The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

City life
Make it richer by inclusive planning

After the days of grand planning of the ’60s and ’70s, which saw the development of vast expanses of rich urban spaces, the talk today is of inclusive planning for cities, so that they may be less and less exclusive for more and more sections of society. In short, more akin to the traditional village, where people of all classes and trades existed in their little zones, yet interacted in a vibrant manner, creating opportunities and incomes for one another, driven by a mutual dependence. Social Justice Minister Kumari Selja made the point of how traditional master plans were causing fragmentation of societies at a conference on the subject on Monday.

She spoke of ‘mixed neighbourhoods’, an ideal situation indeed. However, there would be a limit to how far that would go. There are the rich and poor in this world. No one from either of the extremes would be comfortable being a neighbour to the other. People of a particular social stratum would naturally tend to coalesce. The solution would be to allow clusters of housing as well as commercial buildings of a particular kind, but have them spread over relatively smaller areas. This would allow a little cluster of a different kind to nestle right next to it — thus you’ll have various sections of society live in small interspersed developments.

This can be best seen at work in Chandigarh — there are the ‘northern’ sectors which have vast areas of exclusive large houses with no scope of residence or business for the not-so-privileged. These areas also have little ‘life’. Then there are the ‘southern’ sectors which have a varied mix of little pockets of the rich, the working class and even the poor. There are small flats, bungalows, and rehri markets, all within a square kilometre. This provides for another tool for promoting inclusiveness — common public spaces that serve all. The parks, markets, community or health centres, and schools become available to a more varied mix of people. Besides planning, fairness also requires equitable distribution of resources on all pockets of a city, irrespective of how strong the residents’ voice in a particular area is.

Criminalising clients
It will penalise sex workers

Sex trade is like any other commercial activity based on the principle of demand and supply. In any other commercial activity, the buyer or the seller is not treated as a criminal unless the goods transacted are contraband. Ditto should apply to the world’s oldest profession, unless the sex worker is pushed into the profession under force or coercion. Existence of sex workers has maintained a semblance of a civilised society for centuries in almost all parts of the world. Hence, the debate over their legal or illegal status becomes unnecessary. Needs are not debatable issues.

But the proposed amendment to the ITPA( Immoral Trafficking Prevention Act) moved by the Ministry of Women and Child Development that proposes to criminalise the clients of sex workers by making this act punishable by a jail sentence and fine, if implemented, will push this commercial activity underground. It is a need of modern society where millions of people migrate in search of work, away from their families. This commerce will then flourish under the patronage of criminals and traffickers, who will provide the services on a sly. As such, the way sex commerce works in India, it is not free of the clutches of pimps and touts, who thrive on sex workers’ exploitation under the patronage of the powerful.

Poverty and lack of education and opportunities are the biggest crime that pushes millions of women into this profession. The ministry should work towards providing better opportunities for the children of sex workers, who are exploited by the pimps and are never allowed to come out of the cycle of this trade. The ministry should provide better health facilities to these workers so that they are protected against sexually transmitted diseases. By criminalising the clients, the ministry is working against the welfare of these women whose work can be termed illegal and thus force them to lose the right to demand action against violent clients and protection against HIV.

Thought for the Day

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. — Albert Einstein

ARTICLE

Crime and punishment
Why disregard a court ruling based on law?
by B.G. Verghese

NOW Veerappan's aides have approached the Supreme Court for relief after their mercy petitions were rejected by the President on account of long delay from the initial sentencing to death, a gross systemic fault. The apex court has stayed their execution. Nonetheless, this merry-go-round is a farce that must be ended.

A chapter had closed with the execution of Afzal Guru. But it would seem from some of the screaming media headlines and commentaries that the man was more sinned against than sinning and that the real crime was not his hand in planning the dastardly attack on Parliament House in 2001 but the fact that he was hanged in secrecy and in a manner "unfair to Kashmir". A great human rights violation, cried some!Why? Examine the facts.

First, the charge of "secrecy". From whom? Did anybody expect an advance announcement for a gala political carnival? Such reactions are now commonplace. The family in Kashmir was informed by speed post, an absurdity in contemporary times. The intimation was understandably received after the event, unless that was the intention for "security" reasons. A timely police or administrative messenger would have been more appropriate. But was anybody in doubt that Guru was on death row albeit with a long-pending mercy petition?

