INDIA VOL 25 NO. 2 APRIL 2011
PERSPECTIVES
iNDiA
perspectives
Advancing India’s Conversations with the World WELCOME TO THE NEW WORLD OF INDIA PERSPECTIVES Now on Facebook! Become Friends of India Perspectives Join the Facebook Community http://www.facebook.com/IndiaPerspectives Read India Perspectives online: www.indiandiplomacy.in
PE C T
PE R S
IVES
BOOKS Majestic Architecture
ESSENTIAL READING ON INDIA
SARI Magical Drape
INSIDE
RY Crazy R S TO C O V E ia is Cricket Why Ind
hin ng Sac Y E S S A ortance of Bei The Imp URE C U L T i in Season Chenna
r Islands EL T R AV an and Nicoba Andam W Minds RVIE I N T E Singh, Arts and Arpita
ISSN 09705074
H 20 11
SARANGI Soulful Strings
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS, EXCHANGE IDEAS, SEND YOUR DARTS AND LAURELS
INDIA
MA RC NO. 1 VOL 25
INSIDE
TRAVEL Luxury on Track
INDIA-LIBYA Safe Homecoming
INDIA THIS MONTH
March 25-April 22 Rhododendron Festival Get an opportunity to see rhododendrons at their best and enjoy wildlife safari, trekking and get an excellent view of Mount Kanchenjunga. Where: Barsey, Sikkim
APRIL-MAY
2011 May 4-5 Moatsu Mong A festival to propitiate the Gods for a good harvest. It provides an opportunity for the Ao tribe to relax after the stress of reaping fields. Where: Nagaland
April 14 Baisakhi The day marks the Punjabi new year, and a commemoration of the foundation of the Khalsa religion. Festivities include Bhangra, local folk music and fairs. Where: All over Punjab
May 15-17 Summer Festival Enjoy a feast of folk and classical music. Sporting events add variety with a dazzling firework display on the concluding day. Where: Mount Abu, Rajasthan
May 8-9 Banganga Fair The Banganga Fair attracts thousands of worshippers to its temple with devotees engaging in rituals and blessings. Where: Radha Krishnaji Temple, Jaipur
April 5-15
April 22-26
May 17
Tulip Festival Tourists throng Kashmir Valley to see millions of tulips blooming. The event also features several cultural programmes. Where: Indira Gandhi Tulip Garden, Srinagar, Kashmir
Sankat Mochan Festival The festival marks the birth of Lord Hanuman. Pandit Jasraj and Pandit Rajan and Sajan Mishra have enthralled audiences in the past. Where: Varanasi
Buddha Jayanti Celebrates the birth of Lord Buddha. Activities include meditation, prayers and processions. Where: Sarnath, (Uttar Pradesh) Bodhgaya (Bihar)
April 8-May 28
April 28 -May 1 Times Kidz World The trade event basically exhibits kids products. Singing, quiz contests and game shows are highlights of the event. Where: World Trade Centre, Mumbai
IPL Season 4 India’s mega-cricketing event will see the addition of the Pune Warriors and Kochi Tuskers and will be played by a total of ten teams. Where: 13 major cities across India
May 12 Thrissur-Pooram Be part of a procession featuring elephants, drum concerts and ornamental parasol displays. Where: Vadakkumnathan Temple, Thrissur, Kerala
EDITORIAL NOTE
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n March, New Delhi becomes spectacularly colourful. The month leaves behind the coolness of winter and ushers in a balmy spring. The Rose Garden in Chanakyapuri is in full bloom; the air is filled with the heady perfumes of phlox, periwinkles, hollyhocks and nasturtiums while the incandescent red, purple and magentas of bougainvilleas draping the walls of neighbouring diplomatic missions light up the streets even well after dusk. The expansive traffic islands that link the capital’s wide boulevards are bursting with blossoms making the morning drive to work a real pleasure. The festival of Holi, celebrated this year on March 20th, brings out the same joyous spirit of spring as friends smear each other with vibrant colours, reflecting the hues of the flowers around them. India, of course, manifests itself in myriad shades. And this issue takes a look at a few of these manifestations of the Idea of India. We celebrate the finest of Hindi writers, tune in to the notes of the sarangi and reflect on the timeless magic of the sari. We take you on a rail journey on the luxurious Royal Rajasthan on Wheels as it traverses through popular destinations like Jaipur, Agra and Benares and also show you some of the famous Sikh forts and palaces of Punjab. In our regular section on Development Partnerships, we review the transformational impact of a major irrigation project carried out in Senegal by an Indian company with the help of a line of credit from India. We also report on the success of a major gathering of the world’s Least Developed Countries in New Delhi as they pursue their quest for a more equitable global order. And we give you a glimpse into Operation Safe Homecoming, the inside story of the successful evacuation of around 18,000 Indian citizens from Libya. We hope you enjoy the magazine in its new format and we look forward to your feedback.
Navdeep Suri
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iNDiA
perspectives APRIL 2011 n VOL 25 No. 2/2011
APRIL 2011
Editor: Navdeep Suri Assistant Editor: Neelu Rohra
Lead Story: Literary Force
MEDIA TRANSASIA TEAM Editor-in-Chief: Maneesha Dube
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PHOTOFEATURE
Editor: Mannika Chopra Creative Director: Bipin Kumar Desk: Urmila Marak Editorial Co-ordinator: Kanchan Rana Design: Ajay Kumar (Sr. Designer), Sujit Singh, Saurabh Mishra Production: Sunil Dubey (DGM), Brijesh K. Juyal (Prepress Operator) Chairman: J.S. Uberoi President: Xavier Collaco Financial Controller: Puneet Nanda Send editorial contributions and letters to Media Transasia India Ltd.
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Essay: Magical Unstitched Garment
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Culture: Melodious Strings
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Profile: Vandana Shiva
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SENTINELS TO HISTORY
INDIA AND THE WORLD
Going back to the 16th century, a succession of fortifications and palaces dot the north Indian state of Punjab bringing back to life stirring tales of valour and sacrifice
Operation Safe Homecoming
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DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIPS
323, Udyog Vihar, Phase IV, Gurgaon 122016 Haryana, India
India-Least Developed Countries Ministerial Conference
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Senegal, Towards Food Security
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Business: Coffee, Tribals and Livelihood
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Travel: Royal Rajasthan on Wheels
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E-mail: feedback.indiaperspectives@mtil.biz Telephone: 91-124-4759500
IN REVIEW
Fax: 91-124-4759550 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.
Books: R. K. Narayan
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Film: Sudhir Aggarwal: It’s Cricket, No?
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Exhibition: Abhushan, Ode To Jewellery
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Verbatim: Pandit Jasraj
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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.
