tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35439404965747797162012-02-16T18:17:34.017+05:30Narendra Luther Archives contains an index and content of all the writings of Narendra Luther, Historian of Hyderabad, India.Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.comBlogger1311100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-42585709413816949252006-12-12T13:32:00.000+05:302006-12-14T14:35:04.409+05:30<div align="justify"><strong>‘Water, water everywhere …’</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />A British officer, after years of experience in the country remarked perceptively that Indian agriculture was a gamble in the Monsoon. It looks now that it is not only agriculture but also our entire life which is at the mercy of the annual water-laden winds given the name by the Arabs and corrupted by the English into Monsoon.<br /><br />July 2005: The city of Mumbai was deluged. The entire urban system went for a toss. People of all rank in life from those living in slums to those commuting in their Mercedes Benz cars were stuck for at least 24 hours. Houses collapsed. Many people were killed. The army was called in to rescue the marooned and to provide succour to those who cold not come out of their rubble.<br /><br />Causes given were: Worst rains in 40 years. Inadequate civic infrastructure. Flagrant violation of municipal rules and regulations in constructing buildings.<br /><br />‘Never Again’<br /><br />The Chief Minister promised to take necessary remedial action and said such a situation will not be allowed to recur. The Prime Minister visited the city. Relief funds were sanctioned. The weather changed and every thing was back to normal. The focus of news shifted to Dawood Ibrahim and his trial. Later, Pramod Mahajan’s fratricide became the scandal of the season for couch potatoes.<br /><br />The devastation was not limited to Mumbai alone. It was replicated in varying degrees in different parts of the country in rural as well as urban areas.<br /><br />Then we had an unduly long dry spell. Monsoon did not keep its time in 2006. We feared drought. Prices of daily needs started shooting up. People of different faiths organized mass prayers for rains to their respective Gods.<br /><br />Encore<br /><br />July –August 2006: The story of Mumbai of the previous year is repeated not only in Mumbai but also in Gujarat, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Locality after locality is shown sunk deep in water. Army boats and Air Force helicopters are drafted for rescue and relief operations. The situation in Surat city was incredibly horrifying and one wouldn’t believe it if one did not see it on television. Sixty percent of the city lay marooned under hose deep waters. As in Coleridge’s poem, there was ‘water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink’. Roads became canals and trucks failed to swim in them. The airport in Visakhapatnam became a lake and there were no flight to or form it for over a week. My own experience of being stuck in a traffic jam caused by rains and the consequent absence of any traffic policeman on duty seems too trivial to be mentioned. The media highlights cases of individual daring and bravery in saving lives of the marooned people.<br /><br />This is an annual tamasha and we are all so used to it as if it is immutable as death. We have become immune to the fact that it is a case of man–made tragedy and is entirely remediable. That is, if we have the necessary will to take some action.<br /><br />It is a cliché that India lives in its villages. For some decades now the rate of urban growth has been greater than that of rural growth. People keep on migrating from villages to towns and cities in search of better opportunities. They swell the slum population. Everyone does not succeed in getting an honest job. Some of the failed ones take to crime or politics. In either case they increase the burden on civic amenities. Such migrations and transformations are a universal phenomenon. But the developed countries have handled them systematically. India is one of the countries in the east where a systematic approach has not been developed. Instead of foreseeing the problem, we chase it. Widespread corruption and the pursuit of populist policies to consolidate vote banks prevent common sense solutions.<br /><br />Causes of the tragedy<br /><br />Global warming is blamed for erratic weather phenomena. That is beyond our control. The rural tragedy is caused by our failure to tame rivers intelligently. People of Megha Patekar’s ilk blame it on big dams. To some extent they seem to be right. Some of flooding of villages has been caused by the sudden release of huge quantities of water from reservoirs.<br /><br />The cause of flooding of our towns is entirely within our control. Not only has our drainage system not kept pace with our urban growth, whatever additions have been made have not been all sound engineering. The cambering of roads which is an elementary requirement is not done properly. Outlets for water from roads at lower levels have not been provided. Similarly, weep holes at stagnation points are missing. In many cases drainage lines have been laid without giving due regard to natural slopes of the area and the catchments. In some cases the drainage nallahs and lines are silted up or clogged and so are unable to take in the rainwater. It happened in Hyderabad in 1971. That was pure negligence. Thereafter, I saw to it that the silt in the drains was removed before every monsoon season. The result was that in 1976 when more rain fell than in the earlier floods, there was no flooding. That was purely because due attention was paid to a routine function. Such functions are neglected because there is no drama in them. When they blow crises, the very officials who ought to have been punished are hailed as heroes. Again in 2001 flooding on a massive scale occurred in the new fashionable areas of the city. That was because of large scale unauthorized constructions and faulty construction of roads. I called it a case of suicides and murders. People who built without due permission in low-lying areas and even in lakebeds and courses of nallahs were committing suicides. Those who permitted them were guilty of murders. Yet, no heads rolled.<br /><br />The National Urban Renewal Fund<br /><br />In a proper system of administration what happened in Mumbai and other areas in 2005 should not have been allowed to recur the next year. Yet we all saw it and those in authority saw it without any feeling of guilt or shame. Now the Central Government has sanctioned the Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Plan with an outlay of Rs. 64,000 crores. The amount is lager than the annual budget of many states in the country. This could be used to supplement budgets for specific schemes to prevent the recurrence of urban deluge. Yet we will see how the funds under this plan will be diverted to some other non-crucial schemes and flooding of cities will remain an annual feature.<br /><br />A point to be stressed is that there is no divide between rural and urban problem of infrastructure. Both are two sides of the same coin. We must see them as whole. One affects the other. If the rural areas are developed properly the fatal attraction of urban areas will diminish. It needs a holistic approach. It is of course easier said than done.<br /></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">***</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></div><div align="justify"> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-4258570941381694925?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com40tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-76544534699340526622006-12-12T10:42:00.000+05:302006-12-12T17:18:46.754+05:30<strong>The Wedding Picture</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />The wedding picture on the wall<br />A couple - young and handsome,<br />Looking dotingly at each other,<br />Or smiling deeply into the camera’s lens.<br />Or looking away - together - at some distant object,<br />Dreamily!<br />Love that is undying and intense<br />Glowing like embers!<br />The future holding God-knows what treasures<br />A gift-box not yet unwrapped.<br /><br />* * *<br />The couple in the sitting room<br />Mellowed by years of conjugality,<br />Looking in different direction, wanly<br />Searching different memory lanes.<br />The gift-box unwrapped and emptied.<br />Trials and triumphs and frustrations of a lifetime<br />Furrowed on their flaccid faces.<br />Love - those ‘embers for a year’; ‘ashes for thirty’;<br /><br />The wedding picture on the wall<br />Smiles down upon them<br />From another world -- that was.<br /><br />* * *<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-7654453469934052662?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-66807029708434612252006-12-12T10:41:00.001+05:302006-12-13T10:40:32.727+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>Your Time is Up</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />Economists of the classical school, like J.B. Say and Marshall, listed three factors of production: Land, Labour and Capital. They did not seem to have recognized that these operate under the overarching constraint of another factor - Time. Modern management experts have underscored the crucial role of Time.<br /><br />Time has two contradictory characteristics. By itself, it is unlimited. But for each one of us it is limited. All of us are busy trying to kill time, but in the end, time will kill us. Of the various resource that we employ in any productive activity, time is the only on which is inflexible. Land – traditionally considered ‘fixed’-- can be acquired. Not time. Banks pay and charge interest for time. Most of our replies to letters begin with the standard apology; I did not get time earlier. Actually, it was there all the time. You did not take care to take it. It takes only few minutes to reply to any letter.<br /><br />An Inflexible Resource<br /><br />For most jobs, we are given deadlines. Time-overruns carry a penalty because time gone is an opportunity lost. Teachers of modern business management emphasize the value of time. Time is important not only in business; it is equally important in our private life.<br /><br />Another advice dinned into our ears is to prioritize. That is necessary again because as the poet said, ‘art is long and time is short’, implying the necessity of prioritization.’ First things first’ formula is important because later things run the risk of being left out—for want of time.<br /><br />Recently I read an interesting and instructive story. A man made an offer to give $86,400 to a person. There was only one condition. He must spend it within 24 hours. Now the man had numerous ideas about the things he wanted to acquire. But he was not ready to splurge the amount in such a short time. He thought of what he needed most. So, this constraint of time forced him to prepare a list of his priorities.<br /><br />This happens to all of us all the time – everyday. There are 86,400 seconds in a day of 24 hours. We have to decide what to do with them. If we cannot make up our mind, that gift is lost forever. If one were to think of it, one would be surprised at the amount of loss we have suffered already.<br /><br />So, planning our time is a very important. All our other achievement are dependent on that. Nothing can be done unless we allocate time to it. The goals of life are to be set considering that we have limited time. Napoleon observed in his Maxims that ‘ there is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is most precious to men: time’.<br /><br />Your Own Time<br /><br />First decision is how much time you are willing to allocate to your work. The general division is eight hours each for work, eating, and sleep respectively. Depending upon your age, health, and goals, you will have to modify the allocation. Napoleon said that man needed five hours, woman six, and child seven for sleep. Only fools needed more than that. But he was an exception who could sleep on horseback. We are lucky. We have the luxury of cars and it is far more comfortable to sleep in them provided you are not driving. Once an allocation has been made, the problem of managing that time will crop up. Most of us leave our time management at the mercy of others. A friend drops in without appointment and sheer good manners will force you to let him steal your time. It is assumed that if you are at home you are free. A friend of mine asked another mutual friend if he was at home in the evening. Yes, he replied. ‘Then I will drop in at six’, said our friend. ‘No’ he replied, ‘I have an appointment at that time’.<br />’Appointment with whom?’ asked the other friend.<br /><br />‘With myself’, he said calmly.<br /><br />He was the only Indian I have met who had the courage to say that. After all an appointment with oneself is mores important than with anybody else. But we assume that if you are alone you are doing nothing -- and are available!<br /><br />Modern Techniques<br /><br />In a rough sort of way, most of us do some time-management. A cooking range provides four burners. That is because a housewife cooks some dishes simultaneously, or according to the time taken by them, in a certain sequence. If there were only one burner, she would be forced to cook the dishes consecutively and waste a lot of her time. A coking range enables her to do her own intuitive analysis, work out sequencing, and cut down the cooking time. When you have to do a number of things, you try to take them up in such a way that you save time by bundling them as far as possible. Management experts have formalized them into what they call Programme Evaluation and Review Techniques (PERT) and prepare a Critical Path Method (CPM). These methods are employed in major jobs like erection of a steel plant, which entails a multitude of activities. They help managers to sequence activities so as to optimize the use of resources. It helps them to decide whether steel should be ordered before cement has arrived and so on. On a micro level, these techniques can be consciously applied to our daily routine. In the ladder of evolution, external discipline precedes self-discipline. Many persons are excellent managers when it comes to official work. That is because they are required to observe rules laid down by others, at the risk of losing their job. The same efficient managers are often sloppy in their private affairs because of the absence of external discipline. Superior beings internalize discipline and learn to be answerable to themselves.<br /><br />Two things arise from the above. We have to optimize the utilization of time. For that we have to learn not to place it at the mercy of others.<br /><br />External Discipline<br /><br />Here again ‘external’ aids help. If you sit down in your study at a fixed time regularly, after some time you will be automatically led to that room at the appointed time. Also, it helps to have different places for different types of activities. The dining room is not conducive to serious work. Nor is bedroom. Properly maintained, it should induce sleep, not activity.<br /><br />Life can thus become orderly and its pattern conducive to optimum results. However, I must warn against the danger of a martinet existence. Too much regimentation is the enemy of creativity. My last word therefore would be that having ordered your life, introduce an element of occasional disorderliness to sample what is going on elsewhere. I believe that railway accidents happen sometime because the engine jumps off the fixed rails out of sheer boredom of routine. Avoid boredom – to yourself and others.<br /></p><p align="justify">***<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a><br /><br /></p><div align="justify"></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-6680702970843461225?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-21714833275893796622006-12-12T10:40:00.000+05:302006-12-13T10:41:03.265+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>Whose Century?<br /></strong>By Narendra Luther<br /><br />In my article on the Anglo- American attack on Iraq in the April issue (A Fable for our Times), I said that its outcome was predictable. Despite the hype created by the two governments and the western media about the enormity of the weapons of mass destruction that Iraq was alleged to be possessing, it was a walkover for the ‘coalition forces’. More than a month after the conquest of Iraq, the victors have not been able to substantiate their charges of the existence of the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) with Iraq. This has led to the cynical remark that the initials WMD stood for ‘weapons of mass deception’ and they were in the possession of the coalition forces. Also, if they are now discovered in Iraq, they will be suspected to have been planted, which the Police resort to in many cases. Art Buchwald, the American satirist-columnist has observed that instead of spending 75 billion dollars on eliminating Saddam, the U.S. administration could have got it done in one billion dollars through one of the Italian mafias in the U.S!<br /><br />Body blow to UN<br /><br />The basic motive of the Americans in attacking Iraq was always suspect. If it was to remove a tyrannical dictator, there were others far more deserving of that treatment than Saddam. The Americans are actively supporting many of them as indeed they did Saddam earlier when it suited them. The reception, which the coalition forces expected to be accorded in the vanquished country, was not enthusiastic enough to justify their vaunted claims that they were liberating the people from a despot’s tyranny.<br /><br />The US approach to the Iraq question could be faulted on many counts. The Americans tried to take the UN with them in their campaign. When three permanent members of the Security Council refused to go along with them, the US decided to go it alone nevertheless. Both the US and the UK took the self-righteous stand that they were satisfied with the evidence they had about the delinquencies of the dictatorial regime in Iraq. That evidence was not shared with the lesser members of UN. The UN charter prohibits interferes in the internal affairs of any sovereign country. Thus, the very approach of the US and the UK dealt a body blow to the UN. For more than a decade, sanctions had been imposed on Iraq for possession of WMD’s. Now without having discovered them, or admitting that they were not there, the Americans want the sanctions lifted. Important members of the UN are against such an arbitrary approach. In my article referred to above, I had likened the America behaviour to that of the village tyrant. If the village panchayat did not go along with him, it was removed. The US bypassed the world panchayat (UN), and having got used to it, it shall do so again.<br /><br />While in many Islamic countries, there was open expression of anger at the attack on Iraq; in other countries, there was a sense of moral outrage at the action. Again, as in the case of the village landlord, some countries thought it expedient to keep quiet, or just to mumble unhappiness, but the resentment against the action was universal.<br /><br />Motive for Attack<br /><br />The feeling that the motive for the attack was oil more than any thing else is strengthened by the fact that while priceless heritage in the Iraqi museum was allowed to be plundered and destroyed, adequate action was taken to safeguard the oil wells. That is why now the question being asked all around is: which country next? Syria has already been sufficiently chastened verbally by the victors of Iraq.<br /><br />The American are not able to overcome the shock of 9/11 and the fall of the twin towers. The myth of its almight and invulnerability was shattered by that incident. An invisible band of terrorists, which cocked a snook at its fortress security, sent the nation into an unprecedented flurry. To eliminate the possibility of such a recurrence, it has vowed to root out terrorism wherever it exists. It is a laudable objective but here too consistency is lacking in its policy. It does not exhibit a uniform concern at the terrorist activity in places like Kashmir. Such an approach does not inspire faith; it generates cynicism.<br /><br />With the demise of the Soviet Union, the bi-polar world of the last century is gone. Earlier, the Soviet Union could counter any move by the US, which threatened to upset the delicate balance of powering today’s uni-polar world where there is only one super- power. The non-aligned movement (NAM), which was born out of the bi-polar situation, has been rendered irrelevant. Earlier, non-alignment meant equidistance from the two poles. Now you are either with one power or you are against it. The very term ‘balance’ implies the existence of two units. In today’s situation, the balance can only mean the US (with its satellites) vs. the rest of the world. Who can be the spokesman of the rest of the world?<br /><br />Morality in international conduct<br /><br />While self –interest of nations determines international relations, there is a minimum sense of justice which must be perceived in the external policies and acts of nations. No nation can override the interests of other nations for all times. There is a feeling now that there is no one to counter any move by the US. She can get away with anything. There is a rudimentary sense of equity with which international policies and actions are judged. Today the American might is unchallenged. That however does not mean it can do whatever it likes anywhere. The bomb blast in Saudi Arabia on the eve of the visit of Collin Powell, and later at Casablanca show how many invisible forces are working against the US, and no body knows how and where they will hit.<br /><br />The American historian, Barbara Tuchman, in her book ‘The March of Folly’ has shown how all wars from the Trojan to Vietnam were acts of folly. At that time they were waged, they were shown to be fully justified by those who initiated them. In retrospect, she shows them as unnecessary and avoidable. It reinforces the old saying attributed to Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden, and at least to six other statesmen: ‘See my son with how little wisdom the world is governed.’<br /><br />Noting the emergence of the US as the unchallenged power, many pundits have declared that the 21st Century belongs to America. That is based on too narrow a reading of recent developments, and an insufficient appreciation of historical factors. Today in the global village, political hegemony has to be closely accountable to the Panchayat. As in our masala films, at the end of the day, the landlord–villain is humbled. Jack kills the giant and good sense comes to prevail. What is blinding us today might as well be the last flicker of the flame for the American lamp. The century will belong, not to the almighty America, but to the meek of the world.<br /></p><p align="justify">***</p><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></p><div align="justify"></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-2171483327589379662?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-81101811268564356902006-12-12T10:39:00.000+05:302006-12-12T17:02:09.638+05:30<div align="justify"><strong>Which Party?</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />Humans are social animals. They must live in groups to survive. Groups create<br />problems. In order to solve them they create parties. Parties are of two types. One is political.<br /><br />Political parties come into being because man is a prejudiced being. Like-minded people get together and float a party. Once they join it, they see everything through a prism. Their objectivity, sense of fairness, and equity – become casualties. Political parties are popular because they relieve people of the necessity to think. That difficult task is handed over to some one else. How wonderful to have ready- made opinions handed over to you to pass them on as deep reflections of your own! Political parties have a problem for every solution. They will fight for finding other ways of reaching a place when a direct approach is available. God for them has one face, that of their own leader; truth, his utterance. Political parties often get into trouble when some men of conscience join them. A conscientious man suspects that the rival might be right. There is no place for such persons in a political party. Party men cannot afford to be in doubt. They must always assert that they are right. They should also be capable of saying the exact reverse of what their current opinion. That becomes necessary when they change parties. Abraham Lincoln as a young lawyer argued a case successfully in the morning. In the afternoon, he happened to have another case in the same court in which he gave arguments opposing what he had said in the morning. The judge asked him with a smile, ‘Mr. Lincoln, you are saying exactly the opposite of what you were saying in the morning’. Lincoln replied, ‘Your Honour, I might have been wrong in the morning, but I am definitely right in the afternoon’. He won that case too.<br /><br />The other type of party is Cocktails. They have nothing to do with animals or birds as one might be led to imagine. They comprise humans of divers sexes—men women,<br />and people. They are held in the evenings and there is no saying how long they last. They are organized for various purposes – to willy-nilly welcome or to say farewell to some one, to celebrate an event, like marriage, birthday, or even a wedding anniversary. Strictly speaking, dinners should be given on such occasions, but cocktails parties are cheaper and more fun. Drinks of various types are served with snacks, which often make up for the lack of dinner. In a cocktail party, no one cares how bad your English is so long as your Scotch is good. After a while, a lot of bonhomie and good will is generated amongst the guests and every one tends to agree with the other. There are some spoil–sports or noveau- drinkers who will always disagree. Another drink is shoved into such hands and they are pushed to some equally garrulous person of the opposite sex. After a while either they both walk out or are too drunk to talk. So, one disagreement is resolved.<br /><br />Cocktail party is designed to prevent concentration – either on a person or a topic. In a cocktail party, you are supposed to circulate. Some people complete their circulation too soon and come back to the same spot from where they started. That is bad manners. Your orbit is supposed to keep on varying unless the chief guest gets hold of you and wants to have a chat with you.<br /><br />The host takes care to stay sober and to get the others sozzled, particularly those from whom he is trying to seek business or a favour. In non-business parties, the object is fun. But even there, you cannot prevent a discussion of politics or current events. As the spirits soar, the ability to solve intricate problems also improves. I have seen the Kashmir problem solved many times in such parties, the composition of the national cricket team decided upon, and alternatives offered to resolve the issue of Palestine, terrorism, and communalism. Iraq too has often been disposed of in a most harmonious way. There is generally consensus in such parties and everyone is fair to the other. Also, people are honest in the expression of their opinions about their friends. That sometime causes problems to sort out which another cocktail party becomes necessary. Even husbands are polite to their wives at such parties because nothing makes a woman look better than three cocktails inside a man. So, my advice to women is never to accept a compliment at a cocktail party at your face value. Men of my generation remember with envy the journalist who walked up to that stunner, Madeleine Dietrich and told her, ‘Madam you look as beautiful when sober, as any other woman would look when drunk’. Some over-drinkers are sad to get under the table. Mae West knew her limit. When offered another drink, she said coolly: ‘One more drink and I will be under the host’. But some men’s sense of truth is so strong that even cocktails can’t suppress it. Like when Churchill walked up to Lady Astor and told her bluntly: ‘You are ugly’. She retorted indignantly: ‘Winston, you are drunk’. Churchill slurred back: ‘Madam, I shall be sober when I wake up tomorrow morning, but you will still be ugly’.<br /><br />I am a man of conscience. I can go astray temporarily. But I come back to the right track before too long. I am never cocksure; I am generally in doubt. That is why I have not joined any political party. For finding solutions to problems, I prefer to take a chance in a cocktail party.<br /></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"><br />***</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-8110181126856435690?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-83928581252857437002006-12-12T10:37:00.000+05:302006-12-13T10:41:27.433+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>Render the Account<br /></strong>By Narendra Luther<br /><br />Tom Paine, the English revolutionary and thinker of the 18th century says in his celebrated book Rights of Man, that Government is the badge of man’s lost innocence. It is a necessary evil for civilized existence.<br /><br />But safeguards have to be provided against the arbitrary exercise of power by government to maintain civilized existence.<br /><br />No taxation without representation is an old axiom of democracy. That is to ensure that no unjust or unnecessary tax is imposed on the citizens. That is half the job. The other half is to ensure that the money collected from the citizens is spent properly for the purpose for which it is raised. In other words, the propriety of expenditure also needs to be ensured.<br /><br />Citizen and the Government<br /><br />To scrutinizes the utilization of public funds by the Government, our Constitution has created the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. His findings are placed before the Public Accounts Committee. All instances of irregularities and improprieties and recommendations thereon by the Committee are placed before the legislature for appropriate remedial and punitive action against the delinquent authorities. While this is good, these reports are in the nature of a post-mortem and are useful largely for the future.<br /><br />Secondly, given the party system of government, the elected representatives may overlook the infractions of the administration depending upon their party affiliations. Also, in the plethora of technicalities, the average citizen cannot grasp what is happening. Many people have therefore argued that we should supplement the present system of accountability of administration to elected representatives with direct and ongoing scrutiny by the people. That would ensure that mischief is nipped in the bud.<br /><br />Information is Power<br /><br />For such a scrutiny, relevant data and information are necessary. It has been said aptly that information is power. That power lies with the bureaucracy and it is loath to share it with others. As the French semiologist, Jean Baudrillard says in his book, Cool Memories, ‘Information can tell us everything. It has all the answers. But they are answers to questions we have not asked’.<br /><br />For any scheme of empowering people, therefore, access to information is the first crucial step. It will discourage arbitrary action on the part of the bureaucracy and protect the citizens’ basic right to due process and equal protection of the law. It will also reduce corruption within government institutions and enhance integrity amongst public functionaries.<br /><br />The question of enacting legislation to provide access to information has assumed importance come up in the last decade or so. According to Privacy International, 51 countries had such comprehensive Freedom of Information laws in place in April 2003. In India, similar legislation has been passed in some states to enable citizens to access information from government officials.<br /><br />Information provides the transparency necessary for ensuring accountability. UNDP defines accountability ‘as the requirement that officials answer to stakeholders on the disposal of their powers and duties, act on criticisms or requirements made of them and accept (some) responsibility for failure, incompetence or deceit.’<br /><br />Citizen’s Charter<br /><br />An offshoot of the right to information is the Citizen’s Charter. According to article 21(2) of the United Nations Declaration of Universal Human Rights, ‘Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country’. Citizen’s Charter enlightens the citizens about their rights and how they can secure them. In case public officials fail to provide specific public services, they have to pay prescribed penalties. In India, Andhra Pradesh was perhaps the first state to adopt the concept when it issued its ‘Vision 2020’ document in 1999. Following upon that, some departments and public utilities issued their own Citizen’s Charters. The latest to do so is the Police. However, penalties for failure to provide specific services by public servants have not been indicated in some of the charters.<br /><br />Civil Society Initiatives</p><p align="justify">By himself, an average citizen lacks adequate knowledge and resources to take up individual and collective grievances with the government. That is more so due to illiteracy and poverty of a vast section of our populace. So, a number of social action groups have come up in different states to take up public issues. They have pioneered the concept of generating valid and potent information to contest and challenge discretionary abuses and to expose corruption. A good example of that is the work of an NGO – the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS). Through the medium of 'public hearings' to demand public accountability, the Sangathan has been quite successful in bringing about transparency of development expenditure; accountability of officials; redress of grievances; and legitimization of social or public audit. The Public Affairs Centre in Bangalore has organized public interaction with official of the Municipal Corporation on provisions in the budget and their utilization. In Andhra Pradesh, the Lok Satta has taken up a number of issues in this regard. Its latest initiative is to mobilize public opinion to confer empowerment on the local bodies provided in the 73rd and 74th amendments of the Constitution, which have not yet become a reality.</p><p align="justify">Consumer’s Rights</p><p align="justify">It is not only with regard to government that transparency and the right to information is important. Similar transparency is important in regard to other institutions and organizations which serve social needs. We are all consumers of products and services. We need to be assured of their quality. We need to be protected from unscrupulous trade practices of manufacturers and suppliers of goods and services. ‘Goods once sold will not be taken back’ is a motto encountered everywhere in our country. Such a stipulation does not exist anywhere in the western countries. There, consumer is really the king. The Consumer Protection Act was enacted by the Parliament in 1986 and amended in 1993. Under it, National and State Councils and District Forums have been established for the redress of the grievances of the consumers. The concept of accountability has thus been extended to private organizations in manufacture, trade and commerce also.</p><p align="justify">Rights of Investor</p><p align="justify">The third aspect of accountability is with regard to the world of shares. Every entrepreneur borrows from public financial institutions and the public direct through public issues. As user of public funds, he is accountable for their proper utilization. The need for accountability in that field has also been felt particularly after some scams rocked the market. The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has taken a number of steps to promote sound corporate governance. However much remains to be done. The non-official directors do not get to know about much of the day-to day working of companies. Yet, under law they are responsible for all the acts of the company. The shareholders get only one opportunity in a year to ask questions and they are easily disposed of. A specific and clear delegation of authority from the board to the executive directors needs to be provided for.<br />Our freedom has many aspects. They all need to be secured in order to ensure continuance of our civilized existence. Therein lies the importance of multifaceted accountability.<br /></p><p align="justify">***<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a><br /><br /><br /><br /></p><div align="justify"></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-8392858125285743700?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-56395226132259594682006-12-12T10:36:00.000+05:302006-12-13T10:44:24.471+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>On Making Money</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />Money has been called the root of all evil. But it is forgotten that the lack of it is the whole blooming tree. It is the most important thing in life. You have to have enough of it not to need it. Those who have it decry it; those who lack it moan for it.<br /><br />There are various ways of making money, and none can advise you better than one who has not succeeded in making it can.<br /><br />Conventional wisdom lays down one of the three ways: Beg, Borrow, or Steal. The seemingly easiest way to make money is to beg. There is a mistaken notion that beggars ply their trade only by standing and stretching their hand. The only honest beggars are those who do not make any pretensions about their intentions. They are masters of psychology. They wait at intersections and approach you when you are prevented by the red light to proceed further. They make you feel guilty and many can’t escape from that trap. Some beggars accost you when you have just emerged yourself from your secret begging from a place of worship. That is when one beggar stands face to face with another. It is difficult to go past the horde of beggars when they proclaim loudly that what you begged from the deity will be granted if you grant them their small prayer. It will be jeopardized if you don’t play god to them. The other place where they wait in ambush for you is when you emerge from a restaurant after a lavish meal. Whether you have been a guest or a host, the outstretched hand from a rag -covered body stirs your conscience. You calculate guiltily what small fraction of the amount spent inside by you the miserable beggar is asking for. A coin thrown into the lap of the waif will make you feel light.<br /><br />Stealing is not free from risks. But there are various ways of stealing that need not make you fall foul of the law. An excess claim on a journey, inflating the conveyance charges or adding a non-existent guest to the list of prospects entertained -- all go into the making of the art of thievery.<br /><br />Borrowing is quite common. A good number of standard reasons exist for making borrowing look entirely justified. A sudden need for travel to attend a family funeral, a tragic mishap to a beloved kin, a sudden illness which necessitates hospitalization. Anything which induces the milk of human kindness flow in the heart of the borrwee. Borrowers generally drop their benefactors from their list lest they should start pestering them for the repayment of an insignificant amount. They prefer dealing with people with short memory in money matters. Unfortunately, an average memory is sharpest in that respect.<br /><br />Bribe is another easy way of making money. But for that it is necessary that you should have acquired some placement. Any position is good enough for taking bribes. But one has to take care that one is not caught in the act. Punishment is not for taking bribe, but for having been caught at doing that. So, a good measure of intelligence is necessary for taking bribes safely. Also, one should not be too greedy. Otherwise, one may go the way of the Chairman of the Public Service Commission of a certain State.<br /><br />Making investments in stocks and bonds is another way of making money. That is what the sellers of stock will tell you believing that you will skip the small print which gives the statutory caution. That makes it somewhat exciting, like smoking which warns you that it is dangerous to health. So is racing, mountaineering, and even swimming. But they are not as dangerous as sleeping on a bedstead. More people in recorded history world-wide have died in their beds than anywhere else. Yet we persist -- sometime taking someone else also to our bed and thus expanding the scope of the danger involved. However, investments have to be made cautiously, that is putting as little of your money as possible. In this field, one has to know when to pull out. But there is no right time; only right luck. And that is not in your hands.<br /><br />Lately, sports also have become good business. Time was when sportsmen played for the heck of it. Playing was more important than winning. Now you play to win – not the game but money. That is easy. Al that you have to do is to be a good player, but to play poorly. There are enough people to pay you for playing below par. That is specially so in cricket. Others sports are also learning from it. One reason cricket has overtaken – even killed all other sports is that there is more money in this for not playing well. But here too you have to take precautions. One is not to talk on cell phones. Technology betrays as much as it helps.<br /><br />Another easy way is to marry a rich widow. That is the only case in which second hand goods sell at first hand prices. For women, the equivalent opportunity lies in becoming a mistress of a rich business man. It requires an instinct every woman is born with. Let a man chase you till you catch him. But then comes the tedious problem of keeping your quarry in your own net.<br /><br />So far no one has discovered a sure-fire method of making money without getting sold to it. Money does not guarantee happiness, but every thing, which can possibly give happiness is bought by money – including charity and philanthropy. So, there is no escape from money. As for myself, I don’t much care for money if I can be rich without it. For, I agree with Sophia Tucker: ‘I have been rich, and I have been poor. Rich is better.’<br /></p><p align="justify">***</p><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></p><div align="justify"></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-5639522613225959468?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-55067739646860139532006-12-12T10:35:00.000+05:302006-12-13T12:00:49.454+05:30<div align="justify"><strong>Daughter of the soil</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />Help! I am in grave danger of soon becoming a stateless person. No, I am not kidding. With the Home Minister who is also the Deputy PM of India having been dubbed as a Pakistani, the former refugees from Pakistan like me can’t be far behind. While Advani, being an influential politician might be able to manage to stay on -- or if the worse comes to worst -- strike a deal with his former homeland, a common man like me has no such chances. After a long time, I managed to become qualified as a ‘Mulki’ in Hyderabad. If I lose that status, I shall become, in Homer’s phrase, a ‘lawless, homeless, hearthless one’ I shall have to appeal to the International Commission for Refugees. Where will they send me now that I am past the productive -- and sad to admit even the reproductive age!<br /><br />This entire hullabaloo arose because with her election as President of the Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi, also became a potential Prime Minister of India. In fact, she is already the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and thus a shadow Prime Minister. In our system of party politics which is a play of light and shade, at periodic intervals, the shadow becomes reality, and reality the shadow. To pre-empt that occurrence, voices have been raised about her being a foreigner.<br /><br />The ‘Mulki Formula’<br /><br />People in Andhra Pradesh are quite familiar with the working of the ‘Mulki’ doctrine of the former state of Hyderabad. Under that one had either to be born within the State or be a resident for 14 years to be a ‘Mulki’. Its rigour was further refined in the Six-Point Formula promulgated by the Government of India in 1960s. Under that, public servants can be transferred only within the three traditional regions of the State. For a student from the Andhra region of the State, it is easier to get admission to a university in any part of the world than in the Telangana region – and vice versa. It has only sharpened the demand for the separate state of Telangana.<br /><br />It is an insidious form of the doctrine of ‘sons of the soil’, which has raised its ugly head lately in most of the States.<br /><br />Domiciliary Qualification<br /><br />As against that, in politics, there is no requirement of domicile. Any one can contest a seat for the Lok Sabha from anywhere in India. Thus, Sonia Gandhi and Sushma Swaraj, both residents of Delhi, contested from Karnataka in the last elections. Buta Singh, a Punjabi Sikh, contested from Rajasthan. The Rajya Sabha, which is supposed to provide representation to States has a requirement of domicile in the State from which a candidate can contest. That has been overcome by the ruse of renting a house in a city of the ‘safe’ State. Thus, R.K. Dhawan was able to become a member of the Rajya Sabha from A.P. by renting a house in Hyderabad.<br /><br />Any citizen of India who is 25 years of age can contest for a seat in Parliament. Briefly, any Member of Parliament can become Prime Minister. The Congress Party has for their own reasons chosen Sonia Gandhi as their leader. In case the Party gets a majority of seats in the Lok Sabha, or can cobble a coalition claiming majority in the Lok Sabha, Sonia can lawfully become Prime Minister. It is that prospect that creates a panic amongst many aspirants to the Prime Ministry, and their followers. They argue that it is violative of our dignity as a nation to have a foreigner as Prime Minister. But she is now a citizen of India and it is pointless to rake up the past. In fact, she is already the leader of the Opposition with the rank of a cabinet minister.<br /><br />Foreigners in India<br /><br />In this context, it may be worth noting that in the past many foreigners have served India in various capacities with distinction. I am not referring to the paid officials of the East India Company or, later of the Crown. An Englishman, A.O. Hume, a member of ICS, denounced the revenue from the sale of liquor as ‘ wages of sin’. He wrote a letter to the Calcutta University graduates inviting 50 volunteers to join in a movement to promote the mental moral, social and political regeneration of India. This letter led to the formation of the Indian National Congress in 1885. He was Secretary or Joint Secretary of 19 out of the first 22 sessions of the Congress. In 1908, the Congress passed a resolution describing him as father of the Indian National Congress. Sir William Wedderburn, after his retirement, devoted himself to the promotion of the Congress. He was elected President of the Congress at its 4th session. Back in England, he became head of the India Party. Sir Henry Cotton retiring as Chief Commissioner returned to India and presided over the 1904 session of the Indian National Congress. Annie Besant, an English woman founded the Home Rule League to demand self rule for Indians. She was elected President of the Congress Party in 1917. C.F. Andrew was another Englishman who became a follower of Mahatma Gandhi and fought for the freedom of the country. The ‘Mother’ of the Pondicherry Ashram was French, but revered by Indians. After attaining independence in 1947, the first Governor General appointed by us was an Englishman. When an Albanian missionary, settled in India, was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1979, we celebrated her as an Indian. No one then raised the point of Mother Teresa’s foreign origin.<br /><br />Indians Abroad<br /><br />Look at the other side of the coin. Persons of Indian origin were elected members of the British House of Commons. Some sat in the House of Lords. Swaraj Paul is still there. Daleep Singh Saund became a senator n U.S. Some have been elected to the legislatures of States. Vaz was a junior minister in England until recently. Another is a minister in Canada. We cried foul when a duly elected Prime Minister of Indian origin was toppled in Fiji.<br /><br />People’s Choice<br /><br />The criterion is the judgment of the public as reflected in the popular vote. She has already crossed the first hurdle. The oldest and the largest political party in the country has chosen her as its leader. The voters have duly elected her as a member of Lok Sabha. If the people are against her, nothing prevents them from defeating her in elections. The objections raised against her as being a foreigner, have led to ludicrous counter-objections that Advani is a Pakistani, and Vajpayee is an Aryan. Today no country in the world can claim ethnic purity. In India, we rejoice in our pluralism. All the religions of the world co-exist in this ancient land just as all the climatic variations of the world are replicated here. We have laid down the rules of the game of power in the Constitution. Let us play the game according to them.<br /></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">***</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-5506773964686013953?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-60608892772956369032006-12-12T10:34:00.002+05:302006-12-13T12:42:09.927+05:30<div align="justify"><strong>A New Beginning</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />I share my first name with the chief Minister of Gujarat. But I don’t share his claim, his blame and now his fame. Nor do I have the inclination or the capacity to do so. For what he has achieved is based on fear, and numbers. Fear does not last. The extreme of fear is courage. When you have nothing further to lose, you stand up.