The Beat February 2020

THE BEAT FEBRUARY 2020

CORONAVIRUS

Are We Prepared?

An IIJNM Publication

Letter from the Editor Welcome to the first edition of The Beat 2020.

We live in tumultuous times and we have tried to make sense of them even at the risk of greatly simplifying them. The Coronavirus has upended what we’d hoped would be the beginning of a promising new decade.

After 100,000 infections and 4,000 deaths, the world has woken to a new pandemic, insidious and menacing because it’s asymptomatic till the next wave of infections and the cycle repeats itself. With the lowest standards of public sanitation in the world, we in India face a unique challenge tackling any infectious disease. A broken healthcare system and a government absorbed in refighting the battles of the Middle Ages make the problem infinitely worse.

So even as a pandemic stalks our land, the government is busy trying to put out other fires it started when it tinkered with our citizenship laws (leading to deadly riots) and its fantasy final solution to the Kashmir problem. Where was the time or energy also to deal with the biggest foreign policy challenge of the decade?

The rest of Asia got together to create the world’s largest trade bloc in the form of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership. But India, that quibbled and quarreled through years of negotiation, panicked at the eleventh hour to give China the right to set the rules of a game we’ll have to abide by for decades to come.

We report all these stories and many more. We hope you enjoy reading them as much we did researching and writing them.

Ankita Mukherjee Editor

CONTENTS FEBRUARY 2020

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COVER STORY

SOCIETY Poison Porn Twisting minds

Bewildering Bug Coronavirus comes calling

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ENVIRONMENT Meat is Murder Of the environment too

SPECIAL REPORT Citizen Cain Turning on our own

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SPORTS Cricket Woes India gets hammered

FOCUS Kashmir Capers Playing with fire

Legendary Leander India’s tennis ace

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ECONOMY Trade Tangle India chickens out

WOMEN Mythical Misogyny Source of prejudice

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DRAMA Street Smart Theatre of protest

POLITICS Delhi Wins A vote for sanity

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ECOLOGY Water Wisdom Go with the flow

THEATRE Jogesh Dutta A life in mime

29 REVIEWS Parasite 1917

THE BEAT |3

COVER STORY

The World is a Petri Dish

As the coronavirus disease spreads across the world, vulnerable countries like India with weak public health systems must be doubly cautious, writes Nissim Jacob

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ith the number of cases of corona virus outside China spiking recently in countries as far apart as South Korea, Italy and Iran, India must prepare itself for a pandemic.

The disease, classified as Covid 19, has caused over 4,891 deaths across the world, with most of the deaths occurring in China. It is now threatening to cause a global pandemic, is claimed to have originated at a wet market in the city of Wuhan in the Hubei province of China. The largest number of deaths in China have occurred in Hubei and China has taken drastic measures to contain the spread of the disease by putting the entire province under a lockdown.

In India, over eighty cases were confirmed by the Central government. The first cases

identified in India were in Kerala among students studying at Wuhan University. Since then several cases were detected across the country and the health authorities are now scrambling to contain the outbreak.

The number of cases in India is steadily rising. There had been a lull after the detection of the initial cases in Kerala, but with the steady rise in the number of infected patients the Central government has been compelled to take tough measures. The Central government has suspended all existing visas excluding diplomatic, official, UN, project and employment visas. India has imposed restrictions on the export of medical equipment to China due to shortage in domestic supply.

State governments have also ordered shutting down of several places of mass gathering

Kerala has the highest number of cases because of a good detection system | Credit: Getty images THE BEAT |4

as part of their efforts to contain the spread of the disease. Apart from directing malls, theatres and pubs to suspend services, exhibitions, summer camps, sports events and large weddings will also have to be called off. Schools, colleges and universities have also been closed and some industries like the IT sector have asked their employees to work from home.

Kerala activated the Integrated Disease Surveillance programme and set up district surveillance teams. Every district was directed to set up tertiary care facilities such as ventilator support and intensive care unit in at least two government run hospitals and one private run hospital. A control cell was established at the state’s ministry of health for surveillance and containment of Covid 19. To monitor implementation, hospital admission and surveillance teams are set up by the state government.

Guidelines were established for surveillance, management of clinics, and carrying out laboratory tests.

When the first case of Covid 19 was confirmed in the state, it took contact-tracing exercises. The importance of tracing contacts was realized during the Nipah virus outbreak which occurred in 2018.

Kerala has also taken into consideration the possibility of asymptomatic transmission, although there is no scientific evidence for the same. This was done by closely monitored and rigorous surveillance of all patients arriving from Wuhan, including those arriving from other parts of China. The incubation period as set by the health authorities is longer than the standards sets by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The effective management of the Nipah virus outbreak has been the basis for containing the spread of the novel Coronavirus disease. Units which were set up for monitoring the disease spread during the Nipah virus outbreak, have been reactivated. Infection-control protocols for the state’s health workers were introduced during the Nipah virus outbreak after it was learnt that the disease which led to 17 deaths in the state had also spread at hospitals.

With the virus already taking two lives in India, there is a sense of urgency. Information about the dynamics of transmission and virus reservoirs are still unknown. There are also fears that if the disease spread to other states, then the task ahead will be much difficult as they do not have the same public health infrastructure. Says, Gautam Menon, professor of Physics and Biology at Ashoka University, “With the Nipah virus, the number of infected cases was small and thus we were able to deal with the disease. However the reproductive rate of the corona virus is higher and India doesn’t have the ability to deal with the pandemic when the number of infected cases is higher. Because of its political structure, China was able to impose a lockdown in Wuhan and restrict the movement of people. India will not be able to do the same.”

India has responded quickly by evacuating its citizens from Hubei province.

It has implemented screening procedures for the evacuees upon arrival at Indian airports followed by surveillance of the arrived persons.

It has responded by directing government hospitals to set up isolation wards and creating awareness among health workers and stocking protective gear. The National Institute of Virology at Pune, which is the country’s premier research institution of viruses, has established a methodology on sample collection and testing facility with the aid of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

The Health Ministry has set up an Emergency Medical Response Unit while a 24x7 helpline was rolled out by the National Centre of Disease Control for self declaration by persons who suspect that they may be infected.

Several labs have been identified across the country by the Union health ministry for testing samples of suspected coronavirus cases.

Camps were set up by the Armed Forces Medical services in Haryana to quarantine such cases.

Says, Dr. GB Shantala, who is heading the testing of coronavirus samples in Virus and Research Development Lab at the Department of Microbiology in Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, “So far all cases screened have been tested negative for novel coronavirus. The people who have been screened have a history of travel to China and South East Asia. These patients had symptoms like cold, cough and fever, heavy respiratory THE BEAT |5

blockage, and pain in their respiratory organs. On testing the samples we found that the patients only suffered from respiratory tract infections.” The testing procedure is as per the guidelines established by ICMR. “We use real time PCR which is a molecular detection test that looks for specific marker for Covid 19,” adds Dr. Shantala.

Polyremase chain reaction (PCR) tests analyse the RNA of the sample totest for infectious agents.

It is the same test that is used for HIV, measles and mumps.

However, India’s response has been confusing.

Despite taking constructive steps towards containing the disease,India has also made the flawed decision of promoting AYUSH products for preventing the disease. No tests have been done on the Unani, Ayurveda and homeopa-

Sanitation workers disinfect parks in China| Credit: Getty images

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‘There are three likely scenarios’

aya Prasad Kulkarni is a public health specialist and development consultant. He founded Arogya Seva Foundation in Bangalore, a platform to provide free healthcare services to the underprivileged. He teaches at Syracuse University, New York. He is currently advising the Karnataka government on measures to detect, contain and treat the Coronavirus disease. Nissim Jacob asked Dr Kulkarni how prepared we are. Excerpts from their conversation: Given our poor standards of public hygiene and sanitation, how will we be able to contain the spread of the coronavirus?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has laid out guidelines that include precautionary measures necessary to contain the spread of the disease.

It recommends that people should wash their hands regularly, not rub their eyes and nose with unwashed hands, etc. In India, lack of access to clean water is a cause of concern. Issues relating to public sanitation need to be addressed on a regular basis so that when an outbreak occurs THE BEAT |6

we are equipped to deal with the crisis more effectively and contain the spread of the disease.

There are three likely scenarios. In the first case, the coronavirus cases will be limited to a handful, and the disease will become irrelevant until the time a vaccine is developed. In the second case, the disease spreads and we will have to enhance our ability to surveil and contain the spread of the disease. In the third case, if it goes out of hand, then we will have to plan a response according to indicators (epidemiological indicators which show how the disease evolves) that were observed in China.

The government needs to improve awareness among the public regarding the disease. There is a lot of misinformation that needs to be tackled and the stigma of getting infected needs to removed so that people come forward if they show the symptoms.

Given virtually unimpeded internal migration in India, how can we contain the spread?

The WHO has put forth guidelines restricting air travel to infected countries and screening upon arrival at airports.

Iran for instance, which has seen a surge in the number of cases, hasn’t imposed appropriate quarantine measures. India is now screening all arrivals from severely affected countries. India has quarantined as required and if the situation worsens, it will have to impose a lockdown of an entire state, as millions of lives will be saved.

Has India ever dealt with an infectious disease as virulent as coronavirus?

India dealt with variants of SARS and the HINI influenza in the past. While there were deaths during these outbreaks, it did not become an epidemic. Comparatively, India’s response has improved, as there have been no deaths. With time, the progression of the disease slows down and virulence comes down, and that is likely to happen with Covid 19. In China, we saw that the number of newer cases has reduced.

thy medicines that the Ministry of AYUSH is recommending and the efficiency of these medicines is also questionable.

The ICMR’s decision to suspend the study of bats in Nagaland as well as its decision to shut down a research at Manipal University relating to Nipah virus, is also likely to discourage further research in our country. India lacks an effective research infrastructure which is necessary to find solutions during epidemics. Says, Professor Menon, “The government’s decision to shut down research at Manipal University was unfortunate. International collaboration becomes important more than ever as coronavirus pandemic spreads across the globe.”

Despite initially being in denial about the possibility of large scale epidemic occurring in their country, going so far as to penalize health providers who sought to alert the public regarding the epidemic, the Chinese government has since then taken proactive steps to combat the disease by sharing information with other countries to create a cure for the infected patients as well as a vaccine to prevent the spread of the disease. The WHO has identified the outbreak as a global threat, declaring it to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

Coronaviruses are a family of viruses, some of which are less harmful such as common cold while others are more menacing and can

cause respiratory and intestinal problems. The 2003 SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) epidemic in China and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) are linked to the coronavirus family and cause severe respiratory problems. Bats are suspected to be the hosts of the virus and it is believed that virus was transmitted to an intermediate host and then passed onto humans when they came in close contact with the infected animal. It then passes through human to human contact via coughing or sneezing.

