Volume 16 Edition 20

The Weekly

BSERVER An IIJNM Publication

Volume 16 Issue 20

BJP dominates poll results; govts formed in all five states

Froth &

By Staff reporter

Fire:

Pg 3

Can silt save Bellandur?

Aadhar digests mid-day meals Push for tax-less sanitary napkins Dysfunctional sewage system leads to malaria and dengue

By Mitali Goyal mitali.g@iijnm.org Bengaluru: The lack of a proper sewage system in the Shettihalli area of Bangalore, zoned under Dasarahalli, is causing a breakout of diseases like malaria and dengue among the residents.

After six years of being incorporated into the Bengaluru Bruhat Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the area that accommodates over 61,000 people does not have a proper sewage system.

Each house has been accommodated with a septic pit underneath which then collects human waste.

In Shettihalli, the residents employ labourers (manual scavengers) to clean the tanks whenever they get filled within the span of one year.

In 1993, the employment of manual scavengers was banned by the government of India. In 2013, in lieu of theban, the Manual Scavengers Act was passed prohibiting manual scavenging in all forms and also seeking to rehabilitate the victims identified through surveys.

According to the Census 2011, there are still around 2.6 billion dry latrines in India and around 13, 14, 652 toilets where human excreta is flushed in open drains. There are around 1,

Tuesday, 21 March, 2017

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was formed with the swearing in of N. Biren Singh on March 20. This On March 11, the election followed the election of Y. Khemresults from across five states chand as speaker. of Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand, The Congress won a major victory Uttar Pradesh and Punjab were in Punjab alone where it toppled announced. After the month long Parkash Singh Badal’s BJP-Shirolegislative excercise, the BJP has mani Akali Dal alliance by winning emerged as the biggest winner, 77 out of 95 seats. On 16 March, gaining majority in three states.

Captain Amarinder Singh was sworn As governments begin to form and in as the 26th Chief Minister of the reorganise, the states are paced for state. a series of political changes.

In Goa, despite only securing secIn Uttar Pradesh, the much an- Yogi Adityanath took oatch as the ond place, the BJP was able to suticipated show down between the CM of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday. persede the winning Congress Party Bharatiya Janata Party and the by partnering with the independent Samajwadi Party- Congress alliGoa Forward Party (GFP) and the ance resulted in a landslide victory for the BJP, which Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party. On March 16, the won 312 out of 403 seats. The party chose Yogi Governor of the state appointed Manohar Parrikar as Adityanath, a Lok Sabha member from Gorakhpur, Chief Minister. He was earlier the defgence minister for the position of Chief Minister. Amid controversy but he left his cabinet post to resume charge as chief over his ‘firebrand Hindutva’ reputation, he took minister succedding Laxmikant Parsekar. oath on March 19.

Following the wave of victories, the BJP has hinted BJP also swept up support in Uttarakhand that they are expecting an outcome similar to U.P. in where the incumbent Congress leader, Harish Gujarat, which will go to polls towards the end of the Rawat, lost to the BJP. After winning 42 out of year. It has also been reported that the ruling BJP may 70 seats, on March 18, Trivendra Singh Rawat opt for early elections in the anticipation of another was sworn in as the Chief Minister. major win. All major parties have also begun to scout The party also emerged victorious in Ma- for candidates for Himachal Pradesh assembly elecnipur where the first BJP-led government tions that will take place at the same time.

Pg 3

Street Art

82, 505 manual scavengers in India with over 15, 375 manual scavengers in Karnataka alone, with 7,740 households where manual scavenging is practiced.

In the past eight years, around 60 manual scavengers have lost their lives in Karnataka.

Not only do the residents face the problem of dry pits but also the problem of diseases like Dengue and malaria arising out of contamination of groundwater during monsoons.

Rajan Nath, a resident said, “problems get worse in monsoon when all the tanks get filled with rainwater.”

Dr. Prasad S, a general physician in the area, said that he receives around 40-50 cases of dengue and malaria each month during monsoon, and around 20 in during other seasons.

In the last two months, 17 complaints have been filed by the residents regarding the sanitation issue to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike. However, no measures have been taken till now.

Bangalore has seen a rise in the number of artists, who come from all over “A proposal for the establishment of the country and also the world. It is a good thing that the number of artworks has a sanitation system at Shettihalli is in increased over the city, both public and private, but it is also a better thing that some process and the residents might see a of these artworks, along with providing aesthetic purposes, also deliver some kind of change in a few months,” a Junior social message to its audience.

