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Is it re ective calm that India yearns for in 2019?
The Hindu’s best photographs and cartoons from 2018
Sunday, December 30, 2018
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Win like Venus: The tennis star tells you how to build con dence
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Turning the page on 2018 Citizens across the world look to the New Year with renewed hope. They want leaders to end legacies of inequality and divisiveness and come up with policies that are rooted in justice. In the year gone by, many countries witnessed a regression of the world order, with populist leaders preferring isolation over integration; doors closed on migrants; and the bene ts of globalisation came under threat in a new, alarmist regime of economic tari s. Titfortat moves by the United States and China caused worry everywhere. The continuing Brexit imbroglio in the United Kingdom poses a challenge both to the country and to the European Union, and its future course will become clear in 2019. On another note, stronger scienti c insights issued by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change came as a stark warning to the world: that the consequences of not cutting carbon emissions could imperil the future of humanity as a whole in a matter of decades. Thankfully, it was not all gloom. There were some stunning advances in arti cial intelligence, machine learning, gene mapping, and in nding more e cient ways to produce energy and use it. All of this holds a lot of promise for humanity and for the planet. In a special package for the year's last issue, The Hindu and New York Times jointly present perspectives from thinkers, policymakers and writers on the various pathways opening up to hope and progress in 2019.
How can we save the web? 2019 might be the year the world pushes back against all the forces subverting the open spirit of the Internet BY TIM BERNERS-LEE
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n recent years, it has be come clear that the web is not living up to the high hopes we had for it. Built as an open tool for collaboration and empowerment, the web has been hijacked by crooks and trolls who have used it to manipulate people all over the world. To preserve a web that serves all of humanity, not just the pri vileged and the powerful, we will have to ght for it. That’s why I’m asking governments, companies and citizens across the globe to commit to a set of core principles for the web. Don’t give up By the end of 2019, 50% of the world’s population will be using the Internet: these are the nd ings of a recent report from the United Nations a liated Broad band Commission for Digital Development. At any other time in the web’s 30year history, the col lective response to this tipping
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point would likely have been: “Great! Now let’s get everyone else connected as quickly as possible.” But the world has changed. After years of the web being seen as a potential net force for good, such technological opti mism has been eclipsed by fears that the web might be da maging our societies. These worries are justi ed. In recent years, we’ve seen go vernments engage in state sponsored trolling to quash dis sent and attack opposition. We’ve seen hacking and fo reign interference distort polit ics and undermine elections. And we’ve seen how the spread of fake news on social media can trigger chaos, confusion and lethal violence. When we learned last year that Cambridge Analytica had used the personal information of up to 87 million Facebook us ers to in uence voters in the 2016 American presidential election, we woke up to the fact that we had lost control of our data — and that the consequenc
lieve it’s possible to develop a set of basic ideals that we can all agree on. The World Wide Web Foun dation, an organisation I found ed in 2009 to protect the web as a public good, has drawn up a set of core principles. We’re asking everyone to sign these principles and join us as we create a formal Contract for the Web in 2019.
Global connect The web’s future relies on our collective ability to make it a better tool. NYT
es could change the world. But we must not give up on the promise of the web. All technologies come with risks. We drive cars despite the possi bility of serious accidents. We take prescription drugs despite the danger of abuse and addic tion. We build safeguards into new innovations so we can manage the risks while bene t ing from the opportunities.
The web is a global platform — its challenges stretch across borders and cultures. Just as the web was built by millions of pe ople collaborating around the world, its future relies on our collective ability to make it a better tool for everyone. Some commandments Identifying a set of guiding prin ciples will not be easy. But I be
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We woke up in 2018 to the fact that we had lost control of our data
Stand up and ght The principles specify that go vernments are responsible for connecting their citizens to an open web that respects their rights. That internet companies must play their part in making sure the web is safe, accessible and protects user data. And the principles specify that individual citizens have a responsibility to act with com passion and challenge negative behaviour they wouldn’t toler ate o ine. Most importantly, it says we have to stand up and ght for a web that serves eve ryone. Ten years ago, when Rosem
ary Leith and I started the World Wide Web Foundation, fewer than one in four people were online. Our task was to get more people connected and to keep the web open and free so that everyone could bene t from all it had to o er. As a comparatively young in vention, the web is just at the beginning of what it has to o er. Imagine what we will be able to accomplish once the next huge tranche of the world’s popula tion is online and contributing to the web’s explosive creativity. The good news is, the appe tite to take on the web’s chal lenges has never been greater. Let’s make sure the next billion people connect to a web worth having. Let’s make 2019 the year we push back against the forces subverting the open spi rit of the web. We need a free and open web for everyone. The author is the inventor of the World Wide Web and a founding director of the World Wide Web Foundation.
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An alternative to arms As people the world over struggle for selfgovernance, let us give dialogue primacy over violence be empowered. They need to have a stake in society and in their communities. They have to be cherished, and their hu manity has to be respected and defended. They have rights and entitlements that must be upheld and promoted. Society needs to be citizencentred, shaped around these rights.
BY GERRY ADAMS
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hen World War II ended in 1945 there were 51 member states in the United Nations. Today there are 193. Many of the new states emerged out of struggle and con ict as old empires crumbled. That cycle of political strug gle continues today. The Brexit crisis may cause huge economic damage to Ireland’s economies and may even threaten the Good Friday Agreement. In Ca talonia and the Basque Coun try, both of which seek inde pendence from Spain, in Hong Kong and Palestine, people ght or have fought for the right to selfgovern. Power to the people The world is dominated by na tions’ struggles to make their own laws and to decide their re lationships with other nations. But for people to have control over the decisions that a ect their lives, we must empower them through diplomacy, coop eration and dialogue. When go vernments put simple human decency and the rights of their people rst as they negotiate the world’s con icts, democra cy will follow. That, however, is easier said than done, especially when the individual people responsible for upholding the law often va lue their own power over the common good. When I was a teenager in Bel fast I realised that my peers and I were not being treated fairly. Northern Ireland was created when the British government partitioned Ireland. People were divided on sectarian lines and Catholics were deemed to be disloyal. We were denied basic rights in what was e ec tively an apartheid statelet. The inequality we expe rienced was deeply embedded in our society, to the point of being policy. Still, I thought that xing it was only a matter of bringing it to the attention of the people in charge. Once they
All that violence A republican mural in Belfast. The British army’s longest continuous campaign saw soldiers deployed to Northern Ireland from 1969 to 2007. Paul Faith/Agence France-Presse
realised the problem they would rectify matters. I soon learned that the peo ple in charge relied on that in equality for their power. They were unlikely to eradicate it if that would cost them their lev erage, and any solution would be tempered to a degree that would keep them in charge. Pe
ople who have power, or even the illusion of power, are loath to give it up. Those on the other side of this equation — the disadvan taged — include many who be lieve they cannot change their situation. Some are reluctant even to consider that change is possible. Some are afraid of
change. Some are used to socie ty being organised in a certain way, even when that society dis criminates against them. Some are too busy surviving or living their lives to consider that things could be di erent. There can be no progress without political struggle, but for it to succeed, people must
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The reality progressive change in society rarely comes of its own accord
The year of the posttruth campaign
Here we come ‘Campaign in poetry and govern in prose’ K.V.S. Giri
mukt Bharat — a Congressfree nation. Ambiguity is employed only to peddle conspiracy theories.
