India? Is the Lashkar likely to look beyond India and become an international threat? How tenuous are the linkages and the line of control between the Lashkar and its controllers — the ISI of Pakistan? Finally, will the Lashkar also break up with the ISI and become another Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP)?

First, an analysis of the Lashkar’s end-game vis-à-vis India. Though the Lashkar has ceased to be a Kashmir-based organisation for a long time, Kashmir still remains very much a part of its agenda, even today. With the Hizbul Mujahideen fast declining within the Kashmir valley, and the Jaish-e-Mohammad concentrating its efforts erstwhile, as a part of the Taliban in Pakistan, the Lashkar will remain the trump card for Pakistan to keep militancy alive within J&K.

Though the Lashkar has primarily become a “Punjabi” militant organisation fighting for the cause of J&K, it has been active, recruiting over-ground workers (OGWs) in the Kashmir valley. While there may not be many Kashmiris as a part of the Lashkar’s fighting force, it has not come to zero; there is still an element of “Kashmiri” militants as local commanders and foot soldiers. The Lashkar militant leadership above district and divisional commanders rest primarily with the Punjabi component of the Lashkars.

While the security forces and the local police have substantially weakened the Hizbul’s structure, the Lashkar network remains. What needs to be analysed and probed is: What is likely to be the Lashkar’s game plan vis-à-vis the Kashmiri OGWs and the small component of active fighters? Is the Lashkar planning to change the nature of Islam in the Kashmir valley by introducing a virulent form over the Sufi Islam? Are the new structures of worship, built in recent years within the valley hint a particular slant away from Sufi Islam and towards Saudi Arabia? What role does the Lashkar OGWs play in this change? If there is an effort to change the nature of Islam in the valley, it would be a bigger threat than mere terrorist, both to the Kashmiri social fabric and the rest of India. Both New Delhi and Srinagar have to monitor closely the larger game plan of the Lashkar in J&K.

Outside J&K, what is the Lashkar’s larger game plan? Though it has gone slow after the Mumbai attacks, this is a deliberate strategy for two reasons. One is to avoid any further pressure from India and the rest of the international community. After the Mumbai attacks, both India and the rest of the international community have applied enough pressure that the ISI and the Lashkar have decided to go slow in terms of pursuing active militant attacks on the Indian soil. Reason two: The Lashkar is silently pursuing a radical strategy, without the use of violence and getting noticed.

The Lashkar has not ceased its activities in the rest of India. According to intelligence inputs, based on national and state police reports from different parts of the country, the Lashkar is pursuing a three-pronged strategy. Number one, the Lashkar has been busy building its sleeper cells in select states of India — UP, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. While the emphasis on sleeper cells consisting of local youths has not been a new phenomenon, the nature and extent of these cells covering almost all of South India, and sensitive states in North India look alarming.

Number two, besides the sleeper cells, the Lashkar is also believed to be providing support to the Indian Mujahideen, another radical network, considered to be wholly comprised of Indian youths. Number three, with active assistance from the ISI, the Lashkar is also believed to be providing training within Pakistan. The modus operandi is: Indians would travel to select cities — Colombo, Bangkok, Kathmandu, Dhaka and Dubai — using Indian passports, from where they would be provided with Pakistani passports to Karachi or Lahore. They would return the same way, after getting the necessary training in Pakistan, leaving no paper work showing their visit to Pakistan! In fact, for those Indians who are visiting Kathmandu, there is no need even to use an Indian passport.

The larger end-game of the Lashkar seems to be to put in place an indigenous Indian radical group, with adequate motivation and training. Given the nature of arms trafficking in South Asia, these groups could act with much ease. The fact that the Lashkar is reaching out to various states within India could be a part of its strategy to create different groups, fairly unconnected with the other, but linked with the Lashkar-e-Toiba — almost like the Al-Qaida cells, which were not inter-connected.

While the above analysis is only based on an informed guesstimate, this would mean that gone are the days when the J&K police could tip the Karnataka police; every state has to depend on its own intelligence network. More importantly, the above would also mean, India may not be able to pinpoint Pakistan or the Lashkar as the brain behind militant attacks. In short, what this would mean for the Lashkar is high returns and no cost.

