<p>2022 was another year that bore testimony to the fact that when it comes to matters of gender inequality and gender violence in the everyday, Kerala had yet another innings at not daring to dream of change, but of buttressing social inertia with studied reluctance and privileged insolence, in order that nothing would upset its staid and conservative mores or topple the apple carts of its benevolent patriarchy. Of course, feminists or ‘feminichies’, as they are ‘lovingly’ called had another year of vociferous debates, critically and rigorously engaging with many of the events that unfolded in the social milieu, even while issues like the sexual harassment case against Civic Chandran brought to the fore ideological faultlines that divided the camp and created acrimonious and sometimes vitriolic debates. The reluctance to see that feminisms is also about multiplicity, difference, and ‘differance’, that each reaction to an oppression need not run the same course as any other, and the insistence that one’s feminist credo was the one and truly “correct” one led to a fair amount of heartburn and divisiveness that challenged sorely needed feminist solidarities.</p><p>The human sacrifice of two women, their bodies cut to pieces and buried after gory rituals, which shocked the conscience of Kerala’s public sphere, nevertheless brought to the fore the pernicious conservatism and superstition ridden underbelly that hides in and haunts its literate surface and civil society engagements. Kerala’s endogamous big fat weddings that legitimise dowry, while diligently stabilising caste and class and conservative religious mores belie its much-touted renaissance values. The Supreme Court judgement on women’s entry into Sabarimala and the ensuing menstrual debates and feminist activism that created a huge neo-conservative backlash testify to the half-baked project of Kerala’s modernity and the false bravado of its enlightenment project while busting the myth and mystique around its gender investments. Yet, women are coming out, as never before in Kerala, to question its benevolent patriarchy, to claim spaces in its emergent digital public spheres, muddying male logic and its mansplaining practices with multiple kinds of online and digital women-speak. Young women have begun challenging the overarching burden of carrying mainstream definitions of feminism, bringing their own lived experiences and their individual resistances to chart their journeys of everyday resistance. That said, gender migration from Kerala seems on the rise, many young women and sexual minorities choosing to run away from the unbearable oppression of its mundane conservatism.</p><p><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/human_sacrifice_9ab5691aeb.jpg" alt="human-sacrifice.jpg"></p><p>Kerala’s journey on its exemplary trangender policy, along with iconoclastic moves for gender reforms such as transgender reservation, while continuing to be ridden by pitfalls and issues, often revealing the yawning gap between the cup and the lip, nevertheless saw the year offering an ‘Idam’ or space to sexual minorities, making many general hospitals in the state transgender friendly. The novel drive for ‘gender-neutral’ (unisex would have been more appropriate) uniforms in the state, was caught up in the problematics of the nomenclature, with the government backing away hastily after conservative religious outfits expressed their moral outrage at the move. Once again orthodoxy and reactionaryism would triumph over politics and perception, even as forlorn civil society protests would be bulldozed under the sheer mass power of the moral majority vote bank. Kerala’s higher education portals have ambitious syllabi on ‘Gender and Sexuality’ and ‘Queer Studies’, leaving many wondering as to what the sum and substance of student takeaway from these classes in a society would be, where the fact that gender is a spectrum and not a binary seems to have been the least of intellectual or social concerns.</p><p>Yet, hope bloomed sometimes in mass dream machines. Kerala’s most potent schools of misogyny have been its popular culture industry. After the success of the Great Indian Kitchen which offered a sneak peak into rotting mess of Malayali kitchens, films like Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey, while having many inherent ideological issues at its core, had audiences cheering when the female protagonist, a wife at that, beat the male hero husband to pulp. Long have been the years when Malayalam Cinema had audiences, both men and women, burst into applause as one superstar after another mouthed crassly misogynist dialogues or slapped heroines into coy submission, awakening them to new forms of feminine bliss. That spectatorial pleasures had changed, and the spectacles of colossal male machodom were coming undone at the seams, yielded fresh hopes for the future, both for Malayalam Cinema and the viewing public.</p><p><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/jaya_jaya_hey_fe06f87da2.jpg" alt="jaya-jaya-hey.jpg"> Movie Poster of Jaya Jaya Jaya Jaya Hey</p><p>2022’s mixed bag of gender equality for women Kerala, its violence and gaps exacerbated by the pandemic, nevertheless holds the promise of a new dawn. A dawn that will hopefully exorcise the new age shadow pandemic induced by the age old and deadly virus of patriarchy, one for which a new generation of ‘she, he and they’ will strive to invent more potent vaccines.</p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9781003314653/affective-feminisms-digital-india-meena-pillai?_gl=1*1eax1ey*_ga*MTkxNTgyMjk4OS4xNjY1MjQ1ODM0*_ga_SR2P22QVQQ*MTY3MjIwOTAyOC4xLjEuMTY3MjIwOTg0Ni4wLjAuMA..%20https:%2F%2Fwww.routledge.com%2FAffective-Feminisms-in-Digital-India-Intimate-Rebels%2FPillai%2Fp%2Fbook%2F9781032322834"><em style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><i><strong style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);margin:0px;padding:0px;"><u>Link to Prof. Meena T Pillai’s Book</u></strong></i></em></a></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;</p><hr><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><span style="color:rgb(255,197,80);"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><strong style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);margin:0px;padding:0px;">Subscribe to our channels on </strong></span></span><a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/c/THEAIDEM"><span style="color:rgb(255,197,80);"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><strong style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);margin:0px;padding:0px;"><u>YouTube</u></strong></span></span></a><span style="color:rgb(255,197,80);"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><strong style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);margin:0px;padding:0px;"> &amp; </strong></span></span><a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://chat.whatsapp.com/ELqD1D1bImgAP6MrG8jskq"><span style="color:rgb(255,197,80);"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><strong style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);margin:0px;padding:0px;"><u>WhatsApp</u></strong></span></span></a></p>

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2022 was another year that bore testimony to the fact that when it comes to matters of gender inequality and gender violence in the everyday, Kerala had yet another innings at not daring to dream of change, but of buttressing social inertia with studied reluctance and privileged insolence, in order that nothing would upset its staid and conservative mores or topple the apple carts of its benevolent patriarchy. 

