#Swarajya July Issue Final

FATHERS, SONS, AND PARENTING IN INDIA

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, REAL DEFENCE

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INDIA’S FIRST SANSKRIT ANIMATION FILM

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ON THE OFFENSIVE FOR ANY ATTEMPT AT PEACE TO WORK IN JAMMU AND KASHMIR, THE ARMY HAS TO FIRST PROVIDE A STABLE SECURITY SITUATION. A SPECIAL REPORT ON HOW THE INDIAN ARMY, UNDER GENERAL BIPIN RAWAT, HAS DEALT WITH THE CHALLENGES IN THE STATE.

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Insightful article

Madhu Kishwar has done a public service by writing (The Gujarat Agenda June 2018), a brilliant piece in terms of her moral courage to write it, clarity of expression and balance.

(10 Things That

Are Wrong With Indian Agriculture, June 2018). “Those whose hearts bleed for farmers need I, like so many other techies in South India, have taken to farming. On my partners’ insistence, we first tried standard chemical-based horticulture. We burnt our fingers due to high costs, and low prices offered by the usual villains — middlemen.

— Desikachari Venugopal

AI RACE The government has facilitated the creation of many billionaire entrepreneurs, by producing tens of thousands of low-cost graduates (whose labour could be leveraged), and by tax exemptions. Is it not their patriotic dharma to foster

I have forwarded this article to over 500 people and am sure most people did read some part of it but not complete. Can there be a summary of this article so that maximum people can get to know the truth ?

— Jagannath Dham Das

these future-critical technologies in the country?

(We Must Hurry Up On AI, June 2018).

— Thrinethran T V

AGRI CRUNCH Most of your prescriptions are based on the chemical based agriculture which Westerners introduced to the world, which has caused long-term harm to our soil, air, water, farmers, insects, birds, animals, and consumers of food.

There is a big movement especially in South India to reintroduce natural, cow -based farming.

As a retired IT specialist,

HARVESTING SOULS Thank you, Madhu Kishwar, for such a brilliant article exposing the Christian Missionaries. I could very much relate the first part because something similar happened in a school that I studied.

PAKISTAN’S BOMB It was India, which upset the balance of power and started the nuclear game in the region. These circumstances prodded Pakistan to test nuclear weapons for deterrence and as an act to balance power. No country can overlook its security concerns and issues.

Pakistan’s nuclear weapons serve as the guarantors of peace in the region (A Shoddy Defence, June 2018).

— Rabia Javed KOLKATA TO LHASA Brilliant point of view (A Road To Prosperity, June 2018). Would this wean China away from a policy of dominating India to one of partnership? It would, if it is feasible, be a win-win situation.

— R S V Subramanian

to get out of the way and let Indian agriculture bloom.”

Government needs to get out. But with 50 per cent of the population in it, no government will do that. Manufacturing has not taken off.

With 85 per cent of the land under less than 5 acres, return on income will be minimal and any investment will be doomed failure.

— Naveen Nagarajan

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S T O R Y

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LOOKING BEYOND THE ARMY

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I N TH I S I S S U E

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NEW THINK

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FATHERS AND SONS IN INDIA

FIRST SANSKRIT ANIMATION

AS INDIAN SOCIETY’S ENGAGEMENT WITH MODERNITY CONTINUES, ONE AREA WHERE WE NEED MORE RESEARCH AND KNOWLEDGE IS FATHERHOOD.

A MEETING WITH ILAYARAJA MOTIVATED RAVI SHANKAR V TO MAKE A FILM ON THE ANCIENT STORY OF PUNYAKOTI.

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RATH YATRA OF PURI WHEN IT COMES TO INDIC FESTIVALS, IT DOESN’T GET BIGGER THAN THE RATH YATRA IN PURI, ODISHA.

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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 01 CONTENTS 02 JUGAADISM – AN INFANTILE DISORDER 06 DEGENERATION BY ENGLISH 10 THE INDIC CREATIVITY STORY 13 WILL PUBLIC TRANSPORT MEET EXPRESSWAYS? 44 NIPAH LESSONS 47 THE LIVING DEITIES 58 A FEAST FOR THE GODS 62 FINE PIGMENT OF A SACRED DEPICTION 65 HARINAM KEERTAN THE ORIGINAL INDIC SOFT POWER 68 BOOKS 74 ARCHIVES 80 COVER PHOTO: K ASIF/INDIA TODAY GROUP/GETTY IMAGES JULY 2018

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FATHERS, SONS AND PARENTING IN INDIA R JAGANNATHAN

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As Indian society’s engagement with modernity continues, one area where we desperately need more research and knowledge is fatherhood.

NDIANS pick up Western fads and ideas pretty quickly. A few days ago, we celebrated Father’s Day on 17 June, with celebs posting pictures with their dads, and reminiscing about what great fathers they have or have had. There is nothing wrong in this, but beyond some feel-good vibes, it does nothing to celebrate fatherhood in the Indian cultural context, or, for that matter, Indian modes of parenting and bringing up boys. For much of recent history, fatherhood was not studied even in the West, with motherhood getting pride of place, given the obviously important roles mothers play in bringing forth a new life and nurturing it for months – if not years – after birth.

The role of fatherhood has been reduced to contribution of sperm to set the process of fertilisation going and providing the financial wherewithal to feed and protect the family afterwards. In India, despite our lopsided son-preference and deeply-ingrained patriarchy, we have done little by way of research to study fathers and boys, especially in our cultural context. A society that does not understand its boys and fathers is unlikely to be a fair one, one that treats women with respect and as equal partners. It is not enough to legislate draconian laws to punish rape and sexual harassment of women when we don’t know why this happens.

In the West, the literature and research on bringing up boys and fatherhood is a growth industry; among the ones that this writer has come across are Paul Raeburn’s

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book, Do Fathers Matter?, and Steve Biddulph’s Raising Boys. There are many more in this genre, but Raeburn’s book delves into the latest scientific research on the importance of fathers both in terms of genetic contribution to his children and their development post-birth. And it’s not all about helping mom change nappies or dropping kids off at school.

Biddulph’s book explains how boys need different treatment at various phases of their lives, given the testosterone levels their bodies are bombarded with at various ages. Thus, he says, up to age six (or thereabouts), boys need almost the exact same treatment as girls (love, affection, etc), but this is when we start telling boys not to cry and be strong. After six and upto puberty, fathers become very important as role models, but in nuclear families, this is often when fathers are into mid-careers, and rising up the corporate ladder, and hence less available to their sons.

But, curiously, after puberty, the boy needs another adult apart from his father to look up to in order to develop into a healthy adult male and later a good father himself. In this context, one can surmise that joint families provided exactly this experience for boys where they could have assorted uncles and older brothers to look up to as role models beyond their dads; now, in nuclear families, this opportunity is gone. This is not to raise any false nostalgia for a return to joint families – that is not possible in most cases – but to emphasise that we need new research on how boys

need to be brought up in nuclear families, and on the roles fathers play in their development.

Our society is probably too mother-centric in its approach to bringing up boys, and this may not provide the necessary balance in what the child needs. We also need to understand how the Indian marriage is handling the stresses arising from high career and job-related pressures. You cannot be a good father or mother if the basic spousal relationship between husband and wife is on the rocks or resulting in needless tension and even violence. And yet, we have a few studies on this subject, though I do recall one from the last decade, by Shaifali Sandhya, who wrote a book titled Love Will Follow: Why The Indian Marriage Is Burning. The book explains from a woman’s point of view why many marriages are not working even though the partners may remain married. A good part of the reason is the mother’s effort to shower the love she doesn’t receive from her husband on her son, leading to huge complications in the latter’s life in adulthood, especially after marriage. This aspect has been adequately and anecdotally dealt with in our umpteen saas-bahu serials, where marriage is seen as a battleground between the mother and the wife, but we have no new insight on how to fix this.

Given the stresses of modern life, it is more than likely that our children are not getting the kind of parenting they need, and this is apparent from how unruly and beyond control

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A SOCIETY THAT DOES NOT UNDERSTAND ITS BOYS AND FATHERS IS UNLIKELY TO BE A FAIR ONE. some of our boys (and increasingly girls) have become. Just take any seven-year-old Indian kid to places abroad and compare their public behaviour with kids their own age in those societies. You may find that our kids are louder and more unruly than kids in the West. Indian parenting possibly leaves something to be desired. A relative of mine took his boisterous son to the Tower of London, and the security staff there had to ask his father to take him out since it was disturbing other visitors. On a long flight, you will find Indian kids sometimes running down the aisles or pulling the hair of the passenger in front, with little admonition from parents. We believe that kids will be kids, and thus must be excused for most kinds of unruly behaviour.

The larger point is that we don’t

WELL BROUGHT UP BOYS BECOME GOOD FATHERS, AND GOOD FATHERS BRING UP BETTER BOYS.

know much about what fathering ought to be about, and how our boys should be brought up. Clearly, the father has to play a larger role in the family that goes beyond providing the cash for its sustenance. The causal relationships on good parenting run in many directions; good parenting needs good husband-wife relationships, and this needs giving fatherhood its due, and bringing up boys as they should be brought up.

Well brought up boys become good fathers, and good fathers bring up better boys. This does not mean the mother’s role is unimportant or peripheral; far from it. Successful men often have strong maternal influences, even if they are not the fabled “tiger moms”. What one is emphasising is that we need far more research and studies of Indian fatherhood and

how boys need bringing up in the Indian cultural context. Until we do that the hard way, we will not be able to do anything to help our girls and women lead safer and happier lives, with higher quality relationships with their spouses and children.

We know what to do to help our girls: protect them, give them fair treatment, encourage them, and provide a workplace, where they don’t feel discriminated against. But do we know what our boys and fathers need to develop into upright and good humans? Probably not. Beyond mouthing inanities like “boys will be boys”, we have no new knowledge beyond what the West has to offer us. Time to remedy that.

R Jagannathan is Editorial Director, Swarajya.

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JUGAADISM – AN INFANTILE DISORDER RANAJAY GHOSH & ALOKE KUMAR

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There is nothing intelligent about pursuing low-cost and easy solutions to innovation. The mindset seeking shortcuts to bigger goals must be dumped.

ANISH physicist Neils Bohr once said that prediction is difficult, especially if it is about the future. Yet, engineers, generals, planners and ruling classes are expected to predicate their actions based on calculated expectations of the future. Jugaad hinders this process in many ways and threatens to make our society a collective myopic failure. It should not be admired and we must not descend into the culture of jugaadism, which can be defined as a systemic philosophy of sloppy, shallow and short-cutting techniques of addressing complex problems. Like many seductive, but ultimately disastrous, isms of the last century, it needs to be buried in an unmarked grave.

Jugaad is a neologism arising from the Indic practice ‘to gather’.

When the bar is set low, even gathering ingredients is fait accompli.

In touting it as a laudable achievement, we not only hold ourselves back from the final finished product but, more dangerously, the very process of seeking the solution. It is the seeking, the manthan (churning), that is the backbone of irreversible positive development in a successful society. The manthan is painstaking; it requires patience, perseverance and meticulous scaffolds of rigour and evaluation. And with manthan comes both the nectar of success and the poison of frustrating failures. Both are intricately connected to each other. The proverbial Rome was not built in a day. It was built in the night of silent reflections, the

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darkness of failures, and enveloped by the frigidness of self-doubt. Jugaad short-circuits the seeking process with its piecemeal gathering approach and its celebration spreads the contagion. If jugaad is bad, its glorification is lethal.

A jugaadist culture fosters a ‘bad lifestyle’. It effectively precludes in-depth problem-solving, which includes analysis, dispassionate debates and the multi-angle investigation of its origins. In the jugaadist framework, every problem is a unique obstacle to be overcome through clever tactics. However, for a country as vast and complex as India, this obstacle course invariably turns to bitterness, fatalism and an endless cycle of cynical arguments as the final complexity proves insurmountable. In this game of jugaad, the odds in the long run are never in favour.

Take air pollution for an example.

A modern bane of Indian cities where the very byproducts of economic expansion are slowly (or some would say rapidly) choking us to death.

Yet, we seem helpless to tackle it. At the heart of air pollution lies a complex technological challenge involving multiple disciplines of sciences and engineering. However, typical debates in public domains betray a jugaadist mindset. Identify a visible villain such as vehicles and then ban them on certain integer days or firecrackers, which apparently need to be banned completely during Diwali.

This banning response has all the hallmarks of jugaad. It identifies

the urgency of the problem, looks at various obvious sources that can be controlled, and then stops at the most immediate solution. Just like any other jugaadist solution, the law of unintended consequence kicks in to affect the common people. The remedy for these painful unintended consequences is equally jugaadist – an increasingly bizarre list of exceptions. Criticism of jugaadist, fragmented problem solving, is blocked by mobs of self-righteous social media warriors. They probably don’t have the patience to read a recent IIT Kanpur study, which reveals that vehicular pollution, in even a megacity of Delhi’s size, contributes only about 9-25 per cent (seasonal variation accounted for) to air pollution totals.

So, what else could be contributing to pollution? A casual walk through many cities will reveal widespread burning of trash.

The immutable laws of fluid dynamics dictate that the carcinogenic byproducts of trash burning would travel many kilometres from its source via convection and atmospheric currents. The same phenomenon governs byproducts of crop burning many hundred kilometres from Delhi. The effect is so dramatic that the images are often captured by satellites.

A long-time Delhi resident and scientist, Dr Anand Ranganathan, added perspective when he compared the crop burning effect to the entire metro area of Delhi being on fire – 12 times over! Similarly, wind-

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AGRICULTURE RESEARCH ON BETTER GROUND COVERS, WHICH CAN ADDRESS THE CHALLENGING LOCAL ENVIRONMENT AND SOIL CONDITIONS, WOULD GO A LONG WAY IN REDUCING WIND-BASED SOIL EROSION. borne dust particles due to naked soil is yet another major factor of pollution.

A thorough manthan would lead to solutions such as the study of crop cycles in northern India, garbage disposal habits and development of natural ground covers such as grasses for appropriate soils. Many of these solutions are interdependent, with feedback loops and virtuous cycles, which a jugaadist solution can never identify. For instance, rather than burning crop thatch, it could be beneficially applied as mulch to cover naked soil thereby improv-

ing moisture retention as well as improving aesthetics. Similarly, agriculture research on better ground covers, which can address the challenging local environment and soil conditions, would go a long way in reducing wind-based soil erosion.

Such ground cover research has been successfully done before elsewhere. For instance, University of Florida and Texas A&M University collaborated in the 1970s to produce the low-maintenance Floratam variety of grass, which could withstand both the blistering sun and the bug-prone southern US climate.

This has made covering vast tract of commercial and residential open ground economical, contributing to improved air quality in spite of loose sandy soils of the region. Interestingly, large amounts of air-borne particles can significantly depress solar power efficiency as shown by a recent international multi-university study, which includes IIT Gandhinagar, Duke University and the University of Wisconsin. Similarly, better ground cover can benefit ground water tables by retaining water and also preventing soil eroding into rivers, thus improving

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P E R S P E C T I V E S DUTOURDUMONDE PHOTOGRAPHY / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

If driven by appropriate market forces, engineered solutions always tend to produce products inexpensively with minimum resources. Thus some amount of frugality is built into the very nature of engineering and production. In fact, this ruthless cost effectiveness puts even greater premium on rigour and research.

As Stanford professor Dr Manu Prakash, inventor of the foldscope, says, frugal science is about finding solutions to problems that break the cost barrier – but a lot of intellectual rigour and thinking goes into finding

SHORT-TERM MERCANTILE INSTINCTS SHOULD NOT STOP US FROM TREADING THE RIGHT PATH FORWARD. river water flow. Such improved water and power availability can then lead to cheaper power production and heavy-duty garbage processing.

This is just a small example, where simply going beyond jugaad can lead to a healthy public debate. There are many other instances of jugaadism derailing well-meaning measures.

The application of rigorous concerted planning and research can hugely benefit jugaad-infected initiatives to clean Ganga, assorted manufacturing frameworks, and ad-hoc urban infrastructure development projects.

Planned obsolescence of jugaad must begin in the top echelons of academia and industry. Corner cutting cultures and ‘chalta hai’ (‘it’s ok’ attitude) should be replaced by strong non-negotiable benchmarks and deadlines. Jugaad could be encouraged as the first step among many. Failure should not be shamed, but used as an opportunity to learn.

This failing forward will prevent the triumph of jugaadism through

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the need to ‘save face’. In the same vein, expectations must be set early and monitored regularly to prevent last-minute panic addled jugaadism.

When a complex technological feat is achieved, the solution itself should be first praised above every other metric, especially above the price tag. For instance, celebrating Mangalyaan with memes, which compare its cost with the budget of the movie Gravity is counterproductive and misses the most important achievement of the mission – its unprecedented sustained accuracy and decades of hard work invested by Indian Space Research Organisation scientists. In the commercial sector, TATA Nano may have overcome many important technological challenges, but the fact that its cheapness became the talking point ensures that it will perhaps be forgotten completely by future generations.

These adjustments will not be cheap. It is a common mistake to conflate jugaad with frugal engineering.

the right solutions.

Equating jugaad with frugal engineering, the type he pioneers in his lab, is frankly insulting, and Dr Prakash states clearly that he “never really liked” the word jugaad. Similar examples abound in the laboratory of Dr George Whitesides at Harvard who invented inexpensive paper microfluidics. Most celebrated frugal innovations come from years or even decades of rigorous work and not from jugaad-based shortcuts.

This is why all the above examples of frugal innovations have risen from the most distinguished labs in the world. The exacting requirements of rigour and robustness are alien to jugaad.

We are a young republic, a growing economic power, and most importantly an aspirational society. Shortterm mercantile instincts should not stop us from treading the right path forward. We cannot afford to inculcate bad habits in our youth, for they will eventually become disorders, deforming our adulthood. Let us pledge not to degenerate into the distorted ‘blunderland’ of jugaadism, but rise to honour our heritage of profound thinkers.

Dr Ranajay Ghosh is Assistant Professor at University of Central Florida, Orlando. Dr Aloke Kumar is Assistant Professor at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

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DEGENERATION BY ENGLISH BANUCHANDAR NAGARAJAN

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Indian media is hardly Indian in the true sense. To ensure it is, national bureaus of New Delhi media must create space for diversity.

WOULD like to begin with a few caveats so that nobody ends up losing his cool in this heat just by reading the headline. I am no authority on issuing certificates of patriotism nor do I consider myself the great arbiter of what is “Indian”.

Despite their questionable stance on many issues, which in my opinion are detrimental to the republic, many mainstream journalists are as Indian as I am. Though they stresstest the cherished principles of free speech and tolerance, they mostly act under the ambit of laws prescribed by the Constitution.

That aside, the issue at hand for this piece is whether Indian media truly represents our country. The media has been at the forefront in raising issues that concern social justice and affirmative action. It has highlighted issues relating to caste or religion-based discrimination along with matters ranging from feminism to rural empowerment.

Whether media organisations, however, imbibe these truly liberal and lofty values in their own set-ups, is questionable.

For the sake of focus and brevity, let us just focus on the representation of people from different parts of India in the English print media.

Whether there are enough Dalit editors, women editors, and whether there is pay parity, are issues for a different day.

A job in the national bureau of any of the big publications – The Times of India, The Hindu, The Indian Express, Hindustan Times – is

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much sought after by young journalists. The folks in the national bureau consider themselves to be the vanguards of “truth” and take great pride in deciding what India reads the next day. As a journalist in your 30s, if you are a part of the national bureau, you have truly arrived. In the journalistic community, you are talked about, your work is keenly followed and you become part of the tradition of the newspaper. Many a silly bickering on Twitter about who broke the news is because of the personal prestige and loyalty to the brand.

If you are a part of the national bureau, you get membership to the liberal clique. Apart from journalistic work, you have exhibited clear “secular” and “liberal” leanings, which is the main reason you climbed the first rung of the ladder. The more “liberal” you are, the more opportunities for professional growth come your way — lateral job changes, conferences, access to sources, liaising with the global clique of foreign correspondents and so on.

The career progression to the national bureau is usually from the city beat. Which city? New Delhi. Why? They are already there; the editors know them; their English is good.

Lazy reasons given to perpetuate an old system entrenched in a culture of cronyism. There will be some folks from Kolkata due to the pervasive Bengali domination in the media. A smattering from Mumbai and Chennai and that’s it. You would hardly hear about a senior journalist in

the national print media, who has earned his stripes from Thiruvananthapuram, Bhubaneswar or Shimla.

Pernicious effects of this incestuous arrangement is two-fold. First, this self-selecting coterie prefers “people like them”, mostly from Delhi. This stifles opportunities for meritorious journalists from other parts of India, who come with value systems and outlooks that are different from the “connected” Delhi journalists.

Second, it has an effect on content served to the readers. The Lutyens’ Delhi journalists operate on tight deadlines, often armed only with superficial information about areas far off from Delhi. The consequent poor coverage shows up quite often during elections, when the mainstream media gets its facts wrong. Confused about their inadequacy, they end up giving reasons such as “there was a silent wave”, “society is becoming right-wing” etc. This also gives rise to a missionary-like “save the heathen” syndrome.