After ve years of dog whistles, will India vote for some re ective calm in 2019? BY VARGHESE K. GEORGE
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ndia, the world’s largest de mocracy, will elect a new government in 2019. This will arguably be the most critical election in the country’s history and also its most bitterly fought — as 2018 fades, ominous tidings of this impending slug fest are unmistakable. At the beginning, the power struggle in the country was de ned by attacks on the Con gress from the Left and the Right. On and o , the Left and Right joined hands to weaken the Congress. The Congress de clined; the Left declined faster than the Congress; and the reli gious right, now represented by the BJP, grew. Alternative vision In 2014, under Narendra Modi, the BJP won an absolute major ity for the rst time. Over the last ve years, India has made
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attempts towards reshaping it self as a Hindu nation as envis aged by Hindutva or political Hinduism. The Hindutva school of thought has an alternative vi sion opposed to what can broadly be called a Nehruvian vision. The ideas of the self, enemy and progress as under stood by Hindutva seek a depar ture from the Nehruvian foun dations of the republic. I have called this the Hindut va Strategic Doctrine elsewh ere, at the core of which is an expressed belief that the lost glory of the Hindu nation can be reclaimed, and progress achieved, only by an aggressive mobilisation of the Hindus. In 2014, most commentators paid little attention to the bigo try that laced Modi’s campaign on jobs and development and believed that he had jettisoned Hindutva. That was analogous to cha racterising Donald Trump as an
economy president, since most of his speeches have the “jobs, jobs, jobs” pitch. Those who expected a liberal social agenda and a conserva tive economic agenda from the Modi government are stunned by the inversion of the order. Then, towards the end of this year, the Congress snatched the Hindi heartland from Modi’s grip and installed governments in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The new year tone That sets the tone for 2019. Mo di, and the BJP, will not cede power easily. They will ght tooth and nail to sustain the course they have set India on. Poetic forays allowed politi cians to maintain tactical ambi guity on fractious questions — the rst BJP Prime Minister of India, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, practised this to perfection. But politics these days is driven not by ambiguities and abstract as
Un nished business The reality, of course, is that progressive change in society rarely comes of its own accord. It has to be engineered, nego tiated for. Violence often breeds when people believe that they have been left with no alterna tive. And this belief can become more entrenched as states use extrajudicial and violent means to defend their interests. Annual worldwide military spending is estimated to be over $1.7 trillion today, whereas the United Nations and its related agencies spend around $30 bil lion annually. Con ict is fuelled by poverty, economic exploita tion and the desire to control water rights, oil reserves and other natural resources. Britain had fought dozens of counterinsurgency wars before it sent its soldiers to Irish streets in 1969. It had a wellesta blished policy that saw the law, according to Brigadier Frank Kitson, as “just another weapon in the government’s arsenal... little more than a propaganda cover for the disposal of un wanted members of the public.” Irish republicans and others succeeded in shifting from con ict to peace by building an al ternative to armed struggle with the Good Friday Agree ment. It provides for certain rights for Northern Ireland, in cluding the right to a referen dum on whether to remain a part of Britain or to end that re lationship and establish a unit ed Ireland. The agreement emerged slowly as a result of hard work, with parties and go vernments eventually being prepared to take risks, and with the support of the international community. It is still very much
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pirations but by clinical certi tudes. Megalomaniacal leaders around the world talk up their own inevitability and infallibili ty, and build a case for the anni hilation of all opponents. In India, the BJP’s declared aim is to achieve a Congress
Double standards ‘Campaign in poetry and gov ern in prose,’ a phrase coined in 1985 by Mario Cuomo, the form er governor of New York, sought to explain the wide mis match between the seductive promises held out during elec tioneering and the duplicity of governance that follows. Over the years, liberals — the Democrats in the U.S and the Congress in India — came to jus tify their double standards with this selfjusti cation. The populists improvised further, and turned campaign ing into licentious misinforma tion. The BJP has openly de fended the use of jumla, empty promise, as legitimate propa ganda. The shift from ambigui ty to certainty was gradual in political rhetoric, but the slide into falsehood has been far quicker. Modi is now being chal lenged by his own colleague, Yogi Adityanath, the most soughtafter campaigner for the Hindutva constituency in 2018.
un nished business. In the con ict between the Spanish state and the Basque independence campaigners a similar process, closely mo delled on Ireland’s, has suc ceeded in ending armed con ict, even though the Spanish government has not fully en gaged so far. Sinn Fein leaders have often travelled to other con ict zones, including Af ghanistan and Colombia, advo cating the primacy of dialogue, negotiations and peace processes. Dialogue for peace I have travelled to West Asia on several occasions, speaking to Palestinians, visiting the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and speaking to senior leaders in Is rael and Palestine. Regrettably, the failure of governments to uphold international law and U.N. resolutions, and the Israeli government’s refusal to defend democratic norms and nd equitable and fair compromis es, has left many Palestinians living in desperate conditions, with no hope of a di erent, bet ter future. As a result, West Asia exists in a permanent state of con ict. To change this demands a ge nuine e ort to understand what motivates, inspires and drives people to make the choices they do. The dialogue that fos ters that understanding is what ultimately empowers opposing sides of a con ict to come together. Whoever described politics as the art of the possible was re ducing politics to a mediocre trade. People’s expectations of their worth must be raised — not lowered. When we do that, we enable democracy to take hold in even the most dire situations. The writer has been a member of Ireland’s Sinn Fein political party since the 1960s. He was an architect of the Good Friday Agreement, which helped to end the troubles in Northern Ireland, and is currently a member of the Irish Parliament.
There is little evidence that his campaign is garnering more votes, but there is enough evi dence to suggest that the only arrow in the BJP’s quiver now is Hindutva. The choices The prevalent scepticism about the opposition is as ahistorical and ippant as it was about un derstanding Modi in 2014, among pundits. Rahul Gandhi is often dismissed as pappu or du er, but we must recall that his grandmother Indira Gandhi was despised by her opponents as a ‘dumb doll’, his father Rajiv Gandhi as a ‘computer boy’, his mother Sonia Gandhi as ‘fo reigner’. The idea that there is nobody to match Modi’s perso na is also unhelpful in 2004, the BJP slogan was ‘Vajpayee versus Who?’ In its turn, the Congress is trying to de ne its leadership roles. If you want to speculate on whether Rahul Gandhi will step aside as Prime Ministerial candidate for a new Manmohan Singh in the event of victory, then who will that be? 2019 be gins with an apparent choice — Ashok Gehlot, the Chief Minis ter of Rajasthan. But wait, the real Manmohan Singh still has a spring in his step. Who knows, after ve years of ceaseless dog whistles, it might just be some re ective calm that India yearns for in 2019?
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A dramatic view of Delhi’s skyline and the Yamuna river from the top of the new Signature Bridge
2018 IN VISUALS
Sandeep Saxena
Dew drops on a spider web at the picturesque Lammasingi village in Visakhapatnam. K.R. Deepak
Our top picks of photos and cartoons
Aravana muttu, where artists play on a at tambourine, performed at the Kerala State School Arts Festival in Thrissur.
