This year’s Jaipur Literature Festival was dominated by themes of war, occupation and destitution

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Whose Land Is It Anyways...

Author journalist John Lee Anderson tells me one of the most jolting stories of our times; the story of Ali from Iraq. While looking for a story in the battle zone, Anderson came across the young man in Baghdad. Ali had turned into a serial killer to take vengeance for his brother who had been slaughtered by ultras of his own sect a few weeks before. Ali had taken the solemn vow on the Holy Koran that he would slaughter 10 men of that militia for each of his deceased brother’s fingers.

When Anderson bumped into him, Ali had already settled a quarter of his account. But of the 25 he killed, not all were militiamen. Quite a few of them were their innocent kin too. After every slaughter, Ali used to sever off one or the other of his victims organs – noses, ears, toes, eyeballs – and bury it near his brother’s grave. Their mother used to offer Fateha on the grave and shout out the name of the person killed to his buried son. Ali told Anderson that he was no longer afraid and felt closer to his creator. In Ali’s labyrinth of a heart, he was sure that he was following God's will.

So are you enough jolted? Well, take this. Ali, the serial killer, was clandestinely collaborating with the American soldiers too. He used to lure fighters to the firing range of the US soldiers where they were either captured or killed.

The US soldiers who were paying him didn’t have the faintest of idea as to what they were actually doing: hiring a serial killer. Needless to say, they were unaware of the after-effects too.

The story of occupation has no romanticism. Even if it has, it vanishes when the conflict becomes up, close and personal.

“Ali’s story is severe, perhaps, but is not a one-off case. Retribution is a notion that is universal, yes, the intensity might change. In fact, vengeance is one of the keys in understanding conflict itself. Once the slaughter commences, it becomes extremely tricky to stop, for each drop of blood that is shed demands one more to even the score,” laments Anderson.

Iraq, Anderson believes, will continue to gyrate in this concentric circle in the time to come. But he is not the lone man pessimistic about an occupied land. There are others too. Atiq Rahimi looks every tad the French in terms of his idea of fashion and erudition. Rahimi, as it becomes obvious, appreciates the pleasures. He is a thinker and a food-lover. And to continue with his two loves undisturbed, he also happens to carry both French and Afghan citizenship. But scratch him a bit and you will find a man lost in identity. "When I'm in Afghanistan, I become French. In France, I'm Afghan." When Rahimi laments this, one cannot help but wonder on the ways of the world.

Ask him what he thinks future holds for his homeland, Rahimi sheds off his French garb and turns a realist. “I don’t see the end in the near future. There’s a problem with the strategy itself. Protective military operations in Afghanistan will not cut much teeth."

David Finkel, the author of the much celebrated book on Iraq, The Good Soldiers, tries to focus on the men who go for war than the war itself.

Finkel, who marched to Baghdad, embedded with the 2-16 – a battalion with an average age of 19 – during the reinforcement in 2007, brings forth the private conflict of the soldiers he interviews or sees. By divulging their trepidation, self-doubt and the conflict of the soul that most of these youngsters go through when they are asked to follow orders and do some of the horrific things in a war, Finkel actually exhumes the human inside them. He lets the world see a group of soldiers that time and again dither erratically from full conviction in what they are doing to a total loss of conviction in their assignment. The romanticised picture of the American GI flying to Baghdad for his duty and “protecting the world” falls flat as it becomes obvious that these are common adolescent Americans being asked to undergo odd circumstances on an every day basis.

“Unlike other novels and reportages that have come out from the combat so far, this is the first novel to actually attempt and tell the tale of the soldiers themselves. The 2-16 is deployed not in the safe environments of the Green Zone but on the fringes of the town in one of the most treacherous areas possible. The story I tell is of the corporeal and emotional toll the conflict takes on the 2-16 and their kin back in the US. The Good Soldiers records the ordeal suffered by soldiers terrified to leave their base because of the unvarying peril of meeting unreceptive rebels or being the next casualty of an improvised explosive device, the next basis for their commanding officer to call a wife or mother with dreadful news,” he explains.

