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 contents
13 april 2020

40 22 48

Chronicles
22

Lock Down India Looks ahead

leadership lessons
By PR Ramesh

The War on Fear

By Siddharth Singh

5 EDITOR’S NOTE it’s a long haul

Of infected conscience and divine delirium By Lhendup G Bhutia AKBAR’S IDEA OF INDIA 52
By S Prasannarajan
The topical reverberations of Ira
Breaking the Habit Mukhoty’s biography of the great Mughal
6 INDRAPRASTHA By Ullekh NP By Mani Shankar Aiyar
By Virendra Kapoor
34
ILLNESS AS ALLEGORY 59
7 MUMBAI NOTEBOOK virus busters Pandemic thoughts after
They are on the frontline with policies and philanthropy reading Mary Shelley and Albert Camus
By Anil Dharker By Shylashri Shankar
By Kaveree Bamzai

14 soft power 38 RETURN TO 62

THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN
Apropos of Tablighi ‘THE FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19 IS A PEOPLE’S MOVEMENT’ These ten novels about
By Makarand R Paranjape
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan talks about his government’s priorities quarantine and isolation may help
By Ullekh NP get you through the lockdown
16 WHISPERER Rajni George
By Jayanta Ghosal 40

THE LONGEST WALK HOME NOT PEOPLE LIKE US 66

Capturing the stranded migrant labourers’ struggle for home Lockdown woes
18 OPEN ESSAY By Rajeev Masand
Is it laboratory-born? By Nandini Nair
By Maroof Raza 44

LOCKDOWN JOURNAL
In our collective suffering and neurosis, we have become one
By Rahul Pandita

48

LETTER FROM WASHINGTON

Uncle Sam goes viral
Cover by
By James Astill
Saurabh Singh

13 april 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 3

Editor S Prasannarajan
managing Editor PR Ramesh
executive Editor Ullekh NP

open mail
editor-at-large Siddharth Singh
deputy editors Madhavankutty Pillai
(Mumbai Bureau Chief),
Rahul Pandita, Amita Shah,
V Shoba (Bangalore), Nandini Nair editor@openmedianetwork.in
creative director Rohit Chawla
art director Jyoti K Singh

P a n d e m i c p o e m s
Senior Editors Sudeep Paul,
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Moinak Mitra, Nikita Doval
Associate EditorS Vijay K Soni (Web),
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SENIOR DESIGNERs Anup Banerjee, Aman Nath
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National Head-Distribution and Sales sitting on our fence taped in the hands of clocks we fossilised
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regional heads-circulation Will it over eat— to measure, just before our time?
D Charles (South), Melvin George our forests are so dense?
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Head-production Maneesh Tyagi A taste of doom
senior manager (pre-press) Death, now on my window sill Pots all empty, pans all soiled
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MANAGER-MARKETING this day of mystic haze, Body hungers lust and coil
Priya Singh Will it fly out far—
Chief Designer-marketing
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or stay back close and laze? I look up, the rain falls dry
cfo & HEAD-IT Anil Bisht
Only tears to wash the eyes
Chief ExecuTive & Publisher
Neeraja Chawla Where are we, then? The horns of hope bend and toil
All rights reserved throughout the Space doesn’t move The kids look up and find no sky.
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Editor: S Prasannarajan. Printed and Time is unmoved
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Volume 12 Issue 14 How do you sandgrain pastures?
For the week 7-13 April 2020
Total No. of pages 68 How do you sink foundations Nope, nope to darkness
that you have raised? Now it’s a window seeing only light

4 13 april 2020
 Editor’s note

by S PRASANNARAJAN

Of Infected Conscience and Divine Delirium

W
e are all coping with Change, a once-in-a-lifetime Zoom conversation—intimate,
but still distant—with hesitant mortality. We open the window to empty streets and abandoned
community parks, but, when we steady our stare, we see shadows, reflected fears of the confined. We
turn the pages, in the cosiness of our viral remoteness, and are bombarded by allusions, the sweep of
allegories, the eternity of metaphors, and free tickets to histories infected and hence ever more revelatory. We read the
contradictory warnings and shifting findings of science, reassuring us for a second, driving us to existential dread by
the time we reach the next paragraph. We read the experts, suddenly retrieved from the arcana of academic journals
and dusted off for public service, with knowing incomprehension, but somehow enlightened. After such knowledge,
we quote the poet as we have all become acutely quote-prone, what forgiveness. To whom? Your guess.
Still we cannot assume that we take comfort in shared destiny. What a Wall Street Journal writer calls viruspolitik is
at its peak, played out across social media, and certain tributaries of which are nothing short of the sewage systems of
opinion, and on op-ed pages and 9 o’clock television. The whataboutery stinks. Religion, in the time of national pain, is
the opioid of the masses, and it continues to be liberally retailed in the ghettos, where the priest and the politician are
the soul-suckers. Ghettos build heavens, as the wretched are the easy-seekers for the sermoniser. In one part of Delhi,
this has created a corona ‘hot zone’, and, predictably, its impact was elsewhere. The infected from social media went
into a delirium, and set off a phoney combat between the compassionate liberal and the exclusivist nationalist, and
all the while, the preachers fed on the biologically infected. The virus, for
the unrepentant preacher, has become the cause of the Fever of the Faithful.
The virus, for the culturally compassionate class, has become the cause of
the Fever of the Faithful. Cultural compassion joined the sermoniser to keep
science at bay for a day. Conscience demands such sacrifices.
Viruspolitik infects the conscience in mysterious ways. In the political
battle against the virus, some leaders are condemned to live in ignominy, no matter what they say, what they do.
Condemned by those who have denied them the right to be in power from the very beginning. Condemned by those
who think democracy is a sham when it favours the culturally incompatible lot. You can be forgiving only when one
of your tribe fumbles along, no matter what price we pay. In America, the forecast is that thousands may die. When it
began, it’s true, we only saw, as I said in these pages earlier, the President of Phoo Phoo. He woke up late. He is fighting
a war now, with mistimed braggadocio. It’s a war nevertheless. That goes underappreciated. The presidentphobes can
only appreciate the New York Governor. In viruspolitik, liberal didacticism infects judgement.
In India, too, viruspolitik has clouded the conversation in certain ideological quarters, in spite of the fact that we
have seen remarkable leadership in the face of the pandemic. We are still a lucky country; we are also a poor, populous
country. So we have every reason to be afraid. We have every right to have responsible leadership. We haven’t been let
down. Still, the harrumphers are out there, pointing to the dictatorial instincts of the enforcer. It is the same class that
was shocked by democracy’s misbehaviour not once but twice in the last six years. It’s the same class now complaining
that this lockdown could have been more humane, more compassionate. One morning in September 19 years ago, the
global sentiment was captured by the front-page editorial in Le Monde: “We are all Americans.” Nobody bothered about
the president’s party, or his political ancestry. That sentiment is dead. We dissent with an indoctrinated conscience.
No leader can kill a virus. Given the right environment, science can. There are still leaders who tell their people
that two shots of vodka and sauna every day can keep the virus away, but most others have found in pandemic fear an
opportunity to become maximum leaders. They have become advocates of bio-surveillance and other intrusive powers
of the state, claiming complete copyright over mass immunity. We allow them that right, as long as it’s only about
immunity and security. In war or in pandemic, we voluntarily surrender some of our civil liberties. We tolerate—and
even admire—political leadership that dares when it needs to dare. We know that the wisest of them know when to
retreat. No war is permanent. History will deal with the others.
It’s the herd, foraging in the arid lands of ideology, that carries the virus of hate.n

13 april 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 5

 INDRAPRASTHA
O vernight, globalisation
may have acquired a rather
sinister meaning. It began in China,
travelled to South Korea, Hong
Kong, Spain, Italy and so on, until
it eventually decided to pay us a
rather unwelcome visit. Thanks
to the coronavirus pandemic, the
entire humanity, regardless of
national boundaries and military and
economic prowess, is struggling to
cope with life as best as it can. Sudden
disruption has turned life upside
down everywhere. We are obliged
to stay cooped up in our homes,
unable to venture out for fear of the
Invisible Devil. Probably, speaking
for myself, three months in Goa last
winter, when pollution ravaged
the plains of north India, seem to
have prepared me to put up with
the stay-at-home edict promulgated
by SARS-CoV-2, as the killer virus
is called by the domain experts. In
Goa, there was no home delivery of
newspapers, at least where I lived.
And then, even if you assigned a
gofer to fetch the paper, aside from
an emasculated version of a national
daily, a plethora of local papers
seemed obsessed with… er, the local
only. However, last week, it was for
the first time there wasn’t a bundle
of papers waiting for you while you
settled with the obligatory morning
cuppa and a couple of Marie biscuits
as a necessary accompaniment. The
capital city of India went without
newspapers the morning after the
national lockdown. The last time
such a situation occurred was a day
after Indira Gandhi had imposed
Emergency back in June 1975 and
locked up the entire opposition. But
now an inscrutable power amenable
to the whims and diktats of no
headstrong potentate has proclaimed
a nationwide lockout. We all are now
prisoners in our own homes, for our
own sake, of course.
6 13 april 2020
virendra kapoor
N o less instructive was the
time spent in Indira Gandhi’s
jails during Emergency. Then too you
were confined to the four walls of a
small ward. There was no television.
No newspapers. Of course, the
internet was still a couple of decades
away. And there was little contact
with the outside world, barring an
occasional visit by a detainee for a
court case, or the arrival of a fresh
prisoner and the weekly visit by
family members. Yet, most people
seemed not to complain. In sharp
contrast, this lockdown should have
been a cinch. We have our family
with us. Newspapers are back after a
gap of a couple of days. The cellphone
in itself seems to be enough to
occupy the minds of young and old,
what with those endless WhatsApp
messages taking in their wide sweep
everything under the sun, from
the sublime to the ridiculous. It is
hard to contemplate life even under
a nationwide lockdown without
various digital tools, cellphone
being the most ubiquitous among
them. But, still, I know of a lot of
friends and acquaintances who are
loudly protesting the lockdown and
pinning a million holes in the way
it is enforced. Someone brandishing
her secular-liberal credentials for
a larger public audience found in
the lockdown the latest evidence of
totalitarianism, which she and her
ilk had all along been warning the
country about. She seemed proud
that she had another reason to feel
vindicated. But as far as I know, there
is no corona-infected country right
now which has not followed the
same ‘totalitarian’ prescription of a
lockdown to try and defeat the deadly
virus. Indeed, a social media video
depicting the scene from the 1918
Spanish Flu, which killed 50-100
million worldwide, has a woman
sewing masks and troops staging
a march past to send out a stern
message to the populace about the
lockdown. Medicine has since made
huge strides, no doubt, but when it
comes to fighting the killer virus,
menacing human beings, social
distancing and lockdowns seem
to be the first item in the standard
operating procedure for epidemics
of such horrendous magnitude.
Maybe, visceral hatred numbs
one’s critical faculties.
W ith nowhere to go,
you are often left with your
own company—which is good
for family members not to get on the
nerves of one another. So you spend
a lot of time on the web. Hence, this
thought. Maybe, Bill Bryson in
his book last year, The Body: A Guide
for Occupants, spoke prematurely
when he said that 2011 was the first
year in living memory when
more people had died from
non-communicable diseases than
from infectious diseases. Hope he
is not obliged to revise his opinion
about 2020. That, of course, will
depend on how the global war
against Covid-19 goes. We keep
our fingers firmly crossed,
hoping it goes well for the whole
of humanity. n
 Mumbai Notebook
S omeone sent me a video
showing the line outside a grocery
store in California. It went out of the
store, into the car park, then beyond
the cars to a garden where it seemed to
go on and on. ‘Unending’, I believe, is
the word. Each person observed,
approximately, prescribed social
distancing. Some optimistically
pushed large shopping trolleys. Here
in Mumbai there’s no such frenzy. The
queues are small and chalk marks on
pavements and roads delineate your
space. Most kirana stores don’t allow
customers inside: you place your order
when your turn comes to someone at
the door and wait for your parcel.
When the lockdown started,
WhatsApp was awash with promises
of home delivery from grocers,
vegetable outlets and chemists. Each
gave multiple phone numbers for
orders. The phones just rang; finally
if someone did answer, it was to say,
‘Sorry, we have no delivery boys.’
That was, is and will be our
country’s massive problem: a huge
share of our services workforce is of
this kind, with no permanence or
security of service at the best of times.
At the worst of times, as we are experi-
encing now, the ‘casual’ worker knows
if he falls sick, he will have no access to
medical help. At Worli Naka, one of the
busiest parts of town, a crowd of men
gathered together every morning: they
were masons or carpenters, waiting to
be picked up by a building contractor
for a day’s work. Along the pavement,
you could see other aspects of the
informal sector—the vada pav stall, the
bhelpuri wala, the old lady sitting with
a plastic tub full of hard-boiled eggs
(a sure sign there was a liquor den in
the neighbourhood). The next street,
with a formal name so long no one
could remember, instead became every
morning a bhaaji gali, each vendor with
a basketful of vegetables to be sold the
same day. In a lockdown, where would
13 april 2020
Anil Dharker
all these people go but home?
Could the reverse migration we
witnessed from our cities have been
prevented? Moot point. However, it
could have been, and should have
been, anticipated. The country was
given three-and-a-half hours notice
for a 21-day lockdown; New Zealand
gave 48 hours. Here, even chief
ministers learnt of the lockdown
from the Prime Minister’s television
address. If, instead, they had been
given confidential notice of a week,
they would have had time to put in
place an emergency infrastructure
with sports stadia, railway stations,
school premises and unoccupied
office buildings as temporary shelters.
They could have made arrangements
for food supply and basic medical
help for the daily wage earner. They
could have roped in private hospitals
as test centres and isolation wards.
Instead, every state was sent
scrambling to get all this done
without advance notice.
Sadly, consultations, forward
planning, thinking things through is
not this Government’s style. Instead,
it follows the dictum: Act first,
think later.
A ll of us heard stories of
coronavirus positive patients
escaping from their isolation rooms in
Kasturba Hospital. Everyone’s reaction
was of horror: ‘How could they? How
irresponsible!’ And then one of the
escapees sent photographs of
Kasturba’s interiors. ‘Unkempt’ would
be a polite word, but the toilets were
much worse. A healthy person would
pick up an infection in no time.
We know our health services are
abysmally funded. India spent a mere
1.28 per cent of its GDP in 2017-2018
and 1.02 per cent the previous year.
(The US spends the most at 18 per
cent.) The 2020 allocation is below 1.5
per cent. The slight increase does not
even cover inflation.
Lack of money would obviously
have an impact on the equipment
and medical facilities in government
hospitals. But surely, basic cleanliness
does not need big money? Step into
any office in the country and you will
instantly know it’s a government
office because of a general slovenliness
in the air. Yet, IAS officers by and large
are clever people; doctors in govern-
ment hospitals are as qualified and
competent as their private counter-
parts. Why does the mindset change
when you put up a government sign-
board over a building entrance? Figure
that out and we will see a sea change
without an extra rupee spent.
A s people exchange
WhatsApp messages or have
long phone conversations during the
national lockdown, the one subject
most discussed is what happens post-
lockdown, post-Covid-19? Will we find
that we can do much of our work from
home? Will people in corporate offices
discover that a lot of their normal
business travel is unnecessary? Will
they continue with videoconferencing
as a time, money and energy-saving al-
ternative to how they have functioned
till now? Will people appreciate and
be more generous with their domestic
help, now that they have had to do
much of the housework themselves?
Will we who live in comfortable
apartments in a crowded city realise
and be grateful for how very lucky and
privileged we are? n
www.openthemagazine.com 7
 Quarantine Notebook
March 18 A call from my daughter.
Manipal University has suspended
the semester and all students have
been asked to vacate immediately.
She is upset. I tell her that it is a global
situation. Then comes the question—
to retain the flat or to vacate it? It has
been my reading and writing place for
the past two years. I love it, but how
will I pay the rent? Especially, when
there is news that a complete lock-
down is round the corner. There is no
guarantee that I can go there in the
next three or four months. We decide
to vacate. It is a busy night, talking to
the house owner, coordinating with
our daughter. She has to submit an
assignment on the 21st. My husband
will set out the next day and bring her
and our things home.
March 19 I have a deadline to meet.
Tension is escalating ahead of the
PM’s address. Was he about to an-
nounce an Emergency? We are in
front of the TV at 7pm to watch Chief
Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s press
meet. He announces a package of Rs
20,000 crore for Covid-19 relief. The
Prime Minister’s address starts at
8pm. He announces a Janata Curfew
on the 22nd. I was expecting a com-
prehensive package and an overview.
There is nothing. Only the curfew. We
are already unsettled. Now that there
is a curfew, the journey has to be ad-
vanced. The next two hours are spent
cancelling previous plans. Complete
exhaustion. Total uncertainty.
March 20 The Nirbhaya rape convicts
have been hanged. The newspaper
headlines shout: Justice to Nirbhaya.
As the author of Hangwoman, I get
invited on TV for a discussion. This is
interesting. I wrote a novel criticising
misogyny and the death sentence
and the media decides to invite me
for a panel discussion on the death
8
KR Meera
sentence! I refuse politely. But then
it is a busy day. Husband sets out by
11 am with masks, bottles of water,
sanitiser and packed food to fetch
daughter. He reaches late in the
night. My mom, meanwhile, says she
wants to leave since people above 65
have been advised to stay away from
migrants. That means more stress.
But her domestic help agrees to stay.
In between, I have to do a final edit
for my novel that is being serialised. I
can’t concentrate.
March 21 There are more birds calling
out than before. I wake up to the
sound of two drongos. The first phone
call of the day is to Manipal. They
have finished packing and cooking
for the road and are now waiting for
the vehicle, which got delayed at a
checkpost. Karnataka Police will
inspect cars from Kerala and the post
will be closed by 2 pm. Which means
they have to drive past in an hour-and-
a-half. It feels like a suspense movie.
What if the checkpost closes before
they reach? Will they have to wait
till the 23rd? What will they do for
food? Daughter calls to say that her
friends are stranded. The car crosses
the checkpost at 1.30 pm. We are all
relieved. Now there is another hurdle.
Because of the janata curfew tomor-
row, there is heavy traffic on the road.
I decide to stay awake and write till
they get home.
March 22 They reach at 3 am. We all
go to sleep somewhat relaxed. As soon
as she wakes up, daughter calls the
Direct Intervention System for Health
Awareness, and informs them that
they have arrived from Mangalore.
She is asked to self-quarantine for the
next 14 days. She has to be confined
to her room. She says her father
also travelled. He is also advised to
remain so. They sleep all day, waking
up when we hear the lone banging
of a plate from a nearby house. So it
was time to clap and bang the plate.
Kerala has 15 more positive cases
and is under total lockdown. Funny
videos pour in, showing people from
other states celebrating the curfew by
parading in the streets banging the
plates. A superstar says on TV clap-
ping hands has the effect of chanting
a mantra that kills the viruses and
bacteria. Trolls have a field day.
March 23 A friend calls and asks me
how I feel about quarantine. I try to
philosophise that each of us observes
a sort of internal quarantine in any
relationship. She says a relationship is
about social and physical proximity.
My argument is that a discreet dis-
tancing is integral to every relation-
ship. She says she finds it difficult
to time out when she is anxious. A
friend of hers is locked down in Spain.
He writes to her about his loneliness.
There is nothing to do. There is news
about the Malayalee Covid-19 patient
who refuses to reveal where all he
travelled. Hospital staff says he is
spitting around. I search for workout
videos. I watch one. It makes me feel I
have burnt a lot of calories.
March 24 I give the workout a shot.
It feels good. I feel like a new person.
Lockdown ought to help me shed the

excess kilos. But then there is work to
do. I have to edit my novel. And write
a preface for a book. A friend calls to
tell me that her brother is critical in
the US. He has been in cancer care. She
is upset that she can’t go there. The
Prime Minister addresses the country
again. He announces a complete
lockdown for 21 days. I wish there
was more testing too. In Kerala, there
is severe criticism of the government
for not shutting down liquor shops.
There are also Facebook discus-
sions on the after-effects of forcing
alcoholics into withdrawal. I think
about people who love alcohol more
than themselves. Is it the poor alone
who will be in peril? Suddenly I am
reminded of a sentence from the book
Jahangir by Parvati Sharma: ‘Salim’s
true romance, his lifelong passion,
wasn’t Anarkali but alcohol.’ I decide I
am going to read it again.
March 25 One more tested positive in
Idukki, our neighbouring district. He
is a block panchayat member. He has
travelled from the north to the south
and even visited the Chief Minister’s
office. A health worker tests positive
in my town. A friend tells me how her
brother and his family in Australia
drove around to find food. I try to
imagine the situation. What will be
our plight if the lockdown continues?
I am optimistic. There will be a way.
Humans have always found a way. So
has nature. There are many reports
of wild animals on the streets. I enjoy
watching a crow pheasant couple fly-
ing about our coconut tree. And I have
to finish a chapter.
March 26 Publishers call to inform
me that PDFs and audio books violat-
ing copyright rules are in circulation.
They have issued a press release and a
video to make readers aware. I am re-
quested to share it. I finish one article.
March 27 My friend’s brother passes
away in the US. She is crying. She can’t
go, can’t even meet siblings. They have
to wait till the lockdown ends to hold
a memorial service. It is painful. Then
there is the alarming exodus of mi-
grant labourers in Delhi. How is it that
only these citizens have to bear the
brunt of every crisis in our country?
March 28 I wake up dreaming about
my only sister, who lives in the UAE.
I wonder when I will see her again.
What if no aircraft were ever to fly
again? I ask a geneticist friend to
test me for the gene of lunacy. She
laughs and sends me a link. It is a free
personality test. It is not too late to
discover who I am, at the age of 50. I
sincerely take the test and find that I
belong to the personality shared by
4 per cent of the global population. I
feel good. They predict I am a media-
tor. A mediator-type person can lose
themselves in their quest for good.
They communicate deeply using
metaphors. And they want to become
authors! My friend also tells me about
a course on the Science of Happiness
offered by Yale. It seems fascinating.
But then, there is more work. The
Happiness course will have to wait.
March 29 The day starts with friction.
I have a mild temperature and dis-
comfort in the throat. All are worried.
I am already drawing my route map
for the past three months. In Kottay-
am, too, migrant labourers are out on
the streets demanding conveyance to
their home towns. It turns out some-
one told them that if they protested,
they too would get buses to go back.
Illustration by Saurabh Singh
My temperature remains the same. I
have to file an article for a newspaper.
March 30 A reporter calls me for
lockdown tips. I tell them I am no
celebrity. Actually, all my life has been
a lockdown. There are many dead-
lines to meet. A TV channel asks me to
participate in their discussion to bring
awareness on the situation. I request
them to spare me if they are looking
for lockdown tips. The girl who calls
swears they are not. Once I am in front
of the camera, the discussion is on
how to spend your lockdown period
happily. I am flabbergasted. I have no
tips to offer. I try to share my worries,
instead. I am worried. What if there is
community spread already? What if
Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra
Pradesh keep their borders closed and
the flow of food items into Kerala does
not resume? I tell them that nature
is teaching us a lesson. This virus is a
socialist virus. It wants to teach us that
nobody will survive if they don’t help
all others survive.
March 31 I am writing and husband
comes in to ask something. I scream
at him. He bangs the door and leaves.
Daughter tries to find out what’s
wrong and he shouts at her. She
comes to me to complain. I too shout
at her. She says she shouldn’t have
left Manipal. The dog kicks opens the
door. Daughter leaves angrily but the
dog stares at me for a while and then
leaves silently. I try to write. I contem-
plate writing an article exhorting par-
ents to get their children married only
after a lockdown test. Lock two people
in a box-like room. Open the door
only after 21 days. Maybe, the rich can
arrange for a lavish ceremony to open
the door. In most cases, the two people
will run in opposite directions upon
release. If they don’t, it would have
been the best way to match-make. n
KR Meera is a Malayalam author.
The Angel’s Beauty Spots is her latest
work, a collection of three novellas,
translated into English
www.openthemagazine.com 9
 openings
NOTEBOOK

