Orissa Diary

My ideas about Orissa, the state on the east coast of India was restricted to only two things- it is one of the poorest states of India, economically, after Bihar, and that it is frequented by cyclones.
Thankfully, this trip had lots to offer to clarify my pre meditated notions about the place. I had an opportunity to visit this beautiful state through an NGO called SRISTI, we were 70 travelers, from different parts of India, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Kerela etc. and from varied backgrounds, professors, farmers and their families, students. So, this medley group set out in the first week of May for Bhubneshwar.
The train journey, fun as usual, nothing is more exciting than traveling by the ‘Sleeper Class’ in India! And especially for someone like me who loves to talk! I had a good chance to polish my Gujarati, and learn Oriya during the 2 day journey.

7th May
We reached Bhubhneshwar on the 7th and I took off for Konark with a friend (My first biking trip!). And here began the ‘journey of shattering myths’! The road from Bhubhneshwar to Konark (Around a distance of 100 kms) is one of the most picturesque in the world. The roads are lined with lush parrot green fields of rice, canals, and mud houses with the traditional tribal paintings in white on them. Oh, and the wind…it is mind ‘blowing’!! (I lost my favorite blue satin scarf to it!)We took many stops on the way (I should thank Sayan, my friend for being extremely patient with me as I made him stop from a speed of 80 suddenly so that I could collect some cashew fruits from the road or collect these lovely lavender colored flowers!) since I had decided to follow Lao Tzu this time and his famous quote,

“ A good travel is never in a hurry to arrive at the destination’
We reached Pipali at noon which is famous for its handicraft named ‘Chandua’, umbrellas made of multi hued clothes and adorned with glasswork. I shopped (Am a compulsive shopaholic) and then we set off again towards the Sun Temple. Konark was supposed to be a port town in the earlier times built by King Narsimhan in the 11th century (I hope I got that right!) and had a huge magnet inserted on the top of the temple so that the enemy ships got destroyed on the shore as they were powerfully attracted to it and lost control. Apparently, invaders took the magnet away, but the temple has still lots to offer in terms of architecture and sculptures. I was amazed by the ingenuity of it, the idea of it being on a chariot with horses and flanked by giant wheels is a must see!

Next stop was the famous Marine Drive (Bears some resemblance to the one in Mumbai!) at a distance of some kilometers from the temple. It is this stretch of road that leads to the beach, and the beach called Chandrabhanu is perfect, not too crowded, not commercialized, ideal to take a long walk…

I made by way back to the railway station after this to take my train to Koraput, a district, south of Orissa, supposedly the place where rice farming took birth. The train journey this time was rather interesting; I shared the compartment with a management professor from Bhubhneswar, a senior government servant from Delhi, an Ayurveda practitioner from a village near Bangalore, and an old ‘Kaka’ from Junagadh. I can say that I had one of the best debates on every issue from India’s stand on Pakistan, the Naxal movement, the possibility of a Third World War and what not! And of course also got tips about how to have a glowing skin from Vaidya Sridharji, our Ayurveda practitioner, and why I should take up classical dancing because I had the eyes of a classical dancer! (One of the best compliments I’ve ever got!)

8th May
We reached Koraput on 8th morning, and went to the government quarters at Pottangi, a town in Koraput, and the day wore on without us venturing out too much. The highlight was the arrival of my professor in the evening and of course, my first taste of a proper Oriya meal, rice, dal, and potatoes in gravy, all served in a plate made out of leaves. For the next 7 days, our standard lunch and dinner consisted of this without any change in the recipe. 9th morning or the D-Day (Since the purpose for which I had come to this place officially commenced today) I woke up at 4am (Extremely disturbing phenomena which was restricted only to Orissa, sleeping at 12 and instantly up without an alarm at 4!) and went on the morning hunt (Hunt for water, and a place where I could take a bath, I call it a place, since there were no bathrooms most of the time)

(To be continued – my eventful week traveling on foot in the tribal areas of Koraput and the quick trip to Bastar, the ‘Selva Judum’ district)

Okay, blame it on my muses! I really didn’t have the inclination somehow combined with lack of time to write the sequel to this! But then, fortunately for me and all my blog visitors (God! Do I sound pompous or what!) the North West Monsoon hit Chennai and well, the rains got me back to my writing desk, or should I say got the laptop back on my lap!!