Gendering 2022 – Dare to Dream?

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Saeed Naqvi on UP Elections | Part 2

<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(85,85,85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Senior political journalists of Lucknow analyze the UP elections with The AIDEM.</span></span></p>

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Senior political journalists of Lucknow analyze the UP elections with The AIDEM.

UP Political Journalists Predict Setback for BJP | Part 2

<p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(85,85,85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The Kashi-Vishwanath temple’s mahant Rajendra Prasad Tiwary’s stinging comment —“Ye log dharma ke vyapari hain (These people are the merchants of religion)”—was aimed at none other than &nbsp;Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his courtiers. Tiwary had said these words specifically referring to the Kashi Vishwanath corridor, a new pathway to the temple of which he is the pujari , inaugurated recently by Modi with much fanfare . For the Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) governments at the Centre and in the State of Uttar Pradesh , the new pathway was an instrument to etch the names of their leaders , including Modi and Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath in the history of the ancient town and its holy temple . They claim to have made the “ way to Lord Shiva &nbsp;“ smoother and easier for devotees . But for people like Tiwary and hundreds of other “ messengers of God “ in Varanasi, &nbsp;the pathway , which was built demolishing hundreds of smaller temples and historical buildings , including &nbsp;libraries dating back to several centuries , is a symbol of crass commercialisation and kitsch absolutely adverse to the tradition and culture of Varanasi .</span></span></p><figure class="image"><img alt="C0572T01-768x432.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/C0572_T01_768x432_e043de98e1.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_C0572_T01_768x432_e043de98e1.jpg 245w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_C0572_T01_768x432_e043de98e1.jpg 500w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_C0572_T01_768x432_e043de98e1.jpg 750w" sizes="100vw" width="750"></figure><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">And indeed , &nbsp;voices of rebellion such as the ones of mahant Rajendra Prasad Tiwary’s , are deeply ingrained in the social ,cultural political and academic fabric of Varanasi since time immemorial. That it has come in the midst of an intense political campaign in the town for the last and final phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections ,scheduled for March 7 , adds greater significance to the continuation of this historical stream of dissent .</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">&nbsp;</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">On his part , the Prime Minister has been doing everything at his command to save his prestige in Varanasi , the constituency he represents in the Lok Sabha; Road shows, door to door campaigns, rallies and of course his trademark rhetorical &nbsp;speeches. Apparently, he feels that a poor show of the BJP candidates in the assembly elections in this part might jeopardize his future prospects.Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath is another mahant—mahant of the Gorakhnath temple—depending on Narendra Modi to salvage the situation so that he (Yogi) could retain power in Uttar Pradesh. As many as 54 assembly seats are scheduled for polling on March 7 in Varanasi region—part of what is also known as the eastern Uttar Pradesh .</div><figure class="image"><img alt="C0569T01-768x432.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/C0569_T01_768x432_64d8df144a.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_C0569_T01_768x432_64d8df144a.jpg 245w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_C0569_T01_768x432_64d8df144a.jpg 500w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_C0569_T01_768x432_64d8df144a.jpg 750w" sizes="100vw" width="750"></figure><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">This region is mired in poverty, backwardness, deprivation and inequality. But it is Varanasi—known as Kashi in the Vedic and post-Vedic literatures—that has been the seat of the high level of creativity, nuanced discourse in spiritualism, metaphysics and literature ever since its inception. Be it Shaivism, Vashnavism, Buddhism, Islam, right and left wing political philosophies—Varanasi has given space to everyone but has never allowed anyone stream or individual to conquer and dominate it. The history of Varanasi is full with the seers, saints, poets and writers challenging orthodoxy over the centuries and decades.</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">&nbsp;</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">The rebellion against the then Brahmanical orthodoxy comes to the fore in this couplet of Tulsi Das , author of RamcharitManas: “Maang ke khaibo, Masit mein rahibo, Lebai ke ek and debai ke dou (I will eat by seeking alms, will live in a mosque, neither I have to take anything from you nor I am supposed to give anything to you). Researchers have interpreted Tulsi Das’s words as his rejection to the orthodox Brahmin priests who didn’t give him recognition for writing in the people’s language of Awadhi as against Sanskrit that they thought as the only godly language.