<br /><br />However, he has helped raise a basic question: Are we secular? As one who suffered the trauma of Partition as a child, I have a stake in secularism. The question often asked derisively is: what is secularism? It has been dubbed as plain non –concern about the majority community, or cynically equated with appeasement of the largest minority. There are lofty definitions of secularism, which are as old as the hills. As a working formula, Sarva Dharma Samabhava – equal respect for all religions can’t be improved upon. Democracy is based on the concept of equality of all persons. Once we accept that, caste, creed, colour -- all become irrelevant. Human being and his/her welfare is what matters. And that welfare is a common denominator cutting across the barriers of community and religion. For decades since Independence, we have heard the slogan of Roti, Kapda, and Makan – food, clothing, and shelter, and its generic substitute – Garibi Hatao. Now, food clothing and shelter have no religion. When I was a young child, at every station when the train stopped, vendors came shouting ‘Hindu Pani’, and Muslim Pani’. In our smugness, we took water from our respective communal pitchers, not knowing that it had come from a common source. It quenched thirst irrespective of who was dispensing it. Shylock, the much-maligned Jew speaks for the whole humanity in his spirited reply to Salerio in ‘The Merchant of Venice’:<br /><br />‘He hath disgac’d me and hinder’d me half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies. And what is the reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, affections, passions, fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that…. The villainy you teach me I will execute; and it shall go hard but I will better the instruction.’<br /><br />That about sums up the situation in Gujarat – and even in the rest of the country. In what respect are the members of different communities different from each other in their civic needs and wants? And politics is concerned only with the civic side of citizens. It is not – indeed should not concern itself with their private beliefs and faith. Note the last sentence of Shylock. They will retaliate. And retaliation may take different forms. If they are not conventionally equal in arms with the other, they will resort to guerilla warfare, as Sivaji did with Aurangzeb. The modern variation of that is terrorism. And you can’t fight terrorism unless you tackle its real causes and roots. The dharma –duty of a ruler is to ensure conditions of civilized existence for its subjects. That is the raison d’etre of the State. In that, the State cannot take a partisan stand. It cannot let groups of citizens settle their scores by taking law in their own hands. As Chief Minister, Modi had no religion, no attachment, and no consideration except the security of the citizens of Gujarat.<br /><br />Gujarat underlines the tragic fact in our political life that we have been highlighting non-issues. What was the gaurava of Gujarat, which was brought in to drum up the passions of the people there? Gujarat’s gaurava is Mahatma Gandhi who laid down his life for communal amity. In Gujarat, every man is called Bhai and every woman a Behn irrespective of their community or religion. With such universal brotherhood, and sorority, a surprise so much blood shed should have take place there. But feud within families is generally far bloodier than normal warfare. Civil wars destroy more than external aggressions.<br /><br />Having said that, I shall like to address the other side too. For too long have they gone on blaming the majority for all their ills. For too long have they gone on harping on their separate identity, which resulted in the creation of Pakistan. For centuries, they have ruled this country. Why did they become backward then? Why do they plead their backwardness as a reason for getting special treatment?? Who prevents them from removing their backwardness through education? The Constitution provides level playing field for all – plus special safeguards for minorities. As the case of Pakistan has shown, religion does not unite; language does not bond. If that were so, Bangladesh should not have come into being. We have to rise above language and religion. There is always scope – even need for reform. The impulse for that has to come from within.<br /><br />Iqbal said ‘religion does not teach hatred. He was wrong. Four centuries ago, Dean Swift observed bitingly: We have enough of religion to hate one another, but not enough of it to love one another’. I am not sure whether we need more of it or less of it. Can’t we live just as plain human beings?<br /></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">*** </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></div><div align="justify"></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-6060889277295636903?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-24187415318195510942006-12-12T10:34:00.001+05:302006-12-13T12:04:15.747+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>Liquid Famine</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />This is the year of water. So, let us look at water before it flows into history.<br /><br />Water is life. Rivers and water bodies are sources of sustenance for fauna flora and humans. That is why most of the cities of the world were established on the banks of rivers. Great civilizations developed and flourished on the banks of rivers like the Tigris, the Nile, the Euphrates, and the Sind. With the change in the course of rivers, or their drying up, cities are known to have vanished.<br /><br />Basic facts about water<br /><br />A few basic facts about water: First, from the day the planet earth came into being till today, the amount of total water availability has not varied.<br /><br />Second, we have been tempering with the traditional systems of reservoirs of water, both natural and man-made. Constructions like factories, buildings, and other obstructions have been allowed to come up in the catchments. This has resulted in blocking of natural flows of water.<br /><br />Third, the water supply systems have been increasingly centralized. In place of dispersed storages created by nature or local communities, official reservoirs have been created and distribution from them has been placed under centralized bureaucracies.<br /><br />Fourth, desilting of water bodies and channels has not been attended to routinely, thus reducing their storage, and carrying capacity respectively.<br /><br />Last, in new colonies and the laying of roads and lanes, natural drainage has not been respected and no proper substitute plans have been provided. That has resulted in water logging in various areas even after a brief shower.<br /><br />The looming scarcity<br /><br />In addition, global warming has adversely affected weathers and seasons. Rains have become erratic. They don’t conform to seasons. That has affected the system of water supply, which is predicated on seasons. Indian agriculture has traditionally been called a ‘gamble in monsoons’. Now the magnitude of the gamble has been enhanced by the uncertain opening time of the ‘casino’.<br /><br />We therefore face a situation of water famine unheard of before. Cassandras have predicted acute shortage of water even by 2020’s and a permanent scarcity by 2050. Rural Jills have to trudge up to ten kilometers to fetch a pail of water. It is quite conceivable that the wars of the future would be for water more than for oil. In India, we already find ‘civil wars’ between the riparian states like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka and AP for sharing of waters from common river sources.<br /><br />The Garland Canal Project<br /><br />A paradox in our water situation is that when some areas are suffering from drought, others have deluges. In order to develop a balance, the late Dr K.L. Rao, an eminent engineer who became the minister for irrigation of India, conceived the ‘garland project’ four decades ago. Considered too ambitious and costly, it was not pursued. Now, the present government has revived it and has set up a Task Force to work out the details of the project which is estimated to cost Rs. 5,60,000 crores. I cannot comment upon the practicality of the project at this stage except that it seems too ambitious and given the vicissitudes in our political set up, may not be pursued to its conclusion. Also, it may be bogged down by the sorts of conflicts between states which we are witnessing even today. The situation is grim and is becoming worse every year. Mr. Sompal, member of the Planning Commission in charge of Water Resources has caustically observed that ‘the river linking will not happen in our lifetime’.<br /><br />In early June 2003, the Hyderabad Urban Development Authority organized an International Workshop on Lakes in Hyderabad. It was part of the expression of its concern about the lack of maintenance of water bodies which is a contributing factor in our water problem. A strange phenomenon is at work in India and other developing counties. The routine maintenance of public assets and works is generally neglected. At the same time, new investments are being made in creating new assets. Because of this policy, the initial capacity and efficiency of the existing utilities goes on diminishing progressively. In the case of Electricity Boards, for example, loss in transmission and frequent breakdowns is attributed by technical people to inattention to maintenance and upgradation of the existing ‘plant’. Similar neglect is in evidence in the case of water sources. We allow this neglect till a crisis develops. Then it is tackled on an emergency basis. That is because the creation of new assets makes news while their maintenance of the existing assets goes unnoticed. So, both from the pint of view of drama and votes, attention is paid to new projects and not to routine maintenance of old ones. A manager of a public utility becomes a hero when he tackles a crisis though it might have been created by his own negligence.<br /><br />Story of Lakes<br /><br />A good example is provided by the Workshop on lakes referred to above. Encroachments on lakebeds, their pollution by the free flow of sewerage into them and diversion of water from them has been allowed unchecked. In Hyderabad, the Vengala Rao Park in Banjara Hills was recently inaugurated with great fanfare. No one mentioned that it was laid on the dead body of a lake which was systematically killed by encroachers and land grabbers. Earlier, similar development had happened in the case of Mansab Tank. As the very name suggests, it was a lake. Today there is a habitation – and a park there.<br /><br />Lopsided priorities<br /><br />At the Workshop referred to above, Mr. Sompal, Member of the Planning Commission expressed his concern at the lack of adequate concern for the development of water resources. He said that while Rs. 98,900 crores were allocated to the telecommunication sector in the 10th Plan, only 3,300 crores was provided for water resources. In the 9th Plan the allocation was Rs. 92,600 crores for the telecom sector and Rs. 1955 crores for water resources. We are trying to provide better communication for people whose very existence is at stake!<br /><br />It was also announced at the Hyderabad Workshop on Lakes that it is proposed to privatize these water bodies. That would be only legalizing the existing situation. Already water bodies are treated by people as private property. Witness the encroachments, constructions, landfills and diversion of water that is taking place in lakes. What is required is more effective public control over them and not offering them to private parties.<br /><br />Earlier people have died of food famines. The Nobel Laureate, Amartya Sen has observed that famines take place in dictatorships, not in democracies. He was referring to food famines. His logic is that the public awareness of the developing situation and the clamour raised about them will prevent their occurrence. Well, the new famine of water is developing under democratic regimes in India. Indians will not die of starvation henceforth; they will die of thirst. The only relieving feature of such a death is that it is quicker.<br /></p><p align="justify">***</p><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-2418741531819551094?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-33052077214327930442006-12-12T10:33:00.001+05:302006-12-13T12:03:55.347+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>A Form of Wealth</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />It was once said, ‘ if wealth is lost, nothing is lost, if health is lost something is lost, if character is lost every thing is lost.’ Such a statement could have been made only by some one who was poor – and before electoral politics was introduced in India. Now the order has changed. We see every day that wealth is every thing and the loss of character does not mean anything. On the other hand, it only increases the chances of becoming wealthier. But health remains in the middle of either order. You can strut about without character, but you can’t move from your bed without good health. You can earn pots of money, but you can’t enjoy it without good health. You can only make doctors wealthy.<br /><br />Health is so important that in every society an inquiry about it forms an integral part of the initial greeting. It is a curse of human estate that you have to do so much to maintain good health. Animals keep their health merely by living their life. They remain healthy unless some human being inflicts some injury on them. Veterinary hospitals have been opened by human beings for animals, largely to keep them in an unnatural state – and for their own amusement. However, not being one myself, I don’t know much about animals. I am quite surprised when some people make pronouncements about the likes and dislikes of animals, like: ‘ O! dogs love biscuits’. All I know is that they like to be left alone and that is one thing that we don’t do. We are essentially ringmasters in a circus. When we say we love animals, we mean those whom we keep under our control.<br /><br />However, let us revert to the problem of maintaining good health in humans. There is an old saying that prevention is better than cure. Surely, it was not a physician who would have said that. Who would want his business ruined? I believe the reverse of it – cure is better than prevention. Prevention is a daily nuisance, a regime of constant denial, something that may finally turn out to be entirely unwarranted. On the other hand, a cure becomes necessary only occasionally and makes for a good departure from routine. I do not like the hard work involved in trying to maintain good health. One of them is taking some sort of exercise every day – like walking. Now, walking to no purpose is a complete waste of time and energy. I walk when I have to reach somewhere, for some work and not just to return tired after half an hour or so.<br /><br />To know the importance of good health, it is necessary to fall ill sometime. A healthy person does not know what it means to be healthy -- or sick. A sick person knows both and so is better informed. I am not advocating the cause of ill health. I am not an agent of the medical profession. I am talking of small harmless illnesses like a bad cold, a minor hurt, and a small fever. A sort of situation, which is not life – threatening, and is generally described as ‘indisposition’ in the medical bulletin of VIP’s. It provides you with much- needed break from routine, and a short absence from your social circle. It enhances your social importance. People enquire why you were absent from a particular function. It generates sympathy for you. It provides you an opportunity to know who cares for you and how much. It is an index of your importance. It distinguishes friends from foes. Friends want to know if your indisposition is something serious -- and are disappointed if it is not. On hearing about the sickness of a friend, the instinctive remark is, ‘ Nothing trivial, I hope’.<br /><br />Callers ask you how you fell ill. Some people seize upon that opportunity to transform themselves into an Ancient Mariner. I have heard such sob stories many times. Sometime, the tape is replayed when another caller drops in while I am still there. Good manners prevent me from interrupting. That is a signal for me to leave. I do not get into narrating the Arabian Night when I fall ill. I try to dismiss it as ‘one of those things’. But some callers are not satisfied. Last time I got reports that they spread the canard that I was merely feigning sickness since I could not say how it all happened. So, credibility lies in conformity.<br /><br />If you are not the social type, it provides an opportunity to be all by your self. Just loll about in your bed and listen to your favourite music, or read a book that was lying neglected on the shelf awaiting your attention. It also gives you an excuse not to do the daily shave or take he prescribed bath or even change your clothes. You can ask your favourite dishes to be prepared and, having savoured them, sleep as much as you like. During the period of your indisposition, you are the centre of the world for the family. The rest of the world becomes secondary. It also provides time for you to brood, to think about the worthwhile ness of your work and to think of doing something different, or the same thing differently. It is during such interludes of enforced idleness that most of the inventions of the world were made, and some careers changed. George Bernard Shaw put it in his own way when he said,’ I enjoy convalescence. It is that part which makes illness worthwhile’<br /><br />Medical advice is never so freely available as when you are unwell. Callers will tell you how they got out of a similar ailment by taking a particular medicine. If you are on allopathic system, some one will advice you to go in for homeopathy. If you are already an addict of the sweet pill, your well wisher will exhort you to try Ayurveda. If you are a votary of this native system, some friend will ask you to come out of superstitions and orthodoxies if you want to live at all. Some persons start parallel streams of treatment hoping that their recovery will be expedited by the double or triple dose. Some diseases are infectious. Unfortunately, health is not. They should try to make health also infectious.<br /><br />I am not a serious person by nature. I cannot therefore be an advocate of serious sickness. I am talking about minor ailments, which are part of a healthy life. If you are feeling low, neglected by the family and friends, taken for granted by colleagues, my advice is contract a minor illness -- and sees the difference. It is good for your morale. </p><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-size:100%;">* * *</span> </span></p><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a> </p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-3305207721432793044?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-23882473343275022392006-12-12T10:29:00.000+05:302006-12-13T13:03:46.794+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>A Fable for our Times</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />Once upon a time, there was a wolf. He felt thirsty and went to the nearby stream to drink water. There he saw at a distance a lamb also drinking water. Suddenly he felt hungry. But he wanted to appear to be reasonable because the local panchayat had promulgated a rule that no one would be killed without due process. So, he went up to the lamb and asked him why he was polluting the water. The lamb replied meekly that he could not be doing so because he was drinking down stream while the wolf was drinking up stream. The wolf then thought of another ruse. He asked him why he had abused him last year. The lamb again replied respectfully that it could not be so because he was not even born then. At this insolence the wolf said, ’Well, if it was not you, then it must have been your mother’. Saying that, he pounced upon the lamb and ate it up in no time.<br /><br /><br />The wolf then sought the blessings of the Panchayat for his taking the law into his own hands. Some senior members of the Panchayat said what the wolf had done and was doing was not right. The wolf said the members did not know that the world had changed and that it must now listen to the wolf because he knew what was best for the animals. However, when the wolf sensed the mood of the majority of the members, he said that the subject need not be discussed. After all discussion was all talk. And talk was less important than work.<br /><br />Earlier there used to be a bear and generally, if the wolf exhibited some overbearing trait, the bear would object and warn to him to behave. Lately, however, the bear had become unwell and had begun to depend upon the wolf even for its sustenance. But this time, he sent a message from his bed that he did not like what the wolf had started doing. An old fox and a cheetah whom the wolf had once mauled badly also joined in the protest. They all felt that the old world in which the wolf and the bear had always opposed each other was good for the other animals. But there was no point in moping about it.<br /><br />We have all read the old nursery rhyme:<br />‘Mary had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow<br />And every where that Mary went the lamb was sire to go.’<br />Not only that. Whatever Mary asked, the lamb was sure to do. Once Mary decided to fight a burly fellow who had annoyed him. The lamb joined him readily.<br /><br />The fable and the nursery rhyme have come alive today. It does not require much imagination to identify the wolf and across the Atlantic, our little Mary’s Lamb. I write this on Day 6 of the campaign of the wolf and Mary’s Lamb against the lamb. The result seems to be a foregone conclusion but the tragedy must unfold itself in slow motion.<br /><br />In one fell blow, the US has virtually sidelined the UN. It has mocked at world opinion. It says that no country should amass weapon of mass destruction. But that dictum does not apply to it. What is the use of being a super power if you are below the law like any other weakling? The sole super cop of the world needs to have weapons to discipline the anti-social elements. In George Bush’s Animal Farm, as in George Orwell’s, ‘All animals are equal. But some are more equal than others’.<br /><br />No, the US has not merely sidelined the UN. It has buried it, like the League of Nations was. The international ‘social contract’, which first found expression in the League, and was later refined in the UN, has been scrapped. It has taken us back to the ‘state of nature’ where might was right. That was the primordial law of the jungle. That is the only practical basis on which life can be lived under the new order. The US has also thrown out the America dream of liberty, equality and the pursuit of happiness. Earlier it was held to be universal. Now it is only for the Americans. So out goes the UN, which embodied all these values. Time has now come for another world body to emerge from the ashes of the UN -- if it dares.<br /><br />America, which attaches such importance to public opinion, has decided to experiment how far it can go in flouting it on international scale. There are protests all over the world. But people obviously do not know what is good for them. Mom used to know. Now since she is no longer there, Uncle Sam will tell them what is good for them. A grand coalition has been formed with Mary, its lamb, some foxes, and mice. They will all get their share of the carcass when the hunt is complete. Well that is the promise for now. But when once the hunt is complete, the hunter may want to go ahead to new grounds. After all the world is full of quarries if the hunter has the will and the weapons to go on.<br /><br />They say America wants oil. Yes, it does. Who does not? But America professes loftier objectives. It wants to rid the world of the terrorists and replace the axis of evil with the axis of virtue so that every one can then pursue the American dream all over the world without having to go to America. A truly noble objective. So much in the interest of all of us. Shouldn’t we be grateful?<br /></p><p align="justify">***</p><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></p><div align="justify"></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-2388247334327502239?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-18830821651378538072006-12-12T10:28:00.000+05:302006-12-13T12:58:19.603+05:30<div align="justify"><strong>A multi-faceted prince</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />The founder of Hyderabad, Mohammed Quli Qutb Shah (b.1565; d.1611) was a prince, poet, lover, and a builder. He ascended the throne in 1580 at the age of 15 and ruled for thirty-one years.<br /><br />Lover<br /><br />As a young prince he fell in live with a Hindu maiden, Bhagmati by name. In 1591 he founded the new city 6 kilometers from Golconda across the river Musi and after his beloved, called it Bhagnagar. Its chronogrammatic title which yields the year of its completion, was Farkhunda Buniyad which in Persian means ‘of fortunate foundation’ – the equivalent of the name Bhagnagar.<br /><br />It was one of the first elaborately planned cities anywhere. The Sultan wanted it to be ‘unparalleled in the world and a replica of heaven itself’. The inspiration for its architectural plans and layout was drawn from Iran – and in particular the then new city of Isfahan.<br /><br />Builder<br /><br />First of all, the Charminar was built as the city centre. Four roads were made to radiate from it in the four cardinal directions. Fourteen thousand shops, houses, inns, baths, schools, and mosques were built as part of the original plan. Amongst the original public buildings was the Dar-ul-shifa or the general hospital. Some of the buildings including this hospital still stand today. However, none of the dozen-odd palaces, which were constructed by Mohammed Quli, has survived the ravages of the Mughal invasion and subsequent neglect. Some had as many as nine storeys. Aurangazeb, on his inspection of the city after the Mughal victory in 1687 was surprised to see such tall and magnificent structures.<br /><br />The city had extensive gardens both within and without it and the name of some localities still carry the prefix or suffix of bagh (garden). The French traveller, Thevenot noted the garden-city character of Bhagnagar and wondered how the arches of mansions supported the weight of terrace-gardens. Tavenier, Barnier, Ferishta, Abbe Carre and other foreign visitors in the 17th century and subsequently sang paeans in praise of the city. Many believed that it was bigger and better than the Mughal cities of the day like Agra and Lahore!<br /><br />Mohammed Quli was as great, if not a bigger builder than Shah Jahan the Mughal was. A recent study by a German architect has tried to prove with reference to the verses in the holy Quran that Mohammed Quli’s injunction about the new city was not a mere figure of speech. The city was in fact laid on the pattern of the Garden of Eden in its essential features.<br /><br />Poet<br /><br />Mohammed Quli was a prolific and a versatile poet. He wrote nearly 1,00,000 lines of poetry in Persian, and in every genre of what was later to be called Urdu.<br /><br />Before him Dakhni poetry had been largely religious. Quli introduced the secular element into it. He talks of nature in its variegated aspects, seasons of the year, flowers, fruits, vegetables, gardens, social life, customs, and festivals. He sings of the pleasures of physical love with a rare candour and abandon. For him there is no difference between a Hindu and a Muslim:<br /><br />Kufar reet kya hor Islam reet<br />Har ek reet mein hai ishq ka raaz<br /><br />(What is the heathen’s creed -- and the Muslim’s.<br />Every practice is based on the secret of love.)<br /><br />Further:<br /><br />Main na janun Kaba o but khana o maikhana koon<br />Dektha hoon par kahan diktha hai tuj mukh ka safa<br /><br />(I don’t know the holy Kaaba, the idol’s temple or the tavern,<br />I look everywhere but can’t see a face as clear as yours)<br /><br /><br />On love he has some observations of universal truth:<br /><br />Suno log meri prem kahani<br />Keh peela hai rang ashiqui ki nishani<br /><br />(Listen folks to my tale of love,<br />A palate complexion signifies a lover).<br /><br />Figures of Speech<br /><br />Quli often employs the devices of alliteration and onomatopoeia very effectively. Note the following:<br /><br />Piya soon rat jagi hai so dikthi hai sudhan sarkhush<br />Madan sarkhush, sayan sarkhush, anjan sarkhush nayan sarkhush<br /><br />(Oh lady, you have kept the whole night awake with your lover.<br />Cupid is happy, so are the couch, the collyrium - and your eyes)<br /><br />Dandana garja joban badal niman<br />Kangana jhalkar minj sunao tum<br /><br />(Youth thunders like a cloud.<br />Let’s hear the jingle of bangles).<br /><br />Unfortunately, the rhythm and internal rhyme abounding in his poetry can’t be put across in translation adequately.<br /><br />Hindi element<br /><br />Quli had a sound and extensive knowledge of the Hindi ragas. He mentions Asavari, Dhanashree, Gauri, Malahar, Kalyan, Basant and Ramkali in his poems. He declares his preference for music in the following couplet:<br /><br />Mere sang mil bajaati sankh gaati, Sankhara abhran<br />Sriraga jo gati istri to mujko bhati hai<br /><br />(She who plays the conch with me and sings Snakhrabhram,<br />The one who sings Sriraga -- that woman I like).<br /><br />Quli’s choice of subjects was unlimited. He covered the entire range of life in its variations. His idiom sprang from the soil and his language was the one spoken by the common people in their daily lives. He has been compared to Nazeer Akbar Abadi of Agra (1740-1830) as a people’s poet. But Nazeer was a plebian, whereas Quli was a ruler.<br /><br />His range<br /><br />Quli is a poet of sight and sound, of relish and savour, of fragrance and redolence, of spice and flavour, of sunrise and daylight, of rhyme and rhythm, of dance and music – of the celebration of life. His poetry glorifies all phases of biological existence. He rejoices in seasons of the year, the rhythmic succession of which makes the sum of our life-spring, monsoon, and winter, summer. He celebrates festivals, birthdays, weddings, New Year Days. On each topic, there is not one poem, but many. As life’s cycle goes on, he reverts to each of these recurring events with renewed vigour. He doesn’t get bored with life, because every aspect of it excites him. There is no pessimism or cynicism in him. He is an extrovert whose reaction to events is always positive. He gloats on being the favourite ‘servant’ of the Prophet and the Imams, which made him a favourite of Fate. He glories in being a ruler and living a life ease and sensuality. A pure sense of life pulsates through his writings.<br /><br />A Misconception<br /><br />Some people say that Mohammed Quli was also a poet in Telugu. No such claim has been substantiated. I have been able to find only three words of Telugu in his entire anthology – ‘Em Mari em’.<br /><br /><br />His invocation at the inauguration of the new city of Bhagnagar, has become famous:<br /><br />Mera sheahar logan soon mamoor kar<br />Rakhya joon tun darya mein min Ya Sami<br /><br />(O God, fill my city with people, as you have the river with fish)<br /><br />Obviously this prayer was heard and the city now suffers from over- population. It has one of the highest rates of growth in the country!<br /><br />For his legendary love for Bhagmati, and his rich and enchanting poetry, Mohammed Quli has won a permanent place in the hearts of the people of the city. An annual festival is held to commemorate him. Generations of singers have sung his poems. Amongst them the most popular is:<br /><br />Piya baj pyala piya jai na; piya baj ik til jiya jai na<br />Kate hain piya bin saburi karo; kaha jai amma kiya jai na<br />Nahi ishq jis woh bada koodh hai; kadi us say mil baisa jai na<br />Qutb Shah na do mujh divane ko pand; diwane ko kuch pand diya jai na.<br /><br />(Without the lover one cannot drink the cup!<br />Without him one cannot live for a moment.<br />They counsel patience in the absence of love.<br />Ah! It is easier said than done.<br />One unacquainted with love is a half-wit!<br />Don’t ever have anything to do with him.<br />Don’t give me any advice to a lunatic like me<br />You can’t din sense into an insane person).<br /><br /><br />Mohammed Quli is regarded as the first Urdu poet with an anthology to his credit. Dr.Zore edited his anthology for the first time in 1940. Professor Syeda Jaffar brought out a more extensive volume in 1985. Such is the liberal use of Hindi expressions and idiom in his works that, but for the script, he might even be considered a poet of Hindi.<br /><br />No wonder that of all the rulers of the Deccan, no one is remembered more fondly than this versatile man. He is commemorated every year on a befittingly grand scale.<br /><br />***<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a><br /><br /><br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-1883082165137853807?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-15626704976581921652006-12-12T10:23:00.000+05:302006-12-12T11:16:45.593+05:30<div align="justify"><a name="_Hlt468764400"></a><a name="_Hlt468764855"></a>The Demise of Dakhni<br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br /><br />With the fall of Golconda in 1687, the Dakhni suffered a collapse – almost a demise.<br /><br />Incidentally, Golconda was the last of the southern sultanates to fall to the Mughals. The language which had ruled the roost till then now went under and was superceded by Urdu of the North. Hitherto the term ‘Urdu’ had not been used at all. Dakhni and also the language of daily use in the North were referred to as Hindi. The conquest of Golconda by the Mughals had an effect somewhat similar to that of the conquest of the South by Allauddin Khilji four centuries earlier. The language, which had been used in Delhi and around, came along with the new rulers and overpowered the native language. The word ‘Urdu’ means an ‘army camp’ in Turkish. Hence it was used for the language spoken by the soldiery and the man in the street. By definition, it could not have been very developed as a literary vehicle.<br /><br />However, unlike individuals, languages don’t die all of a sudden. They linger on and it takes decades - even centuries - for them to be completely wiped out. Dakhni was reduced to the status of second-rate language, and then to that of a dialect.<br /><br />Vali Dakhni (died 17070)<br /><br />The most famous name during this twilight phase of Dakhni is that of Vali Dakhni. He was born in Gujarat, which at that time was considered a part of Deccan. His compositions of that period bear the same stamp as that of earlier Dakhni poets and writers. It is virtually Hindi and there are lots of words, similes, and metaphors drawn from the Hindu mythology Note the reference to the Hindu holy places like Kashi, Hardwar and the river Yamuna in one of his poems:<br /><br />‘Koocha-e-yar ain Kasi hai, Jogi dil wahan ka basi hai,<br />Pi ke bairag ke udasi soon, dil pe mere sada usdasi hai<br />Ai sanam tuj jabeen upar yeh khal, Hindu-e- Hardwar basi hai<br />Zulf teri hai mauj Jamuna ki, Til-e- nazk uske joon sanasi hai<br /><br /><br />(My beloved’s street is Kashi, my heart is its resident<br />Separated from my beloved, I am always morose<br />The beauty-spot on your cheek, is a Hindu residing in Hardwar<br />Your tress is the wave of the Yamuna, the spot near it is the mendicant)<br /><br /><br />In one of his poems its amusing to know that while talking of ‘kufr’ (heathenism), he talks of Ram:<br /><br /><br /><br />‘Kufr koon tor dil soon dil mein rakh kar neeyat khalis<br />Hua hai Ram bin hasrat soon ja Lachchman so Ram iska<br /><br /><br />There is an echo of Mohammed Quli in the following couplet:<br /><br />‘Sajan ka baj alam mein dagar naeen,<br />Haman mein hai magar ham ko khabar naeen’.<br /><br />(None else matters in the world except my love<br />He is within me, yet I am unaware of that)<br /><br /><br />He is believed to have died in the year of Aurangazeb’s death -- 1707. However, before that his compositions had reached Delhi and won acclaim. Later, he himself visited Delhi and was warmly received in the literary circles there. In Delhi, on the advice of the well known poet, saint and scholar, Shah Sa’adullah Gulshan, he started writing in Urdu with an overlay of Persian which was the vogue in Delhi.<br /><br />There is a noticeable difference in his poetry after that. Note the following:<br /><br />Us ko hasil kyonke ho jag mein faragh-e- zindagi<br />Gardash-e-aflak ho jis ko ayyagh-e- zindagi<br /><br />(How can he ever find his peace of mind<br />The cup of whose life is forever revolving like sky?)<br /><br />Vali is therefore an inhabitant of two worlds – Deccan, and Delhi. He is a poet both of the Dakhni, as well as of Urdu. He introduced the two languages to each other and built bridges between them. Then, he walked, as it were, over that bridge to what was to become Urdu. Garcon de Tassy, a Frenchman edited his anthology in French in 1823.<br /><br />Behri (died 1718)<br /><br />Qazi Mahamood Behri is another well-known name of the period. He is believed to have died in 1718. He wrote a long poem called ‘Man Lagan’. According to Dr. Moonis, Behri has probably used more Hindi words in his poems than any other poet:<br /><br />Ai roop tera rati rati hai, Parbat parbat pati pati hai<br /><br />(You reside in the smallest object, in every mountain, in every leaf)<br /><br />He also wrote a eulogy of the new emperor, Aurangzeb.<br /><br /><br /><br />Shah Turab<br /><br /><br />Shah Turab’s ‘Man Samjhavan’ (1758) can be considered to be the last composition in Dakhni. It is a fee translation of ‘Manache Shlok’ by the Maratha saint-poet Ramdas (1608-81). Part-religious, part- reformist, it preaches principles of good living.<br /><br />The opening lines of his composition are:<br /><br />Sifat kar awwal us ki jo Ram haiga, usi Ram se ham ko aram haiga<br />Sada Ram ke nam soon kam haiga, haman dhyan usi ka subho sham haiga<br /><br />(Praise the one who is Rama, He gives us solace<br />Always concerned with him, forever absorbed in him)<br /><br />Further, he establishes an identity between Krishna and Ali;<br /><br />Kishen jis ko kehte Ali nam haiga, Ali nam lene soon aram haiga<br /><br />(Krishna is the same as Ali, you get peace by taking Ali’s name)<br /><br /><br />The poet calls himself a ‘Hussaini Brahmin’. It is said that in Pushkar in Rajasthan there is even now a group of dervishes who called themselves ‘Hussaini Brahmins’. They make their living by begging in the name of Hussain. They have adopted Hindu customs and eat only with Syeds amongst Muslims.<br /><br />The late Professor Naseeruddin Hashmi enumerates 22 poets in the post- Golconda era – including Vali and Behri.<br /><br />By a strange twist, Dakhni, the older and senior language, having been fully assimilated into the ‘language of the market’, was given the honour of its ancestry by being designated ‘ancient Urdu’. It is interesting to speculate what would have happened if, instead of being conquered, the Deccan had conquered the North!<br /><br />But then it is one of the ‘ifs’ of history – and of literature.<br /><br /><br />*** </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a><br /><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-1562670497658192165?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-35089682511564106852006-12-12T10:22:00.000+05:302006-12-13T13:27:42.109+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>The charming lingo of Bhagnagar</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />When I first came to Hyderabad in 1959, I felt at once something strange and familiar in the language spoken here. Even the written language had terms, which I had not come across in standard Urdu texts before. It took me some time and a reading of the works of some medieval poets and writers before I exclaimed ‘Eureka’. What had a ring of déjà vu about it was the profusion of Punjabi words in it.<br /><br />To understand the reason for that we have to go back into history.<br /><br />Birth of Urdu<br /><br />Mehmood Ghaznavi conquered Punjab in 1020 A.D. and made it a part of his empire. The conquering army spoke Persian, while the local population spoke Punjabi. This conquest also led to extensive and repeated waves of immigration into India from area where Persian was spoken. Mohammed Ghouri overthrew Ghaznavi in 1186. Seven years later, in 1193, one of his generals, Qutubuddin Aibak captured Delhi and became its Sultan. So, for 173 years while Punjab was under the occupation first of Ghaznavi and then of Ghouri, this interaction continued. The inevitable intercourse gave birth to a new language -- Urdu. It can be said to be an offspring of Persian and Punjabi and its motherland is Punjab<br /><br />So the language which the first Sultan of Delhi brought to it was a mixture of Punjabi and Persian.<br /><br />Influence of the South<br /><br />A century later, in 1295, Allaudin Khilji conquered the South. The language, which he and his troops brought with them, was the language born in Punjab and developed in and around Delhi. In 1327 Muhammad Tughlaq shifted his capital from Delhi to Devagiri and named it Daulatabad. A number of people, including nobles and some 500 Sufi saints followed the royal train. They supplemented the language already brought by Khilji. In 1347 the local chieftains revolted against Muhammad Tughlaq and established the Bahmani Empire. As a policy the new rulers did not keep any connection with the North. From then on therefore the Urdu of the North and that of the south developed independently of each other. The southern branch of the language naturally absorbed the influences of the neighbouring languages like Marathi, Telugu, and Kannada. Expressions like ‘hau’, ‘nakko’ and ‘kaiko’ and many others come from Marathi. In Telugu, while parting, one doesn’t say: ‘I will go’. Instead he says: ‘I will come back.’ In Andhra, I had once waited on and on for my boss who had said good-by to me in these terms. My deputy told me that when he had said “I shall come back’, he meant that he was going. This Telugu idiom amongst others influenced the lingo of Hyderabad.<br /><br />Dakhni as a dialect<br /><br />That was the language used by the poets of the South, like Feroz Shah, Burhanuddin Janam and Quresh Bidri, and later Gawwasi, Vajahi and Mohammad Quli. It was in 1555 that for the first time the term ‘Deccani’ or ‘Dakhni’ (from ‘Dakshin’ meaning South) was used for that language in the anthology of Feroze Shah. That language is full of Punjabi words. I once analyzed the glossary of Deccani words given in the anthology of Mohammad Quli Qutb Shah edited by Prof. Mrs. Syeda Jaffar. Quli, incidentally, is the founder of Hyderabad and the first Urdu poet to have a published anthology to his credit. Out of 2466 words listed in the glossary, 1009 or 41% was of Punjabi origin. Out of those, 494 words or 49% are now obsolete in Urdu but still current in Punjabi.<br /><br />In 1687 when Aurangazeb conquered Golkonda, the Urdu of the North came to overpower Dakhni, which by that time had become a fully developed language. The comparative absence of Arabic and Persian words and the predominance of purely Indian sentiments and imagery characterized it. For example, Quli refers to God by the Hindi appellations like ‘Kartar’,’Sain’and ‘Datar’ etc. rather than ‘Khuda’ or ‘Allah’. Scholars like Dr. Masud Husain Khan have called Dakhni ‘old Urdu’. The poets and writers were proud of the language and as early as in 1613 AD, the poet Quresh Bidri had exhorted the people: ‘Tu Deccani hai pyare, tu Deccanich bol’ (You are Deccani, dear friend speak in that language).<br /><br />The Current Scene<br /><br />By the middle of the 18th century, it ceased to be a literary medium and was reduced to a dialect and the imperial Urdu of the North became the standard language. The natives now only speak Daikin. Some poets and prose writers specialize in it. For an average listener, some of its terms and idioms and the way they are rendered create spontaneous humour. The actor Mehmood employs it in the Hindi cinema to arouse laughter. Poets like the late Suleman Khateeb of Gulbarga, Ali Saib Mian and Sarvar Danda used it to great effect in mushairas. Amongst the contemporary poets of Dakhni the names of the late Ashraf Khundmiri and Himayatullah are worth mentioning. Khahmkhah mixes it with Urdu to create laughter. Fareed Anjum is a good contemporary poet in the dialect. In prose, the humorist Maseeh Anjum who passed away recently was undoubtedly the best exponent of the rural idiom of the dialect. As a language, Dakhni is now all but gone.<br /><br />My two children had picked up the colloquial Deccani from their friends and servants. Their spontaneous expression like ‘nakko’ for ‘no’, ‘kaiko’ for ‘why’ and ‘hau’ for ‘yes’ evoked such laughter from our relations in the North that they used to be teased only to hear these expressions. There is a famous joke about a stranger to the city who enquired from a young boy whether the road he was standing on led to Charminar. The boy replied casually, ‘hau’. A respectable middle-class passer-by heard this. He called the boy and admonished him for using a vulgarism like ‘hau’.<br /><br />The boy asked meekly; “What should I have said, Sir?”<br />You should have said: “Ji han ” replied the old citizen somberly.<br />“So ‘hau’ is a vulgar word?”<br />“Hau”, confirmed the elder involuntarily.<br />Now small islands of the Deccani dialect are coming up on foreign soils like England, the U.S. and Canada etc. where Hyderabadi emigrants have settled down. Most likely, it will be frozen there like, for example, the old Norwegian language has in America.<br />But while it is still here, let’s enjoy its quaintness.<br /></p><p align="justify">*** </p><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a><br /><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-3508968251156410685?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-71487259050468850192006-12-12T10:20:00.000+05:302006-12-12T17:26:29.624+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>Prince, Poet, Lover, Builder</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br /><br />We have dealt with the plebian poets of Golconda. Now it is time to meet a royal bard. The founder of Hyderabad, Mohammed Quli Qutb Shah( b.1565; d.1611) was a prince, poet, lover, and a builder.<br /><br />Mohammed Quli was a prolific and a versatile poet. He wrote nearly 1,00,000 lines of poetry in Persian, and in every genre of what was later to be called Urdu.<br /><br />Secular Element<br /><br />Before him Dakhni poetry had been largely religious. Quli introduced the secular element into it. He talks of nature in its variegated aspects, seasons of the year, flowers, fruits, vegetables, gardens, social life, customs, and festivals. He sings of the pleasures of physical love with a rare candour and abandon. For him there is no difference between a Hindu and a Muslim:<br /><br />Kufar reet kya hor Islam reet<br />Har ek reet mein hai ishq ka raaz<br /><br />(What is the heathen’s creed -- and the Muslim’s.<br />Every practice is based on the secret of love.)<br /><br />Further:<br /><br />Main na janun Kaba o but khana o maikhana koon<br />Dektha hoon par kahan diktha hai tuj mukh ka safa<br /><br />(I don’t know the holy Kaaba, the idol’s temple or the tavern,<br />I look everywhere but can’t see a face as clear as yours)<br /><br /><br />On love he has some observations of universal truth:<br /><br />Suno log meri prem kahani<br />Keh peela hai rang ashiqui ki nishani<br /><br />(Listen folks to my tale of love,<br />A palate complexion signifies a lover).<br /><br />Figures of Speech<br /><br />Quli often employs the devices of alliteration and onomatopoeia very effectively. Note the following:<br /><br />Piya soon rat jagi hai so dikthi hai sudhan sarkhush<br />Madan sarkhush, sayan sarkhush, anjan sarkhush nayan sarkhush<br /><br />(Oh lady, you have kept the whole night awake with your lover.<br />Cupid is happy, so are the couch, the collyrium - and your eyes)<br /><br />Dan dana garja joban badal niman<br />Kangana jhalkar minj sunao tum<br /><br />(Youth thunders like a cloud.<br />Let’s hear the jingle of bangles).<br /><br />Unfortunately, the rhythm and internal rhyme abounding in his poetry can’t be put across in translation adequately.<br /><br />Hindi element<br /><br />Quli had a sound and extensive knowledge of the Hindi ragas. He mentions Asavari, Dhanashree, Gauri, Malahar, Kalyan, Basant and Ramkali in his poems. He declares his preference for music in the following couplet:<br /><br />Mere sang mil bajaati sankh gaati, Sankhara abhran<br />Sriraga jo gati istri to mujko bhati hai<br /><br />(She who plays the conch with me and sings Snakhrabhram,<br />The one who sings Sriraga -- that woman I like).<br /><br />Quli’s choice of subjects was unlimited. The entire range of life in its variations was covered by him. His idiom sprang from the soil and his language was the one spoken by the common people in their daily lives. He has been compared to Nazeer Akbar Abadi of Agra (1740-1830) as a people’s poet. But Nazeer was a plebian, whereas Quli was a ruler.<br /><br />His range<br /><br />Quli is a poet of sight and sound, of relish and savour, of fragrance and redolence, of spice and flavour, of sunrise and daylight, of rhyme and rhythm, of dance and music – of the celebration of life. His poetry glorifies all phases of biological existence. He rejoices in seasons of the year, the rhythmic succession of which makes the sum of our life-spring, monsoon, winter, summer. He celebrates festivals, birthdays, weddings, New Year Days. On each topic, there is not one poem, but many. As life’s cycle goes on, he reverts to each of these recurring events with renewed vigour. He doesn’t get bored with life, because every aspect of it excites him. There is no pessimism or cynicism in him. He is an extrovert whose reaction to events is always positive. He gloats on being the favourite ‘servant’ of the Prophet and the Imams, which made him a favourite of Fate. He glories in being a ruler and living a life ease and sensuality. A pure sense of life pulsates through his writings.<br /><br />A Misconception<br /><br />Some people say that Mohammed Quli was also a poet in Telugu. No such claim has been substantiated. I have been able to find only three words of Telugu in his entire anthology – ‘Em Mari em’.