So, let me take you back again to Orissa, and test my memory to see if I remember everything from the trip that I made 6 months ago! Okay, getting back to 9th morning, I finished my ablutions in time to help prepare the cook of a nearby dhaba from where our breakfast was supposed to come to prepare puris. That itself was an experience since I am not used to handling white flour, but thankfully, the cook there was sympathetic and let me experiment a bit before I could get a knack of preparing the puris! Our “Shodhyatra” began sharp at 9am from a temple dedicated to the river Ganges in Pottangi.

The concept of Shodhyatra is unique, its purpose is to find and document traditional knowledge. Innovation is something that is not restricted to furnished and well equipped laboratories, but can happen under the thatched roof of a villager whose income is less that a dollar a day. Our purpose was also to find out about the traditional methods used by them which were collectively owned and passed from generation to generation by word of mouth, much like our folklores.
Getting back to the temple where the official inauguration of the yatra happened, we had a couple if government officials like the Block Development Officer, and others presiding over it. One thing I realized at that time was how my knowledge of Civics (Which I prided myself on, being an Arts student) was actually minimal. I didn’t even know how states are divided into blocks, and the different hierarchies that exist in the bureaucratic system. (Believe it or not, but am reading up my 10th grade CBSE Civics textbook again to know all about it!) Oh, and one more important discovery I made during this session was that Biotique products are genuinely herbal! I had applied this biotique sunscreen and apparently because of the fruit content, I was attracting a lot of fruit flies! (To test this finding, I got 3 more people to apply it, and well, my hypothesis was proved right!)
We proceeded from the temple to the Champa Khanda High School, 2-3 kilometers on foot. (I forgot to mention above that during the Shodhyatra, we are supposed to walk to every village which amounts to an average of 20kms of walking a day. The purpose being again to observe the farming practices and interact more with people we meet on the way and spread the message about innovations) Here we met some students who had documented various locally available plants and their uses. The uses can range from medicinal to agro based and miscellaneous.
But, the interesting aspect of traditional methods is that the usage would sometimes seem absolutely disconnected with the disease. For example, the remedy for a sprain in the leg was a decoction of ‘Brajkholi’ plant (local name) and sesame seed oil boiled and put behind the ears! This way, we visited a couple of more villages around, to document various uses of local flora and fauna.

Everywhere we went; we were treated with respect and made to feel at home. The welcome was of course very exciting with the traditional dance ‘dhemsa’ being performed wherever we went and I had a good time dancing with them, hands on the waist of the next dancer and so on, making a long chain of around 25 women and dancing till you actually reach the village.In one of the villages, impulsive that I am, I asked a lady that I wanted to wear the sari in their style (It is tied at the shoulders and looks very beautiful) and gladly the women there let me in one of their houses. None of the houses in that particular village had electricity and were mostly composed of a large room and maybe, another small extension of it which acted as the kitchen. Sanitation facilities were of course is normally available only in the house of one or two people in the village.

Another interesting aspect of the yatra is the part where we honor what we refer to as ‘Shatayus’ or men or women who have crossed the 100 years mark in terms of their age. It was amazing to see them living such healthy long lives and how spiritedly they came to receive the award. Our day ended with rest and dinner at Semiliguda village, where our stay arrangements were made at a local school. I slept on the roof of one of the classrooms with the starry sky above!

10th May
Day 2 of the Shodhyatra began at 4am for me. I located a hand pump, then went in search of buckets, and finally the toughest part came where I had to go around the nearby houses requesting the people if I could use their bathroom to take a bath! (Oddest request I’ve ever made!) In every village, thankfully, every woman I spoke to willingly agreed (I spoke broken Oriya and used hand gestures to convey what I needed). In this particular home, the bathroom turned out to be a small area outside the house, covered on 3 sides with bushes and on the 4th side, a jute bag acting as a makeshift door! It was an experience indeed to be bathing there, under the sky! Having done that, our group of yatris proceeded to the next village where we were holding a recipe competition, a unique one since the recipe had to be not only innovative, but also most nutritious.

The recipe contests were one of my favorites during the yatra since I am a foodie and enjoy trying out new cuisines all the time. In this part of Orissa, the tribals use a lot of ragi, rice and locally growing herbs and vegetables (Many of them unidentifiable!). This was also special since I got to taste the famous rice alcohol that they make!! From here, we moved to our next destination, Gunthaguda village to give the ideas and solutions we had to their problems in farming, animal husbandry, etc. Nothing much eventful happened on our way to Malimarla, the next village where our night halt was planned.