</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">&nbsp;</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">It was Munshi Premchant—by far the greatest of the Hindi novelists born and brought up at Lamahi, a village in the vicinity of Varanasi—who wrote in 1930’s: “ &nbsp;Communalism feels shy in coming alone; it comes clothed in nationalism”. It was at Akbarpur—close to Varanasi that the iconic Socialist leader, Ram Manohar Lohia was born . His early experiments with his unique brand of socialism had also its beginnings in &nbsp;this region. Incidentally, the Samajwadi Party that has emerged as the prime challenger to the BJP has built its political edifice on Lohia’s philosophy. Lohia was known for his trenchant rebellion against the entrenched power represented by the Congress then.</div><figure class="image"><img alt="C0567T01-768x432.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/C0567_T01_768x432_0542249adf.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_C0567_T01_768x432_0542249adf.jpg 245w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_C0567_T01_768x432_0542249adf.jpg 500w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_C0567_T01_768x432_0542249adf.jpg 750w" sizes="100vw" width="750"></figure><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">It was at the Kashi-Vishwanath temple where Bismillah Khan—a devout Muslim who religiously did his namaz five times a day—found the right ambience to hone his skill and mastery over the musical instrument of shehnai . Khan Saab took his art to its highest glory in the world. He stayed indebted and devoted to Lord Vishwanath, the Ganga and the ambience for whole life.</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">&nbsp;</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">Way back in 6th century BC a prince from Lumbini (Nepal), Siddharth Gautam Buddha acquired enlightenment at Bodhgaya (Bihar) and gave his sermons rooted in rebellion against the Vedic order at Sarnath in Varansasi. And Kabir—the saint poet from Varanasi—attacked orthodoxy in the manner only he could have done: “Je tun babhan Babhni jaya, aani dwar kah-e na aaya; je tum turk-turkini jaya,bhtr-e khatna kah-e na karaya (If you claim distinctness on the basis of being a Brahmin why didn’t you came in this world from a distinct route; if you claim to be a Turk-Muslim why did you not get circumcised in your mother’s womb)”.</div><figure class="image"><img alt="C0638T01-768x432.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/C0638_T01_768x432_8939e605c2.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_C0638_T01_768x432_8939e605c2.jpg 245w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_C0638_T01_768x432_8939e605c2.jpg 500w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_C0638_T01_768x432_8939e605c2.jpg 750w" sizes="100vw" width="750"></figure><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">Banaras or Varanasi has been full of the vision for new possibilities. The former Prime Minister, Late Atal Bihari Vajpayee was rejected from Mathura in Lucknow in his first election in 1957. But he made his debut in the Lok Sabha from Balrampur—part of the larger Banaras region. The region saw immense possibility in Vajpayee very early. Varanasi’s vision in seeing new possibilities gets reflected in poet Feraq Gorakhpur’s verse,”Teray kadmon ki aahat pahle him hum bhaanp leteay hain; Tujh-e ai jindagi hum door se pahchant lete hain (We notice your footsteps very early! O life! I understand you from quite afar)”.</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">&nbsp;</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">Thus when the Kashi-Vishwanath Mahant Rajendra Tiwary challenges as powerful a person as Modi and his acolytes he keeps up to the rebellious tradition of Varanasi. (Ye log Banaras ko maal bana rahe hain,yeh sadhna ke sthali hai (These people—read Modi,Yogi and likes—are morphing Varanasi into an abode of consumers and consumerism. It is the land of penance and devotion)”.</div><figure class="image"><img alt="C0580T01-768x432.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/C0580_T01_768x432_50045fb1ca.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_C0580_T01_768x432_50045fb1ca.jpg 245w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_C0580_T01_768x432_50045fb1ca.jpg 500w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_C0580_T01_768x432_50045fb1ca.jpg 750w" sizes="100vw" width="750"></figure><p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(85,85,85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">It’s hard to tell how long NarendraModi will represent Varanasi in the Lok Sabha. But what is very clear is his style of politics—interpreting Hindutva as designed by the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh and othering the minorities—is antithesis to what Varanasi has represented over the centuries .</span></span></p>

