Month: January 2022

IT Raids on SP Leader Pushpraj Jain ‘Pampi’ Amid Allegations of ‘Vindictive Politics’ by BJP

These raids assume significance in the context of the upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, with the Samajwadi Party alleging ‘misuse’ of central agencies against political opponents.

Lucknow: The income tax department (IT) has been conducting raids on nearly 50 premises of the Samajwadi Party (SP) MLC and perfume baron Pushpraj Jain “Pampi” from Friday, December 30, morning. Raids began on Friday morning hours before Pampi was to address a joint press conference in the noon with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav in Kannauj.

These raids assume significance in the context of the upcoming assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

The tax department sleuths have been conducting simultaneous searches at premises associated with the SP MLC in Kannauj, Kanpur, Lucknow, Noida, Delhi, Mumbai, among others. Financial records of companies in which Pampi is either a director or partner are being checked to see if there are any financial irregularities. Raids began before the SP chief reached Kannauj from Lucknow for the press conference.

The IT department sought security cover from the state police before raiding the SP lawmaker, who owns a perfumery, petrol pumps, and cold storages.

It knocked on the doors of Pushpraj Jain on December 30, after conducting a nine-day long raid on the business premises of a perfumer Piyush Jain. Nearly Rs 196 crore in cash and 23 kg of gold were recovered from Piyush Jain.

The confrontation between SP and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) started as the BJP alleged that it was Piyush Jain who recently launched the “Samajwadi Perfume”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also took a dig at the opposition and said in Kanpur on Wednesday, “Boxes filled with currency notes have come out. The people of Kanpur understand business and trade well. Earlier, in 2017, the perfume of corruption that they had sprinkled all over UP was still there for everyone to see.”

However, the SP MLC denied any relationship with Piyush Jain. According to SP, it was MLC Pushpraj Jain “Pampi” whose perfumery made a “Samjadwadi Perfume”.

The SP chief lashed out at the BJP and claimed that the trader (Piyush Jain) had links with the saffron leaders. The BJP government wanted the tax department to raid some other perfume traders, but then one of its own workers, who was also a perfume trader, was raided, said Akhilesh Yadav.

He also said that the mobile phone records of the trader could reveal the names of several prominent BJP leaders.

It is merely a coincidence that the SP MLC also resides in Kannauj, near Piyush Jain’s home, and the distance between their houses is only 500 metres.

Pushpraj Jain had also told the media that Piyush Jain is neither his relative nor his business partner. SP MLC’s name had cropped up after the raids on Piyush Jain. It was also speculated that UP would witness many such raids in the run-up to the assembly elections.

As the raids were underway at Pushpraj Jain’s premises, the SP chief held a press conference in Kannauj and said that the IT department, Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had been dancing to the tune of the Modi-led Union government and were targeting the opposition leaders.

Speaking to the media, the former chief minister said, “The Centre raided the wrong person (Piyush Jain) earlier. This raid on the SP MLC (Pushpraj Jain) is an attempt to cover up the mistake made earlier.” Piyush Jain has also been in the perfume business.

Also read: ‘Tax Dept Joins Poll Battle,’ Says Akhilesh Yadav as I-T Officials Raid SP Leaders’, Aides’ Homes

Pushpraj Jain Pampi launched the ‘Samajwadi Ittra’, a perfume, last month in the presence of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav ahead of the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections.

Comparing BJP to the ministry of propaganda that worked under Hitler, Akhilesh Yadav said, “Hitler had a department for false propaganda, but the BJP government is full of people speaking lies.” He also went on to say that “the BJP spreads the smell of hate. How will the BJP like the smell of inclusiveness?”

Union home minister and BJP leader Amit Shah, who is currently in Uttar Pradesh, stated that “the stench of SP’s perfume has spread throughout the country”. “Now when this perfume friend’s black money is being raided, they are feeling discomfort,” he said

It is to be mentioned here that Piyush Jain was arrested on December 26 on charges of tax evasion and taken into custody by the GST Intelligence unit in Kanpur. Piyush was booked under Section 69 of the Central Goods and Services Tax (CGST) Act.

It was much discussed that the IT department had “mistakenly” raided businessman Piyush Jain, though it was planned to investigate Pushpraj. However, the IT department denied these allegations and said a raid was conducted on Piyush Jain after the input of GST officials about the tax evasion.

Reacting to the raids, Congress leader Anshu Awasthi said that BJP was harassing the businessmen of the state for collecting extortion money ahead of the elections. “BJP is using the central agency to crush its opponents,” Awasthi added.

Political observers also see these raids as vindictive. Former editor of The Times of India, Atul Chandra, opined that “the BJP is trying to harass its principal opposition party by conducting these raids”. He suggested that “now Piyush Jain would get relief and a clean chit, but Pushpraj Jain will face prosecution because of his association with the SP”.

However, it is not known yet if the IT sleuths have found anything incriminating yet from SP MLC’s premises.

CCI Orders Probe Into Apple Over Alleged Abuse of App Market

The CCI order comes after a non-profit group alleged this year that Apple was abusing its dominant position in the apps market by forcing developers to use its in-app purchase system.

New Delhi: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) on Friday ordered an investigation into Apple Inc’s business practices in the country, saying it was of the initial view that the iPhone maker had violated certain antitrust laws.

The order from the the antitrust watchdog comes after a non-profit group alleged this year that Apple was abusing its dominant position in the apps market by forcing developers to use its proprietary in-app purchase system.

The CCI said Apple’s restrictions prima facie result in denial of market access for potential app developers and distributors.

Also read: Can Apple Take Down the World’s Most Notorious Spyware Company?

Apple did not respond to requests for comment.

CCI however said in the order that Apple’s argument on its market share was “completely misdirected” as the allegations were about anti-competitive restrictions on app developers and not end-users.

The allegations are similar to a case Apple faces in the European Union, where regulators last year started an investigation into the US tech giant.

The CCI ordered its investigations unit to complete the investigation and submit a report within 60 days of the order. Typically such investigations go on for several months.

The watchdog is separately conducting an investigation into Google’s in-app payment system as part of a broader probe into the company after Indian start-ups last year voiced concern.

(Reuters)

Succession Shows the Emotional Roller Coaster of the Winning at All Costs Syndrome

At the end of season 3, the successful show leaves some hope that the ruthlessness of the privileged can have a price.

What makes winners win? In the sordid and serpentine world of HBO’s Succession (available on Disney+ Hotstar in India), it is the ability to sacrifice everything but the desire to win.

Winners, as the third season of Succession reveals, are habitually capable of doing ruthless things, for they see society not as a collection of the good and the bad or the right and the wrong, but as a collection of those who win and those who do not.

After two simmering seasons of compelling tension, backstabbing, and power moves that are only possible in the arenas of the super rich, season 3 of Succession arrived in October with the show at the zenith of its popularity.

Saddled with expectations to not just entertain but to do so keeping intact the tragicomic nuances that only Succession seems to have mastered, it was natural to think whether the show would become a victim of its own reputation. But after eight riveting episodes and a season finale (premiering on December 13 in India) that is arguably the magnum opus of showrunner Jesse Armstrong’s career, Succession has lived up to its hype. It is just about the finest television you can watch right now.

The second season of Succession ends on a cliffhanger with Kendall Roy, the most turbulent of the contenders hoping to take over media mogul Logan Roy’s empire, calling out his father for potential complicity in sexual and human rights abuse at Waystar Royco, the conglomerate which Logan heads as patriarch.

And yet, the first half of the third season does not drive any closer towards the expected climax that should succeed a cliffhanger. Instead, the confusion over who is best placed to eventually displace Logan spirals on, with a civil war breaking out among the three Roy siblings (also including younger sister Siobhan or Shiv, played by an increasingly intemperate Sarah Snook, and youngest brother Roman, played by an exquisite Kieran Culkin) who do not know whether to be each other’s allies or adversaries.

