The Kerala Police has arrested and jailed GROW Vasu, a 93-year-old activist who was protesting against the killing of two Maoist activists in Nilambur close to the State in a police encounter that happened 7 years ago. The incident described as the Nilambur encounter was criticised by a section of the media and social workers as extrajudicial killing. In November 2016, when GROW Vasu along with his co-activists held a demonstration in front of the mortuary of the Kozhikode Medical College where the bodies were kept, an arrest warrant was issued against him by the Kunnamangalam First Class Judicial Magistrate Court. It is by way of executing this long-standing warrant the police arrested GROW Vasu on July 29, 2023 on the charges of obstructing the police in the line of their duty and unlawful assembly. GROW Vasu has refused to apply for bail and was remanded and sent to Kozhikode sub jail for two weeks.
On November 24, 2016, the police shot dead Kuppu Devarajan and Ajitha (Kaveri) inside the Nilambur forest, in a place called Padukka forest which is part of the Karulai forest range. When their bodies were brought to the mortuary of Kozhikode Medical College, GROW Vasu and his co-activists staged a protest and demanded a judicial enquiry into the killings.
<img alt="Photo-size1.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Photo_size1_900fb5e2a6.jpg" />
 GROW Vasu at Court
GROW Vasu is known to the residents of Kozhikode town as a social activist who is always ready to intervene in issues affecting the marginalised and the voiceless. He has been living in the town for as many years as one could remember, in an old and dilapidated ‘peedika’, which in Malayalam means shop. Peedika is a cramped tiny room with a single archaic wooden door, flanked by similar shops _ a familiar site in Kerala. His conspicuous moustache, the Giant Malabar Squirrel that he befriended and lived with him and his bright smiling face remained a source of curious joy and lighter moments for journalists like me whenever we approached him for a comment on a case of human rights violation or social injustice. The photos of Karl Marx, Lenin, Ambedkar, and P. Krishnapillai adore the walls of his ‘residence’ along with the photos of the innumerable protest events that he had been part of. All that he ‘owns’ is an old television set, a table and a cot. His staunch and unwavering commitment to transforming society into a haven of justice is a source of inspiration for us.
He was a Naxalite once, to be precise, in the 1960s. He had participated in the Naxalite attack and killing of a feudal landlord by a group of Naxalites – an incident better known to Keralites as Thirunelli Naxalite Action- and was jailed for 7 years. Maoist literature and Radio Peking were their source of immediate motivation to attempt to bring about a Marxist-Maoist social order through violent means. The government led by C Achutha Menon crushed their attempted uprising and the leaders were sent to jail for many years. A few activists and some innocent people caught in the ideological crosswire lost their lives too. Though Kerala society saw this small group of young men who carried out these sporadic police station attacks as a bunch of unrealistic dreamers, who thought that the villages would rise up to engulf the cities and a just communist society would be established through an armed revolution, many members of that group later changed their course into democratic means of protest and action and made a significant imprint in society. GROW Vasu was one among them.
GROW, a Unique Union
In the 1980s, GROW Vasu became a staunch supporter and leader of the trade union struggle of the Gwalior Rayons Organisation of Workers (GROW), a union which, most probably for the first time in history, demanded the closure of the factory they worked in. The Mavoor Gwalior Rayons factory was manufacturing Rayon, a celluloid fibre that is made from bamboo. In 1958, the Birla Group and the Government of Kerala signed an agreement to establish this factory with a capacity to process 100 tonnes of pulp a day as the government saw this as an opportunity for industrial growth for the State; this was the largest industrial project in the state until then. The government even allowed the company to collect the raw material, bamboo, at a nominal price and with exclusive rights from the State’s forest lands.
<img alt="Ayinoor_Vasu.jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Ayinoor_Vasu_e684a956df.jpg" />
 GROW Vasu speaking at an event
The factory was situated on the banks of river Chaliyar, the lifeline of many villages located on its banks. For the people of the village, the river is a source of not only drinking water but also livelihood in that they earned an income by selling the fish they caught and the mussels they collected from the river. No sooner than the factory started functioning, the effluents and clouds of smoke from the factory disrupted their lives and livelihoods. An abnormal rise in cases of cancer and respiratory diseases in the villages in the vicinity of the factory aggravated the situation leading to the villagers, and the civil society as a whole, demanding its closure. In this struggle that eventually led to the closure of this industrial unit, GROW Vasu led the factory workers. The moniker, GROW Vasu, stuck.
History of Encounter Killings
The modern history of encounter killings in Kerala began with the killing of Varghese, a Naxalite leader belonging to the same group of ‘revolutionaries’ as GROW Vasu. Varghese was shot dead by the police on February 18, 1970, in the Thirunelli jungle in Wayanad, another forest district of Kerala. Varghese was hugely popular among the poorest of the poor of that region. The shocking revelation that came from a police constable, Ramachandran Nair, many years later that he was commanded to shoot Varghese at point-blank range evoked a controversy and a series of debates on encounter killings. The case was reopened in the wake of the revelation and a police IG who ordered the killing of Varghese was sentenced by the CBI court.
Fast forward to 2016, and there began another series of police encounters with the Maoists. They did not have a big presence in Kerala and always lived on the fringes of the border forests, their contacts with the society limited to the tribal people living there. In many first-person accounts of tribal and local people recorded by Kerala’s TV channels, it became clear that the Maoists reportedly went to them just to get some rice and groceries.
The anti-extremist commando group of the police, The Kerala Thunderbolts, has been behind the recent encounter killings in Kerala. The simultaneity in the formation of the Thunderbolts and the encounter killings has raised many eyebrows in civil society. The question asked was: ‘Has the availability of huge financial support from the Centre to create and run such a commando group become a motivation in itself for the Kerala Police to continue such operations that were out of proportion to the extremist problem?’ Apart from the arrest of GROW Vasu’s arrest, a few more incidents have come as a shock to the civil society, including the 2019 killing of C. P. Jaleel, a Maoist leader, and the gunning down of 3 Maoists in the Attappady forest of Palakkad district. Though the Government of Kerala ordered probes into these encounters, the reports are yet to see the light of the day.
<img alt="images-1-1.jpeg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_1_1_be099518b9.jpeg" />
 GROW Vasu
Of late, GROW Vasu has been a micro-entrepreneur, with his hand-made umbrella brand, ‘Marivillu’ getting featured in local news. It was reported that he makes 20 umbrellas a day and this is not a hobby but his source of livelihood. No doubt that the nonagenarian will be at peace in his prison cell; the condition of his self-chosen dwelling is nothing better. The question is, why the Kerala government and police are losing their sleep over a 93-year-old who has long ceased to be a live wire years ago.
<img alt="KSFE_ad-1024x1024 (1).webp" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/KSFE_ad_1024x1024_1_0e3066f65a.webp" />

Vasu1-.jpg

The Kerala Police has arrested and jailed GROW Vasu, a 93-year-old activist who was protesting against the killing of two Maoist activists in Nilambur close to the State in a police encounter that happened 7 years ago. 

Why is the Left Government Afraid of a 93-Year-Old Man?