After listening to Finkel, it becomes extremely difficult to brand Iraq saga into a straight forward, black and white, good versus evil story. In fact, it is the story of the difficult choices people are often asked to make. It is the story about people trying to choose the slighter of many evils at any time feasible.

Noted Palestinian writer and poet Ahdaf Soueif tells the story of the greatest injustice of them all, the denial of the homeland to the Palestinians. She also observes that a just resolution of the conflict will lessen tensions in numerous other parts of the globe. But she too appears to be pessimistic about the peace process.

Soueif does not believe Israel is sincerely looking forward to peace with the Palestinians. "It suits Israel and the elites to have this eternal 'peace process', this pretence of seeking peace," she explains.

But she indeed is optimistic about a change in the American perspective which is connected to Israel with the umbilical cord. There is a increasing pro-Palestinian opinion among young Americans, predominantly among young East Coast and West Coast Jewish Americans. This, Soueif insists, is exclusive of the staunchly pro-Palestinian Americans. “So things are shifting. If that voice became more widespread then there is no basis why America couldn't be a sincere negotiator. AIPAC and other Zionist groups will see an eventual fall. The groups like ‘J Street’ have made a dent. However, the floodgate will take time to open,” quips Soueif.

Until then, Soueif says, people will continue to see US and Israel as Siamese twins.

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Politics: Rich are benefiting more

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A weakened PMO and indisciplined coalition partners are creating problems for UPA-II

Manmohan Singh is one of the most successful politicians of our times. As the Prime Minister of India, he has been able to bring stability to the country’s politics and economy. And I am talking through experience, having seen Manmohan Singh from close quarters in the Upper House of Parliament. He is a person of impeccable personal integrity. Many people may regard Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru or Indira Gandhi as more successful Prime Ministers. Nehru was functioning in a very turbulent time and amid difficult situations. He laid down the foundation of the secular Indian democracy but failed to establish a welfare state of socialist principles.

Indira Gandhi was extremely powerful as a politician but she failed to take the Opposition along with her at any point of time. P. V. Narasimha Rao, with the help from Manmohan Singh, succeeded in ushering in some fundamental changes in the Indian economic system. His undoing was his failure to bring about social stability in times of communal turmoil.

In 2004, when the UPA came to power for the first time, Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi evolved a system of governance which may not exactly be called a Cabinet form of government. Here was a leader who didn’t hold the reins of the political process but was accountable to Parliament and to the nation for every act of his government. And there was a leader who held real political power without accountability to Parliament or to the nation. This system worked perfectly in the first five years of the UPA. In fact, it allowed Manmohan Singh — not very well-versed in political machinations — to focus on governance and revamping of the Indian economy. It also allowed a coalition system to evolve in a way that it did not hinder the functioning of the government. Congress president Sonia Gandhi managed the pulls and pressures of a coalition and allowed Manmohan Singh a free hand in governance.

Any new experiment has its pitfalls and limitations. The system evolved during UPA-I could work only up to a point. The problems which were brushed under the carpet during the UPA’s first term started surfacing in its second term. That is the undoing of UPA in its second term. First, the successes of the first term of UPA were attributed mainly to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi. The Congress party never gave any credit to Manmohan Singh nor did he ever seek any.

During the first term, the coalition partners and ministers were not very sure of themselves but the second victory gave them much confidence. So, most of Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet colleagues, whether from the Congress or from other parties, started behaving as if they were not functioning as a part of a Cabinet system but were independently controlling their own ministries. Most of them think that in all probability, Manmohan Singh would not be around the next time and so they are looking more towards Sonia Gandhi. They go directly to the UPA chairperson if they have to discuss anything important. They do not look up to Manmohan Singh for guidance any more.

Manmohan Singh was not given a free hand in choosing his Cabinet. He was held to ransom by the whims and fancies of coalition partners. It has weakened the PMO and the department today is even less powerful than it used to be under the weak leaderships of V. P. Singh or P. V. Narasimha Rao. Now there are three centres of power in the government — Manmohan Singh, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi — and sometimes waves and instructions emanating from these centres are not in sync but rather at cross. The Prime Minister has not been able to assert himself.