A huge catch netted in Mangamaripeta village on, Visakhapatnam, on a cloudy day. K.R. Deepak
Playing amid the plastic that clogs the Taimoor Nagar drain in New Delhi.
K. K. Mustafah
Shiv Kumar Pushpakar
At an apple orchard in Pulwama district in Kashmir. Fruits are the backbone of the Valley’s economy. Early this year, thousands of farmers marched along the iconic JJ Flyover in Mumbai to voice their demands.
Nissar Ahmad
A forest guard walks past a bu alo skull during a rhino census in Kaziranga National Park, Assam. Ritu Raj Konwar
Prashant Nakwe
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Buildings that mimic nature The 2018 Pritzker Prize winner speaks of a biological approach to architecture Often, in ancient towns and ci ties, which are socially, economi cally and culturally wellknit, we are struck by a strange, unex pected silence and slowness. Our desire to push, to achieve, to con quer dwindles, and we think more of how nature connects us and how we can share and revere our intrinsic selves. Other aesthetic measures of such settlements are grace, love, compassion and humility. To ani mate a settlement one must create humble and tender con nections, which encourage hu mans to come together and feel themselves a part of a larger or der, a part of Mother Earth.
BY BALKRISHNA DOSHI
When culture and recreation come together communities emerge. When communities become societies a settlement is formed. In those realities we inhabit our aspirations of togetherness.
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ustainable cities are like a forest: evergrowing and diverse. In a forest, each branch, each trunk, each tree is unique, blossoming in its own way. Yet everything is con nected. Everything in the forest has its role in a cosmic sympho ny. The city is no di erent. The city, too, is an organism, both stable and uid, static and constantly transforming. Hu mans are a part of the city’s inner mechanism, just as our cells are a part of us. Streets act as veins, connecting us to a network of life similar to a biodiverse forest. So why don’t we see our cities, towns and hamlets as biotechno logical entities? Why don’t we plan and build them in natural ways that reignite the spirit of community, the spirit of a posi tive participatory culture?
Fine balance Consider Jaipur, where Mahara jah Sawai Jai Singh II ruled in 18th century India. He envisioned the city as a paradise on earth. Tak ing into account the constantly changing climate, as well as the movement of the sun, the king created a city built around guilds and clusters of sustainable, coop erative housing. As Jaipur cultiv ated the body, the mind and the spirit, it thrived socially, econom ically and culturally. Jaipur recalls the ancient vastu purusha mandala: a philosophy of design that aims to create a ba lanced and healthy environment. This ancient science shaped
Connecting with nature A bonsai at Huntington Museum, California. Beth Coller/ NYT
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most of India’s traditional settle ments, where seasonal activities such as festivals and fairs take place. The mandala adapts to to tally di erent climates and plac es, and, in turn, inspires them. Unfortunately, we have forgot ten this approach to architecture and design, following instead the prevailing planning model of big budgets, largescale structures and isolated behaviours. Conse quently, our habitations have be We need an come fragmented and we fail to approach to see the city’s infrastructure and architecture life in an integrated way. Instead of building more me that fosters gastructures — which constantly small consume time, energy, and hu clusters of man and natural resources — settlements should we not follow a more nat
ural, biological approach to ar chitecture that would foster small but comprehensive clus ters of settlements and perhaps create a new world? These smaller settlements would be sustainable and replic able. They would be full of ener gy and vitality, but they would not grow beyond a certain size. They would possess the same vir tues as a biodiverse network. Such settlements would not waste time or energy or natural resources. The inhabitants would have global skills and a suitable, ful lling lifestyle. This, as a result, could help salvage our planet from the present disasters and disparities that spawn anxie ty and doubt about the future.
Soul connection In ancient Indian texts, the sthapati (the architect or planner) has to be aware of the sustainable cycles of nature, following the laws of time and energy, just as our ecosystem does. The sthapati is obliged to integrate this natural ow with the lives of a settle ment’s inhabitants. This method of interdependent planning al lows for cultural activities and so cial integration. This form of sus tainable architecture gives all individuals, regardless of class or creed, the ability to connect with their true natures. Isn’t this why some Japanese homes have a bonsai tree to re mind them of their connection to the eternal mystery of existence? Today, we are globally con nected but we are lost spiritually. Prana, the subtle energy that can only be felt, is the missing link that, if ignited, could enliven the spirit of the community again. Can we not apply these plan ning philosophies in the present to create a lasting environment of positive participatory culture? In 2018, the author became the rst Indian to win the Pritzker Prize.
Do it the Venus way The tennis superstar shares three tips to build selfcon dence
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n a video that made the rounds on social media in 2018, a 14yearold Venus Wil liams tells John McKenzie, an ABC News reporter who is inter viewing her, about how con dent she is that she can defeat an op ponent on the tennis court. “I know I can beat her,” a smiling Ve nus tells McKenzie. “I’m very con dent.” McKenzie seems surprised at her answer. “You say it so easily,” he tells her. “Why?” “Because I believe it,” Venus replies. This sense of self has driven Williams all her life. Selfassured ness propelled her to dominate professional tennis; it was key to her being ranked the top female player in the world. But personal empowerment has also been es sential in her e orts to promote gender equality, like when she led a successful public campaign to demand that Wimbledon pay wo men the same amount of prize money as men. (When Williams won her fourth Wimbledon title in 2007 she became the rst wo man to earn exactly what the male champion Roger Federer earned: $1.4 million.) Selfcon dence has also been instrumental in Williams’s entre preneurial endeavours, among them her fashion line, EleVen, and V Starr Interiors, the interior design rm she founded. It has been at the core of so many of her achievements, and she thinks it’s a skill that can be taught, and con tinually worked on.
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not. Tell yourself the opposite — and go for it. A study from Ohio State University provides evi dence that people who can see themselves achieving their goals are more likely to do so. Once you can visualise yourself reaching your goals, create an action plan to get there. Remember that games are won or lost long before you step on the court. Similarly, jobs are obtained or lost before you even show up for your interview. The key is hav ing a path to achieving your goal mapped out long before.
With this is mind, we asked Williams for her formula for deve loping and maintaining selfcon dence, particularly for women. “The fact is, just as you can train yourself physically, you can train your mind to believe in your own selfworth.” Here are three rules, as told to us by Venus Williams: Be honest about feelings When something doesn’t work out the way I want it to, I ask my self a simple but essential ques tion: Why? As you work toward your goals, keep in mind that you need to be honest about your feel ings. Rather than trying to cover up any doubts you might have, make sure to recognise when you are feeling unsure of yourself. Then remind yourself that while you might not feel con dent right now, you remain committed to your goals. Whatever you do, don’t take the easy way out — that only brings temporary pleasure. Also, stop comparing yourself to oth ers. Thinking that other people are more successful because they are smarter, prettier or taller will only serve to undermine your own success. Keep in mind, ho wever, that it is extremely helpful to have someone else to talk to, whether that person is a coach, mentor or simply someone you respect. Selfdoubt is okay. It’s a normal human reaction. The key is not to be driven by feelings of insecuri ty. In matches, I always tell myself
Essential rules ‘Selfdoubt is okay.’ NYT
that it’s okay to be nervous, but it’s not okay to let that nervous ness impact my game.
