Category Archives: Culture

Culture, Politics

Songs After Independence

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Guest Post by Indu Vashist

Click here for full broadcast: Songs After Independence

Acknowledging Independence day without nationalism, the hosts of Desi Dhamaka use Independence Day as a platform to explore contemporary social and political issues in South Asian. Featured are songs in Urdu, Hinglish, Tamil, Bengali, Punjabi, English, just to name a few. The artists featured range from Iqbal Bano singing to Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s lyrics to Indian Ocean, from Alisha Chinoy to Mohd Rafi, and much more.

Montreal based Indu Vashist and Srinath Baba are the hosts of Desi Dhamaka, a South Asian music show with a political and social twist. It airs on CKUT, a non-profit, campus-community radio station based at McGill University. CKUT provides alternative music, news and spoken word programming to the city of Montreal and surrounding areas, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Hear us at 90.3 MHz on the FM dial, 91.7 by cable, or listen on-line.

Centre watch, Culture, Debates, Law, Movements, Politics

Parliamentary Sovereignty or an Active Citizenry? V. Krishna Ananth

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Guest post by V. KRISHNA ANANTH*

The political class, cutting across the spectrum, is now being haunted by a spectre. Anna Hazare has captured the imagination of a cross section of the people and his campaign is certainly gathering support. It remains to be seen if this support translates into a movement on the streets and more so against the state machinery that is threatening to pull all the stops. The people have shown such courage in the past. That is another matter.

Team Anna’s decision to go ahead with protests against the draft Lok Pal Bill, as approved by the Union cabinet, has spurred a debate. The proponents of the draft bill as well as sections in the political arena who claim to oppose the Government are united against another round of fast by Anna Hazare; they call it blackmail and an attempt to usurp Parliament’s power to legislate. They also claim that the principles of democracy shall not be sacrificed.

A number of them are on record that the draft proposals are subject to amendments and that the power to propose amendments and decide on them shall rest with the elected representatives of the people. It is another matter that the Prime Minister, who heads the cabinet, qualifies as a representative of the people only because membership of the Rajya Sabha is considered as good as being a member of the Lok Sabha to remain a minister under Article 75(5) of the Constitution. In any case, the fact is that Dr. Manmohan Singh has claimed, in an affidavit, that he is ordinarily a resident of Assam! We all know the truth but that too is besides the point.

Continue reading Parliamentary Sovereignty or an Active Citizenry? V. Krishna Ananth →

Culture, Ecology/Environment, Excavation, Images, Metropolis

यहाँ से शहर को देखो …..

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[यह लेख “बस्ती तो बसते बसती है” शीर्षक से आउटलुक हिंदी  के  स्वाधीनता विशेषांक में छपा है.]

अब जबके हर तरफ यह एलान हो चुका है के दिल्ली १०० बरस की हो गयी है और चारों ओर नई दिल्ली के कुछ पुराने होने का ज़िक्र भी होने लगा है, इन दावों के साथ साथ कि “दिल्ली तो सदा जवान रहती” है और “देखिये ना अभी कामनवेल्थ खेलों के दौरान यह एक बार फिर दुल्हन बनी थी”, वगेरह वगेरह, तो हमने सोचा के क्यों न इन सभी एलाननामों की सत्यता पर एक नजर डाल ली जाए, और इसी बहाने उस दिल्लीवाले से भी मिल लिया जाए जो इस अति प्राचीन/ मध्यकालीन/ आधुनिक नगरी का नागरिक होते हुए भी वैशवीकरण के झांसे में इतना आ चुका है के वो अपने आप को २१वीं शताब्दी के पूर्वार्द्ध में आने वाले आर्थिक संकट को पछाड देने वाले चमचमाते भारत देश की राजधानी का शहरी  होने का भरम पाले हुए है.

