The Beat
February 2014
Religion
What remains? February 2014 | The Beat
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An IIJNM publication
February 2014 | The Beat
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CONTENTS Sport
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• Customs busybodies target shooters
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• Dropping Singh for the New Zealand series was unfair
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Religion • Lost faith
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• My tryst with Nithyananda Dhyanapeetham
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• Superstitions flourish in 21st-century India
22 14
• Meet the new minority on the block
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• Buddhists in Bangalore— few but devout
28 34
Business • In India, a woman is first married to gold, then to a man
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• Banned EMI schemes alive and kicking
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February 2014 | The Beat
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Commentary 37
• No country for gays
• Art of conversation ‘virtually’ dead
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We review Art exhibitions
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• Blending the ancient with the contemporary • Black, white and gray
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A movie: American Hustle
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Restaurants • Pepper n Chilly • Dalma
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A book: Color of Gold
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Cover photo: Smriti Bengani
The Beat is a publication by magazine students of Indian Institute of Journalism & New Media. All rights are reserved by IIJNM. No part of this publication may be reproduced, or transmitted, in any form or any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than in which it is published. February 2014 | The Beat
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The Beat Editor Sneha Bengani
Content editors Bhavika Bhuwalka Sneha Ghosh
Designers Aurosmita Acharya Nibedita Mohanta Shivpriya Jodha Suchitra Sharma Tulana Nayak Vaishnavi J. Desai
Content advisor Mark Austin
Letter from the editor Mark Twain once said, “If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be—a Christian.” It is not just with Christ. If any of our innumerable gods were here now, they would probably faint when contemplating what has become of their teachings. Religion has always shown the way to be; it has been the one supreme force driving the world and giving anchor to every life floating without support on the surface of the bottomless ocean. And then came Darwin with his evolution theory and Freud with his psychoanalytical concepts, and a series of other men and women who questioned the unquestionable and changed the face of the earth. Forever. With this newfound inquisitiveness, man started questioning everything he did not know or understand. And first on his to-find list was god, for he had always been an unseen mystery. The quest that started then, ages ago, is still on. In this issue, we tread where angels dare not. We have tried to explore that which makes humans lose reason for it is their opium. We talk contemporarily of this overarching haven that touches every aspect of our daily lives in ways unquantifiable. Other than cruising through our theme, we talk of issues close to our hearts—the Supreme Court’s criminalization of homosexuality, the “virtually dead” conversations that are trending these days, the role that gold plays in weddings and the trouble that the customs office give our shooting champions. And finally we give you a sneak peek into what you can do in the city this February. This issue is a platter prepared exclusively with a lot of heart and mind. We aim to tantalize your taste buds with a hope that everyone finds something to relish.
Email your feedback:
Bon appétit!
magazinestudents@iijnm.org Sneha Bengani
February 2014 | The Beat
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SPORTS
Customs busybodies target shooters By Saikat Ghosh
RAKESH MANPAT IS a happy man. He has just won the recently organized 57th National Shooting Championship in Delhi. But he would never forget the distress he went through one morning in November when a customs officials at Kempegowda International Airport made him to wait for two days to get his rifle back. “It was a funny incident. I went there the first day and found that their senior officials were busy in a meeting. After a long time they came out and told me that they have a lot of files to clear, and the asked me to come the next day,” Manpat told The Beat. Rifle shooters, who fly to several destinations to represent their respective states or country, are used to such harassments from the custom officials. Several successful shooters who have brought glory to the country are often inconvenienced like Manpat by the Bangalore Customs. Similarly Dhirendra Singh, who won a bronze in National Shooting Championship in 2011 and the first person in Karnataka to import an air rifle, recalled how he was made to wait for several hours at the airport when he could have utilized that time to practice for a national tournament scheduled to begin just five days later. “They don’t know what a firearm is and what an air rifle is,” he told The Beat. “Even after showing all the documents, they would not accept the facts.” He added that they asked him for a bribe. “They let me go only after I told them that the rifle is sponsored by someone else and not bought by me,” he said. He said customs officials lack knowledge and are unable to take decisions in such situation. “They are not particularly targeting shooters,” Manpat said. “When they see you are importing stuff like rifle they believe that
Rakesh Manpat, winner of the 57th National Shooting Championship during one of his practice sessions you belong from a well-to-do family and ask for money,” he added. Purushottam Kempaiah, who won a silver medal for Karnataka in 2011, says it’s the custom officials who have made the system overly complex. “When you look at their website certain objects are duty free, but the Customs Department charges you for those objects when you reach Bangalore Airport,” he said. Recalling his story he said he was made to run to the chief commissioner of Custom Department. “Those people were directly asking for it (a bribe), despite being showed each and every document,” he said. “I then met the commissioner who asked the on ground officer to return it.”
February 2014 | The Beat
But to Purushottam’s shock he was then directed to take clearance from Bangalore police to clear his equipment. “They were asking me to take clearance from the police for a 0.22mm rifle, and even after that I had to pay Rs 4,000 to get it back,” he said. Most Indian shooters have learned a lesson from those incidents and hired professional custom agents to bail them out from such situations. “I pay my agent Rs.1,000, and he takes care of everything,” said Purushottam who also runs a shooting academy of his own. The Customs Department could not be reached for comment.
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Dropping Singh for the New Zealand series was unfair By Raju Peethala
Speculation about the reason why Yuvraj Singh was dropped from the one-day international series against New Zealand has been rife. It is reported that Indian skipper and the cricket team captain, M.S. Dhoni, might have played a part in the execution of this decision. In September 2013, Singh was selected to play against the West Indies ‘A’ team, when he hit two half and one complete century. This was his great comeback. After that, he smashed an unbeaten 77, which helped India to register a win in one of the T20 games against the Australian team. Here are a few interesting facts and statistics that clearly show that Singh wasn’t used to his best despite his strong efforts to deliver his best performance, in which he was quite successful. Dhoni hints at something when he alters Singh’s batting position. He was also deprived of the position of the fifth bowler— which he has been since the 2011 World Cup for the team—and it could well be the main reason for Singh’s failure.
Singh has always been a renowned allrounder for the Indian team, and Suresh Raina was always a part-time bowler. According to cricket experts, if an all rounder doesn’t get a chance to bowl, it chokes his confidence level which indirectly affects his batting performance.
Add to that, Singh wasn’t used as a fifth bowler, which must have dealt a huge blow to his confidence. He averaged over 35 in the West Indies series (he wasn’t given a chance to bowl) whereas Raina bowled 22 overs and averaged only 19 in his batting.
Singh didn’t get to bowl a single ball after the fourth ODI against Australia (after which India has played nine ODIs overall) and Raina was used as a bowler seven times in which he bowled 34 overs.
Singh has batted only once in the two ODIs he played against South Africa— again, he didn’t bowl—whereas Virat Kohli and Raina shared 15 overs among themselves.
In the same series, Singh scored 118 at an average of 14.75 which includes a halfcentury in the last eight innings against the West Indies, whereas, Raina scored 168 at an average of 21, with 36 as his best. He was promoted ahead of Singh in the Australian series for reasons unknown.
It is unfair that Singh was dropped from the New Zealand series. Facts prove that he deserves one more series to prove his potential. In comparison, Raina hasn’t played any better than him.
When Dhoni was asked about altering the batting positions of Singh and Raina, he said, “What we want right now is that Raina should bat at number four for a considerable amount of time.” It is a hard task for a batsman to bat at an unusual position throughout the series.
February 2014 | The Beat
According to The Times of India Singh as dropped because Dhoni did not bat for his inclusion in the side. An insider said, “It would be hard to believe that Dhoni wanted Yuvraj and the selectors ignored his wish.” Dhoni clearly didn’t want Singh in the team, though he has played a crucial role in winning three International World Cups for India.
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Interview
When the canvas dazzles As we welcome spring this year, it is fitting that we talk about an artist whose paintings are like lyrical poems on canvas. Kynkyny Art Gallery has put on show his work in an exhibition called Through the Looking Glass which will be on until Feb. 8. By Sneha Bengani
Born to artists, Devdatta Padekar took to drawing early in life. As a child, he was told by his parents to draw with sketch pens and was never given a pencil or eraser. “I was never given a drawing book to copy from, but was encouraged to draw real things live or something I had seen before,” says the 35-year-old. He does not remember the first thing he drew, but remembers “drawing anything I saw in my home like a table lamp, vase
and even my tiny sandals.” Padekar has enjoyed drawing since forever. Drawing with sketch pens subconsciously helped him in gaining confidence as “I knew I couldn’t erase anything I drew with them.”
The scholarships
Known for painting fleeting moments with elegance and fluidity, he had won several awards for his finesse at school and state level. He never really had second thoughts about his choice of career.
He trained at Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai where he completed his graduation in Painting (1999) and post-graduation in Portraiture (2001). In 2004, on a British Chevening Scholarship (fully funded scholarship by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office), he did his master’s in drawing from Camberwell College of Arts in London.
“I wasn’t very good in academics to be in any sort of dilemma to pursue anything else than art,” the Mumbai-based artist says.
He won 12,000 Canadian dollars from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation in 2006 and went on to study classical drawing and painting for a year at Florence
Poems on canvas - In a straight Line (above), Spotted Diamonds (top)You are mine (right)
February 2014 | The Beat
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Academy of Art in Italy.
His women His is a world of ballerinas and brooding women placed in sensitive natural surroundings. His love for female forms is as evident as his obsession for art. But he points out that he does paint men and boys. “It’s just that male forms go with certain themes and subjects and female forms go in tune with certain other themes,” he says. “What I paint is totally based on my observations.” His themes are delicate and hence his women are ethereal. His figures are in tune with the backdrop and surroundings which are equally important in his paintings. “I observed a little girl gently placing her hand in a bowl to feed the goldfish inside whereas my little nephew slapped his hands in the water splashing out water and scaring the goldfish,” he says.
Capturing it all Padekar’s eye is accustomed to seeing what goes unnoticed by most. The subtle nuances of nature that are always at play help him conceive his sincerest imaginations. It is “a petal falling naturally without human interference, a cherry in its full bloom and a gulmohar tree,” in his words, that keeps him going.
His work does not just document a situ ation with a natural setting. He “strives to capture subtle nuances in nature that can bring joy to a sensitive mind,” he says. His paintings talk, in a language that only those who listen intently can decipher. Most of them subtly explore the relationship between man and nature. His lone characters are put in picturesque environs interacting with the omnipresent. “My paintings delve with human interpretation and the sensitivity associated with observing different aspects and forms of nature,” he says. Capturing movement and framing it has been his forte. Movement is as important in his work as nature. Anything that captures his fancy finds a canvas. It can be “a fluttering butterfly, the shimmering water, subtle movements observed in foliage or petals falling due to soft breeze.” For his current theme, he has treated the background more like the rhythm and patterns found in nature. According to him, they are based on realism but aren’t precisely realistic. He has chosen neutral colors “with few bright accents present either in background, figures or forms of nature.”
Being an artist Flexible in his working methods, Padekar primarily works in two mediums, oils and soft pastels, separately.
February 2014 | The Beat
It helps him give his subjects the “sparkle and vibrancy” that is so characteristic of his work. His techniques are not inspired by any particular school of art but they can be broadly categorized as impressionistic. Art (drawing and painting), according to him, should have the fundamental principles in place and should be able to create a mood that can keep the viewers hooked. He considers a piece of art successful if “a viewer observes it in a gallery and it stays in his mind for a long time.” It takes him 18 to 24 months to produce enough to be able to merit a solo exhibition. He pursues his every theme “like a dream project.” Padekar feels that Indians are yet to develop a taste for art. He his saddened by the fact that here, unlike the West, “whatever importance is given to it is solely for the sake of investment.” In the West, he says, “People appreciate and buy a work of art that they would derive pleasure from by looking at each day, signature is irrelevant.” The young painter believes that “being a full-time artist has more drawbacks than advantages in India.” He embarks on a dream with his every painting chasing beauty like a forever admirer, but he is yet to spot the mechanism that works behind making one painting more popular than the other.