Epi(c)demic
W
ho would have imagined that a serial scientific temper is being severely tested. “Science and religion
commissioned by a Congress Prime Minister, are two paths of responding to the current situation. And most
written by a producer-director who felt it people do not see these as exclusive, it seems. In fact, since there
was being communicated to him in parts by has been little scientific knowledge available [testing is limited,
a statue of Hanuman, and conceptualised by a bureaucrat there is no antiviral as yet, and many quack remedies are afoot]
whose mother refused to eat until it was aired, would be seen, and a great deal of rumour, religious faith has been prominent as
over 30 years later, as incentive for self-isolation in the Age of a means of dealing with the uncertainty,” he adds.
Coronavirus Lockdown? Its weekly airing on Sundays at 9 am Screening the Ramayan is a turn to faith and devotion, but it
for an uninterrupted 78 weeks would often be accompanied comes armed with an intellectual defence.
by burning of incense and tinkling of temple bells. And after So how did it all begin? The story goes that then Prime Min-
it was telecast, beginning on January 25th, 1987, India and its ister Rajiv Gandhi had wanted Doordarshan to telecast pro-
people would never be the same again. grammes that highlighted Indian values and culture. He is said
As India resumes its long-standing relationship with the to have mentioned Ramayana and Mahabharata as examples.
Ramayana, which is being telecast on Doordarshan’s national Bhaskar Ghose, who was Doordarshan director general when
channel twice a day, it marks the culmination of a big cultural the series was aired, says information and broadcasting minis-
moment. Ramanand Sagar’s Ramayan was not merely a seminal try secretary SS Gill took the Prime Minister literally and shot
moment in Indian national television but also played a defining off two letters, one to BR Chopra and the other to Ramanand
role in developing an Indian collective identity. Murali Balaji, lec- Sagar—both friends from their days as journalists in pre-Par-
turer at the University of Pennsylvania, says it played a significant tition Lahore. Chopra was asked to produce the Mahabharata
part in mobilising a new generation of political Hindus whose and Sagar was tasked with the Ramayana. Ghose says it should
activism had long been on the margins and it probably helped have been the other way around. “BR Chopra told me he was
the Hindutva movement gain relevance within popular Indian an Arya Samaji and would have been more objective on the
culture, particularly in parts of India Ramayana while Sagar was a follower
where Hindutva had previously been of the Sanatan Dharma,” he says.
non-existent or marginalised. But it was not to be. While speaking
How will a renewed India, with a The Ramayan’s success to Rajagopal, Gill claimed that it was
verdict on building the Ram Janmab- was remarkable, and the his idea, and that he had to assuage
hoomi temple firmly in place, deal with Rajiv’s concern about the resort to
public response was far
the renewal of the Ramayana, especially devotional programming. Gill claimed
given that there are so many other view-
greater than anyone to be a “strong leftist” who saw the
ing platforms for Indians? Difficult anticipated. The Congress Ramayana as national culture, and in
to imagine but it does highlight how tried to claim credit, but any case, as the culture of the major-
Hinduism, which was once a symbol the BJP was better ity. He was critical of Sagar’s rendition
of shame for many in India’s postco- positioned to profit from however; he had apparently expected
lonial middle class, has become more the event. It was after something different. Perhaps BR
unabashedly public as India moves to seeing the crowds Chopra’s Mahabharat serial, which
embrace a more majoritarian society. followed the Ramayan, and offered a
Arvind Rajagopal, professor at New York
gathering on Sunday historical account of the story without
University and author of the seminal mornings to watch the devotional overtones, was what he
Politics after Television: Hindu Nationalism epic that the BJP decided would have preferred. But Ramayan set
and the Reshaping of the Public in India to put its energy behind the template; both serials came to be
says he is not surprised it is being aired the Ram Janmabhoomi seen as a Hindu efflorescence in India’s
at a moment in India’s history where its movement public culture. In fact, the Mahabhara-

10 13 april 2020
 A scene from Ramayan
ta is the older of the two epics. It is interesting to speculate what
might have happened if Mahabharat was broadcast first, and
Ramayan after that.
In a new biography of his father, An Epic Life—Ramanand
Sagar: From Barsaat to Ramayan, Prem Sagar has written that it
was his father’s greatest mission in life to make Ramayan, and
he was happy to be the medium. Shot at Vrindavan Studios in
Umargaon, Gujarat, it had all the actors on 24-hour call because
Sagar would often finish writing a set of dialogues at 3 am and
it would have to be shot immediately. Ghose recalls that he had
aesthetic issues with some episodes, and felt the extras looked
scrawny and the costumes were shabby, looking like rags that
had been put together. “He reshot them, though grumpily. And
mercifully, Sagar restricted the long shots and stuck to shoot-
ing Ram and Sita in close up. As far as the actual content was
concerned, it wasn’t my business to interfere,” he says.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideologue Ratan Sharda
recalls the emotional and spiritual experience for people. “The
older generation had seen many devotional films but with
a compressed narrative. The young had not seen anything
like this. Though technically very poor and nowhere near
the sophistication of Mahabharat, its devotion and dialogues
captivated those who were not familiar with Tulsidas,” he says.
He remembers it as a virtual janata curfew, and a reconnection
to a cultural heritage for those brought up in a Nehruvian ethos
that the past was a barren place. “But Ram had lived in the na-
13 april 2020
tion’s collective memory with every tenth person from north to
south having Ram embedded in his name,” he adds.
The Ramayan’s success was remarkable, and the public
response was far greater than anyone anticipated. The Con-
gress tried to claim credit, but the BJP was better positioned to
profit from the event. It was after seeing the crowds gathering
on Sunday mornings to watch the epic that the BJP decided to
put its energy behind the Ram Janmabhoomi movement. Jay
Dubashi, who was with the BJP, told Rajagopal this. In a way,
the rest is history.
As for today, if Subramanian Swamy is to be believed, a
Hindu rashtra has already been established. In other words, the
battle to claim public space for Hindu culture, and to put every
other group on the defensive, has been won, says Rajagopal.
The serial’s broadcast only confirms this fact.
Yet, it is unlikely that Sagar’s Ramayan will enrapture a
generation brought up on high-tech imagery and a global
storytelling template. This is despite the new generation’s spiri-
tual deficit, apologetic grasp of history, near-zero exposure to
ancient and medieval India except in derogatory terms, and no
parental education about culture and traditions, notes Sharda.
But those who see it will still feel enriched, he believes.
Nothing like a spoonful of epic to make the medicine go down,
is there? n
By Kaveree Bamzai
www.openthemagazine.com 11
 openings
portrait The Mask
Life Guard
Its utility has undergone a drastic rethink
since the beginning of the pandemic
S hould you wear or not wear a mask? It’s a question that
has kept coming up repeatedly during this pandemic. The most
widespread scientific opinion has been an emphatic no. It has largely been
considered silly, since the virus spreads not through the air but through
respiratory droplets that might contaminate surfaces.
Masks were meant for the sick, as the guidelines go, to stop respiratory
droplets that might contain the virus from being released; or for people in
very close proximity to the infected, such as healthcare workers or family
members at home. The WHO still maintains this position. Masks were
seen as alarming. They could lead to an infection since people constantly
touch their faces to adjust their masks. They may give a false sense of
security and encourage people to engage in riskier behaviour like going out
more often or not washing their hands; and if they began to be used widely,
it might create a shortage for medical professionals.
This question has a cultural hue too. Throughout this pandemic, societies
and governments in eastern Asian nations have expected people to wear
masks at all times when they step out. People here tend to wear masks more
often—as some have explained, because of past epidemics such as the 2002-
03 SARS outbreak—to the extent that it was considered impolite even before
this pandemic for a person with a cough to step out without a mask.
In most other countries, a masked individual tends to elicit a very
different response. There are anecdotes of people wearing masks being
abused or treated suspiciously in the West. In India too, in the early days of
the pandemic, there were reports of people wearing masks being treated
with suspicion.
But an interesting change of opinion appears to be taking place, not
just around the scientific benefits of wearing a mask, but also on social
Illustration by Saurabh Singh
perceptions of it. Several European countries,
such as the Czech Republic, Austria and Slovakia,
have made it illegal to enter public spaces without
wearing a mask. Although Germany hasn’t issued
any nationwide recommendation, some places like
the eastern city of Jena has made its use compulsory
in supermarkets and on public transit. The US is also
reconsidering its stance against it. Donald Trump
recently suggested using scarves as masks. “You can
use a scarf,” he said. “A lot of people have scarves...
scarves would be very good.” There have been social
media influencers showing people how to make DIY
masks; reports of European prisons where inmates
are sewing them; there is even a trending hashtag
(#Masks4All).
The Indian Government has now announced
it is re-examining its recommendations against
masks. The Principal Scientific Advisor recently
issued a detailed manual on how to prepare
homemade masks using items like old vests,
T-shirts and handkerchiefs. Such DIY masks, the
evidence shows, provides some basic protection.
This change in attitude is coming about because
recent studies show that a lot of transmission is
occurring through people who display no or very
few symptoms. A study in Iceland, with tests even on
asymptomatic people (believed to be the highest in
the world in Iceland in proportion to its citizens), has
found that about half of those who tested positive
displayed no symptom. In China, it is estimated
that about a third of all positive cases showed no
symptoms. Such individuals, if we follow the
current WHO guidelines, would never wear a mask
since they would not know they were infected.
Also many of the places geographically close to and
with ties to mainland China, and yet have managed
to keep the number of cases largely under control
(South Korea, Taiwan or Hong Kong), are also places
where people tend more to wear masks.
The mask also provides a behavioural nudge.
Every time you see someone with a mask, it
serves as a reminder that the virus is very much
around and you have to be careful. The burden of
responsibility is now shifting from just the infected
individual to the larger society. The logic being: if
everyone wore a mask, sick or not, symptomatic or
asymptomatic, it would help stop the spread of the
virus. Wearing a mask doesn’t just protect you, its
champions say, it protects others too.
When this pandemic comes to an end, it will
change many things about us. The mask too might
become an ordinary part of our lives. n
By Lhendup G Bhutia
13 april 2020
 ANGLE
Bad News
The government’s self-goal in trying to control
what the media reports on the pandemic
By madhavankutty pillai
T o appreciate a society where
information is not looked with fear
and suspicion, and is freely provided
with enthusiasm, you only need to
see the press briefings of US President
Donald Trump. Even though he is
convinced many of the journalists
there are running a disinformation
campaign against him, he still comes,
jousts with them and takes repeat
follow-up questions. He has medical
experts who are leading the operations
against the pandemic and they speak
freely, often contradicting some of his
wild statements in front of the whole
world. Now turn to the daily briefings
by the Indian health ministry where
they try their best with every answer
to divulge as little as possible. Ques-
tions that ask for facts and figures are
glossed over with imperial platitudes
like ‘we are monitoring closely’. No one
gets to press anyone on the panel for
clarity on such obfuscations. A couple
of days back, even such close-fistedness
with information was thought to be
too much with them taking only three
questions, one of which was from the
undemanding Doordarshan. If it had
something to do with cases registering
a spike, then someone forgot to tell them
that their remit was to not be a bearer of
only good news.
As if that was not enough, the Indian
Government then asked Supreme Court
for help to restrain the media from any
reporting on the pandemic without
going through them. The Government
affidavit, as reported in Live Law said,
13 april 2020
‘Considering the very nature of the infec-
tious disease which the world is strug-
gling to deal with, any panic reaction by
any section of the society based upon
such reporting would not only be harm-
ful for such situation but would harm the
entire nation. It is, therefore, in the largest
interest of justice that when this court has
taken cognizance, this court is pleased
to issue a direction that no electronic/
print media/ web portal or social media
shall print/ publish or telecast anything
without first ascertaining the true factual
position from the separate mechanism
provided by the Central government’.
When the Government itself is reluc-
tant with information or does not know,
essentially, what is being asked is to de-
liberately keep people in the dark so that
they don’t panic. And that has never had
a good end. Absence of real information
itself is the biggest cause of rumours and
fake news. A big casualty of curbing the
media is the Government itself. If bureau-
crats can decide what will filter through,
then only that information which does
not threaten them would make it to the
elected politicians who make the big de-
cisions. Even in pandemics, the instinct
of all government servants remains the
same—to protect their jobs.
The big problem that the Govern-
ment has on its hands is not the news
that mainstream media reports, but what
is bouncing around in social media. That
is where all the panic resides. And since
it is impossible to regulate it, the only
disinfectant available is the mainstream
media giving out real information. n
ideas
Celebrity
In a lockdown, everyone suffers.
A celebrity suffers differently.
There are no films to be shot, no TV
shows for guest appearances, no
interviews, no friend or restaurant
visits to tip off paparazzis about,
no airports or gyms to flaunt
their looks. They may be dressed,
but they have nowhere to go. In
the early part of the pandemic,
we had celebrities channelling
their stardom for public good. For
instance, Shah Rukh Khan’s video
busting myths about the pandemic
and telling us how we can combat
it. But a week into the lockdown,
with nothing else to talk about,
and public fatigue setting in with
their workout and yoga videos,
we now see celebrities elevating
housekeeping into something of a
performance art. Katrina Kaif puts
out videos of herself washing dishes
and sweeping, Shilpa Shetty sweeps
her garden, Esha Deol waters her
plants, Malaika Arora is making a
stew and Kartik Aaryan is
doing dishes. n
Word’s Worth
‘Celebrity is the
chastisement of
merit and the
punishment of talent’
Emily Dickinson
american poet
www.openthemagazine.com 13
 soft power
Apropos of Tablighi
It is science, not ideology, that will save us from religious contagion
T
owards the end of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s
masterpiece Crime and Punishment (1866), Rodin
Romanovich Raskolnikov, the tortured and guilt-
ridden protagonist, has a strange dream.
Haunted almost to the verge of paranoia and madness,
he is at last close to repentance. Feverish and ill, he rues his
improvident murder of the old pawnbroker, Alyona Ivanovna,
and the even more monstrous, impetuous killing of her meek,
innocent, physically challenged sister, Lizaveta.
Slipping into disturbed sleep, Raskolnikov, tormented and
delirious, dreams of a global pandemic. No specific illness is
mentioned but the whole world is infected.
The contagion has, almost prophetically, come from the East,
from the ‘depths of Asia’. No one quite understands the microbe
that causes it, but it blights not so much the bodies but the
brains of its victims. The infected begin to believe that they alone
possess the truth. They think they are infallible, suspecting
others of evil and immorality.
The disease makes the sufferers wrathful and violent. People
kill each other out of a pointless and malevolent madness:
‘Everyone was to be destroyed except a few chosen ones. Some
sort of new microbe was attacking people’s bodies, but these
microbes were endowed with intelligence and will. Men
attacked by them became instantly furious and mad. But
never had men considered themselves so intellectual and so
completely in possession of the truth as these sufferers, never
had they considered their decisions, their scientific conclusions,
their moral convictions so infallible. Whole villages, whole
towns and peoples were driven mad by the infection. Everyone
was excited and did not understand one another. Each thought
that he alone had the truth and was wretched looking at the
others, beat himself on the breast, wept, and wrung his hands.
They did not know how to judge and could not agree what to
consider evil and what good; they did not know who to blame,
who to justify. Men killed each other in a sort of senseless spite’
(Crime and Punishment, tr Constance Garnet, 1914, revised by
Juliya Salkovskaya and Nicholas Rice, 2007).
Today, the senseless and inconsiderate actions of the Muslim
group Tablighi Jamaat (Outreach Congregation) as well the rage,
anger and incomprehension of the populace directed at them
resembles somewhat this sort of panic and pandemonium.
14
By Makarand R Paranjape
During a police probe it was revealed that some 3,000 people,
including foreigners from Indonesia, Jordan, Yemen, Saudi
Arabia, China, Ukraine, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and
Bangladesh were at the Markaz near Nizamuddin in Delhi. Even
after the lockdown on March 24th, over 1,500, including 200
foreign nationals, remained at the venue.
The overthrowing of the social and moral order almost is
the consequence. Fury on social media and hatred widespread.
Restraints and civilities disabled or kept in abeyance.
Perpetrators and victims brought down to the same level.
The state’s violence and callousness against the exodus of
helpless migrants fleeing the contagion and the metropolis
to return to the longed-for security and safety of their distant
village homes. And callous carelessness of religious zealots
turned corona superspreaders.
Both have spiked a moral outrage rendering us equally
impotent as hopeless.
Yet each of us, not excluding the sometimes conflicted and
contradictory political, medical or financial experts, considers
himself or herself to possess the truth. As Dostoevsky puts it,
‘Each thought that he alone had the truth and looked with
contempt at the others.’
Certainly, it would seem that the controversial head of the
Tablighi Jamaat in India, Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, thought
so when he exhorted his partly infected flock to disdain social
distance because it was a way to divide Muslims.
It was better to die in a mosque, he was reported as saying,
than anywhere else: “They are trying to stop and divide us...
asking us not to gather, they’re trying to scare us by saying we
will get infected... . This restriction is placed to stop Muslims
from joining hands using a virus.”
The Tablighi followers had been expressly admonished
against congregating by the Delhi police, the warning
purposefully and perspicaciously recorded on video. Yet, that
did not prove to be sufficient to disperse them.
Not only did the gathering continue beyond the lockdown
of March 24th, with dozens of foreigners in the large, illegal
gathering. Worse, several of the infected travelled to other parts
of the country, extending the virus to hundreds of others.
While attempts are being made to trace these infectors, their
leader, Maulana Saad, is, apparently, under self-quarantine, but
13 april 2020
Illustration by Saurabh Singh
The irrationality and
inconsideration of the Tablighis
have already attracted
widespread condemnation.
Hindu reaction to Islamic
extremism will meet the same
fate eventually
has not been arrested. Sadly, however, several of his followers
have already died from the dreaded virus.
Saad is the head of one of Tablighi Jamaat’s factions. His
grandfather, Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi, founded the Islamic
evangelist movement in Mewat in 1925. That is how the Meos,
among whom he lived and preached, were supposedly purged
and purified from their Hindu-like habits and practices.
Ironically, though Ilyas studied at Darul Uloom Deoband,
his grandson Saad has been accused of deviation and apostasy
by the same institution. In a fatwa issued a few years back, the
decree by the seminaryobserved, ‘We can’t remain silent and
a mute spectator when Maulana Saad Kandhalvi continues
13 april 2020
to disseminate his perverted views and wrong interpretations
about Islam in large gatherings… . After a close analysis of his
speeches we have come to the conclusion that Mualana Saad
Kandhalvi has gone astray and he must repent without any
delay’ (‘Tablighi Jamaat India head has gone astray, must repent:
Darul Uloom Deoband’, December 8th, Ummid.com).
In India, the Jamaat, though proselytising, has been mostly
below the radar, attracting little attention. Certainly ordinary
Indians know little about them. That is because its practitioners
concentrate on purifying the believers, the already converted,
rather than attracting new adherents.
They want to take contemporary Islam, including in matters
of dress, eating and social arrangements, back to the days of the
Prophet Mohammad, the founder of the faith. Their revivalism
goes, some would say, to absurd extents, including eschewing all
modern conveniences, such as toothbrushes, beds and dining
tables, in favour of a rigidly simple way of life.
The Jamaat itself prefers to be secretive about its practices and
beliefs, even avoiding bank accounts and written documents
to escape scrutiny and detection. Similarly, Tablighis shun the
glare of media and publicity.
But they constitute a huge and powerful organisation,
spread across dozens of countries all over the world, and with a
following estimated to be close to 100 million. In fact, just across
the border, in Pakistan, the Jamaat has many influential and
powerful members, including its former Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif, former President Muhammad Rafique Tarar and former
chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence Javed Nasir.
Though apparently non-confrontational, even quietist and
law-abiding, the Jamaat is considered to foster more dangerous
elements. The Tabligh is have been attacked for not being
orthodox or radical enough by some, and being soft jihadis and
dangerous sympathisers of extremism by others. In the UK and
elsewhere, several jihadis started out as Tablighi recruits before
getting further radicalised.
Nothing short of a ‘planned conquest of the world’ is their
ultimate aim, according to Marc Gaborieau, a French expert on
the movement (‘Transnational Islamic Movements: Tablighi
Jamaat in Politics’, ISIM Newsletter, July 1999, p 21).
Indeed, there is little to distinguish their core beliefs and
ideology from the staunch Sunni Wahabists. Thus, closer home,
it is suspected that Maulana Umarji, a Tablighi leader, had a
hand in the burning of the karsevaks in the Godhra train tragedy
(India Today, February 24th, 2003).
What do we do? The answer, it seems, is simple. It is science,
not ideology, that will save us from religious contagion. The
irrationality and inconsideration of the Tablighis have already
attracted widespread condemnation.
Hindu reaction to Islamic extremism will meet the same fate
eventually. For, in the modern world, it is the fate of religion to be
defeated by science.
Covid-19, certainly, has shown itself agnostic, if not truly
secular. It infects all of us, irrespective of religion, race, nation
or community. n
www.openthemagazine.com 15
 Whisperer Jayanta Ghosal

S mriti M o d e l
D uring the lockdown, among senior Cabinet ministers,
Smriti Irani has been very active. Recently, she sent
food packets to villagers in her
constituency, Amethi. She first found
out how many persons were really
needy and got a list from government
officials in the area. Then bags of food
materials were made, each
containing five kilos of rice, five kilos
of aata, one kilo dal, one-and-a-half
kilos of potatoes, 200 grams of oil,
half-a-kilo of vegetables, 50 grams of
turmeric, a kilo of salt. The bag was
named ‘Modi Kit’. Irani imposed two
conditions on anyone availing the
bag. First, they had to be inside their
homes; villagers who came out to
collect the kit would not get it. Second,
people who had enough food at home
should not take it; it would be on the
basis of need. More bags would be
sent after a week. Department officers
suggested a photo of Irani be attached
to the packet, but she overruled that.

The IB Question

T he spread of the coronavirus across

the country because of the Tablighi
Jamaat in Delhi, where a huge congregation,
including infected foreigners, had gathered
in their Nizamuddin premises, has led to the
question why the Intelligence Bureau (IB)
had been clueless about the event. The police
station was right next door but it didn’t take
action to prevent the gathering. Even the IB’s
headquarters in North Block isn’t very far from
the area. Ultimately, to vacate the premises,
National Security Adviser Ajit Doval himself
had to go and meet the head maulana to
convince him about the danger.

16 13 april 2020
 Illustrations by Saurabh Singh

Club Rumour Conference Tidbits

P roduction might have stopped in the time of
coronavirus but rumour factories have gone on an
overdrive. One from West Bengal said that the wife of
a senior IAS officer, a former Member of Parliament
of the Trinamool Congress and a businessman, were
meeting at the lounge of a club that was supposed to
be closed. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ordered an
inquiry and asked the club why the lounge had been
secretly opened for them. Action may be taken after
she gets the report. However, BJP leaders are saying
that no such thing took place and what the
Chief Minister heard was just idle gossip.
Selective Punishment
M amata Banerjee chose to skip
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s
videoconference with chief ministers.
However, Rajasthan Chief Minister
Ashok Gehlot, who is from the Congress,
took advantage of the opportunity.
On March 20th, he had already had a
videoconference with Modi and requested
a special health package for his state. On
April 2nd, before Modi’s video conference,
Gehlot held meetings at the state level and
he took feedback from district authorities to
make an even stronger case for the package.