अब सब से पहले तो यह फैसला कर लिया जाए के नई दिल्ली है किस चिड़िया का नाम? पाकिस्तान के मशहूर व्यंग कार इब्न-ए–इंशा ने अपनी विख्यात पुस्तक उर्दू की आखरी किताब में एक अध्याय लाहौर के बारे में लिखा है.  इस अध्याय में इंशा कहते हैं “ किसी ज़माने में लाहौर का एक हुदूद-ए–अरबा (विस्तार) हुआ करता था अब तो लाहौर के चारों तरफ लाहौर ही लाहौर वाके (स्थित) है और हर दिन वाके-तर  हो रहा है”

एक फर्क है, इब्न-ए-इंशा के लाहौर में पुराना लाहौर और नया लाहौर दो अलग अलग चीज़ें नहीं हैं मगर दिल्ली के मामले में ऐसा नहीं है, एक समय था के नई दिल्ली में बाबू बसा करते थे और नई दिल्ली के पास शाहजहानाबाद था जो शहर था, अब नई दिल्ली वालों के हिसाब से पुराना शहर सिर्फ शादी के कार्ड, आचार मुरब्बे और हार्डवेअर खरीदने की जगह है, या उसे इस लिए बनाया गया है के उनकी पार्टियों के लिए बिरयानी, चाट, कुल्फी वगेरह मुहैया करवाए और जब उनके विदेशी मित्र या एन आर आई सम्बन्धी यहाँ आयें तो उन्हें इस जीते जागते संघ्राल्य के दर्शन करवा सकें. मुसलमान और सिख वहाँ धार्मिक कारणों से भी जाते हैं, मगर उनकी बात अलग है वो तो अल्प संख्यक हैं हम तो आम लोगों की बात कर रहे हैं.

Continue reading यहाँ से शहर को देखो ….. →

Culture, Excavation, Images, Language, Mirror Worlds

Tagore in film

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That is a clip from The Postmaster (the first story in Teen Kanya, directed by Satyajit Ray).

Trisha Gupta on Tagore’s characters, seen better in films than in English translation:

In film after film, we see events through the eyes of the educated Bengali man trying to deal with a world that has either changed too much—or too little. The protagonist is often a young man from the city who arrives at a small provincial outpost, armed with a modern Western education and little else, his head full of glimpses of another world that seem only to succeed in cutting him off from everything around him. Continue reading Tagore in film →

Culture, Identities

Speaking of Synthesis

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Ask any first time visitor to Kashmir about their impressions and you will, in all likelihood, be inundated with superlatives about the landscape, the mountains, the greenery, the hospitality, the gardens, the lakes and what not, but there is one thing that both the first timer and the old Kashmir hand rarely talk about and that is the historical monuments of the valley. The mosques, shrines and ancient temples of the valley are rarely mentioned in all this recounting. I am as much guilty of this neglect as all the others that I have met, perhaps more guilty because I have been to Kashmir scores of times.

This piece is an attempt to make amends. The sites are far too many to cover in one article so I have decided to confine myself to a handful of structures and monuments that lie scattered in and around Srinagar. Hopefully there will be more occasions to write about the others soon. Before we commence this sight-seeing tour of Srinagar, let us start with a few words about the history of Srinagar and of Kashmir.

Continue reading Speaking of Synthesis →

Bad ideas, Culture, Everyday Life, Government, Identities, Images, Metropolis

Seeking the Apadhasanchaarini/ The Malayalee Flâneuse

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So, the moral police has struck again. The papers in Kerala have been full of news about how a young IT sector employee, Thasni Banu, was confronted by a group of goons while she was being dropped to work at night by a male friend, insulted, slapped several times, and warned that they will not allow Kerala to “become Bangalore”. She did not take it mildly and complained to the police, who rolled their eyes, hummed, and hawed, and as to be expected, went slower than usual. One of the goons who was apprehended was let off. The papers have indeed taken the issue very seriously — and so have the state government, which suspended the policeman who handled the affair shoddily. Continue reading Seeking the Apadhasanchaarini/ The Malayalee Flâneuse →

Capitalism, Culture, Debates, Everyday Life, Identities, Language, Mirror Worlds

Coke Studio India – the first six songs

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So the unanimous verdict is that Coke Studio India (first aired on the Friday that went by) is no match for Coke Studio Pakistan [Wikipedia]. For some it’s been like an India-Pakistan match – I’ve seen Indian congratulate Pakistanis on Twitter for the ‘Coke Studio victory’ and others ask Indian musicians and singers to listen to Pakistani singers and hang themselves. For most, this was not surprising – Coke Studio Pakistan has showcased some of the best music you’ve heard in recent times and it raised the bar too high for Coke Studio India. There’s also the problem of Bollywoodisation of music in India, of dumbing down, producing music aimed at the marriage market and livening up the moods of those stuck in traffic. A celebrity culture has taken the passion out of music in India – it does not seem to come from deep within. New popular music in India leaves you with the kind of feeling that a mall does. Loud and empty.