Let’s take the new health policy unveiled by the government recently. Don’t you think the understanding and coverage will be different coming from a journalist that covered issues from a tier-II city, say from Bhopal? A journalist, who has covered lower courts in small cities (which Arun Shourie laments as inadequate), will have a better perspective when it comes to covering the Supreme Court.

News coverage from other parts of India suffers as well. The excit-

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THE CAREER PROGRESSION TO THE NATIONAL BUREAU IS USUALLY FROM THE CITY BEAT. WHICH CITY? NEW DELHI. ing economic growth story of say, Jharkhand, hardly comes out. Indirectly, this results in thwarting of grass-root, bottom-up wisdom and goes on to reward theoretical topdown knowledge that may not be reflective of what actually happens on the ground.

How to fix the imbalance? First, it calls for leadership among owners and editors. The media sorely needs someone who is an equivalent of what Narendra Modi (or Barack Obama) is to politics or M S Dhoni is to cricket. Someone that rises beyond the ordinary and provides direction to the industry. Someone that recognises the gap and tries to address with a spirit of entrepreneurship and for personal glory.

Once the problem is clearly recognised there are two ways to go about it — the American affirmative action way or the Indian quota way. Which

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IMAGINE POLITICIANS ONLY FROM DELHI SITTING IN LOK SABHA TO MAKE LAWS FOR THE COUNTRY. AN EQUIVALENT OF THAT IS HAPPENING IN THE MEDIA. ever way is chosen, it should work towards ensuring at least 50 per cent of journalists from non-metro backgrounds be included in the national bureau. Once the upstream is cleared, you will get a flow of aspirants from other parts of India. Think of the richness of coverage, when a senior journalist from Nagaland reports on the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region in Delhi.

In reputable foreign publications, the people who move to the top spend decades outside their hometown and at times even their country. If you take The New York Times, for instance, senior journalists working with the organisation would have spent enormous number of years covering a province of the US, or in Africa or Asia. The executive editor of The New York Times, Dean Baquet, has spent decades reporting from New Orleans, Chicago and Los Angeles. Compare that with chief ed-

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itors of major newspapers who have spent most of their careers in Delhi (according to sources and media reports).

There is an earnest attempt in reputed foreign newspapers to provide exposure to reporters, and it becomes a non-negotiable criterion when it comes to their career growth. In India too, there should be a practice that a journalist will be accepted into the national bureau and appointed to other senior positions only if she spends at least five years outside Delhi. The sham followed right now is that a journalist is sent to cover a particular news story for a week (most sought after is Kashmir) and she becomes an expert in the area.

A truly Indian media should be plural both in terms of its content and constitution of the newsroom.

Imagine politicians only from Delhi sitting in Lok Sabha to make laws for the country. An equivalent of that is happening in the media. There is no

churning of ideas and, more importantly, values that truly reflect the heart of the country.

This Indian century should also belong to the Indian media. It should project to the world a true picture of India — not a distorted view based on ideological blinkers driven by narrow career interests. The English language Indian media should take cue from criticisms of becoming irrelevant seriously (like Elon Musk and Steve Pinker’s criticism of American media). Journalists from small towns bring the much needed diversity and methods that cover processes (like what P Sainath refers to often). The fourth pillar needs regeneration from within, and providing space for diversity is a step in that direction.

Banuchandar Nagarajan is a public policy adviser. An alumnus of Harvard University, he has worked in the World Bank, PwC and the UN.

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INNOVATION NATION

THE INDIC CREATIVITY STORY RAJEEV SRINIVASAN

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The outpouring of creation made Indian civilisation the most attractive of cultures in the world. Echoes of this tradition of great ideas need a revival.

REATIVITY is one of the greatest gifts for an individual or a nation. India has possibly had the most creative civilisation that ever existed. I sometimes think that we were so extravagantly creative that we have actually forgotten more than what most other civilisations created. This aspect of India is not so well appreciated – we are satisfied with the idea that India is the Empire of the Spirit, because of its unmatched philosophical contribution to matters of the soul and spirit.

But, we seldom realise that India was also the Empire of the Intellect, the place where arguably the greatest flowering of the intellect, the greatest outpouring of creativity, happened over our long history.

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant”: that is a quote from Albert Einstein; and it is in India that the intuitive mind perhaps has reached its zenith – and indeed, where it synchronised most gracefully with the rational mind.

Interestingly, the entire story about soaring creativity also has a very down-to-earth corollary: which is that creativity does not come in a vacuum. It is only possible in a highly civilised society, which has overcome the low-level Maslovian needs of food and shelter and has evolved to a stage where people seek selfactualisation. In other words, it was the immense productivity of Indian agriculture, and also Indian industry, that made creativity possible.

The abundance of India’s land has

not been fully appreciated. A study by the World Bank notes that India has 156.4 million hectares of arable land; the US has 152.2 million; Russia 123.1, and China including ChineseOccupied Tibet has 119. It is true that our productivity per hectare is low now (but it wasn’t so in the past, as has been demonstrated based on inscriptions in the Tamil country and British colonial records), but with better techniques, we should be able to generate a surplus.

It was, for instance, the immense agricultural productivity of the Cauvery delta that made possible the apogee of Indian art, the Chola bronzes; some of its architectural masterpieces, such as the Brihadeeswara temple; and, yes, its greatest military conquests, such as the expedition to the Srivijaya empire in Sumatra, Indonesia, exactly 1,001 years ago, in 1017 CE. Prosperity is a necessary condition for creativity, and indeed an outcome of it as well.

A recent Twitter argument about the great monumental architecture of India (in response to a brouhaha about the UP government de-emphasising the Taj Mahal in its tourism brochures) brought this fact into sharp relief: despite the ravages of time and invasion, the extant monuments in India, ranging from the ruins of Vijayanagara at Hampi to the Martand Sun Temple in Kashmir, and the step well at Modhera, Gujarat, to the elegant town-planning of the Indus-Sarasvati cities of Harappa and Lothal, all remind us of the extraordinary amount of sacred and

secular construction we have here.

It also brought up another question: why haven’t we at least tried to reconstruct some of these ruins? Professor Subhash Kak, whose knowledge of both the classics and of modern science is legendary, asked a very pointed question on Twitter: he posted two photographs of the ninth century temples at Prambanan in Java, Indonesia, one from 1895 (when they were in ruins) and one from now (when they have been largely restored and reconstructed in their glory). Why can’t we, he asked, pick a few of our ancient ruins and bring them back to life as the Dutch did there?

This is a very good question.

Prambanan is in an earthquake/volcano-prone region, and the tall spires of the temples (there are three, dedicated to Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma) had collapsed in piles of rubble, but when I visited in 2017, they had been put back together in some form that must approximate the original. The same is true of nearby Borobudur.

Compared to this, India neglects its own temples, wilfully and sometimes, it appears, with malice aforethought. There is a general disdain for the magnificent ruins, unlike, say in Rome, where they maintain the Colosseum with care and respect.

But if you go back to art in general, the sacred art of India has been a form of worship for millennia: the extraordinary sculpture that has survived (while paintings have largely disappeared) shows that there is a remarkable continuity from the ear

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ECHOES OF INDIC IDEAS LINGER IN SOUTHEAST ASIA, AND IT WOULD NOT BE A BAD IDEA TO REVIVE THE OLD TERM FOR THE REGION: “GREATER INDIA”. liest days of the Indus-Sarasvati, and an appreciation of the human figure.

There is also continuity in styles as well as the emotional underpinnings – i.e. rasa or the inducement of emotions – in the viewer, the rasika.

For instance, the poised and graceful female figure with one hip bent, the right hand raised, and one leg slightly forward is a standard meme in sculpture across the ages and a unique Indic meme.

The soft power of these Indic ideas meant that they became popular across a large swathe of territory, with little by way of military conquest. Many people saw that the Indic ideas were good and useful, and therefore adopted them. For instance, consider Southeast Asia. The great Hindu civilisations of Indonesia were established by sailors from Kalinga; Odiyas still celebrate their

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Bali yatra which was on 5 November last year, remembering the arduous journey. And, as is well known, Bali continues to have an exuberant Hindu civilisation, of which one of the highlights is the beautiful water temple at Pura Ulun Danu Bratan.

But it was not just religious ideas that were exported. The very languages of Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam were influenced by Devanagari and Sanskrit: to this day, their scripts look Indic (though some have shifted to Roman) and their languages (“Bahasa”, from bhasha) still have the familiar aa-ee-oo vowels of Indian languages. Much of the vocabulary of Malay, Indonesia Bahasa, is still derived from Sanskrit, although Arabic words are becoming more prominent.

The architecture of Southeast Asia was for centuries dominated

by Indic ideas. Not surprisingly, the world’s largest religious structure is the former Hindu temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, an immense structure that is astonishing in its magnificence. The largest structure in the entire Southern Hemisphere is the giant hill of Borobudur in Java, a powerful re-construction of the many-layered Buddhist universe.

The echoes of Indic ideas still linger in Southeast Asia, and at a time when Association of Southeast Asian Nations is likely to become a bigger player in the (newly-minted) “IndoPacific”, it would not be a bad idea for India to attempt to revive the old term for the region: “Greater India”.

As recently as the 1970s, that term was current. With the likely rise of India and the grand narrative that India will naturally articulate, it would be invaluable for geo-politi-

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cal purposes to try and build on the commonality. A long-delayed visit

by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Indonesia, and the proposed joint development of a port in Sabang, Sumatra, at the mouth of the Straits of Malacca and close to the Andamans, may well be a first step in reviving this connection.

But it was not only to Southeast Asia that Indic ideas spread: it was also to East Asia and West Asia. To this day, there are Japanese Buddhist sects that write their sutras in Sanskrit in the Siddham script, a derivative of Brahmi, and a precursor of the Tibetan script. The 12-year Chinese zodiac is derived from Sanskrit words and concepts.

In Mesopotamia, the Mitanni empire of roughly 1500 BCE had kings and nobles who apparently used a variant of Sanskrit: their treaties include Indic deities and other Indic cultural markers. The story of the Indian decimal system, which Arabs knew as Hindu numerals, and Europeans as Arabic numerals, is too well known to repeat.

A great deal of Indian mathematics, philosophy, technology and medicine found its way into West Asia and further west to the Greeks.

A couple of examples will suffice: wootz, the nano-carbon steel from southern India (the name comes from the Tamil urukku, steel) that was known as ‘damascene’ to the Crusaders, because they thought it came from Damascus, Syria. The Greek terms for constellations are the same as those in Sanskrit. Unfortunately, westerners have by default always assumed that everything worth creating has come out of Greece and Rome (or China) and found its way to India, and never the opposite; so we have been denied the credit for inventing them.

Innovation and creativity have real value in the marketplace. One of the main reasons American cul-

ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS AMERICAN CULTURE HAS BECOME ACCEPTED THE WORLD OVER AS THE MOST APPEALING IS ITS CREATIVITY. ture has become accepted the world over as the most appealing is its creativity (and the means to spread it): Hollywood, Silicon Valley and Wall Street, all have been highly innovative, and they have become the envy of the world. In almost exactly the same way, ancient India was able to become the most attractive culture in the world, and people used to travel a long way to India to learn about all the tremendous things that had been discovered and invented here. It bears repeating that Indian universities were among the earliest and best in the world.

The list of India’s innovations is long: Panini’s grammar, Aryabhata’s astronomy, Madhava’s infinite series, Kanada’s atomic theory, Brahmagupta’s articulation of the zero, and so on. In fact, a case can

be made that India’s greatest comparative advantages lie in two areas: agriculture and intellectual property generation. Intriguingly, it is precisely these two that have been respected the most in our culture, as represented by the cow and the Brahmin. Sadly, we have fallen behind in both areas.

In past columns in this series, we have looked at the latest innovations in various fields. In some future columns, we will consider ancient innovations that, alas, are not well known to Indians; and they are, therefore, prone to being digested and absorbed into the Western canon. Besides, the seeds of our future lie in our past.

Rajeev Srinivasan has taught innovation at several IIMs. He is a Contributing Editor at Swarajya.

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A SPECIAL REPORT ON HOW THE INDIAN ARMY, UNDER ITS CURRENT CHIEF, HAS TACKLED JAMMU AND KASHMIR.

RAWAT’S ROBUST RESPONSE

A LASTING SOLUTION TO THE CONFLICT IN JAMMU AND KASHMIR HAS TO COME FROM THE POLITICAL COMMUNITY AND THE ADMINISTRATIVE MACHINERY. BEFORE ANY OF THAT, THOUGH, IT FALLS ON THE ARMY TO CREATE A STABLE SECURITY SITUATION. LT GEN SYED ATA HASNAIN

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HIS MUST start on a personal note because the current Indian Army Chief, General Bipin Rawat, is a former colleague and subordinate. He relieved me in the Military Secretary’s branch as the Colonel in charge of policy and management of the officer cadre. While I commanded Indian Army’s Dagger Division in Baramula, he commanded the Rashtriya Rifles 5 Sector (brigade) in the nearby volatile town of Sopore. Later, as I commanded the Chinar Corps, I also had the opportunity of asking for him by name, to command the Dagger Division, my old formation. He later dealt with the North East as a senior staff officer and commanded Indian Army’s largest formation, 3 Corps,

which oversees a major part of anti-insurgency operations and the Line of Actual Control.

On 1 January 2017, when General Rawat was appointed Chief of the Indian Army, he brought to his appointment a wealth of experience of having dealt with hybrid conflict conditions in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and the North East. He inherited a situation in J&K which was tenuous. Six months post the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani which had triggered unending turbulence on the streets; the army faced three major challenges. First, the Line of Control (LoC) was getting much more active with nearly everyday ceasefire violations by the Pakistan Army. The Hindu areas in

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THE INFILTRATION OF FOREIGN TERRORISTS, ALTHOUGH UNDER A FAIR DEGREE OF CONTROL, HAD WITNESSED ATTEMPTS AT TARGETING THE ARMY’S INSTALLATIONS CLOSER TO THE LOC.

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the vicinity of the Jammu international boundary were under intense fire, which created communal tension with potential for more negative fallout; that was Pakistan’s intent.

The infiltration of foreign terrorists, although under a fair degree of control, had witnessed attempts at targeting the army’s installations closer to the LoC. This was against the usual trends of deeper movement to safe houses and strikes in the hinterland. The suicide attack on the headquarters of the Uri Brigade on 18 September 2016 was part of this trend. Earlier, the army posts in the Jhelum Valley had also been subjected to such attempts and the brigade headquarters at Poonch and Tangdhar had successfully neutralised terrorist efforts to target them. Related to the LoC was also the fact that on 28 September 2016, the much-hyped surgical strikes had been launched against terrorist launchpads across the border.

Although casualties inflicted were unconfirmed, the campaign itself became a cel-

ebrated event in India, leading to the expectation of such retribution in future too.

The second challenge was the continuing trend of terrorist strikes in the hinterland. From the high of 2011-12, when the army had established complete domination by effectively choking infiltration, the low was the proliferating local militancy, which required no foreign terrorists, to flourish. South Kashmir found its own moorings through the movement led

by Burhan Wani, who succeeded in inspiring a segment of the youth through his image management on social media and networks spread by word of mouth. The surge in violence in 2016 was primarily in the southern districts of Anantnag, Pulwama, Kulgam and Shopian, sometimes moving up to Bandipora. The disturbing trend of flash mobs at encounter sites interfering in operations conducted by the security forces (SF) was leading to severe challenges for the SF, resulting in both SF and civilian casualties. The civilian casualties always triggered further distur-

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bances and the potential of a cyclic chain of negative events always remained high.

The third challenge was a flow out of the second and not restricted to any single aspect. The political environment was vitiated and the local political class was being shunned. It did not have the ability of even visiting the rural areas to which the movement had shifted. The alienation against India and everything Indian was massive and no military civic action programmes such as ‘Sadbhavana’ could hope to overcome this. The new generation of Kashmiris, born after 1989, had only witnessed violence in everyday life and knew little about the happiness of a stress-free environment. It had produced a brooding and vengeful youth veering towards suicidal tendencies.

All the challenges which stood evident in early 2017 continued at different levels through the 18 months that General Rawat has been in office, underlining the fact that hybrid conflicts are long-drawn affairs. However, simultaneously, they

HARD OPERATIONS CONVEY THE RIGHT MESSAGE — LIFE AS A TERRORIST MAY NOT EXCEED THREE MONTHS.

were addressed with a new understanding of the ground.

General Rawat’s term as Army Chief, mid-way through his tenure, has been characterised by a robust response at the LoC without any horizontal proliferation.

There was a choice to proliferate response to the LoC of the Kashmir sector and even to Kargil. This advice has been eschewed in favour of a stronger response in the areas where Pakistan attempted to escalate, with greater flexibility vested in frontline commanders. This was sane because LoC exchanges in the Kashmir Valley segment helps Pakistan divert the attention of our troops from the counter infiltration grid.

The Neelam Valley domination that the Indian Army enjoys is a measure of last resort and must never be encashed too early. The subsidiary prong of this strategy has been the continuously strengthening counter infiltration grid. More prioritisation to sub-sectors and induction of additional units from the Pir Panjal South has afforded this.

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COMMANDERS DOWN THE CHAIN HAVE BEEN EMPOWERED AND BACKED UP, MANY TIMES, EVEN IN THE EVENT OF MISTAKES, WHICH IN SUCH CONDITIONS WILL OCCUR.

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It was done with an element of risk incurred both in the Jammu and Valley regions. In the Jammu region, militancy and terror have been largely wiped out, but the potential for resurgence always exists.

Moving Rashtriya Rifles units from the grid there did weaken it to an extent. Communal violence and other political factors in Pir Panjal South can always contribute towards destabilisation and possible exploitation by Pakistan. Disturbing an existing but stabilising grid is never a good strategy, but the risk has been worth it because it energised the counter infiltration measures along the LoC in the Kashmir segment. General Rawat’s knowledge of the ground in the Uri and Lipa sectors did ensure the practical deployment of additional troops. There have been strikes by border action teams of the Pakistan Army, but the demand for crossing the LoC has been silenced through effective neutralisation from our side, except in one case in the Poonch sector late in December 2017, when our troops had to do a shallow trans LoC operation.

Before venturing into reinvigorating the counter-terror operations, General Rawat drew the ire of a part of Indian intelligentsia by using some strong language against those who attempted to

come in the way of the army’s operations at encounter sites. He termed them virtually as over-ground workers (OGWs) and promised action against them as anti-national elements, just the way other OGWs are dealt with. It was a strong message to the troops that they need not feel cowed down by the attempts to cause hindrance to their operations.

Operation ‘All Out’ was the generic name given for all counter-terror operations as the SF prepared for the 2017 summer campaign season. While cooperation between the SF constituents has always been good, the need for further refinement of cooperation was a necessity due to the changing nature of conflict. The necessity of being on the same page was never felt more as vigilante flash mobs attempted to intervene and prevent the effectiveness of execution of operations.

A couple of decisions added weight to the effectiveness. First among them was on reintroduction of cordon and search operations (CASO). Generic CASO is executed when intelligence is not specific but exists in bits and pieces. It involves a larger number of troops and creates alienation among the populace, which has to suffer the ignominy of search of houses over a longer duration. This was the chal-

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lenge in South Kashmir and the return to CASO ensured better domination, and in some cases, actual contact with terrorists.

CASO was progressively reduced through later months of 2017 as greater domination was achieved. Operation ‘All Out’ remained dynamic in concept as it switched to focus on terrorist leaders, who through social media were attempting to create personality cults and larger-than-life images of themselves. This strategy, which the army adopted to curb terrorist initiatives and break their command, control and planning, again proved invaluable as close to 20 militants were eliminated. The infamous photograph of the team of young terrorists with Burhan Wani saw all the members on display being neutralised.

Hard operations convey the right message that life as a terrorist may not exceed more than three months.

It is in the third domain, the socio political one that the SF initiatives have yet to bear fruit to the degree desired. This is work in progress. It needs to be appreciated that soft power initiatives to take effect require the rebuilding of trust and creation of hope through restoration of the dignity and self-esteem of the people, and 2018 is the right year for that. To its credit, the army continued with almost all its soft power measures, but the ability to dilute alienation could enhance only marginally because of powerful narratives, which the separatists had been able to ingrain once again in the minds. General Rawat made it clear in a recent media interaction that the contribution, which infiltration made towards sustenance of levels of violence, has been curbed and controlled.

However, the terrorist strength today is being maintained through the phenomenon of local recruitment of youth driven by the passion generated on the streets and funerals of young terrorists, who were many cases their friends. This means that a virtually interminable chain of induction and availability of local terrorists will make the attainment of peace a nonstarter. For this, the assistance of the political community, clergy and academics, and of parents, is a must. They have to be

empowered to speak, travel and address through multiple means of communication. The army is never afraid to extend a helping hand well beyond its responsibilities as the attainment of peace remains its ultimate aim. If by its own presence or redeployment, it can assist in this effort, it will ensure that, and even provide necessary feedback for the efforts. The political community has to be urged to engage with the people but shorn of political rhetoric.