<br /><br /><br />His invocation at the inauguration of the new city of Bhagnagar, has become famous:<br /><br />Mera sheahar logan soon mamoor kar<br />Rakhya joon tun darya mein min Ya Sami<br /><br />(O God, fill my city with people, as you have the river with fish)<br /><br /><br />Obviously this prayer was heard and the city now suffers from over- population. It has one of the highest rates of growth in the country!<br /><br /><br />For his legendary love for Bhagmati, and his rich and enchanting poetry, Mohammed Quli has won a permanent place in the hearts of the people of the city. An annual festival is held to commemorate him. Generations of singers have sung his poems. Amongst them the most popular is:<br /><br />Piya baj pyala piya jai na; piya baj ik til jiya jai na<br />Kate hain piya bin saburi karo; kaha jai amma kiya jai na<br />Nahi ishq jis woh bada koodh hai; kadi us say mil baisa jai na<br />Qutb Shah na do mujh divane ko pand; diwane ko kuch pand diya jai na<br /><br /><br />(Without the lover one cannot drink the cup!<br />Without him one cannot live for a moment.<br />They counsel patience in the absence of love.<br />Ah! It is easier said than done.<br />One unacquainted with love is a half-wit!<br />Don’t ever have anything to do with him.<br />Don’t give me any advice to a lunatic like me<br />You can’t din sense into an insane person).<br /><br /><br />Mohammed Quli is regarded as the first Urdu poet with an anthology to his credit. Dr.Zore edited his anthology for the first time in 1940. Professor Syeda Jaffar brought out a more extensive volume in 1985.<br /><br />Mohd. Quli’s three successors were also poets. We will meet them next time.<br /><br /></p><p align="justify">*** </p><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-7148725905046885019?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-12709988784874561182006-12-12T10:19:00.000+05:302006-12-12T17:27:38.778+05:30<div align="justify"><strong>Pioneers of the Dakhni<br /></strong>By Narendra Luther<br /><br /><br />In my last article I gave a summary of the origin and development of the Dakhni language and its decline to a mere dialect.<br /><br />This time I would like to acquaint the readers with some of the pioneers of the language.<br /><br />European Researchers<br /><br />Before that it is good to acknowledge that Europeans uncovered much of what we know about this language in the 17th century. According to Prof. Rafia Sultana, Otto Pirsperson ‘detected’ the Dakhni language in the south. His work was carried further by scholars like Springer, Blumehart, and Ethe who made use of the libraries of rulers of Avadh. Bengal and Deccan. Beams, Hornley, and Jules Bloch showed that Dakhni was widely prevalent in the South. Their interest is evidenced by the establishment of the Royal Asiatic Society. Even before the establishment of the Fort William College in Calcutta in 1800, The Fort St. George at Chennai was imparting the knowledge of Indian language to the officers of the East India Company.<br /><br />Of these, special mention must be made of Garcon deTassy, a Frenchman who edited a volume of Wali Dakkani’s anthology and translated it into French in 1823. He also delivered a series of lectures on the subject in France between 1850 and 1859. In his ‘History of Indian Literature’ he mentions about the existence of 200 writers of Dakhni. Graham Bailey wrote the first History of Urdu literature in English. In his slim volume he also translated some leading Dakhni poets into English.<br /><br />Work in Hyderabad<br /><br />The pioneering work of the Europeans which established the separate identity of Dakhni and also its status as the ‘ancestor’ of Urdu was taken up in early 20th century by a group of scholars from Hyderabad viz., Moulvi Abdul Haq, Shamshullah Quadri, Mohiuddin Quadri Zor, Sarwari and Naseeruddin Hashmi. Their researches contradicted some of the earlier theories and give Dakhni its due place of pride.<br /><br />In the beginning Dakhni was called Hindi or Hindavi. Ferishta the historian says that the official language of the southern sultanates was Hindi—meaning Dakhni.<br /><br />The rise and development of Dakhni can be divided into two periods i.e. is the Bahmani (14th-15th Centuries), and Bijapur- Golconda Sultanates (16th-17th Centuries). The post-Golconda period was of a mere survival of the language for some time.<br /><br />Sufism and Dakhni<br /><br />Dakhni was used originally as a vehicle for the propagation of Sufism in the South. That tradition started with Khaja Bande Nawaz Gesu Daraz whose Miraj-ul-Ashaqeen was a prose treatise on mysticism. However, he had come from Delhi in 1390 AD at the age of 80 and so cannot fairly be credited with making a contribution to Dakhni at that age. Nizami who is considered the first major poet of Dakhni, wrote his epic poem called ‘Kadam Rao Padam Rao’ around 1460. By that time the language had developed a great deal. It is interesting to note that his vocabulary is full of Sanskritic words. Shah Miranji Shamshul Ushaq of Bijapur is another mystic poet. He wrote two long poems- Khush-nama and Khush-naghz are full of pathos. Their main character, a young girl has an inquiring soul whose spiritual thirst remains unquenched despite the soothing advice of her spiritual mentor. Miranji’s son Shah Burhanuddin Janam also wrote long mystical poems. He calls his language Gujri not Hindi or Hindavi which was the name given to Dakhni by others. His language too is full of Sanskrit diction both ‘tatsams (original Sanskrit words in unaltered form) and ‘tatbhavs’ (in slightly changed form). Talking of the control of the senses, Janam uses the allegory of ‘five animals in the body’:<br /><br />‘Sight is kite; Ear is snake; Nose is peacock; Tongue is dog; Lust is scorpion’. (Here the nature of different animals is compared to the senses. For example, the kite snatches, and the snake’s sense of hearing, and peacock’s sense of smell is said to be very strong). He advises that one should ‘tie them up’ in order to get absorbed in the contemplation of God.<br /><br />He further says that there are five thieves, which one should beware:<br /><br />Anger is the thief of wisdom; Arrogance the thief of knowledge; Lassitude the thief of the prayer; Hunger the thief of fasting, and Greed the thief of holy discourse. He adds that it does not matter whether the devotee sits in a mosque or a temple so long as he is absorbed in the contemplation of God because both these places radiate His presence.<br /><br />Nizami Bidri produced the first literary work in Dakhni about the year 1460 and another writer Qureshi Bidri translated the ‘Kok Shashtra’ into Dakhni under the title of ‘Bhog Bal’ in 1520 AD.<br /><br />Bijapur School<br /><br />After the Bahmanis, Bijapur and Golconda emerged as the two contemporary centres of Dakhni. Both had rulers which not only patronnised letters but also who are writers and poets themselves. Ibrahim Adil Shah II (1580-1626) was perhaps the most prominent Bijapuri ruler in that regard. He was interested in classical Indian music and wrote Nauras Nama when he was not yet 30. It has 59 songs in different ragas. It is interesting to note that he starts his work with an invocation to Saraswati. He calls himself the son of Saraswati who is the goddess of learning, and Ganesh the god of all beginnings. One of his songs says:<br /><br />‘Sarada Ganesh Mata Pita, Tum mano nirmal beeb spatik sisi taas<br />Ibrahim Gupt ghesu ab nawaj parghat keeno dhani meri raas’<br /><br />(Saraswati and Ganesh -- my mother and my father! You are two transparent crystals. Ibrahim was lying in oblivion. It was by your grace that he became famous. He is therefore proud of his good luck).<br /><br />One of the great poets of Dakhni was Abdul, the court poet of Ibrahim Adil Shah himself. His literary work is called ‘Ibrahim Nama’. The book is about the life and grandeur of the court of his patron. He discusses the relationship of words and their meanings with a through background of Indian aesthetics.<br /><br />After this synoptic view of Dakhni under the Bahmanis and in the Bijapur, we will move on to Golconda, which represented the high point of the development of the Dakhni both in prose, and in poetry.<br /></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">***</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-1270998878487456118?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-43451900333511301262006-12-12T10:17:00.000+05:302006-12-13T15:03:12.454+05:30<div align="justify"><strong>Last of the royal poets</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />Mohd. Quli’s successor, who was his nephew and son-in-law, Mohammed Qutb Shah (1611-1626) was his polar opposite. As against his philandering predecessor, he was a serious-minded person who observed all the injunctions of Islam scrupulously. When he started the construction of the Mecca mosque, he threw a challenge to any one to come forward and lay the foundation stone if he had not missed any one of the five daily prayers enjoined by his faith. When none came forward, he did so himself declaring that since the age of 12 he had not never missed any prayer.<br /><br />In keeping with that austere outlook, he scrapped all the celebrations of festivals like Basant, Mrig, and even the Idd on the birthday of the Prophet. Naturally, the patronage of arts and letters too suffered.<br /><br />He published the anthology of his father-in-law and wrote a poetic preface to it. In that he said:<br /><br />‘Bajid ho ke ‘Zille Ilahi’ naval --- pade sheir ta paeen kar hiz sakal<br />Apas dil mein kar fikr sab ek rat—kiye khutba kah mustaid kulliyat<br />Jo alhaq sune koi gar yo zaban --to dur hal kain marhaba be takan’<br /><br />(One night I resolved to compile the anthology<br />So people can enjoy the beauty of his(Quli’s) poetry<br />Having determined, I decided to write a preface to that<br />So whoever hears that language, will immediately hail it)<br /><br />He was also a poet in Persian and sported the pen name of ‘Zillillah’ which means the ‘Shadow of God’, but his anthology has not been found.<br /><br />Abdullah (1626-1672) succeeded his father Mohammed Qutb Shah at the age of 12. His period marked the decline of the dynasty. He was forced to sign a ‘Deed of Submission’ to the Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan in 1636. Aurangzeb also made his first foray into Golconda in 1656. This was averted due to the intervention of Abdulla’s mother, Hayat Bakshi Begum.<br /><br />Abdullah was a hedonist and was considered the reincarnation of his grand father, Mohammed Quli. He loved life and indulged in revelries. He reintroduced all the festivals which wee suspended by his father. His accession was welcomed by all men of arts and letters. They emerged from their eclipse and rejoiced. Vajahi, the favourite of Mohd. Quli, rejoiced at his reinstatement and haile the new era as the ‘return of Mohd. Quli’. Similar sentiments were expressed by Ghawwasi and Maqeemwho, in’ Chander Bbadan aur Mahyar’ sang in ecstacy:<br /><br />Dakhan ke Shahan dekh phir yun kahe Mohammad Quli phir ko aya ahe<br /><br />‘Seeing the king of Deccan, it seems that Mohammad Quli has returned)<br /><br />Vajahi even substtuted the name of the previous Sultan with that of the new one and presented the old eulogium to him!<br /><br />Abdullah’s anthology is not available. Only 97 ghazals and a elegy is extant. According to Dr. Mohd. Ali Asar, a well-known scholar of Dakhni, thiryof these ghazals are repeated in the Ghawwasi’s anthology. It is therefore doubtful if the compositions can be attributed to Abdullah. In some of his poems there is the cadence of taranas .Note these:<br /><br />Main ai lala,dikhi fala,hangam ala hai dhupkala<br />Hai matwala, tu pi pyala, ho khush hala, na kar chala<br /><br />(My love! the time is auspicious; it is sunny<br />Get intoxicated, be merry, don’t demur)<br /><br />Then as from a woman to her lover:<br /><br />Nainan mere asman hon batan dekhe is lal ki<br />Ho chand is asman ka ko jagmagaga dekhna<br /><br /><br />Then she becomes more explicit:<br /><br />Mere sej aa re mere rajna Do hatan mein le tu yo do jobana<br /><br />(Come to my couch, my prince! Hold my breasts in your hands)<br /><br /><br />Tana Shah (1672-87) was the last Sultan of Golconda. He had a strange life. His life span of 76 years wa neatly divided into four parts of fourteen years each. He was a remote relatin of the Sultan and so stayed in the palace for the first 14 years of his life . Then he was expelled and spent next 14 years in the monastery of the Saint Shah Raju. He sprung a surprise on him and made him ruler. He remained the Sultan for fourteen years. In 1687 he was defeated and captured by Aurangazeb and spent the last 14 years of his life as a prisoner.<br /><br />He was also a poet and his most famous poem is :<br /><br />Again there is a poem in which like Amir Husro he has a duet full combination of Hindi and Persian. Note the following in first line in Hindi and the second line Persian<br /></div><div align="justify">HINDI : </div><div align="justify">Maha dani, maha gyani, maha chatter, maha chani<br />PERSIAN : </div><div align="justify">Buland pala, buland danashiq, buland himath, buland aqther. </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">***</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-4345190033351130126?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-21491753854317378482006-12-12T10:16:00.000+05:302006-12-13T13:54:09.116+05:30<div align="justify"><strong>Dakhni—a detour to Bijapur</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br /><br />In my last article (10.1.99), I had called the Golconda period (1518-1687) the ‘golden age’ of Dakhni. It was not as if the language prospered only in Golconda. Simultaneously, in the neighbouring Bijapur sultanate we witness the last flicker of its flame – and of the language. Incidentally, Bijapur fell to the Mughals in 1686- only a year before the fall of Golconda. We will therefore make a detour to Bijapur before we resume our journey on the highway.<br /><br />Earlier, we noted how Ibrahim Ali Adil Shah II of Bijapur made his contribution not only to Dakhni but also to the classical Indian music by composing 59 songs in 17 ragas and raginis. His grandson, Ali Adil Shah II (1656-72) who was the eighth ruler of the dynasty became the Sultan at the age of 19. He was a poet and sported the pen name of ‘Shahi’. He wrote extensively in various genres of poetry. He composed 21 songs in 21 ragas and raginis. His compositions exhibit a strong influence of the ‘Prem margi’ school of Hindi poetry. A number of his poems are as from a woman pining for her lover. The long poem ‘Birhani Mukhammas’ is perhaps the best example of that. Its refrain is:<br /><br />Koi jao kaho muj sajan sat; Main neha bandhi toon keeta ghat<br /><br />(Go, tell my lover, that while I deeply loved him, he betrayed me)<br /><br />Prof. Zeenat Sajida, a former head of the Urdu Department of the Osmania University and a leading authority on the Dakhni edited an anthology of Ali Adil Shah II: ‘Kalam-e- Shahi ’ in 1962. According to her, this poem became so popular that many others wrote similar poems, which causes some confusion regarding the identity of their authors.<br /><br />This and other poems of his describe most graphically the condition of woman burning in the fire of separation (Birha in Hindi). Note her burning desire:<br /><br />Main chhaon hoon piya sang lagi rahun dayam; Yak til juda na hona vaslat ise Kate hain<br /><br />(I’ll always be my lover’s shadow; then I will not separate from him.)<br /><br /><br />In a song in Bhairvi raga he gives a vivid description of Shiva. His masterpiece is perhaps his raga named ‘Chouda Ratan’ (Fourteen Ratnas or gems) in raga Kanra. In that he shows his complete knowledge of the story of Amrit Manthan (the churning of sea) from the Puranas. According to this very interesting story the churning was done jointly by gods and the demons at the instance of Vishnu. It yielded fourteen gems including the Moon, the Iravadi elephant, and the water of eternal life- amrit. They were divided amongst various gods. This raga of his shows a surprisingly high degree of knowledge of the Hindu mythology and the intricacies of the Indian classical music. It is easier to read this song in Devanagri because its language and vocabulary is Sanskritic. Whether his topic is secular or religious -- including Islamic -- his vocabulary, and the figures of speech are Hindi out and out.<br /><br />Just as his grand father Ibrahim was called ‘jagat guru’, Ali was called ‘ustad-e-alam’. It means the same thing in Persian.<br /><br />Nusrati<br /><br />It was his court poet Mohd. Nusrat ‘Nusrati’ who gave him this title. The latter chronicled the history of his patron’s struggle against the Mughals and the Marathas in his ‘Ali Nama’. Thus the poet doubles as an historian. There are seven ‘qasidas’ (odes) in his long poetic chronicle. They alone would assure him a place in the hall of fame. Nusrati is very proud of his work and claims that he combined in it the best of ‘Hindi’ and Persian. He himself proclaims that it is the ‘Shahnama’ of the Deccan. (The original ‘Shahnama’ was the great poem, which Firdausi wrote at the instance of Mahmood Ghaznavi and for which he was not paid the promised amount).<br /><br />In his own words:<br /><br />Kata hoon sukhan mukhtasar be-guman, keh yoon Shahnama Deccan ka hai jan<br /><br />(In short, doubtless it should be taken as the Shahnama of the Deccan)<br /><br />Describing the din of battle, he says that the clanging of swords was so loud that the mountains started trembling.<br /><br />His masterpiece is the long poem: ‘Gulshan-e-ishq’ (The Garden of Love) which is the love story of Kunwar Manohar and Madhumalati. In this Nusrati is considered at his descriptive best. There is a liberal use of similes and metaphors in the description of the beauty of Madhu Malati, and of palaces, landscapes, and ceremonies.<br /><br />In this work his imagery is exquisite. To wit: when the moon rose in the west, Sun stepped back and stayed on to see the spectacle.<br /><br />The boat in the river is mercury floating on a plate!<br /><br />Nusrati is credited with initiating the transformation of the Dakhni into Urdu by introducing Persian and Arabic vocabulary into it.<br /><br />Hashimi<br /><br />Nusrati’s contemporary was a blind poet called Syed Miran Miyan Khan ‘Hashimi’. Because of his disability, he had free access to the royal harem. That enabled him to write the peculiar genre of the language called ‘Rekhti’. In this form the feminine sentiments are expressed in the idiom peculiar to women particularly of the Deccan.<br /><br />He takes pride in that distinction and says that he has ‘ given a place of honour to the language of ‘oui’. (’Oui’, even today is the exclamation used by girls when they are surprised or horrified).<br /><br /><br />Thus Hashimi became the precursor of the subsequent ‘Rekhti’ writers of the North. It is surprising that in spite of his blindness, he is very good at description not only of scenes but also of the social conditions of his times. His major work is the narrative love poem: ‘Yusuf Zuleikha’. His vivid descriptions remind one of the blind contemporary Indian writer, Ved Mehta.<br /><br />That about completes the story of Bijapur’s contribution to Dakhni. Now we can return to Golconda again to go on to the next part of our story.<br /><br />***</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-2149175385431737848?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-29111993039097514912006-12-12T10:13:00.000+05:302006-12-12T17:18:08.247+05:30<p align="justify">Dakhni- the Golconda Phase<br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />We enter the Golden age of the Dakhni with the emergence of its Golconda phase (1518-1687). Now Mullah Vajahi (d. about 1660) heads the caravan. He saw the rule of three Sultans—possibly four. He was the court poet of the founder of Hyderabad – Mohd. Quli Qutb Shah. He wrote a long allegorical poem - ‘Qutb Mushtari’. It is supposed to be a dramatised fictitious version of the love story of Mohd. Quli and Bhagmati and was highly flattering to his young patron. Notice the original and lavish metaphors used by him when he describes the celebrations on the birth of Mohd. Quli:<br />‘Because in this gathering, angels had come to render service, the king gave them so much gold that they made a new sky of gold. The sky itself was given so much gold that it keeps on going round day and night to fine a place to keep it (according to the belief of the age, prevalent in Urdu poetry even till now, the sky gyrates). The earth itself was given so much wealth that it is begging heavens for space to keep it. After all these charities, the king himself celebrated the festival of spring (Basant) with diamonds. On Muhammad Quli’s birth gold was distributed so liberally that it has become cheaper than dirt. So many jewels and gems were scattered all over that swans have started coming on land to pick up their food. Because of the o the fall in its value, Gold has become pale.’ </p><p align="justify">Vajahi<br /><br />Vajahi’s poem on ‘Love’ in his prose work ‘Sabras’ is remarkable for its repetitive use of the word ‘Ishq’ (love) and its detailed exposition of the phenomenon of love:<br />‘Love is week; love is strong. Love is wise; love is mad. Love shines by itself; it looks good by itself. Who can control the wayward behaviour of love? Love is sun; love is moon. Love is faith; love is belief. Love is ruler. Love lights the skies; love illumines both the worlds...’<br /><br />And so on it goes for a whole page.<br /><br />In the original Dakhni it has overpowering rhythm and sway of a ‘qawwali’. I therefore included it as a qawwali in the film script that I wrote for the Zee TV on the love story of Mohd. Quli and Bhagmati. </p><p align="justify">Similarly, his discourse on ‘Aql’(wisdom) is a torrential flow of words, which is untranslatable. Vajahi was very proud of Deccan – and Telangana. He says:<br />‘There is no place like the Deccan; it abounds in the merited<br />Splendid Deccan crowns the head of other lands<br />Deccan is a special land; and Telangana is its heart’<br /><br /><br />If ever a Telangana state is formed, doubtless Vajahi will be its patron –poet. And his poem will perhaps provide a draft for the State anthem.<br /><br />His work, ‘Sabras’ is the first secular prose work in what is today called Urdu. It is an allegory describing the eternal conflict between Head and Heart, and Beauty and Love. In this the characters are Beauty, Love, Sight, Tress, Patience, and Recantation etc. Vajahi uses Hindi chhand and not the Persian poetic measure. But for the script, it is classical Hindi. Vajahi says himself that that ‘of all the Hindi writers so far, none has written such good chhands in the Hindi language’.<br /><br />It is interesting to note that one of the pioneers of the renaissance of the Dakhni in Hyderabad in early 20th Century, Dr. Zore started a literary magazine in 1938 and named it ‘Sabras’. Now edited by Mughani Tabassum, a former head of the Urdu department of the Osmania University, it is highly regarded in literary circles.<br />Interestingly, Khwaja Hamiduddin Shahid in Karachi also started a magazine with the same name when he migrated to Pakistan.<br /><br />Ghawwasi<br /><br />After Vajahi’s patron died, he was eclipsed by another poet, Ghawwasi (literally, a diver—for pearls). He became the port-laureate of Mohd. Quli’s grandson, Abdullah. Ghawwasi is renowned for his three long poems –‘Maina Satwanti’, ‘Saif-ul- Mulook’, and ‘Tuti Nama’.<br />‘Maina Satwanti’ is based on an old Indian folk-tale. There was a king, Bal Kanwar. who had a beautiful daughter called Chanda. One day she saw a shepherd named Lorik pass below her balcony and fell in love with her. He did not respond to her advances saying that he had a lovely wife. Also a poor man like him could not aspire so high. However, on being taunted by her, they elope. </p><p align="justify">Chanda’s father reconciled to that. He had seen Chanda’s beautiful wife and coveted her. He sent an old hag to seduce her. Maina rejected the offers disdainfully. One day the king went to her house and hid himself to hear the conversation between her and his emissary. He was so struck by her noble-mindedness and the purity of her heart that he fell at her feet and asked for forgiveness. Thereafter, he mounted a search for her daughter and the shepherd. After their apprehension, Chanda was killed and Lorik was restored to his wife. The characters of this story are all Hindus and so is the locale. But Ghawwasi makes them utter Islamic expressions like Satan, Rasul, Khizar Sikandar, and Qaroon etc. Inspite of that incongruity, Hindi elements predominate the composition. For example, a chase woman and a faithful wife has: </p><p align="justify">‘Mithai zaban mein,mubarak bachan; Kari baat jeon phool jhadte rattan’<br />(Pious in thoughts and sweet of tongue.<br />When she speaks pearls fall from her mouth)<br /><br />‘Sai-ful-Mukluk’, is considered his best work. It is derived from the ‘Arabian Nights’. Ghawwasi has a great felicity in both Hindi and Persian vocabulary and he is rated one of the greatest Dakhni poets.<br /><br />Ibn-e- Nishati was the next poet of note. He did not attach himself to any court. His fame rests on his long poem ‘Phoolban’ in which, he has employed thirty- nine figures of speech.<br />The story of ‘Phoolban’ is that the ruler of Kanchan Patan sees a dervish in his dream and becomes his follower. He locates him after a long search. The dervish narrates new stories to him every day. One story was about a nightingale that used to ‘tease’ a particular flower in the garden of the king of Kashmir. As a result of that, the flower would wilt. One day the nightingale, on being caught, revealed that it was the son of a merchant from Khatan, a country on the north of China. He had fallen in love with the daughter of a monk. The monk cursed them and so he became a flower and the girl, a nightingale. The king invoked the blessing of God on them whereupon they resumed their original form. The king appointed them tocourt. They used to narrate daily new stories to him. Thereafter it goes on like the ‘Arabian Nights’—a chain of stories.<br /><br />Incidentally, Prof. Rafia Sultana, a former head of the Urdu department of Osmania, who was commissioned by the AP Sahitya Academy to compile an anthology of Dakhni prose master pieces has named her house ‘Phoolban’.<br /></p><p align="justify">***</p><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></p><div align="justify"></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-2911199303909751491?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-89002229970347377592006-12-07T15:52:00.000+05:302006-12-13T12:05:27.489+05:30<div align="justify">Legends and Anecdotes of Hyderabad -- 52<br /><br /><strong>The last days of the last Nizam</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />Three kilometers from Masab Tank stood the King Kothi surrounded by walls, which had not been whitewashed for some years. It still housed the Nizam. He was no longer the ruler but his legend survived and even flourished. The richest man, the most miserly man, the proudest prince who had been humbled, the man whose word was law for close to four decades, who issued orders on everything expect on the rising and setting of the sun, who could pick up any woman he liked... he stayed there surrounded by his family, his mistresses, their dependents and their servants -- and their dependents. A whole army of retainers catering to the whims fancies and illusions of one man who was still the absolute ruler within the four walls of his dilapidated palace –the ‘King Kothi’.<br /><br />He still issued firmans in the old style in Urdu but they pretained to his place affairs or his private dealing. Some firmans just embodied his unsolicited opinions on trivia. It was pathetic to see the descendent of Asaf Jah I who granted concessions to the French and the British trading companies and laid down stiff conditions for their enjoyment, now issued dictats on inconsequential matters to fill up his time. The ‘Nizam Gazette’, an Urdu daily used to publish them regularly. So did some others like the ‘Shiraz’. The following are two typical firmans:<br /><br />‘ Dated 10 Rabi-ul-awal. 1376H (15 October, 1956)<br /><br />Regarding: Inayat Ali, Boy aged 17 or 18, son of Khurshid Ali, servant in the palace of private estate.<br /><br />Pleased to state that this child is also motherless because his mother died in his early childhood. The mother of Wasif Ali who is resident of Nazri Bagh is his father’s sister. Because of changed times, his father cannot bear the expenses of his education. He had, therefore, entrusted him to my care. The child was also willing to come to Nazri Bagh. Therefore, he has joined Wasif Ali<br /><br />Who can be there, who due to the fickleness of these times wold refuse t entrust his children, whether male or female, to my care? My circumstances are known to the whole world. yet the welfare of the boys and girls staying here is apparent. It won’t be out of place or considered self- praise to stay that these people were lucky that they got such a master of commander who considers them his children and treats them like wise. No doubt about that.’<br /><br />The second firman:<br /><br /><br />‘Dated 15 rabi-ul-sani, 1476 H (19 November, 1956)<br /><br />Regarding: Circumstances of Iqbal Jung***, son of the late Maharaja Peshkar<br />[Peshkar was Maharaja Kishan Pershad’s hereditory designation] (Born of the late<br />Guousia Begum)<br /><br />Pleased to state that the upbringing and education of his boy during the lifetime of his father was not proper. But after the father’s death his condition has worsened. Due to bad company and excessive drinking he developed an enlarged liver (a few years ago). Treating him as an orphan and also because of the fact that my daughter was engaged to him, he was kept in the Nazri Bagh and treated with great care at a time when there was no hope for his cure. It is a matter of satisfaction that he recovered. He was also under a large debt. This could not be discharged from the amount received by way of compensation of the Peshkar’s estate. Nor could it be settled with the sale proceeds if the house (Situated within the compound of the Peshkar’s mansion in the city) which is father had given him during his lifetime for his stay. Out of this amount also part of his debt was discharged through a committe to the sarf-e-khas. Further, in spite of instructions to the contrary, he kept on taking loans without knowledge though for a long time since his coming under my care, his personal needs did not cast any financial burden on his small income (from the compensation for the jagirs of the Peshkar). Even then he did not mend his way (that is, he continued to incur debts).<br /><br />Because of the foregoing, I had to write these few lines to bring the circumstances of his case to the knowledge of the public. After his declaration, if any one gives him a loan, it will be at his own risk. It will not be repaid from his income, because his income which was credited by way of trust in the private estate of the suf-e-khas has been fully spent (and now nothing is left of his private income). A part from that, if this boy does not become sensible he will get embroiled in litigations. His life will become notorious and he will get into all sorts of troubles. Then he will be deprived of my patronage and his continued stay in the Shadi Khana will become impossible. That’s all.<br /><br />The Nizam also occupied himself by arranging matches for the offsprings of his retainers, dependents and servants. After the nuptials, he would send for the bedsheet to check weather the girl he had married off was in fact a virgin. He prepared the menus for different residents of the King Kothi according to their rank and status and if someone fell ill, he would prescribe medicine as well as the special diet. He was a staunch believer in the Greco-Arabic (unani) system of the medicine and his prescriptions always proved very effective because nobody dared to re[port otherwise. Many of his patients took his prescriptions and medicines respectfully, but in fact took a proper allopathic medicine. The credit, of course, went to the ‘great healer’. Occasionally he would still send a gift of some fruits or a part of his royal dinner (khasa) and in return get a nazar but that part of his business had tapered off.<br /><br /><br />The first Nizam had said in his will that he was leaving enough wealth to last seven generations - if properly spent. His successors had squandered it but something was still left when the seventh Nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan, came upon the scene. He set himself the task of augmenting the inheritance.<br /><br />And then while he was still on the collecting spree, he found that his world had crashed around him and that the sources of funds had all dried up. He was also painfully aware of the marked propensity of his sons to spend recklessly. That was the main point on which he found fault with them. He cautioned them against excessive spending but that had no effect upon them. They spent beyond the purses fixed for them; they incurred debts from all and sundry and the ageing Niam felt angry and embarrassed. But still he worried about what might happen to them after he was no more.<br /><br /><br />***<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-8900222997034737759?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-5447138281262193882006-12-07T12:37:00.000+05:302006-12-13T12:21:47.073+05:30<div align="justify"><strong>A feudal lord & Revolutionary</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />Ravi Narayan Reddy was one of the great heroes of the Freedom Movement in Hyderabad. He was also a colorful and courageous man who sacrificed a great deal for others. A feudal landlord by birth and inheritance, he became a powerful agent for its demise.<br /><br />He was born in a prosperous jagirdar family in Bollepalle village of Nalgonda district in 1908.. As a student while staying at the Reddy Hostel in Hanuman Tekdi at Hyderabad he took keen interest in sports, scouting and acting. He carried a life-long journey to his spinal chord from a game of football. In 1930, when he was in his intermediate class, he gave up his studies and joined Mahatma Gandhi's Civil Disobedience Movement.<br /><br />His wife died in 1929. Ravi was so impressed by Mahatma Gandhi’s work for the uplift of Harijans, that he went to Wardha and presented all her jewellery to Mahatma Gandhi as a donation. When, in 1932 Thakkar Bapa, established a branch of the All India Harijan Sevak Sangh in Hyderabad Padmaja Naidu was made its president and Ravi, its secretary. Next year, on her resignation due to ill health, Ravi became the president and remained n that position for six years. In 1938, he became one of the founder members of the Hyderabad State Congress and, on the government's refusal to lift the ban on it, offered satyagraha in the first batch on 24 October 1938. For this, he was imprisoned.<br /><br />Social Reformer<br /><br />He was also a leading member of the Andhra Mahasabha, which started in 1928 as a socio-cultural organization for the Telugu-speaking people of the State. He became its president thrice -- in 1941, 1944 and 1945 under his leadership, it was transformed into a vigorous political body. Culture can never be separated from economics and politics. He took up social issues like widow remarriage and literacy. When the Communist Party fixed a ceiling of 20 acres on land-holding, Ravi distributed 500 acres of his share of land to the cultivators, keeping only the prescribed 20 acres for himself. When Mahatma Gandhi passed through Secunderabad in 1934, Ravi donated fifty tolas of gold for his cause. However, he was influenced in his political life more by Nehru than Gandhi. Finding the approach of the Congress leaders in the State to mild, he joined the Communist Party in 1939 and led the armed struggle of the peasantry of the Telangana area of the State.<br /><br />Immense popularity<br /></div><div align="justify">After the Police Action, Ravi some others believed that the goal had been achieved and the communists should give up the armed struggle. But there was the Ranadive doctrine propounded at the Second Congress of the Communist Party at Calcutta in February, 1948 which called for the continuation of the armed struggle. Consequently, there was confusion in the ranks of the party as to the future course of action.<br /><br />However, the imposition of the ban on the Communist Party three days after the Police Action made the decision for them. Ready to come out in the open, Ravi and his comrades were once again driven to their hideouts. They reverted to their previous life style --spending there days either underground, or in prison. Released days before the first General Elections of 1952, Ravi contested both for the Parliament as well as the State Assembly. His popularity was so great that he was elected to both. He polled the highest number of votes for the Parliament in the country surpassing even Nehru. Not only that, his opponents did not get a single vote. Also in Nalgonda district his party won all the 14 Assembly seats though he addressed only two meeting.<br /><br />In the second General Elections of 1957, due to a taunt of the Congress for having defeated the people's Democratic Front - a group of left parties under which banner the Communists had fought the election, he was asked to contest for the State Assembly. In that, he was pitched opposite his wife's elder brother V. Ramachandra Reddy, who was the first to donate 100 acres of land and thus to launch Vinobe Bhave's Bhoodan Movement. Though he too was popular, he lost to Narayan Reddy by 8,000 votes.<br /><br />Telangana Armed Struggle<br /><br />Ravi, like most Communist was an atheist. He never visited temple but did not stop the members of his family from doing so.<br /><br />He was one of the strong proponents of the movement for an integrated Telugu-speaking state the virtual Andhra. A good deal of the credit for the formation of Andhra Pradesh, therefore, must go to him.<br /><br />A legend in his lifetime, this veteran of the armed struggle, passed away in glory on 7 September 1991. His last words were addressed to Ch. Rajeshwara Rao from whom he enquired as to what had happened to the cases of the pension of some of the freedom fighters, which he had canvassed.<br /><br />His will and testament<br /><br />In his will, he said that his wife should not remove her bangles or her bindi, the vermilion mark on her forehead, as widows customarily do. Later, however, he modified it to say that she could do as she pleased. Such a liberal approach characterized his attitude to her and to women in general all his life. He however enjoined upon his children not to immerse his ashes in the Ganga or some other river, but to scatter them over the crops in his fields. A samadhi might also be constructed in one of the family farms.<br /></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">***</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com/"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-544713828126219388?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-91732987945090248162006-12-06T16:55:00.000+05:302006-12-13T12:24:45.825+05:30<div align="justify"><strong>Hyderabad’s Longest Week<br /></strong>By Narendra Luther<br /><br />The Police Action against Hyderabad was started on Monday, 13th September 1948. There was hardly any resistance from the Hyderabad forces.<br /><br />On Friday, 16th September the Director General of Police, Deen Yar Jung called Zafar, the executive incharge of the Deccan Radio to broadcast only music. The Indian forces were hardly thirty miles away.<br /><br />On the morning of the 17th, Kasim Razvi rang up the Deccan Radio to say that he wanted to contradict rumours that he had fled Hyderabad. He was asked to come to the studio at 10-30.A.M. Then Zafar realized that in the new circumstances, he ought to take the permission of the controller of broadcasting for that. He was not to be found. He contacted ADC to the Prime Minister. He had gone to meet the Nizam. Razvi’s talk was delayed by over half-an-hour. He made a brief speech, starting on a strident note but sobering down to assure people that he would not desert them.<br /><br />At noon, a messenger brought a personal note from the Nizam to K.M.Munshi asking him whether he could see the Nizam at 4-00 p.m. He had not granted Munshi an interview since his appointment as India’s Agent General ten months ago.<br /><br />Earlier, the Nizam had spent the morning in hectic consultations. His premier had seen him twice already. The Nizam had summoned him the previous day and asked for his resignation by the morning of the next day. The cabinet decided to resign forthwith.<br /><br />As soon as Munshi entered the sitting room, the desolate ruler said: “The vultures have resigned. I don't know what to do”. He handed him his premier, Laik Ali's letter of resignation. His hands were shaking. He had had this problem for some time which became pronounced when he was tense or angry.<br /><br />Munshi had come to know about the resignation earlier from Laik Ali himself. He said: “I am worried about the citizens of Hyderabad. There is no government. The troops and the police have disappeared from the streets. General Choudhuri will take a day or so to reach because the approaches to the city have been mined. I suggest that Your Highness may ask General El Edroos to take steps to preserve law and order in the city”.<br /><br />The Nizam noted that Munshi had not used the word 'Exalted' before Highness. But it was no occasion to point it out. He asked that the Army Commander be sent for.<br /><br />“Munshi Saheb says that steps have to be taken to maintain law and order in the city. What do you say?” The Nizam asked General El –Edroos.<br /><br />“Yes, Exalted Highness. The proper course is that I should take charge of the city and surrender it to General Choudhuri when he arrives”.<br /><br />“Go ahead”, he said. Then turning to Munshi, added, “I am sending a chartered plane to Sir Mirza Ismail. He must carry on the government”.<br /><br />Munshi was surprised. Obviously the Nizam had not grasped the full gravity of the situation. He still thought he was the master. Munshi put him wise: “I have no communication from my Government so far. I don't know whether they would like Sir Mirza to take charge. But some arrangements must be made meanwhile to carry on the administration so that innocent blood is not shed needlessly”.<br /><br />They discussed the possible composition of the new interim government. Munshi did that without any brief from Delhi.<br /><br />He suggested that the Nizam may make a broadcast welcoming the Police Action and withdrawing his complaint to the Security Council.<br /><br /><br />“Broadcast!” The Nizam repeated the word as his glazed eyes met Munshi's. The latter helped by paraphrasing the term - “I mean speak on the radio.”<br /><br />“But how does one broadcast?” asked the Nizam innocently.<br /><br />Munshi explained.<br /><br />It was the Nizam's first visit to the Radio Station. There no red carpet was spread for him; no formalities were observed. No music, no anthem was played before or after the broadcast. The speech was in English. Nobody bothered to translate it into Urdu.<br /><br />He was nervous, as all broadcasters are when they first face the microphone. The gravity of the occasion and the text of the broadcast added to that. All the braggadocio had been done on his behalf by others. He had signed some letters indicating his intractability. But now he had to eat his words and reverse his stand in his own voice which would be heard all over the world. The glory of defiance had belonged to others; the humiliation of public apology was his.<br /><br />At that moment an era ended. While the Indian army was yet to arrive, the old order had already collapsed.<br /><br />After the broadcast the Nizam drove back to King Kothi to brood. Munshi on his way to Bolarum found the streets full of excited crowds shouting national slogans. Munshi was mobbed and had to address groups of people enroute. They wanted to be told by India's official representative that they were now part of the great motherland.<br /><br />That night the city changed a great deal. Many khaki uniforms were discarded, many beards shaved. The shouting, rampaging crowds of razakars disappeared magically. The citizens emerged from their cocoons. People of all ages came out in throngs waving the tricolours of India. Suddenly where there was fear and restraint, now there was life and laughter. There was a general release of tension and a new, quivering anticipation.<br /><br />Earlier, it had been agreed that the surrender ceremony would take place 8 kilometres out of the city at midday on the 18th. But the progress of the march of the army was slower than expected. The mines laid on the way by the Hyderabad forces were posing problems. The ceremony was therefore postponed to 4 p.m.<br /><br />General Edroos was waiting at the appointed place with one aide. General Choudhuri reached the spot dot on time.<br /><br />The two adversaries stood facing each other. Both were slim and tall -- about the same height. Edroos in his beret cap, tucked-in shirt, rolled-up sleeves, leather belt, and his swagger stick under his left arm; Choudhuri in his peaked cap, full-sleeved bush coat and without his baton. Edroos saluted. Choudhuri returned it and then spoke gravely:<br /><br />“I have been ordered by Lt. General Maharaj Rajendresinhji, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Command to take the surrender of your army”.<br /><br />“You have it”.<br />“You understand that this surrender is unconditional”.<br />“Yes, I understand”.<br /><br />Choudhuri's grim visage melted into a smile. He stretched his hand and shook Edroos by the hand. Then he opened his cigarette case and offered him a cigarette. Edroos pro-offered a lighter. Choudhuri's team joined them.<br /><br />The party drove to the residence of India's Agent General. A jubilant crowd cheered the victorious general there. He waved in return and then sat down to discuss the details with Munshi, Edroos and others.<br /><br />Crowds had begun to gather at the corner of the Parade Ground in Secunderabad since morning to greet the Indian army.<br /><br />It was a sea of humanity, heads, heads, heads, bare and covered. Men and women, ten deep, twenty deep, children on shoulders, on heads of adults, young people perched on the railings, on tree-tops, even on telephone poles. It was a riot of colours, dresses of all types in all the colours of rainbow, only deeper, like a field of flowers of different hues. And then tricolours, thousands of them, each hand holding one, even two, green, white and ochre, fluttering joyously. Flags made of cloth, and of paper quivered in the gentle breeze. They reflected the frisson of the hands holding them. There was clapping and wild cheering, shouting and shrieking. People threw flowers at soldiers sitting on top of armoured cars and waving to crowds. Suddenly, garlands would land on the vehicles. Throngs of people shouting slogans which could not be uttered till the previous day.<br /><br />‘Quami nara’ - a shrill, lone voice shouted. And the mob shouted back in unison, in a loud abandon -- Jai Hind. This was taken up and repeated from different groups.<br /><br />“Mahatma Gandhi” cried one voice -- “Ki Jai” responded the chorus.<br /><br />‘Pandit Nehru’ ... ‘Zindabad’<br />‘Sardar Patel’ ... ‘Zindabad’<br />‘General Choudhuri’ ... ‘Zindabad’<br />‘Hindustani Fauj’ ... ‘Zindabad’<br />‘Bharat Mata’ ... ‘Ki Jai’<br /><br />There was no order, no sequence but one slogan followed another without any interruption. Each time as a thousand throats shouted in unison flags went up. The din multiplied. Far in the distance some people were dancing. There was celebration everywhere. People had this brief spell to squander recklessly all their pent-up emotions of these past weeks when the flame of life had burnt low.<br /><br />They were now free!<br /><br />There were friendly cross-talks between the soldiers and the spectators at the turnings of the road. Near the Plaza Talkies, a soldier shouted: “We have driven out the razakars from the field. Tell us where the rest are.”<br /><br />The crowd shouted back: “Everywhere”!<br /><br />Somebody suddenly shouted: ‘ Razakar’ -- and the crowds roared:‘Murdabad’.<br /><br />But that was a discordant note. The chant-leaders brought them back to the cycle of recitation of Zindabads. It was a positive, hallowed moment. Let it not be marred by negative outbursts.<br /><br />Then light began to fade. Vans were going up and down announcing the imposition of the curfew from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. The crowds began to melt. They hurried to reach their houses in time. There would be celebrations there too.<br /><br />Soon there was quiet everywhere. Silence and knowledge of security such as the city had not felt for the last many months overcame it. A feeling of peace wrapped it, like a snug coverlet. It too slid into asleep -- exhausted and relieved.<br /><br />Tomorrow would be a new dawn.<br /><br />voice, he asked where the speaker was sitting. He even looked at the back of the radio set to see whether Nehru was sitting inside the box. The director then explained to him how the speech was being transmitted from Delhi.3<br /><br />Nizam and the Radio<br />Nizam VII was reputed to be the richest man of his time. However, his appearance and his style of living suggested the contrary. He was indifferent about his dress and appearance. It will surprise many to know that he did not have even a radio set.<br /><br />After India became independent in August 1947, he did not join the new Union. Instead, he decided to become independent. That led to prolonged negotiations between him and the government of India. During the period, the Prime Minister of India, Nehru once made a broadcast about Hyderabad. It was proposed that the Nizam should listen to the broadcast. The director of the Hyderabad State Radio was asked to send a radio station to the Nizam<br />Nizam and the Radio Nizam VII was reputed to be the richest man of his time. However, his appearance and his style of living suggested the contrary. He was indifferent about his dress and appearance. It will surprise many to know that he did not have even a radio set.