India Perspectives by Indian Diplomacy

INDIA

VOL 25 NO. 1 MARCH 2011

PERSPECTIVES

Advancing India’s Conversations with the World INDIA

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INSIDE C OV E R S T O R Y Why India is Cricket Crazy

ESSENTIAL READING ON INDIA

ISSN 09705074

E S S AY The Importance of Being Sachin C U LT U R E Chennai in Season T R AV E L Andaman and Nicobar Islands I N T E RV I E W Arpita Singh, Arts and Minds

INDIA THIS MONTH

Elephanta Festival Enjoy an evening of Indian classical dance performances while admiring the grandeur of sculptures of the Elephanta Caves. Where: Elephanta Island, Mumbai

2011

EDITORIAL NOTE

April 6-8

March 19 Dangs Darbar Enjoy the Dangs Darbar festival with its fascinating dances, dramas and songs. During the fest, women wear traditional colourful dresses and heavy silver jewellery. Where: Ahwa, Gujarat

March 19

MARCH-APRIL

Mewar Festival This event is a visual treat with Rajasthani songs, dances, processions, devotional music and firework displays. The fest has special significance for women. Where: Udaipur, Rajasthan

Mid-April

April 3 Nenmara Vallangi Vela An annual affair in Kerala, the celebrations open with some traditional flag hoisting, during which 30 caprisioned-elephants line up under lavishly decorated canopies. Where: Palakkad, Kerala

April 5 Attuvela Mahotsavam The Attuvela Mahotsavam is a delightful water carnival. Devotees carry out a procession of illuminated canoes carrying colourful temple replicas on the Moovattupuzha river. Where: Vadayar, Kottayam

W Chithirai Festival The Chithirai Festival is one of the biggest celebrations in Madurai. It re-enacts the wedding of Lord Shiva and Goddess Meenakshi. Where: Meenakshi Temple, Madurai, Tamil Nadu

April 9-10 Shad Suk Mynsiem Shad Suk Mynsiem or the Dance of the Joyful Soul is a much sought-after event in Meghalaya. Locals dance to mark the onset of the sowing season. Where: Weiking Ground, Shillong

March 20

April 6-7

Mid-April

Holla Mohalla This festival is celebrated a day after Holi. During this time Sikhs reaffirm their commitment to the community. It is the biggest event held at Anandpur. Where: Anandpur Sahib, Punjab

Gangaur Festival Join the women of Rajasthan when they honour Parvati with lively processions during the Gangaur Festival. Where: Across Rajasthan, mainly in Jaipur, Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaisalmer.

Rongali Bihu This is the most popular of all the three Bihu festivals. The sensuous, yet energetic Bihu dance is performed in the fields, on road-sides and on stages especially erected for the occasion. Where: Throughout Assam

e are grateful to our readers for the numerous messages of appreciation and support they have sent us from all over the world. This has been the impetus behind the changes we have made to the content and look of India Perspectives. The environment around us is rapidly changing and we feel that the magazine should adapt to the times and remain in sync with what you want. With this in mind we have gone back to being a monthly publication, but one with a contemporary look and with content that is more representative than ever before of our vibrant, pluralist society. To help us realise our vision for the magazine we have tied up with Media Transasia, a well-known publishing house that has over 26 titles to its credit worldwide. The company will bring to the table its vast experience and help us bring to you India Perspectives in its new and improved avatar. The issue may be slimmer, now that it is a monthly, but in no way are we going to compromise on quality. Also, we are placing special emphasis on translations, so that wherever in the world you are and whichever of the 18 languages you are reading it in, it will be as if it has been especially written for you. Currently, the ICC World Cup is being played in the Subcontinent — it was last played here in 1996 — and cricket fever is at its peak. In the issue we analyse why our nation is cricket crazy and why Sachin Tendulkar is a God for many Indians. Also, our Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao writes about Tagore’s vision of India and China. This year, at the Davos Summit, our country made its presence felt strongly with the ‘India Inclusive’ campaign and we bring you a snapshot of the event and its unique mix of style and substance. To help you understand the India story better, we have introduced a series on our development partnerships; the first of which is about the training provided under the Indian Technical and Economic Co-operation Programme. To make the magazine even more relevant and reader-friendly we have included features on culture, travel and the arts, plus reviews of films, books and lots more. We look forward to your feedback on our new initiative, so write to us on feedbackindiaperspectives@mtil.biz. And if you are one of the 500 million individuals with a Facebook account, join the India Perspectives community on Facebook and become our partner in advancing India’s conversations with the world.

Navdeep Suri

MARCH 2011 INDIA PERSPECTIVES

INDIA

PERSPECTIVES MARCH 2011 VOL 25 No. 1/2011

MARCH 2011

Editor: Navdeep Suri

Assistant Editor: Neelu Rohra M EDIA TR ANSASIA TEAM Editor-in- Chief: Maneesha Dube

Essay: The Importance of Being Sachin

COVER STORY

Editor: Mannika Chopra Creative Director: Bipin Kumar

ART AND CULTURE Chennai in Season

Artistic Impressions

Profile: Rajendra Singh

Photofeature: Raghu Rai’s Indians

India and the World: Davos 2011

Financial Controller: Puneet Nanda

Comment: Tagore’s Vision of India and China

Send editorial contributions and letters to Media Transasia India Ltd.

Development Partnerships: ITEC

Global Brands: Bharti Airtel

Travel: Andaman & Nicobar Islands

Desk: Urmila Marak Editorial Co-ordinator: Kanchan Rana

CRAZY ABOUT CRICKET

Design: Ajay Kumar (Sr. Designer), Sujit Singh Production: Sunil Dubey (DGM), Brijesh k. Juyal (Prepress Operator)

The passion that India has for cricket is greater than any other country has for any sport

Chairman: J.S. Uberoi President: Xavier Collaco

323, Udyog Vihar, Phase IV, Gurgaon 122016 Haryana, India E-mail: feedback.indiaperspectives@mtil.biz Telephone: 91-124-4759500

IN REVIEW

Fax: 91-124-4759550

Art: Anish Kapoor

Books: Ramchandra Guha: Makers of Modern India 43 Film: Naghma Iman’s In the Season of Blue Storm

Music: Manganiyars, minstrels from Rajasthan

Verbatim: Arpita Singh

AFP

India Perspectives is published every month in Arabic, Bahasa Indonesia, Bengali, English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Pashto, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Sinhala, Spanish, Tamil, Turkish, Urdu and Vietnamese. Views expressed in the articles are those of the contributors and not necessarily those of the magazine. This edition is published for the Ministry of External Affairs by Navdeep Suri, Joint Secretary, Public Diplomacy Division, New Delhi, 140 ‘A’ Wing, Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi-110001. Telephones: 91-11-23389471, 91-11-23388873, Fax: 91-11-23385549 Website: http://www.meaindia.nic.in Text may be reproduced with an acknowledgement to India Perspectives For a copy of India Perspectives contact the nearest Indian diplomatic mission.

COVER: ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR/PHOTO LIBRARY COVER DESIGN: BIPIN

MARCH 2011 INDIA PERSPECTIVES

COVER STORY

WHY INDIA IS CRAZY ABOUT CRICKET The passion that India has for cricket is greater than any other country has for any sport TEXT: ASHOK MALIK

or a month-and-a-half beginning Saturday, February 19, 2011 India is going to be obsessed, engrossed and riveted. The object of this extreme emotion will, of course, be the cricket World Cup. A complex game, cricket has three mainstream formats: • Test match cricket, which lasts five days • One-day cricket, which sees teams bat 50 overs each and is sometimes called Fifty50 or F50 cricket • A new, brash and abbreviated version that sees teams bat 20 overs each and is often called Twenty20 or T20 cricket Between February 19 and April 2 this year, India will co-host the F50 World Cup. Immediately after that it will stage the planet’s richest cricket tournament: the Indian Premier League, India’s flagship T20 event. At the beginning of 2011, India toured South Africa for a series of test matches. Later in the year, it will play topline test series against England and Australia. In a country that needs few excuses not to immerse itself in cricket lore, 2011 is an extraordinary bonanza. It’s a 12-month festival of quality cricket. They say you can never understand a society without understanding its major sport. At one point, baseball defined the Middle American dream and the idyllic self-

CRICKET FEVER: (left) Crowds support the Indian team in a match against New Zealand; (top) Fans cheer during a match