I n Delhi, four senior bureaucrats were punished by

the Union home ministry for dereliction of duty in
containment of the coronavirus pandemic. This followed
the massive build-up of a crowd of migrants at the Anand
Vihar bus depot. But bureaucrats are asking why only
Delhi officials were being punished. In other states like
Haryana, Rajasthan and Punjab, too, immigrants had
come out on the streets.

What about Corporates?

W hen Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman
announced the financial package, a journalist
pointed out at the press conference that there is great
distress in big business too. But Sitharaman said it
would be the topic for another day. Till now, there has
been no announcement of any relief for the corporate
sector even though without production and sales,
there is no earnings to even pay salaries. There
is, however, a buzz that the Finance Minister will
announce some relief around corporate tax soon.

Today’s Cast
Radio Outreach
A s both Ramayan and Mahabharat are being rerun

on Doordarshan after more than three decades,
the actors of the tele-serials are now all in a different
age group. Arun Govil, who played Ram, is 62 years
old; Deepika Chikhalia, Sita, is 54 years old and, Nitin
Bharadwaj, Krishna, is 56 at present. Their politics also
diverged after the first heady days of fame. Govil went
into the Congress and Chikhalia became a BJP MP. All
three stay in Mumbai and are giving interviews to media
over the phone. Photos are going viral on WhatsApp of
them watching the serials again along with their families.
A
fter announcing the lockdown,
Narendra Modi held a series of
videoconferences with editors and industrialists.
One such group that stood out were radio
jockeys. The reason they were invited was the
importance Modi gives to the radio service. Even
his Mann Ki Baat is over that medium. FM Radio
is heard across social classes—from drivers and
labourers to the middle class.

24 june 2019 www.openthemagazine.com 17

 open essay

By Maroof Raza

Is it Laboratory-born?
An alternative biography of the novel coronavirus

W
uhan in China—recognised as the epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic—also hosts China’s only and
highest-rated Level 4 microbiology labs, which could have been responsible for the spread of the deadly
coronavirus disease or Covid-19 that has taken thousands of lives and infected hundreds of thousands.
Even though this virus has brought our lives to a near standstill, much of the commentary has focused
on how it could possibly have come from bats and wild animals (like the pangolin) in the markets of
Wuhan. But as Chinese laws permit the sale and eating of wild animals, why did it spread only from
Wuhan? Few reports have looked beyond repeating what all the others have said: that the virus came
from the wilds of Wuhan. Even some genomic medical experts hold this view.
But if you put together the evidence—and join the dots—it could have also come from the microbiology labs of Wuhan, whether
by design or default. Could it be a coincidence that in August last year, the Canadian police in Winnipeg—where Canada’s only Level 4
microbiology research facility is housed—had arrested a Chinese couple on charges of stealing intellectual property? They had visited
the Institute of Virology in Wuhan, wrote Sanjeeva Shukla (in his Times of India blog on March 24th). He also states that a People’s Lib-
eration Army (PLA) general, Zhang Shibo, former president of China’s National Defence University, had written about the effective-
ness of ethnic genetic attacks in his book New Highland of War (in 2017), and that in 2015, the vice president of the Chinese Academy of
Military Medical Sciences, He Fuchu, had said that biomaterials were the new “strategic commanding heights” of warfare. Add to this
the message in a book now being quoted, Unrestricted Warfare (1999), wherein the authors—both PLA colonels—had argued that ‘the
first rule of unrestricted warfare is that there are no rules, with nothing forbidden’, and it begins to fall in place.
This book on unrestricted warfare proposes tactics for developing countries, in particular China, to compensate for their mili-
tary inferiority vis-à-vis the US during times of conflict. It advocates hacking into websites, targeting financial institutions, terror-
ism, using the media, as well as conducting urban warfare. However, while the book suggests a milder approach against weaker
countries—those China wants to win over with economic initiatives—it specifically targets the US since ‘The United States breaks
[UN rules] and makes new ones when these rules don't suit [its purposes]’. Whether this work has the full blessing of the Chinese
leadership isn’t yet known, but the Chinese have often used indirect messaging, such as this book, to convey their plans to their
adversaries. As Sun Tzu had said: ‘If the enemy expects you to do three things, do the fourth.’
So, did the virus spread by default or design? Let us look at the timelines. While the first of Covid-19 case was reported in Wuhan
city on December 1st, 2019, it took another two weeks for Wuhan’s doctors to confirm that the virus was spreading following con-
tact between humans. And by late December, hospitals in Wuhan had witnessed an ‘exponential’ rise is cases with what we know
now were Covid-19 symptoms, even though these cases, reportedly, cannot be linked to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market
in Wuhan, despite the fact that China’s wholesale markets for animals, birds and seafood are often filthy (as video evidence has
shown). Doctors like Li Wenliang, who spoke about such a disease and that it could lead to an epidemic, were disciplined for mak-

18 13 april 2020

ing public statements. He later died of the disease.
It was only on January 23rd that Wuhan was placed under ef-
fective quarantine. But why only Wuhan? By then, the virus had
spread within China—especially to Beijing and Shanghai—and
to Thailand (where a woman who had come from Wuhan, car-
ried it) and to Japan, where a man had brought it from Wuhan.
But thousands of those infected had by then also left Wuhan for
other parts of the world—as the city and the region is a global
manufacturing hub—and many others continued to visit
Wuhan from Italy and the EU, mainly for business reasons, un-
aware that they would become carriers of the virus that would,
in turn, result in thousands of deaths back home.
An even larger number of people got infected when thou-
sands of Chinese trooped back into China, specifically Wuhan,
for the Chinese New Year festivities. This is just what the virus
needed—thousands of people jostling together—to spread
like wildfire. They then went back to Europe, the US and Iran
where they reside. As a result, the numbers of those infected
in such places have been rising so steeply. Whether China was
silent by design or by default—as Beijing took its time to alert
the world and the World Health Organization (WHO)—only
13 april 2020
Whether China was silent by
design or by default only time
will tell. But the possibility
of a bio-lab germ, having
escaped (or let loose?) is always
there, since at least two
high-ranking Chinese officials
had earlier alluded to it
Illustration by Saurabh Singh
time will tell. But the possibility of a biolab germ, having
escaped (or let loose?) is always there, since at least two high-
ranking Chinese officials had earlier alluded to it. And how
come they were able to contain it sooner than other countries?
Would all this be accident or coincidence? In late-January,
the US Department of Justice announced the arrest of a
Harvard University professor, Charles Lieber (Chair of the De-
partment of Chemistry and Chemical Biology), for receiving
$50,000 per month and another $158,000 for other expenses
as well as for his affiliation with the Wuhan University of
Technology. He was also running a multi-million-dollar
programme to entice other scientists to share their research
expertise with China. Also arrested was a female researcher,
Yen Ching Ye, of Boston University (Department of Physics,
Chemistry and Biomedical Engineering), who had hidden her
connections with the PLA as a lieutenant. A third Chinese na-
tional, Jheng Zhao Zang, was arrested just as he was boarding
his flight to China with 21 vials of biological materials in his
baggage stolen from his American university’s research centre.
His research was sponsored by Harvard University.
These arrests are part of the US Department of Justice’s ‘China
www.openthemagazine.com 19
 open essay

Initiative’ to stop and prosecute Chi- The questions that things done efficiently. But to be fair
nese economic espionage and theft of to the civil services, they were not
intellectual property, to stop the long- must concern us are: warned either. Even the army chief
term Chinese campaign to steal US One, are the Chinese took a few days to announce that
technologies. The US Attorney Gen- working to a plan? they were prepared. But this will
eral had recently referred to China as be the next big threat to our lives
America’s ‘primary rival’. And the FBI
Two, is the Covid-19 and our economy, as it already has
director has stated that “no country assault on the human shown, and it doesn’t recognise bor-
poses a greater counter-intelligence race a test of more ders. Given India’s vast population,
threat to the US than China”. But now, its dismal health facilities and poor
with thousands of people dead in the
biological attacks to connectivity, and with each state hav-
West, there is bound to be concern follow? And thREE, ing its own operating procedures for
in other European countries as well IN India, are we ready for responses, we could be in a hopeless
about what appears to be part of such future attacks? situation in the event of a bio-chem-
China’s ruthless agenda to emerge as a ical attack, the scale of which could
primary power in the world. However, be far bigger than the fatalities and
China isn’t willing to sit quietly. It has infections from Covid-19. But what is
already blamed the US for bringing our response capability?
the virus into China, with Iran echoing its line that the US has A recent article in The New Indian Express (‘Germ warfare
spread the deadly virus to cripple the Chinese economy. On the and how prepared India is’, March 22nd) quotes Lieutenant
face of it, this could be justified on the grounds that the loss to General Vinod Bhatia, a former Director General of Military
China’s economy was initially projected to be around $348 bil- Operations: “Though the Indian Army is trained to prepare
lion and to the US economy about $15 billion. for chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear attacks, the
programmes are on the back burner due to lack of resources.”
The army in any case prepares for an NBC (nuclear-biological-

B ut China could make up for these losses in other

ways. China is—and will remain—the manufacturing
centre for much of the world and will be back in demand once
things limp back to normal. China has begun producing masks
and medical equipment in large numbers to address the global
demand. Besides, there are reports that the Chinese have been
buying out many companies and businesses at much lower pric-
es in Asia and Europe at a time of panic. The Chinese, it should be
noted, always work to a plan and within a grand design laid out
by the country’s leadership. In 2017, China’s paramount leader,
Xi Jinping, had defined his ‘vision’ for China, in a three-and-a-
half hour speech. One of the key targets for China would be to
become a “top-ranked innovative nation by 2035 [and] a nation
with pioneering global influence”. As any student of world af-
fairs would tell you, global influence comes from a combination
of economic heft and military power. All other moral grand-
standing and well-meaning initiatives count for little.
The questions that must concern us are: One, are the
Chinese working to a plan? Two, is the Covid-19 assault on the
human race a test of more biological attacks to follow? And
three, in India, are we ready for such future attacks?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done well to move
fast to announce a nationwide lockdown. No sensible person
thinks it’s a bad idea. But it could certainly have been better
implemented, because unlike the demonetisation announce-
ment that had perhaps needed secrecy to catch unawares the
‘black money wallahs’, in this case, it has hurt the poor and
the migrants in urban areas. The devil lay in the details of
implementation and here we were, as always, sloppy in getting
chemical) scenario as it could unfold on a battlefield. But
what about the rest of the country? We need to start preparing
now for the next big attack, even by terrorists who can use
biochemical weapons and not just crudely assembled bombs.
Clearly, ‘janata curfew’ makes for good headlines when things
are under control—as of now—but it’s unlikely to be enough
when (God forbid!) we are hit by something even bigger.
China is currently putting in place five biochemical weapon
labs, and ‘between them the US, Europe, Russia and Australia
have around 50 functioning or under construction labs, all
under maximum-security’, says the article in The New Indian
Express. Moreover, ‘Western intelligence suspects that Iran and
North Korea also possess chemical weapon labs.’ But ‘the study
of dangerous pathogens such as Ebola or Marburg cannot be
conducted without importing the viruses into a country.’ Is that
why Chinese scientists have been arrested for stealing knowhow
and biochemical vials from labs in America? Historian Frank
Dikotter, who has studied the history of rural China from 1958
to 1962 extensively, told The Independent newspaper of London
in 2010 that in Mao Zedong’s ‘Great Leap Forward’, at least 45
million deaths had occurred in China in four years. It apparently
hadn’t bothered Mao. Now, as Xi Jinping makes it known in his
‘Vision 2050’ that he and the Party cadres will remain devoted to
Mao’s legacy, does China care if a few hundred thousand people
were to die, and if it were to lose half-a-trillion dollars, in its quest
for global domination? Let’s think about that. n
Maroof Raza is a strategic affairs expert and
consulting editor at Times Now

20 13 april 2020
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 De l h i
march 30

Photograph by ashish sharma

Chronic

Lockdown Indi

Kol k ata
march 30
22 13 getty
aprilimages
2020
 M u m ba i
march 30

les crystal ball getty images

a looks ahead

Ch e n na i
march 30
13 april 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 23
Chronicles crystal ball

Photograph by rohit chawla

 The pandemic and the lockdown
have changed our lives. Covid-19 had
claimed more than 47,000 lives by April
2nd, totalling more than 930,000 cases,
worldwide. To slow down, and hopefully
stall and stop, the spread of the
contagion, India went into a 21-day
national lockdown, unprecedented in
its history, on March 24th. A quarter
of humanity is under some form of
lockdown. How are India’s 1.3 billion
people living with it? Are the steps
taken to mitigate its hardships helping?
Is the lockdown having its desired
effect and preventing Stage 3—
community transmission—of the
disease? A look at political leadership,
the economic cost, the unquantifiable
psychological toll, and at the many
uncomfortable shades of the Day After.

13 april 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 25

 Chronicles crystal ball

Politics

Leadership Lessons
A hard political decision saved the day—to a great extent By PR Ramesh

T
hink of a truck on a highway, speeding towards had already taken—in “a sort of curfew” that would enforce self-
you at 100km/h…but now, it’s coming at you at a much isolation and physical distancing among citizens. It risked being
slower 60km/h! We’ve bought time,” Shamika Ravi, di- a highly unpopular decision, especially in view of difficult access
rector of research at Brookings lndia tweeted a few days to essentials, closing down workplaces of every sort and, most of
ago. Ravi, in a recent study based on Covid-19 infection all, loss of personal income and the hit that the national economy
data in India provided by the World Health Organiza- would take. It entailed a big responsibility on regional govern-
tion (WHO), and authenticated by the Government of ments to shelter, feed and provide medical help to thousands
India, to researchers at Johns Hopkins, US, concluded that the thrown out of gear at the personal and the economic levels. But
rapid, virtual doubling of infections every two days in the initial it was a hard decision that needed to be taken to avert a health
stages has now slowed to a doubling in five days. Thus, the speed disaster of epic proportions. It needed firm political will to be en-
of the spread of infection has visibly slowed in India, based on the forced. And it needed cooperation from a public whose history
available data. While the much desired ‘flattening the curve’ may and cultural traditions have been marked by multiplicity and
not still have happened, the sharp bends and dangerous upward argumentativeness.
surges may well have been checked by urgent steps taken by the Things could go wrong on many fronts with a hard decision
Government in the early stages. of this sort. And they did, with reports of violations in high soci-
These steps include the aggressive flooding of all media and ety as in the case of singer Kanika Kapoor. Caught in the thick
other platforms with messages about how to protect oneself and of the national lockdown were also the many people, including
others from catching the infection, who to contact upon symp- some from other nations, who attended a religious gathering in
toms developing, mandatorily testing all the Nizamuddin area of Delhi that houses
those coming in from abroad and enforc- the headquarters of the Tablighi Jamaat.
ing quarantine on them, flying in Indians The meet resulted in a sudden outbreak of
from abroad and keeping them in isolation
for two weeks before releasing them back
By the time coronavirus cases and the detention many
people. This has turned the area into a Co-
home, strict contact-tracing of those testing Modi announced vid-19 hotspot, with almost 100 positive
positive for Covid-19, and then, barring all the lockdown, coronavirus cases linked to it. It had already
inbound flights. claimed the lives of more than half-a-dozen
But the big challenge facing the Govern-
goods trains attendees at the time of going to press. As
ment was how to protect a population of carrying foodgrain of April 1st, nine Indians—thousands were
1.3 billion from community transmission, had reached railway stationed at the Nizamuddin Markaz build-
Stage 3 in the spread of Covid-19, especially ing since March 10th—six in Telangana,
with an underequipped health infrastruc- stations across one each in Tamil Nadu, Jammu and Kash-
ture and personnel. That entailed urgent, the country mir, and Karnataka, had died of Covid-19. Of
bold and out-of-the-box political thinking, the 25 cases reported on March 30th in Delhi
a move that Prime Minister Narendra Modi alone, 18 were from this gathering in Niza-
decided to take when he announced the so- muddin. This prompted the authorities to
cially acceptable, self-imposed ‘janata curfew’, including a public quarantine the participants at the meet and even consider legal
bell-clanging and hand-clapping at 5 pm on a Sunday (March action against its organisers, a move that would send out a strong
22nd) to thank the frontline warriors in fighting the spread of signal that anyone violating the lockdown would be meted out
infection in others at huge risk to themselves. These warriors a strict penalty.
included the doctors, nurses, parameds, sanitation workers, am- For his part, Modi is leading the fight against coronavirus from
bulance drivers and others. the front. In his first address on the importance of social distanc-
Thus, having thus first conscientised ordinary Indians to ing and minimising physical contact, he emphasised the dangers
the dangers of Covid-19, Modi made the most significant and of the infection and the need to resort to self-discipline in order
unprecedented announcement, on the evening of March 24th, to make the ‘janata curfew’ a success. His address resulted in a
to “lock down” the entire country—a decision that some states positive, voluntary response across the country. It was only after

26 13 april 2020

this response from citizens across the board that, having prepared
the ground, Modi announced the 21-day nationwide lockdown.
It was not an ill-thought decision. Modi had, in the preceding
weeks, consulted and connected with several sectors in prepa-
ration, even ordering around 40,000 scarce ventilators to boost
personal protection equipment (PPE) for medical professionals.
Right from the Centre’s call for the 21-day national lockdown to
mobilising much-needed medical supplies and PPE for medical
professionals to activating economic packages for different sec-
tors and income and food support for the poor, Modi’s response
to the coronavirus threat has been exemplary given the size of
India’s population, its density, the state of the healthcare system
and a traditional culture that was unlikely to take to decisions
Economy
The War on Fear
The government’s response to
the economic fallout has been
strong. It now needs to take
care to ensure a smooth re-start
By Siddharth Singh
13 april 2020
Prime Minister
Narendra Modi
announces
the national
lockdown on TV,
March 24
like locking down the country. By the time Modi announced the
lockdown, goods trains carrying foodgrain had reached railway
stations across the country. The Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM)
trinity has also helped in this crisis. In states like Assam, stadiums
were converted into hospitals to quarantine Covid-19 positive pa-
tients and the Indian Railways are readying 80,000 isolation beds
on trains for people testing positive. At the G-20 video conference
on March 26th, Modi emphasised that saving human lives should
be given priority at this juncture by all instead of economic tar-
gets for global prosperity. He also called for the sharing of medical
research and development for all besides reforming the WHO
which appeared to have shown slow reflexes and questionable
judgement in the crisis. n
I
t is a moment of fear. In the time since the announce-
ment of the 21-day lockdown not a day has passed without
some prognosis of doom. While there is unanimity that
India’s economy will be ‘hit’ there is no consensus on the
quantum of the hit. Virtually all private sector banks and
ratings agencies have shaved-off close to 2 percentage points
of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from an already anaemic
growth rate projection for 2020-21.
That, however, has not deterred Indian policymakers. In an
impromptu press conference on March 27th, the Reserve Bank
of India (RBI) cut the repo rate—the rate at which it lends money
to banks—by 75 basis points. It was a large reduction in the policy
rate. More importantly, the central bank lowered the reverse repo
rate, a step meant to weaken the desire of commercial banks to
park money with the RBI and encourage them to lend money to
www.openthemagazine.com 27
 Chronicles crystal ball
the market. The combination, according to some economists,
will lead to much greater easing than the 75 basis point cut in
the repo rate. The central bank did not stop there. Through three
other measures, it injected liquidity close to Rs 3.7 trillion in the
economy, a large dose of money in a system that was jamming
up due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The RBI also announced a number of regulatory steps, such as
a three-month moratorium in repayment of all loans that stood
on March 1st. Deferment of interest to be paid on working capital
loans and easing of working capital financing norms were also
announced.
In its statement, the central bank said: “The need of the hour
is to do whatever is necessary to shield the domestic economy
from the pandemic.” The RBI has plenty more ammunition in
case the economy needs more support.
The steps announced by the central bank came just a day after
the Government announced a large package to meet the distress
needs of the poor. More is expected from the Government once
the lockdown is over.
Connaught Place in New Delhi, March 30
Photograph by ashish sharma
28
Tfallindomesticspending,leadingtoahugefallindemand.Itis
he danger to the Indian economy stems from a sudden
unlikely that demand for food and necessary items will collapse.
The Rs 1.7 trillion injection of money into the accounts of the
poor is sufficient to prevent the floor falling away. The danger is
more pronounced at the level of companies and employers where
the fear of a demand collapse may lead to cutting back of invest-
ments and, in turn, loss of existing jobs and the wiping away of
potential future jobs. That is the area where the Government has
its work cut out. The situation requires delicate handling. For one,
the Government has to ensure the availability of money for lend-
ing, with some relaxation of borrowing and repayment norms.
For another, it needs deft messaging to ensure that fear does not
sink in among spenders and borrowers in India. Once the cycle
of borrowing and spending stops, the economy can jam up and
become very difficult to re-start.
This is key to ensuring India does not get into an economic
morass.
Even in this gloomy scenario there is plenty that is going right.
13 april 2020
The sudden collapse in global crude oil pric- again. The virtues of the private sector, as an
es—which briefly touched an unbelievable efficient wealth creator are well-known.
$4 per barrel—augers well for India as it goes Maybe it is time for Unlike earlier ideologically charged times
into a fiscal expansion to keep its economy when the private sector was vilified and gov-
afloat. Pandemics and global panics are the the government to ernment exalted its own role as saviour, this
time when highly indebted countries get engage in large is a different age. Maybe it is time for the Gov-
into trouble with external borrowers. In this
respect, too, India is an exception to many
economic projects ernment to engage in some large economic
projects where the effect of spending will not
emerging economies. If anything, India just where spending only lead to an increased demand for output
opened itself to foreign investment in more will increase demand produced by the private sector but also give
types of government bonds. Pessimists— an overall boost to the economy. Globalisa-
and there are many floating around—will
for private-sector tion ensured that manufacturing would
say this is a desperate measure to attract for- output and boost end up in countries like China and other
eign money. The reality is that it bespeaks the economy export-led economies where scale benefits
confidence on part of the Union Govern- allowed for massive expansion. This led to
ment to open this market. manufacturing either moving away (as in
In the immediate future, fiscal expan- the US) or discouraged (as in the case of In-
sion—an increase in government spend- dia). A government-led initiative, based on
ing or cuts in taxes—poses little danger to India. Inflation is not carefully crafted industrial policies can go a long way in ensur-
a problem and has not been one during the last six years of the ing growth in this century. This does not have to be about ‘saving
Narendra Modi Government. The side effects of a spending spree capitalism’ as much as ensuring that supply chains remain within
will only arise when the Government continues with it after the a country’s shores. It is time for the Government to sit together
economic situation normalises. with the private sector and draft a new five-year perspective plan
There is much that the Government can do beyond handing to reinvigorate the Indian economy. This should not be seen as
out money to the poor and giving confidence to the private sector. an ideological reorientation but as a pragmatic way to allocate
Perhaps it is time to reconsider government’s economic role once resources that will help all Indians. n

Health

It’s a Long Haul

Are three weeks enough for a comprehensive
victory over the pandemic? By Lhendup G Bhutia

O
ver the weekend, the fishermen’s colony of
Worli Koliwada in central Mumbai’s western coast,
returned eight Covid-19 positive samples. This is a
densely-packed neighbourhood where people live in
close proximity, and many of them have no recourse
but to step out of their homes to collect water or use
facilities such as public lavatories.
No one from this area had tested positive before. None of the
eight infected had any history of foreign travel or were known to
have come in contact with someone who might have tested posi-
tive. In fact, as the number of confirmed infections rise rapidly in
Mumbai, several such cases are being reported, many of them—
in a major challenge to health workers—living in crowded spaces
like chawls and slums. Twelve individuals, for instance, living
in a single chawl tenement in the city’s Elphinstone Road area
tested positive recently. It is suspected that one woman, now
dead from the infection, who ran a small food stall in the area,
probably picked up the virus from a client working in one of the
neighbourhood’s corporate offices, and she in turn passed it on
to six of her family members and five neighbours who lived on
the floor above.
By Sunday, when the Central Government had identified
Mumbai city as one of the 10 ‘hotspots’ (areas where several
clusters of infection are reported, and which according to offi-
cials, will be more aggressively tested and surveilled), the city’s
municipal corporation sealed up the entire Worli Koliwada area
along with an adjacent slum. The Elphinstone Road chawl was
also sealed. No individual is now permitted to go in or out of the

13 april 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 29

 Chronicles crystal ball

Worli Koliwada area or chawl. The municipal corporation is also

carrying out more aggressive surveillance at Worli Koliwada, its
workers moving from the neighbourhood door-to-door to check
if there may be any individuals who haven’t yet reported their
symptoms. It is effectively a lockdown within a lockdown.
It is difficult to foresee what will happen when the 21-day
lockdown gets over. If, as the Government currently claims, they
are satisfied with the check on the virus and do not extend the
lockdown, this is probably one of the ways authorities will use to
combat the pandemic’s spread. They will choose to expend their
resources in smaller ‘clusters’ and ‘hotspots’ that will most prob-
ably emerge, dousing whatever fire emerges there, aggressively
surveilling, testing and isolating, and maybe, even conducting
localised lockdowns.