A public announcement would have quite probably led to mobilisation by protesters and separatist elements and varieties of "activists" to drum up collateral political demonstrations, stage appeals and enforce bandhs, some of which were predictably manifest after the event. A simple though rarest of rare act of justice would have once again been turned into a political circus and law and order problem. This was best avoided and precautions were taken to contain ugly street reactions by sundry elements out to exploit the situation for nefarious ends.

So much for "secrecy". Then, "Why was the body interred in Tihar Jail and not returned to the family"? Because there are mischievous body-snatchers around. Does anyone remember Abdul Ghani Lone's body being ghoulishly snatched from the very arms of his grieving family by joyful separatists, who assassinated him in the first place for preaching moderation and peace with India? Or Maulana Farooq, the late Mir Waiz, whose son, Umar, shamefully even today dares not name the known assassins of his father for fear of dire consequences for betraying the "cause"? Recall too the celebration of dead martyrs' last rites by Khalistani terrorists willing to use any means to stir the pot. Such staged political drama and blood sport around a "martyrs" funeral is best avoided.

The family now refuses to pray over the grave of the dead man in Tihar Jail. They want the body to be taken to their village in Kashmir where separatists have prepared a grave for him in the "martyrs" cemetery.

Consider next the carpet coverage of the hanging and connected matters around the clock on February 9 to the total exclusion of everything else, followed by similar all-page displays and commentary by the print media the following day. Every last bit of fact, gossip and innuendo was dredged up to inform, titillate and excite audiences to win ratings. The hanging was hugely and irresponsibly politicised. All norms of self-regulation were set aside to blow up and incendiarise a hanging to portray something projected as a national, international and social crisis, leading to the polarisation of opinion at a time when the nation should have stood united, firm as a rock in defence of its proudest values. For what was involved was not just the loss of lives and damage to the outer edifice, but the attempt to slaughter MPs and destroy Parliament, the symbol of Indian democracy.

Little was said about the nine innocent victims who defended "India" other than in passing. They were mocked in their hour of delayed justice by indirectly portraying the mastermind of the terror plot as some kind of a hero who was denied a fair trial. Is that so? The case went through the magistrate's court, the High Court and the Supreme Court. A review petition was rejected in 2007. The due process was meticulously followed. Flaws in the prosecution of one accused led to his exoneration. Afzal Guru was conclusively found guilty. Should we now second-guess the Supreme Court? Whether the death penalty should remain or go is a separate debate. Perhaps it should go. But a court ruling on the basis of current law cannot be disregarded.

Then why have Beant Singh's and Rajiv Gandhi's killers not been hanged? The Tamil Nadu Assembly adopted a resolution seek clemency in the latter case while Parkash Singh Badal personally approached the President for similar leniency. Both represent cases of shabby, anti-national identity politics. The cry now is that "Kashmir has been discriminated against" as Guru was hanged ahead of the mercy petition "queue". This is nonsense. A decision on his mercy petition was unconscionably delayed as in other cases as party politics and blackmail took over. No discrimination here. Only incompetence and lack of nerve. Political sparring on mercy petitions has been manifest on electoral and ethnic considerations. Extraneous issues are brought in regarding pleasing or annoying one faction or the other. Timing is suspect by some on the calculation that Guru's hanging would be a setback to the BJP. Such arguments betray a pettiness of mind and puerile politics

What then is the answer to mercy petition delays that are a travesty of justice? Parliament should resolve that henceforward all petitions be disposed of in three months or less. If not,the petition must automatically stand rejected and the condemned prisoner executed within a week without further appeals or interventions. Justice must prevail. Mercy decisions are hard to take. But decisions on such questions do not grow easier to take with time. Delay only offers opportunity for blackmail by anti-national malcontents who threaten reprisals. The state cannot kow-tow to terror or political arm-twisting. Speedy decision-making is the essence of governance.