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MARCH 2011

image of the towns and cities of the vast American heartland. Today, the English Premier League is not just emblematic of English football but also of British multiculturalism – it attracts talent from all continents. That each of the three versions of cricket has a market in India is indicative perhaps of the multiple rhythms of this land and of the many Indias that exist under that one political identity. The languid, never-ending test match could, at the end of five days, leave you with nothing but a thrilling draw. The F50 game speaks of a broader, smaller city India which still has limited entertainment and economic options and so can pack a stadium for an entire day. The T20 revolution, with its attendant razzmatazz, is the ideal product for the metropolitan crowd, a direct rival to the three-hour film and tailored to audiences that have more money than time and are in tune with the business and leisure principles of the developed world. Which individual, which demographic and which geography follows which type of cricket? The answer is a snapshot introduction to the Indian – any Indian – you’re interrogating. It’s almost as fail-proof as a marketing survey. Why is India so cricket-focussed? Modern sport is not an amateur pastime but hard commerce. A large economy – the United States, Australia – can sustain and support many sports. As such, baseball, basketball, American football and golf may all be lucrative in the US. India offers the strange case of an economy that is now big enough to shore up more than one sport

MARCH 2011 INDIA PERSPECTIVES

AFP

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but a society that is still essentially a onesport phenomenon. This causes it to overinvest in cricket. Consequently, the game and its practitioners attract disproportionate media and spectator interest, sponsorship money and advertisement revenue. Why is India cricket fanatic to the extent of ignoring other sports? The fact is cricket offers the rare example of sustained good performance by Indian players and teams in any sport. Tennis has the occasional Leander Paes or Sania Mirza, badminton the lone world-beater in Saina Nehwal. Indian athletics produces the odd track and field star. The hockey team wins a big tournament about once a decade. Individual golfers are slowly climbing the ladder on the tour. Yet, none of these comes close to the conveyor belt regularity of cricket stars and skills. Capital breeds capital. The fact that money is poured into cricket makes it an attractive career path for young Indian sportsmen. This makes team selection tough and, to the degree possible, meritocratic. In turn, this leads to successful teams, mass interest and still more money pouring in. With no other international cultural product cricket still calls the shots. Seventy percent of global cricket revenues are generated in India. Australia sets its cricket calendar to match India’s; England wants Indian players in its domestic tournaments to make its county games worth the while for Indian television channels and audiences; West Indies cricket authorities wait for an Indian tour to make money by selling television rights and in-stadia

AFP

CRICKET IS THE GREAT LEVELLER IN INDIA. IT UNITES REGIONS AND RELIGIONS, SOCIAL VARIANTS AND ECONOMIC DIVERSITIES. IT IS WHAT BINDS THE BUSINESS TYCOON AND THE SHOP-FLOOR WORKER

UNITED COLOURS OF CRICKET: (left) A fan waves the Indian flag during an India-Australia match in Mohali; (top) Newspaper front pages on February 25, 2010, a day after Tendulkar scored a double century in a one-day match; (above) Preity Zinta cheers for Kings XI Punjab at an IPL Match

advertising contracts to Indian companies. Cricket is not just India’s sport; it’s India’s power trip. The politics and the money of cricket are important no doubt, but not as compelling as the hunger and devotion of the ordinary cricket fan. India is united by cricket, curry and cinema. Listening to radio commentary, stealing a glance at the television in the middle of a busy day at office, asking the next man on the street if he knows the score, rushing home from school or work to catch a game being set up for a close finish: every Indian has many such experiences, many such confessions. In 2008, when the first IPL was played to unbelievable enthusiasm, the state of Karnataka in south India was in the midst of legislative elections. Political parties had to end public meetings early because people – voters – wanted to leave and catch the evening’s IPL game on television. This is not an apocryphal story; it actually happened. Cricket is the great leveller in India. It unites regions and religions, social variants and economic diversities. It is what binds the business tycoon and the shop-floor worker. Along with the film industry – perhaps politics as well, in a certain kind of way – it offers the most evocative and salient vehicle of social mobility. In a land of faith and spiritualism, cricket is a selfrenewing religion. On the 19th day of February, cricket began its quadrennial pilgrimage. If you want to hear the heartbeat of India, be there for the World Cup. —Ashok Malik is a senior columnist based in New Delhi with a passion for cricket

MARCH 2011 INDIA PERSPECTIVES

ESSAY

AYAZ MEMON

BEING SACHIN Everytime Tendulkar walks to the crease, a whole nation marches with him to the field

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AFP

ndians across the world are approaching the upcoming World Cup with unprecedented fervour. The manic obsession for cricket in the Indian psyche is too well-known to bear repetition here, but this time it is different: everybody knows this is Sachin Tendulkar’s last such tournament, and it appears that the entire diaspora is egging him on to win that one trophy his mantelpiece lacks. There is an unmistakable air of Sachinmania in the country, which I suspect, also holds true of wherever Indians live in the world. What Tendulkar means to India should rightfully be the subject of a thesis. So deep, long and widespread has been his impact that he has transcended being a mere sportsperson into becoming a metaphor of the aspirations and hopes of a billion-strong nation. No other cricketer in the history of the game, barring perhaps Sir Donald Bradman, has held people in such sway, which makes the comparisons between the two great batsmen more credible than one just based on statistics. Is Tendulkar the greatest batsman ever, as his legion of fans aver? Statistics don’t always tell the real story, but in extraordinary cases are the most revealing. Since no other batsman has finished with a Test career average of even 75, leave aside 99.94, Bradman in that respect stands supreme. Indeed, even other great contemporary batsmen, Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting and (increasingly) Jacques Kallis find several staunch supporters. Glance back in time and the names of Ranji, Trumper, Hobbs, Hammond, Hutton, the three Ws, Kanhai, Gavaskar, Border, Miandad, Greg Chappell — to name only a few — also crop up. But one has to look at the situation differently. His best performing peers — Lara, Shane Warne and Wasim Akram — truly believe Tendulkar to be the best cricketer of his generation. That should settle the debate substantially. Moreover, like Bradman, Tendulkar has an extraordinary statistical aspect that place him head and shoulders above the rest: he has 51 Test centuries and 46 in ODIs, and no other player is even within striking distance of his 97 international hundreds. By common consensus then, Tendulkar will straddle across the 150-year history of cricket with his genius unquestioned in any era. His

HE IS THE COUNTRY’S BIGGEST AND MOST ABIDING SUPERSTAR, BUT HE HAS NEVER BECOME A PRIMA DONNA

superb technique, style and consistency make him perhaps the most complete batsman of all time. Indeed, Tendulkar’s last year has been his best in terms of runs and centuries scored suggesting that he may have got a second wind which can be as rewarding as his first. Indeed, in his twenty-first year in international cricket, Tendulkar is batting with the aplomb and the ambition of a twenty-one-year-old; if anything, with greater control. But to measure Tendulkar’s impact only through runs, centuries and averages is to assess him only as a cricketer and ignore an extraordinary sociological phemonenon. Beyond pure charisma, which he had even when he made his debut as a chubby-cheeked 16-year-old, Tendulkar now also commands the highest credibility in the game. Had he not been around when the match-fixing scam broke in circa 2000, it is a moot point whether cricket would have recovered quickly enough to its present lofty position in the Indian Subcontinent. His personal integrity (and by extension of players like Anil Kumble, Rahul Dravid, Saurav Ganguly and VVS Laxman) has helped restore the prestige and credibility of Indian cricket. It is also widely known that it was Tendulkar’s word which swayed the case in Harbhajan Singh’s favour in the ‘Monkeygate’ controversy with Andrew Symonds three years ago. In the popularity stakes, such is his appeal, that he remains the most durable brand endorser for products over the past two decades — even ahead of cinema icons like Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Amitabh Bachchan. His fans range from age 3 to 103, and across genders. Indeed, he is perhaps the biggest contributor in raising the equity of Indian cricket, in which TV rights itself run into a few billion dollars. And yet for all the fame, glory and wealth that he has accumulated over the years, Tendulkar retains his humility. This has largely to do with his upbringing. I recall meeting his father Ramesh, a Sanskrit scholar, in 1990, just before the Indian team toured England. While taking delight in his son’s rapid rise to eminence, the senior Tendulkar was emphatic that his son should “always have his feet on the ground’’. Tendulkar seems to have imbibed that early lesson well for he has always remained rooted. He is the country’s biggest and most abiding superstar, but he has never become a prima donna. Moreover, his career has been remarkably without blemishes, on and off the field. Poet-writer C.P. Surendran wrote once: “Batsmen walk into the middle alone. Not Tendulkar. Every time Tendulkar walks out to the crease, a whole nation, tatters and all, marches with him to the battle arena; a pauper people pleading for relief, remission from the lifelong anxiety of being Indian, by joining in spirit with their visored saviour.’’That, I believe, is the true essence of Sachin Tendulkar. —Ayaz Memon is a sports columnist and commentator