Rising inflation results not only from pursuing wrong economic policies, it’s because of wrong decisions taken at wrong times or in other words because of not taking some tough decisions at the right time. UPA in its first term was more successful because circumstances, both globally and nationally, were conducive. The coalition partners were not very aggressive. There were not many upheavals and hiccups.

The UPA uses the aam aadmi plank in every election. But, they are taking the aam aadmi for a ride. Apart from the launch of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and a few other similar programmes, little has been done to benefit the common man or the rural poor. And the benefits of even those few small gestures have failed to percolate down to the needy. The credit goes to corruption. The real beneficiaries of the government policies of late have been the rich. I think it’s not necessary to elaborate the term “rich” here as we all know who they are.

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CM unveils a new water treatment plant in Lucknow

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Uttar pradesh infrastructure: Clean water, cleaner Gomti

Uttar Pradesh’s capital Lucknow has a new, unusually positive, thing to boast of — Asia’s largest sewage treatment plant which can take care of 345 million litres of sewage per day. Constructed at a cost of Rs 360.99 crores on 300 acres of land, the plant has four pumping stations. In addition to treating the waste, the plant will also generate 15 kilowatt of electricity and produce 100 tonnes of fertiliser as by-products.

The city’s existing water treatment plant is capable of treating only 42 million litres, leaving the rest to flow into the Gomti, the city’s biggest source of drinking water. The new plant, dedicated to the people on Mayawati’s birthday, January 15, has been constructed keeping in mind the city’s needs by 2040. For now, it will ease the pressure off the old water treatment plant that is of much smaller capacity.

According to chief minister Mayawati, it was just one of the 53 mega infrastructure projects designed for the city. The government intends to make the state capital attractive to tourists, both desi and foreign.

This is, of course, apart from wooing urban voters to her fold. Mayawati's traditional vote bank has been in rural areas so far. “For the first time we have a majority government and are paying as much attention to urban areas as to rural ones,” says the BSP supremo. All the aforementioned projects are under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and have to be completed by 2012, the year UP would go for assembly elections.

Alok Ranjan, UP’s principal secretary for urban development points out that it is for the first time that infrastructure projects on such a large scale are being taken up in the state. “No city in Uttar Pradesh has sewer lines in more than 30 per cent of its area. Under the new projects, the sewer lines will cover upto 80 per cent of the area. In Lucknow itself, sewer lines running over 700 kilometres have been constructed.”

With the new water treatment plant already functioning, we can hope to have a cleaner Gomti now.

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Tribals go ahead with their ritual despite court embargo

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Orissa Rituals: Tradition over law

Court directions and administrative orders seem to lose relevance when it comes to customs and traditions. The Sulia Yatra of Bolangir is the latest example of this. Every year, the Sulia Yatra festival is observed in Bolangir district of Orissa on the first Tuesday of Pausha month. As part of an ancient practice, tribals sacrifice animals such as goats, buffaloes, hens etc to their deities to appease them. This year it fell on January 12.

The Orissa High Court in its interim directive had asked the district administration of Bolangir to follow the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act. Despite the court orders, the ritual of the sacrifice of thousands of animals took place before the Sulia shrine. During the festival, the rituals are performed at three places namely Bada Khala, Sana Khala and Nua Khala which come under Khairagura and Kumuria villages.

“Although Section 144 of the CrPC was enforced at Sana Khala, Bada Khala and Nua Khala, the sacrifice of animals took place in the presence of armed police personnel and senior officials,” said Santanu Kumar Nayak, convenor, Sulia Samskar Manch. He informs that the High Court has been issuing orders to the district administration every year for the last four years to prevent animal sacrifice in the name of ritual, but every year the tribals go ahead with their practice.

Earlier, the district administration in association with Sulia Samskar Manch had launched an awareness campaign against the bloody ritual. The district administration had taken up special drive with meetings, rallies and leaflet distribution in the villages of Sualia Jatra in Deogaon and Gudvella blocks of the district. Anganwadi workers, self helf groups (SHG) and school children were also involved in the drive.