The other excitement about the so-called Chopper scam has had the media and some politicians seeking to crucify Air Marshal Tyagi who has been named in Italian court papers but against whom absolutely no guilt has yet been proved. The operational specifications were changed in 2003 by the NDA as stated by the Air Marshal and the government for good reasons : VVIPs don't need to fly at 18,000 feet and to avoid a single vendor situation. This IAF requirement was frozen in 2003 before Tyagi became the Chief and was accepted by the new UPA government. The deal was, however, only signed in 2006, when Tyagi was Chief, after the non-operational security fitment requirements for head space and so forth were frozen by the Special Protection Group and the MoD in which Air Headquarters was not involved. Yet the media has found Tyagi guilty and says he"blamed" the NDA. He did not and, in fact, went along with its decision when asked now, not as Chief, as this was no official concern of his, but as an observer.

Another case of bad journalism and trial by the media. Let the CBI investigation establish the facts. Tyagi has not been exonerated. But neither has he been found guilty. Await due process.

MIDDLE

Golf gentlemen & guerrillas
by Rajnish Wattas

Dahlias swayed in the breeze, birds sang in the sky and the Good Lord of golf smiled. The clouds parted for bright sunshine, beckoning all the faithful to come and tee-off.

Suddenly, the calm of the fairways was shattered by shrilly screams of "ball, ball" followed by raging war cries of "Oye! You bloody...tehri .."! The balmy pursuit of the gentlemen's game came to a grinding halt. The fauji four-ball following the sarkari three-ball, that was in turn trailing the slowly crawl of the retired civvies were raining expletives and balls at one another. It was free for all-like planes held up on the runway on full throttles, but no ATC nod to take off. Cricketing shots like fourers and sixers were flying off from golf drivers in all directions and landing on someone's thigh, shoulder, groin, head or whichever body part not armoured.

Clubs came out — not for iron shots or a pitch and chip, but to settle some rights of passage on the clogged course. Then fairway woods too were flourished to give final blows to some bloated egos.

The lowly caddies were amused and giggled as the high-brow sahibs cursed, cussed and brandished their golfing arsenal to settle scores without troubling the club martial to adjucate. Soon the verbal duel turned into a WWF slugfest resulting in some black-eyes, lumps on foreheads, broken shins, bruised egos and bandaged bones.

The rest is all juicy gossip at the bar-the proverbial "nineteenth hole" where glasses clink and cheers shake the bottles after a hard day's work. It is also the time for boasts and regrets of birdies, bogeys, elusive eagles and confessions of clandestine shifting of balls and imaginative maths on the scorecard.

By the third Patiala Peg, it's all back to bonhomie and brotherhood, with the bloodshed of the afternoon play washed down by some more raunchy jokes and spicy chicken tikkas.

Along with the golf guerrillas and tigers there are as many old-world-charm gentlemen, warm-hearted veterans who welcome a new-comer to the game and make him feel comfortable among champions. There are respectful youngsters with single digit handicaps who put up with your doddering slow, old ways patiently, and even pick up the ball if it tumbles down from the tee. We may be a bit rowdy on our own; but come a lady player and we're all chivalry, manners and compliment every shot as an epitome of grace, beauty and perfection.

While the presiding angels of Saint Andrews or P. G. Woodehouse may be a bit bewildered by the desi version of the 'Gentleman's Game', the passion, dedication and sharpness with which it is played is unmatched.

Golf has come a long way from the cold, misty climes of Scotland to the warm, sunny, dusty plains of Punjab. Here we work hard, golf hard — all with passion and a big heart. And we have our Jeevs and Johls to prove it.

Oped Women

Indian women writers’ feminist writing has moved towards a broader spectrum of female writing. While feminist writing took half the world as its context, female writing deals with society as a whole, even while dealing with issues like rape
Dissent in Indian women’s writing
Mridula Garg

Women have been writing since time immemorial but separate studies of their fiction started only in the early 20th century, with the emergence of feminist discourse in Europe. Most Hindi women writers took their cue from Simone de Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex", where second meant inferior, rather than from Sanskrit ‘dwitya', which saw woman as different but not inferior to man. The personal experiences of wives, mothers, courtesans and prostitutes who became leaders of the community, recorded in “Theri Gatha", by 3rd Century BC women poets of India is ample proof. They moved beyond immanence to reach transcendence; took responsibility and chose freedom in writing; which is what Beauvoir campaigned for much later.

