Desicritics Category: Media: Journalism

The Trap Terrorists Have Laid For India and Pakistan

Manoj Khatri — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 14:59:45 EST

After the Mumbai terror attacks, both Indian and Pakistani media have been busy. The TV news channels anchors, radio jockeys, newspapers and magazine columnists and even the common folk are expressing their views, mostly biased. Everyone has an opinion on how the crisis should be handled. Have a look at the views expressed through mobile text messages and flashed TV on news channel tickers. Opinions and advice such as "India should strike Pakistan", or "Let's show them our might" are not uncommon.

I wonder if individuals who talk about attacking Pakistan understand what it really means to go to war. Besides, if India strikes Pakistan, it would've played straight into the hands of the terrorists.

The terror organizations want India to strike against Pakistan so that even the moderate Pakistanis turn against India. When a country goes go war, the people of that country just come together to back the country. The mere talk of an Indian strike has triggered a huge reaction from the Pakistani media. I dread to think that the master terrorists must be rejoicing at their victory. By carrying out the Mumbai carnage, they have ensured enough free advertising for their cause. They have also managed to get Pakistan to divert all its attention to the Indian border so that there is free flow at the Afghanistan border, which serves them very well.

The human race cannot afford a war between two nuclear states. Nothing good can come out of it. The master terrorists, who planned the Mumbai attacks, laid a master trap. Both India and Pakistan seem to have fallen into the trap so easily. Seems like the terrorists have succeeded in their agenda...

Flying Shoe-cers

Kavita Chhibber — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 08:49:33 EST

And the look on the face of George Bush as America hit (!)a new low in more ways than one-was priceless

What’s been even more interesting is the comments of most people of a diverse mix, who’ve seen the video and have spoken to me.. Its mostly “ Too bad the reporter guy missed!’

While my bleary eyes(working on interviews related to the Mumbai attacks) took in the video and my lips had their moment of mirth, many more comments and phrases and posts flew across the internet and hit their mark.

I hope I don’t tread on too many toes-after all it’s the President of the United States. But here goes

“It gives fresh meaning to the phrase shooed away.

"Bush's Ducker T-shirt" puts his head on a tee ducking a barrage of shoes

It would have been even more funny, had President GWB asked that man for his socks!!!

The jokes and the shoes were flying on the late night talk shows Monday night. The comedians couldn't get enough of that shoe-throwing incident in Iraq.
President Bush was shown over-and-over ducking the shoes thrown by an Iraqi reporter during a Baghdad news conference.

Jay Leno wants to know where was the Secret Service. He asks shouldn't they have "at least jumped in front of the second shoe?"

David Letterman was impressed by the president's quick reactions. Letterman says Bush "hasn't dodged anything like that since, well, the Vietnam War."
Conan O'Brien says the shoe-thrower is being hailed as a hero by some in Iraq. O'Brien adds when the man dies, "he'll be greeted in heaven by 72 podiatrists."

Newspapers across the U.S. had headlines saying shoe-icide attack, shoe-nabomber and even

Meanwhile Americans are having their say on what should be done with the shoes.

Some tell CNN they should be put in the Smithsonian, be impeached along with Bush, or should be auctioned off with the proceeds going to the auto industry.
Seriously. Say what you will about Dubya, he’s in his 60s and has the reflexes of a cat.

Who woulda thunk that ducking a shoe would actually help the public’s perception of W?!

Bush Iraqi shoe attack: Why didn't the Secret Service take a loafer for the president?

George Bush does a shoe dance.

And this from Chris Bucholz-

So Someone threw their shoes at the President this weekend. Shoes. The President. I know. We wouldn’t really be a comedy site if we didn’t discuss this at least a little bit, would we?

Anyways, here’s the facts: During a press conference, an Iraqi reporter carefully removed both his shoes, stood up and proceeded to throw them, one after the other, at President Bush. The President responded, sensibly, by ducking twice. His attacker, now out of ammunition, then responded by being tackled to the floor by a team of Secret Service Agents. And aside from some glib shoe puns, that was the end of it.

Right off the bat, my first reaction was to be marginally impressed at the President’s reflexes. Bush has taken a lot of stick for being a terrible president, which is probably fair, given his generally high levels of terribleness. But did you see the speed of that duck? That was Mortal Kombat fast. I half expected to see a harpoon come flying out of his coat sleeve after the first shoe sailed past
.
Second reaction: Where was the Secret Service? I gather they’ve taken some flak already about this, although mainly from pencil-necked pundits and bloggers like myself, nattering away safe in our beds. Just milling around the Internet, I’ve seen lots of sweaty outrage about “the second shoe” today. It does seem a little surprising that a guy could fire two whole shoes at the President of the United States before someone stopped him. What if they were one of those knife boots the kids are into these days? That could have done some damage.

But upon further reflection, the Secret Service agents probably handled this as effectively as possible. The guy was throwing shoes - although they probably could have shot him before he got that second shoe off, what do you have then? A dead guy with no shoes on, that’s what, and then you’re asked to leave the country and never come back. Considering how widely loved Bush is in Iraq (check back this time next year for the Iraqi’s first National “Fuck Bush Day”) it’s probably a minor miracle that he’s able to go there at all and come home alive, much less with a tread mark on his skull.

Third reaction: Oh, good work Bundy. The Iraq war has kind of fallen out of the American public’s consciousness the last year or so, mainly because it just leaves everyone feeling kind of bummed I guess. So this little stunt has, on the surface, brought it back to the forefront. But in a completely trivial way. Like every other type of protest, the only thing people talk about is the protest itself, not the message being raised. There are a lot of things about the Iraq war that deserve to be treated with a certain level of seriousness (all the dead people for one.) But instead of talking about that we’ve now got newsrooms across the country racking their brains looking for shoe puns.”

And shoe - eh so it goes.

Obituary: Sabina Sehgal Saikia

Kim — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 14:27:34 EST

Sabina Sehgal Saikia was a food writer who had been with the Times of India group for over 17 years who at the time of her untimely demise had risen to Consulting Editor at the publication. She died in the Terror attacks in Mumbai where she was staying on the 6th floor. She was in Mumbai for the wedding of Bachi Karkaria's son next week.

Sabina could make or break a Delhi restaurant based on her reviews. She initially wrote an extremely popular column called "Main Course" for the Saturday Times, which later moved to the Delhi Times.

I was first introduced to her, when I picked up the Times of India Restaurant Guide for Delhi, 8 years ago. My next 2 years in Delhi were made tolerable by this handy book. I tried out restaurants based on her recommendations and agreed with her judgment over 80% of the time. She was honest and direct.

The Times of India Restaurant Guides to Hyderabad and Bombay could never match up to the standard that Sabina had set. She had spoiled me against other guides with her perfection and accuracy.

I subscribed to the Times of India in Delhi, just to read her column, although the Hindustan Times gave much better news coverage in Delhi.

An excellent cook herself, she soon visited me in my living room on NDTV cooks demonstrating an especially fiery looking Green Chilli Pickle.

I never met her face-to-face, but I felt like I knew a part of her. The part of her that loved good food and in Saif Ali Khan's words "acha khaana khane ke liye, hum kahin pe bhi chalenge" (to eat good food, we will travel anywhere) and in a wierd way, I identified with this part of her.

Sabina will be sorely missed in the food writers world. Our sympathies go out to her husband Shantanu and her two young children who will feel her absence much more than her millions of devoted readers.

Sabina you brought joy into the lives of food lovers: May your Soul, Rest in Peace.

Disjointed Questions on the Bombay Blasts and Its Aftermath

Kim — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:11:12 EST

Being in a distant country while Bombay is under siege, is nerve wracking at best.

My first long stay in Bombay was for my first job, with MBA degree in hand. The first weekend trip we took together as Management trainees was a local train ride from Andheri to South Bombay. We caught up with other batchmates in town for a movie at Metro Cinema and headed over to Cafe Mondegar for a drink and later carried onto Cafe Leopold because we had heard so much about these Bombay favourites. We then walked over to the Gateway of India and gazed at the iconic Taj Palace and towers. Gathering courage we felt we could project enough confidence to walk in and use their washrooms, which we managed.

Since this was the late 90's, B-School salaries weren't as astronomical as they were at the turn of the millennium and we obviously couldn't afford to eat in there, so we headed over to Bademiyan's for more affordable fare.

All these locations were under the media spotlight for the last 48 hours, for reasons one would never have dreamed about.

Personally, this attack was very hard hitting because of the sheer numbers of family and friends who live in the area, who were working late in the area, or were eating in the area after work. As is usual after every such attack in India, we started calling and smsing, then emailing and scrapping (when the phone lines were jammed and over loaded) and everyone we knew in the location to check on their status. This time it was a much, much longer list of people we were checking on.