<br /><br />After India became independent in August 1947, he did not join the new Union. Instead, he decided to become independent. That led to prolonged negotiations between him and the government of India. During the period, the Prime Minister of India, Nehru once made a broadcast about Hyderabad. It was proposed that the Nizam should listen to the broadcast. The director of the Hyderabad State Radio was asked to send a radio station to the Nizam’s palace, the ‘King Kothi’. When the Nizam heard Nehru’s voice, he asked where the speaker was sitting. He even looked at the back of the radio set to see whether Nehru was sitting inside the box. The director then explained to him how the speech was being transmitted from Delhi.<br /><br />Police ActionFinally, tsafety of the .Th Nizamalso and offered to help draft the speechNmob shouted back in unison, in loud 34<br /><br />The Indian forces reasched the outskirts of the city on four days later.On the of 17th Septemberthe of Laik Ali, the Prime Minister that he was was. He suggestedshould be asked to serve law and order in the city.<br />He sent for his comma<br /></div><div align="justify">Nizam VII was reputed to be the richest man of his time. However, his appearance and his style of living suggestedd the contray. He was very careless about his dress and appearance. It will surprise many to know that he did not have even a radio set. After India Became independent, he did not join the new Union. Instead he decided to become independent. That led to prolonged negotiations between his government and the government of India,. During the period, the prime Minister of India, Nehru made a broad<br /></div><div align="justify">The Indian forces reasched the outskirts of the city on four days later.On the of 17th Septemberthe of Laik Ali, the Prime Minister that he was was. He suggestedshould be asked to serve law and order in the city.<br />He sent for his comma<br />Nizam VII was reputed to be the richest man of his time. However, his appearance and his style of living suggestedd the contray. He was very careless about his dress and appearance. It will surprise many to know that he did not have even a radio set. After India Became independent, he did not join the new Union. Instead he decided to become independent. That led to prolonged negotiations between his government and the government of India,. During the period, the prime Minister of India, Nehru made a broadcast about Hyderabad. It was proposed that the Nizam should listen to the broadcast. The director of the Hyderabad State Radio, called the Deccan Radio was asked to send a radio station to the Nizam;s resiodence, the King Kothi. When the Nizam heard Nehru cast about Hyderabad. It was proposed that the Nizam should listen to the broadcast. The director of the Hyderabad State Radio, called the Deccan Radio was asked to send a radio station to the Nizam;s resiodence, the King Kothi. When the Nizam heard Nehru’s voice, he asked where the speaker was sitting. He even looked at the back of the radio set to see whether Nehru was sitting inside the box. The director then explained to him how the speech was being transmitted from Delhi.3<br /></div><div align="justify">* * *<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com/"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-9173298794509024816?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-33582419106656951502006-12-06T16:43:00.000+05:302006-12-13T13:17:08.095+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>Musings<br /></strong>By Narendra Luther<br /><br />I SHOULD STOP HERE. The 1st of November 1956 is a good terminus. It constitutes an important landmark in my life. After that day I became the capital city of anew, bigger state. But life stories do not end abruptly on a single day. Events do not come to a close in such a neat fashion. There would still remain three decades of my life left but they cover a period too close for me to write easily about. Events do not become apart of history untill people who shaped them are all, or almost all, gone. The people responsible for making and braking things during these three decades are still around. I have hence decided not to talk about them.<br /><br />I can, however, talk about myself. Now that I have crossed the 400th year of my life, I muse a great deal. I think of the stresses and strains I have suffered over these last few decades. I look at my present state of health and wonder hew long I will last. I had said earlier that cities are like human beings. In one important respect they are not. They do not all have to die. There is no natural, average life-span for them as there is for humans. Some prosper, some linger on, some explode with a natural catastrophe like an earth quake or are washed away by a delnge. Some are devastated by war of civil strife and some wither away. But then, mostly, they renew themselves. They shift their center of gravity, like Delhi has done so many times but they go no for a long, long time, I am rather young from that standpoint.<br /><br />But I feel old. It is a feeling of not being cared for, of being taken for granted. And that is not all. There are positives strains and humiliations to which I am subjected day out. My sheer growth and external and seeming-prosperity eating at my vitals. I cannot sustain myself. I am over- stretched, overstressed, exhausted.<br /><br />I have grown in stages. There have been distinct phases through which I have passed. The first phase started when I came into being in 1591. I lasted almost a century till 1687, when Aurangzeb sacked me. The second was when I was revived after a gap of 76 years during which period I had ceased to be a capital city. That was in 1763, when the second Nizam shifted his capital from Aurangabad and I became the capital of whatever was left to the then Deccan province. The next phase began when the same Nizam signed the Subsidiary Treaty with the British in 1798 and six years later the British Residency was built here. The fourth stage came when I the railway were brought to the state and I was connected to bombay and Madras in 1876. The fifth phase occurred in 1908 when I suffered the worst-ever floods in my life, and for the first time- and the last -my systematic renewal was taken up. The sixth phase marked my integration with independent India in 1948, and the last was when I became capital of the expanded state of Andhra Pradesh, as it came to be called, in 1956. Of these only the second phase was negative and destructive. All other developments were positive. The most significant development was the last phase which changed my basic character.<br /><br />So much growth occurred at this stage in a short time, so much change came over y features that at times even I found it difficult to recognize myself, I have already referred to the spurt of immigration from the Andhra areas. That was not all. There was immigration from outside the state and even from abroad. My general rate of growth has been on of he highest in the country in the last few decades.<br /><br />I started as a city of 3.23 square kilometers surrounded by gardens seven times larger in extent. Today my area is 217 square kilometers. In 1991 my population stood at 4.3 millions). The increase is 67% Consequently, vast areas which were covered by greenery have been invaded by concrete. In my heart, multistoried buildings have risen in a crude imitation of Bombay and Calcutta.<br /><br />Even the rocks of Banjara Hills and Jubilee Hills have not been spared. They have been blown up like bunkers to make way for structures suited to plans. My natural wealth has been plundered, my features spoiled.<br /><br />There was been no systematic, planned catering to the needs of my citizens. Incremental, ad hoc, additions have been made, but they have no relationship to needs. In summer when my people most need it, the water supply is officially restricted. It is staggered n any case but in acute summer it is admitted openly and officially and every thing is blamed on the rains as if we were living in the reign of Sultan Abdullah Qutb Shah and not at the close of the 20th century. Power supply is erratic, one gust of wind or a mild shower and the lights go off. Power cuts are imposed in two hours but in practice for a good part of the day there is no power supply. And there is no predictability about when it will go.<br /><br />When it rains the roads are flooded; water accumulates and stagnates in every locality because of inadequate drainage and faulty cambering and sloping of roads. In many parts there are no metalled roads. Where they do exist, they are full of potholes. The condition of my roads proves that I am 400 years old. Every day newspapers carry pictures and stories of the thorough inadequacy of civic amenities. People blame the Municipal Corporation and call it names. The traffic is chaotic. </p><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">* * *</span></p><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com/"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-3358241910665695150?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-20272244657070979392006-12-06T16:19:00.000+05:302006-12-12T14:48:00.969+05:30<div align="justify"><strong>Hyderabad’s first popular Chief Minister<br /></strong>By Narendra Luther<br /><br />After the Police Action, Hyderabad was placed under a military governor. After about a year a civil government was constituted under an ICS officer, MK Vellodi. Some prominent local freedom fighters were made members of his appointive cabinet. This lasted until early 1952 when first General Elections were held in the country. Hyderabad also had elections and the Congress Party won the elections. It constituted the first popular government and Burgula Ramakrishna Rao became the first popular Chief Minister of the State. The Nizam became the titular head as the Raj Pramukh of the state.<br /><br />Burgula Ramakrishna Rao was born under the Zodiac sign of Pisces. Fish is its ruling symbol, and Neptune its ruling planet. People born under this last of the twelve signs are supposed to have something of the quality of each of the dozen signs. That spells versatility. They are dainty, says an authority, and are seldom tall. They are gentle dreamers, sensitive, creative, understanding, friendly and reliable. They also have a great sense of pity.<br /><br />Versatile Personality<br /><br />Born on 13 March 1899 at Burgula village of Shadnagar taluk of Mehboobnagar district, Ramakrishna Rao seemed to have all the important characteristics of Pisces. His father was a liberal maqtedar, that is, a small jagirdar. The family had a tradition of learning and so while the elder brother, Venkateshwara Rao went in to study the Physical Sciences, the younger; Ramakrishna Rao took up Humanities. He went to Poona for his graduation and then to Bombay from where he obtained a degree in law.<br /><br />Ramakrishna Rao was a polyglot. He was proficient in Telugu, Urdu, Hindi, Marathi, Kannada, Persian, Tamil and English. So, not only in the tri-lingual state of Hyderabad but virtually anywhere in the subcontinent of India he was at home. He wrote a good deal of poetry in Telugu, both devotional and lyrical, and some in English.<br /><br />He also translated the quatrains of Omar Khayyam direct from Persian into Telugu and wrote a history of Persian literature in Telugu. His articles used to be published in Bharati, a prestigious Telugu monthly published from the then Madras. His translation of Sufi Sarmad's works from Persian into Telugu is rated very high.<br /><br />Entry into Politics<br /><br />He became one of the founder members of the Andhra Jana Sangh in 1921 and from then on became involved in active politics. He presided over the second session of the Andhra Mahasaba Conference in 1931. He was a member of Provisional Committee when it tried unsuccessfully to set up the Hyderabad State Congress in 1938. He was often arrested for his politics and, when after the Police Action, a civil administration was set up under the chief ministership of Vellodi in 1950, he was appointed Minister for Revenue and Education.<br /><br />Reformist Chief Minister<br /><br />After the first General Elections of 1952, he was elected the first popular Chief Minister of Hyderabad. He remained in that job until the formation of Andhra Pradesh in November 1956.<br /><br />On assuming office, most radicals turn conservative. With Burgula the case was reverse. As a Congress leader, he was considered a liberal as compared to Swami Ramananda Tirtha who was a radical, but after he became first a Minister and then Chief Minister, he was responsible for the most radical reforms in the state which were way ahead of the rest of India. He was the author of Hyderabad Tenancy Act, which provided protections to tenants. He also set up Land Commission for suggesting land reforms, which proposed a ceiling on land holding. Both were pioneering measures in India.<br /><br />Soft spoken and accommodative, he was not a rabble-rouser. He shone best in the legislature. In the mid-term elections in Andhra in 1955, he was sent as a star performer and spoke in favour of a Greater Andhra. On its formation, he bowed down to make way for Neelam Sanjiva Reddy to lead the new state.<br /><br />Disgust with Politics<br /><br />By that time he was quite disgusted with the factional politics of the Congress and did not take much interest in the state politics. The leadership both at the Centre and the state was also cool towards him. From June 1957 until 1962, he served successively as Governor of Kerala and of Uttar Pradesh. He was very keen to go to the Lok Sabha in 1962 and again in 1967 but the new set-up did not fancy that idea. As compensation, he was made a member of the Rajya Sabha which he served from 1962 to 1966. He was very soft and emotional and would often break down when he saw man's inhumanity to man. He believed that politics was the art of the possible and so was not averse to make compromises.<br /><br />Brugala had never met the Nizam before he became Chief Minister. In their discussion, he and his friend, M. Narsing Rao used to refer to the Nizam as the afeemchi -- the 'opium eater'. Even afterwards when he had to deal with him officially quite often, he kept his distance.<br /><br />Whether in office or out, he maintained his interest in literature and social service and served on a large number of related organisations still his death on 15 September 1967.<br /><br />***<br /><span style="font-size:78%;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com/"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-2027224465707097939?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-3832975118248742682006-12-06T15:25:00.000+05:302006-12-13T13:03:24.064+05:30<div align="justify">Legends and Anecdotes of Hyderabad<br /><br /><strong>Civil Servant to Prime Minister<br /></strong>By Narendra Luther<br /><br />Of the 40 Prime Ministers who served the Nizams of Hyderabad, only three were from outside the State. Out of them only one – Akbar Hydari -- was a civil servant in British India.<br /><br />He was born in 1869 to Seth Nazar Ali Hydari, a Suleimani Bohra businessman of Bombay. His mother was the sister of Badruddin Tayabji, a judge of the Bombay High Court, who later became the president of the Indian National Congress at its third session in Madras in 1887.<br /><br />Appointment in Hyderabad<br /><br />After his graduation, Akbar joined the Finance Department of the Government of India and served at Nagpur, Lahore, Alahabad, Bombay, and Madras. In 1905 he was deputed to Hyderabad as Accountant General. Two years later, he was promoted as Finance Secretary. In 1911 he became Home Secretary.<br /><br />He stayed in what is now called Dilkusha Guest House and is located next to the Raj Bhavan. This building overlooked the Hussain Sagar Lake and had a beautiful rock garden at the back.<br /><br />Akbar Hydari was responsible for the establishment of the Osmania University in 1918. It was the first university in which the medium of instruction was an Indian language -- Urdu. Beside the University he also had the High Court building constructed. He also established the State Archeology Department which undertook the preservation of many archaeological remains in the State.<br /><br />He became a Minister in 1921 and held successively the portfolios of Finance, Home and Railways. A landmark reform — first in India -- the separation of judiciary from the executive was effected in Hyderabad in 1922. The Hyderabad Civil Service was established on the pattern of the Indian Civil Service in British India. An Industrial Trust Fund was created for the industrialization of the State. The first public sector unit – Road Transport -- was established in Hyderabad. In 1928 he was knighted and was thereafter known as Sir Akbar Hydari. He was also made a Privy Councilor He represented Hyderabad in three Round Table Conferences in London from 1930 onwards.<br /><br />The Nizam’s two sons, the Prince of Barar and the Junior Prince were married to the daughter and niece respectively of the deposed Caliph of Turkey on 12th November, 1931 in Nice in France. The Nizam did not attend the joint wedding. Sir Akbar led the delegation comprising the grooms’ party.<br /><br />As Premier<br /><br />Sir Akbar Hydari succeeded Maharaja Kishen Pershad as Prime Minister in 1936. The decade of 30’s was a difficult period in the history of Hyderabad. As in the rest of India, political consciousness had risen to new heights. There was demand for responsible and representative government by the people at large. The Arya Samaj and the Hindu Maha Sabha had started agitation against the Nizam. The Indian National Congress was banned even before its establishment in 1938. That led to a good deal of correspondence between Sir Akbar Hydari and Mahatma Gandhi on the subject of political reforms in the State. In spite of their different political standpoints, which could not be reconciled, their correspondence was polite and charming. In one of his letters Mahatma Gandhi enquired about the health of Lady Hydari. In reply, Sir Akbar informed him that Jagadguru Shankaracharya was treating her. In the issue of 17 September 1938 of the Harijan, Mahatma Gandhi referred to Sir Akbar as ‘a great educationist.... and a philosopher...’.<br /><br />The Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Musalmeen declared in 1938 that in Hyderabad sovereignty belonged to the Muslims community. The Nizam was merely its symbol.<br /><br />Sir Akbar naturally did not feel at ease in the atmosphere of clashing views and aggressive declarations.<br /><br />After five years as Prime Minister, his relations with the Nizam seemed to have cooled off. One reason for that was that Akbar could not get the Berar back to the Nizam. In 1941 he was appointed a member of the Executive Council of the Viceroy. The Nizam gave him the title of Hyder Nawaz Jung and relieved him. He was not very happy at going to Delhi. Soon after going to Delhi, he passed away in 1942. His body was brought back to Hyderabad and buried in the Bohra graveyard in Hussaini Alam.<br /><br /><br />He was a kind person and very simple in his habits. He made people feel at ease with him. On the death of his brother, he adopted his three children and brought them up as his own.<br /><br />He was a devout Muslim but many people have testified to his broad, liberal outlook. His house was somewhat of a cultural centre and artists and writers used to visit it frequently. Ravi Shankar’s elder brother, Uday Shankar came and stayed with him.<br /><br />He offered his farmland in Shamsabad for housing the Aurobindo Ashram, which was later established at Pondicherry<br /><br />In order to facilitate instruction in Urdu in the Osmania University, a Bureau of Translation was established and many men of letters from all over India were appointed to translate important books from other languages into Urdu. One such person was the great poet Josh Malihabadi. Josh records in his autobiography that when he was presented to Hydari, Josh made an insolent remark about him. However, later when Josh was dismissed from service due to Nizam’s displeasure, Sir Akbar, ignoring the incident, sanctioned a pension of 1000 rupees a month to him.<br /><br />Once, when the agitating students of the University marched to his residence, he arranged refreshments for them and thus cooled their tempers.<br /><br />Lady Hydari was a woman of substance. She was involved n social service and was awarded the Kaiser e- Hind medal for her work during the Floods of the Musi in 1908. The Lady Hydari Club for women commemorates her. She passed away in 1940.<br /><br /><br />His Hobbies<br /><br />Sir Akbar had two interests. He used to have boxing sessions with an American physical instructor Weber and the children found it quite amusing to see the burly American with the somewhat puny minister punching each other. His other hobby was collection of miniature paintings. He willed them to the Prince Albert Museum in Bombay, and the State Archaeological Museum at Hyderabad, which he had himself founded. Such of those as were not taken by either of these were given to his children.<br /><br />He had four sons and two daughters. One of his sons -- his namesake -- rose to be the Governor of Assam. His adoptive daughter, Laila’s son, I.H. Latif became successively, Chief of Staff of the Indian Air Force, governor, and ambassador. His wife Bilkees, stepdaughter of Sir Akbar’s son, Ali has some of the miniature paintings and pieces of exquisitely carved furniture – mementos from a bygone era. And of course lots of fond memories.<br /><br /><br />* * * </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com/"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-383297511824874268?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-87456876520502801272006-12-06T15:23:00.000+05:302006-12-13T12:07:26.407+05:30<div align="justify">Legends &amp; Anecdotes of Hyderabad – 47<br /><br /><strong>Mir Akbar Ali Khan Afraid neither of Nizam, nor Indira<br /></strong>By Narendra Luther<br /><br />As we have seen, there were many Muslims in Hyderabad who opposed the political policy of the last Nizam in the ‘40s, which were dictated largely by the razakars. These courageous men supported the demand of the majority of the population for responsible government, and accession to India.<br /><br />Mir Akbar Ali Khan was one such outstanding person. He was born in 1899, to Mehboob Ali Khan, a minor jagirdar in Bidar and the commander of one of the irregular troops of the Nizam. In 1919 as a graduate student of the Aligarh Muslim University, he came under the influence of Mahatma Gandhi and gave up his studies to join the non-Cooperation Movement. Later he completed his graduation from the Osmania University. Thereafter, he went to England and became a barrister from the Middle Temple, London. He returned to Hyderabad and set up his practice in 1927.<br /><br />Devout Muslim<br /><br />He was a devout Muslim. Every Thursday he would get up at four in the morning and walk up to the Dargah-e- Yusufain to offer his Morning Prayer. For seventy-five years he attended without fail the annual urs at Ajmer. Yet he was without a trace of religious bias. He personified true secularism.<br /><br />In 1929, as a reaction against the communal policies of the Nizam’s Government, he joined some othes like-minded persons like Padmaja Naidu, B. Ramakrishna Rao, Baqar Ali Mirza, Madapati Hanumantha Rao, Ali Yawar Jung, M. Ramachander Rao, M.H. Jafferi and Fazalur Rehman and set up the ‘Society of Union and Progress’. The name and inspiration for it was derived from Mustafa Kemal Ataturk of Turkey. No one belonging to any communal party was accepted as its member. The members signed a pledge affirming their belief in responsible government. It had a small membership, was moderate in its outlook, and had a limited impact.<br /><br />Legislator<br /><br />Akbar was elected Mayor of Hyderabad and later, a member of the State Legislative Council. He believed that the State was conservative but not communal till the advent of the Ittehad party, particularly under Kasim Razvi. He felt that there were a number of secular persons but they were not willing to take any risk to rectify the situation. Razvi was crude and insensitive but capable of rousing mass hysteria. Mir Akbar Ali Khan met the Nizam several times. The latter listened to him, but according to Akbar, did not react.<br /><br />Razvi offered him the prime ministership of Hyderabad after the departures of the Nawab of Chhattari in 1946 on condition that he join the Ittehad party. Akbar turned down the offer.<br /><br />In 1948, on the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi, he organized a public meeting. Razvi disrupted the meeting and his razakars assaulted Akbar. For his protest against the atrocities of the razakars he was constantly harassed. Every evening a group of ruffians used to come and chant murdabad slogans outside his residence in Saifabad. But Akbar remained firm in his resolve.<br /><br />Joins Congress<br /><br />After the Police Action, when Hyderabad became part of India, Mir Akbar Ali Khan joined the Congress party. He was the Vice-President of the Reception Committee of the State Congress when its session was held in Hyderabad in 1949. In 1956 he was elected to the Rajya Sabha and served for three consecutive terms spanning eighteen years. Out of that for eleven years he was its Vice-Chairman.<br /><br />He was an ardent social worker and a builder of institutions. He started the Hyderabad Polytechnic by donating 15 acres of his land at Ramantapur, and 50000 rupees in cash. It was renamed on Jawaharlal Nehru after Nehru’s death. He was also one of the founder members of the Industrial Exhibition of Hyderabad. In 1975 he collected donations in cash and kind for the establishment of the ‘Yusuf Baba Ward’ in the Nampally Hospital. He also founded the ‘Old Boys Association of the Aligarh Muslim University. He used to organize help and relief for widowed women to last them for five years. He was awarded Padma Bhushan in 1965<br /><br />Strong principles<br /><br />In 1972 he was appointed Governor of Uttar Pradesh. Mrs. Gandhi, the e Prime Minister felt that he was not helping her put down the then Chief Minister, Bahuguna. He was transferred to Orissa in 1974. In April 1976, his old friend and the renowned Socialist leader, Jaya Prakash Narayan visited Orissa. Akbar invited him for dinner at the Raj Bhavan. Mrs. Gandhi had clamped Emergency on the country and ‘JP’ was fiercely opposing it. Mrs. Gandhi considered him her enemy. One of her aides rang up the Governor advising him to cancel the dinner. Akbar replied that he was inviting an old friend privately and could not do so. He was told that the Prime Minister was not happy about it. That evening the two friends had dinner together. The next morning Mir Akbar Ali Khan sent his resignation to the President and returned to Hyderabad. He had the good grace not to give any reasons.<br /><br />In Hyderabad he continued to exhibit immense energy and goodwill and immersed himself in social, cultural and educational causes.<br /><br />In 1994, just short of five years of a century of a life devoted to public causes, Nawab Mir Akbar Ali Khan passed away into history. He had four children out of whom three are alive. The eldest, Riazat Ali Khan served the UN and later took up business. He is settled in Switzerland.<br /><br />The second daughter, Faizunissa became Hyderabad’s second lady advocate. She tended her father with great devotion after her mother’s death in 1960 and was his constant companion and hostess. She continues her father’s tradition of social service. Her son, Ishaq Anwar is an electronics engineer and runs an ad agency. The daughter, Waseem Kabir is an architect and an interior decorator.<br /><br />The third, a daughter, Nayeem is a physician and is settled in Canada.<br /><br />I had the privilege of knowing and working with this man of unusual courage, rectitude, and affection. And I cherish the association.<br /><br /><br />***<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com/"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-8745687652050280127?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-2421228167468374242006-12-06T15:20:00.000+05:302006-12-13T15:02:33.074+05:30<div align="justify">Legends and Anecdotes of Hyderabad – 60<br /><br /><strong>Jai Hind, Safrani!</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />When we talk of ‘freedom fighters’, we generally think of people who were engaged in the struggle for freedom for India within the country. We tend to ignore many other groups who fought for freedom of the country from outside. They represented the radicals in the Congress party who broke away from the main line of the Party because they believed freedom could not be won through peaceful methods and negotiations. Quite a number of them went away from the country and lived a life of exile. A number of such people went to Canada. They married local women, mostly of Hispanic origin – and gave them Indian names. Their progeny is now completely integrated with the local inhabitants.<br /><br />Expatriate fighters<br /><br />Another part of the Indian community which played a crucial role comprised the Indian expatriates settled in South East Asia. They were the one who helped the greatest of hero of the armed struggle from abroad -- Subhash Chandra Bose, commonly revered as ‘Netaji’ in setting up the India National Army. They not only gave moral and material support, but also joined the army in good number. They were from different parts of the country and were drawn from different communities and religions.<br /><br />‘Safrani’<br /></div><div align="justify">One young, colourful and courageous person from Hyderabad became a member of that community by chance. He was Zain-ul Abideen Hasan, commonly known as Abid Hasan and still better known as Abid Hasan Safrani. Incidentally, there is no such surname as ‘Safrani’. Then how did he come to acquire that appellation? Thereby hangs a tale.<br /><br />Sir Salar Jung I who was the Dewan of Hyderabad from 1853 to 1883 tried to reform and modernize the medieval administration of the state of Hyderabad. For that purpose, he brought a number of educated, English –knowing officials from British India. One such person was Nawab Mohsin-ul-Mulk. His younger brother was Amir Hasan who became a collector. Abid Hasan was born to his Irani wife in 1911.<br /><br />While most of the well-to-do families of Hyderabad sent their children to England for higher studies, Amir Hasan’s wife did not favour that. She did not like the British. The children of that family were sent to Germany. Abid Hasan went thee to study engineering.<br /><br />During the Second World War, Bose had escaped to Germany to canvass support for an armed struggle to liberate India. Germany was at war with England and so it was to its advantage to encourage disaffection in India against the British<br /><br />Meeting with Netji<br /></div><div align="justify">Bose addressed meetings of Indian prisoners of war, and others exhorting them to join him in his struggle. Abid met him and was inspired by his patriotism and the spirit of sacrifice. He said he would join him after finishing his studies. Netaji taunted him that if he was worried about small things like that, he could not take up big causes. Stung by that rebuke, Abid Hasan decided to give up his studies. He immediately joined Netaji and became his secretary and interpreter.<br /><br />From then on he was to be with him. He went with Netaji to Singapore in German and Japanese submarines. There, after consultations with the Japanese, Netaji set up the Provisional Government of Free India on 21 October, 1943. He also reorganized the Indian National Army originally established up by one Mohan Singh, an officer of the British Indian Army.<br /><br />Azad Hind Fauj<br /><br />Abid Hasan became a major in the INA and participated in the march from Burma across the Indian frontier. The army reached Imphal. It was severely handicapped in supplies and armaments and so had to retreat.<br /><br />Netaji wanted an Indian form of greeting for his army, and for independent India. Various suggestions came. Abid suggested ‘Hello’. He was snubbed. Then he suggested ‘Jai Hind’. Netaji liked it and it became the official form of greetings amongst the revolutionary Indians. Now it is the official slogan of the country. Netaji also established common kitchens for all the soldiers. The Provisional Government of India though fired by idealism, was also riven with squabbles. Amongst the questions which came up for discussion was that of the flag for independent India. The Hindus wanted the saffron colour, while the Muslims argued for green. The controversy was beginning to become acute. At that stage, the Hindu elements gave up their insistence on the saffron. Abid Hasan was so touched by this gesture that he decided to add ‘Saffron’ to his name. That is how he came to be known as ‘Safrani’.<br /><br />After the collapse of the INA, Safrani along with others was taken prisoner by the British and jailed in Singapore. Meanwhile, his family back in Hyderabad had no news about him ands most-- except his mother-- gave him up as dead. Then somebody came from Singapore and told her that he had met one Irani in Singapore. Abid’s mother then knew that her son was alive.<br /><br />After the famous INA trial, all the prisoners were released. In 1946 Abid came back to Hyderabad and joined the Congress Party. But here too there were rivalries and groupings and he felt disgusted with the group politics in the organization. He then the joined the Bengal Lamp Company and was posted at Karachi. When India attained independence, and Karachi became part of Pakistan, Safrani came back to Hyderabad.<br /><br />Life after Independence<br /><br />He was taken in the Foreign Service of India in 1948 and served in different diplomatic capacities in China, Switzerland, Iraq, Syria and Denmark. After his retirement in 1969, he came back to Hyderabad and setup a farm near Dargah Husain Shah Wali.<br /><br />He remained a bachelor all his life. He adopted three children. One of them is Shahbaz Safrani who is a well known museologist in America. Second is Ismet Mehdi, a scholar in Arabic and professor at the Central Institute of English &amp; Foreign Languages. The third is Maleeha<br /><br />He passed away in 1984. How few of his fellow citizens know about this extraordinary man who embodied all that is rich and valuable in humanity!<br /><br />***<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com/"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-242122816746837424?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-42644965449288225982006-12-06T15:09:00.000+05:302006-12-12T15:03:24.997+05:30<p align="justify">Legends and Anecdotes of Hyderabad : - 19<br /><br /><strong>A Noble Prize For Hyderabad</strong><br />by Narendra Luther<br /></p><p align="justify"><br />Not many people know that the discovery of malaria parasite was made in Hyderabad and that the city can boast of a Nobel Prize.<br /><br />This discovery was made by Ronald Ross. Son of a general in the Indian army, he was born in Uttar Pradesh in 1857. His heart lay in art, music and literature but to please his father he enrolled for medicine. Even while studying it, he wrote a novel, stories, a number of poems and composed music. He also learnt Italian, German and French and studied the great poets of those languages in the original.<br /><br />On his first visit to India as a member of the Indian Medical Service, in 1881, Ross was struck by the stark poverty and poor health of the people at Madras and wrote a poem which concludes by asking :<br /><br />`Cannot the mind that made the engines make,<br />A nobler life than this ?'<br /><br />In India he served at a number of places like Madras, Bangalore, Vizianagaram, Quetta, Calcutta Andamans and also Burma.<br /><br />After 6 years in India he went to England on furlough and obtained a diploma in the then new subject of sanitation and studied bacteriology. On return to India in 1890, he was sent to Bangalore to tackle the cholera epidemic. He recommended a scheme of sanitation there in 1896 which, incidentally was the first sanitation programme in India. He said that the work of scavenger must precede that of the philosopher, artists and politicians !<br /><br />He became aware of the problem of malaria in Bangalore. The medical theory at that time was that malaria was caused by breathing the damp air of the marshes. Ross began his serious study of the subject while on a holiday in Coonor and identified the two varieties of mosquitoes one of which - later identified as Anopheles - carried the germs.<br /><br />Ross integrated the isolated findings of Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch, Laveran and Beauparthy to determine the process of transmission of malaria. He concentrated his efforts on the study of the parasite in the mosquito rather than in the patient.<br /><br />His Methods :<br /><br />Ross used to tempt his patients to be bitten by mosquitoes infected by malaria by paying them one rupee each. He would then let loose a swarm of mosquitoes (of which he always kept a bottle-full ready) into the mosquito-net under which the patient was made to sleep. To tempt the mosquitoes, he would wet the bed and the net with water. Then he dissected the infected mosquitoes and examined them under a microscope.<br /><br />The Discovery :<br /><br />His last experiment was on a patient called Hussein Khan. And it was the very last mosquito, a dappled Anopheles which showed itself as the carrier of the malaria parasite. Ross thus established that the parasite was sucked in by the female Anopheles, incubated in its stomach for 7 days or more and brought up into its salivary glands in the mouth from where it was injected through its bite to other human beings.<br /><br />This great discovery of the process of the transmission of malaria was made on 20th August, 1897 at Hyderabad. This led to the methods of control of the dreaded disease.<br /><br />In 1899 Ross took retirement from the I.M.S. and left India. He got the school of Tropical Medicine established in Liverpool and became a lecturer there.<br /><br />For his monumental discovery Ross was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1902. In 1911 he was knighted.<br /><br />A Boon to the World :<br /><br />In 1906, in Ismailia in Egypt he controlled the breeding of mosquitoes by spilling oil over ponds by the side of the newly-dug Suez Canal. The construction of the Panama canal, started in 1890 and abandoned because of the large-scale prevalence of malaria and yellow fever in 1904, was made possible by applying his methods.<br /><br />Mauritius, Greece, Cyprus and Spain also implemented malaria control measures under his advise.<br /><br />Work Against Odds :<br /><br />All his researches were carried on by him entirely at his own expense and despite obstructions from his superiors. Once his leave was not extended and he was posted back to his regiment where there were no facilities for research. That, however, did not deter him from his mission.<br /><br />Versatile Person : </p><p align="justify">Ross was a person of striking versatility. He was a prolific writer of poetry, novels, essays and dramas.<br /><br />His `Memoirs' written in 1923 are full of wit and sarcasm and it is not beyond him to have a dig at himself. His acceptance speech at the ceremony for the award of the Nobel Prize is remarkable not only for its brevity but also for his humility in acknowledging all those scientists, discoverers and inventors whose work he had built upon. He concluded it by referring to, "the dingy little military hospital, the old cracked microscope and the medicines bottles which constituted all the laboratory and apparatus which I possessed for the purposes of taking one of the most redoubtable of scientific problems". Sir Ronald Ross died full of glory in 1932.<br /><br />Many countries of the world acknowledge the debt of gratitude to him. Malaria is a public health problem in more than 90 countries representing 90% of the world population. In India it was a major scourge till 1953 when a National Malaria Control Programme was launched followed by the National Malaria Eradication Programme in 1958 to banish Malaria within a decade. By 1965 the incidence came down from 75 million to 0.1 million cases. Then there was a slip - up and the level of incidence since 1977 has been 2 million cases annually. In the land where the great discovery was made, malaria continues to rage!<br /><br />It is also sad to reflect on what we have done for Ross. There is a ramshackle building near the airport to which he referred in his Nobel speech. The road leading from Ranigunj to the airport was named after him but was soon changed to `Minister's Road'. In an ironic tribute to his memory of his work, swarms of mosquitoes inhabit his unpretentious laboratory tucked away near the airport!<br /><br /></p><p align="justify">***<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com/"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a><br /><br /><br /><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-4264496544928822598?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-65333451876255356862006-12-06T14:55:00.000+05:302006-12-13T15:03:38.757+05:30<div align="justify">Legends and anecdotes of Hyderabad—48<br /><br /><strong>Mehdi Ali’s Irony of Fate</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />One of the rare men of conscience in the civil service under the Nizam was Mehdi Ali. Born in 1917, he was educated at Aligarh and joined the Hyderabad Civil Service in 1941. Things were hotting up in Hyderabad politically at that time.<br /><br />Encounter with razakars<br /><br />In 1948 he was posted as Deputy Collector at Madhira in the Khammam district. The razakars were every where and the administration also was afraid of them. They would enter trains, loot passengers and otherwise misbehave with them. Once they detained a group of Marwaris and accused them of smuggling gold in their jars which, on search, were found to contain only pickles. The police were on the side of the razakars and in spite of the intervention of Mehdi Ali, they were harassed for twelve hours before they were allowed to go.<br /><br />Mehdi Ali’s boss was the Commissioner of Warangal. He was an Arab named Habeeb Mohammad. He had a good reputation, but after the ascendancy of the razakars, he became a fanatic Muslim. He used to declare that he would mix the blood of Hindus with the water of the Bay of Bengal. Mehdi Ali did not like his rabid views, but could do little as a subordinate official.<br /><br />The Hindu population was so terror-stricken that a large percent of it moved across into the neighbouring Indian territory.<br /><br />Arabs Loot<br /><br />Under the Nizam the Arabs guarded the treasury in the district and talukas. They were very good at their job and were fiercely loyal. With deteriorating conditions, they became a law unto themselves. One night they attacked Dindkur village, which was about five kilometers from Madhira. The indulged in loot arson and rape. They even removed the mangala sutras of women, which are held very sacred by every married Hindu woman. The next morning a silent procession of panic-stricken women came to Mehdi Ali to protest about that and demanding action against the guilty persons. The police station was just opposite the residence of Mehdi Ali. At that time the officer in charge of the Police Station, Habeebullah was with him.<br /><br />The Boss Annoyed<br /><br />Mehdi Ali ordered the apprehension of the Arabs. The Police did nothing. The Arabs freely moved around and waited for the train at the railway station. When the train came they quietly boarded it with all the loot. Mehdi Ali felt humiliation and pain at the incident. He wrote to the commissioner protesting against the incident and general lawlessness. The Commissioner felt enraged that the Deputy Collector should complain about his brethren in faith. He wrote to the Government asking for his immediate transfer.<br /><br />Kasim Razvi also had written to Mehdi Ali accusing him of harassing razakars unnecessarily, and threatened him with dire consequences unless he changed his ways. Razvi also added that if he did not mend his ways, he might soon see ‘Warangal’. Mehdi Ali did not understand the meaning of that expression. He learnt later that it meant that he would be sodomized.<br /><br />Mehdi Ali was promptly transferred. However, luckily for him the Police Action took place soon and Hyderabad became a part of India. He thus escaped the ‘dire consequences’ threatened by the Razakar leader.<br /><br />Promotion Denied<br /><br />Soon thereafter, he resumed he resumed duty under the new dispensation. When in 1949, his turn came for promotion as collector, he found that his name was missing from the list of eight officers who were promoted. All the promoted officers were Hindus. Thereupon Mehdi Ali contacted Mulla Basith Ali who was one of the seven ‘Mirzas’ who had opposed the policies of the Nizam and had advocated the establishment of responsible government, and accession to India. Both met the Prime Minister of India, Jawahar Lal Nehru and complained about the injustice and discrimination under the new dispensation. Nehru did not believe it. Basith showed hi a copy of the order. On seeing that Nehru was shocked. He immediately rang up Bakhle, the Chief Civil Administrator of Hyderabad. Bakhle was naturally surprised on receiving a call from the Prim Minister of India. Nehru asked him if some officers had recently been promoted as collectors.<br /><br />‘Yes, sir,’ replied Bakhle nervously.<br />‘How many’?<br />‘Eight, Sir.’<br />‘ Any Muslim amongst them?’<br />‘No, Sir.’<br />‘Why?’<br />We have done some screening, Sir, and we are trying to redress the imbalance against the Hindus.’<br />‘This is too much and too sudden. Go slow. Let them not feel that we are discriminating.’<br />‘Yes, Sir'. I shall review the decision’, replied Bakhle.<br /><br />The list was revised. Three Muslims wee included in the new list. Mehdi Ali got his due promotion.<br /><br />Unjust Aspersion<br /><br />But he did not advance further. Some years when his name came up for the next promotion, he was overlooked. He could not imagine the reason. Vohra, an ICS officer who was trained along with him and who was in a high position in the Government of India told him confidentially that some superior officer of Mehdi Ali had recorded in his confidential roll that ‘his loyalties are divided.’<br /><br />It was a most brutal cut. Such a remark against an officer who had the courage to oppose the razakars at the height of their power and who risked his entire career for the sake of justice to the oppressed! Thousands of Muslims had gone away to Pakistan after the Police Action. He too could have done that. But he stayed on. He was too shocked to appeal or agitate. How could a Muslim fight such an allegation? They were so vulnerable on that point. He just kept quiet and wondered at the irony of his fate.<br /><br />When I met him some years ago, he was over eighty. He did not exhibit any trace of bitterness even if he felt any. He had a forgiving smile. Destiny plays strange games with human beings. Prejudice will never be eradicated from the human mind!<br /><br /><br />***<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com/"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-6533345187625535686?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-26643463086477937572006-12-06T14:43:00.000+05:302006-12-08T13:28:06.620+05:30<div align="justify"><strong>The Romance of Public Garden - I<br /></strong>By Narendra Luther<br /><br /><br />The City of Hyderabad, originally called Bhagnagar, was founded in 1591. Its founder, Mohammad Quli Qutb Shah had decreed that “it should be unique in the world and a replica of heaven on earth”. The word for heaven in Arabic ‘Jannat’ – also means a garden. Indeed for people in Arabia living amidst vast desert, heaven would mean lush greenery. In the mythical Islamic heaven, as described in the Holy Quran, there are many gardens.<br /><br />Accordingly, the new city was a virtual garden. It had a habitation of less than 3 square kilometers surrounded by gardens and greenery covering an area of over 23 square kilometers.<br /><br />Over the years however, with the increase in population, the gardens and greenery fell a prey to increased construction spilling on to the other side of the Musi river.<br /><br />In 1864, the fifth Nizam, Afzal-ud-Doula on the advice of his prime minister, Salar Jung I, bought a piece of 54 acres of land from Raja Balakrishen. This was opposite the vast open land of Fateh Maidan (Victory Ground) where once the armies of Aurangazeb, had set up their camp during the siege of Golconda in 1687. Hence the name. This side was developed into a garden and was given the name of Bagh-e-Aam – ‘Public Garden’ in Urdu. In a corner of this garden a small zoo was also created.<br /><br />Queen Victoria of England who was also the Empress of India celebrated the Golden Jubilee of her accession in 1887. To commemorate that, she gifted an iron bunglow to the Nizam which was placed in the Public Garden. It can be seen as soon on the immediate left of the entrance gate. Now it is difficult to recognize its original features. Steel mesh has been added to its frame and wooden partition made to create more rooms. The Public Gardens Department has converted its central portion into a meeting hall. The skeleton, however, is still original. There is no plate or plaque to give the historical background of the building as given above.<br /><br />The Town Hall<br /><br />In 1905, to celebrate the fortieth birthday of the Nizam VI, Mir Mehboob Ali Khan, the nobles of Hyderabad collected funds for the construction of a suitable building to be gifted to the Nizam. Incorporating the Rajasthani style of architecture, this building was completed in 1912. It was a pity that the Sixth Nizam died a year before that. It was called the Town Hall. Later it was converted into the State Assembly and the first popularly elected members of the Assembly had their session there after the first General Elections in 1952. From 1985, substantial alternations and additions were made to this building to provide adequate facilities to the legislators.