MARCH 2011 INDIA PERSPECTIVES

THE ARTS & CULTURE

A CITY IN SEASON Every winter, for two-three weeks music and dance engulf Chennai TEXT: KESHAV DESIRAJU

An imagined conversation between a Chennai-vasi and an Out-of-Towner could quite conceivably go like this. CV: So when are you next in Chennai? OoT: I am thinking of coming in December. CV: (with a knowing look) Oh, ho, season-ukku varel-aa (coming for the season)? OoT: (with a satisfied smile) Aama (Yes)!

ll great cities have their distinguishing features, something special which makes it a city like none other. In Chennai, a city where ancient tradition merges effortlessly into cyber technology, it is the December

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festival of music and dance, or quite simply ‘the season’. The numbers are staggering. Over a period of two or three weeks, possibly a thousand artistes, musicians, dancers, percussionists, instrumentalists gather to perform in one of the hundred or so locations across the city. The atmosphere is festive, the crowds exuberant, the performances resplendent. Every aspiring Carnatic musician seeks to perform here. Whatever their background or training or whatever the reputation they have acquired elsewhere, it is only a ‘season’ performance that distinguishes the best amongst them. A casual look at the concert books of the 1960s will reveal that in the space of ten

days, without moving very far from his home, and for a very modest price, a rasika, a person with some knowledge of Carnatic music, could have heard Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer and G.N. Balasubramaniam, each accompanied by maestros such as Palghat Mani Iyer on the mridangam and Lalgudi Jayaraman or T.N. Krishnan on the violin. The same rasika without moving from his shabby but comfortable seat in the front rows would have also seen stalwarts like Kamala dance and Yamini Krishnamurti, and if luck was in, possibly even Balasaraswati. A short trip to the canteen, that indispensable temporary restaurant, and he could sit back and listen to

Vasanthakumari and Pattammal and the matchless M.S. Subbulakshmi. Today’s performers boast of prodigious talent and creative energies, and if we have lost the magic of the golden age there is still a great variety to be sampled. The origins of the Madras, now Chennai, season are relatively recent. With the growth of the city as a centre of education and commerce and migration from all parts of the erstwhile Presidency, the city was uniquely poised to become a great cultural capital. The migrants from the hinterland brought with them their love of the classical tradition and from the 1920s onwards, Madras became dotted with Sabhas, secular public platforms for performance, providing an alternative to the temples and salons of Madurai, Tanjore, Mysore and elsewhere. Sabha performances were also ticketed which meant that access to performances was no longer limited to rich patrons and their friends. The Music Academy, Madras, set up in 1927, was not the first of such Sabhas but certainly the most significant, with its annual award of the title of Sangitha Kalanidhi being among the most coveted. The ‘Academy’ is, quite simply, the first among equals. C.Saroja and C.Lalitha, popularly known as the Bombay Sisters, grace the title of Sangitha Kalanidhi this year. Other Sabhas are not to be left behind, either in influence and patronage, or in the splendour of the titles awarded. The Tamil Isai Sangam awards the Isai Perarignar; the Sri Krishna Gana Sabha awards the Nritya Chudamani; and yet others award the Sangeetha Kalasarathy, the Sangita Kala Nipuna and the Nadabrahmam. The list is endless. It is not all music. Dance recitals are very much part of the season. Kalakshetra continues with its stately tradition of presenting episodes from the Ramayana, as choreographed and first presented by Rukmini Devi Arundale. This year the presentation is Choodamani Pradanam, (Hanuman greeting Sita in the forest with

RHYTHMSPEAK IN CHENNAI: (left) ‘Bombay’ Sisters, C. Saroja and C. Lalitha; (top) Danseuse Malavika Sarukkai (above) Vocalist Lakshmi Gopalakrishnan and guitarist Prasanna

Rama’s ring) and Maha Pattabhishekham, (The Grand Coronation). The Music Academy moved the dance recitals to an entirely new slot this January where India’s greatest dancers were presented – Malavika Sarukkai, Alarmel Valli, Mallika Sarabhai and several others, including the senior artist/film star Vyjayanthimala, who still electrifies audiences with her art. There are also alternative dance events, a fusion of traditional and modern dance forms. At several Sabhas books, CDs and DVDs are available, and it would not be at all unusual to find a young American, perhaps of south Indian origin, buying up the shop. This same person has possibly spent hours learning music on Skype from

a teacher in Chennai. Many young foreigners are also performing, in the slots meant for junior artistes. The morning sessions, lec-dems, discourses, niche events, are meant for the more informed where in one session you could listen to a disputation on the structure of a raga, and in another the compositions of a lesser known composer, or a demonstration by a senior vidvan. There is, quite simply, something for everyone, seasoned rasika or novice listener, for a Chennai-vasi or an Out-ofTowner. Chennai in December is an experience like none other. —Keshav Desiraju is a Delhi-based bureaucrat and a devotee of Carnatic music

MARCH 2011 INDIA PERSPECTIVES

THE ARTS & CULTURE

ARTISTIC IMPRESSIONS The India Art Summit saw a confluence of artists and enthusiasts TEXT: URMILA MARAK

he third season of the India Art Summit provided an unparalled opportunity for art aficionados, connoisseurs, curators and collectors to enjoy works of art from across the world under one roof. Even those ignorant about art were thronging the venue and spouting superlatives as they scanned the pieces on display. The three-day event was undoubtedly a

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huge crowd-puller. “The footfall was twice the number compared to last year’s 40,000,” said the organisers. Pragati Maidan, the venue of the carnival, bustled with 84 exhibiting galleries from twenty countries, including India, Australia, France, Germany, Korea, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, UAE, UK and US. Around 500 artists jostled for space to showcase their works of art.

Photographer Gauri Gill’s months of efforts to capture the migrants who had come from across India and their attempts to prepare the space for staging the summit paid off. Her exhibition at the summit was a big hit among the visitors. “The hall’s history as it plays out may be seen as a microcosm of ‘development’ across India, and indeed many parts of the world today. I spent time in space in an

effort to view and document the throes of various transformations. Quite frequently it was empty, often it was filled with construction materials, debris and things discarded by people who lived there or passed through,” says Gill. Indian art panorama was represented by almost all leading national art galleries. The focus was global with 34 leading foreign galleries like Aicon Gallery from New York, Beck and Eggling from Germany, Lisson Art Gallery and Rob Dean Gallery from London participating in the summit. Senior artist F.N. Souza was the most focussed artist at the third edition of the carnival. Gallerie 88, The Loft, Delhi Art Gallery and Dhoomimal, besides two other UK-based galleries, displayed his works. This year’s Sculpture Park, an extended

ART OF THE MATTER: Some of the art works on display at the summit

space in the expansive outdoor area surrounding the venue, was packed with around 40 excited schoolchildren who were interning with participating galleries and media partners. The highlight of the summit was the elaborate Speakers’ Panel, where artist Anish Kapoor, Hans Ulrich Obrist, codirector of the Serpentine Gallery, and Homi Bhabha, director, Harvard Humanities Centre came together and discussed the perception of Indian art internationally. Anish Kapoor for the first time unveiled one of the biggest retrospectives of his art works

at the National Gallery of Modern Art, outside his country of residence, Britain. The exhibition showcased some of his ground-breaking installations. Another attraction of the summit was the video lounge, which was filled with visitors who flocked to watch the works of the emerging and established artists from across the world, including India. The carnival was successful in displaying some great works of art which otherwise is rarely seen in India. It was also an excellent platform to present the best that India had to offer.