People with mild symptoms go undetected, thus the actual number of infected persons may be much higher One of the problems with the disease is the uncertainty regarding its spread. While initially

it was suspected by scientists that coronavirus may spread during the incubation period itself, WHO has since iterated that the spread of diseases under asymptomatic cases to be rare as was the case in MERS syndrome.

While the main driver of the disease is due to overt symptoms such as that of viral pneumonia, mild symptoms similar to common cold may also spread the disease. People with mild symptoms go undetected, thus the actual number of infected persons may be much higher. several people whose test results had initially been ‘negative’ were found to be infected at a later date.

Thus, the spread of the disease is difficult to contain. More studies are required in this area and the testing procedures need to be made precise. These are early days and though little is known, it’s likely that Covid 19 will spread far and wide, and become the principal health challenge the world faces in 2020.

The pandemic has severely affected the pharmaceutical and fertilizer industries as the key components are exported from China.

With this disruption, the agriculture sector is likely to be affected. Prices are expected to increase, causing food shortages.

The change is expected to affect the travel, hotel and aviation and many other industries which are integral part of a country’s economy and can adversely affect it.

What is the ability of different states to surveil, monitor and isolate coronavirus cases?

Some states have a better health infrastructure compared to others. While states like Kerala and metro cities have a higher number of cases due to global traffic, they also have been able to contain the spread better. Moreover, the people who have been travelling from abroad are educated and aware of the disease and follow the advisory from the government and WHO. If the disease spreads to states with poorer health infrastructure such as UP, then it will be difficult to contain the spread of the disease.

Does the Indian public health system have the ability to contain and treat a pandemic like coronavirus?

While there are gaps in the Indian public health system, the system as a whole is equipped to deal with a pandemic like Covid 19. The government taps into resources and contributions from the entire medical fraternity. Currently, there is a global partnership at the government level, on limiting the spread of the disease and coming up with vaccines.

THE BEAT |7

SPECIAL REPORT

Thin End of the Wedge The Citizenship Act amendment is a calculated first step to make all non-Hindus second-class citizens of their own country, says Tamanna Yasmin

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f anyone harboured doubts about the true intent behind the enactment of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, they should have been laid to rest by the murderous attacks on peaceful Muslim protestors that left scores of people dead in Delhi in late February. Growing nationwide protests against the CAA ever since it was made law last December have riled Hindu fundamentalists. The rout of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in the recent Delhi Assembly elections proved to be the last straw. The party’s campaign had championed the legislation and branded its detractors as traitors.

Parliament amended the Citizenship Act of 1955 to accord citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian minorities who, fearing religious persecution, had fled Muslim-majority Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh before December 2014. The cut-off date was as arbitrary as the choice of minorities and countries. The Intelligence Bureau told a Joint Parliamentary Committee that 31,313 refugees would benefit from the changed law.

The amendment, that claimed to redress religious discrimination, has been widely critiAmit Shah says nobody will be deprived of their citizenship| Credit: Outlook India cised for cynically promoting its own form Part II of the Constitution, which elaboreligions will be eligible for citizenship under of religious discrimination. “The reason why rates India’s citizenship law across 6 articles, this act. Adds eminent historian Ramachandra the CAA is so egregious and consequential is not once mentions religion as a criterion for Guha, “It is a discriminatory act because it says because it represents a fundamental break from qualification. But the CAA, in the guise of only Muslim States persecute and everybody, the core principles of the Constitution, namely a humanitarian gesture to protect religious but Muslims are persecuted.” citizenship being open to all without disminorities, establishes a connection between a Lawyer Harish Salve, writing in the Times crimination on the basis of religion, language, person’s faith and their right to citizenship and of India disagrees, saying “The principle of race, ethnicity or gender,” says Alok Prasanna thus opens the door to create new grounds to equality does not take away from the state the Kumar, fellow at the Vidhi Centre for Legal qualify. power of making classifications. If a law deals Policy, Bangalore.

Article 14 of the Constitution mandates equally with members of a defined class, it is In its defence, the Modi government says that “The State shall not deny to any person not open to the charge of denial of equal proMuslims are excluded from the CAA’s ambit equality before the law or the equal protectection.” Adds R.K. Gupta, also a lawyer,“The because Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh Supreme Court is yet to gives its judgment on are Muslim-majority countries, and Muslims are tion of the laws within the territory of India.”

Article 15 explicitly prohibits discrimination the constitutionality of the amendment. How“unlikely to face religious persecution” there. ever, as per my understanding the act doesn’t However, Muslim communities like the Hazaras on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place violate Article 14, 19 or 20.” and Ahmadis have faced ruthless persecution in of birth. Using a selective basis for granting citizenship of India, the CAA undermines the The controversial amendment invoked nathese countries. Why can’t India provide them letter and spirit of Articles 14 and 15. tionwide protests which soon took the form of shelter?

Says senior lawyer and constitutional expert a movement. Referring to this Guha says, “It is In fact, the CAA arbitrarily excludes some Mr. Ravi Varma Kumar, “Freedom of Religion an extraordinary protest that’s not really been of the communities most discriminated in the in the constitution also includes the freedom known since independence.” While some states region, be they Tamil Hindu refugees from of not practicing a religion,” which the CAA focused on taming the protests many others Sri Lanka, Muslim Rohingyas from Myanmar does not take into account. He asks whether openly voiced their intention of not allowor Buddhist refugees from China. Clearly, its tribals who do not follow any of the specified ing CAA to be implemented in their territory. objective lies elsewhere.

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Muslim women have led the campaign against CAA|Credit: Aljazeera Kerala is one of the first states to do the same deeming it “unconstitutional”. It is also the first state to challenge the act in Supreme Court on December 31, 2019 claiming that CAA should be declared violative of Articles 14, 21 and 25 of the Constitution.

A day after CAB was passed in Rajya Sabha, Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh announced that his government won’t let the legislation to be implemented in the state as it hurts the secular fabric of the nation. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee announced, “As long as I am alive CAA will not be implemented in Bengal. No one has to leave the country or the state. There won’t be any detention centres in Bengal.”

With thousands of people taking to the streets against the CAA a new controversy emerged over updating of the National Population Register (NPR), which according to the website of Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner involves collection of demographic and biometric particulars.

The NPR is believed to be the first step towards updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) which was introduced in the 2003 amendment to the Citizenship Act 1955.

According to the government, its purpose is to document all the ‘legal citizens’ of India, identify ‘illegal migrants’ and deport them to their native countries.

“ It is a discriminatory act because it says only Muslim States persecute and everybody but Muslims are persecuted ” India Today reports that in Assam, where the first NRC has been compiled, at least 1.9 million people have been excluded in the final list. Besides cases of ordinary people, military veterans, government officials, and even family members of a former President of India and former chief minister of Assam were excluded from the draft NRC list and were forced to prove that they were not ‘illegal’ migrants before the Foreigners’ Tribunals. In other cases, this process had thrown up bizarre situations where a brother finds his name in the NRC list while his sibling gets excluded; or a father makes it to the list but his son doesn’t, etc. Despite the controversy over the NRC in Assam

centre proposes to implement it throughout the country in 2021.

Though there is no direct link between CAA and NRC, it is speculated that nonMuslims who don’t make it to the NRC list have the option of applying for citizenship through CAA but the Muslims don’t have this option. However, in order to apply for citizenship through CAA, first a person has to admit before the State that they are immigrants from the mentioned countries and produce relevant documents to prove that they fled to India before December 2014.

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he whole process may take months or even years, meanwhile the concerned individual will be forced into a detention camp. Considering the possible flaws in the execution of NRC a person might have to spend his/her lifetime or a huge part of it in a detention camp till they succeed in proving their citizenship even if the person had always been a rightful citizen of the country.

Says lawyer Kumar, “The Census Act 1948 doesn’t allow any other exercise to be clubbed with census. Moreover, census is only an enumeration; counting of heads, it doesn’t mandate disclosure of identity. However, the NPR exercise mandates a person to reveal his or her identity. Hence, both the exercises can’t be carried out simultaneously.”

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FOCUS

Clampdown on Kashmir

The outcome of Modi’s biggest political gamble is being held in abeyance by brute force, reports Ankita Mukherjee

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ast July, the government sent additional forces into the heavily-militarised Kashmir valley in anticipation of militant attacks on Hindu devotees making the annual Amarnath Yatra there. The deployment took everyone by surprise including the leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s local alliance partner, the People’s Democratic Party, and created a deep sense of unease among local residents.

They had reason to worry. On 5th August, the central government by presidential decree revoked Articles 370 and 35A of the Constitution. These were the safeguards that guaranteed the state of Jammu and Kashmir a degree of autonomy within the Indian union and had, for 72 years, been the bedrock of the territory’s union with India.

Article 370 granted autonomy to the state on all matters excluding defence, foreign affairs and communication while Article 35A prevented people from other states from purchasing property and benefitting from public employment there. In a further blow to the state’s unique identity, the government dis-

solved the elected state assembly and bifurcated its territory into two centrally-administered union territories, that of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. They arrested hundreds of politicians and activists, including leaders of Kashmiri parties, placed former chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti, Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah under house arrest and shut down communication services across the state.

The clampdown on Kashmir has been widely condemned across the world, by members of the US Congress, the European Union and Islamic countries. Pakistan and China moved to censure India at the UN but diplomatic efforts by India prevented the matter from being discussed in the UN Security Council. Even seven months later, the communication remains disrupted. Basic (2G) internet services have been partially restored and limited access to the social media has been permitted in the valley. Most political leaders remain under detention and a sense of despair and disorientation pervades the state.

Says Radha Kumar, a historian and author

Security forces patrol the streets after the lockdown| Credit: The Straits Times THE BEAT |10

of Paradise at War: A political history of Kashmir, “Though 370 has been amended more than 40 times, none of the preceding governments touched Article 35A, which fell under 370 and conferred special rights including property, on state subjects. Moreover, a large majority of the previous amendments were made at the recommendation or with concurrence of the state government and legislature. The August 5 and 6 orders were made without the concurrence of the elected legislators or elected state government, indeed they were all put under detention.”

“Moreover the JK Reorganization Act divided the state into two Union Territories, again without consultation or concurrence of elected leaders,” she adds. “Thus the voiding of 370 and consequent actions violated the fundamental principles of democracy - the will of the people - and federalism - consultations with the elected government and legislature of states.” Dr. Kumar was on the 3-member panel of interlocutors set up by the union Cabinet Committee on Security in 2010 to seek the

views of a cross section of Kashmiri political opinion.

For the BJP, Article 370 has always represented the last obstacle to a unified India and its removal has been part of its election manifesto. Union home minister justified the move telling Parliament, “I want to tell the people of Jammu and Kashmir what damage Articles 370 and 35A did to the state.

It’s because of these sections that democracy was never fully implemented, corruption increased in the state, and that no development could take place.”