<br /><br />The most well-known superintendent of the Public Garden was a very witty man called Jamaluddin. He added a Chinese section to the Public Garden. His sense of humour and his jokes – and jokes on him became very popular. We wrote about him in the issue of July 1998.<br /><br />The Doll’s House<br /><br />A new building was constructed in the Public Gardens sometime later. Originally, the legend goes, that it housed the dolls of the daughter of the Nizam VI and was called the ‘Dolls House’. However, the princess did not like it because she believed that ghosts inhabited it. At the suggestion of the first Director of Archeology of the State, Dr. Ghulam Yazdani, the State Museum was set up in the building in 1930.<br /><br />It is rather strange that such a good museum should be so little known to the public and to the tourists. That is perhaps because it is over-shadowed by the more popular Salar Jung Museum in the old city.<br /><br />This museum has the largest collection of coins in the world after the British Museum. These include, besides Indian coins from the earliest ages, some Roman coins also.<br /><br />This is the only museum in the country, which has facsimiles of Ajanta paintings prepared by Syed Ahmed and Mohammad Jamaluddin -- two artists of Hyderabad under the guidance of Italian artists.<br /><br />The museum also has a number of sculptures belonging to the Hindu and Buddhist and Jain periods. It has also an impressive collection of bronzes from as early as the 2nd century B.C.<br /><br />Apart from these, it has a number of manuscripts. Of those, there are three copies of the Holy Quran. One has the autographs of Emperor Shah Jahan, another handwritten by Aurangazeb and the third by his elder brother, Dara Shikoh.<br />3000-year old ‘mummy’<br /><br />Out of the five Egyptian mummies in India one is in this museum. It belongs to a princess of Egypt who died during childbirth at the age of 18. Recent x-ray revealed that this 3000-year old mummy is in perfect shape and only one of its teeth has fallen!<br /><br />The Museum has also a very impressive collection of arms including a jewel-studded sword of the Nizam and a shield belonging to Shah Jahan.<br />The Shahi Mosque<br /><br />In 1936 a mosque was constructed in the Public Gardens. It had accommodation for 102 worshippers. The last Nizam used to come here with members of the family on every Friday and on every Eid to offer prayers. It was therefore called Shahi Masjid (The Royal Mosque). Now putting an acrylic shed on the open area has increased the accommodation.<br /><br />On either side of this mosque there are two Niyaz Khanas –kitchens for feeding the poor.<br />The Azad Institute<br /><br />In 1959 they were handed over to the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Oriental Research Institute. One of the buildings contains library and reading room and the other is used as an auditorium for public meetings. This institution has over 12,000 books and is used by a good number of persons including over 50 research scholars in different fields.<br /><br />The Public Garden had its next landmark when the Silver Jubilee of the last Nizam was celebrated. About that and other developments, wait for the next installment.<br /><br />* * *<span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com/"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-2664346308647793757?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-19723972751485136862006-12-06T13:26:00.000+05:302006-12-06T13:29:21.342+05:30<p><strong>SCRIPTS for films/ documentaries</strong><br /><br />Janwar ki Pehchaan<br />Unusual Hobbies of Hyderabadis<br />Rockumentary – a documentary on the rocks of Hyderabad<br />Bhagmati: A feature film in English& Hindi<br />Bhagmati: A bilingual ballet (Hindi &amp; Telugu)<br />Raja Deen Dayal - in two parts</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-1972397275148513686?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-6613151451263285692006-12-06T12:40:00.001+05:302006-12-06T12:40:54.455+05:30Legends and Anecdotes of Hyderabad : 30<br /><br />When the Nizam Wept<br />by Narendra Luther<br /><br />In November, 1930 a public meeting was held in the Victory Playground to celebrate the birthday of Prophet Muhammad. A young man was moving his audience to tears by his oration. Midway through his speech, there was a general commotion. Policemen on duty started blowing whistles nervously. Mir Osman Ali Khan, Nizam VII, had arrived unannounced to attend the meeting. The young speaker paused only for a while and then greeted the newcomer in an emotion-charged manner: “Oh crowned slave of the Muhammad of Arabia, come, let me tell thee about the style of governance of that emperor of both the spiritual and the corporeal worlds." Osman sat there completely mesmerized and like the thousands amongst the audience, washed by the flood of words coming from that young speaker, tears began to roll down his cheeks. He asked some of the telling sentences of the speech to be repeated, as people say ‘encore’ in mushairas.<br /><br />A week later, on 25th November he received a firman. It read : “The royal personage was delighted to hear your sermon and on the auspicious occasion of his birthday is pleased to confer the title of Bahadur Yar Jung on you."<br />The young man was born in 1905 to Nawab Nasib Yawar Jung and named Saadi Khan alias Muhammad Bahadur Khan. He was descended from a Pathan family which had come to Hyderabad during the reign of the Nizam Sikandar Jah (1903-29) and was granted a minor jagir of Lal Garhi He was also a hereditary jamadar of the nazm-e- jamiat (commander of the Irregular Forces) of the Nizam.<br /><br /> Bahadur Khan’s mother died barely seven days after his birth. He was therefore brought up by his maternal grandmother upto the age of 14 and thereafter by his paternal grandmother. He was educated at the Madarsa-e-Aliya and Darul-ul-Uloom and acquired proficiency in wrestling, swimming, marksmanship, and swordsmanship. He was also very fond of shikar. He was married at the age of 14 to Talmain Khatoon, an older cousin. Right from school days he used to excel in declamation and became a popular orator.<br /><br /> When Bahadur Khan inherited the jagir on the death of his father in 1923 he also inherited a debt of Rs. 4.5 lakhs. Within four years he set the affairs right and having cleared all the debt, doubled the income from his estate to Rs.40,000 per annum. In 1926 he was elected president of the Society of Mehdivis and in 1927 he started the Society for the Propagation of Islam. In 1930 he was elected secretary of the Union of Jagirdars which had been established in 1892 but was moribund. He served in that capacity for four years and infused new life into it. He was fond of reading and knew Urdu, Arabic, Persian and English and had smattering of Telugu. Because of his oratorical skills he became immensely popular and also very close to the Muslim League leader, Jinnah whose speeches he often interpreted from English into Urdu.<br /><br />In 1938 he was elected president of the Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Musalmeen, a society with a cultural and religious manifesto. However, it soon acquired political complexion and became aligned the Muslim League in British India. He soon rose to be the supreme and unquestioned leader of the Ittehad and imparted a new militancy to it.<br /><br />Bahadur Yar Jung noted the peculiar political situation of Hyderabad. It was a State with an overwhelming Hindu population -- some 87% -- and a Muslim ruler. With the winds of change blowing all over and the talk of democracy and the demands for a responsible government, the control of power was bound to pass from the ruling Muslim minority to the Hindu majority. To perpetuate the existing state of affairs, heavily weighted in favour of the Muslims, he therefore propounded an ingenious theory. The Nizam claimed that, as a ruler, he was sovereign. Louis XIV of France had proclaimed in the 17th century “L'etat!-- c'est moi!" (I am the State). In 1938, Bahadur Yar Jung enunciated the doctrine of ‘Ana'l Malik', -- ‘We are sovereign’. According to this theory, sovereignty did not vest in the ruler, but in the Muslim community. The Nizam was merely a symbol of that sovereignty. Every Muslim in the State thus became a participant and a sharer in sovereignty. It thus sought to make it the vested interest of every Muslim to protect his sovereignty and its symbol, the Nizam. It became the official doctrine of the Ittehad and Bahadur Yar Jung insisted that Hyderabad should be declared a Muslim State.<br /><br />In 1931, he performed Haj and thereafter undertook a tour of the Islamic countries of West Asia, and of Europe.<br /><br />To make matters absolutely sure, the demographic balance of the State had to be altered. He therefore undertook a vigorous programme of conversion of Hindus into Muslims - particularly those belonging to the untouchable and backward classes in rural areas. He advised his band of missionary workers to aim not at the conversion of individuals but of whole groups. This work was done with particular zeal for three years and during that period he is credited with the conversion of 24,000 persons.<br /><br />Bahadur Yar Jung thus reduced the Nizam from the personification of sovereignty to its mere symbol. He often said things which caused the Nizam discomfiture, and, not unoften, even offence. Once when he thundered against the British presence and their direction of administration in the State, the Nizam was compelled by the Resident to censure and to silence him and to be confined to his house for some time. The jagirdars were not allowed to participate in politics. To overcome that constraint, Bahadur Yar Jung renounced his jagir and title in 1940 and intensified his activities. That added to his popularity.<br /><br />In 1944, he had gone to a dinner at the house of Hashim Ali Khan, a judge of the High Court and a close friend. Coming rather late, he ran up the steps and apologized to his host and other guests. Then he sat down and, as he took a pull at the hookah, he collapsed. His sudden and unexpected death raised suspicion that he was poisoned allegedly at he instance of the Nizam. But only whispers were heard. However, the Nizam joined the mammoth funeral procession the next morning.<br /><br /> Inspite of his politics, he was a friend of many leaders of other communities. Sarojini Naidu, for example, used to refer to him as her son.<br /><br /> His early death changed the course of history in the State.<br /><br /><br />* * *<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-661315145126328569?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-90895699693183339682006-12-01T10:08:00.000+05:302006-12-13T13:49:06.922+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>The value of dreaming<br /></strong>By Narendra Luther<br /><br />While most of us accept the given order of things, some of us dream about changing that. Most of those dreamers keep on dreaming or venting their ire in cocktail parties or other small gatherings. Only a handful has the courage and tenacity to go out in the field and fight for improving the ‘sorry scheme of things’ around them. They make history. Some do so by taking up the pen and writing about issues and exhorting people to action. They thus mobilize public opinion. Others, either in tandem with such people or through direct action, proceed to change them by going to the public. They suffer no doubt in their fight against the ‘vested interest’ – people who believe in the rightness of the given system and are often its beneficiaries. Some of those who try to change the landscape fail. Some of them die before they can succeed. But their struggle does not go in vain. Others rise after them, stand on their shoulders and build up further. And one day things change.<br /><br />Field of action<br /><br />It has happened in the world of ideas, in social and political institutions, in the field of physical knowledge and in the realm of faith. The last phenomenon gave rise to various religions and sects and this process is not yet over. Every new idea begins as a heresy and ends up as an orthodoxy. The revolutionaries of yesterday become the reactionaries of today. Rebels against oppression of yesterday are the perpetrators of oppression of today or tomorrow. So the cycle starts again. The German philosopher Hegel believed that reality unfolds itself through ‘dialectical idealism’. According to that, an idea or a movement can be considered a thesis. Since it does not contain the whole truth, it gives rise to its opposite – antithesis. Out of this clash of two opposing ideas, a ‘synthesis’ emerges. In due course this synthesis itself becomes a thesis and the old cycle starts. But that is an upward moving cycle or a spiral. That is how all progress takes place. Karl Marx ‘applied the concept to the material world and called it ‘dialectical materialism’. Alongside, he propounded the concept of class struggle. Out of that was born the theory of communism. That is a state of society in which every one would work according to his capacity and get according to his need. It was a beautiful promise which changed the politics of the whole world and various practical suggestions made by Marx were tried out in a large number of countries in the last 150 years. Yet, the system built upon the thesis and its diluted versions collapsed within seven decades. </p><p align="justify">The elements of his philosophy however, still continue to inspire people all over the world. Marx also denounced private property and religion. Two millennia before that Plato the Greek philosopher had outlined the contours of his ideal ‘Republic’ in which even private family was abolished. There have been other philosophers in different times and climes who adumbrated a variety of ideas affecting social organizations and established modes of thought and worship. At one time slavery was an accepted part of social set up. Nero wanted to abolish it because he was in love with one, but could not. Eighteen centuries later Abraham Lincoln unleashed a civil war and accomplished that in the U.S. Yet segregation against blacks was removed only about a century later because of the courage of Martin Luther-King and the physical force of the federal government under a progressive President. Nero could not suppress the rising tide of Christianity. Mahatma Gandhi was not the first or the only one to campaign against untouchability. Different philosophers and social activists raised their voices against the evil practice since times immemorial. He succeeded in the case of leprosy but only partially in the case of untouchability. Thanks to the campaign of another thinker and activist, Ambedkar, its abolition got enshrined in the fundamental rights in the Constitution of free India. Yet it persists, as does the practice of child marriage and sati. Some ‘evils’ take time to be rooted out but a beginning is important and gives hope. The British philosopher and politician Edmund Burke warned people that for evil to succeed it is enough if good men do nothing. Yet on every issue you will find people not only sharply divided in two opposing camps but also those who are neutral or just don’t do or say anything out of discretion or inertia. Burke made that observation in the context of the French Revolution of 1789. That was born out of the oppression of the ancient regime and the writings of philosophers like Voltaire and Rousseau. The slogan of the revolution was ‘liberty, equality and fraternity’. Yet within a decade it ended up in anarchy and the rise of Napoleon who became the emperor of France and launched a series of wars to deprive the people of other countries of Europe of their life and liberty – the values which the Revolution enunciated.<br /><br />A human trait<br /><br />Examples of ideas and those who propounded or held them can be multiplied. The point I wish to make is that it is good to be idealistic – that is to have some anchor in some idea and a society based on ideals. The mission may never be completed in one’s lifetime, but a legacy will be left behind for others to cherish and to follow. That is the one distinguishing mark between humans and animals. Human can think and they should do so to try to find whether the existing situation can be improved. As sentient humans we need to look at the nature of things and conditions and to decide whether we are condemned to live with them or we can discard some and devise other, better ways, other mechanisms and institutions. Only such inquisitive and restless minds have led to new inventions and discoveries. They have the potential of liberating us from the daily drudgery of mechanical repetition of soulless tasks and providing the possibility of the development of our mental and spiritual life. Whether we do it or not is another matter. Plato described those human beings who did not indulge in the luxury of ideas as ‘happy pigs in a sty’. But if some one’s happiness lies in putting his snout in a sty, should we force him to be better?<br /><br />Ideas are discomforting. They disturb social equipoise. They threaten the given order of things. They expose their host to unforeseen consequences. They rouse the status quoists to the defense of their cherished heritage of orthodoxy which, as George Orwell put it, is ‘not thinking’. It is comfortable. That is one way of living a safe life in which you don’t leave any fingerprints or footprints. You will never be pursued or caught, never cursed or blessed, crowned or crucified. You will ‘pass gentle into the good night’.<br /><br />The choice is yours.<br /></p><p align="justify">***</p><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-9089569969318333968?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-49178306096643811692006-11-01T18:18:00.000+05:302006-12-13T12:15:17.962+05:30<div align="justify"><strong>My day out</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />We live in an age of globalization and liberalization. While the term ‘liberalization’ applies to trade and commerce, globalization covers all aspects of our lives. It is a euphemism for Americanization. This process has been going on for a long time. But whereas earlier there was grudging acceptance of the creeping phenomenon, now – except for some fringes - there is an open-arm welcome to it and the wild consumerism which comes in its wake. I have lived through the days when whoever went abroad bought gifts of transistor radio sets or record players. In spite of heavy customs duty which was often in multiples of the price, it was great to have them. The affluent ones brought wristwatches and VCR’s. Ways were found how to evade customs duty on them. It took hours to clear the custom counter. The officials there took perverse pleasure in strip-teasing the returnees and frisking them as the police does now looking for any hidden arms or explosives. The suitcases were opened and the soiled lingerie strewn to public view while the suspicious hounds searched for a bottle of contraband liquor or perfume hidden under the pile of the over-stuffed bags.<br /><br />Changed situation<br /><br />My last two trips were a surprise. The customs man merely asked me if I had anything to declare and when I said no, he waved me on as he was doing to many others. Obviously his business was down. And I had become respectable – above suspicion! Now if some one coming from abroad asks out of habit what he could bring for us, we reply ‘nothing’ because we have every thing available here – that is, if we have money. Still, so as not to come empty-handed, they buy something locally before coming. They might as well say they brought it from China, because virtually every thing is now made in China.<br /><br />There is another, more sinister kind of globalization that has swept across the country lately. It is a cultural invasion. I noticed it some time ago when ads began to appear in the media about ‘Valentine’s Day’ and my granddaughter asked me what I was going to give her on that day. I looked up the Internet to find out what all the fuss was all about and found that we were long past that stage. However, my granddaughter brought a card to me and asked me to sign it. I wanted to read it but she told me it was a surprise. When I refused to budge, she relented. It was meant for my wife and said on my behalf how wonderful she was and how much I loved her. When I came home in the evening, my wife put the card in front of me and demanded whom it was meant for. I said it was self-explanatory. She advised me sternly not to commit such foolery again. She further advised that I should not waste money on something which I could have conveyed verbally, however hard it might be to bring myself to do that. When I told her whose doing it was, the little girl was pulled up for putting wrong notions in an old man’s head. But all the supermarkets and even smaller shops were specially decked up for the festive day and I wondered how many husbands had been snubbed that day. It was all meant for the unattached ones. Then my granddaughter sent my wife a card on the Grandmother’s Day. It said that she was the best grandmother in the world. Millions of small creatures must have sent identical cards to their respective grannies all over the world.<br /><br />These Americans are great in their inventiveness. Since they could not devise a new calendar, having come rather late into existence themselves, they did the next best thing. They dedicated all the days of the year to different people, occasions and institutions. ‘Mother’s Day was devised to remind every one that they were born of a woman who is called mother. Father’s Day was to blame the person who downloaded them. ‘Thanksgiving Day’ was to thank every one for whatever they might have done to them. Similarly, every possible relationship and institution was disposed of.<br /><br />In India we have traditionally observed the Independence Day, the Republic Day, Mahatma Gandhi ‘s Birthday and the Flag Day etc. Nehru designated his birthday as the Children’s Day and Radhakrishnan’s birthday as Teachers’ Day.<br /><br /><br />Seniors’ day<br /><br />The other day I was flabbergasted to see ads on various papers on the Senior Citizen’s Day. Being one myself, I wondered how I did not know about that. The ads were full of messages from the president, the prime minister, the minister of social justice and some others about how it was the Indian tradition to look after the elders and respect them. It also said that the government was concerned about them and was trying to do its bit for them. There was a joke also for the benefit of the seniors. It announced a run for seniors. How could those who find it difficult to walk, manage to run? Or was it the younger ones who would run for them. They are already running away from them. This business of running on most occasions hardly achieves anything.<br /><br />There was no scheme or benefit announced for the seniors in the ads. Probably that would come later. Where is the hurry? The later the inauguration of the scheme, the less the burden on the exchequer.<br /><br />In the West, special facilities are provided for the handicapped and the seniors. There are extra medical benefits for them, physical aids, special housing facilities, and concessions in most conceivable transactions. One reason for that is that the America propensity to participate in wars and even to initiate them has resulted in a large number of handicapped persons. Similarly, the welfarism of the West entailed in their social security system has increased the expectancy of life of the people. In 1950 the population of 60 plus in Europe was 12 percentage. In 2050 it will increase to 32 percent. Already the government and social thinkers are worried about supporting this increasing unproductive group. In India the population of seniors will double from 8% in 2001 to 18% by 2025. However, the number of working people will also double. Already organizations like Help Age India are involved in trying to ameliorate the condition of some of the seniors in need of help. In the West they are a constituency; here we are not yet that. And in a democracy that is a crucial consideration.<br /><br />I try to work hard, eat less, keep irregular hours and don’t do other things that keep one in good health. I do so that I don’t live long and continue to cast avoidable burden on society. More than that I can’t do without committing a crime. I can’t reduce the life sentence of my fellow seniors. I advise them to do likewise voluntarily.<br /></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">***</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-4917830609664381169?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-49051590463181504352006-10-01T10:03:00.000+05:302006-12-12T16:02:28.762+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>The burden of trust<br /></strong>By Narendra Luther<br /><br />‘In God we trust’ is the motto of the U.S. Government at least so far as the legal tender is concerned. You can see it inscribed on every one-dollar note. I haven’t seen notes of a bigger denomination. It is more a declaration of intent than a matter of practice - like our own national motto - satyameva jayate which proclaims that truth alone triumphs. But in actual fact, does it? May be in the long run it does. But it is more definite that, as Keynes said, in the long run we are all dead. So sometime truth and death are synchronous. In other words the only truth is death. But let us stop before we sink into this quagmire of hair-splitting analysis and discussion.<br /><br />No credit here<br /><br />Some shopkeepers use this dictum humorously to their advantage by putting up a notice saying: ‘In God we trust; with others it is in cash’. That is for the benefit of the casual small customer. In practice, they do trust others and their entire operations are run on the basis of trust. In fact our entire life revolves around trust. Every transaction in our life - material an emotional - is based on trust. All human births are results of the trust of women in men. All children grow up on the basis of their implicit trust on their parents. All parents spend their old age on the basis of their trust in their children. All neighbourhood is rooted on trust. Every institution from family to State stands on the bedrock of trust. All relationships that give rise to these institutions and in some cases grow out of them are a matter of trust.<br /><br />Trust and public servants<br /><br />Here I propose to talk of public trust. By that I mean the trust that the common man reposes in a public servant of whatever station, high or low. Some of them like high constitutional functionaries take an oath in a public ceremony to that effect as if without oath they could not be expected to be trustworthy. As we progress in social organization, we move from status to contract. That contract is an affirmation of trust on both sides. Political scientists tell us that the civilized society came into being a result of the ‘social contract’ amongst people living in a ‘state of nature’. Much of the social contract had now been codified but still a large body of it rests upon trust. Every employment is a matter of trust. Only a fraction of the understanding is spelt out in black and white in the contract.<br /><br />When I travel by bus, I trust that the driver has a genuine driving license, adequate knowledge of driving, and is not drunk. When I go by train, I assume (trust) that the engine and all the bogies, the tracks, the signaling mechanism have been checked for their safety. I assume that the driver knows how to drive the railway engine and to respond to all the commands from the human and mechanical elements. I trust that he is not inebriated and that psychologically he is in a fit condition to drive the engine. About a thousand persons and their families assume that. In the case of airlines pilots, a medical certification about their fitness is a routine requirement before every flight. I trust that has been actually carried out. When I am driving my car on the road, I assume every other driver is qualified and in fit condition to drive.<br /><br />When I drink water anywhere, I trust that it is potable. In restaurants where I get occasionally to eat, I trust that all preparations have made by cooks in hygienic conditions and people who have washed their hands. Every chef is required to wear a long headgear not to make us laugh but to make sure that no hair falls into what he is cooking. In ships and in restaurants, it is a mandatory requirement that the remnants of all food left unconsumed by the end of the day is thrown away and not reused the next day.<br /><br />When I fall ill I trust that the physician has diagnosed my ailment correctly and has prescribe medication which is appropriate. When I go to buy medicines, I trust that the medicines are not adulterated and the prices mentioned thereon are not ‘administered’ by the manufacturer, or worse, by the packers.<br /><br />If I were to mention more areas where trust is taken for granted, I could fill up reams of papers and yet not do justice to the job. In fact our law books and penal codes deal with the assumptions of trust and their breaches. Go to any good lawyer’s office and yet he will have only a fractions of the tomes he may be called upon to peruse to argue his cases relating to misplaced and betrayed trusts. With every advance we make, we run greater risk of the trust being betrayed. Thrice I was billed for the use of credit card incorrectly. I then decided to surrender it and to live as I have lived all the years before the introduction of this convenience. For people of my generation who have lived in the era of cars made in India, the new breed of automobiles are magical machines that seldom let you down. Yet when I complained of some trouble to my dealer about transmission in car engine, the mechanic told me that sort of problem occurs when you use adulterated petrol! I had grown up mostly on adulterated milk but I thought petrol was untouched by human hands and so was ‘pure’. No longer. My website was hacked and converted into a porno site. I came to know of it only when some one complimented me on taking that route for supplementing my income rather late in life. Better late than never, he said. I don’t know how many people accepted my disclaimer.<br /><br />All of us have been victims of breach of trust of some sort or the other at some point in our lives. Some times we did not even come to know of the betrayal. In some cases, unbeknownst to us it is still going on. That is the situation for which it is said that ignorance is bliss.<br /><br />In matters spiritual </p><p align="justify">It is not only in the material field that it happens. It is truer of the spiritual field. ‘In God we trust’, but in which God? Which religion? Adherents of different Gods are warring with each other trying to prove their brand is genuine and others fake. There are godmen and even godwomen galore who promise different varieties of heaven. The world of religion is a supermarket; godmen are its salesmen and we are the shoppers. We enter the place with trust – and some trepidation. Will it be different from other markets where we have been bitten?<br />So, I keep my trust to myself and let the sleeping gods lie.<br /><br />***</p><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></p><div align="justify"></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-4905159046318150435?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-82852946252456727622006-09-01T18:13:00.000+05:302006-12-12T16:19:29.380+05:30<div align="justify"><strong>In Favour of Women<br /></strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br /><br />The world is divided unequally between men and women. As he last census confirmed, men outnumber women in our country – heavily in some of our states. That is one reason why men chase women. In some countries like Russia in which millions of men got killed in World War II, there is a shortage of men and so it is women who chase men. In nudist colonies I understand men dream of clothed women. I am not concerned here with the number and type of women but their position in society. There is no doubt that whatever their number, women are discriminated against everywhere in varying degrees. Historically they have been confined to the hearth and home. Nature too has made them in such a way that they are believed to be unable to stand shoulder to shoulder with men though a number of more interesting postures are permitted.<br /><br />Over the years women have been agitating against the disabilities and handicaps imposed on them by male – dominated society. It is indeed surprising that it took women more than a century of agitation to secure the right to vote. The ballot paper is surely not a weight which the ‘weaker sex’ could not carry since the weakest amongst them are condemned to much harder labour even within the four walls of their homes A woman has to work twice as hard as man to be considered equal to him. Many of the disabilities imposed on them have been gradually removed and more are in the process of further elimination. Women are now allowed in the armed forces of many countries including ours, some say on the basis of their superiority in combat demonstrated at home. They have flown into space.<br /><br />The Male View<br /><br />First, it is necessary that men’s minds be disabused of the notion that they work harder than women. The nature of their work may be different but it certainly is not less arduous. One such man who thought he worked harder than his wife, wanted to see after all what his wife did the whole day that she complained about having been tired at night.<br /><br />So he prayed: "Dear Lord: I go to work every day and put in 8 hours while my wife merely stays at home. I want her to know what I go through, so please allow her body to switch with mine for a day”. God, in his infinite wisdom, granted the man's wish. The next morning, sure enough, the man awoke as a woman.<br /><br />He arose, cooked breakfast for his mate, awakened the kids, Set out their school clothes, fed them breakfast, packed their lunches, drove them to school, came home and picked up the dry cleaning, took it to the cleaners. On the way he stopped at the bank to make a deposit, went grocery shopping, then drove home to put away the groceries, paid the bills and balanced the chequebook.<br /><br />He cleaned the cat's litter box and bathed the dog. Then it was already 1 P.M. and he hurried to make the beds, do the laundry, vacuum, dust, and sweep and mop the kitchen floor. After that he ran to the school to pick up the kids and got into an argument with them on the way home. He then set out milk and cookies and got the kids organized to do their homework then set up the ironing board and watched TV while he did the ironing. At 4:30 he began peeling potatoes and washing vegetables for salad, breaded the lamb chops and snapped fresh beans for supper. After supper, he cleaned the kitchen, ran the dishwasher, folded laundry, bathed the kids, and put them to bed.<br /><br />At 9 P.M. he was exhausted and, though his daily chores weren't finished, he went to bed where he was expected to make love, which he managed to get through without complaint.<br />The next morning, he awoke and immediately knelt by the bed and said, “Lord, I don't know what I was thinking. I was so wrong to envy my wife's being able to stay home all day. Please, oh please, let us trade back."<br /><br />The Lord replied, "My son, I feel you have learned your lesson and I will be happy to change things back to the way they were. You'll just have to wait nine months, though. You got pregnant last night."<br /><br />The Female Angle<br /><br />On the other hand, there is the story of a delegation of women who went to God to complain why they were made to undergo labour pains. Why don’t men get them, they asked. God said there was some wisdom in the way He had arranged matters. Women were adamant and so God agreed that the for the next birth in their locality the prospective father would suffer the pangs of labour. Soon a baby was due. When the woman was ready to deliver, it was the man in the third house who went into labour pains!<br /><br />The moral is that we should not envy the other sex for the role assigned to them on considerations of biological differences. But beyond that surely women can do a lot of work that at present is being done by men.<br /><br />Whither Woman<br /><br />Sometime back our own Indian School of Business at Hyderabad ran a daylong seminar on the subject on the subject of enhancing the scope for women to take on more of the type of work that is traditionally considered the male preserve. Some highly successful women entrepreneurs came and spoke about their experience and their aspirations. I was glad to see such women and even felt proud of their achievements. Every body agreed that indeed they should be encouraged to go further. But our legislators will not pass the Bill granting them 30 per cent reservation and go on blaming some invisible opposition for that.<br /><br />Sitting there, I wondered whether they ever realized that women were the worst enemies of women? The mother discriminates against her daughter in favour of her son. She wants her daughter to be packed off in marriage at the earliest. Then the mother-in-law proceeds to smother her no end. She leads the pack in declaring war on her if she happens to carry a female fetus.<br /><br />Also a question worried me. Why were they eyeing the greener side of the hedge without having achieved excellence in their traditional domain? Why was it that the world’s best cooks, best tailors cutters and drapers, best fashion leaders, best interior designers, were men, not women? After all they had been at these jobs since the beginning of life. Why do they want to put on soldiers’ uniform, fly planes and sit on boards of companies?<br /><br />But then afraid of being dubbed as an MCP, I kept quiet. That is one thing I have learnt from women who are content to be women and are even proud of their identity. But don’t misunderstand me. I like women. I am all in their favour.<br /></div><div align="justify">***</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-8285294625245672762?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-14128424667192802662006-08-01T17:52:00.000+05:302006-12-13T12:17:36.464+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>On Forms - filling & filing</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />All bureaucracies run on forms. They are necessary for creating data and records. Organizations are sustained by records. They are necessary for every action and to justify every inaction. Our birth is recorded; our death is recorded. In between there are series of occurrences which are recorded. When you are enrolled for studies it is recorded; when you finish them a certificate is issued. If a student secures the highest marks, he or she creates a record. If anyone surpasses that record, a record is broken and a new record is created. If you apply for a job, a record is to be submitted. If you get one, that is recorded. If you are sacked, that is recorded. If you are honoured a record is made. Every promotion and demotion is recorded. If you go to hospital a case sheet is prepared. When you come out dead or alive a discharge note is prepared. For getting rations a record is required. For buying a vehicle it is compulsory to create one. Our arrivals and departures from one country to another are recorded. And unbeknownst to us, so many of our movements are noted and recorded. About some of them we never come to know. But if they cross a certain point of tolerance by the authorities you are required to appear before some one or the other and record your statement. The Election Commission issues you an ID card on the basis of a record it creates. So does the Income Tax department before it issues a PAN Card. That is the beginning of the submission of annual record of your income and expenditure. You cannot breathe – or stop breathing without a record.<br /><br />Optional Records<br /><br />Beside these the creation of some records is optional. If you want a credit card, you have to create a record. So also for a cell phone. All your incoming, outgoing and missed calls are recorded. If you want the facility of an email, you have to give your record to the service provider. It is gratifying to know that the invisible and uncared for common man creates and leaves behind so many ‘foot prints’ and ‘visiting cards’ behind him. And then, every ten years the Census people descend on you to ask you to fill up forms asking information about your name, age marital status, sex (luckily, not its frequency), your contribution to the population, your ability to read or /and write, your income and what have you. That helps the government to create data about the growth and decline of key indicators about the national economy.<br /><br />Form Filling<br /><br />To create these numerous records, the citizen has to fill up forms – and then file them somewhere or the other on pain of penalty An average person has to fill up forms and file them for himself, his spouse, his children and his parents. Some one should undertake research n how many forms one has to fill in is lifetime in order to live peacefully. To some extent it is necessary for the sake of keeping records which again are necessary for accountability, particularly in public organizations. It is necessary for officials not only to do things but also to show how and why they did that. They sometimes create data to cover their acts of commission and omission – and to cover themselves!<br /><br />I detest filling up forms. I loathe their look. They scare me; they intimidate me; they horrify me. I look at them. If they are optional, I throw them gleefully in the waste paper basket. If they are mandatory, I swear at them and then push them aside to fill them up in good time. Every time they stare at me and threaten me with dire consequences of crossing the last date. My dislike for form filling is particularly acute because of the habit of not filling them over decades. Some one always filled them up and I only signed at places marked with a cross in pencil. The rest was automatic. I only saw forms and signed them away. And then I found one day that I had to fill them up on my own. I saw for the first time that my days were inundated with forms that had to be filled up by a fixed date and filed in different offices some of whose existence I wasn’t even aware of. Time had come for me to reap the crops created by forms filled up earlier for me by my minions and which I had only deigned to sign. To do that I had to fill up another bundle of forms. Forms for claiming life insurance, for getting my provident fund, gratuity and the like. I had to mention facts of which I was genuinely ignorant, like my wife’s date of birth. To ask her was to invite trouble. To guess it was to run the risk of giving false information and to clear the confusion, to have to fill another form. The only columns that I could confidently filled were few. I consulted a friend in similar plight who showed me his form. He had yet filled up only a few columns but assured me that he was making progress and could help me. I had a look at his form. It read as follows:<br /><br />Name: Ram Mohan<br />Father’s name: Krishna Kumar (as told by mother).<br />Born: yes<br />Sex: occasionally<br />Marital status: normal<br /><br />I knew that he was not the one I could turn to for help.<br /><br />Saral Form<br /><br />Of all the forms that send a tremor down my frame is the one to be sent to the Income Tax department. It does not brook any bona fide oversight. It calls it a ‘false return’. It accuses you of ‘concealing income’. It can send you to jail for that. Its 'saral' - easy and assessee –friendly form consists of four pages to be filled in duplicate (or is triplicate?) and to be accompanied with enclosures. There is no question of extension of the last date of filing the return. If the organization deducting your tax at source has not sent you the certificate, you cannot claim that. It is your responsibility to secure it or forego the benefit. I keep my accounts scrupulously. I prepare my tables of income and expenditure with the utmost care. I check them again and again. Then I sent round a word that I am looking for a seasoned form-filler. I even advertise for some one who can do a safe job of filing up the form for me. Timidly, I pay a little more tax than is due. It is better to get a refund than to get a notice for having ‘concealed’ some part of income. A minor oversight is publicized; a conscientious return is ignored. I relax when the refund comes, but then the panic of having to fill up the form for the next year begins to seize me.<br /></p><p>***</p><p><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-1412842466719280266?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-79566538757043340502006-06-01T16:53:00.000+05:302006-12-13T12:23:02.695+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>‘A Life in Our Times’</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />I was a student of economics and topped the university in as an honours graduate. But by the time I did that, I developed a phobia for the creeping dominance of mathematics in economics. I therefore shifted gear and went on to political science to do my post –graduation. But later when I was selected as a British Council scholar to do a course in industrial management in Leeds, I was again confronted with the monster of mathematics in Operations Research. When I mentioned my difficulty to my tutor, he said math was simply a short hand. I could achieve the same result by long hand. That was consoling but like Alice in wonderland, I had to run faster to remain at par with my colleagues in the international group. In the flexible system of a western university, I was permitted to cross the hard terrain by giving two lectures on public administration!<br /><br />Economics made easy<br /><br />I mention this by way of background to how I came to study some one in economics who brought no mathematics into it. It was John Kenneth Galbraith who died recently at 97. I had kept up my reading of economics selectively even after getting a secure job and amongst the economists I came to admire were Keynes, Rostow and Galbraith. They helped me to appreciate ‘the economic system as a complex interaction of people and organizations whose actions cannot simply be understood through highly rational and mathematical models of the economy.’ Galbraith was able to communicate complex ideas in a compelling way to laymen<br /><br />Here I intend to pay my tribute to Galbraith whose autobiography published in 1981 provides the title of this article.<br /><br />Galbraith was born in Canada in 1908 but educated at Berkeley in the US and taught economies at Harvard. Politically he belonged to the Democrat Party of the United States. During the Second World War, he served in the in the Office of Price Administration and wrote a book on his experiences in controlling inflation. He also did a stint in the Fortune magazine. Out of that experience came the term ‘technostructure’ – the group of specialist managers who take the real decisions in organizations including governments. President. Kennedy, for whom he served as a speechwriter, appointed him ambassador to India where he served for two years from 1961. Here he developed a good rapport with Nehru who was then the prime minister. In his autobiography he deals with the situation and people in India.<br /><br />Demolisher of myths<br /><br />He challenged the traditional dictum that consumer is the king. The hapless consumer is manipulated and exploited by the firms through the medium of advertising. He also declared that the big firms were not at the mercy of competition; they gang up and control government. He had an elegant and provocative style marked by wit and sarcasm. He could not only take but also make a dig against himself and lampoon his subject: ‘Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists’. Further, ‘the only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable.’<br /><br />I never took him as an economist but as a jesting philosopher. He was the first to question the use of GDP as a measure of economic progress. The concepts of ‘quality of life’ and ‘Human Development Index’, which are now used by all agencies including the UN, owe their origin to his questioning the traditional methodology. He coined some of the other terms, which are today part of the current terminology of public discourse, like ‘the affluent society’, and ‘countervailing power’. He followed the tradition of Thorstein Veblen when he talked of ‘private affluence and public squalour’. I believe it was out of that challenge that the current concern for ecology grew.<br /><br />Men and chairs<br /><br />My favourite passage comes from his book The New Industrial State. How perceptively he divides human beings in to two categories:<br /><br />‘Clearly some individuals do add luster to organization. The accomplishments of the great physician are his own, not those of the hospital where he serves. The achieve&shy;ments of the poet are his own, not those of the institution where he is currently the artist in residence. Similarly the opera singer or actor and, though not always, the great scientist.<br /><br />Men are, in fact, either sustained by organization or sustain organization. They are either esteemed because&shy; of organization or the organization is esteemed because of them. The individual is himself rarely a sound judge of these matters. Those who are esteemed because of organization almost invariably attribute the acclaim to their own personality. &shy;<br /><br />But there is an infallible test. That is to observe what happens to the individual when he leaves the organization or retires. The great physician is not greatly diminished by being separated from his hospital. Nor, except as regards regular salary, is the poet when he leaves the university. Nor is the competent newspaperman when he moves on. Nor the great scientist nor the entertainer. They sustained, were not sustained by, the organization to which they belonged.