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Hope
survives Closer to
statehood |
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Books
and youngsters
Factors
behind Gaza war
Death of
a short story writer
Many
milestones…
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Closer to statehood
The
UN General Assembly adopting a resolution granting the status of a state to the Palestine Authority area on Thursday does not mean that the Palestinians have won the fight for an independent sovereign homeland. The area, comprising the West Bank of the river Jordan and the Gaza Strip, is ruled by the Palestinians but Israel has control over defence and some other matters. However, the vote for Palestine is a major step towards the ultimate objective of having an independent Palestinian nation. Now the Palestinian status of being treated just as an “entity’ or “territory” will change and its flag will flutter along with the other flags at the UN headquarters in New York. But the historic victory for the cause of Palestine has upset the US and its apron-string, Israel, which were among the nine countries that voted against the resolution. The main reason is that Palestine can now join the International Criminal Court at The Hague and get Israel hauled up for its actions against the Palestinians. As many as 138 of the total 193 members of the UN voting for giving the non-member observer state status to Palestine shows that an overwhelming majority in the world feels that the historical wrong done to the Palestinians must be righted. Significantly, almost all influential countries in Europe are not with the US in favouring Israel under all circumstances. France went along with the majority of the UN members, and the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Norway and Denmark were among the 41 nations that abstained from voting. India demonstrated consistency in its stand by going along with the majority opinion. It also sent out the message that its strategic relations with the US could not come in the way of taking an independent foreign policy stand. The Palestinian victory may influence the course of politics in the Palestinian Authority area, too. This may lead to a patch-up between the Palestinians’ Fateh faction, which controls the West Bank area, and Hamas, running the administration in Gaza. President Mahmoud Abbas, who belongs to Fateh, may be the major gainer.
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Books and youngsters
Literacy
rates are showing a positive growth; over two-thirds of our population is now literate, and this should translate into thirst for knowledge and books. But, according to a survey, only one-fourth of our youngsters like to read books, apart from the mandatory textbooks. Findings of the first- ever Reading Assessment Survey should not shock educators and book-lovers, for the entire focus of the Indian education system has been on procuring a job rather than helping develop a well-rounded personality, which, to a great extent, rests on cultivating good reading habits. A person’s intellectual growth takes place in direct proportion of the evolution of his/her faculty of languages. Languages are the warehouse that store all human knowledge and also become a vehicle of expression. In a country as diverse as ours, a lot of effort is required to keep our regional languages oxygenated and thriving by enriching their growth with fresh literary inputs. It’s a complex issue. Local languages are under threat with the globally attractive reach of English. Then, there is Hindi, which offers lucrative opportunities in the entertainment and advertising industry. Therefore, books produced in regional languages will be read only if they offer stimulating and engaging content in a packaging that the young may find attractive. With an onslaught of information and entertainment available on the electronic media, language writing has to be far more lucid and imaginative to engage the young. The unprecedented success story of Harry Potter series has proved that imaginatively written words can defeat all other mediums. Then, the whole economics of publishing and distribution of books needs a deft handling. The only positive aspect underlining the survey report comes from the fact that books written in some regional languages like Marathi, Bengali, Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam, with their rich literary tradition, are read more than English fiction. Punjabi, too, can regain its lost ground if the government and publishers encourage literary activity in the language.