Continue reading Coke Studio India – the first six songs →

Culture, Everyday Life, Excavation, Frontiers, Language

लखनऊ और फैज़: अतुल तिवारी

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Guest posy by ATUL TIWARI

(प्रगतिशील लेखन के आंदोलन से जुडे हुए प्रसिद्ध पटकथा लेखक अतुल तिवारी ने यह लेख लाहौर में आयोजित फैज़ शताबदी समारोह में प्रस्तुत किया था और फिर दिल्ली में थिंक इंडिया मैगज़ीन के फैज़ नम्बर की रिलीज के समय होने वाले कार्यक्रम में भी उन्होंने यह लेख प्रस्तुत किया । काफिला के लिए लेखक की अनुमति से प्रकाशित। The English translation is given below the Urdu original. – SH)

“हज़रात!

ये जलसा हमारी अदब की तारीख़ में एक यादगार वाक़या है।  हमारे सम्मेलनों,अंजुमनों में – अब तक, आम तौर पर – ज़ुबान और उसकी अशात अत से बहस की जाती रही है। यहाँ तक कि उर्दू और हिंदी का इब्तेदाई लिटरेचर – जो मौजूद है – उसका मंशा ख़यालात और जज़्बात पर असर डालना नहीं, बल्कि बाज़ ज़ुबान की तामीर था।…लेकिन ज़ुबान ज़रिया है मंजिल नहीं ।

…अदब की बहुत सी तारीफें की गयीं हैं।  लेकिन मेरे ख़याल से इसकी बेहतरीन तारीफ़ “तनक़ीद-ए-हयात” है – चाहे वो मकालों की शक्ल में हो। या अफसानों की। या शेर की। इससे हमारी हयात का तब्सिरा कहना चाहिए। Continue reading लखनऊ और फैज़: अतुल तिवारी →

Bad ideas, Culture, Identities, Law

‘Locking up gods within caste’

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This note comes via Malarvizhi Jayanth. Those in support can leave a comment saying so, and add their designations to their names, if they wish.

We call for all those who support democracy and free speech to express solidarity with Thirumavalavan, Meena Kandasamy and Samya.Kathavarayan and Madurai Veeran are among the gods who are acknowledged to be Dalit and are worshipped by many castes. Clearly, in the oral history of the people, the gods have castes and these castes are not determined by who worships them. The twin brothers Ponnar Shankar inhabit the realm between hero and deity. They have been fictionalised, recreated for the silver screen, and are worshipped across communities. Their origin myth remains contested territory – it is variously read as symbolic of the conflict between agriculturists/warriors and hunters, as part of founding tale of the land-owning agriculturist Kongu Vellala Gounder sub-caste and, in a textbook example of how Hindutva functions, have recently been claimed as reincarnations of the Pandavas. Like other deities of the people, they are firmly located in a historical imagination among a society of human beings, and not in a mythos of gods.

In a footnote in Uproot Hindutva: The Fiery Voice of the Liberation Panthers by Thirmavalavan, MeenaKandasamy describes Ponnar Shankar as dalit. M Loganathan, an advocate from Nanje Goundanpudur and Students Wing Convenor of the Kongu Nadu Munnetra Kazhagam (KMK), has been quoted in news reports as saying that there is evidence proving that Ponnar and Shankar are Kongu Vellala Gounders and claiming that depicting them as Dalits will lead to caste tension. Continue reading ‘Locking up gods within caste’ →

Culture, Everyday Life, Identities

Of Mosques and Minars

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The Jama Masjid at Mandu. Photo credit: Himanshu Joshi

I can’t really say when I first heard the Aazan  (the call for prayers given by the Muezzin, five times a day) it must have been in the early 50s when I was a little child and lived in Chabi Ganj, next to the Faseel (City wall) near Kashmiri Gate.