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RELIGION
Cover Story
Lost faith By Sneha Ghosh
ONE OF THE fundamental aspects that has bound societies together since the birth of mankind is religion. It is that bridge that transformed individuals, enabling them to form communities, gave them a moral code apparently sanctioned by the divine powers to adhere to and the belief that walking on this path might lead them to that “supreme being,” or god. So how does one define this intrinsic idea that has defined lives of billions of souls on the planet for thousands of years? And with nonbelievers gathering in a pub in San Francisco to attend Sunday Assembly, labeled as the “atheist church” and “atheist movement” acquiring impetus in Britain, how relevant is this concept in the present age, particularly to the youth of the day? Indian society has always been a harmonious fusion of the different religions that have gradually become a part of it over the centuries. An elemental constituent of our culture, religion has always been highly revered by Indians, a fact that is reflected in our art, literature and music, and is inculcated in children from a very young age. Hinduism, the
most prominent religion in the country,
alone can boast of an endless number of deities and festivals that keep the priests and devotees occupied round the year. But there is a growing cloud of discord among people on what it means in the present day, which is gradually leading them to lose their faith in dogmas promoted by their respective religions.
One can only speculate whether it is due to the politicians exploiting religion to bolster their vote banks or the disgraceful acts of religious gurus like Asaram Bapu and Ravi Shankar splashed all over the front page that has led to the cord between the young generation and religion grow weaker by the day. But we cannot overlook the fact that the picture has changed vastly over the last couple of decades when people associated their faith with religion, unlike now when there is a consensus that their faith is independent of the religion that is dictated by their birth.
Are we irreligious? In a survey The Beat conducted
about what religion means to them, nine out of 10 young people in their 20s said they were “more spiritual than religious” and that religion, which was originally created to “induce fear in the hearts of people so that they lead a righteous life,” in the words of one interviewee, is now “ruled by clerics with doctrines convenient to them.” So how does the youth brigade, which is consumed by the cutthroat competition of their professional lives, find a meaning and purpose in life? “I am an agnostic, so a belief in god should ideally be proved to me,” said 24-year-old Anindya Pakhira, assistant executive engineer at Oil and Natural Gas Corporation. “Still, I call on some superior being to hopefully listen to me sometimes.” His opinion finds resonance in the words of Niloy Roy, 28, a physicist who works for Quantum Design. “I do not feel there is a god or that the religious leaders of the day are his agents,” he said. “Religion might be something people like to have their faith in, but personally, I am an agnostic.” Some of them expressed a far stronger conviction in karma and said they felt that doing something they love or that helped them unwind is how they connect their inner selves with that higher being.
February 2014 | The Beat
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Twenty-six-year-old Ritaprabha Ratul Ray, guitarist in an Indian-Bangla rock band Cactus, said: “I do believe in a higher power and have a lot of faith in karma. I’d like to believe that I’m more spiritual than religious. Religion to me is my music, it is what I do.” Others like Antara Sengupta, 24, a journalist in Hindustan Times, were skeptics. “I am not religious at all,” Sengupta said. “I can find out better ways of connecting to my faith. I ain’t spiritual either (but) I believe in karma.”
Is life meaningless without god? One of the strongest opinions that came across was a complete disregard for religious rituals. Most of them seemed to have outgrown the traditional customs that were a part of their childhood. “My god does not reside in a temple,” said Mrigank Mukesh, 24, business development manager at Fabdial Technologies. “As opposite to the notion I was brought up with, I have always felt that religion is something that is forced upon people. I sometimes choose to believe that there is superior power, but I do not believe in practicing religious rituals.” Aditya Singh, 24, a business analyst at Mu Sigma said: “Our generation has seen some of the darkest of crimes recently. Keeping that in mind, our religion should primarily be humanity. If we can accept homosexuals as humans, respect women and stand up for what is right, we will serve our respective gods far more than by performing pujas or forcing people to convert to our religion.”
Accommodating diversities The changed opinions that have formed a consensus among the young generation may not be what the conservatives and elders would approve of. They might even frown upon what they feel is an “imitation or influence of the Western culture” or think that “it is cool to be an atheist” in the words of my 66-year-old father. But disbelief in rituals focused on objects that have been deemed sacred by mythology or tradition may not necessarily mean that one cannot attain peace or harmony through meditation or prayer. Change being the only constant thing in life, the outlook towards religion and god also has undergone alteration over the ages. Each one of us has their own definition of god, a fragment of our psyche that we talk to, to give us hope in our darkest hours. And the path that we choose to connect with god should thus, also be our own.
Photo: Aman Agarwal
February 2014 | The Beat
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RELIGION
Controversy
Sex and t
Photo: Pratysh Pushkar
Swami Muktananda
A tale of good
By Sneha Bengani
A CHARGE SHEET released by a court in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, and given to the Press Trust of India on Jan. 16, states that guru Asaram Bapu indulged in unnatural sex with a girl from Surat along with six others.
Asaram Bapu
Bapu and his son Narayan Sai are currently in jail for sexually abusing several women devotees in their ashrams. And yet again a self-proclaimed godman makes it to the front page of newspapers. Grow hair on your head and face, dress up Swami Vivekananda style, claim you are an incarnation of a god, start preaching religion and you will instantly have it all—anarchic power, millions of followers, unscrupulous and unaccounted money and easily available sex.
Sri Jayendra Saraswati
India is a fertile land. Of the hundreds and thousands of things that grow in abundance here, the one specimen that has become notoriously famous in the recent past for making headlines time and again is the Indian godman. There is nothing new in their stories that repeatedly do the rounds of newsrooms. All of them reek of corruption, sex and violence while narrating the tale
February 2014 | The Beat
of a good guru gone bad. Amid all the banality, each time a new name surfaces which was hidden behind a well-guarded mask, mocking our foolishness, our faith, mocking you and mocking me. These charlatans have a vast repertoire of knowledge and practice of ancient texts, the Vedas, the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Kama Sutra. Here are a few who had masks on which of late were lifted.
Swami Muktananda In the 74 years he lived, the swami extensively preached religion and inner consciousness. It was only when his tyranny became unbearable for some of his ashram inmates and they opted out, that the guru’s true self was revealed in the public domain. He was accused of pretense, of putting on display everything that he was not. The alleged superhuman was as human as the rest of us and equally vulnerable to the lapses of flesh. He was infamous for repeatedly breaking his law of chastity and had a passage built from his room to the girl’s dormitory. He was also known for his ferocious temper, making enormous sums of money from his devotees’ labor, punish-
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the sadhu
Swami Nithyananda
gurus gone bad
ing them inhumanely, and for keeping arms and ammunition in his ashram.
Shiv Murat Dwivedi Also known as Swami Bhimanandji Maharaj and Swami Ichchadhari Sant, he was charged by the Delhi Police in March 2010 for running a sex racket that involved over 100 of his female devotees.
ing positions. The incarnation went absconding after his ashram was attacked by protesters post the sex scandal. He was arrested in April but soon got bailed as the act was apparently performed with mutual consent and there were no concrete evidences proving the authenticity of the sex tape.
Ramdas Shyamdas
Later the same year, the sex swami was charge-sheeted following the complaint of a devotee who accused him of repeated sexual abuse. He was known to persuade his victims to seek “moksha through sexual union.� He made his women sign a nondisclosure agreement that reportedly had some crazy clauses.
This sadhu made headlines on November 25, 2011, by the way he was killed in Gondal, Gujarat. He was beaten to death by an angry crowd when they accidentally caught him having sex with three women in the premises of a Hanuman Temple in Gondal, of which he was the caretaker.
Other than Asaram and his son, Swami Satchinanda, Premananda, Amritachaitanya and Sri Jayendra Saraswati are some other illustrious names that equally merit a mention in this star-studded list for the sheer hard work they have put in trying to transform faith into facade and with what brilliance!
Swami Nithyanada
What these men did was human. Their real crime are the string of blatant lies that they had carefully crafted around them over the years to convince people of their superhumanness.
The pimp guru allegedly had put his eggs in more than one basket. He had amassed his humongous wealth through running a string of businesses other than his religious hullaballoo.
The young sanyasi made eyeballs roll in 2010, when Sun TV released a video of him with a Tamil actress in compromis-
February 2014 | The Beat
Narayan Prem Sai
Swami Premananda 13
RELIGION
Controversy
My tryst with Nithyananda Dhyanapeetham By Sneha Bengani
WITH THE PLAN of profiling one of the most controversial Indian religious centers of the present times, I found myself outside the main gate of Nithyananda Dhyanapeetham, the headquarters of all activities of the controversial swami, Nithyanada Paramhamsa. Located 36 kilometers away from Bangalore city in the wilderness of Bidadi, the ashram is about 14 years old. Standing at the main gate, I ask the guards to let me in. They grill me with all sorts of questions. I tell them I am from Rajasthan, here on a holiday with my family Considering their history, I knew well how they would react had I told them I was a journalist. They ask where my family is and I tell them that they are at Wonderla as they do not like visiting religious centers as much as I do. The next question, how I got to know about the place. Seriously? You’ve got to read the papers guys! I tell them that it is a very renowned religious center. After grilling me for full 10 minutes, they finally decide to break the news: The main gate opens only for staff between 7 to 9 in the morning, and I can enter the premises only from the temple gate, which meant going all the way back to Bidadi. I could see the ashram building right in front of me. All they had to do was open that gate for a few seconds and let me in. I tried reasoning with them and they made me call Swami Adwaita, who after asking the same set of questions told me exactly what the guards had said. Furious, I reprimanded the blue-uniformed men for being such dumb-wits and stormed past. I walk for about two kilometers as the secluded ashram is poorly connected. Outside the temple gate, Kapil, the 27-yearold security guard asks me the same set of questions with a few more additions. After having had all the information, he
tells me that the place was shut for visitors that day, Jan. 14, due to some “problems” going on. In the brief conversation that ensues, he informs me that Swamiji was in Haridwar for one of those self-awakening seminars—it amazes me how people still believe in that conman!—and how it would have been great if I had come on Dec. 27, because it was his birthday that day and he was decorated with gold from head to toe, made to sit on a gold chariot which did rounds of the ashram. According to the web, the godman was born on either Jan. 1 or March 13. I wonder how many birthdays he celebrates! He also tells me that rose petals enveloped the entire ashram land and more than 4,000 people had come to see the magnificent spectacle. Inquisitive, I ask what one can possibly gift Swamiji, to which Kapil says: “Oh! He accepts anything. Almost anything one gives with a pure heart.” I don’t think he got the double entendre. I probe Kapil about the “problems” he had mentioned earlier. He smiles and says: “You will not be able to stay in here for long. I don’t want to waste your time.” I enter the deserted ashram and amble towards the temple on the right. I click a photograph of the deity and almost immediately hear the priest grunt. I keep my camera inside.
The gallery The ashram has a gallery titled “Life Bliss Galleria.” Its insides were dark and desolate, and I stumble upon a sea of objects meant for sale. “Life-changing” books, DVDs and CDs that have Swamiji talking, “energized jewelry and puja products,” and an array of other products were being sold at exorbitant prices. There was Sawmiji all around—in frames, larger than life posters, on book covers and as soft toys. Just when I was sure of being on my own, I discover two young
February 2014 | The Beat
men in orange and shaved heads, sitting in one corner. One of them approaches me and asks me what I had already been asked thrice before—who am I, where am I from and what am I doing here. Eventually, I learn that he is Amriteshwarananda and is 29 years old. He worked as a software engineer in Hyderabad before joining the ashram as a devotee sadhu and has been here for three years now. I ask him for the name he used before becoming a monk and he tells me that his past life is inconsequential now. He is in charge of the commercial website of the ashram. He almost convinces me to buy one of the books by Swamiji that would solve all my problems. I try hard to make him understand that I do not have any problems which he finds difficult to digest. I recall reading on the official website of the ashram that “each purchase from the gallery is ‘double seva’ (helpful) because it contributes to supporting the charitable activities undertaken. This young sadhu has joined the Dhyanapeetham because he connects with his master. He says it was not “a survival need” for him. As of the humongous profits that they earn from the gallery and website sales, “we will construct huge shiva temples all over the world from the funds we get, where people can come, meditate and experience our rich Hindu culture. We will also start free food services,” he says. He also tells me that there are 1,200 volunteers all over the world of whom around 200 stay in the Bidadi ashram, and all of them are dedicated towards one cause: “making people realize their dreams.”