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COVER PHOTO: SARANGI, A BOWED, SHORT-NECKED STRING INSTRUMENT / PHOTOLIBRARY COVER DESIGN: BIPIN KUMAR
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LITERATURE
LITERARY FORCE With many literary luminaries marking their centenary, 2011 can be called the centenary year of Indian literature TEXT: PUSHPESH PANT
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entenary celebrations are occasions for affectionate remembrance and acknowledgment of debts to ancestors who continue to inspire us. India has not one but many such opportunities to do so this year. Some of our most eminent men of letters share the year of their birth –1911. 2011 also marks the 75th anniversary of the establishment of the Progressive Writers’ Association and the 150th year of the birth of the Indian Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Hindi poets and writers of the Subcontinent, born before the outbreak of the First World War, often threw in their lot with the wretched and oppressed of the
earth. Many belonged to the Progressive Writers’ Association – a guild of writers and poets inspired by the success of the Russian Revolution. This was the ‘trade union’ with which legendary Hindi novelist Munshi Premchand was associated, along with others like Ali Sardar Zafri and Sajjad Zaheer. The paths of these writers seldom crossed, they lived their own lonely lives, linked by the common cause of restoring dignity to fellow humans. Many believe that Sachhidanand Hiranand Vatsyayan better known by his nom de plume Ajneya was the Indian writer who came closest to winning a Nobel prize for literature in the 20th century. He was
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SOME OF OUR MOST EMINENT MEN OF LETTERS SHARE THE YEAR OF THEIR BIRTH –1911. 2011 ALSO MARKS THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PROGRESSIVE WRITERS’ ASSOCIATION AND THE 150th YEAR OF THE BIRTH OF THE INDIAN NOBEL LAUREATE RABINDRANATH TAGORE
truly a renaissance man, a trendsetting poet, a novelist pioneering modernism in Hindi, an elegant essayist and distinguished editor. Behind a carefully cultivated enigmatic persona lay a sensitive soul with a cosmopolitan mind. Ajneya’s debut novel Shekhar Ek Jiwani created a sensation and soon acquired the status of a contemporary classic. He is best known for editing the Tar Saptak anthologies that premiered seven promising poets in a volume. Apane Apane Ajnabi, a later novel, dealt with existentialist angst. No two men could have been more unlike than Nagarjuna and Ajneya. Nagarjuna revelled in flaunting his rustic, rural ways with all his rough edges intact. Dressing, talking like an illiterate. Nagarjuna eschewed sophistication and formality in his lifestyle and literary outpourings. He addressed his readers as if he were casually talking to them, endearing him to the masses who simply called him Baba. Behind this bohemian mask lay a razor sharp mind and a heart overflowing with the milk of human
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WRITE WORDS: (clockwise from top) Nagarjuna; Gopal Singh Nepali; Kedarnath Agarwal; Shriram Acharya; Ajneya and Faiz Ahmed Faiz
kindness. Born Vaidya Nath Mishra in Madhubani, in northern Bihar, famous for its bewitching colourful folk paintings with bold lines, as a youngster he converted to Buddhism and adopted the name of a legendary Buddhist philosopher, Nagarjuna. He gained exceptional fame under this pen name. Nagarjuna has several collections of poems to his credit — but what has immortalised him were his verses full of pathos and poignancy written in the context of the Bihar famine or his expressions of ecstasy over the Himalayan landscape. Kedarnath Agrawal shared with Nagarjuna an affinity for socialist ideology and hailed from the ravine, arid wasteland of Bundelkhand, home to patriotic brigands and dreaded dacoits. He practiced law in the district courts in Banda for a living but his true calling was poetry. Kedarnath Agrawal has poems that in an understated manner assert the epic heroism of a fighter against greatest odds — the common man. Diffident and soft-spoken he chose a simple popular idiom that the common reader could effortlessly relate to.
Gopal Singh Nepali was a lyricist of remarkable power who could hold large audiences enthralled in night-long recitals of poetry with his patriotic and romantic ‘songs of the people’. Shriram Sharma is a name profoundly respected in the annals of Hindi journalism. He not only edited the daily Vishal Bharat with great élan but also enriched the literary repertoire of his mother tongue with some delectable shikar (hunting) stories — a genre few others have dared to touch. In contrast, Shamsher registers his powerful presence almost silently. His poems keep resonating like a haunting bar of music long after the book has been set aside. Born in Dehradun in the Himalayan foothills, his life followed a literary trajectory very different from his peers born in the same year. He, too, was a Marxist and had given up studies to pursue poetry whole time. He was a reticent, introvert who kept refining his work adding up to a rich complex opus. Referred to, at times, as a poet’s poet, Shamsher wrote poems and ghazals in Hindi — a genre till then considered to be an exclusive domain of Urdu. An exacting translator and author of
memorable short stories and incisive essays, his love for Urdu compared with his love for Hindi. This brings us to another poet whose centenary falls this year. Though Faiz Ahmed Faiz settled in Pakistan after Partition his affinity for India has been well recorded. He shared much with his contemporaries across the border. Influenced by Marxism he had a cosmopolitan non-sectarian outlook, cherishing values of humanism and blended revolutionary fervor with seductive romanticism. As Ahmed Faraz another powerful poet from Pakistan once observed, ‘When Faiz did a poster it looked like a painting — a masterpiece!’ As we honour them all with commemorative celebrations, official and personal, let’s not forget the invisible thread that unites all these writers — their Indian-ness. A memorable Sanskrit verse reminds us that great writers needn’t dread death; their yashahkaaya — their body of fame shall endure all ravages of time. —Pushpesh Pant is an academic whose interests range from film-making to literature
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ESSAY
RTA KAPUR CHISHTI
The sari forms the base of our textile heritage. The challenge is to reinforce and continue this tradition to become part of a global, competitive market
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t has been the unstitched garment that has sartorially dominated the Subcontinent – all through the plains to the south. It has assumed many forms and is draped in innumerable ways by men and women – as a single-piece garment or a two or three-piece garment with an unstitched length used as a head cover by men or sometimes combined with a shoulder cloth or angvastram to be used in various ways to ward off the heat. Though the unstitched garment is created on a loom with a measure of length and breadth, what distinguishes it from a simple, flat piece of fabric is that it is conceived as a threedimensional garment with a different density in its various parts. The sari is but one type of unstitched garment. It allows us to go back at least a thousand years in design terms with variations in pattern, weave and structure between its inner and outer-end pieces and its two borders which provide drape, strength and weight while the body enhances the form of the sari or dhoti when it is worn. The deep involvement and the complete sense of identity that the Indian woman has with the sari has made her resist pressures to change her style of dress providing continuity to the weaving tradition that exists in every part of the country. The sari represents a culture in
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DIVERSE FORMS: (above) A Maharashtrian woman in a traditional sari draped in the style of the region; (facing page from top to bottom) a sidha pallav sari from north India; a traditional pinkosuvam sari from Tamil Nadu; a tribal Oraon woman from Sarguja, Chhattisgarh and nivi, a modern, urban style widely worn in India
which the woven, textured and patterned garment, not pierced or intruded upon by a stitching needle, was considered not only more appropriate in terms of aesthetics and the climate but wearing it was also seen as an act
interprets the sari in its unique way. The ability to combine materials, reinterpret and even recreate motifs from the single cotton flower to floral vines to all over trellis patterns and geometric ranges is unlimited and specific from region to region. From the most transparent and sheer cottons and silk organzas found in West Bengal to the Venkatgiri in Andhra Pradesh and Chanderi in Madhya Pradesh to the translucent fabrics of Maheshwari in Madhya Pradesh, the visual canvas is large. It was the sari, dhoti, pagdi/safa that has provided the base of India’s textile tradition. This unstitched garment supported and promoted exceptional skills of weaving. The great textile trading centres of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, Murshidabad in West Bengal, Mysore in Karnataka and Kanchipuram in Tamil Nadu and other well known trading centres grew because they supported the production of textiles, particularly saris. They also became the routes through which influences, both from within the country and outside, reached the spinner, the weaver, the dyer and the local designer helping them enlarge their local design vocabulary constantly. The challenge today is to reinforce and continue this textile tradition as a worthy instrument of harmonious development and simultaneously be part of a global, competitive market. As a democracy, this global competition is to India’s advantage with her strength of numbers; her various levels of economic development and, most importantly, the availability of manual skills which give her added leverage. The unstitched garment, which may not necessarily be used in its traditional form, can provide today the basis for future developments through more contemporary use.