Ever since it became clear that power outweighs love for every single character on Succession, one of the show’s USPs has been to create an atmosphere where no two people can entirely trust each other. This familiar pattern plays out again in the first few episodes of season 3. Though nothing really happens with respect to the movement of the main plot until the fifth episode, where the promise of disruption and disorder is unsurprisingly punctured, there is much ado about how to sustain the stasis at the heart of the show.

With any other group of creative minds and talents, this would effectively be a recipe for boredom, if not downright disappointment. But not with the team at Succession. Even when nothing happens in Succession, a lot does.

Take, for instance, the fourth episode, where one of Waystar’s most influential shareholders Josh Aaronson (played by an elegantly understated Adrien Brody) invites Logan and Kendall to his private island to discuss the prospect of his investment in the company being endangered. For most of the episode, Logan and Kendall attempt to win individual bouts of their cold war while at the same time trying to persuade Aaronson that they are on the same team. They fail, but their failure is neither dramatic nor (as it turns out in the next episode) pivotal. The entire episode becomes an exercise in concentrating emotions so tightly yet neatly that the cathartic release only arrives once something actually happens, which in this case is Logan almost having a heart attack out of exhaustion.

Also read: Twenty-One Notable Books From 2021

The sucker punch

For Succession fans, season finales are when all the cards that have been stacked up carefully over the preceding weeks are hurled into the air in the form of a controlled chaos. It happens in the first season when Logan manages to outmaneuver Kendall even as he saves his son and it happens once again last season when Kendall manages to outmanoeuvre Logan without saving himself.

In the season 3 finale, there is no saving to be done. With all the important players gathering in pristine Tuscany for the wedding of Logan’s ex-wife Caroline, this is, as CNN rightly hailed, the “most eventful wedding in terms of behind-the-scenes drama since The Godfather”.

Midway through the episode, Kendall breaks down in front of Shiv and Roman, no longer able to bear the brunt of having killed a man in the first season. Even though Kendall’s collapse, performed with haunting precision by Jeremy Strong, is belated and bereft of consequence, the emotional rollercoaster hits full tilt in his confession scene. All of a sudden, three characters who have always guarded their emotions on account of early childhood scars, are asked to let themselves loose, to drop their games and, for once, be entirely human.

On the other hand, their dad and winner-in-chief Logan is about to concede defeat by selling Waystar to upstart tech enterprise GoJo and its mercurial chief Lukas Matson (played by an insouciant Alexander Skarsgård). But here is the golden rule of Succession (at least until now): even when Logan loses, Logan wins.

The same, unfortunately, does not apply to his children, who receive the sucker punch of their lives in a manner that is entirely befitting of Succession: your best weapon will kill you first.

Orchestrating the coup de grâce in the finale is Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen), who is finally given his due for being the bishop on the Succession chess board. The bonhomie that has been ritualised between Tom and Greg Hirsch (Nicholas Braun), the socially awkward arriviste and grandson of Logan’s brother, over three seasons culminates with the two sealing their dynamic as one of perfect symbiosis (it is possible to “make a Tomlette without breaking some Greggs!” after all)

With pathos for Kendall merging into sympathy for Siobhan, with Roman’s incisive humour cutting everything like a knife, and with Tom and Greg looking out for each other (a collector’s item in the show), the emotional palate of the finale is nothing short of the most refined degustation.

As for what one may potentially feel about Logan, one could be forgiven for being glad that he is still the imperious ringmaster and still making every swear word seem delectably Shakespearean.

Also read: ‘I Doubt, Therefore I Am’: Revisiting Mirza Ghalib’s Poetry 

The American nightmare

The table read for the pilot episode of Succession took place on November 8, 2016, the night Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton to emerge as the President of the United States. “We watched the results come in, and everyone wandered off into the night – good for storytelling, bad for humanity,” recollected Macfadyen afterwards.

Throughout its first season, Succession seemed a fitting show from Trumpian times – the quid pro quo between legacy media and government in America, the approximation of Fox News in ATN, Waystar’s broadcast wing, and above all, the Teflon-esque quality of Logan that mirrored Trump himself, since no scandal could stick to either.

But while Trumpism is still very much alive in America, Trump is gone (for now). Succession, though, has only become more relevant. The reason for this is that Succession, which neither satirises wealth nor fetishises it, is brutal in its depiction of the American nightmare- – the land where avarice for oneself meets apathy for the rest. No matter which political ideology is in charge, the ideology of power is perpetually tilted towards the privileged. At the end of the day, regardless of who wins the battle of the 1%, everyone else loses.

Across the Atlantic, The Guardian columnist Rafael Behr recently came up with an excellent and expedient term to analyse the corruptibility of British politics – “cakeism”. It means that when you belong to a high enough echelon of the social ladder, you can have your cake and eat it, too. What appears mutually exclusive from the outside is welded together as complementary by the inner workings of the establishment. Cakeism has been applicable in America for decades, which is why Bill Clinton could get away with sleaze, George W. Bush could get away with Iraq and Afghanistan, Barack Obama could get away with his penchant for drones, and Trump could get away with just about anything.

For two seasons and eight episodes, Succession, too, has been a theatre for full-baked cakeism. But the season 3 finale might prove to be a turning point. For the first time in the history of the show, fortunes may be irreversible and damages may be insurmountable. Some cakes have been eaten and cannot be retained anymore. Does this indicate a pivot for the fourth season? Does Armstrong want to project a different order, a different America?

As with the incessant query about Joe Biden’s regime, has a new era really begun for Succession?

Only time (and the strings of power) will tell.

Priyam Marik is a post-graduate student of journalism at the University of Sussex, United Kingdom.

12 Dead, Several Injured in Stampede at Vaishno Devi Shrine in J&K

The stampede was triggered by a heavy rush of devotees who had come to pay their obeisance to mark the beginning of the New Year, officials said.

Jammu: At least 12 people were killed and several others injured in a stampede at the famous Mata Vaishno Devi shrine in Jammu and Kashmir triggered by a heavy rush of devotees, officials said on Saturday.

The stampede occurred in the early hours of Saturday near gate number three outside the sanctum sanctorum of the shrine atop Trikuta hills, about 50 km from Jammu.

The stampede was triggered by a heavy rush of devotees who had come to pay their obeisance to mark the beginning of the New Year, officials said.

Devotees usually trek to the hilltop shrine from the Katra base camp, a distance of nearly 13 km, while some reach there by helicopter.

According to the Indian Express, 15 people had sustained injuries, 13 serious ones, and were taken to the Narayana Super Speciality Hospital. Two have been discharged following treatment. Eight of the deceased have been identified so far — Dheeraj Kumar (26), Shweta Singh (35), Vinay Kumar (24), Sonu Pandey (24), Mamta (38), Dharamveer Singh (35), Vaneet Kumar (38), and Dr Arun Pratap Singh (30).

While one is a local from Jammu and Kashmir’s Nowshera area in Rajouri district, the others are from Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, the newspaper said in its report.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his condolences to the bereaved families and said he had spoken to Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and Union ministers Jitendra Singh and Nityanand Rai to take stock of the situation.

“Extremely saddened by the loss of lives due to a stampede at Mata Vaishno Devi Bhawan. Condolences to the bereaved families. May the injured recover soon. Spoke to JK LG Shri @manojsinha Ji, Ministers Shri @DrJitendraSingh Ji, @nityanandraibjp Ji and took stock of the situation,” Modi tweeted.

In a tweet, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said, “An ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh each from PMNRF would be given to the next of kin of those who lost their lives due to the stampede at Mata Vaishno Devi Bhawan. The injured would be given Rs 50,000: PM @narendramodi.”

LG Sinha has ordered a probe into the stampede.

In a series of tweet, the office of the Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor said, “Deeply pained at the loss of lives due to stampede at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine. My condolences to the families of the deceased & prayers with the injured.”