The gurukul Ahead of the gallery, a number of young bald boys wrapped in orange cloth were playing behind a wired fence. I am
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tempted to click a photograph, which I do. But before I can successfully put that grenade back in my bag, a sadhu spots me, snatches the camera and makes me delete all the photographs that I had clicked all this while. Angry, I ask him if I can go talk to the children. “Restricted area,” he says. When asked about the affiliation of the gurukul, the sadhu feigns perplexity. The Central Board of Secondary Education or State Board? “State Board, State Board,” he says. According to the ashram’s website, the curriculum includes standard academics, “brain yoga” for balanced neurological growth, Vedic mathematics, ecological awareness and performing and graphic arts. The website says, “Creating Buddha + Bill Gates = Nithyanandas.”
only, ma. Sit,” she says sternly. I resist. Then the man in the driver’s seat, shouts, “Sit inside!”
In October, about 88 of 108 students of the gurukul were made to appear before Ramanagaram Child Welfare Committee after a complaint was registered that the ashram was violating human rights.
car.
The woman literally pushes me into the car and slams the door. The car had three men and one woman. The driver, a long man with long, grey-white hair, starts yelling at me as he starts the
“Enough of walking!” he says. “You told me that you would quickly take the blessings of the deity in five minutes and go away. You have no business spending so much time here!”
The students, according to a report, were from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, United States, Britain, Singapore and Australia.
I respond angrily, “This is a huge place. It takes time to see the whole thing. And I am a visitor. I will not come here again.” I realize that he is Swami Adwaita, who the guards at the main gate made me talk to at the beginning. He shouts back louder, “You were allowed only because you are a visitor. You just cannot...”
The dormitory
We reach the exit before he could complete the sentence. I storm out of the car towards the gate. He scolds the guard abusively for letting me in for such a long time. After his car leaves, the guard, Kapil, abuses him back, more derogatorily.
I go to the dormitory next to the gigantic Shiva lingam hoping to talk to some women inmates of the ashram. Just when I am about to enter, I hear someone shout out loud across the ground: “Hey you! What do you think you are doing?”
“He is all that is wrong with this place,” Kapil snaps.
The woman, a coordinator from the Welcome Center of the ashram, drills me again with the now all-too-familiar questions and tells me to sit in a car that stops just in front of us. I tell her politely that I intend to walk my way out. “It is going there
Back in the bus, a woman sitting next to me asks where I had been. I tell her Nithyananda Ashram. She looks at me surprised, and says: “Don’t you know that man is a cheat? It is not a good place. You should not have gone there.”
February 2014 | The Beat
Photo: Pallav Bhargava
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RELIGION
Art
A song and dance
By Tulana Nayak
THE SATANIC VERSES, Dhundi and Lajja. All of them have one thing in common: They were banned for “hurting religious sentiments.” Many other books have also joined this league and authors today have to think twice before mentioning religion in their fiction. It has been said that literature is a form of expressing one’s emotion through words. But what if you are stopped from expressing yourself because you hurt someone’s religious sentiments? This is the issue troubling all the authors today. The scenario today is so bad that before writing a book one has to keep in mind religious and community sentiments. Yogesh Master’s book Dhundi suffered because it contained a section in which he stated that Lord Ganesha was born following an illicit relationship his mother, Devi Parvati, had. No doubt it was controversial, as it hurt the sensitivity of some people. But then one has to understand why it’s called fiction. The ones opposing the book had their own reasons, saying that such a depiction is derogatory. But Yogesh said the controversy hasn’t discouraged him or changed his approach towards writing. “It has rather encouraged me to probe more and more into details of other religious matter with much more responsibility,” he told The Beat. “I always have realistic approach towards mythological fantasies, decoding myths and symbols. I will continue with the same. This opposition made me much stronger.” He has plans to write more about religion. His forthcoming novels will cover the demon Mahishasura; the mythological character Mahabali; Seeta, wife of Ram; Jesus and the Koran, among which the one on Seeta will be the first to be published.
A victim of intolerance Anuradha, an English professor of A.V.K College in Davangere, said some writers have been using religious concepts
in a lighter manner. “Anything written against Rama or Basavanna is deemed not acceptable,” Anuradha said. “Religion is a very sensitive issue in India. Nowadays Hindus have also become intolerant.” She said that commoners react without knowing about an issue. Citing the Kannada proverb “Whatever the others say, we follow,” Anuradha noted that very few people actually read controversial books. “To support or oppose something you should have read the text first,” she said. “My own teacher, Polanki Ramamurthy, wrote a book called Seethayana in which he said that the Sanskrit slokas (verses from religious scriptures) are completely misunderstood. His work was criticised by Hindus. The slokas say that there was something brewing between Sita and Laxman also. People who have not even read it get angry because they worship her, and she is a symbol of purity,” she added. She said that if literature takes up the topic of religion, people should be careful while writing and reading it. Today more and more writers are including myths and also rewriting epics. In India, especially in Karnataka, religion has a harmonious link with literature. All religious reformers including the Vachanakaras of the 12th century have been contributing to literature. Religion from the time of Vedas was very strict and dogma used to be written in Sanskrit. The common people couldn’t follow that. What the Brahmins tried to propagate was not understood by them as Sanskrit was difficult to follow. Later Vachanakara preachers wanted religion to be easier to understand. They had an enormous clarity in literature and philosophy and spirituality and religion are intermixed. India by nature is very fond of myths.
February 2014 | The Beat
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e about religion Vachana literature and philosophy became popular because of its simplicity of communication. Vachana is a promise to self that “what I say is what I do.” Through the simplicity of Kannada the preachers taught not only about god and religion, but it also spoke about social truth.
Fusion of music and religion Music has evolved over the time from classical to rock and fusion. From ancient times, music has been inspired from religion and was always something that accompanied prayers. Right from the usage of bhajan religious songs and carols religion has formed an integral part of music. But while giving it a new twist, singers and lyricists land in a trouble. “Student of the Year,” a movie that went on to become a blockbuster was also criticised because of a song which carried the lines describing Radha, a Hindu deity, “sexy” and created a legal controversy regarding the use of an “objectionable” term to describe Radha. A court issued an order to register a case against the filmmaker Karan Johar, singer Shreya Ghoshal, producer Gauri Khan, music directors Vishal Shekhar, singer Udit Narayan, lyricist Anvita Dutta and Sony Music Company.
ways been linked to religion mentioning Saint Thyagaraja’s devotional songs. Saint Thyagaraja was the greatest composers of Carnatic music which were generally about Lord Ram. Every year on Jan. 24, the Bahula Panchami, hundreds of singers join to sing the “Pancha Ratna Kirtana” or Five Gems. “So that way music was always connected to religion,” she said. In yet another case, Madhuri Dixit’s comeback movie Aaja Nachle’s title song was banned because it used words that was claimed to be derogatory to Dalits. A line of the song explains how even a mocha (cobbler) is calling himself a sonar (goldsmith). A fuss blew up and the line finally had to be changed. Vijay Bahadur, manager at Vijaya Bank, who is well versed in Hindustani music said: “Today most of the controversies surrounding songs are because of perceptions. The lyricist might not have thought about this but one listening to it may feel objectionable.” According to him as far as Hindustani music is considered, music itself is a religion for singers.
On behalf of the petitioners, Counsel Vikram Dubey said in an interview to the media that the petitioners had appealed to the court to drop the word from the song so appropriate action would be taken against the respondents.
‘Music is a religion for singers’ Vijayalakshmi Sharma, a Carnatic musician, said it’s good to blend cultures as it gives a song a new feel, “but something like this degrades our gods and goddesses. “I recently heard a fusion of Carnatic and Western music and loved it. But we shouldn’t dilute it to such an extent of making fun about religion.” She also said that Carnatic music has al-
February 2014 | The Beat
Photo: Pratyush Pushkar
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RELIGION
Art
Performing arts at logg By Aurosmita Acharya
“THIS IS INDIA! We have to operate within the borders of our religion!” Jayanti, an art connoisseur, is in no doubt that artists need to practice self-censorship. And more a dozen artists of the present generation who spoke to The Beat expressed similar caution regarding what they see as suitable subject matter for their work.
tialism, has time and again been targeted for projecting mythological characters in a “wrong” sense. He has been repeatedly cautioned against tampering with the source material which is basically taken from mythological stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata. While criticizing Karnad, scholars often quote Anandavardhana, the author of
In other words, they avoid taboo subjects. Censorship has been the talk of the town with various dance performances, plays and theaters being the subject of various bans on religious grounds.
Censorship of drama Drama tells stories through voice and gestures. Girish Karnad, a contemporary playwright, writer, screenwriter and actor whose plays take up the theme of existen-
Scholars have given derogatory comments on some of his works which have projected extreme violence and this goes against the societal norms. Bijoy Mishra, a renowned playwright said: “Any deviation from the routine is faced with severe criticism. But binding an artist within certain regulations is just unacceptable. We need the artistic freedom to explore and be innovative.”
Censorship of dance
The latest is a controversy surrounding the ban of a Kathakali performance. It was a ban on staging the Gurudevamahatmyam, the recital accompanied with visual presentation on Sri Narayana Guru, a saint from the Ezhava family. The performance was to be staged in the premises of a Rama Temple. The row was over the Ezhava lower-caste Brahmin community performing characters from Hindu epics. In India, religion is closely followed by the caste system, in which each caste occupies a particular rung on the social hierarchy and has rules to follow. In the above case, the Ezhavas themselves thought that other Hindus are of a lower caste. The controversy has hardly anything to do with the aesthetics of art.
troversial playwright. He is said to have galvanized the Indian theaters because of his provocative portrayal of socio-psychological issues of human life.
“Dance is the way of expression where the body, soul and the mind work in coordination,” said Sangeeta Dash, a highly reputed dancer. Kathak is one of those classical dance forms that evolved from grips of durbar or courts and reached the concert halls. But it still has not been able to enter the temple grounds on the pretext of religion.
Dhvanyaloka, a work that articulated aesthetics, suggest that emotions have been vividly described in works like Ramayana. It further said that anybody who takes liberty with mythological works is the greatest enemy of emotion. Girish Karnad’s Yayati was based on a play from Mahabharata. Scholars point out that the portrayal of the characters in Yayati is extremely skewed and distorted. Similarly Vijay Tendulkar had been a con-
February 2014 | The Beat
There have been classical dancers in India who have now and again commented negatively about dancers from other countries. The view that is outlined majorly is a lack of understanding of the intricacies of culture and religion. Dance in particular as such has not been dragged into any major controversy. But the religious and cross-border bias exists in a hidden way to a large extent. Renowned writer and critic Archana Nayak told The Beat, “It is definitely important on the part of the dancer to have an indepth knowledge of the dance form along with the religious practices prevalent. It helpsclarity. the dancer expressing the stories with
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gerheads with religion She added, “Any dancer from another country performing the classical dance would certainly lack the much needed aesthetic capability sought in our dance forms.” A documentary released in November called I Dance, voices the struggle of classical dance in Pakistan where public performances were banned. The story has been presented from the eyes of the famous kathak and Odissi classical dancer Sheema Kermani. The documentary was discussed widely among the Odissi fraternity as it received a grant from the Indian Foundation of Arts. It was directed by the filmmaker Sonya Fatah, now based in New Delhi. Sheema Kermani at a press meet in Bangalore said: “Women are ready, but men have fallen into the trap of religious fundamentalism. It suits them in certain ways to keep women suppressed, I guess.” According to Alarem Valli, an exponent of the Bharatnatyam dance form, “Indian culture has a distinct identity enlivened through temple traditions. The dance forms have also evolved and developed through these traditions. Bhakti or devotion is an integral part of these dance forms. But today there is a crude attempt to portray oneself as secular even in the performing arts.”
Censorship of movies Movies have always been under the purview of attack and censorship. The most recent attack being on the movie Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela. Even before the movie was released in Jalahandhar, a first information report was filed against it under Section 295 (a) of the Indian Penal Code, which covers any “deliberate and malicious attempt to hurt religious sentiments.” The complainant had made an allegation against the contents of the movie and stated it to be “highly objectionable” and “offendable towards religious sentiments” of Hindus.
Filmmakers have repeatedly complained against the panel members on the censor board. A committee was appointed to analyze the method of selection of panel members in accordance to the Cinematograph Act. The committee said in its report, “At certain locations, members of such advisory panel lack any form of cinematic understanding, they perceive their role to be that of a Censor Board to cut and chop scenes and in some cases being affiliated to some political, religious or social group, impose without restraint, such political, religious or personal opinions upon content permissible in a film.” Films like Aarakshan, inspired by castebased reservations; The Da Vinci Code, banned on the pretext of having an antiChristian message; Water, banned for portraying the life of widows of Varanasi city, have all faced the wrath of religion.