As Anand Arni, a former special secretary in Research & Analysis Wing, India’s external intelligence agency wrote in The Telegraph, “I can argue both sides with equal felicity and conviction – Article 370 had to go because it did not mesh with our democracy; it was a compact with a Muslim state that joined India and had to be honoured.

And yet, I am filled with unease, not just about the subterfuge and the manner in which it was done, but for what lies ahead.”

Devika Prasad, a human rights lawyer in New Delhi, warns, “It is of grave concern, and for the nation not just Kashmir, that so many Kashmiris are under preventive and other detention, from political leaders to civil society leaders to ordinary citizens. The detainees outside Kashmir are reportedly facing greater difficulties in accessing legal Detained political leaders, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti| Credit: Daily Sun assistance to family and friends.”

Says Gowhar Geelani, a Kashmiri journalist, “Taking away J&K’s semiwhereabouts of our relatives. Soon we were there will be some relief and a glimmer of autonomous status is problematic on several able to breathe a sigh of relief as we could hope,” says Dr. Kumar. “Without any change fronts. First, it was a compact between the reach police stations and talk to people of in the present situation, the shock, horror and erstwhile state and Indian union. It has been Kashmir. It was a task but a minute of converanger against the government and by extension broken without any consent from the J&K sation was a silver lining at that point.” the people of the rest of India, will continue.

Legislative Assembly and elected representaPerhaps there will be sullen silence, or perhaps tives of J&K. This is an argument by the a new armed uprising. As to controlling the unionists who do not question India’s presence situation, at present government control is by in Kashmir but want restoration of autonomy, brute force and negation of civil and human civil rights and guarantees about land, right rights, which is not control, it is repression. to jobs and scholarships. Second, once the The Valley sees it as the government turning semi-autonomous status was abrogated, an the army into a force repressing Kashmiris, assault was made on civil rights and human and it will take decades to overcome the hatred rights, with a communication blockade, and no against the security forces.” access to mobile phones, internet and SMS and WhatsApp.” he former R&AW official Arni too “How can such a unilateral decision and paints a gloomy picture. “The boys are assault on people’s rights be justified on any sullen, they have no known leader as count?” asks Geelani. “Imagine the entire we have ensured that they are leaderless,” he population of Kashmir, eight million of them, explains. “Consequently, we have no one to are without tools of communication, internet, speak to. There has been an intifada type of for six months now. At least one-and-a-half movement which we should have recognised as lakh youth associated with IT, tourism, have an outpouring of frustration. Being pelted with lost their jobs since August.” stones is, in many ways, a lesser problem than Naqshab Bhat, a resident of Bangalore being confronted by armed brainwashed miliwhose family moved to the city 35 years ago tants. And yet we baulked from talking to them. from Kashmir has extended family living in An early election is next to impossible as there the Valley. “The night before the revocation of will be calls for boycotts and low voter turnout articles 370 and 35A was announced, we were which will be embarrassing both internally and unable to reach to our relatives as their calls externally … Inevitably, there will be electoral were barred,” she recollects.“It was frightening violence and the distance between Hindu because we did not know what was coming, “If the challenges to the government’s majority Jammu and Muslim Kashmir will it was impossible to get through and find the actions are upheld by the Supreme Court, then grow.”

“ This is an argument by the unionists who do not question India’s presence in Kashmir but want restoration of autonomy, civil rights and guarantees about land, right to jobs and scholarships ”

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ECONOMY

India Loses its Nerve

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The eleventh hour wobble on joining the RCEP is a lost opportunity but a chance to set India’s economic prioroties right, says Nissim Jacob

ndia’s decision not to join the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) at the last moment came as surprise to many. The ground work for joining the world’s largest trade bloc had been prepared over several years of negotiation and prime minister Narendra Modi was present at the Third RCEP Summit in Bangkok where an agreement to conclude the deal by end-2020 was to be signed. To the shock of the leaders of the other 15 partner countries, he said the RCEP in its present form didn’t conform to India’s guiding principles and “outstanding issues remained unsolved.”

While India could join the bloc at some future date, its decision not to join now is a missed opportunity to shape the terms of regional (even global) trade instead of forever remaining subject to rules set by others.

Nitin Pai, director of Takshashila Institute, a Bangalore-based think tank,sums up India’s dilemma saying, “Being out of RCEP cannot be a cause for celebration, nor is it diplomatic/ negotiation success. But joining RCEP without structural economic reforms would have been highly risky too.”

The RCEP is a free-trade agreement (FTA) between 15 countries which includes the 10-member Association of South East Asian THE BEAT |12

Nations and five major regional economies -China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.Its goalis to create an integrated AsiaPacific market and facilitate free movement of goods and services across member countries by reducing protectionist trade barriers. It aims to lower tariffs, standardize customs rules and increase market access.

Had India joined the bloc, RCEP would have accounted for a third of the world’s GDP, a quarter of the world’s exports and half the world’s population. Says Pravin Krishna, an economist who teaches at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, “RCEP would have been an easier agreement for India to sign, as compared to any potential agreements with the US or the EU, because its focus was on trade liberalisation. In contrast, agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pose a greater challenge, since they require concessions over a range of contentious non-trade issues, such as environmental and labour regulations, intellectual property (IP) protection, and the operations of state-owned enterprises.”

One of India’s key concerns was lack of adequate protection against a surge in imports.

Several industries have complained that joining the RCEP will lead to Chinese goods inundating the Indian market, which they claim will

lead to severe losses for domestic producers.

During the negotiations India pushed for an auto-trigger mechanism which would permit raising tariffs on goods when the imports increase beyond a permissible limit.

Another concern was the absence of clarity on non-tariff barriers that India claims denies it market access to countries like China. Yet another sticking point is the rules of origin, which is used to determine the identity of the exporter. The rules in their present form allow a country to circumvent high tariffs by routing its exports through a lower-tariff jurisdiction.

India also has a trade deficit with several of the member countries of the RCEP particularly with China, which has overshadowed the RCEP negotiations from the beginning. It has a trade of $105 billion with the RCEP countries of which the trade deficit with China itself is $53 billion. Given this imbalance, several experts have questioned the benefits of joining the RCEP. Critics of the deal say that the past FTAs to which India has been a signatory haven’t fulfilled expectations.

Says Vijay Bhaskar, general secretary of All India of Trade Union Congress (AITUC) in Bangalore, “Instead of focussing on increasing its exports to other countries, India should strengthen the domestic market to ensure food

Credit: Wikimedia

security for its citizens and stable wages for its farmers.Even two decades after liberalization our share of world exports remains the same.

The free trade agreements that we have signed have benefitted only the MNCs. India has huge trade deficits with several countries.”

Another problem that arose during the negotiations was regarding the Base Year. The RCEP members want 2013 as the base year.

However during 2014 – 2019 India increased the import duties on several products to protect the domestic industries. As 2013 is to be set as the base year under the present RCEP, the protections put by India would have been rendered ineffective had it joined the RCEP. Thus India pushed for 2019 as the base year but in vain.

While some sections of the Indian industry feel that joining the RCEP would have allowed them to access larger markets, others were apprehensive as they fear it will cripple their industries. Pharmaceuticals and cotton yarn industries were confident of benefiting from it but the dairy, steel and textiles felt that imports from countries like China would adversely impact their domestic market. The dairy industry in particular feels threatened by imports from Australia and New Zealand.

Adds trade unionist Bhaskar, “I do not believe that joining the RCEP would have given any access to foreign markets for Indian producers. Farmers would have been particularly affected as the flow of foreign goods into the Indian markets would have been to their detriment. In Karnataka, the dairy industry will be one of the sectors that will be particularly affected if India joins the RCEP. Several farm-

ers in India carry out secondary activities such animal husbandry and they would be adversely impacted by this.”

India has trading strengths in the form of a large labour force and in services but several member countries of the RCEP have restrictive immigration policies and won’t give India the market access it seeks in services.

However those supporting the RCEP say that World Trade Organisation rules allow India to impose safeguard and anti-dumping duties if China engages in unfair trading practices. They believe that being part of the RCEP would have increased competitiveness among Indian firms. By not signing the RCEP, they say, India is also forsaking the benefits that arise from being part of global value chains (GVCs), wherea product assembled in one country from parts imported from others adds to its exports.

According to the World Bank, “GVCs allow resources to flow to their most productive use, not only across countries and sectors, but also within sectors across stages of production.

As a result, GVCs magnify the growth, employment, and distributional impacts of standard trade.” Jobs associated with global value chains pay more than those associated with the domestic market. By not signing the RCEP, India is losing the opportunity of creating high paying work.

India’s decision to pull out of the RCEP is also seen as a big blow to its ‘Act East’ policy.

Asean saw it as a welcome counter to China’s dominance in the region, especially in the context of the US steady disengagement from Asia under the Trump administration. Though,

India’s Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar had said that withdrawing from the RCEP negotiations will not affect its Act East policy, it has eroded India’s standing among the ASEAN countries who view India’s last minute wobble as a reflection of its deeper inability to formulate a sound policy towards the region.

Says Pai of Takshashila Institute, “India must now deepen trade with the US, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Indonesia & others, on a bilateral basis. Otherwise our geopolitical partners will be drawn into China’s geo-economic orbit.”

India’s decision to pull out of the RCEP is also seen as a big blow to its ‘Act East’ policy

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ut the debate over the RCEP has helped focus attention on the need for policies that increase the competitiveness of Indian manufacturing and agriculture.

Pai explains, “There are no simple answers here except that economic reforms are long overdue and even more urgent now.The Modi-Shah government will have to resist protectionist impulses. The risk of going back to the 1970s is more real now than any time after 1991.”

THE BEAT |13

POLITICS

A Breath of Fresh Air For once, Delhi voters could choose between what matters to them and what matters to politicians, writes Priyansh Verma

Kejriwal proved that development can win elections | Credit: Business Today

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am Aadmi Party’s (AAP) sweep of the recent Delhi Assembly polls, when it won 62 of the 70 seats in contention,has shown the world that ‘development politics’ can win Indian elections. While most parties seek to differentiate themselves on religious and sectarian lines, AAP has made unique place for itself. It’s a party that rarely talks about Ram, Rahim or jati, preferring to boast instead about its accomplishments in improving the quality of life of the aam aadmi.

The Delhi assembly elections were held in a highly charged environment whose centre lay at Shaheen Bagh in the congested northeast of the city. Although the Muslim-led protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act gave the Bharatiya Janata Party’s campaigners plenty of room to divide voters on religious lines,the immense weight of Kejriwal’s ‘politics of performance’, as he famously described it, triumphed.

Among the numerous AAP initiatives aimed at touching the lives of Delhi residentsdirectly, the two that stood out were education and healthcare. By substantially raising the budgetary allocation on education to a quarter of the state’s budget of Rs.60,000 crore in the year ending March 2020, Kejriwal revamped four significant components of school education.