VISUAL: COURTESY/INDIAN SARIS/PUBLISHED BY WISDOM TREE
MAGICAL UNSTITCHED GARMENT
of great purity and simplicity. Draping it suited Indian weather conditions as it allowed for a constant airflow, providing a gentle yet shifting body cover from the harsh sun and also instilling a sense of propriety in harmony with local character and culture. The sari, in a way, forms our outermost skin and thereby signals not only who we are and where we come from, but is also an expression of where we are going. However, over the last two decades functional mobility and global influences have impacted the dressing styles of Indian women. Increasingly, women today prefer stitched garments and western wear, made of easy-tomaintain wash-and-wear fabrics. Yet, they once rode horses in saris in Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh and even swam in rivers and ponds with their saris tucked between their legs, much like an unstitched pair of shorts. The sari is not only known by different names (lugda, dhoti, pata, seere, sadlo, kapad) in various parts of the country, it is also conceived differently in form and structure, in usage and custom. It is a stretch of fabric, long or short, wide or narrow, according to the way in which it is worn. There is, in fact, no one type of sari. From the coarse heavy duty cottons worn by working rural women and farm hands to the finest muslins which were traditionally soaked in starch and crinkled — before the advent of the hot iron brought in by the French in Bengal — the finecount sari was ingeniously, and necessarily, made opaque for the wearer as it was worn without a petticoat. The sheer range of saris, from heavy to light, coarse to fine, in an unlimited range of textures and patterns, in cottons, silks and cotton-silk mixes, is astounding. Each state or shall we say each regional identity, as states do not necessarily represent older cultural groupings,
—Rta Kapur Chishti is a textile historian and also co-author and editor of the Saris of India volumes
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THE ARTS AND CULTURE
MELODIOUS
STRINGS From being a humble accompanist, the sarangi has become a globally recognised instrument TEXT: SHUBRA MAZUMDAR
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he routine proceedings at the Pandit Krishnarao Shankar Award for 2011 in Gwalior’s Shankar Gandharva Mahavidyalaya took a nostalgic turn when its awardee, sarangi maestro Pandit Ram Narayan, recalled his decades-old association with the great musical doyen Pandit Krishnarao Shankar Pandit. Narayan was newly recruited as a staff artiste to the All India Radio station at Lahore, in 1944, when he was deputed to accompany Panditji. Accompanying the vocalist was exhausting and many times tabla players had to be changed mid-performance in case they collapsed. But Ram Narayan came out of that experience successfully; destined to become Panditji’s chosen sarangi accompanist for innumerable concerts. The association had far reaching connotations for the instrument. In the Indian musical tradition the sarangi moved away from being a humble accompanying instrument used by mendicants and wandering minstrels rendering folk tunes and ditties at fairs, wayside temples and gurudwaras or joining camel caravans across the desert recounting ballads of brave warriors. By the 1850s, as the
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sarangi outgrew its vagrant character, it settled into the kothas of professional women singers. The players were ushered into royal courts for accompanying recitals of the courtesans. But this association, too, was short lived when the nautch tradition was banned in the 19th century. Left with no other choice but to seek employment as radio artistes, sadly the sarangi was given prominence only when music was required to mourn the death of a national leader. But this change of fortune proved to be a blessing: the era produced some of the finest sarangi players of the last century. As soon as the radio station at Delhi was set up in 1942, Ustad Sabri Khan came on board as an orchestra artiste but went on to make his instrument a true emissary of Indian music abroad. Soon artistes began to even make inroads into the fledgling cinema industry in Bombay, the precursor of today’s Bollywood. Renowned sarangi artiste Sultan Khan accompanied playback singers such as Lata Mangeshkar and others so often that music director would call for him by name when recording. Although in a role secondary to the main singer, the sarangi started making waves as an indispensable accompanying instrument. A natural follow up was the establishment of the sarangi as a solo instrument and it was Pandit Ram Narayan who took this pioneering step in 1956. Strangely, initially the music world did not take kindly to this venture and he was reportedly booed off the stage one fateful night. But that setback motivated him further resulting in Panditji recording 78 rpm albums in the solo format followed in the 60s by concert tours in Europe. To make his solo form more appealing he also experimented with techniques and perfected the art of bowing at right angles to the strings. He also trained family members and disciples and today, sarangi players have gone on to make their mark as soloists as well as accompanists. Inevitably, then the official mindset towards the sarangi underwent a change: musicians were sent on cultural exchanges and sarangi players became musical ambassadors. One such cultural diplomat was Ustad Sabri Khan, perhaps among the first to be chosen for this role, who established strong linkages with musicians in Afghanistan, North America and Europe.
MUSICALLY YOURS: Pandit Ram Narayan
As the sarangi became global it climbed yet another rung in the ladder of success. It assumed the role of a world music maker in the hands of sarangi players such as Kamal Sabri. Together with musicians from the Middle East and America, Kamal Sabri produced albums that had wide popularity in the world music category. So when the Nobel Laureate Committee were in search of artistes who performed world music, it was Kamal Sabri from India whom they honed in on for the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony evening in 2009. Thereafter, he preformed for the King of Spain’s birthday celebrations ensuring the sarangi become a recognisable global solo instrument. Today, the sarangi enjoys a unique continuity. It has not lost any of its former character even as it experiments and innovates fresh possibilities along the way. No wonder its practitioners like to dub their instrument as a saurangi saaz, where its multi-hued musicality has something to offer every listener. —Shubra Mazumdar writes on Indian culture and classical music
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PROFILE
PHOTOS: AFP
SAVING SEEDS,
SAVING LIVES Environmentalist, eco-feminist, philosopher, author, Vandan Shiva is a woman of many parts TEXT: USHA RAI
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f you put your heart and soul into a job you can make a difference,” says Vandana Shiva, one of the country’s finest intellectuals on subjects ranging from bio-piracy to soil conservation. A philosopher, environmentalist and an ecofeminist, in 2003, Time magazine recognised her as an environment hero while Asia Magazine has called her one of the five most powerful communicators of Asia. In 1993, she won the Rights Livelihood Award, also known as the alternate Nobel Prize. Shiva’s fight for ecology began with the Chipko movement with women hugging trees in Uttaranchal to stop deforestation. Then she began questioning mono eucalyptus plantations that were draining sub-soil water and went on to fight limestone quarrying in Doon Valley. In 1982, she established the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology which led to the creation of Navdanya, a national movement to protect the diversity and integrity of living resources, especially native seeds, the promotion of organic farming and fair trade. For two decades, Navdanya has worked with local communities and organisations to increase crop yields without draining the soil of its nutrients. Some 500,000 farmers are practicing organic farming in the country under the Navdanya umbrella. Navdanya’s efforts have resulted in the setting up of 55 seeds banks and conservation of some 3,000 traditional varieties of rice – aromatic, salt tolerant and even drought tolerant rice. “By saving seeds we save lives,” says Shiva and recalls the excitement of finding a ragi seed lying in a food bin for 40 years. Ragi is a nutritious food grain typically found in south India which has traditionally saved babies especially from nutritional deficiencies but with the advent of modern food, it lost its importance in the diet of the common man.