To be continued!Okay, blame it on my muses! I really didn’t have the inclination somehow combined with lack of time to write the sequel to this! But then, fortunately for me and all my blog visitors (God! Do I sound pompous or what!) the North West Monsoon hit Chennai and well, the rains got me back to my writing desk, or should I say got the laptop back on my lap!!

9th May
So, let me take you back again to Orissa, and test my memory to see if I remember everything from the trip that I made 6 months ago! Okay, getting back to 9th morning, I finished my ablutions in time to help prepare the cook of a nearby dhaba from where our breakfast was supposed to come to prepare puris. That itself was an experience since I am not used to handling white flour, but thankfully, the cook there was sympathetic and let me experiment a bit before I could get a knack of preparing the puris! Our “Shodhyatra” began sharp at 9am from a temple dedicated to the river Ganges in Pottangi.

The concept of Shodhyatra is unique, its purpose is to find and document traditional knowledge. Innovation is something that is not restricted to furnished and well equipped laboratories, but can happen under the thatched roof of a villager whose income is less that a dollar a day. Our purpose was also to find out about the traditional methods used by them which were collectively owned and passed from generation to generation by word of mouth, much like our folklores.
Getting back to the temple where the official inauguration of the yatra happened, we had a couple if government officials like the Block Development Officer, and others presiding over it. One thing I realized at that time was how my knowledge of Civics (Which I prided myself on, being an Arts student) was actually minimal. I didn’t even know how states are divided into blocks, and the different hierarchies that exist in the bureaucratic system. (Believe it or not, but am reading up my 10th grade CBSE Civics textbook again to know all about it!) Oh, and one more important discovery I made during this session was that Biotique products are genuinely herbal! I had applied this biotique sunscreen and apparently because of the fruit content, I was attracting a lot of fruit flies! (To test this finding, I got 3 more people to apply it, and well, my hypothesis was proved right!)
We proceeded from the temple to the Champa Khanda High School, 2-3 kilometers on foot. (I forgot to mention above that during the Shodhyatra, we are supposed to walk to every village which amounts to an average of 20kms of walking a day. The purpose being again to observe the farming practices and interact more with people we meet on the way and spread the message about innovations) Here we met some students who had documented various locally available plants and their uses. The uses can range from medicinal to agro based and miscellaneous.
But, the interesting aspect of traditional methods is that the usage would sometimes seem absolutely disconnected with the disease. For example, the remedy for a sprain in the leg was a decoction of ‘Brajkholi’ plant (local name) and sesame seed oil boiled and put behind the ears! This way, we visited a couple of more villages around, to document various uses of local flora and fauna.

Everywhere we went; we were treated with respect and made to feel at home. The welcome was of course very exciting with the traditional dance ‘dhemsa’ being performed wherever we went and I had a good time dancing with them, hands on the waist of the next dancer and so on, making a long chain of around 25 women and dancing till you actually reach the village.In one of the villages, impulsive that I am, I asked a lady that I wanted to wear the sari in their style (It is tied at the shoulders and looks very beautiful) and gladly the women there let me in one of their houses. None of the houses in that particular village had electricity and were mostly composed of a large room and maybe, another small extension of it which acted as the kitchen. Sanitation facilities were of course is normally available only in the house of one or two people in the village.

Another interesting aspect of the yatra is the part where we honor what we refer to as ‘Shatayus’ or men or women who have crossed the 100 years mark in terms of their age. It was amazing to see them living such healthy long lives and how spiritedly they came to receive the award. Our day ended with rest and dinner at Semiliguda village, where our stay arrangements were made at a local school. I slept on the roof of one of the classrooms with the starry sky above!

10th May
Day 2 of the Shodhyatra began at 4am for me. I located a hand pump, then went in search of buckets, and finally the toughest part came where I had to go around the nearby houses requesting the people if I could use their bathroom to take a bath! (Oddest request I’ve ever made!) In every village, thankfully, every woman I spoke to willingly agreed (I spoke broken Oriya and used hand gestures to convey what I needed). In this particular home, the bathroom turned out to be a small area outside the house, covered on 3 sides with bushes and on the 4th side, a jute bag acting as a makeshift door! It was an experience indeed to be bathing there, under the sky! Having done that, our group of yatris proceeded to the next village where we were holding a recipe competition, a unique one since the recipe had to be not only innovative, but also most nutritious.