Curbing artistic freedom In India, freedom of speech and expression had been provided as a constitutional right under Article 19(1) (a) of the Constitution, but remains constrained by Article 19(2) which allows the government to place “reasonable restrictions” on our rights “in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, public order, decency or morality, or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.” This provides the government an effective armory to protect its stand and safeguard its interest. Mishra, the playwright said the restrictions imposed by the state and at times by the society definitely curbs the artistic freedom. He added that people need to open their minds for new ideas, concepts and thoughts.
February 2014 | The Beat
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RELIGION
Politics
Modi not on Mu By Suchitra Sharma
THE MUSLIM COMMUNITY in Bangalore doesn’t seem to be very happy with the fact that Narendra Modi is being spoken of as the prime minister tobe. “He can’t be” they say.
Sameer Abdullah, 38, a member of the Discover Islam Education Trust. “He should be banned from politics, he is against humanity.”
“Whoever becomes PM should do good work. According to Islam, we should forgive everyone. Allah will deal with him,” says Sayeed Rahi, referring to the Gujarat riots. “Democracy will survive even if he becomes the PM” says Kabir Khan, 25, who visits Bangalore regularly on work.
Worried Muslims who told The Beat they will never vote for Modi said that while Islam teaches them to forgive those who have sinned, he should never have power in his hands.
The Muslims in Bangalore, however, are happy that what they see as a ray of hope has entered Indian politics.
“We remember him as a butcher of the Muslim community,” says Bangalore resident Abu Hamza, referring to the Godhra riots, Modi was said to have allowed to happen. “He is known as the ‘father of saffron terrorism.’”
When the name Arvind Kejriwal was mentioned, big smiles lit up their faces. “Kejriwal seems to have potential,” Hamza said.
It is evident from such opinions that Modi has definitely not gone down well with Muslims. So what should he do to clear his tainted image?
Muslim women who spoke to The Beat seemed little interested in India’s political situation.
“I am a housewife so I don’t “He should at the least pay some know anything about Modi,” compensation to the families of was a common refrain. Some those Muslims who died in the denied even knowing who riots in Gujarat and also proModi is. mote education among the children,” says Munwar Khan, Narendra Modi, BJP prime ministerial candi- Others said their husbands 25, a resident of Bangalore. date knew about him because they “The least he can do is to reread the papers and watch spect other religions.” television, but that they did not know anything about him. Still oth“A person incapable of controlling ri- Yet there are those who seem to have ers said they had not voted in a long time ots in his state is incapable of being the given up on him and are ready to accept so they did not know anything about Inprime minister of this country” says what comes their way. dian politics.
“It is sad that Bharatiya Janata Party considers Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate,” -- Kabir Khan, 25
February 2014 | The Beat
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uslims’ wish list “He will not become the PM. It is just a waste of time to dream so big. If he is right, then Allah will be with him, but he is not right. I will vote for Kejriwal,” --Riyaz a 56-year-old autorickshaw driver who says that Bangalore is the safest city for Muslims in the country
“As of now, we would feel very unsafe in Gujarat. Muslims would never want to stay in Gujarat,”
-- Munwar Khan, 25, student
“The citizens of this country are not with him. We are not afraid of him becoming the PM. We want him to work for the good of all and treat everybody equally. I will vote for AAP.” -- Sultan Ahmed, 46, a teacher
“The BJP has been ruling here since many years and we don’t have a problem with them. I have heard that Modi has tortured the Muslims a lot so I will not vote for him. Rahul is a good candidate for Prime Ministership.” --Salma, mother of a 3-year-old girl
Photo: Prayush Pushkar
February 2014 | The Beat
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RELIGION
Faith
Superstitions flourish in 21st-century India By Nibedita Mohanta
EVERY INDIVIDUAL IN India has the right to worship any deity they believe in, or none, and the right to follow any religion they belong to, or not, as the case may be. But this right is reserved until one is affecting others’ lives or forcing people to follow one’s own ideology. According to drafts, The Karnataka Prevention of Superstitious Practices Bill, 2013 stipulates the death penalty for practicing black magic by sacrificing human lives. The bill also would criminalize the propagation or promotion of such practices in any manner. Thirteen rituals were identified—ones that could land someone in jail if found practicing them—after the superstitious practices bill was passed. There are a number of superstitious rituals being followed in both urban and rural areas of Karnataka, such as walking on charcoal to get cured from a serious disease, throwing children from the top of a temple to make them stronger and Dalits (members of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes) eating leftover food eaten by Brahmins to make them pure. The anti-superstition movement was actually initiated in 1989 by the rationalist Narendra Dhobalkar of Maharashtra. But after his murder in August, the Maharashtra government finally passed the bill in December. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddharamaiah’s government planned to table the bill in the state assembly winter session, against strong opposition from the Bharatiya Janata Party and other Hindu groups. The opposition claims that if the bill is passed, it will hurt the sentiments of the Hindus and would prevent people from practicing religious rituals under the name of superstition. To date, there have been no cases reg-
istered and nobody has been punished for practicing any superstitious custom or black magic, but people do agree that such things exist and those who perform are fearless as there is no proper law to eradicate such practices from the society.
Paranormal powers Two years ago in Devdurga, a remote village in the Raichur district of Karnataka State, a woman was accused of practicing witchcraft, C. Geevan Babu, the subinspector of Ramanagara Police Station, told The Beat. A young child’s parents blamed her for attempting to kill him in order to gain the supernatural powers of a witch. The woman claimed that by sacrificing five children she would be able to acquire paranormal powers. “People do believe and know about these things, but they do not complain or confront such people out of fear that the devil in them might harm them instead,” Babu said. The many astrologers who can be found sitting on the pavements of Shivajinagar claim that they can predict one’s future. And if their pockets are well satiated, can even prevent unfortunate incidents from occurring to their customers, they say. Moreover, the parrots they keep in small cages pick up cards that foretell one’s future, if one is gullible enough to believe that. Religion, which is a thriving business these days, is also served every morning before the news bulletin where several saffron-clad sadhus foresee how one’s day will be based on their birthday and zodiac signs. They advise people what color to wear and what not to do. The surprising thing is that some god-fearing people do follow what these conmen say, whether out of fear or faith.
February 2014 | The Beat
‘Magical’ stones Astrological stones are said to possess the magical ability to solve any problem the bearer might have, from a terminal disease to a property dispute. They are prescribed by jewelers or priests who say the stones can and will change the path of the stars and make the lives of their clients peaceful and blissful. They also prescribe adding an extra letter to one’s name or even changing it to something else to conjure up fame, success and wealth. Such “magic stones,” which often come at an exorbitant price, give confidence to people who look for their abilities in the lines of their palms instead of their own selves. A common tradition in Hindu marriages of matching the horoscopes of the bride and the groom is also disguised in a veil of superstition. Multiple criminal cases are on file in police stations that prove that even if astrologers match “40 out of 36 characters” indicating the compatibility of a particular couple contemplating marriage, they may not live happily ever after. Sujatha R., 28, a domestic violence victim from Chennapatna, Karnataka, has firsthand experience of the fallibility of horoscopes. “I married Sushil. R, two years ago and my parents had arranged my marriage in proper traditions and rituals,” she told The Beat. “Soon after a month of my marriage, my in-laws started harassing me mentally and physically seeking more money from my parents. I was forced by their behavior to register a case against them. “Now I live with my own parents and my 1½-year-old daughter. Our horoscopes were also matched before our wedding, but fate had other plans for me.” Whether it is astrology, black magic or shiny stones, nothing can make a mere mortal acquire superpowers.
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Minorities
RELIGION
Is Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation a ghost? By Shivpriya Jodha
THE TORTOISE OF religious minorities could beat the Hindu hare and win the race, with the help of the Karnataka Minorities Development—if only this government initiative was well publicised. Is the Karnataka government really helping the minority communities to have a fair shot at the race of life by giving them the same starting point as the other communities have? In this southern state there are six minority communities: Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains and Buddhists. A government initiative, Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation Limited (KMDC) was established in 1986 for the upliftment of religious minorities. This organisation has nine schemes that can help the government in achieving its goals— that is if these schemes ere well advertised, so people were aware of them and actually benefit from them.
Jains and Christians are the largest of the minority communities in Bangalore. Oatmalji Mehta, a Jain worker at a metal corporation, told The Beat as he walked in a hurry to work that he had not heard about Karnataka Minorities Development Corporation. He said he did not know anything about the schemes it offers. This begs the question that if the government is indeed investing funds to benefit people then a little more should be spent in publicizing their initiative so the concerned communities are aware of it. Sunil Jain, an engineering student who was groaning under the weight of heavy bag on his shoulders, spoke to The Beat on his way to a temple. With his exams approaching, he felt the dire need of paying a visit to god. “I am a student and if I was aware of the educational loan scheme under the KMDC then would have applied for it as my
family has given up a lot to finance my education,” he said. These schemes in question include loans for education, housing and businesses. According to Mohammed Saleem, managing director of KMDC, the corporation waived loans of Rs.3.63 billion lent to the beneficiaries of these religious minorities in 2013. How does a government like Karnataka waive such a huge amount of money lent to the beneficiaries, when it most important official body, the Bruhat Bangalore Mangalore Palike has accumulated a debt of Rs.30 billion and its contractors’ pending bills are another Rs.16 billion? Shouldn’t the government focus on strengthening its foundation, the BBMP, instead of writing off a huge sum of money? “If there is an organ of the government called Karnataka Minorities Development, then this is the first time I have heard of
it,” said Vivek Varghese, a Christian bakery owner. Anne Jojo, a lanky Christian woman with eyes darker than her hair, in her early 30s, is equally unaware of the Karnataka Minority Development Corporation. She was born and brought up in Bangalore but said she had never heard of KMDC. The claim made by the managing director of KMDC, Mohammed Saleem, that his corporation “create(s) awareness through advertisements in leading newspapers and with the help of NGOs” does seem insufficient as most people belonging to the minority groups have no clue of its existence and schemes. He did tell The Beat that Muslims and Christian are two communities who take most of the benefit from these schemes, unlike Jains, Parsis and Sikhs. What the government is trying to do with this initiative is good, but it would be better if it the help provided actually reached the people.
Photo: Piyush Puty
February 2014 | The Beat
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RELIGION
Minorities
Meet the new min MOST SMALL RELIGIOUS groups in India would be glad to be given official “minority” status, but the head of the Jains in Bangalore sees it as a doubleedge sword. By Sneha Bengani
‘Woohoo! I am a minority now! New York-based Gaurav Lunia posted on his Facebook wall: “Woohoo! I
am a minority now. Seems like a good thing. I can (now) get more reservations, jobs, and education. Aaah, (I feel) so lucky to be underprivileged and so shameful that the richest community/religion in India had to resort to this!” Rohan Mehta, a final year law student at NIRMA University in Ahmadabad, is skeptical about the entire episode.
The central government on Jan. 20 declared Jains a religious minority, making them the sixth in the country to have been accorded such a status after Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists and Parsis.
“Ninety-four percent of Jains are literate and therefore do not need to reserve any institutions for themselves. They form about one per cent of the country’s total population, but pay around 24 percent of the total tax.”
“It is a way employed by the Congress to segregate the country,” says Deepak Gouthi, the president of Terapanth Yuvak Parishad, Bangalore, a Jain congregation active throughout the country. “Our community has always given to others. We do not need any reservation. It is insulting to be dragged into what we always have strongly opposed.” Several Indian states had already given the community minority status in the past. Now with the Center approving it, it gets validated across India. This religious group will now be entitled to schemes exclusively made available to the minorities in the country by the Ministry of Minority Affairs.
He questions the relevance of this new status and says the benefits that accrue from it are “unnecessary.” “I am 200 percent satisfied with what the government has done,” chuckles a happy 57-year-old member of the Jain congregation in the city. Pawan Jain believes that this would help his group improve their qualification levels. “We are rich but not appropriately educated,” he says. Remembering the time when he was new to the city 15 years ago, he says, “I had to ask people for money, I had nothing. No one offered support. Had I been educated, I would not have gone through those hard times.” He laments the fact that most of his people are businessmen who do not understand the value of education.
This move by the UPA government just before general elections has attracted varied reactions from the people it affects. According to Praditi Jain, a 21-yearold post-graduate student in Delhi, “the only benefit we will have is that the government will not be able to interfere in our daily function of running trusts and temples.”