“Spoke to Hon’ble Home Minister Shri Amit Shah Ji. Briefed him about the incident. A high level inquiry has been ordered into today’s stampede. The Inquiry Committee will be headed by Principal Secretary (Home) with ADGP, Jammu and Divisional Commissioner, Jammu as members,” he said.

Senior officials and shrine board representatives are on the spot.

Officials said 12 people died in the stampede and their bodies have been removed to a hospital in the Katra base camp for identification and other legal formalities.

(With inputs from PTI)

‘Condemn Calls for Genocide’: Ex Service Chiefs, Veterans, Prominent Citizens Write to Modi, Kovind

“We urge you, Mr President and Mr Prime Minister, to take immediate steps to curb such attempts, and urge you to condemn such incitement to violence in no uncertain terms.”

New Delhi: A group of former service chiefs, several veterans and a large number of public minded concerned citizens have written to India’s prime minister and president calling for an immediate condemnation of recent calls for genocide against Muslims, and action against those making such threats.

In an open letter signed by more than 200 people, they have called on leaders to “take urgent action”. “We cannot allow such incitement to violence together with public expressions of hate – which not only constitute serious breaches of internal security, but which could also tear apart the social fabric of our nation. One speaker made a call to the army and police to pick up weapons and participate in the cleanliness drive (safai abhiyan). This amounts to asking the army to participate in genocide of our own citizens, and is condemnable and unacceptable,” the letter continues.

“We therefore call upon the Government, Parliament and the Supreme Court, to act with urgency to protect the integrity and security of our country. The Constitution provides for the free practice of religion across faiths. We strongly deplore such polarisation in the name of religion. We urge you, Mr President and Mr Prime Minister, to take immediate steps to curb such attempts, and urge you to condemn such incitement to violence in no uncertain terms.”

Read the full text and list of signatories below.

§

31 December, 2021

To

Shri Ramnath Kovind President of India

Shri Narendra Modi Prime Minister of India

OPEN STATEMENT ON NATIONAL SECURITY AND INCITEMENT TO VIOLENCE

Dear Mr President, and Mr Prime Minister,

We, the undersigned, are writing to you about recent events in Haridwar, Delhi and elsewhere, openly calling for a genocide of Indian Muslims. In addition, other minorities – Christians, Dalits and Sikhs are also being targeted.

India’s Armed Forces, the Army, Navy & Air Force, together with CAPFs and Police, are responsible for National Security – external and internal, respectively. All of the above have sworn to uphold India’s Constitution and our secular values.

We are seriously perturbed by the content of speeches made during a 3 day religious conclave called a Dharma Sansad, of Hindu Sadhus and other leaders, held at Haridwar between 17-19 December 2021. There were repeated calls for establishing a Hindu Rashtra and, if required, picking up weapons and killing of India’s Muslims in the name of protecting Hinduism.

At about the same time, a large number of persons gathered in Delhi and publicly took an oath resolving to make India a Hindu nation, by fighting and killing if necessary, and more such seditious meetings are being organised in other places.

Regardless of which persons or parties initiated calls for such genocide, Government of India and the Judiciary, at the highest level, need to take urgent action. We cannot allow such incitement to violence together with public expressions of hate – which not only constitute serious breaches of internal security, but which could also tear apart the social fabric of our nation. One speaker made a call to the army and police to pick up weapons and participate in the cleanliness drive (safai abhiyan). This amounts to asking the army to participate in genocide of our own citizens, and is condemnable and unacceptable.

In view of the current situation on our borders, any breach of peace and harmony within the Nation will embolden inimical external forces. The unity and cohesiveness of our men and women in uniform, including the CAPFs and Police Forces, will be seriously affected by allowing such blatant calls for violence against one or the other community in our diverse and plural society.

We therefore call upon the Government, Parliament and the Supreme Court, to act with urgency to protect the integrity and security of our country. The Constitution provides for the free practice of religion across faiths. We strongly deplore such polarisation in the name of religion. We urge you, Mr President and Mr Prime Minister, to take immediate steps to curb such attempts, and urge you to condemn such incitement to violence in no uncertain terms.

We also take this opportunity to urge leaders of all political parties to condemn these calls for what is tantamount to genocide of Muslims. They must restrain their own cadres and thereby set examples of their commitment to Secularism, Fraternity and Justice for all.

It is in the National Interest that all parties should refrain from using religion in politics and pledge to uphold our Constitution and the wellbeing of our people – thus ensuring both National and Human Security for all.

Copy to

Justice N. V. Ramana, Hon’ble Chief Justice of India Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, Chairman of the Rajya Sabha Shri Om Birla, Speaker of the Lok Sabha
Shri Amit Shah, Minister of Home Affairs
Shri Rajnath Singh, Minister of Defence

Presidents Bhartiya Janta Party, Congress Party, AITC, BSP, Samajwadi Party, CPI(M), CPI, AAP, DMK, AIDMK, Akali Dal, NCP, YSR Congress, Shiv Sena, TRS, TDP and others with representation in Parliament and State Assemblies.

Gen MM Naravane, PVSM, AVSM, SM, ADC, Chief of the Army Staff.
Admiral R. Hari Kumar, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, ADC, Chief of the Naval Staff.
Air Chief Marshal VR Chaudhari, PVSM, AVSM, VM, ADC, Chief of the Air Staff. Shri Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor

SIGNATORIES:
Admiral Laxminarayan Ramdas, PVSM, AVSM, VrC, VSM (Retd), Former Chief of Naval Staff.
Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat (Retd), Former Chief of Naval Staff.
Admiral Arun Prakash, PVSM AVSM,VrC, VSM (Retd), Former Chief of Naval Staff.
Admiral RK Dhowan, PVSM, AVSM, YSM, (Retd), Former Chief of Naval Staff.
Air Chief Marshal SP Tyagi, (Retd), Former Chief of Air Staff.
Lt Gen Vijay Oberoi, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, Former Vice Chief of the Army Staff.
Vice Admiral Madanjit Singh (Retd), Former FOC in C, Western Naval Command.
Vice Admiral Raman Prem Suthan, (Retd), Former Vice Chief of Naval Staff
Vice Admiral D B Kapila, PVSM,AVSM, VSM
Lt Gen RK Nanavatty, (Retd).
Lt Gen KS Rao, PVSM, SC, SM, (Retd).
Air Marshal TRJ Osman (Retd).
Air Marshal Philip Rajkumar (Retd).
Air Marshal Ajit Bhavnani (Retd).
Air Marshal SK Bhan (Retd).
Maj Gen SG Vombatkere, VSM (Retd).
Maj Gen Rajendra Prakash, VSM, (Retd).
Maj Gen TK Kaul, PVSM, AVSM, VSM, (Retd).
Maj Gen MS Kandal, (Retd).
Rear Admiral Alan O’Leary, (Retd).
AVM Kapil Kak (Retd).
Brig VHM Prasad (Retd)
Brig Amardeep Singh
Commodore Lokesh Batra (Retd), Transparency Campaigner.
Commodore Ranjit B Rai, Writer and Researcher.
Capt S Prabhala, VSM (Retd), IN
Col Pavan Nair, VSM (Retd).
Col K Ramachandran, (Retd).
Col Shashi Thomas (Retd)
Col Manmohan Singh (Retd)
Lt Col Johnson M Thomas (Retd).
Commander Suryajit Singh Kandal, IN (Retd).
MG Devasahayam (Ex Maj). IAS.
Maj Priyadarshi Chowdhury, SC (Retd).
Aruna Roy, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) Village.
Rajmohan Gandhi, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Najeeb Jung, Former Lt Governor, Delhi.
Julio Ribeiro, IPS (Retd)
Lalita Ramdas, Educator and Activist.
Tara Murali, Concerned Citizen.
Bharti Sinha, Founder, Citizen’s Forum India.
Binu George, Citizen’s Forum India.
Asha Hans, Academic.
GN Devy, President Rashtra Seva Dal.
Meena Gupta, IAS.
Binu Mathew, Journalist.
Sundar Burra, IAS (Retd).
Gita Hariharan, Writer.
Deb Mukharji, IFS (Retd).
Madhu Bhaduri, Former Ambassador.
Niloufer Bhagwat, VP Indian Association of Lawyers.
Aruna Rodrigues, Lead petitioner SC PIL, GMO Moratorium.
Navrekha Sharma, IFS (Retd).
Gopal Pillai, CCG.
Sharad Chandra Behar, CCG
F Colaso – IAS retd CCG
Ashok Chowdury – All India Union of Forest Working People
Suresh K Goel, Former DG ICCR and Secretary MEA.
Trilochan Singh, IAS retd CCG
Narendra Singh Sisodia, IAS (retd)
Prabhu Gate, IAS (retd)
PT Krishnan, CCG.
Subodh Lal, CCG.
Anna Dani, CCG.
AK Srivastav, CCG.
KP Fabian, IFS, CCG
Dr Meeran Chadha Borwankar, DGP (Retd), IPS.
Indira Jaisingh, Senior Advocate.
Prakash N Shah, Convenor, Movement for Secular Democracy, Editor, Nrikshak
Dr SS Soodan, President Indian Doctors for Peace and Development.
Dr Arun Mitra, Senior VP Indian Doctors for Peace and Development.
Dr Shakeel Ur Rehman, General Secretary Indian Doctors for Peace and Development.
Anand Grover, Senior Advocate.
Ram Punyani, CSSS, Mumbai.
Teesta Setalvad, Citizens for Justice and Peace.
Jayati Ghosh, New Delhi.
Anand Patwardhan, Filmmaker.
SP Ambrose, IAS (Retd). CCG.
Mazher Hussain, Social Activist, Hyderabad.
Sabina Basha, Retired IT professional.
Sudipta Sengupta, Retired Professor, Jadavpur University.
Sushant Singh, Actor.
T M Krishna, Musician and Author
Nagarjuna G., Retired Professor, HBCSE, TIFR.
Rev J. Bavani Rajan, Research Scholar
Rajni Bakshi, Journalist, Founder Ahimsa Conversations.
Ramesh Chand, Concerned Citizen.
Indeera Chand, Concerned Citizen.
Rebecca Kurian, Concerned Citizen.
Kamal Kant Jaswal IAS, former secy, CCG.
Raju Rajgopal, Hindus for Human Rights.
Ramani Venkatesan, IAS (Retd).
Dr Zafrul-Islam Khan, Former Chairman Delhi Minorities Commission.
Pradeep K Deb, IAS (Retd), Former Secretary to GOI.
Wajahat Habibullah, Former CIC.
Deepak Sanan, CCG.
Hindal Tyabji, IAS (Retd).
Aditi Mehta, IAS, (Retd).
TR Raghunandan, IAS, (Retd).
Masroor Hasan Siddiqui, Advocate, Delhi High Court, SEHAR Foundation
NC Saxena, Former Secretary Planning Commission.
Dr Rukmani B Nair, Professor Emerita, Linguistics and English.
Bina Agarwal, Economist.
Zia Us Salam, Associate Editor, The Hindu.
Nasreen Fazalbhoy, Academic.
TK Banerji, Former Defence Secretary.
Najid Husain, concerned citizen
V.P. Raja (IAS retd)
Nareshwar Dayal, IFS (Retd).
Gourisankar Ghosh, CCG.
Sujatha Singh, IFS, (Retd).
Ravi Nitesh, Social Activist, New Delhi.
Primila Lewis, Writer and Educator.
Gurjit Singh Cheema, IAS (Retd).
Mohd Zubair Saifi, Concerned Citizen
Ziya Salam, Associate Editor, The Hindu
Sukla Sen, Peace Activist.
Vickram Crishna, Researcher
Anita Dighe, Concerned Citizen, NOIDA.
Sami Uddin. Concerned Citizen
Pamela Philipose, Journalist
Achin Vanaik, Author and Academic.
Poile Sengupta, Author.
Abhijit Sengupta, IAS (Retd).
Anuradha Bhasin, Executive Editor, Kashmir Times
Ali Ahmed, Strategic affairs commentator
Prof Ujjwal K Chowdhury, Secretary, Global Media Education Council, Former Pro VC, Adamas University and former Dean of Symbiosis and Amity universities
Rimmi Vaghela, Research Scholar, Ahmedabad
Amit Kumar, Independent Researcher, Delhi Solidarity Group
Swarna Rajagopalan, Researcher and Peace Educator, Chennai
Subhash Gatade, Writer and Activist, New Socialist Initiative
Geeta Seshu, Co-editor, Free Speech Collective
Sanjay Barbora, Concerned Citizen
C. Rammanohar Reddy, Editor, ‘The India Forum’
Shabnam Hashmi, social activist, founder Anhad
D. N. Rath, Secretary, Movement for Secular Democracy, Ahmedabad
Sachin Godambe, Advocate
Ajaz Ashraf, Freelance Journalist
Asha Achy Joseph, Academic and Film maker
Navaid Hamid, President, All India Muslim Majlis e Mushawarat
Anand K Sahay, Columnist
Atul Gurtu, (Retd) Professor, TIFR, Mumbai
Anand Vardhan, Managing Editor, ThePublic.india
Apar Gupta, Advocate, Executive Director, Internet Freedom Foundation
Radha Gopalan, Environmental Scientist, Educator
Javed Anand, Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy.
Ghazala Wahab, Executive Editor, FORCE magazine & author
Ravi Hemadri, Activist
Namita Bhandare, Journalist and writer
Sheba George, Concerned Citizen
Badri Raina, Teacher, Columnist, Writer
Meenakshi Joshi, Convenor, Gujarat State, All India Mahila Sanskrit Sangathan
Meenakshi Shedde, Journalist
Namita Waikar, Writer
Rituparna Chatterjee, Journalist and gender rights activist
Ritwika Mitra, journalist
Abha Bhaiya, Jagori
Kalpana Kannabiran, Distinguished Professor, Council for Social Development
Radha Kumar, Academic and Author
Jyoti Punwani, Journalist
Aijaz Zaka Syed, journalist and columnist
Zafar Agha, Editor National Herald
B.L. Saraf, Former Principal District and Sessions Judge
Samvartha ‘Sahil’, Freelance writer, Manipal, Karnataka
Sushobha Barve, Social and Peace activist working in J&K
Rohin Verma, Independent journalist and author
Pravin Sawhney, Editor, Force newsmagazine
Meera Sanghamitra, National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM)
Aakar Patel, Chair Amnesty International India
A.C. Michael, Former Member of Delhi Minorities Commission and National Coordinator of United Christian Forum
Ranjona Banerji, Independent Journalist
Kanwaljeet Dhillon, Concerned Citizen
Srishti Jaswal, Independent Journalist
Kavita Krishnan, Concerned Citizen
Minnie Vaid, author and filmmaker
Neeta Kolhatkar, Concerned Citizen
Prof. (Dr.) Mukesh Kumar, Sr. Journalist, TV anchor, Writer, Poet and Translator
Venkatesh Nayak, Transparency Advocator
Mohammed Sardar Bhatti, Researcher, Executive Member, Kaavish-e-Ilm
Himanshoo Atri, Advocate Distt and Session Court, Kathua
Jaspreet Singh, Researcher
Kajal Dalpatia, Professional Social Worker
Ankush Sharma (Rajouri), Member, Kavish-e-ilm
Bharti Jasrotia, Research Scholar, member Kavish-e-ilm
Ankush Sharma, Advocate
Showkat Jan, Researcher, Member Kavish-e-ilm
Gulshan Udham, Journalist
Shikhar, Student, Member, Kavish-e-ilm
Padmaja Shaw, Retired Professor
Tanya Thomas, independent journalist
Anando Bhakto, Journalist
Sabita Lahkar, Independent journalist
Aakanksha Khajuria, Journalist
Latha Jishnu, Journalist
Ritu Dewan, Vice President, Indian Society of Labour Economics
Mansi Walia, Advocate, Member Kaavish-e-ilm
Gulshan Sharma, student
Manik Sahrma, Kaavish-e-ilm
Cathleen Kaur, Consultant
Avantika Mehta, Journalist
Revathi Siva Kumar, Journalist
Aunohita Mojumdar, Journalist
M. Raja-ullah Quraishi, Chicago Area.
Imtiaz Uddin, USA.