In 2019, a few weeks after the Indian National Congress suffered yet another resounding defeat at the hands of the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP), a small group of Delhi-based journalists, including this writer, had an occasion to interact with Rahul Gandhi in the precincts of the Congress Parliamentary Party office within the Parliament Building. During the brief, impromptu interaction, Rahul Gandhi said that he and the Congress had worked hard and to the best of their abilities but were found wanting in making the big change.
<img alt="images-5-300x168 (1).jpeg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_5_300x168_1_4af654c532.jpeg" />
Oommen Chandy with Rahul Gandhi during Bharat Jodo Yatra
Hearing this, I came up with a totally unsolicited advice. “Bring Oomen Chandy to Delhi on a special organisational post. Give him authority to prod your line of leaders in the organisational structure across the country. He will make your units across the country spring to a new life. He himself will not sleep. And he will not let other leaders in your party sleep too.” Rahul Gandhi, just smiled and moved on. 
Later, I sent word to Chandy through one of his close associates, about my “message” to Rahul Gandhi. The associate reported back saying that Chandy too responded to my suggestion with a smile, but had later added that he wished he could actually live up to my impression about him, if given a chance. Apparently, he used to talk about this “organisational possibility at the Congress centre” from time to time. “In a sense, he had taken up this as a promise to himself”, said the associate of Chandy. But several factors, including Chandy’s ill-health, prevented him fulfilling this promise in the past four years. 
<img alt="Capture-300x187 (1).webp" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Capture_300x187_1_23cc80f11e.webp" />
Oommen Chandy sloganeering
Political observers who have observed the organisational abilities of the former Kerala Chief Minister would agree with my assessment. There was little doubt about his connect with the people. Also that 24×7 activity characterised Oomen Chandy’s political life throughout his nearly six-decade long career. Fellow politicians, political observers and journalists have often been dumb founded by Chandy’s capacity to put in inhumanly long hours of work.
Senior politicians belonging to different parties, including his arch rivals in the Communist Party of India (Marxist) have seen how he could be on his feet for almost as long as 10 hours, meeting and interacting with people.
A fellow journalist recounts often an unbelievable official encounter with Chandy. Chandy was Chief Minister at that time and the journalist, an elected leader of a journalists’ union. The latter had an important issue to discuss with the Chief Minister. The union was building an office in one of the Kerala districts and had to get some official clearances. To an official request for an appointment, the Chief Minister’s office replied that the meeting was fixed for 4 a.m. in a train reaching Shoranur Junction then. Looking at the time and place of appointment, the journalist and his colleagues had surmised that the meeting would not happen. The Chief Minister would most probably be asleep at that time, they thought. However, they decided to take a chance and reached the station. The train reached the railway station and the man who opened the train’s door was a fully awake and bright looking Chief Minister himself. The journalists had a fruitful discussion with Chandy in the train. Later, the union’s project came to a smooth completion.
There were several leaders in the Congress as well as many regional parties in northern India such as the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Janata Dal (United) who knew about this passionate working style of Chandy. Old timers in the Uttar Pradesh Congress, such as Ram Kripal Singh and Pramod Tiwari, used to term it “Chandy’s personal value addition to a long-standing Kerala stamp in Congress politics”. They remember how, when Indira Gandhi was leading the party, young leaders from Kerala, such as A.K. Antony, Vayalar Ravi and Oomen Chandy had occupied important positions in the central bodies of the party. They viewed it as a period of creativity in the grand old party.
In the view of these leaders, it was Chandy and K.C. Venugopal, organisational secretrary in the current Congress Working Committee (CWC), who essentially represented this Kerala stamp in national politics in contemporary times. Interestingly, Venugopal considers himself a sort of protege of Chandy. Both Singh and Tiwari had pointed out to The AIDEM that Chandy’s political personality had particularly captured, the attention and imagination of the political class as a whole, particularty Congress functionaries, in different parts of India during the two terms when he was Chief Minister of Kerala. 
<img alt="The_Chief_Minister_of_Kerala_Shri_Oommen_Chandy_meeting_the_Prime_Minister_Dr._Manmohan_Singh_in_New_Delhi_on_March_13_2013-300x181 (1).jpg" src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/The_Chief_Minister_of_Kerala_Shri_Oommen_Chandy_meeting_the_Prime_Minister_Dr_Manmohan_Singh_in_New_Delhi_on_March_13_2013_300x181_1_a6fde85eb5.jpg" />
Oommen Chandy meeting the then Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh in New Delhi
This began right from his first tenure as Chief Minister in 2004. The very fact that he was chosen to replace somebody like Antony after the rout of the Congress in Kerala in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections had evoked interest across the country. This had grown steadily over his first tenure as Chief Minister until 2006. “It rose to greater heights during the, second tenure, which began in 2011,” Singh said.
Chandy’s tireless physical dynamism and energy were often cited as examples of the new-age political quotients of high value. Even politicians like Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party, who stands at a considerable distance from the Congress in political and ideological terms have commented on this aspect to me personally.
At the level of larger politics, however, there have been questions on Chandy’s ideological orientation and commitment. I had myself raised a pointed question on this when he was Chief Minister. Chandy had responded by stating that he did not believe in categorisations such as Left, Right or Centre and his basic ideology was welfare of the people and overall development. Many journalists and observers who had heard this interaction immediately categorised it as mindless generalisation by the leader. 
Even in the midst of this criticism, there was also an acceptance that at the policy level, there were many things that Chandy had done as Chief Minister which had the potential to evolve into more ideologically coherent political plan. Indeed, there were many things that militated against any form of ideological orientation. 
There is a general impression that the present-day Kerala, by and large, does not produce the kind of mature politicians that the larger society of the State deserves. This is a view shared even by those academicians and analysts who have showered praise on the Kerala model of development. Clearly, there is a need for greater application, enhanced creativity, and better innovation to make Kerala adapt itself to the new, emerging world.
Perhaps, Oomen Chandy’s passing away would trigger a broader and more involved debate on this issue in the days to come. Even as one mulls on this possibility, there can be little denying that Chandy had a very high application quotient and that he had brought back some attention to the Kerala stamp in Congress politics at the national level.
In such a context, the unkept promise that he made to himself on bringing more vigour into the Congress at the national level would pain a large number of his followers and friends.

Oomman-Chnadi-05.jpg

In 2019, a few weeks after the Indian National Congress suffered yet another resounding defeat at the hands of the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP), a small group of Delhi-based journalists, including this writer, had an occasion to interact with Rahul Gandhi in the precincts of the Congress Parliamentary Party office within the Parliament Building. During the brief, impromptu interaction, Rahul Gandhi said that he and the Congress had worked hard and to the best of their abilities but were found wanting in making the big change.



Oomen Chandy and an Unkept Promise to Himself

The AIDEM ExclusiveWhen falsity walks the streets, even art and literature cannot be free of it. Stories do not just happen; they are often concocted. When the trailer of the movie The Kerala Story was released last November, it was pointed out that the movie belongs to the genre of concoction. The trailer of the movie that conjures up false and spurious allegations about Kerala society was not officially censored at the point of its release. This fact was revealed by none other than the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) itself. The revelation appeared in the official reply to a Right to Information (RTI) query that the Chennai-based television anchor B.R. Aravindakshan filed with the CBFC. On February 23, 2023, he filed his RTI application asking the Censor Board if the trailer had been duly scrutinized and certified. The reply from the Censor Board on March 16, 2023 unequivocally makes it clear that the trailer did not undergo its due diligence. It also suggested that the complainant could approach the Appellate Authority of the CBFC in case he wanted to take any further step on the matter.Now the movie’s posters have appeared carrying May 5 as the date of release. Sudipto Sen is the director of the movie made under the banner of Sunshine Pictures. Yet another trailer of The Kerala Story is also out now depicting Kerala as a haven for Muslim terrorists.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Fui_Vvwfac_A_Axvd_A_768x1024_1_c0c1f5073b.jpg" alt="FuiVvwfacAAxvdA-768x1024 (1).jpg"> Promotional Poster for the filmThe movie, claiming to be a depiction of real events, allegedly propagates misinformation about Kerala and its society_ a fact that was pointed out even as the film was being shot. Its story revolves around the lives of four women protagonists. One of them is Shalini Unnikrishnan, a nurse who has chosen the path of service to the public. She gets trapped in the vicious network of the ISIS, a Muslim terrorist organisation, and is forcibly converted to Islam. Her name is changed to Fathima Baa and she is imprisoned in an Afghan jail after joining the ISIS terrorist group. The actress, Ada Sharma is cast as Shalini. Yogitha Bihani, Sonia Balani, and Siddhi Idani portray the other three girls.The film depicts Kerala as a place where people are regularly recruited by terrorist organisations and raises a grave allegation that 32,000 women of Kerala were recruited by ISIS terrorists into their fold. The director, Sudipto Sen reportedly arrived at this conclusion by seriously misrepresenting a few statements made by two political leaders and ex-Chief Ministers of Kerala, Ommen Chandy (INC) and V.S. Achuthanandan (CPIM). In an interview with City Media in 2021, Sudipto Sen reportedly said that he got the figure of 32,000 from a statement made by Ommen Chandi in 2010 in the Kerala Legislative Assembly. <img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/rti_1_b8ad44e90b.jpg" alt="rti (1).jpg">Response received for RTI ApplicationThe truth is not anywhere close to the above. On June 25, 2021, Ommen Chandi informed the Kerala Legislative Assembly that between 2006 and 2021, 2667 individuals had converted to Islam in Kerala. Nowhere in this reply was a mention of ISIS. The teaser of the film manipulatively uses in it a statement by V.S. Achuthanandan about Popular Front, a recently banned Muslim outfit. Also, in the teaser where the words of V.S. Achuthanandan are heard, the subtitles read an entirely different translation, with no connection to the original words. Alt News, a fact-checking website at that time, asked Sudipto Sen to correct this mistake but he did not bother to follow it up.A documentary titled, ‘In the Name of Love’ directed by Sudipto Sen came out in 2018 and dealt with the same theme as the new feature film. This documentary had as its key narrative, stories of Hindu and Christian women getting converted to Islam by foul means and sent to countries having a terrorist presence. The documentary when screened at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) caused quite a commotion, eventually squeezing out an apologetic explanation from the director that the film was not about ‘Love Jihad’.On February 4,2020 Benny Behanan, Lok Sabha member from Kerala had raised a pointed question in parliament regarding the allegations that ‘Love Jihad’ is widespread in his South Indian State. Responding to his question, G.Kishan Reddy, Minister of State for Home Affairs in the Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP) government stated categorically that “no such case of ‘Love Jihad‘ has been reported by central agencies. He went on to add that the term ‘Love Jihad‘ is not defined under extant laws.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/sudipto_300x300_1_224bfea875.jpeg" alt="sudipto-300x300 (1).jpeg"> Sudipto Sen, DirectorMore recently, in November 2022 a three part RTI query seeking to know the facts on this issue was filed to the union Home ministry.The questions were the following –<ul><li>How many cases have been recorded so far of young Hindu girls from India being converted to Islam and sold to ISIS terror organisation? Please provide State wise details</li><li>How many Hindu community girls have converted to Islam and joined ISIS terror organisation? Please provide data from 2014 to 2022.</li><li>Does the Home Ministry keep track of how many Hindu girls from India are living as slaves in the ISIS terror organisation? If yes, then provide complete details about it.</li></ul>The Home Ministry gave a consolidated answer to these three queries stating that the required information is not available with the offices of the union Home Ministry. It went on to add that “Police” and “Public order” are State subjects as per the seventh schedule of the Constitution of India. It also said that the State police is the first responder in case of any criminal terrorist activity, including investigation, registration and prosecution of crimes and protection of life and property.Sudipto Sen has been quite vocal about his hatred of Communism. At the closing ceremony of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) 2022, when Nadav Lapid, the Israel Film Maker and Jury Chairman, criticised the controversial movie Kashmir Files, Sudipto Sen was the only Jury member who opposed him.The JNU incident was seen by many as a manifestation of Sudipto Sen’s malice towards Kerala which stands as an island of secular grit even after the RSS-backed BJP won two consecutive elections at the national level. It was alleged that Sudipto was consciously trying to belittle and deprecate even Kerala’s well-documented achievements and present the sState as a society that appeases Muslim communalism.The Kerala Story has to be seen as a continuation of Sudipto’s false propaganda. The message that the teaser puts across blatantly is majority communalism backed by nothing but falsehoods and distortions. The movie’s posters say that it has versions in four languages which would be released simultaneously – Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam. Though it is mandatory to display the type of Censor Board certification of the movie (A, U, AU etc.) in all publicity materials, the posters do not have any such information displayed on them. This omission raises the serious doubt whether the film was properly scrutinized and certified by the CBFC. A more relevant question would be about the criteria by which this film was allowed to go to the public domain despite its gravely defamatory portrayal of the Kerala society which has the potential to provoke communal tensions.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/kerala_768x469_1_da12cc8197.jpg" alt="kerala-768x469 (1).jpg"> Promotional PosterThe Censor Board constituted a Film Publicity Screening Committee in 1990 April to preview and all the publicity materials of all feature films to check whether they contain indecency, overt violence, anti-women propaganda and so on. The committee has its headquarters in Mumbai and regional offices in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, and Thiruvananthapuram. The reply given to Aravindakshan for his RTI query suggests that this committee did not preview or approve the trailer of The Kerala Story which was released in November last year.Soon after the first trailer was made public, Aravindakshan filed complaints against it with the CBFC as well as Kerala’s Chief Minister. A police case was reportedly filed on the basis of his complaint. With the date of the movie release being already announced, Aravindakshan is demanding further action on his complaint from the authorities concerned.<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;">This article was originally published in Malayalam. Read<a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;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-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/kerala-story-film-releasing-without-censor-certificate/">here</a><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;">.