<br /><br />By contrast the politician when he is defeated, the ambassador when he retires, the university president when he becomes emeritus and the peacetime general who fails to become a corporation president face total obscurity. They were sustained by organization; on losing its support they pass permanently into the shadows. To some who have naturally assumed that their eminence was their own the shock is very severe. Others sense their situation. Nothing explains the primordial vigor with which politicians fight for office and seek retain it to senility and beyond. Between being in and out of political office the difference is not slight. lt is total. "<br /><br /><br />I endeavoured to belong to the fist category.<br /><br />Besides his best selling books on Economics, Galbraith wrote two novels, a book of satirical sketches, and a study of Indian painting. In 1977 he presented the BBC television series based on his book The Age of Uncertainty which deals with the evolution of economic thought since Adam Smith,<br /><br />The laughing philosopher<br /><br />His Memoirs is gripping because of his candour, humour and anecdotes. Ambassadors, he observed, have barely work for an hour a week if they represent important countries. Their cocktail parties, ostensibly a means for gathering intelligence and information, rarely serve that objective.<br /><br />The Memoirs contains eight maxims for success in working in government. He admits candidly that he revised all his draft five times – the Memoirs underwent six revisions! ‘My spelling is often impressionistic; my punctuation is erratic; so more rarely is my syntax; my memory though generally good, is subject to lapse… my sense of taste is fallible; and so too is my impression of what is or is not clear’. His editor, Andrea Williams rescued him. He spent three to four hours daily on his current book in addition to the time reading and thinking on the subject.<br /><br />Galbraith gave many like me me instruction and illumination when he seemed to be only entertaining. I salute him.<br /></p><p align="justify">* * *</p><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com/"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-7956653875704334050?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-24253991504353113312006-05-01T16:22:00.000+05:302006-12-12T16:34:15.255+05:30<strong>Advice on advice</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br /><div align="justify">Advice is what you ask when you already know the answer but wished<br />you didn't.<br /><br />Nothing is so readily given and so grudgingly taken as advice. The tendency to indulge in it is directly related to the age of the dispenser. In fact, a senile person tends to repeat the same advice to the same person. It has nothing to do with the success or failure of the free vendor of advice. On the other hand an unsuccessful person gives advice by of warning by giving his on example. Every parent has a lawful right to give advice to his children irrespective of their capacity to do so. Some children succeed in life by disregarding the parental advice. Giving advice is one way of showing superiority on one’s part. It is assumed that if you give advice you are deemed to have been a success in your life. Asking for it also often cloaks a subtle form of sycophancy. When a person asks what is the secret of your health or success, he makes you feel you are a healthy/successful man. After that the adviser is disposed to grant favour to the seeker of advice, which generally is the original objective of the seeker of advice.<br /><br />Three ways<br /><br />There are three ways of giving advice. First is the direct personal method. That method relates advice to one’s own experience. It gives examples from one’s own achievements or failures. Hard work, thinking big, pursuing a dream, facing risks, braving odds, standing up for truth and honesty, systematic approach to work, slow and steady pursuit of a goal, good PR with people are some of the elements of various pieces of advice to which children at home are subjected by way of rehearsal. Since they can’t but listen to it the advice-giver is emboldened to step out to a wider circle. If he does not encounter any rebuff there, he then moves further into the wide world and preys on people enjoying themselves in groups or parties. In religious gatherings and political meetings, willing victims are found in plenty. Annual functions of educational institutions and celebrations of similar kind are good occasions for worthies to impart advice to youngsters and other members of the audience on character building and achieving success in life. It may even go to the other side and exhort the listeners not to care for mundane success because there are better things in life than to hanker after for material success. It depends upon what sounds better.<br /><br />The Approach<br /><br />The approach can be self-centred or objective. In the former case, one relates every piece of advice to one’s own success or failure. It starts with a declaration: ‘When I was your age…’ or When you reach my age…’ or ‘what I am’, I am because…’ or ‘I believe.’ or I always practised…’ Youngsters don’t like this approach because it has a parental ring about it. Elders too don’t feel happy about it because of the ‘I’ element in it. But the recipients are victims of good manners. We all are. In this case it is better to dwell upon one’s failures. That makes for novelty which is more interesting. Also it is nearer the truth because, come to think of it, every one is a failure in a manner of speaking. That is because ambition has no limit. It grows on itself. The more you achieve, the more you want to achieve. Even if you become the president of the country, you may feel you should have achieved it earlier or secured more terms than you did. There is always a way of looking at things. Talking about one’s failures openly puts one’s audience at ease. They feel they are not so inferior after all.<br /><br />The Impersonal Approach<br /><br />The other approach is impersonal. You don’t bring yourself into the discussion. You talk about the philosophy of success and failure and give examples from scriptures or epics, biographies and autobiographies. Mythological and historical figures provide good raw material for this exercise. How did Arjuna become an outstanding archer? Why was Yudhishter’s dog admitted to heaven? Why did Alexander stop where he did? Why did Aurangzeb win the War of Succession? How Tagore came to establish the Shantiniketan? There is no end to anecdotes and stories that tell the secret of success and failures. Such impersonal references make one appear both non-egotistical and learned. They serve to enhance the speaker’s reputation as a widely read man.<br /><br />Practice or Precept<br /><br />The third method is not to give advice but to make it available by practice rather than precept. You do not advise, you do not preach but do your own job. If you make a mark, you will automatically become a role model for some people. Unbeknownst to you many youngsters – and surprisingly many oldsters too -- will try to emulate your example. After all how many of us have met men like Mahatma Gandhi or Nehru or Nelson Mandela - to mention only three from a galaxy of names of people who have made a difference in the world - in flesh and blood. But two generations of Indians and innumerable persons from abroad have tried to draw lessons from their lives. People have read their autobiographies or biographies or read about or heard about them and striven to adopt their ideals. That is the best form of advice. Such persons remain mythical figures rather than concrete persons and inspire the masses as invisible gods do – or even God does. Real-life idols sometime reveal their feet of clay and the ensuing disenchantment occasionally disorients the worshippers and followers. That is why leaders keep a distance from their fans and followers. That is how they retain their mystique. Ideas are more powerful than persons and ideas outlive persons who conceived and propagated them. If the ideology fails, it is the surviving practitioners who are blamed. It is therefore good for heroes to die early. Imagine J.F. Kennedy living to ripe old age and being found out as an expert philanderer. Those who have to give something don’t delay. They make their gifts and depart. Of course there are some exceptions and you all know about them. One good feature about any advice is that it should be brief and this discourse seems already to have violated that canon. So it is time I hung up.<br /><br />I for one don’t believe in giving or taking advice. I can pick up a piece of advice depending upon the occasion from numerous sources. As for giving it, I give it only to my dog. He does not care. He does not listen. Yet he wags his tail as if in gratefulness. He lives his happy life as he is destined to. As he is content to do. To his wagging tail is attached a piece of advice – for me as well as you.<br /></div>***<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Archive by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-2425399150435311331?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-2340144528825368112006-04-01T18:20:00.000+05:302006-12-13T12:18:23.661+05:30<div align="justify"><strong>No Free Lunch, but…<br /></strong>By Narendra Luther<br /><br />Thee is a modern American saying that ‘there is nothing like a free lunch.’ But what about water? So far restaurants have not started charging for water unless it is the mineral variety. In fact in India even before taking your order, the bearer plonks a glass of water in front of you, particularly in the South. No body asks you to pay for it in case you change your mind and having slated your thirst, decide not to eat there and walk out.<br /><br />It used to be a common practice to set up stalls on roadside offering water to general public on festivals and auspicious days, like the birthdays of some Sikh Gurus, and the Muharram procession. That is supposed to earn you spiritual ‘merit’. Thanks to the shortage of water, this tradition is fading now.<br /><br />For our domestic water supply we pay as a matter of course. The charges keep on increasing every now and then and we submit to it with a murmur. It is called ‘safe’ water supply though most of us either boil water before drinking it or use water purification equipments like ‘Acquaguard’. My wife uses both of them to make sure we don’t suffer from any water-borne disease.<br /><br />Free Water<br /><br />But in the countryside water is still free though its safety is not talked about. One can draw water from a river, a lake a well or a pond. Or at least that is what we thought. A screening of a recent film by K.P. Sasi ‘ ‘The Source of Life for Sale’ was an eye-opener. Water is an indisputable source of life. Seven–tenth of earth and two–third (women0 to three-fourth (men) of human body are composed of water. Animals and humans die more of thirst than of hunger. Dehydration is a great cause of death particularly amongst infants who can’t spell out their demand for water. Lack of water causes drought and that results in famine. That in turn leads to suicide by farmers and death for the poor. Thus, water is more important to our life than we imagine.<br /><br />Sasi’s documentary takes us from Kerala to the North via Chhatisgarh and showcases how water which has been traditionally available free to people is being denied to them.<br /><br />Rivers in Periyar, Malampuzha. Attapadi, Sheonath and Kelo, and parts of the Ganga Canal have been sold to private firms to make coca cola to be sold in the market. Small, scattered communities including tribals who depended on the water for their crops and for their domestic needs were shown forcefully protesting against it. NGO’s marched in procession raising slogans venting their anger. An old unlettered tribal woman showed a rare degree of eloquence in her denunciation of the deal made by the government. An old man voiced his betrayal by the MLA of the area for his ‘collusion’ with the private party. The firm had thrown a bund across the river to pump out water for its plant. That meant the lower part of the river became dry and the lower riparian habitations went without water. There were accusations of corruption against authorities in deals involving such sales.<br /><br />The problem of water shortage is compounded by the over- exploitation of ground water as revealed by a recent survey. It has been said that the future wars will be not for oil, but for water. It seems that we already witnessing trailers in the interstate disputes about water in our country.<br /><br /><br />The Garland Canal Project<br /><br />The film showed with telling effects what it means to be deprived of water. The sale was described as a part of privatization and globalization. Multinationals come and grab resources that belong to the community, for their private profit. Once we swore by Socialism. Today the pendulum has swung to the other side, to Privatization.<br /><br />The film also made out a case against the project of the interlinking of rivers – the ‘Garland canal’ system. The eminent engineer, the late Dr. K.L. Rao conceived it long before there was any debate about socialism versus privatization. He believed it would rid the country of the spectacle of simultaneous drought in some areas and flooding in others. The NDA Government approved the massive project in principle and it is understood that preliminary technical studies have been initiated on that. It seems perfectly logical inasmuch as it will ‘even out’ the levels of water in all the rivers in the country. But, the opponents of the proposal argue that it ignores the ecological aspects of the various river systems. Interlinking will entail bunding of rivers and diversion of water at a number of places. That, in turn, will result in diminution, if not denial of water to downstream areas. Damming of rivers will also cause submersion of vast areas displacing communities in different parts of the country. It is against that that prospect that persons like Medha Patekar are agitating.<br /><br /><br />Wisdom of Tentativeness<br /><br />I would concede that some of the proposals for new uses of have been made by experts in the genuine belief that they will promote the welfare of the people as they perceive it. That brings us to the crucial point of how much reliance we should place on expert advice. The best of experts sees only his side of the picture. In fact the more the specialization, the more the narrowing of the focus. There is a loss of width of vision in specialization. A specialist does not - indeed cannot – appreciate the opposing point of view. For policy - makers and final decision- takers, it is necessary to integrate the Hegelian thesis and anti-thesis into a synthesis. There is a greater need for debate on such issues than we have today in spite of our legislatures where the party line over rides the need for the examination of the merits of a proposal. The view of the party in power often is nothing but the command of the leader right or wrong. The policy of the Opposition, on the other hand, is based on its obligation to oppose. In how many cases have opposing line being taken on a given issue by the same party depending on whether it is in power or in opposition?<br /><br />Sitting through the screening of Sasi’s documentary, I felt sorry at the poor attendance in the hall. More so because I saw no bureaucrats and politicians for whom the film would have appeared heretical against the current official dogma. I felt that such films should be screened in the secretariats and before experts and the intelligentsia so that different perspectives can be seen by those who are going to decide the fate of millions of the poor of the country. As Bertrand Russell put it, ‘Fools are cocksure; wise men are in doubt’. In other words, the need is for an open mind. That will enable us to take a holistic view before taking a final decision.<br /></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">***</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-234014452882536811?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-54857064711044134182006-04-01T16:36:00.000+05:302006-12-13T13:07:04.077+05:30<strong>A time for exit</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br /><br /><div align="justify">I don’t mean to exit from this world but a prelude to it. I mean the time to superannuate, to stop working regularly for a job, or as is commonly put, to retire.<br /><br />Full man, half pay<br /><br />Before retirement the wife gets half husband and his full salary. After retirement, she gets back the full husband and half his salary. The age of retirement is decided on the basis of a multiplicity of factors like expectancy of life and the state of health, and the availability of manpower in any society. It varies from country to country and time to time. The key consideration is the level of mental capacity in most jobs. In India it used to be 55 for the employees of government under the British and remained pegged at that for a number of years after independence. Then it was argued that our expectancy of life which was thirty-three at independence had risen to over sixty. Also 55 was too early for retirement. While the employee had still many family responsibilities to discharge, his income was suddenly reduced to half. On the other hand, the government lost the benefit of mature experience and advice. Basically, it was the serving employees who wanted to prolong their tenure. So the government extended the age of retirement to 58. After some years when the government’s financial position was tight, the employees gave an ingenious helpful suggestion. If the age of retirement were extended by another two years, the government would make huge savings by postponing the disbursement of terminal benefits to retiring employees. It would also maintain the same establishment costs instead of adding pension to the salaries of new employees. Also, India would automatically become closer to the western advanced countries where the age of retirement was well over 60. Of course the old arguments of a further increase in the expectancy of life, better health and maturity of experience of older employees were always there. So, the government again succumbed and extended the age of superannuation to 60.<br /><br />In the U.S. the age of retirement is 65; in England 68. It is around that figure in most of the advanced countries of the West. With them one of the reasons is shortage of manpower. They make up this shortfall through selective immigration. They issue work permits and allow immigration in crucial sectors in which they need people. They can thus pick up the best readymade human capital from all over the world. In a way the under- developed and developing countries extend massive assistance to developed countries through the supply of trained manpower. Considering the overall cost of turning out a physician, an engineer, an architect or the like, it can be safely assumed that for every person going to the developed counties of the West, from India, we are giving them an invisible financial aid of at least 10 million rupees. But that is a digression from our theme. Let me return to it.<br /><br />The main consideration for sending people home on retirement is their lowered physical and mental capacity. That is why in the civil list retired employees are listed unfeelingly under ‘wastage’. Experience of thirty years, which some old fogies boast about, is nothing but the experience of ten years multiplied three times. According to experts, there is a gradual loss in physical and mental faculties which sets in after 40. It becomes pronounced around sixties when one moves towards old age and senescence.<br /><br />Never say die<br /><br /><br />While for normal job the age of superannuation is determined on the basis of old age, it is ironical that for more important jobs, the age of superannuation is either higher or nonexistent. For example, all our constitutional posts have a higher age limit. The judges of High Courts retire at the age of 62; of the Supreme Court at 65. Members of the State Public Service Commission retire at 62, of the Union at 65. So is the case of the Election Commission and the Central as well as the State Administrative Tribunals. Recently the Chief Commissioner under the Right to Information Act and the State Commissioners have been appointed. All of them are retired bureaucrats. Retired judges of high or Supreme Court are appointed to head various commissions of inquiries which are set up every now and then.<br /><br />There is no age limit for governors, legislators, and ministers. All governors are either retired servicemen or politicians. Legislators and ministers take the most crucial decisions affecting various aspects of our life, well-being and liberty. So is it to be assumed that the normal rule of nature as to the diminutions of faculties does not operate in the case of these important high functionaries.<br /><br />In the case of judges we are told that a higher age for retirement ensures their independence. Can two or five years more than other functionaries do that? The lure of commissions after that term should be enough to dilute that. The constitution of the U.S. has sought to ensure independence of the judges of the Supreme Court by giving them a term for life. That provision can certainly ensure independence. Apart from them in most countries Field Marshals of the armed force also don’t retire. But that is by way of honour. Both Judges of the Supreme Court and Field Marshals stop attending office whenever they feel like but continue to get their full salaries and perks.<br /><br />In the case of our legislature that is our MLA’s and M.P s, and the political executive, the argument is that they are elected by the people and it is for them to decide whether a particular person is too old to discharge his functions properly. So, we will continue to have presidents, prime ministers, chief ministers and ministers who may suffer from multiple disabilities but who directly or indirectly manage to secure the necessary endorsement.<br /><br />Fact and Myths<br /><br />So we have one fact and three fictions operating in our system. The fact is that beyond a certain age the physical and mental faculties of individuals decline preventing them from giving their best. The first fiction is that this law of diminishing faculties does not operate in the case of higher jobs. The jobs inject appropriate aphrodisiacs into the system of ageing persons. The second fiction is that the pull of power and pelf declines two to five years after the normal age of superannuation. The third fiction is that the masses know whether a person can continue to perform long after the normal old age.<br /><br />The moral from our prevalent practice is that you require fit persons with limited wear and tear for lower level of jobs. For higher jobs impaired faculties are prime qualifications.<br /><br />It may appear to be a bundle of ironies and contradictions. But that is life - a fiction based on further fictions. So, stop grousing and accept the facts and fictions of life - so says saint Kabir.<br /></div><div align="justify"></div><br />***<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-5485706471104413418?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-23729192223762198122006-03-01T17:09:00.000+05:302006-12-12T16:23:16.404+05:30<p><strong>Bush shirt and Buffet</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /></p><p align="justify">Americans gave the world the bush shirt and the buffet after World War II. These improvisations were to meet new exigencies. Now they are part of accepted norms in dress and entertainment. Their search for the novel and the innovative is continuous and unending.<br />In the last few weeks during my tour of the United States, I have had ample opportunities to study various aspects of life in America. I am impressed by the fact that they have managed their affairs so well. Their genius for improvisation is something to be admired. For every conceivable physical, social and psychological situation they have devised coping mechanisms. Their range of inventions and innovations for dealing with domestic chores is vast. Supermarkets offer a fascinating range of home tools for every conceivable situation. Their town planning is meticulous and there is no question of any one getting away with the smallest violation. Their concern for the aged – whom they call ‘seniors’ – is touching. I visited some residential complexes for seniors. If there is a heaven, it must be quite close to the conditions prevalent there. The care with which they deal with the disabled is also remarkable. They are provided for separately in every public place and utility. Even the meanest establishment has public conveniences – what they call ‘Rest Rooms’. Their traffic regulations are stringent and any violation is strictly dealt with.<br />Innovative approach<br />Their craze for experimentation is reflected in the number of titles of books published every year on every conceivable topic. Some of the books I read included ‘Dying Well’, ‘Why We Die’, ‘Meetings at the Edge’, ‘The Professor and the Madman’, and ‘The Art of Imperfection’. They gave insights on life, disease and death. The quaint titles of books in stores and libraries suggest the range of research going on in various fields. Hard to believe but according to Andrew Gabrois of R.R. Bowker Co., 185,000 titles were published in the US in 2004. No subject is taboo for them. People experiment and share their experiences freely. The new knowledge and analyses generated are available in bookstores and public libraries where, incidentally, the use of Internet is free. An average city library is better equipped than most of our university and official libraries. The quality of service and the courtesy of the staff are incredibly superior to any thing one gets in India. The World Economic Forum in its report for 2003-04 lists technological advance as one of the three determinants of the Growth Competitiveness Index (GCI). U.S. is one of what it calls the ‘core innovators’. It is not so in technology only, but in its parent -- Attitude. You see that attitude documented in the museums spread all across the country.<br />Dignity of Labour<br />No body feels embarrassed by the way they dress. I never had an occasion to wear any dress except the most casual. The consideration that guides the choice of dress is functionality and convenience.<br />The other thing that strikes one is the dignity of labour. No body is ashamed of doing any thing to earn a living. Students working as waiters are quite common. I met two female university professors. One was living with a carpenter and the other with a truck driver.<br />Our Advantage<br />I talked to many persons of Indian origin about some of these features of life in America. They all agreed that it was indeed a distinguishing mark of the American society. Their explanations varied. One refrain was that it is because of the small population that all that is possible. It is both a cause and an effect of prosperity.<br />In India all our progress is negated by the growth in numbers. The fall in law and order is also largely due to that. It is true no doubt, but is rather a simplistic explanation. Also a deeper analysis of the demographic profile encourages some hope for us in India despite the growing numbers. Today, thanks to advances made in public health and social security, the population in the advanced countries is ageing fast. In Europe in 1950, the population over 60 years of age accounted for 12%. In 2050, it will be 32%. On the other hand, the population under 14 will decrease from 27% to 16%. Today 66% of the expenditure in European countries is on education, health and pensions. With the ageing of the population, this will only increase and they will be caught in the Wagnerian bind. This will result in an increase in the public debt. A similar phenomenon is taking place in the United States. According to the March 2005 issue of the Harper Magazine, for every two workers in General Motors there are five pensioners. As against that, in India by 2030 the ratio of working population will double while the increase in the dependent population will be marginal. That will give an edge to India against the developed west.<br />Our Productivity<br />But before we proceed to celebrate the prospect, let us pause to consider the balancing factors. First, our per capita productivity is about one tenth that of the U.S. One example will suffice. According to the Institute of Management Development, Lausanne, during the past decade, steel production in the US has jumped from 75 to 102 million tons while the number of workers has fallen from 289,000 to 74,000.<br /><br />Immigrants’ paradise<br />A further sobering remark was made by a young Indian analyst in America. The emerging adverse demographic profile of the States will be countered by the immigration policy of the U.S. It can tap the productive segment of the population of any country to meet its needs. It can select, it can pick and choose and so meet its critical requirements in the economy. America is an immigrants’ paradise. For those who have visited the Ellis Island and seen the historical statistics displayed in the Museum so attractively, understand the America was built by the best of immigrants from all over the world. The process has not stopped yet. Because of the factors mentioned in the beginning of this essay, the US still remains the magnet for every ambitious person in the world. Young people all over the world are ready to serve America by providing it the most critical resource – human capital. America does not have to spend on skilled manpower; it has just to open the gate and hordes of young, highly skilled, hard working, ambitious persons from all over the globe will rush to meet its needs and more. America is great because the rest of the world is continuously engaged in contributing to its growth. We may criticize it, abuse it, revile it, but we are always at its beck and call and our best talents are only awaiting an opportunity to be let in to the land of opportunity.<br />High growth is both its cause and effect. There is some food for thought in that.<br /></p><p align="justify">***</p><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a><br /><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-2372919222376219812?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-82497976047305447832006-02-01T17:05:00.000+05:302006-12-13T13:01:36.457+05:30<div align="justify"><strong>A Pilgrimage to Childhood</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />Last month we made an unusual pilgrimage -- in search of our roots. Both my wife and I belong to the part of India that is now called Pakistan. I was raised in Lahore while she came from a landed family from further west, Bhalwal and Malakwal. Smaller places, but a richer family – at least that’s why I had been told by a woman who wasn’t rich by any standards when I married her. She had often talked about the vast lands and the cotton ginning factories, which her families owned before the partition of the country.<br /><br />The flight from Delhi to Lahore takes only 45 minutes and since the Pakistan Standard Time is set half-an-hour behind India’s, we were there in fifteen minutes.<br /><br />Loitering in Lahore<br /><br />I had distinct memories of every place of my childhood in Lahore. I looked for my grandfather’s house on Infantry Road in the cantonment area. It should have been easy. There used to be just two largish houses facing empty fields. Now there was a congested area with houses all around and no trace of fields. We asked a number of old people but no body could help. When we were about to give up, a young man asked me if it was a light yellow painted house. I said yes. He said his uncle had bought a house and was demolishing it to build a complex there. Then he took us across the road and I saw a quarter of the house still in tact. He said if I had come a week earlier, I could have seen the whole house. Then I went to the canal where I learnt swimming. After that I saw my old school, the college where I would have gone in due course, the road which we took to the Mall, the Lawrence Garden, now renamed ‘Jinnah Garden, and Anarkali, the which used to be the best bazaar.<br /><br />We saw the famed Lahore Fort built by the Mughal emperor Jahangir and the Badshahi Mosque built by his son Aurangzeb. At the foot of the mosque lies the mausoleum of the poet Iqbal who is considered the spiritual father of Pakistan. He also composed what is now India’s informal national anthem – ‘Sare Jahan se acchha...’’. The Fort later became the seat of power of the Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh. His mausoleum lies just outside the fort and by its side is a Sikh Gurudwara dedicated to the fifth Guru of the Sikhs who was executed by the Mughal emperor, Jahangir. He composed the Adi Granth, the holy book of the Sikhs which incidentally has a number of compositions of Muslim saints. It was heartening to see a Sikh temple in the shadow of a mosque.<br /><br />Jahangir & Noor Jahan<br /><br />The Mughal emperor Jahangir is also buried across the river in a grand mausoleum. Not far from him is his queen, Noor Jahan’s mausoleum. It presents a stark contrast to her husband’s grand mausoleum who, according to his memoirs, had bartered away his empire to his beloved queen in exchange for a daily heavy drink from her hand.<br /><br />The Government has preserved the garden city character of Lahore. The people give credit for that to the former Prime Minster, Nawaz Sharif and his younger brother, Shahbaz Sharif who was the Chief Minister of the Punjab. Some beautiful new colonies have come up with spacious single-storey mansions. We did not see many high-rise buildings. Lahore used to be called the Paris of the East. I am inclined to call it Venice with the canal running through most of the city. They also have not changed the old Hindu names of buildings and colonies. ‘Dharam Pura’ where my father had a house was unrecognizable but retains its name. I can’t resist the temptation of dwelling longer upon the city, but I must leave some space to my wife.<br /><br />After a week of nostalgic trips which included two receptions by the writers of Lahore, we left for my wife’s ancestral places about 150 kms away<br /><br />Wife’s Home<br /><br />The journey began with a surprise. The car soon got out of the city and started on a motorway. It is a magnificent eight-lane highway just like the motorways in the United States. The car ran at 120 kmph without our feeling the speed. All the drivers including ours observed the rules of highway driving, as I had seen in US.<br /><br />We went off the motorway to reach the town where my wife’s family owned cotton-ginning factories next to the house of Sir Feroze Khan Noon who became the Prime Minister of Pakistan later. The old sleepy town had changed dramatically. The over 100 year-old red brick mansion where my wife was born stood there somewhat neglected. A board proclaimed it was now ‘Paragon Model School’. The comely headmistress took us around and the whole place was abuzz with excitement that the original owner of the house, an Indian had come to visit. While we were going round the building we got a message that some people wanted us to visit them. That was a family of the daughter of the maid who worked for my wife’s family. Her father-in-law was the labor contractor for the factories. The family had done well and she insisted that we stay there for the night. Not being able to do so we had tea with them. When we were leaving she put a bagful of ‘fruiters’ -- a new hybrid citrus fruit in our car. Her son told us that the area no longer grew cotton but an abundance of ‘fruiters’ and so was called the California of Pakistan.<br /><br />As we approached the next town where my wife had spent her adolescent years, she eagerly looked for chimneys of the factories which they had owned. None was to be seen. From outside the town a steel shop owner offered to accompany us. On the basis of cues provided by my wife he took us to the house. It was not only in tact but was being lived in by a large joint family. The head of the family, an old man of 85 rattled off the names of my wife’s grandfather, father and uncles. My wife wiped her tears as she bowed down to touch his feet. I felt a lump in my throat as I witnessed the scene. What happened to so and so and so and so? All of them were dead!<br /><br />The family took us round to each room -- and then to steel safe embedded in the floor of the bed room. It could not be removed because it weighed five quintals. Of course there was nothing in it to which my wife could lay a claim.<br /><br />I could write a whole book on this journey – and our respective childhoods. We got so much affection from the people there that both they and us wondered why the country was partitioned?<br /></div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">***<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-8249797604730544783?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-83281577074968722532006-01-01T17:06:00.000+05:302006-12-13T11:58:59.603+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>A Window on Pakistan</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />Last month I wrote about our trip to Pakistan in personal and emotional terms.<br />Only those who have undergone a trauma of the type which entails forced relocation and loss of entire property can appreciate that sort of reminiscence. The only saving grace for persons of my generation was that we were children and we had lost something which we had not created. I can now imagine the acute distress that our parents must have undergone.<br /><br />This time I intend to dwell upon the comparisons and contrasts between the two countries.<br /><br />Military Regime<br /><br />The first point that struck me was that the people there were invariably not in favour of the military regime. Many had experienced similar spells of military dictatorship earlier and they did not relish any of them. They envied us our democratic system. Some asked me how we could stay free of military rule and whether there was any danger of the military ever taking over in India. I said that we were lucky in our earlier leadership both in their deep commitment to democracy and their longevity. Jinnah died within a year of the birth of Pakistan. The second in command and stature, Liaqat Ali Khan was assassinated shortly thereafter in 1951. There was thus no outstanding leader left after that. It is a moot point whether military rule could have been avoided if their founding leaders had lived longer. Most people expressed their preference for political leaders like Benazir Bhutto or Nawaz Shareef even if they were corrupt. There is something in the knowledge that you can throw the rulers out in a peaceful manner through the ballot box. Only a politician can have his finger on the pulse of the people!<br /><br />Low Industrialization<br /><br />Many persons from across the wide spectrum observed that India was a century or two ahead of Pakistan in terms of general progress which included industrialization and the emergence of the service sector. It was after going to Pakistan that I realized the importance of the presence of the public sector in some areas, like public transport. It was privatized some years ago, probably by Nawaz Shareef. A ‘common man’ told us that some ministers and their families and friends now run minibuses and taxis. This, we saw, caused serious inconvenience to the common man.<br /><br />We were surprised to note the absence of official or cooperative dairies producing milk and milk products. You get milk either from the old conventional milkman or from the grocery shop in imported powder bags. Price of both milk and sugar are rather high.<br /><br />We noticed the absence of indigenous industries in Pakistan. You get every kind of consumer good there because they are imported. There are many large malls and supermarkets and all sots of goods are available there. They produce good fruits and vegetables but there is a lack of food processing industries.<br /><br />Though the penetration of cell phones is high, I did not find any cyber - cafe in Lahore. While I was there, the Prime Minister declared that a Technology Park would be set up soon and would be ready in a year.<br /><br />I found the media rather insipid. Newspapers lack ads. Their contents are mild though here and there you find some strident ant-establishment columns. TV shows a number of India channels and our actors and singes are very popular there. Aishwarya Rai, Sushmita Sen and some other Indian beauties are modelled in Pakistani textile shops. Local video and audiocassettes are of poor quality.<br /><br />No Burqas<br /><br />We did not see any purdah or burqas in the new part of Lahore, or in Islamabad. Even in the old parts of the cities, it wasn’t there to the extent that we expected. In colleges and universities, it is extremely rare. I delivered a lecture in the Lahore University of Management Sciences. Boys and girls moved around as freely together in the campus as they would anywhere in India. We saw some going about hand-in-hand and sitting in lawns or benches unselfconsciously. One sees more of burqas in some parts of some cities in India than we saw in Pakistan. The new upmarket colonies like Gulberg in Lahore have very elegant houses each with its own armed private security men.<br /><br />All markets have banners put up by the traders’ associations warning terrorists that a camera is watching them. Similar banners are also are strung across in streets near police stations condemning terrorism as an unpatriotic and a dangerous activity. One sees all sorts of cars and bigger vehicles – all imported. The bodywork on trucks is generally redone to make a formidable front elevation. They are painted in garish colours. In Rawalpindi, Suzuki vans have their bodies removed before they are turned into brightly- coloured taxis which are invariably overloaded.<br /><br />Pakistanis are very fond of good food. The older part of Anarkali in Lahore is virtually a food bazar. A neighbouring street is full of food courts. Some restaurants specialize in fish. We went to one such joint where a large queue waited for their turn for take-homes or to eat there.<br /><br />Town Planning<br /><br />Lahore is a city of gardens and that character has been maintained in spite of large-scale construction in recent years. No land has been taken away from some of the old sprawling institutions like the Aitchison College which covers 200 acres in the heart of the city. On both sides of the Upper Bari canal rows of trees have been planted and roads built which make the city look beautiful. In Nawaz Shareef’s time the Race Course was shifted outside the city. But the vacated land was turned into a park. The old Lawrence Garden, rechristened Bagh-e- Jinnah has not been touched and occupies a large tract opposite the Government House. They also haven’t changed the old Hindu names of localities like Dharampura, Kishen Nagar or Sunder Dass Road. Ram Gali, however, was referred by some as Rahim Gali by some people.<br /><br /><br />The Motorway<br /><br />The biggest and most pleasant surprise for us was the motorway from Lahore to Islamabad. This stretch of 400 km road is an 8-lane highway with speed limit of 120 per hour for cars and 100 kms for heavy transport. It is as good as the freeways in the U.S. and similar discipline is enforced on drivers. Cars cover the distance in four hours while buses run by Daewoo Company of Korea which are like planes on ground take half hour longer. It is something which we should emulate.<br /><br />Islamabad is a very beautiful city. Planned by Doxiadis, a Greek firm of architects on a large scale, it is not only beautiful, but is very meticulously maintained. It has wide-open stretches of open land between roads and the houses are very well laid out. They say that Islamabad is sanitized sealed city. There are no slums there and traffic rules are enforced strictly. No city in India is as well maintained.<br /><br /><br />***</p><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-8328157707496872253?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-27239083584309771812005-12-01T16:42:00.000+05:302006-12-13T11:58:37.645+05:30<strong>Two – or Three Will Do</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br /><div align="justify">We have three wings of State –legislature, executive and judiciary. The legislature represents the people direct and legislates on their behalf. The second, the executive implements the policies flowing from legislation and lays down rules and regulations to ensure that. The third, the judiciary interprets the legislation and its intent. It judges whether a particular law enacted by the legislature is in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land. It also sorts out the disputes amongst the citizens, between the citizens and the State, and amongst different states. While the executive reports to the legislature, the judiciary is independent. Also while the Centre and the States have their own separate legislature and executive, a common judicial hierarchy runs form the states to the Centre.<br /><br />Separation of Powers<br /><br />This separation of powers is a distinctive feature of democracies all over the world. In practice however they are not separated in watertight compartments, particularly in the parliamentary form of governments. Under that system the executive is a part of the legislature. All ministers (executive) have to be members of the legislature.<br /><br />Similarly, while adjudicating, the judiciary sometimes ends up in virtually legislating. Any act of the executive or legislature and any omission of the executive can be challenged in a High Court or the Supreme Court. Every decision of the Supreme Court has the force of law. The High Courts or the Supreme Courts can be moved through a number of writs or through PIL (Public Interest Litigation). Some times they take action suo moto. Thus the higher judiciary also sometimes ‘legislates’. On occasions even a piece of legislation passed by the legislature is declared ultra vires the Constitution. It therefore becomes invalid and has either to be scrapped or amended suitably.<br /><br />‘Sins’ of the Executive<br /><br />Of all the three wings of the State, the executive is most sprawling. It has an army of people both under the Union and the States and every new legilation gives birth to more member of the executive. For example recently the Union government has created a Disaster Management Board to deal with national calamities on a systematic basis. This, in turn, will necessitate the creation of many jobs to anticipate disasters, to determine the quantum and the type of aid and succour to the victims, and to monitor the progress of relief and rehabilitation. Similarly the promulgation of the Right to Information Act has already resulted in the appointment of Information Commissioners at the Centre and in every state. More subordinate staff will be required to ensure the implementation of the provision of the Act.<br /><br />As a polity, India is said to suffer from over-legislation but under- implementation. There are scores of enactments, which remain dead letter because no one cares to implement them. There are many cases of dereliction of duties enjoined upon the executive functionaries by the Constitution, or under various statutes.<br /><br />The executive authorities, which function under the supervision and control of the elected authorities some times, do not take action because it might not be palatable to a section of the electorate. Sometimes offenders who need to be booked under law are not touched because of the influence which they wield. There are innumerable instances of members of Parliament and State legislatures who have criminal cases pending against them. But they roam about freely because the authorities are afraid of touching them. There are instances when the Police do not register a complaint because the accused is an important person. The common man in such cases has no alternative but to approach courts. There are cases in which the investigation taken up by the police is deliberately slipshod. The whole case which depends upon that therefore fails and the accused goes scot-free. There are two types of delinquencies committed by the executive – those of omission, and those of commission. Both can hurt the citizen equally.<br /><br />Calls for CBI<br /><br />Since the police investigation does not enjoy the confidence of the people, there are frequent demands from different section of the public – and even by the members of legislature for investigation to be entrusted to CBI. That organization has also been called upon to investigate actions of the police itself as in the case of the Mumbai police in the Telgi scam. The frequency with which CBI has been brought into cases makes one wonder how it can cope with such increasing load of work. However, it is one organization which still enjoys a large measure of public confidence though allegations against its partisan role or lukewarm action have been made sometime by the political leaders.<br /><br />Similarly the courts have had to step in matters that should normally have been disposed of by the executive authorities. From such simple cases as admission to educational institutions, fees to be charged by private colleges, traffic management, and control of noise pollution – to mention only a fraction of cases – the courts had to step in to enforce rules and regulations and to ensure fair play. Recently the Supreme Court had to order the Executive authorities to evict ministers, ex MPs and others from their official accommodation to which they have lost their which they have lost their ex-officio entitlement They had to order the arrest of some of the legislators who had cases pending against them and against whom no action was being taken by the executive authorities. Again, recently the Supreme Court ordered the removal of the chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh whose appointment to that post was a disgusting case of impropriety and open favouritism. The courts have a potent weapon in their hands – the contempt of court. If their orders are not obeyed, they can hold the delinquent authorities for contempt and punish them with fine or imprisonment. In some cases they have done that. One wonders what would have been the situation if we did not have an independent judiciary resorting to what has been called ‘judicial activism’. Some of the instances in which the judiciary has exercised its authority to benefit itself have been criticized, but on the whole they have served to ensure justice and to provide relief to the common man. It has virtually come to supplant the executive.