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The Kashi-Vishwanath temple’s mahant Rajendra Prasad Tiwary’s stinging comment —“Ye log dharma ke vyapari hain (These people are the merchants of religion)”—was aimed at none other than  Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his courtiers. 

Hard for Modi to Stamp ‘Hindutva’ in Varanasi—Land of Rebellion and Creativity

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Modi’s BJP is Far Away From Vajpayee” Sudheendra Kulkarni , Viswanath Pandey .

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Aspirations of the Young Rising Above the Caste Equations

<div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">In terms of pure electoral arithmetics the results to the five assembly elections – in Uttar Pradesh , Uttarakhand , Punjab , Manipur and Goa – &nbsp;underscores the continuing march of Hindutva politics as represented by the Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP). The BJP is set to form the government in four out of these five States , with clear majority in Uttar Pradesh , Uttarakhand and Manipur while it has to draw support from independents and smaller parties in Goa . But at the same time , the results have also underscored the steady resistance being put up by regional forces in the form of the stupendous victory of the Aam Aadmi Party ( AAP) in Punjab and the spirited fight of the Samajwadi Party (SP) in Uttar Pradesh . The election process has also heralded virtual demise of the grand old party of India Congress, suffering heavy loses across all the five States . Once prominent regional parties like the &nbsp;Akali Dal and the Bahujan Samaj Party have also met the same fate .</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">&nbsp;</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">Historically , Punjab been the gateway to the ‘karvan (procession)’ of the diverse streams of culture, civilization, ideas, stories and politics for centuries that has made what is known as Hindustan or India or Bharat today. The same Punjab is seeing &nbsp;today the rise of Arvind Kejrival with his novel experiments in politics . By all indications , it appears to have the potential to travel down to other northern and western Indian states such as Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. A dominant factor that spurred its rise in Punjab was the aspirational young generation getting disenchanted with the traditional parties and looking for a solution driven one approach to politics. Winning a phenomenal 92 seats out the 117 &nbsp;seats in Punjab Kejriwal’s Aam Admi Party (AAP) has emerged as the first regional party in post Independent India to take over a second state in a matter of 10 years since its inception.</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">&nbsp;</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">&nbsp;</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">&nbsp;</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">While there is merit in the opinion of some political pundits highlighting the BJP’s show in Uttar Pradesh as a ‘booster dose” for the saffron party , a closer look at the voting trends also points to the bigger gains made by the Akhilesh Yadav led SP in terms of voting percentage points , though the SP led alliance could win only 125 seats against the BJP led National Democratic Alliance’s ( NDA ) 273. The BJP and its allies had 325 seats in 2017. On the other hand, the Samajvadi Party had barely 43 seats and thus, it is has registered a threefold rise in its legislative strength.</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">&nbsp;</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">Back to the comparison between the BJP and the AAP, the AAP’s political philosophy is entirely based on the delivery of the services, schemes and solutions to the people with perfection and speed whereas the BJP has combined welfare schemes with Hindutva and nationalism to increase its sway.</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">&nbsp;</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">The AAP’s policy—which has the stamp of Arvind Kejriwal—has penetrated deeper in the psyche of the voters first in Delhi and now in Punjab. On the other hand, the BJP has the reasons for worries in future with the aspirational voters agitating for employment and livelihood showing faith in Akhilesh and turning to his party. Even if not to his satisfaction, the farmers’ stir has enervated Hindutva to some extent uniting the Hindus and Muslims that has added to the rise in the seats and vote share for the Samajwadi Party all across Uttar Pradesh. In all regions of Uttar Pradesh – western , Awadh , Bundhelkhand and Poorvanchal – the SP vote share Chas risen to the tune of 15 to 17 percent . Indeed the NDA too has registered a three and a half percent rise in vote share as compared to 2017 polls . It has got 45 percent vote this time . In comparison the SP has risen from 21.8 percent five years ago to 36.1 percent now.</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">&nbsp;</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">Of course, the BJP’s welfare scheme that has ensured free ration and Rs 6000 cash in three installments financed by Rs 54000 crore of allocation in the union budget and the beneficiaries confirming it to the touring journalists has weighed over the S.P’s efforts, facilitating Adityanath to hold on with power.</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">&nbsp; &nbsp;But &nbsp;viewed from a futuristic perspective, the BJP has reasons for worry in 2024 in Uttar Pradesh. It goes without saying that Narendra Modi has lorded over the psyche of the youths since 2014 onwards. Frustrated and angry for not getting jobs, they have shifted to the SP and now Akhilesh is faced with the challenge to retain and expand on his gains in the long haul of the political battle that he is likely to be involved with the BJP.</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">&nbsp;</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">The elections have certainly &nbsp;catapulted Kejriwal at the national level pointing to the possibility of his emergence as one of the challengers to Prime Minister Narendra Modi . At the same time , there is also &nbsp;hope for Akhilesh to build on the relative gains he has made in the country’s most populous State , Uttar Pradesh . In all probability , the fulcrum of opposition politics in the run up to the 2024 polls would revolve around Kejriwal , Akhilesh and the Trinamool Congress Chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee , who routed the BJP in the West Bengal elections earlier . But the &nbsp;current results as well as the once over the last couple of years has underscored the free fall of the Congress and it &nbsp;has denervated the party nearly beyond repair.</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">&nbsp;</div><div style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">It’s a saga of the Congress steadily losing on its organizational and mass base owing to the inaptitude on the part of its leadership versus a better organized and hugely resourceful BJP in Uttarakhand, Goa andn Manipur. The BJP despite changing three CM has retained Uttarakhand which the Congress because of the weaknesses a multiple layers of its structure has failed to capitalize on the apparently anti-incumbency dogging the BJP in the hill state.</div>

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In terms of pure electoral arithmetics the results to the five assembly elections – in Uttar Pradesh , Uttarakhand , Punjab , Manipur and Goa –  underscores the continuing march of Hindutva politics as represented by the Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP). T

Hindutva Continues its March , But AAP too Rises and SP Puts up a Spirited Fight

<p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;">Saeed Naqvi, a legend of Indian journalism, talks on politics, society, and the world to The AIDEM</p><div class="mdp-liker-box after-content two-buttons style-border-fill row-right" style="--mdp-liker-bg-color-active:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color-hover:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-bg-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);--mdp-liker-border:1px;--mdp-liker-radius:50px;--mdp-liker-text-color-active:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color-hover:rgba(255, 255, 255, 1);--mdp-liker-text-color:rgba(255, 33, 40, 1);box-sizing:border-box;font-size:initial;font-weight:initial;margin:0px;padding:0px;" id="mdp-liker-15228" data-memory="on"><div style="align-items:center;box-sizing:border-box;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><div class="mdp-liker-description" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:medium;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;max-width:60%;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;</div></div></div><p><br>&nbsp;</p>

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Saeed Naqvi, a legend of Indian journalism, talks on politics, society, and the world to The AIDEM



Saeed Naqvi on UP Elections

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Senior political journalists of Lucknow analyse the Uttar Pradesh elections with The Aidem.