First, school infrastructure. Crumbling walls, lack of toilets and dingy classrooms THE BEAT |14

deterred even the poorest parents from sending their children to municipal schools. AAP refurbished the schools by building new classrooms and equipping them with basic amenities.

The second component was teacher training. Teachers were given opportunities to visit IIMs and international universities like NIE Singapore and Cambridge University to enhance their methods of teaching and improve the quality of their interaction with students.

Third, was improving the quality of education. In 2016, Delhi government schools witnessed a 50% failure rate among students of class 9. This prompted the AAP governmentto address the foundational skills like writing, speaking and arithmetic skills.The ‘happiness curriculum’ for students till class 8th was designed to address their emotional well-being.

Fourth, AAP barred private schools from increasing fees arbitrarily. Earlier private schools used to increase fees by 10-15% annually. AAP ensured parents that excess fees would be returned and fee hike proposals would be examined beforehand.

Says Shubendu Bhattacharya, programme head CRY North, an NGO, “Providing a better infrastructure, organising parent teachers meeting and introducing the happiness curriculum have given a completely new shape to the public school education system. Education was never on the political agenda in this country

but the present government in Delhi has forced all the political parties to think about it.”

The Mohalla Clinics have been AAP’s flagship achievement in their healthcare remodelling attempt. They are primary health centres that have been designed to address the basic medical needs of patients at zero cost. Every clinic has been properly equipped with laboratories. The government has set up 451 clinics.

Says Ashish Bhutani, trustee of MIW Foundation, “The biggest benefits of Mohalla Clinics are that patients are finding it more convenient for treatment of any small illnesses.

Earlier they had to go to hospitals which are very crowded. Mohalla Clinics provide good quality services at very low rates.”Mohalla Clinics have been lauded by former UN secretary generals Kofi Annan and Ban Ki Moon. When he visited the clinics in 2018, Moon said that he is “deeply impressed” by what he saw.

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AP also launched Delhi Arogya Kosh (DAK) along private hospitals. Under this scheme private healthcare services availed in multi-speciality hospitals have been reduced to zero cost for over 1,000 types of surgeries and 133 diagnostic tests. AAP claims around 1.42 lakh people have availed the benefits under DAK since its launch in 2017.

In the face of a challenge like Coronavirus, this is a legacy Delhi will long be grateful for.

ECOLOGY

Just Go With the Flow Dr Yale has dedicated his life to reviving streams and rivers, says Yamini Chincholi

Dr. Yale and his team inspect a watershed development site | Credit: Art of Living

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ingaraju Yale is national director of the River Rejuvenation Project at the Art of Living in Bangalore. He is a geohydrologist specialised in groundwater management and flood control and has,for over four decades, worked to rejuvenate dying rivers across South India. His greatest success has been the Kumudvathi river near Bangalore and his work on the Naganadhi River in Tamil Nadu was highlighted by prime minister Narendra Modiin his Mann ki Baat broadcast. He has revived over 40 rivers and streams in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. Several other states like Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra are now inviting Dr. Yale to resurrect their dead rivers. Yamini Chincholi spoke to Dr. Yale about his passion. Excerpts: What exactly does it take to rejuvenate a river?

River rejuvenation is basically combining nature’s methods with the science of water movement by creating eco-restoration cells and water pools, while preventing eucalyptus growth. Rejuvenation is needed in the first place because we are making water a nonrenewable resource by not treating it. Changing landscapes overnight in the name of development is what causes water and land to lose its renewability. We change forest areas to agricultural areas and then to industrial or residential areas. Climate change is a direct consequence of these overnight changes.

What does the process involve?

It is both simple and tedious. We inspect the terrain of the river basin first and make note of the topography of the land. Geologically, we have to consider the tectonic plates of a particular geographical area and note

where the springs, tanks and bore wells are.

We then plant trees along the natural path of water flow and increase the soil’s water absorption capacity. As groundwater surges, streams and springs become more affluent and join the river from underground. Over a period of six months, the river would have a strong flow and a noticeably significant increase in volume. And then we go from there.

What is the science behind increasing river water levels?

We increase the forest area in hilly regions. The Western Ghats here are the groundwater rechargers. Increasing green cover increases the soil’s water absorption capacity, which acts as a catalyst in recharging groundwater. Rainwater then sinks into the ground and comes up in the lower altitude THE BEAT |15

as streams that join the river. The river then becomes perennial or semi-perennial at least.

How can water be conserved today when Bengaluru’s water demand is 3 billion cubic feet a day?

The science behind water movement needs some reviewing. Water resource managers only focus on surface water and neglect groundwater. But these two are interchangeable. Surface water will rise in levels automatically if more attention is given towards surging groundwater.

We could adopt planting trees in specific areas and filling up excessive bore wells instead of reviving lakes artificially. Most areas of Bengaluru have lost the capability to absorb rainwater. It is a direct consequence of urbanization. The city also needs a customized sewage management model. We see water seeping away during the monsoons, even causing floods because of our flawed drainage system.

Hence, the natural paths of water flow must be iden fied and obstructions to these must be removed. With increasing green cover and letting water flow naturally in its geologically decided path, more water can be conserved. With Bengaluru’s favourable amounts of rain, we could have done wonders and stood as an example for managing water resources.

have to maintain the water balance and bring back natural vegetation to be able to use our sufficient rains most efficiently.

How should we manage water resources in drought-hit areas like North Karnataka?

The government is working to supply water to drought-hit districts of North Karnataka by building dams, canals and bore wells. But these are artificial methods that won’t hold for long. Dams are not a permanent solution for water crises. In fact, they are detrimental to the ecosystem. Every village has a stream that can be nurtured.

ridges and whirlpools, which will not let the current be strong enough. The geological aspect is always neglected in such projects. A dam is not needed here. The money allotted for this project could be used for bringing strict regulations on rainwater harvesting instead.

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hat factors do you think civil engineers should consider while building dams?

The geology of the land. For example, in Mekedatu, the ridges on the rocks stopped the water current from getting strong. These ridges also stirred up pebbles that drove into these rocks like nails from constantly being washed up in rotating movements, thereby creating whirlpools.

They can be recognized easily as big holes in the rocks now. Much of the water goes into these whirlpools to the groundwater and weakens the current further.

Civil engineers patch up the ridges by cement plastering to make the water flow smoothly.

They have increased the current artificially and seem to think that a dam is necessary now.

Do you plan to rejuvenate the Vrishabhavati?

Vrishabhavati has not been addressed yet because it has a pollution problem more than a climate problem.

It also includes many stakeholders – BBMP, BWSSB, BDA, corporations, industries and nearby residents causing domestic pollution. We have to come together to find a way to control and prevent pollution from happening there.

What is the most feasible way to recharge our groundwater in a metropolitan city like Bangalore?

Planting more trees.

Each tree has a million root nodes which are What is the biggest capable of attracting challenge you face in Dr. Yale believes Mekedatu is wholly unsuited for a dam | Credit: Yamini Chincholi water molecules and filling the process of rejuvenating aquifers, which bring affluent flow in the These streams all form a tributary, which rivers? natural streams. We have discarded these joins a river ultimately. Every drop of water We want to address river rejuvenation by natural arrangements of conserving water till must percolate into land and be used to taking a whole river basin into consideration the next monsoons. Instead, we spend signifi- moisten the soil to support vegetation and to and not just streams and tributaries. It is a cant amounts of money to build unnecessary ultimately maintain a healthy climate. huge task but we have successfully managed dams that stagnate and silt our waters. to bring back 42 tributaries with a team of Weinstall pipelines and tunnels underground You said we build unnecessary dams. around 20 volunteers. Getting funds for new that harm the water absorption capacity What are your views on the proposed projects is a task too. We want to address of our land and we introduce scheme after Mekedatu dam that has been temporarily river basins irrespective of the political scheme to transport millions of gallons of shelved? boundaries. water from faraway places to suit our needs.

Mekedatu itself means ‘goats cross’`. It Going along the Cauvery and rejuvenatWe have to work on bringing back every means the stream was linear and mild enough ing tributaries in Tamil Nadu was not taken small stream or tank around Bangalore. We for goats to cross. Mekedatu has rocks with very well by our political leaders.

THE BEAT |16

SOCIETY

The Slow Poison of Porn Pornography is pernicious because it appeals to simple minds and distorts them forever, writes Chirag Dutta

Pornography corrupts young minds | Credit: Sakshi Post

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dolescence is the most complex phase of a child’s life. The transition to adulthood opens up the mind and body to hitherto unexplored impulses and desires.

Teenage demands the most care a child will ever need, maybe in a person’s entire lifetime.

Confusion, sensitivity, rage, anxiety, affection, desire, and every other possible emotion is at its peak during this phase. The way a child is treated during this phase and the kind of exposure she gets determines the kind of adult she will grow up to be. A child in this phase starts to explore sexuality and discovers herself.

Exposure to pornography at this age alters the way the child thinks about human relationships and her own body.

“If children are well-educated about adolescent issues, they can at least inform their parents. Proper sex education will give voice to

children as they will speak when they feel odd about something,” says Dr Rachana Sathyadeva, gynaecologist at Belagavi. “Children are often misguided about adolescent issues on the internet and social media. That’s why proper and open conversation and education can help them understand better.”

A study conducted by the Australian Institute of Family Studies shows that pornography creates social stereotypes about sex, gender, sexual objectification and sexual violence that have a huge impact on young minds. Nearly half of children aged between 9 to 16 years are regularly exposed to sexual content in available digital media. Male children tend to seek out and procure pornographic content significantly more than female children.

Frequent exposure to porn not only distorts the idea of intimacy but normalises

notions of subjugation and even violence, thusfostering socially harmfulsexual attitudes and behaviour.

Since boys have a stronger affinity for pornography than girls, its malign influence is invariable directed at women and makes them vulnerable. There is little doubt that pornography, by allowing men to vicariouslyexperience sexual violence, enables them to trivialise crimes against women in their real lives.

According to a report published by the American College of Padiatricians, constant exposure to porn has an adverse emotional, psychological, and physical consequences.

The most obvious includes increased depression, anxiety, short-temper, violent behaviour, underage sex, exploitative relationships, teen pregnancies and stereotyping.

“It causes men to devalue the opposite THE BEAT |17

gender because they compare them with the women they see on screen. It encourages men to seek out dangerous or socially unacceptable sexual acts,” said David Ludden, professor of psychology at Georgia Gwinnett College, in a report published by Psychology Today.

“Everything is going to be bad in excess and it’s probably not terrible in moderation,” says Dr Gregory Tau of Columbia University in New York talking to The Telegraph newspaper. “It’s possible that there are individuals with a certain kind of brain that are more susceptible to these kinds of behaviours. Or, it’s possible it’s the excessive use of porn that’s perpetuating itself to causing brain changes.