Some were barricaded inside their houses and offices in the area while their lifts were shut down and they were advised not to leave the premises. Many spent that first night in the office while the rest of us helplessly spent the night hoping and praying for their safety and that the violence wouldn't spread to the surrounding buildings.

We stayed glued to the television and kept refreshing news sites on our computer screen and anxiously followed the sequence of events. Coherent thought was not easy and plenty of questions and inconsistencies kept popping up in my mind.

First of all: kudos to our NSG, army, hotel staff and police for their heroic efforts.

Why/How did this happen:

Intelligence failure is something the foreign media has been harping about in relation to these attacks, but as someone else mentioned: weren't 9/11 and the London Subway attacks, intelligence failures too.

Could we have done anything more to secure the locations?

How many locations will you secure? We have a country of a billion+ citizens, so I don't think it is about securing locations. Terrorists target any and every location. The only way every place can be secured is if citizens take responsibility of being aware of their surroundings and people around them.

We need to stop cribbing about and finding innovative ways to avoid security measures at malls, cinema halls etc. They are there for our security.

Our government should focus on stemming the problem at its roots: training camps, poverty, education, unemployment.

The terrorists were armed with AK47's while a lot of the police and railway police were equipped with nothing more than a lathi. Do they even stand a chance?

Why were 3 top cops traveling in the same vehicle?

Rescue efforts:

The staff at the hotels responded admirably and heroically. Some even lost their own lives while saving the guests. I am not sure if they receive training drills for terrorist situations, but they did their best.

Politicians have no business being anywhere in the area when such situations are ongoing. Having them around, means that security and armed forces are forced to divert their attention to the "security of the politician"

What business did Gopinath Munde have to be at the Nariman House today?
Same problem when they visit hospitals were the wounded are taken. Doctors and nurses are forced to stop tending to their patients and clear the area so the politician and their entourage of news crews and security personnel royally stroll through the area and promise tax payer funds (other peoples money) as remuneration.

Media:

While NDTV was the most restrained of the lot, our media still behaved as irresponsibly as always.

People whose family members were stuck inside, is it fair to thrust microphones at their faces and ask them how they are feeling?

Rescued people being brought out of the hotel after a horrifying ordeal, is it fair to thrust microphones at their faces and ask them how they are feeling?

While Right to Information is a wonderful act, some lines should be drawn when it comes to National Security. Broadcasting the immediate moves of the security forces, dissecting their rescue maneuvers, having ex army personnel describe helicopter rescue operations in detail - this only gives more intelligence to the terrorists holed up inside who could be in contact with anyone with a cable connection outside the location, even if cable connection at the hotels had been cut off.

Broadcasting false reports of the operation being over when it isn't because they see a thumbs-up being exchanged between two NSG personnel.

We need an appointed official spokesperson who is the only authority allowed to speak to the media when an operation is ongoing. This person needs to receive reports from all relevant sources and be advised on what news can be released and what cannot. Press should only be allowed at this location and not crawling around the affected area causing more security hazards or getting caught in the cross fire. This should give controlled information and hopefully control the rumour-mongering too.

If the press are controlled in one location, it will also prevent the crowds who were at the locations today not to show solidarity or out of concern but were there for the sole reason of getting their face on camera. (This is a reality in India)

Role of Politicians:

They haven't done anything to prevent the situation, they should stay away from the situation as mentioned above.

Where has the champion of Bombay, Mr Raj Thackeray disappeared to? Which safe location is he hiding in?

Our Home Minister was ineffectual as always. Surprisingly, our Prime Ministers speech didn't induce confidence either.

Politicians need to rise above their petty politics of deciding whether to hold a bundh on December 1st or not.

They should instead be visiting the homes of the brave security personnel who lost their lives and appreciating the efforts of their husbands, sons and fathers (not to be sexist, but no female personnel casualty has been reported yet in this case) who lost their lives in the service of the country. This is one of the few useful things that they can do at this point of time.

I also pray that they do not use this attack to further communalize our country for their own vote bank politics.

Future Action:

It may seem insensitive to say this at this point, but as a country we should take advantage of the terrorists targeting Americans, British and Israeli citizens.
The US previously tried to restrain India when they spoke about retaliation after the parliament attacks.

This is the right opportunity to use this joint sentiment against these terrorists to take a stand and launch a forceful offensive against terrorist camps targeting India.
Use the Israeli intelligence and their expertise to stem the flow of terrorists into India and destroy their their training camps.

We need a single security network that is pan-country, not disjointed co-ordination between multiple agencies.

We need to make our country safe again. Where people do not flinch at a loud sound, where people do not have to think twice before leaving their houses to catch a train, shop for groceries or watch a movie. We need to feel safe. It is our right as citizens.

Deconstructing the Orthodox - C. P. Aboobacker in Conversation

Nilanshu Agarwal — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 03:22:06 EST

C .P. Aboobacker began writing poetry from early childhood. A man of leftist leanings, Aboobacker has so far published twenty three books of which five are collections of poems, two are collections of essays and one a translation of Joop Bersee's poems. The crown of his poetic achievement is The Old Earth, a collection of his English poems, edited by Joneve Mc Cormick (Chief Editor of Soul To Soul) and published by Monsoon Editions in 2008. A member of the associations like Calicut University Syndicate and Progressive Writers’ And Artists’ Organization, Aboobacker was selected as the best poet of the week four times by Poetry Super Highway.com. His best poetry is, to borrow an expression from the great Victorian poet and critic Matthew Arnold, “the criticism of life”. The poem ‘The Corpses’, published in Kritya, exhibits the dismal and gloomy scenario of the contemporary world: “Every corpse once had a life/ Once warm and loving, and hating”. This lyrical expression is sure to touch the innermost chords of the reader’s heart. Aboobacker appears to be in agreement with the great War poet, Wilfred Owen, notable for war poems like ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’, ‘Dulce Et Decorum Est’, ‘The Parable of the Old Man and the Young’ and ‘Strange Meeting’. Owen made clear the aims of his poetry in his celebrated ‘Preface’. The famous statement of this leading poet of the First World War is: “Above all I am not concerned with Poetry. My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.” Like Owen, Aboobacker too exhibits the naked horrors of the world in some of his poems. Despite this depiction of the miserable condition of life, Aboobacker is not a downright pessimist. The poems like ‘Bridge’ and ‘Love Manifesto’ reveal his faith in the survival of the human world, despite all the odds. In ‘Love Manifesto’, he optimistically declares: “There is a bounty beneath every human relation/ A bounty not the evils spirits can steal away /Time and space cannot destroy it /It is the fragrance of sighs…”
This senior academician from the state of Kerala is also the editor of the literary ezine, thanalonline, which has carved a niche for itself by promoting literary activities of both established and emerging authors and poets. The editorials, written by him for this ‘flawless literary venture’ display his penchant for social, political and literary criticism of the highest order. He is associated with a number of social and cultural groups of the state. This enlightened scholar, poet, translator and editor talks to Dr. Nilanshu Kumar Agarwal about the origin of poetry in him, editing of thanalonline, literary translations, mode of literary communication and contemporary literary scene of Kerala in a highly polemical interview. This interview, in progress for several months, was finalized at The Calicut Literary Festival, 2008.

NKA: As editor of the online bilingual literary magazine, Thanalonline, what do you think, is the current status of creative writing in India?
CPA: My jurisdiction is not India as editor of <a href="http://www.thanalonline.com">Thanalonline</a>. It is the whole world. I find poetry is widely read and for this vast reading, new poems are composed by talented writers. Each poem I receive is different. Indian poets are generally averse to electronic publishing. This is not a generalization; Dr. Rati Saxena, one of the great poets modern India has produced, publishes her poems mainly in electronic media. She deals with love, womanhood, time, and what not. Every line is carefully written, every line is impregnated with a passion not seen elsewhere. Her mountains, Udaipur Lake and many other poems such as sea poems etc. give reader a pleasure veiled by a smooth sorrow. But we know while reading she is writing from the depths of sorrow. But she is different from other writers. There are other Indian writers-- Anna Warne is there:

I am held captive /I cannot contain this flow/ This boundlessness Overwhelms me Drowning me in love.

Or writing from the eternal background of fear of war or war itself, Farideh Hassan Zadeh is there:

Like the bloody sound of alarms, /Like the roaring anti-aircraft rounds, /Like the falling bombs and rockets, /which turn the ruins and ashes into eternal reality; /I feel night by night more real and old.