The sound of the Azan would have drifted in from one of the nearby Mosques, there were a few not too far away. The practice of using loudspeakers was not in vogue those days and yet the muezzin’s call for prayers travelled quite some distance, primarily because the horrible ambient sounds that assail our auditory nerves were almost non-existent at the time, in place of this cacophony there used to be other ambient sounds, the rustling of leaves, the chirping of birds and others, that have, it would seem, now been lost forever.  Continue reading Of Mosques and Minars →

Culture, Debates, Frontiers, Identities, Images, Right watch

Alvida, Maqbool Fida: M.F. Husain, Free at Last

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M. F. Husain at the Serpentine Gallery during the Installation of 'Indian HIghway', December 2008

Like possibly several other children growing up in the kind of lower-middle class metropolitan households that attempted to reconcile their aspirations towards culture with their frugal habits in the 1970s and1980s in Delhi, my first introduction to the art of our time was the framed print of a Husain painting. We had no television. And my parents had no gods. The only icons in our modest house were two framed pictures – an inexpensive N.S. Bendre, (Lalit Kala Akademi) print of a few women at a well and the reproduction of a Husain painting, possibly detached lovingly and carefully from an Air India calendar, possibly featuring the kind of goddess image that incensed the zealots who made it impossible for M. F. Husain to live out his final years in India. Continue reading Alvida, Maqbool Fida: M.F. Husain, Free at Last →

Culture

On the passing away of MF Husain: SAHMAT

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Photo credit: Jay Mandal

This statement has been put out by the SAFDAR HASHMI MEMORIAL TRUST (SAHMAT)

M. F. Husain

Easily the most iconic artist of modern India, Maqbool Fida Husain passed away in London on 9 June 2011. M. F. Husain was born in 1915 in Pandharpur, the famous temple town in Maharashtra. Bereft of his mother’s presence since childhood, Husain grew up in the multi-cultural milieu of Indore where his father migrated around 1919.

Indian civilization, in all its diversity, had been Husain’s basic inspirational project. Since the year of Independence, through the Nehruvian decades and thereon, cognizant of all the challenges involved in nation-building, Husain had been steadfast in maintaining a most affirmative relationship with the Indian peoples’ consciousness of their national identity. Through him, we have learned to address a whole gamut of issues pertaining to the interactive dynamic of modernity with the country’s many-layered art and culture. Continue reading On the passing away of MF Husain: SAHMAT →

Bad ideas, Culture, Everyday Life, Excavation, Media politics

Baba Ramdev, Baba Ramdev

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Culture, Debates, Left watch, Mirror Worlds, Politics

Old Left is Dying! Long Live the Left!

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[Following the publication of the previous post – the statement on the future of the Left, we have received some important comments that seek to take the debate forward, alongside those predictable, invective laden rants that we know only too well by now. We need to keep the debate on the future of the Left in India going, irrespective of these comments that seek to derail any meaningful discussion. We must continue to assert that ‘the Left’ far exceeds the decadent and decrepit lot that now goes by the name of Left parties in this country. This  post is a slightly modified and longer version of an article that appeared in Bengali yesterday in Ekdin.]

In a recent newspaper article, former Left Front finance minister Ashok Mitra, observed: “The Left Front, led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has not merely lost the poll in West Bengal, it has been made mincemeat of.” He was underlining the obvious, catastrophic significance of the results – at least from the Left Front’s perspective. The signs are there for everybody to see, especially when all important leaders of the LF government have faced resounding defeat and the overall vote share of the LF has declined by almost 9 percent since the last assembly election. Mitra’s reference is important as much was being made of the fact that he signed in support of the LF in the course of the election campaign.

But such was the state of drunkenness in power, that only a Biman Bose could say, when virtually everyone knew what was coming, that the LF would still gain a comfortable majority and those who were predicting their decline would have to “swallow their own spit.” More incredibly, even after the elections, indeed after the results came in, both Bose and Prakash Karat in Delhi focused on the fact that their votes had increased by 11 lakh votes in absolute terms. Of course, the minor detail they mentioned in passing was that the TMC alliance had increased its votes much more. The even more minor point that there had been as many as 4.8 million more votes polled this time as compared to 2009 was, of course, beside the point.