Or, it could be both.”

Access to porn, in the modern era, has never been simpler, it’s entertainment at its cheapest and open to consumption for anyone who wants it. The Internet plays a central role in the circulation of pornography. A study conducted by Forbes magazine showed that porn accounts for 10-15% of Internet content 80% of it portrays violence against women.

Porn websites account for more traffic Netflix, Amazon, YouTube and Twitter, combined.

The world over, the seriousness of the problem has been increasingly recognised by parents and teachers and they are learning to keep a close watch on their children’s digital lives. The best approach, say child psychologists, is for parents, caregivers and teachers to encourage children to communicate freely, openly, and without embarrassment, while learning about the disinformation that permeatesthe Internet and social media themselves.

Last October, the Department of Telecommunication (DOT) ordered every ISP in India to ban porn websites following an order of the Uttarakhand High Court’s orderin a case where four school boys, all 10th graders, raped a minor, in a Dehradun boarding school. The court held that easy access to porn was the primary reason behind the incident and for violence, crimes against womenand anti-social behaviour more generally.

One of the largest porn websites, was accused recently. In the last few months, there have been several shocking cases of sex trafficking and child rape films that were hosted on the site. A 15-year-old girl who had been missing for a year was finally found after her mother was tipped off that her daughter was being featured in videos on the site — 58 such videos of her rape and sexual abuse were discovered on the site, as News3lv states in its report. The website was on the verge of being banned by the US government.

But the ban of 827 pornographic websites by major telecom companies inadvertently gave a boost to the sale of pirated DVDs, say local vendors. From approximately 10 porn DVDs a month, sales rose to 7 per week after the ban was imposed by the telecom sector. Buyers are mostly teenage boys aged between 14 to 17 years.

Dr. Abhinav Basu, child specialist at Kolkata, shared his expertise on the issue. Dr. Basu believes that the ill-monitored social media world is delivering pornographic content to THE BEAT |18

children even before they develop a basic concept of sexuality. “If a child surfs through the internet, at one point or the other, he will come across some pornographic content. Be it ads, clips, pop-ups, or any such internet element, it is capable of leaving a long-term impact on the child. Small events like these are capable of triggering the chain of adversities pornography causes. Without proper monitoring of the data on the internet and its flow, the problem will never cease to exist.”

The lack of sex education, especially in the developing world, is another reason why porn thrives, and the demeaning messages it conveys falls on such fertile ground. In India, lack of sex education is very is a major factor that puts the country’s population at risk. Although central and state legislation mandates compulsory sex-education adolescents, they are rarely implemented.

Porn websites account for more traffic than Netflix, Amazon, YouTube and Twitter, combined, on a regular basis In the face of rising cases of sexual abuse and harassment, teenage pregnancies, and sexually transmitted diseases, there is a growing need for teachers and schools to take the initiative to educate children about their bodies, the changes they’re experiencing and their sexuality.

The only way to check the negative impact of pornography is sexeducation. To frankly discuss sexuality with the younger generation, talking about safe and unsafe sex, hormonal changes, explaining the concept of porn and its adverse effects, and similar methods are the

best remedy.

Governments have a key role to play. Monitoring the kind of content being circulated on social media can prevent some of the worst material reaching impressionable minds. But that’s a tall order. The Internet is a vast swamp that’s difficult to police. The recent arrest of Eric Eoin Marques and the dismantling of his Freedom Hosting website, that housed the largest library of child pornography on the web, is a milestone. But cyber law enforcement are the first to admit that each crackdown spawns a hundred imitators, as didthe arrest Ross Ulbricht and the dismantling of his drugs, arms and child porn-trafficking darknet marketplace, Silk Road, in 2013.

In the digital era, most of what we learn comes from the internet. The world-wide-web is an ocean of information that’s both good and bad. Acquiring and circulating dangerous material, of which pornographic content is just the most pernicious example, is easier than ever before. In the battle for the minds of the young, parents and teachers are being tested like never before.

A classic example would be the case of Eric Eoin Marques, 34, who is titled as the world’s supplier or facilitator of child pornography by the FBI. He is now facing a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 30 years after his guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to advertise child abuse images. A plea agreement will ask the US district judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland to sentence Marques to 15 to 21 years in prison, but the judge is not bound by the recommendation, reported The Guardian. There have been several other instances where famous personalities have been arrested for serious misconduct related to pornography.

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ommunication has always been the key to every problem. Similarly, to communicate clearly with children, adults have to break their mental moulds and adapt to a changing world. They have to accept their children first to understand them and then find ways to instil a sense of discretion and judgementing them. There are no short cuts. Its the only and absolute resolution to the problem.

ENVIRONMENT

Eat Less Meat Rising consumption of animal proteins threatens the health of the planet, says Shivani Priyam

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lobal meat consumption has increased steadily over the past 50 years. Meat production today has grown nearly five-foldsince the early 1960s, from 70 million tonnes to more than 330 million tonnes in 2017. The biggest reason is the increasing number of mouths to feed. Over this period, world population has more than doubled. In the early 1960s there were around three billion of us, today there are over 7.6 billion.

The second is rising incomes. Meat consumption is associated with the higher income levels. The richer we get, the more meat we tend to eat. In 2013, the US and Australia topped the charts and along with New Zealand and Argentina, they accounted for more than 100 kg per person, the equivalent of about 50 chickens or half a cow each.

High levels of meat consumption can be seen across the West, with most countries in Western Europe consuming between 80 and 90 kg of meat per person.

By comparison, India’s per-capita consumption of meat stands at 4.4 kg per person, the second-lowest in the world. But in the years to come, with sustained economic growth, a rise in per-capita income, growing urbanization and westernisation, and growing awareness of the nutritive value of meat and allied products, meat production and consumption is bound to soar.

India is already one of the largest exporters of poultry meat alongside China, Brazil, EU and Mexico. India’s buffalo meat industry A fresh meat market in Kolkata| Credit: Wikimedia kg of concentrates per day. For India, with a isthe largest in the world, exporting over 1.2 buffalo population of over 100 million, this million tonnes of beef in 2018-19. Animal translates intoa daily water requirement of 200 flesh is relatively cheap and easily available million litres for green fodder,1 trillion litres for owing to factory farming and government subsidies. But how many of us are aware of the dry fodder and 29 million litres for concenperilous impact meat production and consump- trates, respectively. This excludes water needed for drinking and bathing. tion have on the environment and human Says economist Nilanjan Ghosh, director, health?

Observer Research Foundation, “Per capita Reports show livestock farming on industrial scales leads to rapid degradation of pasture availability of water is indeed declining over time, and the meat industry continues to be an lands, increased demand for fodder and water and release of greenhouse gases. Says Vijay Ku- area of concern. However, to better assess the mar, a farmerbased in North Karnataka, “A few situation, additional indicators besides water supply are also required.” years back, we started receiving orders for bufIndian pastures support 512 million livefalo meat from a city-based company. Earlier, stock grazing on about 12 million hectares of I used to rear buffaloes for milk but to meet land. The average of 42 animals grazing per demand for meat, I’m forced to cultivate thrice hectare of land is over eight times higher than the area for fodder and almost double the the recommended threshold of five animals per quantity of water for feeding the buffaloes.” hectare. Over grazing damages soil quality and A single buffalo consumes around 4 kg Maharashtra, one of the top five buffalo-meat of green fodder, 7 kg of dry fodder, and 0.36

producing states, unsurprisingly has the highest percentage of damaged pasture lands at 0.43% of the total geographical area of the state.

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attle is a major source of methane, a greenhouse gas. Enteric methane emission of over 200 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents are released by Indian livestock every year. Global greenhouse gases increase surface temperature. Says Jimmy Borah, a biodiversity conservationist in a report

by India Bioscience ,“The meat industry emits a considerable amount of greenhouse gases.

Converting the livestock into meat adds more greenhouse gas emmisions than the livestock alone.”

Alternative vegetarian sources of protein must be encouraged. Meat consumption as a growing source of nutrition needs to be balanced with environment and sustainability goals.

THE BEAT |19

SPORTS

New Zeland won three ODIs and two Test scricket matches in a row to whitewash India | Credit: Cricinfo

India Bites the Dust

Indian cricket has returned to its old ways. Chirag Dutta asks what the disastrous tour of New Zealand can teach us

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nconsistency has long been the bane of Indian cricket. True to form, after pulverising New Zealand in the T20 series, India was brought to her knees in both the ODI and Test series by the same team. After the T20 whitewash, New Zealand came back in exceptional form in the ODIs that commenced on January 24thto launch a winning streak against India. Since then, the Indian team has lost 5 matches in a row. New Zealand didn’t look like the same team and in the first ODI chased down 348, the highest in their history. This was New Zealand’s revenge for almost a decade and a half of Indian dominance.

The Indian cricket team is playing shorter format games brilliantly but when it comes to longer formats like Test cricket, they don’t seem to have the temperament, or the technique required. Even though India still leads the ICC Test Championship rankings, their two-match loss to New Zealand has highlighted a lot of flaws that were present in their play and the tactics they had planned. Somewhere, the team was lacking in both consistency and persistence. There can be various reasons why the most balanced cricket lineup in the THE BEAT |20

world failed to perform. Was it a suboptimal combination of players in the team, lack of focus and consistency or just overconfidence?

Whatever the explanation, it’s clear Captain Kohli couldn’t hold the line.

Team India’s batting coach Vikram Rathour accepted the set-back the team has faced and stated that he will rejuvenate the team and bring out their best from the next match onwards. He believes Team India was not completely ready for the conditions, including the size of the ground and the state of the pitch.

Equallythe morale of the team, the determination of the opposition and pressure created by good bowling, and many other factors added up to bring about the defeat of team India.

Team India completely overlooked the home-ground test cricket record of New Zealand. India faced New Zealand after a run of unbeaten home ground test matches.

New Zealand, in this decade, has played 13 home-ground test series and won 9 of them.

Team India failed to recognize the strength that experience gave the home team, the confidence of having consistently defeated the world’s top teams on these grounds and in similar weather

conditions. India came without a clear strategy totackle the home team’s strengths or come up with a backup plan for a high-pressure game of test cri. Before the New Zealand tour, India had faced Bangladesh at Eden Gardens, beating them in both the matches to secure a clean 2-0 series winner.

Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal were the innings openers for India. Even though they are young and extremely talented and have proven themselves a number of times in T20s and ODIs, they struggled hard for consistency on the pitch. Prithvi did well to become the second batsman, after Sachin Tendulkar, to score a half-century in Test cricket against New Zealand on their home turf. But it wasn’t enough for the team. Mayank too delivered a good performance in the second innings.

“It’s been a little different playing here, but I want to leave all that behind,” Agarwal told DNA newspaper. “Whatever has happened has happened. Yes, I got an 81 in the second innings and I want to take this confidence forward into the next match.” Vikram sir and I sat down and spoke about the areas where we needed to improve. We have worked on it.