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With floods becoming an annual feature decimating rice fields, Navdanya went on to discover a rice variety that grows upto 18 feet and withstands flooding. After the cyclone hit Orissa leaving a bed of saline soil, Navdanya pulled out from its magic seed banks three varieties of salt tolerant rice — Kalambank, Lunabakada and Sankarchin. When the tsunami hit the Tamil Nadu coast in December 2004, the agriculture department feared that farmers may have to wait five years for the salt to disappear from the soil, but Shiva was there again with her offering of salt resistant seeds. Two truckloads of the salt tolerant rice seeds were sent from the Orissa seed bank to Tamil Nadu leading to a good harvest the next season. Simultaneously, the Research Foundation began fighting bio-piracy. The patenting of neem, basmati rice and wheat by strong external commercial interests has been stopped but you have to be constantly vigilant, she says. To generate and sustain the interest in local seeds, in 2004 the Bija Vidyapeeth, an international college for sustainable living, was started in the Doon Valley in collaboration with the Schumacher College of UK. Alongside, she has set up a 25-acre research, training and conservation farm. Providing sustainable food and livelihood to farmers is Shiva’s mission. To that end, she has set up two seed banks in Vidharbha and has been promoting organic farming. Currently, she is helping the government of Bhutan to go organic and farmers from Bhutan’s are in Dehra Dun for training. Shiva’s myriad experiences have been recorded. A prolific writer, she has authored a dozen books. And last year she received the Sydney Peace Award for her book, Soil not Oil, adding yet another accolade to her inspirational CV. —Usha Rai is a senior journalist who specialises on development and environmental issues
SHIVA’S FIGHT FOR ECOLOGY BEGAN WITH THE CHIPKO MOVEMENT WITH WOMEN HUGGING TREES IN UTTARANCHAL TO STOP DEFORESTATION. THEN SHE BEGAN QUESTIONING MONO EUCALYPTUS PLANTATIONS THAT WERE DRAINING SUB-SOIL WATER
PHOTOFEATURE
BAHADURGARH FORT On the outskirts of Patiala lies the great Sikh fort of Bahadurgarh. It is an exemplary nara durg, or one that is protected by a strong force of fighting men. The fort is circular, with a succession of entrances and a double layer of fortifications. Most of the buildings within were for military use, but there are gurudwaras, a mosque and some royal apartments. It is considered one of the best fortified forts built in Punjab. The original fort is said to have been built by Nawab Saif Khan in 1658, in the ancient village of Saifabad.
S i k h F o rt S a n d pa l a c e S
Location: Six km from Patiala in Punjab
SENTINELS TO
HISTORY Going back to the 16th century, a succession of fortifications and palaces dot the north Indian state of Punjab bringing to life stirring tales of valour and sacrifice. A selection of photographs taken from Amita Baig’s Forts and Palaces of India
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(Far left) Fortifications and the historic gurudwara inside the Bahadurgarh Fort; balcony that runs on the upper level in Durbar Hall in Jagatjit Singh Palace, Kapurthala
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KAPURTHALA JAGATJIT SINGH PALACE The Durbar Hall was built by Maharaja Jagjit Singh. An inscription on its external faรงade states that construction was started in 1882 and completed in 1889. It consists of three structures joined together with rooms and doorways. The main structure, which was used as the Durbar Hall, has a rectangular plan, consisting of a central double-height hall with aisles on both sides and a double-height entrance hall. Today, it is used as a library but there remain the elements of a grand palace. Location: JalandharFerozpur road in Punjab
Faรงade of Jagatjit Palace in Kapurthala
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QILA MUBARAK Originally a mud fort or kachi garhi, Qila Mubarak was consolidated by Baba Ala Singh after the conquest of Sirhind, as a victory fort. Qila Mubarak is constructed on a particularly large brick used in this region. The fort is an immense structure with 32 bastions, the largest with a circumference measuring 290 feet at the top. The Qila Mubarak gate is in red sandstone decorated with lattice, covered by multiple arched openings. The most important courtyard in the Qila houses the Rang Mahal. Location: Patiala, 29km west of Ambala in Punjab
Extracted from:
FORTS AND PALACES OF INDIA by Amita Baig Photographs: Joginder Singh Publisher: Om Books International Price: ` 2,995
Pages: 256
(Far left) an interior of a Sikh Fort; an alcove showing a rich wall adornment in the honeymoon chamber of Qila Mubarak
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INDIA AND THE WORLD
SWINGING INTO ACTION A mammoth undertaking, Operation Safe Homecoming results in the successful evacuation of around 18,000 Indians from strife-torn Libya TEXT: MEENAKSHI KUMAR
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s the first wave of protests struck through Libya in midFebruary following the uprising in Tunisia and Egypt, Indian-origin Ariful Islam was worried. He had been living in Libya for the past 32 years and hadn’t seen anything like this before. He hoped it would die down in a few days. But it didn’t. The protests got louder as the demand for the end of Muammar Gaddafi’s 42-year-old rule gathered steam. Soon, Islam, a former president of the Indian community in Benghazi, was roped in by the Indian government to help fellow Indians in the eastern region where he lived. “There are nearly 2,700-800 people there and they all had to be evacuated. I wasn’t bothered about my life. I wanted the others to leave Libya first. I returned only after most of the people had left the country,” says the consultant engineer with a multinational who returned to New Delhi on March 10 along with 15 others. He is all praise for the Indian government which arranged a smooth evacuation of Indians. “They have done a commendable job,” he says, now back in the comfort of his hometown Aligarh. That’s the sentiment that most of the 16,200 Indians, who have returned, share with Islam. And it’s justified. A mammoth undertaking, which involved the challenge of evacuating approximately 18,000 Indians, went off without any hitch. The last time the government evacuated such a large number of people – around 110,000 — was during the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990 when thousands of Indians were forced to flee to Amman, Jordan’s capital. This time, the government swung into immediate action by setting up an exclusive centre in South Block to deal with the crisis. Called the ‘Situation Room’, it was manned round the
WELCOME HOME: Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed (left) and Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao (far left) greet Indian nationals evacuated from Libya at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi
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OPERATION SAFE HOMECOMING WAS LAUNCHED ON FEBRUARY 24, WITH THE FIRST SPECIAL AIR INDIA FLIGHTS LEAVING FOR LIBYA AND RETURNING WITH NEARLY 530 PEOPLE ON FEBRUARY 26 AND 27. A CORE GROUP OF HALF A DOZEN OFFICERS MANNED THE OPERATION FROM SOUTH BLOCK
clock by young foreign service officers. Operation Safe Homecoming was launched on February 24, with the first special Air India flights leaving for Libya and returning with nearly 530 people on February 26 and 27. A core group of half a dozen officers, led by Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao, manned the Operation from South Block. Eighty more were on the ground, in Libya, Cairo, Tunisia and Malta. They worked untiringly, monitoring developments; guiding stranded Indians out of Libya; arranging for the requisite permissions and ensuring that people were safely brought back to their homeland. Jayant Prasad, Special Secretary, Public Diplomacy, who was part of this core team, calls it a “major logistics exercise carried out innovatively.” The government used both sea and air routes to bring back its nationals. Of the 53 special flights, 36 were Air India charters, lifting Indians out of Libya. The remaining 17 flights brought people back from Alexandria in Egypt; Djerba in Tunisia and Valetta in Malta. These included private carriers and an
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Indian Air Force plane, ‘Gajraj’. The government had to set up air bridges between Libya and New Delhi and Sebha and Mumbai as there were no direct flights from India to Libya. Between February 26 and March 10, three to four Air India flights operated each day to speed up the evacuation. “Air India rose to the challenge magnificently and performed a stellar role assisted by Prashant Sukul and Naseem Zaidi from the Ministry of Civil Aviation,” says Prasad. The decision to send Indian Navy ships – it takes 12 days to sail from the Libyan coast to India – was taken as a back-up measure. The government wanted to be prepared in case of any unforeseen emergency. Three ships, the Scotia Prince, Red Star One and INS Jalashwa, were deployed to evacuate people from port areas with INS Mysore on escort duty and standby. Meanwhile, back in the capital, the Ministry of External Affairs, the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs and the Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) opened up the now-shut Terminal 2 to welcome incoming passengers. The terminal was
manned by representatives of the state governments and air and rail reservation counters were put in place within two days of launching the Operation. The entire undertaking cost the government approximately Rs 115 crore. Prasad has fulsome praise for the exemplary work of India’s Ambassador to Libya, M. Manimekalai. “She is an intrepid officer who braved many risks to ensure a hitch-free evacuation,” he says. The others who played an equally praiseworthy role, he adds, include India’s Ambassador to Cairo, R. Swaminathan; India’s Ambassador to Slovakia who was relocated to Malta, Rajiva Misra and India’s Ambassador to Tunis, P. S. Randhawa. Libya has been home to Indians seeking a better future in the oil rich nation. Nearly 3,000 lived in Benghazi alone, working in construction companies, educational institutions and hospitals. The rest were spread across Libya. For most the experience has been traumatic. Praseedha Ravindran, a 25year-old nurse from Kottayam, had gone to Tripoli only two weeks before the crisis started. She doesn’t think she will go
SWEET HOMECOMING: (from top left) Officials processing the documents of Indian passengers on the Scotia Prince; passengers on board the ferry
back now. “Even though, I didn’t face many problems, my parents will not allow me to return,” she says. Prasanth T. Jacob, who worked 200km away from Tripoli as a mechanical supervisor, may return if the situation improves, although his return journey was quite horrifying. “On the way to the office, which was 200km away, we encountered 150 check posts. Our mobiles, laptops, money were all forcibly taken away.” Islam, on the other hand, travelled by road to Cairo. The journey was full of risks but he was lucky nothing happened to his group. With Operation Safe Homecoming over now, officers manning the ‘Situation Room’ can put up their feet and take a break. They have done their job and without much ado. n
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DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIPS
REDISTRIBUTING HOPE Delhi hosts the first India-Least Developed Countries Ministerial Conference TEXT: SHUBHA SINGH
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iny Tuvalu, the low-lying group of coral atolls in the South Pacific that is losing land to the seas, landlocked Lesotho, an enclave surrounded on all sides by South Africa, and Haiti that was racked by a catastrophic earthquake have one thing in common. They are all nations with high levels of poverty, short on resources and infrastructure, and are economies that are most vulnerable to external shocks.