This assurance has been given time and again by the Chief.

The political and social outreach is enabled by the domination achieved in the security situation. The continuity of that domination is as essential, because such strategies cannot work in fits and starts or remain driven by personalities. They have to be institutionalised. The army under its current Chief understands this better than almost all, and has, therefore, worked towards putting together its best practices for continuity. A major achievement in the internal dynamics of the army has been the careful succession procedure to ensure optimum talent in the field is maintained without trying to question the validity of specialisation needed for India’s most enduring military challenge.

Anyone who knows the profession of soldiering would appreciate that the most important battle-winning factor for warriors remains the entire notion of trust.

What the current leadership like many of those in the past has achieved is to maintain and build on the concept of trust.

Commanders down the chain have been empowered and backed up many times even in the event of mistakes, which in such conditions will occur. It is important to allow the army to do its work and back it with equal degree of trust from the political leadership. The situation in J&K is as worrisome or stable as one may wish to read it. The most important thing is to back the political community and the administrative machinery and encourage them to provide quality governance and positive narratives even as the army holds the periphery and prevents any breach.

THE ARMY UNDER ITS CURRENT CHIEF UNDERSTANDS THAT SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIES HAVE TO BE INSTITUTIONALISED.

The author commanded his regiment in the Kargil-Siachen sector and was the Task Force Commander at Pokharan for sinking shafts for the nuclear tests. He is a prolific writer and is considered to be the foremost expert on myriad aspects of India’s defence industry, procurement regime and offsets.

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ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, REAL DEFENCE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CAN REDEFINE WARFARE AS WE KNOW IT. THE QUESTION IS, ARE THE INDIAN ARMED FORCES AHEAD OF THE CURVE, OR CHASING IT? R. SHASHANK REDDY

AI COULD PROVIDE A TECHNOLOGICAL EDGE TO THE MILITARIES THAT MANAGE TO INCORPORATE IT FASTER THAN THEIR RIVALS.

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HAT ARTIFICIAL Intelligence (AI) is going to be central to economic and military power in the coming decades is by now a well-worn cliche. All major powers have jumped on the AI bandwagon in one way or another. In 2017, when Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that the nation that becomes the predominant leader in AI ‘will be the ruler of the world’, he only brought to public attention what was already being acknowledged in capitals across the world. Governments are beginning to see AI as a transformative technology that could enhance their military and economic capabilities, creating what has been called in popular media as an ‘AI arms race’.

An arms race, however, does not yet exist in this space, but what cannot be doubted is the increasing strategic competition among the major global powers, and especially between the two biggest players in this field, the United States and China. While this competition cuts across all domains, it is the military component that has got the most attention, and could possibly prove to be the most destabilising. Given the nature of the technology, AI could provide a technological edge to

the militaries that manage to incorporate it faster than their rivals. The use of AI for frontline combat purposes could also exponentially increase the speed of warfare, while triggering a cascading set of questions on proportional responses, established escalation doctrines, and even nuclear posturing.

As the current technological leader in this field, the US was the first country to explore the implications of AI for its military. The US Department of Defense (DoD), for instance, released its directive on autonomy in weapon systems in 2012, before weapons autonomy became a major topic of international discussion. This was followed up by service-specific measures such as the establishment of the Low-Cost UAV Swarming Technology programme by the Office of Naval Research in 2015; the creation of the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, which aims to help start-ups in this space work closely with the US defence forces; and the establishment of the Defense Innovation Board as a platform to bring together private technology companies and the US military to take advantage of emerging technologies.

In 2017, the US DoD also rolled out Project Maven, in what could be amongst the first

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ONE POSSIBLE USE OF AI FOR INDIAN ARMED FORCES, EVEN THOUGH POSSIBLY CONTROVERSIAL, COULD BE IN LETHAL AUTONOMOUS WEAPON SYSTEMS OR, LAWS.

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battlefield applications of AI, which is intended to analyse drone footage to provide actionable intelligence.

Other countries are closely following the US’ footsteps, but none more so than China. The Chinese government has identified AI as the fundamental technology of this century which will exponentially drive Chinese growth. Indicative of its ambitions, China put out the ‘Next Generational Artificial Intelligence Development Plan’ in July 2017, where it clearly outlined its aim to become the global leader in AI technologies by 2030. A central component of Chinese AI plans is the idea of ‘civil-military integration’, wherein advances in the civilian AI sector can and will be used to advance Chinese military interests.

China has already begun making rapid strides in this field. Chinese tech companies are at the forefront of cutting-edge AI advances, and Chinese universities are now amongst the most cited in AI research papers across the world. These investments are starting to have on-ground impact, with China now exporting its unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to a num-

ber of countries, as a direct competitor to the US, and unveiling several cutting-edge autonomous aerial and naval projects.

Recent reports also seem to indicate that China is interested in exploring the potential use of AI to augment its command and control systems, and has begun research on using AI in nuclear submarines to aid the decision-making capabilities of its commanders.

Given these global developments, India too has begun exploring the possible benefits of AI for its defence forces. There are several uses of AI technologies that can be of direct benefit for the Indian military including intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) activities, border and harbour patrol, battlefield data analysis, command and control systems, and logistics. Another possible use, but one that could prove to be quite controversial, is the use of Lethal Autonomous Weapon Systems (LAWS), which the US Department of Defense defines as a weapon system that can select and engage targets without further human intervention. LAWS could theoretically be of immense benefit to the Indian armed forces,

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recently established a platform to encourage greater participation of start-ups in the defence industry, called Innovation for Defence Excellence (IDEX). Each of the three services have also expressed significant interest in incorporating various forms of AI across a variety of domains, and Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman herself has stressed on the need to focus on AI, and other emerging technology, to make the Indian military ready for the battles of the future.

While these developments are very welcome, the fact remains that India lags significantly behind not only the US, but

especially in harsh border terrains, where they could reduce soldier casualties. However, the development and use of LAWS has the potential to fall foul of international humanitarian law.

Therefore, whether LAWS should be developed, and if so, under what kind of regulations, is a global debate, with the United Nations constituting a group of governmental experts (GGE) under the aegis of the Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCCW) to discuss this very issue.

Even if LAWS are discounted as a potential application for the time being, the remaining applications listed above, could within themselves provide immense benefit to the Indian military and help it retain a technological edge vis-a-vis Pakistan and possibly counter the technological surge of the Chinese military. India has begun taking definitive steps in harnessing the potential of AI for its military.

The Ministry of Defence has established a taskforce (of which I am a member) to study how to encourage greater incorporation of AI in the functioning of the Indian armed forces. The ministry has also

also China, in the AI space. Barring a few honourable exceptions, the vast majority of Indian universities and research departments do not hold a candle to the level of technical and fundamental research being conducted in either of these countries. Neither does India have a domestic equivalent of a Google, Amazon, Alibaba, or Baidu that can invest the resources and manpower necessary to drive cuttingedge developments in the space. What India does have, however, is a vast talent pool, both within the country and outside, and a burgeoning start-up scene which, if properly tapped and encouraged, could not only provide indigenous military solutions, but could also create significant domestic expertise, which could then be exported, thereby unlocking immense economic value.

For this to happen effectively, however, new processes of defence acquisition would need to be developed, as the current models are not conducive to the flexibility required to encourage rapid development and acquisition of AI technologies.

While AI is in many ways the flavour of the season, it is necessary to highlight the fact that it is only one of several emerging technologies, including quantum computing and gene-editing, that could potentially reshape warfare as we know it. How India chooses to engage with the military potential of AI will indicate how India will approach other evolving technologies and, therefore, how ready India will be for the new age of war.

HOW INDIA CHOOSES TO ENGAGE WITH THE MILITARY POTENTIAL OF AI WILL INDICATE HOW IT WILL APPROACH OTHER EVOLVING TECHNOLOGIES.

R Shashank Reddy is a Research Analyst with Carnegie India.

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KINGS AND SOLDIERS SPECTACULAR STORIES OF COURAGEOUS MEN HAVE EMERGED FROM INDIA’S ROYALTY. WARRIORS IN THEIR OWN RIGHT, THEY FOUGHT AND LED EXEMPLARY MILITARY CAREERS. KAMALPREET SINGH GILL

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W

HEN PRINCE Harry walked down the aisle with his bride at the most talked about wedding of the decade, a fair amount of attention went to the attire he chose to get married in – the uniform of his regiment, The Blues and Royals. As a prince of England, he could have chosen to wear the most expensive clothes that money can buy, for an occasion he knew the whole world would watch. Instead, he chose the uniform in which he served 10 years and two tours of duty in Afghanistan.

The prince and his uniform, however, remind us of the other side of royalty in which entitlement goes alongside a culture of service – usually military. As leaders of men in an era when war was a constant, kings and princes were expected to be exceptional warriors. Military duty further instilled values of service and humility in the future leaders.

In India, Captain Amarinder Singh of Patiala and Major Jaswant Singh of Jasol are among the last of that breed of men who, though born to royalty, chose to serve in the uniform. This was not always the case. There was a time, until not too long ago, when it was a custom among the famed maharajas and princes of India to serve with their men in the mud and trenches of the battlefield, often leading from the front in the face of danger. This is about a few such exceptional men, who wore the scars of battle and the rank on

their uniforms with the same pride as the titles they inherited.

BRIGADIER BHAWANI SINGH, MAHAVIR CHAKRA – MAHARAJA OF JAIPUR The military career of Brigadier Bhawani Singh was exemplary and there are many tales to tell. But the feat that he is best known for is the Chachro Raid during the 1971 war in which the 10 Para, under the leadership of (then) Lieutenant Colonel Bhawani Singh penetrated deep into Sindh in Pakistan, destroying multiple targets and returning home without a single casualty. All this was done without the help of a global positioning system (GPS) or any other communication device to guide them.

The 10 Para are known as the Desert Scorpions because the officers and jawans of the regiment are trained specially for desert warfare. Its gruelling training regimen includes learning to survive without water in the Thar desert for days by collecting early morning dew from blades of desert grass, and being able to navigate the desert using only a compass.

It was this ability of the 10 Para that allowed them to strike 80 kilometres inside Pakistani territory in Sindh, despite having no knowledge of the terrain or the enemy positions. So effective were the 10 Para under Lt Col Bhawani Singh that they sliced through Pakistani defences like a hot knife through butter, capturing one town after another with minimal fighting and suffering zero casualties. Each cap-

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THIS IS ABOUT A FEW SUCH EXCEPTIONAL MEN WHO WORE THE SCARS OF BATTLE AND THE RANK ON THEIR UNIFORMS WITH THE SAME PRIDE AS THE TITLES THEY INHERITED.

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COMING FROM A LINE OF WARRIORS, THE KAPURTHALA ROYALS WERE A JUSTIFIABLY PROUD LOT.

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tured town was subsequently handed over to the Infantry that followed in the wake of the 10 Para. Though the initial objective of the raid was to capture Chachro, the Paras ended up capturing the towns of Islamkot and Nagarparkar as well, leaving the enemy vulnerable.

For his inspiring leadership in one of the most famous operations by the Indian Army, Lt Col Bhawani Singh was awarded the Mahavir Chakra.

state in Punjab with a rich and inspiring history of valour. The Kapurthala royals are descendants of Baba Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, the eighteenth century leader of the Ahluwalia Sikh Misl and fifth Jathedar (head priest) of the Akal Takht – the highest temporal authority of the Sikhs.

Coming from such a line of warriors, the Kapurthala royals were a justifiably proud lot. Brigadier Sukhjit Singh chose to follow the path of his ancestors and was commissioned into the Scinde Horse, a tank regiment of the Indian Army.

He had distinguished himself as an officer during the 1965 war. However, it was in 1971 that the finest moment of his military career was to come.

Brigadier (then Lt Col) Sukhjit Singh was commanding a tank regiment in the Shakargarh sector on the Punjab border. On 10 December 1971, the enemy launched an attack under the cover of intense artillery and mortar fire. Though outnumbered, Lt Col Sukhjit Singh exhorted his men to hold their ground, personally placing his own tank in the most threatened sector to lead from the front. Despite being under heavy fire, he opened the cupola of his tank to better observe the enemy positions and direct the fire of his tanks more effectively. Galvanised by his fearless presence – a commander with his head out, surveying the battlefield as if the exploding shells and flying bullets all around him did not matter – the Indians rallied. The battle ended with eight Pakistani Patton tanks destroyed and the capture of a number of Pakistani soldiers.

For his inspiring leadership and resolute courage, Lt Col Sukhjit Singh was awarded the Mahavir Chakra – India’s second highest gallantry award.

BRIGADIER SUKHJIT SINGH, MAHAVIR CHAKRA – MAHARAJA OF KAPURTHALA Brigadier Sukhjit Singh is the reigning Maharaja of Kapurthala, a Sikh princely

LIEUTENANT GENERAL HANUT SINGH, MAHAVIR CHAKRA – THIKANA OF JASOL Jasol is a principality located in the Barmer district of Rajasthan. The rulers of

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Jasol held the title of Rawal and were feudatories of the larger kingdom of Marwar that had its capital at Jodhpur.

Lt Gen Hanut Singh was the son of Lt Col Thakur Arjun Singh, brother of the Rawal of Jasol, who had served with the Jodhpur Lancers, famous for their liberation of Haifa during the First World War. Major Jaswant Singh, minister of external affairs in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government, is a first cousin of Lt Gen Hanut Singh.

Lt Gen Hanut Singh was commissioned into the 17 Horse, also known as Poona Horse, a tank regiment of the Indian Army. During the famous Battle of Basantar in the 1971 war, (then) Lt Col Hanut Singh was commanding a tank regiment that had been tasked with supporting infantry troops. As the forces came across a heavily-mined field, the infantry managed to get across, leaving the tanks behind, waiting for engineers to clear the field. This, however, rendered the infantry sitting ducks against the enemy counter attack – precisely what the enemy had planned. Time being at a premium, Lt Col Hanut Singh took the decision to cross the field without waiting for the mines to be cleared, deftly leading his men from the front. It was perhaps a miracle, or the exceptional skill of a man born for war, that not a single mine came in the way of the regiment. For his fearless leadership, Lt Col Hanut Singh was awarded the Mahavir Chakra.

The Indian Army is now building a memorial at Jasol to one of its finest soldiers and greatest tacticians.

GEN P P KUMARAMANGALAM , CHIEF OF ARMY STAFF – ZAMINDARI OF KUMARAMANGALAM Gen Paramasiva Prabhakar Kumaramangalam was born in the prominent Zamindari family of Kumaramangalam in the erstwhile Madras Presidency. The

Kumaramangalam estate, spread over the Salem and Namakkal districts of Tamil Nadu was one of the largest Zamindaris in the Madras Presidency.

As a young officer in Second World War, Gen Kumaramangalam had been taken prisoner by the Italians in 1942 before escaping from the prisoners of war camp, only to be captured again, this time by the Germans. He served three years in Axis prisons before finally being released at the end of the war, only to jump right back into action in the 1947-48 war with Pakistan. This dogged perseverance came to define his career and his legacy as a soldier.

THE PRINCE AND HIS UNIFORM, HOWEVER, REMIND US OF THE OTHER SIDE OF ROYALTY IN WHICH ENTITLEMENT GOES ALONGSIDE A CULTURE OF SERVICE – USUALLY MILITARY.

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S T O R Y dier, who had served in the Second World War as well as the war with Pakistan in 1948, Gen Chaudhury is best remembered for the surrender of the Nizam of Hyderabad during Operation Polo. The picture of Major General Ahmed El Adroos, the Arab commander-in-chief of the Nizam’s armies surrendering to (then) Maj Gen Chaudhuri is now part of military folklore. As the chief of the army staff, Gen Chaudhuri commanded India’s war efforts during the 1965 war against Pakistan.

Gen Chaudhuri was born in the

THE ARMED FORCES ARE NOT A PROFESSION. THEY’RE A CALLING. IT IS DUE TO THE SACRIFICE OF THESE MEN, AND COUNTLESS OTHERS LIKE THEM THAT TODAY WE ENJOY AN ERA OF UNPRECEDENTED PEACE.

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Gen Kumaramangalam did not possess the swagger of his predecessor, Gen Jayonto Nath Chaudhuri or the flamboyance of his successor, Field Marshal Manekshaw. He was more the silent, untiring workhorse who went about his work with a relentless devotion. When he took over the reins of the Indian Army, its morale was perhaps at its lowest. The 1962 war against China had been an unmitigated disaster, while the 1965 war against Pakistan had been a narrow, hard fought victory. It is to his credit that by the time he relinquished charge to (then) Gen Manekshaw, the Indian Army had been transformed into a force that would achieve one of the most decisive military victories of the post-Second World War era in 1971.

GEN JAYANTO NATH CHAUDHURI, CHIEF OF ARMY STAFF – ZAMINDARI OF HARIPUR Gen Jayanto Nath Chaudhuri served as the fifth chief of staff of the Indian Army from 1962-1966. A distinguished sol-

Zamindari family of Haripur in present day Bangladesh. The zamindars of Haripur have been an important part of the upper crust of Bengali elite, who dominated its political and social affairs for centuries.

Though a rugged and imposing soldier, the strain of literary refinement of the Bengali intelligentsia, of which he was a part, was unmistakable in Gen Chaudhuri. He was the first Indian Army chief to pen an autobiography in 1979, besides authoring two other books on military affairs.

MAJ RAJAKUMAR CHIKKA DESRAJ URS – MYSORE Major Rajakumar Chikka Desraj Urs was the grandson of one of the most renowned members of the Mysore royal family – Col J Desraj Urs. Col J Desraj Urs was the brother-in-law of the Maharaja of Mysore, Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wodiyar IV. A respected officer and an accomplished horseman, Col J Desraj Urs served as the commander-in-chief of the Mysore state forces that distinguished themselves during the First World War as defenders of the Suez Canal and Palestine. The Mysore Lancers under Col J Desraj Urs were to be immortalised in history as the defenders of Haifa when the royal two-headed Mysore Eagle – the mythical GandaBherunda that serves as the emblem of Mysore – flew over Haifa as the Mysore Lancers, as part of the fifteenth Imperial

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WHILE WAR MUST NOT BE GLORIFIED, IT IS ALSO, TO USE E O WILSON’S WORDS, “HUMANITY’S HEREDITARY CURSE”.

Cavalry Brigade, marched in to evict German and Ottoman troops.

Born on 16 June 1928, Major Rajakumar Chikka Desraj Urs was commissioned into the Hodson’s Horse, a tank regiment of the Indian Army that took part in the now famous Battle of Phillora.

The Battle of Phillora was one of the three major tank battles fought during the 1965 war, the other two being the Battle of Assal Uttar and the Battle of Chawinda.

Phillora is a village near Sialkot district on the Pakistani side of the border in Punjab. The Indians, having entered Pakistani territory, were making a go for Lahore. The resistance from Pakistanis was fierce, which made Phillora one of the most-remembered battles of the Indian Army. The Indian 1st Armoured Division squared up against the Pakistani 6th Armoured Division that had additional air support from the Pakistani Air Force. As the Indians advanced into Pakistani territory, they faced stiff resistance at a large village called Rurki Kalan. Here the Pakistanis had dug trenches and the Pakistani Army backed by artillery were stalling the Indian advance.

Major Rajkumar Chikka Desraj Urs of Mysore was commanding a squadron

charged with capturing Rurki Kalan when a shell hit his tank, severely wounding him. Maj Desraj Urs lost one eye in which shrapnel hit him, but he still refused to be evacuated and gallantly led his men until the village of Rurki Kalan was captured.

Eventually, the sacrifices of the Indian officers did not go in vain. After three days of intense fighting, the Pakistanis withdrew with a loss of 66 tanks. Indians lost six in comparison. The Battle of Phillora ended in a decisive Indian victory.

The armed forces are not a profession.

They’re a calling. It is due to the sacrifice of these men, and countless others like them that today we enjoy an era of unprecedented peace. The world is a changed place today and there is less war than at any other time in the history of mankind.

In such an era of peace, our best and the brightest, find their calling elsewhere – in tackling the immediately pressing challenges of economic development, alleviating poverty, and improving lives through technology. While war must not be glorified, it is also, to use E O Wilson’s words, “humanity’s hereditary curse”. In times of peace, we would do well to remember those who suffered this curse so that we may live without it.

Kamalpreet works as a policy analyst in the defence sector. He is also a researcher affiliated with the University of Delhi. His areas of interest include history, politics, and strategic affairs.