MARCH 2011 INDIA PERSPECTIVES

PROFILE

RESURRECTING RIVERS, RESTORING FORESTS Legendary ‘Water Man’, Rajendra Singh, known for his conservation work in arid Rajasthan, continues to inspire TEXT: USHA RAI

onstructing johads or traditional water harvesting structures, restoring hills and forests that have lost their crowning glory and rejuvenating rivers that have run dry because of rapacious mining, quarrying and logging in and around the sylvan settings of Alwar, Rajasthan, Rajendra Singh is one of India’s finest eco-warriors. Better known locally as the ‘Water Man’ or ‘Jal Purush’, he has rejuvenated at least half a dozen rivers in Rajasthan and ended the migration from villages that his NGO, Tarun Bharat Sangh (TBS), works in. In 2001, his work in community leadership was recognised and he was given the Ramon Magasaysay Award. His expertise on watershed development and employment generation at the grassroots level is matched by tireless activism. He believes that constructing water harvesting structures and planting trees is not enough; powerful lobbies destroying nature have to be challenged and stopped. He has successfully fought in the Supreme Court for the closure of some 100 mines that were destroying the ecology of the Sariska National Park. Fifty-one year old Singh has spent 25 years of his life campaigning for restoration of water bodies, forest cover and empowering communities. Under his initiative, community-led institutions of the villages have been educated as well as involved in Gandhian concepts such as gram sabhas, mahila banks and River Parliaments. He has spearheaded campaigns on gram swawlamban (self-reliant villages), soil conservation, seed improvement, collection of herbal medicines and shramdan (voluntary labour). In and around the Sariska National Park, he has motivated village communities to regenerate and protect forests by reviving their customary laws. Forest Protection Committees have been set up in

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90 villages and another 32 in Sawai Madhopur, Karoli and Jaipur districts. One such committee has set up a people’s wildlife sanctuary – Bhairovdev Lokvanyajeev Abhayarny – spread over 12km in Bhaonta Kolyala village of Alwar. Twelve years ago a barren patch, the area now has sufficient forest cover and wildlife. Work began in a small way in 1985 when a core group of people worked on rural development and employment generation through water conservation at Gopalpura village of Alwar district. Slowly, this grassroots work intensified and spread to more areas. Rajendra Singh played a key role in constructing some 8,600 johads in 1,058 villages spread over 6,500 sq kms. After TBS constructed 3,500 johads and lands became productive with the availability of water, local communities were motivated to construct another 5,100 water harvesting structures in Alwar, Dausa, Sawai Madhopur, Karoli and Jaipur districts. Appropriate water harvesting structures were also built in Jaisalmer, Ajmer, Udaipur and Bharatpur. As a result of all these efforts, seasonal rivers of north-east Rajasthan, like Ruparel, Arvari, Sarsa, Bhagani and Jahajwali, are now in full flow. With the regeneration of the rivers, aquatic life thrived, the government even started giving contracts for fishing on

certain stretches of Arvari river. However, Singh opposed the contract which he felt would not only decimate the fish before optimum regeneration but other riverine life forms too. The government withdrew the contract and a River Parliament of 70 villages along the Arvari river was set up by Singh to engage villagers in the development and conservation of the river. Now, water conservation has led to increased employment and reduction of migration in the area. To keep the issue of conservation alive, almost every year, major campaigns or yatras are held. Campaigns like the Nadi, Pahar Bachao Yatra (Campaign to Save Rivers and Hills) which Singh lead from Gatta in Jaipur to Gangotri in Uttarkashi. He also initiated a 40-day water conservation programme, Jal Bachao, Johad Banao Yatra (Save Water Build Dams March). In 2002, he organised the Rashtriya Jal Yatra (National Water March) from Gandhi’s Samadhi at Raj Ghat in Delhi covering 30 states and 144 river basins. Simultaneously, five conferences were organised to share concerns on water and strategise action plans. At a time when the interlinking of rivers was being discussed at the political level, Singh’s message was “instead, link people for water conservation.” The experiences and lessons learnt from these marches are fed

MAN WITH A MISSION: Rajendra Singh on the banks of Luni river

into the courses conducted by the Tarun Jal Vidyapeeth, a university of water management, set up by TBS. In addition, TBS has documented medicinal plants of the region and their use for different ailments. In the villages where TBS has a presence, herbs and medicinal roots are preferred to allopathic treatment. The conviction has paid off. Recognising his commitment and success for watershed development, states like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra and Karnataka send their foresters and watershed development officials to TBS for orientation on community-based watershed development. A whole generation in the desert state of Rajasthan was unaware of the potential of the barren land around them. Singh’s determination, vision and hard work has transformed their lives. Now, they know they have a better future. —Usha Rai is a senior journalist who specialises on envrionment and development issues

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BOOKS

SHADES OF LIFE & LIGHT Selection of photographs taken from Raghu Rai’s The Indians: Portraits from My Album

A pair of house-painters who laboured at Raghu Rai’s house for six days. Rai watched them and could not let them go before photographing them “as they were so much there,” Delhi, 1980; (right) Mrs Indira Gandhi, the first and only woman Prime Minister of India

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(Clockwise from above) Carnatic vocalist M.S. Subbulakshmi, Delhi, 1992; spiritual teacher, writer and philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti, Delhi, 1985; shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan, Varanasi, 1988

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MARCH 2011 INDIA PERSPECTIVES

THE INDIANS: PORTRAITS FROM MY ALBUM Raghu Rai Introduction by John Falconer Publisher: Penguin Studio Price: ` 4,999 Pages: 160

Shah Rukh Khan with his fans, 2008

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MARCH 2011 INDIA PERSPECTIVES

INDIA AND THE WORLD

RISING INDIA, FALLING SNOW At the World Economic Forum in Davos no other country was as visible as India

IN FOCUS: Public transport buses in Davos with India Inclusive! promos designed by India Brand Equity Foundation

very year, for the past 40 years, plenty of big wheels descend down on the Alpine resort town of Davos in Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum (WEF). For five days the world’s most influential globocrats — leaders, top-notch CEOs, bureaucrats social entrepreneurs and media mavens gather to exchange thoughts and concerns on assorted issues like the European debt crisis, US economic growth, climate change, sustainable development, Asian security, African poverty, supporting a G-20 agenda and developing a Risk Response Network. This year, the 2,500-odd global leaders also talked about India. In this annual event India made its biggest splash ever declaring its coming of age in an explosion of colours, and flavours and, most importantly, ideas. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) ` 400 million India Inclusive@Davos campaign ensured that India was everywhere: on billboards, on the sides of buses, in adda sessions, in seminars and discussions, in assorted cultural events. As a prominent Kenyan TV anchor said in headlinespeak, “In Davos, the story is India.” The country’s two hundred-strong contingent, the largest outside the US and Europe, was lead by five ministers, P. Chidambaram, Anand Sharma, Kamal Nath, Praful Patel and Montek Ahluwalia and technocrat Nandan Nilekani. Between them they represented critical areas of the nation’s infrastructure; collectively and individually they spoke of how a rising, inclusive India was creating eddies of growth, markets and opportunities, creating

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MARCH 2011 INDIA PERSPECTIVES

AFP

a new economic order for a world rocked by recession and stagflation. Accompanying the politicians was a rolodex of India Inc, including Chairperson, CII’s Banking Committee, Chanda Kochhar, President, CII, Hari S. Bhartia, CMD, Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani, CEO and MD, Infosys Technologies, S. Gopalakrishnan, Chairperson, Aditya Birla Group, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Chairperson, Godrej Group Adi Godrej; Chairperson, Wipro Azim Premji and Chairperson, UB Group, Vijay Mallya. Members of the delegation joined in discussion lending an important Indian perspective to global issues ranging from climate change, innovation, science and technology, employment, inclusive growth and good governance. Perhaps the talk of the town were the colourful hoardings and billboards that were on the frontages of prominent buildings like the Congress or the Kirchener Museum, showing shining bright young faces of India’s Generation Y. Or it could have been the India Adda! at the Cafe Schneider located centrally on the Promenade. The adda – literally a hangout – cleverly served as a unique base for bilateral ministerial meetings. Open to delegates it attracted personalities like Bill Clinton, Ron Somers,

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Jeffery Sachs, Joseph Stiglitz and an assortment of ministers and corporate leaders who dropped in for discussions and yes, some masala chai. With emerging markets accounting for 33 percent of the world’s tally for mergers and acquisitions, a substantial leap from 2009, it was not surprising to see international investment bankers, swarming to the adda to speak to their Indian counterparts. No other country enjoyed the same kind of visibility as India. The WEF had four exclusive sessions on India, as compared to one or two each for major countries like China, Brazil and Russia and two on Africa. Each India session attracted packed houses, two of them were even televised on BBC. These public sessions were as apart from the several private ones, which had a separate entry charge, and were supported by major Indian companies. On the sidelines of the WEF, the India Inclusive programme had two major panel discussions at the Kirchner Museum, part of the India Future of Change campaign. The first – ‘Can India grow faster than China? What role can government and business play? ‘– was moderated by Martin Wolf of the Financial Times. The second, moderated by design guru Tim Brown, focussed on ‘Can Design, Innovation and