UP Political Journalists Predict Setback for BJP

<p><b style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(33, 37, 41);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><strong>A</strong></b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(39,39,39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">n elite Brahmin and professor from Pratapgarh says, “My son came from Mumbai few days ago and asked me about the candidates in the fray in our constituency. Living far away he was not much aware about the local politics in pratapgarh . After I informed him about the candidates he said that he would vote for the one who could defeat the BJP and then purposively &nbsp;voted for the Samajwadi Party ”.</span></span></p><figure class="image"><img alt="up-5-min-768x432.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/up_5_min_768x432_5a53dfd9d0.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_up_5_min_768x432_5a53dfd9d0.jpg 245w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_up_5_min_768x432_5a53dfd9d0.jpg 500w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_up_5_min_768x432_5a53dfd9d0.jpg 750w" sizes="100vw" width="750"></figure><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">In a sense , &nbsp;the professor told me , he was also trying to figure out the relatively low turnout of the voters by recounting this story, particularly the relative ignorance of people like his son about the details of their own home constituencies. Voting percentage in Uttar Pradesh has been generally low , and particularly low in the fifth phase . Sixty one seats in the fifth phase recorded 54.98 percent voting at the end of the polling&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;" dir="ltr">at 6 pm on Sunday</span>.&nbsp; With the fifth phase polling that concluded on 27 February , as many as 292 seats out of the U.P’s 403 have the polling concluded. There are still 111 seats spread over Ayodhya, Varanasari and other regions of eastern U.P to go to the polls in the sixth and seventh phases.</p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">There is no proven psephological theory to analyse with exactness what the low or high turnout of voters means to an election &nbsp;. However , the professor had his own interesting assessment . “We are a family of the core BJP voters. But this time , we are angry with the government because of several factors , including &nbsp;rising unemployment, decaying education system, poor health infrastructure . We are also tired of the &nbsp;overwhelming attempts of the BJP &nbsp;to create a polarised Hindu-Muslim situation . &nbsp;The arrogance on the part of many &nbsp;leaders has also put us off &nbsp;. We couldn’t have voted against the BJP for which we have been voting for election after election since the early &nbsp;1990’s. At the same time, we could not have shifted our loyalty to another party so soon. Many of us preferred to stay home. But the younger ones voted against the BJP”.</p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">It will be too simplistic to draw an assessment about the phenomena of low voting on the basis of this small sample of the Professor’s family. But crisscrossing through the western Uttar Pradesh, central Uttar Pradesh and large parts of the Awadh region the indifference among the core BJP voters was quite palpable. On the other hand, the supporters of the Samajvadi Party looked and sounded eloquently energetic. The contradictory moods could easily be sensed in the road shows and public meetings of the two main rivals—the BJP and the SP.</p><figure class="image"><img alt="up-4-min-768x432.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/up_4_min_768x432_e5e6608ee9.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_up_4_min_768x432_e5e6608ee9.jpg 245w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_up_4_min_768x432_e5e6608ee9.jpg 500w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_up_4_min_768x432_e5e6608ee9.jpg 750w" sizes="100vw" width="750"></figure><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Many experts are fixated about the difference between the 2017 and 2022 elections. But the difference between the first three phases and then the succeeding phases will, perhaps, make it easy to understand the dynamics of the ongoing polls. The first three phases witnessed a sharply discernible impact of the farmers’ agitation. It literally smashed the BJP’s ‘forte’ built brick by brick on the communal divide in the wake of Muzaffarnagar riots in 2013. There were sites of the Jats, Muslims, farmers and farm workers demonstrating their unity and outnumbering the BJP voters on booth after booth. The BJP supporters either kept low key or were resigned to their fate.</p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">But reading the election became relatively complex as it travelled to the central Uttar Pradesh, Awadh and eastern regions. Well worked out dole—Rs 6000 in cash through direct transfer in three installments among 25 million families besides free ration,&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;">suraksha</i>&nbsp;(protection and better law and order), intricate caste fault lines involving Yadavs versus non-Yadav OBC voters, Jatav versus non-Jatav dalit voters coupled with the omnipresent issues like&nbsp;<i style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;">awaara pashu</i>&nbsp;(stray cattle), dwindling of employment opportunity, price rise and fiddling with the OBC and Scheduled Castes’ quota in the jobs and educational institutions came into play.</p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Perhaps, sensing the heavy loss in the first three phases, the BJP top brass focused more on micro-management to arrest the slide. Prime Minister Narendra Modi campaigned in Barabanki and Varanasi. Amit Shah, Adityanath Yogi, Rajnath Singh, JP Nadda—all the top guns are out on the roads.</p><p><br><img alt="up-3-min-768x432.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/up_3_min_768x432_98f6239c44.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_up_3_min_768x432_98f6239c44.jpg 245w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_up_3_min_768x432_98f6239c44.jpg 500w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_up_3_min_768x432_98f6239c44.jpg 750w" sizes="100vw" width="750"></p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The non-Yadav OBCs and the non-Jatav dalits had largely voted for the BJP in 2017 and 2019 elections. The Samajwadi Party which was in a disarray in 2017 and 2019 is in a better shape by putting its own house in order and stitching a rainbow coalition of several parties of smaller castes—Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party of Om Prakash Rajbhar, Apna Dal (Krishna Patel group) besides the leader of Mauryas in his pocket, Swami Prasad Maurya and Nonia leader, Dara Singh Chouhan have surely broaden the mass base of Akhilesh Yadav led S.P.</p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">If the U.P’s deputy chief minister, Keshav Prasad Maurya is locked in a tough battle with the Apna Dal candidate fighting on the SP’s cycle symbol, Pallavai Patel in Sirathu it is because of the S.P making huge inroads in the BJP’s Kurmi vote base in Sirathu. The S.P has definitely dented particularly among the non-Yadav OBC vote-bank of the BJP.</p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The proportion of SP’s dent in the BJP’s non-Yadav OBC vote base actually holds the key to actual and exact result of the polls&nbsp;<span style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;" dir="ltr">on March 10.</span>&nbsp;The experts on caste politics in U.P perceive that 40 to 50 percent shift of the OBCs to the SP from the BJP would see Akhilesh Yadav through against Adityanath Yogi.</p><p style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">The biggest tool that has worked for the BJP to arrest the shift of the non-Yadav OBCs and non-Jatav dalits are &nbsp;the doles and freebies financed by the allocation of Rs 54000 crore in the union budget passed on the eve of the U.P election. No political party has the resources to match the BJP in terms of serving doles for it has control over the public fund and has its ‘double engine’ governments at the Centre and in U.P to distribute these doles through official machinery.</p><figure class="image"><img alt="up-2-min-768x432.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/up_2_min_768x432_87cccf518f.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_up_2_min_768x432_87cccf518f.jpg 245w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_up_2_min_768x432_87cccf518f.jpg 500w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_up_2_min_768x432_87cccf518f.jpg 750w" sizes="100vw" width="750"></figure><p><span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255);color:rgb(39,39,39);font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;"><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">But the advantage of the S.P is it already has a very strong voter base—Yadavs and Muslims are quite sizable in eastern Uttar Pradesh.. The Yadavs are energetic and militantly behind Akhilesh. And the Muslims—the biggest victim of the Adityanath’s regime—are largely united to see Yogi’s back. It’s a tough election in which it is difficult to guess who has the clear edge. What’s clear is the Samajvadi Party is gaining and the BJP is on the slide. The SP is expected to come out certainly with far more number of the MLAs it has at present. But only the results of&nbsp;</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" dir="ltr">&nbsp;March 10</span><span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;display:inline !important;float:none;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">&nbsp;would make it clear whether the gain is good enough to push the BJP out of power or &nbsp;falls short of the target thus helping the BJP to retain power with reduced numbers.</span></span></p>