More on wall grafitti on Page 6 Engineer at the BBMP said.

2 Metro Aadhar digests mid-day meals; people rush for registration The Weekly Observer

Tuesday, 21 March, 2017

Arunava Banerjee arunava.b@iijnm.org

my family and I did our registrations last year. We had to pay Rs. 100 for every person,” she said.

BENGALURU:The union gov- She added that as aadhar cards are ernment on February 28 declared becoming compulsory for availthat aadhar cards will be made ing various government schemes and monetary compulsory for benefits, peostudents to avail ple are paying mid-day meals in as high as Rs. primary schools across the counWe have not received 500 to get their aadhar cards try. About 30 any directions on sanctioned. percent students mandating aadhar cards under the Go“There are for mid-day meals. lahalli cluster, some students most of who are from other from other parts parts of the of the country, country like Bido not possess har and neighaadhar cards.

-Rajalakshmi bouring Nepal.

“I have a kid.

Some of them We did her regisdo not have tration from the Kengeri station,” says Sheetal, a resident aadhar cards,” Rajalakshmi, head of Golahalli who hails from Bihar. mistress of the Golahalli Prima“Nowadays because aadhar is be- ry School, said. “As of now we ing needed for almost everything, have not received any directions

“ ”

Mid-day meal with terms and conditions. on mandating aadhar cards for mid day meals. The government has given allotted time until June 30 for citizens to enrol themselves in the biometric data list.”

Eight-year-old Saina, whose parents came to Golahalli from Nepal, does not know what the

aadhar card is. “No I do not have aadhar,” she says. Like her, scores of other children too will soon need to get aadhar cards in order to avail the mid-day meal facility.

The mid-day meal scheme was launched under the Right to Education Act to encourage

Source- Tv India parents to send their kids for primary schooling. With the aadhar compulsion, as several political scientists have observed, the government seems to impose scrutiny over its masses by allowing private agencies to collect and record the bio metric data of Indian citizens.

Culture in crisis: Judaism in decline in a changing India Azmia Riaz azmia.r@iijnm.org

community. They are celebrating their adopted home and the enduring nature of their culture.

Amrit Kumar Ranpal, who According to Jewish lore, Esgoes under his biblical name Ben ther, a beautiful Jewish woman who belonged to the harem of Hur, is a messianic Jew. “We King Ahasuerus, revealed her are independents. Most of our Jewish identity to the king in worship happens at home. We order to save her people from don’t know of any functioning extermination at the hands of synagogues in the area even if we wanted to go,” he explains. Ben an evil adviis not alone in sor, Haman. wishing that the The king accommunity had cepted Esther’s a larger base and plea and wel- Jewish culture has been more resources. comed her into reduced to colourful In 2008, his kingdom.

C h a b a d This day is cel- patterns on decorations.

Lubavitch, a ebrated across major movethe Jewish ment within the world as Purim Jewish world Thoufeek Zakariya to commemowas introduced rate the victory in Bangalore to answer to this of the Jewish people and their need. Rabbis Gavriel Holtzberg acceptance into a new land. and Rivkah Holtzberg are in This year, on March 11 and charge of the program within the 12, a small Jewish community city. Rabbi David, a member of within Bangalore celebrated Pu- Chabad, explains, “The moverim in their homes and among the ment was introduced here because

“ ”

of the request from local Jewish people to provide a spiritual home for Jews who are always travelling or settled in places where our culture may not be prominent.”

Jewish culture in India has been thinning since the turn of the 19th century with a few people scattered around Kolkata, Mumbai, Cochin, etc. Thane in Mumbai has the largest remaining population of Jews in India.

“Jewish culture is dying out in this country,” explained Dr. Gudrun Lowner, an associate professor of Mission and Ecumenics at the United Theological College, Bangalore. “The Jews first settled in Kerala. Even though there is no archaeological proof, some academicians maintain that they came prior to Christianity. They even claim that Early Christians in Cochin were former Jews.”

Lowner cites the remnants of Jewish culture within the city like the synagogues, cemeteries and

traded goods as the greatest examples of the earlier enormity of the community. “Many Jews left to Israel during the reign of Indira Gandhi. They were afraid that socialism would do away with trade,” she further added. “Today a Cochin Jew is like an endangered being. They cannot even conduct services in the synagogues unless a tourist bus is sent from Israel for that specific reason.”