Kerala-Story.jpg

When falsity walks the streets, even art and literature cannot be free of it. Stories do not just happen; they are often concocted. When the trailer of the movie The Kerala Story was released last November, it was pointed out that the movie belongs to the genre of concoction. 

The Kerala Story: A Movie, A Political Agenda, and a Conniving Censor Board

Here is an edited transcript of the interview with Philippe Humbert, French political analyst and long time India watcher, with Venkitesh Ramakrishnan, Managing Editor of The AIDEM.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: Hello and welcome to The AIDEM Interactions. The AIDEM Interactions is today with an international guest. A specialist on India and Indian affairs. All the way from Paris. Philippe Humbert of Jean Jaures foundation. Welcome Philippe to The AIDEM Interactions. We know that you have been interacting with India right from the 1980s. Perhaps you know more about India than many Indians know. And you also wrote this interesting book published in 1992: The Rajiv Gandhi Years. You have had a special focus on the Congress Party because that was the ruling party at that point of time. Of course now we have a lot of things happening. The situation in India has changed. You’re coming to India after four years. After the COVID Period. So when you compare the visits made in the past and compare with the situations in the 1980s and 1990s and the New Millenia, what are the main changes you’ve seen in India?Philippe Humbert: From a political internal viewpoint I think that the situation where the Congress was a big party, things were different. Congress used to have a more diversified base.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: Diversified base?Philippe Humbert: A more diversified base and it was more like a coalition of parties or segments of the population. Now I think when the BJP took over in 2014, I think, it’s acting as a big machinery. It’s a big block. A very strong machinery. And I think with a strong local organisation and Central organisation, more than when the Congress was in power.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: In your book, you talk about how the Congress built a coalition of various segments of society. We call them Castes and Communities here. But the BJP is pursuing what is called the Hindutva Philosophy. But using this the Hindutva philosophy, it has made some major inroads in terms of unifying large sections of the Hindu society. How do you look at that phenomenon?Philippe Humbert: Well I think this phenomenon is something new in India. Because it is a shift toward a society where there is a kind of monolithic view of Hinduism. It is to be noted that India is not a Hindu country, though a large majority of the population is Hindu. There is Hinduism, of course. But with a big segment of Muslim, Christian, Sikh or Jains. It’s diversified. So shifting policy towards a Hindu block is something which is a bit odd in my view. This phenomenon is related to some experience in some other countries where there is a block according to, I would not say religion or belief, just strongly based on cultural custom and habits.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: OK but, when you say that this is similar to other countries. Can you name some?Philippe Humbert: Of course, in Israel, there is this tendency. The same way, Israel is being considered as a Jewish country, one hundred percent. Which is not true because there are Arab minorities, who are citizens.So it can’t be a Jewish State even if some people would like to call it that way. It’s this kind of movement that is happening in India. Only thing is, it’s much bigger. So that’s something new according to me.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: Something new and perhaps something that is taking us towards a sectarian state. A state which is kind of pushing a sectarian agenda.Philippe Humbert: Yes. I think that this view is in a way against secularism. Because secularism means that the State does not have any religious image. Secularism stands as a separation of the State, government and religion. It is what was done in France in 1905.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: Of course, we all know that France is the place where the concept of Secularism originated. Interestingly, two judges of the Indian Supreme court said recently that religion and politics should not be mixed. So that is something that echoes with what you are saying. Would you like to comment on point like this ?Philippe Humbert: Secularism in France is an essential ideal. Long ago, for years, for centuries the King was supposed to represent God in France. But that has changed. So much so, that the Catholic Church of France had been struggling to have a strong influence over the state and government in many areas. But the fact is that the 1905 law, (law on separation of religion and the State) what’s called Laicite in France is still there.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: There were also demands to reform the secularism idea of France, especially in the context of the Hijab controversy and related issues that came up in the 90s and early 2000s….Philippe Humbert: Yes there are some views like that and it’s reality now but you know this law, the 1905 law, has not been changed. It has not been changed at all. Only thing is that its implementation in some areas, mainly in schools and in some public domain areas like Administration, can be in ways, a bit pragmatic, according to local circumstances. But the law has not been changed and I don’t think it will be changed.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: Do you think it should not be changed?Philippe Humbert: It should not be changed. Because it is a law that provides for some basic freedom of conscience, freedom of religions, freedom of performing your religion, freedom of not to tell some people to do something. So it’s very basic. In a way it’s very simple. In principle it’s very simple. Of course, sometimes the implementation can be a bit complicated but I think it should not be changed and there is no real attempt to change the law, except some people asking for that.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: But even when you say that, one also sees that the far right in France is growing in strength from election to election and they’re getting more and more seats in Parliament, they are having a higher share of votes. So ultimately I think, perhaps, France is also heading towards an India-kind of situation.Philippe Humbert: Okay well, it’s true that the far right is increasing. There are currently about 80 to 90 MPs. Which is a big number, the biggest ever and there is a trend but we will see in the future. It is very difficult to say that in some years things will be as some people would like it to be. just imagine the situation four years ago. It was before COVID, before the Ukrainian war, and see how the world was different now. So, four years ahead, well, see. But we have to fight.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: I think across Europe migration is a major issue. And if you look at France’s history, France was a country which promoted migration especially from African countries like Tunisia. But I think there is a public sentiment against it growing in France as well. How do you account for something like that?Philippe Humbert: Yes it is true that there is migration pressure coming from the South. Mainly coming from African countries and also from countries which are involved in wars you know. Afghanistan, Syria and now Ukrainians, but it’s a very different context. It is true there is a kind of pressure. But we’ll have to build up a regime where we can welcome those people who are willing to settle down and to be integrated in and that to be done. But there is a quantum which is possible to accommodate and sometimes, on some occasion there are some situations which are difficult to tackle.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: Anyway, let us come back to India. Because we have been talking about France more than India. I remember in some of your writings, when you said that the India Story, which you have been following since the middle 1980s, is about economic growth. That is something which you have consistently held. What is the kind of economic growth situation that you see in India at this point of time?Philippe Humbert: Well I think the economic growth in India for this current year is supposed to be around six percent, which is a relatively high number compared to the world. In many countries it is much less, even in China. Even so, this is a nominal number of growth. There are strong points in the Indian economy. I would say that all those IT companies like Infosys, Wipro, all the services or those related to renewable energy are doing quite well. Especially Solar energy, which was my field, saw great development in India over the last few years. Other areas that are going very well are, I think, Aeronautics. Civil aviation is also booming. And of course, the telecommunication work has totally changed. The technology is totally new now and you know that. And India is performing well in this field. But also, what is not new is that some basic problems in India are not served right. First, mass education. I think India should have a mass education project, which has been done in China. And if China is at such a high level that’s because they have performed much more in education and social amenities. I think in India you have a very high level of higher institutions, such the famous IITs and many private universities are doing exceptionally well. But still mass education is not growing at a desired rate.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: Indeed, there has to be some focus on mass education. But in terms of primary and secondary education, there are States like Kerala which have done very well.Philippe Humbert: Yeah, yes. It demonstrates that it is possible. It is just a matter of will. In India you have a Centre and you have the States. Kerala is doing well. Tamil Nadu is doing pretty well also. Why are other states not doing as well? So it’s a matter of concern. The possibilities are not used by the local authorities of those States which are not dedicated enough in some cases.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: Right. You talked about the growth in the aviation industry. France and India have an aviation connection, <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 <a style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);box-sizing:border-box;color:rgb(255, 53, 36);display:inline-block;font-family:Manjari;font-size:18px;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-indent:0px;text-transform:none;transition:all 0.4s ease 0s;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" href="https://theaidem.com/exposing-the-corruption-wars-in-the-modi-regime/">Rafaele</a><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;"> Deal.&nbsp; How do you look at that connection?Philippe Humbert: But it’s not new. It’s not new at all. You must remember that Dassault aeroplanes have been introduced in India, in the 1950s. And many of the Pilots have been trained on planes coming from Dassault at that time. So it is a very old story. The relationship in aviation. Then it came to a new kind of aeroplane. The last one is Rafael. So I know India has selected Rafael but it is true also for civil aviation. And very recently Air India has ordered, the biggest order, in the world. Five hundred aeroplanes. Coming from about 50% Airbus and 50% Boeing. It shows that Civil aviation is booming in India. A lot of airports are being expanded.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: Apart from aviation the other area that you know India and France had a huge collaboration was on solar energy. What is the future of that now?Philippe Humbert: Well I am extremely dedicated to the solar industry because I’ve been in India, like five, six years working in India itself, expanding solar plants with a French company which is a pioneer in industry. It was in 2015 and you remember the COP15 in Paris. It was where the solar alliance, the International Solar Alliance, was created with the French government and your government and now implemented in Delhi. So I am a strong believer of solar energy and generally renewable energy with wind and other sources.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: But is India doing well in the renewable energy section?Philippe Humbert: I think India is going quite well for renewable energy. To see the numbers of gigawatts which are installed at capacity is huge. So for India, it is a good move. I must say that it’s a good example of what has to be done in many countries. Solar energy and wind energy.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: India has now got the chairmanship of the G20 now. How do you think it is going to impact India’s global standing as well as especially its relationship with countries like France?Philippe Humbert: Yes, this is new. I think India is more assertive in world affairs. For a long time India was a bit idle, very shy. Not visible on the planet despite its traditions. Now I think things are different. India is much more assertive because of its weight. Maybe as number five in economic power. So you can’t hide yourself in the planet you have to fare well. G20 too is a good opportunity for that. Although, with the Ukrainian War and the rift between the so-called West and Russia-China block is making things quite difficult for India monitoring the G20. It was seen at the last meeting of the finance ministers here in Delhi. They could not sign an agreement. So the Ukrainian war makes things difficult for India to monitor the G20. I think the September meeting will be difficult also. Maybe the same will happen.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: Apart from the differences in terms of the Russia-Ukraine war, the other thing that was flagged was the human rights situation in this country. And I think, you know, the Indian foreign minister kind of asserted that you cannot have a universal standard for engaging in terms of human rights. Each country has got to have its own parameters. Thinking about this point, I remember how you have asserted in the past as to how Rajiv Gandhi’s political perspectives were essentially guided by democratic values.But now you have a situation where his son and the former Congress Party president Rahul Gandhi has been divested of his parliamentary membership. So how do you look at this comparison?Philippe Humbert: Well I think this is happening also in India but also in many places. You can see that in the world now how things are done in a very pragmatic way. Just imagine this new alliance in the Middle East. Between countries like Israel and its neighbours. For example, the famous Abraham’s agreement. More and more nations are doing things in a very pragmatic way. In a way it is good but in another way it goes against the concept of universal human of Rights.Venkitesh Ramakrishanan: Thank you, Philip Humbert for your perspectives. Despite your long tradition as a secularist, and as long a tradition as a socialist, somebody who believes in social democracy, I can see that, at the end of it all, what you are seeing globally is not a very bright picture. But almost a bleak one but then let’s hope for better times and I wish you have a very good time in India as the kind of times that you used to have earlier. And we will meet in the future as well on The AIDEM Interactions. Thank you.<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;">Watch the full interview, <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://theaidem.com/democracy-is-being-challenged-across-the-globe/">here</a>. Read full transcript in Hindi, <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://theaidem.com/hi-philippe-humbert-on-energy-g20-and-challenges-to-democracy/">here</a>.<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;">Subscribe to our channels on&nbsp;<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">YouTube</a>&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;<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">WhatsApp</a>