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The soul is the voice of the body's interests. — George Santayana
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Factors behind Gaza war
Available
evidence suggests that the November 14-21 war between Israel and Hamas started with the targeted assassination of Ahmad Jabari, the military commander of Hamas, on November 14. We have this on the authority of Gershon Baskin, the Israeli peace activist who played the key role in mediating the release of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who was kidnapped by and remained in the custody of Hamas for five years until his release in 2011. During the course of that mediation, Baskin had established close working relationship with Jabari. Baskin makes it clear that he did not trust Jabari whom he held responsible for several anti-Israeli terror attacks. But he did feel that establishing contact with Jabari could pave the way for an extended truce with Hamas. Accordingly, he was actively engaged in contacting Jabari through the Egyptian intelligence. Baskin says that he had forwarded the draft of a proposal which could have served as the basis for working out a long-term truce. Baskin had no illusions and he could not be certain of the prospects of his efforts, but he does feel strongly that Israel destroyed any chance of making progress by assassinating Jabari on the day he had sent his proposal. Once Jabari was killed, there was no way Hamas would not respond. 'Jabari is dead, and so is the chance for a mutually beneficial long-term ceasefire understanding,’ Baskin wrote. Of course, Israel has the right to defend itself. As an independent, sovereign country, and a member of the United Nations, it has, like other states, every right to protect its land and people against foreign aggression as also to take measures to deal with terrorist acts. But when certain states declare repeatedly that Israel has the right to defend itself, this implies that it has the right to use indiscriminate and disproportionate force. What about people in the Gaza Strip? Do they have the right to defend themselves? What exactly is the legal status of Gaza? It is an 'occupied territory'. Israel pulled out its settlers from the strip a few years ago but that did not make it an 'unoccupied' territory. Israel has maintained its tight grip on the strip in the form of a siege for the past half a dozen and more years; in fact, since 1967. Israel's right of self-defence must be matched with the Palestinians' right of self-determination; that is the proper equation. The right of self-determination carries with it the right to resist foreign occupation, but it does not confer any right to kill innocent people. Nearly every definition of terrorism permits the right to use force against occupiers, against their armed people, such as the settlers in occupied areas, but not to kill innocent civilians. The primary cause for the periodic hostilities between Israel and Gaza is the non-recognition by Israel and the West of the result of the democratic election in the Palestinian territories held in 2006. When Hamas won the overall majority in the occupied territories, Israel and the United States refused to accept the verdict of the people. That was certainly a case of selective respect for democracy. Some observers believe that President Abbas was not unhappy at the decision not to recognise the result of the election. Hamas' coup against Fateh in June 2007 divided, for good it would seem, the Palestinian national movement. Several efforts by Egypt and one by Saudi Arabia to reconcile the two have failed. After the ceasefire agreement with Israel of November 21 Hamas seems to have become more self-confident. Its political leadership has made statements indicating willingness to discuss unifying nationalist ranks. Hamas Prime Minister Haniye reversed his earlier position and extended support to President Abbas' initiative in the UN demanding observer state status for Palestine. This change is probably tactical. The one thing that Hamas desires is to be accepted into the fold of the PLO, which Fateh has resisted. Fateh fears that if Hamas becomes a part of the PLO, it would slowly but surely take over the organisation which, officially, still is recognised as representing all the Palestinian people. Israel's main objective in launching the offensive was to destroy or capture Fajr-5 rockets supplied by Iran, but that would have involved a massive ground operation with many risks, including Israeli casualties and forfeiting whatever sympathy it had won, with a condemnatory resolution in the United Nations a certainty. At some stage, the possibility of Hizbollah joining in the war might also have occurred to Israel. The question arises: why did Netanyahu agree to the ceasefire, without achieving any real success? He even managed to further weaken Abbas' position with his people, an outcome he may or may not have wished. Under the circumstances, Abbas had no choice but to proceed with his initiative in the UN despite American threats to cut off all assistance; backing down to American pressure would have completely destroyed him politically. One report suggests that in return for agreeing to the ceasefire, Netanyahu has obtained President Obama's commitment to deploy American troops in Sinai with a view to intercepting the material coming from Sudan and Libya for Hamas; this does not seem plausible since it would presuppose the consent of the Egyptian President for such deployment, something Mohamed Morsi cannot afford to agree to. The war gave Israel an opportunity to test its Iron Dome missile defence system which proved its effectiveness by destroying more than 60 per cent of incoming rockets. But Hamas has emerged the clear winner. Its isolation has ended and its prestige has gone up in the region. The North African Arab states, where Arab Spring has happened, have had to come out in its support. In addition to the $400 million pledged by Qatar before the hostilities started, Hamas will surely receive aid from some Arab states for reconstruction. Its support base in the West Bank has increased. The day after the ceasefire, Israel rounded up 50 Hamas activists in the West Bank. Ever since the flotilla affair, Hamas has developed close relations with Turkey which, till then, was close to Israel. Hamas has been smart in supporting the Syrian rebels , in the process upsetting Iran, its benefactor so far, and relocated its presence from Damascus to Jordan and Egypt. It has obtained Israel's commitment to keep open the border crossings permitting the movement of goods and people between Gaza and Israel; Israel, of course, will maintain the blockade of Gaza. The tunnels between Gaza and Egypt will become fully operational and all sorts of stuff will come into the strip. Hamas will get ready for the next round, with the help of some members of the international community. Obama, in his second term, has the opportunity to try and break the deadlock on the Palestinian issue. He knows that this is one problem which makes his country very unpopular in the Middle East and is a drag on the US policy towards the whole region. It is used by the radicals to justify their extremism. Hamas has made a few moderate noises. Khaled Meshal, the political leader of Hamas, said in Cairo on November 21 that he would accept a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as capital and the right of return. The significant point is that he is not demanding the establishment of a Palestinian state on the whole of historical Palestine, thus implicitly accepting the existence of Israel. Incidentally, when Hamas fought the election in 2006, it tacitly recognised Israel since the elections were held within the ambit of the Oslo accords which explicitly recognised Israel. His demand regarding Jerusalem and the right of return can be negotiated. He says categorically that when the Palestinian state is created, that will be the time to think of recognising Israel. If Israel is genuine about the two-state solution, it will have to engage Hamas, in addition to Fateh, in negotiations. Israel will have election in January, and if Netanyahu wins the polls there would be no reason for optimism. He is on record as having opposed the Oslo accords and has taken the position that a future Palestinian state can have no more than 40 per cent of the West Bank. This writer has long maintained that the Palestinian problem is unlikely to be resolved for a very long
time. The writer is a former Ambassador of India to the UN.