Of Death, Oppression and Resistance: My List of Best Indian Films of 2021

Unsurprisingly, many of the best films of the year were meditations about death and loss, but also about inequality, oppression and resistance.

The year that we leave behind us was, in many ways, more calamitous than what most of us would have witnessed in a lifetime. It was a year in which death and dread ravaged virtually every home and workplace; in which people choked without oxygen outside or in hospitals; a year of triumphal mutating viruses and lonely deaths; one when cremation pyres lined sidewalks, anonymous bodies were thrown into shallow mass graves, and corpses were floated in rivers. It was also a toxic year marking the further rise of the incendiary politics hate. It was a year of ever-mounting suppression of free voices. But it was also the year of the historic victory of farmers, of ordinary people fighting with courage and solidarity against the hubris of the state.

It is not surprising, then, that many of the best films of the year were meditations about death and loss, but also about inequality, oppression and resistance. For the greater part of the year, cinema theatres remained shuttered. Most people, including I, turned to our television screens for a second year running, for the nourishment of cinema.

Jai Bhim

In many ways, the choice of the film of the year is not difficult. T.J. Gnanavel’s Tamil film Jai Bhim quickly rose to become an instant classic, despite some obvious flaws. Based on a real-life incident in 1993, it shines for speaking what few Indian films have had the courage to speak; it was a rare, unflinching portrayal of caste and tribe oppression, and of police lawless and casteist cruelty. A community of Irular tribal people survive in desperate poverty, making a living catching rats and snakes, or by labouring in farms and brick kilns. There is an endearing dignity in the portrayal of the community in the early sequences of the film; an Irular man Rajakennu insists on setting free into the jungles a poisonous snake he catches in a rich man’s home, declaring that the snake too has the right to live; or he speaks of his dreams with his wife for a better life. But after he is falsely charged with robbery, life tumbles downhill terrifyingly for him, his pregnant wife Sengeni, and many others in his community. They are rounded up, beaten and tortured mercilessly, until Rajakennu and two other men disappear one night from the police station. The police claim that they fled from custody.

The rest of the film is preoccupied with the battle of Sengeni, with the help of an idealistic human rights Marxist lawyer K. Chandru, to prove that the policemen brutally tortured the three men, and killed Rajakennu. They triumph at the end, with the policemen being charged with murder. This is all the more stirring because this actually happened. Chandru went on the become a high court judge famed for his social conscience.

I have some quibbles with the film, for its too-graphic enactments of police torture and violence, its high-decibel drama, and the sometimes two-dimensional division of all characters into victims, perpetrators and hero-rescuers. The few Indian films about oppressed communities made over the years tend to hold the narrative arc-light primarily on a middle-class protagonist as the rescuer – whether as lawyer, activist or policeperson – while the oppressed people emerge mainly in the shadows as helpless victims, without agency or their independent capacity for resistance. Jai Bhim risks the same trap, except that lawyer Chandru has a winning humanity, and he declares at the end that he is rescuing himself, by rescuing his conscience. But I wish we got to know better the true heroine of the story, the pregnant widow Sengeni. Still, this is a searing, brave and impassioned portrayal of what is most culpable and disgraceful in our social order.

Eeb Allay Ooo!

The other film on the top of my list this year is much lesser known, lesser watched and under-rated: the debut film of Prateek Vats Eeb Allay Ooo!. Released in theatres in December 2020, it was available mainly online this year. This quietly immersive and affecting portrayal of the life of migrants – always precarious, exploited, undignified and resilient – continues to return to me many months after I watched it, and I would include it in any list I draw up of the best films not just of the year but even of the decade.

After the first brutal lockdown in 2020, millions of migrants spilled on to highways across the country, staking their lives walking hundreds of kilometres to reach their homes. Middle-class residents of cities were amazed at their sheer numbers: for them the people who build and work the cities are most invisible. Prateek Vats makes them visible: his way of noticing is compassionate, curious and respectful.

Also read: Top 10 Indian Movies Released on OTT Platforms in 2021

The protagonist, a fresh migrant from Bihar to Delhi, desperate for any employment, takes up work at dirt wages to frighten monkeys that have become a menace in the highest offices in the national capital. Earlier, the monkeys used to be frightened away by black-faced langurs. But animal rights activists forced the banning of the use of langurs, and the task fell instead to human workers. Overcoming his initial fear of the monkeys, this is work that the protagonist still finds humiliating, exasperating and daunting.  But he is desperate to hold on to this employment because he can find no other, and the film tracks his journey in the city – and of his brother-in-law, a reluctant security guard, his sister and a woman he loves – until he is sacked. If there is one film you watch this year-end, it should be this one. Few can match it for empathy, and for moral clarity.

Coming to terms with death

Among the films that meditate in different ways on coming to terms with death, I liked most Sumitra Bhave’s film Dithee (literally Seeing). This gentle and lyrical Marathi film traces one night in the life of a village ironsmith, unable to overcome his grief at losing his grown son in an accident. He rejects his son’s widow and baby, and rages also against God. But he is healed that rainy night with the love of his friends, their worship together, and by helping save the life of a neighbour’s cow and calf who would otherwise have died with a difficult childbirth.

There were also two different films about the days of mourning ritually prescribed for Hindus after a death, when traditionally the entire joint family gathers to mourn together. Coincidentally both these films were shot in the same house. In one, Pagglait, directed by Umesh Bist, the grown son of the family dies five months after his arranged marriage. His young widow is unable to feel any grief for her dead husband; they had not built a bond between themselves. Younger cousins and friends form a protective collective around her, even as the elders are dismayed by her want of display of public mourning.  There are further misgivings when they discover that her husband had left his insurance money entirely to her and not his parents. They try unsuccessfully to trick her out of her insurance. In a film that is funny and endearing, the director clearly roots for the young widow.

In the other equally accomplished film on mourning after death, Ramprasad Ki Tehrvi, written and directed by noted actor Seema Pahwa, the widow is much older. She too watches bemused as her children and their spouses are preoccupied by who will among them inherit the house, greedy but reluctant because this inheritance would mean also accepting responsibility for the care of their mother into her old age. In this film, also a penetrating portrayal of underlying tensions and rivalries in a joint family, like in Pagglait, the widow again opts to build her own life, this time in a music school independent of any of her children.

Exploring the Indian family

Three other films in my list also explore the dynamics of the Indian family, but not in the context of a death in the family. A harrowing indictment of the casual, normalised patriarchy of many Indian families is the Malayalam film The Great Indian Kitchen, written and directed by Jeo Baby. A trained dancer, educated in Bahrain, is married into a Kerala family, one in which her father-in-law and husband feel convinced that she should do nothing else but devote her entire days to cooking, cleaning and washing. She tries her best to adjust to their expectations from her, but in the end, the drudgery and their cold indifference to her feelings and aspirations lead her too to rebel.

#Home, also in Malayalam, directed by Rojin Thomas, is lighter in touch, but reflects on transformations in contemporary Indian middle-class homes. The focus in this film is on a father, unassuming to a fault, and often bumbling, but gentle and considerate. His grown son, an aspiring film writer, is ashamed of him; his teenaged son only uses him; and his wife, a retired nurse, only sometimes sees his worth. There are tracks I think the film would have been better-off without, such as of a yoga psychotherapist, and a somewhat fantastical childhood backstory of their father’s one act of courage and kindness as a child. The film traces the journeys of the two sons as they learn over time to respect and value the qualities of their father. I wish they had done this for his intrinsic worth, and not for the unlikely story of one act of childhood heroism.