Continue reading Old Left is Dying! Long Live the Left! →

Culture, Debates, Law, Movements, Scams

Putting the “Jan” into the Lokpal Bill: Nikhil Dey and Ruchi Gupta

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Guest post by NIKHIL DEY and RUCHI GUPTA

For many who quite rightly guessed that the Lokpal Bill drafted by the Government would be a non-starter, the alternative merited automatic support. However, little was known about the contents of the two Bills, except that the alternative being proposed by ‘India Against Corruption’ had the prefix of being a “peoples” Lokpal. The consequences are too important to leave to the expertise of the drafting committee. The people must comprehend, and play their part in ensuring that there will be an Act that will empower them to fight corruption- not make them surrender their hopes to yet another anti-corruption organization. How people-centric is the Jan Lokpal Bill (JLP)?

While the JLP is going through rapid revisions – 12 so far – the basic framework and some principles have remained constant. Broadly the Bill can be divided into four sections: the mandate and scope of the Lokpal; composition and selection of the Lokpal; powers of the Lokpal; and functioning of the Lokpal. The composition and selection of the Lokpal is substantively one of the least contentious sections – concerned largely with procedural matters and subjective preferences, rather than ideological or legal viewpoints. A discussion of the other three sections follows.

Continue reading Putting the “Jan” into the Lokpal Bill: Nikhil Dey and Ruchi Gupta →

Culture, Government, Identities, Left watch, Politics

Beyond the Bluster-Equity and Justice in West Bengal: Abusaleh Shariff and Tanweer Fazal

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Guest post by ABUSALEH SHARIFF AND TANWEER FAZAL

One of the key issues being keenly watched in the recently concluded assembly elections in West Bengal was the direction in which the Muslim vote was going. Muslims constitute 25 per cent of West Bengal’s population. Despite such high concentration, the near absence of Muslims from public arena—art, culture, literature, public service, education—is alarming and should cause consternation in any polity, especially one that claims its legitimacy in the name of the poor and the marginalized. However, any suggestion that the long Left Front rule had rendered Muslims of West Bengal poorer and deprived than other social groups was taken as an affront to the so-called ‘exceptional’ record of the Left Front. Figures were trotted out, statistics read out in support of this track record. However, there is a difference between sops, assurances and promises made in an election year and the actual performance of a regime that has ruled a state for more than 30 years.

Continue reading Beyond the Bluster-Equity and Justice in West Bengal: Abusaleh Shariff and Tanweer Fazal →

Culture, Language

An Actor’s Journey from Text to Performance

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The revival of Dastangoi completed six years this month

Whenever I begin preparing for a new performance words sit heavy in front of me as boulders. Alien, unknown boulders.  I look up and I see them littered till wherever my eyes can see. I do not know these words. I did not create them. I do not know their context. I do not know what all they hide within. But I have to deal with them.

This is one of the fundamental struggles of an actor. To grapple with the text he intends to perform. Every time I encounter a new text for performance this line from Noon Meem Rashed’s iconic poem “Zindagi Se Darte Ho” comes to haunt me:  Continue reading An Actor’s Journey from Text to Performance →

Capitalism, Culture, Debates, Government

Young Women in Kerala : Between Empowerment and Death? — Part I

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[This was a note titled ‘We Still Need Feminism’ which I wrote on March 31 on my Facebook page; I thought it relevant to re-post it here as it appears that an ‘honour killing’, of a sort — an ‘honour suicide’ — may have actually surfaced in Kerala. More on that in the next post]

In JNU, last week, some of us were noticing how there seemed to be a notable increase in the numbers of students, both women and men, from the Hindi heartland. It is interesting, said one of my friends, that the deterritorialised university spaces in Delhi can no longer back off from directly confronting the tensions through which these societies now live through. “Look at that girl,” she said, pointing to a sprightly young woman, a bright student who I’d briefly met earlier,”she comes from a family that’d kill her if she married out of her gotra. And she is involved with a young man who’d not even of her region. We must fear the worst and prepare to confront evil.” For a brief moment, in my fright, I thought, well, at least we don’t have honour killings in Kerala. Honour kidnappings, yes, but I haven’t heard of too many honour killings. Maybe honour killings are still on their way here (like dowry deaths were, in the 1980s, when I was growing up into a young woman). We have some time to rally against them. Continue reading Young Women in Kerala : Between Empowerment and Death? — Part I →