“Education is the real capital,” he says. He strongly believes that the community can benefit tremendously from being a minority. Aditya Jain, a 26-year-old jewelry designer from Kolkata, is ambivalent.
She fears being seen as the “privileged one” by the general public as is usually the case with people belonging to minorities.
February 2014 | The Beat
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nority on the block Photos: Smriti Bengani
“I do not think of it as a political move. Some Jains have been trying to get the minority certificate for a long time now,” he says. “But one cannot say if it has been done to accentuate the party funding before elections.”
She believes that her sect can very well fend for itself without any external support and therefore for her “it would have been just fine even if we didn’t have this status. This step just seems like a way to grab some votes.”
tion,” he says. But he fears that the community might get alienated from the mainstream as it has happened with other religious communities who had been declared minorities before.
‘It’s just a way to grab votes’
According to Sanjay Bapna, the former secretary of All India Congress Association, Jains being the new minority can be both good and bad for this small religious community.
“Others might not treat us at par with them,” he says.
Amrit Sethia, a young entrepreneur from Ginza Industries Ltd. does not think that he could ever be relegated to being a minority. “We own a major share in the economy of our country. So this step taken by the government is hardly of any consequence,” he says.
Among the positives, he sites the usual benefits of being able to propagate and teach religious philosophies in schools where Jain children will enjoy 50 percent reservation.
A student of St. Xavier’s College Kolkata, Nishi Dugar feels that it will take a while for the community to build the intended educational institutions by when she would be done with her studies.
“It has become their right to preserve and preach their religion which no one can violate. It will be difficult to grab a land which is being used for religious purposes, Jain sadhus will have better protec-
February 2014 | The Beat
He also cleared one common myth that religious minorities are entitled to job reservations. “No, they are not. It is for caste-based minorities,” he says. On asking if this move is made keeping the upcoming general elections in mind, he reasons: “What is the harm even if it is? A step taken keeping the benefit of the country in mind is bound to benefit some people more than others.”
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RELIGION
Minorities
Parsis face a stark cho By Vaishnavi J. Desai
MAHATMA GANDHI’s FAMOUS quote, “In numbers Parsi are beneath contempt, but in contribution beyond compare,” evokes the vibrancy of one of the world’s oldest religions. Parsis, a community of the Zoroastrianism religion, are proud of their glorious history and tradition. The only glitch in the fairytale is that they don’t have the luxury of numbers. Bangalore has a close-knit Parsi community of about 800 people. Standing tall in tranquility at a busy junction in the heart of the city is the Parsi Temple. Bangalore is also the home to the last Tower of Silence ever built. The tower was consecrated in 1940. Though the major concentration of the community is in the commercial capital of the country, Mumbai, the community is also thinly spread across the rest of the states.
much to learn that an entire lifetime is insufficient to understand the loftiness of these universal truths.” According to Farhana (name changed), who has been living in the city for 20 years now, good thoughts, deeds and straightforwardness are the characteristic traits of a Parsi. She said: “People regard us with reverence wherever we go in the world. They are very happy to meet us.”
ethnicity. The reasons for the dwindling numbers in the community, according to Unvalla, are several. One of them is late marriages, which is a phenomenon seen today in most urban families. Strict laws against intercaste marriages are another reason. The death rate being greater than the birth rate is also a rising cause of concern.
Parsis take pride in being well educated and a lively community. They were ushered into modernization much before everyone else even grasped the concept. The community has always stood out with their achievements. They emigrated from Iran and found solace in India. Similarities can be found between Zoroastrianism and Vedic Hinduism. Yezdi Unvalla, a trustee of Bangalore Parsee Zoroastrian Anjuman, and his brother Adil Unvalla, said, “Zoroastrianism has a lot of similarities with Vedic Hinduism, in that all things are creations by the almighty. In Zoroastrianism, the four elements—fire, earth, air and water—are respected as creations of the almighty, and revered as such, with emphasis on the fact that pollution of any of his creations is an insult to him.” They believe that god is energy personified. Unvalla said: “Cremation in our community is not permitted as we believe that it contaminates fire and the atmosphere.” Danesh Balsara, assistant import executive, said: “The best thing about being a Parsi is that you belong to and are initiated into a world of such ancient knowledge and wisdom which are older than most religions and have influenced them at various levels. Unfortunately, most of these sacred scriptures are lost in the sands of time. Yet, there is so
Strict laws One of the major problems with the community is their dwindling number, a fact pointed out by President Pranab Mukherjee in a speech he gave at the World Zoroastrian Congress in December, pointing out that Zoroastrianism now has fewer than 140,000 followers across the world, and one-third of that number is aged above 60. The issue of survival is a pressing one for the community. Intercommunity marriages, meanwhile are forbidden in the name of maintaining their
February 2014 | The Beat
Danesh Balsara feels that the falling gene pool and decisions to not marry are rampant in the community and the only solution is “to open doors to those of other faiths.” Malcom, another professional from Mumbai, feels that a Parsi should marry at the right age and have two children. He is also of the opinion that intercaste marriages should be prevented. Farhana, a homemaker, said infertility is another cause behind the falling Parsi numbers. The tendency of young Parsis to migrate
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oice: Procreate or die abroad could also be a contributing factor. If a Parsi woman marries out of the religion, her children cannot be entered into Zoroastrianism. The same law applied for men, but there came a legal intervention that ruled that a child of a Parsi man by his marriage outside the community can be a Zoroastrian.
Religious connect difficult in city
periority, and hence has managed to survive in peace and harmony with all.” Kizia, a final-year student, feels the need to connect more religiously than socially to experience the essence of Zoroastrianism. The Parsi youth in Bangalore is proud. As the major concentration of the Parsi population is in Mumbai, she feels she misses the fun and humor in Bangalore.
heard by the public. “The government has failed to take any steps in this regard,” he said.
Youth sense a revival The youth of the community are at crossroads. While they have embraced the technology to revive their status and numbers, they stand rooted to their traditions. When asked about the “in thing” with present generation of Parsi youth, Danesh said: “On a positive front, youngsters are taking matters pertaining to the study of religion with renewed zest and interest.” On the other hand, he pointed out that modernization is leading them away from certain rituals and customs, which are the cornerstones of any religion. Another problem faced by the community is the shortage of priests due to the unwillingness of people to take up this difficult profession. “But the awareness and connection towards the religion has increased amongst the youth,” Unvalla said. Kizia looks forward to social media for the revival of the community. “Social media plays a huge role,” she said. “I get to meet a lot of people from the community there; it helps me keep in touch. As a young person if I don’t make an effort, then there is all the possibility that we will lose connection with our roots in future.”
The city is home to about 100 Parsi families. The need for a Tower of Silence was felt as the numbers swelled in the early 1930s. Bangalore is an orthodox anjuman (community), and follows the rules and stipulations as decided by the Bombay Parsi Panchayat, which is a larger representative body of the community. Speaking about the acceptance of Parsis in the city, Unvalla said: “The community has never tried to convert, never spread any word promoting their religion, nor claimed any su-
She said: “The vibrancy of my culture is not the same in Bangalore as is in Mumbai. I feel the need to attach myself more. Had I been in Mumbai, may be there wouldn’t have been so much effort involved.” At the junction of Cunningham Road is the Parsi Temple. Unvalla, however, feels that the government has been indifferent to their community. Innumerable requests to prevent disfiguration of the temple walls with commercial as well as political posters, urination and other similar nuisances, have gone un-
February 2014 | The Beat
The community feels that a Parsi is a byword for largesse, charity and integrity. As Farhana put it, a Parsi always comes across as a lively and humorous person. In President Mukherjee’s speech at the World Zoroastrian Congress, he pointed out that the community has contributed a great deal in every field, from art, defense to industry and science and technology. “Successive generations of Zoroastrians have sweetened our society,” Mukherjee said. Long may they continue to do so.
Photo: V. Ganeshan
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RELIGION
Minorities
Buddhists in Bangalo By Bhavika Bhuwalka
EVEN THOUGH HIS Holiness Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, said during his recent visit to Bangalore, “We believe in educating, not converting”, the monks in the city, who are the clear Buddhist minority, choose to differ. According to Ashwaghosh, a trainer in the Namdroling Monastery, converting might not be the aim but the thinning Buddhist population is definitely a reason to worry. He said, “We respect non-believers. Now we are focussing on developing the right attitude of whatever handful of the students that we have.” For whatever number of Buddhists there are, the city has a few religious institutions to offer. These organisations focus on teaching and preaching the life and principles of Lord Buddha and try to shape young minds towards a better and peaceful lifestyle. It is their small efforts– backed by big names – which helps in keeping the original essence of Buddhism alive in a cosmopolitan city like Bangalore. The Choe Khor Sum Ling Centre in Domlur, set up by Dalai Lama himself, is a Tibetan monastery where enlightenment following the Buddhist paths is provided. Geshe Lakhdu, a resident monk, said, “Children learn the fastest. We cannot bring back the people who have imbibed other forms of spirituality, if any, but we can surely ensure new seedlings are grown and nurtured.” Maha Bodhi Society is probably the first thing that comes to the mind when someone mentions Buddhism. A centreplace for pilgrimage and meditation, it replicates the main shrine of Bodh Gaya. Education here has blended logic with dharma and spirituality. Ahimsaya, their monthly magazine, elaborates why Buddhism needs to preached widely, especially in nonBuddhist countries. Lhamu, a resident of Gandhinagar, has both her children enrolled in the monastery. “We have no choice. Initially we went to regular schools, but they didn’t suit them. I feared they might be out casted.”
Photo: Smriti Bengani
Acharya Buddharakkhita, 91, founder of Maha Bodhi Society, passed away recently at the society’s headquarters in Gandhinagar. He started schools, hostels, hospitals and an artificial limb centre. Dr. D S Shankar of the Mahabodhi Mallige Hospital
February 2014 | The Beat
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ore—few but devout said, “We are grateful that His Holiness could turn some of his dreams into reality which is now serving the common man daily.” According to the South Indian Buddhist Association of Madras, there are presently 75,000 Buddhists in Karnataka including the Tibetans. Practised by a relatively small percentage of the total population, the students are also, content. According to Chosui, a student of the tenth standard at Namdroling Monastery, the society goes up to give a diploma right from primary school education. Study programmes are constructed in an informal and cost effective way. Buddhist studies are continuously evaluated through practical sessions and project works. For a fee of Rs. 120 to 500 annually, knowledge is imparted both in English and Kannada. A Buddhist devotee, P K Dewan , who has devoted his life to the service of the society, said, “Six people were injured in 10 blasts in Mahabodhi temple in Bodhgaya recently. This is the kind of unnecessary violence Buddhism teaches against. It is aimed at global peace and harmony.” Buddhism has been an important part of Karnataka. Aihole, a village in the Bijapur district of north Karnataka resides about 120 temples in its heart. Amongst the varied temple architectures stands one of the four Buddhist shrines in Karnataka. The three-storey structure has a 61cm tall Buddha statue in a preaching posture, alongside are his followers. The priest, venerable Bhikku Sangadatta, said, “People come here regardless of the difficult path that carries them to the village. Ideally, Siddartha should not be over hyped because Bodhisattvas do not believe in idol worship.” Buddhists from Nepal, Tibet, Mongolia and China come to study and attend the various workshops offered by the monasteries. The other three Tibetan settlements of Karnataka are at Bailkuppe (near Mysore), Cauvery Valley, and at Kollegal. Dalai Lama visited The Bishop Cotton School and The Christ College in Bangalore as a part of his five-state visit in India. He delivered lectures on “Bounds of Ethics in a Globalized World”. The Buddhist community in Bangalore, which is a very thin number, scrambled to attend his teachings. Harish, an MBA student, Christ College, said, “It was something new for us. I had only heard of his ideas of peace, got to see him in person now.”
February 2014 | The Beat
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RELIGION
Rituals
Sale, slaughter of cattle a thriving— and illegal—business in Karnataka By Nibedita Mohanta
THE CONCEPT OF sacrifice animals to propitiate or appease one’s god has a long history. But believers would argue that god is the one who gave life, and every creature has the right to live. God, it can safely be said, has never asked for any sacrifice or offerings whether they be things or lives. If there is anything to sacrifice then it should be one’s personal willingness to submit one’s ego and individual will to whomsoever one prays to.
Chennapatna, a small village in Ramanagara District in Western Bangalore Rural, as been famous for its wooden toys since time immemorial. As well as making toys, people there also sell, purchase and slaughter cows. People there eat beef regularly.