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Death of a short story writer On
November 28, Shravan Kumar Varma breathed his last in Amritsar. His passing away at the age of 85 has suddenly brought to the mind that Amritsar can no more boast of having nurtured Urdu short story writers. During the early 1930s, Saadat Hasan Manto made his mark in Urdu fiction with his debut short story, 'Tamasha', that centred around a victim of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. On the footsteps of Manto, some writers contributed fictional works and poetic creations to Urdu literature in the decades to come. It so happened that in the mid-1940s, some students wedded to Urdu literature got admission in Hindu College, Amritsar. Shravan Kumar Varma was among those. His first Urdu short story titled 'Pardesi' was published in the college magazine, 'Shivala'. Incidentally, I was the student editor of the Urdu section of that magazine. Both of us, along with some other like-minded lovers of Urdu, such as Mohinder Bawa, Inder Kumar Sagar, Gopal Krishan and K.K. Razdan, were under the influence of Prof M.M. Mathur, who had also taught Urdu and Persian to Saadat Hasan Manto years ago. In the days to come most of us left Amritsar, in search of new pastures, but Varma stuck to his guns. He settled permanently in Amritsar as a lawyer. During the course of six decades, he published some collections of short stories and a few novels. He was popular in the entire subcontinent, as his fiction had attracted readers both in India and Pakistan. Some of his works had been translated into Hindi and Punjabi, besides English. One of his short stories found place in 'Select Urdu Best Stories', published by Penguin. He had been bestowed with the Shiromani Urdu Sahitkar Puraskar in 1993 by the Languages Department, Punjab. Thereafter some other awards sponsored by the literary organisations and Urdu academies followed, but he remained unmindful of all these honours. He was fully absorbed in creative literature, even while neglecting the duties of his profession. He was well versed in Urdu and Hindi, but he had a special niche in his heart for Punjabi. He had been the President of the Sahit Vichar Kendra for many years. Some of his Punjabi short stories were published in Punjabi monthly 'Lau' and Punjabi quarterly 'Akhkhar', brought out from Amritsar. The Editor, Parminderjit, a Punjabi poet in his own right, was instrumental in getting his Urdu short stories rendered into Punjabi. Unluckily he remained confined to his bed for a long time due to one ailment or the other. He was hard up in those days but he considered it below his dignity to approach the authorities concerned for financial help. Still there is a feeling of grudge in the litterateurs that the Languages Department, Punjab did not come to his help suo moto while his plight had been mentioned in newspaper columns many times. Some time ago I visited him at his place and found him, in the words of T.S. Eliot, 'like a patient etherised upon a table'. Earlier I had found him composing short stories and poems while lying in his bed. He had in himself a reservoir of patience and confidence, full to the brim. Even now when the last Urdu story-teller in Amritsar has bidden us goodbye, something can be done to make life easy for his wife and two daughters. Unluckily, his young son had died a year ago, leaving the ailing father in dismay. He stifled his cry in the throat, and that prompted his
death.
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Many milestones…
Postcard view, the picturesque waterfront with river Mandavi flowing by, the setting of International Film Festival of India, Goa couldn’t have been better. On that ground alone those demanding that the oldest and the biggest film festival of India should revert to its earlier format of oscillating between Goa and other places in the country need to take a break.
What’s more ever since that is in 2004
Goa became home to the film festival for good, it has been growing
bigger with new sections added each time. This year’s addition
included Soul of Asia, about films with mystic messages. Incredible
India focussed on films shot in India. Better or not… the opinion
will always be divided as Shankar Mohan, the director of the festival,
himself admitted perfection can’t be achieved and is always a quest.
So while International filmmakers like Polish Krzysztof Zanussi think
the enthusiasm of this particular festival is unmistakable, voices of
dissent are not so upbeat.