WApril 15th? Will we have awoken to a somewhat restored

hat will happen when we arise on the morning of

world where we still can’t afford to leave all our anxieties behind
but, with some care, resume our paused lives? Or will the virus be
very much around, running through us and the population and
overwhelming our healthcare system the moment the restric-
tions are eased?
“What the lockdown has probably done is that it has momen-
tarily held the virus down. But it will probably bounce back when
you lift it,” says an infectious disease specialist caring for several A quarantine facility at Sarusajai Sports Complex in Guwahati, March 31
patients with the infection. According to this specialist who re-
quested he not be named, it is crucial that testing be ramped up.
“We still aren’t conducting enough tests. It is only with more tests
that you get a more accurate picture of how far the virus is spread- be nearly 5,000 infected cases in India. By May 15th, it will have
ing, where all it is concentrated. When we get such information, risen to over 58,000; over 100,000 by June 1st; and by over 130,000
we can focus our energies there.” by June 15th. These are still conservative figures based on data
According to most estimates, a three-week lockdown will not collected up till March 16th. They rely on reported infection num-
be enough. Bill Gates, for instance, talking about the US, recom- bers, which is probably highly under-reported because of the low
mends at least six to 10 weeks of “extreme number of tests being conducted.
shutdown”. A study put out by the Impe- A particularly interesting study is one
rial College London—looking at the US conducted by mathematicians (Ronojoy
and UK cases—suggests that in those Adhikari and Rajesh Singh) from Cam-
countries, some form of lockdown will Some claim a bridge University in Britain. Here, the
need to be implemented intermittently for ‘flattening of the two create a model that among other
the next year-and-a-half or so until a vac- things, factors in different age groups
cine becomes available. Otherwise, once
curve’ already and how social contact occurs between
interventions are relaxed, transmission seems to be taking them in different settings such as the
will rebound. place in India. house, workplace and school in India,
There have been a few non-peer re- and compares that with Italy and China.
viewed studies based on mathematical Before March 21st, The Indian house, they thus show for
models in the last few weeks that seek cases were doubling instance, provides the main channel of
to predict what could happen in India. transmission between three generations
One such study—conducted by an inter-
every three days. (this is much smaller in China, and neg-
disciplinary group of scholars and data Now it seems to ligible in Italy).
scientists from the US and India called have slowed Using this model, they predict that a
COV-IND-19 Study Group—predicts that three-week lockdown will be insufficient.
without any interventions, such as the on- to five days The duo calculates that the Government
going lockdown, by April 15th, there will should either go for three consecutive

30 13 april 2020
 getty images
Society
Breaking the Habit
Our behaviour is changing faster than we thought.
Everyday matters are now tough challenges By Ullekh NP
D
avid Runciman writes in his book How De-
mocracy Ends that ‘a common complaint against twenty-
first century democracy is that it has lost control of cor-
porate power’. But we are in a phase, brief or otherwise,
when corporate power is helpless and so is democracy,
to an extent, and yet what is public good snatches the
focus. Any shutdown brings out behavioural changes
and the Covid-19 one, too, has its share of these, prompting us to
look deeper into ourselves. It is about public choices but they have
a deeply personal impact. Will these new habits endure through
normal times? Some of these may.
Public health and cleanliness: Over the past several decades
the focus of our policymakers had shifted increasingly to the pri-
vate sector, especially thanks to the need for research and focus on
lifestyle diseases. Covid-19 proves that all governmental boasts
13 april 2020
lockdowns (a 28-day-long lockdown following the current one,
and then a final one for 18 days, each one of these three spaced
by 5 days of suspension) or a single, long lockdown of 49 days.
Either of these two steps, they calculate, will bring the number of
infections down to manageable limits, where just explicit contact
tracing and quarantining of suspected and infected cases will be
sufficient in preventing a resurgence.
All model studies, however, have to be taken with a pinch of
salt. They are based on certain assumptions that are valid at one
particular time and begin crumbling when there are uncertain-
ties. And there are perhaps few uncertainties as large as that of
human behaviour in the face of a pandemic.
Some, looking at the data of the growth of cases in India, claim
that a ‘flattening of the curve’ already seems to be taking place.
Before March 21st, when stricter travel restrictions, social distanc-
ing measures and the shutting down of schools and institutions
were put in place in many areas, the number of cases in India were
doubling every three days. Now, according to Brookings India, it
seems to have slowed to five days.
“We are probably still in the early stages of the virus’ spread
here,” the infectious disease expert quoted above says. “We bought
ourselves some time with the lockdown. I hope we have been
able to use this to ramp up our capacities, getting more hospital
and ICU beds, more ventilators and PPEs (personal protective
equipment for health workers). We are going to need all of it.” n
are misplaced if they continue to claim a decline in communi-
cable diseases. There has been a breakthrough from primitive
times, of course, but challenges still abound.
Communities have become more hygiene-conscious to fight
infections. Washing hands with soap, keeping door knobs clean,
wearing masks and gloves while outdoors, social distancing,
etcetera, could have lasting impact. Even SARS-scarred slum-
dwellers in Hong Kong now wear affordable masks when they
have a cold, proving that poverty may not be a hindrance to
hygiene and efforts to curtail infections among Indians either,
both rich and poor.
Digitally Yours: In the absence of newspapers at the door-
step, news gathering is now at the fingertips, literally. Even senior
citizens are quick to embrace it—of course, here we are talking
with a class bias of those who can afford digital devices. It is a time
www.openthemagazine.com 31
 Chronicles crystal ball
for discovery for many who are going beyond Netflix, Hotspot,
Amazon Prime and news-streaming sites on the phone and other
devices, including TV, to stay connected and keep a semblance of
normalcy. People are moving from bingewatching and senseless
surfing to hunting for new avenues online to keep themselves
abreast of news, views and entertainment. The feeling of paper
between the fingers might become less tempting. That musicians
(TM Krishna, for example) are offering online concerts to raise
money and bands are coming together to record remotely in their
studios are only a few instances of adaptability.
Back to Hobbies: For the privileged classes accustomed to
helps, who must now be sent on a paid holiday until the lock-
down ends, even doing laundry and the dishes could be the
new hobby. Cooking, or being experimental with your kitchen
wisdom, is certainly a time-tested one. Other serious pursuits of
dusting up the black boxes of your talent include the arts, musical
instruments, yoga and taking singing from the bathroom to the
living room. Being an aficionado also counts. On a personal note,
I have been gorging on a long-forgotten and spirituous cocktail of
Srinagar in the lockdown, April 1
getty images
32
Miles Davis’ cover of ‘Stella by Starlight’, Chuck Berry’s ‘Johnny
B. Goode’ and Ray Charles’ ‘Georgia on My Mind’. Meanwhile,
video streaming-immune bibliophiles, an endangered species,
are making the most of the opportunity.
Responsible Hoarding: You cannot hoard judiciously, but
can consume reasonably, as societies that remember great wars
have always done. While it is a crime to empty shelves off soap,
hand sanitiser and food, widespread uncertainty means you
value what you have, even water and soap. Families pitch in to
ensure optimal use of resources. Discipline and not taking every-
thing for granted are things we are learning afresh.
All about the Family: It is ideally the time for bonding, but
then, as they say, familiarity breeds contempt. While in bond-
age, Nelson Mandela and his co-prisoners hated each other at
times because they knew all about each other—as much as they
loved each other. Likewise, a friend told me, it is the best of times
and the worst of times for the family. Delegation of chores helps
avoid bad blood. Patriarchal entitlement could crawl out like
a monster occasionally, yet key takeaways include lessons in
13 april 2020
 extr a at
https://openthemagazine.com

Truth Versus Misinformation

humility and being self-sufficient. Learning new skills (hair-
Kaveree Bamzai
cutting) is also on the cards. https://openthemagazine.com/features
truth-versus-misinformation/

Mmesticpressurescanthrowlivesoutofgear.Sajootti,afriend Why We Are In It Together

ental Health: Worries about job security and do-
V Shoba
from Sharjah in the UAE, tells me the mental agony can kill faster https://openthemagazine.com/features
than the coronavirus, yet there is no medical help. Dr Kushal the-game-of-survival/
Jain, a psychiatrist in Delhi, tells me of addiction relapse, espe-
cially for heroin and alcohol, after his patients have run short Are We Waiting for a Miracle?
of medical supplies due to logistic nightmares. In Kerala, a few Bennett Voyles
https://openthemagazine.com/columns/
who killed themselves did so for want of liquor. The monotony
guest-column/are-we-waiting-for-a-miracle/
of staying home, inability to meet friends and lovers in person,
fear of contracting Covid-19, and relationships and dating are
now grave challenges. Often, women tend to bear the brunt, es-
Knowing Our Enemy
Dhiraj Nayyar
pecially of added workload at home or being imprisoned with https://openthemagazine.com/columns/
abusive partners. Those who are already suffering from mental knowing-our-enemy/
trauma see their conditions worsening. There is multiple jeop-
ardy for people who test positive for Covid-19 and are forced to Life in the Time of Coronavirus
be in hospital/home quar- Mehr Tarar
antine thanks to naming https://openthemagazine.com/columns/
and shaming on social life-time-coronavirus/
media and community
WhatsApp groups (there Those already A Viral Lesson
are Covid-19 stickers out- suffering from Nikita Doval
https://openthemagazine.com/features/a-viral-lesson/
side the homes of most
infected people). The good
mental trauma see
news is that some people their conditions An Uncertain Economic Future
Siddharth Singh
are using the occasion
to kick their vices, from
worsening. There is https://openthemagazine.com/features/

smoking to drinking to multiple jeopardy uncertain-economic-future/

junk food. for Covid-19 Fear And Loathing In A Small Indian Town
Empathy: Reconnect-
ing with old friends and
positive people Lhendup G Bhutia
https://openthemagazine.com/health/
spending time with one’s fear-loathing-small-indian-town/
children and pets come
naturally now. Helping ‘The number of tests conducted so far is too low’
out older neighbours with groceries and other essential pur- Ullekh NP
chases and enquiring after their health brings to the fore the role https://openthemagazine.com/features/medicine/
of love in life, although it looks like a far cry in Indian politics number-tests-conducted-far-low/
with thousands of poor migrants stranded, beaten and humili-
ated. Your altruism wakes up. A break from life’s fast lane, with The Death Dance of Coronavirus
even mobility largely curtailed, also means you have the time Lakshmi Bayi
to contemplate and give spirituality a chance. Some are already https://openthemagazine.com/columns/
guest-column/death-dance-coronavirus/
making quick progress.
Clearly, the lockdown many parts of the world are currently
in evokes multiple emotions from rage (read China-bashing)
A Time for Toughness
Amita Shah
to sympathy to indifference and despair. We also don’t tire of https://openthemagazine.com/features/
repeating the tale of revenge of nature, not only linked to hu- going-gets-tough/
man avarice, but also about our inhuman behaviour towards
the environment. But one should be glad that it is prompting Punjab: An Indifferent Homecoming
at least a good chunk of the human race to look deeper into Nikita Doval
themselves. Just as the world is going to change, this experience https://openthemagazine.com/features/
will change us, too—and more than just by a little. n punjab-indifferent-homecoming/

13 april 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 33

 Chronicles the fight
Virus Busters
They are on the frontline with policies and philanthropy
By Kaveree Bamzai
i
f India has officially been able to keep the coronavi-
rus under control so far, much of the credit should go to
the people behind the scenes. On March 18th, the Indian
Council of Medical Research (ICMR) convened a high-level
technical task force of 21 experts, followed two days later by
the health ministry forming a 17-member public health
working group. Added to this was a principal scientific officer
reaching out to corporates, in what the Government was hop-
ing would be a public-private-citizen partnership.But as reports
from the ground came in of the humanitarian crisis staring the
Government in its face, on March 29th, it set up 11 empowered
groups under the Disaster Management Act of 2005. As one of the
country’s premier immunologists, Satyajit Rath, says: “There are
Illustrations by Saurabh Singh
34
no other ways to combat the virus, apart from trying to avoid all
of us getting it at the same time, which will put huge pressure on
the healthcare system.” He says that first, we are all more worried
than warranted about our individual selves and less worried than
warranted about spreading infection quickly and widely, which
leads to healthcare systems getting overloaded. Second, we are not
testing widely enough to produce evidence to assess the situation.
Third, we do not seem to be alleviating, or even making plans for
alleviating, the massive hardships we have created for the poor
of our country as a result of the lockdown.
Here are the health warriors who’ve been directing the policy
aimed at buying time, allowing for testing and hospital facilities
to be built.
Doctor on Call
Dr Harsh Vardhan
Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare
Unlike in his previous stint as Union Minister for
Health and Family Welfare when he didn’t last the
full term and was replaced by JP Nadda, the otolar-
yngologist has stayed the course in the Narendra
Modi Government 2.0 to face the biggest test of
his career. The good doctor has had brushes with
history before as health minister in Delhi with
the successful implementation of the Pulse Polio
Programme, which ensured mass immunisation
of 1 million children up to the age of three. In 1997,
he also piloted one of the first anti-tobacco laws
implemented by any province in the country. In
2001, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee
had described Dr Vardhan as ‘Swasthya Vardhan’;
former Prime Minister IK Gujral called him the
“best health minister of India”. Before the corona-
virus crisis, he had considered the cleaning up of
the ‘corruption-plagued’ Medical Council of India
(MCI) and the passage of the National Medical
Commission Bill 2019 as one of his greatest achieve-
ments. If India is able to overcome Covid-19, he
may want to revise that self-assesment.
13 april 2020
Big Heart
Ratan Tata Chairman Emeritus, Tata Sons
In keeping with the Tata group tradition, Ratan Tata made a big
announcement when he said the conglomerate would spend Rs
1,500 crore on what is most urgently needed: procuring protective
equipment for frontline workers, respiratory systems for treatment
of increasing cases, testing kits, setting up of modular facilities for
infected patients and knowledge management as well as training
of health workers and the general public. While Rs 1,000 crore was
committed by Tata Sons, Rs 500 crore came from Tata Trusts. More-
over, he thought small as well: Taj Hotels will provide free hot meals Breathe Easy
to doctors battling the virus at Mumbai government hospitals. Anand Mahindra
Chairman, Mahindra Group
One of India’s most socially active billionaires, he
put his money where his mouth is, pledging that
the Mahindra Group would help in making avail-
able ventilators, essential to healthcare of infected
patients. The company increased production and
also started assembling faceshields, especially
for health workers. He also offered setting up of
Club Mahindra Holidays’ resorts as temporary
care facilities. His positive tweets, whether salut-
ing healthcare workers or promising to take care
of the daily rations and essentials of at least three
less-privileged families, have enormous following,
especially in these dark times.

Sheltering Touch
Harshavardhan Neotia
Chairman, Ambuja Neotia Group
The affable real-estate tycoon showed he was all heart when he offered 30 luxury
bungalows in South 24 Parganas to the West Bengal government as quarantine or
self-isolation suites. He has also been at the forefront of meetings by corporate India
asking the Government to assess cash flows of companies, impact on small busi-
nesses and the situation of contract workers facing loss of income.

The Multitasker As the face of India’s premier agency for testing, he has been at the receiving end for there
Dr Balram Bhargava not being enough of it. His responses have always been in his trademark unruffled style: that
DG, ICMR India can perform 50,000-70,000 tests a week but doesn’t need to. Indiscriminate testing is not
the answer, he says, adding that there should be tests only if there are symptoms. Perhaps his
conservative stance comes from his background in cardiology where he has been critical of
overdiagnosis and overtreatment, which he says is driven by stakeholders seeking to maximise
profits. That is why he started the Society for Less Investigative Medicine at AIIMS to develop
treatment guidelines for 100 diseases which take account of what is available and cost-effective
for India. As co-founder of the Stanford India Biodesign programme, he also spearheaded many
frugal biomedical innovations. An interventional cardiologist, he also pioneered the develop-
ment of low-cost indigenous coronary stents. Bhargava’s mission, when he took over the centu-
ry-old ICMR in 2018, was to implement Modi’s ambitious target of ending tuberculosis by 2025
and ending most infectious diseases by 2030. For now, he has a new disease to vanquish.

13 april 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 35

 Chronicles the fight

The Communicator
K VijayRaghavan Principal Scientific Adviser
He has been at the forefront of the advocacy for a public-private partnership, in-
cluding on Twitter. A key member of the empowered group headed by NITI Aayog
CEO Amitabh Kant, he is in charge of coordinating with the private organisations
for ‘response-related activities’. VijayRaghavan wants companies to use CSR funds
to fight the coronavirus. He even got the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to issue
a clarification. Thanks to his nudging, the Government announced funding for
indigenous labs to submit their proposals: Pune’s molecular diagnostics company
Mylab developed the first Indian testing kit approved for use. His tweets have been
most useful for anyone looking for information and reassurance. From urging
everyone to look after the elderly, the vulnerable, the lonely, the poor and informal
workers, to arguing for collaboration of industry and academics for trials of drugs,
he is a one-man public service.

The Calm One The Spokesman

Preeti Sudan
Secretary, Union Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare
She is the chair of the ministry’s
public health working group and
co-chair of ICMR’s high-level
technical taskforce. In the
early days, it was she who would
conduct video conferences with
ministries and state governments.
A 1983 batch Andhra cadre IAS
officer, she was previously
Secretary, Department of Food
and Public Distribution. She was
Joint Secretary in the Ministry of
Defence and a key architect of
the Ayushman Bharat scheme.
She played an important role,
coordinating relief efforts from the
Centre, during the Kerala
floods of 2018.
Lav Agarwal Joint Secretary, Union
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
The 1996 batch Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS officer
is the pointperson for the public health work-
ing group, headed by Secretary Preeti Sudan,
and briefing the media, which he does with a
Sir Humphrey level of waffling. Trusted by the
Prime Minister’s Office, he is the man anointed
with presentations to the world at large. He was
formerly District Collector of Visakhapatnam.
The Expert
Dr Vinod K Paul Member, NITI Aayog
He heads the empowered group for the medical emer-
gency management. Recently appointed as Chairman of
the Board of Governor which will replace the MCI, Dr
Paul spent over three decades at AIIMS in New Delhi.
He was also special invitee to the public health working
group under the ministry and chair of ICMR’s high-level
technical task force and one of those tasked with dispelling
misinformation.

The Virologist
Dr Raman R Gangakhedkar
Head (Epidemiology and Communicable Diseases), ICMR
Leading the epidemiological analysis, he is a key member of the empowered group on the
availability of hospitals, isolation and quarantine facilities, disease surveillance and testing
as well as critical care training. A paediatrician and public health expert with specialisation
in reproductive and paediatric AIDS, he is in charge of analysing the virus strain. He is also
leading ICMR’s effort to curb viral diseases in India. The priority, he has said, should be to
cure those who are infected, even as work on vaccines is going on. An Indian vaccine against
the coronavirus, he says, may take at least 1.5-2 years even if trials are expedited.