Philippe-Hmbeert-TEXT.jpg

Here is an edited transcript of the interview with Philippe Humbert, French political analyst and long time India watcher, with Venkitesh Ramakrishnan, Managing Editor of The AIDEM. 

The AIDEM Interactions: Philippe Humbert

Amit Shah’s New Political Bulldozer Moves for Bihar
Union Home Minister Amit Shah— the pivot of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party’s ( BJP) strategic and electoral juggernaut —has come up with a brand new scheme for Bihar. He has decided to tour Bihar’s Muslim dominated Seemanchal (bordering) region for two days beginning September 23 . The reasons for this seemingly sudden enterprise is not far to seek. The BJP leadership as a whole , and especially Amit Shah , is seething with rage after the Bihar Chief Minister and Janata Dal ( United) – JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar dumped the saffron party , reforged the Mahagatbandhan ( grand alliance ) with the RJD, Congress and Left parties and once again took control of the top administrative position in the State.
Nithish Kumar with Tejashwi yadav
While this political reverse seems to be the main reason for Shah’s foray ,the reason stated formally is that the union Home Minister has to review the security situation in the Seemanchal region . This region that comprises of Kishanganj, Araria, Katihar and Purnia Lok Sabha constituencies has a Muslim population of around 47 percent while the State average is just 17 percent. The region has international borders with Nepal and Bangladesh too. So, all these factors as such provide the raison d’être for the union home minister to review the “security situation” in the region.
But the timing of Shah’s visit, the demography of the region and also his itinerary clearly suggest that the BJP- smarting under the failure of its ‘Operation Lotus’ in Bihar—has embarked on the exercise to somehow try to overcome the enormous political loss it has suffered on account of Nitish Kumar’s shift to Mahagatbandhan.
Nityanand Rai
The union home minister of state and MP from Ujiarpur in north Bihar Nityanand Rai broke the news that Shah would address a public meeting at Purnia on September 23 followed by an “interaction with the officials”. He would visit Kishanganj on September 24 , hold meetings with his party workers and “also with the officials of the security agencies guarding the borders”.
The BJP’s national president J. P Nadda would accompany Amit Shah. Several senior Bihar BJP leaders including former ministers of the National Democratic Alliance ( NDA ) government in the State too would join Shah during the trip.
J. P Nadda
The 2024 Lok Sabha elections are nearly one and half years away and one wonders why the union home minister should hold a meeting with the public and party workers in the region sharing international borders. Even more objectionable is the fact that the entire expenditure for this trip, essentially a political campaign trip, would be borne by the Union government. In other words, the home ministry would fund Shah’s “mission” to rescue his party from the political quagmire it has slipped in after Nitish deserting it.
The the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), BJP’s progenitor and the fountainhead of the Sangh Parivar, has worked among the caste Hindus of Kishanganj, Purnia, Katihar and Araria at the grassroots level for over four decades. Since the Muslims are numerically preponderant—they constitute over 60 percent of the population in Kishanganj district—they have the tendency to split whereas the Hindus have a sustained polarization against the “dominance” of the Muslims.
Through 1970’s and 1980’s the RSS carried out a steady campaign against the “infiltration” of Bangladeshis and cow slaughter in the region. Though never corroborated by concrete evidence, the RSS-BJP have always described the region as a “safe passage zone” of terrorists from Nepal and Bangladesh to India and vice versa. The RSS’s militant wings Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad were also perceived to have tried time and again to engineer riots here, much like the ones it had triggered in Muzffarnagar-Shamli region of western Uttar Pradesh in 2012-13.
The RSS-BJP never succeeded in fueling the Hindu-Muslim divide in Seemanchal in the same proportion of what it did in many other parts of the country. The old Jan Sangh hands, Nikhi Kumar and Jagbandhu Adhikari used to occasionally win the assembly polls or at times Lok Sabha polls from this region in 1980’s. Seats like Thakurganj, Bahadurganj, Kadwa and Katihar assembly seats—with heavy population of Muslims– invariably elected the BJP MLAs in 1990s because of extreme communal polarization of the Hindus against the Muslims, whose votes were split among many parties and candidates.
The BJP had its Muslim face Shahnawaz Hussein once winning the Kishanjganj Lok Sabha seat in 1996. The party still has Pradeep Kumar, its MP from Araria. As of now Purnia and Katihar have JDU MPs, Sanotosh Kushwaha and Dulalchand Bhuinyan respectively, while Kishanganj is represented by Congress’s Mohammad Javed in the Lok Sabha. The BJP and the JDU contesting in alliance had won the Purnea, Katihar and Araria seats whereas the Congress had won Kishanganj in 2019.
The 2020 assembly elections witnessed the emergence of Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM as a reasonably potent force with the party winning five assembly seats. But the RJD and JDU fought against each other in those polls allowing Owaisi to operate in Seemanchal. However, four of the AIMIM’s MLAs switched over to the RJD ahead of the JDU coming back to the Mahagatbandhan .Probably, the AIMIM MLAs have calculated that with Lalu and Nitish coming together they don’t stand much of a chance being with Owaisi’s party in the state.
Asaduddin Owaisi
What effectively prevented the BJP gaining ground in Seemanchal in the manner it did in western Uttar Pradesh was the emergence of Lalu Yadav as the undisputed leader of the Yadavs who are the largest OBC caste in the Kosi (Saharsa-Madhepura-Supaul) and Seemanchal regions. Thus, the manner in which the BJP consolidated itself among the Jats, Gangwars, Patels and Balmikis of western Uttar Pradesh, it failed to do so with the Yadavs and other OBC- EBC castes like Koiris-Kurmis—the Koris-Kurmis. The non-Yadav castes are in sizeable number in Purnea and are loyal to Nitish in the larger Seemanchal-Kosi region.
The question is where in Bihar would the Modi-Shah led BJP begin to gain traction against the Mahagatbandhan ? The presence of the CPI-ML-Liberation with substantial clout among the weaker sections of both the Hindu and Muslim communities in the region is also a stumbling block before the BJP’s plans .
But Shah had experimented with his divisive politics in this region in 2015 assembly polls too when Lalu and Nitish were together. He had badly failed. It was at Supaul that has heavy population of Muslims Shah had infamously said, “Lalu-Nitish jitengein to Pakistan mein patakha chhootega (If Lalu-Nitish won crackers would be burst in Pakistan)”.
Shah’s ‘warning’ had not worked at that time. The BJP drew a blank in the Kosi region in 2020.
Apart from ground reality the most debilitating handicap for Amit Shah in Bihar is he lacks acceptability of the kind that he enjoys in Uttar Pradesh in particular and in other non-Bihar parts of the Hindi heartland in general. Shah has worked closely in U.P as he was general secretary in-charge of the State during the 2014 elections and his party has its government consistently since 2017 in the heartland state. But he woefully lacks personal appeal with Bihar’s people. Moreover, the BJP is far from radicalizing its cadres in Bihar the way it has done in many other parts of India thanks to Nitish who despite running the government in alliance with the saffron party had never allowed the RSS-BJP any leeway to play the card of radical Hindutva in Bihar.

WhatsApp-Image-2022-08-31-at-1.29.50-PM.jpeg

Union Home Minister Amit Shah— the pivot of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party’s ( BJP) strategic and electoral juggernaut —has come up with a brand new scheme for Bihar. 

Amit Shah’s New Political Bulldozer Moves for Bihar