But in Chennapatna, people seem to have no fear for the punishments or for hurting the religious sentiments of the fellow Hindus in that area. Salim, a villager, told The Beat, “The purchasing and selling of cows, bulls and other cattle is carried in large numbers inside the forests, where nobody interferes. And slaughtering is done on daily basis because Muslims in this area demand it. The police have never intervened.”
The movement in India against killing of cows for food started soon after British rule ended in this country. The Arya Samaj movement led by Swami Dayanada Sarawsati started preaching and lecturing around the country strongly opposing the killing of cows as being against Hinduism. Muslims started rebelling against the movement and riots broke out throughout northern India.
“Cow meat is banned for export, but people find ways to export it,” an animal rights activist who asked not to be named said. “We are looking and trying to find such people, but haven’t come across any yet. Even policemen do not interfere because they get their share.”
Muslims generally sacrifice cows in Eid al-Adha. Though they can sacrifice goats, cows that have stopped giving milk are cheaper and thus Muslims saw sacrificing cows as their right and decided they would not capitulate on this custom. It might comes as a surprise to learn that in India, where Hindus make up the majority of the population, the sale, purchase and slaughtering of cattle is on rise. Hindus treat cows as sacred animals. For them, the bull is considered as the steed of Lord Shiva and cow milk is used in every food product meant for offering the divinity. Cow dung is used for purifying places of worship before performing rituals. But the same country could soon be the world’s biggest exporter of beef, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture.
is the sale, purchase or disposal of cow or calf for slaughter. Violators of the law may be imprisoned for up to six months and be fined up to Rs.1,000.
Blindfolded law enforcers The Karnataka Prevention of Cow Slaughter and Cattle Preservation Act, 1964, says that the slaughter of cow, calf of a cow or calf of a she-buffalo is totally prohibited and slaughter of bulls, bullocks and adult buffaloes permitted on ‘fitfor-slaughter’ certificate provided cattle is over 12 years of age or is permanently incapacitated for breeding, draught or milk due to injury, deformity or any other cause. Transport for slaughter to a place outside a state is not permitted, neither
February 2014 | The Beat
“People in some traditional occasions kill hens and goats near the deity to fulfilling their wishes and sometimes to bribe him,” said G. Praveen Babu, the subinspector of Ramanagara City Police Station. “But they follow some rules and try not to skip out from the fist of laws. Like animal sacrifice is banned in any religious area, so they sacrifice it around the religious territory and offer their prayers from there.” Due to a number of factors like corruption and unawareness, people have taken the laws against cattle slaughter for granted and the law-enforcing authorities are not actually doing anything taking a cut of the profit.
Photo: Pallav Bhargava
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TECHNOLOGY
From tiny acorns…
Bangalore is set to become the most technologically advanced city in the nation. It is daring to embrace nanotechnology, the complex science invloving tiny particles that can potentially make huge differences.
Shoes coated in nano particles (left), nano drones by Amazon enabling easy home delivery (right) By Bhavika Bhuwalka
KARNATAKA’S RECENTLY ANNOUNCED decision to build a nanotechnology complex shows that the state is gambling heavily on the wonder technology.
From nano medicine, which helps in detecting cancer cells and bugbots (a camera device which can go inside the human body to detect problems) to nano drones, nanotechnology will hugely impact the retail and the transportation sector.
According to the Nano Mission of the state government, a nanotechnology park, complete with an Institute of Nanoscience and an incubation center will be built on Tumkur Road on the outskirts of Bangalore. The park, for which 14 acres of land is allocated, will cost a whopping Rs.1 billion ($16 million).
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the opening of the nanotechnology complex will be a good opportunity for young entrepreneurs to set up businesses and help solve problems such as food security, energy, water purification, medicine and waste management.
Nano is a scientific measure of a molecule, which is 50,000 times smaller than a strand of human hair.
“The ultimate aim is to help the common man,” he said.
automobiles. According to Prof. S.B. Krupanidhi, Nano Applications and Technology Advisory Goup, IISc, nano can come in handy in all spheres of life. Nanoparticles can be coated on any type of material. Things like nano gloves and shoes don’t get affected by water, mud or oil and remain unstained and intact. This can be immensely useful for an Indian farmer. He also said that students of biotechnology from all the leading colleges will be briefed about nanotech’s progress in India and how it can be used to benefit the poor so that the park sees early success.
The global nano market is expected to increase from 11.7 billion in 2009 to 1.1 trillion in 2015. So far, China is the largest investor in nanotechnology in the world.
The Indian Institute of Science and Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, two of the top national institutes that contribute to nanotech research through their dedicated nanotech departments, are both in Bangalore.
At the inauguration ceremony of the 6th Bangalore India Nano which was held in the Lalit Ashok Hotel a few months back, National Research Professor and Bharat Ratna awardee C.N. R. Rao, emphasized the need for nanotech and how Bangalore is already on its way to achieving it.
In a nano future, one can imagine newspapers embedded with audios and videos and phones having flexible screens.
JNCASR is currently working on producing hydrogen from nanoparticles that will potentially turn into a source of energy for
“Karnataka is the science capital of India and India ranks third in this field,” he said.
February 2014 | The Beat
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OFFBEAT
Quirky Indian wedding rituals you probably don’t know about
The big, fat Indian wedding, which is often celebrated for more than a day across different communities, has a number of unconventional rituals. Photo: Pratyush Pushkar
By Sneha Ghosh
ONE OF THE elaborate social celebrations that all cultures have in common across continents is marriage. A celebration of love, bonding with new relations, amidst friends and family, it is a joyous occasion filled with laughter, gaiety, fervor and fun for the bride and groom who embark on a new journey, together. But every culture has their own particular nuances of customs and traditions that they have inherited from their ancestors. While some of them are quirky, uncanny or funny, some can be downright bizarre. In China, the bride-to-be practices crying
for a whole hour every day for a month before the wedding and is gradually joined by different female members in her family, whereas in Kenya the father of the bride often blesses his daughter by spitting on her head and torso before she leaves for her new home. The big fat Indian wedding also has some wacky rituals to its credit. One of the most extravagant matrimonial ceremonies in the world, Indian weddings are as much about the two families as they are about the bride and the groom. And the large diversity we boast of, gives us a wide variety of rituals that are practiced in the different Indian communities across the 28 states.
February 2014 | The Beat
Indian weddings are usually quite entertaining with fun filled rituals like stealing and hiding of the groom’s shoes by the brothers and sisters of the bride, which upon returning wins them some prize from the groom or a competition between the bride and groom post the ceremony to find out rings immersed in milk and flower petals from a big bowl amid all family members. Here is a list of some unconventional customs practiced in Indian marriages across different communities, according to members of those communities who spoke to The Beat.
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Marathi: “One of the wedding rituals involve the bride and the groom sitting opposite each other. The priest chants a mantra while the two of them are tied together with a thread and remain like that until he finishes the hymn. The custom symbolizes the two of them getting closer to each other.” - Aparna Mejari, 47
Gujrati: “When the groom arrives at the bride’s house with the baraat (his friends and family), his mother-in-law to be while welcoming them pulls his nose after he gets off the horse. The groom tries his best to escape her clutches, but if she is successful in her attempt then the groom has to bow down to her forever. The custom that is aimed at lightening the atmosphere is often filled with joy and laughter.” - Devavrat Oza, 23
Sindhi: “One of the rituals we have involves tearing of the groom’s clothes a night before the wedding. All the family members take part in this fun ritual where they rip to pieces some old clothes the groom is dressed in. Later the pieces are collected carefully and sailed off in a river as they are considered to be pure. It signifies him embarking on a new journey in his life.” - Anjali Ramnani, 47
Bengali: “The first night of the wedding, Shubhratri, that is much awaited and considered auspicious by every other community is considered unlucky in the Bengali marriage. It is known as Kalratri. The bride and the groom stay away from each other on this particular night and are discouraged to even look at each other after the sun sets. There is not any particular reason behind this ritual.” - Ankita Mitra, 25
Kannada: “Before the wedding ceremony actually begins there is a ritual that involves the groom who is sitting in the mandap (wedding platform) to get up and pretend as if he is walking out of the wedding. The bride’s father has to then convince him not to leave and marry his daughter which he is then obliged to do. The groom is then given customary objects like umbrella or a pair of slippers to make him feel at home and ensure that he does not leave. This is followed by the mother-in-law-to-be pouring water on his feet while the bride’s father cleans them and the bride’s brother helps him wear the slippers, all of which are a part of the tradition.” - Paschim Prasad, 21
Bihari: “After the groom arrives at the bride’s house, the bride’s family engages him in a funny ritual. The bride is accompanied by any one of her cousins and a cloth covers their head hiding the duo from the groom. The groom has to correctly identify his bride-to-be, and if he succeeds it is believed that they will have a happy marriage together.” - Yuthica Sinha, 26
Marwari: “After the bride reaches the groom’s house the next day, post the marriage ceremony, she participates in a duel with her brother-in-law. Each of them is given a twig of a neem tree and they fight, hitting each other with the twigs. The bride who is newlywed often gets hit more as she is shy to hit her brother-in-law back although she is egged on to do so by the rest of the family. The ritual symbolizes the love-hate relationship shared by the dewar (brother-in-law) and bhabi (sister-in-law).” - Sachin Bhuwalka, 42
February 2014 | The Beat
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BUSINESS
‘In India, a woman is first married to gold, then to a man’ The fall of the rupee and the subsequent increase in gold prices has had a huge effect on marriage ceremonies. Bangalore brides, grooms and their families tell us exactly how.
Photo: Joi Ito By Bhavika Bhuwalka
ding shopping very basic.
FOR REKHA AGARWAL, buying jewelry for her 23-year-old daughter Akshita’s marriage was nothing less than a herculean task.
“We only bought gold for the wedding day and one chain for my husband,” she told The Beat. “All this combined with the making cost totalled to huge amounts of money. It was 30 percent of the total wedding cost.”
For the 48-year-old resident of Basavanagudi, her apprehensions regarding the total wedding expenditure were at an alltime high. “We are not a very affluent family,” said Agrawal, who spent Rs.400,000 just on wedding jewelry. “We were able to cut corners in everything other sections but in gold, it was just impossible.” Her daughter, Akshita, who got married last month, added that they kept the wed-
Gold imports account for 11 percent of India’s trade bill. In other words, the madness of Indians for gold is unparalleled. Being the biggest market for it, India imports 100 percent of its gold requirements. This directly affects the matrimonial alliances in India, more so in the festive season. The middle class mainly has to bear the sharp brunt of these soaring prices. Subhash, whose total budget for his daugh-
February 2014 | The Beat
ter’s wedding was Rs.1.5 million, said: “The worst thing was that it was Diwali at that time. Festive season automatically calls for more expenditure, more so when you are trying to build new relations.” “I faced major problems during Simi’s marriage,” he told The Beat. “On an average it is Rs. 1,000 per plate on the wedding day. I couldn’t even afford that and bargained heavily. I am thankful that our son-in-law is a genuine person and we sailed through everything.” But it seems that gold prices affect relations, regardless of people’s social standing. Shilpa Saboo, a resident of BTM Layout, lives in an apartment facing Madivala Lake.
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“Even though we could afford it, the wedding costs turned out to be really overwhelming,” she said. “My mother gave me silver anklets and thumb rings polished in gold. I was fine with it—there were other important demands that had to be fulfilled. 10 grams of gold comes for Rs.31,000. Who will spend that much?” Demand for yellow metal voracious According to Vivek Kaul, a business analyst and an author, the concept is very simple. Gold is bought and sold internationally in dollars. Hence, as the rupee has lost value against the dollar, gold has become more expensive.
Prof. R. Vaidyanathan of the Department of Finance and Control at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, tends to agree. “Housing and gold are the two major assets that the middle class owns. Close to 70 percent of gold jewelry is sold in rural areas, and most gold sales are by way of jewelry. It is a measure of security in difficult times.” Ashish Sharma, who runs a wholesale shop and lives in Banashankari, had the same story to tell.
“Over a reasonably long period of time gold will go up. All the money that the Western nations have been printing over the last few years will lead to inflation in the years to come. Given that, gold prices might rise from the current Rs.2,900 per gram to around Rs.5,000 per gram by Diwali 2016.”