How could life be a beautifully knit web for a mother who lost her child in war? And there are many more poets; only thing is that I cannot limit them to the borders of a country. In " A silly fish poem", Fide Erken from Turkey writes:

"You don't care about life's troubles,/ However, I don't want to be in your place./ Do you know the poet, Fide, here?/ No she doesn't hold any importance to you. /I wish I hadn't known her either. But it happened once, twice, a million times..."

Poets these days are like this; they don't want to be very important, they just want to say what they want to. Poets want to reveal to the world that men and women live, although in suffering, although betwixt war and terror. Kate Bernadette Benedict writes:

By this walking we know we live.
Do our bowed heads still venerate?
We cannot say; nor do we speak of bleeding or any particular lack.

It is existence. Man does exist. In calamities as well as in atrocities; in wars; as settled ones or as refugees, man does exist. The poet tries to picture the perseverance of mankind. They go back to Rumi, again they attempt at the universal fusion, just as Kazim Ali from Iran does. Rumi was not rotating round the sun (Shams) he discovered at the streets, but the sun within himself; the poets of today know it. One day Shams went out of the reach of Rumy and never returned; Rumy began his search and only in the very last he found out the sun within. Poets are like that; they reach the truth ultimately, after ages of bleeding, after epochs of searching. The desires and visions of modern poet are different. They are ready to suffer for the world, or along with the world, as they know the world is full of suffering just as Buddha had realized it two and a half millennia ago.

I want to build a monument
To the farmer who drove his tractor into the fountain
You say as we walk past.

Melissa Tuckey is merely translating this feeling in to modern language.

Jan Theuninck from Belgium, who also paints a lot, writes about human destiny:

“Like a shrine/ You lie / In the middle / Of the wood/ And warn / Of those/ Who preach peace/ And make war” .

The modern hypocrisy of statecraft cannot be better described and more concisely written.

I need not expand my answer anymore. It is a self evident truth that poetry does cover all senses and all sensibilities.

NKA: What is your primary criterion in the selection of a work of art?
CPA: My criterion? The only criterion is that a creation must have an appeal on me. I put myself in the place of a reader with no skill, with no awareness of what is strong or weak in a poem or work of art. If, then, the work of art appeals me, I publish it. Very often my learned friends have asked me why I have published X or Y. This is the answer. It appeals to my sense of aesthetics, which is a commonplace phenomenon.

NKA: Any special reason for choosing the title Thanalonline for your ezine? Please explicate the significance of this title in the contemporary world ethos, marred by blood-dimmed tide of violence and nasty bestial approach of the fellow human beings.
CPA: Thanal means shade in Malayalam. I chose this name for my residence also. Perhaps because I never have had the luck of experiencing it from anywhere, any place or any individual or group, either within the family or within my closet of friends. I have not had the experience of a peaceful life within my society. Strife prevails everywhere. I don't complain that it is anything new; it has been, it is and it will be the same. Man is pushed to very hot circumstances and told that it is warmth. Man is pushed to very cold climes and told that it is cool and calm. It is not a truth. Media everywhere give him/her only the most barbaric of emotions. Channels pollute him with over-hot or icy emotions. Thanal is a shade where you can stay for any length of time. It is neither too cool nor too hot. But it is not an emotionless region. It deals with love. It deals with hate. It also deals with salt and food.

NKA: Despite your being an ex-Professor of History, you have launched a literary ezine. What factors –external and internal—prompted you to indulge in this venture? How has your long academic sojourn over the years helped you in your role as editor of Thanalonline? Can one find the imprint of a teacher's psyche in your journal?
CPA: I don't think so. History, for me, was a choice of circumstances. I wanted to learn literature. Poverty and inability to go to distant colleges led me to learning history. Literature has always been my love. I have been writing poetry for the last fifty plus years. It is upto the readers and viewers to decide whether there is imprint of an experienced teacher in my ezine. I am not pedagogical. Still, I hold that I was a good teacher. This was mainly because of my love for poetry. And Dr. Nilanshu, do you find a teacher's psyche in thanalonline? Teaching is not just telling or lecturing something, I presume. It is love, it is communicating; communication is not possible without a strong bond; may be love, may be hatred. I have so far not been able to communicate with my spouse. She is a different cast. For her I am different cast. I don't mean pedagogy. I mean communication. We have been living together with some attraction to each other for the last thirty five years. So, existence without communication is possible. Why, then, should I teach anyone? I communicated with my students; they communicated with me. My audience is always a broader world.

NKA: What is the source of poetic inspiration in you? How does a poem emerge in you? Please make an emotional statement.
CPA: In fact I don't know. I write on political matters. Yes, I write political poetry. But I am particular that they should not be slogans. One can write slogans as slogans, not as poetry. I write about love, not love making. I write about nature, but not about farming or rock-cracking. I can write about farming, but not about good seed or bad seed. I am not bothered about the harvest; I just sow the seeds. Sowing is more important. I don't know how a poem sprinkles in me; it just happens; it begins as restlessness. I wrote all my poems when I was restless. This restlessness is the bliss at which my poems were born. I cannot name a particular thing as a source of inspiration; it might range from conjugal love or lost love; it might range from hunger to birth of the first man. I have more than a thousand poems in my exchequer of poetry.

NKA: In your poetry, you seem to emphasize the fact that happiness and pain are the two sides of the same coin in one’s life. In ‘Love Manifesto’, we have the deep philosophical expression:

Sun rises and sets the same moment
And your morn to me is the beginning of a sleep
World is always sleeping and waking up
…
My nightmare is daydream to you,
My moonlight is hot sun to you.
The above-mentioned lyrical lines appear to have an echo of Shakespeare’s expression in As You Like It:
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head…

What will you say about this? What are the other possible sources of such philosophical musings in your poetry?
CPA: I don’t think there is that much philosophical strains in the poetry referred to. Man always wakes up, always sleeps; why did I write it? It must be the impression of the normal astronomical phenomenon that earth is revolving round the sun. Poetry, I feel is really the creation of the reader. Poet sees and says ; reader sees deep and explains. I was perhaps supposing a communication with a person who was just opposite to my part of the earth. It would be night for him/her if it was day for me. Like this every part of the earth is different in time, in spite of our standard time zones. Nature is such that it is always vigilant and it is always dreamy; I am afraid that that dragging my lines to Shakespeare’s range would be a little arbitrary. Let us put a poet where he is, not upon the heights he cannot claim to reach.

NKA: What is the significance of symbols in your poetry? For example in the poem ‘The Bridge’, mark the following lines:

A bridge can connect all creatures,
Not merely two humans.

Besides, there are several other symbols in your poems. Do you give more importance to these symbols than to the direct communication? Some scholars believe that poetry should be simple, direct and without any symbols and ornamental flourishes. Whereas another group is of the view that the poet should indulge in the indirect communication of his ideals through symbols and myths. Where should we place Aboobacker as a poet? Is he a man of simple poetry or a poet of complex symbols? Or, is he a combination of both?
CPA: Poetry, to me , is an utterance of my soul. You may like it or not, it is the fact. Whatever, I cannot state through any other means of communication comes the poetry way. It can be a direct statement; it can be through images. It is in fact not symbol; it is an image; imagery is the language of poetry. The so-called direct poets also use images in plenty. Images are used not to complicate things and confuse the reader; they are used to simplify things, make things clear. But there is a contradiction between poetry and readers, rather between poet and what he/she has to communicate. He wishes to simplify things as clear as possible; he is not satisfied; so he uses images. It is a contradiction between poetry and simplicity. So, when the poet uses images, the like-minded reader gets to it fast. Yeah, there is one always there. It is like a love affair. But the like-minded reader knows it, he gets it, he develops the unrest on reading it. So, I am neither easy to read nor difficult to read; my poetry is neither simple nor complex; it is the reader who decides the fate of my poetry. And I say emphatically that it is not a critic who decides the destiny of my poetry. They can make and unmake poets for some time; but they cannot destroy poetry in anyone. But there is no reader when the poem is conceived or written; only poet and what he has to say; only images. Myths are part of culture. It is the hidden reality. Like poetry, you have to realize the meaning of the images within the myths.