The collective memory of ‘dwitya', however, exerted a subliminal influence on women’s psyche. It helped women writers develop their own aesthetics and canons of dissent.

In the earlier part of the 20th century, feminist discourse was committed to individual choice rather than dissent with social mores; so the term of reference was asmita or identity. Since feeling inferior was a necessary adjunct of the concept of second sex, it gave rise to angst, expressed in tales of woe, injury, exploitation, rape, and suppression by males. During the latter 20th century, however, literary works began to break away from expressions of injury as women came to believe that they were in no way inferior to men in cerebral prowess.

Crude canons of dissent

At the same time we must remember that writers like Mahadevi Verma, a contemporary of Beauvoir and Subhadra Kumari Chauhan of ‘Jhansi ki Rani’ fame, who belonged to the earlier era, actively participated in and wrote about the freedom movement’ of India. It would hence be more accurate to say that at all times, there were some women writers, who looked beyond injury and angst, when they probed woman’s interaction with the society and the universe.

In broader terms, one important influence of feminism was that it redeemed women writers from self-censorship through rejection of shame. The oral poems and songs composed by women were free and frank expressions of female sexuality from the earliest days of kavya in India. But they were mostly recited in feminine spheres or in specific male/female relationships like jeeja-saali or dewar-bhabhi or in specific situations like the festival of holi or wedding rituals. So despite its unbridled free expression, it subscribed to the canon of female modesty. The modern written female text, on the other hand, is addressed to and read by male/female readers so the sphere of her influence is larger.Also since the writer is unaware of her readers, she can reject self-censorship more easily even if she is not totally indifferent to them.The attempt at liberation from the canons of moral correctness imposed by patriarchy often saw women writers move from tertiary to secondary and primary language to describe female sexuality and childbirth. The language was sometimes labored and affected, lacking the spontaneity of the oral poems. In fact, crudity of language to express female sexuality became a value with some women novelists, as in this Illustration.

A man of thirty with a dead rat like member of a child of eight…
forget we are related; you are male, I female that’s all… I had to do what the //#*** should have… massaged his member to erection, threw off my clothes, told him no harm came to me, what else was the body for…
(Maitreyi Pushpa in chhak)

Other works, however, like Krishna Sobti’s “Ei Ladk”i, Mamta Kalia’s “Beghar;" Nasira Sharma’s “Sangsar", Jyotsna Milan’s “Aa Se Astu," my “Chittacobra” use a more chiseled and multi-layered language for the same purpose. From the point of view of aesthetics, this is a welcome trend.

Dislodging inferiority

The concept of dwitya had a far reaching influence on the attitude of Indian women’s writing to motherhood , as did the ideology that the replacement of patriarchy by matriarchy would lead to a more peaceful and harmonious world. It implied a belief in an inborn difference between men and women. The biological uniqueness was apparent; women alone could give birth. Unlike France, a large part of feminist writing in India saw motherhood as an essential part of womanhood. This was equally true of the first generation of Krishna Sobti and Mannu Bhandari, the second of Manjul Bhagat, Sunita Jain, Chitra Mudgal, Mrinal Pandey, Nasira Sharma and Prabha Khaitan, and the third of Alka Saraogi and Geetanjali Shree.

But there was a dissenting factor to it. Gradually most women writers agreed with me that the real uniqueness of motherhood lay in its empowering a woman with the capacity to nourish and keep another human being alive without external material support. Nine months in the womb and six or seven, through lactation. This helped dislodge the feeling of inferiority. The womb was both an enriching and a limiting factor. It was a source of transcendence as it conferred greater compassion and sensitivity but it also made it more difficult to break the bonds of familial duty. Women writers resolved the dichotomy by redefining motherhood as a ‘nurturing principle'. It subsumed not only birthing and bringing up one’s own or adopted children but nurturing anything in need; individuals, institutions, society or the environment at large.

Diluted feminism

There were two fall outs of this approach. One, feminist writing diluted its confrontation with patriarchy and began to incorporate the concept of ardhanaris’vara (male/female synthesis) in it. Two, heterosexuality was rejected to free women from the demands of male sexuality and of bearing progeny. A greater part of feminist writing in India veered towards the ardhanaris’vara principle than lesbianism.