IDEA EXCHANGE: (clockwise from above) India rocks at the Cultural Soirée during the penultimate night; India billboards dot Davos; Minister for Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma with United States Trade Representative, Ron Kirk and Vice Chairperson and Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra, Anand Mahindra with CEO of WPP, Martin Sorrell

Entrepreneurship become drivers of India’s Growth Story?’ Financial Times, one of WEF’s media partners, ran advertisements and feature articles on India in its main edition and Davos supplements. Broadcaster NDTV too had a huge presence interviewing celebrities like George Soros, Randy Zuckerburg and others. It was perhaps appropriate that the concluding dinner of this year’s WEF was hosted by CII and the government. The annual ball, renamed the Cultural Soirée, showcased food, fashion and the performing arts. After days of intense discussions, it was quite a contrast to see global leaders enthusiastically dancing to the rhythm of Indian music. The Kenyan anchor was right, at work and at play, India was all-pervading at Davos 2011.

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COMMENT

NIRUPAMA RAO

RABINDRANATH TAGORE’S VISION OF INDIA AND CHINA: A TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY PERSPECTIVE

here is a heightened focus on Rabindranath Tagore today as we engage in preparations to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth. This year it will also be 87 years since Tagore made his memorable visit to China. He went to China with a message of love and brotherhood that he felt symbolised the essence of the ties between the two countries. From all we know, his visit captured the imagination of Chinese intellectual elite, some of whom were overcome with admiration for his eloquence and passionate espousal of the civilisational strength of the East, while others especially young students in some of the Chinese leading universities, drawing directly from the ideology of the May 4, 1919 movement, were vehement in their rejection of Tagore’s critique of modern civilization. Even before his arrival in China in April 1924, Tagore was already a celebrated figure in that country. Chen Du Xiu, one of the founding fathers of the Communist Party of China, translated Tagore’s prize-winning anthology, Gitanjali, as early as 1915. It was during Tagore’s stay in China that the renowned Chinese scholar, Liang Qichao, presented him the Chinese name, Zhu Zhendan which translates to ‘thunder of the oriental dawn’. Tagore was deeply touched. He truly believed in the mutually beneficial interactive

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relationship between the two great civilisations of China and India. He passionately advocated the reopening of the path between the two countries that had become obscured through the centuries. His international university, Visvabharati, played a pioneering role in development of Chinese studies in India. The establishment of the first Sino-Indian Cultural Society, and then, Cheena Bhavana (Chinese Department) at Santineketan were corner stones for this cause. Scholars, teachers like Tan Yun-Shan, who led Cheena Bhavan for many years, contributed greatly to modern India’s understanding of Chinese civilisation and her modern development. Our first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, was greatly inspired by Tagore’s desire for India-China fraternity. He believed in the strong civilisational links between the two countries that had drawn them to each other in historical times. This civilisational link also inspired Panchsheel or the Five Principles of Co-existence. It is also to be noted that for the last many years, Tagore and Nehru have been regarded as among the fifty foreigners who have contributed most in shaping China’s modern development. Tagore was a visionary, always forward-looking. In one of his lectures in China in 1924, he said, “I hope that some dreamer will spring from among you and preach a message

of love and therewith, overcoming all differences, bridge the chasm of passions which has been widening for ages”. These were powerful words addressed to both the peoples of China and India, calling upon them to build a deeper mutual understanding. In speaking of the need for “eternally revealing a joyous relationship unforeseen”, he sought to promote the cause of China-India understanding, envisioning the ascent of India and China to a higher platform of civilisational leadership and fraternal partnership since they together comprise 40 percent of humanity. In his view, there was no fundamental contradiction between the two countries whose civilisations stressed the concept of harmonious development in the spirit of vasudhaiva kutumbakam (the world is one family) and shijie datong (world in grand harmony). It was Tagore’s vision of eternal partnership between India and China that inspired the vision of India-China friendship in the fifties in the last century. Prof. Tan Chung, son of Tan Yun-Shan, has coined a phrase ‘geo-civilisational paradigm’ to describe the relationship between India and China. I believe that Tagore’s focus on Asia’s unique identity is of particular relevance today as we seek to promote peace, stability and prosperity in Asia. Instinctively, he reflected the spirit of an Asia which had traditionally lived in peace, pursuing the traffic of ideas, the peaceful absorption of different religions without proselytisation, and trade and commerce across oceans that were not polarised but were neutral – literally zones of peace and a common economic space. This was an approach defined by secularism and a complementariness of interests. This balanced commercial equilibrium was enhanced by the concept of spiritual unity. One has only to visit the caves of Ajanta or see the murals of Dunhuang in China to see the capturing, through the eye of the artist, of this vision of unity – with their depiction of various nationalities thronging royal processions or expressing their grief before a dying Buddha. In the 8th century, an Indian astronomer named Gautama Siddhartha, was named the President of the Board of Astronomy of China. This tolerance and openness, lack of prejudice toward foreigners and outsiders, the spirit of enterprise and the absence of trade barriers, was unprecedented in the history of the world. I believe this is what Tagore meant when he said that we should have our past as a rough guide for the future. When Tagore visited China, both India and China were in the throes of their own and distinct revolution. In some sense, Tagore, with his poet’s love of beauty remained unaware of the visceral repugnance among the intellectual elites of China for Confucianism and traditional culture in a

SHARED HISTORY: Tagore in China with writers Xu Zhimo (right) and Xie Bingxin

politically charged atmosphere. His vision was long-term and civilisational, rather than ephemeral, approximating the millennium-long cultural contacts between India and China in which he found a worthy model for sustenance of the Asian way of harmony and coexistence. This is why he interpreted the invitation to him to visit China as an invitation from China to India rather than to an individual, and ‘accepted it as a humble son of India’. The import of Tagore’s influence for the revival of IndiaChina relations should not be underestimated, because it had waned after the Song dynasty and especially following the advent of the Europeans. It is significant that all exchanges between India and China with lasting impact till this point were by religious personages. Tagore was the first thinker of modern India to be invited by the thinking elite of China, along with the likes of John Dewey and Bertrand Russell, as the Chinese grappled with the question of China’s place in a modern world. In India, which was also facing pulls and pressures of different kinds, Tagore similarly sought to revive the spirit of unity with China and enhance understanding of this important country by pioneering modern studies of China and building on contacts with noted Chinese personalities. Even if Tagore’s outreach to China did not evoke the

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intended response during or immediately following his visit, his approach looks prophetic with the passage of time. At that point in time, Tagore said in his final lecture in China, “I have done what was possible — I have made friends.” However, this was not just friendship between the poet and his fans in China, it was in many ways symbolic of the renewal of friendship between India and China and awakening of their potential. For instance, India and China were to launch the Panchsheel initiative exactly three decades later, drawing upon their civilisational values. Since the venue of this talk is Singapore, I cannot but help thinking of how the most evocative visualisation of the synergy between India and China has often sprung from our friends in South-East Asia. And here, Singapore has played a leading role. It was in Singapore that Tan Yun-Shan met Tagore and from where he resolved to follow Tagore to Santiniketan when Cheena Bhavana was being set up. It is