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OPERATION TOMORROW IF INDIA’S MILITARY HAS TO BECOME LEAN AND MEAN TO FIGHT AND WIN THE BATTLES OF THE FUTURE, MILITARY REFORMS AND FISCAL CONSERVATISM WOULD HAVE TO GO TOGETHER. ABHIJIT IYER-MITRA

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M

UCH HAS been made in recent months of a supposed lack of funding for the military. This is not something new. Virtually, every government in independent India has been accused of this at some point during its tenure. World over, there is not a single military, not even the US military (whose defence budget dwarfs the next 10 high defence spenders), that does not complain about a paucity of funds. Yet, what we find in recent history is that the most innovative approaches to national defence come not from overfunded fat militaries, but rather those facing a cash crunch. Sweden and Taiwan, for example, are countries that have faced serious threats on their borders (Russia and China respectively) and managed a robust defence at relatively low cost. Sweden especially used technology at a very early stage, going from having the world’s third largest air force in the 1950s to a much smaller but more lethal force in the 1980s. France, lacking a proximate threat, similarly made the best of defence cuts by innovative solutions to their expeditionary capabilities. Today, France polices a high threat, Islamic State-infested area, twice the size of India, in difficult Saharan terrain, with a mere 3,000 troops. In effect, such examples are the fiscal conservative’s dream come true. The question, however, is, do any of these examples apply to India? What is India’s threat environment? What are the institutional

imperatives that aid or prevent reforms?

What are the socio-economic factors that promote or hold back change? If these ground factors don’t align with other nations, what is the path forward?

DEFINITIONAL AND COGNITIVE ISSUES The first issue India faces is that we have never been able to define our threats clearly and unambiguously. Starting from Nehruvian times, this has been a persistent problem, but has never been modified, not even by Jawaharlal Nehru’s most trenchant critics. The problem is that our enemies have been clear for quite some time — China and Pakistan. Yet, for either fear or reticence, we are unable to articulate such thoughts and try to pass off the resultant confusion as “strategic ambiguity”.

Similarly, for a country that has faced the maximum damage in sheer numbers from Islamic extremism, India’s knowledge of the contours of Islam is non-existent. To this date, we have the shockinglyunsustainable argument about Indian Muslims being peaceful due to Sufism, ignoring the extremist tendencies and violent history of Sufism itself. This canard was propagated by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi as late as April last year when he claimed “India will be pushed to darkness” without Sufi culture, an insult to other denominations of Islam such as Shiism and the Kharijites that have done no harm to us in modern times.

Our tactile knowledge of Pakistan on the

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other hand, is superb, but lacking data and primary source research, comes off as unacademic churlishness. Indeed, we must ask ourselves why it takes a Western researcher, Christine Fair, to add empirical data and freely available Urdu source material to add academic veracity to our assessments of Pakistan.

Finally, we have an issue with the military leadership itself. On repeated occasions, when being asked what is the threat and what is the problem set, successive chiefs of various branches of the armed forces have said “nothing specific”.

Similarly, when we count friends, to this day, even in private, distrust of the United States is all pervasive, despite decades of confidence building. This weakens our ability to operate jointly with our friends and avoid duplication of scarce resources.

This then presents the first obstacle to defence reforms in India – if we cannot diplomatically or academically identify, leave alone study a threat, how are we meant to fight it? Political indecision

on this score is compounded by bureaucratic, all of which filters down to the military. In short, when it comes to military reforms, we face three levels of what might be termed schizophrenia – political, bureaucratic and military.

THE THREAT Clearly, then, the need is for a new clear narrative, not burdened by the schizophrenia of the past masquerading around as profundity. Here then, is the military situation. At the high end, you need to fight a two-front war involving both China and Pakistan. At the low end, you need to be able to launch a punitive strike against Pakistan while having sufficient conventional superiority to deter a similar counter strike, as this will lead to cycles of escalation. There is no room for “nothing specific” here. It is a specific problem set, where, if you solve the high end, you have all the capabilities you require for the low end and the entire range in between.

It is also important here to understand

INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO NATIONAL DEFENCE COME NOT FROM OVERFUNDED FAT MILITARIES, BUT RATHER THOSE FACING A CASH CRUNCH.

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IF WE CANNOT DIPLOMATICALLY OR ACADEMICALLY IDENTIFY, LEAVE ALONE STUDY A THREAT, HOW ARE WE MEANT TO FIGHT IT?

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that you cannot task such a force with subconventional warfare — internal security and counter insurgency duties. Modern war is about moving fast, though frequent political confusion means militaries are forced to do crowd control duties like in Iraq, Libya, Syria or Afghanistan. These are two diametrically opposite requirements. A military campaign requires younger “berserkers” who identify targets and shoot. Counter insurgency and crowd control, where not shooting can yield greater results, require much more mature, jaded soldiers. When you make the same soldier do both duties, you end up with disasters with soldiers able to do neither. For example, in Kashmir, soldier fatigue is high. Confusing signals on when to exercise restraint and when not to, and the absence of legal protections combined with scapegoating mean a constant erosion of training and lack of faith in the state.

Separating these two, for the military to deal exclusively with conventional warfare and paramilitary forces to deal exclusively with sub-conventional threats makes sense from a personnel, economic, logistics and strategic point of view. There is also the element of fatigue involved here. Stretching and fatiguing conventional forces can be exceptionally dangerous, with precious skill sets lost in the dreariness of a long drawn out domestic campaign.

Although, the economic aspect here is equally interesting. Separating the “ground control” component (that is to say the holding of hostile land as a bargaining chip, urban operations, crowd control etc), from the ones of conventional military can yield impressive results.

It means you can downsize an army and make it a lean, mean fighting machine suited for high impact, high returns on investment operations. This does mean that the political class loses one option: ground control, but it also means you can’t blindly be waltzed into a trap like we were in Sri Lanka, or the Americans were made to in Iraq and Afghanistan. The most important economic aspect of such a clini-

cal division of labour, like all division of labour, is that with such specialisation, you can target your financial resources precisely to the desired effects. Mentally, too, the separation of these roles enables a military to be given a more focussed set of objectives, leading to greater fiscal prudence and greater accountability.

On the conventional side then, what exactly is the threat we face? For some reason, assessments of India and China, side by side, always measure the totality of both country’s armed forces. Realistically, however, the Indian military will never face the full force of China for one simple reason, that China has problem borders across its periphery and has to keep resources diverted there. No single country on China’s periphery plans to take on the whole of China’s military might, but simply fight off the maximum possible localised concentration while inflicting maximum damage.

There are two models to this — the developed country strategy and the developing country strategy. The developed countries have adopted a threefold strategy.

First, all either have open (Japan, Korea) or recessed (Singapore, Taiwan) alliances with the US, which even if it doesn’t come to their aid, will create enough of a diversion (as during the 1996 Taiwan straits crisis) to draw away Chinese forces. The second is that they all maintain less reliance on ground forces, preferring their navies and air forces to do much of the job (granting that they are all separated by the sea from China, which they see as their primary threat). Third, they maintain a frontline fleet of just one or two types, with weapons standardised across all air and sea platforms and avoid excessive customisation to allow for obtaining spare parts and supplies in the open market rapidly and cheaply. The developing countries, for example Vietnam, for lack of a highly developed workforce and technology, rely on manpower, but they too are reducing their logistics footprint with great faith in asymmetric jungle warfare to thwart a technologically and numerically superior Chinese force. The similar-

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ity, however, is in asymmetricity. Technologically-developed countries are using technologically-asymmetric approaches while underdeveloped countries are using tactical asymmetry.

This brings us to India. India’s aversion to alliances is well-known, so benefitting from one others’ strengths is out of the question. Geographically, we have the Himalayas, which reach their highest elevation across the India-China border.

On the India side, the descent to sea level is fairly rapid. On the Chinese side, the vast Tibet Plateau of around 2.5 million square kilometres and average elevation of 4,500 metres severely complicates logistics. If one considers an army approach, the advantage lies with China, which commands the heights and has a superlative rail system supplying its frontlines, which have excellent roads leading up to the border. On the Indian side, the lack of serious high altitude rails is compounded by atrocious border roads.

The geography is also complicated.

Technically, the Himalayas here are three

parallel ranges, the high Himadri, the middle Himachal and lower Shivaliks, but in practice as in Aksai Chin, this can mean upto seven separate parallel ranges starting from the Shivaliks, progressing onto the Dhauladar, Pir Panjal, Himadri, Zanskar, Ladakh and Karakoram ranges.

This means you have to contend with seven different elevations and six deep valleys in between. In the east, while the three parallel ranges hold, you have the logistics complication of the narrow Siliguri corridor and the crisscrossing of the intersecting north-south ridges of the Arakan range, complicating both north-south and east-west movement. In short, while both countries face severe geographic challenges on this border, the Chinese have largely overcome theirs through not just infrastructure, but also sufficient economic capacity in Tibet to justify the infrastructure. India, on the other hand, faces not just a greater problem, but also lacks infrastructure and business case to make such infrastructure viable.

Yet, when we look at the same situ-

DESPITE THE HUE AND CRY OVER CHINESE NUCLEAR SUBMARINES IN THE INDIAN OCEAN, THE SHIP-BASED, ANTI-SUBMARINE HELICOPTER WING HAS BEEN NEGLECTED.

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NET SITUATION WITH CHINA — INDIA HAS A LAND DISADVANTAGE, AN AIR ADVANTAGE, AND A QUANTITATIVELY SUPERIOR CHINESE NAVY.

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ation from the air, the picture changes completely. The seven difficult parallel ranges on the ground for India translate into a rapid transition from near sea level to high altitude within 200 km, a few minutes for a supersonic fighter. Moreover, the vast depth of the Tibet plateau for China means severe high altitude restrictions for air power on its side. As a simple example, during my trip to Tibet in 2017, in the wide body Airbus A330, an extraordinarily capable plane, almost one-fourth of the plane had to be left empty at the back. This was not for lack of demand but due to the rigours of landing at such elevations. The weight restrictions become far greater on high performance aircraft such as fighters, limiting both range and payload significantly. Importantly, India can deploy air power year round, whereas China can effectively do so only in summer.

Optimally, then, any normal country would prioritise an air response to a ground response on this front. Surprisingly, the unsustainable increase in infantry and the raising of new mountain strike formations means that not only are we doubling down on a ground response, but that the Indian Air Force’s (IAF) number crunch is not being dealt with rapidly. If the air force is being forced to absorb several aircraft types, it will result in a fragmented and incoherent air force, with severe logistical complications. As of now, plans involve the IAF to have between five and seven different types of aircraft (depending on who you read) well into 2030 and beyond, while even the richest countries cannot afford more than two types.

At sea, the picture is no better. Perhaps, the best example of this is the launch of the Chinese Type 055 Destroyer. Each one of these ships has more vertical launch tubes (and hence missiles) than the entire Indian eastern fleet combined. Moreover, fitted out with a normal complement of anti-aircraft missiles, each of these boats would have enough missiles and then some to deal with the entire maritime air strike assets we can throw at them. Yet, much of the naval budget gets diverted to

white elephants like upto possibly three different types of aircraft carriers, with three different aircraft types, all with significantly shorter ranges than their Chinese equivalents (one type of carrier, with one standardised plane type). Despite the hue and cry over Chinese nuclear submarines in the Indian Ocean, the ship-based, anti-submarine helicopter wing has been neglected completely, and future submarine orders are being delayed by the need for India-specific modifications that involve massive redesign and multiplied costs. In short, our response to the Chinese navy is anything but asymmetric. It is almost an one-is-to-one prestige race, rather than any clearly thought out asymmetry at work, and this, despite the Chinese having much deeper pockets.

The net situation with China is that we have a severe land disadvantage, an air advantage, and a quantitatively superior Chinese navy. This is compounded by the massive infrastructural and economic imbalance between India and China (whose economy is five times the size of India’s with cash reserves at 1.5 times the size of the entire Indian economy). Yet, despite eschewing alliances and their advantages, in every single case, we are choosing the worst possible option — prioritising a compromised ground position over an exploitable air position; at that, choosing a ground uphill battle with badly equipped troops and tenuous supply lines, a heavily-fragmented and logistically incoherent air response, and a symmetric naval response, with no signs of major industrialisation on the horizon.

On the Pakistan front, the situation is somewhat different. Unlike a quiet China border, the Pakistan border, especially in Kashmir, is a conduit for infiltration and resultant attacks. Frequently, as during 2001, such attacks can lead to rapid escalation and the possibility of war. The problem set here is threefold. First, how to prevent infiltration (paramilitary forces can deal with insurgencies but not deterring infiltration as it involves cross border activity); second, how to carry out meaningful punitive actions in response to the

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failure of counter infiltration; and finally, third, the possibility of an all out or even limited war.

In the air and at sea, what suffices for China, is more than adequate for Pakistan. The problem set, however, differs when it comes to ground responses. India’s responses since the 1980s, have been to threaten Pakistan with massive armoured strikes, variously morphing from the Sundarji doctrine to the on-again-offagain “cold start”. This made eminent sense in the 1980s and possibly into the 1990s. However, as the battles of Grozny in 1994 and 1996 (which the Chechens won) and 1999 (Russian victory), and Western experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as Syria and Yemen show, armour, these days, can be decisively beaten by infantry. This has been a long shift and back — like a pendulum, since almost 3,300 years, starting at the battle of Kadesh in 1274 BC — between cavalry and infantry, with trends reversing in the span of decades. While much of India’s obsession has been directed at Pakistan’s tactical nuclear weapons, intended ostensibly to blunt Indian armoured thrusts, what seems to have passed unnoticed is Pakistan’s mas-

sive build-up of tens of thousands of antitank missiles at every level. These asymmetric tools of war, when mated with correct tactics more than nuclear weapons, pose a grave threat to Indian armour plans.

Yet, unlike China, where almost all ground based options seem futile, the answer on the Pakistan border, lies partially at least on largely discarding massed armour. Borrowing from the French experience in the Sahara, this involves a full utilisation of network centric warfare, with light and fast-moving vehicles and a dismounting infantry approach. This was presaged in the 1994-96 and 1999 battles of Grozny. Chechen rebels decimated Russian tanks in 1994-96, while in 1999, the Russians turned the tide and massively reduced their own casualties, opting for mobile infantry centric approaches.

If Grozny showed the utility of such an approach in urban theatres then Mali, Syria and Yemen show the relevance of this model in arid uninhabited areas.

Much of this approach depends on firepower rather than the obsolete “cover fire” preferred by antiquated armies. That is to say, in the past, artillery shelling

IN AIR AND SEA, WHAT SUFFICES FOR CHINA, IS ADEQUATE FOR PAKISTAN. THE PROBLEM SET, HOWEVER, DIFFERS FOR GROUND RESPONSES.

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TODAY, PRECISION MUNITIONS MEAN THAT ARTILLERY IS ABLE TO RELIABLY HIT AND TAKE OUT EVEN WELL-HUNKERED TARGETS.

would keep much of the opposing force hunkered down while armour or infantry slowly and painfully eliminated targets one by one. This is no longer the case.

Today, precision munitions mean that artillery is able to reliably hit and take out even well-hunkered targets with great accuracy. Infantry then deals with residual resistance if at all. A shift to such modes of ground warfare, assisted by a meaningful and coherent attack helicopter force, means that the requisite precision artillery would also be effective in the counter infiltration role. Such artillery would suppress cover fire laid down by Pakistan, and instead of the meaningless and futile volleys that currently take place, it would involve actually taking out opposing artillery batteries. This, then, leaves the question of how does one carry out meaningful punitive retaliation — a task best left to longer range missiles and aircraft, which maximise effects and reduce risks.

THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC ANGLE Earlier in this article, it was stated that

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there are two models of defence against a much bigger and richer neighbour, the advanced technology asymmetry or the human intensive asymmetry. India has neither chosen alliances to reduce its security burden, nor has it chosen asymmetry, adopting both large numbers and expensive technologies. All of this presumes, of course, that India as it claims, is an extremely advanced country in human terms and a rich one with large pockets.

Sadly, this is simply not the case. As study upon study has shown, India’s education system is in shambles, the quality education available in India’s cities was quickly swamped and destroyed by the massive rural to urban migrations that happened in the wake of the 1991 economic reforms and 95 per cent of India’s engineers are stuck with cognitive issues and are unable to problem solve.

This is a serious issue, not just because of the fact that the indigenous research and development (R&D) system gets saturated with products of a system that inherently incentivises rote over problem

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solving, but also the fact that Indian labour laws and the lack of active “sticks” means quality control simply cannot be exercised. The education problem also severely affects the absorption of technology by the armed forces. One of the reasons advanced countries can downsize but become much more efficient, is because technology is seen as an enabler that empowers every soldier to problem solve and devolves command decisions to them. Moreover, these soldiers also have a much more tactile feel for technology.

Growing up in a developed country, the average blue collar workforce that forms

deed life training. You have a lack of military knowledge in a bureaucracy and political class, compounded by substandard engineering and a woefully inadequate military leadership, all of whom are products of India’s obsession with investing in technology over investment in humans. In every situation we have confronted so far in this essay, security elements of foreign policy (bureaucracy), defence economics (political and bureaucratic) and military responses (military leadership), all either lack clarity or coherence. Nothing is more alarming than the fact that indigenisation plans are made without properly audited

the bulk of the fighting force, would have access to toys like PlayStation or Xbox, allowing them at an early age to process large quantities of information, and learn independent tactical decision-making, combined with an education system that values problem solving and initiative.

As such, by some estimates, almost 80 per cent of the training and conditioning costs are absorbed by the state education system and society. In India, only families that are fairly well to do and ones that at best contribute to the officer class can afford such luxuries. This means a late life absorption of technology for the average soldier which is a painful and cumbersome process that goes against his/her natural conditioning as one has to process vast amounts of up-to-date information and translate this into increased tactical and situational awareness and then have state sanction for greater freedom of action. In India, needless to say, controls are tight, technology viewed not as an enabler but rather as a control mechanism, quality training is virtually non-existent, standards and procedures and legal protections for soldiers lax and human resource practices abysmal, to say the least.

industrial and human resource surveys of India (which to date have not been produced save as superficial accounting exercises).

Thankfully, the solution to these problems neither involves major disruption or indeed major costs. What it does involve is shifting the budgetary focus from technology and industry to human beings.

Sending a few hundred engineers, officers, and economists, to work closely and exercise regularly and in earnest (rather than the staged theatrical events that are Malabar Yuddh Abhyas) with friendly forces annually and return to create the kernel of “train the trainer programmes” costs far less than expensive white elephant purchases, interminable committees with regurgitated recommendations, new defence universities staffed by the same fossils and peddling the same agendas and syllabi, and policy shockingly bereft of academic rigour, knowledge of industrial ecosystems and supply chains and relevant best practices abroad. India, today, has the same per capita income as Israel did in the 1960s. Yet, Israel’s focus, which was entirely on humans, produced a generation that created the technological revolution there. Ultimately, what India’s leadership needs to understand is that across the board failure means human failure and no defence procurement procedure, industrial expansion plan, indigenisation slogan, or anti-corruption drives can solve that. Only investment in real human education can.

IN THE END. . .

The source of India’s defence woes is poor human capital across the board and has little to do with technology. A crippled education system and lack of prioritisation of humans has produced systems where there is a lack of serious scholarship, or in-

THANKFULLY, THE SOLUTION TO THESE PROBLEMS NEITHER INVOLVES MAJOR DISRUPTION OR INDEED MAJOR COSTS.

Abhijit Iyer-Mitra is Programme Coordinator, Strategic Studies Programme, at the Observer Research Foundation. He specialises in defence and foreign policy.

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LOOKING BEYON THE INDIAN ARMY HAS BEEN THE COUNTRY’S FIRST AND MOST IMPORTANT WEAPON AGAINST EXTERNAL AGGRESSION. TODAY, THREATS HAVE EVOLVED, AND THIS CALLS FOR A RECALIBRATION OF APPROACH. PRAKHAR GUPTA

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ENT INTO Kashmir to drive out the invading Pakistanis barely two months after Independence, the Indian Army was one of the first public institutions to command the deference of the common people in independent India. In the decades that followed, the continental nature of threats, which India faced, forced the country to focus on the Himalayas. Positioned against the threats emanating from disputed land borders, the army evolved as the primary instrument of choice against external aggression.

This was clearly visible during the Kargil conflict in 1999. With the enemy holding key peaks, calling in the Indian Air Force (IAF) for a full-fledged offensive to soften enemy positions and interdict their supply lines before sending in ground forces to recapture the heights would have been the logical thing to do.

Instead, what we saw was the army’s attempt to drive out the intruders on its own while limiting the IAF’s involvement in the initial phase of the war to providing firepower in the form of helicopter gunships, resulting in heavy casualties.

The most recent and the least subtle confirmation of the primacy of the army came from General Bipin Rawat late last year, when he argued at a conference that “wars will be fought on land” and called for maintaining the “supremacy and primacy” of the army in a joint services environment.

Talking about IAF and the Indian Navy, he said the other two services will play a “very major role in support of the

army, which will be operating on the ground”. He appeared to hint that the territorial integrity of the nation could only be preserved through action by landbased forces.

The India Army Chief’s comment appears to be based on the assumption that threats emanating from India’s disputed land borders continue to be the country’s only major security challenge, like in the past. Sample this: “wars will be fought on land, and therefore the primacy of the

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D THE ARMY

INDIA FACES AN INCREASINGLY ASSERTIVE CHINA IN THE INDIAN OCEAN, WHOSE FOOTPRINT IN THE REGION HAS INCREASED SIGNIFICANTLY SINCE 2008.

army must be maintained. The other services, the navy and the air force, will play a very major role in support of the army, which will be operating on the ground, because no matter what happens, we may be dominating the area or the air, but finally war will be won when we ensure territorial integrity of the nation.”