36 13 april 2020
 l l e l e d
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n g e d
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s t s o
e m o z i n e
e n t h a g a
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 Chronicles KERaLA Model
‘ The Fight against
Covid-19 Is a People’s
Movement ’
Pinarayi Vijayan
k
erala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and
Health Minister KK Shailaja have earned international
accolades for their government’s coordinated fight to con-
tain the Covid-19 pandemic in the state, which reported
the first case of the fomite-borne disease in India. For a
state that tops in remittances from abroad, its links with the Gulf re-
gion and the rest of the world are legendary, making its people more
vulnerable to contracting the disease. Vijayan says that although
the number of coronavirus cases in the state has risen, so have recov-
eries. “We quarantine or test potential cases to ensure that they get
early treatment. The idea is also to identify and isolate them from
healthy people,” the 75-year-old Chief Minister avers. Vijayan spoke
to Open about his government’s key priorities. Excerpts:
Has the influx from the Gulf put your hospitals under stress?
Firstly, the Gulf region is sort of an extension of Kerala. Our small
state is what it is thanks to the contribution of people from all over
the world, especially the Gulf. We have enormous gains thanks to
people of Kerala origin living there and therefore this is a cost that
we have to pay when they return home sick. They are welcome
to return. Of course, now there are no flights or trains or interstate
buses. But that doesn’t mean that they can roam around freely. They
38
Interview
Pinarayi Vijayan Kerala Chief Minister
By Ullekh NP
have to obey rules here. If the health department asks them to go
for home quarantine or get admitted to a hospital, they have to do
that. They can’t dodge such responsibilities. We have to maintain
social distancing and ensure isolation as a policy to fight Covid-19.
No, it is not true that we are floundering. See, our primary
health infrastructure is also a social infrastructure that involves
a large number of people who are working collectively to check
the spread of this viral disease. From ASHA workers to doctors
to nurses to political workers to local governments and the state
government, all are involved in this mission to fight the disease.
We have proved that we could do it when the Nipah outbreak
happened in which the mortality rates were much higher. Also,
don’t forget that we have fully functional and equipped primary
health centres in all villages in Kerala. Our nurses are known for
their world-class skills. Our doctors are also extremely experi-
enced in handling unexpected stress and situations. An elderly
couple from Ranni, aged 93 and 82, were successfully treated for
Covid-19. All that is proof of our efficiency.
Yes, we have an unprecedented situation here in which even
countries with the best and most technologically advanced health
facilities in the private sector have failed. We are trying our best
and our primary health system is robust and let me remind you
13 april 2020
it did not happen to be so by accident. Our stress on public health Our government and our visionary leaders since the begin-
had started much earlier than most others. The 1957-1959 EMS ning [1957, when the first Kerala government came to power
government laid great emphasis on public health and even when after the state was created in 1956] have been committed to im-
the focus shifted worldwide to the private sector, our commitment proving availability of health facilities to everyone irrespective of
to public health remained strong. And that is our strength. This is social position. We are continuing that rich legacy that we have
a time of great hardship, but we are determined to offer the best inherited. South Korea is a different case; Kerala is an altogether
services to the public. You know that some days ago, we declared different experience.
a special package to tide over the impact of the Covid-19 outbreak.
The number of cases in Kerala is still rising…
In what ways are various tiers of the government coordinating Let me assure you that we have a public-health machinery which is
with people? more of a social infrastructure to trace people who could be infect-
We have asked MLAs and all local bodies to keep an eye on homes ed. We are determined to leave nothing to chance. We will put all
in their areas so as to avert domestic abuse and to help people those who need to be put under watch in quarantine and all those
addicted to alcohol to be shifted to deaddiction centers. We have who need treatment will get treatment. Why don’t you see that we
appealed to the people as a whole to cre- are the ones who have tested the largest
ate healthy atmosphere in their homes number of people? We do it because the
and for men to help the womenfolk in density of population in the state is very
daily chores. We are also taking steps to ‘We treat people high. Look at Covid-19 mortality rate in
ensure the wellbeing of all health work- the state. That is because we are prompt
ers. All this is a matter of commitment. who have come to our inidentifyingandisolatingpotentialcases
state from other of Covid-19.
Are community kitchens part of that
commitment?
states as guests. They Before temporarily banning liquor
Very much. See, lockdowns affect a lot are not anyasamsthana shops, your government had hesitated
of people. Some people are fine because thozhilalikal a bit even while under attack from the
they have the resources to withstand Opposition, saying the measure would
such drastic measures that are taken [non-Kerala labourers] result in social repercussions and rise in
to fight a highly infectious disease. But but atithi thozhilalikal illicit trading. Since these were closed,
then we also have to take care of those
who are highly vulnerable to any such
[guest workers]’ some people have committed suicide.
Crowding outside these retail outlets
lockdown. We announced a lockdown a will spread infection. People addicted
day earlier than the national lockdown. need to voluntarily opt to be admitted to
Naturally, we had to be prepared. A lot of dailywage labourers deaddiction centres. We have made all arrangements for them. A
and workers from other states, meaning low-income groups and helpdesk for online counselling is being created to address this
disadvantaged people, are going to be at high risk of starvation problem. Counselling through the web will be expanded much
and concomitant difficulties. Old people who do not have others further. Besides, we are also planning to offer liquor to those in the
to take care of them are also part of that group. Most often people process of rehabilitation based on doctors’ prescriptions. Now, criti-
who are hungry and suffering are reluctant to ask neighbours for cism against the government over this is raised only by hypocrites.
help because that is a humiliating experience. We understand
those problems. Which is why we have set up community kitch- What are you going to do about the sealing of the border in the
ens, thanks to these they all can call up on a number and ask for north by Karnataka?
food which will be delivered at their doorstep or wherever they I spoke with the Prime Minister and then the Honourable Home
are. There was talk that community kitchens mean all people Minister Amit Shah was kind enough to listen to our position.
will come and eat in one big hall. No. Our idea is to offer succour But so far nothing concrete has happened after that. We must
to the poor while maintaining social distancing. We think it is not forget that Mangalore is a medical hub because of its geog-
foolish on any government’s part to allow its people to be hungry. raphy: proximity to Kerala. Historically, it flourished because of
In Kerala, no person will sleep hungry because of the lockdown. contribution of people from the entire northern region of Kerala.
We will ensure the needy will get food. Especially, we treat people
who have come to our state from other states as guests. They are Are you satisfied with the Centre’s Covid-19 package?
not anyasamsthana thozhilalikal [non-Kerala labourers] but atithi We welcome the move. We, however, expect the Honourable
thozhilalikal [guest workers]. Prime Minister to do more because the states are resource-scarce
Kerala is being compared with South Korea, which success- and have to depend on the Centre. n
fully flattened the curve after an initial explosion in Covid-19
cases thanks to its affordable testing kits. Full interview at Openthemagazine.com

13 april 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 39

Migrant workers on
National Highway 24 in
Ghaziabad, March 30

40 13 april 2020
 Chronicles Class divide

The Longest Walk Home

Sickness may be a great leveller but the
pandemic reveals how some lives are more equal
than others. Nandini Nair captures the stranded
migrant labourers’ struggle for home
Photograph by Ashish Sharma

T
he coronavirus pandemic throws into sharp relief the ever widen-
ing gap between the rich and the poor. While one set of people might be beset
with boredom, another looks at the prospect of starvation. India’s affluent
with their live-in domestic help, packed larders and high-speed internet
might find these three weeks of mandatory lockdown an imposition, even
a burden. But it will not ruin them. It will not push them out in the streets
and compel them to walk for hundreds of kilometres, not for a ‘chhutti’, but
for mere survival. No one knows how the economy is going to hold up in
the near future, but this much is certain: the poor in India are already facing
the brunt of the pandemic.
It is 2 PM on Day Five (March 30th) of the nationwide lockdown. NH-24 connecting Delhi
to Meerut is desolate except for a few odd vehicles. With police checkpoints every couple of
kilometres only those deemed ‘essential services’ are allowed to drive through. We pass a
family of three, a mother and a father carrying a young child along with a bag strapped to
his back. The husband tells us that he has a regular job in Delhi but is walking 25 km to meet
his father who is unwell. We ask if he is going to reach his destination in a single day. He is
confident and says he will make it by sunset. A police vehicle notices us and comes to a halt.
The UP police immediately swing into action and tell the family to turn back. Their home is
close by and the cops say they will escort them. The husband and wife try to make their case,
but to no avail. We watch as they are herded back down the road they’ve just walked, with a

www.openthemagazine.com 41
 Chronicles Class divide

cop wielding a lathi in the air behind them. says he has come to take his aunt and uncle to his room as they’ve
Day Three and Four of the lockdown saw hundreds of thou- been evicted from their rented accommodation and their village
sands of people leaving their Delhi accommodation and head- is too far. A car stops by and asks them if they want food and water.
ing to the border. The Guardian called it India’s ‘greatest exodus They say no. They say they are carrying enough to sustain them.
since partition’. Even hardened photographers say that watching Numerous vans, with ‘Bhojan Seva’ posted on the window, ply up
the crowds of people scramble for the few odd buses left them in and down the highway, providing the walkers with some relief. A
tears. By Day Five the processions have been removed from the good Samaritan who is handing out poori and halwa tells us that he
highways. All has been ‘sanitised’, garlands of plastic containers has packed 1,000 lunches this Monday afternoon, from his neigh-
sprinkling the side of the road tell us of crowds that have come bour, a sweetseller’s shop. The nephew who does housecleaning
and gone. A chopper flying above hints at the presence of a head in a major private hospital says that he has come to depend on
of state in the vicinity. But we still see stragglers, those who are the help of strangers as the Government does nothing. He knows
too old or too slow, or have left late. They are looking for alterna- he might lose his job for not showing up to work but right now
tive routes, walking through harvested fields and trying to avoid getting his aunt and uncle home is more important.
khaki. They all have one destination—home. A place with family, These are the people walking home. These are the people
a place without rent. who policymakers and politicians, the rich and the powerful
Nearly all the people we spoke to have a similar story. They’ve call ‘termites’ and ‘infiltrators’, ‘masses’ and ‘swarms’. This is the
left their Delhi accommodation because their landlords have vocabulary that denies them of their humanity and which em-
evicted them. Without work, and with no place to stay, they have boldens policemen to force them to do squats on the highway or
no option but to hit the road. We ask them more than once where hose them with bleach.
they are heading as their answers surprise us given the distances. This is no nameless, faceless herd. These are fathers and moth-
A family of two women, a man and a child say they are going to ers, brothers and sisters who have left families and villages and
Itarsi. That it is nearly 900 km away. I ask them run our cities. Chinmay Tumbe writes in In-
how they are going to get there since there are dia Moving: A History of Migration (2018), ‘The
no trains or buses. They say, “Rukenge aur cha- Census of 2011 revealed that there were over
lenge, rukenge aur chalenge [We will stop and
walk, stop and walk].” They aren’t being fool-
Most of the migrant 50 million internal migrants for economic
reasons. The Economic Survey of India in
hardy. In the absence of any social net, they are workers we spoke to 2017 estimated this figure to cross a 100 mil-
forced to be self reliant. The two women used have left their Delhi lion when the limitations of the Census were
to work in houses in Noida, the husband says fully taken into account. That is, the migrant
he is a mazdoor.
accommodation workforce has been conservatively estimated
Talking to the man I am reminded of Deepa because their to comprise a fifth of India’s total workforce…
Anappara’s Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line (2020). landlords have . There is also clear evidence that work-related
When the young child narrator who lives in a migration rates increased since the 1990s, co-
basti visits a metro station for the first time, he evicted them. inciding with increased economic growth
says, ‘I’m very alert. I look around the station, Without work, and rates and the globalization of the Indian
wishing I could tell which parts Papa worked
on. Maybe his fingerprints are hidden under
with no place to stay, economy.’ To look at the crowds at Anand Vihar Bus
the paint, stamped in cement.’ If each of these they have no option station or the state borders and deem them
labourers left their fingerprints in wet ce- but to hit the road as ‘irresponsible’ or as ‘holiday makers’ or as
ment, I wonder what biographies our metros ‘India’s great unwashed’ reveals the blind-
and malls would tell us. The people who build ness and bigotry of the beholder rather than
these structures, laying brick upon brick, never the beheld. With their bags strapped to their
get to access them, never get to lay claim to their own creations. backs and often with children in arms they are not walking the
A woman in petite heels and a dazzling kurta tells us that she highways or arriving at state borders seeking charity. They are
and her husband are walking to Allahabad. That is more than 600 merely fulfilling the most human of all wants—the desire to be
km away. We pass by a family that is sitting in the shade offered home with loved ones at a time of great uncertainty.
by barricades. They say they’ve come to Lucknow by bus. The bus Following a Delhi government sign of a ‘Ran Basera’ we make
left them here and they’re still 30 km away from home. They have our way to the Sarvodaya Kanya Vidyalaya, Ghazipur, near a con-
three-four odd bags and a strolley. Weighed down by luggage, an tainer depot. The stacked ship containers offer us an incongruous
elderly grandmother and a young child walking for 30 km is out landmark on this landlocked highway. A hospitable Delhi cop
of the question. A lorry slows down and the men rush to ask them greets us and tells us that today (Monday, March 30) the Centre
for help. We pass a family of three. The woman carries her bag on has been flooded by officials and press. A cop adds our names to
her head and tells us that their nephew has come to their rescue. a long list of journalists who’ve come by. He doesn’t let me write
The nephew wears the lanyard of a hospital around his neck. He in my name, as he says he cannot share the pen. Started over the

42 13 april 2020
weekend this camp gives shelter to around 250 migrants. The guard at the door deems handkerchiefs tied to faces as not mask-
cop guides us from classroom to classroom. Students’ tables and enough. Upon entering and leaving the store, he squirts hand
benches teeter high in the corridors to make place for mattresses sanitiser upon my palm. At a State Bank of India ATM similarly,
and pillows. People lie on them in various states of wakefulness the guard offers me hand sanitiser upon entry. In their own way
and sleep. The cop says the mattresses are placed suitably apart, (and perhaps with instructions from on top) every guard, every
but they look proximate rather than distant. He says a doctor visits deliveryman, every sweeper, every cashier is trying to take their
in the morning and checks on the inhabitants. They are served own precautions and keep the city running in a time of contagion.
two meals a day and we do notice packed lunch- While health workers, of course, have the
es. We speak to a few people who are awake, most dangerous and demanding job of these
and they reiterate the same story: they work in times, one must not forget the role of all these
factories, they work in construction, they are A family of two other workers. We probably don’t even know
daily wagers, and with everything shut they are the name of our ‘kudawala’ (garbage collec-
trying to find a way back home.
women, a man and tor), but without him today we’d be festering
As we head back into central Delhi, the cops a child say they in our own waste. As a society, we pay such a
become a tad friendlier. They shoot their ques- are going to Itarsi, premium to blue and white-collared jobs that
tions less aggressively and are appeased by a we all forget those who truly keep the machine
glimpse of a press identity. Dusk settles with the 900 km from Delhi. of our everyday lives oiled and running. It is
light melting from gold to copper. For a minute, ‘Rukenge aur the plumbers, electricians and garbage collec-
you can be forgiven for soaking this moment, tors, the cashiers, bank tellers and petrol pump
the honey hues cast upon white facades, offset
chalenge, rukenge attendants. It is the workers, those who the
by the shadow of pigeons. But only too soon, aur chalenge’ monied and powerful call ‘chhotu’ or ‘tsktsk’
one is yanked back to reality, there is nothing with a click of their tongues, as if they are
natural or peaceful to this emptiness. This isn’t summoning a pre-language infant to come to
a calm borne from the erasure of movement, their service.
this is an extraction of life itself. There is no peace here without The New York Times reported how ‘Rich Europeans Flee Virus
foreboding. for Second Homes’ and are thereby taking the contagion with
Taking advantage of these sepia tones my colleague and his them into the countryside. A Gaurav Dwivedi posted a painting
friend take out their cameras and shoot an emptied-out Con- on Twitter of a father, mother and two children. The couple look
naught Place. On a typical day at this hour the circles of CP would like labourers given the loads on their heads and the manner of
be heaving with pedestrians and cars. But during the lockdown their dress. The caption reads, ‘Gunah passport ka tha/Darbadar
pigeons rule. The dogs wander perplexed. Swiggy delivery men ration card ho gaye... [The crime of the Passport/Left the Ration
in their trademark orange and black uniforms hunch over their Card vagrant].’
late lunches. They say only a couple of restaurants are open in CP, Across the globe, a similar story of inequality is playing out. A
but there are enough orders to keep them on the road. single celebrity gets five Covid-19 tests whereas health workers
I can hear only the sound of a broom sweeping up the fallen have to wait weeks for their turn. In the US and Europe, billion-
peepal leaves from the road. The municipal sweeper says that aires have hunkered down in disaster bunkers and charter private
he usually works from 2 PM to 10 PM, but nowadays a new dik- jets to ferry them out of virus hotspots. On my own Facebook feed
tat has been set: finish your work and leave. He is glad that he I read a post by a friend who writes of a family that has bought its
lives close by and can walk home. His friends who live far away own ventilator—for their home, you know, just in case, as senior
say they will finish their shift and then start walking back to citizens do dwell in the house.
Indirapuram. There is going to be no ‘single story’ of this lockdown. It is an en-
cumbrance on all of humankind. Each of us has our own unique
struggles to deal with. Only time will tell the effect of this lock-

A
t a traffic light we stop behind a fuchsia pink Am-
bassador. A family of vagrants tap at the passenger win-
dow. We can’t be certain but from our vantage point the
passenger looks like a white woman. The banging at the
window rises in pitch and desperation. The window opens a gap,
the car speeds off and the family scramble for a pink note.Hands
grab and pull for the Rs 2000 note left on the tarmac. Is this an act enemy. Sickness is a great leveller, but the pandemic reveals how
of stupidity or generosity? Who is to tell? All we know for certain
is that these are abnormal times.
At a 24x7 in Connaught Place, customers are allowed in
only two at a time. Those without masks are refused entry. The
down on our physical and mental health and on relationships. As
privileged folk we will celebrate the clean air, the bursts of bird
song and the spring blossoms. We know that social distancing is
required and that each of us has a responsibility towards it. Social
and economic inequality is a fact of life in India. But it is getting
harder to reconcile with the dissonance as we all face a common
we value certain lives over so many others. It would be hubris
to imagine that we can walk in the shoes of the daily wager, but
we are still capable of compassion and empathy. Even if we don’t
know destitution, we all know the longing for home. n

13 april 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 43

 Chronicles Lockdown journal

In our collective
suffering and neurosis,
we have become one
By Rahul Pandita

I have a terrible cold,

And everyone knows how terrible colds
Alter the whole system of the universe
Set us against life…
—Fernando Pessoa, Portuguese poet

Who can refuse to live his own life?

—Anna Akhmatova, Russian poet

A t first, I am not sure where I am. I am half-

awake, but when you are half-awake, you
don’t realise it also means you are half-asleep. I am
hearing a bird sound outside that in my head
always belongs to a beach in Maine.
Maine. David Foster Wallace going to its annual
lobster festival and writing his essay, Consider
the lobster.
Maine. Elizabeth Hardwick visiting Mary
McCarthy’s house there and finding Hannah
Arendt lying on a sofa, arms behind her back,
staring at the ceiling.
Hardwick (to McCarthy): What is she doing?
McCarthy: She is thinking.
I am not in Maine; I am at my house
in Gurugram.
But the new bird sound is not the only thing
that has precipitated this early-morning illusion of
being in Maine. The usual neighbourhood noises
that reach my ears at this time are missing. I can
hear no Bengali chatter between car cleaners and
house helps. There is no hurried opening, one
after another, of automatic car door locks. The
neighbour repeatedly shouting at her five-year-old
daughter that she will miss the school bus if she
does not hasten up, has disappeared as well. There
is only the bird sound.
And then I hear the siren of a police car and
realise it is the first day of the 21-day lockdown.
I step out in the balcony. There is no one on the
street. A tree on the pavement, chopped ruthlessly
by the builder’s people to save a high-tension
electric line above, is sprouting little green leaves.
I close my eyes and imagine peacocks and then
alligators appearing on the road.
It has been five days since I stepped out of home.
As Italy fell, and quarantine centres opened up here,
we were still going out. But by this time, we had
begun to wash hands in a particular way; also, hand
sanitisers had become the new passion fruit.
Every evening, or almost every evening, some of
us went to a market nearby. The Galleria market is
one of those markets that are becoming rare in the
city; it has open spaces and a fountain in the middle
of it. There are cafés, a pub running songs one is fa-
miliar with, a bookshop, and a departmental store
where you can buy things that you really want to
consume, and not because everyone around you is
buying them.
There are also more chances that the faces of
people who walk by you are already known to you.
Maybe I am exaggerating, but sometimes it feels

44 13 april 2020
 like you are part of some community that will really
care if you go missing. There is the kind manager
at the Bahrisons bookstore; on the first floor, the
hairdresser, always taking a smoking break between
clients; the old, stylish man who was a government
employee and is now a successful model, saunters
slowly in his torn jeans; the dove-eyed saleswoman
at the Forest Essentials store is feeding stray dogs.
We would buy our coffee and sit on one of the
benches by the fountain. I often think about what
this market means to me. The counter question is:
what does Christmas time do to a man in snowy
New York? There is a poem by Kim Addonizio—To
the woman crying uncontrollably in the next stall—that
a writer friend based in New York sent out once in
her newsletter. The last line of the poem reads: ‘Joy
is coming.’ Sitting at Galleria, watching people go
about their lives, it always felt to me that I was part
of an optimism carnival in continuum—a gateway
to maybe not joy, but to something like: okay, we
will be fine, let us have coffee and make plans for
the future, get a little stationery, buy a book, and
start working from tomorrow.
The other way of looking at it is through the nic-
est moment of a 1970s Hindi film: a doctor appears
in a grim hospital ward. He is tired, but there is also
a spring in his step. He removes his mask and says:
“He” will be alright. There are happy gasps all over.
Who is “He”? “He” is you, and I, and everyone
else around us.
Many years ago, on a balmy afternoon, a man I
knew brought his mother along to Galleria. I knew
she suffered from amnesia. She had a lily pinned to
her hair. She looked at me and smiled the brightest-
ever smile. I knew then that she had also heard
the invisible but audible saxophone that always
conveyed to us that the centre will somehow hold.
****
O ne day, we go to Galleria and are told that a
person in an apartment nearby has tested
positive. I buy a gift for a friend whose birthday
party I have to attend in the evening. I think
of buying coffee, but I can hear the saxophone
only after a lot of strain. There is a certain
acerbity in the air. Most people are in masks,
and many of them are buying hand sanitisers
in bulk from five chemists who soon exhaust
their supplies. The butcher, who runs a side
business of selling shawarmas, is sitting alone
outside his shop; he has no patrons today.
As I buy some ink cartridges from the sta-
tionery shop, I realise people are now keeping
13 april 2020
distance from each other. Two friends come and
instead of shaking hands bring together their right
foot, as we saw people doing in videos that ap-
peared funny till only a few hours earlier.
Inside me, there is a churning feeling that
the Golden Age of Alright will be over soon. I am
reminded of a line in Susan Sontag’s Illness as Meta-
phor, where she talks about the ‘disdainful knowl-
edge of how most loyalties and loves shatter in the
panic produced by epidemic disease.’
That evening, as we clink our glasses at the
friend’s house, the Prime Minister appears on tele-
vision. On March 24th, he says, we must observe
complete lockdown. We open another bottle of
wine. And then another. And another.
This, I know, will be my last Alright for a long
time. The doctor will appear, but we are no longer
sure about what message he will bring.
****
I n 1348, a bubonic plague someone named the
Black Death hit Europe with a devastating
effect. In Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron, dealing
with the effects of the epidemic on his city, Flor-
ence, seven women decide to leave the city and go
to their country estates. They take three men along,
and for ten days the ten friends tell ten stories every
day (that become Decameron). They are in, as the
writer Joan Acocella puts it, the locus amoenus, or
“pleasant place”.
The modern man tends to spend all his life look-
ing for this pleasant place. Remember how some of
us in Delhi ran away to the hills (or dreamt of it) as
the pollution became unbearable for few weeks in
winter. In the hills, when restlessness hit men, they
came to the city. Some among us escaped to the
West; some from the West, like Elizabeth Gilbert of
Illustrations by Saurabh Singh
www.openthemagazine.com 45
 Chronicles Lockdown journal
Eat, Pray, Love, took refuge in our ashrams.
But, now, where does one go? In our collective
suffering and neurosis, we have become one. There
is no pleasant place left anymore. The historian
Keith Thomas speaks somewhere about the notion
in the plague-ridden England of 16th and
17th century that the happy man would not get the
plague. The biggest tragedy is we were in March
when we were forced to stay inside. Some of us were
not even looking for a king-size portion of happi-
ness but the lowest common denominator of it.
Have coffee. The doctor comes. You are Alright. You hear
the saxophone. The centre will somehow hold.
I always have had a vivid imagination of March. It
is when cotton floated in the air and people put fresh
coats of paint on their walls and took short walks
after dinner, and young lovers ate from the same
cup of ice-cream and made plans of opening up joint
bank accounts. I imagined them happy (king-size
happy), and in love, listening to Dooley Wilson’s
It Had to Be You over and over again, with Sunday
magazines and empty teacups and decanters with
lemon-infused water and table calendars with red
circles over extended weekends. I imagined a certain
permanency of things.
Things are so impermanent. Stepping outside is
an act of masochism. This is a time to take solace in
Boris Pasternak’s line: ‘To live a life is not to cross a
field.’ We are forced to consider our living rooms as
locus amoenus. Young lovers cannot buy ice-cream;
the banks are closed. Even short walks after dinner
are frowned at by the RWAs.
****
I n the initial days, we just read whatever is avail-
able on the internet. The virus sticks to clothes.
The virus can survive on steel, glass and cardboard.
The virus is airborne. We have many questions, but
no certainty about answers. Is it better to wear a mask
or not wear it? Is it okay to run or not? Some friends
are checking fever twice a day. They want to order a
little food from outside, but then decide against it.
We store essential items. But as the stocks began
to dwindle, we wonder if we have stored enough.
The neighbourhood grocer has finished his stock
of several items you think you should have more
of. Things are fast flying off shelves. There are no
Maggi noodles, or pasta, or poha, and there is no
liquid soap. The home delivery systems have col-
lapsed. Even Jeff Bezos is crouching.
Many are going through the predicament of
spending time with oneself. You make video calls
to friends. You share jokes and memes on the virus.
46
You try your hand at cooking. You read something.
You treat Netflix as a barbiturate. You come out and
beat steel plates, more to feel a sense of community
than for boosting the morale of health workers. But
in the end, at some point, you have to look inwards.
And inside, for many of us, there is a bereavement—
for what exactly, that we will take time to figure out.
Remember how most of us have got into this
habit of saying: Oh, I don’t have time. And now,
suddenly, there is all the time in the world. But it is
forcing us to look at the bunions of our minds. Only
that we do not want to acknowledge that they exist.
We are craving for normalcy to return. But,
because the sum total of all the articles that we are
sharing with each other points at the same thing,
we say the same thing to each other: the world will
not be the same again. So, we long for transporta-
tion to the locus amoenus of the past. I am craving for
cold beer and strips of fried bacon that I once saw a
runner filling her pockets with.
In the evening, terraces are full of people,
walking from one end to another. After five days,
I am now listening to too many varieties of music
streaming in from all over my neighbourhood. It is
like I have come to a place where people are locked
in but pretending that they are in Woodstock. On
Instagram, Patti Smith says she misses drinking
coffee in a café.
The lockdown has now entered its second week.
Many I know have stopped following updates
about the virus. A day before, I sent a rather encour-
aging report to my friends in which a doctor says we
are panicking more than required and that it is just
that the virus is a virus with public relations.
I am on the terrace now, finishing today’s 10,000
steps. Today, I saw the bird that gave me the illusion
of being in Maine. I have never seen it before. The
tree on the pavement has sprouted several clusters
of green leaves now. I am hoping that the Bengali
chatter returns, and the neighbour’s kid goes to
school on time.
I hope I can eat that bacon without washing my
hands. I hope I hear the saxophone. w
13 april 2020
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 Chronicles letter from Washington