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Together with 45 other nations, they form a group that is classified by the United Nations as having the most vulnerable populations in the world and were termed as Least Developed Countries (LDC). Foreign ministers of 35 LDCs and their ambassadors to the UN travelled to New Delhi in February this year to attend the first India-LDC ministerial conference. India has been actively involved with most of the Least Developed Countries,
but the ministerial meet was the first time that India was hosting them as a group. The two-day conference in Delhi was a build up to the Fourth UN Conference on LDC (UN LDC IV) that is due to be held in Istanbul from May 9-13. It was aimed at providing an opportunity to LDCs to formulate their policy recommendations for the Fourth UN Conference. It also provided an opportunity for the LDCs and the Indian government to exchange views
on their development needs and how India could help meet them. In her opening remarks at the conference, Foreign Secretary, Nirupama Rao affirmed India’s steadfast support to the LDCs and said that “India believes that stimulating economic growth in LDCs will be an important driver of global growth in the years to come.” External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna warmly welcomed the LDC delegations, saying South-South cooperation was one of the corner-stones of India’s foreign policy. “We stand ready to share our experience with our friends and brethren in the Least Developed Countries,” he added. The Minister emphasised that in India’s initiatives with the LDC, “We are principally guided by the priorities set out by Least Developed Countries themselves. We would like to hear your ideas and listen to your suggestions. We would like you to guide us towards the solutions to the problems which you face. As they say, the wearer knows where the shoe pinches.” At its conclusion, the ministerial conference issued a Delhi Declaration that called for the Istanbul summit to set an ambitious Programme of Action with the aim to get at least fifty percent of its members out of the LDC category by 2020. It noted with concern that international efforts, so far, had lacked a comprehensive approach to effectively address the challenges faced by the LDC. In the past three decades only three countries – Botswana, Cape Verde and Maldives – have graduated out of the LDC category. India has traditionally been a strong
DEVELOPMENT CONCLAVE: (facing page) External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna addressing the LDC-Ministerial Conference in New Delhi; (from left to right) External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, Ministers of State for External Affairs, E. Ahamed and Preneet Kaur and Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao
supporter of the LDCs. India has long standing development partnerships with most of the LDC through its ITEC programme (Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation). The programme has helped train several thousand young men and women from the developing countries through scholarships and training schemes. External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna announced a number of additional Indian contributions for LDCs at the conference. He offered another five scholarships every year under the ITEC for each LDC and a $500 million credit line over the next five years for projects and programmes of LDCs as well as a special fund of $5 million for the follow up to the Fourth UN LDC Summit. Human resource development is a critical factor in the development programmes of the LDC and the additional five scholarships for each country was greatly appreciated by most of the delegations. The Foreign Minister of Solomon Islands, Ped Shanel Agovaka thanked
India for the generous offer and said: “In the changing political landscape, emerging powers like India will play a more defining role in their co-operation with LDCs.” Foreign Minister of Comoros, Fahim Said Ibrahim expressed his gratitude at India’s offer to set up a vocational training institute in Comoros, while Lesotho’s Foreign Minister, Mohlabi Tsekoa said India and Lesotho had a “very profitable partnership” as India had imparted training to all levels of the Lesotho Defence Forces. For the delegates from the Pacific islands it was India’s Pan African e-Network Project that connects 43 African countries that was most interesting. Many were visibly impressed at a presentation on the e-network. The delegate from Cook Islands exclaimed that a similar programme for the Pacific countries “would be a boon” for the small, far flung island nations. —Shubha Singh is a columnist who specialises in foreign affairs
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DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIPS AND FINALLY THE RESULTS... Before 2006-2007 Rice Production: Less than 100,000 tonnes Demands Met: 19 percent Land Irrigated: 24,500 ha
PART OF A SERIES MARKING THE
SECOND INDIA-AFRICA FORUM SUMMIT 2011
After 2008-2009 Rice Production: More than 460,000 tonnes Demands Met: More than 50 percent Land Irrigated: 85,000 ha
MOVING TOWARDS
FOOD SECURITY An irrigation project funded by a concessional Line of Credit from the Indian government helps raise rice production ten-fold in Senegal
SUCCESS STORY: (clockwise from left) A woman working in a field in Dakar, Senegal; farmers planting rice; a woman displays nature’s bounty and Kirloskar pump sets being installed
TEXT: DEVIRUPA MITRA
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ommitted to addressing global development challenges India has been consistently promoting South-South cooperation especially with countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. At the heart of this development strategy is an assistance model that combines financial support with expertise to stimulate local resources for growth. With $ 5.4 billion in highly concessional lines of credit earmarked for Africa alone, India has become a key partner in the continent’s development story. The funding is supporting a diverse range of projects in agriculture, urban transport, railways, power transmission and electrification, development of small scale industries, IT education and much else adding a new dimension to India’s traditionally close and friendly ties with Africa. With the Atlantic Ocean lapping its shores, the West
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African nation of Senegal has benefitted enormously from this key thinking. One of Africa’s top importers of rice, its staple food, Senegal today has attained a goal which would have perhaps been impossible a few years ago – self-sufficiency in food. Blessed with a fertile river valley system, Senegal enjoys a predominantly agro-based economy, employing three-fourths of its 12.5 million population in agriculture. Despite nature’s bounty, till the first half of this decade, over 80 percent of the country’s domestic consumption of rice was dependent on massive imports making it the world’s tenth-largest rice importer. It was in 2005 that the Senegalese government started to think of an ambitious plan to overcome this shortcoming. Officials wanted their nation to usher its very own Green Revolution by making it completely self-
sufficient in food. They wanted Senegal to produce one million tones of rice – a six-fold increase – by the end of the current decade. It was at the same time that India organised for the first time a conclave, an India-Africa Project Partnership in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Export-Import Bank (EXIM). At this flagship event, the Senegalese delegation had fixed its priorities: it approached the Indian government to finance an extensive irrigation project in Senegal by extending a soft loan through the EXIM bank. After the Indian government had given its approval, the Senegalese side approached a Pune-based firm, Kirloskar Brothers Ltd (KBL), to draw up a comprehensive blueprint for a feasible irrigation system for their country. A $ 650 million dollar company, KBL is India’s largest
manufacturer and exporter of pumps and is also behind the large pumping scheme that is irrigating two million hectares in Gujarat. Work began soon enough with some KBL experts reaching the Senegalese capital, Dakar to meet officials from the Ministry of Agriculture. Then, followed a series of field visits, from the rainfall-heavy Casamance in the south to the Senegal River valley in the north. All the data collected was fine-tuned and after a few rounds of discussions with ministry officials, the company drew up a comprehensive proposal that was presented to President Maitre Abdoulaye Wade. The proposal detailed the country’s annual rice imports, comparing the cost of rice grown locally to that of the imported grain. It also outlined a phase-wise programme; its implementation, the quantity and size of
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‘TURNING CHALLENGES INTO OPPORTUNITIES’ Chairperson and managing director of Kirloskar Brothers Limited, Sanjay Kirloskar, is the point person for the irrigation project being implemented in Senegal. He spoke to India Perspectives about this key initiative.