Finally, how tenuous is the link between the Lashkar and the ISI inside Pakistan? The most important difference between the Lashkar and the TTP will be in terms of what the leadership wants vis-à-vis their erstwhile masters — the ISI. Unlike the TTP, the Lashkar even today very much plays according to what the ISI wants. The available information does not hint that the Lashkar leadership is planning to act on its own against Pakistan. Today the Lashkar is the only organisation which has no problems with the ISI either in terms of the objective or strategy. All other militant groups — the Taliban, the Jaish-e-Mohammad, the Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and even the Hizbul Mujahideen — have serious differences vis-à-vis the ISI.

As a result, Pakistan will never act against the Lashkar for two important reasons. First and foremost, the Lashkar is willing to play as the ISI’s “veritable arm” vis-à-vis India and be Pakistan’s perfect stooge. Second, the Lashkar has not joined other militant organisations — Al-Qaida and the Taliban in particular — in targeting Pakistan’s strategic interests. There is no known record of the Lashkar organising any major terrorist attack inside Pakistan — either against the state forces or sectarian groups.

However, Pakistan is likely to face problems vis-à-vis the Lashkar in terms of the latter’s growing international linkages. There was a time in which the Taliban and the Jaish-e-Mohammed used to be the primary intermediary between the radical youths from Europe, Africa and North America, and the Af-Pak region. Since the mid-1990s, Al-Qaida, the Taliban and the Jaish invited the global jihadis, motivated and trained them, and even allowed them to have a ground-level practice of jihad.

While the Lashkar has kept away from this international network, there are reports that in recent years they have also started cultivating individuals and groups from different countries, including the US and Indonesia. The recent Headley trial in Chicago should confirm this new global focus. As a result, the Lashkar is likely to come under the international focus as well. In fact, there is already an independent interest in the US about the activities of the Lashkar, outside the Indian complaints to Washington. American analysts closer to the ISI, who once considered the Lashkar as an Indian problem, now are looking into the implications for the US.

The Lashkar’s end-game has already started; they know what they want to do during this decade and are placing a network to achieve their objectives. As the Americans exit from Afghanistan, and Washington’s influence over Islamabad declines, the Lashkar would move towards the kill. During the current decade the major difference would be this: their proxies and franchisees within India would do the job for them.n

The writer is Director, Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies, and Visiting Professor, Pakistan Studies Programme, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.

MIDDLE

Direction challenged!
by Raji P. Shrivastava

How easy it is to lose your way in the urban jungle!

“Turn left from here, drive about half a kilometre, stop at the red lights, go straight, look for a signboard that says, “Pracheen Shiv Mandir”, take a U turn at that point, drive about 200 metres and there is this wonderful shop, “Adhunik Garments.” All this for a handloom dupatta to match a kurta from an exhibition-cum-sale at the Ramlila Ground, which, as you know, is about 5 km from the Inter State Bus Stop – you just have to drive straight, stop at the second red light, turn right and drive till you reach the vast open space where Ravan’s head is blasted off in ceremonial explosions each Dasehra.

If your town has roundabouts, intersections or chowks, it makes for interesting navigation. Old towns have structures like clock-towers or gates that act as reference points, so you know that your destination is about a hundred yards from the Ghantaghar or the Lal Darwaja. But you may still need pointers to landmarks like Ajanta Icecream Parlour or Baji Rao’s Bisibele Bhaath to arrive in time for your rendezvous at a particular address. It is not surprising that in such towns, everyone knows everyone else and also makes it his business to know who is visiting whom.

The ancient Indians had an embargo on crossing the ocean. So it is not difficult to assume that our ancestors may have journeyed great lengths but most of it was travel in the mind, or armchair tourism. Giving directions and helping the trekker along on his way comes most naturally to us because we are vicarious voyagers. We seem to be so worried about reaching our destination without any wrong turns that we forget about enjoying the journey itself.

It is considered very inhuman if you do not share route information with someone who asks for your help. While ambling along the curio shops in Chennai’s Mylapore, another pedestrian stopped me and asked for directions to the Kapaleeswarar Temple. “Saar, I do not know.” I replied in hesitant Tamil. “Then how come you are here, Madam?” asked my bossy interrogator. “Saar, I too am a tourist-pilgrim like you!” He apologised with a sheepish grin and I offered helpfully, “But surely the coconut seller here will know the way!”