U nc le Sam Goes V i ral

A footloose economy, decentralised
democracy and an incompetent
president have made America
especially vulnerable
By James Astill

Donald Trump addresses

the coronavirus taskforce
and the media at the
White House, March 30
getty images

48 13 april 2020
C
HINESE propagandists are spinning an idea
that the coronavirus has democracy beat. Only an
efficient command-control state, it is claimed, can
provide the clear messaging, rigorous rule enforce-
ment and smart allocation of resources required
to stop the virus. With all due respect to China’s
achievements in locking down Hubei, building
1,000-bed hospitals overnight, and so forth, this is nonsense. Tai-
wan and South Korea—both democracies—have fared at least as
well. Yet it is inarguable that the second biggest and most power-
ful democracy has not.
America already has far more confirmed cases of the virus
than any other country—160,000 at the end of March, though
13 april 2020
the number was doubling every three days. New York State alone
had half of those cases—and almost half of America’s 3,000 deaths
from the virus.
Perhaps 10-14 days from the virus’ predicted peak in New York,
its hospital system is already teetering. Social media are circulating
pictures of nurses—in the world’s richest city—taping trash bags
around themselves for want of protective clothing. An intrepid
colleague in New York—one of the few journalists in the city still
willing to leave the safety of her apartment—spoke to nurses and
doctors in tears as they walked to work. They were exhausted
and scared.
As New York City’s hospitals near and exceed capacity, four
emergency hospitals are being built out of conference centres in
Manhattan and the other boroughs. The state’s governor, Andrew
Cuomo, has warned that he may need 140,000 hospital beds and
30,000 ventilators before the crisis passes. And it is not certain that
the thousands of extra ventilators—artificial breathing machines
to keep alive the 10 per cent or so of Covid-19 victims with severely
damaged lungs—that he needs can be found.
These, Covid-19 tests and protective clothing are all in short
supply—and all 50 states, Washington DC and the federal govern-
ment are bidding furiously against each other to obtain them. The
cost of a ventilator on the American market has almost doubled,
from $25,000 to $45,000, in a couple of weeks. As an early precau-
tion, Cuomo has ordered 4,000 of a crude manual ventilator, called
bag valve masks. New York’s National Guardsmen are to be given
training in operating them—hand-pump-after-pump, 24/7, in the
state’s teeming emergency rooms.
Soaring nationwide demand for ventilators reflects the fact
that New York is merely the harbinger of a plague already sweep-
ing the country. It started in Washington State, where the first Co-
vid-19 case was announced on January 21st. Over the next week
or so, almost every state was found to have at least a smattering of
cases; almost as if an infra-red light had been turned on the map of
America, revealing a Covid rash that had previously been invisible.
The rapidity of the disease’s spread reflects how connected
America is. Even relatively small and remote heartland states, like
Iowa or Nebraska, have thrumming business centres and college
towns with a busy airport: in the former case, Des Moines, a home
of Wells Fargo and John Deere agricultural machinery; in the latter,
Omaha, headquarters of Berkshire Hathaway. Yet a handful of big
cities have so far succumbed most seriously. Breathing down the
back of New York, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, New Orleans and
Miami are all emerging disaster areas, with coronavirus caseloads
doubling every three or four days. Americans, isolated by their
wealth and distance, tend to consider themselves immune from
global problems. To the contrary, perhaps no populous country is
more susceptible to the rapid spread of a new virus.
This has already revealed a panoply of national weaknesses—
and some strengths—as pandemics invariably do. Most predict-
ably, alas, the federal government’s response has been inadequate
and slow at best. China’s efficient response to the virus (after a
slow start) gave the Trump administration several months to
prepare for it, in the sure knowledge that America would not be
www.openthemagazine.com 49
 Chronicles letter from Washington
spared. Briefings by America’s intelligence agencies in January
made that clear. And China and South Korea had both by then
shown the most effective ways to counter the disease: test for it
relentlessly and swiftly quarantine anyone who infected. Even
allowing for the fact that Trump’s administration had already
hobbled America’s pandemic preparedness, by ignoring the
guidelines developed by its predecessor and disbanding the Na-
tional Security Council’s dedicated pandemic team in 2018, it had
enough time, expertise and resources to ready America’s defences
against the disease.
It squandered that opportunity. Trump made a show of clos-
ing America’s borders to non-American travellers from China in
late January; but the virus was already in America by then. Mean-
while, the federal agency responsible for tracking it, the Centers
for Disease Control, had spurned the opportunity to use a WHO-
approved test for the disease, in order to develop its own, which
turned out to be faulty. Not until mid-March did America start
testing for the disease at scale; though even now coronavirus tests
are not generally available.
reuters
First responders remove crew members with flu-like symptoms
from a cruise ship at the Port of Miami in Florida, March 26
Even in efficient hands, the federal government can struggle
to assert itself in times of national crisis. American governance
is designed to be complicated, cumbersome even. Fearful of an
overweening centre, the country’s founders and their successors
established a highly decentralised system, with powerful city
mayors and state governors, whose independence is as buttressed
as it is challenged by a clumsily inefficient federal bureaucracy.
Fragmented power structures—including rival state and federal
policing and public health departments—are additional barriers
to federal overreach.
The strengths of this weird system include an impressive sen-
sitivity to local concerns and policy experimentation, fuelled by
competition among the states. The flipside is that, when national
disaster strikes, the federal government often finds it hard to cut
50
through the legal and bureaucratic impediments to rapid national
action. That is why the quality of the president, who alone has the
requisite bully-pulpit and emergency powers required to attempt
this, matters so much. And in Trump America has a uniquely in-
competent incumbent.
Even after the President took steps to close America’s borders,
he persisted for several weeks in suggesting the coronavirus was
no threat to America—and that any suggestion to the contrary was
a “hoax” put about by his opponents to weaken him. He did noth-
ing to address the testing fiasco. His administration also blocked
other aspects of America’s pandemic preparation. For example,
after the Department of Health and Human Services requested $2
billion to buy respirator masks in early February, it cut that request
by 75 per cent before passing it on to Congress.
Taking their cue from the President, Republican lawmakers
meanwhile scoffed at the standard public health warnings and
urged Americans to carry on visiting restaurants and bars for the
sake of the economy. The predictable result, as the virus started
ripping through Washington State and New York, is that most
Republican voters said they did not consider it dangerous
and were taking no precaution to avoid infection.
As the death toll rises, and the disease spreads, even
Republicans are increasingly acknowledging its seri-
ousness. But that is little thanks to the President, who
has continued to direct proceedings in his inimitably
awful fashion. After briefly bowing to the admin-
istration’s depleted scientific experts, and treating
the pandemic seriously, he has retreated, in bizarre daily
briefings, to his usual repertoire of buck-passing, distrac-
tion and narcissistic histrionics.
As the stock-market dived, he threatened to “reopen”
the economy in a week or two—repeating like a mantra
a line he had heard on Fox News: that the cure should not
be worse than the disease. In fact, bars, restaurants and
other non-essential businesses have been shuttered across
America at the behest of the states, not Trump. It would
be madness to end social distancing; but fortunately that
is not within his powers.
The administration does need to play an essential role
in funnelling federal expertise and emergency medical kit
to stricken states. Yet Trump has lambasted New York, Michigan
and other badly-hit Democratic places, and suggested he would
not help any governor who is not “nice” to him. Last week, he ad-
ditionally claimed to be toying with “quarantining” New York.
It is not clear what that would mean, or if it would help, or if the
President has the power to do it anyway. Probably it was just an-
other piece of off-the-cuff presidential nonsense; a few hours later,
Trump said he had decided against the idea.
Ever since his election, many have fretted about what might
happen if Trump was confronted with a serious crisis. He is living
up to their worst fears.
This at least makes the strengths of America’s decentralised
system, the licence it gives to the states, especially valuable. State
governors, who tend to be closer to their constituents and more
13 april 2020
 dismantle the feudal system,
empower women, create a
In the furnace of European middle class—all
the pandemic in claims that have been made
New York, Governor for the pandemic. Rather, as
the author Ben Gummer has
Andrew Cuomo, a documented, the Black Death
press-hungry but accelerated and accentuated
changes that were already in
highly capable motion. By and large, the post-
administrator, has plague world was the same as
been most prominent the pre-plague one.
What might that process of
of all. ‘America’s acceleration and accentuation
governor’, he has mean?
It could mean a modest
been called improvement in America’s
ap social safety net: for example
by improving unemployment
experienced at governing than national politicians, have been benefits. That is a direction both parties many already be heading
battling manfully to fill the void. They include Republicans such in, given the populist shift many Trump Republicans argue for.
as Mike DeWine, an old-school conservative in Ohio, and Demo- More likely, the pandemic will hasten the ongoing decline
crats such as Gretchen Whitmer in Michigan. And in the furnace of US-China relations. Trump has predictably sought to deflect
of the pandemic, New York, Cuomo, a press-hungry but highly blame for his lamentable handling of the crisis onto China. While
capable administrator, has been most prominent of all. “America’s the virus was based there, he called it by its approved name, the
governor,” he has been called. coronavirus. Since it started running wild in America he has insist-
Congress has also rise to the occasion, passing an historic $2 ed on calling it the “Chinese virus”. Others in his administration
trillion stimulus package, a figure representing 10 per cent of prefer the “Wuhan virus”. Last week, a conference of G7 foreign
GDP. It is the largest emergency cash injection ever, and includes ministers failed to release a planned statement on the pandemic
bailouts for companies who have seen their revenues evaporate after Mike Pompeo, the Secretary of State, demanded it refer to the
overnight, as well as direct cash payments to millions of Ameri- virus by that phrase. China has responded by spinning a lie that the
cans. This is not intended to head off a deep recession: America virus was first brought to China by US soldiers. Where previous
is already experiencing one. Last week, over 3.2 million people pandemics—including the West African Ebola crisis in 2014 and
claimed unemployment benefit—four times the previous record. the SARS outbreak in 2003—spurred Sino-American cooperation,
Rather, the unprecedented stimulus is intended to ensure the fast- this one is driving them apart.
est possible economic recovery, after the pandemic has passed. Yet it may take more than name-calling for Trump to secure
If that remains lawmakers’ priority, they may need to provide re-election in November. As things stand, the President’s approv-
another fiscal splurge before this is done. al rating has seen a modest uptick during the crisis, suggesting
The cash payments—of up to $1,200 per individual—are a bold some Americans have decided to put partisanship aside and ‘rally
move. But they will not tide many families over a crisis that is likely around the flag’ in a time of peril. But that effect is unusually mod-
to last for several months. Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, est: it is nothing like the surging popularity that George W Bush
predicts the US economy will shrink by 24 per cent in the second enjoyed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, for example. Trump is still
quarter—an unprecedented drop in a major economy outside lagging his presumed Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, in head-
wartime. Another estimate suggests the pandemic could claim to-head polling.
14 million jobs by the summer. And this is before Americans contemplate the tragedy that
What might the larger effects of the pandemic be? Predict- Trump has overseen and, to some debatable degree, contributed to.
ably, some on the margins of US politics are predicting it will America’s foremost infectious diseases adviser, Anthony Fauci, es-
vindicate their long-held positions. The restrictionist right says it timates the pandemic may claim 200,000 American lives. Plainly,
will heighten antipathy to immigration; leftists look forward to it would be wrong to reduce so great a calamity to mere political
a transformation in the relationship between Americans and the repercussions. But it is still worth noting, amid such grave uncer-
state. Such predictions are unlikely to be borne out. tainty, that Trump’s presidency would struggle to survive that. n
Even the Black Death, the bubonic plague that swept Europe in
the mid-13th-century, eradicating a third of its population, brought James Astill is the Washington bureau chief and Lexington
much less change than is often claimed. It did not, at one fell swoop, columnist for The Economist. He is a contributor to Open

13 april 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 51

salon

Akbar with Lion

and Calf by
Govardhan,
c 1530

13 april 2020
 books Essay
Akbar’s
Idea of India
The topical reverberations of Ira Mukhoty’s
biography of the great Mughal
T
o write a ‘definitive biography’,
and proclaim it as such on the cover, is
to make so bold a claim as to render it
almost foolhardy. Yes, in time, Ira
Mukhoty’s ambitious book Akbar:
The Great Mughal (Aleph; 624 pages;
Rs 799) may be overtaken, but, at
present, it fulfils its purpose. Even
more, she could not have timed it better for between Emperor
Akbar’s vision of India and Prime Minister Modi’s is a yawn-
ing gap demanding to be filled. This book will have succeeded
if it induces a return to the ‘idea of India’ that held from the
Mughals to the first 67 years of India’s independence. There is
thus a contemporary setting in which to view in perspective
a rule of 50 years some 500 years ago. That is what gives Muk-
hoty’s biography an immediacy, a topical reverberation that
transforms what might have been a popular mediaeval his-
tory into tonight’s ‘breaking news’ and tomorrow’s editorial.
To trace the origins of Mughal secularism one has to go
back to Babar’s immortal letter to Humayun dated January
11th, 1529, about a year before he died:
‘Oh, my son! The realm of Hindusthan is full of diverse
creeds. Praise be to God that He has granted to thee the
empire of it. It is but proper that you, with heart cleansed of
all religious bigotry, should dispense justice
according to the tenets of each community.
And in particular refrain from the sacrifice of
the cow, for that way lies the conquest of the
hearts of the people of Hindusthan; and the
subjects of the realm will, through royal favour,
be devoted to thee. And the temples and abodes
of worship of every community under the im-
perial sway, you should not damage. Dispense
justice so that the sovereign may be happy with
his subjects and likewise the subjects with their
sovereign. The progress of Islam is better by the
13 april 2020
By Mani Shankar Aiyar
sword of kindness, not by the sword of oppression… And bring
together the subjects with different beliefs in the manner
of the Four Elements, so that the body-politic may be
immune from various ailments’ (Mughal Imperial Archives
at bit.ly/2UzRues).
On ascending the throne in 1530, Humayun obeyed this in-
junction but without dramatically changing anything. For, in
the first decade of his reign he was preoccupied with fending
off his brothers and rivals—Kamran, Hindal and Askari—and
then succumbed to the Afghan usurper, Sher Shah Suri, who
comprehensively defeated the nascent Mughal Empire at the
Battle of Chausa in 1539. Humayun tried a rearguard action in
Sind and later in Afghanistan but eventually, four years after
his defeat in battle, he fled in 1543 to the refuge offered by the
Safavid rulers of Persia, abandoning the empire he had inherit-
ed. While on the run, he married the Persian princess, Hamida
Begum, who gave birth to little Akbar in 1542 in the palace of
the Hindu Maharaja of Ummerkot (now in Pakistan Sindh).
This was perhaps an augury of the syncretic empire the baby
prince would build in the second half of the 16th century.
At best, it could be said that Humayun did not accelerate
conversion or accentuate religion-based discrimination. It
should also be stressed that even the Delhi Sultanate that
preceded his father had arrived at a modus vivendi with the
overwhelmingly non-Muslim population of the
land after realising, as Mukhoty says, ‘[that] in a
country like India [the] sort of strict adherence
to the sharia’ that the ulema were advising the
other two great contemporary empires of Otto-
mans and Persians to practice ‘would have been
politically catastrophic’. So, they ‘pragmatically
ignored many of the injunctions of the sharia’,
quite leaving behind them the bigotry and ferocity
of the Khiljis (Alauddin, in particular). Ghiyasud-
din Tughlaq had started the practice of marrying
Hindu wives to integrate his Hindu subjects into
www.openthemagazine.com 53
 books Essay

what had been hitherto exclusively Muslim rule,

leading inevitably to an administration in which Ira Mukhoty
Hindus found a place and a culture that became in-
creasingly composite. But it was not till 1561, about
five years into Akbar’s reign and the end of Bairam
Khan’s regency, that the 20-year-old emperor, im-
mediately after he came into his own, began raising
talented Hindus to high positions in his court and
promoting the full flowering of a ‘Ganga-Yamuna’
tehzib (culture).
This central theme of Mukhoty’s saga is
recounted not polemically but with scholarly
deftness through a succession of richly researched
sources, contemporary and subsequent, in a myriad
languages, of events and personalities stretching
from 1561 to Akbar’s death in 1605 and beyond
to Jahangir and Shahjahan. Audrey Truschke,
through her brilliant revisionist biography of Au-
rangzeb, has tentatively stretched that composite
heritage to Aurangzeb’s regime, sending scurrying
for cover the conventional view of Aurangzeb as a
bigot and a fanatic promoted by not only the Rash-
triya Swayamsevak Singh but even by Jawaharlal
Nehru in his Discovery of India (see p 271).
At the end of 352 years of the Mughal Empire
and 666 years since the advent of Mohammad
Ghori to the throne of Delhi in 1192, the first census
undertaken by the British in 1872 revealed that
only a quarter of India’s population was Muslim,
astonishing when compared to what happened to
the complete subjugation of indigenous faiths in
all other parts of the world that fell to the sway of
Islam. The integration of a Muslim ruler with his
overwhelmingly Hindu subjects was perhaps most
dramatically illustrated by the Hindu mutineers
of the First War of Independence marching from
Meerut to Delhi to reinstate the Mughal emperor
in the face of weak protests from the last titular em-
peror of that dynasty, Bahadur Shah Zafar, who saw
this quite accurately as the beginning of the end of his reign. The turning point came in 1562, when Akbar, aged 20,
Tartly, Mukhoty reprimands ‘popular narratives of suspect came across a group of qawwals singing the praises of the Sufi
scholarship [that] have veered sharply towards the identifica- saint, Khwaja Muinuddin Chisti. The emperor immediately
tion of the Mughal empire with the infamous notion of one wended his way to the saint’s dargah at Ajmer but was literally
thousand years of oppression of Hindus’. waylaid at Sanganer by Raja Bharmal of the Kachhwaha clan
We are running ahead of our story. Akbar gave little early of Amer. He sought Akbar’s help in routing his many broth-
indication of any interest in studies or learning. ‘He grew up ers, all rival claimants to the throne. In return, Raja Bharmal
effectively unschooled and practically illiterate’. He was far offered to marry to the emperor his daughter, Harkha Bai (also
more devoted to martial training, hunts and physical feats of known as Maanmati and, later, Shahi Bai). While it was not
life-threatening bravura with ‘mast’ elephants, unruly horses unprecedented for Muslim sultans and badshahs to marry
and wild animals. This stood him in good stead in proving Hindu daughters of chieftains defeated in battles, what was
himself a courageous and consummate warrior but gave unprecedented was the emperor’s marriage being celebrated
no clue to the kind of emperor he would prove to be after in the bride’s home ‘complete with all the elaborate Hindu
terminating, at the age of 18, the five-year regency (1556-1560) rites’. The bride then proceeded to her husband’s palace not
of Bairam Khan. only with the customary ‘zenana amla’ but also with a ‘cuirass