TOWARDS SELF-SUFFICIENCY: (above) Men threshing rice at a field in Ross Bethio, Senegal; (facing page) Grande Digue pumping station
pump sets needed and the required financial back up. Most importantly, the proposal examined KBL’s capability to undertake such a project. President Wade convened a special meeting of ministers and provincial officials to inform them of this new proposal. More than 400 delegates attended the conference chaired by President Wade at his presidential palace in May 2005. After a three-hour long meeting, the project got the green signal, unanimously. For a total cost of $ 27 million, provided by an Indian government line of credit at a highly concessional 1.75 percent rate of interest re-payable over a 15-year period,
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Senegal placed orders for 2,394 pump sets and allied instruments, along with installation and commissioning charges. These sets were to irrigate 65,000 hectares of farm in the country’s four northern provinces of Dagana, Podor, Matam and Bakel. The company committed that after the commissioning of Phase-I of the project, rice production would definitely double within 12-14 months. After Phase-II, Senegal was hoping to reach a production target of one million tonnes of rice before the end of this decade. Things began moving fast. By May 2006, the then Senegalese ambassador to India, Amadou Bocoum saw off the first batch of 1,600 pump sets and accessories from Mumbai’s Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust. Within six months, all the contracted pump sets had reached Senegal. Next, it was time to distribute and implement the pumping systems. It took another three months to
distribute, install and complete the formalities for handing out pump sets, as well as to provide training in the operation and maintenance of these pumps to farmers. The need to effectively irrigate Senegal to increase its rice production was more evident than ever. In 2007-2008, large parts of the world were hit by a spiraling food crisis, leading to food riots in Dakar starkly underlining the need for food security. “We have no other choice. If we fail to achieve food self-sufficiency, there will be a time when it will be impossible to find rice in the market,” said the Senegalese Agriculture Minister Hamath Sall in April 2008. The same year, the results of the reinvigorated irrigation project started to show. Senegal had its first-ever dry season harvest garnering 60,000 tonnes of paddy. By 2006, the figure jumped to 100,000 tonnes, quadrupling in about two years. And by the 2009-10 season till June, the country had produced 546,000 tonnes of rice, a figure set to increase to 750,000 tonnes by 2015. The country was delighted. Le-Soliel, a leading local daily front-paged a story stating that Senegal had, for the first time ever harvested over 60,000 tonnes of paddy thanks to appropriate irrigation systems provided by India. Indeed, even today the story continues to make headlines in Africa. India’s development partnership with Senegal is but one example of how synergies have been created between Indian resources and expertise and a nation’s needs ultimately empowering the peoples of an African nation.
What were the challenges you faced when you begun this project in Senegal? Senegal is a developing nation and for us availability of skills was a concern. But as a company we always look at challenges as opportunities. Our engineers provided training to local technicians and farmers during the execution of the project which came in handy later during its commissioning. Cooperation of the local community and government authorities was crucial and that’s what helped us in the successful implementation of the first phase of the irrigation project in a record two years. What have been the main takeaways from this partnership? We were humbled with what we could achieve. We were able to create jobs for the rural population, especially women, in Senegal and this success can be replicated in other African nations too enriching lives of millions. With huge natural resources – fertile land, abundant water resources and human population, Africa has enormous potential for agricultural development and can act as a breadbasket for the entire world. How self-sufficient is Senegal in rice production? Thanks to the project, in less than three years, rice production has gone up by seven times to over 700,000 tonnes. Local rice production now meets over 60 percent of consumption as against only 12 percent earlier. Farmland under irrigation too is now over 85,000 hectares against less than 24,000 hectares. Senegal will achieve food sufficiency by 2012.
—The author is a correspondent of IANS
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BUSINESS
COFFEE, TRIBALS AND LIVELIHOOD Araku Valley, perhaps the world’s largest organic coffee cooperative, produces coffee for the discerning TEXT: LALITA PANICKER
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erhaps T.S. Eliot was on the right track when he spoke of life being measured out in coffee spoons. For the tribals in a remote corner of Andhra Pradesh near the Orissa border, coffee holds the difference between a life of grinding poverty and a chance at upward mobility. The neatly arranged rows of coffee bushes on the rich, black slopes of the Araku Valley seem to have been planted by a God with an obsession for symmetry. Under the shade of sal and teak trees which tower over the crouching bushes, the tribal villagers, the custodians of all they survey, cannot quite comprehend the fact that their coffee is sought after by the Dior-wearing classes in the rarified world of Viennese sophistication and Parisian chic. This is not just any old coffee but one which excites the discerning. Coffee-tasting juries from all over the world come to this breathtakingly beautiful part of the Eastern Ghats to certify coffee for foreign markets. This branding exercise ensures that the coffee fetches far higher prices than the market rate both in India and abroad. In the degraded lands where coffee cannot be grown, a vast array of saplings await planting ranging from cherries to sweet limes to tamarind as well as others like drumsticks to papaya. The driving force behind this reafforestation-cum-income generation scheme involving three million trees is the French dairy products company Danone which has partnered with Naandi Foundation in Hyderabad to create sustainable livelihoods.
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STIMULATING EFFECT: (left) Coffee plantations on the hilly slopes of Araku Valley; (above) coffee ‘cherries’ ready and ripe for harvesting
To make afforestation a livelihood-based community-owned sustainable programme, Naandi roped in the ITDA (Integrated Tribal Development Agency) to give wages mandated by a Central government employment scheme to adivasis. “We want to eliminate the middleman and add value to the product and ensure that the profits go back to the tribals,” says Manoj Kumar, CEO of Naandi. The thickly-forested area holds many surprises.