Culture, Everyday Life, Excavation, Language

The Poet of Romance and Revolution

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Pablo Neruda with Faiz Ahmed 'Faiz'

If you met him on the street you would never imagine that he was a poet, and not your run of the mill poet, but  among the most important poets of the 20th century, not only in Urdu, not only in  the subcontinent but in the entire world of the 20th century. I have always wondered how could someone who invariably dressed in rather unimpressively stitched, unromantic terry-cot Safari suits, someone who could at best pass off as a joint secretary in the ministry of shipping or something similar, be such a wizard with words and not only with words but with content and with form?

Continue reading The Poet of Romance and Revolution →

Bad ideas, Culture, Language, Mirror Worlds

पीर पराई जानै कौन?: कुलदीप कुमार

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Guest post by KULDEEP KUMAR

अज्ञेय की प्रसिद्द कविता-पंक्तियाँ हैं:

“दुःख सबको मांजता है/
स्वयं चाहे मुक्ति देना वह न जाने/
किन्तु जिनको मांजता है/
उन्हें यह सीख देता है/
कि सबको मुक्त रखें.”
लेकिन दुःख की इस सीख पर क्या कोई अमल भी करता है? पुराना या आज का इतिहास तो इसकी गवाही नहीं देता. बल्कि देखने में तो यह आता है कि दुःख के भी खाने बन जाते हैं. हमें केवल अपना या अपनों का दुःख ही दुःख लगता है. पराई पीर जानने वाले वैष्णव हम नहीं हैं.

जबसे सुना है कि ओसामा बिन लादेन की ह्त्या उसकी दस-बारह साल की बेटी की आँखों के सामने हुई, तभी से विचलित हूँ. मुझे मालूम है कि आज जिस तरह की फिजा बन गयी है, उसमें यह कहना भी जोखिम से खाली नहीं है. मुझे ओसामा बिन लादेन के प्रति सहानुभूति रखने वाला घोषित किया जा सकता है. उसकी बेटी को तो पता भी नहीं होगा कि उसका बाप वाकई में क्या था. क्या उस बच्ची का दुःख इसलिए कम हो जाता है क्योंकि वह ओसामा की बेटी है? हम लोगों ने अपने लिए जिस तरह के तर्क गढ़ लिए हैं, उनके अनुसार तो इस बच्ची के दुःख के बारे में सोचना और बात करना भी आतंकवाद के प्रति सहानुभूति दिखाना होगा.

Continue reading पीर पराई जानै कौन?: कुलदीप कुमार →

Countryside, Culture, Everyday Life, Identities, Language

Punjabi Qissas and the Story of Urdu

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Heer-Ranjha
Heer-Ranjha in a Pakistani film poster, circa 1970s

The Social Space of Language: Vernacular Literature in British Colonial Punjab
by Farina Mir
Permanent Black, Ranikhet, 2010.
ISBN-817824307-5
pp-277, price Rs 695

This book straddles several anomalies that are rather obvious once stated but are rarely formulated as such. How is it that the world of Urdu literature becomes so dominated by people from the Punjab in a span of fifty years, beginning circa 1900s, and in a sense, continues to remain so? Iqbal, Faiz, Meeraji, Rashid, Bedi, Manto, Krishan Chander and down to our times Mushtaq Ahmed and Zafar Iqbal, a top twenty or top fifty list of modern Urdu litterateurs would likely contain eighty percent Pubjabis. And how is it that Punjabi, which produced such a brilliant and varied repertoire of stories, epics and poems until the late medieval era by such extraordinary luminaries as Baba Farid, Bulle Shah, Waris Shah, Haridas Haria seems to drop out of our horizon in the modern era, where all we know of is an Amrita Pritam or, less likely, a Surjit Patar. Where such poverty after such riches, where such preponderance from such invisibility? And yet, how is it that Punjabi still continues to enjoy immediate and even aural connotations that transcend nationality, religion and, even as it defines a community, a specific ethnicity. What then is a Punjabi community and where and how has it existed specifically in the colonial era but, in many resilient ways, down to our times? Continue reading Punjabi Qissas and the Story of Urdu →