Yet the 43rd edition of the festival that brought together over 372 films, including 162 foreign films, can’t be dismissed away as a ten-day wonder. Were it so, men who matter the likes of Adoor Gopalakrishnan doyen of Malayalam cinema, the vibrant force of parallel cinema Shyam Benegal and the mystical maker Muzaffar Ali, gifted actor Om Puri and documentarian Goutam Ghose wouldn’t be part of the festival. On the international platform too, despite Ang Lee’s absence, international celebrities like Susanne Bier, Kim Ki Duk and noted critic Derek Malcolm, member of the international jury, besides of course Zanussi, Mira Nair and Ashok Amritraj were there.
Indeed, festivals are not just about
star presence but showcasing the best of cinema. On that count
perhaps, other festivals like Mumbai Film Festival and the one at
Kerala do bring better films in all. But IFFI too had a good platter
to offer. And it wasn’t just Ang Lee’s Life of Pi that
premiered here which created a buzz. To begin with, there was Pieta,
a film by South Korean filmmaker Kim Ki Duk, recipient of this year’s
Golden Lion at the 69th edition of the Venice Film Festival. Not only
his films like Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Spring ran to
full house, he was available in person for a special question and
answer session after the screening of his compelling film Pieta that
was as much about human bestiality as about redemption. The queries of
the viewers might have been disconcerting making him confess in
private later that most people don’t quite understand his movies yet
he understands where their niggling doubts are coming from.
Indeed, IFFI despite Akshay Kumar’s starry presence on the opening day is not about mainstream cinema. Or, about Hindi films for that matter. Indeed some of the Hindi films of yore did figure in the homage section as well as others. Yet the only two Indian films that made into the competitive section selected by the jury were Bengali film Elar Char Adhyay by Boppaditya Bandopadhyay and Punjabi movie Anhe Ghode Da Daan directed by Gurvinder Singh which eventually went on to win the Golden Peacock Award. Add to it the fact that the Indian panorama feature film section opened with Jahnu Barua’s National Award winning Assamese film Baandhon which evoked a heartfelt response. All these underlined that regional cinema is going great guns. Even Shyam Benegal admitted that.
Anyway the films presented here were
clear pointers as to where cinema is going. Both at the national and
the international level. Cinema, as people widely understand it, is
not about entertainment. It is an artistic statement, a political
comment, a spiritual underpinning and finally a medium that provokes
and disturbs the status quo.
Of course, ultimately as Benegal stressed and as Bier whose films are about family conflicts and whose film Like It Never was Before touched upon homosexuality among other issues remarked cinema is the art of storytelling. Without a doubt Life of Pi succeeded in telling it spectacularly, enthralling the viewers both times as the opening film and as when it was screened again. Yet, not all films showcased at the IFFI held the viewers’ interest. More so the non-feature films. Chitranjali, a documentary on Polish painter Stefan Noblin who stayed and worked in India made viewers move out after every five minutes. Not surprisingly even its director Magorzata Skibo wondered aloud whether the festival was the right venue for showing such a film. Whispers were also heard about the movie CLIP as anonymous sources objected to its screening. Undeniably, for many films there were no takers. Strangely enough many auditoriums despite the booking counter showing house full went empty. Even the organisers admitted that at best only 88 per cent halls are full. What was good however was that unlike the official insularity that one comes across at most functions organised by the government, the organisers realised this anomaly. In fact, outside each screening hall there were two lines, one for those with tickets and another without tickets. Once the hall was occupied by viewers with tickets, the remaining seats were open to those without tickets. But not everything about the festival worked with aplomb. Red carpet events were a damp squib. The Chai and Chat sessions despite the thoughtful orientation and presence of stars like Kabir Bedi and Vinay Pathak at best drew an insipid response. Some of the Master Classes ended up as just another interview session. Then it’s so called highpoint the encapsulation of 100 years of Indian cinema was no more than a song and dance routine. In comparison the dramatic rendering of Dadasaheb Phalke’s conversation with his wife directed by Hyderabad-based theatre person Mohammad Ali Baig proved to be a better tribute to Indian cinema. Overall, IFFI had much to boast of. But on notes of comparison whether it can be the Cannes of East as the director of the festival Shankar Mohan hopes…. perhaps, not for a long, long time to come. But the fact that Christian Jeune, Director of the Film Department and Deputy General Delegate of the Cannes Film Festival. chose Goa to make an important announcement about India being the guest country at Cannes 2013 means IFFI’s significance can’t be undermined. Tempting it might be to dub the Rs 10 crore extravaganza as something targeted at niche viewers and niche makers, in essence it is meant to and does propagate good cinema. And not just of one kind or of one genre. Or, only from countries that produce many films. Nations like Vietnam who make no more than half a dozen films a year too were represented. IFFI’s motto the world is one large family manifested as many films not only touched a universal chord but also talked of similar issues. In a world divided by schisms and isms, cinema certainly can be the cementing force. It is in this context that film festivals like IFFI acquire a larger than life presence and significance.
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