A stark film, P. S. Vinothraj’s Tamil film Pebbles (which was India’s official entry for the 2022 Academy Awards), covers one day in the life of an alcoholic and abusive father, and his small son. The man pulls his son out of his classroom to take him to his wife’s village, to where she had gone after he was particularly violent with him; he wanted to use the boy to persuade her to come back. In the village, they find she had already returned home. The man vows to thrash her to death when they get back. The boy does everything to delay this journey home, beginning with tearing up the only currency notes they had to pay for the bus tickets. So, they are left with no option except to trudge through hot and arid countryside. With this misleadingly slight story, the film is luminous for its observation of the innovative resistance the little boy displays to his father’s violence, and for his protectiveness to his younger sister and mother.

Sardar Udham

One film that scores high for its sheer sweep as cinema, politics and history is Shoojit Sarkar’s Sardar Udham.  It is hard to forget its harrowing portrait of a teenaged orphan trying desperately to save as many lives as he can from among the dead and wounded, riddled with bullets piled one upon the other, the night after the Jallianwallah Bagh massacre. In 1919 in Amritsar, General R.E.H. Dyer ordered soldiers to fire without warning on an unarmed assembly protesting peacefully within an enclosed courtyard after blocking its single exit. Estimates of the numbers of women, children and men who were killed ranges from 350 to 1,200.

Also read: What Happened to the Friendly Neighbourhood (Working-Class) Spider-Man?

The film tracks the life of the teenaged orphan, Udham Singh, as he grows into adulthood, haunted by the memories of the massacre. He becomes obsessed with the resolve to avenge the massacre by killing the Lieutenant Governor Michael O’Dwyer, then retired in London, who had ordered and publicly frequently defended the slaughter. This magnificently crafted film follows the journey of Udham Singh, his growth as a communist revolutionary, his lonely years in London in the 1930s, his assassination of O’Dwyer, his interrogation and torture that followed, and the trial that led him to the gallows. I don’t believe in the path of violent revolution. But this film powerfully spells out the egalitarian and humanist core of the politics of  revolutionaries for India’s freedom like Bhagat Singh and Udham Singh.

Some of the most memorable moments in the film is of the depictions of his friend Bhagat Singh, and of the political education of the two young men. “We are not terrorists, we are revolutionaries,” they would often repeat. “We are humanists; we don’t support violence except as symbolic acts of resistance against unjust power. We don’t hate the British people, we only hate colonialism.” And in a lesson for our times today, “A true revolutionary can never harbour communal, caste or class prejudices.” During his torture, when Udham is asked to reveal his name, after many days of stubborn silence, he finally answers – Ram Mohammad Singh Azad!

Grahan

I complete my list of ten for the year with not a film but a television series, Ranjan Chandel’s Grahan. It is remarkable that there have been too few films, especially those constructed around a humanist core, about the most traumatic events in India’s recent history – the Partition riots, Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, many communal pogroms that targeted India’s Muslim minorities, numerous attacks on Dalits, the 1984 anti-Sikh massacre, the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid, the Kashmir uprising and repression, many terror attacks, the 2007-07 anti-Christian Kandhamal massacre, the NRC project of manufacturing statelessness in Assam, and lynching.

With outstanding performances by Pawan Malhotra and Zoya Hussain, Grahan stands out for its revisit to the 1984 anti-Sikh massacre in the industrial city of Bokaro in ways that are both its courageous and humane. A young police officer in contemporary times is charged with reopening investigations into the events in the city in 1984. Her world crumbles when through her investigations she discovers that her father was part of the mobs that attacked Sikh families decades ago. As secrets tumble out, she learns invaluable lessons, about hate, about culpability and in the end about atonement.

Harsh Mander is a social worker and writer.

From Farmers to Doctors, the Protests That Rocked India in 2021

Over the last few years, the BJP-led Union government has earned a reputation for taking unilateral decisions. 2021 was no different.

New Delhi: Over the last few years, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government has earned a reputation for taking unilateral decisions, a large number of which are often not in sync with the needs and aspirations of the people. The non-consultative approach towards governance has sparked multiple protests across India. 2021, the year when the COVID-19 pandemic continued to take a toll on India and its people, was no different. 

The year began with a large section of farmers cementing their resolve to continue their agitations against the three allegedly pro-corporate farm laws and ended with junior doctors taking to the streets over the deadlock in admissions to postgraduate medical courses. 

Here’s a list of some of the important protests that rocked India this year. 

Farmers’ protests

What began as small protests against the three controversial farm laws largely by Sikh farmers in Punjab soon spread to the rest of India, especially Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. As farmers decided to stage dharnas in Delhi, the borders of the national capital evolved into protest townships for almost a year. Farmers refused to bargain with the Union government for anything less than a complete repeal of the laws, even as their movement highlighted the larger agrarian crisis that has crippled farming over the past two decades. Thus, while repealing the farm laws remained a primary agenda, the farmers also spoke out against the dilution of the minimum support price (MSP) system and the Union government taking away most of the subsidies in agriculture.

Throughout the year, around 700 protesting farmers died even as many were booked under sections of different stringent laws. The BJP machinery attempted to brand the movement as funded by Khalistanis. None other than  Prime Minister Narendra Modi called the agitating farmers andolanjeevis (those who live off protests without reason) and parjeevis (parasites) in the Rajya Sabha. 

But the farmers remained undaunted in the face of such an organised campaign by the ruling party. The movement took an ugly turn when a few farmers were mowed down by a convoy of cars that allegedly belonged to the junior Union home minister Ajay Mishra’s son at Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh. The incident gave farmers renewed resolve to continue their fight, in the process uniting different caste and community groups against the Union government. 

The prime minister was forced to repeal the laws as the year drew to a close, making the agitations against farm laws one of the most successful protests in independent India. 

Farmers wave the national flags and raise slogans as they celebrate after the Samyukta Kisan Morcha called off the farmers agitation, at the Ghazipur border in New Delhi, December 9, 2021. Photo: PTI

Bankers’ strike

Yet another protest halted the Union government’s plan to bring down minimum government holding in public sector banks (PSBs) from 51% to 26%. Close to nine lakh employees of PSBs participated in a two-day strike on December 16 and 17 under the banner of the United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine bank unions of the country. The striking workers also decided to give up their salaries to protest against the government’s move to disinvest PSBs.

Such was the intensity of the strike that banking activity almost came to a standstill for the two days in which bank employees called off their work. The Union government, which was supposed to introduce the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2021 to privatise the PSBs in the winter session, eventually decided to postpone its tabling in parliament.

AFSPA

The northeastern states witnessed massive protests against the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA) by various organisations in the aftermath of the brutal killing of 15 civilians by security forces in Nagaland’s Mon district in the first week of December. AFSPA, which gives security forces power to arrest and fire at anyone without warrant in areas that are declared ‘disturbed’, has been a cause of concern for residents for years. However, in recent times, the discussions around it had dissipated to a certain extent. 

However, the Mon killings brought it to the fore again, as security forces fired at civilians with complete impunity. Organisations like the Northeast Students’ Organisation (NESO), Naga Students Federation, and Assam All India Students’ Union staged massive sit-ins, burning effigies and organising demonstration rallies in various cities of northeastern states. Several state governments also supported the demand to repeal AFSPA, while Nagaland adopted a unanimous resolution in the assembly.

Locals stage a protest demanding repeal of Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act in Mon district of Nagaland, December 11, 2021. Photo: PTI

Demonstrations against the National Education Policy 

Throughout the year, student and teachers’ bodies staged protests against the National Education Policy (NEP), which seeks to introduce reforms in India’s education system. Student and teachers’ bodies believe that the NEP would usher in an era of institutional decoupling of education. They believe that the NEP carries provisions to privatise the education sector and is inherently geared towards freeing the government of its responsibility to provide universal access to education. 