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Create a ‘map’ of goals Try telling yourself this: “I de serve the worst things in life. I de serve failure and unhappiness.” Does this sound right? Of course
Use failure to advantage Failure is an inevitable part of life. I’m always brutally honest with myself about my failures, a prac tice that comes from being an ath lete. In sports, de ning failure is very simple: If you cannot correct yourself, you will lose. For me, failure just means that I have to work harder. Giving up is never an option. Failure makes you stronger, wiser and better. My biggest failures have always been integral to my biggest suc cesses. We all face challenges at some point in our lives, but making a decision based on low selfesteem is a shortterm play that doesn’t allow us to ourish in the long term and reach our full potential. The more we learn to make deci sions based on selfcon dence the more we are empowered to keep striving for our dreams. To me, that’s the true de nition of success.
Art’s thin, red line It’s time the selfindulgent Western art world woke up BY SHIRIN NESHAT
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s far back as one can trace, political art has been problematic but ultimately necessary, as it forc es art outside of its comfort zones and connects artists with the world. As an artist living in exile, I have often found myself crossing the art world’s thin red line, not deliberately but because political reality is what has de ned my life. But it isn’t only artists in exile who must deal with this bor derline — it exists wherever there is an intersection bet ween art and pro t, whenever artists are pulled in oppo site directions, balancing high aesthetics and politically charged subjects. Consider the recent protests of artists being accused of racial insensitivity and pro ting from black pain. Luke Willis Thompson’s ‘Autoportrait,’ featured a portrait of the girlfriend of Philando Castile, who was killed by pol ice o cers. The furore raises tough questions: Who should be the ultimate judge when art o ends? Should artists take greater responsibility in the perception of their art once placed in the public domain? Framing sorrows? In the aftermath of the Egyptian revolution, I set up a temporary studio near Tahrir Square in Cairo. I shot a se ries of portraits of grieving elderly Egyptian men and wo men as they described tragedies they had experienced during the revolution. I had hoped to capture the human cost behind such euphoric revolutions. Soon after the series, called ‘Our House is on Fire,’ was exhibited in New York in the Rauschenberg Foundation, a critic accused me of framing Egyptians’ sor rows for commercial gal leries in Chelsea to in voke pity and ultimately pro t, oblivious to the fact that proceeds from the sales went to charity organisations of my choosing in Egypt. I was taken aback, wondering whether the critic’s interpretation and accusations may have been correct. Was I guilty of manipulating people’s emotions to make art? Or was he wrong to bend a narra tive that t his own anti art world and political agenda? But then again, whe never there has been hu man loss, con ict or tra gedy, there has also been art. There are also vastly di erent value systems that judge the validity and appropriateness of such art, which often at its purest intent is meant to distil essence out of chaos. Making a di erence There is a paradox for ar tists in exile, as their emotional response to Faces Ahmed (top) and ongoing horrors is often Mona (above) from the ‘Our re ective of their own House is on Fire’ series. personal experiences, Shirin Neshat while at odds with main taining an artistic career that has placed them in a posi tion of privilege. Perhaps the problem lies in our hegemonic system, in which Western freemarket consumerism and its cultu ral production machinery run rampant throughout the practice of art. And what is di erent and in opposition to this system is either marginalised or coopted so as to ap pear open and inclusive. It is therefore through the lter of this lens that the work of artists such of Ai (character ised as the brave exiled artist who escaped the tyranny of his homeland) and myself (the oppressed exiled Ira nian Muslim woman artist) can be legitimised and viewed. The art world seems to have closely adopted and fol lowed the ideological footprints of the larger global eco nomy of the past three decades, increasingly participat ing in the orgy of the creation of wealth and its narrow distribution. But now with the rise of tribalism and na tionalism and the bobbing of the ugly head of fascism, can the sleepy, selfindulgent Western art world rise from its slumber, too? Politically conscious, humanitarian art is as necessary as the air we breathe today if we are to survive these try ing times and not be condemned to repeat our endless cycle of terror and human tragedies, even if the hege monic forces of the art world in uence our every move. It is ultimately up to the artists to determine the future of this thin red line, and how easily it can be crossed — not the critics nor the market. The author is an Iranian American visual artist and lmmaker.
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6 TURNING POINTS
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Enter the stronger dragon History is likely to view 2018 as an in exion point in establishing China as a global power BY ANANTH KRISHNAN
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en years may be just a blip in the life of a country. This is espe cially true for one with a history as long and tortuous as China’s. But when I hopped into a taxi on a cool morning this August, headed for Beijing airport’s massive Terminal 3, I couldn’t help but wonder if the country I was leaving was, in many ways, markedly di erent from the one I had arrived in before the 2008 Olympics. Where is China headed? There’s no easy answer. ‘The land that failed to fail,’ pithily summed up a recent essay re ecting China’s ability to defy predictions of its impending collapse. If it’s foolhardy to predict where China’s is head ed, then perhaps it’s more in structive to look back. 40 years ago This year marks the 40th anni versary of the ‘reform and opening up’. In 1978, China’s GDP was $149 billion, just 1.75% of global GDP. China’s GDP that year was about the same size as India’s then $140 billion. China’s per capita GDP was $156, even less than India’s $203. Fast forward 40 years to 2018: and China’s economy is $12.2 trillion, accounting for 15% of global GDP, and nearly ve times India’s. It’s per capita income is $8,825, over four times India’s $1,939. China is the world’s secondlargest eco nomy, and is forecast to surpass the U.S. by 2030. From an iso lated communist state, China is now a lynchpin of the global ised world. The past four decades ha ven’t been without challenges, which have cropped up, cu riously enough, every 10 years since Deng Xiaoping’s reforms. In 1989, the Communist Party faced an existential challenge as the country was roiled by pro democracy student protests, ul timately crushed brutally by Deng. The Party adapted and
Giant strides A colossal robot statue at a sci theme park in Guiyang, Guizhou province, China. Reuters
evolved, and Deng sidelined conservatives to usher in the economic openingup of the early 90s. In 1998, China weath ered the Asian nancial crisis, and a decade later, China, in the wake of the 2008 Olympics, emerged even stronger, increas ingly convinced of the inevita bility of its rise and the decline of the West. Watershed year Will history view 2018 as anoth er such in ection point? It cer tainly felt so in Beijing this March, when we lined up in subzero temperatures outside the Great Hall of the People to watch the National People’s Congress deliberate on amend ments to the Constitution. As many as 2,959 delegates voted for — and two voted against — an amendment to remove the two term limit for the post of presi dent. Also written into the Con stitution were guiding ideolo
gies titled Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Charac teristics for a New Era. The changes con rmed Xi’s unrivalled standing in the Party — elevating his status to that of Mao Zedong and Deng — and signalled the dismantling of the model of collective leadership that Deng left behind. It was a model that many even in the Party believe allowed China to escape the fate of other author itarian and Communist states through its unique politics: an authoritarian country without a dictator, a Communist nation that embraced stateled capital ism and gave its citizens eco nomic and social liberties — to start businesses, travel and marry as they choose — lacking even in some democracies. Where do China’s leaders see their country going? Xi has spelt out his mission clearly. His im mediate target is leading the country to celebrate the Party’s