In 1942, a year after Tagore’s death, the war-torn Warsaw witnessed an unusual event- Janus Corsak staged Tagore’s play, Dak Ghar (The Post Office). This heart-rending play was enacted by the children of Auschwitz camp as they were awaiting their end in the gas chambers. It was a sort of preparation for their imminent death. The line in the play, “Fear not, the fire will not touch you”, acted as the mystic spell ushering them into the profound calm of death; this possibility of a blend of the opposites, of the material and the immaterial, the worldly and the spiritual, death and immortality, resonates in Tagore’s life and works. Rabindranath Tagore, our national poet demands a re-reading in these chaotic times when we are once again obsessed with the idea of the nation and its contours. It would seem his life was destined to be a composite of opposites: a lesson in the harmonious practice of living, of relationships, of language.<figure class="image"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/tagore_768x430_5c97c09afd.webp" alt="tagore-768x430.webp" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_tagore_768x430_5c97c09afd.webp 245w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_tagore_768x430_5c97c09afd.webp 500w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_tagore_768x430_5c97c09afd.webp 750w" sizes="100vw" width="750"></figure>As a child, he grew up in a huge palatial home surrounded by luxury, but in the company of the servants of the house; he was born the youngest of 14 children, yet he had a lonely childhood; his parents were landlords, but they lived an ascetic life. There are more such paradoxes (or perhaps it must be called a fluid blending). His ancestors were of the merchant class, Pirali Brahmins, but his home was flooded with artists and writers and scholars of all levels. He was trained in Vedic philosophy, but he did not hold Vedas as the only repository of knowledge. His popularizing the Baul Lalan Shahs songs, and his acknowledging the Bedouins’ earthly wisdom, is a way of thought, an episteme, essential to our times when sectarian politics reigns supreme. Tagore’s creative experiments, a blend of mystical and physical, began at the age of eight and he published his poems at 16 under the pseudonym Bhanu Simha (Sun Lion). The fact that the critics mistook this work of this teenager poet to be long-lost classics of the ancients seems too consistent with the poet’s consciousness, where myth and reality operate, like his fluid destiny. His poetry was lyrical and mystical and lifted us up into sublime realms. However, his short stories were realistic and as he sensitively portrayed rural Bengal in meticulous detail in his prose, we are forced to confront the reality of a caste-ridden India. He was addressed as Gurudev and his sensitive and enlightened lines in the Gitanjali earned him the name the Bard of Bengal. But neither of these names define his amorphous person nor his well-defined thoughts. In the year 1905, Calcutta was in turmoil and there were constant attempts to fuel communal tensions. In the Tagore household true to its tradition, women made Rakhis and tied them to Muslim men on Rakshabandan Day. The philosophy of Unity in Diversity was a practice that Tagore lived by. In his ‘The Religion of Man’, he says, we do not know how the elements as Carbon compose a piece of coal, all that we can say is that they build up those appearances through unity of inter-relationship, which unites them not merely in an individual piece of coal but in creative coordination with the entire physical universe. Tagore’s mysticism is often mistaken for detachment from the real world and his privileged status is seen as an excuse to apoliticize him.<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:63.03%;"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/tge_38e496a997.jpg" alt="tge.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_tge_38e496a997.jpg 194w" sizes="100vw" width="194"></figure>He was a mystic but he was also a doer. When the Jalianwalah Bagh massacre happened, his was one of the intrepid responses. He renounced his knighthood as one would discard an ill-fitting garment and wrote an incisive letter to Lord Chelmsford. His prose was unequivocal, his vocabulary explicitly political, unlike his creative writings. When he was sent to lord over the lands his family owned in Shelaidaha, he refused the ceremonial seat offered to the landlord and sat on the floor with them. He sat and walked among peasants and his short stories about rural Bengal, were an eyewitness record of their poverty and deprivation. Simone Weil, the French Philosopher and mystic, says, attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity. Tagore’s attention to the details of others’ lives does not have many parallels with the feudal world. For Tagore, it was not an Us vs Them or Them Vs Us question. He denounced British Raj and advocated independence from Britain. Yet his refusal to think in binaries led him to criticise Gandhiji’s boycott of foreign goods. The Swadeshi Movement looted shops selling foreign clothes and made a bonfire of the goods thus depriving the merchants of their life’s earnings. Tagore used the trope of the machine to describe a nation-state. A nation in the sense of the political and economic union of a people is that aspect that a whole population assumes when organised for a mechanical purpose. In the twenty-first century global space, national borders are permeable, and global finance controls globally irrespective of the political power of each nation-state. It is said that now political leaders can start a war, kill their own citizens, and render useless a whole community but when it comes to constructing a democratic structure and empowering people across the divide, the leaders are slaves to multinational corporations.<figure class="image"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/tagoree_105db8cfdb.jpg" alt="tagoree.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_tagoree_105db8cfdb.jpg 208w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_tagoree_105db8cfdb.jpg 500w" sizes="100vw" width="500"></figure>Hence the significance of Tagore’s concept of internationalism. When we are now reexamining the concept of Nationalism in a globalised world, Tagore’s ideas gain enormous significance. It is his ideas on nationalism that defines him. His nationalism embraced all other imagined communities and thus his vision of a university was a space that brought all humanity together. He was a humanist, universalist and internationalist who questioned the British ideals of nationalism and its excuses for a colonial rule: “thinking about the construction of Nation and civil society in the West, the Western powers were involved in creating colonies in the Global South” writes Homi Bhaba. Tagore who wrote that Nationalism is a great menace and is the particular thing which for years has been at the bottom of India’s troubles was a seer who foresaw the State organising its powers against its citizens. Preservation is a goal of Nations at the expense of all those who do not belong to the Nation. Within the federal constitutional framework is a heterogeneity that is often ignored. According to Homi Bhaba, targetting people as outsiders is a part of the new tribal nationalist agenda to position majorities against minorities. His idea of a space where the world makes a home in a single nest was realised in the world university that he built in Bolpur, West Bengal. He named it Visva Bharati.<figure class="image"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/tgr_768x576_d1ce2c694e.jpg" alt="tgr-768x576.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_tgr_768x576_d1ce2c694e.jpg 208w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_tgr_768x576_d1ce2c694e.jpg 500w, https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_tgr_768x576_d1ce2c694e.jpg 750w" sizes="100vw" width="750"></figure>The closed spaces of classrooms of the colonial system were done away with and students learnt in natural spaces in the open shade of huge mango trees. Apart from providing a learning space which was freer and unrestricted, Santiniketan brought multifarious cultures around the globe into this rural setting. Santiniketan was the ideal Nation where everyone lived in harmony irrespective of their ethnicity, culture, language, colour or gender.