NKA: The poems like ‘The Corpses’ and ‘Look at the Star’ are marked by naked realism. The imagery of the poems brings out the chaotic havoc of the modern civilization. I am quoting some lines from both the poems:
Every corpse once had a life
Once warm and loving, and hating too. (The Corpses)

Comely girl dead
Handsome boy shattered
Cupids shy away
Stars blink. (‘Look at the Stars’)
What parallels do you find in world literature of such depiction of the contemporary reality?
CPA: Oh, dear I am not a scholar. I have read a few poems; I try to read others. But when I write, I damn don’t think about other poems and poets. I am not a critic. I in fact despise them.They suck the blood of poets; dead and gone. The established poets do not want their praises. But they persist and write on them , not for the sake of poetry, but for advertising themselves that they are there to make poets. I pity them. No, I don’t want to deviate. Critics will be of great use if they begin to say that here is a new poet and he might be read. “Corpses” is in fact enthused by a description of post mortem by a doctor. It wishes to convey that every man would die and has had dreams and wishes, even if he were an Emperor. Life has an end; fulfill the end. You are to lie somewhere like a corpse. “Look at the star” is looking at the earth and life in it. Star is the path finder. It showed us the way to where Lord the Jesus was born. It must show us the way to understand what the world is upto. And for parallels, I don’t think there is any parallel to these poems. They are their own; they are composed as themselves.

NKA: I feel that beneath this depiction of the stark reality of the surrounding world, there is utter pain in your heart. What is the way out of this anarchy for the doomed civilization?
CPA: You be a poet; then you are doomed to be melancholy. It must be the basic nature of politicians, too. Melancholy is essentially incommunicable. You reign supreme in the realm of your melancholia. Well and good. How do you resolve it? You can sit idle and weep. Or you can sing aloud and calling upon the like-minded to shed away the anarchy, infamy and evils of the world you are pushed into. By being remaining melancholy, you tend to become and idle and aged prematurely. You should not succumb to lethargy and inactivity. It is a great war within your self. A poetic mind can never be idle and aged. Poets are the law makers. I overcome my pains with my poetry, and my poetry is a struggle. Some ignoramus might think, what is there in this writing a few lines to fight for? Long live the ignoramuses!

NKA: What is the significance of the nature imagery in a poem like ‘The Old Earth’? Do you find any association between man and nature?
CPA: I hope these lines from the poem will give you an answer to your question:

On the slopes of mountains/ Gasps of chasing dogs/ Die away to distances/ Singular rain embraces the earth/ Good looking Earth satiates/ Monstrous desires hidden in caves/ Continents and oceans/ Deltas and islands/ Rivers and lakes/ Gorges and deserts/ Embrace each other, entwined and curled/ Bring out the lust of earth./ This enchantress is unable to keep secrets/ They flow as if in a blue film.
Earth is the abode of man. He has been wolf and victim. He has been love and hate. And man is the only creature that drills into his own abode.
But man drills holes in the earth/ In search of diamonds and petrol/ Made of solar power/
It’s human rapine, sores and scabies/ Contracted from illicit connections/ Burst and flow/
Still this old woman waits for her lovers.

NKA: In such poems as ‘Writing’ and ‘Nature of Poet’, you discuss the act of poetic creation:
It is a gift from the depths
It is a sob rising from heart burns
On awareness of hunger! (‘Writing’)
The poem ‘Poet’ calls him ‘an enigma to all’. Will you like to share some ideas of those two poems with the readers of this interview?
CPA: In their peripheries these poems seem to be very subjective. These poems deal with things finite and infinite within the poet. Psyche of a poet is a realm in itself. It is inhabited by subjective and objective realizations. Objective realizations can be easily transmitted; subjective realizations cannot be. The first is visible to all, but the next is not. That is why it is next. Objective realizations are finite and subjective ones are infinite. The quoted lines from “Writing” have both the parts, infinite and finite: “ It is a gift from the depths/ it is a sob rising from the heart burns”, is the infinite part. It is subjective. But when I wrote “ awareness of hunger” , I knew it was transmitting the same feeling of objective reality you get from “Slaves Dream” or Oliver Twist. For the same reason, poet is always an enigma. Neruda wrote mostly on love and history; he is read so, but at the same time workers and peasants also have very fine streams there to drink from. Poet combines the objective and subjective, finite and infinite, material and spiritual.
NKA: Several of your poems have completely modern imagery. For instance, we may see the following lines from ‘Remembering Me’:

Now in this present
I lie alone, covered by chits of prescriptions
Like an AIDS infected syringe.
These lines remind the readers of Eliot’s ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock’. Mark the following expression from Eliot’s poem:
Let us go then, you and I,
When the evening is spread out against the sky
Like a patient etherized upon a table…

Eliot justified this mingling of the opposites in his essay ‘The Metaphysical Poet’. While justifying the comparison between exceedingly diverse things, Eliot wrote, “When a poet’s mind is perfectly equipped for its work, it is constantly amalgamating disparate experiences.” In a way, the just-mentioned essay is a justification of his poetic technique. Will you also like to justify/ validate the use of such imagery in your poetry?
CPA: I think my answer to this question is tacit in my last answer. What I have to add on the basis of your question is: I also live in the century when Eliot lived. War and carnage are increasing in unforeseen dimensions. New diseases are emerging. My question is just simple: people of Iraq fight and die for their country; why should the young ones from the USA fight and die in Iraq? If you are able to answer this question, you will get the answer to all questions of poetry in present day world. Let alone, the economic, political and cultural crisis that is haunting mankind.

NKA: Do you prefer writing literature in your mother tongue or in an alien language (English)?
CPA: I can write both in English and Malayalam. I realized it only recently. But very often the one I write in Malayalam is not easy to translate into English for me, and vice versa. But I must admit that I prefer to write in Malayalam as it is my mother tongue. I don't think man thinks in a language. Man thinks or imagines in ideas or materials. But I have seen many people feeling that they are thinking in one language and therefore it is very difficult for them to put their thoughts in another language. It is ignorance. Is language that important for the poet? There are a great many schools that argue all about poetry is language. Words, they say, are the philosophy, verses are the harvest; I don't think it is very important. In the most poetic moments I have neither words nor verses. I have my fill of restlessness. Language comes only secondary. English or Malayalam, poetry is the primary thing; and, here also, poetry is preceded by the life lived, nature sighted, dreams hallucinated- in short poetry precedes language, but poetry is preceded by life. Language is a tool; it is not the soul.

NKA: What should be done to promote regional/ vernacular literatures?
CPA: I don't know. I am not a linguist. I feel in Indian languages vocabulary should be exchangeable. Many are indeed exchangeable today. For this one has to see the words common in all languages first; then one has to discover the synonyms used in every language which has a similarity to the one in another language. First of all, I give the following example: Amma. It means mother. Almost all the Indian languages use a similar word for Amma. Next I give the following example: sirassu. It means the head. It must have a Sanskrit origin. In Hindi I assume it is "sir". Malayalam word for it is Thala. But when students are given synonyms for Sirassu, the word Seersham is used. These and like-words could be codified. A language flourishes when it is easy to use and when it has a good vocabulary to express all human relations, all nature and universe, all emotions and thoughts as well. For example even English has no equivalents for certain local language words: Malayalam has a word Aangala. It means brother in relation to sister. Madhavi can have an Aangala, but Madhavan cannot have. Its opposite gender is Pengal, sister in relation to brother. Ammavan is the brother of the mother and Ilayachan is the younger brother of the father. In English there are only brother, sister, and uncle. This is an asset of regional languages.

NKA: Are you planning a translation of your Malayalam writings into English? What do you think are the salient features of a good literary translation?
CPA: I am not always successful in translating my works into English. I can write in English. Most of my translations are from English to Malayalam. I have translated nearly 15 books from English to Malayalam. Now I am engaged in translating the famous book on Indian History The Wonder that was India by A. L. Basham. I have translated Irfan Habib, Osho and many others. The Wonder is a challenge. My greatest challenge was the translation of sixty poems by Joop Bersee of South Africa. It is a wonderful work of translation. I don't know whether the academic world admits this. If they do not, it is their loss. And about translation: How do you translate? You translate a book after fully understanding a book. You must be fully aware of the text. Otherwise you would not have continuity of the standard. Then, you will have to decide that no damage to the original text should be made. How? To forget the exact words in the original words; only remember the concept in the paragraph; then you write in you own words. There are many schools of translation that think the original book could be interpreted in a translation. It will be a guide, not a translation! You have no such rights as interpreting. We have to adhere to the text. You can use techniques that will help you infect the concepts in the original in your language.

Some of my works are translated into English. I have collected them in a book: The Old Earth. But all poems in The Old Earth are not originally in Malayalam. But I failed in translating many works. I wanted to do my poem Anandaram( And After) or Bhoomiyude Kannu( Eye of the earth) or Katal( The sea), or Unmadathinteyum Swasthyathinteyum ezhu raathriakal( seven nights of madness and calm ) etc. Unfortunately I could not translate them.