100year anniversary in 2021, by when China would have eliminated absolute poverty — an incredible feat unimaginable four decades ago — and esta blished a “moderately prosper ous society”. The second big target is to establish China as “a top innovation nation” by 2035, and a nation with “global in uence” and a “worldclass mil itary” — on a par with the U.S. — by 2050. The challenges Will China achieve these tar gets? It will depend on whether it can overcome several chal lenges, both internal and exter nal. On the home front, the Par ty faces political and economic constraints. Xi’s unprecedented centralisation of power, the Par ty argues, was needed to res pond to domestic and global uncertainties that the collective leadership system didn’t allow. Yet it has created new stresses
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by dismantling a threedecade old system and disrupting inter nal patronage networks in the party and the military. Xi has narrowed the space for debate and dissent, from media to un iversities, which sits uneasily with his mission to boost Chi na’s cultural appeal and innova tive strengths. His biggest challenge may lie in managing a slowing economy that’s still reliant on easy credit to drive growth. China’s reba lancing away from exportled, state investmentdriven growth to a consumptionpowered eco nomy has made some progress. The $586 billion stimulus that helped it weather the glo bal nancial crisis has created an addiction to creditdriven growth. In 2017, China’s debt toGDP ratio reached 257%, ac cording to the Bank for Interna tional Settlements. The pace of debt increase is slowing, but it’s unclear how Xi will deal with the enormous debt that’s piled up, especially with local governments. Building an innovation eco nomy will also be challenging. China has already settled the longrunning debate of whether an authoritarian state can inno vate, as its tech powerhouses stride the globe. The govern ment is now spending millions to position itself as the cham pion of emerging spaces such as arti cial intelligence, which Xi has declared a national priority. Every day, the wide gap with the U.S. is narrowing. Complicating the mission is an increasingly di cult exter nal environment. It’s now been more than 100 days since China and the U.S. descended into a noholdsbarred trade war. Not withstanding a temporary truce agreed in Argentina, the sym The new catchphrase biotic ChinaU.S. relationship has turned forever on its axis. in Beijing is The other external challenge a more is managing a growing regional activist fenfa wariness of China’s rising youwei, to strength. Xi has cast aside Chi strive for na’s decadesold guiding diplo achievement matic maxim, another Deng le
Praying at the altar of populism And its impact on foreign policy decisions BY SUHASINI HAIDAR
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ccording to studies of about a dozen democ racies in the past de cade, “populism” in the age of social media can be best described by two negatives: antielitism and antipluralism. And elections, both in developed nations and in the developing world, have produced leaders who t the descriptions. In India too, the winning mes sage includes the rejection of eli tism (power to the people, poli cies for the poor) and pluralism (the majority has the moral right to rule). Internal policies have been intensely debated, but the impact on foreign policy is com paratively uncharted. One gets an inkling of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s views on foreign policy from the Nani Palkhivala memorial lecture he delivered in Chennai in 2013, tit led ‘India and the World’. Prior to that, when Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat, his fo reign forays had been driven by trade commercial collabora tions. In his Chennai speech, Mo
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di introduced a powerful, popu list concept: “India is not just Delhi,” he said, “Foreign policy should be decided by the people and not by some politicians sit ting in Delhi.” Circular argument Later, in an interview to a news channel in 2016, he completed the circular argument: “After 30 years, Indians chose a govern ment with an absolute majority and this has had an impact on world politics. Countries and world leaders have changed their perspective towards India. This is the biggest bene t.” Speaking to a Russian television station the same year, Modi em phasised that his policies were “correct,” and the proof was the victory of his party in subse quent State elections. Simply put, according to Mo di, his foreign policy was a suc cess because his party had a ma jority. And since he represented the “majority,” his policies were those of the people — and this ex plained his electoral success. Then there is the Modi go vernment’s drive to deliver visas
Powerplay Prime Minister Modi in New York. Reuters
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When political opposition and external opposition are con ated
and passports to ordinary citi zens in response to demands on social media. External A airs Mi nister Sushma Swaraj has given orders to ambassadors over Twitter, asking them to issue passports and visas to people who have written directly to her. The immense response online has, according to the govern ment, justi ed the means. At her annual press confe rence in May 2018, Swaraj called her ministry a “Ministry of Elites or Elitist Ministry,” which, she claimed, she had now been able to “sensitise” to the problems of the people. Modi’s engagement with the diaspora constitutes a unique application of populist princi ples. He has appealed not just to the wellheeled Indianorigin community in every country he
visits, but has also used their support as a tool for political projection back home. In speeches delivered from Shanghai to Seoul to San Jose, Modi’s refrain has been that the diaspora was “ashamed” of India in the past, but has become ‘proud’ again after Modi’s elec tion to power in 2014 — and this was used as a pitch for votes in India as well. The show of strength by the diaspora was also seen as a form of powerplay with the host go vernment — most notably when Modi’s Madison Square Gardens address preceded his rst meet ing with U.S. President Barack Obama. Signi cantly, since Donald Trump has come to power, Modi has preferred not to hold such events in the U.S. probably be
cause of Trump’s avowed anti immigration policies. According to JanWerner Müller, professor of politics, Princeton University, “While populism does not op pose the principles of represen tation and the practices of elec tion, what populism necessarily has to deny is any kind of plural ism or social division: in the po pulist imagination there is only the people on the one hand and, on the other hand, the illegiti mate intruders into our politics.” Translated into foreign policy terms, this ‘exclusive representa tion’ principle leads to a dis course where the political oppo sition is con ated with India’s external opposition. It is now quite common, for example, to nd Opposition leaders being told by ruling party politicians to “go to Pakistan”. In the electoral arena During the State election cam paigns of 2017, Modi targeted both Congress president Rahul Gandhi for meeting the Chinese ambassador during the Doklam crisis, and former Prime Minis ter Manmohan Singh for meet ing a former Pakistani Foreign Minister, painting them as “anti national” acts. The populist message is clear: any opposition to the ruling par ty is also opposition to the go vernment and the state — what Professor Müller describes as the theory of “illegitimate opposition”. There are some decisions ta ken by the Modi government that bring this debate into shar
gacy, of taoguang yanghui, literally to ‘hide brightness, seek obscurity’. The new catch phrase in Beijing now is a more activist fenfa youwei, or to strive for achievement. Xi has for the rst time spo ken of promoting the China mo del abroad, especially in deve loping countries, evident in his Belt and Road Initiative. Pre sented by China as a ‘winwin’, helping Beijing rebalance by ex porting its surpluses to infras tructurede cit countries, there are however concerns on its terms of nancing. India’ reaction How China resolves these pro blems and manages its transi tion will present both oppor tunities and risks for India. The trade war has already opened up windows for Delhi that years of trade diplomacy failed to do, as China seeks new markets particularly for agricultural commodities. China’s econom ic transition has unleashed a ood of tech investment into In dian startups, by some esti mates nearing $10 billion. Alarmed by concerns about its new con dence, Beijing is appearing to coursecorrect, at least in the shortterm, indicat ed by the Wuhan summit with India and the recent visit of Ja panese Prime Minister Abe. Delhi will look to seize short term opportunities even as it deals with the longerterm chal lenge of China’s rise. In Beijing, 2018 is certainly being seen as a landmark year. For the Party, the year was the start of the Third New Era — the Era of Xi — and the era that will set it on its course to cement its status as a global power, espe cially in terms of its global in uence. For detractors — in cluding many Chinese who believed that with growing prosperity the country should gradually pursue political liber alisation — the year was a re gression, a lurch back into auth oritarianism. Only time will tell who is right.