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been working to realise the vision of a truly global university, a holistic mix of the old and the new, of the past, the present and the future. Again, Tagore’s happiness at this development would have been spontaneous. It is the modern day Xuanzangs and Bodhidharmas in both our countries and indeed in the rest of Asia that this University will target – so that this ancient rendezvous comes alive once again with all its attendant relevance and meaning. We are deeply appreciative of the fact that the Singapore Buddhist community is to make a financial contribution for the library of Nalanda University amounting to $ 5 million. In December 2010, Premier Wen Jiabao announced a contribution of $1 million for the Nalanda University. Tagore was ultimately a breaker of barriers, and in that sense he is very much of the 21st century. His appeal should cut across any nationalism that is narrowly defined or circumscribed by a limited appreciation of the ebb and flow of the tides of history. That sanity and rationality should prevail in the debates and encounters of countries like India and China is a principle that nobody can find exception about. Tagore’s nationalism did not come in the way of the widest internationalism. This is a message for the youth of China and of India. Let their relationship flourish in the amrakunj – the mango grove – like the one at Santiniketan, a field of inspiration, with their personalities developing in harmony with the environment around them. Perhaps the theme of the amrakunj should define 2011 which is the Year of India-China Exchange! During his visit to Delhi in December 2010, Premier Wen Jiabao spoke to a cross-section of media and cultural and academic personalities on how to improve perceptions of Indians and Chinese about each other. What came through was the need for an inclusive and plural approach given the multi-ethnic nature of both societies. The need for the two countries to evolve as hubs of creativity, in addition to being engines of economic growth, was stressed by Premier Wen. India and China share what is termed as a strategic and cooperative partnership for peace and prosperity today. Their relations have, in the last decade particularly, grown increasingly multi-faceted. These two big economies of Asia are interacting closely with each other, both in terms of bilateral trade, but also on issues concerning the global economic situation. The two governments have decided to institute a strategic economic dialogue as a measure of the increasing complexity and sophistication of their dialogue on economic issues. It is a truism that between two such large countries such as ours, relations will be complex and with continuing areas of divergence. The challenge remains to build more

AFP

from our friends in Singapore that we often hear the most incisive commentary and comparative analyses of modern China and India. And, it is probably here in Singapore that you are able to best understand the imperative of closer dialogue and peaceful interaction between India and China. Tagore’s encounter with China did not culminate with his trip there in 1924. The idea of India and the idea of China – civilisations that could never perish – were guiding principles for leaders like Nehru. Until the unfortunate border conflict of 1962, the concept of fraternal partnership between India and China had never been questioned. The estrangement of the sixties and early seventies expressed an aberration that went against the grain of the inspirational words of Tagore and his belief in the geo-civilisational paradigm of India-China relations. This is a useful model for Asia as we see it resurge once again, and we seek open, transparent, balanced and equitable dialogue structures and patterns of cooperation among all the regions of our continent. Last May, I was present at Shanghai when the President of India, unveiled a bronze statue of Tagore at the crossing of Nanchang Road and Maoming Road very close to the spot where Tagore had stayed at the house of the young poet Xu Zhimo during a brief transit through Shanghai on his onward journey to Japan and North America in 1929. The event was recognition of the enormous contribution made by Tagore in resurrecting the traditional friendship between India and China. Last month, during the visit of Premier Wen Jiabao to India, the Indian Government announced that the study of the Chinese language would be introduced into the curriculum of secondary schools across the country. Tagore would have been overjoyed by this resolve to promote the scientific study of China through its language. In many ways, the Nalanda University Project, which arises out of the decisions reached at the East Asia Summit, is an expression of this spirit. The road to Nalanda, giver of education and knowledge, echoes with the muffled footsteps of that period of shared history between India and China when the traditions of Buddhist pilgrimage and quest of scholarship defined the reaching out of these two countries to each other. In fact, the lore of the Tang Dynasty monk’s “Journey to the West” is like a trail leading to Nalanda. The tradition of Nalanda not only included monks like Faxian, Xuanzang and Yijing, but also other monks and scholars, prominently among them Kumarajiva, who is claimed by both India and China as their own worthy son. In our own century, the 21st, the Government of India has sought to revive Nalanda as a centre of cultural exchange and scholarship between East, Southeast and South Asia. The Nalanda Mentor Group, headed by Dr. Amartya Sen, has

convergence and common ground. I believe that the ballast must come from deeper dialogue which is defined by greater transparency, understanding the relevance and import of the words of thinkers like Tagore, realising that a conflicted or contest-ridden relationship between India and China can do neither any good, that peace and stability for an Asian century flows from the enduring strength of a wellfunctioning interaction between these two countries. The concept of Zhongguo-Yin Da Tong or ‘Great Harmony between India and China’ can describe the future of our relations, if we use not only our complementarities in development and economic growth but also our great strengths in cultural and civilisational values, thus emerging as hubs of creativity and innovation, to create a fitting new paradigm for the India-China equation. —Excerpts from a speech by Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao at the Singapore Consortium for India-China Dialogue

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ITEC

OFF-THE-JOB TRAINING Journalists from developing countries benefit from a course at Delhi’s Indian Institute of Mass Communications TEXT: DEVIRUPA MITRA / IAANS

hey come to India from all over — from Africa, Latin America, Asia — imbibing skills, learning the 5 Ws of journalism in a country widely recognised as having one of the world’s freest and most robust media. Every year, around 50 budding journalists from different countries come to New Delhi’s Indian Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) for a four-month course in Development Journalism.

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Conducted twice a year, in a tree-flecked campus located in south Delhi, the course attracts a number of students, mostly from the developing world. Explaining the objective of the course, Sunit Tandon, director of IIMC, says: “Our Development Journalism course is meant for mid-career journalists who come mostly from nonaligned and other developing countries. Our endeavour is to give an opportunity to them to develop an expertise in

several aspects of communication and development.” The course which started way back in 1979 has been organised under the relationship-building Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme initiated by the Ministry of External Affairs. It contains six modules: defining development journalism; role of mass media in developing countries; new technologies; various aspect of reporting

and editing; economic journalism and media freedom, law and ethics. By the end of four months journalism students become more knowledgeable about communication and development issues. They also develop a range of skills – from analytical to computers and writing, while improving their competency in specific media streams. In short, they become more well-rounded professionals as they acquire both theoretical and practical skills required for media practitioners in developing countries. “Students come from all over the world, from Africa, South Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe,” enumerates Dr. Sunetra Sen Narayan, ITEC Associate Professor and coordinator at IIMC. While more than 44 institutes all over India offer different training courses under the ITEC programme, IIMC is the only institute that offers a media course which is conducted in batches of 25, starting every August and January. For the students, this mid-career learning experience has been hugely rewarding. “The experience at IIMC is very useful. The course has helped me to understand different aspects of journalism as it is practiced in developing countries while different tours during the course have helped us to learn about India’s rich cultural heritage,” admits Mohammed Humayun Kobir from Bangladesh who has just completed the course. “Inevitably after the course, our alumni always report back to us when they get back home. They tell us about either switching to more lucrative jobs or to jobs that they are more interested in as a result of participating in the IIMC course. They all stay in touch. It makes us feel so proud,” Tandon says. Eric Walker of Ghana, a former student, explains via email, how he benefited.

INTERNATIONAL PROFILE: (left) Students stand in front of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication located in south Delhi and (above) in a classroom

“Participating in the course gave me an international profile, exposed me to a diverse culture and also made me confident because of the skills I acquired in the field. Can you imagine when I got back to Ghana one of the largest TV stations in

the country called me for an interview? While in Delhi I was even able to pick some Hindi and I am still learning. I wish I could get back once again.” For Precious Nomuo of Zimbabwe, it’s the intermingling of cultures which has been most useful. “The course gave me a good grounding in the basics of journalism basics but the sheer cultural diversity and the inter-mingling with people from

different parts of the world was useful as I learnt about cultures I had not known before,” she says. Certainly, for the institute, the one prime focus is to facilitate interaction between the foreign and Indian students. “We organise joint sessions with students under different courses. From time to time, we also hold workshops and seminars which are open to all students, and here foreign students get a chance to interact with local ones. Besides, the international students also participate in various cultural programmes at the institute,” Tandon explains. Despite its popularity, there are no plans to expand the course. “We cannot increase numbers because we have limited hostel space. However, we expect to have more hostels constructed within two years and perhaps then we can consider opening the course to more participants,” ends Tandon on a hopeful note.

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AFP

GLOBAL BRANDS

HOW BHARTI MADE A CALL Bharti Airtel’s acquisition of Zain Telecom spikes Indian investments in Africa TEXT: SUSHMA RAMACHANDRAN

harti Airtel’s acquisition of Zain Telecom in Africa marks the biggest foray of Indian corporates into this continent. The landmark deal estimated at $10.7 billion dollars in March 2010 has escalated the level of Indian investments in Africa to $16.7 billion dollars. The acquisition is not without its share of challenges. For one, Bharti has to deal with the enormous task of managing the African assets of the Kuwait-based Zain

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Telecom. For another, it has to cope with the teething problems of carrying out operations in a new environment. So far, Bharti, India’s largest telecom company, has only ventured to nearby Sri Lanka. In Africa, however, it has to deal with a completely different regulatory and market scenario. And although Bharti has had the first-mover advantage in India, in Africa, it has to contend with stiff competition from MTN, a company which it tried to acquire in 2009.