WhatsApp-Image-2022-08-08-at-5.29.18-PM.jpeg

In 1942, a year after Tagore’s death, the war-torn Warsaw witnessed an unusual event- Janus Corsak staged Tagore’s play, Dak Ghar (The Post Office). T

Re-reading Tagore in Chaotic Times 

<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;">Andolana is a 51-year-old local newspaper paper based in Mysore founded by the renowned Kannada journalist, Rajasekhara Koti. This is one of the few newspapers in the country that have stood their ground when television and digital media swept almost away the newspaper reading culture.

FTR-1-1.jpg

Andolana is a 51-year-old local newspaper paper based in Mysore founded by the renowned Kannada journalist, Rajasekhara Koti. 

Andolana: Mysore’s Own Newspaper that Stood the Test of Time

<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;">In this freewheeling conversation with journalist Divya Trivedi renowned artist Seema Kohli underscored the importance of the feminine form and related perspectives in her artistic world. Kohli is of the view that there is a universal bonding in art and life, all originating from the power of the feminine and the innumerable expressions of love that emanate from it.

FTR-1.jpg

In this freewheeling conversation with journalist Divya Trivedi renowned artist Seema Kohli underscored the importance of the feminine form and related perspectives in her artistic world.

We all have the same blood: Seema Kohli

<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 3:2 majority judgement, the Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice of India Justice D.Y. Chandrachud has ruled against same-sex marriage. The queer community and the LGBTQ activists, who had been hoping for a favourable legal assertion at the end of marathon 10-day hearing, have now hit a sort of deadend.<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;">Questions loom large for the community on where to proceed from this point, as the Supreme Court pushed the issue of legalising same-sex marriage back to the Legislature. This option is doubly complicated because many dominant sections of the legislature have been strongly opposing it for long.<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;">Joining Anand Haridas in The AIDEM Interactions to discuss the day’s development are Thulasi K. Raj, Supreme Court lawyer and regular commentator on socio-legal issues and Laina Emmanuel, a social and policy observer with nearly two decades of experience in healthcare management, policy and consulting.

IMG-20231017-WA0000.jpg

In a 3:2 majority judgement, the Supreme Court bench headed by the Chief Justice of India Justice D.Y. Chandrachud has ruled against same-sex marriage.

From here to where, asks the LGBTQ Community

19-09-23-a2.jpg

Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam or the new Women Reservation Bill proclaims 33% women reservation for women in state assemblies and Lok Sabha. However, the bill says that the act will take effect only after “an exercise of delimitation is undertaken for this purpose after the relevant figures for the first census taken after the commencement” of this act have been published.

Is the New Women Reservation Bill an Eyewash?

Malayalam (ml)

Tamil (ta)

English (en)

Hindi (hi)

Telugu (te)

Kannada (kn)

<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/IMG_20240930_WA_0007_770x470_d5062615d1.jpg" alt="IMG-20240930-WA0007-770x470.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_IMG_20240930_WA_0007_770x470_d5062615d1.jpg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_IMG_20240930_WA_0007_770x470_d5062615d1.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_IMG_20240930_WA_0007_770x470_d5062615d1.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><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;">Communication is an art that many struggle with, but few realize it can be learned. Whether you’re talking to a friend, colleague, family member, or stranger, mastering this skill is within reach. Ever struggled to start a conversation or keep it going? Finding common topics of interest can be tricky, and navigating differing social or political views can feel like a minefield. But with the right approach, you can turn any interaction into a meaningful exchange.&nbsp;How do you find the right approach? More importantly, can you learn the required skills?“<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.charlesduhigg.com/supercommunicators">Supercommunicators</a>,” written by Charles Duhigg, is a book that teaches you to learn the skills to convert a conversation into a connection. It distills the art of conversation, any conversation, including the ones with your friends and family, into actionable steps that you can readily practice and improve.<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.charlesduhigg.com/">Charles Duhigg</a> is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist and author of bestselling books. I read his first book, “The Power of Habit,” which is a constant presence in many bookstores, and liked it. I read it in 2013, and it convinced me about the importance of habits. Last year, I read his <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.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/12/11/the-inside-story-of-microsofts-partnership-with-openai">article</a> on the ChatGPT saga and liked it for its reporting breadth and depth.<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:629px;" id="attachment_30055" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-30055"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/811bz_Oshn5_L_AC_UF_10001000_QL_80_F_Mwebp_7ad3ac888f.webp" alt="811bzOshn5L._AC_UF10001000_QL80_FMwebp_.webp" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_811bz_Oshn5_L_AC_UF_10001000_QL_80_F_Mwebp_7ad3ac888f.webp 98w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_811bz_Oshn5_L_AC_UF_10001000_QL_80_F_Mwebp_7ad3ac888f.webp 314w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_811bz_Oshn5_L_AC_UF_10001000_QL_80_F_Mwebp_7ad3ac888f.webp 472w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><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-30055">Cover of the book ‘Supercommunicators’</figcaption></figure>This book starts by breaking down every conversation into three types: Analytical, Emotional, and Social. Every conversation is essentially one of these three types. In analytical talk, the conversation is a transaction where facts and details matter. In emotional talk, the conversation is all about the feelings. In social talk, the conversation is about an identity. Now, listing the types helps in nothing. You still need to know what to do with this information.Suppose you argued with your father in the morning over a trivial issue. You reach the office and share the incident with your friend. Are you looking for a solution? Do you want to be listened to intently, get advice on who was wrong, or would just a hug do ? Suppose you differed with a colleague about a work issue. Another colleague, a friend, was listening. What do you want to hear from your friend? Advice or silence or just a hug? Suppose you hear about the sudden death of a friend’s loved one. What do you say to your friend? Advice or listen or a hug? As situations differ, so does the conversation, hence the importance of its type.After breaking the communication into its types, Charles goes on to break it into a step-by-step process of turning every conversation into meaningful, often joyful interactions, and in some cases, less stressful ones, even with a person with contrasting views. He uses psychological studies and instances of experts’ communication to establish the rules of effective communication.Stories form the backbone of narration and writing style, making it easy for everyone to understand, relate, and remember the content. Charles has used his recommendation to write the book as the writing oscillates between personal anecdotes, stories, and facts, often combining all three. As you turn the pages, you gradually get convinced about the process.<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:767px;" id="attachment_30056" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-30056"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/high_rez_duhigg_headshot_20160720afmduhigg0082_thumb_1536x1536_1_53a5660a0f.jpg" alt="high-rez-duhigg-headshot-20160720afmduhigg0082-thumb-1536x1536-1.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_high_rez_duhigg_headshot_20160720afmduhigg0082_thumb_1536x1536_1_53a5660a0f.jpg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_high_rez_duhigg_headshot_20160720afmduhigg0082_thumb_1536x1536_1_53a5660a0f.jpg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_high_rez_duhigg_headshot_20160720afmduhigg0082_thumb_1536x1536_1_53a5660a0f.jpg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><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-30056">Charles Duhigg</figcaption></figure>If you have read books on personal growth, they tend to follow a pattern. Every chapter makes a proposition supported by academic research or theories, followed by a story that establishes the usefulness of the proposition. Stories of failures are not part of this scheme. This book is no exception to this formula. However, this conformance should not take away the usefulness of this book.A few days after finishing the book, I took a train journey to New Delhi. The train starts at 6 in the morning from Varanasi, requiring me to get up at 4 AM. I always travel with a book, sometimes 2. If it is a mid-noon journey, I prefer reading books to talking to a co-passenger. But, early in the morning, I like a slow warmup to come to my full senses before picking a book. Opening a conversation with a co-passenger who is perhaps also in the same state has always been a nervous affair. But I had read this book, so at least I knew a theory I could test.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_2024_09_30_T164448_607_ee3a11384b.jpeg" alt="images-2024-09-30T164448.607.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_2024_09_30_T164448_607_ee3a11384b.jpeg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_2024_09_30_T164448_607_ee3a11384b.jpeg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_images_2024_09_30_T164448_607_ee3a11384b.jpeg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">Charles suggests starting a conversation with a question that doesn’t have a 1-word answer. He calls them Deep questions. For example, instead of asking questions like, “Where are you going?” or “Are you from Varanasi?” you may ask, “What do you like about early morning train journeys?”. I started with a similar question. However, a few minutes into the conversation, the person said, “I do not like the Congress party (India’s principal opposition party).”Now, I like the Congress party. Had I not read the book, I would have gone on to list several reasons to prefer the Congress party. I would have given one argument after another, countering his response with facts and figures. I would have transformed myself into an evangelist, on a mission to reform this man and make him fall in love with the Congress party. After a few minutes of conversation, he would have silently waited for me to drain all my energy and stop. We would have withdrawn into our shells for the rest of the journey, talking only to ask for a way to leave the seat. Thankfully, I had read this book, and none of this happened.I instead said, “They give many reasons to people to dislike them.” It opened him up to offer his reasons for this blanket statement, which allowed me to steer the conversation to his upbringing, parents, childhood, values, work, motivations, etc. When I shared about my organization’s work with school children from economically underprivileged families, he shared his wife’s efforts of sheltering orphaned street dogs. We agreed on several issues, including the complete failure of the current central government, despite opposing political preferences. Neither did I contradict his personal experiences, nor did he contradict mine. Moreover, we agreed that our experiences shape our views, which are bound to change if we remain open.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_2024_09_30_T164615_165_ec71a30e5a.jpeg" alt="images-2024-09-30T164615.165.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_2024_09_30_T164615_165_ec71a30e5a.jpeg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_2024_09_30_T164615_165_ec71a30e5a.jpeg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">“Supercommunicators” book taught me to treat every conversation as a learning opportunity. It taught me not to approach a conversation as a right vs wrong battle but to connect by sharing stories and anecdotes more than the facts. Ultimately, you can convince a person more by listening than by speaking. In a world getting more polarised, we all need to learn to talk to each other and listen better. Thankfully, we have this book.</div></div>