Sarah Cohen who lives in

Mattanchery is one such endangered Jew. At 96, she runs Sarah’s embroidery shop in Jew Street. She established her own shop in the 1980s where she would distribute Jewish items like the ‘kippa’ and the ‘mezuzah’ among the local community. In fact, her work was able to conserve the Jewish culture that was beginning to dwindle in Kochi. However, she is one of the last remaining Jewish people in Cochin and the country as a whole.

Sarah’s shop and daily business is managed by Thoufeek Zakariya, a calligrapher who has mastered a number of languages, including Arabic, Samaritan, Syriac, and Sanskrit. He believes that Sarah’s legacy needs to be preserved. “Now, Jewish culture has been reduced to colourful patterns on decorations. We are trying to reclaim the true nature of Jewish culture,” he further added.

The Weekly Observer

Metro

Tuesday, 21 March, 2017

Froth and foam: Can silt save Bellandur?

Arunava Banerjee arunava.b@iijnm.org with inputs from Poorbita Bagchi Bengaluru:A study conducted

by Dr. TV Ramachandran of the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, places the value of silt deposited on the Bellandur lake bed at a few hundred crore rupees.

Bellandur, Bengaluru’s largest water body, has become its lake of fire; the last time it was in the news, it was seen fuming smoke after its thick methane cover was set ablaze on February 16.

“There was a fire about ten days ago in Bellandur Lake,” Dr TV Ramachandran said. He explained that the fire was caused by methane generated under a mat of macro-PHITE cover, and that the methane was formed by anaerobic conditions caused by the dumping of solid waste on this macro-PHITE cover.

This, however, is not the first

time that Bengaluru citizens witnessed this 915acre tank with a 8,400-million litre water storage capacity on fire.

Toxic fumes were seen coming out of the lake in May 2015, and another fire was reported in August 2016.

Apart from being the largest water body in the city, Bellandur also stands out as its most polluted lake. In spite of several debates, discussions and propositions of rejuvenation of the lake, pollution levels in Bellandur continue Bellandur lake froths up after every rain to grow. A little amount of heavy

Source:Arunava

rainfall causes its toxic froth (caused by the potassium, nitrogen and methane content) to cover nearby roads in a white foamy blanket.

A Save Bellandur Action Plan (SAP) formulated by the Namma Bengaluru Foundation, local residents, experts and activists estimate that the entire process of revival will take at least 3 years.

The estimated cost of the revival process is around Rs. 400 crore.

However, Dr. Ramachandran believes that the entire cost of rejuvenating this lake can be generated from selling its silt and natural content.

He estimates that the silt present in the lake bed can alone fetch an

amount of Rs 1,500 crores.

“The excessive silt also prevents the lake from recharging the groundwater levels. There is about seven million cubic metres of silt (in Bellandur),” Dr. Ramachandran said. He added that if the nutrient protein content in the lake is utilised commercially, it can fetch a market price of around Rs. 15,000 crore.

Dr. Ramachandran says that the silt can be used for making sand or clay bricks depending on its texture. “We have analysed the silt from the Bellandur. It is suitable for both snd and clay bricks,” he said.

Ramachandran feels that the deteriorating condition of the lake will soon make it fall prey to lake encroachers and land mafias. “If the lake is in a bad state, people will get agitated and then it will give room for encroachers,” he said, adding, “Even today there are encroachments on Varthur lake and the dumping of solid waste is still happening.”

MP files petition to abolish tax on sanitary napkins Karishma jayapaul karishma.j@iijnm.org Sushmita Devi, Member of Parliament has filed a petition to Arun Jaitley to make sanitary napkins tax-free in the proposed GST (Goods and Services Tax) Bill that will come into effect on 1st April 2017.

According to a study completed by AC Nielson called, “Sanitary Protection: Every Women’s Health Right”, only 12 per cent of India’s 355 million women use sanitary napkins and around 70 per cent of women say their families can’t afford sanitary napkins which is why a whopping 88 per cent of women resort to using un-sanitised cloth, ashes, husk sand and rags instead.

Sushmita Devi is raising her voice against the 12 per cent tax levied on sanitary napkins in the GST which varies from state to state in the country. With an estimated 70 per cent women who cannot afford to buy sanitary napkins, the taxes will only make the situation spiral downwards. In her letter to Jaitley, Devi reasons out the need for women to be taxed on a bodily function which can directly affect their health.