More significantly, lesbian relationships were also seen as affirmation of the otherness and sisterhood.

When darkness rides on the breeze and the axis of the ceiling brings the sky down, this is what happens.

No one can come in the way of two female friends ... our hearts surge into our mouths as longing spirals ahead like a balloon and we run to catch it…
Jump over and you will find the body has its own beat, the heart its own. You jump over wall, fence, roof, boundary, moon…as you jump, laughter claims you. You, son, cannot understand that laugh. You have to be a girl to laugh like that. A girl is always naked. So naked that she has to put on layer upon layer of clothing to cover it … how can you understand the laugh of a girl, son?
(Geetanjali Shree in Tirohit)

The feeling of being the other persisted with the advent of feminism but again it took the form of avowed dissent. Women now came together deliberately in place of the instinctive sisterhood of yesteryear. Accepted feminine spheres excluding men had always existed in India. The well or riverside where women drew water, the forest land where they gathered firewood and relieved themselves and the nightly music-dance parties during weddings,when the men folk were away. Women indulged in graphic sexual banter and gossip at all these venues, almost in the manner of a Masonic lodge or secret cabal. The modern day equivalents are mahila mandals, lekhika sanghs, women’s magazines, press clubs, websites etc.

Writing about the violence of rape

There was the added threat of forced motherhood through rape. The biological difference made women more liable to it, though male youths could be victims of sexual assault too. For a long time both men and women writers looked upon rape as loss of honor or izzat rather than an act of violence, with intent to torture, maim or murder akin to violence on men. Most raped women were portrayed as full of guilt and a sense of worthlessness, which made them incapable of healthy sexual relationships later. Krishna Sobti’s famous novel, “Surajmukhi Andhere Ke” is a celebrated example. This was in keeping with the patriarchic view of woman’s physical purity or the fallen woman syndrome.

A heartwarming trend in women’s writing of the last 2-3 decades is that they are now writing stories which show women dealing with rape as an act of violence, born out of criminal exercise of power. The victim is shown to seek justice without feeling guilt or shame and also manage to change the attitude of their families. Chitra Mudgal’s “Pretyoni," Chandrakanta’s “Aavazen” Namita Singh’s “Jangalgatha” are some of the names. More importantly, writers recognize that sexual innuendo, verbal insult and abuse, stalking, voyeurism and blaming women for inviting rape, all lead to the final act of sexual assault. The general atmosphere of insecurity at home, workplace, public spaces and transportation create an atmosphere conducive to rape. There are innumerable stories which deal with this phenomenon. I have dealt with rape as violence, both marital and familial and the fight of women for justice and closure without guilt or feeling of inferiority in my novel “Kathgulab." But I realize that it has immense psychological complexities. However free of shame and guilt a woman might be, sexual assault and humiliation make her question the innate beauty of male-female relationship and also dents her sense of freedom and hence self esteem. I would say that the humiliation, anger and helplessness were akin to that felt by tortured, wounded and maimed soldiers on the losing side of a war.

Creating broader spectrum

The ardhnaris’vara principle on the other hand was largely responsible for the progression of feminist writing towards the broader spectrum of female writing. While feminist writing took half the world as its context, female writing dealt with society as a whole. The term of reference progressed from identity to social relevance.

Krishna Sobti’s “Zindaginama", Mannu Bhandari’s “Mahabhoj”, my “Anitya", Chandrakanta’s “Ailan Gali Zinda Hai” and “Katha Satisar", Manjul Bhagat’s “Khatul," Mrinal Pandey’s “Patrangpur Puran," Nasira Sharma’s “Saat Nadian Ek Samandar", Alka Saraogi’s “Kalikatha via Bypass," Madhu Kankaria’s “Jalte Chinar” are some of the important political/historical novels by women writers.

On the whole we can say that women’s writing is trying to develop a sophisticated, multi-linear poetics. As emphasis shifts from discourse-oriented novels to those depicting experienced reality in all its intricacy, contradiction, dilemma and confusion, female poetics should come into its own.

(Mridula Garg is an eminent Hindi novelist)