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An elite Brahmin and professor from Pratapgarh says, “My son came from Mumbai few days ago and asked me about the candidates in the fray in our constituency. Living far away he was not much aware about the local politics in pratapgarh . 

Decoding who surges and who slides in Uttar Pradesh

Malayalam (ml)

Tamil (ta)

English (en)

Hindi (hi)

Telugu (te)

Kannada (kn)

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Dancing To Her Tune

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An Unwritten National Autobiography

<p><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_1_6258d15665.jpeg" alt="images-1.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_1_6258d15665.jpeg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_1_6258d15665.jpeg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"></p><div class="post-body clearfix single-blog-header single-blog-inner blog-single-block blog-details-content" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><div class="entry-content clearfix" style="box-sizing:border-box;counter-reset:footnotes 0;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;">People who read literature in India knew him, MT Vasudevan Nair. Language was no hurdle for his works to reach out beyond the state borders of Kerala. While Malayali diaspora took a handful of nostalgia along to the places they went, a little bit of MT was also in that.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;">Today, the big business of literature finds translators to translate anything that moves. All tetrapods of literature are given awards that stink of corporate imperialistic nexus. But MT belonged to a different era when blood recognised blood, genius recognised genius. He got translated not once but several times.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;">Basheer, Takazhi and MT were the triumvirate that could transcend the borders and stand tall among the Indian modernist literature. Yes, MT’s literature also had a fair amount of auto-fiction but he hoodwinked it with the magic of text. He was a persuasive minimalist both in writing and in person.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;">An unsmiling MT could generate generations of readers who could smile through tears. MT wrote about a collapsing social structure that divested the old feudal class with their ill-gotten properties. But their social capital remained intact and could exert a lot of influence among the readers by becoming the surrogate emotional ethos of a transition time of Kerala’s socio-political history.</p><figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:1196px;" id="attachment_31084" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31084"><p><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg" alt="mt-1024x575.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg 750w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_mt_1024x575_251dd09907.jpg 1000w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"></p><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-31084">MT during his Interview with Sabha TV (Watch <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:0.4s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NttnjeaVqn0"><u>Here</u></a>)</figcaption></figure><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;">When society evolved into a different being altogether, MT turned to the treasure trove of myths and itihasas to eke out allegories that explained the pain of loss, of class, roots and love. His literature spat on the face of bigotry, whether it was religious or familial. He was so stoically poised in his literature that none could have challenged him and expelled him from the world of literature.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;">MT’s literature spoke of love and separation as vehemently as he wrote about the changing social complexions. But he was not sentimental. There was something in his writing that touched some chord in every reader. Before initiating themselves into Ambedkarite politics, the Dalit ideologues also, in their torturous nights of youth, pined for MT’s characters.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;">Those who call the modernists, Dad Vibes, have really lost the sight of the forest while focusing on shrubs and thicket. MT was a forest that moved, as in the great tragedies. He remained a serious writer while the post modernists fell in the trap of publishers and wrote lightning stories and became laughing stokes.</p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;">MT remains, so is the MT critique. That’s the beauty of a great writer’s life and of course, death.</p></div></div>

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MT: A Forest that Moved

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An ‘Overture’ Stringing The Pope, Yesudas and the ‘Songster Chaplain’