After I got out in the first innings, I went back to the nets, did a lot of drills. I am happy whatever I have worked on is coming good now.”

The lack of a solid partnership was one of the main reasons for India’s batting failure.

With the openers losing their wickets, the batsmen who followed could provide the needed support to forge a strong and reliable partnership that the team could build on. Most Indian batsmen couldn’t survive long enough to stabilize themselves and find their groove.

Every time a wicket was lost, the next batman couldn’t seem to hold his composure, slow down and work his way into the flow of the game, eventually losing his wicket and failing to form a solid partnership. Captain Kohli, usually the most reliable batsman in the middle order and often the team’s strongest defence and ultimate saviour, failed to deliver.

As Kohli admitted after losing the ODI series, “I think the first match, we were pretty much in the contest. All three games, the composure and the way we fielded wasn’t good enough for international cricket. The way we came back was a positive for us. In the field, we weren’t good enough at all. We played really well in the T20 series. But here in the ODIs, for a couple of new guys, it was a good experience for them. (New Zealand) played with a lot more intensity after the T20 series. They deservedly won 3-0.”

Kohli was confident going into the Tests.

“I think because of the Test Championship, every match has that more importance. We

have a really balanced Test team and we feel we can win the series here, but we need to step on to the park with the right kind of mindset,” he added.

The Indian team lacked a fast-paced bowler with the ability to swing the ball in both directions. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar would have been the obvious choice but he wasn’t available. Throughout the test series, it was the bowlers who delivered on both sides. India had fine wicket-takers like Umesh Yadav, Mohammad Shamiand, most importantly, Jasprit Bumrah. But sadly Bumrah, India’s secret weapon, did his magic a little too late.

“On first day,

there was a bit of moisture and consequently when they bowled in the first innings, and dents (in the pitch) were created,” recollects Bumrah. “There was a bit of seam movement for both the teams and bowlers were there in the game and you bowl good areas, you create good pressure. We were also creating a lot of chances and the (dents) could have played a role.”

Tim Southee played a critical role in the series, claiming Kohli’s prized wicket again and again and paved the way for New Zealand thumping victory in the Test series. He took 14 wickets in 2 matches and gave away the least runs among the New Zealand bowlers. Kyle Jamieson followed Southee to secure 6 wickets.

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eam India was confident on the first day of the second test. They started in excellent form. Batsman started well but couldn’t hold their ground. Team India coach Ravi Shastri believes that some strategic changes in the line-up is needed. Along with that, he plans to introduce new bowling tactics and bowlers for the next match, although it’s too little too late.

“That has been a problem for us in the last year,” said Shastri. “In spite of us doing well, there have been days when we’ve just cleaned up the tail, on other days where there has been some resistance. We have had a chat on that, how to look into bowling at the tail. Either we are being overaggressive or we are being too defensive.”

THE BEAT |21

SPORTS

2

A True Champion

Over three decades, Leander Paes showed the world the value of persistence, says Chirag Dutta

020 is going to be an emotional one, and I look forward to seeing you all out there roaring with me. It’s been an honour being your lion heart.” With those words, Leander Paes, India’s greatest tennis player, announced his retirement from a game he had devoted every waking moment of his life for three decades.

In the world of sports, tennis is a game that requires the perfect combination of strength, agility, stamina, strategy and patience to master. Many have made history in the game and broken unbreakable records. Many have been crowned king of the game, but there was one true legend that set standards for tennis players in the subcontinent to follow; Leander Paes.

Making his debut in the 1990 Junior US Open, he won his first tennis title. His career really took off when he won the bronze medal at the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996, winning India its first Olympic medal in over four decades. Paes soon combined with Mahesh Bhupathi to form the unbeatable India Tennis duo that won six out of eight ATP doubles titles.

The French Open (1999) was the tournament that earned him and his partner the first Grand Slam title. The duo made history for the second time by winning the French Open (2001), earning the second Grand Slam title of their career. This turned out to be the turning point of Peas’s life.

The competition threw light on the famous ‘Indian Express’

Paes has announced his retirement from professional Tennis in 2020 THE BEAT |22

But not long after, unable to resolve their differences on and off the court, Paes set sail on his own, winning five Grand Slams with partners that included all-time greats like Martina Navratilova and Martina Hingis. Leander Peas was awarded the career Grand Slam in mixed doubles after winning the Wimbledon, the U.S Open, the French Open, and the Australian Open between 1999 and 2015.

Paes was awarded the Arjuna Award for Lawn Tennis in 1990. The classic Indian duo, Paes and Bhupathi, were awarded the Padma Shri in 2001. He won the Padma Bhushan award in 2014 and claimed the CNN-IBN Indian of the Year Outstanding Achievement (2013), along with the CNN-IBN Indian of the Year Special Jury Award in 2016.

Paes played and won formidable matches that left a strong impact on India to inspire many young Tennis

players in the nation and across the globe.

The most memorable ones will be India v Japan in 1990 for the Davis Cup, where Paes made his debut and played alongside Zeeshan Ali. A decade later, Paes and Bupati beat Japan again in the Davis Cup in 2001 in a nail-biting match that broke the tie between India and Croatia to make way for the Indian duo in the finals.

Paes has announced his retirement as a professional Tennis player in 2020. With all his achievements and wholehearted love for the game, he thanked his supporters, the ones who inspired him and allowed him to live his dream, his partners, and his countrymen, to bid farewell to professional Tennis. Mahesh Bhupathi, Paes’s most successful partner, believes Leander has enough skill and energy left in him to continue and push for a higher rank in the current tennis standings, for at least a year more.

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e’s still playing well. He made the final of the Bengaluru Tennis Open. If he continues to play well for a few more months, maybe he will play for another year. I think the way he’s playing he should play as long as he can,” said Mahesh Bhupathi, winner of eight mixed, four men’s doubles majors and two Grand Slam titles.

Paes’s last match, with his partner Bopanna, was a do or die against Mate Pavic and Franko Skugor. They won the first round, losing the next, and a after a very close match where India fell behind, Paes and Bopnna emerged winners of the series. With this match, Leander Paes from professional tennis.

Leander Paes is an icon and no player in the world can take his place in the hearts of Indian tennis lovers and tennis lovers all across the globe.

SOCIETY

Mythology and Misogyny A fear of female autonomy and sexuality permeates all traditional culture, writes Nikita Gupta

Shakuntala had the courage to demand rights for her son | Credit: Raja Ravi Verma

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omen hold up half the sky, Mao famously decreed. But the heavens haven’t really appreciated that simple truth, at least not the versions of heaven written by men over millennia.

“The general subordination of women assumed a particularly severe form in India through the powerful instrument of religious traditions which have shaped social practices,” argues Uma Chakravarti, a historian and filmmaker. In fact, the deepest-rooted patriarchy sprouts from our revered texts, our myths and stories passed through the generations.

The consequences have been disastrous for men and women alike. Remember when disgracing a woman in an assembly of men led to a war so devastating that the Earth trembled with fear? A clan collapsed; a lineage was destroyed.

The most objectified women in Hindu mythology are Apsaras or the celestial nymphs.

Always used as objects to lure men into sex, they didn’t have right to love or have a family.

Be it Menaka, who was asked to seduce Sage Vishwamitra or Rambha, who was raped by Ravana. These women are deprived of agency,

authority and individuality. You may ask, “We know this, why do you talk about this now?”

Pooja Priyamvada columnist with FeminisminIndia writes, “Almost all mythologies have stories of women/youth being ‘taken’

by Gods as punishment, pleasure or as a conquest, thereby making ‘consent’, agency and/or ‘sexual identity’ of the victim/survivor almost redundant in the whole scheme of things.”

Rape culture is a sum of every practice that shames and degrades women, ignores their existence and strips them of justice. I remember my grandmother narrating the story of three sisters; Amba, Ambika and Ambalika who kidnapped by the great warrior and Kshatriya, Devrutt, known as Bhisma in popular culture, to be married to his weak and unhealthy brother.

First kidnapped, then abandoned by her lover and rejected by her kidnapper, all three on the grounds of Kshatriya dharma, Amba committed suicide. Bride kidnapping, is still prevalent in many parts of East and South Asia, our myths send out the message that it’s a man’s right to kidnap the bride if she says no. Mahabharata and Ramayana prohibits a woman to say ‘no’ to a man’s wishes.

As Kavita Kane, author and columnist, says “Ravana is mistakenly glorified as a hero and not seen as the sexual predator that he was, under the sheen of scholarliness and sophistication. He was handsome, wealthy, powerful, erudite, brave and even charming – all what a woman may want in a man. Sita did not; but his buoyed ego could not digest her ‘no’.”

“Manusmriti has been single-handedly responsible for the derogatory position accorded to women in the post-Vedic period.

The watertight dichotomization of the public and private sphere and the confinement of the women in the former has found its requisite justification in a text like Manusmriti,” writes Shreyashi Ghosh, senior research fellow at Indian Statistical Institute Kolkata.

Ahalya’s legend resonates with the thoughts of Sage Manu, ‘Since women are not capable of living independently, she is to be kept under the custody of her father as child, under her husband as a woman and under her son as widow.’

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She is the epitome of #metoo from our myths. Sexually abused by a powerful man, blamed and abandoned by her husband for the same, she stands up for her self-respect disregarding the set standards for a woman. #Metoo brought to light the struggles, tales and woes of women who suffer sexual abuse on daily basis at their work place, inside their homes, in public transport; basically, anywhere and everywhere.

Hindu mythology is replete with examples of women who have endured the brunt of repressive Brahmanical culture. Girls begin to learn the submissive way of living at a young age. The unfinished stories of the heroines of epics is a smooth and effortless way to condition them into believing that subjugation is the way of life. Their complete stories, if told, would result in shaking the foundation of patriarchy.

Nur Yalman, leading Turkish anthropologist at Harvard University, argues that a fundamental principle of Hindu social organisation is to construct a closed structure to preserve land, women, and ritual quality within it. Yalman points out that the honour and respectability of men is protected and preserved through their women.

That’s probably the reason Queen Kaikeyi and Queen Satyavati are cast as villains of Ramayana and Mahabharata respectively. Why? Just because they asked for their rights, security for their children, did not bow down to the wishes of the king and were bold enough to fight back?If a queen tries to protect her future and asks for her right in the property of her husband to secure their child’s future, is she wrong?

Women have no right to parental property according to Manusmriti. The only rights that the text talks about is what she receives from her father before marriage and from her husband after marriage. “As in the Ramayana, we are persuaded that women like Gandhari and Kaikeyi, who act in order to secure the contested royal destinies of their sons, are ‘bad’ women,” says Arshia Sattar, columnist with The Hindu.