A research conducted by Vishakha Goyal called, “Scope and Opportunities for Menstrual Health and Hygiene Products in India”, on an average, a woman spends 2100 days of her life menstruating, but accessibility and affordability of menstruation products is largely absent, which restricts women’s mobility and affects the development of ado-

Sanitary napkins are not used by most women in India, accounting to 12 percent of the population Source: Foruimforthefuture.org lescent girls.

Renukama, a 45-year-old resident of Golahalli, a village in the Tumkur district of Karnataka says she started using sanitary napkins only a year back. “I still use both napkins and cloth since it is expensive to purchase napkins.” Her daughter-in-law, Pratima24, and a mother of two said, “In the olden times we always used cloth. Nobody told us about sanitary napkins.” Pratima still uses cloth and indulges in napkins only when she has the money to buy them.

A 28-year-old Rajni, a resident of Golahalli, also found out about sanitary napkins only two years back but still uses cloth.

Kavitha, 25, does not know about any infections cause by using rag cloth. “I just find it expensive to buy napkins and prefer using

cloth,” she says.

Dr. Uma, a gynaecologist based in Gulbarga, Karnataka says, “We tell them to use sanitary napkins but they reject saying, ‘My mother is a labourer and my father doesn’t bring all these things, it is a taboo for them.”

Women come to her with rashes and fungal diseases since they dry these dirty clothes on rocks. She encourages her patients to use sanitary napkins and most of them point at the cost and disposal of the napkins as a major concern.

With Karnataka alone having 82 per cent of urban slum dwellers and 92 per cent of rural slum dwellers not using sanitary napkins during their menstrual cycle, Emerson Samuel, currently working as the principal of the community college for women run by Con-

3

cerns Universe Foundation says there must be a model of adoptability, availability, accessibility, and affordability to conquer this problem. “Even someone like Muruganandam Arunachalam, a 47 year old high school dropout who developed a cheap sanitary napkin in Coimbatore, was bombarded with taxes due to the monopoly of his product.”

A model like that of Muruganandam will be successful in every village, says Samuel, who is also a development consultant, since it uses the combination of skills for production of sanitary napkins, process of promoting poor women and distribution at affordable cost aimed at progress of humanity and women in particular.

Devi’s petition has close to 200,000 supporters among which, Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi is a supporter as well. She states as to why the tax on sanitary napkins remains unfair as she chalks out the environmental factors as well as the social cause behind it to promote women’s health. Affordability, availability and accessibility are the pillars of this battle which also aims to raise attendance of girls in schools and increase women’s participation in the workforce.

In her petition, Devi mentions, “Women are being taxed 12 months a year, for about 39 years on a process they have no control over.”She believes it will further the cause of Modi’s efforts of improving the position of women like ‘Beti Bachao Beti Padhao’ and ‘Swachh Bharat’.

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The Weekly Observer

Tr e n d s

Tuesday, 21 March, 2017

Start-ups grow as private funding gains govt. favour Divya renganatham divya.er@iijnm.org The start-ups in India have begun to grow where entrepreneurs are adopting different methods to receive funds. In order to establish a viable business environment, private funding is being priori-

rewards are exceptional. Once a funded start-up is well accomplished, the investor aims to take the company listed in an Initial Public Offering (IPO) to make the shares publicly available. For instance, anybody with an investment account can be a sharehold-

VC investment on IT industriesOnline pharmacy Pharmeasy raised $18 M and foodtech company FreshMenu raised $17 million. The largest VC investment until this period was the $54M raised by Cartrade.com (the same company had raised $145 million in January 2016) The PE investors saw a twofold increase in the value Internet and mobile sector and finance sector.

Mobile sector-Alibaba-backed, One97 communication’s Paytm.

Other investors of Paytm were MediaTek and SAIF partners.

Banking sector- SBI Life (insurance), Janalakshmi Financial Services (microfinance)

tized to gain monetary funding while crowd and portfolio funding, also known as mutual fund or bank loan, take a back seat.

Private equity (PE) or Venture capital (VC) is an active funding by the investors to the companies. The difference between private equity and venture capital is the size of the amount invested. A deal in a private equity is funding of more than $50 million on any established startup while venture capitalists fund less than $20 million on any less than 10-year-old start-up (Often called as seed funding). They invest expecting a decent return from the company, once it has performed well in a given period.