<p><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/1_cc9df0fe47.png" alt="വലതുപക്ഷവുമായുള്ള-സംവാദത്തിൻ്റെ-വ്യർത്ഥത-1.png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_1_cc9df0fe47.png 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_1_cc9df0fe47.png 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"></p><div class="post-body clearfix single-blog-header single-blog-inner blog-single-block blog-details-content" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(85, 85, 85);font-family:Manjari;font-size:17px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:left;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;"><div class="entry-content clearfix" style="box-sizing:border-box;counter-reset:footnotes 0;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;"><em style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><i><span style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><strong>When old age shall this generation waste,</strong></span></i></em></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;"><em style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><i><span style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><strong>Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe</strong></span></i></em></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;"><em style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><i><span style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><strong>Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say’st,</strong></span></i></em></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;"><em style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><i><span style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><strong>“Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all</strong></span></i></em></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;"><em style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><i><span style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><strong>Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.” (John Keats, Ode on a Grecian Urn)</strong></span></i></em></p><p><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/6_904b2e9f2a.jpg" alt="6.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_6_904b2e9f2a.jpg 147w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_6_904b2e9f2a.jpg 470w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:0px;padding:0px;">Siddharth Tagore, Founder Director of Delhi’s </span><a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:0.4s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.facebook.com/artkonsultindia/photos"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:0px;padding:0px;"><u>Art Konsult</u></span></a><span style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:0px;padding:0px;"> Gallery is no more. He cannot be contained in such a cold statement, so matter of fact like death itself. Besides the gallery, he founded magazines such as Art and Deal, Travel and Deal and many other publications. Even when he knew that he wouldn’t make any profit out of the publications, he invested money in them because he knew art wouldn’t survive without the literature surrounding it.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:0px;padding:0px;">Yet another venture of Tagore’s was an auction house, namely Art Bull. The name was perfect for a bullish art market of the 2000s. But the glitch was this: Siddharth Tagore was not bullish. Nor was he bearish. He was cherubic, complete with a benign smile on his face and a burning cigarette between his fingers. Whenever I came out after having a meeting with him, I would ask myself, was he cut for this business?&nbsp;</span></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:0px;padding:0px;">Tagore could have been a poet and dreamer like his internationally renowned namesake of yesteryears.. After the pandemic period I met Tagore after a gap of four years at the Visual Art Gallery, India Habitat Centre where Art Konsult had organized a group exhibition. After the inaugural function, I shook hands with him and I realized that his hands had lost the firm grip though the warmth remained. “I have not been keeping well,” he told me.&nbsp;</span></p><div class="gallery galleryid-31051 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-full" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:30px -8.96875px 0px;padding:0px;" id="gallery-1"><figure class="gallery-item" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;height:auto;margin:0px 0px 1rem;max-width:33.33%;padding:0px 8.96875px 17.9531px;text-align:center;vertical-align:top;width:262.609px;"><p><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/c_768x993_a7cec9742c.jpg" alt="c-768x993.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_c_768x993_a7cec9742c.jpg 121w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_c_768x993_a7cec9742c.jpg 387w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_c_768x993_a7cec9742c.jpg 580w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"></p></figure><figure class="gallery-item" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;height:auto;margin:0px 0px 1rem;max-width:33.33%;padding:0px 8.96875px 17.9531px;text-align:center;vertical-align:top;width:262.609px;"><p><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/b_768x985_3f8fb449e6.jpg" alt="b-768x985.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_b_768x985_3f8fb449e6.jpg 122w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_b_768x985_3f8fb449e6.jpg 390w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_b_768x985_3f8fb449e6.jpg 585w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"></p></figure><figure class="gallery-item" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;display:inline-block;height:auto;margin:0px 0px 1rem;max-width:33.33%;padding:0px 8.96875px 17.9531px;text-align:center;vertical-align:top;width:262.609px;"><p><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/a_7888f94e4b.jpg" alt="a.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_a_7888f94e4b.jpg 121w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_a_7888f94e4b.jpg 385w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_a_7888f94e4b.jpg 577w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"></p></figure></div><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:0px;padding:0px;">Then on another occasion, at the same gallery, I met him again, this time without the crowd. He preferred to wear a pair of fading blue jeans and white shirt, a reminder of those romantic 1970s when every youth in West Bengal dreamt of poetry, love and revolution. Jeans and Shirt were the uniform of love and revolution. I think, when Tagore came to Delhi as a young man, he carried those qualities along, plus his sense of dressing. Lovers in those days smoked rather constantly and drank Old Monk Rum.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:0px;padding:0px;">On that day when I met him, Tagore told me that he had quit smoking, which was news to me. I couldn’t have imagined the man without a cigarette between his fingers or at least a packet of cigarettes to fuss with. I understood the gravity of the situation.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:0px;padding:0px;">Then again, we met when Praveen Upadhyay of the Progressive Gallery at Laddo Sarai organized a talk session with art professionals that included Tagore, Prayag Shukla, Vinod Bharadwaj and myself. Tagore was supposed to talk about the art market. When the mike was handed over to him, he fussed with it for a while and said that he always wanted to make it big by promoting young artists, but somehow, he never made huge business.</span></p><figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:689px;" id="attachment_31054" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31054"><p><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/7_768x511_149563fe01.jpg" alt="7-768x511.