The recipe contests were one of my favorites during the yatra since I am a foodie and enjoy trying out new cuisines all the time. In this part of Orissa, the tribals use a lot of ragi, rice and locally growing herbs and vegetables (Many of them unidentifiable!). This was also special since I got to taste the famous rice alcohol that they make!! From here, we moved to our next destination, Gunthaguda village to give the ideas and solutions we had to their problems in farming, animal husbandry, etc. Nothing much eventful happened on our way to Malimarla, the next village where our night halt was planned.

The present education system makes the students illiterate

When I think about this, a fable that I read as a child comes to me.
Once upon a time, the animals decided that they must do something heroic to meet the challenges of the new world. So they organized a school. The curriculum consisted of running, climbing, swimming and flying and all the animals were to take all the subjects.
The duck was excellent in swimming, in fact, even better than his instructor but performed poorly in flying and running. Being slow at running, it had to stay after school and also drop swimming to practice running. This continued till its webbed-feet were badly worn and now it got merely an average at swimming. The squirrel got a straight A in climbing but was frustrated in the flying class as it kept on falling from the tree top! The rabbit scored well in running but had a nervous breakdown while desperately trying to swim. At the end of the year, an abnormal eel that could swim very well, and also climb, fly and run a little was given the first rank.

Does this story have a moral?
Obviously, it is the replica of our present education system. In the name of overall development, we have perhaps lost the focus on individuality. Many of you here might be good at particular sport say rugby, some might be geniuses at creating computer games, and some maybe good at a subject like say paleontology. But you can’t pursue it as a career in India at least. Even if you want to, you need to have the security of a degree to go ahead. And what exactly does this security offer? A student who has graduated from the renowned College of Commerce can’t even decipher the budget!
Mark Twain, creator of the character Tom Sawyer”, a favorite with children and adults alike has this to say,” In the first place, God made idiots. That was for practice, then he made school boards.”

Another flaw of our system is the importance given to marks. At the time of exam results, I see young faces glittering with achievement. 80% is nothing, 85% is nothing, and very soon, even 90% will be nothing. I don’t deny that the students of today are very hardworking and intelligent, but do they really like what they study?
Let’s have a hypothetical situation, if the compulsory attendance system is scraped, most of us including myself would not attend lectures. Obviously I would rather sit at home studying at my own pace and ease than coming to college to hear the professor giving monotonous lectures and numerical figures which I am sure I’ll forget the very next day being hammered into my head !!
A liking after all doesn’t just come out of thin air. It is to be acquired and nurtured with the actual process of living. The result is evident in what we see today- while every year, many students stream out of IITs and IIMs and other educational institutes-the civil services, public utilities, the police, the judiciary, and the municipality all continue to function dismally.

GK Chesterton has put it in his essay “The 12 Men”, he says that
‘When a society requires a man to be sent on the moon or the depths of the sea to be explored, it calls upon the specialists. But when it wishes to do anything serious, it collects 12 of the ordinary men standing around. The same thing done by Gandhi and most other great leaders of the world. Then what do we need all this education for?
In Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’, I distinctly remember the dodo saying that
‘Why the best way to explain it is to do it’
Practical education is something that needs to be made more popular. We teach our BSc students the chemical formula of plastic, its merits and demerits and how it is harmful for the environment, but the very next moment, you see these very students coming out of the canteen tossing plastic cups all around. Isn’t that ironical!

Rather than giving a student a statement and asking him to accept it, he/she should be given a situation and asked to reflect upon it, and then make his own convictions and decisions. But in our system, if a student asks a question which is out of course, pat comes the reply,

‘Beta yeh to exams nahin puchenge, so you take these notes, Xerox them and mug them , then you will get a first-class in exams !!’ I think if we do not change this system, even if India has 100% literacy by the year 2020 or 2040 or whatever Mr. Murli Manohar Joshi has predicted, it would be of no use. Maybe at that time the song by the heavy metal band ‘Pink Floyd’ which was famous during the 60s, ‘We don’t need no education’ would make a grand comeback!!

Lost in Diplomacy!