According to Rajesh Mehta of Tanishq Jewellers, this wedding season sales were down, and well-off people have started choosing diamonds over gold. “But still it isn’t that bad. People always buy gold,” Mehta told The Beat. “It is difficult for us too; we have to see we don’t go into losses. We can’t help but increase the price.” S. Gurumurthy, a political and economic affairs commentator, said gold is a savings asset, and that is the problem. “In India, a woman is first married to gold, then to the man,” he said. “Besides marriages it is used for religious purposes too.”
That’s a huge increase. Anand, who works in India’s only functioning gold mine at Hutti in Lingsugur taluka, 80 kilometers west of Raichur district, Karnataka, said India consumes almost 900 tons of gold a year.
The auspicious Dhanteras and Akshaya Tritiya days, on which gold is traditionally bought, fall in December. Currently there is a 6 percent import duty on gold, but that hasn’t stopped Indians from buying it. P Chidambaram, the Union finance minister, recently said, “I appeal to the people to moderate the demand for gold.”
“If anyone follows proper customs, the boy’s side has to spend more on gold,” he said. “When my son got married, we gave our daughter-in-law a gold set complete with anklets. It cost us our fortune around five years back. Buying gold was a major issue for us then.”
Reserve Bank of India Gov. Raghuram Rajan has also admitted that there is an increase in gold smuggling and is looking for solutions to curb this menace.
The mine hauls up over 2,000 kilogram of gold annually.
The rupee is depreciating, and the trade deficit is increasing. There has been an uninterrupted demand for the dollar from the gold importers pushing the rupee lower.
According to K. Giriprakash, deputy editor of Business Line, commodities like gold never generate revenue; they are bought and kept as is for years. An increase in gold imports is one of the main reasons for the fall of rupee.
Photo: Pallav Bhargava
“When I got married 27 years back, 10 grams of gold came for Rs. 4,000. Now 100 grams of it comes for Rs.320,000. Nowadays even gold polish is also very expensive,” said Sharma, whose 22-year-old daughter just got married. “While the boy’s side gave my daughter two jewelry sets, I couldn’t even give her bangles.”
The price rise in this commodity disrupts and affects a household in severe ways and it is up to the common man to tackle the cost cutting.
February 2014 | The Beat
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BUSINESS
Banned EMI schemes alive and kicking By Aurosmita Acharya
EVEN AFTER THE Reserve Bank of India’s call for transparency in zero-percent easy monthly installment schemes, retailers are still collaborating with banks to misguide their customers. Banks tout EMIs’ utility for needy but resource-constrained consumers. Zeropercent EMIs are loans repaid in fixed monthly amounts by the borrower to the lender till the entire amount, including the processing fee, which is charged instead of interest, is returned. The RBI has brought out a notification to restrain the banks from exploiting the customers by charging steep processing fees on the pretext of “zero interest.” Sanjeet Gupta, a customer at Pai International Showroom in Gopalan Arcade, Bangalore, who was interested in buying a tablet under a zero-percent EMI regime offered by the retailer, was dismayed at the prospect of paying some Rs.3,000 over the MRP. Aniket Singh, another customer at the Croma Store, was surprised when he was asked to cough up Rs.2,000 even after taking advantage of the “zero-percent EMI” scheme. “The retailer said the processing fee is only 0.96 percent and the interest amount to be paid is zero.” He told The Beat. “But at the end I am paying an additional amount of Rs. 2,000. Why should I pay an extra amount?” RBI seeks to safeguard consumers’ rights On Sept. 25, the RBI banned the zero-percent EMI schemes offered on credit cards by consumer goods retailers to protect customers from being exploited by bankers and the retailers. The RBI cited “distorted and misleading information” provided to the customers as the reason behind its decision to ban the scheme. The schemes had resulted in customer spending more than what they were made to understand before
getting into the deal. The RBI notification basically highlights the fact that the financial institutions should consider three important elements. Firstly, the RBI asked the financial institutions to pass on the touted benefits of loan instruments to the customer with clearcut information about how they intend to charge the interest amount—whether on the loan amount or the recurring amount. Secondly, they instruct the banks not to hide the interest passed on to customers as hefty “processing fees.” Thirdly, the RBI intends to warn banks about levying charges on debit cards but not on credit cards. An official from the RBI who asked not to be named told The Beat: “We do not want the banks and other financial institutions to mislead the customers by imposing on them higher charges but guaranteeing them a zero-percent EMI, which is unethical. “There should not be discrimination among customers holding debit cards and credit cards.” He said, “The notification brought out is to deter practices of transferring the burden of interest through processing fees.” Retailers still offering ‘zero-percent loans’ Darshan, a staff at the Sony Showroom said, “We are associated with the Citibank and the HDFC Bank. They provide the customers with a rate of interest (RoI) of 2 to 3 percent. The Citibank refunds back this interest to the customer’s account within a period of 60 days while the HDFC refunds it within a period of 90 days.” He added that there are banks such as State Bank of India that imposes a minimal non-refundable interest on the principal amount. In this case, the retailers
February 2014 | The Beat
refund the money to the customer out of their own pocket. Mahesh, a staff at Croma Store, said, “Bajaj Finance provides our customers with less than 1 percent RoI, which actually is the loan-processing fee. The same is the case with Kotak Mahindra.” ‘Banks have tied up with the dealers’ Anand Verma, Charted Accountant said: “Banks have tied up with the dealers, who provide them with a commission. This is called the opportunity cost—the way through which banks raise additional money. The transactions or commissions are incurred on every transaction that amounts to Rs.100.” He added that all private banks such as ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Citibank and others earn a lot of profit this way, but among the public sector banks the SBI is the only one to have the entitlement. For banks not having such an arrangement, a zero-percent EMI will lead to losses and ultimately the closure of bank. No loss, no gain for banks An employee from HDFC said that the incubation period of 90 days “helps us make good money.” The amount received as interest is put in the market which earns the bank profit. This means that refunding the money to the customer does not undercut the bank’s profitability in any way. The commission received from the dealer also enhances its profitability. A top official of the ICICI Bank who did not want to be named said that for ICICI it is a “no loss, no gain scenario,” but there are various other banks who come heavily upon the customer by charging an interest flat on the loan amount rather than charging on the reducing or the book balance. The RBI official said, “It is the responsibility of all financial institutions to operate with utmost transparency.”
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COMMENTARY
No country for gays The Supreme Court ruling has again subjected the LGBT community to discrimination and harassment. Gay love might now land couples in jail. By Sneha Ghosh
WE LIVE IN a strange society. The calendar reads 2014. But even after breathing for a little more than a couple of thousand years on the planet, the women of our nation are still struggling to be deemed equal to men. India is now the second most populated country in the world, but sex remains a taboo and is now a crime if engaged in, by two people belonging to the same gender, according to the December ruling of the Supreme Court. In 2009, a Delhi High Court overruled Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, framed in 1860 by the British, that considered consensual sex between two adult men “against the order of nature” and unconstitutional. The verdict had seemed to be a faint ray of hope and change that is often stifled in the name of culture and tradition in the Indian society. But on Dec. 11, the highest seat of justice in the country upturned the verdict of the Delhi court, criminalizing it again and plunging our nation back into a draconian era.
to discriminate against homosexuals, who have the right to love and live as much as anyone else? The picture is pitiful and needless to say, needs to change. Movies, particularly regional and national, that portray homosexuals in a comic light have to be discouraged. A conscious effort has to be made to understand that they are people, not objects meant to be poked fun at for amusement.
sponsibility of every parent to teach their child how to respect people irrespective of religion, caste, gender, race and sexual orientation. It is only by addressing the problem at the root that we can ensure that there is no further multiplication of this meaningless hatred. Awareness, education and acceptance is the only way we might redeem ourselves of the sin we are so proud to commit. It is indeed a strange society.
Like most American serials that have a character as a part of their cast who is a homosexual, Indian script writers, both for the television and the films, should make an aware decision to write plots that encompass them as a part of it, the idea being that they are as much a part of the society as are the rest.
Seventeen American states have legalized same-sex marriages, even Pope Francis, representing the highest seat of Christianity, who is more liberal than his predecessor Pope Benedict, does not “judge” devotees on their sexual orientation—it might be time for India to take a leaf out of their book.
More and more brands like the Titan watchmaker should encourage the content of their advertisements to be based on issues like acceptance of homosexuals in the society. But most importantly, it is the re-
But a country where honor killing is rampant, rape tops the list of juvenile offences and kangaroo courts are more effective than certain local governments, that day might be in distant future.
The LGBT community had indeed been rudely shocked by the Supreme Court sentence pronounced by Justice G.S. Singhvi. Amid widespread demonstrations on the streets, and shock and outrage voiced in blogs and social networking sites, the entire nation seemed united as it protested against this ruling that portrayed India as the “most backward-thinking nation,” in the words of Sachin Kalbag, executive editor of Midday newspaper. What is worse is that the ruling clearly reflects that India is not a country that respects the feelings and rights of minority groups. So when will the outlook of India change? Are we forever going to be a nation that looks the other way, indifferent to the pains and troubles of those whom the law forbids from falling in love and socially proclaiming their relationship? Isn’t it cruel to consider them outcasts, to abuse, insult and now prosecute them just because we fail to understand their definition of love? What gives khap panchayats, religious institutions and commoners the authority
Picture: Quinn Dombrowski
A gay couple celebrating their engagement in Berkley, USA
February 2014 | The Beat
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COMMENTARY
Art of converstion ‘virtually’ dead By Sneha Bengani
AS A STUDENT of English literature, I once asked my teacher, “What makes a piece of writing literature?” So much is being written all the time in today’s world, where information is bombarded from all sides every second, that it has always been difficult for me to differentiate grain from the chaff. “Your work should be timeless while speaking of the times you have lived in,” she said. Her response had stuck in my head. I’d left college that day thinking about what it was that is so peculiar about my age. That afternoon, I entered my home to find both my siblings glued to screens— my brother, who was in his early teens, in front of the television and my sister, three years his senior, staring at the computer screen. She was having a candid chat with one of her Facebook “friends” who she would not bother to even greet in real life. And he was watching one of those reruns of a cricket match on a channel that shows cricket 24 hours every day. I saw lunch served in front of him, cold and abandoned. I’d then glared at him obstructing the television screen and he had growled at me: “Move away! Sachin’s gonna hit a six.” I’d moved away as was told and let him see Tendulkar hit that shot for the umpteenth time. While eating food, I’d asked him about the cricket match that he was to play that evening with the boys of the next block. “I am not going,” he had said. “I have an exam tomorrow. No time.” I didn’t bother arguing with him despite knowing fully well that he would spend another three good hours in front of the television sitting in the same position.
Post dinner, I’d been sharing a really funny anecdote with my sister who, I realized later, was busy fiddling with her cell phone. After realizing that she was not with me despite sitting 10 inches away, I stopped talking and gave her one good look. She was grinning stupidly at her mobile screen. Out of boredom I too checked my phone then to see if a bomb had exploded somewhere.
Photo: scion_cho
Ten minutes hence, she returned to life and gave me that I-just-rememberedwhere-I-had-seen-you-last look while she asked, “So you were saying something?” It was not as if I had seen two teenagers besotted with the blessings of the modern age only that day about a year ago. I know that they are not the only ones. This love for machines has permeated through young lives so effortlessly that it has lately become an involuntary exercise for them to check their WhatsApp the first thing in the morning. They have long lost the count of the hours they spend staring at screens, of all sorts. The transition seems to have happened overnight, in one cold blow. We almost have failed to register the great revolution which has rendered our young people incapable of having real conversations with real people in real space. I do not claim that I do not spend my share of time reaping the benefits of technology. I do. But I have narrowly escaped this technological onslaught, by being born just a few years before “it” happened. By just a few years. That day a realization hit me hard. I am a product of a virtual age and that if I ever get down to write a book, I will have to make my characters chat and not talk. The thought had disturbed me then, and the feeling has stayed ever since.
February 2014 | The Beat
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REVIEW
Art exhibiton
Blending the ancient with the contemporary By Bhavika Bhuwalka
Someone else might think of this exhibition as simply about paintings of the Mughal gardens but having been through Vijit Pillai’s works earlier in Delh, I knew better. Pillai has this unique style of coining unadorned names, which pleasantly surprise the viewer. The juxtaposition of paintings, which is Pillai’s primary technique of exhibiting his work continues to lure people. And although, the art depicts the Mughal era, every painting is replete with multiple elements. Characters and scenes have come alive from classic Mughal tales, but are complete with a sense of modernism which makes them belong even in this age.