IMG-20240930-WA0007-770x470.jpg

Navigating Difficult Dialogues: How 'Supercommunicators' Can Help in a Polarised World"

<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_34_770x393_796d24e9a6.jpeg" alt="images-34-770x393.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_34_770x393_796d24e9a6.jpeg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_34_770x393_796d24e9a6.jpeg 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_images_34_770x393_796d24e9a6.jpeg 750w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><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;">Prolific documentary filmmaker R.P Amudhan’s body of work is unique and striking, especially in the manner in which his creations address issues and concerns of the marginalised sections of society. He is known as a media activist too. Hailing from Madurai, in Tamil Nadu, he founded the Marupakkam Media Activist Group (MMAG) in in his home district. The MMAG produces documentaries, screens films, and conducts workshops. He has over 20 documentaries to his credit. His films primarily focus on caste and labour issues. In this Interview with poet and writer Rashida Nasriya, filmmaker Amudhan RP discusses his craft, concerns and challenges.&nbsp;Rashidha Nasriya: What do you consider as the most significant challenge you have faced during the making of your documentaries?Amudhan RP: The biggest challenges I have faced in documenting the kind of social issues I have chosen to film are threefold. First, identifying a crucial topic which requires in-depth understanding and sufficient data to substantiate the narrative. Once I have a clear understanding of the topic, I would conduct thorough research and convince people, that is the characters in my film and their kith and kin. This has been my approach from my very first film, Leelavathi, a documentary on a Communist Party of India (Marxist) – CPIM- cadre killed in Madurai in 1997. I was relatively young at that time and the task of persuading her family and the district CPIM committee took a lot of effort. I finally did get their consent. It was a difficult task to get their trust.The second challenge – although a joyful one – is researching and gathering credible information, while the third is securing funding. As a solo filmmaker, I have learned to be self-sufficient. But still finding funds is a challenge. Any filmmaker would go through these challenges in varying degrees.<img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_35_721e230496.jpeg" alt="images-35.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_35_721e230496.jpeg 208w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_35_721e230496.jpeg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined">Nasriya: Did your activist background influence your decision to become a filmmaker?Amudhan: During my MA studies, I attended a workshop in Madurai organised by Center for Development of Instructional Technology (CENDIT), an organisation based in New Delhi. Here, I was exposed to several powerful documentary films. This experience opened my eyes to the significance of political documentaries. I was introduced to the concept of using film as a tool for social change, and I immediately knew I wanted to become a documentary filmmaker and an activist. This workshop sparked my passion for creating and screening films that inspire critical thinking and trigger meaningful conversations. It was a turning point that led me to merge my interests in social activism and filmmaking, ultimately shaping my identity as an activist-filmmaker. Activism and filmmaking are deeply intertwined for me – they’re two sides of the same coin. My filmmaking is an extension of my activism, and vice versa; the two are inseparable.Nasriya: Your film “My Caste” examines the intersection of caste, hegemony, and consensus in Indian society. What has driven your focus on caste in your activism and filmmaking?Amudhan: I wanted to take on the Caste issue from the perpetuator point of view rather than from the victim’s or survivor’s point of view. I wanted to get into the minds of the people who either follow or negotiate or negate caste in their lives. I wanted to know what happens in people’s minds when they deal with caste matters. That’s why I made the film ‘My Caste’ ‘recording the views of various people on caste related questions.<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:951px;" id="attachment_30033" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-30033"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/IMG_20240927_WA_0021_d0a7a9b78c.jpg" alt="IMG-20240927-WA0021.jpg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_IMG_20240927_WA_0021_d0a7a9b78c.jpg 154w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_IMG_20240927_WA_0021_d0a7a9b78c.jpg 495w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_IMG_20240927_WA_0021_d0a7a9b78c.jpg 743w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><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-30033">Amudhan speaking at an event</figcaption></figure>Nasriya: Can you give some details on how you investigated labour exploitation in Tirupur’s garment industry for your documentary “Dollar City”?Amudhan: Many of my films focus on labour issues, with a considerable number exploring labour practices. For my trilogy on hegemony and consensus, I chose Tirupur as a case study. This city exemplifies how consensus is manufactured to prioritise the industry’s interests.In Tiruppur, a tacit understanding exists among industries, trade unions, workers, NGOs, and political parties to protect the industry at all costs. The prevailing narrative is: ‘Without the industry, we cannot survive.’ This consensus leads to widespread compromise and adjustment, perpetuating the exploitation.<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:739px;" id="attachment_30028" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-30028"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/images_36_2e37ef3154.jpeg" alt="images-36.jpeg" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_images_36_2e37ef3154.jpeg 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_images_36_2e37ef3154.jpeg 500w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><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-30028">During production of Amudhan’s documentary</figcaption></figure>I want to capture this complex dynamic in my film, highlighting how Tiruppur’s industry-centric consensus affects labor rights and social justice.&nbsp;Nasriya: How did you approach exploring the complex and sensitive topic of manual scavenging in your film “Pee (Shit)”?Amudhan: I wanted to make a Tamil version of Lesser Humans – a documentary on Manual Scavenging in Gujarat by Stalin K. Although I wanted to make a similar comprehensive film about Tamilnadu, my encounter with Mariamma, a sanitary worker in Madurai convinced me to make a short documentary which practically covers every aspect of the work.I realised a shorter format could powerfully convey the urgency of this issue, making a compelling argument against manual scavenging. This inspired me to create the film titled ‘Pee’ (Shit) [Watch Below], highlighting the harsh realities of manual scavenging.<div class="raw-html-embed"><iframe width="640" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/a0eWOHAvVn4" title="Shit - a documentary by Amudhan R.P." frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div>&nbsp;Nasriya: What inspired you to create a documentary about Mercury pollution in Kodaikanal?Amudhan: The film ‘Mercury in the Mist’ was initiated by workers from the Kodaikanal thermometer factory, who had been fighting against the company’s harmful practices. They sought my help to create a documentary supporting their cause, highlighting the devastating health effects of mercury exposure and their ongoing court battles. It was partially funded by the workers and their well wishers like Nityanand Jayaraman and others.&nbsp;Nasriya: Do you think the documentary can contribute to the border understanding of the challenges facing Indian democracy?Amudhan: Documentary watching is, in my opinion, one of the most engaging and intellectually stimulating activities. It offers a unique blend of education, art, and social awareness, empowering individuals to become responsible citizens. By watching documentaries, we gain perspectives on the world around us, exercising our right to informed decision-making and participatory governance. Through my screenings, I aim to create opportunities for social and political education, fostering a culture of critical thinking and civic engagement. Documentaries provide a valuable platform for raising awareness on critical issues, making meaningful conversations and inspiring social change.&nbsp;Nasriya: How crucial is creative freedom in documentary filmmaking for fostering critical thinking and public debate?Amudhan: In documentary filmmaking, merely reporting or recording is not enough. It is an opportunity to critically examine any subject, sparking meaningful discussions. We must be courageous enough to ask difficult questions, amplify marginalized voices and confront uncomfortable truthsUnlike commercial cinema, documentary filmmakers must take risks, challenging the status quo and pushing boundaries. By doing so, we humanize overlooked stories, Inspire critical thinking and foster empathy and understanding.&nbsp;Nasriya: How did your initiative “Marupakkam” come about…?Amudhan: Marupakkam is a network of people collaborating to promote documentary filmmaking and social change. We invite participation from individuals across India in various capacities, including funding, research, topic development, filmmaking, screening, and documentary workshops.&nbsp;<figure class="wp-caption alignright" style="border-width:0px;box-sizing:border-box;display:inline;float:right;height:auto;margin:5px 0px 20px 20px;max-width:100%;padding:0px;vertical-align:middle;width:1080px;" id="attachment_30029" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-30029"><img src="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/Screenshot_20240927_1713542_bec309fa73.png" alt="Screenshot_20240927-1713542.png" srcset="https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/thumbnail_Screenshot_20240927_1713542_bec309fa73.png 245w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/small_Screenshot_20240927_1713542_bec309fa73.png 500w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/medium_Screenshot_20240927_1713542_bec309fa73.png 750w,https://strapi.bangalore2.com/uploads/large_Screenshot_20240927_1713542_bec309fa73.png 1000w," sizes="100vw" width="undefined" height="undefined"><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-30029">Homepage of Marupakkam [Visit <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="http://marupakkammadurai.blogspot.com/?m=1">Here</a>]</figcaption></figure>Our activities involve screening documentaries, researching social issues, making films on relevant topics, teaching documentary filmmaking, and showcasing films made by others. Through these efforts, we aim to foster a community that inspires social change through documentary filmmaking.&nbsp;&nbsp;Nasriya: As a prolific documentary creator what advice would you give to emerging filmmakers?Amudhan: To young and upcoming filmmakers, I say: read widely, travel extensively, and cultivate an open-minded perspective. Listen to diverse voices, even in everyday settings like markets, where numerous perspectives converge. If you don’t have an open mind, you will only hear the voices that confirm your existing views. But with an open mind, you will identify and appreciate the varied voices, even within the same marketplace.</div></div>