<br /><br />The Minimum Three<br /><br />The ready resort to CBI, and the courts makes one wonder whether we need any executive at all. CBI can replace the Police and the judiciary can do so with the executive. In other words, we could do with just two institutins –CBI and the judiciary.<br /><br />But wait a minute. We still need some organization to defend us against external aggression. So two will do for our internal administration – and our soldiery will guard our frontiers. Also so many times the armed forces have had to come to help the civil authorities to cope with disasters both natural and man-made.<br />With these three institutions, we will be OK. That is, till we find that there is no ideal arrangement.<br /></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">***</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-2723908358430977181?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-31659084346733341122005-11-01T18:17:00.000+05:302006-12-13T11:58:06.254+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>Jawahar jacket and Gandhi cap</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />Culture is mimetic. We not only live but also survive by imitation. A child would not learn to speak – and hence hear -- if it did not have the company of people who spoke to it day in and day out. Keep a newborn child in an isolated closed room and he will grow into a dumb and deaf person. This imitation is both conscious and unconscious. The fashion advertisers exploit this human trait. We imagine ourselves to be looking like the models we see and copy -- if use the products they hawk.<br /><br />Our Role Models<br /><br />In the days of my youth we wore ‘Jawahar Jacket’ and ‘Gandhi Caps’. The jacket was the same old one that generations of our ancestors have worn. But when Nehru made it his trademark, it acquired a new name and became a craze. The cap that Gandhi made fashionable was worn by the coolies in South Africa on whose behalf he fought against the regime there.<br /><br />It was not the external vestments they popularized. They stood for certain ideals, and people of that age – my parents’ generation -- and their children -- my contemporaries also imbibed those ideals in varying measures. Some seniors burnt their normal imported clothes and gave up their vocations. Youngsters too emulated them in their own way and learnt to live frugally and to sacrifice some of their wonted luxuries. We read the books and articles of our revered leaders and heard their speeches. We fasted when they asked us to do so. We joined processions and shouted slogans. The atmosphere was charged and we felt ennobled in a life of voluntary deprivation. There was a promise of Churchillian ‘blood, toil, tears and sweat’ -- and of the reward of freedom. Subhash Chandra Bose exhorted the Indian POWs handed over to him by the Japanese in Singapore: ‘Give me blood and I will give you freedom’. In response, a famished and under-equipped soldiery buckled up and launched on a long march to Delhi to unfurl the tricolour at the Red Fort. People in their thousands went merrily to jails and underwent torture without squealing. People die for ideas and ideals given to them by their idols.<br /><br />By way of a quiz, I asked some youngsters if they knew what ‘Jawahar Jacket’ was. They hadn’t heard of it. I showed them one that I have and they laughed. ‘It is a normal jacket. What is so great about it?’ ‘Gandhi Topi’ – yes that is what some ministers – and some attenders in offices wear. They are unaware of the history and the emotions of two generation associated with these items of quotidian wear. Some of them had seen Nehru’s photograph with his jacket, but there are very few photographs of Mahatma Gandhi with the cap that he made famous.<br /><br />These items made many give up their jobs under the British and give up flourishing practice of law. They exchanged them for years of privation and even prolonged spells of imprisonment. They inspired hundreds of youngsters to do so. Some died, others were hanged, some became disabled for life. Because of them we are free today.<br /><br />Handicap of peacetime<br /><br />The present breed of political leaders provides no such inspiration. They have had no drama in their lives. They did not give up anything. They joined politics as an alternative profession. There were rewards to be had there just as anywhere else. How many joined politics with the aim of improving the lot of the poor, for removing tears from some eyes?<br /><br />They are not to be blamed. Normal peacetimes offer little scope for drama. Freedom struggles, revolutions, and wars – these provide situations and opportunities for heroism, for drama, for exhibiting capacity for sacrifice, for demonstrating qualities of leadership. To show leadership in peacetime, in normal, routine situations is hard. One must have issues to fight for.<br /><br />But in peacetime, conventional politics, must one indulge in favouritism, jobbery, and corruption? These unfortunately are the traits that can be seen aplenty in our political leadership. They do not inspire except in the wrong direction.<br /><br />Match fixing<br /><br />It is not as if there is a void. There are role models still aplenty. But they are a different breed. We have film actors, cricket players and now tennis players who become national heroes and thus role models for the youngsters. Film actors have made drug taking and philandering popular, to say nothing of other minor lapse of character, which they glorify. They make conspicuous consumption a virtue, which youngsters will do anything to acquire. Cricket is no longer a gentleman’s game. Match fixing has made it into a big international industry in which scamsters, smugglers and dons are actively involved. It is another matter that cricket by its very nature of being a most lucrative sport has killed all other sports in India. A victory in an international match is celebrated as a national triumph and the highest dignitaries congratulate the wining players. Recently during the course of the selection of a new captain of the Indian cricket team, an office bearer of the Board of Control of Cricket declared proudly that it was more important than the constitution of the Union cabinet! That reflects the current values of our society. Even for government campaigns for vaccinations or for timely payment of taxes, it is these heroes who are brought into the media. Not unoften it is the selfsame people against whom cases of evasion or nonpayment of taxes are pending. Power, whatever its nature, corrupts. And the power of our new idols is no exception<br /><br />Thanks to the wide spread and reach of the media, particularly the electronic, there are more exposes now than ever before. We find wolves in sheep’s clothing everywhere. We find crooks and debauches in places which were held to be beyond reproach. We find them amongst godmen, religious leaders, teachers, high officials, and political leaders – in every conceivable place. We find gods with feet of clay. We find double standards practised as a matter of course. We encounter daily instances of moral turpitude and we have ceases to be shocked by them.<br /><br />Uses of calamities<br /><br />What is missing today is integrity. That faculty which makes you distinguish between right and wrong, fair and unfair, black and white. That quality marks a man of character from one who lacks it. We imbibe that quality from our early life at home, from our schools, from its demonstration in our leaders in various walks of life, from our heroes. We emulate our role models. But that brings us back to the conundrum. Where are the role models?<br /><br />It is ironic that human exploitation, aggression, wars, riots – and natural disasters bring out the best in human beings. They shake us out of our ordinary life and bring out some of the best human qualities in us. They also throw up role models for us to emulate. Strange, isn’t it?<br /><a href="mailto:nluther@hotmail.com">nluther@hotmail.com</a><br /></p><p align="justify">***</p><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-3165908434673334112?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-73226396711582632512005-10-01T18:26:00.000+05:302006-12-13T11:57:46.021+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>Police to meet you</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />My choice of the subject for this column is generally by current events. Any thing that stands out during the month preceding the week when I sit down to strike the keyboard of my computer becomes the topic for the next issue. This time there I had a dilemma. Two topics were competing for my attention. One is the deep, larger national malaise represented by the deluge of Mumbai. The other is the conduct of the police which was dramatized by the IG of Ranchi who as of now is absconding. Since last month I wrote about the falling standards of IAS, I selected the police so that the picture of our two premier all -India services is complete. If they are not good enough, nothing else in the administrative machinery of the nation can work.<br /><br />Security – the primary need<br /><br />State comes into being to make life possible, so said the great philosopher, Aristotle. Life is made possible on the basis of security – what is generally referred to as law and order. The basic function – indeed the raison dệtre of the State (read Government) is provision of law and order. Every thing else is secondary. No welfare state is possible in the absence of law and order. State has to ensure for its citizens conditions of civilized existence. That is the responsibility of the police – to ensure compliance with basic laws, to keep anti-social elements under control and to control civil unrest. In that, if resort to force becomes necessary, it should observe the doctrine of the use of minimum force.<br /><br />Only a few glaring instances underline the behaviour of the police generally. The 1984 riots against the Sikhs have been highlighted recently on the release of the Nanavati Commission Report, its discussion in parliament and the attendant demonstrations in the streets. The police failed miserably to protect innocent Sikh families by playing a brazenly partisan role. Indeed the charge is that it connived with the rioters. That is the lowest ebb to which men in uniform charged with the responsibility of providing security to citizens could fall. Its conduct during the Gujarat riots of 2002 was no different and drew nation wide condemnation.<br /><br />The recent brutal attack on unarmed civilians in Gurgaon was, thanks to the electronic media, seen by the entire nation – indeed the whole world. No doubt the initial provocation was provided by the physical assault by the workers on policemen. But the doctrine of minimum force enjoins controlling the mob, not attacking it mercilessly. It was fortunate that the police were not armed with anything more lethal than lathis. If they had firearms, it would have been another Jallianwala Bagh. They were not at war with the striking workers. Their job was to ensure that the workers exercised their right within legal bounds. But they went after them in full fury to teach them a lesson. The use of excessive force at individual level is quite common and generally goes unreported. Gurgaon highlighted a deeper malady.<br /><br />The Rs. 35000 - wallah<br /><br />Analyst blames the lower cadres of the police with lack of education and proper training. There is a system of training in all states but the fault lies with the raw human material that gets recruited. It is common knowledge that the recruits pay heavy amounts for their selection. In a case of misbehaviour with me, an inquiry was conducted against an Assistant Sub Inspector of police posted at a Raj Bhavan. The inquiry officer asked him brusquely, ‘Are you a 25000- wallah or 35000- wallah?’ The delinquent officer replied meekly, ‘35000-wallah, Sir’. The Raj Bhavan officer who was present there asked the inquiry officer to be enlightened about the argot. The latter said, ‘This man has paid Rs. 35000 as bribe for recruitment. That is why he is not so good. That is why he has behaved the way he has. The better types pay only Rs. 25000. A recruit from that category would probably have behaved better.’ That was the end of inquiry. Of course the ASI was pulled up formally. The incident points out the root cause of the malaise. Bribes are paid not only for recruitment but also for posting in what is called ‘fetching areas’ - where one can make money. Ministers allegedly collect money for good posting for their petty officials. What will training do to such persons?<br /><br />Cases of moral turpitude abound and are reported every other day. A woman going by bus late in the evening is in grave danger of being raped by the guardians of law- or their accomplices. Uniform seems to gives them a special privilege to do wrong.<br /><br />Some will say naively that the recruitment should not be done by officials but by the Public Service Commissions. Thy should be reminded of the cases of a former chairman of the Punjab Public Service Commission, and of the Maharashtra Public Service Commission who even made it to the Union PSC before being apprehended.<br /><br />One expects better from the higher cadres, particularly the members of IPS. They do things with greater finesse. Remember the case of the Haryana DIG who went into hiding and came out only when he failed to get an anticipatory bail. He is behind the bars. So is a former officer of UP allegedly involved in the murder of Madhumita, the poetess. The arrest of no less a person than the former Commissioner of Police of Mumbai for his alleged involvement in the Telgi Stamp scam is another instance of disgraceful conduct at the highest level. The most recent case is that of the IG of Ranchi who was looking into the case of misconduct of his deputy. He was accused of raping a woman, which he vehemently denied. When confronted with a strip of a film showing him in a compromising position with that woman, he explained brazenly the difference between rape and consensual sex between adults, which is not culpable!<br /><br />The sanctity of uniform<br /><br />Senior officers are the role models of junior officials and the lower cadres. When a person dons a uniform he should be proud that he has taken on some of the divine attributes. He becomes the human version of the tiune Hindu gods – Brahma, the creator, Vishnu the protector, and Siva, the destroyer. He creates goodness, protects the week, and destroys the evildoers. He has to be selected carefully; moral values need to be ingrained in him during training. The uniform should transform him into a superman if not a god. A police station should become a sanctuary for any one in danger or fear. People should feel safe and protected there. It is the threshold that leads people to that temple of justice – the court.<br /><br />That was the dream when our ancestors fought for swaraj. When we meet a man in uniform, we should not be afraid of him, but be able to say genuinely – if you permit me a pun – ‘Police to meet you’!<br /></p><p align="justify">***</p><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></p><div align="justify"></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-7322639671158263251?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-57211018041181468582005-10-01T10:07:00.000+05:302006-12-13T12:18:42.446+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>The Mumbai Syndrome<br /></strong>By Narendra Luther<br /><br />What had happened in Mumbai on July 26-27 and on subsequent days this year is symptomatic of a deeper and recurrent malaise in our civic situation and in our administrative system a whole. It rained heavily for four days and the utter inadequacy of its entire civic infrastructure was exposed thoroughly. Nothing functioned. People were stuck in all sorts of situations. Business magnates used to commuting in swanky cars had either to trudge out with those used to walking to and fro their workplace on foot. Some who tarried a while were forced to spend the whole night and day in their offices. Roads became canals. Houses were submerged, slums were washed away. People were killed by the hundred. Water mixed with sewerage freely and people in humbler lodgings could not boil the lethal mixture to make it potable. There were no electricity and phones. Civic authorities could not reach many places because even in normal times they were inaccessible. There was no possibility of helping them even if the municipal officials themselves could come out of their own traps. Statistics have been purveyed to you for days by the media. The authorities have offered mitigating reasons for their lack or insufficiency of action. Of the annual average rainfall of 2300 mm, 1000 mm fell in one day! The high tide in the Arabian Sea compounded the situation. The abnormality of the natural disaster is conceded. But was the response system prepared to cope with even a quarter of the scale of impact? This sort of spectacle occurs every year in varying degrees. People pray for rains. When the prayers are answered, the civic services collapse. People wade through highways of water. The suburban trains are cancelled. We are only amused by pictures we see in the media; we are not roused to action. Ministers and chief ministers promise action against delinquent officials and declare solemnly that situation will not be allowed to recur. Next year is another year and sometime another government. This is Godsend for the new ministers. It gives them an opportunity to blame their predecessors and say that the problem was a part of the legacy that they inherited.<br /><br />National problem<br /><br />For Mumbai, substitute any metro, any city, any town of any size. You will see the same scenario replicated on varying scale. In fact, Delhi has just undergone a similar experience on a smaller scale. In Hyderabad in August, some people were sucked away through the topless drainage pipes and pictures of stranded people have started appearing again as I write this. In 2001 Hyderabad suffered a huge loss in life and property because of the flooding of the city in its most modern parts. It is an occurrence that can take place in any monsoon any where in India – and it does.<br /><br />By classifying such disasters as natural in contrast with human, the authorities cannot escape their responsibility. As Marx put it, ‘philosophers have explained history; the nee however is to change it.’ The authorities are supposed to be ready to meet both types of situations.<br /><br />The chief secretary of Maharashtra admitted candidly that the drainage system was outmoded and inadequate. He was not the first to make that sort of statement, and he won’t be the last. It is the echo of words we hear every year in every city and town. When the question is raised as to why such a situation is allowed to develop, the reason given is lack of funds.<br /><br />Laxity &amp; Corruption<br /><br />As is usual with every state in such situations, Mumbai has asked for a grant of Rs 1200 crores from the Union Government to update the drainage system and to complete the project taken up in 1993 which was originally estimated to cost Rs. 616.3 crores<br /><br /><br />It is not only the outdated and inadequate drainage system. It is the haphazard constructions -- some of them in the open drains both old and new -- that compound the problem. Such constructions are made by encroachers with the connivance of politicians and the municipal staff. Some are made by land mafias and then let out to the poor for their residences. Local residents also use drains and nallahs for dumping refuse. That reduces the carrying capacity of the drains – and sometimes completely blocks it. This was noted in Hyderabad in 2001. It was announced that all those encroachments would be removed. Some frenzy of action was noted for some time. Today the situation is back to ‘normal’. So, laxity in supervision, and corruption are a part of the problem.<br /><br />Need for Infrastructure<br /><br />However, we must not be bogged down by municipal affairs. The point is that our infrastructure is woefully inadequate. Infrastructure includes, transport, power, water, communications, and other utilities. It is one of the points in the Common Minimum Programme. Briefly, we need the development of infrastructure at the national, state and local levels for which the responsibility should lie with respective authorities.<br /><br />However, given our resources the required quantum of infrastructure in diverse sectors cannot be provided entirely through our own resources. Various models for mobilizing resources through private internal and foreign sources have been worked out in different countries and they need not be spelt out here.<br /><br />The root problem is that there is hardly anything in India which could be called local or municipal government. Water supply, drainage and sewerage, electricity, education, health, local transport -- are all not in the hands of the Municipal Corporation, but other departments of the government. In spite of the 74th amendment to the Constitution, the municipalities have not been empowered as envisaged in the aforesaid amendment. Apart from the 18 functions entrusted to them in the 12th schedule, nothing has been entrusted to them. Even those functions cannot be discharged for lack of funds which are not provided by the respective State governments. Ironically, on the other hand the State government of AP has taken some of the existing sources of taxation away from the Corporation. For example, the collection of Motor Vehicle Tax was taken over by the state government in lieu of a fixed compensation. That frozen amount is only a fraction of the actual tax collected today. Municipalities function not as the third tier of the Government, as was envisaged by the amendment quoted above, but as departments of state governments. Their scope for action is severely curtailed.<br /><br />We therefore need to vitalize the local authorities and hold them responsible for the provision of adequate facilities. The funds for discharging their responsibility should be determined not by the whims and fancy of the state government, but by a formula determined by the Finance Commission. Their sources of taxation should not be tempered with by the state governments. The 73rd and 74th amendments should be implemented according to the spirit which inspired them.<br /><br />But we have a tradition of sucking up power, not delegating it. That is the big challenge.<br /></p><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">* * * </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-5721101804118146858?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-44786648827298530972005-09-01T10:03:00.000+05:302006-12-13T12:23:43.471+05:30<div align="justify"><strong>The Budget and Me</strong></div><div align="justify">By Narendra Luther </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify">There are so many types of budgets - the householders' budget, the municipal budget, the budget of the State government, and the budget of the Union government. There are only two budgets that are important – the householders' and that of the union Government. Since the former is no one's concern except that of the individual concerned, we will talk only about the Union budget.<br /><br />This budget comes regularly once a year – sometimes twice, like this time. It is a lot of work for the Finance Minister who has to read it standing without break for as long as the script demands. So far all Finance Ministers have managed to manage that level of that stamina. There must be something nourishing about the preparation of the budget that it enables even old men to live up to the rigour of its presentation. May be it is the knowledge that the whole nation is watching you.<br /><br />The Great Show<br /><br />I don't get excited about the budget. But a lot of sensexible people do. They sit round in big halls and see its delivery on a big screen. Not only the delivery, but also the blows and hugs it contains. They let go their exclamations at intervals appropriately, especially if the camera happens to focus on them. Then they proceed to dissect it to see, and show to the viewers and the Finance Minister, what they think it Learned articles are written by experts to show how they will affect the lives of people in the country. For the fist half of my life, I did not understand the budget and so I did not care. For the second, I began to understand it and so I did not care. The portion that interests me is the exemption limit of income tax. The rest I leave to experts – and I have many friends amongst them.<br /><br />But honestly, there are a few points that I still don’t understand. There is no harm in admitting them. Let me tell you about some of them. One thing is how government can run with fiscal deficits year after year. Dear reader, tell me as an individual, how long can you live that sort of life without falling foul of law. But nothing happens to government.<br /><br />Sensexitvity<br /><br />Second, while the limit of exempted income is raised, a surcharge is slapped in the name of education cess. That means the government is serious about education. But education will first have to be imparted to State governments. Otherwise there are likely to be more Kombakonams even in the non-Tamil parts of the country.<br /><br />Thirdly, why is it that what is good for the country is not good for the Sensex? It first showed its unhappiness by loosening the bears. When it did not frighten the Finance Minister, they started an agitation. They were against the transaction tax. But has there been any levy - transaction or non-transaction that has not been passed on to the consumer in some form or the other?<br /><br />I am not going to tell you about the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh points that I don’t understand because it will contradict my earlier claim that I began to understand the budget in the second part of my life. I should not have made that sort of boast and then proceeded to make admissions of my enormous ignorance. But believe me, the candid admissions that I had begun to make were done in the genuine belief that you would not believe me. But some of you may. That will affect my credibility and nothing is worse than that. So, I shall let them pass and depend upon others to raise the remaining points, which might enlighten me also.<br /><br />The 'Sarality' of the Form<br /><br />My basic difficulty is to fill up my Income Tax form. Successive Finance Ministers have claimed to make the form saral and saraler. But the only thing saral about them is writing my name, my father’s name and my postal address. The assessment year is a year ahead of the financial year and I feel I am dealing with the future while I am only disclosing my past financial status. Though they say it is only one page, they don’t talk about the enclosures that you have to attach to it. So, I always go to a pundit friend of mine, and like the illiterate village woman who wants to get a letter written to her errant son or an absconding husband, pour my facts and papers before him and plead with him to give them a shape acceptable to my assessing officer. My predicament has become all the more galling after I returned recently form a trip to Saudi Arabia where there is no tax. Imagine, being told immediately that the last date for filing the returns is fast approaching. The Saudi Government can afford not to levy tax because its enormous reserves of oil are matched only by its sparse population. I suggest we emulate them. Let the Finance Minister invest more in exploration of oil reserves and give incentives for not producing children. He can, for example, give a rebate for the educational expenses of every unborn child. Anyway, these suggestions can be considered only in the future.<br /><br />‘Roll –Backy’ FM<br /><br />I have seen all Finance Ministers right since independence. I don’t think any one of them was roly-poly. They were all normal sized persons without much extra weight. But lately, our Finance Ministers have become, if I can coin a term, ‘roll-backy’. They introduced some brave measures in their budget. But when they saw the storm some of them raised in some powerful sections of the polity, they either withdrew them or modified them. The new term for that manoeuvre is ‘roll back’. I don’t think the term applies to the Finance Minister. That would appropriately be ‘somersault’. It applies to the measure which is withdrawn. ‘Withdrawal’ is not an elegant term. It has the connotatation of retreat, a defeat, bank deposits, and also of Vatsyayana. ‘Roll back’, on the other hand is undoing something that should not have been done in the first instance. Chidambram, the charming FM also did likewise on the transaction tax. The sensex jumped up with joy. Now people who matter are happy. Which means the country is happy. But wait a minute. It is not all over yet. There is an ally, which is supporting the government from the outside. It wants a number of roll backs, but will probably be satisfied with one. That is the reduction in the limit of direct foreign investment. That, they say, is dangerous. They remember from history that that flag follows trade. Though thee are many attractive flags in the world, they would like only the tricolour to fly in this rich land inhabited by the poor.<br /></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">***</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-4478664882729853097?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-77146856326830129452005-08-01T16:37:00.000+05:302006-12-12T16:39:05.719+05:30<div align="justify"><strong>Police to meet you</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br /><br />My choice of the subject for this column is generally by current events. Any thing that stands out during the month preceding the week when I sit down to strike the keyboard of my computer becomes the topic for the next issue. This time there I had a dilemma. Two topics were competing for my attention. One is the deep, larger national malaise represented by the deluge of Mumbai. The other is the conduct of the police which was dramatized by the IG of Ranchi who as of now is absconding. Since last month I wrote about the falling standards of IAS, I selected the police so that the picture of our two premier all -India services is complete. If they are not good enough, nothing else in the administrative machinery of the nation can work.<br /><br />Security – the primary need<br /><br />State comes into being to make life possible, so said the great philosopher, Aristotle. Life is made possible on the basis of security – what is generally referred to as law and order. The basic function – indeed the raison dệtre of the State (read Government) is provision of law and order. Every thing else is secondary. No welfare state is possible in the absence of law and order. State has to ensure for its citizens conditions of civilized existence. That is the responsibility of the police – to ensure compliance with basic laws, to keep anti-social elements under control and to control civil unrest. In that, if resort to force becomes necessary, it should observe the doctrine of the use of minimum force.<br /><br />Only a few glaring instances underline the behaviour of the police generally. The 1984 riots against the Sikhs have been highlighted recently on the release of the Nanavati Commission Report, its discussion in parliament and the attendant demonstrations in the streets. The police failed miserably to protect innocent Sikh families by playing a brazenly partisan role. Indeed the charge is that it connived with the rioters. That is the lowest ebb to which men in uniform charged with the responsibility of providing security to citizens could fall. Its conduct during the Gujarat riots of 2002 was no different and drew nation wide condemnation.<br /><br />The recent brutal attack on unarmed civilians in Gurgaon was, thanks to the electronic media, seen by the entire nation – indeed the whole world. No doubt the initial provocation was provided by the physical assault by the workers on policemen. But the doctrine of minimum force enjoins controlling the mob, not attacking it mercilessly. It was fortunate that the police were not armed with anything more lethal than lathis. If they had firearms, it would have been another Jallianwala Bagh. They were not at war with the striking workers. Their job was to ensure that the workers exercised their right within legal bounds. But they went after them in full fury to teach them a lesson. The use of excessive force at individual level is quite common and generally goes unreported. Gurgaon highlighted a deeper malady.<br /><br />The Rs. 35000 - wallah<br /><br />Analyst blames the lower cadres of the police with lack of education and proper training. There is a system of training in all states but the fault lies with the raw human material that gets recruited. It is common knowledge that the recruits pay heavy amounts for their selection. In a case of misbehaviour with me, an inquiry was conducted against an Assistant Sub Inspector of police posted at a Raj Bhavan. The inquiry officer asked him brusquely, ‘Are you a 25000- wallah or 35000- wallah?’ The delinquent officer replied meekly, ‘35000-wallah, Sir’. The Raj Bhavan officer who was present there asked the inquiry officer to be enlightened about the argot. The latter said, ‘This man has paid Rs. 35000 as bribe for recruitment. That is why he is not so good. That is why he has behaved the way he has. The better types pay only Rs. 25000. A recruit from that category would probably have behaved better.’ That was the end of inquiry. Of course the ASI was pulled up formally. The incident points out the root cause of the malaise. Bribes are paid not only for recruitment but also for posting in what is called ‘fetching areas’ - where one can make money. Ministers allegedly collect money for good posting for their petty officials. What will training do to such persons?<br /><br />Cases of moral turpitude abound and are reported every other day. A woman going by bus late in the evening is in grave danger of being raped by the guardians of law- or their accomplices. Uniform seems to gives them a special privilege to do wrong.<br /><br />Some will say naively that the recruitment should not be done by officials but by the Public Service Commissions. Thy should be reminded of the cases of a former chairman of the Punjab Public Service Commission, and of the Maharashtra Public Service Commission who even made it to the Union PSC before being apprehended.<br /><br />One expects better from the higher cadres, particularly the members of IPS. They do things with greater finesse. Remember the case of the Haryana DIG who went into hiding and came out only when he failed to get an anticipatory bail. He is behind the bars. So is a former officer of UP allegedly involved in the murder of Madhumita, the poetess. The arrest of no less a person than the former Commissioner of Police of Mumbai for his alleged involvement in the Telgi Stamp scam is another instance of disgraceful conduct at the highest level. The most recent case is that of the IG of Ranchi who was looking into the case of misconduct of his deputy. He was accused of raping a woman, which he vehemently denied. When confronted with a strip of a film showing him in a compromising position with that woman, he explained brazenly the difference between rape and consensual sex between adults, which is not culpable!<br /><br />The sanctity of uniform<br /><br />Senior officers are the role models of junior officials and the lower cadres. When a person dons a uniform he should be proud that he has taken on some of the divine attributes. He becomes the human version of the tiune Hindu gods – Brahma, the creator, Vishnu the protector, and Siva, the destroyer. He creates goodness, protects the week, and destroys the evildoers. He has to be selected carefully; moral values need to be ingrained in him during training. The uniform should transform him into a superman if not a god. A police station should become a sanctuary for any one in danger or fear. People should feel safe and protected there. It is the threshold that leads people to that temple of justice – the court.<br /><br />That was the dream when our ancestors fought for swaraj. When we meet a man in uniform, we should not be afraid of him, but be able to say genuinely – if you permit me a pun – ‘Police to meet you’!<br /></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">***</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></div><div align="justify"></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-7714685632683012945?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-67802065330329972282005-07-01T18:32:00.000+05:302006-12-13T12:39:50.511+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>The Missing Base<br /></strong>By Narendra Luther<br /><br />A group of citizens rampaged the office of the Electricity Board in Maharashtra protesting against prolonged power cuts in rural areas.<br /><br />Irate residents of a government colony came out in the capital of India for non-supply of water for five days.<br /><br />A man was killed in Hyderabad over a dispute over filling his pot with water.<br /><br />Women in Rajasthan trudge for miles for getting a bucket of water.<br /><br />You pay for a tanker of water and it takes five days of chase to get it.<br /><br />A TV image shows you a part of a stretch of 30 miles of the national highway in Bihar. It takes four hours to cover the distance because the road is in an utter state of disrepair.<br /><br />In Bangalore the industries go on a one- day token strike to underline the state of disrepair of a road leading to an industrial estate<br /><br />A young engineer in Bihar is killed because he complains to the Prime Minister about corruption in the implementation of the scheme for the national highway project.<br /><br />Early in June 2005, the special train of the Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad was stopped by hundreds of people of Brauni and adjoining areas agitating against acute shortage of power and water.<br /><br />Three persons died in Tonk in Rajasthan in mid-June when the Police fired on farmers agitating for water.<br /><br />The traffic police boss in a metro explains that our roads are not able to take the increased number of vehicles. Hence the traffic jams.<br /><br />Infrastructure<br /><br />I could fill up pages with such authentic news items but that is not necessary to bring home the point that there is an acute lack of infrastructure in our country. Infrastructure or ‘social overhead outlay’ covers roads, railways, transport and communication system electricity, water supply and other public services. It is also generally widened to include the health, skills, education and other qualities of the population – resources necessary for any development to take place. Let us forget about the second category of the list above and talk about the hard part of infrastructure.<br /><br />As ordinary individual consumers of utilities you and I know this - and to retain our sanity, have reconciled ourselves to the situation. We utter the serenity prayer: ‘God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change; courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference’. Only the philosophy of acceptance and retreat flourishes in such an atmosphere.<br /><br />The importance of building infrastructure was fully appreciated by our early leaders. Considerable accretions to it were made under the leadership of Nehru in that respect. It entailed sacrifices on the consumption front and we have lived through a regime of restrictive imports for building a better future. But after him, in the hands of smaller netas, investment on infrastructure became a casualty of populistic politics. Short-term sops to people took precedence over long-term investments. Communal and casteist politics too had an adverse impact on the building of infrastructure. Subsidies were given, in some cases with justification. But it became difficult to withdraw them later. They became part of the system and every attempt to remove or even reduce them has been vigorously opposed by the Left parties.<br /><br />Dog in the manger<br /><br />They impact adversely on the building of infrastructure. That, in turn, affects the entry of foreign capital and enterprise. Today we are not in a position to undertake investments of the magnitude required for improving our infrastructure. Yet there are people and parties that oppose the entry of foreign capital to enable us to do that. They invoke the ghost of the East India Company and they warn us that history will repeat itself. They ignore the fact that we are living not in the 17th but in the 21st century. In an era of globalization they want us to remain wrapped up in the slip of isolationism. We have seen the advantages of globalization accruing to us through BPO and increased immigration. Yet many amongst us oppose it.<br /><br />Our present situation is such that we should welcome direct foreign investment in many fields like road building, power generation, surface transportation, airports and civil aviation. They will trigger growth of ancillary industries and small business. Exposure to competition will also improve the quality of our products and services as has been witnessed in certain fields like telephony and the automobiles. Phone calls are becoming cheaper every day. The prices of electronic gadgets and white goods are also falling instead of increasing. But poor infrastructure is the main hurdle to growth. We don’t have road lengths to drive on; we don’t have enough planes to fly people. We don’t have adequate capacity at airport lounges and tarmacs to bring in tourists. Our services at all levels are poor by international standards. And it is the service sector that has played a crucial role in the growth of all advanced economies.<br /><br />At your Service!<br /><br />Our service sector is marked by inefficiency and corruption. Corruption is of course the all-pervasive factor in our life. The late India expert, Prof. Hanson once invited me to speak to his class on Indian administration. In his introductory remarks, he said that in India it was either influence or money which made things happen. I felt hurt at that observation but on return to India, I have seen time and again how perceptive his observation was. In corruption the tone is set by the politicians and is eagerly adopted by the bureaucracy at all levels. That however is a subject by itself. We saw how corruption affected the Dhabol Power Project in Maharashtra. When the Congress Government sanctioned it, the Shiv Sena cried ‘corruption’. However, when the Shiv Sena came to power, it sanctioned the self-same project. It was then the turn of the Congress Party in the opposition to cry ‘corruption’. As was shown by what happened to the Enron Company later back home, we found that both were right in their accusation.<br /><br />Attention: Election Commission<br /><br />We are deficit in power. Yet party after party in politics has won election on the basis of a promise to give free power to farmers. After winning the elections, some of them had to scrap or modify the scheme. The latest is the Congress Party in Andhra Pradesh. It is now trying to refine the scheme of free power to the farmers by applying some sort of means test. The point is why is such a promise is allowed to be made by any political party. The Prime Minister, a distinguished practising economist himself, has spoken against it. The Union Power Minister has expressed himself against it. Yet their Party made this promise in its election campaign and formed government in two states. The Election Commission should prohibit the inclusion of such inducements in the election manifestoes of political party by making it a corrupt practice. Let the election manifestoes be realistic and not promise moon to the voter. The fraud has to be stopped.<br /></p><p align="justify">***</p><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></p><div align="justify"></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-6780206533032997228?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-52784302345717369422005-06-01T10:04:00.000+05:302006-12-13T12:25:02.253+05:30<div align="justify"><strong>The Flavour of Salt<br /></strong>By Narendra Luther<br /><br />Public servants in India have often come in for criticism, amongst other things, for their lack of integrity. There was a time when members of IAS were considered exempt from this censure. They were also jealous about their reputation. Thirty years ago if some one even so much as hinted that anyone in IAS was corrupt, I would fly at his throat. He was uttering a heresy, committing a sacrilege.<br /><br />My defence became milder two decades ago. A decade later, I stopped putting up any defence. Now I am grateful if they spare me personally from the reproach. Every day you get a shock. CBI or ACB of some state or the other raids houses of some officer and finds unaccounted for assets. Some are arrested; some abscond till they are able to secure an anticipatory bail or fail in their attempt and have no option left but to surrender to a court. When they are taken to court they cover their faces to avoid being photographed by the media so as to avoid recognition by the viewers. The dramatic public part over, they go into protracted trials and some time come out on technical grounds , procedural lapses or defective investigation. But the damage is done all around -- to the individual, the system and the public confidence. The gods’ feet of clay are revealed to the public and those who were considered incorruptible are seen as just ordinary mortals subject to the temptation of greed.<br /><br /><br />Falling standards<br /><br />I remember the time when I headed the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad four decades ago. Many parties used to approach me for a personal inspection to see the injustice done to them. Some time I had too many of them and said that I would depute one of my senior deputies to do that. The instant reaction of the party generally was that that would not do since they were the selfsame people who were involved in the foul play. By and large, there was implicit faith and trust in the integrity of an IAS officer. Touched by that faith, I asked the government to give me one IAS officer of whatever seniority as a deputy so that I could have my burden shared. I did not get any and so had to carry on all by myself. The same was the case in many of the other departments that I handled. That belief that the party could expect justice and fair play was enough compensation and the pride it gave made one try harder to rise to the expectations of the people -- and even beyond.<br /><br />IAS was the successor service of the ICS which enjoyed a very high degree of reputation for honesty, personal integrity and fair play during the British rule. Not that there were no dishonest or corrupt ICS officers But if anyone was found to be so, he was confidentially advised to put in his papers and go home. No scandal thus came to light and the reputation of the ‘heaven-born service ‘ was kept in tact. The same was expected of the IAS and for a time it did hold good. But with the passage of time it got diluted. There are many reasons for that. One is the diversity of sources which supplied the recruits. There was no commonality of traditions amongst them. The other is the comparatively low salaries in a world of higher cost of living. Yet another is the character of the latter generation of politicians. They are not the people who made sacrifices for freedom. They came to politics not for any ideal of social service, but in pursuit of power and what power brings to its holder. In our system supreme power belongs to the elected masters. The civil service is required to offer its considered advice on issues of public policy. The pros and cons of a proposed course of action and its likely fallout in the public are highlighted by the civil servants. The new breed of politicians did not like frank and independent advice. They wanted compliance. Those officers who toed the line prospered; those who stuck their neck out got into trouble. Officers were often put in the loop line for daring to advice while remaining within their bounds. The message went round and soon in places, a nexus came to be established between the politician and the elite IAS corps. Officers saw the advantages, albeit short-term of aligning themselves with the politicians in power. The permanent and neutral civil service pattern of the British model yielded place to the ‘spoils system’ of the United States. The old form remained, but the essence changed.<br /><br /><br />The Spoils System<br /><br />Young officers still having a spark of idealism did not relish that and we have seen that for years in Uttar Pradesh the IAS Association has been preparing a list of most corrupt officers. Many of them land plum postings and make the lives of honest officers difficult. How long will the young people hold out?<br /><br />I have given the example of UP, but this is happening all over. In the neighbouring Bihar the Fodder Scam is old history. Recently a young officer having earned international praise for his dynamism, had to go into hiding to escape arrest. In Andhra Pradesh recently two scandals have emerged in quick succession . The house of an IAS officer was raided and reportedly assets beyond the known sources of income were found.<br /><br />I have dwelt upon IAS because that is supposed to be the elite service and so is expected to exhibit the highest standards of probity. There are numerous cases of top officers of other services having been trapped and their houses raided revealing unaccounted for assets. The rot is therefore wide spread.<br /><br />What can we do to remedy the situation? When the salt itself loses its flavour, with what shall it be salted is an old conundrum.