Introduction

“Low-cost distance training courses in peacekeeping.” Doesn’t it sound like a paradox – teaching peace keeping in distance learning! But apparently, that is what most officers at the UNMOGIP (The United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan) headquarters in Srinagar opt for! The UNO offers these courses to its personnel stationed in different parts of the world, and it has found many takers in the UNMOGIP office here in the Kashmir Valley. Not surprising, as since 1972, the UNMOGIP hardly has had any role to play in the Indo-Pak conflict over Kashmir. The result: 44 military observers, supported by 21 international civilian personnel and 46 local civilian staff, all hired for a job that no one knows!

Historical Background

The UN’s love affair with J&K began, among much speculation in 1948 at India’s request. Events preceding the accession of Kashmir to the Indian State saw Pakistani tribesmen along with regular troops invading and plundering the Valley forcing Maharaja Hari Singh, to accede to India and seek its protection. India agreed and the idea was to conduct a plebiscite to ascertain the people’s wishes once the situation normalized, because the peculiar case in Kashmir was, that a Hindu king presided over a dominant Muslim population. Even the leader of the largest political party, Sheikh Abdullah of the National Conference supported the accession to the secular Indian state. (It helped that he was on very good terms with Nehru who wanted Kashmir to have an elected representative, and not a king to head the state, which meant power to National Conference)

Diplomatic Manoeuvres

Post accession, the Indian army was sent to J&K to prevent the Pakistani army backed tribesmen, from taking over the capital. Repeated requests from the Indian side to Pakistan to stop support to the mercenary forces fell on deaf ears, and India decided to take the matter to the UN.  But it is interesting to note that initially, UN was nowhere in the picture, and India had been prepared to cross over into Pakistan to destroy the bases that had been providing support to the mercenaries. This idea was first suggested by Sheikh, but Nehru didn’t want to have a war with Pakistan which could ruin Kashmir and also lead to diversion of forces from Kashmir into Pakistan. It was only when repeated meetings with Pakistan failed to bring out any peaceful solution that Nehru revisited what Sheikh Abdullah had suggested. There is documental evidence to prove that Nehru wanted the Indian army to cross over into Pakistan and wage a war to ensure Kashmir and in turn India’s integrity was protected. Lord Mountbatten, the Governor General, then, alarmed at the prospect of an inter-dominion war within the British Commonwealth broached the idea of UN’s mediation to solve the issue. The exchange between Nehru and Mountbatten and the secret cables that kept Attlee informed in Britain tell us how the British made all efforts then to ensure that India would not be able to carry out its plans militarily. Two points need mention here, one, Nehru throughout these exchanges maintained that India would follow a two-pronged approach, that of requesting the UN to force Pakistan from supplying the tribesmen with military and logistical support, and simultaneously, India would continue to build military plans to invade. The second approach however was successfully thwarted as the Indian army still had British as the army-heads, and Mountbatten had considerable influence in the Defence Committee to ensure that this planning was prevented. Secondly, factors like India’s better military position in Kashmir towards the end of December, 1948 and the reason that India would have a better case at the UNSC if it didn’t militarily invade the country were also used by Mountbatten to convince Nehru.

One must not forget the external factors which might have come into play when Britain decided to side with Pakistan, it was of course in tandem with a strategy to not alienate Islamist countries completely, because in the same year, Palestine had been carved to form the new state of Israel.

Although Nehru is seen as an idealist, his stand on this issue did show glimpses of a realist, who despite pressures wanted no UN influence till the invaders were driven out and maintained that it was under the international law for India to counter-attack Pakistan in its self-defence. The over-rulings by the British and the propaganda to the other UNSC members, specifically the USA ensured that when the case did reach the UN in 1948, it was seen as a bilateral issue and not an aggression from one side.

The UN Resolutions

The UN involvement came in the form of the formation of UNCIP, or the ‘United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan’ which was established by Resolution 39 in 1948. Then, the UN drafted and passed Resolution 47 in April 1948 which called for withdrawal of the tribesmen by Pakistan and that of a phased withdrawal of Indian troops from Kashmir to leave only a minimum to maintain law and order. Both India and Pakistan, of course, did not accept this and in August the same year, UN tried to push the same resolution which India accepted reluctantly and Pakistan rejected. It must be noted that nowhere in these resolutions, was the Instrument of Accession mentioned, since the drafting was done exclusively with Britain ensuring that their image remained pro-Pakistan. The only achievement of UNCIP was the Karachi Agreement drawing a ceasefire line; (the current Line of Control is the same ceasefire line, briefly modified in 1972) and the cessation of hostilities in 1949.