images-34-770x393.jpeg

Amudhan’s Craft, Concerns and Challenges

<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 victory of Marxist leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake in Presidential election in Sri Lanka has been described as a political Tsunami by international politicians and observers. Sri Lanka based Independent policy analyst and writer Amita Arudpragasam analyses the context of the results in detail and points out that it was the economic mismanagement and corruption of earlier, dynasty oriented, regimes as well as Anura’s clean image that propelled significant sections of voters towards the Leftist JVP leader.<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;">She also points out that while the victory does indeed signify the emergence of new hopes in the country, it would be too early to predict dramatic policy and ideological shifts, including in the island nation’s orientation towards India and China. Watch the interview here.<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;">ഈ വിഷയത്തിൽ പരിസ്ഥിതി പ്രവർത്തകനും എഴുത്തുകാരനുമായ കെ സഹദേവൻ എഴുതിയ കുറിപ്പ് ചുവടെ നൽകുന്നു:<h2 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:25px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:1.2;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;">അദാനിയും ശ്രീലങ്കയിലെയും ബംഗ്ലാദേശിലേയും ഭരണ വ്യവസ്ഥയിലെ വമ്പൻ മാറ്റങ്ങളും</h2><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;">ശ്രീലങ്കയിലെയും ബംഗ്ലാദേശിലെയും എന്തിന് ഓസ്‌ട്രേലിയയിലെപ്പോലും രാഷ്ട്രീയ ഭരണമാറ്റത്തിന് പിന്നിലെ പൊതുഘടകത്തെ കണ്ടെത്താൻ ശ്രമിച്ചാൽ ഗൗതം അദാനിയിൽ ചെന്ന് മുട്ടും. ഉഭയകക്ഷി ബന്ധങ്ങളെ വ്യവസായി താൽപ്പര്യങ്ങൾക്കായി ഉപയോഗപ്പെടുത്താൻ ഭരണകൂടങ്ങൾ തുനിഞ്ഞിറങ്ങിയാൽ അതിന്റെ അനിവാര്യഫലമെന്നത് ആ രാജ്യത്തിന്റെ സാമ്പത്തിക സുസ്ഥിരത തകർക്കപ്പെടുക എന്നതായിരിക്കും.<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;">ബംഗ്ലാദേശിന് വൈദ്യുതി വിൽക്കുന്നതുമായി ബന്ധപ്പെട്ട കരാർ അദാനിക്ക് ലഭ്യമാക്കുന്നതിന് ബീഗം ഹസീനയ്ക്ക് മേൽ സമ്മർദ്ദമുയർത്താൻ നരേന്ദ്ര മോദിക്ക് യാതൊരു മടിയുമുണ്ടായിരുന്നില്ല. 2015ലെ മോദിയുടെ ബംഗ്ലാദേശ് സന്ദർശനത്തിന്റെ മുഖ്യ അജണ്ടതന്നെ അദാനിക്ക് വൈദ്യുതി വിതരണക്കരാർ നേടിയെടുക്കുക എന്നതായിരുന്നു.<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;">ഇന്ന് ബംഗ്ലാദേശ് ഭരണകൂടത്തിന്റെ മുന്നിലുള്ള പ്രധാന അജണ്ട അദാനിയുമായുള്ള കരാറിൽ നിന്ന് എങ്ങിനെ രക്ഷപ്പെടാം എന്നതാണ്. ശ്രീലങ്കയിൽ 400 മില്യൺ ഡോളറിന്റെ ഗ്രീൻ എനർജി പ്രോജക്ടുകളാണ് അദാനി നേടിയെടുത്തത്. 225 മെഗാവാട്ടിന്റെ കാറ്റാടിപ്പാട നിർമ്മാണ പദ്ധതി നേടിയെടുക്കുന്നതിനും നയതന്ത്ര ബന്ധങ്ങൾ ഉപയോഗപ്പെടുത്തപ്പെട്ടു.<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;">ഇതിനുപുറമെ 700 ദശലക്ഷം ഡോളറിന്റെ കണ്ടൈയ്‌നർ തുറമുഖ പദ്ധതിയും നേടിയെടുക്കാൻ അദാനിക്ക് സാധിച്ചു. ഈ രണ്ട് പദ്ധതികളും ശ്രീലങ്കയുടെ ദീർഘകാല താൽപ്പര്യങ്ങൾക്ക് വിരുദ്ധമാണെന്ന ആരോപണം പാർലമെന്റിലും പുറത്തും ശക്തമായി ഉന്നയിക്കപ്പെട്ടുകൊണ്ടിരിക്കുകയാണ്.<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;">ഓസ്‌ട്രേലിയയിൽ അദാനി നേടിയെടുത്ത കാർമൈക്കൾ കൽക്കരി ഖനന കരാറും ഇതേരീതിയിൽ അതിശക്തമായ രാഷ്ട്രീയ എതിർപ്പ് ക്ഷണിച്ചുവരുത്തിയ ഒന്നാണ്. ഒരു ദശകക്കാലത്തെ കൺസർവേറ്റീവ് ഭരണത്തിന് അറുതിവരുത്തിക്കൊണ്ട് ലെഫ്റ്റ് ചായ്വുള്ള ആന്റണി അൽബനീസ് ഗവൺമെന്റ് അധികാരക്കസേരയിലെത്തിയതിന് പിന്നിലും ഗൗതം അദാനിക്കെതിരായ പ്രതിഷേധത്തിന്റെ വേരുകൾ കണ്ടെത്താൻ കഴിയും…

Why is the Left Government Afraid of a 93-Year-Old Man?

Oomen Chandy and an Unkept Promise to Himself

The Kerala Story: A Movie, A Political Agenda, and a Conniving Censor Board

The AIDEM Interactions: Philippe Humbert

Amit Shah’s New Political Bulldozer Moves for Bihar

Re-reading Tagore in Chaotic Times

Andolana: Mysore’s Own Newspaper that Stood the Test of Time

We all have the same blood: Seema Kohli

From here to where, asks the LGBTQ Community

Is the New Women Reservation Bill an Eyewash?

Navigating Difficult Dialogues: ...

Amudhan’s Craft, Concerns and Ch...

What Next in Sri Lanka After Lef...

The Incandescent Lights Of “Kish...

Because We Must Not Forget: An A...

featurned tile 3

Latest Posts

Latest Categories