However, since the awareness campaign has been yielding no results, the district administration is planning to initiate action against the offenders. “We found carcasses of beheaded animals here. Action would be taken against the lawbreakers,” additional SP (Bolangir) Srikant Mishra said. R K Patnaik, sub-collector, Bolangir too talked of taking action against the tribals. Meanwhile, more than 40 persons including the priest of the tribals have been served notices under Sec 106 of Cr PC under which they have to sign a bond for maintaining peace for a period of three years.

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... And yet, is Kalaripayattu, the mother lode of all martial arts, struggling to defend its own survival, wonders Indira Parthasarathy

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Friday afterhours in Bangalore. Most of the white collared crowd is headed for weekend tripping and clubbing, but for 28-year-old Gishnu, 26-year-old Neera and 27-year-old Anoop, the idea of playing harder after working hard is breaking into some more sweat – this time outside their cubicles. They’ve assembled at the Indian Heritage Academy for a Kalaripayattu class conducted by Parashurama Vallabhatta Kalari Academy, now 10 years into its set-up; chief instructor Krishna Prathap (with whom we had a talk earlier) is away at a neighbouring metro for a performance, but these students carry on nonetheless.

Watching the rigorous warm ups in progress on the marble floor of the large cold hall, a far cry from the traditional Kalari (arena) – a leveled mud pit, with a flower-decked seven-tiered platform (Poothara) in the south west corner – one couldn’t help but wonder if the art too found itself, willy-nilly, in new territories.

Kalaripayattu claims to be the oldest martial art in the world; the warrior sage Parashuram credited with the ‘founding’ of its indigenous state Kerala – also believed to be the preceptor of this art, or that’s what the adherents of the Vadakkan (Northern) style of Kalaripayattu will tell you. Once the means to settle disputes between warring chieftains in the 15-16th centuries, the martial lineage of Kalaripayattu is kept alive in its training progression starting from body preparation exercises, to wooden weapons, metal weapons, and finally unarmed combat. Says Sudhakaran Gurukkal (respectful address for ‘Guru’) of C.V.N Kalari, one of the
earliest Kalari establishments, “It is not a mere martial art, it’s a style of life, for maintaining good health until our death. It’s a full fledged science, and that’s how it must be approached. Just like the difference between classical music and pop music; the latter is catchy and thus popular, but the former is more rigorous and scientific.”

So are the 20-somethings here for the science of Kalaripayattu? Neera, who has tried Capoeira, the Brazilian dance-cum-martial art form in the past, was drawn to Kalaripayattu for its aggression. “Its ability to develop speed and quick reflexes is a factor. It’s a complete fitness routine that includes weight loss, cardio and yoga,” she says in between catching her breath during the session. Gishnu finds the training chronology very helpful. “When you go from the long staff to the short stick to the dagger, in a way it works to improve your concentration and focus for as the weapon gets smaller, you are wont to pay more attention to where the blows land,” he says. But considering bare hand fighting is the last in the order, does it make for an ideal street defence form? Some contend not, owing to its complicated strike movements. When Karate or Krav Maga offer formidable self defence through short linear strikes, who would put oneself through Kalari that takes a minimum of a year to get past the exercise and flexibility enhancement stage?

Krishna Prathap reminds us that a lot of Karate and other martial arts instructors in fact turn to Kalaripayattu for a more holistic grooming, though he admits that the failure to evolve into a more contemporary version of itself may spell the death of Kalaripayattu. He has helped out with choreographed dance dramas that have
borrowed generously from that visually stunning array of movements that is Kalaripayattu.

Secrecy or the hesitation of the veterans to share knowledge of the deepest nuances that include Marma vidya (attack and defence of the vital points of the body), also threatens to deplete the patron numbers. Referring to Marma vidya, Krishna Prathap says, “Only the truly well-vetted students and those who prove deserving can be trusted with the science of 107 vital points which if attacked can paralyse or kill.”

Kalaripayattu may be looking for help with a new identity to survive or even convince that it is greater than the sum of its parts, but there is no taking away the massive takeaways it offers to anyone who steps into the kalari..

Condemn’poriSe?

Rashid Ansari, internationally renowned instructor of various martial arts including Taekwondo, Judo and Jiu Jitsu for over 20 years, and equally adept at theatre and contemporary dance, extols the virtues of learning a martial art while expressing his reservations about diluting it in the name of contemporisation.