The UNCIP was succeeded by the UNMOGIP, and it failed to conduct a plebiscite in the region due to two reasons,  Pakistan’s insistence on not withdrawing all its forces from the region which was set as a precondition by the August Resolution, and secondly, the disillusionment of India due to the UN’s  failure to condemn the ‘Azad Kashmir’ militia. In fact, India immediately realized its folly in approaching the UN when the Security Council led by Britain didn’t look at the issue in terms of aggression from one side, but more as a conflict where both parties were equal. After this, there was a war fought between India and Pakistan in 1965, UN kept a low profile and just requested both sides by a Resolution to respect the ceasefire line and withdraw their respective forces to their side of the border.

Post 1971 Bangladesh war, the ceasefire line was redrawn with minor changes and at this time, though the UN wanted to monitor it and make its presence felt, India during the Shimla Agreement of 1972, announced that it would like to solve this issue bilaterally only.

UN’s Current Involvement

Since then, though India offers UNMOGIP use of its territory, it has become very clear that it is not interested in any UN-initiated conflict resolutions. Ironically though, as mentioned above, to this day, the UNMOGIP’s headquarters are located in Srinagar and Rawalpindi and it has numerous offices in towns situated along the Line of Control.  People in Srinagar, sadly, still believe that the UN is their only hope, and organize long processions to the UNMOGIP building every time they want to protest about an issue. The UN spends as much as $ 15.80 million per year on infrastructure and personnel, a budget which could be put to much better use. Instead of organizing September 21 International Peace Day Celebrations and many other pompous functions, the UNMOGIP should either shut shop, or work with a smaller local staff on issues like education, health and other soft areas which have always been its forte.

It should also be understood that the mandate of the UN is governed by the veto wielding powers, even the closing of UNMOGIP is a decision which successive secretary generals have left to the Security Council. Boutras Boutras Ghali made a statement that showed that in his experience of holding the highest office of the UN, he had realized the limitations of UN’s powers.

“Unless the two sides approach us, we cannot get involved. If India and Pakistan approach the U.N. on this (Kashmir) issue, it will be ready to help. The best solution lies in direct contact between the two countries. It is said that Boutras Ghali, however did try to remove it from the Council’s list of pending disputes during his tenure. With great difficulty, however, Pakistan managed to retain it on the agenda subject to an annual review. Kofi Annan, his successor also commented in 2001 how the UN Resolutions for Kashmir had not been self-enforcing and thus, unlike Iraq and Timor, effective action couldn’t have been taken without the consent of the two sides. There still are believers who believe that a world body like UN could make a difference and advocate the invoking of the 1948 Resolution, but as Kofi Annan pointed out in a statement in 1997 that the 1948 resolution of the Security Council on Kashmir could not solve the problem since “it has not obviously solved the problem all these years.” It can be seen how UN has taken the role of a mute bystander, and the issue has been phased out of the UN’s agenda as well.

The Present Scenario:  A belated lesson in realism for India

India’s stand of course, has been of polite denial about any interference by a third party in the conflict. Pakistan continues to make lip-service even now about wanting the UN to play a major role. Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram noted in 2005, “Six decades have elapsed by since the Kashmiri people were promised the exercise of their right to self-determination by UN Security Council resolutions.” A statement, coming from a country that halted every attempt of the UN to hold a plebiscite for the people of Kashmir! Hurriyat Conference, the third player in the game suffers from severe fickle mindedness. Its leaders can’t make up their minds as to what they want for Kashmir, except that a solution should ‘encompass the 14 million people of Kashmir’ as put by Mirwaiz Farooq, Chairman, Hurriyat Conference. In a way, it shows a faint hope for an independent Kashmir which of course, is impossible today.

We must not forget that by the UN, Pakistan means, involvement of the US. The relationship between these two blossomed during the Cold War, and the US took a special ‘interest’ in the ‘interest’ of Kashmir. However, the position post 9/11 has seen US singing a different tune. The attack at the twin towers has brought to the American foreign policy makers, the realization about Islamic Fundamentalism and existence of terrorist camps. Needless to say, Pakistan is the hotbed of both, and the US needs Pakistan’s cooperation to target these, at the same time, it needs to tread a very careful line to make sure its support to Pakistan, both military and political, doesn’t fall into the wrong hands. It wouldn’t be completely wrong to say that after feeling the wrath of the terrorists, US might have a better understanding of what India has been shouting about for the past one decade. Another factor that has showed a slight tilt towards India is the Indo-US Nuclear Deal which shows that America now considers India, with whom it had a love-hate relationship a more reliable ally than its long term friend, Pakistan.