per focus. The decision to raise the issue of safety for Indianori gin people in West Asia or in the U.S. during bilateral talks is one. And the use of surgical strikes against Pakistan in electoral campaigns and government ad vertorials is another. Populism doesn’t always pre vail, however. Two foreign poli cy moves that Modi bitterly op posed when he was Chief Minister were carried out by him as Prime Minister, leading to im proved bilateral ties. The U turn One is the return of the Italian marines held for murder that led to the normalisation of ties with Italy; and the second is the Land Boundary Agreement that set a new trajectory for ties with Ban gladesh. Similarly on Pakistan, while maintaining a consistent policy of “no talks and terror”, and re jecting engagement at any politi cal level with Islamabad, the go vernment decided to send two senior Ministers to Pakistan to inaugurate the Kartarpur corri dor. This is the ultimate example of the foreign policy conundrum — when two competing populist issues clash. The desire to ac commodate the wishes of the Sikh population to visit the shrine won out against the desire to be seen as unyielding to Pakis tan. Both instincts, however, rein force the principle that in an era of populism, foreign policy, like charity, begins at home.
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SUNDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2018
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The face that becomes the ag The rising cult of personality rests on the inaccurate notion that the face somehow represents the nation
Follow the leader A souvenir plate with an image of Xi Jinping behind a statue of Mao at a Beijing store; and a supporter wears a Donald Trump mask at a rally in Pennsylvania. Greg Baker/Agence France-Presse & Damon Winter/NYT BY TIMOTHY SNYDER
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irst we see the face. The face of America’s Do nald Trump, or Hun gary’s Viktor Orban, or Russia’s Vladimir Putin, or Tur key’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the face of men who wish to trans form democracies into personal ity cults. The face is the oldest mark of leadership, the mark that works for clan or tribe. If we see only the face, we are not thinking about policies or politics; in stead, we are accepting the new regime and its rules. However, a democracy is about the people, not a single mythicised person. People need truth, which a cult of personality destroys. Theories of democracy, from the ancient Greeks through the Enlightenment to today, take for granted that the world around us yields to understanding. We pursue the facts alongside our
fellow citizens. But in a cult of personality, truth is replaced by belief, and we believe what the leader wishes us to believe. The face replaces the mind. The transition from democra cy to personality cult begins with a leader who is willing to lie all the time, in order to discredit the truth as such. The transition is complete when people can no longer distinguish between truth and feeling. We’ve been played The cult of personality functions the same everywhere; it rests on the inaccurate notion that the face somehow represents the nation. Cults of personality make us feel rather than think. In particular, they make us feel that the rst question of pol itics is “Who are we, and who are they?” rather than “What is the world like, and what can we do about it?” Once we accept that politics is about “us and
them,” we feel like we know who “we” are, since we feel that we know who “they” are. In fact, we know nothing, since we have accepted fear and anxiety — animal emotions — as the basis of politics. We have been played. The authoritarians of today tell mediumsize lies. These ref er only super cially to expe riences; they draw us deep into a cave of emotion. If we believe that Barack Obama is a Muslim born in Africa (an American lie with Russian support), or that Hillary Clinton is a paedophile pimp (a Russian lie with Ameri can support), we are not actual ly thinking; we are giving way to sexual and physical fear. These mediumsize lies are not quite the big lies of the total itarians, although Orban’s at tacks on George Soros as the leader of a Jewish conspiracy come rather close. They are, ho wever, big enough that they help
us feel secure? Who are they and who are we? A cult of personality used to require monuments; now it re quires memes. Social media consumes the public imagina tion like the giant statues of ty rants from former times con sumed public space. But as those monuments remind us, ty rants always die.
to disable the factual world. Once we accept these lies, we open ourselves up to believing a whole raft of other untruths, or at least suspect that there are other, vaster conspiracies. The algorithm rule The face of the leader becomes, as a result, a ag, an arbitrary marker of “us” and “them.” The internet and social media are helping us to see politics in this binary way. We imagine that we make choices as we sit in front of our computers, but the choices are, in fact, framed for us by algo rithms that learn what will keep us online. Our online activity teaches machines that the most e ective stimuli are negative: fear and anxiety. As social media becomes pol itical instruction, we prime our selves for politicians who repro duce the same binary: What makes us afraid and what makes
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A sterile cult The empty heterosexual postur ing, the shirtless photo ops, the misogyny and indi erence to the female experience, the anti gay campaigns, are designed to Social hide one basic fact: A cult of per media sonality is sterile. It cannot re consumes produce itself. the public The cult of personality is the imagination worship of something tempor like the ary. It is thus confusion and, at statues of bottom, cowardice: The leader tyrants in cannot contemplate the fact that former he will die and be replaced, and times citizens abet the illusion by for
What working women want It’s time the statistics about Indian women shifted from victimhood to empowerment BY VEENA VENUGOPAL
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ll too often, India is de scribed in numbers. We are a population of 1.3 billion; a middle class market of 700 million; and have a poverty line that runs above the heads of 70.6 million. These numbers are meant to demonstrate phenomenal size and phenomenal potential. But when it comes to Indian wo men, the numbers are mostly used to illustrate some shame ful realities: say, the number of victims of sexual abuse, or the number of women harassed for dowry. Even by urban, relative ly progressive measures, the numbers mostly tell stories of squandered potential. Nowhere is this starker than at the workplace, where the share of women now stands at 26%. Through the upswing in all development indicators in the last decade — GDP growth, income, and education — the participation of women in the workplace has, contrarily, gone in the opposite direction, from
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35% in 2005 to 26% in 2017, ac cording to data from Interna tional Labour Organisation. In other words, as India deve loped, the women dropped out of the workplace. Sign of failure Culturally, for a large demo graphic in India a working wo man is a sign of failure, not suc cess. Patriarchal norms dictate the role of a man as the bread winner and to send a woman out of the home to work implies that he has failed to provide for the family. Another factor is the woeful inadequacy in administration: our streets are unsafe, the daily commute is not easy. Then there are fears about the inter mingling of genders, and that nancial power will lead girls as tray. In 2018 in India, #MeToo entered this already fraught re lationship between women and the workplace, churning anxie ties all around. While the resignation of Mi nister of State for External Af fairs, M.J. Akbar, was the rst
Not so fair As India developed, women dropped out of the workplace. Reuters
“success” for the #MeToo movement, in corporate India the signi cant development was Flipkart cofounder Binny Bansal being asked to step down. The carefully worded press release from Walmart, which now owns Flipkart, seemed to suggest that while Bansal was investigated for sex ual misconduct, he was cleared of it , but other aspects of his behaviour that surfaced during the investigation led to his re moval. Media reports suggest Bansal was in a consensual rela tionship with an employee, which subsequently went awry.