Such an assumption runs the risk of ignoring the complex geopolitical developments over the last decade. Unlike in the past, India, today, faces an increas-

ingly assertive China in the Indian Ocean whose, footprint in the region has increased significantly since 2008 – from irregular forays to permanent presence with a military base in Djibouti and deployment of nuclear submarines.

Having forged closer ties with countries in India’s maritime periphery, or what is often called New Delhi’s backyard, China poses a far greater threat from the sea than it ever did in the past.

Beijing’s decision to come to the aid

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S T O R Y

WHEN OVER 95 PER CENT OF INDIA’S TRADE BY VOLUME TAKES PLACE VIA ROUTES IN INDIAN OCEAN, THE NAVY CAN’T BE PLAYING MERELY A SUPPORTIVE ROLE.

of Abdulla Yameen’s dictatorial regime in the Maldives, while New Delhi took a strong stand and was reportedly contemplating action, leaves no doubt about China’s intent.

Hence, General Rawat’s belief that ‘wars will be fought on land’ is misplaced.

While the army’s primacy in preserving territorial integrity on the land remains intact, the navy will play the same role in the maritime domain.

At a time when more than 95 per cent of India’s trade by volume (68 per cent of trade by value) takes place via the trade routes in the Indian Ocean, when the country imports over 80 per cent of its crude oil requirement via sea and export of maritime resources, such as fisheries, generates foreign exchange worth Rs 16,600 crore, the navy’s role can’t be limited to supporting operations of land-based forces.

The same is true for the air domain.

While the IAF will play a major role in supporting the land-based forces, as Gen-

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eral Rawat suggested, the service’s precision, flexibility and long reach make it an independent player. With geography limiting large-scale land offensives across the Himalayas, the air force will be the primary tool for offensive warfare behind enemy lines.

However, the joint doctrine of the armed forces, released in 2017, does not identify the air force as an independent tool in the application of military power, and limits its role to that of a junior service meant to support land and sea operations.

The primacy of the army is also reflected in budgetary allocations. In 2017-18, like in the past, the army got the biggest share in the defence budget at 57 per cent, followed by the IAF, the Navy, Defence Research and Development Organisation and Ordnance Factories. While 22 per cent of the budget went to the air force, the navy got only 14 per cent of the total.

Little changed in 2018-19, when the army got 55 per cent of the total budget, the air

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power cost, the army is in the process of further increasing its numbers by raising a new mountain strike corps.

Between 2011-12 and 2018-19, the part of the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD’s) total expenditure, which is used to pay allowances and pension, has risen from 44 per cent to 56 per cent. A large part of this increase has come at the cost of the portion of the MoD’s total expenditure used for modernisation of the three services, which has come down from a high of 26 per cent in 2011-12 to 18 per cent in 2018-19.

The increasing manpower cost not only leaves little for modernisation of the

force 23 per cent and the navy 15 per cent.

Since 2010-11, the army’s share in the defence budget has increased five percentage points, mostly at the expense of the other two services. Most of this growth has been driven by increase in manpower cost. The army, which has over 85 per cent of the total manpower in the three services, accounted for 69 per cent of the total revenue expenditure in the defence budget in 2018-19. Revenue expenditure includes funds spent on salaries of personnel and maintenance of infrastructure.

Of the army’s own share of the defence budget, 83 per cent is revenue expenditure and only 17 per cent is capital expenditure (fund spent on modernisation). In comparison, the air force and the navy, which have done a better job at managing manpower, spend 55 per cent and 52 per cent of their budget on modernisation, respectively. While the implementation of the Seventh Central Pay Commission recommendations and the ‘One Rank One Pension’ scheme continue to raise the man-

army, but also affects the government’s ability to allocate sufficient fund to the air force and the navy. With most of the growth in this year’s budget being on account of rising manpower cost, the allocations are just enough to meet existing committed liabilities, making any major new acquisition unlikely this year. At a time when the IAF and the navy are looking at acquiring new fighter jets and helicopters and the list of unfunded requirements continues to grow, this is undesirable.

Facing a similar situation in the past, China has significantly cut down the size of its land forces in the last four decades – by nearly a million men in 1985, about 500,000 in 1997, 200,000 in 2003 and over 300,000 in 2015. India can follow a similar path, although less drastic. This will not just help the army use more funds allocated to it for modernisation, but also allow the Defence Ministry to restructure the budget to increase allocations for the air force and the navy.

However, this reform is not likely to happen if the army continues to see itself as the only upholder of the country’s territorial integrity. Instead, if it views itself as one of the many instruments of national power, it can reduce manpower and help the idea of a unified command. Reassuring the air force and the navy – which fear losing autonomy in a joint working environment – by also sharing responsibility for efficiency be the first step towards the new model of operations under a unified command.

BETWEEN INCREASING MANPOWER AND DRIVING MODERNISATION, CHINA CHOSE THE LATTER AND HAS SIGNIFICANTLY REDUCED THE SIZE OF ITS LAND FORCES IN THE LAST FOUR DECADES.

Prakhar Gupta is Senior SubEditor, Swarajya.

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INFRASTRUCTURE

WILL PUBLIC TRANSPORT MEET EXPRESSWAYS? ALIGNING MASS TRANSIT WITH HIGH-SPEED RING ROADS AROUND INDIAN CITIES CAN DELIVER FASTER MOVEMENT AND SURPRISING RESULTS. SRIKANTH RAMAKRISHNAN

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HE NEWS about truck traffic in Delhi coming down a day after the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) was thrown open came as pleasant news to many people, for it meant that with less congestion on the city’s roads, there would be less traffic jams, less idling and less emissions.

Ring roads, or beltways, are a common feature in Indian cities but most of them have turned into proper city roads, choked with traffic. A few cities have, however, successfully managed to escape this by building a dedicated accesscontrolled corridor around them, while a lot more are still considering building them. Among them, the most well-known would be Hyderabad’s eight-lane, accesscontrolled Outer Ring Road, the six-lane Chennai bypass and the six-lane Outer Ring Road in Chennai, and the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprise (NICE) Peripheral Ring Road – albeit partially encircling the city – in Bengaluru.

In any major Indian city, it is important to understand that there are two distinct forms of traffic on the road – local traffic and outstation traffic. For any city to thrive, this distinction has to be kept in mind when designing public transport corridors, such as metro rail and bus

rapid transit systems (BRTS) and the allimportant flyovers at major junctions.

When locals opposed building of a bypass around Mandya along the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway, the argument was that it would take away livelihoods from local businesses. But the fact is, a bypass wouldn’t do much damage, for those who are looking to enter the city will continue to do so. In fact, the lack of a bypass and subsequent congestion due to mixed traffic within the city would result in productivity losses elsewhere, such as the goods and shipments sector.

YES, PUBLIC TRANSPORT IS IMPORTANT, BUT SO ARE HIGH-SPEED ROADS The standard argument that arises whenever any high-speed road project such as a flyover, an expressway or an elevated corridor is planned is that it will only benefit private vehicle owners. However, the argument is not entirely true due to a flawed line of reasoning.

Public transport by itself needs diversity in terms of how it operates. For instance, if every bus is going to be identical and stop at every bus stop, then the average car user would not use it. Instead, if public transport offers better buses, air-conditioned ones or buses with fewer stops or those that take flyovers over con-

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gested junctions, they may very well see better patronage.

THE RATIONALE BEHIND EXPRESSWAYS IN CITIES While a common argument is that construction of such corridors would only benefit private car owners (a flawed argument that drove the opposition to the steel flyover in Bengaluru), the impact of such corridors is quite significant and visible.

The very fact that the EPE saw nearly 50,000 trucks give the capital city a miss on the day of opening is a testament to this.

The NICE Peripheral Ring Road in Bengaluru allows trucks going from Mumbai to Chennai – the two arms of the Golden Quadrilateral that meet in the city – to bypass Bengaluru, while also giving highspeed access to high-density neighbourhoods such as Electronics City. Similarly, the elevated Eastern Freeway in Mumbai and the proposed Port-Maduravoyal Elevated Expressway in Chennai would of-

fer unhindered connectivity from the outskirts of the cities to their port terminals that are located in the heart of the city.

BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN TRANSIT While both modes can co-exist, there needs to be a greater connection between them. For instance, buses taking the freeway is the first step. What if the expressway has a limited number of exits or none at all that prevent their efficient usage?

If we go a step further, we realise that such corridors provide ample opportunity for public transport as well.

Chennai’s Outer Ring Road has been built with a 20 metre-wide median that can be used for rail services in the future.

Similarly, the proposed Virar-Alibaug multimodal corridor encircling the Mumbai Metropolitan Region is a high-speed expressway corridor that will feature a bus rapid transit system and rail services along its median. When it comes to exist-

CHENNAI’S OUTER RING ROAD HAS BEEN BUILT WITH A 20 METRE-WIDE MEDIAN THAT CAN BE USED FOR RAIL SERVICES IN THE FUTURE.

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INFRASTRUCTURE

EXPRESSWAYS DO A GREAT JOB OF KEEPING OUTSTATION TRAFFIC AWAY FROM THE CITY.

Srikanth Ramakrishnan is a Senior Sub-Editor at Swarajya.

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ing roads, a monorail was proposed along Bengaluru’s NICE Peripheral Ring Road.

However, due to the prevalent bureaucracy and red-tape, none of them have materialised.

EXPLORING THE CHICAGO MODEL Chicago, the third largest city and metropolitan region in the United States, has an expressway-rail combination, one that came up in the 1960s, around the time when president Dwight Eisenhower had initiated the interstate highway system.

Much of Chicago’s Congress Line travels along the central median of interstates 90 and 94 (I-90 and I-94).

In the case of India, our quasi-federal structure comes in the way when it comes to integrating infrastructure. Complete federalism in the US allows for federal highways and local rail systems to be entirely built and operated by the city itself, while in India, highways usually are under the Centre’s jurisdiction while rail systems could either be in the hands of the Centre or the state. In a few states such as Maharashtra and Gujarat, bus services alone come under the city’s purview while other cities aren’t that fortunate.

While the short-term goal would be to get more buses onto urban expressways (Mumbai and Bengaluru currently do operate them), the vision for the long run should incorporate rail corridors onto them.

For instance, setting up a metro rail corridor along a peripheral expressway and then connecting it to the city would enable setting up of satellite transit hubs.

It would also provide better connectivity to airports given how newer airports come up far from the city for want of land.

As economic zones in major cities move towards peripheral areas, the Centre needs to coordinate with states and cities. It needs to come up with a proper system – one that not only has expressways with rail corridors – but also with proper connectivity to these newer corridors in the form of feeder services.

Expressways do a great job of keeping outstation traffic away from the city, thus ensuring faster movement, especially in the goods and shipments sectors. Reduced traffic in the city directly results in lesser emissions and thus better air quality.

Adding public transport to the mix just makes things a lot better.

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H E A L T H

NIPAH LESSONS KERALA DESERVES PRAISE FOR ITS SINCERE RESPONSE TO THE DEADLY VIRUS, BUT THE OUTBREAK HAS REVEALED SEVERAL FAILINGS IN THE STATE’S HEALTHCARE INFRASTRUCTURE.

A

S THE drama surrounding the Karnataka assembly election results was at its peak, neighbouring Kerala came into national spotlight. Reports of a deadly Nipah viral infection came in from the Perambra region of Kozhikode district. The Nipah virus, named after a village in Malaysia where the disease first appeared, is highly fatal with a fatality rate of around 54 per cent.

The origin of the virus is still unclear at the time of writing this article, but the strain of the virus has been confirmed to be of Bangladeshi origin, rather than Malaysian. Patient zero of this communicable disease was 23-year-old Mohammed Sabith. His brother, Mohammed Salih, was the second person to be infected. The confirmation that the virus was indeed the killer came only on 20 May, but the health department in Kerala had already swung into action. When the confirmation came, the state mobilised teams of medical professionals, and put isolation protocols in place. An early diagnosis of the disease meant that the health department had its work cut out easier.

There were still two waves of infection to contend with, and more than 2,000 people under observation, those who had come directly or indirectly in contact with patients at the Perambra Taluk Hospital, Kozhikode Medical College Hospital and Balusserry Taluk Hospital. The virus has no vaccine or drug known to be directly effective against it, making recovery from the disease very difficult. In its Kerala outbreak, it killed 17 of the 19 infected.

Healthcare professionals in the state worked overtime to contain the disease, with the story of Lini Puthusserry, a

nurse at Perambra Taluk Hospital, drawing more than a tear. The mother of two had come into contact with the virus during her work at the hospital. “Sajeeshetta.. am almost on the way... I don’t think I can meet you again... sorry... please take the... the little ones to Gulf. Don’t be lonely like our father... with lots of love and... kisses...”, were her last words.

As with any other contemporary event, the outbreak of the Nipah virus led to various social media rumours and hoaxes. The health department had to step in more than once to quell such rumours.

Meanwhile, a sense of eerie calm descended on Kozhikode, the city closest to the Nipah outbreak. Public transportation to Perambra and Kuutiyadi was suspended voluntarily by private bus operators in the last week of May, and the normally busy streets of Kozhikode remained mostly deserted.

While the state’s health department deserves praise for its remarkable response to the virus outbreak, questions still remain about the decaying nature of Kerala’s public healthcare infrastructure. The state is number one in almost all parameters of healthcare with large investments in developing a thorough primary healthcare centre network and medical colleges.

However, over the course of the last 10 to 15 years, the planned infrastructural development and institutions have fallen through. To confirm that the virus was indeed Nipah, for example, the samples had to be sent to the Manipal Centre for Viral Research in Karnataka, while the state virology institute in Alappuzha didn’t have a director, virologists and funds. The state, which has among the lowest doctor to population served ratio, still experi-

ANANTH KRISHNA

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H E A L T H

THE NIPAH VIRUS OUTBREAK HAPPENED JUST WEEKS BEFORE THE MONSOON, AND THANKFULLY SO.

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ences a shortage of doctors, especially in taluk and primary health centres. Strikes are common in the healthcare sector, like any other industry in Kerala. A four-day strike by government doctors in April threatened to shut down the state’s public healthcare network.

The Nipah virus outbreak happened just weeks before the monsoon, and thankfully so. The monsoon season is also a fever season in the state, with around 10,000 to 15,000 cases of dengue reported during the 2017 monsoons alone. These problems can be attributed to the lack of proper waste disposal mechanisms, especially in urban areas. Many state hospitals themselves face a crisis in waste disposal. None of the state municipalities were able to

break into the top 10 or 20 of the Swacch Bharat Abhiyan rankings, and the overall performance was dismal.

The state’s private healthcare industry has flourished in the meantime. A majority of people in the state relies on private healthcare providers, and private medical college seats outnumber government MBBS seats. Those candidates who don’t clear the state’s medical entrance examinations have increasingly sought admissions outside India, with China being a popular destination.

Medical education is also in trouble.

Kerala’s medical education sector has been fighting one crisis after another.

Firstly, there is the problem of fee regulation of private medical colleges and

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KERALA’S CURRENT HEALTHCARE POLICY EMPHASISES ON GOVERNMENT SPENDING ON PUBLIC INFRASTRUCTURE AND STAFF.

how many merit seats are to be allotted.

Despite the enormous sum paid by students (merit students had to pay Rs 11 lakh) as fees, they face a lack of qualified teachers, and poor infrastructure. Private colleges were alleged to have managed faculty shortage by appointing ‘ghost faculties’ for one day during checks by Medical Council of India (MCI) Twelve medical colleges – 10 private and two government-owned – face a dire situation. Their infrastructure and faculty have been found not complying with the regulations, and have been denied the licence to admit students this year by the Union Ministry of Health on the recommendation of the MCI. A World Health Organization study estimated that about one-fifth of the state’s doctors move out, seeking greener pastures.

There are a lot of lessons that Kerala has to teach other states about improving the healthcare sector. But Kerala itself has a lot of lessons to learn from the Nipah virus outbreak, and they must be learnt quickly. There needs to be a rethink on the current public health policy in the state. Kerala’s current healthcare policy

emphasises on government spending on public infrastructure and staff. That model may no longer be sustainable, considering the state’s revenue deficit, staffing and infrastructural issues.

Most of the state’s healthcare expenditure is still out-of-pocket household spending, and even while government spending has risen five times, it only accounts for 19.6 per cent of the healthcare expenditure in the state.

On the bright side, the state government has already decided to combine the various central and state insurance schemes into one comprehensive healthcare plan. What happens in Kerala’s healthcare scenario in this regard, would also be guided by the Union government’s own policy, particularly in the light of Ayushman Bharat Yojana, Narenda Modi government’s flagship healthcare scheme.

The state’s health ministry and its medical professionals deserve due credit for their response to Nipah and its containment. But there are long term issues that need to be sorted, and it is time we woke up to the reality that all is not well.

Ananth Krishna is a BA LLB (Hons.) student at NUALS, Kochi.

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I N T E R V I E W

“Being the first Indian to work on a permanent gallery of South Asia at the British Museum has been a real privilege.�

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DR SUSHMA JANSARI is the curator of the Asian Ethnographic and South Asia Collections at the British Museum. It is one of the most iconic public museums in the world and has informed debate about how history and culture are collected and displayed since it first opened in the mid-eighteenth century. Deepika Ahlawat asks Dr Jansari about her work at the museum, and its continued relevance in today’s politicised and connected world.

Excerpts: Where do you work and how would you describe the work you do?

I am curator of the Asian Ethnographic and South Asia Collections in the Department of Asia at the British Museum. In this capacity, I am responsible for some 30,000 objects: the ethnographic collections, which are from Siberia in the north, to Sri Lanka and the Maldives in the south, and from Pakistan in the west to Japan in the east. In terms of the South Asia collections, more specifically, I look after the ancient material, most of which comprises sculpture and archaeological objects.

I knew the museum’s collections were vast and important, but nothing could have prepared me for their sheer size and scale. On my first day, I remember walking around the stores in a daze trying to get to grips with the tens of thousands of objects and wondering if they had chosen the right person for the job. As you can imagine, it was an overwhelming experience, but I took a deep breath and got on with it. Thankfully, I work with some fantastic colleagues, who are generous with their knowledge. This type of knowledge-sharing across the generations is especially important when you work with collections that have been formed over hundreds of years and which have moved between departments as the

“One of the most important objects in the entire collection from South Asia is an Ashokan pillar inscription from Meerut (later moved to Delhi) dating to the mid-third century BC.” institution has evolved over the centuries. It is a real privilege to add to this knowledge and pass it on in turn.

It is in the nature of museum work that you are drawn in directions that extend beyond your core research area, and this is also what I have found at the British Museum.

My work is as wide-ranging as the collections I curate and I have lots of opportunities to expand my knowledge. Recently, I have written about Sri Lankan collections made by the colonial official Hugh Nevill (18471897); an overview of the ancient-toearly-medieval Jain collections; and the collection history of the Siberian ethnographic objects. Happily, a lot of this work involves collaborating with colleagues at the museum and

other academic institutions, and this is something I enjoy immensely.

I see it as a central part of my role to bring the collections, and the often extraordinary stories behind their acquisition, to the wider world. So, alongside gallery talks and writing for different audiences, I often share objects that are on display or which I am researching, on Twitter. The response has been great so far.

How have Indian art and India been seen, collected and displayed at the British Museum?

How do you think this changes/ has changed over time, political climate and intellectual zeitgeist?

People may be surprised to know that objects from India have been at

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In the last year alone, colleagues have exhibited diverse historic and contemporary objects, including newlycommissioned masks, from Assam. the British Museum since it was established by an act of Parliament in 1753. I love the fact that it was created as the world’s first national, public and free museum, open to ‘all studious and curious persons’ – I know I fit that profile.

The museum’s Indian collections have grown exponentially over the last 259 years, from the original handful of exquisite mid-eighteenth century Mughal objects in the museum’s founding collection bequeathed

by Sir Hans Sloane. Large parts of the Indian collections came to the museum during the colonial period, particularly, mid-nineteenth century onwards, when colonial officials brought objects back from India and donated them to the museum. Lots of other material, numbering in their tens of thousands, now resides at the museum’s sister institutions – the British Library and the Natural History Museum.

The sculpture at the museum is the most important collection held outside India. After all, it includes some of the sculpture from Amaravati. Don’t overlook the vast and wideranging ethnographic collection, as well as hundreds of textiles, historic and contemporary paintings, photographs, coins, medals, archaeological material and much more. It is hard to overstate just how incredible the collections are and just what a privilege it is to work with them.