What does it mean for the Kashmiris?

It doesn’t make much difference unless the governments at both ends take decisive action, indulge in Track-I and II diplomacy and at least ensure that the people have a better living on both sides of the borders even if the conflict is not resolved. Big powers have historically meddled and caused conflicts in the Third World to escalate in their zeal to be helpful, earlier it used to be in the name of the ‘White Man’s Burden’, now it is ‘Operation – Enduring Freedom’ and the ‘Axis of Evil’. Thankfully, India has matured to realize this and is keeping the issue bilateral.

But the distancing of US has effectively brought an end to any action that might have been pushed through the UN. And to be truthful, it is good for the future of the Kashmiri people, to have this issue resolved bilaterally, with more international involvement, it would face more vested interests, and somewhere their cause might just get lost in the mayhem ensued. At least with this, Kashmir doesn’t become a pawn in the power game between India and Pakistan at one level, and the big powers at another.

Do Bigha Zamin: What a film!!

A masterpiece on all accounts, characterization, cinematography, music, direction, and story, the film is a very simple story told simply by Bimal Roy. That I think is the quality that has made the movie timeless. Even after 60 years of independence, one can see that we have many ‘Shambhu Mahtos’ trying to eke out a living to save their lands.
The story is set in Eastern India, just after independence, when Zamindari was fast losing its hold and the Indian Government was apparently trying to implement land reforms. One such landlord based in Bihar, decides to sell his land for the building of a factory. But the hitch is that Shambhu’s 2 acres of land falls in between the vast tract of land owned by the landlord. Now, either Shambhu repays the loans, rents etc. he owes to the zamindar, or he is evicted from his land. Shambhu’s famous dialogue here really touches the very heart of the problem of agriculture in India,

“Zameen chale jaane par hi tau kisaan ka satyanaash ho jata hai”

Now, starts the main plot of the story, the struggle undertaken by Shambhu and his family to earn enough to repay the loan and keep the ‘Do Bigha Zamin’. Shambhu migrates to Kolkata to try and make some quick money. The movie is very meticulously made, and we see how he, a village simpleton is robbed of his belongings and finally ends up taking up the job of a rickshaw puller. Sahni has played the role to perfection; he apparently spent a lot of time with the rickshaw pullers to get a feel of the role. There are some unforgettable scenes in the film that can really hit the viewer hard about how little things matter. The scene where Shambhu says that he will not buy special shoes to protect his feet in the blistering summer heat because they cost Rs 2 and he wants to save is one such incident. Shambhu states this ‘matter of fact’ without too much of sentimentality or pathos being reflected and that makes the scene all the more moving. The classic one is where the camera simultaneously shows Shambhu pulling his cart and trying to outdo a horse pulling a ‘tanga’…you see him running and the horse running parallel and how his face registers suppressed excitement every time the passenger on his hand pulled auto offers more to pay, ’3 Rupaiya, 4 Rupaiya…and so on…till the cart comes apart because of the pressure.The comparison of the condition of the human being treated like an animal is ironical.

The movie’s climax is also very well shown, what one can call a straightforward ending without too much of build up or melodrama. As I said before, Roy is telling a story as it is, and that is his distinctive style. Shambhu and his family return to their village after their struggle in the city only to see that the mill is being built and they have lost their land as they could not repay the loan. The sorrow is mirrored on their faces, and they gradually the camera moves away and just shows them leaving the place.

The film also has what we call comic relief in the form of the young Jagdeep, the boot polisher friend of Kanhaya, Shambhu’s son. He is the typical vagabond with a kind heart who has learnt the ways of the city and tries to teach Kanhaiya the same.
The most amazing feature about the film is the hard reality it has managed to portray so well. There is a scene where we see how the rich discuss rural electrification, getting more jobs, and the typical big promises that are made even today but seldom fulfilled.

I would not call films like ‘Murder’ or any skin flicks as ‘bold cinema’, but real boldness would be when a director makes a film on suicides by farmers in Vidarbha, Maharashtra this year due to crop failure, or the condition of farmers in the absence of a good monsoon in the arid states of India.