54 13 april 2020
of brothers and nephews to walk beside her’, including her
brother, Bhagwan Das, and her nephew, Man Singh, des-
tined for very high office in Akbar’s empire. Harkha Bai also
brought with her an ‘entire microcosm of Rajasthani culture…
their songs, their dances, their food, their customs and their
tenacious dreams’.
Astonishingly, the bride became the First Lady of the
empire without being asked to change her religion. Harkha
Bai, who long outlived her husband, grew into a powerful
influence on her husband’s ways of thought (and deeply
influenced her son, Salim, later Emperor Jahangir) into bring-
ing his catholicity of faith to the fore as the primary strand of
thought in his philosophy of life and rule.
Soon after he married Harkha Bai, Akbar undertook his
first decisive step in making the celebration of plurality the
leitmotif of his empire. After a chance visit to Mathura, the
‘vortex of the high-voltage passion of the Bhakti movement’,
following a lion hunt in the jungles
on the periphery of this city sacred
to Hindus, Akbar was ‘struck by the It was not till 1561
devotion of the visiting pilgrims’.
He startled his companions by then that the 20-year-
deciding to walk all the 60 km to old Akbar came
Agra by the same evening. Later he into his own and
recounted that during such feats of
physical endurance he ‘experienced
began raising
an internal bitterness… my soul was talented Hindus
seized with exceeding sorrow’. Out to high positions
of these reflections was born his his-
in his court and
toric decision to abolish the pilgrim
tax although it ‘brought in millions promoting the
of rupees to the royal exchequer full flowering of
every year’. Conceding in his farman a ‘Ganga-Yamuna’
rescinding the pilgrim tax that the
error of the ways of Hindus were tehzib
‘obvious to some people’ (hint, hint:
the ulema), he declared that since the
‘error of their ways is not obvious to
them [Hindus], to demand anything
from them and to place a stumbling block in their path to whatever
leads them to the threshold of divine unity and the worship of God are of immense power, as was ‘Mota Raja’ Udai Singh Rathore of
less praiseworthy to the wise, since it will necessarily lead to
divine disfavour.’ (Emphasis added. Is Yogi
Adityanath listening?)
Also abolished in 1563-1564, when Akbar was only 21, was
the hated jeziya tax, a heavy and discriminatory levy on Hin-
dus alone, weighing most heavily on ‘the poorest taxpayers’
who ‘paid the equivalent of a month’s wages for an unskilled
labourer’, says Mukhoty quoting the US academic, John F
Richards.
Increasingly, Akbar became more and more eclectic in his
spiritual inclinations. Akbar, who was initially ‘a rather or-
thodox Muslim’, hailed by Shah Tahmasp, his contemporary,
as Emperor of Persia, as the ‘unsurpassed adherent of God’s
13 april 2020
word and extirpator of polytheists’, he eventually evolved, as
Mukhoty notes, ‘through discordant mistakes and brave, un-
foreseen changes’, to providing talented people of other faiths
‘a place of dignity and honour in the Mughal empire’ instead
of ‘extirpating’ the ‘polytheisists’, ‘as the Shah of Persia [had]
fondly hoped’. Akbar was to later say, “Formerly, I persecuted
men into conformity with my faith and called
it Islam. As I grew in knowledge, I was overwhelmed
with shame.”
There followed five years (1564-1569) when Akbar was
totally preoccupied with battle, first against the Uzbek, Turani
and Afghan pretenders who had accompanied Babar to India
or when Humayun returned from exile in Persia. ‘The cause
of Akbar’s many alliances and actions at this time was mainly
to neutralise the danger posed by the old Timuruid system of
co-sovereignty in which all princes had an equal right to rule.
Akbar seemed to fear no enemy as much as he dreaded a chal-
lenge from a prince of royal blood’.
Then he turned on the Rajput chal-
lengers to the empire: Jaimal ‘Mertia’ of
Badnor and Rawat Patta of the Sisodiya
clan, who had been deputed by their
overlord, Rana Udai of Udaipur, to defend
what was then regarded as the impregna-
ble fortress of Chittor; and Surjan Hada at
Ranthambore. In battle, whether against
his Central Asian Muslim clansmen or
against Hindu Rajputs, Akbar neither
sought nor gave any quarter. But whereas
the Muslim aspirants from the old Uzbek
and Turani families were replaced in the
Mughal aristocracy by Persian Shia and
Indian Muslim nobility (the ‘sheikhza-
das’), ‘as part of a long-term plan to reduce
the worrying influence of the large and
fractious Turani clan’, the Rajputs were
incorporated in the great offices of state
after the dust of battle had settled. Raja
Bhagwant Das, Kunwar (later Raja) Man
Singh, Raja Todar Mal and Birbal were already in positions
Jodhpur. He gifted, says the Sanskrit saga, Surjancarita, three
territories to the Hada clan in lieu of Ranthambore, so im-
pressed was Akbar, says Mukhoty, ‘by Surjan’s courage’. This
opened the door to what Mukhoty describes as a ‘novel means
of Rajput conquest’, the Rathores of Bikaner and the Bhatis of
Jaisalmer and the Baghelas of Bundelkhand submitting to Ak-
bar ‘in the slipstream of the two great Mughal victories’; and,
subsequently, Rao Kalyanmal of Bikaner and his heir, Kuar Rai
Singh, as well as Har Raj of Jaisalmer. All were duly, even lav-
ishly rewarded, securing high positions in the Mughal aristoc-
racy, and in the administrative hierarchy, and being counted
amongst the senior-most commanders in the military, for their
professed loyalty to the throne.
www.openthemagazine.com 55
 books Essay
There followed a number of Rajput brides for Akbar,
among others, Raj Kanwar and Bhanumati of Bikaner and
Rajkumari Nathi Bai of Jaisalmer. ‘They brought with them,’
says Mukhoty, ‘their holy fires and their sparkling language,
their busy gods and their swaying clothes. For Akbar did
not require these women to convert to Islam and they were
allowed to fully participate in their Hindu rituals as they had
in their own houses’, including the daily ‘hom… derived from
sun-worship’, which was to later turn Akbar himself into an
earnest sun-worshipper, much to the horror of the orthodox
clergy. They also celebrated with verve and ‘effervescent col-
our’ the festivals of Basant Panchami, Holi, Rakhi, Dusshera,
Diwali, Teej and Janmashtami. Not only festivals but also fasts
(‘vrat’) were imported into Akbar’s royal household, as was
vegetarianism, so that for nine months in the year, Akbar ate
no meat but confined himself to such Rajasthani vegetarian
dishes as khushka, khichdi and thuli for dessert, and for water he
would drink only ‘Gangajal’, often transported long distances
just for him. The final prize sealing the Rajput-Muslim alli-
ance was secured a decade-and-a-half later, in 1586, with the
Rathores of Mewar offering the renowned Jodhabai as a wife
for Akbar’s eldest son, Jahangir, who succeeded Akbar as the
Mughal Emperor in 1605.
I
n 1569, came Akbar’s encounter in the village of Sikri
with the Sufi pir, Salimuddin Chisti, occasioned by his
disappointment at the age of 27 of not having a son and
heir, several of his many children having died in childbirth
or in infancy. The Sufi saint promised him a son, and duly, on
August 31st, 1569, Harkha Bai presented him with a son who
was named Salim after the saint. The political consequence
of this was that Akbar ‘emphatically turned away from the
Naqshbandi Sufis, the traditional partners of Central Asian rul-
ers, to the Chistiya Sufis of Hindusthan’ who held that ‘there
is no precedence of one religion over the other [for] after you
experience the limitlessness of unbounded Beauty you can see
His Grace present both in a kafir and a Muslim’.
From this was but a step to the ibadat khana (prayer hall)
debates, discussions and dissent among followers of
diverse religions that so engaged Akbar’s attention. It was
there that Abu’l Fazl caught Akbar’s fancy with his sallies
that quite destroyed the ulema. Abu’l Fazl, with his ‘capacious,
adaptable and inclusive mind’, went on to become Akbar’s
closest ideological companion. His father, Shaikh Mubarak,
was a learned theologian who had established a madrassa in
Agra ‘fizzing with enquiry and arguments’ where he dispensed
not only orthodox Sunni piety but expanded the curriculum
to include history, astronomy and the law, besides Persian and
Hindustani classical music and Mahdvi Sufi mysticism.
Curiously, both Abu’l Fazl and Badauni were students there
at the same time but emerged as polar opposites in their
respective philosophical positions. Much of the fun of this
book lies in the way Mukhoty juxtaposes their memoirs as
56
Akbar’s story unfolds.
To begin with, from 1568 onwards, when the Ibadat Khana
was built at Fathehpur Sikri, it was open only to intra-Muslim
disputation. But these discussions soon descended into Arnab
Goswami-like TV debates: a ‘horrid noise and confusion’, rau-
cous, abusive, partisan, calling one another ‘fools’ and ‘heretics’
(Abu’l Fazl). Fed up with doctrinaire sloganmongering and the
lack of reasoning in these arguments between Islamic theo-
logians, Akbar’s encounter with the mystic, Shaikh Mustafa
Gujarati, in 1574 was to prove decisive. The Shaikh was a Mah-
dvi, of the school that believed the Prophet would reappear at
the end of the Islamic millennium (with the Day of Judgment
being fixed in 1591). The Shaikh had been severely tortured
for his beliefs by the sultans of Gujarat, so when he presented
himself bedraggled in Akbar’s court, some of the noblemen
mocked him for his appearance. But the Padshah respectfully
questioned him on his beliefs. Notwithstanding the taunts of
the orthodox clergy, the Shaikh responded, noted Akbar, with
‘dignity, aplomb and steadfastness’, emphasising the mystical,
benign aspect of Mahdvism. Akbar had the Mahdvi sheikh stay
for over a year at his court spending hours in philosophical
conversation with the Padshah. This sparked, says Mukhoty,
‘an extraordinary series of religious, and philosophical
explorations by Akbar, a deeply personal search for a truth that
reflected his growing maturity’.
Earlier, during the siege of Surat in 1573, Akbar met a
Zoroastrian priest, Dastur Mehrjee Rana, and ‘questioned the
priest about his religion and traditions’. It was also during the
Surat siege that Akbar met the Portuguese envoy, Antonio de
Cabral, and questioned him and his team ‘about the wonders
of Portugal and the manners and customs of Europe’. Now in
1575, he fulfilled the great desire of his father’s sister, Gul-
badan, to proceed on Hajj, which was only possible with the
cooperation of the Portuguese, who ruled the high seas, to
ensure a safe journey.
From October 1578 onwards, Akbar, at 36, started bringing
in scores of non-Muslim participants. ‘Discourses on philoso-
phy,’ explained the emperor, ‘have such a charm for me that
they distract me from all else.’ Wrote Abu’l Fazl, ‘Sufi, Sunni,
Shia, Brahman, Jati, Sevra [Jain monks], Charbak, Nazarene,
Jew, Savi, Zoroastrian’ —all participated without fear in ‘the
calmness of the assembly’. This appears to have been the legacy
of the pre-Islamic Buddhist Chengiz Khan’s yassa laws which
‘advised the ruler to consider all sects as one and not to distin-
guish one from the other’; and from what Akbar’s mother,
Hamida Begum, had discovered in her son (in addition to his
‘steely ambition’): his ‘restless spirituality’ from the age of 15 on.
Earlier that year, in March 1578, a Jesuit priest, appeared in
Akbar’s court. Intrigued by what he learnt from him about the
Christian faith, Akbar sent a special envoy to the Portuguese
in Goa, requesting that they send him ‘two learned Fathers
and the books of the Law, especially the Gospel… When I have
learnt the Law sufficiently to appreciate its excellence, then
may they depart at their pleasure, with an escort and honoured
13 april 2020
with abundant rewards’. The Jesuits were amazed at this Next year, in 1579, he had himself proclaimed the Mujad-
extraordinary request but expected it betokened a keen interest did (Redeemer) of the Age, thereby declaring himself the final
on the part of the Padshah to convert to Catholicism. They authority on all matters scriptural, freeing himself of his ever-
sent to Fatehpur Sikri a mission of three Jesuits: the Spaniard, quarreling clergy, and sent off both his Sadr-us-sadur, Shaikh
Anthony Monserrate (who went on to write a memoir of his Abd-un Nabi, and his Makhdum-ul-mulk, Maulana Abdullah
mission, read to this day, that introduced the Great Mughal to Sultanpuri, to Mecca on a lifelong exile.
European audiences); Francisco Henriquez, a Muslim convert Akbar was now faced with rebellion by his half-brother,
fluent in Persian; and Rudolf Acquaviva, who went on to be- Mirza Muhammad Hakim, Governor of Kabul, who was
come something of a bosom buddy of the emperor. They set off rallying to his flag all those noblemen and clergy who were
‘with exaltation in their hearts and a Persian grammar in their appalled at Akbar’s openly meretricious departures from
hands’. Their arrival in court in February 1580 could not have Islamic orthodoxy and his raising Rajputs and sheikhzadas to
been more propitious. lucrative mansabdaris to the cost in prestige and jagirs of the
‘Crowds lined the streets and gawked.’ The Jesuits were traditional Turani and Persian aristocracy. Akbar, therefore,
‘hustled away from the boisterous throng and brought before left Fatehpur Sikri in February 1582 on what Mukhoty calls
Akbar’. There they were astonished to find the Padshah wear- ‘The Slow March to Kabul’. On the way, Akbar continues his
ing ‘a turban of Hindu form’ (albeit exploration of his spiritual self, visit-
‘adorned with a fortune of rare gems’) ing the Chisti Sufi, Jalal-al-din, near
and a ‘Hindu dhoti’ (albeit ‘of the finest Thanesar, but equally the ancient
and most delicate silk’) instead of Tartly, Mukhoty hermit, Balnath of the Gorakhnath
‘Muslim trousers’! Next day, in the sect, who sought an identity that
Diwan-e-Khas, the Jesuits presented
reprimands ‘popular ‘could somehow be both Hindu and
to the emperor the Royal Polyglot Bi- narratives of Muslim, and neither, all at the same
ble at which Akbar ‘respectfully took suspect scholarship time’. One of their sayings was, ‘the
off his turban’ and placed each of the Hindu calls on Ram, the Muslim on
that have veered
seven lavishly illustrated volumes ‘on Khuda/ the yogi calls him the invis-
his head before kissing it’, then took sharply towards the ible one, in whom there is neither
Rudolph Acquaviva affectionately by identification of the Ram nor Khuda.’ Then, near Pesha-
the hand to show him ‘the casket he Mughal empire with war, he crawled to the Gorkhatri
had had made specially for the holy shrine, ‘through a cave so deep that
books’. In the evening, he invited the infamous notion there are nowhere else in the whole
them to the ibadat khana where they of one thousand world such narrow and dark hermits’
freely spoke their minds (somewhat years of oppression cells’ (Monserrate).
indiscreetly in the case of Acquaviva) The Battle for Kabul was a tame
and was ‘extremely disappointed by
of Hindus’ affair. Mirza Hakim had relied on
his own Muslim theologians because massive defections from Akbar’s
they did not counter the Jesuits with ranks to set himself up as the true heir
unified arguments, and themselves to Babar and, accordingly, sent an of-
offered varied and contradictory posi- fer to Akbar’s soldiers, ‘claiming that
tions’. He then invited the Jesuits to live with him on the palace the Turanis and Persians… will join us without fighting and
grounds and told them ‘it was his desire that Christians should the brave Rajputs and gallant Afghans will end their days’. The
live freely in his empire and build their churches’. Accordingly, offer was scorned.
they built a chapel which Akbar visited on Easter and there, Akbar and his resplendent troops, drawn from ‘Mongols,
‘in Muhammadan fashion,’ recorded Monserrate, ‘made a some Persians, some Turkmen, Chagatai, Uzbegs, Kandaharis,
profound reverence before the images of Jesus and Mary’ and Baluchis, Pathans, Indians and Gujaratis, Musalmans and also
then ‘like a Christian, with clasped hands, bent his knee’ before Hindus’ (Munis Faruqui, as cited by Mukhoty) summarily
prostrating himself ‘in the manner of the Hindus, saying that defeated Mirza Hakim and marched into Kabul, even as Mirza
‘God deserved the homage of all peoples’’. (Contrast this with Hakim fled the scene of battle. Akbar then appointed Hakim’s
Modi, who loves all kinds of headgear, refusing to wear a Mus- sister, Bakht Nur-un-Nisa Begum, as Governor in her brother’s
lim prayer cap even at an Eid Milan). Having learnt Persian in place, but did not chase her brother to his end, saying, ‘Mirza
three months from Abu’l Fazl, Acquaviva began translating the Hakim is a memorial of the Emperor Humayun. Though he
gospel into Persian. Akbar also entrusted the education of his has acted ungratefully, I can be no other than forbearing.’ What
second son, Prince Murad, to the Jesuits. But, to the immense we would today call Akbar’s ‘inclusiveness’ in governance had
frustration of these missionaries who had come to ‘harvest his paid off. It is a lesson for today’s rulers of India to learn.
soul’, Akbar refused to oblige. Akbar, at the age of 40, was now at the summit of his pow-

13 april 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 57

 books Essay

ers. ‘Opposition to his supremacy had There followed a at Fatehpur Sikri. The only somewhat
been categorically quelled, both in startling exception were the Buddhists,
the borderlands of his kingdom and number of Rajput for the good reason that after Adi
in the order of theologians who had brides for Akbar. Sankara had revived Hinduism seven
challenged him,’ says Mukhoty. There ‘They brought centuries before Akbar, Buddhism had
followed what the Sangh Parivar, had virtually vanished from Hindustan.
they been Islamic clerics in Akbar’s with them,’ says At the same time, Akbar banished
heyday, would doubtless have labeled Mukhoty, ‘their from the court Abu’l Fazl’s classmate,
the ‘tushtikaran’ (appeasement) of Hin- holy fires and Badauni, saying, “He has turned out to
dus: the celebration of Persian festivals be such a bigoted follower of Islamic
of Nauroz and Merjan with Hindu
their sparkling law that no sword can slice the jugular
(and Persian) songs, music and dance; language, their vein of his bigotry!” Having discovered
the promotion as much of the Sufi busy gods and ‘the fallibility of the orthodox ulema
wahdat-al-wajud (unity in multiplicity) in the ibadat khana [where] the ulema
their swaying
as of nirguna bhakti, ‘who saw no dif- constantly contradicted each other’,
ference between Hindus and Muslims’; clothes’ Akbar’s faith was shaken. And so,
the commencement of the day with ‘where orthodox Islam was found
suryanamaskar, facing east (not west wanting, Akbar turned for answers to
towards Mecca) before appearing more mystical alternatives within Is-
on the balcony before the adoring lam and then to the different religions
multitudes for his ‘jharokha darshan’; he even started wearing in his wide kingdom’. Mukhoty adds, ‘In his quest for spiritual
a tilak on his forehead and displayed a rakhi tied to his wrist by truths he prostrated himself before many gods—he prayed to
a Brahmin in the Diwan-e-Aam; prohibited the slaughter of the sun, whispered mantras, worshipped fire, kept fasts, and
cows ‘because the Hindus devoutly worship them and esteem examined his conscience.’ As Abu’l Fazl put it, he submitted
their dung as pure’ (Badauni); commissioned the translation of whatever he came across to ‘the test of reason’, insisting that
the Mahabharata into Persian as the Razmanama, ‘the Book of there are ‘almost limitless ways of worshipping the divine’,
War’, and of the Ramayana and the Rajtarangini, as also the Yoga and believed profoundly in the principle of ‘sul khul’ which
Vaasishtha (the dialogue between Lord Ram and the venerated held that ‘every group of people can live in accordance with its
saint, Vasishtha); and learnt Braj, the better to appreciate the own doctrine without apprehension and everyone can wor-
finer nuances of the Bhakti poets. He even ordered a Brahmin ship God after his own fashion’. From this conviction arose
to pen in Sanskrit the Allopanishad! the Din-e-Ilahi, which was not, the author insists, an alterna-
tive religion but a salon of 18 likeminded peers who discussed
spiritual matters in a broadminded, rational manner and

T
he other religions were also not neglected.
The Jains were particularly honoured when Akbar
‘respectfully bowed down’ before Hiravijaya on his ar-
rival in Fatehpur Sikri, hard on the heels of the Jesuits. Another terial conclusion that cannot be bettered: ‘[Akbar’s] legacy
Jain, Bhanuchandra, taught Akbar to recite the Suryasahas-
ranama, that is, the one thousand names of the Sun God. Yet
another Jain savant, Vijayasena, was given the title of ‘Savai
Hiravijaya Suri’ (a quarter greater than his master, Hiravijaya)
after Vijayasena ousted the Brahmin claim, made in the ibadat
khana, that the ‘idiot Jains’ were in fact atheists. Vijayasena,
much to Akbar’s delight, retorted by equating the doctrine of
karma with theism.
Early in his reign, in 1567, when he was but 25 years old, he and resplendent future.’
rode to Goindwal on the banks of the Beas, to pay his humble
tribute to the 90-year-old third guru of Sikhs, Guru Ramdas,
and at the turn of the century, when he was nearing 60, made
his obeisance to Guru Arjan Das. The Parsees who, in Akbar’s
own words, “proclaimed the religion of Zardusht as the true
religion and declared reverence to the fire to be superior to
every other kind of worship” taught the tenets of their religion
to the Padshah, who ordered that the sacred fire be maintained
whose most fundamental precept was that non-Muslims
were simply ‘other worshippers of God’.
We are now in a position to race to Ira Mukhoty’s magis-
remains in the supreme courage he displayed, far greater than
on any battlefield, in believing that the vast multitudes of India
could be brought together through active efforts of tolerance
and understanding. That, through reason, empathy, and good
faith, misunderstandings between different religious groups
and ethnicities could be resolved, and a new horizon unveiled.
A horizon that could be lit up by the light of many different
faiths, the best of each, to guide India’s path to a more luminous
That is reason enough to buy this richly illustrated book
and keep it on your shelf for now and at all times when the
nation seems to be veering off the path of Ashoka and Akbar
the Great—for India can only survive if ‘the jugular vein of
bigotry is sliced by the sword of reason’! n
Mani Shankar Aiyar, a diplomat-turned-politician,
is a former Union Minister and an author of several books

58 13 april 2020
 books Essay

illness as allegory
Pandemic thoughts after reading Mary Shelley and Albert Camus
By Shylashri Shankar

H
ow do we live (not just survive) through can read it in the literal sense in our current Covid-19 pan-
a pandemic, watching our family and friends demic world.
perish in the blight? It may be instructive for ******
us, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, to
mull over how Albert Camus and Mary In the case of The Last Man written two centuries ago, Mary
Shelley dealt with this question. Shelley (the author of Frankenstein) was grieving over the death
Camus’ novel is set in Oran, a French port on the Algerian of her beloved husband, the poet Percy B Shelley, and subse-
coast, of the 1940s. Dead rats begin appearing in the town in quently their dear friend, Lord Byron. It is a meditation on how
the street, in garbage heaps, in cellars, on landings, in apart- to tackle grief alone. Set at the end of the 21st century, the three
ments—everywhere. Within three days, thousands of rats volumes of the book lead up to a question: how does the last
have been collected and burnt. Then they disappear. The con- man live knowing he may be the last one alive? What stops him
cierge in the narrator Dr Rieux’s building breaks from committing suicide in despair? Her question
out in boils and dies. Some others follow suit. about how to live without companions is pertinent
There is an air of disbelief among the town officials in today’s pandemic world of social distancing and
that a plague, which was supposed to have been isolation.
eradicated, could infect them. They are reluctant to Percy Shelley and Lord Byron feature as thinly
order an alert. disguised characters in the tale where plague
Sound familiar? Even in mid-March, despite emerging from the East strikes Europe and finally
the horrific figures of the infected and the dead England, now a republic after the king voluntarily
emerging from Italy, the UK and the US were still gives up power and becomes the Earl of Windsor.
dragging their feet about instituting a lockdown. So The story is told by Lionel Verney (based on Mary
was India. Why? Perhaps for the reasons Camus in- Shelley), the son of the king’s disgraced friend. The
dicates. ‘There have been as many plagues as wars orphaned Lionel and his sister (Perdita) meet and be-
in history; yet always plagues and war take people come friends with the 15-year-old new Earl of Wind-
equally by surprise,’ says Dr Rieux. Because, as sor (Adrian, based on Percy Shelley). Lionel, who
Camus says, a pestilence isn’t a thing made to man’s until then lived a rowdy life as a vagabond shepherd,
measure; therefore we tell ourselves that pestilence a poacher and an unlettered savage, is struck by this
is a mere bogey of the mind, a bad dream that will offer of friendship. ‘This,’ Lionel thinks, ‘is power!
pass away. Once hundreds begin to die from the Not to be strong of limb, hard of heart, ferocious
The plague by
plague, the town is locked down. It happens over- albert camus and daring; but kind, compassionate and soft. I now
night. Even letters are not allowed. Social distanc- (above); The began to be human.’ Adrian, meanwhile, is cast
ing, loneliness, exile, loss, despair and hope infect last man by aside by his mother for Lord Raymond (based on
those (locals and visitors) who are stuck there. mary shelley
Lord Byron)—a handsome and wealthy soldier who
In spare and unsentimental prose, Camus docu- is to marry Idris, Adrian’s sister whom Lionel loves.
ments the human condition during the plague. He takes men Raymond though falls in love with Perdita and marries her; Lio-
fired by unlofty emotions, such as greed for wealth (a smug- nel marries Idris; and Adrian suffers from unrequited love for
gler) and desperation to be reunited with a loved one even at a Greek princess. This band of unlikely but close friends tries
the cost of being a plague-carrier (an exiled journalist), and to make a better world for the less fortunate, but fails. England
makes them confront the pestilence. While for Camus, the of the late 21st century is mired in tussles between aristocrats,
plague had an allegorical meaning—the rise of fascism—we royalists and democrats; and when the plague strikes, the