The funding process occurs at different rounds. It begins with Seed funding, extends to Series- A, series-B, series-C and series-D. Active investment trend, in recent, has seen a rise in India.

The rationale for a successful private investment is that it outperforms in the market and the

er of Snap Inc (Snapchat).

Although the draw of private start-up scene in India is increasing tremendously where in2016 a slight dip was recorded in PE and VC investments. According to Venture Intelligence, a service which provides information and analysis on Private Company Financials, in the same year, the private equity investors had spent $15.2 billion across 620 deals, and over $17.3 billion across 775 deals in 2015. On the other hand, venture capitalists invested in 405 deals worth $1.4 Billion during 2016 and over 512 deals worth $2 Billion in 2015.

Arun Natarajan, CEO of Venture Intelligence, said, “It was heartening that PE investments in India did not suffer any major fall despite the cooling off of investments in the E-Commerce sector (dominant in 2015)”. Venture Intelligence analyses data

on Private Company Financials, Transactions and their Valuations in India.

“Both private equity and venture capital investments dipped by 12% and 21% respectively,” added Natarajan.

“Venture Capital investment activity hit a five month low in February 2017, down for a third month in a row”, revealed a recent Venture Intelligence report.

The major slump in PE investment last year was in the Information Technology (IT) industries from 45% to 31%. Inversely, VC investors had a huge deal volume of 304 investments in IT industries.

PE funded start-ups-up aims to get listed in IPO after amplify-

ing its returns to the investor. An exit reflects in a tremendous public exposure and financial benefit.

They can be through Mergers, acquisitions or buy outs.

PE exits in India is declined by 18% to $7.86 Billion (across 215 deals) during the calendar year 2016 compared to an alltime high of $9.55 billion (across 270 deals) in 2015.

Azmia.Riaz azmia.r@iijnm.org

try where 1 in 20 people suffer from mental illness. “We wanted people to have this platform so they could overcome the anxiety and pressure that they face when performing.” The participants, mostly students, had encountered depression, bipolar, insomnia and various other mental illnesses in their own lives.

“It’s an open space,’ explains Aishwarya Bhatt, a student and poet. Having performed a poem titled, ‘Six post scripts to my suicide letter’, she believes that

poetry can help process and deal with such angst.

“The mission was important to me because it’s an opportunity to reach out to people like me who have monsters in their head.” She explained.

The chosen winner of the poetry contest will have the opportunity to represent at national level. An organiser and co-founder of Campus Diaries added, “We all want to help and contribute towards dealing with such issues.

Here, we decided to give that op-

portunity to people who understand mental health and knows how to articulate the darkness that it can lead to.”

“Insomnia is my bed companion that I cannot get rid of,” recites Lavanya, a student from Christ University. For many performers, the mission was the first stage, where they were able to openly speak about the issues that they dealt with. “I was not able to talk about these issues before I discovered poetry. At ‘Louder Than Words’, I found an opportunity to use these experiences to

With the huge rising trend in private investments; investors in 2017 are expected to have more deals and numerous exits with huge return of the capital invested. The investment values in start-ups are expected to pull through with the government’s digitisation initiatives under the Start-up India plan this year.

The largest exit in 2016 was the sale of- American KKR’s (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Co) stake worth $1.05 billion in Alliance Tire Group (ATG-manufacturing Company) JapaneseYokohama Rubber Co. KKR realized about 2.8x (2.8 times the amount they invested) return on this three year old investment.

Merger: Online Services space included Quikr’s reported $120 million purchase of real estate listings focused Commonfloor.

PayUMoney acquiring payment gateway provider Citrus for $60million

An ode to angst: Poets unite for mental health On March 20, thirty students from across Bangalore came together at Bflat lounge in Indira Nagar to perform poetry about mental illness. ‘Louder Than Words’, organised by Campus Diaries chose from over 500,000 performers all around India.

CEO and Co-founder of Campus Diaries, Sumit Saurav, believes that awareness is of the utmost importance in a coun-

hopefully further a higher cause,” says Lavanya.

After the final performance, applause rang across the small bar. The contestants hug each other, whispering words of encouragement. A month of poetry could not come to an end without outbursts of emotion.

Fatima Zahra, a medical entrance student, stands back and watches as the bar lights go off.

“I may not make it, but I feel like I could do more for mental illness with this small group of people than I could in a lifetime.”