Take the standard dialogue between this delightful septuagenarian couple who resides in the verdant environs of the university in Ahmedabad and loves to have younger folk visiting them. As I said goodbye to them on the porch, the feisty lady said to me, “Now, your uncle will tell your driver how to get past C.G. Road to the Sarkhej-Gandhinagar highway and where to stop for a tea break!” Sure enough, the dashing Professor was drawing an imaginary route map in the air with an energetic arm as my driver nodded in respectful compliance. The lady remonstrated with her husband in mock anger and led him inside but not before he fired a parting shot: “Don’t go by the Gandhi Chowk, the road is all dug up!”

OPED THE ARTS

Foreign hand in our moves
In its century long journey, Indian dance encountered several foreigners, who helped it re-define its unique identity.
Ashish Mohan Khokar

On a visit to India, in 1932, Victor Dandre lamented, “There are no schools of dancing in India, it is an art which nobody is interested in.” All he and his wife, the famed Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova got to see during this visit, was some variety of nautch dances. Later, Anna Pavlova became a catalyst for encouraging two of India’s biggest dance names, Uday Shankar and Rukmini Devi Arundale.

Nautch: As the Indian dance was known during the colonial period. A Tanjore Nautch Party-Circa 1890-1910.

Father of Indian contemporary dance Uday Shankar (1900-1977)

In India, Pavlova had occasion to attend a wedding, and there her attention turned to producing a ballet on the ritual of Indian weddings. A leading dancer with her, Harcourt Algeranoff was directed to pore over books and visuals to cull ideas for the wedding ceremonies, costumes and setting and next, a musician was to be found. The choice fell on a certain Bengali lass settled in London, Coomalata Banerjee. She was auditioned and hired to do the music for the ballet, simply called A Hindu Wedding. But she made a bigger contribution than this. She was aware of a young Indian boy dabbling in dance in London, who was actually studying painting and who may help Pavlova design the scenography. The young lad was Uday Shankar, who not only designed the stage but later partnered Pavlova as a dancer. Thus, Pavlova “discovered” Uday Shankar, who also choreographed another ballet for Pavlova— Krishna and Radha — in which Pavlova partnered with him.

Uday Shankar grew to be an icon of Indian dance and not for classical traditions (the credit for that goes to Ram Gopal, discovered by La Meri) but hailed as the first “creative, contemporary dancer-choreographer”. Shankar is called the Father of neo-classical or contemporary dance.

In 1927, another development took place. A personable young Indian lady Leila Sokhey met Pavlova in London and bemoaned that though she had been very keen on learning dance in India, she could not make much headway. Pavlova immediately assigned Algeranoff to teach Leila Sokhey. Leila was none other than Madame Menaka, in a later stage incarnation and did much for Indian dance, in western India, based in Bombay.

In 1929, Pavlova was going to Australia via India and Java. A young bride, Rukmini Devi Arundale, with her husband George Arundale were on board. Their cabin was opposite Pavlova’s and one thing led to another and Pavlova’s staff choreographer, Cleo Nordi inspired Rukmini to learn ballet while on the long journey! Later, Rukmini was not only to help reinstate Bharatanatyam, but also set up one of the most reputed institutions of Indian dance, Kalakshetra, for the propagation of dance.

Pavlova visited India for the second time in 1928-29 and Menaka worked with Algernoff and choreographed three stage dances, of which most notable was Naga Kanya Nritya. Did the inspiration come from Ruth St. Denis’ Cobra Dance?

The west meets the oriental

Ruth St Denis and Ted Shawn need little introduction to the world dance audiences. Born Edwin Myers, the name Ted stuck on him while Ruth was both his senior in age and experience and the pioneer of modern American dance, who gave the dance world such leading lights as Martha Graham, Mary Wigman and Charles Weidman. Martha had once said “Miss Ruth opened a door and I saw into a life.”

Like Isadora Duncan who preceded her, Ruth was a revolutionary artiste who felt the need to break from the limitations of western ballet. She saw the salvation of the dance not so much in the rhythms of classical Greece as those of the Orient – Japan, China and India. Knowing fully well then that the western mind was not much exposed to assimilate these deeply spiritual dances, with their gestures and movements that have come down through long generations as symbols and legends, she made no attempt to ‘reproduce’ them but her aim was to give a fair and beautiful translation that would help American and European audiences come closer to Oriental cultures. In this, she proved to be a catalyst.