In terms of contemporary collecting, we keep our collections up-todate and relevant by acquiring modern works of Indian art. Artists such as Jamini Roy and Somnath Hore are represented at the museum and

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a sculpture by Mrinalini Mukherjee was purchased specially for display in the newly-refurbished Hotung Gallery. We also have paintings by Rabindranath Tagore. In the last year alone, colleagues have exhibited diverse historic and contemporary objects, including newlycommissioned masks, from Assam; a recent donation of nineteenth century Indian popular prints; and a ground-breaking exhibition using interactive technology to display a double-sided relief from the stupa at Amaravati.

Although I am an ancient historian at heart, I have long been interested in the collection history of the museum’s South Asian collections more broadly and continue to research and publish on this subject. It is one of the ways I engage with the collections to explore and navigate the difficult and problematic issues surrounding colonialism and the museum. This month, a colleague at the University of Brighton and I were awarded a grant to enable a student to study the South Asian collectors represented in the museum’s collections. This is a new direction for collection history research at the museum and I am keen on the results of this study to influencing future studies and displays.

What is the particular project you are working on?

For the last two years, I have been working with a project team on the refurbishment of the Sir Joseph E Hotung Gallery for China and South Asia, which reopened in November 2017. It has been a wonderful oppor-

tunity to rethink our collections and display in light of the many changes that have taken place in scholarship and museology over the last 25 years.

It was a once-in-a-career opportunity to work with the full range of the museum’s spectacular ancient and medieval South Asian and Sri Lankan collections, and to develop a new, broadly chronological narrative for this period. Our collections are such that the whole history of South Asia can be told, from the Paleolithic period to the present day, and this is what we have done. The gallery was last refurbished in 1992 and the new displays will also be in place for some 20 years as well. So, no pressure!

Being the first Indian to work on a permanent gallery of South Asia at the British Museum has been a real privilege and a personally important and emotional experience too. On a lighter note, I wrote most of the 150plus labels listening to Bollywood songs, so who knows if that has had an impact too!

I curated half of South Asia, from the mid-third century BC to the twelfth century AD, as well as a section focussing on Sri Lanka. There are over 700 objects in my section and one of the things I wanted to do was draw links between some of this ancient material and contemporary India, including the Indian diaspora in the UK – a community of which I am a part. I felt this was important for various reasons, not least because the ancient world resonates in so many different ways in the present day. Also, many of our six million annual visitors, who come from around the world do not have deep knowledge of Indian history, so I hope it will give them something extra to learn and think about when they see the displays.

I’ll give two brief examples. I show the links between Ashoka and newly-independent India by displaying banknotes, coins and stamps is-

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sued soon after independence and which bear the national emblem of India – the Lion Capital of Ashoka – alongside the Ashokan inscription.

In another section, which focusses on Jain sculpture from western India, I have included photographs of the jina images and architecture in the Jain Centre in Leicester – the first Jain temple to be consecrated outside India – that were carved more recently in western India. In this section, I also talk about the Gujarati diaspora, which arrived in the UK and settled in Leicester after expulsion from East Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. This is the story of my own family’s journey.

My next project is also galleryfocussed: Manchester Museum is building a new South Asia Gallery in partnership with the British Museum. The British Museum will loan most of the objects for the gallery and, as the curatorial liaison for the project, I will be advising on object selection while working with colleagues in Manchester to develop a narrative. It’s a very exciting project, not least because it is a unique opportunity to work closely with the local community, including the Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi diaspora, and display the history of South Asia to a regional audience.

What is your favourite object in the collection and why?

This is such a difficult question to answer because the collections I curate include objects such as the Bimaran casket, Mathura lion capital, reliquaries from Sanchi and sculptures of the Buddha from Sarnath. Can I choose them all? I did say the museum’s collections were superb. If I had to choose just one, I would select a small, unassuming fragment of an inscription. It is, however, one of the most important objects in the entire collection from South Asia: an Ashokan pillar inscription from Meerut

Artists such as Jamini Roy and Somnath Hore are represented at the museum and a sculpture by Mrinalini Mukherjee was purchased specially for display in the newly-refurbished Hotung Gallery. (later moved to Delhi) dating to the mid-third century BC. Ashoka is one of the best-known Indian rulers and it was during his reign that the Mauryan Empire reached its greatest extent, and political and cultural peak. Ashoka was also the first to erect monumental inscriptions across the subcontinent.

Our fragment is engraved with part of Pillar Edict VI, of which only six copies are known today. The portion preserved in the British Museum bears part of the last two lines of this edict written in Prakrit in the Brahmi script (the ancestor of most South and Southeast Asian scripts in

use today).

When I see this object and know it is amongst the collections I curate, I sometimes have to pinch myself because it is such a privilege to look after something that is so important and linked to an extraordinary ruler.

It is astonishing to think that we have a small part of this key moment in Indian history – I believe we are the only museum outside the subcontinent to have any part of an Ashokan inscription. It is displayed prominently in the Hotung Gallery, where millions of visitors from around the world, who freely enter the museum every year, can see it.

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CINEMA

PENANCE, PATIENCE, PUNYAKOTI A MEETING WITH ILAYARAJA MOTIVATED RAVI SHANKAR V TO MAKE A FILM ON THE ANCIENT STORY OF PUNYAKOTI. WHAT FOLLOWED IS A STORY IN ITSELF. HARSHA BHAT

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N

O LIGHTS, no camera, just action. This is how a unique experiment in movie making is coming along.

Once it is complete, it will be India’s first crowd-sourced and crowdfunded animated film in Sanskrit. The name of the film, you might have heard it before, is Punyakoti.

“There is no shooting, no studio, no meetings. Some of the people working on the movie are those I have never met in my life,” says Ravi Shankar V, a man with immense passion for storytelling.

What marked the beginning of Shankar’s journey in Punyakoti? A bus ride from his home in Basavanagar to Infosys in Electronic City, Bengaluru. His colleague shared the story of Punyakoti, the honest cow. It is a story of how Punyakoti, the cow, comes face to face with a tiger, Adbhuta. Adbhuta is set to eat up Punyakoti, but she asks for time for feeding her young one. The cow makes a promise to return. She keeps her promise, and returns.

The story left Shankar and his colleague in tears. Countless thoughts flowed along with the tears. There were many questions, too. Why did the cow venture into the woods? Why did the tiger leave the dense woods and head towards the

village? What about Kaveri, the river of Karunaadu, the village in which the story is set?

Shankar began rewriting the story, the untold tale of Punyakoti.

He ‘reverse engineered’ the story. “It is like a flashback of Punyakoti and Adbhuta,” says Shankar. He then gave the story, which he had turned into a book, to Sanskrita Bharati, which came out with an illustrated storybook in Sanskrit called Punyakoti.

It was this book that left world-renowned music maestro Ilayaraja impressed. “If you find a producer, make it into a movie, said Raja sir. That was where it all began,” says Shankar, nostalgically.

This was not his first animation project. He wrote the script for India’s first animated film Panchatantra. Having a penchant for cinema and storytelling, many of his lunch slots at Infosys had been spent talking about making movies.

After a nudge from Ilayaraja, he began to think how he could turn this dream into a reality.

What would it take to turn a story into an animation film? It would cost around Rs 1 crore at least. “If 100 people gave me 1 lakh each and 100 animators gave me one minute of animation, the film would be

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made,” he says. It wasn’t going to be easy.

WHY SANSKRIT? “Why not?” he asks. “If children can watch Japanese cartoon films, they shouldn’t find it difficult to follow Sanskrit. Moreover, it is the most scientific language. The pace of speech has been handled well and comprehension is not an issue,” he adds.

THE MONEY The search for a producer took a few months. Shankar met the chairman of

Manipal Group and former Infosys board member Mohandas Pai in February 2015.

Pai advised him to try crowdfunding through Wishberry, a crowdfunding platform. There was a problem. Never before had anyone asked for such a large amount on the platform. “The maximum amount raised during those times was Rs 27 lakh.

Here, we were trying to seek a crore. We reduced the amount to Rs 40 lakh,” he said.

“There was a time when it looked like it had all come to a halt. We thought the

THE FILM IS A STORY OF HOW PUNYAKOTI, THE COW, COMES FACE TO FACE WITH A TIGER, ADBHUTA.

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CINEMA

SHANKAR’S HOUSE TRANSFORMED INTO A WORKSPACE. HE TOOK TO “CROWD SOURCING TALENT” AND LOOKING FOR PEOPLE ONLINE.

campaign had failed, but when the campaign was going to end in three days, we noticed a surge in crowd-funding and made a record. Nobody had raised Rs 41 lakh through a platform like this.”

THE MEN Just when he had raised enough money to start off, problems began to pop up.

Some people in the team were in Thiruvananthapuram, some moved to Pune, a few were in Bengaluru. There was no coordination and no deadlines. “Back then, I shifted to the BPO sector. I applied all the knowledge of workflow management and the like, to film-making. Every shot was put in a different folder so it could be handed over to a different person.”

THE MECHANICS OF MOVIE MAKING Everyone said “you can’t do it without a

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studio”. Shankar did not know the technical terms. “For long, I was taken for a ride by people who had been assigned tasks”, he said. Those working on different chunks would give him excuses. This prompted him to come up with the idea of “hanging out”. Google Hangouts is where everyone would come and meet and discuss everything in real time.

Shankar’s house transformed into a workspace. He took to “crowd sourcing talent” and looking for people online.

MONEY YET AGAIN… He got people on board and work was slowly taking off, but funds were getting exhausted. “The year 2017 was nightmarish. I was getting work. Most work was being rejected by the creative director Girish. So, every day, I would say this is the last day I am working on this project.”

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DAUGHTER SNEHA HAS DUBBED FOR THE VOICE OF THE CHARACTER PUTTA AND HIS SON, ABHAY, ACCORDING TO SHANKAR, IS THE “QUALITY CHECK EXPERT”.

Then, he thought that this was probably the only movie he would make in his life. “I then began to meet people once again for funds. I met a lot of ‘rich people’, only to realise that they don’t help. This was my biggest learning out of Punyakoti,” said Shankar. People who have given money to this dream project are middleclass. “Richness has nothing to do with money. It has to do with the heart. The rich were not giving me money but were trying to make money out of me. They would ask me, how much I would sell the movie for, or offer me loan,” he says. He rejected all such offers. His wife, whom he accords maximum credit, gave him a much-needed financial push. “If we had a third child, would we not bring that child up? So, let us regard Punyakoti as our third child and use whatever savings we have to see this through,” she said. “That day I stopped meeting people and asking for funds,” Shankar says with pride. It is now been around seven months since then and the film saw its trailer released on 22 May.

His children, too, have been an active part of the film-making process. Daughter Sneha has dubbed for the voice of the character Putta and his son, Abhay, according to Shankar, is the “quality check expert”. He would note the difference in details, like the shape of the earrings that a particular character has worn in two frames.

NOTHING BUT PENANCE Shankar has given almost 6,000 to 7,000 man hours to this project. “I won’t make another film,” he says. People in his family and social circles have probably forgotten what he looks like. “I have not stepped out for anything but work.” He has slept after long hours of virtual meetings, perfecting every frame, and often woken up to a whiteboard that has details of pending tasks to bring Punyakoti to life.

Top actors like Roger Narayan and Revathy have lent their voices to the film.

Maestro Ilayaraja himself has offered to compose music for Shankar’s brave retelling of an Indic story in Sanskrit.

Harsha Bhat is a staff writer at Swarajya.

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THE LIVING DEITIES FOR CENTURIES, RITUALS SURROUNDING JAGANNATH, BALABHADRA AND SUBHADRA, HAVE UNFOLDED WITH THE ROLLING CHARIOTS. THEY KEEP THE SIBLINGS ALIVE IN A COMMUNITY. PRATYASHA RATH

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A

GROUP of siblings decides to beat the scorching heat of Odisha. They take a bath, a long bath with cold water to beat the heat, like most of us have done sometime or the other. Like many of us, the siblings fall sick. They stay confined to a sick room under the watchful eyes of a vaidya (physician) for 15 days and have to change their diet and activities to recuperate soon. And when they recover after 15 days, they want to make the most of their lost time and crave for a change. So, they decide to take a small vacation to the house of their aunt.

In all the excitement, the younger brother forgets to invite his wife for the vacation and in the process, leaves a very angry wife to deal with, once he returns home.

In fact, he is not allowed to enter the house once he returns, and finally, has to placate the angry consort with a pot of warm and fresh rasogolas. Thus ends an eventful summer for the siblings.

In a nutshell, this is the story behind the world famous Rath Yatra of Puri, where Jagannath, Balabhadra and their sister Subhadra get on their chariots and visit the Gundicha Temple located about three kilometres from the Shri Mandira.

The elaborate sequence of events during the Rath Yatra mirrors the everyday lives of ordinary people, much like the daily nitis (ritual practices) of the deities. But, in the true fashion of the lord of the universe, the mundane daily activities become a celebration in the temple, with everyone

from the Gajapati (the ruler of Puri) and groups of servitors tending to every need of the deities. From getting up to calls of ‘manima’ (the bejewelled one), to change of clothes and food according to seasons, the occasional bana bhoji (picnic in the jungle) with siblings, music while going to bed, a royal physician to tend to their illnesses and even quarrels with consorts — every activity is guided by unique rituals.

Consider this. There is a group of servitors called the mutura pakhala, who are responsible for providing mutura twigs to the deities for brushing their teeth every morning, and a different group of servitors called the darpania (one who holds the mirror for the deities), who provide the mirrors to the deities while they dress up. There is a group called the khuntias, who just stand guard over the lord and lovingly call him ‘manima’ (colloquially used for king) and talk to him now and then. There are multiple groups of sevayats responsible for each aspect of the preparation of the mahaprasad. The paniki pata (group of servitors responsible for chopping vegetables in the temple using the tool) handle the vegetables. The rosa nikap (this group of servitors handles the flavour ingredients in the temple offering) prepare the ghee and ginger. The chaula bachha (a group of servitors) clean the rice. Every group of servitors are known as a nijoga and the Gajapati (title of the King of Puri) Ananga Bhima Deva had established 36 such nijogas to handle all the nitis. Comprising almost all caste groups

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and covering almost all aspects of skill, the group of sevayats in Puri are known as the chhattisnijoga (36 nijogas). Though with time, the groups of servitors increased and there are now about 250 such nijogas. Some of the old nijogas like the binkara comprising skilled veena players, who used to play the instrument while the deities went to bed, no longer exist.

But, what this goes on to show is that the system of nitis or rituals is central to the temple ecosystem and each niti is intertwined to the next like clockwork. It is not just the temple but the various mathas (Hindu monasteries) and pithas in Puri which also have specific responsibilities.

All this reaches a crescendo from the period between the snana purnima (when the three deities along with Madanmohan and Sudarshan are brought out of the sanctum sanctorum for a bathing festival) and the bahuda (when the chariots return to the Shri Mandira from the Gundicha Temple).

The festivities of the Rath Yatra commence from the snana purnima, also known as jyeshtha purnima. Then begins a unique ritual, where the deities are doused with 108 pitchers of perfumed water from the suna kuan (golden well) near the northern entrance of the temple. A group of sevayats called the Suna Goswamis draw water from the well and this is the only occasion on which the water from this particular well is used. The Suna Goswamis cover their mouths with a piece of cloth so that the water remains uncontaminated. The water is preserved in the bhoga mandap (area where the food offering is prepared and stored) and perfumed with flowers, turmeric and sandalwood.

It is also the only occasion when the deities literally bathe with water because on regular days, it is a mantra snana, where water is poured on a mirror placed in front of the deities. On the evening of the snana purnima, Shri Balabhadra and Shri Jagannath take on the gaja bhesha or the

THE SYSTEM OF NITI S OR RITUALS IS CENTRAL TO THE TEMPLE ECOSYSTEM AND EACH NITI IS INTERTWINED WITH THE NEXT LIKE CLOCKWORK.

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U T S A V WHILE SHRI BALABHADRA AND DEVI SUBHADRA ARE ALLOWED TO ENTER THEIR HOME, THE ANGRY GODDESS IS NOT DONE RESOLVING ISSUES WITH HER HUSBAND AND HE HAS TO GO THE EXTRA MILE TO APPEASE HER.

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elephant attire. The deities are dressed in different attires every single day and also for particular occasions. Gaja means elephant and bhesha means attire, which includes silk clothes and ornaments. Devi Subhadra wears an attire based on the lotus.

The day after the snana purnima marks the beginning of the most unique period in the nitis of the temple, where the three deities fall sick and are moved to a ‘sick room’, the anasara pindi. A bamboo screen hides them from the visitors and most sevayats, except for a special group of sevayats called the daitapatis. Jagannath is considered to have originated as a tribal deity with the name of Neela Madhaba and was worshipped by a tribal chieftain Vishwavasu. The daitapatis are considered to be of tribal lineage and the descendants of Vishwavasu. Between the snana purnima and the Rath Yatra, the daitapatis take on the most important role in the administration of the nitis in the temple. While a pattachitra of the deities are exhibited for the common public, the indisposed deities in their sick room are tended to by the daitapatis and the vaidya.

But, these set of rituals are so secretive that even the sevayats from other nijogas are not privy to it. During the 15 days of anasara, no other sevayat is allowed access to the sick room and only the pati mahapatra (the head of the daitapatis) has full knowledge of all the rituals. But, at the same time, the other sevayats continue the daily activities in front the tati dians (the replaced deities in the sanctum sanctorum). During this time, devotees throng another pilgrimage site, Alarnath, about 25 km from Puri. It is believed that since there is no opportunity to see the deities in Shri Mandira, Shri Jagannath manifests himself as Alarnath.

While not much of the rituals of the anasara or period of isolation can be discussed, the next big day comes a day before the Rath Yatra — known as the naba joubana darshana. This literally translates into renewed youth or vigour and marks the day when the fully recovered and recuperated deities venture out

of the sick room, take their place on the ratna sinhasana (bejewelled throne) and give darshan to the devotees. It is believed that the water poured on the vigrahas (the deity in the form of an idol) on snana purnima makes the colour fade a little.

Therefore, during the end of the anasara, the Datta Mahapatra paints the faces of the deities in a ritual known as banak lagi (the deities are decorated in this ritual using saffron, musk and camphor). The darshan of the deities after recovery, in all their beauty and magnificence is considered to be a sight for sore eyes and is rightly called netra utsava (celebration for the eyes).

The next day – ashadha shukla dwitya is the day of the Rath Yatra. The three deities along with Sudarshana, Manamohana, Rama and Krishna move to their respective chariots in a ritual known as pahandi bije. There are specific rituals marking the event with different nijogs of sevayats responsible for each. One of the nitis, which generates the most interest is the chera pahanra (sweeping of the chariot) by the Puri Gajapati. The Gajapati sweeps the three chariots with the deities seated in them before they commence their journey. This establishes that even the highest ruler of the land is a sevayat of the lord of the universe. Rath Yatra is an opportunity for all devotees and faithful irrespective of their caste, religion and gender to pull the chariots of the lords but there is a special nijog called the kalabethi, who have been traditionally responsible for it. Another unique ritual followed during the Rath Yatra was done by a group of servitors called the rath dahukas. They were traditionally responsible for singing songs, which were drawn from eighth century tantric literature. The songs were usually double layered and many consider the lyrics extremely bawdy. It was believed that until the dahukas sing these songs, the chariots do not move. But, the content of these songs was considered extremely provocative and vulgar, because of which they were banned in Puri in the mid-1990s.

Any discussion on the Rath Yatra

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would be incomplete without focussing on the one left behind in the process, the other half of the divine pair, the consort, Lakshmi. This is a story with its share of drama and intrigue. While Shri Jagannath and his siblings celebrate the seven days of their vacation, his wife is left behind in the Shri Mandira with a wounded ego and numerous questions.

So, in desperation, she consults the other deities, Vimala and Saraswati, about her future course of action. They are equally enraged about the situation and devise a plan to avenge the injustice. Goddess Vimala, who is a tantric deity, advises Lakshmi to serve Shri Jagannath a moha churna, which will draw him back home.

So, on the fifth day of the Rath Yatra, the goddess armed with the churna (a medicinal mix) visits her husband at the Gundicha Temple in a beautiful palanquin, in a ritual marked as the ‘hera panchami’. The servitors of both the deities make them sit facing each other, where the moha churna is secretly applied on Shri Jagannath and the goddess then requests him to return home. The lord gifts the goddess a garland marking his consent and she prepares to return to the Shri Mandira. But, her anger has still not subsided. While returning, she finds an opportunity to vent it. So, on orders of the goddess, one of her servitors damages a portion of the chariot nandighosha, which belongs to her husband.

Their conjugal fight does not end at this. On the tenth day of ashadha, the chariots return to Shri Mandira and on the twelfth day, the deities enter the temple. While Shri Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra are allowed to enter their home, the angry goddess is not done resolving issues with her husband and he has to go the extra mile to appease her. So, just like every Odia, he falls back on the ever trusted delicacy rasagola and seeks a truce with his wife. This ritual called the niladri bije marks the end of the Rath Yatra and the origin of the rasagola, which no neighbouring state can ever wish away.