There is no doubt that the Indian telecom’s company’s entry into Africa is significant as it underlines the tremendous potential available in this continent for Indian industry. In the telecom sector alone, the sky is the limit as far as growth is concerned. Only consider, tele-density in the continent is only about 30 percent. Bharti is not the only Indian company to have made its mark in global mergers and acquisitions. India is quickly emerging

AFP

RIGHT CONNECTIONS: (far left) Bharti Airtel’s Sunil Mittal; (left) Zain subscribers in Kenya; (above) Zain CEO, Nabil bin Salamah

as one of the world’s top outward investors with over $75 billion dollars investment having been made overseas in the past decade. During 2009-10 alone, Reserve Bank data shows that the outward investment was $10.3 billion dollars. Among other big international takeovers in recent years has been Tata Steel’s $12 billion dollar buyout of the larger Anglo Dutch company, Corus, as well as its acquisition of the iconic Jaguar Motors, not to mention Tata Tea’s takeover of UK’s Tetley. Lakshmi Mittal’s acquisition of Arcelor has been another landmark deal. Other Indian companies are also looking for growth opportunities in Africa. The Tata group was the first to make its presence felt here and it is estimated that it has already made about $1.6 billion dollars worth of

investments, the latest being a luxury hotel in Cape Town, South Africa. Other Indian corporates which are active players in Africa include Ashok Leyland, Videocon, Marico, Dabur, Godrej, Mahindra and Mahindra, Suzlon, UB, Cipla, Dr. Reddy’s Labs, NIIT, Kirloskar and Essar. There are also investments by the state-owned ONGC which bought a 25 percent stake in Sudan’s Greater Nile project seven years ago in a bid to improve the country’s energy security. The pharmaceutical industry has also played a role in providing cheap and effective drugs for a market that earlier relied on the high value drugs produced in developed countries. Even in the area of telecom, Bharti is not the first Indian entrant to the African market as Essar had already launched its YU brand in Kenya.

The Africa story is important as it represents the growth and expansion of Indian corporates in the world through buyouts. In the hydrocarbons sector, domestic oil companies like the Indian Oil Corporation are setting aside a war chest of at least a billion dollars to buy exploration and production assets abroad. In the pharma sector, Indian firms have already carried out a host of buyouts in Europe and the U.S. while infrastructure companies are looking at the purchase of coal mines and power plants abroad. India Inc is clearly in a mood to go pursue global expansion plans aggressively: Bharti’s takeover of Zain is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. —Sushma Ramachandran is an economic and corporate analyst

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TRAVEL

EMERALD SEAS, CERULEAN SKIES Home to some of the most isolated indigenous people on earth the Andaman and Nicobar islands remain an unpolluted and tranquil destination TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS: PRASHANT PANJIAR

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tâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only eight in the morning but the sun is already high in the sky, bouncing off the backs of a school of dolphins, fishing some distance off the bows of our boat. We are gliding through clear, still emerald waters. On either side of the boat lie uninhabited beaches â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the kind you find in the pages of travel brochures. Edging the sandy shores are thick virgin rainforests. As a vision of paradise, there are few places in the world that can rival these islands which

are a mere two-hour flight from Kolkata. The 572 islands of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago lie between the Coco Channel, off the coast of Myanmar, and the maritime boundary of Sumatra. It is the last home of the Andamanese indigenous peoples, like the Sentinelese, who even today are one of the most isolated and unassimilated people on earth, and the Jarawas, who only recently have come into contact with the mainstream.

INTO THE QUIET: The 572 islands of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago lie between the Coco Channel and the maritime boundary of Sumatra

History tells us that Marco Polo was among the first western visitors to visit the islands. The Maratha admiral Kanoji Angre made the islands his base in the early 18th century and his navy harassed British,

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TAKING THE PLUNGE: (left) Jolly Buoy beach; (below) an underwater view

Dutch and Portugese merchant ships. The British finally annexed the islands in the 19th century and converted one of them into a penal colony for Indian freedom fighters. Construction of the infamous Cellular Jail was completed in 1906 and it was here that many Indian freedom fighters were incarcerated. During World War II, the Japanese captured the islands and after Independence, the islands were declared a Union Territory of India. The hub of the island is Port Blair, the administrative capital which connects to Chennai and Kolkata by air and ship. Here visiting the Cellular Jail, now a national monument, is de riguer. Other items on a tourist’s to-do list are the smattering of museums, the beach at Corbyn’s Cove, a harbour cruise and a visit to Ross Island, the seat of the British administration. Across the bay you can see Mount Harriet, covered in dense forests with some trekking tracks. Motorbikes are an interesting way to explore Port Blair and South Andaman — cheap and adventurous. Astride these sturdy chariots you can ride through dense tropical rainforests where magnificent Garjan trees tower around you like skyscrapers to reach Chidiyatapu, snuggling in the southern-most tip of South Andaman.

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MARCH 2011 INDIA PERSPECTIVES

PERFECT PACKAGE: (clockwise from left) enjoying a ferry ride; Cellular Jail in Port Blair and Radhanagar beach

Undoubtedly, the highlight of any trip to the Andamans is to discover the amazing underwater world of the coral reefs. The best, and easily the most accessible coral reefs, are in the Mahatma Gandhi National Park. The corals at Jolly Buoy are amazing and the sea is abundant in marine life. Snorkelling here is an experience not to be missed. Although there is a diving centre at Wandoor, located some 29 km from Port Blair, Havelock Island is the place if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re looking for more serious action. Though Middle Andaman has been opened to foreign tourists travel still remains restricted so as to protect the Jarawas from contact with the outside world. Travel by car is permitted from Port Blair to Rangat and Mayabunder, both of which are also accessible by sea. The road journey is done in convoys, escorted by armed policemen. But be warned: photography of the Jarawas and the reserve is forbidden. Despite its restrictions, for the right reasons, the Andaman Islands is a once-ina-lifetime experience, an other wordly experience in one of the most pristine environments left on earth. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Prashant Panjiar is a renowned, independent columnist/photographer based in New Delhi

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MARCH 2011 INDIA PERSPECTIVES

IN REVIEW

ART

BOOKS

Anish Kapoor's first-ever exhibitions in India capture the popular imagination

An invigorating view of India’s diverse political and social canvas

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MAKERS OF MODERN INDIA By Ramchandra Guha Publisher: Penguin/Viking Pages: 549 Price: ` 799

AFP

o matter what your expectations are from the Mumbai-born artist Anish Kapoor, he will always surprise you. Nothing quite prepares you for his sculptures and installations—not the size, nor the ideas. London-based Kapoor’s Indian debut comes with all the trappings of cult celebrity-dom. However, his first India shows have nothing on the scale on which he usually works. His works were simultaneously exhibited at the National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi and Mehboob Studios, Mumbai. Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi launched the Delhi show while the Mumbai opening was ripe with socialites and Bollywood stars. Born in 1954, Kapoor studied in Mumbai and Doon School, Dehradun, before he headed for London where he studied and taught art. Later, he turned a full-time sculptor and installation artist. Most of his iconic works consist of reflecting surfaces in steel that are shaped to reflect, subvert or invert images, so that the familiar is rendered unfamiliar. His works stand tall in city centres and parks across the world. Kapoor, the artist, imagines space as something outside our understanding, letting it ‘expand’ or ‘contract’ in his works which become an interactive element for visitors, lending a new dimension to art and how people engage with it. While some of his works are a bow to his Indian-ness, Kapoor works outside any established ideology. This is something central to his massive architectural interventions, with which he is increasingly absorbed; burrowing into hillsides, tunneling underground, linking passages between