It took the Indian government 58 years to provide daughters and wives equal property rights. Nevertheless, numerous amendments are still required in the law. A daughter has no right over agrarian land owned by her father.

In a similar fashion, if a man dies, his widow is not the first person to claim the property.

The Sabarimala Case brought the taboo around menstruation, the atrocities and discrimination girls experience during their monthly cycle, to the forefront in the battle against patriarchy. ‘Angirasa Smriti’ recommends that on the fourth day after menstruation stops, a purification bath is required to make the woman ‘shuddha’ (pure).

Wendy Doniger, an American Indologist THE BEAT |24

writes, “Menstruation was associated with women’s participation in brahmin murder. It is a mark of a woman’s innate impurity and at the same times her innate sexuality.” She wrote this in relation to the story where after killing Vishwarupa, his mentor and a Brahmin, Indra’s sin was transferred to Earth, Ocean, Trees and women #righttopray was the campaign that sprouted from the Sabarimala case paving the way for a million more girls to break the barriers and voice their ordeal.Recently, authorities forced college girls to strip in order to check them for ‘menstrual blood’ in Bhuj. This encouraged a civic body in Surat to repeat the act with its women employees. In India, disrobing a lady of her dignity, self-esteem and honour is a crime that has no consequence.

Swami Krushnaswarup Dasji helped us appreciate the twisted logic of such a prejudice

saying, “If you eat food prepared by a menstruating woman even once, then your next avatar will definitely be of a ‘balad’ (ox). A menstruating woman who cooks for her husband will certainly be reborn as ‘kutri’ (bitch).”

The National Family Heath Survey disclosed that about two percent women reported their husbands having other wives. Shariat Law in Islam glorifies husbands taking more than one wife. If a king does not have an heir, it is blamed on the woman’s infertility and not a man’s impotency. King Pandu took Madri as a second wife when he couldn’t become a father.

Kunti was fertile enough to bear a child with another man before her marriage but not with Pandu.

Satya Chaitanya, disciple of HH Swami Chinmayananda writes, “The Kunti-Pandu marriage had failed to produce offspring,

Ahalya’s story resonates even today | Credit: Raja Ravi Verma

“She will defend dharma. She will protect us,” as Amish says | Credit: Sangeetha Alwar which would be the case because Pandu was impotent from the beginning. Bhishma assumed it could be because of some fault with Kunti - the woman is the first suspect in such cases and getting a second wife is the easiest solution for the man, particularly for a king. He might not even have considered the possibility that Pandu was impotent.”

To all the ladies reading this, imagine a life where you are married off at 13 to a man thrice your age, a sadistic old man who beats you, forces himself on you and leaves you a widow.

“When Matsyagandha met Shantanu, she was about the same age as Devavrata, Shantanu’s son. Yet entranced by her beauty Shantanu wasted no time to propose to her,” extols U Mahesh Prabhu, co-founder of Vedic Management Centre.

Even today, in many parts of our country there are women who are condemned to this fate by their parents. The king gave away Princess Lopamudra to Sage Agasthya, who was her father’s age or maybe older, in marriage.

yadā yadā hi dharmasya glanirbhavati suvrata| abhyutthānamadharmasya tadā prakrutisambhava|| O keeper of righteous vows, remember this,

Whenever dharma is in decline, Or there is an upsurge of adharma; The Sacred Feminine will incarnate.

In Amish Tripathi’s noble words, “She will defend dharma. She will protect us.”As Arshia Sattar explains, “Far better is the woman who prays and fasts and seeks the blessings of the gods for her husband’s success and happiness than the woman who acts to secure it herself.”

A woman will save a man. A woman saves a man. A woman has always saved a man. The reason Sita agreed to undergo agnipariksha, was not just in order to return to Ram but to save him from the shame of having a queen who had spent a year in another man’s home.

The story of Savitri and Satyavan is a legend. Savitri has said to have brought back Satyavan from the clutches of Yama, the god of death. If a woman can prevent death, a woman can achieve whatever she wants.

Further, in another of her columns, Arshia Sattar writes, “She defeated him with her arguments and with a cleverly worded boon — it is her iron will, her intellect and her quick wit that Yama honours when he gives Satyavan back.

Yama obviously sees Savitri as more than just a wife.”

The flames of protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act at Shaheen Bagh are alight because of the women. Rising ‘adharma’ has seen ‘devi’ come to life. A strong, indepen-

dent woman has remained a threat to a man’s fragile ego. She’ll do anything but entertain a man who’s afraid of her rebellious thoughts.

Rosa Parks started the movement against black prejudice, Greta Thunberg raised her voice against climate change, Alice Walker fought for civil rights for African-Americans, Emma Watson started the #heforshe movement for equality between genders, Vrinda Grover has influencedthe shaping of the POCSO Act. It has always been a woman fighting for the world because men are too busy fighting among themselves.

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iran Bedi once said, “Empowered women who reach unconventional positions makechoices not sacrifices.”Be empowered like the Panchkanya: Ahalya, Draupadi, Sita, Tara, and Mandodari,who made choices and never confused them with sacrifices. Or, to use the language of the scripture,

yatra nāryastu pūjyante ramante tatra devatā| yatraitāstu na pūjyante sarvāstatrāphalā kriyā || The divine is extremely happy where women are respected; where they are not, all actions (projects) are fruitless.

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DRAMA

The Soul of Theatre

Soundless and wordless, mime is the epitome of expression, says Chirag Dutta

Dutta (center) performs for the last time with his troupe Padaboli | Credit: Jogesh Mime Academy

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an there be a form of art as powerful as theatrics, as intimate as dance, and as entertaining and inspiring as cinema? Can there be expression without sound, without language, with nothing but movement and gesture? What exactly is the definition of mime? And where does the art form stand in the 21st century? “Mime is expression at its fullest, without the use of a single word,” answers Jogesh Dutta, colloquially known as the father of mime in India.

Mime originated in Greece around the six century BCE as a form of drama with gestures and expressions being its key elements. Back then, it wasn’t necessarily silent, words were often used, accompanied by music, it was perceived as a form of mimicry by the world.

As time passed by, mime evolved and became a more polished and refined form of art.

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Marcel Marceau is credited for presenting this art form to the world. Hence, one can say that modern mime originated in France.

Everyone knows the famous Charles Spencer Chaplin, a true pioneer of the art form. Charlie Chaplin was the inspiration to many legendary mime artists, including Marceau himself. In a way, Chaplin’s ‘tramp’ character laid the ground for Marceau’s stage identity, ‘Bip the Clown’, an equally humorous character close to the heart of audience. “Chaplin made me laugh and cry without saying a word,” Marceau said of his idol. “I had an instinct. I was touched by the soul of Chaplin. Mime is not an imitator but a creator.”

In a way, these legends re-taught the world the art of expressing emotions. Their soundless act changed people’s perception of the world and mime redefined the art of drama. In India,

Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore created an art form called ‘Geetinatta’ or musical drama.

This was an infusion of music, danceand drama, a form of drama that later came to be known as pantomime, a form of mime with music as its key element.

Jogesh Dutta was born to a poor family.

Although as a child he didn’t have footwear, had to skip a meal so that his sister could eat, and had neither blanket nor pullover in winter, his love for drama, especially mimicry, knew no bounds.

“I used to dress up like my sister and act how she used to,” recollects Datta. “One day, I approached her in that outfit and pretending to be a girl, I asked her how the performance was. She said the outfit was terrifying and girls would throw me into the river if they caught a glance of me. As I looked down with a heavy

heart, when she said that I nailed the mimicry this, times are changing rapidly and change is “India is the only country in the world with part. That boosted my morale and from that the only constant in the world.” He founded over thirty-six different languages. Being the moment I was crystal clear about what I would the Jogesh Mime Academy in Kolkata with the second most populated nation of the world like to do in my life. My sister never let me give sole purpose of preserving the art form. He and having enormous linguistic differences up on my dreams no matter how difficult the feels sad to see his art not getting the exposure within its borders, which in turn create the days were.” it deserves, but at the same time, he believes identity of citizens, only mime can speak so “After a couple of days of impressing the that mime must change. It must evolve with many different languages without having to old intellects of the locality, I got an offer to changing times. speak anything at all. Mime truly is a global lanperform my act in Bally; one of these seniors guage” says his daughter Prokriti Dutta, who’s were hosting the show,” Datta continues. “It also the head instructor at the Academy. was merely an entertainment performance, like one of those stand-up comedy shows. But it t is true that the art doesn’t stand on the was the turning point of my life. I still rememplatform it used to once,” Prokriti adds. ber how I froze and stood on the stage for at “It is definitely not getting the exposure least ten minutes, by then people had already it deserves. We still have great talents emergstarted laughing. The laughing didn’t go away ing from the field but are ending up as broken as I started my act; rather it increased, as no dreams due to the lack of exposure. The purity one had the slightest idea of what I was doing. of the art is being lost and mime as an art form After a while I started losing myself in the act, is undergoing rapid change. I don’t think an It felt like I had nothing to care or worry about ‘art form’ can fade, art simply changes with anymore, I was in my own paradise.” changing times and perceptions. Mime is on Newspapers like the Ananda Bazar Patrika, the path where it may change and emerge as the Amrita Bazar Patrika and Jugantar covered the something new, or it might also be forgotten by event. That was the jumpstart Dutta needed to the generations that follow.” launch his career as a mime artist. “When the “There was a traditional process of act was over, I could hear nothing but silence. learning, mastering, and performing the art,” When I finally snapped out of that state, all I explains Arpan Chakraborty, young mime artcould hear was thundering applause and people ist. “That very process is changing now. New shouting my name. I just stood there like a lifeelements are being introduced in the art form. less mannequin. I didn’t even have the courage In my opinion, mime is evolving, the art form to ask people about my perforhis grown its roots in the 21st mance. For me, it was a night century, for the 21st century. of self-doubt and even confuChange is good, evolution is sion. I could barely sleep. Next nature, but in this process, we morning everything changed. cannot lose the true essence The headline of the Ananda of mime. The traditional art Bazar Patrika article called me of mime must survive to ‘The new fire of Bengal’.” give birth to something new Dutta has performed and modified. Mimicry is around the world. Whether it undoubtedly a key element of was the UK, the US, Russia, acting. Acting itself is the key Germany, France, Czechosloelement of the entertainment vakia, Romania, Bulgaria, the industry. Without the key Middle-East or Canada, he element, the industry will colimpressed audiences wherlapse. Hence, mime can never ever he performed. He was a completely fade or die.” delegate for the World Youth In recent times, shows Festival (1968) held at Sofia, like Mr Bean, Shaun the Sheep, Bulgaria, represented India as and Just for Laughs have made an oriental mime instructor millions of people laugh at the world mime academy without ever giving them a session held at Vienna in 1982 clue where their inspiration and in 1985, won the Shironami or origins lay. In circus shows, Purosker award for the best acts performed by jesters and performing artist in India. In clowns captivate the minds of 1993, he won the Sangeet Natak children.