NKA: Contemporary society is terrorized by the shameless mockery of human values on all sides. Can literature fill this vacuum?
CPA: I see this in two perspectives: 1. Many incidents show that there is a mockery of human values. 2. Mockery of human values is brought to human notice by the growth of media. Let us explain the first. We have been discussing it. People everywhere complain of mockery of values. It happens. There are several reasons. Man expects much; but he gets very least. This is the main reason. And who pollutes our values? The so-called messengers and worthies of good are doing it! Channels have a role. USA is exporting its sex empire to the vast millions in the third world countries. Channels and cinema always try to incite people to violate all values. Crime is glorified. Anti-heroes win. It is Asoka the great that won; he was the aggressor, and the king of Kalinga is nowhere. Why? He failed; he was the leader of the vanquished. USA is dictating, not Iraq; aggressors and the victors dictate values; man is not an ignoramus to respect dictations. Recently Russia attacked some place in Georgia; USA was the first to question it in the name of international values! It is not mockery of values; it is the mockery of the mockery of the values. It is there. Now we find a young lover clasping the hands of his spouse and complain: Oh, these youngsters! How dare them! Our rulers are ready to sell out our country to USA disregarding the fact that we have thorium, which can be cultivated to uranium233. Time and again, our rulers say that buying nuclear fuel would solve the problem of energy; they conceal the most obvious facts before the students of nuclear physics! Could we expect the youngsters to be esteeming the values the elders made for them? On the one side, rulers sell the country; on the other side a love affair is dubbed as disregard of values. Which is what?

Secondly, I must confess that this complaint has always been there. I remember, some fifty years ago, my parents used to complain that values are disregarded by my generation. I was one among the value-breakers. I cropped my hair to an immoral length. Calvinists had punished women for arranging their hair to an immoral height; they have prescribed punishment for children for beating the parents. Not gown up children! Just children! The harems of the monarchs of the old world would not bring them any punishment. It was the desire of a king, Henry VIII that led to the English reformation! The feudal families and their manors had collected the best available women for the use of Lords of the manors. And they dictated the values. Fagin ran his school of pick-pocketing before the eyes of the authorities. Fagin might be a character; but the author of Oliver Twist got it from the society he was living in. Cervantes got Quixote from his society. Akbar the great could love and marry whoever he wanted to. Dushyantha could love Sakunthala to make her one among his co-queens, (we can't call them concubines because they belong to a king). In short the whole history is controlled by breaking values. Breaking of the values is nothing new to history. Vice today could become a virtue of tomorrow. And vice versa.

NKA: What difference do you find between e-publishing and orthodox publishing? Can the former be a proper alternative for the later? You ideas, please.
CPA: E-publishing, as I do it, has no difference from orthodox publishing. But the possibilities of the former are various and varied. There are sites that could be instantly uploaded. There are blogs and friendship sites, where you could publish yourself. E-publishing is very fast and up to date. You get the latest works of art and latest information on any branch of knowledge. You could even write a book on any topic in which you are a novice. This would gradually imperil the depth of the knowledge. But you can't escape the advantages it provides. Human venture is belittled, too. You have an outline of any knowledge in the net. Meditation and effort in gathering knowledge are ignored. The great many obituaries that appear on the death of a poet or scientist from writers who are not well-versed with the works of the deceased are a consequence. People are provided with only shallow information. I, for instance, am for orthodox publishing. It remains before your eyes and in your hearts. But it is very much limited to well-known writers and scholars. The blogs that appear today give us a new light on the parallel stream of literature; without blogs, we would have missed it. I have myself introduced a number of new writers. They are good ones. On very few occasions, the ezines are forced to publish some lower level works. But it happens in print media too. But e-publishing must be encouraged while we retain orthodox publishing. Orthodox publishing also depends highly on digital graphics and images, digital printing etc. Technology enhances and strengthens human endeavor.

NKA: What will you say about author-publisher relationship in India? What are the major problems, faced by the authors, poets, editors and scholars in getting their works published? Some publishers even demand money from the authors, what to say of royalty. The publishers do not promote new and emerging authors. What do you want say, Sir, about all this?
CPA: I don't like to comment on this. It is very deplorable. The publishers have their own coteries. They are given much coverage and exposure. Even in periodicals I write in, they like to print the books of those who mainly do not write in them. When I put a request, their question is: will it sell? You can sit well assured that the books that go unpublished, most of them, would sell more than the ones that were published. People's tastes and desires are artificially moulded. If the readers do not get the works of a writer, how will they know there are other writers? A terrible black out is going on. Writers are at the mercy of publishing capitalism. Of course, Mahasweta Devi and M. T. Vasudevan Nair would sell and get published. But lesser writers would be ignored; it is here that e-publishing has a place of importance.

NKA: Tell something about the contemporary literary scene in Kerala. Who are the other major literary figures writing both in Malayalam and English?
CPA: As far as I know, very few are there. K. Satchidanandan is there. T. P. Rajeevan is there, Anitha Thampi is there. Sangeetha is there. And a few others also write bilingually. I am one among them. I don't claim to be equal to them. I write, that is all. I say this not as mockery, I don't like to mock at any writer.
And contemporary literary scene in Kerala is very productive. There is a great output; I don't know how much the input was. I also don't believe that all books published by established publishing houses are that much worthy. But there are trends; there are trend setters, too. In Kerala every oven would cook any meal. They write one thing; I get a different meaning; text is not a concern of regard; reading is the concern. There are a few writers who insist upon texts. I don't want to name anyone.

NKA: What is the role of Kerala Language Institute in the promotion of literary activities in Kerala?
CPA: Language institute was and is promoting instructive and informational knowledge. In the beginning, it tried to promote a Malayalam glossary. Some words were accepted, some were unacceptable: for ordinary switch the Malayalam word given in glossary was: vidyuchhakti-gamana-agamana- niynthrana-yanthram( a machine controlling the coming and going of electricity). It was a farce of a language, a gimmick. But gradually the Institute has changed. From last year on, The International Bookfest Calicut is organized. It can encourage young scholars who can write books to publish their books. Authors like me were translating books without any training. Now the institute is imparting District wise training in translation. Not that all who attend would become good translators; but experiences are shared. And Dr. P.K.Pokker, the Director at present is a philosopher and scholar and a critic of repute. Under him, the institute is sure to make gains.

NKA: Your future writing plans?
CPA: I have a great many plans. I wish to write one or two novels. I have been on them for the last many years. I feel that most of what I have in mind does not open up in my writing. Still, I have been writing for the last fifty years. It was in 1959 that I translated ‘The Slave's Dream’ of Long Fellow. I also translated William Blake's ‘Night’; it is a poem that has influenced me greatly. I also translated Coleridge's ‘Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner’. It was not a good translation. I did it when I was doing my undergraduate course in History. I have no publisher. My main sphere is poetry. Without poetry, I have no life, no love. Poetry and politics are my main preoccupations. I am in the left movement. I was a member in the national Preparatory committee that founded the Students Federation of India. I had contested an election in 1970 before I came into Govt service. I lost beautifully. Then like the Duke of Winsor I abdicated my political position. You know why the Duke of Winsor abdicated his throne. It is a pleasure to view things in the view point of the Duke. Unfortunately I lost my Empire and also the cause for which I abdicated. I don't harbor any sorrow on my decision. It was my personal decision.

P. Sainath and Farmers' Suicides in India

Siddhartha Shome — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 01:09:05 EST

P. Sainath is one of India's most exalted journalists today. Last year he was awarded a Ramon Magsaysay Award for "his passionate commitment as a journalist to restore the rural poor to India's consciousness, moving the nation to action".

I read Sainath's writing occasionally, and last week attended a talk by him at the University of California at Berkeley. Here are some of my thoughts on Sainath and farmers' suicides in India - an issue with which Sainath in intimately connected.

Why Sainath is Important

Today's English educated urban upper middle class India remains almost totally ignorant of rural India. An English language journalist seriously interested in rural India is the rarest of rare creatures. It is therefore remarkable that Sainath has decided to devote his career to reporting about rural India. What is even more remarkable is that Sainath, with his passion and eloquence has been able to successfully carve out a space for himself in the India's English language media.

For this reason alone, Sainath deserves much acclaim.

Farmers' Suicides: Why Sainath's Analysis is Deeply Flawed

Sainath is a remarkable journalist. However, he does not limit himself to reporting. Though he does not claim any expertise as a researcher or an economist, he offers a very stark analysis of the problems of rural India. While I am in agreement with some parts of his analysis (the existence of an agrarian crisis, the negative impact of industrialized countries' farm subsidies, etc.), I feel that much of Sainath's analysis is, sadly, deeply flawed.