NEW LANGUAGE OF ART: Anish Kapoor in front of his wax-imploding art installation, Shooting into the Corner, at Mehboob Art Studio, Mumbai

different levels whether on the ground or across buildings, or creating steel blimps in the nature of half-filled balloons that allow themselves to wrap themselves fluidly around built structures. These experiments have found a global following for him and his city installations have become star attractions be it in Chicago, San Francisco, Tokyo or London’s Hyde Park. Currently, he is working on the Arcelor’s Mittal Orbit, a huge tower in London’s Olympic Park. The Orbit subverts the textual meaning of the word and has all the promise of being this century’s equivalent of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The Orbit will be ready ahead of the Olympic Games in 2012. Associated, at least initially, with reflective surfaces, the new medium Kapoor finds himself using as part of his

work includes plastic, acrylic, sandstone, pigments, fibre glass and several other elements that broadly come under the category of mixed-media. Yet, it is the distortions and illusion of his stainless steel installations that continue to intrigue and mystify his fans around the world. It turns playful and an allegory to perceptions of reality, they reveal to us the truths and untruths of our ways of looking at the world and people around us. Kapoor’s mirror allows us all to gaze into ourselves and discover notions of space we had never considered earlier. For that and the new contemporary language of art he has created, Kapoor’s exhibitions in the two cities were events that were not to be missed. —Kishore Singh

ndia was an idea that was not expected to succeed, but that view was belied in the six decades that India has been a secular, democratic republic. Ramchandra Guha’s selection of nineteen original thinkers and activists provides an invigorating view of the diversity of political and social debate in India. Makers of Modern India is an anthology of their essays, letters and speeches on issues of national identity, democracy, religion and social justice. The nineteen thinkers range from Raja Rammohan Roy, Mohandas K. Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, G.K. Gokhale, Jawaharlal Nehru, E.V. Ramaswami, M.S. Golwalkar to Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay. Edited and introduced by the author, the excerpts deal with all the major issues that went into the debate on India’s transition to a modern, secular republic – race, religion, caste, gender, nationalism, colonialism, language, democracy and economic development, violence and non-violence. The eclectic collection shows the span of their political thought, from B.R. Ambedkar on democracy, Rammanohar Lohia on caste and Jyotirao Phule’s writings on the plight of farmers which still retain their relevance. The inclusion of Tarabai Shinde and

Hamid Dalwai comes as a surprise as the author himself describes them as obscure in their lifetime, but her strong demand for equality between men and women in 1882 takes Shinde into the category of original thinkers of their day. Hamid Dalwai’s critical writings in the 1960s on Muslim liberalism are of even greater importance in contemporary times. Guha explains his choice of intellectuals

– as those who were thinkers as well as activists-reformers; this may explain the absence of several well-known names in his list. This is the book to read for a richer understanding of India’s political heritage. As Guha writes, it is meant to give “a fuller understanding of how this unnatural nation and unlikely democracy was argued into existence.” —Shubha Singh

MARCH 2011 INDIA PERSPECTIVES

IN REVIEW

FILM

MUSIC

In the Season of Blue Storm goes beyond the veil and looks at Muslim women

Rajasthan’s Manganiyars make Delhi see the music and hear the light

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AFP

Merajur Rahman Baruah – shows these women at their workplace, their modes of dress, their easy relationships with their male colleagues and with their families. For the rest, it sticks to certain characteristic images: namaz, masjids, dargahs, kite-flying, selecting bangles, bearded men, bazaars crowded preponderantly with Muslims – as though once removed from their professional context, the only other context

they move in is that of their community. There’s no mention, however, of any social indicators. To conclude on the strength of five success stories that Muslim women are leaving their four walls may appear far-fetched. But moulds are being broken slowly, and education is at the heart of it. With cautious optimism, In the Season of Blue Storm tells us how. —Latika Padgaonkar

hey are keepers of the history of the desert; sentinels to the sound of the sands. Called the Manganiyars, these Muslim minstrels from Jaisalmer and Barmer, the desert regions of Rajasthan, reinforced the traditions of their forefathers as they mesmerised their audience against the historic backdrop of the Purana Qila. An hour-long concert, conceived and directed by Roysten Abel, used the raw voices of the Maganiyars and instruments like the kamancha, a stringed lute and the khartal, small pieces of smooth wood, which, much like the Spanish flamenco dancers, are used to reinforce beat and rhythm. Forty-three Rajasthani folk musicians sat in 36 curtained cubicles,

ANKUR MALHOTRA

ased on the personal stories of five young, middle-class Muslim women from different parts of India, Naghma Inam’s documentary In the Season of Blue Storm makes a larger case for their sisters who are stepping out and fighting their own battles. Pilot Sumiara Sururi, BBC World Service Assistant Producer Samarah Fatima, data analyst Anam Mehmood, IAS officer Sehala Nigar and MNC executive Sabiha Saeed are self-assured, intelligent, and fully aware of their families’ support. Endearingly frank, with a hearty dislike of compulsions, they exude a sense of comfort at being Indians. They do not don the veil, but have faced no harassment or discrimination as women, as Muslims or as professionals. It is here in India, they say, that you can really be yourself. They are proud Muslims who have never hidden their identity. Yet they know Muslim women face dilemmas, especially before platitudes such as “Islam doesn’t allow…” Without denying the tenets of Islam, they question the views society proffers, and ask whose purpose it really serves to contain women. A Public Diplomacy initiative of the Ministry of External Affairs, The Season of Blue Storm – scripted and directed by

TUNE FROM THE DUNES: During the concert at Purana Qila, New Delhi; the Manganiyars in Pokharan

arranged in four horizontal rows, one above the other. The show began with a single cubicle lighting up and its occupant starting to sing. Throughout the concert, the performers, collectively and individually, waxed and waned, but the music never stopped. Effectively using the concept of Jaipur’s Hawa Mahal and the red light area of Amsterdam to create a feeling of intimacy, Roysten, an associate of the National School of Drama, reportedly said before the show: “All over the world, we have always got a standing ovation,” And India’s capital did not disappoint him. After the final notes died down the applause continued well into Delhi’s winter night. —Suparna Sengupta

MARCH 2011 INDIA PERSPECTIVES

VERBATIM

ON A DREAM ROLL A mural by artist Arpita Singh has become the most expensive work of art to be auctioned in India

What was your reaction to, first, the high estimate, and then the record price that Wish Dream fetched at the auction? When you consider prices for most Indian art, it strikes you as very high. But when you consider the size of the mural, which is 24 ft x 14 ft – at least according to the average price for my works, it isn’t so extraordinary. What was it like working on such a large scale when both your subjects as well as the sizes in which you work, have tended to be much more intimate? The mural was intended for the inside of a

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building at Qutab Institutional Area in New Delhi, and so I had to think accordingly in terms of size. (The building was sealed, and the mural was never put up.) As an artist, I don’t have any large social or political ideas that I paint. So, for this mural, I chose as my subject what I mostly paint, though I was not very sure of its outcome in the project. Was Wish Dream intended to be part of your ongoing feminist ideology? Frankly, I don’t know what you mean by feminist ideology. I wondered for some time what I would paint over such a huge space and was struck by the terms ‘wish’ and ‘dream’. It’s easy for me to understand, and paint, women’s wishes and dreams which are common to all of us. So I had a start, though I didn’t know where the painting was going or where it would end. How has the scale of the project impacted you since? I was used to painting much smaller works,

but with Wish Dream I felt as though some barrier in my work had been removed. In that sense, it did a very good thing to me. With Wish Dream did you make any changes in your journey as an artist? No, I was continuing and have continued since then, to think and paint in the same way as always. Why do you show your women as being vulnerable? …perhaps a sense of insecurity, I should say. Even if you are not doing anything unusual, or out of the way, you feel very insecure. But don’t men face fear too? I’m not a man. Maybe I’m reading too many newspaper reports of women being violated, maybe that has affected me. Finally, have you tried escaping somewhere from all the pesky reporters? (Laughs) Is it possible – you tell me?

COURTESY: SAFFRONART

eventy-three-year-old Arpita Singh appears to be more embarrassed than ecstatic about the record price of ` 9.56 crore her Wish Dream mural fetched at a recent Saffronart auction, making her the highest-paid woman artist (a term she deplores) in India. Having started off in the fifties, it was only in the eighties that she began to paint seriously. Her canvases reflect the daily lives of women, often putting them at the centre of unfolding stories not in their control. There is a hint, too, of violence – of guns and strangers and airplanes that build up a theatre of unease in a world of roses and gardening and sewing, which is as true of Wish Dream as well. Ducking calls from the press rather than courting it, Arpita Singh makes an observation about the emerging environment as far as buying art in India is concerned. “I feel good that our own society is supporting us,” she says in an interview to Kishore Singh — a nod to the purchase of the mural by an Indian collector.

COLOUR MY WORLD: (left) Arpita Singh; (above) Wish Dream Oil on canvas 287x159 inches 16 panels Inspired by Buddhist monastic traditions, strewn with flowers, numbers, fragments of text, aircraft and cars