Akademi award for acting and The art of mimicry has India’s films division honoured left its influence on us, in one him with a documentary, Silent way or the other. Mime still Art and Jogesh Dutta. has a crucial role in teaching Dutta says people no lonpeople how to identify actions, ger have the time or patience movements, and gestures, and to watch a mime show, saying, Dutta: Mime is expression at its fullest, without the use of a single word | most important, what they “They can’t be blamed for really mean.

Credit: Jogesh Mime Academy

“

India is a secular country with more than 25 languages.

One language that can communicate with all of them is mime

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”

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THEATRE

The Voice of the Street

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Theatre has formed an essential component of the recent protests, says Meghna Das Chowdhury

haheen Bagh and Bilal Bagh have while performing and communicating with become household names thanks to the the audience. After all it is life itself, conveyed protests against the Citizenship Amenddirectly. The audience lives the show. ment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC). Apart from powerful slogans and placards that informed the protests, street theatre groups had a field day helping common people voice their opinions.

“I have used street theatre whenever I want to put out something important for society to know,” says Anuv Ghosh, a street-theatre artist from Delhi. “I think it’s a very strong medium because people who are not even interested in your message watch for the sake of entertainment and humour. This way your voice is being The culture of street theatre is as old as heard. It brings in emotions that a lecture civilization itself. Theatre began in ancient cannot.” He performed several streets plays at Greece and a distinct form of theatrical perShaheen Bagh to explain why CAA and NRC formance during the post-Russian Revolution. are unconstitutional and discriminatory.

It is a cultural expression and a comment on Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai have history, society, politics, religion, commerce, seen many young theatre groups emerge in love and more. From the time of the Mughals the course of these protests. Street theatre is a it has played a very important role in creating form of communication that is deeply rooted awareness. It is a medium that holds a mirror in Indian society. Street theatre groups study to society. But how successful has it been to society, understands what’s possible and then effect social change? communicate that vision to the audience.

When we talk about street theatre it is People watch street plays usually by accident, so time is a key constraint. One needs to important to talk about Safdar Hashmi who was originally a stage artist but moved to street keep it simple, short and direct. Theatre groups say the real challenge is finding simple ways and theatre to bring about social and political awareness through his plays. Such was the methods to convey complex messages. Even so, the art form is only gaining its popularity throughout the country.

Says Utpal Phaucdar, a renowned thespian who also teaches theatre, “One needs to understand their audience and where they are going to perform. When you comprehend that, it is very easy for you to plan your play irrespective of your subject. I have seen people changing their opinions after watching any street play. People can connect more here because it is happening right in front of your eyes.”

Street theatre, popularly known as ‘Nukkad Natak’ in India, has been a revolutionary weapon for mobilising public opinion on any social or political issue. You need not always be vocal and loud A street theatre troupe in action | Credit- India Today THE BEAT |28

“Theatre is very sensitive as well as a powerful art form. One has to be very careful about what he/ she is saying there up on stage.”

impact of his plays that he was shot and killed while performing a play at Ghaziabad.

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n recent years, street theatre has earned a well-deserved reputation as both a moral forum and as an enjoyable form of entertainment. People choose to watch because the actors speak to the heart and are more effective than a person just standing and giving a speech.

It is an excellent medium form to bring about change and the best possible use our right to freedom of speech and expression. It feels more realistic because no make up is used in street theatre. There are no sperate costumes for different characters. The thing that made it this popular is about its mobility that doesn’t require many props.

“Theatre is very sensitive as well as a powerful art form,” says Promit Ganguly, a young theatre artist from Kolkata. “One has to be very careful about what he/she is saying there up on stage; because here, you are not just saying it but enacting it out which will automatically have more impact. I remember there had been times when we were stopped in the middle of the play by the people in the audience. We must have spoken against their ideologies and they saw the command we were having over the audience while performing.”

If you manage to make yourself popular in the on-stage theatre world, there is a chance that you get revenue from your shows. The thing with street theatre is there is no realm for returns either in terms of finance or fame. You have to be good at this job for becoming a known face. Not everyone becomes Utpal Dutt here. He was one of the most magnificent street theatre artists who used his voice to bring about a political change. Indian street theatre is greatly inspired by people like him and Badal Sircar.

Street theatre is now a weapon of social transformation. It is a concept of collectivity and co-ordination. Giving out a message without actually talking to the audience is what makes it unique as well as direct due to its informal nature.

REVIEW

The Kim family before they discover how the upper class lives | Credit: The Playlist

A Family That Came to Stay

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Parasite is a South Korean’s take on class war, writes Ankita Mukherjee

parasite is an organism that lives off the body of another species and either maintains a symbiotic relationship with the host or ultimately kills it and moves on to another. In director Bong Joonho’s Academy Award-winning film Parasite, a poor family from a slum inveigle their way into working as servants for one of the richest families in town. Like proverbial parasites, they worm their way into their employers’ good books and into their home. But Bong’s curious tale leaves one guessing as to who the real parasites are.

The movie’s opening and closing shots show socks hung up to dry, signifying a full circle and suggesting, Karma like, that what goes around comes around. The Kim family, the father (Kim-taek), the mother (Chung-sook) and their two children Ki-jung (daughter) and Ki-woo (son), barely make a living. One day, Ki-woo’s friend comes to visit and offers him the job he used to have, tutoring the daughter of the wealthy Park family. Ki-woo takes the job and very quickly discovers opportunities in the Park household where other members of

his family can be employed.

First he plots to find a job for his sister, Kijung, as an art tutor for the Park’s young son.

Next, he prepares a trap for the family driver and once he’s pushed out, plots to place his father Kim in that position. After that, it is the maid’s turn to make way for his mother. Thus the whole Kim family is now employed, without the Park being aware of either their relation to one another or how they got their jobs. But that is until the little boy discovers the four of them smell like the same. “The smell of the poor, the smell of the slum,” in the words of the screenplay.

With detailed scene setting and superb camera work by Hong Kyung-pyo, director Bong proves his skill as a master story teller.

The cinematography leaves the audience awestruck and the plot keeps one completely engrossed in the story, especially the way it builds suspense. Bong’s subtle depiction of class and world of difference between the South Korean upper class and the lower orders of society using camera angles and lighting is masterful.

The plot takes numerous twists and turns,

not all of them essential to the point the film seeks to make. Suffice it to say that it’s fast paced and interesting enough to keep the audience on tenterhooks, guessing where it’s all going to end. The acting is workmanlike, though Kim taek is a standout as the greedy and desperate father whose urge to mimic the upper class ends up in frustration and rage against the rich.

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arasite create Hollywood history by winning for the first time ever the coveted best movie at the Academy Awards for a non English film (as well as best foreign film and best original screenplay). Bong also won best director. The English subtitles were more than adequate to follow the film’s fast paced but nuanced plot. In short, an intriguing but thoroughly entertaining movie.

Director: Bong Joon-ho Cast: Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam, Jang Hye-jin Running time: 2 hours 12 minutes THE BEAT |29

REVIEW

A Reality Check on War Sam Mendes’ 1917 is terrifying portrayal of war and its victims, writes Meghna Das Chowdhury

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917 is a British war film directed by Sam would deeply appreciate and make proud.

Mendes. The story, co-written by Sam All through the film, Mendes tries to strip Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns, is set away the ‘romanticism’ of war and shows the during World War 1 and tells the story of two audience its horror and brutality instead. As young British soldiers who are sent to convey William and Blake crawl and cautiously make a message to call off a planned assault. The their way, careful not to alert the Germans to Germans have pulled back their forces in what their presence, they discover a land strewn with looks like a ‘strategic withdrawal.’ the dead, bodies of soldiers lying all over, muThe story takes the two, William Schofield tilated and rotting. All the courage and honour (George MacKay) and Thomas Tom Blake of the warrior has been drained with his blood (Dean-Charles Chapman), through a nightmare and now lies drowned in filthy water. Whether world of death and devastation, of gruelit’s the living or the dead, the film portrays a ing hardship and extreme brutality. The film shocking picture of war even after the fight has questions conventional ideas of patriotism and been fought, the wounded lying in a tent and honour, and sacrifice for one’s country and shouting out in torment. suggests that nothing is worth the degradaThe dream of courage provided by the tion and horror of war and what it compels directors in the film about 1917, bleaches the ordinary people to do to one another. And past with its presumptions, stereotypes, cruelwhen it’s over, all that’s left is broken humans, ties and pettiness, but also with its true goodwhether living or dead. ness, strength and suffering.

The film opens with William and Blake The film had a great cast of supporting resting in a field when they are called by the actors including Benedict Cumberbatch as Major and told to rush to the Hindenburg Colonel Mackenzie, Andrew Scott as LieutenLine and inform the 1,600 British soldiers there to halt the planned assault because it’s a trap.

Blake comes to know his brother is among the 1,600 troops and decides to take off for the mission at once. William however says that they should wait till its gets dark but Blake insists on leaving immediately. The film does not talk much about the times of World War 1 but gives the glimpse of the horror and sufferrings.

All through their journey, the film draws the contrast between the two characters, in their attitudes towards war and the rewards they seek.

William is somebody who swapped his medal for a bottle of wine. Blake, on the other hand, is sentimental about war and he believes a medal is something his family A hard look at life in the trenches | Credit-IMBd THE BEAT |30

ant Leslie, Stamp Solid as Captain Smith and Richard Anger as Lieutenant Joseph Blake. The film has few characters but they are beautifully rendered that they will keep you on the edge of your seat. You might miss them because the camera never moves too close to them than the bare minimum needed to create the impact.

1917 tries to put the audience in the position of the soldier that would get blown away on the head any moment. Every character they meet in their journey, defines the complexities of war, that would give the audience some nail biting moments.

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he film had great cinematography. The camera is their party’s third leader, disguising every cut in order to make the film appear as one unbroken sequence. Clever staging and brilliant composition help this feat pull off exceptionally well. Images alternate between deep gloom and bright domains of light, with transitions that seems to defy the possibilities of film. All the shots within the film are perfectly rendered by cinematographer Roger Deakins and his team, with a degree of detail and proximity that makes you feel you’re with the protagonists. 1917 won the Academy Awards for the best cinematography and best sound blending and best picture at the Hollywood Critic’s Association.

At 119 minutes, 1917 is a long film but strangely one that doesn’t drag. Whether it’s the plot, the soundtrack, the effects or the acting, the film is a compelling watch and one that leaves a strong impression in the viewer. Whether you agree with Mendes about the futility of war or not, you come away convinced he made a good case. In the future at whatever point there will be given a few cases of awesome cinematography and visual impacts, 1917 would continuously be recollected high on the list and will be set held as an example.

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For private circulation only

Soumyadeep Bhattacharjee