Sainath's Analysis

The issue most closely associated with Sainath is farmers' suicides. According to him, the story goes like this:
1. In recent years there has been a huge surge in farmers' suicides in rural India.
2. Farmers' suicides are driven by indebtedness.
3. Rising agricultural input costs are responsible for much of the debt.
4. Corporations, freer markets, and globalization are responsible for the rise in input costs, and hence are the root cause of farmers' suicides.

Thanks largely to Sainath, the issue of farmers' suicides in India has become something of a cause celebre in the global anti-globalization movement today.

The Reality of Farmers' Suicides in India

Sainath's uses data from India's National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) to support his narrative. According to the NCRB data, the total number of suicides in India has risen from 95,829 in 1997 to 118,112 in 2006. This works out to an annual growth rate of 2.4%. India's population, meanwhile, has grown at 1.93% annually (between 1991 and 2001).

Above: Total suicides and farmers' suicides in India (reference)

Above: Farmers' suicides as a percentage of total suicides (reference)

It is evident from the data that over the last 10 years, the number of suicides in India has grown only slightly, especially when adjusted for a growing population. Even farmers' suicides as a percentage of total suicides in India has been fairly constant at around 15%.

Clearly, it is a false notion that farmers' suicide rates in India have shot up dramatically in the last few years.

Farmers' Suicides in Yavatmal District in Maharashtra

While the notion of a huge surge in farmers' suicides in India is largely false, maybe there are pockets where farmers' suicides represent a serious problem.

Let us take a closer look at Yavatmal District in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, considered by Sainath as the epicenter of the farmers' suicide crisis. An investigation into farmers' suicides in Yavatmal District was carried out by Meeta and Ravilochan in conjunction with the Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration (YASHADA). The findings were published in 2006 in a book called Farmers Suicide: Facts and Possible Policy Interventions. The following are some of the points from this book.

Yavatmal District has the highest suicide rate in Maharashtra.

For the years studied, the total number of suicides in Yavatmal District was 640, 819, 832, 787 and 786, in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004, respectively. In each of these years, suicides of farmers and agricultural workers represented 23, 24, 23, 22, and 30 percent, respectively, of all suicides.

The researchers conducted case studies for individual farmers' suicides in Yavatmal District. A total of 148 case studies are presented in the book. To give a flavor of these case studies, two are very briefly described below.

Case 46. A 45 year old farmer who committed suicide by consuming poison in 2004. He had 3 acres of land. There was a crop loan of Rs. 3954 taken in 2001 from the Primary Agricultural Credit Society, which remained unpaid. In 2003-04 he spent Rs. 10,000 in treating his wife who was a psychiatric patient at a private clinic.
Case 120. A 50 year old farmer who committed suicide by consuming poison in 2004. He had 19 acres of land. There was an outstanding loan of Rs. 33,000 with the Bank of Maharashtra, and another outstanding loan of Rs. 8,000 from the Primary Agricultural Credit Society. In 2004 he spent Rs. 60,000 on the marriage of his second daughter. He used to drink alcohol and also gamble. He was having an affair with his bhabhi (sister-in-law). His affair had been discovered shortly before his suicide.

According to the authors of this study,

We found that while indebtedness was rampant, there was little clarity: was it disabling, to what extent, and who was responsible. On one side, indebtedness as high as 75% has been reported since the early 20th century but it was not considered disabling. On the other side, in the early 21st century, only 14% of the victims had indebtedness that resulted in alienation of land and/or animals. Moreover, we discovered that a loan from a rapacious relative rather than a bank or moneylender was often the cause of economic distress of the victim.

What comes out clearly from this study of farmer suicides is that each suicide is a unique and complex phenomenon - the reasons and motivations are varied and multifaceted. To find a single cause, one can certainly try to look for common threads running through the suicides, but one must keep in mind that this is bound to be a substantial oversimplification of a highly complex and multidimensional phenomenon.

Implausible and Plausible Causes of Farmers' Suicides

Sainath attributes farmers' suicides to rising indebtedness. How plausible is his reasoning?

It is true that most farmers who have committed suicides have outstanding loans against them. But can that be isolated as the single most important cause for suicide? The fact is that most farmers who do not commit suicide also have outstanding loans against them. To me, things like poor farm productivity, medical problems, social pressure to spend lavishly on a daughter's wedding, etc., seem to be at least as important as debt - if not more so - in driving people to suicide.

Sainath's further attribution of blame to economic liberalization, globalization, "the neoliberal agenda", etc., are even more implausible. As can be seen clearly from the NCRB data, the crisis of farmers' suicides is not a nationwide phenomenon, but is visible only in certain pockets. Surely it make sense to look for local factors, not just national or global factors. Nation-wide issues like growing cash crops (instead of food crops) are equally applicable to farmers in, say, Gujarat. So how come there are so few suicides among cotton farmers in Gujarat?

A much more plausible cause for cotton farmers' distress in Maharashtra is provided by Sharad Joshi, leader of the Shetkari Sanghatana, an important farmers' organization in Maharashtra. According to Joshi, the primary villain is the Maharashtra State Cotton Monopoly Procurement Scheme - a mechanism that makes the state government the sole buyer of cotton in Maharashtra, and despite promises, usually pays farmers less than prevailing market prices. Cotton farmers in Gujarat, who, by contrast, enjoy access to markets, a state government that invests in infrastructure, and access to new technologies, are witnessing unprecedented prosperity.

Suicides as a Development Indicator

Every suicide is an incredibly sad event. However, a basic question that must be asked is: how valid is suicide rate as an indicator of human development?

Above: Comparison of suicide rates

According to Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen, both eminent developmental economists,

The relevance of the suicide rate as a basic development indicator is far from clear. Indeed, many countries with high suicide rates (e.g., the Scandinavian countries) are doing extremely well in terms of overall social opportunities, and it would be quite odd to take their high suicide rates as a severe indictment of their development record. Suicide rates do correlate with specific social problems such as high rates of unemployment or divorce ... and it is quite possible that problems of this kind contribute to the high rate of suicide in Kerala. But these problems, such as they are, do not detract from Kerala's achievements in other, more fundamental fields such as health and education, just as - say - Finland's high suicide rate does not detract from its success in guaranteeing extensive social opportunities to its citizens.

Farmers' Suicide Crisis in Perspective

Sainath depicts farmers' suicides as one of the worst humanitarian crises facing India. So here are some statistics to keep things in proper perspective.

1. In 2006, 17,060 farmers committed suicide in India.

2. Every year in India some 400,000 to 500,000 children under the age of five die from diarrhea. Diarrhea and other waterborne infectious diseases can be easily prevented simply by improving the infrastructure for drinking water and sanitation.

3. In India some 35,000 people die every year from rabies, i.e., every year twice as many Indians die from rabies alone as from farmers' suicides. Rabies can be very easily prevented, simply by removing stray dogs from public areas.

4. Some 4,000 people die every year in accidents in the Mumbai Suburban Railway system alone (Mumbai city's mass transit system). This is just one example of the enormous numbers of accidents and fatalities that plague India's transportation system - a result of woefully inadequate infrastructure a virtual absence of even basic safety features.

Such statistics (and there are many more) point to the need for more, not less, economic growth and development in India.

India's Agrarian Crisis

While I disagree with Sainath on many things, I do agree with him that India is facing an agrarian crisis.

One need not look for clues to India's agrarian crisis in suicide statistics - there are many other more obvious pointers, such as anemic growth in agricultural output. The figure below of yield-per-hectare of foodgrains in India illustrates this problem.

Above: Foodgrains yield in India (reference)

This figure points to the issue that is at the heart of India's agrarian crisis: after a period of rapid growth during the Green Revolution, agricultural productivity in India has tapered off. As a result, farm incomes are under pressure. This is in sharp contrast to the industrial and service sectors of the economy, which are currently booming.

Economic Liberalization and Agriculture

In India the government started a process of economic liberalization in 1991, which aimed to move India away from a Soviet-style statist economic model to a much more free market oriented economic model. Anti-globalizers like Sainath blame economic liberalization for the agrarian crisis in India. I disagree completely. I think it is exactly the opposite - that it is not economic liberalization but rather the lack of it in the agricultural sector that is to blame. If increased economic freedom has made Indian industry boom, why should Indian agriculture be denied the same opportunity?

Below are two examples of how economic liberalization can help Indian farmers.