The basic origin/methodology of a martial art is that it is a martial system, that is, a system of defence and offence. On a more simplistic/practical level, all of them have a very high physical fitness, well-being, health-oriented quotient. And by and large, all of them have results/side-effects which are therapeutic as far as the body and physiology is concerned. Then of course, there is self-confidence, self-enhancement factor and in today’s time, there is the yardstick of unarmed combat; the question of being able to look after yourself, or at least the confidence that physically you can take care of yourself to whatever degree.

Contemporisation is not the only way to keep alive a martial art, but unfortunately the pressure is such that everything has to be pretty much put out there on the stage and exposed because that’s what sells. It’s all a question of how holistic is your orientation. While you have a large number of people doing these things on the bandwagon of glamour and performance, you still find some supposedly crazy stupid people who stick to the old ways and are fairly holistic about it.

When people started contemporising from mind-body disciplines, the idea was to make it available to a larger part of the population, or a larger number of people, but the problem is that it’s very difficult to keep quality control, so you start giving down a very watered version. Then you really can’t call it the martial system or the unarmed combat form; you have to then call it a martial art more geared towards performance and health orientation, but not really ‘martial’ because it has lost its
effectiveness as a martial discipline; it’s more of a performance orientation discipline. So in a way, that’s bad. I personally am not in favour of contemporising traditional disciplines because while it may become applicable and adaptive to many more orientations for a greater number of people, it definitely loses its original usage and methodology and function.

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'Sorry' is the word of 2011

Bilateral relations : relevance of apology

Simple apologies can change the geopolitics of the world

The power of an apology is worth more than a billion dollars — money that otherwise is spent on wars. Unfortunately, allegations and counter-allegations are quite customary in international politics. Countries leave no stones unturned to blame their enemies or take revenge due to a bitter past. And how? By simply passing lewd remarks. With geopolitics becoming complicated, countries need simple solutions. And believe it or not, an apology can prove to be the simplest and most effective solution.

The best example of how an apology can refurbish a nation's image is Germany’s acceptance and formal apology for the Holocaust that killed about six million Jews. No one could have ever imagined the present level of normalcy and comfort between Germany and Israel. The apology (along with €45 billion which Germany paid as of 2007) has not only led to refurbishment of Germany’s image and dilution of sour feelings, but also has boosted the bilateral trade relations (Germany is Israel's second largest import partner). Similarly, Japan has apologised in the past to Burma, Australia, Korea and China on many occasions in order to restore normal relations. Naoto Kann, Japanese PM apologised on August'10, 2010, on the eve of the 100th anniversary of Japan's annexation of the Korean peninsula for his nation's role during their colonial rule. He said, “For the enormous damage and suffering caused by colonisation, I would like to express once again our deep regret and sincere apology.” Recently, North Korea offered to talk with South Korea on military issues (which the South has belatedly accepted after initial refusals). What stops these two nations from exchanging their fair share of apologies and getting on with more important worldly matters? Nationalistic egos, and that's about it.

In most of the cases, an open apology can do wonders. All former USSR states would perhaps be able to normalise their bitter and sour relations with Russia if Russia comes forward once and tenders its apology for the indiscretions committed. It's the same case for US relations with Latin American nations including Cuba, which can be normalised with just an apology from any one side, especially the US. In fact, a US formal apology for war on Iraq and Afghanistan can to a large extent contribute to the normalizing process between the Muslim and 'American' world (rather than 'Christian'). We dare say even Pakistan could become a good strategic partner for Bangladesh if Pakistan accepts Bangladesh's demand for an apology for the 1971 war. And if Pakistan were to apologize officially to India for 26/11, we can bet our intellectual caps that the whole of India would be ready to forgive Pakistan once and for all. The same goes for India-China relations, where the only damning factor is a quite trivial border issue (yes, the issue exists, but blown out of proportions) when there's so much trade to gain from each other.

Of course, an apology has to be followed up by similar behaviour over the subsequent time periods; failing which, an apology simply loses its innate power. But clearly, it works.

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