Organisations like the All India Forum for Right to Education led the struggle in various places. The protests also saw the participation of youth wing organisations of political parties, like the All India Students Association, the Students Federation of India.

Gig workers say enough is enough

2021 also saw gig workers of big retail companies like Amazon and Urban Company and ride-hailing companies Ola and Uber striking work because of their poor working conditions.

Hit by the pandemic, the gig workers of various companies stopped work for several days in the year to protest against their employers’ insensitivity in dealing with their problems. Most of these workers work on a daily-wage basis without any fixed salaries. The pandemic saw multiple companies withdrawing much of the incentives that they initially provided to their workers. Some of the companies even began to penalise these daily wage workers with a hefty amount, while some imposed a hefty security amount on them to continue work.

The recent strike by Urban Company workers in Delhi highlighted how the incentive structure of apps have become less favourable to the workers, despite the fact that they are being forced to work anywhere between 14-16 hours a day. The workers also complained about being fined even when the company’s app is at fault. Multiple public interest litigations that detail the structural exploitation of such workers have been filed by gig workers’ associations in courts.

Swiggy workers wait to pick up their deliveries. Photo: PTI

Doctors break their silence

As the pandemic-hit year ended, India saw one of its biggest protests which were led by doctors employed in public sector hospitals of Delhi. The doctors agitated against the inordinate delay in admissions to different medical postgraduate courses through the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET). The government has delayed the admissions in view of the legal challenges to the recently introduced economically weaker section (EWS) quota and the implementation of the OBC quota. The protesting doctors say that they are struggling to cope with increased work pressure in public hospitals amidst the delay in admissions, even as another pandemic year looms ahead.

Dissent by the striking doctors grew louder by the day, unsettling the government amidst the omicron scare. Things became worse between the government and the striking doctors when the Delhi police thrashed and detained some of the protesting doctors on a cold December night. The incident prompted the doctors’ association to announce a complete shutdown of services. However, the strike was called off after the Delhi police assured them that the first information reports (FIRs) against protesting doctors will be quashed.

‘I Doubt, Therefore I Am’: Revisiting Mirza Ghalib’s Poetry 

‘Thinking with Ghalib’ by Anjum Altaf and Amit Basole reinterprets 30 of Ghalib’s couplets. Its essential purpose is to make the reader think with Ghalib. And the very soul of Ghalib’s poetry is doubt.

Amidst innumerable endeavours to interpret and reinterpret the mysteries of Mirza Ghalib’s poetry around the globe by literary as well as non-literary scholars, Urdu as well as non-Urdu speaking, one slim, fascinating reinterpretation by two eminent Professors of Economics located across the politically divisive border has made a recent appearance on both sides.

Anjum Altaf, former Professor of Economics at the prestigious Lahore University of Management Sciences and Amit Basole, currently Associate Professor of the same discipline at no less prestigious Azim Premji University in Bengaluru, have collaborated to produce a 122 page volume, Thinking with Ghalib, published by Folio Books in Lahore and Roli Books in New Delhi, although the two authors have never met in person. Thank you, Internet. 

‘Thinking with Ghalib: Poetry for a New Generation’, Anjum Altaf and Amit Basole, Roli Books, 2021.

That the book is a reinterpretation of 30 of Ghalib’s couplets (ash’ār) is only half the story; its essential purpose is to make the reader think with Ghalib and the very soul of Ghalib’s poetry is doubt, doubt all received wisdom, even as he is actually immersed in the encompassing culture of received wisdom. His extreme sensitivity to the enriching quality of his cultural inheritance also makes him aware of its attributes of imprisonment; he embodies that richness as well as the most profound doubts about it.

Questioning from within is what makes him an uncompromising rebel. His questioning is rarely a frontal negation of the “truth” with a “counter truth”; he would rather draw a circle of suspicion around it. He seldom gives an answer to the question he has raised and lead the reader to an answer he might have in mind.

His doubt is an independent entity, not linked to any answer or solution. He is, as if, trying to get the reader to understand or perhaps guess that doubting every given truth, even the most sacred, is what makes one human and he is inviting the reader to raise their own doubts and seek their own answers if they would.

“Har haqeeqat majāz ho jaye (Let every established truth become suspect),” Faiz Ahmad Faiz has said in a part of a ghazal long after Ghalib; for Ghalib this was the centrepiece of his entire craft, his entire world of thought. 

Altaf and Basole’s book also follows in Ghalib’s footsteps and while familiarising the reader with his forever implicit questioning leaves the reader to ask their own questions and seek their own understanding of the ash’ār. It copies each couplet in three scripts, English, Devanagari and Urdu, renders its literal meaning, proceeds to unearth its embedded meaning according to their understanding and goes on to contextualise it in the present day scenario, especially in India and Pakistan. The interpretation of the first couplet itself knocks one out, for it brings out the sheer audacity of Ghalib’s spirit of doubting the most sacred “truth”. The audacity becomes all the graver coming as it does in very playful garb. The she’r is 

Kya farz hai ke sab ko milé ek sā jawāb
Aao na hum bhi sair karén koh-i tuur ki 

Why should it be a given that everyone should receive the same answer
Come all with me for a leisurely stroll on Koh-i Tuur 

Koh-i Tuur is Mt. Sinai, well known to those familiar with Biblical and Islamic mythologies. The story the she’r refers to is part of every child’s upbringing in a Muslim household, “liberal” or “orthodox”, and relates to prophet Moses, incidentally mentioned most times in the Quran, seeking on one occasion Allah’s appearance before him so he could assure the people of his own legitimacy as a prophet. Allah is furious at the suggestion and a lightning strikes down both the Mount and Moses. This was Allah’s jawāb to him as recorded in the Quran.  

Also read: 150 Years of Mirza Ghalib: How His Genius Took the Ghazal to New Heights and Depths

The universally accepted meaning the story conveys is: Never be so audacious before Allah to seek what is impossible; the message delivered to Moses is one for all humanity. 

Altaf and Basole beautifully bring out the audacity of Ghalib’s challenge. In the first line itself the poet questions the sanctity of the jawāb Moses receives from Allah himself which also has Quranic sanctity, without rejecting it: Why should there be just one answer to a question, he asks; why indeed can’t there be several? And if Moses had gone to the Mount in awe and fear, aware of the gravity of his demand, Ghalib invites everyone playfully, just everyone, to come and have a pleasant stroll on the same Mount in his company, out seeking one’s own jawāb there. Simple, light-weight words can hide such devastating meaning! The authors go on to elaborate the significance of questioning even such given truths and relate it to everyone’s own quest in life and around. 

The next she’r  in the book has a similar level of audacity, again couched in simple words.

Lāzim nahin ke khizr ki hum pairavī karén
 Jānā ke ik buzurg hamein humsafar milé

It is not binding on us to follow in Khizr’s footsteps
We should know him as a senior fellow traveller 

Khizr is the most revered guide in Islamic tradition for those who have lost their way in the quagmire of life, leading them to the path of righteousness, the path of God. Although he does not figure in the Quran by name, he is still present anonymously as a universal guide and the great Sufi thinker Ibn al-Arabi treats him as his patron-Saint.  

Ghalib does not find himself tied down, compelled to abide by even Khizr’s guidance (Lāzim nahin); at best Khizr is a co-traveller, a senior and respected one, yes, but one whose guidance we might seek if need be, or else might as happily take another path! “Note, however, that by the very logic of the argument Ghalib would not wish us to follow his own advice blindly but use it as a venerable elder’s contribution to our stock of knowledge” observe the authors and proceed to connect the value of the she’r to the “advice” given by international agencies to developing nations as strings attached to their funds. If Ghalib could ignore the guidance of a holy figure attached with Quranic sanctity, each one of us, whether individual, family, community or nation is invited to look at any “guidance” with suspicion, never mind its sanctity or tradition, and seek out one’s own path. Hard to find a stronger plea for individual will. 