13 april 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 59

 books Essay

country is ill-prepared. The Protector of the Realm, a democrat, bad; that however is not the real point,’ says Dr Rieux. ‘There
tells Adrian that it is every man for himself. can be no true goodness nor true love without the utmost clear-
In Shelley’s 21st century England, ‘heroic Adrian, bred in sightedness.’ These men are clear-sighted enough to realise that
luxury, offers to sacrifice himself for the public good’. The if they don’t work together, they will perish. To attain peace,
qualities of duty and honour rest with the aristocracy, while one must follow the path of sympathy, says Tarrou, who thinks
the commoners hew to ‘every man for himself’. The friends that each of us carries the plague (that is, fascist tendencies).
heroically direct the plague operations, open their mansions More recently, two survivors of the 1918 Spanish flu have
and woodlands to survivors fleeing the plague. But by now, it echoed the need to work together. One of the survivors, New-
is evident that there is no safety from a pandemic. ‘I spread the man, urged people to lean on each other for support. “You have
whole world out on a map before me,’ says Lionel. ‘On no one to be my crutch. I have to be yours. It’s been that way through
spot or surface could I put my finger and say, here is safety.’ Pes-
every crisis we’ve had,” he said in The Guardian. “And then we
tilence erases governments, royalty and the marketplace. The find, when we do look back, that is what got us through it.”
only equality left is that of misery. The band of friends is torn In India too, citizen-volunteers are helping the police and
apart: Raymond dies in plague-ridden Constantinople; Perdita the municipality to enforce the lockdown. In Gurugram,
commits suicide; Idris dies of the plague; and Adrian and some volunteer groups have been deployed to flag issues such as the
others die in a shipwreck leaving Lionel as the Last Man. plight of stranded migrant workers trying to return home from
Two centuries later, the ill-preparedness of countries to Co- the construction site and coaxing shopkeepers of unessential
vid-19 haunts us today. In the US, the Democrats had blocked items to close their shops.
an economic recovery bill because it did not have sufficient Camus’ volunteers become weary, a danger that health
protection for workers; in England, a total lockdown was slow workers worldwide are facing right now. When a man has only
in coming because of conflicting advice. In India, the absence of four hours of sleep, he isn’t sentimental, says the narrator. More
initial testing on a massive scale may have artificially reduced dangerous still, they begin breaking the rules of hygiene. They
the numbers, leading to a false sense of security. The janata cur- were gambling on luck, and luck is not to be coerced. ‘Without
few followed by the lockdown of the country since March 22nd memories, without hope, they lived for the moment only… for
came after the number of infections dramatically shot up. there is no denying that the plague had gradually killed off in
all of us the faculty not of love only but
****** even of friendship. Everyone was part of
people marking time.’
Camus’ themes—of powerlessness In the Covid-19 pandemic nobody
against a powerful and inexorable As Camus says, a knows how long we will have to practise
enemy, the inability of governments to pestilence isn’t a social distancing; how long it will take
act quickly to save their citizenry, the thing made to man’s for the vaccine to be made; how long
initial disbelief of the politicians and cities and districts will have be locked
officials—strike at the essence of our
measure; therefore down; whether we are going to get a
problems today. How much can we we tell ourselves steady supply of vegetables, milk, water;
depend on the government to protect that pestilence is a and most importantly, whether our
us? In a pandemic, doesn’t action begin livelihoods that finance our lives will be
mere bogey of the
at home, with oneself? protected.
‘The poor turned to the advice of their mind, a bad dream For us, Camus’ description of the hu-
equals,’ Lionel notes in The Last Man and that will pass away man condition under a lockdown is ee-
creates a network of local community rily precise. Dr Rieux notes that the first
leaders. In The Plague, a similar move thing the plague brought was the feeling
occurs amongst the motley band: Dr of exile—the inability to articulate one’s
Rieux, Tarrou, Grand and others who become friends as they deepest feelings, the absence of letters (none came in or went
set up a volunteers brigade to assist the plague victims and their out), the terseness of telegrams that reduced all feelings to trite
families. ‘Officialdom can never cope with something really phrases such as ‘All is well’. If one tried to unburden himself to
catastrophic,’ says the narrator, Dr Rieux. The smuggler, the his neighbour, the reply he got usually wounded him. Because
journalist Rambert pining for his wife in Paris, an emotion- they were not talking of the same thing. Even the sincerest grief
less magistrate, a solitary statistician—all become gradually had to make do with the set phrases of ordinary conversation.
involved. ‘This business is everybody’s business,’ says Rambert ‘Each of us had to be content to live only for the day, alone under
and rejects the opportunity to escape despite spending weeks the vast indifference of the sky.’
chalking the escape. Now, working from home, for many, will bring on the sense
What makes such men, habitually motivated by baser emo- of exile, tethered as we are to our jobs, our offices, our habits of
tions, choose to help? ‘On the whole men are more good than meetings, chatting with our colleagues by the coffee machines

60 13 april 2020

mary shelley
albert camus
Illustration by Saurabh Singh
and the sense of busyness accompanying these office jobs. But
we are luckier than the inhabitants of Oran. We have virtual re-
ality at our fingertips and can see and talk to our family, friends
and colleagues online, but that comes with other problems.
At first, says Dr Rieux, people of Oran accepted the lock-
down with more or less good grace, but soon they had a sense
that their whole lives were threatened by the present turn of
events. People flocked to predictions, to soothsayers, to saints;
Nostradamus and St Odilia were consulted daily—and always
with happy results.
We are marching along the same path of the Oran towns-
13 april 2020
folk. In the Covid-19 world, godmen and
Hindu nationalists have proposed drink-
ing cow urine, hot milk with raw turmeric
(which contains curcumin) and rasam
(pepper water).
*****
Ultimately Dr Rieux realises that all
a man could win in the conflict between
plague and life were knowledge and
memories—of having known the plague
and remembering it, of having known
friendship and remembering it, of know-
ing affection and being destined one day to
remember it.
For Lionel in The Last Man too, it is hope
that sustains him initially. But hope is fi-
nally extinguished. ‘I have endeavoured to
school myself to fortitude… . It will not do…
no one has entered Rome. None will ever
come.’ He finally realises: ‘Neither hope
nor joy are my pilots—restless despair and
fierce desire of change lead me on. I long to
grapple with danger, to be excited by fear, to
have some task, however slight or volun-
tary, for each day’s fulfilment.’
****
Many of us are still clinging to hope but
it is fortitude and the discipline to follow
the instructions about social distancing
and hygiene that will sustain us in the long
run. As an article in The New York Times
said: ‘If it were possible to wave a magic
wand and make all… freeze in place for 14
days while sitting six feet apart, epidemi-
ologists say, the whole epidemic would
sputter to a halt.’
For the populist leaders, officials and
doctors in the midst of managing the
Covid-19 pandemic, the delicate balancing
act is between giving hope without jeopardising government
efforts to instil social distancing and thus slowing down the
virus’ inexorable sprint to a community outbreak. Donald
Trump’s temper tantrums are indications of this inability to
maintain a balance.
But how to instil hope when the clear-sighted realise that
a tsunami of cases may submerge our overburdened doctors,
nurses and hospitals sooner than we think? Ultimately, Camus
and Shelley propose shades of the same answer. Each of us has
to practise fortitude, living day-to-day, having a task to fulfil
each day and remembering those one loves. n
www.openthemagazine.com 61
 books

r e t u r n t o t h e m a
Tired of re-reading Camus’ The Plague and closed-room murder mysteries, or of obsessing over the novel coronavirus? These ten novels

Fire on the Hotel du Lac Housekeeping

Mountain by Anita Brookner by Marilynne
by Anita Desai (1977) (1984) Robinson (1980)
‘She wanted no one and ‘Her friend and ‘Once alone, it is i
nothing else. Whatever The Magic neighbour, Penelope Convenience mpossible to believe
else came, or happened Mountain Milne, who, tight- Store Woman that one could ever have
here, would be an by Thomas Mann lipped, was prepared by Sayaka Murata been otherwise.’
unwelcome intrusion (translated by John E to forgive her only (translated by Ginny The cold nights, the
and distraction.’ Woods, 1924) on condition that she Tapley Takemori, sylvan lake—the
All of Desai’s novels ‘And life? Life itself? Was disappeared for a decent 2018) remote, gorgeous
are wonderfully interi- it perhaps only an i length of time and came ‘Infecting each other like universe of this
or—Clear Light of Day nfection, a sickening back older, wiser, and this is how we maintain lesser-known novel
prominent among of matter?’ properly apologetic.’ ourselves as human is by Robinson. Orphans
them—but this lesser- If you have been It is September in Swit- what I think.’ Ruth and Lucille Stone
known novel takes putting off reading zerland, and every- Keiko Furukura is a are raised by various
her protagonist to a this 720-page sick thing is fittingly gray. 36-year-old oddball relatives before their
truly solitary refuge, litclassic, now is the A writer of romance who has spent her aunt Sylvie finds them
alone in the moun- time. Set in a tuber- novels finds herself adult life working in Fingerbone, Idaho,
tains. Nanda Kaul has culosis sanatorium forced into a kind of at the Hiiromachi in this classic homage
retired from public life in the Swiss Alps, social quarantine, Station Smile Mart to isolation. In their
to a remote bungalow the story of Hans following an unsuit- in Tokyo. Shining in lakeside town, Ruth,
called Carignano, Castorp, a young able affair. Reveling the neon world of the the narrator, revels
in Kasauli, until her engineer who goes to in solitude, Edith convenience store, in solitude and floats
great-granddaughter visit an ailing cousin Hope writes letters she finds it difficult to pleasurably away
turns up one summer. in Davos and stays to her lover from the conform to the expec- from civilisation with
Full of quiet insight for seven years, is eponymous hotel— tations of society; that her drifter aunt. This
and the poetry of legendary. Mann was and, soon enough, she she advance through is the America of those
nature, this Sahitya writing of a pre-war finds love’s other vic- career or marriage, or whose hold on the
Akademi award- Europe (the book tims and exiles have both. She soon realises modern world is tenu-
winner is that rare ends with the begin- checked in too. This that true comfort ous and unfulfilling,of
thing: an uncrowded ning of the war); of novel is a quiet gem, lies in the measured those thinking wist-
Indian novel. This one life, love, death, art. for those thinking isolation of the life she fully of Walden and
is for everyone who Importantly, he was over something big has chosen. A wonder- Thoreau’s experiment
seeks to escape the also writing of the during self-isolation. fully weird, thought- by the pond.Take this
chaos of urban cities experience of serious Whether you’re in provoking book—for impressionist journey
in isolation—and for illness and medical hotel quarantine or those who continue to into the alternate life
that grandparent who institutionalisation. finding that home can service society in pecu- some dream of tran-
doesn’t mind social It’s all big stakes, for be both a sanctuary liarly invisible forms, sitioning to, after the
distancing, virus or those who are taking and a prison, it will and those who secretly pandemic and before
no virus. the long view. engage and endure. wish to join them. climate change.

62 13 april 2020
 g i c m o u n t a i n By Rajni George

about quarantine and isolation may help get you through the lockdown—whether you are ill, retreating from the world or just brooding

My Year of Rest Quarantine

and Relaxation by Jim Crace
by Ottessa Moshfegh (1997)
(2018) ‘We seek the
Blindness ‘I knew in my heart— The Quickening wilderness because in The Illness Lesson
by Jose Saramago this was, perhaps, the Maze this solitude we can byClaire Beams (2020)
(1995) only thing my heart by Adam Foulds hear ourselves ‘We were, I think,
‘The only thing more knew back then—that (2009) more clearly.’ making girls for a world
terrifying than blind- when I’d slept enough, ‘The world is a room This retelling of that does not exist.’
ness is being the only one I’d be okay. I’d be full of heavy furniture. the Biblical story It is 1871, and Caro-
who can see.’ renewed, reborn.’ Eventually you are of Christ’s forty line Hood’s father
The Nobel Prize Napping a lot during allowed to leave.’ days of temptation Samuel has set up a
winner’s frightening the epidemic? You Set in 1837, at a mental and fasting in the rigorous school for
fable takes us inside a might enjoy this som- asylum called High desert gives us one girls on the site of his
world under siege;an ber, smart andoften Beach in the verdant of the most ancient previous social ex-
epidemic of white humorous account, Epping Forest, this quarantines of all periment in Massa-
blindness seizes an narrated by ayoung novel unites nature time. Going back chusetts—a failed
unnamed city so that art history graduate poet John Clare and two millennia, utopian community.
everyone is quaran- who quits her job after young Alfred Tenny- Crace conjures us His plan is noble, but
tined in an abandoned her parents’ death son in rich historical the Judean desert, in soon, the girls start to
mental asylum. Only to spend a year in fiction. Using real-life all its spare, brutal succumb to inexpli-
the doctor’s wife, who slumber, in 2000. Tak- speculation regard- beauty. But in his cable ailments: fits,
has pretended she ing breaks to watch ing whether Clare myth-exploding, hysteria, strange
has fallen prey to the Whoopi Goldberg and Tennyson met, unsentimental markings. The
contagion, can see. An- films and order linge- talented Foulds em- version, Jesus is just novel’s theme is, of
archy rules, as she tries rie, our heroine seems ploys a varied cast who one of a handful of course, control over
to lead a small band of bent on either destruc- are caught up in the compelling figures women’s bodies and
inmates out. Written tion or redemption. machinations of the who have retreated their pain—fitting
in a dense, tight style, Indeed, the novel hospital’s owner, Dr to the wilderness. when both our bod-
with little punctua- leads up to 9/11 with Matthew Allen.This A well-crafted yet ies’ vulnerability and
tion, Saramago’s dys- a neat synchronicity novel is both an ode to hard-hitting novel new orders are on our
topian work speaks that mirrors the sense isolation and the petri which will appeal to mind. Just released,
powerfully to the of looming disaster dish of emotions that fans of both Coetzee this is another kind
current order.Required prevailing today. For come of being shut up and Conrad, this one of dystopian mini-
reading for those who those who want to in a small space. For might be read best universe to explore as
dare to imagine that (power) sleep their those seeking beauty between more an ideal of isolation.
what is worse might way through this in madness and a cheerful books— Beams’ second novel,
actually be what is year, because we don’t challenging read, for those seeking it is already earning
‘better’, this one is know how long quar- Foulds offers lyrical, enlightenment and her comparisons to
scary but worthy. antine will last. moving prose. ancient wisdom. Margaret Atwood.

13 april 2020 www.openthemagazine.com 63

 A MATTER OF LIFE
Don’t Be Scared but Be Smart
Corona advisory for diabetics
T
he fierce coronavirus
continues its Genghis
Khan-like journey across
the world, moving from East to
West, trampling everything in
its path and conquering new
territories every day. India is no
exception as it now braces itself
for the worst phase of this on-
slaught. SARS-CoV-2 is highly
contagious and primarily
Dr Ambrish Mithal affects the lungs. Fortunately,
it produces only mild disease
in 85 per cent of those it infects. The remaining 15 per cent get
seriously sick and may require hospitalisation; about 5 per cent
require intensive care.
Among those who tend to get more seriously sick are diabet-
ics older than 60 years, especially those also suffering from high
blood pressure, heart disease or chronic lung conditions. India
being the hub of diabetes, with almost 30-40 per cent preva-
lence at the age of 60 in the metros, we need to know how to live
in the times of the coronavirus. But we first need to understand
that all diabetics are not the same. A 35-year-old with recent
onset of diabetes who keeps sugar level under control has a very
different risk from a 75-year-old with long-standing diabetes,
high blood pressure and heart disease.
Let’s look at the evidence so far. (It’s a fluid, dynamic situa-
tion, and we are learning everyday! I have used the most reli-
able sources like the American Diabetes Association.)
Are diabetics more prone to Covid-19?
In general, no. This, of course, includes all diabetics and the
scenario might be different if we look separately at the high-
risk group defined above. At the moment, though, there is little
evidence that diabetics are more prone than the rest.
Once infected, do diabetics have worse outcomes?
In China, diabetics had threefold higher rates of complications
and death. Presence of other disorders also made a big differ-
ence to the outcome. Presence of heart disease increased serious
outcomes by four-five times. Hypertension and lung disease
also contribute to greater risk of complications. Presence of
cancer, kidney and liver disease is associ-
saurabh singh
ated with poor outcomes. Older diabetics
with uncontrolled sugar are at greater risk
than the younger ones. In general, diabet-
ics are more likely to experience severe
symptoms and complications when in-
fected with a virus. However, if diabetes is
well-managed, the risk of getting severely
64
sick from Covid-19 is probably about the same as the general
population. In addition, when diabetics are down with any
viral infection, there is an increased risk of diabetic ketoacido-
sis, particularly for Type 1 (those who are insulin-dependent
or have had diabetes since childhood). Any signs of developing
this condition (rocketing sugar with positive ketones in urine),
abdominal pain, vomiting or laboured breathing is an indica-
tion for hospitalisation. Diabetics are more prone to septicae-
mia and shock if affected by Covid-19.
How should we protect the vulnerable group, namely,
older diabetics with heart disease?
Every individual should protect themselves by following
social distancing, hand hygiene and respiratory hygiene. For
those above 65 with conditions listed above, these have to
be followed even more strictly. All family members should
consider themselves a risk to the older diabetic and even within
the house some social distancing might help. The person who
ventures out should be kept at a distance.
Should we be stocking supplies?
It’s good to ensure supplies for a month (not more, as you may be
depriving others) in these uncertain times. This includes all your
medicines, testing devices, glucose strips, etcetera. You should not
run out of supplies. It is also very important to establish contact
with your doctor or diabetes educator beforehand. This could be
via email, WhatsApp, SMS and so on. Many doctors have started
providing formal consultation online or using telemedicine.
Please have all details noted down in advance so that you don’t
have to scurry around in case there is a sudden need.
Should I be altering any medication?
A concern has been raised that some blood pressure medications
(ACE inhibitors or ARBs, commonly with the suffix ‘pril’ or ‘sar-
tan’) can increase the severity of the coronavirus impact in diabet-
ics. However, this remains a conjecture at present. Don’t discon-
tinue any medicines: ask your doctor if you have any doubt.
In general, remember to follow two sets of basic rules.
First are the sick day rules for diabetics (eating the right kind
of food on time, regular exercise, adequate sleep, hydration,
checking sugar frequently and checking ketones if blood
sugar is very high); second are all the measures outlined for
preventing the spread of Covid-19. Meanwhile this may also
be a good time to destress. You have
unlimited ‘me time’: read, write, paint as
you like. Be smart, don’t get scared of this
tiny organism. n
Dr Ambrish Mithal is Chairman,
Endocrinology and Diabetes, Max Healthcare.
@DrAmbrishMithal
13 april 2020

‘Alcoholism Is a Disease’
I
n The Way Back Ben Affleck
plays a former wonderboy
basketball player who
struggled with alcoholism. He
gets a coaching job at his alma
mater with a winning team,
but is that enough to turn his
life around? Like his character,
Affleck has also struggled
with alcoholism.
Considering you’ve just come
out of rehab, how difficult was
the part?
First of all, you have to recognise
it is a disease. They call it a disease
of chronic relapse. And there is no
way to know, ‘Well, this is the last
drink I will ever have.’ I certainly
hope that’s the case for me. But
I also think it is important to
be mindful that the whole key
to sobriety is recognising the
potential for relapse. You see
people who have been sober for
20 or 30 years relapse. And it’s scary and
complicated. And people aren’t sure
why that happens.
I loved every day of the movie. I loved
the challenges of playing the emotions
of this character, of really having
something I could sink my teeth into.
As an actor that’s the kind of role I want
to play. And a relapse is not like, if I go to
dinner with somebody and they have
a drink, that’s not what it is about. You
know what I mean? Or you’re drinking
a fake beer in a movie. It’s deeper and
more complicated than that and a little
more elusive, but those kinds of things
don’t trigger me. I think what I have
to be more wary of is this notion that I
am fixed and it’s all better and it’s not
something I have never to worry about
again. Just recognise that it is an ongoing
process. It’s about the present moment.
13 april 2020
Hollywood reporter
Noel de Souza
Ben Affleck
There’s a scene in the movie where you
are apologising to your wife. Did that
ring a bell with you?
I think one of the things that is very
important in terms of one’s own
personal growth is the ability to take
responsibility for your actions.It
sounds simple, but as somebody once
said, ‘It’s not your fault that you are an
alcoholic, but you are responsible for
what you do and your actions.’ And I
think that is true. And it may sound
paradoxical, but I really don’t think that
it is. When one accepts responsibility
for their actions, that’s a pretty good
indicator of mental health and growth
and maturity and humility.
Was it an easy decision to go public
with your addiction?
I am not particularly interested in
going public. My having gone
into rehab was reported. It
wasn’t me calling the media and
saying,‘Hey guys, guess what?’
That’s just a part of my life, it’s
been a part of my life for 20 years.
Things that would be private
for people normally are public
for me. When I was growing up
there were plenty of people who
were alcoholics: some got sober
and some didn’t. And people get
into and out of relationships. I
don’t understand why the press
is fixated on these particular
aspects of people’s lives. I find
that the less I know about
their private lives, the more I
appreciate their performance.
Even with Instagram there’s a
certain level of familiarity that I
think can demystify people in a
way. I don’t want to know what
Daniel Day Lewis had for lunch,
or what he is like in person, I just
want to see his movies and see him
act. But I guess there is some level of
interest in celebrities’ personal lives. I
wish it wasn’t the case. But I suppose
there’s a kind of a cottage industry
around the soap opera of people’s lives.
And sometimes it’s easy to feel you
are a character in an ongoing country
Western song you didn’t write. I don’t
really lament anymore and I’ve come
to terms with what that means to me
personally. Obviously, I’m mindful of
my children and the degree to which
journalism is practised responsibly, so
that I then don’t have to turn around
and say, ‘Okay, this is true, and that
isn’t true’. But my kids are pretty
savvy, they’ve been through it, they
know that tabloids write false stories
sometimes. It’s part of my life and it’s
not going to change. n
www.openthemagazine.com 65
 NOT PEOPLE
LIKE US
RAJEEV MASAND
Lockdown Woes
Given the uncertainty over how long the national lockdown
could go on in light of the coronavirus situation, there is,
understandably, considerable anxiety among filmmakers
in Bollywood, especially those who were in the midst of
shooting their projects when the lockdown was announced.
Anurag Kashyap has revealed he was shooting in
the mountains and had exactly one day of filming left
in that location when he had to call for shutdown. Now,
the filmmaker has said, he will have to go back to the
mountains with the entire unit to complete that single
day’s work. Kahaani director Sujoy Ghosh, who is
producing a Bob Biswas spinoff film starring Abhishek
Bachchan, is concerned about continuity and consistency
given that his leading man had put on a lot of weight for the
role. In picking up the shoot at least weeks later, he hopes
Abhishek will hold on to the weight. Kartik Aaryan, Kiara
Advani and Tabu were only about four days into a 14-day
schedule of their Bhool Bhulaiyaa remake when director
Anees Bazmee and the team had to press the
pause button and return from Lucknow
where they were filming.
Dhadak star Ishaan Khatter has said he
had only a few days of filming left on his film
Khaali Peeli with Ananya Pandey, and while
the makers can probably get the edit started,
they cannot lock the edit until the last bit of
footage is shot. Ditto for Gully Boy’s Siddhant
Chaturvedi who has a short leg of filming
left on Bunty Aur Babli 2 before producer
Aditya Chopra can announce a picture
lock on the project.
In a slightly better position are the
films that were meant to begin filming
but didn’t get on the floors yet. Kapoor
& Sons director Shakun Batra was
meant to fly to Sri Lanka with his
leading lady Deepika Padukone
and the rest of the team but the film
was grounded just days before the
schedule was to kick off. Karan
Johar’s ambitious Mughal-era
epic Takht was slated to roll on
66
April 24th in India itself after plans to shoot in Florence
and Seville had to be scrapped after initial reports of
coronavirus made it clear that Italy was out of bounds.
Karan quickly decided to construct sets locally and begin
filming closer home but when the situation in India
became worse, all prep was halted. That film features an all-
star cast, including Anil Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Vicky
Kaushal, Alia Bhatt, Janhvi Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor
and Bhumi Pednekar, and getting combination dates of
the actors again could prove to be a Herculean task.
Knot Now
According to the Bollywood grapevine, at least two starry
marriages are expected to move from their intended
dates. Ali Fazal and Richa Chadha, who had previously
announced that they were looking at a registered marriage
in April, might have to put off plans until after lockdown
and when the situation with the coronavirus is better.
The same could be the case with Varun Dhawan’s
planned nuptials with Natasha Dalal. The pair was slated
to tie the knot this summer at a fancy resort in Thailand,
but insiders say the families have decided to push their
plans for later.
December, however, is a long time away so there is still
every chance that Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt will
take the saat phere on schedule. I joked about it with Alia
earlier this week but she smiled, shrugged, and did that
thing where she neither confirmed nor denied
any developments. Aah, well!
Out of Character
A respected A-lister who takes a method
approach to his work is reportedly losing
his mind during lockdown. The word
in film circles is that he remained in
character (for a new film he’s currently
shooting) over the first few days in
isolation, but was finding it hard to
adjust to a scenario where he wasn’t
on set playing the role he’d completely
immersed himself in. His family is said
to be bearing the brunt of his irritation
over the situation. n
13 april 2020