For centuries, these rituals have continued, passed on from one generation to another. Some have evolved, some have

been discarded. Kings and governments have come and gone by. Gajapatis have bowed down to Jagannath and hundreds of sevayats have together made sure that their ‘manima’ and his siblings get the best of their care and attention. Courses of meals have been served, pots of water perfumed. Gotipuas and devadasis have performed for him, vaidyas have tended to them, dahukas have sung their raucous numbers. Lakhs have thronged the streets with faith guiding their tired feet and happy hearts. The wheels of his chariot have rolled on for centuries. He lives in his rituals and with him breathes the culture of a community and the consciousness of all that is.

Jai Jagannath.

THE WHEELS OF THE CHARIOT OF THE LORD HAVE ROLLED ON FOR CENTURIES.

Pratyasha Rath is a consultant working in the social development and political sector.

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A FEAST FOR THE GODS IN THE JAGANNATH TEMPLE IN PURI, ODISHA, IT IS VIRTUALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THE ACT OF PREPARING A MEAL AND THE ACT OF RITUAL WORSHIP. JAIDEEP MAZUMDAR

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OOD, AND many delectable varieties of it, form an integral part of the worship of Bhagwan Jagannath. In fact, he is the only deity for who elaborate meals – mind-boggling quantities of them – are prepared and presented six times a day.

There is a reason for this: according to the scriptures, the Parabrahman (or the supreme being) in the form of Bhagwan Jagannath does dhyan (meditation) and tapasya (penance) at Badrinath, is worshipped in Rameswaram, reposes in Dwarka, entertains himself in Vrindavan, bathes at Prayag, rules from Ayodhya and eats at Puri.

The process of cooking for Bhagwan Jagannath is as elaborate as the meals themselves. The doors of the large rasoi ghar (kitchen) are opened around 7 am and after cleaning it, a pujari conducts a yagna that takes about 15 minutes. Only after this ritual are the firewood-fed chulhas (ovens) – 240 of them – lit. Outside the rasoi ghar, on stone-paved platforms around it, the preparations for the meals – cutting vegetables (only wax gourd, pumpkin, raw bananas, brinjal, flat beans and yam are served), washing rice and lentils, grating coconuts and grounding the masala (black pepper, cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and coriander) – are completed by the time the ovens are lit. About 60 to 70 water carriers draw water from two wells – named Ganga and Jamuna – throughout the day in large earthen pots (each pot carries 30 litres of water).

The process of cooking is unique here.

The bhog is cooked in huge earthen handis. All the ingredients of a particular dish are put in handis and large dollops of ghee are then ladled on top before the handi is put on the fire. The chulhas are shaped like a big lotus with six openings over which the handis are placed. Three smaller handis are placed between them.

“The main chulhas are for cooking the rice preparations. The dal and vegetable dishes are cooked in charcoal pits – each can accommodate six handis – in the rasoi ghar. It takes about 600 supakars, as the Brahmins cooks are called, to prepare each meal,” says Gopinath Suar, a senior cook.

The first bhog of the day is light and is called Gopal Ballav bhog or the rajbhog.

“It is usually ghee bhaat (ghee rice), khichdi, arhar dal and pakhala (a mixture of rice, ghee, lemon and salt). This bhog is made in small quantities and is usually not available for devotees. This is followed by the largest bhog of the day called the bhoga mandapa where 56 dishes are served,” said Suar. These range from different rice and dal preparations, including the lip-smacking and the highly nutritious dalma (a famous Odiya dish made of toor or chana dal and vegetables and seasoned with cumin, ginger paste, turmeric and ghee), sweet dishes like khaja, gaja, laddu, Jagannath ballava (made of wheat, sugar and ghee), kheer, and khua manda (a milk, wheat and ghee preparation).

On an average day, 50 quintals of rice,

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Temple kitchen of Ananta Basudeba Temple, Bhubaneswar.

25 quintals of lentils, 150 quintals of vegetables, 200 tins of ghee (each tin contains 13 kilos), hundreds of litres of milk, a few quintals of sugar and huge quantities of other condiments are used to prepare the bhogs. About five truckloads (one truck brings in about 45 quintals) of firewood are required to cook the offerings to Bhagwan Jagannath and about 1.7 lakh earthen pots and handis of various sizes are required every day. The cooks have to cover their mouths and nostrils with gamochas (piece of cloth) and while transporting

the handis with cooked food from the rasoi ghar to the mandir, if any devotee or non-supakar touches the supakar, the entire bhog has to be discarded and cooked afresh.

After offering the food to Bhagwan Jagannath, the prasad is then taken to Ananda Bazar – a courtyard just outside the inner perimeter wall of the mandir premises – where it is sold to waiting devotees.

A large part of the prasad is given away to the poor and destitute and many devotees also buy the prasad to distribute it among

ALL THE INGREDIENTS OF A PARTICULAR DISH ARE PUT IN HANDI S AND LARGE DOLLOPS OF GHEE ARE THEN LADLED ON TOP BEFORE THE HANDI IS PUT ON THE FIRE.

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U T S A V JEREMYRICHARDS / SHUTTERSTOCK.COM

A LARGE PART OF THE PRASAD IS GIVEN AWAY TO THE POOR AND DESTITUTE AND MANY DEVOTEES ALSO BUY THE PRASAD TO DISTRIBUTE AMONG THE POOR.

Jaideep Mazumdar is Associate Editor of Swarajya.

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the poor, who line up outside the mandir and other parts of Puri.

The third offering of the day is madhyanna bhog where, apart from rice and dal preparations, 11 varieties of sweet and salty pancakes, patties and fries are offered. This bhog is usually offered around 3pm to 4pm. There are no fixed timings for any ritual at Jagannath temple. The madhyanna bhog is followed closely by the second bhog mandapa where, again, 56 dishes are offered. Both the madhyanna bhog and the second bhog mandapa are made in large quantities for devotees.

The next two offerings are called mandira bhog and are in small quantities. Soon after dusk, sandhaya dhupa (a bhog comprising sweetened rice and rice soaked in water and mixed with curd etc) and sarapuli (milk boiled slowly and thickened for hours) is offered to the de-

ity, and after other rituals, the final bhog of the day, called Barasimhara bhog, is offered. This bhog comprises sweet rice and wheat cakes, cakes of plantain pulp and wheat laddus. After this bhog, the rituals for putting the deities to sleep commence and at the very end, when Nidra Devi is taken to the inner chamber of the presiding deity, a very light offering of mitha pakhala (rice soaked in water and mixed with sugar) is made.

Bhog – cooking and offering it accompanied by various rituals – thus form an important and essential part of the worship of Bhagwan Jagannath, his elder brother Balabhadra and sister Subhadra.

And when these gastronomic delights are offered to the deities, the entire temple fills up with the aroma of the preparations. They are, as is said, dishes fit for the gods.

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FINE PIGMENT OF A SACRED DEPICTION THE ART OF REPRESENTING JAGANNATH IN PATTACHITRA IS CONSIDERED SERVICE TO THE DEITY. RATH YATRA FINDS ITS FLOW, COLOUR AND FORM IN THIS VIBRANT LIVING HERITAGE.

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N THE full moon day of the Indian month of Jyeshtha, something peculiar happens – a god falls ill. The great triad enshrined in the Jagannath Temple in Puri bathe too much and are afflicted with fever. In the 15 days of their ‘treatment’ they are hidden away from public view. In this period known as ‘anasara’, they are substituted by majestic paintings that represent them. This is the tale of the origin of the ancient Pattachitra art of Odisha.

A number of traditional painter families live in Puri and the surrounding villages. They are called chitrakaras in Odia, and in Puri, there is an entire street consisting of only chitrakara families. The nearby village of Raghurajpur has been declared a ‘heritage village’ because the entire settlement consists of only chitrakaras. At the helm of this ancient clan of painters are those who paint in the service of Jagannath, the beloved deity of Odias.

To paint for Jagannath is no small task; it is a service assigned only to the senior-most craftsmen of the chitrakara lineage. The Gajapati Raja would select three families for the three deities – Balabhadra, Subhadra and Jagannath. The chitrakara masters would be initiated into the service of the temple in a formal

ceremony called sadhi-bandha. The raja would tie their heads with the sacred fabric of Jagannath. It is after this that the painters would start their magnanimous task. Many researchers and chitrakaras trace the origin of Pattachitra back to the painting at the Puri temple. This forms an unbroken link with Jagannath, symbolic of their antiquity.

This temple-service of painters, apart from being a very challenging task, is also an honorific one. They look up on the master, who has the experience and expertise to be engaged in the direct service of Jagannath himself. Due to the intrinsic sociopolitical importance of the temple, these masters enjoy high status within the community and respect in the town of Puri. As of now, only two families are in this service – one for Jagannath and one for both Balabhadra and Subhadra.

A fortnight before the bathing festival of Jyeshtha, the painters receive a note requesting them to make the revered ‘anasara patis’. With the commencement of their services, utmost cleanliness has now to be observed. The family would now sleep on the bare ground, abstaining from sex, intoxicants, meat, garlic and onion. The next day as dawn breaks, the chitrakara cooks with his wife the tamarind gum and chalk mixture for priming

PRATEEK PATTANAIK

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U T S A V first workshop in the artist’s street. With a thin brush dipped in red hingula, he deftly outlines the figure of Jagannath in all detail. This is the base sketch, or what is known as the tipana. Years of practice have made this process so natural that he needs no reference. A small blotch indicates that the master intends every second flower in the garland to be a fullbloomed pink lotus.

His work done, the master now withdraws and lets his apprentices take over.

This is the first big engagement in their internship and training, and the master keenly supervises each brushstroke.

MANY RESEARCHERS AND CHITRAKARA S TRACE THE ORIGIN OF PATTACHITRA BACK TO THE PAINTING AT THE PURI TEMPLE. THIS FORMS AN UNBROKEN LINK WITH JAGANNATH, SYMBOLIC OF THEIR ANTIQUITY.

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the canvas. A huge cotton cloth is cut into dimensions, which can be as large as 1.2 metre long and a metre wide. While he cuts the canvas to the required size, she painstakingly grinds stones to produce pigments.

Pigments play a major role in distinguishing the anasara patis. Only ‘traditional’ (which implies naturally obtained) pigments are used. Industrial oil-based paints are considered unclean. The master chitrakaras look down upon these ‘foreign’ paints. This is to be expected.

The Puri temple, until this date, has not a single of its 56 dishes made using potato.

Potato, like commercial paints, is ‘foreign’ and thus done away with in tasks related to the temple, a living institution of Odia tradition as it has been through the centuries. Moreover, the pigments are never mixed and are only used as they are, in their ‘pure’ forms.

Once the priming is done, the master painter takes over. We take a peek into the

Nothing can be wrong; more importantly, how can he give a painting with the slightest fault to his beloved deity? The helpers begin their work of filling in the colours.

First, they fill the red background, then the black body of Jagannath. Finally, the ornaments are painted in chrome yellow and other elements are completed. The master takes over again, this time for the fine black outlines throughout. Intricate parallel lines and foliate designs adorn the garments and jewellery. Two conchshell like eyes, a nose and rather fleshy red lips emerge as the process progresses.

A fashionable flame-like moustache rises from under his nose, and a trimmed beard frames the face. Since Jagannath is black, all detailing is done in white. The studio needs to hurry up, for there is only about a week left, and there is a lot more to do.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the road, the other workshop has double the work to complete. This is the bada bada workshop, where the elder brother’s work is being done. The elder brother is also the one for whom more work has to be done in the pigments department, because filling the entire body in bright white requires grinding a lot of conch shells. White has been the most difficult colour to produce in Pattachitra workshops due to the exhausting task of turning shell into finegrain pigment.

Balabhadra wears a seven-hooded white snake. His figure resembles his brother’s. He holds a pestle and a plough in his hands, motifs of his association

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SINCE JAGANNATH IS BLACK, ALL DETAILING IS DONE IN WHITE. with agriculture. Typical of Puri is the respect mixed with a hint of fear towards Balabhadra, who has a reputation for getting angered easily. Nobody messes with him. People may pull off a joke on Jagannath, who is like an all-weather friend.

The youthful sister is not to be forgotten. Subhadra is painted in dazzling yellow. She wears a sari. She wears traditional Odia-womenfolk ornaments – notha, tarata jhumpa, hansaguna, bajubandha and khadu. Like the rustic lady, her feet are lined with bright red alta. Her left eyeball is slightly smaller than the right one – in this part of the earth it is considered ‘auspicious’ to be so.

In a matter of another week, the paintings will be complete, except for a small white hole in the centre of their eyeballs.

That part is reserved for the master chitrakara. He fills in the black when life is infused into the paintings before worship.

The paintings are now complete.

The next morning is special. The entire family wakes up early. They bid their goodbye to the lifelike painted deities born in their households while a delegation from the temple arrives to escort the gods to their palace. The ghantua beats the gong (ghanta) and the kahalia sounds his trumpet (kahal). After all, this is the deity to whom the Gajapati rulers of Odisha had willingly acceded subservience

to. Under a silver-handled royal umbrella, the master chitrakara walks with the rolled-up painting cradled between his arms. The party moves through the lanes to the temple.

Late that night, when the fever-sick gods return to the inner chamber for rest, a bamboo partition is strung in front, blocking them from public view. On this partition, the three painted deities are displayed in order – Ananta Basudeba (Balabhadra), Bhubaneswari (Subhadra) and Ananta Narayana (Jagannath). A fortnight hence, the high-ceiling chambers of the temple shall remain in the light of a flickering earthen lamp. It is in this yellow light of the flame that one sees how the lifelike Pati Dian (the depiction of the deities) appear to be gazing intensely far into the darkness of the silent chamber.

When the deities recover from their fever, they will come out of their sanctum in the Ratha Jatra. The endless cycle shall recur as it has for centuries.

SUBHADRA IS PAINTED IN DAZZLING YELLOW. SHE IS DRESSED IN A SARI, WEARS TRADITIONAL ODIA-WOMENFOLK ORNAMENTS – NOTHA, TARATA JHUMPA, HANSAGUNA, BAJUBANDHA AND KHADU.

Prateek Pattanaik is a student based in Odisha. He also documents aspects of Odia culture.

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U T S A V

HARINAM KEERTAN

THE ORIGINAL INDIC SOFT POWER CHANTING OF MAHAMANTRA FOR SHRI JAGANNATH IS A CULTURAL CATALYST. FROM PURI, IT HAS EVOLVED AND DRAWN MILLIONS FROM ACROSS THE WORLD TO HIM, KRISHNA AND RAM. SUMATI MEHRISHI

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T

HE MUSICAL offering made to Shri Jagannath has been a tenacious tradition. For many bhakts (devotees) of Jagannath, who are not born Odia, the chant of “Jai Jagannath”, its singing and spontaneous rupture in dance at the Rath Yatra, shrinks distance. The pull is enormous. So powerful, you want to claim Shri Jagannath from the Odias (who lovingly call him ‘deity of Odias’). Steal him from them, like Krishna stole butter.

“Hare Krishna”. “Jai Jagannath”. If the rath is a vehicle for Jagannath, chants soaked in music and percussion are the vehicle for bhakts to connect with their lord. In the collective chanting done by Jagganath’s devotees, Jagannath is where Krishna is, Krishna, where Jagannath is.

Seeing the bhakts, Sri Jagannath sways in joy, back and forth. The ocean of devotees dwells at his doorstep, swells more with each passing movement. They arrive in gentle lashes to Puri, for a glimpse of Jagannath. “Jai Jagannath” – the chants erupt – from the dwar (entrance) of the Jagannath Temple in Puri, into the sound of brass cymbals, percussion, and ‘Harinam’ – the name of god.

Kashinath Das, a priest from Odisha living in Delhi, says, “that swaying of Jagannath is the seed of celebration”. Jagannath rocks, gently, in the cradle of arms that hold him. For devotees of Krishna,

this sight is seemingly sufficient to know Jagannath. “Bhajo Nitai Gaur Radhe Shyam, Japo Hare Krishna... devotees at the Rath Yatra sing,” Kashinath Das adds.

The sound of chants moves like a current, from one end to another, before Jagannath and his siblings and millions of devotees. The heady and soaring blend of voices, singing and music, spools over with his moving chariot. Some settles in the gut. His devotees pull the rath towards Gundicha Temple from his abode, and back. Jagannath sways, safely in the hands of devotees, who carry him, from the temple to the crowds outside, where he is meant to meet, mingle and melt into the milieu.

This swaying movement of Jagannath finds itself in the different elements at the yatra. In Shri Jagannath’s travel between the two destinations. In the journey of his devotees between the two destinations. In their footsteps, in the swaying between the names ‘Ram’ and ‘Krishna’, in the swaying between ‘Ram-Krishna’ and ‘Jagannath’. In the swaying between ‘three’ and ‘one’.

His name fuses into other chants – “Krishna”. “Hare Krishna”. “Ram”.

“Hare Ram”. “Nitai Gauranga”. In Puri for Jagannath, arrives Krishna. In Puri, for Jagannath, follows Ram. “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Ram, Hare Ram, Ram Ram,

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Hare Hare.” In Puri, for Jagannath, Krishna lends his melody to a celebration. In Puri, for Jagannath, a tradition brought

by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, dances and sings. It brings the mahamantra, the great mantra carrying the name of god, once again to the Rath Yatra. “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Ram, Hare Ram, Ram Ram, Hare Hare” – the 16 words that travelled the world, as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu had wished, envelope Puri.

When Jagannath himself joins his devotees in the eternal rhythm of the Rath Yatra, music finds its purest purpose and meaning. From the Jagannath Temple in Puri, flows out a trail of Harinam sankeertan, the singing of the name of ‘bhagwan’.

It flows out, like an intangible Yamuna of the name of Krishna, of Ram, from Jagannath’s Puri. It travels from the different corners of the world back to Puri, and from Puri to the world after the Rath Yatra concludes.

Jagbandhu Das, an Odia preist, says, “the word sankeertan is made of two words – sang (together) and keertan – meaning, remembering the name of bhagwan along with other devotees. It is the repetition of the name of bhagwan.”

Anant Das, an Odia devotee of Jagannath, who consolidates troupes of performing artistes for ‘Harinam sankeertan’ and devotional songs dedicated to Jagannath in different towns and cities in North India, is currently in Odisha.

He says, “the Harinam sankeertan came as a gift from Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. It is the mahamantra. It wraps the devotees at the Rath Yatra after the initial cries of “Jai Jagannath”. There isn’t room left for other chants amidst the millions present at the Rath Yatra to see Jagannath.”

For many devotees, the 16 words prepare the ground for exploring bigger meanings surrounding Krishna, Jagannath and the Bhagawad Gita. Jagbandhu Das, an Odia priest, says, “a listener and

FOR MANY DEVOTEES, THE 16 WORDS PREPARE THE GROUND FOR EXPLORING BIGGER MEANINGS SURROUNDING KRISHNA, JAGANNATH AND THE BHAGAWAD GITA.

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U T S A V THE MESMERISING CLUTTER OF KARTAL, MANJEERA, THE SPORADIC AND SPONTANEOUS CALLING OF ‘JAGANNATH’, CONCEAL THE SECRET TO WHY HE CANNOT AND DOES NOT REMAIN WITHIN PURI AND WITH THE PEOPLE OF ODISHA, ALONE.

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singer of the 16 words gradually understands that these songs and mantras came to greats like Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Shankaracharya and Jaidev as per Bhagwan Jagannath’s own wish. What has gone into these lyrical expressions is what he wanted written, said and communicated, about him. Any saint as a bhakt, no matter how great, initially hesitates to write about the lord, to comment on him.

He helps them write.”

Last year, on the first day of the Rath Yatra, I wrote a customary “Jai Jagannath” on Twitter. Some responded with “Jai Jagannath” in return, reciprocating the emotion. Later in the day, I got a phone call. “What’s with Jai Jagannath?” the caller asked. There was curiosity and irritation in his voice. “Jai Jagannath,” I answered.

“What’s with Jagannath?” Let me expand the question. “What does a person born far, far away from Odisha, physically distanced from cultural sensibilities that celebrate Jagannath and his siblings, find in the Rath Yatra?” The answer is short. ‘Krishna’.

Harinam sankeertan, itself, comes across as a true musical depiction of Shatbhuj, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s form with six arms, where he is shown holding the bow and arrow of Ram in the upper two arms, Krishna’s flute in the middle two and the lower two holding the danda (stick) and kalash (water pot), his own. Chaitanya had said that Harinam, the name of the lord, would spread worldwide. It did. It has. Today, devotees chant, raising their hands, in a way similar to the local depictions of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu painted by artists of Puri over the centuries.

Devotees singing Harinam from across the world converge on Puri. The locus of their creative activity is Shri Jagannath. The mesmerising clutter of kartal, manjeera, the sporadic and spontaneous calling of ‘Jagannath’, conceal the secret to why Jagannath cannot and does not remain within Puri and with the people of Odisha, alone.

For anyone to think or believe in the

twenty-first century that ‘Jagannath’ is a regional privilege, would be to say that Chaitanya Mahaprabhu did not travel, sing, dance in devotion to Jagannath, Krishna and Ram. It would be to refuse the world one of the greatest stories of assimilation that has over race, region and recycled rootlessness, with the singing and cyclical repetition, and the singing together of 16 words – in sankeertan. It would be disregarding the purpose of a tradition evolved by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, who travelled through different parts of India, taking the name of Krishna, from village to village – five centuries before Dr Stillson Judah delved into the Hare Krishna movement as a “counter culture”.