Her many dances with Indian themes like Radha, Incense, Cobra and Nautch made many come closer to things Indian and Ted Shawn was drawn to her art and her. They married and Denishawn was born! The Denishawn Co. Toured India until 1932 and trained countless dancers. When the company landed in Calcutta in 1925 they wanted to see Indian dances but found no signs of it. Thanks to the efforts of the American “consulate” they could meet some nautch dancers, that too on the 18th day of their 20 day stay!

The Shawns were fortunate to meet star performers of the day, Bachwa Jaan and Malikka Jaan, both professing Kathak but of the Kotha variety. Ruth got so ecstatic seeing them dance, she got up as if in a trance and danced. Seeing her dance, Bachwa Jaan gave her the ankle bells she was wearing—a gesture of highest affection and regard an Indian dancer could express in courtly etiquette.

They travelled through India and performed in Calcutta (Empire Theatres), Karachi (where they came in contact with young Muslim boys dressed up as girls and dancing a variety of Kathak) and met Pt Hiralal, a Kathak exponent from whom they learnt Mohr Dance or Peacock Dance. They next went to Darjeeling where at the Bhutia Monastery they managed to see some Tibetan dances and in south they went to Madurai and Madras, where seeing Mahabalipuram, Ted was inspired to compose the Dance of Siva, Cosmic dancer Nataraja, for which he got a huge brass ring of Shiva’s fire made in metal by a Calcutta foundry, at centre of which he stood himself and danced as Shiva Nataraja!

Revival of Indian dance

In the decade after this, the slow and steady revival of Indian dance traditions started. The above mentioned foreigners deserve credit for showcasing Indian dances worldwide, thereby creating not only an interest (and a market) abroad but also open the eyes of the Indians to their own traditions.

The thirties thus saw the revival of four principal classical styles beginning with Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Kathakali and Manipuri. For years all writings on Indian dance, in that period, referred only to these four principal styles. It was only subsequently that the dance-drama or mellam/yakshagana traditions like Kuchipudi, Bhagvat Mela Natakam and Yakshagana got any mention in the mainstream dance writing.

Forms like Orissi, Chhau or even martial arts like Kalari and Thang-Ta — so much in vogue today — did not even find mention among the mainstream dances of India. Many dancers learnt two or more styles to survive and be professionally relevant in the early years, after independence. This trend continued for long, until it gave way to an amalgamation or fusion of different forms, when the art of the soloist gave way to group art.

The coming of several institutions in the decade after the visit by foreigners of note led to creation of many major institutions like the Kerala Kalamandalam, Kalakshetra, and Santiniketan – to specifically teach and nurture traditional Indian dances.

All through the two decades prior to and the two decades after Independence, Indian dance forms were being revived and reinstated. The process crystallised later.

While Indian dances have reached out to most corners of the world now, thanks also to Indian diaspora, the original catalysts were a few pioneering foreigners who visited India and inspired many Indians to re-look at their own dance traditions. They played a significant role in shaping the fortunes of Indian dances.

In the mid eighties, some exponents of classical forms who had not much success with solo dancing took to experimentation. Kumudini Lakhia in Kathak, and Chandralekha in Bharatnatyam were the leading lights of this new direction. For them, to continue creating from within tradition was a challenge, as they had not succeeded in gharana culture. They also had “modern” outlook and eclectic exposure to trends abroad.

Today we see a new breed of acrobatics and gymnastics that is being palmed of as dance! This has happened as neither the teachers have time to teach for years, nor students have the required patience. Films have usurped the cultural space— which also means that an artiste must know horse-riding as well as dancing; skating as well and singing. Thus, small steps, group formations and some jhata-matka are enough to get by as a dancer. Even TV and film choreographers are busy promoting this kind of dance, which is miles away from the Indian dance, as we had known.

Every society has contemporary response to its times. This manifests in design, architecture, films, dance and the arts. Contemporary necessarily does not mean modern!

Modern dance has arisen out of these experiments, and today we have quite a few proponents of contemporary dance.

Is modern dance a specific language? Like Kathak or Bharatanatyam, does it have a specific language, structure or characteristics? How is it modern?

The next instalment will examine that!

The writer is an acclaimed dance critic and historian. He chairs The Dance History Society of India