Consider farmland. Farming in India is not a particularly lucrative profession. It is thus no surprise that, according to a major survey, as many as 40% of Indian farmers would like to give up farming if they had a choice. I think it is important to give these farmers the liberty to monetize the most important asset that they possess - their land - and use the capital to embark on alternative ventures if they so desire. Unfortunately, India's stringent and stifling land regulations do not allow this to happen. According to Barun Mitra,

Indian industry can raise capital from the global market on the basis of a prospectus, which promises performance in the future. But Indian farmers can't raise adequate capital on the basis of the land asset which they already possess.... It is critical that the value of the land of farmers, often their only asset, is maximized, and it is made simple to capitalize. The problem facing the poor is not their poverty, but inability to capitalize their assets... Restrictions such as zoning, land ceiling and land use laws, along with unclear titles and poor land records, grossly undervalue land prices. ... The result is a greatly distorted land market. At one end, there are landowners, millions of small and marginal farmers, who can't even know the market value of their land. At the other end, there are the land mafia and speculators.

Consider farm technology. Like any other sector, to increase productivity, agriculture too needs new and innovative technologies. The good news is that recent advances in fields like biotechnology, genetic engineering, etc., offer immense promise. The bad news is that, partly in response to demands from anti-globalization groups, strict restrictions and prohibitions have been imposed on these new technologies.

Gail Omvedt, an American-born Indian scholar who married into a farming family in India has this to say,

Behind the appeal of the campaign is a distorted image of farmers ... which depicts them romantically but demeaningly as backward, tradition-loving, innocent and helpless creatures carrying on with their occupation for love of the land and the soil, and as practitioners of a "way of life" rather than a toilsome income-earning occupation. These imagined farmers have to be protected from market forces and the attacks of multinationals, from the seductions of commercialization and the enslavement of technologies...

Farmers may love the land they work on ... But they are people who are trying to scratch out a living, who want a better life for their children and for whom farming is a source of income and not a very good income. They are familiar with hybrid seeds ... They buy them, try them out, and refuse to use them if they do not perform... Farmers are economic actors and capable of making choices.

The way to overcome widespread poverty is to increase opportunities for people to fully utilize their own talents and abilities. I believe that if given the opportunity, most human beings will be able to overcome poverty through their own enterprise and hard work. For this, economic liberalization and better market access are vitally necessary.

This is not to suggest that the market is the solution to all problems. Markets need to be well regulated, with regulations designed to increase choice rather than stifle initiative. And because not everybody will have the ability and the luck to succeed in a dynamic market environment, especially during periods of downturn and crisis, social safety nets must accompany free markets.

Story Versus Analysis

Even though I disagree with much of Sainath's analysis, I can see where he is coming from. He is a journalist - a very good journalist - who is on the lookout for a story that a section of his audience can connect with. His urban English newspaper reading audience, immersed in a post-industrial economy, probably has very little serious knowledge or interest in obscure issues like Maharashtra's cotton procurement system, or in mundane problems like stray dogs and rabies. It is only the anti-globalization ideological angle of Sainath's story - whether real or imagined - that makes it interesting to some of his readers.

Reasoned analysis is sacrificed to produce a story that a particular section of the metropolitan audience will find engaging. Good reporting is lost in the blind rhetoric of anti-globalization.

Do Locals Hold 90% of The Jobs in Mumbai?

Chandra — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:30:03 EST

The TOI posted a story today that quotes a Maharashtra Govt "report" on the percentage of locals employed in Mumbai's SMEs. It that shows that more than 90% of the jobs in Mumbai SMEs are held by locals. This is another example of widespread mis-reporting that our media resorts to these days.

The data was quoted in the context of the MNS protest. Naturally, a headline figure of 90% implies that this story is contrary to what the MNS is fighting for. However, this is not true

a. The 90% refers to an overall universe of 1.1 million workers. However, the working population of Mumbai is more than 6 million (census 2001). Therefore the 90% refers to only one sixth of labour population. Nobody knows which one sixth they are referring to

b. It does not share with us data on the definition of locals. Does locals mean those who have spent more than 15 years in Mumbai (Mah Govt definition)? or does it mean 'Marathi Manoos' that the MNS are fighting for? I can conclude that the data refers to people who spent > 15 years in Mumbai

c. The story does not actually state the source of this data - "officials in the state industries department" is the same as "sources in the ATS". Why can't they provide us with the links or the precise source- Eg: Mr Khanolkar from the Department of Industries?

In other words, the 90% figure means nothing. It is not comprehensive and is not related to the issue that the MNS has raised. Pointless story pretending to dispute the larger issue.

I noticed a second story in the TOI that I was intriguing to the say the least. The TOI reports

'The anti-terrorism squad investigating the recent Malegaon bomb blasts has recorded the statement of arrested Lt-Col Shrikant

Purohit's colleague Capt Nitin Joshi who reportedly said that Purohit had told him about pilfering RDX'

The Economic Times reports

'Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad’s (ATS) investigation into Lt Col Shrikant Prasad Purohit’s involvement in terror activities got a boost on

Tuesday when an instructor (Captain Nitin Joshi) at Nashik’s Bhonsala Military Training School recorded a statement with the police that the the Malegoan blast suspect had confided in him about possessing RDX'

The TOI suggests that Captain Nitin Joshi worked with Lt Col Purohit in the Army while the ET suggests that Captain Joshi worked with the Bhonsala Military Training school. Weird that the same newspaper reports things differently.

Here is an interesting article that reports how the NASA GISS reported that October was the hottest month ever and then rescinded the same after bloggers pointed out to data collection errors in Russia.

Be careful of what you read these days. Validation is critical as everybody is driven by their own agenda

Thekedaars of the Middle-Class?

commonsense — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 02:49:39 EST

We have all heard of the “my sentiments are hurt” claim to push for a ban on topics that we cannot handle. The long list of such political maneuvers includes but is not limited to Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses, the artist M. F. Hussain, Taslima Nasreen etc. Such claims by the thekedaars of so-called religious, regional, linguistic communities are quite obviously irrational and appeal to the lowest common denominator in all of us.

The Gujarat government has gone step ahead by claiming that the sentiments of the state and of its middle-class are “hurt” by the loose canon scholar Ashish Nandy’s op-ed piece published last summer in the Times of India.

Stung by the acerbic piece by penned by Nandy (who by the way, received his PhD from Gujarat), the Gujarat state government has apparently lodged a case against the scholar for apparently implying the middle-class’s addiction to development at any cost, is to blame for Modi’s re-election. Nandy of course, is a self-styled provocateur who passes sweeping, frequently quite off the mark pronouncements in the prophetic mode. He is taken more seriously outside rather than within India. Once in a while he does provide quite interesting insights about Indian society. More often than not, he lashes out at any hint of the term “development” and indeed considers himself as the “thekedaar” of the “real” India and Indians.

The point however is not whether one agrees or disagrees with him as far as his takes on Indian society are concerned.

What is ominous is the government taking a writer to court for imagined injuries to the sentiments of the state and its middle-class. Are we slipping backwards to the era when any critique of state policies was labeled as “treason” and the pressure to conform was enforced by intepreting the law in particular ways? This time around, the Supreme Court of India not only dismissed the case against Nandy but also issued a stern rebuke to those who wanted to prosecute the author.

Where exactly are we headed in the future as far as freedom of critical commentary is concerned? If we disagree with any critical commentary, there is always the option of criticising the critic. If established media outlets won't publish our critiques of critics, there is always the world-wide blogosphere. The proliferation of self-appointed of thekedaars of who seek to address real or imagined injuries, is, at least from a non-sectarian point of view, indeed ominous.

Some Thoughts on Uri Avnery's "Manifest Destiny"

Ruvy — Tue, 7 Oct 2008 14:40:13 EDT

I first read Uri Avnery's work, Israel Without Zionism: A Plan for Peace in the Middle East in 1971 or 1972, not long after it was published. At the time, Avnery was the publisher of the Hebrew newspaper העולם הזה ha'ol�m hazé - This World. The title of the publication was not without irony. Jews pray for Redemption and to be deserving enough to live in the world of truth, the world after the messiah's arrival, and regard this world as "the world of lies", העולם השקר ha'ol�m hashéker. Avnery's publication was very much concerned with "this world", a world of scandals, sex crimes and politics. His publication set the standard for the preesent day surviving Hebrew dailies, מעריב ma'ar�v and ידיעות אחרונותyedi�t aHron�t, which scream headlines in huge sized font, but are as all forgettable as the paper one uses to wrap fish in. Only הארץ ha'�retz has retained its reputation as a real newspaper that writes in literate Hebrew.