Harinam sankeertan became the medium for millions around the world to connect with Jagannath, in the 1960s.

Since the times of Krishna, the first proponent of Krishna consciousness, himself, ‘Harinam’, his own name, has bent every boundary trying to limiting it under appropriation or cultural duress. “The singing of Harinam was the most powerful shield people had even in the times of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, against any cultural duress,” Jagbandhu Das adds.

How do Ram and Krishna surround the singing at Jagannath Yatra? Shri Jitamitra Prabhu, a senior disciple at International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), says, “Jagannath is Krishna.

Koi antar nahin hai (there is no difference). Jagannathji is everywhere. He is in Puri. He is in my room, right now (points at a depiction of Bhagwan Jagannath).”

One cannot deny ISKCON its contribution in planting a tradition. Globally, its followers have made Shri Jagannath’s depiction lead their rath yatras, minuscule representations of the original Rath Yatra of Puri, around the globe. In portions, the singing of Harinam has became synonymous with the sight of Jagannath’s depictions.

According to Jagbandhu Das, the singing of Harinam at Puri’s Rath Yatra is a tradition since the times of Chaitanaya Mahaprabhu. He adds, “there are devotional songs and drama dedicated

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to Jagannath, but they are sung in keertans meant for special sittings and closed sessions.” He adds, “the set of 16 words evokes curiosities. The lord’s name makes way to the ear, to hearing and listening.

When you are alone, you do the vyaktigat jaap (saying the name in repetition to self), when you are with other devotees, you share the name of the lord in loud singing.”

In the words of His Divine Grace A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, who took “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare Ram, Hare Ram, Ram Ram, Hare Hare” to the West, in the 1960s, “chanting means to keep association with god, always”. He adds in one of the interviews, “if you chant then you keep connection with god directly”.

How did the contemporising of Rath Yatra in the West grow? “Prabhupada took out the first rath yatra in San Fransisco in 1966,” Shri Jitamitra Prabhu adds. According to Prabhu, it all began when one

of Prabhupada’s disciples brought a miniature depiction of Bhagwan Jagannath to him. “He became very happy to see the depiction of Jagannath. He immediately requested his disciples to begin work on making depictions of Jagannath, Subhadra and Balabhadra. The depictions embraced devotees.”

In came the accordion, brass cymbals, characteristically-Indian, flutes – in metal and wood, djembe, saxophone, clarinet, violin, harmonium and its various avatars, guitar – its avatars, attracting millions to Harinam and its musicality. In came amplifier boxes, washboards, microphones attached to accordions. This musical homogenisation of a concept and its cultural evolution is preserved and passed on in recordings.

In Puri, “those who come once are never really able to leave. Bhav (feelings and expression) is the core of sankeertan. The singing should be evocative,” says priest Kashinath Das. Musical instruments like

IN CAME THE ACCORDION, BRASS CYMBALS, FLUTES – IN METAL AND WOOD, DJEMBE, SAXOPHONE, CLARINET, VIOLIN, HARMONIUM AND ITS VARIOUS AVATARS, GUITAR – ITS AVATARS, ATTRACTING MILLIONS TO HARINAM AND MUSICALITY.

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U T S A V IN CAME AMPLIFIER BOXES, WASHBOARDS, MICROPHONES ATTACHED TO ACCORDIONS. THIS MUSICAL HOMOGENISATION OF A CONCEPT AND ITS CULTURAL EVOLUTION IS PRESERVED AND PASSED ON IN RECORDINGS.

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jhaanjh and ghant (percussion in metal) help in keeping the mind on the melody and mantra. They cut you off from the noise outside. “They lend bhav and musicality to the keertan,” he adds. Kashinath Das, a purist, believes that in spite of the difference in approach to the process of sankeertan, the contemporising of the singing of Harinam is done evocatively at the rath yatras taken out by devotees of ISKCON. “They have the bhav. It is all you need to sing Harinam. They do not follow the time-based approach to its singing.

But the purpose is one. Harinam.”

Balrishabh Das, a devotee from Odisha, is a perfect representative of the connection and culture that thrives between the mandir (Jagannath’s abode in Puri) and the temple (ISKCON). He writes up a new emotional story on the mridang (a traditional percussion instrument). It is his solitary song to Krishna and Radha, meant to be heard by around 100 devotees present at the afternoon session of the keertan at the temple in Delhi. Each cycle of the singing of the 16 words – crystal clear in voice and singing – is evocative.

Balrishabh’s is not an ecstatic outpouring that spins the mind in keertan processions.

It has the gentleness and lilt of Krishna’s cradle. In life, he oscillates between Shri Jagannath and Krishna, between Krishna and Jagannath. In the process of the practice, he stays comfortably at the centre. At a point where “Krishna and Jagannath are one and the same”. He says, “Harinam sankeertan makes you ask several questions about self, the inner self, about the purpose of life.”

After his singing session, Balrishabh Das would pack prasad, which includes nuts and dry sweets, for devotees attending the Rath Yatra. “This year, I am packing prasad for nearly 6,000 devotees.

I will distribute it to devotees who come for the Rath Yatra in Balasore district. In Puri, Jagannath steps out for his devotees.

Their singing of Harinam sankeertan becomes Jagannath’s own strength.”

Mridang is the soul of percussion in keertan dedicated to Lord Jagannath and Krishna. It gives Harinam sankeertan

the eternal rhythm. Much as the pakhawaj gives to the singing of dhrupad and dhamar, where it is mounted on the pedestal of classicism. Mridang’s sound brings the masses to life. It is the percussive sound most suited to define the cyclical continuity in the rhythmic churns of the keertan, (some of the purest expressions of which live in the North East). Nowhere in the musical expression and musicality in this sacred offering, does the mridang supersede or overstep tonal territory. It remains soft, quaint and in control. Dazzle is not its character. Devotion is.

Keertan is no field for rhythm challenges and math puzzles. It is a journey through the shoonya – the beginning and end point of a surrender. Mridang soaks in this surrender.

Mridang – the sound of pace. The benevolent Bhagwan Jagannath, smiles wide in the beautiful eyes even as his devotees turn their back towards him, pull his chariot, move ahead, step after step. One leads some, some lead thousands. One of them is Radhanath Swami, a devotee seen dancing in front of the rath in Puri, leading Harinam keertan in Santiago de Compostela. Radhanath Swami’s presence seems to transform the keertan, its progression and experience.

To be fair to a movement that inspired many across the world to delve deeper into Krishna and Ram, after giving them musical initiation, the devotees representing ISKCON would not have an exclusive claim on either the Harinam sankeertan, or Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s Harinam. Its devotees, too, who have walked into the face of cultural appropriation with their harmless weapons – the mridang, kartal and the manjira, have risked being called ‘religious fanatics’ and sometimes, have even been considered as people in need for ‘deprogramming’ by a section of their audience.

“What Ram is, Krishna is, what Krishna is Jagannath is, what Jagannath is Krishna is. The mahamantra came out of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in 16 words, in repetitions, its cycle and his travels.” Balrishabh Das adds. Harinam sankeertan

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attracts and spreads. Boundaries break.

Maps shrink. It flows back to Puri. Harinam sankeertan dedicated to Jagannath is a cultural leveller. It dissolves. It gives the devotees centrality.

When Harinam sankeertan and singles by Mayapuris, a travelling band comprising artistes from different parts of the world, went viral some years ago, many listeners were able to find the core of their musicality, creative activity and ‘performance’. The core is ‘Jagannath’, hidden below layers of imagination in music that approaches keertan as a natural expression and keertan as a performing art. Their musical repertoire has evolved with the constant in and out of members, in their travels, all in a short period of five years.

Members of Mayapuris leave the pop pedestal of the performance dais very often, for soulful marathon keertans. Here, devotion and musicality meet at a different level altogether. “Hari bol”, they come home. “Nityananda Gauranga” “Jai

Jagannath”. They spread Harinam – the original and the most powerful medium and material of Indic soft power.

When is the passage from musicality in the keertan and its singing, to Harinam covered? It begins to happen when the feet refuse to stop dancing in chorus. Or, when the soul begins to crave for the Jagannath Astaka at street keertans. Or when it longs for Puri. Or, sometimes, when it becomes thirsty for being born in Puri.

And when the keertan makes you pick a new musical instrument to sing Harinam.

When the keertan makes you crave for the first glimpse Rath Yatra in Puri. When it makes you travel for singing “Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna , Hare Hare, Hare Ram, Hare Ram, Ram Ram, Hare Hare.” It’s time to go back to the uniform musical code that has made countless devotees across the globe find Krishna in Jagannath, Jagannath in Krishna, and Ram in Jagannath.

Hare Krishna.

Jai Jagannath.

HARINAM SANKEERTAN ATTRACTS AND SPREADS. BOUNDARIES BREAK. MAPS SHRINK. IT FLOWS BACK TO PURI. IT IS A CULTURAL LEVELLER.

The author is Contributing Editor at Swarajya.

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CONSTITUTIONAL HINDUTVA R JAGANNATHAN

THE IDEOLOGY OF INDIA’S MODERN RIGHT SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY HAR-ANAND PUBLICATIONS 128 PAGES RS 495

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Subramanian Swamy takes forward the ideas of earlier travellers on the road to Hindutva, from Veer Savarkar to Syama Prasad Mookerjee.

ONE OF the problems with any ideology is that if it does not define itself clearly — and, frequently, in changing times — its enemies will do so, often to its detriment.

Despite some efforts at self-definition and reformulation over the last two centuries, terms like Hindus, Hinduism, Hindutva and Hindustan have been mangled out of shape by its detractors, depending on the politics of the person doing the defining.

Thus Shashi Tharoor, in his latest book Why I am a Hindu, seeks to differentiate between Hinduism and Hindutva, relegating the latter to a narrow and vicious ideology propagated by cow vigilantes and minority-baiters.

Others, including many in the Congress and the ideological Left, while having no love lost for Hindus or Hinduism, suddenly discover that the votaries of “Hindu Rashtra” are not true Hindus.

With Hindu votes tending to go to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under Narendra Modi, many in the Congress would now like to label him as non-Hindu, as Kapil Sibal famously did before the Gujarat assembly elections. People who have no use for Hinduism at other times, suddenly find it a good stick to beat Hindutva with.

In today’s contested political milieu, Hindus and Hindutva are declared to be polar opposites.

This is where Subramanian Swamy’s new book, The Ideology of India’s Modern Right, tries to make a useful contribution. The book’s subtitle, which figures on an inside page rather than the cover, says the ideology is “based on the Hindutva mindset.” It seeks to draw on earlier

attempts by various political and social ideologues to define Hindutva, from Vinayak Damodar Savarkar to Deen Dayal Upadhyaya, and recontextualise them for modern India, where the vexing question is this: can Hindutva coexist with the pluralist ideals of the Indian Constitution?

To Swamy, the answer is an emphatic yes, and to the extent he succeeds in convincing the reader, you could relabel his schema as “Constitutional Hindutva”.

He concedes that the Constitution needs some minor tweaks to make this possible, but mostly he relies on cases already decided by the Supreme Court to conclude that the courts too have smoothened the road to Constitutional Hindutva.

To summarise his ideas, he offers us eight components of the “Hindutva mindset”: one is that India must be seen as an unbroken civilisational entity going back at least 10,000 years; two, national policies must seek to harmonise material with spiritual goals; three, the word “secular” in the Constitution must be replaced with the word “spiritual” to bring it in tune with the Indian ethos; four, mass religious conversions need to be banned (no surprise here); five, the birth-based determination of caste is “unHindu” and hence should be “purged from the body politic” to forge a “virat Hindu unity”; six, true Hindus must make learning Sanskrit a priority so that it can become a national link language at some point in time; seven, Hindus must give no quarter to tyranny and terrorism; and, eight, the Hindutva art of governance must build on the principles of Ram Rajya and Chanakya-niti,

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where retaliation for attacks on Hindus must be an essential part of thinking.

To get all this done, Indian history has to be defalsified, rescued from the deracination of Left historians. Swamy also has economic ideas for a minimalist state which, however, is maximalist only when it comes to law and order; he has thoughts on how rootedness is vital to tap our demographic dividend.

To show that our Constitution already favours a Hindu-ised approach to nationhood, Swamy points out that the original document had 22 illustrations to record India’s cultural history — from Ram and Krishna to Hanuman, Buddha and Mahavira, and further to Akbar, Shivaji and Guru Gobind Singh; resistance to British rule is represented by Tipu Sultan and Rani Laxmibai, with Tipu’s depredations in the Malabar and forced conversions apparently being ignored.

Swamy also points out that almost eve-

ry major post-Independence institution draws on Hindu sacred texts, from the government of India’s own motto of Satyameva Jayate, to the Supreme Court’s Yato Dharmastato Jayah, to All India Radio’s Bahujanhitaya, the Indian Army’s Seva Asmakam Dharmah to the LIC’s Yogakshemam Vahamyaham. Doors and domes in the Parliament building are adorned by verses from the Upanishads, Panchatantra and the Mahabharata, among others.

When it comes to building the Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, Swamy sees no legal hurdle since a constitutional bench in 1994 (6 SCC 361) decided that a mosque “is not an essential part of Islam and hence it can be demolished for a public purpose by a government”. On the other hand, a temple always remains a temple, according to a House of Lords judgment of 1992 in the Nataraj idol case, because of “prana prathistha puja” as per the Agama Shastras.

If Indian courts accept this idea, it paves

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B O O K S AS FOR THE UNIFORM CIVIL CODE, SWAMY POINTS OUT THAT RECENT COURT VERDICTS IN THE TRIPLE TALAQ CASE, AND THE EARLIER ONE ON SHAH BANO HAVE ALREADY STARTED DISMANTLING SHARIA IN SUBTLE WAYS.

the way for reclaiming other temples over which mosques or churches have been built, including Kashi and Mathura.

As for the uniform civil code, Swamy points out that recent court verdicts in the triple talaq case, and the earlier one on Shah Bano have already started dismantling Sharia in subtle ways.

Swamy, who has played various roles in his 78-and-odd years — as a central minister, a staunch critic of the BJP’s tallest icon, Atal Behari Vajpayee, a friend of Rajiv Gandhi and scourge of his surviving spouse and son, and as a general crusader against corruption — took his ideas to the activist stage in 2014 by launching the Virat Hindustan Sangam.

The flaw in Swamy’s grand thesis is obviously the nature of India’s diverse realities, and the extremely adversarial nature of politics, which makes even minimal consensus on his ideas impossible to envision. So, the problem with this book is not in how it seeks to define Hindutva’s future, but how it fails to reckon with the reality of present day India, where even yoga is a bone of contention.

Where it scores is in taking forward the ideas of earlier travellers on the road to Hindutva. Savarkar famously popularised the term Hindutva, choosing to define it

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as the quality of Hinduness, with the Hindu being someone whose motherland, ancestors and sacred places were entirely entwined with the political entity called India.

For Savarkar, Hinduism, the religion, was a subset of the larger quality of Hindutva, and he sought the end of caste and other internal divisions for the pursuit of Hindu political power and greatness. Not for him the pursuit of otherworldly bliss.

M S Golwalkar, the second chief of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), rejected pure constitutional nationhood and saw Hinduism as defining the nation. He fantasised about dhimmifying the minorities in India. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya and Syama Prasad Mookerjee, both key players in the founding of the Jana Sangh, precursor to the BJP, extended these definitions by making the idea of Hindu Rashtra optically more inclusive, with spaces being created for the minorities, who at least identified their ancestors as Hindus.

We need to appreciate Subramanian Swamy’s efforts to flesh out their ideas further. What a pity the book is badly edited and tackily produced.

R Jagannathan is Editorial Director, Swarajya.

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B O O K S

RESILIENCE AND HOPE SEETHA

SEVEN DECADES OF INDEPENDENT INDIA: IDEAS AND REFLECTIONS VINOD RAI AND AMITENDU PALIT (EDITORS) PENGUIN 294 PAGES RS 699

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A mixed bag of essays, some dry, but some certainly thought-provoking.

“OH DEAR” is the immediate response when you are asked to review yet another anthology of essays on 70 years of independent India. The sense of dread grows as one goes through the contents page and one sees the usual heavyweight domain experts writing on, well, domains they are experts in — from health and education to external affairs to tax policy. But read one must and as one does, one realises that a book should not be judged by its title (quite an uninspiring one) or the contents page. Why would a reader get drawn to an essay titled “Jobs in India” or “India-ASEAN relations at Seventy” or “Challenges Facing Higher Education in India”… you get the picture.

So, it is natural to get drawn to one which provocatively asks “Will India Ever Be a Great Power?” That seems a rather sacrilegious question to ask in these “mera Bharat mahaan” (my India is great) times. Author Sumit Ganguly takes stock of India’s quest for this status, right from the time of Jawaharlal Nehru and notes the country’s innate potential for greatness. But, he is equally frank about what holds India back — institutional challenges and limits. Pointing out that institutional reforms and policy shifts have only come in response to shocks, he comes to a very sobering conclusion: “given this record… it is tempting to conclude that the likelihood that India will achieve that status remains quite uncertain.”

In fact, this lack of a self-congratulatory tone marks the 24 essays on public policy and institutions in this volume, though the editors — former comptroller and auditor general Vinod Rai and economist Amitendu Palit — point out that hope reverberates through each of them.

They are thoughtful and clear-headed and when they do strike a note of despair, they provide solutions. Of course, it is not pos-

sible to agree with all the solutions — for example, A K Shiva Kumar’s suggestion to do away with user charges of any kind for use of healthcare services — but they do provide something to mull over.

There’s a wealth of information in many of the essays. One example is Pronab Sen’s article, “The Rise and Fall of Indian Planning”. Whether or not one agrees with him that NITI Aayog’s strategy paper is really bringing back planning in any another name and that “this is a good thing”, this essay is a must read for its succinct account of each of the 12 fiveyear plans. Sen argues that it is wrong to treat India’s development strategy as “an undifferentiated continuum, with little substantive variation from plan to plan”.

Each plan, he says, was a response to the challenges of the period it dealt with.

Former Reserve Bank of India governor D Subbarao’s piece deals with the pluses and minuses of globalisation. He draws a distinction between volatility caused by trade liberalisation and by financial liberalisation — the first can take “a formidable toll” but the latter “can be even more unforgiving”. He also highlights the intransigence of the advanced economies to address the issue of spillover of their central bank actions on emerging markets. Fortunately, his conclusion is not about withdrawing from globalisation, but about maximising the benefit-cost ratio with the right kind of policies.

Three of the hot button topics these days — jobs, caste and elections — figure in the essays. Palit’s incisive essay on employment deals with the issue of automation and points out that it will affect not only low-skill, manual, blue-collar jobs but also those that require more sophisticated skills. India, he also says, is not alone in facing a challenge on the jobs front, but the complex implications of a

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INDIA IS NOT ALONE IN FACING A CHALLENGE ON THE JOBS FRONT, BUT THE COMPLEX IMPLICATIONS OF A JOBS DEFICIT AND THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC DIVISIONS THAT WRONG POLICIES CAN LEAD TO, ARE UNIQUE TO IT.

jobs deficit and the socio-economic divisions that wrong policies can lead to, are unique to it. Having a chapter each on skill development and higher education, both with implications for the job market, is a good idea. The one on skill development suggests a new model framework for skill development and a five-point reform programme.

It is interesting, given all the debate that is going on about caste equations in politics, that sociologist Dipankar Gupta questions this, as he has done in his columns. Caste-based voting is a myth, he says, and gives numbers to back this up.

And, contrary to the usual narrative, there is no natural affinity between different communities. “The tie that binds identities together in a political alliance is notoriously fickle; the moment the context changes so do friendships”. The KHAM and AJGAR alliances, he points out, didn’t last because they were vehicles of convenience and not because of likeminded views. But the question lingers in one’s mind — if that is the case, do political parties not know this, and why do they still persist with this strategy?

Setting out electoral reforms over the

years, former chief election commissioner S Y Quraishi makes a strong defence of electronic voting machines, which are coming under attack. They have, he says, “withstood judicial, administrative and technical scrutiny” and are increasingly catching the attention of election management agencies around the world. He talks about the various ways in which the Election Commission of India has used technology to chisel the art and craft of election management. He is a bit wary of the proposal for state funding of elections; it might, he says, result in a double jeopardy of honest taxpayers’ money as well as black money being used. What he suggests is state funding of political parties based on the number of votes polled by them. But, why that will help eliminate black money, is not clear.

Not all essays are thought-provoking; some are quite dry. But it’s an interesting mix and the editors are right when they write in the introduction that what comes through in them is that “resilience is that has seen India through till now and hope is what will take it forward.”

Seetha is a senior writer and editor.

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Registered with the Registrar of Newspapers for India. Registered No. 1201/57 Date of publication: 05-07-2018