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The tangled nature of Ban sal’s case illustrates the di cul ty that organisations are facing in laying down rules of beha viour and in policing them. On the one hand, at least in small, urban, a uent parts, tradition al sexual norms are being eased out. Premarital sex is accepted, even if grudgingly, and extra Recruiting marital sex is rampant. In a society that is experi managers menting with sexual freedoms confess to a at the same time that sexual preference predation is growing, a clear for hiring line of control is a near impossi men over bility. Under these circumstanc es, where should organisations women
draw the line? Banning all kinds of contact between employees will make the company regres sive and not an ideal workplace. And adopting an ‘anything goes as long as there is consent’ ap proach is an invitation for misuse. Knee-jerk reaction An expected but unfortunate fallout of the success of the #MeToo campaigns is the push back from companies, most of which are headed by men, in hiring women. There have been reports from around the world that
getting that they share responsi bility for the future. The cult of personality blunts the ability to keep a country go ing. When we accept a cult of personality, we are not only yielding our right to choose leaders but also dulling the skills and weakening the institutions that would allow us to do so in the future. As we move away from democracy, we forget its purpose: to give us all a future. A cult of personality says that one person is always right; so after his death comes chaos. Democracy says that we all make mistakes, but that we get a chance, every so often, to cor rect ourselves. Democracy is the courageous way to have a coun try. A cult of personality is a co wardly way of destroying one. The writer is the Levin professor of History at Yale University and best known for his books Bloodlands and On Tyranny.
men are now avoiding profes sional interactions with women lest they be accused of sexual harassment. In India, recruiting managers confess to a preference for hir ing men over women, because they are considered “safer”. This kneejerk reaction is not only absurd, it is also a lost op portunity to build a workplace that attracts the best talent ir respective of gender. For the year ahead, organisa tions need to focus on just two things. First, identify and com municate behaviours that con stitute sexual harassment. Issue a list of dos and don’ts, an index of unacceptable words, a catalogue of situations and actions. Second, ensure a credible redress mechanism to investigate accusations of ha rassment. The idea of making an organisation sexual harass ment free is a pointless one. Organisations have to ap proach the issue with the un derstanding that harassment and sexual abuse can only be minimised, not eliminated. Even though workplaces around the world are grappling with many of these issues, it is important that Indian compa nies take the lead, considering the low number of employed women. If India’s aspiration as the fas test growing economy is to gal lop towards development, pull ing hundreds of millions out of poverty, it needs to understand that it cannot do this without its women. The statistics about In dian women should shift from victimhood to empowerment.
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Easy like Sunday morning
LETTER FROM A CONCERNED READER
Too much green fraud
‘I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes’
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The Independent State of Samoa is a commonwealth country that has seen settlement for more than 3,500 years. 220 km to its east is American Samoa which is an unincorporated territory of the United States. People in Samoa are among the rst in the world to celebrate New Year’s Day whereas citizens of American Samoa are among the last. The presence of what imaginary entity leads to this lag between the two Samoas?
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In Canada this tradition happens on New Year’s Day where thou sands of participants plunge into a bo dy of water despite the low tempera ture. These are usually held to raise money for a charitable organisation. They are known as ‘__ __ plunge’, named after an animal found in that part that plunges in to frigid waters in search of its prey. What is this activity known as?
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The very rst major celebration of New Year is in this city. It is re nowned for its reworks which are synchronised to popular music and lighting. This display is called the ‘Bridge E ect’ due to the prominent bridge on which it takes place. Various symbols and other images related to a chosen theme are displayed on the bridge itself. The videos from this are the ones usually streamed rst by news networks globally. Which city and what is the name of the bridge?
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In this country, traditionally a pie called ‘Vasilopita’ (King’s Pie) is baked. A coin wrapped in aluminium foil is put inside it. During the family dinner, the hostess puts some of her jewellery on a plate and places it on the side of the table, as a symbol of the coming year’s prosperity. At mid night, the families count down and then turn o all the lights and reopen their eyes to “enter the year with a
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King’s pie The traditional vasilopita with a lucky coin inside. getty images/ istock
new light.” Following this, the Vasilop ita is cut and served. The person who gets the wrapped coin is the lucky per son and is blessed for the rest of the year. In which country is this where the current economic status needs a lot of blessing?
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Since 1939 this concert pro gramme has remained pretty much unchanged and takes place ev ery New Years day. Around 15 compo sitions are played and the second is Jo hann Strauss II’s waltz ‘The Blue Danube’, whose introduction is inter rupted by applause of recognition and a New Year’s greeting from the con ductor and orchestra to the audience. The nal encore is Johann Strauss I’s ‘Radetzky March’, when the audience claps along under the conductor’s di rection. In which city known for its musical heritage (and home of the Strauss family) does this take place?
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Legend has it that in 1909 the vi neyard owners of this country wanted to cut down on the large pro
duction surplus they had had that year. So they started this tradition of ‘Las doce uvas de la suerte’ — The twelve grapes of luck — where eve ryone eats 12 grapes, one for each chime of the clock. After the clock has struck 12, people greet one another with toast and champagne. In which country does this happen?
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Since 1907, a 5,386 kg, 12ftwide Waterford crystal ball located on the roof of One __ ___ is lowered down a pole that is 70fthigh, reaching the roof of the building 60 seconds later to signal the start of the New Year. It started o as an event to promote the status of the building as the new head quarters of the Times and is now a huge celebration involving live con certs and choreographed dances. Where does this celebration take place?
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In Scottish folklore the ‘quaaltagh’ ( rstfoot) is the most important person in Hogmanay (New Year) cele bration. He or she is seen as a bringer
Hotaru no Hikari (‘Glow of a re y’) is a Japanese song set to the tune of a Scottish folk song which is sung during New Year. The lyrics describe the hardships that a student endures in his relentless quest for knowledge, starting with the re y’s light, which the student uses to study when he has no other light sources. It is commonly played at the end of school day, closing of malls and shows on New Year’s eve where it is sung as the last song. By what name do we know the tune which means ‘days gone by’ in Scottish? A molecular biologist from Madurai, our quizmaster enjoys trivia and music, and is working on a rock ballad called ‘Co ee is a Drink, Kaapi is an Emotion’. @bertyashley Answers 1. The International Date Line runs between the islands so 24 hours separate them. 2. Japan 3. Sydney Harbour Bridge 4. Greece 5. Vienna 6. Spain 7. New York Times Square 8. First person to set foot into the house after clock strikes 12 at midnight. 9. Polar Bear Plunge 10. Auld Lang Syne
In this country you literally ring in the New Year, as the tradition is to ring a bell 108 times. The ringing starts in the old year and nishes as the clock strikes midnight. This symbolis es the 108 human sins in Buddhist be lief and to get rid of the 108 worldly desires related to sense and feeling in every citizen. In which country would you witness and hear this tradition?
Respected Madam/ Sir, of good fortune for the coming year. The quaaltagh usually brings a coin, some bread, salt and whisky which symbolise prosperity, warmth and good cheer. So who is the quaaltagh?
BY BERTY ASHLEY
A-N-A-T-O-M-I-Z-E
GOREN BRIDGE
Making the best of it Neither vulnerable, South deals
The Smart Toy Bear ● Backpack for bear to store accessories
● Free app download for content updates BY BOB JONES
dummy, and paused for thought. East had discarded three diamonds on the clubs, so South decided this was an indication that East had started with four hearts, so he led a heart back to his seven! West won with his ace, perforce, and shifted to the jack of spades — queen, king, ace. South cashed the queen of hearts, leaving this position:
● Nine Smart Cards loaded with stories or games
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ECOTISM
CM YK
West discarded the nine of spades on the jack of hearts. South led a spade, putting West on lead and forcing him to lead a diamond into the acejack. “I knew you could do it,” said North.