Avnery's politics were "pro-peace" and revolutionary for his day, in that he envisaged Israelis as adopting a "Canaanite" identity whereby they rid themselves of the essential tenets of the "ingathering of the exiles" and worked at integrating themselves into the Middle East as Hebrew-speakers in a world of Arabs. He proposed withdrawing from what was then the barely settled Judea and Samaria and the Heights of Golan, and renouncing the special law that grants citizenship to any Jew coming home within ninety days. He believed then, and still does, that an Israel without its Zionist ideological underpinnings would be accepted by the Arabs in the region. In all truth, I no longer have this book, and forgot what he proposed to do about Jerusalem, but at the time, religious belief seemed on the decline all over the world and I suppose that he imagined that both Judaism and Islam would be consigned to museums in some dusty corner somewhere while folks enjoyed life, eating shwarma, drinking Turkish coffee and dancing the debka.

Thirty-seven years ago, any philosophy that proposed to strip Israel of its Zionist underpinnings seemed heretical and ridiculous to most Jews and to most Israelis. But a number of Israelis did read his book and it planted the seed of what became known as "post-Zionism", a deconstruction of Israeli history that paints Jews (and Zionists in particular) as imperialist agents from the west with no real right to live in the Middle East. The white and blue k�va tembél of the kibbutznik was doffed and the black hat of the evil robber tying the Arab woman to the train tracks while robbing her of her home was donned. Ths is the predominant view today of most of the teaching staff at the various universities in the country, of much of the rich Ashkenazi business elite, many commanders in the IDF, as well as that of the publishers of the Hebrew dailies in Israel. For a time following the signing of the Oslo Acords, many work-a-day Israelis tried to persuade themselves of this idea as well, as difficult as it was to swallow, however the bloodlust of the Arabs in their terror attacks awoke most of them from the delusions of peace. But I get ahead of myself here.

Avnery espouses views which I tend to view as traitorous, but one cannot just label someone like Avnery as a traitor without first acknowledging that he fought for the indedpendence of this country from the British, first with the Etz'el, the city-based Revisionist Zionist military force of Ze'ev Jabotinsky and later MenaHem Begin, and then with the IDF in the Sinai campaign. After the war of independence, he watched, as did most Israelis in the 1950's, as the Algerians fought against the French and he drew his ideas from the fact that his sympathies were with the FLN, the force fighting an imperial power, and from the possibilities that he felt that he saw rise from the existence of the FLN and other nationalistic Arab organizations.

Avnery seeks peace. One cannot condemn a man for following the mitzv� (commandment) of seeking peace. But, it is necessary to look with whom he seeks to deal. Is it realistic? Loving a woman who spurns you continually is seeking love, but it is not practical. The Arabs, in most parts of the Arab world, reject peace with Jews and with Israel. Thirty-eight years ago it was on nationalistic grounds - today it is on religious grounds. But either way "the Arab woman" is spurning "the Jewish man" courting her love. Avnery pursues this course anyway, despite 68 years of experience that tells him the contrary. That he does so is insanity. After nearly seven decades, he should have figured out that his overtures will be spurned and that he is nothing but a useful idiot. But unfortunately, it is also treasonous and endangers the lives of his fellow Jews. Nevertheless, I still get ahead of myself here.

In April 2008, Avnery wrote a piece published at Global Research called "Manifest Destiny?" dealing with what he believed to be the problem facing the Israeli establishment in dealing with what he views as their Arab peace partners. For all my disagreements with the venerable Mr. Avneri, he makes a fundamental point in this essay that needs to be emphasised and re-emphasised to anyone looking at the issues that face Jews in this part of the world.

Avneri sifts through the positions ot various Israeli leaders and comes up with what he views to be the the common thread that creates the problem: their refusal to agree to a fixed border. This is what he criticizes the late and unlamented Moshe Dayan of expressing in a speech to kibbutzniks years ago, this is what he criticizes David ben-Gurion of when fighting for the independence of the country sixty years ago, this is what he criticizes even George W. Bush of in that Bush appears to "buy" the stance of the present "power-holders" in Israel. Let's look at Avnery's words:

That is the reason for David Ben-Gurion's refusal to include in the Declaration of Independence of the new State of Israel any mention of borders. He did not intend for a minute to be satisfied with the borders fixed by the United Nations General Assembly resolution of November 29, 1947. All his successors had the same approach. Even the Oslo agreements delineated "zones" but did not fix a border. President Bush accepted this approach when he proposed a "Palestinian state with provisional borders" - a novelty in international law.

In this respect, too, Israel resembles the United States, which was founded along the Eastern seaboard and did not rest until it had reached the Western shores on the other side of the continent. The incessant stream of mass immigration from Europe flowed on westwards, breaching all borders and violating all agreements, exterminating the Native Americans, starting a war against Mexico, conquering Texas, invading Central America and Cuba. The slogan that drove them on and justified all their actions was coined in 1845 by John O'Sullivan: "Manifest Destiny".

This then, is the "secret" agenda against what Avneri views as "peace". In his final paragraphs of his essay he states

Dayan, who was well versed in the ancient texts, probably had in mind the phrase in the Chapter of the Fathers (a part of the Mishnah, which was finished 1,800 years ago and formed the basis of the Talmud): "It is not up to you to finish the work, and you are not free to stop doing it."

That is the hidden agenda. We must haul it up from the depths of our unconscious minds to the realm of consciousness in order to face it, to reveal the terrible danger inherent in it, the danger of an eternal war which may in the fullness of time lead this state to disaster.

Approaching the 60th anniversary of the state, we must draw a line under this chapter of our history, exorcise the dybbuk and say clearly: yes, we have ended the chapter of expansion and settlement.

This will enable us to change the course of the river. To put an end to the occupation. To dismantle the settlements. To make peace. To effect a reconciliation with the neighboring people. To turn Israel into a peaceful, democratic, secular and liberal state, that can devote all its resources to the creation of a flourishing, modern society.

And first of all: to agree on a border.

Avneri is not wrong in all that he says here. We Jews, in dealing with the outside world, must honestly face our past. We must honestly face our heritage and stop trying to weave around it like garden snakes sneaking into a patch of greenery. At bottom here is a call for honesty. And just a day or two before Yom Kippur, when we Jews ask G-d for forgiveness of our sins against Him, honesty is a very good policy. Our biggest problem is not the Arabs, nor the Americans, nor the Russians. It is our fear to face ourselves honestly in the mirror and be honest - brutally so. That is what G-d demands of a people who would call themselves "chosen"; a people who would view themselves as high priests to the peoples of the world.

But Avneri has provided a border, or rather he has quoted one from Yisrael Eldad, a member of the Stern Gang, the smallest military group that fought the British in days of the Mandate. Let's have one more look at Avneri's essay.

Israel Eldad, one of the Stern Group leaders, distributed for many years a map of the Israeli Empire that reached from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates and included all of Jordan and Lebanon, with great chunks of Syria and Egypt thrown in. His son, the extreme right-wing Member of the Knesset Arieh Eldad, has not given up this map.

I have not given up that map either - for it is drawn from our holy books. The exact lines are less important than the concept - that in the world of truth, Israel will control all of the Holy Land, both banks of the Jordan River, a good hunk of Lebanon and a good hunk of Syria extending all the way to the Euphrates.

In the World of Truth העולם האמת ha'ol�m ha'emét, we will live in peace with our neighbors and the foreign nations that stir war between the Children of Abraham will no longer have a voice here. The occupation - the Arab occupation of our land - will end, and the Children of Nevayot and Kedar will sacrifice at a rebuilt Temple on our Temple Mount just a few kilometers south of here in Jerusalem. Jewish and Arab children will play together near the mountains of Moav as their parents pray together in the afternoon sun.

It is time to recognize at long last that there is no such thing as Palestine. It is time to recognize at long last that seeking "peace" with the terrorists who now control the Arab population in the Land of Israel is nothing less than insanity. It is time to be honest and forthright with our Arabs neighbors and tell them that the Prophet David will be ruler here. They will listen, and they will understand - they too respect Sheikh Da'�d el-Nebi.

If we are honest and forthright with ourselves, we will be able to be honest with our Arab neighbors, who deserve to live in peace, prosperity and security, just as we do.

And all of us, all of us Children of Abraham, will be able to look to our Creator and seek forgiveness for our transgressions and hope for a lenient judgment from He Who sits on the Throne of Mercy - rather than stern condemnation from His Seat of Judgment.

Finally, as a Jew who has had a very difficult year, I must ask forgiveness of those of you whom I have hurt. I apologize for the hurtful actions that I may have done, or the hurtful words I may have uttered, in the past thirteen Hebrew months.

g'm�r Hatim� tov� May you all be inscribed in the Book of Life for goodness.