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_7_768x511_149563fe01.jpg 235w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_7_768x511_149563fe01.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_7_768x511_149563fe01.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"></p><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-31054">Siddharth speaking to the media at Art Konsult</figcaption></figure><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:0px;padding:0px;">Then I remembered Tagore telling the same during the market boom years that lasted in India for around ten years starting from 2005 to 2015. In 2008, the world market had collapsed, but the Indian art market using its cunning and reserve withstood the pressures and dragged the impending failure for a few more years only to revive itself by the beginning of the third decade of the new millennium.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:0px;padding:0px;">Had Tagore acquired a penchant for failure despite his resilience in running a gallery, publications and an auction house for over three and a half decades ? Did he enjoy calling himself a failure in the art market? Was he romantically involved with the idea of failure even when he kept others who were with him in the business, floating? I don’t know for sure. But Tagore remained grounded and rooted; he tried his best to keep himself away from the nefarious market practices.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:0px;padding:0px;">There were a few people who stood with Tagore in his highs and lows (lows that lasted for not some months but for years together), never deserting him, following his orders. Prashant Seal and Rajula Bisht are two people I remember. These two people have been so close to his heart and even after his twin daughters joining him in the business, both Seal and Bisht never lost their position as the confidantes of Tagore. He loved them like family.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:0px;padding:0px;">I met Siddharth Tagore in 1995. He had started Art Konsult in Hauz Khas Village. Meena Tagore (now Meena Varma) was with him then. Late Vijayan Kannanpally was the editor of Art and Deal. With the growth of art scene, Tagore’s gallery also grew in stature. Art Konsult was one of the few A listed galleries in the city. Tagore took it to South Delhi’s art district, Laddo Sarai during the boom years and later relocated it to Hauz Khas again.&nbsp;</span></p><figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:562px;" id="attachment_31055" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31055"><p><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/0_768x512_88eabd3bbc.jpg" alt="0-768x512.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_0_768x512_88eabd3bbc.jpg 234w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_0_768x512_88eabd3bbc.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_0_768x512_88eabd3bbc.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"></p><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-31055">Siddharth Tagore with art critic and curator Jyoti A Kathpalia at the Art Konsult, New Delhi</figcaption></figure><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:0px;padding:0px;">It was in his Laddo Sarai phase that I joined him as the Editor of Art and Deal. It was the same when he decided to start Art Bull and Travel and Deal. I brought out around ten issues of Art and Deal between 2010 and 2013, with a gap in 2012 when I joined the United Art Logistics to establish the United Art Fair. Tagore literally lent me to the other organization with a promise that I could walk into the editor’s office at any time that I wanted. And I did go back.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:0px;padding:0px;">As a part of Tagore’s team, he gave me full freedom to edit the magazine and curate exhibitions. I curated a few shows and introduced a few new artists of which some are very reckonable names in today’s art scene. The exhibition ‘Merging/Submerging’ was a showcasing of contemporary photography art and ‘R.A.P.E’ (Rare Acts of Political Engagement), an all-woman show responding to the brutal murder of Nirbhaya in Delhi. This exhibition was a super hit and was discussed in all the print and television media. Art Bull did do a couple of exhibitions and auctions. I did not take much interest in it though Tagore hoped that his auction house could change the scenario and also break certain monopolies. Tagore also initiated an Art History Lecture series which I conducted on his behalf.&nbsp;</span></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:0px;padding:0px;">Siddharth Tagore remained true to his calling. With a kind of detachment, he sponsored exhibitions that he knew well, would not bring any business. He was an avid collector of folk and tribal art and together with Meena Varma, he initiated an organization called ‘Art of the Earth’ for promoting the folk and tribal art of India, much before the ‘folkploitation’ of today’s art market became rampant. Tagore helped whoever came to him with a request for an exhibition or an immediate financial relief.</span><br>&nbsp;</p><figure class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;display:block;height:auto;margin:15px auto;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:640px;" id="attachment_31053" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31053"><p><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/3_e1734762508660_669x1024_7c977a7959.jpg" alt="3-e1734762508660-669x1024.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_3_e1734762508660_669x1024_7c977a7959.jpg 102w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_3_e1734762508660_669x1024_7c977a7959.jpg 327w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_3_e1734762508660_669x1024_7c977a7959.jpg 490w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_3_e1734762508660_669x1024_7c977a7959.jpg 653w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"></p><figcaption class="wp-caption-text" style="box-sizing:border-box;display:block;font-size:15px;line-height:20px;margin:0px;padding:12px 0px 0px;text-align:center;" id="caption-attachment-31053">Siddharth Tagore signing the <a style="background-color:transparent;box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;margin:0px;padding:0px;transition:0.4s;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://amzn.in/d/4TijcgO"><u>book</u></a> “<span class="a-size-large celwidget" style="box-sizing:border-box;margin:0px;padding:0px;" id="productTitle" data-csa-c-id="vwbd38-r6l776-p9nfg-orxe2c" data-cel-widget="productTitle">Ganika- In the visual culture of the 19th-20th Century India” </span>at the Art Konsult</figcaption></figure><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</p><p><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/4_560x1024_090314e000.jpg" alt="4-560x1024.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_4_560x1024_090314e000.jpg 85w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_4_560x1024_090314e000.jpg 273w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_4_560x1024_090314e000.jpg 410w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_4_560x1024_090314e000.jpg 547w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"></p><p style="box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(39, 39, 39);font-size:18px;line-height:1.7;margin:0px 0px 15px;padding:0px;"><span style="box-sizing:border-box;font-weight:400;margin:0px;padding:0px;">When artists in Calcutta packed their wares and set out for Delhi, they knew Siddharth Tagore was there if nothing else worked (perhaps he was their primary destination), along with cigarettes and Old Monk Rum. He never discouraged the people who came to him with a clear intention to exploit. He was not cautious about relationships that brought him a fair amount of heartburn. As I said elsewhere, Tagore was a poet in his heart, with a heart ready to bleed for love and art.</span></p></div></div>

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