Culture 5 The endangered folk-form ‘Dhamal’ in Karnataka The Weekly Observer

Rishiraj Bhagawati rishiraj.b@iijnm.org The native African dance known as Dhamal, practiced and popularised by the Siddis in India, is seeing fewer takers as the years go by, and many in the community in northern Karnataka worry that their identity is under threat as a consequence.

Dhamal, or Siddi Dhamal as it is sometimes known, is the traditional dance of the Siddis residing in Gujarat and Karnataka. The dance, which celebrates the spirit of hunting, involves drums, dhols, and other percussion instruments playing in the background while men dressed in hunting gear move around in circles. The origin of the folk form dates back to the 18th century, around the time that the Siddis first arrived in India.

Members of the Siddi community share the same ethnic origin as that of the Bantuspeaking tribes of East Africa. It is said that in the 16th century, the Siddis first entered India as slaves of Portuguese traders who struck deals with Indian princes along the western coast. Over the centuries, the Siddis settled down, scattered across villages in Karnataka and Gujarat. Today, one can see a significant difference in the lifestyles of the Siddis in these two states, something that is reflected even in the evolution of Dhamal.

Credit is due to the Gujarati Siddis for the commercialisation of their traditional dance, thus discovering a way to make a living out of it. A group of young men and women in

the community decided to take the dance to a bigger stage. The dance form first tasted popularity in 2007 at the Malwa Festival in Indore, and since then it has only gotten more and more famous in the folk-cultural circuit.

Credits stay due to the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), under which groups of Dhamal dancers have even performed internationally, showing the world the unique blend of Indian and African dance cultures.

Today, Dhamal is known as the dance of the Gujarati Siddis.

The story of Dhamal in Karnataka, however, is quite despairing. Although there is no real distinction between the Siddis of the two states, as both groups first came to India on the same boat, the ones in Karnataka do not enjoy similar social inclusion.

Siddis of Karnataka do not get invited to the Pragati Maidans of the country to perform their dance and people outside the community hardly even know of their cultural habits. Even those within the community do not practice the dance form and thus, it is steadily dying a slow death in the area.

However, the inherent culture of the community remains mostly unforgotten. “When we first came to India, we were not divided into categories - religious or otherwise,” says Abdul Siddi, head of the Muslim Siddi Association, “so even after all these centuries, the one thing that connects Siddis across the country is the culture we brought with us from Africa,” and a vital part of the culture

Tuesday, 21 March, 2017

was the Dhamal dance.

“Today, nobody practices the Dhamal here, except maybe in some cultural functions and weddings here and there. And since our children are not growing up seeing the dance, they do not find it necessary to learn,” said Anant Siddi, member of the Akhila Karnataka Siddi Sangha. He added that it is imperative that the dance does not die because it stands for everything a Siddi is: “fearless, spirited and wild”.

“Earlier, the dance was called Mashira

Nritya in some parts, and was performed by Siddis after returning from a successful hunting trip. But slowly it became the only unique cultural habit of the Siddis here, so everybody started performing it in every occasion of the year. Today, the same Dhamal with minor improvisations is performed on Eid, Christmas, Holi, as well as weddings. It simply is, all that is Siddi culture,” Anant Siddi says.

Albert Siddi,a 22-year-old college student, is part of one of the fewDhamal groups still active in Karnataka. “We get to dance at Siddi occasions, but unlike the Gujarati Siddis, we receive nothing in terms of fame or money. If we have to keep our tradition alive, we will have to soon find ways to bring the culture back from the grave- the government is not going to help,” he said.

As Dhamal is still one of the only cultural traits that Siddis are still identified by, the death of it would mean that Siddis across the economic classes and the clans of Mosgul, Mokwana, Chotiyara, Mori, Sirwan, Parmar, Morima, Makava, and others will face even greater hardships defining their ethnicity.

Perhaps a little help from the State government to uplift their folk form can go a long way to save a tribe, Albert suggests.

PHOTOS: Dhamal dancers in their traditional attire before a performance.