Though Pillai doesn’t believe in acquiring a signature style and wants the paintings to speak for themselves, I felt there has always been a certain kind of uniqueness to his work. In all his contradictions—ancient Mughal pastel colors replaced with bold strokes, large canvases as opposed to the miniatures that were being portrayed and further creative experimentation—there is a distinctive feel in the digital style that he
lends to his artwork, which also brings out the required contemporary feature. His texturing of the multiple layers is remarkable. Reveling in the success of the exhibitions he recalled how clichéd the idea of Mughal art first looked. “I wanted to revive the Mughal miniatures so that people could see them outside museums,” Pillai told The Beat. “I don’t know if it could ever come back into mainstream. Delhiites, with the rich Mughal heritage floating around in the forms of early ruins, just loved it.” And he was right. Despite the on-the-face contradictions, I could immediately identify with the work. The paintings made me vividly remember the tomb structures and arching alleyways that can be found in abundance in Old Delhi, though they looked like none of it.
Be it natural scenes of divine beauty or the typical neo-Mughal architecture with a floral overdose, none of the elements reside in their original single format. As a result, the paintings which draw their roots from the over arching Mughal structure, come out to be multidimensional entities in a completely different style.
Runs through Feb. 16. Open 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sublime Galleria, UB City #801, 8th Floor, UB City, V.M. Road, Bangalore
Black, white and gray By Shivpriya Jodha
THE MOST DIFFICULT feat for a camera to capture is simplicity. But an exception to this is German photojournalist Barbara Klemm, whose work is currently on display at Tasveer Art Gallery in Bangalore. Barbara has captured the daily chaos of human life in two perfectly contrasting but the most complementary shades, black and white. There are 25 photographs displayed at the gallery in the exhibition The India Series. Her captured moments tell stories far beyond what the pictures seem to portray at first glance. These images were shot by Klemm during her visit to India in the 1980s. In one of the images, she has captured all the women of different generations in a family sitting together in their domain, the kitchen. Her art is of exceptional intensity that is significantly simple but simultaneously has a complex composition.
The black-and-white theme of the photographs beautifully depicts the era they were captured in and brings out the emotion of the subjects without any traces of artificiality. Another photograph, which shows an Indian rickshaw pulling his vehicle carrying foreigners, takes the viewer back to the colonial era of Indian history. One of the most touching photographs in the collection is one showcasing a home for a poverty stricken family. Their lively smiles are not affected by the absence of a roof over their head. They are sitting on the road and right behind them on the wall is a movie poster that reads “Raaste Pyar Ke” meaning road or way of love. Barbara Klemm’s photography brings out the realism of our times and her pictures are considered icons of contemporary history, shaping the cultural memory of several generations. People interested in being transported to the Indian landscape of the 1980s should not miss out this exhibition.
February 2014 | The Beat
Runs through Feb. 13. Open 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sua House 26/1 Kasturba Cross Road, Bangalore
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REVIEW
Movie
Will Russell ‘hustle’ at the Oscars?
By Sneha Ghosh
Cast: Christian Bale Amy Adams Bradley Cooper Jennifer Lawrence Robert De Niro Jeremy Renner Director: David O. Russell Genre: Comedy, Crime, Drama DAVID O. RUSSELL’S latest work, American Hustle, has already created quite a buzz among movie buffs. Is it because the film has been nominated in 10 categories by the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and won a couple at the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Awards? Or the cast boasts of a long line of fantastic actors including De Niro, Bale, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence? Or simply because the film brings to life the FBI Abscam scandal of the late 1970s again? As Russell puts it, “Some of this actually happened.” The lead characters, Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) and Sidney (Amy Adams)
always knew the art of survival with the little that life offered them and it is this innate desire to, their words, “reinvent” themselves that makes the duo fall in love. Together they con people, offering loans and feeding off their desperation, but luck runs out when their swindle is busted by FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper), who offers them his own neat little deal: Cooperate with the FBI and fish out politicians who are partners-in-crime with the mob, or serve their own sentences. The plot thickens as Irving’s magnetic but clingy wife Rosalyn (Lawrence) brews some more trouble for him who already runs the risk of being murdered by the infamous mob guru Victor Tellegio (De Niro) and betraying his friend Mayor Polito (Renner). Does Irving manage to get his Lady Edith and himself out of the clutches of the ambitious DiMaso, who wants to hook all the big fishes by using them as bait? Will he be able to save his friendship with the good mayor whom he is supposed to con? Will Lady Edith desert him to settle in the arms of the manipulative FBI agent? Well, you will have to find
February 2014 | The Beat
out for yourself. Russell has done a brilliant job at recreating the nuances of the 1970s America with the gold chains and sideburns, fur coats and vibrant perms. There are some brilliant performances by Bale, the paunchy pill-popping con man. Cooper is hilarious as he and Bale try to outsmart each other. Amy Adams is stunning—right from her necklines to her magnetic strut, she oozes charm as she takes her life head-on and transforms herself to an entrepreneur from a stripper. Jennifer Lawrence is apt as the loose cannon who sets things on fire (literally) quite often. But it is De Niro whose presence is most commanding in his cameo as the ruthless don from Miami. American Hustle is a definite watch for all who enjoy witty one-liners, although the music might enthrall most. The storytelling is effortless and the viewer is always kept guessing what happens next. And what Russell serves as a gangster movie, actually turns out to be, on a closer look, about the age-old fight between passion and ambition.
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Food
Introducing food @ Pepper n Chilly By Aurosmita Acharya
REVIEW
Introducing Odisha @ Dalma By Vaishnavi J. Desai
PEPPER N CHILLY introduced itself to the city last December with a combination of Indian, continental and Chinese cuisine. Situated in Koramangala, 5th Block, the mere look of it welcomes you to its well-projected ambience. Ivory-color couches, dim lights and glass painted walls in red and white all over the restaurant is all that is needed to attract a relaxed foodie’s attention. The place is a paradise for the lovers of continental food but not much variety is offered in Indian and Chinese cuisine, which is promised at the in big letters at the entrance. The restaurant had splendid varieties to offer in steaks, from fish steak of halibut and tuna and chicken steaks to vegetarian steak (which was quite surprising given the uncommon nature of the dish). The soups and starters that were listed in the Indian and Chinese sections also essentially tasted continental. To this unexpected discovery, the pleasant staff just laughed. Continental seemed to be their favorites cuisine. Nonvegetarians would easily hog the food while vegetarians do not have much variety to explore. There was a good range of kebabs that one could possibly want to try, including hariyali kebab, chicken tikka, galauti kebab, tangri kebab and kalmi kabab. For vegetarians, the place offers dal makhani, deewani handi, paneer hariyali, paneer makhani, veg manchurian, panner manchurian and the like. There is a sumptuous buffet on offer for both lunch and dinner for Rs. 200 for a person. A wide range of ice creams and juices with Indian sweet dishes like gulab jamun, ras malai and pista kheer are also available. The service was prompt. 135, 60 Feet Road, 5th Block, Koramangala 7760732323 Charm point: The veg steak **½
BANGALORE GIFTS ITS guests from Odisha a ravishing experience at Dalma. Named after a staple Odia curry, the restaurant, located in the midst of the city’s own food paradise, Koramangala, promises a delicious Odia cuisine. Dalma has a wide variety of dishes from across the length and breadth of Odisha. from authentic vegetables like chenna tarkari (a cottage cheese dish), dahi baigana (yogurt and eggplant curry), ambula rai (lentil curry) to luchi (fried bread) and dahi bada (a snack made from cornflour and yogurt), every dish on the menu satisfies your appetite. The ambience of the place resonates with the culture of Odisha. The walls are decorated with Parachitra, a traditional painting style emanating from the holy city of Puri. A lot of attention has been given to detailing. Even the tables are decked with tablecloths made from the Sambhalpuri handloom. The restaurant also offers thali, an assorted platter of items meant to give a feel of how a traditional Odia meal would taste, with a little of everything. There is a separate menu for snacks, fast food and beverages, besides from the kitchen of Odisha. Luckily, I had an Odiya friend with me to judge if the taste was authentic enough. She did a fine job of helping me understand the essence of every dish on the table. On her suggestion, I ordered desserts like kheer (made from rice and milk) and chenna poda, a quintessential cottage-cheese dessert that was second to none. The dishes were aromatic and colorful which added to the cultural feel. We could spot a few Odia families relishing the food. The waiters are friendly and may teach you a word or two of their language. Do visit for a simple and sumptuous meal. Opposite Anand Sweets, 6th Block, Koramangala, 9972823017 Charm point: With a meal going for Rs.300-Rs.400 for two people, Dalma doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket ****
February 2014 | The Beat
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REVIEW
Book
End of a golden era What renderes KGF from a town of colour, prosperity and gold to a ghost town replete with devastation and desolation? Gita Aravamudan gets us a peek into whatever that went wrong with the fairytale. By Bhavika Bhuwalka
Colour of Gold Gita Aravamudan HarperCollins Rs. 299 248 pp DRAWING ON A strong sense of nostalgia from her own childhood in the Kolar Gold Fields, 50 kilometers east of Bangalore, Gita Aravamudan intertwines the history of the mining town with the mystery of it in Colour of Gold.
The mystery novel also vaguely borders on literary and historical fiction. “Little England,” as KGF was formerly called, displays a haunting beauty entangled in its stillness and desolation. Descriptions of the landscapes evoke beautiful nostalgic pictures weaving through the lives of three generations in a time-span of 100 years.
Sheila also alludes to an interesting anecdote from the Ramayana: When Ram finds the golden deer that enticed Sita was Maricha, he shoots an arrow at it and wherever (read Kolar) his blood splatters, it gets buried in the form of gold. The book keeps on reasserting how our legacy, which was established way before the British came, was taken away forcefully from the rightful masters.
The novel describes the transformation of KGF, a flourishing British colony rich in its gold mines, slowly breathing its life out, to a gradually rejuvenating township which has excluded mines altogether. The evolution takes place in multiple narratives with no singular protagonist. KGF, which is effectively the overarching structure of the book, blends the English and the Indian completely. The people there don’t really mind the British rule and have come to quite like it. Little did they know that deceiving them yet again, the British would again bleed it dry, depriving the town of the only fuel that kept it alive for so many years. Once all the gold ran out, the 120-yearold mines came to a standstill and the township was closed forever. Or so it seemed. Photo: Harper Collins Publications
Bangalore-based Gita takes a keen interest in women issues, what with books like The Healing and Disappearing Daughters: The Tragedy of Female Foeticide, and here too, the lives of Sheila, a passionate journalist from Bangalore (much like Gita herself ), Arati, the conservative woman who sees KGF in all its glory and inwardly longs for freedom, and Ponni, a ghost spirit, touch upon the several conflicts they have to repeatedly deal with.
The plot revolves around the murder of an Anglo-Indian mine worker whose body is found on the railway tracks in KGF, a strange letter from England and an Australian journalist investigating the now-closed gold mines. Three stories with three protagonists intersect to unveil a century-old mystery.
February 2014 | The Beat
A journalist at a time when very few women took up the profession, Gita grew up in the small but India’s oldest gold mining town, which is now dead. The special way of living and the backdrop of the story are clearly taken from her own life where her father was a mine worker. This enables her to portray the town so vividly that it comes alive for the reader. The town of hope, refuge and finally abandonment, seems to control the destinies of thousands of people.
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The Beat team Aurosmita is the creative machine of the team, always willing to help others in work. When the going gets tough, Aurosmita gets going.
Bhavika loves her solitude as much as her books. An idealist at heart, she has a compulsive need to overthink everything. Nibedita is a concoction of witty humor, determination and a happygo-lucky attitude towards life.
Shivpriya is a perfect example of straight: straight face, straight attitude and straightforward in life.
Sneha Bengani is a nomad at heart and a loner. You are likely to find her smiling to the wind or with her head buried in a literature classic. Her only want from life is to be rich, in experiences.
Sneha Ghosh’s passion might be writing, but it is food, films, fiction (and strictly in that order) that she lives for.
Suchitra is the master of technical skills, knows how to be calm and get work done when everybody is panicking. Simple and elegant is what defines her. Tulana is high-spirited and confident; one person who brings down the stress levels of everyone with her witty jokes. She believes there is no alternative to hard work.
Vaishnavi is a happy-go-lucky girl, who laughs wholeheartedly and can bring a smile to anyone’s face. She is the driving force of the team and is self-motivated all the time.
February 2014 | The Beat
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February 2014 | The Beat
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