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CLAUDE AVEZARD
COFFEE-TASTING JURIES FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD COME TO THIS BREATHTAKINGLY BEAUTIFUL PART OF THE EASTERN GHATS TO CERTIFY COFFEE FOR FOREIGN MARKETS
In the middle of nowhere, you come across a gigantic coffee processing unit. Row upon row of peanut-coloured coffee beans nestle under tarpaulin coverings to keep out the heavy dew. Nearby, around a towering inferno of a bonfire, tribal women dance to primeval beats under the starlit sky. This happy campy ritual is their way of life and one into which they don’t particularly welcome voyeuristic intrusions. So why on earth would Danone want to plant trees in an area where Naxalism still thrives? Simple, it makes good business sense. For every tree planted,
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the company can rake in carbon credits. That the tribals gain in the bargain is a bonus. David Hogg, livelihood director of Naandi, is literally elbow-deep in manure. I have never met anyone more enthusiastic about waste products from cow dung to vermin-compost. He is marinating marigolds to be used as a pest repellant. He has spent decades studying the variety of crops and trees best suited to the area and has a deep and intense knowledge of the tribal way of life. Hogg and his team have organised 20,000 adivasis to plough 12,500 hecatres with coffee and livelihood-giving trees ranging from
teak to bamboo to pomegranate making this area the world’s largest organic coffee cooperative. As night falls, the stars seem to zoom closer to earth in a sort of fantasy that de Beers dream off. Emerging like spectres from the forests at this time are the tribals from the various agricultural cooperatives. They are proud of the manner in how they have been able to take ownership of their lands and make them more productive. The myth that money in the hands of tribals goes on drink and destroys families is belied by the fact that almost all the children in the area are in schools. Progressive
SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOOD: Tribals carrying loads of ripened fruit of the coffee shrub
NGOs and corporates have value added to the local schools. The girl students I met have begun looking beyond the lives of their parents. They are literally aiming for the stars under that indigo sky. Soundarya, a 12-year-old tribal girl says, “I want to be a pilot.” Several others have the same dream. Its heartening to see that the tribals are not expecting expect any hand-outs. They have taken control of their lives, taken help wherever they can get it. They all see the cup, the coffee cup, that is, half full. —The writer is senior associate editor, Hindustan Times
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TRAVEL
A WINDOW TO INDIA The train takes you to places of tourist interest in royal fashion TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHS: MANEESHA DUBE
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ying back on plump pillows on a brocade bedspread. The blind, which matches the cover, rolled up to allow me to admire the countryside roll by. Mustard fields. A small village. Children playing cricket. Women in colourful clothes working in the fields. Buffalo wallowing in a pond. A bridge. A factory. A dam. A meandering stream. Red earth and a lone eagle flying high in the sky. Ensconced in my air-conditioned suite in the super luxury train. I catch glimpses of India that are here one moment and then gone forever. I don’t know when my eyes close and I fall into a doze. The swaying motion of the train acting like a soporific. I awaken and it takes me a moment to get my bearings. I realise I have woken up because the train has come to a halt at a station. My vision clears and I look out of the window through which I had been admiring the countryside. What do I see? Dozens of chattering faces peering in. Before I can pull down the blind and shut them out, I hear the amazement in their voices as they stare spellbound at the splendour of my cabin. “It has a bed”, “Did you notice the table and chair in the corner?”, “Wow”, “Aisi train bhi hoti hai (they have trains like this too)!” I decide not
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ROYAL REPASTS: (clockwise from top left) Guests being welcomed on the RROW; staff on high alert; getting engrossed in a range of board games and a variety of books available on the train
CHARMS OF LUXURY: (clockwise from left) Decorated elephants – always a hit with foreign tourists; Sahelion ki badi in Udaipur; exquisite saloons and folk musician playing Ravanhatta, a Rajasthani stringed instrument
to pull down the blind, instead I walk away into the vestibule and let them absorb the story they will retell their families and friends for a long time to come. I have boarded the train at Safdarjung Railway Station. Tucked away in a quiet part of the capital, it bears little resemblance to other railway stations. No red-shirted coolies jostling for attention, no hawkers shouting chai garam (hot tea), no trunks and holdalls littered on the platform with impatient children sitting on them, not even a ticket booth. Before I can say Royal Rajasthan on Wheels (RROW), I see the train, run by the Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation parked alongside the platform. It is painted in vermilion and a golden yellow. Within minutes I am checked in, my luggage has been whisked away and the turbaned attendants in kurtas printed with Rajasthani motifs and churidars, escort me to the Ruby Suite in Lalgarh Palace coach. The fully air-conditioned RROW’s 13 saloons are named after famous palaces of Rajasthan. Each has three suites – Ruby, done up in red, Pearl in white and Sapphire in blue. The decor is opulent and reminiscent of a set in a film about maharajas. The twin beds, placed lengthwise in the coupe, are longer than any berth in any train in India, as are the windows. Paintings, aesthetic lighting, a writing table, a comfortable chair, a wardrobe and an ensuite bathroom are part of the elegant facilities.
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INTRIGUING SAGAS: (left) A palace interior, Udaipur; (above) spectacular window views
I settle down and ask for a cuppa. It is served in bone china with a batch of homebaked cookies. A good start, I think. And I am not wrong. Over the course of the journey, the food lives up to its initial promise. Each day brings different fare. The menu is eclectic, with Indian, continental and sometimes other international cuisines to choose from. Despite the limitations of space, after all the width of a train is the width of the train, the staff does a good job of bringing us hot and tasty meals in both the Sheesh Mahal and Swarn Mahal, the two restro-lounges. The itinerary is packed. From Delhi the train enters Rajasthan with the first stop at Jodhpur, then it is on to Udaipur, Chittorgarh, Sawai Madhopur to visit the Ranthambore National Park, Jaipur, Khajuraho to admire the world-famous temples and the erotic sculptures, Varanasi to catch the spiritual experience of the maha aarti and finally Agra to gaze at the Taj Mahal, one of the seven wonders of the world. At each of the places sight-seeing tours and cultural entertainment is arranged for the guests.  rrow@rtdc.in and delhi@rtdc.in  http://www.royalrajasthanonwheels.com
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IN REVIEW
BOOKS
FILM
A quartet of R.K. Narayan’s novels illuminate the times in which they were written
Visually challenged players underline what true sportsmanship is all about
WAITING FOR THE MAHATAMA THE GUIDE THE MANEATERS OF MALGUDI THE VENDOR OF SWEETS By R.K. Narayan Introduction by Pico Iyer Penguin Modern Classics Price: ` 225 each
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hese four novels brought out in new elegant editions, with an introduction by famed American columnist and author Pico Iyer, mark the middle years of R. K. Narayan, the novelist. Waiting for the Mahatma was written in 1955, The Guide in 1958, The Maneater of Malgudi in 1961 and The Vendor of Sweets in 1967. In these books Narayan reflects the times in which they were written. Waiting for the Mahatma goes a little way back into the 1930s during the freedom struggle in which Mahatma Gandhi was its leading light. Through the novelist’s device, Narayan has Gandhi visiting Malgudi, and what is refracted in the narrative is not so much high politics but the charming low politics played out among the organisers of the Mahatma’s visit. There is also romance between Sriram and Bharati as they live through the tumult of the Quit India Movement of 1942, the war time constraints, the Partition and the violence that followed.