Anjum Altaf and Amit Basole have indeed guided us well thus far. But, following them and following Ghalib himself yet another path seems to be beckoning: Ghalib’s suspicion of the existence of God himself and the paraphernalia that goes around him. Among his most well known ash’ār is

Hum ko m’aloom hai jannat ki haqeeqat lekin
Dil ke khush rakhné ko Ghalib yeh khayāl acchā hai 

Oh, well, we are aware of the reality of heaven
Ghalib finds it a fine idea to keep us in good cheer

The dual phenomenon of heaven and hell, swarg and nark, jannat and dozakh is central to every religion in everyday life even if not in terms of philosophical principles, although most principles too lead to the question of the hereafter; the choice is invariably between heaven and hell or, in some streams like the Buddhist, to the end of this search in nirvāna. And God is the dispenser of the judgment of whether one goes to heaven or hell, jannat or dozakh, swarg or nark. No questioning that. 

Also read: Mirza Ghalib and the Law: A Curious Romance

Ghalib questions precisely that. First by laughing at the very idea of heaven and hell and pooh-poohing the notion of the hereafter and implicitly questioning God’s authority in awarding the final judgment to human beings. And what remains of God, if he is left with no discretion to decide on the most vital ultimate result of human life and endeavour? Indeed, what is left of God himself? 

Yet another most beautiful she’r of his, though not included in this book is:

Hān woh nahīn Khudā parast jāo woh bewafā sahī
Jis ko ho dīn-o-dil azīz uss ki galī mein jāyé kyon 

Of course she does not worship God, what if she is disloyal (to me)
Why have anything to do with one who holds her religion and loyalty dearer

Ghalib is turning every “given” upon its head here. 

Unwavering loyalty to one’s religion and indeed to God himself and equally unwavering loyalty in love is the dual given condition of true love; the prevalent trope of the disloyal beloved (bewafā mehboobā) reinforces the given condition of true love. 

For Ghalib, pure love is completely devoid of any condition that dilutes its purity. Even Khuda is dispensable in the pursuit of pure love. Khuda is irrelevant here, if he exists. Pure love is quintessentially human and any condition qualifying it chips away its grandeur. Following Altaf and Basole, one could extend the meaning of the sh’er and note that Ghalib’s pure love is pervasive and universal and the beloved is anyone: woman, humanity, nature, any cause. Indeed the “beloved” in Urdu poetry is so expansive as to encompass the Revolution for Faiz Ahmad Faiz. 

For Ghalib religion and its practice is surely each individual’s entitlement; yet the paraphernalia of rites and rituals that goes with it is utterly dispensable. Of course, the revulsion against the binding rituals has been recorded by many profoundly religious figures in different religions. The great Arab Sufi Mansur al-Hallaj’s immortal call An al-Haqq (I am the Truth, which also means I am God) was an assertion of every human carrying God (Haqq) within oneself which, among other things, dispensed with the rituals for finding Him was one such and his bold challenge earned him death sentence from the Ulama, the theologians. The target of the Bhakti Movement in medieval India, with Kabir as virtually its outstanding “spokesperson” were the elaborate rituals both Hindu and Muslim. Ghalib in one playful sh’er and another a graver one either makes fun of them or propounds a deeply philosophical judgment and a prescription as a rare exception.

Jab maikadā chhutā to phir kya jagah ki qaid
Masjid ho, madarsā ho koi khānqāh ho  

If tavern is left behind, what binds one to any especial place?
It could be the masjid itself, the madrasā or the khānqāh 

What could perhaps be perceived as an alarming equation of the sanctity of the most sacred spaces like the masjid, the madrasā and the khanqah with the tavern and might invite fatwās sanctioning his lynching in our times still mercifully left him unharmed, indeed enjoying the reputation of a master poet in his own time and for ever. One wonders whether the progress of “democracy” since the nineteenth century has made us more tolerant of dissent or less. 

One she’r from his slim Diwan has the capacity to leave one breathless, although it is not the simplest one; it is the last one in Thinking with Ghalib too. 

Hum muwāhidd hain hamārā kesh hai tark-i rusūm
Millatein jab mit gayeen ajzā-i ῑmān ho gayeen 

We are monists, challenging customs is our religion
When communities are annihilated they merge in the true Faith 

Altaf and Basole ask, though in relation to another she’r, whether Ghalib was reaffirming medieval India’s Sufi-Bhakti tradition and leave it open-ended (p. 18). I would dare suggest that he was almost verbatim translating Kabir’s refiguring of the Islamic tauhῑd (singularity of God). The doctrine encapsulated in the central belief in Islam expressed in lā illāh il illāh (There are no gods except Allah) is also foundational to Christianity and is part of some streams of Hindu philosophy, especially the Advaita stream. One who adheres to tauhῑd is muwāhidd. Tauhῑd, as an organizing principle of religion and society came to India on a substantial scale with Islam. Even as there were several disputes and discussions within the Muslim world on the meanings, parameters and dimensions of tauhῑd, these were all enclosed within the confines of Islam. Its conceptualisation of the single God and the single form of worship contrasted sharply with the innumerable Hindu gods and goddesses and equally numberless forms of worship. The two concepts visualised God as two rival, competing entities, Allah and Ishwar, competition that did not remain mere difference of opinion among their followers and did involve tension and violence. It was the Sufi-Bhakti traditions that sought out an extraordinary conceptual alternative to it and Kabir stands tall among the creators of this concept. He dissolves the rivalry between Allah and Ishwar by breaking down the Islamic wall around tauhῑd and conceptualising one universal God. 

Bhai ré do jagdῑs kahān se āyo, kahu kauné baurāyo
Allā Ram Karῑmā Kesav Harῑ Hajrat nām dharāyo                       

Brother, where have two Gods come from
Who has misled you?
Allah, Ram, Karim, Keshav, Hari, Hazrat
Are all the names of the One 

Indeed, in conceptualising one universal God across religious boundaries, Kabir was displacing an existing dichotomy and creating another in its place: the dichotomy of denominational religions (Hindu and Muslim) was substituted by anther between one universal God and the existing religions, chiefly Hindu and Muslim. And of course his biting, challenging ridicule of the religious rituals of the two communities is still recalled with relish by school kids and adults alike. 

Ghalib in this masterly she’r is virtually reproducing Kabir’s tauhῑd. Announcing himself as a muwāhidd, Ghalib asserts that challenging religious rituals is the defining constituent of his own religion (kesh). The next line even more boldly asserts that it is from the erasure of communities that the true faith will emerge. “Communities” here clearly points to communal identities as expressed in their religious rituals and not the religious identity of individuals who comprise a community. There is a beautiful double entendre in “faith” here, for while the term (ῑmān) is used as equivalent of Islam within the Muslim religious and cultural zone, Ghalib is questioning the equivalence and stating that (true) faith will emerge only with the erasure of denominational identifications. He is echoing Kabir here almost word for word. The Sufi Bulleh Shah was doing the same in his native Punjabi between the times of Kabir and Ghalib. 

One would of course find ash’ār in Ghalib’s Dῑwān with contrary meanings and not finding them would be the great surprise, for that is in the very nature of any poet’s creativity, especially a great poet’s, besides being the core of the genre of ghazal. Each reader will also read the ash’ār differently and find one’s own meaning in them. Yet, the enduring legacy of Ghalib’s Dῑwān is Doubt. Anjum Altaf put it succinctly in an online discussion of their book organised by Ghalib Institute, Delhi, reformulating Descartes’ famous dictum “I think, therefore I am” and appropriating it for Ghalib: “I doubt, therefore I am”. 

Note: The translation of all the verses is mine and departs from the literal mode. 

Harbans Mukhia taught medieval history at Jawaharlal Nehru University and is a Trustee of Ghalib Institute, Delhi. The views expressed here are strictly personal.