BY ASHVINI MENON
rom other newspapers I ex pect only fraud and chican ery. But from The Hindu did I ever expect such behaviour? Never. I have noted that you have put out some environment special last week, which is full of fraud items. But very worst is you have not published my letter which I have written last week and which one and all will tell you was point to point important. So this time I will tell you why this green ery and all is big fraud. You know what is plants? I will tell you about plants. Plants and trees and all just like Too much hypocrisy one Mr. Martin who used to work Many people are like this Madam/ Sir, with me in Vedaranyam branch. outside all Shankaracharya, inside From outside very decent man. He Auto Shankar. will always wear fullsleeve shirt and Plants and trees also exactly like long pants. Ironing and all perfect. this. You will go to some park and Shoes always black colour polished. think, “Oho, what a beautiful tree. Mr. Martin will come What a captivating to o ce on time each owers.” Fraud fraud day. He will wish fraud. good morning to all What happened sta , he will say hello when we went to Mun to manager in the nar in 1992 on my cabin. Leave Travel Conces He will walk to his sion? One coconut fell table and sit down. on our taxi and des He will put ti n box troyed front glass. And inside bottom draw we had to waste one er. He will take out full day to nd a new pen and paper and car. By the time we rubber band and came back to hotel, ay ledger and rubber urvedic massage lady stamps and stapler went home. and all. And then he What happened will work. Will he when I bought new leave his table unti glass table for balcony dy? Never. Mr. Mar area in my at? Up tin’s place was al stairs Mrs. Meera’s mo getty images/ istock neyplant fell down be ways neatest in entire o ce. cause of wind directly And during lunch break what will on top of the table and destroyed it. happen? Whether he will sit in the What happened when Mrs. Math strong room and do Kumar Gaurav rubootham decided to grow big type romantic gossip with lady sta dumb cane plant outside the at members? Oh Ms. Shyamala your sa door? I told, “Kamalam, plant is bit ree is magni cent. Oh Mrs. Kumara big.” She said, “Old man, this is noth valli why you are wasting money on ing compared to Dr. Shankarame gold jewellery when your face itself is non’s house; he has coconut palm in so shining like gold. side the living room. I said, “He is Never. He will eat quietly, nish Malayali, what you can expect, next lunch in 10 minutes, and then go back he will put one elephant.” to work. Then one day, housing complex sweeper pushed plant in front of door during cleaning. Then forgot. Ma Too much dedication Many times union people told him, dam/ Sir, I got late for morning yoga “Mr. Martin, Mr. Martin, Mr. Martin and ran out of door, fell on plant, and you are destroying worker rights in then plant, and I rolled and rolled like this country. Bank is giving one hour Ilaiyaraaja duet video. After 15 mi for lunch break. If you don’t use fully nutes I went to doctor because the means tomorrow management will dumb cane is poisonous plant. This is why I am 100% against all say no need one hour, 30 minutes enough. Then? 20 minutes. Then? 10 plants and trees and environment minutes. Finally they will say no and all. At least human beings and lunch break. Then we have to su er animals will give warning before and work hard like private sector fel attacking. lows. Is that what you want Mr. Trai Yours in agricultural exasperation, tor Martin?” J. Mathrubootham He will say, “Sorry, sorry, sorry, to
THE SUNDAY CROSSWORD NO. 3028
● USB charging cable special arrangement
BY LILA MOHAN
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orth should have passed two spades. He overbid his hand, leading to a poor contract, but South set out to make the best of it. The opening club lead ran around to declarer’s 10. A heart to the king held the trick, and a club back to the jack lost to West’s king. West shifted to the king of dia monds, ducked by South, and then reverted to clubs. South won his two remaining club tricks, ending in
F
morrow onwards I will take full lunch break. But once more he will work with too much dedication. Madam/ Sir, dedication is like chicken biryani. One plate is ok. Two plate is ne. Three plate is danger. Four plate is dysentery. But never mind all that. One em ployee too much dedicated. Fine. But worst, Mr. Martin is greatest traitor in whole world. Secretly he is giving full information to top management. He is sharing all employee gossips with manager. Slowly slowly we disco vered that he is the biggest spy for management in the o ce.
t’s the season of gifting. But you’d better be careful what you buy your kids. Toy companies have launched a range of Smart Toys that, well, don’t make parents look too smart. These toys, companies claim, will interact with children in increasingly ‘natural’ ways. In other words, doing stu that parents or nannies would normally do. Two years ago, in a spectacular in vasion of the nursery, a Fisher Price teddy bear came with a camera in its nose. What the bear did, though, wasn’t so cute. Before the company xed a software bug, the bear could be hacked and the child’s personal data stolen. If that’s not distinctly childunfriendly, we don’t know what is. The Smart Toy Bear is still availa ble, but with a disclaimer that states
no personally identi able data is transmitted by it. So what do Smart Toys do? Apart from being loaded with voice and im age recognition technology that lets them talk to, listen and remember what the child says, apparently they can recite the time of day, weather and world events. Now why we would want children to have a newscaster for a toy we don’t know but never mind because, hold your breath, we discovered yet another bizarre thing the Smart Toy does: it tells jokes. The hype says these toys will be “the start of a true friendship that will help your child grow socially and emotionally,” but it sounds more like the start of emotional dependence to us if children have to forego real friends and have conversations with a stu ed toy. Guess it’s inevitable that toys will become increasingly digital; we’re just not sure how smart that really is.
Across 1 Gloom in party captured by playwright (6) 4 Artificial image? Continue to be en thralled by it (7) 9 Delight in harbour (9) 10 Substantial specimen, not small (5) 11 Drama in period setting’s first to get awards (7) 12 Fish held and cut (7) 13 Exuberant force, group mostly seen with love in revolutionary outfit (12) 17 Terrible trophy, comical, not a symbol of major sporting event (7,5) 20 Bird emerging from box with noise (7) 22 Eager one with speed of light entering event (7) 23 Robust, guarding against split (5) 24 Exile in wretched case riots (9) 25 Fast strike without real purpose (7) 26 Thin air outside pub (6) Down 1 Perfect day disrupted by measure of acidity in conduct (8) 2 Many too prepared to restrict universal independence (8) 3 Different future in a rum old Victorian tale (3,6,6) 4 Forcefulness required to get a drink (5) 5 Expert under oath, worried about Arctic region, raised difficult problem
(1,4,3,2,5) 6 Excellent work after lean time (33) 7 Happy with king instead of rook getting forward? (6) 8 Pepper? Limit amount covering one starter for child (8) 14 One foolish person, angry, lacking right start (8) 15 Fulfilment I found in working for unit (8) 16 Violent behaviour almost embraced during endeavour (8) 18 Some interest heretic displayed in Old Testament book (6) 19 Run good article on vote coming up (6) 21 Befuddled in court over unknown quantities (5)
Solution No. 3027
VJ-X