<br /><br />It is difficult to stay clean in a sea of muck. A saint does so by withdrawing from the world of action. A public servant has to be a crusader. That role is enervating. Ours is a society which glorifies favouritism. Concentric and enlarging circles around the holders of office are expected to benefit from him. How does one break that chakravyuh? Most importantly, how does one reconcile the demands of political master for partisan action against objective criteria? When ministers alternate their time between courts and jails on the one side and cabinet seats on the other, what is the bureaucrat to do? He can ensure probity on his part, try to enforce it on his subordinates, but he is not his master’s keeper. So, the rot has to be stemmed there. That leads us to the issue of electoral reforms. Also the delinquent official must be dealt with speedily and handed condign punishment. I know, it is easier said than done. So is the case with every problem that matters.<br /></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">***</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-5278430234571736942?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-53439496120218042662005-02-01T18:21:00.000+05:302006-12-13T12:38:35.472+05:30<div align="justify"><strong>Of Human Need and Greed</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />The recent Tsunami disaster highlighted two contrasting aspects of human nature – sympathy and charity on the one hand, and greed and perversity on the other.<br /><br />As soon as the impact of the disaster came to be known, human beings of all persuasions and in all parts of the country and the world rose to provide succour and relief in whatever way they could. There was a spontaneous gush of good will and many persons and groups rushed to relieve the misery of the people affected by the tragedy. Sympathy and pity are ever present in the human heart. We have had ample evidence of it during the Chinese attack on India in 1962 when women in the far south gave their ornaments for supplementing the funds for the defence of the country. During the cyclone of 1979 in the coastal Andhra, voluntary relief agencies descended in the area from all parts of the country with money and material. Again when an earthquake devastated Latur, the response of the agencies and individuals was overwhelming. In the case of Tsunami, thanks to the scale of the havoc and the revolution in communication, the response of the common man all over exceeded all expectations. From every segment of society persons of all ages came forward to contribute their mite to mitigate the human tragedy. Children gave from their pocket money and pensioners contributed from their pensions, not to speak of the rich and the corporates who made liberal contributions to different funds started by various organizations. These examples reveal the benevolent side of human nature.<br /><br />The other side<br /><br />Sadly, simultaneously, we also saw the perverse side of human nature too. Since some of the images to corroborate that appeared on some channels of TV, they can’t be denied or brushed under the carpet by the authorities. We saw some unaffected parties repeatedly collecting the chits which entitled the victims to relief materials. Vultures in the shape of human beings descended on the sites and drove away with truck-fulls of materials to the markets. The officials when questioned had nothing to say in defence. They went off the cameras. Some of the relief materials did not reach the affected parties. If it was due to the difficulties of reaching the inaccessible places, one could understand. In many cases, they were siphoned off to other destinations. Stories of connivance by officials with some unscrupulous elements to filch the relief money and material are current. Unfortunately, all public servants are not imbued with the sense of dedication that is required in such situations. And there is no way in which it can be injected suddenly amongst officials. It has to be instilled in them earlier in their homes and later during their training. Thy can no doubt draw inspiration from the conduct of their seniors if they set a good example to emulate. But at that level too we often see the same vicious circle. No code can be a substitute for the spirit that determines the type of response that is required in emergencies. In many cases, the code has to be defied because it does not meat the situation. For example, I had once to draw money from the treasury in excess of my powers to meet the demand of the situation. My justification lay in what I called the ‘doctrine of implied powers’. It was my duty to make sure that no one died an unnatural death in my jurisdiction. In order to ensure that, I had the implicit authority to do every thing lawful. My action was not only upheld but also lauded.<br /><br />Callousness and Perversion<br /><br />I may be forgiven for citing my own experience of the two contrasting aspects of human nature. Long back at the very start of my first posting in Gudur (Nellore district of AP) there was incessant rain lasting four days. I received a wireless message from the government past mid-night that two trains were stranded in my jurisdiction near Nayudupeta and Sulurpeta respectively and that I should arrange to provide necessary relief to the passengers.<br /><br />As soon as we moved out of town we encountered waist deep water on the road. My officials said we could not go further. That was the first time I realized that a leader has to sometime overrule seemingly wise counsel. As I pushed into the chest- deep water, others were compelled to follow suit. We felt happy when with great difficulty we were finally able to reach the first train with adequate succour. But our elation was dampened by some passengers spurning the meager fare, and asking for a la carte menu – including pudding!<br /><br />We set up refugee camps for the hordes of people pouring in from the affected villages to the small town of Sulurpeta. I asked the tahsildar to buy rice and other essential commodities needed by the refugees. Some of the refugees particularly women also needed some clothes.<br /><br />When the Tahsildar went to buy rice in the market the merchants increased the price. I was furious and instructed the tahsildar to seize all the stocks with the shopkeepers without payment and give them only acknowledgment. We also bought sarees and dhotis from the market and had them distributed to the needy. Imagine my frustration and rage when I was told that the beneficiaries had sold those sarees and dhotis back to the shopkeepers at half the price!<br /><br />The government sanctioned some grant and loans to the cultivators. Complaints reached me that the Special Tahsildar appointed for their disbursement was taking a percentage of cut. After gathering adequate evidence against him, I suspended him. I did not know that was beyond my authority. The Collector annulled my action, but he himself suspended him immediately.<br /><br />Let me quote another incident of the ingratitude of the beneficiaries. This occurred two decades later. We had put all the leprosy – patients in the city in a special colony equipped with all civic facilities on par with a lower middle class colony. They wee to get free board, lodging, water and electricity. They were given training and produced good like wire gauze and candles which were sold in the market to supplement the funds required for their maintenance. When they were asked to offload a truck of rice bags, they asked for wages. We had planned to run the colony on the principle of ‘to each according to need and from each according to capacity’. If they wanted wages for their work, they would have to pay for their keep. Thereupon they went on an agitation. I was pained to find that they were being instigated by a politician. Later, they were brought round and the colony is now running successfully, the politician in question having died meanwhile!<br /><br />Looking at Tsunami images now and my own experiences, I find that human nature has not changed at all. How naïve of me to imagine that it would!<br /><br />***<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a> </div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-5343949612021804266?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-60555128467960748822005-01-01T10:09:00.000+05:302006-12-13T12:39:34.476+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>Weddings and all that</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />I was pleasantly surprised to read in the papers that a Pakistani court rejected a plea that some snacks may be allowed to be served at wedding reception apart from the beverages. So presumably there is a ban on the service of eats at such receptions. Frankly, I did not expect that such a progressive and strict measure would be applied in a country like Pakistan. It gave me cheer and hope. If they can do it, surely we too can.<br /><br />I have attended weddings of all sorts from the poorest to the richest. I have attended weddings where no more than 20 persons came from the side of the groom. Incidentally that was the wedding of the son of the late Krishen Kant in Hyderabad. He was then the governor of AP, and later became the Vice President of India. When the party was about to leave, a relation came unexpectedly and had to be accommodated as a member of the wedding party. That would have made it 21. So Mrs. Kant stayed back! I know it since I was from the bride’s side and asked the groom’s father for the reason of the groom’s mother’s absence.<br /><br />The fare was very simple and after lunch the party drove back to the Raj Bhavan.<br /><br /><br />Lavish Weddings<br /><br />I have attended weddings where the guest list was 10,000. Yes, ten thousand if not more. Separate enclosures were made for important invitees. Fortunately, I happened to be one of those who were taken to the special enclosure. The explanation given was that the host, a politician, could not afford to ignore his political supporters. I do not who bore the expenses.<br /><br />I have attended weddings of business men in which some of the items of the menu, especially fruit are imported especially from Singapore or Hong Kong. We counted twenty items of pudding and fruit at more than one parties. Business must be very profitable to be able to have such parties. I felt sorry that I had only one stomach and one day to savour only some of the items on offer at such parties.<br /><br />I have attended wedding parties of the sons and daughters of officials where a thousand or more guests were invited. The spread was indeed lavish though not on the same scale as that of the politicians and businessmen. Still, the expenditure must be enormous. One can’t help asking oneself how they could manage to spend so much.<br /><br />I have only read about the weddings in the family of the richest Indian in England - and one of the richest in India. One was celebrated in Paris and the other in Kolkota. Every name that mattered in any field was there. I cannot bring myself even to guess the expenditure at those weddings.<br /><br />The Demonstration Effect<br /><br />I have attended weddings of children of attenders and class four employees who at some time worked in my office. That is part of the noblesse oblige, we were taught. Miss a wedding of big man, but not of your subordinates. It is a matter of prestige for them. And there too I am surprised how they manage to spend so much.<br /><br />When our maid’s son was to be married, we gave her 5000 rupees by way of help. She invited us to a reception where 500 guests were invited. My wife asked her why and how she could afford that. He replied coolly that the parents of the bride were meeting the expenditure. My wife reminded her that she had two daughters and how would she cope with the expenses on their marriages. I regretted why we had given her the financial help if it was to form only a fraction of her extravagance. Many people fall into the debt trap because of the marriage of their children. The poor wish to do as the rich people do. That is what is called the ‘demonstration effect’. It is for that reason that it is important for the big people to behave modestly because then the smaller people will emulate their example.<br /><br />I always return form such weddings with a bad conscience. The expenditure on some weddings would be enough to feed the inhabitants of an average slum for one year. I admit I make for an ungrateful guest at most weddings. Even in writing this I feel I am betraying those who invite me.<br /><br />It is not only the expenditure but the guest list too which surprises and scandalizes me. Important persons are invited whether they are friends or not. One Chief Minister held a special reception to which he invited only IAS officers to introduce his new son-in-law to them.<br /><br />‘Conspicuous Consumption<br /><br />Some friends tell me why I get worried about that. So long as they pay their taxes, they are entitled to enjoy themselves. That is not all. It was perhaps with such cases in mind that the Economist, Nicholas Kaldor, suggested the imposition of ’Expenditure Tax’. In India, my friend, the late Professor Gautam Mathur was a strong supporter of this concept. According to the proposal, for example, if some one spent ten lakhs on a wedding, he would have to pay a tax of three lakhs on that. Nehru entertained Kaldor and had his proposal examined. Due, however to the complexities involved, it was not implemented and the conventional Income Tax stayed on. Would that have curbed what Thorstein Veblen in his classic treatise, ’Theory of the Leisure Class’ called ‘conspicuous consumption’?<br /><br />I can see the point of persons who have earned the money by sheer hard work to spend the way they like. To ascribe insensitivity to such person to the teeming poor also is not entirely fair. The poor have always been there. They will always be there. Some of them are poor because of their own fault. In any case they are not poor always because of the rich. So why should they cast their shadow on every celebration? Some of the poor who take to begging, accost me when I come out of a restaurant after a modest meal, or out of a shop after buying some fruit. They are shrewd in their own way trying to catch their quarry in its most vulnerable moments.<br /><br />Many persons have big celebration also because of social pressure. During the Second World War, and in the period of our food deficit, there used to be a Guest Control Order. It was good in some ways. It reduced the social pressure to have big parties<br /><br />But all said and done, I can’t stomach these lavish weddings. Sorry, I do stomach some of them if invited, but feel some revulsion after that. By all means enjoy on festive occasions, but moderate them.<br /><br />Now that we are having some contacts with Pakistan, let us pay them a compliment by adopting one of their good pieces of practice. There is no border check for ideas.<br /><br />***</p><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-6055512846796074882?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-65643650484941677552004-12-01T10:09:00.000+05:302006-12-13T12:43:01.217+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>Where we stand<br /></strong>By Narendra Luther<br /><br />Robert Orme was a civil servant of the East India Company in India in the 18th century. He wrote a history of India called ‘Historical Fragments’ which was first published in 1782. In that he observed that two English sawyers did the work of 32 Indians. For his calculation he made allowances ‘for the difference of dexterity and the advantage of European instruments’. He went on to say that had the Indians been given the instruments used by the Europeans they would have scarcely been able to wield them.’ In modern terminology he was saying that the productivity of an Indian was less than seven percent of a European.<br /><br />This may sound preposterous today when we notice the great demand for Indians abroad particularly in the field of IT. Only the other day a friend of mine, who is a well - known consultant told me that he attended campus recruitment in the Cornell University in the United States. He found that the American companies gave first preference to Indian students, second to the Chinese, and the last to Americans. But we have to compare the productivity of Indian in India with that of the European or American in his own country. According to my observation, the Indian productivity is very low. It is due largely to the lack of availability of tools which impart greater efficiency to the hand than that wields them. Most of our workers are still in the ‘craft’ stage. In other words, they depend upon their individual skills and the use of hand without supplementing them adequately with tools. Our labour is cheap because it is poorer in quality.<br /><br />The Craft System<br /><br />Some time ago when we were having our house painted, the workers covered their hands and faces with rags. In Europe and America their counterparts would use overalls for the body and gloves for their hands. The latter are imported from India and under prevalent regulations, they have to be discarded within a fortnight. Again, to paint the outside walls the contractor made a sort of platform and hung it with ropes from the top. The workers stood, sat or lay on that depending on the demands of the task and painted the walls. Four or five workers standing on the roof manipulated the platform. I looked at that spectacle and prayed for the safety of the workers. I also wondered how that sort of work would have been done in Europe or America. There, they would have had power- operated ladders or crane and workers would have been fully clad with paint-proof clothing and gloves for their hands. The painting would have been done mechanically and the whole job would have taken half a day for two men, compared to half a dozen men working for five days here.<br /><br />Currently, I am getting more insights from watching the construction of a neighbour’s house. The steel rods for making pillars are cut by a chisel and hammer. Then two workers jump with their bums on the rods to bend them. Some of them are children not yet in their teens. It can be dangerous and can hurt them – and passers –by.<br /><br />For the construction, the existing parapet wall about three feet height has to be demolished. Two young boys do that with hammers hardly bigger than what I have for driving nails in the walls. From the last ten days they are breaking the mortar. I have seen that sort of thing being done mechanically with giant hammers in two or three hours. We discussed this and it was argued that it was cheaper for the contractor to do the way he was doing it than to use some machinery of equipment to demolish it quickly. My calculation showed that it could be cheaper for him to do it mechanically.<br /><br />Productivity &amp; Capital-intensity<br /><br />He can improve his productivity by improving the quality of the tools given to his workers. With improved productivity he can utilize his employees better. He can thus earn more and do the jobs faster. Productivity entails capital-intensity to begin with. But in the long run it pays its way. A recent study by McKenzie showed that the productivity of a Chinese worker is three to five times that of an Indian. It is worthwhile studying how they were able to achieve that standard since today we are in competition with China.<br /><br />In the first half of the last century, the American genius Buckminster Fuller said about the American house building industry that it was like ‘manufacturing’ your own car in your garage by assembling different parts bought from different shops. He suggested the concept of pre- fabricated housing. According to that, main parts of the house including walls and windows and floors etc., are prefabricated according to a standard design. They are then brought to the site and the house gets ready in no time. He also suggested the concept of what he called a ‘dymaxion’ car and a ‘dymaxion’ house. His concept of the geodesic dome is well known. It can cut off the sun and rain and provide a hall without pillars. The concept has been used on a limited scale to house exhibitions. He said that he could cover the whole Sahara under a geodesic dome and make it more habitable and productive.<br /><br />BPO ‘Islands’<br /><br />We have however to see how productivity can be increased in small items of work and in small pieces. Productivity is not only better time-management, but also use of better implements. If that is done the inglorious equation of Robert Orme quoted above can be annulled if not reversed. If our Indians have shown better productivity abroad it is largely due to their ability to use the same tools which their counterparts do. Even in India we have islands of BPO where young men and women are performing better because they are cheaper in real terms than their counterparts abroad. Such island need to be multiplied and replicated in other fields and integrated with the ‘mainland’ so that our overall productivity increases. In our BPOs the same people are working who earlier did not appreciate the virtues of punctuality, value of time and the importance of self-confidence. In the new islands they are trained to appreciate the elementary virtues. The new names given to them are symbolic in more than one way. They virtually change their identity and set in motion a new ‘’virtuous cycle’.<br /><br />Such attitudes need to percolate down to our contractors, labourers and lowest level workers who live in their own time capsule and cling to their orthodoxies. For example, they observe long period of mourning and celebrations because that is their inherited and prevalent culture. They can improve only if they know that the cost of such luxuries is loss of job. Those who are better placed and can set an example can provide a ‘demonstration’ effect.<br /><br />***<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a><br /></p><div align="justify"></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-6564365048494167755?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-72573071196029045602004-11-01T16:31:00.000+05:302006-12-12T16:33:17.666+05:30<strong>Let them do it </strong><br />by Narendra Luther<br /><br /><div align="justify">In administrative and managerial jargon the term ‘delegation’ occurs very frequently. It is recommended for good management in all textbooks. A good leader is one who delegates responsibility. That makes his burden lighter and helps the mangers under him grow. Every CEO makes it a point to stress in public statements and endowment lectures that delegation has been a key to his success. In a good organization the top man does not waste his time on small decisions. He concentrates on policy formulation -- that is, determining the direction and speed of the march of his forces.<br /><br />What is Policy?<br /><br />In the field of public administration, policy is concerned with issues. For example, it means deciding, whether we should have controlled economy, or adopt the free market approach. It may grapple with the issue of laying down the limits of foreign direct investment in various sectors, and whether we should accept the provisions of W.T.O.<br /><br />Similarly, in the corporate world policy may decide whether a company should go in for diversification or stay rooted in its ‘core competence’. It would determine whether a company would concentrate on domestic market or venture into the world for exports. It may also mean deciding whether it should go alone, merge with a rival, or acquire it.<br /><br />In public administration, the theory is that man on the spot knows the situation best. So he should be allowed to take appropriate decisions. He will learn by that. No doubt he will make a mistake here and there, but that is part of the process of acquiring experience and maturity. The government and corporate manuals lay down the authority of various functionaries in a hierarchy. The top people should deal with broad issues, not with the nitty gritty.<br /><br />What is Power?<br />But in real life, power lies in small decisions. Policy is an abstract, amorphous concept. The examples of issues mentioned above don’t constitute raw power. That power lies in recruiting people for jobs, in transferring employees from one place to another. It lies in allotting work to a particular person or party – in deciding who will do what. Within the frame work of the Pubic Distribution System policy, for example, power lies in selecting beneficiaries, in choosing areas where to start the implementation of the scheme.<br /><br />In the corporate world power lies in choosing a franchisee, in releasing or withholding quotas, in making purchases from particular suppliers. Negatively, it also lies in being selective in attending to service calls.<br />In theory, these functions are delegated to lower functionaries. But in actual practice top people poke their nose into them. I haven’t seen one person who practises delegation. If you have, let me know.<br /><br />The Boss’ Wife<br /><br />Once I was a deputy secretary in a Union ministry. My boss, a Joint Secretary asked me to appoint a particular person as a driver in a temporary vacancy on ad hoc basis. A fortnight later the Minister sent someone for the same job. My boss coolly asked me to sack the earlier appointee and employ the minister’s man. I suggested he should might tell the minister that the job had already been filled up. He gave me a piece of advice which I never forgot. ‘The minister is not supposed to get interested in small jobs but most probably this man has approached his wife. Now if he is not accommodated, he will go back to the Minister’s wife. She will then taunt her husband who was the boss? - He or the deputy secretary? That will hurt his ego and he will have it out with me - or you. The boss is always right. Don’t antagonize him’. So, the minister’s replaced our man.<br /><br />Strictly speaking, it was within my jurisdiction to fill up the job. First my boss broke the boundary, and then the Minister.<br /><br />CM’s Son-in-law<br /><br />We hear ministers quite often say: ‘What is the use of becoming a minister if I can’t appoint an attender?’ They are generally not interested in policy matters which should be their preserve. Policy initiatives thus come largely from civil servants and go to the credit of ministers!<br /><br />As managing director of a public undertaking, I had set up committees, amongst others, for recruitment at various levels in accordance with prescribed rules. So the cases of recruitment to lower were decided by a committee without reference to me.<br /><br />Once a son-in-law of the chief minister rang me up to find out whether a particular person had been selected for a lowly job. I said I would not know. The result of the selection would be put up on the notice board after the concerned committee had made the selection. He asked me threateningly whether he should ask the chief minister. I replied that he could do as he pleased.<br /><br />I was transferred after a weak of this incident. Only a few days earlier the chief minister had specially rung me up to say that he was very happy with my work.<br /><br />Coming to decentralization in administration, once the late President, Sanjeeva Reddy, when he was the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, said in an address to senior officials that he was surprised at a situation in which he could be trusted with a budget of 1000 crore rupees, while his younger brother who was a sarpanch, could not be trusted to handle 50,000 rupees!<br /><br />While the state governments complain against centralizations of functions by the union government, they are loath to empower local bodies. It took four decades to devolve some functions on local bodies under the Constitution through 73rd and 74th amendments in 1993. Yet the state governments have dragged their feet to vitiate the spirit of the amendments.<br /><br />The Calibre of Panchayats<br /><br />The local bodies don’t seem to be morally equipped yet to exercise power. Orthodoxy, casteism, and corruption seem to be entrenched in those bodies. I don’t say that they are not there in our higher legislatures. But there is a better chance of exposure there. We have seen recently the case of a panchayat members participating in an honour killing because a young woman had married a man from another community. In another case, the Panchayat let off a rapist with a small fine. More recently, a village Panchayat in Haryana ordered the annulment of a marriage of a couple because they belonged to the same ‘gotra’. It asked the husband and wife to live as brother and sister and to abort the fetus that the woman was carrying. The High Court, on the basis of a PIL had to intervene to stop the implement of the decision. Would these cases have come to our notice but for the exposure by the electronic media? The local tyranny is the worst.<br /><br />I am a strong votary of delegation and decentralization. I believed in the old saying, ‘Panch mein Parmeshwar’ (In Panchs, there is God’). But the cases mentioned above have made me wonder whether I am right<br /></div>***<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-7257307119602904560?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-36810755112479498832004-08-01T10:07:00.000+05:302006-12-13T12:30:12.853+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>Peacock and the Dragon<br /></strong>By Narendra Luther<br /><br />India became independent in 1947. Two years later, the Peoples Republic of China came into being ending decades of foreign domination and exploitation.<br /><br />Comparisons between the two great Asian neighbours were inevitable. While India was a democracy, China was a totalitarian society. China had a centralized state economy; India had a mixed economy. Whereas there was an established system of data collection for economic planning and the publication of its results in India, China was closed to the rest of the world. One had to rely upon the figures given out by the official agencies. It was quite common for many intellectuals in India to highlight the poor performance of India as compared to China.<br /><br />Around that time one of my friends, Virmani, a Climatologist in ICRIASAT (International Crop Research Institute for Semi-Arid Topics) located at Hyderabad went as member of an official delegation to China. On return he told me that an average agriculture graduate was about four years behind ours in his knowledge of the subject. The reason was that China had closed all contacts with the outside world and did not let even knowledge of advances made in science penetrate the country.<br /><br />The Four Modernizations<br /><br />The myth of China’s greater progress was exploded in 1978 when its leader, Deng Xiaoping launched the program of ‘Four Modernizations’. They were to cover agriculture, industry, science and technology, and national defense. The goal was to make the country a relatively advanced industrialized nation by 2000.<br /><br />One of the methods of accelerated development adopted was the creation of <a name="special">‘Special</a> Economic Zones’. Four such Zones in small coastal areas were established in 1979 to promote economic development and introduction of advanced technology through foreign investment. Special preferential terms and facilities were offered to outside investors in taxation, land-use fees, and entry and exit control for joint ventures, cooperative ventures, and enterprises with sole foreign investment. These SEZ’s were given greater decision-making power in economic activities than provincial-level units. Since then, their number has increased manifold. The Stock Exchange, which was closed by Mao Zedong, was opened in 1992.<br /><br />Comparison with India<br /><br />Post- Modernization, once again people started making comparisons with India and again China was shown as overtaking India. Lately, we have seen our markets flooded with goods made in China. Fears have been expressed that it will kill our manufacturing industry.<br /><br />When a topic becomes hot, it lands up in seminars and workshops. It was therefore appropriate for the Economic Forum at the Indian School of Business to pose the question ‘Will the 21st Century belong to India and China?’ to an International Conference last month. It was attended by prominent business leaders, academic scholars from abroad, and, amongst others from India, a member of the Planning Commission.<br /><br />A study done by Mackenzie quoted there noted that the growth of per capita GDP since 1990 had grown to 2407 in India as compared 3829 in China. The share of manufacturing and the GDP in 1999 was only 6% in India compared to 19% in China. The Chinese manufacture - and exports - comprises largely bicycles, toys, leather goods and computers. The increase in growth of manufacture in China was largely due to increase in productivity which was three to five times that of India. For example where as an Indian worker produces three pairs of shoes per man-day, the Chinese production is eleven. The growth in manufacture is not due to exports as is commonly believed, but due to domestic consumption. The average per capita consumption of consumer goods in China is three times that of India. Prices of consumer goods are cheaper by 14% in the case of motorcycles to 53% for DVD’s compared to those in India. The study pointed out that lower prices where not due to subsidy and marginal costing but because of fundamentals like lower indirect taxes, lower import duty and lower interest rates. It rubbished the myth that the Chinese products are of poor quality. If that were so they would not be such an increase in exports particularly to quality conscious countries like the United States.<br /><br />China has also attracted more foreign direct investments than India. The lesson from Mackenzie was that a reduction of prices of consumer products would increase the market. There is a need for reducing import duties to 10%, introduce VAT and to reform labor laws. These measures will improve employment and raise exports considerably.<br /><br />The Prospects<br /><br />John Talbott, currently consultant at the Indian School of Business, provided the antithesis to this analysis and approach. He believes that the statistics given out by China are not reliable. In China, he said that nobody could publish statistics because he would be jailed for revealing ‘state secrets’! China is a repressive dictatorship. Only eight countries rank lower than China in political freedom. Even Internet access in China is restricted. There is an absence of social benefits and of regulations on pollution. China’s military expenditure is high and will outgrow that of America in a decade. He therefore thought that China was a poor model for development.<br /><br />China today is the manufacturing hub of the world; India the IT platform. The Asian Development Bank believes that India would catch up with China by 2020. The FICCI View is that by 2050 China would be the largest economy of the world followed by U.S and India.<br /><br />The Indian Constraint<br /><br />There was general agreement that India’s greatest handicap is lack of proper infrastructure. For that FDI should be encouraged. However the left parties which today constitute an important ally of the ruling coalition at the Centre are opposed to it. The Common Minimum Programme of the ruling United Progressive Alliance talks about the imperative of consensus on these critical issues.<br /><br />Management experts per se need to develop a greater appreciation of the context in which the economy operates. China and India represent two different, contrasting models of growth. India is a democracy where there is debate and dissent arising out of diversity and pluralism. The constraint of democracy is compounded by the compulsions of coalition. Democracy provides for opposition in the legislature; coalition brings it into the political executive. That retards further the speed of decision-making. A dictatorship, suffers from no such handicap. It also lacks a system of feedback to provide for a corrective mechanism for mistakes in time.<br /><br />Our reforms will have to start with politics because that constrains economics. If we can lay down that only parties with a clear-cut majority will rule the Centre and the States we will have removed the greatest obstacle in the way. That will strengthen the establishment and relieve it of its constant search for a consensus beyond the bounds of the parliamentary system. The difference between the two countries is symbolized by the peacock, which is our national bird, and the dragon which is China’s traditional mascot<br /><br />Next time there is a debate of this type of topic, I hope to see some political scientists, or better still, some active politician to moderate it.<br /></p><p align="justify">*** </p><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a><br /></p><div align="justify"></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-3681075511247949883?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-45124957411186860182004-07-01T18:22:00.000+05:302006-12-13T12:33:33.045+05:30<p align="justify"><strong>Of Sand and Dates</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />Last month six of us -- poets and writers -- visited Saudi Arabia at the invitation of the Hyderabadi community there. With an area of 2.2 million square km, the country occupies 4/5th of the Arabian Peninsula and is strategically located. It has one-fourth of the proven oil reserves of the world. Its gas reserves are 4.2% of the world's total. It is endowed with minerals also. There are 600 sites for gold mining alone, besides other base metals.<br /><br />It has a population of 20 million. The male population at 54.3% heavily outnumbers the females. About one third of its population comprises foreigners -- the largest being Indians. Amongst Indians, Malyalis number about half-a-million. A close next to them, people from Hyderabad number about 400 000. They cover the entire range of jobs, from the highly qualified to the non-skilled.<br /><br />We visited Riyadh the capital, and Jeddah the port city.<br /><br />American City<br /><br />Riyadh is a modern well- planned city on the American pattern. It has grown rapidly in recent years and now has a population of 4.7 million. There are tall multi-storey buildings and super markets some of which are open 24 hours a day. We saw no camels there; only limousines. Large mansions of the local people with closed forbidding gates can be seen in most places.<br /><br />In Riyadh the State Museum is worth seeing for its architecture, its landscape and the highly sophisticated manner of presentation. Saudi men wear their traditional dress while women are in burqua. Women are barred from driving alone. They must have a close male relation with them.<br /><br />Korea and China have flooded the consumer market. The traffic is well regulated. No cops are visible; yet no one jumps the red light. On the whole it looks like an American city transplanted there. In Riyadh there are the Hyderabadi quarters called Hara. The lower middle class of Hyderabadis lives there. The bazaars and the chaos and confusion of traffic of Hyderabad are replicated here.<br /><br />Jeddah is both a seaport on the Red Sea and an airport for the Muslims going for Haj and visiting Madina, the holy city. It is therefore the most cosmopolitan city of the country with a population of 2 million. It has a beach with recreational facilities spread over a distance of 20 miles, called Corniche.<br /><br />The City Never Sleeps<br /><br />The azan – call to prayers -- is made five times a day and all business must come to a stop. Shops are closed for the duration of the period of the namaz. The religious police enforce this rule. The siesta time is between 12 to four PM. Apart from these breaks, there are no closing hours and the city never seems to sleep.<br /><br />The people of the Hyderabadi origin are generally well of and occupy important jobs in business and government. Surprisingly, some of them have relocated from America were they were holding good jobs. The reason for that is that there is no tax in Saudi Arabia. Consequently, at the same level of compensation, the take-home pay almost doubles in Saudi Arabia.<br /><br />However, every expatriate is not rolling in money. The driver from Rajasthan who one day drove me to the city told me that he earned one thousand Rials (equal to Rs. 12) per month). In that income, he could not afford to keep his family there. Rent alone would be 400 Rials. There are others who get even less. The Bangladeshi attendant in our apartment was getting only 400 Rials – half the official minimum wage. Jobs like airhostesses are done by Filipinos.<br /><br />No public meetings are allowed in the kingdom. Indians, used to open meetings, rallies and procession have to get used to a rigid discipline. All our functions were held in the auditoria of the Indian Embassy School, or of the Embassy. In Jeddah one function was held in the auditorium of a hospital and the other in a hotel.<br /><br />Everyone must carry an identity card or a passport. Every time we came out of our rooms some made sure that we carry our passport because you can be asked to produce them at any time.<br /><br />High Regard for Indians<br /><br />Indians are regarded highly compared to Pakistanis. The latter have on occasion been involved in cases of smuggling contraband items. Both live in segregated areas and generally don't mix much. In Jeddah, for example, a road constitutes an informal border between the Indians and Pakistanis. The Saudis too don't mix with expatriates.<br /><br />The Problems<br /><br />All expatriates miss their homes. I suspect the invitation to us was a part of the attempt to relieve that feeling of homesickness. They seemed to feel good to listen to poetry, prose and jokes from the homeland.<br /><br />Because of the large number of children of Indian origin the government of India has opened a number of Indian schools under the embassy in all major cities. These schools follow the Indian system and examinations are held by CBSE. The problem for the parents arises when the children have to go for higher education. Those who are well of send their children to America, Canada or England for higher studies. Others send them back home. That necessitates a split in the family leading to enforced and prolonged abstinence on the part of couples. The hen that lays the golden egg stays abroad. The wife may get gizmos – and the old in-laws to look after.<br />That leads to family tensions – and in some cases, depression. As one of them put it to me, 'We don't get a chance to see the children grow'. Some of them asked me whether some solution could be devised for providing for higher studies for children of Indian origin.<br /><br />The third problem arises out of the new call for 'Saudiization' because of unemployment amongst the local people. As more and more Saudis are returning from abroad after acquiring higher qualifications, Indians face retrenchment. There is therefore an air of nervousness particularly among the lower- skilled.<br /><br />While many Hyderabadi stayed have there for twenty-five years and over, a few have acquired the Saudi nationality, which is not easy to get. Every Indian dreams of coming home to start a better life with the earnings from petro-dollars. Some low - paid Indians there raised this point. People back home expect them to finance their 'conspicuous consumption' in lavish ceremonies thus frittering away their hard-earned savings in avoidable indulgences. They want to construct houses in India while working there so that when the time comes they can come to a home. One of the points made by them was whether the government could allot some land -- and even build houses for them. Some of them have been duped by unscrupulous people in this regard.<br /><br />I felt good in seeing the Indian community doing well and being regarded highly by the host country. However, if only half the opportunities were available back home, they would gladly come back and contribute their mite for their own country – if only they could. Meanwhile, could we do something to solve their problems?<br /><br />***</p><p align="justify"><span style="font-size:78%;">Archived by </span><a href="http://www.mygoldencopy.com"><span style="font-size:78%;">www.mygoldencopy.com</span></a></p><div align="justify"></div><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/3543940496574779716-4512495741118686018?l=narendralutherarchives.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>Narendra Luther Archiveshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05399047238666621197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3543940496574779716.post-28982438672833640282004-05-01T10:05:00.000+05:302006-12-13T12:42:41.233+05:30<div align="justify"><strong>The Great Churning</strong><br />By Narendra Luther<br /><br />The heat and dust of elections is over. We have a new government at the Centre, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. This is the first national government of the new century. The results were full of surprises. The NDA coalition did not expect to be beaten so badly. The Congress did not expect to do so well. Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh was expecting to get a new term though the Congress seemed to equally sure of throwing him out. And that is what happened.<br /><br />Numerous analyses have been made. Let me give you mine. The first is beware of politicians because they never die. How many people whom we had written off have risen from their graves as it were? Patience is a virtue in politics. After all we have to choose from those who stay on.<br /><br />Naidu's' defeat<br /><br />Remember Lord Acton's maxim: power corrupts? One way of doing that is by making the holder of power blind. After a while in power one stops seeing things as they are . Those who are in charge of showing things do not do so accurately because they know that it is risky to do so. They show their masters the things and trends, which they want to see. It happened to Indira Gandhi during the elections after the Emergency. She was told by her coterie including the Intelligence agencies right till the end that she was winning while in fact she was losing. It happened this time too. Naidu believed that he had done so much for the people that they would gratefully vote for him. He also felt that having survived an attack on him, people would have sympathy for him. He did not realize that in the countryside he had not done adequately. While there was no power cut in Hyderabad and some urban areas, the farmers suffered. He projected a larger-than –life image in urban areas and outside the State, even internationally. But his voters were in rural areas.<br /><br />He also centralized power too much. No one else mattered in the government or the party except him. While it seems a good thing when the going is good, in the battle of the ballot, you need layers and layers of cadres who will go out in the heat and fight. Centralization kills initiative at lower levels and breeds dissidence below the surface. Naidu nurtured an illusion and that was his undoing. He became a prisoner of his chosen babus. They did not – indeed could not -- correct his thinking and policies on crucial matters. It is the bureaucratic embrace that killed him.<br /><br />Another factor that went against him was the inability to see the strength of the sentiment for a separate Telangana State. The hearts of people of Andhra and Telangana have never met. Some prominent leaders of Telangana had reservations about the creation of Visalandhra. The States Reorganization Commission did not recommend it straightaway. But somehow it was pushed through. Whenever the demand of Telangana is raised seriously, it finds touches a responsive chord amongst the people of the region. Even the people of the coastal areas are not very happy carrying on with a disgruntled region.<br /><br />Vajpayee's feet of clay<br /><br />What killed NDA was Gujarat. It was no ordinary rioting. It was carnage and was seen as such not only by Muslims, but a majority of Hindus too. It was a massive failure of administration. Unfortunately, instead of admitting it as such and taking remedial action, they sought to condone and even glorify it. Narendra Modi did not show any remorse. His party lionized him. If Narendra Modi had resigned after the riots, NDA would have secured a moral victory. If Vajpayee had sacked him for his failure or alleged connivance, his party and his alliance would have romped home. It was the lack of moral fibre, which threw out a party, and a leader who was being projected a statesman.<br /><br />BJP and NDA also became victims of their own illusion, much like Naidu in AP. The slogan of 'India Shining' was, if any thing, an urban phenomenon. It meant little to people in the countryside who had seen no improvement in their standard of living. The government in Delhi did not seem to be doing any thing. The Dalit daughter went on her spree of collecting money and no one could touch her lest she should go to the other side or turn openly hostile. People saw a decline in moral values of a vast magnitude. The Tehelka episode was another thing, which besmirched the image of government. The Defence Minister resigned and then when the inquiry was taking too long, he came back. That did not add glory to the ruling coalition. The parliamentary principle of vicarious responsibility of the minister for the sins of omission and commission of his ministry was upheld to begin with -- and then jettisoned.<br /><br />The result of the new elections is a new coalition of parties. As I said in one of my earlier articles in this magazine, coalition politics is based on compromises. It is a game of survival in power. It is smitten in its approach to issues by a consideration of not offending anyone. It is government by expedience. But we seem to be condemned to be governed by coalitions.<br /><br />Sonia's noble gesture<br /><br />While the vote was decidedly against the BJP, it was not decidedly in favour of the Congress. What it definitely rejected was the issue of the foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi. She got the largest number of seats in the Lok Sabha. But she did not get absolute majority. The Congress had therefore to depend on some other parties and groups. The Left was a prominent part of this group being the third largest party in the Lok Sabha.<br /><br />The most moving part of the elections was that when the crown was offered to Sonia Gandhi, and she, in a rare and dramatic gesture, declined it. She said she had never pursu