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The novel ends on a poignant note – Sriram and Bharati get Gandhi’s blessing for their marriage just before he goes to the prayer meeting where he is shot dead. Narayan intertwines the momentous and the tender with great poise. In The Guide, Narayan portrays the complex relationship of Raju, the smart-
alecky man-about-Malgudi and Rosie, the modern girl who is deeply attached to the temple-dancer roots of her mother and grandmother. Narayan handles the relationship with candour and even aplomb, revealing the unsuspected but mature and adult relationship of a man and woman. The tragic undertone of the tale is told with an ironic detachment. The novel was made into a memorable and successful film of the same name. In many ways, The Maneater of Malgudi seems an uncharacteristic Narayan novel. The humour is a little too rambunctious and the characteristic Narayan irony takes a backseat. But there is a lot of hustle and bustle, even a morethan-usual noise in the Malgudi of the days when Jawaharlal Nehru was launching the Third Five Year Plan, and there are loud debates about it. Vasu the taxidermist is the maneater of the title because of his brusque manners and maverick ways. The last in the set is The Vendor of Sweets; a typical Narayan story, understated but richly humorous. Narayan takes delight in taking a dig at the creative courses in American universities while he tells the tale of Mali, the aspiring writer. His father Jagan copes with the social changes at home when Mali comes back with an American wife. He shows the clash of generations and clash of cultures in the gentlest way. The story remains as fresh as it was 40 years ago when it was written. Here is a master novelist who awaits to be discovered and relished. —Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr.
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hat spirit! You have to see it to believe it. It is another matter that the remarkable sportsmen you encounter in this documentary are guys who cannot see. But such is their vision that they surmount the most daunting physical and material odds to keep the tricolour flying. Playing with a ball filled with iron pellets, they can bowl, bat and field with fierce determination and astounding skill. It’s Cricket, No? a 30-minute documentary film by Sudhir Aggarwal, pays a tribute to and celebrates the achievements of the Indian blind cricket team. The filmmakers follow the squad as it prepares for a series in the UK, highlighting fascinating and singular stories of grit and glory along the way. The camera tracks the lives of the individuals who constitute the team, going into their homes and workplaces to understand what drives them as human beings and as sportsmen. But, above all, the film highlights the rousing exploits of these
IT’S CRICKET, NO? Genre: Documentary Running time: 30 minutes Director: Sudhir Aggarwal Producer: Public Diplomacy Division, Ministry of External Affairs
cricketers who will stop at nothing in their quest to become the most courageous team ever to represent India in any sport. Aggarwal and French, both based in Berlin, shot It’s Cricket, No? on location at a conditioning camp, during a national-level tournament held in Bengaluru and in the course of India’s triumphant series of matches against England in Worcestershire. Away from the blinding floodlights and flashbulbs and without any monetary help from the Board of Control for Cricket in India, this team of totally sightless and partially blind cricketers play for the only thing they hold dear – pride and honour. The message is loud and clear: these men need neither sympathy nor charity. As one of the featured players reveals, he would once arouse pity because he was visually challenged. But after his acquaintances saw him play the game the way he does, he instantly went up many notches in their eyes. He is now a hero. Every member of this team is. —Saibal Chatterjee
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IN REVIEW
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bhushan, Dialogues in Design, an international three-day jewellery summit was the highlight of Delhi’s spring art and craft calendar. Unveiled by the Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dixit, the summit organised by the World Crafts Council was facilitated by the Crafts Council of India and the Delhi Crafts Council at the Ashoka Hotel, New Delhi. The summit saw four different exhibitions: Perhaps the most outstanding was the Seeds to Silver exhibit showcasing the jewellery of over a hundred craftspeople from six regions – North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Africa and India. It was not only precious stones and metals, these magnificent pieces of art brought alive local designs by using wood, plastic, recycled material, shell, paper and metal. The section from India focussed on folk and tribal jewellery, some old, some contemporary, but all of it eye-catching. Jewelled Treasures, a retail avenue, featured leading jewellery designers in diamonds while the Jadau segment included names like Tarang Arora from Amrapali, Umesh Ganjam from Ganjam and Umesh Vaidya from Rose Jewellery. The retail segment also had leading Indian fashion jewellery designers such as Tarun Tahiliani, Sabyasachi Mukherjee and Queenie Singh displaying their unique custom-made masterpieces. Craft Jewellery Bazaar, another exhibit, witnessed participants like Paola Manfredi from Zambia and Akwele Suma Glory from Ghana representing eco-friendly designs. Whatever their origin, all the pieces of jewellery were bound by a common link: beauty and craftsmanship.
Abhushan, an international jewellery exhibition, paid homage to craftspeople all over the world by showcasing the contemporary with the traditional
FEAST FOR THE EYES: (clockwise from right) Exquisite tribal necklace from central India; ivory jewellery constructed on plastic from Rajasthan; Bands of Nine Rings made from painted wood and plastic laminate; hair accessories, part of bridal ornaments seen in Tamil Nadu‘s Kundala Velai technique; Rajasthani baju bandh or arm band; and Christine Keyeux’s spun paper jewellery
PHOTOS: COURTESY/WORLD CRAFTS COUNCIL
EXHIBITION
—Anupama Singh
PHOTO: COURTESY/GANJAM
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VERBATIM
CLASSICAL NOTES Pandit Jasraj has been constantly motivating and inspiring the young with his music
Gives us a short background on the Mewati Gharana? A gharana is a school. Some give emphasis on sur (melody), some on taal (beat) and some on swar (note). The Mewati Gharana gives importance to the balance between sur and taal but we also emphasise on swar and correct pronunciation. Any careful listener can understand what is being sung. The Mewati Gharana also believes, as do all gharanas, that singing is both scientific and spiritual. Much has been said about the healing powers of classical music. Yes, it has been proven that classical music has healing powers. Raga Darbari helps in insomnia; Raga Jaunpuri helps ease headaches and Raga Natnarayani helps regain mental equilibrium. My disciples, Dr Vijay Sathe, Mr Yevlekar who is a yoga teacher and his wife who is a doctor, are all researching on the healing power of yoga, music and medicine. In fact, Dr Vijaya Sathe played my Raga Kalyan successfully bringing down her patient’s blood pressure. How did you evolve the concept of jugalbandi? Jugalbandi was conceptualised almost 20 years ago. I
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noticed that male and female singers sang on different scales so it was difficult for them to sing together. If the earth and sky, water and air can co-exist, why shouldn’t male and female voices also co-exist? So jugalbandi was conceived, styled on the ancient system of moorchanas, when a male and a female vocalist each sing in their respective scales and different ragas at the same time.
It’s a wonderful idea to showcase India to the world through the pages of India Perspectives and that too in 18 languages. It is especially heartening to note that this magazine will be read by intellectuals, diplomats and leading personalities across the world. I wish India Perspectives and its global readers all the very best.
How did the Indian Music Academy (IMA) come about and what are its initiatives? The IMA was launched in early 2006. It’s a first-of-its kind national movement of musicians, by musicians, for musicians and music lovers, promoting all genres of Indian music and nurturing young talent. It has many luminaries behind it, all encouraging emerging stars, worthy young maestros and legends of folk, qawaali, sufi, ghazals, bhajans, natya sangeet, Hindustani and Carnatic music. The IMA has successfully held a 39-series concert to promote all forms of Indian music. Then in September 2009, there was the Indian Music National Talent Hunt-Idea Jalsa to tap talent from those ranging from 5-45 years of age. This contest attracted around 2,000 participants from India and abroad who were judged by eminent musicians and a one-year scholarship was awarded to the finalists. The IMA also gives free medical aid to needy musicians and their dependants. What is the future of Hindustani classical music? The future is bright. During the talent search we came across many aspiring singers from small towns and villages. You should see how they do their riyaaz (practice) everyday. Indian classical music is safe in their hands. n
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—Pandit Jasraj
PHOTO: PHOTOLIBRARY
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andit Jasraj is synonymous with Hindustani classical music. The foremost exponent of the Mewati Gharana, the world renowned vocalist has created numerous compositions and conducted extensive research. Constantly motivating and inspiring the young, Panditji founded the Indian Music Academy along with other luminaries in the field. He spoke to Smita Singh on ragas, riyaaz and everything in between.