Source: The Sunday Guardian

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Unwind

The Weekly Observer

Tuesday, 21 March, 2017

Messages in the metropolitan art Pallabi Sutar pallabi.s@iijnm.org

along with providing aesthetic purposes, also deliver some kind of

Colours of different hues and shades seem to be enveloping Bangalore city

year old Indian artist, strongly believes that artists in Bangalore do

social message to its audience. And Baadal Nanjundaswamy, the 38

as it becomes a hub for artists and their creative pursuits. Walking down Church Street, a major hotbed of these artistic pursuits, one can soak in all the creativity of the graffiti art on the walls of the street and the metro building itself. A few steps in the direction of St.Marks road, leads one to a work of art on the side wall, a graffiti advocating for equality.

engage in social awareness through their art. Nanjundaswamy was catapult to fame when he decided to turn a neglected pothole into a crocodile pond, complete with artificial crocodile installations. “As an artist I think at some point one tilts toward including social messages in their artworks,” says Tithi Sharma, a third year graduate student from Shristi. For Shunnal Ligade, a Bangalore based Graffitti artist, art is a mean to express his self and he incorporates el-

Rahul Kanwal‫@@ ‏‬rahulkanwal Supreme Court suggests outof-court settlement of Ayodhya dispute,calls Ram Mandir matter of sentiment @AnushaSoni23

ements of causes he believes in his artwork. “Art can be a very strong yet subtle language and I think it is the best way to bring social awareness,” says Shunnal, whose artwork can be seen in various nooks and corner of Bangalore and had recently taken part in the colour Kathmandu festival in Nepal.

Social messages in artwork do not restrict itself to the visual medium alone but also spills over to other facets like poetry and plays. Fathima Zahra, a regular performer at the open sky slam, encapsulates her experiences as a woman in a conservative Muslim

Salim Khan‫@ ‏‬luvsalimkhan “Prophet Mohd during his lifetime had nvr given Fatwa on any issue.These so called clerics are a huge embarassment to the followers of islam”

family. ” Poetry has become a medium for me and many of my fellow poets to depict our experiences and subsequently spread a kind of social awareness related to the experiences.” Shruti Acharya, a senior poet at the open sky slam feels that there has been a steady rise of audience as well as participants during the slams. Acharya,

Street

being a journalist herself, understands that in this age of conflict one

6.2 Km away from M.G Road in Koramangala another work of art de-

On a similar note, social issues have also been taken up by vari-

livers a feminist message. Shilo Shiv Suleman, the artist, paints a kitschy

ous theatre groups. Shakespeare in Cubbon Park, a theatre group,

image which makes the viewer stop and look twice.

adapts Shakespearian plays to make it relevant in the present In-

An artwork by Source: Pallabi Sutar

unknown

artist

in

Church

cannot really abstain from including social messages in poetry.

And one can always explore the Cubbon park metro station ,

dian context. Bhagya Hegde, a regular at their plays, likes how the

which the students of Shristi institute of art ,design and technology

social issues are highlighted in the plays and also thinks that this

have covered with their creative art work. You can also be a part of

makes the plays all the more appealing to the audience.

this artwork by writing what you feel about in the numerous blackboards placed in corners of the station

Aditi Mittal‫@ ‏‬awryaditi “Silence from the comedy community is deafening.

EVERYONE still”texting contacts”/”verifying facts” inspite of hearing stories abt it for yrs?”

Barkha dutt‫@ ‏‬BDUTT #HisNameIsNotVikas #YogiAdityanath

In this world of changing political and cultural dynamics it is unavoidable to detach oneself from these social issues such a feminism, social hierarchy, politics etc that do not cease to crop up every now and then. It becomes all the more difficult for an artist to be indifferent to these ever changing topics. In this situation, taking up these issues in one’s artwork can become a responsibility, obligation or even a burden.

Chetan Bhagat‫@ ‏‬chetan_ bhagat “With the pro-development people in the bag, it was time for the BJP to cater to its other base, the pro-hindutva types. #YogiAdityanath” Editor in-Chief

RISHIRAJ

Managing Editor ANEESH

An artwork by Shilo suleman in Kormangala 5th block

Bangalore has seen a rise in the number of artists, who come from all over the country and also the world. It is a good thing that the number of artworks has increased over the city, both public and Installation by students private, but it is also a better thing that some of these artworks, Source: Pallabi Sutar

of SIDT in Cubbon metro station

Layout Editors

DIVYA PALLABI, ARUNAVA

Photo Editors

SUPRIYA

Copy Editors

AZMIA, MITALI

Social Media

Graphics

SONAL

ABHISHEK

Staff

BIBIN

For feedback and comments contact rishiraj.b@iijnm.org